USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 21
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Prizes are distributed annually, and this feature adds to the interest and incites to greater endeavor among the students of the college. The Milton T. Baldwin gift of John Baldwin, Jr., has been placed in a trust fund and from the proceeds each year $25 is given to the student having the highest rank in study, and $25 to the one presenting a theme highest in thought and composition. The Board of Home Missions of the Meth- odist Church also gives three prizes, first, second and third, $25, $15 and $10, for the best essay or oration on the church and Americanization. In common with other colleges, Baldwin Wallace also participates in the Cecil Rhodes scholarship, awarded on scholarship, character, athletics, and leadership in extra curriculum activities. The winner of this prize gets a scholarship to Oxford and $1,500 per year for three years.
College publications are an interesting feature of the school. There is published The Exponent, an official student publication, devoted to the various phases of student life, published weekly ; The Grindstone, a junior and senior class biennial, and the Alumnus, a quarterly, published by the Alumni Association. In this school hazing is strictly forbidden. There are courses in biology, business administration, chemistry, economics and sociology, education, which is preparatory for teaching, English language and literature, foreign languages, history and political science, home economics, mathematics, philosophy, physics, a pre-medical course, agri- culture, engineering and surveying, astronomy, Bible, geology, Greek and Latin, journalism, missions, music, physical education, public speaking,
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and Slavonic languages. The Nast Theological Seminary has a faculty of six, the Conservatory of Music a faculty of thirteen, and the Cleve- land Law School a faculty of fourteen. There are over 1,000 students enrolled. The faculty consists of Albert Boynton, president, and pro- fessor of history; Delo Corydon Grover, vice president, and professor of philosophy; Carl Riemenschneider, president emeritus; Archie M. Mattison, professor emeritus of Latin; Elisha S. Loomis, professor emeritus of mathematics; Victor Wilker, professor emeritus of French and Spanish; Charles W. Hertzer, professor of sociology; Edward L. Fulmer, professor of biology; Emory Carl Unnewehr, professor of physics; Carl Stiefel, professor of the Bible; Frederick Kramer, pro- fessor of philosophy; Vaclav J. Louzecky, professor of the Slavonic lan- guages ; Oscar Dustheimer, professor of mathematics and astronomy ; Arthur C. Boggess, professor of economics and missions; John M. Blocher, professor of chemistry; Harry Lu Ridenaur, professor of Eng- lish; Frederick Roehm, registrar and professor of education; Ethel Sapp Tudor, associate professor of home economics; William C. Pautz, asso- ciate professor of history, mechanical drawing and physical education ; Dana Thurlow Burns, assistant professor of English and public speaking ; Mame A. Condit, instructor in education; Helen Marie Bull, instructor in chemistry ; Charles R. Baillie, instructor in modern languages ; Sam Lee Greenwood, same; Marie Caldwell Burns, instructor in history and Eng- lish; Maurice Hill Kendall, instructor and supervisor of the Slavonic department ; Walter J. Lemke, director of athletics, and Eva E. McLean, instructor in physical education. Judge Willis Vickery is dean of the Law School, which is a department of Baldwin Wallace College but located in Cleveland.
John Baldwin, the pioneer, was plain even to eccentricity in dress. When wealth came he retained the same simplicity. His dress was always of the same simple character and he would be seen on the streets barefoot and unkempt. It was one of his favorite diversions to be taken for a derelict. He illustrated the lines of Burns :
What tho' on hamely fare we dine, Wear hodden-grey, and a' that ; Give fools their silks, and knaves their wine, A man's a man, for a' that.
Many stories are related of Mr. Baldwin, the man of wealth and influence, in his simple disguise as just a man. At one time he was put off a train by a conductor, who mistook him for a tramp. He was com- pelled to walk a long distance, no doubt chuckling to himself over the incident. Imagine the surprise of the conductor when he learned that he had expelled from the train a high official of the road. We can assume, to make the picture complete, that there were on this train, as there have been on many trains, men in rich clothes, whose proper destination was a prison cell for crimes committed. Following the institution and assured success of this educational institution in Berea Mr. Baldwin became inter- ested in education in the South. Following the Civil war he invested there and attempted to build up a school after his democratic ideas, but race prejudice and generally apathy interfered. He wrote a letter to Doctor Newman of New Orleans Institute as follows: "I have bought for $20,000 the Darby plantation of 1,700 acres in Saint Mary's Parish, Louisiana, which has since been increased to 4,000 acres. There is a fine site of thirty or forty acres on the bank of the river containing fifteen or twenty houses, which the brethren of the Mission Conference can occupy
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for religious education as soon as they choose, provided there is no sex or color discrimination. When a corporate body is organized by said Con- ference, I will deed the above named site and secure to said corporation enough capital to make $20,000." The terms of this offer would have been acceptable in the North, but could not successfully be carried out there. This plantation is now Baldwin, Louisiana, and a grandson of John Baldwin is in charge. Both John Baldwin and John Baldwin, Jr., are dead. John Baldwin did build a suitable building for a school on the plantation, and it was operated for some years as an academy, but its pupils were white. This has now been turned over to the authorities and used for a public school.
