Elyria Township, Lorain County

How Elyria Township, Lorain County began

Elyria Township is named for Heman Ely, of West Springfield, Massachusetts, who first scouted his inherited land on Black River in spring 1816 and returned in March 1817 with a six-person party to build a dam, gristmill and sawmill at the falls. Huron county commissioners erected the township (comprising surveyed townships five and six of range seventeen, now Carlisle and Elyria) as a separate civil township on October 20, 1819. The city has since annexed most of the township's original territory, leaving today's Elyria Township a small unincorporated remainder of about 5.6 square miles with 3,250 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled 1816 (first scouted by Heman Ely); permanent settlement began March 1817, incorporated October 20, 1819 (organized as a separate township by Huron county commissioners), by Heman Ely.

Where the name comes from

The township, erected by the Huron County commissioners on 20 October 1819, was named for its pioneer owner and settler Heman Ely: 'Ely-ria,' says the 1879 county history. Ely also proposed the name Lorain for the county, after Lorraine, France, where he had lived for a time.

Before the town

On the west bank of the Black River, on the township's northern border, lies the Fort Lot, where a party of local gentlemen surveyed about forty years before 1879 a large central mound with a smaller mound on each side, a ditch about a quarter mile long enclosing them with storage pits every ten rods or so, and a spring on the river terrace; they dug the largest mound imperfectly and found pottery and human bone, and by 1879 plowing had nearly leveled it. The writer attributed it to 'a race of people who inhabited this country prior to the present Indian race', that is, a people earlier than the historic nations; the cultural attribution is not established. In the historic period, the east falls of the Black River were the site of James Smith's winter cabin of 1755-56, when the Wyandot-adopted captive wintered there with his adoptive brother Tontileaugo and others; and in 1817-18 Wyandot and Seneca families came from Upper Sandusky each season to fish below the falls and hunt, camping where the village later stood and trading with the settlers. Artemas Beebe named Goodhunt, Red Jacket and Betwixt-the-Logs among them and said they were civil and gave no trouble.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Seneca (Mingo).

• Fort Lot earthwork (mound) — West bank of the Black River, northern border of Elyria Township, Precontact (culture unspecified) (archive.org)
• James Smith and Tontileaugo's winter cabin at the east falls of the Black River (camp) — At the falls within today's Elyria, probably at Evergreen Point, winter 1755-56 (archive.org)
• Seasonal Wyandot and Seneca camp below the falls (camp) — Ground later held by Mrs. Hoyle and Col. Gates, Elyria, 1817-1818 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. Winter 1755-1756 — The captive James Smith, adopted by the Wyandot, winters with his adoptive brother Tontileaugo and others at a cabin at the east falls of the Black River, probably within today's Elyria, and survives on hickory nuts, haws and bears; the 1916 history places the cabin at Evergreen Point.
2. 1816 — Heman Ely of West Springfield, Massachusetts, first travels to his inherited Black River lands, surviving a fall from his horse on the lakeshore trail; he lodges temporarily with Moses Eldred in Ridgeville township.
3. 1817 — On March 16 Ely's party of six (including future Ohio chief justice Ebenezer Lane and carpenter Artemas Beebe) reaches Cleveland after a wagon-and-sled journey from New England, then settles into a log house at the falls; a dam, gristmill and sawmill follow on the east branch of Black River.
4. 1817 — The Beach family, first white settlers in the township (arrived 1816), has the township's first white birth (a son, Henry, September 10) and first white death (Mr. Beach, November 22).
5. 1817-1818 — Wyandot and Seneca families come from Upper Sandusky to hunt and fish below the falls, camping on the ground later held by Mrs. Hoyle and Col. Gates; Artemas Beebe remembers the names Goodhunt, Red Jacket and Betwixt-the-Logs and says they were civil.
6. Summer 1817 — A log schoolhouse is built on the triangular ground between the railroad and the highway across the east branch, where the pioneers also hold Sunday worship; Heman Ely reads a sermon.
7. 1818 — The Rev. Alvin Hyde preaches the first sermon in Elyria, on February 5, from Jonah 2:9.
8. 1819 — Huron county commissioners erect Elyria (surveyed townships five and six, range seventeen) as a separate civil township on October 20, naming it for pioneer owner Heman Ely.
9. 3 April 1820 — The first township election draws twenty voters; Heman Ely, Sherman Minot and Jonathan A. Sexton are elected trustees. (The 1879 history prints the date as 1830, which does not fit the 1819 organization or the 1820 tax list.)
10. May 1820 — A tax list prepared by Roger Cooley and Phineas Johnson counts eleven horses, ninety-eight cattle and seven houses in the township, Heman Ely's house valued at $1,400 and Artemas Beebe's at $900.
11. Winter 1821-1822 — Heman Ely rides to Columbus to seek an act creating Lorain County; the act passes on 22 December 1822 (the 1879 history prints 1832) and names the county for Lorraine, France, where Ely had spent time.
12. About 1830 — J. A. Harris shoots at a bear and three cubs in the woods east of E. A. Griswold's; in the winter of 1831-32 a bear passes behind the school near the public square, the last seen in the vicinity.
13. About 1835 — Wolves, whose howls had been heard every night in the woods north of town, grow scarce; the last wolf seen in Elyria is trailed and killed in New Haven, Huron County, in the winter of 1844-45.
14. 1842 — The township's surviving records begin.
15. 2020 — Census records 3,250 residents in the township's remaining 5.61 unincorporated square miles.

