100 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS hunger. On the fourth of November the main body of the army, weary and shattered, entered the gates of Fort Niagara. Stragglers continued to come in, day after day, nor was it until the last of December that all the survivors reached their homes." Parkman adds a last distressing touch to the narrative : "On the fourth of November, seventeen days after their departure from Sandusky, the main body of the army arrived in safety at Niagara, and the whole, embarking on Lake Ontario, proceeded to Oswego. Fortune still seemed adverse to them, for a second tempest arose, and one of the schooners, crowded with troops, foundered in sight of Oswego, though most of the men were saved." In a letter from Sir William Johnson to General Gage, he imputes the wreck to a Detroit pilot, a rascally Frenchman, who refused to put in at Black River, Lorain, and insisted on drawing up the boats on the open beach near Rocky River. Bradstreet, according to this letter, buried what cannon and ammunition were left, by daylight, in full view of the French villain. Johnson "thinks the villain will later cause them to be dug up and used against Detroit." Bayonets "piled systematically and soldierly-like, against the foot of a chestnut tree" at the top of a gully leading out of this beach, were found about fifty years later. Cannon balls and musket balls were washed out of the clay cliff. But the cannon, says Whittlesey, "had either been disinterred and removed in early days by the British, or washed into the lake by the wearing away of the shore." One of the batteaux, cast ashore, was probably burned, lest it be used by the enemy. "The nails, rudder hangings, bow ring and other irons, as well as the ashes and charcoal remaining after its destruction, were ploughed up many years since." A few antique silver spoons, of similar design and of the period, many muskets, bayonets and balls, a little handful of coins, all dating before 1764, are among the finds made there at various times. The surviving British regulars probably took the boats THE CURTAIN RISES - 101 that were left and went on. Major Israel Putnam was in charge of the "Provincials and friendly Indians" who went overland. Their path is shown by the things they dropped on the way, but there seems to be no definite record of the journey. Whittlesey hoped that garrets might some day give up the story from their forgotten papers and letters. From the time when the Eries were destroyed to 1796, these scattered traces are about all that has been found. There was no permanent settlement hereabouts. The French had a fort at Sandusky about 1750 and a trading house on the Cuyahoga, near the mouth of Tinker's Creek, about 1755. James Smith, of Pennsylvania, captured by the Delawares, spent the winter of 1755-56 on the Cuyahoga. He left a description of the neighboring country. Mary Campbell, also captured, lived on the river from 1760 to 1764, most of the time near where Akron is now. One Joseph du Shattar, employed by the North-West Fur Company, had a trading house about nine miles up on the river, near Newburgh. Du Shattar was doing a good business in 1786, and married Mary Pornay, of Detroit, in 1790. His second child was born here in 1794. John Baptiste Fleming and Joseph Burrall were with him part of the time. Du Shattar was still living in 1812, and remains of his house stood a little longer. But, as Whittlesey observes : "A trading house is a very transient affair. A small log cabin covered with bark constituted all of what is designated as an establishment. If the Indian customers remove, the trader follows them ; abandons his cabin, and constructs another at a more convenient place. Within a year the deserted but is burned to the ground, and all that remains is a vacancy of an acre or two in the forest, covered with grass, weeds, briars and bushes." One such house was built by some men in the employ of Duncan and Wilson of Pittsburgh. Writing of this in 1843, Col. James Hillman of Youngstown said : "In the spring of 1786 Messrs. Duncan and Wilson entered into a contract with Messrs. Caldwell and Elliott, of Detroit, to deliver a quantity of flour and bacon at the mouth 102 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS of the Cuyahoga River, to a man by the name of James Haw-der, an Englishman, who had a tent at the mouth of the river, for the purpose of receiving it. In May, 1786, I engaged with Duncan and Wilson, at Pittsburgh, as a packhorseman, and started immediately. We took the Indian trail for Sandusky, until we arrived at the Standing Stone, on the Cuyahoga, a little below the mouth of Breakneck