MONROE TOWNSHIP — Every name comes from somewhere. Obviously enough, Schenck Creek Road in Monroe Township takes its name from the creek that it parallels.
Such bodies of water are often named after people who lived nearby, but that’s not the case with Schenck Creek. Its namesake never lived in Knox County, and very possibly was only here once.
William Cortenus Schenck was all over the Ohio frontier in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Schenck was born in New Jersey just before the Revolutionary War, into a family with a background of military and public service. He studied law and medicine at Princeton University, but after graduation decided to head west into the Northwest Territory frontier.
In 1796, he laid out the town of Franklin in Warren County, north of Cincinnati, and later settled there himself.
He and his wife had nine children, two of whom were to become commanders in the U.S. Civil War.
Schenck must have been, shall we say, quite efficient in fathering those nine children, because he was rarely at home for long stretches of time. In 1803, he and some other investors purchased a chunk of land that included parts of Licking and Knox Counties.
Schenck was the one who surveyed the area, but it is unknown whether he named the creek after himself or someone did as a tribute. He maintained a parcel of land there, but never built a home nor settled there. He may well have never returned.
If that’s the case, it’s because he was busy. Shortly after completing the survey, he was involved in founding Newark, which was to become the Licking County seat.
He suggested the name, after Newark, New Jersey, though he also originally wanted to insert a space and call it “New Ark.” That idea was abandoned early on, and it followed the regular form of the name.
Later, after serving as a General during the War of 1812, Schenck helped lay out another frontier town, which was going to be called Port Lawrence. You may know it by its current name, Toledo.
Schenck’s son, Robert C. Schenck, was a general during the Civil War, and his son James F. Schenck was an admiral in the Navy during the same conflict. But William was long gone, and never got to see his sons’ accomplishments.
He had been appointed commissioner to lay out the proposed path for a canal from the Ohio River to Lake Erie in 1820, and he traveled through many swampy areas to find the best route.
On Jan. 12, 1821, he made an impassioned speech to the Ohio state legislature advocating the immediate start of canal building. He went back to the room where he was lodging and died from the fever he had contracted in the swamps.
The legislature suspended business the following day and made an honorary escort of Schenck’s remains back to Franklin. He was only 48 years old.
