Plain Township, Wayne County

How Plain Township, Wayne County began

Plain Township covers 41.7 square miles on the western line of Wayne County, second from the south. It was organized in 1817 and named for the plains or glades that made up much of its timber when it was settled. John Collier is thought to be the first settler; a stream of Pennsylvania families followed after 1812. Its villages, none of them incorporated, were Jefferson, Millbrook, Blachleyville, Reedsburg, Springville and, later, Funk; Jefferson stood on the Wooster and Ashland stage route. Buffalo skulls and huge buried cedar logs found between Springville and Millbrook puzzled settlers. It had 1,837 residents in 1870 and 3,069 in 2020.

Settled 1812-1814 (Philip Arnold in 1812; the Loziers and Augustus Case in 1814); John Collier thought to be first, platted Jefferson, June 30, 1829; Millbrook, August 10, 1829; Blachleyville, December 16, 1833; Reedsburg, December 1835; Springville, December 16, 1844, incorporated 1817 (township organized), by John Collier, William Meeks and Philip Arnold were among the first settlers.

Where the name comes from

Both Douglass (1878) and Bowen (1910) say Plain Township was named for the plains, or glades, which to a large extent made up its timber growth when it was settled and which still cover large areas of its surface.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty event is named for Plain Township in the sources checked. Its pioneer accounts record the fear of Native attack after Hull's surrender in August 1812, when Isaac Poe, son of Adam Poe, rode from Wooster toward Mansfield, heard a rumor that the Indians were about to move on the Wooster settlements, and turned back to raise the alarm; Nathan Warner gave him a fresh horse at Killbuck and sixty soldiers from Beall's army, then at Wooster, were sent out. Both county histories also mention buffalo skulls and horns and 'the remains of human bodies of great size' found with ancient cedar logs between Springville and Millbrook, a find the historians could not explain and did not attribute to any people.

• Cedar logs, buffalo skulls and large human remains (other) — low ground between Springville and Millbrook, south of Millbrook, Plain Township, found about 1830 and after; age and origin unknown (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1812 — Philip Arnold of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, comes; for months his family has no bread and lives on venison, honey and potatoes.
2. 1812 — After Hull's surrender (August 16) a rumor of Indian attack sends Isaac Poe racing to Wooster; sixty soldiers from General Beall's army are detached to the settlements.
3. 1814 — George and David Lozier settle on the prairies south of Blachleyville, and Augustus Case settles as early as this year.
4. 1815 — Daniel Miller builds a sawmill and the first house in Blachleyville, where Swain's hotel later stands; John Cassiday is the first teacher about 1816.
5. 1816 — General Thomas McMillen builds a gristmill east of the site of Millbrook for John Nimmon, later turned into a carding mill; Dr. William B. Blachley settles in the township.
6. 1817 — Plain Township is organized; Cyrus Baird is the first justice of the peace.
7. 1829 — On June 30 Stephen Williams and Alexander Hutchinson lay out Jefferson, four miles west of Wooster on the Wooster and Ashland stage route.
8. 1829 — On August 10 Elijah Yocum lays out Millbrook, named by General McMillen; the plat is recorded the next day.
9. 1829 — A post office named Mill Brook opens; it keeps that spelling until 1902.
10. 1830 — A post office is established at Blachleyville (Blackleysville).
11. 1833 — On December 16 William B. and William Blachley lay out Blachleyville, named for the family; it is surveyed by George Emery.
12. 1835 — William Reed lays out Reedsburg in December; its first settlers are Matthias Starn, Joseph Mowery, John Peters and William Hagerman.
13. 1836 — The Lutherans hold their first services in the township, at the homes of Jacob Smyser Sr. and M. Starn.
14. 1844 — On December 16 David Brown lays out Springville, formerly called Buffalo or Heath's Corners; the plat is recorded December 4, 1845.
15. 1870 — The census counts 1,837 residents in the township.
16. 1897 — A post office is opened at Funk, in the southwest of the township; it stays open until 1935.
17. 1900 — The census counts 1,666 residents.
18. 2020 — Township population recorded at 3,069 across 41.7 square miles.

Stories

Isaac Poe's false alarm

After General Hull surrendered Detroit on August 16, 1812, and a massacre on the Black Fork, a rumor ran through the Wayne County settlements that the Indians were about to move on Wooster. Isaac Poe, son of the famous Indian fighter Adam Poe, was riding from Wooster to Mansfield when he heard it and turned back at speed to give the alarm and get help from General Beall's army, then camped at Wooster. His horse gave out at Killbuck, and Nathan Warner instantly handed him a fresh one. Sixty soldiers were detached at once and sent to relieve the inhabitants. Warner, an early tax collector and member of the first grand jury in the county, told the story of his own part in it, and the historian pointed out that nobody can now fully picture what life was like for the people who endured such alarms.

Cedar logs and buffalo skulls under Plain Township

Between Springville and Millbrook, farmers ploughing and ditching in the 1800s kept running into the remains of huge cedar trees. About 1830 immense logs, three to four feet through, were lifted from three feet below the surface, sawn into boards, and they must have lain there for ages. More were found in ditching south of Millbrook. There are no cedar forests anywhere in the district and no tradition of any, which puzzled the county historians. In about the same place workers turned up numerous buffalo skulls and horns and what the 1910 history called the remains of human bodies of great size. The author wrote that who they were and what their history had been could only be conjectured, and offered no guess about their age or people.

Two Millbrook mills and the plat of 1829

Millbrook took its name from General Thomas McMillen, who named and surveyed it; Elijah Yocum laid it out on August 10, 1829, and the plat was recorded the next day in county records volume 7, page 315. McMillen had built a gristmill east of the site in 1816 for John Nimmon, later an Associate Judge of the county, and that mill was afterward converted to a carding mill. Joseph G. Yocum, a boy of twelve, lost his father in 1828 in an accident in the carding mill at West Millbrook, and went to live with his grandfather in Congress Township. The Baptists of the district built their own church in Millbrook about 1854, though it stood across the line in Clinton Township.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Wooster City88% of residentsKillbuck Creek Buried Valley Aquifer (own wells)
• Shreve Village10% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Spruce Tree Village MHP2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Green Meadows Estates1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Wooster Rolling Wheels Estates MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Private schools (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (8)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-07-28

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