Canal Fulton is a city in western Stark County, Ohio, United States, along the Tuscarawas River. The population was 5,325 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Canton, Massillon metropolitan area.
At a Glance
- County: Stark County
- State: Ohio
History of Canal Fulton
Canal Fulton traces its history to three villages that developed along the Tuscarawas River. Milan was platted on March 23, 1814, by Matthew Rowland who arrived by ox team. It was the first settlement west of the Tuscarawas River in Stark County. Fulton was platted on May 16, 1826, changed its name to Canal Fulton in 1832, and later incorporated as a village. The present name is an amalgamation of the Ohio Canal and the name of a local pioneer, Ben Fulton. In 1843, President John Quincy Adams visited.
The land that would become Canal Fulton was part of broader territories shared between several Native American tribes, including Wyandot, Lenape (Delaware), Shawnee, Odawa (Ottawa), Ojibwe (Chippewa), Potawatomi, Miami, Eel River, Wea, Kickapoo, Piankishaw, Munsee, and Kaskaskia.
The United States pressed these nations to cede territory to the west of the Tuscarawas in 1785 and to the east in 1805, paving the way for settlers like Rowland to claim divisions.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Canal Fulton, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.