Reed Township, Seneca County

How Reed Township, Seneca County began

Reed Township, the only township of that name in Ohio, was organized in 1826 and named for pioneer settler Seth Reed (also recorded as Seth Read); it covers 38.5 square miles in eastern Seneca County, bordering Huron County, and holds no incorporated village, only the unincorporated community of West Lodi. Its most notable landmark is Omar Chapel, an 1843 Greek Revival meetinghouse north of Attica, built as the Second Regular Baptist Church of Reed Township and later designated an Ohio Underground Railroad Historic Site for its role in the abolitionist movement.

Incorporated 1826 (organized), by organized by Seneca County, named for pioneer settler Seth Reed.

Where the name comes from

Named for Seth Reed (also spelled Seth Read), a pioneer settler; the only Reed Township in Ohio.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, trail, or treaty site specific to Reed Township is recorded. The Seneca reservation lay to the west of this township; the Seneca were removed in 1831.

Timeline

1. 1826 — Reed Township is organized, named for pioneer settler Seth Reed.
2. 1827-01-01 — The first township election is held at the house of Seth Reed, for whom the township is named, with first settlers Reed, George Raymond, the Cassety brothers, Tunis Conkrite, the Bennetts and Samuel Scothorn among the officers; Thomas Bennett and Scothorn are justices.
3. 1829 — Methodist preaching begins in the township, virtually establishing the first Methodist Episcopal society; the sub-agent of the Senecas, James Montgomery, preaches there that year.
4. 1834 — The Kelley family, six boys and two girls, settles on the east half of the northwest quarter of section 1; for more than three months the mother cooks between two oak stumps while a cabin is finished.
5. 1838 — James Durbin plats Lodi on sections 5 and 6 for John Terry and Catharine Beard; Lyman White is the first postmaster and Dr. Robert P. Frazer the first physician.
6. 1843 — Omar Chapel is built north of Attica as the Second Regular Baptist Church of Reed Township, in the Greek Revival style.
7. 1854-08 — Omar is surveyed for A. S. and A. L. Bennett on the Sandusky division of the Pennsylvania railroad; Methodist and Baptist churches stand there, but the village never prospers as its proprietors hoped.
8. 1859 — The Methodist church at Omar is built, long after the preaching of Ezra Brown, who died in Cincinnati in 1867.
9. 1911 — Reedtown, on the old Columbus and Sandusky turnpike just south of the old Catholic mission, has gone by the names Cook's Gate, Kelleytown and Hanford's, after a toll-gate keeper, a storekeeper and a tavern.
10. 1953 — A tornado damages Omar Chapel's roof; the building is later restored and maintained by volunteers.
11. 1987 — Omar Chapel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 5.
12. 2020 — The 2020 census counts 738 residents in Reed Township, which covers 38.5 square miles.

Stories

A Baptist meetinghouse on the Underground Railroad

In 1843 the Second Regular Baptist Church of Reed Township completed a Greek Revival meetinghouse north of Attica. The building, later known as Omar Chapel, has been designated an Ohio Underground Railroad Historic Site for its role in the abolitionist movement, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 5, 1987. A tornado in 1953 damaged the chapel's roof, and the property has since been restored and maintained by volunteers. Wikipedia's article gives no further detail on who was sheltered there.

Cooking between two oak stumps

In the spring of 1834 the parents of T. M. Kelley moved to Reed Township with six boys and two girls and settled on the east half of the northwest quarter of section 1, land bought from a Mr. Davis who had entered it. The place had only a few trees chopped and the body of a log cabin with no roof, so the family stayed at Captain Hanford's hotel while the father and older boys split clapboards and hewed puncheon for the floor and doors. For about three and a half months, from about April 20 to August 1, the mother cooked in a fireplace of cobblestones built between two oak stumps, baking the bread in a tin reflector; a barrel of flour and a bushel of cornmeal fed the family every four weeks. Cattle were belled and left to range the woods at night, and a boy might hunt a week to find them. Kelley's youngest brother was born on August 16, 1836, after the family had come, and the 1911 county history prints his recollections.

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

Every historic place in Seneca County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Attica Village61% of residentsHoney Creek (via 2 storage reservoirs)
• Bellevue City20% of residentsFrink Run & Berry Creek/Big Ditch runoff (own reservoirs); backup Lake Erie via Erie Co.
• Republic Village19% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-08-11

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