| Official Name: | Milan Township |
| Settlement Type: | Township |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Allen |
| Government Type: | Indiana township |
| Area Total Km2: | 97.09 |
| Area Land Km2: | 96.29 |
| Area Water Km2: | 0.80 |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Area Water Percent: | 0.83 |
| Population As Of: | 2020 |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population Total: | 3891 |
| Population Density Km2: | 38.9 |
| Elevation M: | 231 |
| Elevation Ft: | 758 |
| Coordinates: | 41.1381°N -84.9483°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 46741, 46774, 46797, 46835 |
| Blank Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank Info: | 0453624 |
Milan Township is one of twenty townships in Allen County, Indiana, United States. Milan Township is located in east central Allen County, with the Maumee River meandering across the township. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,749.[2] The township is highly rural, with only 1,137 houses in the 2010 census.[2] Many of the residents of Milan Township are Swiss Amish who mostly speak a Low Alemannic Alsatian dialect.[3] Milan township is generally demarcated by Schwartz Road to the west, Notestine Road to the north, Sampson Road to the east, and Gar Creek Road to the south.
The principal town in Milan Township is Milan Center, at 41°8'39"N 84°56'46"W. Milan Center lies at the intersection of Milan Center Road and Doty Road, and at an earlier time consisted of Brueggemann's (previously Van Camp's,[4] a combination lumberyard, gas station, hardware and grocery store), a small wood-frame church, Milan Center School, a feed mill, and four houses. Additional enterprises have come and gone through the years.[5]
Brueggemann's Do-It-Best Center subsequently left to build a new store several miles removed to take advantage of traffic on State Highway 37 (at Ricker Road). The original Milan Center structure subsequently was lost to fire, and the relocated Brueggemann's closed April 12, 2014 after 100 years of business.[6]
Five Points is a settlement located at the junction of Old US Highway 24, Webster Road, and Woodburn Road, along the old Wabash-Erie Canal route. At one time it consisted of a small diner for truckers, a gas station (later a bicycle shop), a tile mill, and a few homes. A newer water tower labeled "Woodlan" near the Woodlan Schools may result in the community being known as "Woodlan" in the coming years.[7]
Gar Creek was once a shipping point on the Wabash and Toledo Railroad. A small community of 500 people eventually settled around the station. In 1883, lumber and grain were the primary exports of the station. Gar Creek enterprises at that time included a shingle manufacturer, two carpenters, a Justice of the Peace, a saw mill, a general store with a railway agent and a Postmaster (Jesse Rothgeb), a blacksmith, a hoop manufacturer, and United Brethren and Lutheran churches. The population at that time was listed as 130.[8]
Thurman was a settlement located on the Detroit branch of the old Wabash Railroad. A few homes and businesses remain to this day.[9] Parts of Thurman were incorporated into Fort Wayne on March 31, 2008 as part of the "Schwartz Road Voluntary Annexation".[10]
The Maumee-Milan Consolidated School System (constituents: Maumee Township, including the city of Woodburn, and Milan Township)[5] built and dedicated Woodlan High School for the 1959–1960 school year.[11] Located in Milan Township, the school lies just east of Five Points on the Woodburn Road. Students previously attending Harlan High School began attending Woodlan in the autumn of 1965, as the area's smaller school districts had been further consolidated into the East Allen County Schools a year earlier.[12] Junior high and elementary schools are also now located on the campus.
