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RUSSELL TOWNSHIP Administration Building
8501 Kinsman Road
P.O. Box 522
Novelty, OH 44072
338-8912
FAX: 338-1965
Jump to "For Your Information" Demographics and History The 2000 Census showed Russell Township with a population of 5,529. The median income in 1989 was $59,881 per household. The township is 19 square miles in size. Russell's population in 1870 was 805, and in 1900 was 695.
The first family to settle in the township was the Gideon Russell family who came in 1818. They built their home on Chillicothe Road just south of the center of the town. The township was named after the family in 1827, and was the last township to be formed in the county. Prior to it's naming, it was called West Woods.
The Chillicothe Road was built in 1802, and followed an old Indian Trail from the Tuscarawas River to the Scioto.
Clark Robinson built the first frame buildings. The first one was a cheese house, and the second a barn.
Lucy Squire was one of the first school teachers in the township. She taught in 1829 in a school located at the rear of Jonathan Rathburn's home. Whether it was because of her students or other complications, she became mentally unstable, wandering the streets until, in 1877, she was committed to an asylum in Newburg.
The first church in the township was the Methodist Episcopal Church which was organized in 1838 and met in homes until 1842 when a church building was constructed. The Wesleyan Methodist Church was organized around 1851 in North Russell or Briar Hill. It is now Riverview Church.
The first P.T.A. organized in the school year 1925-1926.
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