Russell Township is one of the sixteen

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

Geauga County Geauga County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,397. The county seat is Chardon. The county is named for an Onondaga or Seneca language word meaning 'raccoon', originally the name of the ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 5,188, down from 5,529 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Located in the western part of the county, it borders the following townships and villages: * Chester Township - north * Munson Township - northeast corner * Newbury Township - east * Auburn Township - southeast corner * Bainbridge Township - south *

Chagrin Falls Chagrin Falls is a village in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States and is a suburb of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio's Cleveland-Akron-Canton metropolitan area, the 19th-largest Combined Statistical Area nationwide. The village was established and h ...

- southwest, south of Chagrin Falls Township * Chagrin Falls Township - southwest, north of Chagrin Falls * Moreland Hills - west, south of Hunting Valley *

Hunting Valley Hunting Valley is a village in Cuyahoga and Geauga counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, and an eastern suburb of the Greater Cleveland area. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 707. At the 2000 census, it was ranked the 6th highest- ...

- west, north of Moreland Hills * Gates Mills - northwest corner Two villages are located in Russell Township: part of

in the northwest, and South Russell in the south.

Name and history

It is the only Russell Township statewide. Another name for the area is Novelty, from the name of the post office located, in the unincorporated community of

Novelty Novelty (derived from Latin word ''novus'' for "new") is the quality of being new, or following from that, of being striking, original or unusual. Novelty may be the shared experience of a new cultural phenomenon or the subjective perception of an ...

, in the township. The first five inhabitants — Gideon Russell and his family, who came in 1818 — settled on what today is Chillicothe Road. In 1827 the township was named Russell, although it had been previously known as the West Woods by neighboring communities. In April of that year the people elected John Lowry, Clark Robinson, and Gideon Russell as their first township trustees. It was Robinson that created the first framed building and started the first store.

Economy

Russell is the home of

ASM International ASM International is a Dutch headquartered multinational corporation that specializes in design, manufacturing, sales and service of semiconductor wafer processing equipment for the fabrication of semiconductor devices. ASM's products are use ...

, formerly known as the American Society for Metals, whose

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

is marked by a gigantic

geodesic dome A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The triangular elements of the dome are structurally rigid and distribute the structural stress throughout the structure, making geodesic dom ...

, visited by

Buckminster Fuller Richard Buckminster Fuller (; July 12, 1895 – July 1, 1983) was an American architect, systems theorist, writer, designer, inventor, philosopher, and futurist. He styled his name as R. Buckminster Fuller in his writings, publishing more t ...

upon its completion. Nearly all of the non-incorporated parts of the township are served in education by the West Geauga district. (South Russell village and a small part of the rest is covered by the Chagrin Falls district.) In private education, the Butler Campus of

Laurel School Laurel School is a private school for girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1896 by Jennie Prentiss and operates on two campuses; the Lyman Campus in Shaker Heights and the Butler Campus in Novelty. Notable alumnae ...

is on Fairmount Road (originally named "Fairmount Campus" for its location), which has a lodge, pavilion, tree house, residence, and adventure course.

Government

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. Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it. There is also an elected township fiscal officer,§503.24§505.01
an
§507.01
of the

Ohio Revised Code The ''Ohio Revised Code'' contains all current statutes of the Ohio General Assembly of a permanent and general nature, consolidated into provisions, titles, chapters and sections. However, the only official publication of the enactments of the G ...

. Accessed 4/30/2009. who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election. Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees.

Transportation

Major roads include State Route 306 and State Route 87.

References

External links

Township websiteCounty website
{{authority control Townships in Geauga County, Ohio Populated places established in 1818 Lithuanian-American culture in Ohio Townships in Ohio