USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 2
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6 " Many historians infer that La Salle passed through northern Ohio from the Illinois River in the winter of 1682-83. That he made a journey
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
During the years in which the French and English car- ried on their long dispute as to the ownership of this por- tion of the West, that part east of the Cuyahoga remained in possession of the Six Nations, who used it as a hunting ground; while that to the west of the stream was in the main under the control of the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawattomies, their only white visitors being an occa- sional French or English fur-trader, or a zealous Jesuit missionary, who had braved the manifold dangers of the venture for the advancement of his faith.
For the better understanding of that which immediately follows, it will be necessary to bear in mind the fact that at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century there were three great European powers who claimed possessions in North America. Spain was the master of Mexico and of a portion of the southeast corner of the United States; France held all to the north of the lakes, west of the Alleghanies, and southward to the possessions of Spain ; while England's claims went from the Spanish line on the south to the northern lakes and the St. Lawrence, and westward to the Alleghanies. These are the gen- eral outlines. There were disputes in several directions as to boundary lines, which in many cases were but faintly outlined.
In 1714, Governor Spotswood, of Virginia, led an ex- pedition which disproved the general belief that the Alleghanies were impassable. He passed the chain and descended to the Ohio.^ Upon his return he in- by land from Crèvecœur to Quebec in that winter, cannot be doubted, but there is no proof on which side of Lake Erie he traveled. It is far more probable that he avoided the hostile Iroquois, and bearing northward crossed the Detroit River, where the Indians were friendly to the French." "Early History of Cleveland," by Col. Charles Whittle- sey, p. 51.
" A touch of romance comes in here. Upon his return, this gallant gov- ernor " established the Transmontane Order, or Knights of the Golden Horse Shoe. On the sandy plains of Eastern Virginia horseshoes were rarely used; but in climbing the mountains he had found them necessary ; and on creating his companions knights of this new order, he gave to each a golden horseshoe inscribed with the motto, 'Sic jurat transcendere montes.'" Western Reserve Historical Society, Tract No. 20, p. 5.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
formed those who were his superiors in authority, the British Ministry, that the planting of a settlement in the western valley was a matter of great importance, and that England's interest did not lie in permitting France to hold it in undisputed possession.
England moved forward in her conquests, slowly but surely. She gained the friendship of the great Iroquois Confederacy-the most powerful organization of Indian tribes in the New World-who were in possession of the southern shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario.8 Many treaties were made with these confederated tribes during the first half of the Eighteenth Century, and grants of lands of great value were obtained on the eastern slope of the Mis- sissippi Valley.
It was near the middle of that century when England acted upon the wise advice of her Virginian governor. An organization known as "The Ohio Company" was created in 1748, which received a royal grant of one half million acres of land in the valley of the Ohio. The en- deavors of this company to obtain and hold secure their new possessions continued for years, and form a chapter of absorbing interest in the history of Ohio, but have no direct connection with the valley of the Cuyahoga.
A long step toward the secure possession of this great empire of the West was taken when, by the treaty of Paris, made in 1763, England acquired Canada and all the territory east of the Mississippi and southward to the Spanish Territory, with the exception of New Orleans and its immediate vicinity. This was followed, in 1768,
8 " The occupation of Ohio, from the French war to the Revolution, was as follows: The general western limits of the Iroquois proper was a line running through the counties of Belmont, Harrison, Tuscarawas, Stark, Summit, and Cuyahoga. The Delawares occupied the valley of the Muskingum, their northern line running through Richland, Ashland, and Wayne; the Shawnees the valley of the Scioto, the northern line being a little lower than the Delawares; the last two tribes occupying as tenants of the Iroquois. It will thus be seen that the Iroquois had not only ad- mitted sovereignty, but actual legal occupancy of the greater part of Ohio."-" The Iroquois in Ohio," by C. C. Baldwin. Western Reserve Historical Society, Tract No. 40, p. 28.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
by a treaty at Fort Stanwix, between Sir William John- son and the Six Nations, by which the lands south of the Ohio and the Alleghany were sold to the British, the In- dians still retaining those north and west of these rivers.
