USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 20
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50 Statement made by Mrs. George B. Merwin: "The completion of the Ohio Canal was celebrated by a great ball at the Mansion House, kept by James Belden. I attended with my parents and sat awhile in the lap of Gov. Allen Trimble, who had honored the occasion by his presence. It took all the men, women and children in the village who danced, to make enough for a set of contradances, or quadrilles."-" Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. I, p. 73.
51 The canal was completed through to the Ohio River in 1832. In two years, thereafter, the freight carried upon it amounted to half a mil- lion bushels of wheat, a hundred thousand barrels of flour, a million pounds of butter, with nearly seventy thousand pounds of cheese, besides a large amount of general merchandise.
CHAPTER X.
SOME YEARS OF STEADY GROWTH.
The canal was well under way, but not yet completed, when Cleveland began to feel the need of enlargement in several directions. She had awakened to the belief that metropolitan honors were within her grasp, and that it was the part of patriotism and good business judgment to live up to her opportunities.
In the first place, it was generally agreed that the old court-house and jail were outgrown. The rude structure, down in one corner of the Public Square, had done well enough for the days of small misdemeanors and petty liti- gations, but now the larger affairs of a growing county- seat, needed better housing and greater protection.
When the subject was first brought into discussion by the Cuyahoga tax-payers, the dormant ambition of New- burg was aroused, and the old claim put forward. The sturdy dwellers in that modern iron center had never given up their hope of earlier days; in their opinion the decisive time had come when the question ought to be settled for all time, and before any more public money was expended in Cleveland. The battle was fought out to the end, and was the last one of which we shall hear, in the history of these two places that have now become one.
There were three county commissioners by whom the question must be decided. One of them was removed by death, and it was found that the other two were equally divided, one favoring Newburg, and the other Cleveland. An election was held in 1826 to fill the vacancy. It was one of the hottest and most exciting that had as yet been seen in that section, all other issues being swallowed up in this great question. Dr. David Long, the Cleveland nominee, was elected by a small majority, and Cleveland's last struggle with Newburg was won.
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The building was planned, and work upon it soon com- menced. It was located in the southwest corner of the Public Square. It was finished in 1828, and on October 28th, of that year, court was first held within it. Here, the public judicial and administrative business of Cuya- hoga County was carried on for nearly thirty years. It was two stories high, of brick, surmounted by a wooden dome, faced the lake, and was entered by a half-dozen steps, front and rear. The lower story was divided into offices for use of the county officials, while the upper floor was used for court purposes. Two or three years later a sub- stantial stone jail was erected in the rear of the court-house and across the street - a structure that, from its som- bre appearance, was usually called "the blue jug."
Another advance step was THE SECOND COURT-HOUSE. taken in this same year, 1826, when arrangements were made for a larger and more dis- tant cemetery than the original burying-ground which was laid out, on Ontario street, in Cleveland's very early days, when David Eldridge's body was laid within it. Grounds were secured out where Erie street now runs, and the City Cemetery, as it was first called, was dedi- cated to its uses. The name was changed, afterwards, to the Erie Street Cemetery, and for many years it was Cleveland's chief place of burial. At first it comprised but two acres, but was afterwards enlarged to ten. Its first interment was in September, 1827, when Minerva M., the daughter of Moses and Mary White, was laid away to her eternal rest. No regular register of the sale of lots, or even of burials, was kept before 1840, in which year the whole tract was replatted, and a complete record opened and kept up thereafter.
It was in, or near, this year of many improvements that
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the well-known old Franklin House was completed, and opened its hospitable doors for the accommodation of the stranger. N. E. Crittenden came and opened the first jewelry store in Cleveland, occupying a small one-story brick building next door to the Franklin House.
The first actual official connection of Cleveland and Cuy- ahoga County with the question of slavery, in any shape or form, which I have yet discovered, was formed in 1827, when the Cuyahoga County Colonization Society came into existence. It was a branch of the national organiza- tion - the Colonization Society - which had for its object the gradual removal of the colored people of America to Africa, the theory being that many slave-holders would free their bondsmen if assured they would be sent out of the country. Samuel Cowles was elected president; Rev. Randolph Stone, Nehemiah Allen, Datus Kelley, Josiah Barber, and Lewis R. Dille, vice-presidents; A. W. Wal- worth, treasurer; James S. Clarke, secretary; and Mor- decai Bartley delegate to the national society. The meet- ing for the organization of the society was addressed by the Rev. William Stone. The movement was vigorously opposed by the advocates of an entire abolition of slavery.
