Lakewood Lore

We learn that 'Mars' not named for planet

Lakewood's Wagar Avenue was named for the pioneer Wagar family, and Mars Avenue for the first name of the head of that family. Margaret, Carabel, Olive and Morrison avenues got their names from the first names of some of Mars' descendants.

Mars Wagar, a surveyor, was born in Saratoga County, N.Y., in 1791. He and his wife, Keturah, came to Ohio by ox-cart in 1818. They brought three cows along with them over the rough roads.

Keturah told how "the unused portion of milk was placed in a churn for the next meal, but the rickety motion of the cart turned it all to butter."

In 1820, the couple bought land at $7 an acre in what would become the heart of Lakewood -- from Detroit Road south to Madison between Warren and Marlowe.

Pioneer Mars first built a log cabin at Detroit and St. Charles; later, a stone house at Detroit and Warren. The latter was replaced in 1888 by a large frame house that was torn down in 1930 to make way for the Bailey Co.'s Lakewood store.

The Wagars reared four sons and two daughters. Each son when married received a parcel of his father's land and all eventually became farmers specializing in growing fruit.

Mars, proficient in mathematics and familiar with Latin and Greek, recognized the importance of education. He hired the community's first teacher, Jonathan Parshall, in 1892, and a room was provided in Mars' home for instruction.

The following year, Mars and neighbor James Nicholson, together with a few other settlers, put up the first schoolhouse. It was a log cabin with split-log benches, rough-hewn floor, greased paper for windows, and a birch-rod "board of education" for discipline.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post January 5, 1989. Reprinted with permission.

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