Washington Township, Coshocton County

How Washington Township, Coshocton County began

Washington Township, in the southern tier of Coshocton County, touching Muskingum County on the south, was established in 1811 and had a mill running by 1812, one of forty-three Washington Townships in Ohio. It has no incorporated village of its own; its one recognized place is the unincorporated settlement of Wakatomika at the township's center, a name taken, by Wikipedia's account, from the Shawnee town of Wakatomika that stood nearby before 1774. The village of Dresden, whose water and flood history is sometimes tied to this township, in fact sits mostly across the county line in Muskingum County's own Washington Township, a naming coincidence and a place where the two Washington Townships meet at the river. The Chalfant Church, built here in 1893 on a site first used in 1808, is the township's National Register listing.

Incorporated 1811.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history says Washington Township 'was named by Mordecai Chalfant', an early settler and one of the first county commissioners; it gives no reason, and the name is the common one for Ohio townships (forty-three in all).

Before the town

The unincorporated place at the center of this township is still named Wakatomika, by Wikipedia's account after the Shawnee town of Wakatomika, founded about 1756; Wikipedia places it on the Muskingum near present-day Dresden, just across the county line, and the 1881 county history puts a Shawnee village on the Wakatomika in what is now Washington Township. Colonel Angus McDonald led about 400 Virginia militia against it and four neighboring towns in August 1774 during Lord Dunmore's War, burning Wakatomika and taking three chiefs prisoner; survivors resettled farther west on the Mad River near present Zanesfield, where a second town of the same name stood until it too was destroyed, in 1786, during an expedition led by Benjamin Logan. Wakatomika Creek reaches the Muskingum at Dresden, just downstream across the county line in Muskingum County. Because the 1774 Wakatomika sat 'close to a number of Lenape (Delaware) towns,' Lenape presence in this stretch of the Muskingum valley alongside the Shawnee is also recorded, though no specific Lenape village name in this township is recorded. The 1881 county history adds that when the first white men came there was a little Indian camp of a few wigwams in the northeast quarter of section 7, on the flat close to Paddy Run on what was later the Hawthorn place, where Big Horn was the ruling spirit and traders often visited.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Lenape (Delaware).

• Wakatomika (first town) (village) — near the mouth of Wakatomika Creek on the Muskingum, near present-day Dresden, Muskingum County (the 1881 county history also puts a Shawnee village on the Wakatomika in present Washington Township), c. 1756-1774 (en.wikipedia.org)
• Big Horn's camp on Paddy Run (camp) — northeast quarter of section 7, on the flat close to Paddy Run, Washington Township, early 1800s, at the coming of the first settlers (archive.org)

Timeline

1. c. 1756 — Shawnees from Upper Shawneetown found the village of Wakatomika on the Muskingum River; Wikipedia places it near present-day Dresden in Muskingum County, and the 1881 county history puts a Shawnee village on the Wakatomika in what is now Washington Township.
2. 1774 — Colonel Angus McDonald's Virginia militia burns Wakatomika and four other towns during Lord Dunmore's War, taking three chiefs prisoner; survivors resettle west on the Mad River.
3. 1804 — John Hardesty, a Marylander from Wheeling with sixteen children, settles on the southeast quarter of section 22 beside Mill Fork, the first settler of the tract.
4. 1808-03 — Mordecai Chalfant moves from Perry County to the southwest quarter of section 20; he later serves as one of the first county commissioners and as an associate judge; Jacob Croy settles on section 21 that spring.
5. 1811 — Washington Township is established as a civil township of Coshocton County.
6. 1811-04-11 — Mordecai Chalfant is elected the township's first justice of the peace; he also names the township.
7. 1811 — John Milliard teaches the first school in a nail-less cabin on the northeast quarter of section 18.
8. 1811 — Work begins on the first church building in the county, a hewed-log meeting-house on Chalfant's section; the builder, William Barcus, leaves for frontier service and it stays unfinished until 1815.
9. 1812 — A mill is built in the township, one year after its organization.
10. c. 1814 — Jacob Croy builds the first sawmill in the township on Mill Creek; the dam washes out within a year or two.
11. 1820 — The tax duplicate lists dozens of resident landholders, showing the township settled rapidly from 1812 to 1815; among them is Daniel Johnson, a formerly enslaved man, on military lot 28.
12. c. 1822 — A Sunday school is started at Chalfant church and meets all year; in the early years preaching was only on weekdays and Sunday was given wholly to the school.
13. 1828-01-05 — The Tomika Regular Baptist church is organized by Elder Amos Mix at the house of William R. Thompson with three members.
14. 1849 — The hewed-log Chalfant meeting-house is replaced by a frame church thirty by forty feet, built by Jacob Croy for $500.
15. c. 1857 — Darius Wright builds a large blacksmith and wagon shop at Wakatomica, which for a while makes wagons in quantity.
16. 1893 — The present Chalfant Church building is dedicated on September 17, on a church site used since 1808, drawing over 1,000 people.
17. 1982 — Chalfant Church is added to the National Register of Historic Places (reference 82004416).
18. 2020 — Washington Township has 727 residents.

Stories

The name that outlasted the town

In August 1774, as Lord Dunmore's War spread along the Ohio frontier, Colonel Angus McDonald marched some 400 Virginia militiamen up the Muskingum to a cluster of Shawnee towns known collectively as Wakatomika. His men burned Wakatomika and four neighboring towns to the ground and carried off three chiefs as prisoners. The Shawnee who survived moved west, rebuilding a second Wakatomika on the Mad River near present Zanesfield, which itself was destroyed twelve years later. The unincorporated place at the center of today's Washington Township still carries the name, by Wikipedia's account, and Wakatomika Creek still runs to the Muskingum at Dresden.

The finest rural church in the county

Coshocton County's first congregation organized at this spot in 1808, two years before the county itself was formed, meeting in a log building. That structure stood until 1849, when Jacob Croy built a frame replacement for $500. The frame church later burned, and the congregation raised the present Victorian Gothic building in 1893 for $3,600, dedicating it before a crowd of more than a thousand. By 1881 the church had sent sixteen men into the ministry, and in the twentieth century it was the home congregation of two Methodist bishops, Francis J. McConnell and Francis G. Ensley. It closed as an active congregation in 1975 but is still maintained by the community and opened for occasional events.

Sixteen children, 3,200 pounds

John Hardesty, who came from Wheeling about 1804 and settled where Mill Fork leaves the township, was the first settler of what became Washington Township. He was a powerful man and his wife no small woman, and they had sixteen children, ten sons and six daughters, whose combined weight, the 1881 county history says, was reckoned to exceed 3,200 pounds. A true frontiersman, he moved west with the tide as long as his years allowed, sold his farm to William F. Compton, and died in St. Louis; most of his children went west before or after him. Two grandchildren, Patrick Hunter and Mrs. Paulina McElwell, were still in the township in 1881.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Muskingum County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Dresden95% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Frazeysburg2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Warsaw2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Country Hills MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2018: 1 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-29

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