Johnston Township, Trumbull County

How Johnston Township, Trumbull County began

Johnston Township, surveyed by Nathan Moore in 1802 and named for original proprietor Captain James Johnston of Salisbury, Connecticut, was first settled the next year by Captain James Bradley, his wife Asenath and their three sons, who left Connecticut on June 7, 1803, and walked the last stretch by marked trees and bridle paths through what was then ten miles of unbroken, uninhabited wilderness in every direction. Son Ariel Bradley felled the township's first tree. Millwrights Jared Hill and James Skinner arrived in 1804 and built the township's first sawmill, followed by a gristmill, ending settlers' long trips to Orangeville, Pennsylvania to grind grain. A Methodist preaching class formed about 1812 and a Congregational church organized in 1814 in the township's first log schoolhouse. The township's first election was held October 9, 1816, at the house of Abijah Perry. Later waves of Protestant Irish (from about 1830) and Scottish (from 1840) immigrants settled its northwest and southeast corners respectively, each establishing their own schools and churches.

Settled 1803-06 (departed Connecticut June 7, 1803, arriving that summer), incorporated 1816-10-09 (first township election), by Captain James Bradley and family, first settlers.

Where the name comes from

The township's name was 'doubtless derived,' in the words of the 1882 county history, from original proprietor Captain James Johnston of Salisbury, Connecticut, father of the later Edward Walter Johnston; the township was surveyed by Nathan Moore in 1802.

Before the town

No Native village, camp or treaty event specific to Johnston Township is recorded in the sources we reviewed. The township lies in northeastern Trumbull County within the wider region the county's 1882 history describes as Delaware-occupied hunting ground used seasonally by Seneca and Mingo bands through the 1700s, but no source found names a site inside the township's present boundaries. One detail from the 1882 county history does place Native people nearby: when Jared Hill and James Skinner built their sawmill in 1804-05 in the northeast of the township, their nearest neighbors were a camp of Indians half a mile down the stream, but the book names neither the camp's people nor its site.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware), Seneca, Mingo (Seneca-Cayuga).

• Indian camp below Hill and Skinner's mill (camp) — about half a mile down the stream from the 1804-05 mill in the township's northeast corner, c. 1804-1806 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1802 — The township is surveyed by Nathan Moore, still an unbroken wilderness.
2. 1803-06-07 — Captain James Bradley, his wife Asenath and sons Thaddeus, Moore Bird and Ariel leave Salisbury, Connecticut, reaching the township later that summer after a five-to-six-week, six-to-seven-hundred-mile journey; Ariel fells the township's first tree.
3. 1804-07 — Millwrights Jared Hill and James Skinner arrive and raise the township's first sawmill in its northeast corner, later adding a gristmill that ends settlers' trips to Orangeville, Pennsylvania to grind grain.
4. 1804-09 — The Jaqua family settles near the crossroads east of the center; the marriage of their daughter Charity to Solomon Brainard, before June 1806, is the township's first.
5. 1805-11-02 — Four families from Warren, Connecticut, Daniel Hine Jr., Erastus Carter, Howard Fuller and Benjamin Andrews, arrive together with several single men; Hine breaks his leg raising logs for Fuller's house and spends most of the winter laid up in a shanty.
6. c. 1806 — Erastus Carter's infant child dies about a year after his arrival and is buried in what becomes the township graveyard, the first grave there.
7. 1806-06 — A second company, Daniel Hine Sr., David Webb, William McKey and Morris Smith with their families, arrives after dysentery had slowed the journey; Webb's clothier son Nathan loses his first mill dam to a freshet.
8. 1811 — Typhus fever sweeps the settlement in winter and spring; four young people die, among them Debby Webb on May 2, and the sick are too many for the well to nurse.
9. c. 1812 — A Methodist preaching class forms at the house of Mr. Lilley, the township's first organized congregation, encouraged by visiting preacher Mr. Crosby of Vernon.
10. 1812 — War is declared January 19 and the militia is drafted; when a false rumor puts the enemy landing at Cleveland nearly every able-bodied man marches as far as Austinburg or Harpersfield, and some serve about six months at Camp Avery near present Milan.
11. 1813 — Rev. James McMahan rides the Mahoning circuit, a frontier Methodist route reaching into Ashtabula, Cuyahoga and Portage counties, that serves the Johnston class.
12. 1814-10-16 — A Presbyterian/Congregational church organizes with six founding members -- Solomon Brainard and wife, Nathan Webb and wife, and Amzi Webb and wife -- meeting in the township's first log schoolhouse.
13. 1816-10-09 — The township's first election is held at the house of Abijah Perry near the center; Jared Hill is elected clerk and Samuel Hine Jr., David and John Jackson trustees.
14. 1827-10-10 — Rev. Osias S. Eells is installed as pastor of the Congregational church, then meeting in a hewed-log schoolhouse at the center.
15. 1828 — Colonel Walter Johnston, a son of the proprietor Captain James Johnston, settles in the township; he dies December 2, 1849.
16. c. 1830 — A wave of Protestant Irish immigrants, aided by John Boone of Youngstown (later of Mecca), begins settling the township's northwest corner, later organizing their own schools and a Methodist society.
17. 1840 — A Scottish settlement begins in the township's southeast corner, led by Thomas Tudhope and Alexander Curry; the district becomes 'almost exclusively Scotch' and largely Presbyterian.

