A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 14

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1262

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 14

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* See "Pioneer Medicine on the Reserve," by Dudley P. Allen, M. D., Magazine West- ern History, Vol. III, p. 286.

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sons, Chester Justice and Samuel, Jr. In what was called Newburg and now Cleve- land, six by the name of Miles-Erastus, Theodore, Charles, Samuel, Thompson and Daniel; widow White with five sons, John, William, Solomon, Samuel and Lyman; a Mr. Barnes; Henry Edwards; Allen Gaylord and father and mother. In the spring of 1812, came Noble Bates, Ephraim and Jedediah Hubbel with their aged father and mother (the latter soon after died). In each family were several sons; Steven Gilbert, Sylvester Burk with six sons, B. B. Burk, Gaius, Erectus, etc .; Abner Cochran on what is now called Aetna street. Samuel S. Baldwin, Esq., was sheriff and county surveyor and hung the noted Indian, John O'Mic, in 1812; next Y. L. Morgan with three sons, Y. L., Jr., Caleb and Isham A. The next on the present Broadway, Dyer Sherman, Christopher Gunn, Elijah, Charles and Elijah Gunn, Jr., Robert Fulton, Robert Carr, Samuel Dille, Ira En- sign, Ezekiel Holly and two sons, Lorin and Alphonzo, Widow Clark and four sons, Mason, Martin, James and Rufus." 6

May 10, 1813, Captain Sholes came into the town with his company of soldiers. He describes the village as follows: "I halted my company between Major Carter's and Wallace's. I was here met by Governor Meigs, who gave me a most cordial welcome, as did all the citizens. The governor took me to a place where my company could pitch their tents. I found no place of de- fense, no hospital and a forest of large timber (mostly chestnut), between the lake and the lake road. There was a road that turned off between Mr. Perry's and Major Carter's that went to the town, which was the only place that the lake could be seen from the buildings. This little cluster of buildings was all of wood, I think none painted. There were a few houses back from the lake road. The widow Walworth kept the postoffice, or Ashbel, her son. Mr. L. Johnson, Judge Kingsbury, Major Carter, Nathan Perry, George Wal- lace and a few others were there. At my arrival I found a number of sick and wounded, who were of Hull's surrender sent here form Detroit, and more coming. These were crowded into a log cabin and no one to care for them. I sent one or two of my soldiers to take care of them, as they had no friends. I had two or three good carpenters in my company and set them to work to build a hospital. I very soon got up a good one, thirty by twenty feet, smoothly and tightly covered and floored with chestnut bark, with two tier of bunks around the walls with doors and windows and not a nail, a screw or iron latch or hinge about the building. Its cost to the government was a few extra rations. In a short time I had all the bunks well strawed and the sick and wounded good and clean, to their great joy and comfort, but some had fallen asleep. I next went to work and built a small fort about fifty yards from the bank of the lake in the forest. This fort finished, I set the men to work to fell the timber along and near the bank of the lake, rolling the logs and brush near the brink of the bank to serve as a breastwork. On the 19th of June, a part of the British fleet ap- peared off our harbor, with the apparent design to land. When they got within one and a half miles of our harbor, it became a perfect calm, and they lay there till afternoon when a most terrible thunderstorm came up and drove them from our coast. We saw them no more as enemies. Their object was to destroy the

" "Annals of Early Settlers Association," No. 3, p. 67.

From an old cut

HOME OF ALFRED KELLEY

Second brick building in Cleveland, built in 1816 on Water street where the Cleveland Transfer Company later had its buildings. To this pretentious house Alfred Kelley took his new bride, whom he had brought from the east, in the first carriage seen in Cleveland. They occupied the house until 1827 when it was rented to various tenants, among them Hon. John Allen. It was torn down about 1850.

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public or government boats then built and building in the Cuyahoga river and other government stores at that place." 7

The war of 1812 seems to have had a blighting effect upon our village. Very few arrivals occurred until about 1816, when Noble H. Merwin came. He pur- chased the tavern of George Wallace on the corner of Superior street and Vine- yard lane, later called South Water street, and also a parcel of land on Division street, later called Center street. His tavern was soon called the Mansion house.

