Vermilion Township, Erie County

How Vermilion Township, Erie County began

Vermilion Township, the northeasternmost of Erie County's townships and the one with the longest Lake Erie shore, was named for the Vermilion River, which the 1889 county history says Native people named for a red paint they found along its banks; township and river were long spelled 'Vermillion.' William Haddy built the first log house near the river's mouth in 1808, and the first recorded township meeting was held at Almon Ruggles's house on April 6, 1818. The village of Vermillion at the river mouth was incorporated in 1837, while the rest of the township stayed farmland, with an iron furnace that ran until 1865, a cheese factory at Wells Corners and, from 1921, the Beulah Beach camp on the shore. Lake Erie has taken much of the original shoreline: after 1826 the lake rose and washed away houses, a schoolhouse lot and a road.

Settled 1808, incorporated c. 1808, by William Haddy (first log house, 1808); first recorded township meeting April 6, 1818.

Where the name comes from

Named for the Vermilion River, which reaches Lake Erie within the township. The 1889 county history and Howe's Historical Collections say Native people named the river for the red paint they found along its banks. The township and river both originally used the double-L spelling 'Vermillion.'

Before the town

The 1889 county history records two ancient fortifications on the banks of the Vermilion River in the south of the township, on the farm of John Summers, and smaller ones elsewhere in the township, built by people it could not identify. It names the Native people the first settlers met as mostly of the 'Sandusky, Tawa and Chippewa' tribes, that is Wyandot of Sandusky, Ottawa and Ojibwe. Sugar Creek was named for a sugar-loaf-shaped mound at its mouth and for the maple sugar Native people made along it, and the Vermilion River for the red paint found on its banks. The land lies in the Firelands, ceded under the 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot, Ottawa, Ojibwe (Chippewa).

• Summers farm fortifications (earthwork) — banks of the Vermilion River, south part of Vermilion Township, farm of John Summers, prehistoric, culture not identified (archive.org)
• Sugar Creek mound (mound) — mouth of Sugar Creek, Vermilion Township, prehistoric, culture not identified (archive.org)

Timeline

1. c. 1808 — Vermilion Township was established, originally extending west to the Huron River.
2. 1808 — William Haddy built the first house in the township, a log house on the lake shore near the mouth of the river.
3. 1809 — John Sherarts, the first white child born in the township, was born.
4. 1810 — Rev. Joseph Badger held a religious meeting in the township.
5. 1812 — Peter Cuddeback planted the first orchard.
6. 1814 — The first schoolhouse was built on the lake shore, where Susan Williams taught the township's first school.
7. 1818-04-06 — The first recorded township meeting was held at Almon Ruggles's house; Ruggles was elected clerk and Francis Keyes, John Beardsley and Rufus Judson trustees.
8. 1818 — Taxes on the township's 45 taxpayers totaled $23.20, the largest being Stephen Meeker's $1.70; the Congregational church was organized.
9. 1819 — Job Smith built the first sawmill, on La Chapelle Creek.
10. 1826 — After the Black Rock dam was built as an Erie Canal feeder, Lake Erie rose two feet or more and began eating away the township's beach and lakefront farms.
11. 1828-05-22 — Rev. Harvey Lyon was installed as the first pastor, in the first meeting house, built near the center of the township that year.
12. 1830 — Ford, Sandford and Tracy formed an iron company that ran about a quarter century; the later Vermillion furnace of Philo Tilden employed sixty men until 1865.
13. 1837 — The village of Vermillion, at the river mouth, was incorporated by special act of the legislature; its first recorded election was April 6, 1839.
14. 1860 — Horatio Perry's 1821 brick house, built well back from the lake, was washed into Lake Erie.
15. 1877 — Christopher Bauman's cheese factory began at Wells Corners, three and a half miles from Vermillion, with a hundred cows.
16. 1921 — Beulah Beach was established on the township's Lake Erie shoreline as a meeting place for the Bible and Missionary Conference, a ministry that continues today under the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
17. c. 1930-1945 — A postcard depicting the Tabernacle at Beulah Beach was published by Tichnor Brothers.

Stories

The lake takes the shore

When the first settlers came to Vermilion Township they found a sand beach four to fifteen rods wide running west from the river mouth along the whole township, in places wooded with basswood. After the Black Rock dam was built in 1826 as a feeder for the Erie Canal, the lake rose two feet or more and the beach began to disappear. Horatio Perry built his brick house in 1821 well back in his lot; it was washed into the lake in 1860, and Captain Austin's stone house went the same way despite attempts to wall off the waves. The land where the township's first schoolhouse stood was carried away, along with the road and two rows of orchard south of it. By 1889 owners were losing several acres a year and talking of a law to make every lakefront owner build defenses, since one owner's wall alone would be outflanked.

Captain Austin's white horse

Captain William Austin, one of the first settlers, lived half a mile west of the river mouth and built boats there, one launched during the War of 1812. He had made nineteen voyages to the Newfoundland banks and on to Spain before coming west from New London, Connecticut, and he claimed to have held Oliver Hazard Perry on his knees as a baby. He believed he was warned of danger by a dream of a raging white horse. Once, napping at sea, he dreamed of it, ordered the ship about, and saw the Labrador breakers eighty rods ahead as the fog lifted. In the fall of 1814, sailing from Sandusky to Detroit on a fine day, he saw the horse again and tied up at Put-in-Bay over his passengers' protests; a gale and snowstorm struck that evening, and he landed them safely in Detroit two days later.

Photographs

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

Lake Erie (Vermilion River intake as secondary/backup) The water here

• Vermilion City83% of residentsLake Erie (Vermilion River intake as secondary/backup)
• Huron City7% of residentsLake Erie
• Erie Co. Huron East District5% of residentsLake Erie
• Erie Co. Vermilion District5% of residentsLake Erie

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (6)

Money issues on the ballot since 2017: 1 of 1 passed; of those asking for new or higher taxes, 1 of 1.

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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-06

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