Hartford Township, Trumbull County

How Hartford Township, Trumbull County began

Hartford Township, surveyed for the Connecticut Land Company and named for Hartford, Connecticut, was first settled in 1799 by Edward Brockway, Isaac Jones and Asahel Brainard, who spent their first night by a large tree near the township center; Brockway and Jones brought their families out the next summer while Brainard wintered alone clearing land. A separate township government existed by 1811, when Elam Jones was elected clerk. The township grew around two centers, Burg Hill in the north (an early election and militia-muster site) and the township center, plus the northeastern village of Orangeville on the Pymatuning River, which was incorporated separately in 1868. Elam Jones, a Connecticut-born surveyor and teacher who settled here in 1805, built the township's first public house at the center in 1828-29 and served twenty years as town clerk; that tavern is listed today on the National Register of Historic Places. The township remains home to Orangeville and the crossroads community of Hartford.

Settled 1799, incorporated 1811 (township government confirmed in existence by this date), by Edward Brockway, Isaac Jones and Asahel Brainard, first settlers in 1799.

Where the name comes from

The township was surveyed by the Connecticut Land Company as township number five, first range, and named Hartford after the Connecticut state capital -- an 1803 deed by original proprietors Urial Holmes and Ephraim Root already refers to it as 'Hartford,' though other early deeds and papers as late as 1814 also called it 'Vernon,' since it lay within the broader area used for elections under that name. It is one of two townships of this name in Ohio.

Before the town

The 1882 county history records one specific violent incident from the township's first winter of settlement, 1799-1800: two Indians, named Flin and Kanoshua, visited Asahel Brainard's cabin, drank whiskey, and later fell into a fatal altercation in which Flin was killed near the present dairy farm site once owned by U.R. Chapman. Fearing reprisal, settler Martin Smith of Vernon set out for the killers' village near Greenville, Pennsylvania, but met the party already coming, at Orangeville; after deliberation the group concluded 'Indian no kill him, but whiskey kill him,' and buried Flin near the east line of the farm where the settlers' first cabin stood. The book does not name the nation either man belonged to. A separate local curiosity, an artificial-looking raised roadbed or embankment northwest of Orangeville that pioneers found already forested when they arrived, was locally speculated (without confirmation) to have been an Indian tribal boundary marker, though the book's own writer doubted this and thought it looked more like the work of 'a more civilized race.' Neither incident is tied to a named village, trail or treaty. Four further notes come from the same 1882 county history. A large Indian hunting camp stood on the west side of lot 24 on the farm of General Andrews Bushnell and was visible for several years after settlement, some lodges looking newly used and others old and dilapidated. Flin's people lived at a village near Greenville, Pennsylvania, and several encampments gathered to bury him; some years later medical students dug up his remains and kept the bones for a long time in Dr. Wilcox's office at Burg Hill. Yankee Run was said to have been named by the Indians because they found a white man's body at its forks. And Edward Brockway was cured of a rattlesnake bite by an old Indian's prescription.

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

• Grave of Flin, near the first Brockway-Jones-Brainard cabin site (burial) — east line of the farm long owned by William Bond, near the township center, 1799-1800 (archive.org)
• The 'old road' embankment (other) — roughly a mile west of Orangeville, running northeast to southwest, pre-settlement, undated (archive.org)
• Indian hunting camp on lot 24 (camp) — west side of lot 24, on the farm later owned by General Andrews Bushnell, before and during early settlement (some lodges new, some old and decayed) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1799 — Edward Brockway, Isaac Jones and Asahel Brainard make the township's first settlement, spending their first night by a large tree near the center; Brockway fells the first tree on the farm later owned by William Bond.
2. 1799-1800 — Two Indians, Flin and Kanoshua, visit Brainard's cabin; a fatal quarrel follows and Flin is killed and buried near the settlers' first cabin site, an incident settlers feared might bring reprisal.
3. 1801 — William Bushnell, the pioneer settler of the township's south part, arrives with his family in June and shelters nine days under a lean-to made from a felled chestnut tree.
4. 1803 — Urial Holmes and Ephraim Root, the proprietors, deed Titus Brockway land reserving an acre for a 'green' and a meeting-house and call the township Hartford; Jeffery Bentley buys two acres on which he has already built mills near the south line.
5. 1804 — About ten families from Hartland, Connecticut, leave together after a farewell sermon for a six-week, six-hundred-mile journey; that year Miss Bartholomew teaches the first school at Burg Hill to 24 scholars from Hartford and Vernon, and the first military election is held on May 7.
6. 1805 — Elam Jones, a Connecticut-born surveyor and schoolteacher, emigrates from Barkhamsted with his wife Sarah Hyde, a six-week journey, and settles on lot twelve.
7. 1805 — John Kepner begins a clearing in the southeast corner, starting the Dutch Ridge settlement of Pennsylvania German families; the same year the first frame schoolhouse is built on the green, and on October 11 two-year-old Lucy Andrews is buried at the center, the first grave in its graveyard.
8. 1811 — Records show a separate township government already in existence; Elam Jones is elected township clerk at the April election, an office he holds twenty years.
9. 1812 — A post office named Hartford is recorded in the postal-history list; the county history names Titus Brockway as the first postmaster, with Philo Borden as his deputy for many years.
10. 1814 — James Heslep opens the first store at Burg Hill and sells within months to Colonel Richard Hayes, who sends droves of cattle over the mountains to Philadelphia.
11. 1818 — The first village lots at Orangeville are laid out by Augustus and Levi Moffatt.
12. 1819-20 — The Congregationalists, helped by the township, build the 'old church' on the green for $1,310 (contract signed December 1, 1818), a 45-foot-square Doric building that the county history calls the first church built in the county.
13. 1822 — Bentley's mills, by then owned by Titus Brockway, are burned, probably by an arsonist, and rebuilt; the second grist mill burns again in 1826 and is never rebuilt.
14. 1828-29 — Elam Jones builds the township's first public house at the center, opening it in 1829; he retires from innkeeping in 1846. The building is later listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
15. c. 1832 — Anti-slavery agitation begins; a society forms, Hartford becomes a regular stop for lecturers, and farmhouse stations of an Underground Railroad branch run through the township.
16. 1849 — Jarvin Gates and Jay Parsons build a steam sawmill south of the center that is still running thirty-two years later.
17. 1868 — Orangeville is incorporated as a village; R.E. Grey serves as its first mayor.
18. 2003-01-08 — The Elam Jones Public House at 3365 State Route 7 in Hartford is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
19. 2020 — The census records 1,861 residents in Hartford Township, which includes the village of Orangeville and the community of Hartford.

