Snippets Of Bay Village History

The cow menace

Farm animals are prohibited in Bay Village today, but at one time we had a law on the books making it illegal to walk a cow down Lake Road. 
 
Evidently, back in the village's agricultural times, our early farmers held up traffic by walking their cows down the road, and this became a problem!
 
The Wischmeyer family lived on Lake Road just east of Dover Center Road. Regina Catherine “Granny” Wischmeyer is pictured above with cows in front of the family barn – a safe distance from the Lake Road “no-cows zone.”

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Volume 12, Issue 14, Posted 10:06 AM, 07.21.2020

A Bay Village timeline, part 4

Continuing on with our timeline, I note seven more life-changing events for our village.

1. Cleveland Metropolitan Park System. In 1925, the Cleveland Metroparks bought the John Huntington Estate for $500,000. Within the village limits Bay now had an “Emerald Necklace” with the best beach for miles around. Situated next to Cahoon Memorial Park, the Village of Bay took advantage of these two wonderful gifts that bettered our lives. “The Beach” became a daily visit and fishing and boating off its shores brought much fun and happiness. Baycrafters arrived in 1948 and Huntington Playhouse in 1957. We now had a cultural area in the center of town. 

2. The Cahoon Barn Becomes the Community House. In 1936, as a Works Progress Administration project, men from the Village and WPA worked on Lake Road and the remodel. The new building replaced the old red schoolhouse as the center of community activities. The building currently houses the city's recreation department and the Village Bicycle Cooperative. Plans for the future will make it a modern up-to-date community center to serve us even better.

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Volume 12, Issue 11, Posted 10:37 AM, 06.02.2020

A Bay Village timeline, part 3

Five events that had a great influence on the growth of the Village of Bay.

  1. Infrastructure improvements, 1905-1913. These improvements greatly changed daily life and made life easier for the families in the village. We had a new health warden and two new special policemen to help our marshal. In the spring of 1909, discussion centered on having water piped into the village. In 1913, the village has electricity; street lights are making their appearance. Telephone poles are going up along Lake Road.
  2. The Cahoon Family Will, 1917-1919. At the beginning of the year 1917, there were three Cahoon sisters still living. Lydia, 83, passed away in March, Laura became ill in June, and Ida died in November. With the death of Ida, the 115-acre Cahoon homestead property, now Cahoon Memorial Park, became the property of the citizens of the Village of Bay under the family will. This will was written by the family in 1884 when Joel Cahoon was old and very ill. Their attorney, Walter Wright (the grandson of Joel’s sister, Rebecca), structured the content of the will. Due to Ida being the last sibling to pass away, the will was forever remembered as Ida Cahoon’s Will. The will in its entirety can be found in the book, "Bay Village A Way Of Life," in the Government and Civic section. With the implementation of the will in 1919, life in the village improved. The south acreage was sold to the Board of Education and Parkview School was built on the property overlooking the new Memorial Park. The summer cottages in the park became rentals. In 1921, the farmhouse became Dover By The Bay Library housing the Pope and Cahoon books. Mrs. Pope and Mrs. Paul, dear friends  of the Cahoon sisters, living on the corner of Wolf and Cahoon roads, were asked to became the first librarians. School children left the front door of Parkview School and walked north down the sidewalk to the library. The new green space began to be used. Ball diamonds, a skating pond and a ski and sledding hills would appear as the years went by. Life began to revolve around activities planned in the park.
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Volume 12, Issue 10, Posted 10:39 AM, 05.19.2020

A Bay Village timeline

Back in 2010, when our town was celebrating its 200th birthday, I was asked to put together a timeline of the history of Bay Village. The events that brought us to where we are today. Each event in our history reflects a change in the growth of our town. Which ones spurred us on to the next one worthy of being mentioned? Which ones were the most meaningful? What changes affected us the most? I started writing down my thoughts on this important topic. Here are some of the highlights.

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Volume 12, Issue 7, Posted 9:41 AM, 04.07.2020

It’s maple sugar time in Connecticut's Western Reserve

We love our "real" maple syrup on our morning pancakes.

In America, maple syrup is a staple in the pantry.  Maple syrup/sugar is truly an American crop. Both maple syrup and maple sugar were items of barter among the Indians living in the area of the Great Lakes when the early settlers arrived in this country.

