USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Knight & Parsons' business directory of the city of Cleveland, 1853 > Part 2
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CITY OF CLEVELAND :
understanding that the third (Hull's) should share in the advan- tages to be derived.
Early in the spring of 1796, the directors of the Connecticut Land Company resolved upon the survey of their purchase. These directors were Oliver Phelps, as aforesaid ; Henry Cham- pion, of Colchester ; Samuel Mather, of Lyme; Gen. Newberry, of Windsor, and Gideon Granger-all of Connecticut. They pro -. ceeded to select forty surveyors, under the immediate direction and inspection of SETH PEASE and AUGUSTUS PORTER-the former subsequently Assistant Postmaster General, and now deceased-the latter alive, and residing at, or near Niagara Falls. The agent of the Company accompanying the survey, was MosEs CLEAVELAND, from whom the queen city of Lake Erie derives its name. (Gen. Moses Cleaveland was born in Canterbury, Conn., about the year 1755, and grauated at Yale College in 1777. He was bred a lawyer, and practiced his profession in his native town. He married a sister of Gen. Henry Champion, of Col- chester, and died at Canterbury'in 1806, leaving a large fortune.) Among the surveyors were J. Milton Holley, of Salisbury, Con- Lecticut, a brother of Myron Holley, since one of the Canal Commissioners of New York ; Moses Warren, Amos Spaffurd, and Richard M. Stoddard. The surveying party proceeded to Schenectady in the month of June, 1796, where they remained until they collected the necessary compasses, chains, and other mathematical instruments for the traverse, and such stores as would be required for their journey and subsistence when arrived at and upon the theatre of their labors, and some two thousand dollars worth of dry goods, designed as presents to the Indians. For the transportation of these, the party procured four Schenec- tady batteaux, and in these ascended the Mohawk river, passing over the portage at Little Falls to Fort Stanwix, (now Rome,) where there was another portage from the Mohawk to Wood Creek, which empties into Oneida Lake. They followed this stream to the lake, crossed the latter, and through its outlet and the Oswego river, and along the south shore of Lake Ontario, to the mouth of the river Niagara ; up that stream to Queenston, on the British
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
side; crossed the seven miles portage, arriving at Chippewa ; from thence following the Niagara to Buffalo, where they were to meet Gen. Cleaveland and Mr. Porter. The journey that in our modern modus operandi is a fashionable pleasure excursion, was then a work of time, labor, and danger, and the expedition found it one of danger and death.
While ascending Spraker's rift on the Mohawk, one member of the expedition lost his life. With a view to facilitate their progress, cach of the boats had been furnished with a pole, serv- ing as a mast; this pole having a fork at its top, over which the halyard to hoist a sail was rove. On one of the boats, the hal- yard became entangled, to remove which difficulty, one of the crew went up to re-arrange the halyard, but fell with his back across the gunwale, went overboard, and was drowned. By a stipu- lation in Jay's Treaty with the British Government, the western Fasts were, in the early part of this year, to be yielded to the United States. It was, therefore, supposed by Gen. Cleaveland and his colleagues, that before the boats arrived opposite Oswego, that point would be evacuated by the troops of England and in the possession of our own. But the attempt to pass was opposed by the British, (who were still garrisoned there,) and the boats were taken a short distance up the river 'until after night fall, when they made a run by; but being caught by a sudden squall of wind, they were driven ashore a short distance below Oswego, and, with some of their loading, much damaged.
At Buffalo, (Messrs. Cleaveland, Porter and Holley, having joined the main body -- the latter gentleman bringing some twelve or fourteen pack horses, and ten or twelve head of cattle,) a "talk" was had with the Seneca and Mohawk tribes as to the relinquish- ment of their real or imaginary claims to the possession of the lands within the company's purchase. Red Jacket, Farmer's Brother, and other chiefs of the Senecas were present, as well as Col. Brant, (Thavendanegca,) sachem of the Mohawks. The Senecas urged their claim pertinaciously for three or four days, but finally withdrew them on delivery to them, by Gen. Cleave- land, of about twelve hundred dollars worth of goods.
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CITY OF CLEVELAND:
The expedition then started-the boats skirting the lake coast, a large majority of the men traveling by land, driving before them the horses and cattle -- and on the second day after quit- ting Buffalo, arrived at Presque Isle, (now Erie,) where the boats lay wind-bound for several days. Again en route, the boats were sent up the bay to the narrowest part of the isthmus, un- laden, and they and their cargues transported by land across and into the lake. Thence proceeding, the whole party arrived at (now) Conneaut, on the 4th July, 1796 ..
