Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 9 of those read), 1870

The War Of 1812

A Quiet but Anxious Beginning - News of Hull's Surrender - Great Excitement--Reported Approach of Indians - General Alarm - Preparatidns for Fight - The Watch at Night - An Approaching Vessel - '""Who are you'' - Prisoners of Hull's Army - A Militia Company - Copy of its Roll - Captain Gaylord's Rifiemen - General Rally of the Militia - Colonel Cass - Obtaining Provisions and Forage - Generals Perkins and Beail - A Succession of Fugitives - Elisha Dibble - His Detachment of Scouts--The Battle of the Peninsula - Building a Court-House - Winter - Preparations in the Spring - Major Jessup - Governor Meigs - Captain Sholes's Regulars - Fort Huntington - Approach of the British Fieet - A Calm - A Storm - A Foraging Party in Euclid - General Harrison - Attack on Fort Meigs - Appearance of Perry's Fleet - The Commander on Shore - Mrs. Stedman's Recollections - Guns and Men of the Fleet - At work on the Court-House - A Distant Sound - ''It's Perry's-Guns" - Off to the Lake Shore - Listening - t Hurrah for Perry''--News of Victory - General Exultation - Harrison's Victory - Harrison and Perry at Cleveland - Disturbing News - Quiet through 1814 - Incorporation of Cleveland - Peace.

For the first two months after the declaration of war there was not much more excitement than during the previous two months, when the people were only expecting it. The militia were frequently called ont for drill, arms and munitions were issued, and many anxious eyes were often turned toward the lake; for ears listened nervously, too, to every blast that swept through the western forest, uncertain whether some ferocious band of Indians might not make their way past the American outposts, and enter on a crusade of cruelty among the people of the frontier. It was generally believed, however, that the forces gathering under General Van Rensselaer on the Niagara ,and under General Ifull at Detroit, would soon take possession of the upper peninsula of Canada, opposite this county, and thus relieve the people here of all farther anxiety in regard to danger from that quarter.

Expressmen almost daily galloped back and forth along the lake shore; those from the west bearing news successively of the increase of Hull's army, of its advance into Canada, and then of its retreat to the American shore, where, however, it was believed to be amply able to defeat any force which could be brought against it. But shortly after the 16th of August a messenger came dashing into Cleveland from the west, bearing the terrible news that on that day General Hull had surrendered his whole force to the British aid their Indian allies, who might be expected at any moment to attack the defenceless inhabitants on the south shore of Lake Eric. Instantly all was excitement and anxiety. Expresses were sent out in various directions to notify the people, and also to Major General Wadsworth at Canfield, (now Mahoning county,) to beg for the aid of the militia.

Within twenty-four hours another messenger brought the news that the British and Indians were actually approaching ; their vessels had been seen near Huron ; nay, as near as he could learn, they had landed in that locality, and the massacre of the people had actually commenced. Then indeed there wes dismay on every side. Many doubted the correctness of the information, but few desired to run the risk of proving its falsity. A large proportion of the people of Cleveland set forth, in all haste, along the forest roads which led through Euclid and Newburg to safer regions. The bolder men sent off their families, and themselves seized their arms, ready to do battle with the invading foe. Mrs. Walworth, Mrs. Dr. Long and one or two other ladies, however, peremptorily refused to leave. If they could do nothing else they could nurse the wounded in case of battle, and at all hazards they would stay by their husbands.

As the warm spread through the county, it grew more intense with every mile of advance. The roads were soon crowded with ox-wagons and horse-wagons, with travelers on horseback and travelers on foot. Here could be seen a clumsy cart in which had been thrown a feather-bed, two or three iron pots, all the crockery of the family, a side of bacon and a bag of and half a dozen tow-headed children, while the father of the family applied his long "'gad" with unflinching energy to the backs of the lumbering cattle, which were moving altogether too slowly to suit so desperate an emergency. Swiftly passing there would be seen a woman on horseback, with one child before and another behind, while scores of men, women and children, blessed with neither horses nor oxen, were trudging wearily on foot, trembling every moment lest the dread war-whoops of the savages should be heard in their rear. In the midst of all these, however, were to be seen some brave men, with muskets and rifles on their shoulders, hastening rapidily to Cleveland to aid in repelling the foe.

