USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 17
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law, and was admitted to the bar. During the War of 1812 he was engaged in the collection of taxes from non- residents of the Reserve, and in 1816 he came to Cleve- land for the position above described.30 He also practiced law to some extent, and acted as land agent, to which latter occupation he gave himself altogether after 1834. He acquired an immense fortune, and died in 1864.
The banking interests of Ohio had not been very ex- tensive, nor of any special credit to the State, prior to 1816. In that year an act was passed by the General Assembly which it was thought would result in a marked improvement. This general banking law incorporated the Franklin Bank of Columbus, the Lancaster Bank, the Belmont Bank of St. Clairsville, the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, the Mt. Pleasant Bank, and the Bank of West Union. It also extended the charters of the Urbana Banking Company, the Columbiana Bank, of New Lis- bon ; the Farmers', Mechanics' and Manufacturers' Bank, of Chillicothe, and the German Bank, of Wooster. It was provided that of the stock of these banks, and such as might be subsequently organized under this law, one share out of each twenty-five was to be set off to the State of Ohio, and the dividends accruing on such stock were to stand in lieu of taxes. A commentary upon the methods and con- ditions of the time is found in the fact, that when a gen- eral summary of the condition of the Ohio banks was made at a later date, four of the above named were set down as " worthless," three " broken," and one "closed."
" The first of the so-called banks of Ohio," says an em- inent authority 31 upon this subject, "to issue notes of
30 " When the bank was established, a suitable person for cashier was required. Judge Kingsbury, happening to be in town one day, was asked, if he knew any one among his acquaintances who could fill the position. He said he knew a young man, by the name of Leonard Case, who wrote a good hand, and was said to be a good accountant; and he thought he would answer. He was engaged, and was the first cashier, and Alfred Kelley the first president." Statement by Geo. B. Merwin .- " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. I, p. 66.
31 "State Bank of Ohio," by J. J. Janney .- " Magazine of Western History," Vol. II., p. 158.
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circulation was the Miami Exporting Company, of Cincin- nati, which was incorporated in 1803 as a trading com- pany merely, and its stock was payable five per cent. in cash and ninety-five per cent. in produce or manufactures, as the president and directors might approve. The charter contained a clause under which the directors claimed the right to issue notes for circulation, and find- ing the treasury not as full as was thought desirable, ap- plication was made to an engraver, and notes were issued. But the time always comes in such cases when new notes will no longer be taken and if nothing better can be offered, a collapse follows."
That Ohio might be freed from a currency of this char- acter, the Legislature, on February 24th, 1845, passed an act for the incorporation of the State Bank of Ohio, and other banking companies. This measure owed its exist- ence, in a great degree, to the wisdom and personal efforts of Alfred Kelley, who was then a member of the State Senate. It provided that the bank should have a capital of six millions one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, " in addition to the capital of any existing banks that may be authorized to continue their existence subject to the provisions of the act." The State was divided into twelve districts and the capital distributed among them. It was provided that no more than one bank could be formed in a county, except under certain conditions. A board of bank commissioners was named in the act, one of whom was John W. Allen, of Cleveland. The story of Cleveland's branch connections will be fully related later.
The brief story of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie has been told in the statement made by Mr. Handy, above quoted. That troublesome times overtook the new venture was due, we may be sure, to existing condi- tions, rather than to any fault on the part of its sponsors, for Alfred Kelley and Leonard Case both showed them- selves, in other directions, the possessors of financial abil- ities of the highest order. The money market was in
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such condition in Cleveland just then that in 1817-1818 small change was so scarce that the trustees of the vil- lage, to relieve the wants of the people, issued corpora- tion scrip, called by the people " corporation shinplas- ters," to the amount of one hundred dollars, and running in value from six and one-fourth cents to fifty cents. " There were financiers in those days," says George B. Merwin, in the statement recently quoted, " as well as in modern times; a silver dollar was divided into nine pieces, each passing for a shilling, and a pistareen, worth eighteen and three-quarter cents, went for a shilling also."
