Pitt Township, Wyandot County

How Pitt Township, Wyandot County began

Pitt Township, in southern Wyandot County, took shape on June 2, 1845, when the first county commissioners joined twelve sections from Salt Rock Township, Marion County, to the part of an older Crawford County township that had lain mostly inside the Wyandot Reservation. The 1884 county history says it was named for a Mr. Pitt, who came from New Jersey in 1822 and lived there at the organization. Little Sandusky, once a Native village with a trading post as early as 1818, was laid out by whites in 1830 and later sat on the Columbus-Detroit stage road. Fowler, now Harpster, was founded in 1876 on the Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo Railroad.

Settled 1818-1820 (Ebenezer Roseberry reputed 1818; John Wilson and Walter Woolsey 1820), incorporated 1845-06-02, by Wyandot County's first commissioners, joining Salt Rock Township's twelve sections to a township already known in Crawford County before 1840.

Where the name comes from

A footnote in the 1884 county history says the township 'derived its name from one Pitt, who resided here at the time of its organization, and who moved here from New Jersey in 1822.' The 1913 history does not repeat the explanation.

Before the town

Little Sandusky, on the Little Sandusky Creek close to the reservation line, was 'originally established and named by the Indians,' says the 1884 county history; the 1913 history adds that it was 'an old Indian village' when the whites came and that 'the Indians opened a trading post here as early as 1818.' Ora Beilis kept a store there in 1820 'while it was yet an Indian village.' Much of the township lay inside the Wyandot Reservation, and the first settlers came 'just south of the reservation line' near Little Sandusky. The Columbus and Sandusky road used by early settlers to reach the Indian Mill above Upper Sandusky ran through Sections 1, 35, 26, 27, 22, 15 and 16. No other village, trail or burial in Pitt is named in the sources checked. The Wyandot removal came in 1843.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Little Sandusky (Indian village and trading post) (village) — banks of Little Sandusky Creek, near the reservation line, southern Pitt Township, trading post by 1818; platted by whites 1830 (archive.org)
• Wyandot Reservation line (other) — north and west of the early white settlements near Little Sandusky; Fowler lies just south of it, to 1843-45 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1818 — The 1913 county history says the Indians opened a trading post at Little Sandusky as early as this year; Ebenezer Roseberry, a hunter, is reputed to have located in the southern part of the township about the same time.
2. 1819 — Anthony Bowsher, born in 1800 in Pennsylvania, settles on 'Garbland' in the spring and finds Roseberry already established; his 80 acres are surveyed that year.
3. 1820 — John Wilson and Walter Woolsey build log cabins at Little Sandusky (Wilson's is 18 feet square), and Ora Beilis opens the first store there while it is still an Indian village.
4. 1824 — Michael Harmon and his neighbors build the township's first school, on the northeast quarter of Section 11, with William Brown as teacher.
5. 1828 — Anthony Bowsher begins a hotel and store at Bowsherville, which he keeps for forty years and which has a race track favored by horsemen of several counties.
6. 1830 — Dr. Stephen Fowler, John Wilson and Walter Woolsey lay out Little Sandusky; Cornelius Wilson opens the first business room there as a hotel and general store.
7. 1839 — Thomas Holmes builds the township's first water-powered sawmill on Section 35, and in 1844 a water-powered grist mill on the Sandusky River in Section 26.
8. 1844 — The United Brethren build the first church in the township at Little Sandusky.
9. 1845 — On June 2 the commissioners attach Sections 1-12 of Salt Rock Township to Pitt and Sections 1-9 of Pitt to Crane, leaving thirty-nine sections.
10. 1852 — The German Reformed church is organized, building its frame church in 1854 on Section 12; a Methodist society forms at Bowsherville about 1853.
11. 1876 — David Harpster and John Wood found the village of Fowler, now Harpster, on the Columbus, Hocking Valley and Toledo Railroad.
12. 1878 — The Fowler Methodist church builds a brick church, 40 by 60 feet, in 1878-79 for $5,000.
13. 1883 — The Harpster Bank opens, and Harpster completes the village's three-story grist mill.
14. 1913 — The 1913 county history lists two villages, Little Sandusky and Harpster, and notes that Bowsherville, platted in thirty-four lots early on, never prospered and is not on the map.

Stories

The stage road town that lost out

Little Sandusky began as a Native village and trading post on the creek of the same name, near the edge of the Wyandot reserve, and whites laid it out in 1830 on land owned by Dr. Stephen Fowler, John Wilson and Walter Woolsey. Fowler, a Pennsylvanian who came in 1827, was one of the ablest physicians in that part of the state and had an exceedingly large practice. Before the railroads a daily stage between Columbus and Detroit passed through, and the 1884 historian wrote that the town's prospects for future greatness 'seemed quite flattering.' Then 'the march of time and the decree of fate' gave it rivals in sister towns, and the result was an existence 'of mediocrity.' In 1913 it had about 250 residents, a general store and a Methodist church.

Major Bowsher's racetrack hotel

Anthony Bowsher was married in the fall of 1818 and in the spring of 1819 settled in Pitt Township, building a small cabin on 'Garbland' where with his father-in-law Staley he began improving eighty acres. About 1828 'Maj. Bowsher,' as he came to be called, put up a building at Bowsherville and kept a hotel and store there for forty years. He had a race track, and for many years Bowsherville was a favorite rendezvous for horse sportsmen of this and adjoining counties. A young clerk in Bowsher & Green's store there in the early 1830s was David Harpster, later the founder of Harpster. Bowsherville was platted in thirty-four lots but never prospered, and by 1913 it was not on the map. The major was still living in 1884, and had just gone to Kansas to live with a son.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Upper Sandusky City100% of residentsSandusky River (via Upper Sandusky Reservoirs 1 & 2)

Power plants (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-08

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