Wadsworth Township, Medina County

How Wadsworth Township, Medina County began

Wadsworth Township, Township 1 in Range 13 of the Western Reserve, lies in Medina County's southeast corner and is named for General Elijah Wadsworth of Litchfield, Connecticut, one of the original proprietors. The Reserve's south line, the forty-first parallel, runs along its southern edge; the surveyor Seth Pease marked it about 1797. The Dean and Durham families began the settlement on March 17, 1814 at what is now Western Star, and the township was organized in 1818. The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad and coal mining around Silver Creek, first shipped in 1868, built the village of Wadsworth at the township center, which was incorporated in 1866 according to the 1881 county history. Wadsworth became a city in 1931, and the township had 4,384 residents in 2020.

Settled 1814, incorporated 1818 (organized), by settled on land largely owned by General Elijah Wadsworth.

Where the name comes from

The township is named, like the city within it, for General Elijah Wadsworth (1747-1817), a Revolutionary War and War of 1812 officer and the largest single landowner in the territory that became Medina County. It is the only Wadsworth Township in Ohio.

Before the town

The 1881 county history says that 'but few signs that Indians or other human beings had visited or inhabited this territory' were found before settlement: flint arrow-points and stone axes turned up on the surface, but there are no well-marked mounds, graves or fortifications. The first person to have a dwelling here was John Holmes, an English-born former Indian trader from Montreal who married among the Indians and lived as a hunter and trapper; settlers called him 'Indian Holmes', and the remains of his cabin were pointed out near the brook that bears his name. The history, quoting the Rev. Edward Brown's Wadsworth Memorial (1875), does not count him as a settler. The land was opened to settlement by the Treaty of Fort Industry (1805). Elsewhere in the county, a Potawatomi encounter is recorded in Liverpool Township in 1810.

• John (Indian) Holmes's cabin (camp) — near Holmes' Brook, Wadsworth Township, before 1814 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. c. 1797 — Seth Pease's survey party marks the south line of the Western Reserve along the township's edge; a beech tree on Holmes' Brook was later found carved 'Philip Ward 1797'.
2. 1814 — Wadsworth Township is founded on land largely owned by General Elijah Wadsworth.
3. 1814-03-17 — Daniel Dean's and Oliver Durham's families, from Vermont, arrive on the east line at what is now Western Star, the first settlers; the first child, Alonzo Dean, is born in July.
4. 1815-02 — Salmon Warner's family arrives, the next to settle.
5. 1818 — The township formally organizes as part of newly independent Medina County.
6. 1844 — A malignant epidemic of erysipelas sweeps the township from January to August, killing many adults among the best citizens; it returns in the winter of 1848.
7. 1866-04-04 — Wadsworth village holds its first election after incorporation, begun in 1865 with Dr. C. N. Lyman as agent; Aaron Pardee is the first mayor (Wikipedia gives January 1, 1876).
8. 1867 — The township builds a two-story brick town hall for $5,000, with a post office, council room and lock-up.
9. 1868 — The first coal is shipped on the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad at Wadsworth, hauled by wagon from the Silver Creek mines until the Silver Creek branch is finished.
10. 1869-02 — Commercial coal mining begins at Silver Creek, a mile and a half southeast of the depot; mines open on the Baughman, Dormer, Town Line and Stony Ridge properties.
11. 1876 — The village of Wadsworth, within the township, incorporates.
12. 1885 — Medina County coal production, concentrated in Wadsworth Township and the southern part of Sharon Township, totals 152,721 tons.
13. 1886 — Medina County coal production rises to 252,411 tons, ranking the county 12th in Ohio; at its peak the county runs nine mines employing 550 workers, based largely in Wadsworth Township.
14. 1931 — Wadsworth charters as a city, separating its municipal government from the township that surrounds it.
15. 2020 — Wadsworth Township has 4,384 residents.

Stories

The Coal Under the Farms

Coal mining came to Wadsworth Township with the railroad. In 1868 the first coal was shipped on the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad at Wadsworth, hauled by wagon from the Silver Creek mines until the Silver Creek branch was finished. In February 1869 commercial mining began at Silver Creek, a mile and a half southeast of the depot, with mines on the Baughman, Dormer, Town Line and Stony Ridge properties. The county's bicentennial timeline gives Medina County coal production as 152,721 tons in 1885 and 252,411 tons in 1886, ranking the county 12th in Ohio, with nine mines and 550 workers at the peak, based largely in Wadsworth Township and the southern part of Sharon Township.

The inscription on the beech tree

Before there were settlers in Wadsworth, a surveying party left a sign that the Rev. Edward Brown, writing the Wadsworth Memorial in 1875, said he had seen himself. On the west bank of Holmes' Brook, near the north side of the Center road, stood a beech tree on which letters had been carved in the bark, reading PHILIP WARD 1797 with the initials T D, R C and W V beneath. The inscription was legible as late as 1834, when the tree was cut down in straightening the road. Nobody knew who Philip Ward and his companions were or why they had come; the county history guesses they may have been part of Seth Pease's party, which ran the south line of the Reserve about that year. The brook where the tree stood is named for 'Indian Holmes', the English-born former trader from Montreal who lived there as a hunter and trapper and married among the Indians before the first settlers arrived in 1814.

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

City wells drawing from local sandstone bedrock aquifers plus a well field roughly 6.5 miles away in Chippewa Township, Wayne County, tapping the Chippewa Creek buried-valley aquifer The water here

• Wadsworth City81% of residentsLocal groundwater wells (sandstone bedrock + Chippewa Creek buried-valley aquifer)
• Rittman City10% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)
• Doylestown Village5% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Medina Co/northwest3% of residentsLake Erie
• Westview MHP0% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Medina Co/sharon-wadsworth0% of residentsLocal groundwater wells (sandstone bedrock + Chippewa Creek buried-valley aquifer)
• Sundial Mobile Home Park0% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (5)

Spills reported since 2021 (3)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 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.
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2024 to 2025, released 2026-08-11
• Agreed Upon Procedures, 2022 to 2023, released 2024-11-07

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