Jackson Township, Van Wert County

How Jackson Township, Van Wert County began

Jackson Township was organized by the county commissioners on March 5, 1855, and settled beginning in 1851 by George W. Payne and a small handful of families that followed within two years. It is a rural township on the Putnam County line with no incorporated village of its own, and its most vivid documented episode is not a founding story but a mid-19th-century murder case remembered in the county's 1906 history simply as 'The Anderson Murder.'

Settled 1851 (George W. Payne), incorporated organized as a civil township March 5, 1855, by Van Wert County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Jackson is one of the most common township names in Ohio (37 statewide); the county history and Wikipedia do not say whom this township was named for.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Jackson Township is recorded. The township's documented record begins with George W. Payne's 1851 settlement.

Timeline

1. 1851 — George W. Payne, from Lorain County, becomes the first white settler in what becomes Jackson Township, building the township's first house from lumber hauled from the canal.
2. 1851 — Jacob Thatcher, George Longwell and John Hatherell, an Englishman, settle in the township shortly after Payne; Thatcher builds the first log house, and his son Jacob Thatcher Jr. is the first white child born in the township.
3. 1852-1853 — John H. Semer (May 1852), Israel P. Adams (fall 1852), and Samuel Morris, George W. Holden and Alfred Neese (1853) settle in the township, rounding out its first wave of families.
4. 1855-03-05 — The county commissioners formally organize Jackson Township; at the first election, held at the schoolhouse on the first Monday in April, Israel P. Adams, Samuel Morris and George Longwell are chosen trustees, George W. Holden clerk and John H. Semer treasurer.
5. 1859-10-01 — Eight voters cast ballots in a township election, the full roster recorded in the county's 1906 history: Josiah Keeler, Israel P. Adams, George W. Holden, George W. Payne, R. A. Law, George Longwell, John Hatherell and Samuel Morris.
6. 1877-05 — A man named Anderson, staying with the Anasser family in Jackson Township, is killed after a dispute; his body is buried in the family's log stable, which is then burned to conceal it.
7. 2020 — The census counts 446 residents in Jackson Township.

Stories

The Anderson murder

In May 1877 a young man named Anderson had been staying with the Anasser family in Jackson Township, and his presence had caused enough friction that Mrs. Anasser had left home. When Anasser told Anderson to leave and Anderson refused, the dispute turned violent: Anderson was killed and buried in the log stable, and the stable was then burned. Friends and neighbors grew suspicious, and a party came over from Elida, where Anderson's friends lived, and accused Anasser of the crime. He acknowledged it and told where the body would be found. Anderson's friends felt like resorting to lynch law, but one of the neighbors got Anasser into his buggy and drove away before the others knew what was being done, and lodged him in jail. Anasser was tried and claimed self-defense; as there were no witnesses and Anderson had insisted on staying after being forbidden the house, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.

Lost in the snow

Two sons of John H. Semer, aged 15 and 10, went hunting one winter when the snow was deep and lost their way in the woods. They crawled into a hollow tree until the moon rose to show the direction home, but when they started they were so badly frozen that they could not walk, and crawled into a hollow log instead. Neighbours followed their tracks all night with torches and found them the next day; the older boy had taken off his coat to wrap around his little brother. Their feet were so badly frozen that both had to be amputated above the ankles. John Semer Jr. later recalled that the township had no roads and no horses, and that he and his brother trained their oxen to carry a sack of corn each to the mill at Delphos.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Middle Point Village99% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ottoville Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-09

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