USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 38
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Suppose that visitor of 1883 had come into the city from the old " Pilgrim's Rest," up by Tinker's Creek, and followed the wandering Cuyahoga River in its course, what would he have seen?
In that sometimes murky and clouded valley of the river, he would have found the industrial heart, and a great portion of the manufacturing strength of Cleve-
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
land. Hundreds of acres, stretching from the lake front to the outer city limits, would have been seen covered with shipyards, lumber-yards, planing-mills, freight- depots, roundhouses, iron-mills, furnaces, oil-works, factories, in which were made almost all the things possi- ble in wood or iron, or a combination of the two; chemi- cal-works, foundries, fertilizing-works, brick-yards, and a thousand and one small concerns, that worked into com- mercial value the refuse from the larger neighbors about them. This valley, better known as " The Flats," would have been seen moving day and night,-as it still moves, --- with the motion of ten thousand machines. A11 the railroads dipped into it, carrying millions of loads of material in the year, and taking forth uncounted loads of goods, ready for the market. Rail and water communica- tion were both at hand, and side-tracks interlaced almost every acre of its territory.
Moving to the left, the visitor would have found, branching to the west from the valley, and followed by the track over which the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railroad, and the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad's western division ran, a small and sluggish stream - Walworth Run - marking the dividing line between the West Side and the elevated plateau lo- cally described as the South Side. That run would have been found crowded, for a mile and a half, with pork and beef slaughter-houses, woolen-factories, ice-houses, and various concerns of a similar character. Still further up the Cuyahoga Valley would have been found another ar- tery, by which a stream of business of diverse kinds worked its way into the central heart. At the junction of Kingsbury Run with the Cuyahoga River were seen the works of the Standard Oil Company, covering many acres, and pouring a wave of smoke into the sky. Further up the run, were a dozen other refineries and works, tak- ing the refuse of the crude oil, after the burning fluid had been extracted, and putting it upon the market, in such forms as paraffine, naphtha, gasoline, etc. Still further
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
up, were other refineries, and where the run crossed the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad tracks, could be found a wilderness of tanks, and stills, and oil-houses, showing where a host of smaller refineries had made a stand against the Standard -some of them afterwards to suc- cumb and sell out, some to stand idle, and others to keep up the struggle.
The annexation of East Cleveland and Newburg, brought into the city limits many farm lots, which, added to the acres and acres held vacant right in the best part of the city, by the Payne and Case estates, gave to Cleve- land, even of 1876 or later, the appearance of a series of de- tached villages, where much growth would be necessary before it could justify its widely-extended boundary lines.
Much of this had been changed, in the half-dozen years preceding the date at which our visitor is supposed to have taken his bird's-eye view (1883). Hundreds of resi- dences, and scores of business blocks, and factories, had crowded in upon the vacant spaces. The death of Leon- ard Case had thrown the immense Case commons into the market. The large Water Cure tract had been al- lotted and sold; the wide vacant spaces along the Cleve- land & Pittsburg Railroad tracks, from Case avenue to Newburg, had been covered with factories and oil works; many great business blocks had given the older part of the city a metropolitan appearance.
This brief review can be completed, by quoting a sum- mary of the business of Cleveland, at this date, from the article to which reference was made a few pages before: "An early start had something to do with Cleveland's growth, but location has a great deal more. The city is the nearest and most convenient point where the iron ores from Lake Superior can be met by the limestone, coke and coal needed to the making of commercial iron. The fleet of vessels that are engaged in the carrying of this ore to Cleveland harbor demonstrates this fact, as nothing else could. The furnaces, rolling-mills, steel- mills, and scores of factories, for special iron goods, that
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
can be seen in all parts of the city, prove that fact to a certainty. The ore is met here by the coal from the Ma- honing, Massillon, Tuscarawas and Pennsylvania districts, and the limestone from the Lake Erie islands, and the south Lake Erie shores. . No better distributing point could be discovered; land is comparatively cheap, and taxes comparatively low. All these things have united to develop enterprise here at home, and invite it from abroad." A few condensed figures from Cleveland's commercial record of 1882 will show the truth of the above :
Iron and steel products
$ 4,800,000
Sales of stoves
1,350,000
Railway equipments
12,000,000
Nuts, bolts, etc. .
