Granville Township, Mercer County

How Granville Township, Mercer County began

Granville Township was organized on June 5, 1837, from the part of Recovery Township north of the Greenville Treaty Line; the strip south of the line, about two-fifths of the present township, was added from Darke County in 1849. German Catholic families such as the Romers, Bruns and Beckmans settled it, and in 1907 its only churches were Catholic: St. Henry's, St. Bernard's at Burkettsville, St. Wendelin's and St. Francis at Cranberry Prairie. Cranberry Prairie, a marsh in the east-central part, was reclaimed by dredging the Wabash River, and one of the county's first gas wells was drilled there. St. Henry, laid out by Henry Romer in 1837, lies in the north of the township and Burkettsville on its southern line.

Settled 1827 (Henry Bruns), platted 1837 (St. Henry), incorporated 1837-06-05 (township organized), by Mercer County commissioners, from the eastern part of Recovery Township.

Where the name comes from

One of two Granville Townships in Ohio (the other in Licking County); no source specific to this township's own naming was found.

Before the town

The Greenville Treaty Line of 1795 crosses Granville Township: the township was first organized only from land north of the line, and the part south of it, ceded by the Native nations at Greenville, belonged to Darke County until 1849. No Native village, trail or earthwork inside the township is recorded in the histories opened.

• Greenville Treaty Line (treaty) — crosses the township; the southern two-fifths lies south of it, 1795 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1827 — Henry Bruns and his wife settle in what becomes Granville Township; William Simison is born in the county the same year.
2. 1831 — Lot and Jacob Franklin arrive.
3. 1833 — Christian Stelzer and Casper Stetcher settle in the township.
4. 1837 — Granville Township is organized; St. Henry is founded and platted the same year in its northern part.
5. 1837-06-26 — The first township election is held at the house of John Wright; James Grant is chosen justice of the peace, William Franklin constable and John Wright clerk.
6. 1840 — The township has 339 residents.
7. 1840 — The first church of the St. Henry Catholic congregation is built.
8. 1849 — The part of the present township south of the Greenville Treaty Line is added to Granville from Darke County.
9. 1851 — A post office called Cranberry Prairie is established; it operates until 1904.
10. 1854 — Asiatic cholera strikes the township near the later site of Burkettsville.
11. 1856 — St. Wendelin's Catholic parish is organized at Wendelin.
12. 1858 — St. Francis Catholic parish is founded at Cranberry Prairie.
13. 1875 — St. Bernard's Catholic parish is established at the site of Burkettsville.
14. 1876 — Burkettsville, straddling the township's southern edge and the Darke County line, is platted after the railroad reaches the site.
15. 1880 — The township has 1,616 residents; in 1900 it has 2,329.
16. 1901 — St. Henry and Burkettsville are both incorporated as villages.
17. 1906 — The present St. Francis Catholic Church at Cranberry Prairie is built; it was later listed on the National Register.

Stories

William Simison and the Black Acres

West of Cranberry Prairie lay several sections of black muck, known in the Civil War years as the Black Acres or Cranberry Bog, too wet to farm and full of copperheads and rattlesnakes. It was the hiding place of William Simison, born in the county in 1827, son of John Simison, who had settled at Fort Recovery in 1817, and grandson of William Price, a soldier with St. Clair and Wayne. According to stories gathered by the Mercer County Historical Society, Simison refused to serve in the Union Army and was hunted by soldiers and bounty hunters, who would not follow him into the bog. Captured once, he is said to have plugged his guards' percussion caps with ear wax while examining their rifles at a tavern in Spencerville and escaped when the guns misfired. He died a natural death after the war. Scranton's 1907 history remembers him differently, as a hunter and fur trapper who served two years as township constable.

Draining Cranberry Prairie

The east-central part of Granville Township was a low basin called Cranberry Prairie, originally something of a marsh. The Wabash River rises nearby, in the Hog Prairie on the Darke County line, and dredging the river at a cost of many thousands of dollars drained the prairie and turned it into what Scranton's 1907 history called the finest farming section of the township. Judge Dwyer of Dayton owned more than 400 acres of it in one farm, and one of the first gas wells in Mercer County was drilled on his land; the gas field later opened across the county supplied Dayton, Troy and Piqua for years. A post office called Cranberry Prairie operated from 1851 to 1904, and St. Francis Catholic Church, founded in 1858, still marks the settlement.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Mercer County on the full map

Groundwater wells (12 wells) The water here

• St. Henry Village94% of residentsGroundwater wells (12 wells)
• Ft Recovery Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

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 2026-07-30
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-05

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