(RETURN TO THE TITLE PAGE) 150 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND bordering on Euclid avenue. The name Lake View was given it by Judge Sherman. 'There were twenty acres of natural forest on the site and a bountiful stream of water. A. Stranch, of Cincinnati, was consulted as landscape engineer. The first officers of the association were: J. H. Wade, president; C. W. Lepper, treasurer; L. E. Holden, clerk; 0. D. Ford, superintendent. The land cost originally one hundred and forty-eight thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one dollars and eighty-four cents and sixty-five thousand dollars were immediately spent in beautifying the grounds. Many of the distinguished men of our city are buried in this cemetery, and there are, the Garfield monument, the Wade memorial, the Hanna memorial, the Burke memorial, the John Hay memorial and other notable and beautiful monuments. RIVERSIDE CEMETERY. This was first opened to the public in 1876, when the Riverside Cemetery Association purchased the old Brainard farm overlooking the Cuyahoga valley near the junction of Scranton avenue and Columbus street. The cemetery contains one hundred and two and one-half acres of land and cost one thousand dollars an acre. E. 0. Schwagerel was employed as landscape architect to design the grounds. The first officers were : Josiah Barber, president ; George T. Chapman, vice president ; Alfred Kelley, treasurer; J. M. Curtiss, superintendent. The cemetery was opened with a centennial memorial service held November 11, 1876. A number of distinguished guests were present, including Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. Many trees were planted by the various guests and officers of the association. CATHOLIC CEMETERIES. St. Joseph's, the first Catholic cemetery in Cleveland, was consecrated by Bishop Rappe, January 22, 1849. It comprised fifteen acres on Woodland avenue beyond Willson. The first burial took place in 1850. At first only four acres were used. In 1878 Bishop Gilmour ordered the entire tract graded and allotted. Since 1878 the beautifying of the cemetery has been due largely to the efforts of the Rev. Chancellor George F. Houck. St. John's cemetery is located on Woodland avenue, near St. Edwards and Holy Trinity churches. About thirteen acres were purchased May 4, 1855. The first burial took place in 1858. In this cemetery all the priests of Cleveland who died while holding parishes here, are buried. The cemetery was platted according to the older ideas and is not laid out as a park. St. Mary's cemetery is located on Burton street and Clark avenue. It contains five acres and was opened in 1861. Calvary cemetery comprises one hundred and five acres on Leland avenue, six miles south of the square. One half of the cemetery was opened November 26, 1893. The first interment was made the following December. The following cemeteries are now in the city : Agudath Achim, Lansing avenue, near West Fifty-seventh, southeast ; Anshe Chesed, Fulton road, corner Bailey avenue, southwest ; Anshe Emeth, Fir avenue, near West Fifty-eighth street, northwest; B'nai Abraham, Fir avenue, near West Fifty-eighth, north- HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 151 west; Brainard cemetery, Broadview road, near Chesterville ; Broadview, Broadview road, near West Thirty-sixth, southwest ; Brooklyn Heights, West Thirty-fifth, southwest end; Calvary (Catholic), foot of East Ninety-ninth, southeast; Denison Avenue, Denison avenue, opposite Twenty-second place, southwest ; East Cleveland, Euclid avenue, opposite East One Hundred and Twenty-third; Erie Street, East Ninth, corner Sumner avenue, southeast; Harvard Grove, Lansing avenue, near East Fifty-seventh, southeast ; Highland Park, Kinsman road and Warrensville; Keneseth Israel, Lansing avenue, near East Fifty-seventh, southeast ; Lake View, office 12316 Euclid avenue, corner One Hundred and Twenty-third; Mayfield, Mayfield road, opposite Coventry road, Cleveland Heights ; Monroe Street, Monroe avenue, foot of West Thirty-second, southwest ; Moses Edelstein, Lansing avenue, near East Fifty-seventh, southeast ; North Brooklyn, Scranton road, corner Wade avenue, southwest ; Ohavei Emuna, Harvard avenue, near East Fifty-ninth, southeast ; Ohew Zedek, 5903 Lansing avenue, southeast; Riverside, West Twenty-fifth, junction Scranton road, southwest; St. John's (Catholic), Woodland avenue, near East Seventy-first, northeast ; St. Joseph's (Catholic), Woodland avenue, corner East Seventy-ninth ; St. Mary's (Catholic), West Forty-first, corner Clark avenue, southwest; St. Mary's (Polish), Brecksville road, Newburg; West Park, Ridge road, Brooklyn township ; Woodland, Woodland avenue, corner East Seventy-first, southeast. CHAPTER XV. FIRE PROTECTION. In 1829, a hand fire engine, the first in the village, was brought to Cleveland. But this engine was evidently not used very much for in 1833 the first volunteer company was formed when the "Live Oak No. 1" was purchased and a group of volunteers, under the guidance of Captain McCurdy, worked the engine at fires. The following year a regular fire company was formed, and Captain McCurdy was chosen foreman. A new engine was purchased for them, called "Eagle, No. 1." A regular fire department was soon organized, and "Neptune, No. 2," "Contest, No. 3," "Phoenix, No. 4," "Forest City Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1," and "Hope Hose Company, No. 1," were added within two years. In April, 1836, "Cataract No. 5," was organized. On May 17, 1836, the council passed an ordinance regulating the newly established department. "The fire department of the city of Cleveland, shall consist of a chief engineer, two assistant engineers, two fire wardens, in addition to aldermen and councilmen (who are ex officio fire wardens), and such fire engine men, hose men, hook and axe men as are, or may be, from time to time, appointed by the city council." The duties of each of these officers are then prescribed, and penalties fixed for damaging the department property, or for obstructing the firemen at their work. (1) 1 - Council Records, May 17, 1836. 152 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND At a meeting May 4, 1836, the council established the first fire limits of the city, as follows : Following the center of Cuyahoga river from the lake to the center of Huron road, thence easterly along the center of Huron road to the center of Erie street, thence northerly in Erie street to Lake Erie, thence westerly along the shore of Lake Erie to the Cuyahoga river. This virtually embraced the boundary 0f the town. Number 1 was located on Superior street, just west of Water street; No. 2, on Seneca street, where the Blackstone building now stands ; No. 3 seems to have been too small an engine for practical use and was early counted 0ut ; No. 4 and the hook and ladder company were located 0n St. Clair street, where the present No. i has its engine house and the department its headquarters. In 1850 the following companies comprised the department: "Eagle, No. i ;" "Forest City, No. 2 ;" "Saratoga, No. 3 ;" "Phoenix, No. 4;" "Cataract, No. 5 ;" "Red Jacket, No. 6;" "Forest City Hook & Ladder Company, No 1." In 1852, Hop; No. o, and in 1853, Neptune, No. 7, were added. In 1854, when Ohio City was annexed, the west side companies, "Washington, No. 1," and "Forest, No. 2," were made Nos. 9 and to of the Cleveland department. In 1857, "Alert Hose Company" was equipped, followed in 1858, by the "Protection Hose Company." In 1859, the department comprised the following companies : (1) "Forest City Hook and Ladder Company, No. 1." (Forty men.) In a two story brick building on Frankfort street, near bank. (2) "Live Oak Engine Company, No. 1." (Forty men.) In a one story frame house, near Pittsburg railroad workshop. (3) "Forest City Engine Company, No. 2." (Forty men.) In a one and a half story brick building on Erie street, near Kinsman. (Woodland.) (4) "Saratoga Engine Company, No. 3." (Forty men.) On Oregon street, near Erie, in a two story frame building. (5) "Phoenix Engine Company, No. 4." (Fifty men.) Frankfort street, near Bank street, in a two story brick building. (6) "Cataract Engine Company, No. 5." (Fifty men.) In alley near Superior street, a 0ne and one half story frame building. (7) "Neptune Engine Company, No. 7." (Fifty men.) Perry street, near Orange, two story brick house. (8) "Hose Engine Company, No. 8." (Forty men.) Huntington street, near Ohio, in a two story brick building. (9) "Washington Engine Company, No. 9." (Fifty men.) Church street (west side) in a two story brick building. (10) "Torrent Engine Company, No. to." (Forty men.) Lorain street over Pearl street, in a one and a half story frame building. (11) "Alert Hose Company, No. 1." (Thirty men.) Long street, in a one and a half story brick building. (12) "Protection Hose Company, No. 2." (Thirty men.) In the alley near St. Clair street, one story frame building. Total : One sixty man power engine ; four thirty-two man power engines ; five twenty-two man power engines ; one hook and ladder carriage ; eight hose carts; HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 153 four hose carriages ; six brick houses and five frame houses ; four thousand, five hundred feet rubber hose, eight hundred feet leather hose; five hundred members. The volunteer companies were housed in buildings rented for the purpose near the center 0f the various districts, but "Phoenix No. 4" had a new engine house built for it, on Water street, and 0n the evening 0f January 2, 1844, they moved into the new house drawing their engines through the streets accompanied by a torchlight parade, the booming of cannon, and a band. After the moving ceremony, a banquet was served at the Mansion House. The water supply for the volunteer engines was at first secured from cisterns scattered at strategic places about town, usually on street corners. One of the largest of these wells was on Bank street, near Superior ; it was eight feet in diameter. If the fire was near the river or canal, they were drawn upon for a supply. The town did not take good care of these cisterns, and they were often nearly empty and polluted with mud. (1) Each company had about forty men who served without pay. They were exempt from jury service; and from paying poll tax or working on the highway; and after five years of service these exemptions continued during life. They were required by law to meet eight times a year for public drill, and received one dollar a day for each drill. The chief engineer had a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per year, usually spent by him in prizes tc the companies. The chief was elected by the people. "Each company furnishes their own uniform, composed of such material and made in such style as may suit their common taste." The engines weighed from one to three tons and were operated by hand power by means of long levers running along the sides of the machine. The limit of the engine's capacity was a stream one hundred feet high, but this was possible only by greatest exertion, and then only in spurts. Each engine was supplied with a hundred feet of hose, and if the fire was far from a cistern, the hose of several engines was required to make the necessary connections. Alarms were given by those who first saw the fire, usually by shouting and by the ringing of bells. An ordinance required that all school bells and church bells be used to spread the alarm. The bell in the old Baptist church on the corner of Seneca and Champlain streets was most frequently used as a fire bell. The city did not furnish a central alarm until many years later. Upon the sounding of the alarm, the firemen would hasten from their work, to the engine house. They usually kept their helmets and coats in their homes, or at their places of work. The member who first arrived at the engine house took the trumpet and assumed command until the arrival of the captain or his assistant. The engine was run out as quickly as possible, and hauled t0 the fire by means of two long ropes. Everyone was expected t0 help. The streets were then often in such bad condition that the engines were hauled on the sidewalks, to the annoyance of the pedestrians who often complained bitterly. On the other hand the firemen were frequently molested by the citizens and jeered at by idle bystanders. This led to feuds which sometimes broke out in open warfare. The firemen got the 1 - See "The Early Fire Department of Cleveland ;" George F. Marshall, "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 9. 154 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND better of the "dudes," as the following ordinances passed by the city council in 1844 testify. "The marshal and every constable shall repair immediately, upon the alarm of fire, with his staff of office to the place where the fire may be, and there report himself subject to the directions of the mayor, or any alderman or councilman, for the preservation of the public peace, and for the removal of all idle and suspected persons, or others not actually or usefully employed in assisting to extinguish such fire, or in the preservation of property, in the vicinity thereof. "Any person wh0 may repair to a fire shall be obedient to the orders of the mayor, alderman, councilman, fire warden, the chief engineer, and assistant engineer in the extinguishing of fires, and in the removal of property, and in case any person shall refuse to obey such orders, he shall forfeit the penalty of five dollars and be subject to imprisonment forthwith. The citizens and inhabitants shall respectively, if the fire happens at night, place a lighted candle or lamp at the front door or window of their dwelling, to remain there during the night, unless the fire be soon extinguished, under penalty of two dollars." Any of the firemen could "require the aid of any citizen, or inhabitant, m drawing any engine or other apparatus to the fire, or near about the fire, or in working any engine at the fire, and upon neglect, or refusal to comply with such requirements, the offender shall pay a penalty of five dollars." All the fire companies responded to every call. There was an intense rivalry between them as to who should put out the most fires, and tradition has it that the almost daily alarms, about 1852, were due to this zeal. This intercompany competition was not free from jealousy, and the newspapers were careful to deal out their meeds of praise in equal proportions. In 1843, one of the town papers forgot itself, and eulogized the heroism of No. 4 at a severe fire on River street. No. 5 met and resolved, that all the companies deserved equal praise. The monthly competitive drill required by ordinance added to this rivalry. (1) At the annual fireman's ball, an occasion of state, usually held in the ballroom of some hotel, all these rivalries were merged into good fellowship. "At the tap of the old Baptist bell, repeated in quick succession, the town would become alive in the instant, day or night. That old-time call to immediate service had an electric power in its tone, it wrought a spirit of rivalry among the boys that had no limit. An alarm of fire was certain to break up a prayer meeting, a circus or a horse race, or a courting match. Most of the men who were prominent in the volunteer service forty years ago have long since left the ranks of life, and run their engine in. Their record stands in bold relief in the hearts of those who knew how faithfully they served for their city's good." (2) Some of the most distinguished men of the city were members of the volunteer fire department. This list includes, Gen. James Barnett, Col. John Hay, Jabez Fitch, M. M. Spangler, W. H. Hayward, Edward Hart, and many 0thers. 1 - See statement of Hon. John W. Allen, "Annals of Early Settlers Association," No. r. 2 - See George F. Marshall "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. 9, p. 246. A list of the early volunteers is there given. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 155 There was a great deal of opposition to the expenditure 0f public money for the support of the fire companies and for equipment. When in 1829, the village bought a fire engine for tw0 hundred and eighty-five dollars, the trustees wh0 voted for the purchase, were all defeated for reelection, and in addition they had to pay for the engine. (2) The inadequacy of the hand engines became apparent about 1854. On May 4, 1855, a steam fire engine from Cincinnati was displayed here, and an exhibition of its work was given at the Bank street reservoir in the presence 0f the mayor, councilmen, and a crowd of wondering citizens. But the council opposed buying it, alleging that there was not enough water in all sections 0f the city to operate it, that the streets were in such bad condition that it could be hauled only with great difficulty, and that the price was too high. On the 2d of February, 1863, the volunteer fire department was abandoned. In April, 1863, an ordinance was passed establishing a paid steam fire department. This was not done without violent opposition from several citizens, who thought it was a waste of public money, and others who believed that volunteers would give better service than "hirelings." The first steam fire engine used in the city, was purchased December 17, 1862, and February, 1863, two others were purchased, followed by a fourth in June. The new fire department first displayed itself 0n the 4th of July, 1863, when, preceded by an American Express Company wagon, Clark's Forest City Cornet Band, and the council committee on fire and water, the four engines, and the "Mazeppa hook and ladder company," "drawn by splendid horses, and elegantly arrayed with bouquets," paraded the principal streets. (3) In 1864, a fifth steamer was added. All of these engines were 0f Silsby make, second class, rotary power, manufactured in Seneca Falls, New York. It was customary to name them after men of local importance. "Engine company, N. P. Payne, No. 1," was located on Franklin street, between Bank and Water, in the heart of the downtown section. "Engine company, J. J. Benton, No. 2," was located on Champlain street, between Seneca and Oregon, convenient to the manufacturing district on the flats. "Engine company, William Meyer, No. 3," was located on Huntington street, between Garden and Prospect, caring for the residence section of the east end. "Engine company, J. D. Palmer, No. 4," was located on Church street, between State and Hanover, on the west side. "Engine company, I. U. Masters, No. 5," was housed on Phelps street, between St. Clair and Superior streets, in the heart of a fine residence section. "The Mazeppa hook and ladder company" was quartered with No. 1, on Frankfort street. The first paid fire companies were annoyed at fires by the crowds of the curious, too turbulent for the marshal, and the establishing of a police system was a great help to the firemen. There were also other handicaps in the early days. In 1862, the chief engineer reported that the want of fuel had repeatedly delayed the work of the engines, and he asked for a supply wagon. A scant water supply (only twenty-two hydrants when the water works started) together with un- 2 - See statement of Hon. John W. Allen, "Annals of Early Settlers Association," No. 2, p. 61. 