USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The founder of the city of Cleveland, and other sketches > Part 4
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In 1678 he again visited France and received the grant of extended privileges from the king, and also obtained increased pecuniary aid from his many liberal friends and relatives. In the summer of the same year he returned to his garrison in Canada, prepared to enter upon a grand expedition by way of the lakes to the Mississippi. He selected his erew, and, accom- . panied by Father Hennepin, embarked on Lake Ontario, bound on a voyage to the sea. It was late in the season. After a struggle of eight days with adverse winds, he anchored his ship in the placid waters of Toronto bay. Early in December he passed the mouth of the Niagara River, and was soon afterward shipwrecked in its vicinity. He was fortunate in losing but few lives. He saved most of his supplies and some parts of the ship. These were carried by thirty men up the rugged hillside of the Niagara, and then drawn by sledges twelve miles through drifting snows in the direction of Lake Erie and deposited at the mouth of Cayuga Creek. The good Father Hennepin carried the sacred altar and his priestly robes strapped to his shoulders the entire distance, and though a heavy burden, bore it manfully and with Christian resignation. On arrival at the creek, Father Hennepin held religious services in which the entire party joined in
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expressions of gratitude to God for the preser- vation of their lives.
This disaster, though a serious one, did not dishearten La Salle. He ordered a patch of land to be cleared and directed his carpenters to build a ship. The keel was soon laid and the work went bravely on, utilizing the rem- nants of the shipwrecked vessel so far as prac- ticable. Two Indian hunters were employed 'to hunt wild game and build cabins for the party. An Italian called Tonty was one of La Salle's most faithful and useful adherents. He had a large experience in western life, and was familiar with several Indian languages and the peculiarities of Indian character. He was also
a shrewd tactician. This induced La Salle to regard him as a safe adviser and manager of affairs when needed. The Indians were nu- merous in the vicinity of Cayuga Creek, where La Salle was building his ship, and most of them were unfriendly to the French, especially the Senecas. It was fortunate, however, that the greater part of them had gone to their southern hunting grounds. A few lingered about the shipyard and at the creek from day to day, apparently with sinister motives, and beheld with wonder the ribs of the novel struc- ture. A squaw informed Tonty that the Indians intended to burn the huge monster, lest it might do them harm.
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La Salle was at this time absent, and had confided the management of affairs to his lieu- tenant, Tonty, who kept watch of the work night and day, as it progressed. Father Hennepin attempted to avert the threatened calamity by preaching the gospel to the natives and performing imposing religious services before the altar, which he had borne on his shoulders over a rugged pathway in order . to save souls. In midwinter the provisions became exhausted, when the party meditated revolt. Tonty exercised a wholesome influ- ence, and with the aid of the two Indian hunt- ers soon secured sufficient food to allay the fear of starvation. The carpenters and blacksmiths renewed their efforts to complete the ship. La Salle had secured additional materials from the wreck of the old ship, which he had sent back by sledge to the creek. He now, with two attendants and a dog to draw his baggage, returned on foot upon the ice of Lake Ontario to Fort Frontenac, a distance of two hundred miles or more, to look after his interests at the fort and procure necessary supplies to equip the new ship on the stocks. The only food the excursionists took with theni was a small sack of parched corn and a few pounds of dried meat. This they exhausted on the way, and after travelling two days without food arrived
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at their point of destination in a pitiable con- dition. They received a liberal welcome at the fort where they were soon replenished in the "inner man," not forgetting the dog.
