Greensburg Township

Greensburg Township

Greensburg township was created by the county commissioners within a year after the county was formally organized in 1834. Henry Wing, the first settler, named the township, although history does not record why he chose the name. Wing built a rude log cabin and located here with his family as early as 1825, but he had been in the township for several years prior to that date. Just when he came to the state of Ohio is not known, but he is found at the mouth of the Blanchard river in 1814 guarding supplies for the army. The War of 1812 Avas not yet closed and he seems to have taken some part in that struggle. In 1819 Wing was helping Capt. James

W. Riley to survey in this part of Ohio, and he continued with the surveyor's gang until 1822. This representative old pioneer was killed in 1844 by a falling tree, at the time of the opening of the Ottawa and Defiance road through Putnam county. In 1820 Henry Leaf located his family in section ID, on the Blanchard river, and in 1824 David Murphy, with his family, came down the Blanchard river from Fort Findlay. His was one of the first permanent white families in the county and his wife was the first person buried in the cemetery at Kalida.

In 1832 came Isaac Owens and John Myers, followed, in the succeeding year, by Levi Grove, Nutter Powell, Frederick Brower and John F. Kahle. The latter was the first foreigner in the county to take out naturalization papers. The year 1834 brought in Abraham Crow, Christian Bear, Nicholas Prynne and Alexander Berryhill. In 1835 Joshua Powell, William Bell, James Crow, William Phillips and John Neill were added to the slowly-growing population.

That the township was of slow growth is shown by the fact that only eight votes were cast at the first election in April, 1835. These eight voters selected the following officials : William Bell, Abraham Crow and Joshua Powell, trustees; Frederick Brower, clerk; Nutter Powell, treasurer; Frederick Brower, justice of the peace.

Organized with an area of thirty-six square miles, the township was decreased in 1848 by having the south tier of sections detached and added to Union township. In common with most of the townships of the county, the land in Greensburg was very swampy and it was many years after the township was organized before artificial drainage brought much of its area under cultivation. At the present time no township in the county can boast of better farms and the hundreds of contented and independent farmers of the township bespeak the prosperity which has come to this section of thfe county.

Greensburg township has no equal in the county in the way of towns, there being four within her limits, namely : Avis, Cuba, Croswell and Dornington. If any of the four have ever been platted the officials failed to record the plats. Avis is located on the Findlay, Ft. Wayne & Western railroad. With a large stave mill to aid the growth of this village it bid fair to become a thriving town, but the mill being destroyed by fire and never replaced, the hopes for a larger village were shattered. Its business comprises one elevator, a general store and stock yards. Cuba is situated in the northern part of the township, on the Blanchard river. Croswell is a railroad stop west of Avis on the same railroad. Dornington is located oh the Ohio Electric and also the Findlay, Ft. Wayne & Western railroad.

The following are the present officers of Greensburg township: Justice of the peace, A. F. Steiner; trustees, C. W. Beard, A. C. Korte, A. G. Verhoff; clerk, William Siebeneck; treasurer, H. C. Schroeder; constable, J. B. Fappe.

The only record of Greensburg township shows that ten men enlisted between July 2, 1862, and August 22, 1862. This list is signed by F. H. Huster, the assessor of the township. The list follows : Stephen Grove, Elias Larabee, William R. Crow, Ephriam Crow, Seth Neill, Daniel Troyer, Elmer Hartshorn, Samuel Swezy, Stanley Brower and James Wisterman.