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The larger stream which soon received the name of Mill creek ran in rapid cascades, between rocky and precipitous banks, through the extreme southeastern part of the present city, long known as Newburg, and then, curving southward, emptied into the river in the present township of Independence. Another brook, ere long known as Doan's creek, from one of the earliest of the pioneers, having begun its course in Warrensville, ran southwestward through the extreme eastern part of the present city to the lake, but was not distinguished by the very high banks which marked the other streams.
The soil of the whole tract was a sandy loam, sometimes almost pure sand, with occasional sections of clay or gravel. Out of this arose .a heavy growth of chestnuts, oaks, elms, maples and beeches, their mighty trunks standing far apart, but their widespreading boughs shading all the earth with a dense mass of foliage.
The Cuyahoga river emptied into the lake a short distance west of its present mouth, and still farther west was to be seen the location of a still earlier bed, which was then a stagnant pond. Across the mouth of the river ran a bar of sand which in spring and fall was torn open by the current- of the rushing river, but which in summer came so near the surface that even the light schooners, two or three in number, which then navigated Lake Erie, could not cross it. Once inside, there was a commodious harbor, with room and depth for vessels of the first class.
Such was the locality selected by General Moses Cleaveland, acting in behalf of the Connecticut Land Company, for the principal city of the Western Reserve. The survey township in which it was situated had been selected as one of six, which were to be sold for the benefit of the company at large, and not to be divided among the stockholders, as was almost all the rest of the Reserve. It had accordingly been divided as before stated, the part nearest the city into the ten and twenty acre lots, and the remainder into hundred acre lots. It was proposed to sell at first only a fourth of the townships, and Augustus Porter, the principal surveyor of the company, submitted a proposition as to the manner of making such sale.
In the first place city lots number fifty-eight to sixty-three inclusive, and eighty-one to eighty-seven inclusive, comprising all the lots bordering on the public square, and one more, were to be reserved for public purposes, as were also "the point of land west of the town" (which we take to be the low peninsula southwest of the viaduct), and some other portions of the fiats if thought advisable. Then Mr. Porter proposed to begin with lot number one, and offer for sale every fourth number in succession throughout the towns, on these terms.
Each person who would engage to become an actual settler in 1797, might purchase one town lot, one ten or twenty-acre lot, and one hundred-acre lot, or as much less as he might choose; settlement, however, to be imperative in every ease. The price of town lots was to be fifty dollars; that of the ten-acre lots three dollars per acre; that of the twenty-acre lots two dollars per acre, and that of the hundred-acre lots a dollar and a half per acre. The town lots were to be paid for in ready cash; for the larger tracts twenty per cent. was to be paid down, and the rest in three annual instalments, with annual interest.
It will be seen that even at that time the projectors of Cleveland had a pretty good opinion of its future; valuing the almost unbroken forest which constituted the city at twenty-five dollars per acre in cash, while equally good land outside its limits was to be sold for from three dollars down to a dollar and a half per acre, with three years' credit.
This program, which was dated on the 28th of September, 1796, seems to have been immediately confirmed, at least temporarily, by Gen. Cleaveland; for on the map before mentioned, dated September 30th, the names of six purchasers are written on the lots they had chosen, only every fourth lot being selected, and those around the square being left untaken, Stiles took or proposed to take 53, Bann 65, Shepard 69, Chapman 72, and Landon 77; all being on Superior street, and all except the last on the north side, extending all the way from Water street to Erie street. Messrs. Shepard and Chapman must certainly have had a good deal of faith in Cleveland, if they gave twenty-five dollars an acre for land in the dense forest, over half a mile from the two log houses which then constituted the city.
By the eighteenth of October all the surveyors and their assistants left Cleveland for their homes in the East. They left Mr. and Mrs. Stiles and Mr. Joseph Landon in possession of the city. The two former, as has been said, had previously been merely employees of the land company, but had now determined to become actual settlers. A cabin was built for them by the surveyors before they left, situated on the top of the hill, at the west end of Superior street.
Mr. Landon had also been in the service of the company. He, however, remained but a few weeks, and went east before winter set in. Mr. Edward Paine, afterwards known as Gen. Paine, the founder of Painesville, Lake county, then took board with Mr. Stiles, and began trading in a small way with the Indians (Chippewas, Ottawas, etc.), who camped at various points on the west side of the Cuyahoga during the winter, and hunted and trapped on both sides. So far as known, Mr. Paine was the first trader in Cleveland, though it is quite probable that some Frenchman may have erected a rude cabin there long before, where beads, powder and whisky were exchanged with the Indian for bear-skins and beaver- fur.
These three remained throughout the winter, alone save whcn some copper-colored warrior brought his store of furs to Mr. Paine, or when his tawny squaws, with their bright-eyed pappooses on their backs, came to gaze with longing eyes on the sparkling beads and brrylliant calicoes of the young trader.
226 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND,
Meanwhile, after the surveyors returned home, Mr. Seth Pease made another map of the city, substantially the same as the one before described. The terms of sale proposed by Mr. Porter were in substance confirmed by the company. The directors and stockholders also donated to Mrs. Stiles one city lot, one ten-acre lot and one one hundred-acre lot in the city and township of Cleveland, doubtless because she was the first woman who became a resident there. At the same time they gave a one-hundred-acre lot in the same township to Mrs. Anna, wife of Elijah Gun. Mr. and Mrs. Gun had charge of the company's stores at Conneaut during the preceding summer, but intended to move to Cleveland. Another gift of a hundred-acre lot was made to James Kingsbury and wife, the first emigrants to the Western Reserve entirely unconnected with the company, who had first located at Conneaut, but also proposed to make Cleveland their home. Finally the directors and stockholders gave a city lot to Nathaniel Doan, who had acted as blacksmith for the company, shoeing the pack-horses of the surveyors the preceding summer, on condition that he should reside and keep up a blacksmith shop upon it.
In the spring of 1797, Mr. Pallid left Cleveland, and soon after made a permanent location at Painesville. In the month of May, Mr. and Mrs. Gun came from Conneaut, being the second family resident in Cleveland. It was not until the first day of June, that the advance guard of the surveying party for 1797 reached Cleveland. They were in charge of Mr. Pease, who had been employed as the principal surveyor for that year. On the third of June the remainder of the party arrived, with Rev. Seth Hart, the superintendent. One of the men, David Eldridge, was drowned in crossing Grand river, and the body brought to Cleveland. On the morning of the fourth the north parts of lots ninety-seven and ninety-eight was selected as a burial ground, a rude coffin was made and the first funeral in Cleveland was attended by the comrades of the deceased, while Mr. Hart read the appropriate service according to they rites of the Episcopal church. The location of this original cemetery was on the east side of Ontario street, its north line being just north of Prospect street.
The lately lonesome wilderness now presented a busy scene. Knowing by experience the tediousness of living on meat and bread throughout the season, nearly all the men set to work and cleared a piece of land for a garden, on the top of the bank, near the west end of Superior street, fenced it, and planted it with various kinds of vegetables. Then there was a rapid outfitting of parties, under the several surveyors, who went forth to run the lines of townships in various parts of the Reserve. Superintendent Hart, with Dr. Shepard and a few others, kept headquarters at Cleveland.
Soon after the arrival of the surveyors (or according to one account, a little before that event), Mr. Lorenzo Carter, well known to all the .early settlers as Major Carter, made his home in Cleveland with his family. He came from Rutland, Vermont, but had stayed during the previous winter in Canada. One of his sons was Alonzo Carter, then seven years old, who died but a few years since. Mr. Carter was an expert hunter and an energetic pioneer, with plenty of assurance, and over the Indians he soon gained an influence unequaled by any other white man in the vicinity. He built a log cabin on the flat, a few rods from the river, and near Union, now Spring street.
About the same time came Mr. Carter's brother-in- law, Ezekiel Hawley, who also located in Cleveland with his family. His daughter Fanny, then five years old, now Mrs. Theodore Miles, of the eighteenth ward, is the oldest surviving resident of Cleveland.
The next family was that of James Kingsbury, who had resided at Conneaut during the winter, but who removed to Cleveland in June. They at first occupied the dilapidated log house west of the river, which had formerly been occupied by agents of the Northwestern Fur Company as a store-house. Mr. Kingsbury, however, soon erected a cabin where the Case block now stands, into which he moved his family.
It did not take long to build a house in those days. A number of logs, sixteen or eighteen feet long, were cut in the forest. These were drawn together by a yoke of oxen, large notches were made near the ends, so that they would match together. The neighbors (in this case probably the surveyors) were invited to the raising; the legs were speedily placed on each other; a roof of split " shakes " was placed on the top; a chimney of crossed sticks and mud was speedily built; a hole was cut for a door (the place of which was perhaps supplied by a blanket), and the mansion was considered complete. Some of the more aristocratic citizens might have a window with four lights of glass, and a "puncheon" or split-log floor; but these were luxuries of pioneer life.
The first wedding in Cleveland, 'which was also the first in Cuyahoga county, liar already been mentioned in the general history, but so pleasantly momentons an event will bear brief repetition. The parties were Miss Chloe Inches, Mrs. Carter's hired girl, and Mr. William Clements, who had followed his love from Canada, and who bore her back to His Majesty's dominions after the ceremony, which took place in the month of July.
Meanwhile the surveys were steadily progressing, notwithstanding sickness among the surveyors, which was much greater than the year before. On the 20th of August Surveyor Warren began to survey three highways into the country, and also to mark the lines of the ten acre lots before mentioned. First he began at the east end of Huron street on the east boundary of the city plat, and ran thence "north eighty-two degrees east" (very near due east) to the west side of the hundred acre lots, setting a post every ten chains or forty rods. This showed the north bounds of a road, and the posts also designated the corners of the ten acre lots which were intended to be forty rods
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square. Measuring off a road six rods wide, Mr. Warren ran back along its south side, setting posts opposite the others.
This, it will be understood, was to be a road, not a street, being entirely outside the "city" limits. At the time of survey it was designated as "Central highway." But as it soon became the main means of communication with the settlements in Euclid it received the name of Euclid road; then it was extended to the Public Square, as will be mentioned at the proper time, and became Euclid street, and at length, bordered with palatial residences, it has assumed the more sonorous title of Euclid avenue.
The next day Mr. Warren began at the south end of Erie street, on the south boundary of the city, and ran south, seventy-four degrees east, one hundred and thirty-one chains (a little over a mile and a half) to the west boundary of the hundred-acre lots; running back on a line due east, and marking the lot-corners on both sides as before. This road was then called the South highway. Later it was continued, bearing to the right, to the town of Kinsman, on the eastern border of the Reserve, and was then known as Kinsman street; still later that portion of the original "South highway," this side of Willson avenue, has been extended in a straight line nearly to the city limits, and has received the appellation of Woodland avenue.
Finally Mr. Warren went to the end of Federal (now a part of St. Clair) street, and ran thence north fifty-eight degrees east to the hundred acre lots, making the road six rods wide, and marking the corners as before. This was to be the North highway, but has long been known as St. Clair street. Lines were then run midway between those roads to mark the back end of the lots. Though called ten-acre lots, there was really no uniformity. The frontage of the lots were all the same, twenty rods, but their depth increased as the roads diverged, so that those adjoining the city were less than ten acres, and the farthest ones were more. It was understood that this would make the value of these out-lots about equal.
We have spoken in the general history of the county, of the prevalence of fever and ague and bilious fever among the surveyors throughout the Reserve in 1797. These diseases were equally common among the citizens. Nearly every person in the little settlement was stricken down. Mr. Kingsbury determined to find a more healthy location for his family. Following the South highway to the end, and thence continuing about two miles farther in nearly the same direction, he reached the ridge before mentioned as running along the present border of the city. Finding there good soil and an apparently healthy location, he purchased a large tract of land, erected the inevitable log house-fitted up, however, with more than usual comfort—and by the middle of December was established in his new home. He was the first settler on the ridge.
His first grist-mill was a white oak stump-as was common with the pioneers throughout the Reserve- hollowed out by fire on top so as to hold a goodly allowance of corn, which was then pounded with a heavy oaken mortar, suspended by a spring-pole or sweep above this simple "mill." The stump was preserved by Mr. Kingsbury and his children until about twenty years ago, when, already rotted to a mere shell, it completely succumbed to the power of decay.
In the autumn of 1797 the surveyors completed their work so that the land could be divided among the stockholders of the oompany, and returned home. In January, 1798, the partition was accordingly made. Six survey-townships, of which Cleveland, then inoluding Newburg, was one, were reserved for direct sale by the company.
Meanwhile Cleveland, with the rest of the Reserve east of the Cuyahoga, had in 1797 become nominally a part of Jefferson oounty, but no civil authorities were appointed for this almost unknown corner. The tract west of the river remained a portion of Wayne county, with the Indians still in actual possession.
In the spring of 1798 Nathaniel Doan, the blacksmith, moved to Cleveland with his family and built a blacksmith shop on the south side of Superior street, a little west of the present end of Bank street, doubtless on the lot given him by the company. He at first occupied as a residence the cabin built by Job P. Stiles, who about this time moved out on the ridge near Kingsbury's. Elijah Gun also moved to the ridge south of Kingsbury's, and Rudolphus Edwards, of Chenango county, New York, settled farther north near the present intersection of Woodland avenue and Woodland Hills avenue. In the city proper, Doan's, Carter's and Hawley's were the only families, but Joseph Landon, who had returned from the East, and Stephen Gilbert were there, and cleared some ground which they sowed to wheat. Mr. Carter also planted two acres of corn on Water street, near the lake.
Nearly every man, woman and child in the settlement was sick with the fever and ague. There were not enough well persons to take care of the sick, much less to provide food and the other necessaries of live. In the intervals of the chills Carter and his hounds often secured a deer, which was liberally divided among his less expert neighbors. Nathaniel Doan's family of nine members were all sick at once. The only one who was able to do anything was his nephew Seth, an active boy of thirteen. Although he had the shakes every day himself, the boy not only managed to collect wood and bring water, but frequently made a trip to Kingsbury's to obtain corn.
That industrious pioneer, as well as his neighbors, Gun and Stiles, had found health in their homes on the ridge, and had raised good crops of corn on the newly-cleared land. Kingsbury, energetic and inventive, determined to have something better than a stump mortar to grind his food. He accordingly obtained two large stones from the banks of Kingsbury run, shaped them into the semblance of mill-stones, placed
228 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
one on the ground and the other above it, fastened a handle to the upper one, and by working the latter back and forth produced flour and meal, not indeed of the finest, yet superior to any but the imported article.
There was not only no physician but no quinine, the great specific for ague, and the settlers got along as best they could with decoctions of dogwood bark. As the cold weather approached the chills disappeared, but the settlers had had a fearful lesson, which newcomers were quick to learn from them, and which long retarded the progress of Cleveland.
Near the middle of November four of the men, still weak from the effects of the ague, started in a boat for Walnut Creek, Pennsylvania, to obtain flour. Between Euclid creek and Chagrin river their boat was wrecked, and they returned by land empty- handed. So throughout the winter all the people, both in the city and on the ridge, depended on Kingsbury's hand-mill for their breadstuff, which was coarse enough to have suited the palate of the renowned Graham himself.
