Plymouth Township, Ashtabula County

How Plymouth Township, Ashtabula County began

Plymouth Township began as part of Ashtabula Township, settled from about 1804 by families including William Thompson and, from 1811-12, a group who arrived from Plymouth, Connecticut -- Zadoc Mann, Warner Mann, John and Asher Blakeslee, Lynus Hall, Titus Seymour, Dr. David Warner, and Elias Cook Upson among them. At the Connecticut settlers' request the area took the name Plymouth, and it formally separated from Ashtabula Township on January 7, 1838, organizing as its own township that July 4. Nearly all the early settlers were Episcopalian, holding services by lay reading under Zadoc Mann until their former Connecticut pastor, Rev. Roger Searle, arrived and conducted the township's first formal service on February 19, 1817; St. Matthew's Episcopal Church went up in 1841. Griggs Grange No. 1467, built in the 1890s, still serves the farming community today.

Settled 1804-1805 (William Thompson, among the earliest settlers); 1811-12 (Plymouth, Connecticut families arrive), incorporated January 7, 1838 (separated from Ashtabula Township); July 4, 1838 (organized), by Settlers from Plymouth, Connecticut, led in religious life by Zadoc Mann.

Where the name comes from

The township was renamed Plymouth at the request of a group of settlers who had come from Plymouth, Connecticut in 1811-12, after having first been part of Ashtabula Township.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, or site specific to Plymouth Township is documented in the sources consulted.

Timeline

1. 1804-1805 — William Thompson settles in the area that becomes Plymouth Township, among its earliest settlers.
2. 1806 — Samuel White and David Burnet settle in the township; White plants the township's first orchard the following spring.
3. 1809 — Thomas Gordon builds the township's first saw mill.
4. 1811-12 — Several families from Plymouth, Connecticut -- including Zadoc Mann, Warner Mann, John and Asher Blakeslee, Lynus Hall, Titus Seymour, Dr. David Warner, and Elias Cook Upson -- settle in the area, then part of Ashtabula Township; it is renamed Plymouth at their request.
5. February 19, 1817 — Rev. Roger Searle, the Connecticut settlers' former pastor from Plymouth, holds the township's first formal Episcopal service, in the house of Hal Smith, after years of lay-reading services led by Zadoc Mann.
6. January 7, 1838 — Plymouth formally separates from Ashtabula Township.
7. July 4, 1838 — Plymouth Township organizes with its own elected trustees, clerk, treasurer, and overseers.
8. 1839 — A woolen factory is established in the township; it burns down on December 24, 1847.
9. 1841 — St. Matthew's Episcopal Church is built, a half mile east of the township center.
10. 1890s — The building that becomes Griggs Grange No. 1467 is constructed, its exact date unrecorded; the Griggs Grange chapter itself organizes in April 1897.
11. December 13, 1995 — Griggs Grange No. 1467 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

A congregation before it had a minister

The Connecticut families who settled Plymouth Township in 1811 and 1812 did not wait for clergy to practice their faith. Nearly all of them were Episcopalian, and rather than go without worship in their first years on the frontier, they held services by lay reading, with Zadoc Mann presiding in place of an ordained minister. That arrangement lasted until February 19, 1817, when Rev. Roger Searle -- their own former pastor from Plymouth, Connecticut, who had made the journey west to rejoin his former congregation -- held the township's first formal service in the home of a settler named Hal Smith. It took nearly a quarter century more before the community could build a permanent church: St. Matthew's Episcopal Church went up in 1841, a half mile east of the township center, giving a settled home to a congregation that had already been meeting, one way or another, for three decades.

Local history sources: ohiogenealogyexpress.com · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org

Every historic place in Ashtabula County on the full map

Lake Erie, drawn at a shoreline intake near Ashtabula Harbor into a plant that sits only about 4 feet above lake water elevation The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Ashtabula92% of residentsLake Erie
• Aqua Ohio - Village of Jefferson8% of residentsLake Erie
• Dfc Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (2)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 7 of 7 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.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-05-13

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