Union Township, Hancock County

How Union Township, Hancock County began

Union Township was formed by the Hancock County commissioners on June 4, 1832, carved out of Liberty Township after a petition from settlers in the county's western section. The first arrivals came in September 1831, ahead of the township's legal organization, and settlement built up through the 1830s. Two villages grew up inside its boundaries in the railroad era: Cory (renamed Mount Cory), laid out in 1872 when a rail line reached that point, and Rawson, platted in 1855 on land owned by Frederick Keller and George J. Kelley. The township remains rural, with Ottawa Creek its principal stream and Mount Cory and Rawson its only incorporated places.

Settled 1831, incorporated 1832, by Hancock County commissioners, acting on a citizen petition, organized the township from territory previously part of Liberty Township.

Where the name comes from

Union Township was erected on June 4, 1832 from territory of Liberty Township on a settlers' petition; why the name Union was chosen is not recorded.

Before the town

Spayth's 1903 county history lists three mounds northeast of Cannonsburg, in Union Township, each about five feet high and thirty feet in diameter, and says the mounds in Union and Orange townships were opened by William M. McKinley and Fayette Ballard, who found human remains, flint arrow points and other stone implements in each. The history attributes them to a prehistoric people without naming a culture. The township lies in the Ottawa Creek and Blanchard drainage and is within the land ceded by the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids (1817); the county histories record no historic Native village here.

• Three mounds northeast of Cannonsburg (mound) — northeast of Cannonsburg, Union Township, prehistoric, undated (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1831 — Nicholas Folk and family, and George Burket, arrived in what would become Union Township on September 17, 1831, among the area's first settlers.
2. 1832 — Hancock County commissioners organized Union Township from territory previously part of Liberty Township, in response to a settlers' petition.
3. 1832 — Philip Cramer builds a horse-mill on his farm on Tiderishi Creek, the pioneer mill of that portion of the county, and the first society of the United Brethren in Hancock County is organized at his house; the township is erected on June 4 from Liberty, with Cramer, Nicholas Folk and George Burket the first trustees.
4. 1832 — Jacob Burket marries Sarah Cramer, daughter of Philip Cramer, Sr., the first marriage in the township, performed by Justice John Cramer.
5. 1839 — Benjamin and James C. Marshall, Franklin Ballard and William McConnell lay out Cannonsburg on Sections 35 and 36 (plat acknowledged December 13); a post office opens in 1841 with Thompson Bartel as postmaster.
6. 1845 — Edson Goit of Findlay builds a flour mill and a saw mill on Ottawa Creek, later bought by James Teatsorth and known across the county as the Teatsorth Mill.
7. 1855 — Frederick Keller and George J. Kelley laid out the village of Rawson, fifty-five lots in sections 13 and 14; the plat was acknowledged February 2.
8. 1872 — The village of Cory was laid out when a railroad was extended to that point; it was later renamed Mount Cory, and took a post office in 1873.
9. 1873 — Dr. H. P. Eaton builds a steam flouring mill at Cory, which begins grinding that year.
10. 1880 — George Burket builds a steam flouring mill at Rawson in the winter of 1880-81, with a daily capacity of about 35 barrels.
11. 1884 — Rawson formally incorporated as a village.
12. 1887 — Mount Cory is incorporated on May 10; it had been platted on November 8, 1872 by Matthias Markley and Samuel Kemerer, with 32 lots.
13. 1889 — A vigilante group known as the White Caps twice destroyed a saloon in Rawson.
14. 2020 — The census counts 1,881 people in Union Township, which holds the villages of Mount Cory and Rawson.

Stories

A town named for a railroad that came late

Frederick Keller and G. J. Kelly laid out Rawson on Sections 13 and 14 in February 1855 and named it for L. Q. Rawson of Fremont, then president of the proposed Fremont & Indiana Railroad, which had been surveyed through the county. A few houses went up and stores opened, but the railroad got little farther than a survey and the village's growth halted. The road reached Rawson only in September 1872. Speculation in lots, additions to the plat and a burst of business followed, and the 1886 county history says the excitement soon died away and left a respectable country town. Rawson was incorporated in 1884, and the 1880 census gave it 227 inhabitants.

The White Caps and the Rawson saloon

Wikipedia records that White Caps were active in Rawson in 1889 and twice destroyed a Rawson saloon. The 1886 county history, written a few years earlier, lists two saloons among the village's businesses.

Three mounds near Cannonsburg

Spayth's 1903 county history lists the mounds that Hancock County could still point to, and Union Township heads the list: three tumuli northeast of Cannonsburg. He says the tumuli of this part of the state were each about five feet high and thirty feet across. Others stood in Orange, Liberty and Delaware townships, and a very distinct mound survived on Section 18 of Allen Township. Those in Orange and Union townships had been opened by William M. McKinley and Fayette Ballard, who found human remains in each, together with flint arrowheads and other stone implements, some of which the McKinleys still kept. Spayth adds that many more small mounds must once have stood in other townships and had been obliterated by the plow, and that there is no reasonable doubt that the mound builders had lived in the valley of the Blanchard. Cannonsburg itself was platted on December 12, 1839, and never grew past a hamlet for want of a railroad.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Rawson Village66% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Bluffton Village34% of residentsBlanchard River (via intake reservoir)
• Green Meadow MHP-hancock Co0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Public schools (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026 edition (Directory of Officials): county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 1 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 3.

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-07-30

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