History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 13

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716

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On the 10th of May, while the latter was still there, a company of regular soldiers marched into town under the command of Captain Stanton Sholes. These were the first and about the only regular troops stationed in Cuyahoga county during the war. They were met by Governor Meigs, and warmly wel- comed by him as well as by the citizens of the place. There were a number of sick and wounded soldiers there, with very poor accommodations, some of whom had been there since the time of Hull's surrender. Captain Sholes immediately set some carpenters be- longing to his company at work, and in a short time they erected a neat, framed hospital, about twenty feet

by thirty, though without the use of a nail, a serew, or any iron article whatever; the whole being held together by wooden pins. It was covered with a water-tight roof and floored with chestnut bark. To this the invalids were speedily removed, to the very great improvement of their comfort.

Then all the men of the company were set at work building a small stockade, about fifty yards from the bank of the lake, near the present Seneca street. Out- ting down a large number of trees twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, they cut off logs some twelve feet long each. These were sunk in the ground three or four feet, leaving the remaining distance above the surface. The sides of the logs adjoining each other were hewed down for a few inches, so as to fit solidly together. This made a wall impervious to small arms, and the dirt was heaped up against the outside so as somewhat to deaden the effect of cannon balls. Next a large number of trees and brush were ent down, and the logs and brush piled together near the brink of the lake; forming a long abatis, very diffi- eult to climb over, and which would have exposed any assailing party who attempted to surmount it to a very destructive fire from the fort while doing so. The post was named Fort Huntington, in honor of the ex-governor.

Meanwhile vessels were building in the Cuyahoga, and a large amount of public stores accumulating on the banks. Scarcely had Captain Sholes got his little fortress in good condition when, on the 19th of June, the British fleet, consisting of the "Queen Char- lotte " and " Lady Provost," with some smaller ves- sels, appeared off the coast and approached the month of the river with the apparent intention of landing. Major Jessup had left, but expresses were sent out to rally the milltia, and as soon as possible every man in the vicinity was hastening with musket on his shoul- der toward the endangered locality.

When the fleet bad arrived within a mile and a half of the harbor the wind sank to a perfeet calm, and the vessels were compelled to lie there until afternoon. Meanwhile the little band of regulars made every preparation they could to defend their post, and a considerable body of militia was arrayed near by. There was a small piece of artillery in the village, but it was entirely unprovided with a carriage. Judge James Kingsbury, at that time a paymaster in the army, as we are informed by his danghter, Mrs. Sted- man, then eight years old, took the hind wheels of a heavy wagon, mounted the little cannon on them, after a fashion, and placed it in position to pour its volleys into the enemy's ranks if he should attempt to land. The vessels in the Cuyahoga and the publie stores were all, as far as possible, moved to " Wal- worth point," some two miles up the river.

At length the calm ceased, but the succeeding weather was no more propitions to the would-be in- vaders. A territic thunder-storm sprang up in the west and swept furiously down the lake, and the little fleet was soon driven before it far to the east-

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

ward; relieving the Clevelanders of all fear of an at- taek, at least for that day.

When the storm abated, the fleet lay to, opposite Euclid ereek, in the town of that name, where a boat's crew went ashore. They killed an ox there, cut it up hide and all, and took it off to their com- rades on shipboard. With more courtesy than could have been expected, however, they left a golden guinea in a cleft stick at the place of slaughter, with a note apologizing because in their haste they had to spoil the hide, and adding that if it had not been for the thunder shower they would have eaten their beef in Cleveland. Either the commander thought that during the delay too large a force for them to meet had assembled, or else their presence was required elsewhere; at all events they sailed off down the lake, and their vessels never again appeared on the shore of Cuyahoga county except as the captured spoils of the gallant Perry and his comrades.

Abont the middle of July, General W. H. Harrison, commander-in-chief of the Northwestern army, and the only general who had gained any fame as a sol- dier on this frontier, came to Cleveland on a tour of inspection, accompanied by his staff officers, Governor Huntington, Major George Tod (father of the late David Tod), Major T. S. Jessup, and the gallant Colonel Wood, afterwards killed at Fort Erie. The general was cordially welcomed, and many came from the townships in the vicinity to see and to show their respect to the hero of Tippecanoe, who it was hoped would redeem the tarnished fame of the American arms in the Northwest. After a three-days' stay, spent in careful examination of the public stores and means of defense, the general returned to his army, at the mouth of the Manmee.

