Lake Township, Ashland County

How Lake Township, Ashland County began

Lake Township, in the southeastern corner of Ashland County, was surveyed in 1807 by Jonathan Cox and organized by the commissioners of Wayne County on September 5, 1814. It lost its southern part to Holmes County in 1824 and more land when Ashland County was formed in 1846, leaving it smaller than any township in the county except Mifflin, so that it was known as 'Little Lake.' Joshua Oram's family, who came in November 1811, found no other white family inside its present lines; settlers from Pennsylvania followed through the 1810s and 1820s, and the Lake Fork Presbyterian congregation was recognized in 1826. The township has never had a town of its own and remains a farming township of 736 people (2020).

Settled 1811 (Joshua Oram family, November), incorporated 1814-09-05 (township organized), by commissioners of Wayne County (Oliver Jones, Jonathan Butler, Benjamin Miller).

Where the name comes from

No source read states how the township got its name. The Lake Fork of the Mohican runs along it, and the 1880 county history places the first settlements 'east of the Lake fork, in the region of Odell's lakes'; either the stream or the lakes may lie behind the name, but none of the 1863, 1880 or 1909 histories says so.

Before the town

No Native village, camp, trail or earthwork inside Lake Township is recorded in the 1863, 1880 or 1909 county histories. What they record is the frontier war: in the fall of 1812 the Oram family and several others built a fort near the township's southern line and stayed in it about three months, and the 1880 history says Lake's early settlers were mostly those who had 'forted at Priest's' that year. The Indian villages of Greentown, mainly Delaware (Lenape), and Jerometown lay a few miles west and north, in Green and Mohican townships.

Timeline

1. 1807 — Lake Township is surveyed by Jonathan Cox.
2. 1811 — Joshua Oram's family, who had come from Maryland to Fairfield County in 1807, moves in November to land that later falls in Clinton Township, Wayne County; no other white family is living within Lake's present lines.
3. 1812 — In the fall, the Oram family and several others build a fort near the southern line of Lake Township and stay in it about three months.
4. 1814 — The commissioners of Wayne County organize Lake Township on September 5, including part or all of what is now Washington Township, Holmes County.
5. 1815 — Joshua Oram enters the northeast and southeast quarters of section 15 and raises a second cabin, gathering men from a ten-mile circuit to lift the logs.
6. 1817 — John Wetherbee arrives from Pennsylvania with his wife and nine children.
7. 1819 — George Marks arrives in June from Washington County, Pennsylvania; he recalled the township's residents then as William Green, William Greenlee, Asahel Webster, Joshua Oram, Jabez Smith, James Loudon Priest and John Wetherbee.
8. 1820 — The township's population is counted at 311.
9. 1822 — John Emrick arrives in September from Somerset County, Pennsylvania, onto land his father had entered the year before; there is still no church or schoolhouse in the township.
10. 1824 — Holmes County is erected on January 20, taking the southern part of Lake Township.
11. 1826 — Lake Fork is recognized as a Presbyterian congregation on April 11, supplied by Rev. Samuel Baldridge; the church is formally organized in 1832.
12. 1830 — Jacob Emrick enters the southeast quarter of section 3, an upland farm his neighbors thought a poor buy, and proves the hills better wheat ground than the bottoms.
13. 1840 — The township's population reaches 1,145.
14. 1846 — Ashland County is formed and Lake Township is reduced again, to a smaller area than any township in the county except Mifflin.
15. 1861 — A German Lutheran church seating about four hundred is dedicated on November 23, with Rev. Mr. Dahl of Loudonville as pastor.

Stories

The Oram family and the empty township

Joshua Oram brought his family from Maryland to Fairfield County, Ohio, in December 1807, and in November 1811 moved north to the Lake Fork country, entering a quarter that later fell in Clinton Township, Wayne County. When they came, not one white family lived within the present lines of Lake Township. In the fall of 1812, with the war on, the Orams and several neighbors built a fort near Lake's southern line and lived in it about three months. In 1815 Oram sold his first farm and entered two quarters of section 15; to raise his second cabin he had to travel a ten-mile circuit to gather enough men. Bread came from Knox County, where corn was ground at Shrimplin's Mill and brought home by packhorse in winter and by canoe when the streams were up; later the family pounded its own corn in a wooden mortar. Oram lived on the southeast quarter of section 15 until he died on August 27, 1831, and his son Elijah still owned most of it in 1863.

'Little Lake'

Lake Township was organized in 1814 at full size, with part or all of what became Washington Township in Holmes County inside its lines. When Holmes County was erected on January 20, 1824, a strip of its south side went with it, and when the act of 1846 created Ashland County the township was cut again. By 1863 it was smaller than any township in the county except Mifflin and was known as 'Little Lake,' with no town at all. Its population still grew from 311 in 1820 to 1,145 in 1840, then fell to 880 after the 1846 cut and rose to 912 by 1860, one of the few townships in the county to gain people in the 1850s.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Loudonville Village94% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Big Prairie Community Water Company4% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Jeromesville Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Private schools (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-23

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