USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 2
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
of incalculable value in the troublous days of Cleveland's early history.
At this time the surveys were by no means complete. The work hitherto had been chiefly in the way of explor- ation; the courses of rivers had been traced, and township limits marked out with more or less precision. During the summer of 1797, surveys in the immediate neighbor- hood of the city were carried on vigorously, with the result that by the end of August the "Central," "North" and "South" highways, now known respectively as Euclid avenue, St. Clair street and Woodland avenue had been accurately determined. In January of the following year (1798) the stockholders of the Connecticut Land company assembled at Hartford, where apportionments were made to individual members; Cleveland, with five other town- ships, being reserved by the company for sale.
In the summer of 1798 the little settlement had its first serious experience of an enemy, whose attacks were des- tined to work more mischief than all other evil influences combined. The malaria that rose from the swamps ad- joining the mouth of the river had long been the dread of surveying parties. This year it was peculiarly virulent. Every member of the three or four families that were set- tled in the city proper had periodic attacks of the fever and ague. Without proper remedies, and with insufficient supply of vegetable food, no relief could be found till, late in autumn, the swamps were hardened by the frost. The following spring Nathaniel Doan, the blacksmith, and Mr. Hawley, a late arrival from the east, removed with their families to the more healthful region of the ridge near New-
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
burgh, whither they had been preceded by Mr. James Kings- bury. Their removal reduced the population of Cleveland to two families-those of Carter and Spafford. The major and theex-surveyor kept tavern, dickered with the Indians, and cultivated the soil of their city lots. Except for their hardy constitutions and untiring energy, the settlement would have been abandoned and the beginning of Cleve- land's history indefinitely postponed. From this time dates the friendly rivalry between Cleveland and New- burgh, of which mention will be made later on.
The final year of the century was marked by an event of no small importance-the opening of a grist-mill at New- burgh, the first ever built on the Western Reserve. This event was made the occasion of a grand merry-making, in which the scattered settlers for miles around participated. The next year a saw-mill was erected near the same spot. Both mills were the work of Mr. Wheeler W. Williams and Major Wyatt, who had lately arrived from Con- necticut.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
CHAPTER III.
THE ERECTION OF TRUMBULL COUNTY-EXTENT OF CLEVELAND TOWN- SHIP-THE FIRST CIVIL LIST-RIVALRY WITH NEWBURGH-THE BRY- ANTS' DISTILLERY-TRADE WITH THE INDIANS-SAMUEL HUNTINGTON -LOCAL AUTONOMY-THE FIRST TOWN MEETING AND ITS RESULT- ORGANIZATION OF MILITIA DISTRICTS-SETTLEMENT OF INDIAN CLAIMS-THE EVE OF WAR-GENERAL HULL'S SURRENDER-PERRY'S VICTORY.
F OLLOWING upon the settlement of conflicting claims on the part of the State of Connecticut and the United States government, Governor St. Clair had issued an ordi- nanceestablishing the County of Trumbull, which was to in- clude the entire Western Reserve. At this time the appoint- ment of township officers was virtually a function of the executive, the appointments being made by the Court of Quarter Sessions, the members of which were nominated by the governor. James Kingsbury had been named a justice of the Quorum, thereby becoming a justice of the Court of Quarter Sessions. Amos Spafford of Cleveland was at the same time made a justice of the peace.
Cleveland was then an immense territory, embracing the townships of Chester, Russell and Bainbridge, that portion of Cuyahoga county now lying east of the river, and the unoccupied Indian country extending to the west line of
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
the Reserve. At the first meeting of the court at Warren, in August, 1800, the township divisions having been de- termined, an appointment of constables was made for each township, those for Cleveland being Lorenzo Carter and Stephen Gilbert. Theconstabulary thus chosen formed the first civil list of the Western Reserve. In Cleveland, at least, the position could scarcely have been regarded as a sinecure, the major and his associates having charge of a territory some two thousand three hundred square miles in extent. As, however, the larger portion of this huge town- ship was still in possession of the Indians, it may be as- sumed that the actual duties of the office were not so ardu- ous as might at first appear.
