Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, number I, Part 24

Author: Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County
Publication date: 1880-
Publisher: [S.l. : The Association
Number of Pages: 656


USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, number I > Part 24


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HOUSE 200 YEARS OLD.


At the corner of Hanover and Vermont streets in Cleveland stands a low roofed house of a reddish color, looking much like other houses as to wear, but its style seems a little antiquated. This house is said to be nearly two hundred years old. A SENTINEL scribe hearing that Mr. Robert Sanderson could give an account of the old house, called on him at his residence, No. 54 Clinton street, and found him quite willing to deliver up all he knew concerning the old relic. Mr. Sanderson is a hale and hearty old gentleman, and seems to have an excellent memory. He has lived on the West Side for nearly fifty years, arriving here October 4, 1833. There were scarcely a hundred people on this side of the river then, and


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the etiquette was at such a high standard that there was but one man in the whole place that owned a broadcloth coat, and he was a tailor and ashamed to wear it because he was afraid of being laughed at. When Mr. Sanderson came be brought such a coat with him, and did not wear it for two years for the same reason. When asked concerning the old house on Hanover street, he gave a brief history of it, as far as he knew, as follows :


" I bought the house from old Joel Scranton forty-four years ago, and from him I learned its history, and all I shall tell you about it before I owned it, will be on his authority .. The North- western Fur Company built it possibly two hundred years ago for a fur warehouse. The company consisted of Scotch, British and French, but the first-mentioned had the control of it. The house was built up at the head of the old river-bed, or rather where the head now is. After it had been there in use a number of years, the beavers built a dam across the river right about opposite where the rolling mill stands, and the river made another mouth of its own accord from there into the lake. The company then moved the house from where it was built to a point above the dam, think- ing it was better to do that than to disturb the beavers, as it was their skins they were after. It remained there till sixty-three years ago. That was the time the Ohio canal was built. The govern- ment decided that year to dredge out a new mouth to the river, and the house was moved over on the government land near where the stone pier now is, on the other side of the river. It was moved before the new channel was dug, so they did not have to take it across the river. Here it stood for quite a number of years, used for the same purpose. After a while it was moved from there up to the foot of Superior street hill to where the Oviatt building now stands. Ward & Blair owned the property there and an adjoining warehouse, and I don't know whether they bought this or rented it. This was right opposite the Cathan corners, which were where Myers, Osborne & Co.'s works now stand. These corners were well known all over the Western Reserve, and between these corners and Su- perior street hill was the only place of crossing the river, and that was by ferry. I bought the house from old Joel Scranton forty-


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four years ago. When I found it was such an old house and had a history, I decided to preserve it, so I took it apart, and moving it in sections, set it up where it now stands. There were eleven courses of shingles on the roof, one on top of the other ; the under shingles were the long ones, which looked more like barrel staves, while those on top were more modern and smaller. I used it as it was for six years as a joiner shop, then I took the old siding off and put on new, as it was quite an eyesore to the community in its original shape. There was no saw mill farther west than Albany when it was built (so Scranton said), and every stick of the house, even to the siding and long shingles, was hewn out with a broad ax. The house was made entirely of chestnut, as that wood is easier hewn, and when I found that out, I replaced every piece that I had found unsound, with chestnut. The shingles and siding are about all there is of the house as it now stands that was not in the original warehouse. When I took it down to move it, I found it full of hairs from bottom to top, and between the floor of the up- per story and the ceiling of the lower it was entirely filled with hair. The house seemed full of it, and there is hair in it at the present time. According to Scranton its age can be traced back one hundred and forty years. I think Scranton's an- cestors were connected in some way with the old fur company. Scranton was a queer old man ; never talked much-about once a week on an average. When I was taking down the old building, he would come and stand there with his arms behind his back under his coat-tails, and look at the old building in a longing way. One day he came there as usual, and after a while he said, 'Well, well, many is the pound of tea I have sold in that old building to the Indians for $10 per pound, and taken my pay in skins.' It seemed a sorry time to him that such a day was passed. You see, he got the skins for about two shillings a piece, or thereabouts, so that he made a pretty good thing of it. He told me that there was one older house in Ohio than this one, and that was in Mariet- ta. I don't know whether that is standing or not, but think likely that it is. I suppose we ought to give in to Marietta, and we take the next to the oldest. It has been used as a dwelling house for


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thirty-eight years. After I had used it for six years as a joiner shop. I used it myself as a dwelling for ten years, and it has been used as such ever since. From another source it is learned that John Jacob Astor bought and sold merchandise in this old ware- house when it stood on the flats."


