Pusheta Township, Auglaize County

How Pusheta Township, Auglaize County began

Pusheta Township, just south of Wapakoneta, was set off from Allen County in December 1836 on petition of its residents, and takes its name, like Pusheta Creek that drains it, from a Shawnee chief whose name is spelled variously in the historical record: Pasheto in the 1817 Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, Pesheto in Henry Harvey's history of the Shawnee, and Pusheta in later county usage. For fifty years before removal, the ridge the creek cuts through at Fryburg was an Indian camping ground, and Fryburg village itself, laid out by Joseph Flick and G. Seiter in 1848, sits on the site of a former Indian village. It is a rural, largely German farming township with no incorporated village of its own.

Settled 1830s-1840s, incorporated 1836-12, by petitioned by residents of survey township six south, range six east.

Where the name comes from

Named, like Pusheta Creek that runs through it, for a Shawnee chief who lived in the township's central and eastern part; his name is spelled Pasheto in the 1817 Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids of the Maumee, Pesheto in Henry Harvey's History of the Shawnee Indians, and Pusheta in the form the county adopted, whose origin is not recorded.

Before the town

Pusheta Township and the creek that runs through it carry the name of a Shawnee chief recorded under at least three spellings (Pasheto, Pesheto, Pusheta) who lived in the township's central and eastern part before removal. The St. Johns ridge, which the creek cuts through at Fryburg, was for about fifty years an established Indian camping ground, used in February and March by the Pusheta band and other Shawnee. Fryburg village itself, in the east half of the southeast quarter of section fifteen, occupies the site of a former Indian village, laid out over it by Joseph Flick and G. Seiter in 1848.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

• Pusheta Creek (other) — Pusheta Township, tributary later joining the Auglaize River system, pre-1830s (en.wikipedia.org)
• Fryburg village site (village) — east half of the southeast quarter of section 15, Pusheta Township, now Fryburg, pre-1848 (archive.org)
• St. Johns ridge camping ground (camp) — the ridge Pusheta Creek cuts through at Fryburg, for about 50 years before removal (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1821 — Jonathan Taylor enters land in section 19, the first recorded land entry in the township; Benjamin Spray follows in section 30 in 1823, both in the south tier of sections.
2. 1828 — Sam Craft is the first of the settlers later grouped in the Freyburg Catholic congregation; George Wiss and G. Seiter arrive in 1833 and Simon Dresher and J. B. Kath in 1834.
3. 1832 — The Pusheta band of Shawnee, with other Shawnee, move to Kansas.
4. 1833 — Heavy land entries in the township begin; families including the Van Horns, Tobiases and Van Blaricoms enter farms in the township.
5. 1834 — The first schoolhouse, a log cabin, is built on the farm in section 19 later owned by J. Taylor.
6. 1836-12 — Residents of survey township six south, range six east petition the Allen County commissioners to be set off as Pusheta Township; the petition is granted and an election ordered at Joseph Mayer's house.
7. 1847 — A post office is established at Fryburg; it remains in operation until 1903.
8. 1848 — Joseph Flick and G. Seiter lay out Fryburg village on the site of a former Indian village; a church 80 by 43 feet is begun immediately and completed in 1850.
9. 1848 — The township becomes part of the newly organized Auglaize County.
10. 1854 — The township subscribes $40,000 in stock of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, which by 1903 it still holds.
11. 1877 — A fine parochial school building is erected at Fryburg at a cost of two thousand dollars; St. John's Catholic Church by this time has a membership of about one hundred and five families.
12. 1903 — Pusheta Township has three churches (Methodist Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist Protestant) and nine brick schools; Fryburg's St. John's Catholic parish has 105 families and a parochial school enrolling 65.
13. 1979-07-26 — St. John Catholic Church and Parish Hall in Fryburg is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
14. 2020 — The census counts 1,269 people in Pusheta Township.

Stories

A creek that kept a chief's name

Most Auglaize County places named for the Shawnee lost that connection once the reservation era ended in 1832, renamed for settlers or for places back east. Pusheta Township and Pusheta Creek did not: both still carry the name of a Shawnee chief who lived in the township before removal, though even his name was never fixed in the record, spelled Pasheto in an 1817 treaty, Pesheto in a history of the Shawnee nation, and Pusheta by the county that took it. The ridge his creek cuts through, at what became the village of Fryburg, had served as an Indian camping ground for half a century before Joseph Flick and G. Seiter platted a town directly over the old village site in 1848, a small but persistent trace of Native presence on the map of a township otherwise given over to ordinary farm country south of Wapakoneta.

The township that kept its railroad stock

In 1854 Pusheta Township subscribed $40,000 to the stock of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad. The 1905 county history notes that, unlike the other townships, Pusheta still held that stock fifty years later. The dividends from that stock paid for the upkeep of the township's gravel pikes, which by 1903 reached every part of the township,. Fryburg itself, on the old Indian village site, never had a railroad; the history calls it a hamlet whose trade was purely local, remote from rails in a rich farming district.

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

Every historic place in Auglaize County on the full map

Reported bedrock limestone (carbonate) aquifer wells (7 deep) and a sand-and-gravel aquifer (2 shallow wells) The water here

• Wapakoneta City100% of residentsTeays River Buried Valley Aquifer (wells)
• Lakeside Estates Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Power plants (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-09-18: county board of elections.

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-01-07

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