3 - Anderson, "The Cleveland Fire Department," 1896, p. 25. 156 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND paved and muddy streets, and many irresponsible alarms, made the work of the firemen unnecessarily burdensome. In 1864, an alarm telegraph system was installed. Its signal boxes were placed on posts near the sidewalks throughout the business part of the city. There were twenty-three such boxes, six on the west side and seventeen on the east side. This was a boon to the firemen, for it greatly reduced the number of false alarms, the irresponsible ringing of bells ceased, and the sounding of alarms at the engine houses in the immediate location of fires was systematized. In 1859, the chief engineer reported, "False alarms and the uncertainty as to the location of the fires, are now costing the city double the amount of expense incurred in the use of apparatus while in service," (4) In 1867 the department was partially reorganized, and the rules governing it were made more stringent. The chief engineer was given two assistants, the first assistant to serve on the east side, and the second on the west side. In September, 1867, the city bought its first engine of the first class, a rotary power Silsby. It was named the "J. J. Hill," and was placed in engine house No. 2, on Champlain street, while the "J. J. Benton" was taken from No. 2 and put into a new district, No. 6, on the west side in a new engine house, built by the city, on the corner of Lorain and Brainard streets. From this point the growth of the department was constant. New engines were added from year to year, and the efficiency of the equipment constantly increased. In 1870 tests were made as to the best way of quickly heating the water in the engines. Cold water was first used and it took too much time to raise it to the steaming point. J. Vandevelde, engineer of No. 1, devised the method finally adopted. In August, 1872, the "Protection Company" was commissioned. It consisted of four men, with a wagon, canvass covers, and other apparatus, helpful in protecting furniture and other valuables taken from burning buildings. In January, 1875, No. 2 was equipped with the first piston engine bought by the department, a second class Amoskeg, built at Manchester, New Hampshire, called the "Charles A.. Otis." February 9, 1875, Newburg got its first engine house, No. 11, and the old steamer, "George B. Senter" and an old hook and ladder truck, No. 4, were sent there. 1877 the first Aerial ladder was brought to the city, and the swinging or suspended harness was introduced. It proved a great time saver. In 1881 Chief Dickinson, newly appointed to the place, reorganized the force, forming all the companies into three battalions, each under the command of an assistant chief. Each company was reorganized, and in April, 1882, a captain with a lieutenant was placed at the head of each engine house. These appointments were made from a list of names selected by examination, and they are important as foreshadowing the universal application of civil service to all the men in the service. The first examining committee were Chief Dickinson, and Messrs. Wagner and Gloyd, of the board. In 1881, another time saving device was introduced, the sliding pole, used by firemen in passing from their sleeping quarters to the engine floor below. 4 - Report, 1859, p., 8. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 157 When they were first used, in No. 6, the poles were of wood, but the friction of the sliding generated so much heat that iron pipe was soon substituted. In 1882 the city purchased its first chemical engine and placed it with a newly organized hook and ladder company, on Pearl street near Clark. In 1873 the city had tested a Steiner Chemical engine, at No. 10, but this apparatus was never purchased, although it was in the service several years. It was repaired in 1883 and put into service of No. 2. There was a deep seated public prejudice against chemical engines, people believing that the chemicals would ruin furniture. In October, 1883, after some of the most disastrous fires the city has ever had, twenty-five thousand dollars was appropriated from the sinking fund for furnishing five new engines. A new Hayes extension ladder truck was placed with No. 1, an astonishing piece of apparatus in that day, reaching to a height of eighty-five feet. In 1886 the city built its first fire boat. Its advent was preceded by several years of discussion and many instances of the need of such a boat. On the afternoon of August 4, 1886, the boat was launched and christened "Joseph L. Weatherley," in honor of a capable chief of the volunteer department, in 1840 and 1841 and the first president of the Board of Trade. The craft was of wood, seventy-nine feet long, with twenty-three feet, four and three-eighths inches in beam over all, a draft of eight feet, four inches, and displacement of one hundred and thirty-six tons. Within a week after her 'enlistment, she was initiated into fire fighting, when, on November 6, the Otis elevator burned down on East River street with a loss of forty-five thousand dollars. In 1887 the city purchased a Pompier ladder, and sent a fireman to Chicago to study its use and teach his fellow firemen. On November 3, 1887, Dr. D. R. Travis was elected the first surgeon of the department, with the official title of fire department physician. In 1893 a program was adopted for the most extensive enlargement of the equipment yet made, including six new engines, three new trucks, a water tower, a new fire boat, and three new engine houses, all costing two hundred and forty- seven thousand dollars. June 16, 1894, the new water tower was placed with No. 1, on St. Clair street, and in March, 1894, old Engine company, No. 3, moved from Huntington street into its new house on Central avenue. The new fire boat was named after the mayor, "John H. Farley." It was built in Buffalo, and stationed at the lower Seneca street bridge. The old "J. L. Weatherley" had been condemned as unsuitable, and her machinery was transferred to the new boat. Later, a new wooden fire boat, "The Clevelander," was built to take the place of the "Weatherley." In 1903, a new central telegraph equipment was purchased and added at a cost of twenty-five thousand, five hundred dollars. In 1909 the entire equipment included thirty engine companies, eleven hook and ladder companies, two hose companies, manned by five hundred and fifteen men, classified as follows : One chief, two assistant chiefs, six battalion chiefs, one superintendent of machinery, one secretary, one assistant secretary, one store keeper, one medical officer, one veterinary, six wardens, forty-two. captains, forty-six lieutenants, thirty engineers, thirty assistant engineers, five pilots, two hundred and eighty-two firemen, twenty 158 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND cadets, fourth grade; nine cadets, third grade; four cadets, second grade; nineteen cadets, first grade ; five operators and linemen and two employes. The appointment of firemen was at first regulated more or less by political expediency. The disastrous effect upon the service made it apparent that a system of promotion must be devised and in 1882 civil service was adopted. The pay of the firemen was at first regulated by the council, but on November 11, 1889, at the behest of Dwight Palmer, a former member of the department and then a member of the legislature, a bill was passed regulating firemen's salaries. These have been increased from time to time. In December, 1908, the salary of the chief was four thousand dollars, that of the battalion chief was two thousand dollars, firemen 0ne thousand, one hundred and four dollars, of the cadets from six hundred to nine hundred dollars, and of the captain 0ne thousand, three hundred and twenty-three dollars ; lieutenants, one thousand, one hundred and eighty-five dollars ; engineers, 0ne thousand, three hundred and eleven dollars; assistant engineer, 0ne thousand, one hundred and seventy-three dollars. As early as 1839, the firemen had organized a "Mutual Protecting Society," for aiding the firemen who were injured at the fires. Subsequently several plans of voluntary cooperation were tried, but they did not succeed. In February, 1868, after the city had taken control of the department, the "Cleveland Firemen's Relief Association" was organized. A constitution was prepared and signed by sixty members. A fund of three hundred and sixty-two dollars and sixty cents was formed as a nucleus, and this has grown by voluntary contributions, and monthly dues. The fund is wholly voluntary and not under the control of the city. The "Firemen's Pension Fund" was begun m 1881. In 1886, the legislature passed Dwight Palmer's bill creating the board of trustees of the firemen's pension fund, "for the amelioration 0f disabled firemen, and for the relief of their widows and minor children." On May 24, following, the department elected as trustees, John A. Barlow, Charles B. Knapp, William Clayton, who, with the board 0f fire commissioners, constituted the trustees of the new pension fund. This fund has steadily grown. June 1, 1909, it had three hundred and forty-six thousand and forty-two dollars and eighty-one cents invested in bonds. In 1908 there were one hundred and fifty-six pensioners, seventy-one retired firemen, fifty widows, thirty-five orphans, and had paid out in 1907, sixty-three thousand, two hundred and fifty-nine dollars and seventy cents. The law was substantially changed in April, 1902. The fund is administered by a board of trustees, consisting of five members of the department elected by the force. Thus gradually, the city and the state have united in recognizing the importance of the fire department. It is significant that in 1896, when the city was planning its great forward movement in public works, the commission of citizens found it unnecessary to recommend a reorganization or great enlargement of the fire department. The administration of the fire department, under the volunteer system, was m charge 0f the city council, and a chief engineer elected annually by the people. When the paid fire department was organized, the council committee on fire and water, and a board of fire commissioners elected by the people, controlled the department. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 159 By act of April 29, 1873, the board of fire commissioners consisted of the mayor and chairman of the council committee on fire and water, and three citizens appointed by the mayor for three years. This law was repealed in 1876,. and the electors elected four commissioners for a term of four years. With the inauguration of the federal plan, the department was controlled by the directors of public service, substantially as it is today. NOTABLE FIRES IN CLEVELAND. (1) The following is a list of the more important fires : 1834—January 20, occurred the first serious fire in the village. Fire was discovered at 2:00 a. m. in the second story frame building, erected in 1832 and occupied by Martin C. Hill as a store on Superior street. Loss, twelve thousand dollars on building and nine thousand dollars on stock. April 27th, the furnaces of the Hoyt-Risley Company, in Brooklyn, burned to the ground. Loss, ten thousand dollars. 1835—July 29, occurred the largest fire to date, in the history of the town. The fire started in the kitchen of Benjamin's boarding house, totally destroying Kelley's three story brick block on Superior street, one of the largest blocks in town, containing Kelley's book store, Strickland & Gaylords drug store, Camp & Clark's dry goods store, the Bank of Cleveland, and Benjamin's boarding house. West of this block four small wooden buildings were burned; west of these, Alden & Company's shoe store, Moses White's house, Clark's new three story wooden block, Moulton's comb factory, Seargent's mirror factory, Shepherd's chair factory, and several other buildings. The fire was checked by the brick walls of the Mansion house. The loss was only forty-five thousand dollars, and throws some light on the cheapness of the buildings that then lined the principal business street of the town. The life of a domestic in Benjamin's boarding house was lost, the first life sacrificed to fire in Cleveland. 1837—April 12, a warehouse on Dock street, owned by John Blair and occupied by Ward and Smith, commission and forwarding merchants, and adjoining flour mill of Edmund Clark and Richard Hilliard. Loss ten thousand dollars. Incendiary. 1840—August 6, the new Cleveland Exchange, and an old tavern adjoining, also two stores and the Tremont house. Loss twenty thousand dollars. The Ohio City engine came over to help. August 7, the distillery of Vinton & Chamberlain, on the west side. Cleveland engine companies Nos. 4 and 5, and the hook and ladder company went to help. Loss, fifteen thousand dollars. 1843-January 2, warehouse of Standart, Griffith & Company, on River street, the groqery store of S. Cleary & Company, the block and spar shops of William Nott & Company, two steamboats, the "Cleveland" and the "New England," frozen in near the dock, caught fire, but were not destroyed. 1844—November 19, the Lawrence building, Superior lane. Loss fifteen thousand dollars. 1 - The details and figures of losses are taken from the newspapers and from the Annual Reports of the Department. 160 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND 1846—July 22, Stone's warehouse, at the junction of Canal and River streets, one of the oldest in the city, and adjoining building. Loss fifteen thousand dollars. September 23, a fire on Merwin street near the canal, destroyed six stores, and destroyed the contents of Merchant's hotel. Loss fourteen thousand dollars. 1849—August 3, St. Paul's church, corner Euclid and Sheriff streets, which had been completed only a few months, was set on fire by an incendiary, who was afterward sent to the penitentiary. (1) 1852-October 12, a fire started in Kramer's store on Superior lane, near the railroad crossing, and spread down Water street, destroying a score of buildings. 1854—April 1, incendiary fire on Seneca street, near Superior, destroyed old engine house No. 1, and two adjoining homes, Dr. Purington's drug store, and the sparks set fire to the Sturtevant planing mill on Michigan street, John Schrienk's brewery and dwelling house, Gray & Smith's paint shop, and Farmstead & Doan's cooper shop. Loss eighteen thousand dollars. 1854—October 7, fire broke out 12 m. in a two story frame house on the north side of the square, and destroyed eight two story frame houses, and 0. S. Mason's livery stable, damaging Mathew's brick block on Champlain street and partially destroying five frame houses on Seneca street. This almost denuded the southwest side of the square. The courthouse then on the southwest corner of the square was on fire but the flames were put out. 1854—October 27, a livery stable on James street was set on fire and the flames spread into one of the largest fires in the history of Cleveland. The New England house, the Commercial exchange, a three story brick building, the St. Charles hotel, and a three story frame building on Merwin street were totally destroyed. Also seven two story frame buildings, used for business purposes, on the west side of Merwin street. On the north side of Superior street, Oviatt's three story brick block, was entirely gutted. This fire destroyed nearly every building on Merwin street, and the entire block enclosed by Superior lane, James street, and the railroad. Loss, about two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. 1854—November 29, Old .Trinity church, the first church building in the city, corner of Seneca and St. Clair, a frame Gothic building, seventy by forty feet, had a bell and tower with four little spires, the building was completed August, 1829. 1855—August 20, at 10:30 p. m., Garland & Gould's drug store, on Merwin street. Loss, thirty-five thousand, five hundred and twenty-nine dollars. 1855—November 12, incendiary fire destroyed five buildings on Michigan street. 1856 May 4, Morocco factory on Leonard street, and the adjoining three story building. Loss, twenty-three thousand three hundred and twenty-five dollars. 1856-June 25, the two story frame building, on the west side of River street, spread to Barney, Corning & Company's rectifying works, Taylor's lumber yard, and Gates' warehouse, and Fitzhugh & Littleton's grain warehouse. Loss, thirty-four thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars. 1 - See Hodge Memorial, p. 42. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 161 1856--September 5, Leland's & Shepherd's shingle mill, on Division street, spread to Garlick's machine shop, Dewett & Howell's agricultural factory, on James street. Loss, thirty-two thousand three hundred dollars. 