USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio > Part 108
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An old record testifies that the " Dover Congrega- tional Society " was organized December 28, 1818, " for the support of the gospel," and that the mem- bers were Noah Crocker, Nehemiah Porter, Davic Ingersoll, John Smith, Jesse Lily, Asher Corley Wells Porter, Jonathan Smith, Stephen Smith, Sylva uns Phinney, Jedediah Crocker, Dennis Taylor, Barna bas llall, James Hall, Samuel Crocker and Solomo: Ketchum. Another old record sets forth that th First Congregational Society of Dover was incorpo rated February 9, 1831, and that the incorporator were Calvin Phinney, Sylvanus Crocker, Josiah Hurs: and Rouben Osborn.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH AT DOVER
CENTER.
This body was organized about 1825, but in the absence of records very little can be gleaned concern- ing its early history. The first meetings were held in residences and barns; later, the town-house and the Episcopal church were used for that purpose. The house of worship now occupied by the society was erected in 1853. The church is attached to the Rock- port circuit, and is supplied by Rev. John MeKean. The membership numbers about one hundred, and that of the Sunday school about tifty. The present trustees are William Dempsey, James Elliott and Jerome Beardsley.
THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON THE LAKE SIIORE.
This was organized as early as 1827 in the town- ship school-house, by Rev. Eliphalet, brother of Leverett Johnson. The class contained at first but six members, but increased quite rapidly. In 1840 the present church building was erected. Mr. John- son preached to the congregation until he removed from the township in 1842, since which time the church has been supplied by ministers attached to the Rockport circuit, Rev. J. MeKean being now in charge. The membership is at present exceedingly small, numbering but seven persons; of whom the three male members, Sherman Osborn, Marshal Ca- hoon and Henry P. Foot, are the trustees.
THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF DOVER.
This church was organized February 24, 1836, with the following members: Aaron Aldrich and wife, Win. W. Aklrich, Julia Ann Aldrich, Jesse Atwell and wife, Phineas Alexander and wife, Win. Nesbitt and wife. Meetings were held at first in the Lake- Shore school-house and in the town-house. In 1845 a house of worship was built on Justus Stocking's land near North Dover, and there the congregation continued to worship until 1856, at which time, the church having by removals and deaths lost nearly all its members, services were discontinued, nor have they to this day been revived. Elders Dimmock of Olmstead, Wire of Rockport, Lockwood of Perry, and Jas, Goodrich, were among those who preached to the elinrch directly after its organization. The last settled pastor was Rev. Mr. Newton, who was engaged in 1845. The church building stood until 1818, when it was destroyed by fire.
ST. JOHN'S (EPISCOPAL) CHURCHI.
This organization, founded in 1837, is now extinet, and only a part of its history can be obtained. The members in 1842 were Chas. Hall, Weller Dean, Jesse Lilly. Austin Lilly, Albinus Lilly and a few others, although the average attendance was quite large. A church building was erected in 1837, just north of Dover Center. It is now used by Calvin Pease as a barn. Services were at first conducted by
L. G. PORTER.
About two hundred and fifty years ago the first pioneer of the Porter family found his way to our shores from England. To-day persons of the name are scattered far and wide through the vast domains of our great republic, and many bearing it have occupied places of trust and honor in the nation's councils of peace and war. Two years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock, Samuel Porter arrived from England, and was hos- pitably received by his fellow-countrymen who had pre- ceded him. Of the early history of the pioneers of the Porter family there are no authentie accounts. They re- moved from Plymouth to Beverly, Mass., where Samuel, a son of the original settler, was married to Miss Lydia Dodge, of that place. His son John also married a Bev- erly maiden, a Miss Lydia Herrick. The fascinations of the belles of Beverly must have been irresistible to the heads of this noble family, for we find that Nehemiah (the representative of the fourth generation in this country of the family of which our subject is a descendant) was mar- ried to Miss Hannah Smith, of that town. His son Nehe- miah was born at Ipswich, Mass., March 22, 1720; grad- uated from Cambridge in 1745; married Miss Rebecca Chipman, of Beverly, and was ordained a minister of the gospel in the Congregational church at Ipswich, Jan. 3, 1750, where he remained for sixteen years. He was after- wards installed at Ashfield, Franklin Co., Mass., Dee. 21, 1774, where he preached until his death, Feb. 29, 1820, having filled the position of pastor for the same congrega- tion over forty-five years. Ile was a man of great firmness and decision of character, a strict observer of the Sabbath, and was, it is worthy of note, a chaplain in the American army at the surrender of Burgoyue. This esteemed patriarch had all the virtues and religious tendeucies of his Puritanie
ancestry, and on the day of his death laeked only twenty- one days of completing a century. His son Joseph was also a native of Ipswich ; was engaged in agricultural pur- suits, and was married to a daughter of Leonard Graves, of Whately, Mass. He emigrated from Franklin Co., Mass., to Dover, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, in 1826, and lies buried in that town. Ile had a family of eleven children, of whom our subject was the eighth son and tenth child, having been born at Ashfield, Franklin Co., Mass., March 6, 1806. Ilis education was limited to a common school, with a few terms spent at an academy. He accompanied
his father to the wilds of the West, and was engaged in elearing the new country and tilling the soil, which has been his occupation throughout life. Ile was married, Aug 26, 1838, to Catherine H., daughter of Rev. Solo- mou Stevens, a Congregational preacher, of Dover, Ohio. They had but one child, who died in infancy. Mrs. Porter died Oct. 11, 1841. Mr. Porter, who has devoted much of his time to the religious education of the young, has been a member of the Second Congregational Church of Dover for about forty years. At the present time he is one of the deacons of that organization, and superintendent of the Sabbath school.
