USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 7
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Seth Pease, who, perhaps, was the most prominent of the surveyors, is described by Mr. Atwater as " above medium height, slender and fair, with black, penetrating eyes; in his movements very active, and persevering in his designs, with a reflecting and thoughtful air. He was a very thorough mathematician." His journals, in excellent penmanship, show business habits. He was in the service of Massachusetts as a surveyor; was en- gaged in the laying out of the " Holland Purchase " in
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CLEVELAND IN 1833.
(View east from Brooklyn Hill.)
1. Mouth of the River. 2. Stone Flouring Mill and Lighthouse. 3. Mandrake Street. 4. End of Superior Lane on the River. 5. Mouth of Ohio Canal, in line with the Stone Church. 6. Old Bethel Church. 7. Erie House on the'Canal.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Western New York; and under Jefferson became Assist- ant Postmaster General of the United States.
Augustus Porter spent some ten years in the woods, in one place and another, as surveyor and explorer, and then settled on the Niagara River, where he spent the re- mainder of his life. He lived to an advanced age. He was of medium height, full face, and dark complexion.
Sickness and death were the part of several who en- gaged for labor in the wilderness. Judge Atwater,56 in relating the experiences of 1797, says: " I was taken sick with the ague and fever. Sickness prevailed the latter part of the season to an alarming degree, and but a few es- caped entirely. William Andrews, one of our men, and Peleg Washburn, an apprentice to Mr. Nathaniel Doan, died of dysentery at Cleveland, in August or September. All those that died that season were of my party who came on with me, with the cattle and horses, in the spring, and were much endeared to me, except Tinker, our principal boatman, who was drowned on his return in the fall. At Cleveland, I was confined for several weeks, with several others much in the same situation as my- self, with little or no help, except what we could do for ourselves. The inhabitants there were not much better off than we were, and all our men were required in the woods. My fits came on generally every night, and long nights they appeared to me; in day-time I made out to get to the spring, and get some water, but it was a hard task to get back again. . . . I procured a portion of Peruvian bark and took it, it broke up my fits and gave me an ex- tra appetite, but very fortunately for me we were short of provisions, and on short allowance. My strength gained, and I did not spoil my appetite by over-eating."
It was during this summer of 1797 that Mr. Atwater passed through a trying experience which may be briefly related. He was in the woods with Minor Bicknell, when the latter was taken with so violent a fever that he was unable to ride a horse. They were at a great distance
56 " Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," p. 300.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
from help or medical attention, and it seemed imperative to get him to Cleveland as soon as possible. Two poles were tied together with bark, and a couple of horses placed between them, as in the shafts of a wagon. There was room for a man to lie in a bed of blankets and bark, slung to the poles, with one horse going before him, and the other coming behind. In this rude conveyance the unfortunate Bicknell was carried for five days, over a dis- tance of fifty miles, being in a high fever and delirious for a portion of the time. His sufferings ended in death, and he was buried on the south line of the township of Independence. Well may Judge Atwater add: "This was the most affecting scene of my life. My feelings I cannot attempt to describe. My fatigue was great during the whole distance. My anxiety stimulated every power I possessed of body or mind."
The journal of Surveyor Pease during August, Septem- ber and November is an almost continuous record of sick- ness, and for the greater part of the time headquarters at Cleveland took on the character of a general hospital. Such entries as these are of almost daily occurrence : "Solomon Shepard came in sick." " Reynolds taken sick." "Jotham Atwater came in sick with the fever and ague." ""' Green set out to take his place, but re- turned at night sick." "This morning had chills, head- ache, backache and fever." " Twelve persons sick." " Andrews died about eight o'clock last night." " Mr. Pease had a hard fit of fever and ague." "Tupper is not well, but able to cook."
