USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 12
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In February, 1875, the City Council ratified a contract for the lease of the then magnificent Case building, on Superior street, to be used for a City Hall. The period of the lease extends from the first of March, 1875, to the first of April, 1900, at the annual rental of thirty-six thousand dollars. For several years the need of a commo- dious City Hall that should be worthy the dignity and size of the city had been sorely felt, and was the fertile par- ent of committee after committee and report upon report. One spasmodic attempt had been made four or five years before, when the Council offered a premium of one thousand dollars for the best plan of a City Hall. A dozen plans ensued ; one was chosen and the city's bursary weakened a thousand dollars, without, however, bringing the hall. Other great municipal enterprises-the Water Works tunnel, the Viaduct, and Lake Side Park-employed the public . mind and money. Meanwhile the city offices had spread about wherever an opening could be found. On the south side of the Square a so-called "City Hall" contained a dingy room where the Council met, and other rooms for the Mayor, Board of Improvements, Assessing Boards, City Clerk, City Auditor and Clerk of the Board of Health.
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The Infirmary offices were a few rods up the street; the' Water Works department in the Cushing Block; the Board of Education with their officers on Prospect street; the City Solicitor on Superior street; City Treasurer on Bank street; Street Commissioner on Seneca Street hill; Board of Police in Central Station building; Fire Commissioners. in Engine House No. 1; while the Infirmary Directors, Cemetery Trustees and Park Commissioners wandered about without a fixed abiding-place. But now for the first time since Cleveland became a city, the public offices: gathered under one roof. The terms of the lease are so favorable to the city that the rental received for the large storerooms on the first floor and the suites of rooms not used by the city, is large enough to pay the city's rental. But notwithstanding these favorable terms, Cleveland badly needs a better and more substantial building for her municipal officers.
While Cleveland was making rapid advances in material progress, she fell behind her sister cities in procuring a place for popular amusement that should be adapted in size and architecture and appointments to the demands of a great city. The chief honor of supplying this deficiency is due to Mr. John A. Ellsler, who projected the enterprise of the Euclid Avenue Opera House, collected the subscrip- tions and carried on the work in the face of great obstacles .. The building when completed was acknowledged to be one of the finest and best appointed places of amusement in the United States. It measures one hundred feet front on Sheriff street and one hundred and fifty feet deep, and has a total seating capacity of over sixteen hundred, about
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double that of the old opera house. The beauty of the inte- rior of the edifice, the elaborate proscenium, the graceful sweep of the galleries, the glitter of the chandeliers and the glow of the richly wrought ceiling above, formed a picture that enraptured the eyes of the Cleveland audience that assembled on the evening of its opening to the public, Sep- tember 6, 1875. But theatres must be classed among the luxuries, and the financial depressions that settled so roughly on every industry fell with double force on the stockholders of this beautiful structure. It was sold at a great sacrifice to meet the debts incurred in its erection, but still retains its position as a really noble temple of art.
The Cleveland City Hospital was originally established in a small frame building on Wilson street, but under the pressing need of larger accommodations its managers secured, in the fall of 1875, the lease for twenty years from the government of the old Marine Hospital, at the foot of Erie street. This building, besides being large and con- venient, occupies a site most favorable for hospital pur- poses, and commands a beautiful view of the lake scenery, while its interior arrangements afford the best facilities for the comfort and care of patients. There are rooms on the second and third floors for pay patients, and other wards are set apart for charity patients. Though the corporate name might imply that the hospital receives aid or sup- port from the city, such is not the case, nor does it receive any subsidy from the government. The expenses are de- frayed wholly by voluntary contributions and pay patients, and by a payment from the government of sixty-four cents
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per day for each sailor cared for, a sum, however, which is barely adequate to cover the actual expenditures for him.
