Brecksville, Ohio

Brecksville takes its name from a Boston land speculator who never once set foot here. Colonel John Breck bought a large parcel in the Connecticut Western Reserve in eighteen oh seven and dispatched a survey party to prepare it for settlers. In June of eighteen eleven, land agent Seth Payne arrived with his family and became the town's first permanent resident.

Six more families followed that same year. Colonel Breck's three sons eventually did come to live here, and Brecks called the area home until the last of the family line died in nineteen thirty-four. Today Brecksville sits at the southern edge of Cuyahoga County, a leafy suburb just south of Cleveland, with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park threading through its eastern boundary.