Timeline

Highlights of Geauga County History

Home Departments Department of Archives and Records History and ResearchTimeline

A County is Born

1700-1799

1794: General Anthony Wayne defeats the Native Americans at the Battle of Fallen Timbers opening Ohio to Euro-American settlement.
1795: Native Americans give most of Ohio for settlement in the Treaty of Greeneville.
1796: General Moses Cleaveland leads surveying party into northeastern Ohio.
1797: Trappers come to Middlefield.
1798: First settlement in Geauga County at Burton.

A Time of Change

1800-1849

1803: Ohio becomes the 17th state. Erie Literary Society founded in Burton, Ohio.
1805: December 31: Geauga County created by Ohio General Assembly.
1806: Geauga County courts began meeting in New Market (near modern day Painesville).
1807: Construction begins on Old State Road.
1808: A wilderness on a hill is designated Geauga’s Seat of Justice. The area was within one mile of the geographical center of the county and was named Chardon after its landowner, Boston entrepreneur Peter Chardon Brooks.
1810: Geauga County Commissioners appropriated $50.00 to construct a road from Painesville to Chardon. Today, it is known as Ravenna Road.
1811: Samuel Phelps, County Director, purchased 96 lots from Peter Chardon Brooks for $400.00 and the Commissioners appropriated $61.87 to hire men to chop down all the trees on what became Chardon Square .
1812: Chardon is founded and a log cabin courthouse is built on Chardon Square.
1813: King Courthouse, costing $600.00, is built near Chardon Square.
1822: Eber Howe begins publishing the Painesville Telegraph newspaper.
1823: March 18: Benjamin Wright, Jr sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead on the third Thursday in May for the stabbing death of Zophar Warner.; October: First Geauga County Fair held in Chardon on the Square.
1824: A Colonial-style Courthouse was built on Main Street where Lawyers’ Title and Court Street are today.
1831: Kirtland, Geauga County, Ohio .
1838: Mormons migrate out of Kirtland.
1840: Lake County created from northern Geauga County.

A Time of Change

1850-1899

1853: Geauga County Fair moves to H.H. Ford property creating Burton Fairgrounds.
1856: Railroad transportation begins in Geauga County.
1858: Union Chapel aka “Free Speech Chapel” is built.
1868: July: The Great Fire destroys main street Chardon.
1869: Construction on the current courthouse begins.
1873: Geauga County Historical Society formed.
1874: Newbury Woman’s Suffrage Political Club organized.
1876: Centennial Oak planted in Newbury by the Newbury Woman’s Suffrage Poltical Club.
1877-1878: Civil War veteran Pace Latham serves as President of the Geauga County Fair .
1884: Fair Board purchases fairgrounds in Burton.
1886: Inventor of aluminum electrolytic smelting process, Charles M. Hall is born in Thompson.; The Amish settle predominately in Middlefield Township.
1889-1890: Domestic Arts Hall and Flower Hall at the Burton fairgrounds rebuilt. Both buildings are added to the National Register of Historic Places.
1899: Maple Leaf Route of the Cleveland and Eastern Interurban begins service to Geauga County.

A New Century

1900-1949

1913: Beginning of 4-H Clubs in Geauga County.
1925: Taborville is established as a summer camp for Cleveland Czechoslovakian Gymnastics Unions.
1926: Annual Geauga County Maple Festival begins.
1929: End of Interurban in Geauga County.
1935: Geauga County Commissioners obtain ownership of the fairgrounds.
1938: Geauga County Fair Band premiers.; Geauga County Historical Museum aka “Century Village” dedicated.; Thompson Ledges becomes first official township park in the county.
1947: Geauga County Fair awarded Myers Y. Cooper Trophy for Outstanding Fair.

Toward the Future

1950-1999

1953: Geauga County Flag is chosen.
1959: ASM Geodesic Dome completed. ASM Headquarters and Dome added to National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
1960: The Great Geauga County Fair.
1961: Geauga County receives the Ohio Fair Managers Association Award for Excellence.
1974: The Courthouse Square District, Burton Village Historical District, Claridon Congregational Church and the Hathaway Lot House are added to the National Register of Historic Places.
1975: Goodwin House is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
1976: Kent State University-Geauga opens for classes on Clarion-Troy Road.; Free Will Baptist Church of Auburn is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
1982: Chester Township District School No. 2 added to the National Register of Historic Places.
1987: Batavia House added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Entering the Twenty-First Century

2000-Present

2002: Fowlers Mill Historic District added to the National Register of Historic Places.
2003: Ohio Bicentennial
2006: Geauga County Bicentennial and Celebration
2008: Chardon Post Office Building added to National Register of Historic Places.