A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 78

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 78

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).

The development of our national trade was reflected in our local market. Gradually the luxuries arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. In 1837 "lemons, raisins, figs," were abundantly advertised, and a few years later Connecticut shad. Lake trout and white fish had always been abundant in season, but in

6 George B. Merwin in "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. I, p. 66.

7 "Gazette," Vol. I, No. 9.

8 "Register," December 7, 1819.

9 "Herald," Vol. I, No. 4I.

10 "Herald," May 26, 1826.

11 "Herald," October 19, 1827.

12 "Herald," June 1I, 1829.

615

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

1851 W. L. Standart began to supply the market "the year round" without arti- ficial refrigeration.13

"At an early date the few merchants here bought their goods mostly in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, and transported them across the mountains, and in re- turn for payment of their bills of goods sent back, by large four or six horse teams, pot and pearl ashes, skins, furs and beeswax as an offset to these cred- its." 14 In the sail and steam boat days merchants were compelled to buy their entire stock in summer before navigation closed. Provisions for the year were also bought in summer, all on easy payments, with nine months' credit.

In 1840, when Gilman Folsom was given the contract to dig a channel from the old river bed to the lake for $28,000, to be paid in Ohio city bonds, he paid his men seventy-five cents a day. They struck, however, for higher wages. Wages were not high, but the purchasing power of cash was relatively great.

By 1850 Cleveland was a prosperous commercial town. Its retail business was still confined to Superior street, where most of its stores were found, in- cluding twenty dry goods, six hardware, and eight drug stores; five book stores, five merchant tailors, four of its six jewelers, twenty-one of its twenty- five clothing stores, six hat and cap stores, twenty-one boot and leather stores, twenty-one of its twenty-two shoe stores, two crockery stores and twenty-two of its fifty-eight grocery stores. There were four "uptown" groceries, Her- man's, corner Ontario and Prospect; Potter's, corner Ontario and Michigan; Remington's, corner Erie and Lake; and Pearson's, 61 Public Square. The resi- dence section was moving eastward. The wholesale business was on Water, River and Merwin streets, where fourteen wholesale grocery houses were lo- cated, and five ship chandlers and thirty-three forwarding and commission mer- chants.

The next decade sees but little change in the geographical distribution of the stores. The drug and grocery stores are scattered over a wide area, to Garden, Pittsburg, Erie, Orange, Kinsman and St. Clair streets. The Public Square is invaded with a dry goods store and a drug store. Ontario street from Pittsburg street to the Square was a substantial business street, "the penny venders moving farther east to make room for more extensive dealers."15

In 1870 the movement eastward and the segregation of various commercial interests is well under way. The lumber yards, eighteen in number, are in the flats near the river. The wholesale district was moved from River to Water street, and River street was given over to commission houses. Between St. Clair and the lake was still a fine residence district. The retail invasion of Euclid avenue began. John Main had a drug store and Thomas O'Rourke a tailoring establish- ment on the avenue. The Public Square was no longer surrounded by dwelling houses. A butcher shop (Propert's), Cook's crockery store, the groceries of D. Hogan & Company and Jones, Potter & Company, the jewelry establishments of B. G. Dietz, John Goodman, A. S. Houck, L. Kruger, and R. J. Pugh, a looking glass factory (Hambrock & Hamel), four merchant tailor shops (George Wright, W. C. Lyons, W. B. Hancock, John Bartall), three milliners (Mrs. M. M. Arm-

13 "Herald," April 3, 1850.

14 R. T. Lynn, "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 4, p. 248.

15 "Herald," July 16, 1867.

616

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

strong, J. L. Cook & Company, Mrs. C. A. Searls & Company), three musical in- strument stores (G. O. Hall, Ernst Kaiser, A. Königslow), all faced the square. Physicians, sewing machine agents, lawyers and real estate and insurance men, had offices in the plain three and four story blocks that replaced the comfortable old houses.

Within another decade many of the larger retail and wholesale houses of today were well established. Superior street still claimed the most important ones. The tide flowed eastward, not on Superior street as was early planned, but down the narrower Euclid street. The rapid development of factories along the lake and the railroads parallel to it, made a "smoke belt," noxious to fine resi- dences and to the best retail stores. So the wide stretches of Superior street were not lined by the finest modern buildings, and Perry's and Payne's broad acres remain almost vacant to this day. In 1880 Sterling & Company's carpet house, Charles Vaupel's drug store, C. A. Selzer's art store, Herman & Company's cloth- ing house, William Seymour's and P. L. Miles' jewelry stores, Brainard's music house, the display room of the White Sewing Machine Company, had all invaded the sacred precincts of the avenue. These stores were stone or brick, most of them still standing, while some have given way to more 'modern buildings that fol- lowed the pioneer sky scrapers of the avenue, the Garfield building and the New England building.

