A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 3

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 3

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The surface of this delta is practically a smooth plain, slightly sloping to the lake, above which it stands elevated from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet. The streams crossing this area of unconsolidated sand and clay have rapidly low- ered their courses to the present level of Lake Erie. The principal entrenching has been done by the Cuyahoga river which has cut in the center of the delta, a deep and narrow valley, which divides the city into an east and west side. The branches of the Cuyahoga on the old lake plain have all gullied deeply the surface and entrenched their courses. In some of these, i. e., Big creek, Mill creek, Morgan run and Kingsbury run, the small valleys are over a hundred feet in depth, and form physical boundaries for their section of the city as distinct as those on the opposite sides of the Cuyahoga river. Big creek separates Brooklyn from the west side and it was under these physical boundaries that Brooklyn developed into one of the units of Greater Cleveland. On the east side, Kingsbury run, with its deep gullies, determined the southern boundary of early Cleveland, and south of this stream, Newburgh had its original site. Morgan run and Burke branch, with their extensive gullies, divide the surface south of Kingsbury run, into sev- eral distinct districts. These creeks have influenced more or less, the direction and location of certain streets, especially Broadway and Kinsman avenue, which run roughly parallel with the gullies and on the level land between them. The

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

many deep gullies prevented the extension southward from Kingsbury run of many streets, and hence, the early crosstown traffic was confined to those few streets bridging the gullies, and small trading centers grew up as the result of the focusing of this travel at the crossings.

The original area of these gullies and other side ravines was much larger than at present, for they have been for years dumping grounds and are now being rapidly filled. The cost of bridges over these steep sided ravines, which are con- fined almost entirely to the old lake plain south of Kingsbury's run, is an expen- sive item to the tax payer, and they have hindered the development of these parts of the city.

On the smooth sandy delta and lake plain with its ridges, excepting the gully regions of Big creek and Newburgh, there is every natural advantage offered for the development and growth of a modern city. The sandy soil offers a splendid natural drainage and the establishment of sewer, conduits, gas-mains and water. pipes is easy and inexpensive. In places where the sand is underlaid by heavy deposits of clay, and the sand has had an opportunity to become water soaked, the resulting quicksand is a serious hindrance to building operations of all kinds. In foundation construction the quicksand is often so troublesome that a solid sheath of steel piles is built about the property and with the water shut out a se- cure foundation is more easily obtained. The building of sky scrapers on this delta soil was believed impossible by engineers, and after several years of careful observation on some of the larger buildings, no indications of serious settling have been found. The smooth character of this plain has been of the greatest ad- vantage to the general traffic of the city and facilitated the establishment and building of streets which converged at the Public Square. The difference in ele- vation between Euclid and Superior avenues is due to an old beach ridge, and does not seriously interfere with trade and traffic in the retail district.

THE RIVER FLATS.

The floodplains or the flats along the Cuyahoga river are the only lowlands in the city. They have an elevation of from ten to fifteen feet above the level of Lake Erie. These flats are the bottom lands in the narrow and steep sided Cuya- hoga valley, which was formed by the rapid cutting of the loose delta material by the river. The unusual erosive action of the river was due to the lake level falling allowing the stream a steep slope upon which to erode the unconsolidated material of the lake plain. When the bed of the river was lowered to the lake level, the stream could no longer erode vertically, and then it began to meander or wind from side to side back and forth across the valley, forming the great loops in the river in which the cutting is on the outer curve of the bends. This is the present condition of that part of this river which lies within the city limits. The material carried by the river is deposited along the inner bank of these great bends and forms the river plain, which is the richest land of this region, and was the first cultivated by the early settlers. The Cuyahoga flats lie eighty feet below the general level of the old delta, and within the city limits they may be divided into two dis- tinct parts. The narrow section extending from the old canal to the lake, which is the region of great bends and the broad part to the south, which promises to be

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

a great industrial district when the river has been widened and deepened. The lowlands about the mouth of the river was the first land to offer a cabin site for the early explorers and traders. It was here that material was loaded onto the batteaux for coast trade to Sandusky and Detroit. The cabin of Lorenzo Carter, the first ferryman of the Cuyahoga, was located on the flats a short distance north of the present Superior street viaduct, which made it a trading center and the inn for all comers. The upper flats were easily cleared of the scanty timber and the wheat and corn were first grown here for the bread and corn whiskey that were of such importance in the early life and trade of these settlers.

