750 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
A. Everett ; secretary, F. S. Borton ; treasurer, E. W. Moore. On July 1, 1899, the Northern Ohio Traction Company was organized. It was a consolidation of the Akron, Bedford & Cleveland line and the Akron Traction & Electric Company, the latter owning the street railways and the lighting plant in Akron. The officers of the new company were : H. A. Everett, president ; Will Christy, vice president ; J. R. Nutt, treasurer; C. F. Moon, secretary. Sixty miles of track were operated by this company. A third reorganization took place in November, 1902, when the Northern Ohio Traction & Light Company was organized. It took over the property of the Northern Ohio Traction Company, of the Canton & Akron Railway, of the Canton & Southern railway, of the Akron, Wadsworth & Western Railway, giving it a total trackage of 214.05 miles, 73.39 of this is double track. Through cars are now run from Cleveland to Canton and the line reaches to Kent, Ravenna, Barberton, Canton, Ulrichsville and Canal Fulton.
The Cleveland & Southwestern Traction Company. In 1876 the Cleveland & Berea Street Railway Company was organized but its full franchise privileges were never exercised. In September, 1891, a new charter was secured, and in July, 1895, eleven miles of track were in operation. The directors of the new road were : A. E. Akins, A. H. Pomeroy, 0. D. Pomeroy, and F. T. Pomeroy.
The Cleveland & Elyria Electric Railway Company was chartered October, 1894, and seventeen miles of road opened December, 1895. Its directors were : A. H. Pomeroy, L. M. Coe, A. E. Akins, F. T. Pomeroy, S. C. Smith, L. E. Meacham, H. Q. Sargent, M. A. Sprague, F. D. Carpenter and Will Christy. December 2, 1897, there was a consolidation of these lines under the name, the Cleveland, Berea, Elyria & Oberlin Railway Company. Of this consolidation, the following were the officers : A. H. Pomeroy, president ; A. E. Akins, vice president ; L. E. Meacham, secretary ; F. T. Pomeroy, treasurer and general manager. The name was changed soon afterwards to the Cleveland, Elyria & Western Railway Company. On December 9, 1902, there was an extensive consolidation made effective January 21, 1903. It embraced the Cleveland, Elyria & Western, the Cleveland & Southern, and the Norwalk Gas & Electric Company. The consolidation was called the Cleveland & Southwestern Traction Com pany. It operated 125 miles of track. Its first officers were : F. T. Pomeroy, president ; A. E. Akins, vice president ; F. L. Fuller, treasurer; E. F. Schneider, secretary. Still a further consolidation took place when the Cleveland, Southwestern & Columbus railway was incorporated, March 4, 1907. It included the Cleveland & Southwestern Traction Company, the Cleveland, Ashland & Mansfield Traction Company and the Ohio Central Traction Company and included the latest of the lines built into Cleveland, namely : to Medina and Wooster. This company operates through an extensive territory embracing Berea, Elyria, Oberlin, Norwalk, Medina, Creston, Wooster, Galion to Bucyrus, Galion to Mansfield, Mansfield to Ashland and Seville and has a total trackage of 208 miles, a large part on private right of way. The company also does a freight and express busmess. In 1909 the, officers were: F. E. Meyer, president, Ashland ; A. E. Akins, first vice president, Cleveland; L. J. Wolf, second vice president ; E. F. Schneider, secretary ; J. O. Wilson, treasurer ; H. B. Cavanaugh, auditor.
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 751
The Cleveland, Painesville & Eastern Railway Company was incorporated April 25, 1895, and opened July 4, 1896. It operated nineteen miles from East Cleveland to Painesville. Its first board of directors were W. A. Wason, J. A. Beidler, H. A. Everett, E. W. Moon, I. N. Topliff, W. F. Carr. In April 17, 1898, the "Shore Line" from Willoughby to Cleveland was put into operation. The total trackage was 45.28 miles. The Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railway Company was chartered in 1901 and the road opened September 21, 1903. It connects at Painesville with the Cleveland, Painesville and Eastern and has a trackage of thirty miles, entirely on a private way excepting through the towns and villages. Its first officers were : Arthur D. Cleveland, president and general manager ; W. J. Hayes, vice president ; M. A. Phillips, secretary ; J. P. Kraus, treasurer. These two lines were soon consolidated. They now have the same officers, which in 1909 were as follows : E. W. Moore, president ; J. A. Beidler, vice president ; E. V. Hale, treasurer ; F. S. Borton, secretary ; J. Jordan, general manager.
The Eastern Ohio Traction Company. December 3, 1895, the Cuyahoga Suburban Railway was chartered to build an electric road from Cleveland to Chagrin Falls, thence to Kinsman or Meadville, Pennsylvania. The Cleveland & Chagrin Falls Electric Railway Company was incorporated December 18, 1895. The latter line built the railway from Cleveland to Chagrin Falls, which was opened May I, 1897. The incorporators were : Vincent A. Taylor, F. W. Gehring, James E. Latimer, Joseph Black, Fred Eggers, C. G. Barkoid, A. V. Taylor. On April 20 1898, the Chagrin Falls & Eastern Electric Railway Company was incorporated by F. M. Stearns, John E. Ensign, C. A. Morganthaler, James E. Latimer, William Prescott, R. L. Palmer and H. L. Coe. June 10, 1899, the Cleveland & Eastern Railway Company was incorporated by H. Clark Ford, H. B. McGraw, John Wilson Hart, F. A. Henry and S. P. Baldwin. This line was to extend from Euclid Heights through the picturesque Chagrin valley at Gates Mills thence to Chardon, Burton and Middlefield; about forty miles trackage.
