Storrs Township was a civil township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio. It was established in 1835 and annexed to Cincinnati in 1870 but remained in nominal form until at least 1890 due to an oversight.
Storrs Township was a civil township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio. It was established in 1835 and annexed to Cincinnati in 1870 but remained in nominal form until at least 1890 due to an oversight.
Storrs Township was named after Abigail Maria Storrs, the wife of Ethan Stone. Stone was a lawyer who went into banking after becoming blind. He was a Federalist member of the Ohio General Assembly from 1805 to 1806 and became president of the Bank of Cincinnati in 1814. [1]
The land that would become Storrs Township was included in the 1794 Symmes Purchase. In 1810, Ethan Stone, an influential former state representative and investor, convinced the Ohio General Assembly to lease to him Section 29 of Cincinnati Township, which he would then sublet. The lease was amended in 1821, allowing him to rent the section for $40 annually for 99 years, renewable in perpetuity. It would prove lucrative to Stone. [1]
In 1835, Cincinnati Township was abolished due to annexations by the City of Cincinnati, and Storrs Township was erected from the western portion of Cincinnati Township that included the Stone estate. The same year, Sedamsville was incorporated as a village within the township limits. [2]
Storrs Township's location on the Ohio River near Cincinnati made it a stop for fugitive slaves following the Underground Railroad into Ohio. In a high-profile incident in 1856, Margaret Garner escaped into Storrs Township with her family before killing or wounding her children in a bid to keep them out of the hands of slave catchers. Under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, she was returned to her enslaver in Kentucky. [3]
On November 12, 1869, the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners granted Cincinnati's request to annex Storrs Township, including the villages of Sedamsville and Price Hill, but excluding the small portion already incorporated as the Village of Riverside. [4] [5] [6] [7] These annexations took effect on February 28, 1870. [8] In 1887, the annexed territory was also transferred from Storrs Township to Cincinnati Township, to ensure that Cincinnati and its paper township remained coextensive. [9]
In 1890, at the end of a congressional redistricting process, the Ohio Republican Party discovered that, when the county commissioners annexed the eastern portion of Storrs Township to Cincinnati Township, they had neglected to attach the remaining 22 square miles (57 km2) within Riverside to Delhi Township. The 200 eligible voters in Riverside voted in their own precinct, still nominally in Storrs Township. The wording of the redistricting act inadvertently omitted this precinct from any congressional district. This discrepancy had been overlooked in the 1882, 1884, and 1886 redistricting acts but gave the Republicans a last-minute opportunity to invalidate the Ohio Democratic Party's newest gerrymandering scheme and gain multiple seats in the United States House of Representatives. [9] [10]
In its original form, Storrs Township was bounded by the Ohio River to the south, Delhi Township to the west, Millcreek Township to the north, and Cincinnati to the east across Mill Creek. [11] [12] This area today corresponds to the Cincinnati neighborhoods of Sedamsville, Lower Price Hill, and East Price Hill, as well as the easternmost part of Riverside.
In 1847, the Ohio General Assembly established a road district within the township for the purpose of grading and paving streets. [13] In the 1850s, two plank roads ran through the township, one of them a toll road called the Storrs Township Turnpike and the other a free road leading to the Anderson Ferry. [14]
The section leased to Ethan Stone was the township's ministerial land, with a stipulation that proceeds from the sale or sublease of land were to be used for the funding of Christian churches and schools in the township. [15] The state administered the land, collected rent, and disbursed the funds to the churches. [16] In 1949, five churches in the former Storrs Township filed with the City of Cincinnati to receive disbursements totaling $3,000. [15] In 1968, the Ohio State Auditor stopped disbursing the funds after the United States Supreme Court declared such arrangements unconstitutional. In 1973, the auditor was authorized to sell the land to the 145 lessees of 791.10 acres (320.15 ha) in Green, Delhi, and Storrs townships for one year's rent, with the proceeds going to local school districts. [16] [17] [18]
Stone's considerable profit from sublets was also subject to the ministerial provision. At his death in 1852, the proceeds were valued at over $32,000 annually. The funds were originally directed to the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, but in 1893, the Hamilton County Probate Court ordered that trust funds be disbursed to a church chosen in an election every ten years. By the time the case was closed on March 22, 2019, 167 years after Stone's death, it was the longest open trust case in Ohio and presumably the oldest active court case in the United States. [1] [19] [20]
Hamilton County is located in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 830,639, making it the third-most populous county in Ohio. The county seat and largest city is Cincinnati. The county is named for the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton County is part of the Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Loveland is a city in Hamilton, Clermont, and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 13,307 at the 2020 census. Considered part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area, Loveland is located near exit 52 off Interstate 275, about 15 miles (24 km) northeast of the Cincinnati city limits. It borders Symmes, Miami and Hamilton townships and straddles the Little Miami River. Once a busy railroad town, Loveland is now a major stop along the Little Miami Scenic Trail.
