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CUYAHOGA COUNTY

 

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CUYAHOGA was formed from Geauga county, June 7, 1807, and organized in May, 1810.  The name was derived from the river, and is said to signify, in the Indian language, “crooked,” a term significant of the river, which is very winding,’ and has its sources farther north than its mouth.  The surface is level or gently undulating.  Near the lake the soil is sandy, elsewhere generally a clayey loam.  The valleys of the streams are highly productive in corn and oats; in other parts the principal crops are wheat, barley and hay.  The county produces a great variety and amount of excellent fruit; also cheese, butter, etc.  Excellent grindstone quarries are worked, and grindstones largely exported.  The sandstone from these quarries is a great article of commerce.

 

Area, 470 square miles.  In 1885 the acres cultivated were 100,462; pasture, 73,790; woodland, 24,634; lying waste, 8,937; produced in wheat, 184,680 bushels; oats, 550,108; corn, 360,664; apples, 297,497; butter, 847,183 pounds; cheese, 46,397; milk, 3,598,729 quarts; cows, 12,486; pounds of grapes, 3,290,363, being more than double that of any other county.  School census 1886 74,027; teachers, 932.  It has 395 miles of railroad track.

 

 

 

 

 

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194,735, of whom 101,980 were Ohio-born; 4,728 Pennsylvania; 10,059 New York; 27,051 born in the German Empire; 13,203 in Ireland; 10,839 in England and Wales; 4,884 British America; 1,705 Scotland; 506 France; 248 Sweden and Norway.

 

As early as 1755 there was a French station within the present limits of Cuyahoga.  On Lewis EVANS’ map of the middle British colonies, published that year, there is marked upon the west bank of the Cuyahoga, the words “French house,” which was doubtless the station of a French trader.  The ruins of a house, supposed to be those of the one alluded to, have been discovered on FOOT’S farm, in Brooklyn township, about five miles from the mouth of the Cuyahoga.  The small engraving annexed is from the map of Evans, and delineates the geography as in the original.

 

 

In 1786 the Moravian missionary, ZEISBERGER, with his Indian converts, left Detroit, and arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga in a vessel called the Mackinaw.  From thence they proceeded up the river about ten miles from the site of Cleveland, and settled in an abandoned village of the Ottawas, within the present limits of Independence, which they called Pilgerruh, i.e., Pilgrim’s Rest.  Their stay was brief, for in the April following they left for Huron river, and settled near the site of Milan, Erie county, at a locality they named New Salem.

 

The British, who, after the Revolutionary war, refused to yield possession of the lake country west of the Cuyahoga, occupied to its shores until 1790.  Their traders had a house in Ohio City, north of the Detroit road on the point of the hill near the river, when the surveyors first arrived here in 1796.  From an early day WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON and other leading Virginia statesmen regarded the mouth of the Cuyahoga as an important commercial position.

 

The First Permanent Settlement within the limits of Cuyahoga was made at CLEVELAND in the autumn of 1796.  On the 4^th of July previous, the first surveying party of the Reserve landed at Conneaut.  In September and October the corps laid out the city, which was named in honor of the land company’s agent, Gen. Moses CLEVELAND.  By the 18^th of October, the surveyors quitted the place, leaving Mr. Job V. STILES and his family and Mr. Edward PAINE, who were the only persons that passed the winter of 1796-97 within the limits of the town.  Their lonely residence was a log-cabin, which stood near the site of the Commercial bank.  The nearest white settlement west was at the mouth of the Raisin; south or east at Fort M’Intosh, at the mouth of Big Beaver; and northeast at Conneaut.  Those families that wintered at Conneaut suffered severely from want of food.

 

The Surveying Party, on reaching the Reserve the succeeding season, again made Cleveland their headquarters.  Early this season, Elijah GUNN and Judge KINGSBURY removed here from Conneaut with their families, and in the fall the latter removed to Newburg, where he still (1846) resides at an advanced age.  The little colony was increased also by the arrival of Major Lorenzo CARTER and Ezekiel HAWLEY, with their families.

 

 

 

 

 

Top

Drawn by Henry Howe in 1846.

VALLEY OF THE CUYAHOGA AT CLEVELAND.

 

[This view shows in the distance Lake Erie.  The valley is now for miles filled with manufacturing. Establishments—a scene of busy industry. The viaduct now spans the valley in the middle background from plateau to plateau, 3, 211 feet in length, 68 feet high and 64 feet wide.]