The white men who ventured into the lands to the south of Lake Erie and west of the Alleghanies, previous to the organized attempts at settlement made to the south by the Ohio Company and to the north by the Connecti- cut Land Company, have left few traces by which their purposes can be clearly understood, or their movements closely followed. The hardy and venturesome trader, both English and French, who pushed into the wilder- ness, and carried the products of civilization to exchange for those of the chase, reached the mouth of the Cuya- hoga at an early day. The French extended their forts and trading posts to many points on the lakes and the Ohio River, between 1700 and 1750. In this year last named they possessed a fort at Sandusky, and five years later a trading house on the Cuyahoga, near the mouth of Tinker's Creek. The winter of 1755-6 was spent by James Smith, a Pennsylvanian, in this neighborhood, as a prisoner of the Delawares, and in a narrative which he penned the sections watered by the Cuyahoga, the Black and the Kilbuck rivers are fully described. Near the same time a white girl named Mary Campbell passed five years in a like captivity near the Cuyahoga falls, not far from the site of Akron. In commenting upon the early traders who pushed forward to this neighborhood, Colonel Charles Whittlesey says: " After the British took posses- sion in 1760, French and English traders continued to- gether to traffic with the Indians on the waters of Lake Erie. No doubt a post was kept up at some point or points on the river during a large part of the Eighteenth Century, but such establishments are so slight and tem- porary that they are seldom noticed in history. A trad- ing house is a very transient affair. A small log cabin covered with bark constituted all of what is designated as an establishment. If the Indian customers remove, the
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
trader follows them, abandons his cabin, and constructs another at a more convenient place. Within a year the deserted hut is burned to the ground, and all that remains is a vacancy of an acre or two in the forest covered with grass, weeds, briers and bushes."" In 1760, Major Rob- ert Rogers, in command of a New Hampshire company of Provincial Rangers, left Fort Niagara to take possession of the French post. According to one eminent historian, 10 they paid a visit to this place: " On the 7th of November, 1760, they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, the present site of Cleveland. No body of British troops had ever advanced so far. The day was dull and rainy, and, resolving to rest until the weather should improve, Rog- ers ordered his men to prepare their camp in the neigh- boring forest. The place has seen strange changes since that day. Soon after the arrival of the Rangers, a party of Indian chiefs and warriors entered the camp. They proclaimed themselves an embassy, from Pontiac, ruler of all that country, and directed in his name that the Eng- lish should advance no further until they had had an in- terview with the great chief, who was close at hand. He greeted Rogers with the haughty demand, what his busi- ness was in that country, and how he dared enter it with- out his permission." After parleying and presents, the objection was withdrawn. In the opinion of Col. Whittle- sey, this reported interview did not occur here at all, but at Grand River. An expedition sent out under Major Wilkins, in 1763, was wrecked on Lake Erie near the Cuya- hoga, or Rocky River, and was so disorganized that it had to return; while yet another under Col. Bradstreet (1764) is supposed to have passed through this neighbor- hood.
Sir William Johnson, the superintendent of Indian affairs, paid a visit to Detroit in 1761, after the English had obtained possession of that place, and returned home by way of the south shore; in his diary we find this
9 Whittlesey's "Early History of Cleveland," p. 131.
10 Parkman's "Conspiracy of Pontiac," pp. 147-148.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
record: " Embarked this morning at six of ye clock, and intend to beach near Cuyahoga this day."
As early as 1765 the practical eye of Benjamin Frank- lin, as he scanned the crude maps of the Western coun- try, and listened to those who had visited it, showed him the advantages of the Cuyahoga as a military post, and he recommended its occupancy for that purpose. Wash- ington himself, in discussing the question of water com- munication between the northern lakes and Chesapeake Bay, suggested " the practicability of a route from Lake Erie by way of the Cuyahoga, Tuscarawas and Muskingum into the Ohio, as an outlet to the future inland commerce of the lakes," necessitating "a portage near Akron of less than seven miles, whereby shipments were to be trans- ferred from the lakes to the river Ohio, thence to ascend its upper tributaries into the mountains, from whence, by another portage, would be reached the navigable rivers falling into the Atlantic."11
In the fall of 1782, the mouth of the Cuyahoga again appeared in the discussions of the military authorities, and there occurred an incident of travel and suffering in an endeavor to reach it, that so well illustrates the conditions then existing, that I am led to relate it with some detail. The newly-created American Government had learned that the British had established a military post at San- dusky, and were about to build another, either at Cuya- hoga or Grand River. Major Isaac Craig, of the Revolu- tionary Army, was ordered to take Lieutenant Rose and six active men, visit the two points last named, and learn " whether any such attempts were making by the en- emy.''12
The little party set forth from Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) upon its long and perilous journey, near the middle of Novem- ber, in the year named. They reached a point they sup-
' 11 Historical Address by Samuel E. Adams, Esq., "Annals of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County," No. I, p. 19.