The project of securing a commodious harbor of refuge at Cleveland had often been discussed in meetings of the Board of Trade and the City Council, but the first effective step was taken in 1870, when resolutions of the Common Council and petitions of the citizens were submitted to Congress by Hon. W. H. Upson, representative from the Cleveland district. Congress thereupon appropriated three thousand dollars for a preliminary survey. The Board of Engineers, to whom the matter was submitted, reported that the cost of the proposed harbor of refuge would amount to the enormous sum of four million dollars, at which Congress peremptorily refused further appropriations. Nothing more was done until 1873, when Hon. R. C. Parsons, then the Cleveland member of the House of Representatives, presented a memorial from the Board of Trade, and spoke in its favor, showing how necessary was the work, and also that its cost would be far less than the amount estimated by the Board of En- gineers. Congress then agreed to another survey, which was made in 1874 by Colonel Blunt, of the United States Engineers' Corps. He reported two plans, one providing for an anchorage of about thirty acres at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars, the other of ninety acres at a cost of twelve hundred thousand dollars. In the following spring an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars was made to begin the work, and the size and form were re- ferred to a corps of government engineers. These met in Cleveland in April and June, and reported in favor of the
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construction of a harbor of two hundred acres at an esti- mated cost of eighteen hundred thousand dollars. The breakwater as thus recommended was begun in the fall of 1875 and completed in 1884. It begins at a point seven hundred feet west of the upper end of the old river bed, and extends in a direction about due north a distance of 3,130 feet, to a depth of 28 feet, where the angle is turned and it runs for 4,030 feet nearly parallel to the shore, with a spur one hundred feet long on the north side of the lake arm and two hundred feet from its eastern end. It was proposed to protect the entrance to the harbor on the east side by extending the east pier at the mouth of the river fourteen hundred feet, but in May, 1884, the engineer in charge recommended that this plan be changed and that another arm of breakwater be built to the eastward, leaving an opening opposite the piers for an entrance .. This project being referred to a Board of Engineers, which met in September of the same year, was approved in an amended form, and on August 5, 1886, an act of Congress made appropriations for its execution. It provides that the new breakwater, beginning at a point on the prolongation of the west breakwater and 500 feet from it, shall extend eastward about 1200 feet, then incline towards the shore and extend 2,400 feet to a point 2,200 feet from the shore, at the foot of Wood street, and leaving an entrance 1,200 feet wide between the eastern end and the curve of fourteen feet depth of water. The foundation for the 1,200 feet to the point of incline is now completed, and it is expected that the superstructure for the same will be completed by June, 1888. The total amount expended for both the east
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and west breakwater up to June 30, 1887, was $809,- 206.26, and the total amount appropriated by Congress for the work is $993,750.
On the afternoon of May 16 the whole city was shaken up by a terrible explosion-nobody could tell just what. Doors were unhinged or jammed shut, window lights shivered into atoms, and many of the most expensive plate fronts in the city totally destroyed. After the people had recovered their senses, it was discovered that the Austin Powder Mills, near five-mile lock, had blown up. Of the fifty-seven buildings belonging to the company, over half were blown to atoms. Three men were killed and the loss of property was almost one hundred thousand dollars.
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CHAPTER XIX.
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION - INCORPORATION OF RIVERSIDE CEMETERY- A POLICE LIFE AND HEALTH FUND-THE CELEBRATED INVENTION OF CHARLES F. BRUSH - ESTABLISHMENT IN CLEVELAND OF THE BRUSH ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY-THE RAILROAD STRIKE OF 1877 -THE CLEVELAND GATLING GUN BATTERY AND THE FIRST CAVALRY TROOP.
T HE second century of American Independence found a glorious greeting in the Forest City, though it made its début on a rainy and lowering day. During the entire night of July 3, the din of horns, pistols, guns and fire- .crackers proclaimed its coming. At the earliest break of day a great crowd assembled around the new flag-staff on the Public Square, to witness its formal delivery by the "committee having its erection in charge, into the city's hands through Mayor Payne, its representative. This :staff built by private contributions, of the best Bessemer steel, is the only permanent memento of the grand celebra- tion of that day. It stands on the spot where the old wooden flag-staff, erected in 1860, and after standing for fifteen years, had gone to its fall, honored but dry-rotted, before a rattling gale of wind. At eight o'clock the stir- ring sounds of "America " arose from the voices of three :thousand.children. After an interval of heavy raining, the
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great procession of military companies, temperance and benevolent societies, bands and decorated wagons marched through the streets. Then followed the oration of the day by Hon. S. O. Griswold, in words full of power and elo- quence. A sailing regatta, a naval combat, a steam regatta, occupied the afternoon, while the evening beheld such a blaze of fireworks as occurs but once in a century. Public and private buildings profusely decorated with bunting and flags, conspired throughout the day with the booming of cannon to thrill and excite the hearts of thou- sands of assembled patriots.