In 1880 the business center of Berea contained one hotel, one tinshop, two hardware stores, two wagon shops, two harness shops, three drug stores, three blacksmith shops, three jewelry stores, two barber shops, four shoe shops, four millinery shops, five dry goods stores, six saloons, and seven groceries. By the operation of the local option law, passed by the Legislature of Ohio in 1886, the saloons were closed. The growth of the village has been steady from year to year. In 1870 the Berea Street Railway Company was organized and a street railway built through the town to the depot, something over a mile in length, at a cost of $6,000. This was operated for some years and then the Cleveland & Southwestern Railway, a suburban line, was built through the town and served the vil- lage both for local and general travel and traffic. In renewing their fran- chise a difference arose between the road and the council of the village which was not adjusted, and the line was changed to pass east of the village. Some inconvenience resulted, but the advent of motor busses which pass through the village have in a measure relieved this. Among the large industrial plants in the village are the Dunham Foundry, the Ohio Nut and Bolt Company, the Liberty Metal Products Company, and the Fox Novelty Company. There are two banks in the village, the Com- mercial and Savings Bank of Berea, E. J. Kennedy, president, with assets of $970,310, and the Bank of Berea, Percy Neubrand, president, with assets of $1,713,933. Two loan companies complete the list of financial institutions, the Gibraltar Savings and Loan Company, a branch, and the Suburban Building and Loan Company. The first newspaper in Berea was published in 1868. It was called The Advertiser, and the publisher was the Berea Job Printing Company. This was enlarged in size under the name of the Grindstone City Advertiser. In November, 1869, a cylin- der press was installed, a great improvement over the old slow press in use. On July 1, 1870, C. Y. Wheeler bought the paper, publishing it until Feb- ruary, 1871, when it was transferred to P. B. Gardner and John M. Wil- cox. Mr. Gardner acted as business manager and Mr. Wilcox as editor. This was the first newspaper venture of Mr. Wilcox, who later in life became editor of the Cleveland Press, which position he held at the time of his death. Berea has never had other than a weekly paper. In Sep- tember of 1872 Mr. Wilcox dropped out and Mr. Gardner continued the publication as editor and proprietor. In 1874 he sold to W. B. Pierce, who three years later transferred his right to E. D. Peebles, who commenced the publication, with Henry E. Foster as editor, under the name of The Cuyahoga Republican and Advertiser. Two years later the name was changed to The Berea Advertiser, with Mr. Peebles as editor and proprietor. In 1898 a new paper was started by Warner and Pillars called the Enterprise. Mr. Warner soon dropped out, leaving A. J. Pillars in sole charge. He is the publisher today of the Enterprise and without any rival, for some years ago he took over the good will and assets of the Berea Advertiser. Mr. Pillars showed the writer the files of
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newspapers in his office with the remark that in those files was a pretty comprehensive history of Berea. To be historically exact we should state that for a short time the Enterprise was owned and published by G. L. Fowls, who afterwards transferred it back to Mr. Pillars. Mr. Fowls is now employed on the paper and active in its publication.
Among the early physicians of Berea, other than Doctor McBride the first, were Dr. Henry Parker, Dr. A. P. Knowlton, Dr. A. S. Allen, Dr. F. M. Coates. To these may be added Dr. N. E. Wright, Dr. William Clark and Dr. Lafayette Kirkpatrick. Doctor Parker and Doctor Knowl- ton served in the Civil war of 1861. Dr. L. G. Knowlton of Berea, a practicing physician with an office in Cleveland, is a son of Dr. A. P. Knowlton, and the widow and son of Dr. F. M. Coates, Mrs. Anna Coates and Frank M. Coates have been continuous residents of the vil- lage. One of the very talented writers of Berea is Miss Hanna Foster, an active member of the Early Settlers Association of Cleveland and the Western Reserve. At the time of the celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of the first settlement of Cleveland a large cash prize was offered by the city for the best poem appropriate to the occasion, which Miss Foster won over a large field of competitors, and the production was published in the centennial volume put out by the city. Mrs. W. A. Ingham lived in Middleburg before her marriage. Her book, "Women of Cleveland," published in 1893, with introductory chapters by C. C. Baldwin and Sarah K. Bolton, is a work of great and compelling interest. She is now living in Los Angeles, California, at the advanced age of ninety-two years.
