Mount Blanchard

How Mount Blanchard began

Mount Blanchard was platted in October 1830 by Asa M. Lake, the first settler of Delaware Township, on ground overlooking the Blanchard River valley -- the name commemorates that elevated setting above the river. A post office followed in 1834/1837 and the village incorporated in 1865 under its first mayor, Dr. John Foster. It grew slowly through the 19th and 20th centuries, peaking at 497 residents in 1910, and today sits at roughly 470-490 people in northern Delaware Township, southeastern Hancock County.

Platted October 1830, with 53 lots, incorporated 1865, with Dr. John Foster as first mayor, by Asa M. Lake.

Where the name comes from

The village is named for its elevated site above the Blanchard River valley; Wikipedia gives the name as 'so named for its lofty elevation over the Blanchard River valley'.

Before the town

The 1881 county history says the parcel where Asa M. Lake built his first cabin in 1822, within the limits of the village of Mount Blanchard, 'had been used by the Indians as a burying ground', and that many skeletons and relics had been dug up there and could still be found. It also records that in 1828 or 1829 boys in Delaware Township found an Indian skeleton with metal ornaments beneath an upturned tree, and that two boys who lost their way hunting in 1830 were sheltered overnight at a wigwam on the old trail by an old man and his wife and sent home the next day. The writer supposed that the township took its name from the Delaware (Lenape), who 'made this part of the county a favorite resort'. The land was ceded by the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (1817).

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

• Burying ground at the Lake cabin site (burial) — parcel in the village of Mount Blanchard where Asa M. Lake built his cabin in 1822, before 1822, undated (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)
• Burial with metal ornaments found under an uprooted tree (burial) — Delaware Township, exact place not given, found 1828 or 1829 (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)

Timeline

1. 1822 — Asa M. Lake makes the first settlement in Delaware Township, building a log cabin within the limits of the later village; on December 12 he makes the township's first land entry.
2. 1828 — Asa M. Lake, the village's founder, is one of the first justices of the peace in the county; he is elected again in 1831 and 1834.
3. 1830 — Asa M. Lake lays out Mount Blanchard in October, with 53 original lots.
4. 1834 — A post office opens at Mount Blanchard under postmaster John P. Gordon.
5. 1838 — The Methodist Episcopal society, organized in 1833 at the house of 'Father' Greer by missionaries from Upper Sandusky, builds a frame church in Mount Blanchard, the first church in the township.
6. 1858 — An Odd Fellows lodge is organized in the village; a Masonic lodge follows in 1878.
7. 1865 — Mount Blanchard is incorporated as a village, with Dr. John Foster as its first mayor.
8. 1868 — The Mount Blanchard Union School is organized, and in 1873 a two-story brick school with three large rooms is built at a cost of $8,000.
9. 1880 — The village's recorded population is 285.
10. 1881 — The village has two large dry goods stores, two drug stores, a hotel, three blacksmiths and two wagon shops but no railroad.
11. 1882 — The Cleveland, Delphos & St. Louis narrow-gauge railroad reaches Mount Blanchard in December.
12. 1900 — The population is 456.
13. 1910 — The village reaches its recorded peak population of 497.
14. 2020 — The census counts 471 residents.

Stories

A son platting on his father's ground

Mount Blanchard's founding runs through one man. Asa M. Lake made the first settlement in Delaware Township in 1822, entering the township's first land on December 12 and building a log cabin on ground within the limits of what became the village. In October 1830 he laid out the town with 53 lots above the Blanchard River. A post office arrived in 1834 with John P. Gordon as first postmaster, but incorporation did not come until 1865, when Dr. John Foster became the first mayor.

A skeleton under a fallen tree

In 1828 or 1829, according to Simpson Harris, who gave the account to the county historian, four boys at play in Delaware Township, John H. Greer, M. S. Hamlin, J. Greer and D. O. Hamlin, came upon a tree that had been blown out by its roots. In falling it had bared the skeleton of an Indian, and with it a quantity of jewelry: finger rings, ear and nose rings, wristlets, a breastplate, a necklace and a large nugget that they took for copper, all engraved with what they said were French characters. Supposing the rings to be tin, the boys divided them. A trading post had been set up in what is now Wyandot County, and when its agent heard of the find he sent word that he would pay what the pieces were worth. M. S. Hamlin sent his share and received seven dollars; the nugget lay about until pieces had been hacked off it and it was lost, and some later thought it had been gold. Harris says nothing of where in the township the tree stood.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · archive.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Mt Blanchard Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-12-17

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Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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