History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 16

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

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CHAPTER XIV.

THE PERIOD FROM 1840 TO 1861

Beginning to recover-Anger at the Party in Power-Formation of Lake County - Its Area The Water Part of Cuyahoga County- Population in 1840-The Log Cabin Campaign A Fugitive Slave Case-Changes of Boundary on the Line of Orange-Alfred Kelley- Railroad Talk revived- A Vote of Aid-The C. C. & (. Road reor- ganized The Junction Railroad-The Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Road-Dark Prospects-The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Road-Great Days for Steamboats-List of the Principal Steamers in 1850-Later Steamers - Propellers-Stage Coaches - End of the Hunting and Log-House Period -Population in 1850 -Opening the First Railroad - Other Enterprises go forward Direct Trade with Europe A Fleet from Cuyahoga County-American Skill-The Panic of 1557 The Census of 1860-Origin of the Celebration of Per.y's Vic- tory The Contract-The Sculptor-Invitations-Governors Spragne and Dennison-Immense Crowds-The Military Companies-The Ora- tors of the Day-Distingnished Persons Present The Monument and Statne-Masonie Ceremonies-The Mock Battle-The Military Review -The last great Peaceful Gathering-The Political Campaign-The Events of the Winter.

By the spring of the year 1840 the people began to recover, though only slowly, from the disastrous finan- cial reverse of 183%. They were still sore and angry over the sudden collapse of the wind-inflated moun- tain of supposed wealth on which they had perched themselves, and were prepared to visit with condign punishment the Democratic party, under whose rule it had occurred; partly because that party was held responsible for the destruction of the old United States Bank and the chartering of so many worth- less State banks, and partly because the party in

power is always condemned, on general principles, for whatever disasters may occur while it holds the reigns of government.

On the 20th day of March, 1840, the county of Lake was formed, principally from Geauga county, Int including the township of Chagrin, (now Wil- loughby, ) in this county. This was an extraordinary example of the eagerness of at least a portion of the people for new counties and new offices. The consti- tution of the State required that every county should have an area of at least four hundred square miles. To give the proposed county of Lake such an extent, it was necessary not only to take Willoughby from Cuyahoga, but to estimate as a part of the constitu- tional area that part of the surface of Lake Erie lying between the water-front of Geauga county and the boundary between the United States and Canada. This was decided to be technically a part of Geauga connty, and by that method the area of the county was inflated to the desired amount.

So it will be remembered that Cuyahoga embraces, not only the tract of about four hundred and fifty square miles of land usually included within its lim- its, but another tract of not less than a thousand square miles of water, with all that lies above it and below it, as far as man can ascend or descend.

By the census of 1840 the population of Cuyahoga was twenty-five thousand, five hundred and forty-two, divided among the various townships as follows: Cleveland, 7037; Mayfield, 852; Orange, 1114; Solon, 774; Euclid, 1774; Warrensville, 1085; Bedford, 2021; Newburg, 1342; Independence, 754; Brecksville, 1124; Brooklyn, 1409; Parma, 965; Royalton, 1051; Rock- port, 1151; Middleburg, 339; Strongsville, 1151; Do- ver, 960; Olmstead, 659.

The summer and antumn of 1840 were long re- membered as the time of the celebrated "log-cabin " campaign in favor of General Harrison. The West- ern Reserve was one of the strongholds of Whiggery, and a very large majority of the voters of Cuyahoga county were enthusiastic supporters of Harrison. They joined with immense zest in the numerous jubi- lant demonstrations characteristic of that campaign, and when the great celebration was held on the bat- tle field of Tippecanoe nearly half the men in the county turned out to attend it. So strong was the popular feeling, and so eager was the desire to see the celebration, that even the Democrats made the pil- grimage in organized bodies, sharing in the marches and manenvers of their Whig brethren, but drawing aside and resuming their party fealty as they reap- proached their homes. Cuyahoga gave a large major- ity of her votes for General Harrison, who, as is well known. was triumphantly elected.

The situation of Cleveland, as the principal port on the south shore of Lake Erie, made Cuyahoga county a natural resort for slaves seeking to escape from both Kentucky and Virginia. Down to 1841 slave owners were in the habit of sending their agents to Cleveland, who cansed those they acensed of being runaways to

THIE PERIOD FROM 1840 TO 1861.

be arrested and taken before a magistrate, when a war- rant was issued, almost as a matter of form, and they were taken to the State of the claimant.

