USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Centennial history of Cleveland > Part 5
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On the 15th Gov. Dennison, of Ohio, issued a proclamation calling for troops. The requisition upon Ohio being 13 regiments for immediate ser- vice. The Grays were ordered to appear at their armory April 16th, when it was found that they had already secured 62 names on their volunteer list.
On the 17th General Fitch received a dispatch from General Carrington at Columbus ordering him to "Have the Grays and Hibernian Guards, if full, report here by the first train, without arms." And on the 18th the Grays left for Co- lumbus on a special train at 3:50 P. M. 78 strong ! that being 8 more than the number required. No one who witnessed their departure will ever forget that day. From the shipping and from nearly every building floated the Stars and Stripes. The air was filled with the strains of martial music, and thousands of men, women and children followed the boys in blue as they marched through the streets to the station, where followed the heartrending scenes, enacted over
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and again in every hamlet, village, town and city throughout our loyal states during the succeed- ing years of that bitter strife between sister states whenever the loved ones left for the field of battle.
The Grays were the first company from Cleve- land, the first from Ohio, and one of the first in the Union to respond to the call for troops. Ar- riving at Columbus they were marched to the Supreme Court Room, where they bunked on sofas and floors, occasionally awaking to com- plain of the neglect of the chambermaid, who for- got to shake up their beds that morning, or to crack a joke with some comrade whose weary bones ached from their unaccustomed accommo- dations.
The next morning they were on their way to Pittsburg enroute to Washington.
At 1:30 o'clock on Saturday, April 20, Col. Barnett's Regiment of Artillery, including Co. D, composed mostly of Cleveland men, left for Co- lumbus and thence on to Marietta. Unfortunately the Hibernian Guards did not fill its quota for several weeks, and remained in camp. It was mustered into service on Sunday, April 26, as part of the 8th Ohio Regiment, and left for the field on Friday, May 3.
The Artillery proceeded to Virginia, where Co. D proved the first Cleveland Co. to fire a shot into the enemies' ranks, when on Monday, June
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3, they took part in the battle at Philippi, Va.
Cleveland was ably represented in most of the great battles during the War of the Rebellion. It is estimated that there were in the field at least 7,000 men from this city, many of whom arose to prominence and high rank, as for instance, General Elwell, General James Barnett, Col. O. H. Payne, Col. Crane, Col. Creighton, and others. There is no stain on Cleveland's war record, and she may proudly honor the names of even the lowliest of her loyal sons whom she sent to the field during her country's danger, and perpetuate their memory by carving their names in marble, that the youth of coming generations may behold them, and learn to honor them.
The women of Cleveland have always held themselves in readiness to assist in every good work of the city, and were not found wanting at the breaking out of the Rebellion.
On Saturday, April 20, 1861, in less than 48. hours after the departure of the Grays, Chapin Hall was filled with women, each wearing the National colors conspicuous as a decoration upon her person, to organize a Soldiers' Aid Society to assist the brave soldiers who were fast leaving for the front. Mrs. Benjamin Rouse was chosen its president, and throughout the war served faith- fully and well.
Two days later, on the 23d, the women were suddenly and unceremoniously mustered into
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service by receiving notice that 1,000 volunteers were marching into camp from adjoining towns wholly unequipped and would require their im- mediate help. There was no hesitation as to what should be done. Carriages were ordered at once, into which there entered ladies of the committee to solicit from every home in the city bed-quilts, blankets, and other comforts for these volunteers, and thenceforth through all the per- plexities, fears and hopes of succeeding eight years the women of Cleveland never faltered in the glorious work thus thrust upon them.
It would fire the soul of the Sphinx to hear of their noble self-sacrifices, and their never-dying perseverance through those years of vicissitude, when they turned their hands to whatever work offered, whether it was packing huge boxes of stores for camp, tending the sick and dying, writ- ing letters for the feeble and unlettered, trav- eling down to the front and over the battlefields with hospital stores, raising vegetables for the camps, picking berries, preparing food, managing entertainments to raise means to carry on their work-always and forever busy with head, heart and hand from early morn till late at night, work- ing for the welfare of their country's brave de- fenders, while many a one was herself mourning the loss of some dear friend or relative who had been shot in battle, starved in prison, or had died in a hospital. Young and old, weak and strong,
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forgot all else but the work each day brought for them to do, and for which they seemed to receive supernatural strength to enable them to carry out.
