Vienna Township Timeline

September 25, 1795
State of Connecticut sells three million acres of land in the Western Reserve to the Connecticut Land Company. Prosperous lawyer Ephraim Root (1762-1825), one of 57 investors in the Company, serves as the Company’s secretary and agent. Root held interest in 100,000 acres, including Vienna. Range 8, Township 2 (Portage County) is named Rootstown. 

Summer 1796
Town 4, Range 2 is surveyed along with the rest of the Western Reserve. 

1798
The initial proprietors of Town 4, Range 2 are Timothy Burr, Uriah [Uriel] Holmes, Jr., and Ephraim Root.  Through subsequent transfers, Root would soon become owner of nearly all the land in the Township. 

1799
The families of Isaac Flower and Dennis Clark Palmer are Vienna’s first Anglo-American settlers. 

November 17, 1799
Lavinia Flower, the daughter of Isaac Flower, is the first Anglo-American born in Vienna.

1800
Dennis Clark Palmer’s cabin burns.

June 1800
Ephraim Root makes his first visit to Vienna and Trumbull County.  He contracts with William Titus Brockway (1775-1840) to be his land agent. 

July 18, 1800
William Titus Brockway begins an account book for land sales for Ephraim Root. 

November 15, 1800
Reverend Joseph Badger leaves Connecticut for his first mission to the Western Reserve, under the direction of the Connecticut Missionary Society. 

December 28, 1800
Reverend Joseph Badger reaches the Western Reserve on the “last Sabbath of 1800,” preaches in Youngstown, and then rides to Vienna where he notes that there is one family. The Reverend noted:

        On Monday I rode to Vienna, where was one family; thence to Hartford, in which were three families.

1801
Darius Woodford walks from Hartford, Connecticut, with Timothy Alderman for the purpose of viewing and purchasing land in Vienna. 

According to the History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties (1882), the residents of Vienna in 1801 were “Isaac Flower, Isaac Flower, Jr., Levi Foote, James W. Foster, Samuel Hutchins, Daniel Humison [Humason], Dennis C. Palmer, Epenitus Rogers, Darius Woodford, Simeon Wheeler, and Isaac Woodford.” 

January/February 1801
Reverend Joseph Badger visits and nurses a very ill Dennis Clark Palmer back to health at his cabin. He wrote:

January, 1801.  The frequent snows and rains rendered it difficult passing from one settlement to another.  This was the last opening toward the lake.  Here I tarried two weeks; in which time Mr. Palmer of Vienna, was taken sick.  I was requested to go and see him.  There was no doctor in the country.  I found him very sick, and stayed and nursed him about eight days, when he got better.

Reverend Badger's memoir also includes this remembrance of the event:

In Vienna there was one family. The man some time in February 1801 was taken sick with a fever; no physician in the country. I was informed of his situation and requested to visit him. I found the family, consisting of the sick man, his wife, and one child, in a pitiable condition, situated six or seven miles from any other family, in a cold log cabin, wood enough, when cut, for the fire; but with a scanty supply of bread. Here I tarried, as nurse and doctor, nearly two weeks, when he began to convalesce, and I returned to Vernon, where I had left my horse.

November 1, 1801
William Titus Brockway makes an entry in his account book, using the name Vienna for the first time.

June 15, 1802
Dennis Clark Palmer buys an “old ax” from Titus Brockway for $1. 

October 1802
Ephraim Root begins to serve in the Ohio State Legislature.

William Titus Brockway sells Vienna land to Samuel Woodford, Darius Woodford, Isaac Woodford, Darius Humason, Isaac Humason, William Laferty, Samuel Lowrey, Isaac Scott, and Seth Bartholomew.

P.W. Curtis is paid $1.75 for surveying Lot #3 in Vienna. 

1803
Revolutionary War veteran Ebenezer N. Comes and family move from Connecticut to Vienna.

Brothers Timothy and Jonathan Alderman bring their families from Avon, Connecticut. 

January 1803
Vienna’s first marriage takes place when Freelove Flower weds survey Samuel Hutchins. 

Spring 1803
Simeon Wheeler and family come to Vienna from Vermont.  The trip took 6 weeks.

May 3, 1803
Ebenezer N. Comes buys 121 ½ acres from the east of Lot #4 (known later as Paynes' Corners). 

