Liberty Township, Hancock County

How Liberty Township, Hancock County began

Liberty Township, in the middle of Hancock County just west of Findlay, was created on December 6, 1830 after an earlier 'Old Town' township, named for a Wyandot village on the Blanchard, was annulled by the court. The 1881 county history gives no reason for the name Liberty. Land entries began in 1821 and the McKinnis and Poe families settled on the Blanchard in Section 7, beside the clearing and graveyard the pioneers called Indian Green. The Blanchard River runs through the township and once powered two flouring mills; today the township borders Findlay and includes Findlay Airport, the Litzenberg Memorial Woods and Oakwoods Nature Preserve park district properties, and Liberty-Benton schools.

Settled 1821 (first land entries; Jacob Poe, first permanent settler, spring 1821 per the 1881 county history; the 1886 history says 1822), incorporated township organized December 1830, by Hancock County commissioners, dividing Findlay and Amanda townships.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history records only that the new township, cut from Findlay and Amanda townships in December 1830, was 'known and designated by the name of Liberty' by the commissioners; no person or event is cited as the source of the name, consistent with the generic patriotic naming used for many Ohio townships called Liberty.

Before the town

Liberty Township has the best-recorded Native site in this part of Hancock County. When the McKinnis family settled in 1822 (1821 in the 1881 history) there was a clearing of about twelve acres on the north bank of the Blanchard in Section 7, partly cultivated, which the pioneers called 'Indian Green'; it held an Indian graveyard and an orchard of plum trees, and the settlers believed a village had stood there. The 1886 county history says the Wyandot had a settlement at Indian Green and left it in 1818 for the Big Spring Reservation, and that the Ottawa had two villages farther down the Blanchard in Putnam County; the 1881 history says the burying ground was visited by the Ottawa. Both histories tell how a settler named Ellison opened graves for the trinkets buried with the dead and was frightened off by the Indians who learned of it. The 1881 history adds that the Indians had 'some kind of fortifications or earth works' there, which Spayth (1903) says recent investigation did not bear out; Spayth also records a story, which he calls very much in doubt, that Anthony Wayne struck a village here in 1794. The early township Old Town (1829) was named for this village. Spayth also lists one mound in Liberty Township, on Section 21. The wagon road along the north bank passes through the old cemetery, and nothing of it remains.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Ottawa.

• Indian Green (Old Town) (village) — north bank of the Blanchard River, Section 7, Liberty Township, before 1818 (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)
• Indian graveyard and plum orchard at Indian Green (burial) — same clearing, Section 7; no trace remains, before 1822 (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)
• Mound on Section 21, Liberty Township (mound) — Section 21, Liberty Township, prehistoric, undated (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1815 — Elizabeth Eberly, daughter of Benjamin Cox, recalls that eight or ten families of friendly Wyandots lived around Fort Findlay under the chief Kuqua, and that six or seven miles down the Blanchard the Wyandots had another village, taken by Spayth to be Indian Green.
2. 1818 — The Wyandots of the Blanchard are believed to have left the settlement at Indian Green for the Big Spring Reservation.
3. 1821 — First land entries made in what would become Liberty Township; Jacob Poe arrives in spring as the first permanent settler, followed that fall by Robert McKinnis and his sons.
4. 1822 — Robert McKinnis, who came from Ross County in the spring, builds the first cabin on the south bank of the Blanchard in Section 7, and Jacob Poe settles on the north bank in December (the 1881 history dates both arrivals to 1821).
5. 1824 — Rachel McKinnis marries Samuel Kepler on September 2, the first marriage in Hancock County, performed by Wilson Vance.
6. 1829 — On September 17 the county commissioners cut the western half of the county from Findlay Township as 'Old Town', named for a Wyandot village on the Blanchard in Section 7; Charles McKinnis, who thought it sharp practice, assaults a fellow commissioner, and the common pleas court annuls the township in November 1830.
7. 1830 — Hancock County commissioners divide Findlay and Amanda townships in December to create Liberty Township.
8. 1831 — Territory later forming Eagle, Van Buren, and the west half of Madison townships is cut away from Liberty and Findlay townships.
9. 1831 — The first election for justice of the peace is held on June 21 with 26 voters, and Benjamin Cummins is elected.
10. 1832 — The township's first schoolhouse is built, with Richard Wade as its first teacher.
11. 1832 — Union and Orange townships are taken off Liberty, followed by Portage in 1833 and Pleasant in 1834, which leaves Liberty at 24 sections.
12. 1850 — Blanchard Church is built by Presbyterians, the township's first church building.
13. 1853 — About this year Amos Hartman builds a flouring mill on the Blanchard beside a saw mill built by Miller Johnson; the mills later burn, are rebuilt, and burn again in June 1881.
14. 1857 — Alba post office is opened at Samuel Renninger's house on Section 8; it is abolished soon after 1864, and Liberty never has a village within its present bounds.
15. 1880 — The population is 1,101, up from 592 in 1840, 874 in 1850, 1,050 in 1860 and 1,011 in 1870.
16. 2020 — The census counts 7,044 people in Liberty Township, which borders Findlay.

Stories

The Indian Green

When the McKinnis family settled the north bank of the Blanchard in Section 7 in the early 1820s they found a clearing of about twelve acres, partly cultivated, with a plum orchard and, among the plums, a few apple trees; the 1881 county historian wondered whether the Indians or Johnny Appleseed had planted them. The pioneers called it Indian Green and believed a village had stood there. The clearing held an Indian graveyard that members of the tribe, called Ottawa in the 1881 history, still visited and guarded jealously. A settler named Ellison built a cabin on the ground and began opening the graves for the valuables supposed to lie with the dead; the Indians heard of it, visited him, and threatened him so thoroughly that he left his cabin and 'silently stole away'. The wagon road along the north bank of the river later ran through the old burying ground, and no trace of it remains.

Old Town and a fistfight over a township line

In 1829 the Hancock County commissioners, with Charles McKinnis absent, carved the western half of the county out of Findlay Township and called it Old Town, after a Wyandot village that had stood on the north bank of the Blanchard in Section 7. McKinnis, who lived in the old township and thought the act sharp practice, found fellow commissioner John P. Hamilton and thrashed him, and his brother Philip repeated the beating when he heard of it. Hamilton sued, won $75 from Charles and $30 from Philip, and the grand jury indicted both for assault and battery; they pleaded guilty and were fined $1 each and costs. Joshua Hedges meanwhile sued to set the township aside, and in November 1830 the court of common pleas annulled the whole erection. On December 6, 1830 the commissioners tried again, and the new township, one row of sections narrower, was called Liberty.

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

Every historic place in Hancock County on the full map

Blanchard River, pumped into the two Findlay upground reservoirs east of the city in Marion Township (with a direct river intake as backup) The water here

• Findlay City100% of residentsFindlay's two upground reservoirs, filled by pumping from the Blanchard River
• Northwestern W and SD - Mccomb0% of residentsRocky Ford Creek (via North Baltimore upground reservoirs)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (4)

Spills reported since 2021 (10)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026 edition (Directory of Officials): county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 2 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-05-14

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