Portage County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,791. Located in Northeast Ohio, Portage County is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area. Its county seat is Ravenna and its largest city is Kent. The county, named for the portage between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, was created in 1807 and formally organized in 1808. In addition to the cities of Kent and Ravenna, Portage County also includes the cities of Aurora and Streetsboro, along with five villages, 18 civil townships, and several unincorporated places within those townships. Additionally, the county includes parts of the city of Tallmadge, and part of the village of Mogadore, both of which are mostly in neighboring Summit County.
History The name "Portage" comes from an old Native American path called "Portage Path", which ran between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, where travelers portaged their canoes. The location of the trail today is within the boundaries of neighboring Summit County.
As of 1600, the area was likely almost entirely home to the Whittlesey culture, a presumably Algonquian people who lived along the southern shore of Lake Erie, to the west of the Erie Nation. They were a mixed culture people that exhibited signs of picking up traits from both Fort Ancients and Iroquoians. The Erie may have also held a bit of the area, but this is unclear. During the Beaver Wars, approximately 1632–1701, the Whittlesey and Erie were already at war when the Erie decided to also declare war on the Iroquois for the atrocities being committed against allied tribes in Canada. The Erie lost around 1650 and the Whittlesey were likely similarly subjugated afterwards, as the Iroquois conquered all the way to the shores of Lake Michigan by the 1670s.Jesuit Relations
The Iroquois placed a vassal tribe of captured Huron in the area who became known as the Wyandot, while they conquered further west. Later, the French made it to the Mississippi River and volunteered to aid the Natives in that region to push the Iroquois back to New York. By the end of the Beaver Wars, the Wyandot had broken free of Iroquois control and reabsorbed surviving Hurons taking refuge all over the Great Lakes, but set aside the area roughly between the Cuyahoga River, the Mahoning River and the Ohio-Pennsylvania border as a collective hunting ground, to be enjoyed by all the tribes of the region. The Lenape had a village around modern day Youngstown, possibly established during the 1690s, from which they and the Seneca and Shawnee from further south staged ventures into the region. Up in Ashtabula County, the Ottawas, or Mississaugas, from the western end of Lake Erie were allowed to maintain a village at Conneaut. Ashtabula itself seems to come from the Algonquian name for the area and roughly translates to "Place with Enough for everyone." The Lenape later lost rights to the eastern extremes of their territory between the Potomac River and the Mahoning River by a government proclamation in 1763, but sources say they began relocating into Tuscarawas and Holmes counties in 1758 in preparation for such an event.
The region continued being used as such until around 1785, when the newly formed United States tried issuing a treaty stripping the vast majority of what is now Ohio from Native control and began offering subsidies for people to move into the region, sparking the Northwest Indian War from 1785–1795. In the aftermath, the government issued the Treaty of Greenville, which stripped even more land from the Natives than originally planned and opened up northeast Ohio for white settlement for the first time. Most Natives did not leave and mixed tribal communities still existed all over the state for some time afterwards, with permanent Ottawa, Seneca, and Wyandot villages still existing in what is now Portage and Geauga counties. All written accounts of Natives seems to have ceased sometime around the War of 1812, which coincided with the Shawnee War (1811–1813). The local government had its own land arrangements with the Natives for a time. It is unclear where the Natives went after that, but this may coincide with the 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes, some of the largest earthquakes to ever hit the east coast in recorded history. It was interpreted by many Ohio Natives that they should throw their support behind Shawnee cult leader, Tenskwatawa, at the Prophettown stronghold, coinciding with the outbreak of the Shawnee War later that year. Most of the Eastern nations got sucked up into his cult and many Natives relocated to live near him.
Portage County is also home to a burial mound—Towner's Mound, in Franklin Township—which predates all the above mentioned cultures. It was unique in structure to other types of burial mounds from the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient cultures, but identical to two other excavated mounds in North Benton, Ohio, and Warren, Pennsylvania.
After the discovery of the New World, the land that became Portage County was originally part of the French colony of Canada (New France), which was ceded in 1763 to Great Britain and renamed the Province of Quebec. In the late 18th century, the land became part of the Connecticut Western Reserve in the Northwest Territory, which was purchased by the Connecticut Land Company in 1795.
