Liberty Township, Washington County

How Liberty Township, Washington County began

Liberty Township lies in northeastern Washington County along Paw Paw Creek, bordering Noble and Monroe counties, one of twenty-five Liberty Townships in Ohio. It was established March 5, 1832, its full thirty-six square miles incorporated in a single stroke without the usual citizens' petition; the 1881 county history speculates the name, coined by one of the commissioners, suited a hilly district on the reasoning that mountainous country has always been the fastness of freedom. Jewett Palmer, an early abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor, made the first, short-lived settlement in 1825; Matthew Gray became the first permanent settler near the site of Germantown around 1830-32. Along Paw Paw Creek, ancient stone furnaces with clay hearths -- probably used for smelting by the Mound Builders, the 1881 county history says, though we could not confirm it -- once appeared in great numbers. Germantown, the township's only settlement, grew up around a sawmill and was formally established in 1852. The 2020 census recorded 438 residents, and no incorporated village has ever stood within the township.

Settled 1825 (Jewett Palmer, short-lived); about 1830-32 (Matthew Gray, first permanent settler, near Germantown), platted 1852 (Germantown), incorporated March 5, 1832, by resolution of the county commissioners, without a preceding citizens' petition.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history says the name Liberty, applied by the county fathers in 1832, probably originated in the tact of one of the commissioners, and calls it appropriately bestowed, 'for if it be true that mountainous countries have always been the fastnesses of freedom, it is in keeping with it that a hilly region should be the abode of liberty.' Germantown's own name origin was not found; about one-third of the 1881 population could speak German.

Before the town

No historic-era Native village, trail or treaty site specific to Liberty Township was found in the sources checked. The 1881 county history records that along Paw Paw Creek 'the wonderful Mound Builders' left remains of ancient stone furnaces with clay hearths, which held cinder and pieces of stone coal and were said to be numerous; that attribution is the nineteenth-century author's inference, and the source gives no date, excavation or other evidence, so it is listed here as unverified rather than as an Adena, Hopewell or Fort Ancient site.

• Paw Paw Creek stone furnaces (reported) (other) — along Paw Paw Creek, Liberty Township, undated; attributed to the 'Mound Builders' in 1881, unverified (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1825 — Jewett Palmer, who had first settled in Lawrence Township about 1823, moves into what is now Liberty Township, becoming the first person known to have settled there; he stays five years before going on to Fearing and later Salem townships.
2. 1827-12 — Pemberton Palmer, born during his father's stay, is probably the first child born in the township.
3. 1828 — George Kesselring, a native of Maryland, settles in what is now Liberty Township; he dies there in 1844.
4. c. 1832 — Matthew Gray, who came from the Harrietsville settlement, becomes the first settler in the northern part of the township, on Paw Paw Creek about half a mile above the mouth of Saltpetre Run, with his wife Amy and nine children.
5. 1832-03-05 — The county commissioners establish the surveyed township, range seven, town four, as Liberty Township in a single resolution, without the usual citizens' petition, and order the first election at Matthew Gray's house on April 1; the township begins with its full thirty-six square miles.
6. 1834 — By this year five more families have arrived, including William and Michael Koon and Joseph Barnhart; Stephen Harris settles the isolated valley of Koon Run. The only graveyard before 1834 is the Koon family's, holding one child.
7. c. 1835 — Richard Albery settles at the head of Whipple Run, in a southern settlement that proves short-lived; the 1830s also see a Mr. Davis making gunpowder from nitre in a cave on Saltpetre Run.
8. 1838-04-02 — The first township officers on record are chosen at an election at Joseph Barnhart's residence, including Newman Meridith, Marcellus Marsh and Richard Albery as trustees; on May 26 the township is divided into two school districts.
9. c. 1838 — The first school house, a log building a quarter mile north of Germantown, opens with ten or fifteen pupils.
10. 1839-1840 — The Methodists build a hewed-log church just above Germantown, the first church in the township.
11. c. 1840 — The last deer in the township is killed by Joshua Powell at the mouth of Saltpetre Run.
12. c. 1844 — John Miller builds the first water mill, on Saltpetre Creek, half a mile from its mouth.
13. 1848 — Abraham Alban gives ground and the Methodists erect a church on the Pawpaw above the road from Salem to Dalzell.
14. 1851 — The formation of Noble County takes sections 5, 6, 18, 24, 30 and 36 from Liberty; sections 5 and 6 go to Monroe County.
15. 1852 — David Hendershot lays out Germantown on Paw Paw Creek; before that the only building on the site was a sawmill, and John Holtz puts up the first store.
16. 1855 — Methodists in the south of the township form a congregation that builds a log church for what becomes the Scott Ridge church, rebuilt in frame about 1873.
17. 1871-03-13 — The hamlet of Dalzell, named for a private from Noble County, is laid out by R. W. St. John for Francis Rogers; its post office opens in January 1872.
18. 1873 — A post office is obtained at Germantown, with Charles Coleman as postmaster.
19. 1874 — The Liberty Baptist church, constituted in 1842, builds its own meeting-house where the two forks of Fifteen Mile Creek join, on land donated by John Congleton.
20. 1880 — The census counts 1,620 residents, down from 1,632 in 1870 and up from 515 in 1840; about one in three can speak German.

Stories

Furnaces along Paw Paw Creek

Long before Jewett Palmer or Matthew Gray broke ground in Liberty Township, the banks of Paw Paw Creek held evidence of an even earlier people at work. The 1881 county history describes 'traces of the wonderful Mound Builders' appearing there in the shape of ancient furnaces built of stone with hearths of clay -- structures that, when uncovered, still contained cinder and pieces of stone coal, suggesting they had been used for smelting. The writers noted that these furnaces 'evidently existed in great numbers along the creek,' though nothing further about their builders, their age, or their purpose was recorded. The passage is one of the more specific prehistoric references found anywhere in the county's 1881 history, naming an activity -- metalworking or ore-processing -- rather than simply a burial or an earthwork.

Jewett Palmer, the first and the loudest

The first person known to have settled in what is now Liberty Township was Jewett Palmer, who moved up from Lawrence Township to a farm on Whipple Run in 1825. His son Pemberton, born there in December 1827, was probably the township's first child. The county history remembered Palmer for his bold and pronounced partisanship on questions of the day and some that were still questions of the future: he opposed the universal presence of whiskey at merry-makings and work gatherings, he was connected with the Underground Railroad, and he was one of the very few early Free Soilers. After five years he moved on to Fearing and about 1845 to Salem Township, leaving the township to a quieter set of settlers.

Grinding corn in a hollow sycamore

In the 1830s and 1840s, when the nearest water mill could be miles away, too crowded or stopped by low or high water, Liberty farmers made their own mills. One kind was a section of hollow sycamore, a 'gum,' with a nether millstone planted inside and a hole bored in the trunk to let the meal out. The upper stone had a hole for feeding grain and a socket for a wooden rod; one to four people seized the rod and turned the stone while one dropped handfuls of grain into the feed hole as it came round. Perhaps the first was on the Matthew Gray place. The first true water mill came about 1844, on Saltpetre Creek, built by John Miller, who put the grist in the hopper, turned on the water and went to bed, telling the customer that it would be ground by morning. Saltpetre Run itself was named for a cave of crude nitre where a Mr. Davis made gunpowder in the 1830s.

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

No water-system data is linked to Liberty Township, Washington County's ZIP codes yet.

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-30
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-07-16

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