A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 96

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 96

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The Cleveland & Chagrin Falls division begins at Kinsman street and runs through Warrensville, where the new Cleveland Farm Colony is located, to Chagrin Falls, about fourteen miles. The Chagrin Falls & Eastern division begins at the western line of Geauga county, extends east to Steele's Corners, thence southeasterly to Hiram and Garretsville, about twenty-five miles.

All of these lines were consolidated under one management November 21, 1901, when the Eastern Ohio Traction Company was incorporated. The officers were George T. Bishop, president; H. A. Sherwin, vice president ; J. A. Currie, secretary and treasurer ; and H. Clark Ford, W. A. Lamprecht, W. N. Gates, Howard White, E. G. Tillotson, H. P. McIntosh, R. A. Hamm, directors. The company operates 85 miles of road. The system operates through a partially set- tled country and has not been financially successful. For some years Robert D. Beatty has operated the lines as receiver.

The Lake Shore Electric Railway Company. In October 6, 1897, the Lorain & Cleveland railway was opened from Rocky river to Lorain, a distance of nine- teen miles, mostly over a private right of way. On this account and because of the extra heavy equipment the line became known throughout the country for the speed its cars attain. The officers were: B. Mahler, president ; J. B. Hanna,

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

vice president; E. W. Moore, treasurer; Joseph B. Hoyt, secretary. September 25, 1901, the Lake Shore Electric Railway Company received its charter. It was a consolidation of the Lorain & Cleveland Railway Company ; the Sandusky & Interurban Electric Railway Company; the Sandusky, Norwalk & Southern Railway; and the Toledo, Fremont & Norwalk Railroad. This line operated through limited cars from Toledo to Cleveland in December, 1901. In 1908 it organized the Peoples Light. & Power Company and under this charter supplies other railways with power. This extensive system operates 174.4 miles if single track. The officers are, 1909: E. W. Moore, president ; W. H. Price, vice president ; F. W. Coen, of Sandusky, general manager ; J. P. Witt, secretary and treasurer ; A. C. Henry, auditor

CHAPTER LXXV.

POSTOFFICE-TELEGRAPH.

The first mail route established in the Reserve was in 1801 from Pitts- burg through Canfield and Youngstown to Warren. In 1803 a route was es- tablished from Warren through Mesopotamia, Windsor, Morgan, Austinburg, thence to Harpersfield, Painesville and Cleveland. From Cleveland the route returned to Warren by way of Hudson. The first mail carrier over this route accomplished the circuit of one hundred and fifty miles on foot every week or ten days. The route from Cleveland to Detroit via Sandusky was established a few years later and in 1808 a route from Erie to Cleveland was established, John Metcalfe being its first carier. This was now Cleveland's principal mail route. Until 1811 Metcalfe carried the mail on foot. Saddlebags and horse- back were then substituted and about 1823 the stage coach became the carrier.

In 1808 the first mail was carried westward from Cleveland by Horace Gun, of Columbia township. In 1809 Benoni Adams carried this mail from Cleveland to the Maumee over the old Indian trail. It was a two weeks' trip with only one house between that of a French trader at Milan.1

"I was a mail boy carrying the mail from Warren to Twinsburg. The mail from Cleveland came on an old horse with a little boy on his back and stopped at Twinsburg. * * I would go out on Friday and return to Warren on Saturday, and you could put the mail from Cleveland going to Warren and that part of the Western Reserve in your hat. I carried it in one end of the portmanteau on my horse. In 1833 I carried the mail from Warren to Ravenna, twenty-five miles, half the way through the woods. and there we tapped the stage route from Cleveland to Pittsburg and took the little handful of Cleveland mail at that point instead of coming up to Twinsburg.2

Ashael Adams of Warren carried the mail on horseback, 1812-13 from Cleveland to Pittsburg. He left Pittsburg on Friday of each week at 6 a. m.

1 "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. I, p. 350.

2 Gen. J. J. Elwell, "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, p. 643.

THE FEDERAL BUILDING

Erected 1857-8, torn down 1902. Case Hall is seen just beyond. The present postoffice occupies the site of both these buildings.

