Harrison Township, Hamilton County

How Harrison Township, Hamilton County began

Harrison Township was organized in 1853 out of parts of Crosby and Whitewater townships in the far western corner of Hamilton County, along the Indiana line and the Great Miami River. It takes its name, like the city of Harrison at its center (laid out in 1810), from William Henry Harrison, then a general and Indiana territorial governor and later the ninth U.S. president. The surrounding township remained farm country into the twentieth century, and several of its early stone and brick farmhouses, including the Othniel Looker House, home of Ohio's brief 1814 acting governor, are individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Population grew sharply from the 1960s onward as Cincinnati's western suburbs expanded, reaching more than 14,000 by 2020.

Incorporated 1853, by Organized from parts of Crosby and Whitewater townships; named, like the city of Harrison at its center, for William Henry Harrison.

Where the name comes from

The township takes its name from the city of Harrison at its center, itself laid out in 1810 and named for William Henry Harrison, then a general and territorial governor and later the ninth President of the United States.

Before the town

Ford's 1881 county history notes that Harrison Township does not abound in ancient remains but has mounds on Bonnell's hill in the eastern part, understood to be among the burial places of the earlier people of the Whitewater and Great Miami valleys. No Native town is recorded in the township; it lies in the Great Miami and Whitewater valleys that were Miami country before the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

Nations recorded here: Miami.

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville opens the Great Miami and Whitewater valleys of far western Hamilton County, including the future Harrison Township, to American settlement.
2. 1803 — A Regular Baptist church, Dry Fork of Whitewater, is organised in what is now the northern part of Harrison Township; it goes with the anti-mission Baptists in 1836 and loses its identity by 1853.
3. 1810 — The city of Harrison is laid out at the center of what becomes the township, named for General William Henry Harrison.
4. 1843 — John Ashby is appointed postmaster of Harrison and holds the office seven years.
5. 1853 — Harrison Township is organized out of parts of Crosby and Whitewater townships.
6. 1860 — The township's population is recorded at 1,347 in that year's census.
7. 1863-07-13 — Morgan's Confederate raiders enter Ohio through Harrison village at about one o'clock in the afternoon, take horses and goods from the stores, and leave within hours on the Harrison turnpike and the New Haven road.
8. 1879-12-25 — The Harrison News publishes a double Christmas number listing the township's veteran volunteers of the Civil War.
9. 1981 — The city of Harrison, at the township's center, becomes a city (having incorporated as a village in 1850).
10. 2020 — The census counts 14,288 residents in Harrison Township.

Stories

Governor Looker's farm on the township's edge

Among Harrison Township's National Register-listed farmhouses is the home of Othniel Looker, who as Speaker of the Ohio Senate became acting governor of Ohio for a matter of months in 1814 when Governor Return J. Meigs Jr. resigned to become U.S. Postmaster General; Looker served out the balance of the term without ever winning election to the office in his own right. His house, north of Harrison on Marvin Road, stands today as one of a cluster of early farmsteads scattered through the still largely rural township, alongside the Eighteen Mile House, a stagecoach-era stop, and the Roudebush Farm, both also individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Morgan's raiders in Harrison

On July 13, 1863, about one o'clock in the afternoon, the advance of John Morgan's Confederate cavalry came streaming down the hillsides west of the valley into Harrison, a complete surprise. Citizens hid valuables and ran off their horses, but within minutes the town was full of the enemy. The raiders behaved fairly well, taking horses and thronging the stores for whatever they fancied; a druggist who kept soap, perfumery and a large stock of albums lost the soap and perfumery but not one album. After a few hours they filed out on the Harrison turnpike, part going through Crosby Township to cross the Great Miami at New Baltimore and the rest through Whitewater Township to Miamitown, and by night they were abreast of Cincinnati after a thirty-hour march. The township had been created only ten years earlier, in 1853.

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

Every historic place in Hamilton County on the full map

Great Miami Aquifer via 7 wells in two well fields: 4 wells at the Harrison Water Well Field, 329 Thomas Lane, Harrison OH, and 3 wells at 153 Harrison-Brookville Rd., West Harrison, Indiana. Emergency/backup interconnection with Tri-Township Water Corporation (Bright, IN). The water here

• Harrison City57% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Cincinnati Public Water System32% of residentsOhio River (Miller Plant, ~88%) plus Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer wells (~12%)
• Southwest Regional Water District5% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Cleves Village3% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Twin Rivers Water Corporation2% of residentsLocal wells (Dearborn County, Indiana)

Nursing homes (1)

Private schools (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-26

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