June 11, 1803
From Reverend Joseph Badger's Memoir:

Saturday, rode to Vienna.  Preached on the Sabbath to about sixty.  I proposed to them to meet on the Sabbath in the future, for religious worship; to which they agreed by a vote on the subject.  This settlement is flourishing.

October 1, 1803
Thomas Hanna buys Vienna’s Lot #1 for $1,334.50. 

November 30, 1803
Ebenezer N. Comes pays $49.75 on his note (land purchase). 

William Titus Brockway views ground for “a road thro’ the west part of Vienna Twp.” 

December 18, 1803
Seth Bartholomew buys Lot #18 for $268.  

1804 or 1805
Samuel Munson and wife Susannah Tyler come from Waterbury, Connecticut. 

January 30-31, 1804
Thomas Robbins, a Congregational minister, sent to the Western Reserve by the Connecticut Missionary Society, notes of Vienna in his diary:

30th - Rode to Vienna.  Preached from Acts viii:  8.  This is a new settlement, but appears pretty flourishing.  Yesterday took some cold.  Have some rheumatic pains in my back.  Houses very smoky.

 31st - Very good riding and sledding.  Rode to Smithfield.  Almost worn out with fatigue.  At evening attended a conference.

February 29, 1804
On this Leap Year day, Reverend Thomas Robbins reports:

Rode to Vienna.  Preached from 2 Tim. iv:  7, 8.  Baptized a child of parents formerly members of a church in Pennsylvania.  The first time I ever administered the ordinance.

April 6-8, 1804
Reverend Thomas Robbins details in his diary:

6th - Procured a horse to ride, mine being unfit for use.  Rode to Vienna.  Keeping for horses very scarce.  Rainy.

7th - Worked with the people at their public ground in the center of the town.  Visited.

8th - Preached from Matt. xviii: 3 and Luke xv:  17.  People here appear stupid and unfeeling.  Much troubled with stomach sickness.    

April 19, 1804
Eph. Roberts buys 66 acres in Lot #44 at $2.65 per acre.

May 2, 1804
Reverend Thomas Robbins continues to note Vienna’s progress in his diary.

Visited.  Rode to Vienna.  Attended the raising of a house.  The first frame erected in the town.  Warm.

May 7, 1804
Ebenezer Newell Comes is elected to Ensign of the 4th Division of the Ohio Militia.

May 12, 1804
Samuel Munson buys 154 acres from the east end of Lot #5 for $438.90. 

October 1804
James J. Truesdel [Truesdell] buys Lots #34 and #45 for $1,170.

October 10, 1804
Reverend Joseph Badger writes: 

Wednesday, rode to Vienna, and preached in the evening.

October 20, 1804
Reverend Joseph Badger preaches at Vienna, noting:

20th - Saturday, rode to the south-west part of Hartford:  Sabbath morning, rode to Vienna, and preached to a very respectable assembly of about one hundred souls.  Three years ago there were but ten residents in this place:  now there are sixteen families. 

October 24-29, 1804
Reverend Thomas Robbins writes of Vienna in his diary:

24th - Visited.  Rode to Vienna.  Bad riding.  Wet and cold.  Traded.  2.20.

25th - Ten New England families have moved into this town this year.  Rode out.  My strength gains.

26th - Read.  Wrote.  Visited.  At evening preached a lecture from Matt. ix:  9, a clause.  Quite cold.

27th - Wrote to Mr.  Flint, of Hartford.

28th - Pretty full meeting.  Preached from Gen. vi:  3 and Luke xvi:  5.  At evening walked out.  Received a letter from Dr. Wilcox, of Hartland.

29th - Worked a little all day raising a log-house.  At evening the people here met and conversed some on the subject of building a meeting-house.

Winter 1804
Abiel and Mary Bartholomew move with their family to Vienna. 

December 6, 1804
Reverend Thomas Robbins notes in his diary:

Rode to Vienna.  The people here appointed this day for a day of Thanksgiving.  I preached from Isa. I:  2, 3.

January 2, 1805
Abiel Bartholomew is killed while felling a tree.

January 4, 1805
Isaac Scott is paid $3.00 for “cutting 1 mile of road in the s.w. part of Vienna.”

January 1805
Andrew Mackey and his wife, Mary Murray, come to Vienna from Chester County, Pennsylvania. 

James J. Truesdell reaches Vienna.  He later will serve as the Township’s Justice of the Peace for 18 years.

Vienna’s first blacksmith is Seldon Scovill. 

