USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 45
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the first favorable opportunity. The two selected trailed Carter on his next hunt with Indian cunning and at a favorable opportunity to make sure work both fired at once, but missed. Carter turned on his heel and fired. One Indian fell dead in his tracks, the other with a terrific whoop ran into the woods out of sight. This event overawed the Indians and no further attempts were made on Carter's life. His rifle became the law of the land. The Indians became convinced that he was the favorite of the Great Spirit and could not be killed. While Carter had thus obtained such
ALFRED KELLEY
an influence over the Indians, he thus became the protector of the settlers on the border. John Omic, who was hung for murder, was kept a prisoner in Carter's tavern previously to his trial and execution without fear of a raid from the Indians. Carter always treated the Indians when they be- haved as they should with kindness and generosity, and was a peacemaker and arbiter in quarrels among themselves. The story of the hanging of Omic, the first execution in the county, is necessarily a part of every local history, but its repetition occurs because of its great significance. Many Indians were present. It was an illustration to them of the majesty of the white man's law, inexorable but based upon sober judgment. It was an object lesson not long to be forgotten that the safety of the com- munity depends upon the punishment of crime, that life must not be taken with impunity, but that the sober judgment of the law and not the idea of vengeance must rule. Omic had killed in cold blood two white
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men near Sandusky. The testimony was undisputed, he was convicted and sentenced. Carter, in whose custody he had remained from the time of his arrest, and who, as we have said, spoke the Indian language fluently, impressed upon the Indian the fact that the white man's law must be carried out and counselled Omic to die like a man. The time of the execution arrived. A gallows had been erected on the Public Square ready for the execution, which was fixed at June 26, 1812. When that day arrived a one-horse wagon appeared at the door of Major Carter's cabin. On it was a rough coffin made of boards unplaned, ready to receive the convict, but first to provide a seat for him on his way to the scaffold. Omic, or O'Mic as the name is more frequently written in the early annals, had many times after his conviction boasted to Major Carter that he would show the white men how bravely an Indian could die. He said they need not tie his hands, but simply adjust the rope and he would jump from the scaffold and hang himself. He decorated himself with paint and war plumes and when taken out of Major Carter's garret sprang lightly into the wagon and seated himself on his coffin with the stolid indifference of his race. When he arrived at the scaffold he was taken by Sheriff Baldwin and assisted by Major Carter compelled to ascend to the scaffold. It may be added that the drive from Major Carter's had been made under a military escort that marched to the music of the fife and muffled drums to the Public Square, where a large crowd had collected. On the scaffold the murderer lost his courage and was no longer the brave warrior. A prayer had been offered, the rope adjusted and the trap ready to be sprung when the prisoner seized a side post of the gallows and held on with a death grip. Carter reminded him of his professed bravery and the prisoner finally agreed to let the law take its course on condition that he be given a quart of whiskey. This concession was agreed to, but the prisoner after drinking the potion again played the same trick and again compromised on the second quart of whiskey. Before he had completed the drinking of the second the trap was sprung and the prisoner fell, breaking the rope and his neck at the same time. Before this time the Indians gathered about exhibited great emotion, and it is said that on account of the storm which was just beginning, but which burst into fury just as the trap was sprung, the flint locks of the guards were so moist that their guns would have been useless had the Indians attempted a rescue. The remains of Omic were immediately buried under the scaffold, but were not there the following morning, which gave rise to many con- jectures until it was found that they were in the possession of Doctor Long, Cleveland's first physician, who used it for clinical purposes. As a final sequel to the incident of this first execution it is related that Captain Sholes, a patient of Doctor Long, became panic stricken at a sight of Omic's skeleton in Doctor Long's pioneer hospital. This is referred to as the last appearance of the terrible O'Mic.
The use of the Carter Tavern as a jail did not spoil it as a place of general social activity, for the name of Lorenzo Carter became known throughout the Reserve. He was highly respected as a worthy citizen and was known as the famous real pioneer of the Cuyahoga Valley. To the extent that he had the great influence over the Indian he had the con- fidence and respect of the white men. The first social dance or ball that took place in Cleveland was held at the Carter Tavern, the renowned log cabin. It was held July 4, 1801. There were about thirty in attendance. They came from all around and were dressed in all sorts of style. Some came on foot and some on horseback. The dancing was in the front room or parlor with its puncheon floor and its walls decorated with deer horns, powder horns, rifles and shotguns. The dance began at an early hour
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and lasted until daylight. The orchestra consisted of a Mr. Jones, who, after tuning up his fiddle, struck up as the first number "Hie, Betty Martin," the favorite air of that day. Here, as we have said, occurred the first wedding in Cleveland.
