Paris Township, Stark County

How Paris Township, Stark County began

Paris Township in southeastern Stark County was part of Osnaburg Township until the county commissioners set it off in 1818. Its first white settler was Rudolph Bair, a Pennsylvanian who had been a member of Ohio's 1802 constitutional convention; he and his brother Christopher rode the State Road bridle path in the summer of 1800, entered land at the Steubenville land office, and Rudolph built a cabin in the fall on the south half of Section 5, beside a Native encampment on the creek. George Thuman, the Deweese family, Jasper Daniels, John Byers, Jacob Thoman and John Augustine followed in 1808-09, and Conrad Henning came in 1811. Bair built the first grist mill on Black Stream about 1814-15. The township grew from 553 residents in 1820 to 1,513 in 1830, had 2,720 in 1880, peaked at 6,038 in 1970 and held 5,743 in 2020.

Settled fall 1800, incorporated April 1, 1818 (set off from Osnaburg Township), by Rudolph Bair, a native of York County, Pennsylvania.

Where the name comes from

No specific naming account is recorded for Paris Township, though 'Paris' was a common choice for early Ohio place names, following the era's fashion for naming frontier towns after European cities.

Before the town

Perrin's 1881 county history says that when Rudolph Bair built his cabin in the fall of 1800 on the south half of Section 5 there were Indians encamped on the creek a short distance below, where the State Road crosses it, and that no white person lived nearer than Osnaburg, five miles away. It does not name the nation. The land was ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

• Native encampment on the creek at the State Road crossing (camp) — Creek below Section 5, where the State Road crosses it, Paris Township, 1800 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1800 — In summer Rudolph Bair and his brother Christopher ride the State Road bridle path through eastern Stark, select quarter-sections in what became Paris and Osnaburg townships and enter them at the Steubenville land office; in the fall Rudolph builds a cabin on the south half of Section 5, the first white settlement in the township.
2. 1802 — Rudolph Bair, a land speculator known for fairness in settling neighbors' disputes, serves in the convention that framed Ohio's first state constitution; he later served as a justice of the peace when his authority covered much of the state, and in the legislature at Chillicothe.
3. 1808 — George Thuman of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, settles on Section 19 and a Mr. Deweese on Section 16; Samuel Deweese later recalled carrying a bushel of corn to Slusser's mill on a bull and paying eight dollars for a bushel of salt.
4. 1809 — Jasper Daniels, John Byers, Jacob Thoman and John Augustine settle; Augustine later serves as county sheriff and as state senator from 1824 to 1832.
5. 1811 — Conrad Henning of Pennsylvania buys 100 acres from Bair for $200 and becomes the first blacksmith; his wife serves as midwife for more than thirty years and, Perrin says, never lost a patient in over five hundred cases.
6. 1814 — Rudolph Bair builds the first grist mill in the township on Black Stream, a two-story frame building with two run of burrs, after an earlier saw mill; the supply of water later failed and a steam mill replaced it.
7. 1818 — Paris Township is officially organized on April 1.
8. 1820 — The township's population is recorded at 553 residents.
9. 1820 — John Whiteacre builds a grist and saw mill, long known as the Whiteacre Mills, with a distillery attached; Rudolph Bair dies the same year and is buried in the graveyard he gave to the town of Paris.
10. 1830 — Population reaches 1,513, a 173.6 percent increase over 1820.
11. 1833 — The township's economy includes four gristmills, seven sawmills, a fulling mill, a tannery, and five stores.
12. 1833 — Surveyor John Whitacre's 1818 mill purchase (the 1881 county history dates the Whiteacre Mills to 1820) near what becomes Minerva grows into a settlement that later extends into the township's southeastern section.
13. 1880 — The census counts 2,720 residents in Paris Township, served by the Connotton Valley narrow-gauge railroad and the Tuscarawas Branch of the Cleveland, Pittsburgh & Wheeling.
14. 1970 — Paris Township's population peaks at 6,038 residents.

Stories

A fast-growing mill township

Paris Township's first decade after its 1818 organization was unusually explosive by rural Ohio standards: its population nearly tripled, from 553 residents in 1820 to 1,513 by 1830, a 174 percent jump. That growth tracked the arrival of water-powered industry -- by 1833 the township counted four gristmills, seven sawmills, a fulling mill, a tannery, and five stores, an unusually dense concentration of mills for a single Stark County township. Part of that milling economy sat at the township's southeastern edge, where John Whitacre's 1818 log mill on Sandy Creek (the 1881 county history dates his mills to 1820) anchored the settlement that grew into the village of Minerva, whose built-up area now extends across the Paris-Osnaburg-Sandy township lines.

A cabin with a quilt for a door

Rudolph Bair, called Rudy, entered his land at Steubenville in 1800 and in the fall of that year moved his household goods into a cabin on the south half of Section 5 before the floor was laid or a door hung. A quilt hung from wooden pins closed the doorway. A Canton newspaper account that Perrin quotes says Bair then went back to Columbiana County for supplies, leaving his wife alone with her baby for several days and nights. Indians were encamped on the creek a short way below, where the State Road crosses it, and no other white person lived nearer than Osnaburg, five miles away. At night wolves came howling around the cabin, and she kept them off by throwing out chunks of fire from the hearth until her husband returned. Bair, who went on to help write Ohio's first constitution, died in 1820 and was buried in the graveyard he had given the village of Paris; the walnut slab that marked his grave had rotted away by 1881 and nobody could say exactly where he lay.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Minerva Village91% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Premier Park Estates Llc4% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• East Canton Village3% of residentsGlacial sand-and-gravel aquifer (3 well fields)
• Pride Valley MHP2% of residentsGroundwater wells (1 wells)
• Skyland Hills MHP1% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Canton Public Water System0% of residentsGlacial sand-and-gravel aquifer (3 well fields)
• Thunderbird Terrace MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Louisville City0% of residentsLocal groundwater wells (Stark County)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (2)

Shale and injection wells (2)

Spills reported since 2021 (4)

Who holds office

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

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 2 of 6 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, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-07-15

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