Creek, where the village of Franklin is now. There we left the Sandusky trail, and took one direct to the mouth of Tinker's Creek, where was a little town built by Heckewelder and Zeisberger, with a number of Moravian Indians. They were Moravian preachers. Here we crossed the Cuyahoga, and went down on the west side to the mouth. In going down we passed a small log trading house, where one Meginnes traded with the Indians. The mouth of the Cuyahoga was then about the same as when I last saw it, in 1813. In 1786, there was a pond of water west of the mouth, which we called Sun Fish Pond, where we caught sun fish. We carried axes to cut our wood, and I remember we at one time undertook to open the mouth of the river, which was choked up with sand. We made wooden shovels, and began to dig away the sand until the water ran through, which took away the sand so fast that our party was divided, a portion being left on the east side, where Cleveland now is. "We made collars of our blankets for some of the horses, and took our tent ropes, made of raw elk skin, for tugs, drew small logs and built a but at the spring, which I believe was the first house built on the Cleveland side." The surveyors who came later do not mention this house, so undoubtedly it went into the wilderness again. A party of Indians, coming by to trade, might easily burn up for firewood the logs thus gathered and seasoned. Making a started thing better for future use, instead of burning it up at the moment, was never any part of Indian philosophy. Major Isaac Craig, with Lieutenant Rose and six men, were sent, in the fall of 1782, to see what the British were doing along the lake. They had established a military post at Sandusky, and the American government wanted to know THE CURTAIN RISES - 103 whether they had started anything at the mouth of the Cuyahoga or the Grand. Major Craig reported that there was at that time no settlement of any kind at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. The most important of the transitory dwellers were the Moravian missionaries, John Heckewelder and David Zeisberger. These gentle and godly men had established a village at Gnadenhutten, and made that a center of missionary activity among the Indians. From there they went to the Huron River, in Michigan, where they built another settlement, called "New Gnadenhutten." The Chippewa Indians made life too difficult there, so the whole colony started back in May, 1786, with the idea of settling once more on the Cuyahoga. Writes Whittlesey: "The officer in command at Detroit procured two small vessels, the Beaver and the Mackinaw, to bring them, their provisions and other luggage to this place. With their usual bad luck, after they were near enough to have a view of the mouth of the Cuyahoga, a violent storm drove them back to the islands opposite Sandusky. It was now one month since they had embarked at Detroit, and they were not more than half way to their destination. "The North-Western Fur Company, to whom the vessels belonged, could spare them no longer, and sent orders for the Beaver to return. It was barely possible to crowd the weak, the sick and the young, with the heavy luggage, into the Mackinaw. The others were landed in the woods on the shore opposite Sandusky Bay. From thence they straggled along, crossing the bay in a very destitute condition. Those who were healthy and strong, whether men or women, took the great trail along the lake shore on foot, led on by their brother Zeisberger. For those who could not travel by land, canoes were built, and Brother Heckewelder embarked with them on the 7th of June. Both parties reached the Cuyahoga on the same day. The schooner Mackinaw had also been here, and had landed their blankets, mats and other property, including some provisions. Congress had ordered five hun- 104 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS dred bushels of corn for their support, but it never came. A firm by the name of Duncan, Wilson and Co. of Pittsburgh, were engaged in furnishing supplies to the Indians of Lake Erie. They had flour in store on the west side of the river, and had the liberality to relieve the immediate wants of this distressed company. They immediately proceeded up the river. The site of their mission was on the east bank of the Cuyahoga, a short distance below the mouth of Tinker's Creek, to which they gave the name of Pilgerruh, or Pilgrim's Rest. Near it there had been a village of Ottawas, where some ground had been cleared. This they planted with corn. On the 13th of August, still in the year 1786, they celebrated the Lord's Supper. In the month of October their village