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Gc 977.102 C59ur 1928776
IVI
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02481 1124
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1796 CENTENNIAL 1896
HISTORY op-
0
CLEVELAND 50C
C
000C
PRICE, 25 CENTS.
C. Clarke.
189€
MOSES CLEAVELAND.
1796-1896
CENTENNIAL HISTORY
OF
CLEVELAND, C.
BY
C. A. URANN Clara A. Grann
CLEVELAND 1896
COPYRIGHT 1896
BY C. A, URANN
PRESS OF J. B. SAVAGE CLEVELAND
1928776
Respectfully Dedicated to Mrs. Edward H. Foster, nee Jennie B. Rogers,
Great-grand-daughter of James and Eunice Waldo Kingsbury.
perioda.
SETTLING, 1796-1821.
ESTABLISHING,
1821-1846.
IMPROVING,
1846-1871.
ENLARGING,
1871-1896.
CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CLEVELAND, OHIO.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE CENTURY; THAT OF SETTLING: FROM 1796-1821.
A BRIEF notice of some facts connected with the early history of Connecticut is necessary in order to better appreciate and understand the history of Cleveland, there- fore we turn back to the time when Gov. Wins- low, of Plymouth Colony, visited Connecticut in the year 1631 with a commission from Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook and several other noble- men interested in the Connecticut patent, for the purpose of erecting a fort on the Connecticut River. He was, undoubtedly, the first white man to view the scenery along that beautiful river.
In October, 1635, a band of sixty settlers started from Watertown and Newton, Mass., to go into this wilderness, establishing themselves along the Connecticut River from Windsor to Wetherfield, but most of the number soon died,
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
or returned; only a very few remained to greet the Rev. Thomas Hooker and his company of about one hundred men, women and children, who left Cambridge, Mass., in June, 1636, trav- eling with their packs on their backs, or in their hands, or both ways, preceded by their few wagons and carts containing their worldy pos- sessions, drawn by oxen or horses. About 100 head of cattle, swine and goats accompanied them as they wound through the forests on their long, wearisome journey which occupied two weeks, and can now be accomplished in a few hours.
Cutting their way through the untrodden for- ests, steering their course by the aid of a com- pass, they penetrated the unknown country; encamping by night under the canopy of heaven, with the constant expectation of being visited by wild beasts or Indians-the one quite as welcome as the other-and journeying by day on foot, these brave-hearted, restless people pushed on to settle our Mother State of Connecticut.
Hooker's colony reached the Connecticut River about the middle of June-the month of vernal beauty-at a spot somewhere between Springfield and Hartford, proceeding on until they reached an upland which had been cleared by fire and was nearly surrounded by tall forests of pine, cedar and oak-and there the town of Hartford was started.
The nearest store being nearly 100 miles dis-
SETH PEASE.
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SETTLING-1796-1821.
tant, a goodly assortment of household and farm- ing utensils were carried in their few wagons to their new home, and they must have been as won- derfully stowed away as were the innumerable articles said to have been brought over in the Mayflower, for there were family supplies of axes, hatchets, chisels, saws, files, wedges, gimlets, scraps of iron, etc .; of stools, cushions, table-lin- en, cups, saucers, poringers, candlesticks, feather- beds, pillows, blankets, coverlids, bed-linen, knives, spoons, pewter and wooden dishes, pots, kettles, skillets, frying-pans, skimmers, mortars, pestles; pewter, leather and glass bottles, shovels, tongs, ploughshares, scythes, hoes, saddles, har- nesses, pieces of cloths, bundles of leather, paper, corn, peas, oats, butter, cheese, arms and ammu- nition, together with all their wearing apparel. Apparently enough to fill a freight train of today.
Other settlers followed, and when the three towns, Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, on the 24th of January, 1639, formed themselves in- to a distinct commonwealth with a constitution of its own, they claimed dominion over the land reaching from sea to sea (between parallels 41- 42). But as they could not use the vast realm they claimed and had considerately named for the Indian Quon-eh-ta-cut, who reigned over the land when the first white invader arrived, they were not greatly troubled when a few years later New York claimed a large section of their pos- sessions on the West.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
In a surprisingly short time the principal places along the river were settled; the log-cabins were replaced by substantial frame-houses, each with its huge stone chimney rising boldly through the center, affording great open fireplaces on four sides, and serving to strengthen the whole struct- ure. The kitchen was the living-room, wherein the family cooked, spun, ate, and often slept. The parlor frequently contained a bed for guests, and was truly a guest's room, being seldom opened for families' use or pleasure, and was generally the dreariest place in the house.
