USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, number I > Part 40
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They came up the river, the stars and stripes waving over them and landed at the foot of Superior street, where the reception committee with carriages and a large concourse of citizens awaited them and took them to the Mansion house, then kept by my father, where Governor Clinton was addressed by the late Judge Samuel Cowles, who had been selected by the committee to make the reception address.
Governor Clinton made an eloquent reply. In a part of his remarks he made the statement, "that when our canals were made, even if they had cost five million dollars, they would be worth three times that sum ; that the increased price of our productions, in twenty years would be worth five millions of dollars; that the money saved on the transporta- tion of goods, to our people, during the same period would be five mill- ion of dollars, and that the canals would finally pay their tolls, refund their entire cost, principal and interest."
De Witt Clinton was a man of majestic presence. In his person he was large and robust, his forehead high and broad, his hair black and curly and his eyes large, black and brilliant, and, take him all in all, looked as though he was born to command.
As the weather was very warm and the distance to Licking county about one hundred and fifty miles, it was thought best to get an early start in the morning and take breakfast at Mother Parker's, who kept a tavein at the foot of Tinker's creek hill about one and a half miles down the creek west of Bedford. She was a black eyed, steel trap style of a Vermont woman, and a good cook. Halfan hour after daylight an extra stage came and the party left.
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A small swivel, used for celebrations, had been left at some former oc- casion on the brow of the hill on the west side of Vineyard lane, now called South Water street. My father woke up the late Orlando Cutter, his store was where the Atwater block stands-and got some powder and when the stage got a few rods up Superior street, gave the party a part- ing salute; then mounting his horse he soon passed the stage and rode on to give Mrs. Parker information who was coming and that she must prepare a good breakfast. He also inquired where her husband, Cordee, was and if he had taken his bitters, of which the jolly old fellow was very fond. She said he was out at the barn, where my father found him with as heavy a load as his buckskin breeches could waddle under. My father quietly picked the old fellow up and took him in the granaray, returned to the house and assisted in getting the breakfast by grinding and making the coffee, while mother Parker fried the ham and eggs and made some biscuits. The party sat down and did justice to the fare set before them, as my father said.
Such was the manner and style of the reception and departure of Governor Clinton and his distinguished friends in Cleveland. I cannot, sir, close this narrative without adding to it, my humble tribute of re- spect to the memory of the late Alfred Kelley, acting commissioner, then a citizen of Cleveland, and a prominent actor in the civil polity of our state and to whom in my opinion, Cleveland is indebted for its select- ion as the termination of this great work, and also for its early com- mencement and completion. He was a man of energy, preeminent tal- ents and enlightened policy.
RETROSPECTION.
A PAPER READ BY JOSEPH GLIDDEN.
DEAR FRIENDS OF THE ASSOCIATION :
What I propose to bring before you at this time, is in the nature of a panorama. I have selected a few names of people that I have known in the last half century on the Reserve, and I propose to pass them rapidly before you, just giving you an opportunity to glance at them,
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and renew the impression upon the tablet of your memories which in many instances is almost, or quite obliterated. But perhaps you will permit me by way of introduction to say that I am not one of the pioneers of the Western Reserve. I have no experiences to relate, of hardship and privation and danger, incident to pioneer life in Ohio. But I know something of the life of a poor farmer at that early day, under the shadow of the Green Mountains, in the state of Vermont. I know how the reluctant soil had to be urged to induce it to bring forth food for man and beast. I know what is meant by the wide, open fire- place, the oven, the back log, the fore-stick, the lug-pole and the crane. I know something of the boy power that was required to keep the chim- ney glowing through the long winter months. I know that the pile of flax that lay upon the scaffold in the stormy month of March had to be broken, swingled, hatcheled, spun and woven and made into shirts and trousers for the month of June. I know that the warm garments for next winter depended upon the wool that was growing on the backs of the sheep in May, and I remember that in the intervals of all this toil, the boys and girls in the pursuit of useful knowledge, flocked joyously to school in " summer's heat and winter's