USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 54
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9 George Watkins, "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 7, p. 15.
Original in Western Reserve Historical Society Big spinning wheel used for wool
Centennial log cabin erected in Public Square in 1896. A replica of an actual settler's cabin.
Original in Western Reserve Historical Society Small spinning wheel used for flax
Fireplace in pioneer's cabin
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4
quart or gallon. Whiskey was cheap then, only twenty cents a gallon. Everybody drank it. * * * After the hunters had finished dressing their game, they were hungry and every man had taken with him a knapsack well stored with provisions, but they wanted roasted venison and Gant had salt wherewith to season it. Many large fires were built, over which they roasted their venison. Gant's bar was liberally patronized. Hilarity prevailed. He offered a gallon of whiskey for two venison hams. The hams commenced going over the counter into a room behind the bar, which room had a back door. As the hunters became more and more hilarious, some one would go to this room and get the hams and present them again over Gant's counter for more whiskey."10
"Logging bees," for burning logs and brushwood, and "raising bees," for the raising of the more pretentious houses and barns, the immediate successors of the primitive log structures, also were the occasion for social enjoyments. Mr. George Watkins describes a "logging bee": "The day for the bee had been appointed some days ahead so that the men could arrange their work beforehand. * The men were assembled. They were divided into two parties and each party had a yoke of oxen. One man drove, one carried the log chain and four or five rolled the logs together. The piles were about ten feet high and about the same in width and from twelve to sixteen feet long. In one day from forty to fifty log heaps were made. Some of these logs had been chopped, others 'niggered.' This process of niggering helped matters. One log was rolled across another and set on fire where they crossed. This would burn at night and in its way help along. Of course this had been done before the logging bee. There was nothing for the neighbors to do but draw the logs together and pile them up. There was little market for wood, but such trees as were thought to be suitable had been drawn away and cut and split into firewood by the boys. When the men had finished, the fun began. About sun- set the boys and girls set fire to the heaps. It was the dry season and the flames leaped and darted over the dry wood and an immense conflagration was soon well under way. As soon as the coals appeared, the nearest corn field was raided for roasting ears. No other corn was half so sweet as that common field corn roasted by those blazing wood fires. The next move was to find a watermelon patch. * After the work was done, the old folks repaired to the house where the women folks had already assembled, and ate nut cakes, corn bread and potatoes, and drank tea, eggnogg and whiskey. When the men had drank enough to unloose their tongues they talked about the hardships of men who came to a new country as pioneers before they could get ready to live. Of the future outcome of their labor, they entertained no doubt. These talks were never in a complaining spirit but always with the idea of tiding over, in the best possible manner, the intervening time that must elapse before they could hope for the comforts and advantages of the older settlements of the east. *
"The singing school was among our early institutions. About 1824 Elijah Ingersoll, who lived on the ridge at Newburg, started a singing school for the winter evenings. This was held once a week or once in two weeks at the log schoolhouse on the corner of Giddings and Euclid avenues and also in the school-
10 John D. Taylor in "Annals of the Early Settlers Association," No. 11, p. 440.
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house on Fairmount street. When it was time to begin, Elijah brought his pitch pipe to his mouth and blew on it. Then he pulled a string that stopped at the pitch that he desired to start the tune. This wind instru- ment was book shaped, about ten inches long and four wide. To the youngsters it was a wonderful affair. The tuning fork was a later invention. He lined and we sang and the woods rung with the melody." 11
Horse racing became an amusement in Cleveland in the early '20s. The first speedway was on Water street from Superior to the north end of the street. About this time the horse took the place of the patient and enduring oxen. Some of the early races aroused much enthusiasm. In 1826 a series of contests were held between a horse owned in Cleveland, named "Billy," and one owned in Portage county, named "Portage Polly." Considerable money was bet on this race and the outcome was watched with great interest. The "Herald," of June 2, 1826, gives an account of the second race. "The second trial of speed be- tween Portage Polly and the black horse, Billy, took place on Saturday last and a purse of two hundred dollars was won by the mare. The mare got about a length and a half the start and came out about a half length ahead. Both kept the track the whole length of the course and run one hundred rods in thirty or thirty-one seconds."
