Marshall Township, Highland County

How Marshall Township, Highland County began

Marshall Township lies in southeastern Highland County around the unincorporated crossroads community of Marshall, which was platted as West Liberty in 1817 and renamed in 1836; the township itself was cut from four older townships in January 1844. Its low hills along Rocky Fork hold two Hopewell-era earthwork sites listed on the National Register in 1973, and Thomas Dick and Anthony Franklin were among the first settlers, in 1800 and 1802. The township remains rural, with a 1931 community building (the former Marshall High School and Elementary School) at its center; the 2020 census counted 1,007 residents.

Settled 1800-1802 (Anthony Franklin's cabin 1800; Thomas Dick 1802), platted West Liberty, 1817, by William Simmons; renamed Marshall by the legislature in 1836, incorporated Township formed January 1844, by William Simmons (platted); additions 1837 by William Head and John Butters.

Where the name comes from

The village of West Liberty, platted in 1817, was renamed Marshall by the legislature in 1836, 'probably in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall, who died a few months before'; the township formed in 1844 took the same name, according to the 1902 county history.

Before the town

Marshall Township holds two of Highland County's National Register-listed Hopewell earthwork sites, both inside Rocky Fork State Park: the Rocky Fork Park Site, two concentric circular hilltop enclosures on a 3-acre parcel that was cleared for pasture but never plowed, believed built for ceremonial use by Hopewellian people (whose Ohio building tradition ran roughly 100 BC to AD 500, tapering off by about AD 700); and the Rocky Fork Park Group, a group of three mounds on the south side of Rocky Fork Lake (the listing's coordinates mark the West Mound). Separately, the 1902 county history 'The County of Highland' (Klise) records that two burial mounds were excavated in Marshall township on the farm of Thomas Watts, yielding calcined bone, human teeth and a large fired log of charcoal; the author compared them to similar mounds in Washington township but did not assign a culture. The 1890 county history ('A History of the Early Settlement of Highland County, Ohio,' Scott) places a documented 1770s event on the ground that became Marshall Township: it describes Simon Kenton, after stealing horses from a Shawnee town near present Frankfort, being captured, tied to a horse, and driven north by his captors along a route that 'must have gone through where Winchester now stands in Adams county, and Marshall and Rainsboro, in this county' -- i.e., through the future Marshall Township on the way toward Ohio Shawnee towns. No source found ties a specific historic-era Shawnee, Wyandot or other village directly to Marshall Township's land.

Nations recorded here: Hopewell culture, Shawnee.

• Rocky Fork Park Site (earthwork) — Rocky Fork State Park, south of Rocky Fork, west of Fisherman Wharf Rd., northwest of Marshall, Marshall Township, Hopewell (c. 100 BC - AD 700) (en.wikipedia.org)
• Rocky Fork Park Group (mound) — South side of Rocky Fork Lake, east of Fisherman's Wharf, Marshall Township (three mounds; listing point is the West Mound), precontact, likely Hopewell (en.wikipedia.org)
• Watts farm mounds (burial) — Farm of Thomas Watts, Marshall Township, precontact, culture not specified in source (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1770s — Simon Kenton, captured by Shawnee after a horse-stealing raid near present Frankfort, is driven north by his captors on a route that the 1890 county history says passed through Winchester (Adams County) and Marshall and Rainsboro in Highland County.
2. 1800 — Major Anthony Franklin builds a cabin on the blazed trace between New Market and New Amsterdam, about three miles east of the site of Marshall, a stopping place for travelers that hosted Governor St. Clair and Aaron Burr.
3. 1802-01 — Thomas Dick moves up from Chillicothe and builds a cabin east of the site of Marshall; he teaches the township's first school in his house that winter and helps found the first Presbyterian church in the region.
4. 1802-06 — The Rev. David Young, a traveling Methodist, preaches the first sermon in the township at the house of Bigger Head.
5. 1803 — A false alarm that Native warriors were about to attack Chillicothe sends the neighbors to fortify Bigger Head's house for two days; King Solomon and other Native hunters are still camping near Rocky Fork.
6. 1805 — Highland County is created from parts of Ross, Adams and Clermont counties; Marshall is not among its four original townships (New Market, Liberty, Fairfield and Brush Creek), and the township is not formed until January 1844.
7. 1817 — William Simmons plats the village of West Liberty.
8. 1836 — The legislature renames West Liberty as Marshall; William Head and John Butters add to it in 1837.
9. 1844-01 — Marshall Township is formed from parts of Liberty, Jackson, Brush Creek and Paint townships and takes the village's name.
10. 1845 — A post office named Marshall opens; it stays open until 1921.
11. 1879 — A Methodist church is built at Marshall; a Presbyterian church follows in 1880.
12. 1900 — The census counts 740 people in Marshall Township.
13. 1931 — The building later known as the Marshall Community Center is constructed as Marshall High School and Elementary School.
14. 1973-06-18 — The Rocky Fork Park Site and Rocky Fork Park Group, Hopewell-era earthworks and mounds in Marshall Township, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
15. 2020 — U.S. Census records Marshall Township's population as 1,007.

