Rome Township, Ashtabula County

How Rome Township, Ashtabula County began

The Connecticut Land Company sold Rome Township's land in 1798 at forty cents an acre. Abner Hall built the township's first house in 1805, the same year Elijah Crosby, who had bought 550 acres, and Daniel Hall began clearing land, but it was William Crowell, arriving from Connecticut in 1806 as part of a larger family caravan, who is remembered as the first true permanent settler. Formerly part of Richfield Township, Rome organized under its own name on June 2, 1828 -- a name local historians trace, uncertainly, to either Rome, Italy or Rome, New York. Two of the county's waterways within the township, the Grand River and Rock Creek, carried Native-given names, the 1924 county history notes, long before any settler arrived. In the twentieth century, part of the planned lake community of Roaming Shores was built across the township's northeastern corner.

Settled 1805 (Abner Hall builds the first house; Elijah Crosby and Daniel Hall begin clearing land); 1806 (William Crowell, first permanent settler), incorporated June 2, 1828 (renamed and organized as Rome, formerly part of Richfield Township), by Elijah Crosby, Abner Hall, Daniel Hall, and William Crowell.

Where the name comes from

The township's name origin is uncertain: it may derive from Rome, Italy, or from Rome, New York, Wikipedia records both explanations without choosing one.

Before the town

The 1924 county history notes that the Grand River and Rock Creek, the two principal waterways running through Rome Township, both carried names "given to the streams by the Indians many years before the foot of a white man ever touched that soil" -- explicit acknowledgment that these are Native place names surviving into the settler record, though the source does not identify which nation named them or give a specific village or site within the township.

Timeline

1. 1798 — The Connecticut Land Company sells the township's land at forty cents an acre.
2. 1805 — Abner Hall builds the township's first house; Elijah Crosby, who has purchased 550 acres, and Daniel Hall begin clearing land.
3. 1806 — William Crowell arrives from Connecticut as part of a larger family caravan and becomes the township's first permanent settler; the Walkley, Hall, Rogers, Brown, and Tinker families settle nearby around this time.
4. 1806 — Mrs. Crosby gives birth to the first male child born of white parents in the township, Henry; the original owner, Henry Champion, had promised a deed to fifty acres to the first boy baby born there and executes it for the child.
5. 1808 — The township's first religious meeting is held at Elijah Crosby's home.
6. 1810 — A log schoolhouse is built, the township's first.
7. 1815 — Elijah Crosby is appointed Rome's first postmaster, with the office in his residence.
8. 1818 — The township's first sawmill is built.
9. 1819 — A Presbyterian society organizes in the township.
10. 1819 — John Crowell builds the first tavern and stage-house in the township; Sylvester Rogers converts his home into a public tavern in the early 1820s.
11. 1820 — The township's first gristmill is built.
12. 1821 — A frame schoolhouse replaces the original log school.
13. 1824 — The township's first store opens.
14. June 2, 1828 — The township, formerly part of Richfield Township, formally organizes and is renamed Rome.
15. April 1829 — The township's first election is held, choosing officers including Joseph D. Hall and Justin Williams.
16. 1835 — A Baptist society organizes in the township.
17. 1836 — An academy is incorporated in the township, and the Rome Presbyterian Church is built the same year.
18. 1837 — The Episcopalians build a church in Rome, after the Baptists in 1835; the Methodists build at Rome Station in 1877 in a building moved from the Center.
19. 1872-1873 — Railroad development creates a new settlement center within the township, rivaling the original village.
20. 1966-1967 — Development Services Incorporated buys land including part of Rome Township's northeastern corner and dams Rock Creek to build Lake Roaming Rock, part of what becomes the village of Roaming Shores.

Stories

Fifty acres for the first boy

Elijah Crosby bought 550 acres in lots 13 and 14 and in 1805 rode from East Haddam, Connecticut, with Daniel Hall to look it over, leaving Hall to clear two acres. The next year he brought his family, parents and ten children and two young men, left them at Rock Creek while he built a log house on the clearing, and found that Abner Hall had meanwhile built the first house in the township next north. Some months after the family settled, Mrs. Crosby gave birth to the first white male child in the township. The original owner, Henry Champion, had agreed to give a deed to fifty acres to the first boy born there, and he promptly executed it for the child, named Henry. That year a caravan from Connecticut brought William Crowell and his eight children, John Crowell, David and Jonathan Walkley and Ephraim Sawyer, who spent the winter in Hall's vacated cabin.

A preacher's son named Bob

Rome's Presbyterian society organized in 1819 under Rev. Giles Cowles and built its church in 1836. One of its later ministers was Rev. Ingersoll, whom the 1924 county history names as the father of Robert G. Ingersoll, the famous lawyer and orator. The history says young Bob spent some years of his boyhood in Rome, and that some of his schoolmates were still living who told amusing stories of the pranks of the preacher's son. The township's academy, incorporated in the spring of 1836 by the Rome Academical Company, and the log schoolhouse that Elijah Crosby and William Crowell had put up in 1810 for their own large families belonged to the same village.

Local history sources: conneautohio.us · en.wikipedia.org · roamingshores.org · archive.org

Mostly private wells The water here

• Roaming Shores Village81% of residentsLake Erie
• Rock Creek Village13% of residentsLake Erie
• Orwell Village6% of residentsGroundwater wells (6 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public EV charging (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 1 of 1 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, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-07

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