Clinton

How Clinton began

Sources differ on Clinton's origin: Wikipedia describes the village as laid out in 1816 under the name Savannah before being renamed Clinton. The 1881 county history instead describes Savannah and Clinton as two separate, competing villages platted the same year by father and son: David Harvey laid out Savannah in March 1816, and his son William Harvey laid out Clinton nearby in February 1816. Savannah grew to about 60 residents but died out entirely by 1827 once it became clear the new Ohio and Erie Canal would bypass it; its residents and businesses relocated almost entirely to Clinton, which the canal did reach, and from 1825 to 1850 Clinton became the busiest grain-trading village in Summit County, at times purchasing more wheat than Akron and drawing farmers from as far away as Richland and Ashland counties. An even earlier, still shorter-lived village, Cartersville, had been platted at the same river junction in 1806 by land buyer Richard Carter but was apparently never built on at all. The village held steady through the mid-20th century before a sharp growth spurt between 1950 and 1960, when its population jumped 132.7 percent from 397 to 924 residents, and it recorded 1,197 residents at the 2020 census.

Platted sources differ: Wikipedia describes one village laid out as Savannah in 1816, later renamed Clinton; the 1881 county history describes two separate villages platted in 1816, Savannah (David Harvey, March 1816) and Clinton (William Harvey, February 1816), with Savannah's population relocating to Clinton by 1827, by William Harvey (per the 1881 county history).

Where the name comes from

The village was originally laid out and named Savannah in 1816, later renamed Clinton, per Wikipedia; the source does not document why either name was chosen. The 1881 county history instead treats Savannah and Clinton as two distinct villages from the start, both platted in 1816 near the junction of the Tuscarawas and Chippewa rivers, with no stated reason for either name.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, or treaty site specific to Clinton is documented in the sources consulted. The village sits on the Tuscarawas River, which along with the Cuyahoga River formed part of the 1785 Fort McIntosh and 1795 Greenville treaty boundary and the route of the Portage Path connecting the two rivers.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee.

Timeline

1. 1806 — Wealthy Wheeling Quaker Richard Carter buys land at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Chippewa rivers and has John Harris and David L. McClure plat a town named Cartersville in September; it is apparently never built on.
2. 1814 — Christopher Johnson, called 'Yankee Johnson,' builds the first cabin in what becomes Franklin Township, in the spring; on April 20 Thomas Johnson and William Hallowell arrive, and Thomas's son John, born that year, is the township's first birth.
3. 1815-09 — Mahlon and Aaron Stewart plat the neighboring village of Manchester; in the same year the wife of Jacob Balmer dies of a rattlesnake bite, the township's first death.
4. 1816-02 — William Harvey lays out the village of Clinton in February; his father David Harvey lays out Savannah on the north side of the Chippewa in March.
5. 1816-1817 — George Rex builds a grist mill at the outlet of Turkey Foot Lake; the lake is later turned by the state into a canal feeder reservoir and the mill site is ruined.
6. 1817-04 — Stark County commissioners organize Franklin Township on the petition of its citizens; Jacob Balmer and David Harvey are elected justices of the peace.
7. c. 1820 — David Harvey builds a grist mill on the river east of Clinton; the canal is then routed along the opposite bank and his mill site is ruined.
8. 1825-1827 — With the Ohio and Erie Canal about to bypass Savannah, its roughly 60 residents and stores relocate to canal-side Clinton; by 1827 no family remains, though several empty buildings still stand.
9. 1825-1840 — Clinton does more business in proportion to its population than any other village in Summit County, with three 50-foot warehouses, one holding 100,000 bushels of wheat at a time.
10. 1833 — Mr. Rosseter, who keeps a small tavern on the canal bank, is among the first postmasters of the Clinton office.
11. 1835 — Gorham Chapin lays out a rival village, Orradeen, across the river from Clinton; two years later William and Francis Pumroy lay out Pumroy adjoining it, and business shifts there, leaving many Clinton lots to be sold at sheriff's sale.
12. 1840-1850 — More wheat is bought at Clinton than at Akron, with lines of teams a mile long waiting to unload, at about 40 cents a bushel.
13. c. 1854 — A short-lived distillery operates between Clinton and Manchester for about three years, the last in the township.
14. 1950 — The village records 397 residents.
15. 1960 — Population jumps 132.7 percent to 924 residents.
16. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 1,197 residents.