The whole party numbered on this occasion fifty-two persons, of whom two were females, [Mrs. Stiles, and Mrs. Gunn, ] and a child. As these individuals were the advance of after millions of population, their names become worthy of record, and arc therefore given, viz :-- Moses Cleaveland, Augustus Porter, Seth Pease, Moses Warren, Amos Spafford, Milton Hawley, Richard M. Stoddard, Joshua Stow, Theodore Shepard, Joseph Tinker, Joseph McIntyre, George Proudfoot, Francis Gay, Samuel Forbes, Elijah Gunn, wife and child, Amos Sawten, Stephen Benton, Amos Barber, Samuel Hungerford, William B. Hall, Samuel Davenport, Asa Mason, Amzi Atwater, Michacl Coffin, Elisha Ayres, Thomas Harris, Norman Wilcox, Timothy Dun- ham, George Goodwin, Shadrack Benham, Samuel Agnew, Warham Shepard, David Beard, John Briant, Titus V. Munson, Joseph Landon, Job P. Stiles and wife, Charles Parker, Ezekiel Morley, Nathaniel Doan, Luke Ilanchet, James Hasket, James Hamilton, Onley F. Rice, John Lock, and four others whose names are not mentioned.
On the 5th of July, the workmen of the expedition were em- ployed in the erection of a large, awkwardly constructed log building ; locating it on the sandy beach on the east shore of the stream, and naming it "Stow Castle," after one of the party. This became the storehouse of the provisions, &c., and the dwell- ing-place of the families.
Pennsylvania had at that time so far ascertained her lake pos- sessions, as to establish the boundary line between her territory and the lands vested in Connecticut. The western line of the
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
former State passed within three miles of the camping ground of the surveyors. Of the geographical character of the country west of this point, or, to have it still more definite, west of Presque Isle, [now Erie, Pa .. ] nothing was known by the Connecticut Land Company, and of course by the surveying expedition, except such imperfect information as was drawn from a French map, of questionable accuracy and evident meagerness of detail ; but professing to give the points at which the streams emptying into Lake Erie along its southern shore were to be found. The names of these tributaries were given in the order of their range from east to west, to wit : Conneaut, Ashtabula, Grand, Chagrin, Cuyahoga (i. e. crooked river,) Rocky (by the Indians, Copopa,) Black, Vermillion, and Huron rivers, and Sandusky bay. The principal surveyor, Mr. Porter, found the State land-mark of l'onnsylvania to be about three minutes short of 42 degrees of north latitude.
After the completion of the stores-depot, and a day or two devoted to preparations for departure, the surveyors started. One division commenced at the junction of the Pennsylvania bound- ary with the lake coast, and measured south to the highlands north of the Mahoning river ; while another, under the direction of Gen. Cleaveland, coasted along the shore of the lake to the Cuyahoga river. [Other divisions accompanied the neighboring survey, for the purpose, as it progressed towards the 41st degree of latitude-the south-east corner of the tract-to run off thence west on that parallel ; at the end of each five miles to start a surveyor north to the lake ; but with the operations of these par- ties, the writer does not propose to continue-his aim alone being to bring the earlier facts to bear upon the arrival of the agents of the C. L. Co. at Cleveland. Suffice it under this head, that the surveys then made were afterwards in the main recognized as correct, and are the boundaries and subdivisions shown on the existing maps of Ohio.]
Gen. Cleaveland, on arriving at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, entered the river, and followed its windings to where Tinker's Creek empties into the former, eleven miles south of Cleveland.
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CITY OF CLEVELAND:
The creek was so named ; Tinker, the navigator of the party being the discoverer of its point of debouchure. The General then returned to Conneaut, and while waiting for the return of the other exploring parties, held a council with a small tribe of Indians squatted several miles above the latter outlet of the stream, and having made to them, through their chief Pagua, some small presents, he effectively gained from them their friend- ship and respect for himself, his colleagues and followers.