May 23, 1820, the first theater is advertised in the "Herald." The perform- ance was held in P. Mowry's hall, the dining room of his tavern, and consisted of comic opera, farce, drama and variety all in one day. The comic opera was "The Purse Won the Benevolent Tar;" the drama was "The Strangers ;" the farce, "The Village Lawyer," and the vaudeville consisted of singing and danc- ing. On the 3Ist of May, 1820, the play, "The Mountaineers," was given. In August, 1830, Mrs. Lane gave a "polite comedy," with an interlude of singing and dancing, in the bank building in the rear of the "Herald" office. In 1834 Italian hall was used for a theater by the traveling companies that in those years annually visited the town.
The early theater yielded to the circus as a form of popular amusement. The first circus held in Cleveland was September 29 and 30 and October I, 1825. From that time forward the circus was an annual event. The first circuses were composed of men and their acts were nearly all equestrian; very few acrobatic feats were performed. There were no menageries and no bands. In 1838 a giraffe was the drawing card, and in 1841 a circus advertised "a number of elephants and accomplished ladies," and a band. The early circus grounds were vacant lots in various parts of town. In 1838 a circus was held in the enclosure near the courthouse on the south side of the Public Square. About 1847 they were held on Banks street. About 1853 there was a great rivalry among the traveling circuses, sometimes as many as eight visited Cleveland in one season. In 1857 the first steam calliope was heard here. The papers an- nounced that about three thousand people followed it around town. The circus grounds in 1860 were on Erie street, then for many years they were on the west side. In more recent years they were on the corner of Madison and Cedar and lately they have been moved again to the west side.
11 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 7, pp. 15-20.
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The intervals between circuses and traveling theatrical companies were filled in with special exhibits. In 1827 a mummy was exhibited in the Oviatt block on Superior street, and in 1833 the Siamese twins at the Franklin house. Later Tom Thumb visited Empire hall. In 1833 the "Herald" prides itself upon the number of exhibits that are being held. "Thus it will be seen that in the course of a few days the theater and two circuses have been in operation. The Siamese twins and Black Hawk have been figuring at the same time, and last, though not least, the menagerie, a wild child of the forest (orang outang) came on the boards for their share of patronage. These exhibitions were sufficient to satiate the votaries of pleasure."
The panorama or diorama was introduced about 1850. Their crude can- vasses proved very popular. In 1853 Richardson's museum was opened oppo- site the courthouse, and in 1854 the Amphitheater was opened on Center street, where the old Variety theater stood, and in 1852 Barnum's grand colossal museum and menagerie was exhibited in the city.
CHAPTER XLVI.
EARLY TAVERNS AND HOTELS.1
In the days of the stage coach there was no need of the great hotels that the extensive traffic of railroads has demanded. The lonely transient was entertained in a tavern that resembled a private house quite as much as a public place. The proprietor and his family lived in the house, ate in the dining room with the few guests, and was host as well as landlord. These taverns were places of public meetings, political caucuses, dances and informal gatherings for the discussion of public events. Some of them were called "Coffee Houses," after the English custom, and even in the primitive day the pretentious French "hotel" was appropriated by some very modest establishments.
The first public house in the village was Major Lorenzo Carter's cabin, built in 1797 near the river at the foot of St. Clair street. It was a rude, one room hut with probably a loft reached by a ladder. It was hardly large enough for Car- ter's own family, but the wayfarer was always welcome to a meal, a bed and a drink of good New England rum. In 1801 the Major was given a license to keep a tavern by the court in Warren. In September, 1802, he purchased twenty-three and a half acres of land in two parcels, one of twelve acres fronting on St. Clair street, just east of Water street, and the other an irregular parcel on Superior street and Union lane and the river. About where the Bethel stands, Carter built his second cabin, a framed house, which burned to the ground before its completion. It was immediately rebuilt of hewn logs, boarded on the outside. This pre- tentious house had two rooms and a large attic. It was kept as a tavern by Carter until his death, February 8, 1814, when Phineas Shepard leased it. For a few years Major Carter's son, Alonzo, kept a tavern on the west side of the river,
1 For interesting details concerning early taverns, see O. J. Hodge, "Cleveland's Early Hotels," "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. V, p. 435.
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just opposite Superior street, where the Carters had purchased a large acreage. Itș coat of primitive red paint gave it the name of "Red House."
MERWIN'S TAVERN OR THE MANSION HOUSE.