Here is a house that is certainly older than one hundred and forty years, probably nearly two hundred ; it has been moved four different times, a distance of over two miles, once across the river and once up a hill ; it has been taken apart and put together again, it has been used for a warehouse, store, shop and dwelling house, and with all this age and moving about. a person passing it would never take it to be over thirty years old, and there are houses even younger than that which look much worse for wear. This old relic bids fair to stand many years of use yet, and who knows but what it may stand its third century out yet ? It certainly ought to be allowed to stand as long as possible .- West Side Sentinel.


DIAMOND WEDDING.


Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Gaylord of Cleveland celebrated their dia- mond wedding, the sixtieth anniversary of their marriage ; and among the greetings which they received was the following pretty little poem :


Shared hopes are sweetest, Shared fears are fleetest, Shared lives the meetest For this side heaven.


Shared work is dearest, Shared love the nearest Shared faith is clearest On this side heaven.


If wedded love is stronger As wedded life grows older, And marriage vows are truer As earthly years grow fewer ; If hearts thus bound together Keep loving more and more, What must the total be when years Have counted up three score ?


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HON. JOHN W. ALLEN


INTERVIEWED AS TO THIE CHOLERA VISITATION IN 1832, WIIEN CLEVELAND WAS A HAMLET OF FIFTEEN HUNDRED SOULS.


" Yes, sir; I've been a resident of Cleveland for fifty-eight years," said the Hon. John W. Allen to a Leader reporter yester- day. "Oh, yes ; I remember the cholera visitation of 1832," he continued. "Cleveland then had from 1,200 to 1,500 inhabitants. We had read of its terrible ravages in Asia, but when we found it was traveling steadily toward Western Europe we became some- what apprehensive that it might cross the Atlantic, but still we hoped and to some extent believed that the ocean would prove a bar to its transmission hither. In the latter part of May the dis- ease was brought to Quebec by an emigrant ship, and soon broke out with great virulence in that city, and moved up the St. Law- rence River. At Montreal it was exceedingly fatal, and a general panic was created all along the lakes. This village was then under the municipal government of a president, recorder, and three trustees, with a treasurer and marshal. Immediate steps were taken in making some preparation for an attack, which we still hoped to escape. The famous Black Hawk war was then raging in the territory which is now called Wisconsin, and in adjacent parts of Illinois clear through to the Mississippi River. The Indians were all on the war-path. The garrison, at what is now Chicago, had been massacred, and every white man, woman, and child they could hunt out, murdered. With a horrible pestilence threatened in the East and at home too, and a war of extermination in prog- ress in the West, it may well be inferred the popular mind was in a high state of excitement. About June General Scott was or- dered to gather all the troops he could find in the Eastern forts at Buffalo and start them off in a steamboat in all haste for Chicago. He embarked with a full load on board the Henry Clay, Captain Norton commanding, a most discreet and competent man and officer. Incipient indications of cholera soon appeared, and some


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died, and by the time the boat arrived at Fort Gratiot, at the foot of Lake Huron, it became apparent that the effort to reach Chicago by water would prove abortive. General Scott, therefore, landed his men and prepared to make the march through the wilderness, three hundred miles or more to Chicago, and sent the Clay back to Buffalo. Captain Norton started down the river, having on board a number of sick soldiers. All were worn out with labor and anxiety. They hoped at Detroit to get food, medicines, and small stores, but when they got there every dock was covered with armed men and cannon, and they were ordered to move on without a moment's delay, even in the middle of the river, and did so, head- ing for Buffalo. Before the Clay got off Cleveland half a dozen men had died and were thrown overboard, and others were sick.


