Monthly Archives: July 2022

In 2007, The Plain Dealer asked a group of professional and amateur historians to name the people or families most influential in shaping Cleveland into the city we know today. Those chosen as the 25 most important (26, actually, since there was a tie for 25th place) are listed in ranked order below; others with notable influence follow in an alphabetical list. This list, edited and prepared for publication by then-Plain Dealer editorial writer Joe Frolik, was originally published in The Plain Dealer on Jan. 28, 2007.

1. John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937): The Bill Gates of his day got started here and made Cleveland an early center of the oil and chemical industries. His centennial gift: 300 acres for the East Side park that bears his name.

2. Tom L. Johnson (1854-1911): Made a fortune operating streetcars, then did a political turnaround. As a three-term mayor, he advocated public ownership of utilities and made Cleveland a model of good government.

3. Samuel Mather (1851-1931) and Flora Stone Mather (1852-1909): Clevelands original power couple. They not only expanded their inherited wealth, they gave lavishly to churches, schools and hospitals and challenged their peers to do the same. To encourage even broader giving, Samuel started the nations first Community Chest (now United Way) drive.

4. Mantis J. Van Sweringen (1881-1935) and Oris P. Van Sweringen (1879-1936): These bashful bachelor brothers developed Shaker Square and Shaker Heights, built the Shaker rapid and the complex of buildings with the Terminal Tower at its core.

5. George W. Crile Sr. (1864-1943): After service as a surgeon on the battlefields of the Spanish-American War and World War I, he returned to start the Cleveland Clinic.

6. Newton D. Baker (1871-1937): As mayor, this Tom L. Johnson lieutenant helped write the home-rule section of the Ohio Constitution and started the Baker Hostetler law firm. He was secretary of war during World War I.

7. Carl B. Stokes (1927-1996): Equally at home in a boardroom or a pool hall, he rose from public housing to become a legislator, judge, ambassador and, in 1967, the first Black mayor of a major American city.

8. Jeptha Wade (1811-1890): Banker, telegraph entrepreneur and industrialist, he donated land along Doan Creek for Western Reserve University, a city park and an art museum, thus planting the seeds for University Circle.

9. Adella Prentiss Hughes (1869-1950): A talented musician who in1915 founded the Cleveland Orchestra, still the citys premier cultural asset.

10. Frederick H. Goff (1858-1923): Built Cleveland Trust into the regions dominant bank and started the Cleveland Foundation, a national model of community philanthropy.

11. Alfred Kelley (1789-1859): Banker and politician, he spearheaded construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal.

12. Marcus A. Hanna (1837-1904): Leveraged his shipping and railroad fortune into political power. Ran the presidential campaigns of Cantons William McKinley and served in the U.S. Senate.

13. Leonard Case Jr. (1820-1880): His donations started the university that now bears his name. Early backer of the Cleveland Library Association, a forerunner of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Western Reserve Historical Society.

14. William Stinchcomb (1878-1959): Visionary county engineer, not only proposed the Emerald Necklace, he lobbied for a Metroparks levy to buy land, then used Civilian Conservation Corps labor during the Depression to build its infrastructure.

15. Henry Chisholm (1822-1881): Scottish immigrant who used technology and managment to make Cleveland a national center of steel-making.

16. Charles F. Brush (1849-1929): His arc light illuminated Public Square in 1879, and within a few years was in use throughout the world. Brush Electric Light & Power Co. later merged with Thomas Edisons firm to form General Electric.

17. Frank J. Lausche (1895-1990): Son of Slovenian immigrants, he became Clevelands first mayor of Eastern European descent and paved the way for politicians with names like Perk, Voinovich and Kucinich. Also served as governor and U.S. senator.

18. Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963): Internationally known Zionist, helped found Israel. Led Temple-Tifereth Israel, the countrys largest Reform congregation, and was active in both Jewish philanthropy and economic reform movements.

19. Louis B. Seltzer (1897-1980): As editor of The Cleveland Press for 38 years, he set the citys political and civic agenda. Nothing happened at City Hall without a nod from this pocket-sized man with oversized clout.