The first European settler in what is now Portage County was Abraham Honey in 1798 in the area now known as Mantua Township, followed by Asa Hall in what is now Atwater Township in April 1799. In June 1799, Benjamin Tappan, Jr. arrived and founded Ravenna, David Daniels came to what is now Palmyra Township, and Ebenezer Sheldon settled in what is now Aurora.Brown and Norris, pp. 229–232 A family group of Huguenot refugees also eventually migrated to Portage County by 1804.
When first settled, the area that presently constitutes Portage County was part of the original Jefferson County, which had been organized in 1797. In 1800, the area was made part of Trumbull County, which followed the boundaries of the Connecticut Western Reserve. In 1802, all of what is now Portage County was organized under the name of Franklin Township with other townships being formed later. On February 10, 1807, the Ohio state legislature passed the act to create Portage County from Trumbull County, taking effect on June 7, 1807. Portage County remained attached to Trumbull County until June 8, 1808, when the first elections were held. Initially, the county included a large area of the Western Reserve that encompassed most of present-day Summit County, all of Medina and Huron counties, and parts of Lorain and Ashland counties. There were six organized townships in 1808: Franklin, Deerfield, Aurora, Hiram, Springfield, and Hudson, with new townships organized later, reaching a maximum of 30. The present-day boundaries of Portage County were established in 1840 following the 1812 creation of Medina County, a slight boundary adjustment in 1827 with Cuyahoga County, and finally the creation of Summit County in 1840, which took 10 townships from Portage County, along with 3 townships from Medina County and two from Stark County.
What is referred to as the last great train robbery in US history occurred in Garrettsville in 1935. The government sent in a massive team to investigate, whom the locals called the G-Men. Today, the James A. Garfield schools in Garrettsville have the G-Men as their team mascot.
Portage County was also the site of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (3.3%) is water.
West Branch State Park is a very large state park in central Portage County, consisting of a large green surrounding the Michael J. Kirwan Dam and Reservoir. There are a number of smaller state and local parks.
Adjacent counties Geauga County (north) Trumbull County (east) Mahoning County (southeast) Stark County (south) Summit County (west) Cuyahoga County (northwest)
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 161,791. The median age was 39.8 years. 18.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females, there were 95.0 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.9 males age 18 and over.
The racial makeup of the county was 86.4% White, 5.0% Black or African American, 0.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.1% Asian, <0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.8% from some other race, and 5.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 2.2% of the population.
62.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 38.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 65,624 households in the county, of which 24.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 46.5% were married-couple households, 19.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 26.1% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 28.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 70,672 housing units, of which 7.1% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 68.9% were owner-occupied and 31.1% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.1% and the rental vacancy rate was 8.1%.
Racial and ethnic composition +Portage County, Ohio – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)130,450136,407142,825147,527138,77496.02%95.67%93.93%91.39%85.77%Black or African American alone (NH)3,5293,8674,8126,6117,9342.60%2.71%3.16%4.10%4.90%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)1852812602742330.14%0.20%0.17%0.17%0.14%Asian alone (NH)6721,1751,2382,2833,4000.49%0.82%0.81%1.41%2.10%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census143338xx0.01%0.02%0.02%Other race alone (NH)252571271455580.19%0.04%0.08%0.09%0.34%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census1,6922,4737,349xx1.11%1.53%4.54%Hispanic or Latino (any race)7687981,0932,0733,5050.57%0.56%0.72%1.28%2.17%Total135,856142,585152,061161,419161,791 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%
2010 census As of the 2010 United States census, there were 161,419 people, 62,222 households, and 40,757 families living in the county. The population density was . There were 67,472 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 92.3% white, 4.1% black or African American, 1.4% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 0.3% from other races, and 1.7% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.3% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 30.7% were German, 17.1% were Irish, 11.5% were English, 11.0% were Italian, 6.6% were Polish, and 5.7% were American.
Of the 62,222 households, 29.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.1% were married couples living together, 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.5% were non-families, and 25.4% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.47 and the average family size was 2.96. The median age was 37.4 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $50,447 and the median income for a family was $65,306. Males had a median income of $46,014 versus $34,250 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,097. About 8.1% of families and 13.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.2% of those under age 18 and 4.4% of those age 65 or over.
2000 census