 

Bottom

THE SUPERIOR STREET VIADUCT AT CLEVELAND.

 

[This great arched viaduct of Berea stone and iron was completed in 1878 and at a cost of 2,225,000.Ten years later, in 1888 through the enterprise of Mr. J. M. CURTIS, was completed at an expense of About $1,000,000 the Central Viaduct.  It is built of Iron on the Cantilever principle, and crosses the Cuyahoga about a mile above the other and also Walworth Run Valley, the combined length 5, 229 feet,  And height above the Cuyahoga 101 feet.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drawn by Henry Howe, 1846

SUPERIOR STREET, CLEVELAND

 

[This ever-increasing busy thoroughfare preserves some of its original features. The Weddel House and its contemplative eagle still remain.  The venerable bird of never-lifting wing has there rested forty-two years from that hour since he could glance down upon him who pens these lines, sketching the scene, seated in a chair with urchins curious clustered close around.  Solitary philosophic observer upon things below, looking for greater wonders and ready to hail the good time coming.]

 

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corn, mashed it in a handmill, waited until a second attack of the ague was over, and then started on his return.  There was at one time a space of several days when he was too ill to make the trip, during which turnips comprised about all the vegetables the family had.  Fortunately, Major CARTER having only the fever and ague, was enabled, through the aid of his hounds and trusty rifle, to procure abundance of venison and other wild game.  His family being somewhat acclimated, suffered less than that of Mr. DOANE.  Their situation can scarcely be conceived of at the present day.  Destitute of a physician, and with a few medicines, necessity taught them to use such means as nature had placed within their reach.  For calomel they substituted pills from the extract of the bark of the butternut and in lieu of quinine used dogwood and cherry bark.

 

In November, four men who had so far recovered as to have ague attacks no oftener than once in two or three days, started in the only boat for Walnut creek, Pa., to obtain a winter’s supply of flour for the colony.  When below Euclid creek a storm arose, drove them ashore, stove their boat in pieces and it was with difficulty they saved their lives and regained the city.  During the winter and summer following, the colony had no flour except that ground in hand or coffee mills, which, for want of proper means to separate from the bran, was made into a bread similar to that of Graham’s.  In this summer the Connecticut land company opened the first road on the Reserve, which commenced about ten miles from the lake on the Pennsylvania line and extended to Cleveland.  In January, 1799, Mr. DOANE moved to DOANE’S Corners, and from that time until April, 1800–a space of fifteen months–Major CARTER’S was the only white family in Cleveland.  During the spring of 1799, Wheeler W. WILLIAMS, from Norwich, Conn., and Major WYATT erected a small grist and a saw mill at the falls, on the site of Newburg, which being the first mill on the Reserve, spread joy among the pioneers.  A short time prior to this, each house in Cleveland had its own hand grist mill in the chimney corner, which is thus described by one of the early settlers: “The stones were of the common grindstone grit and about four inches thick and twenty in diameter.  The runner was turned by hand, with a pole set in the top of it near the verge.  The upper end of the pole went into another hole inserted into a board, and nailed on the under side of the joist, immediately over the hole in the verge of the runner.  One person turned the stone and another fed the corn into the eye with his hands.  It was very hard work to grind, and the operators alternately changed places.”

 

Celebrating Independence Day.–In 1800 several settlers came, among whom were David CLARK and Major Amos SPAFFORD, and from this time the town slowly progressed.  The first ball in Cleveland was on the 4^th of July, 1801, and was held at Major CARTER’S log-cabin, on the side hill; John and Benjamin WOOD and R. H. BLINN, managers, and Major Samuel JONES, musician and master of ceremonies.  The company consisted of about thirty of both sexes.  Mr. JONES’ proficiency on the violin won him great favor.  Notwithstanding the dancers had a rough puncheon floor, and no better beverage to enliven their spirits than whiskey sweetened with maple sugar, yet it is doubtful if the anniversary of American independence was ever celebrated in Cleveland by a more joyful and harmonious company than those who danced the scamper-down, double-shuffle, western-swing and half-moon forty-six years ago in the log-cabin of Major CARTER.

