Twin Township, Darke County

How Twin Township, Darke County began

Twin Township, in southern Darke County, was erected in July 1817 from Greenville Township, then the whole county, and was the second civil division made in it; it takes its name from Twin Creek. Jacob North's cabin on Miller's Fork, built about the War of 1812, was burned by Native raiders after two neighbors were killed; Richard Robbins of the Stillwater colony made the first permanent settlement in 1815 just west of what became Ithaca. Ithaca was platted in 1832 and Arcanum in 1848-49, and the Dayton railroad reached Arcanum in 1852; 4,249 people lived in the township in 2020.

Settled 1815, platted 1832 (Ithaca, by John Colville); 1849 (Arcanum, by Gunder), incorporated 1817-07 (township erected from Greenville Township), by Richard Robbins (first permanent settler, 1815, west of Ithaca); Jacob North earlier and briefly, before or during the War of 1812.

Where the name comes from

The 1880 county history says the township's name was taken from Twin Creek, though it adds that the township contains no considerable stream itself (Miller's Fork rises in the northwest and flows south, and Painter Creek crosses the north).

Before the town

The 1880 county history records Native presence in Twin Township into the years after the War of 1812. Wayne's trail from Lewisburg to Fort Jefferson and Greenville ran along the bank of Miller's Fork and drew the first settlers. The township's first pioneer, Jacob North, came from the Lewisburg settlement about 1812 and built on the creek bank near the present township cemetery; neighbors Stoner and Elliott fell victim to the tomahawk and scalping knife, a half-blood visitor warned North to leave for his family's safety, and a party of Native people burned his cabin after he left. In 1815 Richard Robbins, the first permanent settler, west of Ithaca, found that, with the war over, the Indians remained and white and red men regarded each other with distrust; he claimed a Native neighbor fired a flintlock at him from behind a tree, hoping to get his fine rifle, which the man denied. No mound, village or treaty cession is named in the township in the sources consulted; the land lies within the 1795 Treaty of Greenville cession.

• Wayne's trail along Miller's Fork (trail) — bank of Miller's Fork, Twin Township, on the road from Lewisburg to Fort Jefferson and Greenville, 1790s trail, later used by settlers (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1812 — Jacob North, the first pioneer, builds on the Miller's Fork bank near the present township cemetery (his arrival is conjectured as before or during the War of 1812); after neighbors Stoner and Elliott are killed he is warned to leave and Native raiders burn his cabin.
2. 1815 — Richard Robbins of the Stillwater colony becomes the first permanent settler, just west of the future Ithaca; David Lucas and the brothers William and Eli Curtner follow in March 1816, and Eli Curtner's son William, born in May 1816, is the first white child born in the township.
3. 1817 — Twin Township is created from land given up by Greenville Township and named for Twin Creek.
4. 1817 — Frazee Doty, a local minister, and others from the Stillwater settle west of Ithaca; William Lemon is first justice of the peace and captain of the militia company, and John Osbrook builds the township's first mill, a corn cracker on Section 32.
5. 1817-07 — Twin Township is erected in July from Greenville Township, then the whole county, as the second civil division of Darke County; Jacob Baumgardner, who dies in spring 1817, is the first burial.
6. 1832 — John Colville platts Ithaca, the township's oldest village and for years the trading centre for many miles; Joseph Evans opens its first dry-goods store and Eli Shearer its first tavern.
7. 1840 — The Methodists organize at Ithaca with forty-two members; their church, built two years later, is the first in the township.
8. 1848 — Arcanum, the township's largest village, is founded in its northern section (Wikipedia gives 1848; the 1880 county history says it was laid out in 1849 by Gunder).
9. 1851-06 — The first store in Arcanum is begun June 20 by Samuel and John Smith; the railroad from Dayton arrives the next year and ends the long haul of produce over corduroy roads.
10. 1852 — The Greenville and Miami railroad reaches Arcanum within the township.
11. 1857-07 — Ithaca Lodge No. 295, F. & A. M., receives its charter on July 17; William H. Matchett is first Master.
12. 1880 — Arcanum has about 1,000 people; the township has three grist mills and four sawmills, a steam mill at Ithaca built by Caswell Sharp, and Methodist societies at Ithaca, Gordon and Arcanum.
13. 2020 — Twin Township has 4,249 residents in the 2020 census; State Route 722 runs through it between Castine and Ithaca.

Stories

A township cut from an older one

Twin Township was not part of Darke County's original layout; it was cut out of Greenville Township's territory in 1817 as the county's population grew and local government needed to be closer to the people it served. Named for Twin Creek rather than any person or event, it grew into the county's southern farm belt, eventually holding three small villages -- Arcanum, Gordon, and Ithaca -- each with its own modest founding story, joined by the same crossroads-and-farmland pattern of settlement common across Darke County's outer townships.

Jacob North and the burned cabin

The first white man to try to live in Twin Township was Jacob North, who left the Lewisburg settlement about the time of the War of 1812 and built his cabin on the bank of Miller's Fork near where the township cemetery is now. His neighbors grew hostile; his small property was repeatedly raided, and he was warned several times to go, but he feared no danger. Then two white men named Stoner and Elliott were killed with the tomahawk and scalping knife, and North was plainly marked next. One day a man of mixed Native and white parentage stepped quietly into his cabin and told him that for the safety of himself and his family he had better go back to the settlement at once. North and his wife gathered their few movables and went. Soon afterward a party of Native people surrounded the empty cabin and burned it, and the county historian thought it probable that the friend's warning saved the owner's life.

The colony that came from the Stillwater

On Christmas Day 1800 a company of emigrants left North Carolina to travel west and north across the Ohio into the Indian country, having heard of the fertile valleys of the Miami. They settled north of Dayton on the Stillwater, and from their ranks about 1816 came the first permanent settlers of Twin Township. Richard Robbins, born in Randolph County, North Carolina, came in 1815 and settled just west of the site of Ithaca; the war had ended but, in the historian's words, the Indians remained and white and red men both went armed. One day, while Robbins was feeding pigs penned against wolves, a flintlock cracked and he saw a Native neighbor drawing back behind a tree. The neighbor denied any such intention, but Robbins always maintained the shot was fired to get his fine rifle. He died of measles in 1824; the Lucas, Curtner, Shank, Walker and Doty families came behind him from the same colony.

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

• Arcanum Village86% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• West Manchester, Village Of7% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Verona, Village Of7% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Superfund sites (1)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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