USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Early history of Cleveland, Ohio : including papers and other matter relating to the adjacent country : with biographical notices of the pioneers and surveyors > Part 25
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President-ALFRED KELLEY.
Recorder-HORACE PERRY.
Treasurer-ALONZO CARTER.
Marshal-JOHN A. ACKLEY.
Assessors-GEORGE WALLACE and JOHN RIDDLE.
Trustees-SAM'L WILLIAMSON, DAVID LONG and NATHAN PERRY, junior.
On the 19th of March, 1816, ALFRED KELLEY resigned his position as President of the corporation, and his father, DANIEL KELLEY, was appointed in his place. At the annual election, on the first Monday in June, 1816, DANIEL KELLEY was elected President by the unanimous voice of twelve voters, and was continued in the office through the years 1817, 1818, and 1819.
The names of those who participated in this elec- tion were as follows :
470
VILLAGE ADMINISTRATION.
A. W. WALWORTH, IRAD KELLEY,
THOMAS RUMMAGE,
GEORGE WALLACE,
ALONZO CARTER,
SAMUEL WILLIAMSON,
LEVI JOHNSON, D. C. HENDERSON,
S. A. ACKLEY,
AMASA A. BAILEY,
GEORGE PEASE, DANIEL KELLEY.
The total assessed value of real estate within the city in 1816, which includes the entire plat surveyed 1796, was $21,065. At the election in the year 1820 HORACE PERRY was made President, and REUBEN WOOD, Recorder, who rose to the Presidency in the following year.
From the year 1821 to 1825, LEONARD CASE WAS regularly elected President of the corporation, but neglecting to qualify in the latter year, the Recorder, E. WATERMAN, became President, ex-officio. Here the records are defective until the year 1828, when it appears Mr. WATERMAN received the double office of President and Recorder. On account of ill health
he resigned, and on the 30th day of May the trustees appointed OIRSON CATHAN, President, and D. H. BEARDSLEY, Recorder. At the annual election, June, 1829, Dr. DAVID LONG was elected President, and a fire engine was purchased. Forty-eight votes were cast at this election. For the years 1830 and 1831, President, RICHARD HILLIARD. For the years 1832, 1833, 1834 and 1835, JOHN W. ALLEN; at this last election there were one hundred and six votes cast.
471
POST OFFICE.
POSTMASTERS AT CLEVELAND.
ELISHA NORTON, October 2d, 1805.
JOHN WALWORTH, May, 1806. Died in office, September 10th, 1812.
ASHBEL W. WALWORTH, 1812. Resigned, 1816.
DANIEL KELLEY, 1816. Resigned same year.
IRAD KELLEY, 1816. Removed, 1830.
DANIEL WORLEY, 1830. Resigned, May, 1840.
AARON BARKER, May, 1840, to October 1841.
BENJAMIN ANDREWS, October, 1841, to April, 1845.
TIMOTHY P. SPENCER, April, 1845, to 1849.
DAN. M. HASKELL, 1849.
J. W. GRAY, 1853.
BENJAMIN HARRINGTON, 1857.
E. COWLES, 1861.
GEO. A. BENEDICT, 1865.
LOCATION OF POST OFFICE.
Judge WALWORTH at first occupied the upper part of a frame building on the north side of Superior street, near Water street. When his family moved from this building, to their house on the WALWORTHI farm, Pittsburg street; a small frame office was erected south of Superior street, where the American house now stands. During Judge WALWORTH's life, this office contained the combined authority of the, city, the county, and the federal governments.
Mr. KELLEY states that in 1810, Mr. WALWORTH Was Recorder, Clerk of the Common Pleas and Supreme Court; Postmaster and Collector of the Cuyahoga district. The same office accommodated Mr. KELLEY,
472
LOCATION OF THE POST OFFICE.
the only attorney in the place, and Dr. LONG, the only physician. During the first quarter of 1806 the receipts at the post office amounted to two dollars and eighty-three cents.
Probably the post office remained at the same place while ASHBEL W. WALWORTH was Postmaster. When IRAD KELLEY succeeded to that place it was removed to his brick store, on the south side of Supe- rior street, opposite Bank street. The receipts for a year were about five hundred dollars, of which one- fourth belonged to the Postmaster, as compensation, which included rent, fuel and clerk hire. All letters written by the Postmaster could be franked by him, which, to a man of business was of more value than his per centage on receipts. The postage in those days was never less than five cents, and for distances ex- ceeding three hundred miles, it was twenty-five cents.
