Hartville

How Hartville began

Hartville, in Lake Township in northern Stark County, grew around the farm of John Morehart, who settled there in 1818 and is listed among the township's earliest settlers; Lake Township itself was organized in June 1816. In 1881 the county history described Hartville as a crossroads of twelve or fifteen families with a tavern, two stores and a doctor, never properly laid out or recorded, though Wikipedia dates a first plat to 1851. Methodist, Reformed, Lutheran and Dunkard (German Baptist Brethren) congregations built churches in and around the village between about 1850 and 1880. Hartville incorporated as a village in 1951 and had 3,329 residents in 2020.

Settled 1818, platted 1851 (per Wikipedia; the 1881 county history found no recorded plat), incorporated 1951, by John Morehart.

Where the name comes from

The name is likely a portmanteau of the surnames of founder John Morehart and fellow settler John Willis, according to Wikipedia; the 1881 county history called the origin of the name unknown.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or trail within Hartville is recorded in the 1881 county history's chapter on Lake Township or in the other sources consulted. The township's swamps and Congress Lake made it a hunting ground for early settlers; the history records bear, wolf, panther and deer but no Native camps there. Land east of the Tuscarawas River had its Native title extinguished by the Treaty of Fort McIntosh in 1785, a boundary confirmed at Greenville in 1795, according to the 1881 county history.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

• Fort McIntosh and Greenville treaty cession (land east of the Tuscarawas) (treaty) — Stark County east of the Tuscarawas River, including Lake Township, 1785 and 1795 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1816 — In June the county commissioners erect Lake Township and order its first election at the house of Joseph Moore; the election has to be called again for June 29.
2. 1818 — John Morehart settles the area that becomes Hartville.
3. 1851 — The village is first platted.
4. 1851 — Around this year the Methodists build a church at Hartville; about twenty years later they sell it to the Reformed congregation.
5. 1856 — Around this year the Dunkards (German Baptist Brethren) build a church south of Hartville; a second Dunkard church north of the village follows in the late 1870s.
6. 1875 — Around this year the Lutherans build a church at Hartville.
7. 1880 — The village's population is recorded at 135 residents.
8. 1881 — The History of Stark County describes Hartville as twelve or fifteen families with a tavern kept by Daniel Baum and stores kept by George Machamer and Henry Grossenbaugher.
9. 1951 — Hartville formally incorporates as a municipality.
10. 1960 — The village's population reaches 1,353 residents.
11. 1980 — The Hartville Hotel at 101 North Prospect Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 3.
12. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 3,329 residents in Hartville.

Stories

A village nobody recorded

When the History of Stark County was compiled in 1881, its writer found that much of Lake Township's early record had been lost, and that Hartville's was thin. He wrote that neither Hartville nor nearby Cairo had ever been properly laid out and recorded, and that the origin of both names was obscure or unknown. As nearly as residents remembered, John Houghton opened the first store, followed by Joseph Brown and Peter Shellenberger. John Morehart, the settler whose land became the village, opened a tavern, which Daniel Baum kept in 1881, and a Dr. Hoffman was an early physician. Wikipedia gives a first plat in 1851, which the 1881 history did not find.

How Lake Township may have got its name

Before Stark County was organized, the whole northern half of the future county was a township of Columbiana County called Lake. The 1881 county history records two explanations: one local doctor thought it was named because it lay toward Lake Erie or drained to it, while the history's writer concluded after inquiry that it came from Congress Lake. He imagined Columbiana County hunters saying they were going up to the lake country to hunt bears, until the region was known by that name. Congress Lake, about a mile and a half long, lies in the northeast of the present township; the history guessed it was named because it long remained the property of Congress. The present Lake Township was organized under that old name in June 1816.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Stark County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Canton Public Water System100% of residentsGlacial sand-and-gravel aquifer (3 well fields)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (2)

Public libraries (1)

Police stations (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-12: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 0 of 6 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.

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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