The major industries in the county are agriculture, building trades, and rubber manufacturing.The largest employer in the township is BF Goodrich. The plant manufactures BF Goodrich and generic-branded tires for passenger cars and light trucks. BF Goodrich is a division of Michelin North America. As of 2016, 1,650 workers were employed at the facility located on Old U.S. Highway 24.Shortly after opening in 1961, the mile-long plant was featured in the national media as the "longest" manufacturing facility in the country at the time. It has been upgraded and expanded subsequently several times. The facility, which lies just east of the Woodlan Schools, comprises the highest-assessed real estate and business personal property value in the East Allen County Schools’ territory. Many plant employees are represented by United Steelworkers Local 715.[13]
The indigenous inhabitants of Milan Township were the Algonquian-speaking Miami People.In the “Treaty with the Miami” executed on October 23, 1826, one section, 640 acres, of Milan Township land was reserved for “Laventure’s daughter”, whose father, Laventure Toucher, was a French trader and whose mother may have been a Miami.[14]
Laventure Toucher had been convicted of treason by the British in Fort Detroit in 1779 during the Revolutionary War. The colonists had recruited neutral French inhabitants of the Detroit region to be spies and sympathizers for the American cause.[15]
The reserved section occupied land bordered now by the Rohman and Platter roads. At the time of Indian Removal in 1846, those Miami who held separate allotments of land were allowed to stay as citizens in Indiana. Around 1872 the reserve was partially sold to non-native settlers, and by 1879, plat books were showing the “first family” Milan Township surnames of Lampe, Vondereau, Shafer, Bruick, Landin, and Yerks on that land.[16]
Although the Indiana Miami were recognized by the US in an 1854 treaty, that recognition was stripped in 1897. While an Indiana Miami Nation still exists to this day, the officially US-recognized relocated Miami Nation resides in Oklahoma. In 1980, the Indiana legislature recognized the Indiana Miami and voted to support federal recognition.[17] [18]
Milan Township was first organized by the County Commissioners in March, 1838, being petitioned for, and named by, resident Stephen Heath, in honor of Milan Township, Huron County, Ohio: his former home (the township now resides in neighboring Erie County). The origin of the “Milan” name in Huron and Erie Counties, Ohio remains obscure.[19]
Charles Shriner erected the first frame house in 1838. It was attached to a log building. Alvin Hall erected the second frame house in 1841. William R. Herrick erected the first frame barn in the spring of 1850.[20]
The first road was surveyed in 1840 by Horace Taylor. It was called the Ridge Road, and extended from Fort Wayne to Hicksville, Ohio. The first stores in the township were operated by Stephen Heath and Lorenzo D. George.[20]
The first township election was held in April, 1842; Andrew Wakefield was elected Justice of the Peace, and John Nettle, Constable. The positions were voluntary, as there were no salaries.[20]
Amish settlement began in 1852–1853, when eleven wagons carrying fifty-two people, mainly recent immigrants from the Alsace, migrated to Allen County from Stark County, Ohio.[21] Peter Graber was the first bishop. Three distinct divisions subsequently evolved in the community: the most-conservative Old Order Amish, the more progressive Amish-Mennonites, and the most liberal, the "Defenseless" (Egli) Mennonites.[22]
The settlement of Fairport, the first village in the township, was created by Eastern venture capitalists attempting to capitalize on the newly created Wabash and Erie Canal. The first post office was established at Fairport in 1843, with John Irvin being appointed Postmaster. Fairport straddled portions of Township Sections 13 and 24, in the far eastern part of the township, just south of the Maumee River.[23]
The heyday of the canal was 1847 to 1866, but the canal ultimately closed in 1878 as both shippers and passengers demonstrated a preference for utilizing the Wabash railroad instead, which had been built parallel to the canal.[24] Fairport ultimately foundered as the canal foundered; the settlement became defunct and the site quickly reverted to farmland.
George Foxtater and John Irvin were the first tavern-keepers in the township, in Fairport.[20]
The village of Chamberlain arose when one of the first township settlers, Alvin Hall, requested that a post office be placed in the “western part of the township.” The request was granted, and Lorenzo D. George became the appointed postmaster. Chamberlain, located just southwest of Barnett Chapel on the Old Ridge Road in Section 4 of the township,[25] began its own decline around 1870, and the post office was relocated to St. Joseph Township at that time.
Support for rural public schools originated with the Federal Land Ordinance of 1785, which began the land surveys that laid out townships and sections across the growing nation. Every township was to consist of thirty-six sections containing 640 acres each. Section 16 and later, in 1848, section 36, were set aside to support schools.[26] That ordinance largely failed in Indiana, but a few townships actually did use their surveyed “Section 16’s” for educational purposes, as prescribed in the ordinance.