1857—March 7, at 11 :30 a. m., fire was discovered m the Stone church, on the square. It was partly destroyed. Loss, thirty-three thousand dollars. 1861-February 8, at 10 p. m., fire was discovered in Hicks school, a three story frame building on the west side, due to defect in heating apparatus. The mercury was below zero, and "froze up" all the engines. 1865-March, the old Athenaeum building burned. 1868—February 22, at 3 :5o in the morning, fire started in a brick building corner of Prospect and Sheriff streets, used as a boarding house. The fire started in the basement and soon cut off the front stairs ; all the inmates, however, escaped except one who was burned to death. 1868—April 6, Gabriels' Sons carriage shop on Michigan street. A fireman was seriously injured. 1869—February 24, three firemen were injured by falling walls during the burning of the New England block on Broadway. Loss, twenty-five thousand dollars. 1869—July 15, forty-three cars of oil burned on the tracks of the Atlantic & Great Western Railway. Loss, fifty thousand dollars. 1870—December 9, works of the Cleveland Iron Company were destroyed by fire. Loss, two hundred thousand dollars. 1872—March 16, explosion of the Austin Powder Mills, at 3 p. m., two men were killed. Loss, twenty-five thousand dollars. The shock shook the city and frightened many persons. September 26, the Northern Ohio Hospital for the Insane was discovered on fire, the water supply was inadequate and the building was a total loss. There was great difficulty in rescuing the inmates. Nearly five hundred were removed to various charitable institutions in the city, and to the police station. Later they were sent to the Dayton hospital until a new building could be erected. Only two of the inmates were lost. Carelessness on the part of the workmen who were repairing the roof was supposed to be the cause of the fire. 1873-October 22, Corning & Company's distillery, River street. 1874—January 30, the buildings, 86-8 Water street, began to burn and the fire spread rapidly to George Worthington & Company's buildings, loss nearly five hundred thousand dollars. 1875—November 16, another explosion at the Austin Powder mills. They were instantaneously and utterly wrecked. Three lives lost. Many plate glass windows in the city were ruined by the explosion. 1876—Otis & York's grain elevator was burned, together with several small houses in the vicinity; the wind carried fire brands to the roof of the Second Presbyterian church. Loss to church, seventy thousand dollars. 1878—March 19, the four story brick block, Atwater building on Merwin street, for many years one of the leading business blocks in town, occupied by the Non-Explosive Lamp Company. Loss, eighty-seven thousand, two hundred dollars. 162 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND 1878 October 21, Engine Company, No. 6, on its way to a fire in the flats, had to cross Columbus street bridge. The night was very dark, and rushing down hill the firemen did not notice the draw was open until they were on the verge of the river. They jumped for their lives, while the horses and engine plunged into the river. The horses were drowned, none of the firemen were killed, but several were severely injured. December 14, Payne's brick block, Superior street, occupied by Short & Forman, book binders and stationers ; loss, twenty-nine thousand, one hundred and eighty dollars. 1879—January 5, John Rock's block, corner Woodland and Willson avenues, one of the pioneer business buildings in that part of the city ; loss, fifteen thousand, nine hundred dollars. January 30, Hempey & Company's planning mill, thirty thousand dollars. July 8, planing mill ; Variety Iron Works ; Wood, Perry & Company's plant ; part of Atlantic & Great Western freight house; forty-seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-two dollars. July 13, Cleveland Paper Mills, on Canal street, twenty-five thousand dollars. August 23, Cleveland Paper Company, at St. Clair street, thirty-one thousand dollars. 1880—May 6, New Mercantile building, northwest corner St. Clair and Ontario, owned by George Worthington estate, occupied by A. W. Kellogg & Company, newspaper agency, William Kauffman & Company, W. J. Morgan & Company, lithographers, and the Telegraph Supply Company, loss, about one hundred thousand dollars. December 17, large building on the Superior viaduct, occupied by the Cleveland Co-operative Stove Company, completely destroyed. Loss, seventy-seven thousand dollars. 1881—February 1, St. Mary's church on Carroll street, was burned during a severe snow storm, loss, thirteen thousand dollars. May 23, Gray Roofing Company, Emerson & Corkey, and others, loss, thirty-eight thousand, five hundred dollars, July 21, Cleveland Nut & Bolt Works, damaged thirty-one thousand dollars. August 16, Rogers, Jungs and others, on Leonard street, thirty-eight thousand, six hundred and sixteen dollars. August 28, Fred Humphrey's planing mill, twenty-three thousand, five hundred and ninety-nine dollars. September 17, mill of H. M. Hempey & Son, Center street, twenty-two thousand, one hundred and thirty-two dollars. October 30, Cleveland Spring works, Winslow street, twenty-six thousand, five hundred dollars. November 22, The Excelsior wax works of the Standard Oil Company, loss, thirty thousand dollars. 1882—March 24, an alarm turned in at 2:08 a. m., Southworth block, on Ontario street, near the Square, destroyed, and the Kraus & Company, adjoining. Loss to Southworth, ninety-eight thousand dollars ; to Kraus, thirty thousand dollars. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 163 April 28, four story brick building, owned by Schuber & Company, used for tobacc0 factory. Loss forty-three thousand dollars, and adjoining Johnston building, ten thousand, two hundred and sixteen dollars. May 16, three story frame factory, C. C. Roberts, thirty thousand dollars. June 6, Cleveland, Brown & Company, five story brick block, thirty thousand dollars. In the latter part of January, 1883, unprecedented thaws and rains flooded the Cuyahoga, and on February 2 and 3, the flats were a surging sea, doing great damage to the lumber yards. 1883—February 3, fire started at 6:20 a. m., in the oil refinery of Shurmer & Teagle, on Willson avenue. Blazing oil was carried down Kingsbury run into the river, a distance of three miles, and communicating with the works of the Standard Oil Company, near Broadway, started a fire that threatened to become historic. It was one of the most spectacular fires ever seen in Cleveland. The floods were literally ablaze. Tanks and stills exploded, flames shot through the dense black smoke and burning coal oil tars, often one hundred feet into the air. The lurid spectacle attracted thousands to the hillsides. The fire department worked incessantly for fifty hours before the flames were under control, some of the firemen standing for hours waist deep in icy waters. Loss, one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. 1883—February 27, Meyers, Osborn & Company's stove factory, fifty-nine thousand dollars. April 9, Taylor & Boggis' foundry, on Central way, thirty-two thousand, five hundred and fifty-six dollars. April 19, Davidson & House planing mill on the flats, threatened the lumber district, thirty-eight thousand, seven hundred and thirty-nine dollars and nineteen cents. 1884—There were an unusual number of incendiary fires, this year. 1884-January 5, the new Park theater (now Lyceum) burned, fire started in the basement, by escaping gas, the building owned by the Wick estate, and the Old Stone church, adjoining, were damaged. Loss to the building, sixty thousand dollars; to the manager of the theater, seventeen thousand dollars ; to church, thirteen thousand, nine hundred and forty-nine dollars. During May, the Sherwin-Williams paint factory twice caught fire, doing sixty-one thousand dollars damage the second time. June 5, McAllister's planing mill, loss, thirty-two thousand and forty-six dollars, and Gardner, Clark & York's planing mill. June 11, Shurmer & Teagle's oil works were again damaged by fire, loss, ten thousand dollars, and in October their cooper shops were destroyed. September 7. The largest fire in the history of the city, and one that threatened to wipe out the entire downtown district, raged on this day. The alarm was turned in box 23, at 6:57 a. m., that fire had started in the lumber yards of Woods, Perry & Company. It spread rapidly, and by 7 :50, every engine in the city was called into service, and for the first time in the history of the city, help was called from out of town. Erie, Sandusky, Elyria, Akron, Lorain, Youngstown, Painesville, Toledo, Columbus, Ashtabula, Delaware, Norwalk were called, 164 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND and all responded. Some came by special train within a few hours, and others did not arrive until after the fire was checked. By night it was under control. It was on Sunday, immense throngs gathered. and the Fifth regiment was called to its armory to be in readiness. The total loss was estimated at eight hundred and ninety thousand, seven hundred dollars. The principal losses were : Woods, Perry & Company, four hundred thousand dollars ; E. S. King & Company, lumber, one hundred and seventy thousand dollars ; Potter, Birdsall & Company, lumber, one hundred thousand dollars ; Variety Iron Works, sixty thousand dollars ; Davidson & House, lumber, sixty thousand dollars. Two weeks later, Sunday, September 21, a second fire started at 11 a. m., in the lumber district, in Monroe Brothers & Company's yard. This was soon subdued and just as the engines were starting to their stations, the storehouse of the same firm was seen to be ablaze, and simultaneously, Brown, Strong & Company's lumber yard. These flames spread rapidly and help was again called from Akron, Elyria, Painesville, Ashtabula, Sandusky, Lorain, Oberlin, Clyde, Delaware, Galion, Columbus, Toledo and Fremont responded. Only the engines from Akron, Elyria, Painesville and Ashtabula, the first arrivals, were placed into service. Losses : Monroe Brothers & Company, twenty-nine thousand, eight hundred dollars; Brown, Strong & Company, eighty-one thousand, two hundred and ninety- seven dollars and fifteen cents. These fires were incendiary and called attention of the city to the need of a fire boat and better equipment. All but one of the engines then in use were old. 1885—April 12, fire started about three o'clock, Sunday morning in the attic, or seventh story of the Stillman hotel. This attic was of frame construction with wooden fl00rs and the fire spread rapidly. All the guests, however, escaped, and the flames were confined to the upper floors. Loss, seventy-five thousand dollars. May 15, A. Bailey's dry goods store on Ontario street burned at 10:30 p. m., an adjoining building used as a tenement, caught fire, one person killed, many injured. Loss, forty thousand, nine hundred dollars. September 9, early in the morning, fire started in Doan's oil works near the new Kingsbury run bridge. Blazing oil ran down with the current to the Standard Oil Company, whose stills of gasoline were destroyed. On the afternoon of the same day, L. D. Mix's Oil Refinery on Commercial street was destroyed. 1886—February 25, hardware factory of the Whipple Manufacturing Company, on Waverly avenue, loss, thirty-six thousand, nine hundred and fifty dollars. July 20, at 2 p. m., the building 85-95 Euclid avenue, owned by C. G. King, burned. Total loss, thirty-eight thousand, eight hundred dollars. October 27, at 2 a. m., alarm was turned in that the new main building of Case School of Applied Science was on fire. The building was ruined. The water supply was entirely inadequate, the elevation 0f the college grounds too high for the available water pressure. Loss, two hundred thousand dollars. 1887—June 17, the old Taylor & Boggis Foundry building, occupied by the Globe Carbon works, near Cleveland & Pittsburg railroad tracks, total loss, one hundred and nineteen thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 165 1887-October 12, alarm at 8:17 p. m., that the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum at Newburgh was on fire. One of the older buildings not used as a dormitory burned. No lives were lost, twenty thousand dollars damage. 1888—This year there were many serious fires in the down town district. January 19, the Beckman block, on lower Superior street, loss, thirty-one thousand, five hundred and seventy-five dollars. February 4, during the burning of the Britton Iron & Steel Works, several men were seriously injured ; loss, nineteen thousand dollars. February 8, at 11:08 p. m., alarm that the Wilshire buildmg on Superior street, owned by Jacob Perkins, and tenanted by J. L. Hudson, was on fire. Loss to tenants and owner, forty-nine thousand, six hundred and eleven dollars and fifty cents. May 17, Perkins and Hitchcock Cabinet works on Champlain street, loss to building and tenants, forty-seven thousand, six hundred and ninety-three dollars. September 15, a heavy explosion heard at 3 o'clock in the morning, in M. P. Clark & Sons elevator, fire followed. Two lives were lost and four persons injured. Loss, forty-eight thousand dollars. November 17, incendiary fire started in Wood & Jenk's lumber yard, but it was checked after sixteen thousand dollars damage was done. But on December 5, fire again started there, and a loss of fifty-eight thousand, eight hundred and seventy-three dollars was sustained. 1889—February 7, Beckman's Basket mills, loss, eighty thousand dollars. October 8, William Edwards & Company, wholesale grocers, Water street, loss, fifty thousand dollars. October 27, a leaky pipe caused a forty thousand dollar fire, at the National Carbon works. 1890—Maher & Brayton's foundry, loss, fifty-six thousand dollars. * 1892--February 18, E. M. McGillin's dry goods store, at the corner of Seneca and Superior streets, loss, one hundred and fifty-five thousand dollars. October 26, a saloon on Central avenue burned down at midnight and a family of four persons quartered in the building, burned to death. Money loss, only three thousand dollars. October 27, the Crocker- building, Water street, used as a warehouse for rags. Loss, forty thousand dollars. October 28, Cleveland Window Glass Works on Champlain street caught fire. One woman was suffocated and one man seriously injured. Loss, five thousand dollars. While this fire was raging, A. Teachout & Company, door and window sash mill on Canal street, was on fire. Three firemen were seriously injured. Loss, one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars. Gabriel's Carriage Works adjoining were damaged ten thousand dollars. Also, Mittleberger & Sons, twelve thousand dollars. Others in the neighborhood damaged about twenty thousand dollars. 1893-May 23, the Morgan apartment house, 508 Prospect street burned at * - From 1890 to the present, the Annual Reports of the Fire Department do not contain the record of specific fires. The officers seem to be more, concerned over what old horses are sold, than in keeping a record of the principal fires. 166 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND noon. The fire had reached the second floor when it was discovered. Five persons were burned to death and tw0 were seriously injured. 1895-February 1, a wooden dwelling on Jennings avenue, used as a deaconess' hospital, was completely destroyed. There were twelve patients and a number of nurses in the building. Four lives were lost. 1897—December 23, a bitter cold day, at 5:30 p. m., alarm sounded that J. 13. Perkins' power block on Frankfort street was on fire. The block was destroyed. The Blackstone building 0n Seneca and Frankfort streets, was greatly damaged, as was the Wilshire building 0n Superior street, and the Miller building on Frankfort street. The fire was caused by the explosion of a can of benzine. Two firemen were injured. The loss was over five hundred thousand dollars. 1898-January 5, the Music hall in Vincent street began burning at 6 p. m., in an upper room used for a printing office. The hall soon burned to the ground. Loss, twenty thousand dollars. In 1898, Globe Clothing Company, at 160-4 Superior street, burned. Loss two hundred thousand dollars, including damages to neighboring buildings. 1898-November 8, Cleveland theater caught on fire from adjoining building, at 10 p. m., during a performance. The audience all escaped without any accident. This was the second time this theater was on fire. 1899—November 25, Dangler Stove Company's plant, Perkins avenue, near Cleveland & Pittsburg railroad tracks, destroyed, and Cleveland Machine Screw Company damaged. Entire loss, three hundred thousand dollars. Lieutenant William Roth of the fire department, killed, and several firemen injured by falling walls. 1899—April 15, fire started at noon in the factory of Carney & Johnston, 7 Academy street, spread rapidly to the entire block bounded by Lake, Bank and Academy streets, was burned. Thirteen people, including nine firemen were mjured. The buildings were occupied largely by cloak factories, and a great amount of stock was destroyed. The total loss was nearly nine hundred thousand dollars. The principal loss was sustained by Carney & Johnson, Reed Brothers & Company, H. Black & Company, Hart & Company, A. W. & H. Sampliner, the L. Whitcomb Company, and the Baldwin estate. The loss was well covered by insurance. 1901—November 12, N. 0. Stone's building, 46-50 Euclid avenue, fire in the afternoon, the fire cut off escape of elevator and stairs, and occupants from the upper floors jumped from the windows. One lady was killed and four 0thers were seriously injured. The crush of the crowd was so great that five persons were seriously injured by being tramped upon. Loss, about one hundred thousand dollars. 1902-November 1, a floor in the factory of the Cleveland Baking Company collapsed killing five and injuring fourteen. Fortunately n0 fire started. 