USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104
The "Forest City Lyceum" was organized in the '50s. It contained in its list of members the names of many young men who later became prominent in business and professional life. They also were given to debating. At a public meeting in 1855 they discussed "Resolved that the Extension of the United States Government Over the Island of Cuba and the Province of Canada Would be Beneficial to the American Continent." 2
In the fall of 1835, the "Cleveland Reading Room Association" was formed, with about two hundred subscribers. It established a reading room and pro- vided magazines and papers for its members. It had rooms open daily until 10 p. m. Its first officers were John M. Sterling, president; S. W. Crittenden, treasurer ; and George T. Kingsley, secretary.
In November, 1836, the "Young Men's Literary Association" was organized with rooms in the third story of the Commercial building on Superior street. Its first officers were: Charles Whittlesey, president; George C. Davis, secre- tary ; S. W. Crittenden, treasurer; W. G. Oatmen, corresponding secretary. Its purpose was to own a circulating library and eight hundred volumes were secured the first year. It was reorganized in 1846 for the purpose of uniting with the Cleveland Library Association. December 9, 1851, the "Mercantile Library As- sociation" was organized, James A. Briggs, president; J. R. Morton, vice presi- dent; and John G. Jennings, treasurer. It was an off-shoot of the Cleveland Library Association and had rooms in the Forest City block on Superior street. It soon had one hundred and fifty members.
Early in 1841 Sanford & Company book sellers, advertised a circulating library. They say in the "Daily Herald" that on the request of many patrons,
2 C. O. J. Hodge, "Memoriae," p. 217.
497
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
"They have opened a library of five hundred volumes and intend increasing the same to one thousand volumes."
"The subscribers are assurred that such an institution has long been wanted in this place, as there is a numerous class of our citizens who are fond of read- ing, but do not feel able to purchase books outright." The terms are very interesting. "For 12mo and all smaller, six and one-half cents per volume; for octavo size and all larger, twelve and one-half cents per volume; subscription for one year six dollars; for six months, three dollars and fifty cents."
Certainly this was a convenient way of valuing literature, by cubic meas- ure. This was the first commercial circulating library in Cleveland. The plan has become popular with merchants in recent years.
The halls in which lectures and debates were held and where other entertain- ments and concerts were given, should not be forgotten. They were all small, the earliest ones only seating two hundred or three hundred people, and when packed, four hundred. They were ventilated by doors and windows, heated by stoves that often smoked, and their chairs and benches were not comfortable. For economy's sake they were located on the upper floors of mercantile blocks and reached by laborious stairs. In 1837 three halls were mentioned in the city directory : Apollo Hall, Concert Hall and Liberty Hall. Apollo Hall was on the third floor of the Merwin building on Superior street near Water. It was the most popular hall of that day. It was often used as a theater. "Eliza Logan and her father, the Davenport girls and their father, Charlie Webb, 'A. A. Adams, Forrest, the elder Booth, starred it right in that little old smoky hall."3 "The first attempt at what was in those days first class opera to be rendered in this city was in Apollo Hall and the enormous fees of fifty and seventy-five cents admission, absolutely startled our staid and well bred people." 4
Concert Hall was on the fourth floor, over Handerson's drug store, on Su- perior street. It was given over largely to musical entertainments.
Liberty Hall was on the third floor of the Hancock block, corner Superior and Seneca streets. Here the early literary and debating societies held their meet- ings. Among these early debaters were W. P. Southworth, C. B. Deno, Milo Hickox, A. S. Sanford, L. P. Lott, C. W. Heard, W. J. Warner.5
A little later Kelley's Hall became the popular concert hall of the town. It was for a time called the Athenaeum. It was much larger than the earlier halls and when Jenny Lind sang there November 6, 1851, it was seated for one thou- sand, one hundred and twenty-five persons. In 1853 it was refurnished and re- opened by the P. T. Barnum Dramatic Company, under the personal management of the great showman. It later degenerated into a cheap variety theatre.
Shakespeare Hall on Superior street, where now the viaduct and Water street meet, and later Italian Hall, on Water street, where W. Edwards & Company now have their wholesale store, were used for theatrical presentations. Phoenix Hall in the early '40s was in the White Block, adjoining the American House to the west. It was used for lectures and debates.
& N. A. Stimson, "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, p. 534.