Of Major Carter, Harvey Rice has this to say: "Major Lorenzo Carter was the right man in the right place for the time in which he lived. No man, perhaps, could have accomplished more, or executed his life's work better than he did under the same circumstances. He accumu- lated a handsome property, and in the latter part of his life purchased a large farm, which he improved, and which lay on the west side of the Cuyahoga River, nearly opposite the termination of Superior Street. This farm, after his death, became the property of his son, Alonzo Carter, who occupied it for many years, when it was sold to the Buffalo Land Com- pany and cut up into city lots. It has now become an important business part of the City of Cleveland. The major died February 7, 1814, at forty- seven years of age. He was the father of nine children, three sons, Alonzo, Henry and Lorenzo, and six daughters, Laura, Rebecca, Polly, Rebecca II, Mercy and Betsey. Lorenzo and both Rebeccas died in infancy. Henry was drowned when but ten years old in the Cuyahoga River. The other children attained maturity and led exemplary lives. His wife died October 19, 1827. The descendants of the major are numerous, and are not only worthy, but highly respected citizens. His grandsons, Henry, Lorenzo, Charles and Edward Carter, reside in the City of Cleveland, and others of his descendants reside in the vicinity, or at no great distance, and are connected by marriage with prominent families-The Rathburns and Northrops of Olmsted Falls, the Akins of Brooklyn, the Ables of Rock- port, the Cathans of Chagrin Falls, the Rathburns of Newburgh, the Peets of Ridgeville, Mrs. Crow of Newburgh and others. Major Carter and his wife, Rebecca, were consigned to their final resting place in the Erie Street Cemetery, near its western entrance. Two marble headstones mark the spot, and also bear upon their face a brief record that is worthy of a reverent remembrance." Lorenzo Carter, dying before the age of fifty, left a Cleveland emerging as a border town but still small. If an- other twenty-five years more of life had been allotted him he would, no doubt, have contributed much to industrial Cleveland. In 1808 he built the first vessel constructed at Cleveland, a thirty ton schooner named the "Zephyr" and designed for the lake trade.
The return of peace following the war with England did not bring immediate prosperity to Cleveland. There was a money stringency. Agricultural products about Cleveland were abundantly on the increase but were excessively cheap. Transportation East was expensive and that was the only market. The settlers, too, were generally in debt for their land and their payments must go to the eastern owners. Some business was done but the population was small and the increase was slow. Five years after the war the condition was most discouraging.
This condition had a tendency to increase the shipping for transporta- tion was in demand. This year Levi Johnson built another schooner in the same manner as the first. It was built in the woods where the Central Market is now and was hauled to the river in the same manner as was the Pilot. It was named the Neptune and was a vessel of sixty-five tons. In the year that the village was organized Noble H. Merwin moved to Cleveland and began business as a tavern keeper in the tavern formerly conducted by George Wallace. This hostelry was located on Superior Street and Virginia Lane. Merwin was an enterprising citizen. He soon engaged in the provision trade and in ship building. Miss Bixby, later Mrs. Philo Scovill, who came to Cleveland in 1816, has left recorded
CLEVELAND IN 1833 View east from Brooklyn Hill.
