Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter 6: The Pbbiod from 1783 to 1794, 1870

Chapter 6: The Pbbiod from 1783 to 1794

Detention of Western Posts by the Briti h - Dissensions Among the States About the Northwest - Origin of Conflicting Claims - The First English Charter - The Second Charter for Virginia - The Plymouth Charter - Annulment of the Virginia Charter - Grant of Massachusetts by the Plymouth Company--Grant of Connecticut to Earl Warwick by the same Company - Its Boundaries - Its Conveyance to Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brooke and others - The New York Claim - Views of the States without Claims -New York first cedes her Claim to the United States - Virginia follows - Also Massachusetts - Connecticut cedes her Claim to all but the Western Reserve - The Indian "Right of Occupancy " - The Iroquois cede all East of the Cuyahoga - Treaty with the Wyandots, Delawares and others - First Trade from Pittsburg - Primitive Engineering - First House in Cleveland - The Moravians in Cuyahoga County - Outline of their Past History - Their Con_ version - Their Peaceful Conduct - The Massacre - Wandering of the Survivors - They arrive at the Mouth of the Cuyahoga - Locate in the present Independence - Call their New Home Pilgerruh - Their Course during the Year - Speech of an Apostate - Connecticut attempts to sell the Reserve - Wreck of the ' Beaver'' - The Crew winter on the Site of Cleveland - The Moravians Leave the County - Their Subsequent Fortunes - Organization of the Northwestern Territory - Formation of Washington County - Another Indian Treaty - An old French Trader - Defeat of Harmar and St. Clair - Conveyance of the " Fire- Lands '' - Wayne's Victory and Treaty government, however, refused to give them up, giving as an excuse the alleged unfair conduct of some of the States regarding debts owed by their citizens to British subjects. 'The posts at Fort Niagara, at Detroit and on the Sandusky river were thus retained. The Indians naturally looked on their possessors as the great men of the lake region, and thus the English maintained a predominant influence over this part of the country many years after any semblance of legal title had passed away.

Meanwhile, even during the Revolution, dissensions had arisen between the States regarding the ownership of the vast country lying between the Alleganies, the great lakes and the Mississippi. Several of the States had conflicting claims, based on royal charters or other grounds, while those who had no such claims insisted that that unoccupied territory ought to belong to all the States in common, since it had been rescued from the power of Great Britain by their united efforts. We will endeavor to give a brief sketch of the principal pretensions put forth by the States, so far as they relate to this locality. An elaborate account of them all, with all their ramifications, would require a volume.

In 1606, K-ng James the First granted a charter to certain noblemen, gentlemen and merchants of England, conveying to them all the eastern sea-coast of North America, between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of north latitude; that portion between the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees being granted to a company resident in London und vicinity, and that between the forty-first and forty-fifth degrees to a company resident in the west of England, while both had the privilege of establishing colonies between the thirty-eighth and forty-first degrees, and of occupying the land for fifty miles each way along the coast from the point of settlement, and fifty miles back. The western company failed to establish a colony in the territory granted to it. he London company, with great difficulty, succeeded in planting one in Virginia.

So, in 1609, King James gave a new charter to the London company, under the title of '' The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the first colony of Virginia." In this charter his majesty granted to the company all Virginia, from Old Point Comfort, at the outlet of Chesapeake bay, two hundred miles northward and the same distance southward along the coast, ''and all up into the mainland throughout, from sea to sea, west and northwest." It was on this charter, and this alone, that Virginia afterwards claimed the great northwestern territory, giving the terms '' west and

In 1620, King James gave a charter to the '' Second Colony of Virginia," commonly called the Plymouth Company, comprising all the territory between the fortieth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, under the title of New England, granting it to them ""in length of and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout all the mainlands, from sea to sea, together with all the firm lands, etc., upon the main, and within the said islands and seas adjoining," provided it was not actually possessed by any Christian prince or State.

In 1624 the charter of the London or First Virginia company, covering Virginia proper, was set aside and declared void by the English courts, under a writ of quo warranto, on account of the misconduct or neglect of the proprietors. The next year King Charles the First declared that the territory previously covered by the forfeited charter should thenceforth be dependent on him, and it was treated and considered as aroyal government; the right of granting vacant lands being vested in the crown. Maryland, Dela-

Pennsylvania and Georgia were afterwards formed out of the territory covered by the forfeited charter, without any protest on the part of the people or government of Virginia.

In 1628 the council of Plymouth, in whom, as before stated, had been vested the title of New England, granted to Governor Endicott and others all the lands from three miles north of the Merrimac river to three miles south of Massachusetts Bay, extending west ''from sea to sea," except lands occupied by any foreign prince or State. This became the province of Massachusetts bay, which claimed a territory about seventy miles wide and four thousand miles long, running from the Atlantic to the Pacific. As, however, the strip in question would all go north of Cuyahoga county, we need give no farther attention to it.

The Period From 1783 To 1794

braced in the following description: ''All that part of New England in America which lies and extends itself from a river there called Narragansett river, the space of forty leagues upon a straight line near the sea shore, towards southwest, west and by south, or west, as the coast lieth, towards Virginia, accounting three English miles to the league; all and singular, the lands and hereditaments whatsoever, lying and being within the bounds aforesaid, north and south, in latitude and breadth, and in length and longitude, and within all the breadth aforesaid, throughout all the main lands there, from the Western ocean to the South Seas."

In 1631, the territory thus diabolically described was conveyed hy the Earl of Warwick to Lord Brooke and Lord Say and Seal, and their associates, who became the founders of Connecticut. It was on the ground of the above grant that Connecticut afterwards claimed thehorthern part of Ohio, and really, considering the extraordinarily puzzling nature of the description just given, we see no reason why that State should not have claimed all North America by the same title. The northern limit of Connecticut was, however, fixed by the English authorities at forty-two degrees and two minutes, and the southern one at forty-one degrees north latitude, and we believe the officials of the colony and State translated the unintelligible lingo of Earl Warwick's deed to mean that those northern and southern limits should be extended westward to the Pacific ocean.

The deed to Earl Warwick and the subsequent charter confirming Connecticut in its political powers were never annulled nor forfeited, and were the foundation of Connecticut's claim, not only to northern Ohio, but to the celebrated Wyoming valley in Pennsylvania, where many bitter and even bloody contests took place before the Revolution, between the factions of the two States just named.

Moreover, New York had a claim to northwestern Ohio nearly as good as that of Connecticut, and much better than that of Virginia. The nations of Indians who resided on the frontiers of its settlement, were always considered as particularly pertaining to her jurisdiction, and her colonial assembly had frequently been at considerable expense in keeping a commissioner among them and conciliating their good will. The State, therefore, claimed a pre-emptive title to their lands, and insisted that those lands reverted to her after they were forfeited by the hostility of the Trequois during the Revolution. But it was generally admitted that the Jroqwois lands extended to the Ouyahoga river; consequently New York asserted her title thus far west, as the successor of those tribes.

The claims of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia were all interfered with by the actual possession established by the French and Dutch, but when the colonics founded by these nations were conquered by the English, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia insisted that the crown should make good its original grants. But the king's ministers took no such view of the matter; they did not, when New York was acquired, extend the dominion of Massachusetts nor Connecticut over it, and when the Ohio country was acquired it was, as we have seen, made a part of the province of Quebec.

Thus it was near the close of the Revolution numerous conflicting claims were put forth to the fair land between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, which it was easy to see would be the home of a thriving population. But all the other States than those named above were strongly opposed to the recognition of those claims. They argued, and with justice, that not only had some of those pretensions, particularly those of Virginia, been long since annulled by due course of law, but that, no matter what might be the technical title derived from some old yellow parchment, the valley of the Ohio and of the lakes had actually been conquered both from France and from Great Britain by the blood and treasure of all the colonies, and that all were equally entitled to share in the results. Maryland had been especially active in opposing the pretensions of Virginia on this subject, and had been with difficulty persuaded to enter the old Confederation (in 1777) by the pledge that she should be justly treated regarding the public lands.