Malaria was not the only enemy to be avoided in these laborious excursions into the woods. Another danger is suggested: " In its forest condition this region was very prolific in snakes. The notes of the survey contain fre- quent mention of them, particularly the great yellow rat- tlesnake. In times of drought they seek streams and moist places, and were frequently seen with their brilliant black and orange spots crossing the lake beach to find water. Joshua Stow, the commissary of the survey, had a positive
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
liking for snake meat. Holly could endure it when pro- visions were short. General Cleaveland was disgusted with snakes, living or cooked, and with those who cooked them. They were more numerous because the Indians had an affection or a superstitious reverence for them, and did not kill them. "57
A view of Cleveland as it appeared to the eyes of a stranger in 1797 is found in the statement of Gilman Bryant, already quoted. " My father, David Bryant, and myself," said he, "landed at Cleveland in June, 1797. There was but one family there at that time, viz. : Lorenzo Carter, who lived in a log cabin, under the high sand bank near the Cuyahoga River, and about thirty rods below the bend of the river, at the west end of Superior street. I went up the hill to view the town. I found one log cabin erected by the surveyors, on the south side of Superior street, near the place where the old Mansion House for- merly stood. There was no cleared land, only where the logs were cut to erect the cabin, and for fire-wood. I saw the stakes at the corners of the lots, among the logs. and large oak and chestnut trees. We were on our way to a grindstone quarry, near Vermillion River. We made two trips that summer, and stopped at Mr. Carter's each time. In the fall of 1797, I found Mr. Rodolphus Ed- wards in a cabin under the hill, at the west end of Su- perior street. We made two trips in the summer of 1798. I found Major Spafford in the old surveyor's cabin. The same fall Mr. David Clark erected a cabin on the other side of the street, and about five rods northwest of Spaf- ford's."
Any excursion into the history of these early days of Cleveland is certain to bring one into direct contact, sooner or later, with Lorenzo Carter, who played no minor part in the fortunes of the settlement, and who possessed a personal character well fitted for service in the rude sur- roundings of his day. His arrival in Cleveland has already been noted. He was born in Warren, Litchfield
57 " Annals of the Early Settlers' Association," No. 4, p. 75.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
County, Conn., in 1766,58 and although his education was meagre, his natural qualities made him a man of mark wherever his lot was cast. His half-brother, J. A. Ackley, says of his early life: "He was left to the care of a widowed mother, in moderate circumstances, with a family of six children, all young. Lorenzo was a strong, athletic, self-willed boy, and it could not be expected that a mother would guide and direct him like a father. But our mother was a thorough-going woman, and man- aged to get along reasonably well, until the close of the war (Revolution), when she married again, and soon after moved to Castleton, Rut- land County, Vt., then al- most a wilderness. Lorenzo was about eighteen years of age, a very natural age to be- come fond of a dog or gun, hunting and fishing. The country being new, and game plenty, he soon became quite a Nimrod. Arrived at man- hood, he bought a lot of new land, took to himself a better LORENZO CARTER. half, and settled on his land. But farming, or at least clearing a new farm, was not ex- actly to his mind. He soon became restless, and wished for a change. About this time the Ohio fever began to rage, and Carter, in company with a man by the name of Higby, started for the western wilds. Their course was through Western Pennsylvania, to Pittsburg, down the Ohio River as far as the Muskingum River. They then turned north, and struck the lake at Cleveland, from thence by the nearest route home."
This excursion determined his future. He bade adieu to New England, in the fall of 1796, and in company with
58 This date and piace are given by J. A. Ackley, Carter's half-brother, in a statement made at Parma, in 1858. Mr. Rice, in his "Sketches of Western Life," p. 29, says, he was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1767.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
his brother-in-law, Ezekiel Hawley, set out to find a home in the West. When the two families reached Lake Erie, they passed across to Canada, where they remained for the winter. In the spring of 1797 they moved onward to Cleveland, which they reached in May, and where they had decided to make their permanent home.
