Gibson Township, Mercer County

How Gibson Township, Mercer County began

Gibson Township, in the southwest corner of Mercer County, began as a township of Darke County and was transferred to Mercer County in 1848 or 1849; its irregular northern boundary is the old Greenville Treaty Line, which bends at Fort Recovery. The Wabash River rises in the Hog Prairie south of Fort Recovery and loops about 60 miles before returning within four miles of its source, and near Sharpsburg stands the only prehistoric mound recorded in the county. Settlers from southern Ohio, Pennsylvania and Delaware took the west and south, and a German Catholic community grew in the east around St. Paul's Church at Sharpsburg, founded in 1868. Part of the village of Fort Recovery extends into its northwestern corner.

Settled 1830s (George Hedrick and William Snyder, 1835), incorporated as a Darke County township: 1834 (first election, per the 1959 Mercer history) or 1836 (detached from Jackson Township, per the 1914 Darke history); transferred to Mercer County 1848 or 1849, by Darke County commissioners; transferred to Mercer County by the state.

Where the name comes from

The only Gibson Township in Ohio; no source for the specific naming was found.

Before the town

Gibson Township holds the only prehistoric mound recorded in Mercer County: the Mercer County Historical Society's 1959 history places it in section 25, about half a mile north of Sharpsburg on the Stammen farm, 18 to 20 feet high and several hundred feet across, looking like a smooth rounded knoll with a road cut through one end, and attributes it, with the county's other earthworks, to the Hopewell culture. The same history records that when Azariah Denney came to the township with his parents at age ten, 26 families of Miami were camped on Simison's Run, and the Miami boys were his playmates. The township's northern boundary follows the Greenville Treaty Line, the 1795 boundary between ceded land and Native country. Part of Fort Recovery, site of St. Clair's defeat in 1791 and the 1794 battle, extends into its northwest corner.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Ottawa, Hopewell culture.

• Sharpsburg mound (Stammen farm) (mound) — section 25, about half a mile north of Sharpsburg, attributed to the Hopewell culture (about 100 BC to AD 500) (archive.org)
• Miami camp on Simison's Run (camp) — Simison's Run, Gibson Township, early settlement years (date not given) (archive.org)
• Greenville Treaty Line (treaty) — northern boundary of the township, bending at Fort Recovery, 1795 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1833 — Darke County erects Jackson Township, which includes the land of present Gibson Township.
2. 1834 — The first Gibson Township election is held, per the 1959 Mercer County history.
3. 1835 — George Hedrick and William Snyder arrive; John L. Fox and Thomas Rockwell follow in 1837 and John Hedrick in 1839.
4. 1836 — Gibson Township is detached from Jackson Township in Darke County, per the 1914 Darke County history.
5. 1848-04-12 — Gibson Township is transferred from Darke County to Mercer County, per the 1914 Darke County history; the Mercer histories give 1849.
6. 1849 — Nathan S. Scranton, of a Connecticut family, settles on a farm in the township after coming from Medina County.
7. 1858 — Fort Recovery, part of which extends into this township's northwest corner, incorporates as a village.
8. 1858 — Bethel Evangelical Church, the township's first church, is organized in its western part.
9. 1868 — St. Paul's Catholic Church is established at Sharpsburg.
10. 1880 — The township has 1,462 residents; in 1900 it has 1,568.
11. 1906 — The assessor returns 4,309 acres of cultivated land, 4,494 of pasture, 2,371 of woodland and 515 of waste land.

Stories

Where the Wabash begins

The Wabash River rises in the Hog Prairie, about four miles south of Fort Recovery on the line between Mercer and Darke counties. Scranton's 1907 history describes it leaving the prairie as no more than a small ditch, running south and east, then winding around to the north and west through Granville and Recovery townships until it reaches Fort Recovery, within four miles of its source, after about 60 miles of meandering. From there it flows north through Washington Township and west through Liberty Township into Indiana. The wet swales of Gibson Township were later drained by ditching and tile, and by 1907 the mud roads had been macadamized and log barns replaced with large frame barns.

Sharpsburg and Violet

Sharpsburg, in the southeast of Gibson Township, grew around a general store and St. Paul's Catholic Church, established in 1868, in a German Catholic neighborhood settled early by families such as the Roods, who came from Butler County, Ohio, and the Motts. The store was run for many years by George Zenz and in 1907 by his son John. A post office there, called Violet, closed when rural free delivery began. Half a mile north of the settlement, on the Stammen farm, is the mound that the Mercer County Historical Society in 1959 called the only one in the county.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Mercer County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Ft Recovery Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-18
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-02-18

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