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recollections of the town at that time. She says that when she came, Levi Johnson, Alfred Kelly and Phineas Shepard were much in evidence. Phineas Shepard kept the old Carter tavern. The widow Carter was living on the farm at the foot of Superior Street and there was a large rye field in front of her house. Doctor Long and Doctor McIntosh, N. H. Merwin and Hiram Hachett, tavern keepers, Horace Perry and Philo Scovill, afterwards her husband, who kept a drug store, were mentioned. There was no church nor settled minister. Traveling preachers came from time to time and meetings were held in the schoolhouse in winter and in the courthouse in summer. The people were called to meeting by the blowing of a bugle by a Mr. Bliss. The first courthouse was built on the Public Square by Levi Johnson at a cost of $500. It was built of logs and the raising was in progress when the booming of cannon announced the Battle of Lake Erie. This was September 10, 1813. A little later a great social event occurred in Cleveland when the citizens gave a banquet to Com. Oliver Hazard Perry and Gen. William Henry Harrison The shipwrights of Cleveland were swelled with pride because they had built two of the ships of Perry's fleet, the Porcupine and the Portage. After the surrender of the Americans at Detroit and before the victory of Perry, a stockade was built at Cleveland by the government officer Capt. Stanton Sholes, as a defense. Lorenzo Carter and James Kingsbury were active in its construction. It was located in a thick wood west of West Third Street and north of Lakeside Avenue. It was a star shaped structure built of chestnut logs, capable of accommodating a garrison of 200 men and was called Fort Huntington. Its armament consisted of one cannon mounted on a pair of wagon wheels. This gun commanded the mouth of the river, but its effectiveness was not demonstrated. "Queen Charlotte" of the British fleet appeared before Cleveland in June of 1813, but she was driven off by a violent storm, and not by the gun of Fort Huntington.
The Township of Cleveland continued after the formation of the village and the election of village officers. From the records, the last general election, electing a full quota of township officers, was held in 1838, April 2nd. The trustees were H. H. Dodge, John A. Vincent and T. H. Watkins; justices of the peace, A. D. Smith and George Hoadley ; clerk, Henry Sexton; treasurer, N. Dockstader; fence viewers, S. W. Baldwin, R. Dunham and Levi Billings; constables, and it seems these officers were multiplied in number to form a sort of police force for the village and the embryo city, Lewis Dibble, Henry Morgan, Elijah Peet, Almon Burgess, Seth A. Abbey and Seth M. Billings. There was elected at this time also supervisors of the highways, as follows: J. R. Waters, S. Giddings, B. Crawford, S. Erwin, W. O'Connor, W. Cleveland, John Blair and R. Scovill to represent the various road districts. The previous year, in April, a justice election was held and J. F. Benedict and Joseph Adams were the choice of the electors, but this election was contested and another held in May, when Samuel Underhill and Isaac T. Benedict were elected, J. F. Benedict receiving only a few votes. The records show that this contested election cost the township $29.50.
There were three school districts at this time and the enrollment is recorded as twenty-eight in number one, twenty-six in number two, and 137 in number three. This enrollment was probably of residents and not "scholars," for it includes the names of Nathan Perry, Philo Scovill, Peter M. Weddell, A. W. Walworth, Irad Kelley, Leonard Case, Abraham Hickox, Samuel Williamson and other well known names. Fence viewers were elected at the last election recorded, but apparently the township was not adequately fenced for the records
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show that twenty-four citizens filed with the clerk ear marks for cattle, sheep and swine, indicating that a joint pasturage was used by the settlers. This completes the record of the township after the forming of the village and from this time Cleveland Township soon became merely a judicial township and so existed until the establishment of the Municipal Court, when it passed away, except in history.
But to return to the village proper-if one had come to Cleveland in 1816 with Leonard Case he would have found as did Mr. Case, Water
LEONARD CASE
Street a winding path in the bushes and Vineyard Lane and Union Lane paths leading down to the river, a street called Mandrake Lane, and West Third and West Sixth streets, all woods, between Saint Clair and Lake streets, a slashing, that is, the large timber cut down, but the small left growing, and with the walls of Fort Huntington still standing. There was a new schoolhouse where the Kennard House now is located. It was 18 by 20 feet and had a stone chimney. Between the river hill and the river it was a swamp. In what is now the wholesale section of the city, there were improved lots and the rye field of Mrs. Carter. Ontario north of the Square, Superior east, and East Ninth Street were deep woods.