The Osborn family writes in their memories: “The Indians also furnished a tolerable amount of maple sugar (syrup). Sarah objected a little to using it, on account of cleanliness, for the Indians used to boil their bacon in the sap without skinning the hide, and the hair would come off, which looked rather unpalatable in tea. Some of the squaws were so nice, however, they would strain the syrup through part of their dress and the difficulty would be alleviated. Sometimes the dress was so dirty and full of holes they could not strain the syrup.”

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Volume 12, Issue 6, Posted 9:42 AM, 03.17.2020

On a cold and dark winter’s night in the 1940s ...

Henry Wischmeyer Sr. arrived in the Western Reserve’s Ohio City in 1854. Working hard, Henry accumulated enough money to purchase two acres of farmland in Dover Township. He planted his fields in grapes as his family had in the old country of Germany.

In 1872, after many years of working his fields, Henry and his wife, Regina, moved their family of seven, including five children – Ida, Olga, Matilda, Julius and Henry Jr. – to Dover Township.

As the years passed, Henry was successful and able to increase his vineyard acreage. Henry’s land stretched from Dover Center Road east along Lake Road to just beyond Glen Park Creek and through the woods south of where Wolf Road is today.

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Volume 12, Issue 5, Posted 10:03 AM, 03.03.2020

Henry Winsor’s Smithfield, Rhode Island desk

Our Winsor family originated in Smithfield, Rhode Island. They were Rhode Island Baptists. (As were Lydia and Joseph Cahoon). We aren’t sure how many siblings there were in the family, but we do know four sisters by name: Sally, Julia, Elizabeth and Mary, and two brothers, Henry and Andrew.

Henry Winsor, a son, traveled to Dover Township by way of Cooperstown, New York, arriving around 1813 ( a son, Henry Jr., was born in Ohio in 1813.) The Winsor name is associated with Lot #91 on the west side of Bradley Road.

The family is in possession of a letter from Andrew Winsor to his brother Henry in Dover Township in 1817. Henry was a farmer. In 1818, his sisters advised him they would like to come care for his son, Henry Jr. Perhaps his wife had died.

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Volume 11, Issue 21, Posted 10:09 AM, 11.05.2019

Remembering Dover Bay Country Club

Another golfing season is coming to an end. In Bay Village back in the early 1950s, the once thriving nine-hole course at the corner of Clague and Lake roads would still be going in use on a beautiful, sunshiny fall day.

We can revisit the history of the club by enjoying a Plain Dealer article written by Cornelia Curtiss announcing the celebration of the club’s 50th birthday in 1945.

"Dover Bay Country Club, second oldest in the district, is about to celebrate its golden anniversary.

With the coming of the early spring, members of the club, which is on the lake shore west of town, are anticipating a long season of golf and other attractions which the club offers.

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Volume 11, Issue 18, Posted 9:08 AM, 09.17.2019

First Girl Scout Day Camp held in 1945

The following tidbit was part of the weekly news in Katherine Messenger’s local newspaper column in the summer of 1945.

"Girl Scout News – 1945: This week brought to a close the first Girl Scout Day Camp to be conducted in Bay Village. The project consisting of outdoor craft, handcraft, singing, and games was met with enthusiastic response from the Brownies and Girl Scouts. A program demonstrating a few of the activities will take place July 4th at 1:30 pm in the valley of Cahoon Park. Everyone is invited to attend."

Many Girl Scout events were held in the valley behind Rose Hill Museum. The pond was used for "crossing over the bridge" from Brownies to Girl Scouts. There was a small park with a merry-go-round, teeter-totter and swings close by. I remember making pads out of red-and-white-checked linoleum squares by sewing them together with leather striplings for seat pads.

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Volume 11, Issue 16, Posted 9:18 AM, 08.20.2019

The Cahoon and Andrews Connection

I have looked through many Cahoon family reunion pictures and noticed the Andrews family of Rockport Township (Lakewood) included as part of the family.

Louise Andrews Saunders was a good friend of my mother, Alberta, and her husband, Jack, an old buddy of my dad, J. Ross Rothaermel. Louise knew my sister Gay and I were interested in the Cahoon family and Bay history. When she was visiting one day in 1974 she mentioned a picture of a Cahoon family reunion that she was in. We knew the picture she meant and she told us she was the baby on her grandmother’s lap. Then she told us the story which I will try to relate.

