Veterans from the Past

Although North Ridgeville was founded after the Revolutionary War took place, there were several veterans of that war that lived here in the following years. 

The following is a list of 11 veterans who served in that war (which ran 1775-1781), 10 of whom [ *]  are buried here:

*Capt. John Barnum (1758-1819)  arrived in Ridgeville Twp. in 1814. He was a member of the Connecticut Militia and is buried in the Ridgeville Center Cemetery.  He was the first burial there in 1819.

*Sgt. David Beebe Sr. (1747-1840)  was Ridgeville pioneer, being one of the first men to settle here in 1810. He was a Private in the Connecticut State Troops, later Quartermaster Sergeant of the Connecticut Militia.  He was also active during the War of 1812 at the Columbia Blockhouse.  He is buried in the Ridgeville Center Cemetery.

*Pvt. Calvin Dyke (1761-1855) was the last living Revolutionary War veteran in Lorain County.  He served in the New Hampshire Militia and his gravesite location is unknown.

*Lieut. Samuel Eldred (1742-1826)   He served in the Massachusetts Continental Army and is buried in the Ridgeville Center Cemetery.   (He was the father of Moses Eldred, who served in the War of 1812.)

*Sgt. Jonah Hanchet/Hanchett (1758-1845)  He was a Private in the Connecticut Militia and later became a Sergeant.  He is buried in the Ridgeville Center Cemetery.

*Pvt. Oliver Lewis  (1758-1839)  He served in the Connecticut and Massachusetts Militia and is buried in the Ridgeville Center Cemetery.

*Pvt. Martin Schellhaus/Schellhous/Shellhouse  (1759-1813)  served in the Connecticut Militia and is buried in Ridgeville Center Cemetery.  He later served and was wounded in the War of 1812, in which he was a Corporal.

*Pvt. Elihu Terrell/Terril (1759-1844)  He was an original N. Ridgeville pioneer- arriving in 1810.  He served in the Connecticut Continental Line and is buried in the Butternut Ridge (Fields) Cemetery.

*Ichabod Terrell/Terril (1763-1825)  Another pioneer of our town- arriving in 1810 with the first settlers.  He served in the Connecticut Militia and is buried in the Ridgeville Center Cemetery.

*Joel Terrell/Terril, Esq. (1757-1825)  One of the original Settlers here in town, he served in the Connecticut Militia and is buried in Ridgeville Center Cemetery.  He also served in the War of 1812, was a shoemaker, bee hunter and the first Ridgeville Justice of the Peace.

“Uncle” Oliver Terrell (1730-1816)  He was one of the 1809 settlers of Columbia who assisted our settlers in 1810.  He was a member of the Connecticut Militia and also fought in the French and Indian War.  He died at Westview and his burial site is unknown.

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The following are the 18 Ridgeville Veterans of the War of 1812 (1812-1815):  

[* ] These Veterans saw service in the Militia and at the Columbia Blockhouse.  (A smaller scale version of the Columbia Blockhouse is available to view in the present day at the Columbia River Reservation of the Lorain County Metro Parks.  Ridgeville Twp. citizens went there for safety during the war of 1812, and during a few predicted Indian uprisings, although no fighting is believed to have happened there.)

*Borden Beebe (1767-1831)  was a nephew of David Beebe and son of Ira Beebe.  He settled here in 1813, first on Center Ridge Rd. and later on Chestnut Ridge, where he died.

*Sgt. David Beebe Sr.  (1747-1840) was also  a veteran of the Revolutionary War and was a May 1810 pioneer settler..

*Maj. David Beebe Jr. (1781-1857) was the son of David Beebe Sr and was himself a Ridgeville pioneer.  He was charged with building the 2-story log Blockhouse at Columbia for protection from the British and Indians.

*Loman Constant Beebe (1791-1827)  was the youngest child of David Beebe Sr. and was never married.  He was one of the original settlers in 1810 here in town.

