USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 5
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
When the " Cleaveland Herald " came into existence, in 1819, it was loyal to the General, in that it used his name without omitting a letter, and so continued up to 1832, when there is a break in the files at the rooms of the Western Reserve Historical Society from April 12th to. June 8th, 1833, on which latter date it is found without the added letter.
One of the many and varied statements made upon the subject is found in the following, from the pen of Hon. A. J. Williams:37 "Some years before his death, Gen. A. S. Sanford, an old settler and printer in Cleveland, and one of our most valued citizens, related to me the circumstances that occasioned the dropping of the first ' a ' in the original name of our city, 'Cleaveland.' The letter was not omitted in the 'Herald ' until 1832, but prior to that date, the 'Cleaveland Advertiser' was
36 Extract from a paper entitled. " The Original Surveys of Cleveland," by Samuel J. Baker, in "Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies," New York, August, 1884, p. 217: " There is in the office of the city civil engineer on the first page of a volume entitled, 'Maps and Profiles, Vol. I.,' a map entitled, 'A Plan of the City of Cleaveland.' There is in the lower right-hand corner a rather quaint picture, representing two- Indians, one with a gun, standing on a plain. To the left is a tent, on which is painted the above title, and to its left a tree. In the background are some hills." This map is accompanied by a statement made by I. N. Pillsbury, city civil engineer, that it is an accurate transcript made by him in 1842, from the original map and minutes of the survey of Cleveland, made in 1796 by Seth Pease. In this copy the name of the city contains. the extra " a."
37 " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," Vol. III., No. 3, p. 367 ..
44
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
published. General Sanford said the paper for the 'Advertiser ' was purchased from the paper mill at Cuya- hoga Falls; that for one issue thereof the paper re- ceived was too small for the heading 'Cleaveland Ad- vertiser,' and that to use the same, it became necessary to drop from the heading the ' a ' from the name ' Cleave- land.' This was done, and from about that time the name of the village and of our city became Cleveland." 38
A more plausible theory, and one that bears a closer mark of genuineness, is stated as follows: That when the " Herald " was being printed, a "sheep's-foot,"- something any old printer will know all about-struck the letter "A" in the heading, and so battered it that it was useless. As new type could not be had this side of Buffalo, or perhaps New York or Philadelphia, the dam- aged "A" was left out, and never again found its place in the heading. J. A. Howells, an Ashtabula editor, says that when his father was clerk of the Ohio Senate, about 1856, one of the members of the legislature, who had been a printer on the " Herald," made the above state- ment as one of fact, and that J. A. Harris, for years editor of that newspaper, confirmed it. Mr. Howells adds, in answer to the Sanford theory, that he compared issues of the " Herald," both before and after the drop- ping of the "A," and found there had been no change- that the paper was of the same size right along.38a
In returning to the original surveys, we can do no bet-
38 From a speech delivered by Hon. Rufus P. Spalding before the Early Settlers' Association, in 1880: "' The town was called by my name,' said the General, and so it was, C-l-e-a-v-e-l-a-n-d; and that was the way in which the name was spelled, written and printed, until an act of piracy was committed on the word by the publisher of a newspaper, something over forty years ago, who, in procuring a new head-piece for his paper, found it convenient to increase the capacity of his iron frame by reducing the number of letters in the name of the city: Hence the 'Cleveland Advertiser,' and not Moses Cleaveland, settled the orthography of the Forest City's name for all time to come. Generally this story is told in connection with the 'Herald ' rather than the ' Advertiser.'"
ma " Some Early History," by D. W. Manchester, " Annals of the Early :Settlers' Association," Vol. III, No. 3, p. 366.
-
C
NORVAL Jogand
I
2 3
4
EUCLID STREET, 1833.