By 1890 Erie street was no longer a retail frontier. With the pushing of the street car line to Perry street came the demolition of the fine old mansions that had been the glory of medieval Cleveland and from 1900 to 1910 the remark- able growth of population has lured the finest stores beyond Erie, has almost united the modest business colony that started at "Willsons Corners" many years ago, with the pioneer business colony that began at "Perry's Corners" in 1810, and with eager arms it is reaching over the sloping lawns toward the business center at "Doan's Corners." In a few years Euclid avenue will be transformed from the finest residence street in America into a great retail thoroughfare. That our mag- nificent avenue should thus fall prey to business avarice is due not merely to the commercial expansion that naturally accompanies a fast growing town and is seen in the metamorphosis of Broadway and Fifth avenue in New York and Broad street in Philadelphia, but also to the unwise policy of the villagers in neg- lecting to open ample cross streets connecting St. Clair and Prospect streets, at convenient intervals between the Square and Perry (E. Twenty-first) street, thereby providing opportunity for lateral expansion. With its inevitable metro- politan development, Cleveland must burst these confines.

There was a good deal of rivalry between the towns of this region in the pioneer days. Cleveland's childhood was sickly. About 1820 Sandusky seemed to have an advantage over her. Pittsburg made quite an ado because she be- lieved the Ohio canal should be built from Erie to Pittsburg. Erie was a rival of ancient date. The "Erie Gazette" in 1838 says of Cleveland: "But one building of any importance is going up. Cleveland has had its day, and reached the zenith of its popularity. *

* Erie is progressing steadily and surely to greatness and importance, while the mushroom city of Cleveland is retrograding almost as rapidly as it sprang up." The "Herald," in reply, says that there are no stores for rent and that during the year nine large warehouses

WATWATER BUILDING ...

MBI

From an old cut

The Atwater block in 1857

CHINA HAL

CHINA HALL

SEBE

MI CILE WART FOCC ENSWORTH & CO

From an old cut Corner of Superior and Seneca streets, 1859

GEORGE A. DAVIS,

CLOTHING WAREHOUSE

FRANKLIN BUILDINGS

GunMa FRANKLIN BU

NEW YORK AND CLEVELAND

NEWTONKAL

CLOTHING A

LANC

AND GENTLEMEN'S

North-West Cor. Superior & Water Streets, Franklin Buildings, CLEVELAND, OHIO. All articles in his line will be sold on the lowest Cash terms of any establishment in the western country From an old cut

Corner of Superior and Water streets, 1848

NEW ENGLAND

FURNITURE

REHOUSE

PRATT BROWN & CO.

ridge Clou

From an old cut

An up-to-date business block on Water street, 1S56

EARLY CLEVELAND MERCANTILE ARCHITECTURE

FURNISHING STORE,

617

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

were erected on the river. After the severe panic of 1837 the town began to take on new activity. In September, 1843, the "Herald" gives a picture of this growth. Within two years one hundred and fifty buildings had been built, a fine row of brick dwellings on St. Clair street built by George Worthington and Isaac Taylor "with iron railings, cut stone steps and neat courts." Captain Levi Johnson built his fine cut stone mansion corner of Water and Lake street. This was torn down in 1909. The stone was brought from Kingston, Canada, "at six dollars per toise of two hundred and sixteen feet." The old Mansion House on Superior street and Vineyard lane was torn down and two blocks of stores built for Atwater of New York; the rooms were rented at once. The third floor contained a "Music Hall" of "double the capacity of any in the city." This "Atwater Block" was the leading business block of its day. In 1844-45 two hundred and twenty-six buildings were erected.16 There was no speculation in lots and no vacant houses were to be had. In 1845-6 the new build- ings included one hundred and forty-six houses, thirty stores, fifteen machine shops, two offices, the New England hotel and several factories .* This growth increased from year to year. It was the normal development of a healthy com- mercial town. In 1853 approximately seven hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars was invested in new buildings,17 mostly on Water, Superior and Merwin streets.

