Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland

Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland was a prominent nineteenth century professor, physician, naturalist and horticulturist. In 1837, Kirtland purchased land in Rockport Township that stretched from Madison Avenue to Lake Erie. Kirtland used that land as a natural laboratory and filled it with gardens, greenhouses and an arboretum where he developed fruit and grape varieties best suited for the region. His success with new varieties inspired area farmers to successfully concentrate on fruit and grape growing. In 1839, he built a home at Detroit and Bunts Roads and lived there unitl his death in 1877. (Continued on other side)

[Side B]: (Continued from other side) Among his accomplishments, Kirtland helpted found the organizations that developed into today’s Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He served as a state representative from 1828 to 1834 and was appointed to the Ohio geological survey in 1832. As part of that survey, Kirtland prepared a nearly complete, and scientifically important, list of Ohio’s animals. As a physician, Kirtland served as the examining surgeon of Ohio’s Civil War recruits and donated his income from that service to the Soldiers’ Aid Society.