Among the articles of diet sent by this Aid So- ciety to camps was a total of 8,107} bushels of onions valued at $16,215.00, and 38,841 bushels of potatoes valued at $38,841. These common and greatly-needed vegetables were received with such hearty favor that it was afterwards said "Onions and potatoes captured Vicksburg." They certainly were a sustaining power to the soldiers who did capture that stronghold.
Another delightful work undertaken by the women was that of establishing hospital gardens on ground confiscated for that purpose at Nash- ville, Murfreesboro and elsewhere, the seed and implements being furnished by the Society and the work done by convalescent and partially-dis- abled soldiers. In some places the gardens be- came objects of great pride to the boys-in-blue, who gained strength in working among the flowers and vegetables, while large quantities of fresh, wholesome vegetables were furnished the neighboring hospitals and camps.
With all their energy taxed to the utmost to provide what comforts and necessities were con- stantly demanded at the front, these noble women found time to plan and successfully carry through the great Sanitary Fair, which began on Monday,
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the 22d of February, 1864, closing on the 10th of the following March. It was one of the grand- est affairs ever held in this city, and brought into the treasury of the society the amount of $100,- 191.06 clear.
The Soldiers' Aid Society opened various branches of work as occasion required, such as an employment agency, a war claim agency, a soldiers' home, and various relief departments. When the war closed and a camp of discharge was organized at Cleveland, the Aid Society was kept busier than ever, if such was possible, pro- viding food for returning regiments belonging to other states, and also for the sick of all organi- zations. The city provided for her own and the state troops.
Their first installment of returning soldiers numbered "340 strong," and came upon them at three hours' notice. To feed five hundred of these hungry men it was found that there were re- quired about "135 pies, ¿ barrel ginger cakes, 1,000 small cakes, ¿ barrel apple sauce, 300 loaves of bread, 300 lbs. of beef, ¿ barrel of pickles, 30 qts. milk, ¿ barrel crackers, 1 barrel potatoes, 2} bar- rels coffee and 1 barrel vegetables."
Some days the women would receive notice to prepare for one regiment, and before they had finished the meal provided, another train filled with soldiers would run into the station. These, too, must be fed; and tired and worn as they were
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from their labor the ladies set about preparing a meal for them. No thought of self ever entered their minds! What they were called to do they did cheerfully, regardless of tired limbs, aching backs and throbbing heads.
One particular occasion is worthy of special mention here. It was when the Aid Society, or Sanitary Commission as it was called in later days, was called upon to provide a meal for an entire brigade numbering 1,350 strong. , Every modern housekeeper must quakeat the thought of providing for such a number of half-starved men. The train was hourly expected throughout the entire day of July 29th, and women remained at their posts ready for duty until toward midnight, when sleep overpowered many of them. About two o'clock in the morning the first section of the train ran into the Union Depot, and the men were marched to the Soldiers' Home, built for such purposes, just parallel with the station on piers at what was then the water's edge, where they were royally feasted, but where before their hunger was appeased there crowded together several hundred more soldiers eager to get a bite of the good things set before their comrades, and for whom the tables were made ready in a surpris- ingly quick time. And then arrived the third section with its load of hungry fellows, and it was daybreak before the hurried, anxious, and ex- ceedingly tired hostesses could stop for a moment
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to rest. They had cut up bushels of bread, pies and cakes, they had assisted in preparing barrels of potatoes and onions, and had worked for hours supplying the cravings of 1,350 hungry men, be- side preparing all manner of delicacies to tempt the appetites of the sick and wounded, of whom there was always a large detachment with each returning regiment.
Miss Mary Clark Brayton, the faithful secre- tary and a moving-spirit in the Society, has left a record of the work of those troubled years, which is an interesting monument to the memory of those earnest workers. The Treasurer's Report from April 20, 1861 to January 1st, 1869, as given in Miss Brayton's book entitled "Our Acre and its Harvest," shows a disbursement of articles amounting to a grand total valuation of $982,- 421.25 at the small expense of $206,478.50, which conveys but a faint idea of the work carried on by the Society.