The active Lorenzo soon made himself a conspicuous figure in the pioneer community. While Hawley decided to make his home back upon the elevated land, Carter preferred to remain in the very center of events-and there he hung on, faithful to his first choice, while malaria and ague drove his neighbors out to the more healthful ridge. He erected, down near the river, a log cabin, which was more pretentious than the rude affairs constructed by the surveyors, having two apartments on the ground floor, and a spacious garret.59 He next built a boat, and estab-
59 N. B. Dare, of Cleveland, has recently found among some old papers in his possession a land contract between Lorenzo Carter and the Rev. Seth Hart, Moses Cleaveland's successor as agent, or superintendent, of the Connecticut Land Company. The lot contracted for was described as follows :- " Lot No. 199, containing one acre and forty-four rods of land, as per the surveyor's full notes, abutting east on Water street, west on the Cuyahoga River, and intersected by Mandrake lane." The conditions of sale were as follows :- "Said Carter having already built a tenable log house on said lot and cleared and improved part thereof, is to clear the remaining part of said lot in the course of the next spring and summer, and sow the same to wheat or cultivate it to some other purpose, and have a family residing in said house; and he, the said Carter, is to pay at the rate of $25 per acre, making for said lot the full sum of $47.50, which said Carter is to pay by the Ist of September, 1798, unto Oliver Phelps, Henry Cham- pion, Moses Cleaveland, Samuel Mather, Esq., the board of directors for said company, or their successors in office, or to their agent in the said city of Cleveland, with one year's interest on the same at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum. Now, if the said Carter shall fulfil and perform the foregoing conditions, etc., then the said Hart, on behalf of himself, empowered as aforesaid, and in behalf of said board of directors, promises and engages to procure a good and authentic deed.
(Signed) " LORENZO CARTER. " SETH HART.
(Witnesses.)
" Theodore Shepherd,
" Amzi Atwater."
The contract was endorsed "S. Hart's contract with Lorenzo Carter, 1797."
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
lished a ferry at the foot of Superior street. He kept a small stock of goods for trade with the Indians. In 1801 he was granted a license to keep a tavern at Cleveland, by the territorial court sitting in Warren. " It was Carter's enterprise," says Mr. Rice, "that built the first frame house in Cleveland. He also built the first warehouse. During the early part of his career at Cleveland his spa- cious log cabin on the hillside was regarded as headquar- ters. It served as a hotel for strangers, and as a variety shop of hunting supplies. It was also a place of popular resort, where the denizens of the town and surrounding country held their social festivities." It was in Carter's cabin that occurred the first wedding ceremony solem- nized in Cleveland, when, on July 4th, 1797, Miss Chloe Inches, who was in Carter's employ, was married to a Canadian, who answered to the name of Clement. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Seth Hart, General Cleaveland's successor as superintendent of the Connecti- cut Land Company.
In 1804, Carter was elected to the office of Major in the State militia. He built the first vessel constructed in Cleveland, the " Zephyr," of thirty tons burden, for the lake trade. He accumulated a fine property, and in later years purchased and improved a farm on the west bank of the Cuyahoga, nearly opposite the lower end of Superior street. He died in February, 1814, and was buried in the Erie street cemetery, near the western entrance. " Two marble headstones mark the spot, and also bear upon their face a brief record that is worthy of a reverent remembrance."
Carter is described as having had the muscular power ·of a giant, standing six feet in his boots, of swarthy com- plexion, with hair long and black, which he allowed to fall nearly to his shoulders. He was brave to the edge of daring, but amiable in temper and spirit; and while he never picked a quarrel, he saw the end of any upon which he entered. He was always to be found upon the side of the oppressed. " Major Carter was far from a quarrel-
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
some man," wrote Ashbel W. Walworth, in 1842.60 "I never heard of his fighting unless he was grossly in- sulted, and as he would say, 'driven to it.' It was a common saying in this region, that Major Carter was all the law Cleveland had, and I think he often gave out well measured justice. It was not unfrequent that strangers traveling through the place, who had heard of the Major's success in whipping his man, who believed themselves smart fighters, thought they may gain laurels by having it said that they whipped him. I never heard it asserted by any one, and never heard of any one boasting, that such an act had been performed. He was kind and generous to the poor and unfortunate, hospitable to the stranger, would put himself to great inconvenience to oblige a neigh- bor, and was always at the service of an individual or the public when a wrong had been perpetrated. In all the domestic relations he was kind and affectionate."
