In its early history, Munson Township was part of the vast Northwest Territory, Trumbull county and finally Geauga, the second county of the Western Reserve. Not too long after the memorable battle of Lake Champlain, which took place on September 11, 1814, Lemuel Punderson of Newbury, acting agent for the Connecticut Land Company, was approached by three men from Meadville, PA named Crary, Hotchkiss, and Beane who contracted to purchase 7,000 acres in the 8th range of the Connecticut Western Reserve for $12,903.23. They named the new township McDonough after a hero in the Champlain battle. In the spring of 1816, they employed Ralph Cowles of Canton (now Claridon) to survey the acreage into designated lots. In 1817, the Geauga County Commissioners organized McDonough and Canton into a civil township called Burlington. Munson was known as Burlington until 1820.
The origin of the name Munson is a story in itself. Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Hovey settled on a large farm on Mulberry Road. Mrs. Hovey was homesick for her old home in Monson, Massachusetts. Either the spelling was wrong, the writing was bad, or the New England twang came through, because when the approval came back for the name change, Monson was spelled Munson.
Because of the sizeable woods and hilly terrain, Munson Township was one of the last townships in Geauga County to be settled. The first permanent settler in Munson was Samuel Hopson, who built his log cabin near the corner of Rockhaven and Wye roads.
Because of our vast supply of water, many mills were built in the early township. Hiram and Milo Fowler settled in Munson in 1831. Their mill located on Fowlers Mill Road near the Mayfield intersection was restored by Rick and Billie Erickson and is currently producing flour. Munson also had the first cheese factory in Ohio, started in 1859 by Mr. & Mrs. Bartlett at Maple Hill behind our present cemetery. In 1880, the factory was receiving milk from five hundred cows and producing 10,000 pounds of cheese a day.
From the official census, in 1880, the population was 1,230 with 199 dwellings, 209 families and 396 children in school, in 1990, the population was 5,775, with 1,774 dwellings, 1,727 families, and 1,179 children between the ages of 5 and 18, and in 2000, the population was 6,450 with 2,170 housing units. Munson Township has evolved from an agricultural to a largely residential community. The Geauga County Annual Estimate of Township Populations for July 2005 for Munson Township was 6,719.