In the spring of 1799 Mr. Doan, entirely satisfied with his city experience, abandoned the lot given him by the company, and moved four miles east to a point where the ridge road from Kingsbury's struck the " Central highway," where he established his home and his shop. The locality was long known as "Doan's Corners," and afterwards as East Cleveland, but for twelve years has been a portion of the city.
Mr. Hawley also left the apparently doomed place at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and located in the Kingsbury neighborhood. Carter's and Spafford's were the only families left. They had begun to feel acclimated, and determined to stay at all hazards: They kept a kind of a tavern, and Mr. Carter also traded some with the Indians, as indeed almost every one did who could obtain some salt and whisky as capital, these being considered the two great necessities of life. Money was scarce beyond the imagination of the present day; furs were almost legal tender, and were frequently used to pay debts and "make change," even by the whites.
Superior lane was at this time a high, sharp ridge impassable in ascent or descent. The travel up and down the hill was obliquely along Union street-now Spring street. The first named roadway, however, began to be worked about this time.
In this year two newcomers, Wheeler W. Williams and Major Wyatt built the first grist mill on the Reserve at the falls of Mill creek, at what was long known as Newburg, but is now the eighteenth ward of the city. The irons were furnished by the land company. The task was a very serious one and was not completed till fall, when David Bryant and his son Gilman, who had been quarrying grindstones near Vermillion river, went to the Newburg settlement and made a pair of mill-stones. They were obtained and made about half a mile north of the mill, which was near the main fall. The water was con veyed down the hill to the wheel at an angle of forty- five degrees.
When the mill was all completed and ready for grinding, invitations were sent out to all the people round about for a grand celebration. The number was not large; no one lived west of the Cuyahoga, nor up the valley of that river, above the mill. Within the limits of the present city there were as near as can be ascertained ten families-Carter's, Spafford's, Doan's, Edwards', Kingsbury's, Gun's, Stiles', Hawley's, Hamilton's and Williams'—(all but the two first on the outer borders) and a few single men. There was, however, a small settlement in Euclid, whose members doubtless helped to swell the number, and it is quite probable that there was a delegation from the more populous region east of the Chagrin; for a distance of fifteen or twenty miles was little regarded by the sturdy pioneer, and this was the first gristmill on the Western Reserve.
The Indians were frequently to be seen in all parts of the city and the surrounding country, but they seem to have been very friendly and never to have had any serious difficulty with the whites. There was an old camp, where they often met, near Mr. Kingsbury's residence, and about where he afterwards built his frame-house, now occupied by his son, James Kingsbury.
One day a young squaw carne running into the house, declaring that one of the Indians had badly hurt his squaw; "—most kill her." Mr. K. hurried out and found the camp in great commotion, the injured woman leaning against a tree apparently fainting, and the Indian standing sullen and defiant in front of her. The white man began to scold him for hurting the woman. He defended himself zealously in the Indian tongue, with occasional words of broken English, asserting that she was "heap bad squaw," and gesticulating with great energy to make up for his lack of language.
In the course of his motioning he brought his hand quite close to the squaw's face. She suddenly came out of her faint and seized one of his fingers between her teeth. He yelled with pain but she clung with all her might, and the white peace-maker was obliged to choke her pretty smartly to make her let go.
Game was abundant everywhere. There were two deer-licks (places where slightly salt water oozed from the ground) about a quarter Of a mile from William Kingsbury's house. Here the deer frequently came to enjoy the luxury, and patient watching would almost always reward the hunter with a fat buck or a timid doe. In time, however, the frequently falling of the death-bolt at that particular place warned away the survivors from the dangerous locality.
Bears were less frequent, but were sometimes seen. Wolves, too, occasionally made their appearance. Mr. Kingsbury brought a sow and a number of pigs from Pennsylvania, which he carefully penned up at night, but allowed to run loose among the plentiful acorns and nuts during the day. One day, while he was
THE VILLAGE FROM 1800 TO 1815 - 229
absent, the family heard a noise near the house, and looking out saw the old sow in a state of great excitement, alternately pushing her young toward the house, and turning to grunt at two gaunt gray wolves, which were slowly following her, apparently hesitating about attacking an antagonist of a species they had never before seen. An outcry from the family quickly drove them away, but as there was no one to handle the old " queen's arm " which .Mr. Kingsbury's brother had borne at the battle of Bennington, they escaped unharmed.
Among the illustrations of early frontier life, we will advert to one more occurring in the neighborhood on the ridge. On Christmas day, 1799, Mr. Kingsbury's oldest daughter Abigail, seven years old, with her two younger brothers Amos and Almon, to- gether wryth Fanny Hawley (now Mrs. Miles), nearly eight, and her younger brother, all went to visit the children of Job Stiles, who lived about a quarter of n mile farther south. There was a woods-road, considerably traveled, along the ridge, and no one supposed there was any danger.
Unfortunately they stayed late, and it was beginning to be dusk when they started home. They soon lost their way, and began wandering back and forth in the strange way in which many older persons do when once they lose their latitude in the woods. Many times they must have come near the residences of one or the other family, but somehow never saw the light of either. The smallest children soon became very weary. Fanny carried her brother and Abigail picked up her youngest brother Almon. The venerable Mrs. Miles related to us how she and Abigail—themselves the merest children-staggered to and fro under their burdens in the darkness and the growing cold, while Amos Kingsbury, only five years old, appeared to be perfectly frantic at the terrible prospect. At length the two girls gave up in despair. They laid the two youngest boys down together, spread Abigail's broadcloth cloak over them, beneath which they soon went to sleep-and then waited, not knowing whether they were to be devoured by wolves or frozen by the cold.
Meanwhile their families had discovered that the children were lost, and all the three or four men of the neighborhood were out in search of them. Luckily too, Fanny's uncle, Lorenzo Carter, had been out on a hunt, and stopped at her father's with his rifle and hound. He, of course, joined in the search. In the road the children's tracks were not distinguishable, and even in the woods they had crossed each other so often that the hound could hardly follow them. After ranging to and fro a long time, however, he at length struck a distinct trail, which he and his master quickly followed. Ere long the dog reached the hollow where the children were. Little Amos saw him, and screamed to his sister Abigail: Nab- by, Nabby, here's a wolf !"
The girls, however, saw that it was a dog, and a moment after Carter came in sight, crying out to them not to be scared. He fired his rifle, the universal signal of success in such cases,. and the searchers quickly assembled. The overjoyed fathers and friends caught up the babes in the woods, and soon bore them to their frightened mothers, when they were put to bed with a better chance of a sound sleep than that offered by a Christmas night in the forest, with the wolves as possible performers in the play.
Notwithstanding the season, however, it does not seem to have been very cold, and in fact all the old accounts speak of the remarkable mildness of the winters during the last two or three years of the eighteenth century.
CHAPTER XLV.
THE VILLAGE FROM 1800 TO 1815.
Population In 1800—Civil Organizations—City Lots too High—Good Crops—The First Distillery— An Indian Play-ground—A. White Dog Feast—Samuel Huntington—Spafford's Map—Changes of Streets—The First School—A Lawyer Among Wolves—First Hotel Keepers—Huntington's Advancement—First Framed House—Ds Destruction—OnE Family a Year—Price of Freight—First Militia Company—Purchase of the West Side from the Indians—The First Post Office—Newburg Families—Samuel Dodge--The Two Omics—Young Omic’s Violence—Carter threatens to Hang Him—The Story of ":Ben "—A Curious Ending— John Walworth—The First Collector—A Framed House on the Ridge —A New Religion—Hard Customers in Cleveland—Slaughtering Hogs on Sunday—A Would-be Runaway—Forcing a Man back to eake his Pay—Another Major—A Cleveland Governor and Senator—Fanny Hawley's. Adventure with an Indian—His Freaks at Hawley's House-- The Last Division of Reserve Lands--Cleveland made the County-Seat —Elias Cozad—Samuel and Matthew Williamson— Levi Johnson—The Residents of 1810—The Two Stores—The First Court of Record—Another Warehouse—George Wallace--The First Execution—The War of 1812—Residents at the Beginning of the War— Location of Houses— The Farming Lands—A Few Incidents of the War—Taking Potatoes to Perry—The First Brick Building—A Schooner built in the Woods— The Village incorporated—Close of the War.
IN 1800 the population of the tract laid out as a city still consisted only of the families of Carter, Spafford and Clark, Stephen Gilbert and perhaps Joseph Landon; making a total of about twenty persons. In the whole territory now included in the city, however, there must have been between sixty and seventy persons.
In July Cleveland became a part of the • county of Trumbull, which embraced the whole Western Reserve. James Kingsbury was appointed one of the first justices of the peace " of the quorum," thereby becoming a member of the court of quarter sessions of the new county; and Amos Spafford was appointed one of the first justices not " of the quorom."
At the first court of quarter sessions, held at Warren on the fourth Monday of August, 1800, the civil township of Cleveland was organized, together with seven others, in the new county. It embraced not only the survey township of that name but all of the present Cuyahoga county east of the river, three townships of Geauga county, and nominally the' whole Reserve west of the Cuyahoga, though this tract was still in possession of the Indians. Lorenzo Carter and Stephen Gilbert were at the same time
230 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
appointed the first constables, to preserve the peace in this immense territory.
Mr. Turhand Kirtland, the agent of the land company, who visited Cleveland this year, stated that Carter, Spafford and Clark were very much dissatisfied with the price of city lots, (twenty-five dollars per acre), and determined not to remain. It seems they had not up to this time purchased any land, except perhaps a lot apiece. They had been encouraged by members of the company to expect lots at ten or twelve dollars per acre, and they all declared they would leave the place rather than pay the price demanded. Mr. Kirtland persuaded them to wait until he could consult the directors, and earnestly urged that the price should be lowered. As those persons all remained, and as emigration continued very light for a long time, it is presumed that their wishes were acceded to.
Mr. Kirtland also mentioned the extreme scarcity of money, and said inhabitants were very desirous that the company should receive cattle, provisions, etc., in payment for their land. This course, however, was not followed, so far as the tracts owned by the company at large was concerned, though it may have been by individual owners of the divided lands. Mr. Kirtland also reported the crops as good and the settlers healthy. The latter expression doubtless applied principally to those in the country, for the vicinity of the mouth of the Cuyahoga was long celebrated as the favorite residence of King Ague.• Probably, however, the few families who were there in 1800 had had nearly all the shakes shaken out of them, or in other words had become partially acolimated to the surrounding miasma.
In the fall of 1800, David Bryant and his son Gilman, brought a still from Virginia, built a distillery twenty feet by twenty-six, out of hewed logs, on the river fiat, near the foot of Superior lane, brought water from a side-hill spring in a trough into the upper story, and began the manufacture of whisky. This was, at that time, as respectable a business as any in the country, and the opening of a distillery was hailed with joy by the inhabitants of the vicinity, not only because it promised a cheap supply of their favorite beverage, but because their wheat, when turned into whisky, could be sent to market without costing all it would bring for transportation.
The Indians now crossed oftener than ever from their own land on the west side, to the place where whisky was not only sold but made. They had a kind of ferry, opposite the foot of St. Clair street, where they always kept canoes in which to pass over the river. Their well-worn trail from the eastward there crossed the Cuyahoga, ran across the marshy ground, past the old log storehouse, which, as before stated, stood near the corner of Main and Center streets, and thence to a small opening in the woods, near the present crossing of Detroit and Pearl streets. There the Indians were accustomed to assemble, play their games, hold councils, etc.
There, were often heard the sounds of glee from squaws, children and the old men as the young warriors engaged in athletic games, or tossed the ball to and fro with a skill hardly surpassed by the pitchers, catchers and left fielders of the present day. There, too, the woods re-echoed with the sonorous speeches of their orators, as they recounted the great deeds of their fathers, ere the white man had come to grasp their fair domain, and occasional shouts of applause from the excited auditors reached the ears of the few settlers across the river. It is admitted, however, by all the early emigrants that the Indians were uniformly peaceable, and even friendly, in their intercourse with the whites.
As was stated in the general history, they were accustomed to come to the mouth of the Cuyahoga in the fall, haul their canoes ashore, scatter out up the river in small parties, hunt and trap during the winter, return in the spring, and go thence to their cornfields on the Sandusky and Maumee. There were usually a few, however, around the mouth of the river at all seasons of the year. At these fall and spring reunions, especially the latter, feasting and drunkenness were the order of the day.
Gilman Bryant described one of the feasts to which he was hospitably invited. The piece de resistance was a white dog. (We don't generally varnish our writing with scraps of French, but in this case the Gallic expression is too appropriate to be omitted.) All Indians, so far as we know, consider that there is something peculiarly sacred about a white dog. Among the Six Nations one or more are every year strangled and burned entire as a sacrifice. In the present instance, however, Chippewas and Ottawas managed to unite religion and high living.
Having killed the dog, they singed part of the hair off, chopped him up and made a large kettle of soup. They placed a large. wooden bowlful of it on a scaffold as a sacrifice to their "Manitou," or Great Spirit; the rest they appropriated to worldly uses. When making the sacrifice they prayed to Manitou for a safe voyage on the lake, good crops of corn when they arrived at home, and other similar blessings. As they began eating themselves they offered young Bryant a dish of soup with a fore paw it, with some of the hair still between the toes. He declined the proffered morsel, whereupon they disposed of it themselves, saying that a good soldier could easily eat that.
During the winter of 1800 and 1801, young Bryant and his father cleared five acres on the bank of the river just above the town-plat. In the spring of 1801, Timothy Doan, a brother of Nathaniel, came to Cleveland, but removed to Euclid in the autumn.
A somewhat distinguished arrival of this season was Samuel Huntington, a lawyer about thirty-five years old, nephew of the governor of Connecticut of that name, who, after traveling though a large part of Ohio, had determined to make hrys future residence at Cleveland. He built a large, hewed log-house, the
THE VILLAGE FROM 1800 TO 1815 - 231
most aristocratic residence in the place, on the south side of Superior street near the top of the bluff, and to this in the fall he moved his family. He also, during the same season, caused the erection of the first frame building in the city—a barn built by Mr. Samuel Dodge. Elisha Norton, a trader, made his home in Cleveland with his family this year.
In this year Mr. Spafford made another map of the city, about the same as the one formerly made by Pease, with two or three exceptions. Ohio street is shown as occupying the old line of Miami street from Huron street southward, and then turning at a right angle into the present Ohio. This was probably an inadvertence on the part of Mr. Spafford. The short street, at first oiled Federal street, cast of Erie, was shown on this map, but no name was given it, and, in fact, the name of Federal has never been known since. Probably the rapidly rising fortunes of the Democratic party in Ohio made the name of "Federal" given by the magnates of Connecticut too unpopular for continuance. Superior lane was also shown on the new map and Maiden lane omitted; the latter evidently by direction, as it has never been replaced.