Immediately afterwards there was another alarm spread along the lake shore, when a force of British and Indians attacked Fort Meigs, on the site of the eity of Fremont. Some again packed up their house- hold goods for flight, but as a rule the people had by this time become pretty well seasoned to rumors of war, and they generally waited for further advices.

Two entire divisions of militia, residing southward and southeastward from Fort Meigs, were ordered out by the governor, but those on the lake shore were rightly considered as having enough to do to defend their own localities, and were not required to take the field at that time. The gallant Major Croghan with his little band successfully defended the fort, and compelled the withdrawal of the enemy before any of Governor Meigs' levies arrived; and again, for a while, there was a period of comparative quiet.

But the British fleet was still mistress of the lake; no movement against Canada was likely to be success- ful until that fleet could be overcome, and no one knew at what moment an invading force might be landed at any point on our long and feebly defended frontier. All eyes were anxiously directed toward the harbor of Erie, where a young lieutenant of twenty- six, called commodore by courtesy, was straining every

nerve to equip his little fleet, get out to sea, and settle by actual combat the question whether the stars and stripes or the red eross of St. George should float vic- torious over Lake Erie.

At length, on the 5th day of Angust, Perry took his fleet out of the harbor and immediately sailed in search of the foe. In a few days he passed up the lake, feeling sure that he would soon bring the enemy to battle. The fleet lay to off the mouth of the Cuya- hoga to get supplies, and the youthful commodore came ashore. Little Diana Kingsbury was in the village at the time with her father, and the venerable Mrs. Sted- man still retains a vivid recollection of the tall, slender, erect young man, in the glittering uniform of the United States navy, with noble bearing and hand- some, radiant face, on whom more than on any other man, at that moment, rested the fortunes and honor of America in the Northwest.

The object of the brief delay having been aceom- plished, the commander returned to his flag-ship, the fleet spread its sails to the favoring breeze and stood away to the westward in gallant array. There were the "Lawrence," the commodore's flag-ship, with twenty guns; the " Niagara," with twenty guns, under Lieu- tenant Elliott; the " Caledonia," with three guns, under Lieutenant Turner; the "Ariel," with four guns, under Lieutenant Pickett; the "Scorpion," with two guns, under Lieutenant Champlin; the "Somers," with four guns, under Sailing-master Henry; the "Porcupine," with one gun, under Mid- shipman Senat; the " Tigress," with one gun, under Midshipman Conklin; the "Trippe," with one gun, under Midshipman Holdup. In long procession they swept past the shores of Brooklyn, Rockport and Dover, and sailed away in search of the foe, followed by the hopes and prayers of all the people for the ardent commander and his gallant crew.

Inter arma leges silent, says the old Roman prov- erb; that is, amid the elang of arms the laws are pow- erless. But for all that the Cuyahoga people did not stop building a court-house because war was going on around them. On the 10th of September, 1813, Levi Johnson and some of his hired men were busy putting the finishing work on the rude temple of jus- tice which he had contracted to build a year before. Some of them heard a noise in the distant west, which was at first supposed to be thunder. Looking up, however, they were surprised to see no clouds as far as the eye could reach in every direction. The sounds continued. Suddenly Johnson exclaimed:

"It's Perry's guns; he's fighting with the British."

In a moment all the workmen by common consent threw down their hammers and nails, scrambled to the ground and hurried to the lake shore with their employer at their head. In a short time all the men of the village, with many of the women and children, were gathered on the beach, listening to the sounds of battle. The scene of conflict was seventy miles dis- tant, but the wind was favorable and the listeners could not only plainly hear the roll of the broadsides,

FROM THE WAR TO THE CANAL.

but, when the fire slackened from time to time, could distinguish between the heavier and the lighter guns.

At length there was only a dropping fire; one fleet had evidently succumbed to the other. Finally heavy shots were heard, and then all was silent.

" Perry has the heaviest guns," exclaimed John- son; " those are Perry's shots-he has won the day- three cheers for Perry!"

