Navarre

How Navarre began

Navarre was laid out in March 1834 by Capt. James Duncan, who bought the land for the Massillon Rolling Mill Company, as 19 lots on the bank of the new Ohio Canal, between two older rivals: Bethlehem, laid out in 1806 by the Philadelphia lawyers Jonathan W. Condy and Martin Brinton for a Moravian-style colony, and Rochester, laid out in 1833 by Nathan McGrew. Duncan's mill, store and canal frontage drew the Chapman and Allman stores from Bethlehem; the post office changed its name from Bethlehem to Navarre on August 14, 1843, and the three villages were incorporated as Navarre in 1871. Major William McKinley tried his first law suit in a Navarre store in 1868. Navarre's population was 867 in 1880, was 1,763 in 1950, 1,957 in 2010 and 1,846 in 2020; its Rochester Square Historic District is on the National Register.

Settled 1806 (Bethlehem), platted March 1834 (Navarre); 1806 (Bethlehem); October 1833 (Rochester), incorporated September 1871 (Bethlehem, Rochester and Navarre combined under the name Navarre), by Capt. James Duncan (Navarre); Jonathan W. Condy (Bethlehem); Nathan McGrew (Rochester).

Where the name comes from

Wikipedia says Navarre is named after the historic Navarre region straddling northern Spain and southern France; neither Perrin nor Lehman explains the name, and no source says who chose it or when.

Before the town

Perrin's 1881 county history says the old Indian capital of Tuscarawas stood at the Indian crossing above Fort Laurens, and that Christian Post's mission and Calhoun's trading house stood near the mouth of the Sandy, within the original bounds of Bethlehem Township; after the traders left, the Quaker Richard Carter kept a brisk trade with the Indians at the old mission ground until he left in 1816. The township's southern boundary is partly the Greenville treaty line of 1795. The same history says the Bethlehem name was chosen because Moravians from Pennsylvania had established missions among the Indians in the Tuscarawas valley long before the state was settled. The history names no other Native site and no nation by village.

• Post's mission and Calhoun's trading house (village) — Near the mouth of the Sandy, Bethlehem Township, near Navarre, before 1807 (archive.org)
• Indian crossing and capital of Tuscarawas (village) — Old Indian crossing place above Fort Laurens (Bolivar), at the southern end of Bethlehem Township, before 1800 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — Two Philadelphia lawyers, Jonathan W. Condy and Martin Brinton, who followed the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, establish the settlement of Bethlehem, hoping to found a Moravian-style colony like Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Condy builds a sawmill and a storehouse where James Klingle opens the first dry goods store.
2. 1819 — George Brantingham, a Quaker, lays out the river town of Calcutta at the head of navigation on the Tuscarawas, with a warehouse from which flatboats carry flour, whisky, bacon and pottery to New Orleans; the last boat leaves about 1822 and the plat is vacated.
3. 1827 — Jonathan Condy dies in August after his horse, attacked by yellow jackets on a corduroy bridge, throws him and breaks his shoulder.
4. 1828 — A post office is established at Bethlehem on February 8, with Thomas Hurford as the first postmaster; H. & D. Allman open a store there with a stock of perhaps $4,000.
5. 1833 — Nathan McGrew lays out 36 lots at Rochester on fractional Section 5, about 300 yards west of Bethlehem, on the bank of the new Ohio Canal.
6. 1834 — In March James Duncan, a member of the Massillon Rolling Mill Company, lays out 19 lots on the canal bank at Navarre, builds a store and then a grist mill and saw mill, and draws the Chapman store from Bethlehem; Henry Graff's flour mill of 1834 is the village's oldest industry.
7. 1840 — The brick house at 6 Lintner Court, later known as the Rochester House and part of the Rochester Square Historic District, is built.
8. 1843 — On August 14 the Bethlehem post office is renamed Navarre, with George W. Sweringen as postmaster.
9. 1868 — In the spring William McKinley, newly practising law at Canton, tries his first law suit before Squire John Loew in a brick store at Market and Canal streets in Navarre, a three-day hay dispute between landlord John Rostetter and tenant Philip Sheets in which McKinley, for Sheets, won.
10. 1871 — On August 29 more than fifty voters petition to incorporate Bethlehem, Rochester and Navarre together as the Village of Navarre, granted by the county commissioners in September; the first election in April 1872 chooses Jacob E. Mentzer as mayor, and a $11,000 brick union school is finished in the summer of 1872.
11. 1880 — The village's population is recorded at 867 residents.
12. 1882 — Miller Post No. 270 of the Grand Army of the Republic is instituted on October 30 in the Henline Block at Rochester Square, named for Capt. Samuel Miller of Company A, 107th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a company raised in Navarre.
13. 1895 — The Navarre Deposit Banking Company is incorporated in May with H. R. Bennett as first president.
14. 1910 — On Memorial Day about 4,000 people gather at Union Lawn Cemetery to see the Soldiers' Monument unveiled, given by William L. Bennett in memory of his father Capt. Henry R. Bennett and bearing the names of 232 Navarre Union soldiers.
15. 1913 — A flood strikes Navarre; two artesian wells completed in 1912 supply the village waterworks.
16. 1950 — The village's population reaches 1,763, its highest count until 1,957 in 2010; it falls to 1,343 in 1980 and is 1,846 in 2020.
17. 2005 — The Rochester Square Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 26.

Stories

McKinley's first law suit

In the spring of 1868, soon after he began practising law at Canton, Major William McKinley tried his first case in a brick store at the northeast corner of Market and Canal streets in Navarre, built in the 1840s. The squire, John Loew, owned the building, kept a grocery in part of it and used a large room on the south side as his court. The case was over a few tons of hay: John Rostetter, owner of a farm east of Navarre, had attached the hay and implements of his tenant, Philip Sheets, who was moving out, and Sheets counterclaimed. Rostetter hired William A. Lynch, then prosecuting attorney of Stark County, and Sheets hired McKinley. The trial lasted three days, more than seventy witnesses were heard, and the two young lawyers drove together each day from Canton, twelve miles, and scrapped over every objection in court. Squire Loew called it the liveliest trial in his quarter-century on the bench. McKinley won, and the farmers he talked politics with between sessions helped him beat Lynch for county prosecutor in 1869; Lynch beat him in 1871.

Three villages on one canal

When the Ohio Canal was surveyed, the old settlement of Bethlehem, on a bluff above the canal, was a poor place for loading grain, and Perrin says people made fun of its sleepy management of the wheat trade. Nathan McGrew laid out Rochester on the canal bank in October 1833, but its approaches were poor too, and in March 1834 Capt. James Duncan, who was authorized by the Massillon Rolling Mill Company to buy land, platted Navarre with nineteen lots beside the canal, hoping to build it up at the expense of the others. He built a store, a grist mill and a saw mill; the Allman brothers moved their store from Bethlehem to Rochester, and J. and W. Chapman moved theirs to Navarre, a serious blow to Bethlehem. After the panic of 1837-40 and the better years that followed, Navarre gained the upper hand, and in 1843 the post office took its name; in 1871 the three villages were combined under the name Navarre. Lehman's 1916 history says it was too close to Massillon to grow rapidly.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Stark County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• Navarre Village57% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Lake Sherman Village13% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Brewster Village11% of residentsGroundwater wells (5 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Massillon9% of residentsWells in Tuscarawas Valley sand & gravel aquifer
• Canton Public Water System9% of residentsGlacial sand-and-gravel aquifer (3 well fields)
• Mount Eaton Village1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)

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Who holds office

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

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 3 of 5 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

Ballot issues

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Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2021 to 2022, released 2025-06-24

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.

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