The bedsteads and chests of drawers were the important articles of furniture in every house, where everything was neat and simple, but sub- stantial. When the hand on the sundials indi- cated the hour of their daily meals the men washed up in the lean-to sheds and with the relish of a good conscience and a greatful heart partook of the meat, turnips, Indian-corn and molasses provided for them, drinking copiously from the jugs of home-made beer or cider to be found on every table in those days.
In the treaty of peace of 1783 England ceded to the United States land she had taken from France twenty years previous, which was most of that now covered by the States of Ohio, Indi- ana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Min- nesota. It was a wilderness of no great value to either, so far as was then known, and occupied
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SETTLING-1796-1821.
by over 60,000 Indians. Later, Connecticut re- signed to the Federal Government her claim to her western land, reserving only a tract 120 miles long of 3,800,000 acres (between parallel 41 de- grees and Lake Erie), which became known as the Connecticut, and later as the Western Re- serve.
Half a million acres situated in the western part of this reserved land she divided among those of her citizens in Danbury, Fairfield, Norwalk, New London and Groton, whose homes had been burned by the British, and it became known as the Firelands. The remaining 3,300,000 acres of this almost worthless "patch of woodland" she sold in 1795 to some wealthy men forming the Connecticut Land Co. for $1,200,000, which she set aside as a fund for the use of her public schools. The company conveyed their interests to three trustees, John Cadwell, John Morgan and Jonathan Brace, and the general management of affairs was vested in a board of seven directors, Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion, Moses Cleave- land, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Sam- uel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newbury.
In 1796, on the 12th of May, Moses Cleaveland was commissioned "to go on to said land as Su- perintendent over agents and men sent to survey and make locations on said land, and to make and enter into friendly negotiations with the na- tives who are on said lands," etc.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Moses Cleaveland was born at Canterbury, Conn., January 29, 1754, and was 42 years of age when he received his commission. He was a graduate of Yale College, a lawyer by profession, and had served as a Captain of the Sappers and Miners in the U. S. Army.
The name Cleaveland is said to be of Saxon origin, signifying clefts or cleves-open fissures in hard clay soil-and Moses Cleaveland was destined to open fissures in a densely-wooded soil 450 miles distant, cleaving the way for an im- migration such as was never before known.
One hundred and sixty years after the settle- ment of Connecticut many of the children and grandchildren of its settlers repeated the experi- ences of their ancestors by becoming the pioneers of the Western Reserve, and 100 years ago, on Friday, the 22d of July, 1796, Moses Cleaveland, with a few of his surveyors, entered the Cuyahoga River, and landed on the eastern bank near its entrance into the lake. They climbed the steep bank and traversed the open field to where the statue of Moses Cleaveland now stands on the Public Square, where it is said the leader of the surveyors decided that he had found an admirable site for a settlement.
There were 50 members of the first surveying party, including two women. Four divisions of the party left Conneaut after celebrating the Fourth of July, 1796, to survey the new lands,
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SETTLING-1796-1821.
working their way to the Cuyahoga River, which for a while was their headquarters.
Job P. Stiles and his wife are thought to have come with Moses Cleaveland in the first party. The family remained at Cleveland during the win- ter in charge of the stores, although the surveying party wintered at Conneaut.
Try as we may, it is impossible to conceive of the Cleaveland of a century ago! The best we can do is to form a picture for ourselves from the little there is to be gleaned from a few authentic sources.
In an old journal it is stated that "The Caya- hoga empties into Lake Erie by a mouth 80 yards wide, and is navigable for sloops for fifteen miles without any falls or swift water; but there is a bar at the mouth like that of Grand River. In high water it is boatable sixty miles to the portage, which is seven and a half miles to the head waters of the Tuscarawa branch of the Muskingum." The same writer informs us that "here are fine uplands, extensive meadows, oak and mulberry trees fit for ship building, and walnut, chestnut and poplar trees suitable for domestic services," and that "near the mouth of this river are the celebrated rocks which project over the lake. They are several miles in length and rise forty or fifty feet perpendicular out of the water. Some parts of them consist of several strata of different colours, lying in a horizontal direction, and so
14
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
exactly parallel that they resemble the work of art." He also states that "the heathen Indians, when the pass this impending danger, offer a sac- rifice of tobacco to the river."
