Fulton Township, Fulton County

How Fulton Township, Fulton County began

Fulton Township sits in eastern Fulton County on the Lucas County line, in the level, heavily timbered country the first settlers called the Six Mile Woods. John W. Harter's family settled there in May 1834 beside a seasonal Indian camp on Swan Creek, and about twenty-five families were living on its land when the strip north of the Fulton line passed from Michigan to Ohio in December 1836. The township was organized in Lucas County on March 1, 1841, from parts of Amboy and Swan Creek, nine years before Fulton County existed. Its early center was the crossroads village of Ai on the Toledo and Angola road, which lost its trade when the railroad passed to the south; part of Swanton lies in the township's southeast corner. In 1903 Fulton Township began the first centralized rural school in northwest Ohio, at Ai. It is the only Fulton Township in Ohio.

Settled 1834-05, incorporated Organized March 1, 1841, by John W. Harter (first settler).

Where the name comes from

No source consulted explains the township's name. It was organized by Lucas County commissioners on March 1, 1841, nine years before Fulton County was created, so it was not named after the county. Aldrich (1888) and Reighard (1920) say the Fulton line, the disputed Ohio-Michigan boundary that runs east and west through the middle of the township, took its name from its surveyor, a man named Fulton, but neither ties the township's name to it. A first-pass statement that the township shares the county's namesake, Robert Fulton, is not supported by the Wikipedia article it cited. It is the only Fulton Township in Ohio.

Before the town

When John W. Harter's family settled on section 35 in May 1834, there was an Indian resort, or village, near their cabin on the west bank of Swan Creek. Native families came there each fall and stayed until spring, hunting deer, turkey and other game for food and hides, which they traded at Maumee City about sixteen miles away, then made maple sugar before leaving; the settlers' accounts say they shared venison and sugar with their new neighbors. Settlers also followed Indian trails, with blazed trees, to Harter's horse mill. The sources do not name the nation. The township lies inside the tract ceded at the 1807 Treaty of Detroit.

• Seasonal Indian camp on Swan Creek (camp) — west bank of Swan Creek near the John W. Harter cabin, section 35, town eight north, range eight east, fall to spring, 1834 and after (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1807-11-17 — The Treaty of Detroit cedes the tract of northwest Ohio that includes the future township's land.
2. 1834-05 — John W. Harter, his wife and three children arrive from Huron County by ox wagon, cut the last two miles of road to their land on section 35, and live four weeks in the wagon before raising a cabin.
3. 1834-12 — Nicholas Q. Berry and Catharine Burgtuff marry at Maumee, the first marriage from the township, and ride sixteen miles home by lumber wagon.
4. 1835 — In the spring Harter and millwright Bryant Hanly build the Horse Mill, a grist and saw mill driven by a horse or oxen on a sixteen-foot sweep, with lumber whip-sawed by hand.
5. 1835 — During the Toledo War, settler Peter Broadsword is taken prisoner near old Swanton on his way home from the Waterville mill and held with his meal until his captors are satisfied he is not aiding Michigan.
6. 1835-08-30 — James C. Vaughn, later a county commissioner, is born, the first white child born in the township.
7. 1836 — The first schoolhouse, of logs with a stick-and-clay chimney and oiled-paper windows, is built by subscription on section 10, town ten south, range four east.
8. 1836-12 — About twenty-five families are living in the future township when the strip between the Fulton and Harris lines passes from Michigan to Ohio.
9. 1837 — Alexander Boyd dies and becomes the first person buried in the Ai cemetery.
10. 1839 — Luther Dodge opens the township's first store, on section 11, trading goods for butter, eggs, deer skins and golden seal root until 1844.
11. 1840 — The Horse Mill is moved a mile south to Swan Creek and converted to water power by Harter and Stair.
12. 1841-03-01 — Lucas County commissioners meeting at Maumee organize Fulton Township from fractional town ten south, range four east, of Amboy and fractional town eight north, range eight east, of Swan Creek.
13. 1843 — The township's first post office, named Ai, opens in David Springer's log house with Isaac Springer as postmaster.
14. 1846-06-02 — On petition of residents, the south tier of sections of Amboy's town nine south is added to Fulton Township, fixing it at thirty sections.
15. 1849 — Thomas C. Berry opens a store at Ai; the Springer, Merrill and Haughton partnership later adds an ashery and hauls potash to Toledo.
16. 1850-04-01 — Fulton County is organized from parts of Henry, Lucas and Williams counties, and the existing Fulton Township passes into it.
17. 1854 — A post office is established at Swanton, the township's second after Ai.
18. 1866 — Miles Hayes builds the grist mill at Ai.
19. 1887-02-22 — Ozias Merrill reads a history of the township, compiled by its pioneer committee, at the annual meeting of the Fulton County Pioneer Association in Wauseon.
20. 1903 — When a neighboring teacher resigns in the spring, the township board transports those pupils to the Ai school, the start of the first centralized rural school system in northwest Ohio.
21. 1912 — A new centralized school building is under construction at Ai; by 1919 it has 230 pupils and seven teachers.

