I have often wondered what life was like in East
Cleveland back in the early days of the 20th century. Well my friend, Bruce Dzeda, has done some
research into the oldest existing Shaw High School yearbooks and has produced the
following essay about life in East Cleveland back in 1905, 06 and 07. Thank you Bruce.
That Ride to Nottingham
By Bruce Dzeda
Recently, while examining a copy of the
oldest Shaw High School yearbook known to exist (1905), I discovered in The
Annual’s literary section an unsigned poem by a student describing a 1905
sleigh ride of some Shaw students from East Cleveland to the nearby village of
Nottingham. Nottingham was the area on
the east of Collinwood, where the New York Central Railroad’s tracks and St.
Clair Avenue cross Dille Road and E. 185th Street, just north of the intersection of Euclid Avenue
and Chardon Road.
The poem is typical of its day and high
school poetry in general. But it
captures an evening’s fun among the Shaw High School crowd at the turn of the
last century. Before I share the poem, That
Ride to Nottingham, allow me to set the scene for you so that we can try to
imagine what sleigh riding was like in those long-ago days.
In 1935, Charles Asa Post, who grew up in
Doan’s Corners (E. 105th and Euclid area) published a nostalgic look back on
the subject of sleigh racing in Cleveland from about 1875 to 1915. He described a sport which has vanished, and
which must have been fascinating and thrilling to participate in or just
observe. For his book Post solicited
old-time friends for their memories, and Charles A. Otis, a prominent
industrialist, once called “Mr. Cleveland,” wrote back on the subject of, not
sleigh racing, but rather the pleasures of sleigh riding,
especially as it was experienced by young men and women out for an evening’s
ride to a roadhouse for refreshments, before returning to their homes on
Millionaires Row. Who wouldn’t enjoy
such an evening’s fun?
* * * * *
Excerpts
from Those Were The Days: When Hearts Were Kind and Sports Were Simple”
by Charles Asa Post (Cleveland: Caxton Company, 1935)
“It is a joy…to recall (those) times. I can see them now—the beautiful horses, the
gallant gentlemen in furs and the excitement of the crowd as they went by.”
“I recall the sleigh rides to Silverthorn’s
with four horses and bobs. We would sit
close to our best girl friends, and this wasn’t quite as close as today. The girl was usually wrapped in yards of
material that surrounded ladies in those days.
We had a great time. Later came
the Roadside Club sleighing parties. Silverthorn’s
was near Lake View Cemetery. I think
they called this tavern the Home Stretch.
Just before the end of horses and sleighing, I had several four-in-hand
sleigh rides. I would like to have these
boys with heaters in their cars know us iron men of the ‘90s. Four ribbons on a zero night and driving a
crowd of singing, beautiful girls and boys out about fifteen miles in the
country. Those were the days!”
“The Silverthorn Hotel or Roadhouse…was
located where Case School now stands.
Mr. and Mrs. Silverthorn originally kept a house of entertainment at…this
Euclid Avenue location. (Still) later
they were at Coit’s (now in Bratenahl).
Mrs. Silverthorn’s famous fried chicken and creamed potatoes were
delicious wherever served.”
“Every turnout had to be equipped with
bells, as that was the law. Sometimes a
horse would have a string of bells around the neck or a long string around the
body close to the pad through which the reins were passed and the check-rein
was hooked, or there would be standing up from the pad at the top of the horse
a metal frame containing from five to ten small bells, and sometimes there
would be horsehair plumes; but the racing cutters had the bells fastened on the
under side of the shafts or thills, so that they would be out of the way and
not be cumbersome or bother the horse.
“Then there were the beautiful big two-horse
sleighs, and the driver in some cases would be way up high in front with a big
fur cap pulled down over his ears and with a big black bear fur cape around his
shoulders, and big fur gauntlet gloves.
Sometimes there would be a footman alongside of him similarly
dressed. Down the body of the sleigh
would be two wide seats facing each other, and over the backs of these seats
would be beautiful fur robes of black or brown bear, wolf, or fox, and the
occupants would sit on these robes, and then have other luxuriant fur robes to
wrap around them to keep warm. Also
there were foot warmers, which were charcoal burners in metal cases, covered
with heavy carpet or felt. These sleighs
were as ornate in their day as the automobile is today.”
“The harnesses of the horses were very
showy. They were highly polished brass
buckles, rings, rosettes for the bridles, or they might be silver plated. I do not think there was much nickel plating
in those early days, everything was silver plate. The horses would have plumes on their bridles
and the whole outfit was certainly gorgeous”
“Some of the single sleighs or cutters would
have bodies like a sea shell, others would have bodies like a swan, and then
again there were the plain, modest cutters of people who believed in
simplicity.”
* * * * *
In That Ride to Nottingham some Shaw
freshmen of 1905 organized and carried out an evening’s sleigh ride from some
point probably west of Windermere. To
get to Nottingham from Windermere the students most likely traveled east out
Euclid Avenue to Dille Road and then turned left. I have no idea where the dance hall was that
they had as their goal that night, nor the Y that the writer refers to. A YMCA?
