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The Silver Creek Cheese Factory was located in the heart of the tri-county area known during the 19th century as “Cheesedome”. This part of the Western Reserve was best known for the cheese it shipped internationally. The factory contributed to the Aurora processing network, which by 1904 was shipping 4,000,000 pounds of cheese per year. The factory was destroyed by a flood in 1913 as were many other industries which flourished in the Chagrin Valley.
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Aurora’s first church was established on December 31, 1809 under the guidance of the Connecticut Missionary Society. The congregation called the Rev. John Seward of Granby, Massachusetts to be the first minister in 1812. Built on land donated by Samuel Forward and dedicated in 1824, the original brick church was replaced by a wood-frame building in 1872. The First Congregational Church and the Aurora Disciples of Christ formed an association called the Federated Church in Aurora in 1913. These three entities merged to form The Church in Aurora in 1933, serving the community as more than a landmark.
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In 1810, early settlers here were Major Amos Spafford (1753-1818), his wife Olive (1756-1823), and their children Samuel, Aurora , Chloe (Mrs. Almon Gibbs), and Anna (Mrs. Richard Craw). In 1796, Spafford, a native of Connecticut, was a surveyor for the Connecticut Land Company. He drew the first map laying out Cleveland and named the city. He left there in 1810 following appointment as custom’s collector and postmaster for the new port at the foot of the Maumee River rapids, Port Miami of Lake Erie. Spafford was granted a 160 acre land patent on River Tracts #64 and #65 in Waynesfield township, signed by President James Monroe and was able to purchase it following the 1817 Treaty of the Rapids that extinguished Native American claim. Two years later, 67 families lived in the area, but most fled at the outbreak of the War of 1812.
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Ebenezer Sheldon (1754-1825) was born in Suffield, Connecticut. On April 19, 1775, he answered the “Lexington Alarm,” fought in the Revolution, and, in 1789, was appointed a captain in Connecticut’s militia. Following the Revolution, Sheldon, like many others, suffered financial hardships and sought a new beginning in the Western Reserve. In 1799, he established a homestead in Aurora and returned to Connecticut the following year to bring his wife Lovee and their six children to the area. A family legend relates that when Lovee saw the family’s home she “shed a few tears over the cheerless prospects” of her new life in the wilderness.
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The Randall Secondary rail line dates to the 1850s when the independent Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad (C&M) laid tracks through Aurora, Ohio. C&M, chartered in 1848, linked the Mahoning Valley coal and iron ore fields to the industries and lake port at Cleveland. For over a century, the Randall Secondary contributed to Aurora’s economic life ? fueling the region’s rapid growth during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In its heyday, the line was an important route for commuter transport and freight service along the 67 miles between Cleveland and Youngstown. Although passenger service into Aurora Train Station stopped in the 1960s, freight service continued into the 1990s. The last remaining track of the Randall Secondary in Aurora stands near the station it served.
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The Chillicothe Turnpike stimulated the growth of Aurora Center, Aurora’s first commercial area. Established in 1802 by Benjamin Tappan, the road also precipitated the development of Kirtland, Chester, Russell and Bainbridge, provided access to landlocked properties, and linked distant towns from Lake Erie to Ohio’s first capital in Chillicothe. In Aurora, the Chillicothe Turnpike turned southwest towards Hudson and continued southward over the boundary of the Western Reserve.
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James Willard Converse (1806-1892) opened his store in 1825 at 10 South Chillicothe Road. Serving residents, merchants, and travelers, the store proved central to Aurora’s early commercial development. Converse’s Daybook survives as a glimpse into the habits of early citizens, who, along with household items, regularly purchased whiskey. Surprisingly, such sales surged on George Washington’s February 22 birthday. Converse deeded the business to employee Seth A. Gillett in 1834. Hopson Hurd Sr. (1793-1869) purchased it from Gillett in 1845. Hurd’s store was popular with local farmers who used their home made cheese as legal tender and enjoyed the barrel of whiskey kept in Hurd’s basement for customers who paid their bills. Hurd added a cheese warehouse to his store and, as a major exporter of cheese to Cleveland, Warren, and Pittsburgh, amassed a sizeable fortune.
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Border warfare characterized the American Revolution on the northwest frontier. Between August 26 and September 15, 1781, sixty-four survivors of Lochry’s Expedition were held captive by “Butler’s Rangers” (British-allied Indians led by George Girty) in a camp near this site. Colonel Archibald Lochry’s battalion of Pennsylvania militia, part of a larger punitive expedition under General George Rogers Clark and traveling down the Ohio River behind the main force, was attacked by Girty’s men ten miles downstream from the mouth of the Great Miami River near present-day Aurora, Indiana. Thirty-seven militiamen were killed in the August 24 battle, including Lochry, and the rest captured. Afterwards Rogers abandoned his objective of capturing British-held Detroit. The captives were taken to Detroit and eventually to Montreal. Tradition holds that fewer than twenty of Lochry’s battalion ever returned to their homes.
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