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In the early 1900s, Ohio led the nation in interurban track mileage. The electrically powered interurban was favored over steam railroads for short distance passenger travel and the transport of local freight. Incorporated in 1899, the Columbus, Buckeye Lake, and Newark Traction Railway served Bexley from a terminal on Gay Street in downtown Columbus. Running south on High Street and then east on Mound Street, the line crossed Alum Creek into Bexley, went north up Pleasant Ridge Avenue past Capital University, and continued to the National Road (Main Street). Interurban cars stopped at the northeast corner of Main Street and Remington Road and thence sped on to Buckeye Lake, Newark, and later Zanesville. The popularity of the automobile spelled doom for the interurban. Service on the line ended in 1929.
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Henry Hanford Wakeman (1840-1879) of New York came to Waterville and became a successful businessman. He conceived the idea of a local Masonic Lodge, which became Wakeman Lodge No. 522 Free and Accepted Masons in 1879, and bequeathed $1,000 toward the construction of a meeting place. In 1880, a cornerstone was laid and this building was dedicated on October 21, 1881. For over 100 years, the Masons held their meetings upstairs while the lower floor was often rented out to a succession of businesses or used for public gatherings. Rising maintenance expenses and lower membership numbers caused the Masons to put Wakeman Hall up for sale in 1995. The Waterville Historical Society purchased the building in 1997 and spent several years rehabilitating it to serve as a local history archive and the Historical Society’s meeting place.
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In 1822, Ralph Russell, a Connecticut pioneer who had settled in Warrensville Township ten years earlier, founded the North Union Shaker Community. The Shakers created Horseshoe Lake in 1852 when they built a dam across Doan Brook and harnessed its waterpower to operate a woolen mill near Lee Road and South Park Boulevard. The community disbanded in 1889; its 1,366 acres were eventually sold to a real estate syndicate from Buffalo, New York, the Shaker Heights Land Company. In 1896, this group deeded the Shaker Lakes Parklands to the City of Cleveland to preserve the green space in perpetuity. Ten years later, the Van Sweringen Company began to develop Shaker Heights Village as a Garden City suburb where William J. Van Aken served as mayor from 1915 until 1950. In the 1960s local residents successfully fought the proposed Clark Freeway, saving Horseshoe Lake and the Parklands from destruction.
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In July 1863, Confederate Brigadier-General John Hunt Morgan led a force of 2,000 cavalrymen across southern Ohio. Morgan’s force entered Ohio from Indiana. A chase ensued as Union cavalry pursued Morgan’s men across twenty Ohio counties. To evade 2,500 Union cavalrymen under Brigadier-General Edward Hobson and thousands of Union militia stationed at Cincinnati and Hamilton, Morgan’s exhausted troopers made a daring night ride, resulting in the longest sustained cavalry ride in American military history. Around 9 P.M., Morgan’s cavalry passed through New Burlington, then rode north on Mt. Pleasant and Hamilton Pike (present day Mill Road). Heading east on Bank Lick Road (Kemper Road), they reached this spot in the Village of Springdale around midnight. (Continued on other side)
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Directly across the Cuyahoga River from this spot is the South Park Village. Here, archeologists uncovered the remains of a four-acre, Native American settlement populated by people of the Whittlesey Tradition. The people of South Park lived in communal structures and grew maize, beans, and squash in the floodplain fields that surround you. Food remains found in the village excavations reveal that they hunted deer, elk, black bear, and other game and gathered clams and fish from the Cuyahoga River. South Park was abandoned and reoccupied several times between A.D. 1000 and 1600. Numerous seasonal campsites have been found on the floodplains and terraces on both sides of the river. The first localized cultural development unique to this area, Whittlesey sites have been identified upriver from here in Summit County and in the Chagrin and Grand River valleys to the east.
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With five army camps in Columbus, Capitol Square was a military crossroads from 1861 to 1865. Ohio troops were mustered, paid, and on some occasions garrisoned at the Statehouse. Three of every five male Ohioans between the ages of 18 and 45 served in the Civil War. Ohio’s contribution to the war effort was enormous, supplying almost 320,000 soldiers to the Union Army, representing 230 regiments and 26 independent artillery batteries. More than 35,000 soldiers died during the war, and 30,000 more were disabled. One hundred forty-eight Ohio soldiers received the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor. Perhaps Ohio’s greatest contribution to the war was to the Union leadership that won it: Generals Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, and James B. McPherson, as well as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Chase, were all Ohioans.
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A primary architect of American air power, Curtis Emerson LeMay was born in Columbus in 1906, attended public schools, and graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in civil engineering. He received his flight training through the Reserve Officers Training Corps and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1929. Before World War II, he pioneered air routes to Africa and England; during the war he developed tactical and strategic doctrine used in bombing operations in Europe and the South Pacific, often leading his forces in combat. He was promoted to general in 1944. In 1947, following the organization of the U.S.Air Force (USAF), LeMay was appointed commander of USAF Europe, directing operations during the Berlin Airlift at the dawn of the Cold War. (continued on other side)
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This rare sandstone house was built for Austin (c. 1788-1848) and Roxanna (Sears) Lilly (c. 1793-1868). They came to Dover Township (now Westlake) in 1832 from Ashfield, Massachusetts, an area from which many Dover settlers originated. This lot had been owned by Ozias and Hiram Smith. The Lillys erected this house in about 1844 and lived here until 1867. It is made with sandstone blocks two feet thick, finely tooled and dressed in the front and less elaborately on the sides and rear. The basement is constructed with massive rectangular stone blocks. Thick hewn timbers support the massive roof structure. A brick wing was attached to the east side in about 1850. After 1867, the lot and house had several owners, including George Weston, James Beardsley, and August Trudel. Eventually, Alice (Mrs. Dezso) Ladanyi, the great granddaughter of George Weston, deeded the house to the city of Westlake for use as a museum.
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