In 1802, the first school was kept on the city plat in Carter's house by Anna Spafford. There could hardly have been over a dozen scholars. If the younger ones strayed far on their schoolward or homeward route they were in danger of meeting the fate of Elisha's scorners. Alonzo Carter, eldest son of Lorenzo, notes in his published reminiscences that a man killed a bear that year with a hoe, on Water street, near the light-house.
The same season, as the future Governor Huntington was floundering one evening on horseback along the swampy road from Painesville, a pack of wolves came out of the forest near the present corner of Euclid and Willson avenues, and attempted to seize him. He had no weapon but an umbrella. His frightened horse did its best to escape, but the mud was so deep that the wolves had decidedly the advantage. Huntington beat them back as well as he could with his umbrella, the horse made renewed efforts, a little firmer ground was reached, a rousing gallop left the assailants behind, and steed and rider, covered with mud, quickly dashed in among the cabins of the city.
Carter and Spafford had both been entertaining strangers ever since their arrival, but at the court of quarter sessions, held in August, 1802, they both applied for and received regular licenses as hotel keepers. It did not require much to " keep a hotel " in those days. Almost everybody had plenty of bread and meat, and if a man had an extra bed or two and could procure a barrel of whisky, he was apt to put up a sign and announce himself as a tavern-keeper.
In the ensuing winter Ohio was admitted as a State into the Union, and Mr. Huntington was elected one of the new House of Representatives. On his arrival at Chillicothe, the capital, he was elected the speaker of the House, and scarcely had he taken this position when, in 1803, he was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State. He still retained his residence at Cleveland, making long journeys on horseback. through the forest from his log house on the Cuyahoga to take his seat on tile Supreme Bench.
That year the first frame house was erected in the city, nearly seven years after the first settlement, the builder being the indefatigable Carter. It was situated near the foot of Superior street. Unfortunately, just as the house was finished and the family could move in, the shavings caught fire and the building was totally consumed. Mr. C. built again the same year, but was obliged to confine himself to a hewed log house, and it was seven or eight years more— near fifteen years from the survey and settlement— before Cleveland could boast of a single frame residence.
About one family a year seems to have been the increase of Cleveland for several years at this period. In 1804, Oliver Culver, one of the party who surveyed the Western Reserve, brought out some goods (salt, calico, liquor and tobacco,) to trade with the Indians but after one season's experience returned east and did not repeat the experiment. The freight from Black Rock—now a part of Buffalo, was three dollars per barrel.
Another event of the year was the organization of the first militia company in the vicinity. The district appears to have embraced the whole civil township of Cleveland, containing several hundred square miles, but the officers, Captain Lorenzo Carter, Lieutenant Nathaniel Doan, and Ensign Samuel Jones all resided within the present limits of the city. The same season Captain Carter was chosen major of the "second battalion, first regiment, second brigade and fourth division of the Ohio;" Doan and Jones being respectively promoted to captain and lieutenant.
The event of 1805 was the purchase from the Indians of that part of the Western Reserve west of the Cuyahoga. The facts regarding the treaty and the survey are given in Part One. The result was to open to settlement all that part of the present city lying west of the river. No haste was manifested, however, to take advantage of the opportunity, and for a long time the western bluffs were as densely covered as ever with the frowning forest.
The same year a post office was established at Cleveland, and on the 22d day of October, Elisha Norton was appointed the first postmaster. Judge Huntington, who had bought an interest in the mills on Mill creek, removed thither this year. Owing to - the existence of the mills and the healthiness of the surroundings this was a much more flourishing place than Cleveland. It had apparently not yet received the name of Newburg, as it was spoken of in letters as "the mills near Cleveland." Besides Judge Huntington's, there were the families of W. W. Williams, James Hamilton, Mr. Plumb and one or two others.
It was a good deal like "getting up one step and
232 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
falling back two," for the struggling, sickly little village. Samuel Dodge, who had married a daughter of Timothy Doan, established himself on the Euclid road, built a log house between the sites of the residences of Messrs. Henry and G. C. Dodge, and dug the first well in Cleveland. It was walled up with stone, brought by the Indians into the neighborhood for backs to the fireplaces of their wigwams.
Notwithstanding the sale of the lands on the west side, many Indians continued to reside more or less of the time on their old ground. Among others was an old man named Omic, and his son Omic, somementimes called John Omic by the whites, to distinguish him from his father. John 0mIc was afterwards tragically celebrated in the history of the county, as being the subject of the first execution within its borders. He seems to have been from boyhood a youth of evil-disposition and reckless temper. About the period in question, 1805, when he was a strapping fellow of fifteen or sixteen, he one day entered Major Carter's garden (as related by the major's niece, Mrs. Miles,) and began gathering some vegetables. Mrs. Carter came out and ordered him away, whereupon he drew his knife and chased her three times around the house, and did not desist till a; young man in the vicinity came up and drove him away. Perhaps his only intention was to scare her, but it was certainly not a very pleasant experience.
When Major Carter came home and heard his wife's story, he was naturally greatly enraged. Putting a rope in his pocket, he started for the cabin of old Omic on the other side of the river. Arriving there, he told the old man what his son had done, and declared that he was going to hunt up the young rascal and hang him—at the same time producing the rope to give emphasis to his words. Carter was renowned as a fighting man among the whites, and had acquired a great influence over the Indians, whose language he spoke fluently. They believed he could and would accomplish almost anything he took a fancy to do, and old Omic was terribly frightened. He begged and implored Carter not to hang his boy, but for a time the major was inexorable. At length yielded lie so far as to promise that if the scamp would stay on the west side of the river, and never under any circumstances cross the stream, his life should be spared. The old man promised zealously that the condition should be faithfully observed.
"Now remember," said Carter, as he flourished his rope, " if I ever catch him on that side again, I’ll hang him up to the first tree in five minutes.
"He no come, he no come," earnestly replied the father.
And sure enough, the danger of getting within the grasp of the irate major was so strongly placed before the reprobate by his father, and perhaps by others of the older Indians, that young Omic kept his own side of the stream, and according to Mrs. Miles' recollection he did not again cross it until, several years later, he was on the way to his trial and execution.
We have mentioned in the general history of the county the loss of the boat which started from Cleveland in the spring of 1806, containing a Mr. Minter, his family, and two colored persons, and was wrecked a little east of Rocky river; a colored man called Ben being the only person saved. The incident had a curious sequence, related by A. W. Walworth in his sketch of Major Carter, published in Col. Whittesley's work.
When Ben was brought back to Cleveland, half starved and nearly frozen to death, he was taken to Carter's' tavern, which was the general rendezvous, especially for the used-up part of the community, who had no other home. Rheumatism drew Ben's limbs out of shape, some of his toes were so badly frozen that they came off, and he was unable to do any work, but the free-hearted major kept him throughout the summer. In October two Kentuckians came to Cleveland, one of whom declared that he was the owner of Ben, who was an escaped slave. The major told them what a hard time Ben had had, and how he, the major, had kept him, gratis, on account of his misfortunes.
"I don't like niggers," said the worthy major, "but I don't believe in slavery, and Ben shan't be taken away unless he chooses to go."
The owner declared that he had always used Ben well, that he had overpersuaded to run away by others, and that he would probably be willing to go back to his old home. He wanted to have a talk with Ben, but the major would not consent to this, unless the negro desired it. Finally, after consulting Ben, it was agreed among all the parties that a parley should take place in the following manner: The owner was to take his station on the east bank of the Cuyahoga, near the end of Huron street, while Ben was to take his post on the opposite side, and the conversation was to be carried on across the stream. Certainly the major guarded pretty effectually against treachery. This program was faithfully carried out. After salutations back and forth, the master said:
" Ben, haven't I always used you like one of the family?"
" Yes, massa;" replied Ben. The conversation was carried on for some time, many inquiries being made by Ben. regarding old acquaintances, and by the Kentuckian regarding the adventures of his servant.' Great good feeling seemed to be manifested on both sides, though no definite arrangement was made. This, however, was consummated by future negotiations, and the next morning, but one, young Walworth saw the Kentuckians starting southward on the river road, Ben riding his master's horse, while the latter walked on foot by his side.
But the most curious part of the affair was still to come. Eight or nine miles from the village a couple of white men, who had been hanging around Carter's tavern all summer, getting their living principally off from the good-natured major, suddenly appeared by
THE VILLAGE FROM 1800 TO 1815 - 233
the roadside with rifles in their hands. One of them cried out:
"Ben., you d-d fool, jump off from that horse and take to the woods."
This was long before the days of revolvers, and the owner's big horse-pistols were in the holsters on the horse that Ben. was riding. Besides, both the Kentuckians were too much surprised to make resistance on the instant. Ben. jumped off the horse and ran off into the woods; the two riflemen immediately followed, and the Kentuckians were left to digest their disappointment as best they might. They probably thought that the game was not worth any more hunting and did not return to Cleveland, nor make any further attempts to recover their troublesome property.
The next winter Major Spafford's son and another young Clevelander were hunting on the west side of the river, when they came across a rude but in the forest, near the line of the present townships of Independence and Brecksville, where Ben. had domiciled himself. It was supposed that he Went from there to Canada. It was never known whether the "rescue" was the result of any settled plan or merely arose from a sudden freak on the part of the two men before mentioned. There seems to have been no reason why a rescue should have been planned, as it would have been impossible, in this forest-covered country, to take the negro in the first place without his own consent.
Mr. A. W. Walworth, from whom the above anecdote is derived, was then a youth of about sixteen, and was the son of Mr. John Walworth, who had moved to Cleveland in April, 1806. The latter was a near relative of Hon. R. Hyde Walworth, the celebrated chancellor of New York. He was appointed collector of the district of Erie on the 17th day of January, 1806, In June previous he had been appointed inspector of the port of Cuyahoga, but had continued to reside at Painesville, making occasional visits to the scene of his few official duties. Previous to this there had been practically nothing to prevent the smuggling from Canada of whatever any one desired. The loss to the United States government was not probably very large, however, as three years later the amount of imports from Canada, for a year, was only fifty dollars. Mr. Walworth was also appointed associate judge of Geauga county just before his coming to Cleveland and postmaster of that place in May after his arrival, the latter appointment being in place of Elisha Norton, who removed from the village. After a short residence on Superior street he removed to it farm he had purchased, about two miles up the Pittsburg road, now Broadway, embracing what was commonly known as Walworth point.
We have had frequent occasion to speak of the marshy ground in various parts of Cleveland. A youthful visitor of 1806 speaks of the boys and girls picking whortleberries in the marsh " west of Dolph Edwards';" that is in the vicinity of the present work-house. At this time the ridge-road from the mills to Doan's Corners was lined with fields almost all the way from the mills to Kingsbury's, and much of the distance from there to the corners. The fields, however, contained many dry, girdled trees, presenting an unsightly appearance to any one fresh from the highly cultivated farms of New England. Several orchards were rapidly approaching maturity, and Mr. Kingsbury's bore a few apples that year.
Mr. Kingsbury's farm being in a prosperous condition, he determined to have a framed house. He put up the frame that year, 1806, depending on obtaining his lumber from Williams and Huntington's sawmill. But the dam went off in the spring and the frame remained uncovered for over a year. Unwilling to be so dependent on others and having a pretty good mill- privilege on Kingsbury run, the energetic judge went to work and ereoted a sawmill. The next year, 1807, he covered his house; making the brick for the immense stack of chimneys from clay close by. His son still possesses the last brick made, marked with the date, "June 22, 1807."
The house was a large two-story frame, and is still standing in good repair, occupied by a son, James Kingsbury, then unborn, but now an aged man. It is probably the oldest building standing within the limits of the city. Part of the upper story was finished off in a large room, in which dances were held, and also masonic communications, the judge being a zealous member of the mystic order.
One of the visitors to Cleveland mentions attending a meeting at Doan's Corners, where a preacher named Daniel Parker attempted to introduce a new religious sect called the Halcyonites, but apparently with little success, as we hear no more of that sweetly named denomination. The preachers who sometimes visited Cleveland bore pretty general testimony to the wickedness of the inhabitants, but it appears to have related more to matters of opinion and of language than to more violent offenses. Crime of every kind seems to have been very rare, and the settlers were nearly all industrious, honest and enterprising. Probably they drank a good deal of whisky, but that was a common fault in those days and is not yet entirely overcome.
But the reverend gentlemen accused them of gross infidelity, of terrific profanity, and what was worse of making a practice of slaughtering their hogs on Sunday. This. was certainly a most objectionable proceeding, in taste as well as in morals. Newburg, or "the Mills,' was considered a little better, but not much.
An incident of 1807 shows the off-hand way in which things were done in those days. One morning a man who had worked for the Major two or three months suddenly disappeared. He had taken nothing and the major owed him a few dollars; so that his running away was quite inexplicable. Spafford went to his brother major, Carter, and told him about the affair. Carter at once said that no one should run away from Cleveland, shouldered his rifle and started
234 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND,
in pursuit. Taking the fellow's trail, he overtook him near the present Willson avenue, and ordered his return.
"No," he replied; "I have stolen nothing and don't owe anything; I shall not go back."
" Go or be killed," was the reply of Carter, "and be thrown into this cat tail swamp for the wolves to feed on."
The man sullenly assented, and Carter took him back to Spafford.
" Why did you run away," queried the latter; " I owe you some money."
" Well," replied the man, " I have always been a rover, and when I have worked as long as I want to in one place, I generally run away."
" It's a bad practice," said Spafford, " and you can't do it here."
" I see I can't," admitted the man.
" Well, now, sit down and eat your breakfast, and I will see how much I owe you, and after I pay you, you can go, and welcome."
" Well, now," said the other; "I have given up going, and I am willing to stay and work a spell longer."
" All right," replied the Major; and accordingly the fellow continued to labor for his former employer two or three months longer. We have heard of a great many cases of men being brought back by force to pay their debts, but this is the first instance, with which our historical researches have made us acquainted, of a man's being compelled in that manner to receive money which was due him.
In 1807 the fourth draft of the lands of the Western Reserve was made. Samuel P. Lord and others drew the township of Brooklyn, which then came to the river at its mouth.
Another major, Nathan Perry, became a resident of Cleveland in the summer of 1807. His son Horace preceded him a few months, and another son, Nathan, Jr., followed in the autumn.
Several incidents occurring at and near Cleveland we have mentioned in the general history of the county. As we have also stated there, Judge Huntington moved to Painesville and was elected governor of the State. While in office (in 1809) he appointed Hon. Stanley Griswold, United States senator to fill out a few months of an unexpired term. Senator Griswold then lived at " Doan's Corners" (now in the east part of the city). A visitor mentions attending a spirited militia election there while the senator was at Washington; at which the late Allen Gaylord, of Newburg, was elected ensign. Senator Griswold remained a resident there but a short time after the expiration of his term in congress.