1902-December 4, Likly & Rockett's trunk factory, Case avenue and Hamilton street. Loss, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 1903—November 16, at 3 a. m., Holmden avenue car barns burned to the ground. There was a high wind, three firemen killed and twelve severely injured by falling walls. Seventy-two cars were destroyed ; total loss about three hundred thousand dollars. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 167 1904—May 30, nearly the entire block bounded by St. Clair, Perry and Oregon street, burned, including sash' and door factory of the Cleveland Window Glass Company. St. Clair street school was damaged, but the school was not in session. Total loss, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 1904—June 25, fire in the lumber yards caused loss of two hundred and thirty thousand dollars to the Nicola Brothers Company, the Guy & Ralph Gray Company, the J. N. Hahn Company, and others. 1908 February 22, the "Plain Dealer" sustained a heavy loss in the destruction of its building, corner of Superior and Bond street; twenty-two Mergenthaler typesetting machines and a high speed Hoe press were included in the equipment destroyed. The loss was over one hundred thousand dollars. The same day the freight house of the Pennsylvania railroad burned, and twenty box cars were destroyed. Doss, forty thousand dollars. There were several minor fires on the same day. 1908 July 3, a "harmless" piece of fireworks displayed in Kresge's five and ten cent store, Ontario street near the Square, ignited a counter full of fireworks, and caused a panic in the crowded store which cost seven lives, mostly young girls, and resulted in the serious injury of twenty-five others. The agitation caused by this horror, led the city council to pass the ordinance introduced by Councilman Pfahl, prohibiting the sale and use of all fireworks in the city of Cleveland, thus inaugurating the "Cleveland Sane Fourth." CHAPTER XVI. THE PARKS. Prior to 1850 the citizens of Cleveland did not feel the need of public parks. In 1852 the council was asked to enclose the Public Square. It took several years to accomplish this. In 1853 Nathan Perry offered the city seven acres on Euclid avenue near Perry street at two thousand dollars per acre. The council accepted the proposition, but later the motion to empower the mayor to appoint a commission to fulfill the conditions of the deed was tabled and the generous proposal was spurned. The council did not dream that the land within fifty years would be worth per front foot the price they were offered per acre. The people were more interested in getting a fair ground for the Ohio state fair. A committee of the council was appointed to negotiate for the purchase of twenty acres from Philo Scovill, bounded by Greenwood, Perry, Scovill and Garden streets. The committee reported that the land could be bought for three thousand dollars per acre and recommended that this be done. But again the city council refused. In 1856 a third attempt was made to secure a park in the east end, when a committee of the council urged the purchase of "Williams park," enclosed by Kennard, Garden, Case and Willson avenues ; this effort also failed. In 1857 a council committee was asked "to enquire into the expediency of purchasing or otherwise procuring grounds for two city parks, one to be located on either side of the 168 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND river." The customary refusal resulted. The citizens lost heart over the narrow and obdurate council, and for ten years nothing was done. Finally, on September 26, 1865, the question was renewed and a committee was chosen to report on buying a park on the lake shore. On November 28th following, the committee made an exhaustive report, detailing the growth of the city, estimating that in 1895 it would have "two hundred and eight thousand and seventy-three inhabitants," that Cleveland was "far behind most cities of its class" in park and market facilities, and recommended earnestly the purchase of three parks, one of seventy-seven acres on the lake front downtown, one of fifty acres in the east end near Willson, between Cedar and Kinsman avenues, and one on the west side, seventy-five acres on Detroit street near Oakland street. They were especially solicitous about the park on the lake front. "The lake front would increase the reputation of the city as a place of summer resort to such a degree as to make it a rival of Newport as a watering place." But even this preeminence did not appeal to the imagination of the council, and it was necessary for a meeting of citizens, held in the mayor's office in 1867, to supply the necessary momentum to push this matter through the council. By authority of a newly enacted state law, the city council created the first board of park commissioners, August 22, 1871, and in 1873 the commissioners were granted power to levy a tax for park purpose. This begins the real history of our parks, for prior to this date the city council through a committee controlled the public parks and intermittently would grant small sums for planting a tree or replacing a broken walk. The first tax levy in 1873 was two tenths of a mill, and the following year the first park bond issues were sold for the purchase of Lake View park, followed a year later by bonds for improving the Square and Franklin circle. From this point the history of each park will be given separately. The Public Square will be omitted here and its history will be detailed in a later chapter. LAKE VIEW PARK. This, the first park purchased by the city, was created by resolution of the council, January 22, 1867, when it recommended securing lands abutting on Seneca, Wood, Bond, Ontario and Erie streets, "from the edge of the hill to the railroad property, for park purposes." On September 3, 1867, a committee was appointed to locate this park and to apply for the necessary legislation. May 7, 1869, the legislature passed the enabling act, and July 27 following, the committee recommended the strip between Seneca and Erie street. This land was covered with an uncouth aggregation of huts, called "Shantytown." It was not until August 22, 1871, that the mayor was empowered by ordinance to appoint the board of park commissioners required by law, and on October 31, 1871, he named Azariah Everett, 0. H. Childs and J. H. Sargent. By May 2, 1873, the jury awarded the price on the various parcels, two hundred and thirty-four thousand, nine hundred and fifty-one dollars and fifty-two cents, and fifteen year, seven per cent bonds, for two hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars were issued to meet it. Many people wished the commissioners to build a bridge over the railroad tracks at Erie street and erect a municipal bathing pavilion on the beach, but in HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 169 1879 the privilege 0f a bathing and boating establishment was let to a private party for ten years. The growth of railroad traffic and the shifting of the population from the lake front have brought unpopularity upon this our first public park and the neglect of the city has added the final pronouncement of its doom. Perhaps the completion of the group plan will restore it to splendor. FRANKLIN CIRCLE. Franklin circle was surveyed and dedicated to the public use by the original proprietors of Brooklyn township and is described in the plat of the allotment made by the county surveyor, October 1, 1836, as follows : "The Franklin place was laid out for public grounds. Its radius is one hundred and forty feet." It remained an open space where the farmers from the neighboring country held informal market until 1857, when the city council erected a white fence around the central part, leaving a street thirty feet wide around the outer circle. In the center of the fenced plot a wooden pavilion and a fountain were placed. In 1872 the lily fountain, with its perennial flowers was taken to the Public Square, where its whitened petals still receive their annual coat of paint. Franklin street was then laid through the grounds, the entire circle was graded, trees and shrubbery were planted, a stone pavilion took the place of the old w00den stand, some fantastic "rock work," then in vogue, was crowded in, and new walks of flagging and asphaltum were laid. Very little open space was left after so much garnishment. and justified the barbarous name, Modoc Park, given to it. A speaker's stand erected on the Circle was used in many campaigns. Tradition has it that Mark Hanna first heard William McKinley, then a young congressman, speak at a meeting in this park. In 1907-8 the Forest City Railway Company, with the city's permission, ruthlessly plowed its way through the Circle, destroying some fine trees and despoiling the park of its beauty. CLINTON PARK. In 1835 Messrs. Canfield, Dennison, Foster and Pease filed the plat of an allotment, one of the first in the history of Cleveland real-estate operations. A tract of land was set aside in the following terms : "Clinton park, three hundred and sixty-four feet, eight inches by one hundred and ninety-eight feet, the north line being the south line of Park place and the east line is three hundred and fourteen feet distant from the west line of T0 A, lot No. 137, the south line being the north line of Lake street and the west line being three hundred and fourteen feet distant from the east line of T0 'A, lot No. 136. Lots No. 1-33 are subject to a taxation for the improvement of said park under the directions of the trustees or a committee appointed by the owners of said lots and each of the said lots to enjoy every privilege and accommodation of said park as a promenade or walk." It was planned as an inducement to build fine residences around the park. But the proprietors were doomed to disappointment. Our magnificent lake front with its wide level area and its elevation affording a splendid view of .the lake, was for a few decades the fashionable residence section. But the advent of the noisome 170 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND railroad drove the people eastward. Clinton park fell into decay. In 1853 it was fenced in and a few walks were laid. In 1871 the park commissioners took it under their care and improved it somewhat. It is now a playground for the neighborhood children. MILES PARK. In 1850 Ahaz Merchant, then county surveyor, made a plat of Newburg village. In the space occupied by the park he wrote : "This piece is given for a public square, as commons, to be used and improved as such, in setting out shade trees and beautifying it with walks. It is one hundred and sixty-five feet wide extending from the west line of Gaylord street to the west line of Walnut street." Later Gaylord street was renamed Woodland Hills avenue and Walnut street was called Sawyer street. The original donor of this commons was Theodore Miles, a sturdy pioneer of Newburg, and it was named in his honor by ordinance of June 11, 1877. In 1860 a town hall was built upon the square at a cost of three thousand, six hundred dollars ; twelve years later it was enlarged. When in 1873 Newburg was annexed to Cleveland, the town hall became a public library. In 1894 upon the petition of citizens in that section, the library board leased it for a term of years at a nominal rental from the park commissioners. A new library building was erected in 1906-7. SOUTH SIDE PARK, CALLED LINCOLN SQUARE SINCE 1897. Mrs. Thirsa Pelton, in 1850, contemplating the founding of a school for girls, purchased sixty-nine acres on the south side. In 1851 this land was allotted and in the map filed in the courthouse the park is designated as "Pelton park, a private park." The surveyor's certificate with barbarous ambiguity recites : "Pelton park, so called, is laid out for a pleasure ground," but the parties who allotted the land "reserve to themselves the right to control Pelton park, it being expressly kept for a private park, to be managed by the proprietors as they in their wisdom think best—which, however, is occupied as a pleasure ground and to be so kept and used forever." Mrs. Pelton's death in 1853 ended the educational project she had cherished, the park was fenced in and the gates locked. This aroused public indignation and the gates were repeatedly torn down. The city council was requested many times to take some action and in 1868 its committee on judiciary sent in a bifurcated report declaring the park to be under private control but yet a public playground. Bitter litigation followed, the courts holding the park to be wholly private, and when in 1875 a second series of hotly contested suits were carried through the courts with the same results, the feeling in the south side ran very high. Finally the proprietors offered the land to the city and on November 17, 1879, it was purchased for fifty-thousand dollars, the deed passing from John G. Jennings, July 4, 1880. The southsiders celebrated the opening of the park by a grand barbecue. The house in the park and the fence around it were removed, trees were planted and walks laid. The park was soon allowed to deteriorate. In 1896 it was renovated, the walks relaid, a bicycle path was built around it, and a new fountain and music pavilion erected. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 171 MARIPOSA PLACE is a strip of land one hundred and eighty feet by three hundred and forty feet, extending from Waring to Rossiter streets, parallel to St. Clair, of doubtful ownership but improved by the city. RESERVOIR PARK. In 1890 the old Kentucky street reservoir was abandoned for waterworks purposes and by ordinance of June 16, 1890, was transferred to the park commissioners who renamed it Reservoir park. In 1897 the name was changed to Fairview. A reversionary interest in the land after its disabandonment for waterworks was quieted in 1896 when the Tyler heirs deeded all their interest to the city for seven thousand, five hundred dollars. WADE PARK. The first of a series of magnificent gifts that have made our park system notable was made to the city by J. H. Wade. The deed was signed September 15, 1882, and on September 26th the ordinance accepting the deed and thanking the donor, was passed by the city council. The condition of the deed was that the city should expend seventy-five thousand dollars in improving the park. Money appropriated for its improvement was spent in making the centaur pond and laying out drives and walks. The park contained sixty-three and five-tenths acres. Mr. Wade had virtually planned the park in 1872 and had spent many thousands of dollars in 'developing the plan. Its magnificent grove of forest trees, the picturesque valley of Doan brook and the stretches of open land, made the park a popular resort from the first. In 1889 the zoological collection was begun; "two black bears, two catamounts, or wild cats, a family of crows, a pair of foxes and a colony of prairie dogs" formed the nucleus of the collection. The octagon house for smaller animals was soon completed and stocked with birds and tropical animals. Mr. Wade in 1890 presented a herd of American deer to the park. In 1907 it was determined to remove the "zoo" to Brookside park as soon as funds permitted. In 1890 the city council granted the Cleveland City Cable Railway Company the right to lay tracks into the park, but the park commissioners promptly secured an injunction against the railway company and the attempt was never repeated. A right, however, to build a street railway around the park was secured in the gift and J. Henry Wade, grandson of the donor, in 1896, relinguished this privilege. Perry's monument was 'removed from the square to Wade park in 1894. Other monuments in the park are the statue of Harvey Rice, the Goethe-Schiller memorial and the Koskiusko monument. GORDON PARK. On October 23, 1893, the title to Gordon park passed to the city from the estate of William J. Gordon. Mr. Gordon's will recites that the donor believed "a public park, made beautiful and attractive, open to all at seasonable times, would be for the public good." The conditions imposed in the will were : First. The city shall 172 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND maintain the park under the name of Gordon park. Second. The shore on the lake front shall be protected from encroachments. Third. Drives and ponds to be maintained. Fourth. No fence to obstruct the land view. Fifth. The city to preserve the burial lot of the Gordons. Sixth. The gift must be accepted within one year. (5) In 1865 Mr. Gordon began the purchase of land on the lake shore and Bratenahl road. He acquired a number of parcels and began with rare skill to plan the noble park that bears his name. The great sea wall, the upper and lower lake drives, the grove and the sheep pasture, were especially the objects of his delight. The city acquired one hundred and twenty-two acres by the gift and to their credit, the park commissioners have made only minor changes in the original plan, principally the widening of some of the drives. In 1894 a tract of thirty acres adjoining the park and known as the "picnic grounds" was purchased from the Gordon estate. Wading pools for children were made in the brook.. The large new bathhouse and pavilion were erected in 1901. Between these new acquisitions lay the unimproved valley of Doan Brook. The park commissioners had for some years desired to buy and improve this valley. In 1882 they reported that "The rough and broken character of the territory, while being peculiarly adapted to the purpose suggested is so far unavailable for other use that the entire strip could, it is believed, be secured at this time at small 'cost." (6) The commissioners were A. Everett, J. H. Wade, and J. M. Curtiss. But the hands of the commissioners were tied and more liberal legislation was necessary before a metropolitan park system became possible. On April 5, 1893, the socalled "Park Act" was passed after much agitation and many public conferences of citizens. It provided for a board of five commissioners composed of the mayor, the president of the city council and three appointed by the trustees of the sinking fund. The act gave these commissioners the right of appropriation and of issuing bonds. The first board under the act was composed of Charles H. Bulkley, Amos Townsend, John F. Pankhurst, Mayor Robert Blee and A. J. Michael, president of the council. Charles A. Davidson soon succeeded Mr. Michael. F. C. Bangs was appointed secretary. The board adopted a comprehensive plan including "a large park on the outskirts of the city in each of the seven main sections, the same to be so located that in case the future should so determine and the needs of the city so require, that such outlying parks could be readily united and connected by a broad, smoothly paved boulevard, enclosing the city." (7) This report forms the basis of the famous Cleveland Park Plan. A further evidence of the wisdom of the commissioners was the retaining of E. W. Bowditch, the noted landscape architect of Boston, for perfecting the plans of this splendid conception. The commissioners proceeded forthwith to acquire Doan Brook valley, Edgewater park, Brooklyn park, Newburg park and Ambler park, issuing eight hun- 5 - Report Director Public Works 1892, p. 160. 