Weston Township, Wood County

How Weston Township, Wood County began

Weston Township was first established June 14, 1830, under the name 'Ottawa Township,' before the commissioners renamed it Weston less than six months later, among the earliest-organized of Wood County's townships, in the western part of the county. Part of the village of Weston extends into its southeastern corner; the rest of the township remains farmland, its 14.4 square miles among the smallest of the county's nineteen townships.

Incorporated established June 14, 1830 as 'Ottawa Township'; renamed Weston on December 6, 1830, with elections first held April 4, 1831 at Edward Howard's house, by Wood County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

The township was first established as Ottawa Township on June 14, 1830 and renamed Weston on December 6, 1830; the 1897 county history gives no reason for the name. The village took the township's name in 1863, having been called Westfield, New Westfield and Taylortown.

Before the town

No mound, earthwork or named Native village specific to Weston 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. 1819 — The U.S. surveyor Samuel Holmes runs the exterior lines of the township in 1819, and P. F. Kellogg surveys it into sections in 1821.
2. 1828 — Alexander Brown and his father-in-law Joseph North are the first settlers to move back from the Maumee into the dense forest, building the first cabin on Beaver (Minard's) Creek in a beech and maple grove.
3. 1830-06-14 — The township is first established under the name 'Ottawa Township,' covering a much larger area including parts of what become Grand Rapids, Milton, Jackson and Washington townships.
4. 1830-12-06 — The commissioners rename the township Weston, ordering an election for April 4, 1831 at Edward Howard's house.
5. 1831-04-04 — The township holds its first election, with 27 voters present; Edward Howard, William Pratt and Emanuel Arnold are elected trustees.
6. 1831 — Ralph O. Keeler brings a drove of cattle for the Hollisters to pasture on the prairie that bears his name; the first election is held on April 4 with 27 voters, and Alexander Pugh and Emanuel Arnold are elected justices on June 21.
7. 1832 — The trustees establish five school districts, and Miss Sarah Edwards teaches a school at a private house on the east side of Beaver Creek.
8. 1833 — Daniel Rice and his son John and their families settle on Section 18; Daniel dies there in 1834.
9. 1834 — The Gilead road, the first road in the present township, is completed along the nearest dry ground from the river road past Beaver Creek to Hollister's farm and the Findlay road at the Portage River.
10. 1840 — The census counts 539 people in the territory later divided into Weston, Grand Rapids and Milton townships.
11. 1849 — The earliest surviving trustee journal begins; the clerk notes that the records before had been 'very imperfectly kept', and the township treasury holds $3.34 in November 1848.
12. 1851 — District No. 7, the Dewese school, is organized in Barrett's log cabin; a log schoolhouse costing $62 follows, replaced by a frame house in 1859 ($350) and a $800 house in the Centennial year.
13. 1855 — The first township ditch is authorized on April 26, with assessments paid by eight landowners; other ditches follow in 1857.
14. 1859 — The trustees sell a pauper, Spencer Parley, to Wesley Ebert on March 7, who agrees to board him for $2 a week for a year; the practice of selling poor people to the lowest bidder was common in Wood County.
15. 1863 — The village within the township's southeastern corner takes the name Weston, after the township itself.
16. 1890 — The township, including Weston village, has 1,558 people, of whom 845 live in the village.
17. 2020 — The census counts 2,124 people in the township, which contains the southeastern corner of Weston village.

Stories

A school fight on Beaver Creek

At some date after 1832 the Beaver Creek settlement was split by the line between school District No. 4 and the 'gigantic' District No. 5, which crossed the Gilead road where it crosses Beaver Creek. When a joint school between the two was proposed, the residents of No. 5, Alexander Brown, Alexander Pugh, the Norths, Jacob Crom and Jacob Walters among them, wanted it east of the creek near Captain John McKee's; those of No. 4, including the Macklins, wanted it in the middle of their district. The 1897 county history describes a whiff of civil war over who would control the board that fixed the site. No. 4 won, but compromised, and the log house stood three-quarters of a mile west of the later Randolph school on land given by Jacob Macklin. A teacher named Garzely taught first, followed by Morris Brown, who taught while farming land later called the Henry Strow farm. The same history prints a township clerk's entry of December 13, 1851, recording Jacob Long's ear mark for his cattle, sheep and hogs, a square crop of the right ear and a slit in the left.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Northwestern W and SD - Weston94% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Grand Rapids Village6% of residentsMaumee River (via Bowling Green Reservoir)
• Whispering Winds Mhc0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-10-08

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