It was evident to every one that the only way to settle these disputes without violence was to cede the land west of the Alleganies, or the greater part of it, to the Confederation, and the patriotism of the day was equal to the occasion. New York led the way, in the forepart of 1780, by ceding to the general government all her claims to the territory west of a line drawn north and south through the westernmost part of Lake Ontario. In December of the same year, Virginia followed with a cession of all her right to both the soil and the jurisdiction of the whole tract northwest of the Ohio river. These cessions were confirmed after the treaty of peace, and accepted by the Congress of the Confederation. Massachusetts abandoned her claim to the country west of the west boundary of New York, as defined just above, and compromised with that State in regard to a large tract east of that line.

Connecticut, however, being a very small State, was naturally more tenacious than the others regarding herland. Besides, she had been engaged in a long, bitter controversy with Pennsyivania regarding the colony she had planted in the Wyoming valley, a controversy in which much blood had been shed, and in which the passions of the people of Connecticut had been warmly aroused in favor of their title to the land lying west of them, from ''sea to sea." Nevertheless, after much negotiating, in the year 1786 she ceded to the United States her claims to all the land west of a line a hundred and twenty miles west from the west boundary of Pennsylvania. The tract between that boundary and the line first mentioned she retained for herself, and the other States seem to have acceded to her position. The tract thus excepted from the

Meanwhile measures had been speedily taken to obtain a cession of the "right of occupancy" of the Indians. It should be understood that in all the dealings of Europeans with the Indians it was taken for granted that the absolute title to the land - what in law is called the fee simple - was vested in whatever Kuropean government could establish its power over it, by discovery, by building forts on it, or by conquest. But, as a general rule, tribes of Indians with whom the European nation might be at peace were considered as having a certain inferior title, called the right of occupancy. So long as they refused to sell the land and remained at peace, it was considered illegal to remove them by force, but they were not permitted to sell to any one except the government or colony holding the title, unless the purchaser had obtained a grant from that government or colony. The same system prevails to the present day; the United States claiming the title to all the unoccupied lands within its boundaries, but

In colonial times, and perhaps at a later day, it would appear as if speculators and frontiersmen had sometimes got up wars for the express purpose of driving the Indians from their lands. But the great confederacy of the warlike Jroguois was too powerful, and too good a guard of the colony of New York against the hostile French, to be treated in this manner, and down to the time of the Revolution they had hunted over their broad domain with rarely any molestation. In that contest, however, they had, in spite of many pledges to the contrary, waged deadly and unsparing war against the colonists, and at the treaty of peace had been abandoned by the British without a single stipulation in their favor. The United States did not directly confiscate any portion of the land the Iroquois had claimed, but they brought such a pressure to bear that the latter very well understood that some of it must be given up.

Accordingly, at a council held at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, between commissioners of the United States and the chiefs of the Siz Nations, the latter ceded to the former, besides a small tract in New York, all their land west of the west bounds of Pennsylvania and of the Ohio river.

But Indian titles are usually very indefinite, and notwithstanding the long established pretensions of the Iroquois it was thought best to obtain a distinct renunciation of the claims of the western Indians to the same tract, In January, 1785, a treaty was made at Fort McIntosh, by George Rogers Clark, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, with those who called themselves the chiefs of the Wyandots, Delawares, Chippewas and Oltawas, by which those tribes were placed under the protection of the United States and a definite boundary of their territory was established. The boundary between the United States on the one hand and the Wyandots and Delawares on the other, was to begin at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, go up that stream to the portage and across to the Tuscarawas; thence down to the forks of the Muskingum; thence west to the portage of the Big Miami; thence to the Miami of the Lakesor Omee (Maumee) ; thence down that stream to its mouth.

The United States allotted the lands thus bounded to the Wyandots and Delawares and to such of the Ottawas as then dwelt there, to live and hunt on. It was provided that no citizen of the United States should settle on those lands, and if any did so that the Indians might punish them as they pleased. The claims of these tribes to all the lands east, south and west of those above described were formally relinquished. It was further provided that if any Indian should murder a citizen, his tribe should deliver him to the nearest military post. Three military reservations were excepted from the Indian territory by the United States, but none of them were within the present county of Cuyahoga.

The territory of Cuyahoga county was thus, for the time being, divided by the Cuyahoga river into two sections; the western section being devoted to Indian occupancy, while the eastern part was intended for the home of Caucasian civilization. It was not, however, occupied for some time afterwards, on account of its distance from the settlements already established.

Down to this time there had been only a slight trade in Indian goods and furs, back and forth between Pittsburg and the mouth of the Cuyahoga. In the spring of 1786, we find the first account of any considerable commercial operation between those two points. The firm of Duncan & Wilson, of Pittsburg, had made a contract with Caldwell & Elliott, of Detroit, to deliver to their agent at the mouth of the Cuyahoga a large quantity of flour and bacon. In May they began to forward it from Pittsburg, employing for that purpose about ninety pack-horses and thirty men. Mr. James Hillman, (afterwards known as Col. Hillman, of Youngstown,) was one of the men employed, and has given an interesting account of the transaction in a letter published in Col. Whittlesey's Early History of Cleveland.

The long train of burdened animals followed the great Indian trail, leading from Pittsburg to the Sandusky, as far as '"' Standing Stone," on the Cuyahoga, near the present village of Franklin, passing thence along a smaller trail to the mouth of 'l'inker's creek, in the present town of Independence in this county. There the train forded the Cuyahoga and proceeded down the west side, passing a small log house, which a trader named Maginnis had lately left. At the mouth of the Cuyahoga the men found an Englishman named Hawder, sent thither by Caldwell and Elliott to receive the freight, who had put up a tent in which he resided. No one else was at the

As the freight was delivered, it was forwarded by the sail-boat '"' Mackinaw" to Detroit. The mouth of the Cuyahoga was then where it is remembered to have been by old residents before the opening of the present channel; the water running through what is now called the ''old bed." There was, however, a pond, called by the packmen 'Sunfish pond," lying still further west, and having been, apparently, a still older bed of the river.

As the work of transportation was expected to last all summer, the men desired to establish themselves on the east side of the river, partly, perhaps, to get off from Indian ground, but principally on account of a fine spring of water which bubbled forth near the present foot of Superior street. But it was difficult to cross the river, and to sail up it in the '""Mackinuw" was impracticable, because the mouth. was closed by a sand-bar. It was opened by a very simple piece of engineering. The men made some wooden shovels, waded out upon the sand-bar, and dug a ditch through which the water ran with sufficient force to clear a channel navigable for the 'Mackinaw."

Having sailed up to the desired locality, they made collars for their horses out of blankets, and tugs out of the raw elk-hide tent-ropes, drew together some small logs, and built a cabin near the spring before mentioned. This is the first house that is known with certainty to have been erected on the site of the city of Cleveland, though it is quite probable that there had previously been a temporary trading-post on one side or the other of the Cuyahoga at its mouth.

The traffic described by Mr. Hillman continued throughout the season; six round trips being made by the trains. We infer from the language of a letter from Mr. Hillman, published in the Early History of Cleveland, that some other goods besides flour and bacon were taken to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and that some furs were transported back to Pittsburg. Some of the upward-bound freight was taken to Detroit by water and some by land.

