Jefferson Township - Crawford County, Ohio

This is an excerpt from Page 111 of
History of Crawford County, Ohio
Horizons ‘76

Edited by James E. McJunkin

Published by Crawford County Historical Foundation, Inc., Bucyrus, Ohio

Printed by The Herald Printing Company, New Washington, Ohio

Copywrite 1976 by Crawford County Historical Foundation, Inc.

Jefferson Township

Established in 1873, Jefferson Township is Crawford County’s youngest township. It was named after President Thomas Jefferson and is the site of one of the most historic places in the county.

It is here that Col. William Crawford was captured on the Sandusky River, just east of Leesville and taken to Chief Wingenund’s Camp.

Jacob Fisher was the township’s first settler, purchasing land at the price of $ 1.25 an acre. Fisher was described as “industrious, hardworking, but a troublemaker.”

The Christian Snyder family was the second group of settlers. The family brought 160 acres of land from Fisher and spent the first night sleeping on the ground of what was to become their cabin floor. When they awoke from that first night’s sleep, they were covered with six inches of snow.

The Snyders were to become prominent in the settlement of the township.

Jacob Fisher was the father of the first child born in Jefferson Township in 1819.

The township residents were to meet with tragedy in 1820. It was during that year that a cyclone leveled the forest, and destroyed all homes, barns, crops and killed livestock.

The town of Leesville was laid out in 1829 by Rev. Robert Lee. Lots were sold from $25 to $30 each.

Leesville grew and shops included a general store, chair factory, tavern, shoemaker, blacksmith and wagon maker. However, the principal support for the town was the stone quarry, which became one of the finest in the state. The quarry employed over 100 men.

Leesville possibly could have seen more growth. The CCC Railroad looked into the possibility of locating its railroad line through the village, but residents, seeing the stone quarry going strong, declined the railroad’s offer, not feeling the need for any additional jobs.

Thus, when the quarry failed, so did Leesville.

In 1835, Henry Hershner, Christian Snyder and Adam Ashcroft laid out a town in Jefferson Township, halfway between Galion and Leesville on Portland and Columbus State Roads.

In early years, the town had a tavern, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, cabinet shop and saw and grist mill in addition to a church.

However, when the Ohio and Indiana Railroad chose its route just to the north of the town, the village as abandoned.

Taverns

Robert Lee, Jr., kept the first tavern, at Leesville, later selling it to Elisha Allen, who conducted it for several years.

Another early tavern keeper was Henry Hershner, who kept a place at Middletown for the accommodation of the traveling public. Middletown being where the Columbus and Sandusky Road crossed an important road from Mansfield to Bucyrus.