 

Major CARTER and the Indians.–The Indians were accustomed, at this period, to meet every autumn at Cleveland in great numbers and pile up their canoes at the mouth of the Cuyahoga.  From thence they scattered into the interior, and passed the winter in hunting.  In the spring they returned, disposed of their furs to traders, and, launching their bark canoes upon the lake, returned to their towns, in the region of the Sandusky and Maumee, where they remained until the succeeding autumn, to raise their crops of corn and potatoes.  In this connection we give an incident showing the fearlessness and intrepidity of Major Lorenzo CARTER, a native of Rutland, Vt., and a thorough pioneer, whose rough exterior covered a warm heart.  Some time in the spring of 1799 the Chippewas and Ottawas, to the number of several hundred, having disposed of their furs, determined to have one of their drinking frolics at their camp, on the west bank of the Cuyahoga.  As a precautionary measure, they gave up their tomahawks and other deadly weapons to their squaws to secrete, so that, in the height of their frenzy, they need not harm each other.  They then sent to the Major for whiskey, from time to time, as they wanted it; and in proportion as they became intoxicated, he weakened it with water.  After a while it resulted in the Indians becoming partially sober from drinking freely of diluted liquor.  Perceiving the trick, they became much enraged.  Nine of them came on to the Major’s, swearing vengeance on him and family.  CARTER being apprised of their design, and knowing they were partially intoxicated, felt himself to be fully their match, although possessing but poor weapons of defence.  Stationing himself behind his cabin door with a fire poker, he successively knocked down three or four as they attempted to enter, and the, leaping over their prostrate bodies, furiously attacked those on the outside and drove them to their canoes.  Soon after a deputation of squaws came over to make peace with the Major, when, arming himself, he fearlessly repaired to their camp alone and settled the difficulty.  Such eventually became his influence over the Indians that they regarded him as a magician, and many of them were made to believe that he could shoot them with a rifle and not break their skins.

 

 

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at DOANE’s Corners.  Nathaniel DOANE was captain; Sylvanus BURKE, lieutenant; and Samuel JONES, ensign, with about fifty privates.  The surveying party being at Cleveland, and many strangers, this event attracted much attention.  Never had so many whites been collected together in this vicinity as on this occasion.  The military marched and countermarched to the lively roll of the drum of Joseph BURKE, who had been drum major in the Revolution, and the soul-stirring strains of the fife of Lewis DILL.  “Yankee Doodle,” “Hail Columbia,” and “Who’s Afeared” were among the tunes that aroused the martial spirit of many a gallant heart, as he wielded, perhaps, some ancient relic of the Revolution upon his shoulder.

 

Sad Incidents.–Early in the spring previous a small boat, containing a Mr. HUNTER, wife and child, a colored man named Ben, and a small colored boy, who were moving to Cleveland, was overtaken on the lake by a squall of wind and driven ashore east of Rocky river.  The bluff being perpendicular, they were unable to ascend.  They, however, climbed up the rocks as far as possible–the surge constantly beating over them–with the vain hope that the storm would subside; but on Saturday it increased, and during Sunday Mrs. HUNTER expired, the children having died previously.  On Monday Mr. HUNTER expired.  Black Ben held out until Tuesday, when, the storm subsiding, some French traders, going in a vessel from Cleveland to Detroit, discovered him, took him aboard and returned with him to Cleveland.  Thus, for three days and four nights had he been without sleep or food, and with little clothing, exposed to the continued surge, and holding on for life to some small bushes in the crevices of the rocks.  Ben was treated with great kindness by Major CARTER, in whose family he remained an invalid over a year.

 

Early the second spring succeeding a similar incident occurred near the same place.  Stephen GILBERT, Joseph PLUMB, Adolphus SPAFFORD and Mr. GILMORE started on a fishing expedition for Maumee river in a Canadian batteau.  They had aboard some goods and provisions, sent by Major PERRY to his son Nathan, at Black river, and a hired woman, named Mary, as a passenger to that place.  A Mr. WHITE, of Newburg, and two sons of Mr. PLUMB, not arriving in time, started by land for the mouth of Black river, intending to overtake the boat at that point.  Pursuing the Indian trail on the bank of the lake, they discovered, when about half way, the wreck of the boat on the beach, by the rocky shore, about sixty feet below them, in what is now Dover, and near it, Mr. PLUMB, seriously injured and suffering with cold.  From him they learned that a squall of wind had upset their boat when about a mile from shore, and that all but him had drowned.

