Doylestown is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

located atop the highest point in Wayne County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, United States. It is surrounded by Chippewa Township and located southwest of

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

. The village was founded in 1827 when William Doyle laid out a 40-lot town site at the crossing of two Native American trails on a hilltop. The population was 3,051 at the 2020 census.

History

Initial settlement

In 1813, Thomas Frederick from

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster ( ) is a city in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 58,039 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, eighth-most populous ci ...

became the first settler to establish a homestead in what is now Doylestown. William Doyle, for whom the town was named, arrived in 1827 and purchased 50 acres from Frederick and two other early settlers. Doyle moved his family onto the land with the intent to found a new village. Five friends of Doyle's from Pennsylvania were convinced to bring their families and join Doyle to help settle the new village. On December 9, 1827, the village was surveyed by Charles Christmas, one of the five men Doyle convinced to move from Pennsylvania. The survey was recorded on Christmas Day. The new village would contain 40 lots in what is now Uptown, the commercial district, of modern Doylestown. Soon after, with the help of another of the five families, Doyle built Doylestown's first building, a

log cabin A log cabin is a small log house, especially a minimally finished or less architecturally sophisticated structure. Log cabins have an ancient history in Europe, and in America are often associated with first-generation home building by settl ...

tavern. Franklin continued to own the land north of the platted village, and was unhappy with the development taking place which led to a feud with Doyle. This prevented development from extending in that direction until after Doyle moved from the area. Also in 1836, the Village of Doylestown established its first Board of Education. The board purchased a tract of land from Frederick at what is now the intersection of Portage and Gates streets with the intention of establishing a school. A decade later the wood-frame school was replaced with a more permanent brick building which would be expanded vertically as the village grew through the 1850s. Doylestown Catholic Church

Many of these early buildings, as well as those which were constructed later, were built of brick. In 1834, brickmaking became an early industry in the Doylestown area when Abrahamm Franks built a kiln a quarter-mile southwest of the village site. Numerous other temporary brick works were established as needed nearby to construction sites around the village. Longer-lasting brick yards were established around Doylestown in 1867, 1872 and 1886. Other early industries besides brick making included grain and wool mills, a tannery and a distillery, though primary among these early industries was coal mining which began to take off in the 1840s.

Coal and industrial boom

A valley just downhill to the southeast of the village, initially known as Nibrara and later as Pleasant Valley, was initially settled during the early wave of immigration by Samuel Chidester. Early settlers in this area took advantage of the local

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

deposits for small-scale use, but in 1840 a commercial mine was established by David Galehouse. It would transform "Pleasant Valley" into what became known as "Rogues' Hollow" and alter the trajectory of the adjacent village forever. Mines began to pop up throughout the hollow and the area became home to the first real industry in eastern Wayne County. Drinking and lawlessness became a hallmark of Rogues' Hollow as the population swelled with men working the mines. Between 1840 and 1940, when the last mine in the area closed, there had been at least 102 mines in operation. As the mines attracted waves of new settlers and brought an influx of economic activity, secondary industries began to appear in Doylestown. John Seiberling arrived in 1860 to build a factory which would make mowing machines with a self-raking mower. A year later, Excelsior Mowers and Droppers was established in the village. A modernization of the plant was undertaken in 1887 and the growth was spurred on by workers from the coal mines, which were beginning to slow in their production.

Into the 20th century

After decades of coal-powered growth, the village saw its population surpass 1,000 by 1896. The commercial viability of the coal mines began to wane around 1900, and the mower industry took a major downturn in 1901 after a fire at the factory, but by that point Doylestown had become a fully established village. Some of the industry lost from the mines and machine-works was replaced with multiple aluminum product companies in the 1890s and 1900s. In 1909, continued growth led to the need for a larger school building on High Street. The 1884 building was dynamited and a replacement was constructed, with features intended for safety in the wake of the 1908 Collinwood school fire in nearby

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Industry returned to Doylestown in the mid-century, albeit in a much smaller way than it had in the previous century, with the establishment of Midwest Container Co. in 1946. The company has produced various plastics from its establishment and continues to this day, as of 2023, though it is now known as Mid-West Poly Pak, Inc. Construction and agriculture remained important industries in Doylestown throughout the 20th century as well.

