USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Official report of the centennial celebration of the founding of the city of Cleveland and the settlement of the Western Reserve > Part 2
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
then Virgil P. Kline, Esq., delivered an address on the subject : " The Day We Celebrate." Elaborate addresses were also delivered by the follow- ing speakers on the topics named: Rt. Rev. I. F. Horstmann, D. D., " The Influence of Religious Thought upon Social and Civil Life in the Western Reserve;" President C. F. Thwing, D. D., of Western Reserve University, " The New England Character: Its Effect upon the Develop- ment and Progress of Cleveland and Northern Ohio;" J. G. W. Cowles, "One Hundred Years of Industrial Commercial Development in Cleve- land; " Judge J. M. Jones, "The English Common Law;" Mayor Robert E. McKisson, "The Work of the Centennial Commission;" L. A. Russell, Esq., "The Object Lessons of the Cleveland Centennial." The addresses were received with enthusiasm, applause being frequent and hearty. That of Mr. Cowles contained a valuable review of the city's commercial progress and is reproduced herewith almost entire. He spoke as follows:
One hundred years is a short period in a city's history. It is the unit of infancy, or, at most, of adolescence. But this first century is most significant; it is prepara- tory and prophetic. Like the early years of childhood, which have in them the mak- ing of the man, so these first years of the city's life and progress are of less value for what they have been and for what they are, than in the large and hopeful view which they command us to take of the present opportunities and of the assured greatness and richness of our civic inheritance.
The Cleveland of 1796 was a wilderness, with no mark of civic order but the name of the future city then applied to an indefinite region of large extent. The land and the waters were here, the lake and the river, also the skies and the forest; but that was all, excepting four solitary settlers, who in 1800 had increased to seven, ten years later to fifty-seven, ten years later to 150, and in 1825, or nearly thirty years from the beginning, to 500 people. Cleveland became an incorporated village in 1815, with a population of 100, and obtained a city charter in 1836, when the population slightly ex- ceeded 5,000. Not only the first settlers, but the first generation of settlers, were pioneers. For in 1830 the United States census enumerated only 1,075 inhabitants. There had been nothing yet to make the town grow.
The surrounding country was a wilderness, undergoing a slow process of clearing and settlement. The only products were those of the forest and the soil. Though made a port of entry in 1805, the entire exports of 1809 were valued at no more than $150, and in 1830 the number of vessels sailing from this port was but fifteen. Inland commerce was by big Pennsylvania wagons dragged by six or eight horses through swamps and forests across the State. Thus the seed of the future city lay so long dor- mant in the soil. It was a struggle for survival and not for growth or wealth in those early days.
But in 1825 the location of the canal projected to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River was fixed in favor of the Cuyahoga for its northern outlet. In 1827 the canal was opened to Akron, and in 1832 was completed to the Ohio River. During the same period the harbor was improved, first by local enterprise, and later by substantial piers built by the General Government.
And now see how history repeats itself again, when, after more than sixty years, projects for new canals, deeper, wider and longer, to Pittsburg, to Cincinnati, and even deep inland waterways floating lake and ocean vessels to and from the seaboard, are the demand of the hour; and the improvement of our local harbor along the lake front and up the Cuyahoga River, is the imperative necessity of our commercial ex- pansion and supremacy upon Lake Erie.
Those increased facilities of commerce stimulated the growth of the young city tenfold in as many years; and ten years later, in 1848, when the second directory was published, the preface announced that our city has become so large and populous that a directory is not only a convenience, but almost indispensable both to citizens and strangers. Almost one-half of this boasted century had passed away before the need was felt of a city directory. The population of Cleveland and Ohio City together was then 12,035; in 1850 it had grown to 20,934.
At this time I was myself a boy of fourteen years, living in a village thirty miles from here; and I can well remember Cleveland as I saw it in occasional visits in the
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period from 1850 to 1860. The Public Square was fenced in on all sides, with only foot-paths through it; all other travel and traffic had to go around its sides. Superior street then, and for many years after, ended at Erie street. The center part of Superior street, from the Square to Water street, was laid with planks like a country road; the gutters were the sandy earth, and I have seen the grass growing up between the planks and at their ends and in the gutters, as it does now in unoccupied and un- used suburban allotments. There was not travel and traffic enough on lower Superior street, forty years ago, to keep the grass from growing.