An added interest in church matters was felt during the same year, especially among those holding to the doctrines of Methodism. As early as 1818, a class had been formed in Newburg, which passed through various trying experiences, and then went out of existence. Preaching under the auspices of this denomination com- menced in Cleveland in 1822, when the Rev. Ira Eddy established a place for services, as a part of the Hudson circuit. Among those who officiated at that time and a little later were the Revs. William H. Collins, Orin Gil- more, Philip Green, William C. Henderson, Robert Hop- kins, John Crawford, and William R. Babcock. In 1827, the first Methodist society of Cleveland was formed, in the shape of a class, under the ministrations of Revs. Jolin Crawford and Cornelius Jones. The names of those who participated and thus laid the foundations of the First
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Methodist Church of Cleveland, are as follows: Mrs. Grace Johnson, Andrew Tomlinson, Eliza Worley, Eliza- beth Southworth, Joel Sizer and wife, Elijah Peet and wife, and Lucinda Knowlton. Mr. Peet became the leader. The Cleveland circuit, as it was then called, com- prised all of Cuyahoga County, with Lake, Geauga and Summit Counties, and a part of Ashtabula and Portage.
Cleveland was made a permanent station in 1830, the Rev. George McCaskey becoming pastor. The society, as yet having no church building, used halls, school-houses, and the court-house, and continued to do so until 1841, when a structure was erected on the corner of St. Clair and Wood streets. The society continued to worship here until 1869, when a new stone chapel was erected on Erie street, near Euclid avenue; and in 1874 the present fine stone church fronting on Euclid avenue was completed and dedi- cated. The church FIRST M. E. CHURCH. has had a wonderful influence for good in Cleveland, in many ways, and from the aid it has given in the formation of other socie- ties of the same denomination may well be called the main fountain-head of Methodism in Cleveland.
The Methodist Church Society of East Cleveland was also organized in 1827. It remained a part of the New- burg circuit until 1858; and in 1860 it was made a station. Its first church building was erected in 1836, and its sec- ond was dedicated in 1870.
The beginning of two of Cleveland's greatest sources of wealth-coal and iron-came together, as it happened, in
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1828, although it was many years before either assumed any great proportions. John Ballard & Co. put their small iron foundry in operation in the spring; and a little later Henry Newberry shipped, from his land near the canal, a few tons of coal. An attempt was made to intro- duce it as the fuel of Cleveland. A wagon load was driven from door to door, and its good qualities explained. " No one," says one chronicler, " wanted it. Wood was plenty and cheap, and the neat housewives of Cleveland especially objected to the dismal appearance and dirt-cre- ating qualities of the new fuel. Once in a while a man would take a little as a gift, but after the wagon had been driven around Cleveland all day, not a single pur- chaser had been found. At length, after nightfall, Philo Scovill, who was then keeping the hotel known as the Franklin House, was persuaded to buy some, for which he found use by putting grates in his bar-room stove. Such was the beginning of the coal business in Cleveland. The new fuel soon found favor for the small manufactur- ing and mechanical industries of the period, but it was long before the matrons of Cleveland would tolerate it in private residences."
The ambitious village began to feel the need of a little more room for the extension and development of her many growing interests, and therefore, in December, 1829, legis- lation was secured at the hands of the general assembly which extended her boundaries. All the land " from the southerly line of Huron street down the river to a point westerly of the junction of Vineyard lane with the road leading from the village to Brooklyn, thence west parallel with said road to the river, and down the river to the old village line," was annexed. In February, 1834, a second act was passed, which again extended the boundaries and added; "All the two-acre lots east of Erie street, the tier south of Ohio street, and a parcel at the southwest corner of the original plat, which was not originally surveyed or laid off."
