Geneva Anniversary - Geneva Township Ohio

Transcription

Geneva Anniversary
Happy Birthday
Week of Wednesday, May 11, 2016
1
Join us in Celebrating
Geneva Township
200th Anniversary
City of Geneva
150th Anniversary
A Gazette Newspapers Publication
Geneva Township, City of Geneva to celebrate birthdays with a year of events
BY GABRIEL McVEY
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA – The City
of Geneva’s sesquicentennial and Geneva Township’s bicentennial will be
commemorated in a dual
celebration May 21, but
the celebrations will be a
yearlong event with events
scheduled throughout the
year to celebrate Geneva
pride – township and city.
The main event – so
to speak – will be May 21
and 22 at Memorial Field
to celebrate the joint birthdays of Geneva Township
and the City of Geneva.
The schedule
for the two-day
bicentennial/
sesquicentennial
is as follows:
Saturday, May 21
7 a.m. to 12 p.m. - Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast at
United Methodist Church
1 p.m. - Parade from
downtown to Memorial
Field
1 p.m. to 9 p.m. - Rides,
crafts, car show vendors
and concessions at Memorial Field
2 p.m. - National Anthem
and flag raising by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post
#6846
2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Children’s games
2:45 p.m to 5:45 p.m. - Music by The Kingpins
3:00 p.m. - Magic show by
The Great Brad
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Roast beef dinner at Park
Street Christian Church
5:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Music by the H2O Band
Sunday, May 22
1:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m. Rides, crafts, vendors and
concessions at Memorial
Field
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Music by the Geneva High
School Jazz Band
2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. Music by Mark Carr – an
Elvis impersonator
3:45 p.m to 6:00 p.m. music by Larry, Daryl,
Daryl and Sheryl
The May 21 and 22
celebration does not, however, mark the end of the
party. Events throughout
the year will continue to
celebrate and commemorate Geneva Township
and Geneva City.
On June 11, Geneva
Public Library will hold
a Geneva History Expo
from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. In
addition to contributions
from the library archives,
residents are encouraged
to bring items of historical
significance to the area
and discuss them with
attendees.
July 23 and 24 is Art
Weekend in Geneva, and
the Community Barn
Quilt will be unveiled
at 43 E. Main St. Plans
are in the offing to retouch and unveil murals
throughout the city in
an effort aimed at beautification and promoting
Geneva pride.
Geneva Area High
School will hold a pep
rally Aug. 25 to celebrate
the new school year and
Geneva pride with the
Geneva High School
marching band parading
through the city, followed
by a bonfire at the parade
route’s end at Geneva
High School.
August is also slated
for an outdoor meal called
“Dinner on Broadway,”
where the city will close
down North Broadway
and set up tables, allowing
guests to dine outdoors.
On Sept. 9-11, Christ
Episcopal Church is commemorating its own sesquicentennial and will
IMAGE SUBMITTED BY GENEVA TOWNSHIP FISCAL OFFICER TONY LONG
Pictured is a proof of the joint sesquicentennial/bicentennial challenge coin
commemorating the dual anniversaries of Geneva Township and the City of Geneva.
The coins are still available for sale at $10 a piece.
host a tour of sites in
Geneva related to its long
history in Geneva.
Nov. 11 will see a Veterans Day event in cooperation with both the
American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Dec. 10 is the date of
the “Run for the Beard”
– a fundraiser starting
at Kiwanis Park. Those
who can’t or won’t grow
a beard are permitted
to wear a knitted chinwarmer or false beard
for fun.
Commemorative challenge coins with the seals
for the City of Geneva
on one side and Geneva
Township’s on the reverse
for $10 and wooden nickels with the same seals
will be available for free
at the May 21 and 22 celebration. The challenge
coins will be available
throughout the year so
long as interest continues.
Geneva Anniversary
2
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Geneva Anniversary
3
Bartholomew family members settled Geneva Township
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Originally published in The
Ashtabula Wave
Each human being has a
longing to be remembered
for something.
That job of what that is
often falls to the historian,
who sifts through the details
of the person's life in hopes of
finding that golden nugget.
In the case of the Bartholomew family of Geneva
and Harpersfield townships,
there are many details and
accomplishments through
which to sift. Theobald and
Elizabeth Bartholomew are
usually recognized as the
first permanent settlers of
what would become Geneva
Township. They arrived in
1805, and between their
children, Theobalt's siblings, nieces and nephews,
would do much toward the
divine admonition to "fill
the earth."
Along the way, they
chose some history-making
spouses.
Meet Theobald and
family
The Bartholomews in
America go back to a Palatine immigrant, Johan
(1710-1777), who purchased
land in Germantown, Pa., in
1730. While a clerk recorded
his nationality as Dutch, the
family tradition states that
they were French Huguenots who had fled to Switzerland because of religious
persecution. Johan's name
was Anglicized to John and
he was naturalized in 1740.
Court proceedings of that
event show that he chose to
"affirm" rather than swear,
in keeping with the Biblical
command.
John Bartholomew
moved from Pennsylvania
to New Jersey in 1743 and to
the New York colony in 1770,
where he came to know Col.
John Harper, whose son,
Alexander, would migrate to
the Western Reserve.
His wife, Dorothy, also
was from Palatine and never
learned to speak English.
The couple had 16 children,
12 of them boys. Perhaps the
large family had something
to do with the language difficulty between the spouses.
Survivors
One of these sons, Theobald "Tewalt" Bartholomew,
and his wife, Elizabeth
(Brewer), migrated from
Charlotte, Schoharie County, N.Y., to Geneva in 1805.
Their residence was on the
South Ridge, a short distance west of where Cowles
Creek crosses the road. This
places their land in the area
of Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Described as a man of
small stature but great courage, Theobald was born in
Germantown, Pa., around
the year 1731, and married
Elizabeth Dec. 1, 1768. He
died, in Harpersfield Township, in 1827.
Theobald lived an adventurous life prior to coming
to Ashtabula County. He
fought in the French and
Indian War before mov-
Pictured on the cover is a 1926 panorama of
Geneva. The photo is courtesy of Carl Feather of
the Wave and Geneva City Manager Doug Starkey.
Geneva
Anniversary
A Gazette Newspapers Publication
Publisher Emeritus..........................John Lampson
President/Publisher.........................William Creed
Senior Editor ................................Stefanie Wessell
Page Design..............................................F. Hilger
Editorial Office
46 W. Jefferson St., Jefferson, Ohio 44047
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Toll-Free: 1-800-860-2775
E-mail: [email protected]
ing to the Charlotte Valley
with his father. The family
suffered great losses during
the Revolutionary War, having their house and barns
burned. In 1778, Theobald
and his family were taken
prisoners by Mohawk Chief
Joseph Brant and his warriors. By then, most of his
neighbors had found refuge
in the Schoharie Fort, upon
which Brant intended to
make a surprise attack the
following morning.
Brant released Theobald
and his family upon the condition that he not go to the
fort. Ignoring Brant, Theobald and his wife carried
their two babies and walked
28 miles through the snow
to the fort. The couple arrived just in time to warn
of the impending attack and
thereby avert a massacre.
His father and family lived in
the fort, almost as prisoners,
for three years.
During his service in the
Revolution, Theobald killed
an Indian who had been
picking off the soldiers assigned to a night picket at
the fort. For several successive days, a picket was found
tomahawked and scalped
at his post every morning.
When it came his friend's
time to pull duty, Theobald
insisted upon switching places. His backwoods experience was put into play when
he noticed one of the bushes
moving in the darkness; the
culprit was planning yet
another sneak attack.
Westward
In 1805 Theobald and his
family migrated from Charlotte, Schoharie County,
N.Y., to the South Ridge in
Geneva Township. Other
family members had established a beachhead here in
prior migrations:
Theobald's sister was
Elizabeth Harper, wife of
Col. Alexander Harper, who
was the first settler in what
would become Harpersfield
Township. They arrived in
1798;
Daniel Sr. (1771-1814),
Theobald's nephew, followed his aunt to Harpersfield Township in 1800. They
came by sled along the Lake
Erie shore, which was typical
for those migrating to the
Western Reserve.
"They removed from the
Charlotte Valley by sleds
drawn over the snow; after
reaching the future site of
PHOTO COURTSEY OF CARL E. FEATHER
Buffalo they made the ice
on Lake Erie their highway,
and on the 4th of March,
1800, made a landing in
Ohio," stated a history of the
family attributed to an entry
in a family ledger.
Five years later, Theobald and his family would
follow the same route. According to one account, they
barely made it to Geneva
before the ice started to
break up.
They settled on the South
Ridge (Route 84), just west
of the point where Cowles
Creek intersects the byway.
In the next three years,
they were joined by others
from Harpersfield, N.Y.,
including Mrs. James Morrison, Sr., and the households of Dr. Nathan B. Johnson, Abram Webster, Noah
Cowles, Levi Gaylord and
John Ketcham.
Another war
Jacob Bartholomew
(1775-1825) , one of Theobald's two sons, arrived in
the Western Reserve in
1806. He showed a strong interest in the militia and was
commissioned a colonel in
the early days of the War
of 1812. Jacob commanded
the Third Regiment, frontier
service, made up of soldiers
recruited from Ashtabula
and Geauga counties. It was
the first company from this
area to go to the war.
The list of Geneva and
Harpersfield men who
served in that war indicate that Jacob recruited
from within the clan. Abraham, John B. (Jacob's older brother) and Samuel
Bartholomew served in the
company.
Axed at breakfast
Samuel Bartholomew
(1785-1822) deserves special mention. The son of
Joseph and Lena (Desey)
Bartholomew, he was born
in Schoherie County, N.Y.,
and died in Harpersfield
Township at the age of 36.
While Samuel survived
his service in the war, life
on the home front with his
three children and wife, Susannah (Atkins) was more
treacherous.
While Samuel was eating breakfast on a January morning, Susannah approached him from behind
and whacked him with an
ax.
According to the court
document, the ax, valued
at two dollars, was used to
deliver several blows to the
back part and side of her
husband's head, "striking
one mortal wound of the
length of five inches and of
the depth of two inches and
one other mortal wound
on the left side of the head
in the temple of the said
Samuel of the length of five
inches of the depth of two
inches."
The document notes that
Samuel did "there instantly
die" from the wounds. Thus,
with the county just 11 years
old, its common pleas court
had its first case of a wife
killing her husband.
The jury of inquest returned a verdict of willful
and premeditated murder.
However, the trial went in
Susannah's favor; she was
acquitted on the grounds of
insanity as a result of her
attorneys' skillful work.
Those attorneys were
Robert Harper and S.
Wheeler. Robert was a son
of Alexander and Elizabeth
(Bartholomew) Harper and
the builder of Shandy Hall
in Harpersfield Township.
His choice to represent Susannah seems odd, considering that she was accused
of murdering his cousin.
Perhaps he felt there were
extenuating circumstances
that justified taking the
case. Elisha Whittlesey and
R. Stone were attorneys for
the defense.
Little is known of Susannah (Susan) Atkin(s),
the ax-wielding wife. She
was born in Roughton, England, about 1780 and died in
Kingsville Township in 1870.
She and Samuel had three
children: Diana, Aaron and
Diantha. The 1860 Federal
Census places her residency
as Kingsville Township,
confirming a note in the
"Record of the Bartholomew
family: Historical, Genealogical and Biographical," by
George Wells Bartholomew.
His note states "Susannah
Atkins, an excellent woman,
who becoming insane, killed
her husband in (Harpersfield), 24 Jan. 1822, and died
at the Ashtabula Infirmary."
Dancing in the candlelight
One other wife of a pioneer Bartholomew deserves
recognition as part of this
visit. She is Betsey Lamont
See BARTHOLOMEW pg 19
Geneva Anniversary
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Geneva’s Ransom E. Olds was automotive pioneer
BY MARTHA SOROHAN
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA – Born in
1864, automotive pioneer
Ransom E. Olds would be
amazed at today’s cars,
with keyless ignitions,
automatic braking, and
the ability to drive themselves.
These technological
wonders, however, appear no more futuristic
than did Olds’ first steam
car, built in 1894, or his
first gasoline-powered
car, built in 1896, back
in the day.
Olds, a Geneva native,
was the son of Pliny Fiske
and Sarah Whipple Olds.
His father was a blacksmith and pattern-maker.
Olds did not grow up in
Geneva, however, as the
family moved to Cleveland when he was a boy,
and eventually settled in
Lansing, Mich. The Olds
family was of English
ancestry.
Olds founded the Olds
Motor Vehicle Company
in Lansing in 1987, but
he told it two years later
to Samuel L. Smith. Renaming it the Olds Motor
Works, Smith became
president and moved the
company to Detroit. Olds
remained vice president
and general manager.
