Pleasant Township, Van Wert County

• Walter HintonPerson · 1888-1981

How Pleasant Township, Van Wert County began

Pleasant Township was organized June 5, 1837, from the part of the county then known locally as Sugar Ridge, at the petition of settlers led by James Maddox, whose house hosted the organizing election. Its boundaries have since been redrawn to hold just township 2 south, range 2 east, and today the township's most visible feature is not a rural crossroads but the eastern half of the city of Van Wert itself, which grew up within its borders after the county seat was platted a few miles away in the 1830s.

Settled 1837 (first families, outside Van Wert town), incorporated organized as a civil township June 5, 1837, by Van Wert County commissioners, on petition of James Maddox and other Sugar Ridge settlers.

Where the name comes from

No account explains why 'Pleasant' was chosen over the locally used name 'Sugar Ridge'; Pleasant is one of the most common township names in Ohio (fifteen townships statewide share it), suggesting a generic, favorable name rather than one tied to a specific local feature or person.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site specific to Pleasant Township is recorded. The region was Miami, Wyandot and Shawnee country, and an 1818 treaty opened this land to survey and settlement. The township's early record, as set out in the 1906 county history, begins instead with its 1837 organization and pioneer land entries.

Timeline

1. 1835-1837 — The county seat, Van Wert, is platted a short distance away; the city's eastern half later grows up within Pleasant Township's own boundaries.
2. 1837-06-05 — The county commissioners, meeting at Willshire, organize Pleasant township (township 2 south, range 2 east, with additional land attached for township purposes) on the petition of Sugar Ridge settlers, and order an organizing election at the house of James Maddox for June 20.
3. 1837-06-20 — Ten votes are cast at the township's first election, held at the Maddox house; Joseph Gleason is elected justice of the peace and holds the office for 15 years.
4. 1837 — The first families outside Van Wert town settle in the township, including Henry Myers, the Hipshire family, James and Samuel Maddox, William Miller, and in summer the Gleason and Wells families in the township's southwest corner.
5. 1837-10 — At the first county election held in Pleasant Township a hat serves as ballot box; the judges and clerks run out to watch a fight in the middle of the day and carry the hat with them. Robert Gilliland is elected county commissioner, James Gordon Gilliland treasurer and John F. Dodds auditor.
6. 1837 — Stephen and Joseph Gleason, Elisha and William Wells and the Thorn brothers settle in the southwest corner of Pleasant Township; corn had to be ground at East's Mill, three miles west of Lima.
7. 1840-04-06 — The first recorded township election chooses trustees Lyman S. Wells, Samuel M. Clark and James T. Maddox and clerk Thomas R. Mott.
8. 1840-10 — The census of youths aged 4 to 20 counts 36 girls and 29 boys in the township; the October poll book lists 46 qualified electors.
9. 1842-03-07 — The township reports $121.15 in taxes collected for the year ending the first Monday in March 1842.
10. 1843-10-28 — Joseph Gleason is commissioned a justice of the peace; elected in 1840, he held the office for fifteen years.
11. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 10,928 people in the township, the large majority of them residents of the portion of the city of Van Wert that lies within its borders.

Stories

Corn ground thirty miles away

When the first families settled Pleasant Township in 1837 -- Henry Myers and the Hipshires south of the future town, the Maddox brothers on their sections, William Miller, Augustus Pronson and Levi Sawyer scattered through the woods -- the nearest place any of them could get corn ground into meal was East's Mill, a tramp-mill run by oxen walking a large inclined wheel, three miles west of Lima and a long day's travel away. It is a small detail the county's 1906 historian bothered to record precisely because it explains so much else about the first years: why families put up with the mud and malaria of the Black Swamp fringe, why a functioning gristmill anywhere closer counted as genuine local news, and why a township organized in the same summer that ten men gathered at James Maddox's house to cast the first votes for its officers.

A hat for a ballot box

The first election in Pleasant Township for county officers was held in October 1837. Daniel Cook, Levi Sawyer and Elisha Wells were appointed judges; Wells declined and Stephen Gleason, who had lived in the county only three days, took his place, with John F. Dodds and Asa Hipshire as clerks. A hat served as the ballot box. About the middle of the day a fight broke out, and the judges and clerks ran out to watch it, taking the hat with them. The fall election chose Robert Gilliland county commissioner, James Gordon Gilliland treasurer and John F. Dodds auditor. The township's farmers meanwhile registered earmarks for their stock, such as Asa Cook's crop off the right ear.

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

Town Creek via off-stream impounding reservoirs (1.01 billion gallons combined) The water here

• Van Wert City96% of residentsTown Creek via two impounding reservoirs
• Ohio City Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Convoy Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Stations and terminals (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Money issues on the ballot since 2021: 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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-12-16

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