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

and arrived in Cleveland on Monday about 2 p. m., returning he reached Pitts- burg on Thursday evening at 6. He stopped at Beavertown, New Lisbon, Can- field, Deerfield, Hartland, Ravenna, Hudson and Gallatin, and passing on his return through Aurora, Mantua, Palmyra, Canfield, New Lisbon, Greensburg and Beavertown. These were the only post stations then between Pittsburg and Cleveland. For his work the government paid him one hundred and eighty- six dollars per quarter, a pittance even in those years of scant specie circula- tion, for he was beset with all the dangers of the wilderness. About 1820 the stage coach took the place of the saddlebags.

The "Painesville Telegraph" January 1, 1823, says: "We understand that a mail stage is to commence running twice a week from Buffalo to Erie, after the first of the present month, by S. Marvin of the former place, and Colonel Bird, the former mail contractor on said route. We also learn that it is in contemplation to continue the stage through on the same arrangement to this place and as far west as Cleveland." 3

The postage varied according to the distance the letter was carried, from a few pennies to twenty-five cents. In 1836 the rates are given as follows : Let- ters ; six and one-quarter cents any distance not over 30 miles; ten cents from 30 to 80 miles; twelve and one-half cents, 80 to 150 miles; eighteen and three- quarter cents, 150 to 400 miles ; twenty-five cents over 400 miles. "Double letters charged double, treble letters treble, and quadruple letters quadruple these rates." Newspaper : one cent not over 100 miles, or for any distance in the state where printed. If over 100 miles out of this state, one and one-half cents each. Periodicals, magazines: not over 100 miles, one cent a sheet; over 100 miles, two cents a sheet. These rates were not rapidly reduced until the advent of the railroad, when postage became almost nominal. In 1856 letters were three cents except to California, Oregon, Washington and Texas where the rates were ten cents. The extension of the railroads to these far distant frontiers brought a uniformity and cheapness unthought of in the days of the saddlebag.

It took several weeks to bring news from New York to Cleveland in the primitive days. When "post haste" was required, relays of riders would carry the news in a week from Washington to Cleveland. This was done when war was declared in 1812. Later, this time was reduced to five days. News from Europe was often several months in coming. In 1837 it was considered a won- derful feat when a Boston paper of Saturday was received in Cleveland the following Saturday, while New York papers of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, got to Cleveland the Saturday of the following week.4

The following is from the "Herald :" Cleveland, July 2, 1845, this morning at 9 o'clock I received at the postoffice in this city a letter mailed yesterday at Alexander, Genesee county, New York, postage five cents. Quick and cheap news that."

In 1853 Cleveland had thirty-five mail trains a day, arriving and depart- ing. "Three men, three horses and two wagons are needed to bring twenty tons of mail a day from the depot." 5 In 1857 the New York mail via the New York

3 See "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, p. 947.

+ "Herald," May 6, 1837.

" "Daily Herald," June 27, 1853.

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

& Erie Railroad left Cleveland at 3 p. m., and arrived in New York the next day at 1 :30 p. m.

The Cleveland postoffice was established in October, 1805, and Elisha Nor- ton was appointed the first postmaster. He served only a short time, moving to Portage county and was succeeded by that useful pioneer, John Walworth. Colonel Whittlesey says: "Judge Walworth at first occupied the upper part of a frame building on the north side of Superior street, near Water street. When his family moved from this building to their home on the Walworth farm, Pitts- burg street, a small frame office was erected south of Superior street, where the American House now stands. During Judge Walworth's life, this office contained the combined authority of the city, the county and the federal govern- ments.

"Mr. Kelley states that in 1810 Mr. Walworth was Recorder, Clerk of the Common Pleas and Supreme Court, Postmaster and Collector of the Cuyahoga District. The same office accommodated Mr. Kelley, the only attorney in the place, and Dr. Long, the only physician. During the first quarter of 1806 the receipts at the postoffice amounted to two dollars and eighty-three cents.

"Probably the postoffice remained at the same place while Ashbel W. Wal- worth was postmaster. When Irad Kelley succeeded to that place it was removed to his brick store on the south side of Superior street opposite Bank street. The receipts for a year were about five hundred dollars, of which one fourth belonged to the Postmaster, as compensation, which included rent, fuel and clerk hire. All letters written by the postmaster could be franked by him, which, to a man of business, was of more value than his percentage on receipts. *

Under Postmaster Worley the delivery office was removed to the north side of Superior street at Miller's block, between Seneca and Bank streets, and after- wards to a store where the Johnson House* is now, the rear of which was occupied by the Custom House. Mr. Haskell removed it to the Herald building on Bank street. When Mr. Gray received the appointment the office was transferred to his building on Water street, west side, near St. Clair street.