Mary was the oldest daughter of Lydia and Joseph Cahoon. She traveled with the family on Oct. 10,1810, to Dover Township as a new bride with child. She married George Sexton and had eight children. They lived in Ridgeville (North Ridgeville) on Center Ridge Road. They had a daughter referred to as "beautiful Mary" in the Cahoon papers.

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Volume 11, Issue 15, Posted 10:10 AM, 08.06.2019

Fourth of July revisited

About 10 years ago I mailed flyers to Bay High alums asking them to return the flyer completed to become part of Bay’s history. I called it the Neighborhood Project and separated the information I received into east-end and west-end neighborhoods. I received some wonderful stories about life and neighbors living in Bay Village in the 1930s, '40s  and '50s. I wish I had 100 more.

Interestingly, the most often mentioned favorite memory was the 4th of July. While sorting through a pile of my dad’s papers in the attic, I found a roster of the events of the day and the people responsible for them for the July 4th celebration in 1944 which happened to be on a Tuesday that year. We only celebrated for one day back then, unlike the four days that make up the Bay Days celebration today. Enjoy the following memories.

Tuesday, July 4, 1944, in Bay Village

It was hard to fall asleep the night before the 4th of July just thinking about all the goodies that were going to be piled high under the big tree across from the Community House the next day. Checking it out was one of the wonderful parts of the day.

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Volume 11, Issue 13, Posted 9:51 AM, 07.02.2019

Just For Fun: Three old-timers reminisce

Let’s take a look back at "happenings" in Bay Village during the early 1900s with some fun stories and facts told by Clifton Aldrich, Ernie Wuebker and George Drake.

George Drake

The first Christmas I remember was in the old Aldrich parlor (George lived with his grandparents, Mary Anne Stevens and Henry Aldrich, at 30663 Lake Road), where we had a tree that used real candles that clipped on the branches. I got a tricycle. One trip I made on my new bike was to a birthday party at the “grove” (Eagle Cliff Woods – the Stone family church campground on the north side of Lake Road still recognizable today). I rode past the water pump that was located at Bradley and Lake roads. A big stone trough stood there for the horses to drink from.

Our father, Lincoln Drake, was building a house on Bradley Road. There were no other houses between Lake Road and Ashton Lane (Link Road) on the east side of Bradley Road until my dad built his at 351 Bradley Road. (Grandpa Aldrich planted a row of trees along the east side of the road up to where Walker Road meets. Many are still standing.)

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Volume 11, Issue 12, Posted 9:41 AM, 06.18.2019

Bay Village Historical Society Antique and Craft Show

The Bay Village Historical Society’s 50th annual Antique Show will be held on Saturday, June 15, in Cahoon Memorial Park. The Antique Show was the idea of Gigi Monroe. I remember it well 50 years ago when planning began for the first Antique Show.

Bob and Gigi Monroe were already active in the historical society when Gay Menning (my twin sister) and I joined in 1968. In fact, Bob and Gigi lived on the second floor of the Cahoon Homestead House, Rose Hill Museum. Planning the venue and getting our members to participate was challenging. Gigi knew what she was doing but the rest of us were new. I think the first Antique Show was held in September.

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Volume 11, Issue 11, Posted 10:33 AM, 06.04.2019

Bay Village’s unknown soldier: Still unknown but not forgotten

While gathering information for her book, “Retracing Footsteps,” Catherine Burke Flament discovered an unmarked grave mentioned in Lakeside Cemetery’s written papers, known as the little Osborn burial lots of Rebecca Johnson and Asahel Porter.

An old cemetery plot map noted the location simply as “soldier” section OP6:6. When Cathy investigated, she found the grave marker with information missing about the man. What we know is the never-identified body of a soldier washed ashore by Lake Erie near Wischmeyer’s beach during the Civil War and was buried in his Union uniform. Much speculation had him falling from the cliff.

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Volume 11, Issue 10, Posted 10:26 AM, 05.21.2019

Then and Now: Taking a look at Bay's sports teams

A good corner lot, a hoop on the side of a barn, a sturdy oak tree, or a plowed acre of land became a playing field when a group of Bay boys came out to play. Until the new Parkview School was built in 1922, Bay had no athletic department. Pick-up games were the thing of the day.

Then Bay built a new school. The children from the Red Brick School House on Lake Road (east of Rye Gate) became the tenants of the new school. Grades ranged from one through nine.