Though originally a Whig in politics, upon the organi- zation of the Republican party he became one of the staunchest supporters of its principles and doetrines. He has been elected by his fellow-citizens to numerous town offices, and was a justice of the peace for six years.
Mr. Porter, being left in the prime of life alone in the world, has devoted his time to his fellow-ereatures, suceoring the poor and afflicted, lending a helping hand to those in distress and want, and in striving to do his part in the great work of serving the cause of humanity.
441
DOVER.
Weller Dean as lay-reader, until the engagement of Rev. Mr. Granville as a settled minister, who re- mained but a few years. The church began to de- cline previous to 1850, and in that year was dissolved.
GERMAN LUTHERAN CHURCH.
About 1858 quite a settlement of Germans located near North Dover, who, being desirous of establish- ing a church, sent for Rev. E. Z. Lindeman of Cin- cinnati, who went to Dover and organized, in 1858, a German Lutheran Church. The original members were J. H. Lindemyer, F. II. IIencke, F. Matthews, H. Lnocke, J. II. Trast, Wm. Schmidt, J. II. Weihr- mann, Angust Warnecke. Rev. E. Rupprecht, of Lafayette, Indiana, was called to the charge in 1858, and is still the pastor.
Until 1822 worship was held in the Baptist Church at North Dover, and from that time until 1822, m the German Lutheran school-house, which was built in 1822. In 1871 the present fine church edifice was erected at an expense of four thousand dollars. The membership is now forty-seven, and the attendance comprises about sixty families. The present trustees are II. H. Reinkal, G. Meyer and Christian Koch.
SCHOOLS.
The first school teacher in Dover, of whom there is any recollection, was Betsey Crocker, who taught in 1816 in a log school-house on the lake shore, near where the present school-house stands. Philena Crocker, her sister, taught there (at the age of four- teen), as did also Wells Porter. In 1826 the town- ship was divided into five school-districts, which then contained seventy honseholders.
Dover contains at present eight schools and seven school-buildings, which latter are all brick structures, excellently appointed, and considerably better in every way than the average of township school-build- ings. There is a graded school at Dover Center, and the school at North Dover will soon be similarly arranged.
In 1829, when the enumeration of school children was made, there was six hundred and twenty-two in the township, the levy for the support of schools being two thousand one hundred dollars.
Attached to the fferman Lutheran church at North Dover is an excellent secular school. It was organ- ized in 1858 by Rev. E. Rupprecht, the pastor of the church, and began its career with thirty-three pupils. The Baptist church building was used until 1812, when the present school-house was erected. Rev. Mr. Rupprecht taught the school, in connection with his pastorate duties, until 1822, when he relinquished the charge to Mr. II. L. Brokelstuhler, the present teacher. The school is in a flourishing condition, and had, in July, 1819, the large number of one hundred and fifteen pupils.
DOVER ACADEMY.
In 1845 John Wilson, a graduate of Oberlin Col- lege-who located in Dover in 1844-founded Dover
Academy, and in that year erected a building for its use about a mile and a half south-west of Dover Center. Mr. Wilson's school grew to be a popular institution, and had at one time as many as sixty pupils.
