STEAM - 325 the route. With good luck an engine was known to run nearly 100 miles on "one tender of wood." The use of coal started on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh line in 1856. When it was found that a locomotive could run more than 100 miles on less than five tons of coal, this concentrated fuel quickly supplanted wood. Freight cars were 26 feet long, and would almost have gone into a modern citizen's back yard garage. Baggage cars were 28 feet long. Passenger coaches extended to about 40 feet. There were no sleeping cars until after the Civil war. "The first schedules," says Orth, "were meant for local traffic and convenience only. Freight trains were run haphazard. Only the consolidation of the short lines made through trains possible and brought the elaborate time tables of today." The same year which launched the fatuous Ohio Railroad brought forth other and more practical projects which succeeded when the business depression passed away. The first to assume definite form was the Cleveland, Warren and Pittsburgh Railroad, chartered in 1836 to extend from Cleveland to the Pennsylvania line, in the hope of reaching Pittsburgh and ultimately Philadelphia. Local interest was so strong that early in 1839 the city council voted in favor of financial aid to the extent of $200,000. The advantages were obvious. The road would provide rail and steam communication with the populous east by a natural route much of which had been used from the beginning as a foot path and wagon road. Steam has a way of following old trails in this fashion. The work was delayed by lack of funds. Contracts were not let until 1847. In that year a public meeting asked the city council to hold a popular referendum on the question of subscribing $100,000 to the project, and it carried by an overwhelming majority. In November, 1851, the road was completed from Cleveland through Hudson and Ravenna to Hanover, 95 miles distant. City officials and invited guests rode to Wellsville on the first train, holding a three days' celebration. The stockholders resolved, in their joy, "that the 326 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS directors be requested to give a free ticket to each stockholder and his lady, to ride over the road from Cleveland to Hanover and return at any time within 30 days, and that landholders through whose land the road passes shall be entitled to a free ticket for themselves and wives from 20 days from the opening of the road, and that the same privilege be extended over the other portions of the road when completed." Various branches were built. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railway Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania to connect with the Ohio company. After many vicissitudes, this line was leased in 1871 by the Pennsylvania Railroad for 999 years. If the Cleveland incorporators had foreseen such an outcome, they would have felt that they were surely building for eternity. A still more important undertaking was the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. Rail connections to the south and southwest were needed even more than to the southeast, to tap the rich interior of the state and form a new economic link between Lake Erie and the Ohio River. This enterprise offered better prospects than either of the big state waterways, because its termini would be the metropolis of the north and the metropolis of the south, dominating respectively the Ohio Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal. The charter granted the year before the panic was unused until 1845, when it was revised to specify a more modest plan, a line from Cleveland to Columbus with optional extensions beyond. The work was undertaken by a new company. The city, despite the doubts of some business men who feared that railroads would ruin business by rendering wagon traffic obsolete, voted a credit of $200,000. Capital was still scarce. Only $25,000 could be raised by Cleveland subscription. Efforts to enlist the aid of eastern capitalists were not very successful. It was hard to sell the bonds voted by the city. New York and Philadelphia were obviously afraid of a railroad collapse matching that of the land boom. Finally in 1847 two loyal and confident citizens, Richard Hilliard and Henry B. Payne, took hold of the selling job with such zeal STEAM - 327 that in three months they raised $40,000 more, and on those slender resources the work was started. Alfred Kelley was chosen president of the company, and the contract was given to Frederick Harbach, Amasa Stone and Stillman Witt, who agreed to take part of their pay in stock. The honor of the presidency was well merited. In fact, the C., C. and C. might almost be called a one-man railroad, that man being the same Alfred Kelley who bore the brunt of so many enlightened pioneer movements. His single-handed labors for this transportation line, as described by George F. Marshall, a fellow-pioneer, in the Early Settlers Association, make an entertaining document. In order to save the charter during the idle years, he writes, it was thought well to make a show of work on the line already surveyed. Accordingly : "One bright autumn