The first step in the direction of organized fire protec-
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tion was taken also in 1829, when the village purchased a " Fire Engine No. 3," of the American Hydraulic Com- pany, at an expense of $285. These are the figures given in the village records, although they do not exactly agree with those stated by John W. Allen in a published address. His story, as to the general circumstances attending the sale, however, may be relied upon, as he was a party thereto. "In the old village corporation," said he, " there was a president, recorder, and three trustees. The legislation was in the hands of the trustees and presi- dent. I happened, in the year 1828, to be one of them. Dr. Long was another. We thought it expedient to buy a fire engine, and we negotiated with Mr. Seelye for the purpose of purchasing a small engine. It was before the days of steam fire engines. We were about to make a contract with him for the engine, and were to pay him $400, $50 down and $350 in a note of the corporation. There was a set of men here who were hostile to the measure. They got up a meeting and talked pretty strongly, intimating that we had joined hands with Seelye to swindle the people here, and that we undoubtedly par- ticipated in the plunder. But we bought the engine and paid the $50 like honest men, and gave the note of the corporation for the balance. An election intervened the next spring, and we were all turned out, and a new set of men put in who repudiated the note. The note came here for collection, judgment was rendered, and those men had to walk up to the captain's office and settle the bill."52
A market soon followed the fire engine, an ordinance for
52 This statement was made by Hon. John W. Allen, at the first annual meeting of the Early Settlers' Association, in May, 1880. ("Annals," No. I, p. 61.) It seems to show that even a man of Mr. Allen's bright mind and vigorous memory cannot be depended upon for details, after the ex- piration of fifty and more years. Dr. Long was a member of the board of village trustees in 1828; Mr. Allen was not. Mr. Allen was on the board in 1829, and Dr. Long was president. This fact, taken with the records of the village as found in the city clerk's office, shows that the engine was ordered in 1829, at the cost we have above given. The returns of the election, to which Mr. Allen refers, show that he was correct upon that point -- not a trustee who voted for the engine was returned the next year.
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the regulation of the same being passed in 1829. The re- ceipts during the entire year following were but $27.50. The receipts for show-licenses, during the same year, amounted to exactly $5.
The laying-out of new streets, preparatory to organiza- tion as a city, which was now but a few years off, went bravely on. In 1828, Orange alley, now known as Frank- fort street, was run between Water and Bank streets; Canal street, nearly as now known on the lower portion,
THE LEMEN HOMESTEAD, ERECTED IN 1829.
was laid out, and named, in 1829; in 1831, Prospect street, from Ontario to Erie street, also was laid out; Ahaz Merchant being the surveyor. It was, as before mentioned, at first called Cuyahoga street, but, before the entry was officially made, the name was happily changed to the one it now bears.52ª The following streets also
52ª A specimen of Cleveland's early architecture is found in the Lemen homestead, shown in the accompanying illustration. This was built, in 1829, by William Lemen, on the south side of Superior street, at its junc- tion with the Public Square. It was taken down, in 1851, by Mr. Hoffman,
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
were added to the growing map of Cleveland, in the years named: In 1833, River street, from Superior street to Union lane; Meadow, Lighthouse, and Spring streets; in 1835, High street, Sheriff street, Middle street, Clinton street, Lake street, Lake alley, Ohio street, Rockwell street, and continuations of Prospect and Bolivar streets.53
THE PRESENT LIGHTHOUSE.
costly and elegant structure.
The United States government added its contribution to the grow- ing importance by build- ing, in 1830, the first lighthouse in Cleveland, at a cost of eight thou- sand dollars. The work was done by Levi John- son, and the structure located on the bluff at the north end of Water street, at a point one hundred and thirty-five feet above the level of the lake. It has been since replaced by a more
who had leased it for a term of years, and the Hoffman Block was erected in its stead. In 1889, this latter building and site were leased to James Parmelee for the term of ninety-nine years, and in 1891-2 the Cuyahoga Building of to-day was erected. The stone pillars which were in the Lemen cottage were used in the construction of a temple in Lakeview Cemetery.