 

They were all good swimmers but PLUMB, who luckily got astraddle of the boat after it had upset and floated ashore.  The others made for the shore, GILBERT telling his companions to divest themselves of their clothing as much as possible; but all their efforts failed.  The coldness of the water chilled them so that they could not swim.  Having learned the circumstances from Mr. PLUMB, they made every effort to reach him, but were prevented by the steepness of the rocks.  Mr. WHITE and one of Mr. PLUMB’S sons hastened to Black river, to procure means of relief, leaving the other son to comfort his father.  After they left he climbed up an iron-wood sapling, which bent with his weight, and dropping about thirty feet perpendicular, joined his parent.  In the night Quintus F. ATKINS and Nathan PERRY returned with WHITE and recovered Mr. PLUMB by hauling him up the bank with a rope, by the light of a torch.  This was no easy task for men worn down by fatigue, Mr. PLUMB’S weight being 220 pounds.  The corpses of GILMORE and SPAFFORD were afterwards found and burried at Cleveland; that of the colored woman was discovered and interred at Black river.  This was a melancholy event to the colony.  Of the eighteen deaths that had taken place among the inhabitants of Cleveland from the first settlement in 1796, a period of twelve years, eleven had been by drowning.  During this time the nearest settled physicians were at Hudson, twenty-four, and Austinburg, fifty miles.

 

Hanging of O’Mic.–On the 26^th of June, 1812, an Indian, named O’Mic, was hung for murder, at Cleveland, on the public square.  Fearing an attempt at rescue on the part of the Indians, a large number of armed citizens from this and the adjoining counties assembled.  At the hour of execution he objected to going upon the scaffold; this difficulty was removed by the promise of a pint of whiskey, which he swallowed, and then took his departure for the land of spirits.  In 1813 Cleveland became a depot of supplies and rendezvous for troops engaged in the war.  A small stockade was erected at the foot of Ontario street, on the lake bank, and a permanent garrison stationed here, under Major (afterwards General) JESSUP, of the United States army.

 

The Return of Peace was celebrated by libations of whiskey and the roar of artillery.  One worthy, known as “Uncle Abram,” was much elevated on the occasion.  He carried the powder in an open tin pail upon his arm, while another, to touch off the gun, carried a stick with fire at the end, kept alive by swinging it through the air.  Amid the general excitement a spark found its way to Uncle Abram’s powder about the time the gun was discharged, and his body was seen to rise twenty feet in the air and return by its own gravity to the earth, blackened and destitute of clothing.  He was dead, if his own vociferations were to be believed; but they were not, and he soon recovered from his wounds.

 

 

 

 

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canal, 139 miles northeast from Columbus, 255 from Cincinnati, 130 from Pittsburg, 190 from Buffalo, 650 from New York, and 130 from Detroit.  It was incorporated as a village in 1814 and as a city in 1836.  Excepting a small portion of it on the river, it is situated on a gravelly plain elevated about 100 feet above the lake, of which it has a most commanding prospect.  Some of the common streets are 100 feet wide, and the principal business one, Main street, has the extraordinary width of 132 feet.  It is one of the most beautiful towns in the Union, and much taste is displayed in the private dwellings and disposition of shrubbery.  “The location is dry and healthy, and the view of the meanderings of the Cuyahoga river and of the steamboats and shipping in the port, and leaving or entering it, and of the numerous vessels on the lake under sail, presents a prospect exceedingly interesting from the high shore of the lake.

 

Near the centre of the place is a public square of ten acres, divided into four parts by intersecting streets, neatly enclosed and shaded with trees.  The court house and one or two churches front on this square.

 

The harbor of Cleveland is one of the best on Lake Erie.  It is formed by the mouth of the Cuyahoga river and improved by a pier on each side, extending 425 yards into the lake, 200 feet apart, and faced with substantial stone masonry.  Cleveland is the great mart of the greatest grain-growing State in the Union, and it is the Ohio and Erie canals that have made it such, though it exports much by way of the Welland canal to Canada.  It has a ready connection with Pittsburg through the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, which extends from the Ohio canal at Akron to Beaver creek, which enters the Ohio below Pittsburg.  The natural advantages of this place are unsurpassed in the West, to which it has a large access by the lakes and the Ohio canal.  But the Erie canal constitutes the principal source of its vast advantages; without that great work, it would have remained in its former insignificance.”  The construction of two contemplated railroads, the first connecting Cleveland with Wellsville, on the Ohio, and the last with Columbus, will add much to the business facilities of the place.

