Congress

How Congress began

Congress is a village in Congress Township, Wayne County's northwestern corner. Philip Gates and David Newcomer laid it out as Waynesburg on March 6, 1827, on ground first cleared by the Totten and Poe families in 1815; it was renamed Congress, and a post office of that name opened in 1832. It was an incorporated village with a mayor by 1838. It peaked at 309 people in 1870 and had 132 in 2020.

Settled 1815 (the Totten brothers and the Poes in Congress Township), platted March 6, 1827 (as Waynesburg; plat recorded March 27, 1827, county records vol. 6, p. 24), incorporated by 1838 (village officers on record from that year), by Philip Gates and David Newcomer, surveyed by Peter Emery.

Where the name comes from

The village was laid out as Waynesburg (Wayne County was named for Gen. Anthony Wayne, but the 1878 county history does not say what the village name honoured); it says only that it was 'originally called Waynesburg' and does not say when or why it became Congress. A post office named Congress was open by 1832, which puts the change within five years of the 1827 plat. The township's name is likewise unexplained in the sources checked.

Before the town

No mound, village or treaty event is pinned to the village itself. The sources record Native people in the township in the early settlement years: the 1910 county history says that after wolves killed the Tottens' sheep one early winter, one of the brothers followed the pack to the Harrisville swamp in Medina County, 'near' which a camp of 30 or 40 Native people lay. Douglass (1878) records that Wolf Run, a branch of the Muddy Fork, was named for Captain Wolf, a Native man who often visited the Henney house, and that a child of Captain Wolf is buried near the creek on the Henney farm. He also records, without names or a date, that an elderly Native man travelling with his wife died at Griffith's Tavern in Congress village after the landlord's wife threw boiling water on him, and was buried in the old Congress graveyard. The nations are not named in these passages; the wider Wayne County record covers the Delaware (Lenape), Wyandot and Shawnee.

• Grave of a child of Captain Wolf (burial) — on the north line of the Peter Henney farm beside Wolf Run, Congress Township (later the Naftzger farm), early 1800s (undated) (archive.org)
• Native camp near the Harrisville swamp (camp) — near the Harrisville swamp, just north of Congress Township in Medina County, early settlement years (undated) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1815 — In February Michael and Henry Totten, with George and Isaac Poe, cut a trail from Wooster to the site of the later village and build a cabin on section 27; Mrs. Catherine Totten is the township's first white woman, and the Poes and other families follow in April.
2. 1818 — On October 5 the county commissioners organize Congress Township.
3. 1819 — The township's first schoolhouse is built on the southwest quarter of section 27; John Totten had taught the first school in the Tottens' cabin.
4. 1827 — On March 6 Philip Gates and David Newcomer lay out the village as Waynesburg, surveyed by Peter Emery; the plat is recorded March 27.
5. 1827 — Michael Funk and Elmer Yocum build the first house, on the site of the later Methodist church; Jacob Hare keeps the first post office on lot 5; George Wicks keeps the first hotel and David W. Poe starts the first tannery.
6. 1832 — A post office named Congress opens; it stays open until 1907.
7. 1838 — The earliest surviving list of village officers begins, with John Tarr as mayor and William Rogers as recorder.
8. 1870 — Population peaks at 309.
9. 1878 — Douglass's county history prints the village's officers from 1838 and its early reminiscences; Congress Township has 2,581 residents in the 1870 census.
10. 1907 — The Congress post office closes after 75 years; in 1909 the Methodist church has 170 members and the township has a three-grade high school.
11. 2010 — Population recorded at 185.
12. 2020 — Population falls to 132, a 28.6 percent decline from 2010.

Stories

Robert Lowry recalls the village's first years

Robert Lowry, described in the 1878 county history as a soldier of both the Mexican War and the Civil War, supplied its account of Congress village's earliest days. He recalled that Michael Funk and Elmer Yocum built the first house, on the ground where the Methodist church later stood; that Jacob Hare was the first postmaster, with the post office kept on lot five; that Dr. Mills was the first permanent physician; that George Wicks kept the first hotel; and that David W. Poe established the first tannery in the village. The plat they built on had been recorded on March 27, 1827, as Waynesburg, and by 1832 the post office carried the name Congress.

The Tottens, their sheep and the wolves

In the first week of February 1815 Michael and Henry Totten and George and Isaac Poe cut a trail from Wooster to the forest where Congress now stands and camped until they had finished a cabin on section 27. The Tottens dragged the first furniture in on a sled and cleared five acres, which they planted in corn and cut for fodder, then sowed winter wheat: the first corn and wheat grown in the township. Sheep could not be kept at first because of wolves. One winter the Tottens penned twelve sheep beside the cabin and thought them safe, but a pack broke in during the night and killed all but two, one of which ran into the house and woke the family; the wolves were gone by the time anyone was up. Next day one of the Tottens followed them as far as the Harrisville swamp in Medina County, but never got a shot, and noted a camp of 30 or 40 Native people near the swamp.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Rural Lorain Co. Water A58% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• West Salem Village42% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Basic Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2026-05-07

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