Meanwhile, and almost simultaneously with the beginning of this traffic, the first settlement was made in Cuyahoga county by people who designed to devote themselves to the arts of peace and civilization, though most of them were not of the proud Cancasian race. It was about the 7th of June, 1786, that a weary band of travel-worn men and women crossed the western border of Cuyahoga county, and made their way along the lake shore toward the mouth of the Cuyahoga river. They arrived there on the 8th, and almost at the same time a flotilla of canoes came down the lake, with the old men and women and some of the children belonging to the households, whose more vigorous members had marched on shore. The schooner '' Mackinaw" had just previously brought their heavy luggage and the most infirm of their members.

expression rarely seen among those fierce, relentless denizens of the forest - an expression of mildness, of patience, of resignation, lightened up only by occasional gleams of religious enthusiasm. Their principal leaders were two sturdy, broad-shouldered men, with the unmistakable round, German physiognomy, but whose fair Teutonic complexion had been bronzed by long exposure almost to the aboriginal hue. These were John Heckewelder and David Zeisberger, and their followers were the remnant of that celebrated band of Moravian Indians, whose cruel fate forms at once one of the saddest and one of the darkest pages of American history.

Converted to Christianity by the efforts of the Moravian missionaries, they had established themselves in the fertile valley of the Muskingum before the Revolution, where, unmoved by the sneers of their brethren of the woods, they sought to live by agriculture and the chase, eschewing war, performing the duties of their religion, and manifesting every evidence of a sincere abhorrence both for the theoretical errors and practical crimes of paganism. During the Revolution they were objects of distrust to both parties, though, so far as can be ascertained, without cause on the part of either. As the war went on, numerous outrages were committed on the frontier of Pennsylvania by Indians, especially by Delawares, to which tribe a large part of the Moravian Indians had belonged. The fierce Scotch-Irish frontiersmen were furious for revenge, and they cared little on whom it fell. It was easy to concoct stories that the Moravian Indians harbored and aided the marauders, though all the circumstances showed that such was not the case.

At the same time the pagan Indians and the British officers insisted that the Moravians should move back farther into the wilderness, where they could not be of any assistance to the Americans. This they in fact did in 1782, buta portion of them returned to the Muskingum to take care of their crops. In the summer of that year a battalion of militia, under Col. Williamson, marched swiftly to the Moravian towns, disarmed the hunters, got all of the people into their power under false pretenses, and then in cold blood murdered the whole number - over a hundred men, women and children. No more infamous atrocity was ever perpetrated by the worst of those who are commonly called savages.

Yet those who had not returned to the Muskingum, together with some who were at another village and thus escaped the massacre, nearly all still adhered to their religion. A few, only, joined the hostile Indians and clumored fiercely for. revenge - as might well be expected. But the main body gathered sadly together on the Sandusky, under the leadership of their devoted missionaries, Heckewelder and Zeisberger, and again devoted themselves to the arts of peace and the duties of religion. But here they were constantly persecuted by their kinsmen, the Delawares, and other savage Indians, and were taken under the pro- tection of the British commander at Detroit. They established themselves near that post, where they remained until the spring of 1786. They then determined to locate themselves on the Cuyahoga, apparently hoping to be allowed to establish themselves at their old home on the Muskingum, for which they always manifested a strong attraction. The schooners '"'Beaver" and "Mackinaw," belonging to the Northwest Fur Company, were employed to bring them, but occupied so much time on account of adverse winds that the '"'Beaver" was ordered back from Sandusky. The '"'Mackinaw," as has been stated, brought the luggage and the infirm, while the rest came on foot or in canoes, under the leadership of Heckewelder and Zeisberger. -

They pitchéd their camp on the site of Cleveland. One of their number proceeded to Pittsburg to obtain provisions, and Zeisberger set. forth to explore the river and find a suitable location. On the second day he came to a lofty plateau on the west side of the river, a little below the mouth of what is now called Tinker's creck, where had once stood the Ottawa village of which mention has previously been made. There being already some partially cleared ground here, and the locality being high and healthy, the missionary selected it as the proper place for his people. The latter immediately removed their camp thither, and began to erect huts and plant corn, expecting to go to the Muskingum after harvest. They named their temporary abiding place Pilgerruh.

By the end of June they were, as they considered, quite comfortably housed. Congress had voted them five hundred bushels of corn, but it was to be delivered at Fort McIntosh in the vicinity of- the Muskingum valley, and thither they never went. 'They were almost destitute of provisions, but they devoted themselves assiduously to the chase, and with good success - numerons elks being especially named as among the victims of their skill. The man sent to Pittsburg also returned with an order from Duncan & Wilson, directing the agent in charge of their packtrain to sell Zeisberger, on credit, all the flour the Indians needed. A large quantity of goods also arrived, which had been devoted to their use by the Moravian churches at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, three years before, but had failed to reach them on account of their distant wanderings. Thus their immediate wants were relieved, and on the 13th of August they celebrated the Lord's Supper. But their friends at Pittsburg assured them that they could not return to their lands on the Muskingum without great probability of another bloody outbreak on the part of the frontiersmen. So they concluded to remain, at least through the winter, on the Cuyahoga.

The good missionaries were sadly troubled about those Indians who had formerly belonged to their congregation, but who had apostatized to paganism. In September Zeisberger sent to the apostates some of his most trusty converts, béaring a very pathetic "speech," beseeching them to return; but all in vain.

Samuel Nanticoke, one of Zeisberger's delegates, met his brother, who had apostatized, and added his own entreaties to those of the missionary, but the son of the forest fiercely rejected his pleadings, saying:

"By the waters of the Tuscarawas the whites gained the end for which they strove so long. 'There lie all our murdered friends. I avoid the whites and flee from them. No man shall induce me to trust them again. Never, while I live, will I unite with you Christians. If your town were near, I might perhaps visit you, but that would be all. Onur forefathers went to the devil, as you say, and where they are I am content hereafter to be."

Heckewelder thereupon left the mission, with which he had so long been connected, for the East; leaving Zeisberger in charge, assisted by a lately arrived brother named William Edwards. Heckewelder continued to labor as a minister until his death, many years afterward, and was the author of a valuable work on the Indians, from which most of these facts, relating to the transient Moravian colony in Cuyahoga county, have been derived.

Zeisberger was fearful Jest the Indians under his charge should become a burden on the Moravian mission board, and, having labored beyond his strength to prevent it, fell seriously ill. The mission board heard of this with deep regret, and united in a remonstrance, urging him to draw on them for what he might need. After their cabins were completed, the Indians labored zealously to build a chapel, in which divine service might be held. It was soon finished, and was consecrated on the 10th of November.

As stated a short distance back, it was in this year (1786) that Connecticut ceded to the Confederation all the western lands which she claimed, except what. now constitutes the '*' Western Reserve." 'This cession was made on the 14th dayof September. About the same time the legislature of that State authorized three of its citizens to sell all that part of the Reserve lying east of the Cuyahoga river and the portage path; that is, all to which the Indian title had Leen extinguished. It was to be sold in townships of six miles square, at not less than three New England shillings {fifty cents) per acre. Five hundred acres were to be reserved in each township for the support of ministers, and five hundred for the support of schools. 'he first minister in each township was also to receive two hundred and forty acres besides. Until a republican government should be established there, the law declared that the general assembly of Connecticut should provide for the maintenance of order among the settlers. It was evident that that State still claimed not only-the title to the land of the Western Reserve, but the political jurisdiction over its inhabitants. But the land was so far from the older settlement that no sales of any extent could

Late in the autumn of 1786, the two schooners of the Northwestern Fur Company, the '' Beaver" and the ''Mackinaw," were coming up the lake, on their way to Detroit. It was snowing fast when they arrived, late in the afternoon, in the vicinity of the Cuyahoga, and they both tried to run into that river for shelter. Both failed. The ' Beaver," commanded. by Captain Thorn, was driven ashore near the present foot of Willson avenue, in the city of Cleveland; but, so far as we can judge from the vague accounts which have come down to us, without loss of life. 'The captain and crew of the '' Mackinaw " were not aware of the wreck of the '' Beaver," and after they had ridden out the storm sailed away to Detroit.

