Pike Township, Stark County

How Pike Township, Stark County began

Pike Township, the hilly southern edge of Stark County that Perrin's correspondents called its Switzerland, was set off from Canton Township with Bethlehem on March 6, 1815 and made a separate township in December 1816. It is named for Zebulon Pike, according to Wikipedia; Perrin's county history does not explain the name. George Young, who leased land in Section 9 in 1806 and entered the northwest quarter of Section 21 in 1811, is credited with the first permanent settlement with James Eakins, John Shutt and Jacob Kemery; Jonathan Cable came in 1811, and Pitney Guest and Benjamin Miller in 1812. Amos Janney laid out Sparta (now East Sparta) in 1815 and built the first mill. The township sent its quota to the Civil War without a draft, and it had 1,500 people in 1880, 4,027 in 1970 and 3,818 in 2020; Joseph Medill, later editor of the Chicago Tribune, grew up on a farm here.

Settled 1806 (Young leased land in Section 9), incorporated March 6, 1815 (set off from Canton Township with Bethlehem); separate from Bethlehem December 1816, by George Young, James Eakins, John Shutt and Jacob Kemery.

Where the name comes from

Named in 1815 for Zebulon Pike (according to Wikipedia; Perrin's 1881 county history does not explain the name), the army officer and explorer who led expeditions into the Louisiana Purchase territory and for whom Pikes Peak is also named; he died in 1813 during the War of 1812. It is one of eight Pike Townships in Ohio.

Before the town

Perrin's 1881 county history says Native people were still roaming the country when George Young arrived in 1806 and often called for something to eat; they were harmless but sometimes frightened women alone. On the northwest quarter of Section 8, where Michael and John Holm settled, a fine spring was, in early times, a great resort of Indians, and many arrowheads and other Indian trinkets were found in its vicinity. The history does not name the nation. The land was ceded by the Treaty of Greenville (1795).

• Spring frequented by Native people, with arrowheads (camp) — Northwest quarter of Section 8, Pike Township, on the Holm farm, before 1815 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1806 — George Young and his wife Catherine arrive at the site of present East Sparta (Perrin's 1881 county history instead places Young in Section 9 in 1806 and Section 21 in 1811) and become the township's first permanent settlers, by most historical accounts; some records place his arrival as early as 1800, which would make him the first settler in Stark County, though sources disagree.
2. 1806 — George Young, a Maryland native, walks from Jefferson County leading a pack horse with his wife and baby and leases land in Section 9, building a shelter of poles and brush; his nearest neighbors are John Nichols, building a mill on the Nimishillen four miles northwest, and John Farber five miles south.
3. 1808 — James Eakins settles about this year on what later became the James Evans farm; he is remembered for shooting three bears in one chestnut tree.
4. 1811 — Young enters the northwest quarter of Section 21 and builds a cabin, later keeping the township's first store; Jonathan Cable of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, settles on Section 27 and builds a dozen or more cabins for neighbors; Peter Foster, the first Black settler in Stark County, marries at Oberly's corner.
5. 1812 — Pitney Guest, a shoemaker who later served as Baptist minister and justice of the peace for twenty years, and his father-in-law Benjamin Miller, a Revolutionary veteran who had served under Gen. Greene, squat on land in Section 19; Cable's wife hires a substitute for $60 when he is drafted.
6. 1815 — The township is named for explorer Zebulon Pike, according to Wikipedia.
7. 1815 — The village later known as East Sparta is laid out under the name Sparta on March 22, per the East Sparta unit's own history.
8. 1815 — The commissioners separate Pike and Bethlehem from Canton Township on March 6, with the first election at the house of Henry Bordner; Amos Janney builds the first grist and saw mill on the Nimishillen below Sparta, with millstones cut from quartz boulders.
9. 1816 — In December Pike and Bethlehem are separated and each becomes an independent township; Abraham Yant and Amos Janney are among the first trustees elected in April.
10. 1820 — The township's population is recorded at 883 residents.
11. 1830 — Population reaches 1,273, a 44.2 percent increase over 1820.
12. 1844 — Asbury Chapel, a brick Methodist church, is built in the township; the United Brethren later build Otterbein Chapel and the German Baptists Zion Church.
13. 1880 — The township has about 1,500 residents and no railroad; Perrin reports that Pike filled every quota in the Civil War without a draft, losing fifteen men including Capt. B. F. Steiner of the 107th Infantry.
14. 1970 — Pike Township's population peaks at 4,027 residents.

Stories

A disputed claim to Stark County's oldest settler

Most accounts credit George Young and his wife Catherine with becoming Pike Township's first permanent settlers in 1806, arriving at what became East Sparta (Perrin's 1881 county history places his 1806 land in Section 9) years before the township itself was organized or named. But local records carry a second, earlier claim: some place Young's arrival as far back as 1800, which -- if accurate -- would make him not just the first settler of Pike Township but the first settler in all of Stark County, predating even Bezaleel Wells's 1805 platting of Canton. The discrepancy has never been resolved, and it stands as a reminder that Stark County's earliest settlement history rests on family recollection and township-history compilations rather than contemporary land records for every claim.

Mrs. Cable's substitute

Jonathan Cable entered the southeast quarter of Section 27 in 1811 and moved his family there the following spring, only to be served notice that he was drafted for the War of 1812 and must appear armed and equipped or send a substitute. His wife had three children, the eldest not five, the neighbors were few, and rumors of Indian raids were thick. Perrin's history says she went to work and hired a substitute for $60, money she had saved while keeping a tavern in Jefferson County. The substitute had no gun, so she gave up the family rifle, which she regretted more than the money, because she could bring down a turkey or deer at as long a range as most men. Perrin calls her the last of the old guard: after putting the children to bed she would roll logs and burn brush with her husband, split rails and work in the harvest field, and she once fell out of her sugar-camp canoe in the Nimishillen and pushed it ashore. Her maiden name was Crise, her mother had died when she was five days old, and Perrin met her in her eighty-fifth year, still hearty with a good memory.

The plowboy from Pike

Perrin's county history notes that Pike Township was long the home of the Chicago Tribune's editor, Joseph Medill. His father moved the family to Stark County in 1831, when Joseph was seven; six of his brothers and sisters were born in the county. Joseph worked on a farm in Pike Township for nine or ten years, and in 1844-45 began to read law with Hiram Griswold in the hours he could spare from the fields, then spent months in the office of E. H. Folger at Massillon and finished with Judge Belden and Seymour Belden at New Philadelphia. In 1850 he put down Blackstone and took up the pen. Perrin says he went from an awkward plowboy up to editor-in-chief of one of the greatest newspapers in the country, and that his mother, then in her seventy-seventh year, still lived in Stark County, while his father had died about ten years earlier and lay in the Canton cemetery.

Photographs

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• East Sparta Village51% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)
• Canton Public Water System28% of residentsGlacial sand-and-gravel aquifer (3 well fields)
• Magnolia Village17% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Aqua Ohio - Massillon4% of residentsWells in Tuscarawas Valley sand & gravel aquifer

Community health centers (1)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

High-hazard dams (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Superfund sites (3)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Who holds office

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

Money issues on the ballot since 2015: 10 of 15 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 0 of 1.

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.
• Financial Audit, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-06-23
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-02-06

Cite this page