Aurora Historical Society

09/18/2026

Only 2 days away!

🍔 Aurora Historical Society Summer Picnic – Sunday, September 20! 🌳

Join us for our annual Summer Picnic from 2–4 PM at Moebius Nature Center! It’s a great chance to enjoy good food, catch up with friends, meet fellow history lovers, and hear about what’s happening with the Aurora Historical Society. Must be a member to attend, but easy to become a member at our website.

Hamburgers and hot dogs are generously provided by Anna Maria of Aurora. Guests with last names A–L are asked to bring a dessert, and M–Z are asked to bring a side dish.

📅 Sunday, September 20
🕑 2–4 PM
📍 Moebius Nature Center
☀️ Rain or shine!

Please RSVP to Gwen at [email protected] or 440-915-8723.

Come spend an afternoon with neighbors, friends, and fellow supporters of Aurora’s history. We’d love to see you there!

www.aurorahistorical.org

09/17/2026

In celebration of America250, the Aurora Historical Society is sharing Aurora history.

Imagine traveling for 42 days across rivers, mountains, swamps, mud, and barely existing roads to build a new life in the Western Reserve.

That was part of Chauncey Eggleston’s journey to Aurora.

Eggleston arrived with his family in 1807. His own reminiscences describe a difficult journey through the Allegheny Mountains and an almost unbroken Ohio wilderness. He would go on to become a blacksmith, farmer, community leader, soldier, and ultimately a brigadier general in the Ohio Militia. Aurora’s first military company was formed in 1810, and Eggleston served with the company during the War of 1812.

His story also gives us a vivid picture of everyday pioneer life, when basic supplies had to travel more than 100 miles, farming and hunting were necessities, and settlers relied heavily upon ingenuity and one another.

Aurora’s history is not simply a collection of dates. Through firsthand accounts like Eggleston’s, we can hear the voices of the people who helped build the community.

The Eggleston house was the featured home on the 2026 Aurora Historical Society Historic Home Tour.

09/14/2026

🍔 Aurora Historical Society Summer Picnic – Sunday, September 20! 🌳

Join us for our annual Summer Picnic from 2–4 PM at Moebius Nature Center! It’s a great chance to enjoy good food, catch up with friends, meet fellow history lovers, and hear about what’s happening with the Aurora Historical Society. Must be a member to attend, but easy to become a member at our website.

Hamburgers and hot dogs are generously provided by Anna Maria of Aurora. Guests with last names A–L are asked to bring a dessert, and M–Z are asked to bring a side dish.

📅 Sunday, September 20
🕑 2–4 PM
📍 Moebius Nature Center
☀️ Rain or shine!

Please RSVP to Gwen at [email protected] or 440-915-8723.

Come spend an afternoon with neighbors, friends, and fellow supporters of Aurora’s history. We’d love to see you there!

www.aurorahistorical.org

09/12/2026

The Aurora Historical Society Museum and the historic Ebenezer Sheldon Deed House are both open today, Saturday, September 12th from 10 am until 4 pm. Don't miss the opportunity to learn about Aurora's history.

09/10/2026

In celebration of America250, the Aurora Historical Society is sharing Aurora's history. Aurora’s tradition of military service reaches back almost as far as the nation itself.

Aurora’s first settler, Ebenezer Sheldon, had served as a minuteman responding to the Lexington alarm in 1775. Other early settlers also brought military histories with them, including Julius Riley, who served in the Connecticut Light Horse Cavalry, and Samuel Taylor, a drummer boy whose discharge papers were signed by George Washington. During the War of 1812, Aurora residents again answered the call, with an Aurora company helping defend the Cleveland frontier.

Aurora’s service continued through the Civil War, when 80 local men served in the Union Army between 1861 and 1865. Eight Aurora men are confirmed to have died during the war.

Their uniforms, weapons, and circumstances changed across generations, but the willingness of Aurora residents to serve did not.

We remember the people behind these stories and the sacrifices that connect Aurora’s earliest history to the community we know today.

Visit the Aurora Historical Society to learn more.

09/08/2026

🍔 Aurora Historical Society Summer Picnic – Sunday, September 20! 🌳

Join us for our annual Summer Picnic from 2–4 PM at Moebius Nature Center! It’s a great chance to enjoy good food, catch up with friends, meet fellow history lovers, and hear about what’s happening with the Aurora Historical Society. Must be a member to attend, but easy to become a member at our website.

Hamburgers and hot dogs are generously provided by Anna Maria of Aurora. Guests with last names A–L are asked to bring a dessert, and M–Z are asked to bring a side dish.