These, united with the little squad of Clevelanders, made up in the course of the day a company of thirty or forty men. As night came on, they posted sentinels along the water's edge, and then lay down with their clothes on in the nearest deserted dwellings, to await the result. Hour after hour passed, and naught occurred to renew the alarm of the day. But soon after midnight the sentinels quietly gave warning to their comrades. The latter sprang up, adjusted their powder-horns and bullet-pouches, examined the locks of their weapons, and hastened silently to the mouth of the river. Sure enough; through the darkness of the night the white sails and black hull of a vessel could be seen approaching from the west, and shaping her course toward the usual landing-place.

There were few vessels on the lake then and these had mostly been taken for hostile purposes, so the approach of a ship from the. west at that hour of the night looked sufficiently suspicious, and the sceptics began to think there might be something serious ahead. <A line of determined men was formed a short distance from the landing place, and thirty old firelocks were cocked as the vessel caine steadily onward.

The little company gave vent to their intense relief by a general shout, then '' broke ranks" without waiting for orders, and were soon fraternizing with the newcomers, and joining them in cursing General Hull with the utmost good will. Many of the paroled men were wounded, and Murray's store was turned into a hospital.

A company of militia was speedily called out from what now constitutes the city of Cleveland, and the towns of East Cleveland, Euclid, Newburg and _ perhaps some others. A copy of the company-roll, obtained from Washington, is on file among the records of the Western Reserve Historical Society, and we transcribe it here.

These went into service on the 22d of August, 1812, and remained in service until the 14th of December of the same year. They do not, however, appear to have been very closely confined to their military duties; for at the time the roll in question was made out not less than twenty-two out of the fiftysix officers and men were marked '' absent on furlough," besides eight absent sick.

Another company, raised principally at Newburg and vicinity, and composed of riflemen, was commanded by Captain Allen Gaylord of that town, but the roll has not been preserved.

put the country in readiness for such an event were strenuously continued. General Wadsworth, after ordering all the militia of his division into the field, started from Canfield on the 23d day of August, with a company of horsemén as escort. Passing through Iudson, Bedford aud Newburg, and endeavoring to allay the apprehensions of the hundreds of frightened people whom he met, he rode into Cleveland with his horsemen about four o'clock in the afternoon of the 24th; to the great joy of the few men assembled there. Other militia soon followed, and so far as numbers were concerned there were enough to confront the whole British army on the frontier. Benjamin Tappen and Ehsha Whittlesey, both subsequently very distinguished men in the councils of the nation, were General Wadsworth's aids. The sume evening that the detachment just mentioned wrrived at Cleveland, Colonel Lewis Cass, afterwards General Cass, the celebrated statesman, came to the same point from Detroit. Having been in command of a regiment under Hull, he was bitterly indignant at the surrender, and never failed to denounce the was on his way to Washington on military business, and was accompanied from Cleveland by ex-Governor IIuntington, of Painesville, who had hastened to his former home at the first note of danger.

The last named gentleman bore a letter from General Wadsworth to the war department, in which he stated that he had called out three thousand men, but that they were largely destitute of arms, ammunition and equipments, and that it would even be difficut to feed them. He urged the department to give him aid, but did not wait for it to come. He appointed three commissioners of supplies, to purchase provisions and forage from the people, who, trusting in the good faith of the government, sold as cheaply as for coin. The commissioners gave certificates stating the quantity and value of the article furnished, and promising to pay for it when the government should remit the necessary funds.

Many of the frightened people had gone east, abandoning their crops on the ground or in barns. These were taken by the commissioners, appraised, and the owners credited with the value, Fatigue parties of soldiers harvested the crops and hauled them to camp, and the owners were afterwards remunerated for them.

