Trumbull Township, Ashtabula County

How Trumbull Township, Ashtabula County began

Trumbull Township was carved out of Harpersfield Township on March 7, 1825, though settlement went back further: Holly Tanner made the first attempt in 1799 under a proprietors' deal that fell through, and Daniel Woodruff, arriving in 1818, is remembered as the township's first permanent resident. The township's earliest recorded death was Leonard Blackmar, who died on April 22, 1819 of injuries sustained trying to capture a full-grown elk single-handed two months earlier -- an unusual cause of death even by frontier standards. Three small communities grew up within the township's bounds: Trumbull Center, East Trumbull, and Footville, the last home to a shoe peg and clothespin factory that employed about 25 workers until fire destroyed it in 1868. East Trumbull's own covered bridge, built over Trumbull Creek, was eventually replaced in 1950.

Settled 1799 (Holly Tanner, first attempt, later abandoned); 1818 (Daniel Woodruff, first permanent resident), incorporated March 7, 1825 (organized from part of Harpersfield Township), by Daniel Woodruff, first permanent settler; county commissioners created the township from Harpersfield.

Where the name comes from

No source consulted gives an explicit origin for the township's name; it is the only Trumbull Township in Ohio, and likely echoes Trumbull County, itself named for Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, which had earlier included this part of the Western Reserve before Ashtabula County organized.

Before the town

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

Timeline

1. 1799 — Holly Tanner, under an agreement to receive 200 acres if he cleared and occupied the land for two years, becomes the first to attempt settlement, traveling by boat from Scipio, New York; he abandons the claim after almost two years on news that the proprietors had died -- missing, by only a month or two, the point at which he would have received his deed.
2. 1818 — Daniel Woodruff, originally of Colebrook, Connecticut but more recently of Williamsfield, becomes the township's first permanent settler; Isaac H. Phelps, Obadiah Brown, and Leonard Blackmar also settle around this time.
3. September 17, 1819 — Alanson Trumbull Woodruff, son of Daniel Woodruff, becomes the first child born in the township.
4. April 22, 1819 — Leonard Blackmar dies of injuries sustained about two months earlier while trying to capture a full-grown elk alone -- the township's first recorded death.
5. about 1821 — Isaac H. Phelps, as justice of the peace, performs the township's first marriage, between Jehoiakim Burget and Sarissa Patterson of Harpersfield; the first marriage between Trumbull residents follows around 1824, when Ezra Griffin marries Laura, paying the license fee in coon-skins.
6. 1823 — A post office opens at Trumbull Center, with Isaac H. Phelps as first postmaster.
7. March 7, 1825 — Ashtabula County commissioners formally establish Trumbull Township out of part of Harpersfield Township; the first officer election is held the following month at Isaac H. Phelps's residence.
8. 1829 — The township's first school-house is built near the present Wilson residence; the township's first schools open at Trumbull Center.
9. fall 1841 — Orson Grant makes the first settlement at what becomes Footville, joined the next year by Lauren B. Foot, whose family gives the hamlet its name.
10. 1855 — The township's first church building, Methodist, is erected on land owned by Theodore Frisbie, Sr.
11. 1859 — A Disciple congregation organizes in the township.
12. 1868 — Fire destroys Footville's shoe peg and clothespin factory, which had employed about 25 workers.
13. 1873 — The Trumbull Grange organizes.
14. 1950 — The East Trumbull covered bridge, a Town-truss span of 75 to 100 feet over Trumbull Creek just north of the East Trumbull settlement, is replaced.

Stories

A settler against an elk

Of all the ways a Western Reserve settler could die in the township's first years -- fever, drowning, a falling tree, a runaway team -- Leonard Blackmar's 1819 death stands out for its sheer ambition. Blackmar, who had settled in the township's eastern section around 1818 alongside Daniel Woodruff and Isaac H. Phelps, apparently decided to try to capture a large elk by himself, with no party, no rope crew, and evidently no real plan for what to do once he had his hands on several hundred pounds of frightened wild animal. The elk, unsurprisingly, did not cooperate, and the injuries Blackmar sustained in the attempt proved fatal two months later, on April 22, 1819 -- the township's first recorded death, and a small but vivid reminder of how much genuinely dangerous wildlife still shared the land with the earliest farm families, years before elk were extirpated from Ohio entirely.

A wedding license paid in coon-skins

Ezra Griffin and his intended, Laura, decided sometime around 1824 that it was not good for a man to be alone, and set out one November evening for Jefferson to make it official. Ezra's entire worldly wealth for the errand consisted of three coon-skins, meant to cover the marriage license, along with an axe and a gun for the journey. At Grand River they found the water too rough for Laura's comfort, even after Ezra felled a tree and built a raft; the couple simply waited by the roadside until evening, when the water had calmed enough to cross. Reaching Jefferson, they traded the coon-skins for their license -- though the pelts did not quite cover the justice's full fee -- and were married. They settled on a local farm, raised a large family, and eventually, like so many Western Reserve pioneers before them, sold out and moved west.

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

Mostly private wells The water here

• Geneva City46% of residentsLake Erie
• Roaming Shores Village32% of residentsLake Erie
• Rock Creek Village21% of residentsLake Erie
• Lake County East Water Subdistrict1% of residentsLake Erie

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2022: 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, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-09-15

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