Franklin Township, Fulton County

How Franklin Township, Fulton County began

Franklin Township sits in western Fulton County on the Williams County line and has no village of its own; it is one of twenty-one Ohio townships named Franklin. Organized on March 1, 1841, from parts of Gorham and German townships and enlarged from Williams County in 1850, it straddles the old Fulton line, the boundary Michigan claimed before the Toledo War, and the lines of three Indian treaties meet within it. Bean Creek, the Tiffin River, crosses it from the northeast, and its first settler, the hunter Joseph Bates, came about February 1833, among the earliest in the county. Asher Bird's water mill on Mill Creek of 1837 is described as the first regular grist mill in Fulton County, and the township's mint-oil stills, its paper city of New Amsterdam and the crossroads churches at Masters Corners mark a farming township that never had a railroad.

Settled 1833-02, incorporated Organized March 1, 1841, by Joseph Bates (first settler).

Where the name comes from

No source consulted gives a specific naming account for this township, likely honoring Benjamin Franklin as with most Ohio Franklin Townships; Aldrich (1888), Mikesell (1905) and Reighard (1920) record only that the commissioners organized it and called it Franklin. It is one of twenty-one Franklin Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or campsite within Franklin Township is named in the sources checked. Aldrich (1888) stresses instead that three treaty lines meet here. The west line of the 1807 Treaty of Detroit, run due north from the mouth of the Auglaize, later served as Michigan's survey meridian through the township; the Fulton line, the north edge of the lands ceded at the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee in September 1817 by the Wyandot, Seneca, Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa and Ojibwe (Chippewa), crosses it; and the 1821 Treaty of Chicago with the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Ojibwe covered the land west of the Detroit line. The nations listed below are treaty parties named by Aldrich, not residents of the township. Aldrich's only other reference is to the Indian trails replaced by roads.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Seneca, Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa (Odawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa).

• Treaty of Detroit west line (Michigan meridian) (treaty) — runs north through the township, 1807 (archive.org)
• Fulton line, north edge of the 1817 Foot of the Rapids cession (treaty) — crosses the township east to west, dividing it into nearly equal halves, 1817 (archive.org)
• Treaty of Chicago cession (treaty) — land west of the Detroit treaty line, 1821-08-29 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1787 — The Northwest Ordinance's original survey establishes the line that later becomes known, along this township's western edge, as the Old State Line.
2. 1807-11-17 — The Treaty of Detroit cedes land east of a line run due north from the mouth of the Auglaize; that line later becomes the Michigan survey meridian through the township.
3. 1817-09 — At the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, Lewis Cass and Duncan McArthur obtain from seven nations the lands of northwest Ohio south of the Fulton line, which crosses the township.
4. 1821-08-29 — The Treaty of Chicago with the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Ojibwe cedes the land west of the Detroit treaty line north of a line west from the mouth of the Auglaize.
5. 1833-02 — Joseph Bates, a hunter and trapper, settles with his family on the southeast quarter of section 2, town seven north, range four east, then in Williams County; his daughter dated his coming to 1832.
6. 1835-03 — John Shaffer and Adam Poorman reach Bean Creek, bridge it with two felled trees, and settle on its north side.
7. 1835-1836 — During the Toledo War, Michigan claims the northern part of Ohio including this area as its own, a dispute traced today along the township's Old State Line.
8. 1836 — Samantha Crandall teaches the township's first school, a private one, in Joseph Bates's cabin on section 2.
9. 1836-09-28 — Alice Ann Poorman, generally counted the first white child born in the township, is born.
10. 1837 — Asher Bird builds a water-powered grist mill on section 8 on Mill Creek, which takes its name from the mill; Aldrich calls it the first regular grist mill in Fulton County.
11. 1837 — Samuel B. Darby arrives from Elmira, New York, and camps on Bean Creek; he later keeps a store, teaches the first school in his own log schoolhouse (winter 1839), and serves as county recorder.
12. 1838 — John Bowser, a United Brethren preacher from Fairfield County, settles on section 34 with six sons; camp meetings are later held on his land.
13. 1838-07-28 — Ransom Reynolds and Pollonia Crandall are married by Justice Nathan Borton, the first marriage recorded in the township.
14. 1841-03-01 — Lucas County commissioners meeting at Maumee City organize Franklin Township from parts of Gorham and German townships.
15. 1841 — John Borton begins distilling oils from peppermint, spearmint, sassafras and butterweed; Asher Ely, Nathan Borton and John Mason later run similar stills.
16. 1849 — The Methodist Episcopal church near Masters Corners, the first church in the township, is built; the Presbyterians follow there in 1852.
17. 1850 — Blanc post office opens at the house of Jabez Jones, served by a horseback mail from Toledo to Angola.
18. 1850-02-28 — The act creating Fulton County adds sections from Brady and Mill Creek townships of Williams County to Franklin.
19. 1852 — George Kibbler builds a whisky still with his Mill Creek grist mill, the only still of its kind ever run in Fulton County; Reuben Mason lays out a village called Trenton that exists only on paper.
20. 1862-02-20 — The Disciples church built in 1861 on section 2, town seven north, range four east, is dedicated.
21. 1867 — Dr. Wilson of Stryker opens an office on Joseph Ely's land and soon builds a hotel for patients, served by a bus line from Archbold, until he moves to Archbold in 1873.
22. 1920 — The preliminary census count gives the township 926 people, down from 1,201 in 1880.