Stories

The founder's near-fatal first ride

In spring 1816, Heman Ely rode along the Lake Erie shore trail through unbroken forest to reach the land he had inherited on Black River. Where the trail followed a high wash bank, the ground gave way and his horse's hind legs dropped over the edge; the horse clung on with its forefeet while Ely held the bridle and mane and used his whip to drive it back up. The 1879 county history credits that recovery with saving 'the life of the founder of Elyria.' Ely returned to Massachusetts that fall to organize his household and hired men, and came back in March 1817 to build the dam and mills that started the settlement.

The captive who wintered at the falls

More than sixty years before Heman Ely built his dam, the falls of the Black River at Elyria were a winter camp. James Smith, a Pennsylvania youth captured by Indians in 1755 and adopted by the Wyandot, made his way here that autumn with his adoptive brother Tontileaugo. They found a large Wyandot camp at the mouth of the river, moved up to the great falls, buried their canoe and built a winter cabin. In the first weeks they had almost nothing to eat; the women and boys scratched hickory nuts from under a light snow and gathered haws, and the hunters came back with two small turkeys for thirteen people. Then Tontileaugo killed a large bear and the camp ate. In April they dug up the canoe and left for Sandusky. Smith later became a colonel in the Revolution and a legislator in Kentucky, and published his narrative; the 1916 county history reprinted it and placed the cabin at Evergreen Point.

The Fort Lot

A lot on the west bank of the river on the township's northern border was known to the pioneers as the Fort Lot. About forty years before 1879, a party of gentlemen that included the writer of the passage surveyed what was there: a large central mound near the river bank, a smaller mound on either side of it, a level terrace two rods wide, and a spring gushing from the bank strong enough to turn an overshot wheel. A ditch ran in an arc from the river, about twenty rods north of the mounds, to a deep ravine a quarter mile away, with pits every ten rods or so, and very old oaks grew in its bottom. The party dug into the largest mound, found only potsherds and pieces of human bone, and concluded the mounds were burial places, perhaps for the dead of a battle. By 1879 the owners had plowed them nearly flat.

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

Lake Erie, drawn through 24-inch and 42-inch intake pipes on the lake bottom about 1,500 feet offshore from Elyria's lakefront pumping plant, which is physically sited in Lorain The water here

• Elyria Water Department82% of residentsLake Erie
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A16% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• Amherst City1% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Elyria)
• Sheffield Village1% of residentsLake Erie
• North Ridgeville City0% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Avon Lake Regional Water)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (5)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2020 to 2021, released 2025-02-04

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