Dr. Jared Potter Kirtland was a prominent nineteenth century professor, physician, naturalist, and horticulturalist. 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 1837, he built a home at Detroit and Bunts Roads and lived there until his death in 1877.
Among his accomplishments, Kirtland helped
to
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 an 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.
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