USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of the city of Cleveland: its settlement, rise and progress, 1796-1896 > Part 9
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With thus an adequate understanding of the methods of life in pioneer days, and of the character of those who laid the foundations of Ohio, we can once more take up the thread of direct narration, with the beginning of the new century.
There were, in the opening of 1800, perhaps, some
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THE HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
twenty people residing in that portion of the Reserve, marked out as the city of Cleveland, including the families of Carter and Spafford, while some sixty or seventy made up the population of the immediate neighborhood. Affairs were not progressing, in a material sense with that success- ful push which the managers of the Connecticut Land Company had probably looked for. A visit was made in midsummer by Turhand Kirtland,68 who seems to have come with authority, and who expresses his views upon the situation in a letter to the east. He addresses General Cleaveland at Canterbury, Connecticut, from " Cleave- land, Ohio," under date of July 17th, 1800, and says:
" On my arrival at this place, I found Major Spafford, Mr. Lorenzo Carter, and Mr. David Clark, who are the only inhabitants residing in the city, have been anxiously waiting with expectations of purchasing a number of lots, but when I produced my instructions, they were greatly disappointed, both as to price and terms. They assured me, that they had encouragement last year, from Col. Thomas Sheldon, that they would have lands at ten dollars per acre, and from Major Austin at twelve dollars at most; which they think would be a generous price, for such a quantity as they wish to purchase. You will please excuse me from giving my opinion, but it really seems to me a good policy to sell the city lots at a less price than twenty-five dollars (two acres), or I shall never expect to see it settled.
" Mr. Carter was an early adventurer, has been of essen- tial advantage to the inhabitants here, in helping them to provisions in times of danger and scarcity, has never ex- perienced any gratuity from the company, but complains of being hardly dealt by, in sundry instances. He has money to pay for about thirty acres, which he expected to have taken, if the price had met his expectation; but
68 Statement made by Dr. J. P. Kirtland, Aug. 29th, 1874: " Turhand Kirtland, my father, annually visited New Connecticut in the years 1798, 1799, and 1800. He, at that time, was agent of the Connecticut Land Com- pany."-" Historical Collections of the Mahoning Valley ," published by the Mahoning Valley Historical Society, Youngstown, Ohio, 1876, p. 10.
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he now declares that he will leave the purchase, and never own an acre in New Connecticut. Major Spafford has stated his wishes to the company, in his letter of January last, and I am not authorized to add anything. He says he has no idea of giving the present price, for sixteen or eighteen lots. He contemplated building a house, and making large improvements this season, which he thinks would indemnify the company fully, in case he should fail to fulfill his contract; and he is determined to remove to some other part of the purchase immediately, unless he can obtain better terms than I am authorized to give. Mr. Clark is to be included in the same contract, with Major Spafford, but his circumstances will not admit of his making any advances. I have requested the settlers not to leave the place, until I can obtain further informa- tion from the board, and request you to consult General Champion,69 to whom I have written, and favor me with despatches by first mail. Mr. Edwards has gone to see the governor. Crops extraordinary good, and settlers healthy and in good spirits. They are increasing as fast as can be expected, but the universal scarcity of cash, in this back part of the country, renders it ex- tremely difficult to sell for money, and the vast quantity of land in market will prevent a speedy sale of our lands. The people have been encouraged that the Company would have a store erected, and receive provisions in pay- ment for lands, for money is not to be had. Mr. Tillit- son, from Lyme, wants two one-hundred acre lots, and would pay for one in hand if horses, cattle or provisions would answer, or would take them on credit, if he could have sufficient time to turn his property, but has no cash to advance.
" I have given a sketch of these circumstances, in order that you may understand my embarrassments, and expect you will give me particular directions how to proceed, and also, whether I shall make new contracts with the
