Harrison Township, Henry County

How Harrison Township, Henry County began

Harrison Township, south of the Maumee River and named for President William Henry Harrison, was slow to settle because the river itself, backed up by the canal dam at Providence, became unfordable and the south side had no roads to market; real settlement waited until an 1860 bridge connected the township to Napoleon. Once drained, its land, sold off cheaply by non-resident speculators, became some of the county's most productive farmland. The township hosts no incorporated village of its own but is home to the Henry County Agricultural Fair, founded by the Patrons of Husbandry (the Grange) in 1883.

Settled 1833 (Hazael Strong, among the earliest); real growth from 1860, incorporated organized in the early 1840s, originally embracing what became Marion and Monroe townships as well, by Henry County.

Where the name comes from

The township was named in honor of William Henry Harrison, 'the hero of Tippecanoe and Fort Meigs,' who commanded American forces in the War of 1812 campaigns in the region before becoming the ninth president of the United States.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Harrison Township is documented in the sources reviewed. The 1888 county history's chapter on the township refers the reader to its account of neighboring Damascus Township for the general character of the area's settlement and says nothing of an earlier Native presence within Harrison's own boundaries; its naming for William Henry Harrison, victor of the 1813 Siege of Fort Meigs against a combined British and Native force, is itself the closest documented connection between the township and the region's Native military history.

Timeline

1. 1833 — Hazael Strong, later Henry County's first auditor, is among the earliest settlers to live in what becomes Harrison Township, before moving to Napoleon.
2. early 1840s — Harrison Township is first organized, covering townships three, four and five of range seven; Marion and Monroe are later cut from it.
3. 1847 — The township's tax duplicate lists only forty-nine personal-tax payers across its seventy-two sections, valued at $22,168 for the land.
4. 1850 — The southern tier of Harrison is organized as Monroe Township.
5. 1860 — Construction of a bridge across the Maumee at Napoleon opens Harrison Township to real settlement for the first time, after decades of isolation caused by the unfordable, dam-backed river.
6. 1861 to 1865 — Men from Harrison Township serve as officers of Ohio volunteer regiments, among them William A. Choate, colonel of the 38th, and Arthur Crockett, major of the 68th.
7. 1870 — Harrison Township's population reaches 1,295.
8. 1880-08-14 — William Mead lays out the original plat of the hamlet of Grelleton (Grelton) in the township's southeast corner, near where Harrison, Damascus, Richfield and Monroe townships meet.
9. 1880 — The township's population reaches 1,382.
10. 1880 — A post office opens at Grelton, on the corner where Harrison, Damascus, Richfield and Monroe townships meet; it stays open until 1967.
11. 1883 (summer) — The Patrons of Husbandry (Grange) holds a one-day farm fair at the Harrison Grange hall, the origin of what becomes the Henry County Agricultural Fair.
12. 1884 — The Grange organizes the Henry County Grange Fair on a leased farm four miles east of Napoleon in Harrison Township, with John Garster as president.
13. 1887 — The Henry County Farmers' Association is reorganized under Ohio's agricultural-fair law as the Henry County Agricultural Fair, held on section fifteen.
14. 1887 — The township has eight school districts and six Protestant churches, no railroad and no incorporated village.
15. 2020 — The census counts 1,297 people in Harrison Township.

Stories

A township cut off by its own river

Harrison Township sat directly across the Maumee from Napoleon, yet for a quarter-century it lagged far behind the county-seat side of the river in settlement. The dam built at Providence to feed the Miami and Erie Canal had turned the river between there and Florida too deep to ford, and the south bank had no roads of any kind to a market; a farmer with land to sell had to ferry it across the river, a difficult prospect in most seasons. With equally cheap land available on the already-connected north side, early settlers simply chose it instead, leaving Harrison to a handful of hardy families along the riverbank and Turkey Foot Creek. It was not until 1860, when a bridge finally spanned the Maumee at Napoleon, that Harrison's real settlement began; the taxation and drainage-assessment burden that followed forced absentee land speculators to sell, and within two decades the township that had once been the county's most isolated became, in the historian's words, ordinary farmland -- 'no more timber than is necessary for her fences and family fuel.'

The family that went west and came back

The 1888 county history singles out the Crockett family of Harrison Township. They had made a good, valuable farm there. Drawn by promises of the West, they sold out and followed it, and met disappointment, sickness and death. Arthur Crockett had been a major of the 68th Ohio, and the mother, aged and poor except for a government pension in recognition of her sons' service, came back about a year before the book was written. She bought the old Rugg farm in Harrison Township and lived there with her only surviving son, Edward. The historian offered it as a warning to those who left Henry County for the booming new states.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Napoleon City91% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)
• Northwestern W and SD - Sr 1084% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)
• Florida Village3% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)
• Northwestern W and SD - Co. Rd P2% of residentsMaumee River (with Wauseon reservoirs as backup/blend storage)

Power plants (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-17: county board of elections.

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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