Middleton Township, Wood County

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How Middleton Township, Wood County began

Middleton Township traces its first settler to 1810, when Jesse Skinner made his way overland and by schooner from New York State to land along the Maumee that was later destroyed by British-incited raids during the War of 1812. The township itself was established by Wood County's commissioners in December 1832, part of the same push to subdivide the county's original vast townships as its swamp interior slowly filled with settlers. It sits in the southeastern part of the county and holds the village of Haskins and the unincorporated communities of Dunbridge, Hull Prairie, Miltonville, Roachton and part of Sugar Ridge, along with a historic interurban bridge that recalls the electric-railway era that once linked Wood County's small towns to Toledo and Bowling Green.

Settled 1810, by Jesse Skinner, who traveled overland from New York State by way of Buffalo and Port Clinton, incorporated township established December 3, 1832; first election held November 19, 1832 at Guy Nearing's house, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The origin of the name 'Middleton' was not found in the sources we consulted. The 1897 county history does, however, explain the name of Hull Prairie, one of the township's early settlement centers: it took its name from David Hull, who located there in 1822, and not -- as was commonly and mistakenly supposed even in 1897 -- from Gen. William Hull of the War of 1812.

Before the town

The 1897 county history records several Native encounters. Skinner's settlement on the Maumee was broken up in 1813 when the British ordered their Native allies to drive settlers out. A dance at the mouth of Tontogany Creek ended in the killing of a young man named Pamquak by Nauquazike, whose girl Pamquak had treated courteously. In 1836 five mounted Indians appeared as the Robertson family camped at Hull Prairie and announced they wished to burn the prairie, which they did within twenty minutes. A school district of 1833 was to meet at the Indian mission station on the Maumee. No mound or earthwork is recorded. The northern part of Middleton lies within the twelve-mile-square reserve ceded to the United States at the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

• Mission station on the Maumee (Indian mission) (other) — On the Maumee at or near the Missionary Islands, Middleton Township; named in the 1833 school district order; exact site not given, 1833 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1810 — Jesse Skinner, having traveled overland from New York State to Buffalo, by schooner to Port Clinton, and overland again, becomes the township's first settler, selecting land later known as River Tract No. 50.
2. 1812-06 — Most of Jesse Skinner's fellow travellers from New York bring their families to the Maumee; Skinner's cabin stands just east of the south approach of the Waterville bridge, near a French-Canadian trader named Lumbar at the mouth of Tontogany Creek.
3. 1813 — During the War of 1812, the British order Native allies to drive Skinner's settlement and its neighbors from their homes along the Maumee; most of the settlers return in 1815-16 to find their homes destroyed.
4. 1819 — I. T. Worthington and the Holmes brothers survey the exterior lines; Worthington and Kellogg run the section lines in 1821.
5. 1822 — David Hull locates about a mile and a half north of the future village of Haskins, on land that becomes known as Hull Prairie in his honor.
6. 1832-11-19 — The township's first election is held at Guy Nearing's house; Nearing, Sidney L. Brewster and Michael Sypher are elected the first trustees.
7. 1832-12-03 — Middleton Township is formally established by the Wood County commissioners, part of the ongoing breakup of the county's original oversized townships.
8. 1833-01-21 — Thirteen settlers each subscribe 12 and a half cents toward the township's first record book; it was found in the Haskins calaboose on May 22, 1895, aged but intact.
9. 1833-03-04 — The trustees levy one mill on the dollar for township purposes and divide the township into four road and school districts, one meeting at the mission station.
10. 1833-06 — Some of Middleton's original territory is detached and attached to the newly organized Portage township.
11. 1835 — Two Canadian brothers, Orrin and Henry Griffin, murder trapper Bill Ironsides, described as a Canadian half-breed, at the foot of Mission Island; both are sentenced to a short prison term.
12. 1835-07-26 — The school trustees contract with Guy Nearing to build the Miltonville schoolhouse, 22 by 15 feet, for $40 plus lumber.
13. 1835-08 — Miltonville is surveyed for William Fowler and G. W. Baird, who name it after Milton Baird; Guy Nearing builds a sawmill and dam for the town project the same year.
14. 1836 — James Robertson's family camps at the edge of Hull Prairie and five mounted Indians tell them they intend to burn the prairie; the high grass is ash within twenty minutes.
15. 1837-09-29 — The Miltonville post office is established with Epaphroditus Foote in charge; it is discontinued when the railroad is completed in 1859.
16. 1856-12-12 — The Middleton Lyceum, a debating society, is organized with H. Crook as president; it runs until November 1868.
17. 1861-10 — Hull Prairie is surveyed for John H. Weller, C. W. Carpenter and Joseph H. Gardner.
18. 1862-07-23 — Haskins is surveyed by D. D. Ames for William King as a shipping point and church center for the surrounding farm district.
19. 1882-11 — Dunbridge is surveyed by Ferdinand Wenz for Robert Dunn, who coined the name from the first three letters of his own name and the last six letters of 'Trowbridge.'
20. 1887-11 — A 170-foot span of the old Waterville bridge falls during demolition, carrying six workmen down; one, named Jeffers, is killed.
21. 1889 — The Waterville well is drilled 1,125 feet and forty feet into the Trenton, opening the Sucker-rod oil belt; the Sugar Ridge lime works open the same year.
22. 1890 — The census counts 1,606 residents in the township.
23. 1893-12 — A local-option vote on liquor sales in the township goes 188 against and 87 for.
24. 2020 — The census finds 5,611 people living in the township.