Immediately upon the close of the war Cleve- land became the place of refuge for all classes of suffering humanity; the sick, the wounded, the liberated, half-crazed prisoner, the poverty- stricken soldier, the newly-freed negroes, seeking they knew not what, going anywhere to get away from the associations of the past, and many ver- itable refugees. These were all to be cared for, and in order to give to the sick and wounded such attention as they well merited, a permanent hos- pital was needed.
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Bishop Rappe had long been desirous of erect- ing one in charge of the Sisters of Charity, and in 1865, in connection with the citizens of Cleve- land irrespective of all creeds, he was enabled to erect the building on the corner of Perry Street and what is now known as Central Avenue, where the good work of caring for their poor, suffering fellow mortals is still ably conducted by the Sis- ters.
During the years of the Rebellion many im- provements were being made in this city. Earli- est among them was the very important one of opening communication across our country from shore to shore, through the Overland Telegraph, which was completed in the autumn of 1861, and of which Cleveland's esteemed townsmen, Mr. Jeptha H. Wade, was president. The first mes- sage wired read as follows:
Great Salt Lake City, Friday, Oct. 18, 1861. Hon. J. H. Wade, Pres. Pacific Telegraph.
Sir: Permit me to congratulate you on the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line west to this city; to commend the energy displayed by yourself and associates in the rapid and success- ful prosecution of a work so beneficial, and to express the wish that its use may ever tend to promote the true interests of the dwellers on both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes of the continent. Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the con- stitution and laws of our country, and is warmly
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interested in successful enterprises as the one so far completed. BRIGHAM YOUNG,
Great Salt Lake City.
The company started the sections of work from St. Josephs and from San Francisco, to meet at Salt Lake City. Mr. Wade's section arrived a week the earlier, a fact to which the President of California State Telegraph Company facetiously. referred to in his message from
San Francisco, Friday, October 25. To J. H. Wade, Pres. of the Pacific Tel. Co.
We greet you across the continent. You beat us by a day or two, but we forgive you, and for it receive our congratulations.
H. W. CARPENTER.
On the 26th of October the Mayor of San Francisco, Cal., wired an official message to the Mayor of New York which reads as follows:
"San Francisco to New York sends greetings, and congratulates her on the completion of the enterprise which connects the Pacific with the Atlantic. May the prosperity of both cities be increased thereby, and the projectors of the im- portant work meet with honor and reward.
H. F. TESCHEMACHER, Mayor of San Francisco."
There were several short lines running from Cleveland to different points, which the Hon. Mr. Wade bought and eventually formed into
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The Western Union Telegraph Co., which held its first election of officers on the 26th of July, 1866, making Mr. Wade its president. These shorter lines were kept busy during the early part of 1861 sending messages of such contra- dictory nature that it was often impossible to as- certain the truth regarding the movements of our army.
In view of the great importance of controlling the entire system of telegraph lines throughout the loyal states, General McClellan made Captain Anson Stager general manager of the entire sys- tem of lines that could be made serviceable to the government, and Cleveland became the head- quarters of the National Union Telegraph, as well as of the Western Union and of the Pacific lines.
On the 28th of April, 1865, Cleveland had the mournful honor of having the remains of the mar- tyred President Abraham Lincoln lie in state be- neath a canopy prepared for the occasion be- neath the trees on the Square, while the funeral pageant paused to rest in its journey to Spring- field, Illinois, and to the "Grays" was accorded the honor of standing guard over the body of their country's dead President, during the time of its stay.
When the excitement consequent upon the war was finally over and civil affairs again claimed the attention of the people, various well-
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known societies and institutions came into exist- ence. On the 7th of May, 1867, The Western Reserve Historical Society was organized as a department of Case Library, for the better pres- ervation of relics, manuscripts, books and what- ever pertained to the history of the Reserve, and in the following November it was given rooms in the fire-proof building of the Society for Sav- ings, on the Square. That same year the flour- ishing Public Library, founded in 1853, came under the support of the city.