Stories

Joseph Bates, hunter

Joseph Bates, born in Vermont in 1787, married in Canada and later lived in Richland County, Ohio. In 1830 and 1831 he hunted and trapped in Hardin County, living on muskrats and other game, sold his furs, and bought the southeast quarter of section 2 in what was then Williams County, with $130 of the winter's earnings left over. In the winter of 1833 (accounts range from 1832 to 1834) he brought his family, cutting his own road from Ottawa to Defiance, lived three days in the wagon until he could raise a cabin, and had no neighbor nearer than twelve miles. He raised the first grain in the western part of the county, kept J. Bates's Inn, and spent much of his life hunting. In 1861 he sold out to William Ayers and moved to Iowa, where he died on August 1, 1866.

The bridge over the Bean

John Shaffer and Adam Poorman reached Bean Creek at dark in March 1835, with four inches of snow on the ground. At daylight they felled two trees across the stream, cut and split poles, made a bridge, and moved their families and goods to the north side, where their land lay. The next morning melting snow and rain had flooded the ground around their camp up to five feet deep. Soon after, John McLaughlin and Samuel Ayers came from Richland County and tried the bridge at dark; its north end rested on driftwood, the poles floated, and Ayers fell through to his waist. The two left their team, followed the sound of a cowbell eighty or ninety rods north to Shaffer's cabin, and with his help got the team across the next morning.

A wedding cake from Bird's mill

Elizabeth McLaughlin, whose brother John had settled on section 1, married Adna Reynolds in the fall of 1838, the second marriage in the township. On her wedding day she did the family washing in the morning, shelled half a bushel of corn, and in the afternoon carried it on her shoulder through the woods to Asher Bird's mill on Mill Creek, about two and a half miles away. She had it ground, carried the meal home, baked the wedding cake, and was married that evening, having walked five miles with the load.

The city of New Amsterdam

About 1836 a man who said he was a surveyor and engineer entered land on Bean Creek at the Fulton line, which he called the head of navigation, and platted a city named New Amsterdam with a steamboat landing, public square and park. He took the plat to Cincinnati, described the place as almost the garden of the world, and sold it with the adjoining land. Years later a buyer came to Toledo looking for New Amsterdam and was guided to Samuel B. Darby, who told him he could take him to the site only by boat, since it lay under one to ten feet of water, and that Darby himself held the tax title. The man left and never returned. Aldrich names the original entrant Heffenstine and says in 1888 the site was still mostly woods.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Fayette Village45% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Archbold Village43% of residentsTiffin River (plus Brush Creek), stored in two reservoirs
• West Unity Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Williams Co/hillside Country Living2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 2 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-05

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