The David Cummins Octagon House, Conneaut, Ohio

09/04/2026

Merchant Marine Memories: Frank Carney Stephenson of Conneaut and the SS Pillory

Page Two
The Sinking of the SS Pillory and Frank Carney Stephenson

On June 5, 1944, just one day before the Allied landings in Normandy, the SS Pillory traveled empty of cargo (in ballast) from San Juan to Guayanilla, Puerto Rico where she had orders to load a sugar shipment. She carried a diverse Merchant Marine crew of forty-seven men – thirty-seven civilian merchant mariners and ten U.S. Navy Armed Guards. The Pillory had left San Juan early in the afternoon and had safely reached a position about five miles north of Cape Borinquen off the northwest tip of Puerto Rico when German submarine U-539, which had sailed from Saint-Nazaire on May first on its third and final war patrol.

After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to Puerto Rico, the U-539 targeted and sank the Pillory. She sank in less than five minutes, making it difficult for her crew and the Navy Armed Guards to escape. Out of the forty-seven people aboard, twenty-two merchant seamen including the Pillory’s master, Captain Laurid N. Sorensen, 20 merchant crew members, and 4 Navy guards were either killed by the initial impact or went down with the Pillory.
The sixteen crew members and six Navy Armed Guards who survived managed to jump into the water and cling to floating debris and life rafts.

On June 6, 1944, as the Allied Landings on Normandy took place, the U.S. Navy submarine chaser USS PC-469 rescued them and brought them safely ashore to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The SS Pillory is cited in Naval History as the last Allied merchant ship that an Aix submarine sank in the Caribbean region during World War II.

Merchant Mariner Frank Carney Stephenson of Conneaut, Ohio, served as a Fireman/Watertender on the Pillory. Born on March 27, 1891, in Denmark Township, located within Ashtabula County, Ohio, he was the son of Thomas Samuel Stephenson and Phebe Carman Johnson Stephenson. He grew up alongside his siblings, including sisters Edith and Bertha and later married Elizabeth Gertrude Sear.

The Stephenson’s lived in Conneaut, and they had a family that included a son, Cecil Leon Stephenson, born in 1920.
Conneaut had developed into an important hub of merchant shipping and railroad transportation and as the United States worked to increase its wartime production, Frank increasingly felt the need to contribute his efforts by enlisting in the United States Merchant Marine. Although in his early 50s, a few decades older than the typical man enlisting, his skills were vital to the war effort. He held the rank of Merchant Seaman and specialized as a Fireman Watertender, a demanding and dangerous job with a jobsite located deep inside the Pillory’s engine room. Frank’s job was regulating the water levels in the steam boilers and maintaining the fires powering the Pillory’s steam engine.

When the U-539’s torpedo smashed into the Pillory, Frank manned his station in the belly of the ship near the boilers. A sudden torpedo blast did catastrophic damage to the engine room and to Frank as well. Initially, Frank Stephenson was reported Missing in Action, but with no evidence of his survival, he was officially declared dead when his ship sank on June 5, 1944. He was fifty-three.

Frank Carney Stephenson is recognized as an American Gold Star Veteran and his named is listed on national rolls of honor, including the Honor States Archive. Historical maritime databases like Uboat.net, commemorating the civilian mariners who braved the perils of war also list his name. His grave at South Denmark Cemetery, located in Denmark Center in Ashtabula County, does not contain his body because he was lost at sea. His grave is a cenotaph, a tombstone or marker placed to honor the memory of a person whose remains are elsewhere. His name is officially honored on the Tablets of the Missing at the East Coast Memorial in New York City, which honors soldiers and sailors lost in the Atlantic coastal waters during World War II.

Frank Carney Stephenson

09/04/2026

Merchant Marine Memories: Frank Carney Stephenson of Conneaut and the SS Pillory
Page One
About the Merchant Marine
The Veterans Memorial located at the intersection of Buffalo Street and Main Street in Conneaut, Ohio honors veterans of World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, POW/MIA, on its large main panels. Merchant Marines and local veteran organizations are also honored on the smaller panels.

