Norton township ohio

Home Community Norton Historical Society. In conjunction with the Norton Alumni Association, there is a section devoted to the Norton Public Schools, including the record of every graduating class since Century Homes A Committee has been designated to establish the procedure for homeowner application and a method to appropriately mark homes or other important structures built over years prior to the application. Society A steering committee interested in researching and recording Norton history met in April with Katharine Kendall the acting chairperson.

As a hotel it was known as the Loyal Oak House per the inscription on the third floor wall by Ray Wilhelm, the bartender in Today, the restaurant is owned by Shane and Amy Moore. Old timers tell of beer cooling in an underground stream in the basement during those early times. John, the eldest of Nathan and Catherine, lived here when his two sons, Frank and Charles, were born.

He and his wife also had five daughters. The house is now under restoration. The second line was the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, which was complete 12 years later in Both railroads followed the same route from Akron to New Portage, where they diverged to the west Atlantic and Great Western and to the south along the canal Cleveland, Mt. Vernon and Columbus. Probably knowing of the projected railroad line through this site, Jacob Welsh built a pottery at New Portage in Welsh used the Ohio and Erie Canal to ship his ware until the railroad was completed.

His investment was shortly followed by a tavern, stores, a school and churches. Both railroad lines constructed stations at this second New Portage to accommodate passengers and freight.

A center of local activity was the Edwards Hotel, built at New Portage between and to cater to the railroad traffic. This hotel, which still stands, is said to be the site of meetings held by O. Barber and his associates regarding plans for the new town of Barberton.

Even with this activity, however, New Portage remained a small village for many years, surrounded by farms. Without a doubt, the railroad effected a greater change upon Norton and Coventry Townships than did the quieter canal with its towpaths and packet boats. While they may not have appreciated the noise and smoke, however, local farmers were likely pleased with the improved access to markets for their farm produce, which included wheat, oats, corn and livestock.

In , just ten years before Barberton was founded, the average farm in Norton Township was 72 acres. The Atlas shows several large farms, including a acre cattle farm of Alvin D. The Shaw Home, located on 31st Street, is an important survivor of the area's midth century agricultural prosperity. A fine example of Western Reserve Creek Revival architecture, the house still retains many of its rural associations. Several other frame farmhouses from this period, typically with Italianate details, remain in the Johnson's Corners and New Portage areas.

Originally occupying many acres, these homes are now part of later residential developments. During the early s, the area that would soon be transformed into a new town was still predominantly rural, with large tracts of farmland, a pleasant spring-fed lake at its center, grist and saw mills operating at Johnson's Corners, and good access to canal and railroad transportation at New Portage. And it was only a short distance from Akron, which had grown to become an important Ohio city.

It was in this climate that Ohio Columbus Barber decided to locate a major new industry at New Portage in A well-known Akron industrialist, O. Barber had built his father's match company during the s and s into one of the largest match manufacturers in the United States. In , his consolidation of a number of similar factories in the country under the Diamond Match Company name made him widely known as America's Match King.

Interested in producing the boxes for his match business, Barber formed the Portage Strawboard Company, an enterprise which would have the Diamond Match Company as its major customer. From his vantage point, Barber could see the strategic advantages of locating his first factory five miles from Akron in the village of New Portage, with its location on the Ohio Canal and connection with the lines of the C, A and C and NY, P and O Railroads.

The factory occupied 40 acres of land between the railroad lines in the vicinity of Wooster Road. Connecticut claims grants were so vague from the British that there were many disputes still to be settled with New York and Pennsylvania.

Congress also entered this dispute and asked the colonies to relinquish their claims and give all the lands in the West to the Federal government to be divided for the good of all. Finally in , Congress agreed to let Connecticut have the lands claimed and soon the Western Reserve was to be a reality. This area between lake Erie on the north and the 41st parallel on the south and stretching from the Pennsylvania line to Sandusky Bay, containing up to 3,, acres, was now ready to be surveyed and laid out in townships.

The early surveyors had a rough time laying this area out so that plots could be described and staked out for sale to early settlers. The dense forests covering our area made it hard to find survey stakes once they were marked out. Philemon Kirkham was elected Town Clerk.

Twenty-two votes were polled at this first election in a precinct whose boundaries covered square miles. In , Norton Township was organized.

It had been surveyed eight or nine years previous to this by Joseph Darrow and plotted into lots half a mile square numbering from the west to the east, thus the west lots were 1, 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81 and 91 to the southwest corner. At its formation, Norton was named after Birdsey Norton, one of the original owners of the township. It was formed into an independent township in the spring of ; and at an election held on the first Monday of April, Joseph D. Henry Van Hyning Sr.