Bay named the new high school Parkview as it overlooked Cahoon Memorial Park. It didn’t take long for the Bay students to become involved in the athletics offered and to choose school colors – blue for the blue waters of Lake Erie and white for the waves the students could see from their second-floor windows.

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Volume 11, Issue 9, Posted 2:12 PM, 05.06.2019

The Ellenwood Family of Bay Village

I wish the Bay Village Historical Society had more information on this family. We know more about the house they lived in.

We can track the Ellenwood family to 28838 Lake Road in 1903 because their daughter, Mrs. George Denison, recalled a conversation about the age of the house with a visiting priest who remarked that his father built it in 1853. (Although, we know this date to be false today. The house was more likely to have been built circa 1830. However, the priest's father could have worked on an addition as there were many added on to the house.)

We do know Mrs. Ellenwood was a very tiny lady as we have a brown satin traveling suit circa 1880s on display at Rose Hill Museum. The Ellenwoods were great travelers. One journey was to London, England, where Mrs. Ellenwood purchased some clothes at Worth & Co.

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Volume 11, Issue 8, Posted 9:43 AM, 04.16.2019

'Depot Boy' Sam Milliken shares his memories of growing up in Bay

We are fortunate that there are many stories filled with memories catalogued in the Osborn Learning Center. This story comes from Robert, nicknamed Sam, Milliken from the Bay High School Class of 1949. 

In December 1937, we moved to a three-room “summer” cottage on East Oviatt Road in Bay Village. The cottage consisted of a kitchen, living room and one bedroom. My parents had to literally drag us three kids – Irene, Ron and myself – as we had really enjoyed the near west side of Cleveland. We had lived on Bridge Avenue for about there years and were comfortable there after having moved around the eastern states for the prior two-and-a-half years. During those Depression times we had lived in 25 different cities. To sum it up, we didn’t want to move again.

The cottage had a “sun porch” which served as Ron’s and my bedroom. Irene’s bedroom was a small enclosed rear porch. There was no insulation. The plumbing provided the kitchen sink with water which drained into a five-gallon bucket and had to be carried outside to be emptied.

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Volume 11, Issue 7, Posted 9:46 AM, 04.02.2019

The Moses Cleaveland Trees in Bay Village

“Her Majesty,” a mighty oak tree, stood atop the hill on the west side of Cahoon Valley over looking the lake and the mouth of Cahoon Creek. The trunk of the tree was enormous. Seven girl scouts once locked hands and circled the tree to see just how big it was. They all fit around the tree. 

One of the huge branches spread out from the tree like a bench six feet from the ground headed south. Many a bridal party had their picture taken under this branch of the tree. Everyone walking on the walking path enjoyed her magnificence. Ten years ago, this tree was hit by lightning and lost. It was a designated “Moses Cleaveland Tree,” one of five standing in the village.

Back in the early 1970s, the Early Settlers Association of the Western Reserve arrived in the village to look over our trees and designate the oldest ones they believed were standing when Moses Cleaveland arrived in 1796. The association picked five trees they thought were that old. “Her Majesty” was one of the trees picked. These trees were plaqued with a small bronze plate that said Moses Cleaveland Tree. There are no Moses Cleaveland Trees standing today.

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Volume 11, Issue 6, Posted 10:07 AM, 03.19.2019

The road less traveled: Old Lake Road by Cahoon Creek

How many of you know that the road we use today to reach the Bay Boat Club was once Lake Road, used by our early settlers to go back and forth on their way across the township? From the arrival of the Cahoons until 1917 this still-important and visible road was the only way to travel by the Cahoon residence and over Cahoon Creek.

Later this year, the Ohio Department of Transportation will replace the existing bridge over Cahoon Creek, built in 1917. Along with a new bridge with bike lanes, the areas around the bridge will become scenic trails for our residents to enjoy.

There was always a need for a bridge over the creek and as soon as the Cahoons arrived and built their cabin close to the lake on the east side of the creek, they needed a way to cross the creek without getting wet. This area started with a wooden bridge in 1810 built by the Cahoons.

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Volume 11, Issue 5, Posted 9:51 AM, 03.05.2019

Parkview High School Memories

I had great, positive feedback from Eleanor Seitz McIlvied’s Columbia Road memories. I heard about how you love to read about life “back in the day.” Here is another story of growing up in the village and attending Parkview School by Ray Trevor Passon, class of 1944. Enjoy!

