Taylor Creek Township, Hardin County

How Taylor Creek Township, Hardin County began

Taylor Creek Township, in the south of Hardin County, was first settled by Charles W. and Samuel Stevenson in March 1827 near the headwaters of Silver Creek. It was organized about 1833, the year Hardin County was formed, and the county history says it was named for Gen. James Taylor of Kentucky. Two Native routes crossed it, an old Shawnee trace and the 1812 military road called Hull's Trail, and the Mad River & Lake Erie railroad gave it two small railroad villages, Yelverton (1858) and Silver Creek (1867). It is farm country, with no grist mill, nine schools in 1882, and a Methodist and a United Presbyterian church, and is served today by Kenton's water system.

Settled March 1827 (Charles W. and Samuel Stevenson, Survey 10,014), incorporated about 1833; first election May 4, 1833, by erected about the time Hardin County was organized; records burned with the courthouse in 1853.

Where the name comes from

The 1883 county history says the township is 'said to have received its name in honor of Gen. James Taylor, of Kentucky'; Taylor Creek, the township's principal stream, shares the name. The earlier statement that the township was named for the creek is not supported by that history.

Before the town

Two Native routes touched the township, according to the 1883 county history. The old Shawnee trace from the Mackacheek towns to the Indian villages of the Sandusky and Tymochtee entered Hardin County in the southeast corner of what is now Taylor Creek Township and ran northeast through Hale, Dudley and Goshen townships to Upper Sandusky, and the first State road was later laid out on it. Gen. Shelby's army followed it in September 1813. The same history places the Mingo chief Logan's village of about 1778 in the southeastern part of the county, probably near Grassy Point in Hale Township, not in Taylor Creek. The history also mentions Solomon's Town, a small Shawnee village north of the Greenville treaty line that McArthur's road passed before it reached Hardin County. No Native camp or burial in the township itself is recorded.

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

• Shawnee trace from the Mackacheek towns to the Sandusky and Tymochtee villages (trail) — entering Hardin County at the southeast corner of Taylor Creek Township, running northeast through Hale, Dudley and Goshen townships, before 1813; followed by Gen. Shelby in Sept. 1813 (archive.org)
• Hull's Trail (McArthur's road to Fort McArthur) (trail) — entering Hardin County in Survey 9,991 of Taylor Creek Township and passing the west part of the township toward the Scioto, opened June 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1812-06 — Col. Duncan McArthur's regiment cuts the road known as Hull's Trail ahead of Gen. Hull's army, entering what is now Hardin County in Survey 9,991 of Taylor Creek Township and passing near the later Silver Creek Station on its way to the Scioto, where the soldiers build Fort McArthur.
2. 1813-09 — Gen. Shelby follows the old Shawnee trace from Bellefontaine toward Upper Sandusky; the trace entered Hardin County in the southeast corner of what is now Taylor Creek Township.
3. 1827-03 — Charles W. and Samuel Stevenson settle on Survey 10,014, recorded as the first permanent settlers of Taylor Creek Township.
4. 1828 — Thomas, James and John Collins arrive in the fall with their widowed mother and settle on Survey 10,015; their brother Joseph follows in 1829.
5. 1829-08 — Joshua Caseman, a Kentuckian by way of Logan County, settles in the township in August on Survey 10,001 and marries Eliza Bailey there; he lives on the farm until his death.
6. 1831 — William Bailey, a Virginian born in 1786, settles on Taylor Creek on Survey 10,015.
7. 1832-33 — John Wilcox's family and Henry D. Thorp settle in the township as it is organized.
8. 1833-05-04 — The first election in Taylor Creek Township is held on May 4; the township then reaches over what became Hale, Buck, Lynn and part of McDonald, and the county history says it was named for Gen. James Taylor of Kentucky; its township officers are chosen in October.
9. 1833-34 — Charles W. Stevenson builds the township's first mill, a water-powered sawmill on Taylor Creek, which runs eight or ten years; the township never has a grist mill.
10. c. 1835 — Jonathan Seig teaches the first school in a log house near the later St. Paul Methodist Church, and Rev. Enos Holmes organizes a Methodist class at John Collins's house, reorganized in 1843.
11. 1851 — A public cemetery is established by P. K. Seig; it is formally organized in February 1883.
12. 1858 — Harris & Goss lay out the town of Yelverton on the new Mad River & Lake Erie railroad, named for John Yelverton of New York, a stockholder; Philip Hisey opens its first store and becomes postmaster.
13. 1860-61 — Silver Creek Chapel, a Methodist Episcopal society, is organized at the Norman Schoolhouse; about 1863 it buys and finishes an unfinished Presbyterian church at Silver Creek.
14. 1867 — Frederick Hanger lays out the town of Silver Creek at the railroad station six miles south of Kenton, where Robert Ewing, the first station agent, is postmaster; the Yelverton post office is recorded 1862-1910 and Silver Creek 1864-1995.
15. 1877 — St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church dedicates a brick church on December 13.
16. 1881 — The United Presbyterian Church of Silver Creek is organized in the spring with fifty members and builds a $2,000 brick church that summer, dedicated free of debt.

Stories

A township of farms, built family by family

Taylor Creek Township's early history, as the 1883 county history tells it, is largely a roll call of farm families arriving one after another through the 1820s and 1830s -- the Stevenson brothers in 1827, the Collins family with their mother the next year, then the Baileys, Wilcoxes, Thorps, and Millers through the following decade. St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church, Silver Creek Chapel, and the United Presbyterian Church of Silver Creek grew up to serve them, and P. K. Seig's public cemetery, laid out in 1851, gave the township a common burying ground before it was formally organized as a cemetery association in 1883.

Hull's Trail and the road to Fort McArthur

In June 1812, when Ohio's militia gathered for the invasion of Canada, Col. Duncan McArthur's regiment was sent from Urbana to open a road ahead of Gen. William Hull's army as far as the Scioto River. Passing Manary's blockhouse north of Bellefontaine and Solomon's Town, a small Shawnee village north of the Greenville treaty line, the detachment cut through dense forest and entered what is now Hardin County in Taylor Creek Township, running northeast across Surveys 12,051 and 12,167 near the future Silver Creek Station. At the Scioto they built Fort McArthur. In 1883 the county history still called the way 'Hull's trail,' noting that in places the remains of old corduroy bridges could be seen, and that it ran through the west part of the township to the fort and on north to Sandusky. A second route, an old Shawnee trace from the Mackacheek towns to the Sandusky and Tymochtee villages, crossed the township's southeast corner and was followed by Gen. Shelby's troops in September 1813.

Local history sources: ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · postalhistory.com

Mostly private wells The water here

• Kenton City84% of residentsScioto River valley aquifer (local wells, low confidence)
• Rushsylvania Village10% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Belle Center Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Tammis Mobile Village Ltd.0% 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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-07-07
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-24

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