Sycamore Township, Wyandot County

How Sycamore Township, Wyandot County began

Sycamore Township, the fractional twenty-four-section township in the northeast corner of Wyandot County, belonged to Crawford County from 1821, was organized there in 1825, and was set off as a separate Wyandot County township on June 2, 1845. It is named for Sycamore Creek, whose 'sycamores' the 1884 county historian says were really plane trees. Samuel Harper, an Irish-born veteran wounded at Bunker Hill, moved his family in on March 1, 1821 and died that October; the Methodist missionaries John Stewart and James B. Finley preached at his widow's house in summer 1822. The village of Sycamore was laid out in 1842 on the creek. One corner of the Wyandot Reservation touched its southern edge.

Settled 1821-03-01, incorporated 1845-06-02 (set off as a Wyandot County township; organized in Crawford County in 1825), by Samuel Harper and family, who moved in March 1821; township organized in Crawford County in 1825 and by Wyandot County's first commissioners on June 2, 1845.

Where the name comes from

The 1884 county history says the township 'derives its name from Sycamore Creek' and that the creek 'no doubt' took its title from the many so-called sycamore trees along it, in reality the plane tree or buttonwood, the true sycamore being native to Egypt, Syria and neighboring lands. The 1913 history shortens this to 'many Sycamore trees.'

Before the town

The Wyandot Reservation line ran eastward from Tymochtee Township through the northern part of Sections 31 to 34, in the southwest of the township, 'for a quarter of a mile, thence south into Eden,' so only a corner of the reserve touched it, and the rest was open to settlement from 1821. The first religious services in the township were held in summer 1822 at the widow Harper's house by John Stewart, a Black Methodist missionary who had worked with the Wyandot, and the Rev. James B. Finley, who ran the mission at Upper Sandusky. No Native village, mound or burial is named in the township by either county history. For the reserve, the 1817 treaty and the 1843 removal, see the Wyandot County and Crane Township files.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Wyandot Reservation line (corner of the reserve) (other) — northern part of Sections 31-34, southwest Sycamore Township, to 1843-45 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1821 — On March 1 Samuel Harper, born in Ireland in 1748 and wounded in the left arm at Bunker Hill, moves in from Ross County with his wife and seven children, entering 160 acres in Section 18 and 160 in Section 6; he dies October 18. The area is included in Crawford County that year.
2. 1822 — In summer John Stewart, a Black missionary, and James B. Finley hold the first religious services at Mrs. Harper's house; George Kisor enters eighty acres.
3. 1823 — William Lupton arrives early in the year and enters 160 acres on Section 17; Peter Baum, Alexander Morrow, John Eyestone and other Ross County families had come in the two years before.
4. 1825 — Sycamore is organized as a township in Crawford County, and a round-log schoolhouse (18 by 18 feet, Section 17) is raised by the citizens in 1825-26, with Nancy Parmenter paid $1 a week by subscription as its first teacher.
5. 1834 — The first church, a frame building on Section 18, is built nominally by the Methodists but with the support of the people of all sects; the Ebenezer Methodist society at Pipetown also builds its first church in Section 10 that year.
6. 1836 — George Harper builds an 18 by 30 foot log store, the first building on the site of Sycamore village.
7. 1842 — The village of Sycamore is laid out on Sycamore Creek between Sections 17 and 18 while the township is still in Crawford County (the 1913 history says 1843).
8. 1845 — On June 2 Wyandot County's first commissioners order that the fractional township of Sycamore be organized as a separate township; Hugh Welch, Isaac Jaqueth and John Martin are the first trustees.
9. 1849 — The United Brethren hold their first meeting in a schoolhouse, with a permanent organization in 1851 and a frame church in Sycamore village in 1853.
10. 1876 — Rubicon Lodge No. 645, I. O. O. F. receives its dispensation July 20; it has 55 members by 1884.
11. 1882 — Jaqueth Post No. 196, G. A. R., is organized January 31 at Sycamore with the aid of an inspector from Toledo.
12. 1884 — George Taylor builds a five-story brick flouring mill at Sycamore; the village has three dry goods stores and a sash and door factory and more than 300 residents, and the township has six school buildings.
13. 1913 — The county history says Sycamore village has about 1,000 people and two railroads, the Toledo and Ohio Central and the Northern Ohio.

Stories

Samuel Harper, Bunker Hill veteran

Samuel Harper was born in Ireland in 1748, came to America before the Revolution and enlisted near its start. At Bunker Hill a bullet broke his left arm below the elbow, which got him discharged, and he settled in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, where he married Catharine Grimes in Chester County. In the fall of 1818 he moved to Ross County, Ohio, and on March 1, 1821 he brought his wife and seven children, four sons (William, James, Samuel and George) and three daughters, to Section 18 of what became Sycamore Township. He entered 320 acres but lived on them less than eight months, dying on October 18, 1821. His widow stayed on the homestead until 1834 and then moved to the village, where she died in 1848 having raised all her children. Her son George opened the village's first store in 1836.

Preaching at Mrs. Harper's

No church stood in Sycamore Township in the summer of 1822, so the first religious services were held at the house of the widow Harper. The preachers were John Stewart, a Black missionary, and James B. Finley, the Methodist minister then building the Wyandot mission at Upper Sandusky. Meetings continued in cabins and private houses, and sometimes on the old camp ground, until the first church went up in 1834 on Section 18. It was a frame building, put up nominally by the Methodists but with the united help of people of every sect.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Sycamore Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Power plants (1)

Public schools (2)

Superfund sites (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 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 2025-07-03

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