Webster Township, Wood County

How Webster Township, Wood County began

Webster Township's first white settlers were a colony of Scottish families who arrived in 1833-1834 after squatting briefly near Perrysburg, enduring a brutal string of early deaths, fires and wolf attacks before establishing the farms that gave the township its Scotch Ridge cemetery and its earliest official names. Its future site of Fenton had already earned a fearsome reputation among Harrison's soldiers in 1813 as 'Devil's Hole Prairie' and later served for nearly forty years, from 1830 to 1869, as a haunt for thieves. The township itself, in east-central Wood County, was formally established in December 1846, later than most of the county's other townships, and remains without an incorporated village of its own within its 28.8 square miles.

Settled 1833-1834, by a colony of Scottish families who first squatted near Perrysburg before moving into the township, incorporated township established December 8, 1846; first meeting held January 2, 1847, at Joseph Kellogg's cabin, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Webster Township is the only township of that name in Ohio; the origin of the name was not found in the sources consulted.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to Webster Township was found in any source consulted; the county's own 1897 history states that no such evidence exists anywhere in Wood County.

Nations recorded here: Ottawa.

Timeline

1. 1813 — Harrison's soldiers, marching through what becomes Webster Township, name the future site of Fenton the 'Devil's Hole Prairie' after a lost scout described stumbling into what felt like the literal home of Satan.
2. 1819 — The Holmes brothers survey the northwestern and southern parts in 1819, Charles Roberts surveys six sections in 1820, and S. Bourne and I. T. Worthington run the interior lines in 1821.
3. 1830 to 1869 — The future site of Fenton serves as a rendezvous for thieves.
4. 1833 to 1834 — A colony of Scottish families, encouraged by a schooner captain who brought some of them to Perrysburg, settles what becomes known as the 'Perrysburg Scotch Settlement,' then moves into the future Webster Township; several members, including Robert Davidson, Hugh Stewart's mother and Thomas Forrester, die within their first years from disease, exposure or accident.
5. 1834-04-19 — Robert Fenton's party of Scottish settlers sets out on its journey west; he told the story to the assembled pioneers at Bowling Green in September 1883.
6. 1835 — Thomas Forrester, one of the colony, dies; he is among the earliest burials at the Scotch Ridge cemetery, called the most historic spot in the county.
7. 1841 — The United Presbyterian Church of Scotch Ridge is organized by Rev. James A. Woodbury, with John Muir, James Waugh Sr. and Alexander Vass as elders; its frame building replaces the log house in 1862.
8. 1846-12-08 — Webster Township is established, its territory drawn from parts of Perrysburg, Troy, Freedom and Center townships after a petition from residents.
9. 1847-01-02 — The township holds its first organizational meeting at Joseph Kellogg's cabin, electing John Fenton, Thomas Jolley and John Muir as judges and John Muir as treasurer.
10. 1847-04-05 — The first annual election is held; the township is divided into four school districts that spring.
11. 1850 — The census counts 237 residents; 674 in 1860; 922 in 1870; 1,197 in 1880; 1,420 in 1890.
12. 1853-04-11 — The school board's records begin, with directors elected for four districts and a two-mill levy; schoolhouses go up in 1854 and 1855.
13. 1857 — John Fenton is appointed the first postmaster at Fenton, according to David Main's memory; the post office at the Ten Mile House dates from before the Civil War.
14. 1872 (fall-winter) — George Roiter and P. D. Nuel build a mill on C. V. Black's farm at Fenton; the criminal element that had long haunted the site disappears before it.
15. 1887-08-20 — The Webster United Brethren Church (liberal), organized March 11, is dedicated after a $1,000 building fund is raised.
16. 1895-04 — In the township election R. D. Forrester wins a trustee seat with 105 votes against 96 for Antony Seifert and 16 for the Prohibitionist A. Philo.
17. 2020 — The census finds 1,230 people in the township, which has no incorporated village.

Stories

Devil's Hole Prairie

Long before Fenton was a village, the swampy ground where it would rise had a fearsome reputation. In 1813, as General Harrison's army marched through the region, one of his scouts became lost in that stretch of wilderness; when he finally rejoined the column and was asked what had delayed him, he said he had wandered into what felt like the very home of Satan. The name 'Devil's Hole Prairie' stuck, and the reputation seemed to justify itself: from 1830 to 1869, the spot served as a rendezvous for thieves, a lawless corner the surrounding farm settlements simply learned to avoid. It took the arrival of industry, not law enforcement, to finally clear it out -- when George Roiter and P. D. Nuel built a mill on C. V. Black's farm there in the winter of 1872, the criminals who had haunted the place for nearly four decades vanished, leaving local farmers in peace at last.

A Scottish colony's hard first years

Webster Township's earliest white settlers were a small colony of Scottish families, drawn to the area after a schooner captain persuaded some of their countrymen to try Perrysburg and they wrote home with encouraging reports. The group first squatted on land just above Perrysburg, in what became known as the Perrysburg Scotch Settlement, before pushing into the future township in 1833 and 1834. The first years were brutal: Robert Davidson and Hugh Stewart both died early on, Dunipace died suddenly of bilious fever the same fall the colony arrived, and William Muir collapsed and died on the road home from a neighbor's house not long after. The next year claimed Thomas Forrester. In 1836, Hugh Stewart's mother lost her cabin and everything she owned to fire, left without shelter. Wolves killed livestock and prowled close enough at night to send families into a panic behind barred doors, and one winter saw an unusual invasion of porcupines, one of which a settler's daughter chased out from under her own bed with a hoe, barefoot, in the dark. Yet the colony held on, and its descendants' names -- Muir, Stewart, Fenton, Davidson, Forrester -- filled the township's earliest lists of trustees and officials for decades afterward.

The Ten Mile House, the Scotch Ridge crossroads

Long before the hamlet of Scotch Ridge existed, the Ten Mile House, on the road ten miles from Perrysburg, was an important stopping place and the post office for a wide district. From the township's organization through the 1850s the trustees met there to do business, the electors cast their votes there, and the young people danced there. The United Presbyterian church was a short distance to the southeast and its burying ground near the church, so that funerals, weddings, dances and Sabbath meetings kept the house busy in a way that no other settlement in the township matched. Levi Loomis, who died in 1836 on the road near the Ten Mile House, is among those buried at Scotch Ridge. The post office moved to George Loomis's store during or just after the Civil War, John Myers built up the hamlet of Scotch Ridge on the Portage, and the Ten Mile House lost its glory; by 1897 the old building was a landmark rather than a stopping place.

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

Village well field (8 municipal wells) feeding the single village treatment plant The water here

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Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (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 2025-08-12

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