125 East Erie St.
	Painesville OH 44077
	Phone: (440)350-2730 Fax: (440)350-2601
	soil@lakecountyohio.org

The following information has been collected by Lake SWCD staff and the Historical Society.  It is far from complete and we are still seeking information on these and many other streams in the county.  If you have historical information you would like to contribute, please call or e-mail the district office. 

Paine Creek – Perhaps named after General Edward Paine who settled Painesville.  General Paine purchased 1,000 acres in the watershed after receiving information on the area from his son.

Ward Creek – Jared Ward and his wife were early inhabitants of the Mentor Marsh area.

Griswold Creek – Sylvanus Griswold was an investor in the purchase of the Connecticut Western Reserve.  He was a shareholder in the Connecticut Land Company who purchased the land from the State of Connecticut.  There is also documentation of a Truman Griswold from Mentor who apparently helped to remove wolves from the area.

Talcott Creek – Joseph Talcott was an original settler of the area.

Bates Creek – In the early 1800’s a sawmill and a gristmill were built by Benjamin Bates on Lot 30 in Leroy Township.

Newell Creek – Grandison Newell purchased land in 1819 (Newell Farm) and began making cast iron plows.  Mr. Newell was also instrumental in obtaining a charter in 1835 for the Painesville & Fairport Railroad.

Phelps Creek – Jesse Phelps was a Justice of the Peace in 1802.  Hendrick Elsworth Paine, who owned a gristmill in Paine’s Hollow, was married to a Phelps.

Arcola Creek – Arcola Creek was originally called Dock Creek in 1798 when the site, known as Madison Dock, was founded by Colonel Alexander Harper.  It then became Cunningham Creek when it was purchased by Captain John Cunningham.  Captain Cunningham sold 50 acres to the Erie Furnace Company who erected a furnace to refine bog ore found in the swamps along the creek.  In 1830, Judge Samuel Wilkeson purchased the furnace and named it the Arcole Furnace after a furnace he operated in Buffalo.

Blackbrook Creek – Perhaps named because of the mill that operated on the creek spilled so much wood shavings into the creek it looked black.

Jordan Creek – Mr. Jordan, from Mifflin City, PA cleared the land and built a home on the property near a trail that had been cut to Burton by Turhard Kirtland.

Grand River – The Indians (unknown tribe) named the river Grand Chiango which has been interpreted to mean raccoon.  Early French maps named the River La Corande River.  The river was formally called the Geauga, a corruption of the Indian name Chogage.

Chagrin River – This name has several interpretations; perhaps a version of the Indian word Shaguin, which translates to clear water.  Shaguin has been printed on some pre-revolutionary war maps.  One account has been written of the River Au Biche, French for elk, and was called such because the French favored the elk paths over the deer paths because they were wider and easier to use.  In 1764, Thomas Hutchins made a map entitled “Official Geography of the US”.  In 1778 an amended map mistakenly placed the Shaguin River immediately west of Biche River (Chagrin River).  In order to make the map agree with French maps and early accounts which always showed the Roche River (Rocky River) several miles west of the Segequin River (Cuyahoga River), he moved La Roche east.  This placed La Roche (Rocky River) east of the Segeuin (Cuyahoga River) and west of the Biche (Chagrin River), where there was in fact no river at all.  In 1796,  General Cleveland and a small group were sent to the Cuyahoga River area to survey.  They found a river not traced on the charts and assumed it to be the Cuyahoga.  After being temporarily lost for some time and feeling very “chagrined” about the situation they named the unmapped river the Chagrin River.