BARTLOW TOWNSHIP, so named in honor of Cornelius Bartlow, an old settler and long a prominent resident, is situated in the southeast corner of the county and dates its history as a separate jurisdiction from 1851, previous to which year it formed a part of the township of Richfield. Owing to the low, wet surface which rendered improvements difficult and tillage almost impossible, and to the further fact that fully nine-tenths of the land was taken up by non-residents who held it for speculation, together with the absence of roads and means of communication and the accessibility of cheap lands in more desirable localities, the development of the township was long retarded, the first settlers moving to the territory about 1851.
Cornelius Bartlow, who located in section 36 some time in the above year, is said to have been the earliest permanent resident; he was joined a little later by Jesse Bensley, James F. RusselI and Jonathan Vanscoyoc, who with their respective families were living in the township and paying taxes on their buildings and personal belongings in 1855.
Lying partly within the famous Black Swamp, which was long an eye-sore to the country, it is easy to account for the tardy development of this part of the county, but with the advent of railroads and the adoption of a system of drainage whereby large tracts of fertile land were redeemed and put on the market, home seekers began to arrive in considerable numbers and not many years elapsed until the more desirable sections were purchased and a series of improvements inaugurated which in due time brought Bartlow to the front as one of the richest and most progressive agricultural townships of the county.