USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
There are two excellent methods by which the indus- trial and commercial development of a great city can be known - a personal inspection of its business and manu- facturing centers, and an examination of the totals to which its many forms of enterprise foot up. For this latter task, which, of course, is the only one here open to us, we have access, in the case of Cleveland, to the cen- sus reports of 1890, and to a valuable report 68 made two years afterwards by the Cleveland Board of Trade. These show where the city stood in the early days of this dec- ade, and it is but proper to state that Cleveland's growth
67 " The entire cost of the memorial, and its surroundings, aggregates in round figures $280,000. Not a dollar of this amount has passed through the hands of the Commission,-all moneys being collected by the County Treasurer, and paid out by him, on warrants drawn by the County Audi- tor, when ordered so to do in writing by the Monument Executive Commit- tee and its Secretary."-" History of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument," by William J. Gleason, p. 477.
68 For much of the information contained in the above, the writer is under obligation to one of the most thorough and admirable statistical hand- books, it has ever been his privilege to examine. This is the: "Annual Report of the Trade and Commerce of Cleveland: Prepared under the direction of the Cleveland Board of Trade." Issued December 1, 1892. Publication committee, David A. Dangler, John C. Covert, Wilson M. Day: Statistician, John M. Mulrooney.
498
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
has been as sure and steady since then, as it was in that remarkably expansive period extending from 1880 to 1890.69
What Cleveland really accomplished, between 1880 and 1890, was so aptly and forcibly described by Robert P. Porter, superintendent of the census of 1890, in an address before the Cleveland Board of Industry and Improvement in April, 1892, that I cannot forego the temptation to quote his remarks in some detail. Said he: "In ten years, you have doubled the number and value of the product of your establishments. You have nearly trebled the capital invested in manufactures, multiplied the total number employed two and a half times, and you are pay- ing out, annually, in wages, more than three times as much as you did in 1880. We have carefully filed away; in Washington, a schedule sworn to by the special agent as a true and faithful statement of the condition of every one of the 2,300 manufacturing establishments of this
city. . I doubt whether a more interesting com- parison of your manufacturing industry is possible than that of the difference in cost of material and value of prod- uct, for this might be called the enhanced value due to manufacture, and really represents what the industry and capital of your city has accomplished. In 1880, this en- hanced value amounted to $16,974,313, while in 1890 it
69 The population of Cleveland, as given in decades, from 1830 to 1890, has been as follows:
1830, United States Census
1,075
1840,
6,071
1850,
66 66
17,054
1860,
43,838
1870, 66 66
92,825
1880, 6 66
160,146
1890,
66 261,353
The city directory computations, since that date, give the following totals:
1892, City Directory
309,243
1893,
322,932
1894,
344,595
1895,
352,629
1896,
368, 895
499
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
amounted to $40.745,701, an increase of about 150 per cent. This may be considered as a gauge of your indus- trial enterprise. You have, in fact, nearly trebled your effective product."
Taking the census of 1890, and the Board of Trade re- port of 1892, as our guides for this inquiry as to Cleveland's rank as a commercial center in the beginning of the pres- ent decade, we are led to these important general facts: Cleveland, in 1890, ranked fourth ~ among the cities of the great lakes, in the volume of receipts and shipments of lake freight, the aggregate being 4,371,269 net tons. Of these, 3,088,512 tons were coal and iron ore. The total. foreign and coastwise commerce of the customs dis- trict of Cuyahoga was 9,929, 378 net tons. The magnitude of the city's iron ore traffic is best shown by a quotation from the report above referred to: "An investment of $175,394,985 seems almost beyond the proportions of any one closely connected line of commerce, but such are the figures representing the capital involved, on July 1, 1892, in mining and transporting, by lake and rail, the output of the Lake Superior iron mining district. The sale and movement of every ton of ore from this district is con- ducted by sales agents in Cleveland, who are also owners of the mines to a large extent. Here the docks at all Lake Erie ports, excepting Buffalo and Erie, are con- trolled, and here is owned fully 80 per cent. of the vessel property engaged in this commerce, which forms the largest single item in the lake traffic. This country con- sumed, in 1890, 17,500,000 gross tons of iron ore. Of this amount, 1,246,830 tons were imported, and 16,253, 170 tons were of home production. Lake Superior mines pro- duced, in the same year, 9,003,701 gross tons, or more than one-half the raw material, for a nation that leads the world in the output of pig iron, Bessemer steel and steel
70 Chicago and Buffalo outranked Cleveland, 'as they were the termi- nals of the most important of the lake shipping, and Escanaba, because of its immense shipments of ore,-the movement and sale of which Cleveland largely controlled.
