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Gc 977.102 C59k 326150
PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE & ALLEN CO., IND. .
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00821 2539
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
MOSES CLEAVELAND.
A HISTORY
OF
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
ITS SETTLEMENT, RISE AND PROGRESS.
1796- 1896.
BY
JAMES HARRISON KENNEDY,
Editor of " The Magazine of Western History ;" Author of " The Early Days of Mormonism ;" " The American Railroad ;" " Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon ;" " The Bench and Bar of Cleveland," etc. Corresponding Member of the Western Reserve Historical Society, etc., etc.
Illustrated with Maps, Portraits and Views.
THE IMPERIAL SIPRESSY
CLEVELAND
CLEVELAND : The Imperial Press. MDCCCXCVI.
MOSES CLEAVELAND.
A HISTORY
OF
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
ITS SETTLEMENT, RISE AND PROGRESS.
1796-1896.
BY
JAMES HARRISON KENNEDY,
Editor of " The Magazine of Western History ;" Author of " The Early Days of Mormonism ;" " The American Railroad ;" " Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon ;" " The Bench and Bar of Cleveland," etc. Corresponding Member of the Western Reserve Historical Society, etc., etc.
Illustrated with Maps, Portraits and Views.
THE
IMPERIAL MIPRESSY
CLEVEÍA
CLEVELAND : The Imperial Press. MDCCCXCVI.
Copyright 1896, By THE IMPERIAL PRESS, Cleveland.
No. 413.
326150
TO THE MEMORY OF MOSES CLEAVELAND,
AND HIS ASSOCIATES OF 1796, IS DEDICATED THIS RECORD OF THEIR ACHIEVEMENTS, AND OF THE CITY WHOSE FOUNDATIONS THEY LAID ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
I hear the tread of pioneers Of nations yet to be ; The first low wash of waves, where soon Shall roll a human sea.
Each rude and jostling fragment soon Its fitting place shall find,- The raw material of a State, Its muscle and its mind !
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.
PREFACE.
The chief reason for the appearance of this narrative may be found in the fact that no sustained and adequate history of the city of Cleveland has been attempted in recent years, and that this centennial year seemed to demand something that should clearly set forth the won- derful things that one hundred years have accomplished. Subordinate reasons are found in an unusual opportunity for the collection of material, and a deep interest in all that relates to the creation and development of the great city whose history is here recorded. In this semi-confi- dential note to the reader a personal reference that else- where would be out of place may be permitted.
From 1872 to 1889 the writer was continuously engaged in newspaper and literary labor in Cleveland, the main part of which was connected with local themes and bore relation to the advance of the city along those lines of development that in the last twenty-five years have car- ried her into the front rank of the great cities of the West. That which was at first a matter of the day's bus- iness became a labor of love, and day by day, and year by year, the accumulation of historical material went on-a task that has by no means ceased, even in these later years of absence.
The foundations for this work were, therefore, laid almost unconsciously, and its appearance may hardly be
PREFACE.
looked upon as premeditated. No one is more conscious · than the writer of the fact that a better use of this abun- dant material might have been made, but he will not admit that any one could have carried to the task a deeper per- sonal interest in the theme, or treasured a closer affection for the beautiful Forest City, the city of homes, the city in whose record may be found so much to admire and commend, and so little that needs apology or apologetic explanation.
The most critical reader cannot more deeply deplore than does the writer the limitations of a work of this char- acter. A half dozen volumes, rather than one, would have been required to follow all the enterprises and interests of Cleveland to the complete conclusion of the record, and to give to each actor in these stirring scenes of a hundred years the full meed of recognition or praise. In many cases where only a generalization was possible, notes have been added showing where the complete record could be obtained, thus enabling the student of our home history
to follow his investigations with the smallest possible outlay of labor or research. It has also been the aim of the author to give the testimony of the witnesses them- selves where possible, and to that end many direct quota- tions have been made from the original sources. The ad- vantages and justice of this course will be readily recog- nized.
It would be impossible in the space here permitted to give individual credit to the many friends who have as- sisted in the collection of material, or furnished valuable suggestions as to sources from which original information might be obtained. Especial mention, however, must be made of the officers of the Western Reserve Historical Society, of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga
xi
PREFACE.
