USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, v. 5 number 5 > Part 5
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of the Ohio Railroad Company, which was located in the City of Ohio. A large amount of subscription was obtained to the stock of this company ; it also obtained, under the act of 1837, which authorized the State to loan its credit to railroads, a large advance in money from the State. By the 17th section of its charter, its treasurer was authorized to issue orders, and under this power, it issued a very large amount of orders in the similitude of bank bills. By these means, a large amount of work was done towards the grading and superstructure. But the collapse which followed that period of inflation carried with it this enterprise, and in 1845 the legislature passed an act, authorizing the Board of Public Works to sell out the whole concern, from which little, if anything, was realized, and the whole thing proved an utter failure. Nothing was then done under the other charters. Some few persons still keep, as a souvenir of that period, the bills of the Ohio Rail- road Company, on whose face is beautifully engraved a railroad train at full speed, and in contrast below it the graceful form of a flying deer.
The condition of the lake shore, from the action of the waters of the lake and the springs in the bank, was always a matter of interest, and sometimes of alarm, to the inhabitants of the city, and in 1837 an act was passed, incorporating the Lake Shore Company, authorizing them to protect the lake bank from caving and sliding, and as a means of remuneration, to build wharves and piers along the shore, and the city, in its corporate character, was authorized to become a member of that corporation. I cannot learn that anything was done under this authority ; but afterwards the city employed Col. Charles Whittlesey, at a large expense, to pile certain portions of the lake front, and afterwards, when rail- roads were built, for their own protection, they continued this system of piling, by which the banks have been protected from caving and sliding. The City of Ohio, not to be outdone, in the same year this Lake Shore Company was incorporated, procured an amendment to its charter, by which it was authorized to cut, dig, and excavate canals, slips, and basins, and pay for the cost of the same by assessment upon the abutting property. By this
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same act, a large parcel of territory in the southwest part of that city was carried back into the township of Brooklyn. That city proceedled under the act to construct a canal leading out of the old river bed, and paid for the same by this seductive but ruinous method of taxation, to defray the cost of public improvements. The scheme was a failure, but the dry bed of the canal has since been utilized for the laying of railroad tracks. From want of means, being unable to enter upon the construction of railroads, the citi- zens of Cleveland' contented themselves with procuring charters for the construction of plankroads leading out on all the principal highways from the city.
The State of Ohio recovered rapidly from the commercial depression of 1837 and years following, and in 1845 enacted a new and wise banking system, four new banks under it being established in Cleveland. The city of Cleveland, however, suf- fered less by the panic of that time than the other cities upon the lake shore, and by the census of 1840, it had a population of 6071, the city of Ohio being only 1577. In spite of the continued financial difficulty, the city continued to advance, al- though its finances were in a somewhat disordered state. The bad practice of issuing orders on the treasury, payable on demand, although the treasury was empty, inherited from the village, still prevailed. These orders passed as currency, though at a ruinous discount, and in 1847 had increased to a large volume. At that period, Mr. Henry B. Payne freely gave much of his valuable time to the city affairs, and through his strenuous efforts this debt was funded, and from that time the city has promptly met every obli- gation at its maturity, and no city has since had a better financial credit. In 1847 also, the township of East Cleveland was organ- ized, which took into its jurisdiction all of the 100 acre lots of the original surveyed township No. 7 north of the Newburgh line, and on the 22nd day of March 1850 an act of the legislature was passed annexing the remaining part of said township to the city of Cleveland, which embraced all of the ten acre lots, and all the unsurveyed strip lying along the bank of the river north and south of the mouth of the Kingsbury Run. During this decade, the
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citizens of the city became again awakened to the importance of railroad communication. Steps were taken to revive and amend the old charters, and on the 24th of February 1846, an act was passed, authorizing the city of Cleveland, by commissioners named therein, to subscribe $200,000 to the capital stock of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company, and to issue its bonds in payment of these subscriptions, and on February 16, 1849, in like manner to subscribe $100,000 to the capital stock of the Cleve- land & Pittsburg Railroad Company, and to issue the bonds of the city in payment thereof, and in February 1851, the sum of $200,000 to the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Company. The City of Ohio was also authorized to subscribe $100,000 to the Junction Railroad Company, leading from that city to Toledo. These two latter companies have been consolidated, and form a part of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company. It was the efficient aid thus furnished by the city's credit, which enabled the promoters of these enterprises to construct and com- plete the roads at that time, and in so short a manner after the work was entered upon.
