Washington Township, Shelby County

How Washington Township, Shelby County began

Washington Township was established in 1825 in the southern part of Shelby County, one of forty-three townships of that name in Ohio. Its history is dominated by the Miami and Erie Canal, which crossed the township in the 1830s and 1840s and created the hamlet of Lockington (originally Locksport) as a boat-servicing crossroads at a seven-lock flight that lifted canal traffic 67 feet. The township also holds the Wilson-Lenox House, believed to be the oldest brick house in Shelby County, and the site of the Lockington Covered Bridge, once one of only eight Long Truss covered bridges in Ohio. Canal commerce collapsed after railroads arrived and a catastrophic 1913 flood; today the township remains rural and agricultural.

Settled 1807 (John Wilson family, present-day Washington Township), incorporated 1825 (township organized), by John Wilson, an early settler from Warren County, arrived 1807.

Where the name comes from

No source located gives a documented reason for the township's name; it is one of forty-three Washington Townships in Ohio, a pattern consistent with many Ohio townships named for George Washington in the early statehood period, but this specific naming rationale is not confirmed in the sources checked.

Before the town

No Native American sites specific to Washington Township are recorded in the sources checked. Shawnee, Miami, Wyandot, Delaware, Seneca/Mingo, and Ottawa peoples were all present in the wider Shelby County area before 1800, and the pioneer John Hardin was killed by Shawnee warriors elsewhere in the county in 1792. Nothing site-specific within Washington Township itself was found.

Nations recorded here: Shawnee, Miami, Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1807 — John Wilson settles his family in present-day Washington Township, having come from Warren County.
2. 1810s — The Wilson-Lenox House is built (sources disagree between 1810 and 1816); it becomes the first brick house in Shelby County.
3. 1825 — Washington Township is organized as one of Shelby County's fourteen townships.
4. c. 1830 — A settlement grows around mills on Loramie Creek and is known as Locksport for its proximity to the coming canal locks; it is later renamed Lockington.
5. 1833 — Construction begins on the Lockington Locks, a flight of canal locks on the Miami and Erie Canal.
6. 1837 — John Brown is operating flour, saw, and wool mills at Lockington.
7. 1843 — The Turtle Creek Culvert and Embankment, carrying the canal over Turtle Creek and designed by engineer Robert Larrimore, is completed in Washington Township.
8. 1845 — The Lockington Locks open for regular canal traffic, lifting boats 67 feet over seven locks built of limestone blocks with white oak gates.
9. 1848 — The Lockington Covered Bridge, a Long Truss bridge about 170 feet long in two spans, is built one mile east of Lockington over the Great Miami River.
10. 1855 — Canal traffic and prosperity in the township peak before railroads begin drawing commerce away.
11. 1857 — Lockington is formally incorporated as a village on September 9, with its first elections held the following April.
12. 1905 — A grain elevator built at Lockington under owner C.N. Adlard's later improvements becomes one of the largest in Ohio by storage capacity.
13. 1913 — A catastrophic flood ends commercial canal operation through the Lockington Locks permanently.
14. 1969 — The Lockington Locks are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the earliest National Register listing in Shelby County.
15. 1975 — The Lockington Covered Bridge is added to the National Register of Historic Places (reference #75001532).
16. 1980 — The Wilson-Lenox House, west of Sidney in Washington Township, is added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 27.
17. 1985 — The Shelby County Engineer's Office closes the deteriorating Lockington Covered Bridge after its abutments and floor decayed.
18. 1989 — The closed Lockington Covered Bridge burns in a fire and is destroyed.

Stories

Lockington: the village the canal built and the railroad left behind

In the late 1820s a handful of mills rose on Loramie Creek in southeastern Washington Township, and the settlement that grew up around them took the name Locksport, after the flight of canal locks under construction nearby. When the Miami and Erie Canal opened through the township, boats climbed 67 feet through seven stone locks over a short distance, and idle boat crews waiting their turn through the flight gave the little crossroads its trade: taverns, mills, and later a grain elevator that by 1905 ranked among the largest in the state by storage capacity. The village, renamed Lockington and incorporated in 1857, thrived through the 1850s. But railroads pulled freight away from the slower canal boats in the decades after, and the flood of 1913 that devastated so much of Ohio ended commercial traffic on the canal for good. The seven-lock flight and the culvert that once carried the canal over Turtle Creek survive today as a historic park managed by the Ohio History Connection, one of the best-preserved stretches of stairstep canal locks in the state.

The oldest brick house in Shelby County

John Wilson brought his family from Warren County to present-day Washington Township in 1807, among the earliest settlers in what would become Shelby County. Sometime in the following decade — sources disagree between 1810 and 1816 — he built a Dutch Colonial style brick house that is believed to be the first brick house raised in the county. His daughter Sally married James Lenox, a Virginia native; their son Hamilton Clay Lenox lived in the house until his sudden death in 1893, giving the property its lasting name, the Wilson-Lenox House. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and still stands on Houston Road west of Sidney.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Shelby County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Sidney City70% of residentsGroundwater wells (Great Miami River valley + Washington Twp) with Tawawa Creek/Miami R. backup
• Piqua City29% of residentsGreat Miami River + Ernst Gravel Pit + Swift Run Lake (hydraulic system)
• Shelby County Water and Sewer2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Country Meadows Condo.0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Anna Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 1 of 3 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 2.

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 2025-10-16

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