Greenfield Township, Huron County

How Greenfield Township, Huron County began

Greenfield Township's first settler family, Hanson Read's, reached the township on May 1, 1811, building one of the very first cabins in what is now Huron County and sleeping their first night on the ground under a tree; William McKelvey Jr. arrived the same year and lost a wheat crop to burning, apparently by Native people, during the panic that followed Hull's surrender in 1812. The township was established in 1815 and named for Greenfield Hill, a neighborhood of Fairfield, Connecticut. Its most distinctive chapter is Rev. Alvin Coe's Indian school, founded at Greenfield Center in 1818 to educate Wyandot and other Native boys before it was transferred to a mission on the Maumee River in the early 1820s.

Settled May 1, 1811 (Hanson Read, first settler family), incorporated 1815 (township organized), by Hanson Read, a Connecticut native by way of Bath, New York; William McKelvey Jr., of Trumbull County.

Where the name comes from

Greenfield Township is named after Greenfield Hill, a historic neighborhood within Fairfield, Connecticut, continuing the pattern of naming Huron County townships for the Connecticut communities tied to the Firelands land claims.

Before the town

Rev. Alvin Coe, a Presbyterian missionary commissioned by the Connecticut Missionary Society who settled at Greenfield Center in 1816, established a boarding school there in 1818 for the education of Native boys, building a schoolhouse and personally feeding, clothing and teaching about twenty-five to thirty pupils described as Wyandot and of other nations then in the region, funded by his own money and donated provisions. In 1820, finding the cost too heavy to bear alone, he won the endorsement of the Presbytery of Portage; a few years later he transferred the school to a Western Missionary Society mission near Perrysburg on the Maumee River, which subsequently passed to the American Board. Coe then spent years as an itinerant missionary among Native nations around the Upper Mississippi and Lake Superior, reportedly adopting their manner of living and once nearly starving after giving away his food to people he met in need. Separately, settler William McKelvey Jr.'s wheat crop was burned during his absence in 1812, apparently by Native people, amid the general alarm following General Hull's surrender at Detroit.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Alvin Coe's Indian school (other) — Greenfield Center, a short distance north of the township center, 1818 to early 1820s (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1811 — Hanson Read's family reaches the township on May 1 after a road-cutting journey and sleeps its first night under a tree; William McKelvey Jr. also arrives from Trumbull County and clears and sows his first wheat crop.
2. 1812 — William McKelvey Jr.'s wheat crop is burned, apparently by Native people, while he serves a six-month volunteer enlistment after General Hull's surrender; Franklin Read, born April 25 to Hanson and Elizabeth Read, is the township's first birth of settler parents.
3. 1816 — Rev. Alvin Coe, recently licensed by the Presbytery of Grand River, settles at Greenfield Center as a missionary for the Connecticut Missionary Society.
4. 1818 — Coe establishes a boarding school at Greenfield Center for Native boys, teaching, feeding and clothing about twenty-five to thirty pupils at his own expense; the township's first school for settler children opens the same year, taught by Levi Piatt.
5. 1820 — Coe appeals to the Presbytery of Portage for financial support of his Native school, which endorses the work; he later transfers the school to a mission near Perrysburg on the Maumee River.
6. 1847 — Harlan E. Simmons, plowing through an old uprooted-tree hollow on his farm, unearths two nested copper kettles buried upside down, evidently for a long time; one is preserved in the Firelands Historical Society's relic cabinet.
7. 1975 — Phoenix Mills, at Steuben, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 28.

Stories

A school for Wyandot boys at Greenfield Center

Rev. Alvin Coe came to Greenfield Center in 1816 as a circuit missionary for the Connecticut Missionary Society, and his travels around the region brought him into regular contact with Native families still living nearby. In 1818 he built a schoolhouse just north of the township center and gathered twenty-five to thirty Native boys, mostly Wyandot, to teach, feed and clothe largely out of his own pocket and whatever provisions his supporters could spare. By 1820 the cost had grown too heavy for one man, and he won a formal endorsement from the Presbytery of Portage to seek wider church support; not long after, he moved the school to a larger mission near Perrysburg on the Maumee River, which was eventually taken over by the American Board. Coe went on to spend years living among Native communities around the Upper Mississippi and Lake Superior, at times going without food himself after giving his own rations to people in greater need -- once nearly dying after trying to survive on tree bark the way he had seen Native travelers do. The account preserved from his Greenfield years includes one exchange, recorded by the 1879 county historian in the dialect of the time: a visiting father, offered whiskey at a nearby distillery, recited what Coe had taught his son -- that a 'good Injun' who refused whiskey would go to a good place, and a 'bad Injun' who drank it would not -- before admitting, cup halfway to his lips, that he didn't know if 'Mr. Coe, he lie.'

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

Every historic place in Huron County on the full map

Raw water pumped from the West Branch Huron River roughly 3 miles to a 215-acre, 2.3-billion-gallon upground reservoir at the Class III surface water plant on Central Ave. The water here

• Willard City93% of residentsWest Branch Huron River, stored in Willard's upground reservoir
• North Fairfield Village4% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Monroeville Village3% of residentsWest Branch Huron River, stored in Monroeville's reservoir

Nursing homes (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 of 1 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-04

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