Wellington Township, Lorain County

How Wellington Township, Lorain County began

Wellington Township, drawn by Ephraim Root and James Ross in the Connecticut Land Company's thirty-eighth draft of April 4, 1807, was still unbroken wilderness -- with Wyandot people still living there -- when Medina County organized in January 1818; its first settlers, five men including Ephraim Wilcox and Charles Sweet, arrived that March and built the township's first cabin, joined that July 4 by the first white women. It surrounds the village of Wellington, itself famous as the site of the 1858 Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. It had 6,140 residents at the 2020 census across 22.54 square miles.

Settled March 1818 (Ephraim Wilcox, Charles Sweet, John Clifford, Joseph Wilson and William T. Welling), by Ephraim Wilcox and party.

Where the name comes from

The 1916 county history says the name is 'directly traced to one William Welling, a New Yorker, who was of the original band of emigrants' of March 1818, although the Duke of Wellington was still a hero of the day. William T. Welling of Montgomery County, New York, was one of the five men who cut the trail from Grafton and built the first cabin.

Before the town

The 1879 county history says that when Medina County organized in January 1818, the Wyandot were still in the township and remained for several years after the first settlers arrived; remains of their old wigwams, near a wild plum orchard in Penfield Township, were still seen as late as 1840. No named village or trail is given. The township also had the remains of an old beaver dam that once flooded fifty to seventy-five acres, known as Wellington swamp.

Nations recorded here: Wyandot.

• Wyandot wigwam remains near a wild plum orchard (camp) — Penfield Township, next to Wellington Township, seen as late as 1840 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. April 4, 1807 — Ephraim Root and James Ross draw township number three, range eighteen, in the Connecticut Land Company's thirty-eighth draft; Root becomes Wellington's original proprietor.
2. March 1818 — The township's first settlers -- Ephraim Wilcox and Charles Sweet (employed by Frederick Hamlin), John Clifford and Joseph Wilson of Massachusetts, and William T. Welling of New York -- reach the township after cutting a trail from Grafton, and build a temporary cabin near the center.
3. July 4, 1818 — Ephraim Wilcox's wife and child, Theodore and Caroline Wilcox, and others join the settlement, becoming the township's first white women, after a five-month separation from the men who had gone ahead.
4. January 1818 — Wellington Township is part of Medina County when it is organized; the 1879 history says the sound of an axe had never been heard in it, and the Wyandot were still there and stayed several years after the first settlers came.
5. 25 September 1818 — John W. Wilcox, son of Ephraim Wilcox, is born, the first white child born in the township.
6. Late fall 1818 — Josiah Bradley and his wife, John and Alanson Howk, their mother Electa Howk and a servant named Dean arrive and take over the first shanty at the center; the settlers' reunion with the women is described as a scene of 'intense emotion.'
7. 1819 — Frederick Hamlin brings his wife Nancy and four children from Massachusetts; in the same year Ephraim Root sells 3,560 acres to Col. Francis Herrick and other tracts to Joseph Kingsbury, Amos Adams, Adams, Norton and Stocking, Lyman and Sanford Brown, and the Cliffords.
8. 13 November 1819 — Abner Loveland of Otis, Massachusetts, walks the whole way to the settlement and hires on to Judge Hamlin as a woodchopper; he lived to become an active anti-slavery man and died in March 1879.
9. May 1824 — Frederick Hamlin sits on the bench at the first term of court ever held in Lorain County, and serves as a common pleas judge until 1831.
10. 31 January 1824 (printed 1834) — Wellington leaves Medina County when Lorain County's organization is completed.
11. 1849-1850 — The Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad is built through Wellington, largely through the efforts of Dr. D. Z. Johns, giving the village control of trade in the southeastern part of the county and assuring its growth.
12. 1855 — The village of Wellington, at the township's center, incorporates.
13. September 13, 1858 — The Oberlin-Wellington Rescue takes place in the village of Wellington, within the township, after a crowd pursuing a captured fugitive, John Price, surrounds the hotel where his captors had taken refuge and frees him.
14. 2020 — Census records 6,140 residents across the township's 22.54 square miles.

Stories

Five months apart in the forest

Ephraim Wilcox, Charles Sweet, John Clifford, Joseph Wilson and William T. Welling left Berkshire County, Massachusetts, in February 1818 with their tools loaded on a cutter pulled by a single old mare, taking turns walking alongside while one man drove. They reached Grafton, the farthest outpost toward their land, then cut their own trail into the unbroken township, arriving at nightfall in late March. The next day they built a temporary cabin with benches for chairs and bedsteads of crotched stakes strung with basswood bark, and by April 1 the sound of axes and falling trees marked the start of clearing their claims. Not until the Fourth of July did the men see their families again: Ephraim Wilcox's wife and child, his son Theodore and daughter Caroline, along with Dr. Daniel J. Johns, Frederick Hamlin and Austin Kingsbury, arrived to find the log house ready for them, ending a five-month separation. The women who arrived that day were the first white women in Wellington township; the site of that first cabin, marked by an old peach tree, an apple tree and the ruins of a stone-and-clay chimney, was still identifiable in 1879.

The corduroy road across Wellington swamp

In the eastern part of the township stood the remains of an old beaver dam which in the settlers' time still flooded fifty or seventy-five acres. It was called Wellington swamp, and it was the haunt of bears and wolves, which, when pursued from miles away, made straight for its thickets. When the east-west center road was built across it, the settlers felled brush onto the morass, laid stringers lengthwise on cross pieces, and covered them with corduroy. The road was literally a bridge that settled below the surface until new stringers and logs were laid. It was too narrow for teams to pass, so when two met, the lighter-loaded was unhitched, its wagon uncoupled and pushed aside, and the team backed out; the rattle of wagons over the logs usually gave notice in time. By 1879 the swamp was well-cultivated fields.

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

Every historic place in Lorain County on the full map

Lake Erie, drawn through two separate offshore intakes serving the Lake Road filtration plant The water here

• Rural Lorain Co. Water A52% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells
• Wellington Village47% of residentsCharlemont Creek, via Wellington Upground Reservoir
• Pheasant Run Association1% of residentsLake Erie

High-hazard dams (1)

Private schools (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Facilities reporting toxic releases (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (1)

Money issues on the ballot since 2025: 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.
• Financial Audit, 2022 to 2023, released 2025-06-24

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