A short while ago, another Doper asked why there are so many places named “Auburn” in the United States.
This is perhaps the X-TREEM! version of the question: what about Madison Township, Ohio? Why are there so many separate communities in the same state that share the same name?
The movie Splash was really big in Ohio in the 80’s. That is how all the little girls got their names.
Sorry, I don’t know the real answer but it does seem confusing and irresponsible to give so many places in a state the same name. I wonder if they actually go by that name or if it is just some demographic quirk. I would love to know as well.
The Postal Service generally enforced a no “post office” of the same name in the same state in the days before ZIP codes. But those Ohio townships likely never had post offices, so there was no reason to come up with unique names when the counties were getting populated enough to name the townships.
Oh, and I raise you Washington Township, Ohio.
States such as Ohio had townships named back in the 1800s, when names of former Presidents were popular. I don’t think it’s much more mysterious than that. Just look at the county names for confirmation.
I’m not sure how this is much different than the oodles of townships and/or counties across the country named after “Washington,” “Adams”, “Jefferson” etc. Nearly every state has a county named after one of the first dozen presidents, and many states have dozens of townships named after them. And finally ,nearly every state has at least one town named after one of the first dozen presidents.
Why? Well when Manifest Destiny was en vogue, settlers simply named places after 1. themselves! then 2. presidents and 3. biblical figures.
Speaking of “themselves”, many of the founding fathers were huge land owners in what was then “the west” (Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, etc.). So one explanation is that these original land barons allowed and/or sold settlement on their land, and in return the settlers simply referred to themsleves as living on “Madison’s land” and “Jefferson’s land” which eventually morphed into places simply being called “Madisonville” and “Madison Twp” and “Madison County” and similarly “Jeffersonville” and “Jefferson Twp” and “Jefferson County.” And if they were far enough from each other so as not to cause confusion, well that’s how you have multiple “Madison Townships” throughout Ohio.
But this is true in almost every state west of Pennsylvania.
Ohio was admitted to the union in 1803, and settlement proceeded over the next decade and a half. For the first part of this period, Jefferson was President, nd James Madison Secretary of State, an office with significantly more duties then than the strictly foreign affairs role of today. For te second half, he was the President. He was also principal author of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and highly respected through most of the period.
21 townships named Madison in Ohio
44 townships named Washinton Township in Ohio
Actually, this probably is a poor reflection on the urban planners from the period. :p:p
Slight hijack. Having grown up in a city which had adjacent municipalities of North City Name and South City Name, I find these Ohio municipal pairings odd:
Solon is nowhere near South Solon.
Lima is nowhere near North Lima. Shortly after I moved to Ohio, I called some volunteers in North Lima to ask them to staff an event in Lima, and, to their credit, they were willing, albeit a bit confused.
Jefferson is nowhere near West Jefferson (which is in Madison County!)
These are all very logical responses, but I’m still baffled as to how this works. Do all those Washington Townships call themselves Washington Township? Doesn’t it get confusing? How do news and traffic reports differentiate among them? How does mail without a zip code get routed?
Seconded. And when it comes to towns named after Framers, I’ve always had a soft spot for this: George, Washington - Wikipedia
Well, if it’s anything like in Illinois, townships don’t really mean that much. I’m from the town of Bartonville, in the Limestone township. My mail goes to Bartonville, not Limestone. They’re like smaller counties.
And Wikipedia has told me that there are acutally two Limestone Townships in Illinois and five in PA.
Not that big a deal, most townships do not have a postal Identity. They receive their mail in a city within that township or one close by. I think they would be Identified by their county, as its really a subdivision of a county.
I can only find 1 city/municipality named Madison in Ohio.
i do find 25 states with a Madison.
Kind of in the top 10 but not listed by Wiki at all:dubious:
Upper Sandusky is about 60 miles south of regular old Sandusky as well.
For the OP, Places in Ohio had a strong relationship to figures of the Revolution since the territory was just getting organized in the years immediately following the Revolution so Washington, Jefferson etc came up a lot.
In addition, I don’t think that people got around all that much. If you lived in Washington Township, Montgomery County, were you really all that likely to get out and run into Washington Township residents from other counties? Probably not.
As far as what the townships might call themselves, I can only offer an example locally. There is a Springfield Township in Montgomery County, PA and a Springfield Township in Delaware County, PA. When I hear mention of one or the other on the local radio or TV stations, they do refer to one as Springfield, Montgomery County and Springfield, Delaware County.
But South Solon is somewhat south of Solon, and West Jefferson is west of Jefferson. North Lima is not north of Lima, so I don’t know where that came from.
Speaking of North Lima, that’s less than a mile down the road from me in Boardman.
As for all of the Madisons and Washingtons they just seem to all make sense to me (and others I’ve asked). For example Madison in Lake county is a lot bigger than Madison in Columbiana county. If I heard Madison on the news, I would assume Madison in Lake County. If someone was talking about the Madison in Columbiana county, they would probably use one of the names of the bigger, more well known towns nearby like Calcutta, Wellsville, or St. Clairsville.
As for traffic reports, none of the Madisons or Washingtons are really big enough to warrant any kind of “traffic report”. The ones that are largish are far enough away from any of the other larger ones to any cause confusion.
Don’t forget Washington Court House.
Washington used to be immensely popular in New Jersey, too, but all of them (except one) changed their names – including my home town.