In 1852 several public-spirited citizens of Dover proposed to Mr. Wilson to have the school removed to near the Center, and to organize a corporation to control it, to which he assented. A school building was accordingly erected on what is now the Dover fair ground, and an act was obtained incorporating the Dover Academical Association The building was completed in 1854, and Mr. Wilson continued to act as principal until 1860, when he retired. Al- thongh the academy had been fairly prosperous, the increased usefulness and liberal scope of the public schools impared its strength, and led to its being given up in 1862. The building is still standing on the fair ground, and is used by the fair association. The first directors of the academy association were Leverett Johnson, L. G. Porter and Benjamin Reed.
DOVER AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL SOCIETY.
This association was organized in 1850, for the pur- pose of holding annual fairs in Dover. Money to pur- chase land was advanced by Messrs. Josiah Hurst, S. L. Beebe and J. Coles, and the ground was at once fitted up by individual subscriptions. The associa- tion owns seven acres of land, with the requisite build- ings, about half a mile north of Dover Center, and has held a successful exhibition there, every fall since 1850. Julius Farr was the president in 1829, and William Aldrich the secretary.
DOVER LODGE NO. 393 1. 0. 0. F.
This society was organized in 1867, the charter members being John Kirk, Wm. B. Delford, C. D. Knapp, A. P. Smith, E. Bradford, C. L. Underhill, A. Wolf. P. W. Barton, W. W. Mead, A. S. Porter, Junia Sperry, J. Beardslee, D. B. Wright, D. II. Perry. The present officers are: Perry Powell, N. G .: James L. Hand, V. G .; James Beardslee, R. S. : Benj. Chappell, P. S .: Frank Baker, T. The mem- bership numbers about one hundred. The lodge has fine quarters in the town hall, at Dover Center. This hall, a handsome and commodious brick edifice, was built in 1843 by the town and by the lodge just men- tioned, at a cost of $6,000.
NORTHWEST ENCAMPMENT NO. 188, 1. 0. 0. F.
Northwest Encampment was organized July 1. 18:5. with Alfred Wolf, Alfred Bates, L. J. Cahoon, Van Ness Moore, Philip Phillips, Perry Powell and Frank Baker as charter members. The membership now numbers twenty-two, the officers being Philip Phillips, C. P. : Perry Powell, IF. P. : Jerome Beards- lee, S. W .: John Morrissey, J. W .; F. W. Guild, treasurer.
56
442
TIIE TOWNSHIPS OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
STAR LODGE, NO. 67, DAUGHTERS OF REBEKAH, (1. 0. 0. F.)
The lodge just named was organized in August, 1871, with sixteen charter members. The present officers are John Griffin, N. G .; Mrs. Murray Farr, V. G .; Mrs. John Griffin, secretary; Benjamin Chap- pel, F. S .; Mrs. Maitland Beebe, treasurer.
DOVER LODGE, NO. 489, F. AND A. M.
Dover Lodge was formed in 1874. The charter members were D. R. Watson, L. M. Coe, G. Reublin, John Kirk, John Jordan, E. S. Lewis, J. L. Hand, S. Barry, Wm. Lewis, G. Pease, Wm. Sprague. There are now thirty members, the officers being Benj. Chappel, W. M .; Wm. Lewis, S. W .; George Tarbox, J. W .; W. V. Gage, secretary; J. M. Cooley, treasurer; Thos. J. Bates, S. D .; W. Grant, J. D .; J. Jordan and A. A. Lilly, stewards; G. Winslow, tyler.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS.
The Dover Silver Cornet Band, a musical organiz- ation of considerable local note, was organized in 1824. The present leader is George Esberger.
A temperance union league was formed in Dover in 1823, and since that time the temperance cause has, at varions times, received strong support in the town- ship. A temperance Sabbath school now contributes its efforts toward the same object.
BURIAL PLACES.
The first death in the township is supposed to have been that of Mrs. Abner Smith, who was buried upon the Smith farm and afterward removed to the ceme- tery on the lake shore, that being the first public burial-ground laid out in the township. A graveyard was laid out in 1820 west of Dover Center upou land donated by Leverett Johnson and others. The first person buried there was the wife of Rev. Mr. MeCrea, the Congregational minister.
Both cemeteries contain many fine tombstones, and the care expended upon the neatly kept grounds tes- tities to the affection felt by the living for those who there rest in their narrow beds.
MANUFACTURES.
The manufacturing interests of Dover are at pres- ent limited to a few sawmills, a bending factory and a gristmill.
