Paris Township, Portage County

• Michael J. Kirwan ReservoirBuilt 1966 · 2,650 acres

How Paris Township, Portage County began

Paris Township, surveyed as Town 3, Range 6, was originally the property of Connecticut Land Company members Lemuel G. Storrs, Henry Champion, Gideon Granger and Thomas Bull and was informally called Storrsboro for its principal proprietor; the wet, clay-heavy 'swamps of Paris' had such a bad early reputation that other settlers went miles out of their way to avoid it. Richard Hudson, a Pennsylvanian who arrived June 20, 1811, was the true first settler; only three more families joined him in the township's first two years. The township separated from Palmyra and organized as Paris in November 1820. Welsh immigrants, arriving from 1831 after John Morgan wrote home about the cheap land, drained and improved the swampland into some of the county's best grazing ground and today make up roughly two-thirds of the population. The canal-era towns of McClintocksburg and Newport rose and faded with the old Ohio canal. A Parisville post office operated from 1827 (per Wikipedia; the 1885 county history dates the first post office and postmaster to 1828) to 1890. The township's northern portion is today occupied by the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site, a continuation of the World War II Ravenna Arsenal, and the unincorporated community of Wayland sits in its western section. Today the township has 1,648 residents (2020) across 23.9 square miles with no incorporated municipality of its own.

Settled June 20, 1811 (Richard Hudson, first settler), incorporated Separated from Palmyra Township and organized as Paris, November 10, 1820, by Richard Hudson (first settler); proprietors Lemuel G. Storrs, Henry Champion, Gideon Granger and Thomas Bull.

Where the name comes from

Wikipedia gives the name as taken from Paris, New York. The 1885 county history does not confirm or contradict this directly, but records that the township was informally called Storrsboro, for principal proprietor Lemuel G. Storrs, before and even after its 1820 organization as Paris; both names are recorded here since neither source contradicts the other.

Before the town

The 1957 county history 'Portage Heritage' lists Paris Township among those with recorded prehistoric burials, without an exact location. No named historic-era Native American village or camp specific to the township is documented in the sources consulted. For the county's broader Native history.

Timeline

1. June 20, 1811 — Richard Hudson, a Pennsylvanian from Woodbury, Huntingdon County, arrives with his family and settles on Lot 21, the township's first settler; both he and his wife die in 1819 within a month of each other.
2. spring 1812 — Hudson's son-in-law John Bridges arrives, building the township's second house; the following year John Young and John Cox arrive with their families, bringing the total to four families in two years.
3. 1817 — Richard Hudson, a Methodist, hosts a camp meeting (a 'bush meeting') on his own property, one of the township's first organized religious gatherings.
4. November 10, 1820 — The township separates from Palmyra and organizes under the name Paris, with 25 votes polled at the first election.
5. 1828 — A post office is established with Thomas B. Selby as first postmaster, located in the house of William Selby (Wikipedia dates the post office, called Parisville, to 1827; both dates are given here since sources differ by a year).
6. 1831 — John Morgan of Wales settles on part of Lot 32 and writes home about the township's cheap land, beginning a wave of Welsh immigration that eventually makes the population about two-thirds Welsh.
7. 1835 — A man named McClintock lays out the town of McClintocksburg on the Mahoning River crossing, which flourishes briefly during the canal era before declining after the canal's abandonment; Newport is laid out on the canal around the same time.
8. 1839 — Two Englishmen, William Philpot and Philip Price, erect the township's first grist-mill at Newport.
9. 1890 — The Parisville post office closes.
10. 1940s — The northern portion of the township is absorbed into the U.S. Army's Ravenna Arsenal reservation, later continued as the Ravenna Training and Logistics Site.

Stories

The swamp that became the finest grazing land in the county

For years before anyone bothered to check, Paris Township carried a reputation among Western Reserve settlers as one vast mud-hole, and travelers heading to other parts of the Reserve would go miles out of their way rather than risk a wagon and team in what was commonly believed to be certain destruction. The reputation was not entirely undeserved: the land was level and the soil chiefly clay, so water pooled in the low spots and turned to a mud an old settler described as so sticky that a stuck traveler sometimes had to go home for a shovel to dig himself out. But the very dampness that gave the township its bad name, once drained and cultivated, proved to be rich soil built from clay and decayed vegetable matter, and it was Welsh immigrants who did the draining. John Morgan arrived from Wales in 1831, bought part of a lot, put up a log cabin, and wrote home about what he had found; his countrymen followed steadily enough that by the 1880s the population was about two-thirds Welsh, dairying had become the township's main resource, and Paris was reckoned one of the finest grazing spots in the county rather than a place to avoid.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Newton Falls City49% of residentsEast Branch Mahoning River
• Ravenna City46% of residentsLake Hodgson
• Maple Del Manor Llc2% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Birchwood Manor Mhc New1% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Trumbull Co. - Braceville Twp1% of residentsEast Branch Mahoning River
• Ranch Club Estates Water Association0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Orchard Estates I Mhc, Llc0% of residentsBuried valley/sandstone aquifer wells (12 county wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-23

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