March 4, 1805
Daniel Humason is paid $8 for “cutting & clearing 2 ½ miles of road in the n.w. quarter of Vienna.”

March 9, 1805
Joel Humason is paid $4.50 for cutting & chaining 1 ½ miles of rd. in the S.E. quarter of Vienna.”

March 15, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins records in his diary that on this day:

Rode to Vienna.  Worked some with the people on the road.  At evening preached from Matt. ix:  9.  The Methodists appear to be wishing to get an influence here, but I think they will not succeed.  Read Winchester’s Dialogues.

March 18-19, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins returns to Vienna.  From his diary:

18th - Visited families in Brookfield.  Assisted in raising a large log-house.  Returned to Vienna. 

19th - Quite uncomfortably warm.  Preached from Jer. l:  34.  The mud dries very fast.  The people here are calculating to build a good framed school-house to be used for meetings.  They have signed eighty dollars to hire preaching.  Visited a school.

March 23, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins requests a minister for Vienna.  From his diary:

Wrote to Mr. Strong, of Hartford [Connecticut], requesting the Missionary Society to send out a preacher to be employed in Smithfield, Hartford, and Vienna.  Am feeble, but better than I was yesterday.  Rode to Hartford.

May 4, 1805
Rainy spring, according to Reverend Thomas Robbins, who recorded in his diary:

Had some clothing made.  Rainy.  Rode to Vienna, and preached to a few people from John xiv:  6.  Caught a considerable addition to my cold. 

Summer 1805
Miss Tamar Bartholomew teaches the first school located in a hog-pen about one mile south of Vienna Center. 

May 31, 1805
Joseph Clark purchases 97 acres in Lot #3 for $237.50.

July 20-22, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins records in his diary:

20th - Rode to Vienna.  Visited a sick woman.  Quite steady warm weather.  Wrote to my parents.                     

21st - Preached to a full meeting from Heb. xii:  17 and Isa. ii: 17.  The Methodists appear solicitous to get an influence here, but I hope they will not succeed.  Quite feeble.  Baptized a child. 

22nd - Visited a sick man hurt by going into the water when hot.   Rode to Hartford.  Considerably unwell.  At night much troubled with nervous affections.       

August 23, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins notes in his diary late summer conditions:

Rode to Vienna.  Flies very severe.  Some people here quite sick.

Winter 1805
Mr. Horace Flower keeps district school.

The deed to the Vienna Township Green is issued.

September 20, 1805
Ebenezer Pitman purchases 157 ½ acres in Lot #5 for $471.

September 20-22, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins preaches in Vienna.  From his diary:

20th - Visited several families.  Rode to Vienna.  Afternoon after preaching from 1 John iv:  11, conversed with several persons who presented letters and certificates of good standing in different Christian churches, on the subject of forming a Christian church. Concluded to proceed on the subject tomorrow.

21st - Wrote.  Afternoon preached from Matt. xvi:  18.  After which proceeded in the examination of those who wished to be organized into a church.  Having obtained satisfaction, concluded to constitute them publicly tomorrow.  Mr. Matthews, committee to the church in Smithfield, was present and assisted.

22nd - Preached from Matt. xvii:  5 and Gen v: 24.  After sermon in the afternoon publicly organized thirteen persons—seven men and six women—as a church of Christ, charged them to keep covenant with God and one another, and endeavored to commit them to the care and grace of the great Head of the Church.  Several people attended from the neighboring towns.  Rainy.

Thus Reverend Robbins established the Presbyterian Church in Vienna.

The first members of the Presbyterian Church of Vienna were Isaac Flower, Rosanna Williams, Samuel Clinton, Ann Wheeler, Joseph and Sylvia Bartholomew, John and Levi Clark, Robert Hughes and Margaret Hughes, James Montgomery, Jane Montgomery, and Isaac Woodford.

October 11-14, 1805
Reverend Thomas Robbins returns to Vienna, detailing in his diary the following:

11th - Visited.  Rode to Vienna.  My horse quite lame.  Had appointed to preach a sacramental lecture, but the lameness of my horse hindered me so that I did not arrive in time.  Quite warm.  Wrote to Col. Perry, of Pittsburgh.

12th - Wrote records for the church here.  Afternoon the church chose me for their standing moderator, and chose a committee and clerk.   Preached preparatory to the sacrament from Rev. xv:  15.  Some people from Pennsylvania came to attend the sacrament.

