Clock Work

Historic Homes Tell Bath’s Story

After Libby Bauman moved to Bath Township in 1992, she was researching how to restore her 1820s home without ripping everything out and modernizing. Her inquiry took her to the Bath Township Historical Society and an informal offshoot group of volunteers living in 100-plus-year-old homes.

Around 2006, that group developed an outreach program that included commemorative plaques for homeowners who could document the age of their homes. The group undertook doing that research and documentation for other homeowners, and found something more.

“We started doing articles in the [Bath] Country Journal using tax records, genealogy records, cemetery records and any records we could find so that we could have this documented inventory of the century homes,” says Bauman, a volunteer who helped compile the book, “The Century Homes of Bath” for the historical society. “Around 2012, we realized we’re telling the story of generations.”

Family names like Hammond, Pierson, Barker and Hopkins surfaced over and over again. Trying to understand a fuller picture of the township’s history led Bauman to see how important the wives and daughters were to its formation. “You start realizing the significance of knowing the women’s maiden names because the women often were the connection between several of these families,” she says. One example is a Mrs. Hopkins whose maiden name was Pierson — and whose father and grandfather had been involved in the early formation of Ghent.

“Thomas Pierson built the house that’s now the Bake Shop in Ghent,” she says, noting the structure dates to about 1837.

Although it was long before the “Year of the Woman,” Bauman has historical documentation to attest to the fact that Bath was a good place to be a strong, forward-thinking woman. “Some of them actually had property in their names, which was very unusual in the 1800s,” she says. “They couldn’t even vote, but [they] owned property — you go girl!”

Bauman and other group members spent 18 to 24 months compiling their discoveries into “The Century Homes of Bath” book as a complement to the township’s 200th birthday.

As the township wraps up a year of celebrating its bicentennial with parades and other events, “The Century Homes of Bath” book draws a meaningful line from its past to its future with an emphasis on preservation. That theme carries into the family-friendly celebration at Bath Nature Preserve Dec. 1, a part of the Bath Bicentennial Weekend, and the time capsule planned to go in the ground at the end of the year.

Studying homes for the project showed Bauman how Bath’s evolution can be tracked through its diversity of architectural styles from different eras. Bauman is particularly impressed with how Bath managed the national building boom after World War II, incorporating its historic structures into newer developments, rather than razing them to start anew.

“They didn’t rewrite their history,” she says. “You can go by any neighborhood and see a barn or old farmhouse and then a midcentury and then a colonial and then a ranch, with the natural and scenic beauty in between, linking it all together. That’s what Bath is all about.”

Find “The Century Homes of Bath” at the Bath Township Historical Society, 1241 N. Cleveland Massillon Road, Akron, bathhistoricalsociety.org, or at the Bake Shop in Ghent, 800 Wye Road, Akron, bathcelebrates200.com.

Copley Adapts to Change

More than two centuries ago, the place we know as The 330 was the Western Reserve territory — the westernmost edge of the world, as far as residents of this nascent nation believed. A Connecticut man named Gardiner Greene entered a lottery in 1807 to buy plots of land out here and drew Township No. 2 Range 12, for which he paid just over $26,000. He named his new property Copley, after his wife Elizabeth’s family name.

On July 5, 1819, residents of Copley Township elected their first officers after the commissioners of Medina County — which comprised much of what we now call Summit County until 1840 — gave authorization for this burgeoning community to “exist on its own” as a bona fide township.

Nearly 200 years later, the bicentennial celebration in Copley kicked off in August with a re-enactment of that first meeting with Sen. Frank LaRose delivering a proclamation and residents donning period costumes. “We actually have the original minute books in their own handwriting,” says Helen Humphrys, volunteer township curator and elected trustee. “The history here has been well-kept by people before me, and we hope that after me, people will continue to keep the history and preserve it.”

With the development boom in the Montrose area beginning around 1984, Humphrys has seen Copley change a lot, from horse farms and rolling hills to a dense commercial complex. “It just blew up,” she says.

Through all the changes that 200 years bring, Copley has managed to maintain a safe community with a growing population. “We grew 26 percent in the 2010 census,” she says. And she predicts nearly as much growth by the 2020 census with more residential developments in the works, like 145 new rental units now under construction.

Part of maintaining a sense of strong community in the evolving township is its new Neighborhood Ambassadors program, which appoints volunteers to engage with neighbors, identify concerns they have and keep them up-to-date on township services and programs.

Copley shares its story with residents through events commemorating the bicentennial that continue through August 2019, including a Contra dance in Parker’s Barn Nov. 16 and the township’s annual tree-lighting ceremony Dec. 1. The township also pays tribute by developing and selling its custom game, Copley-opoly.

“We have such a rich heritage and culture that we want to express and engage our new residents, so they learn about Copley and develop community,” says Janice Marshall, chair of the bicentennial committee.

copley.oh.us/279/bicentennial-celebration