In 1807, Amos Spafford, the surveyor, kept a small inn on the southeast cor- ner of Superior street and Vineyard lane, on original lot 73. This lot was then owned by Peter B. Parkman, who on January 20, 1809, sold it to Diocletian Alvord, who in turn sold it to George Wallace, June 13, 1815. Wallace had kept a tavern since 1812 on the south side of Superior street, west of Seneca. This old place fell into the possession of Michael Spangler who kept "Spangler's Inn," as late as 1824. Spafford's tavern became the "Wallace House." September, 1817, Wallace sold it to David Merwin of Palmyra, Portage county, who June I, 1822, sold it to Noble H. Merwin. The Merwins built a new hotel, a two story frame build- ing. It stood on an eminence overlooking the river and was called grandiosely "The Mansion House." It was a mansion of modest size, for we are told that when Judge Wood stopped there on his arrival in Cleveland, he could not stand upright in its chambers. He was over six feet tall. * For over twenty years it was Cleveland's favorite hotel, and its owner, a popular and progressive man, was a leader in business and civic affairs. Here was entertained DeWitt Clinton in 1825. After Mr. Merwin relinquished the active management James Belden and later E. M. Segur were the landlords. In 1835 the hotel was destroyed by the big fire that swept the south side of Superior street as far east as the present site of the American House.
The "Herald" of January 1, 1822, contains the following: "A. Kingsbury re- spectfully informs his friends and the public in general that he has opened a house of entertainment in the village of Cleveland, at the stand lately occupied by P. Mowry on the public square, where he will at all times hold himself in readiness to accommodate customers. He flatters himself that his preparation, assiduous at- tention and reasonable charges will secure him a share of patronage."
August 5, 1825, J. Boughton opened a tavern on the corner of Water and St. Clair streets. "His house is spacious and convenient. Ladies and gentlemen can at all times be accommodated with separate rooms; and every attention will be paid to render the situation of visitors agreeable," recites the naive advertise- ment. In May, 1824, the Navy hotel on St. Clair street was "just opened and in readiness for travelers. It being the nearest tavern to the lake renders it very convenient for all persons that wish to take passage from the place by water."2
THE FRANKLIN HOUSE.
The Franklin house occupied a large place in the tavern life of Cleveland. It stood on the north side of Superior street on lot 50, two hundred and thirty-six feet east of Water street. Nathan Perry, a large landholder, sold fifty feet front of this lot to Timothy Scoville of Hector, Tompkins county, New York, June 6, 1820, for three hundred dollars. Here Philo Scoville (later spelled Scovill),
* "Herald," Volume 31, p. 10.
2 "Herald." -
FRAN
KLIN
HOUSE
Original lithograph in Western Reserve Historical Society The Franklin House as it was re- built, 1845
HOUSE.
From an old cut The Weddell House as first built, 1845-6. showing the rotunda with its promenade
THE WEDDELL HOUSE IN THE DAYS OF ITS GLORY
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son of Timothy, built, in 1826, the largest tavern Cleveland had yet seen, and named it after Benjamin Franklin. It was a three story frame building, "very spacious and furnished in a style not surpassed in this part of the state." It was the headquarters for the various stage lines that centered in Cleveland and was a lively place in its day. Most of the stage lines were managed by Levi Sartwell, a good natured and well liked man. "Mr. Sartwell had his office in the Franklin house to the left of the front door entrance. Here in this office might be seen almost any eve- ning, Mr. Melancthon Barnett, father of General James Barnett, the Spangler brothers and other well known men of Cleveland, telling stories, discussing topics of the day and drinking mint juleps, or something stronger. Every morning about 8:00 o'clock there was seen in front of the hotel several coaches with either four or six horses ready to start away at the word of command. The drivers would crack their whips and away the coaches would go with a whirl. People would congregate sometimes in considerable numbers to see the start."3
The itinerant lawyers following the courts from one county seat to another made this their stopping place, as did also many lake captains during the win- ter season.