69 The name of Henry Champion is found in the list of directors of the Connecticut Land Company.
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settlers, whose old ones are forfeited. They seem un- willing to rely on the generosity of the Company, and want new writings. I have the pleasure of your brother's company at this time. He held his first talk with the Smooth Nation, at Mr. Carter's this morning. Appearances are very promising. I flatter myself he will do no discredit to his elder brother, in his negotiations with the aborigines."70
Glancing ahead of the date under consideration, we find that the sale of the six reserved townships, and also that of the city lots of Cleveland, fell short of the company's expectations. City lots which had been held for fifty dol- lars with down payment were now offered for twenty-five dollars, with time given. The treasury was replenished by assessments upon the stockholders, instead of from proceeds of sales. "By individual exertion," says Col. Whittlesey, "the private owners under the previous drafts, had disposed of limited amounts of lands, on terms which did not create very brilliant expectations of the speculation. In truth, the most fortunate of the ad- venturers realized a very meagre profit, and more of them were losers than gainers. Those who were able to make their payments and keep the property for their children, made a fair and safe investment. It was not until the next generation came to maturity, that lands on the Re- serve began to command good prices. Taxes, trouble and interest, had been long accumulating. Such of the pro- prietors as became settlers secured an excellent home at a cheap rate, and left as a legacy to their heirs a cheerful future."
It was thought best that all the property should be in private hands, and on the 8th of December, 1802, another draft was made of the six townships which had been di- vided into ninety parcels, which included all of the lands east of the Cuyahoga, with the exception of a few Cleve- land city lots. The following is a list of the original own- ers of lots in Cleveland by draft, or first purchase : Samuel
70 Whittlesey's " Early History of Cleveland," p. 376.
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Huntington, Caleb Atwater, Lorenzo Carter, Ephraim Root, Elijah Boardman and others; Ezekiel Hawley, David Clark, Joseph Howland, Charles Dutton, James Kingsbury, Samuel W. Phelps, Joseph Perkins and others; Austin & Huntington, Wyles and others; Judson Canfield and others; Samuel P. Lord, Jr., William Shaw, Samuel Parkman, John Bolls and others; Asher Miller, Ephraim Stow and others; Martin Sheldon and others; Amos Spafford, Oliver Phelps, Richard W. Hart and others.
The few settlers, who had made their home in Cleve- land previous to 1800, had troubled themselves but little with questions of legal jurisdiction or the form of local government nominally extending over them. They were far more interested in building their cabins and clearing their lands for corn or wheat. The proceedings of the first judicial body of the Northwest Territory, at Marietta, on the Ohio, in the fall of 1788,"1 therefore attracted little attention in this corner of that great expanse of wilder- ness. A more direct personal interest was of course felt in the first Court of Quarter Sessions of Trumbull County, to which Cleveland belonged, and which was held at Warren, on August 25th, 1800. The court was organized in this manner: Under the territorial law the governor was authorized to designate officers for any new
11 The first Court of General Quarter Sessions held in the " Territory Northwest of the River Ohio," was opened at Marietta, in "Campus Martius," September 9, 1788. The commissions appointing the judges were read. Judges Putnam and Tupper, of the Common Pleas Court, were on the bench, and with Esquires Isaac Pearce, Thomas Lord, and Return Jonathan Meigs, Jr. (three county justices of the peace or territo- rial magistrates), constituted the quorum of our first Court of Quarter Sessions, held a hundred years ago in the Northwest Territory. The first act of the court was to proceed to empanel a grand jury, which was ac- cordingly done, the following named gentlemen constituting that body, namely: William Stacey (foreman), Nathaniel Cushing, Nathan Good- ale, Charles Knowles, Anselm Tupper, Jonathan Stone, Oliver Rice, Ezra Lunt, John Matthews, George Ingersoll, Jonathan Devol, Jethro Putnam, Samuel Stebbins and Jabez True. And this was the first grand jury to exercise its important functions in the "Territory North- west of the River Ohio."
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CLEVELAND IN 1800.
I. Old River Bed and Mound. 2. Mouth of the Cuyahoga. 3. Lorenzo Carter's First Cabin. 4. Surveyor's Log Store-House. 5. Surveyor's Cabin, or Pease's Hotel.
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county which he might choose to erect. The justices of the peace constituted the general court of the county, five of their number being designated justices of the quorum, and the others associates. They met quarterly; were known as the Court of the Quarter Sessions, and in their hands was lodged the entire civil jurisdiction of the county-local, legislative and judicial.
