Stokes Township, Logan County

• Indian LakeBuilt 1860 · 5,104 acres

How Stokes Township, Logan County began

Stokes Township, in the extreme northwest of Logan County, was part of the Lewistown reservation country and saw almost no settlement until the Shawnee and Seneca were removed in 1832; it was set off from Washington and Bloomfield townships in 1838 or 1839. Its settlers of the 1830s cleared low, wet land along Muchinippi Creek, and in 1851-52 nearly three hundred people freed by Virginia slaveholder John M. Warwick were settled on land along the north and west sides of Indian Lake. The Lewistown Reservoir, built to feed the Miami canal, flooded that land and much of the eastern township, and the malaria that followed broke up the Warwick colony and the township's first Presbyterian church. The village of Lakeview, on the reservoir's southwest corner, grew quickly after the Toledo and Ohio Central Railway reached it; part of the township was traded with Auglaize County in 1888.

Settled 1830s, after the 1832 removal (John B. Stamatz, October 1835; William Van Horn, November 1838), incorporated 1838 (Wikipedia and the 1880 county table); the 1880 township chapter gives the winter of 1839 by tradition, by Logan County commissioners, from parts of Washington and Bloomfield townships.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted documents who or what Stokes Township is named for; Stokes is a common township name in Ohio (there is a second Stokes Township in Madison County).

Before the town

The southern part of Stokes Township lay inside the Lewistown reservation, set apart for the Seneca and Shawnee by the treaty at the foot of the Maumee Rapids in 1817. The reservation's council house stood in the southwest of the township on the east bank of Muchinippi Creek: a log building about twenty by forty feet with no chimney, floor or windows, reached by paths from every direction; in 1880 the site was on land of the Wright heirs. Indian Lake, the natural lake at the center of the later reservoir, is described in the 1903 county history as the fishing ground of the Native people. The Shawnee and Seneca of Lewistown ceded the reservation by treaty in 1831 and were removed west in 1832; almost all white settlement of the township came after that. Before any settler arrived, the hunter John Hover kept a cabin on the margin of Indian Lake.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Seneca.

• Lewistown reservation council house (other) — east bank of Muchinippi Creek, southwest Stokes Township (Wright heirs' land in 1880), 1817-1832 (archive.org)
• Lewistown reservation (treaty) — extended into the southern part of Stokes Township, 1817 treaty; ceded 1831; removal 1832 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1817 — The treaty at the foot of the Maumee Rapids set apart the Lewistown reservation for the Seneca and Shawnee; it extended into the southern part of the later Stokes Township.
2. 1832 — The Shawnee and Seneca of the Lewistown reservation were removed west in September, after the Lewistown treaty of July 20, 1831; the 1903 history says no settlement was attempted in the township until then.
3. 1835 — John B. Stamatz arrived in October and settled on 200 acres; William Fenton from Ross County, whose log cabin still stood in 1880, was among the first settlers in the northeast.
4. 1836 — Jacob Curts died in August, the earliest death remembered in the township; he was buried on the George Taylor farm.
5. 1838 — Stokes Township was organized as one of Logan County's townships.
6. 1838 — Sarah Hendershot and John Fenton were married in the spring, the township's first wedding; in November William Van Horn settled on 360 acres with ten children.
7. 1839 — By tradition the county commissioners erected the township that winter from parts of Washington and Bloomfield; the first election, at John Hover's house the next April, chose Samuel Hickenbottom clerk and William Fenton treasurer.
8. 1839 — In the spring settlers built a log schoolhouse near the later Van Horn burying ground, with two glass windows; Wilbur Earl taught the first term the next winter.
9. 1845 — About this year Benjamin Driesbach built a saw mill on Muchinippi Creek, later adding a run of stones; a flood in June 1868 swept away the dam and both mills.
10. 1846 — Rev. G. G. Pogue of Cherokee formed the township's first Presbyterian church at David Ghormley's house; its small church was built in 1849.
11. 1850 — The township's first store and post office opened in the southwest, kept by Frank Downs with Moses Smith as postmaster; the same year a United Brethren class was formed on James Coleman's farm.
12. 1851 — The colony freed by John M. Warwick of Amherst County, Virginia, nearly three hundred people, arrived in 1851-52 and settled on land along the north and west sides of Indian Lake.
13. 1851 — Construction of the Lewistown Reservoir, to supply the Miami canal, was carried on in 1851-52 and 1856-60 at a cost of $341,126.33.
14. 1879 — A Methodist Protestant church was formed in the winter of 1878-79 at the Van Horn schoolhouse by Rev. B. F. Tucker.
15. 1888 — Part of Stokes Township was exchanged with Clay Township in Auglaize County for part of that county's Goshen Township, one of Ohio's last county-boundary adjustments.
16. 1888 — Henry Howe gave the Lewistown Reservoir, which supplied the Miami canal, an area of 7,200 acres, nearly 12 square miles, about five miles long and four wide.
17. 1903 — Lakeview, at the southwest corner of the reservoir and long only a small trading post, had grown quickly since the Toledo and Ohio Central Railway reached it, and had three hotels, a bank and two dry goods stores.
18. 2024 — An EF3 tornado struck Lakeview on March 14, killing three people and injuring 27 along its track.

Stories

The Warwick colony

Around 1850 John M. Warwick of Amherst County, Virginia, a slaveholder, decided to free the people he held and settle them on land he would buy for them. He engaged Dr. David Patterson, who bought a large tract along the north and west sides of Indian Lake in Stokes Township. In 1851 and 1852 the colony, numbering nearly three hundred, arrived; log cabins were built and the settlers were supplied with provisions for a year. The site proved unhealthy. The Lewistown Reservoir was being built at the same time, much of the land went under water, and malaria from the swamp killed fully one-sixth of the colony. Most of the rest sold their interests and moved away; in 1880 many still lived in Logan County, one of them, Mingo Banks, at Huntsville, but only Richard Thomas remained in Stokes Township, near the reservoir.

The reservoir and the ague

At the center of the eastern township was once a small natural body of water called Indian Lake, surrounded on all sides by low, marshy ground. When the state built the Lewistown Reservoir to feed the Miami canal, a levee enclosed the lake and the land around it, part of it lightly timbered. In 1880 the county historian described a submerged plain studded with bare, decaying trees and called the place a cesspool of pestilence. The sickness hit the young settlements hard: the Presbyterian church formed in 1846, which built its first meetinghouse in 1849, lost its minister and most of its members in the panic over ague and fevers during the reservoir's construction, and by 1880 only its crumbling building remained.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.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 · treaties.okstate.edu

Mostly private wells The water here

• Lakeview Village73% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Russells Point Village19% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Holiday Shores MHP6% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Jackson Center Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Sci Lakeridge Estates, Llc1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Nursing homes (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 2 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 2025-09-02

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