Muskingum Township is one of the twenty-five

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Muskingum 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. The 2020 census found 4,861 people in the township.

Geography

Located in the north central part of the county, it borders the following townships: * Cass Township - north * Madison Township - northeast * Washington Township - southwest * Falls Township - south * Licking Township - west No municipalities are located in Muskingum Township.

Name and history

The name ''Muskingum'' may come from the

Shawnee The Shawnee ( ) are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands. Their language, Shawnee, is an Algonquian language. Their precontact homeland was likely centered in southern Ohio. In the 17th century, they dispersed through Ohi ...

word ''mshkikwam'' 'swampy ground'. The name may also be from

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

''"Machkigen,"'' referring to thorns, or a specific species of thorn bush. ''Muskingum'' has also been taken to mean 'elk's eye' (''mus wəshkinkw'') by

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

, as in ''mus'' 'elk' + ''wəshkinkw'' 'its eye'. Moravian missionary David Zeisberger wrote that the Muskingum River was called Elk's Eye "because of the numbers of elk that formerly fed on its banks." A Lenape village named Muskingum was established in the area in 1747 and was an important trade center in the early 1750s, until it was devastated by smallpox in the winter of 1752.Charles Augustus Hanna, ''The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path,'' Volume 1, Putnam's sons, 1911
/ref> Statewide, the only other Muskingum Township is located in Washington County.

Emergency services

The Muskingum Township is protected by the Falls Township Fire Department, which provides Fire & EMS services to Falls Township, Muskingum Township and mutual aid for surrounding departments. Falls Township Fire Department currently has 3 stations.

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.

Demographics

Education

Nashport Elementary, which is part of the Tri-Valley Local School District, is located on Creamery Road in Muskingum Township.

References

External links

County website
{{authority control Townships in Muskingum County, Ohio Townships in Ohio