Columbia Township is one of the twelve townships of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 4,446 people in the township. Originally one of Ohio's largest townships by area at its inception in 1791, it gradually shrank to one of the smallest by the early 1950s.
Delhi Township is one of the twelve townships of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 28,760 people in the township. It is the only Delhi Township statewide.
Springfield Township is one of the twelve townships of Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 35,862 as of the 2020 census. Springfield Township is home to the largest private school in Ohio, the largest lake in Hamilton County, and the Cincinnati area's annual Greek Festival.
Millcreek Township is a survey township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio, that also existed as a civil township from 1810 until 1943. Once the most important township in the county, it was largely absorbed by Cincinnati and its suburbs, nominally remaining as a paper township from 1943 until 1953. It was abolished when the rest of its unincorporated territory, consisting of Wesleyan Cemetery, became part of Cincinnati. As the original survey township covers a large portion of present-day Cincinnati, references to it are frequently encountered by genealogists.
Fairfield Township is one of thirteen townships in Butler County, Ohio, United States. It is located in the south central portion of the county. The population was 22,645 at the 2020 census. Before annexations by the cities of Hamilton and Fairfield, it had an area of about 50 square miles (130 km2).
The term paper township refers to a civil township under Ohio law that nominally exists for certain purposes but does not act as a functioning unit of civil government. Such townships usually exist on paper as a legal fiction due to municipal annexation.
Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library (CHPL) is a public library system in the United States. In addition to its main library location in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, CHPL operates 40 regional and branch locations throughout Hamilton County.
Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway, formerly and locally known as Cross County Highway, is a west-east freeway in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. It stretches 16.4 miles (26.4 km) from southern Colerain Township to Montgomery, connecting many of Cincinnati's northern suburbs to Interstate 71 and Interstate 75. State Route 126 is routed over most of the highway, while the remainder is a county-maintained road.
State Route 450 is a short east–west state highway in southwestern Ohio, specifically near the eastern Cincinnati suburb of Milford. The western terminus of State Route 450 is at the Milford city limits, just west of a partial cloverleaf interchange with Interstate 275, with the road continuing into Milford known as Milford Parkway, which passes by the River's Edge Shopping Center and several distribution-oriented businesses prior to meeting U.S. Route 50 at the intersection marking the western terminus of State Route 131. State Route 450's eastern terminus is at U.S. Route 50, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Interstate 275.
Columbia-Tusculum is the oldest neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is located on the East Side of the city. The population was 1,523 at the 2020 census.
Wesleyan Cemetery is a prominent cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the oldest continuously operating cemetery in Hamilton County, Ohio.
Riverside is a neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio. The West Side neighborhood is contained in a narrow strip of land along the Ohio River between Sayler Park and Sedamsville. It is a community that is more industrial than residential. It is home to St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church. Riverside is also home to the Mount St. Joseph University ball fields.
The College Lands were a tract of land in the Northwest Territory, later Ohio, that the Congress donated for the support of a university. Ohio University became the first college northwest of the Ohio River as a beneficiary of this tract.
The Ministerial Lands were tracts of land in the Northwest Territory, later Ohio, that the Congress donated for the support of clergy.
Spencer Township was a civil township in southeastern Hamilton County, Ohio. It was established in the early 1840s and annexed to Cincinnati in stages from 1855 to 1909.
Cincinnati Township is a paper township and former civil township in south-central Hamilton County, Ohio. Originally one of Ohio's largest townships by area at its inception in 1791, it was abolished in 1834 when the City of Cincinnati became coextensive with it through annexation. Since then, it has remained solely as a paper township.
Ethan Stone (1767–1852) was an American lawyer, banker, politician, and philanthropist from Cincinnati, Ohio. A major property investor, he became influential in state politics, but his fortunes waxed and waned with the local property market. His considerable wealth at the time of his death produced the first elections open to local women as part of the longest trust case in state history.
Notice is Hereby Given to All Interested Parties that an Application was Filed on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 1869, with the Board of County Commissioners of Hamilton Co., by the City of Cincinnati, at a Regular Meeting of Said Board, Praying for Permission for the Annexation of the Following Unincorporated Territory, Viz: All of Storrs Township Not Included in the Incorporated Village of Riverside ... the Application for Such Annexation Will be Heard by the Commissioners, at Said Office, on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1869, at 9 o'clock a.m.