The story
Welcome to Kinderhook Township
Kinderhook Township, a fractional township on the Indiana line, was set off from Ovid in 1842 and named, as a joke that stuck, for Kinderhook, New York, the birthplace of Martin Van Buren. Settlement began in 1835 near an old Indian village, and Waterhouse Corners became Kinderhook post office.
Kinderhook is fractional Township 8 South, Range 6 West, twenty-four sections on the state line. It was part of Ovid until February 16, 1842, and the first town meeting was held in April 1842. Johnson, vouching for the account of an older resident who held office at the time, says that when the bill for the new township came before the Legislature during the Van Buren campaign, several names were voted down until a member ‘facetiously suggested Kinderhook,’ which was adopted unanimously; he calls the story that settlers named it for their native village in New York an erroneous one, and Collin agrees.
Settlement began in 1835, and in that and the next year probably more than half the land was taken up, the sections near the old Indian village being favoured. When George Tripp arrived in 1835 he found only Joshua Baker, Sheldon Williams and Boaz Lampson before him; his brother David followed in 1836. John Waterhouse of Oswego County, New York, bought the land in 1836 where Waterhouse Corners grew up, later Kinderhook post office.
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Collin wrote that apart from the settlement at Kinderhook post office and the mills that at different times sawed lumber or ground flour, the people of Kinderhook had been essentially farmers. Coldwater Lake reaches into sections 2 and 3, and Silver Lake lies in sections 10 and 15.
The 2020 census counted 1,427 people in Kinderhook Township.