Superior and Water streets were the business streets of Cleveland. On Superior Street lived Noble H. Merwin, his wife Minerva, his clerk William Ingersoll and his boarders, Thomas O. Young, Philo Scovill and Leonard Case. There was Hiram Hachett, wife, and five children, Silas Walworth and wife, James Gear and wife, hatters. It is said that
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these pioneer hatters of Cleveland made the broad pioneer hat, the prede- cessor of the famous Stetson, and, for statesmen real and aspiring, the tall white hat always associated with Gen. William Henry Harrison. On this street, but we are advancing too fast in history, for it was called at that time Superior Lane, we would have found Darius B. Henderson, his wife and daughter, Dr. David Long, his wife, Juliana, and two children, A. W. Walworth, postmaster and collector of the port, Daniel Kelley and sons Alfred, Joseph R., Thomas M. and Irad. Joseph R. and Irad Kelley were merchants associated in business. Almon Kingsbury had a store on Superior with his father, James Kingsbury. Pliny Mowry kept a tavern on the site of the Cleveland Hotel of today. There was Horace Berry and his wife Abigail, Abram Hickox, the blacksmith, survivor of the explosion in celebrating the dawn of peace, with his wife and family, Amasa Bailey, Christopher Gun, who operated the ferry across the Cuyahoga, George Pease and Phineas Shepard, who kept tavern in the old Carter house, part log and part frame, Nathan Perry and wife, who kept a store with a very large assortment for that day, John Aughenbaugh and family, the town butcher, a negro family, the names not known, Dr. David O. Hoyt, who moved soon after to Worcester, George Wallace, another tavern keeper, his wife Harriet, four children and steady guests or boarders, James Root, S. S. Dudley, H. Willman, William Gaylord and C. Belden. There was Asahel Abell, cabinet maker, and David Burroughs, Sr., and David Burroughs, Jr., blacksmiths, all pioneer business men of this main street of the Village of Cleveland.
On Water (West Ninth) Street could be found Samuel and Mathew Williamson, tanners, the widow of Major Carter, John Burtiss, brewer and vessel builder, John A. Ackley, afterwards the first marshal of the Village of Cleveland, and two lake captains with their families. William C. Johnson and Harpin Johnson. On the west side of the river, as Mr. Case remembered, there was only one family, that of Alonzo Carter, son of Lorenzo, the first treasurer of the village.
This gives a human glimpse of industrial Cleveland at that time, but the line of industries and commercial activities were growing. The next year a Mr. White put up a tailor shop, the first in the town, but he was obliged to go to Newburgh for a painter, as there were none in Cleve- land. Newburgh was more widely known then as letters were frequently addressed to Cleveland, Ohio, six miles from Newburgh. The ware- houses on the river were of logs, but already buildings were coming into existence of better construction. In 1817 Leonard Case and William Gaylord built the first frame warehouse on the river. It was north of Saint Clair Street. Soon Levi Johnson and Dr. David Long built another nearby, and John Blair another. The price of lots in the village were steadily advancing and in 1816 the assessed value of the property in the village was $21,065. On Bank (East Sixth) Street, Abel R. Garlick began cutting stone, which added another industry to swell the total.
Money was beginning to circulate and in 1816 the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie was started with Leonard Case as cashier, but there was not enough business to support it and after three years of life it went out of existence, only to be revived later as greater business activity made it necessary. This was the first financial institution in Cleveland. Some advance was made in 1818 and new additions to the citizenry. Orlando Cutler, a man with a vision, who foresaw the growth of the town, opened a store with a twenty thousand dollar stock of goods, a large addition to the town. Reuben Wood, a lawyer, who was afterwards governor of Ohio came that year. James Kingsbury sold to Leonard Case fifty acres of land which included the present site of the Federal Building,
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the Cleveland Postoffice, for $100 per acre. This was the most extensive real estate transaction up to that time. But the beginning of the great era of progress touched the life of Cleveland when "Walk in the Water," the first steamboat to ply the lakes came to the town that year. Of course all the population of the village came to the shore to view the marvel, which made very good time for a beginner. Cleveland, the capital of the Western Reserve, must have a newspaper, and in 1818 The Cleveland Gazette and Commercial Register was started and the next year The Cleveland Herald.
