Rochester Township, Lorain County

How Rochester Township, Lorain County began

Rochester Township was, by the 1879 county history's own account, 'the latest settled of any of the townships' in Lorain County. Its first residents were a squatter family named Dodge who built a cabin (the history prints 1837, evidently an error since Babcock arrived in 1831) and left after tragedy struck; the first settler family to stay, Stephen Babcock's, arrived from Blandford, Massachusetts, in the early 1830s. It contains the small village of Rochester in its northern section and borders townships in neighboring Ashland and Huron counties. It is Lorain County's smallest and most rural township by population, with 633 residents at the 2020 census.

Settled before 1831 (the Dodge family, squatters; the source prints 1837, which the narrative contradicts), by the Dodge family (squatters); Stephen Babcock among the first settlers to remain.

Where the name comes from

The township shares its name with the village of Rochester at its center, which was itself named after Rochester, New York, the home town of a land agent.

Before the town

No Native village, trail or site is recorded in Rochester Township. The 1879 county history says the Dodge family's cabin was the first white home 'hitherto unbroken, save by an occasional hunter from the surrounding country', and mentions no Native people in the township's account.

Timeline

1. before 1831 (printed 1837) — A squatter family named Dodge (father, wife Emeline, and son Newell) builds a small log cabin on lot nine, tract three, the first white family in the township.
2. spring (printed 1839) — A child born to the Dodge family dies soon after birth; the mother dies shortly after that, and father and son bury her themselves on a hilltop near the river with no minister present, before leaving the township.
3. April 1831 — Stephen Babcock of Blandford, Massachusetts, picks a farm half a mile west of Rochester center and contracts Elijah T. Banning of Huntington to cut the timber on thirty acres; Banning moves his family into a new log house, the first settlement by a family that stays (the 1916 history names Banning as the first settler).
4. Spring 1831 — The Wheeler sons John, Jacob and Lewis, from Richland County, contract for lots 8, 14 and 17 from Orrin Meach, cut timber and plant potatoes and turnips; the rest of the Wheeler family arrives that fall.
5. Early spring 1832 — The Babcock family occupies the new house on its farm in Rochester.
6. May 1832 — Hiram Woodworth of Madison County, New York, and Erastus Knapp of near Rochester, New York, bring their families; there were no roads, and travelers followed marked trees.
7. 31 December 1832 — Luther Blair, his wife and eleven children arrive from Becket, Massachusetts, and settle at the northeast corner lot of the center; their log house is the first in that vicinity.
8. March 1835 — The Lorain County commissioners set off Rochester Township from tracts 3 to 5 and 6 of Range 19, at the same session that organizes Camden.
9. 6 April 1835 — The township is organized by the election of John Conant, Joseph Hadley and Nehemiah Tucker as trustees, a Blair as clerk and Benjamin C. Perkins as treasurer; the organization of Camden and Rochester completes the township organization of the county.
10. 1837 — A post office is opened at the southeast corner of the township.
11. 1848 — The first store opens at the Station.
12. 1849-1850 — The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, pushed through the southeastern part of the county largely by Dr. D. Z. Johns of Wellington, is built; the post office moves to the Station and some Center residents follow.
13. 1916 — The county history describes Rochester as a station and village of perhaps 300 people on the Big Four line, six miles southwest of Wellington.
14. 2020 — Census records 633 residents across the township's 17.66 square miles.

Stories

The latest-settled township, and its saddest story

By the county historian's own account, Rochester was 'the latest settled of any of the townships now comprised within the boundary lines of the county of Lorain' -- a wilderness broken only by occasional hunters until squatters named Dodge built a small cabin (printed as 1837, evidently before Stephen Babcock's arrival in 1831). Their time there ended in tragedy: a child born to them in the spring died soon after, and the mother died not long after that. Her husband and son built a coffin themselves, held the funeral themselves, and buried her on a hilltop near the river with no minister to say the service. 'No sable hearse or nodding plume decked the funeral array,' the 1879 history recorded; 'all was dreary, all was desolate.' The remaining family soon left the township for good. It fell to later arrivals, like Stephen Babcock of Massachusetts, who came in 1831 and cleared land with hired help from Elijah T. Banning, to build the settlement that lasted.

A year-end arrival

Luther Blair and his wife brought eleven children from Becket, Massachusetts, to Rochester, arriving on 31 December 1832 in the dead of winter. They settled at the northeast corner of what became the township center, and their log house was the first built there. Blair became prominent in the church and the township; the 1916 history lists a Blair as clerk at the organization on 6 April 1835. He died in December 1852 and his wife the September after. By then Rochester had two centers: the old one, where Blair lived, and the Station, a mile or so away on the railroad built in 1849-50, where his son William H. lived in 1879. The railroad moved the post office and some of the Center's residents to the Station.

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

Every historic place in Huron County on the full map

New London's upground reservoir, filled by pumping from Buck Creek, just outside the Village of New London The water here

• Rural Lorain Co. Water A49% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• New London Village31% of residentsBuck Creek, impounded in New London's upground reservoir
• Wellington Village20% of residentsCharlemont Creek, via Wellington Upground Reservoir
• Pheasant Run Association0% of residentsLake Erie

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked.

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