Jefferson Township is one of the seventeen townships of

Logan County Logan County is the name of ten current counties and one former county in the United States: * Logan County, Arkansas * Logan County, Colorado * Logan County, Idaho (1889–1895) * Logan County, Illinois * Logan County, Kansas * Logan County ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,028.

Geography

Located in the eastern part of the county, it borders the following townships: * Rushcreek Township - north * Perry Township - east * Zane Township - southeast corner * Monroe Township - south * Liberty Township - southwest * Lake Township - west Several municipalities are located in Jefferson Township: *The village of Zanesfield, in the south center *Part of the city of Bellefontaine, in the west *Most of the village of Valley Hi, in the south Compared with most of western Ohio, Jefferson Township is quite hilly. Campbell Hill, the highest point in Ohio, is located inside the Bellefontaine city limits in western Jefferson Township. On the other hand, the Marmon Valley, which extends through the southern part of the township, is a small pass through the Bellefontaine and Bristlecone Ridges. The same forces that shaped the township's terrain also created Zane Shawnee Caverns, a

cave Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...

system in the northeastern part of the township. Jefferson Township contains the source of the Mad River, and a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area–a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In North Am ...

— unusual for western Ohio — is located near Valley Hi in the southern part of the township.

Name and history

It is one of 24 Jefferson Townships statewide. Jefferson Township was formed in 1813 from Zane Township. It was one of the earliest parts of Logan County to be

settled A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among the first settli ...

: its first settler was Isaac Zane, who arrived in 1800 and built the first house in what is now Zanesfield in 1811, and the Marmons who arrived in the township in 1805 were the first white families to live in the county.Barber, Rachel. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Martin Marmon House''. National Park Service, January 1985. Because a significant percentage of the early settlers were

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

, the township was once home to a large number of

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s. Today, the township is the location of Goshen Friends Church, the oldest church in Logan County, and of the Martin Marmon House, one of the best examples of early nineteenth-century Quaker architecture in Ohio.

Government

The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1. Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it. There is also an elected township fiscal officer,§503.24§505.01
an
§507.01
of the

Ohio Revised Code The ''Ohio Revised Code'' (ORC) contains all current statutes of the Ohio General Assembly of a permanent and general nature, consolidated into provisions, titles, chapters and sections. However, the only official publication of the enactments o ...

. Accessed 4/30/2009. who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election. Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees.

Transportation

U.S. Route 33 is the most important highway in Jefferson Township. Other significant highways include State Routes 47,

292 __NOTOC__ Year 292 (Roman numerals, CCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Hannibalianus and Asclepiodotus (or, less frequently, year 1045 ''Ab urbe condita'' ...

, 533, and 540.

References

External links

County websiteCounty and township map of Ohio
{{authority control Townships in Logan County, Ohio 1813 establishments in Ohio Populated places established in 1813 Townships in Ohio