USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 11
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One of the most disastrous fires of this period was the burning of the Northern Ohio Hospital for the insane, which rendered homeless insane from all the Northern counties of the State, and involved a loss of over half a million dollars. On September 26, 1872, men at work on the roof discovered fire issuing from the windows of the dome. The alarm was given and a scene of unparalleled consternation ensued. The superintendent was absent, but the remaining officials did everything in their power to save the building and the inmates. Alarms were turned in to the city, the hose attached to the tanks, and. buckets and ladders plied with all speed, but the water tanks soon fell, rendering utterly useless all attempts toex- tinguish the fire until the arrival of fire department from the city an hour later. In the meantime the inmates were taken out as rapidly as possible, and though this was a. hazardous and difficult task, the whole number, four hun- dred and eighty-eight, two-thirds women, were rescued uninjured except two persons, one Benjamin Burgess, the other Miss Walker, a seamstress, who were lost in the flames. The scene after the fire was most distressing. The civilly disposed insane were put in the churches or wan- dered at random until conveyances were procured to take them away to various places.
As soon as the trustees could make arrangements, the inmates were placed in the various charitable institutions and police stations of the city and the Central Asylum at. Dayton. The probate judges of the different counties were notified to come and take their patients to their county poor-houses until provision could be made for them.
Eng. by Samuel Sartaun. Pilla
Photo by E. Decker
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Steps were taken immediately towards the rebuilding of the asylum. Governor Noyes was notified and he called a meeting of the Senate and House Committees on Benev- olent Institutions and Finance. These committees met at Newburg on October 11, 1872. Rebuilding was con- sidered a necessity. Plans submitted by Dr. J. P. Gray, of Utica, with estimates at five hundred thousand dollars, were reported as soon as possible, approved by the assem- bly, and five hundred and fifty thousand dollars appropri- ated for their execution. The work was pushed rapidly and finished in May of 1876, at a cost of five hundred and sixty-one thousand dollars.
The first hospital established in Cleveland by the ad- herents of the Homeopathic School of Medicine was in reality a private enterprise. In the year 1856 Dr. S. R. Beckwith received the appointment of surgeon to the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway and also to the Cleveland & Columbus railway. Railroad surgery thirty years ago was a much more important work than it is at present, since accidents, as shown by reliable statistics, were twenty times as numerous. Surgeons had many miles of the road to look after, and patients from cities and towns along the line were brought to Cleveland that they might be under the supervision of the company's surgeon. A 1 private house was rented on Lake street and used as a hospital for two years, with Dr. Bettely as house surgeon. This building was well adapted for hospital purposes and contained twelve beds. About this time Charity Hospital threw open her doors to homœopathic physicians and sur- geons, and patients were taken there when they could not
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be well accommodated at hotels or private houses. With hospital accommodations assured, Dr. Beckwith discon- tinued the Lake Street Hospital. About the year 1866 the advisability of establishing a Protestant hospital was discussed by many benevolent and liberal ladies of the city. Dr. D. H. Beckwith, H. Brockway and Mrs. S. F. Lester were appointed a committee to secure a desirable location. They reported in favor of purchasing for eight thousand dollars a lot on the lake shore, opposite Clinton Park, where was a commodious building well suited to the needs of a hospital. This purchase was made, and the ladies not only paid for it but also furnished the house through donations freely made by a generous public. This was called the Wilson Street Hospital. The medical staff was selected from representative physicians of both schools of medicine. After two years of union management, some misunderstanding arose and arrangements were made by which the homeopathic adherents disposed of their interest in the hospital and withdrew. In 1867 the faculty of the Homœopathic College, in order to have surgical clinics and hospital instruction under their immediate control, pur- chased a large and elegant building belonging to Professor Humiston, located on University street. After a few years of hospital work in this location, it was deemed best to secure a more central place, and a private house, known as the Perry property, was secured on Huron street. This institution was soon found unable to accommodate the large number of patients applying for treatment, and in 1879 the large and commodious hospital at 66 Huron street was erected. The new building is the most complete
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in its arrangements for warmth, light and ventilation that modern ingenuity can devise. It was built and fur- nished entirely by private donations, and accommodates both charity and pay patients.
