Courtesy North Ridgeville Historical Society, northridgevillehistoricalsociety.com
Race Road
Race Road was named for the Race family- probably William N. Race and his wife, Vienna, who were both natives of Massachusetts. They came to Ridgeville Twp. about 1829 and had many children. Two of those children were sons, Joyner and Bradford. The 1874 map shows both sons being landowners of property on both sides of Center Ridge alongside what we now call Race road. Joyner owned 48 acres on the south side and 39 on the north side and his brother Bradford owned 48 acres on the south side and 41 on the north side. At this time there was only one house in the vicinity and it looks to have been Joyner ‘s on Center Ridge near the corner of Race Road. The road went through to Sugar Ridge, as it does today, but no other houses are shown to have been there.
Joyner and his wife, Amelia had three children, one of whom met his death during the Civil War.
Merrick Race was a member of the 2nd Ohio Calvary for two years. He received an honorable discharge due to ill health and returned home. Upon his recovery he visited Topeka, Kansas with a friend, a Mr. Follenbee of Oberlin. The two men set out to establish a Commercial College, but their plans were interrupted in this pursuit by the threatened invasion of Kansas by Confederate General Sterling Price. All the citizens of Topeka flew to arms and Merrick and his friend joined the 2nd Kansas militia, Topeka Battery. Their artillery company, comprised of 21 men were charged with guarding a ford about two miles from Westport Missouri, when they were overtaken by nearly 4000 rebels. They fought with heroic valor, but they were compelled to surrender. He and others from the company were shot by rebel forces following their surrender, which was described in a local news article as an act of “savage barbarity”. Mr. Race was left on the battlefield for dead, but was later rescued by a fellow soldier and taken to a nearby home. From there he was taken to a makeshift hospital where he died two days later of his wounds. His Uncle Bradford made the trip to Missouri to collect his remains for burial here in Ridgeville. Because of this trip we know the details of the death of Merrick Race.
Many generations of the Race family are interred at the Center Ridge Cemetery, including Merrick, Joyner, and William.
Chestnut Ridge
Chestnut Ridge was named for the abundance of Chestnut trees located on the ridge on which it was laid out. It proceeds all along the width of North Ridgeville at an angle, following the old lake ridge. An interesting aspect of Chestnut Ridge is at one time there were two one-room schoolhouses along the road. The District #10 Schoolhouse was located at the intersection of Avon Belden and Chestnut Ridge. The District #5 Schoolhouse was at the southwest corner of Lear Nagel and Chestnut Ridge. Neither of these buildings remain. Landowners of the past century along the road tell us something about other street names in the area- Bainbridge, Stetson (which became Lear Nagel), Mitchell and Stearns.
Stoney Ridge
Stoney Ridge was laid out by Asahel and Sylvester Powers, who settled there in about 1815. It was called the Powers Road until the late 1820s, when the Powers family left the area. Those living in the area started calling it Stoney Ridge because of the many stones there, and the fact that it ran from Center Ridge to North Ridge in Avon. (Today’s Detroit Rd.). 1950s era county maps called it Ridgeville-Lorain Road because it connected the two cities, but at some point it just became Stoney Ridge.
There are quite a few interesting stories associated with the area of Stoney Ridge. One of the one-room schoolhouses is located there, near the intersection of Barres Rd. It is currently a single family home and in the past few years has become surrounded by new houses. In the 1900s Stoney Ridge was a farming road. All along the road one could see fields of corn, wheat, apple orchards, cows, horses, etc. Just a few of the farmers were Welter, Jackson, Wensink, Dorow, Myers, Smith, Johnson, Frank, and many others. I grew up on Stoney Ridge and you could get tomatoes from Franks greenhouse, strawberries and cucumbers were good at Dorows, and if you rode your bike down by Barres Road you could talk to the cows on the corner. Jackson’s farm sometimes allowed school kids to come for a visit to see their animals and tractors and I’ll never forget seeing Ted Johnson riding his tractor up the road- standing up! The Smith family had not only a farm but a sawmill that was very useful for area residents. There was even a lavender farm for a short time that was very fragrant!
Memorial Day was especially exciting, as some of the floats were assembled in the many barns along the road and we got a preview as we watched for them heading to the parade – being pulled by a tractor and one of the area farmers.
The Wensink farm had a beautiful old house on the curve of the road just north of Barres. One of the Wensink sons, Norbert, moved to Monroeville with his wife and started what would become one of the largest seed producers in the State- Wensink Seeds. Wensink Seeds has about 2000 acres of land in 5 counties in Northern Ohio and they produce seed for corn, oats, soybeans, wheat, spelt and barley. (As an interesting side note, Rita Wensink, who also grew up in that house, became Rita Urig, a beloved high school teacher here in town.)
Sadly, many of those farms are growing houses now and the area is becoming more residential, but the rich history of Ridgeville’s farming community is still alive in the memories of its older residents.
To be continued in next month’s North Ridgeville Review.