The city at the mouth of the river, though its area of cleared land was extended year by year, increased but slowly in numbers. The rival settlement on the ridge- Newburgh, as it came to be called-had the great advan- tage of a healthful location; and this was sufficient till the period of canals and opening traffic with the west, to secure it an equal if not a dominant influence. Such arrivals as there were, however, were accommodated at the taverns of Major Carter and Amos Spafford, who soon after obtained regular hotel licenses from the Court of Quarter Sessions.
Among other noteworthy incidents of these years should be mentioned the arrival of David and Gilman Bryant from Virginia, bringing with them a still, which they at once established and began to operate at the foot of Superior street. The settlers were thus enabled to convert their grain into a product better suited to the slow and difficult
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
transportation of those days. We are assured, further- more, that the presence of a distillery on the river bank did much to facilitate trade with the neighboring red-skins. The public conscience of the time was not, seemingly, so sensitive as at present to the evils of intemperance; per- haps, among other reasons, from the fact that intemper- ance among those hardy and laborious pioneers seldom reached the verge of debauchery.
The year 1801 saw the arrival of a man who was des- tined to attain the highest honors of the State. Samuel Huntington, of aristocratic New England connections, came to Cleveland with the expectation of building up a lucrative law practice in what he supposed was soon to become a thriving western town. Fortunately for him, the disappointment of this hope did not deter him from other lines of advancement. He was successively made an appraiser of houses, a lieutenant in the county militia, and, in January, 1802, a justice of Quorum. He after- ward entered politics and represented Trumbull county in the Ohio State Senate. In 1803 he was made a judge of the Supreme Court, his commission being the first issued under the authority of the State. Subsequently, Mr. Huntington served an honored term as governor of Ohio.
In 1802 Governor St. Clair had been compelled to yield a point in favor of local self-government, and had granted to townships the privilege of choosing their own officials. The result of the first town meeting, held at the residence of Judge Kingsbury, will appear from the following report of the clerk, Mr. Nathaniel Doan :
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Chairman, Rudolphus Edwards; trustees, Amos Spafford, Timothy Doan, Wm. W. Williams; appraisers of houses, Samuel Hamilton, Elijah Gun; lister, Ebenezer Ayrs; supervisors of highway, Samuel Hunting- ton, Nathaniel Doan, Samuel Hamilton; fence viewers, Lorenzo Carter, Nathan Chapman; constables, Ezeikel Hawley, Richard Craw.
These official dignities seem not to have been very seduc- tive; for, during the years immediately following, we repeatedly find prominent citizens "utterly refusing" to take upon themselves the functions that had been assigned them, preferring to pay the penalty stipulated for failure to serve.
In 1804 Trumbull county was erected into a militia district. A meeting of members of the Fourth Company district (that of Cleveland) was held at the house of James Kingsbury, at which the following officers were elected: captain, Lorenzo Carter ; lieutenant, Nathaniel Doan; ensign, Samuel Jones. It appears that the aggressive Carter had, as usual, aroused the enmity of certain of his associates, for a remonstrance was drawn up and signed by eight citizens, praying that the election might be set aside. Nothing was done, however, and the difficulty seems to have been composed.
In 1805 treaties were signed at Cleveland with the chiefs of those Indian tribes that held unsettled claims to that portion of the Reserve lying west of the Cuyahoga river. This territory was surveyed and divided into townships. The same year, it should be added, the Cleveland post-office was established, with Elisha Morton as postmaster.
There is but little to chronicle of the period intervening before the war. As before, there was an abundance of toil,
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
seasoned by rude sport and adventure-ordinary incidents of frontier life. Among the few arrivals of this time should be mentioned Dr. David Long, and Alfred Kelly, Esq., a young lawyer, both of whom came in 1810. Mr. Kelly enjoyed the distinction of being the first practicing lawyer of Cleveland.
