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This township was formed May 24. 1841.
When the city charter was granted to Dayton in
1841, it was provided and ordered by the state
legislature that Dayton township should be made
to correspond to the limits of the city and that
the other territory of the township should be
formed into new townships. Some of the
citizens of the eastern part of this large
township, desired that
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the territory of the township outside of the
limits of Dayton east of the Miami river should
be formed into a single township. Others
were zealous that the territory should be formed
into two townships. Petitions for and
against were presented to the county
commissioners, who at length decided that one
township instead of two, should be formed.
There was no controversy as to the name that the
new township should bear, as only one name would
answer —Mad River.
Those who were desirous that there should be two
townships formed from the released territory of
Dayton township, finally won their case and, as
already stated. Van Buren township was
formed from Mad River township and the northern
tier of sections of Washington township when the
original Mad River town ship was one month and
two days old.
The township as constituted when Van Buren township was
formed has remained the same to the present
time, save as the annexations to the city limits
of Dayton have encroached on its territory.
At the first, the township included twenty-two
and one-half square miles, twenty-two square
miles being the minimum size, according to Ohio
laws, for a township not having an incorporated
town. The first annexation of township
territory by the City of Dayton in 1868, reduced
the territory of the township below the legal
limit. The county commissioners ordered a
tract to be taken from Van Buren township to
bring the township up to the required size.
But as the proper legal steps had not been
taken, the commissioners at once revoked their
action and from that time to the present, though
there have been successive annexations of
township territory, the prescribed legal steps
in such a case have not been taken.
William Hamer, the Methodist local
preacher, elsewhere referred to, set tled about
three miles up Mad river, on the northeast
quarter of section 29, town ship 2, range 7. in
1796, he being one of the original settlers of
the Dayton community. He is said to have
built a mill for grinding grain about 1800.
The mill may have been on Mad river, which
passed through his land, or it may have been the
mill often referred to, run by water from large
springs, as they were then, in the large hills
in the eastern part of his land, lying on the
west side of McReynold’s creek. One
account places the McReynold’s creek mill
on the section east of Hamer’s land.
Hamer’s hill on Mr. Hamer’s
land, afterward called Fate’s hill, became the
site of Camp Corwin in the time of the Civil
war. Other prominent landholders in
the early days, were: D. C. Cooper, Robert
Edgar, George Newcom, John Patterson, William
Robinson and James Findlay.
In 1801, Isaac Spinning came to
Montgomery county and purchased all of section
17, near Harshmanville. In 1803, he was
appointed one of the first three associate
judges of Montgomery county. The following
is a copy of his commission:
Edward Tiffin, governor, in and by
the authority of the State of Ohio, to all who
shall see these presents. Greeting.
Know Ye, that we have assigned and constituted, and do
by these presents constitute and appoint,
Isaac Spinning Associate Judge of the
Court of Common Pleas for the County of
Montgomery, agreeable to the laws, statutes, and
ordinances in such cases made and provided, with
all the privileges, immunities, an
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emoluments to such office belonging or in any
wise appertaining, for and during the space or
term of seven years from the 6th day of April in
the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and three, if he shall so long behave well.
In witness whereof, the said Edward Tiffin,
governor of the State of Ohio, hath caused “the
great seal of the State of Ohio” to be hereunto
affixed, at Chillicothe, the 8th day of April,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and three, and of the independence of
this state the first.
By the Governor,
(Signed) "EDWARD TIFFIN,"
[SEAL]
(Private seal, no state seal being yet
procured.)
In the summer of 1805, Jonathan Harshman arrived
in Dayton from Frederick county, Maryland, and
purrchased land about four miles above Dayton on
Mad river.
"ARTICLE FOR
THE LIBERTY SCHOOLHOUSE."
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Memorandum of money received by Joseph Kemp
for the use of the school house:
C. Rohrer, S. Rohrer, Warren Munger, P.
Wagner and S. Wagner were a number of
years ago among the larger landholders.
MILLS AND
FACTORIES.
Mad river is a famous mill stream,
having a fall of one hundred and fifty feet
between Springfield and Dayton. In an
early day, distilleries, gristmills, sawmills,
and other mills line its course. Where
Harries’ station now is, was the early mill
site first used by Robinson’s mill, and
then the Kneisley mills, consisting of a
stillhouse, gristmill and sawmill. In
1843, Kneisley sold out to the Dayton
Hydraulic company. In 1824, George W.
Smith purchased mills also at the site of
what is now Harries’ station and
conducted a gristmill, a distillery and a cotton
factory. In 1848, the property came under
the name of Smith and Harries.
The foregoing account indicates only a part of
the variety of manufactures attempted at this
place. At one time, a town, under the name
of Smithville, bid fair to rise in due
importance. In 1832, Jonathan
Harshman erected a distillery at what came
to be Harshmanville. In 1842, he built a three
and one-half story brick flouring mill, which he
called Union mills. A sawmill was erected
by George
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Harshman in
1866. Other mills and a great number of
distilleries were in operation at different
times in different parts of Mad River township.
At present, a number of factories, more or less
closely connected with the business of Dayton,
are in the territory of the township. The
works of the Dayton Reduction company,
incorporated in 1903 with a capital of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and of the
Wuichet Fertilizer company incorporated
also in 1903 with a capital of one hundred
thousand dollars, are east of the corporation
limits of Dayton, near Mad river.
The land of Mad River township is fertile, but it is
greatly cut up by Mad river, the canal, and the
numerous railroads, traction lines and pikes
entering Dayton from the north and east.
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