2,300,000
Machinery
42,000,000
Manufactures of brass
850,000
Sales of dry goods
8,000,000
Sales of groceries
8,000,000
Paints and varnishes
500,000
Boot and shoe business
3,500,000
Electric light business
2,000,000
Hardware business
1,000,000
Cars and bridges
950,000
Clothing, woolens and cloaks
6,950,000
Millinery and fancy goods
3,800,000
Steel springs
350,000
Carriages
800,000
Furniture
1,500,000
Fertilizers
500,000
These figures cover, of course, only the leading indus- tries, as there was an endless variety of small occupations, of which no census could be taken. Over 1,000,000 tons of coal were handled, in 1882; over 7,000,000 barrels of crude oil refined into various products; 4,500,000 barrels made; over 600 tons of fresh fish handled; 200,000,000 feet of lumber handled; nearly 2,000,000 pounds of to- bacco manufactured; 300,000 barrels of flour made. The report of the Cleveland Custom House, for 1882, gave the following totals of the business done through the harbors of Cleveland, Lorain, Conneaut, and Ashtabula - the three
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
last named being in this district, and furnishing a com- paratively small portion of the total: Receipts, coastwise, $54,480,006; shipments, coastwise, $36,449,853; foreign entered, $586,207; foreign cleared, $440,354; coastwise vessels entering during the year, 4,374, of a tonnage of 1,927,863; cleared coastwise, 3,938, of a tonnage of 1,825,218.
Passing from this summary, once more, to the detailed record, we find one main point of interest connected with an important change of management of the public schools. We have seen the superintendency of Andrew Freese, fol- lowed by those of L. M. Oviatt, of Anson Smyth, and of Andrew J. Rickoff, whose term of superintendent ex- tended from 1867 to 1882. Mr. Rickoff's services to our public school system can hardly be overestimated. Spurred on by his energy, a large number of excellent school buildings were erected, several of them after plans of his own. The course of study was systemised and improved; the classification of pupils was revised, twelve grades being placed together in three main groups- Primary, Grammar, and High School grades; separate schools for the sexes were abolished; women principals were employed; the city was divided into districts, each being under the direct care of a supervising principal; German was introduced into the course of study; and more direct attention paid to music and drawing." The Normal (now Training) School was established, for the purpose of furnishing the schools with well-trained and thoroughly-equipped teachers.#3 During Mr. Rickoff's
42 The able corps of assistants who aided in this work of placing the schools of Cleveland upon a modern basis were: H. M. James and L. W. Day, supervising principals; L. R. Klemm and A. J. Esch, special super- intendents of German; Harriet L. Keeler and Kate S. Brennan, super- visors of primary instruction; Frank Aborn, special teacher of drawing; N. Coe Stewart, special teacher of music; A. P. Root and A. A. Clark, of penmanship.
43 The great value of this school was shown by Superintendent Hins- dale, who said in his report for 1886, that of the 603 teachers in the schools in the year before, 240 were graduates of the Normal School; that the
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
administration, the number of teachers in the schools in- creased from 123 to 473; and the pupils from 9.643 to 26,990. It was generally admitted that the schools of the city had reached a high grade of efficiency. A diploma was received from the Vienna Exposition, for a display of plans of buildings; the Cleveland schools were placed at the head of the list, in a report to the committees of
B
THE STILLMAN HOTEL.
Council on Education for England; the French Commis- sioners placed the Cleveland schoolhouses ahead of all American competitors; while one English expert declared with enthusiasm, that Cleveland had the best schools in
school had " strongly tended to raise the standard of general culture and of professional ability of the teachers." The successive principals of this school have been: Alexander Forbes, Elroy M. Avery, Oliver Arey, Ellen G. Reveley, and Lemira W. Hughes.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
the world. The work of the Cleveland schools stood in the first rank, in the educational exhibits of the Centen- nial Exposition of 1876.
On the retirement of Mr. Rickoff, he was succeeded by B. A. Hinsdale, whose administration extended from 1882 to 1886. The new incumbent was widely known, as president of Hiram College, and as a writer upon educa- tional and historical subjects. He attempted no marked changes of management, following the general lines laid down by his predecessor; but endeavored to keep clear of routine methods of thought and instruction -giving the pupils not only good teaching, but leading them to think and reason upon their own responsibility; make the system more elastic, and freer from set rules of in- struction. The main features of his administration can be learned from the following figures: The increase in the number of pupils, from 1882 to 1886, was from 26,990 to 32,814; fourteen fine school buildings were erected ; the night schools increased from one to nine; and the average attendance, in all of the schools, was materially increased.