 

The government of the city is vested in a mayor and council, which consists of three members from each of the three wards into which the city is divided, and also an alderman from each ward.  The following is a list of the mayors of the city since its organization, with the time of their election: John W. WILLEY, 1836 and 1837; Joshua MILLS, 1838 and 1839; Nicholas DOCKSTADER, 1840; John W. ALLEN, 1841; Joshua MILLS, 1842; Nelson HAYWARD, 1843; Samuel STARKWEATHER, 1844 and 1845; George HOADLEY, 1846, and J. A. HARRIS, 1847.

 

The Cleveland medical college, although established but four or five years, is in a very flourishing condition, and has gained so much in public estimation, as to be equalled in patronage by only one or two similar institutions in the West.  It has seven professors, and all the necessary apparatus and facilities for instruction.

 

In 1837 the government purchased nine acres on the height overlooking the lake, for the purpose of erecting a marine hospital; up to the present time, but little more than the foundation has been laid.  It is to be of Ionic architecture, of hewn stone, and will combine convenience and beauty.

 

 

 

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The population of Cleveland, on the east side of the Cuyahoga, was, in the year 1796, 3; 1798, 16; 1825, 500; 1831, 1,100; 1835, 5,080; 1840, 6,071; and 1846, 10,135.  Of the last, 6,780 were natives of the United States; 1,472 of Germany, 808 of England; 632 of Ireland; 144 of Canada; 97 of the Isle of Man, and 96 of Scotland.

 

OHIO CITY (united to Cleveland in 1854) is beautifully situated on a commanding eminence on the west side of the Cuyahoga, opposite Cleveland.  It was incorporated as a city, March 3, 1836, and its government vested in a mayor and council.  The city is divided into three wards, and is well laid out and built.  There are three churches, viz.: 1 Presbyterian, 1 Methodist Episcopal, and 1 Episcopalian–the last of which is a Gothic structure of great beauty.  The population of Ohio City, in 1840, was 1,577, and in 1845, 2,462.–Old Edition.

 

Cleveland is on the line of seven railroads, viz.: C. & C.; C. C. & C.; C. C. C. & I.; L. S. & M. S.; N. Y. C. & St. L.; N. Y. L. E. & W.; Penn. Co.; V.: in a direct line about 600 miles from New York and 450 from Chicago.  County officers in 1888: Probate Judge, Henry Clay WHITE; Auditor, William H. BREW; Clerk, Levi E. MEACHAM; Prosecuting Attorney, Alexander HADDON; Recorder, Alfred T. ANDERSON; Sheriff, Erasmus D. SAWYER; Surveyor, James F. BROWN; Treasurer, David W. KIMBERLY; Commissioners, Alfred A. JEROME, George A. SCHLATTERECK, Wilbur BENTLY.

 

 

The following newspapers are published in Cleveland: Evening News and Herald, Leader and Morning Herald, Republican, daily, Leader Printing Company, publishers; Plain-Dealer, Democratic, morning and evening daily, Plain-Dealer Publishing Company, editors and publishers; Anzeiger, German Independent Republican, William KAUFFMAN, editor, Anzeiger Publishing Company, publishers; Wächter am Erie, German Democratic, daily Wächter am Erie Publishing Company, editors and publishers; Press, Independent daily.  In addition to the above dailies are 48 weekly, bi-monthly and monthly journals, devoted to commerce, agriculture, religion, science, history, temperance, society, etc.  Of these, 9 are printed in German, 2 Bohemian, and one devoted to the interests of the colored race.  The official organ of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is also published here.

 

 

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H. WADE, president, F. E. RITTMAN, cashier; Ohio National Bank, John MCCLYMONDS, president, Henry C. ELLISON, cashier; National City Bank, W. P. SOUTHWORTH, president, J. F. WHITELAW, cashier; People’s Savings and Loan Association, Robert R. RHODES, president, A. L. WITHINGTON, treasurer; Savings and Trust Company, C. G. KING, president, H. R. NEWCOMB, treasurer; Society for Savings, S. H. MATHER, president, M. T. HERRICK, treasurer; South Cleveland Banking Company, Joseph TURNEY, president, James WALKER, treasurer; Union National Bank, M. A. HANNA, president, E. H. BOURNE, cashier; West Side Banking Company, Lee MCBRIDE, president, Thomas M. IRVINE, cashier; Crumb & Baslington, E. B. HALE & Co., W. J. HAYES & Sons, LAMPRECHT Bros. & Co., Charles H. POTTER & Co., Henry WICK & Co., Cleveland Clearing House Association, Truman P. HANDY, president, A. H. WICK, secretary.

