Mark Township, Defiance County

How Mark Township, Defiance County began

Mark Township, in the southwest of Defiance County, was erected by the county commissioners in 1850 on a petition from William C. Hutchinson and named for Mark Kenton, a hunter and trapper whose clearing in Section 5 was its first improvement. Mostly low and wet ground, it filled with farmers from Knox, Tuscarawas and Crawford counties in 1849-51 who cut their own roads in from the river road. Its only village, Mark Center, grew up in 1875 along the new Baltimore and Ohio line, where a stave and hoop factory employed fifty hands by 1883; 902 people lived in the township in 2020.

Settled before 1850 (Mark Kenton, hunter and trapper, Section 5); farm settlement from October 1849, platted 1875-05 (Mark Center, by Frederick Harmening north of the B. & O.; south side by Josiah Kyle and A. M. Anderson), incorporated 1850 (township erected); 1851-04 (officers elected), by Defiance County Commissioners, petitioned by William C. Hutchinson.

Where the name comes from

Named for Mark Kenton, who made the township's first improvement, settling on the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 5 to hunt and trap. The township was originally proposed to be called Kenton, after his surname, but that name was already in use by an Ohio post office, so the commissioners used his given name, Mark, instead. Wikipedia notes it is the only Mark Township in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native village, trail or treaty site specific to Mark Township was found in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. 1849-10 — William C. Hutchinson, Samuel Harris and George Porter arrive with their families on the same day in October and shelter with Thomas Pope, who had come about three weeks ahead; Hutchinson's unchinked cabin is serenaded by wolves.
2. 1850 — Defiance County Commissioners erect Mark Township on a petition from William C. Hutchinson, rejecting the proposed name "Kenton" because an existing Ohio post office already used it.
3. 1850-06 — Samuel Onstott and Thomas Pope arrive from Crawford County and cut a road three-quarters of a mile from the river road to their farms; Onstott later served at the township's organization.
4. 1851 — The trustees divide the township into three school districts in April (five by 1853); the first teachers include William A. Slough, Mary J. Powell, Oren L. Bulbert, Oscar Works and Jacob Bruner.
5. 1851-04 — Township organization is completed with an officer election at the cabin of a Mr. Bunnell, a bridge-building contractor; seventeen votes are cast.
6. 1851-06 — At the second election, June 17, Samuel Fisher and Samuel Onstott are elected justices of the peace; Onstott declines and Hutchinson fills the vacancy and serves twelve years.
7. 1853 — The township decides to build three hewed-log schoolhouses, each 20 by 24 feet with a porch, at $75 for one and $150 each for the others; the 1854 enumeration counts 83 youths and the 1864 count 214.
8. 1874 — A hamlet at the township's geographic centre, half a mile north of the later village, has a store, grocery, saloon, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop and a number of dwellings.
9. 1875-05 — After the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is built through the township, Frederick Harmening lays out Mark Center just north of the track; Josiah Kyle and A. M. Anderson lay out the part south of it.
10. 1878 — The township's United Brethren church is built on Section 25; a small Methodist society has a recently built frame church at Mark Center.
11. 1883 — Mark Center has 210 people, a Van Wert Stave Company factory employing fifty hands and making over 14,000 hoops and 40,000 staves a day, two hoop-pole shaving shops, a sawmill, hotel, two stores and a brick schoolhouse; the township has nine schoolhouses.
12. 2020 — Mark Township has 902 residents in the 2020 census; State Route 18 runs east to west through its centre.

Stories

The township that almost took a hunter's surname

When Defiance County's commissioners agreed in 1850 to erect a new township on the petition of settler William C. Hutchinson, they first proposed calling it Kenton, honoring Mark Kenton, who had made the area's first improvement by settling on Section 5 to hunt and trap rather than farm. The name did not survive contact with the state's postal map: Ohio already had a post office called Kenton, and to avoid confusion the commissioners fell back on Mark Kenton's given name instead, and Mark Township it became. The new township's organization was finished the following April, when seventeen voters gathered not in any public building but at the cabin of a Mr. Bunnell, a contractor then under contract to build a bridge -- a fittingly makeshift beginning for a township that today holds the unincorporated crossroads of Mark Center as its only settlement.

Wolves at the cabin door, 1849

William C. Hutchinson, the man who petitioned for Mark Township, arrived in October 1849 with Samuel Harris and George Porter, all three families reaching the land on the same day. Thomas Pope had come three weeks ahead and had a cabin up, so the newcomers stayed with him while they built their own. In late November Hutchinson got a roof on and a floor laid and moved his wife and children in, with no windows or doors except a quilt or blanket hung up and the walls neither chinked nor mudded. He then went back to Pope's for the household goods, and because the road through the woods was so bad he did not return until late in the evening, when he found his cabin surrounded by wolves, 'serenading Mrs. Hutchinson and the children with their melodious notes.' Mrs. Hutchinson told the county historian she could not say she was particularly afraid but that a more substantial door would have been desirable. Hutchinson was justice of the peace for twelve years and the township's first assessor, then moved to Defiance in 1865 and in 1873 platted a suburb there called East Defiance.

Mark Center follows the railroad

Mark Township's one village moved to meet the railroad. At the township's geographic centre, half a mile north of today's village, a little town of a store, a grocery, a saloon, a schoolhouse, a blacksmith shop and a number of dwellings had grown up by 1874. In May 1875, after the Baltimore and Ohio was built through the township, Frederick Harmening laid out a new village just north of the track, and Josiah Kyle and A. M. Anderson platted the portion south of it. The Van Wert Stave Company, under George Helton, set up beside the track to turn local timber into hoops and staves, starting at 7,000 hoops and 20,000 staves a day and doubling that within a few years with fifty workers, and a steam sawmill, a hotel, a post office and express office, a brick school and a small Methodist church followed. By 1883 Mark Center had 210 people, the only village in a township whose low ground was still largely undrained.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Sherwood Village57% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Hicksville Village43% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Brentwood Community MHP Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 0 of 1 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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