6 - Report Park Commissioners, 1882. 7 - Report, 1894. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND -173 dued thousand dollars in four per cent bonds, divided into three issues. They brought a premium of thirty-eight thousand, four hundred and seventy-one dollars. Doan Brook valley was a wild ravine. It was acquired in over two hundred separate parcels at a cost of three hundred and forty-six thousand, two hundred and eight dollars and eighty-nine cents. The upper or high level drive was at once begun to provide an easy connection between Gordon and Wade parks. The noble bridges that afford a crossing for Wade Park, Superior and St. Clair avenues and the Lake Shore railway were begun as soon as the money was provided. EDGEWATER PARK. Edgewater park was acquired in 1894. It includes eighty-nine acres with a frontage of six thousand feet on the lake, affording a fine beach, with a graceful curve outlined with forest trees. The land cost two hundred and five thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight dollars and seven cents. In 1896 work was commenced on the boulevard that skirts the lake and connects this park with Detroit street near the viaduct. In 1902 a new bath house was completed and soon thereafter the large pavilion. The beach at Edgewater, like nearly all the beaches on the west side, is in danger of being washed away. Thirteen stone jetties have been built to save it from the onrush of the waves. BROOKLYN PARK, CALLED BROOKSIDE SINCE 1897. In the summer of 1894 eighty-one acres at a cost of nineteen thousand, four hundred and sixty-six dollars were purchased as a nucleus for this park. Later nine acres were added from the Barker farm, costing five thousand, two hundred and sixty dollars and twenty cents ; fifty and sixty-two hundredths acres from the Poe farm, at a cost of twenty-five thousand, three hundred and eleven dollars ; and nine acres purchased of Thomas Quirk at eight thousand, two hundred and thirty- four dollars and thirty-nine cents. Since 1904 a shelter house has been built and a notable concrete arch bridge built over Big creek, said to be the flattest concrete arch of its length in the United States. It has a span of eighty-six feet, four and a half inches, and a rise in the center of only five feet, three inches. The large natural amphitheater has also been improved and can now be used for outdoor exhibitions. The new zoological garden is located in this park. NEWBURGH PARK, GARFIELD PARK SINCE 1897. It was easy to select the sites for all of the parks excepting the one in the extreme southern part of the city. There was a great diversity of opinion among the residents of this section where their park should be located. Finally in 1896 the commissioners purchased the Dunham, Rittberger and Carter farms, one hundred and frfty-six and seventy-five hundredths acres in all, for thirty-two thousand, two hundred and tenty-nine dollars and sixty-four cents. .The park was a half mile from the city limits at that time. In 1896 nineteen acres of meadows were purchased from the State hospital, which had been used by them as pasture land. This park has unusual natural advantages. 174 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND AMBLER PARKWAY. In 1894 Mrs. Martha B. Ambler gave the city twenty-five acres lying between Cedar avenue and Ambler Heights, and the following year fifty-five acres were purchased from Mrs. Ambler and others for the completion of the parkway. This includes a deep ravine with some of the finest trees in the city. SHAKER HEIGHTS PARK. In 1895 the Shaker Heights Land Company donated two hundred seventy- eight and eighty-five hundredths acres to the city for a park. This was a vast level stretch of land, including the site of the old Shaker settlement. In 1823 a group of this communistic sect purchased section 23 in Warrensville township. Three "families" were established, east, north and middle family, each with its one large family house and outbuildings. The middle family also had a grist mill which did a thriving business in its earlier decades. About 1843 the colony was in the height of its religious fantasy. They believed Christ was dwelling among them. Artemus Ward has left a quaint record of their search for "affinities." After the war the colony began to decline. Its young people left, the grist mill no longer flourished and its resources dwindled to the making of maple sugar and syrup. In 1889 the depleted colony was ready to sell. In 1892 a purchaser was found willing to pay three hundred and sixteen thousand dollars for the land. Some years later the section was valued at one million, three hundred and sixty- five thousand dollars. It is now developing into a beautiful, fashionable residence district to the consternation of the shades of the austere communists that haunt the site of the ancient burial ground in the grove near the new made ponds. The year 1896 was a jubilee year for the parks of Cleveland. At a great meeting on July 22, 1896, commemorating the centennial of the founding of the city, J. G. W. Cowles, president of the Chamber of Commerce, announced to the enthusiastic throng that John D. Rockefeller gave to the city for park purposes two hundred and seventy-six acres along Doan Brook, costing two hundred and seventy thousand dollars, also three hundred thousand dollars to replace in the treasury the amount paid out by the commissioners for lands in the same neighborhood, on condition that the money should be spent on improving the tract. By this gift the city secured a broad ribbon of parkway, including virtually the whole of Doan brook from source to mouth seven miles in length. It embraced the "picnic grounds," "Doan Brookway," "Cedar Parkway," and "Eastern Parkway," uniting them into Rockefeller park and Rockefeller boulevard. In order to complete the development of the boulevard near its junction with Euclid avenue, Case School of Applied Science gave one hundred and thirty- three and forty-one hundredths feet on Euclid, J. H. Wade gave five hundred and thirteen and seventy-two hundredths feet fronting on Doan street as an entrance to Wade park, and Patrick Colburn gave the land from Euclid avenue to Cedar avenue and along Cedar glen to Euclid Heights. "University Circle" was thereby made possible and in token of the college life that centers there, the "Circle" was planted with the traditional college elm. The commissioners, spurred by these gifts, recommended the extension of Prospect and East Prospect streets HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 175 to the new boulevard and the converting of Euclid avenue from Brownell street to Wade park into a parkway. This remains to be done. In 1897 the Commissioners changed the names of many of the parks. WOODLAND HILLS PARK. In 1900 the city purchased one hundred acres on Kinsman street and Woodland Hills avenue. There are fifteen acres of splendid forest trees on this tract and Kingsbury run flows through the park. It is planned to connect this park with Ambler parkway, a mile and a half distant on the east; with Garfield park two and a half miles distant on the southeast; and with Brookside park two and a half miles to the west. WASHINGTON PARK. In 1899 twenty-six acres were purchased from the Forest City park in the valley near the intersection of Harvard street and Independence road. About forty acres were added in 190o and nearly twenty acres have been added since. This is a very romantic site, though it is quite inaccessible. It is planned to connect it with Garfield park three miles distant. A concrete and steel bridge was built in 1908-9 across the deep ravine that traverses the park. EDGEWATER-BROOKSIDE PARKWAY. In 1904 surveys were made and the city began to acquire land for the boulevard that is to connect these two parks. The scope and popularity of the park system increased with its extension. May 10, 1896, the first count was made to determine how many patronized the parks. The commissioners reported that forty-three thousand, seven hundred and fifteen people, five thousand, nine hundred and eighteen carriages, containing fourteen thousand, eight hundred and seventy-three occupants, fourteen thousand, six hundred and ninety bicycles and fourteen thousand, one hundred and fifty-two pedestrians passed along the upper drive of Doan parkway. In 1903 it was estimated that one million, five hundred thousand people visited the parks. Band concerts have been held in the parks since 1896. They were at first paid for by private-subscription but latterly the city has paid for them. These popular concerts were started by the energetic and enthusiastic Conrad Mizer, whose memorial is appropriately placed in Edgewater park. The "keep off the grass" signs were removed. Children's playgrounds, football gridirons, base ball diamonds and tennis courts have been established, large shelter houses have been erected and everything done to make the green acres the play place of the multitudes. In 1903 a series of public athletic contests was inaugurated. These include all manner of athletics in summer and skating in winter. The system of summer playgrounds was inaugurated in 1904, when eight were in operation. Their number has been increased annually. There are now four band concerts weekly and many special park days, including May day, flag day, romping day, fall song festival and Turner day. The first public bath house in the city was built on Orange street in 1904 and was soon followed by one on Clark avenue. 176 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND At first the parks were under control of the city council which acted through committees. In August, 1871, the board of park commissioners was created. Until 1891 they controlled the parks, when the director of public works assumed charge of them. In 1893 the legislature again created a board of park commissioners. Until 1900 this board supervised the vast extension of the park system. Since 1900 the department of public works of the city has been in charge of the parks. The park police force was inaugurated in 1894. In 1903 the system was reorganized and Joe Goldsoll was made the first chief of park police. Cleveland was for many years known as the Forest City. It deserved the title. Its broad avenues were shaded by rows of stately maples and graceful elms. With the crowding of the buildings, the laying of gas and sewer pipe, the paving of streets and the increased combustion of soft coal, the trees found the competition with civilization too severe. In 1891 the city retained J. C. Arthur, professor of botany in Purdue university, to examine the trees and to ascertain why they were dying so rapidly. The great elms, then the largest trees in the central part of the city were "greatly enfeebled and slowly but surely dying." Along Woodland avenue the elms a foot and a half in diameter were being removed and the large elms in the Square were cut down. Maples were similarly affected. The report laid the destruction to the gases—carbon monoxide, sulphurous acid and arsenious acid —that are emitted in large quantities from the factory chimneys. In 1900 new enemies made their appearance. The Tussock moth (Orgya leucostigma), the oyster shell bark louse (Mytilaspis pomorum), the cottony maple scale (Pulvinaria innumerabalis) and the San Jose scale (Aspidiotis perniciosus). These deadly pests made necessary the spraying and scraping of trees. Private enterprise failing the city began to do this work. In 1905 over fifteen thousand trees were sprayed. In 1939 every tree in the streets and the parks was sprayed and treated for these diseased conditions. In 1897 the department of forestry and nurseries was established and M. H. Horvath was appointed forester. He resigned in 1905 and John Boddy was appointed. The latest development in the park system is the establishing of small playgrounds for the children in congested districts. When the proceeds of the old sinking fund created from the city's investment in railroad stock became available for the first seven wards, several bath houses were erected and playgrounds established near the Orange street bath house and near Marion and Waring schools. CHAPTER XVII. MEDICAL CLEVELAND. By H. E. Handerson, M. D. "Theodore Shepard, physician"—such is the modest title under which we are introduced to the earliest representative of the medical profession in Cleveland. He was probably not an M. D. (few of his American colleagues of that day enjoyed HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 177 a medical degree), and we know of him very little, save that he was the medical officer of the surveying party, which, under the lead of Moses Cleaveland, laid out the streets of our city in, the summer and autumn of 1796. Dr. Shepard returned to the east with the surveying party in October of the same year, but revisited Cleveland in 1797 with the second party under the direction of the Rev. Seth Hart. He seems, however, never to have settled in the infant town, and while, therefore, he may claim the honor of having been the first physician in Cleveland, he was not, and never became a physician of Cleveland. Of the succeeding thirteen years of our little hamlet we may say (as Pliny affirms of the first six hundred years of ancient Rome) they were "not, indeed, without physic, but they were without physicians." Doubtless the homely skill and care of the mothers and wives of the pioneers, combined with their own hardy constitutions, sufficed, in the majority of cases, to restore the health of those who suffered from the ordmary diseases of frontier life. Of these diseases, agues and dysenteries were the most troublesome, the former due to the myriad mosquitoes of the flat lands along the river, the latter to impure water, improper food and the unavoidable exposures of a fickle climate and a rude life. Cinchona bark was scarce, bulky and expensive, quinine yet undiscovered, and the poor sufferers from ague were compelled t0 make shift with the anti-periodic virtues of dogwood bark or 0ther simples, to retire to the hills for recuperation, or like pale and chattering ghosts to wrestle with the plasmodium on its own ground, until the vitality of the parasite or the patient yielded in the struggle. In the most severe and dubious cases of disease, a doctor might be summoned from Painesville, Hudson, Wooster or Monroe—the nearest villages available for medical advice. Under such circumstances, the arrival in 1810 of our first resident physician marks a genuine epoch in the history of Cleveland. This welcome settler was Dr. David Long, a young man of twenty-three years, active, energetic and possessed of a character which impressed its mark upon much of the early history of our city. Born in 1787 in the little town of Hebron, Washington county, New York, Dr. Long is said to have received his medical education in New York city. Soon after his arrival in Cleveland he opened an office in a small frame building on the site of the present American house, and in 1811 married Miss Julianna, the daughter of John Walworth, at that time both the postmaster of Cleveland and the collector of the revenue district of which Cleveland was the headquarters. It is one of the peculiarities of the character of Dr. Long, that, while he early assumed, and for many years held, the position of head of the medical profession in Cuyahoga county, he is even better known and remembered as a versatile "man of affairs," active in all movements designed to benefit the community in which he lived, and to promote the best interests of the village of Cleveland. Accordingly, in 1815, when Cleveland organized under its village charter, Dr. Long was elected one of the village trustees, and in the following year was one of the incorporators of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, the pioneer banking institution of the village. In the same year too he took part in the incorporation of the Cleveland Pier Company, an organization designed to improve the facilities for the landing of the steamboats plying upon the Great Lakes, and, though 178 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND a Presbyterian by conviction, assisted in the organization of the Episcopal parish of Trinity church (now Trinity cathedral), the first religious body organized in our city. In 1826 he was elected one of the county commissioners of Cuyahoga county and by his vote determined the erection of the courthouse in Cleveland, in opposition to the claims of Newburg, then an important rival of our village, and in 1829 he was chosen president of the village corporation. In 1832, when Cleveland experienced its first visitation by the cholera, Dr. Long was again one of the village trustees, and aided in the adoption of prompt measures for the protection of the village and the care of the unfortunate