Sheffield Township, Ashtabula County

How Sheffield Township, Ashtabula County began

Sheffield Township began as East Matherstown, part of the land claimed by proprietor Samuel Mather and divided among his three heirs in 1818. John Shaw, who deserted the British army in Canada during the War of 1812 and rowed across Lake Erie by night with several companions to reach Ashtabula and freedom, arrived in Sheffield in 1812 and is remembered as its first permanent settler, though Revolutionary War veteran Major Moore had broken the forest here a year earlier in 1811 before moving on. When the township organized in 1820, separating from Kingsville Township, it took the name Sheffield in place of the old East Matherstown. The township became known for dairying -- cheese and butter were, by 1878, its residents' leading employment -- and produced at least one notable export of its own: William Ward, converted there in 1843, served twenty years as a Baptist missionary in Assam, India. Its Benetka Road covered bridge, built around 1900, still carries traffic over the Ashtabula River today.

Settled 1811 (Major Moore, first to break the forest, did not stay); 1812 (John Shaw, first permanent settler), incorporated 1820 (organized, separated from Kingsville Township), by John Shaw; Major Moore; land held by proprietor Samuel Mather's heirs.

Where the name comes from

First called East Matherstown for proprietor Samuel Mather Jr., one of the Connecticut Land Company's stockholders, the township was renamed Sheffield at its 1820 organization; Wikipedia glosses the name as meaning "sheaf of fields," evoking the area's agricultural land.

Before the town

No Native American village, trail, site, or interaction is recorded in the 1878 or 1924 county histories' Sheffield Township chapters, nor in Wikipedia's article -- a documented absence rather than an oversight, given how detailed all three sources are on other early settlement topics.

Timeline

1. 1811 — A man named Moore builds the township's first log cabin and clears land, then moves on farther west.
2. 1812 — John Shaw, who had been serving as a soldier in the British army in Canada at the outbreak of the War of 1812, deserts with several companions, rows a small boat across Lake Erie from Long Point by night, and lands at Ashtabula, becoming Sheffield Township's first permanent settler.
3. 1817 — Major Moore -- a different Moore, a Revolutionary War veteran -- marries Reuben Mendall's sixteen-year-old daughter, the township's first wedding, before moving away permanently; a Mendall brother dies of consumption the same year, the first burial in Sheffield.
4. 1818 — Samuel Mather's three heirs divide the township into three north-south portions; in July, John R. Gage's daughter Locema Clark becomes the first child born on the river's south side.
5. 1819 — The township's first schoolhouse is built, after Clarissa Cassell had taught its first classes in a log cabin.
6. 1820 — Sheffield Township organizes, separating from Kingsville Township, with John Gage as trustee, John Griggs (or Briggs) as justice of the peace, Chauncey Atwater as clerk, and Samuel Johnson as treasurer.
7. 1824 — A Methodist congregation first organizes in the township; its permanent church is built in 1844.
8. 1827 — Elijah Peck erects the township's first saw and grist mill.
9. 1828 — Zaccheus Bugley's rifle discharges accidentally while he crosses Pine Creek, killing his son Horace -- remembered as the township's first accidental death.
10. 1835 — The Baptist church is organized under Rev. Edmund Richmond, who gives the land for its building and serves as pastor until his death in 1861.
11. 1843 — William Ward is converted in Sheffield Township and later serves twenty years as a Baptist missionary in Assam, India.
12. 1845 — David Richmond is appointed the township's first postmaster; the office's entire income for its first three months is recorded as 83 cents.
13. 1861 — H. G. Hinds builds a hotel at Sheffield Center.
14. 1869 — The Cleveland Brothers open a pump and butter-tub factory, producing 25 pumps and 50 tubs daily.
15. spring 1874 — The Buckeye cheese factory, a joint-stock company, is built in the township.
16. around 1900 — The Benetka Road Bridge, a Town lattice covered bridge about 120 feet long, is built over the Ashtabula River two and a half miles northwest of Sheffield Center; reinforced concrete abutments are added in 1969, and the bridge still carries traffic.

Stories

From a Sheffield conversion to twenty years in Assam

Among the names the 1878 county history records for Sheffield Township, one traveled further than any other: William Ward, converted to the Baptist faith in the township in 1843, went on to spend twenty years as a missionary in Assam, in far northeastern India, under the sponsorship of the Baptist congregation Rev. Edmund Richmond had organized in 1835. It is a small, telling detail about how the religious institutions a farming township built for its own use -- a log schoolhouse doubling as a meeting house, a congregation raised through local land donations -- could also become launching points into a much wider world. Richmond himself, who gave the land for the Baptist church and preached to the congregation until his death in 1861, never left the township permanently; Ward, one of the people his ministry touched, carried its influence a third of the way around the globe.

A deserter's night crossing of Lake Erie

John Shaw's arrival in Sheffield Township in 1812 was no ordinary pioneer migration. He had been serving as a soldier in the British army stationed in Canada when the War of 1812 broke out between Britain and the United States, and, chafing at what he and several fellow soldiers considered the bondage of British military service, he decided to make a break for what he had heard called "Free America." He and his companions took a small boat from Long Point, on the Canadian shore, and struck out across Lake Erie. Wind and current pushed the boat farther up the lake than planned, but they made landfall on the American side at Ashtabula under cover of darkness and pressed inland until they judged themselves safely beyond any chance of recapture. Shaw settled in Sheffield and is remembered as its first permanent resident; his descendants, according to his son Truman, who told the story, were still living in the area generations later.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Aqua Ohio - Ashtabula75% of residentsLake Erie
• Aqua Ohio - Village of Jefferson22% of residentsLake Erie
• Conneaut2% of residentsLake Erie
• Dfc Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (4 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 2 of 2 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 2025-06-24

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