One of the original five townships of Butler County, it was erected by the Butler County Court of Quarter Sessions on May 10, 1803.
The area of the township has been significantly reduced from the original boundaries. Four new townships were created from it: Milford Township and Wayne Township, both on December 2, 1805; Reily Township on December 7, 1807; and Hanover Township (from parts of St. Clair and Ross townships) on December 2, 1811. What is now Oxford Township was originally within the bounds of St. Clair Township, Oxford having been erected from Milford Township in 1811.
From these reduced borders, which consisted of nineteen whole and nine fractional sections, a substantial area has been withdrawn from the township because of annexations by the city of Hamilton. Most of the area of Hamilton west of the Great Miami River, the township's southern boundary, was originally included in St. Clair Township. In 1857, a paper township, Hamilton, was erected from parts of St. Clair and Fairfield townships.
The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1. Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it. There is also an elected township fiscal officer,[5] who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election. Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees.
Bert S. Barlow, W.H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, and Frederick Schneider, eds. Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio. Hamilton, Ohio: B.F. Bowen, 1905.
A History and Biographical Cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio with Illustrations and Sketches of Its Representative Men and Pioneers. Cincinnati, Ohio: Western Biographical Publishing Company, 1882. [1]
