Deerfield Township, Portage County

• Berlin LakeBuilt 1943 · 3,590 acres

How Deerfield Township, Portage County began

Deerfield Township, in the southeast corner of Portage County, was one of the county's earliest settled: Lewis Ely brought his family in July 1799, and Lewis Day and Daniel Diver, who had bought one-third of the township from the proprietor Oliver Phelps, followed in 1800 and 1803. The township was organized on April 7, 1806 and named for Deerfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of Lewis Day Sr.'s mother. Its early settlers included Noah Grant, grandfather of Ulysses S. Grant, who ran a tannery near the Center; and in January 1807 (one account says 1806) Daniel Diver was shot and blinded (accounts differ on whether he lost one eye or both) in the township's best-known conflict between settlers and Seneca. It had 1,371 residents in 1850, 985 in 1880 and 2,838 in 2020, and the John Diver House at Deerfield Center is on the National Register.

Settled 1799-07 (Lewis Ely, first settler), incorporated 1806-04-07 (township organized), by Lewis Ely, Lewis Day, Moses Tibbals and Daniel Diver, who bought a third of the township from proprietor Oliver Phelps in 1799.

Where the name comes from

Named for Deerfield, Massachusetts, the birthplace of the mother of Lewis Day Sr., one of the original purchasers.

Before the town

Deerfield lay in Seneca (Mingo) hunting ground along the Mahoning River, which the 1885 county history says the Indians called 'Ma-um-ing', 'the way to the market'. The first person buried in the settlers' cemetery east of Deerfield Center in 1800 was an Indian boy, in a coffin of maple-bark-stained wood. Noah Grant's tannery did work for the Indians of the southern part of the county. In January 1807 (one account says 1806) a young Seneca, John Mohawk, shot Daniel Diver at Deerfield Center, after a quarrel over a horse trade between Mohawk's kinsman Nickshaw and John Diver. Pursuers killed Nickshaw and his wife in what is now Summit County; the chief Big Son, whose camp was in Streetsboro Township, and two of his sons were arrested (accounts differ on who was taken) in the dead of winter, forced to walk barefoot through snow, and cleared at Warren. It was the only serious clash between whites and Indians in early Portage County. Settler Christian Cackler recalled that after the shooting the Indians all left for Sandusky.

Nations recorded here: Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Indian boy's grave in the Deerfield Center cemetery (burial) — The old cemetery east of Deerfield Center, on land given by Lewis Ely, 1800 (archive.org)
• Deerfield Center, scene of the shooting of Daniel Diver (other) — Deerfield Center, between the monument and the blacksmith shop, January 22, 1807 (archive.org)
• Big Son's camp (Streetsboro) (camp) — Samuel Olin's place near the Cuyahoga in Streetsboro Township, Portage County; outside Deerfield, until 1812 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1799 — Lewis Ely, Lewis Day, Moses Tibbals and Daniel Diver buy one-third of the township from proprietor Oliver Phelps; Lewis Day and Horatio Day reach Deerfield in June and Lewis Ely, the first settler, builds a cabin in July.
2. 1800-03-04 — John Campbell, Joel Thrall and Alva Day, who had walked from Connecticut through six feet of snow in the Alleghenies, arrive; that spring Alva Day and Lewis Ely dig a canoe out of an Atwater tree and take it down the Mahoning to Virginia for provisions.
3. 1800 — The first burial in the township cemetery is an Indian boy, followed by Betsey Rogers, who dies of a rattlesnake bite; John Campbell marries Sarah Ely in April, Alva Day's daughter Polly is born on August 22, and Lewis Day is appointed postmaster by Postmaster General Gideon Granger.
4. 1801 — James Laughlin finishes a grist mill on the Mahoning, the first on the river and the first water-power mill in the county; before that settlers had to go to Youngstown to mill their grain.
5. 1803 — Daniel Diver, born in Granville, Massachusetts in 1752 according to the 1885 county history (one biography calls him a native of Germany), brings his family to Deerfield with his son-in-law Rev. Shadrach Bostwick, a Methodist circuit rider and physician; Robert Campbell teaches the first school about this year.
6. 1804 — John Diver marries Laura Ely and opens the township's first tavern on Lot 30, which he keeps for forty years and which grows into the Diver House; the settlers also form a military company under Captain Henry Rogers.
7. c. 1805 — Noah Grant, grandfather of Ulysses S. Grant, settles near the Center with his wife and son Jesse and starts a small tannery a quarter mile west of the Center; John Hartzell's family arrives from Pennsylvania and later burns brick for the township's first brick house.
8. 1806-04-07 — Deerfield Township is organized; Joseph Hart, James McKelvey and Horatio Day are the first trustees, and Daniel Diver is treasurer.
9. 1807-01-22 — Daniel Diver is shot through the temple at Deerfield Center by John Mohawk, a young Seneca hired by Nickshaw; Diver is blinded (accounts differ on whether in one eye or both) but survives.
10. 1812 — A Deerfield militia company under Lieutenant Alva Day marches to Detroit with Hull's army; Lewis Day dies at Malden after the surrender and Alva Day is elected a judge in 1815.
11. 1818 — The Methodists, whose society of about 1803 was the first in the county, put up their first frame church on the southwest corner of the square; Presbyterians organize in 1816 and the Disciples of Christ in 1828.
12. c. 1830-1834 — The John Diver House is built at Deerfield Center and run as a hotel; John Diver also holds the first mail contract from New Lisbon to Mansfield and carries the mail for over forty years.
13. 1850 — Deerfield's population is 1,371, falling to 1,025 in 1870 and 985 in 1880.
14. 1861-1865 — Deerfield sends eighty-six soldiers to the Union army, of whom fifteen are killed or die in service.
15. 1865-04-04 — The Portage Oil Company is organized at Deerfield with capital stock of $500,000 to bore oil wells, a venture of the oil craze of that time.
16. 1874-07-26 — The Methodists dedicate their present church at Deerfield Center, built at a cost of $8,000.
17. 1982-09-16 — The John Diver House and Storebuilding at 9465 Akron-Canfield Road is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; the Wikipedia listing now marks it as no longer extant.
18. 2020 — The census counts 2,838 people in the township.