Riverside Cemetery, located at the junction of Colum- bus street and Scranton avenue, was laid out in 1876 under the control of the Riverside Cemetery Association. It embraces over one hundred acres of land, magnificent in its wealth of natural beauty, with ravines, hills, lakes and lawns, all bordering upon the Cuyahoga river. These original advantages, combined with the beauties of extensive and skillful ornamentation, make it equal to any of Cleveland's cemeteries. The "Grand Avenue," the receiv- ing tomb and the canopy monument are features of ele- gance and beauty. The first president of the association was Mr. Josiah Barber, and the executive committee, Messrs. J. M. Curtiss, S. W. Sessions, Thomas Dixon and George H. Foster.
In 1876, by act of the Legislature, a "Police Life and Health Fund" wasestablished, to be secured from different sources, including all unclaimed money and the proceeds arising from the sale of unclaimed property. From this fund, as provided by amendment of 1881, a pension of five hun-
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dred dollars annually is paid to any member of the police force who has become disabled while in the active per- formance of his duty, or who has performed faithful ser- vice for fifteen consecutive years. In case of the death of one who is on the pension roll or who has been fatally injured while on duty, his widow or minor children or persons dependent upon him receive five hundred dollars. Members are placed on the pension roll by order of the Board of Police Commissioners, under certificate from the health officer or police surgeon, and remain subject to the orders of the board. Thefund accrued at present amounts to about thirty-three thousand dollars.
The most wonderful of modern inventions was the work of a Cleveland man, Mr. C. F. Brush, who perfected the Brush electric light, solving at once the following four-fold problem that had baffled scientists for years : " First, to pro- vide an efficient and economical means of converting me- chanical power into electric energy ; second, to devise a gen- erator able to evolve an electric current capable of sub- division, to supply a series of lamps in one circuit; third, to invent a self-regulating lamp adapted to such an elec- tric circuit, and so constructed that any accidental dis- turbance of it, or its extinction, would have no effect upon the other lamps in the same circuit, the lamp to be at the same time easy to keep in order, durable and economical in power; and fourth, to discover an automatic method of regulating the supply of electricity so that the current would always be exactly equal to the varying require- ments of the circuit."
The first two of these problems were solved by the Brush
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dynamo, invented in 1876. The only machine of any importance up to that time was the gramme dynamo, and that was by no means a commercial success, as it could only furnish current for a few lamps and could not sustain them with steadiness. The machine which conquered these difficulties has its chief peculiarities in the arrange- ment of field magnets, the armature and commutator. The armature is annular and carries eight bobbins arranged in pairs so as to be brought most fully into the field of magnetic influence. These pairs are so arranged as to be thrown successively out of the circuit precisely at that point where they cease to contribute to the force of current, but would rather afford an avenue of escape. The largest sized dynamo generates a current strong enough to sustain sixty-five lamps of two thousand candle power each.
The other two problems Mr. Brush solved with equal readiness in the arc lamp. A great difficulty, almost insurmountable, was regulating the distance of the car- bons. Clock work and gravity apparatus had proved ineffectual and rendered electric light commercially useless. Mr. Brush made the current, acting through a magnet upon a clamp which holds the carbon, regulate this dis- tance. To provide for the varying current, shunting heli- ces of high resistance carrying currents in opposite direc- tions, were inserted and serve as a governor upon the cur- rent ; for if a stronger current go through the main wires, the adverse induced currents grow stronger and tend to weaken the main currents. The solution of the problem of electric lighting has led to the establishment of one of our
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most important manufactories. The success of this enter- prise is wonderful, the light having been already introduced into India, Australia, Egypt, South America, Africa, China and inevery European country. In 1878 sales amounted to fifty thousand dollars, but five years after that to two mil- lion dollars. The works are the largest of the kind in the world, and the capital invested in the electrical business and kindred enterprises, the outgrowth of the Brush light, amounts to over twenty-five million dollars.