The Merchant Marine
Tardy Recognition
The U.S. government first recognized the Merchant Marine as a formal national defense asset through the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, but World War II merchant mariners were only granted official veteran status in 1988.
Key Recognition Milestones
• 1775–1783 (The Revolution): Merchant mariners and privateers served during the American Revolution before an official U.S. Navy existed, though not under a unified modern "Merchant Marine" organization.
• 1920 (Jones Act): The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 regulated commercial shipping and noted the fleet's value to commerce and defense but did not create a unified service branch.
• 1936 (Formal Establishment): The Merchant Marine Act of 1936 officially established the U.S. Maritime Commission and declared the Merchant Marine to be a naval auxiliary and the "Fourth Arm of National Defense".
• 1988 (Veteran Status): A federal court ruling and subsequent legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan finally granted World War II merchant mariners official veteran status and access to GI Bill benefits after decades of denial.
The Atlantic Ocean or the Caribbean Sea?
The SS Pillory went down in the Atlantic Ocean, just north of the boundary where it meets the Caribbean Sea about twenty to thirty miles off the northwestern coast of Puerto Rico in the Mona Passage.

Several military tribute registries generalize the theater of operations as the Caribbean, but geographically, anything north of the Puerto Rico mainland coastline technically sits in the open waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

The Pillory Casualty Statistics
Geographic Archives: In this classification, the Pillory is recorded as an Atlantic Ocean casualty. In the official U.S. Navy Casualty Lists, men like Bruce Barton Daniels and Richard Hayes Tieche are explicitly categorized under the geographic location "Atlantic Ocean.”
The Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest and most bitterly fought battle of World War II. It started on September 3, 1939, when a German submarine torpedoed the British liner Athenia less than 12 hours after the outbreak of hostilities between England and Germany, and it ended on May 5, 1945, when Grand Admiral Carl Doenitz sent a signal ordering all U-boats to cease combat operations and return to Germany.

The Battle of the Caribbean
The Battle of the Caribbean lasted nine and a half months—from February 16, ++ 1942, to November 30, 1942. In that comparatively brief time, German submarines torpedoed 263 ships in the Caribbean and its approaches, with a gross tonnage of 1,362,278.
It is a little known, or at least neglected, fact that the sinkings in the Caribbean during this period were greater than the losses incurred on the North Atlantic Convoy Routes, the Eastern Sea Frontier, and the Canadian Coastal Zone, all three combined.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/1954/september/battle-caribbean U.S. Naval Institute

Continued On Page Two

Photo One
Photographed by Craig Doda, April 12, 2025
WWI • WWII • Korea • Vietnam • Desert Storm • POW/MIA You are not forgotten.
United States Army • United States Navy • AmVets • American Legion • United States Air Force • United States Marine Corps • Air National Guard • Army National Guard • Veterans of Foreign Wars • Vietnam Veterans of America • Disabled American Veterans • Merchant Marine • United States Coast Guard

Photo Two
The SS Pillory

08/30/2026

Remembering Them...Part Two

Conneaut Starts Local Water Search and Rescue Operation

Wednesday, June 21, 2023
(Based on a story by Warren Dillaway)
The first three phases of a project to create a local water rescue and recovery team are complete thanks to fundraising by area businesses and civic organizations. Kori Marcy Campbell said that about two years ago discussions pinpointed the need for a local search and rescue team after a Pittsburgh firefighter died while trying to save his son in the gap on the wester edge of the break wall in Conneaut.
The Conneaut Fire Department and the Pittsburg Area Fire Department compared technology and notes and concluded that different technology would be needed in rescue operations instead of recovery. The Conneaut Rotary Club Spearheaded Fund Raising and grants were awarded, which enabled the purchase of two sonar units for $8,000. The next phase involved equipment and training for eight divers to be part of the Conneaut Water Rescue and Recovery Team. One of the sonar devices has been placed in the Conneaut Police Department boat and a second will be available for use in one of the two fire department vessels available to the city.
Conneaut Assistant Fire Chief Steve Sanford said the new response team will better serve the community as rescues are more likely with the new technology. He said the equipment will also be available for mutual aid throughout Ashtabula County.
Conneaut Fire Chief Steve Lee said creating the team from scratch has been a challenge. He said more diver training is planned for July. “We are pretty much surface only {right now,” he said.
Delmas Bennett was an experienced diver with many rescues to his credit. He was intensely involved in and experienced in rescue diving.