forenoon about a dozen men got themselves together near the ground now occupied by the A. & G. W. Railway depot with the noble purpose of inaugurating the work of building the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad. Among the number were Alfred Kelley the president, T. P. Handy the treasurer, J. H. Sargent the engineer, James A. Briggs the attorney and H. B. Payne, Oliver Perry, John A. Foote and others besides your humble servant. On that memorable spot one could look upon those vast fields of bottom land and nothing could be seen but unbroken wide meadows; the brick residence of Joel Scranton on the north, and the ruins of an old mill in the ravine of Walworth Run on the south, were the only show of buildings in all that region round about. "These gentlemen had assembled to inaugurate the work on the railway; yet there was a sadness about them that could be felt, there was something that told them that it would be difficult to make much of a railroad without money and labor. "Alfred took a shovel, and with his foot pressed it well into the soft and willing earth, placing a good chunk on the tranquil wheelbarrow close at hand, repeating the operation until a load was attained and dumping it a rod or so to the 328 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS south. We all shouted a good-sized shout that the road was really inaugurated. Then Mr. Handy did a little of the same work, as well as Sargent and Briggs, while I sat on the nearest log rejoicing to see the work going on so lively and in such able hands. The fact was demonstrated that the earth was willing if man would only keep the shovel, the pick and the wheelbarrow moving lively according to this beginning. "All that fall and winter one man was kept at work on the great enterprise, simply to hold the charter, with a hope that something would turn up to enable the directors to push things with a greater show for ultimate success. During the winter that followed, anyone passing up Pittsburgh Street (Broadway) near the bluff could see day by day the progress this one-man-power was making in his work. Foot by foot the brown earth could be seen gaining on the white snow in the direction of Columbus, and hope remained lively in the breast of everyone that saw the progress, that if the physical powers of that solitary laborer held out long enough, he would some day be able to go to state's prison by rail." The rate of progress was discouraging, for it was 140 miles to Columbus. The workman developed rheumatism and lay off a few days to recuperate, and the next snowfall obliterated all trace of his accomplishment. But his efforts were not in vain. A meeting was called at Empire Hall and the building was jammed. Alfred Kelley made an eloquent appeal, declaring that if the undertaking were not carried to completion, "Cleveland would only be known in the gazetteers as a small town on Lake Erie about six miles from Newburgh where steamers sometimes stopped for wood and water." The doors were locked and the audience was harangued until it pledged itself to support the work with men and money. In November, 1849, the gangs working with pick and shovel were reinforced by a string of wooden flat cars pulled by the first locomotive ever seen in Cleveland, and a local product. Its first load was small boys. Popular interest was immensely stimulated by this sign of progress. The Cleveland Herald observed that "The whistle of the loco- STEAM - 331 motive will be as familiar to the ears of the Clevelander as the sound of church bells." Soon the first coaches arrived from Massachusetts, grand equipages "elegantly finished inside with crimson plush." The last rails were laid in February, 1851, and the first through locomotive was welcomed with an artillery salute. On the 21st a trainload of state officers, legislators and municipal dignitaries arrived from Columbus and Cincinnati and they were greeted with cannon and brass bands. On the following day the railroad's birthday was celebrated along with George Washington's, with much oratory and a great banquet in the Weddell House, followed by a torchlight procession. The next day, Sunday, "the churches were crowded with listeners from abroad." Dr. Aiken at the Old Stone Church preached an eloquent sermon on railroads which the officers of the road liked so well that they subsequently published and distributed it far and wide. The next issue of the Cleveland Herald commented as follows : "As we saw the Buckeyes from the banks of the Ohio and the rich valleys of the Miami and the Scioto mingling their congratulations with those of the Yankee Reserve, upon the completion of an improvement which served to bring them into business and social connection, and to break down the barriers which distance, prejudice and ignorance of each other had built up, we felt that the completion of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad would be instrumental in accomplishing a good work for Ohio, the value of which no figures could compute." When the ceremonies came to an end, everybody rode down to Columbus and celebrated all over again, with the effective aid of a boat transported on a flat car and borne in the