Lorain County Resources
Facts & Figures
County Seat:
Elyria
Established:
1822 (December 22)
Parent County:
Huron, Cuyahoga, Medina.
Area:
495 square miles
Named For:
Named for the French Province of Lorraine at the request of Heman Ely, founder of the city of Elyria.
Location:
Central Northern Ohio, bordered on north by Lake Erie.
Topography:
Flat to slightly sloping plain, parallel with the lake shore are three sand ridges, which vary from 40 to 150 rods in width; they are respectively about 3,7, and 9 miles from the lake, and are fertile.
Major Cities, Villages
Amherst, Avon, Avon Lake, Elyria, Grafton, Kipton, Lagrange, Lorain, North Ridgeville, Oberlin, Rochester, Sheffield, Sheffield Lake, South Amherst, Vermilion, Wellington.
Population:
1830
:5,696,1850:26,086, 1900:54,857, 1990:271,100People of Note:
Archibald M. Willard ("Spirit of '76 Painter), Harry B. Warner (Warner Brothers Film Producer), Keefe Brasselle (Actor), Myron Herrick (42nd Ohio Governor), Toni Morrison (Pulitzer Prize Author).
Historical Notes:
The first actual settlement in Lorain county was made by the Moravian missionaries who came from Detroit in 1786, with the design of going to their old home on the Tuscarawas, the scene of the massacre of 1782. They had reached a point on the Cuyahoga, as far as Independence township, known as "Pilgrim's Rest," when they received such information that they were fearful of proceeding farther inland. After remaining about a year, they journeyed westward until they arrived at the mouth of Black river, where they designed to make a permanent settlement. A Few days only elapsed, when a chief of the Delawares sent them a message warning them to depart. They then settled on the Huron river, two miles north of Milan, remained five or six years, were persecuted and driven away, and found a permanent asylum on the river Thames, in Canada.
A trading post was established in 1807 by Nathan Perry at th mouth of Black river. Actual clearers of the woods, said to have been from Vermont, planted themselves at the point in 1810. In 1808 Columbia received her first settlers; Ridgeville, Amherst and Eaton in 1810, all mostly from Waterbury, Conn. Very few settlers came into the county until the close of the War of 1812. The first settlement made in Elyria was in 1816, and by a Mr. Beach, with his family, who settled in the western part near the site of the present Haags Mill.
Historical Society
Lorain County Historical Society
509 Washington Avenue, Elyria, Ohio 44035-5128
Ohio Historical and Improvement Organization (O.H.I.O.)
73-1/2 South Professor Street, PO Box 0455, Oberlin, Ohio 44074
Website: http://www.oberlin.edu/~EOG/OHIO/O.H.I.O.tour.html
Genealogical Society
Lorain County Genealogical Society
PO Box 865, Elyria, Ohio 44036-0865
Convention & Visitor's Bureau
Lorain County Visitors Bureau
611 Broadway, Lorain, Ohio 44052-1803
County Courthouse
Lorain County Courthouse
308 2nd Street, Elyria, Ohio 44035
County Engineer
Lorain County Engineer
(Locator for cemeteries, townships, buildings, etc.)
247 Hadaway Street, Elyria, Ohio 44035
County Recorder's Office
Lorain County Recorder
Lorain County Administration Building, 226 Middle Avenue, Elyria, Ohio 44035
Website: www.loraincounty.com/recorder/documents.html
County Library
Lorain Public Library
351 6th Street, Lorain, Ohio 44052
Website: lorain.lib.oh.us/
Elyria Public Library
320 Washington Avenue, Elyria, Ohio 44035
Website:
Oberlin Public Library
65 South Main, Oberlin, Ohio 44074
Other Resources
Lorain County Politicians
Lorain County Community College
Oberlin College
Surrounding Counties
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