Olds may have produced the first electric
car. It was among the
11 prototype vehicles
he built by 1901, cars
with steam, gasoline and
electric engines. Olds
was unique in that he is
believed to be the only
American automotive pioneer to produce and sell
at least one of each type
of car.
Things did not run
smoothly for Olds. But his
“Curved Dash” runabout
became well-known as
the only one of his models
that did not burn when
the Olds Motor Works factory burned to the ground
in 1901.
That prompted Olds
to put that model into
production, since he had
had 300 Curved Dash orders prior to the fire. The
car sold for $650, equivalent to about $18,489 today. Contrary to popular
thought, the Curved Dash
runabout, and not Henry
Ford’s Model T, was the
first mass-produced automobile.
Olds sold 600 of the
model in 1901, 3,000 the
next year, and 4,000 in
1904.
Olds left the Olds Motor Works, and formed
the R.E. Olds Motor Company, after Smith’s son
came into the business.
The two clashed so frequently that Smith removed Olds as vice presi-
Celebrate with
custom-made
banners
With the help from
Conrad Signs, the City
of Geneva and Geneva
Township are able to offer
custom-made birthday
celebration banners with
your company or family
name for the light posts
downtown Geneva.
The cost is $125. Your
custom banner will be
given to you in December after being displayed
downtown Geneva. Don’t
wait long to respond by
calling Doug Starkey at
the City of Geneva, 4664675, or Sue Ellen Foote
at Geneva Area Chamber,
466-8694, to reserve a banner. There are only 28 banSUBMITTED PHOTO
ner brackets downtown.
Sample of a 150th banner.
dent and general manager. But Olds changed
the name to REO Motor
Car Company for fear of
a lawsuit from Olds Motor Works. REO Motor
Car Company introduced
in 1915 its light motor
truck, the REO Speed
Wagon, considered the
ancestor of the modern
pick-up truck. Production
ceased in 1953. The success of this vehicle earned
REO one of the betterknown manufacturers
of commercial vehicles
prior to World War II. By
1936, REO had eventually shifted its complete
focus to trucks, and ended
automobile production.
Olds Motor Works
was purchased by General Motors in 1908.
General Motors retired
the Oldsmobile brand
in 2004, after a 96-year
production run.
Olds’ influence exceeded that of the auto
industry. In 1906, he
organized the Capital
National Bank, which
later became the Lansing National Bank and
Michigan National Bank.
He was involved in the
organization of the Michigan Screw Company and
Atlas Drop Forge, both in
Lansing. In 1931, he financed the Olds Tower in
Lansing, which remains
the city’s tallest building.
It has been renamed the
Boji Tower.
In 1913, he purchased
37,547 acres of land by
the northern part of
Tampa Bay, Fla., and
developed the area as
“R.E. Olds-on-the-Bay.”
It later came to be known
as the city of Oldsmar,
with 13,000 people in
Pinellas County.
Olds also became involved in politics, serving
as a Republican delegate
from Michigan’s 6th District at the 1908 Republican National Convention, which nominated
FILE PHOTO
Ransom E. Olds
William Howard Taft for
president.
Most interesting, however, is that Olds built a
turntable for his garage
at his elaborate Queen
Anne-style mansion in
Lansing. The turntable
meant that he did not
have to put his car in
reverse when he left the
next morning. The mansion, incidentally, was
eventually torn down for
I-496, which was named
for Olds.
Olds’ next house in
Ann Arbor, Mich., is open
for public tours.
In 1946, Olds was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame,
an American museum
founded in 1939 that is
part of the MotorCities
National Heritage Area.
A brief history of Geneva
When Ashtabula County was
organized, Harpersfield Township
included all the territory within its
limits plus Trumbull, Hartsgrove
and Geneva townships. But in May
1816, a small group of settlers just
north of Harpersfield Village decided to withdraw from Harpersfield
Township and, at a mass meeting
and at the suggestion of Levi Gaylord, named their new community
Geneva, after the beautiful little
town of Geneva, New York.
These first settlers included, first,
Theobalt Bartholomew of Charlotte,
N.Y. In 1805, he left the craggy,
rock-laden soil at the foot of the
Catskills to arrive several months
later on the South Ridge road near
the west bank of Cowles Creek.
Here he and his family made their
home as the first settlers within the
limits of Geneva. The next settler
was Elisha Wiard, who came from
Connecticut, a young, active and
industrious man who made considerable improvement in the land
just a quarter of a mile north of the
Bartholomews. Then in 1806, James
Morrison Sr. and Levi Gaylord came
from Harpersfield, New York. Levi
was to start the first neighborhood
industry, a tannery and boot making shop.
The next to settle on the site
of the present South Ridge and
on the banks of the creek were a
Dr. Nathan B. Johnson and Noah
Cowles (the creek was to be named
for Mr. Cowles). Then in 1808,
Eleazer Davis improved land for a
farm. During the next seven years,
15 families came to the little settlement, among them being Squire B.
French, John Ketchum, John Jacob
and Benjamin Bartholomew, the
Reverend Jonathan Leslie, Samuel
Quinton and Abisha Lawton and
Truman Watkins.
In the vicinity of the now North
Ridge were Samuel Thompson,
Norman Webster, and Harvey S.
Spencer.
Geneva’s first election was held
in 1816 at the dwelling house of
Loren Cowles, the vote totaled 25
at the polls. The first listing of taxable property netted 26 cabins and
98 head of cattle. From these first
settlers, the town of Geneva is established and flourishes.
Pioneers from the eastern seaboard states, hearing tales of Ohio’s
fertile soil, arrived daily in this
area coming in oxcarts, some on
horseback and many in foot. With
the completion of the Erie Canal in
1820, the introduction of steamboats
and the increasing number and size
of lake shipping added to the attraction of the lake for settlement.
In the early years the south ridge
(Route 84) was the main road. It
was here the first frame school
house was erected in 1821. Prior
to this building, the children had
attended a log school house built
in 1808 and before that had been
taught in the homes of the first
settlers.
By 1829, Geneva was spreading
from the south ridge to the north
ridge (Route 20), so in this year of
1829 a post office was started on
the north ridge much to the delight
of Geneva residents, for up to this
time they had to go to Harpersfield
for their mail.
About 1834, S.S. Tuller opened a
hotel on West Main St. (Route 20)
The population in 1840 had grown
to 1215. In 1850, Romanzo Spring
established the pioneer drug store.
In 1852, the Lake Shore railway
came from Cleveland through Geneva to Ashtabula.
In 1866, on a bright day in June,
the settlement of Geneva became
an incorporated village with Dennis Thorp the first mayor. The first
newspaper was established in 1866
with H.H. Thorp as proprietor and
Warren P. Spencer as editor. In
1868 the community felt there was
a need for advanced education, a
tax levy was proposed and passed
making it possible for the building
of the Geneva Normal School.
In 1958, the “Village” ceased to
be and Geneva became a “City” with
a new charter system of government and a city manager elected to
office. The first city manager was
Robert C. Salisbury.
Geneva Anniversary
5
A creek runs through it
Cowles Creek instrumental in township’s, village’s growth
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
Cowles Creek rambles
through the valley that is
a stone's throw from the
edge of my backyard.
It is an inconsequential
stream, a thin, black line
on the county map; a few
inches deep, several feet
wide, often muddy and as
sluggish as the old black
Lab retriever that shares
the house with me and my
wife, Amanda, on the south
end of Geneva City.
If I were to follow this
stream northward, it
would take me on a rambling journey under the
South Ridge, through Kiwanis Park, under the
Norfolk Southern tracks
and into the heart of the
city. Great effort has been
expended on taming this
creek and its tributaries
and thereby minimize the
possibility of flooding from
them during a spring thaw
or copious rainfall. And so,
for much of its tour of the
city, the sides of the Cowles
Creek channel is laid up
with stone, block and concrete.
Ju s t e a s t o f Gr an t
Street, it is joined with
a lesser stream from the
south, whose origins are
near the Interstate. This
stream flows under the
shortest covered bridge in
the United States, West
Liberty Street, before joining its eastern cousin and
continuing the waters' pilgrimage to the aquatic lord
of this landscape, Lake
Erie.
The creek parallels
North Broadway for much
of its journey to the lake.
Its final turn is just south of
where the Castaway nightclub once stood. If you use
the paved bike trail along
the lakefront west of the resort town, you cross Cowles
Creek near its junction
with Lake Erie. Depending
on the state of the sandbar
at this juncture, the flow
can be broad and sluggish
or narrow and rushing.
In the early days of
Geneva Township, this
area was an estuary, similar to the one at Arcola
Creek, several miles to
the west. The backed-up
water created a lake of
several acres and economic
opportunity. Boat rentals
were offered and fishermen
dropped their lines in the
pool from them. More than
one postcard was produced
depicting the idyllic spot
known as "Chestnut Grove"
or simply Cowles Creek.
Cowles connection
Its name comes from an
earlier settler of Austinburg Township (the headwaters have numerous
branches in both Saybrook
and Austinburg towships).
Big Brook, arising in the
southwestern part of Saybrook Township, joins two
small branches from Austinburg Township to form
the creek.
Cowles is a fine, respected name in these parts;
a good old New England
moniker, and should one
run across a member of
this family, it is important to correctly pronounce
it as "Coles" rather than
"Cow'ls."
Deacon Noah Cowles
was among the first to
settle in Austinburg Township, arriving two years after the original party, led
by Judge Eliphalet Austin.
They first put their New
England axes to the ancient trees on June 5, 1799.
Cowles' homestead was
near one of those streams
that feed the creek that
wanders through Geneva.
A Norwalk, Conn., native, Noah Cowles swapped
an established farm in New
England for wilderness in
the Western Reserve. His
plan was to build a gristmill and he came prepared
for the task with a band of
husky hired laborers and
millwrights, a supply of
nails and mill irons.
He chose Mechanicsville
as the site for this venture,
and during the summer of
1801, seven hired men and
Cowles built the necessary
dam. That fall, the Grand
River flooded, swept away
part of the dam and left the
mill isolated in the stream.
Undaunted, Noah
Cowles announced to his
neighbors that he would
pay $1 a day to any man
who would come to Mechanicsville and help him
salvage the project. Thirty
men, coming from up to
20 miles away, answered
the call.
These men literally
worked up an appetite,
eating a whole cow in a
week's time. Cowles sent
a man to Youngstown, 60
miles away, to secure a
barrel of pork for the crew.
It cost him $50.
Noah's wife became ill,
and the best medical advice
the couple could obtain was
that wine might help improve her condition. There
being no vineyards, let
alone wine, in this wilderness, a man by the name of
Roswell Stevens was hired
to travel by foot to Pittsburgh and bring back a
gallon of wine on his back.
The wine and transportation cost $16.
It was the first in a long
string of expenses associated with his wife's illness, which would eventually claim her life in 1809.
Meanwhile, Noah Cowles
amassed a pile of debt and
he never recovered financially.
Some time after 1808
Noah Cowles moved to Geneva Township and what
would become the Village
of Geneva (1866) and the
City of Geneva (1958).
His house was on the spot
where R.B. Munger would
later build his home on
North Broadway, a short
distance north of the railroad tracks. Before moving into that settlement,
Cowles broke land along
South Ridge.
Uncle T. Walt
Cowles' neighbors along
the South Ridge included
Theobalt Bartholomew,
who arrived in what was
then Harpersfield Township, in 1805. Bartholomew
was from Charlotte, New
York. He had been a soldier
in the frontier and border
warfare that came with
the Revolutionary War and
was held in high esteem by
his fellow settlers.
Known as Uncle T.
Walt, Bartholomew was
worn out from a life of work
and soldiering by the time
he reached the Western
Reserve. Nevertheless,
whenever there was a community log cabin raising,
Uncle T. Walt would show
up to do his part, which
was mostly to manage the
supply of whiskey.
According to a story
written by Alice Bliss in
1968, Uncle T. Walt officiated as the "slop commissary," who made certain
that "none might suffer for
want of the fashionable and
of course favorite beverage"
as the workers cut the timber and raised the cabins
using only their brawn
and crude tools. When one
looks with wonder upon the
accomplishments of these
hardy settlers, it is wise to
keep in mind that whiskey
played as much a role as
sweat and raw human
strength.
Other settlers to the
South Ridge in the early
1800s included Elisha Wiard, James Morrison Sr.,
and Levi Gaylord. The
latter filled important political posts in the Reserve.
The land that would
become Geneva Township
was split out of Harpersfield Township in 1816.
The township was officially
detached March 22, 1816;
election of township officials occurred shortly thereafter, and Noah Cowles,
Jacob Bartholomew and
Levi Gaylord were elected
as "judges."