The low, swampy character of the lower flats, especially about a long deep stagnant pond which was the old course of the river near its mouth, was re- sponsible for much fever and ague in the families that settled about the Carter cabin. This unhealthfulness of the flats caused a number of the early arrivals to migrate to the high lands at Newburgh. The flats were first of importance in the development of the city when the Cuyahoga with its portage at Akron became a connecting link in the trade between Pittsburg and the post at Detroit. This trade led to the establishment, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, of docks and warehouses by the various commercial establishments. The easy approach to the city from the south along the flats of this river, was especially favorable to canal construc- tion. This gave Cleveland a great commercial advantage over its neighboring towns. on the south shore of Lake Erie. The activity occasioned by the canal increased the lake shipping, the value of the ample room on the flats for dockage and abundant warehouse space, first became evident. Following closely the expansion of the lake commerce, the various manufacturing interests had their growth, and again the value of the flats along the river was an important factor, for they offered convenient manufacturing sites combined with excellent shipping facilities. The marvelous growth of many of the great industries of the cities is closely related to the advantages afforded by this flat river land which caused such distress to many of the early families. The same advantages that brought the canal and increased the lake shipping were also very important in making this region a rail- road termini. The rail interests found the broad expanse of the flats of much advantage in the handling and the storage of freight, and today this region is oc- cupied by lines of traffic, storage yards and warehouses which make it the center of the shipping interests of the city. The lake shipping activities are confined largely to the northern section of the flats, constituting the great freight depot of Cleveland. The manufacturing interests are slowly creeping to the south, ex- panding into many of the numerous creek valleys and eventually as the growth of the city continues, the broad extension of the flats to the south will be entirely occupied by the great industrial concerns which are making this part, the work- shop of Cleveland.

THE CUYAHOGA RIVER.

The Cuyahoga river and its valley gave Cleveland important advantages as a town site in those days of the growth of towns into cities on the shore of Lake Erie. Many of the early settlers foresaw the advantages of a town site at the mouth of the Cuyahoga and chief among the early visitors and explorers to this

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

region was Rev. John Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary, and excellent geogra- pher. His map and a brief description of the Cuyahoga valley made in 1796, is one of the rich treasures of the Western Reserve Historical Society. It is be- lieved that his descriptions had an influential part in bringing Moses Cleaveland to this region, for this map and its accompanying manuscript was prepared some eighteen years before the Cleaveland party landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga.

The accompanying notes are taken from the Heckewelder manuscript and they are remarkable as the first of a host to extol the rare combination of advantages found in this site:

"Cujahaga certainly stands foremost and that for the following reasons :

I. "Because it admits small slopes into its mouth from the lake and affords them a good harbor.

2. "Because it is navigable at all times with canoes to the falls, a distance up- wards of sixty miles by water, and with boats in some seasons of the year to that place and may, without any great expense be made navigable for boats that dis- tance at all times.

3. "Because there is the best prospect of water communication from Lake Erie into Ohio by way of Cujahaga and Muskingum river :- a carrying place being the shortest of all carrying places which interlock with each other and at most not above four miles.

4. "Because of the fishery which may be erected at its mouth, a place to which the white fish of the lake resort in the spring in order to spawn.

5. "Because there is a great deal of land of first quality on this river.

6. "Because not only the river itself has a clear and lively current, but all waters and springs emptying into the same prove by their clearness and current that it must be a healthy country in general.

