Green Township, Clark County

How Green Township, Clark County began

Green Township, in the south of Clark County, was formed in 1818 when the county was organized and takes its name from Greene County, of which it had been part, as Bath Township. The Little Miami River crosses it, with Congress lands to the north and the Virginia Military District south of the river; Owen Davis built a mill about 1800 where Clifton now stands, and Abraham Inlow made the first permanent settlement in 1804. Its hamlets were Pitchin and Cortsville, the latter later a Black community; the Green township had 1,524 residents in 1880 and 2,711 in 2020. Its one National Register listing, the 1834 Brewer Log House, is gone.

Settled 1804 (Abraham Inlow); a mill on the Little Miami about 1800 (Owen Davis), incorporated 1818 (formed on the organization of the county; before that part of Bath Township, Greene County), by formed by the Clark County commissioners; Abraham Inlow first permanent settler.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history says the township 'takes its name from Greene County, of which it was originally a part, and was then called Bath Township'; the 1908 history agrees that it takes its name from Greene County, territory taken from Greene when Clark was formed.

Before the town

The 1881 county history says that 'the Indians vacated the territory of this township about the commencement of the war of 1812,' and that their last camping-grounds were on the south bank of the Little Miami, just above and below the junction of the North Fork. Those who were there when the pioneers arrived were friendly and quiet, living by hunting and fishing. The same history tells that in 1832 workmen digging a cellar near the 'Little Spring' on Thomas P. Miller's farm found, about four feet down, seven wedges heaped together, deep yellow when ground and weighing about three and a half pounds each; the finder laid them back under a little clay, and in the morning they were gone, a find never explained. The land is part of the area ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (August 3, 1795). The Shawnee town of Piqua (Peckuwe) stood to the northwest near Springfield.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Last Native camping grounds on the Little Miami (camp) — south bank of the Little Miami River, above and below the mouth of the North Fork, near Clifton, until about 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. about 1800 — Owen Davis builds a grist-mill on the Little Miami where Clifton now stands, just across the Greene County line; it served the early Green Township settlers.
2. 1804 — Abraham Inlow, born in Maryland in 1777, settles on Section 6, Township 4, Range 8, the first permanent settlement in the township; Thomas Luse comes in 1805.
3. 1806 — Ebenezer Wheeler, Jacob Hubble and the brothers Samuel and John T. Stewart, natives of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, settle; the Stewarts buy and improve 500 acres on Section 15.
4. 1807 — The Baptists, the first to organize, put up a rough log meeting-house on the north bank of the Little Miami on Gen. Benjamin Whiteman's farm; they occupy it until 1830.
5. 1811 — The Clifton Presbyterian congregation is organized in August under Rev. James Welch, after a petition of March 16 to Miami Presbytery; it builds a log church and a brick church in 1827.
6. about 1812 — The Native people vacate the township; their last camps were on the Little Miami near the mouth of the North Fork.
7. 1817 — Seth Smith, a Friend who came in 1811, builds what is supposed to be the township's first frame house.
8. 1818 — Green Township is formed on the organization of Clark County, having been Bath Township of Greene County; Gen. Whiteman, wishing to remain in Greene County, has the line moved north of his house.
9. about 1820 — Abraham Inlow catches and kills the last gray wolf in the township on the prairie of Section 30, wrestling it to the timber with his bare hands; John Garlough, who bought Section 18 in 1808, is killed by a bull while building a grist-mill.
10. 1823 — John T. Stewart builds the first brick house.
11. about 1830 — Robert Cort begins a carpenter shop and a trade in produce hauled to Cincinnati that becomes the village of Cortsville; the store grows after 1835 and ends about 1852.
12. 1832 — Workmen digging a cellar find seven yellow wedges near the Little Spring, which vanish overnight; John T. Stewart makes the township's last land entry in 1832 or 1833.
13. 1844 — An Anti-Slavery Methodist (Wesleyan) church is organized at Cortsville; in 1850 a Free Presbyterian church is formed in the same building, later moving to Clifton and in 1859 merging into the United Presbyterian Church.
14. 1845 — Green Porter builds the first house and blacksmith shop at Pitchin; the Methodist Protestant church follows in 1846.
15. 1858 — John Wheeler dies of milk sickness, the last fatal case in the township.
16. 1868 — Rev. Shoecraft organizes a Colored Baptist Church that takes over the old Wesleyan building at Cortsville.
17. 1880 — The township has 1,524 residents (the 1880 bulletin says 1,522; 1,386 in 1850) and Pitchin 120; the township has no post office of its own.
18. 1908 — Cortsville has a blacksmith shop, a small grocery, twelve to fifteen residents, mostly Black, and the Colored Baptist Church; its post office had moved to Selma in 1845.
19. 1974 — The Brewer Log House, built in 1834 at 2665 Old Springfield Road, is listed on the National Register on August 13.
20. 2020 — The census counts 2,711 residents in the township.