Delmas Bennett

08/30/2026

Remembering Them...Part One
Karl Rowbotham

Ashtabula Star Beacon, Friday, March 9, 2001.
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur W. Rowbotham of Conneaut celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at a surprise dinner February 25th at First United Methodist Church, Conneaut.
Hosts for the event were their children and spouses, Karl and Patti Rowbotham of Brookfield, Tim and Brenda Rowbotham of Conneaut, Scott and Bonnie Rowbotham of Painesville, and Garth Rowbotham of Columbus, and the couple’s five grandsons.
Arthur and Audrey E. Woodworth were married by the Reverend Schuyler Garth February 28, 1941, at Trinity United Methodist Church, Youngstown.
Mr. Rowbotham, a U.S. Navy Veteran of World War II, retired from Astatic Corp. after 35 years of service. He is a member of Conneaut Boat Club, Youngstown Lodge 615 Free and Accepted Masons, Conneaut Chapter 76, Conneaut Council 40, Cache 27 Commandery and Conneaut Amateur Radio Club. Mrs. Rowbotham is a member of Conneaut Boat Club Nauti Gals. Both are members of First United Methodist Church.
Their son Karl faithfully volunteered for years in several Conneaut organizations, including D-Day, and the Conneaut Area Historical Museum.

08/27/2026

Introducing Cupola Chronicles!!!

This is a continuation of Renewed Remembering, a little expanded, but without the affiliation with the Conneaut Area Historical Museum. Much to my regret, we have mutually parted ways. I want to continue to do Conneaut History, and I still am deeply in love with the Octagon House, so I thought this way: I can still climb those wicked stairs to the Cupola and sit on the hard wooden bench and think history like I used to do. I'll just think a little wider, like Ashtabula County, Ashtabula, and Conneaut. But I will always dream history from the Cupola in my heart and mind, even though I can't be there physically any longer. Ths is first issue of Cupola Chronicles I have to link it to my blog of the same name because it is far too long for a Facebok post, but I believe it is well worth reading, just like the Renewed Rememberings were. I hope you read it and agree! Sincerely, Kathy

Cupola Chronicles18 (AutoRecovered)and corrected (1)Download

08/23/2026

Please Contribute to the Octagon House Story!

One autumn day in 1862 ( yes, 1862! This is not a typo; I will explain as time goes by why the date is earlier than the standard wisdom of the 1863 date that the Octagon House was built) David Cummins hitched his team of horses to his wagon and hauled a load of cabbage, potatoes, and onions to the Conneaut branch of the Soldier’s Aid Society to ship to the main headquarters at 95 Bank Street in Cleveland. He didn’t have a very long drive ahead of him, but even on this short town trip his contributions jogged and rolled (catch that runaway potato!) in the back of his wagon. The ladies would pack them so well they wouldn’t be able to move. He stopped in front of several churches to collect more produce, finally unloading it at an empty store front on Main Street. A group of dedicated, determined woman volunteers helped him unload his wagon and rested the produce on long tables. Now came the real work, preparing the potatoes, onions, and cabbage for the trip to the master supply depot of Soldier’s Aid Society of Northern Ohio, also Cleveland Branch of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. at 95 Bank Street, (now West 6th Street) in Cleveland. The central depot organized, documented, and sent the supplies on to the front lines for the soldiers.
After the local volunteer ladies packed the potatoes and onions and salted the cabbage and put it in barrels, volunteers took the produce to the Conneaut train depot to be shipped west on the Cleveland and Erie Railroad Line. Or, if weather conditions were favorable and vessels available the goods were taken to Conneaut Harbor to be quickly loaded on one of Captain Calvin or Gilman Appleby’s ships to be sailed to Cleveland. The Conneaut-grown vegetables that David Cummins had hauled were sent directly to military hospitals and active battlefields to combat scurvy, a consistent problem, or hunger, another challenge.

David Cummins could have been involved in this scene. There are donation records and I am combing through them for proof that he was! And if he wasn’t, I will find someone who was. This scene with or without David Cummins happened frequently during the Civil War, as did so many other exciting events from the perspective of Conneaut involvement.