But during this ten years' period, deliverance came from the stagnation prevailing, not suddenly, but potentially, in the construction of the first railroads here - the Cleve- land, Columbus & Cincinnati; the Cleveland & Pittsburg; the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula; the Cleveland & Toledo, and the Cleveland & Mahoning - and under this powerful stimulus the population of the two cities, then organically umted, reached 43,838, as shown by the United States census of 1860.
The foundation of all that now is had then been laid. But no prophet's eye had yet foreseen the greatness of the city that was to be. The Cleveland of 1860 was chiefly famous for its beauty and attractiveness as a place of residence. Euclid avenue, "bob and nabob," was its pride and boast and chief distinction. The skies were blue, the air clear and pure, the grass green and the trees abundant and luxuri- ous with fresh foliage. No odor of oil or acid, and no black pall and stain of coal smoke offended the senses of the dwellers in the Forest City. Thirty years before, a few bushels of coal had been brought in, but the tidy housewives would have none of the dirty fuel when wood was plenty.
It is not Euclid avenue that has made Cleveland the metropolis of Ohio, but the railroads and the steamboats that whistle, and the furnaces and factories that load the air with smoke. The change has brought a loss of rural sweetness and solitude, but has it not also worked out a far greater gain in power and wealth.
In 1853 the first iron ore, a mere sample, was imported in a half dozen barrels by the Cleveland & Marquette Iron Company. The directory of 1859 shows seven incor- porated companies, only four engaged in manufacturing and one in iron mining. In 1837 only two hundred men were employed in manufactures. Thirty years later, in 1867, eight thousand operatives were so employed. This illustrates the tremendous impetus given to manufacturing here during and since the period of the Civil War. The infant industries previously existing were enlarged and strengthened, while new and diversified industries were added to meet the new conditions and demands. Ad- vances were made not slowly, but by a sudden bound, followed and sustained, however, by a steady growth, business increasing as population increased, and vice versa.
The impulse then received has not been lost. It has hardly at any time been perceptibly diminished. The natural conditions favored permanency and progress. The natural meeting place of coal and iron ore became the preferred location for iron manufacturers. Oil was brought from Pennsylvania and for many years the refining of petroleum has been a leading and most prosperous industry. From the primitive wooden boats of the early days and the first iron steamer, built here in 1868, Cleveland stands " first on the list of ship building cities in the United States and second only to Clyde, in England, the most extensive ship building location in the world." Add to these the large trade in lumber and building stone, and the numerous minor articles of local production and commerce, and we get a glimpse of the factors which have carried this city forward in this third generation of its history, from 43,838 in 1860 to more than 330,000 in 1895; making Cleveland, by the census of 1890, the tenth, and prob- ably now the ninth, city in population in the United States, and second only to Chi- cago in size, upon the chain of the Great Lakes.
The history of these last thirty years is too familiar to us here present to require repetition. Its results are the work and possession of the present generation of Cleve- land's citizens. Let the census of 1890 summarize the story :
Number of manufacturing establishments
2,065
Number of hands employed .
53,349
Total wages paid
$30,423,635
Capital invested 53,974,340
Cost of material used
50,321,073
Value of product .
98,920,241
Railroads centering here operate 5,237 miles of working lines. Lake fleet registered here, 241 vessels, of 176,804 tons burden. Total tonnage moved from Cleveland last year, 4,000,000 tons. This is the solid and splendid pyramid of our prosperity.
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
The five years since this record was made have been years of growth and prog- ress, though including a period of financial and industrial depression, checking development in some directions. Our population has increased by more than 70,000. It is a most impressive and significant fact that of our 330,000 people, 70,000 have been citizens of Cleveland but five years or less, and 170,000 have been here only fifteen years, or since 1880. The old settlers are an honorable but hopeless minority, and the present, we must acknowledge, as well as the future of this city, belongs not only to the rising generation, but to the steadily incoming procession of residents who are building within our borders a new town of 14.000 people every year.
