Lost Creek Township, Miami County

How Lost Creek Township, Miami County began

Lost Creek Township, in eastern Miami County, was formally organized in December 1818 as the county's thirteenth township, though settlers had been on the ground since 1802-1804. It takes its name, by local tradition, from a Shawnee hunter who followed the winding creek believing it, like himself, had lost its way. Its one village, Casstown, grew from three cabins laid out in 1832 as "Trimmensburgh" into a dry, church-going community of 375 people by 1880, by the county history's count; the township's Civil War record and an 1832 cholera scare are its best-told stories.

Settled 1802-1804, incorporated December 10, 1818 (township organized; boundaries fixed January 25, 1819), by Willis Northcutt and John Rogers, earliest settlers; formal organization by the Miami County Commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Local tradition, recorded in the 1880 county history, holds that a Shawnee hunter became lost while following the creek during a hunt and came to believe that, like himself, the stream itself was "lost" — a legend that gave both the waterway and the later township their name.

Before the town

The township's own name preserves a Shawnee-attributed origin story about the creek (see name_origin). The War of 1812 brought documented violence to the township: David Gerard and Henry Dilbone and his wife were killed by Shawnee raiders within the township's bounds, and General William Hull's troops passed through a blockhouse at Rogers' place en route to Detroit in 1812 (the 1880 county history dates the march to 1811). These are settler-recorded events from a period of active conflict along the frontier; no mound, earthwork, or Native village site specific to this township was found.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1802-1804 — Willis Northcutt and John Rogers arrive as the township's earliest recorded settlers, well before formal organization.
2. 1812 — General William Hull's troops pass through a blockhouse at Rogers' place on their way to Detroit at the outset of the War of 1812; the 1880 county history dates the march to 1811.
3. 1816 — The Lost Creek Baptist Church, the township's oldest religious body, is organized at Jonathan Cavault's house with Samuel Deweese as its first minister.
4. 1818 — Miami County Commissioners establish Lost Creek as the county's thirteenth township on December 10; its boundaries are fixed January 25, 1819.
5. 1821 — The Lost Creek Baptist congregation builds its first meetinghouse, a hewn-log building thirty by thirty-six feet.
6. 1832 — Rankin Westfall and Luke Daney lay out the village of Casstown, originally called Trimmensburgh, on land bought from James Frazee; the same year a cholera epidemic strikes the township.
7. 1846 — A post office named Casstown begins operating, the name honoring U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Lewis Cass.
8. 1867 — Casstown's Lutheran congregation, organized 1835-1840, replaces its stone church building with one of brick.

Stories

The dance that stopped when the cholera tune played

Cholera struck Lost Creek Township twice, in 1832 and again in 1836. The 1880 county history preserves one story from the first outbreak: neighbors had gathered at John Martin's house for an evening of dancing when a fiddler struck up what the gathering half-jokingly called a "cholera tune," and frightening noises from the barn sent the whole assembly scattering into the night. Not long after, the history notes flatly, "the cholera did come," and it claimed several who had been at that dance. The story sits in the record as the township's clearest piece of pioneer folk memory, the kind of half-superstitious anecdote 1880s county historians liked to preserve alongside land deeds and church rolls.

Trimmensburgh becomes Casstown, and stays dry

Casstown began in 1832 as three cabins on land Rankin Westfall and Luke Daney bought from James Frazee, and was first called Trimmensburgh for a Mr. Trimmens. It was renamed for Lewis Cass, the American general, territorial governor, and 1848 presidential candidate, and a post office under the Casstown name opened in 1846. By 1880 it had grown to 375 residents, three churches (Baptist, Lutheran, and Methodist Episcopal), and an Odd Fellows hall, and the county historian noted with evident approval that "not a drop of liquor is sold within the corporation" — a detail meant to signal the village's respectability to 1880s readers.

Two hundred soldiers, and none killed outright

During the Civil War, Lost Creek Township "replied more liberally to the calls of the President than" most rural townships of its size, according to the 1880 county history, sending more than two hundred men to the front. The same account states that the township lost not a single soldier killed outright in action, an unusual claim for a rural township of its size that the county historian offered as a point of local pride.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · thetroyhistoricalsociety.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Troy City67% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Fletcher Village25% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Christiansburg Village3% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Miami Co-camp Troy2% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• NAWA1% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Grandview Heights Civic Association1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Miami Co-n25a Extension0% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 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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