In December, 1833, Edward Lyon assumed its management. Two years later Benjamin Harrington became proprietor and in 1838 Scoville again assumed charge. In 1844 it was rebuilt, and called the New Franklin house. It had a frontage of seventy-eight feet on Superior street and two wings, sixty and thirty- - four feet long, was of brick, five stories high, the entrance supported by Doric stone columns. The hall and reading room had "tessellated marble floors." There were seventy-one bedrooms and the dining room, twenty-six by sixty feet, was "calculated to spread two tables." A cistern in the attic supplied "soft water for washing" and "inside window blinds" were found "a great improvement over outside shutters."4
In January, 1852, Patrick & Son became the managers; the hostelry had de- generated into a mere boarding house. In 1855 when they retired from the man- agement the "boarders" gave them a "testimonial of regard," a compliment not often paid to boarding house keepers. March 31, 1855, the old house was closed and the building converted into stores. The "Franklin house was especially famous for its neatness, good order and sumptuous fare. Its enviable reputation was largely due to the care and skill of Mrs. Scoville, the landlady." 5 The old building is still standing (1910), ragged and apologetic of its unearned degeneracy.
The city directory of 1837 enumerates the following "Principal Hotels and Coffee Houses :" "American House, I Newton, 42 Superior street; Cleveland House, A. Selover, public square; Cleveland Center House, Cleveland Center block ; City Hotel, Perry Allen, Seneca street ; Clinton House, William Harland, Union lane, corner St. Clair ; Eagle Tavern, Richard Cooke, Water street, corner St. Clair; Franklin House, B. Harrington, 25 Superior street; Farmers and Mechanics Hotel, George W. Sanford, Ontario street, corner Michigan; Globe Tavern, Isaac Van Valkenberg, Merwin street; Washington House, William Mar- tin, 31 Water street.
3 Colonel O. J. Hodge "Annals 'Early Settlers Association," Vol. 5, p. 440.
4 "Herald," Vol. 26, No. 52.
5 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 6, p. 58.
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"Coffee Houses : City Coffee House, John Bennet, 21 Water street; Cleveland Recess, E. Adams & Company, 64 Superior street; Shakespeare Saloon, Joel Hood, 9 Water street."
This should be enough hotel accommodation for a town of about eight thousand yet the "Herald" in 1836 contains this paragraph: "We would respectfully in- quire of our capitalists and owners of real estate how much longer the traveling public are to suffer for want of the necessary accommodations for their comfort while sojourning with us. The city is really acquiring a notoriety in this respect by no means enviable. True, it is no doubt that the keepers of public houses, many of them at least, do all in their power to remedy the evil in question, but it is equally true that more places of entertainment for those who require good accommodations, are necessary, for those we have, which are of this class, are thronged to that degree that the landlords can neither do justice to themselves nor their customers."
THE AMERICAN HOUSE.
The American House, the first large hotel opened in the city, was built the following year and in September, 1837, received its first guests. It is still in use, the oldest "tavern" in Cleveland. The building stands upon lot 76, the site of the cabin built by the second surveying party in 1797, and where Samuel Huntington in 1801 built his first Cleveland home, a two room log house. Hutington pur- chased the lot of the Land Company. He agreed to sell it in 1807 but the deed was not passed until 1817 when Huntington's administrator conveyed the lot to Robert B. Parkman, who sold it to Dr. David Long the same year. A. W. Wal- worth became its next owner and he sold to Irad Kelley in 1828. In 1831 James S. Clark bought it. The panic of 1837 compelled a sheriff's sale and Truman P. Handy bid it in.
The building was erected by James Kellogg and was originally known as the Kellogg block. Its first lessees were Norton and Canfield and its first landlord was I. Newton. It immediately became the place for holding the fine balls and banquets of the town. The fire department and the Cleveland Grays held their annual balls there. From its little iron balcony have spoken many of the great men of the nation among them: William Henry Harrison, General Scott, Lewis Cass, Martin Van Buren and Henry Clay. Daniel Webster was its fleeting visi- tor in the year of its opening. He remained only an hour, but long enough, tradition has it, to patronize its bar. Stephen A. Douglas was a guest in 1860.
It was the gathering place of politicians, and visiting statesmen often shared its hospitality. In 1852 a great dinner was given there to John P. Hale of New Hampshire. Ladies were present and liquor absent, so that the distinguished guest was prompted to say that it was the first time he was ever at a dinner where the "bottles were discharged and the ladies admitted." Salmon P. Chase and Joshua R. Giddings were among the speakers. When in July, 1853, the body of Henry Clay arrived here, a committee of noted Kentuckians who came to Cleveland to receive the remains of the great statesman stopped at the American House and there planned the journey of the funeral car through Ohio to Lexington.
