A number of other settlers arrived about the same time, including William Critz, who is sometimes designated as the first settler.' Clapper with his brother Daniel and built the first structure in the township. '(Clapper and Lower) then returned to their (Pennsylvania) homes without having erected a cabin,' Lehman wrote. Lehman's history book reports that two brothers-in-law from Pennsylvania, Henry Clapper and Adam Lower, made the 'first improvement in the township' when they planted wheat and rye on three acres along Newman's Creek in 1808.

Those words later became the motto of the township. Lawrence ordered 'Don't give up the ship' as he was carried below deck. James Lawrence, famous for his last words in the War of 1812 battle between the American frigate Chesapeake and the British Royal Navy frigate Shannon.Īccording to historical passages, a mortally-wounded Capt. It is believed the township was named after U.S. Lawrence Township's official birth came when the land it presently encompasses was laid out and platted by county commissioners on Dec. Originally, Lawrence Township was a part of both Tuscarawas and Jackson townships in the early 19th century. It was an effort to economize as the tracts to the east of the river had been surveyed by the government in sections of two square miles, and anyone wishing to enter a less quantity had to employ a surveyor to subdivide. 'Lawrence is fine agricultural country, the Valley of the Tuscarawas cutting through it diagonally from northwest to southeast,' Lehman wrote in his 1916 treatise.Įarly Lawrence Township settlers first selected land on the western side of the Tuscarawas River, which surveyors had subdivided into smaller pieces. Lehman's 'A Standard History of Stark County'. Lawrence Township, which shares its name with townships in at least three other Ohio counties, was blessed with fertile farm land, making it especially attractive to pioneers when the area was thrown open to white settlers after Indian titles to the land were cleared in 1805, according to John H. Today's Lawrence Township is a suburban/rural community with extensive farming and mining concerns that offers businesses and residents easily accessible transportation routes to Northeast Ohio's population centers.

Lawrence township ohio