The mouth of the river, which the Indians called Cayahoga, meaning crooked, was then far to the west of where it is now, and the channel was so filled with sand that people could jump across without any difficulty.
On the west side was a fine grove covering four or five acres, high on a bluff.
The Seneca Indians had their camping grounds on the east side. The Ottawas, Delawares and Chippewas on the west, but they were all in- clined to be friendly until possessed by the demon found in the fire-water offered them by their white neighbors.
Seth Pease and Amos Spafford on their ar- rival surveyed the locality into city lots, covering in all an area a mile square, extending from the river to a little east of Erie Street, and from the lake south to Ohio Street. Broad, now Superior, was then the widest street known, and led from Erie to Water Street. Superior Lane afterward led from it to the river. By the original chart of "the town and village of Cleaveland, Ohio, Oc- tober 1st, 1796," we find that the surveyors had laid out the Public Square with Ontario, Supe- rior-(as Broad Street was soon called)-Huron, Erie, Lake, Water, Union, Mandrake, Vineyard,
15
SETTLING-1796-1821.
Federal, Bath, Miami, Maiden and Ohio Streets, 14 in all, together with 220 lots of 2 acres each. City lots brought about $50 at first, but a few years later the price went down to $25.
A lot was selected near what is now Ontario and Prospect Streets for a burying ground. Pease wrote of it thus:
"Sunday, June 4, (1797). This morning selected a piece of land for a burying ground, the north parts of lots 97-98; and attended the funeral of the deceased with as much decency and solemnity as could possibly be expected. Mr. Hart (the chaplain) read church service. The afternoon was devoted to washing."
The deceased referred to was David Eldridge, whose remains now lie beneath a simple, recum- bent, stone tablet near the entrance of the Erie Street Cemetery.
The survey was completed in October, 1796, when lot No. 7 was formerly named Cleaveland in honor of the leader, and four white people be- 'came residents of the new town. These were Job Stiles and his wife, Tabitha Cumi Stiles, Ed- ward Paine and Joseph Landon.
The journal of Milton Holley reads thus:
"Monday, Oct. 17, 1796. Finished surveying in New Connecticut; weather rainy. Tuesday, October 18, we left Cuyahoga at 3 o'clock 17 min- utes, for Home. We left at Cuyahoga Job Stiles and wife, and Joseph Landon, with provisions
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
for the winter." Landon left soon after, overtak- ing the others at Buffalo. There were 14 men on board the returning boat, including Seth Pease, Amzi Atwater and Milton Holley, whose journals are full of interest.
Mrs. Tabitha Cumi Stiles held the exalted posi- tion of the first lady in the land during the winter of 1796. The Stiles log-cabin was built before the departure of the surveyors. It stood on the hill north of Superior Street, about half way be- tween the Square and Water Street. Their near- est white neighbor was at Conneaut, a distance of over 68 miles by the trail. It is generally be- lieved that a child was born in this cabin during the winter and entrusted to the "kind nursery" of some friendly squaw.
On May 2d, 1797, Lorenzo Carter and his fam- ily arrived. They came from Rutland, Vt., the previous autumn, wintering in Canada. In June the Kingsburys arrived from Conneaut, *James and his wife, Eunice Waldo Kingsbury, and theif three little ones, a girl aged three years and two boys of two and one years respectively.
In Mr. Kingsbury's Journal are the following entries: "James Kingsbury set out; State New Hampshire June 9, 1796."
"Tuesday, August 16, 1796, arrived at Coneat, New Connecticut, Lake Erie."
*The grandfather of James Kingsbury came to America with Governor Winslow.
ALONZO CARTER AND WIFE.
17
SETTLING-1796-1821.
At Buffalo this adventurous family met Moses Cleaveland and accompanied him to Conneaut, where they remained during the winter. Their journey occupied 68 days, being made partly on horseback and partly by such craft as plied the waters in those days-flat-bottomed boats that would not stand the severe storms.
They brought with them the few household ar- ticles that were necessary, together with a cow, a horse and a yoke of oxen. During the first winter they occupied a log-hut erected by the surveyors at Conneaut.
