USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 53
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1 Address of Hon. R. F. Paine, "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 4, pp. 16-26.
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in Cleveland. We staid there over night and next day walked to Rodolphus Edwards', staid there that night and the next day walked to grandfather's.
"Father was taken sick with ague the next day after we arrived, so our house was built slowly and with the greatest difficulty mother hewed with an adz the split ends of the floor boards and put them down with the little help father could give her. We moved in the last of November without door or window, using blankets for night protection. At that time two of the children were sick with ague. Father worked when the chills and fever left him for the day putting poles together in the form of bedsteads and a table upon which we could put the little we could get to eat, and benches to sit upon; there was no cabinet shop at that time where such articles could be purchased.
"The only flour we could get had become musty in shipping and was so dis- gusting to the taste that no one could eat it unless compelled by extreme hunger. I was then eight years old and not sick so I had to satisfy myself with it and give the others more of a chance at the scanty corn meal rations. The bread made from this flour was hard as well as loathsome. I could only eat it by mak- ing it into pellets and swallowing it whole. * *
* Toward the last of Feb- ruary father and one of his brothers started for Aurora, Portage county, with an ox team, taking an ax, gun, and means for camping out. In due time they arrived, paid ten shillings a bushel for corn and two dollars and a quarter for wheat, bought an iron kettle for making sugar and turned their faces home- ward. A glorious surprise awaited them in the woods in the form of a bee tree from which they obtained nearly a hundred pounds of honey. * Father bought a cow, paid for her in part and gave his note for the rest and before the time came to pay again, the cow died, having been in use by the family only three months. When spring opened father made sugar, with the help of mother and the children. In May, mother and three children were taken sick with ague. Every few days father would have a relapse, but he managed to get in some corn, and in the autumn some wheat. Wild meat could be had in abundance. *
"I remember the bears killed a nice shoat in harvest time. We were then in need of meat : beef was an article never spoken of. A man at Doane's Corners had a barrel of pork to sell, valued at twenty-five dollars. Our neighbors were also in need of pork and agreed to take a part if father would go and buy it; he did so. When the barrel was opened, they were surprised and dismayed to find only three heads and the ribs and shanks of three shoats. * In the winter of 1814 father's sister started to return home from Rodolphus Edwards' where she had been spinning, a distance of two miles through the woods, lost her way in a snow-path and was out all night and the next day until evening, when she was found. Her feet were badly frozen and she was so thoroughly chilled that a long illness ensued.
"I remember the wolves coming into enclosures for four winters, but the sheepfold was built so high they could not get over it; they only annoyed us with their hideous noise. Rattlesnakes were common, and surprised us often, but only one ever came within six feet of the house.2
2 Reminiscences of Malinda Russell, "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 4, p. 65.
TIBBITTS Clev
From an old cut ENTRANCE TO NORTHERN OHIO FAIR AND CLEVELAND DRIVING CLUB GROUNDS AS FIRST ERECTED, 1870
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This experience is told in a letter dated August 25, 1887, to Harvey Rice by Horace Taylor, of Ravenna: "We were four days from Warren to Aurora, a distance of less than thirty miles, when our journey of forty-five days terminated June 22, 1807.
"When we built our first log cabin the nearest neighbor on the north was thirty miles away, on the west sixty miles, on the east about eight miles, and on the south of Aurora about ten or eleven miles.
"At that time northern Ohio was a vast wilderness with but few inhabitants except the Indians, who outnumbered the whites two or three to one; but the forests were filled with deer, bear, wolves, elk, raccoon, wild cats, turkeys and various other kinds of wild animals, including a good supply of serpents of several varieties. During the nighttime we had serenades from the hooting of owls, the growling of bears, or the more enlivening howl of the wolf. The In- dians were generally peaceable and kind and supplied us with honey, sugar, veni- son, turkeys and various other necessary articles, which we could not obtain from any other source; but when the Indians had visited some trading post and had procured a supply of bad whiskey, they were noisy and gave us a sample of the Indian yell and war whoop. *
* My father died of camp fever when I was about thirteen years old, leaving my good old mother with a large family of nearly helpless boys and girls to feed, clothe and educate as best she could, with only a few acres of poorly improved land filled with stumps and roots and surrounded with a dense forest.