In that ten years the city had increased nearly three-fold, for the census enumeration of 1850 showed its population to be 17,034. The census taker of that year, not being able readily to discover by observation the boundaries of the City of Ohio (from the fact that the streets of the city had been dedicated and opened by separate tracts), took the count for the township of Brooklyn as one municipal body, and the number of the inhabitants for the whole township was 6,071. There was a blunder, however, made by the census taker, for he was then ignorant of the fact that a small spit of land lying immediately west of the west pier, as it existed in 1835, and north of the line of Brooklyn township, was within the legal limits of the city of Cleveland. There were a few shanties on this bit of sand, and they were counted as inhabitants of the township of Brooklyn. I have personal knowledge of this mistake, for I committed it myself. This increase of the city made a supply of artificial light and water a public necessity.
On the 6th day of February, 1846, the Cleveland Gas Light and
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Coke Company had been incorporated, but nothing was done till 1848, when Moses G. Younglove became interested therein, and through his energetic efforts, the building of their works and the laying of pipes commenced, and the city was soon supplied with gas. The city, following the wise policy, recommended and approved by the best political economists, of preventing competition, under the false cry of opposition to monopoly, by controlling the price of gas when granting its privileges to the company, has been able to have furnished to its citizens light cheaper than that of any other city in the country, except Pittsburgh, which is in the center of the gas coal region.
In June, 1833, an act was passed by the General Assemby incorporating Philo Scovill and his associates as the Cleveland Water Company, granting them the privilege of furnishing the inhabitants of the village of Cleveland with water. Nothing was done under this act. March 19, 1850, this act was amended, extending their privileges so as to include the inhabitants of the city as their customers. The company was organized, some stock subscribed, but nothing further was done. But in the Mayoralty of William, Case, under his able and energetic lead, the city corporation entered upon the matter. There was much preliminary discussion, many surveys and estimates made, and in 1854 a plan was adopted. To carry out this plan on the first day of May 1854 the passage of an act of the Legislature was procured, enabling the city to locate its reservoir and make its connections with the lake within the limits of the City of Ohio, and authorizing the city to make a loan of $100,000 to carry out the project. The loan was conditioned upon a vote of popular approval, which was given. Backed by the credit of such sterling men as Richard Hilliard and W. A. Otis, the city readily negotiated the loan, and the work was entered upon, and by the year 1846, the city of Cleveland took pride in furnishing the great numbers, who attended the State Fair held within its limits that year, with water from Lake Erie.
Pursuant to the constitution of 1851, the first Legislature follow- ing its adoption passed a general law for the organization and gov- ernment of all the municipalities within the State, and repealed all
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the old charters. The only substantial change in the Cleveland organization was the abolition of the Board of Aldermen, and the establishment of a separate police court, the duties thereof having previously been performed by the Mayor. The building of the water works, and the evident mutuality of interests, had sub- stantially obliterated all the ancient rivalry, and in 1854, in accord- ance with the general law then in force, which provided for the union of adjoining cities and the annexation of territory, the two cities passed the necessary ordinances for union, which were approved as required, by the popular vote of each municipality, the total vote being 3,160, indicating a population of about 25,000. The terms of annexation being agreed upon and signed June 5, 1854, by H. V. Wilson and F. T. Backus on the part of Cleveland, and by William B. Castle and Chas. L. Rhodes on the part of the City of Ohio, on the same day, the latter city passed the required ordinance, and on the next day the city of Cleveland passed its ordinance for that purpose, and thus, on June 6, 1854, the City of Ohio became an integral and important part of the city of Cleve- land. The public debt of the City of Ohio was assumed by the city of Cleveland, except its liability for bonds issued to pay its subscription to the Junction Railroad Company, which were after- wards paid by the sale of the stock. Another of the provisions of the agreement of annexation gave to the city of Cleveland as it existed before the Union, any surplus it might realize by reason of its subscription to the stock of the Several railroads before men- tioned, which surplus was to be expended under the direction of the trustees representing that district in the new corporation, for a public park or other public use. It is well known, that the city realized a large surplus from its stocks after the payment of its obligations given therefor, perhaps the only case of the kind in the whole country. In addition to this fund, the city also realized a considerable amount of stock from the sale of its lands north of Bath street on the lake shore to these several roads, to which it had given its credit. March 28, 1862, an act was passed by the Legislature creating a Board of fund commissioners to take charge of this fund. Nothing more need be said of the management
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thereof, than that from this fund over a million and seven hundred thousand dollars has been paid to discharge the debt of the city, and over a million still remains in the hands of the commissioners. It is one of the pleasant recollections of the person, who addresses you, that in his official capacity representing this community, he inserted in his own hand-writing in the original bill as it was passed by the House of Representatives of the General Assembly, which was concurred in by the Senate, and became a law, the honored names of Henry B. Payne, Franklin T. Backus, William Case, Moses Kelly, and William Bingham, who thereby were made the commissioners of said fund. The new city increased rapidly, and at the census of 1860 the enumeration showed a population of 43,838. Under the provisions of the general law, various annexa- tions have since been made at different times. By virtue of an ordinance passed February 16, 1864, a portion of Brooklyn town- ship lying northerly of Walworth Run was brought into the cor- poration, and on February 27, 1867, another portion of Brooklyn township and a part of Newburgh township was annexed. These annexations extended the line of the city westerly of the old limits of the City of Ohio on the lake shore, and included large quantity a of land south of the original City of Ohio, and a part of the 100 acre lots on the north part of Newburgh township, and on December 14, 1869, original lot 333, then being a part of Newburgh township, was annexed. These annexations added a large area to the territory of the city, but its numbers were not much increased thereby. The stimulus, however, given to manufacturing and other industries during this decade, largely increased the growth of the city, and the census of 1870 showed a population of 92,829. The advan- tages of the school system, the need of protection from fire, police supervision, water, gas and sewage facilities, induced the inhabit- ants immediately outlying the city limits to knock for admission, and in 1872 steps were taken to annex the village of East Cleve- land, and on the 14th of October the proceedings were completed for that purpose ; and by an ordinance of November 19, 1872. still further annexations were made from the townships of Brooklyn, Newburgh, and East Cleveland, and on the 16th of September
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1873, a large part of the remaining portion of Newburgh township was annexed, extending the city line beyond the erossing of the old Newburgh road by the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Road.
