Jefferson Township, Richland County

How Jefferson Township, Richland County began

Jefferson Township's first white settlement predates the township itself: James and Samuel McCluer and Jonathan Oldfield built cabins on the Clear Fork in 1808, in what was called the McCluer settlement, at the spot where the separately incorporated village of Bellville later grew up. The larger election district was organized in 1814 and Jefferson Township proper was set off at six miles square in 1816. Settlers arrived heavily from Maine, Vermont, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Ireland, and the township's economy through the nineteenth century ran on grist- and sawmills along the Clear Fork and Honey Creek. Aside from Bellville, which sits inside the township but is its own incorporated village with its own documented history, Jefferson Township today remains a mix of farmland and rural crossroads along the Clear Fork valley.

Settled 1808, incorporated 1816, by organized from the 1814 Jefferson election district.

Where the name comes from

No source specific to the choice of the name 'Jefferson' for this township was found; it is one of several Ohio townships named for Thomas Jefferson, but no local account of the naming decision was located.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork, or named Native village within Jefferson Township itself is documented in the sources reviewed beyond a single reference to a tornado path noted by early surveyors, which is unrelated to Native settlement. The township's own 1903 history does not describe a Native presence distinct from the county-wide record. The broader county picture includes Greentown (Delaware, with a Mingo contingent) on the Black Fork, the Wyandot and Delaware presence across the county, and the treaties that ceded the region.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1808 — James McCluer arrives on the Clear Fork with companions Samuel McCluer, Thomas McCluer, and Jonathan Oldfield, founding the McCluer settlement; McCluer brings his family the following spring.
2. 1808 — A tornado sweeps diagonally from southwest to northeast across the future township, felling trees on Chestnut Ridge.
3. 1814 — The first Jefferson election district, eighteen miles long and twelve wide and covering six congressional townships, is organized on August 9.
4. 1816 — Jefferson Township proper is organized on September 3 at six miles square.
5. 1821 — Cornell's sawmill is built on Honey Creek, with a pottery operating nearby.
6. 1840-10-04 — A man named Bushong kills his wife near Chestnut Ridge in the township; he is later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
7. 1853 — Dr. James C. Lee finds gold in the Deadman's Run area of the township, though never in paying quantities.

Stories

The McCluer settlement on the Clear Fork

Jefferson Township's recorded history begins in 1808, when James McCluer and his companions Samuel McCluer, Thomas McCluer, and Jonathan Oldfield put up cabins along the Clear Fork of the Mohican, in what county historians later called the McCluer settlement. James McCluer brought his own family out the following spring, 1809. By 1813 four buildings stood at the site, including a blockhouse for defense during the War of 1812 years. Settlers who followed came heavily from Maine (the Moore, Drew, Howard, Walker, Cross, Greeley, Gurney, Ordway, Alexander, Bean, Whitten, French, and Cutting families), from Vermont, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The McCluer site itself later grew into the separately incorporated village of Bellville, founded by and named for Robert Bell, whose own history is recorded apart from the township's.

Gold that never paid

In 1853 Dr. James C. Lee found traces of gold in the Deadman's Run drainage in Jefferson Township, a discovery that briefly excited the neighborhood. County historians recorded decades later that the gold was real but never found in paying quantities, and no mining operation of consequence followed. The find is remembered mainly as a curiosity in a township otherwise built on milling and farming along the Clear Fork and Honey Creek.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Bellville Village86% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Clearfork MHP12% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Butler Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Public schools (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (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 2025-06-03

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