Norwalk Township, Huron County

How Norwalk Township, Huron County began

Norwalk Township is named, like the city it surrounds, for Norwalk, Connecticut, one of the towns British forces burned in the Revolutionary War whose residents received Firelands land claims. The township's history is almost entirely the history of Norwalk city, which occupies most of its area and has been the Huron County seat since 1818; the township's only other municipality is the northern edge of Milan village, whose historic core actually lies across the county line in Milan Township, Erie County. Outside the city, the township remains the thin agricultural fringe typical of land immediately surrounding a county seat, its own separate identity mostly absorbed into Norwalk's.

Settled 1815-1817 (with the founding of Norwalk), platted 1816, by Organized as a Firelands survey township; settled alongside the city of Norwalk.

Where the name comes from

Norwalk Township, like the city of Norwalk at its center, is named for Norwalk, Connecticut, burned by British forces in 1779; displaced residents of the Connecticut town held Firelands land claims that were eventually located here. Ohio has only one Norwalk Township.

Before the town

The 1879 history of Norwalk Township says an Indian trail marked the crest of the 'sand ridge' where Main Street now runs when the first settlers arrived in 1815, and that there were then quite a number of Indian settlements along the Huron River, the largest at the site of Milan, called Pequatcing, a Moravian settlement under the missionary Frederick Drake, whose people lent their mission house to the Comstock party in 1809. Pequatcing lay in Milan, Erie County, not in this township. After Hull's surrender in August 1812 the settlers fled and the Newcomb house, near the Bronson line, was burned by Indians, and the Comstock house probably by the same band; the same history names two Indians, Omick and Semo, as having murdered Michael Gibbs and a Mr. Buel near Sandusky in April 1812.

Timeline

1. 1806 — Nathan S. Comstock, son of Thomas Comstock of New Canaan, Connecticut, whose family had acquired claims to the Norwalk lands after sheltering the Norwalk fire sufferers in 1779, leads an exploring expedition to look for his father's land in sections two and three.
2. 1809 — Nathan Comstock returns with Darius Ferris and Elijah Hoyt by boat and horse from Buffalo, takes shelter at the Moravian mission at Pequatcing, and builds the first house of white men in Norwalk Township on a spring in section two; they clear ten acres and sow it to wheat that fall.
3. 1812 — After Hull's surrender in August the settlers flee: Benjamin Newcomb's house, near the Bronson line, is burned by Indians, and the Comstock family, which had fled toward the Vermilion River, loses its house probably to the same band.
4. 1815 — Elisha Whittlesey and Platt Benedict scout the site that becomes the city of Norwalk, at the township's center.
5. 1815 — Samuel B. Lewis, who left New York on February 15 in a covered wagon, arrives on April 2 and finds only an Indian trail marking the sand ridge where Main Street now runs; he buys two hundred acres in section one for $1.50 an acre.
6. 1816 — Surveyor Almon Ruggles plats the town of Norwalk within the township.
7. 1817 — The first township election is held in April at the house of Hanson Reed, with Norwalk and Bronson organized as one election district; the justice of the peace has to be fetched from Ridgefield to qualify the board.
8. 1818 — Norwalk becomes the Huron County seat, cementing the township's identity as the county's administrative center.
9. 1818 — On April 6 Robert S. Southgate is elected justice of the peace with 21 of 22 votes.
10. 1820 — On March 8 the county commissioners annex towns one and two of the twenty-second range to Norwalk, making a township five miles wide and twenty long.
11. 1822 — On March 4 the commissioners attach Ripley to New Haven Township and organize Bronson separately, ending the arrangement under which Norwalk had embraced all of them.
12. 1871 — Norwalk's first municipal water plant is built on the East Branch of the Huron River, at a time fewer than 20 Ohio towns had municipal water.
13. 1881 — Norwalk incorporates as a city, the dominant municipality within the township.
14. 2020 — The census counts 3,451 people in Norwalk Township.

Stories

The first house of Norwalk

In July 1779 the people of Norwalk, Connecticut, were burned out by General Tryon's raid, and Thomas Comstock of New Canaan sheltered many of them. Unable to repay his kindness, two of the sufferers released to him whatever claims they might have against the government, and he came to own a large tract in sections two and three of the Ohio township that carried their town's name. His son Nathan went out in 1806 to find it. In the spring of 1809 he came again with two hired men, by boat along Lake Erie from Buffalo with a barrel of whisky among their goods, and the Moravian Indians at Pequatcing, where Milan now stands, lent them their mission house until they could build. They raised the log house with the help of neighbors from the lake country on a spring in section two; the 1879 historian calls it the first home of Norwalk, with a roof of shakes, a floor of earth and a chimney that was a hole in the roof, and says it was probably the pioneer house.

Abijah Comstock's treasury

Abijah Comstock, a justice of the peace while Norwalk was still part of Huron Township, became the first county treasurer, and the office was his undoing. He was generous and could not refuse a neighbor, and as soon as the taxes had been collected he was besieged by people asking for temporary loans, each promising repayment before he had to settle his accounts. When the time came the funds were gone. He hurried back to Connecticut, mortgaged his interest in the Norwalk lands to his brother Nathan for enough money to make up the deficit, and paid every liability. He remained a comparatively poor man, but honorable and respected; the mortgage was never paid and the land passed to Nathan, who in 1828 sent his son Philo out to look after it, and Philo stayed on, a faithful steward, as the 1879 historian puts it.

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · freepages.rootsweb.com · archive.org

Three city reservoirs (Upper, Memorial, Lower; 159 acres, about 700 million gallons) on Old State Road south of State Route 18, fed mainly by rainwater runoff from an 8-square-mile area east of the city, with a river pump station adding East Branch Huron River water to Memorial Reservoir in dry years. The water here

• Norwalk City100% of residentsHuron River / East Branch Huron River (via Upper, Memorial, and Lower Reservoirs)
• Milan Village0% of residentsLake Erie (Sandusky Bay backup intake)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2019: 1 of 3 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-07-23
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-08-06

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