Scott Township, Marion County

How Scott Township, Marion County began

Scott Township sits in the northeastern corner of Marion County, a 24.5-square-mile farming township of Congress Lands, part prairie on the edge of the Sandusky Plains and part woodland, with no incorporated village of its own. It was organized in the first days of the county's government in June 1824 and named for Mr. Scott, one of the families that settled its northern part in 1821, when settlers mostly from Knox County also took up land along the Whetstone and Mud Run. Its one attempt at a town, Letimberville, laid out about 1832-1833 by a French-born proprietor, got a tavern, a store, a horse-powered grist mill and two churches but never grew; it survives as the crossroads of Kirkpatrick, home of the township hall. Its western half is served by Ridgedale Local Schools and its eastern half by River Valley Local Schools.

Settled 1821, incorporated 1824-06 (June 7, 8 or 9, 1824; the entry is missing from the commissioners' record), by Marion County commissioners; first settlers Nathan Parson, Henry Parcell, John Beckley, Martin McGowen, Constant Bowen and Josiah Packard, among others.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history says the township was named in honor of Mr. Scott, one of the early settlers, who located with his family in the northern part of the township in 1821; it does not give his first name.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, or trail specific to Scott Township is recorded in the sources checked, including the township's own chapter in the 1883 county history, which starts with settlement in 1821. The township, like the rest of Marion County, lay north of the line fixed by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville and stayed closed to legal settlement until roughly 1819, held as hunting ground used chiefly by the Wyandot and Lenape (Delaware).

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville fixed a line closing what became Scott Township to settlement for roughly a generation, part of the county-wide pattern described in the 1883 county history.
2. 1819 — Land north of the old treaty line, including Scott Township, opened to settlement.
3. 1821 — Settlers mostly from Knox County begin three settlements: near the Whetstone in the southeast, on Muddy Run farther north, and in the north near the later Letimberville, where Mr. Scott, the township's namesake, located.
4. 1824-06 — Scott Township is organized at the first session of the county commissioners, taking in surveyed Township 4 of Ranges 16 and 17; it appears in the tax districts listed on June 10, 1824.
5. 1825 — A tornado forms in the township and cuts a path about 100 rods wide to the northeast past New Haven; Jacob Stateler survives by crawling under a floor puncheon as his cabin is blown apart.
6. 1828 — Tully Township is set off from the eastern part of Scott in March; the same year Samuel Hill teaches one of the township's first school terms, and the Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike through the middle of the township is built.
7. c. 1832-1833 — Letimberville is laid out on the south part of Section 15; the 1883 history says 'as early as 1832' and Wikipedia gives 1833. Ross Arbuckle keeps a tavern in its first house.
8. 1834 — Mr. Langdon builds a horse-powered grist mill at Letimberville that grinds ten bushels a day, the first mill nearer than Bucyrus, Mount Gilead or Mount Vernon.
9. 1835 — A rifle company is organized in the township with Hiram Knowles as its captain.
10. 1837 — The Methodists, organized about 1831, build their first church at Letimberville for $300; it is replaced on the same site in 1868 for about $1,200.
11. 1840-01-12 — A Christian Church of about sixteen members is organized at Letimberville and builds a hewed-log church that spring for $100.
12. 1848-1851 — Three petitions to move the north tier of Claridon Township sections into Scott are granted by the commissioners and each time reversed on appeal to the Court of Common Pleas.
13. 1892-1898 — A post office named Hoover operates in the township, at a freight station on the Columbus, Sandusky & Hocking Railroad.
14. 1920 — The Scott Township Consolidated School, known as 'Kirkpatrick,' opens; it closes in 1949 and its pupils go to neighboring districts.

Stories

Waiting out the Whetstone

Samuel Hill moved his family from Knox County to Scott Township in 1829; his son John, then about twenty-three, had already entered eighty acres there the year before. At the Middle Fork of the Whetstone they found the stream over its banks after heavy rain, with no bridge, and spent three or four days in a deserted cabin waiting for the water to fall. On the first evening a Knox County neighbor named Hedington rode up, somewhat drunk, and tried to force his horse into the flood because his sweetheart lived on the other side. The Hills talked him out of it and took him in for the night by the fire, where he offered John Hill his flask and a toast: 'John, if this be war, may we never have peace.' John Hill was still living on his farm in Section 21 in 1883.

The town that stayed a crossroads

The only town ever attempted in Scott Township was laid out on the south part of Section 15 by a French-born proprietor who had bought the whole section, about 1832. Ross Arbuckle and his family lived in its first house and kept a tavern there for years, and Thomas Monnett opened the first store in a small frame building. In 1834 Mr. Langdon built a horse-powered grist mill there, grinding ten bushels a day; before it, farmers hauled grain a week's round trip to Sandusky City over the new Columbus & Sandusky Turnpike. The Methodists built a church there in 1837 and the Christian Church a log meeting house in 1840, but by 1883 the county history judged the town 'by no means' a success. The place, renamed Kirkpatrick, is still the site of the Scott Township hall.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org · en.wikipedia.org · ohioghosttowns.wordpress.com · commons.wikimedia.org

Del-Co's East Knox wellfield at Bryant and Lucerne Rds, Wayne Twp, about 5 miles WSW of Fredericktown The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Marion72% of residentsScioto River and Little Scioto River intakes, blended with local groundwater wells
• Del-co Water Company, Inc.28% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Pleasant Acres Mobile Home Community Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

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 2025-11-06

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