Montgomery Township, Wood County

How Montgomery Township, Wood County began

Montgomery Township was established December 1, 1834, the same day as neighboring Troy and Freedom townships, as Congressional Township 4, Range 12 in eastern Wood County, with its first election ordered held at Guy Morgan's house. It grew into farm country holding three villages: Bradner in the northeast, Rising Sun in the southeast, and Wayne near its center, along with rural churches, including a German Baptist congregation on the township's west line and a United Brethren church organized in 1836 near Bower's mill west of Rising Sun.

Incorporated township established December 1, 1834, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The 1897 county history says the township was set off from Perry on December 1, 1834 and named, on the suggestion of John A. Kelly, for General Richard Montgomery, the Revolutionary War officer killed in the assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775.

Before the town

No mound or earthwork is recorded. The 1897 county history prints a reminiscence by Mrs. Emily P. Carter that Indians frequently came to the John A. Kelly cabin to eat, paying a shilling a meal; one day several ate pans of corn fritters until Mrs. Kelly saw grease dripping from a woman's blanket, where she had stowed a large quantity. Benjamin Wollam built his pole shanty in 1834 'with the aid of an Indian.' The land was Ottawa hunting ground until the 1817 Treaty of the Maumee Rapids.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1819 — The exterior lines of the township are surveyed in 1819 and the section lines in 1821.
2. 1830s — The marriage of John Shuman and Catharine Brackley is recorded as the first in the township (date not given).
3. 1830s — Constable George W. Adams receives the first payment for official services, for serving notice on William Hambleton to leave the township so he would not become a public charge.
4. 1832-06-19 — John A. Kelly lands on his homestead, the first settler of Montgomery; he pays Henry Sapp forty acres for forty days of digging a well and cutting timber, and brings fourteen men from eighteen miles away to raise his double log cabin.
5. 1832-10 — Harlow Hill arrives and is received by Kelly; he builds his cabin in January 1833, and Guy Morgan and Michael Brackley locate nearby that year.
6. 1833 — David Hanline becomes one of the township's earliest settlers, buying land in Section 11 near the future village of Bradner.
7. 1834 — Benjamin Wollam settles near the future site of Rising Sun, building a pole shanty with the help of a Native neighbor before wild animals drove him off temporarily; the Edmonds family also arrives near Bradner.
8. 1834-12-01 — Montgomery Township (Congressional Township 4, Range 12) is established by the Wood County commissioners, its first election ordered held at Guy Morgan's house, the same day Troy and Freedom townships are organized.
9. 1835-06-06 — John A. Kelly and Guy Morgan are elected justices of the peace, each receiving thirteen votes of fourteen cast; the first township election had chosen Michael Mogle, Guy Morgan and Abraham Logan as trustees.
10. 1836 — The first United Brethren Church in the township is organized by Reverends Jeremiah Brown and Jacob Crom, meeting near Bower's mill west of Rising Sun.
11. 1840 — The census counts 609 residents, 922 in 1850 and 1,575 in 1860.
12. 1840 — The Methodists hold their first quarterly meeting in Frisbie's gristmill at Freeport.
13. 1853 — The trustees adopt a temperance ordinance fining the sale of intoxicants $10 a time, while allowing liquor to be sold for medicinal purposes.
14. 1865 — Explorations for oil are made in 1865 or 1866; the Bradner well of 1885 follows.
15. 1874-07-04 — Rising Sun (previously St. Elms, then Coon Town, then Stony Battery) takes its final name on a motion by resident David Earl.
16. 1875 — Bradner is surveyed for John Bradner, Ross Crocker and H. G. Caldwell, who name it for the senior member, John Bradner.
17. 1882 (approx.) — A German Baptist congregation organizes on the township's west line, with early members including Elder Jonathan Whitmore, George Amos and Andrew Whitmore.
18. 1890 — The census counts 2,856 residents.
19. 1890-09 — The Lesher, Angus and Horton wells, drilled in September, open the Freeport oil field; No. 2 makes 300 barrels in twelve hours.
20. 1893 — The Edmonds Brothers establish a skunk farm half a mile south of Bradner; by the end of 1895 they have about 1,400 animals.
21. 2020 — The census finds 4,157 people living in the township.

Stories

Four names before Rising Sun

The village of Rising Sun, in the southeast of Montgomery Township, went through three earlier names before its citizens settled on the one that stuck. First called 'St. Elms' -- too refined a name, residents apparently felt, for a rough wilderness crossroads -- the settlement was renamed 'Coon Town' in reaction, then 'Stony Battery' after a local limestone outcrop. On July 4, 1874, resident David Earl moved to rename the place 'Rising Sun,' and the motion carried on Independence Day. The same township produced Bradner, platted the next year and simply named for one of its founders, John Bradner -- a much shorter naming story, but part of the same wave of village-building that turned Montgomery from farm and oil country into a township of three incorporated villages by the 1890s.

John A. Kelly and the corn fritters

John A. Kelly reached his homestead in the Montgomery wilderness on June 19, 1832, rode through the east branch of the Portage on the way (his horse stepping on and killing several large pickerel), and set to digging a well with Henry Sapp. They struck hardpan at fourteen feet, after which they could only dig six inches a day, and persevered to twenty-five feet before reaching rock, finding only a meagre supply of water in the swamp. Kelly went eighteen miles to bring fourteen men to raise his logs. Indians came often to eat at the Kelly cabin and paid a shilling a meal. One day several sat down while Mrs. Kelly fried corn fritters, and the cakes vanished by the panful; she mixed more batter and still they were not satisfied, until she saw grease dripping on the floor and found one of the women had a large quantity of the fritters stowed in the folds of her blanket. The story is from a memoir by Mrs. Emily P. Carter, written in 1886.

Dr. Kinnaman and the razor and the old saw

Dr. Jacob Kinnaman, a Philadelphia graduate, platted Royalton on Sections 30 and 32 in July 1836 and named the town. A very large walnut stump served as his laboratory, drug depository and reception room; he rode to patients through the forest and sometimes tied his horse to the branches of a tree he had felled to browse for the eight or ten hours it took to bring a patient out of danger. When the Perry pioneer Swayn, living in Bloom, was caught under a falling tree and his leg crushed, Kinnaman amputated it alone with a razor and an old saw, and the man recovered. Kinnaman died in 1838, worn out by overwork. Royalton died not long after him.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Wayne Village58% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Bradner Village40% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Pemberville Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (8 wells)
• Northwestern W and SD - Toledo Svc Area1% of residentsLake Erie

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-16

Cite this page