13th - Preached from Matt. x:  32 and Esther iv: 16.  Administered the sacrament.  The first time in this place.  A very agreeable and solemn season.  A full meeting, appeared solemn and attentive.

14th - Preached in the forenoon from Rev. xx:  15.   Rode to Smithfield.  A man has lately died of the prevailing fever in Gustavus.  Received a letter from my cousin, S. P. Robbins.

November 5, 1805
Hugh Mackey purchases 187+ acres in Lot  #29 for $496.61. 

March 12, 1806
Vienna Township (including Brookfield until 1810), is organized and recognized by the Trumbull County Commissioners.

April 7, 1806
The Township's first government is elected at a meeting at Simeon Wheeler's house located at what is now Payne's Corners.

Trustees:  Isaac Woodford, Isaac Flower, Jr., and William Clinton
Treasurer:  Robert Hughes
Constable:  Isaac Humason
Township Clerk:  Dennis C. Palmer
Fence Viewers:  Samuel Hutchins and Robert Hughes
Overseers of the Poor:  Joseph Bartholomew and Slevin Higby
Lister:  Isaac Lloyd
Appraiser:  Isaac Lowrey
Supervisors:  Joel Humason and Jacob Middleswath

Winter 1806
The first permanent school is in session at Vienna Center.  The school meets in a one-room framed building measuring 20 feet by 26 feet.

November 5, 1806
Hugh McKey [Mackey] pays $25 toward his land contract.

December 4, 1806
Andrew Bushnell surveys land in Vienna for $4.50.  

Ebenezer N. Comes buys an old broad axe for $2.50.  

Seth Bartholomew buys a bush scythe for $1.50. 

1807
Nathan B. Derrow arrives to become the minister of Vienna's Presbyterian Church.  During the next nine years in the Western Reserve, he would travel 11,868 miles, preach 786 times, baptize 120 persons, administer communion 30 times, and organize 7 churches. 

July 7, 1809
Sheldon Scofield becomes justice of the peace. 

Spring 1810
Reverend Nathan B. Derrow is installed as the first minister of Vienna Presbyterian Church.  He serves until 1815.  In that time thirty-three more members join the congregation. 

The wife of Dennis Clark Palmer, Phebe Edward Palmer, dies. This is recorded in Vienna Presbyterian Church records.

The deed to the Vienna Township Green is filed in the Trumbull County Recorder’s Office.

December 16, 1811 - May 1812
Earthquake!  Beginning December 16, 1811, Vienna experiences a violent earthquake, the epicenter of which is in New Madrid (along the Mississippi River in modern-day Missouri). Reportedly the quake was felt as far west as California and as far east as Boston, where church bells rang as the ground rocked. The major shock was so great that the Mississippi River carved new banks and flowed backwards.  

1812
The Trump of Fame, the Western Reserve’s first newspaper, begins publication in Warren, Ohio. (The newspaper is now called the Warren Tribune-Chronicle.) 

June 1812
Due to the War of 1812, Eastern goods become very expensive for Vienna’s residents. 

August 1812
Joseph Rogers comes to Vienna from Long Island, New York. 

Autumn 1814
John R. Greenwood and family arrive from Rehoboth, Massachusetts, to Tyrrell.

June 25, 1818
What is now Scoville-North Road is a dedicated highway 50’ in width. 

Dennis Clark Palmer sells his Vienna property.

1819
Elmina Stone arrives from Connecticut.  She is eighteen years old and will later become Vienna’s herb doctor. 

1820
The Federal Census counts 526 residents of Vienna.

Isaac Powers opens Vienna Center’s first store.

1822
From the New England Farmer: 

Quick Work.—The barn of Mr. S. Hutchins, a respectable farmer in Vienna, (Ohio) was struck with lightning on the 28th July, and most of the hay and all the grains raised on his farm the present season were consumed. On the 7th of August, his neighbors assembled and erected a barn for him 36 feet by 26. They cut the timber, hewed, framed, raised, boarded, shingled, made and hung the doors, and a large load of hay presented to him, was unloaded in it before sunset of the same day.

Samuel Hutchins was a member of the 1798 surveying party, returning to settle in Vienna in 1800 and marrying Freelove Flower in 1803 (see above).  John Hutchins, their fourth child, recalled the event years later.  