4 George F. Marshall, "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, P. 347.
" "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, p. 348.
498
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
Empire Hall was built in 1845 by J. H. Crittendon for lectures and concerts. It was for some years the important hall of the town. It was forty-two by seventy feet in size, the ceiling sixteen and one half feet high. Its "cornice and center piece" were considered "tasty." It had seats for six hundred but seven hundred and fifty could be crowded into it. It stood at the corner of Superior and Bank streets.6
Chapin's Hall at the corner of Euclid street and the Square was built by H. M. Chapin in 1854. It was sometimes called Concert Hall, and was for some years the most elegant hall in town.
The old Academy of Music on Bank street was reopened for lectures and concerts in 1859. Horace Greeley appeared there that year and John P. Hale and Grace Greenwood, and later Artemus Ward, it afterwards fell from grace, and became a notorious concert hall.
Case Hall was the most noted concert and lecture hall of its day. It was lo- cated on the third floor of the Case block, on the eastern portion of the site oc- cupied by the new postoffice. It was one hundred and seventeen by seventy-three feet, the ceiling thirty-six feet high, and seated two thousand people. There was a comfortable stage, flanked by two "drawing rooms" and it was seated with "patent opera chairs." Garibaldi, an Italian artist, decorated its walls and ceil- ings. It was opened with a concert September 10, 1867, by Signora Peralta, Signor Steffani and Signor Bellini. The tickets were considered quite high, re- served seats, two dollars; admission, one dollar and fifty cents.7 The second concert was given by Clara Louise Kellogg before a brilliant audience. In this hall appeared most of the prominent lecturers and concert virtuosos. It later became the home of Case Library. In 1894 the larger portion of the building was converted into an office building ; the lower floor became the banking rooms of the Citizens Savings and Loan Association.
The Tabernacle in the '70s and '80s was used as a lecture hall. It was a bar- ren, forbidding structure, on the corner of St. Clair and Ontario streets, where the Engineers building now stands.
Music Hall succeeded the Tabernacle. The first Music Hall was built in 1885, about one hundred and sixty-five feet back from Superior street, and from Erie street. It was reached by an entrance through Doan's block on Erie street. It had several tiers of steep, uncomfortable, galleries, and seated several thousand people. It was later partially destroyed by fire and rebuilt, facing Vincent street. It was entirely destroyed by fire in 1898.
Our two armories are in every way worthy successors to the uncouth and barn-like Music Hall and Tabernacle.
In connection with the early literary life of the city may be remembered the "Ark," the most noted "club" in our scientific and literary annals. It was not an organization, but just a group of kindred spirits brought together by the Case brothers, William and Leonard, in the little one-story office that stood where the imposing government building now looks upon the square. When Leonard Case, Sr., abandoned this modest office in the '30s his son William, of scientific bent, built a small addition to it, where he stored his collection of birds
6 "Herald," August 16, 1845.
7 "Daily Herald," September 13, 1867.
499
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
and mammals. And there gradually and naturally the bright young men of the town of similar scientific bent, met in the evening for discussion, or reading, or other diversion, and so eventually the "Ark" became populated with a group of the finest, congenial spirits, "The Arkites." They were William Case, Leonard Case, Dr. Elisha Sterling, Stoughton Bliss, Colonel E. A. Scovill, George A. Stanley, Bushnell White, Captain B. A. Stannard, Dr. A. Maynard, D. W. Cross, Henry G. Abbey, R. K. Winslow, J. J. Tracy, John Coon. These were the "Ori- ginal Arkites" whose portraits are shown in the painting of the group ordered by William Case in 1858 and which now hangs in the Historical Society.
The building of the postoffice compelled the "Ark" to journey across the street eastward. The building of Case Hall necessitated another movement eastward and finally the building of the City Hall caused the demolition of the little Ark. Its wood was made into chairs, tables and other fixtures for the new rooms pro- vided in Case Library building. William Case deeded the free use of these rooms to the following gentlemen : Charles L. Rhodes, Seneca O. Griswold, David W. Cross, Herman M. Chapin, Edward A. Scovill, William Sholl, James J. Tracy, Stoughton Bliss, Levi P. Schofield, Rodney Gale, Jabez W. Fitch, Henry G. Ab- bey, Bushnell White, Benjamin A. Stannard, John Coon.