20. Alexander Winton (1860-1932): Successful bicycle-maker with a flair for promotion, he helped popularize the automobile. His 1898 Winton was the first American-made gasoline-powered car. Sold his company to General Motors in 1930.

21. Russell Jeliffe (1891-1980) and Rowena Jeliffe: Oberlin-educated social workers founded Karamu, a biracial settlement house that won national acclaim for its arts programs. Also helped start the Urban League of Greater Cleveland and the Cleveland Community Relations Board.

22. Frederick Crawford (1891-1994): Founder of what became TRW Inc., a collector of vintage automobiles and founder of the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum. Was instrumental in bringing the NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center to Cleveland.

23. Frances Payne Bolton (1885-1977): Philanthropist and prominent member of Congress for 29 years, Bolton lobbied to create the Army School of Nursing and endowed the nursing school at Western Reserve University.

24. Belle Sherwin (1868-1955): Suffragette daughter of a Sherwin-Williams Co. founder, she devoted herself to social and political reform. Founded the Womens City Club and led National League of Women Voters.

25. (tie) Rebecca Rouse (1799-1887): Was already a zealous religious and social reformer when she organized the Ladies Aid Society in 1861 to serve northern Ohio soldiers and their families during the Civil War. It laid the groundwork for the Red Cross.

25. (tie) George Gund (1888-1966): Turned Cleveland Trust into a giant banking company and started the George Gund Foundation. In 1983, his sons Gordon and George rescued the Cavaliers basketball team from the edge of disaster.

Others, in alphabetical order:

Florence Ellinwood Allen: Prominent suffragette; first woman on Cuyahoga Common Pleas and Ohio Supreme courts.

Ernest Bohn: His efforts on housing for the poor earned him the reputation as the father of U.S. public housing.

Paul Brown: Led Cleveland to seven pro football championships,1946-55.

Daniel Burnham: A century later, his Mall Plan still impacts almost everything downtown.

Lorenzo Carter: Clevelands first permanent settler; until 1800, the Carters were Clevelands only white family.

Moses Cleaveland: Founded the city that bears his name; returned to Connecticut.

Linda Eastman: Made the Cleveland Public Library one of the nations best.

George Forbes: One of the most powerful politicians in Cleveland history; as council president, he dominated government under three mayors.

Dorothy Fuldheim: Broadcast pioneer; started with WEWS Channel 5 in 1947 and stayed until 1984, when she was 91.

Rabbi Moses Gries: One of the countrys most influential rabbis, he also started the Citizens League.

Leonard Hanna Jr.: Heir to a shipping fortune and Marcus nephew; put his energy and checkbook behind a long list of civic and cultural activities.

Max Hayes: Union printer; launched the Cleveland Citizen newspaper in 1891; became a national voice of labor and socialist movements.

Liberty Holden: Made The Plain Dealer the citys dominant morning paper. Family wealth later created one of the largest U.S. arboretums.

Richard Jacobs: Under this developers ownership, the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) made the World Series twice in the 1990s and woke a sleeping fan base.

Martin A. Marks: Businessman; started forerunner of the Jewish Community Federation.

Sam Miller: Confidant of mayors and prime ministers; Forest City co-chairman masterminded the companys explosive growth in suburban home-building.

Jesse Owens: Sprinter from East Tech; dashed Hitlers myth of Aryan supremacy at the 1936 Olympics.

Bishop Louis Amadeus Rappe: Clevelands first Catholic bishop; recruited priests and nuns from Europe and built churches, schools, orphanages and hospitals.

Ratner family: Leonard, Max, Charles, Fannye and Dora arrived from Poland and entered the lumber business. Then came construction, development and philanthropy, a heritage their descendants, notably Albert, Chuck and James, continue.

Jacob Sapirstein: Polish immigrant; started American Greetings with $50 in 1905.

Bishop Joseph Schrembs: Clevelands fifth Catholic bishop; expanded charity work; used radio to evangelize.

