Otsego

Otsego, the largest populated area of Monroe township, was built on the sight of an old Indian village. It has never been incorporated but has served as the only trading center in Monroe since 1838. The land the village was built on was first owned by James Sprague. He had later sold parts of the land to Francis Wires and Moses Abbott. James Boyle laid out the town when he was a surveyor for Muskingum County. The eastern half of the village was from the Moses Abbot's land and the eastern portion was taken from the tract of Francis Wires. The name Otsego was taken from a town by the same name in New York by Dr. Alonzo Delameter who had built a store there in 1837 with his brother Ralph. The first hotel in the township was built in Otsego in 1837 by David Richardson.

Otsego saw much traffic as it stood on the crossroads of two of the widely used roads of the day. Route 93 and Route 83 converge in the village and also White Eyes Creek flows past it and was used for transportaion in the early years before the roads were built. The first road was built by James Sprague and his sons in 1811-1812 to travel to Dresden. The first road to be surveyed, by Charles Roberts, was cut in 1815 from James Lindley's mill on Crooked Creek in Union township to the mouth of Wills Creek. The next road was cut in 1817 from Col. John Reynold's store on the Wheeling road in Union township to James Sprague's land in Otsego. The surveyor for that road was Joseph K. McCune. A road was later cut to Adamsville and would later become route 93.

Like Adamsville, today the area business's have closed leaving the village mostly residential. Most resident's either follow agricultural pursuits or commute to the larger population centers such as Zanesville or Coshocton to work.

Marquand Mills

Marquand Mills was a small village occupying much of Section 5. The land was originally owned by Charles Marquand, the township's first settler. The name was in honor of the mills built there by the Marquand family. They had built a gristmill, a sawmill and a carding and fulling mill on the land. They had built a dam over Wills Creek to serve as a power source. Many early settlers brought there grain and lumber to be ground and cut at Marquand's Mills. Charles also built a store and was very enterprising and was generous to the early settlers. It was a very prosperous area during the Marquand's lifetime. Many others settled around the area and although not as large a population as Otsego, it was a well established business center of the day. It also saw the first residence in the township, that being a log hut built by Charles Marquand. It was also the site of the first salt works, owned by Mr. Marquand. Maysville Methodist Church was built there in 1822 and the church cemetery became the final resting place of many of the vilages inhabitants including the Marquands.

When it was decided by the county to form the Muskingum Watershed District, Wills creek was dammed further downstream and much of this area became a reservoir. The church and cemetery were on high land and were spared. The church no longer exists but the cemetery can still be found on Route 83 near the Coshocton County border.