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Old names for Geauga corners not forgotten
(by Joan Demirjian - January 07, 2010)
Old names for Geauga corners not forgotten
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
Many roads and intersections are named after people who settled in their vicinity. Years later, some residents in Geauga County remember those names.
One who has knowledge of old corners and roads named after families long gone is Geauga County Engineer Robert Phillips. His office has a map display with the listings of the corners, including Soule's Corners, Frank's Corners and McFarland Corners.
"The roads and corners got their names from those living at the corners," Mr. Phillips said. Some people still call them by those names, but not many, he said.
There are places like Cassell's Corner and Mays Corners. "I called them that when I first started here," he said.
Mr. Phillips said he recently used the name "Downings Corners," which is Auburn and Wilson Mills roads in Chardon. "Nobody knew what I meant," he said. "I'm about the only one who knows. People now are too young."
Mr. Phillips started with the county department in 1973, and all the local road superintendents who taught him the names have long since retired, he said.
Now, instead of using road names, everyone in his department refers to the roads by numbers, Mr. Phillips said. "It's easier when talking on the radio to use the numbers." He said numbers come across clearer than the names.
In the mid-1800s, as farms were established, roads were named after the families. "If you were going to the Haskins farm, you knew what road it was," Mr. Phillips said.
Some locations are still referred to by their original names, such as McFarland Corners at East Washington Street and Chillicothe Road (Route 306) in Bainbridge.
On his map of corners are Gilmore's Corners at Munn and Taylor May roads and Pash Corners at Auburn and Bartholomew roads, both in Auburn.
Frank's Corners is at Geauga Lake and Bainbridge roads, and Miner's Corners is Bainbridge and Fields roads, both in Bainbridge.
Cats Den Road was referred to as the Natural Bridge in Bainbridge. Clark's Crossing is on Clark Road, east of Auburn Road in Chardon Township.
The juncture of Auburn, Mentor and Mitchells Mill roads was Chardon Center. Wick's Corners is at Mulberry and Caves roads in Chester, and Hickox's Corners is at Ravenna (Route 44) and Kinsman (Route 87) roads in Newbury.
Green's Crossing was at Auburn and Bell roads in Newbury, named after the family that lived there.
Auburn resident Jean Fugman lives at Bell's Corners at Stafford and Munn roads. "It was called Bell's Corners, because it was the only one-room schoolhouse with a bell in the township," she said.
There were several schoolhouses at corners in the county, she said. A one-room schoolhouse stood at Cassell's Corner, or Auburn and Taylor May roads, she said.
There was a school building at Stern's Corner, Auburn and Stafford roads in Auburn, Mrs. Fugman said. Her father used to tell her how he attended spelling bees at the Stern's Corner school.
Brown's Corner at East Washington Street (Route 422) and Munn Road in Auburn was also the site of a school and was named after the family that owned a farm there, she said. "Nobody would know the names now," Mrs. Fugman said.
Mildred MacRitchie, of South Russell, recalled Soule's Corner at Bell and Chillicothe roads. It was named after a landowner, she said.
She is a direct descendant of the Haskins and McFarland families that settled in Bainbridge. Haskins Road is named after the early settlers.
McFarland's Corner is named after the McFarlands, who settled along Chillicothe Road.
Peg Schutt, of Russell, said Watt Road in Russell is named after the Watt family that settled there.
Fullertown, at Sperry and Fairmount roads, was a small town and a stop on the Interurban Railroad.
There was a group of houses and a store there until the 1960s and a hall where church services and other meetings were held, Mrs. Schutt said.
Roads had names known to the locals as well, including Hogs Back Hill on Kinsman Road (Route 87) and Sand Hill on Mayfield Road (Route 322) going into Munson.
Snake Hill on Fairmount Road was a narrow portion of roadway leaving Russell into Hunting Valley.
Howard Benjamin worked on the Bainbridge and Auburn road departments, and was born in the house he and his wife, Jean, live in on Haskins Road in Bainbridge. "All the old roads were someone's name," he said.
Names like Haskins, Snyder and the Taylors and the Mays are roads in Bainbridge and Auburn.
"Thorpe Road in Auburn was Brown Road at one time," Mr. Benjamin said. Country Lane in Bainbridge used to be Moon Road, named after the farmer who lived there. The road went only a few hundred feet from Chagrin Road. Later, it was built through, in stages, to South Franklin Street, he said.
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