Amherst Township, Lorain County

How Amherst Township, Lorain County began

Amherst Township takes its name, according to Wikipedia, from Amherst, New Hampshire, and became a judicially independent township in 1830, the only Amherst Township in Ohio. Settlement began in 1811 when Jacob Shupe made the first clearing on Beaver Creek, and in 1813 he built the first mill in Lorain County; before independence, the area had been judicially attached to Black River Township as 'Town(ship) number 6 in the 18th Range' of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The village of Amherst was carved out and officially established in 1836, and by the mid-twentieth century had grown to cover most of the township's northern half. The township itself had 6,492 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1811 (Jacob Shupe moves from Black River, where he had lived since 1810, to a site on Beaver Creek about 1.5 miles south of present North Amherst and makes the township's first clearing), incorporated 1830 (judicially independent township), by Jacob Shupe.

Where the name comes from

According to Wikipedia, the township is named after Amherst, New Hampshire, a New England place-name transfer typical of the Western Reserve's settlement pattern; the county histories do not explain the name.

Before the town

The 1879 county history says that when the first settlers came, Native people were 'quite numerous', regarded the whites as enemies without open hostility, and sometimes exchanged kindly civilities; the pioneer George Disbrow, on the south ridge, said he dealt often and pleasantly with them. About 1826, after growing resentment over deer hunting, Ezekiel G. Barnes and six or eight young men fired eight guns against the bark wall of a Native hut at night, most of the guns loaded without ball; the Native party, whom the history identifies as Senecas of the Sandusky band, left for Sandusky the next day and threatened to return, but few were seen in Amherst afterward. The two streams, Beaver and Little Beaver creeks, were named for the beaver the first settlers found in them. No mound or village is recorded.

Nations recorded here: Seneca (Sandusky band, Mingo).

Timeline

1. 1807 — Martin Sheldon, Calvin Austin, Oliver L. Phelps and Asahel Hathaway draw Town 6, Range 18 (Amherst) at the Western Reserve land draft, with 4,000 acres in Black River annexed to equalize it.
2. 1810 — Jacob Shupe, of Dutch/German descent and born in Pennsylvania in 1778, arrives in Black River.
3. 1811 — Shupe moves to Beaver Creek in what is now Amherst township and makes the township's first clearing.
4. 1813 — Shupe builds the first mill in Lorain County; before this, Black River settlers had to carry grain three days' journey to Chagrin Falls or the Huron River to have it ground.
5. October 1815 — Chileab Smith of Tyringham, Massachusetts, settles on Little Beaver Creek, four miles west of Elyria on the south ridge, and keeps the first tavern in the area; Jesse Smith clears the first farm on the north ridge and Stephen Cable settles at the corners the same year.
6. 1815 — Jacob Shupe starts the first distillery in the area.
7. February 1817 — The Huron County commissioners organize Black River Township from today's Amherst, Black River, Brownhelm and Russia; Brownhelm is detached in 1818 and Russia in 1825.
8. 1817 — Ezekiel Barnes of Worcester County, Massachusetts, settles on lot 43 with his wife, a son-in-law and eight children; the Oustine family, Canadians who left to avoid impressment, come from Buffalo and are later granted 900 acres in the northwest of the township by Congress.
9. February 1818 — Eliphalet Redington settles on the South Ridge, now South Amherst; Josiah Harris, later the county's first sheriff, settles at what is now North Amherst.
10. 1826 — Amid rising tension over deer hunting, a band of young settlers led by Ezekiel G. Barnes fires unloaded rifles into a Seneca hunting camp at night to frighten its occupants away; they leave for Sandusky the next day.
11. 12 January 1830 — The Ohio Legislature divides Black River Township by special act into Black River Township and Amherst Township, the latter being Town 6, Range 18; the first officers are elected in April 1830.
12. 1830 — Josiah Harris lays out part of his land around the Old Spring in lots, starting the village of Amherstville at 'the Corners.'
13. 1833 — Jacob Shupe, the township's first settler, is killed at age fifty-four by a falling timber while repairing his mill.
14. 1836 — The village of Amherst is officially established within the township.
15. 1873 — The village of North Amherst is chartered; the name later loses its 'North.'
16. 1886 — The Cleveland Stone Company begins to dominate the Amherst sandstone quarries; by 1916 several quarries have closed as cement manufacture rises.
17. 20th century — The village of Amherst expands to cover most of the northern half of the original township.

Stories

The mill that outlasted its builder

Jacob Shupe reached Black River in 1810 and, the next year, at age thirty-three, pushed on to Beaver Creek and cut the first clearing in what became Amherst township. In 1813 he built the first mill in Lorain County, ending the three-day round trips settlers had been making to Chagrin Falls or the Huron River just to have grain ground. Two years later he opened the area's first distillery, and other settlers soon followed his lead. Shupe raised eleven children in the township before dying at fifty-four in 1833, killed while repairing his own mill when a heavy stick of timber fell on him. His widow outlived him by thirty-seven years, dying in 1870 in her ninety-first year, and his youngest son Isaac was still farming forty-five acres in Amherst village at the time the county history was written in 1879.

The night Ezekiel Barnes shot at a wigwam

By 1826 the young hunters of Amherst resented the Native families who hunted the same deer. Ezekiel G. Barnes, a celebrated woodsman, first told the camp, in a friendly way, that feeling against them was so strong that they were in danger and ought to move west. When they stayed, he gathered six or eight young men one late night and led them down a footpath to the bark hut, having had all but one man other than himself load without a ball. The dogs, to his surprise, did not bark. The men came so near they nearly touched the wall with their long rifles, and in the silence eight guns went off against the bark. The camp was deserted the next day. The Native party, believing they had been attacked to be killed, went off to Sandusky and threatened to come back and scalp the settlement; the history calls them Seneca. They never came back, and the settlers, who had long felt uneasy, were relieved. Barnes had earlier driven out another small party at rifle point.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · archive.org · archive.org

Every historic place in Lorain County on the full map

Lake Erie, drawn from an intake crib about 26.5 feet deep and 2,800 feet offshore outside the breakwall, west of the Black River harbor The water here

• Amherst City70% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Elyria)
• Elyria Water Department13% of residentsLake Erie
• South Amherst Village8% of residentsLake Erie
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A5% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• Lorain City4% of residentsLake Erie
• Sheffield Village0% of residentsLake Erie
• North Ridgeville City0% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Avon Lake Regional Water)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (14)

Money issues on the ballot since 2026: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2026-07-16

Cite this page