I am writing a book about the David Cummins Octagon House, focusing on the story of David Cummins and his business, his family, and his legacy house that I love. My story will be supported with facts and documentation, but it won’t be boring! It couldn’t be if I wanted it to, because its characters include Calvin and Gilman Appleby, Aarron and Charles Thomas Wright, Rachel Wood Cummins. a divorced women in the 1870s who refuses to bow to societal expectations, a wealthy businessman who uses his wealth as a weapon as well as a community benefit, and Civil War ambiance and fugitive slaves. No, it is not Conneaut’s version of Gone with the Wind, it’s better. It is true Conneaut history to be proud of, and I am asking for your help. If you have any memories or information about the Octagon House, please send it to me so I can verify it and use it. My email address is: [email protected]
Sincerely,
Kathy

08/21/2026

"I'll Give Him a Good Home in Conneaut"
This black and tan dog is not the dog from the original story. He is far too old or young (depending on your calculation method) to be the exact dog, but the exact dog probably had the same appealing eyes!

“I’ll Give Him A Good Home in Conneaut”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer of September 14, 1905, printed a poignant Conneaut story. During a visit to Cleveland, Mrs. J.F. Lane, a handsome woman wearing a stylish fawn colored suit, walked into the Central Police Station with a black and tan dog under her arm.
She sat the dog down on Lt. Walker’s desk and told the lieutenant her story. Visiting from her home on Main Street in Conneaut, Mrs. Lane had been walking near Bond and Superior Streets in Cleveland when she saw a little dog sitting near the curb. A large man repeatedly kicked the dog and the dog yelped with pain. Several men stood around watching the man kick the dog, but none of them tried to stop him. Mrs. Lane grabbed the man by the arm and threatened to have him arrested if he did not stop beating the dog. She searched for a policeman, but she did not see any and while she searched the dog be**er melted into the crowd.

Mrs. Lane stood at the curb with the dog trembling at her feet. Without hesitating, she picked up the dog, snuggled him in her arms, and inquired her way to the Central Police Station. The dog struggled to escape, leaving dirty paw prints on her fashionable fall suit, and ripping it with his claws. By the time Mrs. Lane arrived at the Central Police Station, her dress looked as bedraggled as the dog’s fur coat.
“You will take care of him, won’t you?” Mrs. Lane asked Lt. Walker.
Lt. Walker assured her he would take care of the dog.
Mrs. Lane still worried about her rescued friend. She told Lieut. Walker to notify her at No. 201 Main street, Conneaut, if he could not find a humane owner for the dog. "I'll give him a good home in Conneaut if you can't take care of him,” she said.

Lt. Walker fed the dog a big supper and provided a sleeping place for him in the haymow over the police station. He promised Mrs. Lane that he would do his best to find a new owner for the dog from the first precinct patrolmen. He assured her that if he had not found the dog a home within a week, he would ship the dog to Conneaut, C.O.D.

Research reveals that a Mrs. J.F. Lane from Conneaut did exist. She was Iva J. Turner before she married J.F. Lane. The Lanes had six children, before Jared was killed in a railroad accident in 1893. Iva Lane, a dressmaker, lived on Main Street in Conneaut with her family and supported her six children with her dress making talent.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer did not print a follow up story revealing whether the rescued dog stayed in Cleveland to become a beloved police mascot or traveled C.O.D. to Conneaut to become an equally beloved family pet. The rescue dog benefitted from either fate.
Iva and Jared Lane are buried in City Cemetery in Conneaut.