The Cleveland & Chagrin Falls division begins at Kinsman street and runs through Warrensville, where the new Cleveland Farm Colony is located, to Chagrin Falls, about fourteen miles. The Chagrin Falls & Eastern division begins at the western line of Geauga county, extends east to Steele's Corners, thence southeasterly to Hiram and Garretsville, about twenty-five miles.
All of these lines were consolidated under one management November 21, 1901 , when the Eastern Ohio Traction Company was incorporated. The officers were George T. Bishop, president ; H. A. Sherwin, vice president ; J. A. Currie, secretary and treasurer; and H. Clark Ford, W. A. Lamprecht, W. N. Gates, Howard White, E. G. Tillotson, H. P. McIntosh, R. A. Hamm, directors. The company operates 85 miles of road. 'The system operates through a partially settled country and has not been financially successful. For some years Robert D. Beatty has operated the lines as receiver.
The Lake Shore Electric Railway Company. In October 6, 1897, the Lorain & Cleveland railway was opened from Rocky river to Lorain, a distance of nineteen miles, mostly over a private right of way. On this account and because of the extra heavy equipment the line became known throughout the country for the speed its cars attain. The officers were : B. Mahler, president ; J. B. Hanna,
752 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
vice president ; E. W. Moore, treasurer ; Joseph B. Hoyt, secretary. September 25, 1901, the Lake Shore Electric Railway Company received its charter. It was a consolidation of the Lorain & Cleveland Railway Company; the Sandusky & Interurban Electric Railway Company ; the Sandusky, Norwalk & Southern Railway ; and the Toledo, Fremont & Norwalk Railroad. This line operated through limited cars from Toledo to Cleveland in December, 1g01. In 1908 it organized the Peoples Light & Power Company and under this charter supplies other railways with power. This extensive system operates 174.4 miles if single track. The officers are, 1909 : E. W. Moore, president ; W. H. Price, vice president ; F. W. Coen, of Sandusky, general manager ; J. P. Witt, secretary and treasurer ; A. C. Henry, auditor
CHAPTER LXXV.
POSTOFFICE—TELEGRAPH.
The first mail route established in the Reserve was in 1801 from Pittsburg through Canfield and Youngstown to Warren. In 1803 a route was established from Warren through Mesopotamia, Windsor, Morgan, Austinburg, thence to Harpersfield, Painesville and Cleveland. Froni Cleveland the route returned to Warren by way of Hudson. The first mail carrier over this route accomplished the circuit of one hundred and fifty miles on foot every week or ten days. The route from Cleveland to Detroit via Sandusky was established a few years later and in 1808 a route from Erie to Cleveland was established, John Metcalfe being its first carrier. This was now Cleveland's principal mail route. Until 1811 Metcalfe carried the mail on foot. Saddlebags and horseback were then substituted and about 1823 the stage coach became the carrier.
In 1908 the first mail was carried westward from Cleveland by Horace Gun, of Columbia township. In 1809 Benoni Adams carried this mail from Cleveland to the Maumee over the old Indian trail. It was a two weeks' trip with only one house between that of a French trader at Milan. (1)
"I was a mail boy carrying the mail from Warren to Twinsburg. * * * The mail from Cleveland came on an old horse with a little boy on his back and stopped at Twinsburg. * * * I would go out on Friday and return to Warren on Saturday, and you could put the mail from Cleveland going to Warren and that part of the Western Reserve in your hat. I carried it in one end of the portmanteau on my horse. * * * In 1833 I carried the mail from Warren to Ravenna, twenty-five miles, half the way through the woods, and there we tapped the stage route from Cleveland to Pittsburg and took the little handful of Cleveland mail at that point instead of coming up to Twinsburg. (2)
Ashael Adams of Warren carried the mail on horseback, 1812-13 from Cleveland to Pittsburg. He left Pittsburg on Friday of each week at 6 a. m.
1 - "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. I, p. 350.
2 - Gen. J. J. Elwell, "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, p. 643.
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 753
and arrived in Cleveland on Monday about 2 p. m., returning he reached Pittsburg on Thursday evening at 6. He stopped at Beavertown, New Lisbon, Canfield, Deerfield, Hartland, Ravenna, Hudson and Gallatin, and passing on his return through Aurora, Mantua, Palmyra, Canfield, New Lisbon, Greensburg and Beavertown. These were the only post stations then between Pittsburg and Cleveland. For his work the government paid him one hundred and eighty- six dollars per quarter, a pittance even in those years of scant specie circulation, for he was beset with all the dangers of the wilderness. About 1820 the stage coach took the place of the saddlebags.
