Hiram Township, Portage County

How Hiram Township, Portage County began

Hiram Township, the only Hiram Township in Ohio, is named for the biblical King Hiram I of Tyre. Vermont settlers John and Elsa Johnson bought 100 acres there in 1818, and their farm became a pivotal early site of the Latter Day Saint movement: Joseph Smith made it his residence and the church's temporary headquarters from 1831 to 1832, received a major revelation there (Doctrine and Covenants Section 76, February 16, 1832), and, on the night of March 24, 1832, was dragged from the house, beaten and tarred and feathered by a mob of about 25 men. The 1957 county history records Cayuga people camping near the township, associated with the neighboring Nelson Ledges. Hiram is also home to Hiram College, founded in 1850, where James A. Garfield studied and later taught before becoming U.S. president. Today the township has 2,396 residents (2020).

Settled 1818 (John and Elsa Johnson), by John and Elsa (Mary Elsa) Johnson.

Where the name comes from

Named for Hiram I, the biblical king of Tyre, who supplied cedar and craftsmen for the building of Solomon's Temple.

Before the town

The 1957 county history 'Portage Heritage' records Cayuga people camping frequently near the Nelson Ledges, on the boundary area between Hiram and neighboring Nelson Township, and lists Hiram Township among those with recorded prehistoric mounds and burials, without giving an exact in-township location for either. No named historic-era Native American village specific to Hiram Township is documented in the sources consulted. For the county's broader Native history.

Nations recorded here: Cayuga.

Timeline

1. 1818 — John and Elsa Johnson, from Vermont, purchase 100 acres near Hiram and settle, at first in a log cabin.
2. 1828 — The Johnsons build a colonial-style farmhouse, farming apples and corn and producing cheese sold regionally and to New York.
3. 1831 — Joseph Smith, after the Johnsons' son Lyman joins the Latter Day Saint movement, makes the Johnson farm his residence and the church's temporary headquarters.
4. 1832 — Smith receives what becomes Section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants at the Johnson farm on February 16.
5. 1832 — On the night of March 24, a mob of about 25 men drags Joseph Smith from the Johnson house, beats him, attempts to force acid into his mouth, and tars and feathers him; a doctor in the mob refuses to attempt castration. Smith preaches to a crowd including some of the mob the next day.
6. 1850 — The Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, later Hiram College, is founded March 1 by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
7. 1856-1861 — James A. Garfield, who had studied at the institute from 1851 to 1853, returns to teach, becomes principal, and expands its curriculum before leaving in 1861; he is elected the 20th U.S. president in 1880.
8. 1867 — The Western Reserve Eclectic Institute incorporates as a college and is renamed Hiram College on February 20.
9. 1956 — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquires the Johnson farm property.
10. 1976 — The John Johnson farmhouse is added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

A night of violence at the Johnson farm

By early 1832, Joseph Smith had made the Johnson family's farmhouse in Hiram Township the working headquarters of the young Church of Christ, translating scripture there and receiving what would become one of the movement's foundational revelations that February. The peace did not last. On the night of March 24, a mob of roughly 25 men broke into the house, dragged Smith from a trundle bed where he slept, choked him, tried unsuccessfully to force acid into his mouth, and coated him in hot tar and feathers before leaving him in the cold. Accounts of the mob's exact motive conflict — one secondhand story blamed a family dispute over Smith's closeness to a young woman living at the farm, while other hostile witnesses pointed to economic grievances — but a doctor brought along with apparent intent to castrate Smith refused to go through with it. Remarkably, Smith preached to a crowd the very next day that included some of the men who had attacked him, and baptized three people; four days later, one of his infant adopted twins died of measles, an unrelated tragedy that fell in the same terrible week. The farmhouse survives today, restored and operated as a historic site by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A future president's college

The Western Reserve Eclectic Institute opened in Hiram in 1850 under the sponsorship of the Christian Church, one of many small denominational colleges that dotted the Western Reserve in the mid-1800s. Among its earliest students, arriving in 1851, was a young man named James A. Garfield, who left after two years but returned in 1856 to teach, rose to become the school's principal, and expanded its course of study before moving on in 1861. The institute became Hiram College in 1867, and Garfield went on to a career in the Union Army, Congress, and finally, in 1880, the presidency of the United States — one of the more improbable trajectories to start from a small township college named for a biblical king of Tyre.

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

Every historic place in Portage County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Hiram Village53% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Garrettsville Village23% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Troy Oaks Homes9% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)
• Nelson Ledges Estates MHP3% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Pm Estates3% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Portage County Wr - Mantua Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Homestead Manor MHP2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Inn At the Pines Alf & Mc2% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Blackbrook Valley Estates1% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aurora Estates0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Mantua Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Aurora City - Portage0% of residentsBuried valley/sandstone aquifer wells (12 county wells)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (2)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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