Marion Township, Henry County

How Marion Township, Henry County began

Marion Township, in Henry County's south, was so densely forested and swampy that it earned the nickname 'Big Woods' and was not organized until 1847, when only ten voters lived within its borders. Its settlement was set back for a generation by an outright swindle: a promoter secured $5,000 in township bonds for a plank road that was never built, a debt the sparsely populated township did not finish paying off until 1864. Real growth came only with the 1869 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which gave rise to the village of Hamler, named for the township's first settler, John Hamler.

Settled September 16, 1846 (John Hamler, the township's first settler), platted Hamler platted July 10, 1874, by William D. Hill and Augusta B. Hill, incorporated organized in the spring of 1847, by Henry County; Hamler by William D. Hill.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted explains why the township itself was named Marion (commonly, across Ohio, for Revolutionary War general Francis Marion), but its village of Hamler is explicitly named 'in honor of John Hamler,' the township's first settler.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Marion Township is documented in the sources reviewed. First settler John Hamler, describing his 1846 arrival, recalled that 'the Indians, a remnant of the Ottowas, were only twenty-six miles east' of his new home -- a distance that places the nearest Native community he knew of outside the township, likely referring to the last Ottawa families still resident near the Maumee River well to the northeast, rather than to any site within Marion Township itself. No other Native reference within the township's own boundaries was found.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1846-09-16 — John Hamler enters land and settles in section twenty-one, the township's first settler.
2. 1847 (spring) — Marion Township is organized, with only ten voters living within its boundaries.
3. 1850 to 1851 — Judge John M. Palmer secures $5,000 in Marion Township bonds for a plank road to Medary, in Putnam County, that is never built; the debt burdens the township's tax duplicate until 1864.
4. 1860 — Marion Township has only 195 people.
5. as early as 1861 — A post office named Ridgeland is established at what becomes Edwardsville, on the Medary and Ridge roads.
6. 1863-09-06 — George W. Edwards and John Rayle plat the hamlet of Edwardsville, and a post office named Ridgeland opens there.
7. 1864 — The township finally pays off the $5,000 in bonds issued in 1850-51 for the Medary plank road that was never built.
8. 1869 — The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is built through the township, finally opening real settlement and drainage after two decades of stalled growth.
9. 1870 — Marion Township's population reaches 513.
10. 1874-07-10 — William D. Hill and his wife Augusta B. Hill plat the village of Hamler, named for the township's first settler, where the railroad crosses the Turkey Foot road.
11. 1880 — The township's population reaches 1,202.
12. 1887 — Marion Township has a graded school at Hamler and nine other school-houses, and church buildings in each of its villages.
13. 1887 — The tax duplicate lists 22,962 acres valued at $203,035 and $130,613 in personal property; William P. Young runs a saw-mill, stave factory and tile works near Edwardsville.
14. 2020 — The census counts 1,301 people in Marion Township.

Stories

The road that was never built

In the early 1850s, before Ohio adopted its new state constitution, Columbus newspaperman Samuel Medary and a group of capitalists laid out a village called Medary in the Black Swamp just south of the county line, in Putnam County, and John M. Palmer, who later became a judge, proposed a plank road running north from it through Marion Township to connect with the Kalida pike. Palmer persuaded a 'board of stupid trustees,' in the county historian's own phrase, to issue $5,000 in Marion Township bonds to finance the road -- then sold the bonds, pocketed the money, and never built so much as a mile of road. The township, which at the time had almost no population to spread the debt across, was left paying off the resulting tax burden until 1864, a full stretch of stalled growth that helped preserve Marion as an undeveloped hunting ground long after neighboring townships had begun to fill with farms, and earned it the local nickname 'Big Woods.'

The first child of the Big Woods

Marion Township was organized in the spring of 1847 with ten voters. The tax list that year named seven chattel taxpayers: John Hamler, Samuel H. Harshberger, Daniel Harshberger, William Bales, William Rayle, S. K. Warnick and W. M. Warner, with 9,266 taxed acres worth $13,031. Warner soon tired of woods life and sold to Casper Zeirolf, whose son William was a county commissioner by 1888. Samuel Harshberger, son of Samuel H., was the first white child born in the township and later owned one of its best farms. The township's real settlement, the county historian says, did not begin until the Baltimore and Ohio was built in 1869.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Hamler Village72% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Holgate Village13% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Leipsic Village7% of residentsGroundwater wells (7 wells)
• Deshler Village7% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-17: county board of elections.

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 2025-10-07

Cite this page