The first session for Trumbull County opened on War- ren Common, at four in the afternoon, under a bower of trees, between two large corn-cribs. It continued five days, and the labors it accomplished can be best shown in the following synopsis of the record,22 preserved in the handwriting of Judge Pease :
"Court of General Quarter-Sessions of the Peace, be- gun and holden at Warren, within and for said county of Trumbull, on the fourth Monday of August, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred, and of the independence of the United States, the twenty-fifth. Present, John Young, Turhand Kirtland, Camden Cleaveland, James Kingsbury, and Eliphalet Austin, Esquires, justices of the quorum, and others, their associates, justices of the peace, holding said court. The following persons were returned, and appeared on the grand jury, and were em- paneled and sworn, namely: Simon Perkins (foreman), Benjamin Stowe, Samuel Menough, Hawley Tanner, Charles Daly, Ebenezer King, William Cecil, John Hart Adgate, Henry Lane, Jonathan Church, Jeremiah Wil- cox, John Partridge Bissell, Isaac Palmer, George Phelps, Samuel Quimby, and Moses Park. The court appointed George Tod, Esq., to prosecute the pleas of the United States for the present session, who took the oath of office. The court ordered that the private seal of the clerk shall be considered the seal of the county, and be affixed and recognized as such till a public seal shall be procured. The court appointed Amos Spafford, Esq., David Hudson, Esq., Simon Perkins, Esq., John Minor,
72 " History of Trumbull and Mahoning Counties," Cleveland, 1882, Vol. I., p. 66.
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Esq., Aaron Wheeler, Esq., Edward Paine, Esq., and Benjamin Davidson, Esq., a committee to divide the county of Trumbull into townships, to describe the limits, and boundaries of each township, and to make report to the court thereof."
Acting in accordance with these instructions, the com- mittee divided the county into eight townships,"3 of which Cleveland was one, and the report was accepted and confirmed. Constables for the various townships were also appointed, Lorenzo Carter and Stephen Gilbert being designated to serve for Cleveland; and after a variety of orders had been given upon minor matters by the court, it adjourned-and local civil government in north-eastern Ohio was started.
It will be noted that Gilbert and Carter were not the only representatives of the village by the Cuyahoga, in these important judicial proceedings between two corn- cribs on Warren Common. Amos Spafford was a jus- tice, but not of the quorum. Our pioneer friend, James Kingsbury, occupied a seat of honor on the bench, due to an appointment at the hands of the territorial governor. At a subsequent period he held other offices of trust, being a justice of the peace, and collector of taxes, under the dis- trict system; and, being elected a member of the Legisla- ture after Ohio had become a State, so well served his con- stituents that he was chosen for a second term. He died at his residence in Newburg, on December 12th, 1847.74
13 These eight townships were: Cleveland, Warren, Youngstown, Hudson, Vernon, Richfield, Middlefield, and Painesville. There were embraced with- in Cleveland township, Chester, Russell and Bainbridge, later of Geauga County ; all of the present county of Cuyahoga east of the river, and all of the Indian country from the Cuyahoga to the west line of the Reserve.
14 The "Cleveland Plain Dealer," December 15th, 1847, says: " Of the Judge it may be said with propriety, that he was the patriarch of the land - among the last of the brave pioneers on the lake shore. He pos- sessed a noble heart - a heart that overflowed with kindness like the gush of a fountain. His generosities were never stinted in a good cause, nor his charities bestowed ostentatiously to be blazoned abroad among men. He regarded all mankind as his brethren and kinsmen, belonging to the same common household."
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From the above action upon the part of the territorial authorities it will be understood, of course, that Connect- icut and the United States had come to an understanding as to their rights of jurisdiction over the Reserve, and that the proposed state of New Connecticut was already counted among the things gone by. The National Gov- ernment had simply withdrawn its claim to the soil, leav- ing the sales from Connecticut to the Connecticut Land Company and others good in law, while the New England State had in turn given up its claim to political sove- reignty. It was by right of this agreement, therefore, that Governor St. Clair had ordered the creation and organization of Trumbull County, as above recorded. On September 22nd, of the same year, he issued a proclama- tion for elections under the territorial system, command- ing the sheriff: " That on the second Tuesday of Octo- ber, he cause an election to be held for the purpose of electing one person to represent the county in the Terri- torial Legislature."
This election was, of course, held in the county seat, at Warren, and was conducted after the English method: The sheriff of the county assembling the electors by proclamation, presiding, and receiving the votes of the electors by word of mouth. On this occasion there were but forty-two votes cast, and as General Edward Paine received thirty-eight of these, he was declared elected, and took his seat in 1801.
