Green Springs

How Green Springs began

Green Springs was founded in 1831 by Jacob Stem, who bought roughly 1,200 acres straddling Seneca and Sandusky counties, including a sulfur spring the village was later named for; the settlement was first called Stemtown, after its founder. That same year, the Seneca of Sandusky, whose reservation had covered this ground since 1817, signed the treaty that ceded it to the United States, so Stem's purchase landed almost exactly at the moment the land passed out of Native hands. Green Springs later became known regionally for its mineral spring, and the village today straddles the Seneca-Sandusky county line, with part of it lying in Adams Township.

Settled 1831, platted 1839-05, incorporated 1872-02-05 (authority granted; first election April 1873), by Jacob Stem.

Where the name comes from

First called Stemtown for founder Jacob Stem, the village was renamed Green Springs for the color of the water flowing from its sulfur spring.

Before the town

Green Springs sits on ground that was, from the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (Fort Meigs) until 1831, part of the roughly 30,000-to-40,000-acre reservation held by the Seneca of Sandusky. Jacob Stem's 1831 purchase of the spring and surrounding land coincided with the treaty (signed February 28, 1831, and sometimes called the Treaty of Little Sandusky) by which the tribe ceded this reservation and agreed to remove west; Green Springs is also the burial place of Seneca John, the reservation's chief, who was killed by his own brothers there in August 1828 after being accused of causing the previous chief Comstock's death by witchcraft. The tribe's removal journey west took place in 1831-32.

Nations recorded here: Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Seneca John burial site (burial) — Green Springs, Seneca County, August 1828 (findagrave.com)
• Seneca of Sandusky Reservation (western edge) (other) — land later purchased by Jacob Stem at Green Springs, 1817-1831 (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1817 — The Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (Fort Meigs) establishes the Seneca of Sandusky reservation, which covers the future site of Green Springs.
2. 1828 — In August, Seneca chief Seneca John is killed by his own brothers near Green Springs after being accused of causing the death of the previous chief, Comstock, by witchcraft; he is buried there.
3. 1831 — Jacob Stem buys about 1,200 acres including a sulfur spring and founds the settlement first called Stemtown, the same year the Seneca cede the reservation covering this land.
4. 1839-05 — David Risdon and David Reeves survey the village of Green Spring for Jacob Stem, who in 1830 had come to Tiffin and bought large tracts of land.
5. 1840 — Green Spring has a population of only 29, and its first postmaster, Daniel H. Dana, is appointed about this year.
6. 1857-06-11 — Green Spring Lodge No. 318, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is chartered with seven founding members.
7. 1860 — Jacob Stem, who laid out the village and built its mills, dies at about 68.
8. 1866-02-09 — Edward Pulaski, later the ranger who saved most of his crew in the 1910 Idaho fire and gave his name to the Pulaski tool, is born in Green Springs.
9. 1867 — Mineral-water development begins at the Green Spring sulphur spring; the Green Spring Cure and Health Resort opens its home for visitors and patients on January 1, 1868.
10. 1870-06-29 — A fire destroys the records of the Odd Fellows lodge; a new charter is issued after July 1870.
11. 1872-02-05 — The county commissioners authorize Green Spring to organize as a village on a petition presented December 6, 1871; the first election is held in April 1873, with John A. Wright chosen mayor (Gideon Gordon takes the office in July).
12. 1873 — The United Brethren build their house of worship in Green Spring.
13. 1881 — Green Springs Academy is founded in the village.
14. 1884 — Green Spring has two railroads, the Indiana, Bloomington & Western and the Nickel Plate; a flour mill, tannery, planing mill, sash and blind factory, a hotel, the Green Spring Times newspaper and a bank make up its business list, and Green Spring Academy is open.
15. 1910-08-20 — Ranger Edward Pulaski, born in Green Springs, leads his crew into an abandoned mine during the Big Burn in Idaho; five of the 45 men die, and the rest survive.
16. 1943-07-31 — Rodger W. Young, who grew up mostly in Green Springs, is killed at Munda Point, New Georgia, attacking a machine-gun position while wounded; he is awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.
17. 1980 — Green Springs reaches its peak census population of 1,568; it was 1,233 in 2020.

Stories

A purchase at the exact moment of removal

In 1831, Jacob Stem bought about 1,200 acres straddling the Seneca-Sandusky county line, drawn by a sulfur spring whose green-tinted water would eventually give the town its name. He could not have picked a more pointed year: 1831 was the same year the Seneca of Sandusky, whose reservation had covered this exact ground since 1817, signed the treaty giving it up to the United States in exchange for land west of the Mississippi. Stem's own settlement, first called Stemtown after himself, took root on land that had been the eastern edge of a Native nation's homeland only months, or even weeks, before.

The ranger from Green Springs who held a mine shut

Edward Pulaski was born in Green Springs on February 9, 1866, and joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1908 as a ranger in Wallace, Idaho. On August 20, 1910, a sudden fire overwhelmed him on the west fork of Placer Creek, about five miles south of Wallace, while he was supervising a crew of 45. He led them into an abandoned prospector's mine, now called the Pulaski Tunnel, and threatened to shoot anyone who tried to leave. Five of the men died, but the rest survived; Pulaski himself suffered burns, damaged lungs and eyes, and temporary blindness. He is credited with inventing in 1911 the combined axe and mattock firefighters still call the Pulaski, and he died in Coeur d'Alene in 1931.

The sulphur spring and the Ottawa maiden

The reason for the village was the cold sulphur spring of green-tinted water north of the Indiana, Bloomington & Western depot, which discharged about 700 cubic feet a minute through a fissure in the bedrock. The 1886 county history tells a legend about it: a young chief, whose promised bride, the daughter of a great Ottawa chief, lay sick with a malady no medicine man could name, dreamed that the Great Spirit pointed him to a healing pool toward the setting sun. He set out with a few braves, found the spring after many days, and carried the water home; the maiden drank it and recovered. The county history prints this as the resort's legend, not as recorded history. In 1867 the Green Spring Cure was organized there, with a hotel that took in its first patient on January 1, 1868 and by 1885 held 150 guests, and the 1911 county history still described the Oak Ridge spring as an emerald-colored summer resort.

Rodger Young, the Medal of Honor soldier who grew up in Green Springs

Rodger Wilton Young was born in Tiffin on April 28, 1918, and grew up mostly in Green Springs before his family moved to Clyde. A head injury at high school basketball slowly damaged his hearing and eyesight, but he kept to the Ohio National Guard, which he had joined in 1939, and asked to be demoted from sergeant to private so that no squad would depend on his failing senses. On July 31, 1943, near Munda Point on New Georgia, his patrol was ambushed from a machine-gun pit; though wounded twice he advanced, firing and throwing grenades, until he was killed, and his platoon withdrew without further losses. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, and Frank Loesser wrote 'The Ballad of Rodger Young' in 1945.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Green Springs Village100% of residentsRaccoon Creek & Beaver Creek Reservoirs (upground, off Sandusky River basin)

Nursing homes (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Public libraries (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 passed.

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 2026-02-17

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

Cite this page