Originally founded as Trinity Church in Old Brooklyn in 1816, Trinity remained a west side congregation until 1826, when church leaders decided to relocate to the east side of the Cuyahoga River near Public Square. At that time a number of families who attended Trinity chose not to follow the church eastward and instead held services informally before establishing their own church, St. John's Episcopal Church, in 1834. Founding members of St. John's included Ohio City pioneers Josiah Barber and George Lord Chapman, along with prominent architect Hezekiah Eldredge, who was responsible for overseeing the construction of the new church building. Under Eldredge's direction, construction commenced on July 2, 1836, with Bishop Charles McIlvaine laying the cornerstone on Church Avenue near West 26th Street.
It has been widely reported that St. John's served as a stop—it was dubbed "Station Hope"— on the Underground Railroad in the years leading up to the Civil War. According to these reports, slaves hid in the church's bell tower and watched for signals from the lake telling them that it was safe to embark on the final leg of their journey towards freedom. Leaving the church, runaways would venture to the lakeshore where they boarded steamships bound for Canada. However, some doubt is cast on these claims since they are not definitively documented and because on the national level the Episcopal Church was one of the few Protestant denominations that did not split between North and South over the issue of slavery. If the church did not take an abolitionist stance, it begs the question of who aided the fugitives. Perhaps it was founding member and longtime vestryman George Lord Chapman, who was friends with outspoken abolitionist John A. Foote along with fellow church founder and "colonizationist" Josiah Barber. Or it may have been Chapman's wife Eliza. Equally involved in the church, she was described as a woman whose "whole life had been one of active beneficence. For the poor, the sick, and needy, the orphan, the friendless her heart poured out its sympathy and love in words and works which made her beloved as falls to the lot of but few." While the church's official position regarding slavery may have been one of indifference, it does not seem likely that individuals such as the Chapmans would have been able to ignore moral issues of secular nature like slavery, a notion supported by the many reports of St. John's Underground Railroad involvement.
The Civil War years at St. John's were highlighted most notably by the marriage of prominent Cleveland politician Marcus Hanna to Charlotte Rhodes in 1864. Soon after the close of the Civil War, however, disaster struck St. John's, with fire consuming much of the church's wooden interior. Initially believed to be caused by the heater located in the basement, further investigation determined that an act of arson caused the blaze. The tragedy proved to be a blessing in many ways though, as it provided an opportunity to expand the church to accommodate an ever-increasing number of parishioners.
In 1871 longtime minister Lewis Burton resigned as rector of St. John's to lead the two missions that St. John's had spawned, All Saints and St. Mark's. Burton had held the position for twenty-four years prior to his departure, and the following year Marcus Hanna became a vestryman of the church, serving for thirty-one years until 1903, a span which included the appearance of President William McKinley as his guest on at least one occasion for services. Through the Great Depression and World War II, St. John's remained a pillar on the Near West Side, and then in 1953 a tornado devastated the church, causing significant damage to the east wall and roof. Around this time the Inner City Protestant Parish emerged as an interdenominational church, sharing the space in St. John's for a number of years before eventually being absorbed by the Episcopal congregation.
By the 1980s, the nearly 150-year-old building was showing signs of deterioration, and a $100,000 renovation project was required in order to keep it operational. At present however, St. John's is closed, with services last taking place there in December 2007. As the oldest and arguably most structurally unique religious edifice in the city of Cleveland, St. John's is not only a sight to behold but remains a place whose connection to the Underground Railroad, however ill-defined, continues to excite great public interest.
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]]>Arriving in 1807, Cleveland pioneer Andrew Cozad settled in the area east of the city that is known today as University Circle, later establishing what proved to be a successful commercial brick-making business. He and his wife Sally had five children with one of their four sons, Justus, being born to them in 1833. As a young boy Justus was, by his own later admission, a difficult child but quickly realized his life's ambition of becoming a civil engineer and soon committed fully to educating himself. Before long he was employed in a railroading career earning a substantial salary for that time of $60 a month. Justus passed the majority of these earnings on to his father, who invested them into the construction of a house for Justus which he personally completed in 1852.