parade, representing "Lake Commerce." Cleveland began to feel itself of metropolitan stature. But ideas of speed were revised slowly. The first ordinance regulating the speed of locomotives within the city limits limited it to five miles an hour. Patronage was prompt and gratifying. In the first three months of operation the road earned $25,939 from freight 332 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS service and $56,625 from passenger service, carrying 31,679 passengers. Extensions were soon built. Other lines were consolidated with it. Connections were made with Cincinnati, as originally contemplated. In 1868 a new organization took the name of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad Company. In 1882 further extensions made a through line from Cleveland to Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and St. Louis. In 1889 a new merger created the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, and the pioneer line that sprouted at the mouth of the crooked little Cuyahoga had become the "Big Four." In 1851 another railroad, the Cleveland and Mahoning Valley was chartered, to tap the rich coal fields of the Youngstown region and was to provide an additional connection with Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania iron. Cleveland people subscribed $300,000 for it. Capitalists of New Castle and Philadelphia joined with those of Cleveland and Youngstown. A route through Mantua and Warren was chosen. The financing proved to be difficult and disheartening. A trip made by President David Perkins to raise funds in Europe failed; foreign investors were losing faith in American railroads, believing that the promoters were overdoing the matter —as indeed they were. Pittsburgh railroad interests held aloof, wanting no further competition for existing lines. Efforts to obtain permission from the Pennsylvania legislature for entry to Pittsburgh were futile. Finally Mr. Perkins made a strong appeal for the directors to pledge their own fortunes, and set the example by offering $100,000 for his share, whereupon the project got under way. The line was finished to Youngstown in 1857, and the results immediately justified the expectations of its builders. The importance of this little railroad could hardly be exaggerated. It brought to Cleveland coal and iron by a direct and economical route. It fostered the general exchange of industrial raw materials and products between thriving communities. It was destined to play a great part, a little later, in enabling Ohio coal and Lake Superior ore to meet in Cleveland. It has played a great STEAM - 333 part in the development of what in recent years has come to be called the "American Ruhr." President Perkins, however, derived small benefit from the success for which he was primarily responsible. Worn out with his labors, he died in Cuba in 1859, soon after remarking to a friend, "You may inscribe on my tombstone, `Died of the Mahoning Valley Railroad.' " The line, after various affiliations, was joined to the New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, or the "Nypano" as it was popularly known, and with that road finally became a part of the big Erie system. It is not the intention of this history to present a complete story, in all of its confusing detail, of the web of railroads now radiating from Cleveland, with their various beginnings, developments and ultimate combinations. Such a story presumably would interest few but railroad specialists. It suffices for the plan of the work to indicate the city's early struggles for rail transportation in the working out of its economic destiny, and the principal lines and systems that finally came to serve the purposes of an industrial metropolis. Cleveland, centered in its maze of land and water routes, might be compared to a spider in its web. Lines radiate now to every point of the economic compass. Along these lines Cleveland passengers and products move outward on their varied errands, and along them other commerce moves in from the world beyond. Edges overlap. Strands connect with the strands of other webs. The whole makes the vast fabric of American transportation in which, for practical purposes, Cleveland may be said to lie very near the strategic center of the whole. Her immediate web reaches out several hundred miles, through the richest, busiest and most progressive area in the world. One more example will be given in this place as representative of the early railroad era and a classic example of a modest start and a great consolidation. The Lake Shore system is often said to have begun with 33 miles of railroad between Toledo and Adrian, Mich., a strap rail line built wholly on credit, run first by horse power 334 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS and then by two dinky engines and ending inevitably in bankruptcy. This was the Erie and Kalamazoo Railway, chartered in 1833 and constructed soon thereafter, becoming later a part of the Michigan Southern and eventually joining with the Northern Indiana Railroad and the other various links of the Lake Shore trunk line. From a Clevelander's viewpoint, the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula, chartered