Washington Township, Richland County

How Washington Township, Richland County began

Washington Township is best known for the village of Lexington, which straddles it and neighboring Troy Township along the Clear Fork River. Land speculator Amariah Watson laid out Lexington in 1812 and built the first cabin on the site, naming the settlement for Lexington, Massachusetts out of respect for his father, a Revolutionary War veteran; Watson's 1813 water-powered sawmill on the Clear Fork drew the settlers who built the town's early economy. Lexington received village status in 1839 and grew slowly until Mansfield's postwar suburban expansion reached it in the 1960s, when its population more than doubled in a decade.

Settled 1812, platted 1812, incorporated 1839, by Amariah Watson.

Where the name comes from

Lexington was named for Lexington, Massachusetts, where the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired on April 19, 1775, in honor of founder Amariah Watson's father, a veteran of that war.

Before the town

The 1880 county history says the township does not appear to have held any permanent Indian encampment but was not excelled as a hunting ground. Jedediah Smith, who first came to enter land in 1812, recalled Chief Armstrong of the Greentown Indians telling him that he believed Wayne was a spirit, because he had three shots at him from a dead rest and could not bring him down. The township lies north and west of the Greenville Treaty line of 1795.

Timeline

1. 1812 — Amariah Watson and Elisha Robins settle at Lexington; Watson lays out the town on his own land and builds the first log cabin.
2. 1813 — Watson builds a water-powered sawmill on the Clear Fork River, drawing settlers and founding the town's economy.
3. 1814 — 'Uncle' Noah Cook arrives among the early settlers, following William Gass, Calvin Culver, and Frances Mitchell.
4. 1815 — John Stewart on Section 10 and James Sirpliss on Section 11 settled in April; Stewart became the township's first justice of the peace, county auditor from 1822 to 1830 and county surveyor for about eighteen years.
5. 1816-03-04 — Washington Township was organized out of the east third of Troy Township, the eleventh in the county, and named for George Washington; the first election, at Solomon Lee's house at the center, drew forty votes and chose John Stewart justice of the peace.
6. 1816-1820 — At a very early day, not dated by the county history, Thomas Laughlin opened the first public house on the State road from Mount Vernon to Bellville and Mansfield, near the center of the township, and the first schoolhouse, taught first by John Barnett of Guernsey County, was built near it on Section 16.
7. c. 1821 — Horse thieves and counterfeiters troubled the township, and settlers organized the Black Cane Company, whose members carried peeled, burned and oiled black canes of crab-apple or black haw wood, to clear them out.
8. 1823-1824 — The Methodist Episcopal society was organized at John Conwell's house, the first church in the township; in 1828 it built a log church about 25 by 35 feet on the site of Washington Village.
9. 1827-03-29 — Settlers met at Samuel Smith's house near the township's east line and formed the Washington and Monroe Temperance Society, the first in Richland County; it kept meeting each January for more than thirty years and listed about six hundred members.
10. 1830-1840 — The Methodist church in Washington Village split over slavery, and fourteen members left to found a Wesleyan Methodist church; the township's antislavery families helped, by the county historian's account, hundreds of slaves to reach Canada by the underground railroad.
11. 1833 — The Black Cane Company was called out again against a new gang of horse thieves who burned the barns of Jonathan Coulter and William Irwin and cut loose a flatboat of pork, flour and whisky on the Black Fork.
12. c. 1835 — The Church of Christ (Disciples) was organized by John Reed about a mile west of Washington Village, and John Reed was its first pastor.
13. 1839 — Lexington receives official village status.
14. 1847 — The German Reformed congregation built its log church on Section 22, near the center of the township on the State road, after worshiping two years in an old Dunkard log church.
15. 1869 — Former Wesleyan Methodists and others organized a Congregational church and built a $4,000 frame church in Washington Village, with $2,200 given by George and Andrew McFarland.
16. 1979 — The First Congregational Church and Lexington School was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
17. 1960-1970 — Lexington's population jumps from 1,311 to 2,972, about 127 percent, as Mansfield's suburban growth reaches the village.
18. 2020 — The 2020 census counted 6,622 residents in the 32.4-square-mile township, according to Wikipedia.

Stories

A sawmill starts a town named for a battle its founder never saw

Amariah Watson moved his wife and four children from Knox County to the banks of the Clear Fork in 1812 and laid out a town on his own land, naming it Lexington after the Massachusetts town where the Revolutionary War's first shots were fired -- a tribute to his own father, who had served in that war. The following year Watson built a water-powered sawmill on the river, and the promise of milled lumber drew settlers including William Gass, Calvin Culver, Frances Mitchell, and 'Uncle' Noah Cook. The village grew unhurriedly for well over a century, receiving official status in 1839, until Mansfield's postwar suburban growth reached it in the 1960s and more than doubled its population in a single decade.

The Black Cane Company

By 1820 and 1821 the heavily wooded hills of Washington Township had become a refuge for a gang of horse thieves and counterfeiters whose range reached into the neighbouring townships and counties; several were known residents, and it seemed impossible to convict them. After losing horses and other property, the leading settlers of each affected neighbourhood organized for self-defense as the Black Cane Company. Each member carried a cane cut from crab-apple or black haw, peeled, burned black and oiled to a gloss, and among them were Capt. Thomas Coulter, William Irwin, David Ayres, Solomon Gladden and the Hills. By vigorous exertion they cleared the neighbourhood. About 1833 a new gang stole a horse on Honey Creek and a colt from Alexander Rice, robbed a store, burned the barns of two of the company's members and cut a loaded flatboat loose on the Black Fork. The cargo of pork, flour and whisky was saved, and the Black Cane Company, with the citizens, drove the gang out; some were sent to the penitentiary.

The first temperance society

On March 29, 1827, a handful of early settlers met at Samuel Smith's house, just over the line in Monroe Township, to deal with the common daily use of whisky. They formed the Washington and Monroe Temperance Society and agreed to give up ardent spirits in their families and at their gatherings, even at log-rollings and raisings, for one year to start. An anti-temperance society was organized to counteract it and outnumbered the first ten to one, but it did not last. The temperance society met every January for more than thirty years and its book carried about six hundred names. The county historian said that it was the first temperance society in Richland County and, he thought, in that part of the country, and that no name was more worthy to live in history than its projectors; by 1880 there was no place in the township where whisky could be bought.

Local history sources: richland.ohgenweb.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · richlandcountyhistory.com · archive.org

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Mansfield City60% of residentsClear Fork Reservoir (Clear Fork of the Mohican River), plus 9 city wells
• Lexington Village22% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Bellville Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ontario City5% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Walnut Hills Water Association2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #021% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Lakeview Estates MHP1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Cedar Creek MHP1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Eastview Community Water Association1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Clearfork MHP1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #031% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Madison Water District0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Lucas Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #080% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Mansfield System #010% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Peyton Community Well0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Hanley Acres Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Hanley Village Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Willow Park Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• M & H MHP, Llc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Southern Estates Water Assoc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Hillside MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Briarwood Estates MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (2)

Stations and terminals (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (8)

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

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.
• Financial Audit, 2024, released 2025-10-02
• Financial Audit, 2023, released 2024-08-13

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