Our family moved to Bay Village from the “big city” in 1939. My parents bought their first home near the east end of Oakland Road. It was new, cost about $6,000, and had a half-acre of woods stretching back to the railroad tracks. (The Old Nickel Plate RR flattened a few pennies for me, too.) I had a pretty long walk to the seventh-grade at Parkview High; my brother David, a much shorter walk to Forestview School. There was a pond over near Clague Road and the tracks where I caught sunfish in the summer and ice-skated in the winter. Today it’s somewhere under Interstate 90.

Bay turned out to be a wonderful place to grow up.

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Volume 11, Issue 3, Posted 9:52 AM, 02.05.2019

Living on Columbia Road, 1920-30

This story was given to me by Eleanor Seitz McIlvried. Enjoy her memories.

When I was 8 years old, woods of chestnut trees and fields surrounded the family home my parents bought at Stop 19 (Hall/Columbia Road). Our end of Bay Village was just being developed. My neighbor was Blanche VanDeVelde. Before we became landowners in Bay, we rented summer cottages at Stop 45 (in Avon Lake) and Stop 16 (Forestview Road). It was one of the happiest times in my life! 

There were many inconveniences involved. We had no heater, except for a wood and coal stove in our living room, no water except from a pump at our sink, and no lights except from kerosene lanterns. We were lucky to have a bathroom with a tub, sink and chemical toilet, but had to carry water on our kerosene stove in the kitchen. My mother worked for Mrs. Chandler, a teacher at Bay. I ended up a babysitter for George Chandler, one of Bay’s distinguished graduates (Class of '47).

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Volume 11, Issue 2, Posted 9:59 AM, 01.22.2019

Memories of Hahn’s Grove

My best memories of Hahn’s Grove are from driving in the car west on Lake Road through Rocky River or buying ice and pop at Serbs gas station. I remember, in the summer, reaching Avalon Drive and starting down the dip (hill) in the road when like magic the temperature in the air got 10 degrees cooler and a nice summer breeze floated in through the windows of the car as Lake Erie came into view.

At the bottom of the dip was an area I grew up knowing as Hahn’s Grove (today it is called Bradstreet‘s Landing). The driveway to the water filtration plant runs south through the property and there are apartment buildings today. There was a beach for swimming and a fishing pier. The Serb family had a gas station and ice house on the south side of the road near the township lines between Dover and Rockport. At the time I didn’t know any more than that.

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Volume 10, Issue 24, Posted 9:55 AM, 12.18.2018

Musical memories that keep giving

Curt Crews and the Singing Christmas Tree is a Bay Village tradition that keeps making us feel warm and fuzzy at Christmastime. The tree was unveiled in 1959 to oohs and aahs by Curt Crews, Bay High School's choir director. This is a picture of alumni who returned to sing "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" at the end of a Christmas program.   

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. A picture is worth a thousand words. So they say. This year, I hope you participate in Christmas with the musical programs offered by our young people by attending the many concerts planned for the community.

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Volume 10, Issue 23, Posted 10:20 AM, 12.04.2018

Martha Woodward Bangert remembers Mr. Albers

Martha Woodward Bangert grew up on the east side of Bassett Road just north of the Jurgemeier/Albers farmstead. Alice and Karl Jurgemeier farmed the northeast corner of Bassett and Wolf roads.

Many years ago, Martha and her sister wrote a short description of Mr. Albers while waiting to leave a cruise ship that had just brought them from Alaska. When she got home she mailed her thoughts to me. Today, I am sharing them with you. (I wish we had a picture of Mr. Albers, but I hope you can see him through Martha’s eyes.)

Mr. Albers lived on the corner of Bassett and Wolf roads. He had white hair and a white mustache, a brown and wrinkled face. Years of hard work showed from his bent back and humped shoulders. He lived with his niece and nephew, the Jurgemeiers: Miss Alice and Karl. We called her Miss Alice but never really talked to Karl so didn’t use his name.

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Volume 10, Issue 22, Posted 9:32 AM, 11.20.2018

Finding the 'stuff' of my life

I am moving. I’m selling my house after living in it 48 years. I’m cleaning out my life. When I found this house at 26758 Russell Road, in the horseshoe, I was home. It was perfect.

Over the years I have kept too many things, "my stuff," I call it. So I am leafing through my stuff and I come across a mimeographed copy of the words and music for the Bay High Fight Song from 1946. Then I open some more music and see it is the World War II black music with the white lettering. During WWII, this was the only thing you could buy.