The "Painesville Telegraph" January 1, 1823, says : "We understand that a mail stage is to commence running twice a week from Buffalo to Erie, after the first of the present month, by S. Marvin of the former place, and Colonel Bird, the former mail contractor on said route. We also learn that it is in contemplation to continue the stage through on the same arrangement to this place and as far west as Cleveland." (3)
The postage varied according to the distance the letter was carried, from a few pennies to twenty-five cents. In 1836 the rates are given as follows : Letters; six and one-quarter cents any distance not over 30 miles ; ten cents from 30 to 80 miles ; twelve and one-half cents, 80 to 150 miles ; eighteen and three-quarter cents, 150 to 400 miles ; twenty-five cents over 400 miles. "Double letters charged double, treble letters treble, and quadruple letters quadruple these rates." Newspaper : one cent not over t00 miles, or for any distance in the state where printed. If over 100 miles out of this state, one and one-half cents each. Periodicals, magazines : not over 100 miles, one cent a sheet ; over 100 miles, two cents a sheet. These rates Were not rapidly reduced until the advent of the railroad, when postage became almost nominal. In 1856 letters were three cents except to California, Oregon, Washington and Texas where the rates were ten cents. The extension of the railroads to these far distant frontiers brought a uniformity and cheapness unthought of in the days of the saddlebag.
It took several weeks to bring news from New York to Cleveland in the primitive days. When "post haste" was required, relays of riders would carry the news in a week from Washington to Cleveland. This was done when war was declared in 1812. Later, this time was reduced to five days. News from Europe was often several months in coming. In 1837 it was considered a wonderful feat when a Boston paper of Saturday was received in Cleveland the following Saturday, while New York papers of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, got to Cleveland the Saturday of the following week. (4)
The following is from the "Herald :" Cleveland, July 2, 1845, this mornmg at 9 o'clock I received at the postoffice in this city a letter mailed yesterday at Alexander, Genesee county, New York, postage five cents. Quick and cheap news that."
In 1853 Cleveland had thirty-five mail trains a day, arriving and departing. "Three men, three horses and two wagons are needed to bring twenty tons of mail a day from the depot." (5) In 1857 the New York mail via the New York
3 - See "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3, P. 947.
4 - "Herald," May 6, 1837.
5 - "Daily Herald," June 27, 1853.
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& Erie Railroad left Cleveland at 3 p. m., and arrived in New York the next day at i :3o p. m.
The Cleveland postoffice was established in October, 1805, and Elisha Norton was appointed the first postmaster. He served only a short time, moving to Portage county and was succeeded by that useful pioneer, John Walworth. Colonel Whittlesey says : "Judge Walworth at first occupied the upper part of a frame building on the north side of Superior street, near Water street. When his family moved from this building to their home on the Walworth farm, Pittsburg street, a small frame office was erected south of Superior street, where the American House now stands. During Judge Walworth's life, this office contained the combined authority of the city, the county and the federal governments.
"Mr. Kelley states that in 1810 Mr. Walworth was Recorder, Clerk of the Common Pleas and Supreme Court, Postmaster and Collector of the Cuyahoga District. The same office accommodated Mr. Kelley, the only attorney in the place, and Dr. Long, the only physician. During the first quarter of 1806 the receipts at the postoffice amounted to two dollars and eighty-three cents.
"Probably the postoffice remained at the same place while Ashbel W. Walworth was postmaster. When Irad Kelley succeeded to that place it was removed to his brick store on the south side of Superior street opposite Bank street. The receipts for a year were about five hundred dollars, of which one fourth belonged to the Postmaster, as compensation, which included rent, fuel and clerk hire. All letters written by the postmaster could be franked by him, which, to a man of business, was of more value than his percentage on receipts. * * *
Under Postmaster Worley the delivery office was removed to the north side of Superior street at Miller's block, between Seneca and Bank streets, and afterwards to a store where the Johnson House* is now, the rear of which was occupied by the Custom House. Mr. Haskell removed it to the Herald building on Bank street. When Mr. Gray received the appointment the office was transferred to his building on Water street, west side, near St. Clair street.
"While Mr. Harrington was postmaster the government building on the Public Square was completed and thus the place of delivery became fixed." (6)
When the first government building was torn down to make room for the present new one, the postoffice was removed to the Wilshire building on Superior street. (+)
TELEGRAPH.
Professor S. F. B. Morse sent his first message over his newly invented telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore in 1844. Immediately lines of "magnetic telegraph" began to appear in the east. In 1846 a voluntary association called "The Lake Erie Telegraph Company," began to promote the Morse patents in this region. Its capital was $170,000, the shares fifty dollars each. Cleveland's
* - Torn down in 1910 to make way for additions to the Rockefeller building.
6 - "Early History of Cleveland," p. 471.
+ - See Appendix for list of Post Masters.
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 755
share of the venture was $5,000. The line was to extend from Buffalo to Detroit and its estimated cost was fifteen dollars per mile. This company was incorporated in 1848 and operated in that year from Buffalo to Cleveland, (7) and to Erie, Ashtabula, Elyria, Sandusky City, Toledo, Monroe, Detroit, Hudson, Akron, Massillon, New Lisbon, Wellsville, Beaver and Pittsburg. Its offices were in the Weddell house and were "open every day except Sunday from 7 a. m. to 9 p. m." H. B. Ely, secretary of the company, had charge of this office. In 185o it had completed all its lines.
In 1848 the "Atlantic, Lake & Mississippi Telegraph" had in operation three thousand miles of line, and "when completed will connect with all the principal towns on the lakes of the west and southwest," it advertised in the city di- rectory, and that "all communications strictly confidential."