County, and of the Chamber of Commerce; the librarian of the Public Library, executive officers of the various municipal departments, the newspaper managers and ed- itors whose files have been willingly placed at my serv- ice. Acknowledgment of the most ample character must also be made to Col. Charles Whittlesey's " Early History of Cleveland," the publications of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the "Annals of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County." No history of Cleve- land can be written, in all time to come, that is not prima- rily based upon that admirable and authentic collection of original papers, that grew into a volume by the earnest and intelligent labor of Col. Whittlesey. Purporting to be only what they are-disconnected facts collected from original and widely diverse sources-they supply many links of historical connection that would have been blanks without them. It was indeed a fortunate thing for Cleve- land and the Western Reserve that this able and careful historian devoted himself to a labor of such importance, at a period sufficiently early for the preservation of much that otherwise would have been a total loss.
The many tracts issued by the Western Reserve Histor- ical Society largely supplement and carry forward the good work in the " Early History of Cleveland." The "Annals " of the Early Settlers came into existence not a moment too soon; had they been commenced a decade later, some of the most important facts in regard to pioneer Cleveland would have been lost forever. The papers, speeches and letters there recorded have proved a veritable gold mine of historical information, and it would be a great loss to Cleveland and all this portion of the Middle West were these publications, or those of the older organization, from any cause, suspended.
PREFACE.
This record has been carried as far as possible into this memorable centennial year. It is placed before the people of Cleveland, and the sons and daughters of the city, wherever found, in the hope that it may be regarded as not altogether least among the tributes paid to that great anniversary of Cleveland's birth.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
PREFACE
ix
CHAPTER I.
IN THE WESTERN WILDERNESS I
CHAPTER II.
LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS · ·
28
CHAPTER III.
THREE TRYING YEARS . .
53
CHAPTER IV.
A CITY ON PAPER
·
76
CHAPTER V.
LAW, GOSPEL, AND EDUCATION · 97
CHAPTER VI.
THE COUNTY OF CUYAHOGA . . 123
CHAPTER VII.
IN THE TIME OF WAR · . 149
CHAPTER VIII.
THE INCORPORATED VILLAGE OF CLEVELAND . 173
CHAPTER IN.
BY LAKE AND CANAL . . . 200
CHAPTER X.
SOME YEARS OF STEADY GROWTH
.
227
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
PAGE.
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND .
. 256
CHAPTER XII.
MANY EVENTS OF A FRUITFUL PERIOD . 286
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RAILROAD ERA . 317 CHAPTER XIV.
TWO CITIES BECOME ONE . . 341
CHAPTER XV.
EXPANSION AND GROWTH .
. 374
CHAPTER XVI.
AN ERA OF MANY IMPROVEMENTS
412
CHAPTER XXVII.
1880-A WONDERFUL DECADE-1890 . 457
CHAPTER XVIII.
IN GREATER CLEVELAND .
. 486
CHAPTER XIX.
CLEVELAND'S CENTENNIAL YEAR .
. 519
INDEX .
. 557
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
PORTRAIT OF MOSES CLEAVELAND
.
Frontispiece
PORTRAIT OF LA SALLE 5
PORTRAIT OF REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER .
13
PORTRAIT OF JOSHUA STOW
facing 44 · 29
ST. CLAIR STREET, 1833 · facing 54 .
PORTRAIT OF JAMES KINGSBURY .
56
OLDEST HOUSE IN CLEVELAND
59
CLEVELAND IN 1833
facing 66
PORTRAIT OF LORENZO CARTER
70
CLEVELAND IN 1833
facing 80
CLEVELAND IN 1800
facing 92
PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL HUNTINGTON 97 .
PORTRAIT OF REV. JOSEPH BADGER
.
100
PORTRAIT OF JOHN DOAN
IO7
NORTHWEST SECTION OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE, 1839
PORTRAIT OF JOHN BARR
facing 114
.
123
SOUTHWEST SECTION OF THE PUBLIC SQUARE, 1839
facing 130
PORTRAIT OF ABRAM HICKOX
·
.
I37
PORTRAIT OF LEVI JOHNSON .
·
.
144
PORTRAIT OF ALFRED KELLEY
.
145
THE VALLEY OF THE CUYAHOGA, 1846
PORTRAIT OF GEN. W. H. HARRISON ·
facing 146
.