Amasa Stone: Rail mogul; gave money to Western Reserve University to start Adelbert College in memory of his late son.

George Szell: In 34 years as musical director, this stern taskmaster from Vienna cemented the Cleveland Orchestras international reputation.

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The Plain Dealers 2007 list of the most influential Clevelanders in history - cleveland.com

WINDSOR At 99, Joyce Benner is the oldest resident of Windsor and has lived in the town her whole life. At almost 1 month old, Charles Haiss is the towns youngest life-long resident.

The pair were given plaques with those recognitions Saturday during the Windsor Bicentennial event. Elwin Hussey, who turns 99 next month, was a close second for being the oldest, so he also was awarded a plaque.

Nancy Seakers, who at 87 said she is the young one of the bunch, asked her friend Hussey if he was born in Windsor. He said he was born at the hospital down the street, but has remained in the town his whole life. His family started Husseys General Store, a staple of the town, the same year Elwin was born.

It just came automatically, I dont have a feeling about it, Hussey said as being nearly the oldest person in town.

The history of the town was celebrated in full at the event, with members of the towns historical society dressed up to celebrate the year Windsor became a town in 1822.

Before it was called Windsor, the town had a number of different names. It was first called Pinhook, because of a hook in the Sheepscot River, located where Cooper Mills is. Then, it was called Malta, for the Malta War, and for a short amount of time, it was even called Gerry. In 1822, it became Windsor.

Lori Spaulding, dressed up in a floor length skirt and bonnet on her head, made chickens noodle soup, cornbread and pie with the stove of the house that was built in 1803 in town. The house was originally built across the street, Spaulding said, but was moved to the current fairgrounds.

Spaulding said with the Windsor Historical Society, she dresses up and reenacts 1800s living every year for the Windsor Fair, held over Labor Day weekend. She sets up in a house on site and nearby is a one-room schoolhouse, another house, a saw mill and a blacksmith shop, all in their original early 1800s conditions.

I love that people come and learn about the house, they come all through it and then the younger kids will ask where the bathroom is, said Spaulding, who explained they use the questions as a learning opportunity to discuss outhouses and what it was like to live back then. The house she sets up in is not insulated and not currently lived in.

Saturdays event also featured games all morning and afternoon, though Haskell said she wanted the games to have an old-time feel to them.

Set up across the fair grounds were three-legged races, the pan toss and an egg walk. Children could also try their luck searching for coins in a sawdust patch and exchange them for prizes. There was a horse-drawn carriage for people to ride, too.

Haskell said the town plans to bury a time capsule on Sept. 3 during this years Windsor Fair. Haskell said different groups representing the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department, Windsor Elementary School, the local church and others can all contribute something to bury.

By noon, Haskell guessed more than 150 people had already come to the event, with more likely to filter in and out throughout the day. Later in the day there would be bingo games using lima beans for counters that Haskell hand sorted for the games.

The event is scheduled to conclude at 9 p.m. with fireworks, but first will offer a movie for children and a dance in the street for the adults.

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Windsor celebrates its bicentennial with games, music, and history - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

West Chester University student Adam MacMillan has been studying U.S. military history intensely since eighth grade.

It started when he learned his three great uncles had fought in World War II, and his passion grew as he met more veterans, heard their stories, and happily accepted their military uniforms and items they carried on battlefields. The rising sophomore has amassed a collection with hundreds of pieces in his Cranbury Township, N.J., basement, worthy of a museum.

Then last month that history came to life in a new way as he sat beside 98-year-old D-Day veteran Bob Gibson at a cemetery in Normandy, France, for American soldiers who died during WWII.

The 19-year-old put his hand on Gibsons back and began to cry.

I could just see myself in Bob, MacMillan said, recounting the experience last week.

READ MORE: Why West Chester at 150 years old has emerged as the state system's best

And with good reason. Gibson was about the same age as MacMillan when he mounted the beach in Normandy and took part in the invasion that would lead to Germanys defeat. He was about the same height and weight as MacMillan, too. They even wear the same size shoe. He struggled to imagine himself, being 19 and fighting in WWII.