 

Colleges and Scientific Institutions.–The Adelbert College of the Western Reserve University; Case School of Applied Sciences; Kirtland Society of Natural Sciences; Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society; Medical Department of Western Reserve University; Medical Department University of Wooster; Homœopathic College.

 

Charitable Institutions.–City Infirmary; Charity Hospital; City Hospital; Hospital for Women; Asylum for Insane; Homœopathic Hospital; House of Maternity; St. Alexis Hospital; University Hospital; Protestant Orphan Asylum; Children’s Home; House of the Good Shepherd; Little Sisters of the Poor.

 

Public Libraries.–Cleveland, 51,000 volumes; Case, 21,000 volumes; Law, 9,000 volumes.

 

Cleveland has in all 186 churches and missions.  These are divided into many denominations, as 26 Roman Catholic, 14 Baptist, 4 Disciples, 15 Congregational, 9 Evangelical Association, 2 Evangelical, 1 Independent, 11 Evangelical Lutheran, 7 Evangelical Reformed, 1 Free Methodist, 1 Friends, 9 Hebrew, 21 Methodist Episcopal, 11 Presbyterian, 2 United Presbyterian, 14 Protestant Episcopal, 4 Reformed Dutch, 1 Spiritualist, 1 Swedenborgian, 1 Unitarian, 3 United Bretheren, 1 Wesleyan Methodist, 1 Seventh Day Advent, 1 Church of God, 1 Floating Bethel, etc., etc.  These are conducted by various nationalities: English, German, Hebrew, Welsh, Poles, Hungarian, Bohemian, Scandinavian, Italian, etc.

 

MANUFACTURES AND EMPLOYEES.–The manufactures of Cleveland are immense.  Henry DORN, Chief State Inspector of Workshops and Factories, in his report for 1887 gave a list of 462 establishments.  Of these, one hundred and thirty-eight employed 50 hands or over; eighty-one, 100 hands or over; thirty-two, 200 hands or over; eleven, 400 hands or over; six, 600 hands and over, of which one was the Standard Oil Company with 2,000 hands, and the other the Cleveland Rolling Mill with 4,150 hands, but which at times exceeds 5,000 hands.  We annex a list of those with 100 hands or over, eighty-one in number:

 

 

 

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MYERS, OSBORN & Co., stoves, 200; Garry Iron Roofing Co., iron roofing, 152; GORHAM & SARGENT, washboards, 115; C. C. C. & I. R. R. Shops, railroad repairs, 350; PALMER & DELLORY, castings, 115; BOWLER & Co., car wheels and castings, 150; SHERWIN & WILLIAMS, paints, etc., 250; Cleveland Provision Co., provision and packing house, 225; STAFFORD & Son, soap, 600; MURPHY & Co., varnish, 182; PECK, STOW & WILCOX, hardware, 232; TAYLOR & BOGGIS Foundry Co., castings, 188; STURTEVANT Lumber Co., planing-mill, 147; Variety Iron Works Co., machinery and castings, 225; LAMSON, SESSIONS & Co., butts and bolts, 300; WOODS, JENKS & Co., planing-mill, 100; MAHER & BRAYTON, castings, 160; COLWELL & COLLINS, bolts and nuts, 150; The Upson Nut Co., nuts, bolts, etc., 122; HOTCHKISS & UPSON Co., bolts and screws, 350; Riverside Blast Furnace, pig iron, 150; Standard Oil Co., oils, 2,150; Frederick HEMPY & Co., packing cases, etc., 180; Central Blast Furnace, pig iron, 175; GRASSELLI Chemical Co., chemicals, 100; Cleveland Paper Co., paper, 180; White Sewing Machine Co., sewing machines, 505; COMEY & JOHNSTON, straw goods, 105; FELSENHELD Bros. & Co., ladies’ wraps, 100; S. KENNARD & Son, shoes, 102; The WALKER Manufacturing Co., power transmitting machinery, 200; Chapin Bolt and Nut Co., bolts and nuts, 186; W. S. TYLER’s Wire Works, wire goods, 164; Union Steel Screw Co., wood screws, 190; Standard Lighting Co., incandescent lamps, 106; Brush Electric Light Co., electric machinery, 525; TAYLOR & BOGGIS Foundry Co., castings, 105; I. N. TOPLIFF Manufacturing Co., carriage hardware, 105; Standard Sewing Machine Co., sewing machines, 230; Cleveland Malleable Iron Co., malleable iron, 550; VAN DORN Iron Works, iron specialties, 102; EBERHARD Manufacturing Co., malleable iron, 615; Union Rolling Mill Co., iron, 335; American Lubricating Oil Co., oils, 187; F. MULHAUSER, shoddies, 310; BECKMAN, Senior & Co., woolen goods, 100; Cleveland Rolling Mill Co., iron and steel, 4,150; STRONG, COBB & Co., druggists, 662; Publishing House Evangelical Association, publishers, 130; Dangler Stove Manufacturing Co., vapor stoves, etc., 130; H. B. HUNT, sheet iron work, 120.

