Tiffin Township, Defiance County

How Tiffin Township, Defiance County began

Tiffin Township, in Defiance County's northeast corner, was organized in 1832 and takes its name from the Tiffin River (old Bean Creek), which was the only highway open to its first settlers. Ephraim Doty came about 1825, the Purtee, Russell, Coy and Snider families in 1831, and in December 1835 Jacob Coy and Albert G. and Amos Evans laid out Evansport, whose grist and sawmill were built in 1836-37 and whose post office opened in 1837. German families from about 1837 formed a settlement east of the river, and in 1883 the township had six churches, ten schoolhouses and a Masonic lodge; it counted 1,586 people in 2020.

Settled c. 1825 (Ephraim Doty, first settler, on Bean Creek / Tiffin River); Evansport platted December 1835, platted 1835-12 (Evansport, by Jacob Coy and Albert G. and Amos Evans; 122 lots), incorporated 1832 (township organized), by Ephraim Doty (first settler); Jacob Coy and Albert G. and Amos Evans (Evansport).

Where the name comes from

Named for the Tiffin River, which flows through the township. French traders had called the stream Crique Feve (Bean Creek) for the wild beans growing along its banks; it was officially renamed the Tiffin River in 1822 for Edward Tiffin, Ohio's first state governor. Evansport, the township's only settlement, is named for its founders, brothers Albert G. and Amos Evans.

Before the town

No mound, village or treaty site specific to Tiffin Township is named in the sources consulted. The 1883 county history records that Native families were still numerous when the Russells and Acuses moved up Bean Creek (the Tiffin River) in pirogues in the spring of 1831: Dr. Houston Russell, who grew up on the family farm in Section 20, recalled playing as a boy with the Indian boys, there being ten Indians in the township to every white person at that time. French traders had earlier called the stream Crique Feve (Bean Creek). The settlement of Evansport and the river were later the route of canoes and pirogues, the only transport before roads.

Timeline

1. 1825 — Ephraim Doty, the township's first settler, arrives about this year on Bean Creek (the Tiffin River); he later builds the first sawmill on Doty Run and the first brick kiln, and dies in 1845.
2. 1831 — Samuel Russell and John Acus move up the river in pirogues in spring to Section 20, and that fall the Coy, Snider and Hall families and Mrs. Conrad arrive.
3. 1832 — Tiffin Township is organized.
4. 1832 — Tiffin Township's first election is held at the house of Ephraim Doty; Jacob Coy and Doty are chosen justices of the peace, John Snider constable and treasurer, James Guthrie clerk.
5. 1835 — Albert G. and Amos Evans, with Jacob Coy, plat Evansport in December, naming it for themselves.
6. 1835-12 — Jacob Coy and Albert G. and Amos Evans lay out Evansport on the Tiffin River, an original plat of 122 lots.
7. 1836 — Jacob and John Coy and John Snider build the Evansport grist and sawmill (1836-37); the grist mill stops grinding in 1868 and is replaced in 1872 by Daniel Fribley and Abram Coy's mill on nearly the same site.
8. 1837 — A post office opens at Evansport.
9. 1837 — German families (Toberons, Hockmans, Biderwells, Shermans, Rumkeys, Wisemiller and Miers) begin to settle east of the Tiffin River, forming a 'German settlement', now mostly English by 1883.
10. 1842 — Frederick Von Beron builds a tannery on Section 16 that runs until about 1866, when he sells and moves to Iowa.
11. 1847 — The boat Experiment, capacity 600 bushels of wheat, plies the Tiffin River between Evansport and Brunersburg; a small distillery run by Jacob Kintigh also operates from about 1847 to 1855.
12. 1875-10 — Evansport Lodge No. 511, F. & A. M., receives its charter from the Grand Lodge of Ohio on October 17, with Enos Kimble, Abram Coy and John S. Cameron among its charter members; the Masonic hall is built that year, the Odd Fellows' in 1871.
13. 1883 — Tiffin Township has six churches, ten schoolhouses (six of brick) and Evansport with about 500 people, a Methodist church built in 1874, a United Brethren church built in 1876, and two hotels.
14. 2020 — Tiffin Township has 1,586 residents in the 2020 census; State Routes 15 and 66 cross it.

Stories

The Experiment on Bean Creek

For the first settlers of Tiffin Township the Tiffin River, then still called Bean Creek, was the only public highway; canoes and pirogues were the only way to move people or grain. Samuel Russell and John Acus came up it that way in the spring of 1831, as soon as the ice was out, with their wives, settling on Section 20 where they are buried in the McCauley Cemetery. About 1847 the river carried something larger: a boat called the Experiment that ran between Evansport and Brunersburg with a capacity of 600 bushels of wheat. Evansport's little grist and sawmill, built in 1836-37 by Jacob and John Coy and John Snider, was at the head of this traffic, and when it stopped grinding in 1868 Daniel Fribley and Abram Coy rebuilt on the old site in 1872. The village's Masonic and Odd Fellows halls, each with about fifty members in 1883, and its five cooper shops show a river town that lived off the wheat and barrel trade.

Ten Indians to every white man

Dr. Houston Russell was a boy when his parents Samuel and Margaret Russell, with the Acus family, came to Tiffin Township in the spring of 1831 after selling their farms in another county and wintering at what became Brunersburg. The county history, quoting his recollection, says his playmates were Indian boys, there being ten Indians in the township then to each white person. Russell grew up clearing the farm in Section 20, studied medicine for three years with Dr. William C. Porter of Evansport, and began practice there in the fall of 1850. He also served as deputy county treasurer, and a justice of the peace from 1860 to 1866. The Ephraim Doty family had come before him, about 1825, as the first settlers, and the township was organized in 1832 with its election at Doty's house.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Defiance City94% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Ayersville Water and Sewer District3% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Christi Water System Inc2% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Brunersburg Wd - Brunersburg1% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)
• Brunersburg Wd - Airport0% of residentsMaumee River (via 74-acre upground reservoir)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-26

Cite this page