Superintendent Hinsdale was succeeded, in 1886, by L. W. Day, who had been for years an efficient supervisor of instruction. The later superintendents have been as follows: Andrew S. Draper, 1892 to 1894; L. H. Jones, 1894 to date. The changes, in time past, in the manage- ment of the schools have been noted already, and yet another was made on March 8, 1892, when the Ohio Legislature passed an act, providing for the reorganization of the Cleveland Board of Education. It was decreed that all legislative authority should be vested in a school council of seven members, elected at large, and all exec- utive authority in a school director, who also should be elected by popular vote. All subordinates were to be ap- pointed by the director, with the exception of the teach- ers, who were to be selected by the superintendent of in- struction, who, in turn, was to be chosen by the school director. The city auditor, city treasurer, and corpo- ration counsel, were to occupy the same respective re-
465
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
lations to the school department. On March 17, 1893, the Legislature passed an act establishing a sinking fund, to provide for the then outstanding bonded indebtedness of the school department. The following gentlemen were appointed members of the board of commissioners having that fund in charge: S. W. Sessions, Myron T. Herrick, Albert L. Withington, William F. Carr, and William J. Morgan.“
A leading event of 1883 was the campaign so vigorous- ly carried on, with Cleveland as headquarters, for the passage of an amendment to the Constitution of Ohio for- bidding the liquor business. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Ohio had urged the matter with such vigor that the Legislature submitted to the people two amendments to the Constitution, one removing from that document the declaration that there should be no liquor licenses granted in the State, and placing the whole matter in the hands of the Legislature, and the other to- tally forbidding the making or selling of intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage."
The temperance women of Ohio went to work to per- suade the voters to support this Second Amendment. The State headquarters of the union were in Cleveland, with Mary A. Woodbridge in charge. The local union worked with earnestness in assistance, under the guiding spirit of F. Jennie Duty, one of the early "crusaders," and a foremost spirit in the founding and management of the Friendly Inns.
The campaign was conducted with an earnestness and
44 The figures here given are from the annual report of the school de- partment for the year ending August 31, 1895: Enumeration of children of school age, 91,453; registered in the elementary and high schools, 48,345; attending the Normal Training School, 231; average daily attend- ance in all the schools, 36,540; average number of teachers employed during the year, 1,048.
45 The wording of this proposed amendment was as follows: "The manufacture of and traffic in intoxicating liquors to be used as a beverage are forever prohibited; and the General Assembly shall provide by law for the enforcement of this provision."
-
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
effective vigor that was an object-lesson to politicians of the other sex and of more extended political experience. Mass meetings were held in the Tabernacle every Sab- bath evening. Services were held in the churches on Sabbath mornings and week-day evenings, at which the Second Amendment was preached about and prayed over. Out-door meetings were held again and again. "Second Amendment " wagons were sent about the streets to at- tract attention to these gatherings; the "Second Amend- ment Herald " was founded, and its circulation reached many thousands. Active organizations were formed in every ward, women were pledged to work all day at the polls; pamphlets, cir- culars, and tracts were pre- pared and sent out, by hundreds of thousands. 46 The services of a great many men in sympathy with the movement were enlisted, and an advisory committee was formed, con- sisting of the following well-known gentlemen : MAYOR JOHN H. FARLEY. Joseph Perkins, J. D. Rockefeller, E. C. Pope, W. H. Doan, J. B. Meriam, Ed- ward S. Meyer and Alva Bradley. Mr. Perkins and Mr. Rockefeller gave not only of their time and advice, but also quite largely of their money, to aid a cause in which both took such personal interest.
Election day arrived, and the great question was put to the decisive test of the ballot box. The excitement and labor in Cleveland were duplicated in all parts of the State. "In thirteeen wards in this city," writes Miss
46 " In ten weeks," says one historian of this great movement, " 1, 372,- 370 pages of Second Amendment literature was given out by the Cleveland W. C. T. U." This is from an article entitled, " History of the Second Amendment Campaign in Cleveland," by F. Jennie Duty, in “ Amend- ment Herald " of March 13, 1884.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Duty, in the account heretofore referred to, "the women were at the polls on election day. They had rented stores, or obtained rooms in houses opposite or very near the polling places, and fitted them up for W. C. T. U. headquarters. These were decorated, in a womanly fash- ion, with banners, mottoes, flags and flowers. This was accomplished the day before election, and at six o'clock the next morning the women were at the polling places. In a few wards they did not go out upon the sidewalk, but remained within their headquarters, served lunches to the workers, and talked with those who came to them."