12 From the privately printed life of Major Isaac Craig. Western Re- serve Historical Society, Tract No. 22, p. 4.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
posed to be within a day's march of the Cuyahoga, and there left one man in charge of their extra provisions, it being their intention, upon rejoining him, to take a fresh supply and then proceed to a like visit to the mouth of the Grand. We quote from the narrative as learned from Major Craig: "The weather proved very unfavorable after the separation; the Major, with his party, was de- tained beyond the appointed time, and the soldier with the horse had disappeared, so that when they reached the designated place, weary and half-famished, they found no relief, and had before them a journey of more than one hun- dred miles, through a hostile wilderness. The examina- tion of Grand River had of course to be abandoned, and the party was compelled to hasten back to Fort Pitt. The travel back was laborious and painful, the weather being tempestuous and variable. The party pursued the most direct course homeward. Before they reached the Conequenessing, near about, as Major Craig thought, where Old Harmony now stands, the weather became ex- tremely cold, and they found that stream frozen over, but the ice not sufficiently firm to bear the weight of a man. The following expedient was then resorted to as the best the circumstances allowed : A large fire was kindled on the northern bank of the Conequenessing, and when it was burning freely, the party stripped off their clothes; one man took a heavy bludgeon in his hands to break the way, while each of the others followed with portions of the clothing, and arms in one hand and a fire-brand in the other. Upon reaching the southern bank of the stream, these brands were placed together and a brisk fire soon raised, by which the party dressed themselves and then resumed their toilsome march. Upon reaching the Cranberry plains, they were delighted to find encamped there a hunting party consisting of Captain Uriah Springer and other officers, and some soldiers from the fort. There, of course, they were welcomed and kindly treated, and arrived at the fort on the evening of the sec- ond of December. The report of Major Craig was that
.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
there was no sign of occupancy at the mouth of the Cuy- ahoga."
The residence of the Moravian missionaries 13 and their followers within the present boundaries of Cuy- ahoga County was brief and unimportant, except as a chapter in the long, sad story of that driven and perse- cuted people. When the " praying " Indians and their white leaders decided to leave their temporary home in Michigan, they determined, in May, 1786, to " plant a settlement " on the Cuyahoga River, and after much toil and many disasters reached a point upon its eastern bank, a short distance below the mouth of Tinker's Creek. To this location they gave the name " Pilgerruh," or " Pil- grim's Rest." By October they had so far completed their village as to give them comfortable shelter for the winter. In the spring of 1787, they prepared to move west- ward, to the mouth of Black River, and on April 19th the last prayer was heard in their little chapel at " Pilgrim's Rest," after which they commenced anew the jour- neyings, some going over- land, and others in canoes by way of the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie. Very little in the way of detail touch- ing the experiences 0 these people upon oui home-soil has been be- queathed to us.
There is in existence, however, among the rich REV. JOHN HECKEWELDER. possessions of the West- ern Reserve Historical Society-presented by a daughter of Moses Cleaveland-a map and a manuscript descriptive of the same, prepared in 1796 by the Rev. John Hecke-
13 These zealous people derived their name from Moravia, a province of Austria, and were originally organized under the name of the Unitas Fratrum or United Brethren. They were moved with an especial desire to convert the Indians of North America.
.
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welder, a leading Moravian missionary, who came to the Cuyahoga valley with his people, but left them before the opening of the winter. This map covers the country from the Alleghany River on the east, the Ohio on the south, the lake on the north, and the Huron and Mus- kingum on the west, and is, of course, crude and uncertain in both outlines and details. His manuscript bears the heading: " Description of that part of the Western Coun- try comprehended in my map; with remarks on certain particular spots, etc." We quote some of these remarks, as follows:
" Altho the country in general containeth both Arable Land & good Pasturage: yet there are particular Spots far preferable to others: not only on account of the Land being here superior in quality : but also on account of the many advantages presenting themselves.