Mrs. Kingsbury was 27 years old the day they arrived-and we all know the story of her first winter in the new country, of her husband's re- turn to New Hampshire, of his prolonged ab- sence because of his illness, of her giving birth to a child which died of starvation one Sunday morn- ing a few weeks later, and of its father's return that same day just as the sun was sinking in the west, when he, with their three-year-old daughter, proceeded to bury the babe, never dreaming of the honor to be accorded him in later years as the first white child born on the Reserve.
On their arrival at Cleaveland they were given a log trading-hut on the West Side, probably near what is now the corner of Center and Main Streets. This hut was found here by the surveyors, and was thought to have been erected by the English as early as 1786.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
A new cabin was soon made ready for the Kingsburys on or near the site of the present Case Block, where they resided a few months, and in the autumn removed to Newburgh. Two valuable letters are in the possesion of the family. One was written by Judge Kingsbury's father and addressed to "Major James Kingfbury at New Connecticut, to be put into the poft-office at Can- adarquay and Delivered to Mr. Jofeph Landing, who will call for it about the firft of April."
The other is from Mrs. Kingsbury to her hus- band after her journey home to N. H. dated July 15, 1818, telling of the hearty welcome she re- ceived from all the family, and of the journey which she had made by wagon, in company with a relative. The postage on this precious epistle was 25 cents.
In the year 1797 there was a choice circle of women residing in Cleveland. These were Mrs. Stiles, Mrs. Kingsbury, Mrs. Gunn, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Hawley and Miss Cloe Inches, the maid- help of the Carters, who became the first bride on the Reserve.
There were ten white children: five Carters, three Kingsburys, one Gunn and one Hawley. The first settlers were all young people with young children.
In January, 1798, at a meeting held at Hart- ford, it was resolved that,"Whereas, the Directors have given to Tabitha Cumi Stiles, wife of Job
19
SETTLING-1796-1821.
P. Stiles, one city lot, one ten-acre lot, and one one-hundred-acre lot; to Anna Gunn, wife of Elijah Gunn, one one-hundred-acre lot; to James Kingsbury and wife, one one-hundred- acre lot; to Nathaniel Doan, one city lot, he being obliged to reside thereon as a blacksmith, and all in the city and town of Cleaveland. Voted that these grants be approved." Thus early in the settlement of Cleaveland did womem become land-owners.
Connecticut is termed the Mother of the Re- serve, but Vermont furnished the first residents, Job Stiles and wife, and New Hampshire and Vermont its earliest settlers.
On the side of the hill near where the Bethel now stands Lorenzo Carter built his log-cabin, which became a place of marked importance in after years, as it was within its walls that the first wedding occurred on the Fourth of July, 1802, when Chloe Inches became the wife of William Clement. It was in that cabin the first school was opened in 1802. It was there the first ball was held, on the Fourth of July, 1801. This ball was attended by Gilman Bryant and Miss Doan, who had recently arrived at Doan Corners. He was 17; she, about 14 years of age. He was dressed in a gingham suit with his hair queued with black ribbon, and rubbed with a piece of candle and then powdered with flour; a pair of brogans and a wool hat completed his costume.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
The young lady secured her fresh calico dress to the horse's back before she, in her under- petticoat, mounted the horse behind her escort and started for Carter's ball-room. There were some 10 women and 15 or 20 men present to en- joy the pork and beans, the plum-cake and the sling made of whiskey and maple sugar, which were served as refreshments. In the little room with walls ornamented with deerhorns and shoot- ing irons the merry company danced on the puncheon floor until broad daylight.
It was in that same cabin that the first prisoner was held in bondage, and in fact, it was in Carter's cabin that nearly every meeting and occasion of interest took place during the first few years of Cleaveland's history.
During the five years succeeding that of 1796 there arrived twelve families and several single men, and men without their wives. These scat- tered over the township. The Doans, who fig- ured largely in town affairs, came in 1798-after being 92 days in coming from Connecticut-and settled at Doan Corner.
As the ague came to prevail along the river, most of the families moved inland on to higher land, so that after the Doans removed east to the Corner in 1799, Carters was the only white family in Cleaveland from January until April, 1800, a period of 15 months.
Mr. Kingsbury removed to Newburgh in De-
JUDGE KINGSBURY.
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SETTLING-1796-1821.
cember, 1797, where he afterward raised the first frame-house in the township. It was a grand affair for those times, and is still standing, al- though it was partially destroyed by fire in the winter of 1895.
