Penfield will celebrate 200 years with Sept. 27 bicentennial bash

PENFIELD TWP. — Two hundred years after New Yorkers Peter Penfield and Calvin Spencer settled near the Black River in southern Lorain County, the rural community is getting ready to party. A bicentennial celebration is planned for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 27 at Penfield Recreational Park, 40396 state Route 18. For organizer Theresa Rusavage Seman, the event is all about embracing family history. "I love the fact that my husband grew up in Penfield, his kids grew up in Penfield. It means a lot to us," she said. Seman said the day will feature a fair and craft show, with games, local vendors, balloons, music, historical trivia, a car show and free hot dogs, popcorn and root beer floats. Local Scout groups, 4-H groups and residents "will try to blend the past and the future of our township," she said. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was some debate about whether to move forward with bicentennial plans. Seman said organizers decided to hold the safest possible event with social distancing and masks required. Games will be spaced across the park and vendors will set up 12 feet from each other to protect partygoers. "Everything's going to be measured out," she said. Duane Johnson, a township trustee and member of the Penfield Historical Society, is excited to celebrate the bicentennial. "It's kind of neat to be alive when it hits the big number," he said. Like Seman, his love for the township grows out of a family connection. Johnson's father grew up in Penfield, and his uncle was a trustee and cemetery sexton. He said trustees in recent years have worked to keep the community true to its roots — they've improved the park, fixed up the township hall, relocated the old one-room schoolhouse and kept zoning rules and enforcement tight. "We've controlled those so it doesn't take off, so we don't have things coming in that people don't want," Johnson said. "They want it to stay like it is." Ohio became a state on March 1, 1803. Caleb Atwater paid the Connecticut Land Company 25 cents per acre — about $4,000 — for Township 3, Range 17, and divvied the land up among his six daughters to parcel to settlers. Penfield and Spencer arrived in 1818 to scout out the land and hired hands to build a log cabin, then returned to New York. The first official settler recognized by the 1820 census was Alonson Penfield, who was waiting when Peter and Lathrop Penfield returned to Ohio. Truman Penfield was chosen as clerk in the town's first election in 1825. Through its long history Over the past two centuries, the township has been home to schools, cheese factories, sawmills and churches, Johnson said. But today its feel isn't much different. The 14,080 acres are still mostly used for agriculture, and almost one-third is woodland. Homes take up just 10 percent of Penfield's footprint. Johnson said residents have worked hard to make it a home, and they have a couple of gifts to "open" at the bicentennial celebration. The first is a new playground installed this month at the community park, and the other is a disc golf course. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.