The Inventor's Exhibition was held December, 1871, to January, 1872, for the purpose of furthering the interests of inventors by bringing their work before the eye of the public and by giving concerted and intelligent action in the procuring of patents. The exhibition began on the twenty-seventh of December and was graced the first day by the visit of Grand Duke Alexis. It was held in the Cen- tral Rink, which was crowded withexhibits, and lasted for almost a month. At the close five directors were elected to take immediate steps towards the organization and incorporation of a permanent association.
The prevalence of several kinds of disease in the old Sixth ward gave rise to a general petition to have the pest- house removed. But it was not until 1872 that the In- firmary farm was selected as the site, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the citizens of Brooklyn. The old pest- house was burned and the lot sold.
One of the grandest charitable works undertaken by our people, and the most grandly carried out, was the aid offered to the sufferers of the Chicago fire. At a mass meeting in the Central Rink, October 9, 1871, a relief com- mittee was formed consisting of James Barnett, James Carson, Wm. J. Akers, H. Chase, J. W. Fitch, Dr. E. Ster- ling, D. Price, W. H. Hayward, J. P. Sherwood, E. N. Hammond, Charles Pettingill, A. W. Fairbanks, L. A. Pierce and R. M. N. Taylor. In three days thirteen car
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loads of provisions and clothing were collected and sent, one of the members accompanying and distributing the same. These were among the first contributions. The pressing needs of the destitute throughout several States, for various causes, led to a permanent organization for a winter's work, latein 1871. Merchants, churches and civic societies made liberal donations, and transportation was furnished free. A most important adjunct was the organi- zation of ladies with headquarters at the Second Presby- terian church.
The epizootic, with which nearly every horse in the city was afflicted, was the source of much inconvenience and loss to business men, and also the cause of some merri- ment. The first appearance was on October 31, 1872, when three hundred horses were reported sick. It spread rapidly, and the next day two street car companies sus- pended travel. The next day saw all the heavy draft horses and street car horses entirely laid up, and thestreets filled with pedestrians. The docks and freight depots were piled with boxes to be delivered. Oxen and mules were obtained when possible, but it was a common sight to see large freight drays pulled by twenty or more men and labeled with the terse but significant word "Epizoot." The carriage traffic was completely suspended save in sev- eral instances, where young men heroically surmounted the difficulties by taking their ladies in carriages hauled by mules, to hear Patti. The Woodland avenue cars were hauled by a "dummy." Other lines were idle. The per- manent loss was, however, small, as few horses died.
This year, 1872, is remarkable for the number of large
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and important conventions and reunions held in our city. Beginning on May 7, 1872, and lasting for four days, were the reunions of the Army of the Potomac, the National Encampment, Grand Army of the Republic, and the Na- tional Reunion of the Grand Cavalry Corps. These gatherings brought together an immense number of ex- soldiers. Among the prominent men present were Generals Woodford, Hooker, Meade, Custer, Burnside, Wright, Robinson, Dennis and Sheridan. The meetings were held in Case Hall, where, on the first day, Mayor Pelton welcomed the veterans with a masterly address, and General Woodford delivered an oration. The last meeting was at a grand banquet given in the Central Rink.
A direct outgrowth of the labor troubles, then so com- mon, was the Industrial Congress that assembled in Tem- perance Hall on Superior street, July 16, 1873. This, also, was National, representing all legitimate trades. It had at heart the best interests of the laboring class as repre- sented by the numerous organizations for mutual aid and protection, existing all over the country. The Congress lasted four days, and contained delegates from sixty-five different organizations from nearly every State.
In the latter part of February of the following year, assembled in the same place a most remarkable body of men-the National Division of the Brotherhood of Loco- motive Engineers. It was just when transportation com- panies were beginning to experience the trouble that cul- minated later in riot and bloodshed. The meeting was large, containing delegates from one hundred and fifty-
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two divisions, but despite the fact that they were in ses- sion for three days, the energy of reporters failed to obtain for the public any knowledge of their business.
