Franklin Township, Darke County

How Franklin Township, Darke County began

Franklin Township, in eastern Darke County, was formed in June 1839 from Van Buren Township and named, in the 1880 county history's words, for 'the illustrious printer, Benjamin Franklin.' It was a nearly level plain that was wet for much of the year; the earliest settlers, Samuel Hall and John Haworth (1824) and Eli Inman (1826), came by way of Panther (Painter) Creek, and the whole township had only 291 people in 1840 and 1,871 by 1880. The German Baptists and the Christians formed its first congregations. The township's only village is Vienna, also called Painter Creek, platted in 1870, and in 1905 it created the only township high school in the county.

Incorporated 1839-06, by split from a portion of Van Buren Township.

Where the name comes from

Named for Benjamin Franklin, whom the 1880 county history calls 'the illustrious printer.' Neither history says why the name was chosen.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or trail specific to Franklin Township is recorded in the sources checked. The township lies in the eastern tier of Darke County, south of the Greenville treaty line and in country ceded in 1795; Irwin Mote's recollection in the 1914 history of the early 1840s calls it a wilderness half under water with wolves, bears and deer, and does not mention Native people.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1824 — Samuel Hall (Section 18) and John Haworth (Section 33) settle in the township; Eli Inman follows in 1826 and Daniel Oakes, who some credit with the first cabin, about 1828.
2. 1829 — William Hess opens a small stock of goods and groceries, chiefly whiskey and tobacco, taking staves, hoop-poles and pelts in exchange.
3. 1830 — Jacob Marker, a wagoner, settles in the township and hauls staves to Dayton, returning with salt and goods for the stores of the district.
4. 1838 — John Hess builds the first schoolhouse on Section 19 on Panther Creek; David Clevine is first teacher.
5. 1839-06 — Franklin Township is formed from Van Buren Township and named for Benjamin Franklin; until then voters went to New Harrison, also called Adams' Mill.
6. 1840 — The township has 291 inhabitants.
7. 1863 — The 'Brethren in Christ' form a society with twelve members, under Revs. John Winger and Jacob Swank.
8. 1870 — The population is 1,366 and George Wright and John Hayworth lay out Vienna (Painter Creek), the township's only village, on the Greenville and Milton turnpike.
9. 1877 — A second Christian congregation forms in the northeast with seventy members.
10. 1879-10-22 — Wiley Coulter is shot in Vienna by Monroe Roberson and dies the next evening; Roberson is sentenced in March 1880 to hang on July 10.
11. 1880 — The township has seven brick schoolhouses and one frame, with school property valued at $8,000, and 1,871 inhabitants.
12. 1905 — The township high school, the only one in Darke County, is organized; its first class of twelve graduates in 1908.
13. 1907 — A five-room school building, 44 by 60 feet, is built at a cost of $7,500.
14. 1910 — The township population is 1,469, down from 1,731 in 1890.
15. 2020 — Census population is 1,210.

Stories

A wagoner's trade before the township had a name

Before Franklin Township organized in 1839, its settlers had no polling place of their own and went to New Harrison, a small settlement also known as Adams' Mill, to vote. The practical link to the outside world was the wagon: Jacob Marker, who arrived in 1830 with a strong team and wagon, was in almost constant demand hauling staves and other goods to Dayton and bringing back salt and store goods for merchants on his route, in Greenville and at Adams' Mill. It was the kind of unglamorous freight work that tied an unorganized township to the markets that would later justify its own government.

A killing in Vienna and a death sentence

Vienna, the township's only village, was the scene of one of the 1880 county history's few recorded violent crimes. On October 22, 1879, Wiley Coulter was shot by Monroe Roberson in Vienna and died the next evening. Roberson was tried in February 1880, and on March 6 Judge Meeker sentenced him to solitary confinement until July 10, 1880, when he was to be hanged. The history prints the judge's closing words, 'and may God have mercy on your soul,' and calls the sentence 'the penalty to follow an outraged law.' What happened after July 1880 is not in the sources checked.

Riding a cow to the Stillwater mills

Irwin C. Mote, writing of the early 1840s, remembered that his family lived on the highway where Laura now stands, and that all the traffic from Franklin Township to the Stillwater mills went by their door. Sometimes it was a one-horse team with a cow hitched to the front of the wagon, sometimes two or three men on horseback or 'cowback,' and sometimes a lone boy riding a cow with a sack of corn thrown across its back. The township was then, he wrote, nearly half under water the year round and full of squirrels, turkeys, deer, wolves, bears and catamounts, 'the garden spot of the world, but it took work and labor to make it.'

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Arcanum Village49% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Bradford Village26% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Greenville City21% of residentsGreenville Creek (primary, ~78%) blended with 8 wells
• Verona, Village Of4% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Sherwood Forest MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Northtowne Communities Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-01
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-10

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