History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 60

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

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Newburg was a thriving little place, but from there to Cleveland village about the only clearing of any consequence was the Walworth place, about two miles mp the river, where Mr. John Walworth died during the first year of the war. The large tract between the farms on the Hights, the road to Newburg and the Euclid road, and thence north to the lake, was substantially in the same condition that it was in when Moses Cleaveland first came to the mouth of the Cuyahoga.

As has been stated, all the warlike movements of that period have been narrated in the general history, as has also the erection of the first-court house by Levi Johnson. A few minor incidents of that excit- ing time may, however, be worth mentioning. Two days after Perry's vietory, Mr. Levi Johnson and a man named Rumage found a large flat boat which had been abandoned by Quartermaster (afterwards General) Jessnp. They loaded this with two hun- dred bushels of potatoes, took them to Put-in-Bay and sold them to the fleet and army, easily quadrupling their money. Jessup kept the boat to aid the move- ment of Harrison's army into Canada, while Johnson returned to Cleveland as pilot of the sloop " Somers," one of Perry's victorious tleet. Soon after, Rumage returned with the flat boat, and with news of the victory of the Thames. Johnson resumed command and made several successful trips.

There was but little progress during the war, yet the first brick building in Cleveland was a store built in 1814, by J. R. and Irad Kelley. In that year Spafford's old map was copied by Alfred Kelley, and marks added showing all the buildings in existence in the village when the copy was made. There were thirty-four in all.

In 1814, Levi Johnson built the schooner " Pilot." The curiosity concerning it is that for convenience in obtaining timber he built it in the woods, near the site of St. Paul's church, on Euclid avenue, half a mile from the water. When it was finished, the en- terprising builder made a " bee." The farmers came in with twenty-eight yoke of cattle, and the " Pilot " was put on wheels and dragged to the foot of Superior street, where it was launched in the river, with re- sounding cheers.

On the 23d of December, 1815, the legislature passed an act incorporating the village of Cleveland.

This was the last event of especial consequence affeet- ing that place before the close of the war of 1812, which occurred the same winter. The succeeding era of peace may properly be begun with a new chapter. Before entering on the new era, however, we will ap- pend a description of the jollification which took place when the news of peace arrived here, in nearly the same words in which the event is recorded in a manu- script preserved in the Historical Society.

When the news was received, the citizens assembled by a common impulse to celebrate so momentons an event. The depression, the sacrifices and the alarms of three tedious years were terminated. There was no formal meeting with speeches and resolutions, but a spontaneous and most exuberant expression of joy. Every one was in a mood to do something extrava- gant. It is reported that one of the citizens, by way of an impromptu feu de joie, set fire to a load of hay, which a farmer was bringing to market.

A government gun was brought out. Abram Hick- ox, the principal blacksmith of the village, carried the powder in a pail; throwing it into the piece by the handfull. Another gunner had a fire-brand with which to " touch off" the gun, a spark from which found its way into "Uncle Abram's" pail. Ile was seen to rise instantly from the earth as high as the eaves of an adjacent house (so runs the record), com- ing down half stripped of his clothing. In this plight he ran down Superior street, screaming vehe- mently that he was killed. He was not, however, and, after doing the blacksmithing for one generation, he survived to become the sexton of the next.

Whisky was regarded as common property on that day, performing an important part in their patriotic rejoicings. Before night not a few found it desirable to lean against a friendly stump, or recline comfort- ably in a convenient fence-corner. But they soon re- covered, and went to work at their respective voca- tions with great hopes of the prosperity which was to follow the return of peace.

CHAPTER XLVI. THE VILLAGE FROM 1815 TO 1825.

First Village Officers-General Depression-Another Vessel built inland -N. H Merwin-Mrs. P. Scovill-Going to Church by Bugle-call- Leonard Case's Description-The Traveled Streets-Woods, Swamp aud Brush-The Residents and their Families-Moses White-Prom- inent Men of Newburg-"Cleveland, Six Miles from Newburg" -- The Euclid Road-Laid out to the Corner of the Square-Framed Warehouses-Stone Quarry and Mill at Newburg-Commercial Bank of Lake Erie-Orlando Cutler-Samuel Cowles and Reuben Wood- Land on the Square sold for $100 per Acre-Ansel Young-Steamboat and Newspaper-"The God of Lake Erie "-Carding Machines and other Items-P. M. Weddell-Michael Spangler-Religious Matters-A Theatrical Performance-John Brooks and other Newburgers-Killed by a Limb-Hunting Deer-The First Bridge-Business Rivalry-The Cleveland Academy-The Cleveland Forum-The West Side-Poor IIarbors-The Canal-The Turning Point-J. W. Alleu.