Stories

A Register Listing With Nothing Left to See

The Brewer Log House stood at 2665 Old Springfield Road, built in 1834 and important enough to the county's architectural record that it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 1974. At some point afterward the house was torn down or otherwise destroyed — the surviving photographic record from 2010 shows only a driveway and an open lot where the log house once stood. The National Register listing was never withdrawn, so Green Township's one entry in the federal register today commemorates a building that visitors can no longer find; only the site itself, and the paperwork, remain.

The wrestling match at Whiteman's

In the 1881 township history the author set down a story told of the last Native fishermen near the Little Miami. A party of Indians fishing near Gen. Benjamin Whiteman's house fell into a wrestling match between one of their number and Ned, a man in the General's employ. The Indian won, throwing Ned so hard that he could not get up. Alarmed, he asked the General what would happen to him if he had killed Ned. 'You must work in his place,' the General said. The Indian looked at Ned, thought it over, and answered that he would rather the General killed him. The author offered it as an example of the Native people's dislike of manual labor, a judgment of the time; the story itself is the only anecdote on record about the Native people of the township.

Abraham Inlow and the last wolf

Abraham Inlow, the township's first permanent settler in 1804, killed its last gray wolf about 1820. Crossing the open prairie on the northeast quarter of Section 30, he saw a wolf jump from the grass and run ahead of him. His horse overtook it, the wolf turned, the horse stopped short, and the chase was on again until the third time the wolf squatted in the long grass. Inlow slipped off, seized it by both hind legs, and found he had his hands full as it snapped furiously at his arms and legs. With no knife or weapon, he backed to the timber, twisting and kicking the animal all the way, and killed it by throwing it against the trees. The 1881 historian counted the feat at 'quite a risk.'

Cortsville's anti-slavery and Black churches

At Cortsville, a crossroads Robert Cort and William Marshall built into a country store about 1830, a group of Methodists who opposed slavery organized a Wesleyan church in 1844 and built on a lot given by David Littler. In 1850 Rev. A. L. Rankin used the same building to organize a Free Presbyterian church, which built at Clifton in 1852 and merged in 1859 into the United Presbyterian Church. The Wesleyan building was abandoned after a few years of good work, and in 1868 Rev. Shoecraft organized a Colored Baptist Church that has owned and used it since.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Clark County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Springfield City46% of residentsMad River Buried Valley Aquifer (12 wells)
• Yellow Springs Village15% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Clark County Northridge13% of residentsMad River Buried Valley Aquifer (12 wells)
• South Charleston Village12% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Clark County Lawrenceville5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Chateau Estates MHP3% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Cedarville University3% of residentsGroundwater wells (8 wells)
• North Hampton Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Harmony Estates Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Rolling Terrace MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Greene County - northwest Reg Water0% of residentsLittle Miami River Buried Valley Aquifer (2 wellfields, Beavercreek area)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Private schools (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Money issues on the ballot since 2018: 4 of 4 passed.

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 2021-05-04; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-07-01

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Green Township, Clark County, Clark County and its school district:

• Green Township: Authorizes an additional 1.5-mill property tax levy for the ambulance & EMS of Green Township for 5 years, beginning in 2026.
• Clark County: Renews a 1-mill property tax levy for the provide & maintain expenses of Health District of Clark County for 5 years, beginning in 2027.

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