The restless city demanded yet another sacrifice of the arkites. When the new postoffice was proposed, Case Library building was needed as part of the site. Only three members of the Ark were left, James J. Tracy, John Coon and Levi Schofield, and to these the court awarded "damages." James Tracy and John Coon have since passed away, and General Schofield remains the only survivor of the famous group.
CHAPTER LIV.
EARLY NEWSPAPERS, PRINTERS AND BOOKSELLERS OF CLEVELAND.
By Charles Orr.
Printing presses, newspapers, publishing and bookselling are intimately as- sociated with both the material and intellectual development of cities, and in this, Cleveland has been no exception. The early settlers of the Western Reserve were for the most part intelligent New England people and required books and writing material as a matter of course. Many old family libraries on the Reserve contain books brought by these early settlers, which were read in the light of sputtering candles in the long evening after a hard day's work in the clearing or behind the plow.
The first printing press set up in Cleveland was that upon which was printed the "Gazette and Commercial Register," the first issue of which was struck off July 31, 1818. This press was owned by one Andrew Logan, who brought it here with the type and such outfit as he had, from Beaver, Pennsylvania. The promise
500
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
of the prospectus that it would appear weekly, could not be kept, though Logan struggled hard with his little hand press and his battered type, worn down to the third nick, to keep faith with his few subscribers. The "Gazette and Register" was a little four page sheet of four columns to a page. As these sixteen short columns gave more than ample space in which to chronicle the actual happen- ings of the town, the editor drew liberally upon the periodical press of London, New York and Boston, and other literary and news centers for items of interest to his readers.
The reader will find in the "Autobiography of a Pioneer Printer," by Eber D. Howe, a description of Logan as "a small man of dark complexion, said by some to be a lineal descendant of the famous Mingo chief." However this may be, to have been the founder of Cleveland's first newspaper will be his chief title to fame.
The first number of the "Cleveland Herald" was printed October 19, 1819, and shortly thereafter Logan's little paper ceased to exist. The "Herald" was founded by Eber D. Howe and the press and type were brought here from Erie, Pennsylvania. Mr. Howe himself has told the story of the early struggles of the paper, which for sixty years or more wielded a considerable influence on the Reserve. "I commenced looking about for material aid to bring about my plan for putting in operation the 'Cleveland Herald.' With this view I went to Erie and conferred with my old friend Willes, who had the year before started the 'Erie Gazette.' After due consultation and deliberation, he agreed to remove his press and type to Cleveland after the first year in that place. So on the nine- teenth day of October, without a single subscriber, the first number of the 'Cleveland Herald' was issued."
The list of subscribers of the first two years stood at about three hundred. These were scattered widely over the Western Reserve and the delivery was made in large part by Howe himself. Writing of it in the autobiography, he says, "Each and every week, after the paper had been struck off, I would mount a horse, with a valise filled with copies of the 'Herald' and distribute them at the door of all subscribers between Cleveland and Painesville, a distance of thirty miles, leaving a package at the latter place ; and on returning, diverged two miles to what is known as Kirtland flats, where another package was left for distribution, which occupied fully two days. I frequently carried a tin horn to notify the yeomanry of the arrival of the latest news." Mr. Howe continued with the "Herald" for two years and then disposed of his interest to his partner Willis. It occupied the journalistic field without a rival for some thirteen years. In 1832 there was founded the "Advertiser," the predecessor of the "Plain Dealer"; in 1834 L. C. Rice set up the "Whig," later published by Rice and Penniman for about two years. Between 1830 and 1840 we had in addition to the above the "Messenger ;" "Ohio City Argus"; "Daily Gazette"; "Journal"; "Commercial Intelligencer"; "Palladium of Liberty"; "Agitator"; "Axe"; "Morning News"; "Morning-Eyed-News- Catcher"; and "Morning Mercury." Most of these were very shortlived, repre- senting for the time the shifting personal or political ambitions of men and parties. The "Cleveland Liberalist" edited by Dr. Samuel Underhill, physician and justice of the peace, and published by Underhill and Son, announced in its prospectus that it was to be "devoted to free enquiry. Opposed to all monopolies-in favor of
501
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
universal equal opportunities for knowledge in early life for every child; dis- courager of all pretensions to spiritual knowledge; teaches that virtue alone produces happiness; that vice always produces misery ; that priests are a useless order of men; that schoolmasters ought to be better qualified, and then should have higher wages; that the producing classes are unjustly fleeced; that nobles by wealth are as offensive to sound democracy as nobles by birth-both are base coin ; ---- and it inserts the other side of the question, when furnished in well written articles."
