Mohican Township, Ashland County

How Mohican Township, Ashland County began

Mohican Township was established in 1812 in the southeastern part of what became Ashland County in 1846, and is the only township of that name in Ohio. It takes its name from the Mohican (Mahican) people and the Mohican River/Black Fork-Mohican watershed that runs through this part of north-central Ohio, though no specific naming rationale is recorded. The village of Jeromesville, itself a former Lenape (Delaware) settlement site, sits in the township's northwest corner. The Lakefork School, southeast of Jeromesville, is the township's National Register-listed landmark.

Incorporated 1812 (township organized).

Where the name comes from

Named for the Mohican (Mahican) people; Ohio's Mohican River and the surrounding Mohican country carry the name, though it is a historical misnomer in one sense, since the documented Native inhabitants of this specific area in the 1700s-1800s were primarily Lenape (Delaware), not the Mahican people of the Hudson Valley whom the river's name commemorates. No account explains exactly why the name was applied here.

Before the town

Mahicans and other Indian tribes are said to have lived within the township, but no specific site is given. The 1909 county history says that when the first settlers came, about 1809, the Indians in the neighbourhood were an intermixture of several tribes, Mohegans, Delawares, Wyandots, Shawnees, Chickasaws and one or two who claimed to be Cherokee, friendly and harmless until the war of 1812 began, when the main body disappeared. Hill's 1880 county history places the Lenape (Delaware) town of Jerometown, also called Mohican Johnstown, on the south bank of the Jerome Fork about three quarters of a mile from Jeromesville, with Captain Pipe's wigwam about a mile from Jerome's cabin; the Lenape there were removed with those of Greentown in August 1812. No mound, earthwork or treaty boundary specific to Mohican Township beyond this is recorded.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Wyandot, Shawnee, Mohican (Mahican).

• Jeromesville (Delaware settlement) (village) — northwest Mohican Township, at present-day Jeromesville, late 1700s to 1812 (ashlandcountypictures.com)

Timeline

1. 1807 — Mohican Township is surveyed by Jonathan Cox.
2. 1809-05-02 — Thomas Eagle arrives in Mohican Township, a few weeks after Alexander Finley, the first white settler; William Eagle, Benjamin Bunn and John Shinnebarger settle nearby within weeks.
3. 1810 — Amos Norris, Vachel Metcalf, William Bryan, Thomas Newman and James Slater bring their families to the township.
4. 1812 — Mohican Township is organized.
5. 1812-08-27 to 1812-09-03 — Delaware residents of Jeromesville, in the township's northwest, are removed alongside those of Greentown under military escort toward Piqua.
6. 1812-04-11 — The Wayne County commissioners divide the county into four townships; the western part, including what are now Jackson, Perry, Mohican and Lake townships, is organised as one township named Mohican, half the area of the later Ashland County.
7. 1812 — Pioneer families flee to block-houses after the fight at James Copus's cabin, and General Rezin Beall's brigade camps near Jeromesville in October on the way to join General Harrison.
8. 1820 — Mohican Township counts 632 residents; it counts 1,316 in 1830 and 1,712 in 1860.
9. 1846 — Ashland County is formed and Mohican Township becomes part of it.
10. 1880 — The Lakefork Schoolhouse is built southeast of Jeromesville in Mohican Township.
11. 2020 — The census counts 2,078 residents in Mohican Township.

Stories

A river people's name on a Delaware township

Mohican Township and the Mohican River that runs through this stretch of Ashland and Holmes counties both carry the name of the Mohican (Mahican) people of the upper Hudson Valley in New York, hundreds of miles from Ohio. The Native settlements actually documented within the township's bounds — most notably at Jeromesville — belonged instead to the Lenape (Delaware), who along with the Greentown Delaware just across the township line were removed from the area in the closing days of August 1812.

Camp Mercer and the Battle of the Cowpens

In October 1812 General Rezin Beall's brigade of about two thousand men cut a trail to Jerome's place and then along the old Wyandot trail to a camp about three miles from Jeromesville, which was called Camp Mercer for Major Musser. One night a guard, Jacob Ostler, saw something creeping toward him in the dark, cried halt, and fired when it kept coming; the camp turned out in a panic, drums beat, bugles sounded and the cavalry, old wagon horses, charged into the darkness. At first light the outposts found they had been firing on a herd of the settlers' cattle roaming the woods, and seventeen were dead. The settlers called it the Battle of the Cowpens. While he camped there Beall also ordered the wife and daughter of Baptiste Jerome taken to Urbana, where they soon died of exposure, an act the county historian called extremely cruel.

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

Every historic place in Ashland County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Jeromesville Village80% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Loudonville Village20% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Public schools (2)

Private schools (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 1 of 1 passed.

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-16

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