Wilmot

How Wilmot began

Wilmot, in Sugar Creek Township in southwestern Stark County, was laid out and recorded as Milton by its owners Jacob and Henry Wyant; the 1881 county history dates the plat of 57 lots to April 1830, while Wikipedia gives 1836. George Pfouts opened the first store and became the first postmaster, and a foundry begun by Wyant & Putnam around 1830 grew into a maker of threshing machines, the Pitt Separator and the Excelsior Reaper and Mower. A woolen factory, a cabinet shop, a carriage shop and a steam flour mill followed, the flour going by wagon to the railroad at Beach City. The village peaked at 412 residents in 1880 and had 282 in 2020.

Platted April 1830 as Milton, per the 1881 county history (Wikipedia gives 1836), by Jacob and Henry Wyant, owners; lots surveyed by John Whitacre, County Surveyor.

Where the name comes from

The town was laid out and recorded as Milton; the 1881 county history says the name was later changed to Wilmot but that the date of the change was not known. Wikipedia records a post office named Wilmot operating since 1866. No source consulted explains why either name was chosen.

Before the town

No Native village, mound or trail within Wilmot is recorded in the 1881 county history's chapter on Sugar Creek Township or in the other sources consulted. Sugar Creek Township lies west of the Tuscarawas River, in the New Purchase whose Native title the United States acquired at the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805, not at Greenville in 1795.

Nations recorded here: Lenape (Delaware).

• New Purchase (Treaty of Fort Industry cession) (treaty) — Stark County west of the Tuscarawas River, including Sugar Creek Township, 1805 (archive.org)

Timeline

1. 1808 — Jacob Grounds becomes the first permanent settler of Sugar Creek Township.
2. 1816 — Sugar Creek Township is erected by the county commissioners in March.
3. 1825 — A log schoolhouse with a large fireplace and puncheon floor is standing in Wilmot; it was probably built around 1820.
4. 1830 — In April Jacob and Henry Wyant lay out 57 lots as Milton; George Pfouts opens the first store and becomes the first postmaster.
5. 1830 — About this year Wyant & Putnam start a foundry making plows, stoves and hollow-ware, its machinery turned by cattle or horses walking a tread-wheel.
6. 1836 — The settlement is laid out under the name Milton, according to Wikipedia (the 1881 county history gives April 1830).
7. 1846 — Putnam, Johnson & Co., successors to the foundry, begin building threshing machines, followed a few years later by the Pitt Separator.
8. 1850 — Around this year James Allen opens a cabinet shop and builds a clover-huller of his own patent, and Lentz & Co. open a two-story woolen factory.
9. 1853 — Samuel Toomey starts blacksmithing and carriage making in Wilmot, building light carriages and buggies for ten or twelve years before moving to Dover.
10. 1866 — A post office opens under the new name Wilmot.
11. 1873 — Hurrah & Co. build a steam grist mill with three sets of stones; its flour is hauled by wagon to Beach City for shipment by rail.
12. 1880 — The village's population peaks at 412 residents.
13. 1976 — Wilmot United Brethren Church on Massillon Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 22.
14. 1992 — The Walter S. Putman House at 303 Lawnford Avenue is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 10.
15. 1994 — A monitoring/reporting water-system violation is opened and later resolved.
16. 2020 — The U.S. Census records 282 residents, a 31.6 percent decline from the village's 1880 peak.

Stories

The Wilmot reaper works

Around 1830 the partners Wyant & Putnam started a foundry and repair shop at Wilmot, casting plows, stoves and hollow-ware, with the machinery driven by cattle or horses walking a large tread-wheel. After Wyant died the works passed to Putnam, Johnson & Co., who about 1846 began building threshing machines that beat the grain from the straw. Five or six years later they began making the Pitt Separator, and about the start of the Civil War they added the Excelsior Reaper and Mower, more than a hundred of which were said to be built each year and sold across the country. Between twenty and thirty men worked there at a time. By 1881 reapers, mowers and threshers had been dropped, and the shop made hay rakes, hay loaders, a few threshers and plows.

Samuel Toomey's buggies

About 1853 Samuel Toomey opened a blacksmith and carriage-making business in Wilmot and for ten or twelve years built large numbers of light carriages and buggies. The 1881 county history says that when he started he told buyers not to let more than two people ride in one at a time. It adds that some of those same buggies were still running in 1881 and could carry 1,500 pounds. Toomey later moved his business to Dover, where the history says it grew far larger.

Photographs

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

Every historic place in Stark County on the full map

Groundwater wells (2 wells) The water here

• Wilmot Village79% of residentsGroundwater wells (2 wells)
• Winesburg Area Development Corporation21% of residentsGroundwater wells (3 wells)

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Private schools (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2016: 3 of 3 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 2026-06-30

Source: Ohio EPA eDocument portal (edocpub.epa.ohio.gov), indexed 2026-10-14. Facilities are placed on the map from Ohio EPA's own map layers, EPA's Facility Registry, coordinates written in the filings, or a geocoded street address. A permit filed under a private person's name (most are household septic systems) is counted but never named, placed or linked; licenses for individual workers and open-burning notices are left out entirely.

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