Our community is predominantly industrial and productive; subordinately mer- cantile and commercial. Analyzing our industries, we find four hundred principal manufactories engaged exclusively in the production of goods for general distribution, as distinguished from local consumption. These alone employ at the present time 42,000 men, besides 7,000 women and girls, four-fifths of whom are skilled artisans. This high average of skill and intelligence brings better wages, and gives such diver- sity and finish to products of our factories as to materially enhance their value and the profits derived therefrom. Add now to these the persons engaged in mercantile business, in our lake marine, and upon our railways, and it will appear that fully one- third of our population are productively employed.
These are the forces of labor which are building Cleveland, as the hives of bees build the comb in which to store their honey.
But underlying this as its foundation, penetrating our industries as their life- blood, is the capital which sustains and impels these activities of men and machinery. Cleveland has always been fortunate in the possession of financial resources of its own. Less foreign or Eastern capital has been required here, in proportion, than in any other Western city. We have never been dependent upon outside money. With twenty millions of active banking capital, and twenty millions more of deposits in eleven national banks, and forty-five millions of deposits in our savings banks, the business of this city is on a secure basis, assuring permanency and increasing profit as the years go on. This money belongs to the people more largely than to the cor- porations; to the poor as well as to the rich, so called; to the many rather than to the few, as evidenced by the nearly.50,000 depositors who own the twenty-three millions of deposits in the Society for Savings.
We are a city of families and homes. In 1890 there were 53,052 families and 43,835 dwellings, one-half of which were occupied by their owners. And this again is a prime factor in the stability and advancement marked in all departments of our city's Îife.
New England men led and controlled in the founding and building of this city. The middle and formative period of its history was conspicuously fortunate in having a large class of such citizens, born and educated in New England, men of talent and ability, who would have been foremost in any community, and whose intelligence and character are expressed in the religious, educational and philanthropie institutions which increasingly distinguish our city for culture, refinement and morality.
But if none but Yankees and their descendants lived in Cleveland, we should be provincial indeed and limited to leanness of all kinds. Our foreign popula- tions deserve large recognition among the factors of our growth and greatness. Earliest and most effective the German, and with them the Irish immigration have served to fill the ranks of enterprise and industry, contributing also capital and intel- ligence, with the characteristic qualities of each nationality to enrich and diversify the public spirit and social life of the city. Elements of no small value have they im- ported and diffused among the people. In later years large additions have come from other foreign countries, as Bohemia, Poland and Italy, from a native environment less favorable to education and the intelligence and training necessary for free and self-governed citizens, but furnishing an element of labor not otherwise obtained and amenable, at least in the younger generation, to the training of our public schools and the elevating influence of our free institutions.
The study of our civic history during our Centennial year will be instructive and inspiring. But the celebration of this century will have but a poor result if it treats of matters historical more than of things practical. The energies of our people must not be absorbed in admiration of the past or glorification of the present, but enlisted in new developments and progress. Whatever will promote harmony of feeling and unity of action for the common welfare is germain to this Centennial year. There has been too little of this. What Cleveland is has come to pass by the favor of nature and by the force of individual enterprise, rather than by concerted plans and fore- sight and by organized action.
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HON. ASA S. BUSHNELL,, Governor of Ohio.
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The public welfare is more than private gain, and the prosperity of individuals and of classes is involved in and promoted by the common good. The city needs brain and will; it needs thought and purpose; it needs loyalty and public spirit. The city must know itself before it can improve itself. The investigations prelimi- nary to and the expositions attendant upon the coming celebration will aid in disclosing past errors to be corrected and avoided, and in discovering the things essential to the city's growth and progress in the years to come. This observance should rise to na- tional importance. It should awaken, stimulate and solidify the loyalty of our people for this splendid city. and their faith in its glorious future. The spirit in which it should be undertaken, the motive running through it all, should be to make the be- ginning of the second century of our city, upon the threshold of which we now stand, nobler, better, richer, greater in all conditions and dimensions than that first century which we have now reviewed, and to which so soon we shall say farewell.
