USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 6
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ST. CLAIR STREET, EAST FROM BANK STREET, 1833.
I, The Academy. 2. Trinity Church. 3. Old Stone Church. 4. The Court House.
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dependence on the night of the 26th. "We found that Mr. Gun's family had removed to Cuyahoga. Mr. Kingsbury, his wife and one child, were in a low state of health, to whom we administered what relief we could."
On June Ist they reached Cleveland. The land party and some of the delayed boats came later, bringing the melancholy news that David Eldridge, one of the men, had been drowned in an attempt to swim his horse across Grand River. The body was brought on to Cleveland and buried in its first cemetery, on the east side of On- tario street, just north of Prospect street. The burial service in this, the city's first funeral, was read by the Rev. Mr. Hart, following the form of the Episcopal Church. The details of this sad accident are thus told by one of the surveyors " in charge of the party: " I was ordered with a party of men to take the horses and cattle to Cleveland. We got along very well until we got to Grand River; we had no boat or other means of convey- ance across, except we found an old Indian bark canoe which was very leaky-we had one horse, which I knew was a good swimmer. I mounted him, and directed the men to drive the others after me. I had got perhaps half way when I heard the men on shore scream-I looked back and saw two men, with horses in the water, but had parted from them-one of them got ashore, and the other, David Eldridge, made poor progress. I turned my horse as quick as I could, and guided him up within reach of him, when I very inconsiderately took hold of his hand, as soon as I could. This turned the horse over, and we were both under the water in an instant; but we sepa- rated, and I again mounted the horse and looked back and saw him just raise his head above the water, but he sunk to rise no more. We built a raft of flood wood, lashed together with barks, and placing on it three men who were good swimmers, they with hooks drew up the body, but this took some time-perhaps two hours. We took some
45 Statement made by Amzi Atwater, in 1850.
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pains to restore the body to life, but in vain. Two of our boats came up soon after with a large portion of the men. They took the body to Cleveland, and buried it in the then newly laid out burying ground."46
Headquarters were located at Cleveland, and the sur- veying parties went out upon their labors. The little town put on an appearance of activity. A piece of land was cleared on top of the bank, near the west end of Su- perior street, fenced in, and a garden planted.
There were several notable arrivals during this year. One of these was Lorenzo Carter-of whom we shall hear anon-who came from Rutland, Vermont, and had spent the previous winter in Canada. He erected a log cabin on the lowlands near the river, not far from Union (now Spring) street. He was a man of energy, and a daring and successful hunter, who soon made his presence felt in various ways, and left an impress upon the community. Near the same time came his brother-in-law, Ezekiel Hawley.
Another arrival of impor- tance was that of James Kingsbury, whose brief resi- JAMES KINGSBURY. dence in Conneaut has been noted above. His experience in the wilderness, probably similar to that of many other early settlers, was one of extreme privation and hardship, and as an illustrative case I relate it somewhat in full. Col. Whittlesey speaks of him as " the first adventurer on his own account, who arrived on the company's purchase," and we have already
46 Statement of Alonzo Carter (son of Lorenzo Carter) made in 1858: " Persons were buried in the old burying ground in 1797. A Mr. Eldridge was drowned at Grand River, and his body was brought here. We got some boards and made a strong box for a coffin. We put him in, and strung it on a pole with cords, to carry him up to the burying ground. Built a fence around the grave."
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noted the gracious and generous manner in which the company recognized that fact. He came from Alsted, New Hampshire, and arrived at Conneaut soon after the first appearance of the surveyors. He was accompanied by his wife and three children.
When the surveyors had gone home in the fall of 1796, the exigencies of the situation demanded his return to his old New England home. He made the journey by way of Erie, Buffalo and Canandaigua, on horseback, and ex- pected to complete it within four to six weeks. He reached the old home with no special delay or accident, but was there attacked by fever. As soon as he dared mount a horse he set out for home, filled with anxiety for those who were awaiting his return. He reached Buffalo in a state of exhaustion, on December 3rd, and on the following day pushed forward into the snowy wilderness. He was accompanied by an Indian guard. For three weeks the snow fell without intermission, until at places it was up to the chin. Weak in body, and full of trouble for his loved ones, he pushed on and on, although it was December 24th before his cabin was reached. His horse had died from exhaustion, and he was not in a much bet- ter condition.