While coasting the region of the Reserve, Mr. Cleaveland unfortunately fell into the error that there was no stream worthy to be called such between Grand river and the Cuyahoga. The parties running the four first meridians having returned to Con- neaut, Gen. Cleaveland, Mr. Porter, Joshua Stow, Dr. Shepard, and four others, started again, to make a southwise exploration of the lake boundary of the company's possessions. They took with them one of the batteaux for the transport of provisions, &c. The first night after their departure, they encamped on the west shore of the Ashtabula river. Proceeding westward, they touched at the mouth of the Cuyahoga; thence to Sandusky bay, and returned to Cuyahoga river. Here they found Stiles with his wife, and some ten others of the party, and commenced the survey of the town plot of what is now the city of Cleveland. By the first of October, a log-cabin was erected. The city of Cleveland was outlined into two hundred and twenty lots, of eight rods front and forty rods rear; the whole encircling a public square of nearly ten acres [inclusive of two highways passing there- through.] On the 18th of October, the surveyors quitted Cleve- land on their return route, leaving Stiles and his family, and Capt. Paine, (since of Painesville,) to weather out the winter in the solitudes of the new CITY. At this time, it may be as well to state, the settlements of whites between the western shore of the Genesce river and the Western Ocean were as oases on Sahara. The garrison at Fort Niagara ; two families at Lewis- ton; one at Schlosser, and a British Indian interpreter; two Indian traders at Buffalo, and, as near as we can gather, a family of New England origin ; a few settlers at Presque Isle, arrived
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
there the previous. year; Messrs. Kingsbury and Gunn with their wives at Conneaut; a French trader at Sandusky; the set- tlement at Detroit ; and the far removed line of "Stockading" life on the north-west bank of the Ohio river, made up the civilization of what was then almost unknown to geography ; of that which was long politically considered as the "North West Territory"-and which is now the governmental element of one- third of the republic.
The winter of 1796-7 was one of privation to the few families remaining upon the Reserve; and the return of the surveyors on the ensuing spring was hailed as shipwrecked mariners greet the tail of the deliverer, or the famine-stricken welcome the dispenser of bread. Without flour, salt, and the common provisions for the support of life, the long months of frost and storm had worn ou slowly and cheerless ; and the departure of the vast fields of ice that stretched away from the shore of the lake, and the caming of the spring time, the latter conveying assurances of the arrival of friends and supplies, were regarded by the settlers at Cleveland and Conneaut as ransom evidences-the ransom from a state of existence that had so far yielded nothing but peril and privation.
The surveying party, on reaching the Reserve again, made Cleveland their head quarters. The families at Conneaut were removed to the same point, and the business preliminaries towards permanent settlement were actively entered upon. Major Lorenzo Carter, (a brave, eccentric, and thorough pioneer,) and Ezekiel Hawkey, with their families, all from Rutland, Vermont, also squatted within the circle. And now, inasmuch as the history of Cleveland is closely identified with the rise and growth of the Western Reserve, and in fact of Ohio, we may as well present certain matters bearing upon the history of all. The Indian title to the reserve lands lying West of Cuyahoga river and Portage Path, (as it was called) was extinguished by treaty on the 4th of July, 1-05. Beyond the aforenamed river and path, the red men etill remained as sovereigns, retaining the rights and occupancy which they technically enjoyed under the provisions of Wayne's
CITY OF CLEVELAND:
treaty in 1794. Over the territory of which the Cuyahoga was the castern boundary, the authority of Great Britain was still stretched. The United States, however, claimed sovereign po- litical jurisdiction as a territory. Connecticut, also maintained her rights to the same; but these clashing positions of the ruling influences interfered little or nothing in the operations towards settlement. In 1787, Congress passed the ordinance for governing the territory north-west of the Ohio; and Arthur St. Clair, the Governor thereof, established by proclamation, July 27th, 1785, the county of Washington, [seat of justice, Marietta.] The new county embraced nearly all the territory now composing Ohio, east of the Scioto, and south and cast of the British possessions, and, among the rest, that part of the Reserve east of the Cuya- hoga river and Portage Path. In 1797, the county of Jefferson was established, with Steubenville for its capital, the Reserve being comprised therein. After the relinquishment of the fron- tier posts by Great Britain, that portion of the northwest territory lying north of Wayne's treaty line, and west of the Cuyahoga, was erected into a county called Wayne, [seat of justice Detroit,] and embraced the northern part of the [now] States of Chio and Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. The sec- tion of the Reserve west of the Cuyahoga and Portage Path, was within the jurisdiction of the county of Wayne, and so remained until July 10, 1800, at which time Trumbull county was established, and embraced precisely the whole of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The town of Warren was made the county seat; county and quarter session courts were held in a space bounded by two corn cribs ; and thither the citizens of the village of Cleveland resorted for legal remedies, &c. The conflicting claims of Connecticut and the United States were harmonized by acts of the two powers passed in the year 1800; in which Con- necticut released to the United States full political jurisdiction, while the Government confirmed to the State ample title to the soil of the Reserve.
