The Villager Newspaper Online Your Community News – Cleveland's Westshore
By Pat Cook
The Bay Village Historical Society welcomed the new year by thanking residents and supporters who helped preserve and share local history throughout 2025. Through public programs, volunteer efforts, and financial contributions, community members played a vital role in cataloging collections and expanding public access to historical objects, documents, and photographs.
As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of American independence, the society is highlighting Revolutionary War veterans who later settled in Bay Village, Westlake, and the Western Reserve. Among them is Pvt. David Foote, a Connecticut native, whose military service and postwar life reflect the experiences of many early American soldiers.
Foote was born in Colchester, Connecticut, in 1760 and later moved to Lee, Massachusetts, in Berkshire County. Like most men of the era, he was required to serve in the local militia. These militias, organized by town or county, enabled rapid mobilization but were often hampered by short enlistments, limited training, and inconsistent supplies.
Foote’s service record illustrates those challenges. In September 1777, he served as a private in Capt. Ezra Whittelsey’s company, part of Col. John Brown’s Berkshire County militia, responding to the Saratoga Campaign. He later served in coastal defense at New Haven, Connecticut, during the summer of 1779 and answered two local military alarms in Berkshire County in October 1780.
The Berkshire County militia played a crucial role in protecting western supply lines and reinforcing northern forces during the war. Their participation in the Saratoga Campaign helped halt British efforts to divide the colonies, marking a major turning point in the American Revolution.
After the war, Foote remained in Lee, Massachusetts, where he and his wife, Betsy Hamlin, raised ten children. In 1815, the family moved west to Ohio, settling along Lake Erie in what is now Bay Village. Foote built a log cabin from trees on the property and lived there until his death in 1851 at age 91.
The Foote homestead remained in the family for decades and later included a sawmill and agricultural operations. Though the original cabin no longer stands, remnants of the family’s presence—most notably the former Foote barn, later known as the “Pink Barn”—remain part of Bay Village’s historical landscape.
(Full article available on Bay Village Historical Society’s Glimpse of the Past Blog.)