There were many independent competing lines based on several patents. In 1852-53 a consolidation known as the "Speed & Wade Telegraph Lines" was made, combining the following: The Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company, from Buffalo to Milwaukee ; Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Telegraph Company, two separate routes to Cincinnati ; Cincinnati & St. Louis Telegraph Company ; Cleveland, Wheeling & Zanesville Telegraph Company, via Ohio canal to Zanesville; and the Cleveland, Warren & Pittsburg Telegraph Company. The aggregate length of the lines was two thousand, five hundred and fifteen miles, and there were one hundred and four offices. The general offices were in the American House. Locally these lines were known as "Speed's Line," J. M. Tubbs, manager, and "Wade's Line," C. C. Lee, manager. Wade's line received on an average seven hundred messages a day at the Cleveland office in 1858.
"The Atlantic, Lake & Mississippi Telegraph Company" reorganized in 1852-3 as the "National Telegraph Company." It embraced all the "O'Reilly lines" in the United States and Canada, ten thousand miles. Cleveland was in the Lake Erie section of this company and known as the Lake Erie Telegraph Company. Henry H. Bishop was the Cleveland superintendent.
"House's Telegraph" also had an office in Cleveland in 1853. It extended from Halifax, Boston and New York, to St. Louis, and lines ran direct from Cleveland to St. Louis. Its offices were in the Johnson block, opposite the American House. It advertised in the city Directory, 1853, that "all messages are delivered, printed by telegraph in plain English."
Many shifts were made in the lines. In 1856 the following were advertised in Cleveland. 1. The Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company from Buffalo to Milwaukee, offices American Hotel, J. M. Tubbs, manager. 2. Speed's Telegraph office, St. Clair and Water streets, Buffalo and Milwaukee. 3. Union Telegraph Company. Water and Superior street, a consolidation of the House, Morse, O'Reilly and Wade lines controlled and managed by the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, J. H. Wade, general agent. 4. The Waring & Pittsburg Telegraph Company, offices American House.
By 1857-8 the inevitable consolidation had taken place. The Western Union Telegraph Company absorbed the lines. Its offices were in the Washington block. St. Clair street. J. H. Wade was the general agent.
7 - For details, see "Herald," September 12, 1849.
756 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
In the development of telegraphy Jeptha H. Wade of Cleveland had a leading part. He was born in Seneca county, New York, August r 1, 1811, and became a portrait painter. He was in Baltimore when Morse sent his first message over the first telegraph line, and he became interested in the new invention. In 1847 he constructed a line between Detroit and Jackson, Michigan, the first line west of Buffalo. The following year he came to Ohio for the Lake Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company at Milan, Ohio, the birthplace of Thomas A. Edison. Soon he constructed the "Wade Lines" from Cleveland to Cincinnati and St. Louis. These soon became a part of the "House consolidation." Upon the organization of the Western Union, Mr. Wade was first general manager and later president. He was one of the organizers of the first Pacific Telegraph line. He was identified with the banking and railroad interests of the city and is known not only for his private beneficence but also for his gift to the city of the beautiful park that bears his name.
Anson Stager was also active in the development of the telegraph lines.
LXXVII.
THE PUBLIC SQUARE.
The Public Square has occupied so important a place in our civic life and typifies so vividly the spirit of the community, that it seems fitting to close this broken narrative of Cleveland's development with a brief review of its history.
The Square is the only open space in Cleveland whose history dates from the founding of the city. The original survey of the town made by Augustus Porter in 1796 marks the place as "Public Square," and the plat made by Amos Spafford in 1891 says : "The Square is laid out on the intersection of Superior and Ontario streets and contains ten acres. The center of the junction of the two roads is the exact center of the Square." A survey made by Ahaz Merchant in 1835, showed only nine and a half acres in the Square.
While it has always been regarded as public property, as an open square or plaza, its precincts have not been held inviolate from public abuse. Originally Ontario and Superior streets were surveyed through it. In October, 1815, the village trustees ordered "a street on the Public Square running around said Square on each side and parallel and immediately within the outline of said Square." In 1812 the county was permitted to build its first courthouse and jail, a rude log cabin, on the northwest section. This was removed in 1831, when a new courthouse had been completed on the southwest section. This was removed in 1858 and since then the county has not used the city's property. In 1858 the council instructed a committee "to get up plans for a city hall building to be erected on the southwest corner of the Square." Nothing came of this, and the board of improvements, a decade later, was instructed to offer three prizes of six hundred dollars, five hundred dollars and four hundred dollars, for the three best plans for a city hall to be built on the Square. In 1875 plans were received and Walter Blythe, who designed so many of the public buildings in northern Ohio at that time, received the first prize. His design was the stiff, forbidding adaptation of the French renaissance so common in those years, and so hideous. Fortunately the hall was not built. In 1885 a committee of the council recommended that a city hall be built on the Square. The report was tabled. In 1896-7 a final attempt was made to use the Square for the city hall purposes. Mayor McKisson during the night had a temporary fence built around the northeast section.
- 757 -
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The object lesson was heeded. The sight of the open space enclosed by a forbidding fence convinced the citizens that this historic spot should remain free from buildings.