It is natural to suppose that on some of these old hand presses were printed such broadsides as the time demanded, though little or no trace of them is to be found. At some points on the Reserve, notably at Warren, Painesville and Hudson, books were printed as early as 1820; but perhaps the earliest of Cleveland imprints are those found on the almanacs for 1828 and 1829, published by Henry Bolles, "publisher and bookseller," a few doors east of the Franklin house. The directory of 1837 locates the Franklin house at 25 Superior street. It is not cer- tain that these almanacs were a product of the Cleveland printers art throughout. It is possible that they were brought out "ready made" from the east and that Bolles merely added cover and wrapper with his advertisement.
Another early Cleveland book is the Cobb speller of 1834, which though it bears the imprint of J. Kellogg & Company, Cleveland, was stereotyped in New York and if printed here, was struck off from these stereotype plates. As J. Kel- logg & Company, do not appear in the directory of 1837, either as printers or book- sellers, it is possible that they were neither, but rather agents for this, and perhaps some other school books in the new country then opening up.
It is difficult to fix the exact date at which the first book business was opened in Cleveland. When the first directory was printed in 1837, at which time the population must have been under five thousand, there were at least three, more or less flourishing shops where books were sold. The literary character of the place is reflected in an advertisement-appearing in a conspicuous place in the directory -of the "Shakespeare saloon"-"where strangers will find an agreeable retreat and every attention paid to their comfort and convenience." Earlier than this, however, in the "Whig" of August 20, 1834, there appears a very attractive list of new books advertised by A. P. Parker, bookseller, "nearly opposite the postoffice." The list includes many of those authors which the library of no gentleman of that day was complete without, such as Shakespeare, Byron, Horace Walpole's let- ters, the Tattler, Guardian, and Spectator, with a good sprinkling of the works of such noted divines as Milman, Robert Hall, etc. For the lawyer there were the works of Daniel Webster and the speeches of Curran, Grattan and Emmet. For the lover of romance, the delightful stories of Maria Edgworth and Sir Walter Scott, in ten volumes. There was Tasso's "Jerusalem," Milman's "History of the Jews," Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations," and editions of the "Lives" of Plu- tarch and the soporific Rollin's "Ancient History." The list bears evidence of a knowledge not only of good books, but of the book business. Mr. Parker also announces a bindery in connection and that he is prepared to buy roan, sheep and calf skins suitable for the binding of books. We must in absence of proof to the contrary, set Mr. Parker down as the first regular bookseller in the city.
502
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
It is reasonable to suppose, though not certain, that Parker sold out to one of the firms which opened up business during the next two or three years, since he does not appear as a bookseller in the directory of 1837, and that the new pro- prietors were Alfred S. Sanford and Lewis P. Lott. They brought out the first Cleveland directory, compiled by Julius P. Bolivar McCabe, who lived at the Prospect cottage, Lake street. In the advertising pages of the directory, Mc- Cabe announced his "Annual Register of the State of Ohio," which he described as the first work of the kind attempted in the state. While the directory was in the press, Sanford and Lott moved to 17 Superior street and announced their new location on the back cover of the directory. Later the style of the firm became Sanford and Hayward and continued so for several years. They did much of the earlier printing of the town, particularly in a commercial way.
Henry E. Butler had a small store previous to 1837 at No. 3 Superior street, where he kept a stock of periodicals as well as books and stationary, and adver- tised "pocket maps of the western states of the latest emissions." Butler evi- dently found the business unprofitable, for in the directory of 1845 he appears as a commission merchant at 88 Dock street.
A name long connected with the stationary, printing and paper trade of Cleve- land, is that of Moses G. Younglove, who, with Edward P. Wetmore in 1837 opened a wholesale and retail book and stationary store at No. 40 Superior street in the American house, which had just been completed. Younglove bought out his partner the next year and added job and news printing and publishing to his other business. He introduced the first power press into Cleveland and probably the second such press west of the Allegheny mountains. On this press he printed for many years the daily papers of the city. In 1848 he built with Mr. John Hoyt the Cleveland Paper mill, the first having steam power west of the mountains. This and other mills were afterwards united under the name of the Cleveland Paper Company, of which Mr. Younglove was president until 1867, when he sold his interest for a large sum.
