1876 Marion Township, Clinton County, Ohio

"Marion township occupies the southwestern corner of Clinton county and is bounded on the north by Vernon township on the east by Washington and Jefferson townships on the south by Brown county and on the west by Warren county.

For the most part the surface of the township would be called undulating but in some places it is very level. The soil is productive and in some parts of the township is underlaid with a stratum of fine gravel at a depth of from six to eighteen feet. The principal streams are Second creek running from the northern part of the township to the west side near the center. Stonelick creek running west through the southern part and out at the west side near the southern corner and Whitacre's run which flows from east to west south of the center.

A vast quantity of the land was formerly swampy and too wet for cultivation but by the use of modern systems of ditching and draining these lands have been made tillable and very fertile.

The settlement of this township began long before its organization and soon after the organization of the county. It has been definitely established that Jonathan Baldwin was the first to settle within the limits of Marion township.

Baldwin was born at or near Morgantown, Monongalia county, Virginia November 30, 1786 and remained with his father until 1804 when he emigrated to Ohio and settled in Guernsey county. Two years later he removed to Warren county near the present town of Morrow and engaged in working by the month building flat boats for William Whitacre with whom he remained until 1811. In that year he married Harriet Blancett and removed to near Springboro in Warren county In 1812.

He enlisted in the army and served in the campaign of that year under Gen. William Henry Harrison. He then returned home where he remained until 1814 when he came to Marion township and settled on a tract of land of one hundred and thirty acres on Second creek, this land being the residue of four hundred acres previously purchased by him of General Lytle.

Immediately upon his arrival Mr Baldwin with the help of his two brothers Samuel and Benjamin cut the logs and erected the first dwelling in the township. His nearest neighbor at this time was four miles away, the intervening distance being covered with a heavy forest. On the completion of the cabin the brothers left Jonathan to clear the land and they returned to their home in Warren county This was in February 1814 and by the spring of 1815 he had six acres of land cleared and ready to be planted with corn for that year's use.

He died on August 28 1868 in his eighty second year. He was married twice, his first wife died on October 27, 1834 and his second wife Mary on July 25, 1856.

His son William H. Baldwin who died on November 19, 1862 when fifty two years of age was for many years one of the most prominent citizens of the township. He was township clerk, justice of the peace, postmaster general of the county, militia, state senator and judge of the second judicial district of Ohio.

Reuben Gillis was another early settler of this township. He was born on the Elkhorn eleven miles north of Lexington, Scott County, on August 8, 1789. His father brought him to Ohio in May 1799 when he settled in Warren county. From here the son later moved to Clinton near where Blanchester now is and where he continued to reside until his death in 1877. "