Grand Rapids Township, Wood County

How Grand Rapids Township, Wood County began

Grand Rapids Township's Ottawa and settler neighbors lived through a real scare in 1837, the so-called 'Huckleberry War,' when a rumor about Sac emissaries recruiting local Ottawa against the whites sent both communities into a brief, mutual panic that dissolved as quickly as it began. The township, in northwestern Wood County along the Maumee River, was established in 1888, unusually late for a Wood County township, and takes its name directly from the village of Grand Rapids that sits within it -- itself platted in 1833 as Gilead and renamed Grand Rapids in 1868. The township's National Register-listed landmarks, including the Heeter-Russo, Housley and Kerr houses and the Thurston Building, sit within the village itself; see that unit for their fuller history.

Incorporated township established 1888, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Grand Rapids Township is named for the village of Grand Rapids within it, itself named for the rapids of the Maumee River at that site; it is the only Grand Rapids Township in Ohio.

Before the town

Native people are part of this township's recorded founding. When the Howard family landed at the Maumee Rapids on June 17, 1821, Ottawa were camped along the bank, with Indian agent Major Stickney among them. The Howards' grandson Dresden W. H. Howard later recalled that the principal Ottawa town stood near the site of the later Howard Hotel, with other lodges along Beaver Creek and on the sand ridges; that in 1823 his family cut a road to the Indian mission eight miles below, 'opposite the Indian village of Kinjoino'; that he attended the mission school three years and learned the language; and that in 1832, 1837 and 1839 he helped move Indians to new reservations and to the Osage River in Kansas. He named the chiefs he remembered: Ottawa Nawash, Ottuso, Charlo, Ocquenoxie, Kinjoino, Ottokee, Waseon and Waseoniquet; Pottawatomi Wawbonsee, Bawbeese, Meteah and Winamac; Miami LaFontaine and Richardville; Shawnee Joseph and William Parks. James Sassaquas, called the last full-blooded Miami of the old hunting grounds, hunted with the Maumee Ottawa as a boy and died at Peru, Indiana, on February 13, 1895, aged 84. The 1837 'Huckleberry War' council at the Rapids drew Petonquet, Kinjoino and Nackichewa. No mound or earthwork is recorded on the Wood County side.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa, Potawatomi, Miami, Shawnee.

