Hicksville Township, Defiance County

How Hicksville Township, Defiance County began

Hicksville Township fills the southwest corner of Defiance County, a full congressional township (Town 4 North, Range 1 East) organized in June 1839 and named for Henry W. Hicks, whose Hicks Land Company entered 14,000 of its roughly 23,000 acres in 1835-36. The company's agents laid out the town of Hicksville in 1836 and cut the township's first roads, but the crash of 1837 left them selling land at $5 an acre or less, and the company's mills burned twice, in 1840 and 1850. The first railroad reached Hicksville only in 1874; the village incorporated in 1871 and the township held 4,872 people in 2020.

Settled 1836, platted 1836 (Hicksville, by Miller Arrowsmith for Bryan, Hicks and Smith), incorporated 1839-06 (township organized), by Hicks Land Company (Henry W. Hicks and Isaac S. Smith).

Where the name comes from

Named, like the village of Hicksville within it, for Henry W. Hicks of the Hicks Land Company, which owned some 14,000 of the township's acres.

Before the town

No Native village, trail or treaty site specific to Hicksville Township was found in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. 1835-1836 — The Hicks Land Company enters about 14,000 acres of the township's land, out of roughly 23,000 total.
2. 1836 — Hicksville is laid out for John A. Bryan, Henry W. Hicks and Isaac S. Smith by deputy surveyor Miller Arrowsmith; Ransom Osborn finds only two company cabins when he moves in, and he builds the third.
3. 1836-05-20 — The land company engages Columbus agent Ephraim Burwell to found the town of Hicksville and cut the township's first road.
4. 1837-04 — Agent A. P. Edgerton arrives from New York on April 17 to take charge of the Hicks and American Land Company property and becomes the first postmaster; the first land sale in the township had been made April 28 (100 acres in Section 15, to Buenos Ayres, at $5 an acre).
5. 1838-09 — A mail route from Cranesville is contracted with David Landis on September 29, to carry the mail every two weeks to the new Hicksville post office.
6. 1839-06 — Hicksville Township is organized; its first officer election is held June 22.
7. 1839-11 — The township's first wedding, of Allen Parker and Esther Osborn, is held November 14 in a small frame house on Lot 138; Anne Josephine O'Connor, born 1838 in a board kiln, was the first girl born in the township.
8. 1840-12 — The Hicks company's new mills, built 1838-39 at a cost of $20,323, burn on December 10; replacements built in 1841-42 for $9,542 burn on January 9, 1850.
9. 1841 — All lots in the 1836 plat of Hicksville except those on High and Main streets are vacated.
10. 1871 — The village of Hicksville is incorporated.
11. 1874 — The first railroad reaches Hicksville; until then the town had none, while rival towns had rail service.
12. 2020 — Hicksville Township has 4,872 residents in the 2020 census; State Routes 2, 18 and 49 meet in the village of Hicksville.

Stories

A township built on a land company's gamble

Before Hicksville Township had a single settler, it had two speculating land companies. In 1835 and 1836, Henry W. Hicks of the New York shipping firm Samuel Hicks & Sons and Isaac S. Smith, a Buffalo steamboat and forwarding merchant, entered the names of roughly 14,000 of the township's acres under what became known simply as the Hicks Land Company; the American Land Company took over 4,000 more. Like other Ohio land speculators of the era, they bet on selling their holdings at a profit before the five-year mark when unimproved land became taxable, and their success depended on the country filling up fast. In May 1836 they sent Columbus agent Ephraim Burwell to found a town, instructed to be "cautious in the selection of a town site" and to fix it "in the most profitable place to the owners, and in the midst of the most valuable timber." Burwell's management proved a financial loss for the company, but the town he founded -- Hicksville, named for the company's principal -- outlived the speculation, and the township organized around it in June 1839.

The mills that burned twice

The Hicks Land Company's gamble on Hicksville depended on mills. The company's first agent, Ephraim Burwell, spent $12,439 on the Clemmer road, three log cabins and a sawmill without selling a lot, and in April 1837 A. P. Edgerton arrived from New York to take over. Edgerton finished a new set of mills in 1838-39 at a cost of $20,323, a great convenience for the country around, and ran them until December 10, 1840, when they burned. The company rebuilt in 1841-42 for $9,542, and those mills ran successfully until fire destroyed them on January 9, 1850. One settler, the county history says, took his milling to Clarksville or Brunersburg after the Hicksville mill burned, and the county historian called the first loss a great one to the country around as well as to the owners.

A wedding, a log kiln and a mill-stone town

Hicksville's first families lived in the rawest conditions. The first girl born in the township, Anne Josephine O'Connor in 1838, arrived in a board kiln fitted up as a temporary house on Lots 181 to 184. The first death, in 1836, was a child of Samuel C. Arnold, buried in the old graveyard where a later flouring mill stood. The first wedding, between Allen Parker and Esther Osborn on November 14, 1839, took place in a little frame house on the corner of Lot 138, and the county historian noted that the couple wished to give the town character and growth. Mrs. Ransom Osborn, who boarded the company's workers, pounded corn for hominy in a hollowed ash stump with a spring-pole pestle. Edgerton found the settlement with neither provisions nor money, and the panic of 1837 meant that no one would buy land of him for more than a year.

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

Groundwater wells (4 wells) The water here

• Hicksville Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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 2026-05-12
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-24

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