This was the'last trip of the season, and, the lake would soon be frozen up; so Captain Thorn and his men did not think it advisable to attempt eseaping until spring. They accordingly built a cabin on the bank of the lake, opposite the wreck, and prepared to winter there. 'There were three small brass field-pieces on the schooner, as seems to have been the custom on the Fur Company's vessels, which frequently had to visit regions which might be infested with hostile Indians. These were taken ashore, greased, plugged up, wrapped in pieces of sail, and buried on the shore between the wreek and the cabin.

From Captain Thorn's subsequent statements it appears there was then an India')-trader by the name of Williams at the mouth of Rocky river, from whom he bought provisions when the stock taken from the vessel ran low. Mr. Williams is mentioned in no other account, and it is not known how long he bad been at the point mentioned. From the fact that he is not spoken of by Mr. Hillman, who came to the mouth of the Cuyahoga six times during the summer of 1786, and would undoubtedly have heard of him if he had then been at Rocky river, it may be presumed that Mr. Williams did not locate there until the fall of that year - but this is quite uncertain.

Captain Thorn also bought some provisions of the Moravians. He and his crew remained through the winter, but left with the opening spring. He continued to sail the lakes or to live near them all his He was a Canadian, but took the side of the United States during the warof1812. He afterwards resided on the St. Clair river, in Michigan, until his death, which occurred about twenty years ago; he being then nearly a hundred years old. He was well known to many of the early settlers of Cleveland, especially to Captain Allen Gaylord, from whose manuscript statement, preserved in the archives of the

"Meanwhile Zeisberger and his followers were in great perplexity as to what they should do next. Pilgerruh was not considered a desirable residence. They would all have been glad to return to the Muskingum, but feared attacks both from frontiersmen and hostile Indians. Their kindred Delawares offered them an abiding place at Sandusky. At length they determined to go to the mouth of Black river. They celebrated Lent and Easter at Pilgerruh, and then prepared for their journey.

On the 19th of April the persecuted little band assembled for the last time at their chapel, and joined in prayer to God with hearts apparently still devoted to their religion, notwithstanding all they had suffered from those who called themselves the champions of that faith. Their simple service being concluded, they immediately set forth. One party went by land under Zeisberger, while the rest entered their canoes and followed the lead of Edwards down the river. Ere they could reach the lake a great storm checked their progress; so they remained to fish. The chronicler of their movements narrates that in one night's work with torch and spear they obtained three hundred fish of good quality, weighing from three to fifteen pounds each. What they did not want to eat they dried for future use. They then proceeded to their destination, where both parties arrived on the 24th and 25th of April, having dwelt in the territory of Cuyahoga county about ten months and a half.

Their fortunes, after leaving our county, were almost as sad as before. Scarcely had they reached Black river when they were driven on to Sandusky by the hostile Delawares. 'They remained there till 1790, when, being again ordered by their jealous kinsmen to remove into 'the western wilderness, they besought the aid of the British commander, who took them to the banks of the Thames river, in Canada. In 1797 the lands they had occupied on the Muskingum were conveyed to them by the United States, and a part of them returned thither. These, too, subsequently sold their lands and improvements to the United States and returned to Canada, where their descendants still reside.

In July, 1787, the Congress of the Confederation passed an ordinance organizing the vast district between the Ohio, the great lakes and the Mississippi, under the name of the ''Northwestern Territory," and providing for civil government over it. 'They also elected General Arthur St. Clair as governor, together with a secretary and three judges. The ordinance was drawn by Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, and provided that from all the territory thus organized slavery should be forever excluded. Connecticut protested against the inclusion of the Western Reserve in the new Territory, but without effect.

the Muskingum. When Governor St. Clair and the judges (in whom the temporary legislative power was vested) arrived in the new Territory, they proceeded on the 27th of July, 1788, to form the county of Washington, of which Marietta was made the county seat, and which extended from the Ohio to Lake Erie, with the Cuyahoga river and the portage path as its west- ern boundary; thus embracing the eastern part of the present county of Cuyahoga. The section thus included was a hundred and fifty miles distant from the county seat, at Marietta, but as no one resided here that was of little consequence.

In 1789 the first congress under the Federal Constitution re-enacted the ordinance of 1787; thus giving the Northwestern Territory a permanent position in the new political arrangement.

The same year another treaty was made at Fort Harmar, by which the Indians again ceded to the United States the country west of the Cuyahoga and the portage path.

About this period, or a little later, one Joseph Du Chatar had a trading post on the west side of the Cuyahoga, some nine miles above the mouth. Jean Baptiste Fleming and Joseph Burall were with him a part of the time. Du Chatar, then in middle age, had been from his youth in the employ of the Northwestern company, and afterwards described the mouth of the Cuyahoga as having been one of their principal points for the sale of goods and purchase of furs. At the time mentioned, however, he was trading for himself.

Large profits were usually made by the early furtraders, but there were some serious drawbacks. At one time Du Chatar and his companions had a sharp conflict with some Indians over the ownership of a rifle. At another time a number of them demanded liquor, which Du Chatar refused to let them have, either because they could not pay for it or because he thought them already too well supplied. They attacked his cabin, which he and his men defended with their rifles. Some of the Indians were killed and the rest retreated. It would seem to have been very dangerous to remain in the country after that, but the French had ways of conciliating the savages which hardly any one else could imitate.

In 1790, the western Indians engaged in open hostilities against the frontier, and General Harmar marched against them, only to be defeated. This was followed the next year by the defeat of Governor St. Clair, at the head of another army. © The Indians became extremely elated, and it began to look as if the course of western emigration was to be permanently checked. Of course, under these circumstances, there was no sale for frontier land, and the Western Reserve remained on the hands of the State of Connecticut.

In 1792, that State gave five hundred thousand acres off from the west end of the Reserve, for the benefit of those of her citizens who had suffered from the burning of their property by the British during the Revolution. This tract was commonly called the '« Fire Lands," and has been considered as a distinct section under that nume ever since, although a part of the original Western Reserve.

Meanwhile, the administration of President Washington was making constant efforts to conciliate the Indians, and secure a permanent peace. In 1793,

General Benjamin Lincoln, Hon. Beverly Randolph, and Colonel Timothy Pickering, postmaster-general of the United States, commissioners appointed by the President, passed up the south shore of Lake Erie, on their way to Detroit, still held by the British, to endeavor to make a treaty with the hostile Indians. This effort, like all the others, was in vain.

But in 1794, Mad Anthony Wayne went out to the West, at the head of a well appointed army, and inflicted a terrible defeat on the horde of warriors who ventured to confront him. Another treaty was made, which, being authorized and sanctioned by victory, was well observed by the red men. So far as this part of the Territory was concerned, Wayne's treaty merely confirmed the line previously drawn along the center of the Cuyahoga. All the eleven tribes who joined in the treaty agreed to acknowledge the United States as their sole superior, and never to sell any of their land to any one else.

Chap Be Nii Sale And Survey

Connecticut sells Three Million Acres in a Body - Names of the Purchasers--Formation of the Connecticut Land Company - A Deed of Trust - The Excess Company - First Directors of the Connecticut Company - The plan of Survey and Division decided on - The first Survey Party - Its Leaders and Surveyors - British Annoyance - A Council ai- Buffalo - Arrival at Conneaut - Trouble among the Employees - How it was Settled - Beginning of the Surveys - Gen. Cleaveland comes to the Cuyahoga - The First White Family - Tracing the Coast Line - Laying off Townships--Chagrin River mistaken for the Cuyahoga-- Organization of Wayne County - Directors Impatient - Laying out of Cleveland - A Bear in the River - The Party start east but return - Formal Agreement to let the Surveyors have Euclid - Rough Weather - The Return - Persons left at Cleveland - Gen. Cleaveland's subsequent Career - Porter's Later Life - Annual Meeting of the Land Company - Failure of the Excess Company - Alexander Henry's Claim - Theturvey Party of 1797 - Its Officers, etc - It goes to the Reserve - The First Funeral - Rations for the Surveyors - Kingsbury, Carter and Hawley - The First Marriage - D. & G. Bryant and R. Edwards - Formation of Jefferson County - Atwater's Adventure - Tinker's Creek - Sicknesss - Health on the Ridge.

