Goshen Township, Champaign County

How Goshen Township, Champaign County began

Goshen Township fills the southeastern corner of Champaign County, eight miles north to south, where the county meets the Darby Plains of Madison County; all of it is Virginia Military land, which is why its farms and roads run at odd angles. Squatters were here by 1805 or 1806, and Jacob Hazle of Pennsylvania, who selected land in the northeast corner in 1805, is the first settler on record. A small corn mill built by the settlers about 1812 drew people to the spot where John Kain laid out Mechanicsburg in 1814, and Goshen was set off from Union Township about 1815, holding its first recorded election on June 24 of that year. Outside Mechanicsburg the township has remained farmland, with a few hamlets such as Nashville east of the village and Crimville in the northwest.

Settled 1805, incorporated 1815 (set off from Union Township between October 1814 and June 1815; first election June 24, 1815), by first settler on record Jacob Hazle of Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Where the name comes from

The 1917 county history says the eastern half of Union Township was given 'the Biblical appellation of Goshen' when it was set off, and that who chose the name is not known, though it was presumably suggested by the settlers who petitioned for the township.

Before the town

Both county histories say there was no Native town or permanent camp in the township. Hunting parties did camp near the Spain cabin south of the later Mechanicsburg for a few days at a time to cure their meat, visited settlers' cabins for corn bread and salt, and sometimes gave venison in return. The 1917 history says the settlers lived at peace with them until the War of 1812 drew nearly all Native people out of the county. In July and August 1813 a militia company that included Goshen settlers garrisoned Menary's blockhouse in Logan County, where a man named Thomas and his son were killed; during an alarm at home the families gathered at John Frankerberger's for protection. No mound or earthwork in the township is described in the sources read; the land was ceded under the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

• Hunting camp near the Spain cabin (camp) — about a mile and a half south of Mechanicsburg, near Theodorick Spain's cabin, early 1800s, before the War of 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1805 — Jacob Hazle of Washington County, Pennsylvania, selected land in Virginia Military Survey No. 5042 in the northeast corner of the township; his father Henry and the Lawsons occupied it in 1806.
2. 1806 — Joseph Cummings of Massachusetts settled north of Little Lake; Hugh Bay and John Brittin settled nearby about the same time.
3. 1808 — Theodorick Spain settled about a mile and a half south of the later Mechanicsburg, and Richard Corbis, owner of the settlement's only wagon for years, moved in nearby.
4. 1808 — John Frankerberger married Elizabeth Pepper on March 17, the earliest settlers' marriage the 1881 history lists.
5. 1809 — Joseph Porter died in September and was buried in the Brittin graveyard, where the township's first schoolhouse was later built.
6. 1812 — Settlers dug the race and built a small corn mill on the site of Mechanicsburg, saving a trip to Kingston; Andrew Staley replaced it in 1818 and built the Goshen Mills in 1840.
7. 1813 — A militia company under Capt. Abner Barret, including Goshen settlers, garrisoned Menary's blockhouse in Logan County during July and August.
8. 1814 — John Kain platted Mechanicsburg on August 6, the second town in the county.
9. 1815 — Goshen Township held its first recorded election on June 24, electing John Brittin, John Owen and William Bay justices of the peace with 31 votes cast.
10. 1817 — A distillery four miles south of Mechanicsburg, built by Eli Baldridge and a man named Merrill, was trading a gallon of whisky for a bushel of corn; it closed about 1824.
11. 1819 — A great ring hunt for wolves was held south and southeast of Mechanicsburg; the hunters closed a circle about ten miles across and found no wolves.
12. 1823 — Jonathan Cheney built a mill on Darby Creek west of Mechanicsburg, later the Hunter mill; the 1881 history dates it 1828.
13. 1880 — The township outside Mechanicsburg counted 2,607 people, up from 1,406 in 1840.
14. 1917 — The township tile factory closed; the woolen factory east of Mechanicsburg had stopped about 1900 and the cheese factory about 1880.

Stories

The wolf hunt that found no wolves

About 1819 word went around the settlements that there would be a great wolf hunt south and southeast of Mechanicsburg, where there were still few settlers. Men were to start at the same hour from every side of a circle about ten miles across and walk toward a common center, armed with pitchforks and clubs; only a few chosen hunters inside the ring carried guns. Horns were blown so each party could tell where the others were. When the line finally closed, not a single wolf had been killed or seen, though many deer had. At the meeting point a man known as Colonel Rathburn had brought a large supply of whisky for the hunters.

William Burnside, blacksmith

William Burnside settled south of Mechanicsburg by 1808 and is credited in the 1917 county history with the first blacksmith shop in the county. In 1812 he went to Urbana to work as a blacksmith for the government under Captain Thorpe, and when Gen. Hull's army marched north he went along with a militia company. His son Joel, about six years old when the family came, served as a cook for Captain Thorpe while they were in Urbana. Burnside moved to Madison County about 1820 and died there in 1822; Joel later farmed in Goshen Township until 1875.

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

Every historic place in Champaign County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Mechanicsburg Village98% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Catawba Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 2 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-24

Cite this page