Under Postmaster WORLEY, the delivery office was removed to the north side of Superior street, at MIL- LERS block, between Seneca and Bank streets, and afterwards to a store where the Johnson House is now, the rear of which was occupied as the Custom House. Mr. HASKELL removed it to the HERALD building, on Bank street. When Mr. GRAY received the appointment, the office was transferred to his building on Waters treet, west side, near St. Clair.
While Mr. HARRINGTON was postmaster the gov- ernment building on the Public Square was com- pleted, and thus the place of delivery became fixed.
473
COURT HOUSES.
THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.
While O'Mic was dangling upon the gallows on the north west quarter of the Public Square, the assem- bled multitude sat upon the timbers, which LEVI JOHNSON had collected for the erection of a Court House. It was of the composite order. The lower story was divided in two parts, one of which was the jail, and the other the residence of the jailer. The apartment designed for criminals, was constructed of blocks of square timber three feet long, placed end- wise and bolted together. Over all, in the second story, was a Court room, equal in size to the ground plan of the building, the position of which is given on the map of 1814. Mr. E. WATERMAN officiated as jailer, President of the village corporation, and Recorder.
In 1828 the citizens became able, and spirited enough to have a new Court House, and a separate jail.
It was a fine building for those times, of which a faithful sketch by Professor BRAINERD is given on the next page.
It stood upon the south-west quarter of the Square, facing towards the lake. Here justice was adminis- tered thirty years, until it became wholly insufficient for want of room, and unsafe for the public records. The present edifice for the Courts, and other public offices, was erected in 1858. H. L. NOBLE, one of our early and honest mechanics, had the contract for
31
474
THE SECOND COURT HOUSE.
RICHES. CO. COLUMBUS.
building the brick Court House represented above. When it was taken down it was found to be sound and good as new, and except in the exposed wood work, was capable of enduring at least another cen- tury. The old stone jail, oftener called the "Blue Jug," stood opposite the Court House, on the south, fronting the Square. Of these twin institutions, where an entire generation received the administra- tion of justice, where so many judges sat, and lawyers labored ; where sheriff's and bailiff's executed the decisions of the courts, or the findings of juries, upon troops of unlucky culprits, not a relic now remains. In WHELPLYS views of Cleveland, the old Court House is a conspicuous object. But for these picto- rial representations, the next generation would have
475
CLEVELAND, WEST SIDE,
lost all traces, of what constituted the public build- ings of the county, during the active life of the present.
OHIO CITY.
On the west side of the river, opposite St. Clair street, where the Indians had a ferry, a trail led out across the marshy ground, up the hill past the old log trading house, where there were springs of water, to an opening in the forest, near the crossing of Pearl and Detroit streets. In this pleasant space the savages practised their games, held their pow wows, and when whisky could be procured, enjoyed themselves while it lasted. The trail continued thence westerly to Rocky River and Sandusky. Another one, less frequented, led off southerly up the river to the old French trading post, where MAGENIS was found in 1786, near Brighton; and thence, near the river bank, to Tinkers creek, and probably to the old Portage path. A less fre- quented trail, existed from the Indian villages of Tawas or Ottawas and Mingoes, at Tinkers creek, by a shorter route, direct to the crossing of the Cuyahoga at the "Standing Stone," near Kent. The packhorsemen, who transported goods and flour to the northwest from 1786 to 1795, followed this trail, crossing the Cuyahoga at Tinkers creek.
SAMUEL P. LORD drew a considerable part of the township of Brooklyn, whose son, the late RICHARD
476
OHIO CITY INCORPORATED.
