Bristol Township, Trumbull County

How Bristol Township, Trumbull County began

Bristol Township was surveyed in the early 1800s by Alfred Wolcott, a Connecticut Land Company surveyor from Bristol, Connecticut, who named the township for his own hometown. Its center, the unincorporated village of Bristolville, preserves a New England-style town green flanked by two congregational-tradition churches -- built in 1843 and 1847 -- and a Civil War monument placed in 1863, while the war was still being fought. It is one of only two townships named Bristol in Ohio, the other in Morgan County, and remains an unincorporated rural township today.

Settled 1804, by surveyed by Alfred Wolcott for the Connecticut Land Company; Abraham Baughman, first settler.

Where the name comes from

The township was surveyed in the early 1800s by Alfred Wolcott, a Connecticut Land Company surveyor originally from Bristol, Connecticut, who named the new township for the town he had left.

Before the town

No Native village, camp or treaty event specific to Bristol Township is recorded. The township lies within the wider Western Reserve region the county's 1882 history describes as Delaware-occupied hunting ground used seasonally by Seneca and Mingo bands through the 1700s, but no site inside the township's present boundaries is named. Alfred Wolcott's early-1800s survey of the township took place after the 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry had formally extinguished Native title to the Western Reserve. Upton's 1909 county history adds that when William Sager cleaned out a spring for his well he found it had been stoned up by someone who came before him, that plowing turned up charcoal-black earth, and that his son Joseph, digging as a boy, found earthen vessels, from which the settlers concluded someone had once made pottery on the Sager farm; Indians were often at Bristol in the early days but could tell the settlers nothing of it, and the author doubted the pottery was the work of the Indians the settlers knew.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Seneca, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Reported pottery site on the Sager farm (other) — William Sager's farm, Bristol Township (reported by early settlers, not verified), before 1805 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. early 1800s — Alfred Wolcott surveys the township and names it for his hometown of Bristol, Connecticut.
2. 1804 — Abraham Baughman brings his family to Bristol as its first actual settler, on the creek later named for him about a mile east of the center, and in 1806 builds a saw mill and grist mill near his home.
3. 1805 — William Sager of Shenandoah County, Virginia, arrives; Baughman and his two sons cut a mile-and-a-half road to Sager's land while the Sagers sleep in their wagon, and Sager's son Jacob, born that year, is the first white child born in Bristol.
4. 1810-11 — Gabriel Sager, a Mennonite who came in 1810, teaches the first school in the township in the winter of 1810-11 in German to relatives and friends; he also holds the first church meetings in his house.
5. 1812 — The first schoolhouse is erected at North Bristol by William Barbe and Samuel and William Sager; an English school, taught by Seth I. Ensign, had followed in a log cabin north of Bristolville.
6. 1817 — Rev. Giles H. Cowles, Abial Jones and Joseph Treat organize a Presbyterian church for both Bristol and Bloomfield; it later becomes Congregational and in 1847 dedicates a comfortable church.
7. 1818 — Rev. Ira Eddy forms a Methodist class at Bristol with six members.
8. 1843 — The Bristolville Congregational Church is built, facing the town green.
9. 1847 — The Bristolville United Methodist Church is built, also facing the green.
10. 1858 — Fifty women attack the grocery of a man named Miller at Bristol, knocking in the heads of his cider, whiskey, vinegar and rum barrels, the first town in the county, the county historian believed, to take up the crusade method; Miller sues.
11. 1863 — Bristolville's Civil War monument is placed on the town green while the war is still underway.
12. 1868 — Revs. J. N. Smith and N. N. Bartlett organize a Disciple church at Bristol, which builds a $2,000 church; Rev. E. B. Wakefield leads it from 1874.
13. 1881 — The Methodist church at Bristol is remodeled with $1,000 given by Mrs. Dr. Brockett.
14. 2020 — The census records 2,704 residents in Bristol Township, centered on the unincorporated community of Bristolville.

Stories

A monument raised while the war still raged

Bristolville's town green is bordered by a Congregational church built in 1843 and a Methodist church built in 1847. In 1863, with the Civil War still being fought, the village placed a monument on the green. It still stands at the center of the green, alongside the two churches and the town hall.

Fifty women and the barrels of Bristol

In 1858 a local newspaper reported that a week or two earlier a party of fifty women had assembled and attacked the grocery of a man named Miller in Bristol. Some dragged the proprietor out of doors and held him down while others knocked in the heads of his cider, whiskey, vinegar and rum barrels. Miller began a suit against them. The 1909 county history says that temperance agitation had begun early in the county, with men and women refusing to serve whiskey at raisings and women refusing wine at weddings, but that Bristol was, so far as the author knew, the first town to take up the crusade method of direct action.

Germans on the Reserve

Unlike most of the Western Reserve, Bristol's first settlers were Germans from Shenandoah County, Virginia. Abraham Baughman came in 1804 and built the township's mills; William Sager arrived in 1805 with his wife and child and slept in his wagon until his cabin had one floor; his father Gabriel, a Mennonite who refused infant baptism and any oath, followed in 1810 and taught the first school in German. The Mennonite society met in Gabriel Sager's house, never built a church, and disbanded after his death. The township filled slowly because it lay midway between the fast-growing north and south, and, the 1909 history says, did not really fill up until the turnpike was built and supplies were easier to get. The early settlers hoped to use the Grand River as a highway, but it was too shallow and choked with logs to carry loads.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Lordstown Village67% of residentsMeander Creek Reservoir (via MVSD, blended w/ Mosquito Lake)
• Warren City16% of residentsMosquito Creek Lake (Mosquito Creek Reservoir)
• Trumbull Co. - Bazetta/champion14% of residentsMosquito Creek Lake (Mosquito Creek Reservoir)
• Pleasant Park Mobile Court3% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Belle Acres Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Public libraries (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-24: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 8 of 9 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 2.

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-07-09

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