Chardon Township, Geauga County

How Chardon Township, Geauga County began

Chardon Township surrounds the city of Chardon, the Geauga County seat, and shares its 1808 founding date; the 1879 county history names its first settler only as 'Jordan,' a man of Painesville who built a house by a spring on the future public square, though the historian records that others credited Norman Canfield, who built a log house on the site in March 1812, as the township's true first settler. Chardon became part of Hambden township in 1812 and held its own first township election in the courthouse on April 1, 1816. Chardon Township had 4,494 residents in 2020.

Settled 1808 (settler recorded only as 'Jordan' in the 1879 county history, who calls Jordan's cabin by a spring the true first settlement, though he notes others credited Norman Canfield's March 1812 log house instead), incorporated April 1, 1816 (Chardon's first township election, held in the courthouse; the township had been merged into Hambden in 1812), by Settled by 'Jordan,' per the 1879 county history; see the Chardon (city) file for the town's own founding and county-seat history.

Where the name comes from

Named, like the city it surrounds, for Peter Chardon Brooks, the Boston landowner whose agent conveyed the townsite to Geauga County in 1809.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or site specific to Chardon Township is recorded.

Timeline

1. 1806-03 — Chardon, which had been part of Painesville for civil purposes, becomes part of Burton Township by order of the county commissioners.
2. 1808 — The county court approves Chardon hill, in the southeast part of the township, as the site of the new county seat, at its June term.
3. 1808 — A man named Jordan, of Painesville, builds a house by a spring northeast of the middle of the future public square, becoming, by the 1879 county history's judgment, the township's actual first settler.
4. 1811 — Curtis Wilmot, of Burton, and other axemen clear ("chop") the public square; the county seat's site is deeded to director Samuel W. Phelps on September 16.
5. 1812 — In March, Norman Canfield builds a log house on the town plat, which some pioneer accounts credit as the first settlement instead of Jordan's; Chardon becomes part of Hambden township this year.
6. 1812 — In spring a one-room log court-house is raised near the later Judge D. W. Canfield residence, and Captain Edward Paine, county clerk, moves his family into it; Samuel King of Longmeadow, Massachusetts arrives in July after forty days on the road with four oxen and a horse, but flees east after Hull's surrender in August.
7. 1813 — Samuel King, back from New York, builds a squared-timber court-house for $750 with a courtroom above and a jail below, called 'old Judge Hoyt's barn,' where the first term of court in Chardon is held that fall; the first mail route (Painesville to Warren) and a Chardon post office with Captain Paine as postmaster follow in 1813 or 1814.
8. 1813-11 — Antony Carter, a Black pioneer, comes with his wife as the fourth family in town and lives in a log building at the site of the county commissioner's office; Jabez King's daughter Laura, the first pioneer child, is born in Jordan's house by the spring.
9. 1814-07-04 — A ball is held at Canfield's tavern on the Fourth of July, with music by Simeon Root of Claridon; Hosea Stebbins, Benjamin Cadwell and Jedediah Sanger arrive in August.
10. 1816 — Chardon holds its first township election, in the courthouse, on April 1; Aaron Canfield serves as chairman.
11. 1818 — Norman Canfield replaces his three-room log house on the town plat with a framed building, later the Chardon House hotel; the first jail had been a log pen annexed to the west side of his tavern.
12. 2020 — U.S. Census records 4,494 residents in Chardon Township.

Stories

The county archives in the Rocky Cellar

The first court-house in Chardon, built in the spring of 1812, was a one-room log building with all its appointments of the pioneer order of axe architecture, and Captain Edward Paine, the county clerk, lived in it with his family while he built himself a house of his own that the county's chronicler called princely. When Hull surrendered Detroit in August 1812 the dwellers in the woods were frightened, Samuel King packed up and went back east, and Paine and Captain Norman Canfield made hasty provision for their families and marched for Cleveland. It is said that Paine, before he left, packed the archives of Geauga County, judicial and municipal, which consisted of one small volume and several papers, and deposited them in the Rocky Cellar, a rock formation northeast of the village, and that the Indians, in his absence, never found them. King returned in 1813, cleared the court-house lot and built, for $750, a more commodious court-house of squared timbers with the courtroom upstairs and a jail below. It was remembered as old Judge Hoyt's barn, and the first term of court in Chardon was held in it that fall.

Chopping the square

When the county seat was chosen on Chardon hill in 1808, not a tree had been cut in the township. In 1811 Captain Edward Paine and Samuel W. Phelps, the director of the county seat and village plat, had the public square 'chopped,' the principal axemen being Curtis Wilmot of Burton and others unknown. Wilmot was killed by a falling tree while chopping on the square, which the 1879 history reckons the first death in Chardon. The tract was deeded to Phelps on September 16, 1811 and dedicated in December 1812. In 1813 Samuel King, Canfield and Paine logged and cleared the square and took their pay in the farm produce they raised on the same ground, which they were to use for two years, a view of blackened stumps, roots and cradle knolls. A man named Jordan of Painesville had meanwhile built a house by the spring northeast of the middle of the square, which some historians count the first settlement; others credit Norman Canfield, whose log house of March 1812 had three ground rooms and a chamber reached by an outside ladder.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Chardon City81% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Leaders MHP9% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Jacques Mobile Home Park, Llc4% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Geauga County Services Center2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Kimberly Estates2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Chardon Estates1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Maple Ridge Mhc, Limited0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 3 of 4 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.

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