Sandy Township, Stark County

How Sandy Township, Stark County began

Sandy Township, in the southeast of Stark County on the Big Sandy, was set off by the county commissioners on March 16, 1809, with the first election at Isaac Van Meter's house. Capt. James Downing, a Virginia ranger who had known the valley in 1793, settled on the trail from the Ohio River to Canton in 1805, and Isaac Miller, James Laughlin and Benjamin Cuppy followed in 1806; Wyandot families were still camping in the neighborhood until 1811. The township lost Brown (1815), Harrison (1817) and Rose (1818) townships and two more miles when Carroll County was formed in 1833. It holds part of Magnolia and Waynesburg and had 3,561 residents in 2020.

Settled 1805, incorporated March 16, 1809, by Capt. James Downing, with James Laughlin, Isaac Miller and Benjamin Cuppy in 1806.

Where the name comes from

Named for the predominantly sandy soils of the area, distinguishing it from the other Sandy Township in Tuscarawas County.

Before the town

Perrin's 1881 county history records that Indian Run, flowing through the center of Sandy Township, was named for the favorite camping place of Native people who made the neighborhood either home or hunting ground; that the first white army to cross the township, Bouquet's in 1764, went by the Tuscarawas trail along the Sandy valley; and that Wyandot families camped by a small stream near the township's east side until they left in the fall of 1811, warning settlers to leave before they returned. Two Native men, Capt. Beaver Hat and Capt. Pipe, visited the Hewitt cabin in these years. In August 1812, after Hull's surrender, settlers heard a false rumor of 400 Indians in the North Bend of the Sandy and Downing led sixty men out to meet them, only to find other whites target-shooting. The land was ceded in the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Indian Run camping ground (camp) — Indian Run, through the center of Sandy Township, before 1811 (archive.org)
• Tuscarawas trail along the Sandy valley (trail) — Big Sandy Creek valley, crossed by the first road from the Ohio River to Canton, before 1800 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1805 — Capt. James Downing, a former ranger who had known the valley in 1793, moves from Virginia and enters a quarter section on the new road from the Ohio River to Canton, entertaining travelers and trading with the Native people then numerous there.
2. 1806 — James Laughlin and his sons-in-law Isaac Miller and Benjamin Cuppy come from Virginia; Miller opens a tavern and ferry at the Sandy crossing near the future Magnolia.
3. 1809 — Stark County commissioners divide the county into townships on March 16, including Sandy Township, with elections held at the residence of Isaac Van Meter.
4. 1809 — The first schoolhouse in the township is built on the W. H. Knotts farm west of Magnolia, with William Lee as teacher; Waynesburg's school dates from a start made by Alpheus Brown in 1816.
5. 1811 — Wyandot families camped beside a small stream near the township's east side leave in the fall, warning settlers to depart before they return on the warpath.
6. 1812 — A false report that 400 Indians are in the North Bend of the Sandy sends Capt. Downing and sixty settlers out in arms; they find only other whites shooting at marks, and Downing's son James then raises a company for the war, wintering at Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson.
7. 1814 — Isaac Miller builds the first bridge across the Sandy, a toll bridge at his ferry crossing; Joseph Handlon lays out the short-lived town of Hamburg on the plains in the same decade.
8. 1815-1818 — Brown Township (1815), Harrison Township (1817), and Rose Township (1818) successively split off from Sandy Township's original larger territory.
9. 1830 — The census counts 909 residents in Sandy Township.
10. 1833 — The township's economy includes two gristmills, four sawmills, a fulling mill, and three stores.
11. 1833 — The formation of Carroll County annexes two miles from Sandy Township's eastern side, reducing it to four miles wide, the smallest township in Stark County.
12. 1834-1835 — Richard Elson and John W. Smith found the village of Magnolia within the township, building a sawmill followed by a gristmill.
13. 1845 — Waynesburg's only iron foundry is established by Patrick Call, who moved it there from Magnolia.
14. 1900 — The township counts 1,417 residents; the count reaches 2,315 in 1930 and 3,587 in 1950.
15. 1960 — The township's population peaks at 4,326 residents.
16. 2020 — The census counts 3,561 residents in Sandy Township, 1,899 of them outside the villages of Magnolia and Waynesburg.

Stories

The smallest township, carved down three times over

When Stark County commissioners divided the county into townships in March 1809, Sandy Township covered a substantial block of the sixth and seventh survey ranges. It did not stay that size for long: Brown Township split off in 1815, Harrison in 1817, and Rose in 1818, each carving away a piece of Sandy's original territory as the county's population grew dense enough to support smaller governing units. The final cut came in 1833, when the new Carroll County annexed two more miles from Sandy's eastern edge, leaving the township only four miles wide -- the smallest in Stark County. Within that shrunken footprint, Richard Elson and John W. Smith still found room to found Magnolia around 1834-1835, building first a sawmill and then a gristmill on the same pattern of water-powered industry that built most of the county's small towns.

Double quick at the North Bend

In August 1812 the news from Detroit had just reached the Big Sandy settlers: Hull had surrendered, and with no force in the field to hold the Indians back, a rumor ran through the township that the Carver settlement southwest of Canton had been wiped out and 400 Indians were in the North Bend of Sandy Creek. The settlers looked to Capt. James Downing, the former ranger, who ordered the women and children to hide in the corn fields and marched out with his three sons, two sons-in-law and some sixty armed neighbors in single file. On the ridge between Sparta and the Bethlehem settlement, now Navarre, they heard shooting; Downing shouted for a double quick charge, and the line rushed over the hilltop to find another party of whites, hunting the same phantom Indians and firing at a mark. William Knotts, one of the party, used to say he had had many a fist fight and thought nothing of it, but that when the old captain gave the order he felt such a pounding of his heart as never before. That fall Downing's son James raised a company of his own and marched to the war.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Waynesburg Village87% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Magnolia Village12% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• East Sparta Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Shale and injection wells (3)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-12: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 0 of 2 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-26

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