Its fame waned with the opening of the Weddell House. In 1848 Bennett Smith was the proprietor, succeeded in 1851 by William Milford. Originally the
From an old cut
Forest City House about 1860
ETANAITTE PLEV.
From an old cut Angier House in 1857, later called The Kennard
From an old cut
American House, 1850
DUNHAM N
HOUSE
From an old cut NEW ENGLAND HOTEL IN 1850 Corner Merwin and Superior Streets
From an old cut
DUNHAM HOUSE IN 1850 Stood where Forest City House now stands
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hotel occupied only the upper stories of the block. In 1851 it was remodeled, a reading room and lobby were put on the first floor and a veranda two stories high supported by iron columns and pilasters was placed at the entrance.
WEDDELL HOUSE.
The most noted of Cleveland's earlier hotels was the Weddell House "the Astor House of the Lakes." This famous hostelry was opened June 25, 1847. The original building occupied one hundred twenty-five and one-half feet on Superior street and one hundred and eighty-five and one-half feet on Bank street. There was an eighty foot wing in the rear parallel to Superior street. It was four stories high with an attic and was built of sandstone and brick. The corner portico was supported by Doric columns. The dining hall was on Bank street, on the second floor, and above it was an assembly hall. The main entrance was also on Bank street. The crowning feature of this hotel was its octagonal cupola, sixteen feet in diameter, "with a promenade on top." "The view from the principal cupola is the best in the city. The elevation is so great that the eye takes in the entire city of Cleveland, Ohio City, the valley of the winding Cuyahoga, its forests of masts, and farms and forest covered banks stretching far away to the southward and a large sweep of lake and adjacent country." 6
Thurlow Weed stopped in Cleveland, July 15, 1847, on his way home from Chicago by boat. He writes for his "Albany Journal:" "We arrived at Cleve- land before sunset last evening and enjoyed another view of this thriving city. Among the striking features is the Weddell house, one of the most magnificent ho- tels in America. This building looms up like the Astor house, and is furnished with every attainable luxury. The furniture would compare favorably in value and beauty with that of the drawing rooms of our 'merchant princes.' The house was built by Mr. Weddell, who had accumulated a large fortune in business in Cleve- land. When returning from New York last spring where he had been to pur- chase furniture for his house, he took a severe cold, from the effects of which he died. The house is well kept by Mr. Barnum, who was formerly with his uncle in 'Barnum's Hotel' at Baltimore." Thurlow Weed was a competent judge of this "Astor House of the West," for his headquarters in New York were in the Astor house of the East, where, in the famous room "No. II" presidents, gov- ernors, senators and judges were made.
The hotel's advertisement in the papers of 1854 that the "bills of fare are printed entirely in English," indicates the prevalent sentiment against the in- vading French.
In 1856 an addition of one hundred and eight feet long and four stories high was built on Bank street, adding seventy-three rooms with parlor and baths. A. S. Barnum, of Baltimore, was its first landlord. In two years he was succeeded by H. S. Stevens, who in about four years was followed by J. P. Ross, who was landlord in 1854, after the burning of the New England hotel, of which he had been manager. C. S. Butts & Son were in charge when it was closed for remodeling, January 1, 1863. On January 20, 1864, it was reopened under the
6 "Herald," Vol. 28, No. 25.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
management of J. H. and A. W. Kirkwood, of the Kirkwood house, Washington.7 The house was entirely refurnished and painted brown. The main entrance was moved from Superior street to Bank street and the two bronze lions so familiar to Clevelanders for many years were placed at the private Superior street en- trance.
In 1903-4 the historic building was torn down to make way for the Rockefeller building. It was Cleveland's most historic hotel. From the day of its opening until about 1872 it was the leading hotel of the city and was widely known through- out the west. It was constantly crowded before the war and often cots were placed in the parlor and halls for accommodating the guests. Its contemplative eagle, looking down from the cornice above the classic portico, beheld many his- toric pageants pass beneath and saw many of the nation's great men enter the door- way. Here stopped Horace Greeley, Salmon P. Chase, John Sherman, Jenny Lind in 1851, Kossuth in 1852, Don Cameron in 1853, Madame Sontag, Bishop Potter in 1854, and scores of other celebrities. And here Abraham Lincoln was a guest in 1861 on his way to Washington to assume the presidency.
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