The Delaware (Lenape) Indians arrived in the 1780s. They made a treaty with the Miami in the 1790s and settled along the white river. In 1802, William Conner settled in Delaware Township. Operating a trading post, which is now the modern-day Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, Conner’s house was connected via Indian trail to Anderson and Connersville and by state road to Fort Wayne. Portions of this road later became present day Allisonville Road. The first official wave of settlers came to the ‘southeastern’ area in the 1820’s.
Delaware township is the second oldest division in Hamilton county. When the county was formed in 1822, there was not a suitable meeting place for the commissioners in the seat of justice (Noblesville) and they were ordered to meet at the home of William Conner in Delaware township. The first session of this body was held May 12, 1823, and one of the first acts of the board was the subdivision of the county into two townships: Delaware and White River.
At this same session, it was also ordered that George Kirkendall and James Williamson be appointed “overseers of the poor” (now known as township trustees). Edward Dryer and George Wise were appointed as constables of the new township. It is for the first Delaware township trustee that the Delaware Township Government Center’s community room is named the “Kirkendall room”.
From the territory originally set off as Delaware township were formed the townships of Fall Creek and Clay in 1833, with Delaware as the center of the three.
