Liberty Township is one of the twenty townships of Darke County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 986 people in the township.
Geography Located in the southwestern part of the county, it borders the following townships: Washington Township - north Greenville Township - northeast Neave Township - east Butler Township - southeast corner Harrison Township - south Franklin Township, Wayne County, Indiana - southwest Greensfork Township, Randolph County, Indiana - west
The village of Palestine is located in central Liberty Township.
Name and history One of twenty-five Liberty Townships statewide, it was originally named German Township, but its name was changed to Liberty Township in the 1910s.Fourteenth Census of the United States: State Compendium, Volume 34: Ohio: Statistics of population occupations, agriculture, manufactures, and mines and quarries for the State, counties, and cities. Footnote 6. Bureau of the Census, United States Department of Commerce. 1925.
German Township was formed from parts of Harrison and Washington counties in 1820. The first settler within its bounds was James Cloyd, who arrived six years before the township's organization. The first school in the township was established near Palestine in 1820, while the first church (a Lutheran congregation) was built in 1826.
One of German Township's most distinctive features was Tampico, an African-American settlement founded in 1822 and platted in 1850. Located in the northwestern part of the township, its earliest residents were freeborn African Americans from Rockingham County, Virginia who moved to Ohio after the county evicted all freeborn African Americans. In 1914, Tampico and the surrounding rural areas supported four schools and two churches.
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, and §507.01 of the Ohio Revised Code. 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.
References
External links County website