A committee consisting of L. E. Holden, Editor of the Plain Dealer ; Augustus Zehring, Collector of Customs; James B. Morrow, Editor of the Leader ; Dr. Cady Staley, President of Case School of Applied Science, and D. E. Wright, Director of Public Works, presented reso- lutions commemorative of the victory of 1813 and supporting the Cen- tennial movement. The resolutions were read by Mr. Holden and were as follows:
We, the people of Cleveland, in convention assembled on this the roth day of Sep- tember, 1895, recall on this anniversary of Perry's victory on Lake Erie, a few of the pictures and facts in the history of the times which show the importance of that great victory, not only to the Northwest, but especially to the city of Cleveland. We recall the dark days of Hull's surrender, and the enlistment of 10,000 men under Gen. William Henry Harrison as they gathered from their farms and workshops in the then sparsely settled country and pledged their lives to recover back the territory that had been lost by the disastrous surrender.
We recall the broken promises of the British and their abandonment of American prisoners and wounded to the cruel tortures of the Indians then in service of the British Army. We hear, as our ancestors heard, the bitter retort of Elliott, a half-breed in General Proctor's army, who said, when an appeal was made for surgical aid, "The Indians are excellent surgeons."
We recall the threat made by General Proctor to General Harrison that he would turn him and his force over to massacre if he resisted, and we recall the reply of Gen- eral Harrison and honor him for his brave defiance. We review the attack of General Proctor and the Indian chief Tecumseh on Fort Stephenson at Sandusky, when Major Croghan, with but sixty men and a single cannon, replied to the haughty Proctor's threat of massacre that, "When the fort is taken there will not be a man left to be killed." We see that single gun placed to enfilade the ditch in front of the fort and a British lieutenant with a band of followers leaping into the ditch shouting, "Show the damned Yankees no quarter," and we see Croghan's cannon sweep down the men and force the lieutenant to raise a white handkerchief on his sword and ask for quarters.
We recall the then fearful condition of our country, the divisions among the people at home and the disasters that followed one after another on land and lake until Com- modore Perry, by skill and undaunted courage, turned the tide with his great victory.
With pride we look back upon him and his flagship, the Lawrence, as he stood upon her decks until she was shot to a wreck. We follow the brave commodore as, in an open boat, surrounded by showers of bullets, he made his way to the Niagara, closed up the line and, favored by a breeze sent by divine Providence, sailed her through the British line of ships, delivering broadside after broadside until he forced the British fleet to surrender. That laconic report which he sent to General Harrison flew over the country and still rings in the hearts of all the American people: " We have met the enemy and they are ours; two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop."
This is the anniversary of that battle, fought the ioth day of September, 1813. That battle gave new life, courage and strength to the American army. General Har- rison moved on to victory, and on the 5th of October he forced General Proctor, the British general, to flee for his life into the swamps deserted by his Indian allies after the death of Tecumseh, and we say with strict accuracy that Perry's victory was the
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CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
beginning of the final victory which culminated under General Jackson in New Orleans and gave peace, prosperity and national strength and pride to the United States.
THEREFORE, We the citizens of Cleveland, on this anniversary of Perry's victory, moved with a deep sense of the obligations which we owe to Commodore Perry and the brave officers and men that fought under him, and mindful of the fact that his victory restored the Northwest territory and made the Great Lakes free as the ocean for navigation, and gave to the city of Cleveland its location within the United States instead of on British territory, now therefore,
I. Resolved, That we will celebrate the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding of the city of Cleveland in a manner befitting our respect for its founders, the growth, prosperity and intelligence of its citizens and the age in which we live; and as a means of giving expression to our sense of obligation to the soldiers and sailors of former generations who made this a free country, and as a means of proper remem- brance of and respect to the founders of this city and the men who have built it and been identified with its growth and history, and in order to show to the world that we appreciate the rich heritage that has come to us, we advise that an exposition be held of our manufacturing industries, ship building, railroad and shipping interests, our trade and commerce, our electric and petroleum inventions and applications, our sys- tems of schools and colleges, and departments of our city government, our civic and military societies, our religious and eleemosynary institutions, and that these object lessons be accompanied with a complete history of the city and its growth for the past one hundred years.