The little colony at Cleveland increased slowly during the first years of settlement. . Five families wintered here in the year
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
1797-8. In 1798, tlie surveyors made a line of road, under- brushed it, girdled the large timber, and bridged the small streams on the way from the Pennsylvania boundary to Cleveland. Before the close of the last century, colonies were in progress at New- burgh, Euclid, [Cuyahoga county,] Burton, [Geauga county,] Harpersfield, Austinburgh, Conneaut, Windsor, Morgan, [Ashta- bula county,] Mesopotamia, Kinsman, Vernon, Hartford, Vienna, Coitswille, Poland, Boardman, Canfield, Liberty, Weathersfield, Warren, Youngstown, [Trumbull county,] Nelson, Mantua, Au- rora, Ravenna, Rootstown, Atwater, Deerfield, [Portage county,] and Hudson in the new county of Summit.
Discases, seemingly consequent upon new settlements, sorely visited the pioneer population of the miniature city of Cleveland. Three of their number died of dysentery, in 1797; and the same disease, together with the ague, prostrated nearly all of the sur- veyors, and on their departure in the fall of this year, they were, to use the language of one of their number, "a sickly, sorry set of beings."
Up to 1799, the citizens subsisted on such breadstuffs as their ingenuity devised; but during that year, a small grist mill was built at the falls of Mill Creek, some six miles south east of the city; and during the ensuing winter, the colony enjoyed the lux- ury of bread, the grain for which was ground by themselves, and converted into flour at their own mill.
The varied fortunes, privations and progress of the founders of the infant town, were such during the ensuing score of years, as may be rehearsed by the Columbus of every similar "location." There was a reckless philosophy tempering the tempers, and governing the growth of the solitude into a city. The arrival of a settler was hailed with far more protestation and real pleasure, than now marks the launching of a monster steamer, or the erection of a block of buildings. Like
" the hand "Of brother in a foreign land,"
the earlier immigrant met the new comers upon the tide ensuing; and the fellowship of voluntary exile was a bond as fervent, true
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CITY OF CLEVELAND:
and extensive, as though demanded by the pandects, or sanctioned by the decalogue. In coming from New England, they brought with them, into the forests of Ohio, New England feelings, affections and laws; so that, separated from the substance of these agents of social life, they yet governed their actions by the spirit of the society from which they were sprung, and which they reverenced.
Previous to 1825, the growth of Cleveland was exceedingly slow. During the thirty years of its existence up to that time, it had acquired a population of only 500. . Very considerable pro- gress had been made, however, toward the settlement of the "far west," during this interval ; the primeval forest was beginning to fall before the sturdy axe-strokes of the pioneer; already on every side the "boundless contiguity of shade" was broken by the "clearing," where the backwoodsman had hewn for himself a home, in the depths of the leafy wilderness. Here and there, at greater intervals, the clustered log cabins of some colony from the the East, claimed the title of settlement, and boasted the luxuries of a store, a mill, and a blacksmith shop; but the places of the future capitals of this western empire, had not yet been determined; the process of centralization at points marked by great natural or artificial advantages, had scarcely commenced; the great lines of travel were not yet marked out; channels of commerce not yet opened; as a natural consequence, the agricultural interest was predominant, and the growth of the country general and diffuse.
This was, however, precisely the kind of growth required to ensure the future prosperity of our infaut State; the territory was widely explored and appropriated by the hardy sons of New Eng- land; the foundations of an enterprising, intelligent and moral society, were laid broad and deep; and when the projects of the far-seeing Clinton were carried into effect, and the Erie Canal constructed, opening a communication between this stupendous system of internal navigable waters and the sea-board-thus fur- nishing an outlet and market for the abundant products of the west-every branch of industry received an immediate and power- ful impetus. Commerce and manufactures sprang into vigorous ex- istence, and centres of business began to be centres of population.