All believed there would not be men enough left to work the vessel into Buffalo, and Captain Norton steamed for Cleveland as his only alternative. Early in the morning of the 10th of June we found the Clay lying fast to the west bank of the river, with a flag of dis- tress flying, and we knew the hour of trial had come upon us, thus unheralded. The trustees met immediately, and it was determined at once that everything should be done to aid the sufferers and pro- tect our citizens so far as in us lay. I was deputed to visit Capt. Norton and find what he most needed, and how it could be done. A short conversation was held with him across the river, and plans suggested for relieving them. The result was that the men were removed to comfortable barracks on the West Side, and needed · appliances and physicians were furnished. Captain Norton came ashore and went into retirement with a friend for a day or two, and the Clay was thoroughly fumigated, and in three or four days she left for Buffalo. Some of the men having died here, they were buried on a bluff point on the West Side. But in the interim the disease showed itself among our citizens in various localities and among those who had not been exposed at all from proximity to the boat or to those of us who had been most connected with the work that had been done. The faces of men were blanched and they spoke with bated breath, and all got away from here who could. How many persons were attacked is unknown now, but in


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the course of a fortnight the disease became less virulent and end- ed within a month, about fifty having died. About the middle of October following a cold rain storm occurred and weeks, and per- haps months, after the last case had ceased of the previous visita- tion, fourteen men were seized with cholera and all died within three days. No explanation could be given as to the origin, no others being affected, and that was the last appearance of it for two years. In 1834 we had another visitation, and some deaths oc- curred, but the people were not so much scared.


" Should we be afflicted by a visit of it this year, there need be less apprehension than in 1832, as the disease is much better understood, and physicians know better by far how to treat it. The people will better know, too, how to live to avoid it, and will soon discover that cucumbers, half ripe apples, and green corn are not a healthy diet under such circumstances.


"Detroit River was not the only locality where resort was had to violence. The aid of muskets and cannon was invoked here by some of our most excitable people who patrolled the shore of the lake both east and west to prevent the landing of infected vessels. There is little doubt but powder would have been burnt had not milder means been effective. Let our people then eat, and drink, and labor in moderation, watch any indication of the approach of disease, take medical advice promptly, and not let their fears get the better of their judgment, keep a clean stomach and a clear conscience, thank God for past mercies and invoke his kind aid in the future, and they will probably escape attack, or if attacked will pull through."


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LIFE SKETCH OF JOEL B. CAHOON.


When a life extends through nearly a century -and such a one as is just passed -it is so rich in story, so full of interest that it is difficult to select a few from the many incidents to relate.


In Salisbury, N. Y., Aug. 27, 1793, Joel B., third son of Joseph and Lydia Kenyon Cahoon, was born. His father at that time and for several years after engaged in milling at propitious places in New York, New Jersey and Vermont.


The opportunities for an education which presented themselves were well improved, and this with careful home training prepared him for life's duties.


In August, 1810, he with his father's family set out from Ver- gennes, Vt., to the then far West in a moving wagon, traveling as long as did Columbus on his first voyage across the Atlantic, ere they reached the romantic spot on the shore of Lake Erie, which was to be their home. Thus, on Oct. 10, 1810, the Cahoon family made the first settlement in Dover, twelve miles west of Cleveland, with its five houses.


Four years later he joined Maj. Croghan's expedition against the British at Mackinaw, and at the close of the war returned to his home in Dover. For a short time after his return he carried the mail on horseback from Cleveland to Maumee City, and the num- erous incidents which occurred in crossing half frozen swamps and flooded streams afforded entertaining topics of conversation for years after their occurrence.


In 1822, thinking there was a future awaiting him beyond the home roof, he visited his native state and by good management acquired a small capital, with which to begin business in company with his brother Daniel at Boston, Ohio. The two brothers soon after began contracting work upon canals and turnpikes, spending six or seven very busy and profitable years near Pittsburgh, and upon the Juniata.