ON the first Monday of June, 1815, the first village election took place. The following officers were unan- imously elected; each receiving twelve votes: Alfred

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THE VILLAGE FROM 1815 TO 1825.

Kelley, president; Horace Perry, recorder; Alonzo Carter, treasurer: John A. Ackley, marshall; George Wallace and John Riddle, assessors: Samuel William- son, David Long, and Nathan Perry, Jr., trustees.

The hopes entertained of great immediate prosperity on the return of peace were by no means realized. In faet, the sudden change in the value of paper money and the general financial stringeney which came upon the country immediately after the war, combined with the cheapness of agricultural products, the dithieulty of sending them East, and the general indebtedness for land, rendered the five years next succeeding the war even more discouraging than the period which preceded it.

Nevertheless there was quite a number of new resi- dents came in that period and there was quite an amount of business done, considering how small a place Cleveland actually was.

This year the enterprising boat-builder, Levi John- son, laid the keel of the schooner " Neptune," of six- ty-five tons, near the site of Central Market, and it was afterwards moved to the water by the same means employed in the case of the " Pilot."

Noble II. Merwin, long a prominent citizen of Cleve- land, came to that place in 1815, and began keeping the tavern previously kept by tivorge Wallace, at the corner of Superior street and Virginia lane. He also engaged largely in the provision trade, vessel-building, and other business connection with the Jake.

Among the newcomers of 1816 was Miss Bixby. now the venerable Mrs. Philo Seovill. She mentions among those who were then residents in the village, Levi Johnson, Alfred Kelley, Phineas Shepard, the widow Carter, whose honse had a large rye-field in front of it, Phineas Shepard. who kept the old Carter tavern, Dr. Long, before mentioned, Dr. Mackintosh, N. II. Merwin and Hiram Hanchett, the tavern-keepers, Horace Perry, Philo Scovill, after- wards her husband, who kept a drug store, etc.

There was no church nor settled minister, and when a traveling preacher occasionally came along, meetings were held in the school-house in winter and in the court-house in summer. The people were called to meeting by the blowing of a bugle by a Mr. Bliss.

A detailed description of Cleveland in 1816 was made in writing by the late Leonard Case, who first came to the village on the second day of August, in that year. From this document, for the use of which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Williamson, we seleet the principal points. The only streets cleared were Superior, west of the square, Euclid street (or more properly the Euclid road), which was made passable for teams, and a part of Ontario street. Water street was a mere windig path in the bushes. Vineyard lane and Union lane were paths running down to the river. Mandrake lane was all woods, none of it being worked. Sencea and Bank streets were all woods. Ontario street, north of the square, Superior street, east of it, Wood, Bond and Erie

streets were all in a state of nature. Ontario street, south of the square to the site of the market, and thence along the line of Broadway, was open for travel, as that was the road to the thriving village of Newburg. There was also the Kinsman road (now Woodland avenne), but that was entirely out of town.

Nearly all the ground between the hill and the river was what Mr. Case designates as swamp, with occasional pieces of pasture land. On the hill there were the improved lots along Superior street, and north of it the rye-field of ten aeres, also mentioned by Mrs. Scovill. Levi Johnson had a field where the City Hospital now is. The rest of the land covering all between St. Clair and Lake streets, and most of that between Superior and St. Clair, and running east to Erie street, was in brush or slashing: the larger timber having been eut down for use and the rest left standing. It afforded considerable pasturage to the cattle of the villagers, and the children found large quantities of strawberries there.

South of the gardens on Superior street, as far east. as Jot eighty, the land was also a brush pasture. Up along the high banks as far as the Walworth farm on the road to Newburg there was more woods and less pasture. East of Pittsburg street, (the Newburg road, ) all was woods with occasional patches of brush.