Cleveland's beauty and readiness of access have always made it a favorite place for National gatherings. The Knights of Pythias' National Convention in August, 1877, brought immense numbers of that order, who remained in the city four days. The splendor of their parade, which has never been excelled, was greeted with great enthusi- asm. A prize drill was given at the Northern Ohio Fair grounds.
Early maps located Cleveland "a little village about five miles from Newburg." In 1873 matters were quite otherwise. Newburg was then the village, without anyex- istence as a corporation. The pressing necessity of corpo- rate benefits, of improved schools, of police and fire pro- tection and water supply, led to a large and enthusiastic meeting August 4, 1873, at which the following resolu- tions were adopted :
That the time has now come when the necessity and future welfare of the people imperatively demand the resultant benefits of a village or city corporation.
That in the opinion of this meeting, the best means of attaining that end is by annexation of our territory to the city of Cleveland.
A committee consisting of E. T. Hamilton, A. Topping and Joseph Turney, was appointed to confer with the Council and petition for the admission of Newburg as wards of the city. The Council appointed John Hunting- ton, H. H. Thorpe and A. T. Van Tassel a committee to
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confer concerning the territory to be annexed. This they decided should be included within the city of Cleveland. The question of annexation was submitted to the voters of Newburg on the twenty-seventh of August, and car- ried by a majority of 293. The Council carried out the wishes of the people with but little opposition, and sup- plied the new wards, now known as the Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh, with fire and police protection. The annexation added twenty-five hundred acres to the area of the city and ten thousand souls to the population.
The Cleveland Light Artillery was organized in 1873 by Captain Louis Smithnight. Its members were nearly all veterans, and the Light Artillery soon became known for its discipline, drill and general excellence. Their name is the same as that of the old Cleveland Light Artillery which was organized in 1846 from the gun squad of the Cleve- land Grays. They go into camp every year and are at any time ready to answer a call for duty. At the great Cincinnati riot of 1885 their services were offered and ac- cepted; but soon after their arrival in that city the rioting ceased and the battery was not called upon to do any fighting. The battery has been pronounced by officers of the United States regular artillery to be the best equipped and drilled of any similar organization in the country. In the spring of 1886 the artillery of the State was organized into a regiment of which the Cleveland artillery is Battery A. Smithnight is colonel of this regiment, which is the only fully organized regiment of artillery in the National Guards in the United States. Their armory is on Cham- plain street near Seneca.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
THE GREAT CRASH-THE WOMEN'S CRUSADES-LABOR OUTBREAKS-A NATIONAL SÆNGERFEST-THE LEASE OF THE PRESENT CITY HALL- THE EUCLID AVENUE OPERA HOUSE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CITY HOSPITAL - THE HARBOR OF REFUGE - EXPLOSION OF A POWDER MILL.
T HE history of Cleveland as a metropolis begins about the time, or just after, the great panic of 1873. In population perhaps she had not grown to metropolitan proportions, but in manufacture and commerce, as well as in importance in the business relations of Northern Ohio, she certainly had. The accumulation of large for- tunes in the city had brought a more polished and fashion- able element into her society, introduced a taste for luxury previously unknown, and resulted in the expenditure of millions in building elegant residences and in adding mag- nificence to the city in many ways. Although the panic crushed these tendencies for a time, the fact that the basis of a large city and the bedrock of a metropolitan society had been laid, was proved by the rapid changes from town to city ways that went on notwithstanding the financial crash. The era of the laying of her foundation as a city was passed; her institutions were firmly established; she was no longer an experiment but a sure success; and, although
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her growth would continue unabated, the fact that she was the most important city of Northern Ohio, and that she would become more and more so as time went on, was recognized and realized. In the past she had been known as an important town of energy, push and phenomenal growth; from thence she would be known as a great city.