victims of the scourge. He was deeply interested in the building of the Ohio canal, the public improvement which furnished the foundation for the future growth of Cleveland, and is even said to have taken a contract for the excavation of a certain section of this canal on terms anything but remunerative. The presidency of the Cleveland Anti-Slavery society in 1837 bears witness also to the humanitarian instincts of this indefatigable citizen, who died generally lamented September 1, 1851. The conditions under which the early practitioner of medicine on the Western Reserve was placed are well set forth in the following extract from a letter written in 1809 by the Hon. Stanley Griswold to a friend who had written to him asking for information. He says: "I have consulted the principal characters, particularly Judge Walworth, who concurs with me, that Cleveland would be an excellent place for a young physician, and cannot long remain unoccupied. This is based more on what the place is expected to be, than what it is. Even now a physician of eminence would command great practice, from being called to ride over a large country, say fifty miles each way. There is now none of eminent or ordinary character in that extent. But settlements are scattered and roads new and bad, which would make it a painful practice. Within a few weeks Cleveland has been fixed upon by a committee of the legislature as the seat of justice for Cuyahoga county. Several respectable characters will remove to that town. The country around bids fair to increase rapidly in population. A young physician of the qualifications described by you will be certain to succeed, but for a short time, if without means, must keep sch00l, for which there is a good chance in winter, till a piece of ground, bring on a few goods (for which it is a good stand), or do something else in connection with his practice." The inquiries which suggested the above letter were made in the interest of Dr, Elijah Coleman, who subsequently settled in 'Ashtabula, but the advice contained in the last sentence seems to have been appreciated by Dr. Long, who for a number of years had a store of general merchandise on the site of the present American house, and advertised his goods freely in the local newspapers. For example: "SALT, PLASTER, ETC. "The subscriber has on hand for sale, which he will sell low for cash or most kinds of country produce: 800 bls. Salt 10 tons Plaster Bar Iron HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 179 And an excellent assortment of Castings also 50 Buffalo Robes of superior quality. Cleaveland, October 19, 1819. DAVID LONG." That the doctor was not in business entirely for his health may also be inferred from the following, "Last Notice. Those persons who are indebted and do not call and settle their accounts by the loth day of January next, may expect to pay costs. Cleaveland, December 28, 1819. DAVID LONG." Nothing derogatory to the character of Dr. Long must be inferred, however, from these advertisements, which are entirely in accordance with the customs and medical ethics of the period. Indeed, at the very time of their publication there is reason to believe that Dr. Long was one of the censors of the District Medical society of the Cleveland district. The story of the execution in 1812 of the Indian O'Mic on the Public Square, has been elsewhere related, and is noticed here 0nly to call attention to one of the medical sequelae of the spectacle. Mrs. Long, with whom the Indian O'Mic had been a playmate in childhood, adds the following story to the usual account of the execution : "All the people from the Western Reserve seemed to be there, particularly the doctors. I remember several of those who stayed at our house. Among them was Dr. (Peter) Allen, who recently died in Trumbull county, Dr. (Elijah) Coleman, of Ashtabula county, Dr. Johnson, of Conneaut, and Dr. Hawley, of Austintown (Austinburg). When O'Mic was swung off, the rope broke, and they were not sure that he was dead, but there was a storm coming on and he was hurried into the grave near the gallows. The public square was only partly cleared then, and had many stumps and bushes on it. At night, the doctors went for the body, with the tacit consent of the sheriff. O'Mic was about twenty-one years of age, and was very fat and heavy. Dr. Long did not think one man could carry him, but Dr. 'Allen, who was very stout, thought he could. He was put upon Dr. Allen's back, who soon fell over a stump and. O'Mic on the top of him. The doctors dare not laugh aloud, for fear they might be discovered; but some of them were obliged to lie down on the ground and roll around there, before they came to the relief of Dr. Allen." The corpse of the unfortunate Indian was deposited upon the banks of the lake for some time, until decomposition had removed most of the soft parts, when the bones were collected and articulated by Dr. Long, and the skeleton was preserved in his office for a number of years, From his hands it passed into those of Dr. Israel Town, who took it to Hudson on his removal to that place, and from Dr. Town is passed to his son in law, a Dr. Murray, after which its history can be no longer traced. We shall have occasion, however, to see the skeleton of O'Mic, like the ghost of Banquo, rise once more to rebuke the levity of his executioners. The outbreak of the War of 1812 awakened the little hamlet of Cleveland to new relations and new responsibilities, From an insignificant inland town, un- 180 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND known to the outside world, she found herself transformed, at a word, into a frontier post of no little possible importance, a rendezvous for troops and a depot for the supplies and munitions of war. Several bodies of militia encamped along the banks of the Cuyahoga river in 1812, and in May, 1813, Captain Stanton Sholes, United States Army, arrived in command of a company of regular troops, and built not only a stockade or fort, but also the first hospital erected within the limits of our present city. Of the latter building Captain Sholes writes as follows: "At my arrival I found a number of sick and wounded, who were of Hull's surrender, sent here from Detroit, and more coming. They were crowded into a log cabin, and no one to care for them. I sent one or two of my soldiers to take care of them, as they had no friends. I had two or three good carpenters in my company, and set them to work to build a hospital. I very soon got up a good one, thirty by twenty feet, sm00thly and tightly covered and floored with chestnut bark, with two tiers of bunks around the walls, with doors and windows, and not a nail or screw, or iron latch or hinge about the building. Its cost to the government was a few extra rations. In a short time I had all the bunks well strawed, and the sick and wounded good and clean, to their great joy and comfort, but some had fallen asleep." The stockade or fort erected by Captain Sholes, and dignified with the title of Fort Huntington, was located upon original lot No. 8, at a point corresponding to the present western side of Third street, northwest (Seneca street), a few rods from the bank of the lake. The precise position of his hospital is not determined. While stationed in Cleveland Captain Sholes himself fell a victim to the relentless mosquitoes of the Cuyahoga valley, and his sufferings led to the curious encounter described in his own words below. "Some time in July I was attacked 1 with the fever, and as Dr. Long lived in a small house about halfway from Major Carter's to the point, near my camp, I stepped to the doctor's; he was not at home, and Mrs. Long, seeing me shake, requested me to lie down. I was soon up the stairs, slipped off my coat and boots, and fell on the bed.' When I awoke and came a little to myself, I smelt something very sickening. Turning my face to the wall, my face partly on the bed, I was struck almost senseless by an object on the floor between me and the wall, my face partly over it. It was a human skeleton, every bone in its place, the flesh mostly gone. I gazed at the bones till I verily thought I was dead, and that they had buried me by the side of someone that had gone before me. I felt very sick, which roused me from my lethargy, and I found that I was alive, and had been sleeping alongside a dead man. As soon as I recalled where I was, I reached the lower floor in quickstep, giving Mrs. Long a fright to see me come down in such haste. She very politely apologized for her forgetfulness. The season before there had been an Indian hung for the murder of a white man, and I had the luck to sleep side by side with his frame, not fully cleaned." And this was the last authentic appearance of poor O'Mic ! The earliest colleague of Dr. Long in Cleveland was Dr. Donald McIntosh, a physician of Scotch descent, who arrived in the village in 1814. Born in the state of New York about 1779, Dr. McIntosh is said to have received his medical education in Quebec, and to have been a really skillful physician and surgeon. Un- HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 181 fortunately a convivial disposition, some skill in playing the violin and a fondness for fast horses, fine dogs and good whiskey interfered seriously with his success as a physician, however much they may have contributed to the popularity of the Navy house, a hotel which he also kept on the corner of St. Clair and Water streets. (1) In spite of all these disadvantages, however, Dr. McIntosh seems to have enjoyed the esteem of his medical colleagues in the counties of Cuyahoga and Medina, by whom he was elected in 1828, the president of their district medical society. It is even possible that the vivacious doctor might have descended to posterity with the reputation of one who survived, repented and redeemed the follies of youth by a maturity of honorable and sober effort. But, alas, the poor fellow in 1834 broke his neck in a moonlight horserace on the Buffalo road (Euclid avenue), and the "deep damnation of his taking off" was so accentuated by the refusal of an uncharitable parson of the village to officiate at his obsequies, that I fear his reputation is irreparably ruined. In the year 1818 The Cleveland Gazette and Commercial Register contains the advertisement of Dr. Israel Town, who calls the attention of the public to his "druggist store," and offers his professional services to the community. Dr. Town seems to have been in some way associated with Dr. Long (perhaps as an assistant), but did not remain long in Cleveland, removing to Hudson, where I believe he practiced successfully for many years. Two years later (1820) the adjacent town of Euclid welcomed a physician, whose name has been in that locality a household word for almost a century. This was Dr. Elijah Burton (1794-1854), a native of Manchester, Vermont, and an alumnus in 1818 of the Castleton Medical Academy, whose son and grandson have followed in the steps, and maintained the reputation of a worthy ancestor for the last sixty years. In 1825 we read in the Cleaveland Herald the professional advertisements of Dr. Spencer Wood and Dr. Alexander M. White, and in the following year the similar announcements of Dr. Richard Angell and Dr. Lewis F. W. Andrews. Most of these physicians also maintained drug stores, and, indeed, Dr. Andrews is complaisant enough to announce that professional advice will be furnished gratis to patients who purchase their drugs from his store—a curious reversal of the usually accepted valuation of the advice and the prescription. A regular drug store is also advertised at the same time by Duckworth and Bayly, and an itinerant dentist, S. Hardyear by name, likewise announces his skill and his wares in the village paper. The veil of obscurity which shrouds most of the medical economy of these early days is partially lifted in 1824 by the organization 0f the District Medical society of the Nineteenth Medical district, a term which comprised the counties of Cuyahoga and Medina. In order to comprehend clearly the 0rganization and functions of this society we must review very briefly the medical legislation of an earlier period. 1 - In the "Annals of the Early Settlers Association" (Vol. V, No. V, p. 442) Hon. O. G. Hodge declares that in 182o Dr. McIntosh purchased, for the consideration of $4,500, Morey's Tavern, on the site of the present Forest City House, and changed the name of this place of entertainment to the Cleveland Hotel. This hotel was burned down February so, 1845, and rebuilt in 1848 as the Dunham House. A few years later the building was enlarged and remodeled, and assumed its present title of Forest City House. 182 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND On January 14, 1811, the legislature of Ohio passed "An act regulating the practice of physic and surgery," by which the state was divided into five medical districts. To each of these districts were appointed three censors, whose duties were to examine and license all persons desirous of practicing medicine or surgery in their respective districts, and to exercise general supervision of medical affairs within the same limits. In 1812 this act was repealed, and a corporation, entitled "The President and Fellows of the Medical Society of the State of Ohio," was constituted, while the state was again divided into seven medical districts. The sixth district comprised the counties of Trumbull, Ashtabula, Geauga, Portage, Cuyahoga and Huron, and the physicians of this district were directed to meet in Warren on the first Monday in June, for organization as a society and the election of officers and delegates to a convention to be held at Chilicothe in the following November. This rather ambitious programme seems in some way to have failed of accomplishment, and in 1813 the legislature reverted to the original system, rementaining, however, the seven medical districts, with censors or examiners for each. No change was made until 1817, when the number of medical districts was increased to eight, and boards of censors were appointed by the legislature for each. Cleveland remained in the sixth medical district, whose board was constituted as follows : Jeremiah Wilcox, John W. Seeley, Peter Allen, of Trumbull county ; Joseph D. Woolf, of Portage county; Lyman Fay, of Huron county ; David Long, of Cuyahoga county ; Orestes K. Hawley, of Ashtabula county. These seven censors were required to organize a district medical society by the association with themselves of other qualified physicians, and this society was to formulate regulations for its own administration and to elect from its members seven censors—apparently as successors to the original appointees. In 1821, however, the number of medical districts was made to correspond with the number of circuits of the court of common pleas in the state, and it was directed that each medical district should have five censors. Cleveland now found itself in the third district, the censors of which were : David Long, of Cuyahoga county ; Dr. Gardener, of Huron county ; Henry Manning, of Trumbull county ; Orestes K. Hawley, of Ashtabula county ; Isaac Swift, of Portage county. Finally, on February 26, 1824, the state was again divided into twenty medical districts, for the organization of district medical societies. The counties of Cuyahoga and Medina constituted the nineteenth medical district, and Drs. David Long, N. H. Manter, George W. Card, Bela B. Clark, John M. Henderson and Dan. (Donald) McIntosh, were empowered to associate with themselves other qualified physicians, and to organize a district medical society by the election of officers and the formulation of regulations for the administration of the same. It was also provided that each society should elect three to five censors, as examiners or licensers, and certain delegates to the Medical Society of the State of Ohio, to meet in Columbus on the second Monday in December, 1827. Accordingly. Dr. Long promptly called a meeting of the qualified physicians of the nineteenth district, who met at the hotel of Gaius Boughton (2) in the village 2 - The hotel of Gaius Boughton was situated on the corner of Water and St. Clair streets, and its proprietor seems to have been something of a wag, if we may judge from his advertisement, "Ladies and gents can at all times be accommodated with separate rooms." HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 183 of Cleveland on May 24, 1824, and organized the District Medical society of the Nineteenth Medical district by the election of the following officers : President, Dr. David Long; vice president, Dr. Bela B. Clark ; secretary, Dr. William Baldwin; treasurer, Dr. John M. Henderson ; censors, Dr. George W. Card, Dr. John Harris and Dr. William Baldwin. Two regular meetings were t0 be held annually, the first or annual meeting on the last Tuesday in May ; the "midyear meeting" on the last Tuesday in October. At the annual meeting of 1826, which was held at the house (hotel) of Salmon Oviatt, in Richfield, Medina county, a resolution was adopted authorizing the organization of a society library, and appointing a committee, consisting of Drs. Long, Clark and Alexander M. White, t0 purchase suitable books for the same. Dr, Lewis F. W. Andrews was also elected librarian of the proposed library, which was to be located in the village of Cleveland. At the same meeting the secretary was directed to publish for three successive weeks in the Cleveland Herald the names of all members 0f the society, and his compliance with this resolution happily furnishes us with a complete roll of the members of the organization in 1826. It reads as follows : *David Long, John M. Henderson, Elijah DeWitt, *L. F. W. Andrews, Samuel Austin, Havilla Farnsworth, Asahel Brainard, Seth S. Handerson, (*) Alexander M. White, George R. Pardee, Secretary Rawson, Elijah Burton, *Richard Angell, George W. Card, Bela B. Clark, *Donald McIntosh, William Baldwin, John Turner, Henry Hudson, Ezra Graves, John N. Gates, and Nathan H. Palmer. The names marked with an asterisk are those of Cleveland physicians. Bela B. Clark was from Medina, Elijah Burton from Euclid and Seth S. Handerson from Newburg. The others the writer is unable to locate with certainty. The activity of this district society can be followed through the files of the Cleveland Herald until 1832, and the following roster of its presiding officers during this period is compiled from this source : Dr. David Long, 1824-26; Dr. Bela B. Clark, 1826-28; Dr. Donald McIntosh, 1828-9; Dr. Elijah DeWitt, 1829- 31 ; Dr. Joshua Mills, 1831-32. After 1832 the available files 0f the Herald become very defective, and it has been impracticable to trace further the history of this interesting organization. It must not, however, be hastily inferred that the society ceased to exist at this time, though perhaps the advent of the cholera interrupted for a season the succession of its usual meetings. Possibly a more systematic search of the newspapers of Cleveland from 1832 to 1840 may result in further development 0f its career and reveal its ultimate fate. The meetings of the District Medical society of the Nineteenth Medical district were held at various places within the district, e. g., "the house of John S. Strong in Strongsville," "the house of Mr. William Root in Brunswick, Medina county," "the house of Salmon Oviatt in Richfield," etc., but we soon 0bserve the tendency to gravitate towards the village of Cleveland, where the taverns of Dr. McIntosh, Gaius Boughton, James Belden and especially that popular Boniface, Philo Scoville, offered better accommodations and more attractive surroundings. As Cleveland increased in size and relative importance the results of this tendency are well displayed in the history of the later Cuyahoga County Medical society, which became practically a city society. 