Laying the Buckeye pipeline on Boston Road ca. 1888
I was requested to write up something of the history of Beebetown, because I may be the only person now living who was born there and spent most of my life there. At eighty-six, I have memory more than half-way to the early settling of Beebetown.
The very early history I owe to my grandfather, Ebenezer Newton Fuller. His father, Ebenezer Fuller, Sr., was among the first settlers of this place, moving with his wife, between 1823 and 1830. His brothers, John and Robert, and sisters moved here later. Ann married a William Torry; Rachel married Fred Walker; Nancy married Elijah Bennett; and Dorcas married Abram Beebe, for whom the place was named. One brother, James, remained in New York. Through this Fuller family we may get a glimpse of what pioneer life was in this unsettled country.
It was a hard journey from Canadaigua, New York, with horses and wagon over very poor roads. To relieve the horses, the children had to walk some. Ebenezer Newton Fuller, then a boy of seven, walked most of the way. His father was crippled in one knee from a fever and was not able to walk far.
Upon arriving, the Fullers found a cabin of logs, thought to have been built by the Indians on the property they had bought, in the southwest corner of Strongsville Township. In it they spent the first winter. It had no fireplace or chimney, and to heat it they placed a large green log at the back and built the fire on stones in front. When the log was well burned, it was rolled forward and another took its place. A hole was chopped in the roof to let out the smoke.
Great Grandmother was eager to start an orchard for the family and brought seeds and clippings from New York State. A pear tree grew from one of these. Part of it, 140 years old, still stands. It is known throughout the place as the Fuller Pear.
The next summer after arriving, the Fullers built the first frame house in Beebetown. It still stands in fair condition, but it has been remodeled and added to. It is now owned by Harley Fuller, a great grandson of Ebenezer Fuller, Sr.
There was no grist mill nearer than Boston, Ohio, thirty miles east. So when they were in need of flour, Ebenezer Newton Fuller and a younger brother mounted a horse with a sack of grain and started for Boston. When they had gone some distance from home, the sack slipped from the horse and it was with much difficulty that the little boys managed to drag the sack to a high stump to get it back on the horse, which was nervous by this time and hard to manager. But after much effort they succeeded and made the journey.
The Fullers had twelve children, and relatives of Mrs. Fuller, the Newton family, and other families settled near by.
The people in the early days in Beebetown were very industrious. No doubt many had learned their trades before they came. There was a potash works. Potash was made by burning the large trees, then so plentiful, and saving the ash. This operation was located directly across the road from where the Dr. M. P. Fuller place now stands. On the Brunswick side there was a tannery, and a place where carriages were made.
Beebetown was a big little town. Big because four townships center here: Strongsville, Brunswick, Liverpool, and Columbia. Beebetown was a part of each, its activities extending about a mile each way.
There was a cheese factory on the same property as the potash works, later known as the I. G. Lewis Farm. This cheese factory building was later moved to the Liverpool corner and made into a general store and post office. Mr. Lewis was store-keeper there for some time; then the store was sold to O. T. Swigart, who added a dwelling and barn. There were a number of managers, but while it was owned by Mr. Irvine, a disastrous fire destroyed the store dwelling, and barn in one night.
Later, a store was built near the railroad station on the Strongsville side of the road. There were a number of proprietors. Lloyd Behner was about the first, and the last was Mort Olds who was married to Ruth McCoughney, a Beebetown girl, who had moved back from Canada. The Olds family took over the store. Later their daughter, Jeanette, did a thriving business, until ill health in the family compelled the closing of the store. Now Beebetown is again without a general store.
About the time the railroad came, the Buckeye Pipe Line built a station at the southeast corner of Prospect and Boston Roads. There were a number of large brick buildings, one for pumps with their enormous flywheels, and one for the many large boilers, each weighing about twenty tons. All the coal had to be hauled from the railroad, a mile and a half, with horses, and mud roads in winter were almost impossible. Many large pipe lines were laid through Beebetown to carry the crude oil, each station pumping the oil thirty-five miles. The buildings are gone now and the machinery removed. The pumping station was a source of income to the people at a time when money was hard to get. It gave work to the men and nearly every home was open for boarders. Then the company built a number of dwellings here for the men. We, as children, got a great thrill in going to the pumping station with some older person to see the fireman open the doors of the boilers with their glowing fiery contents to throw in more fuel. How we lived to see the great flywheels go around. There were two large reservoirs for water to run the machinery, and what fun we young people and some older ones had in winter, skating there.
There must have been some blacksmith work in the early days, but later Jake Smith built a shop and did an active business until the machine age. Then horses went out of fashion, but this shop still stands.
Beebetown never had a physician but Dr. M. P. Fuller, veterinarian, has been active ever since horse and buggy days, traveling the roads day and night. Now his work is mainly with pets.
Industry is now dead in Beebetown. There is some farming, but most wage earners are employed in Cleveland, Medina, Akron, or Elyria.