Waldo Township, Marion County

How Waldo Township, Marion County began

Waldo Township sits in the southeastern corner of Marion County and, together with neighboring Prospect Township, was the first part of the county opened to Euro-American settlement, because it lay south of the 1795 Greenville Treaty line while the rest of the county stayed closed until 1819. Nathaniel Brundige and Nathaniel Wyatt Sr. arrived in the spring of 1806, the first white settlers in what is now Marion County by the 1883 county history's Waldo Township account; Wyatt's own land later held Fort Morrow, a War of 1812 blockhouse post, and the oldest graveyard in the county. The township was not formally organized until April 3, 1848, decades after its first cabins went up. It holds the village of Waldo (platted 1833) and part of the lost hamlet of Bethlehem, founded in 1832 and shared with neighboring Pleasant Township.

Settled 1806 (Brundige and Wyatt families, the county's first white settlers), incorporated 1848-04-03 (township formally organized).

Where the name comes from

No source consulted gives a separate origin for the township's own name; Waldo Township takes its name from the village of Waldo, platted within it in 1833 and named for Waldo Pettibone, son of village founder M. D. Pettibone. See the Waldo village file (P80500) for that naming story.

Before the town

No Native village, mound, or trail specific to Waldo Township is named in the sources checked. But the township's own settlement history is inseparable from the Greenville Treaty line: Waldo and Prospect were the only two Marion County townships lying south of the 1795 boundary, which the 1883 county history calls an 'imaginary line...impregnable to assault,' and so were the only ground the federal government would sell to settlers before 1819 -- explaining why Brundige and Wyatt could settle here as early as 1806 while the rest of the future county, still held under treaty by the Wyandot and Delaware, stayed closed for another thirteen years. Fort Morrow, built during the War of 1812 by Capt. Taylor on Nathaniel Wyatt's land north of Norton, was a defensive post -- two blockhouses, picket walls of split slabs enclosing a half to three-quarter acre, portholes and one cannon -- built explicitly against 'Indian alarms' of the period, though the 1883 county history does not record any specific attack, siege, or Native person by name in connection with the fort.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Fort Morrow (other) — north of Norton, on Nathaniel Wyatt Sr.'s land, Waldo Township, Marion County, built during the War of 1812 by Capt. Taylor (ohiogenealogyexpress.com)

Timeline

1. 1795 — The Treaty of Greenville fixes a line through southern Marion County; ground south of it, including what becomes Waldo Township, is legally open to settlement while ground to the north stays closed for another generation.
2. 1806 — Nathaniel Brundige, from Ulster County, New York, and Nathaniel Wyatt Sr., from Albany by way of Virginia and Pickaway County, arrive in the spring, becoming the first white settlers recorded in what would become Marion County; Wyatt settles 160 acres later holding Wyatt's tavern and Fort Morrow.
3. 1807-10 — Capt. William S. Drake arrives from Orange County, New York, among the township's early settlers.
4. 1807 (fall) — Hira Wilcox arrives from Connecticut, another of the township's earliest recorded settler families, alongside Isaac Bush of Ulster County, New York.
5. 1812-1815 — Fort Morrow, a War of 1812 defensive post with two blockhouses and a cannon, is built by Capt. Taylor on Nathaniel Wyatt's land north of Norton.
6. 1824 — The Marlborough Free-Will Baptist Church is organized in the township.
7. 1832 — The original group of settlers arrives at Bethlehem, a hamlet straddling Waldo and Pleasant townships.
8. 1833 — M. D. Pettibone plats the village of Waldo at the crossing of a turnpike and a state road.
9. 1834-1835 — The township's Methodist Episcopal Church is organized, with its first building erected around 1838.
10. 1835 — St. John's Church, Evangelical Association, is organized; its first building goes up in Bethlehem in 1853.
11. 1848-04-03 — Waldo Township is formally organized as a civil township, decades after its first settlement.
12. 1855-02-21 — The Olive Branch Church, United Brethren, is organized in the township.

Stories

Fifteen years ahead of the rest of the county

When the 1883 county history describes settlers spending more than fifteen years 'beating strong against the imaginary line that seemed as a Chinese wall,' it is describing exactly the ground that became Waldo Township. The 1795 Greenville Treaty line ran close by here, and it happened to put Waldo and neighboring Prospect Township on the legal side of the boundary while the rest of the future Marion County stayed closed, still held under treaty, for another generation. That accident of geography is why Nathaniel Brundige and Nathaniel Wyatt Sr. could build cabins here in the spring of 1806, thirteen years before the federal government even opened the northern two-thirds of the county for sale in 1819 -- making Waldo Township's settlers, in the 1883 history's township account, the first white settlers in what is now Marion County. Wyatt's own farm, the site of his tavern, later held Fort Morrow, the war post built against 'Indian alarms' during the War of 1812, and Wyatt's Graveyard on the same ground is remembered as the oldest burial ground in Marion County, holding pioneers laid to rest from the 1820s into the 1880s.

A furniture shop and two millstones from Cincinnati

Early Waldo Township ran on water power. Henry Schaffer built the township's first water-powered saw mill, and Nathaniel Wyatt Sr. -- already remembered as one of the township's first two settlers -- later improved it, hauling in a pair of French buhr millstones from Cincinnati, a substantial investment for a farming township barely a generation removed from its first cabins. The mill anchored the kind of small industry that let churches, a tavern, and eventually a platted village follow: the Methodist Episcopal congregation organized in 1834-35 built its first meetinghouse around 1838, and by the 1850s the township supported four organized congregations across its scattered farms and the hamlets of Waldo and Bethlehem.

Photographs

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

Olentangy River intake at Del-Co's plant on Olentangy River Rd, Liberty Twp, south of the city of Delaware The water here

• Del-co Water Company, Inc.77% of residentsOlentangy River, O'Shaughnessy and Alum Creek reservoirs, plus Knox County wells
• Aqua Ohio - Marion23% of residentsScioto River and Little Scioto River intakes, blended with local groundwater wells

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

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 2024-12-17

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