Aaron Olmsted

Captain Aaron Olmsted (May 19, 1753 – September 9, 1806), erroneously spelled Olmstead,^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] was a wealthy sea captain in the China trade out of New England, and one of 49 investors who formed the Connecticut Land Company in 1795 to purchase a major part of the Western Reserve from the U.S. state of Connecticut. He became the owner of thousands of acres from his $30,000 share of the $1,200,000 total land deal. The land encompassed the areas of Northeast Ohio now known as North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls, and Olmsted Township (originally known as Lenox) in what is now Cuyahoga County, as well as Franklin Township, named after his son Aaron Franklin Olmsted, and most of the city of Kent in what is now Portage County. Olmsted traveled west on horseback to visit the land in 1795, but never settled there.

A native of East Hartford, Connecticut, he was born 19 May 1753 as the eighth child of General Jonathan and Hanna (Meakins) Olmsted.^[5] Olmsted served as Adjutant general of the 4th Connecticut Regiment during the American Revolutionary War.^[6] He married Mary Langrel Bigelow on 10 December 1778 and had fourteen children, of which only five lived to adulthood. He died 9 September 1806 in East Hartford.^[7]

References

^ Bibb, Leon (2010-08-16). "Is it Olmsted or Olmstead? A speller's decision, even officials documents have differed". WEWS-TV. Retrieved 2010-08-17.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
^ Banks, Bruce; Wallace, Jim (2010). The Olmsted Story: A Brief History of Olmsted Falls and Olmsted Township. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-59629-898-9.^{[page needed]}
^ Brown, R.C; Norris, J.E. (1972) [1885]. History of Portage County Ohio. Chicago, Illinois: Warner, Beers, and Company. pp. 195, 431–432. OCLC 3080072. Reference on page 195 uses spelling "Olmstead," while reference on pages 431-432 uses spelling "Olmsted."
^ Wallace, Jim (October 1, 2008). "Keep the "A" Away from Olmsted" (PDF). Olmsted 200. No. 65. pp. 1–9. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
^ "Olmsted-Olmstead". the-roundup.com. Archived from the original on 2009-01-31. Retrieved 2008-05-21.
^ Connecticut military record, 1775-1848. Hartford, CT: Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co. 1889. p. 444. OCLC 738716. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
^ "Family Group Record". FamilySearch.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-21.