The Square in the village days was merely an open field, ungraded, covered with underbrush and a few trees. No fence enclosed it to keep cattle and hogs from wandering at random. Superior and Ontario streets were country roads, paths crossed it at every angle and teams drove over it "anyway they were a mind to." In 1820 it was a "barren, sandy waste, with only three trees upon it." (1) Samuel Williamson recalled it when it was "only partly cleared of brush wood," when Superior street was "full of large stumps but otherwise than that it was clear," when Ontario was "a wagon track," and Water street "had been cut out and a wagon road was run down through the center of the street from Superior street to Bank street, so called. It had grown up however, with elder bushes, thick all the way along. There were occasional trees and some houses upon it." (2)
In 1837 the Square was crudely graded and in the autumn the two northern quarters were fenced on the line of the curb. On June 19, 1839, a resolution by the city council directed the street supervisors to fence the southern portion to correspond with the northern "as soon as the county commissioners whitewash the courthouse." The commissioners promptly applied the brush. In 1849 a correspondent of the "Cincinnati Gazette" wrote from Cleveland that the Public Square was divided into four parts by intersecting streets "and enclosed by a post and two rail fence, and has over three hundred beautiful elm and maple trees." (3)
This fence was the subject of considerable councilmanic statesmanship. The records indicate that it was erected "to improve and repair the Square and to prevent the depredations of cattle and swine." Legislation was required "to keep boys and loafers from occupying it as a roosting place to the annoyance of traffic." There was an ordinance "to improve the Square so as to prevent boys from using it as a ball ground," and it was even found necessary "to close up all entrances except that leading to the courthouse."
About 1852 a new era began for the Square. Four grass plats with an unkempt turf unacquainted with a lawn mower, each enclosed by a fence, had awakened a desire for a real park and the people demanded that the entire area be enclosed as one park. July 22, 1852, a petition was presented to the council asking that the streets through the Square be vacated. The city law department held that this would be illegal. The agitation for "a grand central park" continued, and reached that stage of excess which public movements often attain under the stimulus of newspapers and interested propagandists.
The town was divided over the question. The opposition maintained that the enclosure was illegal and that adjoining property would be damaged. A petition with two thousand signatures was referred to the judiciary committee and on October 7, 1856, it reported favorably. On November 25, it was voted to vacate "so much of Superior and Ontario streets as lay within the Public Square." On the 24th of March, 1857, the street commissioner was directed by resolution
1 - "Herald," Vol. 32, No. 47.
2 - "Annals Early Settlers Association," No. I, p. 54.
3 - "Herald," Vol. 32, No. 40.
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 759
to "enclose the Square so as to make one undivided park and remove all fences not required to so enclose it." The commissioners utilized the first dark night for obeying this mandate.
In 1856 the council appointed a committee to place a fountain in the Square. At the intersection of Superior and Ontario streets a circular basin forty feet in diameter was placed. It was surrounded by a turfed embankment, seventeen feet wide and a walk eight feet wide, guarded by posts and chain. From the center of the basin a simple device sent up a spray of water supplied by the new waterworks. This fountain was the object of great interest to the state fair visitors in the fall of 1856. Crowds surrounded it and the local papers boasted that it was the first fountain in the state.
The town now possessed a park, where "up town and down town" could meet for recreation. The bi-secting streets were closed and all traffic had to circumnavigate the Square. Evergreen shrubbery was planted in profusion and curved walks were laid. Immediately it was objected that the shrubbery made no shade and occupied too much room and the curved walks occupied too much time. But for some years the park was popular. It was easily accessible to the residence section on the lake front and on Superior and Euclid. On pleasant summer evenings band concerts were given by Leland's famous band and Hickox's band.
But it was an unnatural place for a park. Remonstrances against the fence were regularly received by the city council. Property owners and merchants were particularly persistent and vehement. November 20,. 1866, a petition headed by Leonard Case and H. B. Payne was presented to the council for reopening Superior street. The committee failed to agree on a report and on January 4, 1876, brought in its divided opinion, the majority maintaining the fence was illegal and the minority showing that the "best lawyers in the city differed diametrically" on the question and that therefore the fence should stay. The recommendation of the majority, that friendly suit be started to let the courts decide was adopted. July 8, 1867, Judge Prentiss declared that Superior street was dedicated as a continuous street from Water to Erie and that the city had no right to vacate it without recompensing property owners. He ordered the fence removed. On August 21, this was done and the "fence war" was at an end. The following September, Ontario street fence was removed.
In 1871 the board of park commissioners was created and the Square passed from the immediate control of the city council to the new board. In April, 1872, five thousand dollars was placed at the disposal of the commissioners and the following August a bond issue of thirty thousand dollars, seven per cent, twenty year bonds was authorized. Money was now available for improving the Square. Walks were laid, a pavilion built, the rustic bridge and rock work were put in. These latter "improvements" are still in place in the northwest section. The lily fountain, the gift of Mr. Clark, was brought from Franklin Circle and was planted in the northwest section joined some time later by the palpitating geyser in the northeast section. The mayor in his annual message of 1872 says of the Square : "A dilapidated open space in the heart of the city, a sort of public receptacle for dirt, has been changed into a thing of beauty and become a constant source of pleasure to the public." (4)
4 - For many facts concerning the history of the parks, see "Report of Park Commissioners for 1879."
760 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
The speaking pavilion erected on the northwest section became a popular "place of assembly." The northeast side, however, became a depot for express wagons and moving vans that stood in unsightly rows there all day. The council was petitioned in 1887 to forbid this. In 1889 the mayor says that the Square is "in a miserable, dilapidated, shabby, ragged condition ; the walks are worn and broken to a degree which renders them dangerous in many places ; the speaker's stand has become an unsightly and unsafe ruin ; seasonable floral adornment has been abandoned." Some renovation followed.
