Pleasant Township, Seneca County

How Pleasant Township, Seneca County began

Pleasant Township was organized in 1831 (one passage of the 1880 county history says 1832) and covers 36.1 square miles in northern Seneca County along the Sandusky River, which carries Abbots Island through the township. It holds two small unincorporated communities in its northern half, Fort Seneca and Old Fort, both named for the War of 1812 military post Gen. William Henry Harrison built nearby in July 1813; Old Fort was platted in 1882 and has held its own post office since that year. The township's identity is inseparable from that fort site, even though the fort itself predates the township's organization by nearly two decades.

Platted 1882 (Old Fort), incorporated 1831 (organized; one passage of the 1880 county history gives 1832), by organized by Seneca County.

Where the name comes from

One of fifteen Pleasant Townships in Ohio; the specific reasoning for this township's name is not recorded. Both of its small communities take their names from Fort Seneca, the War of 1812 post Gen. William Henry Harrison built in July 1813: the census-designated place of Fort Seneca directly, and Old Fort, platted in 1882, as a reference to the same original fort site.

Before the town

Fort Seneca itself, the War of 1812 supply post that gives this township's two small communities their names, was built in July 1813 on the Sandusky River in what is now this township, on ground that had been Wyandot and Seneca territory before the war. The fort was an American military work, not a Native settlement, and no Native village, mound, or trail site within the township itself is documented. The Seneca reservation lay south and east of this township; the Seneca were removed in 1831. The 1911 county history adds that the township was organized in 1831 'while the Seneca Indians were yet roaming over it', and that William Spicer, who lived for some forty years among the Indians of the Sandusky before 1819, was granted a section in what is now Pleasant Township by the 1817 treaty of the Miami of Lake Erie (patented January 18, 1822), so that he may be termed its first white settler. James Montgomery, the first Indian sub-agent of the Senecas, settled at Camp Seneca on November 20, 1819, when only five families lived between the camp and the settlement later called Fort Ball in Tiffin.

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

• Fort Seneca (other) — on the left bank of the Sandusky River, in present Pleasant Township, about 6-9 miles north of Tiffin and, per Lang's history, about twelve miles up-river from Fort Stephenson at present Fremont, built July 1813 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1813 — Gen. William Henry Harrison's forces build Fort Seneca on the Sandusky River, garrisoned with 140 men as Harrison's rendezvous point and supply depot during the August 1813 siege of Fort Stephenson at present Fremont, connected to Fort Seneca by an army road running from Delaware, Ohio; the ground later becomes this township.
2. 1819 — Benjamin and West Barney, who came to the county in 1818, settle in what becomes Pleasant Township.
3. 1819-11-20 — James Montgomery, the first Indian sub-agent to the Senecas, settles at Camp Seneca; he is later ordained a Methodist preacher at Lebanon, Ohio, and founds missions across the district until his death in 1830.
4. 1822-01-18 — The Spicer section, granted to William Spicer under the 1817 treaty of the Miami of Lake Erie, is patented; Spicer had lived about forty years among the Indians of the Sandusky.
5. 1829-03 — James Montgomery organizes the first Methodist Protestant church in the district at Fort Seneca; Rev. Alvin Coe preaches Montgomery's funeral sermon in May 1830.
6. 1831-06-06 — Pleasant Township is organized while, in Lang's words, 'the Senecas were still roaming over it'; a separate passage in the same 1880 history instead dates the township's organization with its present boundaries to June 6, 1832, a discrepancy the book does not resolve.
7. 1836-01-14 — Erastus Bowe and Vincent Bell have the town of Fort Seneca surveyed on the corners of sections 19 and 20, six and a half miles north of Tiffin on the Columbus state road; the spot was earlier called McNutt's and later Swope's Corners.
8. 1838 — The Hedges flour mill is built on Beaver Creek below the sulphur spring, the first mill of its class in the district.
9. 1848-04-03 — Two men, Figgins and Stackhouse, drown crossing the Sandusky River in a boat in the township; their companions Shannon and Watson barely save themselves.
10. 1854 — The first bridge across the Sandusky within the township is built on section 9 and called Clark's Bridge, after county commissioner Calvin Clark, who favored the northern location over Pool's Mill.
11. 1875-06 — The Watson bridge, built in 1870 on section 21, is carried off by a heavy storm; the long-desired bridge at Pool's Mill follows in 1876.
12. 1880 — The township's population is 1,417, up only 65 from 1,352 recorded in 1870.
13. 1882 — The community of Old Fort is platted and its post office opens, both named for the nearby War of 1812 fort site.
14. 2020 — The 2020 census counts 1,477 residents in Pleasant Township.

Stories

Father Egbert's cemetery on the ridge

Uriah Egbert, born in 1791 in New Jersey, settled first on the North Greenfield road before moving to the ridge in Pleasant Township, where he and his wife spent the rest of their lives. A devout, active member of the Methodist Episcopal church for more than fifty years, Egbert opened his home to traveling preachers and, according to a memorial his own pastor sent to the Tiffin Tribune after his 1876 death, was esteemed by everyone who knew him even as he built up a comfortable homestead on the road between Tiffin and Sandusky. He donated the land that became the Ridge Road cemetery, where he and his wife are buried; his youngest daughter recalled that the cemetery also holds one Revolutionary War soldier, ten veterans of the War of 1812, and fourteen veterans of the Civil War. Fellow early settler Philip Staub, who moved into the township in 1834, had himself served in the War of 1812 as a volunteer in a Hanover company stationed at North Point during the defense of Baltimore.

Bridging the Sandusky

Until 1854 no bridge crossed the Sandusky River anywhere in Pleasant Township, though the river meanders for nearly twelve miles through it and splits the township in two. The need showed on April 3, 1848, when two men named Figgins and Stackhouse drowned crossing in a boat while their companions Shannon and Watson narrowly escaped. Six years later a bridge was built on section 9 and called Clark's Bridge, because commissioner Calvin Clark threw his whole influence behind the northern site against a majority who wanted it at Pool's Mill. A second bridge, the Watson bridge on section 21, went up in 1870 and was carried away by a heavy storm in June 1875. The bridge at Pool's Mill, so long desired, was built in 1876, and its opponents then petitioned the commissioners to rebuild the Watson bridge on its old abutments.

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

Every historic place in Seneca County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Tiffin76% of residentsSandusky River
• Green Springs Village24% of residentsRaccoon Creek & Beaver Creek Reservoirs (upground, off Sandusky River basin)

Fire and EMS stations (2)

Public schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Ballot issues

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-22

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