Lawrence Township, Stark County

How Lawrence Township, Stark County began

Lawrence Township in western Stark County was erected by the county commissioners on December 4, 1815, as the First Township in the Tenth Range, and named for Capt. James Lawrence, who fought the Chesapeake against HMS Shannon in 1813 and is remembered for the order 'Don't give up the ship,' which became the township's motto. The land east of the Tuscarawas was surveyed in 1800 after the 1785 Treaty of Fort McIntosh and that west of it after the 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry. The Ohio & Erie Canal made Canal Fulton, formed from Milan (1814) and Fulton (1826), the center of the township; Catholics who arrived in 1812 built the parish of St. Philip and St. James there. The township had about 6,000 residents in 1881 and 13,548 in 2020.

Settled by 1809 (cabins found here and there when the county was organized), incorporated December 4, 1815 (erected); first officers elected April 1816, by Stark County commissioners.

Where the name comes from

Perrin's 1881 county history says the township was named for Capt. James Lawrence of the U.S. Navy, who in the War of 1812 fought the British frigate Shannon in the Chesapeake on June 1, 1813, and whose last order, 'Don't give up the ship,' became the township's motto and the legend on its banner in political processions.

Before the town

No Native village or mound inside the township is recorded. Perrin's 1881 county history says the part east of the Tuscarawas River was surveyed in 1800 after the Treaty of Fort McIntosh (1785) extinguished the Native title, and the part west of it was surveyed after the Treaty of Fort Industry (1805); it adds that travelers reached the Tuscarawas from Cleveland by the Cuyahoga and its portage.

Timeline

1. 1785 — The Treaty of Fort McIntosh extinguishes the Native title to the land east of the Tuscarawas River; it is surveyed in 1800 by Buckingham and Carpenter, and the land west of the river is surveyed after the Fort Industry treaty of 1805 by Joseph H. Larwill, William Henry and John Harris.
2. 1812 — The first Catholic settlers, John McCadden, Matthew Patton and Daniel O'Boyle, arrive; their families form the nucleus of the later parish of St. Philip and St. James in Fulton.
3. 1814 — Milan is platted March 23 by Matthew Rowland within what becomes Lawrence Township, one of three settlements later merged into Canal Fulton.
4. 1815 — On December 4 the Stark County commissioners erect the First Township in the Tenth Range as Lawrence Township, naming it for Capt. James Lawrence, and call the first election at Robert Lytle's house.
5. 1816 — The first township officers take their oaths on April 9, with James F. Leonard as clerk; Joseph Hobson, a Quaker, is overseer of the poor and affirms rather than swears.
6. 1818 — Rev. Edward Fenwick, who first visited the township's six Catholic families in 1817, returns and celebrates the first Mass in the township in Daniel O'Boyle's log cabin.
7. 1826 — Fulton is platted May 16 beside the Ohio and Erie Canal on the Tuscarawas River.
8. 1831 — The Catholics of Lawrence and neighboring Baughman Township build a log chapel, 30 by 40 feet, on Phillip McCue's farm, the first Catholic chapel in the township.
9. 1832 — Fulton is renamed Canal Fulton, joining the canal's name to that of local pioneer Ben Fulton.
10. 1833 — The township's economy includes three gristmills, three sawmills, three tanneries, and two stores.
11. 1845 — Archbishop Purcell lays the cornerstone of a new Catholic church at Fulton on lots bought in 1844 from Hiram Griswold; a 50-by-100-foot brick Gothic church costing $30,000 replaces it in 1868.
12. 1853 — Canal Fulton absorbs the neighboring villages of Milan and West Fulton.
13. 1881 — Perrin's county history counts about 6,000 people in the township, which had given the militia four colonels (Isaiah Bowen, William Alban, William Elliott and Jacob Harsh) and the Kendal Rifle Blues company.
14. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 13,548 residents in Lawrence Township.

Stories

A township built around a canal town's growth

Lawrence Township's own history is inseparable from Canal Fulton, the city that sits at its center. What became Canal Fulton started as two rival plats -- Milan, laid out by Matthew Rowland in 1814, and Fulton, platted in 1826 directly beside the new Ohio and Erie Canal -- and by 1832 the canal-side settlement had renamed itself Canal Fulton, joining the waterway's name to that of local pioneer Ben Fulton. Milan had been the only village in the township until the canal was built between 1826 and 1828, when it grew churches, cemeteries and a grocery to serve the hundreds of canal workers, and by 1853 Canal Fulton had absorbed both Milan and the smaller West Fulton. In 1833 the township as a whole had three gristmills, three sawmills, three tanneries and two stores.

Don't give up the township

When the Stark County commissioners met on December 4, 1815, they erected the First Township in the Tenth Range and gave it the name Lawrence, after the naval captain whose battle had been fought only two and a half years earlier. James Lawrence had taken the Chesapeake out of Boston to meet the British frigate Shannon on June 1, 1813, and was carried below mortally wounded with an order that passed into legend: do not give up the ship. Perrin's history, in a chapter contributed by Robert H. Folger, says those words became the township's motto, and that on political processions the Lawrence banner always flew with that inscription. The first election, at Robert Lytle's house, chose James F. Leonard, the Canton surveyor who had platted Canton ten years earlier, as clerk, and the oaths were taken on April 9, 1816. The Quaker overseer of the poor, Joseph Hobson, affirmed instead of swearing,, as Quakers do, and the record notes that he was liable to the same penalties as if sworn.

Bishop Fenwick's first Mass west of the river

In 1817 Rev. Edward Fenwick left the diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky, and rode through southern and eastern Ohio looking for Catholics. At Canton he found the Shorb families and George Roofner, and they told him of Catholic families in Lawrence Township west of the Tuscarawas. He came to the township, said Mass at Matthew Patton's log cabin just over the line in Wayne County, preached, taught the children and promised to return. The next year he kept his promise and said the first Mass in Lawrence Township itself in Daniel O'Boyle's log cabin. Fenwick was consecrated bishop in 1821 for a diocese covering Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and the western territories, and in 1823 confirmed eight or ten people at Patton's house. In the cholera summer of 1832, returning from a tour of Michigan and Wisconsin, he reached Massillon ill, pressed on by stagecoach and died that night at Wooster. The chapel the families built in 1831 on Phillip McCue's farm grew into the parish of St. Philip and St. James at Fulton.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · railsandtrails.com · commons.wikimedia.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Canal Fulton City73% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Massillon27% of residentsWells in Tuscarawas Valley sand & gravel aquifer
• Marshallville Village0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Police stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (11)

Who holds office

Roster as of 2026-08-12: county board of elections.

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 21 of 29 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 3 of 6.

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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-08

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