HANOVER TOWNSHIP — Few would know it was there, the sign along State Route 3 that marks a moment in time which determined the course of history for two groups of people.
But if you look hard enough — traveling through the Ashland-Knox county border — you might spot a dilapidated sign post, it’s rotted wooden legs wrapped with metal siding that reads “Green Ville Treaty Line.”
The treaty line is invisible, its significance nearly forgotten.
In 1795, the newly minted United States of America’s government signed a deal with an Indian confederation. The treaty concluded hostilities between the United States and an indigenous confederation.
It also established a new boundary between the two nations: the natives got what’s known today as the northwest portion of the state. The south and east, however, now belonged to European settlers.
By 1799, a surveyor by the name of Israel Ludlow marked the line, which crosses several counties, including Ashland, Richland, Knox, Holmes — all the way to Mercer County in the west.
Just four years later, Ohio — an Iroquois word for “good river”— formed.
And 225 years following Ludlow’s surveying of the treaty line, a group of county engineers and surveyors gathered to monumentalize the line’s place in Ashland, Knox and Richland counties.
The historical line runs through six miles of Ashland County and roughly two in Richland County, said Ed Meixner, Ashland County’s engineer, on a cold, snow-dusted Friday morning.
He and Cameron Keaton, Knox County’s engineer, organized an informal event to bring awareness to the historical line. The two offices plan to split the $25,000 cost of the surveying and installation of new markers at two sites.
‘Worth doing right’
Surveyors from Baker Surveying dug holes at the sites on Friday morning. The markers — small concrete, bronze-plated pylons — were placed in the ground, but only once they were precisely oriented.
“700 south,” said Grant Baker to his colleague, Aaron Gerber, indicating the pylon needed to move slightly to the left. “Let’s pack it in on this side, here.”
The surveyors worked to align the new marker precisely with the historical line. Once they determined its orientation, Baker and Gerber tamped the dirt to ensure its permanence.
“It’s worth doing right,” said Don Baker, owner of Baker Surveying. Baker has been tapped to install several other markers along the line in Holmes County.
Jeanine Hansen, 76, stood outside with the group. She and her husband owned the property, a campground, since 2010. Her husband, William, died in 2020. Keeping up with the old Greenville Treaty Line sign — installed there in 1968 — has been low on the list of priorities, she said.
She said she’s glad to have a new marker.
“The line goes right through the middle of the lake, through the middle of the barn and through the middle of a building my husband put up,” she said.
The old sign? Kenny Libben of the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum in Loudonville said the Mohican Historical Society plans to refurbish it.
“We want to re-landscape around it, too,” Libben said. “It’s always good to see history remembered again.”
‘This new one is nice’
Those who want to remember the point at which the Greenville Treaty Line touched the corners of three counties, however, will need a pair of boots, an ATV and permission — it’s on private property.
Owners Dave Lifer and his wife, Mary Ann, granted the group of engineers and surveyors that permission Friday.
Equipped with ATVs and waterproof boots, the group made their way to the southwest corner of Ashland County. (Or the northwest corner of Knox County.) (Or the southeast corner of Richland County.)
Lifer said the treaty line used to be demarcated by a “long-since fallen over” wooden pole.
“This new one is nice,” he said. “It’s really neat. I got a history lesson on the way here.”
Keaton said his office will continue to re-install new markers along Knox County’s treaty line.
The hope is that, someday, the installation of new markers will extend to the line’s western end at Fort Recovery in Mercer County, Meixner said.