500
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
rails. This statement is in itself enough to show the re- lation the city bears to the iron industry, whose prosperi- ty is most often used to serve as a measure of the general business prosperity of the country."
Cleveland shipped, by lake, to Milwaukee, Chicago, Duluth and other upper lake ports, 1,016,487 tons of bitu- minous coal in 1891, and 922,536 in 1890. The main points concerning her railway traffic were as follows: The total outward movement of freight over the eleven lines of railway having direct entrance into the city ag- gregated 5,535,332 net tons in 1891. These railroads operated 5,237 miles of working line in 1890, carried 37,- 829,711 tons of freight; gross receipts ran up to $56,087,- 349; operating expenses, $47,467,744; made use of the services of 37,684 employes. The aggregate receipts and shipments by canal in 1891 were less than 60,000 net tons, made up mainly of a few lines of coarse freight.
In the earlier portions of this work, when recording the building of those little vessels hauled by oxen down to the place of landing, there was small indication that, be- fore the end of the century, Cleveland would be able to claim the honor of being the largest shipbuilding point in the United States. Yet such she had come to be, at a date as early as that now under consideration.
The census report for the years 1889-90 - which are taken together for this calculation - furnishes the follow- ing comparison between Cleveland and the two next largest shipbuilding points:
Cleveland, O., in gross tons, . 71,322
Philadelphia, Pa., in gross tons, 53, 8II
Bath, Me., in gross tons, 49,830
In the five years ending with 1890, Cleveland built a total of 100 vessels of all kinds, with a gross tonnage of 125,265.
Eight Cleveland shipbuilding and dry dock establish- ments made a return of capital to the census bureau of $2,587,775; employed 2,083 hands; paid out $1, 188,662 for wages; $1,442,045 for material, and $73,921 for mis-
-
HORVAL JORDAN
CLEVELAND SHIPBUILDING.
501
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
cellaneous expenses. Their products reached a combined value of $3,091,300. Four dry docks alone represented an investment of $450,000. On July 1, 1892, there were owned in Cleveland forty steel vessels, all of which, with one exception, were steamers, and having a net registered tonnage of 69,317 tons, and an insurance valuation of $7,119,000; all but five of them having been built in Cleveland. It was further computed that, in 1892, the actual value, at a low estimate, of the 289 vessels owned in Cleveland, was $17,000,000.71
In general manufacturing, the census report showed that, in heavy forgings, wire nails, nuts and bolts, car- riage and wagon hardware, vapor stoves, sewing ma- chines, steel-tired car wheels and heavy street railway machinery, Cleveland led all the cities of the country. "Here are located," says the Board of Trade report, "the greatest shoddy mills in America; a plant for the manu- facture of sewing machine wood-work that has no equal in the world; a steel bridge works, that is represented in massive structures spanning rivers and valleys over the entire continent, and an electric light carbon works, hav- ing a capacity of ten million carbons annually, with a market for its product extending to Mexico, South Amer- ica, China, and Japan."
11 By the courtesy of the United States Commissioner of Navigation, I am enabled to bring these figures up to June 30, 1895, and present the following significant totals from his report, as to the shipbuilding and shipowning record of Cuyahoga County:
Number of vessels enrolled . 257
Tonnage of vessels enrolled 236,843.50
Number and gross tonnage of sailing vessels, steam vessels, etc .:
Sailing vessels 75
Sailing vessels-Tonnage . 50,407.49
Steam vessels 174
Steam vessels-Tonnage 182,472.59 Barges . . 8
Barges-Tonnage 3,963.32 Class, number, and gross tonnage of vessels built:
Steam vessels
1
Steam vessels-Tonnage 12,448.20
502
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