Jared’s obituary reveals the accident on the Nickel Plate Road that took his life at age 36.
THE CONNEAUT POST-HERALD
Thursday, September 28, 1893
SADLY SUMMONED
Jared B. Lane Crushed to Death in the Horrible Nickel Plate Disaster West of Town.
A Loving Husband and Father Removed in the Prime of Manhood—The Entire Community Plunged Into Mourning.
A terrible gloom was cast over our city on Monday evening when news rapidly spread that a head-on collision had occurred on the Nickel Plate Railroad just west of the Conneaut station, resulting in the instant death of one of our most highly respected citizens, brakeman Jared B. Lane.
The westbound local freight train, upon which Mr. Lane was employed, was conducting its regular switching duties when, through an unfortunate and fatal misunderstanding of orders, it collided with the incoming eastbound passenger train inside the deep cut. The impact of the heavy iron monsters was terrific, splintering the wooden cars into immediate ruin. Mr. Lane was caught at his post of duty between the crushing framework of the cars and met instantaneous death.
Jared B. Lane was born in 1857 and was aged 36 years at the time of his tragic passing. He was a man of exceptionally industrious habits, quiet demeanor, and unswerving fidelity to his employers, winning the high regard of all his fellow railroad boys.
He leaves behind a deeply stricken wife, Mrs. Iva Lane (née Turner), and six young children who are thus suddenly deprived of a father’s watchful care and support. The heartfelt sympathy of the entire community goes out to the bereaved family in this hour of unspeakable affliction.
The funeral services will be conducted from the family residence, after which the remains will be interred in the Conneaut City Cemetery. May he rest in peace.

________________________________________

Death of An Estimable Woman Who Was Prominently Identified With Local
Organizations. One of Conneaut's most universally beloved women, and one of its noblest mothers, Mrs. Iva J. Lane, passed away Saturday night at 9 o'clock at the Grace hospital. Mrs. Lane was taken to the hospital last Tuesday evening and underwent an operation Wednesday morning, from which it was thought she would rally. She was first taken ill three weeks ago.
Mrs. Lane was born in Pierpont fifty-three years ago the eighth of last December. Her maiden name was Turner, and with her family she moved to Conneaut to live when a little girl. Thirty-three years ago she was united in marriage to Jerry B. Lane, whose untimely death in a railroad accident at Angola, N. Y., eighteen years ago on the thirteenth of October will be well remembered. She was a loyal friend, always ready to lend a hand to those in distress, and as a mother who devoted her life to her children. She was a member of the Protected Home
Circle, the Woman's Relief Corps, the Rebekahs, the National Protective Legion and her ever ready and willing services in all these orders will cause a deep sense of loss to be felt in each. She was a loyal and devoted member of the Christian church, and was an active worker in nearly all its women's societies.
At the time of her death she was president of the Calendar society. The funeral will be held at the Christian church Tuesday afternoon at 2 o'clock, Rev. A. E. Kemp, pastor of the church officiating. The orders of which Mrs. Lane was a member will attend in bodies. She will be buried in City cemetery.

08/20/2026

Building Homes and Populating Salem Township and Salem Village

Establishing homes in the newly created Salem Township in the late 1790s and early 1800s meant building lives and homes from the blade of grass level. Most of the log homes that pioneers built were crude, one room log cabins built from freshly felled forest trees. The cabins typically measured about 12 to 16 feet square featuring lightly peeled logs stacked horizontally and locked at the corners with simple notches without using metal nails.

Pioneers sealed or chinked the gaps between the logs with a mixture of split wood pieces, mud, and clay to keep out the cold. They constructed roofs from split logs or thin wooden boards -shakes- securely weighted by heavy poles instead of nails. Most cabin floors were made of packed dirt or split logs (puncheon) and the entrance to the cabin usually was just one low doorway covered by a cloth or wooden slab.

Glass windows rarely appeared in these pioneer cabins because of the cost of transporting the glass and its fragility. Instead of glass windows, pioneers used their creativity to produce substitutes for glass. Many fitted greased paper into the holes they cut in the logs for windows. Most people used greased paper, heavy paper coated in animal fat, lard, or vegetable oil. The grease waterproofed the paper so that it could withstand rain and still allow dim, diffused sunlight to shine through. Others used thinly scraped animal skins, or solid wooden shutters.

Inside the cabin, a large stick-and-mud rough stone fireplace dominated one end of a single room, a fireplace that provided heating, lighting, and cooking over an iron crane.