It was in the fall of 1800 that David Bryant came to Cleveland, with the purpose of making it his permanent home. In those days, prior to the passage of internal revenue laws, and the spread of a general temperance sentiment, a still was thought by many to be almost as necessary as a grist-mill or loom, and when the new arrival came, accompanied by a still which had seen serv- ice in Virginia, he was accorded a double welcome. He built a still-house " under the sand-bank," as his son Gilman tells us in the statement already quoted, "about twenty rods above L. Carter's, and fifteen feet from the
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river. The house was made of hewed logs, twenty by twenty-six, one and a half stories high. We took the water in a trough, out of some small springs, which came out of the bank, into the second story of the house, and made the whisky out of wheat."
Mr. Bryant not only in this way opened a market for the disposal of superfluous grain, but became a producer as well. "My father purchased ten acres of land," con- tinues the son, "about one-fourth of a mile from the town plat, on the bank of the river, east of the town. In the winter of 1800 and the spring of 1801, I helped my father to clear five acres on said lot, which was planted with corn in the spring. Said ten acres were sold by my father in the spring of 1802, at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre."
In closing this chapter, and the year 1800 together, it seems well worth the space occupied to enumerate the settlers who had become permanently or for a time a part of Cleveland up to that time :
1796. Job P. Stiles and wife; Edward Paine.
1797. Lorenzo Carter and wife, and their children, Alonzo, Henry, Laura, Mercy and Betsy; Miss Chloe Inches; James Kingsbury and wife, and their children, Amos S., Almon and Abigail; Ezekiel Hawly and wife, and one child; Elijah Gun and wife, and one child; Pierre Meloche ; Peleg Washburne.
1798. Nathaniel Doan and wife, Job, and three daugh- ters, afterward Mrs. R. H. Blin, Mrs. Eddy, and Mrs. Baldwin; Samuel Dodge, Rodolphus Edwards, Nathan Chapman, Stephen Gilbert, Joseph Landon.
1799. Richard H. Blin, William Wheeler Williams, Mr. Gallup, Major Wyatt.
1800. Amos Spafford, wife and family; Alexander Campbell; David Clark and wife, and their children, Mason, Martin, James, Margaret and Lucy; David Bry- ant, Gilman Bryant ; Samuel Jones.
CHAPTER V.
LAW, GOSPEL, AND EDUCATION.
The law and the gospel in their visible forms reached Cleveland at about the same time, in the persons of Sam- uel Huntington, and the Rev. Joseph Badger. The first named was the earliest lawyer to settle in this city; the latter was the first missionary of importance to follow a line of labor upon the Reserve. We have noted the pres- ence of the Rev. Seth Hart, who came as superintendent of the surveying party of 1797, but beyond his ministrations at the funeral of the drowned David Eldridge, and at Cleve- land's first wedding, there is little to show that he exercised his clerical offices while here.
Samuel Huntington was ab protégé and adopted heir of his uncle and namesake, Governor Huntington, of Connecticut. He was a man of education, had traveled in Europe, was married and near thirty-five years of age. He made a tour GOVERNOR SAMUEL HUNTINGTON. of portions of the Ohio Country before becoming a resident, and was doubtless so pleased with the promise of the future that he determined to return.
Leaving his home in Norwich, Connecticut, he reached Youngstown in July, 1800, and made a tour of the chief settlements of the Reserve on horseback. He kept a daily record of his movements, and the following brief extract therefrom will show how Cleveland appeared to his eyes in the early days of October: " Left David Abbott's mill (Wil-
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loughby) and came to Cleveland. Stayed at Carter's at night. Explored the city and town; land high and flat, covered with white oak. On the west side of the river is a long, deep stagnant pond of water, which produces fever and ague, among those who settle near the river. There are only three families near the point, and they have the fever.
" Sailed out of the Cuyahoga, along the coast, to ex- plore the land west of the river. Channel at the mouth about five feet deep. On the west side is a prairie, where one hundred tons of hay might be cut each year. A lit- tle way back is a ridge, from which the land descends to the lake, affording a prospect indescribably beautiful. In the afternoon went to Williams's grist and saw-mill (New- burg), which are nearly completed."