I. Court House. 2. Trinity Church. 3. Old Stone Church. 4. Residence of Hon. J. W. Allen, on the Public Square.
45
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
ter than use a copious extract from a monograph 3 pre- pared for presentation before the Early Settlers' Associa- tion, by an eminent member of the Cleveland bar, Judge. Seneca O. Griswold. He said:
" In the old field map, the name of Superior street was first written ' Broad,' Ontario ' Court,' and Miami ' Deer ;' but these words were crossed out with ink, and the same names written as given in Pease's map and minutes. In Spafford's map, 'Maiden Lane,' which led from Ontario street along the side of the hill to Vineyard Lane, was omitted, and the same was never worked or used. Spaf- ford also laid out Superior Lane, which was not on the Pease map, which has since been widened, and become that portion of Superior street from Water down the hill to the river. Bath street is not described in the Pease minutes, but is laid out on the map, and is referred to in the minutes, and the boundaries and extent appear on the. map. The Square also is not described in the Pease min- utes, but is referred to in the description of Ontario and Superior streets, and is marked and laid out on the map. In Spafford's minutes the Square is thus described : 'The Square is laid out at the intersection of Superior street and Ontario street, and contains ten acres. The center of the junction of the two roads is the exact center of the Square.' These surveys, the laying out of the lots bounding on the Square, their adoption by the land company, the subse- quent sale by said company of the surrounding lots abut- ting upon it, make the Square as much land devoted to public use as the streets themselves, and forever forbids the same being given up to private uses. The easterly line of the city was the east line of one tier of lots, beyond Erie street, coinciding with the present line of Canfield street. The east line began at the lake and extended southerly one tier of lots south of Ohio street. The line then ran to the river, down to the river, skipping the lower bend of the river to Vineyard Lane, thence along
39 " The Corporate Birth and Growth of Cleveland," by Hon. Seneca O. Griswold. "Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 5, p. 37.
46
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Vineyard Lane to the junction of Water with Superior street, thence to the river, thence down the river to its mouth. Superior street, as the survey shows, was 132 feet in width, the other streets 99 feet. It is hardly pos- sible to fully appreciate the sagacity and foresight of this leader of the surveying party. With full consciousness of what would arise in its future growth, he knew the city would have a suburban population, and he directed the immediate outlying land to be laid off in ten-acre lots, and the rest of the township into 100-acre lots, instead of the larger tracts into which the other townships were di- vided. The next year the ten-acre lots were surveyed and laid out. They extended on the east to the line of what is now Willson avenue, and on the south to the top of the brow of the ravine formed by Kingsbury Run, and ex- tended westwardly to the river bank. Owing to the pe- culiar topography of the place, some of the two-acre lots had more and others less than the named quantity of land, and the same occurred in the survey and laying out of the ten-acre lots. The flats were not surveyed off into lots, and there was an unsurveyed strip between the west line of the ten-acre lots and the river, above and below the mouth of the Kingsbury Run, running south to a point west of hundred-acre lot 278. Three streets were laid out through the ten-acre lots, each 99 feet in width to cor- respond with the city streets, called the South, Middle and North Highway. The southerly one becoming Kins- man street, the Middle, Euclid street at its intersection with Huron; the southerly one received its name from the fact that Kinsman, the east township of the seventh line of townships, was at a very early period distinguished for its wealth and population. The Middle was called Euclid because that was the name of the next township east. The North Highway was a continuation of Federal street, but changed to St. Clair, after the name of the ter- ritorial governor, whose name, in the minds of his admir- ers, was a synonym of Federal."
As yet no civil township had been organized in this por-
47
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
tion of the present Cuyahoga County, the territory upon the east side of the river being a part of Washington County, of the Northwest Territory. It was a question whether legal jurisdiction there was held by the territorial authorities or by the Connecticut Land Company. The section west of the Cuyahoga River nominally belonged to the county of Wayne, and, although the pre-emption rights had been purchased by the land company, the claims of the Indians had not been satisfied, and they were still in undisputed possession.