Meanwhile the wife and children subsisted as best they could. The Indians supplied her with meat until the real weather of winter came on. She had for company a nephew of her husband's, a boy of thirteen, whose es- pecial charge was a yoke of oxen and a cow. Day after day went by, and still her husband did not come; and as if cold and loneliness were not enough, the supreme pain of motherhood was added, and the first white native son of the Reserve became a member of the household.
She had regained sufficient strength to move about the house, and had about decided to remove to Erie, when toward evening she looked up, and her husband was at the door.
Mrs. Kingsbury was then taken with fever; the food left by the surveyors was about exhausted; and the snow pre-
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vented calls upon their Indian friends. Before his strength had fully returned, Mr. Kingsbury was forced to make a journey to Erie, to procure food. He could not take the oxen, because of the lack of a path through the snow, and so he set forth hauling a hand sled. He reached Erie, obtained a bushel of wheat, and hauled it back to Conneaut, where it was cracked and boiled and eaten. The cow died from the effects of eating the browse of oak trees, and with it gone, the chances of life for the little one were meagre indeed. In a month it died. Mr. Kingsbury and the boy made a rude coffin from a pine box which the surveyors had left. " As they carried the remains from the house, the sick mother raised herself in bed, following with her eyes the lonely party, to a rise of ground where they had dug a grave. She fell backward, and for two weeks was scarcely con- scious of what was passing, or what had passed. Late in February or early in March, Mr. Kingsbury, who was still feeble, made an effort to obtain something which his wife could eat, for it was evident that nutriment was her principal necessity. The severest rigors of winter began to relax. Instead of fierce northern blasts, sweeping over the frozen surface of the lake, there were southern breezes, which softened the snow and moderated the at- mosphere. Scarcely able to walk, he loaded an old 'Queen's Arm' which his uncle had carried in the War of the Revolution, and which is still in the keeping of the family. He succeeded in reaching the woods, and sat down upon a log. A solitary pigeon came, and perched upon the highest branches of a tree. It was not only high, but distant. The chances of hitting the bird were few indeed, but a human life seemed to depend upon those chances. A single shot found its way to the mark, and the bird fell. It was well cooked and the broth given to the wife, who was immediately revived." #7
When the surveyors came to Cleveland in 1797, the Kingsbury family came with them. There was a dilapi-
+ " Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," p. 265.
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dated house on the west side of the river, probably where Main and Center streets now intersect-a log house "-which, it is usually stated, was left by the early traders with the Indians; and it sheltered them, while a more substantial cabin was being put up east of the Pub- lic Square, near the present location of Case block.
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SAID TO BE THE OLDEST HOUSE IN CLEVELAND.
Judge Kingsbury-so called because of his later appoint- ment as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Trum- bull County-was of no small prominence in his day and generation. In December, 1797, he again removed, this time to a point upon the bluff on the line from Doan's
+ Colonel Whittlesey, in that treasure-house from which we have so fre- quently drawn (" Early History of Cleveland," p. 266), says: " The old set- tlers think it was erected by the French, but it was more probably done by the English, who were here soon after the peace of 1763. It was a better build- ing than the French were in the habit of putting up in such remote places. It had been a comfortable and capacious log storehouse." New light is thrown upon the question by researches which have been carried on since the days of Colonel Whittlesey. In a recently printed monograph from the pen of C. M. Burton, Detroit, 1895, entitled " A Chapter in the History of Cleveland," the details are given of an attempt to secure by purchase from the Indians of " a large part of the land covered by the present city of Cleveland," on the part of Alexander Henry, John Askin, and others. As a part of this programme, "John Askin, Jr., was sent to take actual possession of the tract, and he built or occupied a hut on the west side of Cuyahoga River, a little back of where it emptied into the lake." There
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corners to Newburgh, where he lived to the end of his life, which came on December 12th, 1847.
