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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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Benjamin Russel Hanby (1833-1867) enrolled at Otterbein University in 1849. To afford tuition and to aid his family, Hanby alternated college terms with teaching in nearby public schools. While a student in 1856, he was moved by the story of a slave and his sweetheart to compose the anti-slavery ballad “Darling Nelly Gray.” The song quickly proved popular in abolitionist circles. After graduation, Hanby worked as an Otterbein agent, educator, United Brethren minister, and compiler and publisher for Chicago’s Root & Cady music house. He composed “Up on the Housetop” in 1864 while leading a New Paris singing school. During his short life, Hanby composed 80 songs, including the internationally-known hymn “Who is He in Yonder Stall.” Benjamin Hanby died of tuberculosis on March 16, 1867. He is buried in Otterbein Cemetery.
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Here in 1963 congregants of Beth Israel-The West Temple, led by Louis Rosenblum, Herb Caron, and Rabbi Daniel Litt, founded the Cleveland Committee (later Council) on Soviet Anti-Semitism, the first American organization created to advocate for freedom for Soviet Jews. In 1970 this work led to the formation of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) under the leadership of Louis Rosenblum. The UCSJ, whose national office was located here 1970-1973, became the largest independent Soviet Jewry organization in the world. By the turn of the 21st century, the efforts begun here helped 1.6 million Jews leave the former Soviet Union. (Continued on other side)
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Pater Noster (“Our Father”) House was a nonprofit crisis center and hospice for people living with HIV/AIDS that originated in the Columbus Hilltop neighborhood. Barbara Cordle (1939-2020) opened the center in 1985 to serve the community during a time of intense homophobia. Cordle, a devout Catholic and licensed practical nurse, felt called to serve those who needed her care. During the 17 years it operated, Pater Noster housed over 1,100 patients for little or no cost. LIFE magazine ran a photo of patient David Kirby’s final moments in November 1990 that “changed the face of AIDS.” In 1997, all Pater Noster House operations moved to a farmhouse on the southwest side. Cordle was honored by the American Institute for Public Service with a Jefferson Award for “outstanding community service” in 2002.
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William Henry Fouse was born in Westerville to former slaves Squire Fouse and “Sallie” Syler. The first Black student to graduate from Westerville High School (1884), he worked as a bootblack and waiter to earn college tuition. Fouse graduated cum laude from Otterbein (1893), and as the college’s first Black graduate, delivered “A Plea for the Afro-American” at commencement. For forty-five years Fouse worked as a teacher and administrator in Corydon (Indiana), Gallipolis (Ohio), Covington (Kentucky), and Lexington (Kentucky). He served as principal at Lexington’s Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School from its opening in 1923 until his retirement in 1938. During that time, Fouse developed the Bluegrass Oratorical Association, served as president of the Kentucky Negro Education Association, and earned his MA in Education. In 1937, Otterbein conferred a Doctor of Pedagogy upon the distinguished educator.
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Acquiring the African American Cultural Garden was a struggle for equitable access to public space in Cleveland during the Civil Rights era. Between 1961 and 1977, Black Clevelanders sought space to celebrate Black pride and culture within Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens. Activists lobbied the Cultural Garden Federation, City Council, and engaged the Black community to acquire a garden space. When the African American Cultural Garden was dedicated on October 23, 1977, dignitaries from Ghana, Togo, Kenya, and Tanzania, were joined by national, state, and city officials to celebrate the first garden space assigned to a community of color.