II. Resolved, That as earnest of what we propose to do in the coming time, a plan or scheme be skillfully drawn up showing the needs of the city in drainage and sewer- age, in pure air and water supply, in public buildings, in a cleansed river, widened, deepened and docked, and that this plan show the need and facility of docks along the entire front of the city and a harbor made by breakwaters adequate for the shipping and business for a hundred years to come.
III. Resolved, That an exposition will be the best means of making the citizens of Cleveland and strangers familiar with the variety and extent of the industries of the city, and that as a manufacturing, distributing, educational, commercial and social center Cleveland has no superior, and that we cordially invite and urge the co-opera- tion of all the people within the city to aid by their money and counsel in promoting the exposition as a source of profit and a lesson of loyalty, patriotism, pride and devo- tion to our beloved city.
IV. Resolved, That we respectfully request the Council and Board of Park Commis- sioners to have the statue of Commodore Perry cast in bronze, the original to be brought from the woods of Wade Park and preserved for the Art Museum, and that the bronze statue be set up in Gordon or Lake View Park, where it can overlook Lake Erie, the scene of the gallant commodore's great victory.
The resolutions were adopted by a rising vote and the evening's programme was then appropriately closed with the singing of the na- tional hymn "America."
In behalf of the exposition project a committee consisting of Mayor McKisson, Hon. H. Q. Sargent, C. C. Burnett, George W. Kinney, W. J. Akers and Wilson M. Day visited the expositions at St. Louis and Pittsburg early in October, reporting in favor of an exposition for Cleveland.
On the evening of December 26th, another meeting of citizens was held in Music Hall, when the plans for showing to the world the city's greatness were again set forth. Governor William McKinley, the distinguished honorary president of the Centennial Commission, served as chairman of this meeting. Mixed snow and rain fell during the afternoon and evening in blinding sheets and the disagreeable weather precluded a large attendance. The industrial, business, marine and other interests were, however, represented, and a fair percentage of the audi- ence was composed of women.
At 8 o'clock a company of speakers, city officials and prominent citizens appeared upon the platform and were applauded as they took
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PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS.
their seats. Mayor McKisson called the meeting to order. In a brief speech he reviewed the work of the Commission and then remarked:
It has seemed fitting to call this meeting and have a distinguished member of the Commission to address you. The one who is to speak is a loyal friend of Cleve- land, and of the whole State and country. The main question we have to consider is how we can best further the project of our Centennial.
Governor Mckinley was then presented. He was roundly applaud- ed as he took charge of the meeting. His interest in the Centennial movement was manifested in an enthusiastic address. He began his speech by saying :
I am exceeding glad to be identified with this project of the city of Cleveland for 1896, and want to be as helpful as I can in advancing it The hundredth anniversary comes not so often as to be monotonous. All of us who are here should prepare to enjoy the events of next year, for in all human probability we will not be permitted to enjoy such an anniversary celebration again. (Applause.) I can imagine no better thing than the celebration of the Centennial of the city of Cleveland. It should not be neglected, it should not be postponed. The best time to celebrate an anniversary is on the anniversary day.
The Governor then referred to the growth of the city. "What a story your first century has told," said he. "It reads more like a fairy tale than a record of facts. A hundred years ago Cleveland was an insignificant trading post; in 1830 it was a village of 1,000 population; in 1870 was the fourteenth among American cities; in ISgo, occu- pied the tenth place, and now nobody can tell its rank, but the whole world will know if you have a worthy celebration next year. It has over 2, 400 factories -- a capital of fifty-four million dollars, employs 50,000 mechanics, pays out in wages over thirty million dollars. The Cuyahoga custom district far surpasses that of any other district on the lake, and stands fifth after the world's great ports, London Liverpool, Hamburg, and New York.
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