" Hip, hip, hurrah!" promptly responded the crowd, willing to believe the assertion, but yet sepa- rating with anxious hearts, uncertain what might be the result. In fact, the English had some as heavy guns as the Americans, but not so many of that class.

Not only in Cleveland but all along the lake shore, among the scattered inhabitants of Dover, Rockport, Brooklyn and Euclid, the sounds of battle were heard; the people soon divined that it was not thunder, and listened with mingled dread and hope to the death- notes from the west. Nay, even as far east as Erie, Pennsylvania, a hundred and sixty miles from the scene, the sounds of the conflict were heard, but mere- ly as a low rumbling, which was supposed to be dis- tant thunder.

Soon the welcome news of victory was borne along the shore, and the people could freely give way to their exultation. It was not merely joy over the great national triumph which gladdened their hearts, though this was deeply felt, but also the knowledge that, with Lake Erie in the possession of the Ameri- cans, their homes, their wives and their children were safe from British invasion and Indian foray.

The victory of Harrison over Proctor on the Thames, accompanied by the death of Tecumseh. followed on the 5th of October, 1813; making the assurance of safety doubly sure on the part of the inhabitants of this frontier. The army of Harrison, or such part of it as was not discharged, soon after went down to the shores of Lake Ontario, and the tide of war drifted away from all this region. General Harrison and Commodore Perry went down the south shore of Lake Erie to Buffalo, stopping at Cleveland, where they were entertained with a banquet, while Judge Kingsbury brought about the assemblage of a special meeting of Masons in their honor, at his farm on the ridge.

The lake was open to a late period that year, and on the 21st of December the people along the shore saw the gallant Lawrence sailing down on its way to Erie, where it became a hospital-ship; being followed slowly by the captured British vessels, Detroit and Queen Charlotte.

On New Year's Day, 1814, the residents of Cuyahoga county were shocked and startled to learn that, two days before, the British and Indians had captured and burned the village of Buffalo, having previously captured Fort Niagara and devastated the whole Niagara frontier. For a short time some of the inhabitants were alarmed lest the foes they had so long looked for from the west should come up the shore of the lake from the northeast. But the

invasion was only temporary, and during the suc- ceeding campaign the tide of war ebbed and flowed between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, entirely on Canadian soil, while northern Ohio and the Territory of Michigan were alike blessed with profound peace. The only event worthy of mention, occurring in the county during the year, was of a civil nature; the incorporation of the village of Cleveland on the 23d of December, 1814.

But though the immediate pressure of war was lifted from this region, yet its existence checked progress and stopped immigration, and it was with great delight that in the latter part of January, 1815, the jicople heard that peace had been made between the United States and Great Britain by means of the treaty of (thent.

CHAPTER XIL. FROM THE WAR TO THE CANAL

Rapid Development-Previous Unfavorable Circumstances-Settlement of Various Townships-Slow Growth of Cleveland First Bank l'lan- ning the Canal-A Cuyahoga Man's Idea The First Newspaper A Surprising Phenomenon The "Walk-in-the-Water"-Improvement under Difficulties-Articles of Lake Commerce-Names of Lake Ves- sels-Pennsylvania Wagons-A Fast Man of Yore The Cleveland Her- ald General Trainings-Wolves and Bears The Hinkley Ilunt-The Gathering - The Officers-The Skirmish Line The Advance The First Bear- Slaughter of the Deer-Closing up- Furious Fun-The Last Square Mile-" A Wolf ! A Wolf'"-Slaying the Marauders -- The Grand Finale-Number of the Victims-A Line of Stage Conches- Stage Coaching Experience-"Going on Foot and Carrying a Rail "- Increasing Commerce- Legislative Action on the Canal -- Alfred Kelley a Commissioner Prices of Fari Produce-Fondness for Whisky- The Militia again-Capital Scarce-Various Small Industries Forma- tion of Lorain County Its Organization -- The South western Turnpike -The Medical Society-The Election of 1824 -- The Kinsman Road -- A Mild Winter --- Law authorizing the Canal.

