A township with no towns
Marlboro Township has no incorporated village or city at all. It covers about 36.4 square miles of northern Stark County, with Portage County’s Randolph and Atwater townships to the north and northeast, Lexington Township to the east, Washington to the southeast, Nimishillen to the south, a corner of Plain to the southwest and Lake Township, home of Hartville, to the west. The 2020 census counted 4,277 people, about 119 per square mile.
The only named community is Marlboro, an unincorporated hamlet in the township’s east. The name was once spelled Marlborough.
Quakers, a boundary line and a celery swamp
The township’s history is unusually specific. The county planning commission says the area was first set as the western boundary between Native American territory and settler-claimed land in 1785, and that land later sold for $2 an acre, payable in three installments at the Steubenville land office.
Abraham Wileman and his son Mahlon built a log cabin here in 1805; Mahlon wintered alone in their log cabin and is counted as the first permanent settler. The area was part of Lexington Township until 1821, when the county commissioners split off Marlborough.
- Marlboro village was surveyed and platted in 1827 by William and Moses Pennock, Samuel Ellison and Dewey Johnson, and was built up chiefly by Quakers. Its post office opened in 1833 and closed in 1906.
- New Baltimore followed in 1831 on land first owned by Levi Haines; its log tavern was a stagecoach stop.
- The swamps: about a quarter of the township was under water when pioneers arrived. Drainage opened up farmland, but the peat beds were thought useless until F. P. Keener found around 1900 that celery grew in the western swamps, starting the area’s vegetable farming.
Housing: single-family, scarce and high-value
Marlboro Township’s homes are nearly all detached houses, and almost none sit empty. Census estimates for 2020-2024:
| Marlboro Township | Marlboro hamlet (CDP) | |
|---|---|---|
| Housing units | About 1,543 | About 107 |
| Median year built | 1971 | 1938 |
| Built 1939 or earlier | About 26% | About 71% |
| Single-family detached | About 97% | About 90% |
| Vacant | About 1% | About 0% |
| Median home value (owner estimate) | About $239,700 | About $181,600 |
That median value is higher than in neighboring Lexington, Washington or Nimishillen townships, and the vacancy rate is the lowest of Stark County’s 17 townships. For an updated house with no deadline, an agent will very likely get you more than a cash buyer would, and we’ll say that. Where a direct sale earns its keep is the old farmhouse in or near the hamlet, where 71% of homes predate 1940, or a house with a failing septic, a wet basement or an estate that needs to close. See selling a house in probate if an estate is involved.
What a Stark County septic inspection covers
Every Marlboro Township home on a household sewage system needs an inspection before transfer, done by the Stark County Health Department or a registered provider. The county’s written guidelines show how thorough it is. Depending on your system, the inspector looks at:
- Interior plumbing, including where laundry and sump water go.
- Treatment tanks and any dosing or lift pumps.
- Distribution boxes and the leach bed, trenches or leach well.
- Above-grade mound systems, subsurface sand filters or aerobic treatment units.
- A hydraulic load and dye test, where needed, to find a system that can’t handle its water.
If yours doesn’t pass, read selling a house with septic problems.
Marlington schools
Marlboro Township is part of Marlington Local Schools, a name formed from Marlboro and Lexington. Marlboro Elementary serves the township, and the middle and high schools are near Alliance. For county-wide rules, see our Stark County page. To compare an as-is number with a listing, request a written offer.