Bath Township was sculpted from the Western Reserve after Native
Americans ceded the land to the United States at the 1805 Treaty of Fort
Industry. Captured here in over 200 vintage photographs is the
development of the area into Bath Township, through the trials and
triumphs of its earliest settlers. Originally named Hammondsburgh after
one of the first families to settle in the area, Bath Township was
formally organized in 1818. Industry sprang up in the form of grist,
flour, saw, and woolen mills along the Yellow Creek in Ghent Village.
Gradually, a handful of small population centers or corners came into
existence within the township. Names like Hammond's Corners, Stony Hill,
Ghent, and Ira are still used today, while the names of Hurd's Corners,
Little Germany, and Farley's Corners are seldom spoken. Pictured here
are the buggy works, blacksmith shops, cheese factories, general stores,
and post offices, and the residents that operated them, creating the
inviting area that residents cherish today.