Ridge Township, Wyandot County

How Ridge Township, Wyandot County began

Ridge Township, a fractional township of only fifteen sections in the northwestern corner of Wyandot County, was part of Amanda Township in Hancock County until Wyandot County's first commissioners organized it as Ridge Township on June 2, 1845; it takes its name from the high limestone ridge across its northern part. William Homan, who arrived with his wife and five children in 1832-33, is recorded as the first white settler, followed by Jacob Jackson (1834), George Greek (1836) and Pennsylvania German farmers who raised wheat on the sandy ridge soil. Two paper towns, Ridgeville and Jamestown, never grew; the township has never had a village, only farms, mills, schools and two Methodist churches.

Settled 1832 (William Homan), platted 1840s (the paper towns of Ridgeville and Jamestown, 24 lots each, the latter half in Richland Township), incorporated June 2, 1845, by William Homan, first settler; Wyandot County's first Board of Commissioners, which organized the Amanda fraction as Ridge Township.

Where the name comes from

The 1884 county history says the fractional township 'deriv[ed] its name from the high limestone ridge which extends across its northern part.' Before 1845 the same land was the 'Amanda fraction' of Amanda Township in Hancock County.

Before the town

No Wyandot or Delaware village, trail, mound or treaty site specific to Ridge Township is recorded in the sources checked. The township's early pioneers recorded no Native neighbors; the 1884 county history says the first regular road was the Mount Blanchard road and that supplies came from Upper Sandusky, Findlay and Sandusky City. The Wyandot reservation, with its council house at Upper Sandusky, the Mission Church and the 1843 removal to Kansas, was centered to the southeast; Native trails crossed neighboring Crawford Township.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1832 — William Homan, with his wife and five children, settles in the township in 1832-33, the first white settler on record; Andrew Bates follows with a wife and three children.
2. 1834 — Jacob Jackson, born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1812, settles on the farm he entered, where he is still living in 1884; the Methodist Episcopal society is organized before this year, probably by Rev. John Conaway.
3. 1836 — John Long builds the township's first sawmill, an old-style 'upright' water saw, and George Greek and James Hunter's family settle; a log Methodist church costing about $150 is built in 1835-36.
4. 1843 — Isaac Wohlgamuth, born in York County, Pennsylvania, in 1806, settles in the township; he serves two terms as county commissioner from 1846 and more than thirty-three years as justice of the peace.
5. 1845 — On June 2 Wyandot County's first Board of Commissioners detaches the 'Amanda fraction' from Hancock County and organizes it as Ridge Township; dozens of owners of real and personal estate are listed for 1845.
6. 1845 — The plats of Ridgeville (24 lots, 18 owned by Lemuel Roberts) and Jamestown (24 lots, 12 in Ridge Township and 12 in Richland, owned by the State) are on record; neither town ever grows.
7. 1848 — Isaac Wohlgamuth establishes the first grist mill, a horse-powered 'horse mill' on Section 14.
8. 1859 — The present frame Bethel Methodist church is built at a cost of $1,200 (1859-60), replacing the log building used for about twenty-five years.
9. 1863 — John Greek, born on the homestead in 1844, enlists on December 28 in Company A, 49th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and serves through the Atlanta campaign and the battle of Nashville.
10. 1866 — The Methodist Protestant Church is organized in the Greek schoolhouse by Rev. Evans, with about thirty members, in 1866-67.
11. 1884 — The township has five school districts with 'substantial and comfortable' buildings, two sawmills (Michael Youngpeter and F. Williams) and no stores; Eli Ragon's store at Ridgeville was abandoned long before.

Stories

The sawmill that took two hours to cut a log

John Long built Ridge Township's first sawmill about 1836, a water-powered 'upright' saw of the old type. By the county historian's account it took about two hours to saw through an ordinary log, at some five strokes a minute, so the sawyer had plenty of leisure for literary improvement, and it was no uncommon thing for the man in charge to finish a whole dime novel while the 'old haggler' worked its way through. Progress and competition made both mill and founder useless, and by 1884 two newer sawmills ran in the township. Isaac Wohlgamuth's horse mill of 1848, in which a horse did the grinding instead of being ground, was 'closed for repairs' by the same date. The township's pioneers fetched supplies from Upper Sandusky, Findlay and Sandusky City over a road system that began with the Mount Blanchard road.

School in a house, with a kraut barrel

The first schools in Ridge Township met in settlers' houses, one of them George Greek's, where, the historian says, the kraut barrel was a valued attendant, as pupils who were still living averred. Deby Martin is credited as the first teacher, though some give John Long, the sawmill's builder, the honor. When the log schoolhouse near Greek's residence went up, one of the first to honor it was J. N. Free, a 'brilliant young collegiate' the historian calls 'the Immortal J. N.' Other early teachers were Benjamin Burnapp, Samuel Updegraff and Isabel Thompson. By 1884 there were five district schools, and the Methodist, which had begun in cabins and a log schoolhouse west of the cemetery, worshipped in its frame church of 1859-60.

Ridgeville and Jamestown: two towns on paper

When Wyandot County organized in 1845 the Ridge fraction held plats of two towns. Ridgeville had twenty-four lots, of which Lemuel Roberts owned eighteen; Jamestown had twenty-four, twelve in Ridge Township and twelve in Richland, all owned by the State. Neither grew. Eli Ragon opened a store at Ridgeville, which was never profitable and was abandoned, and by 1884 there was no store in the township at all. Supplies came from Upper Sandusky, Findlay and Sandusky City, and the township stayed a farming one, producing, in the historian's words, large crops of wheat from ground once thought fit only for corn.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Carey Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 1 of 1 passed.

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.
• Basic Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-08

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