Mrs. Miles relates an incident of this period (about 1809) when she was the youthful Fanny Hawley of some sixteen summers, which gives an idea of the alarms to which the damsels of that day were subject. They were not so terrible as on some frontiers, where the tomahawk and scalping-knife were in frequent use, but were sufficiently startling to seriously try the nerves of our modern belles. She was riding to Cleveland on horseback, on a man's saddle improvised into a side-saddle, over the road from the Kings= bury settlement, which ran near the line of the present Kinsman street. When in the midst of the woods, about half way to town, her horse suddenly stopped. An Indian came out of the woods, put his hand upon her, and in harsh, broken English, said:
"Give me whisky."
" Why, I haven't any whisky," replied Miss Hawley; "not a particle."
"Ugh! damn you—give me money," then said the son of the forest, in a still more angry tone.
At this moment the young lady's horse, which had been fretting at the presence of the red man (for white men's horses were usually much afraid of Indians), suddenly dashed off through the woods at high speed. Miss Fanny was entirely unable to hold him, and clung to the pommel and crupper as best she could. The animal soon came near the house of a Mr. Dille, lately settled in that locality, who ran out and stopped him, and the young lady received no rynjury. The runaway was not pleasant, but it at least cleared her of the Indian.
She went on to town, and on returning found that the same Indian had been at her father's house during her absence in company with his squaw. He was considerably intoxicated, and soon began to make a disturbance. Mrs. Hawley gave him a push which toppled him over on to the fire. He got up, very angry, but did not commit any personal violence. His squaw told Mrs. Hawley to carry out of doors everything with which he could hurt any one. Mrs. Hawley and the squaw accordingly slipped out and hid a butcher knife and one or two similar articles. As they were doing so the Indian snatched a loaf Of bread from the bake oven and started. Mrs. Hawley met him at the door. He put his hand to his breast as if to draw a knife. Mrs. Hawley dodged, and he ran off into the woods with his loaf of bread. The whole proceeding may not have been dangerous, but it was not at all amusing.
In 1807, (January 5,) the fifth and last division of the lands of the Western Reserve was made at Hartford, including the unsold lots at Cleveland. The same year Brooklyn, including the present west part of Cleveland, was surveyed into lots and offered for sale. That year also, the brothers Levi, Samuel and Jonathan Johnson became residents of the still diminutive city.
By far the most 1mportant event of the year connected with Cleveland was the establishment of the county-seat at that place. Cuyahoga county had been set off from Geauga in 1807, but had not been organized, nor had a county-seat been designated. In the spring of 1809 a commission was appointed by the State authorities for that purpose. There was quite a sharp contest between Cleveland and Newburg for the location. The latter place was full as large as the
THE VILLAGE FROM 1800 TO 1815 - 235
former and even more thriving, on account of its superior health. Cleveland, however, which had evidently a good commercial location, with large prospects of becoming an important port, succeeded in the contest.
In 1809 Judge Walworth, then postmaster, employed Levi Johnson to build a small framed office on Superior street. This is said to have been the first framed building erected in the " city," except barns, and except Carter's house, which was burned. At all events, a framed building was enough of a novelty so that people collected in considerable numbers to watch its progress.
Major Carter, however, built a warehouse on Union lane in 1809 and '10, showing that there was certainly some business at the mouth of the Cuyahoga.
In the spring of 1810 Elias Cozad, a young man of twenty-one, settled at " Doan's Corners," where he still resides. He had come to that locality with his father, Samuel Cozad, in 1808, but had returned east to finish learning his trade, that of a tanner. Immediately after coming to the corners for the second time, he built and began operating the first tannery in the township of Cleveland. Mr. Cozad was afterwards au officer of the militia in the war of 1812. He has been an active citizen throughout the greater part of his life, and, notwithstanding his great age, is a person of marked intelligence. We had the pleasure of a most interesting conversation with him during the past year on the events of early times. No male resident has spent so long a period of his adult life in what is now the city of Cleveland as Mr. Cozad, though there may be some still surviving who were born here before he came, or who came here as boys before he did.
Samuel and Matthew Williamson set up a tannery in Cleveland proper, that is in the then village of Cleveland, soon after Mr. Cozad started his at Doan's Corners, in the latter part of 1810 or forepart of 1811. Alfred Kelley the first practicing lawyer, and David Lang, the first physician, both also made their home in Cleveland in 1810.
Mr. Levi Johnson has left a record of the inhabitants of Cleveland in 1810, which we copy entire. According to it the population of the youthful city was then as follows; the figures after each family representing the total number of its members: Abram Hickox and family (5); Dr. David Long; Mrs..Coit; Alfred Kelley; Levi Johnson; Lorenzo Carter and family (7); Elias and Harvey Murray and family (4); Major Perry and wife (2); Benoni Carter; Bold McConkey and family (3); Jacob Wilkinson and family (5); Samuel Johnson; Charles Gun and two brothers (3); John Walworth and family (7); Samuel Williamson and family (5); Matthew Williamson; Mr. Humiston and family (4); Mr. Simpson and family (5). Thrys made a total of fifty-seven persons then resident in the village of Cleveland, fourteen years after it was first laid out; certainly not a very hopeful indication of future greatness.
Elias and Harvey Murray, above mentioned, owned a store, as did also Major Perry, these being the only storekeepers in the place. These were something like real stores, having taken the place of the cabins partly filled with Indian goods which were called stores a few years earlier. Not, indeed, that these later ones were at all splendid; they were merely rude depositories of the coarse goods of all kinds generally used by farmers and mechanics in a new country.
It was May of this year (1810) that the first Court of record in the county was organized in the store of E. & H. Murray. Mr. Elias Cozad attended it, and mentions the fact that the presiding judge, Hon. Benjamin Ruggles, wore a queue—evidently a gentleman of the old school—for queues had generally gone out of fashion. There were very few suits, the principal business being the trying of indictments for selling liquor to the Indians.
The next year the Messrs. Murray built a log warehouse near the river, which indicates two things: In connection with the erection of Major Carter's warehouse a year or two before it shows that quite a little business was done at this port, and it also shows that the place was still in a very backward state and profits small, or the merchants mentioned would have put up a framed warehouse.
George Wallace came this year and began keeping tavern. His and Carter's were the only taverns in the place. Carter died during the war.
The next year saw the first execution in Cleveland and the breaking out of the conflict with Great Britain, commonly called the war of 1812. Both these events have been spoken of at considerable length; the former having been under the control of the county authorities, and the latter a matter of national importance. The war did not affect this place very seriously, though the people were kept in a continuous state of alarm for a large portion of the time, for fear lest an invading force should reach them either by sea or land.
All the events of a warlike character which occurred here during the war of 1812, were necessarily narrated in the general history of the county, and few events not of a warlike character occurred here until after the close of the war.
There is extant a list of the families living in Cleveland at the beginning of the war. These were those of George Wallace, Samuel Williamson, Hezekiah King, Elias Murray, Richard Bailey, Amasa Bailey, Hiram Hanchett, Harvey Murray, Abraham Hickox, Levi Johnson, Samuel Jones, David Hickox and Dr. Long. The list of two years before comprised eleven families—that of the present year, thirteen—a gain of one family per year. Besides those named, there were James Root, Alfred Kelley and Matthew Williamson, who were without families, and probably some others.
All the places of business were on Superior street below the present location of the Weddell House, while most of the residences were also on some part of Superior street below the Public Square. A few
236 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
only were on side streets leading off from it. Nearly all the rest of what now constitutes the city was forest or swamp until one reached the extreme outer portion. At Doan's Corners was a thriving farming settlement, consisting of Mr. Doan, Mr. Cozad and one or two others, and the farming tract before mentioned, which extended south along the ridge, now known as Woodland Heights, to Newburg, was by this time pretty thoroughly cleared up. Rudolphus Edwards had a hundred and fifty acres under cultivation, Judge Kingsbury had another large farm, and similar, though perhaps smaller ones were located all along the route.
Newburg was a thriving little place, but from there to Cleveland village about the only clearing of any consequence was the Walworth place, about two miles up the river, where Mr. John Walworth died during the first year of the war. The large- tract between the farms on the lights, the road to Newburg and the Euclid road, and thence north to the lake, was substantially in the same condition that it was in when Moses Cleaveland first came to the mouth of the Cuyahoga.
As has been stated, all the warlike movements of that period have been narrated in the general history, as has also the erection of the first-court house by Levi Johnson. A few minor incidents of that exciting time may, however, be worth mentioning. Two days after Perry's victory, Mr. Levi Johnson and a man named Rumage found a large flat boat which had been abandoned by Quartermaster (afterwards General) Jessup. They loaded this with two hundred bushels of potatoes, took them to Put-in-Bay and sold them to the fleet and army, easily quadrupling their money. Jessup kept the boat to aid the movement of Harrison's army into Canada, while Johnson returned to Cleveland as pilot of the sloop " Somers," one of Perry's victorious fleet. Soon after, Rumage returned with the flat boat, and with news of the victory of the Thames. Johnson resumed command . and made several successful trips.
There was but little progress during the war, yet the first brick building in Cleveland was a store built in 1814, by J. R. and Irad Kelley. In that year Spafford's old map was copied. by Alfred Kelley, and marks added showing all the buildings in existence in the village when the copy was made. There were thirty-four in all.
In 1814, Levi Johnson built the schooner " Pilot." The curiosity concerning it is that for convenience in obtaining timber he built it in the woods, near the site of ,St. Paul's church, on Euclid avenue, half a mile from the water. When it was finished, the enterprising builder made a "bee." - The farmers came in with twenty-eight yoke of cattle, and the " Pilot " was put on wheels and dragged to the foot of Superior street, where it was launched in the river, with resounding cheers.
On the 23d of December, 1815, the legislature passed an act incorporating the village of Cleveland. This was the last event of especial consequence affecting that place before the close of the war of 1812, which occurred the same winter. The succeeding era of peace may properly be begun with a new chapter. Before entering on the new era, however, we will append a description of the jollification which took place when the news of peace arrived here, in nearly the same words in which the event is recorded in a manuscript preserved in the Historical Society.
When the news was received, the citizens assembled by a common impulse to celebrate so momentous an event. The depression, the sacrifices and the alarms of three tedious years were terminated. There was no formal meeting with speeches and resolutions, but a spontaneous and most exuberant expression of joy. Every one was in a mood to do something extravagant. It is reported that one of the citizens, by way of art impromptu feu de joie, set fire to a load of hay, which a farmer was bringing to market.
A government gun was brought out. Abram Hick- ox, the principal blacksmith of the village, carried the powder. in a pail; throwing it into the piece by the handfull. Another gunner had a fire-brand with which to "touch off " the gun, a spark from which found its way into "Uncle Abram's" pail. He was seen to rise instantly from the earth as high as the eaves of an adjacent house (so runs the record), corning down hall stripped of his clothing. In this plight he ran down Superior street, screaming vehemently that he was killed. He was not, however, and, after doing the blacksmithing for one generation, he survived to .become the sexton of the next.
Whisky was regarded as common property on that day, performing an important part in their patriotic rejoicings. Before night not a few found it desirable to lean against a friendly stump, or recline comfortably in a convenient fence-corner. But. they soon recovered, and went to work at their respective vocations with great hopes of the prosperity which was to follow the return of peace.
CHAPTER XLVI.
THE VILLAGE FROM 1815 TO 1825.
First Village Officers—General Depression—Another Vessel built inland —N. H. Merwin—Mrs. P. Scovill—Going to Church by Bugle-callLeonard Case's Description—The Traveled Streets—Woods, Swamp and Brush—The Residents and their Families—Moses White— Prominent Men of Newburg—" Cleveland, Six Miles from Newburg "The Euclid Road—Laid out to the Corner of the Square—Framed Warehouses—Stone Quarry and Mill at Newburg— Commercial Bank of Lake Erie—Orlando Cutler—Samuel Cowles and Reuben Wood— Land on the Square sold for $100 per Acre--Ansel Young—Steamboat and Newspaper—" The God of Lake Erie "—Carding Machines and other Items—P. M. Weddell—Michael Spangler—Religious Matters—A Theatrical Performance—John Brooks and other Newburgers—Killed by a Limb—Hunting Deer—The First Bridge—Business Rivalry—The Cleveland Academy—The Cleveland Forum—The West Side—Poor Harbors—The Canal—The Turning Point—J. W. Allen.
ON the first Monday of June, 1815, the first village election took place. The following officers were unanimously elected; each receiving twelve votes: Alfred
THE VILLAGE FROM 1815 TO 1825 - 237
Kelley, president; Horace Perry, recorder; Alonzo Carter, treasurer; John A. Ackley, marshall; George Wallace and John Riddle, assessors; Samuel Williamson, David Long, and Nathan Perry, Jr., trustees.
The hopes entertained of great immediate prosperity on the return of peace were by no means realized. In fact, the sudden change in the value of paper money and the general financial stringency which came upon the country immediately after the war, combined with the cheapness of agricultural products, the difficulty of sending them East, and the general indebtedness for land, rendered the five years next succeeding the war even more discouraging than the period which preceded it.
Nevertheless there was quite a number of new residents came in that period and there was quite an amount of business done, considering how small a place Cleveland actually was.
This year the enterprising boat-builder, Levi Johnson, laid the keel of the schooner "Neptune," of sixty-five tons, near the site of Central Market, and it was afterwards moved to the water by the same means employed in the case of the "Pilot."
Noble H. Merwin, long a prominent citizen of Cleveland, came to that place in 1815, and began keeping the tavern previously kept by George Wallace, at the corner of Superior street and Virginia lane. He also engaged largely in the provision trade, vessel-building, and other business connection with the lake.
Among the newcomers of 1816 was Miss Bixby, now the venerable Mrs. Philo Scovill. She mentions among those who were then residents in the village, Levi Johnson, Alfred Kelley, Phineas Shepard, the widow Carter, whose house had a large rye-field in front of it, Phineas Shepard, who kept the old Carter tavern, Dr. Long, before mentioned, Dr. Mackintosh, N. H. Merwin and Hiram Hanchett, the tavern-keepers, Horace Perry, Philo Scovill, afterwards her husband, who kept a drug store, etc.
There was no church nor settled minister, and when a traveling preacher occasionally came along, meetings were held in the school-house in winter and in the court-house in summer. The people were called to meeting by the blowing of a bugle by a Mr. Bliss.
A detailed description of Cleveland in 1816 was made in writing by the late Leonard Case, who first came to the village on the second day of August, in that year. From this document, for the use of which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Williamson, we select the principal points. The only streets cleared were Superior, west of the square, Euclid street (or more properly the Euclid road), which was made passable for teams, and a part of Ontario street. Water street was a mere winding path in the bushes. Vineyard lane and Union lane were paths running down to the river. Mandrake lane was all woods, none of ryt being worked. Seneca and Bank streets were all woods. Ontario street, north of the square, Superior street, east of it, Wood, Bond and Erie streets were all in a state of nature. Ontario street, south of the square to the site of the market, and thence along the line of Broadway, was open for travel, as that was the road to the thriving village of Newburg. There was also the Kinsman road (now Woodland avenue), but that was entirely out of town.
