Cuyahoga County OHGenWeb

Cities, Villages & Townships

When the Connecticut New Western Reserve was first surveyed, it was divided into five square mile townships. Each, when populated, began a government of trustees to handle the needs of its citizens. As settlements became towns and villages, they formed a more urban type of government and "ceceded" from the township. Multiple municipal entities may have formed in a township, and as they grew and annexed land, the original township and its governments disappeared. Continuing in this fashion, there are only small pieces of two townships left--Chagrin Falls and Olmsted. Usually the township records stayed with the last piece of a township to become a municipality. Cleveland became a city and began annexing parts of other townships until it has stretched its tenacles into all but ten of the original 21 townships in current Cuyahoga County.

Townships
Bedford Township
Brecksville Township
Brooklyn Township
Chagrin Falls Township (Current)
Cleveland Township
Dover Township
East Cleveland Township (Recent)
Euclid Township
Independence Township
Mayfield Township
Middleburg Township
Newburgh Township
Olmsted Township (Current)
Orange Township
Parma Township
Riveredge Township (Recent)
Rockport Township
Royalton Township
Solon Township
Strongsville Township
Warrensville Township
West Park Township (Recent)

Villages
Bentleyville
Bratenahl
Brooklyn Heights
Chagrin Falls
Cuyahoga Heights
Gates Mills
Glenwillow
Hunting Valley
Linndale
Mayfield
Moreland Hills
Newburgh Heights
North Randall
Valley View
Walton Hills
Woodmere

Atlas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, (Cleveland, Ohio: Titus, Simmons & Titus, 1874), digital image, Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Titus1874Cuyahoga.jpg#filelinks : accessed 15 December 2013); citing Cleveland Memory Project, Greater Cleveland Print Collection, Michael Scwartz Library, Cleveland State Univerity, (http://www.clevelandmemory.org/titus/ Atlas of Cuyahoga County, Ohio ; link broken)

A good article about the "Defunct townships of Cuyahoga County" is on Wikipedia.

Cities
Bay Village
Beachwood
Bedford
Bedford Heights
Berea
Brecksville
Broadview Heights
Brook Park
Brooklyn
Cleveland
Cleveland Heights
East Cleveland
Euclid
Fairview Park
Garfield Heights
Highland Heights
Independence
Lakewood
Lyndhurst
Maple Heights
Mayfield Heights
Middleburg Heights
North Olmsted
North Royalton
Olmsted Falls
Parma
Parma Heights
Pepper Pike
Richmond Heights
Rocky River
Seven Hills
Shaker Heights
Solon
South Euclid
Strongsville
University Heights
Warrensville Heights
Westlake