So far as practical results were concerned, this earnest labor went for naught. Both amendments were lost, the vote in the State standing as follows: Whole number of votes cast in the State, 721,310; for the First Amend- ment, 99,849; for the Second, 323, 189. The whole num- ber of votes cast in Cuyahoga County: 39,514; for the First Amendment, 2,850; for the Second, 12,954.
A great flood in the Cuyahoga Valley, accompanied by fire, was also among the events of importance in 1883. Heavy rains in early February had swollen the river to many times its usual size, and a rise of ten feet in near twice that many hours caught many unawares, and almost at one sweep lumber, to the value of three hundred thou- sand dollars, was swept out into the lake. Damage was done all over the Flats, bridges carried away, railroad embankments washed out, vessels wrecked, and, finally, damage by fire. . A tank of five thousand barrels of oil blew up in the Great Western Oil Works, and the burning oil spread over the rushing waters. Next below were the paraffine works of Meriam & Morgan, which were set on fire by the burning oil; and the destruction of the im- mense works of the Standard Oil Company seemed immi- nent. Some of the outworks were burned, and only a culvert that had become gorged with lumber saved the many acres of stills and buildings from entire destruc- tion. It was a scene that will never be forgotten, by the thousands who gazed upon it - the valley under water,
468
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
and the whole expanse lighted up by the burning of acres of oil spread out upon the waters. The loss, from flood and fire, reached nearly three quarters of a million dollars.
A still greater and more dangerous conflagration upon the Flats, and one that for a time threatened the destruc- tion of the business portion of the city, occurred in the year following, on the evening of Sunday, September 7, 1884. The fire, which was believed to have been the work of incendiaries, commenced in the lumber yards of Woods, Perry & Company. The great piles of lumber all about were in a blaze in a moment, and although the firemen were upon the ground at the earliest possible mo- ment, the conflagration was beyond their control. Al- most in an instant, acres and acres, upon the south side of the river, covered with lumber and planing mills, were in one huge blaze. The flames swept down upon the docks, across the river to a lard refinery, and seemed de- termined to sweep straight across to Superior street, and destroy all that great business section. By this time, the entire city department had been pressed· into service: dispatches asking for aid had been sent to Akron, Tole- do, Painesville, Youngstown and other neighboring cities, and by eleven o'clock nine steamers had been rushed in by train and were at work. The local militia were or- dered under arms, to protect property, and give their serv- ice, if the need should arise. Anxious thousands lined the hillsides, all about the valley. It was well toward Monday morning before the heroic efforts of the firemen were crowned with success, and the fire was under con- trol. The losses in this great conflagration amounted to $801,250.
It was, also, in 1884, on January 5th, that Cleveland's second venture in modern theatres, the Park Theatre, suffered almost total destruction by fire. A very attract- ive structure had been erected on the north side of the Public Square, during the summer preceding, by Henry Wick, and successfully opened on October 22nd, under the
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
management of A. F. Hartz. On the date above men- tioned, an explosion of gas set the whole interior on fire, and in a few minutes nothing was left but the outside walls. It was fortunately in the forenoon, so that there was no loss of life. The First Presbyterian Church, ad- joining it, was also damaged, to the extent of twenty thou- sand dollars. The theatre was rebuilt in 1885.“
Still another change in the courts having direct juris- diction in Cuyahoga County was made in the fall of 1884, in obedience to an amendment to the State Constitution. The election for judges of the newly-established Circuit Court occurred in the fall of the year named, the first sit- ting occurring in February, 1885. This court succeeded the District Court, which had gone out of existence. The first judges elected for the Sixth Judicial District, having jurisdiction in the counties of Cuyahoga, Summit, Lorain, Huron, Medina, Erie, Sandusky, Ottawa, and Lu- cas, were William H. Upson, Charles C. Baldwin and George R. Haynes. The circuit was so changed, in 1888, as to comprise only the counties of Cuyahoga, Lorain, Summit and Medina. As this placed Judge Haynes in
47 In this connection the actual fire losses in Cleveland since 1854 may be of interest :
1854-$302,724. 76
1868-$300,451.76 1869- 196,985.19
1882-8 364,646.08
1855- 96,008.68
1870- 378,635.61 1884- 1,522, 861.84 1857- 88,765.55
1886- 105,879.39 1858- 29,050.80
1887- 277,573.10 1859- 50,903.50 1873- 348,410.94
1888- 541,248.85 1860- 35,506.80
1861- 102,045-50 1875- 137, 102.66
I862- 87,150.28
1863- 96,008.68 1877- 25,910.00
1878- 207,836.95
1892- 1,482,020.79
1865- 261,341.48
1879- 215,357.96
1893- 684,472.16 1866- 173,990.62 1880- 268,799.58 1894- 643,012.90 1867- 206,902.83
1881- 365,400.58
1895- 524,014.23
1 883- 502,449.92 1856- 115,342.40
1871- 300,453.77 1885- 429,241.73
1872- 309, 725.22
1874- 641,504.37
1889- 373,009.88
1876- 253,559.75 IS90- 308,482.03
1891- 1,076,260.01 1864- 115,360.50
By the courtesy of A. I. Truesdell, secretary of the Cleveland Board of Underwriters, the following points of information can be added: The amount of premiums written in Cleveland in fire insurance during 1895, was a little over $1,250,000. Losses for the past twelve or thirteen years have averaged about 60 per cent.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
another circuit, Hugh J. Caldwell was elected as his suc- cessor. The work assigned this court was the reviewing of the action in the lower courts, in such cases as were . carried up on appeal, or otherwise.