At this period the plain three and four story "blocks" still standing on lower Superior street, were built, also many fine residences. Captain Johnson's house alluded to above, was a good type of the sedate mansions built on Lake street. Walnut and Chestnut streets had many fine homes and St. Clair and Wood streets, indeed all the level tableland between Superior and the lake was considered avail- able for the finest homes. Euclid became fashionable a little later. In 1849 Henry B. Payne built his mansion on Euclid street. It was considered "princely." Henry Gaylord built below Erie, the same year. The town was noted for its beau- tiful location. In the '40s and '50s multitudes of fine elms, oaks and maples were planted to make Cleveland "the Forest City." Even in its village days, travelers remarked upon its beauty. In 1840 Howe wrote: "It is one of the most beauti- ful towns in the Union and much taste is displayed in the private dwellings and the disposition of shrubbery." 18 The mercantile architecture did not keep pace with the domestic architecture. It was often said that "Cleveland's residences are the finest, its business architecture the shabbiest in the United States."19 Only within the last decade are the mercantile buildings taking rank with the finest in the country.

COST OF LIVING.

In 1833 John Stair from London, England, wrote a letter which describes so graphically the conditions of that period that it is reproduced here in entirety.

16 "Herald," April 2, 1845.

* "Herald," September 24, 1845.

17 "Herald," October 18, 1853.

18 "Historical Collection," Vol. I, p. 498.

19 "Leader," February 17, 1869.

618

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

"County Cuyahoga, Ohio. Newburg, August 16, 1833.

My dear Thomas :-

"The opportunity affords for sending a few lines by 'Cheapside' which I gladly embrace. You have thought it strange perhaps that I have not written you before but when I tell you that on every letter we send to England we have to pay 25 cents postage to New York and 27 cents for every one we receive (if brought by private hand and posted at New York, 25 cents), added to which the uncom- mon scarcity of money, you will cease to be surprised. Frequently men who are possessed of a good farm and considerable stock are weeks and months with- out a cent. They barter, or as they call it, trade, for almost everything, and are so accustomed to it that they don't feel it, but it is particularly trying to foreigners who have not the means to do so, consequently their resources are soon drained, unless they have sufficient to purchase a farm where by hard work they may soon supply nearly all their wants. Many raise all they eat with few exceptions, such as tea, coffee, etc. They raise their own wool and flax which are spun and woven by the women for clothing, so that a farmer is the most independent person in this country, and any person with a small income may live well for one-third that they can in England.

"Before I give you the prices of a few things, I should tell you that our accounts are kept by dollars (market thus $) and cents. A dollar is equal to eight shillings York, or one hundred cents. For large Turkeys, 50 cents each ; fowls one shilling, or 121/2 cents each; roasting pigs, 25 cents each ; mutton, beef, pork, veal, etc., 4 cents per pound ; when bought by the quarter, 2@21/2 cents per pound; butter, from nine cents to one shilling per pound; cheese, six cents per pound ; groceries with the exception of tea, as dear as in England; Young Hyson, $1.00 per pound; cows, from $10 to $25 each; horses, from $30 to $100 each; clothing of all kinds is dear. So you see, this is the poor man's country, but unless he has land or can labor hard, a man with a family of small children stands but a poor chance. Situations for single men are very scarce except as bartenders at taverns, clerks, etc. Shopmen are little better off in the old country with little more than their board and lodging.

"New York is quite overdone, so many stop there. We arrived there the Ist of September just as the cholera began to abate. Its ravages there, and,. indeed, nearly all over the States, were very great. We were mercifully pre- served all the way, although at several times lodging under the same roof with it, but without knowing it at the time. There were cases in every town we passed through. It has again broken out in the Southern States, and I expect will reach Cleveland, six miles from us, it being a place where so many emi- grants land. It is a very increasing place, and for the size of it, the prettiest town I have seen in America. Its situation on the lake is so commanding that it will soon be a place of great importance, and the inhabitants are beginning to have a taste for the fine arts, so that a person who understood drawing, music, etc., so as to teach it well, might make money apace there. Mechanics of all description meet with employment.

"Education in this country is conducted very differently to what it is in the old country. Each state is divided into townships of five miles square. Each

619

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

township is again divided into districts and each district has a schoolhouse. These are called district schools and are taught by a female in the summer and by a man in the winter. The former is paid about $6 per month and boards around at the houses of the different pupils, a week at each place. The male teacher gets from $10 to $20 per month, according to the size of the school, and boards around. In many places they have select or private schools. I have kept one here. * * We are exceedingly tried for want of cash. I have taken but little more than $5 in cash for education since I have been in the country-a little more than a sovereign (they fetch $4.75)." 20

In 1838 flour was seven dollars and fifty cents the barrel, potatoes one dol- lar the bushel, good beef twelve and one-half cents per pound, pork the same. These were hard times prices and very high for "Cheap Ohio."