was so far completed as to furnish comfortable lodging for the coming winter. Mr. Heckewelder then left the community, whose numbers at this time I cannot ascertain, and started for the old station at Bethlehem, Pa. A brother by the name of Wm. Edwards had arrived at the Pilgrim's Rest, who remained with Zeisberger during the winter. "Their chapel was completed and consecrated on the 10th of November. It was never their design to remain permanently at Pilgerruh. Their rich lands in the more genial valley of the Muskingum were ever present to their minds as their future home. But they were not destined to see those pleasant fields, to drink the sweet waters of the spring at Schoenbrunn, or to weep over the bones of their slaughtered companions, until after more trials and painful and distant wanderings." Their chief trouble was that their converts, called the "Praying Indians," were suspected by everybody. Their villages were always suffering massacres or evictions because one party supposed them allied to the French, another to the English, or because one tribe of Indians believed they were the friends of a hostile tribe and hence dangerous to them. As a matter of fact, the praying Indians were quite harmless as long as they were under the Moravian guardianship, and the Moravian missionaries were friends of all the world, THE CURTAIN RISES - 105 kindly, good and self-sacrificing. Naturally they were continually misunderstood. They left Pilgerruh for a site on the Black River in April, 1787. Here, too, there was trouble between the Moravian convert Indians and their "Pagan brethren." "In their distress they again applied to the commandant at Detroit, who, being touched by their demeanor and their helplessness, again gave them relief. He sent a vessel to the mouth of the Huron River, in April, 1790, and selecting a place on the River Thames in Canada, transported them thither." They called this settlement Fairfield. They stayed there seven years, and then when their lands had been surveyed and patented to them by the United. States, part of them came back. They found only "ruins of their houses, weedy and destroyed fields and the graves of their kindred." Some of them, after another seven years, returned to the Huron River, at New Salem. Others remained, and rebuilt on the Muskingum their villages of Schoenbrunn, Gnadenhutten and Salem, and built a new one, called Goshen. Finally, as the whites game in greater numbers, the "praying Indians" were bought out by the United States and went back to Canada, where some of them were still living in 1867. "The faithful old Zeisberger," says Whittlesey, "died in 1808, but at this time his grave cannot be identified." "The graveyard at Goshen was reserved from sale, also ten acres around the church at Beersheba, together with the parsonage, church lot and graveyard at Gnadenhutten. Thus terminated the Moravian settlements in Ohio, after a precarious and painful existence of sixty years." Their village of Schoenbrunn has lately been restored and is one of the most interesting places of historical value in Ohio. These wandering and suffering Moravian missionaries were, however, of more importance to the history of Cleveland than their slight period of dwelling might indicate. John Heckewelder, after his return to the east, made a map, which he dated January 12, 1796. This is said to be 106 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS "the first extended map with careful descriptions made by an explorer and careful observer who had actually traversed the ground." Map and descriptions were found among the papers of Mrs. Frances Cleaveland Morgan of Norwich, Connecticut, a daughter of Moses Cleaveland. They are now in the care of the Western Reserve Historical Society. It is possible that some one connected with the Connecticut Land Company had learned of the experiences of the Moravian missionaries, and knowing of Mr. Heckewelder's return to Bethlehem, sent to ask of him what information he could contribute to the new venture. The map and description may have been made in fulfilment of this request, and General Cleaveland may have had them, studied them and allowed them to be the determining factor in the decision to locate the new town at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. On the other hand, he may only have come across them at some later time, and have kept them as matters of interest because they seemed so well to justify his choice. Be that as it may, they are the most complete and interesting early description of the lands as they were when Moses came to take possession of them in the name of New Connecticut. CHAPTER VIII THE