Mr. Huntington went south as far as Marietta, on the Ohio, where he made the acquaintance of Governor St. Clair and other gentlemen connected with the territorial government. He returned to Connecticut in the fall, and in accordance with a resolution already formed, removed with his family to Youngstown, early in the summer of 1801. He soon after concluded to make Cleveland his home, and arranged with Amos Spafford for the construc- tion of a house of some pretensions, near the bluff south of Superior street, in rear of the site of the American House. He was accompanied by his wife, and Miss Mar- garet Cobb, a companion and governess; and two sons, Julius C. and Colbert. It is needless to say that their arrival was welcomed as a notable addition to the little community.
Although Mr. Huntington was the only lawyer in the vicinity, it is not supposed that he garnered an extensive amount of practice, with the county court no nearer than Warren, and very few litigants; with not many questions to quarrel over. He was able to make himself useful in various ways, and we find him occasionally mentioned in the early records of the township. Thus, in 1802, he was elected one of the supervisors of highways-certainly not
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an exalted position, but one with many opportunities for usefulness in a new country; in 1807, he was a member of the board of commissioners in charge of that famous lot- tery (that never came off) for the improvement of the Cuyahoga and Muskingum rivers; while we learn that in 1805 he "abandoned his hewed log house, the most aristo- cratic residence in Cleveland city, and removed to the mill he had purchased at the falls of Mill Creek "-driven away, probably, by the same malarial causes that had sent so many earlier settlers out to the hills.
A wider field of usefulness was opened before him. Soon after his settlement in Cleveland, the governor ap- pointed him lieutenant colonel of the Trumbull County militia, and in 1802 one of the justices of the quorum, and priority was conceded to him on the bench of Quarter Sessions. He was also, in the same year, elected to the convention to form a State Constitution; was chosen Senator from the county of Trumbull, and on the meet- ing of the Legislature at Chillicothe was made president of that body. In 1803, he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, his commission, it is said, being the first issued under the authority of the State of Ohio. In 1807, he was elected governor of the State, succeeding Governor Tiffin, who became a Senator of the United States. On the conclusion of his term, Governor Hunt- ington retired to his farm near Painesville, where he re- mained until his death, in 1817.
It was a characteristic feature of this transplanted New England life and thought that in the pursuit of material things the church and school-house were not forgotten. As a general thing, as soon as the things absolutely essen- tial to physical life were provided, steps were taken for the support of the gospel and the instruction of the young. The missionary was followed by the itinerant minister, and he in turn by the settled pastor, as soon as the strength of the community would permit. The sti- pend of the latter was of an uncertain quantity and a very indefinite quality, as it came of the commodities of the
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day and region, with a very small percentage of cash. In one ancient subscription list, where the people of five townships banded together for the support of a minister, we find the following pledge :
" We do by these presents bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, and administrators firmly, to pay the sums an- nexed to each of our names, without fraud or delay, for the term of three years, to the Rev. Giles Cowles, the pay to be made in wheat, rye, corn, oats, potatoes, mess- pork, whisky, etc., the produce of farms, as shall be needed by the said Mr. Cowles and family, together with chop- ping, logging, fencing, etc. We agree, likewise, should any contribute anything within said term of three years toward the support of the said Mr. Cowles, it shall be de- ducted according to the sum annexed to each man's name. We likewise agree that the preaching in each town shall be in proportion to what each town subscribes for said preaching."
One of the first sermons heard on the Reserve, after its settlement, if not the first, was delivered by the Rev. William Wick, of Wash- ington County, Pennsyl- vania, who held services at Youngstown, on Sep- tember Ist, 1799. The Rev. Joseph Badger was, however, the most promi- nent of the Protestant mis- sionaries sent into this wilderness, and his serv- ices were such as to entitle REV. JOSEPH BADGER. him to more than a passing mention. He was a native of Massachusetts, where he was born in 1757; enlisted at eighteen in the Revolu- tionary Army, where he gave a valiant service for three years; entered college in 1781 and graduated in 1785; studied for the ministry, and was licensed to preach in
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1786. He occupied a pulpit in Massachusetts for a short period, when he resigned, and accepted a call to go, as a missionary, to the Western Reserve, under the auspices of the Connecticut Missionary Society.
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