53 General Ahaz Merchant's connection with Cleveland seems to have been deserving of a more extended mention than is found in any of the published records. He was born in Connecticut, on March 21st, 1794, and became a resident of Cleveland in 1818. He learned the art of the sur- veyor, and was, for a time, in the service of the State, surveying school lands in Tuscarawas County. He laid out and helped build the horse railroad, elsewhere described, that ran to East Cleveland. He was county surveyor from 1833 to 1835, and again from 1845 to 1850. He did a great deal of engineering for the city and county prior to the employment of a city engineer; was connected with the establishment of grades on Seneca,
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Among the arrivals of 1830, were Seth A. Abbey, who served for a number of terms as city marshal, and later as judge of the police court; and Norman C. Baldwin, who formed a partnership, in the produce commission business, with Noble H. Merwin. He was afterwards a member of the firm of Giddings, Baldwin & Co., forward- ing and commission merchants, who sent and received a large amount of business over the Ohio Canal. The firm also owned one of the first regular line of steamers to ply the lake. The line of boats and packets from Portsmouth to New York by the Ohio and Erie canals and the lake, was called the " Troy & Erie line," each packet carrying thirty passengers, and one hundred bushels of wheat. In
later years, Mr. Baldwin was interested in the banking busi- ness and real estate.
It would be an unwarranted discrimination, if, in this men- tion, here and there of the ar- rival of business and profes- sional men, none was made of the coming of a noble woman whose life-work in Cleveland, in various forms of usefulness, was blessed for the public good. Mrs. Rebecca C. Rouse lived a MRS. REBECCA C. ROUSE. long and useful life in the city of her chosen home, and her memory long will be held in grateful re- membrance. The brief sketch of her life and labors,
Bank, Erie, Canal, and other streets; engineer of the first improvement of the old river bed; laid out the most important allotments in the City of Ohio; while his similar work, upon the other side of the river, was very extensive. He was active in the building line, and erected the " Angier House," later known as the " Kennard House." His title of General was gained through his official connection with the militia. He died on March 28th, 1862. His sons, Aaron and Silas Merchant, were both well known in connection with the public history of Cleveland; while one of his daugh- ters, Mrs. R. M. N. Taylor, and her husband, were noted, for some years, as hostess and host of the well-known hotel above named-in its time one of the best in the west.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
that follows, is from the appreciative pen of one who in her own field of labor has done much for Cleve- land's good: "At eighteen," writes Mrs. Ingham,54 " Miss Rebecca Cromwell married Benjamin Rouse, a young man in the business circles of Boston, Mass. In 1825, they removed to the City of New York, where, under the lead of Arthur Tappan, she visited the byways and worst localities of the metropolis. Ir. time, both her- self and husband decided, upon the request of the Ameri- can Sabbath School Union, to go as missionaries to the Western Reserve, with residence and headquarters at Cleveland, O. After parting with friends, particularly those of the Delancy Street Baptist Church, they jour- neyed many days, arriving at this port October 19th, 1830. At that time there was no village above the Public Square; the population numbering one thousand. Euclid avenue was known as the Buffalo road, and Fairmount, the road to Newburgh. They stopped on that Sabbath morning at Merwin's Tavern, a frame building painted red, on the present site of Bratenahl's Block, Superior and South Water streets, the latter called, then, Vineyard lane. After breakfast, Mrs. Rouse asked the landlord if there were no places of worship in the village, and re- ceived for reply that a few Methodists were holding a prayer-meeting in the upper story of the house opposite. They crossed the street, and found present among other few, Mrs. Daniel Worley, Joel Sizer, and young Mr. Bump, the school-master. At this time, the Episcopal- ians had a small, wooden meeting-house, corner of St. Clair and Seneca streets, with organized parish services and Sunday school; here, again, female piety predomi- nated, there being but two male members. This was Old Trinity. During the week following her arrival, Mrs. Rouse gathered about her several good women for relig- ious work, at her own hired house, temporarily occupied, on Superior street, near the later Judge Bishop Block.