When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was commenced they


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contracted for building several sections of it in Maryland, this being the second railroad built in the United States. While engaged upon the Lateral Road in Md. he formed the acquaintance of Mrs. Margaret A. Van Allen of Washington, D. C., and on July 14, 1831, they were married in Frederick, Md.


Fifty years later, with a happiness which knew no bounds, sur- rounded by his nine children, he sat beneath the golden bridal bell, receiving with his cherished companion of half a century the con- gratulations of many friends.


Several years after his marriage business proved very profitable, but the shadow came, as it often does, to cloud the pathway. Though sensibly feeling the loss he never gave way to discourage- ment, and removed to Indiana, beginning anew in business, only to again encounter disappointment, for the State suspended payment and his prospects were ruined. His last contract upon Public Works was in 1842 near Cincinnati, at which time his brother Daniel died, and closing his business relations he came to his farm in Dover, taking up the work laid down by his father a few years before. The grist mill, which had been raised on the day of Perry's victory, was again set in motion, the saw mill was repaired, and though the meridian was passed he uncomplainingly took up the burden of life again, steadily, faithfully fulfilling his duty till a severe illness unfitted him for active life. Three score and ten years had now been his portion, and with a clean record to look back upon he sat happily beneath his trees and enjoyed social intercourse.


Oct. 10, 1860, he gathered his kindred around him, uncovered the hearth-stone of his ancestor, and with feasting, song and story celebrated the semi-centennial of the settlement of Dover. The meeting was so enjoyable that the "Cahoon Pioneer Celebration " became an organized institution and its annual meeting a "red let- ter day " to the pioneers of Northern Ohio.


In January. 1879, he had a slight attack of paralysis, and eighteen months later was completely prostrated by the same mal- ady. Though never able to walk after this he regained his usual strength, and passed in peace the remainder of his life.


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His strictly temperate habits in life lengthened his days. His upright, honorable, Christian character won for him the respect of all. The patience with which he sat for many months and saw naught but comfort and beauty in his surroundings added another to his numerous virtues.


In the home made sacred by its associations with father, moth- er, brothers and sisters, all of whom had found rest, he sat serenely amid the gathering shade of years and listened to life's curfew bell, telling with eighty and nine solemn strokes that the hour had come when man must prepare to lie down and rest till the morning. With a heart full of affection for his household, with intellect bright and vision undimmed he looked forth upon the blue waters before him for the last time, and trusting in the Father of all, passed to his reward Sept. 28, 1882.


Beside his excellent and honored father, in the cemetery over- looking the lake he is sleeping-life's labor done.


THE WILLES BROTHERS.


The two brothers, Ziba and Luther Willes, settled in Cleveland at an early day, and soon became identified with its growing inter- ests as a village. They were both men of enterprise and intelligence, whose names and memories as pioneers and worthy citizens should not be forgotten.


Ziba was born in Royalton, Vt., in 1795, where he received a common-school education and learned the printer's trade. In 1815, or near that date, he emigrated to Erie, Pa., and established a newspaper, which he conducted for nearly four years. In 1819 he sold his establishment at Erie, and settled in Cleveland, where he purchased from Andrew Logan the "Cleveland Gazette and Com- mercial Register." He changed the title of this newspaper to that of the "Cleveland Herald," a title which it still retains. In con- ducting the Herald Ziba did all the work .- He wrote the editorials, set the type, and executed the press-work on an old-fashioned hand- press. He continued to publish the Herald for some seven years


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or more with remunerative success, when his health from over- work became seriously impaired, and he was compelled to relin- quish his favorite vocation. It is noteworthy, however, that while he conducted the Herald he exercised a wholesome moral as well as political influence, not only throughout the Western Reserve, but throughout the State. His views of public policy were statesman- like, and contributed largely to give shape and direction to the leg- islation of the State. He possessed rare social qualities of char- acter, which made him a favorite in the social circles of the time. He seemed to be the friend of everybody, and everybody seemed to be his friend. He never married. After his health failed him, he retired to Bedford, a village in the vicinity of Cleveland, where he spent the remainder of his days in the family of his brother Luther, and where he died Nov. 13th, 1830, at the age of 35 years.


