Monroe Township, Knox County

How Monroe Township, Knox County began

Monroe Township was organized March 9, 1825 in the center of Knox County and named for President James Monroe. Joseph Coleman, who arrived in Knox County from Fayette County, Pennsylvania in 1806, is recorded among the earliest settlers of the township; David Johnson, another early settler on Schenck's Creek, built a block-house for protection against Native people and planted the township's first orchard. Its early economy ran on gristmills built along Schenck Creek, and the hamlet of Monroe Mills grew around a mill raised in 1844 by Henry Boynton and Jacob Davis, with a store and post office following in 1846. The township's southwestern corner reaches into Mount Vernon, the county seat, and its northeastern part borders College Township and Gambier, home to Kenyon College. It remains a lightly populated farm township today, with about 2,300 residents in 2020.

Settled 1806-07 (Joseph Coleman, among the earliest settlers), incorporated 1825-03-09 (township organized).

Where the name comes from

Monroe Township is named for James Monroe, fifth President of the United States; it is one of twenty-two townships named Monroe across Ohio. Schenck's Creek, the township's principal stream, is named for General W. C. Schenck, who once owned a large tract of land in the township.

Before the town

The 1881 county history records that early settler David Johnson built a block-house on his Schenck's Creek property, near the present Henry Barker place, as protection against Native people -- indicating an active if unspecified sense of threat in the township's first years -- though no attack or specific encounter there is described. No named village, trail, or mound within Monroe Township itself was found in any source checked. At the county level, the Kokosing River that borders the township's northeast corner (and runs through neighboring Gambier) carried the Native name Owl Creek before it was renamed; Delaware (Lenape) people camped and fished along Owl Creek and its tributaries into the early 1800s, and Delaware Chief Tom Jelloway, for whom Jelloway Creek is named, hunted across this part of the county after most of his people had gone west. Knox County lay within, or just west of, land ceded piecemeal by Wyandot, Delaware, Shawnee and other nations under the Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785) and confirmed by the Treaty of Greenville (1795); the Greenville Treaty Line itself runs along the county's northwest edge, well north of Monroe Township. See the county-level file for fuller treatment.

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

Timeline

1. 1806 — Joseph Coleman emigrates from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, living first in the Haines' settlement south of Mount Vernon before moving to the Daymude place on Schenck's Creek the following year.
2. 1807 — Seely Simpkins's family moves from above Mount Vernon to Monroe Township, settling on Schenck's Creek; his father John Simpkins dies and is buried there in 1809.
3. 1811 — John Adams settles in the township's extreme southwest corner, remaining there until his death in 1829.
4. 1814 — The township's first schoolhouse is built on the C. A. Young property, with William Marquis as the pioneer teacher.
5. 1820 — David Johnson erects the township's first saw-mill on Schenck's Creek, having earlier built a block-house there for protection and planted the first orchard in Monroe Township.
6. 1825 — Monroe Township is organized March 9 in central Knox County and named for President James Monroe.
7. 1844 — Henry Boynton and Jacob Davis build a grist-mill near the township's western line, giving rise to the hamlet of Monroe Mills.
8. 1846 — Boynton and Davis open the first store at Monroe Mills, along with a post office.
9. 1849 — A post office formally named Monroe Mills opens to serve the hamlet, per Wikipedia's account (which differs slightly from the 1881 county history's 1846 date).
10. 1876 — Robert Gilcrest's flouring-mill on Schenck's Creek, then owned by William Vian, burns down on the night of April 13 and is never rebuilt.
11. 1902 — The Monroe Mills post office closes.
12. 2020 — The U.S. Census counts 2,339 residents in Monroe Township.

Stories

A mill town that outlived its mill

In 1844 Henry Boynton and Jacob Davis built a gristmill near the western line of Monroe Township, one of several water-powered mills that had sprung up along Schenck's Creek since the township's founding two decades earlier. A cluster of houses grew around it and took the mill's name, Monroe Mills, and Boynton and Davis branched out into a store, farming, and stock dealing. The enterprise passed through several hands after Boynton failed in business around 1860 -- to Jacob Davis and partners, then to the Knox County bank, then to Nelson and George Critchfield, who bought it for four thousand dollars -- before James McElroy became proprietor. The federal government granted the place a post office as well, giving farm families a mail stop without a trip into Mount Vernon. But Monroe Mills never incorporated and never grew into a proper village; when the post office finally closed in 1902, the place quietly reverted to an unincorporated crossroads, which is what it remains today.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · knoxpages.com · www2.kenyon.edu · statenews.org · archive.org

Wells drawing groundwater from the buried-valley aquifer along the Kokosing River near Mount Vernon The water here

• Mount Vernon City93% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Gambier Village4% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Knox County Water and Wastewater2% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Colonial Terrace Mhc Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Westgate Mobile Home Community0% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Grandview MHP A0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Martinsburg Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 2 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 2 of 3.

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-23

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