Tilden & Morley founded an important iron-ware manufactory at Dover Center in 1832, near which place were several rich beds of iron ore. The works, known as the Dover Furnace, stood upon the lot now occupied by the residence of Junia Sperry. The firm conducted a store in connection with the furnace, and employed twelve men. In 1840 Tilden & Morley sold the establishment to the Cuyahoga Steam Fur- nace Company, soon after which (in 1843) it was de- stroyed by fire. Benjamin Reed, a former employee of the company, bought the land, rebuilt the furnace the same year. carried on the business until 1848,
when the supply of ore was exhausted, and he aban- doned the undertaking.
Junia Sperry, Robert Crooks, and Millard & Smith built a steam gristmill at Dover Center in 1856, and in 1863 sold it to Kirk & Renblin, from whom it passed into the possession of Lilly & Carpenter, the present owners. It contains two run of burrs, and is the only gristmill in the township. Fauver & IInrst Brothers have a "bending factory" and sawmill, (the latter built by Philo Beach, in 1850), about a mile southwest of Dover Center. They employ six men, and manufacture felloes, sleigh runners, shafts, etc.
GRAPE CULTURE.
Grape growing is largely followed on the lake shore in Dover, and some wine is also made there. Henry Wischmeyer came out from Cleveland in 1874, and began to raise grapes upon a tract of fifty acres, now occupied by him. He set out but two acres the first year, but gradually extended his vineyard until now he has twenty-three acres planted in grapes. In 1844 he built upon his land a wine cellar with a ca- pacity of ten thousand gallons, and mannfactures considerable wine every year. Numerons varieties of grapes are cultivated, of which the chief are the Ca- tawba, Delaware and Concord.
The pioneer enterprise, however, in the direction of extensive grape culture in Dover, was set on foot in 1865, by the Dover Bay Grape and Wine Company, organized in that year for the purpose of growing the grape in Dover township. Dr. J. P. Dake was the president; R. R. IIerrick the vice president, and Dr. D. II. Beckwith, the secretary and treasurer. The original purchase of land ineluded two hundred and ten acres, situated in Dover, on the lake shore. The capital of the company, fixed at the outset at thirty thousand dollars, was three years later increased to sixty thousand dollars. Fifteen acres were set out with grapes the first year, and since then the area has been gradually extended until now upwards of ninety acres are under cultivation and the annual yield of grapes amounts to one hundred tons. The yield in- cludes all the varieties raised in the northern cli- mate. The company has a capacious wine cellar in Dover and much excellent wine is manufactured yearly. The financial headquarters are in Cleveland; the present officers being R. R. Herrick, president; A. K. Spencer, vice president; and Geo. P. Smith, secretary and treasurer.
Grape-growing is also carried on all along the Do- ver lake shore, but the business-save in the instances above alluded to, is confined to limited individual efforts.
STONE QUARRIES.
An excellent quality of building stone, much used in the township and elsewhere, is found in the south- west part of Dover where the quarries of E. C. Har- ris and Wm. Geiger have long yielded large supplies, although the former quarry is at present not worked to any great extent.
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EAST CLEVELAND.
CHAPTER LXXIV. EAST CLEVELAND.
A Broken History-Irregular Boundaries-Timothy Doan-Shaw. Ru" ple, Mellrath and Thorp Asa Dille-Samuel Ruple A. L. Norris A Live Griddle-Cake-Deadly Battles-Scaring a Bear-Going to Pennsylvania for Flour-A Banquet of Baked Pumpkins The First Church-Sleeping with the Cows-First Tavern -Abijah Crosby-1 Barn-Raising interrupted by Cannon-Settlers in Various Localities -The Big Elk-The Householders of 1828-School Districts-Collamer in 1840- Formation of the Township of East Cleveland-Annexation of part of Euclid and Warrensville Name of Euclid Village changed to C'ollamer The Railroad-The War Sandstone Quarries Present Condition of Collamer-Collinwood-Grape Culture-Glenville-Shaw Academy-First Presbyterian Church of Collamer-St. Paul's Church -Free Congregational Church of Collamer Disciple Church of Col- lamer-Disciple Church at Collinwood First Congregational Church of Collinwood-Principal Township Offleers
EAST CLEVELAND has had more varied municipal relations, and has more irregular boundaries than any other township in the county. The territory of which it is now composed, originally belonged to the township of Cleveland; then to Cleveland and Euclid; then to Cleveland, Euclid, Newburg and Warrens- ville. Having remained in these townships for many years, the several fragments were in 1845 formed into the township of East Cleveland which then contained not only the present district of that name, but all that part of Cleveland city cast of Willson avenue, and north of the old Newburg line.
