Mifflin Township, Wyandot County

How Mifflin Township, Wyandot County began

Mifflin Township, a full thirty-six-section township in the southwest of Wyandot County, was under Crawford County before the county was formed in 1845 even though it lay mostly inside the Wyandot Reservation. Samuel Stansberry, James Halstead and John Clinger came about 1830; David Bowen in 1835 took a farm that held the site of an old Indian tavern. The crossroads of Brownstown, or Brown's Corner, had an inn and the township's first store. The Bellefontaine road, cut by General Harrison's troops in 1812 according to the county history, crosses its southeast, and the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad passes through Kirby in the northwest.

Settled 1830, incorporated 1845 (took its present form; organized as a Crawford County township before 1840), by Samuel Stansberry, James Halstead and John Clinger, about 1830, on land partly inside the Wyandot Reservation.

Where the name comes from

Neither the 1884 nor the 1913 county history explains the name, and Wikipedia says only that Ohio has other Mifflin townships. No source we consulted states why it was chosen.

Before the town

Mifflin Township lay mostly within the Wyandot Reservation, and the 1884 county history traces the reservation line across it: from the north about a mile and a quarter from the western boundary through Sections 5, 8, 17, 20 and 29 to Tymochtee Creek in Section 32, then east about three-quarters of a mile from the southern boundary through Sections 32 to 36. The settler David Bowen, who came on June 17, 1835, took a farm on which stood 'an old Indian tavern.' The old Bellefontaine road, cut by troops under General Harrison in 1812 during the War of 1812, crosses the southeast corner of the township. The history says the reserve was sold in 1843 (the Upper Sandusky chapters say the Wyandot left in 1843 and the lands were offered from autumn 1845). No Wyandot village is named in the township; see the Wyandot County and Crane Township files.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Old Indian tavern on the David Bowen farm (other) — farm taken up by David Bowen, Sr., on June 17, 1835, Mifflin Township, before 1835 (archive.org)
• Wyandot Reservation line (other) — through Sections 5, 8, 17, 20 and 29, then along Tymochtee Creek in Section 32 and east through Sections 32-36, to 1843-45 (archive.org)
• Bellefontaine road cut by Harrison's troops (trail) — enters from Pitt Township at Section 13 and leaves into Marseilles Township at Section 33, 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1812 — General Harrison's troops cut the old Bellefontaine road, which later crosses Mifflin through Sections 13, 24, 23, 26 and 27.
2. 1830 — Samuel Stansberry (born in Massachusetts in 1806) enters eighty acres; James Halstead and John Clinger also settle that year. The first-settlers table elsewhere in the 1884 book gives Stansberry's arrival as 1832.
3. 1835 — David Bowen, Sr., a Pennsylvanian, settles on June 17 on a farm that held the site of an old Indian tavern.
4. 1835 — Between 1835 and 1839 Wesley Davenport and Mr. Brown come; Brown's Corner, later Brownstown, grows up with a 'Corner Inn' and trading house, though it was never regularly laid out.
5. 1840 — The township exists as a Crawford County township before this year, mostly inside the Wyandot Reservation.
6. 1843 — The 1884 and 1913 histories give this as the year the reserve was sold; the Wyandot left Upper Sandusky that year.
7. 1845 — The township takes its present dimensions as Wyandot County is formed; Henry Swartz, James Halstead and John Hankins are its first trustees, and Lewis Young the first clerk.
8. 1854 — Kirby Village, in the northern corner shared with Jackson Township, is laid out by Dr. J. H. Williams for M. H. Kirby on the railroad.
9. 1858 — The Salem Chapel Methodist Episcopal society is organized in a log schoolhouse near Parlett's Corners; its brick church (32 by 40 feet, $2,000) comes later.
10. 1859 — The Wesley Chapel Methodist society is organized at Mifflin Center by the Rev. L. D. Rodgers with about forty members.
11. 1860 — Wesley Chapel, a frame church 36 by 40 feet costing $800 on Section 15, is the first church building of any denomination in the township.
12. 1868 — The Church of God of Kirby builds its frame church (40 by 50 feet, $1,400) on Section 6, Mifflin Township, later added to the village of Kirby.
13. 1884 — Mifflin has five church buildings, eleven school buildings and five cemeteries.

Stories

Brown's Corner and the Corner Inn

At the crossing later called Brownstown stood an inn and a trading house, and the 1913 county history says the first township elections were held there. The 1913 history says it was never regularly laid out, while the 1884 history credits a Mr. Brown, who came between 1835 and 1839, with laying out Brownstown. At the organization of the township, the book says, there was a great deal of travel and it was no unusual thing to find the Corner Inn crowded with wayfarers on their way to Henry, Hancock or Hardin counties, where refreshments were dispensed 'for man and beast, more especially man.' Brown himself lived at the corner only about three years before moving away, and the first store in the township was opened there by Daniel Straw. Until then settlers went to Upper Sandusky and Tiffin for supplies. By 1884 a union church stood at Brownstown.

The road Harrison cut and the Indian tavern

The 'old Bellefontaine road' that crosses Mifflin from Pitt Township into Marseilles was cut by troops under General William Henry Harrison in 1812. Wyandot reserve lands lay close by: the reservation line ran a mile and a quarter inside the township's west border and about three-quarters of a mile inside its south. When David Bowen, a Pennsylvanian, settled on June 17, 1835, on a farm in the township, he found standing on his land an old Indian tavern. Neither county history says who kept it or when it closed. Bowen's son, also named David, still lived in the township in 1884.

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

Sandusky River, pumped to Upper Sandusky Reservoir #2 for storage. The CCR does not mention Reservoir 1, so it is not stated that water passes through both reservoirs. The water here

• Upper Sandusky City100% of residentsSandusky River (via Upper Sandusky Reservoirs 1 & 2)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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 2025-03-18

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