Township Once Supported Five Communities

By Carol Chapman (1976)

In the organization of Ashtabula County in 1808, the area now known as Richmond Township was a part of Jefferson Township

In the organization of Ashtabula County in 1808, the area now known as Richmond Township was a part of Jefferson Township. In 1813 it was included in that part of Jefferson that was divided and renamed Denmark. The local area was then known as Pierpont.

It was not until March 4, 1828, that the township became an entity of its own with the name Richmond. There are different opinions on how the township got that particular name.

According to a history on the township written by Mrs. Clair Chapman for the bicentennial, it was named for Richmond in Berkshire County, Connecticut.

Clarence Burr, 87, and probably the township's oldest resident, says however, that the name derived from a man who set up a sawmill near the Center to process black ash timber from the large swamp that existed then between the Center and Andover Center.

Originally, after the Connecticut Western Reserve was formed, all the land in the township was owned by four families. John Kinsman owned the northern two tiers of lots, Justice and Horace Stocking owned a considerable tract to the south of the Kinsman property, Samuel Woodruffs 1,000 acres came next and the remainder was owned by the Atwater heirs.

The families of Peter Yateman, Benjamin Newcomb, Samuel and William Teed and a Mr. Morehouse settled in 1805 on Lot 46, the southwestern corner of the Center.