Medway, Ohio

Last updated

Medway, Ohio
Coordinates: 39°53′01″N84°00′49″W / 39.88361°N 84.01361°W / 39.88361; -84.01361
Country United States
State Ohio
County Clark
Elevation
[1]
850 ft (260 m)
Time zone UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-4 (EDT)
ZIP code
45341
Area code(s) 937, 326
GNIS feature ID2812812 [1]

Medway is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Ohio Metropolitan Statistical Area. Near are the adjoining communities of Crystal Lakes and Park Layne. The population of its ZCTA for ZIP Code 45341, which includes Medway, was 4,110 at the 2000 census. Medway lies within the Tecumseh Local School District, whose high school mascot is the Arrows. Medway Elementary is the primary center of education for grades k-5.

Contents

History

European Discovery and the Founding of a Settlement (16711771)

When European explorers, namely French fur traders, reached the Mad River in 1671, they found an abundance of beaver pelt among other prized furs. They followed the Honey Creek, through the current locations of the town of Medway where they established a small base camp (later moved to a Shawnee trading post near present-day Springfield, Ohio). On September 17, 1671, the Spangler party claimed all the lands comprising the drainage basin of the river, later renamed the Mad River, for Louis XIV as part of New France.

During the 1740s, the Wood's River Land Company, which was represented by Louis de la Corne, Chevalier de la Corne, attained a large tract of land within present-day southwest Ohio. Part of the tract became Clark County and Montgomery County and was sold to settlers entering the region. The Drapier and Ingles families were among those that built their homes somewhere between present locations of Medway and the subdivision of Park Layne. The settlement came to be called Drapier's Meadow by 1748. [2]

Seven years later, the Ohio Valley was involved in the brutality of the French and Indian War. This war resulted in British control over much of France's North American holdings, including the Mad River fur trading posts located in present-day Medway. By the end of the war, the French had retreated and the Shawnee Amerindians gained control over the post. They subsequently moved to Springfield where the tribe already had a large settlement. [3] [4]

George Rogers Clark and American Revolution (17721797)

Medway played a notable role as part of the western campaign during the American Revolutionary War. General George Rogers Clark, led over 1,000 soldiers (among them Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton) across the Ohio River near present-day Cincinnati and engaged in numerous skirmishes with British regulars that had occupied French forts after the French and Indian War, and the Shawnee who were at the time allies of the Red Coats. The Shawnee gradually withdrew during the first few days before finally engaging American forces 7 miles west of Springfield in present-day Medway on August 8, 1782. After several hours of fighting, both sides suffered moderate casualties before scattering the small Shawnee rearguard. The victory against the Shawnee in the Medway/Mad River Valley area discouraged further Amerindian raids against Kentucky and other parts of the American frontier, and helped in part to secure the whole of the Ohio Territory for the Colonials. Rogers later remarked that the area that is now Medway was of significant strategic importance to the American cause as "the Mad River was the artery to the Miami River, and the Miami, the Ohio River thereto." Medway was therefore of strategic importance and, as such, the federal government encouraged many veterans to use their war pensions to settle in the area; descendants of several of these Revolutionary war families reside in the village. [5] [6]

Founding of Medway

Medway was platted in 1816, and named for being the midway point between Springfield and Dayton. [7] A post office called Medway has been in operation since 1850. [8]

Notable person

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark County, Ohio</span> County in Ohio, United States

Clark County is a county located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 136,001. Its county seat and largest city is Springfield. The county was created on March 1, 1818, and was named for General George Rogers Clark, a hero of the American Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Springfield, Ohio</span> City in Ohio, United States

Springfield is a city in and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approximately 45 miles (72 km) west of Columbus and 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Dayton. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 58,662, while the Springfield metropolitan area had a population of 136,001 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piqua, Ohio</span> City in Ohio, United States

Piqua is a city in Miami County, Ohio, United States, along the Great Miami River. The population was 20,354 at the 2020 census. Located 27 miles (43 km) north of Dayton, it is part of the Dayton metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Loramie, Ohio</span> Village in Ohio, United States

Fort Loramie is a village in Shelby County, Ohio, United States, along Loramie Creek, a tributary of the Great Miami River in southwestern Ohio. It is 42 mi. north-northwest of Dayton and 20 mi. east of the Ohio/Indiana border. The population was 1,590 at the 2020 census. The village was founded in 1837 near the former site of a colonial fort of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwest Territory</span> United States territory (1787–1803)

The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation through the Northwest Ordinance, it was the nation's first post-colonial organized incorporated territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio Country</span> Historical region in North America

The Ohio Country, was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie.