"While Mr. Harrington was postmaster the government building on the Pub- lic Square was completed and thus the place of delivery became fixed."6

When the first government building was torn down to make room for the present new one, the postoffice was removed to the Wilshire building on Su- perior street.t

TELEGRAPH.

Professor S. F. B. Morse sent his first message over his newly invented tele- graph line from Washington to Baltimore in 1844. Immediately lines of "mag- netic telegraph" began to appear in the east. In 1846 a voluntary association called "The Lake Erie Telegraph Company," began to promote the Morse patents in this region. Its capital was $170,000, the shares fifty dollars each. Cleveland's

* Torn down in 1910 to make way for additions to the Rockefeller building.

" "Early History of Cleveland," p. 471.

t See Appendix for list of Post Masters.

Photograph courtesy Wachter und Anzeiger

WILSHIRE BUILDING, SUPERIOR STREET, BELOW SENECA (WEST THIRD STREET)

Showing buildings about 1888. The postoffice and other federal offices occupied this building 1901-1911, during the building of new federal building on the Square. The building on the extreme left is a remnant of the carlier architecture.

755

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

share of the venture was $5,000. The line was to extend from Buffalo to Detroit and its estimated cost was fifteen dollars per mile. This company was incorporated in 1848 and operated in that year from Buffalo to Cleveland,7 and to Erie, Ashta- bula, Elyria, Sandusky City, Toledo, Monroe, Detroit, Hudson, Akron, Massillon, New Lisbon, Wellsville, Beaver and Pittsburg. Its offices were in the Weddell house and were "open every day except Sunday from 7 a. m. to 9 p. m." H. B. Ely, secretary of the company, had charge of this office. In 1850 it had completed all its lines.

In 1848 the "Atlantic, Lake & Mississippi Telegraph" had in operation three thousand miles of line, and "when completed will connect with all the prin- cipal towns on the lakes of the west and southwest," it advertised in the city di- rectory, and that "all communications strictly confidential."

There were many independent competing lines based on several patents. In 1852-53 a consolidation known as the "Speed & Wade Telegraph Lines" was made, combining the following : The Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company, from Buffalo to Milwaukee; Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Telegraph Company, two separate routes to Cincinnati; Cincinnati & St. Louis Telegraph Company ; Cleveland, Wheeling & Zanesville Telegraph Company, via Ohio canal to Zanes- ville; and the Cleveland, Warren & Pittsburg Telegraph Company. The aggregate length of the lines was two thousand, five hundred and fifteen miles, and there were one hundred and four offices. The general offices were in the American House. Locally these lines were known as "Speed's Line," J. M. Tubbs, manager, and "Wade's Line," C. C. Lee, manager. Wade's line received on an average seven hundred messages a day at the Cleveland office in 1858.

"The Atlantic, Lake & Mississippi Telegraph Company" reorganized in 1852-3 as the "National Telegraph Company." It embraced all the "O'Reilly lines" in the United States and Canada, ten thousand miles. Cleveland was in the Lake Erie section of this company and known as the Lake Erie Telegraph Company. Henry H. Bishop was the Cleveland superintendent.

"House's Telegraph" also had an office in Cleveland in 1853. It extended from Halifax, Boston and New York, to St. Louis, and lines ran direct from Cleveland to St. Louis. Its offices were in the Johnson block, opposite the Ameri- can House. It advertised in the city Directory, 1853, that "all messages are de- livered, printed by telegraph in plain English."

Many shifts were made in the lines. In 1856 the following were advertised in Cleveland. I. The Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company from Buffalo to Milwaukee, offices American Hotel, J. M. Tubbs, manager. 2. Speed's Tele- graph office, St. Clair and Water streets, Buffalo and Milwaukee. 3. Union Telegraph Company, Water and Superior street, a consolidation of the House, Morse, O'Reilly and Wade lines controlled and managed by the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, J. H. Wade, general agent. 4. The Waring & Pittsburg Telegraph Company, offices American House.

By 1857-8 the inevitable consolidation had taken place. The Western Union Telegraph Company absorbed the lines. Its offices were in the Washington block, St. Clair street. J. H. Wade was the general agent.

