History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 7

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

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It was not till the next spring (1288) that the first white settlement was planted in the present State of Ohio; the location being at Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum. When Governor St. Clair and the judges (in whom the temporary legislative power was vested) arrived in the new Territory, they proceeded on the 24th of July, 1288, to form the county of Wash- ington, of which Marietta was made the county seat, and which extended from the Ohio to Lake Erie, with the Cuyahoga river and the portage path as its west-

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

ern boundary; thus embracing the eastern part of the present county of Cuyahoga. The section thus in- cluded was a hundred and fifty miles distant from the county scat, at Marietta, but as no one resided here that was of little consequence.

In 1789 the first congress under the Federal Con- stitution re-enacted the ordinance of 1787; thus giv- ing the Northwestern Territory a permanent position in the new political arrangement.

The same year another treaty was made at Fort Harmar, by which the Indians again ceded to the United States the country west of the Cuyahoga and the portage path.

About this period, or a little later, one Joseph Du Chatar had a trading post on the west side of the Cuyahoga, some nine miles above the mouth. Jean Baptiste Fleming and Joseph Burall were with him a part of the time. Du Chatar, then in middle age, had been from his youth in the employ of the North- western company, and afterwards described the mouth of the Cuyahoga as having been one of their princi- pal points for the sale of goods and purchase of furs. At the time mentioned, however, he was trading for himself.

Large profits were usually made by the early fur- traders, but there were some serious drawbacks. At one time Du Chatar and his companions had a sharp conflict with some Indians over the ownership of a rifle. At another time a number of them demanded liquor, which Du Chatar refused to let them have, either because they could not pay for it or because he thought them already too well supplied. They at- tacked his cabin, which he and his men defended with their rifles. Some of the Indians were killed and the rest retreated. It would seem to have been very dan- gerous to remain in the country after that, but the French had ways of conciliating the savages which hardly any one else could imitate.

In 1290, the western Indians engaged in open hos- tilities against the frontier, and General Harmar marched against them, only to be defeated. This was followed the next year by the defeat of Governor St. Clair, at the head of another army. The Indians became extremely elated, and it began to look as if the course of western emigration was to be perma- nently cheeked. Of course, under these ciremmstances, there was no sale for frontier land, and the Western Reserve remained on the hands of the State of Con- neclient.

In 1992, that State gave five hundred thousand aeres off from the west end of the Reserve, for the benefit of those of her citizens who had suffered from the burning of their property by the British during the Revolution. This tract was commonly called the " Fire Lands," and has been considered as a distinct section under that inne ever since, although a part. of the original Western Reserve.

Meanwhile, the administration of President Wash- ington was making constant efforts to conciliate the Indians, and secure a permanent perec. In 1993.

General Benjamin Lincoln, Hon. Beverly Randolph, and Colonel Timothy Pickering, postmaster-general of the United States, commissioners appointed by the President, passed up the south shore of Lake Erie, on their way to Detroit, still held by the British, to endeavor to make a treaty with the hostile Indians. This effort, like all the others, was in vain.

But in 1794, Mad Anthony Wayne went out to the West, at the head of a well appointed army, and inflicted a terrible defeat on the horde of warriors who ventured to confront him. Another treaty was made, which, being authorized and sanctioned by victory, was well observed by the red men. So far as this part of the Territory was concerned, Wayne's treaty merely confirmed the line previously drawn along the center of the Cuyahoga. All the eleven tribes who joined in the treaty agreed to acknowledge the United States as their sole superior, and never to sell any of their land to any one else.

CHAPTER VIL SALE AND SURVEY.

Connecticut sells Three Million Acres in a Body-Names of the Pur- chasers -Formation of the Connecticut Land Coumany-A Deed of Trust- The Excess Company First Directors of the Connecticut Com- pany- The plan of Survey and Division decided on- The first Survey Party Its Leaders and Surveyors-British Annoyance A Council at Buffalo Arrival at Conneaut-Trouble among the Employees-How it was Settled - Beginning of the Surveys Gen. Cleaveland comes to the Cuyahoga The First White Family -Tracing the Coast Line- Laying off Townships Chagrin River mistaken for the Cuyahoga -- Organization of Wayne County -Directors Impatient-Laying out of Cleveland- A Bear in the River The Party start east but return- Formal Agreement to let the Surveyors have Euclid- Rough Weather

-The Return Persons left at Cleveland Gen. Cleaveland's subse- qment Career- Porter's Later Life-Annual Meeting of the Land Com- pany Failure of the Excess Company Alexander Henry's Claim- The Survey Party of 1297 Its Officers, etc -- It goes to the Reserve- The First Funeral Rations for the Surveyors Kingsbury, Carter and Hawley -- The First Marriage D. & G. Bryant and R. Edwards-Form- ation of Jefferson County-Atwater's Adventure-Tinker's Creek- Sicknesss Health on the Ridge.

