Mill Creek Township, Williams County

How Mill Creek Township, Williams County began

Mill Creek Township, in the northeastern corner of Williams County along the Michigan line, organized in 1835 and was named for the creek running through it. It lies inside the old Toledo Strip disputed by Ohio and Michigan in 1835-36. Its central community, Alvordton, was platted in 1881 by Henry D. Alvord when the railroad reached that point; the village incorporated in 1891, ran its own government for well over a century, and then disincorporated by a 2007 vote, reverting to an unincorporated, census-designated place.

Incorporated Organized in 1835.

Where the name comes from

Named after Mill Creek, the stream running through the township.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail or treaty site specific to Mill Creek Township is recorded in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1817 — The Treaty of the Maumee Rapids carries Indian title to this part of northwestern Ohio, including the future Mill Creek Township, to the United States.
2. 1835 — Mill Creek Township is organized.
3. 1835-1836 — The Toledo War settles, in Ohio's favor, which state Mill Creek Township and the rest of the county's northern tier belong to.
4. 1842 — The Alvord family, having first settled briefly in Fulton County, relocates to Section 20 of the township, four-year-old Henry D. Alvord among them.
5. 1881 — When railroad construction reaches the township in spring, Henry D. Alvord buys additional farmland, lays out the town of Alvordton, and secures the station site there; a post office opens the same year with Alvord as postmaster.
6. 1882 — Alvord builds an $8,000 brick hotel on the south side of Alvordton's Main Street, a building that still stands, now sided over.
7. 1891 — Alvordton incorporates as a village.
8. 2007 — Alvordton voters approve disincorporation; the community reverts to unincorporated status and is later reclassified by the Census Bureau as a census-designated place.

Stories

The Postmaster Who Built His Own Town

Henry D. Alvord was four years old when his family settled in Mill Creek Township in 1842, part of the same wave of New York transplants filling out Williams County's farmland. He spent his early adult years working the family farm, tried a year in Illinois, and by 1864 had set himself up in the small settlement of Primrose, running a dry goods store and an ashery while serving as postmaster. He spent the 1870s as justice of the peace. Then, in the spring of 1881, the railroad finally reached his part of the township, and Alvord did not wait to see what a developer would do with it -- he bought up additional farmland himself, laid out a town, and secured the station's location before anyone else could. He named it after himself, became its postmaster the same year, and in 1882 put up an $8,000 brick hotel on Main Street, a considerable investment for a town that had not existed twelve months earlier. Alvordton incorporated in 1891 and ran its own village government for 116 years before voters chose in 2007 to give it up; Alvord himself had died decades before that, in 1917, and is buried in Bryan's Fountain Grove Cemetery.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• West Unity Village68% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Fayette Village20% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Williams Co/hillside Country Living12% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

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