Noble Township, Auglaize County

How Noble Township, Auglaize County began

Noble Township, in western Auglaize County just north of St. Marys, was carved from Wayne Township of Mercer County; when it joined the new Auglaize County in 1848 the name had to change, since the county already had a Wayne Township in the east, so the southern half was named Noble for Elisha Noble and the northern half Salem. John Wytand entered the first land in 1820, and settlers such as Israel Johns (1828) and Nicholas Brewer (1836) followed. The township has no incorporated village, only the failed 1836 plat of Janesville. It lies on the edge of the Black Swamp, crossed by the St. Marys River and the Miami and Erie Canal, and its land needed heavy drainage; in 1886 the first oil and gas lease in the county was signed on land at its south edge.

Settled 1820 (first land entry, John Wytand), incorporated 1848.

Where the name comes from

Named for Elisha Noble (born 1782, arrived in the area in 1836), one of the most influential of the early settlers and a Mercer County commissioner before Auglaize County's creation; the southern half of the former Mercer County 'Wayne township' took his name in 1848 to avoid duplicating the name of the existing Wayne Township in eastern Auglaize County, while the northern half became Salem Township.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound or burial site specific to Noble Township is documented in the sources consulted. The township's original name, Wayne Township of Mercer County, came, according to the 1923 county history, from the old Wayne military trail that ran through that part of the country. The 1905 history notes that immigrant land buyers began arriving three years after the Indian treaties at St. Marys, and the township borders what was formerly known as the Black Swamp region.

• Wayne military trail (trail) — ran through the old Wayne Township of Mercer County, now Noble and Salem townships, not dated in the source (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1820 — John Wytand enters land on the St. Marys River in section 22, the first land entry in what is now Noble Township; entries by Charles Murray, Benjamin Tyrell and Lucas Vanausdale follow in 1821.
2. 1828 — Israel Johns, a Kentucky-born wheelwright and later minister, settles in what is then Wayne Township of Mercer County.
3. 1836 — Nicholas Brewer moves his family to Noble Township; Elisha Noble also arrives, and a plat of 'Janesville,' 72 lots around a public square, is filed on August 25 by Jesse Belknap in the south of the township; it never becomes a town.
4. 1848 — Auglaize County is organized; the former Mercer County township of Wayne is split, its south half renamed Noble Township for settler Elisha Noble and its north half becoming Salem Township.
5. 1850 — Elisha Noble is elected to Auglaize County's board of commissioners at the second county election, after six years on Mercer County's board.
6. 1864 — Elisha Noble, for whom the township is named, dies; his wife had died the previous year.
7. c. 1870 — The Big Run ditch is put through the northwestern part of the township, the first major drainage project; more follow as the forest is cleared.
8. 1886-07-19 — John N. Shipman and Louise Shipman sign the first oil and gas lease recorded in Auglaize County, on land at the south edge of Noble Township, adjoining St. Marys, to Frank Cass and R. J. Wilson of Lima; more than 300 leases are recorded by the end of May 1887.
9. 1888 — The Lima Natural Gas Company taps the St. Marys gas field in the summer, and the gas field is soon followed by oil wells in the county.
10. 1905 — A county history says that immediately after the discovery of petroleum in Noble Township 'an era of development and prosperity set in,' the forests were cleared, and schoolhouses and churches stand on every hand.

Stories

The Commissioner Whose Pay Barely Covered His Land Tax

Elisha Noble was born on Maryland's Eastern Shore in 1782, moved to Clinton County, Ohio, in 1808, served in the War of 1812 at the siege of Fort Meigs and the battle of the Thames, and then settled in the part of Mercer County that is now Noble Township. He was a Mercer County commissioner for six years, and in the second election in the new Auglaize County, in 1850, voters chose him for its board as well. One of the first acts of Auglaize County's commissioners in 1848 was to divide old Wayne Township, since the county already had a Wayne Township in its east end, and the southern half was named Noble for him. The 1880 county history adds that his commissioner's pay was 'scarcely sufficient to pay his land tax.' He died in 1864, a year after his wife.

Janesville, the Town That Never Was

On August 25, 1836, Jesse Belknap filed a plat of a town in the southern part of what is now Noble Township. He named it Janesville and drew 72 lots around a public square. Nothing came of the plat. The 1923 county history says only that Janesville 'never got a permanent place on the map,' and by 1880 and 1905 the histories recorded that the township had no villages at all, only its southern border running almost to the corporation line of St. Marys.

First Lease

The first oil and gas lease recorded in Auglaize County was signed on July 19, 1886, between John N. Shipman and Louise Shipman, whose farm lay on the south edge of Noble Township, and Frank Cass and R. J. Wilson of Lima. It covered the west half and the south half of the southwest quarter of section 35, for $50 a year for each gas well and a one-eighth royalty on oil. It proved productive for both sides, and by the end of May 1887 more than 300 leases had been recorded, with the price rising to $200 per gas well and a one-sixth royalty. The Lima Natural Gas Company tapped the St. Marys field in the summer of 1888 and in 1894 laid a second pipeline to Lima. The 1905 county history says that, after the discovery of petroleum, 'an era of development and prosperity set in' for the township.

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

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