An incident connected with the legal profession of Cleveland occurred in 1885, illustrative of the fact that the modern woman -not then classified as the "new" woman - was invading, as never before, the professions previously followed exclusively by the men. This was the appearance of the first woman lawyer in Cleveland. Mary P. Spargo, who had been born in this city, and was educated in its schools, determined to fit herself for the practice of the profession, and accordingly, in 1882, en- tered the office of Morrow & Morrow, as a student. In 1885, shew as admitted to practice by the Ohio Supreme Court - having been previously refused an appointment as notary public, on the ground that the constitution would not permit it -and opened an office in Cleveland. Of her success in the early days of the venture it has been said: "It was Miss Spargo's intent and expectation that her clientage would be among her own sex. But while her practice is, and has been, largely among women, yet it has been by no means confined to them; neither has it confined itself to a round of clerical or sub- ordinate duties. It may be said, with entire justification, that in the four years of her practice, she has managed, and settled, as great a variety of cases as usually falls to the lot of any young attorney."
Still following the records of the courts, we find a law passed by the State Legislature, in 1886, which quite ma- terially affected the interests of that humble, but very use- ful, portion of the judiciary, the justices of the peace. It was decreed that in place of fees, upon which these offi- cials had subsisted from time immemorial, salaries should be paid - eighteen hundred dollars per annum for the justice, six hundred for clerk hire, three hundred for office rent. All fees, etc., were to be paid into the city treasury.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
An entertaining chapter could be written upon the jus- tice courts of Cleveland, that had their origin back in those early days of the township, of which we have al- ready written, when James Kingsbury first sat upon this bench of the court of first resort; where he was soon joined by Rodolphus Edwards, Timothy Doan, and other pioneers, who knew more about farming and woodcraft than they did of law.# Ashbel W. Walworth was five times elected to the office. Harvey Rice donned the cloak of office only two years after reaching Cleveland. From 1826 to 1840, we find these familiar names upon the list : E. Waterman, Varnum Card, Job Doan, Samuel Under- hill, Gerdon Fitch, Andrew Cozad, A. D. Smith, Porter Wells, and George Hoadly - of whose valuable labors in this office some mention has already been made. A little later came I. F. Benedict, John Day, John Gardner, and John Barr - who served three terms, was a noted writer upon the early history of Cleveland, and served in other offices with credit to himself, and to the satisfaction of the people. Later justices, before the period of the Civil War, were M. Barnett, Edward Hessenmueller, Isaac Sherman, Charles L. Fish, James D. Cleveland, George W. Lynde, Geoge B. Tibbetts, Erastus Smith, Almon Burgess, John Philpott, George H. Benham, Henry Chapman, Isaac C. Vail, John R. Fitzgerald, Madison Miller, Wells Porter, and Samuel Foljambe. A full list of the incumbents in these later years, and this large city, can hardly be given, but among the best known may be mentioned George Hester, George A. Kolbe, George Arnold, Edgar Sowers, Homer Strong, David L. Wood, John P. Green (the first colored justice of the city); Charles H. Babcock, Felix Nic- ola, E. R. Griswold, E. H. Bohm, and Levi F. Bauder. Of the record made by these courts, and of the character of the justices themselves, it has been well said by one
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