Wilson, Valentine, House

Somerford township lies along the western border of Madison: 'county, second from the northern border. It:is bounded:on the north by Pike. and Monroe townships, on the east by Monroe and Deer Creeks townships, on the south by Union township and on the west by Champaign county and Clark county. The following was taken from the record books of the county commissioners, dated March 4, 1839: "Ordered, by the commissioners, that the following' boundaries, which have heretofore been'a part of Deer Creek township, be organized as a new township, to'be known and designated by' the name of Somerford, to wit: Beginning at the 'southwest cornet of Piké township, in the line of Champaign county; thence with the'said line south three Iniles and two hundred poles to the corner between the county of Chanipaign and Clark'; "thehee with the Clark' county line south ten degrees west, six and a half 'miles to the north bank of Deér creek, on Daniel Wilson's land; thence north seventy-seven degrees ' east; four miles and one hundred eighty poles, crossing the Urbana road and Glade run to two black oaks and two burr oaks near where George Frederick 'formerly lived, on A. 'Poland's land ; thence north to the line of Monroe and Pike townships north forty- six degrees west five miles to the beginning. " The next and last record we find concerning the boundary line of Somerford township is 'in the record book, dated March 20, 1840, and is as follows : "Ordered, by the commissioners of Madison 'county, that the line between the townships of Union and Somerford be so altered as to include Daniel Wilson's and the land' upon which he now lives into Union township."

Passage source: History of Madison County Ohio, published 1915.

The soil is. very rich. and productive, and suitable to, the raising of all _kinds of grains, cereals and grasses, the exuberance of the latter making it an excellent stock country, Along, the creeks and the more flat portions of the township, the soil consists of a deep black loam, and the more undulating lands are a mixture, of loam and clay. The township is well watered by the creeks, whica also prove invaluable for drainage and which are fed by reLea ty numbers of beautiful springs. These springs dot the farms from one extreme to the other of the limited domain. Deer creek, with its numerous branches, penetrate all portions of the territory. George's ereek, the largest branch, heads near the northwest corner of the township, and, coursing in a southeast direction. empties into the main creek, near the eastern border of the township. With all the beautiful Springs and creeks,. forming an ever- -gushing supply of water, together with the subsoil of clay, this township is "proof against danger. to its crops from an ordinary drought. Somerford township, unlike many others of Madison 'county, was originally well timbered, having no prairies entirely destitute of trees; and it might be stated that it had a very remarkable variety of timber, consisting of white, black, red and burr oak, elm, maple, locust, cherry, hickory, walnut and beech, of which the white and red oak were the most beautiful growths; the cherry and walnut, of which, in an early day, vast quantities were cut down and burned in clearing up the land, if now in possession of the owners of these lands, would alone be worth a fortune. But the ruthless axe of the pioneers and his merciless torch nearly obliterated these species from the township. Owing to the small size of the streams, there is no water power of value, and the mills that now exist, or have existed in this township, have been run by steam power. Therefore, the greatest efforts, and the interests of the people, with the natural advanages they possessed as above described, have been along lines of agricultural pursuits.

Passage source: History of Madison County Ohio, published 1915.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Somerford Township - 3,370 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.