Since that time no further annexations have been made, and the census of 1880 showed a population of 159,404. The rate of increase for the last decade was over seven per cent., and the same ratio for the last four years would carry the number beyond 200,000. There are many other matters connected with the corporate growth, which time would fail me to mention. The organization of churches and charitable associations, the schools and library associations, the banking institutions, the fire and police and sewage system, and many other matters would each easily form a subject for a separate paper. In these stages which I have recounted of the city's growth, three figures stand forth prominently as actors, the first president of the village, the first mayor of the city, and the third, a worthy compeer of these two, many times the village president, and the oldest surviving mayor, John W. Allen. Born in Connecticut the same year Ohio became a state, trained to the law, he came here the same year the work on the Ohio canal begun. Early and ardently devoted to the welfare of the place which he had chosen for his home, he was repeatedly eleeted the presiding officer of the village, sent to the Legislature, was a Senator when the aet of incorporation was passed, promoted from thence to Congress, and returning at the end of his four years term of service, and as a sense of the approbation of his constituents he was by them elected mayor of the city. To all public enterprises, and specially to the organization of the railroad companies, whose original charters had been granted when he was a member of the Legislature, he gave his time and money with generous heart and liberal hand. He still remains among us, carrying his more than eighty years, and the younger generation who observe his erect form, his active step and courtly manner, may, as has been said, " form some estimate of the race of whom he was not the foremost." The first president of the village, also born in Connecticut, at an earlier period, trained to the law, arriving at the village the same year that the county was organized
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then in the first year of his manhood, appointed the first prosecuting attorney of the county, soon sent to the Legislature, a member thereof when the Act incorporating the village was passed, chosen its first president, was always devoted to the city's interests. Chiefly by his influence, Cleveland was selected as the northern terminus of the Ohio canal, he was the acting commissioner during its construction, negotiating the State's loan to pay for its cost, which by his able and honest administration was brought within the original estimate. Public considerations induced his removal to the Capital of the State, but he never forgot the corporation of his own creation. Distinguished as a financier, a legislator, author of the Ohio State Banking System, from which the National Bank System is in great part copied, growing with the growth of the State, and when canals had given way to railroads, becoming the active promoter of these interprises, and especially of the roads leading out of this city, he stands out as one of the great men of Ohio's first half century.
The first mayor, born in New Hampshire, graduate of an ancient college, trained in the law, came here also in village times. Pos- sessing a finer genius, if not the great executive power of the first president of the village, as lawyer, legislator, and judge, he also gave his time, talents and learning to the city, ardently encouraging and aiding every enterprise for the promotion of its welfare. The impress of his genius is indelibly marked upon the early life of the city. I trust the time may arrive, when the city government shall no longer find its habitation in hired tenements, with its archives in unsafe chambers, but on some suitable site shall build a hall worthy of itself, before its facade in some appropriate spot, where shall be placed in bronze or marble a statue exhibiting to all beholders the stern but noble form of Alfred Kelley, and a correct image of that accomplished gentleman, John Wheelock Willey. I should do injustice to my own feelings, and be untrue to history, if I omitted also the mention of him upon whom their mantle fell. Born within the limits of the original surveyed plat of the city, presumptive heir to great wealth, he was not content to spend his time and money for purposes of selfish
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gratification. Uniting in himself the executive ability of Kelley, and the fine genius of Willey, he ardently devoted his energies to the city of his birth. Serving as councilman, alderman, president of the council, and mayor, he faithfully executed these public trusts, and freely gave his time and means to the promotion of all that tended to increase the prosperity of the city, but when still rising in public esteem, and being marked as a man who could serve the State and Nation as well as the City, struck down in early manhood by the fell destroyer, William Case. The loving memory of a brother, by his noble public gifts, has entwined the name of Case, so worthily borne by father and sons, with the city's growth, to continue as long as literature shall charm and be a. solace of the heart, and science enlarge and strengthen the intellect of man.