On the 26th of August Brigadier General Simon Perkins arrived at Cleveland with a large body of militia. General Wadsworth sent him forward to Huron with a thousand men, to build block-houses and protect the inhabitants. General Reazin Beall was soon after sent westward with another body of troops on a similar errand. General Wadsworth soon received dispatches from Wasi.ington, endorsing his course, urging vigorous action and promising support. The major general himself soon went westward with nearly all the rest of his men; being first under command of General Winchester, and afterwards of the hero of Tippecanoe, General William IL. Harrison.

The same circumstance was noticeable here as at other points on the frontier, and at other times as well as at this one; nearly all the inhabitants for a long distance back from the scene of trouble thought they must move, but were apparently satisfied by the act of moving. 'Thus, while some of the people of Cuyahoga county fled twenty, thirty or forty miles eastward, they found there homes abandoned by those who had gone still farther on. These they could, and often did, occupy; feeling themselves safe in the same places from which others had fled in terror. In like manner, people coming from Iuron and beyond thought they had fled far enough when they reached the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and made themselves at home in localities only a few days before abandoned by the previous residents.

Among those who thus came from the west was Elisha Dibble, father of Captain Lewis Dibble, of Cleveland, who brough this wife and eight children; together with another family, in a boat, to Cleveland, shortly after Hull's surrender. His former location had indeed been one of great danger, being on the River Raisin, near the present city of Monroe, Michigan, and not far from the scene of the celebrated "'massacre of the River Raisin," which took place the same autumn. On reaching Cleveland he concluded he had gone far enough, and located himself in the house of Rudolphus Edwards, near the present corner of Woodland avenue and Woodland Hills 'avenue. Being a stirring, energetic man, he determined to raise a detachment of mounted rangers, or scouts, for service against the enemy, and soon accomplished his: object; the men being from all parts of the county, and some of them being doubtless, like himself, fugitives from western homes. Captain Dibble marched with his company to Huron and other endangered localities. He received the thanks of his commander in writing for his efficient service, but contracted a sickness which compelled his return home, where he died the next year.

After General Harrison took command in the Northwest, General Perkins was placed in command of tive hundred men and stationed near the mouth of the Ifuron, remaining there nearly two months. While there a conflict took place between a detachment of General Perkins' men and a force of British and Indians, who had made their way that far east, either on scouting duty or in search of plunder. This is known in local annals as "the battle of the Peninsula." A portion of the Cuyahoga county men were engaged in it, and the roll of Captain Murray's company shows that one of his men, James 8. Hills, was killed in the conflict, and that two others, John Carlton and Moses Eldred, were wounded there.

Notwithstanding all the din of war, the affairs of peace were not entirely neglected. In the fall or Jate in the summer of 1812 the county" commissioners, Messrs. Wright, Ruggles and Miles, made a contract with Mr. Levi Johnson, a young carpenter of Cleveland, to build a court-house on the northwest corner of the pubhe square. It was to be of wood, two stories high, and to consist of a jail and jailer's residence in the lower story, and a court-room in the upper one. Mr. Johnson immediately began obtaining the timber, but the building was not raised till the next year.

As winter approached, the war-excitement subsided. Both armies went into winter-quarters, most of the militia was dismissed in December, and only a small guard was maintained at Cleveland.

In the spring of 1813 active preparations for hostilities were again made on both sides of the frontier, and Cleveland again became a depot of supplies, and to some extent a rendezyous for troops. Major Thomas 8. Jessup, of the regular army, afterwards highly distinguished as General Jessup, was placed in command, though at first he had only a few companies of militia under hischarge. Later Hon. Return J. Meigs, governor of Ohio, came to inspect the preparations making for war.

