page_title: Columbia Township, Lorain County, Ohio
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Columbia Township, Lorain County, Ohio / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bronson House Museum, Columbia Township, Lorain County, Ohio
context_page_description: Columbia Township, also known as Columbia Station or just Columbia, is the easternmost of the eighteen townships of Lorain County, Ohio, United States. Columbia Township is the official government name, while Columbia Station is the post office name, and tends to be the town name used by residents. The post office name was chosen to differentiate the township from other Columbia Townships statewide, located in Hamilton and Meigs counties.
  As of the 2010 census, the township had a population of 7,040.
context_section_description: Columbia Township is part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, lands ceded in 1786 by Connecticut after the American Revolution. In 1805, two years after Ohio became a state, the federal government finalized treaties with local American Indians. The reserve was surveyed and parcelled into rough 5-mile-square (8.0 km) blocks (smaller than the typical 6-mile-square (9.7 km) townships in the midwestern United States). The Bronson and Hoadley families of Waterbury, Connecticut, pooled together $20,087 to purchase a township. On April 4, 1807, they drew Township 5 N, Range 15 W from a random selection of townships in the reserve, purchasing the land site-unseen.
  Columbia Township has been continuously inhabited since 1807, the longest settlement in the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga River. It has other firsts in the area: the first classroom (Bronson cabin, summer of 1808), first teacher (Sally Bronson, 1808), first white child born (Sally Hoadley), first gristmill (summer of 1809), first cemetery (1811), first doctor (Zephaniah Potter, 1809), and first organized church society (Episcopal, 1809).
  The Bronson House Museum (built c. 1850, 13646 W River Road) is the last home of Sally Bronson. Other Columbia Township buildings in the National Register of Historic Places include the Columbia Town Hall (added 1976, #76001468, 25496 Royalton Road) and the Columbia Baptist Church (added 1976, #76001466, 25514 Royalton Road).
  The Copopa School was built in 1921. The name originates as follows:
  The first post office in town was established about the year 1817. The first postmaster was Thomas G. Bronson, who kept the office in his house. The name selected was the Indian name for Rocky river, Copokah. In the papers sent from Washington the word was miswritten Copopo, and the error was never corrected.
  — History of Lorain County, Ohio (1879)
  Farming has historically been the most significant employer in Columbia Township and the surrounding townships, but in the second half of the 19th century, sandstone from the local quarries was mined and widely distributed. Two of the township's quarries were Jaquay Quarry and an area which later became known as Wildwood Lake. Both Jaquay and Wildwood were used as swimming parks in the late 20th century, with Wildwood operating until 2001.
  On April 11, 1965, an F4 tornado swept through Columbia Township before dissipating to the east in neighboring Strongsville.
  At the 2007 Homecoming, Columbia Township celebrated its bicentenary. For the previous fifty years, the township had not experienced the urban sprawl that developed in neighboring areas, but the number of farms in the township has fallen significantly.
caption: Bronson House Museum
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