WAYNE'S victory and treaty caused many eyes to turn toward the Western Reserve, as a more secure and desirable place of residence than it had previously been considered. At the session of 1795, the legisla- ture of Connecticut abandoned the idea of dividing up the Reserve in small tracts and selling it out, and adopted a new system. A commission of eight citi- zens was appointed, one from each county, who were authorized to sell three million acres adjoining Penn- sylvania for not less than one-third of a dollar per acre; the whole to be sold before any part of it was conveyed. The purchasers were to take all risks, and were to receive their deeds by shares, not by acres; being then obliged to divide the land among them- selves as best they could.

The scheme seems to have been quite popular, and the commission succeeded in selling the whole tract by the first of September, 1795, at forty cents per acre making the total amount one million two hun- dred thousand dollars. The purchasers were Joseph

SALE AND SURVEY.

Howland, Daniel L. Coit, Elias Morgan, Caleb At- water, Daniel Holbrook, Joseph Williams, William Love, William Judd. Elisha Hyde, Uriah Tracey. James Johnson, Samuel Mather, Jr., Ephraim Kirby, Elijah Boardman, Uriel Holmes, Jr., Solomon Gris- wold, Oliver Phelps, Gideon Granger, Jr., William Hart, Henry Champion, 2nd. Asher Miller, Robert (. Johnson, Ephraim Root, Nehemiah Hubbard, Jr .. Solomon Cowles, Asahel Hathaway, John Caldwell, Peleg Sanford, Timothy Burr, Luther Loomis, Eben- ezer King, Jr .. William Lyman, John Stoddard, David King. Moses Cleaveland, Sammel P. Lord, Roger Newberry, Enoch Perkins, Jonathan Brace, Ephraim Starr, Sylvanus Griswold, Joseb Stocking. Joshua Stow, Titus Street, James Bull, Aaron Olm- sted, John Wyles, Pierpoint Edwards.

The subscriptions were of all sizes, from one of one thousand six hundred and eighty-three dollars, made by Sylvanus Griswold, up to that of Oliver Phelps, who subscribed one hundred and sixty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-five dollars alone, and eighty thousand dollars in company with Gideon Granger, Jr., but were generally in sums of from ten thon- sand to thirty thousand dollars. Henry Champion, 2nd, was the second largest subscriber, with eighty- five thousand six hundred and seventy-five dollars.

The committee, in behalf of the State, at once deeded to the subscribers as many " twelve hundred thousandths" of the whole tract, as they had sub- scribed dollars respectively to the purchasing fund of twelve hundred thousand dollars. The deeds were recorded in the office of the secretary of state of Connecticut, and subsequently in the recorder's office of Trambull county, Ohio. They were of the char- acter commonly called "quit-claim" deeds; the State warranting nothing, but conveying all its rights, more or less, to the purchasers. There had, at this time, been no definite surrender of the State's political jurisdiction over the Reserve to the general govern- ment, (although that government had assumed juris- diction by including the Reserve in the Northwestern Territory), and many of the buyers supposed they could establish a State of their own, and make such laws as they pleased for it.

On the 5th of September, the purchasers proceeded to organize themselves into an association called the "Connectiont Land Company," but did not obtain an act of incorporation from the State. In law they were only a simple partnership. All the members of this association joined in a deed of trust to .Jonathan Brace, John Caldwell and John Morgan, authorizing them to give deeds of various tracts to the owners, according to the division to be made by the officials of the company. It will be understood that a large part of the three million acres purchased was known to be on the west side of the Cuyahoga, and it was, therefore, known that it could not be divided until the Indian right of occupancy was extinguished by purchase. It was supposed, however, that there was considerably more than three million acres in the Re-

serve, exclusive of the " Fire Lands." and several gentlemen proposed to take the balance from the State. They were commonly called the " Excess Company," and until the land was surveyed it was supposed they would secure a large traet.