My family was very music oriented. My grandfather bought my mother a baby grand piano for her 14th birthday and it sat in the living room of our house. She could play anything in the popular music genre. My sisters, Barb and Gay, and I took lessons from a lady, Miss Quinn, at Cook and Detroit roads in Lakewood. Barb could really play the piano. She went to Chicago one summer to take lessons under Dr. Rudolph Ganz at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. I still have all of her classical music books plus a few John Thompsons.

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Volume 10, Issue 21, Posted 9:55 AM, 11.06.2018

The Osborn family

The Osborn family is one of the oldest families in Bay Village and in the United States. They arrived in the United States 100 years before the Revolutionary War.

Reuben Osborn lived in Woodbridge, Connecticut, and married Sarah Johnson from the same town in 1802. Reuben and Sarah arrived in Dover Township with their two children, Polly and Selden, on May 17, 1811.

They were greeted by Sarah’s sister, Rebecca, and her husband, Asahel Porter, who had arrived in Dover on Oct. 10, 1810, the same day as the Cahoons.

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Volume 10, Issue 19, Posted 9:51 AM, 10.02.2018

The Wischmeyers' backyard playground

The Wischmeyer family that built a hotel on our lake shore at the Glen Park Creek and Lake Road really enjoyed Lake Erie. They used the lake every day for swimming, fishing and boating. They offered their summer guests rides in their motor-boat and sails on their sail boat. They took them fishing in their rowboats. They fished for food for their guests.

Above the lake on a point overlooking Glen Park Creek, they made an observation deck with benches. Guests were invited to watch the sunrise or sunset while sitting on the benches enjoying the cool lake breezes. Life was good.

The Wischmeyer family first settled in Dover Township in 1872. They tilled their fields and put in grape vineyards, built a wine cellar for the wine they made and sold, built a hotel for their overnight guests, a card and dance pavilion, and boat house. Then they welcomed travelers and city families to the lake for their summer vacation.

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Volume 10, Issue 16, Posted 8:47 AM, 08.21.2018

Elizabeth Hughes Cahoon, 1830-1914

On Dover Center Road just south of the old Broadview Savings and Loan branch office (the current Citizens Bank building) is a small Victorian farmhouse. What is the story behind this house? Who lived there? Who built it?

Elizabeth Hughes grew up in a log cabin on the Ohio River in Cleves, Ohio. Her next door neighbors were Joel and Margaret Cahoon, living in their log cabin. As children growing up together, Joel and Margaret's son Tom Cahoon and Elizabeth played together and became good friends.

When the Cahoon family moved north to Dover Township, Elizabeth and Tom kept in contact through letters and visits. As young adults, they married in 1860, in the Hughes' log cabin, and moved to Cleveland. Tom and Elizabeth had a daughter they named Effie.

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Volume 10, Issue 15, Posted 9:45 AM, 08.07.2018

Marvel E. Sebert, a most admired English teacher

On the third floor of old Parkview School in the northwest classroom with two walls of windows overlooking Cahoon Memorial Park and Lake Erie, Marvel Sebert held court, teaching English to Bay High School students for 36 years. It was the "coolest" classroom in the building. Miss Sebert was greatly admired by her students. She made you understand and enjoy the English language.   

The class of 1947 dedicated their Bay Blue Book to her. Here is what they wrote:

"We the senior class of 1947, wish to dedicate this book which means so much to us, to one who has meant even more to us. She has encouraged us when we were troubled, scolded us when we needed a restraining hand, laughed with us in our fun,  assisted all along the way, and has been not only an adviser but a pal. This friend whom we so greatly appreciate is Marvel E. Sebert."

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Volume 10, Issue 12, Posted 9:24 AM, 06.19.2018

The Cahoon homestead house, Rose Hill Museum, turns 200 years old

In 1818, Joseph Cahoon and his son, Joel, using a simple carpenter’s manual, built the Cahoon homestead house on the west hill above Cahoon Creek, in the style of the gristmill that sat below in the valley. The house contained four rooms up and four rooms down with double-sided lake stone fireplaces in the middle of the four rooms down.

The walls were built of strong oak trees and the floors were poplar. The stairs wrapped around the fireplace on the north side with steps to the upstairs rooms. The basement, open to the east, housed a large stone fireplace for cooking and processing meats. The walls contained white oak lath sprung between the joists. The plaster was horsehair and the green tree plugs, heated and pounded into the beams and then allowed to cool, replaced hard-to-find iron nails.

