Camden Township, Lorain County

How Camden Township, Lorain County began

Camden Township takes its name, according to Wikipedia, from Camden, New York, the home of a land agent involved in settling the area, and is the only Camden Township in Ohio. Originally divided between neighboring Henrietta and Brighton townships, it saw its first (temporary) settler, Leonard Clark, arrive around 1829-31; William Scott and John Johnston, Scottish immigrants who built a cabin in March 1833, are recorded as its first permanent settlers, after which settlement grew quickly. The village of Kipton sits within its northern boundary. The township had 1,299 residents at the 2020 census across nearly 20 square miles.

Settled 1833 (William Scott and John Johnston, Scottish immigrants, build a cabin in March 1833 and are recorded as the first permanent settlers; a squatter, Leonard Clark, had briefly occupied land in the late 1820s/early 1830s but left no lasting settlement), by William Scott and John Johnston.

Where the name comes from

According to Wikipedia, Camden Township is named for Camden, New York, described as the native home of a land agent involved in the area's settlement; the county histories do not explain the name.

Before the town

The 1879 county history says plainly that because Camden was settled several years after the townships around it, the pioneers 'had no experience with the Indians'; the red man 'had retreated' and left only faint traces in the forest. No mound, village or trail is recorded here.

Timeline

1. 1807 — The Western Reserve land draft assigns the tracts that later form Camden (tracts 9, 10 and 11, with part of tract 8) to Lemuel Storrs, Nehemiah Hubbard and Joshua Storrs, and Henry Champion and Lemuel Storrs; none of Range 19 was surveyed into townships, and each tract was annexed to another township for equalization.
2. 1829 — Leonard Clark and his father-in-law Moses Pike make the first occupancy of land in the future township, building a log cabin on lot 25, tract 11; Clark leaves after about two years (the 1916 history gives 1829; the 1879 text is garbled).
3. 1831 — Herod Pike moves his family into a cabin on lot 15; in 1832 he and Moses Pike sow wheat on a few cleared acres.
4. March 1833 — William Scott and John Johnston, Scottish natives, take up land on tract 11; Mrs. Johnston later that year opens the first school in a hastily raised log schoolhouse.
5. March 1833 — Henrietta's trustees set off the Camden district as its own road and school district; Laura Allen is hired to teach for 75 cents a week and 'boarding round.'
6. Summer 1833 — Gideon Waugh, Thomas Lee, Robert Douglass, William Hawkins, Thomas Sigsworth, the Gagers and others arrive, mostly from Oswego, Cayuga and Broome counties, New York.
7. 1835 — Camden's first post office opens under the name 'Panalize,' with James Arnold as first postmaster, three-quarters of a mile east of the township center; it was later renamed for the township and then, to avoid confusion with a Preble County office, North Camden.
8. March 1835 — The Lorain County commissioners organize Camden and Rochester townships at the same session, carving Camden out of Brighton and Henrietta.
9. 6 April 1835 — The first township election is held in the log schoolhouse; Azel Washburn, Robert Douglas and Obed Holcomb are chosen trustees, John Cyrenius clerk and Gideon Waugh the first justice.
10. Winter 1836-1837 — Elder Kilburn organizes a Methodist class in the north of the township; a Free Will Baptist church had formed about the same time.
11. 1837 — Township trustees buy an acre from Thomas Sigsworth for a cemetery, cleared of heavy timber and lotted out one plot per family head.
12. May 1843 — The Disciples church is organized; its first meetinghouse is built at the center in 1851, and a brick one at Kipton replaces it in 1871.
13. 1853 — William W. Whitney plats the village of Kipton (first called Binghampton) at the new Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad station in the township's north.
14. 1859 — H. McFarland builds Camden Township's only gristmill, a small steam mill at Kipton, run for about fourteen years before its last owner, Horace Hoover, lost it to fire.
15. 26 October 1874 — North Camden Grange No. 1058 is organized, with about forty members by 1879.
16. 2020 — Census records the township's population at a density of about 75.8 people per square mile across 19.95 square miles.

Stories

Thirty raisings in six months

Camden filled in fast once land went on the market in 1833. William Scott and John Johnston, two Scottish immigrants, built the township's first cabin meant to last in March of that year; by summer, Gideon Waugh, Thomas Lee (whose wife Lucinda walked all the way from Birmingham carrying a small child), Robert Douglass, William Hawkins and others were staking claims across the tracts. The pace kept climbing: W. W. Cook, who arrived in June 1834, told the county historian he attended thirty log-cabin raisings in the following six months alone. Thomas Lee became one of the settlement's most determined pioneers -- he lost the use of one hand to erysipelas soon after arriving, but still sowed two acres of wheat his first season and farmed the same ground until his death in 1877.

Moses Pike and the wild hogs

Camden's first white occupants, Leonard Clark and his father-in-law Moses Pike, lived in a small log cabin in 1829-31. One night their dog raised a clamor, and the two men argued about who should go out and see what was prowling. Clark declined, so Pike seized the heavy club they used as a fire poker and stepped into the dark expecting a bear. He found two wild hogs. He broke the back of one with a single swing, its tusks measuring three to four inches, and went at the second without killing it. The settlers hunted such hogs only because they were dangerous, valuing deer, wild turkey and raccoon for food.

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

Lake Erie, drawn through two separate offshore intakes serving the Lake Road filtration plant The water here

• Rural Lorain Co. Water A42% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• Oberlin Water Department27% of residentsWest Branch Black River, via Oberlin Upground Reservoir
• Wellington Village25% of residentsCharlemont Creek, via Wellington Upground Reservoir
• Wakeman Village3% of residentsLake Erie
• Northern Ohio Rural Water1% of residentsLake Erie
• Pheasant Run Association0% of residentsLake Erie
• Firelands Manor MHP0% of residentsLake Erie via Avon Lake Regional Water (blended with Rural Lorain Co. Water Authority supply)
• Erie Co. Vermilion District0% of residentsLake Erie
• South Amherst Village0% of residentsLake Erie

Money issues on the ballot since 2026: 2 of 2 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-01

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