Henry Township, Wood County

How Henry Township, Wood County began

Henry Township in northwestern Ohio (Congressional township 3, range 10) was surveyed in 1819-21 and settled from 1829 by Henry Shaw, a Virginian, who entered land in section 30. The county established it on December 3, 1836; its name was settled by a race to Perrysburg in which Shaw, on foot, beat Jabez Bell, on horseback. Pioneers came mostly from Richland County, Ohio, and the first mills, church and school followed in the 1830s and 1840s. North Baltimore, platted in April 1874 beside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and incorporated in February 1876, made the township the center of a gas and oil boom after 1886; the township grew from 685 people in 1870 to 4,496 in 1890. The township had 4,079 people in 2020.

Settled 1829 (Henry Shaw), platted April 25, 1874 (New Baltimore, now North Baltimore), incorporated December 3, 1836 (township established); North Baltimore incorporated February 7, 1876, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The 1897 county history tells the story: before the township was established, residents debated naming it Bell, for Jabez Bell, or Shaw, for Henry Shaw, the first settler. They agreed to name it for whichever man reached Perrysburg first with the report; Bell rode off on a horse late Sunday night, but Shaw had started on foot in the afternoon and walked all night, and was the first person Bell met in Perrysburg. Because there was some objection to using Shaw's family name, the township was named Henry.

Before the town

The 1897 county history states that Wood County has no mounds, extensive burying grounds or old worn trails showing more than temporary occupation, and none is recorded for Henry Township. Its own Henry Township chapter opens with the history of travelers: 'before them' the soldiers under General Hull in 1812 made their way through the forest and marsh, and before the soldiers the Indians traversed the township on their trail from Fort Defiance to the site of Tiffin. The first road in the township was one of Hull's traces, which the history says still grow nothing but coarse grass until plowed. The land remained Native ground until the Treaty of Fort Meigs, signed September 29, 1817 by the Wyandot, Seneca, Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Potawatomi, Odawa and Ojibwe, ceded some 4.6 million acres of northwestern Ohio.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Seneca, Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Potawatomi, Ottawa (Odawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa).

• Indian trail from Fort Defiance to the site of Tiffin (trail) — across Henry Township, before 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1812 — General William Hull's army passes through the township's forest and marsh, leaving traces that become the first roads.
2. 1817-09-29 — The Treaty of Fort Meigs cedes some 4.6 million acres of northwestern Ohio, including the future Henry Township, to the United States.
3. 1819 — Samuel and Alexander Holmes survey the township's exterior lines; Worthington surveys the subdivisions in 1821.
4. 1829 — Henry Shaw, from Virginia, enters 80 acres in section 30 and is the first settler; a German who had cleared thirty acres there and vanished left the tract known as 'The Dutchman's Deadening'.
5. 1832 — George Carrel enters 120 acres in section 33; Lewis F. Lambert, a former Russian navy sailor, comes with the Carrels.
6. 1834 — John Beeson builds the township's first gristmill on the Portage River at Rocky Ford, within present North Baltimore.
7. 1835 — The first orchards are planted from stock said to have come from Jonathan Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed.
8. 1836-12-03 — Henry Township is established; the first election, at George Carrel's house, chooses Henry Shaw, Jabez Bell and Tobias Shellenbarger trustees.
9. 1837 — Samuel McCrory opens the post office and hotel at Woodbury in the northeastern corner of the township.
10. 1840 — Dr. William Wiley, from Fairfield County, becomes the first physician; the township has 213 people.
11. 1846 — The Methodist Episcopal congregation organizes in the winter of 1846-47, the first church in the township, meeting at James Howard's house.
12. 1873-02-28 — Hammansburg is surveyed for William Hammond and Jacob Ackerman and becomes the center of stave making.
13. 1874-04-25 — The plat of New Baltimore, now North Baltimore, is recorded for B. L. Peters after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is built; Denver is surveyed a year later.
14. 1876-02-07 — The commissioners grant the incorporation of North Baltimore on a petition of eighty-one residents presented December 10, 1875.
15. 1886-12-08 — The Fulton well, three miles north of North Baltimore, begins flowing at about 720 barrels a day; gas had been struck at the Peters well in October at 1,128 feet.
16. 1890 — The township has 4,496 people, 2,857 of them in North Baltimore, up from 1,688 in 1880 and 685 in 1870.
17. 1981-10-29 — The 1890 North Baltimore Town Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the building was reportedly destroyed in 1985.
18. 2020 — The census counts 4,079 people in the township on 36.1 square miles.

Stories

A walking man beat a horse to the county seat

When the settlers of Congressional Township 3, Range 10 gathered to organize what became Henry Township, they could not agree on a name. Some wanted to honor Jabez Bell, a fat and jolly farmer who lived in the north; others preferred Henry Shaw, the first settler, who lived in the south. They settled it with a race: Bell and Shaw would each carry the organization report to the county seat at Perrysburg, and the township would be named for whichever arrived first. The meeting was on a Saturday and the report was due Monday. Bell, trying to steal a march, mounted a horse and rode leisurely off late Sunday night. Shaw started afoot Sunday afternoon and walked all night. When Bell reached Perrysburg next morning, the first man he met was Shaw. Because there was some objection to the use of Shaw's family name, the township was named Henry. Shaw moved to Indiana in the 1850s and later served in the Indiana state senate; his son Henry, born in the township, was twice a member of the Indiana House.

The Dutchman's Deadening

Before Henry Shaw came in 1829, someone had already been working the township's southeast corner. A German who came from the East cleared about thirty acres in section 30, 'deadened' a large area of timber by girdling the trees, and disappeared after a short stay. He left no name in the record. The tract has since been known in the neighborhood as 'The Dutchman's Deadening'. Shaw entered his 80 acres in the southeast corner of the same section 30. The 1897 county history, which tells the story, notes that Shaw was 'said to have been the first settler' and 'to have done the first clearing of any resident'.

Gas and oil, 1886 to 1890

Henry Township was a lumber and stave country until the railroad and the oil men came. In 1886, when the village of North Baltimore was just a dozen years old, a local company tubed the first oil well on June 10 on Second Street, and gas was struck in October at the Peters well at 1,128 feet, 21 feet into the Trenton rock, flowing 3,590,000 cubic feet at the start. On December 8 the Fulton well, three miles north, began to flow at about 720 barrels a day and became the best-paying well ever drilled in the township; the Henning well followed in 1887 at 500 barrels a day. Twenty-four gas wells were drilled within the corporation, all owned by the village. The gas drew glass makers: the Enterprise Window Glass Works, the Zihlman Flint Glass Works and the North Baltimore Bottle Works were all suggested by the Conroy gas wells. Between 1880 and 1890 the township's population rose from 1,688 to 4,496.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• North Baltimore Village100% of residentsRocky Ford Creek (via North Baltimore upground reservoirs)

Bridges rated poor (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (16)

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-10
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-19

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