Pleasant Township, Knox County

How Pleasant Township, Knox County began

Pleasant Township, directly southeast of Mount Vernon, was established March 9, 1825 and named by John Kerr, a prominent local citizen, for its pleasant scenery. The township originally included the future site of Gambier and Kenyon College, which was set off as separate College Township in 1838. James Colville, who arrived from Washington County, Pennsylvania about 1803-4 and planted an orchard the following year, is recorded as among the earliest settlers; his daughter Martha, born in 1807, is believed to be the first white child born within the township. The 1881 county history states there are no mounds in Pleasant Township. It has no incorporated village entirely within its own borders today, though part of the city of Mount Vernon, the county seat, extends into the township's northwestern corner. The 2020 census recorded 1,657 residents.

Settled c. 1804 (James Colville, among the earliest settlers), incorporated 1825-03-09 (township established); reduced in size 1838-12-07 when College Township was set off, by Named by John Kerr, a prominent citizen, for its pleasant scenery.

Where the name comes from

Pleasant Township was named by John Kerr, a prominent citizen of the township, on account of its pleasant scenery.

Before the town

The 1881 county history states plainly that no mounds are found in Pleasant Township. Before the War of 1812, early settler Jonathan Hunt, a gunsmith, was often employed to repair guns for Native people in the area, a detail suggesting ongoing contact but not a specific village or site within the township. The township borders Mount Vernon, near which the Adena-era McLaughlin Mound and the historically reported burial of Delaware chief Sac-a-manc are located, but those sites sit within Mount Vernon itself, not inside Pleasant Township.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. 1804 — James Colville, from Washington County, Pennsylvania, purchases 100 acres east of Mount Vernon in what becomes Pleasant Township and plants an orchard.
2. 1806 — Colville marries and moves into a log house on his land; Jonathan Hunt, a gunsmith who repaired guns for Native people before the War of 1812, settles in the township's southwest corner, giving his name to the later Hunt's Station.
3. 1807 — Martha Colville is born August 25, believed to be the first white child born within the present bounds of Pleasant Township.
4. 1808 — Silas Brown, who settled about 1806 near the Pleasant-Clinton line north of Hunt's Station, is elected the first sheriff of Knox County on April 4; settlers petition on August 5 for the Mount Vernon and Newark road, returned September 22.
5. 1815 — Jonathan Hunt, the gunsmith whose name survives in Hunt's Station, is licensed to keep a tavern.
6. 1817 — John Kerr, who named the township, erects a grist-mill, fulling-mill, and carding machine on the Kokosing River two miles below Mount Vernon.
7. 1819 — John Kerr builds the first brick house in Pleasant Township, two years after moving to his mill on the Kokosing, and a stone distillery follows in 1825.
8. 1825 — Pleasant Township is established March 9; the first township election is held at Frederick Rohrer's tavern on the Martinsburgh road.
9. 1830 — Pleasant Township, created five years earlier, has 918 inhabitants.
10. 1832 — Pleasant Hill Christian church is organized at Pleasant Grove by Rev. Isaac N. Walter on September 24.
11. 1835 — Jacob Kurtz builds a brewery on the Gambier road; it is sold to George Pfeifer, passes about 1850 to John Bechtel, and is abandoned.
12. 1838 — The county commissioners set off the township's first quarter -- the site of Gambier and Kenyon College -- as new College Township on December 7, reducing Pleasant Township to its present size.
13. 1838 — James Morrison, an English immigrant who came to own Kerr's mill, imports thirteen thoroughbred short-horn Durham cattle from England, the first in the township.
14. 1848 — Barton Starr establishes the Mt. Vernon Nursery on the Gambier road in the township's northern part.
15. 1850 — The Pleasant Hill Presbyterian church, begun about 1845 under Rev. Henry Hervey, builds a frame church on the Martinsburgh road; township population is 909.
16. 1851 — A store and post office open at Hunt's Station following completion of the Newark & Sandusky railroad.
17. 1855 — St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church, organized June 4, 1853 at Crawford's schoolhouse, dedicates its frame church south of Kerr's mill on July 1; the Hopewell Methodist church is also built this year.
18. 1880 — Robert Miller's grist-mill, on the site of John Kerr's original mill, burns down on the night of August 11 along with a large stock of stored grain.
19. 1880 — Township population is recorded at 1,033; it falls to 865 in 1890, 818 in 1900 and 784 in 1910.
20. 2020 — Census records 1,657 residents in the township.

Stories

A mill, a distillery, and a fire seventy years apart

John Kerr, the citizen who gave Pleasant Township its name, bought land on the Kokosing River two miles below Mount Vernon in 1815 and paid Solomon Geller a thousand dollars to dam the river and build a sawmill. By 1817 Kerr had added a grist-mill, fulling-mill, and carding machine, and in 1819 he built the first brick house in the township; in 1825 he added a stone distillery, thirty feet square, which did a brisk business before eventually closing. Kerr moved to Missouri in 1837, and the mill property passed through several owners -- his son Benjamin, English immigrants John and James Morrison, and finally Robert Miller, who expanded it with a new saw-mill. On the night of August 11, 1880, the mill and a large quantity of stored grain burned to the ground, ending the operation Kerr had founded 65 years before.

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

Wells drawing groundwater from the buried-valley aquifer along the Kokosing River near Mount Vernon The water here

• Mount Vernon City91% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Gambier Village8% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Colonial Terrace Mhc Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Westgate Mobile Home Community0% of residentsBuried Valley Aquifer (Kokosing River valley wells)
• Knox County Water and Wastewater0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Grandview MHP A0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Martinsburg Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 1 of 2 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 2.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

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