• Kinjoino's Ottawa village (opposite the Howard settlement) (village) — On the Maumee near the Rapids, with the Indian mission about eight miles downriver; exact site not given, 1820s-1830s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1819 — The surveys at the Head of the Rapids are made in 1819 and 1821.
2. 1821-06-17 — Thomas Howard, his sons Edward and Robert and their families, from Yates County, New York, land from Capt. Anson Reed's schooner at the Maumee Rapids, where Ottawa people are camped along the bank; they move to the site of Grand Rapids in 1822.
3. 1823 — The Howards cut a road from their cabins to the Indian mission eight miles downriver.
4. 1825-05-25 — Thomas Howard dies, the settlement's first death; the Howard family burying ground on the bluff is begun.
5. 1828 — Alexander Brown and Joseph North move back from the river up Minard's Creek toward Keeler's Prairie, the beginning of Weston Township settlement.
6. 1830-06-14 — The commissioners grant a petition and form Ottawa Township from Range 9 south of the Maumee; on December 6 they rename it Weston.
7. 1831 — Charlotte Howard teaches the settlement's first school, a gathering of eight or ten children in home-spun clothes, at the log house of Richard Howard.
8. 1832-12-15 — The Weston post office opens with Edward Howard as postmaster; it becomes Gilead on March 30, 1837 and Grand Rapids in 1868.
9. 1833 — The village of Grand Rapids, within the future township, is platted as Gilead.
10. 1835 — The Toledo War calls the settlement's able-bodied men to arms; the county history credits the volunteers with only two notable feats -- one man's desertion with a musket and blanket belonging to Ohio, and the sale of 100 head of cattle to Michigan's troops.
11. 1837 — The 'Huckleberry War' alarm sweeps the settlement: a rumor that two Sac emissaries had appeared to Ottawa girls picking huckleberries near the Rapids to recruit them against settlers sends terrified whites to the Edward Howard Stone House and other fortified log houses, where they hold Ottawa chiefs' wives and children hostage for their warriors' good behavior -- though it emerges the Ottawa themselves were more frightened than anyone, keeping fires burning all night to prove they were not on the warpath.
12. 1854-07-05 — A cholera epidemic begins with the deaths of Alonzo Bowerman and his wife at Providence, followed by fourteen more deaths; all but five families flee the village of Grand Rapids, and 18 of Seth McDonald's 18 sawmill employees leave, with only John Long remaining.
13. 1856-07 — Residents import the old Croghan cannon from Perrysburg for a holiday celebration; after removing a file someone had used to spike it, they fire it and it explodes, sending the ramrod across the river and crippling Joseph Shannon.
14. March 1856 — Gilead (later Grand Rapids) is recognized as an incorporated village in March 1856 after a petition of December 5, 1855 by A. J. Gardner and G. E. Guyer, who first asked for the name Grand Rapids; Emanuel Arnold is elected the first mayor on September 5, 1856.
15. 31 July 1856 — Grand Rapids Lodge No. 289, A. F. & A. M., is organized under dispensation on July 31, 1856 and chartered on October 23 of that year.
16. 27 July 1872 — Turkey Foot Lodge No. 529, I.O.O.F., is chartered at Grand Rapids on July 27, 1872 with eleven charter members.
17. 28 June 1877 — The Toledo & Grand Rapids narrow-gauge railroad is completed southwest to Waterville on June 28, 1877 and soon after to the Rapids, its contracts having been let in April 1877.
18. 1888 — Grand Rapids Township is established, separating formal township government from the village that had already existed within its bounds for over half a century.
19. 1888-09-25 — The township's first officers (trustees Ebenezer Donaldson, W. B. Kerr and J. W. Brown) meet to organize Grand Rapids Township, formerly part of Weston.
20. 1890 — The census counts 1,021 inhabitants in the township.
21. 1895-04 — More than thirty women vote in the school election, Mrs. B. F. Kerr casting the first ballot.
22. 1990-2010 — The census counts 1,607 in 2010, 1,631 in 2000 and 1,539 in 1990 for the whole township, including any village inside it.
23. 2020 — The census finds 1,586 people living in the township.

Stories

The Huckleberry War

The panic that settlers later called the 'Huckleberry War' began with berries, not bullets. A group of Ottawa girls picking huckleberries near the Rapids were approached by two Native men the community did not recognize, and word spread that they were emissaries of the Sac nation, sent to recruit the local Ottawa into a war against white settlers. Terrified, the settlers convened a council with Indian Agent Jackson and several Ottawa leaders -- Petonquet, Kinjoino and Nackichewa among them -- to learn what was happening, then took the further step of fortifying the Edward Howard Stone House and two log houses, where women including Charlotte Pratt and Lucy Keith stood guard over Ottawa chiefs' wives and children, held as hostages against their warriors' good behavior. It turned out the Ottawa were considerably more frightened than their white neighbors: they kept large fires burning through the nights that followed, a deliberate signal meant to reassure the settlers that no war party was forming. Nothing came of the scare at all -- just an overreaction on all sides to a rumor sparked by two strangers and a berry patch.

Landing at the Rapids, 1821

On June 17, 1821, Capt. Anson Reed's schooner reached the Maumee Rapids from Cleveland carrying three generations of Howards from Yates County, New York: Thomas, 63; his son Edward, 43; his son Robert, 23; and their wives and children. Ottawa were camped along the river bank, dancing and playing games, and when the vessel came near they ran to the water's edge with a loud yell to look at it. Thomas entered land where Woodville was later founded, but in 1822 the family moved up to the Head of the Rapids and built three cabins. Edward Howard became the settlement's trader with the Ottawa, kept the first tavern, held the first township election in his house and, in 1832, became its first postmaster; his river-facing house with wooden columns still drew notice in 1884. Thomas died on May 25, 1825, and was buried on a wooded bluff at the corner of Edward's farm, which became the Howard family cemetery.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · dam.assets.ohio.gov

Mostly private wells The water here

• Grand Rapids Village95% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Whispering Winds Mhc5% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

High-hazard dams (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 4 of 4 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 4 of 4.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2026-11-03; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-17

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Grand Rapids Township, Wood County, Wood County and its school district:

• Wood County: Renews a 1-mill property tax levy for the provide & maintain senior citizens services or facilities of Wood County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

Cite this page