Painesville was settled shortly after the Revolutionary War.
It was still considered part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. General Edward Paine (1746–1841), who had served as a captain in the Connecticut militia during the war, and John Walworth arrived in 1800 with a party of sixty-six settlers, among the first in the Western Reserve. General Paine later represented the region in the territorial legislature of the Northwest Territory.
In 1800 the Western Reserve became Trumbull County and at the first Court of Quarter Sessions, the county was divided into eight townships. The smallest of these townships was named Painesville, for General Paine, and encompassed what later became the townships of Perry, Leroy, Hambden, Concord, Chardon, Mentor, and Kirtland. The township government was organized in 1802.
The post office in Painesville was opened in 1803 with John Walworth as postmaster. In what was to become the commercial center of the township was a settlement called Oak Openings, its name being descriptive of the scrub oaks and sandy soil. It was here in 1805 that Gen. Henry Champion laid out a village plat and called it Champion, a name that it carried only until incorporation in 1832, when the name "Painesville" was chosen in honor of General Paine. Two of his descendants, Eleazer A. Paine and Halbert E. Paine, later served as Union Army generals during the American Civil War. Statue of General Edward Paine in Painesville, Ohio In 1840 Lake County was created from portions of Geauga and Cuyahoga Counties, and Painesville was made the county seat and a courthouse erected. In 1852, the community of Painesville became a village, and in 1902 the village attained city status