The great railroad strike of July, 1877, reached Cleve- land on the twenty-second of that month, a few days after its most violent outbreak at Pittsburgh. Five hundred men employed on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway left their work and formulated demands, which were presented to the general superintendent of the road. From the first they gained entire control of the road, and no trains or engines except the mail trains were permitted to move. Other trunk lines were idle because of strikes in other places, and the blockading of all transportation facilities brought to a standstill many of the principal in- dustries of the city. Thousands of men were thrown out of employment, and it seemed that a crisis involving enormous destruction of property might at any moment burst forth, as it had done in Pittsburgh. The strikers themselves, though making their demands vigorously and massing their numbers at different times and places, con- ducted their deliberations peaceably and gave assur- ance of their purpose to refrain from violence. But the danger was found in the scurvy mob of law-breakers, thieves and thugs, who saw an opportunity in case of out-
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break for pillage and plunder. Great credit is due to the prompt and discreet action of Mayor Rose and the leading citizens, who, without any public parade that might have stirred up the fear of danger when none was imminent, sum- moned together and stationed bodies of police, militia, artillery and organized veterans in such shape that the first symptom of mob or riot could have been completely overpowered. In private conferences with committees from the strikers, and in a public proclamation to the citizens of Cleveland, Mayor Rose, while allowing the right of workmen to strike, warned them against intimi- dating others who were anxious to work. The strike on the Lake Shore road lasted two weeks, when the men were met by the general manager of the road, and, though not securing the main object of the strike, namely, a return to the wages paid before a recent reduction, yet being granted several matters of hardly inferior importance, they agreed to return to work. Thus Cleveland, owing to the con- servatism of the striking workmen themselves and to the discretion and firmness of her mayor, escaped almost entirely the disturbances which had resulted so disas- trously to life and property in other cities, while the just- ness of the demands of the laborers gained the sympathy and assistance of the mass of her citizens.
The Cleveland Gatling Gun Battery was organized by a citizens' committee, June 26, 1878, and grew out of a sense of needed security against a repetition of strikes and riots like those of the previous year. W. F. Goodspeed was chosen captain and Frank Wilson first lieutenant. An old church building at thecorner of Prospect and Perry streets
hm Cs Rose
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served for an armory until the erection of the present edi -!! :: fice on Sibley street. The company numbered twenty-five men. In 1881 it was reorganized and incorporated and the membership increased to fifty. The Battery is an inde- pendent organization, subject to the orders of the mayor, and cannot be called outside of the city. They own the armory and grounds and their equipment, including two Gatling guns, the whole valued at twenty-eight thousand dollars. The present officers are: L. C. Hanna, captain; John H. Kirkwood, first lieutenant; G. S. Russell, second lieutenant.
The First Cleveland Troop, the only cavalry company of Cleveland, completed its organization October 10, 1877, with W. H. Harris, captain ; E. S. Meyer, first lieuten- ant; G. A. Garrettson, second lieutenant; Charles D. Gay- lord, first sergeant; and Frank Wells, surgeon. Tempo- rary quarters were found in Weisgerber's Hall, until Decem- ber, 1878, when their armory on Euclid avenue, between Sterling and Case avenues, was completed. This armory, having no riding school in connection, was abandoned in 1884 and the present commodious structure on Willson avenue was erected. Their membership has varied from fifty to seventy, all thoroughly equipped and ready to take the field at an hour's notice. They are subject to the call of the State. The officers at present are: George A. Garrettson, captain; H. E. Meyers, first lieutenant; H. F. Baxter, second lieutenant ; H. C. Rouse, first sergeant; W. C. Hayes, quartermaster sergeant.
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CHAPTER XX.