Naming rights
While the creek got
Cowles' name, the township, village, city and
village on the lake was
named in honor of Geneva, N.Y., a lovely town
in the Finger Lakes region. Appearing before the
Ashtabula County Commissioners on March 22,
1816, with the petition to
create a new township out
of Harpersfield, Levi Gaylord Sr. was asked to name
the new entity. He did not
hesitate.
"Geneva," Gaylord said,
because it was the nicest
town in New York State that he had passed through
on his journey to Ashtabula
County.
Levi Gaylord was himself an amazing subject.
He was more commonly
known as "Major Gaylord."
He had served directly under the command of General George Washington
during the Revolutionary
War and exited the war
penniless and unable to afford so much as a meal, let
alone the tools to practice
his trade, manufacturing
leather and shoes.
The Connecticut native
came to Ashtabula in 1806
and settled on the South
Ridge just east of the Saybrook Township line. He
was elected county commissioner in 1812 and made
clerk of the board. In October 1817 he was elected a
representative in the Ohio
Legislature. His territory
covered much of the lakeshore from Pennsylvania to
Sandusky.
Traveling on horseback
See COWLES pg 21
Geneva Anniversary
6
Brian Anderson: Hometown ballplayer
BY BYRON C. WESSELL
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA - Brian Anderson was born April
26, 1972, in Portsmouth,
Virginia. Anderson later
moved to Geneva, Ohio,
where he went to Geneva
High School. He was a
four-year letterman in
baseball, a three-year
letterman in golf and a
two-year letterman in
basketball. After high
school, Anderson attended Wright State University to play baseball.
While at Wright State,
Anderson racked up dozens of awards and honors. He leads the school
with 37 wins and tied for
fifth with 23 complete
games. He had a career
earned-run average of
2.23 in 290.1 innings
while at Wright State. He
was league Player of the
Year in 1992 and league
Pitcher of the Year in
both 1992 and 1993. Anderson was a first-team,
all-league selection in
both 1992 and 1993. He
was an All-Tournament
selection in both 1992 and
1993 as well. He was an
All-American third team
selection in 1992 and
All-American first team
selection in 1993. He was
an Academic All-American Selection in 1993
and ABCA All-Regional
selection in both 1992
and 1993. Anderson was
elected into the Wright
State Hall of Fame in
1998. Anderson holds the
second lowest Earned run
average in a season at
1.14 in 95 innings during the 1993 season. His
98 strikeouts that season
are 4th best all time.
He also holds the third
most strikeouts during
a season in 1992 with
110 strikeouts and an
11-3 record. He went 10-1
during the 1993 season.
Wright State as a team
were conference champs
in both 1992 and 1993.
Anderson played for
four Major League Baseball teams, including the
then California Angels,
the hometown Cleveland Indians (twice), the
World Series-winning
Arizona Diamondbacks
and the Kansas City Roy-
als. Anderson attempted a comeback with a
fifth MLB team when he
signed a minor league
contract with the Tampa
Bay Devil Rays but was
unable to overcome his
injury.
Anderson finished his
MLB career with an 8283 win/loss record with a
4.74 ERA and 723 strikeouts.
Anderson went 13-13
in his first three years
of major league action
with a 13-13 record and
a 5.46 ERA. He was then
traded by the Angels to
the Cleveland Indians for
Jason Grimsley and Pep
Harris. Anderson had a
successful couple of years
with the Indians with
a record of 7-3. He was
also on the 1997 play-off
roster.
Anderson debuted for
the California Angels
on Sept. 10, 1993. His
final MLB appearance
was May 8, 2005, for the
Kansas City Royals.
Anderson has had a
pair of significant draft
days in his career. He
was the third overall pick
Clubs of Geneva: Platt R. Spencer Historical Society
in 1993 to the California
Angels. Anderson was in
a draft class that included
future All-Stars Alex Rodriguez (first over-all),
Billy Wagner, Derek Lee,
Chris Carpenter, Tori
Hunter and Jason Varitek all in the first round.
Darren Dreifort selected
by the Los Angeles Dodgers was the second overall pick, Wayne Gomes
to Philadelphia and Jeff
Granger to Kansas City
rounded out the top five.
Interestingly enough,
Marshall Faulk was selected in the 43rd that
year by the California
Angels but did not sign.
Anderson's other important draft day was
when he was selected
second overall in the 1997
expansion draft by the
Arizona Cardinals. He
became teammates and
part of a rotation with
Randy Johnson and Curt
Schilling.
In 2001, Anderson
would be part of the World
Series-winning Arizona
Diamondbacks team. It
also marked the fastest an
expansion team had went
on to win a World Series.
Anderson helped Arizona reach the World
Series by making two different appearances in the
opening series against the
St. Louis Cardinals where
he pitched a total of four
Brian Anderson
innings, only giving up
a run, while striking out
three.
Anderson then pitched
three and 1/3 innings
of relief in the next series against the Atlanta
Braves to earn the win.
Albie Lopez started on
the mound for the Diamondbacks, but gave up
two runs in the first two
innings. Arizona elected
to go with Anderson out of
the bullpen and he came
through by only giving
up one run over the next
three and 1/3 innings.
The Arizona bats proved
to be the difference as
wel,l roughing up Atlanta
Register now to participate in May
21-22 celebration at Memorial Field
BY STEFANIE WESSELL
Gazette Newspapers
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Although newer on the local scene, members of the Platt R. Spencer Historical
Society celebrate the memory of a Geneva Township icon, Platt R. Spencer, born
in 1800 and buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Geneva. Known as the “Father of
American Penmanship,” he was also the founder of the first U.S. business schools.
Information and artifacts about Spencer are found in the Western County Courthouse,
the Geneva Library Archives and the Jennie Munger Gregory Museum. For more
information, contact Treasurer Phillip Schmidt at (440) 466-6414.
GENEVA - Individuals, groups or businesses are invited to register
now to participate in
the two-day Birthday
Celebration on May 2122 at Geneva Memorial
Field.
For only $20, businesses or non-profit
groups may have a table, display, game or
give-away during the
event. A space for crafters is $50. The regular
space is 10' x 10’. Participants must bring their
own tables and chairs.
The event will take
place on 1-9 p.m. Sat-
urday, May 21, and 1-6
p.m. Sunday, May 22.
Set up is from 10 a.m.
to noon.
Groups, non-profit
organizations, local
businesses and crafters are welcome to participate in this event.
All participants taking part in the Geneva
City 150th and Geneva
Township 200th Birthday Celebration must
provide a copy of their
certificate of insurance.
For an application,
contact the City of Geneva at (440) 466-4675
or the Geneva Area
Chamber of Commerce
at (440) 466-8694 with
any questions.
FILE PHOTO
Starter Greg Maddux for
six runs (four earned) in
only three innings to win
the game 11-4.
Anderson suffered
a tough loss in game 3
pitching against New
York Yankees starter
Roger Clemens. Anderson gave up two runs on
five hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Facing a Yankees lineup consisting of Chuck
Knoblauch, Derek Jeter,
Paul O'Neill, Bernie Will i ams, T i n o M ar ti n e z ,
Jorge Posada, David Justice, Scott Brosius and
Alfonso Soriano.
Another milestone
in the game Anderson
pitched was the fact that
President George W.
Bush threw out the first
ceremonial first pitch. It
marked the first time a
sitting President threw
out the World Series pitch
since Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956.
Anderson had one career home run in 255
Major League at bats.
The home run came in
the 1999 season, while
playing for Arizona.
Anderson needed Tommy John surgery and
was out of baseball in
2007, but filled in sometimes as a broadcaster
for the Cleveland Indians on SportsTime Ohio.
He also went on to do
some color analyst for
Tampa Bay and also an
assistant pitching coach.
Then in 2011, he began
as the Rays full-time TV
analyst.
Geneva Anniversary
7
Platt R. Spencer: Father of ‘Spencerian’ penmanship
BY MARTHA SOROHAN
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA – Platt Rogers Spencer was not born
in Geneva, but he died
there May 16, 1864, and
was buried in Evergreen
Cemetery.
His birthplace was East
Fishkill, N.Y., on Nov.
7, 1800. Spencer is best
known as the “Father of
American Penmanship.”
The “Spencerian” style
of penmanship bears his
name.
According to research
by the Ashtabula County
District Library, Spencer
lived most of his life in Geneva. His family moved to
Jefferson, then largely unsettled, in 1806, after the
death of Spencer’s father.
He was just five years old.
Spencer loved to write.
Because paper was so hard
to come by, he wrote on
birch tree bark, sand, ice,
snow and fly-leaves of his
mother’s Bible.
Spencer began teaching
his method of penmanship
at the age of 15, a year before he began working as
a clerk and a bookkeeper.
From 1821 to 1824, he
not only taught what was
known as “common school”
and wrote up merchants’
books, but studied in law,
Latin, English literature,
and penmanship.
Unfortunately, Spencer abused alcohol, which
prevented from entering
college to prepare for the
ministry.
Instead, he moved to
Jericho, N.Y., where he
founded the Spencer Seminary in a log cabin. He
then returned to Ohio to
teach.
Perhaps the most significant personal achievement of Spencer’s life was
overcoming alcohol abuse.
Afterward, he was elected
to public office and served
for 12 years as county
treasurer. Instrumental
in collecting the early history of Ashtabula County,
Spencer became active in
anti-slavery movements
and advocated universal
liberty.
Spencer is believed to
have developed his unique
script from various existing scripts of the first
half of the 19th century.
Taught after 1840, Spencerian script – used in
the logos of Ford Motor
Company and Coca-Cola
— consisted of an “ovalbased” style that could
be written quickly and
legibly to aid business
and personal correspondence. Spencer’s first publications of penmanship
were “Spencer and Rice’s
System of Business and
Ladies’ Penmanship in
1848.”
Because it was so easy
to learn, the penmanship
style soon caught on and
was taught in common
schools to students from
elementary through college levels.
Historians write that
Spencerian died too soon
to realize the great success of his penmanship
style, but his sons continued their father’s mission
North Broadway burns
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Originally published in The Ashtabula
Wave
It started at the rear of Charles
Crane's Drug Store, in an oil shed. A
night watchman at the Forest City
Electric Co. heard a crash, then saw
the blaze.
"Fire! Help! There, I've given the
alarm on you, you —!" shouted watchman Baker, who first assumed that an
intruder had slammed the door of the
shed, thus the crash.
It was Aug. 19, 1892.
What followed could have been a gag
for a Buster Keaton comedy. The night
man at the engine house failed to fasten
the brindle firmly and the horse-drawn
engine was disabled when it swerved
and crashed into a telegraph pole.
The call for help went out to Cleveland, Ashtabula and Painesville. Owners of the IC. Chamberlin and Sons,
Turner and Goodrich, and Harvey
Gould stores opened their stores and
began carrying out merchandise that
otherwise would have perished in the
flames.
"Anxious men rushed in half-dressed,
and pale women and frightened children
stood by helpless and heavy-hearted. All
were alike, powerless to stop the fire,
but all tried to save property," noted a
newspaper account.
An hour into the tragedy, fire lapped
at the rear of the Sinclair saloon, a
frame building across the street. Some
believed that the fire was secondary to
the original blaze. Whatever the source,
it spread quickly north, all the way to
the LS&MS tracks.
"North Broadway is a desert," noted
the newspaper.
With a second front opening up,
firefighters, working with but one hose,
watched the flames engulf the frame
buildings on East Main. The new Tyler
block appeared to be threatened, as
did the Munger Block and the business
district around the handsome soldiers
and sailors monument.
But the village got a break during the
mayhem. The wind shifted to the north,
and a special train that left Ashtabula
at 2:42 a.m. reached the village in just
15 minutes. Firefighters aboard that
train went to work, and were soon joined
by the Painesville Fire Company, which
saved buildings northwest of the monument and the Ford and Tibbits Block.
By daybreak, The Cleveland Fire
Department was on the scene as well,
providing "splendid service" with their
horses and engines.
There were serious injuries, but
no deaths. The loss was estimated at
$100,000, and only half of it was insured. The North Broadway business
district was rebuilt on this site, but
using brick rather than wood for the
structures' walls.
of establishing Spencerian
schools with the specific
purpose of teaching Spencerian script. Graduates
of those schools started
replicas abroad. The distribution in 1866 by Spencer’s sons of their father’s
unpublished book, “Spencerian Key to Practical
Penmanship,” established
the script as an American
handwriting standard.
The multi-volume New
Spencerian Compendium
was completed in 1886.