R. T. Lyon states that Mr. Merwin came to Cleveland in 1815. His family, however, did not arrive until 1816. In his little tavern Mr. Merwin entertained many of the distinguished men of the day. He was later interested in the forwarding and commission business and held many offices of public trust. In 1816 Leonard Case arrived. His accession to the community was invaluable (a sketch of Mr. Case is found in the chapter on the Case School of Applied Science).

Captain Lewis Dibble gives this description of the town in 1816:

"On leaving Doan's Corners one would come in a little time to a cleared farm. Then down about where A. P. Winslow now lives [Euclid avenue and Giddings street], a man named Curtis had a tannery. There was only a small. clearing, large enough for the tannery and a residence. The brook that crossed the road there was called Curtis brook. There was nothing else but woods until Willson avenue was reached and there a man named Bartlett had a small clearing, on which was a frame house, the boards running up and down. Following down the line on what is now Euclid avenue, the next sign of civilization was found at what is now Erie street, where a little patch of three or four acres had been cleared, surrounded by a rail fence. Where the Metho- dist church now stands, corner Euclid and Erie streets [Cleveland Trust Com- pany], a man named Smith lived in a log house. I don't remember any build- ing between that and the Square, which was already laid out, but covered with bushes and stumps."8

In 1818, Ahaz Merchant arrived. He was born in Connecticut, March 21, 1794. He was county surveyor from 1833 to 1835 and from 1845 to 1850. Much of the early engineering work in the city and county was done by him. All of the old streets were resurveyed by him and he established their grades. 'And he platted the early city allotments on both sides of the river. He died March 28, 1862.

In 1818, Reuben Wood, who afterward became governor of Ohio, and Orlando Cutter, who brought with him a stock of goods valued at twenty thousand dollars, a very large amount for that time, and Samuel Cowles, settled here. The Cowles family has indelibly impressed itself upon the community. Levi Sargent brought his family to Cleveland in 1818. His son John H. Sargent, became one of the foremost men in railroad building and other exten- sive engineering works in Ohio. John was a lad when he came to Cleveland

7 Whittlesey's "Early History of Cleveland," p. 442, quoted from a letter to John Barr, dated July, 1858.

8 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 7, p. 54.

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and has left a description of the town as it appeared some years later. "Orlando Cutter dealt out groceries and provisions at the top of Superior lane. I can still remember the sweets from his mococks of Indian sugar. Nathan Perry sold dry goods, Walworth made hats and Tewell repaired old watches on Superior street. Dr. Long dealt out ague cures from a little frame house nearly opposite Banks street at first but not long after from a stone house that stood a little back from Superior street. The 'Ox Bow Cleveland Center' was then a densely wooded swamp. Lorenzo Carter lived on the west side of the river, opposite the foot of Superior lane. He was a great hunter; with his hounds he would drive the deer onto the sand spit between the lake and the old river bed, where they would take to the water, when Carter's unerring aim would convert them into venison."9

Asa Sprague, came in April, 1818. He says :

"I arrived a few weeks after the first census had been taken. Its popula- tion was at that time but one hundred and seventy-two souls; all poor and struggling hard to keep soul and body together. Small change was very scarce. They used what were called 'corporation shin plasters' as a substitute. The inhabitants were mostly New England people and seemed to be living in a wilderness of scrub oaks. Only thirty or forty acres had been cleared. Most of the occupied town lots were fenced with rails. There were three ware- houses on the river; however very little commercial business was done as there was no harbor at that time. All freight and passengers were landed on the beach by lighter and small boats. To get freight to the warehouses, which were a quarter of a mile from the beach, we had to roll it over the sand and load it into canal boats. The price of freight from Buffalo to Cleveland was a dollar a barrel, the price of passage on vessels ten dollars, on steamboats, twenty dollars." 10

In 1819, picturesque Joel Scranton arrived in the little village. His energy and common sense soon made him one of the leading men of the place. He brought with him a schooner load of leather, which formed the basis of his trading and of his fortune. He purchased the flats on the west side of the river and they were known for many years as "Scranton flats." The leading street through them is still known by his name. John Blair came here from Maryland in 1819. He had three dollars in his pocket, began to speculate in pork and soon developed into a large produce and commission merchant on the river. In 1820 came Peter Weddell, one of the leading factors in the commercial life of the town, engaging in the trading business on the lake and later on the canal. The Weddell house was built by him.