La Salle was detained at Fort Frontenac for a much longer period than he had expected, in disentangling the embarrassments of his per- sonal interests. In the mean time Tonty had very nearly completed the ship. She was of forty-five tons burden. He launched her early in the spring amid shouts and cheers, and the firing of cannon, crowned with the blessing of Father Hennepin. The entire French party and a few friendly Indians were allowed liberal potations of brandy, and, while under its influ- ence, repeated their vociferations of joy again and again. The wonderful ship glided like a duck into the waters of the Niagara, safe from the threats of Indian incendiaries. An un- couth figure, half eagle and half lion, carved in wood, sat on her prow - a griffin - the armorial emblem of power adopted at the sei- gniory of Fort Frontenac. There were also five cannon thrusting their black nozzles out from the portholes with a vindictive scowl that over- awed the courage of her Indian enemies. The ship in response to the image that sat on her prow was named the Griffin, taken up the river and moored at Black Rock, near Buffalo. Here
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she received her finishing touches and awaited the return of La Salle. After an absence of seven months he reached the scene of the ship- wreck on Lake Ontario, accompanied by three friars and a few other persons. These friars were of the same faith professed by himself and Father Hennepin, and felt as strong a desire to defeat the machinations of the Jesuits and diffuse among the Indians a purer gospel .- While at the scene of the wreck they succeeded in obtaining the anchor and some other articles of value, which they transferred to Black Rock to be used in completing the equipments of the Griffin. La Salle had been so harassed by difficulties with his creditors that he did not rejoin his party at Black Rock with his new associates until after the 1st of August, when he was received with cheers followed by a gen- eral jollification. The Griffin was then towed up the river to a convenient landing on the bank of Lake Erie, near the site now occupied by the city of Buffalo.
On the 7th of August, 1679, religious ser- vices were performed on the deck of the Griffin at an early hour, followed by the firing of cannon, when the ship, in command of La Salle, unfurled her wings to the favoring breeze and glided with the grace of a swan upon the rippling waves of Lake Erie, "west-
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ward bound." Hers was the first keel that ever ploughed the broad expanse of this inland sea. She had entered upon a sublime enter- prise -an attempt to penetrate the mysteries of a treacherous fresh-water sea hitherto untrav- ersed by the shipcraft of a daring civilization. The natives along shore beheld the white- winged vision with amazement as it moved upon the waters like a "thing of life." It was the aim of La Salle to monopolize the fur trade and discover a pathway to the Pacific. The Griffin touched at points along the southern coast of the lake, with a view to purchase furs from the natives, but failed. The natives fled into the interior, dismayed at the apparition. Wild fruits and wild game abounded on shore, and furnished the crew of the Griffin with the "delicacies of the season."
On the fourth day of her voyage the Griffin reached the strait of Detroit, and thence amid a wild and beautiful scenery on either side pursued her way through Lake St. Clair to Lake Huron. Here she encountered a violent storm. The crew despaired. Father Hennepin knelt and prayed the Holy Virgin, with unwonted fervor, to spare their lives. The storm straight- way subsided. The skies became bright and peaceful. Nature smiled. This was regarded by all on board, and especially by Father
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Hennepin and his priestly associates, as an instance in which the efficacy of prayer was fully proved. The Griffin sped on her way. under the influence of a cloudless sky, and in the course of a few days arrived in safety at Mackinaw, the grand centre of the western fur trade. Her approach had been watched with interest. Her cannon announced her arrival. The Ottawas were overawed, and thought her a messenger sent to them by the Great Spirit. The Jesuits had established a mission at this point and acquired a dominant influence over the Indians. In this way they had monopo- lized the fur trade; and though they hated La Salle, yet they feared him, well knowing that he was sustained in his enterprise by Governor Frontenac. They had built a block-house for their own accommodation, and a chapel adjoin- ing the village of the Ottawas. They received their distinguished visitor with respect at the chapel. La Salle, clad in the glitter of his official costume, knelt reverently before the altar in the midst of a motley assemblage whose devotion was greatly exceeded by an insatiable curiosity. When La Salle left the chapel and while returning to the Griffin, the Ottawas and Hurons paid him honors by firing
a salute of musketry. The Griffin lingered at anchorage in the harbor for some days, sur-
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rounded by Indian canoes, attracted by idle curiosity or other motives. Though the Jes- uits had acquired by their teachings the dom- inant influence over the minds of the Indians, they could not entirely control the fur trade. La Salle, however, was disappointed in his expectations of obtaining furs at Mackinaw: He had sent agents some nine months prior to his arrival to purchase furs for him, but they had squandered the means with which they were intrusted and disappeared, with the exception of one or two of them, who had proved faithful to his interests. He proceeded westward into Lake Michigan and anchored at a small island in the vicinity of Green Bay. Here his agents sent to this point had aceu- mulated a large stock of furs, which were promptly transferred to the Griffin. The ship was heavily freighted with a rich cargo. La Salle placed her in command of a faithful and skilful subordinate with orders to return to Niagara, sell the furs, pay the avails to his creditors, and then rejoin the expedition on Lake Michigan. La Salle was a man of honor, and though his ereditors had persecuted him, he desired to pay the "utmost farthing " he owed them.