Following statehood in 1816, the Indiana General Assembly then passed a complex series of acts (in 1824, 1849, and 1852) to organize and develop the public school system at the state, county, and township levels. School districts were created and given the authority to establish district schools at the township level. School district representatives were to be elected to the township trustees. State and local tax-support was provided on a county-by-county basis.
A number of schoolhouses were then built soon following 1852, but the majority were ultimately constructed following the Civil War. By 1900, over 8,000 one-room schools stood statewide.Later, with changes in demographics and the onset of school consolidations, the General Assembly gave the State Superintendent the means to close districts where attendance was under 12 pupils.Today there are over 700 surviving one-room schoolhouse structures in Indiana; the majority of these date from 1865 - 1900.[27]
Milan Township had at least 13 “District” schools.[28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
What was to become “District School No. 1” was actually the first school constructed in the township. It opened in a log building in 1845; the first teacher was Catherine Shell. The structure was replaced by a frame building in 1857 when it officially became a District School. That building was erected by Alvin Hall, who was the first carpenter in the township.[33]
| No. 1 | 13903 Maysville Road, the "Kurtz School"[34] | closed b. 1923 | |
| No. 2 | Graber Rd. in Section 6, E.-side, the "Hall School" | closed aft.1903 | |
| No. 3 | Parent Rd. W. of Ricker Rd., N.-side | closed aft.1903 | |
| No. 4 | Parent Rd. at S. apex of Laventure's Reserve (at creek/mill, N.-side). | closed aft.1903 | |
| No. 5 | Milan Center School, also the Township High School and "Professor Harris' School",[35] [36] [37] Milan Center Rd. at Doty Rd. | closed in 1974 | |
| No. 6 | 17985 Darling Rd. at Brush College Rd., the "Detrick School"[38] [39] | closed aft. 1945 | |
| No. 7 | Brush College Rd. at Doty Rd., the "Brush College School" | closed b. 1923 | |
| No. 8 | Berthaud Rd and Gar Creek Rd., NE corner. The "Busse Schoolhouse". | closed in 1903 | |
| No. 9 | at Five Points, W. of Webster Rd. and N. of the canal. The "Platter Schoolhouse" | closed b. 1897 | |
| No 10 | Schwartz Rd. in Section 6 | closed b. 1897 | |
| No.11 | near Woodburn Rd. and Roussey Rd., the "Garver School"[40] | closed aft. 1940 | |
| No.12 | “old” and “new” schoolhouses were at 9127 & 9130 Ricker Road, S. of Notestine, "Fitzgerald's School"[41] [42] | closed aft. 1940 | |
| No.13 | Bremer Rd. W. of Roussey Rd., N.-side | closed aft. 1923 |
While "Brush College" appears to have been a popular designation at the time (i.e., the term was also used in Cedar Creek Township and in Huntington County), some muse that this one-room district schoolhouse in the "brushy woods" may have been a site to train teachers.[43]
While all of these diseases are unheard of in the township today, each of these potentially life-ending scourges touched Milan Township at an earlier time. Groundbreaking on the Wabash and Erie Canal was 1832, and the canal was ultimately finished in 1856. Along the way to completion, it was said that a construction worker passed away from either cholera or malaria for every 6 feet of the canal being built. The length of the canal was 452 miles, from Toledo, OH to Evansville, IN.[24]
In November 1899 an epidemic of smallpox was “prevailing in Milan Township,” according to a Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette article from the time. A cluster of cases six miles southeast of Maysville “in a heavily populated area” was described, apparently stretching to the Ohio Line. Homes of infected individuals were placed under total police-supervised quarantine and all individuals exposed to those cases were placed under quarantine. Milan Center School was ordered by the health department to be closed until the threat of contagion had passed. Of interesting note was a particular smallpox-associated odor which could be detected outside each of the infected households.[44]
There are only two bridges spanning the Maumee River in Milan Township. The following original iron bridges have both been replaced with reinforced concrete structures.