In the spring of 1841 three negroes, supposed to have escaped from New Orleans were found in Buf- falo, whence they were kidnapped, bronght to Cleve- land, arrested under the old law of the United States, and thrown into jail. Edward Wade and John A. Foot, two of the few Abolitionists in the city, applied for admission to see them and were refused. Thomas Bolton, (afterwards Judge Bolton, ) a prominent law- yer, indignant at this violation of justice, made the same request, and, not being an Abolitionist, was at once admitted. He consulted with the negroes, and announced his intention of defending them. So strong was the feeling against anything that could be called Abolitionism that much indignation was ex- pressed against Mr. Bolton in consequence, and there was even talk of tearing down his office.

With undaunted firmness, however, he persisted in his course, showed up the iniquity of the proceedings in relation to the kidnapping, and procured the dis- charge of the negroes. The event had a great etfect in breaking up the habit of sending off negroes with- out an investigation, and for twenty years no more slaves were taken back to the South from Cuyahoga county.

On the 29th day of January, 1841, lots seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, in the southwest corner of the township of Russell, in Geauga county, were annexed to Orange, in this county; the object being to include the whole of the rising village of Chagrin Falls, which had previously been cut in two, almost in the center, by the county line. At the same time a strip ninety rods wide, lying along the north half of the east line of Orange, was annexed to Russell as a compensation for the former transfer. On the 11th of January, 1843, the strip just mentioned was reannexed to Orange, this being the last change in the much-dis- torted boundaries of Cuyahoga county.

So heavy were the burdens caused by unwise speculation and financial disaster, and so eager were demagogues, then as now, to seek popularity by plundering the public creditor, that there was a strong feeling in the legislature of 1842 in favor of repudi- ating the debt of the State. Meinwhile au instal- ment of interest was coming due, and there was no money in the treasury to pay it with. Hon. Alfred Kelley, of Cleveland, who was then State fund-commis- sioner, went to New York and raised half a million dollars on his own security, to meet the payment.

For several years after the great crash of 1837 the people of Cuyahoga county were willing to plod along very quietly; only striving that if possible they might recover from that tremendous shock. But about 1844 they began to talk about railroads again. In that year Hon. John Barr wrote a sketch of Cleve- land and a description of its trade, for the National Review, published in New York.

In 1845 Cleveland voted to loan its credit for two

hundred thousand dollars, to aid in building a railroad to Cincinnati, and for one hundred thousand dollars to build one to Erie. The same year the charter of the Cleveland, Warren and Pittsburg road was revived: the directors being authorized to build it on the nearest and most practicable route from Cleveland to the Ohio river.

The old, lapsed charter of the Cleveland, Colum- bus and Cincinnati project was also revived, and a new company was organized, with Hon. J. W. Allen, of Cleveland, as president, and Richard Ililliard, John M. Woolsey and II. B. Payne as the other Cleveland directors. The act reviving the charter contained a clause permitting the city of Cleveland to subscribe two million dollars to the stock of the company. This was promptly done, but private sub- scriptions were slow and few, and the prospects of the enterprise were not at all brilliant.

In March, 1846, the Junction railroad company was incorporated, with an imaginary capital of three million dollars, and authorized to build a road from the Cleveland to the west line of the State, on such route as might be chosen.

About the same time the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland railroad company was incorporated, with authority to build a road from Toledo by Norwalk to connect with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincin- nati road in either Huron or Lorain county.

In 1842, so dark was the prospect that it was almost determined to abandon the Cleveland, Colum- bus and Cincinnati road for a time. Its friends, however, made a desperate rally; IL. B. Payne and R. Hilliard volunteering to work three months for its interest. The late Leonard Case subscribed tive hnu- dred thousand dollars; sixty-five thousand dollars was obtained from other sources, and the friends of the road determined to stand by their colors. The next year a contract to build the road from Cleveland to Columbus was let to Harbeek, Stone and Witt; that being the largest contract which had then been made by any party or firm in the United States.

The next year, 1848, an act was passed incorpor- ating the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula com- pany to build a road from Cleveland to the Pennsyl- vania line, and in 1849 it was surveyed.

Thus the county approaches the end of the first half of this century, with its inhabitants almost as excited as they were in the " flush times," though with a much more solid basis for their hopes. Four important railroads, intended to concentrate at ('leve- land and to traverse all parts of the county, were in various stages of progress, but none were completed. This seems a proper time, therefore, to take a glance at the county as it was before the days of railroads.