by the state in 1848, may be regarded as the beginning. Railroad pioneers at first paid little attention to the possibilities of a through line running east and west along the southern shores of the Great Lakes. Water routes seemed adequate. Steamships came earlier, and carried freight cheaper, than steam locomotives. Why should steam on wheels try competition with steam-driven paddle wheels and propellers? Rail routes were for use where water routes ended. For Cleveland and its neighboring cities, the first and obvious outlet to the rich and populous East was through Pittsburgh. There was, as yet, no rich and populous West. Buffalo was a thriving young city, Erie and Toledo were coming along nicely, and a little trading post called Chicago, on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, was beginning to make itself heard. All these were served by water, requiring no expensive track. Yet the age was, as the succeeding century would term it, "rail-minded." The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company was mainly a Cleveland enterprise. Its charter authorized it to build a line from Cleveland eastward through the cities named, to the Pennsylvania state line, to connect them with any available line running eastward. Cleveland was feeling her way by rail to New York and New England. In 1850 the company contracted with Amasa Stone, Stillman Witt and Frederick Harbach, the engineer, to build the road. Two years later the first train rolled over its tracks from the Cuyahoga to the Pennsylvania border. Another two years and permission was obtained from the Pennsylvania legislature to extend over the moribund Franklin line to Erie. Thus the first big link was completed. Meanwhile that little strap railroad in southern Michigan STEAM - 335 had been sprouting eastward. The Northern Indiana Railroad had acquired a branch in Ohio, running to Toledo. It began to branch simultaneously toward Chicago and Cleveland. The latter city was reached in 1853 through a consolidation of the Junction, the Port Clinton and the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroads. The grand final consolidation, giving continuous transportation between Chicago and Buffalo by absorption of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, did not come until after the Civil war, when there was a second period of remarkable rail development. As a local climax of this first growth came Cleveland's first Union Station on the lake front, in 1853. It was rather pretentious, as may be readily seen from the old pictures. Its "passenger house" was 353 feet long and 125 feet wide. There was an "eating house" 40 by 220 feet and a "freight house" 80 by 145 feet. They were all built of wood, with tin roofs, at a cost of $75,000. Steam implies coal. It is possible to produce steam power without coal, but not very practicable. The first steam engines, whether stationary, marine or locomotive, ceased burning wood as soon as they could get an assured and satisfactory supply of the black fuel. This vital requisite of modern industry will be considered more fully further on. SECTION VI CIVIC GROWTH Chapter I. General Progress Chapter II. Business Chapter III. Colleges Chapter IV. Churches Chapter V. Miscellaneous Chapter VI. Banks Chapter VII. Population Chapter VIII. Water Chapter IX. Cemeteries Chapter X. Hotels, Theaters, etc. Chapter XI. Street Railways Chapter XII. Cleveland Business in 1865 SECTION VI CIVIC GROWTH CHAPTER I GENERAL PROGRESS Post Panic.—The "panic of 1837," resulting from bad banking, land speculation, over building of canals and premature commitment of public and private credit to railroads, had hit young Cleveland very hard. The newly incorporated twin cities on the Cuyahoga had been a vortex of inflation. As J. H. Kennedy writes, "No one seemed to see that with few manufactures and a poorly developed agricultural section to draw upon, a great city could not be supported, even though faith and solid capital should unite in its creation ; while a city built upon speculative enthusiasm and promises to pay could have small hope of permanent prosperity." The havoc wrought in the overgrown village of about 7,000 people was incomparably greater than the "major depression" nearly a century later, from which the mature city is now emerging. "Bank after bank went down in the storm. Mercantile houses, companies, individuals, failed by the hundreds and thousands. The wild railroads, canal and other schemes of improvement went to the wall. Ruin was upon every hand. The ties were left to rot upon the half-finished railroads; the half-dug canal filled up, and lay a stagnant pool; the ships stood unfinished upon the stocks; paper cities vanished into thin air ; fortunes melted in a moment ; municipalities were ruined, and state credits impaired ; money that was good for 100 cents upon the dollar yesterday became worthless rags today. In Cleveland the great majority of the business houses failed. Land values sank to a low figure; a - 339 - 340 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS blow had been sent home to the little city that was felt for years." Population figures tell the tale. Cleveland proper, which