New Russia Township, Lorain County

How New Russia Township, Lorain County began

New Russia Township (called simply Russia Township until 1992) was first settled in 1818 in its northwest corner, near the existing Amherst settlements, by Daniel Rathburn, Israel Cash, Thomas Waite and others (the 1916 county history puts Rathburn's arrival in 1820); it organized as an incorporated township in 1825 with just sixteen voters. Its southern part became the site of Oberlin, founded in 1833 by John Jay Shipherd and Philo Penfield Stewart as a combined Christian colony and college, named for the French pastor John Frederic Oberlin. Residents pushed to rename the surrounding township New Russia in 1992 amid concerns about growth and annexation pressure from the City of Oberlin. It is the only New Russia Township in Ohio. The township had 1,842 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled Spring 1818 (Thomas Waite; Rathburn, Cash, Buck, Callum and Camp in 1818 per the 1879 history, 1820 per the 1916 history), incorporated June 1825 (township; renamed New Russia 1 January 1992), by Thomas Waite.

Where the name comes from

The original proprietors, Titus Street and Isaac Mills (who sold to Samuel Hughes), bought the land from the State of Connecticut; neither county history says why the township was called Russia. The new name New Russia dates from 1 January 1992, when residents sought separation from the growing city of Oberlin. Oberlin itself was named for John Frederic Oberlin, the French pastor.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or trail is recorded in Russia (New Russia) Township. The 1879 county history's long settlement account for the township mentions deer and wild turkey in the woods but no Native people; the nearest recorded Native presence is the Seneca band from Sandusky that camped in neighboring Amherst Township until about 1826.

Timeline

1. 1818 — The township's first settlers -- Daniel Rathburn, Israel Cash, Thomas Waite, Jonathan Buck, John Callum and Israel Camp -- arrive in the northwest part, near the established Amherst settlements.
2. Spring 1818 — Thomas Waite, who had lived a year in Amherst after leaving Ontario County, New York, takes land in the township's northwest corner and is counted its first settler; the 1879 history adds Daniel Rathburn, Israel Cash, Jonathan Buck, John Callum and Israel Camp in the same year, while the 1916 history puts Rathburn and the Bucks in 1820.
3. 1820 — The west road begins to be opened; Daniel Rathburne and Walter and Jonathan Buck settle with their families (1916 history).
4. 1821-1824 — John McCauley and Lyman Wakely come in 1821, Samuel T. Wightman and Jesse Smith in 1822, John Maynes in 1823; in 1824 the Disbro brothers, Daniel Axtell, Abraham Wellman, Israel Cash and others arrive.
5. 1825 — The township organizes after a petition to county commissioners; the first election, with all sixteen voters in attendance, is held at Daniel Axtell's house (the 1916 history says a log schoolhouse near Wright's).
6. June 1825 — The Lorain County commissioners detach Russia from Black River Township and incorporate it as a separate township; the 1879 history says Josiah Harris of Amherst called the first election at Daniel Axtell's house with all sixteen voters present, and the 1916 history puts it at a log schoolhouse near Wright's.
7. Winter 1825-1826 — Albert Adams of Wellington teaches the first school in a log schoolhouse on lot 11 at $12 a month.
8. 22 April 1826 — Daniel Axtell is commissioned the township's first justice of the peace; a Connecticut missionary holds the first religious meeting in a log schoolhouse on lot 31 the same year.
9. 1826-1829 — The four Tift brothers and their mother settle on the north-south center road, forming the one-mile-long 'Tift settlement,' where there was no wagon and no wagon track, only a path and sleds drawn by two yoke of oxen.
10. Summer 1832 — Missionaries John Jay Shipherd and Philo Penfield Stewart, living together in Elyria, conceive the plan for a Christian colony and manual-labor college; they name it for John Frederic Oberlin, a French pastor whose life they had just read about.
11. 1833 — Shipherd and Stewart ride to an unoccupied, undesired tract in the southern part of Russia township (owned by Street and Hughes of New Haven) and, kneeling under an elm tree, choose it as the site of Oberlin; a signed covenant binds the first colonists to move there and follow strict religious and moral rules.
12. Spring 1833 — Peter P. Pease, a Brownhelm pioneer and advance guard of the Oberlin colony, builds a log cabin where the Park Hotel later stood; the proprietors Street and Hughes give over 500 acres to the new Oberlin Collegiate Institute and sell 5,000 acres to its friends at $1.50 an acre.
13. 1834 — The institute's second annual report says that a year and a half earlier the site was uninhabited, surrounded by forest three miles square, and had since been taken by families forming the Oberlin Colony.
14. 1846 — The town of Oberlin is incorporated by an act of 17 February (the first mayor is Lewis Holstander); the village is incorporated as the 'Incorporated Village of Oberlin' by ordinance in 1853.
15. Fall 1852 — Trains begin to run through Oberlin on the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad, a boost to both town and college.
16. January 1, 1992 — Russia Township is formally renamed New Russia Township after residents sought separation from the growing City of Oberlin.
17. 2020 — Census records 1,842 residents in the township.

