Mcdonald Township, Hardin County

How Mcdonald Township, Hardin County began

McDonald Township, in southwestern Hardin County, was set off from Round Head Township and organized in 1836. Its name is disputed even in the 1883 county history: Peter C. McArthur suggested it, and some said it honored McDonald, an Indian chief, while others said pioneer William McDonald, which the history calls 'doubtless the correct version.' The first permanent settlers, Donald McArthur and Daniel Campbell, arrived in 1822 northeast of Round Head village, after Peter C. McArthur had scouted the area in 1818. The township has no incorporated village and, unusually for the region, never had a working grist mill; its most notable landmark is the Zimmerman Kame, a 5-acre glacial mound near Roundhead that yielded the first pottery ever attributed to the ancient Glacial Kame culture. Population today is 874.

Settled 1822, incorporated 1836, by organized from Round Head Township; named for either an Indian chief or pioneer William McDonald (disputed).

Where the name comes from

Disputed: the 1883 county history records that the name was suggested to the commissioners by early settler Peter C. McArthur; some said it honored McDonald, an Indian chief, while others said pioneer William McDonald, which the history calls 'doubtless' the correct version.

Before the town

The Zimmerman Kame, a 20-foot circular glacial mound covering about 5 acres near Roundhead, is a documented Native American site within McDonald Township: it is an ancient burial mound of the Glacial Kame culture (a prehistoric tradition roughly contemporary with or preceding the Adena, known chiefly from mound burials around the Great Lakes basin), and it yielded pottery that was, at the time of its 1970s excavation, the first ceramic evidence ever attributed to that culture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1974, the first glacial kame so listed. Separately, the 1883 county history notes that the township's own name may derive from an unnamed Native American chief, though this is disputed against the William McDonald origin story; no other detail about that person is recorded. At the county level, Hardin County lay within lands used by the Wyandot and Shawnee.

Nations recorded here: Glacial Kame culture.

• Zimmerman Kame (mound) — near Roundhead, McDonald Township, Hardin County (off Township Road 39), Glacial Kame culture (prehistoric, pre-Adena) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1818 — Peter C. McArthur explores the area that becomes McDonald Township before returning to Ross County.
2. 1822 — The families of Donald McArthur and Daniel Campbell become the township's first permanent settlers, locating northeast of Round Head village.
3. 1830 — Alexander Given settles in the township; he later serves 20 years as township Treasurer and 18 years as Justice of the Peace.
4. 1834 — The Fuls Burial Ground is established, one of the township's earliest cemeteries; Jacob Fuls, a Methodist farmer, had settled in 1832.
5. 1836 — McDonald Township is organized, carved out of Round Head Township; log schoolhouses begin operating around this time.
6. 1842 — The McDonald Christian Church, the township's first permanent church organization, is formed under Elder Samuel Tingle.
7. 1863 — Harvey Cemetery, which becomes the township's principal burial ground, is deeded to the township trustees.
8. 1879 — A Methodist Episcopal church is organized in the township by Rev. Thomas Christopher.
9. 1974 — The Zimmerman Kame, near Roundhead, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the first glacial kame site so listed.

Stories

The gravel pit that turned out to be a burial mound

For decades the round, tree-covered hill off Township Road 39 near Roundhead was worked as a commercial gravel pit, its owners hauling fill out of what looked like an ordinary glacial deposit left behind by the ice age. When digging in the 1970s began turning up human remains and artifacts, the pit was abandoned and archaeologists identified the mound as the work of the Glacial Kame culture, a prehistoric people who buried their dead in natural kames, conical hills of sand and gravel left by retreating glaciers, across the Great Lakes basin. What made the Zimmerman Kame important was pottery: no Glacial Kame site had ever before yielded ceramics, so the discovery rewrote part of what archaeologists thought they knew about a culture usually defined by simple burial goods. The site, still about 20 feet high and covering five acres, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1974, becoming the first glacial kame in the country to be listed, an unlikely distinction for a farm field that had spent years as a quarry.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Kenton City53% of residentsScioto River valley aquifer (local wells, low confidence)
• Belle Center Village41% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Alger Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Tammis Mobile Village Ltd.1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mcguffey Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Power plants (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Mounds and earthworks (1)

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