" As the first place of utility between the Pennsylvania Line: (yea I may say between Presq' Isle) and Cujahaga; & in an East and West course as the dividing Ridge runs between the Rivers which empty into the Lake Erie; & those Rivers or Creeks which empty into the Ohio: (& which Ridge I suppose runs nearly Paralell with this Lake, & is nearly or about 50 miles distance from the same): Cujahaga certainly stands foremost; & that for the following reasons.
" I. because it admits small Sloops into its mouth from the Lake, and affords them a good Harbour.
" 2. because it is Navigable at all times with Canoes to the Falls, a distance of upwards of 60 Miles by Water- and with Boats at some Seasons of the Year to that place -and may without any great Expense be made Navigable for Boats that distance at all times.
" 3. because there is the best prospect of Water com- munication from Lake Erie into the Ohio, by way of Cuja- haga & Muskingum Rivers; The carrying place being the shortest of all carrying places, which interlock with each other, & at most not above 4 miles.
"4. because of the Fishery which may be erected at
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
its mouth, a place to which the White Fish of the Lake resort in the Spring, in order to Spawn.
" 5. because there is a great deal of Land of the first Quality on this River. .
"6. because not only the River itself, has a clear & lively current, but all Waters & Springs emptying in the same, prove by their clearness & current, that it must be a healthy Country in general.
" 7. because one principle Land Road, not only from the Allegheny River & French Creek: but also from Pitts- burg will pass thro that Country to Detroit, it being by far the most level Land path to that place."
In further description of this wonderful section that has so captivated the eye of this visitor and laid its impress upon his judgment, Mr. Heckewelder adds that the " Land on the Cujahaga River itself is good, and well Timbered either with Oaks & Hickory, or with lofty Chestnuts. The Cujahaga Country abounds in Game, such as Elk, Deer, Turkey, Raccoons &c." In conclusion he inserts " the description the late Geographer to the United States gives to this part of the Country, copied from a Pamphlet he had printed in London in the year 1778 "-the main point of which is the statement that " Cujahaga will hereafter be a place of great impor- tance."
Well, indeed, has that prophecy, made eighteen years before Moses Cleaveland set foot upon this soil, been ful- filled.
Mention of this Moravian town is made by a traveler who visited the Cuyahoga in 1786. Col. James Hillman, of Youngstown, Ohio, in' writing to Judge Barr, under date of November 23rd, 1843, says: " In the spring of 1786 Messrs. Duncan & Wilson entered into a contract with Messrs. Caldwell & Elliott, of Detroit, to deliver a quan- tity of flour and bacon at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, to a man by the name of James Hawder, an Eng- lishman, who had a tent at the mouth of the river, for the purpose of receiving it. In May, 1786, I engaged with
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Duncan & Wilson, at Pittsburgh, as a packhorseman, and started immediately. We took the Indian trail for San- dusky, until we arrived at the Standing Stone, on the Cuyahoga, a little below the mouth of Breakneck Creek, where the village of Franklin is now. There we left the Sandusky trail, and took one direct to the mouth of Tinker's Creek, where was a little town built by Hecke- welder and Zersberger, with a number of Moravian In- dians. They were Moravian preachers. Here we crossed the Cuyahoga, and went down on the west side to the mouth. In going down we passed a small log trading house, where one Meginnes traded with the Indians. The mouth of the Cuyahoga was then about the same as when I last saw it, in 1813. In 1786, there was a pond of water west of the mouth, which we called Sun Fish Pond, where we caught sun fish. We carried axes to cut our wood, and I remember we at one time under- took to open the mouth of the river, which was choked up with sand. We made wooden shovels, and began to dig away the sand until the water ran through, which took away the sand so fast that our party was divided, a por- tion being left on the east side, where Cleveland now is. We made collars of our blankets for some of the horses, and took our tent ropes, made of raw elk skin, for tugs, drew small logs and built a hut at the spring, which I believe was the first house built on the Cleveland side."
No mention of this house is made by the surveyors who came with General Cleaveland.
