The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1.

[7] In 1790, at Buffalo, New York, the Seneca nation, represented by Joseph Brant, ceded their rights east of the Cuyahoga River to the Connecticut Land Company.

In 1798, Vermonter Edward Spear began settlement on lot 18 (on what was afterwards known as the "Beaver Meadows"), about two miles from the head of the east branch of the Ashtabula River.

Rockwell built his cabin on lot 21, cleared a small piece of ground, sowed it to wheat, and in 1809, returned to Connecticut for his family.

Among these settlers were Aaron H. Holmes, Asa Leonard, Shiron Turner, Jepthat Turner, Amos Remington, Abijah Whitton, Archibald Gould, Ezra Cole, Ezekiel Brayman, William Read, Eli Prince, Edson Beals, Ashel Cleveland, Reuben Benjamin, and Zebina Rawson.

[10] During the American Civil War, Captain Henry Hathaway raised a company of volunteers for the army and marched it to Browers Corners where he resigned the command to Captain Wilber Stevens, who marched it to Jefferson, its place of rendezvous.