York Township, Medina County

How York Township, Medina County began

York Township, five miles square on the western side of the county, was owned until 1830 by eastern speculators who asked 25 cents to a dollar an acre above neighboring prices, which kept settlers away. George Wilson of Monroe County, New York, became its first permanent settler in June 1830, and the township was organized and named York in 1832 at the suggestion of settlers who nearly all came from New York State. Levi Janes bought 600 acres in 1831 and founded Abbeyville with mills on Rocky River; Wesley Hulet, a millwright there, helped fugitive slaves on the underground railroad. The First Congregational Church of York was organized April 27, 1833; George K. Nash, born in the township in 1842, became governor of Ohio, and the Zimri Cook House and York United Methodist Church are on the National Register. The township had 4,284 residents in 2020.

Incorporated 1832, by settled predominantly by families from New York State.

Where the name comes from

The 1881 county history says the name York 'was bestowed upon it, owing to the fact that nearly all the settlers came from York State, and, at their suggestion, the authorities created the township under that title'; the first election was held April 2, 1832 in Levi Branch's barn.

Before the town

The 1881 county history says that soon after the War of 1812 one or more professional hunters lived in a small bark shanty, 'little better than a wigwam', in the northeastern part near the later Abbeyville, which fell into decay after a season or two, and that wandering hunters and trappers lived in the township before the first permanent settler came in 1830. It also remarks that the township's glacial gravel hills look from a distance like the works of Mound-Builders but are not. No village, mound or trail is recorded in the sources checked. 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.

Timeline

1. 1820 — Seven non-resident owners pay taxes on 14,187 acres of the township, valued at $20,936; speculators' prices keep it out of the market.
2. 1830-06 — George Wilson of Monroe County, New York, buys a small tract on the branch road and moves his family from Medina, the first permanent settler; Levi Branch, Lawson Branch, Harvey Bruce and others follow that October.
3. 1831 — Levi Janes, from Montreal, buys 600 acres in the northeast and builds the first cabin of Abbeyville, named for his wife Abbey; he has Wesley Hulet build a sawmill and gristmill on Rocky River.
4. 1832 — York Township organizes, named for New York State, home to most of its early settlers.
5. 1832-04-02 — Twenty settlers meet in Levi Branch's barn to cast the first votes of the new township, named York at their suggestion.
6. 1833 — The First Congregational Church of York organizes and completes a building shortly after raising $300 for construction.
7. 1833-04-27 — Twenty-six people meet at R. M. Lampson's house in York Center to organize the First Congregational Church of York.
8. 1840s-1850s — Wesley Hulet, living near Abbeyville, is among the most active helpers of fugitive slaves traveling a branch of the underground railroad through York to Canada, in the two decades before the Civil War.
9. 1842-08-14 — George K. Nash, future Ohio governor, is born in York Township to farmers Asa and Electa Branch Nash, and raised attending the York Congregational Church.
10. 1900 — York Township native George K. Nash is inaugurated as governor of Ohio, serving until 1904.
11. 1976-06-22 — The Zimri Cook House is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
12. 1978-02-17 — York United Methodist Church at Mallet Creek is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
13. 2020 — York Township has 4,284 residents.

Stories

The Church That Heard Three Presidents

The First Congregational Church of York was, by any measure, an unlikely place to hear from three future presidents of the United States. Organized in 1833 after the township's small farming community raised $300 to put up a building, the church served a rural congregation of New York transplants with no obvious claim to national importance. Yet over the following decades Benjamin Harrison, James A. Garfield and William McKinley each spoke there, it is said, though we could not confirm it, and Ohio Governor George K. Nash -- born to farmers Asa and Electa Nash in York Township on August 14, 1842 -- was raised in its pews before rising to lead the state himself from 1900 to 1904. For a single-church farm township, it is a remarkable concentration of American political history passing through one small building.

Branch's stove

When Levi Branch moved his family into York Township in the fall of 1830, he had done something his fellow settlers envied: he had brought a small stove all the way from New York State. It was set up in a cabin with only half a roof and no doors, blankets hung in the doorways for the time being, while Branch rived clapboard shingles to finish the job. The stove became a marvel to neighbors who came to see it, talked about so often that 'Branch's stove' turned into a byword in the neighborhood. Branch also hosted the township's first election, held on April 2, 1832, in his barn, with twenty of the settlers then living in the township voting; about twenty-five had settled there between June 1830 and that April. The story is told in the county history of 1881.

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

Every historic place in Medina County on the full map

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

• Medina Co/northwest57% of residentsLake Erie
• Medina City40% of residentsLake Erie
• Rural Lorain Co. Water A2% of residentsMostly Lake Erie (bought from Avon Lake); some New London Reservoir and Ashland wells

Fire and EMS stations (1)

Public schools (5)

Public libraries (1)

Museums, historical societies, gardens and zoos (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Money issues on the ballot since 2020: 2 of 4 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, 2023 to 2024, released 2026-07-21

Cite this page