The two were part of a group that went on an eight-day trip set up by the Best Defense Foundation, a California-based nonprofit founded by former NFL football player Donnie Edwards that takes WWII veterans back to the battlefields where they served. The veterans are accompanied by young volunteers, like MacMillan, who serve as personal caretakers. This years trip, covered by donations, coincided with the 78th anniversary of D-Day on June 6. Gibson, a resident of Hunterdon County, N.J., who was interviewed by NBC Nightly News while there, was among 28 veterans who went, seven of whom had participated in D-Day.

I was just so happy that I was able to be a part of this experience for him, MacMillan said.

Its critical, the teen said, for his generation to take pride in the history, learn from it, and remember sacrifices military members made.

If not, it will all be lost, he said.

Michael Malone, 42, a Wall Township, N.J., police officer and volunteer with the Best Defense Foundation, said such intense interest and appreciation from a person as young as MacMillan is extraordinary.

Adam knows more about WWII than anybody I know, he said. When I have a question, hes the person I call.

MacMillan said his interest began when his class was studying the Holocaust and he asked his father about their relatives war involvement. His father hauled out a bag of German war medals taken from soldiers who died or were captured. They were brought back by one of the teens great uncles, his father told him.

He would learn two great uncles, Raymond and Richard, had served in the Army during WWII, while another, Elmer, was a cook on a landing ship in the Pacific. His grandfather was a private in the Army Air Corps post WWII, and another great uncle, a marine, served in Vietnam. That uncle gave him a collection of 300 photographs he had taken while there.

He began searching for military memorabilia online and attending flea markets, where he discovered a few Purple Hearts that had been given away or lost by family. One belonged to a WWII soldier from Arkansas, another from Pennsylvania.

He met a veteran who served in Iraq and was burned over 70% of his body after his tank ran over an explosive device. That veteran gave him three footlockers of his military items. He also received the uniform of a friends grandfather who was a field surgeon in Vietnam whom he interviewed. And the wife of the former commander of a Purple Heart association chapter in New Jersey, whose meetings MacMillan began attending, gave him her husbands Vietnam service uniform and medals.

His collection also includes a rack of military jackets, spanning WWII to present. He has everything a soldier would have carried on D-Day, including 80 rounds of ammunition, a bayonet, a life preserver, a canteen, wire cutters, a first aid pouch. He has dog tags, WWII ammunition boxes, a rifle cleaner, language guides, helmets, books, and magazine articles dating back more than a half century.

Last year, his father, Doug MacMillan, spotted a man wearing a WWII cap while shopping at a local Target. He called his son, excitedly.

I said, Dad, stick with him. I want to meet him, the younger MacMillan recalled.

His dad complied. Turns out the veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, lives five minutes away. That led to a five hour-meeting.

He told me all these stories and showed me all this memorabilia, MacMillan said.

They have remained good friends. The MacMillans recently had the veteran over to celebrate his 96th birthday. MacMillan and his mom made a cake and frosted it to resemble the unit patch he wore during WWII.

MacMillan, a member of West Chesters golf team, also has struck a friendship with former team coach Edwin Cottrell, a WWII fighter pilot.

He and Adam have had great discussions about WWII and history, said current coach Harry Hammond. Hes just a great kid.

MacMillan has shared his interest with teammates, too. During the NCAA tournament this year, MacMillan gave his golf team captain a military captains bars to wear for good luck.

A marketing major with a minor in history, MacMillan said he hopes to parlay his military interest into a career, possibly working in marketing for a veterans organization or the U.S. Army.

His connection to the Best Defense Foundation began during the pandemic. Then a student at Princeton High School, he started watching the foundations online interviews with WWII veterans. Thats how he got connected to Malone, the police officer who recommended his participation in the Normandy trip.

In preparation, MacMillan researched the names of more than 30 men and women from West Chester who were killed in WWII. He wanted to know if any were buried in Normandy and found one, David J. Gerrits, who also had been a West Chester student.

