Walnut Township, Gallia County

How Walnut Township, Gallia County began

Walnut Township, the largest in Gallia County, was organized April 13, 1819 -- the same year, according to John Kilbourn's 1833 Ohio Gazetteer, that gave it its name from the walnut trees common there. Henry McDaniel, who built a cabin on Symmes Creek near the mouth of Camp Creek in 1808, was its first settler. In the summer of 1849 the township suffered a severe cholera outbreak that killed at least thirty-seven people in Walnut and neighboring Harrison Township within two weeks. Settled substantially by German farming families in its central part, the township borders Lawrence County to the south and west and has no incorporated municipality of its own.

Settled 1808, incorporated 1819-04-13, by First settler Henry McDaniel.

Where the name comes from

The township was named for the walnut trees prevalent in the area, according to John Kilbourn's 1833 Ohio Gazetteer.

Before the town

No source found records a Native village, mound, trail, or treaty event specific to Walnut Township. The township lies within Gallia County's broader Shawnee homeland of the pre-1795 Ohio River valley.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1808 — Henry McDaniel, the township's first settler, builds a cabin in section six on Symmes Creek, near the mouth of Camp Creek; his son Ephraim is the first child born in the township.
2. 1812 — John Cornton erects the township's first grist mill, a log building with one run of stone on Symmes Creek, run by water; he adds a saw mill in 1818.
3. 1817 — The township's first religious services are held, at the residence of Walter Neal on Symmes Creek by Methodist minister William Kent, and the same year at Charles Neal's residence by Baptist minister Rev. John Lee.
4. 1819-04-13 — Walnut Township, the largest in the county at thirty-eight full sections, is organized; the first election is held on Sand Fork creek, electing Henry McDaniel and Thomas Clark justices of the peace.
5. 1833 — John Kilbourn's Ohio Gazetteer records the township's name as deriving from the walnut trees common in the area.
6. 1849-07 — A severe cholera epidemic breaks out in Walnut Township after William Martt helps move a family in Lawrence County; within about two weeks it causes roughly thirty-seven deaths across Walnut and neighboring Harrison Township, including eight members of the Martt family, five of whom are buried together in a single grave for lack of help to dig separate ones.
7. 2020 — Walnut Township records a census population of 1,021, with no incorporated municipality within its 41.0 square miles.

Stories

The cholera summer of 1849

In the summer of 1849, William Martt of Walnut Township helped move a family in neighboring Lawrence County and returned home ill in early July. He lingered more than a week while friends and neighbors nursed him, and only after the sickness had spread through every family that had been exposed did local physicians -- by the 1882 county history's account, inexperienced and unable to cope with the outbreak -- recognize it as a malignant form of cholera. William Clark was the first to die, killed within about four hours of falling ill; his wife and daughter followed quickly. At the worst point, eight members of the Martt family, including William himself, lay dead in the house at once, and five of them were buried together in a single grave because no one could be found to dig separate ones in time; many of the dead, the history notes, were buried without coffins at all. Credit for finally checking the outbreak went to a Clay Township farmer named Middleswarth, unskilled in medicine but in possession of a cure he had obtained from a physician in New Orleans, who volunteered to nurse the sick. Over about two weeks, roughly one hundred cases occurred across Walnut and adjoining Harrison Township, of which thirty-seven proved fatal, confined to a radius of about four miles -- an outbreak the 1882 history describes as unprecedented before or since in an otherwise healthy locality.

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

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• Hecla Water Association100% of residentsOhio River

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