Relatives of Heman Ely visit Elyria for the first time

A mother and daughter visited Elyria on Sunday to learn about and connect with an ancestor of theirs: Elyria founder Heman Ely. Madonna Pastelak, who is 90, has been researching her family's genealogy for many years with her cousin, Jean Johnson of Georgia, who discovered that they were connected to Heman Ely before either of them had ever heard of Elyria. The connection is quite distant, but can be traced to two sets of great-grandparents shared by Heman Ely and Pastelak's mother, Vivienne Cairy. This makes Heman Ely a great-granduncle to both Johnson and Pastelak. Johnson visited Elyria about a decade ago, and Pastelak said she and her daughter Carrie Moniot, both of whom live in the Pittsburgh area, had discussed visiting Elyria themselves for years. On Sunday, they decided it was the perfect time. "We've been kind of waiting for good weather," Moniot said. "We're from Pittsburgh, so it's been kind of overcast and cloudy and rainy. And we kept watching your forecast and the same. So yesterday we just decided; it's a beautiful day, we've been talking about this and let's just drive to Elyria, Ohio." While they knew that what would become Elyria was settled by Heman in 1817, Pastelak and Moniot said they were shocked by just how prevalent signs of Ely and his family still are more than 200 years later. "When we got there, I don't think either one of us realized how much of a presence Heman is in your town," Moniot said. "I mean, the Ely Square, we expected maybe just a little placard or something, but the whole town square is named after Ely. You've got the medallion on your town square, and then that other sign as you're entering the community." The pair said they were shocked that even the city's high school football games are played at Ely Stadium. "We were quite overjoyed. We didn't realize there was that much of a presence of the Ely connection," Moniot said. "... You always hear about ancestors, but you never actually go to a town that is named after one of your ancestors. That's very rare." In addition to the immense presence of her relative, Pastelak said she was struck by the city itself as well as its people. "You have the most beautiful little city," Pastelak said. "Fifty-five thousand people is big, but you have the most beautiful city I have seen in a long time." The current population of Elyria was 53,604 as of June 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Though Pastelak has lived in Pittsburgh for decades, she is originally from South Dakota. She said that much in the spirit of Heman Ely, some of his descendants continued west after he settled in what would become Lorain County. The mother and daughter said that they plan to visit Elyria again soon to continue to explore their family's history. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com