Mantua Matters

Mantua, Ohio. Population: 1,050. 1.4 square miles of heaven.


Some Stuff About Us

I thought I would give you a little background on Mantua. First, it was named after a town in Italy by the same name. Why, I have no idea, it just was!

Mantua is located along the scenic Cuyahoga River, approx. 20 miles NE of Akron and approx. 27 miles SE of Cleveland. We are just a couple of miles north of the Ohio Turnpike.

The Erie Railroad depot was built in 1872 and trains ran from Youngstown to Cleveland until it was closed to passenger traffic in December of 1976, but remained open for freight traffic until the early 80's when it was closed and the tracks removed.

Back in the 60's, I used to ride that train every day to work in downtown Cleveland. I remember it being a rickity old train, very uncomfortable, dusty and of course, no air conditioning. If I missed the train which left at 5:20, I had to wait for the late train, which didn't get to Mantua until after 11:00. It made for a really long day.

Mantua was the center for potato growing and shipping making good use of the railroad facilities. Also making use of the railroad was Mantua Grain and Supply, originated in 1909 and supplying animal feed, grain and other supplies to area farmers.

We have 2 churches in town, Hilltop Christian and Christ Lutheran, and 2 just outside of the Village limits, United Methodist and St. Joseph's Catholic. We are approx. 5 miles from Hiram College and 15 miles from Kent State University.

I don't want to bore you with a lot of statistics, so will close for now. This weekend is the social event of the summer, the Mantua Potato Festival, so will be back tomorrow with some news on that event.

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