7 For details, see "Herald," September 12, 1849.

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

In the development of telegraphy Jeptha H. Wade of Cleveland had a leading part. He was born in Seneca county, New York, 'August 11, 1811, and became a portrait painter. He was in Baltimore when Morse sent his first message over the first telegraph line, and he became interested in the new invention. In 1847 he constructed a line between Detroit and Jackson, Michigan, the first line west of Buffalo. The following year he came to Ohio for the Lake Erie & Michigan Tele- graph Company at Milan, Ohio, the birthplace of Thomas A. Edison. Soon he con- structed the "Wade Lines" from Cleveland to Cincinnati and St. Louis. These soon became a part of the "House consolidation." Upon the organization of the Western Union, Mr. Wade was first general manager and later president. He was one of the organizers of the first Pacific Telegraph line. He was identified with the banking and railroad interests of the city and is known not only for his private beneficence but also for his gift to the city of the beautiful park that bears his name.

Anson Stager was also active in the development of the telegraph lines.

Anson Stager

J. H. Wade

O'REILLY'S Atlantic, Lake and stlississippi Telegraph.

Office, Loraine Exchange, Elyria, Ohio.

[Piense write plainly-use no figurce-answer quickly-give full address, Despatches delivere.I promptly, and without extra charge. All despatclics strictly confidential. Despatches left at the Office between the hours of 7 o'clock A. M. aud lu P. M., will Le punctually forwarded

The following despatch, dated

Columbus

was received at this Ofice, at 7 o'clock, 35 minutes, & M (March 15+ 1856.

For Geo, & Washburn

Bengaman & Wade elected senator twenty with fallot John Greener librarian

A Banning Norton

50cm chgo

From the original In Western Reserve Historical Society

ONE OF THE EARLIEST FORMS OF TELEGRAPH BLANKS

LXXVII.

THE PUBLIC SQUARE.

The Public Square has occupied so important a place in our civic life and typifies so vividly the spirit of the community, that it seems fitting to close this broken narrative of Cleveland's development with a brief review of its history.

The Square is the only open space in Cleveland whose history dates from the founding of the city. The original survey of the town made by Augustus Por- ter in. 1796 marks the place as "Public Square," and the plat made by Amos Spaf- ford in 1801 says: "The Square is laid out on the intersection of Superior and Ontario streets and contains ten acres. The center of the junction of the two roads is the exact center of the Square." A survey made by Ahaz Merchant in 1835, showed only nine and a half acres in the Square.

While it has always been regarded as public property, as an open square or plaza, its precincts have not been held inviolate from public abuse. Originally Ontario and Superior streets were surveyed through it. In October, 1815, the village trustees ordered "a street on the Public Square running around said Square on each side and parallel and immediately within the outline of said Square." In 1812 the county was permitted to build its first courthouse and jail, a rude log cabin, on the northwest section. This was removed in 1831, when a new court- house had been completed on the southwest section. This was removed in 1858 and since then the county has not used the city's property. In 1858 the council instructed a committee "to get up plans for a city hall building to be erected on the southwest corner of the Square." Nothing came of this, and the board of improvements, a decade later, was instructed to offer three prizes of six hundred dollars, five hundred dollars and four hundred dollars, for the three best plans for a city hall to be built on the Square. In 1875 plans were received and Walter Blythe, who designed so many of the public buildings in northern Ohio at that time, received the first prize. His design was the stiff, forbidding adaptation of the French renaissance so common in those years, and so hideous. Fortunately the hall was not built. In 1885 a committee of the council recommended that a city hall be built on the Square. The report was tabled. In 1896-7 a final at- tempt was made to use the Square for the city hall purposes. Mayor McKis- son during the night had a temporary fence built around the northeast section.

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

The object lesson was heeded. The sight of the open space enclosed by a for- bidding fence convinced the citizens that this historic spot should remain free from buildings.

