Richland Township, Holmes County

How Richland Township, Holmes County began

Richland Township is a hilly township in the southwest corner of Holmes County, home to the village of Glenmont in its north. It was the setting for the county's best-known Civil War episode: on June 17, 1863, several hundred local men resisting the military draft entrenched behind a makeshift earthwork at Glenmont (then called Napoleon), and were dispersed within days by about 420 Union troops sent by Governor David Tod, in an affair remembered locally as the Holmes County Rebellion and, more mockingly, as 'Fort Fizzle.' The township's population grew from 1,088 in 1840 to roughly 1,284 by 2010 before easing back to about 1,193 in 2020.

Before the town

No Native American site specific to Richland Township was found in the sources checked.

Timeline

1. 1825 — The Holmes County commissioners meet in June and organize the county into townships, which Howe says remain unchanged.
2. 1840 — Township population recorded at 1,088 in the federal census.
3. 1847 — On February 15 Peter Durand deeds half an acre to Archbishop Purcell for Saint Joseph Church and cemetery in the township; the church was already built.
4. 1857 — Saints Peter and Paul Church is built at Napoleon (post office Black Creek), now Glenmont; the Saint Joseph Mission closes afterward.
5. 1863 — On June 17, several hundred to about 1,000 local draft resisters entrenched at Glenmont (then Napoleon) behind a makeshift fort with four small cannon are dispersed by roughly 420 Union troops under orders from Governor David Tod, in an episode remembered as 'Fort Fizzle' or the Holmes County Rebellion; Henry Howe, writing in 1888, locates its 'theatre' in Richland, 'the southwest corner township' of the county.
6. 1863 — On June 5 local men on French Ridge attack the Union enrolling officer Elias Robinson and then free their jailed leaders by armed force; the Holmes County draft resistance culminates in the June 17 standoff at a camp of nearly 1,000 men on Lorenzo Blanchard's farm.
7. 1880 — Township population recorded at 1,463.
8. 1888 — Howe lists Black Creek, twelve miles west of Millersburg on the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus Railroad, with about 250 people.
9. 1990 — The census counts 896 people in the township.
10. 2000 — The census counts 1,163 people in the township.
11. 2009 — The Fort Fizzle site becomes a census-designated place sharing Glenmont's ZIP code.
12. 2010 — The census counts 1,284 people in the township, its highest.
13. 2020 — Township population recorded at 1,193, down 7.1% from 2010's 1,284.

Stories

Fort Fizzle

In June 1863, with a Civil War draft looming, several hundred Holmes County men gathered at Glenmont, then known as Napoleon, in the hilly southwest corner of the county, and threw up a rough earthwork fort with four small cannon to resist the enrolling officer sent to prepare the county's quota. Governor David Tod, told the resisters numbered in the hundreds and were dug in behind pickets and entrenchments, ordered about 420 Union troops, including men of the 3rd Ohio Infantry, to the county under Colonel William Wallace; they landed at Lake Station on June 17, 1863, marched on the camp, and after a brief clash in which two resisters were wounded, the position surrendered. Contemporaries mocked the affair as 'Fort Fizzle'; of eighty men eventually indicted across Holmes, Knox and Coshocton counties, only one, Laurant Blanchat, was convicted, and President Lincoln later pardoned him. Writing twenty-five years afterward, Henry Howe found the surviving accounts of the episode so contradictory that he doubted further investigation would settle much, but he was in no doubt about where it happened, naming Richland outright as the rebellion's 'theatre.'

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Killbuck Village77% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Glenmont Village23% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Private schools (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 5 of 5 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.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-01

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