Hinckley Township, Medina County

How Hinckley Township, Medina County began

Hinckley Township takes its name from Judge Samuel Hinckley of Northampton, Massachusetts, who bought the entire five-mile-square township from the Connecticut Land Company for 23 cents an acre; it was not formally organized until 1825, after the single event the township is still best known for. On December 24, 1818, roughly 600 armed settlers from Hinckley and surrounding townships formed a ring around the township and drove inward in the Great Hinckley Hunt, killing about 300 deer, 21 bears and 17 wolves in a day, clearing the forest of predators that had been killing livestock and opening it to serious settlement. A dozen years earlier, in 1806, the county's 1881 history records that a Wyandot or Seneca woman was hanged in this territory after being accused of prophesying an eclipse; it is the only source found for the account. The township was also home to Hiram Miller, remembered as the county's premier abolitionist, who is credited with helping roughly 1,000 enslaved people toward freedom. Hinckley Reservation, acquired by Cleveland Metroparks beginning in the 1920s, still draws crowds every March for the return of its turkey vultures on Buzzard Day, a tradition dating to 1957.

Settled 1811 (Judge Samuel Hinckley acquires the township as part of an estate debt settlement), incorporated 1825 (formally organized as Hinckley Township), by Judge Samuel Hinckley of Northampton, Massachusetts.

Where the name comes from

The township is named for its original owner, Judge Samuel Hinckley, who bought the entire five-mile-square township, at 23 cents an acre, as part of an August 1811 estate debt settlement. Hinckley initially promised to donate 160 acres for community purposes in exchange for the honor, but when he visited in 1831 to collect on land sales he reneged; after negotiation he compromised on 5 acres -- a 2.5-acre public square and two 1.5-acre burial grounds.

Before the town

Hinckley Township's rugged, broken terrain of ledges and caverns made it a hunter's paradise for Wyandot and Seneca hunting parties who used it as a favorite resort even after the country to its east, north and south had already been settled by whites; after 1812 they pitched their lodges there only once or twice more before disappearing west entirely, though stray hunters still passed through as late as 1820. The 1881 county history records a specific and much darker episode from a few years earlier: in the summer of 1806, an Indian woman was hanged by strangulation in the township after a tribal council decided she had invoked evil powers by predicting that darkness would come over the earth. She was hanged in May 1806 on the limb of a fallen tree spanning the river bed on a ledge near the Big Bend, on the Granger township line, and her body was left hanging there, by the historian's account, until it eventually dropped into the river below. The following month, June 1806, a total eclipse of the sun did occur -- the event her prophecy is said to have foretold, and almost certainly a real astronomical occurrence (a total solar eclipse crossed Ohio on June 16, 1806) that the historian suggests she may have anticipated from having witnessed a similar phenomenon before. No source we consulted could confirm additional detail such as her name, her specific nation, or whether any documentation survives beyond this single 1881 published account. The county-level history file carries the fuller treaty context for Medina County as a whole.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Seneca.

• Site of the 1806 hanging (other) — a ledge near the Big Bend of Rocky River (East Branch), on the Hinckley-Granger township line, May-June 1806 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806-05 — A Native woman is hanged in Hinckley Township near the Big Bend on the Granger line, after a tribal council found her guilty of invoking evil powers in predicting a coming darkness over the earth; several white men are said to have assisted in the execution.
2. 1806-06 — A total eclipse of the sun occurs, the event the hanged woman is said to have foretold the previous month.
3. 1811-08 — Judge Samuel Hinckley of Northampton, Massachusetts buys the township from the Connecticut Land Company for 23 cents an acre, part of an estate debt settlement.
4. 1818-12-24 — The Great Hinckley Hunt: roughly 600 armed settlers form a ring around the township and drive inward, killing about 300 deer, 21 bears and 17 wolves in a single day, then feast on barbecued bear and venison through Christmas.
5. 1825 — Hinckley Township formally organizes.
6. 1833 — Hiram Miller moves into Hinckley Township and eventually becomes, in the county's own account, its 'premier abolitionist and anti-slavery activist,' reportedly helping around 1,000 enslaved people toward freedom, supplied in part by Festus Ganyard and Ira Ingraham of neighboring Granger Township.
7. 1831 — Judge Samuel Hinckley visits the township to collect on land sales and reneges on his earlier promise to donate 160 acres for community use, ultimately compromising on 5 acres -- a public square and two burial grounds.
8. 1897 — The first written account of the Great Hinckley Hunt is published in American Field magazine.
9. 1923 — Cleveland Metroparks acquires its first Hinckley property.
10. 1944 — Cleveland Metroparks acquires 600 more acres in Hinckley and builds a dam creating a 100-acre lake.
11. 1957 — The first Buzzard Day celebration is held in Hinckley, marking the annual mid-March return of turkey vultures to Hinckley Reservation.

