Beebetown Cemetery and Church

On the side of the road surrounded by a clean, white picket fence resides the small Beebetown Cemetery. Although to many local residents, the word “Beebetown” is foreign, this small community was once a significant settlement that anyone in the area would have recognized. Today, Beebetown is referred to as a “phantom town” -- a place that was important in the early years of white settlement, but that no longer exists in the twenty-first-century. However, you will not see Beebetown listed in the many “abandoned places of Ohio” lists. On one hand, this is because few of the buildings of Beebetown still exist in their original location. More likely though is the fact that Beebetown’s dissolvement was gradual and unexciting. 

In 1823, Abram Beebe traveled from Canadaigua, NY, to settle in the Connecticut Western Reserve (present-day Northeast Ohio). Beebe traveled for seventeen days with his wife, Dorcas, and their nine children to reach their 50 acre plot of land they had purchased for $165.50. Upon arrival, the family constructed a log house for shelter and soon after, more relatives from New York followed. One of the other early families to settle in the area was the Fuller family. The head of the family, Ebenezer Newton Fuller, was one of Dorcas Beebe’s siblings. The Fuller family constructed the first frame house in Beebetown. Upon the house’s completion, Ebenezer’s wife planted seeds and clippings she had brought with her from New York and from this grew a pear tree. In a 1965 written history from Edith Clement, a great-granddaughter of Ebenezer Fuller and lifetime resident of Beebetown, she claimed that this same pear tree still stood 140 years later and was referred to as the “Fuller Pear”. The Fullers had twelve children and throughout Beebetown’s history, many of the Fullers were important community members. For example, in the late nineteenth-century Dr. M.P. Fuller became the town’s first and only member who practiced medicine; however, Dr. Fuller was a veterinarian, not a physician. 

As Beebetown expanded throughout the nineteenth century, the community added multiple businesses and residential homes. At its peak, Beebetown extended about one mile in each direction. In addition to regular community services like a Blacksmith shop, general store, and post office, Beebetown had its own potash works and cheese factory. Potash is a form of potassium that is created by burning trees and saving the ash, hence the name “pot-ash”. Potash is most commonly used as fertilizer, but it has many other interesting uses today such as an ingredient in aluminum recycling and brewing beer. Of the many Beebetown businesses, only one building remains: the Olds Family General Store. Constructed in 1916 near the railroad tracks in the Strongsville part of Beebetown, the business operated until 1964 when Jeannette Mort retired. Later, the Strongsville Historical Society moved the structure to their campus in the center of Strongsville, where it still remains today as part of the organization’s museum. 

Beebetown was also included in local commerce routes. In 1888, B&O Railroad constructed a rail line through town. Trains would stop in Beebetown as often as six times a day and transported passengers, milk, and other farm products from Cleveland to the surrounding area. Around the same time as the railroad construction, Buckeye Pipe Line built a station near Beebetown and laid pipes through the town to transport crude oil throughout the region. The pumping station was an important source of income in the community, and during its lifetime, many town residents hosted boarders who worked for the oil company. 

In addition to businesses, Beebetown had thriving community organizations. In 1826, Russell Gilmore organized the Columbia Free Will Baptist Church, the first of many congregations in Beebetown. In 1834, the church constructed their meeting house out of logs and used the second floor of the building for a town school. The school eventually constructed a separate building in 1842 and used this space until a larger schoolhouse opened in 1875. Although the 1875 school house still stands today, it has since been remodeled into a residential home that resides in the Strongsville corner of Beebetown. As for the church, the brick structure still standing in Liverpool Township opened in 1905. Prior to that, residents used a 1954 frame church. In addition to Beebetown’s early emphasis on education and religion, the community valued continued education and held a Lyceum in town for seven years. Starting in 1867, 36 males and 16 females gathered to debate pressing issues of the time. Some of the topics included were “Resolved, that in-temperance has done more harm to man than war”, “Resolved, that electricity is more beneficial than steam”, and “Resolved, that woman has more influence over man than money”.

In an issue of the Medina County Gazette from February 12, 1875, the author described Beebetown inhabitants as “industrious, hospitable, and progressive in agriculture, education, and religion.” Yet by the mid-twentieth-century, the vibrancy of Beebetown and its inhabitants had largely disappeared. With the expanding size of the surrounding towns of Columbia, Strongsville, Liverpool, and Brunswick, combined with the town’s unique location in three counties (Lorain, Cuyahoga, and Medina), Beebetown gradually assimilated into the surrounding communities. Today, few residents remember Beebetown, but evidence of its existence is found in the church and cemetery and in the Strongsville, Columbia, Valley City, and Brunswick historical societies.

Boyer, Sam. “History Buffs Journey Back to Beebetown”. Cleveland.com. Last modified January 12, 2019. Accessed November 14, 2020. https://www.cleveland.com/brunswick/2013/05/history_buffs_journey_back_to.html.

Clement, Edith. “Communities in the Township: Beebetown”. In History of Strongsville Cuyahoga County, Ohio with Photographs, Book 1, 60-61. Strongsville: Strongsville Historical Society, 1967.

Varisco, Louise. “Beebetown, Ohio: History of a Community Lost in History”. Louise Varisco’s Genealogy Page. Accessed November 14, 2020. http://www. ahjur.org/louise/beebetown.html.