This house is reputed to have been involved with the Underground Railroad, and if this is in fact the case Justus Cozad could not have been a "conductor," having moved to Nebraska the year after its completion to pursue work in land surveying and not returning permanently to Cleveland until 1862. During those years Justus's brother-in-law's father Andrew Duty resided in the home and while there is no definitive evidence linking him to the aiding of fugitive slaves, certain clues suggest that he likely did. Duty contributed generously to and served as trustee of the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church throughout his life. Congregational churches were known to be largely abolitionist, and a number of Euclid Avenue's members had documented Underground Railroad involvement. Among them were immediate neighbors, the Fords, who owned land all along Euclid Avenue between Doan's Corners and Dugway Brook. Thus, while it may be impossible to confirm that Andrew Duty operated Justus Cozad's house as an Underground Railroad stop, at the very least it can be said that a strong connection exists between the house and the time, place, and people involved in those activities.
When Justus finally returned to Cleveland it was only a year before he moved again, this time to Indianapolis for work. He returned in 1871, completing the Italianate addition to the front of the house the following year. He also entered into the title abstract business but was eventually forced to sell many of his business interests along with his home after his brother Marcus defaulted on a substantial loan that he had extended to him. The house was soon purchased by Justus's daughter Olive and her husband Theodore Bates, however, and Justus moved into a home across East 115th Street from them. It was here that he lived until his death in 1910, and nine years later both Olive and Theodore also passed away.
After the passing of Olive and Theodore the house was divided into apartments and managed by Bates & Springer Inc., catering to the thriving academic and medical communities of the area for the next sixty-five years. Gaining historic landmark status in 1974, the residence continued to operate as a rooming house until it was purchased by University Hospitals in 1985. After its acquisition by UH, the house sat vacant and neglected for the better part of twenty years before University Hospitals decided to donate the property to University Circle Inc. (UCI) in 2006. Thereafter, the organization Restore Cleveland Hope worked with UCI to transform the Cozad-Bates House into a teaching center that celebrates Cleveland's Underground Railroad history.
Today the house seems rather out of place amongst the towering medical buildings, large parking structures, and high-rise apartment buildings that surround it. However, if you look at the historical circumstances that surround the house it becomes clear why it is located and still standing in the heart of Cleveland's cultural center.
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]]>This historic tavern was far more than a resting place for weary travelers. It held the title as the first tavern in Ohio. Additionally, it was the heart of antebellum and Civil War era merriment and suspicion. Originally built as two separate log cabins in 1798 long before Ohio was admitted as a state, it served as an inn first known as the Webster House, then New England House, before becoming known simply as the "Old Tavern." It is now named after the community wherein it resides, Unionville, though many locals know it as the "Old Tavern."
Strategically located along the County Line Road and the Cleveland-Buffalo Road, today's Route 84, Unionville Tavern benefited from frequent traffic. By 1818, as the Cleveland-Buffalo Road became a major thoroughfare and the tavern was designated as a stagecoach and mailstop on the Warren-Cleveland mail route, the log cabins were expanded into the two-story saltbox style inn. A covered carriage entrance and ballroom were added as well. The tavern enjoyed a steady stream of patrons that included travelers, revelers, and runaway slaves. Many travelers would stop here to rest as they made their way down the Cleveland-Buffalo Road or County Line Road in their covered wagons.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Unionville Tavern was an active Underground Railroad Station. While lavish dances dominated the scene in the second floor parlor, the first floor was a hideout for fugitive slaves on their way to freedom. After leaving the safe house at the tavern, the slaves would be taken to the Ellensburgh docks to cross Lake Erie into Canada. It was rumored that a series of tunnels used by escaped slaves led from the tavern's basement under the Cleveland-Buffalo Road to the local Unionville cemetery. In August of 1843, the tavern witnessed a spectacle, infamously known as the "County Line Road Incident." When Lewis and Milton Clarke, two fugitive slave brothers, spoke at an antislavery rally, Milton was captured and beaten. Local abolitionists and anti-slavery proponents fought successfully to free him. They then vowed that no runaway slave would ever be captured and returned to captivity in Lake County. Years later, when Harriet Beecher Stowe lodged at the Unionville Tavern on her way to Buffalo, she heard the Clarke brothers' story of the "County Line Road Incident." Many believe that the character George Harris in her famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin was based on Milton Clarke.
