Madison Township, Sandusky County

How Madison Township, Sandusky County began

Madison Township lies in western Sandusky County and is named for President James Madison, one of twenty Ohio townships sharing his name. Two limestone ridges cross the township, and since 1871 the stone has fed a lime industry that built up the village of Gibsonburg into the county's third-largest town. Settlement was late: the first land was entered in 1830-31, Henry P. Allen built the first cabin about 1831, and David Smith of Columbiana County became the first permanent settler in 1832. The township's first election was held in 1834 at Jacob Garn's house, and its population rose from 389 in 1850 to 1,856 in 1880. It partly contains Gibsonburg, whose own file covers the village, and the township hall is located there; the unincorporated community of Rollersville straddles its southern boundary with Scott Township.

Settled c. 1831 (Henry P. Allen, first settler; David Smith the first permanent settler in 1832), incorporated by 1834 (first township election held at Jacob Garn's house), by Henry P. Allen; David Smith.

Where the name comes from

Named for James Madison, the fourth president of the United States; one of twenty Ohio townships bearing his name.

Before the town

No source found records a Native village, trail, mound, or treaty event specific to Madison Township. The township lies within the region opened to settlement by the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids; the 1882 county history says almost no squatters had entered the swamp before 1830, and records no Native residents in the township.

Timeline

1. 1830-1831 — The first lands in Madison township are entered; the 1882 county history notes that almost no squatters had penetrated the sickly, mosquito-ridden swamp before that time.
2. c. 1831 — Henry P. Allen, a New Englander, builds a cabin on what became the King farm and is the township's first settler; he leaves in a few years and is afterward drowned.
3. 1832 — David Smith, born in Pennsylvania in 1777 and a gunsmith by trade, enters land in Madison after living in Columbiana County and becomes the first permanent settler; he lives to ninety.
4. 1832 — David Reeves, a New Yorker who first lived in Columbiana County, settles with his family in the south of the township near the present Rollersville; he serves eleven years as county surveyor and dies in 1847.
5. 1833 — A 'stampede from Columbiana County' fills the township: Jacob Garn, Angus Campbell, Caleb Taylor, William Burkett, William Whitford, Benjamin Yates and George Ickes arrive about this year.
6. 1834 — The first township election is held at Jacob Garn's residence; David Smith is chosen one of the justices of the peace and serves many years.
7. 1839-1840 — The township's table of land entries has its largest clusters in 1839 and 1840, as the Columbiana County and German families take up the remaining tracts.
8. 1850 — The township has 389 people; by 1860 it has 881.
9. 1870 — The township has 985 people.
10. 1871 — Quarrying of the township's limestone ridges for lime manufacture begins; the 1882 county history credits the industry with building up the village of Gibsonburg, partly in this township, as the county's third-largest town.
11. 1880 — The township's population has risen to 1,856; Gibsonburg has 589 people and Rollersville 99.

Stories

A stampede from Columbiana County

The first settler of Madison township, Henry P. Allen, stayed only a few years and was later drowned, and the county historian could not find a personal memory of him worth recording. The settlement really began with David Smith, born in Pennsylvania in 1777, a gunsmith of more than ordinary skill, whose family had moved to Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1821. In 1832 Smith entered land in Madison, and the next year, in the historian's words, there seems to have been a stampede from Columbiana County to Madison, while Washington township was filling up from Perry County at the same time. Jacob Garn arrived in 1833, the father of sixteen children, fourteen still living in 1881; the township's first election was held in his house in 1834. Angus Campbell, a strict Scottish Presbyterian, came with the same wave, and so did William Whitford, a proprietor of the surveyed village of Rollersville. The township, the history says, had an uneventful life and passed 'the chronicle of crime' to its neighbor Scott.

The ledges that break the road

A rider on the road from Hessville to Gibsonburg, the 1882 county history says, could not miss the two limestone ridges that cross Madison township, for ledges protrude so close together that they try the mildest temper. The authors explained them with the geology of their day: after the upper limestone layer was formed of ancient shell deposits, a powerful disturbance broke the crust into blocks like ice on a lake, and drift filled the gaps and left the ridges lightly covered. The quarries on their summits made excellent lime, an industry that from 1871 built Gibsonburg into the county's third-largest town. The flat western part of the township, by contrast, was swamp and muck that only a system of ditches made productive, and the history praises the first settlers for having finished the work of creation by adapting nature to civilized use.

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

Groundwater wells (5 wells) The water here

• Gibsonburg Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-01-24: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 4 of 4 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-09

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