History: 

The Founders

First settlers came to Farmington (Ohio) from Connecticut in 1805 and many of the subsequent villagers also came from there. In 15 years 375 people resided in the township.

Josiah Wolcott purchased 1,000 of the 17,000 timbered acres of the unnamed township and formed a party to make the six-week trip to explore the Grand River property. With his nephew, Lewis and his brother Theodore, son Horace and Gad Hart fought their way through the wilderness to the assigned purchase. There in the vast land they chopped a hole in the forest and wintered in a lean-to on the south side of the present Main Street where the Anthony home now stands and where the Kibbee home was later built.

The enthusiastic men constructed log cabins for their families, one north of East Farmington, one at the Center and the other on present day Second Street in the village. They made the return trip to Connecticut and came back with their families and the scanty possessions that could be transported on horseback on the narrow blazed foot path across the mountains.

The Wolcott family is of English ancestry and Lewis was the eighth generation from Henry, the founder of the Wolcott family who emigrated to America in 1628. Lewis retraced his steps to the frontier with his parents and family and settled on land near Farmington which was ever afterward the home of the family till the mid 20th century.