Western Reserve

Who knew we could have be riding through Connecticut today? Certainly not I.

We were riding down the Western Reserve greenway, and seeing various references to Western Reserve this and Western Reserve that. Finally I asked a local what the "Western Reserve" was. He had no clue, so we had to do some online research to find out.

It seems that the original charter for Connecticut didn't specify a western limit - it just kept on going. Back then no one had any idea what, if anything, was more than a short distance from the Atlantic coast, but why let that limit your claim?

Later on Connecticut gave up most of that Territorial claim, except for a chunk of what would one day become northeast Ohio, which was called the Connecticut Western Reserve. The Connecticut school system was funded, in part, by selling off plots of land in the western reserve.

Who knew such a big swath of the rust belt could have been part of Connecticut?

Professor Jeanna explains the Western Reserve.

Today's ride was a tale of two parts. The first part on the greenway was flat (thanks to railway engineers who moved massive amount of dirt to level the railway). The second part was hilly.

A bridge over a stream that helped keep the western reserve greenway enjoyably flat.

Our destination was Hiram Ohio. The original name of this town was "I am higher, higher am I". They called it that because the town is on top of a godawful steep hill (steep enough for us to have pushed our bikes up rather than pedal up). The residents decided this name was too long, and sounded too much like a Dr. Seuss book, so they shortened it to "Higer am I". That was still too long, so it was contracted to "Higher am", and finally just "Hiram".

Hiram is a college town. Being in the Connecticut Western Reserve, the school was originally called the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute. Now it's simply Hiram College.

The college has a beautiful campus full of red brick buildings.

The most famous alumnus of the college went on to be a faculty member, president of the college and then president of the United States (until he was assassinated, less than a year after taking office).

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