The public school system has been for years-and justly, too-a matter of great pride to the people of Cleveland, and there are few, if any, cities of the Union where thought and money have been more generously expended, in the free education of the young, than in the Forest City. The system, as it stands to-day, is a justifi- cation of all that has been attempted and performed.
In preceding pages we have called attention to the fact that this was a matter that lay very close to the hearts of the sons and daughters of New England, who came into the wilderness to found communities fashioned after those at home; and a glimpse has been here and there given of isolated pioneer schools. Cleveland possessed some of these at various early dates, but it was not until 1817 that there began to appear upon the records sub- stantial evidences that the matter of education had been taken up in real earnest at last. A little school-house had been erected by private subscription,32 down on St. Clair street, near Bank, in a small grove of oak trees. "No
32 The donors to this fund were as follows: T. & I. Kelley, $20; Stephen 'S. Dudley, $5; Daniel Kelley, $10; T. & D. Mills, $5; Wm. Trimball, $5; J. Riddall, $5; Walter Bradrock, $2.50; Levi Johnson, $10; J. Heather, $5; Horace Perry, $10; John A. Ackley, $5; A. W. Walworth, $5; Geo. Wal- lace, $5; Jacob Wilkerson, $5; Plinney Mowrey, $3.20; D. C. Henderson, $15; David Long, $15; Samuel Williamson, $15; Alonzo Carter, $15; John Dixon, $5; N. H. Merwin, $5; James Root, $5; Joel Nason, $3; Edward McCarney, $5; Geo. Pease, $5.
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description of this building is needed," says Mr. Freese, 33 in his sketch of the Cleveland schools, " further than to say that it resembled a country district school-house, being modeled upon that well-known and peculiarly con- structed edifice, which has suffered no change in a cen- tury-one story, the size about 24 by 30, chimney at one end, door at the corner, near the chimney, the six windows of twelve lights each placed high; it being an old notion that children should not look out to see anything. As a school-house of the olden time, some interest attaches to its history, but perhaps more from the fact that it was the first school property ever owned by Cleveland as a corpora- tion. But the schools kept in it were not free, except to a few who were too poor to pay tuition. The town gave the rent of the house to such teachers as were deemed qualified, subjecting them to very few conditions. They CLEVELAND'S FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE. were left to manage the school in all respects just as they pleased. It was, in short, a private and not a public school."
The village acquired this school-house by purchase. At a meeting of the trustees, January 13th, 1817, it was declared that the sums which the public-spirited citizens, elsewhere named, had donated should be refunded, " which subscriptions shall be paid out of the treasury of the corporation at the end of three years from and after the 13th of June, 1817."
Mr. Merwin 34 states that when this school was first opened, there was an attendance of twenty-four, and that
33 " Early History of the Cleveland Public Schools," by Andrew Freese; published by order of the Board of Education, 1876, p. 6.
34 " Recollections," by George B. Merwin .- " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 5, p. 17.
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" the young men in the town were assessed to pay the master for the amount of his wages for the children of those parents who were unable to do so;" but he does not tell us how this assessment was laid, or under what law it could be made collectible. He adds: " Religious services were regularly held here, Judge Kelley offering prayer, a young man read the sermon, and my mother led the singing; singing school was also kept here, taught by Herschel Foote, who came from Utica, N. Y., and established the first book-store in town."
Samuel Williamson, son of the pioneer Samuel William- son,35 whose name we have several times encountered, has also touched upon the early schools of the city, giving his personal experiences in connection therewith : " The first school of which I have any recollection was taught in a barn which stood back of the American House, between that and the brow of the hill; and I should not remember that, perhaps, but for one or two circumstances. I know a severe, heavy storm of wind, rain and hail came from the west, and blew through the cracks and knot-holes of the barn, and the school was broken up for that day. Of course it was not a finished building at all; it was merely built of planks, logs, sticks, etc. Afterwards there was a shed, so-called, that stood where the Commercial build- ings now stand (1880). There was a school also, taught by the late Benjamin Carter, in a little old building that stood on Water street. It was kept there, I think, two winters. Afterwards we went to the old court-house, and occupied, in the first place, the family room. After-
35 The elder Williamson was a native of Cumberland County, Pa., and came to Cleveland in 1810, where, in connection with his brother, he car- ried on the business of tanning and currying, which he continued until his death, in 1834. The son Samuel was but two years of age when he came to Cleveland, and was born in Crawford County, Pa., in 1808. He was a member of the Cleveland bar, auditor of Cuyahoga County, a member of the Ohio House and Senate, served in the city council, on board of educa- tion, and in other positions of public trust. He served for a number of years as president of the Cleveland Society for Savings. He died in 1884. Mr. Williamson's statement, quoted in the text, is from an address found in the " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 1, p. 57.