The annual capacity of the Cleveland blast furnaces and iron and steel mills was reported, in net tons, as follows: Pig iron, 275,000; Bessemer and open-hearth steel blooms, billets and slabs, 545,000; rails, 100,000; wire rods, 288,- 000 ; merchant bars and shapes, 108,500; plates, axles, iron and steel forgings, etc., 210,000. Establishments to the number of 125, including blast furnaces, iron and steel mills, nut and bolt manufactories, foundries, ma- chine shops, etc., turned out in 1890, a product valued at $47,364,764, and employed hands to the number of 17,465. Six big establishments engaged exclusively in the nut and bolt industry turned out goods to the value of $2,- 750,000 annually. Five car-wheel works had an annual capacity of 335,200 wheels. The city was headquarters of the malleable iron industry of the country. A half dozen establishments engaged in the manufacture of steel hollow ware and general hardware. The annual value of carriage, wagon and saddlery hardware was $4,750,000. Bridge building to the value of $2,000,000 a year was cred- ited to one establishment. The amount of capital in- vested in foundries and machine shops was placed at $7,997,233, employing 8, 155 hands, with a product valued at $13,432,334. The city led the world in the manufac- ture of vapor stoves. Sewing machines to the number of 150,000 were manufactured each year. The manufac- tures in lumber, mill products from logs, lumber planed, and sash, doors and blinds, were valued at $2, 219,697. Cleveland's product in flour in 1891 was 675,000 barrels, valued at $2,600,000. In printing and publishing, 93 establishments, capitalized at $2,527,435, did a business of $3, 147,426. In 1890, Cleveland possessed 21 slaughter- ing and meat-packing houses, capitalized at $810,957, and having a product valued at $8,673,966. In wool shoddies and blankets, the annual output reached $2,225,000. In wearing apparel, the value was $3,972,392. Business in boots and shoes was done to the value of $2,800,000. Pe- troleum products, outside of the Standard Oil Company's, $4,000,000. Paints, $2,008,986. Drugs and chemicals,
503
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
$944,737. Lake fisheries, from $250,000 to $300,000. The aggregate annual sales, as given in the Board of Trade Report ( 1892 ) on the leading wholesale mercantile lines, may be summarized as follows:
Dry goods $ 9,000,000
Groceries
9,000,000
Produce, through commission merchants 4,750,000
Hardware
4,000,000
Merchant iron and steel out of store
3,250,000
Boots, shoes and rubbers
2, 800,000
Rubber goods, belting, hose, rubber garments, etc. Cloaks, from manufacturers
2,300,000
2,250,000
Clothing, made up
2,000,000
Millinery and straw goods
2,000,000
Books and stationery
2,000,000
Drugs and druggists' sundries
2,000,000
Teas, coffees and spices (exclusive of sales by wholesale grocers)
1,900,000
Crockery
900,00
Furniture
500,000
Toys and notions
350,000
Total
$49,000,00
Turning to the banks," we find the following signifi- cant figures, on July 1, 1892 :
No. Paid in capital. Surplus.
National Banks . II
$9,050,000
$2,233,587
Savings Banks 2I
3,432,100
3.473,590
State Banking Companies
2 550,000
37,165
Savings & Loan Associations . 16
2,350,002
15,94I
Total . 50 $15,382, 102
$5,760,283
In the above, the Society for Savings is not enumerated. Its deposits then amounted to $21,539,844.
72 "Notwithstanding the clean history of Cleveland's banking business, under State and National laws, for full three-quarters of a century past - its freedom from failures or serious disturbances of any kind- there is abundant evidence of the liberal policy of the directors of these institu- tions, in the substantial growth of manufacturing and commercial inter- ests. No speculative influences go to swell the volume of banking busi- ness; neither do transactions of a speculative nature figure in Cleveland's weekly bank clearings, as published throughout the country, in compari- son with the clearing-house statements from other cities."-" Board of Trade Report," 1892, p. 129.
504
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Referring to that conservative business barometer, the real estate and building business, we find by examination of the reports made by the city inspector of buildings that in the three years and seven months ending December 3, 1891, there were erected in Cleveland 9,425 new build- ings, and 4,748 additions were made to those then stand- ing. The total estimated cost of these improvements was
PERRY-PAYNE BUILDING.
$18,141,932. The real estate transfers and leases for the ten years ending December 31, 1891, numbered 68,683, involving a money consideration to the great amount of $258,244,403, or an average of over twenty-five million dollars each year.73
73 " Wonderful instances of the increasing value of property, in the busi- ness section of the city, are found in the daily transactions. The value of realty, on Superior street, ranges from $2,500 to $4,000 per foot front, and
505
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
A reference to the building statistics, as shown in the census of 1890," will furnish the following interesting figures: Dwellings in Cleveland, January 1, 1891, 38,463; estimated value, $42,746, 807. Barns, 6,311; estimated value, $1,855,810. Stores, 3,034; estimated value, $15,- 912, 175. Mills and shops, 1,291 ; estimated value, $5,238,- 565. Miscellaneous, 740; estimated value. $14,025,656. Totals, 49,839; $79,779,013.