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Volume 10, Issue 11, Posted 10:02 AM, 06.05.2018

The home front: I remember WWII

If you were alive during World War II, you were caught up in the atmosphere. It was a time you never forgot.

I was just a little girl. I do not remember Pearl Harbor being attacked. My first remembrance is a voice coming from the orange dial on our console radio. Gabriel Heatter is saying, “Good evening, everyone. There’s good news tonight.” His trademark sign-on was followed by the bad news. He scared me to death. The newspapers had maps with red and blue lines showing how far we had advanced or retreated.

Each neighborhood had an air raid warden and helpers. Ours were my dad, Larry Carman, Ralph Wieland, Harold Inwood and Art Hook. The top guy was known as the chief block head. We would practice blackouts by pulling down the shades while the dads patrolled the neighborhood with flashlights, looking for anything out of place. Spooky times for a little kid.

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Volume 10, Issue 10, Posted 9:28 AM, 05.15.2018

Joseph Waldeck

Joseph Waldeck came into Dover Township in 1899. Joseph was the superintendent of the American Steel & Wire Company on East 55th Street in Cleveland. His brother had just purchased a farm in the township where Lakewood Country Club is today, and Joseph considered buying one himself.

Casper Wuebker worked at American Steel & Wire. He lived in West Dover on Bradley Road south of the railroad tracks. He informed Joseph of a farm for sale on Bassett Road. The farm was owned by A.C. and Emma Phinney. The Phinneys had moved to Lake Road on the east end of the township on the lake (Cashelmara today). Porter Creek ran through the property and all told the farm contained 23 acres. Neighbors were Reuben Osborn and the Albers family.

The Waldeck farm was on Lot 83 on the east side of Bassett Road. The first owner of the property had been Caleb Eddy in 1826. At this time, Bassett Road had wide drainage ditches on either side of it, with an iron plank floor bridge across Porter Creek. Joseph built a fine new stucco house on the south bank of the creek behind where the Caleb Eddy house had stood. The address today is 503 Bassett Road. The house was built by Arthur Hagedorn who lived south of him on Bassett Road.

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Volume 10, Issue 9, Posted 10:01 AM, 05.01.2018

Bay United Methodist Church to receive Ohio Historical Marker

The Story of Elizabeth Tryon Sadler and the Bay United Methodist Church

The Bay United Methodist Church is receiving an Ohio Historical Marker to commemorate the site and give credence to the importance of this church in our town. The new marker will be arriving in June, our 191st anniversary. Many of Bay Village’s first settlers were members of this church. The names of Sadler, Cahoon, Osborn, Foote, Aldrich, Drake, Tuttle, Eddy, Dodd and Mathews, to name a few, are written in the history kept at the church. Their work ethic, will to succeed, thrust for knowledge and strong faith are the backbone of what Bay Village is today. 

Elizabeth Tryon Sadler, (1792/3-1872) grew up in Pennsylvania. Her parents were strict and devoted Methodists who didn‘t play cards, dance or drink. She was named Elizabeth, the connotation being consecrated to God, and she was true to her name. With prior training and Christian example she was early led to give her heart to God, and united with the Methodist Church when about 10 years old.

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Volume 10, Issue 8, Posted 9:45 AM, 04.17.2018

George Meyers, a favorite teacher and distinguished educator

“My favorite teacher was ...” is a subject often discussed when remembering school days. Teachers are remembered because he/she taught us something we still use, were kind, understanding, fair or gave of their time.

My sister, Gay, and I were having trouble with algebra in the ninth grade. One day, after class, we walked up to our teacher, George Meyer’s, desk and explained our problem. He said, “Next period is my free period. I will be in this room. I’ll give you a hall pass and you can come in and I’ll help you.” I don’t remember how long we spent with Mr. Meyers on his free period, but we did figure out algebra. We never forgot his kindness.

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Volume 10, Issue 6, Posted 10:11 AM, 03.20.2018

Dover Center Road, Bay Village, circa 1920

Thanks to John Peterson, the Bay Village Historical Society is in the possession of a picture of Dover Center Road in the 1920s. This is the only picture I know of, and it tells a story. It reminds me of a friendly street with all the trees.