HECKEWELDER DESCRIPTION "Altho the country in general containeth both arable Land & good Pasturage; yet there are particular Spots far preferable to others: not only on account of the Land being here superior in quality : but also on account of the many advantages presenting themselves. "At the first place of utility between the Pennsylvania Line; (yea I may say between Presq' Isle) and Cujahoga ; & in an East and West Course as the dividing Ridge runs between the Rivers which empty into the Lake Erie; and those Rivers or Creeks which empty into the Ohio : (& which Ridge I suppose runs nearly Paralell with this Lake & is nearly or about 50 miles distance from the same) Cujahoga certainly stands foremost; & that for the following reasons : "1. Because it admits small Sloops into its mouth from the Lake, and affords them a good Harbour. "2. Because it is Navigable at all times with Canoes to the Falls, a distance of upwards of 60 Miles by Water—and with Boats at some seasons of the year to that place—and may without any great Expense be made Navigable that distance at all times. "3. Because there is the best prospect of Water communication from Lake Erie into the Ohio, by way of Cujahoga & Muskingum Rivers : The Carrying place being the shortest of all carrying places, which interlock with each other & at most not above 4 miles. "4. Because of the Fishery which may be erected at its mouth, a place to which the White Fish of the Lake resort in the Spring, in order to Spawn. "5. Because there is a great deal of land of the first Quality on this River. - 107 - 108 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS "6. Because not only the River itself, has a clear & lively current, but all the Waters and Springs emptying in the same, prove by their clearness & current, that it must be a healthy Country in general. "7. Because one principle Land Road not only from the Allegheny River & French Creek; but also from Pittsburg will pass thro that Country to Detroit, it being by far the most level Land path to that place. "I will now endeavor to give an account of the Quality of the Soil of this Country : and will begin with the Land on the Cujahoga River itself. "Next to the Lake the Lands in general lay in this part of the Country pretty high, (say from 30 to 60 feet high) except where there is an opening by a River or Stream. These banks are generally pretty level on top & continue so to a great distance into the Country. The Soil is good and the Land well timbered either with Oak & Hickory or with lofty Chestnuts. "On the Cujahoga River are, I verily believe as rich Bottoms, or intervals, as in any part of the Western Country. The Timber in these are either Black Walnut, or White Thorn Trees, intermixed with various other Trees as Cherry, Mulberry, etc. The ground entirely covered with high Nettles. "In such Bottoms, somewhat inferior to the above, the Timber is principally lofty Oaks, Poplar, or Tulip Trees, Elm, Hickory, Sugar Maple yet intermixed with Black Walnut, Cherry, Mulberry, Grape Vines, White Thorn, Haw-bush etc, etc, Ash, etc., Wild Hops of an excellent quality grow also plentifully on this River. "The richest Land on this River lieth from where the road crosseth at the old Town downwards. Within 8 or 10 miles of the Lake the Bottoms are but small, yet Land rich, from here upwards they are larger and richer. At the old Moravian Town marked on my Map, they are exceedingly rich. Some low bottoms are covered with very lofty Sycamore Trees. "The Land adjoining these Bottoms within 10 or 15 Miles of the Lake is generally ridgy, yet level & good on top, excel- THE CURTAIN RISES - 109 lently timbered. Thro' these ridges run numbers of small Streams, & sometimes large brooks; the water is always clear with a brisk current. "I have traced small streams to their Sources, where I have found a variety of excellent Springs lying off in various directions. "From these lands upwards toward the old Town & along the path to the Salt Spring; the country is in general pretty level; just so much broken to give the Water liberty to pass gentley off. "There is a remarkable fine Situation for a Town, at the old Cujahoga Town ; & there can be no doubt of a large Trading Town being established here, as both the Road to Sandusky and Detroit crosses here ; as also the carrying place between the two Rivers Cujahoga & Muskingum must be at this place. "Some miles above this Old Town is a fall in the River. The Rock which runs across may be about 20 and 30 feet high. No Fish can ascend higher up, or get over this Fall, tho there are Fish above it. Just under the Falls the Fish crowd together in vast numbers & may