Willshire Township, Van Wert County

How Willshire Township, Van Wert County began

Willshire Township takes its name from the village at its heart, founded in 1822 by Capt. James Riley, the shipwrecked mariner turned federal surveyor, and named for William Willshire, the British consul who had ransomed Riley from slavery in Africa seven years earlier. The township was formally organized in 1837 from land along the St. Marys River, and it was in Willshire village, not the county seat, that Van Wert County's government first met, making this the county's oldest organized settlement by well over a decade.

Settled 1822 (Willshire village, by Capt. James Riley), platted 1822, incorporated organized as Willshire Township, from townships 3 in ranges 1 and 2 and the south half of township 2 south of range 1, at the June 1837 commissioners' meeting, by Capt. James Riley (village); Van Wert County commissioners (township).

Where the name comes from

Named for William Willshire, the British consul at Mogador (Essaouira), Morocco, who paid the ransom that freed Capt. James Riley and his surviving crew from slavery after their 1815 shipwreck on the coast of what is now Western Sahara; Riley named his 1822 Ohio settlement for his benefactor in gratitude.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or treaty site has been confirmed to lie within Willshire Township's own boundaries in the sources consulted. The region's broader history is Miami, Wyandot and Shawnee, and the 1818 treaty opened this land to settlement. One specific claim is deliberately excluded here rather than asserted: the trader Anthony Shane (of mixed Ottawa and French ancestry), whose name is attached to 'Shanesville' and 'Shane's Crossing' and appears repeatedly in the county's 1906 history in connection with roads leading toward Willshire, in fact founded his post at the site of present-day Rockford -- which is in Mercer County, not Van Wert County. Including Shane's story under Willshire Township would be a false attribution across a shared boundary, so it is noted and set aside rather than written up as local history.

Timeline

1. 1816-03-20 — Capt. James Riley, ransomed from slavery in Morocco by the British vice-consul William Willshire at Mogador, reaches New York on March 20; the government repays his and his crew's ransom of $3,852.45 and he resolves to become a surveyor.
2. 1819-07 — Riley, appointed a deputy surveyor in June, reaches St. Marys and begins surveying the lands bought from the Indians at the treaty of St. Marys in 1818.
3. 1821-01 — Riley moves his family from Chillicothe to the rapids of the St. Marys at Willshire; that year the whole family falls ill with chills and is hauled to Piqua on wagons for treatment.
4. 1822 — Capt. James Riley founds the village of Willshire on the St. Marys River, naming it for his British ransomer William Willshire.
5. 1822-fall — Philip Froutner and Miss Bolenbaugh, sister of the pioneer Peter Bolenbaugh, marry in the first wedding in Van Wert County, performed by Ansel Blossom, the county's first elected justice of the peace; Riley supplied the license.
6. 1823 — Riley is elected to the Ohio legislature from the district of Darke, Shelby, Mercer, Van Wert, Paulding and Williams counties.
7. 1825 — Willshire holds its first Fourth of July celebration, with a table of bear, venison, wild turkey and fish spread in the open forest and an oration delivered by Capt. Riley himself.
8. 1835-04-24 — Van Wert County's first meeting of its board of commissioners is held at Willshire, the county's temporary seat, with commissioners Jesse Atkinson and Joshua Goodwin examining their own credentials and appointing Ansel Blossom special clerk.
9. 1836 — Willshire's first school opens January 1 with six pupils in a log building that had also served as post office and would later serve as courthouse and jail; the first dry goods store opens the same year, run by Henry Reichard.
10. 1837 — Willshire Township is formally organized by the county commissioners, and the county seat is transferred from Willshire village to the newly platted town of Van Wert.
11. 1840-03 — Captain Riley sails from New York in the brig William Tell for St. Thomas and dies thirteen days out, buried at sea.
12. 1843-09-02 — The Willshire Baptist church, first organised in 1837, is reorganised in the Willshire schoolhouse; its first meeting house goes up on Decatur Street in 1849.
13. 1848 — The first frame schoolhouse is built on the Public Square at Willshire, and the first temperance organisation, the Sons of Temperance, is formed.
14. 1850 — Dr. J. W. Pearce builds the second tavern in Willshire, then the best house in Van Wert County.
15. 1894 — The Willshire Baptist church dedicates its brick meeting house, built in 1893, free of debt.
16. 1910 — Willshire village reaches its historical peak recorded population of 653.

Stories

Ansel Blossom's theory of great men

Ansel Blossom, Van Wert County's first special clerk, appointed at that first 1835 commissioners' meeting held in Willshire for want of an elected auditor, comes down through the county's 1906 history as its resident eccentric -- a man who fought malaria by stripping off his coat and vest rather than bundling up, and who was, by his own account, uncommonly proud of his bald head. 'Captain Riley,' he is remembered telling Willshire's most famous resident, 'have you noticed most all great men were bald-headed? Julius Caesar of old, our John Quincy Adams and also our Benjamin Franklin, decidedly great men, were bald. Did you ever notice that I am bald.' It is a small joke that has outlived the man by nearly two centuries, preserved because a pioneer settlement small enough to run its whole county government out of one log building was also small enough that everyone remembered exactly how its odd characters talked.

William White, who would not fight

William White came to Willshire as a young man who had been a slave. His master, impressed by his build, had him trained as a prize fighter, and White became a scientific boxer who beat the champion of the South in a short bout by breaking his shoulder; he then told his master he would never fight again, and was freed. In Willshire he stood over six feet and weighed about 250 pounds, swung a six-pound axe all day, and cut six cords of wood where others cut two or three. When a boastful stranger who had beaten the best man in Allen, Auglaize and Mercer counties demanded a fight, White only laughed, dodged the first blow and threw the man some fifteen feet into the reservoir. In the Civil War years two local toughs waited for him in vain while he stayed in Swineford's grocery rather than invite trouble; the county historian wrote that he lived to a good age and was respected by everyone.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Willshire Village57% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ohio City Village40% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Rockford Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2023: 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.
• Basic Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-16
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-09-26

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