Colebrook Township, Ashtabula County

How Colebrook Township, Ashtabula County began

Colebrook Township's 16,000 acres were bought from the Connecticut Land Company by Henry Champion in 1798, sold the next year to Oliver Phelps, and platted into half-mile-square lots in 1808. The West family made a brief attempt at settlement near Mosquito Creek around 1812 but left after clearing only about eight acres; real settlement began in May 1819, when Joel Blakeslee arrived from Avon, New York after a grueling 29-day journey with his wife and two children, followed the next year by Halsey Phillips and his family, who came directly from Colebrook, Connecticut and gave the township its lasting name. Blakeslee himself, a musician and man of education despite poor health, went on to research and write up the early histories of several county townships for the Ashtabula County Historical Association -- work mostly lost when the county courthouse burned in 1850. The township organized on April 2, 1827. For a few years in the 1830s it was briefly renamed Phelps, honoring the surveyor, before reverting to Colebrook.

Settled May 1819 (Joel Blakeslee, first lasting settler; the West family's brief c. 1812 attempt did not hold), platted 1808 (surveyed by Oliver Phelps into half-mile-square lots), incorporated April 2, 1827 (organized), by Joel Blakeslee, first settler; Halsey Phillips, whose family named the township for their Connecticut hometown.

Where the name comes from

The township is named for Colebrook, Connecticut, the hometown of the Halsey Phillips family, who arrived in the fall of 1820. For a few years beginning in 1834 the township was renamed Phelps, to honor Oliver Phelps, who had owned and surveyed the land in 1808, before reverting to Colebrook.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or site specific to Colebrook Township is documented in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. September 5, 1798 — Henry Champion and others purchase the township from the Connecticut Land Company; Champion conveys his interest to Oliver Phelps the following year.
2. 1808 — Oliver Phelps has the township's 16,000 acres surveyed into one hundred half-mile-square lots by a party that includes Revolutionary War veteran Samuel Phillips.
3. about 1812 — The West family attempts settlement on the east side of Mosquito Creek, clearing about eight acres before abandoning the claim and leaving the township long before permanent settlement began.
4. May 24, 1819 — Joel Blakeslee, of Avon, New York, arrives with his wife and two children after a twenty-nine-day journey by ox team and erects a log cabin on lot No. 38, becoming the township's first lasting settler.
5. fall 1820 — Halsey Phillips and his family, along with brothers Samuel Jr. and Benjamin F. Phillips, arrive from Colebrook, Connecticut and, with help from settlers in neighboring Lebanon (now New Lyme), build a log house on lot No. 22.
6. summer 1822 — The first school-house, of logs, is built near what becomes the cemetery at Watson's Corners; Miss Cleora Phillips teaches the first school there to six pupils, paid one dollar a week in wheat.
7. January 1826 — The first post office opens, with Halsey Phillips as postmaster and Joel Blakeslee as his successor.
8. April 2, 1827 — Colebrook Township formally organizes, electing Halsey Phillips, Theodorus Miller, and Levi Rice as trustees.
9. 1830 — The township's first hotel opens at the Centre, run by Isaac L. Jayne.
10. 1831 — A Congregational church organizes with eighteen members drawn from Colebrook, New Lyme, and Orwell, the township's first formal church body, followed by Methodist (soon after) and Baptist (1836) congregations.
11. 1834 — The township is renamed Phelps, honoring surveyor Oliver Phelps; the change lasts only a couple of years before it reverts to Colebrook.
12. 1836 — David Chase, from New York, opens the township's first store, a small log building at the Centre.
13. March 24, 1849 — A Free-Will Baptist church organizes with fourteen members, formed by ministers Rufus Clark and David Rice.
14. November 27, 1863 — Joel Blakeslee, the township's first settler, dies; a longtime Freemason, he is buried with Masonic funeral rites.

Stories

Twenty-nine days to a name not yet chosen

When Joel Blakeslee set out from New York State in 1819 with his wife and two children, he was heading toward a township that had already failed once: the West family had tried to settle near Mosquito Creek some years earlier and given up after clearing only a modest patch of ground. Blakeslee's own journey took twenty-nine days -- a long, grinding trip even by the standards of Western Reserve migration -- but this time the settlement held. He built the township's first house and, within a year, was hosting its first religious services in his own home. It was the family that arrived the following autumn, Halsey Phillips and his household, who finally gave the place its lasting identity: they came directly from Colebrook, Connecticut, and the township took their hometown's name. That name proved more durable than a brief 1830s rebranding as "Phelps," honoring the surveyor who had platted the land back in 1808 -- within a couple of years, Colebrook was restored, and it has kept that name ever since.

The settler who became the county's first historian

Joel Blakeslee was, by his own township's account, a poor fit for pioneer life -- a gentleman of education and refinement, something of a musician, and in delicate health, all qualities better suited to a parlor than to a twenty-nine-day ox-team migration and a log cabin in unbroken forest. Yet he stuck it out, and in his later years turned his education to unexpected use: he took a lively interest in the newly formed Ashtabula County Historical Association and personally researched and wrote up the early histories of several of the county's townships. Most of that original work did not survive him -- it was destroyed when the county courthouse burned on August 17, 1850 -- but Blakeslee himself remained active in the Masonic fraternity until his death in 1863, and the very county history that records his contribution is, in a real sense, a continuation of the project he started.

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

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• Orwell Village96% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Roaming Shores Village4% of residentsLake Erie

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