Nearly all the ground between the hill and the river was what Mr. Case designates as swamp, with occasional pieces of pasture land. On the hill there were the improved lots along Superior street, and north of it the rye-field of ten acres, also mentioned by Mrs. Scovill. Levi Johnson had a field where the City Hospital now is. The rest of the land covering all between St. Clair and Lake streets, and most of that between Superior and St. Clair, and running east to Erie street, was in brush or slashing; the larger timber having been cut down for use and the rest left standing. It afforded considerable pasturage to the cattle of the villagers, and the children found large quantities of strawberries there.
South of the gardens on Superior street, as far east as lot eighty, the land was also a brush pasture. Un along the high banks as far as the Walworth farm on the road to Newburg there was more woods and less pasture. East of Pittsburg street, (the Newburg road,) all was woods with occasional patches of brush.
Mr. Case also gives an account of all the inhabitants, though our space will not permit us to go so fully into detail as he does. On Superior street there were Noble H. Merwin, his wife Minerva, his clerk, William Ingersoll, and his boarders, Thomas 0. Young, Philo Scovill, Leonard Case and others; Hiram Hanchett, his wife Mary and five children; Silas Walsworth and wife; James Gear and wife, (the last two named men were hatters;) Darius B. Henderson, his wife' Sophia and their daughter; Dr. David Long, his wife Juliana and two children; A. W. Walworth, postmaster and collector; Daniel Kelley and his sons Joseph R., Alfred, Thomas M. and Irad, of whom J. R. and Irad were merchants in company; Almon Kingsbury, who was carrying on a store in company with his father James Kingsbury; Pliny Mowry, who kept tavern on the site of the Forest City House; Horace Perry and his wife Abigail; Abram Hickox, the blacksmith, and his family; Levi Johnson and his wife Margaret; Amasa Bailey; Christopher Gun, who kept the ferry; George Pease; Phineas Shepard, who kept tavern in the old Carter building, part log and part frame; Nathan Perry and his wife Pauline, (the former being the owner of a store, with a good assortment); John Aughenbaugh and family (butcher); one negro family (name unknown); Dr. Daniel O. Hoyt, who soon moved to Wooster; Geo. Wallace (tavern keeper), his wife Harriet and four children, and his boarders, James Root, S. S. Dudley, H. Willman, William Gaylord and C. Belden; Asahel Abell, cabinet maker; David Burroughs, Sr., and Jr., blacksmiths.
On Water street there were Samuel and Mathew Williamson, tanners; Maj, Carter's widow, on the bank of the hill; John Burtiss, brewer and vessel builder;
238 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
John A. Ackley and family; Dr. Donald McIntosh; William C. Johnson (lake captain) and family; Harpin Johnson (lake captain) and family. Alonzo Carter was then living on the west side of the river, and his appears to have been the only family there.
'Those who came somewhat later the same season were Luther M. Parsons, Moses White, James Hyndman, Abram Winston, Chas. Frisbee, Sherman Peck, George G. Hills, Eleazer Waterman, Daniel Jones, Orlando Cutter and Thomas Rumage.
Mr. Moses White, one of the newcomers, is still a resident of the city and gives a similar description of the primitive village. He mentions a little new school house where the Kennard House now stands. It was eighteen feet by twenty-eight, with a stone chimney. Mr. White put up a tailor's shop the next year, it being the first in Cleveland. When he wanted to get it painted he had to go to Newburg for a painter. There were two stores there and about twenty-five houses. Daniel, Theodore and Erastus Miles and Allan Gaylord were among the principal citizens. Also Aaron Shepard, Gains Burke and his brothers, and N. Bates. It was hardly as large as Cleveland, but was surrounded by a more flourishing .country. Letters used to come, directed to "M. White, Cleveland, six miles from Newburg, Ohio.
Bilious fever, as well as fever and ague, was still prevalent here, and at the rival port of Buffalo they told Mr. White that if he came to Cleveland he would not live over night. But he did live and the town lived, too. The relics of Fort Huntington, erected during the war, were still standing, between Seneca and Ontario streets, but soon disappeared.
The Euclid road did not originally come to the Public Square but stopped at Huron street. As there were no improvements in the way, however, die people traveled on to the square, and soon after the incorporation of the village, the road or street was extended along the same line.* In order to strike the corner of the square, it was necessary to make a slight angle at the junction of Huron street. It would hardly be noticed by the casual traveler, but may easily be seen on careful observation. Bond and Wood streets, and a street around the square were laid out at the same time. The total assessed valuation of the whole original plat of the village, in 1816, was twenty-one thousand and sixty-five dollars.
Down to this time all the warehouses had been of logs. In 1817, Leonard Case and Captain William Gaylord built the first framed one, on the river, north of St. Clair street. Soon afterwards Levi Johnson and Dr. David Long built another framed warehouse. below Case and Gaylord's, and, ere long, still another was built near it by John Blair. Between Blair's warehouse and Murray's log one was an impassable marsh.
About 1817 Abel R. Garlick came and began cutting stone on Bank street. He obtained a fine-
* Some make the date later, but the weight of evidence is in favor of the period mentioned.
grained, blue sandstone from Newburg. Ere long a mill was erected at the quarry on Mill creek (Newburg) below the falls, where the stone was sawed, as it now is at Berea and elsewhere, into slabs for use. This was the first establishment of the kind in the county.
About this time (1817) Mr. Josiah Barber, one of the proprietors of land on the West Side, established a store there, and offered inducements to persons to purchase and settle there. Phineas Shepherd moved over and went to keeping tavern. He had possibly done so as early as 1816. There were already clearings back in what is now the township of Brooklyn, but none near the mouth of the Cuyahoga, except Alonzo Carter's place, until the time in question. Another account gives the date of Mr. Barber's movement as late as 1819.
The Commercial Bank of Lake Erie had been started in 1816, with Leonard Case as cashier, but there was hardly business enough to support it and it went down in 1819. It, however, revived and went on.
The prominent arrivals of 1818 were Orlando Cutter, who began business with a stock of twenty thousand dollars, then considered an immense amount; Samuel Cowles, a lawyer and business man, and Reuben Wood, also a lawyer, who afterwards became governor of the State. At this time James Kingsbury sold to Leonard Case five acres where the post office and neighboring buildings now stand, for one hundred dollars per acre, which was then considered a good price. Another gentleman who came in that year died during the present one, at the age of ninety- one. This was Ansel Young, who settled at Doan's Corners, where he was long known to the general public as the only maker of almanacs in this region, and to his acquaintances as a man of marked scientific acquirements, and as the intimate friend of the eminent historian, Jared Sparks.
We have noticed in the general history the arrival of the first steamboat, the renowned " Walk-in-the-Water," and the establishment of the first newspaper, the Register, in 1818, and the second one, the Herald, in 1819. One of the earliest issues of the latter sheet had an article satirizing the fever and ague, which was still the great bugbear of this region. It ran as follows:
" AGUEAGUESHAKESHAKE,
THE GOD OF LAKE ERIE,
Takes this opportunity to announce his high satisfaction for the devotion offered at his shrine by the new converts on the shores of his dominion. He would feel much pleasure could he continue his residence through the winter, but, having lately experienced much rough handling from his enemy, Jack Frost, the Demon of the Forest, he is now under the necessity of holding his court among the alcoves of Erie, among his liege subjects, the Muscalonges and Catfish. On the 4th day of July next, he will remove
THE VILLAGE FROM 1815 TO 1825 - 239
his court to the highlands of the Cuyahoga, and, as he hopes, with force to drive old Jack into the lake, and continue his land dominion for many a good year to come."
Among other things, we learn from the Herald of 1819, that Ephraim Hubbel was then putting up two carding machines at the mills at Newburg, and would soon do carding for six and a fourth cents a pound; that Dr. David Long was selling salt, plaster, iron, buffalo robes, etc.; that Merritt Seeley had purchased the stock of Orlando Cutter; that S. S. Dudley sold goods, and took bills of the bank of Cleveland and similar financial institutions; that E. Childs was selling fanning-mills; that John B. Morgan was making wagons, and that H. Foote was keeping a book store.
In 1820 that well-known citizen, Peter M. Weddell, established himself in Cleveland; engaging in mercantile pursuits, and by his energy and enterprise contributing largely to the welfare of the slowly-growing village.
Another newcomer of 1820, less prominent than Mr. Weddell, but still a very active citizen, was Michael Spangler, who began to keep the " Commercial Coffee-House," previously the Wallaoe stand, where he remained twelve years. From his widow we have obtained some items regarding the period in question. Mr. and Mrs. Spangler being of Pennsylvania-German extraction, the farmers of that blood, of whom there were many in northern Ohio, used generally to stop at the " Coffee House " when they came into town with their flour and other products. There were many other travelers, too, especially in the spring and autumn; and sometimes, when the opening of navigation was unexpectedly delayed, people would be compelled to stay at the Cleveland hotels two or three weeks, waiting for the boats to run.
Religious advantages were few. An Episcopal Church (Trinity) had been organized as early as 1816, but there were only occasional services by a minister. In 1820 a few residents engaged the Rev. Randolph Stone, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Ashtabula county, to give one-third of his time to Cleveland, and in June of that year the First Presbyterian ohurch was organized with fourteen members.
Even this late, the place seems to have been somementimes pretty well blooked up in the winter. The Herald, of January 18, 1820, announced that there was no news from Columbus; no mail having arrived since the issue of the paper a week before.
The very first that we hear of theatrical representations at Cleveland is in the winter of 1820, when an entertainment was advertised which certainly offered sufficient variety-including as it did the comic opera entitled "The Purse, or the Benevolent Tar;" scenes from "The Stranger;" and "The Village Lawyer;" concluding with a "Dwarf Dance;" and all for the sum of fifty cents—children half price. By this time Newburg, which had long kept up a rivalry with Cleveland, began to fall behind in the race. Still Cleveland grew but slowly, and some zealous Newburgers thought that something might yet happen to give their village the advantage. John Brook owned the gristmill there in 1820, and Harrison Dunche was another well-known resident. Among the young men of that place at an early day were the three brothers Caleb, Ashbel and Youngs Morgan, all still residents in that part of the city.
It was about 1820 that while several men, resident near Doan's Corners, were riding back from the village one evening, a limb fell from a forest tree near the present corner of Willson and Euclid avenues, breaking the leg of one of the men, named Coles, who afterwards died of the injury. There were then a few clearings between Willson avenue and the Corners, but it was all woods from that avenue to Erie street.
Deer were common in the forest on both sides of the Euclid road in 1820 and as late as 1825. Captain Lewis Dibble says that when the young men wanted some fun three or four would go with their rifles to watch at the shore of the lake; another would range the woods on the tract now in the central or eastern part of the city with hounds, and would almost always start one within an hour. He would almost invariably head for the lake, and was very fortunate if he escaped the waiting riflemen. Sometimes one would swim out far into the lake and then return; landing a mile or more from the place where he entered.
Wolves, though thick in some parts of tie county, had disappeared from the present territory of the city before this period, but bears were occasionally seen, though very seldom.
In 1822 Willman White and S. J. Hamlin as contractors, built the first bridge over the Cuyahoga at Cleveland; Josiah Barber (west side), Philo Scovill and Reuben Champion being the supervising committee. The citizens subscribed considerable amounts to build it, and those who could not pay money furnished wheat, rye, whisky, lumber, etc.
There was plenty of business rivalry in those days, and some bitterness over it; for in 1822 a merchant advertised that all the goods mentioned in his advertisement, could be found in his " small, white store," notwithstanding the insinuations put forth from the "large brick store," with so many displays of superior advantages.
It was at this period, 1822, that a brick school building, called the Cleveland Academy, was erected. A school was opened in it immediately afterwards, and for many years it was the pride of the village. Not only was education earnestly desired, but other efforts at mental improvement were made. The "Cleveland Forum" was an institution of some permanence, which met regularly during successive winters, to practice debating and employ other means of improvement.
In 1824 the first steamboat was built at Cleveland; the " Enterprise " of two hundred and twenty tons constructed by Levi Johnson.
240 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
By this time there was a small cluster of houses on the west side, the locality being known with the rest of the township by the name of Brooklyn.
The bar at the mouth of the Cuyahoga prevented any but small vessels from entering, and even these often did so with difficulty. Large vessels lay to, and were unloaded by means of yawls. The various ports along the lake were all jealous of each other, and sought to exaggerate the poorness of each other's harbors. In 1825 the Sandusky Clarion declared that the yawls which unloaded vessels at Cleveland had lately stuck several times on the bar at the mouth of the river. The Cleveland Herald retaliated by stating that canoes entering Sandusky Bay, had run afoul of the catfish there, and been detained until the latter had their daily ague-fits. when the boats were shaken off, and proceeded joyfully on their way.
On the fourth day of July, 1825, ground was broken at Cleveland for the Ohio canal.
This was the turning point in the history of Cleveland. It had been twenty-five years since it was laid out by Moses Cleaveland, with the design that it should be the emporium of the Western Reserve, and still it was only a small village. Hon. John W. Allen, then a young law student, who came in 1825, estimates the population of Cleveland, at that time, at about five hundred inhabitants, and that of the village on the west side, then known as Brooklyn, at about two hundred. The actual beginning of work on the canal attracted general attention to this point, and within a year the population had rose to one thousand. Mr. Allen, himself, who had come from the East to find a growing town in which to make his home, wrote back that Cleveland was the most promising point for a city that he had seen, and he accordingly entered himself as a student in the office of Samuel Cowles.
Of this new Cleveland, which has since that time, notwithstanding occasional drawbacks, made such rapid strides toward greatness, we will speak in the succeeding chapters.
CHAPTER XLVII.
FROM 1825 TO THE CITY CHARTER.
Less Attention eo Individuals-First Appropriation for a Harbor-The First Pier-No Results-Another Appropriation-Major Maurice's Plan-The River Damned-An Angry "Serpent "-A New Channel- Another Pier-Complete Success-Canal Opened-Disastrous Sickness- Brooklyn Village-The First Light-house-Slow Increase- Then very Rapid Progress-Old-fashioned Relics-The Flush Times -The Buffalo Company in Brooklyn-The Two City Charters-The Dividing Line.
As, after 1825, the population of the thriving village of Cleveland mounted in twelve years to a population of somc live thousand, and the place attained the dignity of a city, we cannot henceforth give that. attention to individuals which we have previously given, but must confine ourselves in this continuons sketch to a condensed statement of the principal events; although a large portion of the more active citizens will necessarily be noticed more or less, farther on, in our account of the numerous organizations of the city.
If Cleveland was really to be a great commercial city, the first and most necessary object for it to attain was a harbor. We are indebted to Col. Whittlesey's "Fugitive Essays" for an account of the early efforts in that direction. In the session of 1824-5 Congress granted $5,000 to construct a harbor at Cleveland. It was confided to Ashbel Walworth, then collector of the port, without instructions, and without any survey being made by the government officers. Mr. Walworth was full of zeal, but had no knowledge, theoretical or practical, about harbor- building. As the northeast winds predominated, how. ever, driving the sand to the west to such an extent that by successive encroachments the mouth of the river had been gradually forced westward, and the water entered the lake in an oblique direction, Mr. Walworth and those whom he consulted, naturally thought that the proper thing to do was to build a pier into the lake east of the mouth, so as to stop the drift from the east; it being supposed that the force of the water would then keep the channel clear.