WayNE's victory and treaty caused many eyes to turn toward the Western Reserve, as a more secure and desirable place of residence than it had previously been considered. At the session of 1795, the legislature of Connecticut abandoned the idea of. dividing up the Reserve in small tracts and selling it out, and adopted a new system. A commission of eight citizens was «ppointed, one from each county, who were authorized to sell'three million acres adjoining Pennsylvania for not less than one-third of a dollar per

The scheme seems to have been quite popular, and the commission succeeded in selling the whole tract by the first of September, 1795, at forty cents per acre making the total amount one million two hundred thousand dollars. The purchasers were Joseph

Sale And Survey

The subscriptions were of all sizes, from one of one thousand six hundred and eighty-three dollars, made by Sylvanus Griswold, up to that of Oliver Phelps, who subscribed one hundred and sixty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-five dollars alone, and eighty thousand dollars in company with Gideon Granger, Jr., but were generally in sums of from ten thonsand to thirty thousand dollars. Henry Champion, 2nd, was the second largest subscriber, with eightyfive thousand six hundred and seventy-five dollars.

thousandths" of 'the whole tract, as they had subscribed dollars respectively to the purchasing fund of twelve hundred thousand dollars. The deeds were recorded in the office of the secretary of state of

They were of the charwarranting nothing, but conveying all its rights, more or less, to the purchasers. 'There had, at this time, becn no definite surrender of the State's political jurisdiction over the Reserve to the general government, (although that government had assumed jurisdiction by including the Reserve in the Northwestern Territory), and many of the buyers supposed they could establish a State of their own, and. make such laws as they pleased for it.

On the 5th of September, the purchasers proceeded to organize themselves into an association called the "Connecticut Land Company," but did not obtain an act of incorporation from the State. In law they were only a simple partnership. All the members of this association joined in a deed of trust to Jonathan Brace, John Caldwell and John Morgan, authorizing them to give deeds of various tracts to the owners, according to the division to be made by the officials of the company. It will be understood that a large part of the three million acres purchased was known to be on the west side of the Cuyahoga, and it was, therefore, known that it could not be divided until the Indian right of occupancy was extinguished by purchase. It was supposed, however, that there was considerably more than three million acres in the Reserve, exclusive of the '"' Fire Lands," and several gentlemen proposed to take the balance from the State. They were commonly called the '"' Excess Company," and until the land was surveyed it was supposed they would secure a large tract.

By the articles of association, the management of the company's concerns was intrusted to seven directors, who were instructed to proceed as rapidly as possible to sell that portion of the tract east of the Cuyahoga. For the purpose of electing officers and making assessments, the whole was divided into four hundred shares of three thousand dollars each; distributed among the various proprietors in proportion to the amounts they had subscribed. The first board of directors consisted of Oliver Phelps, Henry Champion, 2d., Moses Cleaveland, Samuel W. Johnson, Ephraim Kirby, Sumuel Mather, Jr., and Roger Newberry.

The articles of association also provided that the tract should be surveyed into townships five miles square; that part east of the Cuyahoga as soon as possible, and the rest when the Indians were bought out. Six townships of the former portion were to be sold to pay the general expenses. Four more were to be divided into a hundred lots each, making four hundred lots of a hundred and. sixty acres each, which were to be conveyed to the owners of the four hundred shares respectively. The remainder of the tract east of the Cuyahoga was to be divided into portious, of which the best township was to form the basis; other townships to be brought up to the standard by dividing some of them into fractions, and adding them to the rest. The part west of the river was subsequently to be divided in the same way. 'I'he board of directors selected Gen. Moses Cleaveland, a lawyer of Canterbury, Windham county, then about forty years old, to act us the general agent of the company and manage the surveys east of the Cuyahoga, which it was expected would all be completed the next year.

During the winter of 1795-6 further preparations were made, and in the spring of the latter year a large surveying party was organized. General Cleaveland was superintendent; Augustus Porter, who was a native of Connecticut but had been engaged for many the principal surveyor and deputy superintendent; Seth Pease was astronomer and surveyor; Amos Spafford, John M. Holley, Richard M. Stoddard and Moses Warren were the surveyors; Joshua Stow was the commissary, and Dr. Theodore Shepard was the physician of the party.. There were also thirty-six other employees, including chainmen, axemen, cooks, etc.

The expedition set forth in May. General Cleaveland and most of the members came by way of Albany, Syracuse, Canandaigua, etc., to Buffalo. Mr. Stow, with several men, took the provisions, instruments and other freight in four large boats by way of the Oswego river, Lake Ontario and the Niagara river. Oswego, like the other frontier posts, was still in the hands of the British, and their officers seemed anxious to annoy the Americans in every possible way. Mr. Stow applied to the commandant at Oswego for permission to pass with his boats, but was peremptorily refused. In vain he represented that without the instruments and provisions which he had with him the survey party could not begin work, and that the greatest inconvenience would be sure to result; the officer was inexorable.

Finally, Mr. Stow apparently gave up the contest, and retired up the river with his boats. 'The first dark night, however, the flotilla sped quietly down the stream, glided undiscovered past the sleepy sentinels, and escaped into Lake Ontario. The detention, however, caused the boats to be caught in a severe storm on the lake, in which one of them was stove up and another of them seriously injured. What made the affair more provoking was that both Fort Ontario, at Oswego, and Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the river of that name, were about to be delivered to the United States, under the provisions of Jay's treaty. Fort Ontario was thus surrendered on the fourth day of July following, and Fort Niagara still earlier; so that when the boats of the survey party approached the latter post the men saw with delight the stars and stripes floating over its ramparts,

On the 21st of June the Six Nations held a council at Buffalo, at which General Cleayeland was present, together with some whom the surveyors called western Indians, but whom from the circumstances we

-should infer to have been Mohawks,who lived west of Buffalo, in Canada. Notwithstanding the numerous treaties by which the claims of these Indians to the country east of the Cuyahoga were supposed to be extinguished, they still put forth some pretensions to it, and it was thought better to conciliate than to oppose them. The celebrated Joseph Brant, or Thayendenegea, was the principal manager on the part of the Siw Nations, and gave General Cleaveland a "'speech " in writing, but the equally distinguished Red Jacket was the principal orator. The council was adjourned over the 22nd, because:the chiefs insisted on getting drunk.

pounds, New York currency, ($1,250) in goods, as a present, and also agreed to use his influence to obtain for them an allowance of five hundred dollars a year from the United States; failing which the Connecticut Land Company was to give them an additional present of fifteen hundred dollars. 'The chiefs on their side agreed that the Indians should not interfere with the settlers on the Reserve, a stipulation which they appear to have faithfully observed. In fact, they could hardly avoid losing their hearts to Gencral Cleaveland, for, after the counciling and bargaining was over, he gave them two beef-cattle for a feast, with an accompaniment of no less than one hundred gallons of whisky!

The expedition then proceeded in boats up the lake to Conneaut, in the extreme northeast corner of the Reserve, where they arrived on the 4th of July. They celebrated the day by firing with their rifles a "federal salute" of fifteen rounds - one for each State then in the Union - and a sixteenth for *' New Connecticut." The Reserve was frequently spoken of by the first settlers and surveyors as New Connecticut, and they evidently were not exactly certain whether it was a part of the Northwest Territory or a separate nation of itself.

At Conneaut nearly all the surveyors and other employees manifested a very insubordinate disposition. Amzi Atwater, himself an employee, says they mutinied. At all events, they manifested a strong disposition not to go on with the work unless they could derive some compensation for it besides their wages. At that time it was thought that the ownership of land in ''New Connecticut" was the sure road to fortune, and the men were anxious to become proprietors. General Cleaveland yielded, and informally agreed that if the men would go on and work through the season they should lave a township of land at a dollar an acre.