It is often the problem of historians to decide just what facts to relate, but a history of the primary social and political subdivisions of the coun- ty particularly covering the period of the pioneer and the development of these settlements into orderly and healthy communities, must contain much of the religious development. In Middleburg, as we have stated, a Methodist Society was formed shortly after the War of 1812, supplied by circuit riders. There is no written record left of this start. Rev. Henry O. Sheldon was the first resident minister in the township, he coming in 1836, but he did not confine himself, as we have shown, to ordinary pastoral labors. The first record starts with 1846 and with Rev. William C. Pierce (in the church established by the "Community") as its pastor. This was located north by the depot. Reverend Pierce cov- ered the Berea Circuit, which included Olmsted and Hoadley's Mills. A stone church was built or rather started in 1856, which was dedicated in 1858. This was located on the east side of the river near the university. On account of the rules of the Methodist Church, requiring frequent changes, the pastors were many, but the list includes many who are identified with the history of the county in its educational and civic life. For the first fifty years there were Revs. W. C. Pierce, Thomas Thompson, J. M. Morrow, U. Nichols, Hiram Humphrey, A. Rumfield, Liberty Prentiss, C. B. Brandeberry, Charles Hartley, William B. Disbro, John Wheeler, George W. Breckenridge, T. J. Pope, D. T. Mattison, Hugh L. Parish, E. H. Bush, I. Mower, Aaron Schuyler, I. Graham, W. D. Godman, T. K. Dissette, John S. Broadwell and J. W. Buxton. In 1879 the German Methodist Church, which was organized earlier, had 157 members. Its meetings are held in the college building and sermons preached by one of the professors of the college. The first Congregational Church was organized June 9, 1855. Its first members were Caleb and Myra Proctor, David and Elizabeth Wylin, John and Nancy Watson, and Mary J. Crane, seven members. Ten new members were enrolled in the fall. The first pastor was Rev. Stephen Cook, the
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first deacons James S. Smedley and Caleb Proctor and the first trustees James S. Smedley, James L. Crane, B. F. Cogswell, Isaac Kneeland and Caleb Proctor. A brick church was built and dedicated March 6, 1856, which was the first meeting house completed in the township. This little organization suspended in 1862, during the stress of the Civil war, but was reorganized in 1868. A new church was built on the site of the old and opened for services in 1872. A revival conducted by Reverend Westervelt, the following year, added thirty-seven to the membership of the church. The early pastors were Revs. Stephen Cook, E. P. Clisbee, Z. P. Disbro, L. Smith, H. C. Johnson, G. F. Waters, C. N. Gored, J. S. Whitman and E. H. Votaw.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church was formed in 1855. The first resident priest was Father Louis J. Filiera, who resided at Olmsted Falls until 1866. A frame church was built and then a stone structure on the same site. This is 100 by 48 feet and cost $20,000. It is built of dressed Berea stone. Father Filiera was succeeded by Father John Hannon and he by Father T. J. Carroll. The councilmen in the '70s were Thomas Donovan, Joseph Buling and James Barrett. At this time there were 120 families represented in the church.
St. Thomas' Episcopal Church was organized October 9, 1861, with P. Harley senior warden, T. McCroden junior warden, and the services were conducted by Rev. George B. Sturgis, who preached for two years, but the number of Episcopalians was so small that the church dissolved in 1866. In 1873, by a consolidation with the church at Albion and Columbia, it was reorganized. The first officers under the reorganiza- tion were Joseph Nichols, junior warden; William James, W. W. Good- win, E. F. Benedict, M. McDermott, C. W. Stearns, Thomas Church- ward and J. S. Ashley, vestrymen. After the reorganization a frame building was moved from the west to the east side of the river and fitted up as a church. The first rectors in the order of service were R. R. Nash, A. V. Gorrell and I. M. Hillyer. St. Paul's German Lutheran Church of Berea was organized July 28, 1867, by Rev. G. H. Fuehr. Meetings were begun in the north part of the township a year before. The full title is "The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of Saint Paul." The first pastor was succeeded by Rev. F. Schmelts. With only fourteen members it built a frame church. Connected with the church there has been conducted a school and a Sunday school, taught by the pastor.