Accordingly, in the summer of 1825, the five thousand dollars was expended in building a pier six hundred feet into the lake, nearly at right angles with the shore, (north, thirty-two degrees west), beginning forty rods east of the east bank of the river at its mouth. Strange as it must have seemed to those who are always boasting of the infallibility of "common sense," the eminently common-sense method employed in building the pier produced no benefical results whatever. No increase in the depth of the ohannel could be observed, and when the sand was cut out, it filled up again with the same rapidity as before. At one time there was actually a bar of almost dry sand across the mouth of the port of Cuyahoga.
In the autumn of 1825 a meeting of the citizens was held, a hundred and fifty dollars was raised to pay expenses, and Mr. Walworth was sent to Washington to sohcit another appropriation. As there were only thirty or forty yearly arrivals of vessels at the port of Cuyahoga, Congress was not favorable to the application. Hon. Elisha Whittlesey who so long and ably represented in Congress the Western Reserve district, of which Cuyahoga county was then a part, heartily seconded the efforts of Mr. Walworth, and after a long struggle Congress appropriated ten thousand dollars more for a harbor at Cleveland, though not in time to be used in the summer of 1826.
In the spring of 1827, Major T. W. Maurice, of the United States engineer corps, arrived at Cleveland, made a survey and reported a plan which was adopted by the government. It was determined that the river should be made to empty into the lake east of the Walworth pier, and that another pier should be constructed still east of that; the channel being compelled to flow out into the lake between the two struc-
FROM 1825 TO THE CITY CHARTER - 241
tures. Major Maurice accordingly ordered a dam to he built across the river opposite the south end of the Walworth pier. This occupied the season. In the fall the dam was closed.
These proceedings of course materially interfered with ordinary business, and many of the lake captains were very angry. They thought the plan an absurd one, and roundly abused the works and workmen. The schooner " Lake Serpent " entered the river, and found itself shut in between the dam and the bar. The oaptain was obliged to hire men to dig a temporary channel through the bar in order to get out on the voyage for which he had arranged. He was furious with rage, and swore he only wanted a lease of life until that nonsensical plan succeeded.
When the fall rains came on, the river rapidly rose. Men were then employed with picks and spades, oxen and scrapers, to make a trench across the isthmus from the river to the lake. As soon as a small opening was made the river broke through, and by the time the flood subsided there was two feet of water in the new channel, which was constantly enlarging. When the " Lake Serpent " came back from its trip it could easily enter the river by the new route. The old channel soon filled up; yet it remained the dividing line between the townships of Cleveland and Brooklyn, so that there were several acres of Cleveland on the west side of the river.
The next spring the eastern pier was begun, but was not completed that year. Without attempting to follow all the details of the work, suffrce it to say that Major Maurice's plan was completely successful, and a permanent and excellent harbor was the result. The work was not done for ten thousand dollars, however. Both the piers were carried back through the sandy shore to the river, and were also extended into the lake, by means of successive appropriations, muoh beyond their original length. In fact the work was not closed until 1840, by which time the sum of seventy-seven thousand dollars had been expended.
In 1827 the canal was opened for navigation from Cleveland to Akron, and the Clevelanders became more oonfident than ever of the great future before them; a confidence justified by the rapid increase of population. Unfortunately, however, the canal brought serious evils as well as benefits. The throwing up of so much malarious soil was the cause of a very disastrous period of sickness, extending through 1827 and 1828. Fever and ague and billions fever were the prevailing diseases. The former weakened the systems and shattered the constitutions of its victims; so that when the latter attacked them it proved fatal to an extraordinary degree, especially among the laborers residing on the bank of the canal. When the tow-path was raised, several years later, numerous skeletons were found of those who had been buried where they died, beside the malarious ditch which had caused their death.
The village of Brooklyn, which, it will be remembered, then lay directly across the river from Cleveland, though as yet but a hamlet, still made considerable progress, and the establishment of a new store there by H. Pelton, "a few doors north of J. Barber's," was one of the events of 1827.
In the spring of 1828, what is now one of the principal interests of the city, the iron business, was inaugurated by John Ballard & Co., who then put their new iron foundry in operation.
The same year witnessed the introduction of the agent by means of which alone could the iron business be carried on to any great extent, and which is also employed for a thousand other uses in our modern life. In the year named, Henry Newberry, father of Professor Newberry, of Cleveland, shipped to that place a few tons of coal from his land near the canal. Part of it was put on a wagon and hawked about town; the attention of the leading citizens being called to its good qualities. But no one wanted it. Wood was plenty and cheap, and the neat housewives of Cleveland especially objected to the dismal appearance and dirt-creating qualities of the new fuel.
Once in a while a man would take a little as a gift, but, after the wagon had been driven around Cleveland all day, not a single purchaser had been found. At length, near nightfall, Mr. Philo Scovill, who was then keeping the hotel known as the Franklin House, was persuaded to buy some, for which he found use by putting grates in his bar-room stove. Such was the beginning of the coal-business in Cleveland. The new fuel soon found favor, for the small manufacturing and mechanical industries of the period, and large shipments were ere long made on the canal, but it was long before the matrons of Cleveland would tolerate it in private residences.
In 1830 the United States built the first light-house at Cleveland, at a cost of eight thousand dollars. It was situated on the bluff, at the north end of Water street; the land being a hundred and thirty-five feet above the level of the lake.
From 1826 to 1830 the village did not increase very rapidly; the prevailing sickness neutralizing the benefits conferred by the canal. In the latter year Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton each had between a thousand and eleven hundred inhabitants.
But after 1830 the sickness abated. The canal was then complete throughout its whole length; business was brisk all over the country, and the population of Cleveland advanced at a very rapid rate: By 1833 it had reached two thousand five hundred. At this period, after 1830, the common council ordered the grading of some of the principal streets—Superior, Ontario and one or two others.
Down to 1830 the population had not extended eastward beyond Erie street, which was the eastern limit of the corporation, but it now began to overgrow that boundary and spread along Euclid and Superior streets.
Things still had rather an old-fashioned, country- like appearance. Mr. W. A. Wing, now of Strongsville, says that when he came to Cleveland, in 1834,
242 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
there was a big guide-board at the junction of Ontario street with the Public Square, which told the distances to Painesville, Erie and Buffalo on the east, to Portsmouth on the Ohio river on the south, and to Detroit on the west. Old fashioned swing-signs were also in use before at least a portion of the hotels.
But the days of smartness and cityhood were coming quite fast enough. The population increased with rapid strides, and in 1835, according to an informal census then taken, it was found that the residents of Cleveland numbered five thousand and eighty. It had more than doubled in two years. Business was brisk to an extraordinary degree, owing to the vast amount of paper money in circulation, nominally redeemable in cash, but practically irredeemable on account of the general worthlessness of the security. Every one was ready for any enterprise or speculation which offered. These were the celebrated "flush times," of which considerable has been said in the general history of the county.
Meanwhile the village of Brooklyn, though far behind Cleveland in size, had during the last five or six years made almost as rapid progress as the latter place. An organization, commonly known as the Buffalo company, had in 1831 bought a large tract of land on the west side of the river, had laid it out in streets and lots, and had pushed forward improvements at a rapid pace. In the beginning of 1836, when Cleveland was estimated to have nearly six thousand inhabitants, the population of the village of Brooklyn was calculated at two thousand.
By this time the people of both villages were fully persuaded that they could afford to indulge in the advantages and glories of a city government. The benefits to be derived from a union of the rival interests on the two sides of the river were also appreciated to some extent, and an effort was made to procure a city charter covering both villages. But the rivalry was so great-the people on each side wanted so much, and were willing to acoord so little-that the plan fell through.
The leading men on both sides then turned their efforts to obtain separate charters from the legislature. Either through superior adroitness or from mere chance, but certainly to the intense disgust and mortification of the more numerous Clevelanders, the Brooklyn people succeeded first, and on the third day of May, 1836, obtained a charter under the name of Ohio City, while it was not till the eighth of the same month that Cleveland became the possessor of city honors.
The dividing line between the two cities, unlike that between the townships, followed the new channel of the river, erected in 1827, so that the the tract of about seven acres, between the new and old channels, was in Ohio City, but in the township of Cleveland, and so remained until the township organization was abandoned.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
AN OUTLINE OF LATER YEARS.
Climax of the Land Speculation—Improvements—Number of Arrivals of Vessels—A Break in the Tide—Great Disaster—No Progress until 1840—First Important Iron Works—Paving— Prosperity in 1840—Overflowing Hotels—The Weddell—The Free High School—Spreading out —Love of Clevelanders for Room—Euclid Avenue—Population in 1850 —A Commercial City—Union of Cleveland and Ohio City—Cleverand in the War- It becomes a Manufacturing City—Annexation of East Cleveland—Of Newburg and other Tracts—Depression and Revival— Concluding Remarks.
THE year 1836 saw the climax of the great land speculation, which had been raging with such extraordinary violence for three or four years throughout the country, and especially along the great line of emigration, extending from the East to the West, which passed along the southern shore of Lake Erie. City lots doubled, trebled, quadrupled in price in the course of a few months, and each successive advance seemed a new evidence of prosperity and a new reason for hrygher prices.
The authorities of the new-born city were quite willing to exercise their power, to improve and beautify the tract committed to their charge. The grading of streets, etc., went on with great vigor. Mr. Wing, before mentioned, graded Pittsburg street, (now Broadway,) in 1836, previously a mere country road. That year or the next he took a contract, which he sublet, to grade the public square, which until that time had been more like an ordinary cow-pasture than like a city park.
In Ohio City, too, all was excitement and progress. That year the city authorities built a canal, beginning in the Cuyahoga, opposite the termination of the Ohio canal, and running through the marsh into the old river bed. They did not succeed in making a new harbor, as they apparently hoped, but the basin thus reached was sometimes used for keeping vessels.
From March 15 to November 28, 1836, the number of sloops, schooners, brigs and ships arriving with cargoes at the port of Cuyahoga was nine hundred and eleven, while the number of arrivals of steamboats, with passengers, was nine hundred and ninety; an enormous aggregate, when we consider that it was only sixteen years since the first steamboat had appeared on the waters of Lake Erie, and only eleven years since the whole number of arrivals, of every description, was but from forty to fifty.
In the latter part of 1836 there was a break' in the tide of apparent prosperity which had been sweeping on so gaily for the previous five years. Banks began to break, private fortunes began to collapse, and the fair fabric of inflation trembled and tottered beneath the chilling blasts of reality. But the people could not believe that the immense fortunes which they had built up for themselves out of their imaginations, with no more real basis than worthless paper money, could all vanish when their value was tested, and they still clung with desperate tenacity to the high prices which speculation had placed upon all
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kinds of property. It was all in vain, however, and the next year (1837) saw the complete collapse of the inflation balloon, and the full inauguration of the " Hard Times" par excellence, the most disastrous period, financially, ever passed through by the people of the United States.
Cleveland, however, presented one exception to the general rule in Western cities. The Bank of Lake Erie did not break down under the stress of disaster. A host of its customers did, however. It was compelled to take land in payment of the debts due it, and became the largest landholder in the city. In 1842 its charter expired and it wound up its business.
There was no increase of population from 1836 to 1840. The number, according to the census of the latter year, in the township of Cleveland, was seven thousand and thirty-seven; of which about a thousand was outside the city. After that year the disheartened people began to take new courage, and engage again in business enterprises. William A. Otis established iron works, the first of any considerable consequence in the city. Several thousand tons of coal were by this time received every year, and Cleveland soon began to make considerable progress as a manufacturing place.
About 1842 the first attempts at paving were made, on Superior street, between the square and the river, and also on River street; that is if it could be called paving to place heavy planks crosswise of the street to keep wagons out of the mud. When these became warped and loosened, and partly worn out, as they soon did, they were a most unmitigated nuisance. On River street the water sometimes rose and floated them off into the Cuyahoga. An effort was then made to pave the principal streets with limestone, but this crumbled too easily, and it was soon found that it would not answer. Medina sandstone was next tried, and as this was found to answer all the conditions of a good paving-stone it was permanently retained. By 1845 the city was again in the full tide of prosperity, accompanied by far more solidity than characterized it in the flush times ten years before. In that year, 1845, the population of Cleveland was nine thousand four hundred and seventy-three; that of Ohio City, two thousand four hnndred and sixty-two.
The entertainment of travelers formed a considerable part of the business down to the time of the construction of railroads; the hotels often overflowing with people waiting for steamers, or just landed from steamers, to an extent scarcely ever known at the present time. The Weddell House was built in 1845 and '46 and at once took the position of the foremost hotel in the city.
The interests of religion were not suffered to languish, as will be seen by the sketches of the numerous churches which sprang up at this period; and as to education, Cleveland was probably abreast of any other place of its size in the country. The Cleveland Free High School, established in 1846, was the first institution of the kind in the State, and one of the very first in the whole Union.
All this time the population of Ohio City was steadily spreading westward and northward, and that of Cleveland eastward and southward. By 1848 the extreme eastern limit had reached to Clinton street. The characteristics impressed on the city by its founders, when the tract was laid off in lots of two acres each, still showed themselves. The people having from the first acquired a taste for large and roomy locations, they almost all declined to be shut up in close brick blocks, but insisted on having separate houses, each with its own piece of land. The rich had fine mansions, with lawns and orchards about them; those of more moderate means had substantial houses with ample gardens; the poor had cottages with small yards; but nearly everybody had breathing room. Of course this involved a good deal of travel to and from places of business, and a large outlay for paving, street lighting, etc., but there is no doubt that these inconveniences and expenses were far more than made good by the increase of home comforts and the superior healthfulness of the place. It was at this period that the Euclid road, then become Euclid street, began to take on the characteristics which have since made it celebrated throughout the country. The land rose from the lake to within a short distance from the street, then fell as far as the line of the street and then rose gently to the southward. Somewhat singularly, both the ridge and the depression occupied by the street ran almost due east from the public square for two miles, and then with a small variation ran two miles farther to "Doan's Corners.
The wealthy residents of the city early found that they could make extremely pleasant homes by taking ample ground on the ridge in question, and building their houses on its summit; leaving a space of from ten to twenty rods between them and the street. The fashion, once adopted by a few, was speedily followed by others, and a residence on Euclid street, with a front yard of from two to five acres, soon became one of the prominent objects of a Clevelander's ambition. Some fine residences were also built on the south side of the street, but not near as many as on the north side.
The population of Cleveland had risen in 1850 to seventeen thousand and thirty-four; that of Ohio City to three thousand nine hundred and fifty.
All this time Cleveland was pre-eminently a commercial city; its chief business being to receive produce from northern Ohio and ship it to the East, to transmit Eastern goods to the agricultural regions, and to send on to the West the immense number of emigrants and others who sought that land of promise. The building of the railroads mentioned in the general history, which marked the era between 1850 and 1855, did not change the character of. the business but greatly widened its operations.
