Esau Decker walked to southeastern Franklin County from the Shenandoah
Valley in 1805. Marking his Ohio property with a walking stick, Decker
returned with his Virginia family the following year to discover that
the willow cane had taken root and was growing. It is from this same
fertile soil that farms, businesses and social groups grew to create the
village of Groveport and the thriving farming community with which it is
forever intertwined, Madison Township.
Groveport and Madison Township, Ohio contains nearly two hundred vintage
photographs that illustrate how the area grew from a nineteenth-century
wilderness outpost to become the vibrant and successful place it is
today. Featured here are the canal and railroad days that established
the area as a local hub of transportation, the formation of the churches
and school system that bind the village and township together, the
region's spectacular architecture and some of the more notable people of
the community, such as world-renowned horse trainer John S. Rarey of
Groveport, who earned international fame as an original horse whisperer.