Stories

Ten miles of wilderness in every direction

When Captain James Bradley, his wife Asenath and their three sons reached the site chosen for their new home in 1803, the 1882 county history records that 'the whole region at that time for a space of ten miles square around this spot... was an unbroken wilderness, uninhabited,' with only a scattering of families in Vienna, Bazetta, Gustavus and Kinsman to call neighbors, reached by marked trees and bridle paths rather than roads. Mrs. Bradley did not see another white woman's face for a year and some months after leaving the last family she had stayed with, in neighboring Fowler township. Ariel, the youngest son, felled the settlement's first tree and later became the township's second physician, following his brother Moore Bird -- who had trained under Dr. Peter Allen -- into medicine after his own strength gave out from the work of clearing land. Their father lived fourteen years on his farm before dying at sixty-two; their mother outlived him by fifteen more.

A mill seat among the wolves and a camp of Indians

Jared Hill and James Skinner, young carpenters and millwrights, came in July 1804 looking for a mill seat and chose a site in the northeast part of the township, where they raised a sawmill frame before leaving for the winter. They went to Canfield, married, and came back with their wives, cutting a mile-and-a-half path through the woods from Vernon to get the wagons in. Because both men worked as mechanics, their wives were sometimes alone from Monday morning to Saturday night, with only a camp of Indians half a mile down the stream for neighbours. In about a year and a half the sawmill was cutting boards for the settlement, and a gristmill followed, which ended the long haul to Orangeville, Pennsylvania, to grind corn.

The winter and spring of 1811

In the winter and spring of 1811 typhus fever went through the little settlement so thoroughly that the well could hardly nurse the sick. Four young people died: Jesse Perry, who could not be cared for at his parents' home and was moved to David Webb's house and died there; Debby Webb, 18, on May 2; two of Mr. Jaqua's sons; and William Adams, who died of consumption and is thought to be the first adult to die in the township. With scarcely enough hands for the funerals, they sometimes had the local Methodist preacher Mr. Crosby of Vernon, sometimes a settler's prayer, and sometimes carried the dead away in silence. Amasa Hamlin, a Methodist who had arrived the year before, was the first settler to pray at a funeral, and his Sunday meetings began the township's continuous public worship.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Cortland City100% of residentsGroundwater wells (7 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Shale and injection wells (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-24: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 4 of 4 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 3 of 3.

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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-10-17

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