1824
Dr. Ransom Johnson builds a new brick house (still standing as of 2021) on what is now Scoville-North Road. 

Ansel Merrell purchases 3 acres on what is currently known as Niles-Vienna Road for the site of his future wooden works clock factory.

1825
The present Township Hall building is erected on the Green.  Township meetings and religious services are held there. 

1828
Dwight McMaster, clockmaker, purchases property on Warren-Sharon Road for the McMaster, Hartson, & Company in February 1828.

1830
Vienna's population, according the Federal Census: 910.

November 17, 1830
Chester Birge is installed pastor of the Congregational and Presbyterian churches in Vienna.  Ill health would force his dismissal in 1835, and he would teach a school in his house--the beginnings of the Vienna Academy.  Reverend Birge will move to Hudson, Ohio, in 1852.

1831
Reverend Joseph Badger holds revival meetings in Vienna for four days.  He writes about the meetings in a letter to his children.

August 16th 1831, Gustavus

My Dear Children:

Yours bearing date 18th of July was received the 8th instant.  I began to feel considerable anxiety about what could be the reason of so long a delay—should have written again last week, but was under the necessity of some delay, on account of attending the four days’ meeting at Vienna, which began on Wednesday, the 10th instant, and became exceedingly interesting.  On Thursday it was thought best to invite those who were anxious to retire to a school house near by, to be conversed with, while the congregation, including professors, should spend an hour in prayer. There were about thirty took the anxious seats.  On Friday the number increased to between ninety and a hundred; the house could not hold them and the number was not known.  All who got into the house were conversed with by five ministers and two laymen.  I never witnessed a more interesting scene:  the struggle with many was great, while others less affected suppressed the heaving sigh, while tears showed they were not without feeling.  Numbers were found to entertain a trembling hope, but how many was not known when I left the meeting, about three o’clock in the afternoon.  There were fourteen young people from Gustavus; five of them were among the anxious, and one married woman.  All returned home by about sunsetting; I was a little later.

This is his last mention of visiting Vienna.

March 2, 1833
The Thomsonian Recorder, the newspaper of followers of Dr. Samuel Thomson's popular ideas about botanic (herbal) medicine, publishes a letter from "the friendly botanic society of Vienna" dated November 15, 1832:

The members of this meeting would wish to state to the general convention that there is a large increase in numbers in this section of the country of those who are friendly to botanic medicine being convinced that there can be no necessity of an appeal to the mineral kingdom to heal diseases, that to poison a man to death or attempt a cure by the use of poisons under the name of medicine, is a preposterous mode of attempting to heal him. We hail the day when men shall cease to be blind to their best interests, and open their minds to rational conviction on a subject so important, indeed, we may confidently say, the most important of all earthly considerations the possession of bodily health.

1834
John R. Greenwood builds a frame house (still standing as of 2021) at the southeast corner of Tyrrell Hill.

1837
The first Presbyterian Church building is constructed on the Township Green.  Lumber for its construction is provided from the George Alderman farm.  James D. Thompson I is the main carpenter. 

1840
Vienna's population, according to the Federal Census: 969.

Vernon’s (Vienna’s) first land agent and Justice of the Peace, William Titus Brockway, dies.

Vienna's women create a chapter of the American Female Moral Reform Society.  Mrs. S. H. Read is the chapter's secretary.

1841
Vienna Academy is founded.  Classes are conducted in the present-day Township Hall building then located on the Green.

Mrs. S. H. Read reports the Vienna Female Moral Reform Society's activities in the Advocate of Moral Reform, October 15, 1841:

Our meetings have been held once in about three months, but as the members are widely scattered, they have been but thinly attended.  In February we were favored with an interesting and appropriate address by a lady from this county, which did honor to the cause.  There was a full attendance, and we were happy to see many who never before listened to the claims of moral reform.  Our annual meeting was held in June. 

1850
The Federal Census counts 1,007 residents in the Township.

Nathaniel Crawford Greenwood is operating a gun shop at Tyrrell Hill.

At the annual fair of the Trumbull County Agricultural Society, the following residents of Vienna distinguished themselves:

Full-Blooded Cattle:  Andrew Andrews, third best Durham bull one year old, awarded a subscription to the Albany Cultivator
Full-Blooded Cattle:  Andrew Andrews, second best heifer calf, awarded one dollar
Domestic Manufactures:  Mrs. Solomon Wartman, second best coverlet, awarded 75 cents
Horticulture:  U.K. Booth, best 3 pumpkins, awarded 50 cents
Swine:  Andrew Mackey Sec., for the best boar, three dollars
Plowing:  Lyman Leonard, best plowing, awarded five dollars

1850s
Coal is discovered in Vienna by drillers searching for oil.

