Recovery Township, Mercer County

How Recovery Township, Mercer County began

Recovery Township, organized May 5, 1831, in the southwest of Mercer County on the Indiana line, takes its name from Fort Recovery, which Anthony Wayne built in 1793 on the ground where a Native confederacy had destroyed St. Clair's army in 1791; part of the village of Fort Recovery lies in the township's southwest corner. The Treaty of Greenville line of 1795 forms the township's irregular southern boundary. Catholic farm families settled it from the 1830s around St. Joseph, a parish organized in 1838, and its hamlets of Monterey (1849), St. Joseph (1861, laid out by Archbishop John B. Purcell) and Ferner never grew into towns. David Anderson built the first mill on the Wabash River in the county here in 1832. The township had 1,272 people in 1880 and 1,523 in 2020.

Settled Land entries from 1831; settlement in the 1830s, platted 1849 (Monterey); 1861 (St. Joseph), incorporated May 5, 1831 (township organized), by Early settlers including the McDowell, Anderson, Beardslee and Grant families; Mercer County commissioners (township).

Where the name comes from

Named for Fort Recovery, part of which lies within the township's southwest corner; the fort itself was named by Anthony Wayne for the army's 1793 return to, and recovery of, the ground and cannon lost at St. Clair's Defeat.

Before the town

Recovery Township lies on the ground of the Northwest Indian War. On November 4, 1791 a Native confederacy under Little Turtle (Myaamia, or Miami), Blue Jacket (Shawnee) and Buckongahelas (Lenape, or Delaware), with Potawatomi from eastern Michigan, destroyed General Arthur St. Clair's army of about 1,000 on the upper Wabash, the greatest defeat the U.S. Army has suffered at the hands of a Native force. On December 25, 1793 Wayne's men reached the battlefield and found so many unburied remains that they had to move bones to make room for their beds; they built Fort Recovery there. On June 30 and July 1, 1794 about 1,200 warriors of the confederacy, Shawnee, Odawa (Ottawa), Potawatomi, Lenape and Ojibwe, attacked the fort under Blue Jacket, with the Odawa leader Egushawa in nominal command and the Miami war chief Little Turtle having advised against the attack without artillery. The Legion, which had recovered cannon lost by St. Clair, held the fort; Choctaw and Chickasaw scouts under Jimmy Underwood served with Wayne. In 1795 the Treaty of Greenville used Fort Recovery as a reference for the line between the Native and U.S. territories, and that line is the township's southern boundary. Part of the village of Fort Recovery, and with it part of this battlefield, lies in the township's southwest corner.

Nations recorded here: Miami, Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware), Ottawa, Potawatomi, Ojibwe (Chippewa).

• Fort Recovery Site / St. Clair's Defeat battlefield (battle) — southwestern Recovery Township / village of Fort Recovery, 1791 (battle); 1793-1796 (fort) (en.wikipedia.org)
• Greenville Treaty Line (township's southern boundary) (treaty) — South line of Recovery Township, where it meets Gibson Township; the line's northwest corner is at Fort Recovery, 1795 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1791-11-04 — St. Clair's Defeat occurs on ground that later falls partly within this township.
2. 1793-12-25 — Anthony Wayne's men reach the site of St. Clair's defeat, find a great quantity of unburied remains and build Fort Recovery; they later recover cannon St. Clair had lost.
3. 1794-06-30 — About 1,200 warriors of the Western Confederacy attack Fort Recovery over two days, 30 June and 1 July; the Legion's garrison holds the fort.
4. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville cedes most of Ohio and uses Fort Recovery as a reference point for the boundary; the line forms the south side of the future Recovery Township.
5. 1831 — Recovery Township is established, one of the earliest organized in the county.
6. 1831-05-05 — Recovery Township is organized; it is six miles from east to west and about four from north to south, bounded south by the Greenville treaty line.
7. 1832 — David Anderson builds the first mill on the Wabash River in the county; P. D. Moss builds an ox-mill that is among the county's first.
8. 1838 — St. Joseph's Catholic Church is organized with a log cabin as its first building and Rev. John Herzog as first priest; its early members include John Dull, John Weiss and the Kramer, Goecke and Busch families.
9. 1849 — Isaac Raus lays out the town of Monterey, which later had a general store but by 1907 only a few residences.
10. 1851-09 — The town of Fort Recovery holds a 'Bone Burying Day' to inter the remains discovered at the battlefields.
11. 1852 — A local resident striking the ground with a grubbing hoe finds an iron-banded wooden box holding 900 Spanish doubloons.
12. 1858 — Fort Recovery, part of which sits in the township's southwest corner, incorporates as a village.
13. 1861 — Archbishop John B. Purcell, who owned the land, lays out the town of St. Joseph; the parish builds a brick church, 45 by 85 feet, costing about $6,000.
14. 1880 — The township has 1,272 people; 1,487 in 1890 and 1,396 in 1900.
15. 2020 — The census counts 1,523 people in Recovery Township.

Stories

Bones, a soldier's silver and 900 doubloons

On December 25, 1793 the men Anthony Wayne sent to build a fort on the site of St. Clair's defeat found it carpeted with unburied remains, so many that, Private George Will wrote, the soldiers had to move bones to make room for their beds. Wayne named the post Fort Recovery. In 1818 a Virginia soldier who had fought in St. Clair's army came back to look for silver he had hidden by a standing oak, and was later found dead in the woods; the account does not say whether he found it. In September 1851 the people of the town held a Bone Burying Day to inter the remains that plowing and digging kept turning up at the battlefields. The next year a local man struck something hard with his grubbing hoe and uncovered a small wooden box bound with iron bands; inside were 900 Spanish doubloons.

St. Joseph, the archbishop's town

St. Joseph's parish in Recovery Township is one of the oldest Catholic congregations in southern Mercer County. It was organized in 1838 with a log cabin for its first church and Rev. John Herzog as its first priest, among the first members John Dull, John Weiss and the Kramer, Goecke and Busch families. In 1861 the congregation put up a brick church 45 by 85 feet for about $6,000, on land laid out as the town of St. Joseph by Archbishop John B. Purcell of Cincinnati, who owned it. Until Fort Recovery built its own Catholic church nearly all the Catholics in that village worshipped here, and the town supported a small store and grocery for a time. In 1903 a new steeple was added, under the Precious Blood priests who served the parish, and in 1906 a brick priest's house; by 1907 the church, two and a half miles northeast of Fort Recovery, was nearly all that was left of the town.

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

Every historic place in Mercer County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Ft Recovery Village89% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• St. Henry Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (12 wells)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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 2024-10-08

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