The year 1797 saw a marked addition to the street lines of Cleveland. "Central Highway " was laid out as a road into the country, but as it led to the new town of Euclid, it became known as Euclid road. The " South Highway," or Kinsman street, was also added, as was also " North Highway," or St. Clair street. In the fall, the surveyors completed their labors, so that the land could be intelligently divided among the stockholders of the company, and returned home. In January, of the year following, the partition was made. It was also dur- ing this year that Cleveland, with the rest of the Re- serve, became a part of Jefferson County, but no steps of visible jurisdiction were taken by the territorial authori- ties. In October, 1798, a petition, on behalf of the Con- necticut Land Company, was laid before the General As- sembly of Connecticut, in which were set forth the various failures of all appeals to Congress for action in regard to the legal status of New Connecticut, and pray- ing for relief.
Early in 1798, Nathaniel Doan, who had been induced to come, perhaps, by the donation of a city lot upon which a blacksmith shop was to be maintained, arrived
is a letter in possession of the Western Reserve Historical Society from Alexander Henry to Oliver Phelps and Henry Champion, directors of the Connecticut Land Company, dated April Ist, 1797, giving notice to the company of the claim of title by Askin and his partners, and stating that John Askin and his family " now reside on this tract at the River Cuya- hoga, in order to secure possession." It will be noted, however, that Mr. Burton does not claim that this cabin was erected by Askin, using the words, " built or occupied." There stands to-day on Hanover and Ver- mont streets ( West Side ), a house that some say is the oldest in Cleve- land. Tradition states that it was built by agents of the Northwestern Fur Company, at the head of the old river bed, for a trading house, many years before the arrival of Moses Cleaveland; that it was moved from place to place, and finally found a resting-place in its present location. It was originally covered with hewn timbers, but as it stands to-day ( see illustration ) it has a modern planed covering. It is further claimed that between 1783 and 1800 it was used as a blockhouse. It was once owned by Joel Scranton, but was purchased, near 1844, by Robert Sanderson, who moved it to its present location.
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with his family, and the fire of his forge was soon seen arising from a little shop on Superior street, near the cor- ner of Bank, and the ring of his anvil was heard as he sharpened the tools and shod the horses of the little com- munity. 49 Job P. Stiles had left his cabin down near the heart of affairs, and moved out near the Kingsbury home on the ridge. Elijah Gun went to the same section, while Rodolphus Edwards,50 a new arrival, went further north, near that point known later as the intersection of Woodland avenue and Woodland Hills avenue. Joseph Landon, who had come back from the East, and Stephen Gilbert cleared a piece of ground, which they sowed to wheat, while a couple of acres given to corn on Water street showed the agricultural activity of Lorenzo Carter.
That scourge of the new western lands, the fever and ague, was also present during this year of early settle- ment, and had not a little to do with the removals to the higher lands to the eastward. At one time nearly every member of the settlement became a victim to its power, and the burden of providing food and the necessaries of life fell upon the few who were equal to it. A mainstay in many close places was the redoubtable Carter, whose gun and dogs enabled him to obtain wild game when
49 Statement made by John Doan, "Annals Early Settlers' Association," No. 6, p. 51: "In General Cleaveland's party was my uncle, Nathaniel Doan, of Middle-Haddam, Middlesex County, Conn. After spending two years, 1796 and 1797, in assisting to lay out roads and define county and township limits in the howling wilderness of that day Nathaniel Doan de- cided to bring his family here and locate a home in the woods. He did so in 1798, building a log cabin near the Cuyahoga River, but the next year moving further east, on the corner of Fairmount street and Euclid avenue, still known as Doan's Corners."
50 O. P. C. in " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 4, p. 47: "Rodolphus Edwards, for short called 'Dolph,' can be numbered among the early pioneers of Cuyahoga County, having come here away back in 1797. He settled on a large tract of land now known as Woodland Hills, but formerly called Butternut Ridge. In addition to farming, he kept a public inn or tavern, for the accommodation of the traveling public. Rain or snow, hot or cold, as regular as Saturday came around, Uncle Dolph, with his old Dobbin, old-time carry-all, and big brindle dog, seated bolt upright on the seat by the side of his master, would make his appear- ance in town," for the purchase of supplies for the week following.
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nothing else was to be had; and it is hardly necessary to say that to each of his needing neighbors was sent a gen- erous portion. At one time, all the nine members of Nathaniel Doan's family were sick at once, which had not a little to do with the removal to that point which has since borne his name.