1851
A Memoir of Reverend Joseph Badger is posthumously published in Hudson, Ohio. 

January 18, 1853
The original Presbyterian Church building burns to the ground.  This fire damages the Vienna Academy building (present-day Township Hall building).

W. W. Reilly & Co.’s Ohio State Business Directory for 1853-54 (Cincinnati, 1853) lists the following businesses in Vienna: 

Carpenters & Builders:  Williams, Calvin; Williams, Ransom; Holcomb, C J; Hull, Lucius
Druggists, Wholesale and Resale:  Moore, M .M.; Moore, A.
Dry Goods, Groceries, and Variety Stores:  Booth, U.K.; Scovill, Smith
Tanners and Curriers:  Wortman [Wartman], Solomon

 [Editor's note:  The fact that this directory was published in Cincinnati may have played a role in the fewer entries for counties and townships in Northern Ohio.]

May 3, 1854
The present Presbyterian Church sanctuary is dedicated.

1855
The N. B. Tyler Rifle Works is actively producing firearms at Vienna Center. The owner was Nathan Bailey Derrow Tyler.

N. B. Tyler's mother Sylvia Lewis Tyler kept a diary that is now held in the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington, DC.

1857
Vienna's Justices of the Peace are Homer M. Leet and Harvey Truesdale. 

1858
The original Block School Building #4 burns. 

1860
The number of people living in Vienna, according to the Federal Census, is 950. 

April 1, 1861
Vienna’s voters choose to buy the Vienna Academy building to use it as a Township Hall. 

1866
Vienna’s first coal mine, the Shoo-Fly, is opened. 

March 13, 1866
The first female attorney in Trumbull County, Lulie Mackey, is born in Vienna.

1867
Vienna resident Ichabod B. Payne is elected to the post of Trumbull County Commissioner. 

1868
The Liberty-Vienna Railroad is built to remove coal from Vienna’s Shoo-Fly Mine. 

1870
Federal Census takers count 1,132 people in the Township. 

1871
At the request of Governor Rutherford B. Hayes and the Ohio legislature, a study of mining in Ohio is undertaken.  The investigators inspects the Vienna Shaft, owned by the Vienna Coal Company.  Their report, dated November 14th:

Their shaft is one hundred and twenty feet in perpendicular depth.  It has very excellent and capable machinery for hoisting coal and pumping water, which is well and substantially constructed.  This mine has been in operation for about two years, and has but one outlet.  The shaft is divided into upcast and downcast compartments, for the purpose of ventilation, by a wooden partition.  There was no furnace or other ventilating force at work to create a circulation of air.  The ventilation had wholly stagnated, and the workmen were plunged into a highly deleterious atmosphere.  The lights burned with a dull, heavy flame, and became extinguished upon the least motion.  Many of the miners had their lamps hung on posts or on the pillar-sides, and slanting downward, that being the only position in which a light could be maintained.  When the air became so vitiated that the lights would no longer burn, a stream of water was turned down the shaft, which displaced the foul air.  As this water all had to be pumped up again, it was let on very sparingly.  Were a fire to break out among the wooden buildings which cover and surround the mouth of the only opening to this mine, the consequence to the poor imprisoned subterranean men can easily be foretold.  There would be simply a repetition of the Avondale and Pittston horrors, which so recently occurred in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania.  The air of the mine, already almost too foul to support life, would at once be withdrawn by the rarification produced by the fire, and the miners, cut off from all means of escape, would speedily and inevitably perish.  The owners of the mine have in contemplation the construction of an air-shaft, which will also serve as a means of escape in case of such accident.  The sanitary condition of the mine, not less than the danger to the lives of the miners, however, only proves that such openings can not be too soon provided.  

1872
A new two-story school building (now Copper Penny Lodge) is erected between the two churches on Township Green.   

The Mahoning Coal Railroad (V-line) and the High Grade are constructed.

The Tyrrell Railroad Station is constructed. 

May 15, 1872
A new slope mine is opened on the Wheeler Farm.