The dull routine was roughly broken by the outbreak of war in 1812. In August General Hull surrendered at De- troit. The news was received at Cleveland with terror and confusion. It was expected that the British and their savage allies would soon appear before the defenseless town. Many families abandoned their homes and started eastward, with no definite purpose in view save to put as great distance as possible between themselves and the scene of danger. Those who remained, recruited by occa- . sional arrivals from the adjoining country, formed them- selves into a quasi brigade, numbering about fifty men. On the night of August 17, the sentinels posted along the water front reported an approaching vessel, which, it was soon learned, bore the paroled soldiers of the army that General Hull had so ignobly surrendered the day before. A company of militia was soon afterward formed in Cleve- land and vicinity. Following is the company roll :
1
Captain, Harvey Murray; lieutenant, Lewis Dille; ensign, Alfred Kelly ; sergeants, Ebenezer Green, Simeon Moss, Thomas Hamilton, Seth Doan; corporals, James Root, John Lauterman, Asa Dille, Martin G. Shelhouse; drummer, David S. Tyler; fifer, Rodolphus Carleton; pri- vates, Aretus Burk, Allen Burk, Charles Brandon, John Bishop, Moses Bradley, Silas Burk, Sylvester Beacher, James S. Bills, John Carlton, Mason Clark, Anthony Doyle, Luther Dille, Samuel Dille, Samuel Dodge, Moses Eldred Samuel Evarts, Ebenezer Fish, Zebulon R. S. Freeman,
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Robert Harberson, Daniel S. Judd, Jackson James, John James, Stephen King, Guy Lee, Jacob Mingus, William McConkey, Thomas McIlrath, Samuel Noyes, David Reed, John Sweeney, Parker Shadrick, Luther Sterns, Bazaleel Thorp, John Taylor, Thomas Thomas, Hartman Van Duzen, Joseph Williams, Matthew Williamson, John Wrightman, Wil- liam White, Joseph Burk, Robert Prentis, Benjamin Ogden.
It were needless to trace in detail the events of this troubled period up to the time of Perry's splendid victory, September 10, 1813. The region never ceased to resound with the din of warlike preparation. The militia was organized, stockades were erected, and companies formed for the general defence. When peace came it brought with it a more propitious outlook for the future of the Western Reserve. Immigration began to get in, and although the struggling village was destined still for much discourage- ment and hardship, yet the foundation of its future great- ness was being laid in the increasing prosperity of the region about her.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
CHAPTER IV.
THE VILLAGE OF CLEVELAND-BUILDING AND IMPROVEMENT-BEGINNING OF CLEVELAND JOURNALISM-THE OLD ACADEMY-BITS OF CORPOR- ATE LEGISLATION - THE FIRST FIRE ENGINE - THE COUNTY-SEAT CONTROVERSY - PRELIMINARIES TO THE CANAL-FROM CLEVELAND TO AKRON BY WATER-GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS-POPULATION IN 1825-LAND SPECULATION-ADVAN- TAGES OF CORPORATE ORGANIZATION.
N December 23, 1814, the General Assembly of the State of Ohio passed an act "to incorporate the village of Cleveland, in the County of Cuyahoga."* Ac- cording to a provision of this act, the first village election occurred on the first Monday of June, 1815. The election resulted in the choice of the following officers :- President, Alfred Kelly; recorder, Horace Perry; treasurer, Alonzo Carter; trustees, Samuel Williamson, David Long, Nathan Perry, jr .; marshal, John A. Ackley; assessors, George Wallace, John Riddle.
At this time the business and residence portion of the town was confined to Water street and that portion of Superior street lying between the river and the public square. The following year, at the petition of numerous citizens, the board of trustees ordered that "the said
* See appendix.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
several streets, in said petition mentioned and described, should be severally known by the following names, to-wit : the first, St. Clair; the second, Bank; the third, Seneca; the fourth, Wood; the fifth, Bond; the sixth, Euclid; the seventh, Diamond." Now, as before, the action was with a view to prospective needs, the population at that time not much exceeding one hundred persons.