It was on the eighteenth day of September, 1679, when the Griffin fired her parting gun
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and sailed on her return voyage from Green Bay. It was near nightfall. There were a few dark clouds, thunder-heads, rising above the horizon in the south-west. The weather was sultry. A slight breeze daneed upon the rip- pling waves. The Griffin sped on her way and disappeared in the darkness of a starless night. The gentle breeze soon swelled to a hurricane. The scowling thunder-clouds that were seen. peering above the horizon now grew to gigantic dimensions. With tongues of fire they uttered terrific peals that appalled the courage of the stoutest hearts. The reverberations shook earth and sky. In an instant the Griffin was caught up and wrapped in the folds of the whirlwind by an invisible spirit -a spirit
" That gave her to the God of Storms, The lightning and the gale!"
Such was the sad fate of the Griffin, as tradi- . tion has it. Nothing more was ever heard of her. Not a relic was ever found. Not a soul on board survived to tell the mystic tale of her ·catastrophe.
Within an hour after the Griffin had sailed from Green Bay, La Salle took command of four canoes with fourteen men, and proceeded southward. Several months elapsed before he heard of the loss of the Griffin. The disaster
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did not discourage him. He made in the course of a few years repeated expeditions to the southward, but failed to accomplish satis- factory results. He then visited France and appealed to the king for aid, who gave him an outfit of four ships, put him in command with directions to proceed by sea to the mouth of the Mississippi and plant a colony in its valley.
He sailed from France July 24, 1684. The voyage was one of disasters, accompanied with insubordination on the part of inferior officers. He finally reached the Gulf of Mexico, skirted its shores, and passed the mouth of the Missis- . sippi without discovering it. In his search for it he entered Matagorda Bay, many leagues west of it. Here he landed with a part of the colony. Three of the ships, in command of dissatisfied subordinates, returned at once to France, leaving La Salle and his adherents to their fate. The ship that remained was soon afterward wrecked on the coast with a loss of valuable supplies. La Salle erected a fort on the bank of the Lavaca, a small river that dis- charges its waters into the Bay of Matagorda. Here he located the colonists. They erected cabins of a frail and temporary character. They could do nothing better for want of mate- rials. It was a desolate region with a barren
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soil. Years passed in gloom and anxiety. Though the colonists struggled to improve their condition, they still remained destitute of the comforts of life. La Salle saw the neces- sity of taking decided steps for their relief. He did not like the locality. He made repeated explorations, hoping to discover the mouth of the Mississippi River, but in vain. He attempted to return to Canada through the - wilds of a dense forest to procure aid, but was taken sick in the swamps of Louisiana and compelled to abandon the enterprise, with the loss of eight men. One year after another passed in gloom and destitution. The brave little colony of two hundred was now reduced to forty-five souls.
On the 7th of January, 1687, he took his final departure on foot from the fort on the Lavaca, accompanied by the remnant of the colonists, with the determination to push his way through the wilderness to Canada. Ile and his followers suffered untold deprivations as they proceeded. A few of them became mutinous, and rejoiced when one of their number waylaid and shot La Salle amid the everglades in the valley of the great river he had explored, in connection with its principal tributaries. Thus fell, at the age of forty-four years, one of the most heroic and magnanimous
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explorers that ever attempted to penetrate the primeval mysteries of the far West. He achieved marvels. Their import could not, in his day, be comprehended. It was a day of strife and struggle among European monarchs to enlarge their empires and fill their coffers with the virgin gold of the new world.
Spain, France, and England were the game- sters. They moved adroitly upon the chess- board. Each claimed vast domains by right of discovery. Their claims were as conflicting as they were enormous in extent. Disputes arose, followed by. hostilities. The contest was prolonged for centuries. One century locked horns with another. The mastery seemed dubious. At last the contest became a question of popular rights. The star of empire - divine in its birth -appeared in the west. The eagle fixed his eye upon it and soared sky- ward in its blaze, flinging the shadow of his wings over the land, now a land of freedom, a sisterhood of States, free of foreign dominion, free to act, ever progressive, ever aspiring, ever prophetic, never satisfied - a grand republic, whose watchword is, "In God we trust." and whose banner, begemined with the stars of heaven, is ever destined to float in triumph -
"O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."
