Milford Township, Defiance County

How Milford Township, Defiance County began

Milford Township, in Defiance County's northwest corner along the Indiana line, was first settled in August 1834 when Thomas Slater raised his cabin on the St. Joseph River, followed that October by Thomas Green. Twelve families met to organize the township in 1837, while Ottawa, some Wyandot and many Miami people still lived in the woods, and Potawatomi and Miami hunters camped along the St. Joseph into the 1840s. Arrowsmith's mill, a Universalist church at Logan Corners and the Cicero post office (1861) served a farm township of 1,460 people in 1880 that has never had an incorporated village, and 1,120 in 2020.

Settled 1834, incorporated 1837 (township organized), by Thomas Slater (first settler, Aug. 1834) and Thomas Green (Oct. 1834); the twelve organizing families: William G. Pierce, George Chapman, Linus Clark, Ezra Crary, Thomas Slater, Thomas Green, Jacob Welden, Harrison Conkey, Elias Crary, Spencer Hopkins, John Henry and George Green.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history does not explain the name; Milford Township shares it with townships in Butler and Knox counties.

Before the town

The 1883 county history records Native people living in Milford Township into the first years of white settlement. William G. Pierce, who came in 1837, said the Ottawa, some Wyandots and many Miamis (Myaamia) were still in the township; they were harmless but troublesome as visitors, traded their pelts to agents at Defiance, drank whisky and camped near settlers. The Ottawa left some time before the Wyandot removal of 1843. Thomas Green, who settled on Section 5 near the St. Joseph River in 1834, reported that Potawatomi (Pottawatomie) and some Miami hunters often camped along the river and that he joined them in shooting deer by candlelight from their canoes; John Henry, who settled on the St. Joseph in 1836, described it as then the home of the red man. No mound, earthwork or treaty cession specific to the township is named in the sources consulted.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa, Wyandot, Miami (Myaamia), Potawatomi.

• Camps along the St. Joseph River (camp) — St. Joseph River, Section 5 and nearby, Milford Township, 1834-1840s (Potawatomi and Miami hunters); Ottawa, Wyandot and Miami present in 1837 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1834-08 — Thomas Slater, the township's first settler, raises his cabin on the St. Joseph River while Thomas Green is in the area to select land; Green's cabin is put up that October on Section 5 and he becomes the second settler.
2. 1835-11 — Luther Slater, the first child born in the township who lived to adulthood, is born.
3. 1836-08 — Jeremiah A. Ball marries Malinda Slater, the township's first recorded marriage.
4. 1837 — Milford Township organizes; twelve settler families hold the first election, choosing Linus Clark as Justice of the Peace.
5. 1837 — William G. Pierce settles in what is now Milford Township; the Ottawa, some Wyandots and many Miamis are still in the woods, and the first school is taught in his cabin by Margaret Brace in 1844.
6. 1843 — The Wyandots leave Ohio; the Ottawa, who ranged Milford Township, had gone some time before.
7. 1846 — Arrowsmith's mill near Lost Creek, a part-log water mill whose wheel its builder invented, stops running about this year; John F. Haller had helped repair it in 1844 using only an auger, hand-saw and ax.
8. 1853 — Jacob D. Serrill keeps the township post office at his house as postmaster from 1853 to about 1861; a separate Cicero post office at Cicero Corners dates from 1861.
9. 1868 — The Universalist Church of Logan, in Milford Township, is built at a cost of $1,800; another account in the history dates the brick church at Logan Corners to about 1872 at $1,400.
10. 1872 — The Methodists build a small frame church in the northeast of the township, with Adam Kruemling as preacher; the Lutherans have a church of about thirty members on Section 10.
11. 1878 — A schoolhouse is built at Logan Corners in District No. 9.
12. 1880 — The census counts 1,460 people in Milford Township.
13. 2020 — Milford Township has 1,120 residents in the 2020 census; State Routes 49 and 249 meet near its centre.

Stories

The mill that was repaired with an auger and an ax

The Arrowsmith Mill, on Lost Creek just north and a little west of the crossing, was one of the township's essentials until its wheels stopped about 1846. Its proprietor, Arrowsmith, was a regular millwright who understood grinding and dressing buhrs, and he had invented the water wheel himself, thought by him at least to be a very good one. In 1844 John F. Haller, no millwright, helped him repair the wheel with an inch auger, a hand-saw and an ax. When the repairs were nearly finished and the buhrs were to be dressed, an old ax was added to the tool list, and with that instrument, whether it was called picking or chopping, the buhrs were dressed and the mill set running. After the mill passed away, part of its log building was used for storing blacksmith tools.

Candlelight deer hunting on the St. Joseph

Thomas Green came to Section 5 beside the St. Joseph River in October 1834, the second settler after Thomas Slater, and killed as many as sixty deer a year for five or six autumns. Potawatomi and some Miami hunters often camped along the same river, and Green joined them in shooting deer from canoes by candlelight, the animals standing transfixed at the light on the bank. The Ottawa, Wyandot and Miami neighbors of William Pierce, who arrived in 1837, traded pelts at Defiance and were, in his words, a harmless people made noisy and dangerous only by whisky. Pierce himself rigged a wide-brimmed hat with a candle in its crown to shoot deer feeding in his wheat; he told of a buck that came toward the light until a raindrop made the candle hiss and the animal fled into a bog. By 1850 the deer were all but gone, and bears had left earlier.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Hicksville Village63% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Edgerton Village37% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-09-02

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