The historical and disastrous panic of 1873, the causes of which are explained by many different theories that we shall not attempt to enumerate, embarrassed more or less seriously every business house in Cleveland, and forced many to the wall. Never in our history was business so completely prostrated nor hard times more keenly felt. But the admirable soundness and stability of our commer- cial and manufacturing enterprises was proven by the firmness with which the majority of our business men stood the tremendous shock of that terrible tidal-wave of financial disaster, which, in many places, carried nearly all before it to utter ruin. It is almost impossible to ascertain the number of failures, assignments and bank- ruptcies, but they reached nearly two hundred. Real estate was affected more than any other branch of busi- ness, its values being most inflated and the speculation in it most extensive, unreasonable and factitious. Prices of lots were the highest ever known in our history, and the shrinkage, when the panic came, was correspondingly great. Imagination can scarcely compass the excitement and the huge plans for bringing all the adjacent territory about the city immediately into market and selling it by lots. The corporate limits of the city were to be extended
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several miles east, west and south. Cleveland was to spring at once into a metropolis that should rival the greatest cities East and West. Visions of immense fortunes filled the minds of every speculator, great and small. Large deals were accomplished with small capital by pur- chasing tracts of land on contract, surveying them into lots, and selling them to private parties on installments, the latter arranged to accommodate the speculator in mak- ing his payments. As rapidly as one tract was disposed of, another would be bought and sold in the same manner. When the blow fell it caught many who were unable to pull through, and swept away all they had realized in years of great success.
A number of firms availed themselves of the advantages. of the loose bankrupt law, since repealed, to unjustly evade their liabilities, but most of them bravely stemmed. the storm and saved their credit. Not a banking house in, the city, we are proud to record, was forced to suspension. By courage, discretion and industry better times were. gradually restored, but for several years business was in a. very depressed condition. Probably no city throughout the country, however, suffered less than Cleveland.
The Women's Crusade against the saloons will always. be remembered as a unique and impressive movement. It was carried on energetically by the women of Cleve- land with important and lasting results, and, though frequently attended by great opposition and uproar, was yet unmarked by the excesses and looser features that accompanied it in many other points. The first public: demonstration was on March 17, 1874, when twenty-two
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women, led by Mrs. W. A. Ingham, held a solemn prayer meeting in the front office of a Public Square saloon. For many weeks afterwards similar meetings were daily con- ducted. Those who took part in the work were organized into bands and detailed to particular districts of the city. Occasionally the entire force would unite for a special move, and then could be seen the spectacle of five hundred women in long procession advancing upon some peculiarly obnoxious saloon. The great hotels, the prominent saloons and every liquor-selling house in the city received their visits. They were at times met by surging crowds, where the din of jeers and shouts drowned their prayers and songs. Dangers of rioting led to the increasing of the police force, and the military were ordered to be ready to move if necessary. But only one serious disturbance arose, and a squad of police was sufficient to scatter the mob. The effect of these operations was to arouse the whole city. Mass meetings were held. Organized efforts to enforce the liquor laws resulted in nine hundred indict- ments under the Adair law. A number of saloonkeepers were induced to abandon their business and aid the crusaders. But these results were brief. It was in the establishment of the Women's Christian League that the "Women's War" found its lasting results. The league was organized in March with the following officers: Miss Sarah E. Fritch, president; Mrs. W. A. Ingham, secretary ; Mrs. Rev. S. W. Duncan, treasurer. It soon established the "Friendly Inns," designing them as permanent institu- tions to supply temperance restaurants, lodging places and chapels, in addition to headquarters for their district
