Richmond Township

Richmond Township

Richmond township was formerly called Cannon, given in honor of Samuel Cannon, a wealthy man of Norwalk, Connecticut, who was one of the sufferers during the Revolutionary war. Soon after the grants were made and partitioned into sections among the grantees, in 1808, Judge Mills, of New Haven, Connecticut, and his brother, Elisha Mills commenced purchasing the interests of the grantees and acquired a controlling influence in the lands of Greenfield and New Haven, and a complete ownership of the township of Richmond. Later part of these lands were sold to George Hoadley and from him to John M. Woolsey. Judge Mills took the south part and Woolsey the north part.

The first land sold for settlement in the township was sold by Judge Mills to William Tidball, in 1825. It was lot twelve, second section. "Tidball cleared a field the same year, built a cabin and set out an orchard of fifty trees, which he

This township is bounded on the north by Norwich township; south, by Auburn and Cranberry townships, in Crawford county; east, by New Haven township; and west, by Venice township, in Seneca county.

Richmond is divided into upland and marsh. The upland occupies the north half of the township and a strip across the west side. This was covered with heavy timber. The north shore of the marsh is a bluff, and rises thirty or forty feet above the marsh. The soil is a clay loam, the surface generally undulating, except in the northwest part, where it is broken by streams.

Honey creek rises in the marsh on the north side, east of the center of the township, and runs west along the north shore some two miles, where it enters the woodlands. It leaves the township on the west line and empties into the Sandusky river above Tiffin, in Seneca county.

Originally the marsh covered over one-third of the township and contained about twenty square miles. It was six miles from east to west and over three miles in width, and covered over five thousand acres in Richmond township. These marshes have largely been reclaimed by draining and the soil is now cultivated, being particularly adapted for the growing of celery.

Before the lands of Richmond were offered for sale, the thousands of bushels of cranberries that annually grew on the marsh allured to the north shore a settlement of squatters numbering perhaps twenty families. An important part of their business consisted of picking cranberries, which were sold to the distant settlers. Hunting necessarily claimed a good share of their attention, and as the deer flocked to the marsh to avoid the flies in the summer and the hunters in the winter, their chances for deer hunting were unusually good.

With the sale of their cranberries, deer skins and coon skins, and the product of small patches of potatoes around their cabins, they managed to live, but made no improvements to entitle them to the name of settlers, nor did any of them over become owners of the soil or join in the march of improvement that has since characterized the inhabitants of the township, who are honest and industrious, with good churches and well conducted schools, and the township today stands second to none in moral worth and prosperity.

Near the south shore of the marsh was a point of timbered upland and at the extreme northern point of this stood the cabin of Morehead, the pioneer hunter. His principal livelihood was in trapping and spearing muskrats, and in times of high water, made his daily rounds over the marsh in a small boat kept for that purpose. He was the first and for many years the only inhabitant of Richmond township, and many a weary hunter has sought his cabin and shared his homely fare, which usually consisted of Johnny cake and venison.

The township was organized in 1836, in the month of June, and on the fourth day of July following, the first election of township officers was held.

In 1837, the township was divided into two school districts, and a frame schoo! house built in each, but a school was only kept in the west one in the winter of 1837. The east school house was not completed for a school that winter. These were the first frame buildings in the township.

The Methodist was the first church organization in the township. The first sermon preached in the township was by Michael Long, a preacher of the Brethren faith, at the home of Jacob Croninger.

There were births and probably deaths among the squatters, but the first birth among the settlers was that of Savilla Cline, daughter of John and Susan Cline.

Section one - the southeast part of it at a very early day was thought to be a lake as decaying Indian canoes were found along its shores by the early white settlers, at this time being almost a worthless piece of land. Along the middle part of the north side cranberries grew in abundance, at the south side is the huckleberry marsh. In a few years the farmers made prairie hay from a part of it, the ground being too soft and miry, it had to be done by hand, mowed with the scythe, carried together and made in stacks, being drawn out during the winter when the ground was frozen hard.

In a few years more ditches were constructed the land being tilled from the edges, corn and potatoes being the principal crops. Only a few years ago Hollanders settled along the east side beginning to experiment in celery growing which has developed into one of the finest celery gardens of the country. During this year a large acreage of the territory has been purchased by Pittsburg parties and was surveyed into one hundred acre lots.

The Tiffin road was the first one opened, it began in 1836, was completed in four years. In many low places trees were cut and laid cross wise in the road, streams had to be forded.

Richmond has only a few miles of railroad, the Sandusky and Newark division of the Baltimore and Ohio cuts a small corner off the northeast part, we have two men living now in the township who worked on this old road-bed, P. M. Hershiser and John Carrothers. The Chicago division runs from the east side half way across the township. Street car lines we have none. Telephone service is quite well extended through the township, having our centrals at Attica, Chicago and New Washington.

A resident of the township writes thus: "We have had such industries as come in a farmer's life, sawmills, cider mills, tile and brick yards, etc. The soil being very productive, the principal crops are wheat, oats, corn potatoes. The growing and baling of hay has become one of the best paying crops to the Richmond farmer. We owe a debt of gratitude to our fore-parents for their Christian zeal and principals taught and instilled into their posterity. Richmond has furnished men and women who have gone out in nearly all the walks of life some of them today filling very honorable and responsible positions. We do not think there will be found in any township in Huron county, finer country residences, better kept farm buildings, well tilled lands, more comfortable homes,