jzspringer's blog

In honor of the recent cold snap, I thought I would touch on just a few of the ways life changed for Doverites during the long Ohio winters of yesteryear.

In the early days of any settlement, food and shelter are of course imperatives and priorities. So it won’t surprise anyone that two of the first as well most prolific industries in Dover were mills. Mills of the Grist and Saw variety to be exact. Grist mills harnessed water (or later steam) to turn grind stones that would smash grain such as wheat into flour that was used to bake bread.

In the book “A History and Civics of Dover Village”, co-author Hazel Rutherford makes that observation that even though the Dover Fair was a yearly event in this town for 40 years in the late 1800s, “Many present residents of Dover would be surprised if they were told that the main entertainment of this village…was a fair which took place on the present Dover High School Grounds”.

I don’t think anyone would disagree when I say that Westlake Ohio, and gang violence are hardly synonymous terms. This idyllic city has as safe a feel to it as any I’ve been too. And for most of its 199 year history this has been perfectly true. But if you were around town in the 1950s, you’d know that Westlake was not devoid of what historian William M.

For most of us today, the most exposure we get to the “wilderness” is spotting a deer or raccoon in the back yard from time to time. But there was a time when this whole area was a vast wilderness covered in thick forest. And in this wilderness were wild animals; animals that were not used to human beings traipsing around in their territory.