As soon as this question was settled, some of the surveyors ran south from the northeast corner of the Reserve, along the Pennsylvania line, to the fortyfirst parallel, and thence west along that parallel, making it their base line. From it, at intervals of five miles, they ran meridians north to the lake; the spaces between them constituting '' ranges." These were to be subdivided into townships by east and west lines, also five miles apart. They depended entirely on their compasses, and as that instrument is subject to numerous variations the meridians were by no means accurately laid down. Some of them varied as much as half a mile from the true line before reaching the lake. The early government surveyors varied in the same manner, but they soon learned to correct each township line, as run by the compass, by measurement to the preceding one.

While the surveyors were doing the work just mentioned, Superintendent Cleaveland came to the mouth of the Cuyahoga, reaching that point on the 22d of July, 1791, and established the headquarters of the party there. With him, among others, came Job P. Stiles and Tabitha Cumi Stiles, his wife, for whom a cabin was erected, and who were placed in charge of of the company's stores at that point. This was the first white family, and Mrs. Stiles was the first white women, who ever resided in the present county of Cuyahoga. Their cabin and the company's storehouse were on the low ground on the east side of the Cuyahoga, convenient to a spring which issued from the side of the hill. This was the same location that had been chosen by the freighters, in 1786, as described by Colonel Hillman, but the slight cabin then erected had probably entirely disappeared, having, very likely been used for fuel by Indians or travelers; at all events it is not mentioned in the notes of any of the surveyors. 'I'he more substantial structure, built by Captain Thorn and his crew, near the foot of the present Willson avenue, was still standing.

Mr. Porter, the principal surveyor, took on himself the difficult task of tracing the coast line, so as to find where the west line of the Reserve would strike Lake Erie. The other surveyors, after running ont the meridians, as before stated, began to run parallels from the Pennsylvania line to the Cuyahoga. Warren ran the line between townships six and seven (Bedford and Warrensville); Pease between townships seven and eight (Warrensville and Euclid); Spafford and Stoddard between townships eight and nine, (Mayfield and Willoughby); and Holley still farther north. Pease's line ran through the present city of Cleveland. No one knew anything about the Chagrin river, and every surveyor, when he reached it in running his parallel, supposed it to be the Cuyahoga and went down to the mouth before discovering his mistake.

We may mention, in passing, that Wayne county was organized by the authorities of the Northwest Territory on the 15th of August in this year, nominally embracing the whole tract from the Cuyahoga westward and northward beyond Detroit, which place was made the county seat. Thus the county seats (Marietta and Detroit) of the two counties (Washington and Wayne) which then embraced the present Cuyahoga were over three hundred miles apart. As all of this county west of the river was still Indian land, the formation of Wayne county had no practical effect here; nor was any part of this county ever actually organized in connection with either Washington or Wayne.

August and September passed rapidly away in the task of surveying the various lines. Holley and Pease left journals describing their labors, but of course only a small portion of them were performed in Cuyahoga county, and, moreover, the mere details of the distances and courses which they ran on successive days would hardly be interesting to our readers. As indicative of the primitive utensils employed in their traveling kitchen, we may notice Holley's memorandum that at the Chagrin river the cook got mad because the bark would not pecl, so that he had nothing to mix bread on, and declared that he could give the party nothing to eat. One of the men, however, solved the difficulty by mixing the flour in a bag, thus restoring serenity to the cook and food to the party.

Meanwhile the board of directors at Hartford became impatient to have the land divided among the proprietors, and on the 26th of August wrote to Cleaveland, constituting him, Stow, Porter and the four other surveyors a committee to equalize and divide the land east of the Cuyahoga, according to the plan already mentioned, and urging him to accomplish the work that season if possible. This, however, was entirely impracticable.

eligible place on the Reserve, the township around which was to be cut into smaller lots than the rest of the tract, which were to be sold to actual settlers. The selection was doubtless left to Gencral Cleaveland, to be made on the ground. He selected the site at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Porter ran out the streets of the embryo city, and left Holley to survey it into lots. Only twelve streets and lanes were then laid out, which might fairly be considered sufficient, as there was not a solitary permanent resident of the "city." Cleaveland bestowed his own name upon the place, and it was forthwith dubbed the ''City of Cleaveland."' The township around it, however, was at first called "Cuyahoga town." The locality at the mouth of the river is also sometimes mentioned in the surveyors' minutes as ''Cuyahoga," but after September, 1796, is always '' Cleaveland."

The morning of the 21st of September the surveyors, to the number of about thirty, who had collected at the ''city," found themselves without meat, and with only a little flour, two cheeses and some chocolate, in the way of provisions. It would not do to start into the woods again, nor even to wait long where they were. While they were wondering at the nonarrival of expected provisions from Conneaut, and debating as to what next should be done, a shout was heard, and a bear was discovered swimming across the river from the west side. Instantly every man was on his feet. Porter and Holley jumped into a canoe and paddled toward the shaggy visitor; another man went up the shore with a gun, and the rest of the shouting crowd assembled to stop the brute as soon as he should reach the land. They succeeded only too well, for the noise and confusion were such that the animal took the alarm, swam baek to the western shore and escaped.

By noon they had become so well assured that no provisions were coming from Conneaut that they all set out for that place in two boats and a bark canoe. After sailing about eight miles, however, they met a party with cattle and provisions, and returned to the Cuyahoga with much lighter hearts than when they leftit. On arriving after dark they saw a fire blazing on the western shore. As they passed it, they discharged a volley from their rifles by way of a salute, in honor of the sojourners who had built the fire, and in accordance with a custom which seems to have been quite common on the frontier, among both whites and Indians. The travelers were discovered to be a party of Grand river Indians, who had been west, hunting.

After a week more of surveying in the vicinity of the river, the whole party assembled at its mouth on the 30th of September, when the informal agreement made at Conneaut, in the forepart of July, was reduced to a written contract, in which '' Cleayeland " is first mentioned as the name of the embryo city at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Moses Cleaveland signed the contract on the part of the company, while forty-one of the employees put their hands to it in their own behalf. Six of the employees, including Joshua Stow, were not parties to the arrangement. The township which they selected was number eight in the eleventh range, being the one next down the lake from Cleveland. With great propriety, .considering that they were all surveyors or assistants, and that surveying is eminently a mathematical profession, they gave to their new township the name of the great Greek mathematician, Kuclid. 'The suggestion is credited by Mr. Holley to Moses Warren. Each of the men was to serve the company faithfully till the end of the season, and was to have an equal share in the township at a dollaran acre, on making certain improvements. 'Ihese were carefully specified in the contract, and are more fully set forth in the township history of Euclid.

On the sume day the employees held a meeting, at which they arranged the order in which they would make their improvements, and transact other busi ness... The record of their proecedings was also dated at the ''City of Cleaveland," and the locality has ever since retained that name, except that the ''a" has been discarded.

On the tenth of October, Surveyor Holley notes in his journal that he with his party ''left Cleaveland at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, to finish dividing the east part of the township into lots." By the sixteenth the weather began to interfere seriously with their work. On that day Mr. H. metions that they came into camp wet and cold, but after ''pushing the bottle and getting a fire and some supper, all were as merry as grigs." But Gen. Cleaveland evidently thought that, considering the long journey before their distant and much-longed-for homes. The only white persons left on the Reserve were Job N. Stiles and 'Tabitha his wife, and Joseph Landon. 'These were supplied with provisions for the | winter, and then abandoned to a solitude almost as complete as that of Selkirk on his island. 'To be sure there were plenty of Indians and squaws, but considering that many of the former had been, not long before, in arms against the United States, and were liable at any moment to break out again, it would seem as if their absence would have been more desirable than their company.