The public buildings of the period were few and unpre- tentious. In 1809, after the formation of Cuyahoga county, Cleveland had been chosen as the county-seat, in preference to Newburgh, a rival of no mean pretensions. It was not, however, till 1813, during the tumult and alarm of war, that the first court-house was built, near the spot occupied by the present structure. In 1816 vari- ous sums of money had been subscribed by individuals for the building of a school-house. On the thirteenth of Janu- ary, 1817, the trustees of the village met and enacted that all such funds should be returned to the several subscribers, and that the corporation should be the sole proprietors of said school-house. The building was erected the same year, on the present site of the Kennard House. This school, it should be remembered, was not free. The town furnished the building, but the terms for tuition were in each case arranged with the teachers. In this old school-house preaching was had whenever the services of a minister could be secured. It was not until 1820 that a pastor, Rev. Randolph Stone of Ashtabula county, was engaged to preach regularly every other Sunday. The year 1817 is further noteworthy as marking the first permanent settle- ment of Brooklyn, afterwards known as Ohio City.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
On the thirty-first of July, 1818, appeared the first issue of the Cleveland Gazette and Commercial Register -- the beginning of Cleveland journalism. It was a fitful publi- cation, appearing at intervals of from one to three weeks, according to the chance supply of news and paper. In October of the following year the Herald was started. Through various vicissitudes it has survived to our day, now appearing, united nominally. with its Republican contemporary, the Cleveland Leader. Following upon these newspaper enterprises, and perhaps suggested by them, was the building of the old Academy in 1821. This was a work of private enterprise, erected at the expense of individual citizens. It bears sufficient testimony to the intelligence and enterprise of a community which did not yet number four hundred inhabitants.
The corporate legislation of the years following 1815 is very suggestive of the prevailing conditions in a new and struggling community. In 1816 a tax of one-half per cent. was levied on all lots in the township. In June, 1818, an ordinance was passed forbidding any persons to discharge a gun or pistol within the village, the penalty being a fine not to exceed five dollars. Animals were not allowed to run at large in the street ; butchering was pro- hibited within corporation limits, except by special permit ; horse racing and fast driving were forbidden. In 1825 a tax of one-fourth per cent. was levied, and in 1828 another of two mills per dollar. These various assessments were the occasion of no small out cry on the part of tax-payers.
At this early time Cleveland was not without embarrass- ments arising from the want of a trustworthy medium of ex-
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
change. Early in 1818 the difficulty had become so serious that a meeting of citizens was called, and the following measure carried :
CLEVELAND, January 24, 1818.
We, the subscribers, inhabitants of the village of Cleveland, consider- ing the great and general evil arising from the multiplicity of small bills in circulation, do hereby pledge ourselves that from and after the first day of April next we will not receive in payment any private bills of any description whatever, nor any other bills, for which current money can- not be demanded and received on demand. (Signed by)*
J. R. and I. Kelley,
Daniel Kelley,
Thomas Rumage,
S. S. Dudley,
George Wallace,
Donald McIntoshe,
Noble H. Merwin,
Leonard Case,
Wm. Bliss,
S. Nechley,
Jonathan Johnson,
Samuel L. Williamson,
Cullen Richmond,
David Long,
Cyrus Prentiss,
Phineas Sheapard,
Luther Chapin,
Levi Johnson,
Wm. Garford,
George Perkham,
George Pease,
James Hyndman,
George G. Hills,
Horace Perry,
Nathan Perry,
Henry Mowney,
David Jones,
Amasa Bailey.
In 1829 the population of Cleveland had reached the number of nearly one thousand. Building had for some time been going on quite briskly, and numerous frame structures, of some pretentions for those days, were tak- ing the place of earlier log cabins. We accordingly find in this year an appropriation of two hundred andeighty-five dollars for a fire engine. This event marks the beginning of the Cleveland fire department.
* From a paper in possession of Irad Kelley and heirs.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
The year 1826 brought to a close the rivalry that had long existed between Cleveland and Newburg. The old court-house, which had been completed to the music of Perry's guns, having become unequal to the needs of the growing community, it was determined to erect a new building. This decision was a signal for renewing the old contest as to the location of the county-seat. Newburg had begun to fall behind in point of numbers, but she was still a formidable rival, possessing sufficient influence and support to make the fight a very close one. The question came before the people in the form of an election to fill a vacancy in the board of county commissioners. The de- cision in favor of Cleveland was reached only by a small majority.