Out on the Ridge, the Kingsburys, Guns and Stileses had found immunity from the scourge, and been able to raise good crops of corn. The famous "stump mortars " of the early day, which had until now been their only means of preparing this corn for use, have been described as fol- lows: " An oak stump was hollowed out so that it would hold about half a bushel of corn. Above it a heavy wood- en pestle was suspended to a spring-pole, the large end of which was fastened to a neighboring tree. A con- venient quantity of corn being poured into the hollow, the pestle was seized with both hands and brought down upon it. Then the spring-pole drew it up a foot or two above the corn, when it was again brought down, and thus the work continued until the corn was reduced to a quantity of very coarse meal."
Judge Kingsbury decided to secure a better method of preparing the chief staff of family life, and accordingly brought from the banks of the run, which still bears his name, two large stones, which he rudely shaped into mill- stones, one of which he placed upon the ground with the other above it, and by fastening a handle to the upper one so that it might be rocked forward and backward, was able to produce an article of meal far ahead of that made in the ruder appliance.
There was no physician in the little settlement, and no quinine, a decoction of dogwood bark being used in its stead, as a specific for the ague. As the cold weather ap- proached, the chills disappeared, but there was still a lack of food. It was near the middle of November when four of the men, still weak from the effects of the ague, made an attempt to bring a supply of flour from Walnut Creek, Pennsylvania. They went by the lake, and some-
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where between Euclid Creek and Chagrin River the boat was wrecked, and their mission ended in failure.
In 1799, Mr. Hawley also left the settlement at the mouth of the Cuyahoga and moved to the neighborhood to which the others had gone. This left the Carters in virtual possession, and as they had now become pretty well acclimated, they concluded to remain and take their chances. It was in this year that Wheeler W. Will- iams,51 a new-comer, and Major Wyatt, also a late arrival, built at the falls of Mill Creek, later Newburgh, the first grist-mill of the neighborhood. This labor was not com- pleted until fall, when the pair of mill-stones for grinding were furnished by David Bryant and his son Gilman, who had been getting out grindstones near Vermillion River.
The younger Bryant has left us a brief description 52 of this structure, which marked so important an advance in the material interests of the neighboring towns of Cleveland and Newburgh: "In the fall (1799), father and myself returned to Cleveland, to make a pair of mill- stones for Mr. Williams, about five miles east of Cleve- land, near the trail to Hudson. The water was conveyed to the mill in a dugout trough, to an undershot wheel about twelve feet over, with one set of arms, and buckets fifteen inches long, to run inside of the trough, which went down the bank at an angle of forty-five degrees, perhaps. The dam was about four rods above the fall; the mill- stones were three and a half feet in diameter, of gray rock."
As this was one of the first mills on the Reserve, its com- pletion was naturally celebrated in an appropriate manner. 52ª
51 As we shall meet this busy pioneer in several places hereafter, it may be well to state that in the early records his name appears in various shapes: Wheeler W. Williams, Wm. W. Williams, and William Wheeler Williams.
52 Letter of Gilman Bryant, under date of Mount Vernon, Ohio, June Ist, 1857 .- " Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," p. 372.
52ª Orrin Harmon says that David Abbott built the first grist-mill on the Reserve, in the fall of 1798, at Willoughby. Leonard Case stated that a mill at the forks of Indian Run, between Youngstown and Canfield, was in operation before Williams's mill. This one at Newburgh was, therefore, the third mill on the Reserve.
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All the neighborhood roundabout was asked to be present -some ten families in number. Few details of this event have been left us, but it was no doubt conducted in ac- cordance with the known light-hearted sociability of our pioneer fathers. The result of this new venture in the mechanical line was, that " during the following winter our citizens enjoyed the luxury of bolted flour, made in their own mills, from wheat raised by themselves."
In the above general outline of early events, we have carried the story of Cleveland to the edge of 1800. Be- fore stepping across the century line, and viewing the en- larged horizon of later days, it will be our task and pleas- ure to take up a number of detached events that must be related to make the record complete, and can best find that relation just here.
A marked event of the last three years of the departing century was the fact that warm weather came back un- usually early in each returning spring, which shortened mercifully the days of cold for which the settlers were not always well prepared. " Pinks and other flowers bloomed in February each year, and peach trees were in full blos- som in March."
