Olmsted Falls: The Books That Named a Town
Near Cleveland, Ohio
Olmsted Falls, on Cleveland's western edge, carries the name of a Connecticut sea captain who died before his purchase here was finalized. Aaron Olmsted bought nearly half the township at auction but died in eighteen oh six, before the sale was completed. Decades later, when residents wanted to rename their confused township, they honored his memory.
His son Charles Hyde Olmsted was so grateful that he sent five hundred books west by oxcart from Connecticut. The little library that arrived became known as the Oxcart Library. The village of Olmsted Falls incorporated in eighteen fifty-six, built around the falls of the Rocky River.
Today it is a quiet suburb of about nine thousand people.
