Sherwood Township

Clark County
Townships

Sherwood Township

written and contributed by Kay Scholtz <scholtz@tznet.com>

Note: There are presently 33 townships in Clark County.
Thirty-two townships are of standard size each covering six square miles.
The Township of Foster includes two 6 square mile areas.

Two names preceded the name of Sherwood in this township's beginning. The Township of Perkins was created by an order of the county board on January 8, 1874 with the first meeting held in April of 1874. Daniel Chapman Perkins and son Hugh Perkins resided in the township at its onset. A petition of town citizens to the county board requesting a name change from Perkins to Sherwood Forest was presented in 1876 and the board accepted it. The name Sherwood Forest was chosen by resident Elizabeth LaFlesh, wife of Capt. Thomas LaFlesh, as the area resembled her homeland in England and her literary interest. It was also suggested that C. C. Washburn influenced the naming. In 1900 Sherwood Forest citizens asking to shorten the name to Sherwood presented another petition to the county board and their wish was granted. The motive of the residents was to help promote growth in the township by dropping the notion that the area was nothing but unproductive forestland, that it was fast becoming a farm community where new settlers could prosper.