Pleasant Township, Logan County

How Pleasant Township, Logan County began

Pleasant Township, in southwestern Logan County, is Congress land south of the Greenville Treaty line, cut by the Great Miami River running south through its center and by Buckongehelas Creek in the east. Its first settlers, James Moore and Robert Dickson, came from Kentucky with ox wagons in March 1809 and lived as the only white families on the river for two years; a blockhouse built about a mile east of Logansville during the War of 1812 was garrisoned only briefly. The township was taken from Miami Township and organized in 1841. Its hamlet of Logansville, platted in 1827 by Dickson's sons and named for the Mingo leader Logan, had the township's mills, tavern and post office until the railroad through DeGraff drew its trade south. Part of DeGraff lies on the township's southern edge.

Settled 1809, platted 1827 (Logansville), incorporated 1841 (township organized, from Miami Township), by James Moore and Robert Dickson, first settlers; Thompson and William Dickson, proprietors of Logansville.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted records why the name Pleasant was chosen; it is one of fifteen Pleasant Townships in Ohio. The 1880 county history remarks only that the name seemed particularly appropriate to the scenery of the Miami valley in the township. Its hamlet, Logansville, was named by its proprietors in 1827 for Logan, the Mingo leader whose 1774 speech to Lord Dunmore's messenger became famous.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or burial is recorded inside Pleasant Township. The township lies south of the Greenville Treaty line of 1795, so its land was ceded by that treaty before the first settlers arrived in 1809. During the War of 1812 the scattered settlers were alarmed enough that soldiers built a blockhouse of two connected buildings on high ground about a mile east of Logansville; Henry Howe records it as Vance's blockhouse, built by a rifle company under Joseph Vance, later governor, and the 1880 history says the troops left soon after it was finished. Two place names recall Native people: Buckongehelas Creek, which crosses the east of the township, named for a Lenape (Delaware) chief, and Logansville, named in 1827 for the Mingo leader Logan.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Greenville Treaty line (treaty) — runs north of the township; Pleasant Township lies south of it, in land ceded in 1795, 1795 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1809 — In March James Moore and Robert Dickson set out from Kentucky with their families in ox wagons and settled on about 300 acres on the east bank of the Miami River, just above the later Logansville.
2. 1810 — The first white child born in the township, a daughter of James and Catharine Moore, arrived in early summer; that same summer Moore's son William died of fever before the doctor from Urbana could reach him.
3. 1811 — In the fall Alfred Mathews and John Means arrived with large families, ending two years in which the Moores and Dicksons were the township's only white residents.
4. 1812 — Sarah Leonard and David Mathews were married, the township's first wedding.
5. 1812 — During the war soldiers built a blockhouse of two connected log buildings on high ground about a mile east of the later Logansville; Howe records it as Vance's blockhouse.
6. 1815 — A New Light (Christian) preacher held a meeting at James Moore's log house, the first of a series that led to the township's first congregation.
7. 1818 — Alexander Piper and family came from Nicholas County, Kentucky, among the first settlers after the war, followed by Robert Ellis and Robert McMullen.
8. 1820 — About 1819-20 James Moore built the township's first grist mill, of logs, on the west bank of the Miami River, and soon added a frame saw mill beside it.
9. 1824 — The families of the four original settlers formed the first religious society in the township, of the Christian (New Light) faith, and built a log meetinghouse at Logansville.
10. 1826 — Thompson Dickson built a tannery just west of Logansville.
11. 1827 — Thompson and William Dickson platted Logansville on the east side of the Miami and named it for the Mingo leader Logan.
12. 1830 — About this year the first legal road in the township was cut from DeGraff northwest to Bloom Center, crossing the Miami where James Moore kept a small ferry boat.
13. 1835 — A post office called Logansville was established (the 1880 history dates it about 1830, with John Dickson as first postmaster); it closed in 1905.
14. 1841 — Pleasant Township was organized from the northern part of Miami Township, leaving Miami a strip about seven miles long and three wide.
15. 1841 — The township's first election was held at John Dickson's hotel in Logansville; the 1880 historian could find no record of the date or the officers chosen.
16. 1870 — The Christian congregation built a new church at Logansville; its old frame church, shared with the Presbyterians, later became the Grange hall.
17. 1876 — The McColly Covered Bridge, often linked to this part of the county, was built by the Anderson Green Company of Sidney for $3,103, just over the township line in Washington Township near Bloom Center.
18. 1879 — Pleasant Grange No. 485, Patrons of Husbandry, was organized on January 29 with thirty charter members.
19. 1880 — A wrought-iron truss bridge of two spans, 187 feet long, was built over the Miami just west of Logansville by the Cleveland Bridge and Iron Company for $9,376; the 1880 history called it the finest bridge in the county.

Stories

Two families alone on the Miami

In March 1809 James Moore and Robert Dickson left the interior of Kentucky, each with two yoke of oxen and a covered wagon holding his family and goods. They crossed the Ohio at Cincinnati in high water, followed blazed trails to Urbana, and cut their way from there to a tract of about 300 acres on the east bank of the Miami. Moore took the north half and Dickson the south, and for two years the two families were the only white residents of what became Pleasant Township. The nearest mill and store were at Urbana, where tea cost two dollars a pound and calico a dollar a yard. In the summer of 1810 the Moores had a daughter, and weeks later their son William died of fever; the doctor sent for from Urbana arrived only in time to see him die, and he was buried in a coffin of split plank in the woods. Alfred Mathews and John Means joined them in the fall of 1811, and after the war the settlement grew around the mills Moore built on the river.

Logansville, a crossroads passed by

Logansville was laid out in 1827 by Thompson and Dickson and named for Logan, the Mingo chief. James Moore's grist mill, saw mill and distillery stood on the Miami just north of it, a road cut about 1830 from DeGraff to Bloom Center ran through it, and a ferry boat carried travelers across the river at Moore's mill for a small charge. John Dickson built a tavern there about 1833 that was long a noted place of entertainment, the first schoolhouse in the township stood on William McMullen's farm just to the east, and the Christians, or New Lights, built the first meetinghouse in 1824. The 1903 county history recalls Logansville as a bustling trading point at the center of a thriving community. When the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad was built through DeGraff, nearly all of that traffic went to DeGraff, and the village made no progress afterward.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Degraff Village72% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Quincy Village28% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-07

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