Henrietta Township, Lorain County

How Henrietta Township, Lorain County began

Henrietta Township, surveyed as town five, range nineteen, was first settled in winter 1817 by Simeon Durand, a French-born veteran of the American Revolution who had crossed the Atlantic at age sixteen with the Marquis de Lafayette and served as his interpreter until the war's end. The township's northern third had belonged to neighboring Brownhelm until 1827. A prehistoric wind event, remembered locally as 'The Windfall,' flattened a half-mile-wide swath of the township's original forest long before settlement, leaving a patch of younger, uniform timber still visible in 1879. It remains a rural township with no incorporated municipality within its boundaries, holding 1,779 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled Winter 1817 (Simeon Durand, with wife and youngest child, settles on lot ninety-eight), by Simeon Durand.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted explains the origin of the name Henrietta for this township; it is noted only as the sole township of that name statewide.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or trail is recorded in Henrietta Township. The 1879 history, written in the 1870s from settlers' recollections, mentions no Native people in the township's settlement account.

Timeline

1. Winter 1817 — Simeon Durand, with his wife and youngest child, settles on lot ninety-eight, the township's first family; they live under a bark-covered pole shelter until a cabin can be built.
2. Summer 1817 — Calvin Leonard, from Cayuga County, New York, arrives alone and on foot with a pack on his back and buys about 300 acres next to Durand; that winter he marries Tryphena Root and brings her west by ox team and sled, a trip on which the first snow fell the day before they started and melted the day after they arrived. (An earlier version of this record said 1819, a reading that the 1916 history, which lists Leonard among the 1817 settlers, does not support.)
3. Fall 1817 — The families of Ruluff Andress and John Denison come, the women and children by boat from Dunkirk to the mouth of the Black River in thirteen days in a rough voyage; Joseph Swift settles in the northwest corner, then part of Brownhelm.
4. November 1826 — Residents of the south part of Brownhelm petition the Lorain County commissioners to cut off three tiers of lots to form a township; the commissioners reject the petition but at the same session erect Henrietta from tracts 9 to 15 of Range 19, attached to Brighton for judicial purposes.
5. February 1827 — Two tiers of lots, over a mile wide, are detached from Brownhelm and added to Henrietta; tract 9 goes to Brighton.
6. April 1827 — The first election is held: Calvin Leonard, Simeon Durand and Smith Hancock are elected trustees, Justin Abbot clerk, Joseph Powers treasurer and Edward Durand justice of the peace; a post office follows on the hill, with 'Squire Abbott' as first postmaster according to the 1916 history.
7. May 25, 1831 — Simeon Durand, the township's first settler, dies on his original farm.
8. March 1835 — Lots 81 to 85, the rest of the tier, are detached from Brownhelm and added to Henrietta; Camden is carved partly out of Henrietta the same month.
9. June 1835 — Squire Abbott, a Baptist preacher from Kingsville, Ohio, settles on Henrietta Hill and strikes the first blow there, becoming the first settled minister in the township; he dies in December 1853.
10. 1840 — Joseph Swift, who raised huge corn crops on the Vermilion River bottom (a place called 'Egypt'), has built a house costing about $5,000 with pillars brought from Albany, New York.
11. 1916 — The county history reports the township organized from Brownhelm in 1827 and reaching its present form after two further annexations.
12. 2020 — Census records 1,779 residents; the township contains no incorporated municipality.

Stories

Lafayette's interpreter, on a Lorain County farm

Simeon Durand was born in France and, at sixteen, crossed the Atlantic with his brother Merari as part of the Marquis de Lafayette's entourage, serving as the general's interpreter for the remainder of the American Revolution. After the war he married and settled in Essex County, New York, where he stayed until the winter of 1817, when he brought his wife and youngest child -- the older children followed later -- to an unbroken lot in what became Henrietta Township. The family lived under a shelter of poles covered with bark until they could build something more permanent. Durand farmed his 160 acres until his death there on May 25, 1831; his wife outlived him by more than two decades, dying in 1854 at ninety, at the home of their son Merari in neighboring Russia township.

Egypt on the Vermilion

Joseph Swift came to Henrietta from Connecticut in the fall of 1817 and took up land in the northwest corner, on the bottom of the Vermilion River, which was then the southwest corner of Brownhelm. The bottomland proved so rich that Swift raised enormous corn crops, one year 5,000 bushels, which he sold at a dollar a bushel, and the district came to be called 'Egypt.' About 1840 he built a house that cost some $5,000, a great sum for the township, with pillars carted all the way from Albany. It was still standing in 1879. Swift had married Elizabeth Root, the sister of Calvin Leonard's wife Tryphena.

The Windfall

Long before the pioneers came, a hurricane swept through what is now Henrietta Township and blew down all the larger timber across a strip more than half a mile wide. The pioneers named the district 'the Windfall,' and in 1879 it could still be traced by the younger and more even stand of white and black ash, elm, oak, hickory, maple and cherry that had grown up, compared with the old growth of whitewood, oak, hickory, walnut, beech and basswood around it.

A bridal trip by ox sled

Calvin Leonard came to Henrietta on foot and alone in 1817 with a pack on his back, cleared a patch on lot 97, built a cabin and went back to New York in winter to marry Tryphena Root. He brought her west with an ox team and sled, and she joined him at Buffalo after coming by stage. The 1879 history says the first snow of the season fell the day before they started and was gone the day after they arrived, and that on the road near the future Elyria a bear crossed their path a short way ahead. Leonard was better off than most pioneers; he had the cash to pay for his land.

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

Every historic place in Lorain County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Amherst City41% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Elyria)
• Oberlin Water Department30% of residentsWest Branch Black River, via Oberlin Upground Reservoir
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A17% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• South Amherst Village5% of residentsLake Erie
• Wakeman Village4% of residentsLake Erie
• Northern Ohio Rural Water2% of residentsLake Erie
• Firelands Manor MHP1% of residentsLake Erie via Avon Lake Regional Water (blended with Rural Lorain Co. Water Authority supply)
• Erie Co. Vermilion District0% of residentsLake Erie

Public schools (3)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

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 2025-09-11

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