The survey township, in which Cleveland was situated, was one of the six which had been selected to be sold for the direct benefit of the company as an organization, and not divided among the stockholders, as was the case with so many of the other towns of the Reserve. The plan, as proposed, was to first sell only a quarter of the townships; and a proposition was submitted by Augustus Porter, the chief of the surveyors, as to the manner in which such sale was to be carried out. This plan has been described in full: " In the first place, city lots Number 58 to 63 in- clusive, and 81 to 87 inclusive, comprising all the lots bor- dering on the Public Square, and one more, were to be re- served for public purposes, as were also 'the point of land west of the town' (which we take to be the low peninsula southwest of the viaduct), and some other portions of the flats if thought advisable. Then Mr. Porter proposed to begin with lot number one, and offer for sale every fourth number in succession throughout the towns, on these terms. Each person who would engage to become an actual settler in 1797 might purchase one town lot, one ten or twenty-acre lot, and one hundred-acre lot, or as much less as he might choose; settlement, however, to be imperative in every case. The price of town lots was to be fifty dollars; that of ten-acre lots three dol- lars per acre; that of twenty-acre lots two dollars per acre; and that of hundred-acre lots a dollar and a half per acre. The town lots were to be paid for in ready cash; for the larger tracts twenty per cent. was
48
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
to be paid down, and the rest in three annual installments with annual interest. It will be seen that even at that time the projectors of Cleveland had a pretty good opinion of its future; valuing the almost unbroken forest which con- stituted the city at twenty-five dollars per acre in cash, while equally good land outside its limits was to be sold for from three dollars down to a dollar and a half per acre, with three years' credit.""
Not many incidents have been placed upon record of the life and labors of the little party, who, during the summer and early fall of 1796, were industriously engaged in laying the foundations of the Forest City. It was by no means a life of ease and pleasure-the surveyors, as Colonel Whittlesey says, " were not always sure of sup- per at night, nor of their drink of New England rum, which constituted an important part of their rations; their well provided clothing began to show rents, from so much clambering over logs and through thickets; their shoes gave out rapidly, as they were incessantly on foot, and were where no cobblers could be found to repair them ; every day was one of toil, and frequently of discomfort. The woods, and particularly the swamps, were filled with ravenous mosquitoes, which were never idle, day or night; in rainy weather the bushes were wet, and in clear weather the heat was oppressive. It was not always prac- ticable to have provisions promptly delivered to the sur- veying parties, so that their work could go on without in- terruption."
Affairs had reached a rather unpleasant strait by the later days of September, when the surveyors and their assistants, who had collected at headquarters, found them- selves out of meat, with but little flour, a couple of cheese, and some chocolate. As they were figuring on ways and means, some sharp eye saw a bear swimming across the river. There was a rush for guns and canoes, and in the midst of the excitement the bear paused,
40 " History of Cuyahoga County," compiled by Crisfield Johnson, 1879, p. 225.
49
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
turned about, landed upon the western shore, and carried the anticipated fresh meat of the hungry men into the woods. The success attending a raid upon the reptile kingdom was more gratifying, as we find in Holley's Journal the entry: " Munson caught a rattlesnake, which we boiled and ate." Later in the day a party with provis- ions and cattle came over from Conneaut, and were re- ceived with an unquestioned welcome.
A readjustment of the arrangement between the Con- necticut Land Company and the surveyors' staff was one of the outcomes of the hardships of the expedition, which led to a greater claim for compensation than, at first, had been agreed upon. An informal agreement had been made in July, at Conneaut, General Cleaveland speaking for the company, and the men for themselves.
A meeting was held " at Cleaveland "" on the 30th of September, for the purpose of carrying this agreement into effect. General Cleaveland signed for the company, and forty-one of the men for themselves. The township chosen for division was that next east of Cleveland; and in deference to the great mathematician-a patron saint of the surveyor's art-the name " Euclid " was chosen as its designation-a suggestion credited to Moses Warren.
It was mutually agreed that each party was to have an equal share in the township; each man pledged himself to remain faithfully in the service of the company to the end of the year, and a further pledge was made as fol- lows: in the year 1797 there should be eleven families settled in the township; eleven houses built; and two acres of wheat sown around each house. In 1798, eighteen more families were to settle; build eighteen additional houses; and five acres cleared for wheat around each residence. Fifty acres were to be sown to grass. A further increase in all these respects was to be made
41 " A contract made at Cleaveland, Sept. 30th, 1796, between Moses Cleaveland, agent of the Connecticut Land Company, and the employees of the company, in reference to the sale and settlement of the township of Euclid, No. 8, in the eleventh range." From memoranda of Orrin Harmon, Esq. "Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," p. 230.
50
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
in the year following; and there must be, in 1800, forty-one families resident in the township. In case salt springs were discovered on a lot, it was to be excepted from the agreement, and other lands given instead. A meeting of the new proprietors of Euclid was held on the same day and in the same place, where lots were cast as to who were to fulfill the conditions of settlement in 1797, in 1798, etc.