The great revival of park enthusiasm in recent years has been felt by the old Square. In 1900 the street railway and the city joined in erecting shelter houses, followed by a public comfort station. Gay tulips now flaunt their gaudy petals in the warm spring days, followed by the patient geraniums and the many colored coleus. The greensward is well trimmed and watered, the emblems around the Soldiers' monument are beautifully planted, the fountains are painted periodically, the "grotto" in front of the Forest City House is peopled annually with plants that seem to delight in its fantastic nooks, the comfort of the people is cared for by benches and shelter houses, and the Weather Bureau kiosk speaks of the scientific guardianship of the government. But the glory of the Square has departed. The last of its big elms were removed in 1890. A few smaller stragglers were left in 1896, but they are all gone now. They were not great elms that had seen the stately pageantry of civilization follow the reluctant exit of the red man. The few forest trees of ancient lineage on the Square had been early cut down in accordance with the settler's instinct. But they were beautiful and graceful trees, their trunks nearly two feet in diameter, and they were loved by the old settlers who protested vehemently against their removal. In their place, sycamores are annually planted with elaborate care only to sicken and succumb to the sulphurous and arsenious gases that have deforested our city and robbed it of its former glory.
The architecture surrounding the Square has been indicative of the growth of the city. With the exception of the Forest City House corner, which has been continuously occupied as a tavern since 1815, and the Old Stone Church corner, which has been occupied since 1834, it was completely surrounded by homes. Some of these were fine and commodious. But most of them were modest in size and architecture. A pencil drawing made by William Case, probably about the date of the Mexican war, shows the plain facades of these homes looking out upon the Square that was planted with young trees in regular, military rows. About 185o these homes began to yield one by one, to the business invasion that threatened from the west, where Superior street enters. On the northwest side in 1853 were two three story "blocks" and on the south side were five brick stores, extending through to Champlain street. Their cost was twenty-five thousand dollars, an index to the value and cost of the old store buildings. A four-story brick block was also erected on the corner of Euclid and the Square, costing ten thousand dollars. (5) In 1854 the Rouse block was built on the northwest corner of Superior street and the Square. It was then the handsomest in the city, four stories high and basement, with dressed sandstone walls. On the side toward the Square was
5 - See "Daily Herald," Vol. 19, No. 251.
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 761
an open pattern iron staircase and balcony that was greatly admired. The top floor of the building was occupied by Folsom's Mercantile College, the second and third by offices and the ground floor "with a front of costly plate glass" by Albertson's jewelry store and George W. Bentley & Company's hat and fur store. (6) This old building with its iron balcony, long since grown unsafe with rust, still stands.
In 1834 the First Presbyterian church was built, followed by a new building in 1853, which was destroyed by fire soon afterward and was immediately replaced by the present structure, the "Old Stone Church."
In 1854 the quaint Mellen homestead on the southeast corner of the Square and Superior street gave way to the Hoffman block, four stories high. It contained eight store rooms. The one on the corner was occupied by Gaylord & Company's drug store. It was considered very fine, the "inside finish all oak, Norman style," says the enthusiastic editor of the "Herald." The same year also saw the new Chapin block erected on the Euclid avenue corner. Chapin's Hall was in this block. Its 1,200 upholstered seats, its stage and dressing rooms, and above all, its hot air furnace for heating, made it one of the most notable halls in the west. It was especially designed for musical entertainments and was at first called Concert Hall. Within a few years its glory yielded to Case Hall.
In 1855 Council Hall was built by John James on the southwest corner. The city offices occupied the two upper floors. It is still standing. The old Case homestead on the east side gave way to the fine Federal building in the late fifties. This stone structure had fine lines and its walls were in splendid condition when it was demolished to make way for the present postoffice.
The Society for Savings erected a banking house in 1867 on the site now occupied by the Chamber of Commerce. Meanwhile a row of squalid one and two story buildings occupied the side south of Ontario. The Square had now entirely surrendered to commerce.
The first monument erected on the Square was Perry's statue, dedicated September 1o, 186o, the forty-seventh anniversary of the battle of Lake Erie. The orator of the day was George Bancroft, the eminent historian. The governor of Rhode Island, the native state of Commodore Perry, his staff, and a few survivors of the battle and members of the family were present. The monument at first stood in the center of the Square at the intersection of the streets, taking the place of the primitive fountain. In 1878 it was removed to the southeastern quarter and in 1894 to Wade Park, where it is now hidden among the trees. (7)
The statue of Moses Cleaveland was unveiled on the anniversary of the first landing of the General on the banks of the Cuyahoga, July 22, 1888, by the Early Settlers Association in the presence of over five hundred "early settlers" and a multitude of citizens. The Cleveland Grays were the guards of honor. Harvey Rice, the president, was too feeble to be present, and his presentation speech was read by Hon. A. J. Williams. Mayor Babcock accepted the gift for the city. The meeting then adjourned to Music Hall, where the oration was delivered by S. E. Adams. (8)
6 - See "Daily Herald," Vol. 20, No. 258.
7 - For full account of the unveiling, see "Inauguration of the Perry Statue at Cleveland on the l0th of December, 186o, including Addresses and Other Proceedings," Cleveland, 1861.
8 - For details see "Annals Early Settlers Association," 1888.