There are a great many stories found in the various rec- ords of early Cleveland of Major Carter's dealings with both Whites and Indians, illustrative of his courage and off-hand methods of disposing of practical questions as they present- ed themselves. Of these anecdotes, half-brother Ackley tersely says: "Some are true, and many are not true." In touching upon these, one cannot undertake to say with certainty in which class they fall, although most of them are in accord with the known character of the man.
It is said, that on one occasion he returned from the hunt, and found that a party of thirsty Indians had broken into his store-house, removed the head from a whisky barrel, and were freely helping themselves to its contents. He found them engaged in an endeavor to empty the bar- rel, " marched in among them, drove them out, kicked and cuffed them about in every direction, and rolled several of them, who were too drunk to keep their legs, into the marshy brink of the river. The Indians did not relish this kind of treatment, and, meditating revenge, held a council the next day, and decided to exterminate Carter.
60 " Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland," p. 346.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
They selected two of their best marksmen, and directed them to follow his footprints the next time he entered the woodlands to hunt, and shoot him at the first favor- able opportunity. This the delegated assassins attempted to do, and, thinking to make sure work of it, both fired at him at the same time, but failed to hit him. In an in- stant Carter turned on his heel and shot one of them, who fell dead in his tracks; the other uttered a terrific war whoop, and fled out of sight. This dire result overawed the Indians. From that time no further attempts were made to take Carter's life. His rifle was the law of the land. The Indians became subservient to his will, and were confirmed in the belief that he was the favorite of the Great Spirit, and could not be killed. It was in this way that Carter obtained an unbounded influence over the Indians. He always treated them, when they behaved as they should, with kindness and generosity, and when they quarrelled among themselves, as they often did, he intervened and settled their difficulties."61
An incident, that finds a more certain foundation in fact, shows Carter's influence with his dusky neighbors, and is connected with the first murder that occurred after the settlement of Cleveland .. It is not certain whether it occurred in 1802 or 1803. A medicine man, of either the Chippewa or Ottawa tribe, by name Nobsy, Menobsy, or more commonly called Menompsy, had rendered official aid to the wife of Big Son, a near relative to the famous Seneca, of the tribe of Senecas. She had died despite his ministrations, and under the in- fluence of the fire-water obtained from the distillery which David Bryant had established under the hill, Big Son set forth the claim that his wife had been killed, and therefore, under the Indian law, he demanded the life of the medicine man. The latter claimed that he bore a charmed life and could not be hurt, which Big Son proved
61 Rice's " Sketches of Western Life," p. 34. This story is referred to by the writer as traditional. No reference is made to it by Mr. Ackley or Mr. Walworth, already quoted, nor in a statement made by Carter's son, Alonzo.
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
They selected two of their best marksmen, and directed them to follow his footprints the next time he entered the woodlands to hunt, and shoot him at the first favor- able opportunity. This the delegated assassins attempted to do, and, thinking to make sure work of it, both fired at him at the same time, but failed to hit him. In an in- stant Carter turned on his heel and shot one of them, who fell dead in his tracks; the other uttered a terrific war whoop, and fled out of sight. This dire result overawed the Indians. From that time no further attempts were made to take Carter's life. His rifle was the law of the land. The Indians became subservient to his will, and were confirmed in the belief that he was the favorite of the Great Spirit, and could not be killed. It was in this way that Carter obtained an unbounded influence over the Indians. He always treated them, when they behaved as they should, with kindness and generosity, and when they quarrelled among themselves, as they often did, he intervened and settled their difficulties."61
An incident, that finds a more certain foundation in fact, shows Carter's influence with his dusky neighbors, and is connected with the first murder that occurred after the settlement of Cleveland .. It is not certain whether it occurred in 1802 or 1803. A medicine man, of either the Chippewa or Ottawa tribe, by name Nobsy, Menobsy, or more commonly called Menompsy, had rendered official aid to the wife of Big Son, a near relative to the famous Seneca, of the tribe of Senecas. She had died despite his ministrations, and under the in- fluence of the fire-water obtained from the distillery which David Bryant had established under the hill, Big Son set forth the claim that his wife had been killed, and therefore, under the Indian law, he demanded the life of the medicine man. The latter claimed that he bore a charmed life and could not be hurt, which Big Son proved
61 Rice's " Sketches of Western Life," p. 34. This story is referred to by the writer as traditional. No reference is made to it by Mr. Ackley or Mr. Walworth, already quoted, nor in a statement made by Carter's son, Alonzo.