Some of first permanent white settlers arriving in the late 1790s used the log cabins that the initial 1796-1797 surveying teams had left behind. In the spring of 1799 Thomas, Robert, Levi, and John Montgomery brought their families to permanently settle along Conneaut Creek. Nathan and John King arrived in the 1799 wave from New York State and Samuel Bemus and his family also settled during the 1799 season. James Harper and his family arrived in 1800 and Seth Harrington also moved his family to Salem Township in 1800. In 1803 Thomas Montgomery and Aaron Wright first scouted the area. In 1803, Mr. Hardy (along with his sons John, Hance, and William) and David Niles, Esq. (originally from Vermont) settled what was then the northwest part of Salem Township.:

The 1804 families included: the James, Levi, John, and Robert Montgomery families, the Nathan and John King families, the Aaron Wright family with Aaron Wright later building the first gristmill, the William Ferguson family, whose daughter was the first female born in the new township, the Samuel Bemus family, and the Seth and Daniel Talbot Harrington families.
Photos
Photo No. 1
The Blakeslee Log Cabin in Plymouth Township is an example of the kind of log cabin homes these first settlers built.
Phot No. 2
The interior of the Blakeslee Log Cabin.
Photo No. 3. An example of a log cabin window.

08/19/2026

Two Cites’ Names Have Same Meaning
Based on an Erie Times News story, June 5, 1988
Photo by John Tyler
When this photo was taken in 1906, horse-drawn buggies were still the main mode of transportation for Connect residents. No automobiles were in sight on Main Street looking west from Harbor Street. Trolley traffic was important, however, and the tracks running down the street linked the community with Ashtabula, Jefferson, and Erie.

Conneaut, the name of Ohio’s northeastern most city, means, in the language of early Indians, “river of many fish.”

Ashtabula, the name of the city about twelve miles west of Conneaut, means, in the language of early Indians, “river of many fish.”
The two names are different because they came from two different tribes. Conneaut is an Iroquois word, and Ashtabula is an Algonquin word.

According to an 1878 history of Ashtabula County, the name “Ashtabula” is the softening of an Algonquin term applied to the river that meanders through that county and empties into Lake Erie at Ashtabula harbor. “It was the Indian name to signify many fish, according to The Williams Brothers History of Ashtabula County, Ohio. It was pronounced by the Indians as
“Hash-tah-buh-lah.

The name of Conneaut, it is said, was given to the stream by a tribe of Indians and signifies “river of many fish,” the Williams history also states.

The historians said the Ashtabula River was the boundary between the Iroquois, who claimed land east of the river, and the Algonquins, who held lands to the west.

The claims of both tribes eventually were usurped by whites and in 1803, the first settlers arrived in what was to become Ashtabula. In 1804, a year later, two New York bachelors, Mathew Hubbard and William Pierce arrived. Hubbard gave this description of their first winter:

“We had provided ourselves with a yoke of oxen, a cow, and mush pot, also some flour and corn meal, which was packed on horseback from Youngstown. We were also possessed of two tin cups, two jack knives, two wooden spoons and two axes.
“Our beds were of cheap construction, being split from a log…Our cow soon left us, and we saw her no more, depriving us of an article then regarded among the luxuries of life.

“We once, during the summer, indulged in eating a piece of elk’s flesh. Otherwise, our diet consisted of mush and water and hasty at that.

In the spring of 1804, the same year Hubbard and Pierce arrived in Ashtabula, a small group of pioneers organized the first township in Ashtabula County at the cabin of Nathan King. Naming their township Salem Township, they elected James Harper, Nathan King, and William Ferguson as the first township trustees and James Montgomery as the first clerk. Their township was called Salem Township until the winter of 1832-1833 when it was renamed Conneaut.
James Harper, Seth Harrington, and James Montgomery had arrived with their families in 1800, cleared some of the heavy forests, introduced early mill power along Conneaut Creek, and established a small village. They were well prepared to take the next step of creating a new township.

08/15/2026

Conneaut pictures pop up when I least expect it. I found these pictures in a scrapbook in the library of the Ashtabula Maritime and Surface Transportation Museum in a collection of scrapbooks. Some have neat corners, pristine pages, and fresh faces. Others have been through the storms and attics and basements of life. I hope you find them interesting. Kathy

1. Fred Sprague, Conneaut 2. New switch engine on Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad. 3. Three pictures of Conneaut Harbor in earlier times.