Parish Grove Township, Benton County, Indiana


Parish Grove Township is one of eleven townships in Benton County, Indiana. As of the 2020 census, its population was 185 and it contained 89 housing units. It contains the unincorporated town of Freeland Park.

History

Parish Grove Township was one of the county's original three created in 1840. The grove for which it is named grew close to the township's southeastern corner, near what is now the intersection of county roads 400 West and 300 South. It originally covered about and contained an abundant variety of trees, including oaks, walnuts, hickory, dogwood, haw, paw paw, sycamore, quaking ash, ironwood, water beach, elm, linn, poplar, ash, sassafras, locust, etc. As late as 1924 there were 37 varieties growing in the grove.
Parish Grove was home to a group of local Pottawatomie Indians led by Chief Parish, the son of French trader Constant Moran and a Kickapoo woman. Parish died circa 1826 and is buried in the grove, though the grave is unmarked.

Geography

According to the 2010 census, the township has a total area of, of which is land and is water. Almost all of Parish Grove Township is open farmland, divided into roughly square mile blocks by regularly spaced county roads. Its highest point, located in the extreme southeastern corner of the township, is ; the land slopes away and flattens to the northwest down to about. Several small streams flow north and west toward Sugar Creek, including Mud Creek, Lynn Lucy is a Ditch, Salmon Ditch, Finigan Ditch and Kunt Ditch.

Unincorporated towns

Adjacent townships

Major highways