In discussing the question of travel, Mr. Rice says : 58 " The only highways, which existed in the country at this time, were narrow paths, designated by blazed trees, and a few old Indian trails. The trails were well-beaten paths, which had existed from time immemorial, leading from one distant point of the country to another. One led from Buffalo along the lake shore to Detroit. An- other from the Ohio River by way of the portage, as it was called, to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. They concentrated at Cleveland, where the river was crossed by a ferry established by the Indians. In this way the principal trading posts erected by the French and English were made accessible, and furnished the early pioneers with the facilities of securing an important commercial intercourse with those distant points of trade. The goods
53 Rice's "Pioneers of the Western Reserve," p. 66.
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and provisions needed were transported on pack-horses.54 While Cleveland was the central point on the lake shore, Newburgh took the lead in respect to population. Hence Cleveland acquired the reputation of being a ' small vil- lage six miles from Newburgh.' ''55
The hardy and able men who conducted the surveys already described, or assisted in the same, deserve more than the passing mention which has been given hereto- fore in connection with a description of their work. Of some of these we know little, beyond the fact that they were sent out in the employ of the Connecticut Land Company and presumably performed their duties to the satisfaction of their employers. Judge Amzi Atwater, in his sketches of his associates, says of John Milton Holley, to whose journal we have been several times in- debted: " He was then a very young man, only about eighteen years of age, though he appeared to be older; tall, stout, and handsomely built, with a fair and smiling face, and general good appearance. He was a beautiful penman." He did not return with the surveyors of 1797, but settled in Salisbury, Conn., where he spent the re- mainder of his days, leaving a large and respected family, a member of which afterwards became the governor of that State.
54 On February 23rd, 1797, the Connecticut Land Company appointed a committee, of which Seth Pease and Moses Warren were members, to " enquire into the expediency of laying and cutting out roads on the Re- serve." Their report, under date of January 30th, 1798, was to the effect that it was " expedient to lay out and cut out, a road from Pennsylvania to the city of Cleveland. . . . The road was cut out, and the timber girdled, according to the recommendation of the committee. . . . That this was the first road that was laid out and cut out on the Western Reserve, there is no doubt. This was all done at the expense of the Connecticut Land Company."-Western Reserve Historical Society's Tract No. 49, p. 101.
55 When did this term originate? Who first used it? Perhaps these questions may be answered by Joseph Glidden, who says: "I learned also, during my first summer in Ohio (1834) the important fact that Cleve- land is six miles from Newburgh. I remember taking up a little book at the house of a friend in Akron, called a 'Gazetteer of the State of Ohio.' I distinctly remember that under the head of Cleveland there was this item: ' A post-town six miles from Newburgh.' " -- " Annals Early Settlers' As- sociation," No. 6, p. 45.
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Mr. Atwater, himself, left an impress upon his time, and was an honored citizen of this section of Ohio until his death in 1851. He was a native of New Haven, Connect- icut, and learned the art of surveying in company with Wareham Shepard, who was one of the first exploring party on the Reserve. Atwater joined the party at Canandaigua, his special duty being to collect the cattle and pack the horses. He returned the next year as one of the assistant surveyors. In 1800, he settled in Mantua, Ohio; served as an associate judge of Portage County, and filled other offices of public trust.
Ezekiel Morly was born in Glastonbury, Conn., in 1758, and died in Chester, O., in 1852. He served as a soldier in the Revolution; was a member of both the first and second surveying parties; emigrated to Ohio in 1832, and " supposed himself to be the first white man that saw Chagrin falls." Lot Sanford was not with the party of 1796, but with that of the year following. He assisted in digging the grave of the drowned Eldridge, " thus performing the office of sexton to the first white man who was buried in Cleveland." He did not remain in Ohio, but made his permanent home in Vermont, where he died in 1860. Oliver Culver came out with the party of 1797; returned in 1798, and assisted in the work of laying out a road to the Pennsylvania line; in 1804, he again came to Cleveland with a boat-load of salt, dry goods, liquors and tobacco, and opened a store. The next year he married, and settled on a farm in Monroe County, N. Y.
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