be taken here the whole year round. At the more Easterly Crossing of this River as the Path runs (the distance of which I do not exactly recollect but think it between 15 and 20 miles) there is a most remarkable large Square Rock in the Middle of the Stream, which may at a future day, well answer the Pier of a Bridge. At this place there is a pretty large plain on the Northwest Side of the River and in several other places in this Country there are similar Plains or Flats. On these the Land is rather thin in comparison to the other ; yet not so that it would not bear good Grain. "There are also some Swamps in this Country, yet I have not seen one which might not be cultivated, and make good Meadows. "Here and there I observed small groves of Pine, but never went to see of what kind they were. I supposed them only to border on some small Lake or Pond. "There are some beautiful small lakes in this country, 110 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS with water as clear as Chrystall & alive with Fish. In these lakes as well as in Cujahoga River Water Fowl resort in abundance in Spring & Fall. "Between the head Waters of Beaver Creek & the head Waters of Cujahoga the Country is rather more broken, yet not too much for tillage. The Land is good. "From the big Deer Lick on Beaver Creek to the Salt Springs (a distance of about 16 miles) the Country is rather of a colder Nature; but thinley Timbered & much of a wet Clay ground. A com'y of gentlemen have obtained some years ago a Title to this Tract of Country comprehending the Salt Spring. "I cannot leave Cujahoga without mentioning one Circumstance, viz. That when I left the Moravian Town on that River which was the Eighth day of October 1786 we had not then had one Frost yet, whereas all the Weeds & Bushes had been killed by the Frost some Weeks before, on the dividing Ridge. Ind'n Corn this year planted at the above mentioned place on the 20th day of June ripened before the Frost set in. "The Cujahoga Country abounds in Game, such as Elk, Deer, Turkey, Raccoons, etc. In the year of 1785, a Trader purchased 23 Horseload of Peltry from a few Indians then Hunting on this River. Of the country to the Southward of Cujahoga & between the dividing Ridge & Tuscarawas where the line strikes across I cannot give a precise description having only seen this country in part, yet what I have seen has been pretty generally good, except it be some barren Plains and large Cranberry grounds. Otherwise off the River and on the path from thence to Mahoning Old Towns, I saw vast bodies of very rich Upland, well Timbered, sometimes level Land, & then broken, especially the latter on the head of the Waters of Beaver Creek towards Mahoning. "From Tuscarawas Northerly for 12 or 15 miles I thought the Land very good, & observed extensive Meadows on the Banks of the Muskingum. But I think near the dividing Ridge the Country is rather Colder. The Country is in some places off the River interspersed with round Nobs or Hills, THE CURTAIN RISES - 111 with short yet thick Trees upon them. The water of this country is also clear and good. "I will insert the description the late Geographer of the United States gives to this part of the Country, copied from a Pamphlet he had printed in London in the year 1778, which runs thus : " 'The Muskingum is Navigable with large Batteaux or Barges to Three Legs and by small ones to a Lake at its head. From thence (namely from Three Legs) to Cuyahoga ( The Creek leads to Lake Erie) the Muskingum is muddy, and not very swift, but no where obstructed with Falls or Rifts. Here are fine Uplands, extensive Meadows, Oak and Mulberry Trees fit for Ship building, and Walnut, Chestnut and Poplar Trees suitable for domestic purposes—Cuyahoga furnishes the best portage between Ohio and Lake Erie; at its mouth it is wide enough to receive large Sloops from the Lake. It will hereafter be a place of great importance.' " JOHN HECKEWELDER Bethlehem, January 12th, 1796. John McNair, Esqr. CHAPTER IX EXIT MOSES On the sixteenth of September, in that famous year of 1796, was begun the survey of the infant city, and on the twenty-second that of the township around it. These surveys were done by Seth Pease and Amos Spafford under Augustus Porter. Further instructions and powers had been extended to General Cleaveland by the directors of the company, who were anxious to get as much done as possible before fall. Samuel Orth, writing in 1910, finds fault with the design of the surveyors. It evinces no originality, he feels, and might have been drawn for any other town on a plain. It makes "no effort to conform to the contour lines of the river valley