1874
The Atlas of Trumbull County is published. 

1875
Evidence reveals that there was a Historical Society of Vienna Township in this year.  

January 4, 1875
Ichabod B. Payne, of Payne's Corners, reports to a meeting of the Mahoning Valley Historical Society:

There is at the present time eleven school-houses in the township, with schools in all, and are very will filled with pupils.  Four stores, one drug-store, one book-store, post-office.  Two hotels, and, I am very sorry to say, we have twenty places where whiskey and other drinks are sold.  Five coal banks in running order, and two others will soon be open.  

1877
Two men die from accidents in Vienna’s mines. 

1879
The Ohio Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that, due to no other opportunities, Vienna miners' sons under the age of sixteen are working in the mines.  The miners are advanced wages against the coal to be excavated, 10 cents per ton.  Provisions are advanced 20 percent. Flour costs from $6.00 to $8.00, sugar from 8 to 12 cents per pound.  The mining companies report that "we would have been a great deal better of if prices for mining had not advanced, provided provisions had not advanced."  Employment was steady.  Vienna mines #1 and #2 could produce 500 tons of coal a day. 

February 25, 1879
Sixty-five miners at Blackberry shaft, Vienna, strike for an advance of 15 cents per ton for mining.  The strike would end March 1, the demand being compromised at 5 cents advance. 

September 10, 1879
Lavinia (Flower) Steele dies in Painesville, Ohio. 

November 1879
Vienna’s petroleum pipe lines are installed. 

Samuel Strain and Mary Woodford build their new house (now the Kleese home) at Woodford Corners. 

1880
Vienna residents counted in the Federal Census total 1,994. 

1882
H. Z. Williams publishes History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties. 

May 9, 1883
A fierce blaze consumes nearly half the business center of Vienna.  A Western Reserve Chronicle article on this date describes the disastrous fire at Vienna Center that destroyed nine buildings.  The damage was estimated at $14,500.  The fire originated in a building owned by M. A. Quilty. 

September 13, 1883
“Reunion of Bartholomews at Vienna, Ohio”

Some one hundred and thirty Bartholomews of the “Reserve” gathered by invitation at the residence of Rilman Bartholomew, in Vienna, Sept. 13, 1883.

The day was fine, the grounds pleasant and the table and other arrangements ample.

The older members, especially Abiel and Levi Bartholomew of Vienna, entertained those assembled with reminiscences of the early Ohio members and the hardships they endured.  Acquaintance and sociability were most heartily cultivated  and it was resolved to meet again in the same place.

(From George Wells Bartholomew, comp.,  Record of the Bartholomew Family:  Historical, Genealogical and Biographical [Austin, Texas:  By the compiler, 1885], 689.)

1884
State Geologist Edward Orton issues a report on Ohio’s natural resources, noting of the “Coal Mines of Trumbull County.”

The coal field of Trumbull county is mainly confined to the five southeastern townships, viz., Hubbard, Brookfield, Liberty, Vienna, and Weathersfield.  They constitute the most important, and in every way characteristic of the block coal fields of the State.  For many years they produced more coal and better, not only than any other equal area in Ohio, but they placed Trumbull far in the lead of the coal-producing counties, but the output is rapidly declining, both relatively and absolutely, and a large part of the territory is already exhausted.  Almost every farm has been tested by borings, but so irregular are the deposits of the coal, and so abrupt are their boundaries, that it is not safe to say that they are not workable beds under any given territory, unless very careful and generally quite expensive investigation has been carried on.  The method referred to is unsatisfactory at best.  A farm is often drilled over two or three times, by as many different lease-holders, before the coal basins are found.  The work of testing is still going forward, but with constantly diminishing force, inasmuch as the chances of any considerable deposits being struck are lessened year by year.  Small basins are, however, still being discovered and developed, but a few years at most will terminate the production of coal in Trumbull county on the large scale. 

1885
Austin Chadwick gains a contract to haul 45 ½ tons of coal to Vienna’s ten school buildings for 45 cents per ton. 

March 8, 1888
Ohio General Assembly passes an act to raise monies for the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Vienna Township Green.

1890
The population of Vienna stands at 1,298, according to the Federal Census.

The old Tyrrell school building is sold to Elias Steward for $47. 75.  Steward moves the building and attaches it to the back of his house.  The structure stands one mile west of Tyrrell Corners on the Vienna side of King-Groves (now King-Graves) Road. 

Lucius Andrews is appointed as Vienna’s truant officer. 