Stories

A township that renamed itself to stay itself

For most of its history this township was called, simply, Russia Township -- the source consulted does not say why. What is documented is why the name changed: as the City of Oberlin grew through the twentieth century, residents of the surrounding township grew concerned about the pressure that growth put on their own community's identity and boundaries, and pushed for a formal split in name from anything that might sound like it belonged to Oberlin. The change became official on January 1, 1992, when Russia Township became New Russia Township, a small bureaucratic act meant to draw a clearer line between a rural township and the college town expanding at its edge. It remains the only township of that name anywhere in Ohio.

Kneeling under an elm tree

Oberlin began as an idea two missionaries argued into agreement. John Jay Shipherd, preaching in Elyria, and Philo Penfield Stewart, recently returned from missionary work among the Choctaw, spent the summer of 1832 talking and praying over how to do good in the Mississippi Valley. Stewart wanted a college with manual labor built into its curriculum; Shipherd wanted a Christian community devoted to mission work. According to Shipherd's wife, the two ideas fused while the men knelt in prayer, and before Shipherd had even risen to his feet he said, 'Come, let us arise and build.' They named the plan for John Frederic Oberlin, a French pastor whose self-denying work among his parish they had just read about. The next year Shipherd and Stewart rode out to an unwanted tract in southern Russia township -- level, clay-soiled land other settlers had passed over -- dismounted under an elm, and asked for guidance before choosing the spot. Shipherd then sailed to New England to secure the land from its owners in New Haven and recruit colonists willing to sign a covenant pledging themselves to the settlement's strict religious and moral rules. That elm, in what is now the southeast corner of the college square, was still pointed out in 1879 as the exact place Oberlin began.

The Tift settlement

Between 1826 and 1829 four brothers, John, James, Hezekiah and Ray Tift, came with their mother to the north end of the township and cleared farms along the north and south center road. Others followed: Robert Meeker, George Wilcox, and Silas, Maynard and Orson Allen, with George Carley and Clark Warner a little south. The settlement was a mile long. There was no wagon in the neighborhood and no wagon track in the road, only a path down the middle, and when the settlers went to mill they hitched two yoke of oxen to a sled. Deer were plentiful, and one settler recalled shooting five wild turkeys in a day and sharing them with neighbors. The first school was kept in the winter of 1825-26 by Albert Adams of Wellington for twelve dollars a month.

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

West Branch Black River, via Oberlin Upground Reservoir The water here

• Oberlin Water Department69% of residentsWest Branch Black River, via Oberlin Upground Reservoir
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A21% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• Amherst City9% of residentsLake Erie (mainly via Elyria)
• South Amherst Village1% of residentsLake Erie

Power plants (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

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 2024-10-17

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