Chalahgawtha was the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. It was also the name of the principal village of the division. The other four divisions were the Mekoche, Kispoko, Pekowi, and Hathawekela. Together these divisions formed the loose confederacy that was the Shawnee tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Rogers Clark</span> American military officer and surveyor (1752–1818)

George Rogers Clark was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the Virginia militia in Kentucky throughout much of the war. He is best known for his captures of Kaskaskia in 1778 and Vincennes in 1779 during the Illinois campaign, which greatly weakened British influence in the Northwest Territory and earned Clark the nickname of "Conqueror of the Old Northwest". The British ceded the entire Northwest Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western theater of the American Revolutionary War</span> Area of conflict west of the Appalachian Mountains

The western theater of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) was the area of conflict west of the Appalachian Mountains, the region which became the Northwest Territory of the United States as well as what would become the states of Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee. The western war was fought between American Indians with their British allies in Detroit, and American settlers south and east of the Ohio River, and also the Spanish as allies of the latter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Kenton</span> American frontiersman and soldier (1755–1836)

Simon Kenton was an American frontiersman and soldier in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. He was a friend of Daniel Boone, Spencer Records, Thomas S. Hinde, Thomas Hinde, and Isaac Shelby. He served the United States in the Revolution, the Northwest Indian War, and the War of 1812. Surviving multiple gauntlets and ritual torture, in 1778, he was adopted into the Shawnee people. He married twice and had a total of 11 children.

The Treaty of Fort McIntosh was a treaty between the United States government and representatives of the Wyandotte, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa nations of Native Americans. The treaty was signed at Fort McIntosh on January 21, 1785. It contained 10 articles and an addendum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Chillicothe</span>

The Battle of Chillicothe was a military engagement of the western theater of the American Revolutionary War. In May 1779, Colonel John Bowman of the Kentucky County militia, accompanied by Benjamin Logan and Levi Todd, led between 160 and 300 militiamen against the Shawnee settlement of Old Chillicothe. Dividing their forces, Bowman and Logan attacked the town from two sides but were eventually repulsed. Unable to draw the Shawnee from their single blockhouse, Bowman burned much of the town and left with between 30 and 300 horses valued at $32,000. Although initially blamed for a defeat, as well as the eight or ten casualties suffered by the Americans, Bowman and Logan were eventually credited by some with a major victory for the Patriots. With the destruction of a major Shawnee settlement and the death of Blackfish, additional war parties were discouraged from moving against American settlers in Kentucky. According to Theodore Roosevelt in The Winning of the West, "the expedition undoubtedly accomplished more than Clark's attack on Piqua next year."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre-Louis de Lorimier</span> Colonial French-Canadian fur trader (1748–1812)

Pierre-Louis de Lorimier, usually anglicized to Peter Loramie, was a colonial French-Canadian fur trader, British Indian agent, and Shawnee agitator. In later years, he founded what became Cape Girardeau and Bollinger Counties, Missouri. He died in Cape Girardeau and was buried there with his Indian wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bethel Township, Clark County, Ohio</span> Township in Ohio, United States

Bethel Township is one of the ten townships of Clark County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census reported 18,050 people living in the township.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Charleston, Ohio</span> Unincorporated community in Ohio, U.S.

West Charleston is an unincorporated community in western Bethel Township, Miami County, Ohio, United States.

Kispoko is the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people. The Kispoko were the smallest of the five septs or divisions during the 18th century. They lived among the Creek in the Upper South and Southeast as early as 1650, having been driven from their Ohio country homeland by the Iroquois Confederacy during the Beaver Wars. They returned to Ohio about 1759. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Mekoche, Pekowi, and Hathawekela. Together these divisions formed the loose confederacy that was the Shawnee tribe. The septs tended to serve different functions for the overall confederacy.

Pekowi was the name of one of the five divisions of the Shawnee, a Native American people, during the 18th century. The other four divisions were the Chalahgawtha, Mekoche, Kispoko, and Hathawekela. Together these divisions formed the loose confederacy that was the Shawnee tribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Piqua</span> 1780 battle of the American Revolutionary War

The Battle of Piqua, also known as the Battle of Peckowee, Battle of Pekowi, Battle of Peckuwe and the Battle of Pickaway, was a military engagement fought on August 8, 1780 at the Indian village of Piqua along the Mad River in western Ohio Country between the Kentucky County militia under General George Rogers Clark and Shawnee Indians under Chief Black Hoof. The Indians were driven off and the village and surrounding fields burned, but Clark suffered daunting casualties. Clark's expedition was in response to Bird's invasion of Kentucky earlier that summer by a combined force of Shawnee, Lenape and Miami warriors that killed and captured hundreds of white settlers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buck Creek State Park</span> State park of Ohio, United States

Buck Creek State Park is a 4,016-acre (1,625 ha) public recreation area in Clark County, Ohio, in the United States, that is leased by the state of Ohio from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The state park's main feature is the C. J. Brown Reservoir, a flood control reservoir created by the USACE on Buck Creek as part of a flood control system in the Ohio River drainage basin. The park offers year-round recreation including camping, boating, hunting, fishing, swimming, picnicking, and hiking.

The Tecumseh Local School District is a school district in western Clark County, Ohio. It consists of one Middle School, one High School and three Elementary Schools.

References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Medway, Ohio
  2. "New Page 1". Archived from the original on September 16, 2008. Retrieved August 26, 2008.
  3. Lower Valley: A Brief Early History
  4. [Battle of Piqua-George Rogers Clark Park, 2002 OHS]
  5. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=477%7Ctitle=Battle of Piqua
  6. The American Review: A Whig Journal, Devoted to Politics and Literature. Vol. I. No. 1. New York, 1848.
  7. Rockel, William Mahlon (1908). 20th Century History of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens. Biographical Publishing Company. p.  330.
  8. "Clark County". Jim Forte Postal History. Retrieved January 12, 2016.

39°52′55″N84°00′35″W / 39.88194°N 84.00972°W / 39.88194; -84.00972