During America’s
“Golden Age of Ornamental Penmanship” (1850 to
1925), Spencerian penmanship was considered
the standard American
writing style for business
correspondence. Though
it became more and more
elaborate over the years,
it remained the business
standard until the typewriter was widely adopted
as the prime method of
business communication.
Another professional
achievement of Spencer’s
was his founding of American business colleges.
He combined his work of
teaching with penmanship, which was used to
keep business records and
lectures.
Spencer delivered his
final lecture before a business college in Brooklyn,
N.Y., in the winter of 1863,
and gave his last course
of lessons in a business
college in New York City.
Spencer did see Spencerian students found Bryant & Stratton College
more than 160 years ago.
The business college has
expanded into 50 U.S. cities and still thrives.
Closer to home, Spencer
opened schools in Geneva, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh. The name of the
East Geneva Rural School
was changed to Platt R.
Spencer School in 1937.
It is located at 755 Austin
Road.
Ultimately, the Spencerian script – used in
the logos of Ford Motor
Company and Coca-Cola
— was replaced in primary
schools with the simpler
Palmer Method, developed
by Austin Norman Palmer.
However, Spencerian
script has enjoyed a resurgence in academic use by
FILE PHOTOS
Platt Rogers Spencer
Pictured is Platt R. Spencer’s signature.
charter schools and homeschoolers because it has
been recognized by the International Association of
Master Penmen, Engrossers and Teachers of Handwriting, an international
association for practicing
and preserving the arts
of calligraphy, engrossing (copying or writing in
long-hand) and penmanship. Founded in 1949,
IAMPETH is the largest
penmanship organization
in the world dedicated to
helping people improve
their lettering and artistic
skills.
The Platt R. Spencer
Papers are located at the
Newberry Library in Chicago as well as the Spencer Archival Room of the
Ashtabula County District
Library’s Geneva branch.
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Geneva Anniversary
8
Ellen Spencer Mussey: Pioneer in the field of women’s rights to legal education
BY STEFANIE WESSELL
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA - Many people in the Geneva area
are familiar with Platt R.
Spencer, the originator of
Spencerian penmanship.
Lesser known locally,
but a historical figure
in her own right, is Ellen Spencer Mussey, his
daughter. Mussey was
born on May 13, 1850, in
Geneva, Spencer’s tenth
child.
Mussey, a lawyer and
educator, is known for being a pioneer in the field
of women's rights to legal
education.
As a young girl, between the age of 12 and the
time of her father's death,
when she was age 14,
Mussey was an assistant
at his penmanship school,
the Spencerian Business
College. Upon his death,
she attended, but did not
graduate from, several allfemale seminaries — the
Lake Erie Seminary, Rockford Seminary and Rice's
Young Ladies Seminary.
To pay for her tuition and
board, Mussey taught penmanship, according to information taken from her
biography in The Founding of the Washington
College of Law: The First
Law School Established By
Women For Women.
In 1869, at the age
of 19, Mussey moved to
Washington, D.C. to lead
the women's division of
the local branch of the
Spencerian Business College, which trained young
women for government
work. She attended her
first women's suffrage
meeting soon after moving
to Washington.
On June 14, 1871, she
married General Reuben
Delavan Mussey ("R.D."),
a well-connected Washington lawyer. The Musseys
were active in Washington
society and attended parties at the White House.
General Mussey conducted a solo law practice
and served as an adjunct
instructor at Howard
Law School following the
Civil War. While Mussey
enjoyed discussing her
husband's law cases with
him, she, nevertheless, as
a newlywed, believed it
inappropriate for women
to practice law, instead
accepting the prevailing
belief that men and women
should occupy separate
spheres, according to her
biography. Despite this
belief, Mussey ran her husband's law practice while
he was ill with malaria
between 1876 and 1878.
“Following his recovery from malaria in 1878,
R.D. asked Mussey to continue working in the law
practice. Initially, Mussey
refused, still believing it
inappropriate for women
to practice law. She eventually agreed to practice
with her husband and
they worked together for
14 years until his death in
May 1892. Mussey, who
was 42 at the time of R.D.'s
death did not remarry,
rather she assumed full
responsibility for running
the law practice,” her biography reads.
Her biography reveals
that, because Mussey had
not become a member of
the Washington bar dur-
ing the 16 years that she
had worked in her husband's law practice, upon
his death she was required
to become a member in
order to maintain the law
practice.
“Since graduation from
law school brought automatic admission to the
bar, Mussey sought admission to the law schools of
Columbian College and
National University in
1892 as a means to join
the bar. Both schools were
exclusively male at the
time and rejected Mussey
on the basis of her sex,” her
biography reads.
“A knowledge of
law is essential
for everybody,
man and woman
alike.”
—Ellen Spencer Mussey’s
statement appearing in
“Washington College of
Law Founded by Women,”
Washington Evening Star
(1921), on file with the D.C.
Public Library
Sally Spencer, Mussey's
sister-in-law, brought
Mussey's plight to the attention of Judge MacArthur, formerly Associate
Justice of the Supreme
Court of the District of
Columbia. MacArthur arranged for the Washington
bar examiners to waive
the written examination
requirement for Mussey,
which at the time, was the
only alternative to receiving a law school degree as a
means of entering the bar.
In March 1893, Mussey
passed an oral bar examination, which was administered in her home and was
admitted to the bar.
In Feb. 1, 1896, Mussey
and her colleague and
friend, Emma Gillett,
opened the first session of
the Woman's Law Class.
The class had an enrollment of three: Delia Sheldon Jackson, Nanette Paul
and Helen Malcolm.
Within a few years, the
program had expanded and
several prominent Washington, D.C. attorneys were
brought in for assistance.
Although Mussey and Gillett had not initially aspired to establish an independent law school, when
Columbian College refused
their request to take on
the women they had educated for their final year
of education - on grounds
that "women did not have
the mentality for law” they decided to establish a
co-educational law school
specifically open to women.
In April 1898, the Washington College of Law (now
merged with American
University) was incorporated in Washington,
DC as the first law school
in the world founded by
women.
Ellen Spencer Mussey
Gillett and Mussey then
went on to found the Women's Bar Association of the
District of Columbia on
May 19, 1917. Mussey was
elected its first president.
The WBA was one of
the first organizations for
FILE PHOTO
women lawyers in United
States. In 1919, Mussey
also helped to found the
National Association of
Women Lawyers.
Mussey died on April
21, 1936, in Washington,
D.C.
Clubs of Geneva: Blue Star Mothers
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Daily, Weekly & Seasonal Camping • Wifi Available
440-466-6320 • www.keniseegrc.com
• Wooded Pull-thru Sites
• Secured Gates
• 4 Swimming & Fishing Lakes
• Cedar Lodge
• Grill & Spit Under Pavilion
• Planned Activities, Game Room
• 3 Playgrounds
• Pavilion with Kitchen Available
for Company Picnics & Reunions
*Subject to change
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Blue Star Mothers of America, Inc. was organized around the U.S. during World War
II, starting in 1942. Geneva, Ohio, Chapter 57 has been serving veterans, active
military and the community for decades. Members Linda Humphrey and Bev Endress
recently received their 25-year pins. For more information, contact Treasurer Bev
Endress, 440-466-4018.
Geneva Anniversary
9
Edward S. Ellis – dime novelist, historian and Geneva native
shaped popular youth literature in the 19th and 20th centuries
BY GABRIEL McVEY
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA – During the
summer of 1860, as the
presidential election that
would touch off the American Civil War was entering
its final stretch, the publishing house of Irwin P.
Beadle & Co. in New York
received a manuscript from
a young author in Red Bank,
New Jersey, entitled “Seth
Jones; or, The Captives of
the Frontier.”
Beadle published the
novella as number eight in
its new “Dime Novels” series
aimed at the newly literate
adolescent boys audience.
It’s a melodrama set in the
American West that would
be familiar ground to modern audiences who’ve been
inundated with what were
then novel tropes: a harsh
environment, hostile natives, implacable foes, noble
savages, damsels in distress,
a lantern-jawed hero who,
while reluctant, kills the
villain without hesitation
and rides off into the sunset.
The 20-year-old author
was Geneva-born schoolteacher Edward S. Ellis, and
his first novel established
an almost lifelong relationship between Irwin Beadle
and his various publishing
firms over the years. Ellis
wrote dozens of dime novels
– mostly set on the frontier
but also incorporating some
fantasy and science fiction
elements that were fairly
new and eagerly devoured
Clubs of Geneva: Geneva Camera Club
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Geneva Camera Club received proclamations from Geneva City Council in
2005 and again in 2015 as they celebrated 55 and 65 years as a club which shares
its love of photography. Founding member, Eloise Fleming (middle front) was feted
on her 100th birthday this year. The Geneva Camera Club held its first meeting on
March 16, 1955. The all-male group held its first meetings on the second floor of
a building on West Main in downtown Geneva. Later, the group met above the
former Western Auto Store on S. Broadway. The owner of the store, Jack Rosebrugh,
was a club member. Another founding member was Paul Fleming who remained
a member until his death in 1997. His wife Eloise is still a member. The first president
was Roy C. Patterson. In the beginning the wives went to meetings to socialize with
the other wives and to serve refreshments. Eventually, many of them also became
photographers. The club meets on the third Wednesday of the month at the United
Church at 75 S. Broadway, Geneva, at 7 p.m.
by a newly literate class in
the U.S. – adolescent boys.
Innovations in printing
over the previous generation made mass publication
of cheap books a possibility
and the dime novel moniker
comes from the fact these
books were really only a
dime a piece – which, while
not nothing, would amount
to a bit under $3 a piece
today. Not out of reach for a
12-year-old boy who’d done
his chores and wanted to
escape to a place of high
adventure.
Ellis was born April 11,
1840, in Geneva, Ohio and
lived there until he was six
years old, when his father
moved house to New Jersey.
Ellis spent the rest of his
life and career living in New
Jersey and spent his early
career splitting his time
between teaching school –
eventually overseeing the
State Normal School in Trenton – the official teachertraining school for the State
of New Jersey – before his
success publishing what
we’d now call young adult
fiction allowed him to devote
himself full time to writing.
Ellis and Beadle published – or republished –
many of Ellis’ novels under
pen names. The reason for
this is not well understood
and some historians speculate there may be Ellis novels
no one is aware of because
they were retitled and republished by rival firms
pseudonymously as a way
to generate profits illegally.
Ellis and Beadle successfully
sued at least one rival firm
for this reason.
Ellis’ pen names often
incorporated military titles
into them, and while he
never served in the military,
his son was a West Point
graduate who served in the
GENEVA AREA CHAMBER
of COMMERCE
www.genevachamber.org
U.S. Army and later taught
mathematics at the military
academy.
Ellis was best known for
the ‘Deerfoot’ series of dime
novels published under his
own name by Beadle. The
Deerfoot series was popular before and after Ellis’
lifetime and was fairly wellregarded and widely read by
boys interested in Westerns
until the 1950s.
Ellis switched to nonfiction later in life and published a number of histories,
biographies and profiles
under his own name until
his death in 1916. His ‘Great
Nations’ series was serialized and widely popular, giving profiles of countries such
as Spain, Russia or France
for example and paralleling
their rise to, and fall from,
greatness.
Ellis was part of a movement to popularize fiction
and wrote tales of high adventure and even in the
budding science fiction field,
“The Steam Man of the
Prairie” tells the story of a
mechanical, steam-powered
man – what Czech playwright Karel Čapek would
later term a “robot” – something relatively novel for
readers at the time.
Ellis died June 20, 1916,
while vacationing in Maine
and was survived by his
second wife, a son and three
daughters.
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Geneva Anniversary
10
Freeman Thorp: American painter of political figures
BY STEFANIE WESSELL
Gazette Newspapers
GENEVA - If you ever
take a visit to the U.S.
Capitol, keep an eye out
for paintings by Freeman
Thorp, an American painter
who painted portraits of
many notable people, such
as Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William McKinley, and James
Garfield; Generals William
T. Sherman, Robert E. Lee
and Philip Sheridan; and
Chief Justice Salmon P.
Chase
Born in 1844 in Geneva,
Thorp was noted for his
portraits of political figures,
most of them completed
by him in Washington,
D.C. Also notably, during
his time in Geneva, Thorp
worked to help runaway
slaves make it safely to
the last post of the Underground Railroad before
entry into Canada, according to his biography on
Heritage Auctions.
Thorp’s artwork involving presidents began right
in Geneva. Thorp idolized
Abraham Lincoln, learning
about him through newspaper articles about him as a
young lawyer from Illinois.
After Lincoln was elected, the Inaugural Train
was going to pass through
Geneva on Feb. 15, 1861, on
the way to Washington, but
not stop there.
