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 1000 acre 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 (real name Pierre Moran), 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 45.44 sqmi, of which 45.42 sqmi (or 99.96%) is land and 0.01 sqmi (or 0.02%) 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 915 ft; the land slopes away and flattens to the northwest down to about 700 ft. Several small streams flow north and west toward Sugar Creek, including Mud Creek, Gretencord Ditch, Salmon Ditch, Finigan Ditch and Kult Ditch.

Unincorporated towns

 * Dunnington
 * Free
 * Freeland Park

Adjacent townships

 * Center (east)
 * Grant (southeast)
 * Hickory Grove (south)
 * Richland (northeast)
 * York (north)

Major highways

 * [[Image:US 41.svg|25px]] U.S. Route 41
 * [[Image:Indiana 18.svg|25px]] State Road 18
 * [[Image:Indiana 71.svg|25px]] State Road 71