An attempt was made in 1852 to make Cleveland the manufacturing place of a large amount of copper,
244 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
to be brought from Lake Superior, but it did not succeed.
Meanwhile it had become evident to a large majority of the people of both cities that the interests of Cleveland and Ohio City required a union under one corporation. Negotiations were set on foot and concluded, and a formal agreement was made, in accordance with the law, between commissioners appointed by the common councils of the two cities. Those on the part of Cleveland were W. A. Otis, H. V. Willson and F. T. Backus; those on the part of Ohio City were W. B. Castle, N. M. Standart and C. S. Rhodes. It was agreed that the four wards of Ohio City, (or rather the city of Ohio as it was called in all legal proceedings) should constitute the eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh wards of Cleveland; that the wards should never be changed so but that the west side should always have as large a proportion of the number of wards as it had of the population; that the property of each city should belong to the joint corporation, and that that corporation should be responsible for the debts of both.
The proposition to unite was submitted to the voters of the two cities on the first Monday of April, 1854. It received in Cleveland one thousand, eight hundred and ninety-two yeas and four hundred nays; in Ohio City, six hundred and eighteen yeas and two hundred and fifty-eight nays. The formal ordinance of union, in accordance with this vote, was passed by the council of Cleveland on the 5th of June, 1854, and by that of the "City of Ohio" on the following day.
The prosperity of the united city was somewhat checked by another financial crisis in 1857, but the depression was slight indeed compared with that which followed the crash of 1837. The population of the two cities a little more than doubled during the decade; that of the two cities having been twenty thousand, nine hundred and eighty-four in 1850, and that of the united city being forty-three thousand, eight hundred and thirty-eight.,
Of the part taken by Cleveland's gallant soldiers in the war for life, which burst upon the country in 1861, the story has been amply told in the chapters devoted to the general history of the county. . The effect of the war on Cleveland was very greatly to develop its manufactures. The iron business and the oil business in particular sprang forward into immense proportions, and it has been said, with but little exaggeration, that the war found Cleveland a commercial city and left it a manufacturing city. Not that it ceased to do a great deal of commercial business, but the predominant interest had become the manufacturing ones. Accounts of some of the principal of these are given farther on.
Meanwhile a large and thriving village had grown up between Willson avenue, which formed the eastern limit of the city, and the locality called in the old accounts " Doan's Corners," but which for twenty years had gone by the name of East Cleveland. This was the name of the township which had been formed from Cleveland and Euclid, and this was the appellation given to the village just mentioned. Cleveland was ready to absorb this extensive tract, and the tract was ready to be absorbed. The commissioners on the part of the city were H. B. Payne, J. P. Robison and John Huntington; those on the part of the village John E. Hurlbut, John W. Heisley and William A. Neff. They 'agreed that East Cleveland should become the sixteenth and seventeenth wards of Cleveland; and also that the high school of East Cleveland should be maintained according to the system in use, until changed by three-fourths of the common council of the city, with the consent of half of the members for the tract then annexed. The formal ordinance of union was passed by the council of Cleveland on the 24th of October, and by that of East Cleveland on the 29th of October, 1867.
With the advantage of this addition the census of 1870 showed a population of ninety-two thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
Another large tract, comprising parts of the townships of East Cleveland and Brooklyn, and extending entirely around the city, was annexed in 1872; the necessary ordinance being passed on the 19th of November in that year, and the subsequent proceedings being taken by the county commissioners. On the 16th of September, 1873, still another absorbing ordinance, also confirmed by the county commissioners, was passed, by which the village of Newburg, once the rival of Cleveland, was summarily annexed to it, and became the eighteenth ward of its former competitor.
As there has been no census since that time it is impracticable to say how far Cleveland has mounted by reason of its internal growth and these external accessions. Enthusiastic citizens put its population considerably above a hundred and fifty thousand, but probably the census of next June will show that the number does not vary greatly from those figures. Of course, like all the rest of the country, it has suffered severely from the business depression of the five years succeeding 1873, but it is one of the very first cities in the country to catch the returning breezes of prosperity, and its people may well look forward to a long career of commercial and manufacturing success.
We have thus sketched an outline history of Cleveland, from the laying out of its first streets in 1796, to the present time. We have dwelt at considerable length on the earlier history, regarding which this sketch forms the only record in our work, but have passed very cursorily over the later period, because many chapters immediately following these are devoted to the separate institutions—churches, societies, schools, etc., of that period. To those we now invite the attention of such of our readers as feel an interest in the details of local history.
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CHAPTER XLIX.
PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCHES.*
Trinity—St. John's—Grace—St. Paul's—St. James'—Christ Church—St. Mary's—Grace (Eighteenth Ward)—All Saints'—St. Mark's—Memorial Church of the Good Shepherd— Emmanuel—St. Luke's.
TRINITY.
TRINITY parish was organized on the 9th day of November, 1816, at the residence of Phineas Shepherd. The communicants were very few. Darius Cooper was chosen lay reader. There was then no Episcopal clergyman, not even a missionary, in this part of the State.
In March, 1817, Rev. Roger Searle, a clergyman from Connecticut, visited Cleveland and reorganized the parish; there being thirteen families and eleven communicants. He repeated his visits and administered the sacraments annually during the three succeeding years, but in the intermediate time the services were conducted by a lay reader. Part of the time at least they were held in Cleveland village. The rite of confirmation was first administered by Bishop Chase, in September, 1818. In 1820 the parish was located in Brooklyn, where most of the efficient members resided, but about 1822 it was moved hack to Cleveland. Up to 1825 services were occasionally held by Mr. Searle; in that year Rev. Silas C. Freeman was installed as rector, but served at the same time at Norwalk.
On the 12th of February, 1828, the parish was legally incorporated; the following gentlemen being named as wardens and vestrymen: Josiah Barber, Phineas Shepherd, Charles Taylor, James S. Clark, Sherlock J. Andrews, Levi Sargeant and John W. Allen. The same year Mr. Freeman went East and obtained a thousand dollars to aid in building a church edifice. A framed house of worship was accordingly begun in 1828, on the corner of Seneca and St. Clair streets, and completed the following year, the total cost being three thousand dollars. It was consecrated on the 12th day of August, 1829, and was the first house devoted to the worship of God in the present city of Cleveland.
In 1830, Rev. Mr. McElroy succeeded Mr. Freeman, being the first rector who gave his whole time to the parish, for which he received an annual salary of four hundred and fifty dollars. Thenceforward the parish continued to grow in strength and influence, keeping pace with the flourishing village and youthful city.
In 1852 the church lot, which had been bought for two dollars and a half per foot, was sold for two hundred and fifty dollars per foot, possession being agreed to be delivered by the first day of May, 1854. The building was destroyed by fire, however, before that day arrived. In 1853 a large stone house of worship was begun on Superior street, near Bond.
The new edifice was nearly completed in 1854, be-
* The churches are arranged chronologically by denominations; each denomination taking place according to the time when its first church was formed, and the churches of each denomination being also arranged according to the date of their organization.
ing consecrated on Ascension Day, 1855. In 1872 it was thoroughly refitted and elegantly decorated. The extreme length of the edifice is one hundred and forty feet, and the width, including the buttresses, sixty-six feet. The tower, which rises from one of the rear angles of the building, contains a chime of nine bells. Passing to the interior the visitor finds a nave one hundred feet by fifty-two, connected with which by a lofty arch is a chancel about twenty-five feet square. Both nave and chancel are richly ornamented in polychrome, and are lighted with stained-glass windows. A valuable organ adds the charm of music to the fit attractions of the place. The guild-rooms, school-rooms and parsonage are on the same lot with the church edifice.
The church is now in a highly flourishing condition, and numbers about three hundred and fifty communicants. The Sunday school contains a hundred and eighty scholars. The Guild of the Holy Child and the Women's Guild are also effective parochial agencies. St. Peter's, St. James', and Ascension Chapels, Trinity Church Home and the Children's Home are institutions connected with the parish.
The following have been the rectors of Trinity since Mr. McElroy, with their years of service : Rev. W. N. Lyster, 1832; Rev. Seth Davis, 1833; (1834, vacant); Rev. E. Boyden, 1835 to 1838; Rev. W. N. Lyster, 1838; Rev. David Burger, 1839; Rev. Richard Bury, 1840 to 1846; Rev. S. Windsor, 1846 to 1853; Rev. James A. Bolles, D.D., 1854 to 1860; Rev. Thomas A. Starkey, D.D., 1860 to 1870; Rev. Charles Breck, D.D., 1870 to 1873; Rev. W. E. McLaren, D.D., (now Bishop of Illinois,) 1873 to 1875; Rev. John W. Brown, D.D., the present incumbent, installed in February, 1876.
The following are the present officials : Rev. John W. Brown, D.D., rector; Rev. James A. Bolles, D.D., and Rev. W. T. Whitmarsh, assistant ministers; Charles Ranney and Herbert C. Foote, lay readers; Ansel Roberts, senior warden; Samuel. L. Mather, junior warden and treasurer; Bolivar Butts,. secretary; William J. Boardman, Rufus P. Spaulding, John Shelley, Bolivar Butts, Oliver H. Brooks, Orville B. Skinner, Robert D. Lowe and John F. Whitelaw, vestrymen.
ST. JOHN'S.
St. John's Church, on the West Side, was organized in 1834, but until 1836 public worship was held in Columbus Block, in school-houses and in the houses of members. In 1836 (Rev. Seth Davis being the rector), the membership having reached a large number, the commodious stone church now in use, at the corner of Church and Wall streets, was erected at an original cost of seventeen thousand dollars.
For two years the congregation worshipped in the basement; then, under the rectorship of Rev. S. R. Crane, the audience-room was completed and furnished wryth seats, the rector himself advancing the funds. The prosperity was shown by a confirmation class of seventy the first year. In 1839 Rev. D. W. Tolford
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followed Mr. Crane, and after a pastorate of three years was himself followed by Rev. William Burton, who supplied another three years of work. About 1848 he was succeeded by his brother, Rev. Lewis Burton, D.D.
April 3, 1866, came a serious calamity in the partial destruction of the church edifice by fire. This necessitated an additional expense of about twenty- five thousand dollars in rebuilding and improvements.
In 1871, after Rev. Dr. Burton's rectorship had continued nearly a quarter of a century, his place was filled by the present rector, Rev. J. Crockar White, D.D. In 1875 the Sunday school had increased so much as to outgrow its former quarters, and a beautiful chapel was built at a oost of about seven thousand dollars.
The Sunday school now numbers, with its branch at West Cleveland, fifty teachers and three hundred scholars, and is doing excellent work; among other things supporting, at Kenyon College, Gambier, a Japanese candinate for missionary work, at a cost of four hundred dollar per year.
The church membership is now, (August, 1879,) about two hundred and seventy.
The wardens are G. L. Chapman and C. L. Russell, and the vestrymen Thomas Axworthy, G. L. Chapman, J. M. Ferris, M. A. Hanna, F. W. Pelton, E. Sims, A. L. Withington (treasurer), and Howard M. Ingham (clerk).
GRACE CHURCH.
The parish of Grace Church was organized July 9, 1845, at the residence of its rector, Rev. Richard Bury, by former members of Trinity Church. The object of the organization was to provide additional church accommodation. A lot was purchased at a cost of nine hundred dollars, on the corner of Erie and Huron streets (then the eastern limits of the city), on which a substantial brick building, forty by a hundred feet, was erected. This building cost about tbn thousand dollars. Subsequently a chapel was built and a chancel added, (the latter as a memorial.) These were erected under the supervision of a former rector, Rev. Lawson Carter, who paid the larger portion of the expense. The exact cost is not known, but may be estimated at fifteen thousand dollars.
The style is gothic, and the interior, including seats, chancel furniture and fixtures, are of solid oak. It contains eight memorial windows, some of which are of superior excellence in artistic design and coloring.
The names of the first vestrymen were A. A. Treat and E. F. Punderson, wardens; H. A. Ackley, Moses Kelley, J. F. Jenkins, S. Englehart, William Richards, John Powell, Thomas Bolton and George F. Marshall, vestrymen.
The several rectors, with their times of service, have been as follows: Rev. Alexander Varian, from May 25, 1846, to October 1, 1849. Rev. Timothy Jarvis Carter, December 20, 1849, to November 15, 1852, when he died. His remains and those f his wife are interred beneath the chancel. Rev. James Cole Tracy succeeded and remained only five months. Rev. Lawson Carter, from July 10, 1852, to July 10, 1860. Revs. Gideon B. Perry, William A. Rich and William Allen Fisk were successively assistants under Mr. Carter-the latter succeeding to the rectorship. Rev. Alvah H. Washburn, from April 1, 1866, to December, 1877, when he died. Rev. G. G. Carter was soon after elected rector, but declined to accept. He however continued the services until November 1, 1877, when Rev. George W. Hinckle, the present rector, assumed the charge.
The money to build Grace Church was subscribed and donated on condition that the seats should remain forever free. This is supposed to have been the second church (St. Peter's at Ashtabula being the first) in this country to return to the primitive customs of free seats and weekly communion. It has always been noted for its rigid adherence to the rubrics and teachryngs of the Prayer Book, and its freedom from sensational and doubtful expedients for maintaining the service; and is a noticeable fact, that the . practices and teaching which were at first strongly objected to have since been generally adopted. The founders and supporters of this parish have always made special and unremitted efforts to furnish accommodations and services to a class of persons who for various reasons feel unwilling to attend other churches.
ST. PAUL'S.
St. Paul's Church was organized October 26, 1846; at which time forty-five persons associated themselves as the " Parish of St. Paul's Church in the City of Cleveland."
At a meeting held November 6, 1846, the following named persons were elected wardens and vestrymen, to serve until Easter Monday, 1847: D. W. Duty, Aaron Clark, wardens; James Kellogg, H. L. Noble, Moses Kelly, W. J. Warner, T. W. Morse, 0. A. Brooks, Oliver Arey and Edward Shepard, vestrymen.
On the same day the vestry extended a call to the Rev. Gideon B. Perry, D.D., to become rector of the church. Dr. Perry accepted the oall, and commenced services on the first Sunday in December, 1846. These services were celebrated in an upper room of a building located on .Superior street, near Seneca, at which place the public worship of the church was regularly held until January, 1851.
In March, 1848, a lot of ground on the corner of Sheriff street and Euclid avenue was purchased for two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, for the erection of a church edifice; "to be built of wood, at a cost not to exceed five thousand dollars." This building when nearly finished, was destroyed by fire on the 3d of August, 1849. The next day the vestry met, and resolved to " build another church of brick and stone on the same lot." A brick edifice was built at a cost of seventeen thousand one hundred and twenty-eight dollars, not including spire or bell, which were
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added several years later. This church was opened for divine service in January, 1851, the first sermon being preached in it by Rev. Dr. Perry. In order to bring the parish into exact conformity with then existing statute laws, it was re-organized in January, 1852, at which time three trustees were chosen, in whom and their successors was vested the title to the church property. On the 19th day of October, the Rev. Dr. Perry resigned the rectorship of the parish.