THE period of fifteen years succeeding the war of 1812 was one of rapid development of the agricultural portion of the county. Previous to 1815 settlement had been very slow. At first, people were deterred by the unfavorable reputation of the region in regard to sickness. Rumors of Indian war also checked immi- gration, and the war of 1812 completely stopped it. But with the close of that war, the certainty that the Indians were completely subdued and the improving condition of the county in regard to health, the peo- ple poured in, in numbers increased by the previous restraint. Ilitherto the settlements had nearly all been along the lake shore, but now the hardy pioneers hastened inte all the townships of the county in rapid succession, even to its southernmost border.

Nearly or quite half of the present civil townships of Cuyahoga county were both settled and organized between the beginning of 1815 and the end of 1825. In nearly every township, not previously occupied. settlements were begun within five years after the close of the war. The present township of Chagrin Falls was settled, though only by a single resident, in 1815. Olmstead and Rockport were both settled in the same year. Rockport was organized in 1819.

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

Strongsville was settled in 1816 and organized in 1818. The first pioneers located in Orange in 1815 or '16, and an organization was effected in 1820. Solon was settled in the latter year. Bedford was settled in 1813. and Warrensville in 1810. Brecksville had first been occupied in 1810 and Independence about the same time. Middleburg was also settled before the war. The pioneers of all these townships, as well as those previously settled in the county, were principal- ly from New England or New York, though occasion- ally a sturdy Pennsylvania German made his way from that State, and entered into competition with the keen- eyed Yankees. Huron county was organized in 1815; leaving Cuyahoga unencumbered with outside tempo- rary territory, but still extending lo Black river.

Everywhere the axe was heard resonnding amid the grand oll forest-trees, the smoke from numerous log cabins was seen rising above their tops, and the deer, the bears and the wolves were rapidly driven back be- fore the rifles of the advancing pioneers. The stories of the varions localities are told in the township histo- ries, but the general result was that Cuyahoga county speedily emerged from the wilderness condition which had previously characterized the principal part of its area, and entered on a career of prosperity which has only seldom been checked from that time to this.

The village of Cleveland, however, showed but a slight expansion for ten years after the war. The first bank in the county, the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, was organized there in 1816, but it did a very modest business indeed, and ere long became de- funet. In 1817, N. II. Merwin built the schooner " Minerva," the first vessel registered at Washington from the district of Cuyahoga, under the United States revenue laws; this being one of the first opera- tions in the great business of vessel building, which has since grown to such large proportions.

Meanwhile far-sighted men were looking forward to the establishment of a great city at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and planning the opening of a great highway of commerce between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, with one of its termini at the point just mentioned. New York had already begun to build the Erie canal, and public opinion in Ohio was turning toward a similar work. The first resolution looking to the construction of a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio was introduced into the legislature in 1817, though the work in question was not begum until 1825.

We may note in passing, as indicative of the thorough identification of Cuyahoga county with the most liberal ideas of modern progress, that in 1818 Hon. Alfred Kelley, then a representative from that county, introduced into the lower honse of the legis- lature a bill to abolish imprisonment for debt, which is said to have been the first movement of that kind made in any legislative body in either this country or Europe. The bill did not at that time become a law, but it exerted a great influence in calling publie at- tention to that subject, and ere many years had

passed imprisonment for debt was wiped from the statute-books of all the States of the Union.

On the 31st of July. 1818, the first newspaper was issued in the county; being called the Cleveland Ga- zette and Commercial Register. It was intended to be a weekly sheet, but sometimes ten, twelve or four- teen days elapsed between its issnes.

But a newspaper, although rightly considered an important institution, was something which every- body had seen before; on the first day of September of the same year an entire novelty - the like of which not one in five hundred of the inhabitants had ever before seen - presented itself before the people of Cuyahoga county. On the day named the residents along the lake shore of Euclid saw upon the lake a enrious kind of a vessel, making what was then con- sidered very rapid progress westward, without the aid of sails, while from a pipe near its middle rolled forth a dark cloud of smoke, which trailed its gloomy length far into the rear of the swift-gliding, mysterious traveler over the deep. They watched its westward course until it turned its prow toward the harbor of Cleveland, and then returned to their labors. Many of them doubtless knew what it was, but some shook their heads in sad surmise as to whether some evil powers were not at work in producing such a strange phenomenon as that, on the bosom of their beloved Lake Erie.

