Pike Township, Knox County

How Pike Township, Knox County began

Pike Township, in the northern part of Knox County bordering Richland County, was established June 8, 1819 (Norton's 1862 history says June 7) and named in honor of General Zebulon Pike, the explorer and War of 1812 officer. An Irishman of 'giant stature,' Henry Lander, a former member of the Irish dragoons who could reportedly not be out-wrestled by seven men at once, was living in the township by 1816, among its earliest recorded settlers. Part of the township lies north of the Greenville Treaty Line of 1795. It has no incorporated municipality within its boundaries, though the villages of Amity and North Liberty grew up inside it. By 1880 the temperance movement had taken such hold that the township, with over 1,300 residents, had not a single saloon. It has remained rural, recording 1,656 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled by 1816 (Henry Lander, John Arnold, Charles McBride, Aaron Bixby, Philip Armentrout, among the earliest recorded settlers), incorporated 1819-06-08 (township established); boundaries revised 1825-03-09.

Where the name comes from

Pike Township was named in honor of General Zebulon Pike, the American explorer and army officer killed in the War of 1812, according to the 1881 county history.

Before the town

No source found documents a Native village, mound, or specific encounter within Pike Township's present boundaries. The 1881 county history notes only that part of the township lies north of the Greenville Treaty Line of 1795, adjacent to Richland County; land here passed out of Native title with that treaty, but no site-specific detail for Pike Township itself was found.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1816 — Henry Lander, an Irishman and former Irish dragoon of great size and strength, is recorded living in the township, among its earliest known settlers; John Arnold and Charles McBride, both from Maryland, and Aaron Bixby also settle this year.
2. 1819 — Pike Township is established June 8 by the county commissioners and named for General Zebulon Pike; the organizing election is held June 26 at the house of Michael Harter.
3. 1820 — John Arnold lists the township's taxable property and is paid $5 for it.
4. 1822 — The township records nineteen voters; Nicholas Headington's son brings the first tobacco seed to Knox County and raises the first tobacco crop for shipment.
5. 1823 — Aaron Bixby, who settled in 1816, teaches the first term in the township's first schoolhouse, a rude round-log building half a mile south of the later North Liberty.
6. 1825 — The county commissioners revise Pike Township's boundaries on March 9.
7. 1827 — Hugh and John Cochran build a log church for the Pike Methodist congregation on land obtained from Hugh Hardesty, following a revival at a quarterly meeting held in Aaron Bixby's barn.
8. 1831 — John Arnold builds the township's first grist-mill on Schenck's Creek.
9. 1832 — Amity, in the township's southeast corner, is laid out by David Jackson.
10. 1832 — Thomas Smith, an Englishman, builds the township's first saw-mill on section 18; Silas Daniels buys it in 1836.
11. 1834 — A Mr. Hillis builds the township's second grist-mill on section 23, sold in 1836 to John Walkey, who runs it with two run of buhrs until 1874; David Hatch brings the first threshing machine and cooking stove to the township the same year.
12. c. 1837 — Amity, laid out in 1832 as Emmettsville, changes its name to Amity; its post office is called Democracy, with William Gordon as first postmaster (Norton dates the platting 1833).
13. 1840 — A frame Methodist Episcopal church, 35 by 45 feet, is built in North Liberty.
14. 1840 — Pike Township has 1,216 inhabitants; the census figures are 1,720 in 1850 and 1,454 in 1860.
15. 1850 — The Pike Methodist congregation, which built a log church in 1827, raises a frame church 40 by 50 feet with lumber hauled from Waterford.
16. 1860 — A brick Lutheran church, 36 by 46 feet, is erected in North Liberty for a congregation formed in 1846 by Rev. William Gilbreath.
17. 1875 — Amity Lodge No. 111, Knights of Honor, is instituted on May 20; Bartholo Lodge No. 692, Odd Fellows, is organized in Amity October 23, 1879, the last lodge instituted in the county to that date.
18. 1880 — Pike Township has a population of 1,307 and, the county history says, not a single saloon or place selling liquor, after a distillery once run by John Arnold and Daniel Grubb.
19. 2020 — Census records 1,656 residents in the township.

Stories

Henry Lander, the giant dragoon

One of the earliest people recorded living in Pike Township, found there in 1816, was an Irish immigrant named Henry Lander, a former member of the Irish dragoons who loved to recount his old military exploits. He stood six feet six inches tall and weighed 250 pounds, and was in the habit of wagering a round of whiskey that no seven men present could remove his hat from his head; he would then back against a wall or tree and, swinging his long arms, defy anyone who tried.

A church split by the war, revived by its end

The North Liberty Methodist Episcopal church, an offshoot of the older Pike Methodist congregation, built a frame meetinghouse in the village around 1840. In 1861, as the country divided over the Civil War, political discord split the congregation itself, and the building stood largely idle through the war years and for some time after. Only once slavery, 'the vexed question' as the 1881 county historian called it, had been settled by the war's end did the congregation revive, resuming regular meetings and eventually rebuilding a membership of about fifty.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Butler Village39% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mount Vernon City27% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Fredericktown Village23% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Del-co Water Company, Inc.8% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Knox County Water and Wastewater4% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Colonial Terrace Mhc Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Westgate Mobile Home Community0% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Grandview MHP A0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Power plants (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

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