First Presbyterian Church holds keys to Collinwood's past

Members of the Collinwood Nottingham Historical Society will be paying a visit to the First Presbyterian Church in East Cleveland in order to visit the cemetery there as well as visiting other cemeteries around Cuyahoga County to learn more about our Collinwood school fire children as well as our Civil War veterans.

Here is some history about the First Presbyterian Church, which is on 16200 Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland, from their Church Keepsake Memory Book. 

“At the beginning of the 19th century this was a pioneer community and it required strong bodies and courageous souls to overcome the hardships of the frontier. Homes were miles apart. Roads were, at best, but forest paths or Indian trails. Wolves and wild cats, deer and bears were neighbors, and rattlesnakes made themselves at home on the clearing or at the door of the settler’s cabin. Men were specially endowed with courage and hardihood and to their sterner heroism was matched the patience and self-denial of the women who helped to found the Western Reserve.

Not having any church service other than the weekly sermons read by Squire Nathaniel Doane and desiring very much the spiritual guidance of God, a group of neighbors met in Andrew McIlrath’s cabin on 27 August 1807, under the leadership of Rev. William Wick and founded the Church of Christ in Euclid under the plan of union adopted by the Presbyterian General Assembly and the Congregational General Association of Connecticut.

In 1810 a log cabin church was built on land given by Thomas McIlrath, John Shaw and Nehemiah Dille, and here the little flock met for six years. In 1810 the church adopted the Presbyterian Code of Government and resolved to be under the Hartford Presbytery with Andrew McIlrath and John Ruple as elders. The name remained the same until 1820, when the church became the First Presbyterian Society of Euclid.  They obtained from the Presbytery the services of Rev. Thomas Barr in June 1811 and enjoyed his ministry until 1820.”