Near the middle of October, as the premonitions of winter warned those who were to return to the East that it was time to be going, preparations were rapidly made for departure. By the 18th of the month the surveyors and their assistants were gone, leaving Joseph Landon and Job P. Stiles and his wife Tabitha in sole charge of the paper city. Elijah Gun and Anna, his wife, were in a like manner left in possession of Castle Stow, at Con- neaut. The Stileses had announced their intention of be- coming actual settlers, and a cabin was constructed for them on lot 53, on Bank street, near Frankfort street. Joseph Landon soon abandoned his purpose of re- maining permanently, and returned to the East before the setting in of winter. The Stileses were not left al- together alone, however, as Edward Paine, the subse- quent founder of Painesville, Lake County, became per- haps an inmate of their home, or at least a neighbor,42 and began to trade with the Indians-the Chippewas, Ottawas, etc., who made their winter camps on the west side of the river, and trapped and hunted upon both sides. They also had as neighbors the Seneca Indians, who en- camped at the foot of the bluff, between Superior and Vineyard streets. A chief of this tribe was the famous Seneca, who was friendly to the whites, and is spoken of by those who knew him as " a noble specimen of Indian
42 The statement is usually to the effect that Captain Paine made his home in the Stiles cabin. George E. Paine, of Painesville, says that he " never lived in Cleveland;" that he spent some part of the winter with Stiles, but most of it with the Indian chief "Old Seneca," on the banks of Grand River, where Painesville is now situated. "Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 7, p. 24.
51
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
character." The Indians supplied their white neighbors in the cabin on the hill with game, and showed their friendship in various ways. Their hunting grounds in the winter were along the Cuyahoga, Mahoning, Grand, Tuscarawas, Black and Kilbuck, and in the spring they sold their furs to the traders, and sailed away in their bark canoes to the Sandusky and Miami, where they passed the summer. The last that was seen of Seneca in this region was as late as 1809.
The surveyors, who worked their way back through the autumn weather to old Connecticut, did not have altogether a pleasure excursion in the going. Surveyor Holley again takes up the thread of narration, from which an occasional extract is made: " Tuesday, Oct. 18th, we left Cuyahoga at 3 o'clock 17 minutes for Home. We left at Cuyahoga Job Stiles and wife and Joseph Landon, with provisions for the winter. Wm. B. Hall, Titus V. Munson and Olney Rice engaged to take all the pack horses to Geneva. Day pleasant, and fair wind about southeast; rowed about seven and a half miles and encamped for the night on the beach. There were fourteen men on board the boat, and never, I presume, were fourteen men more anxious to pursue an object than we were to get forward." At 3 o'clock on the following morning, as the moon shone brightly, they hoisted sail and again moved eastward. "Just before sunrise we passed the first settlement (except those made by ourselves) that is on the shore of the lake in New Connecticut. This is done by the Canandaigua Association Co., under the di- rection of Mayor Wells and Mr. Wildair." They were compelled to run ashore because of the high wind, and remained in camp a mile east of the Chagrin River until the following day. They reached Conneaut about noon of the 21st, " took inventory of the articles left there, and about four o'clock in the morning, that is, on Saturday the 22nd, we hoisted sail for Presque Isle;" passed on to Buffalo Creek, which they reached in the evening of Oc- tober 23rd, struck a fire, and were asleep in less than
52
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
thirty minutes from the time of landing. They reached Canandaigua at sunset of the 29th, and proceeded from thence by the usual route of travel. This is the last we shall see of this faithful chronicler, who settled in Con- necticut, and raised a family, among his sons being a future governor of that State.
When the party reached home with their reports, Seth Pease carefully prepared another map of Cleveland, that in its main features was like the one already described. The terms of sale suggested by Mr. Porter were substan- tially confirmed by the company, who also donated to Mrs. Stiles" one city lot, one ten-acre lot, and one one- hundred-acre lot in the city and township of Cleveland- no doubt as a recognition of the fact that she was the first woman resident. A one-hundred-acre lot was also given Mrs. Anna Gun, who had been temporarily located in Conneaut, but contemplated settlement in Cleveland. A gift of a like lot was made to James Kingsbury and wife-the first emigrants to the Reserve who had no connection whatever with the company; and also a city lot to Nathaniel Doan, who had acted as blacksmith for the company-the agreement in his case being that he should reside upon it, and provide for the pioneer settle- ment a blacksmith shop." This contract was carried out, and among the earliest sounds of industrial toil heard in the new city was the ring of the hammer upon Nathaniel's anvil.
