Jackson Township, Allen County

How Jackson Township, Allen County began

Jackson Township, on the eastern line of Allen County, was set off when the county commissioners received a petition on June 6, 1831, and was finally organized as a congressional township in December 1834 after Auglaize, Perry and Bath townships claimed some of its sections. Jacob Hawk bought the first parcel of public land in 1827, and by about 1836 every section had an owner. The village of Lafayette (Section 28), on the Pennsylvania Railroad, is its market town, and water-lime quarries west of it supplied building stone. The township had 1,803 people in 1885 and 3,143 in 2020.

Settled 1827 (first land purchase, Jacob Hawk); active settlement from the early 1830s, incorporated petition June 6, 1831; organized December 1834, by William Watt, William Reese and Thomas Nash were the first trustees; John Jamieson first Justice of the Peace; Joseph Hall first clerk.

Where the name comes from

The 1885 county history does not say why the township is called Jackson, and Wikipedia notes only that it is one of thirty-seven Jackson Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or trail specific to Jackson Township is recorded in the sources checked. The township's many small streams are tributaries of the Upper Ottawa River, called Hog Creek, whose lower course ran through the Shawnee Hog Creek Reservation in what is now Shawnee Township; the reservation was held from 1817 until the Shawnee ceded their Ohio lands at Wapakoneta in 1831, the year Jackson's petition was filed. The township lies in the northwestern Ohio land ceded in the 1817 Treaty of Fort Meigs.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1827 — Jacob Hawk buys the first parcel of public land in the township's survey township (Section 19).
2. 1830 — Anthony Hall enters land in Section 17; entries multiply from 1832 (Joseph Marsh, John B. Walton, Jacob Puterbaugh, John Jameson).
3. 1831-06-06 — A petition to establish Jackson Township is presented to the county commissioners, who set off its territory.
4. 1833 — A schoolhouse is built on Section 24, with Thomas Hall as teacher (one account; another places the first school in 1838).
5. 1834-12 — After Auglaize and Perry townships claimed their sections and Bath its eastern ones, Jackson is organized as a congressional township.
6. 1836 — Six years after 1830, the 1885 history says, every section in the township has an occupying owner.
7. 1840 — Methodist ministers begin to be appointed to the Lafayette society, which had met for years without organization; the first quarterly meeting follows in 1851.
8. 1867-09-03 — The county commissioners authorize the incorporation of Lafayette village.
9. 1875 — An Italianate brick farmhouse is built on what is now Napoleon Road, south of Lafayette.
10. 1884 — The township has eleven school buildings, two built that year, and an enrollment of 444; stone quarries three miles west of Lafayette (Jacob Custer) and near the village (the Cloore quarries) produce water-lime rock.
11. 1885 — Population is 1,803, including 333 at Lafayette, up about 200 in four years.
12. 2020 — Census population is 3,143.

Stories

A township assembled from claims

Jackson Township did not simply appear on the map. On June 6, 1831, a petition set off all of Township 3 South, Range 8 East, the eastern half of Township 3 South, Range 7 East, and the northern tier of sections of Township 4 South, Range 8 East. Over the next three years neighboring jurisdictions took parts back: Auglaize and Perry townships claimed their sections in December 1833, and Bath its eastern sections a year later. Only in December 1834 was Jackson organized as a congressional township under its original name, with William Watt, William Reese and Thomas Nash as trustees, John Jamieson as justice and Joseph Hall as clerk. The 1885 county historian called the list of original land entries, running from Jacob Hawk's 1827 purchase to the 1840s, the basis of the township's history.

Stone from the Ottawa headwaters

Jackson Township is cut by many small streams, all tributaries of the Upper Ottawa or Hog Creek, and its soil runs from light sand and gravel to heavy clay. Under the farms lies a bed of water-lime limestone. In 1885 Jacob Custer worked quarries three miles west of Lafayette, taking a rock about eight inches thick from an excavation roughly twenty feet deep, and the Cloore quarries near the village produced an equally good but lighter stone. The township's farmers could ship by the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line through Lafayette, and it had grown by about 200 people in the four years to March 1885.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Lima City79% of residentsAuglaize River and Ottawa River, stored in city upground reservoirs
• Ada Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Sun Valley Family Campground8% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Bluffton Village2% of residentsBlanchard River (via intake reservoir)
• Hillcrest Estates Mobile Home Court0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Green Meadow MHP-hancock Co0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

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 2026-09-15
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-19

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