184 - HISTORY. OF CLEVELAND The inauguration in 1825, of the Ohio canal, designed to connect the water: of Lake Erie with the Ohio river, was the harbinger of future greatness, and it: completion in 1832 opened the way for the commercial supremacy of our city A severe epidemic of typhoid fever which ravaged the village in 1827 was ascribed by the physicians to the effects of malaria, occasioned by the disturbance of the soil in this process of excavation of the canal. A mortality of seventeen in a population less than one thousand, and in a period of less than two months indicates a severe type of disease, and justified the depression of spirits ascribed to our citizens by a writer of that day. He says : "A terrible depression of spirits and stagnation of business ensued. The whole corporation could have been bought for what one lot would now cost or. Superior street. For two months I gave up all business ; went from house to house to look after the sick and their uncared for business. People were generally discouraged and anxious to leave." The advent of the Asiatic cholera in 1832 occasioned still more terror and mental depression. This oriental scourge, heralded by exaggerated reports of its horrors, reached Quebec on an emigrant vessel, June 8, 1832. Promptly on June 24 of the same year the president of the village of Cleveland called a meeting of the trustees, Dr. David Long, T. P. May and Sheldon Pease, to devise plans for the protection of the citizens from the dangers of the expected epidemic. A board of health was appointed and empowered to inspect all vessels arriving from an infected port, to examine all suspicious cases of disease, to superintend the removal from the village of all nuisances, and to procure a suitable building for the isolation and treatment of all persons suffering from the Asiatic cholera. The constitution of this board is worthy of notice in these modern days, when the presence of physicians upon boards of health is regarded with so much jealousy and suspicion. It consisted of three physicians, Drs. E. W. Cowles, Joshua Mills and Oran St. John, and two laymen, Messrs. Silas Belden and Ch. Denison To these were subsequently added Dr. S. J. Weldon and Mr. Daniel Worley. The cholera hospital on this occasion seems to have been located upon Whiskey is and, the tongue of low land intervening between the old river bed and the lake. John W. Allen, the president of the village at this period, has left us an account of the epidemic in Cleveland sufficiently interesting to justify its quotation n full. He says: "The famous Black Hawk war was then raging in the territory which is now :ailed Wisconsin, and in adjacent parts of Illinois, clear through to the Mississippi river. The Indians were all on the war path. The garrison at what is low Chicago had been massacred, and every white man, woman and child they could hunt out had been murdered. With a horrible pestilence threatened in the east and at home too, and a war of extermination in progress in the West, it may well be inferred the popular mind was in a high state of excitement. About June, General Scott was ordered to gather all the troops he could find in the eastern forts at Buffalo, and start them off in a steamboat, in all haste, for Chicago. He embarked with a full load on board the "Henry Clay," Captain Norton commanding, a most discreet and competent man and officer. Incipient indications of cholera soon appeared, and some died, and by the time the boat arrived at Fort Gratiot, at the foot of Lake Huron, it became apparent that the effort to reach HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 185 Chicago by water would prove abortive. General Scott therefore landed his men, and prepared to make the march through the wilderness, three hundred miles or more to Chicago, and sent the "Clay" back to Buffalo. Captain Norton started down the river, having on board a number of sick soldiers. All were worn out with labor and anxiety. They hoped, at Detroit, to get food, medicines and small stores, but when they got there every dock was covered with armed men and cannon, and they were ordered to move on without a moment's delay, even in the middle of the river, and did so, heading for Buffalo. Before the "Clay" got off Cleveland, half a dozen men had died and were thrown overboard, and others were sick. All believed there would not be men enough left to work the vessel into Buffalo, and Captain Norton steamed for Cleveland as his only alternative. Early in the morning of the tenth of June, we found the "Clay" lying fast to the west bank of the river, with a flag 0f distress flying, and we know the hour of trial had come upon us thus unheralded. The trustees met immediately, and it was determined at once that everything should be done to aid the sufferers, and protect our citizens, so far as in us lay. I was deputed to visit Captain Norton and find what he most needed, and how it could be done. A short conversation was held with him across the river, and plans suggested for relieving them. The result was that the men were removed to comfortable barracks on the west side, and needed appliances and physicians were furnished. Captain Norton came ashore and went into retirement with a friend for a day or two, and the "Clay" was thoroughly fumigated, and in three 0r four days she left for Buffalo. Some of the men having died, they were buried on a bluff point 0n the west side. But, in the interim, the disease showed itself among our citizens in various localities, among those wh0 had not been exposed at all from proximity to the boat, or to those of us who had been most connected with the work that had been done. The faces of men were blanched, and they spoke with bated breath, and all got away from here who could. How many persons were attacked is unknown now, but in the course of a fortnight the disease became less virulent and ended within a month, about fifty having died. About the middle 0f October following, a cold rainstorm occurred, and weeks, perhaps months, after the last case had ceased of the previous visitation, fourteen men were seized with cholera, and all died within three days. No explanation could be given as to the origin, no others being affected, and that was the last appearance of it for two years. In 1834 we had another visitation, and some deaths occurred, but the people were not so much scared." (3) The role of hero 0f this 0ccasion is assigned by tradition to Dr. Edwin W. Cowles, who is said to have accompanied the "Henry Clay" and its surviving passengers and crew to Detroit (Buffalo ?), and to have returned in a few days in safety, greatly to the astonishment 0f his friends, who looked upon the Doctor as elected to certain death. Dr. Cowles was born in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1794, and came with his father to Austinburg, Ohio, in 1811. Here he studied medicine with Dr. O. K. 3 - The epidemic of 1834 is said to have continued for about three weeks and to have carried off about one hundred of the villagers. As the population of Cleveland at this time scarcely exceeded 4,300, the rate of mortality exceeded 23 per thousand—certainly a serious epidemic. The disease is reported to have been most virulent among the residents "under the hill," and no less than fifty-five of its victims were buried at the expense of the village. 186 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND Hawley, and subsequently settled in Mantua. He came to Cleveland in 1832, removed to Detroit in 1834, but returned to Cleveland in 1838, and is said to have died in this city in 1861. He is also said in 1845 to have embraced the homeopathic heresy which made its debut in Cleveland about that period. Dr. Joshua Mills, another member of this early board of health, came to Cleveland in 1831, and speedily became one of the most valued citizens of the growing village. A highly esteemed physician, he also had a drug store on Superior street, was one of our first aldermen in 1836, president of the city council in 1837, and mayor of the city for two successive terms in 1838 and 1839. He died April 29, 1843, and his loss was formally lamented by resolutions of the city council and of his medical colleagues. In this same cholera year, 1832, there arrived in the village of Cleveland an English lad, who developed through 0ur private schools into a compositor and paper carrier 0f the Cleveland Advertiser, and thereafter into a student of Dr. John Delamater and an alumnus of the Cleveland Medical college. This was the venerable and eminent Dr. John C. Reeve, M. D., LL. D., of Dayton, Ohio, to whose reminiscences we are indebted for many interesting details of the medical economy of this early period. In 1833 we notice the professional card of Dr. D. G. Branch, and in 1834 those of Dr. T. M. Moore and Dr. Robert Hicks. The latter physician, we are told by Dr. Reeve, was the medical adviser of his father's family. The following year, 1835, was distinguished by the arrival of two medical men, destined in after life to attain considerable eminence. These were Dr. Erastus Cushing (1802-1893), an alumnus of the Berkshire Medical college, Massachusetts, whose familiar form appeared upon our streets for more than fifty years, and whose name and reputation have been preserved to our own day by a son and grandson, equally staunch and able representatives 0f scientific medicine ; and Dr. George Mendenhall (d. 1874), who began his medical career in Cleveland, but was compelled by failure of his health to remove t0 Cincinnati, where he subsequently developed into an eminent practitioner and teacher. The course of our narrative has brought us now to the important epoch when the little village of Cleveland assumed the dignity and responsibilities of a city, and began that rapid development, which, in the course of half a century, has made her the metropolis of the great state of Ohio. At this point, therefore, it may be interesting and profitable to pause for a moment in our story, to review very briefly the condition of medical art during the period already considered. Comparatively few physicians of this early day enjoyed the advantages of a collegiate education and acquired the degree of doctor of medicine. No medical college existed west of the Alleghenies until the year 1817, and the time, labor and expense required to visit the schools of the East rendered such a course so difficult as to be generally impracticable. During the first quarter of the nineteenth century, therefore, the youthful applicant for medical honors was usually apprenticed to some neighboring physician of reputation, in whose family he resided, and enjoyed the advantages of his master's scanty library. In return he was expected to care for his preceptor's horse, to sweep his office, clean his instruments, pulverize drugs, make pills, tinctures, plasters, etc., and to deliver the necessary prescrip- HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 187 tions to his suffering patients. As he advanced in years and experience, he assisted his preceptor in the care of office patients and accompanied him upon his rides, during which he stored up in his inquiring mind the medical precepts which fell from his master's lips. At the expiration of his term of apprenticeship (usually five to seven years), the student received from his preceptor a certificate of study, with, perhaps, some instrument of surgery and launched his bark upon the stormy sea of independent practice, to learn by personal experience the important secrets of medical art, Even after medical colleges were provided in the west, many students, after listening to a single course of lectures, began at once their practice, unable or unwilling to endure the delay and the expense of securing a regular degree. And the practice itself was difficult and dangerous. Long rides on horseback over roads rough and bottomless, or through mere trails of the unbroken forests, with rivers to be forded or crossed upon a single log, guided only by the "blazing" of trees or the position of the stars, watched by packs of hungry wolves, (4) the doctor arrived at his destination to find, perhaps, a patient prostrated by pneumonia or suffering a compound fracture, a strangulated hernia or a gunshot wound, and demanding immediate attention. No time was offered for prolonged observation ; no opportunity for consultation and division of responsibility. What was to be done must be done quickly. Such a school of practice created keen observers, ingenious in the adaptation of means to ends and ready for any emergency. And these pioneer physicians and surgeons, rough in dress and uncouth in manners, have received, I fear, from the profession scarcely the honor which their character merits. Many of them were true heroes in disguise. At a later period, when the advance of civilization had created passable roads and bridges, the doctor's gig or the "one boss shay," immortalized by Holmes, was a familiar object on every country road, hastening upon its errand of mercy, in sunshine or in storm, earning and winning for its sturdy occupant the hearty respect and affection of the rough settlers of the country districts. The pathology of the west has always followed pari passu the doctrines of the east, and the schools of the latter section have equally adopted the medical theories of Europe. Most of the early medical coryphaei of the eastern schools were pupils of Edinburgh, London or Leyden, and accordingly it was the pathology of these European schools (more or less modified by circumstances) that prevailed among the early practitioners of the west. The popular textbooks in medicine as late as 1825, were Cullen, Rush and Mason Good, and the standard authorities in surgery, Pott, the Bells, Desault, the Coopers, Abernethy, Cline, Home, Latta and Hey, and the American surgeons, Physick, Dorsey, Post, Mott, and the Warrens of Boston. In 1833 the druggists, Handerson and Punderson, advertise stethoscopes for sale, unquestionable evidence that the teachings of Laennec had already reached the far west and were bearing practical fruit, and soon after the rising tide of French surgery invaded all the medical schools and (4) That this is no exaggerated sketch is manifest from the following certificate : CLEVELAND, March 2d, 1815. Personally appeared Alonzo Carter of Cleveland in said county before me and produced the scalp of a full grown wolf and being sworn according to Law is entitled to the sum of four dollars bounty from the state.. State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County. HORACE PERRY, Justice of the Peace. 