2013-079 Ordinance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Richard Knight followed farming and stone cutting in Lorain County for fourteen years, from 1832 until 1846. He worked in various capacities of stone-work in Elyria, in addition to working on the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. In 1846 the Knight and Beebe families wanted to relocate to Dover Township in Cuyahoga County. At that time Richard and Emma Knight had two children, a son, Eber, born in 1938, and a daughter, Ellen, born in 1840. On December 5, 1846, Richard, then 33, and his brother-in-law Sidney, together paid Ebenezer Porter a handsome sum of $1,600.00 for 140 acres of the original 160 acres of land on Lot 4 in Dover Township. Lot 4 had previously been owned jointly by Nehemiah Hubbard and Joshua Stow of Connecticut, the original investors in Dover Township when it was surveyed and established in 1806. Hubbard and Stow eventually divided their pover land holdings equally and Nehemiah Hubbard became the sole owner of Lot 4, along with the other lots he owned in his half of the township. On June 25, 1832, Hubbard sold the 160 acre Lot 4 to Ebenezer Porter for a mere $400. Thirteen years later, on Christmas day in 1845, Ebenezer's brother, John Porter acquired a 20 acre portion in the northwest corner of Lot 4, through a sheriff's deed issued by Huron Beebe. One year later, Ebenezer made a fine profit on the sale of his land to Knight and Beebe. The Porter brothers were sons of Joseph Porter, a soldier in the Revolutionary War, who was a widower when he came to Dover in 1826. There was a stone quarry on Lot 4. The quarry eventually became one of the quarries owned by E. C. Harris and William Geiger. It was referred to as having an excellent quality of building stone, much used in the township and elsewhere, and found in the southwest part of Dover. The Harris and Geiger stone quarries long yielded large supplies, "although the former quarry on Lot 4 was not being worked to any great extent as of 1879." On January 4, 1850, Knight and Beebe agreed by quitclaim deed to divide their 140 acre property between themselves. For the sum of one dollar, Richard retained seventy-one and one half acres on the easterly half of Lot 4. Sidney retained sixty-eight and one half acres on the westerly half of Lot 4. The quitclaim deed reserved a right of way along the north line of the property, one half the trees in the nursery and one third the apples, not to exceed fifty bushels in any one year. The deed also granted unrestricted use of the part of the stone quarry on the land deeded to Knight. The quarry was to be worked in partnership with Beebe, a stonecutter by trade, and the quarry and fruit not to be consigned to any other person. Between the years 1850 and 1860 the value of Knight's real estate holdings increased dramatically. Richard Knight had begun the design and construction of his new home, presumably using stone cut from the quarry located on his property, and with help from brother- in-law Sidney. The 1860 inscription in the stone lintel over the main front entrance to the Knight house probably, but not necessarily, was inscribed in the lintel before its installation, and before the final completion of construction of the house. On a map printed in 1858, the location of the stone quarry is shown along with what appears to be another structure surrounded by the quarry on the portion of the land owned by Sidney Beebe.