Washington Township has roots in American Revolution
Washington Township’s first settlers arrived soon after land grants were made available to Revolutionary War veterans.
According to “A Concise History of Butler County 1800-1950” by J. Campbell Branden, soldiers were issued bills of credit by the Continental Congress and the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania in lieu of pay. However, the bills of credit depreciated and became almost worthless. Instead, a law was passed permitting these bills to be used as payment for lands set apart for settlement.
Land north of the Ohio River and west of the Allegheny River, which included Butler County, was opened for settlement in 1795. The Native American tribes, the Delawares and the Shawnees, were removed from the area by the Treaty of Greenville of Aug. 3, 1795, which ended the Northwest Indian War.
The area that became Washington Township was considered highly attractive because of its fertile agricultural valleys and its deposits of coal and limestone and later discovery of gas and oil deposits, according to “A History of Butler County Illustrated” by C. Hale Sipe, published in 1927.
“A History of Butler County” published by R.C. Brown & Co. in 1895 records that the first settlers in the area were George Meals in 1796 followed by his father Samuel Meals and other family members a year later. The Meals were German immigrants from York County.
Branden records the other settlers in what would become the township included John Shira and Jacob Hilliard who arrived separately in 1798. John Christy and William Wilson also created homesteads in 1798. Christy’s uncle, also named John Christy, arrived in 1799. The elder John Christy served as a pioneer justice of the peace.
Shira settled on a large tract of land in the southern portion of the township until he lost the land in an unspecified fraud. Undeterred, Shira then settled on 300 acres in the central part of the township that as of 1895 was still owned by his descendants.
Between 1796 and 1800, the area was rapidly settled. The township, named in honor of George Washington, was created in 1846, and its existing boundaries were set in 1854.
The first settlement in the township, Hilliard Station, was created in 1802 and named after Jacob Hilliard.
One of his sons, according to “A History of Butler County,” named John Hilliard built a stone dam across the stream Hilliard’s Run and operated a grist mill there for many years.
Towns that grew in the township included North Washington, Argentine and Annisville.
The development of the area’s coal and gas fields brought the township into prominence beginning in 1893, and the township’s population was swelled by arriving oil field workers.
In 1897, the Bessemer Branch Railroad extended a line into the township with branches extended to Hilliards (the former Hilliard Station) and Argentine.
Today, according to the U.S. Census, the township has a population of 1,306 and includes the unincorporated communities of North Washington, Whiskerville, Parsonville, Hilliards, Argentine and Annisville.