These were the great days of steamboats on the water and of stage coaches on land. From the time the ice was out of the lake in the spring till the time it came back in the autumn there was hardly an hour in which two or three stately white steamers, with their trailing crests of smoke, were not to be seen

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

crossing the watery portion of Cuyahoga county. From the East to the West they went loaded with pas- sengers. From the West to the East they carried some passengers and some freight-though the time of car- rying large quantities of grain and other freight by steamboat had not yet come. Western produce was generally carried east in sloops, schooners and brigs, the white sails of which were to be seen swelling gracefully before the wind; as the deeply laden hulls ploughed through the waters of the county.

Many of these steamers were of great size, and were fitted up with palatial magnificence. The fol- lowing is a list of the principal ones which were on Lake Erie in 1850, with the tonnage, origin and fate of each, taken substantially from a pamphlet called Marine llistory of the Lake Ports, published at De- troit in 1877:

" De Witt Clinton," of four hundred and ninety- three tons; built at Huron in 1836; sunk at Dunkirk in 1851.

"Illinois " (First), of seven hundred and fifty-five tons ; built at Detroit in 1837; lost on Lake Huron in 1868.

" Rochester," of four hundred and seventy-two tons; built near Fairport in 1837; wrecked at Erie in 1852-seven lives lost.

"Cleveland " (First), of five hundred and eighty tons ; built at Huron in 1837; burned at Tonawanda in 1854.

" Bunker Hill," of four hundred and fifty-seven tons, built at Black River in 1837; burned at Tona- wanda in 1857.

" Anthony Wayne," of three hundred and ninety tons ; built at Perrysburg in 1837; exploded in 1850.

" Detroit," (Second), of three hundred and fifty tons; built at Newport in 1840; sunk in Saginaw bay in 1854.

" Missouri," of six hundred and twelve tons; buitt at Erie in 1840; converted into a propeller barge in 1868.

" Empire," of eleven hundred and thirty-six tons; built at Cleveland in 1844, lost on Long Point in 1820.

" New Orleans," of six hundred and ten tons; built at Detroit in 1844; lost at Thunder bay in 1853.

" St. Louis," of six hundred and eighteen tons; built at Perrysburg in 1844; wrecked on Lake Erie in 1852.

U. S. steamer " Michigan," of five hundred and eighty-three tons; built at Erie in 1844; wrecked.

" Niagara " (Second), of ten hundred eighty-four tons; built at Butfato in 1845; burned on Lake Miehi- gan in 1856-sixty lives lost.

"(. P. Griffith," live hundred and seven tons; buitt at Buffalo in 1845; burned on Lake Erie in 1850, with a loss of two hundred and fifty lives.

" Albany," of six hundred and sixty-nine tons; built at Detroit in 1816; wrecked at Presq' Isle, Lake 1Turon, in 1853.

" Hendrick Hudson," of seven hundred and fifty- nine tons; built at Black river in 1846; burned at Cleveland in 1860.

" Louisiana," of nine hundred tons; built at Buffalo in 1846; wrecked at Port Burwell in 1854.

"Saratoga," of eight hundred tons, built at Cleve- land in 1846; wrecked at Port Burwell in 1854.

" Canada," of eight hundred tons; built at Chip- pewa in 1846; lost on Lake Michigan in 1855.

" Baltic," of eight hundred and twenty-five tons; built at Buffalo in 1847; made a barge in 1863.

"Sultana," of eight hundred tons; built at Trenton in 1847; wrecked in 1858.

"A. D. Patchin," of eight hundred and seventy tons; built at Trenton in 1847; wrecked at Skillagalee in 1850.

" Baltimore," of five hundred tons; built at Mon- roe in 1847; wrecked at Sheboygan in 1855.

" Diamond," of three hundred and thirty-six tons; built at Buffalo in 1847; broken up at Detroit in 1860.

"Pacific," of five hundred tons; built at Newport in 1847; lost on Lake Michigan in 1867.

"Ohio " (Second), of six hundred tons; built at Cleveland in 1847; dismantled at Erie in 1859.

" Southerner," of five hundred tons; built at Tren- ton in 1847; wrecked on Lake Erie in 1863.

"Arrow," of three hundred and fifty tons; built at Trenton in 1848; condemned in Green Bay in 1863.

"Alabama," of six hundred tons; built at Detroit in 1848: sunk near Butfalo in 1854.

" Franklin Moore," of three hundred tons; built at Newport in 1848; broken up in 1862.

"J. D. Morton," of four hundred tons; built at Toledo in 1848; burned on St. Clair river in 1863.

