Perry Township, Montgomery County

How Perry Township, Montgomery County began

Perry Township is a 36.5-square-mile township in the western part of Montgomery County, Ohio, bordering three Preble County townships (Lanier, Twin, and Harrison) as well as Clay, Jackson and Jefferson townships within Montgomery County. It contains the unincorporated community of Pyrmont and shares the cities of Brookville (to the north) and the village of New Lebanon (to the south) across its municipal boundaries; neither city lies wholly inside the township. It is one of twenty-six townships named Perry in Ohio, and the 1882 county history says this one was named for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Lake Erie fame. The 2020 census recorded 5,848 residents. Surviving records point to a farming township whose visible historical anchor is the mid-1800s Spitler House in Brookville and the George Bixler Farm south of Brookville, rather than any single founding event or industry.

Settled 1805 (John and Christian Wogoman, natives of Pennsylvania, settled in the southeast part of the township), incorporated formed March 7, 1820, from parts of Jackson and Madison townships; full Congressional Township 5, Range 4, six miles square.

Where the name comes from

The 1882 History of Montgomery County records that the township 'was named in honor of Com. Perry of Lake Erie fame' -- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie.

Before the town

No source naming a specific Native village, trail, mound, or treaty boundary inside present-day Perry Township was found. The township lies within the broader Great Miami and Stillwater river drainage of western Ohio, territory used by the Miami and, later, Shawnee peoples before the Treaty of Greenville (1795); after that treaty, most of what is now Ohio, including this area, passed out of Native hands. The Miami had a major settlement, Pickawillany, on the Great Miami River (near present Piqua, well north of this township) in the mid-1700s, and Miami bands who continued to resist U.S. expansion regrouped further west and north around Ouiatenon and Prophetstown after Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville, following the U.S. victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794, ceded most of what is now Ohio (including the future Montgomery County) by the Western Confederacy under leaders including Little Turtle, opening the region to American settlement.
2. 1805 — John and Christian Wogoman, natives of Pennsylvania, settled in the southeast part of the township, among the earliest settlers the 1882 county history could identify; four families -- Widenbicht, Cumright, Spitler and Swank, also from Pennsylvania -- had entered quarter-sections in the eastern part of the township at around the same time.
3. 1816 — Andrew Clemmer, who had settled in Section 32 in the fall of 1814, built the first grist-mill in Perry Township on Tom's Creek. Samuel Rodeheffer was the township's first blacksmith.
4. 1820-03-07 — Perry Township was formed from parts of Jackson and Madison townships, ordered by the County Commissioners; the full Congressional Township 5, Range 4, six miles square.
5. 1835-05-25 — Pyrmont was laid out by Daniel Mundhenk in Sections 7 and 8, in the township's northwest corner, and named for his native village in Germany; the first house was built by blacksmith Christopher Syler, and the first store opened the same year, run by Joseph Mixwell.
6. 1843-06-03 — New Lebanon, on the township's southern line along the Dayton and Eaton Pike, was platted by Jacob Grice; the 1882 county history treats the town site as part of Perry Township, where part of the village still lies today.
7. 2020 — The U.S. Census recorded Perry Township's population as 5,848 across 36.5 square miles, governed by a three-member board of trustees and an elected fiscal officer.
8. 2002-08-22 — The George Bixler Farm, at 13213 Providence Pike south of Brookville, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

Pyrmont, named for home

When Daniel Mundhenk laid out a town in the northwest corner of Perry Township in May 1835, he gave it the name of the German village he had come from -- Pyrmont, a small spa town in the old principality of Waldeck. Mundhenk had emigrated from Germany in 1807, landing in Philadelphia after a stormy three-month voyage, and did not reach Perry Township until 1817, when he entered 160 acres in Section 5. He married three times, in Germany, in Philadelphia and again in Ohio, and by 1834 had built the township's first steam saw-mill; a few years later he and his sons put up a steam grist-mill as well. The town he named for home grew to about 300 people by the early 1880s, with Methodist and United Brethren congregations both organized by farmers from the surrounding country, a small piece of the old world's geography carried west and fixed permanently onto a Montgomery County map.

Photographs

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

Mad River Well Field wells along the Mad River east of Dayton, refilled by river water let into recharge lagoons The water here

• Brookville Municipality70% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer wells (recharged by Great Miami & Mad Rivers)
• New Lebanon Village22% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• West Alexandria, Village Of4% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Montgomery County Water Services 23% of residentsGreat Miami Buried Valley Aquifer wells (recharged by Great Miami & Mad Rivers)
• Phillipsburg Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Voyager Village MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Jefferson Regional Water Authority0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Gratis Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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