On the 31st of November, 1852, Rev. R. B. Claxton, D.D., was called. He began work March 7, 1853, and continued nearly seven years. Under his administration the church debt was liquidated, and the church consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Bishop McIlvaine, April 14, 1858. Dr. Claxton resigned November 4, 1859.
The Rev. Wilbur F. Paddock was next called as rector in February, 1860. During his rectorship a lot of ground was secured adjoining the church, upon which a chapel was built, at the cost of six thousand five hundred dollars. Dr. Paddock resigned in April, 1863.
In July, 1863, Rev. J. H. Rylance was called to the parish. He resigned March 18, 1867. Rev. Dr. Rylance was succeeded, November 15, 1867, by Rev. Frederick Brooks, who assumed the duties of rector. During his service the wardens and vestrymen of the church were elected and constituted trustees and olerk of the parish of St. Paul's church of Cleveland, in accordance with the laws of the State of Ohio.
In 1874 the church property was sold for one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, and the services were held in a rented building on Prospect street, until the completion of the chapel on the corner of Euclid and Case avenues.
Mr. Brooks' rectorship ended in his accidental death, September 15, 1874. His place was supplied for several months thereafter by Rev. W. C. French, D.D., and Rev. C. M. Sturgis. On May 16, 1875, Rev. C. Maurice Wines was called. On July 2d, of this year, the corner stone of the new edifice was laid by the Rt. Rev. T. A. Jaggar, D.D., Bishop of Southern Ohio, assisted by the rector and other clergy. Rev. Mr. Wines resigned May 1, 1876, and was succeeded by the Rev. Nelson Somerville Ruhson, who assumed the duties of rector November 10, 1876, and still performs them. On December 24, 1876, the new church edifice was opened for public worship; the entire cost of construction and appurtenances being nearly one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars.
The register from October 26, 1846, to Easter, 1877, shows eight hundred and fifty-eight baptisms; five hundred and twenty-three confirmations; two hundred and seventy-nine marriages, and four hundred and fifteen burials. The present Church officers are: Rev. Nelson Somerville Rulison, rector; Rev. W. C. French, D.D., assistant minister; C. J. Comstock, senior warden; J. H. Devereux, junior warden; Zenas King, A. C. Armstrong, F. W. Hubby, H. C. Ranney, George A. Tisdale, J. M. Adams, E. S. Page, C. E. Stanley, vestrymen; C. E. Stanley, clerk and treasurer.
ST. JAMES’
St. James' Church stands on a large lot at the corner of Superior and Alabama streets; adjoining it and on the same lot is a very commodious rectory. The church edifice, a brick structure, is thirty-one feet in width and sixty-five feet in length, exclusive of the robing room.
The establishment of St. James' parish was mainly the result of the labors of Rev. R. Bury, who, in consequence of advanced age, resigned the rectorship in 1871. Under the charge of Rev. W. E. Toll, successor of Mr. Bury, the church was largely increased in membership. In July, 1874, Rev. J. J. A. Morgan accepted call to the pastorate, which position he retained until Easter Sunday, 1879. Since this time the vestry has connected the church with Trinity Parish by calling its rector, Rev. J. W. Brown, D.D., to the rectorship of St. James'. Rev. W.T. Whitmarsh, assistant rector of Trinity, has been placed in charge of the parish. W. B. Lane is treasurer, and M. Green clerk, of St. James' Church.
CHRIST CHURCH (GERMAN).
Christ Protestant Episcopal Church was organized in 1868, as a mission of St. Paul's, with Rev. J. W. C. Duerr, minister in charge. Services were held in an upper room of the old "Knitting Mill" on Pittsburg street until the following autumn, when by permission the society used St. Luke's Church. In December, 1869, the mission was changed and regularly incorporated as Christ Church and admitted into convention of the diocese. By contribution, on the part of the other Protestant Episcopal churches and individual donations a house of worship was built at a total cost of twelve thousand dollars, on Orange street, corner Belmont, and consecrated November 19, 1871, by Bishop Bedell. The present number of communicants is about two hundred.
The officers of the church are: J. W. C. Duerr, rector; Wm. Hilscher, Conrad Schmitt, wardens; John Stuber, Casher Pfeffer, Wryn. Becker, .Adolphus Kaske, William and Augustus Orsohekowski, vestrymen.
GRACE CHURCH (EIGHTEENTH WARD).
Grace Church was organized in 1869, under the ministerial charge of Rev. Frederick Brooks, rector of St. Paul's. The early services were held in the old Presbyterian Church building, which was subsequently purchased by the society of Grace Church, and moved to its present location on the corner of Harvard and Sawyer streets. Rev. Royal B. Balcom was the second pastor, conducting the service in connection with his regular duties as rector of St. Mary's Church, and as such continued to the summer of 1871. At this time Rev. Stephen W. Garrett became
248 - THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
the rector of Grace Church, remaining until the fall of 1874, when he was succeeded by Rev. Marmaduke M. Dillon. In the latter part of 1878 Rev. Mr. Dillon resigned his charge, and the parish of Grace Church then became a mission; being now under the care of Rev. Mr. Pittenger.
ST. MARY'S.
In 1863 Mr. S. N. Sanford; having associated with him Mr. Levi Buttles, purchased the "Cleveland Female Seminary" and made of it a "Church School for Girls." From that date, and in consequence of Mr. Sanford's acting as licensed lay reader for the school, the desire grew to have a regular and permanent parochial organization, either in connection with the school, or in its immediate vicinity. In 1868 this desire took shape. The rapid increase of population in that section of the city necessitated action, and therefore at a meeting held on the 25th day of May, in that year, articles of association were signed and the following wardens and vestrymen were elected: S. N. Sanford, senior warden; Levi Buttles, junior warden; Walter Blythe, Lorenzo R. Chapman, H. C. Deming, J. W. Fawcett and F. W. Mason, vestrymen.
Efforts were at once made to secure the services of a resident rector. The Rev. W. C. French, rector of Christ Church, Oberlin, had acted for several years as chaplain of the seminary. His services were free to all who chose to attend, whether connected with the school or not. Many persons were baptized and confirmed. It was found impossible to secure a set-. tied pastor at once, and therefore regular services on Sundays and week days were maintained, partly by the assistance of Rev. Wm. F. B. Jackson, and partly by lay-reading.
On Easter Monday, 1869, at the first regular annual parish meeting, a vestry was chosen for the year composed as before, with the exception that F. W. Mason's place was filled by James Withycombe. On the 2d of June, the same year, the parish was admitted into union with the Convention of the Diocese of Ohio, at its session, in All Saints', Portsmouth.
On the 5th day of September, 1869, the Rev. Royal B. Balcom was called to the rectorship, accepted the same and entered upon his duties the 26th day of the same month, having also temporary charge of a missionary work of the church at Newburg.
The corner stone of the church building was laid by Bishop Bedell on the 29th of September of this same year. The edifice was opened for Divine worship March 20,1870, and the church has gone on ever since in its .work, both temporal and spiritual, proving a blessing to the neighborhood. Yearly additions have been made to the roll of communicants, and considerably over two hundred have been made members of Christ's Church in holy baptism. In 1872 a very fine organ was placed in the church as a memorial.
The Rev. Mr. Balcom resigned in 1872 and the Rev. J. J. A. Morgan succeeded to the work. He remained rector for eighteen months and was followed by the Rev. Frank M. Hall who, in turn, was succeeded by the Rev. J. Sydney Kent, the present rector.
The Sunday school has a superintendent, seventeen teachers and one hundred and eighty scholars.
St. Mary's Guild has a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, with about forty members. The organization of the Guild was made in July, 1879, and the entire lay-work of the parish will be carried on under its name and rules.
ALL SAINTS'.
All Saints' Church is situated on the south side of Vega avenue, a few doors east of Columbus street.
Beginning with the summer of 1855, services were held in that neighborhood by several of the clergy of Cleveland, but especially by the Rev. Lewis Burton, D. D., rector of St. John's Church. In 1868, on the first Sunday in April, the North Brooklyn Union Sunday School by reorganization became Episcopal, and connected itself as a mission school with St. John's Church. In this same year the first subscription was made for the purpose of building a church.
During the winter of 1869-70 semi-monthly cottage lectures and Sunday services were held by Dr. Burton at the residence of Mr. James Craig, in the schoolhouse at the corner of Wade avenue and Mill street, and in the lights' Congregational Church.
So much interest was awakened by the labors of Dr. Burton, that on the 5th of May, 1870, he was able to lay the corner-stone of the present church building. On the 31st of July, in the same year, the building was opened with appropriate services, under the name of All Saints' Chapel. From August 1st regular services were held in it by the rector of St. John's, Dr. Burton, and his assistant, Rev. William Lucas.
In June and July of 1871 the society, which had been a mission of St. John's Church, was duly organized into a parish and legally incorporated, forty- four persons signing the articles of association. At that time the following vestry was elected: A. James, senior warden; John Greening, junior warden and treasurer; James Craig, I. H. Amos, J. J. Boote, E. Gilchrist, C. E. Loper, Harry James, and R. M. Thompson, secretary. On August 1st of this year the Rev. Lewis Burton, D.D., began the joint rectorship of All Saints' and St. Mark's Churches; giving one service to each every Sunday. Lay readers under his direction performed a second service each Sunday.
On the 14th of May, 1874, (Ascension Day,) the church being free from debt, it was consecrated by the Bishop of the diocese, the Rt. Rev. G. T. Bedell, D.D. This year the parish became self-supporting. On the 7th of June, 1875, Rev. Dr. Burton resigned the rectorship of All Saints' Church. About September 1st, 1875, Rev. John Henry Burton began his labors as rector of the parish. On 15th of October, 1876, a large frame building which had been erected in the rear of the church, chiefly for Sunday school purposes, was opened with appropriate exercises.
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In April, 1877, Rev. J. H. Burton resigned, and Rev. Lewis Burton, D.D., by request, resumed the rectorship of All Saints'. On the 12th of August of this year Rev. Lewis William Burton, son of Rev. Dr. Burton, was called to be assistant. minister of the church, and began his labors as such September 1st. On the 12th of June, 1878, Rev. Lewis Burton, D.D., resigned, and Rev. Lewis William Burton was called, accepting June 21st.
In his report to the convention of the diocese, May 1, 1878, the rector reported one hundred and fourteen communicants, and two hundred and four scholars and twenty-four teachers in the Sunday school. In connection with the church, are the Parish Aid Society, the Brooks' Association, the Mutual Improvement Club, and the Burton Cadets, the latter named after the founder of the parish, Rev. Dr. Burton. The present officials of the church are Rev. Lewis William Burton, rector; I. H. Amos, lay reader; John Greening, senior warden and treasurer; James Craig, junior warden; I. II. Amos, secretary; J. W. Pearce, assistant secretary; T. J. List, Robert Curtis, C. E. Loper, James Boyd, Asa Foote and Ralph James, vestrymen.
ST. MARK'S.
St. Mark's church, a small, neat wooden structure, stands upon the rear end of an eligible lot on Franklin street, having a frontage of sixty-six feet, and a depth on Liberty street of one hundred and sixty-six feet. The church was built under the auspices of the Missionary and Church Extension Association of St. John's parish, which, pursuant to the call of the rector, Rev. Lewis Burton, D.D., was organized for this purpose, January 11, 1870. About the first of February, of that year, the lot was purchased, and a contract made for the erection of a chapel thereon, twenty-two by forty feet; with a vestry-room, twelve by fourteen feet.
This building was completed and .opened, with appropriate services, on Sunday, July 3, 1870. On the morning of the same day, a Sunday school was organized, numbering forty-five pupils; Mr. S. L. Shotter, being the superintendent.
Dating from August 1, 1870, for the term of one year, St. Mark's was a mission chapel of St. John's parish. In accordance with the unanimous wish of the members of the church and society, St. Mark's mission was duly incorporated as a parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was admitted into union with the convention of the diocese, May 15, 1872. Since August 1, 1871, Rev. Lewis Burton, D. D., has been rector of the parish.
On Wednesday, May 21, 1879, the church was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. G. T. Bedell, D.D., the Bishop of the diocese, assisted by the rector and other clergy of Cleveland and vicinity.
The annual report of 1879, shows one hundred and fifty communicants; also one hundred and eighty-five scholars and twenty-three officers and teachers in the Sabbath school.
The officers of the church are G. T. Smith, senior warden; Wm. T. Timlin, junior warden; R. T. Coleman, treasurer; W. A. Eaton, secretary; O. L. Baker, W. S. Craine, Charles F. Mills, Edward T. Peck, Robert Fletcher, R. M. Thompson, vestrymen.
MEMORIAL CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
This church was built in 1873, as a memorial of the life and labors of the Rev. Alexander Varian. His widow and children gave the large lot on which the building stands, to be devoted to church purposes forever. The church is a beautiful edifice of wood, upon a foundation of cut stone, Gothic in style, and containing about three hundred sittings. The seats are free to all. The chancel window contains a well executed representation of our Saviour as the Good Shepherd. There is a marble tablet in the chancel, to the memory of the the Rev. Mr. Varian, and other tablets, memorials of departed members of the church, are on the walls of the nave. Several of the windows are memorial, as also are the font and altar.
During the few years of the existence of this parish, sixty-five have been baptized, forty confirmed, and fifty-eight registered as communicants. There is a Sunday school of about one hundred and thirty children. The Rev. W. E. Toll had charge of the parish in 1873-4, the Rev. J. J. A. Morgan in 1875. Since January, 1876, the Rev. Thomas Lyle has been rector. The present wardens are H. G. Cleveland and J. S. M. Hill; the vestrymen are John R. Sked, G. A. Haver, H. L. Morris, T. Lewis, E. E. Hudson and Josiah Williams.
EMMANUEL CHURCH.
Emmanuel Church, Euclid avenue, was organized as a parish in February, 1876, the wardens being Dr. J. B. McConnell, senior, and W. C. Miller, junior. The vestry consisted of Thomas C. Early, Enos Foreman, Zenas King, A. C. Armstrong, George Wratten, Snape, B. C. Field.
The Rev. B. T. Noakes was elected rector. At the convention of the diocese in June, 1876, no communicants were reported. At present the number is seventy-four. The congregation is increasing, and the Sunday school, of which E. W. Adams is superintendent, is in a flourishing condition. The chapel is owned by two trustees, and was formerly situated on the corner of Case avenue and Prospect street, and then known as Emmanuel Chapel.
ST. LUKE'S.
St. Luke's is practically a " mission " of St. Paul's, having for its rector and a majority of its vestrymen the rector and certain members of St. Paul's Church. The church edifice was built by St. Paul's. The church subsequently changed from a "mission" into a regularly organized parish, in union with the convention of the diocese, but is still largely dependent upon the mother church for support. It has a substantial brick edifice on Broadway, near Cross street, and a comfortable rectory on the same lot.