Stories

The Horse Mill

In the fall of 1834 John W. Harter went back to Huron County and persuaded a millwright, Bryant Hanly, to return with him. In the spring of 1835 they built a grist mill on the north part of Harter's land. Nicholas O. and William Berry sawed all its lumber with a whip saw, one man standing on top of the log and the other in the pit beneath. A horse trotting around a circle on a sixteen-foot sweep ground two to five bushels an hour, and when oxen had to be used because horses were scarce, Thomas C. Berry geared the mill so the slower animals could run it; the flour was bolted by a hand crank. Settlers without teams carried grain on their shoulders or pulled it on hand sleds two to six miles, guided by blazed trees and Indian trails. In 1840 the mill was moved a mile south onto Swan Creek and run by water.

A night in a tree

Isaac Day came from Utica, New York, in September 1834 after the deaths of his wife and infant son, leaving his daughter with friends. Returning from the land office on foot in 1835 along a trail marked by blazed trees, he was overtaken by darkness in the old windfall south of the site of Delta. When wolves began to howl, he climbed the nearest tree and stood the whole night on its limbs, shifting from one foot to the other, until daylight, then came down and walked home. In October 1835 John Nobbs brought his daughter west to him with the Nobbs and John Day families, and the three families settled together on section 33, town nine south.

The Poorman mystery

Barnet R. Poorman settled in 1836 and in 1842 married Belissa Johnson, who was about twenty-five years younger. In 1849 a veteran of the Mexican War named Griffith boarded nearby, and soon after Poorman sold his farm to Jacob Luke for $1,000 in gold, Griffith and Mrs. Poorman were missed from the neighborhood. Poorman said they had left together with half the money, and neighbors accepted his account. In 1870 one of Luke's sons, playing near the schoolhouse where Poorman used to bury his potatoes, found human bones. An inquest reached no conclusion about whose they were; Aldrich records that some relatives and neighbors believed they were Mrs. Poorman's, and that neither she nor Griffith was heard from after 1849.

The first centralized school

The Ai schoolhouse of sub-district No. 2 stood almost exactly at the center of the township, a two-story, two-room building with two teachers. As the village of Ai declined, its enrollment shrank. In the spring of 1903, when the teacher of District No. 3 to the west resigned two months before the end of the term, the township board arranged to carry those pupils to the Ai school. Reighard (1920) calls this the start of school centralization in northwest Ohio. The directors, Ed Smith, Henry Dowling, H. E. Wilson, John Hable and F. C. Merrill, with clerk I. L. Richards, extended the plan until all the township's districts were centralized, and a new building, valued at $26,750, was going up at Ai in 1912.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · 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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Swanton Village51% of residentsSwan Creek, stored in Swanton Reservoir
• Delta Village42% of residentsBad Creek, stored in Reservoir No. 2 (feeds Maumee River)
• Arrowhead Lake MHP3% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Swanton Meadows3% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Swancreek Water District1% of residentsLake Erie

Spills reported since 2021 (8)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 10 of 12 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 5 of 7.

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 2025-10-16

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