In 1867 The Young Men's Christian Associa- tion was reorganized. It was formed in 1854, but disbanded during the war. They first occu- pied a small room in a building on Superior Street. After reorganizing they occupied rooms on the third floor of a building on Superior corner of Seneca Street, afterward mov- ing into the Kendall Block, and later into a dwell- ing house on the site of the present Society for Savings. Their next move was to the corner of Euclid and Sheriff Street, where they fitted up an elegant building for the times at an expense of about $25,000.
In November, 1868, The Women's Christian Association was formed, with the late Saralı E. Fitch, President, and began its noble work of rendering aid to women in need of a helping hand. Through the generous gifts received from benevolent friends the Association was en-
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abled to open the "Retreat" on Perry Street in June, and the Boarding Home on Walnut Street on November 11th, 1869. These and various other societies were started in the interests of humanity during the remarkably prosperous years succeeding the close of the war.
Business of all kinds was prosperous, and the manufacturing interests were making rapid progress. The iron and coal interests were de- veloping with such rapidity as to bring this city into special prominence as their chief mart along the lake, and one of the busiest of Western cities.
The Cleveland City Forge and Iron Co., the great malleable iron works, and many others were being established in a small way. In 1870 Cleveland had 14 rolling mills having a daily capacity of 400 tons of finished iron, beside the rails, spikes, nuts, etc., and there were over half a million tons of iron ore, together with more than 76,000 tons of pig and scrap iron received annually. These mills, as a rule, owned their own coal mines, and it was estimated that of the one million tons of coal received here annually at least one-half of it was for home consumption.
Among all the manufacturing companies es- tablished during this period the one best known throughout the world is that of the Standard Oil, which was organized in 1863 by a gentleman who had become thoroughly acquainted with the pro- cess of extracting oil from coal. With knowl-
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edge for his capital, other men came forward to put in a few thousand dollars apiece, and thus the company was formed. After the first well was sunk for petroleum in the oil district of Penn- sylvania, in 1858, refineries were soon established throughout the oil-producing states. The Standard Oil Company was formed for the pur- pose of refining the Pennsylvania petroleum, em- ploying at first about 10 men, and making an average of 25 barrels of oil per day. It met with phenomenal success, and by the close of the period was producing at least 10,000 barrels of oil per day, while the energetic partners were amass- ing fortunes. The company has become the larg- est monopoly in the world, with steamers of its own, running to various distant ports, and agents established in nearly. if not every, civilized coun- try. Cleveland was the birthplace of the Stand- ard Oil Company, the home of its principal pro- jectors, and for years was its headquarters, but New York and Whiting, Indiana, have now be- come its important business centers, the works at the latter place being considered the largest of the kind in the world. Those at Cleveland cover several hundred acres of ground, and today represent what the firm acknowledges to be an actual capital of $3,500,000. While the Standard Oil Company is not usually looked upon as a missionary enterprise it has certainly carried light unto many nations.
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As this period of our history draws to a close we find Cleveland with a population of about 100,000 souls, having more than doubled its pop- ulation during every decade within the past fifty years, until it occupied the position of third among the Great Lake Cities, and one of the first in man- ufacturing interests. It was no longer "the city that grows in the woods," but it was most truly
"The beautiful city, the forest-tree city,
The city upon the Lake Shore."
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CHAPTER IV.
THE PERIOD OF ENLARGING-1871-1896.
T HE old camping ground of the Seneca, Delaware, Wyandotte and Cuyahoga In- dians, together with the adjacent forests, had now become a city of great mercantile and commercial importance, built over with fine, solid structures of brick and stone.
Cuyahoga, the crooked river, washed its way through a section teeming with business activity; railroads, lumber, coal, stone and ship-yards, with manufacturing establishments of various kinds, studded its banks for several miles distant from its mouth. Its blue, crystal water had become a thing of the past, for filth of all sorts was polut- ing its depths and menacing the health of the city.
The Indians and their camping ground were alike unknown to the busy men and women of the day, who gave little heed to the past, while work- ing diligently for the future.