cold." Many of the grandfathers and grandmothers who hear me to-day have had just this experience. And I love to indulge the thought that it is because of thi experience, and this early training in ways of industry and virtue, and because they have daily and hourly taken up the common burdens of life and borne them faithfully and cheerfully, that they are permitted to stand here to-day with the weight of more than three quarters of a cen- tury of years resting so lightly upon them. My own first advent upon Ohio soil was in Cleveland in the afternoon of the fourteenth of May, 1834. It was a memorable day in the annals of the Western Reserve, and all the northern portion of this country, on account of a very severe storm that had prevailed during the day and night previous. In the Eastern States the snow fell in some places more than a foot in depth. There was no snow in Cleveland, but that morning, in Erie, as we looked out upon the deck of the steamboat, we found it covered with snow, and it was very cold. As I stepped upon the wharf in Cleveland I heard a citizen say, " We had ice here this morning an inch thick." This was probably a slight exaggeration ; but it was cold enough to destroy all
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vegetation. I have never since that time experienced such cold weather so late as the middle of May. The first man here whose name I learned was the proprietor of the Mansion house, a hotel that stood on the south side of Superior street, near the junction with South Water street. His name was E. M. Segur. He was a bachelor then, and I wondered how he could keep a hotel without a wife. The only thing that I remember about his table is that at frequent intervals along the table there stood a bottle and a glass. I had the curiosity to sample the contents of one of those decanters, and I found that it was not a rare quality of old wine, but simply Ohio or Kentucky whisky. It was not an expensive beverage, for the wholesale price of whisky was only about seventeen cents per gallon. In the summer of 1835 there was a large fire in that locality, destroying all buildings from the Mansion house up to and including the present site of the American house. Mr. Segur was burned out, and was soon after married to one of the Wolverton girls, whose father kept the Lighthouse at that time.
The next picture is that of Captain Sartwell, the stage agent. I went there to buy a ticket to Medina. He was also a bachelor, and always remained so ; but very few married men have had so many children to rise up and call them blessed. By a liberal provision in his will, the Protestant Orphan asylum was placed upon a firm foundation, and enabled to go forward in its career of usefulness. He was one of Cleveland's early benefactors. But I did not go to Medina, for when I came to pay my bill at the Mansion house my last five dollar bill proved to be counterfeit, and I had less than a dollar in silver ; and so I must in some way earn some money. I happened to meet a young man who wanted some one to take care of a shopmate of his, who was sick at the house of their employer, Mr. John Erwin, who had a tin shop on Superior street, and lived on Bank street, corner of Frankfort. I went and took care of him a few days until he died. At the bedside of that dying man I first saw Dr. David Long. I formed a high opinion of him then, which I never had occasion to change. He was an old and substantial citizen then, having come here in 1809. He lived in a stone house at the corner of Superior and Seneca streets, where McGillin's store now is. He owned the lot where the American House now stands, which was originally a ten-acre lot running back to
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the river. He finally retired to a hundred-acre farm, away out in the country. But the city soon surrounded him, absorbed his land, and stretched its arm for more. The house that he built in the suburbs, and in which he died in 1851, is known as 394 Woodland avenue. His daughter, Mrs. Severance, whom I knew more than forty years ago as a young and comely widow, occupies the house with her children and grandchildren, and when I saw her a few days ago, living in that patriarchal way, with and for her children, I did not need the injunc- tion of the apostle to " honor widows who are widows indeed."
After about a week spent in Cleveland I went to Akron. My first boarding place there was in the family of General Northrop. He had just closed a term of service in the Ohio legislature from the Medina district ; had come there and erected the shell of a house, and was keeping a few boarders. He told me that he had bought his lot of General Simon Perkins of Warren, who owned a large portion of the land in the village. General Perkins, as you know, was the father of the Perkins family that we know so well and esteem so highly, both here and elsewhere on the Reserve.
I need not call your attention to this family group ; you know it well. There is a striking resemblance in all the portraits. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that even the third generation has not learned to squander the paternal estates.