"In the spring of 1813 she hired me to a neighbor for the sugaring season of five or six weeks and was to receive for my services my weight in sugar at the end of the term. At the close of my service my weight was just seventy pounds and the sugar was delivered and sold for nine dollars and fifty cents and the proceeds applied to the support of the family." 3
Still another account given by George Watkins to the early settlers in 1886 tells us: "It is just sixty-eight years ago when I took my first look at Cleveland from the back of a covered wagon drawn by oxen. It was natural that the tide of . emigration from Connecticut should flow to the Western Reserve. My father's family in company with five others were caught in the flow and emigrated in the summer of 1818. It was my father's original intention to go to Illinois, but we stopped to visit the Strong families in Cleveland for a few days and were soon induced to remain. So our loaded ox team, weary with five weeks' journey through the woods, was halted in front of a log cabin on Euclid avenue, which was destined to become the home of the family for one year. This house had neither doors nor windows nor were they added during our year of occu- pancy. *
"My father made the first pair of pegged shoes made in Cuyahoga county. He made the pegs too and killed the animal that furnished the hide. In those early days one of the first things to be thought about as soon as a clearing had been made, was to sow a small piece in flax so that there should be some pros- pect for the tow cloth for summer wear. This flax was pulled in June and spread upon the ground to rot, and wet twice each day until it was ready to be broken. It was then swingled, hatcheled and spun, and woven into cloth. The spinning
8 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 8, p. 143.
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and weaving are an important part of the household industries. My mother and sisters carded by hand, spun the yarn and wove the cloth for our clothes. The tow cloth or flax was made into summer wear. One long frock was the only garment worn when at work in the fields in the summer. This was called a smock frock. It was for service, but not very dudish. When the women of the household could not manage all the spinning, a woman was hired at seventy- five cents per week. There was nobody idle, even the child of tender years must do something to accustom him to habits of industry and to inculcate virtue by teaching him thus early that there was work for all to do faithfully and cheer- fully. The only other article needed by the farmer except shoes was a straw hat. Mrs. Danhaus braided all the straw hats and bonnets, which we had for a long time out of rye straw. Somebody attempted to make hats of buckeye shorings. These went by the name of 'buckeye hats.'" 4
Amid these severe rigors every gathering of people was a social event to be enjoyed to the utmost. Election day, raising bees, even religious services were social occasions. A jug of whiskey or peach brandy was the token of generous hospitality. In Cleveland the one-room tavern of Lorenzo Carter was the center of early social pleasures. Here on the 14th of July, 1797, the first wedding in Cleveland took place. Carter's "hired girl" was married to a Mr. Clement of Canada. The Rev. Seth Hart, then general agent of the Connecticut Land Com- pany, performed the ceremony. The bride wore "domestic" colored cotton and the bridegroom homespun sheep's gray.
In this cabin also took place the first public dance in Cleveland. This occurred July 4, 1801. "The entire party when assembled consisted of fifteen or sixteen couples. They occupied the front room or parlor of the cabin which was not carpeted but had a substantial puncheon floor. The violinist, Mr. Jones, pro- ceeded at once to harmonize the strings of his instrument, and then struck up 'Hie Bettie Martin,' the favorite dancing tune of that day. The dance commenced with unrestrained enthusiasm, and with orders to cast off right and left. * The refreshments which had been provided with a liberal hand, consisted of plum cake and a cordial of raw whiskey sweetened with maple sugar. The dance continued until 'broad daylight' when the boys went home with the girls in the morning."*
The method of courtship in those days was graphically described by J. D. Tay- lor at a meeting of the pioneers held at Rockport. "I am reminded of the 'good old times' and of experiences to which none of the speakers have alluded: I mean pioneer courtships. Topics of this kind are always interesting, especially to the ladies. Courting, or sparking, in those early days was not a flirtation but an affair of the heart and conducted in a natural way. The boys and girls who were predisposed to matrimony used to sit up together Sunday nights dressed in their Sunday clothes. They occupied usually a corner of the only family room of the cabin, while the beds of the old folks occupied the opposite corner, with blankets suspended around it for curtains. During the earlier part of the even-
4 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 7, pp. 14-20.