LORD, and the late JOSIAH BARBER, became very early, if not the earliest settlers. The CARTERS, father and son, purchased the land at the mouth of the river, on the west side soon after the survey. ALONZO occupied this tract, living and keeping tavern in the "Red House," opposite Superior lane. In 1831 the spirit of speculation crossed the river. Lots on the west side began to command high prices. The Buffalo Company purchased the CAR- TER farm, where a rival city was expected to arise, covering the low ground with warehouses, and the bluffs with stores and residences. In 1834-35, water lots on the old river bed, commanded higher prices than they do now. In the flush times of 1836-37, land contracts on long time, became a kind of circulating medium, on both sides of the river, daily passing from hand to hand, by indorsement ; the speculation accruing to each successive holder, being realized in cash; or in promises to pay. The company excavated a short ship canal from the Cuy- ahoga to the old river bed, at the east end, and the waters being high, a steamboat passed into the lake, through a natural channel at the west end. On the 3d of March, 1836, the village of Brooklyn became an incorporated city. Soon after, the city made a canal, from the Cuyahoga river opposite the extremity of the Ohio canal, through the marsh, into the old river bed, above the ship channel. The bridge, represented among the lithographs at the
477
THE BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE.
beginning of this book, which stood at the foot of Columbus street, was built by the late JAMES S. CLARK, and an excavation made through the bluff, on the south side, at great expense.
City rivalry ran so high, that a regular battle occurred on this bridge in 1837, between the citizens and the city authorities on the west side, and those on the east. A field piece was posted on the low ground, on the Cleveland side, to rake the bridge, very much as the Austrians did at Lodi, and crow- bars, clubs, stones, pistols, and guns were freely used on both sides.
Men were wounded of both parties, three of them seriously. The draw was cut away, the middle pier, and the western abutment partially blown down, and the field piece spiked, by the west siders. But the sheriff, and the city marshal of Cleveland, soon obtained possession of the dilapidated bridge, which had been donated to the city. Some of the actors were confined in the county jail. The bridge ques- tion thus got into court, and was finally settled by the civil tribunals. In 1855, (June 6th,) all jeal- ousies and all rivalry between interests, that had never been in reality opposite, were hapily termi- nated, by an union which did away with the arbitrary and unreal line of separation.
The following list of gentlemen filled the office of Mayor, during the existence of the Ohio City char- ter.
478
MAYORS WEST SIDE.
1836-JOSIAH BARBER. 1837-FRANCIS A. BURROWS. 1838-9-NORMAN C. BALDWIN. 1840-41-NEEDHAM M. STANDART. 1842-FRANCIS A. BURROWS.
1843-RICHARD LORD. 1844-45-46-D. H. LAMB. 1847 -- DAVID GRIFFITH.
1848-JOHN BEVERLIN. 1849-THOMAS BURNHAM. 1850-51-52-BENJAMIN SHELDON. 1853-WM. B. CASTLE.
e:
4
FLUCTUATIONS IN THE LEVEL OF LAKE ERIE.
When the early emigrants arrived at Buffalo creek they were at the end of roads. From Canandaigua to lake Erie, there was only a summer trail for horses, along which sleighs and sleds could be moved, on the snow in winter. West of Buffalo there was nothing resembling a road, except an ancient trail of the savages, not much used by them, except in their warlike expeditions. Fortunately at the beginning of this century, the lake was low, causing a beach of clean sand at the margin of the water. Some of the streams were difficult to ford, but many of them were so much choked with sand, at their mouths, that teams could cross. Not far outside of the shore line there is deposited a changeable sand bar, which forms at the debouche of all streams, where the force of the current is lost in the still water.
In the transparent waters of our northern lakes this bank is easily found. The emigrants thus made a passage of the streams by leaving the land, and
480
THE SPRING RISE.
driving their teams, apparently into the lake. If the water was rough, the waves breaking over the beach, they made a comfortable camp, above the bluffs in the woods near the shore, and waited patiently for better weather.
A few years afterwards, they were surprised to see this natural road submerged, by the waters of the lake. This alternate appearance and disappearance, of the lake beach, has been a standing mystery to the pioneers and their descendants. It is a change due to the most simple and natural causes. The lakes are large ponds or reservoirs, through which the waters of many united rivers flow to the ocean. All rivers are affected by the seasons, but it is more noticeable in large ones like the Mississippi, the Ganges and the Amazon. A year or two of drought in the country about their main branches, always produces low water.