In this sketch of the corporate life of the city, one thing above all is evident, that its growth has been largely due to the noble public spirit of its citizens, and therefore the moral of my theme is easy of apprehension. Mere numbers, or extent of boundaries does not constitute the continuing city, or any semblance of the civitas Dei of the saints and sages. The ideal city, besides ad- vantage and beauty of location, must be nobly and wisely governed ; the municipal duties must be accepted and performed as public trusts, and not for private and political gain ; its streets must be well paved and lighted ; it must be furnished with abundant water, and well provided with means for the disposal of its sewage; it must have efficient and capable police and sanitary supervision, and property and life must be secure against violence and accidents of flood and fire ; there must be easy and convenient methods of rapid transit; there must be a wise adjustment of the municipal burdens, and opportunities offered for the employment of labor, and the ordinary pursuits of trade and commerce; and there must be furnished all the best means for intellectual, moral and esthetic culture. When to these things are added inventions to abate the smoke nuisance, and deaden the noise of solid pavements, the city will undoubtedly furnish the greatest opportunity for human felicity on the face of the globe.
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But this beautiful picture hath its dark side. There is ever to be found inhabiting the city a criminal class, and "the poor ye always have with you." The growing tree absorbs from the earth at the same time its sweetness of fruit, and bitterness of bark, so this corporate growth takes in alike the good and bad. Its forces attract not only the intelligent, active and virtuous, but the ignorant, irresolute and vicious, and these once caught in the whirl of the city's eddy, never escape. Whenever the soil of the earth is broken, noxious weeds grow with more vigor than cul- tivated grains and grasses, so the vices arising from ignorance, intemperance and lust, breed with great rapidity from this human contiguity. When all moral, charitable, and intellectual means have been exercised to instruct and reclaim the vicious, a large residuum will still be left. These means can never be wholly efficient ; the earthly millennium is only a dream of fancy, and whether evil can be wholly eradicated from organized society is an unsolvable problem. After all individual and organized methods of instruction and charity are exhausted, there is still room for the exercise of municipal power. The wisest method in these matters is rigid restrictive regulation. I am aware there is a mawkish sentiment quite prevalent, which protests against this kind of legislation, as giving legality to sin and iniquity, and as interfering with the divine order of punishment ; but the true city will not heed such protest, or yield to a logic, whose major premise is the assertion that God is the author of loathsome contagious disease. If our recent city administrations have been smitten with the degeneracy of modern politics, there is hope for the future, as the great body of the citizens still desire good municipal government, and the noble public gifts within the present decade by such men as Stone, Hurlbut, Woods, and others, demonstrate that the public spirit of the present day is not inferior to the past. Let other cities boast of their temples, their triumphal arches, and columns, their towers, their docks, their halls, and great public buildings for exchange and commerce, yet " as one star differeth from another star in glory," may the monuments of Cleveland continue to be the noble endowments of her citizens for the promotion of literature,
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art and science, and for the alleviation of pain and suffering. It is impossible in a sketch like this to mention the many good and true men who have given their services to the city's government; much less to the great body of its citizens. In great events but few prominent actors can be named. In wars only the great commanders are mentioned, but the common soldiers who have equal courage, who fight the battle and win the victory, from very number have no blazoned chronicle, nor their names written in any history. So in a city's life, the unnumbered multitude are born, marry and are given in marriage, pursue the ordinary avocations of life, and die mourned by friends, and only remembered as the great aggregate composing the city's life. In their sphere, however, they exercise and perform all the duties and obligations the same as others, and equally contribute to all that upholds society. From this number I select only one name for mention. Born of a revolutionary sire, who was here when General Cleaveland and his party arrived on the 22nd day of July, 1796, and became one of the first associate judges of the county. His son came with him, bearing his father's name, and succeeding to his business ; never seeking public promo- tion, devoted to his occupation, fulfilling every obligation, always enlarging his business to meet the advancing tide of population, retiring only when compelled by age and bodily infirmities, his active career continued through the period of the village and far down into the city life, and he died in good old age, leaving a colossal fortune to his issue and his grandchildren. May we not reasonably indulge the hope that some one of his descendants, possessing as well the maternal as paternal ability, starting on the highest plane of commercial pursuits, increasing his ancestral inheritance manifold, will not be content to leave the name of that ancestor to be borne by some narrow street or alley, but by some noble public benefaction, forever connect with the memory of the City's first half century's life, the commercial ability, worth and integrity of Cleveland's first great merchant : Nathan Perry ?
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