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The Soldiers and Sailors monument was placed on the Square only after the earnest protest of many patriotic citizens had been brushed aside by the court. The monument was dedicated July 4, 1894. William McKinley, then governor of the state, and Senator J. B. Foraker, delivered the orations, Virgil P. Kline read the Declaration of Independence, and a chorus of school children sang appropriate hymns. There was also a brilliant pageant, and in the evening a general illumination. (9)
In April, 1861, some city councilman thought to immortalize himself by changing the historic old name of Public Square into the monstrous Monumental Park, and city council, obtuse to Historic interest, acquiesced. Officially this verbal monstrosity is still the name. To the people, happily, it has always remained "The Square."
The cannon that are placed on the Square are the relics of three wars : the War of 1812, the Civil war and the war with Spain. (*)
The Square was the scene of the first extensive electric illumination made in this country. January 27, 1879, the park commissioners asked the city council for electric lights on the Square. A committee was appointed and they reported that they had had a conference with "Professor Brush and the Telegraph Supply Company * * * and are of the opinion that there can be no doubt of the practicability of lighting up the Public Square in a satisfactory manner with the Brush electric light." The company agreed to light the Square and streets bounding it with twelve lights for one dollar per hour. This proposition was adopted providing the entire cost should not exceed $1,348.95 for the year. On the evening of April 29, 1879, "a dazzling glory filled the park, crowds being present to witness the practical demonstration of a scientific victory."
These outward circumstances of municipal growth do not appeal to the fancy as do the great and stirring events which the old Square has witnessed. In the village days the town meetings gathered in the rude courthouse. Amid the stumps and brush stood the curious throngs of pioneers tolo witness the first public execution in the county, the hanging of the Indian O'Mic. It was the gathering place for all public meetings, where the fervor of the pioneer revivalist alternated with the vehemence of the stump speaker. When deft Van Buren came to town he was paraded through the Square, so that all could get an opportunity to see him. So also colossal DeWitt Clinton, who came to help begin the Ohio canal, and staid John Quincy Adams, and exuberant Henry Clay, and lordly Daniel Webster; all stopped in our town but a few hours, yet each one was taken through this open space. Later Abraham Lincoln and unfortunate Andrew Johnson, the warriors Sherman and Grant and the Ohio Presidents, Hayes, Garfield, Harrison and McKinley, all were greeted on the Square by enthusiastic multitudes.
The Square has been the forum of our partisanship and political conviction, where the fervid eloquence of statesmen and political leaders thrilled vast throngs of eager citizens, gathered in the great open air meetings that were popular fifty years ago. Few distinguished names in our public annals during the stirring middle period of the nation's history, can be omitted from the rolls of
9 - See "History of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument," William Gleason.
* - For details concerning these cannon see "Annals Early Settlers Association," Vol. 3,
p. 547.
10 - "Report of Park Commissioners," 1879.
HISTORY OF CLEVELAND - 763
those whose voices have been heard in our Public Square ; stolid General Cass, picturesque Sam Houston, the inimitable Tom Corwin, vehement Horace Greeley, courteous John P. Hale, the invincible Douglas, "Prince John" Van Buren, fearless Joshua R. Giddings, pugnacious Ben Wade, chaste Seward, and a multitude of others. Here were enacted the most exciting scenes of the significant campaign that brought to its issue the question of human slavery. Conventions of Kansas sympathizers, of abolitionists, of Union democrats and of the newly organized republicans, brought their throngs to the Square.
The great debate between our own Rufus P. Ranney and William Dennison, both candidates for governor just before the war, was held here. And a few years later bold and picturesque John Brough as candidate for governor against the brilliant and erratic Vallandingham roused the city and the entire north by his picturesque speech made in a vast open meeting in the Square. And Cleveland's own favorite orators were heard often in these years : among them the gifted and scholarly Sherlock J. Andrews, whose distinguished bearing and choice diction graced as presiding officer, many of these historic meetings ; Rufus P. Ranney, Ohio's greatest lawyer ; Rufus P. Spalding, many years a congressman, vehement defender of fugitive slaves, joined in his advocacy by A. G. Riddle, brilliant and refined, Franklin T. Backus, learned and sincere, Stanley O. Griswold, able advocate, and Judge Tilden, benevolent and gifted.
Today the din of the metropolis makes out-of-door meetings in the Square impossible. But in the northwest corner is even now heard the strident voice of agitator, revolutionist, visionary and exhorter, uttering their puny protests against things as they are, their wails and threats lost in the roar of actual life that swirls through the busy Square.
And while receiving their inspirations from these political camp meetings and rallies our fathers also made the Square the scene of their picturesque revelries over their victories. Every election night had its jollification. Not the congested riot of noise and laughter that fills Superior and Euclid avenues on these later days, but a lurid bonfire, reinforced by the weird flicker of innumerable torches that were borne by men gleeful as children over their victory, amid the noise of bands and of cannon. On several presidential and state elections these jollifications were unusually unctious, notably the elections of William Henry Harrison, of Zachary Taylor and of Lincoln. The jubilant partisans gathered in the Square, forebore long enough to listen to appropriate harangues, and then the torchlight parade, like a huge fiery serpent, wound through the streets to the homes of the favorite political leaders to serenade and to cheer.