Stories

The shooting of Daniel Diver

On the night of January 22, 1807 (one county history says 1806), a young Seneca named John Mohawk fired a ball through the temple of Daniel Diver at Deerfield Center, between where the monument now stands and the blacksmith shop. The target was John Diver, who had traded a mare and colt to the old Indian Nickshaw for a pony (in Christian Cackler's account Diver got the Indians drunk first, and Nickshaw brought the animal back saying it could not eat sticks). Nickshaw agreed with Mohawk to shoot him. Daniel Diver was mistaken for his brother and lost his sight, but not his life; he lived on at Deerfield for at least thirty years and raised a family. 'It was a case of proxy all around', the 1885 history says. A posse followed the Indians into Richland Township, in what is now Summit County, killed Nickshaw and his wife, and captured Big Son, the Seneca chief, and others, who were marched to Warren in midwinter barefoot through snow, tried and acquitted. Mohawk escaped. Big Son sat on the Mahoning bank at Warren telling his sorrows to anyone who would hear them, and the Indians left for Sandusky.

A canoe to Virginia for provisions

In March 1800 the first settlers were nearly out of food. Alva Day and Lewis Ely went over to Atwater, cut a large tree, dug out a canoe and floated it down Yellow Creek into the Mahoning, which the Indians called Ma-um-ing, 'the way to the market', to paddle to Virginia for supplies. They reached the Ohio opposite Steubenville in April, bought provisions, and found the river would not carry them back upstream; they returned for an ox team and did not get home until late May. That summer Lewis Day came out with his wife and children in an ox-drawn wagon, over forty days from Connecticut. The township's first mill, James Laughlin's of 1801, ended the trips to Youngstown for grinding.

Noah Grant's tannery

About 1804-05 a man named Noah Grant arrived at Deerfield with his wife and a son, Jesse, and started a small tannery a quarter mile west of the Center. He also made shoes and did considerable work for the Indians, and the county historian noted that he was well known to most of them in the southern part of the county. His wife is buried in the old cemetery at the Center, though the exact spot has been forgotten. The boy Jesse became a tanner, too, and his son was Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War general and eventual president. A Deerfield farmer, H. E. Day, told the 1885 historian that he worked in a tannery that Jesse Grant built in Deerfield, with whom he had pleasant business associations.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Portage County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• All Seasons MHP67% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Island Creek Homeowners25% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Ravenna City8% of residentsLake Hodgson
• Spring Lakes Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-05

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Deerfield Township, Portage County, Portage County and its school district:

• Deerfield Township: Renews and increases a 1.75-mill property tax levy for the fire protection & EMS of Deerfield Township for 5 years, beginning in 2027.
• Portage County: Renews a 0.3-mill property tax levy for: Current expenses; operate alcohol, drug addiction & mental health programs of Portage County for 10 years, beginning in 2027.

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