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wards we went upstairs, and occupied that room when the court was not in session .. It was kept there, until the small building was erected on St. Clair, west of Bank street, which remained there until a very few years ago."
Still another early settler has added his recollections to this entertaining collection of educational experiences. The date to which he refers was a little later than the year in which public instruction, as a corporate matter, began down on St. Clair street; but as the school was within the present limits of Cleveland, and as his state- ments are illustrative of general conditions, I have no hesitation in giving him space. George Watkins was brought to Cleveland in 1818, when his father, Timothy Watkins, found a home in a log-house on Euclid avenue. " My first recollection of a school-house," says the son, 36 "was of one on Fairmount street, and a second, a block log- house on Giddings avenue. This [the second] was built in 1822, and I began to attend there the same year. The building was about 15 by 20 feet. It was called a block- house, because the logs were hewn on both sides. It was lighted by five windows. The old stone fire-place was six feet across. On three sides of the room was a platform seven or eight feet wide and about one foot high. An upright board was placed a foot or so from the edge of this platform. Here the little children sat, the board serving for the back of their seats. On the platform and against the wall, at the proper height, was the writing desk of the older pupils. This desk was continuous around three sides of the room. The seats, like the desk, were of unplaned slabs, which ran parallel with the desk. When it was writing time, the boys and girls had to swing their feet over, and proceed to business. We wrote with a goose quill, and every morning the master set our copies and mended our pens. We had school but three months, in the winter."
The little building on St. Clair street well served the
36 " How it Was," by George Watkins .- "Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 6, p. 59.
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purpose for which it was intended, but as the village grew and became more ambitious, it was recognized that something more commensurate to the public needs was demanded. The citizens conferred with each other, and the result was the erection, in 1821, of a two-story brick building, located on the north side of St. Clair street, half-way between Seneca and Bank streets. This was known as the " Cleveland Academy," and when it was completed in 1822, the " Cleaveland Herald," which had then been established, referred with pride to " the con- venient academy of brick, with its handsome spire, and its spacious room in the second story for public purposes."
As soon as the rooms on the lower floor were complet- ed, a school was opened, on June 26th, 1822, under the direction of the Rev. Wm. McLean. His scale of prices was as follows: Reading, spelling and writing, $1.75 per term; grammar and geography were added for one dollar VERY 1 JORDAN. 55 more; while Greek, CLEVELAND ACADEMY. Latin and the higher mathematics carried the grand total up to $4 per term.
The Academy building was about 45 by 25 feet in size; the lower story was divided into two school-rooms, while the upper floor was employed for religious services, lect- ures, traveling exhibitions, and such public purposes. A time soon came when this upper room was needed for the senior department, and the good fortune of Cleveland was never better illustrated than upon this occasion, when exactly the right man was sent along to occupy
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the newly-created position of honor and responsibility.
The name of Harvey Rice is not only connected for all time with the history of Cleveland, but with that of the free school system as well. He was one of the chief in- struments in the creation of that wonderful plan of educa- tion that made " the Ohio school system " a beacon light upon a new and untried road, for the guidance of States and communities elsewhere. In other ways, also, his many years spent in Cleveland were fruitful of benefit to the community at large.
