Jefferson Township, Knox County

How Jefferson Township, Knox County began

Jefferson Township, in the northeastern corner of Knox County against the Holmes and Ashland county lines, was organized in March 1829 and named for Thomas Jefferson -- the last of Knox County's townships to be settled, owing to its broken, hilly terrain along the Mohican River. Isaac Enlow and Nicholas Helm, among the first to settle within its limits, arrived only after the War of 1812. Several Mound Builder earthworks, including small mounds on the George Bird farm and an ancient semicircular fortification on a bluff near Greersville, are recorded in the township's one village. It has no incorporated village within its own boundaries in modern terms, though Greersville, laid out in 1836 by Robert Greer, was the township's only town in the 1881 county history and remains an unincorporated place today. Growth has been steady but modest; population rose from 524 in 1990 to 768 by 2020, its sharpest decade of growth coming between 2010 and 2020.

Settled shortly after 1815 (Isaac Enlow and Nicholas Helm, among the first settlers), platted 1836 (Greersville, by Robert Greer), incorporated 1829-03 (township organized).

Where the name comes from

Jefferson Township is named for Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States.

Before the town

The 1881 county history records several Mound Builder relics in Jefferson Township. On the farm of George Bird, near Greersville, early settlers explored several small mounds, unearthing human skeletons along with ashes and charcoal. On the summit of a high, precipitous hill adjacent to Greersville stand the remains of an ancient fortification or entrenchment: where the hillside was too steep to need one, no ditch was dug, but the gentler approaches were defended by a wide, deep ditch cut in a semicircle. Pioneers also plowed up hundreds of flint arrowheads and other Native implements across the township. No source names a specific nation resident within the township itself; the broader area was Wyandot, Delaware (Lenape) and Mohican/Munsee travel and hunting territory before treaty cessions.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware).

• George Bird farm mounds (mound) — George Bird farm, near Greersville, Jefferson Township, unknown (Mound Builder) (archive.org)
• Greersville hilltop fortification (earthwork) — summit of a high, precipitous hill adjacent to Greersville, Jefferson Township; a semicircular ditch fortifying the less steep approaches, unknown (Mound Builder) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — Absalom Shrimplin, who later settles in Jefferson Township, is born in the Owl Creek valley on November 27, the second white child born in Knox County according to the 1881 county history.
2. c. 1815 — Isaac Enlow and Nicholas Helm are among the first to settle within the present limits of Jefferson Township, probably soon after the War of 1812 (the date is not known; no settler is recorded there before the war), making Jefferson the last Knox County township to be settled.
3. 1826 — The township's first schoolhouse, a small log structure, is built on Nicholas Helm's farm west of Greersville.
4. 1829 — Jefferson Township is organized in March, named for Thomas Jefferson; the first election is held that April.
5. 1830 — Jefferson Township has 311 inhabitants, the first census after its organization; it has 991 in 1840.
6. 1831 — Jonathan Rice arrives from Allegheny County, Maryland; soon after, citizens of Jefferson, Brown, and Union townships organize a grand circular hunt drawing more than a thousand participants.
7. 1832 — The Episcopal Methodist church, the township's first, is organized at the house of Rev. Burriss.
8. 1833 — John Greer builds the township's first grist-mill and a saw-mill on the Mohican River.
9. 1836 — Robert Greer lays out the village of Greersville on the Mohican River, the township's only town.
10. 1850 — Township population reaches 1,484, up from 991 in 1840; it is 1,458 in 1860.
11. 1851 — James Witherow, a Beaver County, Pennsylvania, native who settled on section four in 1836, is elected to the legislature by the Democrats, serving one term and declining renomination.
12. 1854 — The Wesleyan Methodist church of Greersville is organized by Rev. George W. Bainum.
13. 1861 — The Wesleyan Methodist congregation of Greersville, organized in 1854, builds a frame church costing about $1,200; it had met in the village schoolhouse until then.
14. 1876 — One mile is taken from the south side of Jefferson Township and annexed to Union Township.
15. 1881 — After a winter that began about the middle of November 1880 with uninterrupted sleighing, a fall of nearly two feet of snow about April 1 sends voters to the spring election in sleds and sleighs.
16. 1990 — Census records 524 residents in the township.
17. 2020 — Census records 768 residents, a 21.3% increase over 2010, the township's largest decade of growth in the period tracked.

Stories

The last grand hunt

Shortly after Jonathan Rice settled in Jefferson Township in 1831, citizens of Jefferson, Brown, and Union townships, joined by parties from Ashland and Holmes counties, organized a grand circular hunt that drew more than a thousand participants. Captains and other officers formed the hunters into a square enclosing several miles of woods near where Wesley Chapel now stands, arming them with guns, clubs, tin horns, knives, and pitchforks. At a signal, the lines advanced toward the center making as much noise as possible, driving deer, foxes, wild turkeys, and other game before them -- but mismanagement by some of the officers left a gap in the lines, and most of the game escaped through it. The 1881 county historian records this as the last grand circular hunt ever held in the township.

Old John Daily wins a quart of whisky

Norton's 1862 county history preserves a story from Jefferson Township about the insects and reptiles that pestered the first settlers. Old John Daily and Alexander Darling bet a quart of whisky on whether a man could lie still under black ants, ticks and everything else except gallinippers, the big biting flies. Daily stripped, lay face down in the sand where the ants were thickest, and let Darling set three or four gallinippers on his bare back without flinching. To clinch the bet he whispered to a bystander for a live coal and let it lie on his skin for fifteen minutes. Daily held until the half hour was up and collected his whisky.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Danville Village71% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Glenmont Village18% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Loudonville Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Bridges rated poor (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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-19

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