Marion Township

Marion Township

Was organized with the county, being one of the four original townships, but at that time it did not include the portion of the township lying south of the Greenville treaty line, which was not added until 1849. With its present boundaries, it contains about 40 square miles and is the largest township in the county, as well as one of the wealthiest and oldest. Roughly, the township is a parallelogram with the greatest length north and south, the only material divergence from a regular geometrical figure being the triangular piece that juts out from the southeast corner. With this exception, the township is six miles wide from east to west and over six and a half miles long from north to south. It is bounded on the north by Franklin township, on the east by Auglaize County, on the south by Darke County and on the west by Granville and Butler townships. In 1881 there were 13,342 acres of arable land, 291 acres of meadow land and 11,100 acres of woodland. In 1906 the total valuation of lands and buildings in the township, as returned to the county auditor by the township assessor, was $654,065, which was far below the actual value. The population in 1880 was 1,933; i*1 1890, 2,525; and in 1900, 2,678.

The first election was held on June 25, 1833, at the house of Mathew Kearns, at which time the following officers were elected: Trustees - Samuel Gray, Charles Botkin and John Miller; clerk, John L. Simes; treasurer, John Sprague ; overseers of the poor - Mathew Kearns and Alexander Gillaspie; fence viewers - William Botkin, John Davis and Hugh Miller. The present township officers are as follows : Trustees - Benjamin Evers, Fred.

Bertke and Fred. Schroeder; clerk, John P. Hartings; treasurer, Joseph Hierholzer; justice of the peace, H. S. Shaffer. The township for school purposes is divided into 10 sub-districts; for election purposes it is divided into two voting precincts, called East and West voting precincts. In 1880 the township cast 437 votes for president ; 20 years later the votes for president amounted to 600.

The township is not cut up by any large streams of water. Chickasaw Creek, Little Beaver and Burnt Wood creeks all flow into the Great Reservoir, passing through portions of Marion and Franklin townships. This was the first township in the county to begin the building of gravel roads. It kept on with the work until the whole township is now supplied with the very best roads to be found in the county. There has been a steady improvement in all that goes to make a well-improved agricultural country. The farms have large and commodious barns and good, substantial, brick and frame houses of modern style and architecture. The township is dotted over with elegant churches and good schoolhouses. All of the churches in this township, without exception, are Roman Catholic and number six in all. The greater part of the population is now, as it always has been, composed of people of German nativity or ancestry.

As in nearly all the townships, the first settlers selected homes on and along the streams of water. On Chickasaw Creek were located the families of Samuel Gray, Charles Botkin and John Miller, who were trustees in 1833. The first road supervisors, appointed in August, 1833, were Charles Botkin, William Botkin, William Ballinger, John Ballinger, Alexander Miller, William B. Winter, James L. Simes, Abel Worthington, John M. Gogil, Samuel T. Grant, John Davis, John Sprague, John Miller, Mathew Kearns, Samuel

Gray, Hugh Miller, Alexander Gillaspie, Jethro Ivens, John Willberry, Thomas Potter and John Potter. These men were the early settlers of Marion township. In 1834 Samuel T. Grant was commissioned as a justice of the peace for the township.

Among the first Germans to settle in the township were Mathias Gast, Arnold Clune, Fred. Elking, D. Hinders, Henry Lochtefeld, H. G. Schrage, Henry Overman, Andrew Harman, Bernard Wehrkamp, Henry Hulskamp, Dietrich Kremer, George Leugers, Henry Hagedorn and the Schwietermann family, and still later in the township's history were John Brackman, Bernard and Henry Grieshop, Gerhard Westgerdes, Bernard Pukenbrock, Anthony Rentz, Frederick Niekamp, Henry and Bernard Bertke, Lorenz Schunck, John and Fred. Fleck and the Hierholzer, Cron and Stelzer families.

This township from the earliest history has always been represented at the Court House in Celina. Mathias Gast was an early commissioner of the county; H. H. Pulskamp served as county treasurer from this township and also as probate judge of the county; Bernard Wehrkamp from Carthagena was infirmary director; and Joseph Hinders, formerly of Marion, served as sheriff two terms.