Stories

"Indian no kill him, but whiskey kill him"

In the township's first winter, 1799-1800, Asahel Brainard was left alone at the new settlement near the center of Hartford Township while his companions Edward Brockway and Isaac Jones went east for their families. Two Indians, Flin and Kanoshua, visited Brainard's cabin and were given whiskey; the two left on apparently good terms but soon quarreled, and Flin was shot and killed near what became the dairy farm of U.R. Chapman. Fearing the killing would bring trouble on the small settlement, Martin Smith of neighboring Vernon set out for the dead man's village near Greenville, Pennsylvania, to explain what had happened -- but got only as far as Orangeville before meeting the party already on its way. After a consultation among the gathered Indians, the 1882 county history records their verdict: 'Indian no kill him, but whiskey kill him.' Flin was buried with customary ceremony near the settlers' first cabin, though a few years later medical students dug up his remains, which were kept for years in a doctor's office at Burg Hill.

Elam Jones: surveyor, teacher, innkeeper, town clerk

Elam Jones was born in 1774 at the Jones family home on East Mountain in Barkhamsted, Connecticut, and, unusually for a pioneer of his generation, had been privately tutored by a minister and spent years teaching school before he ever saw Ohio. He married Sarah Hyde in 1801 and emigrated with her from Barkhamsted in 1805, a journey of six weeks, settling on lot twelve in Hartford Township. He served in the War of 1812 under Colonel Hayes, and in 1828 built the township's first public house at the center, opening it the following year and running it until his retirement in 1846. He also held the office of town clerk for twenty years and served for a time as postmaster. He died in 1851 at seventy-seven; his wife outlived him by nearly two decades, dying in 1870 at ninety-four. His tavern still stands on State Route 7 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

A den of 170 rattlesnakes

In the early spring of 1804 travelers who stopped for water at a spring near Samuel Spencer's house at Burg Hill came back reporting a rattlesnake den at its head. The neighbors turned out, and because the den was sealed by a heavy stone it took a yoke of cattle to pull it aside. The snakes were just stirring in the cool weather, and the boys killed them with flails: 170 in all. Mrs. Spencer soon found one under her bed and another dropped from the ceiling, and one day she lifted a basin in the pantry and found a snake curled inside. Edward Brockway, bitten on Brockway Run, nearly died and recovered through an old Indian's prescription, after which he declared war on snakes and hunted them whenever he crossed the stream on the way to church.

The old church on the green

When Holmes and Root deeded land to Titus Brockway in 1803 they reserved an acre as a green for a meeting-house, and in December 1818 the township signed a contract with John Northrop and Oliver Stanford of Boardman to build it for $1,310, a third of it payable in grain, cattle and labor. The result was a 45-foot-square Doric building with two rows of small windows, Venetian windows at each end, a high pulpit, square pews, galleries on three sides and a tall spire with weather vane, all in the Connecticut style; the young men of the township paid for the steeple. The county history calls it the first church built in the county. It served as meeting house, town hall and polling place for every denomination, was repaired in 1846, and by the 1850s, with the congregations united, was used only as a school.

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

Every historic place in Trumbull County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Masury100% of residentsShenango River / Shenango River Lake (Pymatuning area) surface intake

Nursing homes (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Shale and injection wells (3)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

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

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 4 of 5 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

Ballot issues

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

Auditor of State record

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• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-07

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