A Polish Catholic Church called "Saint Adelbert's Church" was organ- ized in 1874, with Victor Zarecznyi as its pastor. A church building 80 by 42 feet was constructed between Berea and the depot at a cost of $6,000. Here a school also has been conducted, taught by the Sisters of Humility. Thus, while the Methodist Church has been the leading religious factor, there is a diversity of religious expression.
The fraternal orders did not come into existence until after the Civil war. Berea Lodge No. 382 of Free and Accepted Masons was organized February 20, 1867. The charter members were F. R. Van Tine, G. M. Barber, S. Y. Wadsworth, C. Vansise, G. B. Sturgess, D. S. Fracker, N. D. Meacham and W. P. Gardner. The first master was F. R. Van Tine, senior warden G. M. Barber, junior warden S. Y. Wadsworth. Following Van Tine as masters have been G. M. Barber, S. Y. Wads- worth, D. R. Watson, W. W. Goodwin, W. A. Reed, Joseph Nichols and C. W. L. Miller, covering the early years. Berea Chapter number 134 of Royal Arch Masons was organized October 2, 1872. Its charter members were F. R. Van Tine, D. R. Watson, W. W. Noble, Edward Christian, W. L. Stearns, G. M. Barber, Robert W. Henry, Theodore M. Fowl, S. E. Meacham, H. D. Chapin, Aaron Schuyler, Samuel Hittell.
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The first officers were F. R. Van Tine, high priest; R. W. Henry, king; and W. L. Stearns, scribe.
Besides a post of the Grand Army of the Republic, which for years following the Civil war was a virile social and political factor in the town, with its related patriotic orders, there came Rocky River Lodge No. 236 Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Berea Encampment No. 152 of Foresters, a lodge called the Sweet Home Division of the Sons of Temperance, Ancient Order of Hibernians, No. 2, Grindstone Lodge No. 324 of Woodmen, and a number of others. In these the brotherly helpfulness that began from log house to log house in the woods pierced by the early settlers, found expression.
CHAPTER XIII
DOVER
We are writing of the extreme northwest part of Cuyahoga County, number 7, range 15, in the original survey, now twenty-five square miles. We say now, because when this number of range 15 was organized as a township, its jurisdiction extended west twenty-five miles even to the "Fire Lands." Thus was the protecting hand of the local government extended into otherwise unorganized territory. At the first election for township officers, voters outside the present boundaries of the township participated. The boundaries are, west, Lorain County ; north, Lake Erie ; east, Rockport, and south, Olmsted. This is an agricultural, a fruit grow- ing section. It has good roads and the Lake Shore Electric Railroad from Cleveland to Detroit passes through the township. Fine residences dot the northern part along the lake and land that sold in pioneer days for $1.25 an acre now sells for double that per foot. The streams are small, affording feeble water power, but they were harnessed when the settlers came and ran the mills that were a great boon to the first comers. Hubbard and Stowe were the purchasers from the Connecticut Land Company and they figure in the history of Dover merely as such, never coming to their possessions in the West, but leaving the business in the hands of Datus Kelley, their agent. The first settler was Joseph Cahoon, who came from Vergennes, Vermont, with his wife and seven children, arriving October 10, 1810. Mr. Cahoon brought the family in a wagon drawn by four horses and brought a fifth horse, which was ridden by the girls in turn. In this way they relieved the tediousness of the long journey. They located at a creek which has ever since been called Cahoon Creek. Arriving, the first thing was the building of a log house, which was finished in four days, the women sleeping in the wagon box while the building was under construction. There was no delay. No strikes and no conflicts between the various trades employed in the construction, delayed its completion. The man who swung the ax and the mason who built the chimney worked in harmony, for the two trades were combined. The material men had no schedule of prices. The stones from the creek and the logs from the woods were free. The tea kettle brought from Connecticut by the Cahoons was preserved by Joel B. Cahoon and at the first celebration of the first settlement by the Cahoon Pioneer Association, which was held on the spot where the log house was built, October 10, 1860, fifty years afterwards, tea for dinner was steeped in it and they served also pies made from apples picked from the first apple tree set out in the township. The Cahoon Pioneer Association held annual meetings for many years attended by members of the family and their friends. In 1878, 120 were present. These meetings were held on October 10th for some years and then changed to October 28th, the birthday of Joseph Cahoon. He built the first gristmill west of the Cuyahoga River and it was raised on September 10, 1813, the day of Perry's victory on Lake Erie. On that day also, in the county, a barn was raised in Euclid Town- ship, a large party attending the raising, the workmen were just finishing the courthouse at Cleveland, and to make the day complete this gristmill
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was raised on Cahoon Creek. Joseph Cahoon and his son, Joel B., quar- ried two millstones on the creek at North Dover for the mill. These are preserved as relics of the olden time and were in the possession of the family for many years. Joseph Cahoon built a sawmill nearby on the creek and when the raising of peaches had progressed beyond the needs of the home market, set up a distillery for the manufacture of peach brandy. In 1818 Joseph built a very pretentious frame house on the premises, which was later occupied by Joel Cahoon, his son.