The two Blaha/Peterson buildings are on the left. Bill Blaha, John’s granddad, built the two-story brick building in 1926 after running the Edwards Foods grocery store in the old Cahoon Store since 1914. In 1926, Marie Blaha, Bill’s daughter, opened a beauty parlor in the clapboard building Bill had built next door for his meat market. Behind the beauty parlor was the first building Bill built on his new property. It was a double-bay auto garage. Out by the curb on Dover Center was a Standard Oil gas pump.

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Volume 10, Issue 5, Posted 9:31 AM, 03.06.2018

A life cut short too soon: Leverett Judson Cahoon

Leverett Judson Cahoon – named for his Uncle Leverett Johnson and a Baptist minister, Rev. Judson – is described as having a happy, cheerful disposition, full of energy and with the ability to plan and carry out whatever he attempted. He grew up working on the family farm with his brothers and father.

Leverett, born Nov. 16, 1845, was the eighth child of Margaret and Joel Cahoon and the grandson of Joseph and Lydia Cahoon, first settlers of Dover Township in 1810. The family history tells that Leverett was very promising, possessing rare learning abilities at an early age. This he improved by studying at the district and select schools in the area. It was the family’s wish that Leverett attend college. However, at age 17, his father became ill and immobile.

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Volume 10, Issue 4, Posted 9:36 AM, 02.20.2018

Samuel Foster Osborn’s little corner of the world

Samuel Osborn, son of Nancy Ruple and Seldon Osborn, was given a gift of land on Cahoon Road by his grandfather, Reuben Osborn. His land ran down the west side of Cahoon Road just past the Cahoon vineyards (where the Bay Middle School is today) south to the Oviatt Mills and farm. Samuel farmed 76 acres at this site in Lot 85.

The two main roads in North Dover Township were Lake Road and Detroit Road. To the east off of Cahoon Road was the path that ran over Cahoon Creek by way of the Oviatt bridge by the Oviatt mills to Dover Center Road. (Today, Dover Commons and West Oviatt Road.)

Samuel Osborn married Mary Crocker, daughter of Sylvanus and Sarah Crocker, and built a house at 502 Cahoon Road. They had eight children: Clayton Seldon, Florence, Nettie Pearl, Nellie, Ray Sylvanus, Alice Minerva, Russell and Leverett Crocker. Mary Crocker Osborn was a school teacher. (Alice Minerva married the undertaker, Clifford Pease; Pease Funeral Home is now Jenkins Funeral Chapel.)

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Volume 10, Issue 3, Posted 9:56 AM, 02.06.2018

Bay Village Historical Society offers ‘good reads’ for a cold winter’s night

While growing up in Bay Village in the 1940s and '50s, I never really thought a lot about the history of our town. I knew I lived on David Foote’s farm in his former apple orchard. We had 8 different kinds of apple trees in our backyard. The Foote farmhouse across the street had my best playmates living in it.

I remember, along with the Foote farmhouse (Wieland) at 30906 Lake Road, playing in the William Aldrich II farmhouse (Paul Hook) at 366 Bassett Road. My thoughts on Bay history didn’t go much further than that. (Unless I noticed Mr. Wells sifting through the trash at the Bay Dump on Wolf Road.)

At that time, Dover Township’s history was not taught in the Bay schools like it is today. Here I was, going to school with grandchildren and great-grandchildren of our first settlers and I didn’t even know it. Bill Sadler graduated with me.

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Volume 10, Issue 2, Posted 9:57 AM, 01.23.2018

Betsey Osborn Williams' farm on Lake Road in Dover Township

Reuben Osborn accompanied his sister-in-law, Rebecca Johnson Porter, and brothers-in-law, Asahel Porter and Leverett Johnson, to Dover Township, arriving in the afternoon of Oct. 10, 1810. 

Reuben and Sarah Johnson Osborn purchased Lot 93 from Philo Taylor, the land agent for the Connecticut Land Company, for one dollar an acre. His farm extended from the west at the Sadler property, east to the Porter property, north by the lake shore, and south to what is now the Wolf Road area. (Where the high school is today.) Reuben and Sarah had one son, Seldon. Seldon, an herb doctor, married Nancy Ruple of Euclid Township. They lived at 29059 Lake Road on part of Reuben's acreage. Betsey was the third child and second daughter of Nancy and Seldon, born in 1839.

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Volume 10, Issue 1, Posted 9:33 AM, 01.09.2018