" Empire State," of seventeen hundred tons; built at St. Clair in 1848; made a dry dock at Buffalo in 1858.

" Queen City," of a thousand tons; built at Buffalo in 1858; lost on Lake Huron in 1866.

"Globe." of twelve hundred tons; built at Detroit in 1848; converted into a propeller.

"Charter," of three hundred and fifty tous; built at Detroit in 1848; lost on Lake Erie in 1854.

"John Hollister," of three hundred tons; built at Perrysburg in 1848; burned on Lake Erie; rebuilt, and lost on Lake lluron.

" Atlantic," of eleven hundred tons; built at New- port in 1849; sunk at Long Point-a hundred and fifty lives lost.

" Mayflower," of thirteen hundred tons; built at De- troit in 1849; wrecked at Point au Pelee in 1854.

" Keystone State," built at Buffalo in1849; sunk in Saginaw bay in 1861-thirty-three lives lost.

We have included in the above list none of less than three hundred tons. Thus it will be seen that, aside from numerous smaller ones, there was in 1850 a fleet of thirty-nine steamers afloat on Lake Erie, ranging from those of three hundred tons up to the great leviathan " Empire State," of seventeen hundred tons.

THE PERIOD FROM 1840 TO 1861.

Gay times were those. The steamboat, in good weather, was as provocative of sociability as the stage- coach, and furnished a great deal more enjoyment. The lake steamer was devoid of the monotony of the ocean vessel, and a voyage of from two days to a week, through changing lakes, and rivers, and straits, with all the splendid accessories of the model lake steamer, by passengers excited with the hope of western fortunes, or joyous over their return to eastern homes, was an event long to be remembered on the calendar of pleasure.

But there was another and much darker side to the picture. Out of the thirty-nine steamers above men- tioned, no less than thirty closed their career by be- ing burned or wrecked. To be sure many of them sailed ten or fifteen years, and made hundreds of voyages before being lost, but the disaster, when it came, was sometimes appalling. The two hundred and fifty lives lost on the "G. P. Grithith, " and the four hundred lost on the " Lady Elgin," furnished the most terrible but not the only examples of the dangers of lake navigation.

We have called especial attention to the fleet afloat in 1850, because that was the most brilliant period of lake navigation, which began to decline soon after the completion of railroad communication between the East and the West; but there was a large number of steamers (not usually very large ones) which had gone out of service before that time, besides many, both large and splendid, which were put in commission at a later period.

Among the most important of the latter were the "Arctic," of eight hundred and fifty-seven tous; the " Buckeye State," of twelve hundred and seventy-four tons; the " Northerner," of five hundred and fourteen tous; the " Minnesota," of seven hundred and forty- nine tons; the " Lady Elgin," of a thousand and thir- ty-seven tons; the "Iowa," of nine hundred and eighty-one tons; the " Cleveland," (second) of five hundred and seventy-four tons; the "Golden Gate," of seven hundred and seventy-one tons; the " Trav- eler," of six hundred and three tons; the "Michigan," (second) of six hundred and forty-three tons; the "Crescent City," of seventeen hundred and forty tons; the "Queen of the West, " of cighteen hundred and forty-one tons; the "St. Lawrence," of eighteen hundred and forty-four tons; the " E. H. Collins, " of nine hundred and fifty tons; the "Northern Indiana," of fourteen hundred and seventy tons; the .. South- ern Michigan," of fourteen hundred and seventy tons; the " Forester," of five hundred and four tons; the " Plymouth Roek." of nineteen hundred and ninety- one tons; the " Western World " of a thousand tous; the "North Star" of eleven hundred and six tons; the " Illinois " (second) of eight hundred and twen- ty-six tons; the " Planet " of eleven hundred and sixty-four tons; the " Western Metropolis " of eight- een hundred and sixty tons; the "City of Buffalo " of two thousand tons; the " City of Cleveland " of seven hundred and eighty-eight tous; the "Sea Bird " of

six hundred and thirty-eight tons; the " Detroit" of eleven hundred and thirteen tons; the " Milwaukee " of eleven hundred and thirteen tons.

This list includes the steamers of over five hundred tons put in commission before 1861. The large size of many of them does not contradict, but rather cor- roborates, our previous statement that steamboating began to decline soon after the completion of railroad communication between the East and West; for, of the very large ones, all which were not destroyed were dismantled, or changed into vessels of other deserip- tions, after only a few years' service.