Mr. Case also gives an account of all the inhabit- ants, though our space will not permit us to go so fully into detail as he does. On Superior street there were Noble H. Merwin, his wife Minerva, his clerk, William Ingersoll, and his boarders, Thomas O. Young. Philo Scovill. Leonard Case and others; Ili- ram Hanchett, his wife Mary and tive children; Silas Walsworth and wife; James Gear and wife, (the last two named men were hatters:) Darins B. Henderson, his wife Sophia and their daughter; Dr. David Long, his wife Juliana and two children; A. W. Walworth, postmaster and collector; Daniel Kelley and his sons Joseph R., Alfred, Thomas M. and Irad, of whom J. R. and Irad were merchants in company; Almon Kingsbury, who was carrying on a store in company with his father James Kingsbury; Pliny Mowry, who kept tavern on the site of the Forest City House; Hor- ace Perry and his wife Abigail; Abram Hickox, the blacksmith, and his family: Levi Johnson and his wife Margaret: Amasa Bailey; Christopher Gun, who kept the ferry; George Pease; Phineas Shepard, who kept tavarn in the old Carter building, part log and part frame; Nathan Perry and his wife Paulina (the former being the owner of a store, with a good assortment); John Aughenbaugh and family (butcher); one negro family (name unknown): Dr. Daniel O. Hoyt, who soon moved to Wooster; Geo. Wallace (tavern keeper). his wife Harriet and four children, and his boarders, James Root, S. S. Dudley, II. Willman, William Gay- Jord and C. Belden; Asahel Abell, cabinet maker; David Burroughs, Sr., and Jr., blacksmiths.

On Water street there were Samuel and Mathew Williamson, tanners; Maj, Carter's widow, on the bank of the hill; John Burtiss, brewer and vessel builder;

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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.

John A. Ackley and family; Dr. Donald McIntosh; William C. Johnson (lake captain) and family: Harpin Johnson (lake captain) and family. Alonzo Carter was then living on the west side of the river, and his appears to have been the only family there.

Those who came somewhat later the same season were Luther M. Parsons, Moses White, James Hynd- man, Abram Winston, Chas. Frisbee, Sherman Peck, George G. Hills, Eleazer Waterman, Daniel Jones, Orlando Cutter and Thomas Rumage.

Mr. Moses White, one of the newcomers, is still a resident of the city and gives a similar description of the primitive village. He mentions a little new school house where the Kennard House now stands. It was eighteen feet by twenty-eight, with a stone chimney. Mr. White put up a tailor's shop the next year, it being the first in Cleveland. When he wanted to get it painted he had to go to Newburg for a painter. There were two stores there and about twenty-five honses. Daniel, Theodore and Erastus Miles and Al- lan Gaylord were among the principal citizens. Also Aaron Shepard, Gains Burke and his brothers, and N. Bates. It was hardly as large as Cleveland, but was surrounded by a more flourishing country. Letters nsed to come, directed to "M. White, Cleveland, six miles from Newburg, Ohio.

Bilions fever, as well as fever and ague, was still prevalent here, and at the rival port of Buffalo they told Mr. White that if he came to Cleveland he wonkl not live over night. But he did live and the town lived, too. The relies of Fort Huntington, erected during the war, were still standing, between Seneca and Ontario streets, but soon disappeared.

The Euclid road did not originally come to the Public Square but stopped at Huron street. As there were no improvements in the way, however, the peo- ple traveled on to the square, and soon after the incor- poration of the village, the road or street was extended along the same line .* In order to strike the corner of the square, it was necessary to make a slight angle at the junction of Huron street. It would hardly be noticed by the casual traveler, but may easily be seen on careful observation. Bond and Wood streets, and a street around the square were laid out at the same time. The total assessed valuation of the whole original plat of the village, in 1816, was twenty-one thousand and sixty-five dollars.

Down to this time all the warehouses had been of logs. In 1817, Leonard Case and Captain William Gaylord built the first framed one, on the river, north of St. Clair street. Soon afterwards Levi Johnson and Dr. David Long built another framed warehouse. below Case and Gaylord's, and, ere long, still another was built near it by John Blair. Between Blair's warehouse and Murray's log one was an impassable marsh.

About 1817 Abel R. Garlick came and began ent- ting stone on Bank street. He obtained a fine- 'Some make the date later, but the weight of evidence is in favor of the period mentioned.

grained, blue sandstone from Newburg. Ere long a mill was erected at the quarry on Mill creek (New- burg) below the falls, where the stone was sawed, as it now is at Berea and elsewhere, into slabs for use. This was the first establishment of the kind in the county.

