Monroe Township, Miami County

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How Monroe Township, Miami County began

Monroe Township, in the southern part of Miami County, was organized as a governing township on February 3, 1818, though white settlement began as early as 1801 with Samuel Freeman's cabin south of what became Tippecanoe (now Tipp City). Before settlement, a Shawnee village stood in the township's southeastern corner. The township is mostly agricultural farmland outside Tipp City, which sits in its eastern half at the old crossing of the Miami and Erie Canal.

Settled 1801, incorporated 1818-02-03.

Where the name comes from

No source we found states directly why the township was named Monroe; it shares its name with twenty-one other Monroe Townships in Ohio, a name pattern common to the presidency of James Monroe (1817-1825), around the time the township organized in 1818.

Before the town

Before the first white settlers arrived in 1801, the land that became Monroe Township was occupied by Shawnee people who hunted the forested township for game. The 1880 county history records that a Shawnee village stood "in the southeastern part of the township, below the present line" of Tippecanoe (now Tipp City). No specific date, name, or leader is recorded for this village, and the account ends without describing when or how its residents left the area.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Shawnee village, southeastern Monroe Township (village) — southeastern part of Monroe Township, below the later line of Tippecanoe, before 1801 (thetroyhistoricalsociety.org)

Timeline

1. 1801 — Samuel Freeman, the first white settler in the township, builds a cabin about a mile south of present-day Tipp City, west of the Miami River.
2. 1802 — John Yount arrives from North Carolina with his family and builds the township's first mill, using a hollowed beech stump.
3. 1804 — Michael Fair moves from Frederick County, Maryland, with his family and several others; John Clark also settles in the township this year, having come from Greene County.
4. 1805 — David Jenkins arrives from South Carolina; his log cabin, built on Section 8, is recorded in 1880 as the oldest dwelling still standing in Monroe Township.
5. 1809 — John Freeman builds a corn mill that serves settlers for miles around.
6. 1816 — The Society of Friends (Quakers) build a log meeting house at Frederick, the earliest organized religious presence recorded in the township.
7. 1818 — Monroe Township is formally organized as a governing township on February 3.
8. 1840 — John Clark, who had settled in the township in 1804, plats the town of Tippecanoe (later Tipp City) in the township's eastern section along the Miami and Erie Canal.

Stories

A mill from a hollow stump

When John Yount reached Monroe Township from North Carolina in 1802, there was no mill anywhere nearby to grind grain for the handful of families already living along the Miami River. Yount's solution, recorded in the township's 1880 history, was to hollow out a beech stump and use it as a crude mortar, one of the earliest processing tools built by settlers in the township. It served until John Freeman's proper corn mill went up in 1809, giving the growing township its first real gristmill and drawing settlers from miles around to have their corn ground.

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

Wells in the Great Miami River buried sand-and-gravel aquifer serving the Tipp City/Vandalia area; NAWA (a joint Tipp City–Vandalia authority) draws from several production wells The water here

• NAWA50% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Huber Heights Public Water System27% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Troy City20% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Miami Co-deer Cliff Run1% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Bethel Township Water System1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• West Milton Village1% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Miami Co-camp Troy0% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Miami Co-n25a Extension0% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Union City0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-24

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