“Even so, the young
Thorp took his sketching
materials along with him
to watch the train carrying
his hero pass by. As fate
would have it, the train
suffered a breakdown and
had to spend some time
in the town for repairs.
Lincoln, ever the people's
man, appeared on the rear
platform to greet the residents. [Thorp] managed to
get within a few feet of him
and sketched the president-
elect, listening as best he
could while trying to get
the lines around his mouth
just right. This was his
first sketch of Lincoln,” his
biography reads.
Soon after the Civil War
broke out, Thorp, though
only 17 and lacking his family's permission, enlisted in
Company D of the 2nd Ohio
Cavalry.
Ulysses S. Grant selected
Thorp and another soldier
to carry an important secret
missive to Secretary of War
Stanton in Washington
from the camp in Tennessee. The two carried out the
dangerous mission, riding
1,000 miles on horseback,
much of it through enemy
territory.
“Stanton asked him if
there was any favor he
could grant to pay back his
bravery. Thorp was aware
that Abraham Lincoln was
going to be at the Gettysburg battlefield on Nov. 19,
1863, so he asked that he be
allowed to attend and get
as close as possible to the
president. The favor was
granted and young [Thorp]
found himself (once again)
about ten feet away from
the president as Lincoln delivered his immortal Gettysburg Address. This was his
second sketch of Lincoln,”
his biography reads.
After leaving the service
in 1864, Thorp was offered
an officer's commission but
decided instead to take over
a photo studio specializing
in color tinting and to work
on the side in painting oil
portraits. In 1870, at age
26, he was made an honorary member of the Berlin
Society of Artists. The next
year, several members of
congress along with President Grant arranged a little
loft right in the Capitol
dome for Thorp to use as
a portrait studio. In 1872,
Grant commissioned him
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to paint portraits of every
member of his family. Thorp
was given permission to sit
in on legislative sessions in
order to paint portraits of
the statesmen "in action." In
1873, the respected History
of Country Artists listed
the still youthful Freeman
Thorp as "standing securely
in the front ranks of American artists."
Thorp also became involved in Ohio politics in
the 1870s. His excellent
oratorical skills led him to
his heroism in the Cincinnati Riots.
“His work as a portrait
artist to the ‘rich and famous’ of the period continued. No less than seven
presidents sat (or stood,
in Lincoln's case) for him:
Lincoln, Grant, Hayes,
Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison, and McKinley. By
his own count, he painted
more than 600 portraits
for public display: army
generals (Sherman, Sheridan), celebrities (Horace
and favorite sons. It has
been estimated that Thorp
painted at least one governor of all the forty-eight
states in existence during
his lifetime. Montana alone
has dozens of his works
hanging in their state capitol and other buildings. The
capitol of Texas at Austin
also has at least one of his
paintings.”
In the mid 1890s, Thorp
moved his family from Ohio
to the Lake Hubert area of
Minnesota.
In 1920, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution
and a Joint Committee
was directed "to engage
an artist of reputation and
ability to paint an oil portrait of the late Abraham
Lincoln, former President
of the United States, and
to place the same in the
Senate wing of the Capitol
Building, at a cost not to
exceed $2,000." Several
weeks later, the committee authorized payment of
$2,000 to Freeman Thorp
for his portrait of Lincoln.
The elderly Thorp traveled to Washington for the
unveiling, also attended by
Lincoln's son, Robert Todd
Lincoln, who commented,
"It's more like father than
any likeness I have ever
seen!"
Thorp described in a letter to the Joint Committee
on the Library the intensity
with which he had observed
Lincoln: “I studied him very
carefully and thoroughly
from life just before his
inauguration, and later at
the White House and at
Gettysburg when he made
his famous address, sketching him, making a descriptive delineation such as
artists use, memorizing
his expression and how he
looked when animated.”
Thorp believed that
these observations allowed
him to create an accurate
portrait of the president,
and that “it would be impracticable for any future
portrait painter who had
not known him in life to put
the real Lincoln on canvas.”
This particular Lincoln
portrait still hangs in the
Senate wing of the Capitol,
one of eight (the most of
any American-born artist)
of his portraits in the Capitol and the only portrait of
Lincoln there.
Thorp passed away in
1922.
Farm work dangerous, necessary
FILE PHOTO
Freeman Thorpe painted this portrait of Abraham Lincoln
in approximately 1879.
become head of his party
and Speaker of the House.
He helped spearhead fellow
Ohioan James A. Garfield's
nomination for president
and worked toward his
election. In 1883, as a Cavalryman and Commanding
Officer of the 5th Ohio
National Guard, Thorp
earned his promotion to
colonel and was later given
a special commendation for
Greeley, Andrew Carnegie,
‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody), cabinet
members (Dallas, Forward,
Morton), congressmen
(Colfax, Blaine, Sherman,
Conkling, Thurman, Logan), and even the Senate
Doorkeeper Captain Isaac
Bassett,” his biography
reads. “Not only did he
paint the Washington elite,
but he also toured many
states painting governors
In the countryside south of Geneva, men and women
toiled on farms and in orchards to provide food for the
region. This was dangerous work, with an accident always just a misstep away.
For example, in the summer of 1928 a Harpersfield
Township woman, Mrs. Henry Hubbard, had several
sleepless nights as she worried about developing lockjaw.
Mrs. Hubbard was working on a hay wagon, with
workers tossing hay onto it from both sides, when a
pitchfork got too close to her and penetrated her leg. The
rusty fork, encrusted with germs, could have been source
of tetanus. All she could do was wait.
Meanwhile, a Cork farm wife struggled with lingering
damage from being kicked in the face by a mule. Twenty
stiches were required to mend the hole in her head, 10 of
them inside her mouth. The intact teeth were re-aligned
by the kick, pushing them inward to her jaws.
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Happy
Birthday
Geneva!
Geneva Anniversary
11
Remember the Angels and Dick Devil?
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
Dick Devil and The Angels. That's who sings "Remember Me" and "I'm Going
to Buy a Parakeet" on a Twilight labeled 45 rpm record.
Dick was Richard Ales,
who recorded several records released by Twilight.
In 1949, he released "Broken
Hearted," his second record,
which had a fairly good response from DJs and record
buyers. Ales wrote and sang
the song.
In the 1960s, Richard
Ales teamed up with four
girls from Geneva to record
"Remember Me," Richard's
first 45 rpm, on the flip
side of "I'm Going to Buy a
Parakeet." The latter is a
novelty tune in which a guy
who is down on his luck says
he's going to buy a parakeet.
You can listen to the song
here. Both were written
and sung by Ales, who lived
in Mechanicsville. He was
a graduate of Austinburg
High School, Navy veteran
and Kent State-Ashtabula
student.
Jim Ales, one of Richard's
sons, does an open mike
show at the Grand River
Manor, which is paternal
grandfather and grandmother owned. His interest
in music comes from his
father, who died in January
2005. Jim saved as many
of his father's records as he
could, and he was at the Vinyl Party at the Lodge and
Conference Center on Feb. 6
to play a few of those records
and talk about his father's
career in music.
When Richard Ales recorded his second record,
"Broken Hearted," he went
to New York City and hired
a band to record it with.
The recording was made the
morning of Sept. 28, 1958, at
Region Sound Studios. The
flip side is "All My Love."
A newspaper article in
the Geneva Free Press of
February 1959 stated that
Ales' record was selected
as the record of the day on
the "Specs" Howard show.
Akron station WCUE chose
it as one of its 10 records
for the "Tips on Hits" show.
Ales' told a reporter
that his first record, "A
Sweetheart's Song," was a
"complete flop."
Dick Haffa, who had
a group called the Haff
Tones, also recorded one of
the songs Dick Ales wrote.
It was released on the Twilight label with a Denny
Pasqualone song on the
Dominic ‘Mickey’ Sanzotta: Helped
win Western Reserve’s first and only
bowl game before heading to NFL
BY BYRON C. WESSELL
Gazette Newspapers
Crime spree hit city in 1953-54
Geneva Village had
a problem with mischief
makers in 1953, so much so
that the new mayor, Joseph
P. Mallone, listed reducing crimes and offenses
committed by minors as
the number one goal of his
administration.
Among the vandals' targets was the city's sewage
treatment plant. Youngsters were digging under
the fence to gain access
to the plant, where they
faced series injury, even
death, if they were to slip
into one of the sewagefilled tanks, which were 10
feet deep. Nevertheless, it
was reported that "young
vandals" had dropped a
skimming tool into one of
the tanks, requiring the
staff to drain the tank in
order to retrieve it.
On March 30, 1954, it
was reported that vandals
broke three plate glass windows and several smaller
ones over the weekend at
Geneva-on-the-Lake at
Cook's Steak House and
The Barn. A window in the
Allen apartments above
the billiards room and two
small windows in Madsen
Donuts had been broken,
as well.
In another theft incident, property worth nearly $1,000 was taken from a
North Center home in late
March 1954. Missing was
a cash register worth $350,
an accordion worth $400,
woman's wrist watch worth
$110 and $50 record player.
The gang was broken in
May. Eight teenagers were
rounded up and the admitted to a string of crimes:
Breaking and entering
"in the night season" the
Nash Garage, Al's Snow
White Bakery, Lake Erie
Milling, Madison and
Ashtabula Skyway theaters, gas station on Route
84, Miller farm, Benjamin
farm and two Ashtabula
businesses.
Stealing automobiles.
Daytime thefts at Rees
Drug Store, Penn Auto
Supply, Von Beseler's and
Al's Snow White Bakery.
They also knocked down
30 to 40 mailboxes, burned
a hay stack on Clay Street
out windows at The Barn
and other GOTL properties,
tore out phones and broke
windows at the drive-in
theaters.
A considerable quantity
of stolen merchandise was
recovered.
Some of the crimes were
committed under the influence of alcohol, believed to
have been obtained from a
licensed distributor.
Provided by Carl E.
Feather of the Wave
flip side.
He teamed up with
four girls from Geneva
in the 1960s and called
them The Angels: Carole
Ann Phillips Wright of
Jefferson and Joyce Dennington, Ruth Proster and
Lynn Magerscak. All are
still alive and two of them
were able to meet Jim at
The Lodge and Conference
Center at GOTL during a
record show in February
2016.
GENEVA - Dominic Franklin “Mickey”
Sanzotta was born April 28, 1921, in Geneva, Ohio. Sanzotta went to Geneva High
School and graduated in 1938.
Sanzotta went on to play college football
at Western Reserve, which is now called
Case Western Reserve University. He
played for the Western Reserve Redcats
from 1939-1941. Around this time, there
was a four-team rivalry between BaldwinWallace, Case Tech, John Carroll and
Western Reserve. The games’ attendance
got so big that some of the games had to be
played at Cleveland Municipal Stadium or
League Park. The winner of these games
received the Douglas S. Campbell Trophy.
The inaugural winner in 1933 was Case
Tech. However, Western Reserve went on
to win eight of the next nine years, including 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1940,
1941 and 1942.
In 1941, Sanzotta was co-captain with
Paul Hudson. The team went on to win
Western Reserve’s first and only bowl
game in the 1941 Sun Bowl. The Red Cats
defeated Arizona State 26-13. Western
Reserve went up 7-0 in the first quarter
of that game, but Arizona State answered
with two second quarter touchdowns to
take a 13-7 lead into halftime. The Red
Cats rallied to score 19 unanswered points
in the second half to win 26-13.
Sanzotta was selected by the Detroit
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Lions in the 4th round (30th overall) in
the 1942 NFL Draft. That year, he led
the Lions in rushing with 268 yards on 71
carries. The 3.8 yards per rushing attempt
was good for seventh best in the league.
He then missed the 1943-1945 seasons
while serving in the Navy during World
War II. During his time in the Navy, he
played for the Naval Air Technical Training Center Raiders football team in 1943.
Sanzotta returned to the Lions after
his service in 1946 and ran the ball six
times for 72 yards. He had a long of
51 and averaged 12 yards a carry that
year. Sanzotta finished his professional
career with 340 yards on 77 carries for
a 4.4 average. He also had seven career
receptions for 35 yards. In 1942, he
passed the ball 15 times, completing four
for 45 yards.
Sanzotta also saw a little bit of time
on defense, as in 1942 he started five
games and had a pair of interceptions. In
1946, he started two games on defense
and recovered a fumble. He also experienced both kick and punt returns during
his career. He returned five punts for 46
yards in 1942 and two punts for 41 yards
in 1946. Also in 1946, he returned two
kicks for 40 yards. He also had a punt
under his belt as in 1942 he punted the
ball for 42 yards.
Sanzotta was elected to the Western
Reserve Hall of Fame on April 4, 1986.
He passed away Jan. 21, 1999, at the
age of 77.