and seems oblivious of its magnificent site above the placid lake. Indeed it is like the plans of the other towns made by the same surveyors. They follow a common model, an open square or diamond in the center of a rectangular or square area, traversed by streets laid out in orderly precision, meeting at somber right angles." It is a little difficult to understand what there is "somber" about the convenient right angle. Orderly precision has its points in the matter of getting around, especially in a motor age, and a public, central park has psychological as well as esthetic merits. It might have been lovely to have a residence section beautifully landscaped on shores of lake and river, but the mosquitoes were pretty bad in those days, and it is hardly likely, with the demands of transportation and warehousing at the river mouth, that any such arrangement would have been able to last. Certainly there was nothing stingy about Spafford's plan, - 112 - THE CURTAIN RISES - 113 and many are the thousands of Clevelanders and visitors since his day who have blessed the man who had sense and vision enough to give Superior Street its great width of 132 feet, and planned Ontario, Huron, Lake, Erie, Bank and Water streets of widths to make travel on them comfortable even today. The work of the surveys was pretty hard, and less was accomplished than the directors had hoped. Some of the men indulged in a "mutiny," or what we should now call a strike. This was settled by giving them a special tract of land near Euclid Creek in what is now the village of Euclid. Some cabins were built there before they went back in the fall, but were not occupied that first winter. Several members of the party selected lots from the Cleaveland town plat before the summer was over. On the eighteenth of October the last ones to leave started homeward. According to Holley's journal : "Monday, Oct. 17th, 1796.—Finished surveying in New Connecticut; weather rainy. "Tuesday, October 18th.—We left Cuyahoga at 3 o'clock 17 minutes, for HOME. We left at Cuyahoga Job Stiles and wife, and Joseph Landon, with provisions for the winter. Wm. B. Hall, Titus V. Munson and Olney Rice engaged to take all the pack horses to Geneva. Day pleasant, and fair wind about south-east; rowed about seven and a half miles and encamped for the night on the beach. "There were fourteen men on board the boat, and never, I presume, were fourteen men more anxious to pursue an object than we were to get forward. Names of men in the boat: Augustus Porter, James Hacket, Seth Pease, Stephen Benton, Richard Stoddard, George Proudfoot, Joseph Tinker, James Hamilton, Charles Parker, Nathan Chapman, Wareham Shepherd, Ralph Bacon, Amzi Atwater, Milton Holley. 114 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS "The township of Cleaveland lies on the lake shore, eight miles, four chains, seventy links. About one hundred and thirty chains east of the corner a stream, considerably larger than Walnut Creek, empties into the lake. This is in the town purchased by the surveyors, and named (By Moses Warren, Esq.) Euclid ; in memory of the man who first made the principles of geometry known." * * * "About thirty-six miles is a burning spring in the lake, two or three rods from shore, which is very perceptible as you stand upon the beach, from its boiling motion. Mr. Porter told me that he, with General Cleaveland and Mr. Stow, had made a trial to know if it really was inflammable, which they found to be the case, although it was a very unfavorable time when they did it. The waves ran high, and the wind blew hard. They held a torch well lighted very close to the water, when there appeared a flame like that of spirits burning, but as it was so much mixed with other air, and the water so deep over it (four feet) the flame would go out immediately." * * * On Saturday, October 29th, the party "breakfasted, and then set out on foot for Canandaigua, where we arrived at Sunset." Seth Pease, who lived at Suffield, on the Connecticut River, above Hartford, got home on November 16th. Moses Cleaveland and the rest arrived at about the same time. To the day of his death, Cleaveland took a vivid interest in his namesake village on the Cuyahoga, but never again did he see it. He went back to his practice of law, and died at Canterbury in 1806, respected by neighbors, friends and clients. Whittlesey, writing in 1867 about the founder and the growing town, said : "Whatever may have been his anticipations, the reality has outstripped them all. Such a combination of natural beauty, with natural advantages of business, is rarely witnessed; to which have been added, what the surveyors