Unionville Tavern remained a functioning inn until the early-twentieth century. After a decade-long close, the tavern was restored and reopened in 1926. Sixty years later a pub was added, and the tavern functioned primarily as a restaurant and bar. Another landmark occurred in 1973 when the tavern was included in the National Register of Historic Places. Yet by 2003, the tavern was auctioned for $280,000, and in 2006 Unionville Tavern closed to the public. In 2011 after years of disrepair, the Madison Historical Society began a "Save the Tavern Campaign" to protect and preserve the historic building. The campaign evolved into the Unionville Tavern Preservation Society, which now cares for the former inn and keeps its reputation alive. The tavern is no longer open to the public, but those interested can still see the building and its historical markers.
]]>Sara Lucy Bagby was born in the early 1840s in Virginia. While visiting Richmond John Goshorn purchased Lucy on January 16, 1852 from a slave trader named Robert Alois for $600. After employing Lucy himself for five years, on November 8, 1857, Goshorn gave her to his son William Scott Goshorn.
While William Goshorn was away in Minnesota during the fall of 1860 Lucy was able to escape north via the Underground Railroad by the Ohio River to Beaver, Pennsylvania before moving on to Pittsburgh. To erase her fugitive status she fabricated the story that William Goshorn's daughter, Isabella, had brought her up north and into Pennsylvania where she told Lucy that she was now free because she was in a free state. Lucy eventually made her way to Cleveland where she worked as a domestic servant in the home of Congressman-Elect A. G. Riddle.
On January 16, 1861 William Goshorn arrived in Cleveland to reclaim Lucy under the U.S. Fugitive Slave Act, which was passed in 1850 to provide the judicial machinery for slave owners to reclaim their "property." The authorities arrived at the door of Lucius A. Benton's home on January 19, 1861. Benton, who worked professionally as a jeweler, had been employing Lucy for nearly two weeks leading up to that time. As the U.S. marshals knocked on the door Lucy looked out the window to see her owner William standing there with the marshals. After being arrested, Lucy was placed in a waiting carriage and taken to jail where she awaited trial on Monday, January 21. On her way to the jail U.S. Deputy Marshal J. H. Johnson asked Lucy why she had escaped with her reply being that she was afraid she was going to be sold south.
During this time William E. Ambush, Chairman of the Fugitive Aid Society, tried to raise $1,200 to purchase Lucy from Goshorn but Goshorn refused to sell her. His family worth was approximately $300,000 so the economic incentive to sell failed to sway him. With the court hearing coming almost immediately upon her arrest, the funds were never collected anyway.
On Monday she was brought before Probate Judge Daniel R. Tilden. Antislavery supporters filled the courtroom and area immediately outside the courthouse. Rufus P. Spalding, a former member of the Ohio Supreme Court, A. G Riddle and C. W Palmer served as her counsel. Judge Tilden issued a writ of habeas corpus on the oath of William E. Ambush against the sheriff and jailer. The question arose as to whether a fugitive slave could be retained in a jail, an establishment supposed to house criminals. Since it was a crime to escape from bondage the court determined that prisoners and fugitives could in fact be jailed based on the 1850 law.
There was no argument against the Fugitive Slave Act. Since John and William Goshorn had all the documents proving ownership of Lucy the court had no choice but to enforce the law much to the dismay of Cleveland and the black community of the city.
Following the trial and with U.S marshals as escorts, Lucy was transported by train back to Wheeling, Virginia. En route to Wheeling it was discovered that a plot to rescue the girl had been hatched by a large group of supporters but the train's conductor was able to thwart the attempt by skipping the scheduled stop where the rescue was to occur. During the war while travelling south with her owner Lucy was freed by a Union officer and following her emancipation she made her way to Pittsburgh. Later Lucy married a Union soldier by the name of George Johnson and the two continued to live in Pittsburgh for a number of years before eventually returning to Cleveland where she remained until her death in 1906.