43 The Stiles family left Cleveland in 1800, and the husband lived until 1850, when he died in Leicester, Vermont.
# Extract from the minutes of the Connecticut Land Company: " Whereas, The Directors have given to Tabitha Cumi Stiles, wife of Job P. Stiles, one city lot, one ten-acre lot, and one one- hundred-acre lot; to Anna Gun, wife of Elijah Gun, one one-hundred-acre lot; to James Kings- bury and wife, one one-hundred-acre lot; to Nathaniel Doan, one city lot, he being obliged to reside thereon as a blacksmith, and all in the city and town of Cleaveland. Voted, that these grants be approved."
CHAPTER III.
THREE TRYING YEARS.
Through the leafy avenues of the June that followed, the eyes of the waiting pioneers upon the Cuyahoga saw the advance guard of the second corps of surveyors who had been sent out for another year of labor. Some changes had occurred in the winter. Mr. Paine had per- manently departed in the early spring for a point to the eastward, where he laid the foundations of the little city that bears his name. In May, the Guns had come from Conneaut, thus making the second family to find a resi- dence in Cleveland.
In the January preceding (1797), a meeting of the Con- necticut Land Company had been held, at which the di- rectors and trustees were instructed to urge upon the Leg- islature the expediency of erecting a county which should include all of the Western Reserve. A committee on behalf of the stockholders was appointed to inquire into the causes of the " very great expense of the company during the first year; the causes which have prevented the completion of the survey; and why the surveyors and agents have not made their report." An assessment of five dollars per share of the company stock was ordered; and a committee of partition appointed, consisting of Daniel Holbrook, Moses Warren, Jr., Seth Pease and Amos Spafford. In the hands of another committee was reposed the duty of making a general inquiry into the conduct of the directors; which body made a report in February, exonerating these officials in all respects. It was voted that " Moses Cleaveland's contract with Joseph Brant, Esq., in behalf of the Mohawks, of Grand River, Canada, be ratified."
The Rev. Seth Hart was appointed superintendent of
54
THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
this second expedition, and Seth Pease the principal sur- veyor. Just why General Cleaveland did not return has not been spread upon the official record; and it is with no small reluctance that we see this stalwart figure disappear from these pages until near a century later, when a patri- otic body, in the city he founded, embodied in bronze a lasting recognition of his services.
In addition to the leaders above named, we find in the party a number of those who had gone out the year be- fore-particularly Amos Spafford, Richard M. Stoddard, Moses Warren, Joseph Landon, Theodore Shepherd, and Joseph Tinker. Samuel Spafford, a son of Amos, was one of the employees.
Mr. Pease had charge of the funds, and the details of outfitting. He organized at Schenectady. He was as- sisted in this labor by Thomas Mather, of Albany, N. Y. There seems to have been a temporary dearth of funds, as we find this entry in the Pease journal, under date of April 14th: "Spent the week thus far in getting neces- sary supplies. The want of ready cash subjects me to considerable inconvenience. Mr. Mather purchases the greater part on his own credit; and takes my order on Mr. Ephraim Root, treasurer."
On April 15th " rations began to be issued," and on the 20th " six boats started up the Mohawk. Each mess of six men received for daily rations, chocolate, one pound; pork, five pounds; sugar, a small porringer; one bottle of rum; one half-bottle of tea; flour or bread not limited. A man, his wife and a small child, taken in one of the boats." They went by Fort Schuyler, Fort Stan- wix, Oswego Falls portage, and the garrison at Niagara, which they reached on May 14th. Five days later found them at Buffalo, where there awaited them the party which had come overland. The latter were sent ahead with the stock; the expedition by boat reached Cattarau- gus, where they " tried to get an interpreter, but could not; the Indians stole eight to ten pounds of our pork and ham." They reached Conneaut and Port In-
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.