Westfield Center

How Westfield Center began

Westfield Center grew from the village James Fowler set out in 1826 at the geographical center of Westfield Township, around a four-acre public square, where a town house went up two years later. Its post office was named Le Roy and moved to the square in 1836, so that Le Roy and Westfield Center were used interchangeably for more than a century; the village incorporated as Le Roy in 1914 and voted in 1971 to take the name Westfield Center. The Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company was chartered there on February 8, 1848, with its home office in a store on the square, and became Westfield Insurance. The village had 1,184 residents in 2020, and its Universalist church, organized in 1839, is on the National Register.

Settled 1826, incorporated 1914 (as Le Roy); renamed Westfield Center 1971, by settled within Westfield Township; incorporated as Le Roy before reverting to the Westfield Center name.

Where the name comes from

The settlement used the names Westfield Center and Le Roy interchangeably for decades before formally incorporating as Le Roy in 1914, the name it had received when a post office was established there. A referendum passing with 93 percent approval changed the name back to Westfield Center in 1971, matching the surrounding township, itself named in 1820 by settlers for their home community of Westfield, Massachusetts.

Before the town

No Native village or site at Westfield Center is recorded. The 1881 county history says that when the century began a large band of Indians, called there the Wolf tribe, lived on Campbell's Creek, which runs just west of the village site. The land was opened to settlement by the Treaty of Fort Industry (1805).

Timeline

1. 1826 — James Fowler sets aside four acres for a public square at the township center and lays out fourteen acres on each side for lots.
2. c. 1828 — The town house is built on the north side of the public square.
3. 1832 — King & Greene come from Medina and open a store on Asa Farnum's corner on the east side of the square.
4. 1836 — The township's only post office moves to the square, taking the name Le Roy; D. B. Austin is postmaster, and James Whiteside builds the post office and hotel on the west side.
5. 1838-39 — Dr. Caleb Stock, keeper of the Whiteside tavern, has eight young men arrested for firing muskets outside his party; they are acquitted in 1840 and the village ends up in a slander suit.
6. 1839-05 — The Universalist church of Westfield is organized, with Alfred Peck as moderator and Asa Farnum as clerk.
7. 1848-02-08 — The Ohio Farmers' Insurance Company is chartered with its home office at Le Roy, in the extension of the frame store on the east side of the square; Jonathan Simmons is the first president.
8. 1858 — The company begins writing cash insurance alongside its mutual plan; in 1870 it abolishes premium notes.
9. 1910 — Le Roy has 192 residents in the first census count.
10. 1914 — The village formally incorporates under the name Le Roy.
11. 1950 — Population is 320, rising to 504 in 1960 and 715 in 1970.
12. 1971 — A referendum passing with 93 percent approval renames Le Roy village to Westfield Center; Ohio Farmers Insurance likewise rebrands as the Westfield Companies.
13. 1978-11-29 — The Universalist Church of Westfield Center, at LeRoy and Greenwich roads, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
14. 2010s — Wikipedia lists Westfield Insurance, headquartered in Westfield Center, with about 2,400 employees.
15. 2020 — Westfield Center has 1,184 residents.
16. 2025-11 — Westfield Insurance completes the sale of its banking subsidiary, Westfield Bancorp, to First Financial Bancorp in a $2.2 billion transaction, refocusing the company on property and casualty insurance.

Stories

Farmers Insuring Farmers

In 1848 a group of farmers joined forces to insure each other's property, chartering the Ohio Farmers Insurance Company, now Westfield Insurance, which is headquartered in Westfield Center. Perrin's 1881 county history says it was chartered on February 8, 1848 with its home office at Le Roy, in the extension of the frame store on the east side of the square, and that Jonathan Simmons was its first president. The company began writing cash insurance alongside its mutual plan in 1858 and abolished premium notes in 1870.

The musket salute of 1838

Dr. Caleb Stock, who kept the tavern on the west side of the square, gave a party in the winter of 1838-39 to which he asked nearly the whole neighborhood and left out a few young men of Le Roy. They went coon hunting instead, and coming back late and finding the party still going they stood in the street and fired five musket shots in the air and scattered. On the Monday a constable arrived from Medina at Stock's instance and arrested eight of them as inciters of a riot; on the way to the county seat five slipped away near La Fayette Center, but all were recaptured and jailed, and bail was set at $1,500 each. Westfield men and women crowded the courthouse for the jury trial in spring 1840, where the defense showed the 'riot' to be innocent sport and the eight were acquitted. An indignation meeting then resolved that the township would benefit from Stock's removal, he sued the resolvers for slander, and in the fall of 1840 he won a small verdict that left the citizens to pay the costs, with David Tod, later governor of Ohio, appearing for them. The Washingtonian temperance movement of 1843-44, the county historian says, swallowed up the bad feeling.

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

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