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Geneva Anniversary
12
Now an eyesore, shop was Geneva traditions: Platt R. Spencer
School All-Classes Reunion
innovative 60 years ago
Some would call it an
eyesore, a bit of blight along
the otherwise booming
Route 534 corridor, aka
South Broadway. But sixsided, protruding front, tacked onto a rectangular
house, are clearly from a
different era.
Indeed, sixty years ago
the newly built Beatty Florist building was hailed as
an original, clever design
that its owner, Harry, aka
Pete, Beatty tailored to his
business.
The idea of the six sides
was, primarily, so motorists
and pedestrians along South
Broadway could see a good
view of the store's merchandise regardless of the direction they were traveling.
The shop sold pottery,
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ceramics, metal planters,
greeting cards, garden and
home fertilizers and "garden clubber needs." This
was in addition to the floral business, which had
been housed in the original
store that was at the rear
of their home at 346 South
Broadway.
Beatty designed the
building with help from
Charles Hill.
"The display windows
in the sexigon (sic) are so
arranged so the contents in
the windows are visible to
persons going either north
or south. The workshop is in
the basement and the office
is elevated at the rear of the
shop," noted a Feb. 16, 1955,
newspaper article in the
Geneva Free Press.
"The roof is so designed
to do away with drippings
from rain or snow, Mr.
Beatty said. The roof is
constructed so all water is
drained down two pipes,
which run through the interior of the building into
the storm sewer."
Beatty also designed the
front of the structure so the
door and small strips of windows on each were one piece
that could be removed in the
event large equipment, such
as a cooler, had to be moved
into the building.
The new shop had a consulting room where customers could view pictures of
floral arrangements. Both
fresh flowers and potted
plants were available.
Beatty's shop also provided telegraph service.
A tradition of the floral
shop was to present a plant
to the family of each baby
born at Geneva Memorial
Hospital.
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and a nursing home
isn’t the answer.
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Platt R. Spencer School All-Classes Reunion, a yearly
event at Geneva Township Park, gathers alumni from
all the high school classes from 1938-1961 when
the school included 1st-12th grades. The school
consolidated with Geneva City and Austinburg in 1961
to become Geneva High School. Spencer School,
located on route 20 east of Geneva, became Spencer
Elementary and when it was torn down, Geneva Platt
R. Spencer Elementary replaced it on Austin Road.
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Happy
Birthday,
Geneva!
Geneva Anniversary
13
Geneva woman served as missionary to China during war
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
Gertrude Cone rode up
Broadway from the train
station, and marveled at the
beautiful sight of Geneva’s
Main Street. She declared
it “the most beautiful in the
world.”
“That’s the way it looks
to you when you come from
a country that is war torn,”
Cone told a reporter.
It was June 1944, and
Cone was returning to her
native Geneva after a sevenyear absence. Her work as a
missionary teacher with the
Methodist Church had taken
Cone to China, where she
endured multiple hardships
due to that nation’s war with
Japan.
The daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. George Cone of West
Main Street, Geneva, Gertrude first went to China in
1927, shortly after graduation from Ohio Wesleyan
University. In addition to
teaching and caring for children, Cone was in charge of
missionary funds sent into
the nation by the church.
Thus, when Communists
took control of China and
many of the missionaries
there fled the nation, Cone
stayed behind to ensure
there would be funding for
others who chose to stay.
During her furlough in
1944, Cone found it difficult
to adjust to the security of a
nation whose land had not
been visited by enemy aircraft. Whenever she heard
a private or commercial
aircraft overhead, her natural response was to think
of them as the enemy. In
China, she and the students
watched as 31 Japanese
war planes went up against
eight American fighters in
the sky above their village.
One of the Japanese planes
was shot down and crashed
nearby. Moonlit nights were
particularly difficult as the
warriors took the skies. Rest,
and food, were hard to come
by.
While in Shanghai to
have dental work, Cone’s
home in Nanchang was
bombed by the Japanese. All
of her possessions were lost
except what she had taken
with her in a small suitcase.
A train she was riding on
in China came under attack
by ground forces who entered
the cars. She was the only
woman on the train. The
passengers left the cars and
sought protection while the
raid occurred.
Cone taught in small
communities, which reduced the likelihood of being
attacked. “We had to move
four times in four years to
keep ahead of the Japanese
troops,” she told a reporter
in 1944. “We had everything
packed, ready to move if
necessary, and some of us
did leave for a while, but
the enemy troops were only
in the rice fields gathering
more food and left again, so
we returned to the school.
That’s about as close as they
came to us, except when we
were bombed or machine
gunned.”
As the years of war
stretched on, inflation and
scarcity of food became huge
issues. Cone told of rice cost-
ing $1,600 for a 100-pound
quantity. Safety pins cost
$50 each. The country had
no butter, milk or white
potatoes for years. Once a
month, students received a
dish containing vegetables
and a little meat, but often
there was no meat at all.
When she went to China,
it was to work with high
school students, but war
changed her assignment.
She worked at the refugee camps where 8,000 to
10,000 refugees were fed in
one month.
“It’s pitiful to see these
same people return after a
few months,” she told the
reporter. “They have absolutely nothing left and have
sold everything they own,
including their children, in
order to get money to buy
food.”
The housing situation
was so critical that Cone
ended up living in a Buddhist temple with floors of
dirt overlaid with boards. A
huge hole was in the roof of
the temple; below it was a
well for collecting the water
when it rained.
It took 29 days of travel
for Cone and another missionary heading back to the
United States to get to their
destination. They often
traveled sitting on their
baggage in the back of an
open truck.
“There is absolutely no
gasoline for use in China,
and trucks and vehicles
are run with charcoal or
alcohol. The fumes are almost unbearable when you
are cooped up in the front
of the trucks,” she told the
reporter. “We rode on just
anything, damp salt bags,
hard wooden boards and
in trucks that had no seats
at all.”
There were natural hazards, as well. In 1939, flooding hit China and Cone was
caught in Tienstsin at the
Methodist Mission when
the wall of water roared
into the streets and flooded
the mission building.
Cone returned to China
after her visit to Geneva in
1944. The next six years,
conditions worsened under
the Communists, although
the few acquaintances back
home learned little of it due
to censorship of the letters
coming out of China. She
lived in Peking, where she
was reunited with Laura
Schleman of Lakewood,
another missionary from
northeast Ohio. Cone eventually returned to Nanchang, Kiangsi province,
and resumed teaching English and music at the Baldwin Girls School.
The Communists
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blocked her funding and
Cone was forced to scrounge
for food for herself and the
students. With conditions
unbearable and her body
racked by a mysterious pain,
in 1949 Cone applied for an
exit permit.
It took a year to process
that permit. Severely dehydrated and malnourished,
Cone arrived in Hong Kong
as a breathing skeleton.
She died two days later; the
pain was cancer spreading
through her body.
She was laid to rest in a
cemetery in Hong Kong. Her
1944 visit back to Geneva
was her last, and one can
imagine that it also was
the last time she enjoyed
the fruits and grains and
meats of this land. By 1950,
her parents also were gone
from Geneva, and her nearest relative was an aunt, in
Texas.
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Geneva Anniversary
14
Archie Bell’s life rings with success
Geneva man was esteemed drama critic
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
The archive is neither
dusty nor secretive. Just
walk down the hall to the
south end of the Geneva
Public Library, take a
right and ask archivist
Mary Schneider if you can
view the Bell collection. Or
simply go to the Lodge and
Conference Center and
learn about the famous
Archie Bell by viewing
the display and video in
the lobby.
Bell (1877-1943) has
been called the "Dean of
the Midwest" newspaper
critics of drama and music.
He was born in Geneva
and received his education
from the public schools.
During high school, Bell
worked for the Geneva
Free Press, which baptized
him into the world of journalism.
He saved his earnings
from the newspaper job
and, after graduation,
made a trip to Europe.
Back in the U.S., Bell was
hired at the age of 20 to be
a secretary to B.F. Bower,
the publisher of Cleveland
World. There was little to
do on Saturdays, so Bell,
bored and restless, asked
for a news reporting assignment. He was given
one that would test his
mettle and grit: There
had been rumors floating
around of an epidemic,
news of which was being
suppressed by officials.
The others writers in the
newsroom snickered as
the novice agreed to take
on what appeared to be an
impossible story to crack.
Bell got the story and it
landed on the Sunday
edition front page. When
Bell returned to work on
Monday morning, he'd
been made a staff writer.
He rose quickly through
the ranks despite not having a college degree. Bell
was promoted to Sunday
editor and, shortly thereafter, managing editor.
:
n
e
h
W
r
e
Rememb
Bower thought Bell would
do well as a drama critic,
as well, and he took on
that task.
Merger of the World
and News in 1905 gave
Bell yet another opportunity; he was named
drama and literary editor
of the expanded publication. Five years later, he
joined the Plain Dealer as
a drama and music critic,
moved to the Leader four
years later and came full
circle to the News in 1917.
Bell dabbled in other
work, as well. He was
publicity director for the Hippodrome Theater and
managed the U.S. tours of
Olga Nethersole, a famous
English actress.
His connections to both
the bright and rising stars
of stage, screen and music
is well documented in the
scrapbooks that are part
of the library's collection.
The books' fragile, black
paper hold dozens of publicity photographs that
were autographed for Bell
during his career. They
include photos of Will Rogers, the famous American humorist and film
star; Yehudi Menuhin, the
great violinist; and Ernest
Schumann Heink, perhaps
the most famous contralto
of the early 20th century.
Schumann Heink deserves special attention.
A German Bohemian,
she eventually adopted
the United States as her
home. She supported the
U.S. troops during World
War I and had three sons
who served in the U.S.
Navy: Walter Schumann,
Henry Heink and George
Washington Schumann.
Another son, August
Heink, was a merchant
sailor for Germany and
was pressed into the German submarine service.
He was killed defending
his country.
Ernestine traveled
throughout the nation
entertaining troops and
raising money for the war
effort during WWI. She
PHOTO COURTSEY OF THEARCHIVE ROOM OF GENEVA PUBLIC LIBRARY
Archie Bell as a young man.
formance, she and Bell
came back to Geneva to
visit. Their stops included
Mount Pleasant Cemetery,
where the Bell family is
became a contralto voice
against war and its horrors.
In 1919 Schumann
Heink came to Cleveland
to do a benefit concert.
Prior to the evening per-
See BELL pg 18
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Geneva Anniversary
15
Nordyke brought pro baseball to city
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
In 1898 Geneva residents
could watch Cleveland's
American league team go
up against Geneva's baseball team without having
to travel outside their community.
In the above photo, Lou
Nordyke is shown in his
Tacoma Tigers days. Nordyke is just to the right of
the gentleman in a suit. Get
the full description at http://
oldtimerbaseball.com/c_Tacoma_Tigers.html.
The Cleveland team's
visit was arranged by Lou
Nordyke, who was born in
Iowa but lived in Geneva
before heading to the West
Coast.
Nordyke (1876-1945),
had a short (1901-1914) but
memorable career in the
American Major League.
His connections to the
league were used to bring
the Cleveland team to Geneva for a friendly game at
least once a summer.
Nordyke played for
the St. Louis Browns in
1906 before being sold to
the Tacoma Tigers of the
Pacific Coast League. He
also played for the Spokane
Indians. In 1909 Nodyke
rejoined the Indians and
won the league's batting
championship.
According to a 1928 Geneva Free Press article, Nodyke was famous for being
able to snare the misdirected
pitches. He played first base,
and the second baseman,
Perle Casey, was known for
throwing erratically. One
day, after Casey had made
several bad throws, Nordyke
chastised him and told him
to throw the ball right. And
Casey replied, "Never mind,
I'm making you famous."
Ironically, an arm injury put Nordyke out of
the league. He operated
an apple farm, worked as
a bank security guard and
railroad agent, all on the
West Coast.
He died in California
PHOTO COURTESY OF MARC H. BLAU COLLECTION
of a heart attack and was In the above photo, Lou Nordyke is shown in his Tacoma Tigers days. Nordyke is just to the right of the gentleman
cremated.
in a suit.
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Geneva Anniversary
16
Interurban
served
city
Congratulations on Your 150th!
from The Behm Family
BEHM
F A M I LY F U N E R A L H O M E S
Geneva, carved out of
wilderness, was far from
an isolated city.
While the town originally began to develop at
what became known as
“North Center,” the coming
of the railroads in the early
1950s shifted the commercial district to the south.
And when the Nickel Plate
brought its line along the
lakeshore some 20 years
later, the railroad tracks
would come to define to
city’s commercial district.
In the late 1800s, yet
another set of tracks came
through Geneva, those of
the Cleveland, Painesville
and Ashtabula, or CP&A,
Interurban.