By the articles of association, the management of the company's concerns was intrusted to seven direc- tors, who were instructed to proveed as rapidly as possible to sell that portion of the tract east of the Cuyahoga. For the purpose of electing officers and making assessments, the whole was divided into four hundred shares of three thousand dollars each; dis- tributed among the various proprietors in proportion to the amounts they had subscribed. The first board of directors consisted of Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion, 20., Moses Cleaveland, Samnel W. John- son. Ephraim Kirby, Samuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newberry.

The articles of association also provided that the tract should be surveyed into townships five miles square; that part cast of the Cuyahoga as soon as possible, and the rest when the Indians were bought out. Six townships of the former portion were to be sold to pay the general expenses. Four more were to be divided into a hundred lots each, making four hundred lots of a hundred and sixty acres each, which were to be conveyed to the owners of the four hundred shares respectively. The remainder of the traet east of the Cuyahoga was to be divided into portions, of which the best township was to form the basis: other townships to be brought up to the standard by dividing some of them into fractions, and adding them to the rest. The part west of the river was subsequently to be divided in the same way. The board of directors selected Gen. Moses Cleaveland, a lawyer of Canterbury, Windham county, then about forty years old, to act as the general agent of the company and manage the surveys east of the Cuya- hoga, which it was expected would all be completed the next year.

During the winter of 1295-6 further preparations were made, and in the spring of the latter year a large surveying party was organized. General Cleaveland was superintendent; Augustus Porter, who was a na- tive of Connectient but had been engaged for many years on important surveys in western New York, was the principal surveyor and deputy superintendent; Seth Pease was astronomer and surveyor; Amos Spar- ford. John M. Holley, Richard M. Stoddard and Moses Warren were the surveyors; Joshua Stow was the commissary, and Dr. Theodore Shepard was the physician of the party. There were also thirty-six other employees, including chainmen, axemen, cooks, etc.

The expedition set forth in May. General Cleave- land and most of the members came by way of Alba- ny, Syracuse, Canandaigua, etc., to Buffalo. Mr. Stow, with several men, took the provisions, instru- ments and other freight in four large boats by way of the Oswego river, Lake Ontario and the Niagara

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

river. Oswego, like the other frontier posts, was still in the hands of the British, and their officers seemed anxious to annoy the Americans in every possible way. Mr. Stow applied to the commandant at Oswego for permission to pass with his boats, but was peremptorily refused. In vain he represented that without the instruments and provisions which he had with him the survey party could not begin work, and that the greatest inconvenience would be sure to result; the officer was inexorable.

Finally, Mr. Stow apparently gave up the contest, and retired up the river with his boats. The first dark night, however, the flotilla sped quietly down the stream, glided undiscovered past the sleepy sen- tinels, and escaped into Lake Ontario. The deten- tion, however, caused the boats to be caught in a severe storm on the lake, in which one of them was stove up and another of them seriously injured. What made the affair more provoking was that both Fort Ontario, at Oswego, and Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the river of that name, were about to be delivered to the United States, under the provisions of Jay's treaty, Fort Ontario was thus surrendered on the fourth day of July following, and Fort Niag- ara still carlier; so that when the boats of the survey party approached the latter post the men saw with delight the stars and stripes floating over its ramparts.

On the 21st of June the Six Nations held a council at Buffalo, at which General Cleaveland was present, together with some whom the surveyors called west- ern Indians, but whom from the circumstances we should infer to have been Mohawks, who lived west of Buffalo, in Canada. Notwithstanding the numer- ous treaties by which the claims of these Indians to the country east of the Cuyahoga were supposed to be extinguished, they still put forth some preten- sions to it, and it was thought better to conciliate than to oppose them !. The celebrated Joseph Brant. or Thayendenegea, was the principal manager on the part of the Six Nations, and gave General Cleaveland a " speech " in writing, but the equally distinguished Red Jacket was the principal orator. The council was adjourned over the 22nd, because the chiefs in- sisted on getting drunk.