Stories

Simon Kenton's road through Marshall

In the 1770s the frontier scout Simon Kenton and two companions stole a herd of horses from a Shawnee town near present-day Frankfort and tried to drive them across the Ohio River to Kentucky. High water and bad luck cost them the crossing, and Kenton's pursuers overtook and captured him. According to the 1890 county history of Highland County, his captors bound him to the back of an unbroken horse and drove the party north toward the Shawnee towns, on a line that 'must have gone through where Winchester now stands in Adams county, and Marshall and Rainsboro, in this county' -- ground that later became Marshall Township. Kenton survived repeated ordeals on that captivity, including gauntlets and a near-execution, before eventually being ransomed and released years later. The passage is one of the few pieces of the written record that puts a named historical event, rather than just a place name, on Marshall Township's soil before it was a township at all.

Two mounds opened on the Watts farm

When Highland County's antiquarians surveyed the county's earthworks for the 1902 county history, they counted mounds by township across most of the county and noted that Marshall, along with several other townships, had gone unreported in an earlier survey. Their own fieldwork filled part of the gap: on the farm of Thomas Watts in Marshall Township they opened two burial mounds and found calcined bone, human teeth, and a large log of charcoal that, when tested by fire, 'burned indifferently but turned to a brown ash filled with grains of sand.' The author judged the Marshall mounds to be of the same type as ones excavated in neighboring Washington Township, but stopped short of naming a culture, writing more broadly that closer study had broken apart the old idea of one prehistoric 'mound-builder nation' into separate tribes. Decades later, professional survey work in what became Rocky Fork State Park -- the paired hilltop enclosures now called the Rocky Fork Park Site and the three-mound Rocky Fork Park Group -- gave the township's earthworks a firmer, Hopewell-era identification and a National Register listing in 1973.

The cabin on the trace

In fall 1800 Major Anthony Franklin built a cabin and clearing on the blazed trace between New Market and New Amsterdam, three miles east of the future village of Marshall. It was for years the only dwelling between the two towns, grew by additions until it looked like a small town, and became the stopping place for travelers on the Chillicothe to Cincinnati road. The 1902 county history says Governor St. Clair slept there, and Aaron Burr, then dreaming of an empire in Texas. Thomas Dick settled nearby in January 1802 and taught the first school. The neighbors forted up at Bigger Head's house for two days in the false Indian alarm of 1803, five men, two women and four children with four guns and two kegs of powder.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Hillsboro City75% of residentsClear Creek (via Selph Road & Liberty Park Reservoirs)
• Highland County Water Company, Inc.25% of residentsSand-and-gravel aquifer wells (Ross/Highland Co. well fields; local wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Mounds and earthworks (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-06-10

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