On July 1, 1876, the County Commissioners announced they were letting bids for the first township bridge to be built, at “Platter’s Ford”.[45] On August 15, the bid for the foundation was awarded to Chas. Bosseker & Co. Nine additional bids for the iron supra-structure were also unsealed at the time.[46] In 1896 (and at several times following), a driftwood dam almost destroyed the completed structure, which was described as having two 100-ft long iron spans suspended on a huge center pier.[47]
It took residents multiple attempts over a four-period, petitioning County Commissioners, in order for the Schlink Bridge to be built. Finally in 1906, the Commissioners met with residents on the site at the Schlink Farm to review the proposal, and it was thereafter finally agreed that the county would spend $15,000 to construct the iron bridge.[48] [49] The bridge on the Bruick Road is now a vital link connecting US Hwy 24 to northern township areas across the river.
In the mid-20th century, telephone communication across relatively short distances could be prohibitively expensive. Northern Milan township had traditionally been served by the Harlan telephone exchange, and southern Milan township by the New Haven telephone exchange. To make a call between differing exchanges, one could incur so-called "long distance" surcharges. Brueggemann's store at Milan Center served as a progressive business and community center by having telephones from both exchanges. The New Haven telephone exchange was purchased by the Home Telephone company in Fort Wayne, which was itself subsequently acquired by General Telephone of Indiana. The Harlan telephone company was also eventually acquired by General Telephone of Indiana. General Telephone is now a part of Verizon.[50]
May Sand and Gravel once operated a stone quarry located along Old US 24, across from the BF Goodrich tire plant. Core samples were collected by researchers Doheny, Droste, and Shaver from the Indiana Geological Survey and Indiana University in 1975. The researchers catalogued a stratum of fossil sediment containing dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate) and subsequently described its distribution from an origin in Northwestern Indiana, through veins to northeastern Indiana with varying thickness, erosion, and displacement by other strata along the way. Termed the “Milan Center Dolomite Member”, the name was taken from “Milan Center Township”[''sic''], in which the Woodburn Quarry was located. This Milan Center Member was classified to be “Eifelian” in age.[51]
In later prehistory and into the frontier days, Milan Township laid nearly entirely within the far western area of a glacial valley described today as the Great Black Swamp. Then in the 19th century, its wetlands were drained for travel, settlement, and agriculture. Stands of old-growth forests were felled and used for timber interests upon settlement.[52] The Great Black Swamp extended eastward and downward from the old "Ridge Road," which is now Maysville Road.
The Maumee River flows through the township in a northeast course, and Twelve Mile and Ten Mile Creeks flow through the central part, joining the Maumee. Six Mile Creek drains the southwestern part of the township.[33]
According to the United States Census Bureau, Milan Township covers an area of 97.09sqkm; of this, 96.29sqkm is land and 0.8sqkm, or 0.83%, is water.[2]
(This list is based on USGS data and may include former settlements.)