had doubled from 1825 to 1830 and quintupled from 1830 to 1835, began to lose. Jobless people then, as now, dribbled back to the country in bad times. Even so, the youthful city recovered as youth always does from exhaustion, so that by 1840 the loss was almost made up. From then on there was a steady gain that was not interrupted even by the 1857 depression and the Civil war, and in 1866 there straddled the busy river an established metropolis of 67,500 souls. Supplementing the story of "Steam" as already told, it is now in order to sketch the general progress of the city through this period. The national economic collapse had come at the end of Cleveland's first year as an incorporated city. The first administration, elected for one year, had started with an ambitious program of improvements, already described, befitting the community's new dignity. The second administration, elected in March, 1837, which began by authorizing its famous prosperity Directory, went ahead boldly with such undertakings as required no great cash outlay. Its chief work, after the storm broke, was a forward-looking program for new schools and markets. By the time business returned to normal and bumper crops of school children began to appear again, there were adequate facilities for both. Schools.—The first "free school" had been organized a few years before, when it was found that a Sunday school in the old Bethel Church could make little progress because the children were so ignorant that they were unable to read the Bible lessons. It was supported by voluntary subscriptions. The regular schools had always charged tuition. The first council of the new city undertook to organize a system of public schools at public expense, as was provided in its state charter. Thus the schoolhouse established as a feeder for a Sunday school became the foundation of Cleveland's great system of free education. It was necessary to build from the ground up. The city did not own a schoolhouse or CIVIC GROWTH - 341 any land on which to build one. The free school in 1837 had about 300 pupils enrolled. There were 800 or more attending the Academy and other private schools. In that year, while the business world was going to pieces, the first legislation was enacted "for the establishment of common schools." Buildings were leased until new ones, better suited to the purpose, could be provided. Districts were established, with "two schools for the sexes respectively" in each district. The following winter there were eight schools operated, in charge of three male and five female teachers, at a cost of $868.62. Two of these were "child's schools," open to boys and girls both, and might have been called kindergartens if that term had yet reached America. The women teachers were paid $5 a week and the men $40 a month. One of the schools was in an old paint shop, another in a grocery store. There were uniform textbooks furnished at wholesale prices. There was no "color line." The private Academy building was bought in 1839 at a cost of $6,000 and added to the system. Contracts were let for new buildings, each 40 by 40 feet and two stories high, at. a cost of $3,500 apiece, including seats, fences and other accessories. One of them seems to have been on Rockwell Street near where the magnificent school headquarters building now stands. The ablest men in the city gave their time and talent freely to working out this vital problem of public education. The old Academy had been a combination of elementary school and high school in whose senior department on the second floor any pupil able to pay $4 a term might learn Latin, Greek and the higher mathematics. Mayor George Hoadley in 1846 called for the establishment of a genuine "academic department" whose pupils would be selected from the common schools by merit. Such an institution, he maintained, would be a great stimulus to study and good conduct, thus "the poorest child, if possessed of talents and application, might aspire to the highest stations in the republic." From such schools, he suggested, "we might hope to issue the future Franklins of our land." Accordingly a high school was established for boys immediately. Girls, it 342 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS appeared, were not yet regarded as eligible to become Franklins. But a separate department for them was added the following spring. Andrew Freese was principal. That enlightened institution called for genuine courage on the part of the "founding fathers." Taxpayers were readily persuaded to pay the expense of the common schools, but there was much opposition to public instruction for children wanting more than the elementary branches. It was contended by many citizens that the high school was not only unnecessary but illegal. It was argued by Henry B. Payne and others that it was wrong to support a "select high school" from public funds as long as the common school children were crowded into inadequate buildings and hundreds were not able to get in, and suggested that when a high school should be established, it should be supported half by tuition fees and the other half from general city funds. A violent public controversy arose, participated in