In 1840 flour was taken in lieu of New York exchange at three dollars and fifty cents the barrel. In June the papers give prices as follows : Cheese, four and one-half cents per pound; butter, nine cents; eggs, five cents per dozen ; oats, thirty-seven to forty cents per bushel; dried apples, one dollar per bushel ; sugar, seven and one-half cents per pound; Rio coffee, seven and one-half cents to eight and one-half cents per pound; spring steel, six cents per pound; nails, assorted, six cents per pound; sheet iron, six and one-fourth to seven and one- half cents; sheetings, seven and eight cents per yard; blue shirtings, eight and one-half to ten and one-half cents per yard; prints, eight and one-half to six- teen cents per yard; and forty-two to seventy cents per yard.21

On March 29, 1843, mechanics and workmen met to protest against the "present practice of paying mechanics and laboring men in orders and store pay." They resolved "that so long as money is the circulating medium of this country, it alone is the proper pay for the services of every class of the com- munity." The men did not complain of low wages, because they said the times were hard, but they did want money, and declared that after April 5 they would not take anything else in payment. On April 5 they held a large mass meeting in the Square, preceded by a workingman's parade. The protest was only partially successful.22

In 1848 (January II), the papers give wholesale market quotations as fol- lows: Flour, five dollars to five dollars and fifty cents the barrel; wheat, one dollar per bushel ; corn, forty cents per bushel; oats, twenty-five and thirty cents per bushel; hogs, two dollars and fifty cents to three dollars twelve and one- half cents per hundred weight; lard, seven cents the pound; white fish, seven dollars the barrel; trout, six dollars, and pickerel five dollars; hams, four cents; beef, twelve cents the pound; apples, thirty-seven to sixty-two cents the bushel; sugar, New Orleans, six and one-fourth cents; loaf sugar, ten and one-half to eleven and one-half cents; eggs, fourteen cents per dozen; table butter, eleven to twelve cents. In July, 1848, cheese was six cents; butter, nine and one-half cents; eggs, ten cents; and pork, six dollars and twenty-five cents the barrel.

20 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 4, p. 40.

21 From the Market Quotations.

22 See "Weekly Plain Dealer."

620

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

The following schedule is given to show what the yearly expenses of a fine retail store on Superior street were in 1853:

$1,500

Chief clerk

600

Assistant clerk and bookkeeper

500

Three other clerks

300

Insurance on stock 300

Taxes 200

Annual depreciation of stock, shopworn, styles, etc. 2,000

Family expenses of proprietor

1,000

Total $7,000

This, it was figured, would require a sale of forty-two thousand seven hun- dred and fifty dollars for the year on a fifteen per cent net profit basis.23 The help figured on was all male, as women had not yet been driven by the stress of competition and a higher standard of living, into mercantile pursuits. The first woman employed as a "clerk" was quite a curiosity, and people peeped in at the store window to see her.

With the general prosperity of the '40s and '50s, rents went up. They were lowered a little in 1854. Houses within a half and three-fourths mile of the business center that had rented for four hundred and fifty dollars the year, dropped to two hundred dollars, and even to one hundred and fifty dollars.24

In the decade of 1860, the great war affected the markets. March 7, 1860, the following prices prevailed : Flour, five dollars and fifty cents to six dollars and twenty-five cents per barrel; corn, forty-eight to fifty cents per bushel; hams, nine and one-half to ten cents per pound; dried beef, ten cents per pound ; potatoes, thirty to forty cents per bushel; butter, thirteen cents per pound ; eggs, twelve and one-half cents per dozen; sugar, New Orleans, seven and three- quarter to nine cents per pound; granulated, eleven to eleven and one-quarter cents per pound; coffee sugar, ten to ten and one-half cents per pound; New Orleans molasses, forty-six to fifty cents per gallon; Cuba molasses, thirty-eight to forty cents per gallon; Rio coffee, twelve and one-quarter to fourteen cents per pound; Java coffee, sixteen to seventeen cents per pound; layer raisins, three dollars to three dollars and twelve cents per box; rice, four and one-half to five cents per pound; lard oil, eighty-five to eighty-eight cents per gallon.

In 1863 prices had advanced; some of the food products had multiplied in value. The supplying of the increased demand for goods used by the army furnished plenty of work, however, and hard times were not so seriously felt.

January 29, 1870, prices on staples follow : Flour, five dollars and twenty-five cents to seven dollars and twenty-five cents per barrel; hams, eighteen to eigh- teen and one-half cents per pound; dried beef, nineteen to twenty cents per pound; dressed hogs, ten and one-half to eleven cents per pound; butter, best table, twenty-eight to thirty cents per pound; eggs, twenty-six to twenty-eight cents per dozen; chickens, fourteen to fifteen cents per pound ; turkeys, sixteen to eighteen cents per pound ; potatoes, forty-five to fifty cents per bushel; apples,

23 "Daily Herald," October 26, 1853.