7. "Because one principal land road, not only from the Allegheny river and French creek, but also Pittsburgh, will pass through that country to Detroit, it being by far the most level land path to that place." Mr. Heckewelder draws the conclusion that "Cujahaga will be a place of great importance."

The importance of the Cuyahoga as a highway was evidently greatly appre- ciated by those mysterious builders of mounds, as scattered along the entire course of this stream are mounds, fortifications, caches and signal stations. Colonel Charles Whittlesley investigated very thoroughly these mound formations. In the deep valley of the Cuyahoga, along its high banks and on the sharp spurs which extend into the valley bottom are many ideal places for earthworks. The majority of these are on those spurs or necks near the high bluffs which command a good view of the river. The faint outline of one of these forts can still be dis- tinguished on the top of a spur south of the entrance of Tinker creek into the river, and another fort is on the east side of the river south of Chaffee. That the red

man appreciated the valley of the Cuyahoga as a connecting link between the rivers of the center of the state and Lake Erie is shown by the well traveled trail, "The Portage," at Akron, which was long used as a road and can be traced at the present time. The lower part of the river valley between Akron and Cleveland was a great rendezvous for Indians and it is reputed that the famous Indian chief- tain Blackhawk was born in this region.

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

In the days when this western country was taking form, it was Benjamin Franklin who first recommended the occupation of the land at the mouth of the river as a military post, later Washington pointed out that the Cuyahoga was a vital link in the country between the Ohio and Lake Erie, and that this stream would become an important factor in the development of the domestic commerce of the future.

The striking feature of this river is not its length nor its volume, but its very irregular course. The Indian term for crooked, or "Cayhaga" was applied to it, from which the modern name Cuyahoga is derived. The river has the form of a great bow, the middle of which is at Akron, one end at Cleveland, and the other due east from the city about thirty miles on the highlands west of Montville, in northeast Geauga county, where the head waters of the stream have an elevation of over seven hundred feet above Lake Erie. This irregular shape of the stream so entirely different from that of a regular river, was a source of frequent error on the part of the early surveyors, whose maps often show it ending near Akron, and it was some time after the early exploration before the true course of the river was known.

The present source of the Cuyahoga in Geauga county is in the bedrock of the Carboniferous conglomerate which consists of snow white pebbles of quartz, firmly cemented together. It is a rather porous rock, but does not weather rapidly, and forms many of the hilltops and ledges in northern Ohio. The Thompson, Nelson and Boston ledges, as well as the rock above the soft shales in the gorge of the river at Cuyahoga Falls, are composed of this conglomerate. The Cuyahoga val- ley in the upper part of its course is marshy and shallow, especially in the vicinity of Burton. Here its features are so entirely different from those found in its middle course that it is difficult to recognize it as part of the same stream. The upper course of the Cuyahoga has been determined by glacial deposits which caused the stream to flow south and near Akron it was forced westward into a deep preglacial valley. In getting into this old valley the river descends about two hundred feet in three miles, and has cut a deep, narrow gorge of over three miles in length at Cuyahoga Falls.

At several places in this narrow gorge the walls are quite near together, while the softer rock beneath the top ledges has been worn away forming various fantastic caverns ; the largest of these has been called "The Old Maid's Kitchen." The water at the falls is controlled by a series of small dams to supply water- power and Hildreth, who journeyed in this region in 1837, made the generous prophecy that it was destined to be the Lowell of the West. The descriptions of the falls by the earliest explorers are of chief value in showing the contrast between the present volume of the controlled stream and the former torrent of rushing water which formed the narrow and steep sided gorge. It is now much visited for its beauty in the falls below the village where the stream forms a small but splendid cascade, the high bold ledges and the picturesque arrange- ment of mills along the stream.