The Square in the village days was merely an open field, ungraded, covered with underbrush and a few trees. No fence enclosed it to keep cattle and hogs from wandering at random. Superior and Ontario streets were country roads, paths crossed it at every angle and teams drove over it "anyway they were a mind to." In 1820 it was a "barren, sandy waste, with only three trees upon it."1 Samuel Williamson recalled it when it was "only partly cleared of brush wood," when Superior street was "full of large stumps but otherwise than that it was clear," when Ontario was "a wagon track," and Water street "had been cut out and a wagon road was run down through the center of the street from Superior street to Bank street, so called. It had grown up however, with elder bushes, thick all the way along. There were occasional trees and some houses upon it." 2

In 1837 the Square was crudely graded and in the autumn the two northern quarters were fenced on the line of the curb. On June 19, 1839, a resolution by the city council directed the street supervisors to fence the southern portion to correspond with the northern "as soon as the county commissioners whitewash the courthouse." The commissioners promptly applied the brush. In 1849 a cor- respondent of the "Cincinnati Gazette" wrote from Cleveland that the Public Square was divided into four parts by intersecting streets "and enclosed by a post and two rail fence, and has over three hundred beautiful elm and maple trees." 3

This fence was the subject of considerable councilmanic statesmanship. The records indicate that it was erected "to improve and repair the Square and to prevent the depredations of cattle and swine." Legislation was required "to keep boys and loafers from occupying it as a roosting place to the annoy- ance of traffic." There was an ordinance "to improve the Square so as to prevent boys from using it as a ball ground," and it was even found necessary "to close up all entrances except that leading to the courthouse."

About 1852 a new era began for the Square. Four grass plats with an un- kempt turf unacquainted with a lawn mower, each enclosed by a fence,- had awakened a desire for a real park and the people demanded that the entire area be enclosed as one park. July 22, 1852, a petition was presented to the council asking that the streets through the Square be vacated. The city law department held that this would be illegal. The agitation for "a grand central park" con- tinued, and reached that stage of excess which public movements often attain under the stimulus of newspapers and interested propagandists.

The town was divided over the question. The opposition maintained that the enclosure was illegal and that adjoining property would. be damaged. A peti- tion with two thousand signatures was referred to the judiciary committee and on October 7, 1856, it reported favorably. On November 25, it was voted to va- cate "so much of Superior and Ontario streets as lay within the Public Square." On the 24th of March, 1857, the street commissioner was directed by resolution

1 "Herald," Vol. 32, No. 47.

2 "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. I, p. 54.

3 "Herald," Vol. 32, No. 40.

South side of Public Square, about 1865. The Park build- ing now occupies the Ontario corner where the two- story shop is shown.

Southeast corner of Public Square in 1892, showing last of the old elms

Old Stone Church, 1857, shows fence around the square and the trees

View of the Square 1865, Lincoln's funeral

Northeast corner of the Square in ISSS, showing new and old buildings of Society for Savings. The section is dennded of trees

FIVE VIEWS OF THE SQUARE

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

to "enclose the Square so as to make one undivided park and remove all fences not required to so enclose it." The commissioners utilized the first dark night for obeying this mandate.

In 1856 the council appointed a committee to place a fountain in the Square. At the intersection of Superior and Ontario streets a circular basin forty feet in diameter was placed. It was surrounded by a turfed embankment, seventeen feet wide and a walk eight feet wide, guarded by posts and chain. From the center of the basin a simple device sent up a spray of water supplied by the new waterworks. This fountain was the object of great interest to the state fair visitors in the fall of 1856. Crowds surrounded it and the local papers boasted that it was the first fountain in the state.

The town now possessed a park, where "up town and down town" could meet for recreation. The bi-secting streets were closed and all traffic had to circumnavi- gate the Square. Evergreen shrubbery was planted in profusion and curved walks were laid. Immediately it was objected that the shrubbery made no shade and occupied too much room and the curved walks occupied too much time. But for some years the park was popular. It was easily accessible to the residence sec- tion on the lake front and on Superior and Euclid. On pleasant summer evenings band concerts were given by Leland's famous band and Hickox's band.

But it was an unnatural place for a park. Remonstrances against the fence were regularly received by the city council. Property owners and merchants were particularly persistent and vehement. November 20, 1866, a petition headed by Leonard Case and H. B. Payne was presented to the council for reopening Superior street. The committee failed to agree on a report and on January 4, 1876, brought in its divided opinion, the majority maintaining the fence was il- legal and the minority showing that the "best lawyers in the city differed diametri- cally" on the question and that therefore the fence should stay. The recom- mendation of the majority, that friendly suit be started to let the courts decide was adopted. July 8, 1867, Judge Prentiss declared that Superior street was dedi- cated as a continuous street from Water to Erie and that the city had no right to vacate it without recompensing property owners. He ordered the fence re- moved. On August 21, this was done and the "fence war" was at an end. The following September, Ontario street fence was removed.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I, Part 96

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