From the Allen County INGenWeb Project[53]
The first township religious meeting was held at Catherine Shell's Ridge Road log schoolhouse, in 1845. Services were conducted by the Rev. True Pattee, affiliated with the M. E. Church. The district schools were the first meeting places of various religious denominations, as no township church buildings were erected prior to 1880.[20]
From the Allen County INGenWeb Project[55]
| Lengacher-Sapp Farm | 17116 Notestine Road | Vernacular | |
| Christan Lengacher Farm | 10220 Thimlar Road | 1910 Foursquare, two gambrel roof barns | |
| Lake-Lengacher Farm | 15329 State Road 37 | ||
| Swifts-Werts Farm | 15039 State Road 37 | c. 1880 Italianate house, Gable barn | |
| Harp-Graber Farm | 14510 Notestine Road | Vernacular Gabled Ell and timber-pegged house | |
| John Graber Farm | 10108 Graber Road | c. 1890 Vernacular Gabled Ell brick line | |
| John Bertsch Farm | 9842 Graber Road | c. 1870 Vernacular Gabled Ell log | |
| Peter Graber, Sr House | 9905 Graber Road | c. 1860 I-house log | |
| Christian Richer Farm | 9921 Ricker Road | c. 1855 Vernacular log | |
| J. E. Motherwell Farm | 9633 Ricker Road | c. 1860 Vernacular log | |
| School No 12 (original) | 9127 Ricker Road | c. 1870 Vernacular | |
| William Fitzgerald, Sr Farm | 9127 Ricker Road | c. 1870 Timber Frame w/ Greek Revival details | |
| Township | School No. 12 30 Ricker Road | 1899 Romanesque Revival | |
| Yoder-Ringgenberger-Graber Farm | 8917 Graber Road | c. 1855 Vernacular | |
| John Graber Farm | 8918 Graber Road | c. 1910 Vernacular gabled ell timber-pegged barn | |
| Summers-Bottern-Graber Farm | 8604 Graber Road | Brick-lined house, hand-hewn log barn | |
| Milan Township School No. 1 | 13903 Maysville Road | 1882 Vernacular | |
| Chamberlain Settlement | State Road 37 at Bruick Road | c. 1850 | |
| Henry Kurtz House | 14106 State Road 37 East | c. 1925 Craftsman bungalow | |
| John Kurtz Farm | 14212 State Road 37 East | c. 1914 Foursquare | |
| Barnett Chapel Lutheran Cemetery | 14441 State Road 37 East | 1875 | |
| M. Sowers House | 14441 State Road 37 East | c. 1850 Greek Revival | |
| Joe Miller Farm & Harness Shop | 76212 Darling Road | c. 1910 Vernacular gabled ell of tile block | |
| Noah Miller Farm | 16315 Darling Road | c. 1855 Vernacular log house, German four-bay barn | |
| Township School No. 6 | 17985 Darling Road | c. 1880 Other | |
| W. A. Ward House | 18928 Ward Road | c. 1910 Colonial Revival | |
| A. Devauz Farm | 7913 Brush College Road | c. 1905 East Lake | |
| Wm. F. Ehle Farm | 15729 Ehle Road | Rebuilt 1926 House; 1880s Craftsman house, early gabled barn | |
| John Thimlar Farm | 15001 Ehle Road | c. 1860 Vernacular Log House | |
| George Washington T. Safford Farm | 7907 Bruick Road | c. 1878 Victorian Gothic | |
| Thoddeus B. Stene Farm | 13515 State Road 37 | c. 1870 Vernacular Upright and Wing | |
| Daniel D. Miller Farm | 12914 State Road 37 | c. 1865 Vernacular timber-pegged | |
| Knight-Miller Farm | 12810 State Road 37 | Vernacular timber-pegged I house | |
| Absolom Stateufer Farm | 12610 Doty Road | c. 1880 Italianate | |
| David Schwartz Farm | 14030 Doty Road | c. 1875 Vernacular gabled ell | |
| Milan Township Amish School | 14083 Doty Road | c. 1950 Vernacular | |
| Wm. A. Spindler Farm | 14201 Doty Road | c. 1875 Victorian Gothic | |
| George G. Nuttle Farm | 14802 Doty Road | c. 1875 Vernacular: I House | |
| J. M. Yerkes Farm | 15208 Doty Road | c. 1890 House estate | |
| Milan Center School | Doty Road at Milan Center Road | c. 1899 Romanesque Revival | |
