Farmington Township, Trumbull County

How Farmington Township, Trumbull County began

Farmington Township, surveyed under Luther Henshaw and known as Henshaw until it organized as Farmington in 1817, was settled beginning in the spring of 1806 by Lewis Wolcott and David Curtis, who walked from Vienna Township and built a pole cabin near the site that became West Farmington. It grew slowly, filling in mainly with Connecticut families through the 1810s and 1820s, and it was Dennis Lewis, an early settler at West Farmington, whose influence changed the township's name from Henshaw to Farmington (and the neighboring settlement's from Bowlestown to Southington). Two village centers -- the geographic center and West Farmington, a mile or so west -- grew up separately, each with its own church, store and post office, and for years fought over which would hold the township's post office. It remains rural farm country today, its economy long anchored by cheese making.

Settled 1806, incorporated 1817, by Lewis Wolcott and David Curtis, first arrivals in spring 1806; organized as a township in 1817.

Where the name comes from

The township was surveyed under the direction of Luther Henshaw and was called Henshaw until it organized as Farmington in 1817. The 1882 county history credits early settler Dennis Lewis, who came to West Farmington in 1810, with the influence that changed the name from Henshaw to Farmington, and, at the same time, changed the neighboring settlement's name from Bowlestown to Southington. The book does not say why 'Farmington' was chosen, though it notes the settlers were 'mainly Connecticut people' and Connecticut has its own town of Farmington.

Before the town

No Native village, camp or treaty event specific to Farmington Township is recorded in the sources reviewed. The one direct reference is in the 1882 county history, which says that during the winter of 1807-08 the Wolcott settlers sometimes bought venison from the Indians, once paying a silver dollar for a fine buck, a sign that Native hunters were still passing through. The township's Black Ash Swamp and Grand River would have been resources for hunting and gathering, but no source documents such use here specifically. The wider region was Delaware-occupied hunting ground used seasonally by Seneca and Mingo bands in the 1700s.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Seneca, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

Timeline

1. 1798-1811 — The township (draft number fourteen of the Connecticut Western Reserve) passes among its proprietors by sale and quitclaim; by 1811 Solomon Bond, the speculator who sold Josiah Wolcott his land, owns most of it, and Luther Henshaw directs the survey, giving it the name Henshaw.
2. 1806 — Lewis Wolcott and David Curtis, walking from Vienna Township, become the township's first arrivals in spring and build a pole cabin near the later site of West Farmington.
3. 1807-08 — During the first winter the Wolcott party buys provisions from Esquire Tracy in Mesopotamia and, as the county history notes, sometimes venison from the Indians, once paying a silver dollar for a fine buck.
4. 1808 — Mary (Polly) Wolcott, who caught a fatal chill fording a stream during the family's overland move from Connecticut, dies September 2 -- the first death and first grave in the township, in what became the township cemetery.
5. 1808 — Lewis Wolcott marries Nancy Higgins on December 1, the first marriage of two local residents, and Horace Wolcott weds Sabrina Tracy of Mesopotamia on December 15; Caroline Wolcott, born September 12, is the first child born in the township.
6. 1810 — Dennis Lewis settles at what becomes West Farmington, where only seven families live; William Wilson keeps the first tavern in a log house on the State road.
7. 1814 — Captain John Benton and Theodore Wolcott, with David Belden and their families, leave Connecticut in May, reach Henshaw in June by way of Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, and cut their own road from the State road to the center; Benton's is the fourteenth family.
8. 1816 — The township's first schoolhouse is built near a pear tree and spring at the center; Almira Hannahs (later Mrs. Erastus Wolcott) teaches the first term. A log schoolhouse follows soon after at West Farmington, taught by Nancy Wolcott.
9. 1816 — On July 26 settlers of Henshaw, Bristol, Mesopotamia, Parkman and Southington sign the first subscription to support a preacher, Rev. Giles Cowles, pledging payment in wheat, rye, corn, pork and whiskey.
10. 1817 — Township organized as Farmington July 4, 1817, with Josiah Wolcott elected chairman of the first election and Theodore Wolcott clerk; a Congregational church is organized at the center October 8 by Revs. Joseph Badger and Abiel Jones with eleven founding members.
11. 1818 — A Methodist Episcopal class of seven members organizes in the fall in the east Farmington log schoolhouse, led by Rev. Ira Eddy.
12. 1830 — A Disciples church of about twenty members forms under Abijah Lee after Isaac Lee and Harvey Brockett return converted from the 1828 revival at Kirtland.
13. c. 1831 — The Farmington academy (later Western Reserve seminary) is established on the road through West Farmington, drawing students from Trumbull and adjoining counties.
14. 1834 — Austin D. Kibbee opens the first store at West Farmington, in part of his own house; a Congregational church organizes there April 12 with 39 founding members, most transferring from the center church.
15. 1849 — The Farmington academy outgrows its building; a new three-story brick building is erected and the school is renamed the Farmington Normal School.
16. 1854 — Trustees transfer the school to the Erie Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, which renames it Western Reserve Seminary.
17. 1865 — A marble soldiers' monument, costing $1,400, is dedicated in the West Farmington cemetery for township men lost in the Civil War; James A. Garfield delivers the dedication speech.
18. 1869-71 — Daniel R. Dana starts making cheese in 1869 in a township factory and in 1871 opens a second that turns out about seventy tons a year; cheese becomes a principal source of income.
19. 1875 — Western Reserve Lodge No. 507, Free and Accepted Masons, is chartered at Farmington on October 19.
20. 2020 — The census records 2,993 residents in Farmington Township across 27.5 square miles.