We come now to the consideration of what may prop- erly be called the elemental factors in the industrial devel- opment of Cleveland-the Ohio canal and the harbor improvements of 1825 and the years following. An act providing for the construction of a canal to connect the Ohio river and Lake Erie passed the legislature February 24, 1825. Two routes were available ; one by way of Wooster and down the valley of the Black river, the other through the Cuyahoga valley to Cleveland. The decision between these two routes rested with a board of canal commission- ers, among whom was Alfred Kelly, Esq., of Cleveland. It was largely due to his enthusiasm and public spirit that the choice was made in favor of the Cuyahoga route. While the work was in progress Mr. Kelly was acting commissioner, having full administrative control. It is to his credit that the entire cost did not exceed the original
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
estimates-a circumstance unparalleled in the history of like enterprises. July 4, 1827, the canal was opened from Cleveland to Akron, and the occasion was celebrated with great enthusiasm. Just five years later the great water way was completed from Lake Erie to the Ohio river, and the vast and fertile regions of Central Ohio were for the first time laid open to commerce. The most sanguine pre- dictions of an earlier day now proved to have been well founded. Among the receipts of the canal in 1834, two years from its opening, appear the following items: Up- wards of five hundred thousand bushels of wheat, one hundred thousand barrels of flour, one million pounds of butter, seventy thousand pounds of cheese, and other products in like proportion.
Previous to 1825 one of the most serious disadvantages which retarded the growth of Cleveland was the lack of adequate harbor facilities. From the first settlement of the place every business activity had been inaugurated and carried on with constant view to the belief that the port of Cleveland was to become the chief mercantile em- porium of Northern Ohio. And such it was evidently des- tined to become. But a harbor of trustworthy depth and bottom was an essential factor in the prospect; and such a harbor Cleveland at this time did not possess. In the session of 1824-25, the matter having been brought to the attention of Congress, an appropriation of five thousand dollars was secured, the expenditure of which was en- trusted to Mr. Ashbel Walworth, customs collector of the northern district. No accurate survey had been attempted, and the whole matter was left to the good judgment of
-
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Mr. Walworth and his advisers. The aim was to secure a clear channel by preventing further encroachment of sand- drift which, during a greater part of the year, obstructed the mouth of the river. It was therefore determined to extend a pier a sufficient distance into the lake, from the east shore of the river, to counteract the action of the prevailing northeast winds. Such a pier was constructed, absorbing the entire amount of the government grant; but, strange to say, it proved utterly unequal to the task proposed. The drift was as persistent as ever, and the channel remained precarious or impassable.
In October of the same year a meeting was called, which included all the business men of the place, and a sufficient sum was raised to send Mr. Walworth to Washington, with a view to securing another and a larger appropria- tion. The result was a second grant, this time of ten thousand dollars, and the deputation of Major T. W. Maurice, of the United States engineer corps, for the work of harbor survey. The plan now adopted was to change the channel of the river, making it pass eastward of the Walworth pier. A second pier was to be built for the protection of the east bank of the new channel, which would run between the two structures. The work of Major Maurice, with the extension afterwards made, proved entirely successful, and a good harbor was at last secured. The government soon supplemented its work by the erection (in 1830) of a light-house at the north end of Water street, appropriating therefor eight thousand dollars.
In 1825 the population of Cleveland was about five
.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
hundred. Ten years later, through the action of causes above traced, it numbered as many thousand. The village of Brooklyn had shared in this prosperity and had attained a population of nearly two thousand. The communities on both sides of the river were in the first flush of a real estate boom. In Cleveland the section now known as the flats was purchased in 1836 by Mr. John W. Willey and Mr. James S. Clark. They proposed to make this immed- iately a prominent business and residence section. They accordingly divided their land into lots which they offered for sale at immoderately high prices, investing the money thus secured in building and improvements. With a view to diverting a portion of the trade to their part of the town these enterprising gentlemen built a bridge to the West Side from the foot of Columbus street, which laud- able undertaking led, a year or two later, to the celebrated "Battle of the bridge."
Across the river in Brooklyn the spirit of speculation ran a parallel course. About the time of the Willey and Clark enterprise an association of capitalists, known as the Buffalo company, bought up an extensive tract near the river, with the expectation of re-selling within a few months at an enormous profit.
From our point of view it would seem that the interests of these communities were substantially identical-that their growth and prosperity would proceed in common. To be sure the canal was on the east side; but inasmuch as it could not very well be on both sides, it was certainly far better to have it where it was than in any quarter more remote. Considerations of this sort were not lacking,
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
and they were doubtless presented with sufficient force. When it was proposed to obtain city charters from the legislature, discerning men on both sides urged the ex- pediency of uniting the two villages under a single city government. But the rivalry was far too bitter and noth- ing was accomplished in this direction. United, or dis- united, however, a city charter was clearly desirable for both communities. The first Cleveland directory, published in 1837, thus quaintly puts it :
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