A GRAND WORK OF CHARITY - COMPLETION OF THE SUPERIOR STREET VIADUCT - DONATION TO THE CITY OF WADE PARK BY J. H. WADE -FUNERAL OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
C LEVELAND has always been preeminent in her chari- ties. Her response to Chicago's cry was prompt and generous, as also to the wail of distress that arose from the South in 1878. On the twenty-fourth of August a mass meeting was held in the Tabernacle and a relief committee of seven, with J. H. Wade as chairman, appointed. That this committee did efficient work is seen at a glance. The amount collected to August 27, $1,882.23; to August 30, $2,464; to September 2, $3,475; to September 7, $5,067; to September 14, $7,274.58; to September 21, $8,959; to September 27, $9,713; to October 12, $11,165. The city for a time gave itself up entirely to money-making for the benefit of the sufferers. Balls, base ball, concerts, and every description of entertainment aimed at the purse, contributed to the fund which finally in less than a month swelled to over twelve thousand dollars.
On December 27, 1878, the citizens turned out en masse
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to celebrate the completion of the great stone Viaduct. * Their enthusiasm was amply justified by the magnitude and practical worth of the structure. By their authority had been built this bridge 3,211 feet long, and 42 wide, containing 1,994,355 cubic feet of masonry, 12,500 tons of iron, and costing $2,170,000. They felt a just pride in the mechanical skill of their fellow-citizens, and that they were amply remunerated for the enormous expense by exemption from the dangers and delays incident to the old method of transit. The idea of a high level bridge between the two cities had "lain fallow," as it were, for thirty-five years, until it became the absorbing thought of Mayor Buhrer's administration in 1870. His suggestion of it in that year was the first of a series of tardy steps in municipal legisla- tion. In his next annual message attention was again called to the matter. In view of these suggestions a resolution was passed in Council providing for a committee of five to report on the plan of a high level bridge. The favorable report of this committee was adopted. By this time con- siderable opposition had developed to a high level bridge, and John Huntington introduced as a compromise a reso- lution to appoint a committee which was to present plans and estimates for a bridge at the foot of Superior, for the extension of Detroit and Washington to Superior, for the. removal of canal locks and other obstructions, and the lowering of railroads. This resolution was adopted and was the basis of all future municipal legislation on this subject. The committee appointed under it reported fav-
* The meeting was very large and enthusiastic, Mayor Rose delivering the dedicatory address.
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orably, Engineer Strong making the estimate $759,329. The Council had now gone as far as it could without authority from the State. In 1871 a bill providing for the erection of a viaduct had been introduced, but failed to pass. A second bill, the following year, was passed, and it provided for the issue of $1,100,000 coupon interest- bearing bonds, the money from the sale of which was to payfor the work proposed in the Huntington compromise. After these preliminaries the way was open for active steps. The Council passed a resolution to submit the mat- ter to the qualified electors. This resulted in a majority of 5,451 in favor of the proposed work. The plan seemed hastening to a speedy consummation; the contract for the West Side masonry was even let. But the work made little progress for the next two years save in obtaining the right of way, owing to a temporary injunction issued by Judge McClure, of Akron. Though he gave his decision in favor of the city in 1873, little was done but the reletting of the contract. This was in all a very profitable delay ; for besides the $100,000 spent in engineering, saved in the new contracts, it was now considered advisable to widen the Viaduct fourteen feet and raise it sixteen, and to have the eastern terminus on Water street, leaving Superior unoccu- pied. This change added $463,000 to previous estimates. and a re-estimate by Morse, then city engineer, made the whole cost $2,700,000. There was by this time abundant evidence that the authorized issue of bonds would be too small. Tosupply this deficit, a supplementary act was passed in April of 1876, fixing the maximum issue of bonds at $2,700,000, not less than $250,000 of which was
R.R. Henrick
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to be used in lowering the railroads. But these bonds could not be issued until two questions were decided : whether toll was to be collected and whether the issue of bonds would be authorized by the voters. A special elec- tion, May 4, 1876, decided both of these questions in the affirmative; for toll by a majority of 2,626, for bonds 3,598. But that question of toll was a vexed one over which councilmen exhausted their eloquence, and which the people decided contrary to their after judgment. When once decided in accordance with the statutes, there was no escape from the execution of thelaw-although the City Solicitor was appointed a committee to find a flaw in the law-save the abrogation of the law. This was done by the assembly, and so the Viaduct was carried on to com- pletion without any other serious delay. The Viaduct was turned over to the city authorities December 27, 1878, having been four years and a half in construction and cost- ing, as previously stated, $2,170,000.
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