Moses Eldred (1770-1857) came from Oneida Co., N. Y. and settled here in December of 1813.  He was the first Postmaster of the new Ridgeville P.O. out of his house on the NE corner of Center Ridge and Case Rd.  He was wounded during the war in a skirmish with Indians near Sandusky in September 1812. (son of Lt. Samuel Eldred, Rev. War Vet.)

*John Whittlesey Hill (b. 1792?) was a Ridgeville Pioneer, and later lived in Amherst and possibly in Cuyahoga County.

Samuel Mills (1794-1839)  was from Watertown, N. Y. and settled in Ridgeville after the War.  He was the last teacher in the first log schoolhouse until it burned in 1817.  His descendants lived on the Mills Farm. (present location of Dairy Queen and Mills Creek)

*Sylvester Morgan (1793-1862) was a Ridgeville pioneer from 1810.  He was sent to Cleveland with “two others” to bring back new muskets for the Columbia Blockhouse late in 1812.

Cpl. Martin Schellhouse, Sr. (1762-1813) was a German mercenary soldier in the Revolutionary War and served under General George Washington at Valley Forge.  He was wounded in the neck at the Battle of Monmouth.   Martin and his family came from Addison County, Vt. to Ridgeville in November of 1813- and he died here a week later on November 27, 1813. (an “old man” at age 51) His body was buried first at the town’s first burying ground on Center Ridge near Lear-Nagle Road, but later moved to the new Ridgeville Center Cemetery at Stoney Ridge and Center Ridge when it opened in 1819.

*Eli Lewis Seeley (1790-1867)  born in Connecticut, possibly lived in Ridgeville and died in Amherst.

James Jameson Sexton  (1786-1856) was a native of Addison county, Vt. and settled in Ridgeville in 1813.  He later moved to Cuyahoga County briefly and then by 1842 to Rochester, Wisconsin, where he died.  His wife, Rosetta Schellhous Sexton, was a daughter of Martin Schellhous.

*Joel Terrell, Esq. (1757-1825) was a Revolutionary War Veteran and a May 1810 Ridgeville pioneer.  “Uncle Joe” left after a few months for Waterbury Ct. but returned to Ridgeville in September of 1811.  He was a shoemaker, a bee hunter, the first Justice of the Peace, owner/operator of Terrell’s Indian Tavern, and he began the Ridgeville Center Cemetery in 1819.

*Noah Terrell Jr. (1769-1826) was an original pioneer from 1810 and a wood-worker.  His wife was Esther Beebe Terrell, daughter of David Beebe Sr.

*Oliver Terrell (1791-1865) was a May 1810 pioneer and grandson of “Uncle” Oliver Terrell, a French & Indian War and Revolutionary War Veteran.  Young Oliver later settled in Eaton Township.

*Philander Laurel Terrell (1789-1875)  an original settler here in 1810 and son of Ichabod and Rhoda (Williams) Terrrell.  He married in 1811 his first cousin Lora Beebe, daughter of Borden Beebe.

*Tilotson Terrell (1785-1838) was a July 1810 Ridgeville settler and son of Ichabod and Rhoda Terrell.  Tilotson and his wife Electa (Wilmot) Terrell had 11 children. He was killed in a hunting accident.

*Maj. Wyllis Terrell, Sr. (1780-1830) came to Ridgeville with his mother in September of 1811.  His wife Mary “Molly” Beebe was a daughter of David Beebe Sr.  His son Wyllis Terrell Jr. wrote a series of articles from 1876-1879 called Ridgeville Early Incidents for an Elyria newspaper as “An Old Hunter”.

*Sheldon Wooster  (1792-1866)  was an original Ridgeville pioneer.  His mother, Ursula Beebe Wooster, was a sister of Borden Beebe and a niece of David Beebe Sr..  Sheldon returned to the Waterbury-Naugatuck Conn. area after serving at the Columbia Blockhouse in the War of 1812.