Gasper Township, Preble County

How Gasper Township, Preble County began

Gasper Township lies in south-central Preble County. Its first settler, contrary to a long-held local belief, was not its namesake: the 1881 county history found that Silas Dooley sr. settled on Paint Creek in 1805, a year before Gasper Potterf arrived on Seven Mile Creek in 1806. The township was nonetheless carved out of the southern part of Washington Township and named for Potterf after he argued to the county commissioners that the new township would cut down on the tax burden of supporting the children of a growing and 'wicked' population -- and that, in any case, it should be granted 'gratis.' Native people from Fort St. Clair regularly camped through the 1800s and 1810s at the Big Sulphur Springs on Dooley's farm, on friendly terms with the settlers. It is the only Gasper Township in Ohio. The township remained a farming community through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and today includes the census-designated place of Lake Lakengren, a reservoir-centered residential community. It had 3,911 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1805 (Silas Dooley sr., Paint Creek), incorporated circa 1817-1818 (after Monroe Township's 1817 separation from Washington and before the township's first church and school were built in 1818), by set off from Washington Township at the request of settler Gasper Potterf.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history records that Gasper Potterf, living in the southern part of the then much longer Washington Township, argued for a new township on grounds of convenience and, more memorably, on the argument that dividing the township would cut the tax burden of supporting the illegitimate children he expected from a 'growing wickedness' in the population. The county commissioners cut twenty-four sections from Washington Township's south and 'immortalized the name of the persistent advocate by naming the new township Gasper, after [his] Christian name.' Some genealogical sources also record his surname as Batdorf.

Before the town

No mound, village or treaty site specific to Gasper Township was found in the sources checked, but the 1881 county history records that Native people from Fort St. Clair 'frequently encamped near the Big Sulphur springs,' on the farm first settled by Silas Dooley sr. on Paint Creek. In the autumn of 1806, a Native family camped there and traded amicably with the Dooleys, at one point playing a good-natured joke on young Silas Dooley over carrying a load of deer meat. Thomas Combs, described as 'a half Indian,' worked alongside Dooley as one of Captain David E. Hendricks' hired hands clearing land that became Eaton. Preble County as a whole was Miami and Shawnee hunting and settlement territory before the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee.

• Big Sulphur Springs encampment (camp) — on the farm first settled by Silas Dooley sr. (later his son Hayden's), Paint Creek, Gasper Township, recurring encampments through the 1800s-1810s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1798 — John Leslie became one of the first settlers of the future Preble County, the general area including Gasper Township.
2. 1805 — Silas Dooley sr., accompanied by his father Moses Dooley and Jacob Railsback, selected land on Paint Creek; Silas took up permanent residence there in following seasons, making him the township's actual first settler rather than its namesake, Gasper Potterf.
3. 1806 — Gasper Potterf settled on Seven Mile Creek, in the eastern part of the future township; the same autumn, a Native family camped near the Dooley farm's Big Sulphur springs and traded with the family.
4. 1808-05 — Silas Dooley married Johanna Westerfield and built a round log cabin on his Paint Creek claim.
5. 1808-03 — Preble County was organized, with Gasper Township initially part of the larger Washington Township.
6. 1818 — The township's first church, a hewed-log building, and its first school-house were both built.
7. 1840 — Gasper Township's population was recorded at 836.
8. 1880 — Gasper Township's population had grown modestly to 863.
9. 2020 — The U.S. Census recorded 3,911 residents in Gasper Township, including the Lake Lakengren community.

Stories

The deer meat and the hornets' nest

In the autumn of 1806, a Native family camped near the Big Sulphur springs on Silas Dooley's new claim on Paint Creek, and the two households got on well, the Dooleys giving pumpkins and other farm produce to their neighbors. One day, after killing a bear and a deer, the man of the family decided to return the favor. Finding young Silas Dooley at home alone, he offered to show him where he had dressed out the deer so Silas could take the forequarters. Silas tied the meat across his shoulders for the walk home -- and his guide, making sport of 'the pale face's way' of carrying a load, steered him directly under a large hornets' nest. As the hornets swarmed, Dooley bolted for home without ever letting go of his meat, while the Indian stood back, laughing, and asked innocently afterward what Dooley called the insects that had chased him. Dooley, by his own later account, could take a joke even with a sting in it.

Named for the man who wasn't first

Gasper Township's whole namesake story turns on a fact the township's own residents got backward for decades. It was long assumed that Gasper Potterf, for whom the township is named, was also its first settler. A closer look by the 1881 county historian, drawing on an 1873 newspaper interview with the aged Silas Dooley shortly before his death, found otherwise: Dooley had settled on Paint Creek in 1805, a full year before Potterf arrived on Seven Mile Creek in 1806. What Potterf did do was politick. Living in the far southern end of the sprawling original Washington Township, he petitioned the county commissioners for a smaller, more convenient township of his own -- and won them over partly by arguing that dividing the township would reduce the tax burden likely to fall on residents from supporting the illegitimate children of a growing and, in his telling, increasingly 'wicked' population. The commissioners obliged, cutting twenty-four sections free and naming the result after Potterf's own first name, gratis of a competing claim from the man who had actually gotten there first.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · archive.org · genealogytrails.com

Every historic place in Preble County on the full map

Groundwater pumped from 8 wells from 3 wellfield sources (City of Eaton CCR wording). The CCR does not name the aquifer type. The water here

• Eaton Public Water System69% of residentsSand and gravel (Pleistocene) aquifer wells, Preble County
• Lakengren Water Authority28% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Camden, Village Of1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Southwest Regional Water District1% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Gratis Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (2)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-16
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-06-17

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