At the house of General Northrop I saw another distinguished citizen of Warren-Leicester King, a man who ten years later I had the pleasure of voting for for governor of Ohio .. There were several men, who have since been prominent citizens of Cleveland, came to Akron during the year that I lived there. A young doctor came there from Rochester, N. Y., and hung out the name of Horace A. Ackley. When I left there the next spring he was still there, but did not remain very long. When the Medical College was organized at Willoughby he became a member of the faculty. I remember the Cleveland Herald spoke of him as a young but ardent lover of his profession, and I think that if there ever was a man who loved to use the scalpel and the saw and the forceps it was Dr. Ackley. Stories of Dr. A. are always in order. A little circumstance was said to have taken place in Colum- bus with which he was connected that I do not remember to have seen
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in print. A large anaconda that had been exhibited around the country was taken sick, and shuffled off the mortal coil in Columbus. The doctor happening to be there at the time, procured the carcass of the defunct reptile, and had it placed in a whisky barrel with a sufficient amount of whisky to preserve the specimen, and it was left in an exposed situation awaiting shipment to Cleveland. Some old veterans with a strong appetite for whisky, and a characteristic disregard for snakes, got around it, and drained it dry, leaving his snakeship without any visible means of support. The story arrived in Cleveland in due time without loss or damage, but whether the snake ever came to hand I do not know.
There was another man, a lawyer, who flourished in Cleveland a few years-Seth F. Hurd. He came to Akron from Massachusetts in the winter of 1835, and finding it necessary to raise the wind in some way, he blossomed out as a lecturer on grammar. I was interested in that subject, being the teacher of the district school in Akron that winter, and I joined his class. He was a genial fellow, a good talker and one of the best story-tellers that I ever saw. In 1840 he was our best log. cabin orator, and after he left Cleveland he had a great reputation as a stump speaker.
I think it was under the inspiration of one of his log cabin speeches that I saw our old friend James A. Briggs shy that peculiar shaped old. cloth cap of his so high in air that I feared he would never see it again. But it could not be lost in that way, and it continued to adorn the classic brow of its owner for a long time after Mr. Briggs achieved his- first success in life in this city. And although he has lived long in Brooklyn, N. Y., it is greatly to his credit that he has not forgotten. Cleveland ; and also that he has not forgotten to identify himself with every wise effort for the moral and intellectual improvement of man- kind. And speaking of caps reminds me that owing to the fact that my range of vision, physically as well as mentally, is not as broad as that of some men, I have been in the habit of recognizing men more by their caps than by their countenances. It is only a few days ago that I saw at a little distance a portly looking gentleman who looked like an old acquaintance except for his unfamiliar head covering, but on his nearer approach I found it was none other than Sam Adams without his blue
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cap. The public will feel a sense of loss if that cap is permanently retired. I hope that is not the case; at least that it has not gone beyond the reach of the Historical Society. I mean no disrespect to the cap or to its owner, especially the cap, for it is one that Bismarck himself might be proud to wear. My personal acquaintance with Mr. Adams has been slight, but I have known something of him ever since he and his cousin Joe were boys in his father's family on Bolivar street. And when Joe Adams first began to be seen around the old court house, mingling with such men as Payne, and Wade, and Rice, and Conger, and Foot, and Hoyt, and Tom Bolton, and Reub Hitchcock and the rest, I thought he was about as unpromising a specimen as I ever saw. But appearances are often deceitful.
There was another man who had a little history that came to my knowledge during my first summer in Ohio. I saw him occasionally come riding into the village of Akron on horseback. His name was Dorsey Vere, or Veers. He was a substantial looking farmer and lived in the township of Northfield. He was pointed out to me as a sus- pected murderer. A man who had been working for him had disap- peared suddenly and mysteriously, under circumstances that led to the arrest of Veers as his murderer. He had a trial, or an examination, and was acquitted for lack of evidence, there being no proof that the man was killed ; but most people thought that Veers was guilty.
