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In October of 1803, members of The Scioto Company, led by James Kilbourne, came from Connecticut and founded Worthington. On February 6, 1804, the Articles of Agreement establishing St. John’s Church of Worthington were executed. St. John’s, which had been planned in Connecticut prior to the Company’s departure, became the first Episcopal church established in the Northwest Territory and served as the founding church for several Episcopal churches in Ohio. James Kilbourne served as the church’s first Deacon. Reverend Philander Chase, the first Rector of St. John’s, became the first Episcopal Bishop of Ohio and founded Kenyon College. St. John’s Church and graveyard are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Toledo State Hospital opened in January 1888 as the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. Originally located immediately south of this cemetery, the hospital was designed to function as a self-contained community for 650 people. Patients lived in large cottages, surrounded by a post office, church, library, male and female hospital, strong wards, bakery, and dining hall. People were admitted with mild to severe forms of mental illness, and a variety of other disabling conditions, including developmental, medical or neurological, as well as for addictions, injuries, and old age. Work became a form of treatment, with patients involved in construction, farming, laundry, and other jobs to help maintain the hospital. Patients could also participate in recreational activities from gardening to playing in the hospital band. The State Hospital became home for many, as hospitalization could last a lifetime, often spanning decades. (continued on other side)
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Toledo State Hospital opened in January 1888 as the Toledo Asylum for the Insane. People were admitted with mild to severe forms of mental illness, and a variety of developmental, medical and neurological conditions, as well as for addictions, injuries, and old age. Originally built to house 650 people, by the 1950s its campus had grown to accommodate over 3,000. Growing access to new medications and treatments then began a gradual decline in patient population. Eventually, most of the buildings were razed, and much of the hospital’s property was transferred, later becoming the site of The Medical College of Ohio. This transfer included the two Toledo State Hospital cemeteries, with documented burials (as of 2009) totaling 1,994 persons. Toledo State Hospital New Cemetery was opened in 1922, when the Old Cemetery (1888-1922), located .5 miles to the northeast, reached capacity. (continued on other side)
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Alexander Albert Drabik was born here, in a log cabin, on December 28, 1910 to John Drabik and Frances Lewandowski, Polish immigrants from Szymborze, Germany, now Poland. Alex, youngest son of 14 children, attended Door Street School. A meat cutter, he enlisted in the United States Army in October 1942. Drabik fought in the Ardennes, Central Europe and Rhineland Campaigns of World War II. He received a Purple Heart during the Battle of the Bulge. On March 7, 1945, Sergeant Drabik led 10 Company A soldiers of the 27th Armored Infantry Battalion of the 9th Armored Division across the Ludendorff railroad bridge from Remagen, Germany to the Rhine River east bank. (Continued on other side)
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Ichabod Benton Miller purchased 440 acres in Anderson Township on April 2, 1796. The log house Miller built on his property around 1796 was continuously occupied for more than 170 years until the Anderson Township Historical Society purchased the building in 1971. The log house is located on its original site and is one of the few surviving structures built by the pioneers who settled the Ohio River Valley in the late 1700s. The house is named for the first and last families who owned it.
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With the War of 1812 over, Benajah and Ruth Wilcox Fay and their ten children left Lewis County, New York for the state of Ohio. Like many, they were attracted to Ohio by the inexpensive, fertile land. Settling in Township 6, Range 13 of the Blake Tract of the Western Reserve, they represented the first settlers of Greenbriar, named Parma on March 7, 1826. The Fay family cleared their new land, including what later became Theota Avenue, and then built a log cabin. Located on the wagon trail connecting Cleveland and Columbus, the cabin grew into the well-known Benajah Fay Inn, Parma’s first business establishment. This historical marker is the site where the city of Parma was born.
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In 1811, Colonel John Breck sent Seth Paine to survey a new township of the Western Reserve. Traveling from Massachusetts, the Paine family journeyed by wagon pulled by a team of oxen, a trip that took them forty-two days. For his compensation, Paine was given 200 acres of land that is now part of the cities of Broadview Heights, Brecksville, and North Royalton. He chose acreage in the southwestern area of the township and built the first family structure in this area. His log cabin sat on the northeast corner of Broadview and Boston roads and later became one of the first schoolhouses from which his daughter, Orianna, taught. The vast body of land that Colonel Breck was granted the authority to allot was given the name Brecksville Township. In 1818, the west end of Brecksville Township, consisting of 21.28 square miles, was renamed Royalton Township.
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Woodvale Cemetery was established in the mid-1800s, in Middleburgh Township, Ohio. The oldest marked grave holds Fred G. Klink (1835-1858), whose family donated a half acre of land for burials. In 1876, Frank M. Stearns (1832-1911) suggested the unnamed cemetery be called Woodvale, after the wooded vale beside it. In 1908, a fire destroyed the caretaker’s house and many cemetery records. Woodvale became a non-profit, union cemetery in 1931, owned by Berea and the Village of Middleburg Hts. and covering 35 acres at 7535 Engle Road. Pioneer families buried here: Fowles, Kraft, Lovejoy, Sprague, and Stearns. Also buried here: John Baldwin (1799-1884) founder of Baldwin University and James Wallace (1878-1953) founder of German Wallace College (merged in 1913 to become Baldwin Wallace College) (Continued other side)
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