156
PORTRAIT OF O. H. PERRY
.
159
BURIAL OF THE DEAD AFTER PERRY'S VICTORY facing 162
FIRST COURTHOUSE AND JAIL
.
166
PORTRAIT OF PETER M. WEDDELL
. 180
TRINITY CHURCH, 1828
.
.
. 185
PORTRAIT OF SETH PEASE
25
EUCLID STREET, 1833
xvi
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
SUPERIOR STREET, 1846 .
. facing 186
PORTRAIT OF LEONARD CASE, SR .
. 187
CLEVELAND'S FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE
. 191
CLEVELAND'S ACADEMY . 194
PORTRAIT OF HARVEY RICE 195
STOCKLEY'S PIER, 1850 facing 196 .
PORTRAIT OF REUBEN WOOD 197
. 203
WRECK OF THE " WALK-IN-THE-WATER' 206
THE OLD STONE CHURCH, 1834
212
THE OLD STONE CHURCH OF TO-DAY
. 213
PORTRAIT OF R. P. SPALDING .
. 215
PORTRAIT OF JOHN W. ALLEN .
216
THE SECOND COURTHOUSE . 228
FIRST METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHI
230
THE LEMEN HOMESTEAD, 1829 .
. 233
THE PRESENT LIGHTHOUSE .
234
PORTRAIT OF MRS. REBECCA C. ROUSE, 235
PORTRAIT OF JABEZ W. FITCH
248
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, 183.6
251
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF TO-DAY
. 252
CLEVELAND AND OHIO CITY, 1851
facing 260
PORTRAIT OF JOHN W. WILLEY .
268
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE HOADLY
. 269
PORTRAIT OF NICHOLAS DOCKSTADER
. 272
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE A. BENEDICT
. 274
PORTRAIT OF JOSIAH A. HARRIS .
275
PORTRAIT OF NELSON HAYWARD .
276
PORTRAIT OF SAMUEL STARKWEATHER . 279
PROSPECT STREET SCHOOLHOUSE 281 ·
AN OLD DISTRICT SCHOOLHOUSE 282 .
PORTRAIT OF LORENZO A. KELSEY ·
284
THE FIRST HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING .
287
CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY BUILDING 288
PORTRAIT OF COL. CHARLES WHITTLESEY ·
289
FACSIMILE TITLE OF FIRST DIRECTORY OF THE
CITIES OF CLEVELAND AND OHIO, 1837-38 . 293
.
THE " WALK-IN-THE-WATER"
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
xvii
PAGE.
COLUMBUS STREET BRIDGE, 1835 facing 294 .
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM CASE . 297
ST. MARY'S CHURCH ON " THE FLATS" 302
PORTRAIT OF BISHOP AMADEUS RAPPE 303 ·
PORTRAIT OF ABNER C. BROWNELL 304 ·
THE AMERICAN HOUSE 309
PORTRAIT OF DR. JARED P. KIRTLAND . 312
THE PRESENT SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 313 ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 1856 314 . THE WEDDELL HOUSE · 316
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM B. CASTLE
321 .
RAILWAY STATION AND DOCKS, 1854 . facing 322
PORTRAIT OF GEORGE B. SENTER
325
PORTRAIT OF EDWARD S. FLINT
. 330
VIEW OF CLEVELAND IN 1853 .
facing 332
ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL 337 ·
. 339
PORTRAIT OF JOSEPH L. WEATHERLEY SOCIETY FOR SAVINGS BUILDING · 343 " THE FLATS" IN 1857 . 347
PORTRAIT OF H. M. CHAPIN .
. 350
Y. M. C. A. BUILDING, 1875
. 353
PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN BUHRER
facing 358 · 356
" CLEVELAND UNDER THE HILL," 1854
THE CITY HALL
·
367
PORTRAIT OF F. W. PELTON .
. 369
NEW ENGLAND HOTEL, 1854 .
. 372
THE PROPOSED NEW COURTHOUSE . 375
KENTUCKY STREET SCHOOL BUILDING, 1850
.
376
THE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING
.
