Belden, Ohio

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1904 and the latest in 1986. It stands in Grafton Township. It lies in ZIP code area 44044. The Survey maps it on the Lagrange quadrangle.

Belden within Lorain County

Then and now

1904 to 1986

The same ground, surveyed 82 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet of Belden, surveyed 1986

Topographic sheet of Belden, surveyed 1904

Compare 1904 against another survey:

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 11 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1904 USGS Wellington quadrangle1:62500
1906 USGS Wellington quadrangle1:62500
1956 USGS Toledo quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1960 USGS Lagrange quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1961 USGS Toledo quadrangle1:250000
1986 USGS Lorain quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings

In the county-history sources

16,558 words on this township

History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879 names this settlement in its chapter on Grafton Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Mr. Bildad Belden and family, from Hancock, Berkshire county, came in company with Mr. Root, and settled south of the center one half-mile. His father and mother resided with him, making only one family. Mr. and Mrs. Belden had four children. Minerva, the oldest, tiien ten years old, is now Mrs. David Merwin, residing in Oberlin. Daniel Belden, late of Grafton, was their only son. Betsey, their si'cond daughter, afterwards Mrs. Clement Stebbins, will be mentioned in anotlier place. Sarah is j'emembered as Mrs. Ciiauneey Baldwin. Mr. Belden Ijrought two colored boys (after giving bonds then required), who proved to be honest, industrious men. Tlieir names were Gabriel and Titus Gnnn.

Passage source: History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879.

Clement Stebbins, from Granville, Massachusetts, came to Grafton in April, 1833. Chauncey Baldwin accompanied him, and soon after their arrival they opened a store at the center, where Mr. Stebbins has more or less been connected with the mercantile interests at the center of Grafton, until a recent date. He was justice of the peace some thirty years ; has seen the rise and fall of many business firms, until not one is left that can with him retrace the years and events of 1833. Mr. Stebbins married Betsey, daughter of Bildad and Polly Belden, October 16, 1835. Mrs. Stebbins died August 19, 1874. Their only child liv. ing, is Mrs. George D. Williams, of Elyria, where Mr, Stebbins now resides.

Passage source: History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879.

Much might be said of pioneer women, who were iiuleed heli)-meets for their husbands. Worn and faded garments were kejit tidy as long as ])ossible. Trowsers faced frontand back with deerskins, required more skill in fitting than pantaloons of to-day. Daniel Belden, Sr., understood the art of dressing deer skins, nearly if not quite equal to chamois of to-day. As soon as flax could be raised, every garment, and every article of household need, from straw bed-tick, flour bag, and hand towel, to the finest sheet and pillow case, then in nse, were manufactured by jiioneer women. A few sheep only as yet had been kept in Grafton. High pens, built of heavy rails, were needed to protect them at night from the prowling wolf, which made it difiiciilt, for a niinil)er of years, to raise a flock of siieep.

Passage source: History of Lorain County, Ohio, published 1879.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Grafton Township - it names this place 2 more 2 times.

Specimens collected near this place

12 of 457 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. Museums hold 457 specimens collected within 10 miles of Belden between 1853 and 1975: 380 Animalia, 51 Plantae, 23 Fungi, 3 Protozoa. 12 distinct Species records are shown. Collected by A. E. Ricksecker, A. M. Evans, A. Roberts and others. Each is a physical object with a catalogue number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be concluded from a species being absent.

Species	Year	Collected by	Where, as recorded
Stereum lobatum (Kunze ex Fr.) Fr.	1896	F. D. Kelsey	Black River, east of Oberlin.
Cyathus stercoreus (Schwein.) De Toni	1899	A. E. Ricksecker	Lorain County.
Frullania eboracensis Gottsche	1900	Frederick O. Grover
Etheostoma caeruleum Storer, 1845	1853	S. Baird	Elyria, Ohio
Etheostoma maculatum Kirtland, 1840	1853	S. Baird	Elyria, Ohio
Leptamnium virginianum (L.) Raf.	1887	M. M. Metcalf	Elyria.
Lilium canadense L.	1887	M. M. Metcalf	Elyria
Caeoma nitens (Schwein.) F.C.Newc.	1889	Wright, A.A.	Elyria
Mycosphaerella maculiformis (Pers.) J.Schröt.	1895	Kelsey F. D.	Penfield
Dunkleosteus terrelli Newberry, 1873 (fossil)	1896	Dr. G. M. Allen
Mougeotia genuflexa (Roth) C.Agardh	1896	F.D. Kelsey	Plum Creek, Oberlin
Nesaea verticillata (L.) Kunth	1896	Watson,J.R. s.n. [1896-08]	[label: North Ohio Flora. J.R. Watson, Berea, O.] Liverpool, Medina Co. [Medina County]

All 457 specimens within 10 miles, at the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Storms near this place

3 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Belden in 3 storm reports between 2014 and 2024: 2 tornado, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
April 2020	Tornado (EF1)	Belden	$30,000	An EF0 tornado began in rural Lorain County, about 0.5 miles east-northeast of Belden and just north of OH 303. As the tornado moved southeastward, it produced EF1 damage at a farm along Island Road. This EF1 damage consisted of a barn and small outbuildings being destroyed. Farther southeastward along the tornado's path, EF0 damage in the form of a garage door being blown-in occurred at a house along Law Road, about 0.5 miles west of where it intersects Medina Elyria Road. The tornado continued moving southeastward and entered Medina County about 0.3 miles north of the intersection of Neff Road and Erhart Road. No fatalities or injuries occurred.
July 2014	Tornado (EF1)	Belden	$8,000	The tornado started as an EF0 in extreme eastern central Lorain County near the intersection of Island Road and Route 303. The tornado quickly became an EF1 in Medina County and tracked around 7 miles before lifting up near the intersection of Grafton and Marks Roads. Along the 7.3 mile path of the tornado, much of the damage was to trees that were knocked down or uprooted. Some shingle and mainly minor structure damage also occurred. A barn on Station Road was moderately damaged. The max path width was 200 yards and the maximum estimated speed was 94 mph. The tornado was on the ground approximately 7 minutes. Scattered downed trees and limbs observed east of this location was determined to be a result of straight line winds.
June 2024	Thunderstorm Wind	Belden	-	Tree downed at intersection of OH Route 83 and Grafton-Eastern Road, about two-miles ESE of Grafton.

Every storm recorded in Lorain County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Kingsleys Corners	1.5 miles	16
Grafton	2.9 miles	16
Eaton Estates	5.0 miles	16
Lagrange	5.1 miles	11
Eaton	5.2 miles	16
North Eaton	5.6 miles	20
Brentwood Lake	6.1 miles	16
Columbia Station	6.6 miles	20

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Belden	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q22695657	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1048510. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.