The assessed value of Cleveland real estate, in 1891, was $89,512,700. Of personal property, $28,320,500. The real valuation was $500,000,000. Exempt from taxation, $18,000,000. The debt of the city was $8,735,291.73. The assets and sinking fund, $16,534,353.84. The total cost of construction of the water works department, to January 1, 1892, was $6,280,656.17. Water works bonds then outstanding amounted to $1,775,000. The net earn- ings of the department, in 1891, were $419,874.43. The total area of the city was 24.48 square miles. Number of streets, 2,303. Miles of streets, 470. Main and branch sewers, 179 miles. Ten swing or draw bridges, 10 rail- road swing or draw bridges, 40 stationary bridges. Lake frontage, 5 miles; river frontage, 16 miles. Street rail- ways, 174 miles. The internal revenue collections in the eighteenth district of Ohio (Cleveland), for the year end- ing June 30, 1892, were as follows: Fermented liquors, $530,848. 13; distilled spirits, $39,604.50; cigars and cigar- ettes, $275,454.86; snuff, $30.96; tobacco, $22,694.34; special tax, $178,276.12 ; oleomargarine, $36,025.28. Total, $1,086,332.86. The religious growth of the city was represented by more than two hundred church socie-
the whole street, from Water street to the Public Square, could be disposed of at such figures, very readily, if the owners could be prevailed upon to sell. . It is estimated that no less than sixty large allotments have been laid out, in the suburban districts, within the past three years, and that within the same period, homes to the number of about 6,000 have been provided, after this system alone."-"Board of Trade Report," 1892, p. 136.
74 The number of structures above given was arrived at by actual count of the buildings, reported by the Ward assessors.
506
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ties. Its literary status was indicated by 112 newspapers, magazines and other periodicals.
Another illustration of the size to which Cleveland has grown, in this year of her Centennial, is shown in the statistics of her Post-office. Besides the now antiquated and inadequate main Post-office, fronting on the Public Square, the city has four large carrier stations, known as
9
CLEVELAND POST-OFFICE.
A, B, C and D; seven sub-stations, known as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, and twenty-nine stamp agencies scattered throughout the city. As an indication of the recent ex- tensive growth of the city's postal business, I give the comparative receipts found in the following :
For the year ending June 30, 1890 $461,854.63 For the year ending June 30, 1895 629,711.61
For the year ending September 30, 1895 652,627. 13
507
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
For the following detailed statistics, the writer is indebted to John C. Hutchins, the present postmaster :" The net receipts for the year ending June 30, 1895, of the Cleve- land office, were $1,392.41, greater than the net receipts of all the presidential post-offices of the States of Louis- iana, South Carolina and Nevada, and $61,495.07 greater than those of the State of Maine. For the same year, the ninth division railway mail service handled 104,- 049,986 pieces. The city division of this office handled 51,622,076 pieces. Cleveland is the headquarters of the above-named railway service, which makes the office a receptacle for all unmailable and illegible matter reach- ing such division. This matter is rated up, and addresses notified, or, if insufficiently addressed, the same is corrected and sent forward, when possible, or sent to the dead letter office for final disposition. The greater part of such mail originates in foreign countries. For the year ending June 30, 1895, nearly one million pieces of this character were handled.
About 560 postal employes receive their pay through the Cleveland office. It has at present 135 clerks, 152 carriers, 25 sub-carriers and 248 railway postal clerks, and does a money order business of from three to four million dollars annually, and issues both domestic and international orders.
Cleveland has never been in undue haste to add to her possessions by annexation. Such adjacent territory as has been added to her borders, has come through manifest destiny, and in response to the reasonable demands of the people most directly interested. It was inevitable that, in the course of time, the thriving villages just to the westward should be absorbed into the great city, even as
15 The postmasters of Cleveland, from the establishment of the office in 1805 to 1896, have been as follows: Elisha Norton, John Walworth, Ashbel W. Walworth, Daniel Kelley, Irad Kelley, Daniel Worley, Aaron Barker, Benjamin Andrews, Timothy P. Spencer, Daniel M. Haskell, J. W. Gray, Benjamin Harrington, Edwin Cowles, George A. Benedict, John W. Allen, N. B. Sherwin, Thomas Jones, Jr., William W. Armstrong, A. T. Ander- son, John C. Hutchins.
508
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
were East Cleveland and Newburg. It was, therefore, no surprise when West Cleveland and Brooklyn came into the municipal fold. West Cleveland was annexed on March 5, 1894, and Brooklyn Village on April 30, 1894. The first named added to the city about 1,500 acres and 6,000 in- habitants; Brooklyn, 1,700 acres of land and 5,000 inhab- itants. By the terms of annexation, Cleveland assumed the payment of bonds, as follows: West Cleveland, $95,- 349; Brooklyn Village, $143,674.72. The city, however, received the following amounts in cash from the treasur- ers of the two towns: West Cleveland, $6, 172.17; Brook- lyn Village, $33,000.92. It also received permanent im- provements, valued as follows:
Brooklyn Village.
