Eden Township, Wyandot County

How Eden Township, Wyandot County began

Eden Township, in eastern Wyandot County against the Crawford County line, was part of Leith Township, Crawford County, created in March 1838, and was reorganized as Eden Township by Wyandot County's first commissioners on June 2, 1845. Isaac 'Congress' Miller, who leased land for seven years from a Wyandot man named Jacob Young, settled near the site of Nevada in 1836; George W. Leith, later an associate judge, followed in 1837. The county histories say it was named for its heavy stand of poplar and walnut and its fertile soil. It holds the southeastern part of Nevada, a village laid out in 1852 by the railroad, and by 1884 had seven sawmills but never a grist mill.

Settled 1836, incorporated 1845-06-02, by Wyandot County's first Commissioners, Stephen Fowler, William Griffith and Ethan Terry, reorganizing land formerly part of Crawford County's Leith Township (created March 1838).

Where the name comes from

The 1884 county history states the township was named for the heavy stand of excellent timber -- poplar, walnut and other varieties -- and the fertility of its soil, which suited it to farming, and pointedly notes the name was not drawn from the 'fig leaf attire' of its original Native inhabitants.

Before the town

No named Wyandot village or treaty-cession site is recorded specifically within Eden Township, but the 1884 county history describes Indian trails, including the Oceola road from Indian Run to Rock Run (opened by the Wyandot under the supervision of settler Isaac Miller), Indian resorts at mineral springs in Section 22 and on the Oceola State Road, and an Indian burying ground on the farm later owned by Tilman Balliet, where the Wyandot returned from the springs to sing death songs over their dead. Stone hatchets, spear heads and arrow heads were found in former Wyandot orchards in the township. The township lies within the area historically the hunting and travel range of the Wyandot before the 1817-1842 reservation era at Upper Sandusky to the west.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Indian burying ground (Balliet farm) (burial) — on the farm later owned by Tilman Balliet, Eden Township, undated, pre-1843 (before Wyandot removal) (archive.org)
• Oceola road (trail) — from Indian Run to Rock Run, Eden Township, pre-1836 (archive.org)
• Mineral springs / Indian resort (camp) — Section 22 and along the Oceola State Road, Eden Township, undated, pre-1843 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1836 — Isaac 'Congress' Miller, from Rockingham County, Virginia, settles with his family of five to seven children on Section 29 near the future Nevada, leasing land from Jacob Young, a Wyandot man; his 14 by 18 foot log cabin is the township's first dwelling.
2. 1837 — George W. Leith, later Associate Judge of Wyandot County for eight years, settles on a quarter-section of Section 10; John Horick takes a quarter-section of Section 27.
3. 1838 — The Crawford County commissioners create Leith Township in March, the parent of most of Eden.
4. 1839 — The first road regularly laid out, through Sections 34 and 27, is opened; John Welsh, Morgan Carter, Zaccheus Lea, Charles Caldwell and Samuel Snyder settle that year. The 1884 history adds that Indian trails and blazed tracks had been numerous before.
5. 1840 — A Methodist class, later the Little York society, begins meeting in a log schoolhouse on the Zacchaeus P. Lea farm.
6. 1845 — On June 2 the first Wyandot County commissioners, Stephen Fowler, William Griffith and Ethan Terry, attach Sections 1, 12, 13, 24, 25 and 36 of Township 2 South, Range 14 East to Range 15 East and name the whole Eden Township, thirty sections.
7. 1848 — Religious services are held in private houses; no church building yet exists.
8. 1849 — Crawford & Lance build the township's first sawmill; the township never has a grist mill, and settlers had gone to Sandusky City and Fremont for milling.
9. 1851 — Methodists, United Brethren and Congregationalists together build the first church, on Section 3.
10. 1852 — Nevada is laid out beside the new Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad, partly in Eden Township; its trade cuts into the township's store trade.
11. 1859 — Citizens meet at the Case Schoolhouse on January 14 to build a union church; the Union Church Association organizes on February 25 with 47 members and files its record March 2.
12. 1884 — Seven mills run in the township, at Nevada, Edenville, Little York, Eden Center, the Fish Pond and elsewhere; two country stores stand outside the villages, and eight school districts operate.

Stories

Congress Miller and the Wyandot landlord

The first white man in Eden Township, perhaps, was Isaac Miller, a Virginian from Rockingham County who came in 1836 with five to seven children and settled on Section 29 near the present town of Nevada. Neighbors knew him as 'Congress' Miller. For seven years he leased his land from Jacob Young, a Wyandot Indian; the county history gives no further detail about Young. He raised the township's first dwelling, a log cabin 14 by 18 feet. Later, the 1884 history says, the Oceola road from Indian Run to Rock Run was opened by Wyandot labor under Miller's supervision. Miller was living in Antrim Township when the county history was written.

Springs, trails and a burying ground

The 1884 county history records that before the roads the township was crossed by Indian trails and blazed tracks, some leading to Indian resorts at springs thought to be medicinal. One was in Section 22, two more on farms along the Oceola State Road, and on the farm later owned by Tilman Balliet there was an Indian burying ground, where, the historian wrote, the Wyandot repaired from the healing fountains to chant the death songs over their stricken dead. Settlers found stone hatchets, spear heads, arrow heads and a mortar and pestle in old orchards the Wyandot had planted. The 1913 county history repeats the passage in shorter form: the trails, three mineral-spring resorts and an Indian burial ground.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Nevada Village51% of residentsSandusky River (via Outhwaite & Riley up-ground reservoirs)
• Upper Sandusky City42% of residentsSandusky River (via Upper Sandusky Reservoirs 1 & 2)
• Sycamore Village7% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-04-01

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