| Milan Center Methodist Church | NW Corner Milan Center & Doty Road | c. 1901 | |
| Brueggemann's General Store | 15303 Doty Road | c. 1924 2-story, 1928 Craftsman | |
| Milan Center Feed Mill | 15402 Doty Road | c. 1946 other | |
| Theodore Thimlar House | 16026 Doty Road | c. 1892 Italianate | |
| Milan Township School No. 7 | Doty Road at Brush College (NE corner) | 1902 Classical Revival | |
| Canal Tavern House | 19524 U.S. 24 | c. 1850 Vernacular log | |
| Irving Family Cemetery | 18907 E. U.S. 24 | c. 1847 | |
| Fairport Settlement | Old U.S. 24 A/C from Goodrich Uniroyal Plant (N-side) | 1837 | |
| Sanford A. Ransom Farm | 6034 Milan Center Road | c. 1870 Vernacular vertical plank-lined | |
| Christian Schwartz Farm a | 14422 Irving Road | c. 1870 Vernacular I house | |
| John Schwartz Farm | 14218 Irving Road | 1870 Vernacular I house | |
| Schwartz Family Cemetery | 13935 Irving Road | 19th century-early 20th century | |
| J. J. Schwartz Farm | 5229-35 Bruick Road | c. 1870 Vernacular log | |
| Platter Family Cemetery | S. of Webster Road E. of Maumee River | c. 1852 | |
| Summerset (town) | S. Bank of Maumee River near Webster Road | ||
| Shaney Brooks (or local surname Shanebrook?) Gas Station | 16800 E. Woodburn Road | c. 1920 Craftsman | |
| Five Points/Canal Turnaround | US 24 at Webster & Woodburn Road. | 1920 Craftsman | |
| Henry Busche Farm | 4029 Sampson Road | c. 1870 Vernacular log | |
| Peter Schaaf Farm | 3637 Webster Road | c. 1872 Victorian Gothic | |
| William P. Bruick Farm | 15019 Parent Road | c. 1870 Vernacular gabled ell | |
| George Peter Schlink Farm | 14218 Parent Road | 1879 Italianate | |
| Hemsoth-Metert Farm | 12830 Stellhorn Road | c. 1870 Queen Anne | |
| Hemrich Nietert Farm | 3534 Ricker Road | 1885 Italianate | |
| Wm. Schafer Farm | 3814 Ricker Road | 1875 Vernacular wing, gabled front | |
| Gottlieb Schafer Barn & Outbuildings | 12015 Stellhorn Road | 1893 1893 Bank barn | |
| Henry Meyer Farm | 11604 Stellhorn Road | 1875 Vernacular: I house | |
| Village of Thurman | 10800 E Stellhorn Road at 4400 N Thurman, E to RR tracks | Early 20th-century village | |
| H. Kuehn Farm | 10930 Stellhorn Road | Vernacular | |
| Vonderau Farm | 3714 Thurman Road | c. 1910 Dutch Colonial Revival | |
| Bowers Mill | 11500 Parent Road at bridge (N-side) | c. 1861 Vernacular water-powered mill | |
| Henry Nahrwold Farm | 11013 Parent Road | 1875 Vernacular gabled Front | |
| Lapp-Vonderau Farm | 11102 Stellhorn Road | 1900 Victorian Gothic | |
| Young-Hermann Farm | 11418 Parent Road | 1890 East Lake | |
| Heinrich Bischoff Farm | 11618 Parent Road | c. 1880 Queen Anne | |
| Hiram Parent Farm | 12808 Parent Road | c. 1875 Italianate | |
| John Harper Farm | 13086 Bremer Road | 1870 Vernacular gabled ell | |
| Charles Hockemeyer Farm | 14216 Bremer Road | 1911-12 Classical Revival | |
| State Paul's Lutheran Church Cemetery | 1910 Berthaud Road | ||
| Herman & Christine Meyer Farm | 15503 Gar Creek Road | p. 1900 Foursquare with Colonial Revival detail | |
| Bowers-Harris Farm | 7034 Thimlar Road | 1929 Sears Roebuck mail-order catalog barn | |
| Gar Creek Union Cemetery | 15715 Gar Creek Road | 1884 | |
| Mosler Village | 17703 Bremer Road N. of RR Tracks and Road | 1854 | |
| Gar Creek Settlement | 16221 Gar Creek Road |
John Chapman, “Johnny Appleseed” (1774-1845) Itinerant Swedenborgian missionary, nurseryman. At the time of his death, operated a 15,000-apple-tree nursery in Milan township.[57] Buried in Archer Park, Fort Wayne.