January 10, 1890
The Harrison Shaft in Vienna, owned by the Harrison Coal Company, is abandoned.

December 24, 1890
Miner Joseph Pantot dies in a mine owned by the Garfield Coal Company. Ohio's Chief Inspector of Mines Robert M. Haseltine published this report in 1891:

I was called to this mine on December 26, 1890, to investigate the cause of the death of Joseph Pantot, who had been killed on the evening of December 24, by a fall of stone in the room where he was working.  After examining the room and being unable to discover any thing unusual, I went to the unfortunate’s home where I met his son, a boy about eighteen years of age, who said that his father had tried to take down the stone, it not coming easily.  He then tried to load the car before the driver would stop hauling for the day, intended them to set a prop under it.  While bearing in under a small piece of coal, a piece of roof fell, killing him instantly.  The coroner held on December 25.

1893
Vienna's two justices of the peace are W. D Griffis (term expires November 26th) and J. B. Hanson (term expires April 15th), both Republicans.

1898
Vienna resident George E. Woodside serves in the U.S. Navy during the Spanish-American War. 

1899
George E. Woodside helps construct the first Packard automobile in Warren, Ohio. 

1900
At the turn of the twentieth century, Vienna's population is 942. 

1909
Township Trustees are Democrats S. E. Scoville and A. C. Munson and Republican F. S. Hood.   Their terms will end in 1910.

Republican A. B. Mannix is Township Treasurer.

A. W. Stranahan (Republican) is Vienna's Town Clerk.

Harriet Tayler Upton publishes A Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County.  

1910
The Federal Census finds 949 persons in the Township.

Township Trustees are Democrat A. C. Munson, and Republicans A C. Vinton and S. P. VanHouter.  Their terms will end in 1912. 

The Assessor of Real Property is Republican C. A. Pierson. 

Republican Geo L. Pound is the Township Treasurer. 

1915
Vienna's Centralized School (now Mathews High School) replaces the one-room schools in the Township. 

1920
The Township's population is found to be 961.

Medley’s Restaurant opens for business.

1922-1969
Aubrey C. Hayes’ barber shop is in operation. 

1923
Land is purchased from the Shook family for Squaw Creek Country Club. 

Vienna’s last virgin timber is logged. 

July 10, 1925
The New York Central Railroad Company grants permission to the Vienna Board of Education for school vans to take the shortcut across the New York Central Right of Way (the Private Drive) between the two public roads at the Tyrrell, Ohio, station.

1927
The Viets family begins their car dealership.  They first sell Ford automobiles and later Chevrolet automobiles.  

1928
The Tyrrell Railroad Station is moved to Brookfield Crossing. 

Crown Hill Burial Park is founded. 

1929
The Webb family begins marketing its ice cream in Vienna. 

1930
According to the Federal Census, 1,293 people live in Vienna.

March 30, 1931
Harvey J. Groves, for whom King-Groves (now King-Graves) Road was originally named, dies.  

1937
The Butler family moves to its present farm (Youngstown-Kingsville Road) in Vienna. 

1938
Ohio Edison purchases a portion of the Mahoning Coal Railroad property south of Tyrrell. 

December 15, 1939
Viets’ Garage is damaged by fire that destroys Trail’s End. 

1940
Vienna's population, according to the Federal Census, stands at 1,656. 

June 7, 1947
Four people die in Vienna when an F4 tornado, with winds in excess of 206 miles per hour, hits. Forty persons in the region are injured.  The storm destroyed or damaged 150 buildings in the region. 

1950
Vienna's head count is 2,122, according to the Federal Census. 

1960
Vienna's population, according to the Federal Census, is 3,357.

The rails and ties are removed from the High Grade railroad.

1962
Squaw Creek Country Clubhouse burns.

1967
The Hull House is razed. 

April 16, 1967
The Farm Bureau is purposely burned.  

1970
Five-mile-square Vienna contains 4,191 persons, according to the Federal Census.

1980
The Township's population is 4,344. 

1982
The Penn Central Railroad buys the High Grade and remaining portions of the Mahoning Coal Railroad properties.

1990
Census enumerators find 4,810 individuals in the Township.

1993
Vienna’s 5” fiber optic cable from Cleveland, Ohio, to New York City is installed next to the old pipeline.

1994
The Penn Central Railroad liquidates its remaining properties in Vienna Township.

2000
The Township's Millennial population count is 4,021.

2010
Vienna's population is 3,997.