In 1904 Lucy was invited to attend the annual Early Settlers' Association meeting held at Grays Armory. Presented to the crowd as Mrs. Lucinda Johnson, she rose and bowed as the band struck up "Dixie." The crowd responded with wild applause, warmly embracing their adopted daughter who they had once helplessly watched marched off to bondage.
]]>Where a grocery store and parking lot now stand on the south side of Detroit Avenue just west of West 58th Street there once stood a mansion so large that neighbors called it "Castle Needham" after the man who built it. The castle was said to be "surrounded by spacious grounds, on which flowers and fruit trees grew in rich abundance." Other sources noted the "marble fountain on the front lawn which distinguished it from its neighbors," and that it was "one of the most interesting landmarks in the residence district."
Castle Needham, or Needham Castle as it was later called, was built in 1842 by Needham M. Standart, a nineteenth century Lake Erie shipbuilder who was born in New York and moved to Milan, Ohio in the 1820s. In the 1830s, Standart relocated to fast-growing Cleveland where he built a number of Lake Erie steamers, including the famous steamboat Cleveland. He served as mayor of Ohio City from 1840-1841 and was one of the commissioners who in 1854 negotiated the terms of the annexation of Ohio City to the City of Cleveland.
In the decades leading up to the Civil War, Needham Castle was the site of "brilliant evening parties" that were said to be the talk of the west side for weeks afterwards. It was also rumored that more than "brilliant talk" occurred at Needham Castle and that its famed cupola was often used in these years as a hiding place for runaway slaves as part of Cleveland's Underground Railroad.
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, Needham Standart, whose son William had commanded the famous "Standart's Battery" of the 1st Ohio Light Artillery during the war, suffered a severe business reversal and was forced to declare bankruptcy. Needham Castle was sold to pay his debts. In the early 1870s, it was acquired by early Cleveland industrialist Daniel P. Rhodes (the father of historian James Ford Rhodes), who attempted to preserve the castle while redeveloping the surrounding mansion grounds into a residential subdivision. Before Rhodes could complete the project, however, he died suddenly in 1875.
In the 1880s, Needham Castle was purchased by Herman and Ida Stuhr. Herman Stuhr, a German immigrant architect and lumber dealer, designed several commercial buildings in Cleveland and built a number of the houses on West Clinton Avenue that still stand on that street today. In 1912, Stuhr decided to convert Needham Castle into a three-family residence for his extended family. Shortly after completing the project, Herman Stuhr, like previous owner Daniel Rhodes, died suddenly.
In the years following Herman Stuhr's death, Needham Castle continued to be the subject of neighborhood talk. Every March 6, for more than 50 years from the early 1880s until the mid-1940s, Herman Stuhr's widow, Ida, who lived to age 95, hosted a grand dinner party at Needham Castle for friends and family in celebration of her birthday. She continued to host these parties at Needham Castle until 1946 when she moved out to live with her daughter and sold the castle to St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Church.
In the years following World War II, St. Mary used Needham Castle as an apartment house for Romanian immigrants coming to America in the wake of the communist takeover of their country. The castle also served as a photography studio, its beautiful Victorian era rooms and decor serving as the perfect backdrop for parish wedding pictures.
St. Mary also had planned to eventually build a new and larger church on the mansion property, but abandoned the plan in the early 1950s when its parish priest could not resolve his differences with city leaders over living conditions in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood. Instead, St. Mary built its new church on a site on Warren Road. In 1954, Needham Castle was purchased by a realty company which tore down the historic old mansion and built a Kroger grocery store in its place.
Some mysteries of Needham Castle, including the rumor that it served as an Underground Railroad site, have been largely lost to history. However, one mystery has been solved. Although Needham Castle had stood at 5913 Detroit Avenue for more than 110 years and was widely touted as one of the most famous landmarks on Cleveland's west side, an exhaustive search in 2011 of newspapers, city and county records, public libraries, and private historical society collections, failed to uncover a single photo, painting or other image of the house. Then, in 2014, a descendant of Herman and Ida Stuhr, who had read this story online, generously provided copies of photos and sketches of the historic mansion. A number of those now appear in the photo array that accompanies this story.
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