Early in the '40s John Brainard began the business of wood cut engraving at 2 Merchants Exchange, and many of the wood blocks for illustration and ornament at that time were by his hand. His work was rather superior to much of the en- graving of that period and a specimen on page fifty-five of the Cleveland directory of 1848, shows him to have been a designer and craftsman of no mean order.
By 1848 the number of booksellers and printers had considerably increased. H. B. Pearson conducted the Cleveland literary depot at the Arcade, 39 Superior street, and W. H. Smith conducted a wholesale and retail book and stationary store at 97 Superior street. Smead and Cowles had opened an extensive printing establishment in the Central building, where among other books they printed the directory of 1848, and B. F. Pinkham was a printer and publisher on the third floor of the Merchants Exchange. There were at that time ten newspapers and periodical publications.
Among the early booksellers and stationers of Cleveland, no name is better known than that of Cobb. The three brothers, Caius C., Brutus J. and Junius Brutus, all served an apprenticeship with Mr. Younglove and upon his retirement bought the business and continued it under the firm name of J. Cobb & Company. They were men of bookish tastes and as the city grew they drew to their store a
503
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
very large trade. The wholesale business was pushed and extended to several neighboring states. The march of progress up town began about this time and they occupied a store at No. 137 Superior street, and for several years at No. 24I of the same street. At about this time Thos. A. Andrews was taken in as a partner and the firm became Cobb, Andrews & Company. They were among the first to recognize the importance of Euclid avenue as a future retail trade center and moved into very handsome quarters on that street about 1875. They did a very large business in books and stationary, both wholesale and retail, and the house was well known throughout the west and south. The business was pur- chased outright by the Burrows Brothers Company, in 1887 and the Cobbs retired to well earned leisure.
There were other dealers during that period, but some of them had but a brief existence. Ingham & Bragg conducted a business for several years at No. 191 Superior street. Later the firm became Ingham, Clarke & Company, at No. 217 Superior street. C. S. Bragg afterwards became a member of the great firm of school book publishers, Van Antwerp, Bragg & Company, later absorbed by the American Book Company, while Ingham, Clarke & Company failed, and later moved to quarters in the American house in about the location occupied by Younglove, many years before. Mr. Ingham conducted the business here until his death, and many Clevelanders will remember the last bookseller of the old school.
Of purely commercial and manufacturing stationers and binders, printers, and engravers and lithographers, Cleveland has had her share. Some of the houses now in existence do business in many states. Shore & Forman, who did business for many years on Superior street, were after a disastrous fire in 1891, succeeded by Forman, Bassett & Hatch at No. 225 Superior street. Brooks & Company have been long established at Nos. 98 and 100 Superior street, and are now in their own building at 122 and 126 Superior street. James B. Savage formerly dealt largely in office stationary and supplies at 67 Frankfort street, but has lately devoted his attention more to developing his large printing plant.
Other booksellers of the early period were as follows :
1847. Book and job printers-Sanford & Hayward, 17 Superior street ; Bemis & Company, 5 Superior lane ; W. H. Smith, 55 Superior street. Engravers-Elijah Hurd, 34 Superior street.
1848-9. Book and job printers-Wm. H. Hayward, Plain Dealer building ; O. S. Scovill, 7 Superior street.
1850. Booksellers-Wm. Leutkemeyer, 9 Water street ; E. H. Merrill, 158 Su- perior street ; Smith, Knight & Company, 59 Superior street ; A. S. Sanford, 17 Su- perior street.
1853. Booksellers-Morris B. Baer ; E. Heisell, 80 River street ; Jewett, Proc- tor and Worthington, 136 Superior street ; E. G. Knight & Company, 59 Superior street ; E. H. Merrill, 8 Prospect street; Tooker and Gatchel, 102 Superior street ; W. A. Ingham first appears this year as a bookseller at the corner of Detroit and Pearl streets. Books received from the eastern market at their earliest publication. E. G. Knight & Company advertise that they have arrangements for importing books from Europe. Tooker & Gatchel were publishers as well as booksellers, both wholesale and retail.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.