Green Township, Shelby County

How Green Township, Shelby County began

Green Township, five miles square in the southeastern corner of Shelby County, was set off from Orange Township on March 7, 1820, and held its first election that April at the house of John R. Medaris. Henry Sturm's family from Clark County made the first settlement in 1814, followed by the Robinson, Medaris, Ellsworth, Dorsey and Sargeant families by 1819. Its two villages grew up in the 1830s and 1840s: New Palestine, laid out in 1832 and served by a post office named Tawawa, and Plattsville, platted in 1844 on the Medaris farm. The township remains farmland drained by Mosquito (Tawawa) and Leatherwood creeks, with no incorporated municipality.

Settled 1814, incorporated 1820-03-07 (erected as a township from Orange Township), by Shelby County commissioners; first settler Henry Sturm and family.

Where the name comes from

Neither the 1883 nor the 1913 county history explains the name Green; both give only the commissioners' order of March 7, 1820, erecting the township 'by the name of Green Township.' It is one of sixteen Green Townships in Ohio, and no documented reason specific to this one was found.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or trail inside Green Township is recorded in the 1883 or 1913 county histories, which begin the township's story with Henry Sturm's family in 1814. The land lay within the cession of the Treaty of Greenville (1795), in the Shawnee-Miami borderlands of the upper Great Miami valley.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami.

Timeline

1. 1814 — Henry Sturm, his wife and twelve children came from Clark County and settled on the southwest quarter of section 1, the first family in the township.
2. 1815 — Samuel Robinson, Sturm's son-in-law, came from Champaign County in March and settled on section 19.
3. 1817 — John R. and Abraham Medaris entered the south part of section 19; John Ellsworth came from Clark County in February and settled on section 18.
4. 1818 — Charles Dorsey taught the first school, a seven-day term in a log cabin on the Larue farm, for fifty cents a day paid from township funds (1818 or 1819).
5. 1820 — The first schoolhouse, of round logs with greased-paper windows, was built near the later Plattsville graveyard; Lucy Wilson taught the first term.
6. 1820 — The Antioch Methodist Episcopal society (later Plattsville M.E. Church) was organized about 1819 or 1820 in members' homes; in 1828 or 1829 it built a log church on ground given by Thaddeus Tuttle.
7. 1820-03-07 — The county commissioners erected Green Township from the eastern part of Orange Township; the first election was called for April at John R. Medaris's house.
8. 1824 — John Medaris built the first brick house in the township, near the later site of Plattsville (about 1824).
9. 1826 — William Ellsworth built the first sawmill, a water-powered mill on Leatherwood Creek near Plattsville (1826 or 1827), after Medaris's earlier corn cracker.
10. 1832-09-27 — Ephraim Davidson laid out New Palestine near the center of section 1; because Ohio already had a New Palestine, its post office was named Tawawa.
11. 1837 — The New Palestine Christian Church was organized in September with seventeen members at Daniel Neal's house in Champaign County; it built a frame church in New Palestine in 1851.
12. 1844-09-21 — Jonathan Counts surveyed the village of Plattsville on John R. Medaris's land in section 19.
13. 1851-03-15 — The Spring Creek Christian Church was organized with sixty-one members in a log schoolhouse; it built near the Miami County line in section 28 in 1852-53.
14. 1853-06-18 — The township was divided into six school districts and a school tax levied; teachers had been paid by subscription until then.
15. 1876-07-12 — Plattsville Lodge No. 643, I.O.O.F., was instituted by Nathan Jones, grand master of Ohio.
16. 1877 — The Plattsville Universalist Church was built and dedicated July 29; the society was organized September 30 with thirty-six members.
17. 1913 — Plattsville had 134 residents; the Tawawa post office at New Palestine had been abandoned and the village was again known only by its original name.
18. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 903 residents in Green Township, with no incorporated municipality and the unincorporated community of Tawawa in its northeastern section.

Stories

Seven days of school for three dollars and fifty cents

The first school in Green Township was taught by Charles Dorsey about 1818 or 1819 in a log cabin on the Larue farm. The term lasted seven days, and Dorsey was paid fifty cents a day from township funds, although by 1883 no one could say how the township had come to have the money. About 1820 the settlers built a round-log schoolhouse near the later Plattsville graveyard, with puncheon seats and greased paper in place of window glass, and Lucy Wilson taught its first term. In the winter of 1821-22 Dr. Pratt taught in another log schoolhouse near the Sturm graveyard for ten dollars a month and board with his pupils' families. Teachers were paid by subscription until June 18, 1853, when the township was divided into six districts and taxed for schools.

New Palestine and its borrowed post office name

Ephraim Davidson had New Palestine surveyed on September 27, 1832, on his land near the center of section 1, about half a mile from the Champaign County line and just north of Tawawa Creek. George Swiger's family were the first settlers, John Stephen kept the first store in a log house, and Joseph Knot kept the first hotel. Because another Ohio town already had the name, the post office was called Tawawa, after the creek also known as Mosquito Creek. In 1881 the village had about twenty-five houses and a hundred people, a Christian church, a hotel and three blacksmith shops. By 1913 the Tawawa post office had been given up and the place was again called New Palestine.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Sidney City97% of residentsGroundwater wells (Great Miami River valley + Washington Twp) with Tawawa Creek/Miami R. backup
• Shelby County Water and Sewer2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Grandview Heights Civic Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Anna Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-30

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