Chesterland Live Cam

1805 - County of Geauga was created by the Ohio General Assembly and extended to lake Erie.

1806 - Courts met in New Market (located between Fairport and Painesville on the Grand River).

1810 - The Commissioners appropriated $50.00 to construct a road from Painesville to Chardon.

1811 - Samuel Phelps, County Director, purchased 96 lots from Peter Chardon Brooks for $400.00 and the Commissioners appropriated $61.87 to hire men to chop down the trees on the square.

1812 - Captain Edward Paine Jr. moved into a newly-constructed log cabin on the square, established county government, and helped found the town of Chardon.

1813 - King Courthouse of log and frame construction was built for $600.00 by Samuel King behind the current site of Randall Block near Water Street.

March 18, 1823 - Benjamin Wright Jr., was sentenced in Geauga County Common Pleas Court to hang by the neck until dead on the third Thursday in May for the stabbing death of Zophar Warner. Benjamin's funeral sermon was conducted on the square prior to the hanging. Rifle and cavalry companies, along with fife and drum, county officials, and reputedly four thousand or more spectators escorted Benjamin to the gallows constructed south of the square to witness the hanging. The Hanging Rock where the event is said to have taken place, is now on private property and has become a Chardon legend.

October 23, 1823 - The first Geauga Cattle Fair and Show of the Geauga County Agricultural and Manufacturing society was held in Chardon. Rail pens were constructed on the square and produce was exhibited in the King Courthouse. Thirteen premiums were awarded, six in the feminine arts. Our Great Geauga County Fair has been an annual event since, not missing a beat even for drought or war, making ft the oldest continuously operating fair in the State of Ohio.