Canaan Township, Wayne County

How Canaan Township, Wayne County began

Canaan Township lies in the northern tier of Wayne County, six miles square and second from the county's western line. William Ewing Sr. built the first cabin in 1812, the county commissioners organized the township on May 5, 1819 and it was named by Dr. Isaac Barnes. By 1832 about 25 to 30 families had grown to nearly full occupancy; Canaan Academy (1843-1875) at Windsor was one of the county's first schools. Its villages were Burbank, Golden Corners, Windsor (Canaan Center), Jackson and Pike, the last grown into Creston. The township had 1,997 people in 1870 and 5,134 in 2020.

Settled 1812 (William Ewing Sr.), incorporated May 5, 1819 (township organized by the county commissioners), by William Ewing Sr., James Rose and Thomas Armstrong were the first settlers.

Where the name comes from

Both the 1878 and 1910 county histories say the township 'was named by Dr. Isaac Barnes' when it was organized in 1819; neither says why he chose Canaan.

Before the town

No mound, village or treaty event specific to Canaan Township is recorded in the sources checked. One pioneer memory does place Native people in the township's wetlands: Phillip Fritz of neighbouring Milton Township told the 1878 historian that an Indian woman went into a marsh in Canaan Township to pick cranberries, tying her baby to a board while she worked, and that a loose hog killed the child (the 1910 reprint of his account says a dog, and omits the township). He said the Native people then living near called themselves Delawares, Shawnee and Wyandot.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Wyandot.

Timeline

1. 1812 — William Ewing Sr. builds the first cabin on the farm later held by his son Simon; James Rose and Thomas Armstrong settle about the same time.
2. 1817 — Joseph Stratton settles on what becomes Daniel Stratton's farm, and the Weed brothers and Thomas Thrapp come in about this period.
3. 1819 — On May 5 the county commissioners organize Canaan Township; in the fall the first election is held in an ashery near the later village of Windsor, with Dr. Barnes and Joseph Stratton elected justices.
4. 1825 — A post office named Canaan opens; it stays open until 1903.
5. 1825 — As late as this year salt still sells for eleven dollars a barrel; William Ewing packs it in from Canton on horseback through the woods.
6. 1827 — On May 25 sixteen members organize the first church in the township, a Presbyterian congregation at Jackson, with Nathan Hall and Thomas Hays as ruling elders.
7. 1832 — By this date about 25 to 30 families have been joined by a stream of immigrants, and not more than twenty-five quarter sections of farmable land are unoccupied.
8. 1842 — A stock company builds Canaan Academy, a two-story frame building 36 by 48 feet at Windsor; it opens December 3, 1843, with 47 pupils under Prof. C. C. Bomberger.
9. 1850 — The Methodist Episcopal church at Windsor is built in 1850-51; a Lutheran church is built in Canaan in 1870.
10. 1854 — A post office is opened at Golden Corners; it remains until 1901.
11. 1868 — Burbank is incorporated in the township, replacing the name Bridgeport.
12. 1870 — The census counts 1,997 residents in the township.
13. 1875 — Canaan Academy, rebuilt in brick after a fire in the winter of 1851, closes.
14. 1881 — The village of Pike Station, in the township's northeast, is renamed Creston.
15. 1900 — The census counts 2,401 people in the township.
16. 2020 — Township population recorded at 5,134 across 37.0 square miles.

Stories

An election held in an ashery

Canaan Township's first election, in the fall of 1819, was held not in a courthouse or a tavern but in an ashery, a building for turning wood ash into potash, which stood nearly a mile south of the present village of Windsor. George Sommers, a resident who was not yet a voter, later gave the roll from memory: William Ewing Sr. and Jr., Thomas Armstrong, Joseph and Daniel Stratton, Nathan Hall, Dr. Barnes, Daniel Blocher, James Rose and a dozen others, all dead by 1878. They elected Dr. Isaac Barnes and Joseph Stratton as justices and Barnes, Stratton and Thomas Thrapp as trustees, with Nathan Hall as clerk, an office he held about twelve more years. By the settlers' own count, half the farmable quarter sections held a cabin ten years later.

Canaan Academy

Canaan Academy at Windsor was among the first institutions of higher learning in Wayne County. A stock company put up the two-story frame building in 1842, and the first board included John Paul, M.D., Jonas Notestine, Justin Mills, Harvey Rice and Alfred Hotchkiss. School opened December 3, 1843, with 47 pupils under Prof. C. C. Bomberger, who taught three years; Isaac Notestine taught the winter terms from 1847 and with short intervals ran it until 1863. The building burned in the winter of 1851 while he was teaching and was replaced in brick. After 1863 a series of professors followed, and the school closed in 1875 under Prof. J. W. Cummings. The county historians called it an important factor in the education of Wayne and adjoining counties.

Eleven dollars for a barrel of salt

Isaac Notestine's reminiscence, reprinted in 1878 and again in 1910, describes what the first decade cost in Canaan Township. The pioneers wore homespun to church and field alike; the difference was only that church clothes were freshly washed. They lived on corn, buckwheat, potatoes, beans, pork and venison, and got little for the wheat they sold while the goods they bought cost much more than later. In 1825 salt sold for eleven dollars a barrel, and William Ewing packed it from Canton on horseback through the woods. Wooster was the nearest town but a poor place to sell produce, so wheat and flour were hauled to Cleveland and hogs were driven there to market.

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

Groundwater wells (2 wells) The water here

• Creston Village72% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Wooster City24% of residentsKillbuck Creek Buried Valley Aquifer (own wells)
• Smithville Village3% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Spruce Tree Village MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Green Meadows Estates0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Wooster Rolling Wheels Estates MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (10)

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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-30
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-08

Cite this page