Mt. Blanchard was founded in 1830 on the banks of the Blanchard River by Asa M. Lake, son of Asa Lake, a veteran of the Revolution and War of 1812 and the first settler of Delaware Township. The town and river were named for early French pioneer Jean Jacques Blanchard, who lived among local Shawnee Indians from 1770 to 1802. The Methodist Episcopal Church, the first religious organization in Hancock County, was founded in Delaware Township in 1828. John Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed, established a nursery on lots 51, 52, and 53 in 1834. Mt. Blanchard Union School, organized in 1868, was the first high school in the county outside Findlay. The large brick home at the town's south end was built by Maylangton Hamlin in 1882. In 1932, Mr. and Mrs. Dean Cunningham donated land for Island Park, which with community cooperation has remained a source of enjoyment and pride.