In 1873 there were more than 300 manufactur- ing establishments located in Cleveland, paying upwards of $7,500,000 wages, and as the city con- tinued to prosper it was seized with an irrepressi- ble desire for enlarging its belongings. Its boundaries, its buildings, its homes, its schools, its libraries, its business facilities, in fact, every
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distinctive feature must be enlarging, in order to keep pace with the spirit of the period, until Greater Cleveland became words indissolubly con- nected, to be rung continually on the ears of the citizens of this beautiful, flourishing city.
In considering the growth of the period, it will be best to take a retrospective glance at its prin- cipal features, and thus be brought to realize the marvelous changes wrought within the present quarter of a century. To begin with the bound- aries: They have been extended since 1855, by annexing Ohio City, and from time to time sev- eral portions of Brooklyn, Newburgh, and Euclid townships, until today the city covers an area of over 31 square miles, being 92 miles from East to West, and 61 miles from North to South, with a river frontage of 15-16 miles, 5 miles being de- voted to dockage, boat-landings, warehouses grain-elevators, iron-furnaces, lime-kilns, slaugh- tering and meat-packing establishments, and iron, stone, coal and lumber yards.
The forests have given place to upwards of 2,031 streets, many of which are built over with comfortable and for the most part elegant resi- dences, truly palatial in comparison with those built of logs by the riverside in 1796-7. Could the pioneers revisit the place they located a cen- tury ago and enter any of its ordinary homes of comfort with their lace-bedecked windows, ar- tistic adornments and modern conveniences, they would surely believe themselves in fairly land.
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Fancy, if you can, Lorenzo Carter or Job Stiles on board an electric motor line riding in from Euclid, from Newburg or from Rocky River!
How these brave men, who feared neither In- dian nor wild beast, and whose brawny arms felled many stately monarchs of the forests in days gone by, would quake with terror to be seated in an elevator and carried suddenly up-up-up-8-9- 12-14 stories by an unseen force! And would they not believe that the land of their choice had become infested with witches as they heard the voices through our telephones, or the music of our phonographs? And pray! What would the good dames who used to trip to and from the neighboring springs for buckets of water, and often worked in vain to strike a light with damp- ened tinderboxes, say to our faucets, our elec- trical appliances, our fuel-gas, and our sewing machines?
Scarcely a vestige of the old home-life remains in the homes of today. Occasionally some lover of the antique reproduces a few features of it, modernized, it is true, as for instance, the gas-log, which burns so brilliantly upon many a beauti- fully-tiled hearth with its expensive brass fire- dogs, appears as a substitute for the huge log that was once drawn into the house to the great, gaping, sooty fireplace by horses, and then rolled into place as a backlog to burn for a week or more, and the never-melting gas-candles in
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chandeliers suggest the dim, sputtering, smoking tallow-dips of long ago. But modern house- keepers know almost nothing of the customs of the early dames, except as they occasionally listen to tales of the past. Nor do they always appre- ciate their own beautiful homes, which not in- frequently are the result of the honest integrity and steady industry of their worthy ancestors.
Cleveland has enlarged and must continue to enlarge her school facilities. Of the 57 massive school buildings now occupied by 48,576 chil- dren, there is still an urgent necessity for more room. 1,048 teachers were employed during the past year in the regular school work, beside 5 special ones, and more school buildings with a larger corps of teachers are required this pres- ent year.
The Western Reserve College, the nucleus of the Western Reserve University, was chartered in 1826, and established in a building erected for its use at Hudson, Ohio. After years of credit- able work there, it was thought best to remove it to Cleveland, where through the generosity and influence of Mr. Amasa Stone and others it was enabled to take possession of its beautiful new buildings dedicated October 26th, 1882, standing on land adjoining that occupied by the Case School of Applied Science, which was or- ganized the previous year.
The new college was named Adelbert, in honor
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of the beloved son of Mr. Stone, and the School of Applied Science was named in honor of its founder, Leonard Case. Adelbert College for a few years admitted women into classes. As Western Reserve women have never been found far from the front ranks, in 1888 it was deemed necessary to establish The College for Women as an integral part of the Western Reserve Uni- versity.
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