Richfield Schools

We have notebooks filled with articles and old photographs of our schools along with stories of the teachers and students.  Please contact us at information@richfieldohiohistoricalsociety.org or stop by on a Tuesday morning to see the books!

Leamon Farnham, a son of early settler John Farnham, was elected the first Justice of the Peace in Richfield Township in April 1816.  So what better person to be the first teacher! 

In that same year, a town building was erected  in a grove behind what became Homer Carter's home; it was this same grove where open-air services were performed by circuit missionaries who visited the area every five or six weeks.  The town building served as town hall,  church, school house, court and social hall.  Of log construction, with puncheon floors and seats, it was a source of great pride to the people who brought their carefully nurtured trees and shrubs to beautify the grounds. 

In 1835 the Ohio Legislature chartered an Academy which was built  in 1836 in the northeast corner of Rte 303 and Humphrey Road.  It flourished for 36 years, while many of its graduates went out into the world to occupy  high positions.  The Principal for many years was Rev. Harvey Lyon, while Rev. Israel Shailor and Dr. Rawson were also teachers.

Click on each picture to see a description.

 

Richfield Churches

By 1811, enough pioneers had settled in Richfield that open-air church services were held every few weeks by itinerant missionaries in a clearing in the forest, located about a quarter mile SW of the crossroads at East Center.  There were two sermons in the morning, then Sunday school after lunch, followed by another sermon later in the day.  Our church history says the religious fervor, at times, was so great that, "the preaching could be heard a mile away", as far as West Richfield!  Four traveling missionaries ministered to Richfield.  First were Rev. William Hanford and John Seward; next, Rev. Treat and Rev. Israel Shailor.  They were from the Connecticut Missionary Society with headquarters in Ravenna.  Those missionaries conducted services every few weeks when Richfield's 'Meeting Day' came around which was a great occasion for the early settlers, as in those days there was no time for frivolous affairs and gatherings were few. 

The Congregational Society was organized May 18, 1818 by Rev. William Hanford and Rev. John Seward.  They held services in barns and then in an 1816 log "meeting house" and also served as a school house at the same time.   On February 18, 1824 this organization, now under Rev. Shailor and still meeting in a log building, united with the "Grand River and Portage Presbytery", and thus became Presbyterian affiliated. 

The first church built in Richfield was a Methodist Church built in 1822.  Richfield Township's 1849 ledger of District Roads refers to this "Methodist Meeting House", as being in the south-east part of the township, not as West Richfield.  It burned and was rebuilt in 1856. 

In 1831, the Church of Christ Society began work on constructing a new Presbyterian church at Center crossroads - 990 feet north from the old 1816 log building.  This was the third church built in the Western Reserve, several years before Cleveland had places to worship.  Rev. Horace Smith was chosen to begin his pastorate; Rev. Shailor's ending in November 1833. The society met in the Center School House (located across the road from the present brick school building on Streetsboro Rd.) while the new church was under construction. 

Building the church demanded toil, self-denial and a united effort.  "Some contributed the sawn lumber, others the whitewood for the siding and still others the work of their hands." This new church was built with nails and iron hardware; it had glass windows and was painted white.   It was located between Capt. Heman Oviatt's frame house (at 3798 Brecksville Rd.) and his son, O. M. Oviatt's store.  O.M. Oviatt, as a church trustee, bore a large share of the building costs. 

It was then dedicated as The First Congregational Society Church of Richfield on April 1, 1833 and a revised Confession of Faith and Church Covenant were adopted; thereafter, the church was no longer affiliated Presbyterian.  Persons chosen as officers included:  Salmon Oviatt as Chairman, S. Rawson as Treasurer, Uri Oviatt as Collector, and James W. Weld as Secretary. 

A fire broke out on April 3, 1886 and soon the stunned members stood around the blackened ashes of their beloved church which had served them for 54 years.  The store of the Loomis Brothers (previously the Bronson & Oviatt store) and the adjoining shed also burned and were never rebuilt.  But seven months after the fire, the church was rebuilt with all the elaborate architectural characteristics of the Victorian age.   Trustees at this time were O.M. Oviatt, James Mackey, and William Wheatley and they were instrumental in the building of the new church.

In 1838, members of the Oviatt family formed the Richfield Baptist Society and met in members' homes until  1840 when Salmon & Mary (Humphrey) Oviatt deeded to the Baptist Society a plot of land at the West Center of Richfield.  There, the Baptist Church was built in 1840.

One hundred years later, Judge Dean May ruled the sale of the church and property (for $850) by the Cleveland Baptist Association to the Richfield Township Trustees was legal and binding (1940).  During WWII, the church provided space for the local Civil Defence Office.  The north annex then became home to Richfield's public library.  Virginia Carter, as its first librarian, remembered, "It was open one or two eveings a week because of wartime gasoline rationing."  

In 1949, the church was renamed, Fellowship Hall, thanks to Mrs. Anna Kamps, who submitted the best name in a contest.  She was mother to Ethel Szitar, who was manager of the Richfield United Church of Christ. 

In 1856, the new Methodist Church was built at a new location in West Center, Richfield, about a block east of the corners. 

Kittycornered across the road from this building was the parsonage, built around 1870.  The original house at the parsonage site previously had been moved next door (North) about 1830.  In March 1919, Floyd Swan purchased the old parsonage and his children, Ray, Ken and Gertrude were raised in that historic building. 

Then in 1918, the Methodist Church was affiliated with the Congregational Church to form the Richfield Federated Church.

Later on, the church building was abandoned, sold and made into 2 separate homes in 1927. 

Built in 1876, the Centennial Church of the United Brethern was established in Richfield; later it was abandoned in 1920.  William E. Malm bought it in 1932, dismantled it, and used materials to construct the Swiss chalet home at 4053 Humphrey Road.

The New Congregational Church was built in 1886 and was later affiliated with the Methodist Church to form Richfield Federated Church in 1918.  The Federated Church building was condemned as unsafe in 1950 and torn down in 1952.  The New Federated Church could not receive financial aid from the Methodist organization for a new church but funds were later provided by the Congregational organization in 1953.

The New Congregational Church was built and dedicated in 1953 and still stands as the Richfield United Church of Christ.

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