Prospect Township, Marion County

How Prospect Township, Marion County began

Prospect Township occupies the southern edge of Marion County along the Scioto River, much of it land that lay south of the 1795 Treaty of Greenville boundary and so was open to Euro-American settlement years before the rest of the county. Richard Tibbitt, Ephraim Markley and Evan Evans settled a mile north of the present village in 1814, followed by the Landon brothers in 1815 and Robert Cratty in 1819, and the early population was largely Welsh, from the Radnor settlement in Delaware County, and Pennsylvania German. The township itself was not created until June 5, 1848, when the formation of Morrow County transferred parts of Delaware County's Radnor and Thompson townships to Marion County and they were joined to sections from Pleasant and Green Camp. It holds the village of Prospect, first laid out as Middletown in 1835, and the lost or small places Columbia and Centerville; it is the only Prospect Township in Ohio.

Settled 1814, incorporated 1848-06-05, by Marion County commissioners, on the petition of George Beames, Christian Gast and others; first settlers Richard Tibbitt, Ephraim Markley and Evan Evans.

Where the name comes from

The name 'Prospect' was the one asked for in the June 1848 petition of George Beames, Christian Gast and others that created the township; the 1883 county history does not say why it was chosen. The township had the name first: the village inside it was called Middletown until a court changed its name to Prospect on January 31, 1876. It is the only Prospect Township in Ohio.

Before the town

Prospect Township has one recorded encounter with the Wyandot. The 1883 county history tells of a small 'War with the Wyandots' in 1820 along the edge of the Wyandot lands, when a mounted company called the Light Horse Guards, stationed at Big Island, patrolled the settlements. Watering their horses at a crescent-shaped run on the south side of the present village of Prospect, the riders met a Wyandot man who demanded one rider's necktie; the rider, Morgan, struck him with his own gun, Wyandot men hidden in the woods came out, and the next morning the two sides settled the matter, Morgan paying a load of pumpkins and the injured man a saddle of venison. The stream has been called Battle Run since. The township's land also records the treaty history: the Greenville Treaty line of 1795 crosses it, with United States Military lands south of the line east of the Scioto, Congress lands north of it, and Virginia Military lands west of the river. No mound or village site within the township is recorded in the sources checked.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Greenville Treaty line (treaty) — crosses the township east of the Scioto; it formed part of the new township's boundary in the 1848 order, placing Prospect and Waldo townships south of the line and open to settlement decades before the rest of the county, treaty signed August 3, 1795; effective in this area until land sales opened for ground north of the line (archive.org)
• Battle Run (battle) — the run that curves around the south side of the village of Prospect, 1820 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1795-08-03 — The Treaty of Greenville fixes a boundary line that places the future Prospect Township, unlike most of Marion County, south of the closed treaty ground and open to settlement.
2. 1805-1814 — The first Euro-American settlers reach the Waldo-Prospect area, among them Ephraim Markley and Evan Evans.
3. 1814 — Richard Tibbitt settles on the west side of the Scioto and Ephraim Markley and Evan Evans on the east side, about a mile north of the present village, the first settlement within the township's present limits.
4. 1815 — Darius and Cyre Landon settle on the west bank of the Scioto opposite the present village; William Patten joins them in 1818.
5. 1819 — Robert Cratty, born in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, in 1784, starts a third settlement about a mile east of the present village; he is still living in 1883.
6. 1820 — During the brief 'War with the Wyandots,' a clash between the Light Horse Guards and a Wyandot party at a run south of the present village gives Battle Run its name.
7. 1825 — A hewed-log Presbyterian church, the first church building in the township, is built near Mounts' residence north of Prospect, with Thomas Cratty as pastor.
8. 1832 — Elijah Adams lays out the town of Columbia along the river about a mile north of Prospect; no one buys in, and the site returns to a field.
9. 1835-09-17 — Christian Gast lays out Middletown, later Prospect, on the Scioto while the ground is still part of Delaware County.
10. 1848-06-05 — The Marion County commissioners create Prospect Township from the parts of Radnor and Thompson townships transferred from Delaware County by the act of February 24, 1848, and from sections of Pleasant and Green Camp townships; the order is amended the next day.
11. 1863-10 — George Clay lays out Centerville on the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio Railroad in the township's northwest corner, about ten miles southwest of Marion.
12. 1875-1876 — After Prospect citizens pledge a $10,000 donation and $25,000 in stock, the Columbus & Toledo Railroad is built through the village instead of on its surveyed line two miles east; grading starts in 1875 and trains run in 1876.
13. 1888 — Prospect village, on the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad and the Scioto, has two newspapers, two banks and five churches, and a school census of 262.
14. 2020 — The township's total population, including the village of Prospect, is recorded at 2,043, with 976 living outside the village.

Stories

How Battle Run got its name

In 1820, while the Wyandot still held the lands to the north, a company of mounted settlers called the Light Horse Guards was kept at Big Island to patrol the frontier settlements. On one patrol the men stopped to water their horses at a run that curves around the south side of the present village of Prospect, and a Wyandot man who seemed drunk came out of the woods and demanded the white necktie of a rider named Morgan. When Morgan refused and fell backward over a log, he wrenched the man's gun away and struck him to the ground, and a large party of Wyandot who had been hidden nearby came out; in Benjamin C. Adams's later account they fired after the riders, putting shots through their clothes. The riders spent the night at Elijah Adams's, two miles south, and returned the next morning to make peace. They found the injured man sitting over a pot of hot stones under a blanket, taking a sweat for the gash in his head, and the terms were settled on the spot: Morgan would bring a cart-load of pumpkins, the Wyandot man would give him a saddle of venison, and the pipe was smoked.

Wesley Pugh and the wolves

Wesley Pugh was born in 1819 on a farm a mile north of Robert Cratty's, where his parents had moved from the Waldo area, and lived there into the 1880s. As a young man he was riding home alone and unarmed from Waldo one evening when a pack of wolves, heard first in the distance, closed in on him two miles from the nearest house. Cut off from turning back, he spurred his horse through the wolves ahead of him, and when they sprang at him from the side he beat them off with a rough stick he carried as a cane, later saying he dropped two wolves with one blow. His horse carried him the rest of the way home at full speed.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Marion95% of residentsScioto River and Little Scioto River intakes, blended with local groundwater wells
• Richwood Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Power plants (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-10-21

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