About this time (1817) Mr. Josiah Barber, one of the proprietors of land on the West Side, established a store there, and offered inducements to persons to pur- chase and settle there. Phineas Shepherd moved over and went to keeping tavern. IIe had possibly done so as early as 1816. There were already clearings back in what is now the township of Brooklyn, but none near the mouth of the Cuyahoga, except Alonzo Carter's place, until the time in question. Another account gives the date of Mr. Barber's movement as late as 1819.

The Commercial Bank of Lake Erie had been started in 1816, with Leonard Case as cashier, but there was hardly business enough to support it and it went down in 1819. It, however, revived and went on.

The prominent arrivals of 1818 were Orlando Cut- ter, who began business with a stock of twenty thou- sand dollars, then considered an immense amount; Samuel Cowles, a lawyer and business man, and Reuben Wood, also a lawyer, who afterwards became governor of the State. At this time James Kings- bury sold to Leonard Case five acres where the post office and neighboring buildings now stand, for one hundred dollars per acre, which was then considered a good price. Another gentleman who came in that year died during the present one, at the age of ninety- one. This was Ansel Young, who settled at Doau's Corners, where he was long known to the general publie as the only maker of almanacs in this region, and to his acquaintances as a man of marked scien- tific acquirements, and as the intimate friend of the eminent historian, Jared Sparks.

We have noticed in the general history the arrival of the first steamboat, the renowned "Walk-in-the- Water, " and the establishment of the first newspaper, the Register, in 1818, and the second one, the Herald, in 1819. One of the earliest issues of the latter sheet had an article satirizing the fever and ague, which was still the great bugbear of this region. It ran as follows:

" AQUEAQUESHAKESHAKE, THE GOD OF LAKE ERIE,

Takes this opportunity to annonnce his high satis- faction for the devotion offered at his shrine by the new converts on the shores of his dominion. He would feel much pleasure could he continue his resi- dence through the winter, but, having lately experi- enced much rough handling from his enemy, Jack Frost, the Demon of the Forest, he is now under the necessity of holding his court among the alcoves of Erie, among his liege subjects, the Muscalonges and Catfish. On the 4th day of July next, he will remove

THE VILLAGE FROM 1815 TO 1825.

his court to the highlands of the Cuyahoga, and, as he hopes, with force to drive old Jack into the lake, and continue his land dominion for many a good year to come."

Among other things, we learn from the Herald of 1819, that Ephraim Hubbel was then putting up two carding machines at the mills at Newburg, and would soon do carding for six and a fourth cents a pound; that Dr. David Long was selling salt, plaster, iron. buffalo robes, etc .; that Merritt Seeley had purchased the stock of Orlando Cutter; that S. S. Dudley sold goods, and took bills of the bank of Cleveland and similar financial institutions; that E. Chills was sel- ling fanning-mills; that John B. Morgan was making wagons, and that II. Foote was keeping a book store.

In 1820 that well-known citizen, Peter M. Weddell, established himself in Cleveland; engaging in mer- cantile pursuits, and by his energy and enterprise contributing largely to the welfare of the slowly-grow- ing village.

Another newcomer of 1820, less prominent than Mr. Weddell, but still a very active citizen, was Mi- chael Spangler, who began to keep the " Commercial Coffee-House," previously the Wallace stand, where he remained twelve years. From his widow we have obtained some items regarding the period in question. Mr. and Mrs. Spangler being of Pennsylvania-Ger- man extraction, the farmers of that blood, of whom there were many in northern Ohio, used generally to stop at the "Coffee House " when they came into town with their flour and other products. There were many other travelers, too, especially in the spring and autumn; and sometimes, when the opening of navigation was unexpectedly delayed, people would be compelled to stay at the Cleveland hotels two or three weeks, waiting for the boats to run.

Religions advantages were few. An Episcopal Church (Trinity) had been organized as early as 1816, but there were only occasional services by a minister. In 1820 a few residents engaged the Rev. Randolph Stone, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Ashtabula county, to give one-third of his time to Cleveland, and in June of that year the First Presbyterian church was organized with fourteen members.

Even this late, the place seems to have been some- times pretty well blocked up in the winter. The Herald, of January 18, 1820, announced that there was no news from Columbus; no mail having arrived since the issue of the paper a week before.