 

Lake Commerce.–According to the Marine Record of Cleveland, the total number of hulls and tonnage on the lakes at the close of 1887 was 3,537 vessels with a total tonnage of 905,277 tons.

 

The custom house report for the same year showed imports of the value of $43,884,336, exports, $34,988,095.  Of the imports, iron ore leads, being valued $16,351,126; lumber, $9,945,040; merchandise, $12,701,200; copper, $627,000.  Of the exports, merchandise, $12,531,200; coal, $3,540,011; iron (bar, etc.), $1,277,950; coal oil, 591,964.  Vessels built at the port of Cleveland in 1887–tonnage, 19,000 tons.

 

The item, export of coal oil, only indicates the little that goes by vessels up the lakes in the sailing season, and in no sense indicates the magnitude of the oil refining industry of Cleveland–the largest in the world.

 

The population of Cleveland in the year 1840 was 6,071; in 1880, 160,146; estimated 1888, 220,000.  School census in 1886, 61,654; Burk A. HINSDALE, superintendent.

 

The following clear, concise outline sketch of Cleveland, its past and present, was written for this work by D. W. MANCHESTER, Secretary of the Western Reserve Historical Society.

 

Cleveland stands on a broad plateau elevated about eighty feet above the surface of the lake and it is intersected by the Cuyahoga river, some five miles of which is broad, deep, and navigable for the largest steamers and sailing craft.

 

In the remote cycles of geological times this elevated plain was the bottom of the lake, which in the course of countless ages has receded to its present level, evidenced by a series of ridges parallel therewith, many miles in length, and extending back several miles to rocky elevations which were its original and primeval shores in the day when these northern waters met and mingled with those of the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 

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feet in depth to the underlying rocky foundation.  It is composed of alternate strata of Devonian shale, marl, clay, gravel, sand and alluvium, the disintegration of Arctic mountains of rocks, intermingled with boulders of various magnitudes and ancient driftwood, which grew in a once northern tropical climate.

 

In the sandy and alluvium strata of the cycles are found the bones of many animals, characteristic of the drift period, and notably the tusks and grinders of the elephant, and the skeleton entire of both the elephant and mastodon of gigantic proportions, discovered in the sliding banks of the lake, river or ravines and sometimes in excavating cellars.  It was, moreover, the home, the cultivated field, the garden and the grave of the northern colony of that prehistoric people the remains of whose wonderful earthwork have given them the designation of Mound-builders.  Then came the red man, known to the white man for nearly 400 years as the Indian, but bringing with him neither knowledge nor tradition concerning the preceding race, or of their mighty works which are an astonishment unto this day.

 

From 1535 to 1760, two hundred and twenty-five years, the region of the lakes and the territory north of the Ohio river to the Mississippi river, discovered and traversed by the Jesuit missionaries and fur traders, was under the dominion of the king of France, and was designated on the maps as New France, all of which by the fate of war and treaties of peace passed to the English in 1760.  During that long period the land was occupied by the native races.  There were two powerful empires of the aborigines, the East comprising the confederated Six Nations, and the West, of which, as late as 1763, Pontiac was the Napoleon, and the Cuyahoga river was the boundary line of the two empires on the southerly side of Lake Erie.  More than two hundred years ago, on the banks of this boundary stream, Christianity was taught the wild man by the French missionaries, and letters were written to Madame Maintenon, the wife of Louis XIV., now extant in the archives of France, descriptive of the Indians, the lands, the forests and the rivers on the southerly border of Lake Erie, and containing the first description or mention on paper of the wonderful falls over which is discharged the blue waters of the magnificent chain of American lakes.  When the English came into possession this part of Ohio became a province of Quebec.  Immediately following the Revolution New York and Virginia ceded to the general government all right to this territory based on expressions in the early colonial charters signifying the extension of the grant to the mythical South sea on the west.

