Pleasant Township, Marion County

How Pleasant Township, Marion County began

Pleasant Township is a 28.3-square-mile farming township of Congress Lands in the southern part of Marion County, set off on June 8, 1824, at the county commissioners' first session and named at the suggestion of Humphrey Mounts. Its first settler, Rev. Jacob Idleman, camped in February 1820 at a place called Slab Camp, a mile north of the Greenville Treaty line, and within the year a Methodist society, and by 1823 a hewed-log church and a log schoolhouse, stood in the township. German Lutheran, Reformed and Evangelical congregations followed from the 1850s, and in 1876 the Columbus & Toledo Railroad put a station, Owen, in the western half of the township beside John Owen's limestone quarry and lime kilns. It has no incorporated village; its lost settlements include Slab Camp, Owen (later Owens) and part of Bethlehem, a Catholic farm settlement shared with Waldo Township.

Settled 1820-02, incorporated 1824-06-08, by Marion County commissioners; first settler Rev. Jacob Idleman of Highland County, Ohio.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history records that the name Pleasant was suggested by Humphrey Mounts, one of the township's first settlers, when the county commissioners set off the township on June 8, 1824; it does not say why he chose it. It is one of fifteen Pleasant Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, or trail specific to Pleasant Township is recorded in the sources checked, including the township's own chapter in the 1883 county history, which mentions Native people and the Mound Builders only in general terms and declines to record traditions it could not verify. The chapter does fix one treaty landmark: Rev. Jacob Idleman's first camp in 1820, known as Slab Camp, was one mile north of the Greenville Treaty line, so the line of 1795 ran about a mile south of the township's first settlement. The land north of it was Wyandot hunting territory until the treaties of 1817 and 1818.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Greenville Treaty line near Slab Camp (treaty) — about one mile south of Slab Camp, the first settlement site in the township, treaty of August 3, 1795; Idleman bought land north of it at the Delaware land sales in August 1820 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1820-02 — Rev. Jacob Idleman, his wife and three children arrive from Highland County and put up a temporary cabin at Slab Camp, one mile north of the Greenville Treaty line.
2. 1820 — Henry Peters, Jacob Idleman and Christian Staley form the township's first religious society, a Methodist class, meeting in settlers' cabins.
3. 1820-08 — Idleman buys 160 acres at the Delaware land sales, a mile north of his camp on the later Marion & Delaware pike; William Wyatt, the Van Horn and Tipton families, John Staley and Henry Peters settle near him that year, and Humphrey Mounts comes from Radnor Township, Delaware County, in the fall.
4. 1821 — The first school, fifteen pupils for a three-month term paid privately, is held in the cabin first occupied by the Van Horn family.
5. 1822 — Silas Idleman is born on his father's farm, the first white child born within the township's present limits.
6. 1823 — The Methodist society builds a hewed-log church on the Idleman land, dedicated by Rev. James Gilruth, later known as Locust Grove Church; the first schoolhouse is built the same year on John Nickleson's farm.
7. 1823 — Henry Stealy dies of milk sickness in the early autumn, the first death in the township; with no graveyard yet, early dead are buried in dooryards.
8. 1824-06-08 — The county commissioners set off surveyed Township 6, Range 15, less two tiers of sections on the west, as Pleasant Township, a name suggested by Humphrey Mounts.
9. 1825 — Henry Milisor and Betsey Berry marry, the first wedding in the township.
10. 1848-06 — The township loses its southern sections to the new Prospect Township and to Waldo Township, and some western land to Green Camp, fixing its present shape.
11. 1853-01-01 — The United Evangelical Dreieinigkeits (Trinity) Church, a union of German Reformed and Lutherans, is organized with 59 members and builds a meeting house on Anna Idleman's land.
12. c. 1860 — A small colony of German and Irish Catholic families settles Bethlehem, about three miles northwest of Waldo, in what is now Pleasant Township (the Ohio Ghost Towns site says the first settlers came in 1832).
13. 1870 — Canaan Church of the Evangelical Association is organized by Rev. C. F. Negley and builds a 35-by-42-foot frame church for $2,200.
14. 1876 — A post office called Owen Station opens with John Owen as postmaster at the new Columbus & Toledo Railroad station in the township; 'Station' is dropped in 1882, the name becomes Owens in 1908, and the office closes in 1930.

Stories

A teacher who lived in her schoolhouse

The first schoolhouse in Pleasant Township went up in 1823 on John Nickleson's farm. It was built of split logs with the flat sides turned in and the cracks stopped with moss, a wooden fireplace lined with clay, a stick-and-clay chimney, a clapboard door on wooden hinges and a floor of loose puncheons. For light, a slot about eight inches high ran the length of each wall, covered with greased paper. Its first teacher, Hannah Baker, paid by the families, also lived in it for a year, with a rough bedstead, a few chairs and a store box that served as cupboard and table; at the end of the year she married a Mr. Wood.

Lime and stone at Owen Station

When the Columbus & Toledo Railroad was built through the western half of Pleasant Township in the 1870s, a station called Owen was placed about four miles south of Marion. By 1883 it had a post office, a hotel, a store and an express office, and John Owen was burning and shipping large quantities of quicklime there, while a quarry nearby supplied good building stone. The community that grew up around the Owens limestone quarry and crusher plant had company housing and an opera house; the post office took the name Owens in 1908 and closed in 1930. The opera house, at 1674 Owens Road, has since been restored.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohioghosttowns.wordpress.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Marion96% of residentsScioto River and Little Scioto River intakes, blended with local groundwater wells
• Del-co Water Company, Inc.4% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Pleasant Acres Mobile Home Community Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Dialysis centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 2 of 2 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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2026-06-02

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