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John Shepherd is believed to be the longest lived veteran of the American Revolution. He died at the age of 117 years, 9 months, and 18 days. He entered military service the first time during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The 26 year-old Shepherd, along with George Washington and others survived Braddock’s Defeat at the Battle of Monongahela in 1755. In middle age, Shepherd enlisted in the army again and defended Pennsylvania and other colonies as they fought for freedom from Great Britain during the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). (Continued other side)
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James W. Rankin served four consecutive terms (1971-1978) in the Ohio House of Representatives. Born and raised in Cincinnati, he graduated from Withrow High School and The Ohio State University’s School of Social Work. While working in Cincinnati’s Seven Hills neighborhood, he ran for office to “involve the disadvantaged in the governmental processes that affected their lives.” He won his first bid and served the next seven years as a state representative for the 69th House district, later the reapportioned 25th district. Representative Rankin fought passionately for civil and human rights in education and public policy. He served on the Reference, Human Resources, and Finance committees. When Rankin died of pneumonia, aged 52, the Cincinnati Enquirer proclaimed him a “Friend of the Poor.”
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Born in Connecticut in 1794, Leverett Johnson came to Dover Township with his brother-in-law and sister, Asahel and Rebecca Johnson Porter on October 10, 1810. In 1811 at the age of 16, he began clearing land in what is now Westlake. In 1814 he built a log house at Porter and Center Ridge roads for his bride Abigail Cahoon. They raised nine children and lived here the rest of their lives. Johnson was a prominent citizen of Dover Township, serving as a justice of the peace, a township treasurer and trustee, a Cuyahoga County commissioner and a five-term Ohio state legislator, and as the first director of Dover Academy, a local school. Leverett died on April 19, 1856 at home. He donated part of his land for Evergreen Cemetery, where he, Abigail, and many of the pioneers of Westlake are buried.
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Elizabeth Tyron Sadler started the Methodist Episcopal Church in North Dover Township in June 1827, on land owned by her father-in-law Christopher Sadler. Charter members were the Rev. Eliphalet and Mrs. Margaret Johnson and their daughter Rebecca, along with niece Catherine Porter Foote. Elizabeth and William Sadler donated the land and much of the material needed to build a new wood-frame church here in 1841. The still-growing congregation built a brick church in 1908 and added a new sanctuary in 1955. Taking the name Bay United Methodist Church in 1968, the church has remained a center of community life and faith continuously since 1827. Family names associated with the church’s early decades include Aldrich, Cahoon, Drake, Foote, Osborn, Powell, Sadler, Tuttle, and Wolf.
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