could not have foreseen, artificial aids to commerce then unknown." Sixty-five years later, with the great Terminal Tower THE CURTAIN RISES - 115 visible for forty miles in clear weather, with carriers of the air flying in and out of the airport, with a landing place for hydroplanes in the making, and plans afoot for making this an ocean port, any Clevelander must be impressed all over again with the wisdom of Cleaveland's choice of a site for his city. So ends the first chapter of the plan of the city of Cleveland. There is this much to be said for the founder. If Cleveland may be said to have had a founder in Moses Cleaveland, she had one of which no city need be ashamed. Shrewd, square, foresighted, energetic, practical, faithful to those under him as well as to those over him, Moses Cleaveland represented all that was best in the Yankee character. He was an honor to both Connecticuts, old and new. Of the city, this may be said. It was started not haphazard as so many towns were, but on a definite and generous plan. It was a real estate speculation, yes, but not a wild boom in paper values. It was planned to be an honest town, giving present as well as future values, not bubbles, but real values in good land which any settler could dig into with pleasure and profit, could have and hold for himself and his children's children. SECTION III THE PIONEERS Chapter I. The Winter of 1796 Chapter II. The Second Summer Chapter III. Cutting and Building Chapter IV. Business Beginnings Chapter V. The Dawn of Culture SECTION III THE PIONEERS CHAPTER I THE WINTER OF 1796 The settlement of Cleaveland began with the winter of 1796. Job and Tabitha Cumi Stiles lived through that winter in the cabin built for them before the surveying parties left for home. Joseph Landon started the season with them, but for some reason unknown he left after a time. Probably, discouraged, he was glad to join some trading party eastward bound. Edward Paine, however, came in to take his place in the cabin. This was the Edward Paine who a little later started the settlement called by his name—Painesville. It could not have been a very comfortable winter, though provisions in plenty had been left by the departing comrades, and game was abundant. The house was built near a spring, but it is not any particular joy to have to fetch water from outside for every human need and household process, and to bring it in, ice-cold or frozen, no matter what the weather. Neither is it very good fun for the housewife to have to figure and scrimp and use water stingily because of the cold and difficulty of getting it. Paine's stay was merely for the worst part of the winter. He had no idea of permanent settlement here. He was trading with the Indians, some of whom encamped near by. There were Senecas at the foot of the bluff, between Vineyard and Superior lanes. Paine is said to have spent some of his time in the tent of Old Seneca. Old Seneca, by the way, was one Indian about whom - 119 - 120 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS everyone who knew him agreed that he was of the highest type of red man. Paine wrote about him thus : "That they are capable of disinterested benevolence, and confer favors when none are expected, cannot be doubted by anyone acquainted with Seneca, or as his tribe called him, `Stigwanish.' This in English means 'Standing Stone.' In him there was the dignity of the Roman, the honesty of Aristides, and the benevolence of Penn. He was never known to ask a donation, but would accept one as he ought, but not suffer it to rest here. An appropriate return was soon to be made. He was so much of a teetotaler as to abjure ardent spirits, since, in a drunken spree, he had aimed a blow at his wife with a tomahawk, and split the head of his child which was on her back." On the west side of the river Ottawas, Delawares and Chippewas stayed a month or two at a time, doing business with the traders in the fall, dispersing to hunt through the snowy part of the winter and coming back in the spring to trade their furs and game. In the summer they went to "Sandusky plains and Miami prairies." Those at Conneaut had a harder time. Whittlesey gleans these paragraphs from the manuscript of Judge Barr: "The Land Company, in the fall of 1796, cleared about six acres of land at Conneaut, east of the Creek, and sowed it with wheat, which was brought from the settlement on Genesee River, New York. This was the first crop of grain produced by civilized men on the Western Reserve. "The sufferings of the families at Conneaut during the winter, were very great. The people at Cleaveland were in a state of comfort, when compared with