* Harvey Rice, "Pioneers of the Western Reserve," p. 66.
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ing the old and young folks engaged in common chitchat. About 8 o'clock the younger children climbed the ladder to the corner and went to bed in their bunks under the garret roof, and in about an hour later father and mother re- tired behind the blanket-curtains, leaving the 'sparkers' sitting at a respectful distance apart before a capacious wood fire-place, looking thoughtfully into the cheerful flame or perhaps into the future. The sparkers, however, soon broke the silence by stirring up the fire with a wooden shovel or poker, and soon a smack would be heard by the older people behind the curtains. If chilly the sparkers would sit closer together to keep warm. All this accords in a large degree with my own experience." 5
The early social life of the village was not unlike that of the country folks in the neighborhood of the town. One of the early socials is thus described. "When I was at Governor Huntington's there was a social party at his house, so far as I can recollect all females except myself. There were several married ladies. I recollect particularly but two, Mrs. Walworth and Mrs. Huntington. We had all, or nearly all, the young ladies in the place. *
* Those present were she that is now Mrs. Long, Mrs. Matthews, of Painesville and a daughter of Mr. Carter, afterward Mrs. Miles and subsequently Mrs. Strong." 6
As more pretentious houses were built in the village the social aspect of the community took on a more formal nature. The first carriage brought to town was the one horse chaise in which Alfred Kelley brought his bride in 1817 to his new brick house, the second one built in town, on Water street. James S. Clark "imported a grand and elegant carriage to our city and had it propelled about our streets by a span of lively mules, it became an epoch in our history worth re- cording, for we were not familiar with such turnouts. It was a master stroke of republican independence to send out the ladies in his household in an elegant landaulet drawn by a pair of mules driven by a man as black as Erebus. We had to stand and look as the establishment passed us in the muddy streets. To say that we had no cultivated style in those days would not be true. About all of us had studied up what was elegant and how bad we wanted such just as much as any other young and thriving city. "There were men who sent their measures for coats to New York, while they would consent to let Shelly make their pants and vests. So it was in other things-a growing disposition to outdo someone else." 7
The first piano was brought to Cleveland in 1832 by a Mr. Bennet, who at that time was the only brewer in the town.
Cleveland's first fancy dress ball was held February 1, 1854, in Ballou's hall. Music was furnished by Leland's noted band. The "Herald" gives an account of the ball, describing the various costumes and naively reciting the names of the ladies and gentlemen who wore them. Among them: "A Swiss Girl," "God- dess of Night," "A Quakeress," "A Village Peasant," "Grecian Lady." "Turkish Lady," "Spanish Lady" and "Highland Lady," all of whom took great delight in waltzing with "Rob Roy," "A Yankee," "The Red Knight," "Henry the VIII," and many other celebrities who were present.
5 Harvey Rice "Early Pioneers," p. 72.
6 Statement of Thomas Webb, "Early History of Cleveland," p. 415.
7 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. I, p. 112.
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Nor should the church sociables be forgotten in the annals of the early social events, nor the singing schools of the village. The modern pretentious social castes were entirely unknown. Our fathers sharing common dangers, shared also their possessions in common and found in their primitive surroundings a genuine social enjoyment that is wanting in the days of artificial classification.
An early function of importance was the ball, held in the Mansion house to celebrate the completion of the Ohio canal. One who was present speaks of it as follows : "I attended with my parents and sat awhile in the lap of Governor Allen Trimble, who had honored the occasion by his presence. It took all the men, women and children in the village to make a set for the contra dances and the quadrilles. A violin player by the name of Hendershot, who lived in Euclid, was the musician for many years."