Gerrits was shot down over the English Channel and his body wasnt recovered, but his name appears on a wall of the missing at Brittany American Cemetery. MacMillan found the wall and took a photo.

Along with Malone and Gibson, MacMillan rode in a WWII jeep to the very beach Gibson landed on in 1944.

The trio also searched out the grave of New Jersey soldier Carl B. Westerberg, who was killed in WWII and received a Purple Heart. That Purple Heart found its way to MacMillan, and he was asked to place it on Westerbergs grave. MacMillan taped it to the top of the headstone, took a photo, and returned it.

Gibson said he was grateful for his young companion. MacMillan pushed him in a wheelchair, laid his clothes out, and helped him with daily tasks.

Theres no better boy than Adam, Gibson said.

MacMillan said hes the one in awe.

Bob deserves the world, MacMillan said. All the guys and women that we took back, ... because of what they did for us. I wouldnt have what I have now if it wasnt for them.

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A West Chester students passion for WWII history led him to accompany a 98-year-old D-Day veteran to Normandy - The Philadelphia Inquirer

In March 2008, I was 13 when my dad and I watched the TV miniseries Roots, which follows the fictional story of a man born in 18th century Gambia who is sold as a slave in America, and the many generations who come after him.

It inspired me to ask questions about my own familys past. Suddenly I startedsearching online, interviewing older relatives, and exploring libraries and archives. Surprisingly,more than halfof Americans cant name all four of their own grandparents, andover 20%of black Americans have never looked into their family tree. But, as a result of my research, not only can I name all of mine, I can trace my family tree straight back to the 1790s.

I also discovered something crucial that contrasts sharply with what many African Americans are taught about our history. As students, black people are repeatedly told that we all descend from slavery, and that we all were (and only were) slaves. Most people assume that every black American who lived in the US before 1870 was a slave.

That is simply not true.

In 1860, three years before the Emancipation Proclamation, The United States Federal Census Schedule reported 488,070 free black Americans. True, many might say quasi-free, since these African Americans could not vote. But free they still were almost half a million of them roughly 12.5% of the entire African-American population at that time.

Huldah Peck, my great-great-great-great-grandmother on my fathers side was born free in Greenwich, Conn., in 1836. Her parents, George Peck, a stonemason and Nancy Felmetta, were also free; as were Nancys parents, York and Tamar, the latter born in 1773, three years before the US Revolution. Its striking to think that my fathers ancestors were free for nearly a century before the Civil War.

While most of my mothers family were enslaved on South Carolina plantations at this time, learning about this other side this free side made me realize that slavery does not fully define my past.

Huldahs children also illustrate the importance of self-reliance and entrepreneurship in my family. Her son Edward B. Merritt, born in 1871, worked in real estate at a time when the majority of blacks in much of the nation labored as farmers or domestics. His son, John Sherman Merritt, was a homeowner in Greenwich, Conn., who worked four jobs to support his young family. Johns daughter, Adele Matilda Merritt, enjoyed a privileged Greenwich childhood complete with charm school, a penchant for photography, and later- international travel. And Adeles daughter my grandmother, Joyce Marie Watkins was a smallbusiness ownerwho settled inYonkers, NY.

Black children grow up believing that their only history is a history of slavery.Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Timess 1619 Project, arguedthat Americas entire history is founded on slavery.The truth is more complicated, interesting, and nuanced than that.

Researching my familys past has given me a sense of belonging to this nation. I am part of the large story of striving and success that has built the American dream. All this has empowered me to walk with my head held high, and I hope it inspires others to look beyond the stock narratives of the present and find their own lessons from the past.

For me, Huldahs 100-year-old headstone in Rye Brook, NY, will forever serve as a reminder of her unique status and history a history I am proud to call my own.

Dennis Richmond Jr. is a journalist and the author ofHe Spoke at My School: An Educational Journey. He is the founder of The New York-New Jersey HBCU Initiative. Follow him on social media@NewYorkStakz.

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My family history shows Ive been lied to about slavery in America - New York Post