Lincoln Township, Morrow County

How Lincoln Township, Morrow County began

Lincoln Township was organized in 1828 out of Delaware County territory and named for Benjamin Lincoln, a Revolutionary War general, making it the only Lincoln Township in Ohio. It sits in the southwestern part of Morrow County and includes the small village of Fulton along with part of Cardington in its northwest corner. The 1911 county history records prehistoric mounds within the township, part of a scatter of Mound Builder sites recorded across several Morrow County townships. Today it has about 2,000 residents and remains largely agricultural.

Incorporated organized as a township in 1828.

Where the name comes from

Named to honor Benjamin Lincoln (1733-1810), a general in the American Revolutionary War; it is the only township of that name in Ohio.

Before the town

The 1911 county history catalogs prehistoric earthwork mounds in several Morrow County townships including Lincoln, alongside Chester, Troy, Canaan and Washington, evidence of the Mound Builder cultures (Adena and/or Hopewell) that predated the historic Native nations by more than a thousand years. No historic-era Native village, trail or treaty site specific to Lincoln Township was found; the township was part of Delaware County land before 1848, within the broader region where Wyandot, Delaware (Lenape) and Shawnee people traveled and hunted. Baskin (1880) says the Native people of Lincoln were chiefly Wyandot and Potawatomi, who had left favorite haunts farther south in the county with reluctance, were friendly to the settlers, and kept camps along Alum Creek until 1833; a favorite camp was on Marquis Gardner's farm, where traces of the fire pits dug in the center of their bark wigwams could still be found.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Potawatomi.

• Lincoln Township mounds (mound) — Lincoln Township, Morrow County, prehistoric (Mound Builder era) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1803 — The surveyor Jesse Spenser surveys the third quarter of what becomes Lincoln Township, and the rest in 1807.
2. 1814 — Edmund Buck and Amos Earl build a cabin on Alum Creek that Benjamin Collins, the township's first settler, later buys.
3. 1817 — William Steiner, a Marylander, builds his cabin on the Sunbury road and boards with Collins while he does.
4. 1819 — The Methodist preacher Russell Bigelow preaches the first sermon in the township at Steiner's cabin; a log school opens about the same time under Nathan Randolph.
5. 1828 — On March 3, 1828 the Delaware County commissioners erect Lincoln Township from parts of Harmony and Westfield townships.
6. 1833 — Wyandot and Potawatomi families still keep camps along Alum Creek, as late as this year.
7. 1841 — A post office named Lincoln opens.
8. 1843 — The Lincoln Christian Church is organized by the Rev. William Ashley; its frame building is put up in 1858 for about $500.
9. 1848 — The township became part of the newly organized Morrow County.
10. 1853 — The Center United Brethren Church builds its frame church for about $800.
11. 1872 — The township builds its town hall, which includes a schoolhouse, for $1,000.
12. 1878 — The township has seven school districts, 247 enrolled pupils and $4,000 in school property.
13. 1880 — Prehistoric mounds within the township were recorded in the county history, part of a set of Mound Builder sites cataloged across Morrow County.
14. 1880 — The Samuel P. Brown House, later listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in the area shared by Lincoln and neighboring townships.
15. 1881 — A post office opens at Fulton, in the east of the township.
16. 2020 — The census counts 2,040 people in Lincoln Township, 250 of them in the village of Fulton.

Stories

Mounds older than any township line

Long before Benjamin Lincoln's name was attached to this stretch of Delaware County land in 1828, people were building earthwork mounds here. The 1911 county history lists Lincoln Township among a handful of Morrow County townships -- alongside Chester, Troy, Canaan and Washington -- where such mounds survived into the nineteenth century, physical evidence of the Mound Builder cultures who occupied central Ohio many centuries before the Wyandot, Shawnee and Delaware peoples the county's white settlers encountered. The county history gives no detail on the mounds' size or contents, and no excavation record for Lincoln Township specifically was found in later sources.

Me catch! Me catch!

Early in Lincoln's settlement Edmund Buck went out one morning to listen for the bells on his horses and heard nothing. Following moccasin tracks across a wet spot, he armed himself, got two neighbors and tracked the horses to a camp near the Long Swamp in Harmony, arriving after dark. At daybreak he told his hesitating companions he would go in alone if need be, and they went with him. The people in the camp were taken by surprise and explained by signs that they had found the horses galloping off, saying 'Me catch! Me catch!' They had seventeen horses, most probably stolen, all hobbled with rawhide thongs, and were much excited when the settlers proposed to cut the thongs rather than untie them. The county historian adds that the settlers often visited the camps for wrestling and target shooting, but could not accept the food.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · morrow.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · postalhistory.com

Every historic place in Morrow County on the full map

Del-Co's East Knox wellfield at Bryant and Lucerne Rds, Wayne Twp, about 5 miles WSW of Fredericktown The water here

• Del-co Water Company, Inc.77% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Cardington Village23% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (3)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-01-01: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2018: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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