Mr. Rice was of New Eng- land birth, and was just twenty-four years of age when he came to Cleveland. He graduated from Williams College, and set out toward the new west to seek his for- tunes. Reaching Buffalo, he HARVEY RICE. embarked on a schooner for Cleveland, and after three days of rough passage, cast anchor off the mouth of the Cuyahoga, on the 24th of September, 1824. "A sand-bar prevented the schooner from entering the river," Mr. Rice 37 has told us. " The jolly boat was let down, and two jolly fellows, myself and a young man from Balti- more, were transferred to the boat with our baggage, and rowed by a brawny sailor over the sand-bar into the placid waters of the river, and landed on the end of a row of planks that stood on stilts and bridged the marshy brink of the river, to the foot of Union lane. Here we were left standing with our trunks on the wharf-end of a plank at midnight, strangers in a strange land. We hardly knew what to do, but soon concluded that we must make our way in the world, however dark the prospect. There was no time to be lost, so we commenced our career in Ohio as porters, by shouldering our trunks and groping
37 " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," Vol. III., No. I, p. 35.
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our way up Union lane to Superior street, where we espied a light at some distance up the street, to which we directed our footsteps." They found themselves in a tavern kept by Michael Spangler, where they were hospitably received.
"In the morning," Mr. Rice continues, "I took a stroll to see the town, and in less than half an hour saw all there was of it. The town, even at that time, was proud of itself, and called itself the ' gem of the West.' In fact, the Public Square, so called, was begemmed with stumps, while near its center glowed its crowning jewel, a log court-house. The eastern border of the Square was skirted by the native forest, which abounded in rabbits and squirrels, and afforded the villagers a 'happy hunt- ing ground.' The entire population did not, at that time, exceed four hundred souls. The dwellings were generally small, but were interspersed here and there with a few pretentious mansions. . I came armed with no other weapons than a letter of introduction to a leading citizen of the town, and a college diploma printed in Latin, which affixed to my name the vain-glorious title of A. B. With these instrumentalities I succeeded, on the second day after my arrival, in securing the position of classical teacher and principal of the Cleveland Acad- emy." In the spring of 1826, Mr. Rice resigned this po- sition, and gave himself to other fields of labor.38 Con- sideration of the further development of Cleveland's edu- cational system will be deferred to a later date.
38 Mr. Rice became a member of the Cleveland bar; was elected to the Legislature, and appointed agent for the sale of the Western Reserve school lands; served as clerk of Cuyahoga County, and in 1851 was sent to the State Senate, where he introduced the bill which became the Ohio school law, under which the free public-schools of Ohio were organized. To school work, and to other lines connected with the prevention of crime and the reformation of criminals, Mr. Rice gave many years of earnest and successful labor. He was an author of note, and the efficient first president of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County. His life of usefulness ended in 1891.
In connection with the above mention of Mr. Rice's services in the Gen- eral Assembly of Ohio, it may be mentioned, as an interesting historical fact, that Cuyahoga County in its long public record has been represented
NUO TIOFINITION
I
STOCKLEY'S PIER, 1850. (From the Government Pier.) I. Ashtabula Railroad Shop. 2. The Lighthouse.
معهدالطبالهيـ
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A number of material improvements of a minor charac- ter-not of especial importance themselves, but sug- gestive of a general upward trend in business affairs- are noted in the year 1817. Captain William Gaylord and Leonard Case, Sr., put up the first frame warehouse down by the river, those in existence previously being of logs. Not long afterwards, Dr. David Long and Levi Johnson constructed another, of like character, near the same local- ity, and still another was built by John Blair. It was in or near the same year that Abel R. Garlick began to cut stone on Bank street, bringing it from Newburg.
Several events of importance distinguished the year 1818, one of which was the arrival of a gentleman who achieved prominence at a later date as Governor of Ohio. Reuben Wood was a native of Vermont, where he was born, in Rutland County, in 1792. He gained admission to the bar, and in 1818 came to Cleveland, where he engaged in the prac- tice of his profession with no small degree of success. In 1852, he became a member of the Ohio Senate, president- judge of the third judicial dis- trict in 1830; and in 1833 was elected a judge of the Supreme GOVERNOR REUBEN WOOD. Court by a unanimous vote, serving for three years as Chief Justice of the State. . He was elected Governor in 1850, and re-elected in 1851 under the new constitution. He resigned that office in 1853, to accept an appointment as consul to Valparaiso, from which he returned in 1854, and practically withdrew from active life. He died on October Ist, 1864.
by but three Democrats in the Ohio Senate-Henry B. Payne, Harvey Rice, and, after a lapse of thirty years, A. J. Williams. The gentleman last named, in addition to his political and other public services, has been, and is, one of the most earnest and active of the official workers in the Early Settlers' Association.
