Autographs

The Bay Village Historical Society would like to send our congratulations to the recent graduates of Bay High School in 2024. One hundred years ago, in May of 1924, the two-year old Parkview School building (located where the middle school stands today) only housed grades 1-9^th grade and was preparing to add a 10^th grade class that fall. Any Bay Village graduating student at that time still needed to attend neighboring high schools, such as in Westlake and Rocky River, until Bay added its first senior class in the fall of 1926. You can view yearbooks for Bay’s high school all the way back to this first graduating class of 1927 at the Osborn Learning Center or by viewing a digital copy on our website here.

On the subject of yearbooks, one may think of the autographs within them. This personal addition of autographs and poems are left behind within the cover pages and margins of the book as fond remembrances from fellow schoolmates and teachers. Their messages can also be found in booklets from the late 19^th century, made specifically for this purpose. We have a few such booklets in our collections, including some that contains locks of hair! The autograph books included here all contain signatures dating from the 1880s.

First is the autograph book of Miss Emily Oborn (b. 1871, d. 1955). Emily was the great-granddaughter of early Dover Township (now Bay Village) settlers Sarah and Reuben Osborn. Inside the booklet, the signatures implore Emily to not forget them and send best wishes and wonders about the future. The pages are signed by her teacher, family, and various friends and students, beginning in the early 1880s.

*Pages from the autograph book of Miss Emily Osborn. Note the sticker or pasted image of flowers at top right. Such small images are often pasted in the pages of these books. 2021.07.09*

The autograph book of Herbert “Bertie” Barker (b. 1871, d. 1924) contains signatures of schoolmates and friends in New York from 1882-1883 with some additional signatures collected into the 1890s. Barker later married a member of Dover Township’s Aldrich family.

*Pages from the autograph book of Bertie Barker, 2021.FIC.033.*

Edythe Amelia Aldrich (b. 1876 d. 1961) was the great-granddaughter of Elizabeth and Aaron Aldrich III, the first members of the Aldrich family to settle in Dover Township in 1816. Edythe Aldrich’s book contains many pieces of sage advice from Dover classmates but also some humorous poems and teases about the future love interest in her life. That person turned out to be Herbert Marcus Barker (Bertie Barker) whom she married in 1905.

*Pages from the autograph book of Edythe (or Edith) Amelia Aldrich, with collected signatures from 1887-1891, 2021.FIC.034.* *The signature at left might be of Wirt Wallace Dodd (b. 1868, d. 1950). Dodd’s future daughter, Sarah, was a member of the first graduating class in Bay in 1927.*

This page of Edythe Aldrich’s autograph book contains the signature of Arthur H. Wolf. This is probably Arthur H. J. Wolf (b. 1874, d. 1900), the grandson of early Dover settlers Ann and John Wolf, who came to the area in 1818 from Virginia. According to Bay Village: A Way of Life, Arthur’s father, Alfred, was born in 1828 in his parent’s log cabin, built 300 feet south of what is now Wolf Road, near Walmar Drive.

In May of 2023, we took a look back at a few pictures and papers from some early graduates of Bay Village on our Glimpse of the Past page. It’s worth a look!

Also worth a look is the historic Sarah and Reuben Osborn house, on Lake Road, next to Rose Hill Museum. It is believed to be the oldest surviving framed house between Cleveland and Lorain County. It was saved from destruction and moved to its current location in 1995. It also received a bit of a facelift in 2023 with a new paint job and some exterior work. The building is officially known as the Osborn Learning Center because it houses some small exhibits and resources for research on Bay history. Come visit this house as well as Rose Hill Museum on Sundays, April – December in 2024 from 2:00 – 4:30 p.m. (excluding holiday weekends). Contact us at info@bayhistorical.com or call us at 216-319-4634 with any questions. You may also visit our website at www.bayhistorical.com, for additional information.