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TN attempting to sketch a few incidents in my own career, I cannot but feel that I "o'erstep the modesty of Nature; " yet justify myself in thinking that what I have to say may have a tendency to encourage young men never to despair of success, who are left as I was, to take care of themselves in the world.
My birth occurred June 11, 1800, at Conway, Mass., an incident for which I am not respon- sible. It brought with it, however, the respon- sibilities of my lifework. My father was a New England farmer of Puritanic ancestry. He was not only an industrious but an honest man. My mother was the "angel of the house- hold." She departed this life when I was but four years old. Soon after her death my father discontinued housekeeping, and. placed me in the care of strangers, who cared more for the compensation they received than for my wel- fare. As a matter of fact, instead of being brought up with parental care, I brought my- self up, and educated myself at Williams
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College, where I graduated in 1824, and then "went West."
From Williamstown to Buffalo I travelled by the most expeditious conveyanees then known - the stage-coach and canal-boat. My trip from Buffalo to Cleveland was made by way of Lake Erie in a sehooner, which, after a rough voyage of three days, cast anchor off the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, late at night, on the 24th of September, 1824. A sand-bar prevented the schooner from entering the river. The jolly boat was let down, and two jolly fellows, myself and a young man from Baltimore, were transferred to the boat with our baggage, and rowed by a brawny sailor over the sand-bar into the placid waters of the river, and landed on the end of a row of planks that stood on stilts and bridged the marshy brink of the river to the foot of Union Lane. Here we were left standing with our trunks on the wharf-end of a plank at mid- night, strangers in a strange land. . We hardly knew what to do, but soon concluded that we must make our way in the world, however dark the prospect. There was no time to be lost, so we commenced our career in Ohio as "porters,"
. by shouldering our trunks and groping our way up Union Lane to Superior Street, where we espied a light at some distance up the street, to which we directed our footsteps.
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On reaching the light we found that we had arrived at a tavern kept by Michael Spangler, a noble-hearted German. The modern word "hotel " for tavern had not then come into vogue. Five large Pennsylvania wagons, covered with white canvas, stood in front of the tavern with as many teams of gigantic horses feeding from cribs attached to front and rear of the wagons. It was a novel sight. . . These huge wagons were known in common parlance as "prairie schooners," and were employed in transporting produce and mer- chandise between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. On entering the bar-room, which was lighted by a solitary candle, we stumbled over several teamsters, who lay fast asleep on the floor, laboriously engaged in complimenting the land- lord with a nasal serenade. This was the first "musical concert" that I attended in Cleve- land.
In the morning, after partaking of an elabo- rate breakfast, garnished with sauer-krant, the first I had ever tasted, I took a stroll to see the town, and in less than half an hour saw all there was of it. The town, even at that time, was proud of itself, and called itself the "gem of the West." In fact. the Public Square, so called, was begemmed with stumps, while near its centre glowed its crowning jewel, a log
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court-house, with the jail and the jailer's resi- dence on the lower floor, and the court-room in the upper story. The eastern border of the Square was skirted by the native forest, which abounded in rabbits and squirrels, and afforded the villagers "a happy hunting-ground."
The entire population did not, at that time, exceed four hundred souls. The dwellings were generally small, but were interspersed here and there with a few pretentious mansions. The chief magnates of the town were the valiant sons of a Puritanie ancestry, and of course inherited a spirit of enterprise. They had erected an academy on St. Clair Street, in the upper story of which they held religious services on Sunday. They also encouraged trade, commerce, and manufactures, and had established a shipyard, tannery, soap factory, and distillery, near the foot of Superior Street. All this gave assurance to the town of a bril- liant future.
I did not emigrate from the East with the expectation of luxuriating in this paradise of the West, but for the sterner purpose of fighting the battle of life. I came armed with no other weapons than a letter of introduction to a lead- ing citizen of the town, and a college diploma printed in Latin, which affixed to my name the vainglorious title of "A. B." With these
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instrumentalities I succeeded, on the second day after my arrival, in securing the position of classical teacher and principal of the "Cleve- land Academy."