In 1867 an irregular tract about two miles east and west by three miles north and south, on which had been built the large and flourishing village of East Cleveland, was annexed to the city, leaving a district nearly six miles in extreme length, north and south, and a little over five miles in extreme width, but so irregular that it contains an area of only a trifle over fifteen square miles. This remains the township of East Cleveland, yet the name had become so firmly attached to the portion which was annexed to Cleve- land that a resident of the city, on hearing " East Cleveland " spoken of, would more probably under- stand the expression to refer to the eastern part of the city than to the township to which the name legiti- mately belongs.
This sketch is intended to be confined to the terri- tory now comprising the township, the name of which heads the chapter; yet that township has been so closely united with other territory on both the cast and the west, that the annals are liable to become somewhat intermingled, especially in the case of the official records. Nearly all the township officers who resided in the present East Cleveland before 1842, are to be found in the records of Euclid, while many of those who appear in the records of East Cleveland since that date, were residents of what is now the eastern part of the city.
The first white resident of the territory now com- prising the township of East Cleveland, was Timothy Doan, a Connecticut sea-captain, already forty-three years old, who brought his family to Cleveland in the spring of 1801, left them there while he built a log house and made a small clearing, and in the fall of that year removed them to his place on the west line
of the old township of Euclid, a part of which is still occupied by his youngest son, John Doan, Mr. Timothy Doan steadily worked on his new farm, hay- ing for two or three years no neighbors nearer than his brother, Nathaniel, at " Doan's Corners," in the present city of Cleveland. Timothy Doan was a man of good ability and of the highest character; he he- came the first justice of the peace in the territory now constituting East Cleveland, and was afterward a judge of the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga county. He died in 1828, on the farm on which he had moved in 1801, at the age of seventy, respected by all.
In August, 1803, John Shaw, John Ruple, Thomas MeIlrath, Garrett Thorp and William Coleman, all from Washington county, Pennsylvania, visited this part of Ohio together, and two of them selected land in the present township of East Cleveland. Shaw chose the lot where Shaw Academy now stands, and Mellrath selected the one now occupied by the main part of Collamer village. Mr. Ruple located a little farther to the northeast, in what is now Euclid. All these locations, like that of Timothy Doan, before mentioned, and that of William Coleman on Euclid creek, were on the main road which had been laid out from Cleveland to the Pennsylvania line, parallel with the lake shore, but which was then hardly passable even for ox-teams; an axe to clear away fallen timber being the necessary accompaniment of every vehicle. The parties named returned to Pennsylvania and did not begin work on their land till the next spring.
The second actual settler in the present township of East Cleveland was Asa Dille, a brother of David Dille, of Euclid, who moved from Pennsylvania in March, 1804; putting up his cabin in the unbroken forest near the southwestern corner of the old town- ship of Euclid. There he lived and died, raising a large family of children.
In April, 1804, Messrs. Shaw and Mellrath began work on the locations before mentioned. and Benja- min Jones, a nephew of Mellrath settled farther southeast in the neighborhood of Asa Dille's residence. Shaw brought his family that spring and became the third settler in the township. Ile was a native of England, and, having been brought up in a woolen factory, he was entirely unaccustomed to the use of the axe; yet by indomitable industry he succeeded in subduing the dense forest where he had chosen his home, and made him an excellent farm. He was a man of good intelligence and fair education, was the teacher of the first school in the county. held various civil offices and was the founder of the Shaw Acade- my, of which more will be said farther on.
Mellrath and Jones both brought on their families in the autumn of 1804, and as there were then five families in the territory of East Cleveland, the work of settlement might be considered as having fairly commeneed.
Even of these five families only one, that of Timo- thy Doan, had breadstuffs enough to last them through
144
THE TOWNSHIPS OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
the winter. The others depended principally on hunt- ing, both to obtain meat for their families and to pro- cure skins and furs, which could be traded in the rude markets of the day for articles of absolute necessity. Coon skins came pretty near being legal tender at that time, and several hundred of them were, harvested that winter by the residents of East Cleveland, who were thus enabled to eke out a subsistence. Mr. Mc- Ilrath was especially noted as a hunter, and as he had several sons, who had nearly or quite attained to man's estate, they made great havoc among the deni- zens of the forest.
In 1805 John Ruple settled on the line between Euclid and East Cleveland. He, too, was a noted hunter, and is credited by William Coleman with killing the first panther slain in the old township of Enelid by a white man; the beast measuring nine feet from tip to tip. Ile raised a large family and lived to an advanced age, on the place where he first located, amid the respect of all who knew him.
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