Lynn Township, Hardin County

How Lynn Township, Hardin County began

Lynn Township, in the south-central part of Hardin County, was formed on September 8, 1857 out of parts of Buck, Taylor Creek, and McDonald townships -- decades after most of the county's other townships. The commissioners set it off under the name Silver Creek, but the citizens then voted for 'Lynn' over 'Fillmore' and 'Silver Creek'; the county history says the name was chosen, 'it is said,' for the lynn trees that grew abundantly there. John Canaan, who arrived around 1828 from the Hanging Rock area on the Ohio River, is recorded as the area's first permanent settler. The township has never had an incorporated village.

Settled c. 1828, incorporated 1857-09-08, by set off by the county commissioners under the name Silver Creek; the citizens then voted for the name Lynn.

Where the name comes from

At the township's organization, citizens voted on a name: 'Lynn' received 21 votes against 4 for 'Fillmore' and 2 for 'Silver Creek.' The county history says the township was 'abundantly supplied' with the lynn tree, 'and this, it is said, was the pretext for its name'; it is the only Lynn Township in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or treaty specific to Lynn Township was found in the sources searched; the township was not organized until 1857, decades after Wyandot and Shawnee removal from the region. No source ties a documented Native site to this specific area. The 1883 county history says the old Hull trail from Bellefontaine to Fort McArthur crosses the township, and reports a long-used hunters' camp at a spring on the south bank of the Scioto about four miles above Fort McArthur, where in March 1877 a rusted rifled gun barrel was found; the history guesses it belonged to French traders, and does not say who used the camp.

Timeline

1. c. 1828 — John Canaan, from the Hanging Rock area on the Ohio River, becomes the first permanent settler in the area that became Lynn Township.
2. 1832 — Clement Rice settles in the area.
3. 1834 — Daniel S. Vermillion settles and later becomes the township's first trustee.
4. 1836 — William Koons and Edward Wilcox settle in the township about 1836-37; Jonathan Wilcox, probably the first blacksmith, follows about 1839-40.
5. 1854 — An accumulation of 'fire-damp' gas in a well near the Norman Schoolhouse kills Washington Canaan and William Rice.
6. 1857-09-08 — The county commissioners set off Lynn Township from parts of Buck, Taylor Creek, and McDonald townships under the name Silver Creek; citizens then vote 21-4-2 to name it Lynn over Fillmore and Silver Creek.
7. 1857-09-19 — The first election in Lynn Township is held at the house of W. D. Gunn; Joseph Brown, S. S. Cutts and Daniel S. Vermillion are chosen trustees and J. M. Piper clerk. The commissioners had first named the new township Silver Creek.
8. 1858 — Lynn Township's tax levy is $75; in 1882 it is $744, almost ten times as much.
9. 1874-02-14 — Lynn Valley Grange No. 581 is instituted at the Piper Schoolhouse with twenty-eight charter members.
10. 1877-03 — A rifled gun barrel three feet four inches long, with all lock and stock rusted away, is found under an old stump on lands of L. T. Hunt and James S. Robinson near a former hunters' camp on the south bank of the Scioto; the county history guesses it was a French trader's flintlock.
11. 1881 — The Lynn Valley Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in the winter of 1876 at the Piper Schoolhouse, builds its church for $1,600 and dedicates it January 1, 1882.
12. 1882 — Lynn Township has six school districts with 227 pupils and has never had a grist mill; its saw mills are portable ones moved to wherever logs have been collected.
13. 1883 — The Chicago & Atlantic Railway runs through the north part of the township, with a station named Oakland near the northwest corner; the Round Head & Kenton pike and the Yelverton & Kenton pike have been built.
14. 2020 — The 2020 census counts 591 residents in Lynn Township.

Stories

Gas in the well

In 1854, three years before Lynn Township was even organized as its own civil division, tragedy struck near the Norman Schoolhouse when a well accumulated what the 1883 county history calls 'fire-damp' -- pocketed gas, likely from decaying organic matter or a shallow natural seep, that could suffocate or asphyxiate anyone who climbed down without ventilating it first. Washington Canaan and William Rice, both from pioneer families that had helped settle the township, died in the well, a stark early record of the hazards of frontier life on Hardin County's farms.

Naming a township by ballot

Unlike many Ohio townships named for a founder, a president, or a faraway hometown, Lynn Township got its name by a citizens' vote after the county commissioners set it off on September 8, 1857 under the name Silver Creek. Three names were on the ballot: Lynn, which the county history says was chosen because the township was 'abundantly supplied' with the lynn tree; Fillmore, for the recently retired president Millard Fillmore; and Silver Creek, for a local waterway. Lynn won handily, 21 votes to 4 to 2, and the choice made it the only township of that name anywhere in Ohio.

The gun barrel under the stump

In March 1877, on land owned by L. T. Hunt and James S. Robinson, a very ancient and peculiar gun barrel turned up four miles above old Fort McArthur on the south side of the Scioto River. It lay partly under an old stump, beside which a tree a foot or more across had grown, about ten rods from the bank, between the river and a former spring where for many years a hunters' camp had stood. The barrel was three feet four inches long, heavy at the breech and again toward the muzzle, with a bore of nine-sixteenths of an inch and deep rifling; every trace of lock and stock had rusted or rotted away. Hunt kept it at Kenton. The county historian, comparing the style, guessed it was a flintlock of the French traders who had worked the Maumee and Blanchard rivers more than a century earlier, though nothing proved it.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Kenton City84% of residentsScioto River valley aquifer (local wells, low confidence)
• Alger Village15% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mcguffey Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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 2026-09-10
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-07

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