On the 23rd, after numerous speeches on both sides, Cleaveland agreed to give the Indians five hundred pounds, New York currency, ($1,250) in goods, as a present, and also agreed to use his influence to ob- tain for them an allowance of five hundred dollars a year from the United States: failing which the Con- Hecticut Land Company was to give them an addi- tional present of fifteen hundred dollars. The chiefs on their side agreed that the Indians should not in- terfere with the settlers on the Reserve, a stipulation which they appear to have faithfully observed. In fact, they could hardly avoid losing their hearts to General Cleaveland, for, after the counciling and bar- gaining was over, he gave them two beef-cattle for a feast, with an accompaniment of no less than one hundred gallons of whisky!

The expedition then proceeded in boats np the lake to Conneaut, in the extreme northeast corner of the Reserve, where they arrived on the 4th of July. They celebrated the day by firing with their rifles a "federal salute" of fifteen rounds-one for each State then in the Union-and a sixteenth for " New Con- neetient." The Reserve was frequently spoken of by the first settlers and surveyors as New Connecticut, and they evidently were not exactly certain whether it was a part of the Northwest Territory or a separate nation of itself.

At Conneaut nearly all the surveyors and other em- ployees manifested a very insubordinate disposition. Amzi Atwater, himself an employee, says they muti- nied. At all events, they manifested a strong disposi- tion not to go on with the work unless they could derive some compensation for it besides their wages. At that time it was thought that the ownership of land in "New Connecticut" was the sure road to fortune, and the men were anxious to become pro- prietors. General Cleaveland yielded, and informally agreed that if the men would go on and work through the season they should have a township of land at a dollar an acre.

As soon as this question was settled, some of the surveyors ran south from the northeast corner of the Reserve, along the Pennsylvania line, to the forty- first parallel, and thence west along that parallel, making it their base line. From it, at intervals of five miles, they ran meridians north to the lake; the spaces between them constituting " ranges." These were to be subdivided into townships by cast and west lines, also five miles apart. They depended entirely on their compasses, and as that instrument is subject to numerous variations the meridians were by no means accurately laid down. Some of them varied as much as half a mile from the true line before reach- ing the lake. The early government surveyors varied in the same manner, but they soon learned to correct each township line, as run by the compass, by meas- urement to the preceding one.

While the surveyors were doing the work just men- tioned, Superintendent Cleaveland came to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, reaching that point on the 22d of July, 1791, and established the headquarters of the party there. With him, among others, came Job P. Stiles and Tabitha Cumi Stiles, his wife, for whom a cabin was erected, and who were placed in charge of of the company's stores at that point. This was the tirst white family, and Mrs. Stiles was the first white women, who ever resided in the present county of Cuyahoga. Their cabin and the company's store- honse were on the low ground on the east side of the Cuyahoga, convenient to a spring which issued from the side of the hill. This was the same location that had been chosen by the freighters, in 1786, as de- seribed by Colonel Hillman, but the slight cabin then erected had probably entirely disappeared, having very likely been used for fuel by Indians or travel- ers; at all events it is not mentioned in the notes of

SALE AND SURVEY.

any of the surveyors. The more substantial struc- ture, built by Captain Thorn and his crew, near the foot of the present Willson avenue, was still standing.

Mr. Porter, the principal surveyor, took on him- self the difficult task of traeing the coast line, so as to find where the west line of the Reserve would strike Lake Erie. The other surveyors, after running ont the meridians, as before stated, began to run parallels from the Pennsylvania line to the Cuyahoga. Warren ran the line between townships six and seven (Bed- ford and Warrensville); Pease between townships seven and eight (Warrensville and Euclid); Spafford and Stoddard between townships eight and nine, (Mayfield and Willoughby); and Holley still farther north. Pease's line ran through the present city of Cleveland. No one knew anything about the Chagrin river, and every surveyor, when he reached it in run- ning his parallel, supposed it to be the Cuyahoga and went down to the month before discovering his mis- take.

We may mention, in passing, that Wayne county was organized by the authorities of the Northwest Territory on the 15th of August in this year, nomi- nally embracing the whole tract from the Cuyahoga westward and northward beyond Detroit, which place was made the county seat. Thus the county seats (Marietta and Detroit ) of the two counties (Washing- ton and Wayne) which then embraced the present. Cuyahoga were over three hundred miles apart. As all of this county west of the river was still Indian land, the formation of Wayne county had no practical effeet here; nor was any part of this county ever ac- tually organized in connection with either Washington or Wayne.

