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The name Chardon, a French word meaning "thistle," was adopted by the township and settlement of Chardon around 1812 in tribute to the owner of extensive local land holdings. Peter Chardon Brooks, a wealthy Boston merchant, deeded land for a village square modeled after the town plans of many New England villages on the condition that the inhabitants would use his middle name to identify the locale and establish the place as the seat of government. Although Brooks never visited the area, he supported the town by providing a large bell to the first church built. Chardon was soon selected as the site of county government for the newly established Geauga County, a territory that then encompassed today's Geauga and Lake Counties. Sitting atop a wooded hill amid a forested and rolling landscape, the town and its surrounding area developed first as a farming community, gradually becoming a commercial center, and then a bedroom community.