Richland Township, Logan County

How Richland Township, Logan County began

Richland Township, in the flat northern tier of Logan County, was cut from McArthur Township in the mid-1840s: Wikipedia and the 1880 county table give 1844, and the township's own first election was held on December 20, 1845. Its first settlers, James Hill and his brother-in-law Samuel Tidd, came from Ashtabula County by way of Zanesfield and moved into the southwest of the township in 1817, and later arrivals were largely from the Eastern States. Near its southern edge stood the Wyandot town of Solomon's Town on Hull's Trace, and in the north the village of Belle Center grew up on the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad after outbidding the older village of Richland for the water tank. Several thousand acres in the west and southwest went under the Lewistown Reservoir, now Indian Lake; the rest remains farmland, and the Bickham Covered Bridge of 1877 still carries a county road over the South Fork of the Great Miami River.

Settled 1817, incorporated 1844 (Wikipedia and the 1880 county table) or December 1845 (commissioners' order and first election, per the 1880 township chapter), by Logan County commissioners, from the part of McArthur Township north of the south line of the Solomon's Town survey.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted documents a specific naming story for Richland Township; 'Richland' is one of the most common township names in Ohio, generally describing fertile farmland.

Before the town

Solomon's Town, a Wyandot village named for an aged chief called Solomon, stood near the southern boundary of Richland Township beside a large spring on Hull's Trace, the road cut by General William Hull's army in 1812. Major Galloway, who knew the county about 1800, recalled that the Wyandot chief Tarhe (the Crane) was then living there, and both the 1880 and 1903 county histories repeat it. The 1880 history describes the site on A. C. McClure's farm: a gravel ridge running northwest, with a circular mound about 100 feet across, surrounded by a ditch, near its southeastern end; the stump of a white oak that had held a lookout; and level ground to the north where, by local account, prisoners ran the gauntlet. Local tradition held that Simon Kenton was held captive there after Simon Girty saved his life at Wapatomica; the 1903 history repeats the story, while the 1880 history calls the gauntlet part doubtful. About 1875, men hauling gravel from the north end of the ridge for the Miami turnpike uncovered many human bones, copper beads and a stone pipe. The site, recorded as archaeological site 33LO1, is marked by a historical marker on County Road 39 north of Huntsville. The first Methodist class in the township, formed in 1819 at James Hill's cabin, included several Native people.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Solomon's Town (village) — near the southern boundary of Richland Township, on the former A. C. McClure farm beside Hull's Trace (County Road 39 north of Huntsville), 18th century to about 1812 (archive.org)
• Solomon's Town mound (mound) — southeastern end of the gravel ridge at Solomon's Town; circular, about 100 feet across, ringed by a ditch, undated; described 1880 (archive.org)
• Burials in the Solomon's Town gravel ridge (burial) — northern end of the gravel ridge at Solomon's Town, dug into about 1875 for turnpike gravel, undated; found about 1875 with copper beads and a stone pipe (archive.org)
• Hull's Trace (trail) — ran from Cherokee north through Solomon's Town to Richland village and on to the northwest; later the graveled turnpike, 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1810 — James Hill, his wife and six children, with his brother-in-law Samuel Tidd and wife, left Ashtabula County for Zanesfield, where they stayed seven years.
2. 1817 — James Hill moved to the southwest part of what is now Richland Township, and with Thomas Rutledge and Thomas Burton made the township's first settlement.
3. 1819 — A Methodist minister named Roberts preached at James Hill's cabin and formed a class that fall, the start of Methodism in the township.
4. 1820 — Alexander King, a native of Pennsylvania, settled permanently in the township; he still lived on the homestead in 1880.
5. 1823 — William Lease settled in the township; he became its first justice of the peace and served twenty-one years.
6. 1830 — About this year Joseph Wilmuth built the township's first grist mill, a small log mill on the Miami River near Northwood; Gershom Anderson later replaced it with a frame mill with two run of stone.
7. 1832 — In July John Hemphill had County Surveyor James W. Marmon lay out the village of Richland on the Springfield and Sandusky stage line.
8. 1833 — Rev. Thomas B. Clark, who had settled near the later Belle Center in 1832, organized a Presbyterian church about 1833 or 1834.
9. 1839 — Rev. William Dowling organized a Disciples church at James Harrod's house, about two miles southeast of the later Belle Center.
10. 1839 — Milton L. Anderson taught school that summer in a log house on the south bank of the Miami River, the earliest school in the township of which a record survives.
11. 1844 — Wikipedia and the 1880 county history's table of townships give 1844 as the year Richland Township was organized.
12. 1845 — At their December session the county commissioners erected Richland Township from the part of McArthur Township north of the Solomon's Town survey; voters met at the Richland schoolhouse on December 20 and elected James Thompson, Alvin Clark and Samuel A. Morton trustees.
13. 1846 — Belle Center was platted in the north of the township on the survey line of the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad; Richland village soon lost its post office and trade to it.
14. 1851 — Construction of the Lewistown Reservoir began (1851-52, then 1856-60), flooding several thousand acres in the township's west and southwest.
15. 1875 — Workmen digging gravel for the Miami turnpike at Solomon's Town uncovered human bones, copper beads and a stone pipe.
16. 1875 — On September 22 Allie Laughlin, daughter of a farmer near Belle Center, was murdered; the accused man was taken from the Bellefontaine jail by a crowd two nights later and hanged in the courthouse yard.
17. 1877 — The Bickham Covered Bridge, a Howe truss bridge built by the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo and named for the Bickham family, was built over the South Fork of the Great Miami River on County Road 38; it was refurbished in 1959 and rebuilt in 2002.
18. 1879 — The Soldiers' Memorial Association of Richland Township was organized on May 30 to keep Decoration Day at the graves of Civil War soldiers.

Stories

Solomon's Town

Before settlement a Wyandot village stood near the southern edge of what became Richland Township, named, the 1880 county history says, for a venerable chief called Solomon who lived there; about 1800 the Wyandot war chief Tarhe, the Crane, also made his home there. The town sat on a plateau beside a large spring, later called the Indian spring, and on the route that General Hull's army cut north toward Detroit in 1812. A long gravel ridge ran northwest from the site, with a circular mound ringed by a ditch at its southeastern end and, by local account, a lookout built high in a white oak. For many years the county militia held its annual muster near the spring. About 1875 men hauling gravel for the Miami turnpike dug into the north end of the ridge and found human bones, copper beads and a fine stone pipe. In 1880 A. C. McClure's house stood near the center of the former village, across the pike, which had been built on Hull's Trace.

Richland village and the railroad

In July 1832 John Hemphill had the county surveyor plat the village of Richland on the stage road between Springfield and Sandusky. It gained E. Bane's tavern, a store, a post office under Albert Chapman, a frame church and a schoolhouse, and in December 1845 the new township held its first election in that schoolhouse and took the village's name. When the Mad River and Lake Erie Railroad was surveyed through in the 1840s, the promoters offered inducements for a new village two miles north, and the two places fought over the location of the water tank, firing anvils at each gain. Belle Center won, the post office and stores moved north, and by 1880 Richland was a flag station marked by a few scattered buildings.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Belle Center Village96% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Sci Lakeridge Estates, Llc2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Tammis Mobile Village Ltd.2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-01-13

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