Jefferson Township, Ashtabula County

How Jefferson Township, Ashtabula County began

Jefferson Township's 16,354 acres were bought outright in 1798 by Gideon Granger, the future U.S. Postmaster General, who surveyed the future village center into two-acre lots. Michael Webster, arriving from Franklin, Delaware County, New York in 1805, is remembered as the township's first permanent settler; his wife spent nine months as the only white woman in the settlement while he traveled for provisions. Chippewa people living in or passing through the area supplied early settlers with bear meat, venison, elk, and wild turkey and, the local history records, "never did any harm," though the same account notes five hundred Native people passing through Buffalo toward a War of 1812-era council. The township's seat, the village of Jefferson, became Ashtabula County's county seat in 1811 after Granger offered to help fund its courthouse.

Settled 1805 (Michael Webster, first permanent settler), platted 1798 (Gideon Granger surveys the village center), by Gideon Granger, who purchased the township; Michael Webster, first settler.

Where the name comes from

Jefferson Township, like the village of Jefferson within it, is named for President Thomas Jefferson; it is one of 24 Jefferson Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

The 1878 county history records that Native people, identified as Chippewa, frequently visited early Jefferson Township settlers, supplying them with bear meat, venison, elk, and wild turkey, and states plainly that they "never did any harm." The same account, describing the War of 1812 period, records five hundred Native people passing through Buffalo, New York in a single company en route to a council of war -- a detail about the wider regional mobilization rather than a Jefferson Township event specifically. No named village or site within the township is documented in the sources consulted.

Nations recorded here: Ojibwe (Chippewa).

Timeline

1. 1798 — Gideon Granger, later U.S. Postmaster General, acquires full ownership of the township's 16,354 acres and surveys the future village center into two-acre lots.
2. 1805 — Michael Webster arrives from Franklin, Delaware County, New York and becomes among the township's first permanent settlers; Jonathan Warner, from Saybrook, Connecticut, records the township's first recorded land deed the same year.
3. 1806 — The Freithy family relocates from Washington, D.C. and establishes the township's first store and post office.
4. 1807 — Jonathan Warner marries the Freithy's daughter, the township's first recorded wedding; Daniel and Luman Webster also settle in the township this year.
5. 1809 — Mr. Shook builds the township's first grist mill, producing its first flour.
6. 1811 — Ashtabula County organizes with Jefferson as its seat, chosen partly because Granger offered to help fund the courthouse; a brick courthouse is completed the same year.
7. 1814 — Michael Webster traps seven wolves using a large trap, collecting bounties of about fifty cents per wolf; the Hickok and Webster families jointly trap a large bear that had been destroying their cornfields.
8. 1817 — Michael Webster builds a sawmill on Mill's Creek.
9. 1824 — Gilbert Webster opens the township's first mercantile store.
10. 1828 — Dr. Almon Hawley graduates from Yale College and becomes Jefferson's first settled physician.
11. 1995 — The Giddings Road Covered Bridge, a 107-foot Pratt truss span over Mill Creek about 2.7 miles northeast of Jefferson, is built with funding from an ODOT Timber Grant.

Stories

Nine months alone

When Michael Webster and his family settled in what became Jefferson Township in 1805, they were, for a long stretch, effectively on their own. The 1878 county history preserves his wife's own account: she spent nine months as the only white woman in the entire settlement, remaining alone with her child for stretches while her husband traveled to secure provisions the family could not yet produce for itself. The forest around them was still dense enough that a schoolhouse built a few years later required children to walk nearly four miles through timber to reach it, and dangerous enough that a large trap catching seven wolves in a single stretch in 1814, and a joint effort by the Webster and Hickok families to catch a cornfield-raiding bear, were both considered noteworthy events. Native people from the area -- identified in the county history as Chippewa -- visited the Websters regularly during these years and, far from posing the threat isolation might suggest, supplied them with bear meat, venison, elk, and wild turkey, a working relationship the same history sums up simply: they "never did any harm."

Local history sources: ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Village of Jefferson98% of residentsLake Erie
• Dfc Mobile Home Park2% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Colleges (1)

Public schools (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Superfund sites (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 1 of 1 passed.

Ballot issues

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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-08-05

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