📅 Sunday, September 20
🕑 2–4 PM
📍 Moebius Nature Center
☀️ Rain or shine!

Please RSVP to Gwen at [email protected] or 440-915-8723.

Come spend an afternoon with neighbors, friends, and fellow supporters of Aurora’s history. We’d love to see you there!

www.aurorahistorical.org

09/03/2026

In celebration of America250, Aurora Historical Society is sharing Aurora's history.

🏴‍☠️ A pirate in Aurora?

According to stories passed down by Aurora’s early residents, Gregory Powers arrived in town with tales of pirate adventures and enough treasure to establish himself as a wealthy landowner. The real story may be even more interesting.

Powers was not an outlaw pirate in the traditional sense. He was a Revolutionary War privateer, serving first aboard the Minerva and later commanding the Dolphin. Privateers operated under government authority and were permitted to attack enemy shipping during wartime, sharing in the proceeds from captured ships and cargo.

Powers eventually brought his family to Aurora, where tax records document his land ownership through 1817. His life took him from the Atlantic during the American Revolution to the early settlement of the Western Reserve.

Pirate, privateer, pioneer, or perhaps a little of all three in the stories that survived him, Gregory Powers certainly makes for one of Aurora’s more colorful early residents.

Aurora July 17, 2025 by Focus Studios Aurora’s Pirate   John Kudley from the Aurora Historical Society shares the story of one of the early communitie’s more colorful characters. Watch Here

08/27/2026

America 250: Aurora History “It Takes a Village”

Education has been central to Aurora’s identity since the community’s earliest days. Aurora’s first school opened during the winter of 1803–1804 in a log cabin near East Pioneer Trail and Page Road.

Samuel Bissell, who came to Aurora with his family at age nine and later graduated from Yale, returned to establish an academy on West Pioneer Trail. By 1826, the school served nearly 60 students and offered an ambitious curriculum that included grammar, arithmetic, geography, languages, chemistry, and rhetoric.

By 1841, Aurora had 11 school districts, each with its own one-room schoolhouse. Aurora later became one of Ohio’s first communities to centralize its schools to improve attendance. By 1898, students throughout Aurora were transported to the Central District School.

A new school was constructed on Route 82 in 1914 at what is now the Aurora City School District’s administrative office. As the community continued to grow, Aurora added Village School, Miller Elementary, Lake Elementary, Harmon Middle School, Leighton Elementary, and the high school on West Pioneer Trail.

Although the buildings and curriculum have changed dramatically, Aurora’s commitment to educating its young people has remained constant for more than two centuries. Our schools stand on land that was once farmland, continuing a tradition rooted in community, opportunity, and a belief in the value of education.

As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Aurora Historical Society is proud to share the people, places, and stories that shaped our community.

Post based upon an Article by John Kudley that will be featured in the October issue of Aurora Neighbors Magazine.

08/22/2026

Celebrating America250: Walk Through Aurora’s History

As our nation celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Aurora Historical Society invites you to explore the history that unfolded right here in our own community.

The Walking Tour of Aurora Center takes you through the heart of Aurora’s nationally recognized historic district, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Along the route, 32 historic structures help tell the story of Aurora’s early residents, businesses, schools, churches, and community life.

The tour begins at the Ebenezer Sheldon Deed House in Pioneer Park. Built around 1805, the Deed House served as the office where Sheldon conducted and recorded land transactions during Aurora’s earliest years. From there, the tour passes the 1815 House, Aurora’s oldest house; the former C.R. Harmon & Sons general store; The Church in Aurora; Aurora’s former centralized schoolhouse; early homes, shops, and businesses; and even a 616 square foot Sears Roebuck catalog home that arrived by railroad and was assembled here in 1915.

The approximately one hour walk offers a chance to imagine Aurora when today’s busy roads were dirt paths traveled by horses and wagons. Many of the buildings remain part of our community today, connecting the Aurora of the present with the people who began building this community more than two centuries ago.

As we commemorate America250, we will be sharing more of the people, places, and stories that connect Aurora to the broader American story.

📍 Walking Tour brochures are available in the mailbox outside the entrance to the Deed House in Pioneer Park. Please remember that several locations on the tour are private residences and should be viewed respectfully from public areas.

📍 Other merch is available inside the Aurora Historical Society pictured below.

250 years of America. More than 225 years of Aurora stories. Let us explore them together.

08/02/2026

Aurora Historical Society had a wonderful time today greeting participants!