- Asher Cooley was born in Hawley, Massachusetts, in 1787 and married Lydia Smith
in Hawley in 1808. He first visited Dover in 1815 and in 1818 emigrated by oxcart
with Lydia and their five children. He built a house in 1828, still located at 2871
Dover Center Road, south of Center Ridge Road. Asher and Lydia had three additional
children born in Dover and spent the remainder of their lives in this house. He
was among a group of men from Dover and other communities who met at the Old Stone
Church on Cleveland’s Public Square on July 4, 1838, to “assist in organizing a
County Anti-Slavery Society.”
- Asher and Lydia’s son, the Honorable John McCrea Cooley, was born in this house.
He served in the Civil War, filled various township offices, was postmaster of Dover
for a number of years, and was elected in 1874 to one term of office in the Ohio
legislature.
- Among John and Lucy’s children born in Dover was George Lathrop Cooley in 1861.
In 1887 George married Clara Elizabeth Hall. He and a small group of leaders founded
what became Porter Library, and he served as a trustee of the library for many years.
- George Cooley was also known as “Father of the Ohio Farm Bureau,” founded in 1919.
He was president of the Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. In 1955,
the name of this insurance company was changed to Nationwide Insurance. Current
Westlake resident Roger Cooley is George Cooley’s grandson.
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- The Asahel Porter household, settled in the part of Dover that later became Bay
Village in 1810, included Mrs. Porter’s 17 year old brother Leverett Johnson.
- Leverett Johnson began clearing land in the vicinity of Columbia and Center Ridge
roads in 1810 or 1811.
- In 1811 or 1812, Leverett Johnson built a crude shelter and in 1814 a log cabin
on land at Porter and Center Ridge roads, a portion of which he later donated for
Evergreen Cemetery.
- In 1814, Leverett married Abigail Cahoon at Rose Hill. Abigail had arrived with
her parents and siblings on the same day in 1810 as Leverett had arrived with his
sister and brother-in-law in the part of Dover that became Bay Village. It was the first non-Native
American marriage in Dover Township.
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- In 1811, Noah Crocker and his wife and three children were among the first residents
of the part of Dover that would later become Westlake. They lived on
land purchased by Noah’s father Jedediah Crocker Sr., as no deeds with Noah Crocker
as land owner have been found.
- Jedediah Crocker Sr. sold his land to son Sylvanus after his son Samuel died in
1839 in Lorain County, where both had been living.
- On land shown on a map as still owned by J. Crocker in 1852, Sylvanus constructed
a house that still stands at 29242 Detroit Road, on the northwest corner of Detroit
and Old Bassett roads.
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- Crocker descendents still owned much of the land Crocker Park is constructed on
as late as 1892 and some of the land as late as 1911.
- Robert and Margaret Clague emigrated from the Isle of Man with one daughter in 1837.
- They raised nine children in a frame home on Clague Road just north of the Clague
Museum.
- The current Clague Museum, home of the Westlake Historical Society, was built for
Margaret Clague by her children in 1876.
- Walter and Sophronia Clague, two of Robert and Margaret’s surviving children, dedicated
Clague Memorial Park to the citizens of Dover on October 12, 1929.
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- Leonard G. Porter (1806-1884) was the tenth born of eleven children. His elder brother
Nehemiah moved to Dover before 1815. Leonard, his father and three siblings moved from Massachusetts via New York in 1826. Reportedly via the newly completed Erie Canal.
- Leonard along with his brother Wells were justices of the peace, and Wells was Dover
Township clerk and Leonard, Dover Township treasurer for a number of years.
- Leonard married Catherine Stevens at the Dover Congregational Church in 1838; she
and their only child died before 1848.
- He was a Sunday School superintendent, donated land for and taught at Dover Academy,
and was a leader of the Dover Literary Society. In 1884 he bequeathed $1,000 and
his collection of personal books to form Porter Public Library.