The object in leaving Mr. and Mrs. Stiles in this isolated locality is not certainly known, but it was probably thought that the buildings would be less lia- . ble to be destroyed if some one was incharge of them, and if any tools or other property were left behind, it was absolutely necessary that some one should keep watch of them: for the noble red men, though civil enough in their ordinary intercourse with the surveyors, would certainly have been unable to resist the

Landon, who had been connected with the survey party, probably intended to trade with the Indians. He soon left, however, his place being taken by Edward Paine, afterwards known as General Paine of Painesville, who boarded with Stiles, and was certainly at that time an Indian-trader. He was the first resident in the county unconnected with the surveypurty. The nearest white neighbors were at a settlement made that fall in the present town of Willoughby, Geauga county. 'Tradition asserts that the first white child born in this county came to light in the cabin of Job and Tabitha Stiles, in the winter of 1796-7, and that a squaw acted as its nurse, but there is no positive evidence.

All the party, except those who remained at Cleveland, reached their distant homes without more serious difficulty than was necessitated by a journey of six or seven hundred miles, largely through the wilderness. Neither General Cleaveland nor Mr. Porter ever returned to the Reserve, unless possibly the latter may have done so as a casual traveler. General Cleaveland continued to practice his profession in his native town of Canterbury, sometimes representing it in the State legislature, and always occupying a prominent position among his fellow citizens, until his death in 1806. 'Though, as before stated, he never returned to the Reserve, yet he always manifested a warm interest in its welfare, and especially in the village which he had founded and which bore his name. One cannot but regret that he was not spared to see at least the beginning of its greatness as a city.

Augustus Porter soon after settled at Niagara Falls, where he became one of the leading men of western New York. He erected extensive mills there, and was also the first man who built a bridge from the mainland to Goat Island. In 1808, he was appointed the first presiding judge of the court of common pleas of Niagara county, New York, (of which Buffalo was then the county seat), a post which he held for thirteen years. He died at Niagara Falls at a very advanced age. Judge Porter wus an elder brother of Peter B. Porter, the distinguished general in the war of 1812, and secretary of war under President J. Q. Adams.

In January, 1797, the members of the Connecticut Land Company held their annual meeting. 'There was much complaint'of the large cost of the work of the past year, but after an investigation by a committee the proceedings of the directors and superintendent were entirely approved. Cleayeland's agreement with Brant and the other chiefs at Buffalo was also ratified.

The stockholders were seriously discomposed by another matter. Mr. Porter, having during the season made a traverse of the line of the Reserve along Lake Erie, now reported that the total contents of the original tract were only three million four hundred and fifty thousand seven hundred and fifty- three acres, and that, after deducting the five hundred thousand acres granted to the sufferers by British spoliation, (commonly called the Fire Lands,) there remained only two million nine hundred and fifty thousand seven hundred and fifty-three acres for the Connecticut Land Company. This was about fifty thousand acres less than they had bought.

Moreover, the ''Excess Company," the members of which had been paying fancy prices for a share in the surplus of the Western Reserve above three million acres, (besides the ''Fire Lands'') suddenly found that there was no surplus, and many of them became bankrupt on account of the discovery. Fault was found with Porter's- survey, but subsequent work showed that the estimated amount was too large rather than too small; a very close computation by Leonard Case making the whole amount in the Reserve, besides the Fire Lands, two million eight hundred and thirty-seven thousand one hundred and nine acres. This great reduction from the amount estimated before the survey was caused by the fact that, in going west, Lake Erie trended much farther south than had been supposed before exact calculations were made.

In the spring of 1797, the company again made preparations to send a party to finish the surveys. While they were doing so, Mr. Cleaveland received a letter from one Alexander Henry, who had been an Indian trader from Montreal to the upper-lake region ever since the treaty of peace between France and England, in 1763. He claimed that he and others had bought of the Indians a large tract west of the Cuyahoga and north of Wayne's treaty-line, which included all of the Western Reserve west of the river just mentioned. This he offered to sell to the company at one shilling peracre; guaranteeing a confirmation of the deed by the Indians. He stated that the deed was in the hands of Alexander Macomb, (father of the general of that name in the war of 1812,) a great land-speculator of that day and a co-proprietor with Henry. It is quite likely that some of the chiefs of the Delawares or Chippewas had made such a deed, but, as the United States had invariably refused to recognize sales made by the Indians to any one but the general government, no attention was paid to Mr. Henry's claim. He afterwards published an account of his adventures among the Indians, which is a valuable authority on the subject of aboriginal history.

In the letter in question Mr. Henry mentioned that one John Askin, one of the proprietors under the alleged purchase, was then residing with his family "at Cuyahoga," but there is nowhere else any account of such a person. Among all the numerous statements made by surveyors and their friends, it is hardly possible that Askin would have been passed over if he had lived on or near cither bank of the Cuyahoga. Henry may have falsified entirely, or may have mistaken Askin's location, or the latter may have moved away before the surveyors came.

The survey party of 1797 was organized at Schenectady, New York, by Mr. Seth Pease, who had been selected as principal surveyor for the coming season, and who proceeded to that point during the forepart of April. After the company was formed, Rev. Seth Hart was made the superintendent. Besides the two officials just named, there were no less than eight surveyors: Richard M. Stoddard, Moses Warren, Amzi Atwater, Joseph Landon, Amos Spafford, Warham Shepard, Phineas Barker and Nathan Redfield. Dr. Theodore Shepard was again employed as the physician. There were, in addition, fifty-two other employees, to perform the numerous duties necessary in an extensive survey; the most prominent of these being Colonel Ezra Waite and Major William Shepard, who seem to have had charge of the others when the latter were not under the immediate direction of the surveyors. Nathaniel Doan, the blacksmith of 1796, was also a member of the present expedition. There were in all sixty-three members, of whom only twelve had been on the previous expedition; and, of these latter, seven were surveyors. Hyidently the work of carrying a chain or wielding an axe in the tangled forest, living on indigestible bread and sleeping on the wet ground, had lost all their romantic charms during one year's experience.

The expedition took the usual route to the western world, by way of the Mohawk river, Onedia lake, Oswego river, Lake Ontario, Niagara river and Lake Erie, though a portion went by land, by way of Canandaigua, under charge of Major William Shepard. After leaving some of the men at work in the eastern part of the Reserve, the head of the mai portion of the expedition arrived at Cleveland on the first day of June. Mr. Pease's journal mentions finding Mr. and Mrs. Stiles well, and also Mrs. Gun, who, with her husband, had moved from Conneaut that spring, though Mr. Gun was then absent. Ie says nothing of there being a child in the Stiles family, which it is exceedingly probable he would have done if one had been born during the winter, at least if it had then been living.

' Boats belonging to the expedition kept coming for several days afterwards. In the afternoon of June 4th, one of them brought the body of David Eldridge, one of the hands, who had been drowned the same day, in attempting to swim his horse over Grand river. The next morning the north part of lots ninety-seven and ninety-eight, in Cleveland, were selected as a burial ground. 'There were a few boards in the vicinity, and a strong, rude coffin was quickly made. The body of Eldridge was placed in it, the coffin was fastened with cords toa stout pole, by which means it was supported on the shoulders of the comrades of the deceased, and the procession moved slowly to the burial ground. There the body was solemnly interred; Superintendent Hart reading the burial service. A rough fence was also built around the grave. This was, so far as known, the first funeral in Cuyahoga connty.

Parties were at once sent out in various directions to recommence the surveys. Mr. Pease mentions the articles furnished to each party, which certainly form a somewhat miscellaneous collection, viz.: Pork, flour, tea, chocolate, sugar, ginger, spirits, vinegar, cheese, pepper, empty bags, fire-steel, punk, candles, a tent, axes, hatchets, pocket compasses, measuring pins, salt, soap and horses. From a previous entry, we learn that the daily rations for a' mess of six men were five pounds of pork, a pound of chocolate, a 'small porringer" of sugar, a half bottle of tea, a bottle of rum, and flour without limit. The most noticeable difference between these rations and those issued to soldiers and explorers at the present day is the absenee of cofiee from the former. Modern campersout weald hardly find tea, chocolate, or even a bottle of rim, a sufficient substitute.