Many years passed. Veers became on old man, when the sequel of the story was published in a Cleveland paper. The man supposed to have been murdered was an Englishman, and was seized with a sudden desire to visit his old home, and he left without disclosing his intention to anyone. After some little time spent in England he returned to this country, going directly to Michigan, where he continued to reside. Mr. Veers during all this time had been quietly, but diligently searching for him. His efforts were finally successful and his character was rescued from all taint of crime.
I learned also, during my first summer in Ohio, the important fact that Cleveland is six miles from Newburgh. I remember taking up a lit- tle 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 Cleve- land, there was this item : "A post town six miles from Newburgh."
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This was probably the origin of that quaint description of the location of Cleveland, generally supposed to have originated with some envious quill driver of Sandusky. If it was supposed that it would always main- tain that respectful distance from Newburgh, but the expectation has not been realized.
Among those who lived on the west side fifty years ago, within the limits of what soon after became the City of Ohio, were Richard Lord and Josiah Barber, the largest land owners in that locality, Charles Taylor, the owner of the "Taylor Farm," the Tyler brothers-Ben- jamin L., Samuel, Lorenzo, Frederick, De Los and Daniel-Charles Winslow, Dr. C. E. Hill, Daniel Sanford, Erastus Tisdale, Wm. B. Castle, Henry and Marshal S. Castle, Edward Bronson, David Griffith, Daniel Baxton, J. F. Taintor, Ezekiel Folsom, Gilman Folsom, Levi Beebee, S. H. Sheldon, Dr. B. Sheldon, Dr. Amos Pearson, H. A. Hurlbut, H. B. and John E. Hurlbut, H. N. Barstow, Isaac L. Hewitt. These are all gone.
Judge Barber was the grandfather of the Josiah Barber known to this generation, and who has died since our last meeting; also the grandfather of Mrs. D. P. Rhodes, and great grandfather of Mrs. M. A. Hanna, and of Robert and James Rhodes, well known business men. His memory is held in the greatest respect by all who knew him. Mr. and Mrs. Lord were also equally respected, and the same can be said of most of the others I have mentioned. Of the survivors of that period there are Geo. L. Chapman, Samuel Colahan, C. L. Russell, Dewitt C. Taylor, J. H. Sargent, Edgar Slaght, Daniel Mallery, Ambrose Anthony, L. L. Davis, H. G. Towsend, Chittenden Lewis, Ezra Honey- well, Moses C. Sufkin, B. F. Dexter, John Beverlin, J. A. Redington, N. K. McDole, C. C. Stevens, Richard Redrup, Robert Sanderson, Mrs. D. T. Rhodes, her sister, Mrs. Hatch, Mrs. S. H. Sheldon, Mrs. D. Sanford, and perhaps many others who were children at that time.
In 1840 the Liberty party was formed. There were a few here of that despised class called Abolitionists, who voted that ticket. On the east side of the river I can only remember the names of John M. Ster- ling, Milo Hickox, R. H. Blackmer, and Deacon Hamlin. In Ohio City there were ten, Lyman Crowl (the worst Abolitionist in the city), S. H. Sheldon, Dr. B. Sheldon, Dr. J. A. Sayles, J. F. Taintor, Wm. War-
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mington, W. P. Taft, Uriah Taylor, Thomas List, and myself. Of that number there are three still living. Mr. Taylor and Mr. List were at that time working in the pattern shop of the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace company. Mr. Taylor has retired some years ago, but Mr. List is still there and is foreman of that shop. It is remarkable, as it shows that although he was "a fool and a fanatic" then-like all the rest of us-he is now a level-headed man, enjoying the confidence of that old, and conservative institution. I have never complained of the curses we received in those days, but I have often thought that when the people of this country had finally struggled up to our standpoint, and adopted every principle that we advocated, they might have given us credit for a little sagacity, or even statesmanship, if we had dared to claim it, and abated somewhat of the absurd prejudice against the Abolitionist. In this connection I am glad to be able to say, that although we voted for James G. Birney for President, our candidate for member of con- gress from this district was the man whom everybody loved, Sherlock J. Andrews. We are continually being reminded of the shortness of life, and the narrowness of the space between the cradle and the graye. But if we measure time by its results, and the memorials it leaves behind it, the last half century does not seem short or unimportant. When I came to Ohio, in 1834, Cuyahoga county contained about 12,000 inhabitants. There was not a mile of railroad in the state. Andrew Jackson was President, in the middle of his second term. John C. Calhoun was preaching nullification in South Carolina, north- ern ministers were preaching the nullification of God's law in its appli- cation to human slavery. William the IV was king of Great Britain. Victoria was a blooming girl of fifteen, under the watchful care of her excellent mother, the dutchess of Kent. James A. Garfield was a little child of three years, out in the woods of Orange township. Many of us were grown to manhood before he was born, and yet he has come and gone. But though he is gone he is not lost to us, for it was not possible for the vile assassin to rob the world of the glory of such a life, or the influence of such an example. Very early in my life I became dissatisfied with the men who were being worshiped by the great political parties of that day, and after I became a voter I passed through eight presidential crises before my candidate was elected. But