Stories

A war between two villages over the post office

Farmington Township grew two separate centers of town life almost from the start: the geographic center, and West Farmington, roughly a mile west, where Dennis Lewis settled in 1810 when only seven families lived there. Each built its own church, store and hotel, and for decades the two competed for standing. The clearest fight was over the mail. A post office was established on the State road about 1831, by the county history's account (a postal-history list dates a Farmington office to 1819), under postmaster Epaphroditus Fuller, and a second office opened at the center around 1834 under Daniel Wilcox. About 1847 the State-road office was moved into West Farmington and the center office discontinued -- and "then began a war between the two villages for the possession of the office, which lasted through many years," the 1882 county history records, before the center office was finally re-established and the West Farmington office simply took that village's name. A good sidewalk was eventually built connecting the two, a small truce between rival main streets that never merged.

Cabins, a cemetery, and a pioneer family's hard winter

Josiah Wolcott, persuaded by a land speculator to buy a thousand acres of what he later called 'wilderness,' first visited the township with his son Horace in the winter of 1806-07 and wintered in a fifteen-foot log house built without benefit of a team or a single sawed timber. He returned to Connecticut for his family, and when they arrived they discovered that 'not an article of food, either for man or beast, was to be had in the township,' so the settlers hauled straw for their bunks from neighboring Mesopotamia by hand, the forest too dense in places for a team. One of the party, Mary 'Polly' Wolcott, had taken a chill fording a stream on the journey out and died that September, the township's first death; the spot where she was buried became its cemetery. Her headstone reads, in part, 'Parents and friends, a long adieu; I leave this wilderness to you.'

A wedding on foot at four o'clock

Horace Wolcott was helping his father build a cattle shed of logs and shakes on December 15, 1808, when about four in the afternoon he brushed the mud off his hands and announced that he would stop for the day. He was going to Mesopotamia, he said, to be married that night, and asked his father to come. His father guessed not, because it was too far. Horace washed up, put on his best suit, which was not broadcloth, and walked to Mesopotamia, where Esquire Tracy married him to his daughter Sabrina. It was the second marriage in the township, two weeks after Lewis Wolcott had married Nancy Higgins on December 1. Horace died in 1872 at 87.

Paying the preacher in pork and whiskey

On July 26, 1816, the settlers of Henshaw and its neighbours Bristol, Mesopotamia, Parkman and Southington bound themselves in writing to pay the Rev. Giles Cowles for three years if he would move his family into Henshaw. Josiah Wolcott pledged $30, the largest sum; others gave $5 to $13. Because there was little cash, the paper set a price list: wheat $1.00 a bushel, new corn 50 cents, rye 75 cents, whiskey 75 cents a gallon, beef $4.00 a hundredweight, with chopping, logging and fencing taken at the common price. Preaching in each town was to be in proportion to what that town had subscribed. The county historian copied the document in full, noting that missionaries such as Joseph Badger had already come through.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• West Farmington Village51% of residentsEast Branch Mahoning River
• Plalan Lake Water Assoc.31% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Middlefield Village12% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Nelson Ledges Estates MHP4% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Middlefield Mobile Home Park1% of residentsGroundwater wells (11 wells)

Private schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-24: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 5 of 7 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 3 of 5.

Ballot issues

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 2024-09-10

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