July 24: Local History Book Signing
On Thursday July 24 three local authors who focus on Northeast Ohio will be signing their books at the Lakeshore Coffee House, 22032 Lakeshore Blvd. The event runs from 4:30-7:30 pm. The writers are Laura Peskin, Roy Larick and John Williams. Peskin, who has contributed to Ohio journals and research websites, will be offering her first book. Entitled Deep Cover Cleveland, vol I, the recent work has dazzled historians and residents alike with a plethora of overlooked, yet significant, Northeast Ohio phenomena. Peskin is particularly interested in the region's Native American heritage. The books details Cleveland's copious but forgotten prehistoric Indian mounds as well as the area's Native transportation routes and illustrious Native individuals such as Neolin, the 18th Century Delaware prophet. A visionary of another sort turned failed Indian agent, Euclid's Nathan Meeker, finds his way into Deep Cover Cleveland's engaging cavalcade of people and events.
More generally on the East Side of Cleveland and vicinity, Deep Cover Cleveland vol. I presents history all the way up to the economic depression of 1893: Cleveland's War of 1812 Fort, early Lutheran Church, early high school (Central High), and little-remembered tension between coeducation and coordinate instruction for female Western Reserve College students in the college's early Cleveland years. Deep Cover Cleveland in fact excels in women's history, for example, in showcasing Caroline Ormes Ransom, the painter of Alexander Hamilton on the $20 bill and a groundbreaker for women as serious portraitists.
In depth portraits of East Side communities come to life in Deep Cover Cleveland's respective chapters on Shaker Heights and Painesville. One will learn for instance that until Shaker Height's Moreland School closed in 1987, its corners continuously held schools since 1816. If one's particular East Side interest is unsurprisingly Euclid, Ohio, a most captivating locale, one should take note that Dr. Roy Larick will be signing his two books on the area. Euclid Creek, published in 2005, was co-written by Bob Gibbons and Ed Siplock. In Arcadia Publishers' Images of America series, it regales the reader with seldom-seen historic photographs of the community. Larick's Euclid Township, 1796-1801: Protest in the Western Reserve (2003, co-written by Craig Semsel) explains how Euclid, Ohio took its name from Greek mathematician Euclid, patron of surveyors; the township was initially set up as affordable land for Moses Cleaveland's under-compensated surveyors. After most of these men failed to follow through on their Euclid land claims, the township was re-surveyed in short order, itself a fascinating case study of early American land use and local settlement that Dr. Larick compellingly narrates.
Dr. Larick, a former president of the Euclid Historical Society, is a professional geologist and archaeologist. In addition to three books on Euclid, Dr. Larick maintains the northeast Ohio geology/history website bluestoneheights.org and has published many scientific studies. Dr. Larick's well-known tours, be they through prehistoric cave art in Europe or through Greater Cleveland's surprisingly likewise fascinating ravines, stream beds, ridges and beaches animate an enthralling past and present. On Dr. Larick's walks, one discovers Euclid bluestone, paver of the nation's finest walkways; one romps through the weedy descendents of the country's largest 19th Century wine region; one meanders shores that supported vacation rentals and overnight camp experiences for yesteryear's urbanites. Dr. Larick brings walkers up-to-date with previews of preserved green space corridors ranging from future natural study areas to a projected trail through a wooded, former railroad right-of-way, to proposed bio-swales over presently underused old streambeds.
A 300+ page, illustrated, comprehensive history of Euclid has been penned by John Williams, current president of the Euclid Historical Society and curator of the Euclid History Museum. In 2006 Williams published History of the Euclid Police Department, a definitive look at over 200 years of local policing. He will be sharing this work at the July 24th Lakeshore Coffee House book-signing. Mr. Williams' appearance should be of interest to attendees of the coffee house's "coffee with a cop" community dialogues, and to anyone who wants to learn more about the safety forces, police history or Euclid heritage.
Laura Peskin
Laura Peskin is a local writer who in 2014 published her first book, Deep COver Cleveland vol. I. Peskin, an almost lifelong greater-Clevelander, has contributed to Ohio Archaeologist and the Ohio Cardinal. Her writings have been linked to research websites around Cleveland including those of Shaker Heights Library and Bluestone Heights. Peskin has also judged at the annual History Day for area high schools. In the 1990s Peskin started her own business. She later earned an MA at John Carroll University.