Chickasaw

This, the only incorporated village in Marion township, lies in the northern part and is a station on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway. It was laid out in July, 1838, by John Nutter and Janies Brooks. Little progress was made, however, in the development of the place until the early '8o's. Chickasaw was incorporated as a village in 1890. The following are the present village officials: Mayor, H. S. Shaffer; clerk, Joseph Dorsten; treasurer, Joseph Haufelder; marshal, William Cron. Chickasaw has two brick school buildings, each one story high. The village Board of Education is constituted as follows : John P. Hartings, John Eyink, August Rentz, Casper Clune and Dr. H. G. Rawers. The Church of the Most Precious Blood is located here. Henry Gast, Jacob Link and Rawers & Tekamp have general stores. Frederick Gast deals in groceries and notions; Meinerding & Grieshop, in hardware; H. S. Shaffer, in building materials, B. A. Spoltman, in harness ; and Gerhard Schroeder, in monuments. Joseph Dorsten is engaged in blacksmithing, William Cron, in the manufacture of wagons, and Frederick Max, in conducting a sawmill. Another manufacturing concern of the place is the Union Handle Company. Chickasaw has had a hotel for the last 25 years or more. Dr. H. G. Rawers is the town's only physician.

And Representative Citizens

on September 24th. In April, 1851, an addition to St. Johns on the west was laid out by Archbishop John B. Purcell. St. John's Church is located here. John Listenschneider, John Stellar and John Thomas settled on the site of St. Johns in 1833. By reason of the fact that the first settlers were all named John the settlement was given the name of St. Johns. The town formerly had considerable business, but since the completion of the railroad through Marion township the business of St. Johns has been gradually transferred to

Maria Stein

A station on the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton Railway, less than a half mile west from St. Johns. This town has a population of about 500 or 600 but is not an incorporated village. The most important manufacturing concern of this town is the New Spreader Company, manufacturers of manure spreaders, of which company Henry Synck is manager and Benjamin Oppenheim, secretary. The company has a very complete plant, including foundry, pattern shop, wood-working machinery, electric light plant, etc., and employs 25 men. John Link conducts the Maria Stein Machine Shop, where boilers and engines are repaired and wagons are manufactured and repaired. Other important industries of the town are the Davidson butter tub factory, the grain elevator of Henry Kramer, who also deals in hardware and groceries and the Moeller Lumber Company, Louis Moeller, manager, which company deals in lumber and building material. Henry Goecke conducts an undertaking business, manufactures brick and deals in furniture. Dr. Alois J. Willke is the town's physiciati. Located a short distance northeast of the town is the large convent of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood. A little over a mile west of Maria Stein is the settlement known as

St. Rosa

This place was laid out by Archbishop John B. Purcell in June, 1854, the plat being recorded on the 29th of the month. It was laid out as Rose Garden and known both by this name and by St. Rosa, which was the postoffice name. St. Rosa's Catholic Church is located here. Less than two miles west of St. Rosa is the town of

Which was laid out under the name of Marysville in i860. Cassella later became the name of the postoffice and the town is now generally known by the latter name. It has a population of about 100. St. Mary's Catholic Church is located here. There are two general stores situated at Cassella, conducted by Mrs. Magdalena Cron and Joseph Hierholzer; a blacksmith shop and wagon repairing establishment conducted by Frank Feltz; and an agricultural implement depot, conducted by Hierholzer & Feltz.

Is located in the northwest corner of the township and is a settlement of perhaps ioo people. The town was laid out by Charles Moore in December, 1840. Here was formerly located the Emlen Institute, established by Augustus Wattles, of Connecticut, as an educational institution for the colored people. The property was later bought by a Catholic order, the Congregation of the Most Precious Blood, which established St. Charles Seminary for the education of young men for the Catholic priesthood. This is the motherhouse of the American Province of the Fathers of the Most Precious Blood. St. Aloysius' Catholic Church is also located at Carthagena. The colored people are growing less in numbers every year, but they still support a church near Carthagena and had a school until a few years ago. The lands once owned by them have been bought by German people and but few colored residents now remain in the township. For many years it was their custom to hold a great jubilee on the first day of August of each year. Carthagena does not command much trade from the surrounding country, as the towns of Coldwater, St. Henry and Chickasaw are too near. It has, however, a general store owned by Anton Link and a carriage and agricultural implement store conducted by Joseph Hartke.