Propellers had come into use on the lakes as early as 1842, but for several years they made but little dis- play in comparison with the magnificent side-wheel steamers. As the latter, however, were superseded by the railroads as carriers of passengers, the propellers came to the front as carriers of grain: taking the lead of the steamers in that occupation, and rivaling both the sail vessels and the railroad.

Returning to the land part of Cuyahoga county in 1850, we find the people all alive with business and confident of future greatness. When the steamboats were not running, the stages on the lake shore road were loaded and doubly loaded with passengers; three, four, and even five coaches often passing over the route each way in a single day. The vehicles of the line running over the great turnpike through Brook- lyn, Parma and Strongsville to Columbus were simi- larly crowded in both summer and winter, while those on other routes through the country were only less heavily loaded.

The close of the last half of this century may be regarded as marking the distinction between the old and the new in this county. The wolves and the bears had already become extinet, and about this per- iod the last of the deer disappeared before the ad- vance of civilization. Certainly they did not wait to hear more than one or two shrieks of the locomotive. To an old pioneer, with a taste for hunting, Cuyahoga county with no deer in it must have seemed like a new and undesirable world.

At this period, too, nearly the last of the log houses which had sheltered the pioneers gave way to the more comfortable frame residences of the farmers and the brick mansions of the thriving citizens. Twenty years before, in at least half of the townships, log houses had been the rule and framed ones the excep- tion. The former had gradually been given up, and in 1850 could only be found in some very secluded lo- cality. In such places, even yet, one may now and then be seen, a striking memento of the pioneer days of sixty years ago.

By the census of 1850, the population of the county was forty-eight thousand and ninety-nine, distributed as follows: Cleveland, 17,034; Bedford, 1,853; Brecks- ville, 1,116; Brooklyn, 6,325; Chagrin Falls, 1,250; Dover, 1,102; East Cleveland, 2,313: Euclid, 1,447; Independence, 1,485; Mayfield, 1, 112; Middleburg, 1,490; Newburg, 1,542; Olmstead, 1,216; Orange,

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

1,063: Parma. 1.329: Rockport, 1,441: Royalton, 1,253; Solon, 1,034; Strongsville, 1, 199; Warrens- ville, 1,410.

On the very threshold of the second half of the century, Cuyahoga county received the benefits, more or less, of railway communication; being one of the very first counties in the West to be invaded of the iron conqueror. On the Ist day of February, 185t, a train came through from Columbus over the Cleve- land, Columbus and Cincinnati road, bearing the State authorities and the members of the legislature, when of course a grand jollification was hekl. On the 22nd of the same month the road was formally opened for business. The Cleveland and Pittsburg road was completed forty miles the same month, tak- ing it outside the bounds of the county.

The other enterprises before mentioned went for- ward as rapidly as could be expected. The Cleveland and Pittsburg road, and the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula road (from Cleveland to Erie) were opened for through business in 1852. The Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland railroad was completed in January, 1853; forming the last link in the chain of railways between Boston and Chicago. The Cleve- land. Painesville and Ashtabula road was at first run in connection with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati road, but in 1855 its management was separated from that of the latter, and the former naturally fell into close relations with the other roads forming the great line along the lake shore communi- cation from the East to the West.

In the latter part of this decade a new communica- tion was opened between Cuyahoga county and the onter world. It originated in a schooner called the " Dean," built by Quayle and Martin, of Cleveland, for C. J. Kershaw, of Chicago. It was loaded at the latter post and sent direct to Liverpool (by way of the Welland canal and the St. Lawrence river) where this stranger from the Far West naturally created much surprise. It was sold there. The next year the barque " C. J. Kershaw" was constructed by the same builders, and sent to Liverpool by D. C. Pierce, loaded with staves and lumber; coming back with crockery and iron.

Direct trade between Chicago and Liverpool soon filed, but in 1858 a feet of no less than ten vessels was sent from Cleveland to Europe. It consisted of the " D. C. Pierce," sent to Liverpool by Pierce & Barney; the " Kershaw." "Chieftain " and " Black Hawk," sent to Lon lon by the same parties; the " R. H. Harmon," sent to Liverpool by T. P. Handy; the " D. W. Sexton," sent to London, and the " J. F. Warner" to Glasgow, booth by Mr. Handy; the " II. E. Howe," to Liverpool, by HI. E. Howe; the " Correspondent." to Liverpool, by N. M. Standart; and the " Harvest," to Hamburg, by C. Reis. All were loaded with staves and lumber ; their total capacity being three thousand six hundred tons. The cargoes of all were sold to good advantage, and six

returned successfully with cargoes of eroekery, iron and salt.

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History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 16

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