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- Located practically next to the Bradley Road Nature Park is a house at 3691 Bradley
Road, on 1.9 acres. It is a home that was most likely occupied by John Schwartz,
though probably built by J. Mehols in 1853. The house retains a fantastic granite
basement, the basic “Western Reserve” Greek revival temple front/side porch form
(the porch has been filled in), and the original banister and stairwell upstairs.
- It was occupied as early as 1874 by John Schwartz, for whom Schwartz Road is presumably
named, as it borders the north edge of his former 97 acres of land holdings.
- Some time after 1892, the property was split in half and John Schwartz retained
the northern half of the property and most likely occupied an 1873 historic house,
still standing at 3509 Bradley Road
- In 1917, a Joseph Schwartz served on Dover Village Council.
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- Between the years 1855 and 1872, George Weston, who had been born in Euclid Ohio
in 1819, lived in the stone and brick house which is located at 27946 Center Ridge
Road next to the Westlake Recreation Center.
- In 1872, George Weston purchased 120 acres of land on the east side of Columbia
Road just south of Center Ridge Road. He had three sons and each was given 40 acres
of land when they married. The land stayed in the Weston family for many years.
The entrance to Tri-C Corporate College is actually a street named Weston Avenue.
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- George’s granddaughter, May E. Weston, was a school teacher in Westlake and wrote
a book about the first 100 years of Dover Schools.
- The Weston house on Center Ridge Road was purchased by a Weston descendent and deeded
to the city in 2000. The city and the Westlake Historical Society are working together
to preserve the house.
- The Hurst brothers, Thomas, Josiah and William, who arrived in Dover in the 1830s
from Northamptonshire, England, were the first settlers known to have come directly from England.
- Thomas Hurst (1806-1861), settled in Dover Township after 1830 and began a successful
sheep farming operation, erected the brick house on Dover Farm in 1838 as the center
of his 3,500-acre farm.
- For years, Dover Farm was one of the largest farms in the county. The house, a classic
example of Greek revival architecture, was probably built by the Leneghen brothers,
who erected Stone Eagle Farm, the residence of brother William Hurst that stands
a mile west in Avon.
- Thomas H. Hurst, son of the original owner, lived here until 1894. The house is
pictured in an 1874 atlas of Cuyahoga County and was recorded by Historic American
Buildings Survey in 1936. From 1900-1913, Dover Farm was the country residence of
U.S. Senator Theodore E. Burton. The house was previously a nursing home, then abandoned,
and was restored in 1998-2002 by local preservationist Steve McQuillin.
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- Frederick Albers came to America in 1856 from his native Hanover, Germany, in search
of religious freedom and joined his brother already living in Dover. He was a naturalized
citizen by 1863 and in 1867 purchased 50 acres on Bassett Road.
- It is family lore that Albers flipped a coin with a resident named Juergemeier to
see which side of Bassett Road each would purchase – Albers getting the east side
of the ditch road, and Juergemeier the west side.
- The circa 1853 home purchased by Albers at 2105 Bassett Road remained in the Albers
family until 1981. A 1903 home occupied by Juergemeiers until 1992 still
stands across the street at 2104 Bassett Road.
- Esther Clara Krone Albers has written an excellent memoir about her close to 92
years of life in Dover, which is available to read at the local history link of
the Porter Library website.
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- Moses Hall purchased large amounts of land in the Western Reserve and gave 100 acres
to each of his sons and 50 acres to each of his daughters.
- In 1811 brothers James and Barnabas Hall and Barnabas’s wife Hannah were among the
first residents of the part of Dover that would later become Westlake. James Hall
settled on Detroit Road near the Avon line, Barnabas and Hannah where West Bay plaza
is currently located.
- Charles Hall and his wife Lucy moved from Ashtabula, Ohio, to Dover in 1821 and
built a home about 1834 that still stands on the northwest corner of Columbia and
Westwood roads. Columbia Road was once known as Hall Road and Maple Ridge Cemetery
as Hall Cemetery.
- Reuben Hall, born in 1821 in Dover, was an early historian of Dover and wrote a
book about the first 100 years of Dover.
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