A little later glance at the physical outline of the Cuy- ahoga valley may be taken before passing on to the real narrative of the founding and building of Cleveland. A traveler 14 writing as late as 1805, when the early settlers were already in possession, says: " The Cuyahoga empties into Lake Erie by a mouth eighty-eight yards wide, and is
14 " Journal of a Tour into the Territory Northwest of the Alleghany Mountains, made in the Spring of the year 1803," by Thaddeus Mason Harris, A. M., member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, 1805, p. 113.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
navigable for sloops for fifteen miles without any falls or swift water; but there is a bar at the mouth like that of Grand river. In high water it is boatable sixty miles to the portage, which is seven and an half miles, to the head waters of the Tuscarawa branch of the Muskingum. Here are fine uplands, extensive meadows, oak and mulberry trees fit for ship building, and walnut, chestnut and pop- lar trees suitable for domestic services. Near the mouth of this river are the celebrated rocks which project over the lake. They are several miles in length, and rise forty or fifty feet perpendicular out of the water. Some parts of them consist of several strata of different colors, lying in a horizontal direction, and so exactly paralell that they resemble the work of art. The view from the land is grand, but the water presents the most magnifi- cent prospect of this sublime work of nature: it is at- tended, however, with great danger, for, if the least storm arises, the force of the surf is such that no vessel can escape being dashed to pieces against the rocks. The heathen Indians, when they pass this impending danger, offer a sacrifice of tobacco to the water."
When the War of the Revolution ended in the tri- umphant success of the colonies, and civilization began to push westward with a new vigor, conflicting claims arose as to the ownership of various portions of the West.15 This portion of the lake region was included with the rest. Years before, while Connecticut was still a colony of Eng- land, she had acquired by grant from King Charles II. a great range of territory lying between the same parallels as those which bounded herself and extending " from sea to sea "-from the Atlantic to the Pacific. When she be- came a State of the American Union she held to her claim
15 Not long after the close of the Revolution, the great Western country was divided into three territories: The Territory of the Mississippi; the Territory south of the Ohio; the Territory northwest of the Ohio. It has been well said that "it would be difficult to find any country so covered with conflicting claims of title as the Territory of the Northwest." West- ern Reserve Historical Society, Tract No. 20, p. 8.
MAP OF THE "WESTERN RESERVE"
ERIE
GRAND
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LAKE
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CUYABOGA;NDER
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4
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RE
LANDS
SUMMIT ... .
.. PORTAGE
BRAND
HURON.
MEDINA.
2.
2
.
R
MAHONING
ASHLAND
141" Parallel of KarttudoKad
COM
WAS
RANGE
29 23 22 21
20 19 18
17 16 15
14 13
12
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8
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PENNSYLVANIA
And
0
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5
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3.
ENUNG
RIVER
LAKE.
MILLS CREEK
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
of dominion over this vast territory.16 That portion of this claim which crossed the territory of New York and Pennsylvania was extinguished by agreement among the commonwealths concerned, while that west of Pennsyl- vania was left in dispute until on September 14th, 1786, when she ceded it all to the United States,17 except that portion lying between the parallels of forty-one and forty- two degrees, two minutes, and a line one hundred and twenty miles west of the western line of Pennsylvania, and parallel with it. This tract was called " New Con- necticut," or the Western Reserve, and it was decided to place the lands upon the market.
Some steps toward the purchase of that portion of the Reserve upon which Cleveland stands were taken in 1788, when a company was formed under General Samuel H. Parsons, who located a tract embracing a quarter of a township, but no surveys were made here under his pat- ent. The Legislature of Connecticut, in 1792, granted to such of her citizens as had suffered by fire or otherwise, at the hands of the British, during the Revolution, one half million acres from the western end of this " re- served " tract, and that section was thereafter known as " The Fire Lands."
16 In Tract No. 32 of the Western Reserve Historical Society, Col. Whittlesey discusses at considerable length the " Origin of Titles " to the Western Reserve, giving a full list of grants and conveyances affecting the same. A very valuable document bearing upon this subject may be found in the American State Papers, Public Lands, Vol. XVI., p. 94, in the form of a report from John Marshall, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States, to the House of Representatives, on March 21st, 1800, on the subject of title to the Reserve. It was made in view of the action then pending in Congress, for the settlement of the differences between Con- necticut and the United States, concerning the ownership of these lands.
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