Stokes Township, Madison County

How Stokes Township, Madison County began

Stokes Township, in the extreme southwest corner of Madison County bordering Clark, Fayette and Greene counties, is one of the county's original townships, erected April 30, 1810. Isaac Hudson, who located there in 1802, is remembered as its first white settler; his father Skinner Hudson, an English immigrant who had first settled in Kentucky, followed in 1804 and lived out his life on ground that had been a regular Native camping ground for years. When Clark County was created in 1817, part of Stokes Township's original territory was cut away, and in 1853 more of it was carved off to form Paint Township. The township's one village, South Solon, was platted by Isaac Hudson's descendants in the late 1830s but grew slowly until the railroad reached it in 1878. Today Stokes Township is farmland anchored by South Solon.

Settled 1802, incorporated 1810-04-30, by erected by order of the Madison County Commissioners; first settler Isaac Hudson.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history records the boundary description used to erect "Stokes" township on April 30, 1810, but does not explain the source of the name.

Before the town

Isaac Hudson settled in Stokes Township in 1802 at the house where surveyors and county commissioners later met, in September 1810, to fix the permanent boundary between Greene and Madison counties; the 1883 county history records that his family's homestead "was a regular camping-ground of the Indians for several years." Isaac himself later moved near Vincennes, Indiana, where he was killed by Native combatants during the War of 1812. A favorite Native camping ground was also recorded on Paint Creek within Stokes Township, prized for its good pasturage, at the spot where the Grassy Point Christian Church was later built. Stokes Township lay within the broader hunting territory the 1883 county history assigns to the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware and Mingo across southwestern Madison County; the last Native residents of the county are reported to have left about 1820.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Wyandot, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Hudson homestead camping ground (camp) — Isaac and Skinner Hudson's farm, Stokes Township, early 1800s (archive.org)
• Paint Creek camping ground (Grassy Point) (camp) — on Paint Creek in Stokes Township, later site of Grassy Point Christian Church, pre-1820 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1802 — Isaac Hudson located within what became Stokes Township, believed to be its first white settler; he later moved near Vincennes, Indiana, where he was killed by Native combatants during the war.
2. 1804 — Skinner Hudson, an English-born immigrant who had first settled in Kentucky, joined his son Isaac in Madison County and remained until his death, establishing the family burying ground himself.
3. 1810-04-30 — The Madison County Commissioners erected Stokes Township, one of the county's original townships, by formal order.
4. 1810-09 — Surveyors and the Associate Judges of Madison County met at Isaac Hudson's house to permanently establish the boundary line between Greene and Madison counties.
5. 1817 — The erection of Clark County cut away part of Stokes Township's original territory.
6. 1832 — Grassy Point Christian Church was organized by Rev. Joseph Thomas, known as the "White Pilgrim," with thirty charter members, on the site of a former Native camping ground on Paint Creek.
7. 1838 — The village of South Solon was laid out on land belonging to John K. Hudson, part of the family that had first settled Stokes Township; see the South Solon village file for the discrepancy between this date and an earlier date given elsewhere in the same source.
8. 1853 — Paint Township was erected, and part of the territory previously included in Stokes Township was taken to help form it.
9. 1878 — The Springfield Southern Railroad was built through South Solon, ending Stokes Township's long isolation from rail transport.

Stories

The White Pilgrim of Stokes Township

Joseph Thomas, a native of North Carolina remembered locally as the "White Pilgrim," walked the entire distance from North Carolina to settle in the eastern part of Stokes Township around 1815 to 1818, then walked home again to marry a Miss Ridenhour and bring her back to his new home. A preacher in the Christian Church, he organized a congregation soon after arriving and served as its pastor for years, traveling widely through the surrounding country to preach and becoming, in the county historian's words, "one of the ablest defenders of the faith and doctrines of that church ever in this section of the county." He was also active in the Masonic order and was eventually sent east to travel on the order's business; while there he contracted smallpox and died. A minister of his church later visited his grave and wrote a hymn about his life. In 1832 Thomas organized Grassy Point Christian Church at the site of a former Native American camping ground on Paint Creek, valued in earlier years for its fine pasturage.

David Selsor, stock dealer known coast to coast

David Selsor was born in Virginia in 1806 and came to Stokes Township as a boy of about nine or ten with his parents, John and Mary Selsor. Starting his career as a farmer and stock dealer at sixteen, he showed what the 1883 county history calls an early "aptness and shrewdness as a trading man and financier," and by the time of his death on January 12, 1882, he owned nearly three thousand acres of land and was known, in the historian's telling, "from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean as one of the largest stock dealers of Ohio." After his death that summer, buyers came from across the country and from Canada to bid on his fine-blooded stock at public sale. The historian held Selsor up as proof that an ordinary farmer's occupation could bring as much lasting distinction as politics or the professions, writing that Stokes Township could "thus claim a prestige for being the home of this noted and remarkable man."

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• South Solon Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-07-21

Cite this page