1801.
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SPAFFORD'S MAP
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to be untrue, by stabbing his enemy as the two walked side by side along Union Lane.
His friends took up the body of the murdered man, and carried it to their camp on the west side of the river. They were furious for revenge, and only the prompt action of Major Carter and other white men prevented a bloody encounter .. The Chippewa warriors were seen in the morning with their faces painted black, which meant war. The demand was made that Big Son should be surren- dered. Carter opened negotiations, and for a gallon or so of whisky, backed by his eloquence, persuaded them to abate the demand, go home, and drown their vengeance in that for which it had been surrendered.
It is pleasant to turn from this scene of blood to an incident that occurred on the last Christmas of the cen- tury, when Lorenzo Carter, the hunter, saved the lives of several lost little ones. Three children of Judge Kingsbury, and two of the Hawleys, the eldest but eight years of age, lost their way in the dusk of the evening when homeward bound from a visit to Job Stiles. They wandered about, in the cold and dark, in danger from wild beasts. The eldest carried the youngest; at last they all gave up, and sat down upon the frozen ground to await whatever fate the winter night might have in store for them.
It happened that toward evening, Carter, the uncle of the Hawley children, called at the house of their parents, on his way from the hunt. An alarm had already been given, and the few men of the neighborhood had started out in search. The Major of course joined them. He took his hound to. where the children had been last seen. The trail was found, although the little ones had crossed their own tracks again and again. After a long run through bush and brier, the faithful animal dashed down into a hollow, and among the frightened children, who thought that at last the wolves were upon them. We can rest assured that, among all his triumphs in forest and field, Lorenzo Carter counted the privilege of returning those children to the arms of their parents that Christmas night, by no means the least.
CHAPTER IV.
A CITY ON PAPER.
It may be profitable to leave for a moment the little village on the Cuyahoga, here at the dawn of 1800, to touch upon the manner of life of those who came into the Ohio wilderness, the perils surrounding them, and the resolution with which they met want, sickness, the de- predations of wild beasts, and the lack of those surround- ings of civilization to which they were used in the old life in the East. It took courage of several sorts to make the westward venture,62 and the journey from the East was in itself no light experience.
Not only were the railroad and canal unthought of then, but the stage-coach and the road along which it was to be drawn were still in the future. The springless wagon or the sled, loaded with household goods, farming implements, weapons of defense, and food, with wife and children stowed in corners, were the chief vehicles of transportation, and the road a mere path through the woods, or a trail, along which room for passage must be cut through the trees. Months were often consumed in this tiresome journey, and its discomforts uncomplainingly borne. Incidents without number, in illustration of the above, are held as household legends in all parts of the
62 " Immigration to Ohio, at an early day, at times met with the greatest discouragement. Caricature was employed to give vent to the derision which was felt. Judge Timothy Walker, in an address delivered before the Ohio Historical and Philosophical Society, at Cincinnati, in 1837, said he well remembered in his boyhood seeing two pictures-one represent- ing a stout, well-dressed, ruddy man on a fat, sleek horse, westward bound, bearing a banner with the words: 'Going to Ohio'; the other showing a pale and ghostly skeleton of a man, in shabby apparel, riding the wreck of a horse, journeying eastward, bearing the ensign: 'Have been to Ohio.'"-Magazine of Western History, Vol. I., p. 343.
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