Powered by electricity,
the interurbans were about
100 years before their time.
They provided convenient,
relatively green connections between the lakefront
cities; it’s been said you
could ride from Geneva
to New York City on the
series of interurbans and
have to jump off onto a
highway or hitchhike for
only one short stretch.
The line stared with
runs between Willoughby
and Cleveland in July
1896. By August, the
bridge over the Chagrin
River had been completed
and the line had reached
Painesville.
When the line reached
Geneva and Ashtabula, it
opened up the Geneva-onthe-Lake resort to more
visitors from the west
while giving residents
another means of travel to
Cleveland.
The CP&A was quickly
doomed, however. The
automobile made it more
convenient to travel the
lakefront by highway, although the roads and congestion on them made the
travel miserable.
By 1926 the interurban
was out of business. For
decades thereafter, oldtimers who had worked
on the line gathered in
Willoughby or Painesville
for a reunion.
Some of the cars ended
up as diners. One of these
was in Geneva and was
used as a diner into the
1950s.
The most famous of
the CP&A cars was the
Josephine, which was
President Henry Everett’s personal touring car.
He named the dark-green/
gold-trimmed car after
his wife. It had a smoking
room, observation room,
kitchen, stateroom and
toilet. Soft rugs covered
the floor, and curtains
and dark- green drapes
provided privacy.
The car, built in 1903,
burned while being painted in 1909.
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The Soldiers and Sailors monument is one of Geneva’s most recognizable landmarks,
and it highlights Civil War veterans. Honoring the fallen veterans of the Civil War, the
monument is 31 feet by three inches from the bottom of the base to the top of the
eagle. It is made of Ohio sandstone and weighs 20 tons. The figures of the soldier and
sailor that flank the monument are made of bronze and stand six feet, four inches
from the pedestal and weigh 1,000 pounds each. An inscription at the Soldiers and
Sailors Monument reads: “In memory of the boys who saved the union in 1861-1865.”
The monument originally was dedicated in 1880.
Geneva Anniversary
Geneva had piano orchestra
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
Long before cell
phones, tablets, Facebook
and downloads, people
had to make their own
music, which involved
learning how to play an
instrument.
The piano was one of
the most popular, and
in Geneva in the 1930s,
there were at least 22
relatively accomplished
adult females who could
play the piano well
enough to form an orchestra.
It was called the Geneva Piano Symphony, a
group of 13 pianos under
the direction of Helen
Foster Lewis, a piano
teacher.
This group, billed as
the world's only 13-piano orchestra, played
concerts throughout the
region in 1940. All of
the pianists were from
Geneva and surrounding
towns, and most of them
were married women. The
ensemble had 22 players;
a few were substitutes
brought along just in
case.
"Miss Lewis, slight,
gray-haired and energetic, leads her orchestra in
the Stowkowski manner,
without a baton. While
beating time her hands
and fingers are usually
in the position they might
assume on the keyboard,"
noted a newspaper story.
"You got to be tough.
It's not because the
players are women, but
because the piano is a
percussion instrument,"
Miss Lewis told a reporter. "When it's a question
of hitting something at
exactly the right time or
in unison you have to be
much closer to perfect
than if you are blowing
a horn."
The pianos were not all
heard at once throughout
the composition. Lewis'
idea was to have different pianos play the parts
normally taken by other
instrument sections, such
Geneva resident goes off to war age 72
Geneva resident Hugh
Kilday left his Maple Avenue home and headed
for New York City in July
1943, in response to a request from Uncle Sam.
The retired sailor was
needed in the Merchant
Marine service. He had held
a government engineer's
license since 1899, and he
was showing up for service
as first assistant engineer
aboard a U.S. Maritime
Commission ship.
"They need trained men
... It takes too long to train
these young fellas to that
extent. That's why they are
taking an old fella like me,"
he told a reporter.
He arrived in the U.S.
from Scotland in July 1890,
at the age of 19. The sea
journey gave him a taste
for sailing and he worked
on the Great Lakes for five
years before becoming a salt
water sailor. He worked on
the American Line mail
boats between New York
and England.
He moved to Geneva in
1918, but spent much of
his time away from home
due to working in steel and
paper mills in Michigan and
Middletown, Ohio. Before
responding to the call for
engineers, he worked at the
tube mill of American Fork
and Hoe.
A mandatory physical
exam showed Kilday to be
in excellent health, health
that he attributed to having
a fine wife and consuming
lemon juice every day, and
a bit of beer now and then.
He had crossed the
ocean 50 times, but said
he was ready to do another
50 if it meant defeating the
Axis.
Hugh Kilday survived
the war and lived another
decade after heading off to
New York. He died March
19, 1953 and is buried in
Evergreen Cemetery.
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its numbers was particularly skilled at the color,
shading and nuances of
meaning, notable in Rachmaninoff's prelude in G,
Minor, Oopus 23, No. 5,
in the five preludes by
Heler, Opus 81, and in
Von Weber's Momento
Capriccios, Opus 65. It
must be added, however,
that regal numbers like
Wagner's Tannhaeuser'
march and Liszt's powerful, sweeping Hungarian
Rhapsodie, No. 2, found
the ensemble wanting in
arrangement, scope and
power."
Another Erie newspaper columnist wrote "Helen Foster Lewis, the conductor, is truly charming
and she so very gracefully
directs the musicians. She
was wearing bright red
with brilliants, contrasting the blue-gray satin
of the others. We were
e n c h a n t e d w h e n they
See PIANO pg 23
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as strings or horns, in an
orchestral arrangement.
The group formed in
1936. Miss Lewis said she
got to thinking about how
many good pianists there
are in the world but how
seldom they are heard. So
she rounded up 14 women who had better-thanaverage playing ability
and, with six second-hand
pianos, began practicing.
Their first concert in
Geneva was such a success, they gave an encore
performance in the evening and made enough
money to purchase eight
new pianos.
The director and musicians were a first-class act.
The pianists wore evening
gowns of ice blue satin
trimmed in red sequins.
Miss Lewis' gown was
red and heavily sequined.
In what must have been
quite daring for Geneva
in 1940, the gowns were
designed without sleeves
or backs, but they had
skirts so full they hid the
piano bench and most of
the pedal work.
The group played in the
Cleveland in the winter
of 1940. Their concert included works by Chopin,
Grieg, Haydn and Rachmaninoff.
In Erie, Pa., they gave
a concert in November
1940. A reviewer stated:
"The group, 13 pianists
dressed in silver gowns,
at 13 pianos for most of
17
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Geneva Anniversary
18
Geneva’s famous no-hitter
BY CARL E. FEATHER
Ashtabula Wave
http://ashtabulawave.
org
The morning of June
12, 1880, Geneva resident
Lee Richmond did not go
to bed until 6:30, having gone to his university
class' supper the night
before and playing a class
baseball game at 4:50 a.m.
that day.
Deprived of food and
sleep, at 11:30 a.m. Richmond boarded a chartered
train that took him to
Cleveland, where he would
accomplish something
even greater than earning
his diploma from Brown.
Richmond was pitcher
for the Worcester Worchesters, a New England baseball team that had just
joined the National Baseball League and signed
Richmond for the salary
of $2,400. The game in
Cleveland that afternoon
was an important one for
Worcester, and Richmond
did not disappoint his employer. He pitched a perfect game, and Worcester
beat Cleveland 1-0.
"The Clevelands were
utterly helpless before
Richmond's puzzling
curves, retiring in every
inning in one, two, three
order, without a base hit,"
wrote John R. Husman for
the Society for American
Baseball Research.
It was, for both Rich-
mond and the sport, the
perfect game. One writer
called it "the most wonderful on record," another
called it "unprecedented,"
because as Husman notes,
the term "perfect game"
was unknown. Until Richmond came along, there
was no need for an adjective to describe the phenomenon.
Richmond, who was
always modest about his
accomplishment, was
quick to give credit to the
Happy
Anniversary
from
fielders and the catcher,
Charlie Bennett. But in
the baseball record books,
it is Richmond's honor to
have pitched the sport's
first perfect game, just
50-some miles from his
hometown of Geneva.
Ashtabula County born
and reared, Richmond was
the son and grandson of
Baptist ministers. He was
the youngest of nine children born to Cyrus R. and
Eliza Richmond. Although
he was born in Sheffield
BELL
buried, and lunch with
Bell's relatives still living
in Geneva.
Bell wrote numerous
books, most of them based
upon his explorations of
foreign lands during the
summer months, which
he frequently took off for
travel. He also wrote fiction, such as "The Clevelanders: An expose of high
life in the Forest City."
Bell's notebooks, kept
while he sailed to exotic
destinations like Palestine, Egypt and the Caribbean, are illustrated with
colored-pencil drawings
and contain the notes that
would be the meat of his
books. He donated these
materials to the Geneva
Library's archives.
Township on May 5, 1857,
the family soon relocated
to Geneva, where J. Lee
attended the public schools
and spent most of his childhood and youth. They lived
in the church parsonage at
337 West Main Road.
His father served the
Baptist congregation in
Geneva and lived out his
years in the city after retirement. Little is known
of J. Lee's early years in
See NO HITTER pg 23
From page 14
Archie Bell suffered
from a heart condition
that worsened in his middle years. In the early
1930s, he retired from
the newspaper business
and settled into an anonymous, quiet life in an
apartment on the east
side of Cleveland. He died
in 1943.
Bell's grave at Mount
Pleasant Cemetery is a
simple one, surrounded by
those of other family members. There is no indication
on his headstone that he
was an accomplished critic,
world traveler and author.
His scrapbooks, writings, journals and copies of
his columns remain safe in
the archives. Copies were
made for the exhibit.
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Archie Bell as a later in life.
Geneva Anniversary
Early Factoies of Geneva
19
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BARTHOLOMEW
Bartholomew, wife of Jacob,
the War of 1812 officer.
Betsey was the daughter
of John and Elizabeth (Sullivan) Lamont, who first
appear in Ashtabula County
historical records circa 1807.
They lived in both Geneva
Township and Harpersfield
Township.
The trials of war and
captivity, the grief of losing
a son to the bullet of a British soldier or Native American warrior, transformed
Lamont into a shrewd, sarcastic, indolent man who
struck fear into the hearts
of his neighbors. It was said
that Lamont was a wizard
who wielded power over
nature itself.
"If the leaven failed to
rise and a heavy loaf resulted, the unlikely house-
wife charged John Lamont
with the misfortune. Did
the alkali and grease show
less than their usual affinity
and fail to combine as soap,
it was bewitched, of course,
and John Lamont bore the
blame," wrote Charles S.
Simonds in a narrative he
wrote for the Historical and
Philosophical Society of
Ashtabula County.
Simonds claimed that
John Lamont could even
put a spell on the rifles
of his neighbors, so their
hunts would be unfruitful.
In an effort to combat that,
the hunters concocted bullets made from Spanish
coins to add silver to the
ammunition. Only a resident by the name of Tiffany
seemed to have any powers
over old Lamont.
From page 19
Lamont's daughter, Betsey, seemed to inherit a
bit of her father's power
over nature, or at the very
least, his eccentricity. According to Laura Rosamond
White, who wrote a series
of articles about Geneva's
pioneers for the Cleveland
Leader 100 years ago, noted
that Betsey was the township's first landlady – that
is she rented out a room in
their log cabin, built in 1830
on the ridge.
"(She) was noted for her
ability to dance with a candlestick and lighted candle
poised upon her head,"
White reported. "She could
pursue this pastime for
hours in the midst of many
dancers with the candle
flame shining undisturbed
like a star above her brow."
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Geneva Anniversary
20
Christ Episcopal Church in Geneva celebrates 150 years
GENEVA - The Christ
Episcopal Church congregation was formed on Sept.
13, 1865. Among the first
members of the church
vestry (leadership council) was Platt R. Spencer,
who served as secretary.
Lacking a building, the
congregation first met at
Reid Hall at Park Street
and South Broadway (the
site of the old Post Office.)
It wasn’t until 1892 that
the cornerstone was laid
for the present church,
which was then located at
the corner of West Main
Street and South Eagle.
The lot was purchased for
$800 and the church constructed for $8,000. A fire
in a nearby laundry nearly
destroyed the building in
1901, but it was restored
and reopened for services
in 1905.
Flooding plagued the
church for years and, in
1941, the building was
moved up the hill to its
current location at 66 S.
Eagle St. It must have
been a sight. The building wasn’t driven up the
street; it was rolled on logs
behind the Eagle Street
properties. The building
was also turned 180 degrees from how it sat at its
previous location.