those at Conneaut, who were obliged to kill the cattle left by Mr. Chapman in order to sustain life. The Indians supplied the Cleaveland party with game, which was abundant, and they had the company's stock of provision, on which they could draw at any time. The savages were friendly and even kind. They deserved the appellation of friends, instead of savages; except when they were under the influence of intoxication." This winter of 1796 was the one in which the Kingsbury THE PIONEERS - 123 family had their terrible experience. Their story illustrates poignantly the difficulties of pioneering. James Kingsbury, with Eunice Waldo, his wife, both of Alstead, New Hampshire, and their three children, Abigail, three years old, Amos Shepherd, two, and Almon, still younger, were the first settlers on the Reserve who came, of their own ambition, having no connection with the Company. They arrived at Conneaut soon after the surveyors. Some little time after the surveyors left in the fall, Kingsbury found it necessary to make a trip to his old home, to look after affairs needing his attention. He went on horseback, through Erie, Buffalo and Canandaigua, expecting to arrive home in from four to six weeks. He made the trip "with no unusual delay or hardships" in accordance with his hopes. (Clevelanders today think nothing of hopping aboard a train or plane to spend a week-end at a Dartmouth game !) . Somewhere along the line, however, he had picked up an infection, and was no sooner home than he was taken with a serious fever, "which run the usual course." This consumed some weeks, with no news going to the little family at Conneaut. As soon as he could mount a horse, he started back. He got to Buffalo on December third, pretty well tired out, but game to start out again next day. The ground was white, and snow fell steadily for three weeks. "In places it was up to the chin of a man, standing erect. Weak and distressed in mind, he moved forward every day, having only an Indian for guide, companion and purveyor, sometimes making only a few miles. It was the twenty-fourth of December when he reached the cabin." Meanwhile, Mrs.. Kingsbury and the children had managed as best they could. A nephew of her husband's, thirteen, was with her to help. He looked after the team of oxen and the cow. (The thirteen-year-old today is a little tad in Junior High School. Mother drives him to art school or dancing class. Maybe he belongs to the Scouts, and gets a bit of hiking or camping in the summer) . The boy cut wood and carried water. He milked the cow. 124 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS He fed and bedded down the animals. When proper fodder gave out, he used the twigs of trees, a makeshift suggested, perhaps, by Indians. But this was something new to the experience of him and Mrs. Kingsbury, and he did not know that while twigs of elm, beech and linn are good for cattle, browse of oak is not. He took what he found, and the oak trees were numerous. The cow died. It did not die, though, till after Mr. Kingsbury had come back. What happened before he came back was that when food was low and the. wind was cold and piercing, the new baby came. Fortunately, the Guns were there, and Mrs. Gun gave what help she knew how to give. (Mother goes to a hospital, now. She is kept warm and given every comfort and the best medical attention to see her through. Some relative or friend or a good practical nurse is engaged to stay with the children while Mother is away) . Snow came through the cracks where the new logs kept shrinking. There was hardly anything to eat. There was no doctor, no trained nurse, no heavenly anaesthetic to take off the edge of pain. There was no unlimited supply of sheets and bandages, hot water and olive oil. But good Mrs. Gun stood by and cooked—what little there was to cook—and washed and scrubbed and made a little thin broth of the last bit of meat, and mother and baby came through. The cow was not giving much milk, but the little helped eke out the diet of the four children. The eldest was only three years old. The boy kept on cutting wood and carrying water and doing all he could to help. A log cabin can be kept very warm with a wood fire, but feeding the fire is a never-ending task. Mrs. Kingsbury had regained some of her normal vigor by Christmas eve, and had decided she must take the children back to Erie where there was a better chance for food for them. She thought they had better start next day, while they could still do it. The day was dark, but toward evening the sun came out for a little while. She looked out of the door at the brightening sky and saw her husband coming. He