It is between the falls and Akron, that the river makes the great bend and turns to the north. The preglacial valley in which it flows to the north is deep, narrow and partly filled with silt and glacial gravel, so that the present river is not cutting on the old stream bed, but is removing the former deposited material which

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

partly fills it. The extent and the depth of this old preglacial valley has been quite accurately determined from the many wells that have been drilled for gas, water and oil. At Akron, glacial material fills the bottom of this valley to the depth of over three hundred feet, and it was partly this material that diverted the river to the north. In various places between the falls and Cleveland, the sides of this preglacial valley come quite near together and often form falls or rapids. At Boston, the valley is not more than half a mile wide and its sides are one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet above the river, which in places is cutting at the gravel and silt which are here from two hundred to three hundred feet deep. The branches of the river are small, swift and cutting deep ravines in the soft sandstone and shales in the valley sides. There is a surprisingly large number of these runs between Boston and Independence. In many of these small creek valleys it is possible to obtain a complete section of the rock of this region.

Many of these small branches illustrate the general effects of glaciation in their changed course, filled valleys, waterfalls and boulder strewn beds. The Brandywine creek is divided sharply into two different sections. That part from Little York to the old mill at Brandywine is adjusting itself to a new course determined by glacial deposits and at the old mill it forms a waterfall where it drops sixty feet into its old preglacial channel. The gorge which has been formed is deep, narrow and steep sided. The old mill is a relic of the pioneer days when grist mills were few on the Western Reserve. Its iron work is very . crude and its oak frame is as firm as when its timbers were hand hewn and pinned together by George Wallace over three generations ago. At the falls of the Brandywine, the lower gray rock is the Erie shale or the Chagrin beds which form the extensive outcrops on the shore of Lake Erie. Above it is a small layer of the black bituminous Cleveland shale and still higher, is the red Bedford shale. On top of the shale and forming the projecting ledges is the hard Berea sandstone, upon which the old mill still stands to receive the water upon its seventeen foot wheel.

From the highlands just north of Chaffee, there are splendid views of the river valley to the south. Here it is less than half a mile in width. The steep- ness of the valley side forces the highway, the canal and the railroad very close to the edge of the river. The appearance of the Cuyahoga valley in preglacial time was quite remarkable, in that it was so deep and narrow. At Boston the old river bed was at least two hundred feet below the present one, while at Wil- low there is a difference of over two hundred and fifty feet between the river now and in the past. One mile east of Tinker's creek station, on the Valley Railroad, it is over four hundred feet to rock. In Cleveland the drill- ing of many wells has enabled the tracing of this old valley throughout its course in the city. It passes through Newburgh where the old river bed is four hundred and seventy feet below the present level of Lake Erie to near the corner of Bratenahl and Girard avenues, where it is five hundred and twenty feet or more below the lake level. The general belief is that the preglacial stream drained a large part of the country south of Cleveland into a larger stream which occu- pied the present bed of Lake Erie. The accompanying cross-section gives an idea of this old valley in Cleveland.

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

Before the glacial lakes that preceded Lake Erie subsided, the valley of the Cuyahoga was an arm of these lakes which extended at least as far south as Boston. The larger branches flowing into this arm built deltas and carried silt into the valley. These old deltas appear very distinctly at Boston, at Brecksville, and opposite the mouth of Tinker's creek. Professor Frank Carney of Dennison University, considers that these deltas are probably old moraines, the surface of which has been partly worked over by these streams. These old deltas push the present stream to the opposite side of the valley and, furthermore, the am- phitheater like areas in the valley are not due to the meandering character of the stream. The occurrence of these areas just north of the old deltas is ex- plained by an icelobe occupying this position in the valley and preventing its filling with glacial material and as the ice block melted, left the present expanded area. The origin of the large expansion of the river valley known as the "up- per flats," may be due to its occupation by a stagnant icelobe which melted more slowly than the surrounding ice. The lower part of the flat nearest the lake has been formed by the river action as it swings against the valley sides in its broad bends. In this part of the valley, the flats on which the river flows are about fifteen times the stream's width, and it is the only section of the Cuyahoga's course in which the stream has not been wholly or partly influenced by glacia- tion.