When other meteorological conditions occur, and one or more rainy seasons follow each other, the rivers are high. The Straits connecting our northern lakes, are short rivers, not having capacity enough to discharge the surplus waters at once. This chain of lakes and their connecting outlets may be regarded as one great river, from tide water at Quebec, to the sources of the St. Louis river, in Minnesota. Like all large rivers, there is a spring rise and a winter fall ; except in lake Superior, where the rise occurs in August or September.
-
481
SUDDEN OSCILLATIONS.
This annual rise, occurs in June or July, about the time of the annual flood of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers. It is much less in quantity, being only from twelve to sixteen inches; owing to the expansions, which act as reservoirs that must be filled ; and which when full, require some months for their discharge. In the fall the surfaces of the lakes decline, simultaneously, as they rose. A smaller supply of rain, and increased evaporation, together with a continual discharge towards the ocean, dis- poses of the surplus water of the spring rains. When winter sets in, the supply from the streams is diminished by frost, and the lowest stage is reached in February or March.
These results have been obtained by long contin- ued measurements, of the changes of level on all the lakes, during the past fifty years.
The annual rise and fall, is only one of the fluctu- ations, to which the lakes are subject. There is a sudden flux and reflux, which is completed in a few seconds, or few minutes ; sometimes due to distant storms, but more often cannot be traced to a visible cause. Those oscillations are not yet explained. They occur on all the lakes, and upon other bodies of water; causing a rush into the mouths of the rivers, generally of a few inches in height, but some- times of several feet. They have the form of a low undulation coming in from the offing, parallel with the shore. I have known them to continue many
482
SECULAR FLUCTUATIONS.
hours, and even days, with unbroken regularity, the interval from flood to flood, varying from five to eight minutes. Besides the annual and the sudden fluctuations, there is another which is more impor- tant, and which is called, the "Secular fluctuation." It occupies a cycle of years, which is not equal in duration. For a series of years the water is observed to settle away at the end of the annual decline, lower than it was the previous year at the same time.
Then it is seen to be higher and higher every year, till it reaches the maximum height. Reckoning from the highest annual rise, to the lowest, as at present known; the difference is six feet nine inches; a change which has an important influence, upon all harbors and docks. The lowest known stage of water occurred in February, 1819. From that date, there was a regular rise until June, 1838, when it flooded warehouses in this city, to the depth of one foot. At the mouth of Conneaut creek, the people were obliged to use boats, in order to pass along the streets, from house to house.
The remarkable rise of June, 1838, attracted the attention of every resident, on the shores of lake Erie. In the other lakes there was a conspicuous ele- vation about the same time. The members of the geological surveys of Ohio and Michigan, made obser- vations upon this flood in the lakes, and procured what information it was possible to find, in reference to previous years.
483
HISTORY OF THE OBSERVATIONS.
Since the settlement of Detroit, in 1701, it is prob- able there had been no water as high as that of 1838. Timber which had grown to maturity on low lands, having an age of from one to two hundred years, was killed by this flood. From 1788 to 1790, lake Erie is reported to have been very high. The old French inhabitants affirm, that a road which had long before been in use on the Detroit river, was rendered useless by high water in 1802, which agrees with the state- ments of early settlers in Ohio. In 1814, and from thence to 1820, Col. HENRY WHITING, of the U. S. army, made measurements, upon the surface fluctua- tions in Detroit river, which disclosed the lowest known state of the water to be in February, 1819. In more recent times some of the United States offi- cers, connected with the construction of harbors on the lakes, kept water registers, some of them daily or three times a day. Of these were Capt. MACOMB, (now Colonel,) Lieut. JUDSON, Col. J. B. STOCKTON, and Lieut. Col. KEARNY. The head of the Topo- graphical Bureau at Washington, Col. ABERT, refused all aid and countenance, to these observations, although they showed a change of level, which ren- dered their reported soundings to be erroneous by several feet ; for want of a fixed or mean plane of refer- ence. It was not until Capt. (now General) MEADE took charge of the lake survey, that regular daily water registers, were officially kept on the lakes. Prior to this time, many persons at different places
484
LIST OF OBSERVERS.
on lake Michigan, lake Erie, and lake Ontario, had had established points of reference, made frequent measurements, and kept a register of the same. Among these are JOHN LOTHROP, civil engineer, Buf- falo, N. Y., I. A. LAPHAM, Milwaukee, GEORGE C. DAVIES, GEORGE TIEBOUT, and I. N. PILLSBURY, at Cleveland, Dr. DOUGLASS HOUGHTON, A. E. HATHAN, and JACOB HOUGHTON, Detroit, EDWARD GIDDINGS, Niagara, T. P. SPENCER, Rochester, and M. P. HATCH, Oswego.