The very first that we hear of theatrical represen- tations at Cleveland is in the winter of 1820, when an entertainment was advertised which certainly offered sufficient variety-including as it did the comie opera entitled " The Purse, or the Benevolent Tar;" scenes from "The Stranger:" and "The Village Lawyer;" concluding with a "Dwarf Danec:" and all for the sum of fifty cents-children half price. By this time Newburg, which had long kept up a rivalry with Cleveland, began to fall behind in the race. Still Cleveland grew but slowly, and some zealous New-

burgers thought that something might yet happen to give their village the advantage. John Brook owned the gristmill there in 1820, and Harrison Dunche was another well-known resident. Among the young men of that place at an early day were the three brothers Caleb, Ashbel and Youngs Morgan, all still residents in that part of the city.

It was about 1820 that while several men, resident near Doan's Corners, were riding back from the vil- lage one evening, a limb fell from a forest tree near the present corner of Willson and Euclid avenues, breaking the leg of one of the men, named Coles, who afterwards died of the injury. There were then a few clearings between Willson avenue and the Cor- ners, but it was all woods from that avenue to Erie street.

Deer were common in the forest on both sides of the Euclid road in 1820 and as late as 1825. Captain Lewis Dibble says that when the young men wanted some fun three or four would go with their rifles to watch at the shore of the lake: another would range the woods on the tract now in the central or eastern part of the city with hounds, and would almost al- ways start one within an hour. Ile would almost in- variably head for the lake, and was very fortunate if he escaped the waiting riflemen. Sometimes one would swim out far into the lake and then return; landing a mile or more from the place where he en- tered.

Wolves, though thick in some parts of the county, had disappeared from the present territory of the city before this period, but bears were occasionally seen, though very seldom.

In 1822 Willman White and S. J. Hamlin as con- tractors, built the first bridge over the Cuyahoga at Cleveland; Josiah Barber (west side), Philo Seovill and Reuben Champion being the supervising com- mittee. Thecitizens subscribed considerable amounts to build it, and those who could not pay money fur- nished wheat, rye, whisky, lumber, etc.

There was plenty of business rivalry in those days, and some bitterness over it: for in 1822 a mer- chant advertised that all the goods mentioned in his advertisement, could be found in his "small, white store," notwithstanding the insinuations put forth from the "large brick store," with so many displays of superior advantages.

It was at this period, 1822, that a brick school building. called the Cleveland Academy, was erected. A school was opened in it immediately afterwards, and for many years it was the pride of the village. Not only was education earnestly desired, but other efforts at mental improvement were made. The " Cleveland Forum" was an institution of some permanence, which met regularly during successive winters, to practice debating and employ other means of im- provement.

In 1824 the first steamboat was built at Cleveland; the "Enterprise" of two hundred and twenty tons constructed by Levi Johnson.

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TIIE CITY OF CLEVELAND.

By this time there was a small cluster of houses on the west side, the locality being known with the rest of the township by the name of Brooklyn.

The bar at the month of the Cuyahoga prevented any but small vessels from entering, and even these often did so with difficulty. Large vessels lay to, and were unloaded by means of yawls. The various ports along the lake were all jealous of each other, and sought to exaggerate the poorness of each other's harbors. In 1825 the Sandusky Clarion declared that the yawls which unloaded vessels at Cleveland had lately stuck several times on the bar at the month of the river. The Cleveland Herald retaliated by stat- ing that canoes entering Sandusky Bay, had run afoul of the catfish there, and been detained until the latter had their daily agne-fits. when the boats were shaken off, and proceeded joyfully on their way.

On the fourth day of July, 1825, ground was broken at Cleveland for the Ohio canal.

This was the turning point in the history of Cleve- land. It had been twenty-five years since it was laid out by Moses Cleaveland, with the design that it should be the emporium of the Western Reserve, and still it was only a small village. llon. John W. Allen, then a young law student, who came in 1825, estimates the population of Cleveland, at that time, at about five hundred inhabitants, and that of the village on the west side, then known as Brooklyn, at about two hundred. The actual beginning of work on the canal attracted general attention to this point, and within a year the population had rose to one thousand. Mr. Allen, himself, who had come from the East to find a growing town in which to make his home, wrote back that Cleveland was the most promising point for a city that he had seen, and he accordingly entered himself as a student in the office of Samuel Cowles.

Of this new Cleveland, which has since that time, notwithstanding occasional drawbacks, made such rapid strides toward greatness, we will speak in the succeeding chapters.

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History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 60

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