John Willey arrived in 1822. He was the first mayor of the city of Cleveland, was for a number of terms a member of the house of representatives and of the senate, and served as judge on the bench of common pleas. His clearness of mind was of great service to the young community and to the newly made municipality.

Richard Hilliard came in 1823 from New York and engaged in the mercantile business. His place was located on Superior street where the old Atwater build-

9 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 6, p. 12.

10 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 2, p. 74.

Original lithograph by Thomas Whelpley, in Western Reserve Historical Society A B C CLEVELAND IN 1833. LOOKING EAST FROM THE CORNER OF BANK AND ST. CLAIR STREETS A, the "Old Academy." B, Trinity church, corner Seneca and St. Clair. C, Old Stone Church. D, courthouse.

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ing stood. He soon had one of the leading dry goods and grocery establishments in the county. He formed a partnership with William Hayes under the firm name of Hilliard & Hayes. Later on he built a brick block on the corner of Wa- ter and Frankfort streets. He organized a company with Courtland Palmer of New York and Edwin Clark of Cleveland for engaging in the manufacturing business on the flats. He was later a promoter of railroads and other extensive enterprises. He died December 21, 1856.

In 1824 Harvey Rice, a schoolteacher, came to Cleveland. He was twenty- four years of age, a graduate of Williams college, one of the first college gradu- ates to reach the town. He died in 1891. 'A monument erected to his memory stands in Wade park. He was the father of the Ohio state school law, one of the founders of the Cleveland public schools, a legislator of eminence and a writer of pleasing grace. He has left for us a description of the town at the time of his arrival, on the 24th of September, 1824. "A sand bar prevented the schooner from entering the river. The jolly boat was let down and two jolly fellows, one from Baltimore, and myself, were transferred to the boat with our baggage, and rowed by a brawny sailor over the sand bar into the placid waters of the river and landed on the end of a row of planks that stood on stilts and bridged the marshy brink of the river to the foot of Union lane. Here we were left standing with our trunks on the wharf end of a plank at midnight, strangers in a strange land. We hardly knew what to do but soon concluded that we must make our way in the world, however dark the prospect. There was no time to be lost, so we commenced our career in Ohio as porters by shouldering our trunks and groping our way up Union lane to Superior street, where we espied a light at some distance up the street, to which we directed our footsteps.

"In the morning I took a stroll to see the town and in less than half an hour saw all there was of it. The town even at that time was proud of itself and called itself the 'gem of the West.' In fact the Public Square was begemmed with stumps, while near its center glowed its crowning jewel, a log courthouse. The eastern border of the Square was skirted by the native forest which abounded in rabbits and squirrels and afforded the villagers a 'happy hunting ground.' The entire population did not at that time exceed four hundred souls. The dwellings were generally small but were interspersed here and there with pretentious man- sions." 11

Judge Rufus P. Spaulding, eminent in the public annals of our state and a distinguished member of the Cuyahoga county bar, has this to say of his first visit to Cleveland :

"In the month of March, 1823, I first saw Cleveland. I came from Warren in Trumbull county, where I then lived, in company of Hon. George Tod, who was then President Judge of the third Judicial Circuit, which embraced, if I mistake not, the whole Western Reserve. We made the journey on horseback and were nearly two days in accomplishing it. I recollect the judge, instead of an overcoat, wore an Indian blanket drawn over his head by means of a hole cut in the center. We came to attend court and put up at the house of Mr. Merwin, where we met quite a number of lawyers from adjacent counties. At this time the village of Warren where I lived was considered altogether ahead of Cleveland in impor-

11 "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, p. 35.

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tance ; indeed there was very little of Cleveland at that day east or southeast of the Public Square. The population was estimated at four hundred souls. The earliest burying ground was at the present intersection of Prospect and Ontario streets. Some years afterward, in riding away from Cleveland in the stage coach, I passed the Erie Street Cemetery just then laid out. I recollect it excited my surprise that a site for a burying ground should be selected so far out of town." 12

In 1825 arrived John W. Allen from Litchfield, Connecticut. He studied law here with Judge Samuel Cowles, was elected president of the village from 1831 to 1835 and mayor of the city in 1841. In 1835 he was a member of the Ohio senate and in 1836 was sent to congress from this district, serving two terms, became postmaster in 1870, reappointed in 1874, was one of the first bank commissioners of the state of Ohio and active in building the first railroads. He was a gentleman of great refinement and dignity of bearing, untiring in his ef- forts to develop the city. He died October 5, 1887.