Stories

The village that died with its own christening

Decades before Clinton or Savannah existed, a wealthy Wheeling Quaker named Richard Carter bought land at the junction of the Tuscarawas and Chippewa rivers and, in September 1806, had it surveyed and platted into a town he named Cartersville after himself. But the site flooded with every freshet, and as far as the 1881 county history could determine, no building was ever put up there and no settler ever moved in; 'its village died out with the platting and christening,' the historian wrote, quoting Oliver Goldsmith's poem on the deserted village to describe a place that had no residents to desert in the first place. It would be another eight years before Christopher 'Yankee Johnson' became the township's first real settler, and another decade before the villages that actually took hold, Savannah and Clinton, were platted nearby.

One village dies so its neighbor can live

Savannah and Clinton were platted only a month and a river's width apart in 1816, David Harvey laying out Savannah in March and his son William laying out Clinton in February, and for a few years Savannah was the more promising of the two, growing to about 60 people with stores, a blacksmith, a carpenter and a tailor. Its fortune turned on a single fact of geography: when the route of the Ohio and Erie Canal was fixed, it passed by Clinton but missed Savannah, whose low, unhealthy site was already troubling residents with recurring fevers. Around 1825 the businesses left first, then the families followed, and by 1827 not one family remained in a village that had briefly held sixty. Because William Harvey, Savannah founder David Harvey's own son, held valuable property in Clinton, the family's fortunes were not as badly hurt as the town's; Clinton absorbed Savannah's trade and people and, riding the canal boom, became from 1825 to 1850 the busiest grain market in Summit County, at times buying more wheat than the county seat of Akron itself.

The Chestnut Ridge underground railroad

Before 1860 a well-traveled line of the Underground Railroad crossed Franklin Township along Chestnut Ridge, with occasional side tracks. Its prominent men were Alexander Russell, James Hile, Harvey Maranville, Washington Heffleman and George Wirt, who lost no opportunity of assisting runaway slaves to Canada. Russell and Maranville were once told that five people, two women and three men, were waiting for food and clothing in the heavy woods west of Clinton; they were supplied and sent on to the next station. A Kentucky-born settler once took the gun from a Black traveler on the ridge, saying it was against the law, until two or three of these men told him to hand it back at once or trouble would follow; the traveler explained that a Mr. Wales of Massillon had given him the gun to shoot partridges on his way north. James Hile, a poor Methodist, was said to have 'run his legs off' for anyone in trouble, and John Hall of Springfield Township hid pursued fugitives for days before driving them in a closed carriage all the way to Cleveland and the Canada-bound steamboats.

Wheat to the canal at Clinton

Once the canal had reached Clinton, farmers hauled wheat there from as far as Mansfield, and a large share of the producers of Richland, Ashland, Wayne and Medina counties sold at its three warehouses. Harvey Maranville, who kept books and bought grain for the owners, remembered buying as much as 1,500 bushels between sunup and sundown. The largest warehouse once held 100,000 bushels, filled to the roof, with the other two almost as full. Teams waited a mile into the country, and men sat in their wagons past midnight for their turn. Merchants from the western counties had goods shipped to Clinton to be stored until teams could haul them home, and coal went by boat to Cleveland to fuel lake steamers. The same trade made the canal village rough: miners and canal hands drank hard, and after repeated disturbances the citizens bought a dozen pistols in Cleveland and warned the troublemakers off.

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

Every historic place in Summit County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Marshallville Village100% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (2)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

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 2024-09-05

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

Cite this page