Plymouth Township, Richland County

How Plymouth Township, Richland County began

Plymouth Township, in the northwest corner of Richland County, was surveyed by Maxfield Ludlow in 1807 but stood unsettled for years afterward; Abraham Trux built the township's first cabin in the spring of 1815 on the headwaters of the Huron River, and the Conklin, Kirkpatrick, Green and Long families followed the same year. The township organized February 12, 1818, with Trux as justice of the peace. An old Wyandot trail linking Sandusky and Pittsburgh crossed the township's northeast corner, passing through the ground that later became the village of Plymouth. Today the village of Plymouth (straddling the Richland-Huron line) and part of the city of Shelby sit within or against the township's borders, while the township itself remains largely rural farmland drained by the Huron River headwaters.

Settled 1815 (Abraham Trux), incorporated 1818-02-12 (township organized), by Abraham Trux, first settler; township organized under Maxfield Ludlow's 1807 survey.

Where the name comes from

The township takes its name from the village of Plymouth at its edge; the village itself, first called 'Paris,' was renamed Plymouth (after the Massachusetts landing site) at its 1834/1838 incorporation.

Before the town

The old Wyandot trail from the mouth of the Sandusky River to Fort Pitt crossed the township's northeast corner through the present village of Plymouth. In 1812 Gen. Beall's army widened the narrow path into a wagon road, guided by a Seneca chief named Capt. John, a great friend of the whites and a sagacious scout; the first settlers came in along that military road. The 1880 county history records no village, mound or battle site inside the township.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Sandusky-to-Pittsburgh Wyandot trail (Plymouth Township segment) (trail) — northeast Plymouth Township, crossing through the site of the village of Plymouth, pre-1815 historic era (richland.ohgenweb.org)

Timeline

1. 1807 — Maxfield Ludlow surveyed the township, which then stood unsettled for several years.
2. 1812 — Gen. Beall's army marched along the old Wyandot trail through the township's northeast corner, widened it to a wagon road and was guided by the Seneca chief Capt. John.
3. 1815 — Abraham Trux built the township's first cabin on the northwest quarter of section 5, on the headwaters of the Huron River; the Conklin, Kirkpatrick, Green and Long families arrived the same year.
4. 1817 — Catharine Trux and Susan Concklin were married to Hugh Long and Oliver Granger, the first marriages in the township; Rev. Benjamin Wooley, a Methodist, settled on Section 4 and became a local preacher.
5. 1818-02-12 — Plymouth Township organized, electing Abraham Trux justice of the peace, Stephen Webber constable, and three trustees.
6. 1818 — The first schoolhouse, of logs on Daniel Kirkpatrick's land on Section 8, opened for the winter of 1818-19 with Robert McKelvey as teacher.
7. 1819 — The First Presbyterian Church of Plymouth was organized with forty-two members at Abraham Vanhouten's house and built a large log meeting house on Peter Ruckman's land; the township's first death, that of Mary Concklin, also came this year.
8. 1820-04-03 — The township, which had been twelve miles long, was divided and the east half kept the name of Plymouth.
9. 1822 — Stage coaches began to run through the township on the road from Columbus to Portland (now Sandusky City) along Beall's trail, and Fleming Wilson built the first frame house on Section 18; James Douglas made his own bricks for the first brick house in 1823.
10. c. 1822 — About this time the Presbyterian congregation divided, and members withdrew to form a United Presbyterian church with a small frame house on Section 13 that is no longer standing.
11. 1825-05-17 — The town of Plymouth (first called Paris), on the township's northeast edge, was formally platted.
12. 1825 — Abraham Trux built a water mill on the stream near his cabin, rebuilt many times and still run by Snyder and Wolf in 1880.
13. 1849-12-06 — Cass Township was erected from the east two-thirds of Plymouth, and Plymouth was extended to take two tiers of sections from Auburn, leaving it four miles by six in the northwest corner of the county.
14. 2020 — The census counted 1,981 residents in the 25.9-square-mile township.

Stories

Milling without water

The township's earliest hardship was not Native conflict or disease but the ordinary problem of grinding grain: the streams that fed the Huron River's headwaters ran too low too often to keep a water mill turning through dry seasons. Settlers built horse-powered mills instead, a slower and more laborious solution that nonetheless let the Trux, Conklin, Kirkpatrick, Green and Long families hold on through the township's first years before larger mills on more reliable streams elsewhere in the county took over the grinding trade.

A town on the county line, an old road through it

Long before Abraham Trux's cabin, a Wyandot trail ran between Sandusky and Pittsburgh through what became the township's northeast corner. When Trux and the families who followed him in 1815 chose their cabin sites, they were tracing a route already worn by generations of use. The trail's line later helped fix where the village of Plymouth would rise on the township's edge, and the village grew up so straddling the Richland-Huron county line that its main street is the boundary itself.

Fred Yearian and the bear

Robert Yearian, one of the township's hunters, made his own powder and guns and was a remarkable shot, as was his son Frederick, who used a light rifle his father had made for him. When the boy was about twelve he was separated from his father one day while hunting and came suddenly on a mother bear with two cubs. He made war on them at once, but his ball was too small to do much damage and the bear turned on him so closely that he had no time to reload or climb a tree. He ran toward his father, who called to him to run past, which Fred did. As the bear passed, Yearian planted one of his ounce balls in a vital spot and brought her down, and the two carried the cubs home for pets.

Photographs

Local history sources: richland.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · richlandcountymuseum.org · richlandcountyhistory.com · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org

Raw water pumped from the West Branch Huron River roughly 3 miles to a 215-acre, 2.3-billion-gallon upground reservoir at the Class III surface water plant on Central Ave. The water here

• Shelby City64% of residentsCity reservoirs (Nos. 2 & 3) fed by Black Fork Mohican River/Marsh Run
• Plymouth Village36% of residentsWest Branch Huron River, stored in Willard's upground reservoir

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

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

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