Lafayette Township, Medina County

How Lafayette Township, Medina County began

Lafayette Township was organized in 1832 by the Medina County commissioners, at the suggestion of the settlers living there, and named for the Marquis de Lafayette, then still living; he died in 1834. The land around Chippewa Lake, a swampy valley once frequented by trappers and hunters, saw its first permanent settler, probably William Bissett, about 1825, and the old village of La Fayette began in 1834 along the Medina-Westfield road. The commissioners had the lake valley drained about 1869 at a cost of some $15,000 in money and labor. The village of Chippewa Lake was platted in 1878, the year Andrews' Pleasure Grounds opened at the lake, the start of Chippewa Lake Park, which ran until 1978. The township, part of which lies in the city of Medina, had 6,056 residents in 2020, and the Medina County Home has stood here since 1894.

Incorporated 1832 (organized and named for the Marquis de Lafayette), by organized within Medina County; named after French General Marquis de Lafayette.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history says the County Commissioners, 'at the suggestion of the settlers then residing within its limits', gave the township the name La Fayette when it was organized in 1832, in honor of the Marquis de La Fayette, who aided the colonies in the Revolution. He was still living then and died in 1834.

Before the town

The 1881 county history gives no village or mound inside the township but says the lake valley, an almost impenetrable swamp before settlement, 'was the resort of large number of Indian trappers and hunters', that Chippewa Lake 'received its name from a tribe of Indians that once lived upon its banks', and asks, without answering, whether the Mound Builders used the lake; tradition adds that soon after the War of 1812 bark shanties covered with mink, beaver and otter furs stood on both sides of the lake, but whose they were is conjecture. Beaver and otter were found in early years. The land was opened to settlement by the Treaty of Fort Industry (1805).

Nations recorded here: Ojibwe (Chippewa).

• Hunters' bark shanties on both sides of Chippewa Lake (camp) — east and west shores of Chippewa Lake, soon after 1815 (tradition) (archive.org)

Timeline

1. c. 1815 — Roving hunters and trappers are said to have lived in bark shanties covered with mink, beaver and otter skins on both sides of Chippewa Lake; the township's hunters leave before 1820.
2. c. 1825 — William Bissett builds a cabin on what becomes the Medina-Westfield road, probably the first permanent settler; for several years it is the only dwelling on that road between Westfield and Medina.
3. 1832 — Lafayette Township organizes and takes its name from the Marquis de Lafayette.
4. 1834 — The Marquis de Lafayette, the township's namesake, dies in France.
5. c. 1834 — The village of La Fayette is begun; by 1840 ten or twelve log buildings stand along its main street for eighty rods.
6. c. 1840 — Joshua Phillips of Westfield builds the first frame building in La Fayette, a small store; George Love soon brings over $1,000 of goods, the first store of consequence.
7. 1848 — Earl Moulton opens a general store at La Fayette and in 1849 builds an ashery making pearl-ash and scorched salts.
8. 1850 — A post office is established at La Fayette with Earl Moulton as the first postmaster, who agrees to carry the mail himself for little pay.
9. c. 1869 — The county commissioners drain the Chippewa Lake valley, digging a ditch four or five feet deep and twenty feet wide for over two miles, at a cost of about $15,000 in money and labor; reclaimed land rises over 100 percent in value.
10. 1873 — A post office is established for the future village of Chippewa Lake at Jonathan Palmer's residence.
11. 1878 — The village of Chippewa Lake is platted with sixteen lots.
12. 1878 — Edward Andrews organizes a picnic ground and beach on the lake as Andrews' Pleasure Grounds, the start of Chippewa Lake Park.
13. 1894 — The Medina County Home (infirmary) opens on land in Lafayette Township donated by the Spitzer family.
14. 1898 — Mac Beach buys the park, improves it and bans liquor sales.
15. 1920 — The village of Chippewa Lake, within the township's southeast corner, incorporates.
16. 1978 — Chippewa Lake Park closes during its centennial season.
17. 2020 — Lafayette Township has 6,056 residents.

Stories

The village of La Fayette

The old village of La Fayette began about 1834 as a string of log cabins along the main street, which by 1840 numbered ten or twelve over a distance of eighty rods, with no industry and no frame building. About 1840 Joshua Phillips of Westfield put up the first frame building, a small store whose $200 stock was largely whisky, and soon George Love brought over $1,000 of goods. Earl Moulton opened a store in 1848 and an ashery the next year, and in 1850 he persuaded the Post Office Department to open an office, which paid so little that no one wanted the job of carrying the mail until he took it. After that, the county historian wrote in 1881, every man in the village wanted to be postmaster and the office shuttled between rivals 'like a shuttle across the threads of the warp'. A second village, Chippewa Lake, was platted on the lake in 1878, and in time it was the one that lasted; the township's two former villages, La Fayette and Whittlesey, are listed in Wikipedia as former.

A night up a tree

Amos Hubbard, an early settler, liked to tell this story on himself. One evening he started home from Medina so late that darkness caught him before he was three miles out, with a wind rising and thunder in the distance, and he knew panthers had been seen prowling around William Bissett's pig-sty for a week or two. About a mile northeast of Bissett's cabin he heard a heavy animal walking slowly on the leaves a few rods to his right. He climbed the nearest convenient tree and stayed there, shaking with cold, through a night of strange sounds that came sometimes close to the foot of the tree. At first light he saw what had been circling him: a yoke of oxen that had strayed from Bissett and wandered around the tree eating leaves and twigs. According to the county history of 1881, Hubbard kept quiet about it until time had taken the edge off the joke.

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

Groundwater wells (3 wells) The water here

• Medina Co/northwest49% of residentsLake Erie
• Medina City33% of residentsLake Erie
• Medina Co/southern Water Dist15% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Lodi Village2% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A0% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells

Fire and EMS stations (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-04-22

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