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Orlando Cutter came in the same year, beginning busi- ness in Cleveland with a stock of goods valued at twenty thousand dollars, which was counted a very large sum, at this point, at that time. Samuel Cowles, a business man and attorney, also arrived. There came, besides, a youth who, although then quite young and little known, after- ward became one of the best known of Cleveland's citi- zens-a gentleman whose facile pen has done much in' preserving a record of early events. This was John H. Sargent, whose name is inseparably connected with the history of civil engineering and early railroad construc- tion in Northern Ohio, and whose death occurred in 1893.
When the boy was but four years of age his father, Levi Sargent, with his family, reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga in a little schooner. They were taken off in lighters, and found a temporary home in the Grand Hotel, kept by Noble H. Merwin, from which they soon removed into a small red house on Water street. Mr. Sargent, in his characteristic manner, has sketched some of the con- ditions then existing-probably, not entirely from his youthful memory unaided by others: " Orlando Cutter dealt out groceries and provisions at the top of Superior lane, looking up Superior street to the woods in and be- yond the Public Square, and I still remember the sweets from his mococks of Indian sugar. Nathan Perry sold dry goods, Walworth made hats, and Tewell repaired old watches on Superior street. Dr. Long dealt out ague cures from a little frame house nearly opposite Bank street at first, but not long after from a stone house, that stood a little back from Superior street. The
' Ox Bow, Cleveland centre,' was then a densely wooded swamp. Alonzo Carter lived on the west side of the river, opposite the foot of Superior lane. He was a great hunter; with his hounds he would drive the deer onto the sand spit between the lake and the old river bed, where they would take to the water, when Carter 's unerring aim would convert them into
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venison." 39 Ara Sprague, who came in April of the same year (1818), took a discouraging view of the situation as it presented itself to his vision: " I arrived a few weeks after the first census had been taken. Its population was, at that time, but one hundred and seventy-two souls: all poor, and struggling hard to keep soul and body together. Small change was very scarce. They used what were called 'corporation shinplasters' as a substitute. The inhabitants were mostly New Eng- land people, and seemed to be living in a wilderness of scrub oaks. Only thirty or forty acres had been cleared. Most of the occupied town lots were fenced with rails. There were three warehouses on the river; however, very little commercial business was done, as there was no harbor at that time. All freight and passen- gers were landed on the beach by lighter and small boats. To get freight to the warehouses, which were a quarter of a mile from the beach, we had to roll it over the sand, and load it into canal boats. The price of freight from Buffalo to Cleveland was ȘI a barrel; the price of passage on vessels $Io, and on steamboats $20.40 "'
39 " What I Remember," by John H. Sargent .- " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 6, p. 12.
40 " Cleveland When a Village," by Ara Sprague .- " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 2, p. 74.
CHAPTER IX.
BY LAKE AND CANAL.
Lake Erie has played an important part in the history of Cleveland, and been of direct and continuous benefit in the development of her commerce, and the extension of her lines of travel. Frequent references to the early marine interests of Cleveland, have been made in the fore- going pages, and, with the arrival of the year in which the first steamboat of the northern lakes touched at her harbor-1818-it is time to treat more fully of the incep- tion and advance of her shipping interests.
The blue waters, that dance before the city's guarded harbor to-day, were no less blue, and the foliage of the Forest City no less green, when, in 1679, La Salle, " the handsome, blue-eyed cavalier, with smooth cheeks and abundant ringlets," and Father Hennepin, with " sandaled feet, a coarse gray capote and peaked hood, the cord of St. Francis about his waist, and a rosary and crucifix hanging at his side," set sail from the Niagara River, and pushed the famous ship " Griffin " against the unknown dangers, and into the unsailed water-paths of Lake Erie. By three names the lake was then known-the high-sounding Lac de Conti, of La Salle, the Erie Tejocha- ronting of the Indians who lived upon its banks, and the shorter Erie, with which the Franciscan friar compromised with the native term.
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