Howard Township, Knox County

How Howard Township, Knox County began

Howard Township was organized in 1825 out of Union Township, in the east-central part of Knox County where Owl Creek (the Kokosing River), Jelloway Creek, and Little Jelloway Creek converge - ground that Delaware (Lenape) people had cleared into wide 'Indian fields' before white settlement and continued to camp and hunt on well into the settlement era. Abraham Welker, arriving around 1806-1807, is credited as the township's first permanent white settler, locating near one of those cleared fields; the Critchfield brothers and other families from Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania followed within a few years, building mills along the creeks. The township's one village began as Kinderhook, centered on mills and farms, and took the name Howard around the time the railroad reached it and a post office opened in 1872. Today it is a rural farm township with no incorporated municipality; the unincorporated Howard CDP, Apple Valley Lake, and Honey Run Waterfall/Highlands Park lie within its bounds.

Settled c. 1806-1807, first permanent settler Abraham Welker, incorporated township organized 1825, formed from Union Township, by Knox County commissioners, on petition of area settlers.

Where the name comes from

The village was originally called Kinderhook. It was renamed Howard around the time the railroad (the Cleveland, Mount Vernon and Columbus/Cleveland Mount Vernon and Delaware line) was extended to the point; a post office named Howard has operated there since 1872. The origin of the specific name 'Howard' (person or reason honored) was not found in the sources checked and is not stated by Wikipedia or the 1881 county history excerpts reviewed.

Before the town

Nothing in the sources checked places a Wyandot or Delaware village or reservation-era settlement within Howard Township itself, but the township's stretch of the Owl Creek/Kokosing River watershed, Jelloway Creek, and Little Jelloway Creek was Delaware (Lenape) hunting and camping ground before and after the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, and it contained one of the county's largest 'Indian fields' - agricultural clearings the Delaware had made and used for corn and vegetables. The 1881 county history (N.N. Hill) and Henry Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, as summarized in secondary sources, describe a roughly 480-acre 'Howard Indian Field' near the mouth of Indian Field's Run, which is where Abraham Welker settled, and note that Chief Tom Jelloway - a Delaware leader for whom Jelloway Creek and Little Jelloway Creek are named - was a frequent visitor to Howard Township settlers (the Welkers and Critchfields), though he himself lived in neighboring Butler Township and declined removal west with his tribe. No specific named village, burial mound, or trail is documented as sitting inside Howard Township's boundaries in the sources reviewed; more precise siting would need the original Hill 1881 chapter text or a county GIS/archaeological survey, which were not fully accessible here.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Delaware (Lenape).

• Howard Indian Field (agricultural clearing used by Native Americans, later farmed by settlers) — near the mouth of Indian Field's Run / present-day Indianfield Bluffs County Park area, Howard Township, pre-1806 through early settlement (donaldcomis.blogspot.com)

Timeline

1. c. 1806-1807 — Abraham Welker, considered the first permanent white settler in the township, arrives from Harrison County and locates near a Native American-cleared 'Indian field' at the mouth of Indian Field's Run.
2. 1807-1808 — The Critchfield brothers (Nathaniel, Joseph, Isaac, John, William), from Maryland and Pennsylvania, settle in the township and begin farming and early milling.
3. 1825 — Howard Township is organized from Union Township as a separate civil township of Knox County.
4. 1872 — A post office named Howard begins operation in the village then known as Kinderhook.
5. c. 1873-1874 — Kinderhook is renamed Howard as the railroad is extended to the village.
6. 1874 — The Howard Bridge, a double-intersection Pratt through-truss iron bridge (David H. Morrison's patent quadrilateral truss design), is built to carry County Route 35 over the Kokosing River at Howard; it was later modified in 1914.
7. 2020 — U.S. Census records 5,873 people living in Howard Township.

Stories

Chief Tom Jelloway and the township's Indian fields

Before Howard Township existed as a political unit, the stretch of Owl Creek (Kokosing River) and its Jelloway Creek tributaries running through it was prized Delaware hunting and camping ground, and settlers found broad clearings - 'Indian fields' - that Native farmers had already opened for corn and vegetables, including one of roughly 480 acres near what is now Indianfield Bluffs County Park. Abraham Welker, the township's first white settler, built near that field around 1806-1807. In the years that followed, a Delaware leader remembered as Chief Tom Jelloway - who lived in neighboring Butler Township but was a regular presence among the Welker and Critchfield families - became something of a local fixture: he dressed in settler fashion, sold hand-made trinkets, and was said to be able to call birds out of the trees to prove he was a 'bird charmer.' Jelloway Creek and Little Jelloway Creek, both of which run through Howard Township, carry his name because his people favored their banks for camping. Unlike most of the Delaware in the region, he refused removal west and lived out his life in Knox County even as the rest of his tribe was pushed to reservations by the 1840s.

From Kinderhook to Howard

The village at the heart of the township began, like many small Ohio crossroads, under a different name: Kinderhook, a cluster of mills and farms built up along the creek. When the railroad reached the settlement in the early 1870s, the village took the name Howard, and a post office under that name opened in 1872, giving the community the identity it has kept since. No incorporated municipality ever grew up around it - Howard remains an unincorporated, census-designated place inside the township that bears its name, better known today for the Cleveland, Mount Vernon and Columbus-era railroad heritage, Apple Valley Lake, and the historic iron truss bridge that still carries traffic over the Kokosing River nearby.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · donaldcomis.blogspot.com · knoxpages.com · loc.gov · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org · roadsidethoughts.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Knox County Water and Wastewater99% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Danville Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (2)

Private schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 2 of 2 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.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-11
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-10-01

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