24 "Daily Herald," September 26, 1854.

Rent of store

Amos Townsend, Wholesale grocer, congressman

Solon Burgess, Wholesale grocer

I. H. Morley. Hardware and paint

PIONEER MERCHANTS

621

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

three dollars and twenty-five to three dollars and fifty cents per barrel ; granu- lated sugar, fifteen and three-fourths cents per pound; white coffee sugar, four- teen and one-half cents per pound; New Orleans molasses, ninety to ninety-five cents per gallon; Cuba molasses, sixty to eighty cents per gallon; Rio coffee, twenty-one and one-half to twenty-six cents per pound; Java, thirty-five to thirty-six cents per pound; Hyson tea, ninety cents to one dollar and eighty cents per pound ; gunpowder tea, one dollar and twenty to one dollar and ninety cents per pound ; white fish, nine dollars per barrel; trout, six dollars and fifty cents per barrel.

While these prices have fluctuated with economic conditions, they have, on the whole, steadily advanced, reaching in many commodities the highest point this year, 1910, causing a "meat strike" in Cleveland that will be historic.

THE MARKETS.

Early in 1830 the village trustees passed an ordinance regulating the mar- kets. Every week day was a market day for the sale of fresh meats, Wednes- day and Saturday for the sale of vegetables and "other articles ordinarily ex- posed for sale in public market." The selling of goods was confined to the market house until 10 a. m. The "monopolizing" of stalls or places at the mar- ket was prohibited. This market was on Ontario street south of the Square.

In 1837, according to the first directory, there were "four public markets in this city, kept in good order and supplied with every article that can be desired at similar places." At the foot of Water street the "wood market" was located, where the farmers hauled the well seasoned maple, hickory, oak and ash, cut into cord wood. Often a dozen or more wagons stood there in the mud and slush waiting purchasers .*

In 1839 the city built a small market house on Michigan street and L. D. Johnson was appointed "market clerk."

From 1850 to about 1860 there was warfare between the market men, the hucksters, and the grocers. In 1854-5 the hucksters purchased their produce of the market gardeners before the people could get to the market, and then the hucksters sold their stock at greatly increased prices. August 9, 1855, the work- ingmen had a "bread, meat and rent" meeting on the square and formed a "pro- tective union" to fight the hucksters. The city council passed an ordinance in- tended to relieve the consumer. In 1856 a parcel of land was bought at the junction of Ontario, Kinsman, Pittsburg and Broadway for about one thousand five hundred dollars and the new Central Market House was soon completed. But the hucksters and market men liked their old stands on Ontario and Michi- gan streets and refused to move. The city passed ordinances granting liberal privileges to the users of the new market, and forbidding market teams using any but the "Central Market grounds." A "producer," however, could sell to anyone, anywhere, what he had produced. This was a hard blow to the Ontario street merchants and hucksters, and they raised a fund to defend those who were arrested for using Ontario street as a market. Several arrests were made,

* Annals "Early Settlers Association," No. 8, p. 165.

622

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

but Judge Tilden discharged the offenders on the ground that they were "pro- ducers."

The Sheriff Street Market, the largest of the city markets, was built by a private corporation. In December, 1879, the Newburg Market house was opened. The lot upon which the building stands was purchased February 15, 1879, from C. P. Jewett and David Edwards.

In 1840 Josiah Barber and Richard Lord set aside for public use, a small parcel of land at the corner of Pearl and Lorain streets in their allotment. This was called "Market Square." In 1853 and 1864 David Pollock and James Webster each gave a strip, making the parcel one hundred and thirty-two feet on each side. Later James Webster added a strip thirty-two feet wide, extending from Market Square to Hudson street, later called Market street. When it was proposed to build a market house, David Pollock, one of the donors, in 1858, sought to enjoin the city but the court overruled him and a wooden market house was built in 1868. In 1898 the legislature empowered the mayor to appoint a market house com- mission, and J. B. Perkins, C. C. Hamilton and Otto I. Leisy were appointed. The council failed to approve the appointment. Nothing was done until Mayor John- son in 1901 appointed H. G. Slatmeyer, John Goetz and A. G. Daykin, who sold in November, 1901, one hundred and ten thousand dollars in bonds, and purchased a site for the new market across Pearl street from the old. Here a massive building is now being erected.

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.

A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 78

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