August and September passed rapidly away in the task of surveying the various lines. Holley and Pease left journals describing their labors, but of course only a small portion of them were performed in Cuy- ahoga county, and, moreover, the more details of the distances and courses which they ran on sneeessive days would hardly be interesting to our readers. Ax indicative of the primitive utensils employed in their traveling kitchen, we may notice Holley's memoran- dum that at the Chagrin river the cook got mad because the bark would not peel, so that he had nothing to mix bread on, and declared that he could give the party nothing to cat. One of the men, however, solved the difficulty by mixing the flour in a bag, thus restoring serenity to the cook and food to the party.

Meanwhile the board of directors at Hartford be- came impatient to have the land divided among the proprietors, and on the 26th of Angust wrote to Cleaveland, constituting him, Stow, Porter and the four other surveyors a committee to equalize and di- vide the land east of the Cuyahoga, according to the plan already mentioned, and urging him to aecom- plish the work that season if possible. This, how- ever, was entirely impracticable.

It had from the first been determined by the direc- tors to lay out one "capital town," or eity, at the most

eligible place on the Reserve, the township around which was to be ent into smaller lots than the rest of the tract, which were to be sold to actnal settlers. The selection was doubtless left to General Cleaveland, to be made on the ground. He selected the site at. the month of the Cuyahoga. Porter ran out the streets of the embryo city, and left Holley to survey it into lots. Only twelve streets and lanes were then laid out, which might fairly be considered sullicient, as there was not a solitary permanent resident of the "city." Cleaveland bestowed his own name upon the place, and it was forthwith dubbed the "City of Cleaveland." The township around it, however, was at first called "Cuyahoga town." The locality at the month of the river is also sometimes mentioned in the surveyors' minutes as "Cuyahoga," but after Septem- ber, 1296, is always " Cleaveland."

The morning of the 2tst of September the survey- ors, to the number of abont thirty, who had collected at the "eity," found themselves without meat, and with only a little flour, two cheeses and some choco- late, in the way of provisions. It would not do to start into the woods again, nor even to wait long where they were. While they were wondering at the non- arrival of expected provisions from Conneant, and debating as to what next should be done, a shout was heard, and a bear was discovered swimming across the river from the west side. Instantly every man was on his feet. Porter and Holley jumped into a canoe and paddled toward the shaggy visitor; anoth- er man went up the shore with a gun, and the rest of the shonting crowd assembled to stop the brute as soon as he should reach the land. They succeeded only too well, for the noise and confusion were such that the animal took the alarm, swam back to the western shore and escaped.

As a compensation for this loss, Holley's journal notes immediately afterwards: "Manson canght a rattlesnake, which we boiled and ate."

By noon they had become so well assured that no provisions were coming from Conneant that they all set out for that place in two boats and a bark canoe. After sailing about eight miles, however, they met a party with cattle and provisions, and returned to the Cuyahoga with much lighter hearts than when they left it. On arriving after dark they saw a fire blazing on the western shore. As they passed it, they dis- charged a volley from their ritles by way of a salute, in honor of the sojourners who had built the fire, and in accordance with a enstom which seems to have been qnite common on the frontier, among both whites and Indians. The travelers were discovered to be a party of Grand river Indians, who had been west, hunting.

After a week more of surveying in the vicinity of the river, the whole party assembled at its mouth on the 30th of September, when the informal agreement made at Conneant, in the forepart of July, was re- duced to a written contract, in which " Cleaveland " is first mentioned as the name of the embryo city at the month of the Cuyahoga. Moses Cleaveland

GENERAL HISTORY OF CUYAHOGA COUNTY.

signed the contract on the part of the company, while forty-one of the employees put their hands to it in their own behalf. Six of the employees, including Joshna Stow, were not parties to the arrangement. The township which they selected was number eight in the eleventh range, being the one next down the lake from Cleveland. With great propriety, consid- ering that they were all surveyors or assistants, and that surveying is eminently a mathematical profes- sion, they gave to their new township the name of the great Greek mathematician, Euclid. The sug- gestion is credited by Mr. Holley to Moses Warren. Each of the men was to serve the company faithfully till the end of the season, and was to have an equal share in the township at a dollar an acre, on making certain improvements. These were carefully speci- fied in the contract, and are more fully set forth in the township history of Euclid.

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History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Part 7

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