Portage County Resources

Facts & Figures

County Seat:

Ravenna

Established:

1807 (June 7)

Parent County:

Trumbull

Area:

506 square miles

Named For:

Named for the path used by Indians who used it as a portage between the Tuscarawas and Cuyahoga Rivers.

Location:

Northeastern Ohio

Topography:

Glaciated, rolling plateaus, upland is generally sandy or gravelly, and the flat land to a considerable extent clay.

Major Cities, Villages

Aurora, Brady Lake, Garrettsville, Hiram, Kent, Mantua, Mogadore, Ravenna, Sugar Bush Knolls, Streetsboro, Windham.

Population:

1810:2,995, 1850:24,419, 1900:29,246, 1990: 142,600

People of Note:

Hart Crane (Poet of the Jazz Age), Don Seitz (Journalist), Martin Luther Davey (53rd Governor of Ohio 1935-1939), Newton H. Hall (Civil War Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient).

Historical Notes:

Ravenna was originally settled by Benjamin Tappan, Jr., in 1799. He was the afterwards eminent Benjamin Tappan, Senator from Ohio, who later removed to Steubenville. In making the settlement at Ravenna he acted as the agent of his father, Benjamin Tappan, Sr., who as the principal proprietor. At this time there was but one white person, a Mr. Honey, residing in the county. A solitary log cabin in each place marked the sites of the flourishing cities of Buffalo and Cleveland. On his journey out from New England, Mr. Tappan fell in with the late David Hudson, the founder of Hudson, Summit county, at Gerondaquet, N.Y., and "assisted him on the journey for the sake of his company. After some days of tedious navigation up the Cuyahoga river, he landed at a prairie, where is now the town of Boston, in the county of Summit. There he left all his goods under a tent and with a another hired man proceeded to make out a road to Ravenna. There they built a dray, and with a yoke of oxen, which had been driven from the Connecticut river, and were found on his arrival, he conveyed a load of farming utensils to his settlement. Returning for a second load, the tent was found abandoned and partly plundered by the Indians. He soon after learned that Hudson had persuaded another to join his own settlement.
On Mr. Tappan "removing his second load of goods, one of his oxen was overheated and died, leaving him in a vast forest, distant from any habitation, without a team, and what was still worse, with but a single dollar in money." He was not depressed for an instant by these untoward circumstances. He sent one of his men through the woods with a compass to Erie, Pa., a distance of about 100 miles, requesting from Capt. Lyman, the commandant at the fort, a loan of money. At the same time he followed the township lines to Youngstown, where he became acquainted with Col. James Hillman, who did not hesitate to sell him an ox on credit at a fair price -- an act of generosity which proved of great value, as the want of a team must have broken up his settlement. The unexpected delays upon the journey, and other hindrances, prevented them from raising a crop at this season, and they had, after the provisions brought with him were exhausted, to depend for meat upon their skill in hunting and purchases from the Indians, and for meal upon the scanty supplies procured from Western Pennsylvania. Having set out with the determination to spend the winter, he erected a log cabin, into which he and one Bixby, to whom he had agreed to give 100 acres of land on condition of settlement, moved o the 1st day of January, 1800, before which they had lived under a bark camp and their tent.
Historical Collections of Ohio in Two Volumes, An Encyclopedia of the State, Henry Howe, C.J. Krehibiel & Co., Printers and Binders, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1888.

Historical Society

Portage County Historical Society

6549 North Chestnut Street, Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.296.3523
Website: http://www2.clearlight.com/~pchs/

Genealogical Society

Portage County Genealogical Society

PO Box 821, Ravenna, Ohio 44266-0821

Convention & Visitor's Bureau

Portage County Visitors & Convention Bureau

173 South Chillicothe Road, Aurora, Ohio 44202
Phone: 330.562.3373 or 800.648.6342
Fax: 330.995.9052
Website: http://www.portagecountycvb.com/index-home.html

County Courthouse

Portage County

203 West Main Street, Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.297.3625
Website:
http://www.portageworkforce.org/portagecountydirectory/

County Archives

Portage County Archives

Dept. of Internal Services, 449 South Meridian Street, 7th Floor, Portage County Administration Bldg., Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.297.3849
Fax: 330.297.3610
Email: jtownis@ apk.net

County Recorder's Office

Portage County Recorder

449 South Meridian, 4th Floor, Portage County Administration Bldg., Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.297.3553
Fax: 330.297.7349

County Engineer Office

Portage County Engineer

5000 Newton Falls Road, Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.296.6411
Fax: 330.296.2303

County Planning Commission

Portage County Regional Planning Commission

128 North Prospect Street, Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.297.2613
Fax: 330.297.3617
Email: lerickson@pcrpc.org

County Library

Portage County District Library

10482 South Street, Garrettsville, Ohio 44231
Phone: 330.597.5082
Fax: 330.527.4370
Website: http://www.portagecounty.lib.oh.us/

Reed Memorial Library

167 East Main Street, Ravenna, Ohio 44266
Phone: 330.296.2827

Other Resources

Political Graveyard

 Portage County Politicians

Hiram College

http://www.hiram.edu/

Kent State University

http://www.kent.edu/

Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine

http://www.neoucom.edu/

Record Courier Newspaper

http://www.recordpub.com/

Surrounding Counties

Trumbull

Mahoning

Stark

Summit

Geauga

Please send any information regarding additions or corrections ohcps@aol.com

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