John D. Taylor in 1890 before the Early Settlers speaks of the dance : "Danc- ing among the younger members of the pioneer families was their most cherished recreation though they had no better place for a ball than a log cabin with a puncheon floor. * The young man went with his girl on foot if the distance was not over a mile or two; otherwise he went on horseback and took her behind him on the horse. In the summer the ball commenced at 4:00 o'clock p. m. and continued till the 'wee sma' hours ayont th' twa'l' with a recess for supper. At one time when a ball was at my father's cabin and the fiddler failed to come, and the youngsters knowing that I could sing all the dancing tunes, set me in the fiddler's place to sing for them to dance. I sang till my tongue was near being paralyzed." Other social family gatherings were given in the winter "when several families with their ox sleds would start out for an evening's visit to a neighboring log cabin. The women, of course, took their knitting work, as no woman among the pioneers was ever idle. As soon as the visitors were seated around the blazing fire, the women commenced knitting and chatting, the sterner sex putting in a word when there was a lull in the conversation."
Abraham Teachout gives an interesting account of how the merry couples were taken to these dances. "When I came to Ohio in 1836 it was no uncommon thing to see two strong, red cheeked ladies on one horse with a basket of eggs and a pail of butter riding along happy and contented to their town store to do their shopping. * But you say, how about going to socials and parties among the young people? Of that I had some personal experience myself. If it was to be a mile or more away, we invited our gir! and told her we would be there at the proper time with our best horse to take her to the place. She would be in waiting, dressed in her best and smiling. The horse was trained to place itself up to the horse block. She would give a spring, as few ladies can do now, and throw her strong arm around her friend in a way to make him feel that she was a friend indeed. Talk about your fine carriages or automobiles to take your sweetheart to parties! There was no comparison to the real solid pleas- ures of the days of long ago." 8
The celebration of the 4th of July afforded annual opportunity for social enjoyment. It was celebrated with vim and patriotic ardor. The "Herald," of July 15, 1825, reports a celebration at Doan's Corners. Ahimaz Sherwin was president of the day ; Seth C. Baldwin, vice president ; Humphrey Nichols, Dr.
8 "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 4, p. 609.
Original in Western Reserve Historical Society
Bed warming pan and tin lantern
Original in Western Reserve Historical Society A "Dutch oven"
Original in Western Reserve Historical Society A foot warmer
Original in Western Reserve Historical Society
A frying pan-handle four feet long
2
3
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6
8
10
Originals in Western Reserve Historical Society
Group of old-time utensils-1, shaving horse and drawing knife; 2, sugar trough ; 3. pack saddle : 4, flail ; 5, lard lamp ; 6, candle moulds ; 7. tallow candle and stick ; S, snuffers ; 9, flax hatchel ; 10, hand woof cards ; 11, splint broom.
PIONEER IMPLEMENTS
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Ezra Graves and N. C. Cozad the committee on arrangements, and Ahimaz Sherwin, Jr., marshal of the day. "An elegant and spacious bowery having been erected near the big spring, the ladies of the place and vicinity assembling at an early hour, prepared a most superb dinner, consisting of all the varieties the country affords. Indeed families vied with each other which should furnish most bountifully and of best quality. The dinner was served up in elegant style about I o'clock p. m. It was pleasant to see the harmony that prevailed. The first table was sufficiently spacious to accommodate all the married ladies and gentlemen, amounting to about ninety, after which all were served at other tables, as it was the determination that none should go away hungry, rich or poor. The Declaration of Independence was read by the vice president. The president fol- lowed with a very appropriate and handsome discourse."
These exercises were followed by thirteen "regular toasts" and eleven "vol- unteer toasts," beginning with : "The Day-sacred to liberty and beloved by free- men, the nation's jubilee. Let its principles pervade the world;" and ending with, "The American Fair-may their sons be as brave as a Washington or a Jackson and their daughters as virtuous as a Porcia or a Lucretia."
July 4, 1818, in Cleveland there was a parade, the Declaration was read and an oration delivered from a bower in the Square, and the "Herald" announced that, "Immediately after the exercises are over at the courthouse the gentlemen will again form in order and march to the hotel, where dinner will be served up and toasts drank, accompanied with the discharging of artillery."