In the 21st century

Doylestown has lost the industrial character of its past, and as the 20th century moved into the 21st, has lost some of the agricultural character as well. Suburbanization emanating from nearby Akron and more distant Cleveland has given contemporary Doylestown an

exurban An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing-density, and relatively hi ...

feel, as it is now considered to be a bedroom community for larger cities in

Northeast Ohio Northeast Ohio is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that comprises the northeastern counties of the U.S. state of Ohio. Definitions of the region consist of 16 to 23 counties between the southern shore of Lake Erie and the foothills ...

. With the exception of two small areas zoned for light industrial bordering Doylestown's municipal boundary, the entirety of the village is surrounded by areas zoned by Chippewa Township as "suburban residential", though much of the area is still used for agriculture as well.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the village has a total area of , all of it land. Doylestown is located atop a hill, with most of the town including the uptown area located at approximately 1,250 feet above sea level. Doylestown Uptown Rear from Church St

A handful of small streams begin at springs on the slopes of the hill and flow from the higher elevations into larger creeks surrounding the village. Silver Creek drains the town on the east, Mill Creek on the north and west, while Chippewa Creek drains the south side and collects both Mill and Silver Creeks. Where Silver Creek flows into Chippewa Creek just southeast of town, in Rogues' Hollow, the elevation is 950 feet. The town is located in the far northeastern corner of Wayne County. The center of Doylestown is located about a mile south of the

Medina Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

and

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

County lines and about two miles from the Summit County line to the east as well. The Summit County cities of Norton, Barberton and New Franklin are located directly across the county line to the north, northeast and east, respectively. Ohio State Route 585 skims the northern and eastern edges of the village as it heads southeast from Norton to Wooster. Ohio State Route 21 runs south–north about a mile east of the village beyond Silver Creek.

Demographics

2010 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2010, there were 3,051 people, 1,206 households, and 827 families residing in the village. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 1,292 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 97.9%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.6%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.1% Native American, 0.2% Asian, 0.4% from other races, and 0.9% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.4% of the population. There were 1,206 households, of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.1% had a male householder with no wife present, and 31.4% were non-families. 27.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.98. The median age in the village was 41.6 years. 24.8% of residents were under the age of 18; 6.9% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 21.9% were from 25 to 44; 27.7% were from 45 to 64; and 18.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the village was 46.3% male and 53.7% female.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 2,799 people, 1,119 households, and 782 families residing in the village. The

was . There were 1,167 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 98.89%

, 0.14%

, 0.04% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.21% from other races, and 0.61% from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 0.61% of the population. There were 1,119 households, out of which 32.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.3% were

living together, 9.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.1% were non-families. 26.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.95. In the village, the population was spread out, with 24.8% under the age of 18, 6.9% from 18 to 24, 27.7% from 25 to 44, 24.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 89.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.4 males. The median income for a household in the village was $47,969, and the median income for a family was $57,400. Males had a median income of $39,766 versus $25,701 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $21,408. About 3.5% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 4.1% of those age 65 or over.

Education

Doylestown is served by a branch of the Wayne County Public Library.

Gallery

Doylestown Sweet Shop.jpg, The Sweet Shop, a summertime staple since the mid-20th century Doylestown Uptown.jpg, Shops and businesses along Portage Street and the village's only stop light Doylestown Portage and Clinton.jpg, Public square with park, statue, Village Hall and Police Department Doylestown, Ohio Town Hall.jpg, Village Hall

References

External links

Village of Doylestown

Doylestown Police

Chippewa Township
{{authority control Villages in Wayne County, Ohio Populated places established in 1827 1827 establishments in Ohio Villages in Ohio