378
THE PUBLIC SQUARE, 1873 facing 378
THE PERRY MONUMENT 384 ·
SOLDIERS' MONUMENT IN WOODLAND CEMETERY
·
388
HOSPITAL CAMP, CLEVELAND ·
390
OLD CENTRAL POLICE STATION
.
397
WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING . 400
PORTRAIT OF C. A. OTIS
408
·
PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM J. GORDON
.
. 416
xviii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
A VIEW IN GORDON PARK .
· facing 420
EUCLID AVENUE OPERA HOUSE PORTRAIT OF JOHN A. ELLSLER 427 PORTRAIT OF NATHAN P. PAYNE 430 ·
FOREST CITY HOUSE, 1876 432 .
· 435
PORTRAIT OF W. G. ROSE PORTRAIT OF H. M. ADDISON
. 439
STATUE OF MOSES CLEAVELAND
44I .
PORTRAIT OF LEONARD CASE, JR
. 443
CASE SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE
· 444
" THE ARK " (EXTERIOR VIEW) . 445
A MEETING AT " THE ARK facing 446
ADELBERT COLLEGE
.
449
THE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 450 .
THE GARFIELD MONUMENT
. 454
PORTRAIT OF R. R. HERRICK · 458
THE STILLMAN HOTEL
. 463
PORTRAIT OF JOHN H. FARLEY
· 466
PORTRAIT OF GEO. W. GARDNER
. 472
CENTRAL METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN 1889 .
480
BIRTHPLACE OF THE EPWORTH LEAGUE . 481
PROPOSED CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUILDING facing 492
PORTRAIT OF B. D. BABCOCK
. 493
CLEVELAND SHIPBUILDING facing 500
PERRY-PAYNE BUILDING
. 504
CLEVELAND POST-OFFICE
506
PORTRAIT OF ROBERT BLEE ·
510
PORTRAIT OF EDWIN COWLES · 514
PORTRAIT OF R. E. McKISSON ·
522
EUCLID AVENUE, FROM ERIE STREET 527 ·
THE PRESENT ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH ·
533
THE HOLLENDEN HOTEL
540 .
CUYAHOGA BUILDING . ·
542
A VIEW IN WADE PARK .
facing 550
THE CENTENNIAL ARCH
.
.
. 555
. 426
rix
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
MAPS.
PAGE. MAP OF THE WESTERN RESERVE 18 PLAN OF THE CITY OF CLEAVELAND BY SETH PEASE; 1796 facing 40
SPAFFORD'S MAP OF CLEVELAND; 1801 facing 74
MAP OF THE VILLAGE OF CLEVELAND; 1814 . 175
MAP OF CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS BY AHAZ MERCHANT; 1835 . facing 258
PLAN OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND; ABOUT 1853 facing 362
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
CHAPTER I.
IN THE WESTERN WILDERNESS.
" While I was in New Connecticut I laid out a town, on the bank of Lake Erie, which was called by my name, and I believe the child is now born that may live to see that place as large as Old Windham."
These are the words in which Moses Cleaveland, in the year 1796, recorded a prophecy that has been abundantly fulfilled. Staid Old Windham, where for many years Connecticut justice held the scales with rigid exactness, was then far in advance of the newly-named town upon the Cuyahoga, which existed only upon the surveyors' charts, and in the prophetic vision of its founder. Staid Old Windham lies to-day in the quiet usefulness of vil- lagehood, while the city by Lake Erie is well counted one of the great commercial centers of the West. Could Moses Cleaveland stand for a moment, in this memorable centennial year, where his figure in bronze keeps ward over the city where his memory is so highly honored, he would realize that he had builded well, and left an im- press for all time upon the life and development of this fair portion of his native land.
It is a romantic story that we have to tell of the men and women who came into the wooded wilderness on the shores of Erie, one hundred years ago, and brought with them the ideas and principles that had even then made New England a power in the moral world-who faced
2
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
danger, and withheld themselves from no labor that stood between them and the creation of a home. This story can never be told in that completeness of incident which is the very essence of romantic history, but enough has been written or related by those who had a part therein to make one of the most entertaining chapters upon the opening of the West.