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after all, it is not an extravagant proposition that this age has produced as good men as any other age since the world began. Bearing this in mind, and repudiating the idea that we must go abroad for everything great and good, why may not Cuyahoga county claim to have produced one of the most thoroughly furnished men for every possible emergency of life that the world has ever seen ? As a citizen of this county, as well as a member of this association, I protest against allowing the outside world to go beyond us in doing honor to James A. Garfield.
HISTORICAL FACTS.
CONTRIBUTED BY HON. R. P. SPALDING.
MR. PRESIDENT :
A continued illness of some six months admonishes me that any efforts of mine to keep up an interest in this honored institution must soon cease. Before that time shall arrive, however, I wish to put in tangible and durable shape certain historical facts that should be known by every member of the " Early Settlers' association."
The ordinance for the government of the Territory of the United States, northwest of the River Ohio, was passed by the Confederate Congress, July 13, 1787. That instrument is the "Great Charter " for the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and to its wise provisions their citizens are indebted for much of their material prosperity. The articles of compact, especially, are worthy of record in letters of gold. They are in substance as follows :
I. No person shall ever be molested on account of his religious sentiments.
2. No man shall be deprived of his liberty or property but by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land ; and should the public exigencies make it necessary to take any person's property, or to demand his particular services, full compensation shall be made for the same.
3. Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good gov- ernment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of edu- cation shall forever be encouraged.
4. The said territory and the states which may be formed therein
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shall forever remain a part of this confederacy of the United States of America, subject to the articles of confederation, and to such alterations therein as shall be constitutionally made, and to all the acts and ordi- nances of the United States in Congress assembled, conformable thereto.
5. There shall be formed in the said territory not less than three nor more than five States, the constitution and government of which shall be republican, and in conformity to the principles contained in these articles.
6. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory.
The Constitutional convention met at Philadelphia and was organized May 25, 1787.
The constitution was signed on the 17th of September, 1787.
In 1789 congress at its first session passed an act to continue the ordinance of 1787 in full operation under the Constitution.
On the 7th day of April, 1788, Rufus Putnam with forty-seven associ- ates from New England, landed at the junction of the Muskingum with the Ohio river, at a point afterwards named " Marietta," and thus became the first white settlers of Ohio.
It was said by George Washington that " no colony in America was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which was just com- menced at the Muskingum. I know," said the general, " many of the settlers personally, and there never were men better calculated to pro- mote the welfare of such a community."
The Putnams, the Whipples, the Varnums, the Parsons, the Sproats, the Meigs, the Fearings and the Cutlers, who began the settlement of Washington county, in Ohio, were indeed a choice set of nien.
Washington county was formed July 27, 1788, by proclamation of Governor St. Clair, being the first county formed within the limits of Ohio. It embraced all of the then Northwestern territory lying east of the Cuyahoga river.
Trumbull county, which then embraced the whole Western Reserve, was organized in the year 1800.
Warren, the county-seat, in September, 1800, contained two log cabins only, one of which was built in 1799 by the proprietor of the town, Ephraim Quinby, for his family residence, and had three apart-
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