Luther was born in Hanover, N. H., in 1789, received an Academical education and devoted himself to mercantile pursuits. In the course of a few years he became a partner in the house of Frothingham & Co. at Montreal, Canada. When the war of 1812 was declared, his American sentiments of patriotism induced him · to leave Canada and return to the United States. He then opened a shop of dry goods at Buffalo, and while doing a successful busi- ness there, the town was burned by the enemy, and his stock in trade destroyed. But with a resolution that would not yield to adversity, he proceeded to New York to purchase a new stock of dry goods, and while on his way fell sick at West Bloomfield, where he made the acquaintance of Miss Fanny Willey, an accomplished daughter of Allen Willey, of that town, whom he married in 1817, and at about the same time settled in business as a merchant at Erie, Pa., where his brother Ziba then resided. He remained at Erie some five years. In the meantime Ziba had removed to Cleveland. This induced Luthier to discontinue business at Erie, and to rejoin his brother at Cleveland, where he pursued his for- mer business of merchandising for a short time, when, from con- siderations of failing health, and by the advice of his physican, he concluded to exchange an indoor life to a more active one in the open air. He purchased a large farm at Bedford, erected mills, and .


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not only did a successful business, but did much to improve the village and advance its prosperity. He was a man of intelligence as well as of enterprise, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all who knew him. He died at Bedford June 26, 1833, at 44 years of age, leaving a wife and four young children, one son and three daughters.


Mrs. Willes was one of the few accomplished women, who possess talent combined with energy of character. On the death of her husband she assumed the business in which he had been engaged, and carried it along in all its details with success, and at the same time cared for her children, educated them, and lived to see them grow to manhood and womanhood, and take positions in life of eminent respectability. She loved the Church as well as her children, and at her own expense erected a church edifice at Bed- ford, and gave it to the Baptist society of which she was a devoted member. She also gave liberally to the cause of foreign missions, while at the same time the poor and the unfortunate at home shared her sympathies and her bounties. She died while on a visit to her daughter, Mrs. Sullivant, at Sibley, Ill .. at the ripe age of 84 years. Her remains were returned and buried at Bedford, along- side those of her husband. The old Willes' farm having been recently sold and transferred to the hands of strangers, the remains of the Willes brothers, with the remains of Mrs. Willes, were re- moved to the Erie St. cemetery in Cleveland June 16, 1883, and recommitted to the silent care of Mother Earth.


PIONEER SCHOOLS.


In 1825 I went to school in Warrensville township, to a lady who is yet living in this county, and though her voice is slightly tremulous from age, she can yet read and pronounce the English language as properly as any of the school teachers, or any member of the Board of Education of our city. Less than seventeen years before that time she and a twin sister came to Ohio from New Hampshire, riding much of the way in a basket suspended from


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the bows of a pioneer's covered wagon, and arrived when she was only about three months old. As a matter of course, she obtained all her school education in the pioneer schools long before "Appleton's Readers " were in existence, and probably before any of their authors were old enough to wear pantaloons. Of the scholars of fifty years ago, and even longer, I will venture the assertion, that in all the strictly necessary branches of elementary education, they, on an average, would have compared favorably with those of the present day. They did not have a smattering of as many different studies as are now taught, but they quite as thoroughly understood how to make a practical use of what they did learn ; though they did not attend school more than half as much time, and did not have one-fourth of the number of books, and other school fixtures that make our nominally free schools very expensive.


The "English Reader" (of which I still have a copy that I . bought in 1837) of two hundred and fifty pages, was, as long ago as I can remember, the principal school reading book ; and, for that purpose, is worth more than all the various series of Readers that have been published since. It was from that, that Joshua R. Giddings, Benjamin F. Wade and James A. Garfield learned to read. Any scholar who has properly learned to spell and pro- nounce the common words of the English language, can, with the assistance of a teacher, who is a good reader, learn to read. as well from that book as from a dozen others. Scholars learn to read well, by imitating good readers, more than by all the instructions and marks indicating rising and falling inflection, etc., that ever were, or will be, printed.




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