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
Cleveland, from its position, felt early and sensibly, the benefit of the trade through the Erie Canal ; and when, in 1827, the Ohio Canal was completed, uniting the Lakes and the Ohio river, and sweeping the productions of all the rich territory through which it passes, into our harbor, Cleveland began to increase rapidly, both in the number of her inhabitants, and the magnitude of her busi- ness transactions; and it was soon seen that she was destined to become the principal city of Northern Ohio.
The following table exhibits the population of Cleveland at different periods of its history. The number of inhabitants was,
In 1796. 3
" 1798,
16
" 1825, 500
" 1831 1,100 F
1835, 5,080
" 1840
6,071
" 1845,
9.573
" 1850. -17,600
" 1851
-21,140
" 1852,
25,670
In 1810, Cleveland was made the county seat of the county of Cuyahoga; the court house was erected, and the first Court of Common Pleas held the same year. In 1814, the place was incor- porated, with a village charter, and its government administered by a President, a Board of Trustees, and a Recorder, (Alfred Kelley being the first President.) In 1816, the first church was organized. In 1818, the first steamboat entered the river. In 1$25, the first appropriation for the improvement of the harbor, was made by Government. In 1834, the principal streets were graded. In 1835, a large portion of the business part of the city was burned. In 1836, Cleveland was raised to the rank of a city, with the charter under which it is now governed, (John Willey was the first Mavor.)* For several years succeeding this period,
*The following is a list of the Mayors of Cleveland, and the date of their election : John Will-v .1936-7 Nelson Hayward, .. 1843 L. A. Kelsey, .1848
Joshua Mills .. 1838-9 Sam'l Sta: kweather,. 1844-5 F. Bingham,
1-49 Nicholas Doekstader,.1640 Geo. Hoadley, 1846 Wm. Ca.e,. 1-50-51 J. W. Allen, 1841 J. A. Harris, . 1847 A. C. Brownell, .1:52
Joshua Mills, 1842
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CITY OF CLEVELAND :
the growth of Cleveland was not rapid; in common with most places throughout the country, it suffered from the re-action follow- ing the epidemic of speculative mania, which was so prevalent in 1836. Here, the fever raged with great intensity, and the collapse was commensurate with the excitement.
At this time, the Ohio Canal was the only channel through which the products of the interior of the State, could reach our city. This great work, commenced in 1825, and finished in 1832, at a cost of $5,000,000, consisted of a main trunk, 307 miles in length, connecting Lake Erie at Cleveland, with the Ohio at Portsmouth, a navigable feeder, connecting with the slack-water navigation of the Muskingum at Zanesville, a side cut to Colum- bus, another to Lancaster, and another still to Athens, with the Walholding, Eastport, and Dresden branches. To these were added, in 1841, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, connecting the Ohio Canal at Akron, with the Ohio river at Beaver, Pa., opening a direct communication by water, between Cleveland and Pittsburgh; and still later, the Sandy and Beaver Canal, which joins the Ohio Canal at Bolivar, and extends to the Ohio river at the mouth of Little Beaver creek.
Situated at the main terminus of this immense system of internal improvement, which ramifies through all portions of the eastern half of the State-a region excelled by no other the sun shines upon, in agricultural resources and mineral wealth-the amount of business derived from this source has always been great, and a most important element in the prosperity of Cleveland.
Our Lake commerce, too, was becoming more and more exten- sive, the number of arrivals and departures of steamers and vessels in each year, showing a decided increase on the business of the preceding year. Under the operation of these influences, the business of Cleveland was gradually emancipated from the embar- rassments to which it had been subjected by the commercial crisis of 1836; confidence was restored, and the improvements of the city were of a substantial and desirable character. Still, the harbor of Cleveland exhibited a scene of bustle and activity only during the season of navigation; our year was but eight months
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PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
long; Lake and Canal were ice-bound during the entire winter, and with the first hard frost, the business of the city, went into a state of hybernation; lying dormant and dead, until resuscitated by the genial warmth of returning spring.
Such was the state of things up to 1845, when we had a population of 9,573. The opinion was apparently entertained, both at home and abroad, that Cleveland would never be a great. . city. Pleasantly situated; high, airy and healthful; laid out with great taste; boasting its wide, level and cleanly streets, orna- mented with fine buildings and countless trees ; the "Forest City," it was said, would continue to be a delightful place of rus-urban residence, but could never become a great commercial emporium.
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