 

In 1786 Connecticut ceded her claim likewise to the United States, retaining, however, so much thereof as is now known as the Western Reserve.

 

In July, 1787, the Congress of the Confederation of States passed an act organizing the Northwest Territory, and the spring following the first white settlement was made at the mouth of the Muskingum, on the Ohio river, and in 1789 the first Congress under the Federal Constitution gave the Territory a permanent status among the States of the Republic.  Indian wars succeeded, General ST. CLAIR’s army was defeated; but in 1794 Mad Anthony WAYNE, at the head of a well-appointed army, subdued the numerous hostile tribes.

 

Connecticut, in 1792, gave 500,000 acres of the west end of the “Reserve” for the benefit of her citizens who had suffered by the spoliations of the British, since known as the “Fire Lands.”

 

In 1795 Connecticut sold the remainder of the Reserve lands east of the Cuyahoga river, a little more than 3,000,000 acres, to a syndicate of her citizens, who organized themselves into an association under the name of the Connecticut Land Company, the interests of the company being managed by seven directors.

 

 

 

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hoga, on the east side thereof, was selected, and here in September, 1796, the then future city was surveyed, mapped, and named in honor of their chief by his associates.  He was emphatically a gentleman of fine acquirements, polished manners and unquestioned integrity.  When the surveying party returned to their homes in the East, only three white persons were left on the Reserve–Job STILES and his wife and Joseph LANDON.  The last named soon left and was succeeded by Edward PAINE, afterwards General PAINE of Painesville, who boarded with the STILES, and was an Indian trader.

 

General CLEAVELAND never afterwards returned to the infant settlement, but died at his native home in 1806, too soon to see the wonderful growth of the city to which he gave his name.

 

The year 1797, brought James KINGSBURY and his family to Cleveland.  He was born in Connecticut, but came to the Reserve from Alsted, New Hampshire.  Also Lorenzo CARTER and Ezekiel HAWLEY, his brother-in-law, with their families.  This year occurred the birth of the first white child, that of Mr. STILES.  Daniel ELDRIDGE, one of the old surveying party, coming back to the settlement, died and was buried in the first selected cemetery, long since abandoned, now in the heart of the busy city.  The first wedding was that of Chloe INCHES, a servant in the family of Mayor CARTER, who married a Canadian, Mr. CLEMENT, by the Rev. Seth HART, who had been of the surveying party.  In 1799 Rodolphus EDWARDS and Nathaniel DOAN came to the then city on paper.  There were a few other names which might be mentioned as being on the ground during the year above mentioned, but CARTER, KINGSBURY, EDWARDS and DOANE were the real primeval pioneers, whose names are best known to the present generation as men of generous spirit, great endurance and noble deeds, the advance guard of civilization prior to the year 1800.

 

In 1801 SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, a nephew of Gov. HUNTINGTON, of Connecticut, a lawyer of the age of about thirty-five years, settled in Cleveland.  He was a member of the first Constitutional Convention, the first State Senator of the county, then Trumbull, presided over that body, was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court in 1803, and elected Governor in 1808.  He resided in a block house on Superior street, near where now stands the American House.

 

Cuyahoga county was created in 1810, Cleveland being the county-seat.  The first Court of Record was held in a frame building on the north side of Superior street, June 5, 1810, Judge RUGGLES presiding.  John WALWORTH was Clerk of the Court and S. S. BALDWIN the Sheriff.  In 1812 the first court-house, of logs, was erected on the public square, and in the same year the first execution occurred, that of Omie, the Indian, being hanged for the murder of two white men near Sandusky.

 

Cleveland was granted a village charter at the winter legislative session of 1814-15.  The next year “The Commercial Bank of Lake Erie” was established, with Leonard CASE as president.

 

The Episcopal church was established in 1817, and ten years later was erected its house of worship, corner of St. Clair and Seneca streets.

 

In 1827 the Ohio canal was completed as far south as Akron, and in 1832 it was in operation from Lake Erie to the Ohio river, resulting in advancing the commercial prosperity of Cleveland and a rapid increase of population.  In immediate connection with this great public work was the improvement of the harbor, for which Congress had made an appropriation of $5,000.  Small as the appropriation seems now, it sufficed, by honest management and the volunteer help of citizens, to cut a new channel for the river a few rods east of its natural bed and outlet into the lake and the building of piers.