Washington Township, Union County

• Indian LakeBuilt 1860 · 5,104 acres

How Washington Township, Union County began

Washington Township, the county's twelfth, was set off from the northern part of York Township and organized on June 9, 1836, with Edward 'Ned' Southworth arriving around 1830 as its first settler. It sits in Union County's northwestern corner, bordering Hardin, Marion and Logan counties. Its one real village, Byhalia, grew informally out of subdivided farmland into a small trade center with its own telephone exchange, while Haynesville and Arbela were platted with dozens of lots each but never grew past a handful of buildings. The township remains unincorporated farm country today.

Settled c. 1830, incorporated 1836-06-09, by organized from the northern section of York Township.

Where the name comes from

Named for George Washington, following the common pattern for Ohio townships organized in this period; no source gives a more specific local reason.

Before the town

The southern boundary of the township, the line with York Township, is the Greenville Treaty Line of 1795, so the township lies on the Native side of the line the treaty drew. The county history says the first squatter hunters here found the Indians still present: for a number of years after the first squatters came the 'red-skin and pale-faced hunters' roamed the territory together in a friendly manner though never in company, and the Native hunters were largely Wyandot, who hunted, trapped and to some extent made maple sugar. No named village, mound or earthwork is recorded in the township. The Wyandot ceded their remaining Ohio lands by treaty in 1842.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1820 — The first land surveys in the township are made about 1820-21; the township lies on the Native side of the Greenville Treaty Line, which forms its boundary with York Township.
2. c. 1830 — Edward 'Ned' Southworth became the first settler in the area that would become Washington Township.
3. 1832 — Stephen Davis, a Kentuckian who first settled in Brown County in 1808, buys land on Rocky Run (survey 9,917) in what was a wilderness; the first township elections are later held at his house.
4. 1834 — The Titsworth family of Logan County claims land a mile northeast of Byhalia on the Essex road; Hiram Titsworth is the first justice of the peace of the township.
5. 1836-06-09 — Washington Township was organized from the northern section of York Township, becoming the county's twelfth township.
6. 1836-06-06 — On a petition by John Dysert, the county commissioners agree on June 6 to form Washington Township out of the north part of York; with only sixteen voters in the territory, eleven votes are cast for governor that fall.
7. 1837 — John Johnson settles just north of the future Byhalia, Jeremiah Lingrel builds the first cabin north of it (later in the middle of the Marysville and Kenton road and moved), and Marquis Osborn and Moses Bedford, a cobbler, arrive.
8. 1838-09-04 — Jonathan Haynes platted Haynesville about a mile from Arbela, south of Rush Creek, with 21 lots; the town never developed beyond the plat.
9. 1838 — Arbela was platted with more than 40 lots; it later held a post office from 1887 to 1907 but also failed to grow into a real town.
10. 1840 — The township is still thinly settled and land sells at three to eight dollars an acre; it sells for eighty dollars in 1882 and could not be had for $125 by 1914.
11. 1852 — Reese Miller opens a store on the Jehu Gray farm and is appointed first postmaster of Byhalia on February 19; Dr. Hiram Myers practises there from 1852 until the Civil War.
12. 1879 — Byhalia's school district consolidated eleven one-room schools into a single two-story frame schoolhouse.
13. 1882 — Byhalia, never formally platted but sold off in lots by metes and bounds, has fifteen families, two blacksmith shops, several stores, churches and a school.
14. 1906 — The Byhalia post office is discontinued on February 14 after rural free delivery arrives.
15. 1910 — The township has 1,032 residents, 200 of them at Byhalia.
16. 1935 — Fire destroyed Byhalia's hotels, part of a decline that led the community to consolidate its schools into larger regional districts.
17. 2020 — The census counts 812 people in the township.

Stories

A village on paper only

On September 4, 1838, Jonathan Haynes platted a town he named Haynesville about a mile from the community of Arbela, south of Rush Creek in the new Washington Township. The plat laid out 21 lots, enough for a real village, but almost none of it was ever built. Arbela, platted the same year with more than 40 lots, fared only slightly better: it managed to hold a post office from 1887 to 1907 before losing even that. Byhalia, by contrast, grew the ordinary way, without a formal plat, as farmland nearby was subdivided lot by lot; it ended up the township's most developed place, with its own blacksmith shops, hotels, a drug store and telephone exchange, until fire destroyed its hotels in 1935 and consolidation folded its schools into larger districts.

Squatters, hunters and the swamp

Washington Township's first settlers were mostly hunters, according to the county history, men drawn by game that was found on every hand. The real owners of the land were mostly non-residents of Ohio, and squatters pitched their tents or put up cabins anywhere without asking, since an owner seldom objected: when he came to offer the land, a tract with a cabin on it and a few acres cleared would bring a little more. For some years Wyandot hunters, trappers and sugar-makers and the white hunters roamed the same woods in a friendly way, though never together. The darkest day for the township, the history says, came when the game was all killed or frightened off and the swampy ground had not yet been drained. Ponds were common, the land along the streams was the dry ground that drew the first settlers, and only after a long system of drainage could farmers raise crops to compete with the rest of the county. Land that cost Matthew Lingrell seven dollars an acre in 1855 sold for eighty in 1882.

Local history sources: uccogs.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• West Mansfield Village36% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Richwood Village34% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mt Victory Village30% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 2 of 2 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. The county's results on file run through 2026-05-05; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-19

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Washington Township, Union County, Logan County and its school district:

• Logan County: Authorizes an additional 2-mill property tax levy for the community developmental disabilities program & services of Logan County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.
• Logan County: Continues a 0.5% sales and use tax for: Permanent improvements; safety forces services of Logan County for 5 years, beginning July 1, 2027.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

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