by the newspapers. It was in the course of this dispute that one of the defenders of the high school used the significant words : "It is the only way in which the public schools can be made in truth what they are in name—common schools—common to all good enough for the rich, and cheap enough for the poor." The issue was finally carried to the state legislature and settled by an enactment which "authorized and required" the city council to establish and maintain a high school department. Even so, it was hard to get funds for the high school, and during its early years it was forced to get along on $900 a year, with an average attendance of about 80. A temporary wooden building for it was erected in 1851, and a stone building five years later on the southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and East Ninth Street (then Erie). This "Central High School" has been called "the first public high school west of the Alleghanies." Outgrown in 1876, it became headquarters for the Board of Education and the Public Library, and was still used by them when Cleveland held its centenary celebration in 1896. The "New Central High School" moving eastward with the population, was built on East Fifty-fifth Street, and is still used, though so modified by enlargements CIVIC GROWTH - 345 and sullied by city smoke and grime that its original attractiveness is hard to credit. In the course of the civic celebration referred to, a gathering of former students of Central High School included all the living members of the class of 1855. These were Mrs. Moses G. Watterson, Mrs. A. M. Van Duzer, Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Miss Lucy Spelman and Mr. Albert H. Spencer. The schools had been controlled until 1853 by a "board of managers," consisting of one manager for every school district, responsible to the city council. In that year the council abolished the manager plan and substituted a "board of education," whose secretary should exercise the powers formerly belonging to the acting school manager. It provided at the same time for a superintendent of instruction. The secretary of the board was Samuel H. Mather and the first superintendent was Andrew Freese, who was promoted from the principalship of the high school. The Cleveland public school system was now launched, the machinery provided, the fundamental policies established. All that remained was to expand and improve with population, wealth and general enlightenment. So excellent have been the results for almost a century Cleveland has had less need or demand for private schooling than any city of its class in America. Liquor.—About the turn of the business tide, in 1840, came an incident which makes an interesting contribution to contemporary studies of the liquor problem. A rather vigorous temperance movement had begun. Liquor was sold very freely. There was much bootlegging and home-brewing. A councilman named Barr had introduced a resolution providing for a license system to reform the evils. A fellow-councilman named Foote offered as a substitute, "that the committee on licenses be instructed to report an ordinance for the suppression of dram shops." Councilman Rice suggested striking out the words "dram shops" and inserting "the sale of ardent spirits without license in the city," and this conservative amendment was accepted. At the next council meeting the license committee, evi- 346 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS dently seeking to reduce barroom drinking, reported an ordinance for the suppression of the sale of ardent spirits in less quantities than one quart. Moses Kelley, city attorney, moved to strike out "one quart" and substitute "fifteen gallons." This drastic amendment was voted down. Then Councilman Hilliard moved to amend by inserting "one pint," without success. Whereupon Mr. Kelley moved to insert "a pound of bread," and was declared out of order. The report went back to the committee for revision, and a few months later the council passed an ordinance "to regulate taverns, and to prohibit the sale of ardent spirits or other intoxicating liquors by a less quantity than one quart." It was, moreover, made illegal for any licensed tavern keeper to give or sell intoxicating liquor to any child, apprentice or servant without the consent of parent, guardian or employer, or to any intoxicated person. During this same year a fence was built around the Public Square, apparently to keep out cattle, pigs and squatters. There was much trouble later in getting rid of the fence. The salary of the mayor, which in the halcyon months, just before the crash of 1837 had been fixed at $500 a year, was reduced to $100, one-fourth as much as that of the city clerk and road supervisor. Military.