Stories

The Hanging on the Granger Line

Twelve years before Hinckley's famous circle hunt, its wild ledges and caverns were the setting for a much grimmer episode. In the summer of 1806, according to the county's 1881 history, a Native woman living among the hunting parties who frequented the township predicted that darkness would fall over the earth -- a prophecy that alarmed her people enough to call a council. They judged her guilty of invoking evil powers and sentenced her to death by strangulation. She was hanged in May of that year from the limb of a tree that had fallen across the riverbed on a ledge near the Big Bend, on the line between Hinckley and Granger townships, amid what the historian describes as chanting and howling from those present; several white men, by the same account, took part in carrying out the execution. Her body was left hanging as a warning, food for carrion birds, until it eventually fell into the river below. The month after her death, in June 1806, a total eclipse of the sun did cross the region -- the very darkness she is remembered as having foretold. The 1881 historian speculated she may have drawn on some earlier, half-remembered astronomical event to make her prediction; whatever her source, the coincidence of the eclipse following so closely on her execution is the detail that kept the story alive in county memory for three generations.

The Great Hinckley Hunt

By 1818, wolves and bears from Hinckley Township's dense, unbroken forest had been killing livestock across the surrounding townships almost nightly for years, and the settlers of Hinckley, Brecksville, Richfield, Granger and Royalton decided to end it in a single, coordinated day. On December 24, 1818, surveyors had already blazed trees marking a rough circle around the township's center; some 600 armed men and boys gathered at dawn, formed a continuous ring around the full five miles of Hinckley's border, and advanced inward together, shooting everything that crossed their path. By the day's end the circle hunt -- one of the largest ever held in Ohio -- had killed about 300 deer, 21 bears and 17 wolves, along with uncounted smaller game. That evening the hunters barbecued bear and venison on the spot, and the celebration ran on into Christmas Day as visitors arrived from surrounding communities to see the results. Judge Samuel Hinckley, who owned the township outright and had shown little urgency selling land considered unfit for farming and overrun with wildlife, found buyers considerably easier to come by once the animals were gone.

A Steady Stream Toward Canada

Hiram Miller moved into Hinckley Township in 1833 and, over the following decades, became -- in the county's own words -- its "premier abolitionist and anti-slavery activist," reportedly helping around 1,000 enslaved people make their way toward freedom in Canada. He did not work alone: Festus Ganyard and Ira Ingraham of neighboring Granger Township are credited with supplying Miller with a steady stream of freedom seekers, turning two adjoining farm townships into a functioning stop on the Underground Railroad. A historical marker commemorating the network originally stood on West 130th Street in Hinckley Township before it was relocated in 2017 to the Brunswick Historical Society, where it remains today -- a quieter, less-celebrated counterpart to the township's famous 1818 hunt, but arguably its more consequential 19th-century story.

Local history sources: hinckleytwp.org · medinaco.org · archive.org

Lake Erie, drawn through two separate offshore intakes serving the Lake Road filtration plant The water here

• Medina Co/northwest100% of residentsLake Erie

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