Christ Church added a
Wicks pipe organ in 1949
(which was restored in
2016) and parquet flooring from the old Severance Mansion in Cleveland
Heights in 1961. More
than 5,000 blocks of wood
flooring were removed
from the mansion and
carefully reassembled at
the church by the men of
the parish. The church
has retained many of its
original leaded glass windows, cathedral ceiling
and carved oak altar and
pews.
Celebrating 150 years
The congregation of
Christ Church is marking their milestone anniversary with a homecoming weekend on Sept.
9-11, 2016. There will be
a potluck dinner on Friday night, with an open
mic session featuring the
younger members of the
SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Christ Episcopal Church is located at 66 S. Eagle St. in Geneva.
parish (and any who would
like to join them.)
On Saturday, the
church is hosting a reenactment of the church’s
history in the community,
complete with costumed
docents, carriages and
refreshments. On Sunday, Christ Church will
host a celebration worship
service, with the Rt. Rev.
Arthur B. Williams Jr. officiating.
Christ Church and
the community
Today, the Christ
Church community is
made up of around 35 families. The church’s nickname, “The Little Church
with the Big Heart,” has
772 South Broadway
Geneva
440-361-4041
Across from giant eagle
never been more apt.
Each June, the church
hosts nearly 100 children
from around the county for a week-long Vacation Bible School and
the Christ Church prayer
shawl ministry has comforted scores of people all
over the United States in
its brief two-year history
with hand-made shawls
and hats blessed by Christ
Church Priest in Charge,
the Rev. Dr. C. Thomas
Jackson.
Other church outreach
programs include supporting the Geneva Food Pan-
See EPISCOPAL pg 22
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Geneva Anniversary
COWLES
to Columbus in the late
fall was a miserable trip
for a man of 57 years. His
reprieve came when he was
appointed treasurer of the
county in 1818, an office he
held until once again being elected an Ohio House
representative in October
1820.
"Probably no man ever
lived in northern Ohio
who was more venerated
and beloved," notes his
biographer in the "Williams Brothers History of
Ashtabula County." Gaylord was a peacemaker, a
friend of emancipation and
temperance and of "gentle
demeanor."
He and his wife, Lydia,
were married 64 years and
died within one month of
each other. At that time,
death had not visited the
immediate family for more
than 40 years and eight of
their children, and their
families, attended the funerals.
Water power
There were pockets of
settlement throughout
the new township. One
GAZETTE
NEWSPAPERS
From page 5
was along the west side of
Cowles Creek, probably in
the area of North Broadway where Noah Cowles
settled.
Another was in the area
of North Myers Road. Still
another was on the lakefront, where the abundance of white oak, poplar and other hardwoods,
along with access to transportation on the lake, led
to early industries -- timber exporting, limestone
importing/burning, furniture building and boat
construction (on Indian
Creek).
Cowles Creek was
among the players in this
industrial boom. Near the
lakefront, kilns were dug
out of the clay along the
stream's bank and used for
reducing the limestone to
lime. The lime went into
the plaster and mortar
that literally held together
the early homes of the
township.
In what would become
the City of Geneva nearly
150 years later, Cowles
Creek was harnessed with
a series of at least seven
dams between East Main
and a North Broadway
farm.
Originally known as
Mills Corners, the City
of Geneva is the product
of both roads and Cowles
Creek. The first road to
encroach upon this place
was a north-south route
that linked Lake Erie to
Windsor. That road has
been dated to as early as
1804 and was the forerunner of North and South
Broadway.
In 1815, the east-west
road that would become
Route 20, was surveyed.
When Center and the
North Ridge roads intersected, the genesis for a
town was created.
But both investment
and residency were slow
to come. Predictably, the
water supply brought a
tannery, cooperage shop,
distillery and grist mill.
But by 1840, the population at the corners was still
only a dozen or so families.
The coming of the railroad
would change all of that.
21
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Geneva Anniversary
22
Geneva Township Geneva Township, Geneva City to EPISCOPAL
honors bicentennial mark anniversaries all year long
PHOTO BY GABRIEL
MCVEY
A small group of
volunteers and
Geneva Township
residents gathered
in chilly, blustery
weather at the
north end of
Geneva Township
Park on April 23 to
commemorate the
200th anniversary
of the township's
foundation.
Township resident
and organizer of
the small event Kari
Wetzel said she
wanted to organize
something specific
to
Geneva
Township distinct
from the joint
Geneva City/
Geneva Township celebrations ongoing throughout
the year. “It's just a small gathering – just having a little
celebration,” Wetzel said. “The actual anniversary is in
March, but the first township trustees meeting was in
April.” In this photo, Geneva Township Board of Trustees
Chairman Timothy J. Mills cuts a bicentennial birthday
cake as organizer and township resident Kari Wetzel
and 534 CIC President Tony Long look on.
—May 21-22 - Two-day bicentennial/sesquicentennial
at Memorial Field.
—June 11 - Geneva Public Library will hold a Geneva
History Expo from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to
contributions from the library archives, residents are
encouraged to bring items of historical significance to
the area and discuss them with attendees.
try, collecting items for
area veterans in need and
reaching out to and supporting teen moms in the
community.
Christ Episcopal
Church is part of the Diocese of Ohio. They welcome
anyone and everyone to
From page 20
join them for worship services each Sunday at 10:30
a.m.
For more information
about the church or its
anniversary events, contact the church office on
Tuesdays or Fridays at
(440) 466-3706.
—July 23-24 - Art Weekend in Geneva, and the Community Barn Quilt will be unveiled at 43 E. Main St.
Plans are in the offing to retouch and unveil murals
throughout the city in an effort aimed at beautification
and promoting Geneva pride.
—Aug. 25 - Geneva Area High School will hold a pep
rally Aug. 25 to celebrate the new school year and Geneva pride with the Geneva High School marching band
parading through the city, followed by a bonfire at the
parade route's end at Geneva High School.
—Sept. 9-11 - Christ Episcopal Church is commemorating its own sesquicentennial. The church will celebrate
its long history in Geneva.
—Nov. 11 - Veterans Day event in cooperation with
both the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign
Wars.
—Dec. 10 - “Run for the Beard” – a fundraiser starting at Kiwanis Park. Those who can't or won't grow a
beard are permitted to wear a knitted chin-warmer or
false beard for fun.
Christ Episcopal Church celebrates its 150th year in 2016
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Geneva Anniversary
23
NO HITTER
Geneva, but he clearly
was a dedicated student
and athlete. At the age
of 16, he enrolled in the
Preparatory Department
of Oberlin College of Ohio,
a college-prep school. During that time he developed
both his academic and
baseball talents.
From Oberlin he enrolled in Brown University, where he was outfielder
for the varsity team in his
first year, 1876. Of relatively slight build – 5 feet
10 inches and 142 pounds
– Richmond made up for
any shortage of muscle and
bone by using his brain. He
developed several curveball techniques delivered
from his left hand. Hitters
never knew what Richmond would be sending
their way.
After two seasons as an
outfielder for Brown, Richmond was ready to take on
the professional baseball
scene as a pitcher. His
accomplishments in 1879
included taking Brown to
the college championship,
pitching a professional
no-hit game and making a
major-league debut when
he was paid $10 to pitch
an exhibition game for
Worchester.
The score, 11-0 after
seven innings, helped land
Richmond a job with the
Worcester team, making
$100 a month. He played
both professional and amateur baseball that year - a
PIANO
played "Nearer, My God,
To Thee, with Barbara
McColl, niece of conductor
Lewis playing the Hammond Solovox. During that
number, candles on each
piano were the only means
of illumination. Three familiar melodies 'Eddie
Duchin style' proved the
girls' ability with popular
music as well as classical
and the sweet strains of
the 'Hills of Home,' rhythmic 'Anitra's Dance' and
many others were enjoyed
by the audience.
The group hit a snag
when they went to Shore
High School, where a reviewer called it a "disappointment" because all
of the pianos were of the
From page 18
fact that would eventually
bring his eligibility into
focus - and exceled in both
venues. His school's college championship game
against Yale that year
has been called "one of
the great college games of
the nineteenth century" by
Ronald A. Smith, author
of "The Rise of Big-Time
College Athletics," notes
Husman.
Richmond pitched a
dream season in 1879, but
he managed to top it in
1880 when he signed with
Worchester for the season.
Worchester was a shortlived franchise, just three
years, and it might as well
been named "Richmond."
Eighty percent of its wins
were attributed to Richmond. After the franchise
folded, Richmond played
for the Providence Grays
and Cincinnati Red Stockings. He established more
milestones for the game
during those brief seasons:
Gave up the first grand
slam home run;
Won 20 games for a
last-place team;
First left-handed pitcher to win 30 games in a
single season.
His decline as a lefthanded pitcher was fairly
rapid, but Richmond had
the foresight to get an education. He set his sights
on medicine and graduated from the College of
Physicians and Surgeons
University at the City of
From page 17
spinet type, "with little
sonority in the lower register and limited carrying
power."
Another concert, at the
McDowell Auditorium in
Ashland, went much better for the group. Again,
the group's rendition of
"Nearer My God to Thee"
caught the reviewer's ears
as the highlight of the
performance before 650
member of the Ashland
Beta Sigma Phi Sorority.
The symphony lasted
until at least 1942; a program from a concert given
in Columbus, Ohio, recently appeared on eBay.
The performance was at
Memorial Hall for Beta
Sigma Phi Sorority.
New York in 1883.
He chose Conneaut for
his practice, but Richmond
soon discovered he did not
like medicine. He folded
the practice, moved back
to Geneva and got a job
teaching mathematics and
chemistry before accepting
a teaching position with
Toledo.
He taught in Toledo for
32 years and, after retirement, took a job as dean
of men at the University
of Toledo. He held that
job until his death on Oct.
1, 1929, at the age of 72.
He is buried in Toledo, a
city that embraced and
honored him as a celebrity throughout his years
there.
Richmond's baseball
career was short - his last
appearance in the major
league was with the Boston Red Stockings on Oct.
4, 1886. Yet in the seven
years he was involved in
the game professionally,
Richmond stretched the
boundaries of performance
and set records that would
stand for years, especially
for left-handed pitching.
In his post-baseball professional life, Richmond
was highly regarded as a
teacher and, as dean of
Toledo, was well known
for the compassion he had
for young people struggling with challenges. He
married one of his for-
mer high school students
and the couple had three
daughters.
Richmond had relatives
who remained behind in
Geneva; as late as 1950 the
pitcher's nieces, Elizabeth
Sprague and Mrs. Rose
Gee, who lived on Park
Street, were interviewed
by reporters recalling the
obscure Geneva resident's
accomplishments in the
world of professional and
college baseball.
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Geneva Anniversary
24
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY,
GENEVA!
This year,
we celebrate
milestones!
2016 is a big year for all of
us. As the City of Geneva and
Geneva Township celebrate
impressive milestones, ACMC
is celebrating the opening of
Geneva Family Health Center —
bringing nationally recognized
care right to your neighborhood.
Geneva Family
Health Center
1028 S. Broadway
Geneva, OH 44041
(440) 466-8933
Opening June 2016
ACMC Express Care
Mon – Sat, 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Walk-ins welcome!
ACMC Express Care provides fast,
convenient care — without an
appointment — for minor injury
and illness, including:
• Ear, upper
respiratory,
sinus and urinary
tract infections
• Minor bumps
and cuts
• Seasonal
allergies
•
•
•
•
Skin rashes
Insect bites
Influenza
Ringworm,
shingles,
impetigo
• Simple sprains
and strains
ACMC Family Medicine
At ACMC, our
primary care
providers are
dedicated to
providing high
quality care to
your entire family
– from infants to
seniors. BoardDr. Emily Cheich
certified family
practice physician Emily Cheich, DO,
is welcoming new patients at the Geneva
Family Health Center. To schedule an
appointment, call (440) 997-6969.
ACMC Specialty Care
At the Geneva Family Health
Center, access to specialists has
never been more convenient. You
can schedule appointments with the
physicians in the following specialties
without leaving Geneva:
• Cardiology
• Orthopaedics
• Gastroenterology • Pulmonology
• General Surgery • Urology
Co-pays at Express Care are similar to
a physician office visit. And you do not
have to be a patient of Geneva Family
Health Center to utilize Express Care.
ACMC Laboratory Services
Express Care serves patients age 2 and older. Most medical
insurances are accepted. Check your insurance policy for
coverage and co-pay amounts. Hours subject to change without
notice. Visit www.acmchealth.org/expresscare to verify hours.
When you need to have blood drawn,
you can get it done right at Geneva
Family Health Center.
Mon. – Fri. 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
Sat. 8 a.m. until Noon
Walk-ins welcome!

Geneva Anniversary - Geneva Township Ohio

Transcription

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