Another distinguished arrival at that time was Sherlock J. Andrews, who came here from Wallingford, Connecticut, where he was born in 1801. He was graduated from Union college and educated for the bar. In 1825 he formed a partnership with Samuel Cowles. The traditions of the bar are replete with stories of his wit, the elegance of his diction, his learning and his dignity. From the time of his arrival to the day of his death, on February 1I, 1880, he occupied a leading place in our city.

David H. Beardsley arrived in 1826, and the following year was appointed collector for the canal in Cleveland, a position which he held for over twenty years. He was born in 1789 in New Preston, Connecticut, and died in Cleveland in 1870. In 1825 came Melancthon Barnett, who took a position as clerk in the store of Mr. May. Afterwards he became a partner under the firm name of May & Barnett. He was the father of General James Barnett, who occupies so large and distinguished a place in the history of our city.

The next period of the development of the town may be said to have begun about 1830, with the rise of canal traffic. Seth A. Abbey arrived in 1830. He occupied for a number of terms the position of city marshal and later judge of the police court. Norman C. Baldwin came in 1830. He was born in Goshen, Connecticut, July 29, 1802. On his arrival here he formed a partnership with Noble H. Merwin and later organized the firm of Giddings, Baldwin & Company, which owned one of the first lines of steamers on the lake and a large line of packets on the canal. He was president of the bank of Cleveland. He retired from business before the war and died June 12, 1887. Richard Winslow, who came here in 1830, brought considerable capital with him and embarked in the wholesale grocery business. He became one of the leading men of the city.

In 1832 Henry B. Payne came to Cleveland. He was born in Hamilton, New York, educated in Hamilton college, was admitted to the bar, and immediately took active part in public affairs, became a member of the city council, a member of the first board of waterworks commissioners, was a sinking fund commis- sioner, city clerk, in 1851 a member of the state senate and in 1874 congressman from this district, was a member of the Hayes-Tilden Commission and in 1884

12 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. I, p. 42.

From original lithograph in Western Reserve Historical Society

LOOKING EAST FROM BROOKLYN HILL IN 1833

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was chosen United States senator. He died September 9, 1896. He was actively identified with the great railroad and transportation interests of the community.

In 1833 came John A. Foot, a native of New Haven, Connecticut. His father was the governor of Connecticut, and author of the noted Foot Resolution, which brought forth the famous Webster-Hayne debate. A graduate of Yale college, he immediately took rank among the leading lawyers of the town, forming a partnership with Sherlock J. Andrews. He held numerous public offices and was interested in reformatory, educational and philanthropic work. He died July 16, 1891. Thomas Burnham also arrived in 1833. He was a native of Saratoga county, New York, came to Cleveland with a young bride and became a school- teacher on the west side, in a little schoolhouse on the corner of Washington and Pearl streets. Later he became mayor of Ohio City and was one of the suc- cessful business men of the west side.

Milo Hickox arrived in Cleveland from Rochester in 1831. He left a de- scription of that date describing the town: "Cleveland is about two thirds as large as Rochester, on the east side of the river and is the pleasantest sight that you ever saw. The streets are broad and cross each other at right angles. The courthouse is better than the one in Rochester; the rest of the buildings alto- gether, are not worth more than four of the best in that place and one room of a middling size rents for one dollar per month. Everything that we want to live upon commands cash and a high price. Mechanics' wages are low. Journeymen get from ten to twenty dollars per month and board; I get nine shillings and six pence

per day and board myself. * There are between fifteen and twenty grog shops and they all live. There was one opened here last week by a man from Rochester. There is a temperance society with ten or a dozen male members. The Presbyterian church has four male members, Baptist six, Methodist about the same; the Episcopal is small; they have a house, the others have not. The courthouse is used at this time for a theatrical company and is well filled with people of all classes. My health has not been good since we have been here. About four weeks since, we awoke in the morning and found ourselves all shaking with the ague. I had but one fit myself. My wife had it about a week every day, and my son three weeks every day, and what made it worse, my wife and son both shook at the same time. I spent one day in search of a girl ; gave up the chase and engaged passage for my wife to Buffalo, to be forwarded to Rochester. She was to leave the next morning. I was telling my troubles to an acquaintance, who told me that he would find a girl for me, or let me have his, rather than have my family leave, so we concluded to stay." 13