"Of all the days in the year, the Fourth of July, or Independence day, as it was then called, was the one most longed for and the longest remembered. It was the grand holiday of holidays. It was planned for months ahead. The hoeing was done and the haying never touched until this memorable day had passed. To these early settlers it was truly the 'glorious Fourth.' Many of the pioneers had taken part in the struggle for independence. It was nearer to them in point of years than our great Civil war is to us today. When this day was to be ushered in, long before the dawn appeared, in East Cleveland, Kilberry's old blacksmith's anvil had been fired off by the boys to wake up the people, and every one was astir earlier than usual. Several days before, a president of the day and a committee for various things had been appointed. That everything might be ready, this committee met the previous day and constructed a bowery in the orchard of Job Doan's tavern, the liberty pole was also brought from
the woods and set up. * * This orchard of Job Doan's was used for the Fourth of July celebration for a good many years. It was directly back of the present East End postoffice. The bowery was made in the following fash- ion : Crotched sticks were stuck into the ground at regular intervals over a space one hundred feet or so in length and wide enough to enclose a table with seats upon either side. The table and seats were made of rough boards and the top of the bowery was covered with fragrant hemlock boughs upon the eventful morning. The first thing was to raise the flag, and then the jollification began. * * Baskets were brought and tables were spread with all the dainties the land could afford. The greatest ornaments of the table, however, were the three roast pigs, each with a corncob in his mouth. One was placed in the centre of the table and the others at the ends. The rest of the long board was filled in
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with rye and corn bread and a bountiful supply of all the vegetables that we cultivated. The drinks were rye coffee, tea, egg-nog, toddy and whiskey straight. Everybody got mellow; it was one of the privileges of the day. After dinner the women folks stored the slight remnants of food in the Indian baskets and the speechmaking began. Every speech was impromptu, but I remember such ones as stirred our souls with enthusiasm.
"A few years later came the dance, which lasted from noon until daylight- eighteen continuous hours to trip the 'light and fantastic 'toe.' " 9
Hunting was the favorite sport of the frontiersmen. Great hunts were or- ganized by various townships or counties. "The whole region of northern Ohio was overrun with game of all sorts at the time of the first settlement, among which were bears, wolves, panthers, deer and turkeys; the bears killing the pioneers' pigs and the wolves their sheep, if they had any; and the panthers were a source of great terror to the women lest they might carry off their chil- dren if they wandered too far away from the house. It used to be said that the scream of a panther was like the scream of a woman when in distress. To hear the wolves howl in the night was common in the west part of the county until about 1820. * Though the wild animals were a fear and annoy- ance to the first settlers, yet there was much sport and no small profit in hunting the game. A wild turkey was as delicate and tender as a domestic one and much larger. I have seen wild turkeys that weighed twenty-five pounds after being dressed. Deer and turkeys used to get very fat from eating acorns, chestnuts and beechnuts ; hogs got fat on the mast in the fall of the year. The pioneers used to salt venison in the fall and dry the hams, which were far better than dried beef. Raccoon hunting was rare sport. The coons would commence their raid on the corn in the night time as soon as the corn was large enough for roasting ears. A good coon dog was all important in catching coons in the corn- field. A party starting out in the night, on arriving at the cornfield, if the dog understood his business, he would make a circuit around the outside of the field and when by his scent he struck a coon track the hunter would hear from him. In 1820 a deer hunt was organized in the western part of Cuyahoga county and part of what is now Lorain county. The program was to surround the territory from the mouth of Rocky river to the mouth of Black river, a dis- tance of about twenty miles, with a circle; the distance from the center of the circuit to the lake shore being about six miles. The hunters from far and near, numbering about one hundred, were early in the morning of the day and hour agreed, at their post in the circle, each with his dinner horn suspended by a string around his neck. Joseph Dean, of Rockport, being captain, blew his horn at the eastern terminus of the circle, then the next, and so on till the sound reached the last hunter at the mouth of Black river, when they all com- menced their march toward the center of the circle toward the lake shore. As the hunters advanced, they came nearer each other as a matter of course
and soon the crack of their rifles was a continuous roar. Many deer were killed, with turkeys and a few bears. They then commenced gathering their game pre- paratory to skinning it. At the place where they gathered resided a man by the name of Gant, who kept a sort of hotel and had whiskey to sell by the drink,
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