Hambden Township, Geauga County

How Hambden Township, Geauga County began

Hambden Township was purchased in 1798 by Oliver Phelps and resold in 1801 to Dr. Solomon Bond, after whom the township was first named Bondstown; settlement began that year and by 1808 the population was about seventy. A vote of the people changed the name to Hambden in 1820 or 1821, inserting an extra "h" to distinguish it from Hamden elsewhere in Ohio. It lies between Chardon Township to the west and Munson Township to the south, bordering Lake County's Kirtland to the north, and is drained by branches of the Grand and Chagrin rivers. Hambden remains a small rural township, with 4,676 residents in 2020 and no National Register-listed sites of its own.

Settled 1801 (Dr. Solomon Bond built a shanty on his purchase; eight or nine families followed in 1802-1803, per the 1879 county history), incorporated 1811 (erected as a civil township by the county commissioners), by Dr. Solomon Bond, of Connecticut, first proprietor and namesake of the original Bondstown; among the 1802-1803 settling families were Joseph and Stephen Bond, Shadrack Ruark, and the Evans and Cooley families.

Where the name comes from

The township was purchased by Oliver Phelps, of Suffield, Connecticut, in 1798, who in February 1801 transferred twelve thousand acres to Dr. Solomon Bond, of Connecticut, after whom it was first named Bondstown. A vote of the people changed the name to Hambden in 1820 or 1821; an extra "h" was inserted to distinguish it from Hamden, in another part of the state.

Before the town

No permanent Native American village or documented site is recorded within Hambden Township, but the 1879 county history records that in the summer of 1810 a band of Native people, whom the source names only as "probably a band of Omic's Massasaugas" without identifying a nation, encamped in the south part of the township; the source adds that the same band had been found in the south part of Ashtabula County at an earlier day and sided with the British in the War of 1812. They contributed meat to the settlers, and their women made and sold baskets. Which historic nation this band belonged to is not stated in the source and is not asserted here.

• 1810 encampment, south part of Hambden Township (camp) — south part of Hambden Township, summer 1810 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1798 — Oliver Phelps, of Suffield, Connecticut, purchases the township.
2. 1801 — Phelps transfers 12,000 acres to Dr. Solomon Bond, who builds a shanty on his purchase; the township is first named Bondstown after him.
3. 1802 — Stephen Bond and other settlers establish Hambden Township's first settlement.
4. 1809 — Rev. N. B. Darrow organizes Hambden's first church, a Presbyterian congregation of five members including Deacon Ichabod and Mrs. Pomeroy.
5. 1811 — The county commissioners erect Hambden as a civil township, combining it with parts of Concord, Le Roy, Madison, Thompson, and Montville.
6. 1817 — Hambden holds its first township election under an organization also covering Montville and Le Roy; Nathaniel H. Parks is elected clerk.
7. 1820 — A vote of the people changes the township's name from Bondstown to Hambden.
8. 1822 — Hambden's first post office is established, with Augustus Sisson as first postmaster.
9. 1862 — James Langston builds Hambden's cheese factory, which receives the milk of one hundred cows its first season.
10. 1876 — The Hambden Grange organizes with forty-four members and erects a two-story hall the following year.
11. 2020 — U.S. Census records 4,676 residents in Hambden Township.

Stories

Deacon Pomeroy and the plum tree

Ichabod Pomeroy, one of Hambden's first settlers and the man who performed the township's first public worship in the absence of a clergyman, was once treed by wolves. The pack drove him into the top of a plum tree and held him there through the night; he passed the hours in prayer and thanksgiving while, two miles away, Mrs. Quiggle blew a conch shell to summon help. In a separate encounter, Aunt Peggy King was riding on horseback through the Hambden woods when she came upon a bear cub, dismounted, and picked it up to pet it; its enraged mother crashed out of the brush, and King escaped only by galloping off astride her horse.

The Bondstown Logging Society

In the summer of 1810, the men of Hambden organized a cooperative labor society, with a written constitution and by-laws, to help one another clear and burn logs from newly chopped land. Each member could put in as much work as he and his hired hands could manage; when a member's logs were piled and ready, the whole membership turned out for a communal "bee" to burn them. The society's many fines and penalties for absence or poor performance were payable in whiskey, the common currency of the day. The arrangement lasted only its first year before disputes over its by-laws ended it.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Chardon City81% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Leaders MHP9% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Jacques Mobile Home Park, Llc4% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Geauga County Services Center2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Kimberly Estates2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Chardon Estates1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Maple Ridge Mhc, Limited0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2024: 1 of 1 passed.

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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-08

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