Meanwhile the citizens of Cleveland perceived the approaching monster, and hastened to the lake shore to examine it.

" What is it ?" "What is it ?" Where did it come from ? What makes it go ? queried one and another of the excited throng.

" It's the steamboat, that's what it is ;" cried others in reply.

" Yes, yes, it's the steamboat; it's the stoamboat," was the general shout, and with ringing cheers the people welcomed the first vessel propelled by steam which had ever traversed the waters of Lake Erie. The keel had been laid at Black Rock, near Buffalo, in November, 1817, and the vessel had been built during the spring and summer of 1818. It had re- ceived the name of " Walk-in-the-Water," from a Wyandot chieftain who was formerly known by that appellation ; which was also extremely appropriate as applied to a vessel which did indeed walk in the water like a thing of life.

This harbinger of the numerous steam-leviathans of the upper lakes, and of the immense commerce carried on by them, was of three hundred tons burden, and could carry a hundred cabin passengers and a still larger number in the steerage. Its best speed was from eight to ten miles per hour, and even this was considered something wonderful. All Cleveland swarmed on board to examine the new craft, and many of the leading citizens took passage in it to Detroit, for which place it soon set forth.

The work of improvement, as we have said, was all the while going on at a rapid rate although under

FROM THE WAR TO THE CANAL.

great difficulties. Hardship was the expected lot of the pioneers, but even in the older sections of the county, where good farms had been cleared up, the agriculturist found his vocation an unprofitable one on account of the difficulty of finding a market for his products. In fact, for grain there was almost no market: the only purchasers in this vicinity being the few hundred traders and mechanics who were concen- trated at Cleveland and Newburg. Hardly a bushel of wheat or a barrel of flour was shipped down the lake until after the opening of the Erie canal in 1825; the expense of transportation being so great as to "eat up" the whole price of the article.

Some cattle were driven overland to Philadelphia or New York, and hides in considerable quantities, be- sides the furs of wild animals, were sent down the lake. From an old marine record we find that the articles going down the lake at this period (1815 to 1820) taking one vessel after another, comprised furs, fish, cider, furs, paint, dry goods, furniture, scythes. furs, grindstones, skins, furs, cider, paint, furs, tish, household-goods, grindstones, skins, scythes, coffee, fish, building-stone, crockery, hardware, pork, seythes and clothing. It is difficult to imagine where the coffee and some other articles came from, but probably they had been sent up the lake from the East and were returned for lack of a market. It will be observed that neither potash, pearlash nor " black salts," figure in the list of exports, though these are mentioned by most of the early settlers I have met as being the principal cash articles they could produce. It is prob- able that it was not till after 1816, (the date of the foregoing hst ) that black salts, ete., became articles of export from northern Ohio.

The upward bound freight at the same time con- sisted of whisky, dry goods, household goods, naval stores, dry goods, groceries, hardware, salt, fish, spirits, household goods, mill-irons, salt, tea, whisky, butter, whisky, coffee, soap, medicines, groceries, household goods and farm utensils. It will be seen that a good many classes of articles went both ways, but no furs nor skins went up the lake.

The lake vessels of the period in question were almost all schooners, the following being a nearly complete list : The schooners "Dolphin, " ". Diligence," " Erie," " Pomfret," " Weasel," " Widow's Son," " Merry Calvin," " Firefly." " Paulina," " Mink," "Merchant," "Pilot," "Rachel," "Michigan," "Nep- tune," "Hereules," . Croghan," "Tiger," "Aurora," "Experiment," "Black Snake, " "Ranger, " "Fiddler" and "Champion;" also the sloops "Venus," " Ameri- can Eagle," " Perseverance," " Nightingale " and " Black River Packet." The solitary steamer has already been mentioned.

Whatever freight was brought to Cleveland at this period from the adjoining counties was carried (ex- cept when there was sleighing) on big vehicles, called " Pennsylvania " or "Conestoga " wagons, drawn by four or six horses. A solid vehicle and a strong team were absolutely necessary, especially in spring and

autumn, to make any headway at all along the fearful roads, covered knee-deep or more with mud, which traversed northern Ohio.

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History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 13

Author: Johnson, Crisfield Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Johnson, Crisfield
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.B. Lippincott & Co.
Number of Pages: 716