Privation, toil and danger were in the wilderness in those days, as the long war between civilization and savage- ry went on. While the Western Reserve had its share of death and disaster, the valley of the Cuyahoga was never drenched in blood as was that of the Mohawk or the Kentucky; therefore, the story of Cleveland has no rec- ord of sack or pillage, but it has much to tell of want and labor, of a patient sowing of seed that we of a later day might reap, of brave men and helpful women. It is a rec- ord of the successive steps by which the New England of the East gave of her brain and sinew for the building of the New England of the West.
A striking picture in this panoramic view was made when General Cleaveland, upon that fair day in July, stood on the hills overlooking the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie, and realized that the end of his journey and the begin- ning of his real labor of planning and construction had come together at that point and in that hour.
Could this energetic New Englander have looked into the past, as he scanned the wooded heights and the green- edged valley, he would have seen a wonderful chain of events that led back to the beginnings of time, and of which we know only by the traces left upon the rocks and in the soil-by the marking fingers of ice, of flood and of fire.
Those who have studied these lessons, as they lie upon the surface or beneath the soil, from the gorges of Rocky River to the ledges of Nelson, tell us that there was a time when Lake Erie had not made a beginning among the water highways of the world; when its bed was a wide and nearly level plain, with one river, or perhaps
3
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
two, flowing through it. There was little soil upon the country roundabout, and the streams were deep and wide -the valley of the Cuyahoga lying, perhaps, one hun- dred and fifty feet or more deeper than it does to-day.
A marvelous movement of nature then occurred, and wonderful changes followed in its wake. Nearly all the North was covered with a continent of ice, which moved in a southerly direction, carrying stones and soil in great quantities, and leaving the country far more fertile than it was before. " The Ice Age," we are told by one1 who has added so much to our knowledge of past events, " brought to your vicinity the first pioneers from another country, your boulders. . While this was going on, a little south of the ice, streams were depositing gravel, and deep in that gravel, deposited when it was laid, are the undoubted implements of glacial man, fol- lowing up the ice. What may be found of him, here, as the ice retreated, is not known, but it may safely be pre- sumed that the earliest known man knew something of your vicinity. His tools of flint, chert or argillite were very simple and few. . His learning was of the slightest. His mark upon the earth was so small that high authority believes that some catastrophe overwhelmed him alto- gether; but perhaps it only happened that some civil- ized man raised him at once to a higher civilization, per- haps in a servile condition.
" After the Ohio had broken the dam at Cincinnati2 and regained its former channel; after the plateaus had been formed and the surface of Ohio became as it is at present, there appeared a new man, the Mound Builder.
Weapons and tools of rubbed and chipped stone, copper
1 " History of Man in Ohio: A Panorama." An address delivered at Norwalk, Ohio, before the Firelands Historical Society, on the 25th of June, 1890, by Hon. C. C. Baldwin. Western Reserve Historical Society's Tract No. So, p. 259.
2 The great ice sheet, that covered all this section, made, at the point where Cincinnati now stands, a dam five or six hundred feet high, making a lake which its discoverer, Prof. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin, Ohio, called " Lake Ohio."
4
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
pounded but not cast, and galena not melted to lead, though both were sometimes placed on funeral pyres, un- glazed pottery, no burned bricks, no stone buildings; using baskets to carry dirt, making a very coarse cloth or matting, having no alphabet; they must have been indus- trious and agricultural or they could not have built such immense works. Living mainly on corn, with a govern- ment strong enough to combine them patiently, probably through priestly superstition, their civilization was not higher than some Indians when America was discovered.
There is no satisfactory evidence of any in- termediate race between the Mound Builders and the modern northern Indians."3
There is a wide space to travel, between the writing of these records upon the rocks or their burial beneath the soil, and those left in oral relation or script by men of whose existence we are certain, and whose labors can be historically recorded. Among the earliest glimmers of knowledge of the movements of the white man upon this southern shore of Lake Erie may be placed the visit of Father La Roche Daillon, a Recollect missionary, who as early as 1626 preached to an aboriginal people, by some called the Kakquahs, and by the French the " Neuter Na- tion." The headquarters of this tribe, or nation, were probably upon the north shore of Erie, although they had villages near the present site of Buffalo, and extend- ing westward along the shore of the lake. Such informa- tion, as this Father has left us, leads to the belief that, at that time, the southern shore of Lake Erie, say from Cat-
3 " Standing beside some of their remarkable earthworks, a glamour of admiration leads us to picture, in imagination, a departed race, learned in all the highest arts of civilization. But under the careful study of their remains the picture vanishes, and leaves in its place that of a patient, plodding people, with poor appliances, struggling towards civilization while still on the confines of barbarism. . . If it is asked of what race were these Mound Builders, it now can only be said they were one of the native American races, closely allied to the hunting Indians, and probably a branch of the same race."-" Archaeology of Ohio," by Professor M. C. Read, of the Geological Survey of Ohio. Western Re- serve Historical Society's Collections, Vol. III., Tract No. 73, p. III.
