Gerrish Family Papers

For more than one hundred years, the Gerrish family figured prominently in the life of the village of Oberlin. The first of the family to settle permanently in Oberlin was Nathaniel Gerrish (1810-1890) who came from Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1834. His younger brother Charles D. Gerrish preceded him, having entered the opening class of Oberlin College in 1833. Charles, however, returned to Newburyport and died there in 1859.  He kept in contact with his brother Nathaniel, and some of those letters are included in this collection.

Although Nathaniel did not attend Oberlin College, he quickly settled in to the life of the village. He worked as a mason and a plasterer and participated in the construction of many of the village's buildings, including what is currently known as First Church in Oberlin. Nathaniel also became a substantial landowner.  In 1837, he brought a piece of property from Peter Pindar Pease, Oberlin's first settler. Consisting of about four and one-half acres lying south of Plum Creek, this land eventually became the site of the family home. The first house at 143 E. College Street burned in 1875, during the childhood of Nathaniel's son, William Blanchard Gerrish (1863-1939). A second house was built on the same property and was occupied by William Gerrish and then by his daughter Evangeline Gerrish Kofsky until the early 1960s.

Although details on Nathaniel Gerrish's life are scanty, his first wife was probably named Mary, with the possible surname "Harris." Nathaniel and Mary were married in the 1840s by John Jay Shipherd, one of the founders of Oberlin College. They appeared to have had no children. Mary Gerrish died on 20 May 1859. Two years later Nathaniel married Harriet Blanchard (1820-1898). An 1847 graduate of Oberlin College, Harriet taught school until her marriage in 1861.  This marriage produced two children, one of them being William Blanchard Gerrish. The name of the other child is less certain, though it may have been Mattie or Mary.

Following graduation from Oberlin in 1886, he studied civil engineering at Cornell University for a short time. He married Oberlin graduate, Julia Gage (class of 1884, 1864-1939) on 10 January 1889. Julia was raised in Cleveland, and she could count among her peers classmates Azariah Smith Root, his future wife Anna Mayo Metcalf, Charles Martin Hall, and John L. Severance. For many years Julia Gerrish participated in the Kindergarten Association in Oberlin and served as its secretary-treasurer. According to her grandson, William Gerrish Metcalf, Julia became quite deaf in later life.

William and Julia Gerrish had five daughters: Martha Amanda Gerrish Metcalf (OC 1911; 1890-1938), known as "Mart", Dorothy Gage Gerrish Henkes (OC 1918; 1894-1977), known as "Dort"; Mary Harris Gerrish Seiberling (OC 1918; 1897-1950); Evangeline Gage Gerrish Nichols Kofsky (1900-1970), known as "Eve" or "Van"; Margaret Campbell Gerrish Weislogel (OC 1925; 1901-1982). Four of the daughters--Martha, Dorothy, Mary, and Margaret--were Oberlin graduates, in the classes of 1911, 1918 (Dorothy and Mary), and 1925, respectively.

Although a year older than his future wife Julia, William B. Gerrish, OC 1886, graduated from Oberlin two years later than she did probably due to the fact that he had already begun working in the village engineering department. In this capacity he had supervised the construction of the water works system in the 1880s. He devised, with the assistance of Professor Frank Jewett, a water softening process. This ultimately led to the construction, in 1904, of the nation's first municipal water softening plant. A June 1946 article from House Beautiful magazine (found in Sub-Group III, Series 1 of this collection) called William Gerrish the "father of municipal water softening (p. 154)." Clearly, William Gerrish and the village of Oberlin were imbued with the spirit of progressivism so prevalent throughout the nation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Between the 1880s and the turn of the century, Gerrish also designed and oversaw the village's first sewage plant, and attempted to erect the village's first municipal lighting plant in the early 1890s. The latter project did not come to fruition at that time for the voters felt that such a project would not be a profitable investment for Oberlin. As village engineer, Gerrish was also responsible for laying many of the town's first sidewalks.

Often a feisty and cantankerous man (according to his grandson, William Gerrish Metcalf), William B. Gerrish made a few enemies during his career as a village official. His honesty and his sincere interest in Oberlin's welfare, however, earned the respect of friends and enemies alike. Nevertheless, he was no stranger to controversy in his public life. After a fundamental disagreement with the village council concerning remuneration which dragged on for four years, Gerrish resigned from all his city government positions in 1908. The following year he established his own dairy business, known as the Clean Milk Dairy, which he sold in 1935 to the Dairy Service Company. Official accounts of William Gerrish's life gave no hint of controversy concerning his association with Oberlin's village government. One local obituary (9/7/39, source unnamed) did note, however, "He was a man of sound faith in his own judgement and never hesitated to defend his views on public matters."

Not only did the Gerrish Family have an active involvement in Oberlin's civic affairs, it also had a close association with Oberlin College, by virtue of its many family members who attended the college. In 1934 Margaret Gerrish Metcalf (William Gerrish's granddaughter, class of 1938, 1916-1989) became the fourth generation of the Gerrish family to attend Oberlin College. After their parents' 1939 deaths, the five daughters of William and Julia donated to the village of Oberlin part of the land upon which their family home stood. This donation was made in April 1940. In August 1941, a boulder was placed on the south edge of the property which bears the following inscription:

Gerrish Field / Given to the Village of Oberlin / In Memory of / Mr. and Mrs. William Blanchard Gerrish / By Their / Five Daughters

SOURCES CONSULTED

Clippings and official records found in the alumni student files of Charles D. Gerrish, Harriet Blanchard Gerrish, William Blanchard Gerrish, Julia Gage Gerrish, and Martha Gerrish Metcalf.  Oberlin College Archives.

Letters and a family tree found in the correspondence series of this collection.  Oberlin College Archives.

Recollections of William Gerrish Metcalf, 25 May 1990.