The main headquarters were established at Cleveland, but on the tenth of June Mr. Pease with a small party went up the Cuyahoga, and soon after established the ''upper headquarters," near Cuyahoga Falls, in the present county of Summit.

On the 11th of June, 1797, James Kingsbury and his family arrived at Cleveland. He was a native of Connecticut, but had moved from New Hampshire to Conneaut the previous season. For a short time he lived in a dilapidated house on the west side of the river, which may have been the one occupied by John Askin.

Karly this season, also, Lorenzo Carter, of Rutland, Vt., and his brother-in-law, Ezekiel Hawley, came to Cleveland with their families. According to a statement made in his lifetime by Alonzo Carter, son of Lorenzo, his father arrived on the 2d of May; having stayed the previous winter in Canada. Carter and Hawley both located in Cleveland. One of the children of the latter was Fanny B., then five years old. She is still living, at the age of eighty-seven years, being now the venerable widow of Mr. Theodore Miles, of the eighteenth ward of Cleveland, formerly Newburg. She is unquestionably the earliest surviving resident of Cuyahoga county, and her memory

Mr. Carter, afterwards universally known as Major Carter, was well calculated to succeed in a new country; being an extremely active, enterprising man, an expert hunter, and withal peculiarly adroit in gaining an influence over the Indians, who were constant neighbors and frequent visitors. He at once began entertaining travelers, and his was the first hotel in Cuyahoga county.

The first marriage followed quickly after the first funeral. - Carter's hired girl bore the peculiar name of Chloe Inches. While Mr. Carter was residing in Canada, during the previous winter, she liad formed the acquaintance of one William Clement, who speedily followed her to Cleveland. They were married by Rev. Mr. Hart, and,.as no further mention is made

In June David Bryant and his son Gilman (the latter being afterwards a well known citizen and one of the latest surviving pioneers) came to Cleveland by boat; being on their way to a grindstone quarry on Vermillion river. They made trips back and forth all that summer, carrying grindstones east, probably into Pennsylvania. Their stopping place was at Carter's tavern. Besides those already named, Rudolphus Edwards became a resident of Cleveland during the summer.

Up to this time all that part of the Western Reserve east of the Cuyahoga had continued to be a portion of the county of Washington, created in 1788, with its county-seat at Marietta. No one in this vicinity paid any attention to its authority, and the directors of the Land Company were very anxious to have a 'legal and practicable government." The legislature of Connecticut declined to assume any political authority. On the 29th of June, 1797, Washington county was divided; all the north part, including that portion of Cuyahoga east of the river, being formed by the legislature of the Northwest Territory into the county of Jefferson, with the seat of justice at Steubenville. The latter place was fifty miles nearer than Marietta, but still no attention was paid to the authorities there by the few inhabitants of the Reserve, nor did those authorities attempt to organize any townships within that district.

The surveyors and their men were soon nearly all engaged in running the lines in the southern part of the Reserve; their headquarters in the field being, as before stated, a short distance below Cuyahoga Falls.

and Portage counties), in the latter part of July, Minor Bicknell, one of the assistants, was taken violently sick with a fever. 'There was no medicine and no comforts for the sick, and the only hope of saving the man was to get him to Cleveland or the upper headquarters as soon ag possible. Shepard agreed to go on with the survey with one man, while Atwater with one or two others undertook to convey Bicknell to a more desirable location.

Placing one horse far enough behind another to admit of a man's lying lengthwise between them, Atwater and his helpers put two long poles, one on each side of the horses, and fastened them to the pack-saddles with strips of bark. With other pieces of the same material they made a kind of net work between the poles. On this they made a bed of blankets, and Jaid the sick man upon them. On the 20th day of July they started out, with no guide but Atwater's compass and the marks made along the lines already run. After going ashort distance south, they proceeded west along the third parallel. <A

Bicknell was delirious a large part of the time, and so serious was the difficulty in advancing through the forest with such an unwieldy carriage, and so great was the necessity of moving the sick man carefully, that the cortege was only able to make about ten miles a day. Proceeding west to the present corner of Stow and Ifudson townships, Summit county, Atwater turned south to the old Indian trail from the Ohio river to Sandusky. There he met his messenger, who said that the camp at upper headquarters was taken up, and all the boats had gone down the river. The same man was then directed to go to Cleveland and get a boat to come up to the present south line of Independence, where the party would mect it.

Atwater then went north, on the west line of Stow and Hudsen, to the northwest corner of the latter township, where he again turned to the west. Plodding wearily along the faint track which went straight over lull and through valley, camping where night overtook him, listening to the occasional howl of the wolves in the distance, and burdened all the time with the care of a delirious invalid who was hourly growing*worse, the young surveyor found his own nervous and muscular system subjected.to a terrible strain, and afterwards, no doubt truly, described this us the most exciting event of his life. At length, in the forenoon of the 25th of July, they reached the Cuyahoga, on the line between Independence and Brecksville, and rested to await the arrival of the boat from Cleveland.

But no aid could come quickly enough to help the smitten man, who died within two hours of his arrival at the river. Soon after noon Joseph Tinker came with the expected boat, having Dr. Shepard on board. The only thing that could then be done was to bury the unfortunate Bicknell, and he was accordingly interred near the river, close to the south line of Independence. Exhausted as Atwater was by fatigue and anxiety, he was obliged almost immediately to retrace his steps, in order to find Warham Shepard and help him out with the surveys.

Apropos of this last event, it may be remarked that Joseph Tinker, who came up in charge of the bout, seems to have acted as the principal master of transportation for the company; sometimes going back to Conneaut and other points for supplies, with four or five men and a boat, at other times transporting the necded articles on pack-horses to the various partics of surveyors. Ie was drowned in the lower part of Lake Erie while returning home the next fall, but his name is preserved in '''Tinker's ereek," which is the principal stream that flows into the Cuyahoga in

The township lines were soon completed, and all the surveyors and their assistants returned to Cleveland. A few remaining lots of Cleveland township were then run out, and Warrensyille and part of Bedford were also divided into lots. Meanwhile the "equalizing committee," composed of the principal surveyors, was hard at work, exploring the townships and settling on the size of the fractions which should be added to other townships, so as to make them all of substantially the same value.

Work progressed slowly, for sickness had become extremely prevalent. ever and ague was the principal disease, but dysentery and bilious fever were also common. One of the workmen, named William Andrews, died in August, as did also Peleg Washburn, an apprentice to Nathanicl Doan, the blacksmith. On the 8th of August the sick list numbered seven; on the 27th it had arisen to eleven, und on the 12th of September the number who could not work was twelve. 'The men having almost none of the appliances and comforts of civilized life, the ague racked them with extreme violence. The fits often came on every day, and when they passed off it was all the poor, exhausted men could do to crawl from their blanket beds to the spring, and get water enough to last them through the next attack. i

On the 12th of September nine sick persons were discharged and sent east. About the first of October some of those who had acquired claims in Euclid, under the agreement of the year before, made improvements in accordance with that agreement. But the great anxiety to obtain land on the Reserve had passed away under the influence of hardship and ague, and very few of the original contractors performed their agreements and received their land. In the latter part of October the surveyors and their assistants all left for the east.

The families left at Cleveland were those of Carter, Hawley, Kingsbury and Edwards. These, like the surveyors, had been terribly alllicted by ague, and Mr, Kingsbury determined to seek a healthier location. Ife accordingly removed to the high ridge running from what has since been called ' Doan's Corners" to Newburg, at a point, about five miles from the lake, where the present Kinsman street strikes Woodland ILills avenue, and where his descendants still reside. There he built him a cabin, which he occupied with his family on the 11th of December; being the first permanent resident in the county away from the immediate shore of the lake.