The Blog
Stories from around Medina County.
Long-form local history, forgotten industries, and the stories most residents have never heard. Every story is assembled from named sources, footnoted at every specific claim a reader might want to check, and bylined to Medina Homes Guide.
-
The next story Medina City Publishing next“He lived with us until he died.”
Someone wrote that in ink on the back of a photograph. It sat in an attic for a hundred and forty-four years before anyone read it again.
In 1865, a Union officer from Medina brought a formerly enslaved man named Thomas King home from Maryland. King lived in the household of Congressman H.G. Blake — the same house that had sheltered fugitives during the Underground Railroad years — until his death in 1875. Then the family kept going. The photograph did too.
The rest — the note, the attic, the museum where the photograph lives now — publishes here next.
-
From Chippewa Lake Village
The amusement park they left in the woods for thirty years
Chippewa Lake Park ran for exactly one hundred years, from 1878 to 1978. When the last owner walked away, the rides stayed where they stood. Photographers came for the next thirty years.
Published 2026-08-05
-
From Granger Township
Four farmers, one mortgage, and the land they lost back to the man Granger was named for
In October 1817, four New York farmers rode out in a two-horse carriage and bought three-quarters of Granger Township. Then Congress opened cheaper federal land south of the Reserve.
Published 2026-08-05
-
From Hinckley Township
The bricklayer who chiseled his grief into the ledges
Noble Stuart married Nettie Worden in 1945 on the sandstone-ledge farm her father had homesteaded in 1860. She died within months. He spent the next two and a half years alone in the woods, carving faces into the rock.
Published 2026-08-05
-
From Montville Township
Austin Badger walked from New York with a knapsack, and outlived four wives
The 24-year-old veteran who cleared the Medina Public Square, built the first courthouse, and became Montville Township's first Justice of the Peace.
Published 2026-08-05
-
From Sharon Township
The 11,000-year-old Clovis camp in a Sharon Township hayfield
A plowed field near Sharon Center produced more than 10,000 Clovis-era spear points. About 80% were made from stone that only outcrops 500 miles south.
Published 2026-08-05
Browse by neighborhood
The neighborhoods with a story so far.
Every blog post is anchored to the neighborhood its story belongs to. Click one to filter the posts above, or head to that neighborhood's page to see the story in its local context.