West Cleveland.
Sewers
$51,058.85
$353.80
Pavements
75,688.57
38,872.74
Water pipe
73,736.85
63,326.70
Sidewalks
1,138.07
'24,286. 19
Curbing and grading
2,706.54
28,338.89
Town Hall
3,000.00
$204,328.88 $158,178.32
Up to November 16, 1895, Cleveland had been singu- larly free from serious accidents on its street railroads, although its river and its viaducts, with their swing-bridges, were constant menaces. On that date, however, in an early hour of the evening, a car plunged through the open draw of the Central Viaduct, into the Cuyahoga River, 100 feet below. Seventeen deaths resulted, all from drown- ing, for there were no injuries on the bodies when they were recovered. The car was one on the Cedar and Jen- nings avenue line of the "Big Consolidated" system, and it was going to the South Side. The accident occurred at the north end of the draw. Its cause is uncertain, for the testimony before the coroner was at direct odds on the vital point. The bridge-tender swore that the bridge had been opened for a tug boat, that the warning red lights were displayed, and that the gates were closed and
509
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
locked. The motorman, who jumped and was saved just as his car went over the brink, swore that the gates were open, and there were no lights. The conductor, who gave the signal to start after the car had stopped at the safety switch, was one of the drowned, and so his testi- mony, which would have been final, was lost. The coro- ner's verdict was non-committal as to the placing of the responsibility. Augustus Rogers, the motorman, who was held for manslaughter, was discharged. Only one passenger was saved. He went down with the car, but struggled out to the surface of the water and clung to a spile till rescued.
After a number of years of agitation, by press and pub- lic, it seems within the range of easy probability that Cleveland will have a new government building. Hon. Theodore E. Burton, congressman from this district,76 drafted a bill asking for an appropriation of $2,500,000 for this purpose, and it has already received the prelimi- nary approval of the committees, and it will undoubtedly be passed without difficulty. The new building will, prob- ably, occupy the site of the present one, the Case Library property, and also the street between them.
Cleveland will have a noble art gallery, and a helpful art school, so soon as certain legal complications, attend- ing the consolidation of a number of bequests for this purpose, are disposed of. The first citizen whose gener- osity took this turn was H. B. Hurlbut. By his will, his immense estate, and valuable art collection, were given to his wife for life. At her death, they were to be used to found an art gallery, after certain legacies were paid. Henry C. Ranney, James D. Cleveland, and William E. Miller are the trustees of this fund. Horace Kelley, who
16 It may be permitted, at this point, to name the Clevelanders who have represented the city in Congress, with the dates of service, as follows: John W. Allen, 1837-41; Sherlock J. Andrews, 1841-43; Edward Wade, 1853-61; Albert G. Riddle, 1861-63; Rufus P. Spaulding, 1863-69; Richard C. Parsons, 1873-75; Henry B. Payne, 1875-77; Amos Townsend, 1877-83; Martin A. Foran, 1883-89; Theodore E. Burton, 1889-91; Tom L. Johnson, 1891-95; Theodore E. Burton, 1895-97.
510
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
died in December, 1890, left valuable real estate, encum- bered only by an allowance to his widow, for the purpose of establishing an art gallery, and the founding of an art school. The trustees named are James M. Jones, Henry C. Ranney and Alfred S. Kelley. John Huntington, as before stated, gave a certain per cent. of the income from his estate, during the life-time of his children, and at their death a definite amount of property, for an art gallery, and an evening polytechnic school. Henry C. Ranney, Edwin R. Perkins, John V. Painter, S. E. Williamson, Charles W. Bingham, John H. Lowman, James D. Cleve- land, George H. Worthington, and Mariette Leek Hunting- ton, are the trustees. On December 23, 1892, J. H. Wade, who wished to see the art gallery project take tangible form, gave four acres in Wade Park, for the proposed building. As the purposes of all these be- quests are the same, and the trustees of a single mind, in their desires to co-oper- ate, it only needs the prop- er legal measures to amal- MAYOR ROBERT BLEE. gamate these funds, and then the gallery, and the schools, will immediately follow.
The newspapers of Cleveland did not wait for the dawn of the city's centennial year to show that they were keep- ing step with the music of progress, nor for the advent of Greater Cleveland, in which to give evidence that they were abreast with modern methods. Perhaps it would be just to say, that no one agency has done as much for the encouragement of enterprise, and the advertisement of Cleveland's claims before the world at large, as her local press.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.