5
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
taraugus Creek, in New York, to near Sandusky Bay, Ohio, was occupied by a powerful tribe known as the Erie.4 In blood, they were kindred to the Iroquois, a fierce and implacable foe, who, near 1650, waged war upon the Kakquahs, and followed this by a warfare so fierce and merciless upon the Eries that they were prac- tically swept from the face of the earth. Whole families were slaughtered, and villages burned to the ground; some who escaped joined the tribes of the farther West; children were captured and held for adoption, and war- riors, who were taken in battle, were reserved for torture.
This sudden and savage extinction of the Eries left northeastern Ohio in the hands of the powerful Iro- quois. Their western boundary was set along the Cuyahoga, while their war parties made occasion- al excursions beyond.
There is little definite information as to the year in which the French trad- ers appeared among the LA SALLE. Indian tribes of this sec- tion. There is evidence to show that that remarkable explorer and adventurer, La Salle, was in the country south of the Erie as early as 1669; discovered the Ohio River,5 and passed down it as far as the site of Louis-
4 The following, from Day's " Historical Collections of Pennsylvania," p. 310, will throw some light upon the meaning of this name: "The Eries, or Irri-ronon, a powerful and war-like race inhabiting the south side of the beautiful lake which still bears their name-almost the only memento that such a nation ever existed-a name signifying cats, which they had adopted as characteristic of their tribe."
5 " The River Ohio, otherwise called the Beautiful River, and its tribu- taries belong indisputably to France, by virtue of its discovery, by the Sieur de la Salle, and of the trading posts the French have had there since."-Instructions to M. Duquesne, Paris, 1752; see Colonial Documents of New York, Vol. X., p. 243. "It is only since the last war that the Eng-
6
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ville, where he was abandoned by his men, and com- pelled to return home alone. There is a map, of which there is some evidence to show that he was the author, bearing the date 1672, where the fair body of water to the north of us is called " Lake Tejocharonting, com- monly called Lake Erie."
We begin to tread upon firmer ground, in considering the records of but a few years later. In 1678, La Salle was commissioned by Louis XIV. of France to explore that part of the western wilderness of America called " New France." His purpose was threefold: "To realize the old plan of Champlain, the finding of a path- way to China across the American continent. To occupy and develop the regions of the northern lakes. To de- scend the Mississippi River and establish a fortified post at its mouth, thus securing an outlet for the trade of the interior, and checking the progress of Spain on the Gulf of Mexico."
In the early part of 1679, he built above the falls of the Niagara a vessel of sixty tons, which he named the " Griffin," and in which he sailed out into the waters of the Erie. Shipwreck and disaster were the fate of this first vessel of the white man to spread her sails upon these inland seas. She reached Green Bay, where La Salle and some of his lieutenants left her, was loaded with furs, set out upon her return trip, and was never heard of again.6
lish have set up claims to the territory on the Beautiful River, the posses- sion whereof has never been disputed to the French, who have always re- sorted to that river ever since it was discovered by Sieur de la Salle."- Instructions to Vaudreuil, Versailles, April, 1755; see Colonial Documents, Vol. X., p. 293. Two local historians of high repute incline quite strongly to the theory of this discovery. Says Col. Charles Whittlesey: "No one has set up against him a rival claim to the discovery of the Ohio. His heirs, his admirers, and his countrymen should cherish the memory of that discovery as the most wonderful of his exploits." Western Re- serve Historical Society's Tract No. 38, p. 12. Charles C. Baldwin adds: "La Salle entered the Ohio near or at one of its sources, I believe at Lake Chautauqua, six or seven leagues below Lake Erie, and followed it to Louisville." Western Reserve Historical Society's Tract No. 63, P. 328.
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