Jackson Township, Richland County

How Jackson Township, Richland County began

Jackson Township was organized March 2, 1847, separated from Sharon Township, and named for Andrew Jackson ('Old Hickory') on the suggestion of early resident Robert Cairns. The first cabin in the township was built in the spring of 1816 by Mathew Curran, well before formal organization, and settlers such as the Yale-educated Swan brothers, Isaac Marvin, and War of 1812 veteran John Rice followed over the next two decades. John Kerr's 1830 gristmill on Richland Run ran until 1853, and township schools date to about 1820. The township lies next to the city of Shelby, whose churches and institutions many Jackson Township residents attended and still attend, but Shelby itself is a separate municipality with its own history.

Settled 1816, incorporated 1847-03-02, by separated from Sharon Township; name suggested by Robert Cairns.

Where the name comes from

Named for President Andrew Jackson, 'Old Hickory,' on the suggestion of early township resident Robert Cairns.

Before the town

The 1880 county history says the township was part of the hunting grounds of the Northwestern tribes and that no permanent Indian villages appear to have stood in it, though hunting camps were often on the higher ground. Its evidence is the quantity of arrow points, stone axes, wedges and domestic implements found in different parts, many in the collection of John S. B. Matson, son of the early settler Uriah Matson. It adds that one or two Indian trails probably crossed the township but their locations could not be defined, and that the pioneer Henry Taylor made knives and tomahawks for the Indians and repaired their guns in the 1810s.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot.

• Hunting camps on the higher ground (camp) — scattered across Jackson Township, before white settlement (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1814-1816 — Uriah Matson and Joseph Curran helped cut the first road in the area, from Mansfield to McCluer's mill seat on the Black Fork in the southern part of the township and on north to Gamble's mills at Shelby, and entered land about 1814 or 1815.
2. 1816 — Mathew Curran builds the township's first cabin, in the spring.
3. 1816 — The Currans' cabin on Section 36 was raised with help from settlers miles away, and a Curran boy scalded to death in a kettle of boiling coffee at the raising became the first white person to die in the township; John Bennett Taylor, Robert Henry, the Swans and Joseph Rockwell settled the north that year.
4. 1817-09 — Giles Swan married Jane Rockwell, the first marriage in the township; Henry Taylor, who came that year, kept the first store and built the first blacksmith shop.
5. 1819-04-07 — The first election of Sharon Township was held at Mrs. Rockwell's house, within Jackson's present limits, electing Giles Swan, John Bennett Taylor and James Rockwell trustees.
6. 1820 — The township's first schools are organized; Amelia Graves is among the first teachers.
7. 1830 — James Kerr built the township's first and only grist mill on Richland Run on Section 1 (the 1903 township history calls him John Kerr); Urie, William Kerr and Sellers were later millers, and it was taken down in 1853.
8. 1831 — Isaac Bricker, a Pennsylvania native, settles in the township.
9. 1832 — John Briner, another Pennsylvania native, settles in Jackson Township.
10. 1832 — Lutherans built the log Loudon Church on Section 10; a frame church replaced it about 1842.
11. 1833 — German Reformed and Lutheran congregations united to build a log church on Section 23, later called Mount Bethel or Sheriff's Church, by united voluntary labor; the Lutherans built a $1,000 frame church in 1878.
12. 1847-03-02 — Jackson Township is formally organized, separated from Sharon Township, six miles long by four miles wide.
13. 1847-04-03 — The first township election after separation from Sharon chose Anthony Hershiser, Robert Leach and John Leppo as trustees; Abraham Bushey and John Ackerman became the first justices of the peace on May 3.
14. 1880 — The township had no villages, its people trading at Shelby or Mansfield, and its two churches, a small town hall at Taylor's Corners and neat white schoolhouses served the community.

Stories

Old Hickory's township

Jackson Township's early settlers, including the Curran family, John B. Taylor, Robert Henry, the Yale-educated Swan brothers, Joseph Rockwell, Henry Taylor, Isaac Marvin, and War of 1812 veteran John Rice, farmed a heavily forested six-by-four-mile stretch of northern Richland County for three decades as part of Sharon Township before it was set off on its own in 1847. Longtime resident Robert Cairns suggested naming the new township for Andrew Jackson, still remembered in the 1840s by his nickname 'Old Hickory.' The township never developed a town of its own to rival its neighbor Shelby, and its 1903 historian noted that with only two churches inside the township, the London Church and Mt. Bethel (Sheriff Church), many residents simply attended services in Shelby instead.

The Yankee settlement and the kettle of coffee

Jackson Township's first settlers came by two roads: New Englanders from Connecticut in the north by way of Beall's trail, and Pennsylvanians in the south by way of Judge McCluer's Bellville settlement. In the spring of 1816 Mathew and Joseph Curran raised a cabin on the southwest quarter of Section 36, and neighbours came from miles south to help. The Currans were cooking dinner for the workmen in the open beside a big log when a small boy, walking the log in play, slipped and fell into a kettle of boiling coffee; he died the next day, the first white death in the township. In the north that same year John Bennett Taylor and Robert Henry came, followed by the Yale-educated Swan brothers and Joseph Rockwell, shrewd Connecticut Yankees who, in the historian's words, came to make money and mostly succeeded. Henry Taylor opened the first store, kept his goods in his cabin, and as a blacksmith made knives and tomahawks for the Indians; Almon Hayes, the second smith, once stared down six Indians who levelled their guns at him and then walked on.

Photographs

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

City reservoirs (Nos. 2 & 3) fed by Black Fork Mohican River/Marsh Run The water here

• Shelby City92% of residentsCity reservoirs (Nos. 2 & 3) fed by Black Fork Mohican River/Marsh Run
• Mansfield City6% of residentsClear Fork Reservoir (Clear Fork of the Mohican River), plus 9 city wells
• Ontario City1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #020% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Lakeview Estates MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Eastview Community Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #030% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Madison Water District0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #080% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Hanley Acres Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Willow Park Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Hillside MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-16

Cite this page