The Square was the center of two historic jubilees, the National Centennial of 1876, and the Municipal Centennial of 1896, when the gay pageantry of peace marched under arches of victory that spanned Superior street. And in solemn contrast to these festivities stand two occasions of national sorrowing: when the Square received the bier of Lincoln in 1865, and when in 1885, the sorrowing, silent multitudes paid their last token of respect to Garfield, the second martyr.
Thus in the years long past the Square has been the heart of our community, faithful and responding promptly to the great emotions of joy, of sorrow and of 'solemn conviction, that have swept the chords of our civic life. And the Square is still the heart of our city. Its four chambers, like giant pairs of auricles and
764 - HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
ventricles, daily pour forth their streams of human beings, who gather like innumerable corpuscles from the vast aorta and vena-cava of the two great avenues, and are scattered through the myriad streets, the capillary network of this throbbing organism, the city.
And the Square is a faithful symbol of the spirit of the city. Bordering its southwest section are the old, dilapidated buildings of the first mercantile age, grown unsightly and all but useless under the accumulation of the soot and rust of years. The northwest section has fared but little better. The important Superior corner, a ragged remnant of the past, standing by the side of the more modern, though no more ornamental, skyscraper; the old stone courthouse, the Old Stone church, the old brick theater. The southeast section, with its utility box on the Ontario corner, filled with tiny offices ; the Euclid corner with the stately Williamson building, which overlooks in majestic disdain, its chaste neighbor, the Cuyahoga building, the pioneer modern office building on the Square. And the northwest section, with its imposing Gothic bank, its ornate Chamber of Commerce, and its monumental Postoffice.
Need the symbolism of this architecture be interpreted? The unrivalled commercial and financial advancement of our city, its fine new spirit of civic alertness, its ambitious plans for the future, when the noble group plan shall be realized, all are linked with the petty provincialism of yesterday, the excessive utilitarianism and severe literalism of today.
The Old Square has witnessed many changes. It will see many more. In a few years it will behold all that is small and petty in the past and the present absorbed by the splendid idealism of cooperation that will characterize the Cleveland of tomorrow.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX
SURVEYING PARTY OF 1796.
General Moses Cleaveland superintendent; Augustus Porter, principal surveyor and deputy superintendent; Seth Pease, astronomer and surveyor; Amos Spafford, John Milton Holley, Richard M. Stoddard and Moses Warren surveyors; Joshua Stow, commissary; Treodore Shepard, physician.. Employees-Joseph Pinker, boatman. George Proudfoot, Samuel Formes, Joseph M'Intyre, Francis Gray, Amos Sawtell, Amos Barber, Stephen Benton, Samuel Hungerford, William B. Hall, Asa Mason, Samuel Davenport, Michael Coffin, Amzi Atwater, Thomas Harris, Elisha Ayres, Norman Wilcox, Timothy Dunham, George Gooding, Shadrach Benham, Samuel Agnew, Wareham Shepard, John Briant, David Beard, Titus V. Munson, Joseph Landon, Charles Parker, Ezekiel Morly, Nathaniel Doan, Luke Hanchet, James Halket, James Hamilton, Olney F. Rice, John Lock, Samuel Barnes, Stephen Burbank, Daniel Shulay. Number of employees-37.
"Elijah Gun and Anna, his wife, came with the surveyors and took charge of Stow's castle at Conneaut."
"Job P. Stiles and Tabitha Cumi, his wife, were left in charge of the company's stores at Cleveland."
"Nathan Chapman and Nathan Perry furnished the surveyors with fresh beef and traded with the Indians." (Whittlesey "Early History of Cleveland," pp. 188-9.)
SECOND SURVEYING PARTY, 1797
Rev. Seth Hart, superintendent; Seth Pease, principal surveyor.*
SURVEYORS (8).
Richard M. Stoddard,* Amos Spafford,* Moses Warren,* Wareham Shepard,* Amzi Atwater,* Phineas Barker, Joseph Landon,* Nathan Redfield, Theodore Shepherd (or Shephard), physician.*
EMPLOYEES (52).
Col. Ezra Waite, Thomas Gun, Peleg Waterman (or Washburn), Maj. William Shepard, Hubbard T. Linsley, David Eldridge (drowned), Minor Bicknell (died), Josiah Barse (or Barze), John Doane, Joseph Tinker,* Jotham Atwater, Oliver Culver, Samuel Spafford (son of Amos), Dan'l Holbrook, explorer, Stephen Gilbert, Lot Sanford, Nathaniel Doan,* Alpheus Choat, David Clark, William Andrews (died), Solomon Gidings, Matthew L. Gilgore, Samuel Forbes, E. Chapman, James Stoddard, David Beard,* Ezekiel Morley,* Solomon Shepard, Thomas Tupper, William Tinker, Chester Allen, Alexander Allen, James Berry, George Gidings, Bery Nye, James Stoddard, Joseph Nye, Enoch Eldridge, Asa Mason, Charles Parker,* Eli Kellogg, Job
Coe, William Barker, Elli Rowley (deserted), Shubal Parker (or Park), Clark Reynolds, Jacob Carlton, William Stoddard, Phil Barker, John Hine, Eli Canfield, Sylvester Smith.
* These were of the first surveying party, 1796.
Whittlesey "Early History of Cleveland."
THE ORIGINAL SUBSCRIBERS TO THE PURCHASE OF THE WESTERN RESERVE, AND THE PROPORTIONS OF THEIR SUBSCRIPTIONS. From Whittlesey.