While living in their log-cabin at Newburgh, Mrs. Kingsbury had to again endure the pangs of hunger. Her husband left her one morning crying for food for herself and little ones. He took his gun and went out, Macawber like, bid- ding her "cheer up; something will turn up." He soon returned with a large rattlesnake which he had shot, and which he proceeded to cook for his hungry ones, at the same time assuring his wife that he knew "something would turn up."
In the spring of 1799 Wheeler W. Williams, of Norwich, Conn., arrived and settled at New- burgh, erecting a cabin there. It was always a merry occasion when a cabin was raised. The neighbors from miles around would come to lend a hand, and usually finished the job in a single day. Their "women-folks" meanwhile would assist the housewife by quilting for her, and when the day's work was over all would join in a dance. When a fiddler and a fiddle could be se- cured it was so much the merrier, although a very jolly affair even when they danced to the song of the dancers, or the whistle of the gay gallants.
Henry Woods, in his very interesting narrative, relates the story of one of Newburgh's festivities.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
It seems that the young men agreed to get the girls together at the tavern and have a dance, but as he stated "fiddlers were scarce." One had lately arrived from the East whom they agreed to take along, however. When he was inter- viewed they found that he was at their "sarvace," but that his fiddle was on the other side of the Cuyahoga River. Woods and his companion attempted to build a raft of loose sticks, which did not prove a success, then Woods decided to swim across. It was in April. The river was high and its water icy cold. Woods took off his clothes-as he says, "except my shirt and pants, and they were linen," and swam across the river where he "found the fiddle in a brush shanty." Another difficulty awaited him; he could find nothing with which to bind the fiddle on his head to keep it above the water. So he was obliged to follow down the river-side nearly a mile to find a shallow part where he could cross, the "nettles hurting his bare-feet" all the while. Norton, his companion, followed on the opposite shore with his wearing apparel, and had the good fortune to come across a stray horse, which he mounted, riding him through the river, returning with Woods and the precious fiddle. Unfortunately Mr. Woods has left no account of the dance. But he has given us an account of his going for Dr. Long, of Cleave- land, in the year 1810, when he was staying at his
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SETTLING-1796-1821.
father's cabin at Tinker's Creek. "A widow woman" had met with an accident requiring med- ical aid, and the lad was sent for the nearest phy- sician, 12 miles distant, six miles being through a dense wood. The night was dark and the road muddy. His narrative reads as follows:
"The folks furnished me with a good horse and an old-fashioned tin lantern and a candle. I burnt the candle, all of it, going through the woods. I found the doctor, but he would not go that night, so I had to stay all night. In the morning we started, and when we came to six- mile woods the road was froze, so that it was very bad traveling for a horse, and the doctor left his horse at Erastus Miles' tavern, and went the six miles and back on foot."
Mr. Williams was soon settled in his new cabin, and then he proceeded to erect a flouring mill, which was the first one on the Reserve, and of which Judge Barr has written as follows:
"An apology for a grist had been erected near Cleaveland, which enjoyed a complete monopoly, having no competition within a hundred miles, and which gave general satisfaction, as few had anything to grind." Its completion was the oc- casion of great festivity.
Mr. Williams erected a saw-mill during the following year (1800), which was the first on the Reserve, and in consideration that he would im- mediately construct and put in operation these
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
mills, the Connecticut Land Company gave Mr. Williams 100 acres of land, including his mill sites and much of the land now covered by the village of Newburgh, with provisions for himself and family for one year, $100 in cash, and all the castings essential to the construction of his mills.
Mr. David Bryant and his son Gilman made a pair of grindstones for the new flour mill on the right-hand side of the stream about half a mile from the mill, and if I am rightly informed, it is one of them that now rests at the N. E. corner of the N. W. section of the Public Square.
The same year, 1800, the first schoolhouse in Cleaveland township was built near the home of Judge Kingsbury in Newburgh, the school being taught by Miss Sara Doan.
The year 1811 opened with a public ball. John and Benjamin Wood and R. Blinn were man- agers. I quote again from Mr. Wood's valuable narrative. A number of young people had ar- rived at Independence, on Tinker's Creek flats, and as Mr. Woods states, "We all got an invita- tion to the New Year's ball. There was no bug- gies in them days and very few wagons in those early times ; so we hitched up a two-horse wagon, and on the first day of January, 1811, four young men beside myself and three girls got into the wagon and started for Cleaveland. We had six miles woods to go through in the start, and the roads bad, but we got through safe, and went into
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