Bever Street was taken from the name of John Bever, one of the founding fathers of Wooster. John Bever was born in Ireland about 1760 of a German Father and Irish Mother and came to America in 1788. He settled in Western Pennsylvania and developed a profitable business supplying materials for construction for blockhouses to protect the settlers from raiding Indians south of the Ohio River. In 1806, when Ohio was being surveyed, Bever moved to Marietta to seek employment. He worked for General Rufus Putnam and was assigned to do survey work. Putnam was succeeded by General Jared Mansfield who gave Bever three districts to survey. Bever laid out Columbiana, Stark and Wayne counties.

Bever liked Wayne county so well that he with William Henry and Joseph H. Larwill, acquired a quarter section of land, which became the heart of Wooster. Their plat covered the area now bounded by Henry, Larwill, Beall and Grant Streets. In 1809 Bever had a small frame house built for himself near the Public Square in downtown Wooster. Upon Bever’s death May 26, 1836, he still owned 500 acres of land in or near Wooster, even though he retired to a farm in Springford, near the state line in Columbiana County.

North Bever Street was first plated for settlement in 1845 by Jacob McKennan from land used for the first Wayne County Fairs. The first house was built by Charles Gasche followed by his brother Gotlieb Gasche than D.Q. Leggett, then Louis Young. The Union Presbyterian Church was built prior to the Civil War in an apple orchard.

After the Civil War, lots on Bever Street were sold to many of Wooster’s merchants and became know as Founders’ Row.