Munroe Falls

How Munroe Falls began

Sources give different accounts of the settlement's early mills: Wikipedia describes about forty settlers arriving in 1809 including Francis Kelsey and William Stow, a settlement first called Kelsey's Mills, and a rename to Florence after an 1817 dam. The 1881 county history instead dates the first saw-mill to about 1817, built by Griswell & Wolcott, with Francis Kelsey's grist-mill raised the same year under an agreement with landowner John Graham; it does not mention a settlement named Kelsey's Mills or Florence. Both sources agree that Boston brothers William and Edmund Munroe (Monroe) bought the mills and about 250 acres in 1836 and laid out the village that bears their name; the 1881 history adds that the Munroes over-invested in a grand town-building scheme, even issuing their own 'wild-cat' bank notes, before failing after about a decade and losing the property to other owners. Wikipedia further records an 1837-chartered Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company and a failed silk-making venture, not found in the 1881 source. The village incorporated October 26, 1838, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal reached the town in 1840 the same year it joined the new Summit County, and Munroe Falls moved from village to city status in 1991.

Settled sources differ: Wikipedia dates settlement to 1809 (Francis Kelsey, William Stow and about 40 others); the 1881 county history dates the first mills to about 1817 (Griswell & Wolcott's saw-mill and Francis Kelsey's grist-mill), platted c. 1836 (by William and Edmund Munroe), about 100 lots, incorporated village October 26, 1838; village status again 1921; city 1991, by William and Edmund Munroe.

Where the name comes from

Named for William and Edmund Munroe (also spelled Monroe) of Boston, who bought the settlement's two mills and about 250 acres around 1836 and laid out a new village under their own name; the settlement had earlier been called Kelsey's Mills, then Florence after an 1817 dam, per Wikipedia. The 1881 county history does not use either of those earlier names, describing only unnamed mills before the Munroe purchase.

Before the town

No Native American village, mound, or treaty site specific to Munroe Falls is documented in the sources consulted. The city lies on the Cuyahoga River within the area opened to settlement by the 1795 Treaty of Greenville.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

Timeline

1. 1809 — About forty settlers, including Francis Kelsey and William Stow, arrive; Kelsey builds a sawmill on the Cuyahoga's south bank and a gristmill rises on the north bank at what becomes known as Kelsey's Mills (per Wikipedia; not corroborated by the 1881 county history, which dates the first mills to c. 1817).
2. 1817 — Griswell & Wolcott build the township's first saw-mill on the river at the future Munroe Falls, and Francis Kelsey builds a grist-mill on the north bank the same year under an agreement with landowner John Graham; a log dam is built jointly.
3. 1836 — William and Edmund Munroe of Boston buy the mills and about 250 acres and lay out about 100 lots for a new village named for themselves, hoping it would become a regional commercial center; they also found a bank issuing 'wild-cat' credit notes.
4. 1837 — The Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company is chartered to make cotton, flour, paper, silk, sugar, and wool; its silk venture fails when the silkworms do not thrive (per Wikipedia; not found in the 1881 county history).
5. 1838 — The village of Munroe Falls incorporates on October 26.
6. 1840 — The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal opens through the town, the same year Munroe Falls becomes part of the newly created Summit County.
7. 1846 — After about a decade of losses, the overextended Munroe brothers gradually go out of business; the mill property passes to Oliver Brown and William Cartright before later owners.
8. 1866 — The Cleveland Paper Company buys the village grist-mill and converts it to paper manufacturing; after it burns it is rebuilt, and the mill employs about thirty workers producing roughly three tons of paper daily by 1881.
9. 1991 — Munroe Falls converts from village to city status.

Stories

The silk that never came

When William and Edmund Munroe bought the old mill settlement on the Cuyahoga in 1836 and put their name on it, they had grand industrial ambitions to match, chartering the Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company the following year (by Wikipedia's account; the 1881 county history mentions neither the charter nor the silk) to turn out cotton, flour, paper, silk, sugar, and wool all from the same stretch of river. Cotton, flour, and wool were reasonable bets for a water-powered Ohio mill town, but silk required something Ohio had never reliably produced: silkworms feeding on mulberry trees. The Munroes planted the trees, and by that account they grew well in the local soil. The worms were another matter; as the record dryly puts it, the trees thrived but the worms did not, and the silk venture collapsed. The town's mundane trades outlasted the exotic one, and the modest string of cotton, flour, and wool mills carried Munroe Falls into its 1838 incorporation regardless.

A metropolis that never came, and a bank of paper promises

The 1881 county history tells a blunter version of the Munroe brothers' venture than the silk-farm legend: when William and Edmund Munroe bought the mills and roughly 250 acres in 1836, they were, in the historian's words, aiming to found 'a metropolis of opulence and importance,' immediately laying out about a hundred village lots and pouring their considerable wealth into the project. They bought out or drove off rival merchants, including storekeeper John S. Harvey, to keep control of the village's trade, and even founded their own private bank, issuing 'wild-cat' and 'red-dog' bills of credit, notes backed by little more than confidence. For a few years tradesmen and lot-buyers arrived and the scheme looked plausible. But capital and skilled artisans never came in the numbers the Munroes needed, property values fell instead of rising, and after about a decade of mounting losses the brothers quietly went out of business, their paper promises left unfulfilled and the mills passed to other hands, eventually a paper company that put the site to more modest, lasting use.

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

Every historic place in Summit County on the full map

18 wells in Water Works Park on the south bank of the Cuyahoga River, adjacent to the Munroe Falls Avenue treatment plant The water here

• Munroe Falls City100% of residentsWells in Cuyahoga River buried valley sand & gravel aquifer

Dialysis centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (2)

High-hazard dams (1)

Public schools (2)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Police stations (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2024-11-05; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Health Indicators (the Auditor of State's 17 measures; critical / cautionary / positive): 2020 0 / 1 / 15; 2021 0 / 1 / 15; 2022 1 / 2 / 13; 2023 0 / 0 / 16; 2024 0 / 0 / 16; 2025 0 / 0 / 15.
• Financial Audit, 2024, released 2026-05-07
• Financial Audit, 2023, released 2025-05-13

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Munroe Falls, Summit County and its school district:

• Munroe Falls City: Authorizes an additional 2-mill property tax levy for the streets, roads & bridges of Munroe Falls City for 10 years, beginning in 2026.
• Stow-Munroe Falls City School District: Renews a 3.17-mill property tax levy for the current operating expenses of Stow-Munroe Falls City School District for 5 years, beginning in 2026.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

Cite this page