In enumerating the early settlers of Cleveland and recounting their deeds it is with especial pride that we speak of Alfred Kelley, who came to Cleveland in 1810. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1787, he re- ceived a common school and academic education and studied law. He came to Cleveland in company with his uncle, Judge Joshua Stowe, and
NATHAN PERRY
Dr. Jared P. Kirtland. Admitted to the bar on the year of his arrival he became the first prosecuting attorney of Cuyahoga County and continued in that office for twelve years. He was elected to represent this county, Ashta- bula and Geauga in the Legislature, and was reelected when Huron, hav- ing been detached from Cuyahoga, was included in his district. He was the first president (mayor) of the Village of Cleveland. He was an advo- cate of advanced ideas in the law, in finance, and in internal improvements, and as included in the latter he was a foremost promoter of the building of the Ohio Canal, and was superintendent of its construction when the project was finally under way. Fortunate for the town founded by Moses Cleveland it certainly was that a Cleveland man was in the councils of the projectors for if the lake terminus of the canal had been other than at the mouth of the Cuyahoga the growth of the city must have been delayed many years. But it is not of this that we wish particularly to speak.
While spoken of as "the father of the Ohio Canal," Mr. Kelley was the father of a reform movement of far reaching and heart gripping import. In the session of the Legislature he introduced a measure for the abolishment of imprisonment for debt. This session was held in 1816 and 1817 and was the Fifteenth General Assembly of Ohio. The bill did not pass and become a law at that time but it began the agitation. The old annals recite that this was the first bill to abolish imprisonment for debt that was introduced in any legislative body in the world. After the publi-
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cation of the poem on the subject by Whittier the reform spread and was adopted in all the states of the Union and in other parts of the world. The lines of Whittier, incorporated in the school readers, are familiar and we quote from them by way of calling attention more particularly to the sub- ject and to the author of the bill referred to, Hon. Alfred Kelley. In the thirty-sixth legislative session, when Leverett Johnson represented Cuya- hoga County, by act of March 19, 1838, imprisonment for debt was abol- ished in Ohio.
"What has the gray-haired prisoner done ? Has murder stained his hands with gore? Not so ; his crime's a fouler one ; God made the old man poor ! For this he shares a felon's cell, The fittest earthly type of hell ! For this, the boon for which he poured His young blood on the invader's sword, And counted light the fearful cost, His blood gained liberty is lost !
Down with the law that binds him thus ! Unworthy freemen, let it find No refuge from the withering curse Of God and human kind !
Open the prisoner's living tomb And usher from its brooding gloom The victim of your savage code To the free sun and air of God; No longer dare as crime to brand
The chastening of the Almighty's hand."
While in the Legislature Mr. Kelley drew the state bank statute, and which nearly a century later served as a model for our present national banking law. He labored hard to give the state a just and equitable sys- tem of taxation, a problem that seems to be still unsolved. In the grave crisis of 1841 he saved the state from the disgrace of repudiation by pledg- ing his own personal fortune to secure the money with which the obliga- tions of Ohio could be met. Ohio has furnished to the nation many finan- ciers of wide reputation. Alfred Kelley was the pioneer of all. He was a typical pioneer in this, that he raised a large family. He was married in 1817 to Mary Seymour Welles, daughter of Major Melancthon W. Welles of Martinsburg, New York. Their children were Maria, Jane, Charlotte, Edward, Adelaide, Henry, Helen, Frank, Annie, Alfred and Katherine. Besides being the "father" of the Ohio Canal with its northern terminus at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, Mr. Kelley served as one of the fund com- missioners, having charge of the funds necessary to prosecute the various canal enterprises of the state. And more-it is interesting to follow the career of this man, who was associated so intimately with the early days of Cleveland-railroads came and he was chosen to superintend the con- struction of a number. He was the first president of the Columbus & Xenia Railroad (1845), was president of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad (1847), now a part of the Big Four System, and was president of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad (1857), now a part of the New York Central Railroad. His entire life was de- voted to efforts to develop the state. And he devoted many years of
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service for when first in the Ohio Legislature he was the youngest mem- ber. He died at Columbus, December 2, 1859.
In a narrative history it is of course impossible to even mention, much less discuss, all who by their activities in the building up of Cleveland deserve a tribute. The very early years, with its sparse population, brought out in bolder relief the characters, who laid the foundation of the present great and growing city. Into this little community of promise in 1818 came Ansel Young, settling out at Doan's Corners. He was a man of sci- entific attainments and was an intimate friend of Jared Sparks, the famous scientist, preacher, and author. Young was known as a maker of almanacs, an occupation followed by his friend Sparks also.
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