2013-079 Ordinance - Laserfiche WebLink

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• In 1796, The Connecticut Land Company sent surveyors, led by Moses Cleaveland, to survey the land in the Western Reserve. The survey was completed in 1806. The land was divided into Ranges which were then divided into Townships. Each township was intended to be five miles square, with a total area of 25 square miles. • Dover was Township 7 in Range 15 of the Western Reserve, located in the northwest corner of Cuyahoga County, immediately north of Olmstead Township 6, also in Range 15. Township 7 was five miles wide and extended approximately 5 miles north to the shores of Lake Erie. It was bounded by Avon to the west and Rockport to the east. • Dover Center Road was planned to run north and south through the center of the township. • The original investors in Dover Township were Nehemiah Hubbard and Joshua Stow who lived in Middletown, Connecticut. They received the deeds for their land in 1807. • Hubbard and Stow had the land surveyed by Joseph Darrow and divided into square lots of 160 acres each, measuring one half mile on each side. The lots ran in rows from east to west and north to south in a checkerboard pattern. They were numbered from 1 to 10 in each row, commencing from the southwest corner of the township. • It was discovered during the survey that the township was not five miles square and that the lots running north and south along the west side of the township were only 146 acres each. • From 1807 until 1810, Hubbard and Stow owned all of the township lots together. On May 12, 1810, Hubbard deeded 67.5 acres to Stow to equalize their land ownership in the township. • The first white person to settle in the township of Dover was Joseph Cahoon, who migrated with his wife and seven children from Vergennes, Vermont, and on the moming of October 10, 1810, settled on land purchased through Datus Kelley, the agent for Hubbard & Stowe. Joseph Cahoon built the first grist-mill west of the Cuyahoga River on what is now called Cahoon's creek. The frame was raised September 10, 1813, the day of Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Joseph and his son Joel quarried two mill-stones in the creek. They also erected a saw-mill nearby and likewise a distillery, where they made peach brandy. Mr. Cahoon engaged to some extent in peach culture. • On October 10, 1810, Ashael Porter, wife Rebecca and their children, together with Ashael's nephew, Leverett Johnson, then in his seventeenth year, came to Dover Township from Massachusetts. Ashael Porter eventually became the first postmaster of the township. • The civil township of Dover was formed November 4, 1811 and embraced a large tract of land extending nearly 25 miles along Lake Erie. Adjacent townships were annexed into Dover Township over a period of time, creating the larger pover Township by March 6, 1812. The first township election of trustees was held April 6, 1812. • Almost immediately after his arrival in Dover, young Leverett Johnson began alone to clear land on Lot 58, while continuing to live with his uncle, Ashael Porter. Two years later, in 1812, Johnson settled on Lot 13, which was diagonally adjacent to Lot 4. • In 1814, Leverett Johnson married Abigail Cahoon and brought his new bride to the new log-house he had erected on his farm on Lot 13. Leverett Johnson became a prominent