In 1835 James D. Campbell, arrived. He was a distinguished lawyer, occupy- ing many places of public trust, an intimate friend of the leading public men of the day, one of the founders of the Western Reserve Historical Society and a trustee of Case School of Applied Science. He was but a youth when he came to the city and has left us a description of the town as he first saw it: "As the steamer came up the river the boy read the signs on the warehouses: Richard Winslow, Blair & Smith, Foster & Dennison, W. V. Craw, Robert H. Backus, Gillett & Hickox, C. M. Giddings, N. M. Standart, M. B. Scott, Griffith & Stan- dart, Noble H. Merwin; passed scores of steamers, schooners and canal boats,

13 "Annals Early Settlers Association." Vol. 3, p. 75.

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exchanging wheat and flour from the interior of Ohio for goods and salt to be carried to the canal towns from the lake to the Ohio river. Walking up Su- perior lane, a steep and unpaved road, you passed the stores of Denker & Borges, Deacon Whittaker's filled with stoves, George Worthington, hardware, at the corner of Union lane, where Captain McCurdy had lately retired from the dry goods business, Strickland & Gaylord, drugs, etc., Stanford & Lott, printing and bookstore, and T. W. Morse, tailor. On reaching the top, Superior street, one hundred and thirty-two feet wide, spread before you-the widest of unpaved streets with not a foot of flag sidewalk except at the foot of Bank street in front of a bank. It was lined with a few brick two and three story buildings. A town pump stood at the corner of Bank street near the old Commercial bank of Lake Erie, on the corner, of which Leonard Case was president and Truman P. Handy, cashier. There were three or four hotels. Dr. Long had a fine two story resi- dence at the corner of Seneca street. Mr. Case; C. M. Giddings, Elijah Bingham, William Lemon, John W. Allen and a few others had residences dotted around the Public Square, on which the Old Stone Church occupied its present site, and in the southwest corner stood the courthouse. The postoffice occupied a ten by fifty foot room in Levi Johnson's building below Bank street and you received your letters from the hands of Postmaster Daniel Worley and paid him the eighteen pence or twenty-five cents postage, to which it was subject, according to the distance it had traveled. The great majority of the best residences were on Water street, St. Clair and Lake streets. A few good houses had been built on Euclid avenue, but the Virginia rail fence still lined it on the north side where Bond street now is, to the Jones residence near Erie street, where Judge Jones and the senator (John P. Jones) lived in their boyhood. There were groves of fine black oaks and chestnuts on Erie street between Superior and Prospect streets and a good many on the northeast part of the Public Square and between St. Clair street and the lake. With its splendid houses, its numerous groves, its lofty outlook upon the lake, its clear atmosphere as yet unpolluted by smoke, Cleveland was as beautiful a village as could be found west of New Haven." 14

In 1836 a number of important additions were made to the business and pro- fessional life of the community. Among these are William Bingham, who be- came one of the leading hardware merchants of the west; Franklin D. Backus, afterward one of the leaders of the Ohio bar; D. W. Cross, who practiced law for many years and afterward became a prominent coal operator; William A. Otis, one of Cleveland's first great iron masters and bankers; and Charles Brad- burn, a merchant, who devoted much time to educational matters.

From this time forward the development of the city was more certain. Except for the hiatus caused by the great panic of 1837, the progress of the town was rapid and continuous. The personal era of its history ceased with the swift influx of population, detailed in the succeeding chapter.

The first comprehensive history of Ohio was written by Caleb 'Atwater in 1838. It is a quaint record of the development of the state up to that period and contains the following description of Cleveland: "Cleveland has often been al- luded to already in this work and we cannot easily forget so important a town. It has gained its position from its natural advantages and from its intelligent

14 "Cleveland Leader," February 2, 1896.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 14

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1262

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1262