Stories

The pony, the sheriff, and a pioneer's ruin

David Hull, the New York settler for whom Hull Prairie was named, located about a mile and a half north of the future village of Haskins in 1822. Some years later, when he fell behind on debts, the sheriff came to levy on his property and seized a horse Hull particularly prized. The loss so grieved him that he cut his own throat. The sheriff sent for Dr. Conant, who managed to save Hull's life, but not his mind: he never recovered his reason, and years later died in a lunatic asylum. The county history recorded him as 'one of the martyrs to pioneer times in this county' -- a reminder that the debts and hardships of frontier settlement could destroy a man as thoroughly as disease or accident.

Five mounted Indians and the burning of Hull Prairie

In 1836 James Robertson and his family, having come from Perrysburg and tired from the road, camped on the edge of Hull Prairie, the treeless tract named for the pioneer David Hull and not for General Hull. They had barely stopped when five mounted Indians rode up and told them they wished to burn the prairie. Within twenty minutes the high grass on the whole tract was ashes. Robertson built a log house there in 1837, known as the Half-way House, and Henry Hood Sr., Andrew Pargellis and W. H. Wetmore soon followed. In 1844 a log schoolhouse was raised on Section 24 where Margaret Frazier, just arrived from Scotland, taught; it was also the church and social center of the prairie settlement.

The record book that turned up in the calaboose

On January 21, 1833, Guy Nearing, Michael Sypher, James Rutter, Isaac Van Tassel, Sidney Brewster and eight other Middleton settlers each subscribed twelve and a half cents toward the cost of a record book for the new township. Its entries include the first road and school districts, a one-mill tax in March 1833, the 1834 vote in which officials donated their services for the year, and the 1834 apprenticeship of the orphan John Rice Cassity to a blacksmith until September 1839. For sixty years the book was lost. It was found on May 22, 1895, in the old calaboose at Haskins, looking aged but strong and intact, and the 1897 county history drew on it.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Perrysburg City49% of residentsLake Erie
• Bowling Green City30% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Northwestern W and SD - Toledo Svc Area18% of residentsLake Erie
• Northwestern W and SD - Middleton Twp2% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Perrysburg Estates MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Village Green MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Wagoner Home Rental0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Grand Rapids Village0% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Northwestern W and SD - Portage0% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Tontogany Village0% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Northwestern W and SD - Oregon Wtln 2000% of residentsLake Erie
• Maurers Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Lafferty Leisure Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Five Point MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (7)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-19

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