54 " Women of Cleveland and their Work," by Mrs. W. A. Ingham, p. 17.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
In a picture owned by Mrs. Rouse, their newly built home shows favorably as a white cottage, on the exact site of the present Rouse Block. - The cottage has a face, appar- ently all windows, from the fact that the front room was used as a depository for the publications of the American Sunday School Union and Tract Society. This called forth the derisive remark from many male 'sinners,' then resident in our city, that 'there is more religion in Rouse's windows than in the whole village besides.' The names of those who constituted these early assemblies in Cleve- land were Mrs. Joel Scranton, Mrs. D. Worley, Mrs. Dr. Long, Mrs. Chas. Giddings, Mrs. Moses White, Mrs. Gab- berden, Mrs. Edmund Clark, Mrs. George Hoadley [sic], Mrs. H. P. Weddell, Mrs. John M. Sterling. From this gathering grew the Woman's Union Gospel work of Cleve- land, which now, under various forms, is a crown of glory upon the fair brow of our own Forest City. October 30th, 1830, Mrs. Rouse had organized the Ladies' Tract Society of the Village of Cleveland, auxiliary to the parent so- ciety of New York, the leader being its representative in the homes of our people."
There was one newly-arrived resident of Cleveland in 1831, who was not pleased altogether with what he ex- perienced, although he was compelled to confess that the place was fair to look upon. His personal view of various things is interesting, as he spoke with that confidential freedom that friend uses with friend. This was Milo H. Hickox, and these are the impressions he conveyed to a friend in Rochester, by private letter:55
" Cleveland is about two-thirds as large as Rochester, east side of the river, and is the pleasantest sight that you ever saw. The streets are broad and cross each other at right angles. The court-house is better than the one in Rochester; the rest of the buildings altogether are not worth more than four of the best in that place, and one room of a middling size rents for one dollar per month.
55 "Sixty Years Ago," by Milo H. Hickox .- " Annals of the Early Set- tlers' Association," Vol. III., No. I, p. 75.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Everything that we want to live upon commands cash and a high price. Mechanics' wages are low. Journey- men get from $10 to $20 per month and board; I get nine shillings and six pence per day, and board myself. I have the best of work. Now for the morals. There are be- tween fifteen and twenty grogshops, and they all live. There was one opened here last week by a man from Rochester. There is a temperance society, with ten or a dozen male members. The Presbyterian Church has four male members, Baptist six, Methodist about the same, the Episcopal is small; they have a house, the others have not. The court-house is used at this time for a theatrical company, and is well filled with people of all classes. My health has not been good since we have been here. About four weeks since, we awoke in the morning and found our- selves all shaking with the ague. I had but one fit my- self. My wife had it about a week, every day, and my son three weeks, every day, and what made it worse, my wife and son both shook at the same time. I spent one day in search of a girl; gave up the chase and engaged a passage for my wife to Buffalo, to be forwarded to Roch- ester. She was to leave the next morning. I was tell- ing my troubles to an acquaintance, who told me that he would find a girl for me, or let me have his rather than have my family leave, so we concluded to stay."
Previous to 1831, that section of modern Cleveland which lies to the west of the river had received less con- sideration, at the hands of the settlers upon the eastern banks, than its importance and promise for the future de- served. We have had glimpses, here and there, of its con- nection with the general development, and a long step was taken in that direction in the year above named.
When the fourth draft of the lands, under the auspices of the Connecticut Land Company, occurred in April, 1807, Samuel P. Lord and others drew the township of Brook- lyn, No. 7, in range 13. It was surveyed, in 1809, by Ezek- iel Hoover. Of the early conditions existing upon that
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side, Col. Whittlesey has said: 56 "On the west side of the river, opposite St. Clair street, where the Indians had a ferry, a trail led out across the marshy ground, up the hill past the old log trading house, where there were springs of water, to an opening in the forest, near the crossing of Pearl and Detroit streets. In this pleasant space the savages practiced their games, held their pow- wows, and when whisky could be procured, enjoyed themselves while it lasted. The trail continued thence westerly to Rocky River and Sandusky. Another one, less frequented, led off southerly up the river to the old French trading post, where Magenis was found in 1786, near Brighton; and thence, near the river bank, to Tink- er's Creek, and probably to the old Portage path. A less frequented trail existed from the Indian villages of Tawas or Ottawas and Mingoes, at Tinker's Creek, by a shorter route, direct to the crossing of the Cuyahoga at the 'Stand- ing Stone', near Kent. The packhorsemen, who trans- ported goods and flour to the northwest from 1786 to 1795, followed this trail, crossing the Cuyahoga at Tink- er's Creek."
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