188 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND the names of Dupuytren, Delpech, Roux, Civiale, Lisfranc, Velpeau and Malgaigne became familiar to all students. Whatever may have been the deficiencies of our pioneer physicians in the theory of medicine, in practical therapeutics they were vigorous and aggressive, and such sins as they displayed were certainly not sins of omission. (5) Disease was regarded as a specific entity, within, but not a part of the patient, and to be expelled by a vigorous bombardment with the whole arsenal of the materia medica. Bleeding, emetics, blisters, calomel, antimony, jalap, etc., were the trusty servants of the practitioner in his daily walk, and were employed with an unsparing hand, worthy almost of Rasori. Yet the patients, as a rule, recovered, much as they do today. Most of them enjoyed the advantage of a sound constitution, unimpaired by the vices of modern civilization, and beneficent Nature accepted the nauseous potions with a mild shrug of indifference, tightened her belt one more hole—and fairly dragged the patient from the jaws of death and the doctor, for the most part to the glory of the doctor only. A peculiar feature of the ethics of the. profession in this early day was the frequency with which physicians accepted and occupied public positions of honor and trust, without the slightest derogation from their reputation as medical men and representatives of a noble art. Thus Dr. Long, as we have seen, was a trustee of the village, a county commissioner and president of the village corporation; Dr. McIntosh kept a hotel; Dr. Seth Smith Handerson (1794-1844), in association with Noah Graves, laid out the village of Chagrin Falls in 1833, and, as sheriff of Cuyahoga county, in 1837, was prominent in the "Bridge War" of that period; Dr. Bela B. Clark (6) was auditor of Medina county in 1820, and Dr. Joshua Mills was mayor of the city of Cleveland for two successive terms. In like manner many physicians kept a store and advertised their wares with absolute freedom. Indeed, professional advertisements were an every day occurrence in the newspapers, and reflected in no way upon the character of the advertiser. The doctor was looked upon primarily as a citizen, expected to bear his equal Vanshare in the burdens of the community in which he lived, and free to enjoy also all the advantages of his fellows. On March 5, 1836, by act 0f the legislature of Ohio, Cleveland was incorporated a city, and entered upon that career of success which has proved so gratifying to her citizens of the present day. In the following year the first directory of the city was published, and furnishes much interesting information to the curious investigator of these early days. The city at this period contained twenty-seven regular physicians, the roll of whose names will, doubtless, prove of interest to their colleagues of the twentieth century. They were: Ackley, James L., Barrows, Ashel, Bradley, F. S., Brayton, C. D., Brown, Asa B., Clark, W. A., Congar, Horace, Cushing, Erastus, (1802-1893), Foote, Jonathan, Gay, Steven B., Hewitt, Morgan L., Hicks, Robert, Inglehart, Smith, Johnstone, Robert, Kellogg, Burr, Long, David, McCosk, 5 - We all delight to honor the man, who, as the phrase runs, "enjoys the courage of his convictions." This moral courage is, indeed, a most admirable quality—subjectively. Objectively, to the general public, however, the quality of the convictions is at least of equai interest and importance 6 - He was an honorary M. D. of the Medical Department of Willoughby University in 1842. HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 189 Charles, Mathivet, Pierre, Mendenhall, George, Mills, Joshua, Moore, T. M., Otis, W. F., St. John, Oran, Swain, John, Terry, Charles A., Underhill, Samuel, Walrath, Joseph. Besides these we find : Bond, Wm. H.—Classified as a "botanic physician ;" Brag, William-"Indian doctor," but whether a specialist in herbs or venereal disease is not stated. Attention may be called to the appropriateness of his name ; Smith, 'A. D.—"Professor of phrenology." Of the regular physicians in the foregoing list, several have been already mentioned, but the following tribute to the character of the medical men of that day by an old and honored resident of the city, now gone to his reward, Judge James D. Cleveland, will, I am sure, awaken the hearty sympathy of our surviving early settlers. Judge Cleveland says : "The profession, too, was full of talented and faithful men. We regard the corps of physicians as worthy of great respect, for they were, between 1830 and 1860, educated, untiring and devoted to the people. There were Drs. Mills, Bratton and Long early in the field, and Dr. Terry and Dr. Cushing, courtly, polished men of the highest culture, and that splendid specimen of manly beauty and courage, Dr. Robert Johnstone, who fell in the prime of his life, a victim of shipfever, caught from a newly arrived immigrant. Then we cannot forget old Dr. Wheeler, the pioneer of the homeopathic school, and those splendid young surgeons, Drs. Elisha Sterling and Proctor Thayer." As the population of the city in 1837 could not have much exceeded five thousand, it is manifest that the inhabitants suffered from no lack of medical advisers. The same proportion at the present day would yield us a medical faculty of two thousand, five hundred physicians ! In Ohio City were located only four physicians, towit : Hill, Christopher E., Huntington, W. T., Pearson, Amos, Sheldon, Benjamin. (7) The druggists of the city were : Cushing & Clark, 46 Superior street ; Handerson & Punderson, 73 Superior street; B. S. Lyman, 6 Water street ; Colin S. McKenzie, T00 Superior street, Stickland & Gaylord, 30 Superior street. All of these kept in stock not only drugs, but many groceries and other commodities, such as tea, coffee, sugar, tobacco, paints, oils, dyestuffs, etc., though the fancy goods, which load the counters of our drug stores of the present day, did not creep in until about the middle of the century. The prescription business scarcely existed. Most physicians kept on hand their own supply of all but the rarer drugs and dispensed them to their patients. The modern requirement of utile cum dulci was absolutely unknown in practice, and the vilest tasting decoctions were swallowed with nothing more than a grimace of disgust. It was not until 1850 and later that the practice of writing prescriptions, to be purchased by the patient, came into common use. It is unnecessary to add that the modern refinements of pharmacy are of a much later date. Probably the trying experience of the recent epidemic of cholera had suggested to the city officials the necessity for hospital accommodations, and we, accordingly, read: "The City hospital is situated upon Clinton street, in the easterly part of the city and upon the most elevated ground in it. The grounds connected with the 7 - Mayor of Ohio City, 1850-52. 190 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND hospital are about four acres, and consist of part of the land purchased at the public expense and occupied as a public cemetery. The hospital buildings, at present, consist of one structure, about seventy by thirty feet, and two stories high, fronting easterly. Its internal organization is well suited for the accommodation of its inmates, and its apartments kept in a manner creditable to the city. "The hospital is under the control of the board of health—consisting of the mayor and three members of the city council, chosen from that body annually. The officers of the hospital, appointed by the board of health, are a superintendent, a hospital physician and a hospital warden, each of whom have a fixed salary. The expenses of the institution are paid from the current revenues of the city, and for the present year are estimated at from four to five thousand dollars." The Clinton street of that day was the later Brownell street (now Fourteenth street, Southeast), and the hospital was located upon the rear of the Erie street cemetery, which had been purchased by the village of Cleveland in 1826. Clinton street was then the eastern boundary of the city. It is manifest from this notice that the city enjoyed also at this time a regular board of health. About the same distance from the Public Square, but in a northeasterly direction and near the bank of the lake, stood the earliest sanatorium mentioned in the records of our city. This was the Spring Cottage, located on the border of a little clearing still covered with the stumps of the virgin forest and dignified with the title of Clinton park. A small stream of sulphureted water burst from the side of a ravine at this point on its way to the lake, and was popularly credited with varied and manifold sanative virtues. Of this establishment the city directory of 1837-8 discourses as follows : "The Spring Cottage and Bathing establishment is situated at the park, and contains commodious warm, cold and shower baths and refreshment rooms, to which there is a handsome pleasure garden attached. The whole has been fitted up with much skill and taste by Mr. William R. Richardson, and is decidedly a summer retreat from the bustle and cares of business, orno ordinary character, combining utility and gratification with pleasure. Mr. Richardson has just commenced running an omnibus between the business part of the city and the baths. This vehicle, we understand, is to leave Cleveland every hour for the accommodation of persons visiting the baths." It is, doubtless, a mere coincidence, but, nevertheless, worth recording, that thirty years later the Wilson street hospital was organized upon almost the same ground, and developed ultimately into the magnificent Lakeside hospital of the present day. The placid current of medical activity in our youthful city was stirred into unwonted energy in 1839 by the meeting in Cleveland of the Ohio State Medical convention, under the presidency of Dr. S. P. Hildreth, of Marietta. Most of the physicians of the city were present at the meeting and became members of the convention, and Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, then a representative of Trumbull county, but subsequently a distinguished teacher and physician of Cleveland, was elected president of the convention for the ensuing year. Dr. George Mendenhall, a rising young physician of Cleveland, was chosen recording secretary. Much was contributed to the success of the occasion by the admirable address of HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 191 the retiring president, Dr. Hildreth, on the climatology and epidemiology of southern Ohio. The influence of this meeting of the convention upon the physicians, and even the laity, of Cleveland deserves special emphasis. It broadened the horizon of their thoughts, replaced their previous isolation by a feeling of sympathy and kinship with other towns and cities of the state, and awakened a zeal and emulation in the pursuit of science, which brought forth abundant fruit in the near future. In this way, doubtless, it contributed not a little to the next step in the medical progress of our city-the organization 0f the Cleveland Medical college, the medical department of Western Reserve University. Six medical colleges had been organized in Ohio prior to the year 1843, to wit: The Medical College of Ohio, 0rganized at Cincinnati, in 1819 ; The Medical Department of Ohio university (eclectic), Worthington, Ohio, organized 1832; The Cincinnati Medical college, Cincinnati, organized 1834; The Medical Department of Willoughby university, Willoughby, Ohio, organized 1834; The American Medical college (eclectic), Cincinnati, Ohio, organized in 1839 ; The Botanico-Medical college of Ohio, Cincinnati, 0rganized 1840. Of these, The Medical Department of Willoughby university, so intimately connected with the origin of the Cleveland Medical college, deserves a word of notice. The little town of Willoughby in these early days, with a population of perhaps one thousand, five hundred inhabitants, was distinguished for the intelligence and energy of its citizens, and enjoyed the unusual advantages of a circulating library, a lyceum and debating society, in which historical, political, literary and scientific questions were discussed with zeal and ability. Very naturally there soon developed a desire for even better facilities for education, and in 1834 it was proposed to organize an institution, to be known as "The Willoughby University of Lake Erie," to include all the educational departments of a complete university. This ambitious plan advanced so far as the election of the officers of the university and the organization of a medical department. The other departments of the proposed university seem never to have materialized, but the medical college m 1835-6 contained twenty-three students, and conferred the degree of M. D. upon five young men. A hard struggle for success followed, complicated by dissensions among the trustees and faculty, and in 1843 it became evident that a change of location was absolutely necessary to preserve the organization. A "Circular and Catalogue of the Officers, Professors and Students of Willoughby University. Session of 1841-1842," happily affords us interesting information relative to the school at this period. President, Nehemiah Allen; secretary, Jonathan Lapham. Officers of the medical department: president, Hon. Ralph Granger; secretary and dean, J. Lang Cassels, M. D.; Amasa Trowbridge, M. D., professor 0f 'surgery; Horace A. Ackley, M. D., professor 0f special and pathological anatomy and physiology ; J. Lang Cassels, M. D., professor of chemistry; John Delamater, M. D., (8) professor of materia medica, general pathology and obstetrics ; Jared 8 - Dr. Delamater's letter of acceptance of his chair is published in the circular, and bears date "Willoughby, January II, 1842." 192 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND P. Kirtland, M. D., professor of the theory and practice of physics ; E. M. Clark, demonstrator of anatomy. The medical school at this time contained fifty-seven students, of whom, rather singularly, one only—Mr. Blakesly, a student in the office of Ackley & Hewitt, of Cleveland—was from Cleveland. The graduates of the preceding year (1841) numbered seven. The medical course began on the first Wednesday in November, and continued sixteen weeks. Five lectures were delivered daily, except on Saturday, when the lectures were limited to three. The fees were twelve dollars for the ticket of each professor except the teacher of materia medica and obstetrics, whose ticket cost thirteen dollars. The matriculation fee was five dollars, and the graduating fee twenty dollars. Board and lodging were announced at one dollar and a quarter to two dollars per week. The requirements for graduation were the age of twenty-one years, a period of study covering three years, and two courses of medical lectures, of which one must be taken in the Willoughby college. The following textbooks were recommended : surgery, Samuel Cooper's First Lines, or Velpeau's Surgery ; practice, McIntosh or Eberle; anatomy and pathology, Bell's Anatomy, the London or Dublin Dissector, Magendie's or Dunglison's Physiology and Mayo's Pathology ; obstetrics, Burns or Blundell ; chemistry, Turner or Beck ; materia medica, Beck's Murray. The college building is said to be of brick, sixty feet square and consisting of three stories and a basement. It contained three lecture rooms, five professor's rooms, a dissecting room twenty by one hundred feet, a general museum forty by sixty feet, an anatomical museum, a library, etc. On the whole the faculty and plant presented a very attractive appearance for that early day. Drs. John Delamater, Jared P. Kirtland and J. Lang Cassels, at that time members of the medical faculty, advocated the removal of the college to Cleveland. The remainder of the faculty favored Columbus. Happily, at this time, certain prominent citizens of Cleveland invited the faculty of the Willoughby Medical college to locate the institution in this city, promising to give land for the purpose and financial aid in the building of a college building. Mrs. Delamater, Kirtland and Cassels at once resigned their chairs in the Willoughby institution, came to Cleveland and organized the Cleveland Medical college. In order to avoid the delay of waiting for a charter, the new college was organized as the Medical Department of the Western Reserve college, a prosperous institution founded in Hudson, Ohio, in 1826. The remaining professors of the Willoughby college, after a short struggle to maintain their organization, removed to Columbus, and the college was merged into the Starling Medical college, founded in 1847. We learn again from Dr. Reeve that : "For a year or two after the transfer of the college to Cleveland there was a vigorous fight made by the Willoughby school to attract students from the city. A four mule team paraded the streets, and students were carried gratis to the village, where every attention was paid them." HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 193 The earliest sessions of the Cleveland Medical college were held in the Farmers' block, corner of Prospect and Ontario streets and the first class was graduated in 1844. It was not, however, until the fall of 1846 or the spring of 1847 that the college building on the corner of St. Clair and Erie streets was fully completed and occupied for purposes of instruction. It was within the walls of this old Farmers' block that occurred the first administration of ether for surgical anaesthesia in northern Ohio. Dr. Reeve, who was himself a witness, describes the case as follows : "It was an amputation of the leg, and although the patient shouted and struggled, making it a difficult task for Professor Ackley, he averred later that he had not suffered. The quality of the ether was not at that time perfect. This must have been in the fall of 1846, or in the winter following." As Morton's demonstration of the safety and reliability of ether anaesthesia was first made in the Massachusetts general hospital, on October 16, 1846, it will be seen how rapidly the news of the improvement spread among the profession, and how eagerly it was utilized in all sections of the country. The original faculty of the Cleveland Medical college was constituted as follows : John Delamater, M. D. (1787-1867), professor of midwifery and diseases of women and children; Jared P. Kirtland, M. D. (1793-1877), professor 0f the theory and practice of medicine ; Horace A. Ackley, M. D. (1815-1859), professor of surgery; John Lang Cassels, M. D. (1808-1879), professor of materia medica ; Noah Worcester, M. D. (9) (1812-1847), professor of physical diagnosis and diseases of the skin; Samuel St. John, M. D. (1813-1876), professor of chemistry ; Jacob J. Delamater, M. D., lecturer on physiology. Personal biography is not within the scope of this paper, (10) but of this medical faculty, as a whole, it may be fairly said that it was the best balanced faculty west of the Alleghenies, and in many respects rivaled those of the more famous medical institutions of the older and larger cities of the eastern coast. In the absence of the facilities furnished by large and well appointed hospitals, clinical teaching in the Cleveland Medical college was, of course, defective, but this deficiency was minimized by the use of dispensary and private work on the part of the teachers, until proper hospital advantages were, in due time, developed and utilized. The new college was a success from its very inception, and its popularity may be judged from the following statistics of its first few years.