From these sources and from my own observations, in all numbering some thousands, I have constructed a table of elevations, going back as far as there is any reliable information. The diagram which is here presented, expresses for lake Erie, in a condensed form, addressed to the eye, such of these recorded measurements as were made once a day or oftener, and were continued long enough to cover three or more consecutive months. They are all referred to a common zero, which is the Mitre sill, or bottom, of the enlarged Erie canal.
The curves are determined by an average of the observations for each month, expressed in feet and decimals ; thus fixing a point in the middle of the column of months. Through each of these points a curve is drawn, representing a year or part of a year. Where there are blanks in the readings, the curves are continued by dotted lines which are conjectural. This diagram is on a vertical scale of four feet to
DIAGRAM
showing by curves the mean monthly elevation of the water in LAKE ERIE so far as determined by daily measurements embracing all the records prior to 1853, reduced to the depth of water on the mitre sill at Buffalo, N. Y.
Canal- depth
Jan?
Feb?
Mch.
Ap.
May
June
July
Ang.
Sep.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Canal depth
13.42
Top of East Pier. Cleveland
1838
Cleveland Zero
=
1840)
1840
185 =
1852
9
48391
1815
4852-
1850
1846
1839
=
1851
-1850
18466
1844
11810
6
5
2
1 1t
Bottom of Erie Canal enlarged Buffalo Zero
1830
1041
18.51
1860
18.54
485
DIAGRAM EXPLAINED.
the inch, a quarter of an inch representing one foot, which is divided by finer lines, into fifths or two- tenths of a foot. Each place where registers were kept, had a zero, or point of reference of its own, but these are reduced by means of consecutive readings to the one at Buffalo, as the most permanent. At Cleveland, we used the high water line of June, 1838, counting downwards. Several marks were made on the piers and warehouses at that time, all of which have disappeared, except one, on the wing wall of the canal lock, at the river. The plane of reference however, has been preserved by adopting it as the city zero, for engineering work, and multiplying bench marks in different parts of the town. Capt. B. STANNARD has kept the registers here, for the lake survey since 1854.
A similar diagram might now be made for the years; taking the mean height of each period of twelve months as the ordinate, instead of one month, and thus show at a glance, the secular fluctuations. For the three best determined years, in my tables, the difference is as follows, counting downwards ; the lake being on a declining stage of the water.
1839, below 1838, 1.25 feet.
1840, 1839, 1.25 4
1841, 1840, 1.65
Total decline in three years, 4.15
486
ANNUAL FLUCTUATIONS.
An examination of the curves at once demonstrates what I have already stated ; that there is an annual spring rise, and a winter fall in the surface of the lakes, like that of our large rivers. This annual difference between the highest and lowest months, is not precisely the same at all places.
At Cleveland, the average of 16 years is 1 ft. 3 in.
At Detroit,
1 " 23 "
At Buffalo,
0" 10} "
Average of these three stations, 1 ft. 1} in.
These observations dispel the popular belief, derived from the Indians; that the lakes rise seven years and decline seven years. This could not be the case, unless the seasons should repeat themselves in every particular, in that period. In these tables there is no case of a change at seven, or at fourteen years.
From 1819 to 1838, there was a continual rise ; a period of nineteen years. From 1838 to 1841, a decline; in 1841 a slight rise, and from 1842 to 1851, eight years, a regular decline. In 1853-54 there was a high stage; in the latter year for a short period fully up to the line of 1838. Since 1853, we can rely upon the water registers of the lake survey, for which an effort is now being made before Con gress to have them published. By these it was dis- covered, after many thousands of observations on lake Michigan, by Lieut. Col. GRAHAM and Prof.
487
THE LUNAR TIDE.
LAPHAM, that there is a slight lunar tide on the lakes. It is too small for direct cognizance, being for ordina- ry tide at Chicago, only -15,3% of a foot or 1 inch 84
100) for the spring tides 1000
254 or 3 inches 48 100.
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