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work. The first inn established was the River Street Inn, which occupied the room previously held by a saloon. St. Clair Street Inn and Central Place Inn were opened during the same year. Lately the restaurant feature of these inns has been abandoned, so large is the number of temperance coffee houses which have sprung up since they were begun. A new building is at present in process of erection for the Central Place Friendly Inn, fifty thousand dollars having been subscribed for the building and lot. The Pearl Street Inn, on the West Side, was established in 1876 by a sepa- rate organization, the West Side Friendly Inn Association, and was discontinued in 1883. Other institutions of the league are the "Open Door," established in 1877, to afford to friendless, intemperate and fallen women every class of need; the Woodland Avenue Reading Room, the Willson Avenue Reading Room and the Detroit Street Temperance Chapel. The league was incorporated under the laws of the State in 1880, and in 1883 its name was changed by special order of court to the Women's Christian Temper- ance Union. In 1884 the Cleveland Union withdrew from its connection with the National Women's Christian Tem- perance Union on account of the enlisting of the latter in partisan politics, and has since that time been an inde- pendent organization. Its work is rapidly growing, and both in the forming of public sentiment and the organizing of practical benevolence, its efforts are marked by vigor and success. Among those whose generosity has given con- stant aid to the Union during its corporate existence should be mentioned the names of two of Cleveland's hon- ored citizens, whose memory will live in the history of
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every good work-Mr. Joseph Perkins and Captain Alva Bradley, trustees of the Union to the time of their death .*
The year of the financial crash was one of great depres- sion and suffering among the laboring class of Cleveland. This suffering continued into the next year and caused several outbreaks of considerable magnitude. Strikes within the last fifteen or twenty years have been of almost monthly occurrence in the city, and to make even a bare statement of them would require a separate vol- ume. We can, therefore, only record a few of the most notable from time to time. April 20, 1874, the sailors struck for an advance of fifty cents on the one dollar and a half per day they were then receiving. As the city was full of unemployed men, their demand was not acceded to. The next morning over two hundred strikers formed in line and started towards the vessels moored in the old river bed, compelling all hands to fall in line. In attempt- ing to board some of the crafts the crowd was fired upon and several killed. Nothing further was done of a violent nature, and the arrest of thirteen of the ring-leaders quelled the disturbance. The abundance of idle men in the city emboldened large operators to reduce the scale of wages. Just two weeks after the sailors' strike a cut in wages led to the strike of over four hundred coal heavers,
* The officers of the Union for the year 1887 are : Mrs. Anna E. Prather, president ; Miss F. Jennie Duty, corresponding secretary ; Miss Mary E. Ingersoll, Mrs. E. J. Phinney, corresponding secretaries, Mrs. V. W. Orton, treasurer. Trustees, J. D. Rockefeller, E. C. Pope, General E. S. Meyer, Captain Thomas Wilson, R. K. Hawley; Douglas Perkins, treasurer.
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who soon induced an equal number of lumbermen to abandon work. These men were orderly in their conduct, and their sensible and dispassionate discussion of their grievances elicited the profound sympathy of the people and resulted in a restoration of the former wages. So great was the distress among the laboring people gener- ally, and so rife was the labor agitation of that time, that even sewer diggers struck and paraded through the city handling roughly contractors and refractory laborers.
The nineteenth Saengerfest of the North American Saengerfest Society, held in Cleveland from June 22 to 29, 1874, was of much more than ordinary importance. It was, as its name indicates, a National affair, and was attended by about fifty of the most prominent "bands" of the West, in all about fifteen hundred singers. The Fest is biennial and the Cleveland societies made elaborate preparations to outdo former attempts. A stock com- pany was formed and sixty thousand dollars raised by the sale of stock. A large temporary building, 220x152, was erected on Euclid, between Case and Sterling avenues, at a cost of twenty-one thousand dollars. The seating capacity of the auditorium was nine thousand, and of the stage one thousand five hundred. The great Prussian prima-donna, Madame Lucca, sang at three of the concerts, and the Philharmonic Orchestra, of New York, was secured for the whole week. Great pub- lic interest was manifested in the enterprise, and half fare on all railroads leading to the city made a very large attendance. The decorations were elaborate, and every street in the city was hung with evergreen and
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the flags of the United States and Germany. Governor Allen and Lieutenant-Governor Hart opened the Fest, and Dr. G. C. E. Weber pronounced in German a eulogy on music. The music of the reception concert was under Pro- fessor Heydler's direction, and the other concerts were directed by Carl Bergman. The whole week was unique in Cleveland's history and won for her citizens an enviable reputation for hospitality and musical appreciation.
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