The river has always carried much sand and silt into the lake which obstructs its mouth and forms an obstacle to navigation. There is ample evidence histori- cally and geographically, that the mouth of the river has changed very materially as the lake currents have cut away the soft material of the bluffs. The eastern bluff was extended at least a quarter of a mile west of the present channel to the lake. The Western Reserve Historical Society has carefully preserved a model entitled "A Plan of the Cuyahoga River," constructed by Dr. Sterling in 1879, which depicts very distinctly the old course of the river, the cutoff end of the bluff and the great bends in the lower course of the Cuyahoga. The early account in 1876, by Colonel James Hillman, refers to a "sunfish" pond which was west of the river's mouth and was part of the old river bed. At that time the outlet of the river was so choked with sand that an opening was made with shovels for the passage of small boats. The diagrams and maps of Colonel Charles Whittlesley show the outlier of the eastern bluff in about the present location of Whiskey Island. In a very crude sketch entitled "Cleveland Under the Hill," made by Allan Gaylord in 1800, the cutoff and isolated end of the bluff stands out very distinctly as also does a part of the old end of the river to the west, which is now occupied by the ore docks and shipyards. 'According to Mr. I. A. Morgan, in 1811 it was quite common to find the river "sometimes completely barred across with sand, so that men having on low shoes have walked across without wetting their feet," and "the outlet was some one hun- dred and twenty yards west from where it is now (1881)."

The great swinging bends of the river were a considerable advantage to Cleve- land's development for ample docks, storage yards and factories could be lo- cated directly on the river's bank. Today as the flats are becoming crowded, many hindrances to navigation and rapid transportation have arisen. The great bends do not allow the easy manipulation of the six hundred foot freighters and

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

have caused a decrease in the ore receipts in this port from fifty per cent. of all Lake Erie ports in the '6os to ten per cent. today. The twenty-two bridges crossing the winding course, are of vast expense to the city and more than half of them actually obstruct navigation. It frequently takes larger boats almost as long in this winding journey to the upper ore docks, as it does for them to un- load a great cargo of ore. If "Collision Bend" at West Third street were cut off by a channel from Columbus road to the Central viaduct, it would save more than four hours of time.

CHAPTER III.

THE CLIMATE. By Professor W. M. Gregory, Cleveland Normal School.

The location of northern Ohio, in the north temperate zone within the interior of a vast continent and south of one of the great lakes, gives a complex character to its climate. The state being in the belt of the prevailing westerlies and midcon- tinent in its location, the "whirling storms" consisting of a great circling mass of air, called "high" and "low" areas, are well developed, and as northern Ohio is in the average path of their eastward movement across the country, its weather is a continuous repetition of the atmospheric changes that accompany them.

The "high" and "low" areas, socalled from the barometric pressure at their re- spective centers, each bring characteristic weather conditions to those regions over which they pass. The "low" is an ascending current of air of relative high temperature, and "low" pressure accompanied by some rainfall; in the eastern half the winds are from the south and in the western half from the north, and the sky is usually cloudy. The "high" is a descending air current with a relatively low temperature, high pressure, clear sky, no rain and cold winds. These areas. so frequently disturb the regular atmospheric conditions by producing storms, and they influence to such an extent transportation and the general activities of the people, that the United States government expends a large sum each year to watch their eastward course across the country and issue daily weather maps, warnings, and special forecasts of the weather. The various weather changes which these areas bring to Cleveland, are characteristic of the temperate zone over the land and are of distinct types for each of the seasons. The weather changes are the most rapid and pronounced during the winter.

Northern Ohio, lying just south of Lake Erie, has a temperature mitigated in the extremes of cold and warm by this great body of water which extends east- ward from Toledo to Buffalo. The water absorbs the heat slower than the land and the surface air in the summer is warmer a short distance inland than on the lake shore. In the winter the lake retains the heat and does not allow the temper- ature along the lake shore to fall rapidly. This influence of the lake upon the temperature, is clearly shown by comparing the range of temperature at Cleveland, with that of an inland city of the state or making a similar comparison with the

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 3

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