Where? The “car” means a
streetcar, and beginning in 1905 there was a slow, single-track “dinky” streetcar
from Lake View to Chardon Road which the faint-of-heart students could use
instead of riding in a sleigh.
Notice that the participants are Shaw High
School freshmen and sophomores (grades 9 & 10). And yet even at that age the boys were
capable enough with horses and sleighs that mom and dad would let junior take
his best girl out in their sleigh for a long winter evening’s sleigh ride.
For those who remember and loved East
Cleveland for its cold winter nights filled with snow, stars, and good friends
from Shaw High School, I say, Let’s ride…Away to Nottingham!
Our Freshman class stole out one
night
To have a sleigh ride fine.
The ‘phone did let the Sophies
know
Our meeting place and time.
When up the street we boldly
drove,
Us out they tried to cram,
As jingle, jingle went the bells
Away to Nottingham.
The Sophies failed to pull us
out,
But “Kenneth’s little brother”
Dived boldly into the bob,
And oh, he was a bother.
With sticks and fists the faces
of
The others we did lam;
But jingle, jingle went the bells
Away to Nottingham.
The other Sophies took a car,
and met us at the Y.
But, like all other children
wise,
They did not want to die.
They saw the fate in store for
them,
And scared, they homeward ran;
While jingle, jingle went the
bells,
Away to Nottingham.
At Windermere, unwillingly,
Jay left his hat and shoe.
To put him out would make him
sick,
So this we did not do;
And at the pleading of the girls,
We left him in the jam;
Still jingle, jingle went the
bells,
Away to Nottingham.
To Jay we showed great clemency,
Who bootless was and cold,
and in the bob we let him stay
But he got out when told,
And through the snow to get his
shoe,
And catch a car, he ran,
As jingle, jingle went the bells,
Away to Nottingham.
At last the dance hall we did
reach,
And there we had much fun,
In games, and dances, and the
like,
Till night was nearly done.
With jolly stuff to eat, and
drink,
We certainly did cram;
But not a single bell was heard
With us in Nottingham.
With horns, and howls, and songs
of joy,
Toward home we gaily sped.
The friendly Y of Sophs was bare;
Friend Hank had gone to bed,
The Sophs had all departed, each,
As gently as a lamb,
When jingle, jingle came the
bells,
Back home from Nottingham.
T
It was
the custom at Shaw and other high schools in those long-ago days to publish in
the yearbook many student-written essays
and poems. Thus That Ride to
Nottingham was published in the Shaw yearbook for 1905-1906. In the 1907 Annual an unsigned student essay
entitled The Junior Bob-Ride appeared, giving a prose account of that
year’s sleigh ride. While it’s unknown
when this delightful custom began, these school-sponsored and chaperoned sleigh
rides aren’t mentioned in any Annuals after 1907.
The Junior Bob-Ride
“Early on a chilly evening in January, the
discordant notes of a horn, jingling of sleigh bells, and cheery shouting,
broke the stillness of East Cleveland.
Ordinarily such a noise would have aroused the peaceful East
Clevelanders to growls and muttered cuss-words.
But on this occasion they merely said, ‘It’s those Juniors,’ and
smiled.”
“It was, indeed, the Junior class of Shaw,
bound on their annual bob-ride.”
(After gathering) “…the class, the
chaperones, the milk, and quantities of eatables proceeded to the waiting bobs,
and climbing in, set out for Euclid.”
“After a long, and edifying ride, the party
arrived at the thriving (?) village of Euclid.
When the town hall was reached, the class, chaperones, (and) the
quantities of eatables piled out. On
entering the hall, the class found a roaring fire….”
Dinner followed dancing “to music rendered
by Miss Bassett, a charming sophomore.”
“Then the class piled into the waiting bobs,
taking care, however, to get both chaperones into the smaller bob.”
“The winter moon shed its soft light upon
the homeward bound Juniors, seemingly having a very softening effect upon the
occupants of the larger bob, while in the other, no such effect, wonderful to
say, was observed.”
* * * * *
It seems that high school students, whether
out on a nighttime sleigh ride or hay ride, haven’t changed much since
1907.
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| Shaw High School Class of 1906 |
|
This picture is from the 1905 Shaw Annual. These are the students who went on "That ride to Nottingham in 1905. Kenneth Ingersoll, one of the students mentioned in the poem is standing fifth from the left.
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| Shaw High School Class of 1907 |
They went to Nottingham in 1906 on the Junior Bob Ride. Two of these boys are mentioned in the poem "That Ride To Nottingham":
Third row, standing, fifth from left Henry Saxton Thomas ("Hank"), likely author of the poem. and
Second row, sitting in front of Henry, Jonathan Edwards Ingersoll ("Jay and Kenneth's little brother"). Class President.