—In this period was born Cleveland's most famous military organization. In the summer of 1837 there was, for some reason or other, a military spirit in the air. A number of citizens meeting at the Cleveland House formed a company called the Cleveland City Guards. The captain, Timothy Ingraham, happened to fall sick soon afterward and for several months was unable to attend to his duties. As a result there was no drilling and no progress. While this enterprise languished, a number of active young men decided to organize another company and go ahead. Business was dull and they wanted something to do. They obtained a drillmaster and captain named Ross and proceeded to appropriate the name of "Guards," which was popular at the time. Almost every city had its Guards. The original organization CIVIC GROWTH - 347 was further handicapped because it had decided upon gray uniforms, and there was not enough gray cloth obtainable in the city. Thus the second organization was first to appear in public, resplendent in blue and gold, in the Fourth of July parade the following summer. Captain Ingraham's company finally got under way, reconciled themselves to the loss of their name, and chose instead the title of "Greys," to match their uniforms. Appearing publicly on September 6, 1838, they won general approval for their soldierly appearance and skill in military evolutions. The Guards, for some unexplained reason, disappeared in a few years. The Greys continued as a vigorous organization, developing an artillery squad which later became a company called the Light Artillery commanded by Capt. D. L. Wood. In 1847 the Greys chose as commander Gen. A. S. Sanford, who had previously won distinction in a different field by publishing the first city directory. The Greys, or "Grays" as the 'name came to be spelt, were the first Union troops to go to the front from Cleveland in the Civil war as Company D, First Ohio Volunteer Infantry. They furnished 80 commissioned officers to the Union armies during the war. CHAPTER II BUSINESS After three sluggish years, the city began to emerge from the business depression and resume constructive activities. One of the notable events of 1840 was the establishment of an iron foundry by William A. Otis. He had come to Cleveland in 1836, the same year that brought William T. Bingham, the hardware man, and Franklin T. Backus, the eminent lawyer who eventually furnished the name of Western Reserve's law school. Known also as an important banker and general business man, Mr. Otis became the progenitor of a family of ironmasters and laid the foundations of the city's greatest industry. During the period of wholesome growth and prosperity upon which the city had now entered, Cleveland flourished particularly as a merchandising center and developed a generation of general business men who set their stamp upon all its future progress. A succinct view of the big men in that little community during the '40s of the last century was given by James H. Kennedy when he wrote his Centennial history : "There was John Blair (who had come from Maryland with three dollars back in 1819 and built one of the first warehouses on the river) . Philo Scovill, who afterward made a fortune in other lines, came to Cleveland as a merchant, bringing with him a stock of drugs and groceries. This line of trade did not suit him, and he soon worked out of it. Melancthon Barnett, father of Gen. James Barnett, came to Cleveland in 1825 as a clerk for Mr. May, (presumably P. May, rather than George May, who went into fire insurance) , and soon found himself a partner in the firm of May - 348 - CIVIC GROWTH - 349 and Barnett. In 1843 they wound up their affairs as merchants and took a hand in the wonderful land speculations of those days." This is one of the countless proofs of Cleveland business men's perennial faith in real estate, rising triumphant after every slump. "The leather and drygoods store of Joel Scranton, on the corner of Superior and Water streets, was for a long time one of the old landmarks. Orlando Cutter was for years one of the hard-working merchants of Cleveland. Peter M. Weddell, who had already shown great aptitude for business, came to Cleveland in 1820 and established himself here, taking a stand at once among the leading business men of the place. In 1825 he formed a partnership with Edmund Clade, from Buffalo, and retired from active participation in trade. Three years later this connection was dissolved, and in 1831 he formed a new one with G. C. Woods and Dudley Baldwin, under the firm name of P. M. Weddell & Company. Four years later Mr. Woods left the city, and Messrs. Weddell and Baldwin continued together until 1845. Mr. Baldwin had been a clerk for Mr. Weddell before the partnership was formed, and after its dissolution he gave some time to the closing up of the firm's affairs, and then went into other lines of activity. "Norman C. Baldwin's first mercantile venture in Cleveland was as a member of the firm of Merwin & Baldwin, his partner being Noble H. Merwin, and their line produce. It was succeeded in 1830 by Giddings, Baldwin & Co., which became one of the most important forwarding and commission houses on the lake. Richard Winslow was a strong addition to the mercantile strength of Cleveland, when he decided on making this point his home in 1830. He not only brought energy, but capital as well, and immediately opened a large grocery store on Superior Street, opposite Union Lane. He soon invested in the lake vessel business, and the boats he set afloat were seen on all the Great Lakes. S. H. Sheldon, in after years better known as a lumberman, opened his busi-