A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

felting, roof coatings, plaster board, nails, roofing surfacing and roof caps. The company was located inCarthage. A. H. Chatfield was president, Harry F. Woods, vice president. William H. Chatfield’s son,William H. Chatfield, Jr. was educated in the College Hill public school and the O. M. I. He formed theW. H. Chatfield & Morgan Company, stocks and bonds. Edythe Crosley married Albert Chatfield andlived in the old Chatfield home that once stood on Groesbeck Road. They had two children, SusanChatfield who married William Hargrave and Lida Chatfield who married William Montgomery. SeeCrosley.Later owners of the Ephraim Brown house were Robert Stewart Cochnower who married Edith Rankin.The house was surrounded by a pear orchard at that time. Robert was an M. D. but didn’t practice,preferring to be a superintendent at the post office. He supplemented his salary by selling life insurance.Edith’s father owned the Cincinnati Iron Works. The works were established in 1835 on Pearl Street.They manufactured iron building fronts that resembled stone, iron railing, grates, marbleized ironmantels, jails, doors etc. Robert’s father was John Cochnower, the first president of the Union CentralLife Insurance Company, Cincinnati’s largest insurance business. It was founded in 1867 and in 1913moved to its own 34-story skyscraper at Fourth and Vine. At that time it was the tallest skyscraper outsideof New York City. It sold policies to everyone, from movie stars like Bette Davis to factory workers.According to his late granddaughter, Mary Edith (Cochnower) Vucinich, John was a wealthy man butdied during a business panic, owing debts which consumed much of his estate. Mary Edith had a sister,Constance, who taught at Hughes High school.There were two Rankin houses at the end of Savannah. Carl Rankin lived in one with his wife, Nell.They later built a house on the north side of Hillcrest Avenue. They had two children, Thomas Rankinand Leslie Rankin who married Edward Meyer. After Nell’s death, Carl married Helen Wild.Edward Greeno married Juliette Rankin. Greeno was a mattress manufacturer and was responsiblefor gifts of land and money to the Twin Towers Retirement Community. They lived in the stoneCaldwell/Prather house on the end of Windermere Way. Their children were John, who married LouiseSquibb, Lucy and Alexander ‘Sandy’ who lived in the house until his death. The house was torn downand the land is now part of Twin Tower’s grounds.Myers Y. Cooper was a successful Cincinnati businessman who served as Ohio governor in 1929-31. Hewas real estate speculatorand house builder, founded the Hyde Park Lumber Company in 1902, and invested in banking and coalmining. He was also a College Hill developer although he didn’t live in this community.Elijah Washburn Coy was born at Thorndyke, Maine in 1832, a son of a Baptist minister. At an earlyage Elijah learned to be a cobbler and with his earnings he went to Brown University, graduating in 1858.After teaching, experience as a principal, university president and as a lawyer, Coy came toCincinnati in 1873 to become the principal of Hughes High school. He also was the author of severalbooks, of which his Coy’s Latin Lessons became a widely used beginner Latin text.The home of Coy and his wife Gena (Harrington) was 5819 Glenview Avenue. It was built in theearly 1870’s.The house was purchased in 1925 by William Crowley, a professor at the University of Cincinnati.Mrs. Crowley raised goats for their milk. The windows on the front porch extended to the porch floor andserved as the doors for the goats, which lived on the first floor. Eventually the Crowley’s were declaredincompetent by the courts. The house was sold in 1950 to the Kuhn family, who worked for many yearsto reverse the animal damage to “Goat Manor.” The house sold in 1985 and the present owners havecompleted restoration to this lovely Victorian home.179