"MY THOUGHTS GO UP THE LONG, DIM PATH OF YEARS" On the lake bluff at Bay Village, Dover Town- ship, the extreme northwest portion of Cuyahoga County.
The Cahoons became first settlers only by a scratch for on the after- noon of the day they came, October 10, 1810, Ashahel Porter and family came and with them Leverett Johnson, a nephew, who lived with the family in Connecticut. Johnson was only seventeen when they came to Dover. Porter built a log house on lot 94, near the lake, which was later occupied by Charles Hassler. Lake Erie has been constantly encroaching on the land, and the site where stood the log house built by Porter has been washed into the lake. Quite early in the history of the pioneer experience of this family, the Porters, a tragedy is recorded. In 1814,
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Mrs. Porter with an infant child and accompanied by Noah Crocker and George Smith, journeyed to Cleveland in an open boat. On the return trip they were overtaken by a storm and as they were attempting to turn in at Rocky River all were drowned but Crocker. Mr. Porter remained in Dover for a time after this tragedy. He kept a store on the shore of the lake and was postmaster in 1815. Later he moved to Rockport, but the family was represented in Dover by a daughter, Mrs. Catherine Foot, who lived past three score and ten there. Of the boy, Leverett Johnson, who came with the Porters, a record is preserved of his descendants. While living with the Porter family he began clearing land some distance away, on lot 58. We say living with the Porters but he only came home to spend the weekend, to use the modern phrase. During the week he lived alone in the wilderness, not disturbed, as was Daniel Boone, who, when a family settled within a mile or two of him, said it was getting too crowded and moved on. Johnson admitted it was sometimes darned lone- some. The first season, his home was a bark roof set against an old log of great size. He was not disturbed by the Indians, who were friendly and sometimes helped him in his work, and he kept the wild beasts away by a fire at night. What kept him at his task, what made the burdens of this life endurable, this lonely strenuous battle in the wilderness ? The love of woman. He was carving a home in the forest and battling for her as men have endured, not always in the same way, but for the love of woman. In 1814 he married Abigail Cahoon and took her to the new log house, which he built that year. Johnson became prominent in the new community. He was justice of the peace from 1827 to 1833 and served five terms in the Legislature of the State of Ohio. He died in 1856 in his sixty-second year. He was the first director of the Dover Academy, of which we will speak further on. As a legislator he had a varied experience. He began December 4, 1837, when Governor Joseph Vance was in office and Peter Hitchcock and Reuben Wood on the Supreme bench. At this session of the Legislature imprisonment for debt was abolished. The next session was held December 3, 1838. Wilson Shannon was governor. Mr. Johnson served again in 1840 when Thomas Corwin was governor and John Brough was auditor of state. The legislative rec- ords of this session recite the fact that in receiving the notice of his elec- tion, Governor Corwin made a felicitous speech. In the forty-seventh General Assembly, which convened December 4, 1848, Mr. Johnson was an influential member of the House. Seabury Ford was governor. In the Senate there was a turmoil over the canvass of the vote and there were stormy scenes in both houses. At this time the vote for state officers was canvassed by the two branches of the General Assembly. Two members of the Free Soil party were elected to the Legislature and the whigs and democrats were evenly divided on joint ballot and the election of a United States senator was coming up. The vote in the organization of the House and Senate was disturbed by a contention over the seating of two men from Hamilton County. The Senate after much discussion and many ballots were taken finally perfected an organization but the House organi- zation was more difficult. Upon a call forty-two members responded and thirty-two failed to respond, less than a constitutional quorum responding as present. These forty-two and thirty-two factions each attempted an organization, Benjamin F. Leiter presiding over the forty-two and A. T. Holcomb over the thirty-two. These two rival Houses did not come together until January 3, 1849. The vote for speaker at that time on the first and second ballots stood Leverett Johnson, thirty-four, John G. Breslin, thirty-four, scattering two. On the third ballot Mr. Breslin was elected, receiving thirty-seven to Mr. Johnson's thirty-three. The
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