Paris Township, Union County

How Paris Township, Union County began

Paris Township was formed on March 12, 1821, one of five townships created that day (with Union, Darby, Jerome and Mill Creek) when Union County's boundaries were redrawn. Its first permanent settler, Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Amrine, bought 1,000 acres along Mill Creek in 1817 and moved his large family in from Belmont County; two years later Zanesville lawyer Samuel W. Culbertson laid out Marysville a short distance away, naming it for his daughter Mary Ellen, and Marysville grew to occupy most of the township and become the Union County seat. The township also holds the Ellis Mounds, a Hopewell-era earthwork site northeast of Marysville, giving it a deep, well-documented Native American record.

Settled 1817, platted 1819 (Marysville), incorporated 1821-03-12, by Abraham Amrine (settlement); Samuel W. Culbertson (Marysville).

Where the name comes from

No source found explains why Paris Township took its name; it is one of three Paris Townships in Ohio (with Portage and Stark counties). The township's principal town, Marysville, was named by its founder Samuel W. Culbertson for his daughter Mary Ellen Culbertson, born 1810, who later married U.S. Congressman Joshua Mathiot.

Before the town

Paris Township holds the Ellis Mounds, a group of three Hopewell-culture mounds arranged in an east-west line on a low ridge inside a farm field northeast of Marysville, within the triangle formed by Hillview Road, Wolford-Maskill Road and State Route 4. Believed built sometime between about 300 BC and AD 600, the mounds cover about two acres and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 30, 1974; they lie well north of the Hopewell heartland in the Scioto valley, and their presence here is read as evidence of a wide Hopewell trade and cultural network reaching into west-central Ohio. No specific historic-era (post-1650) Native village, camp or trail has been documented for Paris Township itself in the sources checked, though the broader area was used by the Wyandot, Shawnee, Miami and Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga) into the early 1800s and Jonathan Alder, held captive as a boy by the Mingo and Shawnee, later settled in neighboring Jerome Township.

Nations recorded here: Hopewell culture, Wyandot, Shawnee, Miami, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Ellis Mounds (mound) — within the triangle of Hillview Road, Wolford-Maskill Road and State Route 4, northeast of Marysville, Paris Township, c. 300 BC - AD 600 (Hopewell) (en.wikipedia.org)

Timeline

1. 1817 — Abraham Amrine, a Revolutionary War veteran, bought 1,000 acres along Mill Creek at two dollars an acre and moved his family in from Belmont County, becoming the first permanent settler in what became Paris Township, about two miles northwest of the future Marysville.
2. 1819 — On August 10, Samuel W. Culbertson, a Zanesville lawyer who had bought 450 acres in 1817, had Charles Roberts survey a village of 96 lots at the crossing of Mill Creek and the Delaware-to-Urbana road and named it Marysville for his daughter Mary Ellen.
3. 1821 — Union County's boundaries were redrawn on March 12, creating five townships at once: Union, Darby, Jerome, Paris and Mill Creek.
4. 1822 — Henry Amrine, given 100 acres and a millsite on Mill Creek by his father Abraham, built a sawmill.
5. 1825 — Henry Amrine added a gristmill next to his sawmill on Mill Creek.
6. 1840 — Otway Curry was elected mayor of the incorporated village of Marysville on May 4 and is believed to have been its first; Marysville had been made the county seat in 1822.
7. 1974 — The Ellis Mounds were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 30.

Stories

The Amrine settlement, two years before Marysville

Before there was a Marysville, there was Abraham Amrine. A Revolutionary War veteran whose family had emigrated from Switzerland to Pennsylvania, Amrine had already lived sixteen years in Belmont County, Ohio when in 1817 he bought 1,000 acres along Mill Creek for two dollars an acre and brought his wife and seven sons — John, Andrew, Moses, Frederick, Jeremiah, Abraham Jr. and Henry — to clear it, about two miles northwest of where Marysville would rise two years later. Abraham gave his son Henry 100 acres and a site on Mill Creek, and by 1822 Henry had a sawmill running; he added a gristmill in 1825, giving the young settlement its first way to turn timber and grain into lumber and flour without a long haul to Delaware or Urbana. The Amrine Settlement and its cemetery are still marked today, and in 2017 the community held an event marking the settlement's two hundredth anniversary.

A county seat named for a lawyer's daughter

Samuel W. Culbertson was a lawyer from Zanesville who bought 450 acres at the crossing of Mill Creek and the Delaware-to-Urbana road in 1817. On August 10, 1819 he had surveyor Charles Roberts lay out a town of 96 lots on the site and named it Marysville, after his daughter Mary Ellen Culbertson, then nine years old; she grew up to marry U.S. Congressman Joshua Mathiot. Union County was organized the following year, Marysville was made its seat in 1822, and it was an incorporated village by 1840. It grew slowly through the nineteenth century and later became a city, absorbing most of the township around it.

Photographs

Local history sources: archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · hmdb.org · hmdb.org · en.wikipedia.org · uccogs.org · en.wikipedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org · commons.wikimedia.org

Mill Creek water pumped into and stored in the Marysville Upground Reservoir on Raymond Road, plus groundwater from city-owned wells, treated at the plant on the reservoir site The water here

• Marysville City100% of residentsMill Creek via Marysville Reservoir (Raymond Rd) + wells
• Del-co Water Company, Inc.0% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Milford Center Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Mounds and earthworks (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-25

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