This proud old structure still stands on St. Clair Street, and is now occupied as head- quarters by the fire department of the city. My earthly possessions at this time consisted of a seanty supply of wearing apparel, a few classical text-books, and a three-dollar bank- note. I remained a week at Spangler's tavern before commencing my academieal labors. On leaving I stepped up to the bar and asked the amount of my bill. "Two fifty," replied the landlord. I handed him my three-dollar bank- note. He returned me a half-dollar. I then engaged lodging at a private boarding-house, opened my school, and commeneed business based on a solid capital of fifty cents. This I' expended on the following day for necessary stationery. The only fear I had was that my boarding-house might ask me for money before the close of the first quarter. But'it so hap- pened that nothing was said about it. When the quarter closed, I collected tuitions, paid up all I owed, and nobody had questioned my solvency. In the mean time I entered my name as a student in the law-office of Reuben Wood, Esq., and employed my leisure hours in study- ing law.
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In the spring of 1826 I resigned my position in the academy and went to Cincinnati,- where I continued my legal studies with Bellamy Storer, Esq., and expected to sustain myself by teaching a select classical school. But in this expectation I was disappointed, and soon became penniless. In order to cancel the small balance I owed for board and get away from Cincinnati, I sent the few classical text-books I had to be sold at public auction, and realized less than half their value; but enough to acquit myself of debt and pay for a deck passage up the Ohio River to Gallipolis, on the evening steamboat bound for Pittsburgh. The next morning I was landed with my trunk, at an early hour, on the sand-beach of the river, opposite the town of Gallipolis, "alone in my glory." All the money I had left was twenty- five cents. In a few minutes a porter with a wheelbarrow appeared, and offered to take my trunk to the tavern - the best in town. "What is your charge ? " said I. "Twenty-five cents," said he. "All right," said I, "go ahead." I followed, and when we reached the tavern, I paid his charge and was again left penniless. I entered the tavern with a cheerful air, regis- tered my name, and ordered a breakfast. I was evidently taken to be a man of some conse- quence. The best lodging chamber in the
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house was assigned me. After breakfast I retired to my chamber to consider what I could do to bridge over the dilemma in which I was placed, and save myself from disgrace.
The truth was I had come into town unher- alded; nobody knew me, and I knew nobody. Half lost in bewilderment, I looked about me, and saw a book with pen, ink. and paper laying on the table. I caught up the book for relief. It proved to be "Murray's English Grammar." In an instant the lucky thought struck me that I could give a course of lectures on grammar ; and before I had fairly digested my breakfast, I digested a scheme of procedure; sallied out into the town; secured the use of the court- house for a free lecture in the evening; had a notice printed on trust; posted it myself in public places about town, announcing that I was the author of a new and philosophical method of teaching English grammar in ac- cordance with the origin and progress of lan- guage, and without the aid of text-books. All this was done before my dinner hour. I had no time to write a lecture, but thought it.
The notice I had posted up created a sensa- tion, and gave me a full house. On entering the court-room I was invited to occupy the " judgment-seat," an elevation that subjected me to the scrutinizing gaze of every eye. I
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felt the effect. It was my first attempt to address a public audience. When I arose to speak, I turned "quaker," not in creed, but literally; yet soon composed myself, and said that everybody who aspires to respectability in writing and in conversation, or who desires to move in the circles of refined society, should have an accurate knowledge of grammar. I then gave the audience an inkling of my new and philosophical method of teaching the science, and by way of illustration said that the first word a child utters is an interjection - as oh! ah !- at the sight of a new object; the second, a noun, the name of the object seen - as apple ; the third an adjective, expressing the quality of the object - as sweet, or sour apple. The other parts of speech. I said, can be as readily traced to their origin in the progress of language as those I had specified. I then con- cluded by saying, give me a class of pupils from twelve to twenty years of age, who have never studied grammar. and I will agree to teach them the science in six weeks by a daily lecture of two hours, at the moderate charge of three dollars apiece; and in case my pupils or their friends are not satisfied with the result, I will make no charge.
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