On the 10th of May, while the latter was still there, a company of regular soldiers marched into town under the command of Captain Stanton Sholes. These were the first and about the only regular troops stationed in Cuyahoga county during the war. They were met by Governor Meigs, and warmly welcomed by him as well as by the citizens of the place. |

There were a number of sick and wounded soldiers there, with very poor accommodations, some of whom had been there since the time of Hull's surrender. Captain Sholes immediately set some carpenters belonging to his company at work, and in a short time they erected a neat, framed hospital, about twenty feet by thirty, though without the use of a nail, a screw, or any iron article whatever; the whole being held together by wooden pins. It was covered with a water-tight roof and floored with chestnut bark. 'To this the invalids were speedily removed, to the very great improvement of their comfort.

bank of the jake, near the present Seneca street. Outting down a large number of trees twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, they cut off logs some twelve feet long each. These were sunk in the ground three or four feet, leaving the remaining distance above the surface. The sides of the logs adjoining each other were hewed down for a few inches, so as to fit solidly together. This made a wall impervious to small arms, and the dirt was heaped up against the outside so as somewhat to deaden the effect of cannon balls. Next a large number of trees and brush were cut down, and tie logs and brush piled together near the

'brink of the lake; forming a long abatis, very difficult to climb over, and which would have exposed any assailing party who attempted to surmount it to a very destructive fire from the fort while doing so. The post was named Fort Huntington, in honor of the ex-governor.

Meanwhile vessels were building in the Cuyahoga, and a large amount of public stores accumulating on the banks. Scareely had Captain Sholes got his little fortress in good condition when, on the 19th of June, the British fleet, consisting of the ''Queen Charlotte " and '' Lady Provost," with some smaller vessels, appeared off the coast and approached the mouth of the river with the apparent intention of landing. Major Jessup had left, but expresses were sent out tg rally the milltia, and as soon as possible every man in the vicinity was hastening with musket on his shoulder toward the endangered locality.

When the fleet had arrived within a mile and a half of the harbor the wind sank to a perfect calm, and the vessels were compelled tolie there until afternoon. Meanwhile the little band of regulars made every preparation they could to defend their post, and a considerable body of militia was arrayed near by. There was a small piece of artillery in the village, but it was entirely unprovided with a carriage. Judge James Kingsbury, at that time a paymaster in the army, as weare informed by his daughter, Mrs. Stedman, then eight years old, took the hind wheels of a heavy wagon, mounted the little cannon on them, after a fashion, and placed it in position to pour its volleys into the enemy's ranks if he should attempt to land. The vessels in the Cuyahoga and the public stores were all, as far as possible, moved to '' Walworth point," some two miles up the river.

At length the calm ceased, but the succeeding weather was no more propitious to the would-be invaders. A terrific thunder-storm sprang up in the west and swept furiously down the lake, and the little fleet was soon driven before it far to the east-

When the storm abated, the fleet lay to, opposite Euclid creek, in the town of that name, where a boat's crew went ashore. They killed an ox there, cut it up hide and all, and took it off to their comrades on shipboard. With more courtesy than could have been expected, however, they left a golden guinea in a cleft stick at the place of slaughter, with a note apologizing because in their haste they had to spoil the hide, and adding that if it had not been for the thunder shower they would have eaten their beef in Cleveland. Either the commander thought that during the delay too large a foree for them to mect had assembled, or else their presence was required clsewhere;-at all events they sailed off down the lake, and their vessels never again appeared on the shore of Cuyahoga county except as the captured spoils of the gallant Perry and his comrades. ~ About the middle of July, General W. H. Harrison, communder-in-chief of the Northwestern army, and the only general who had gained any fame as a soldier on this frontier, came to Cleveland on a tour of inspection, accompanied by his staff officers, Governor Iluntington, Major George Tod {father of the late David od), Major 'T. S. Jessup, and the gallant Colonel Wood, afterwards killed at Fort Erie. The general was cordiaily welcomed, and many came from the townships in the vicinity to see and to show their respect to the hero of Tippecanoe, who it was hoped would redeem the tarnished fame of the American arms in the Northwest. After a three-days' stay, spent in careful examination of the public stores and ineans of defense, the general returned to his army, at the mouth of the Maumee.

Immediately afterwards there was another alarm spread along the lake shore, when a force of British und Indians attacked Fort Meigs, on the site of the city of Fremont. Some again packed up their household goods for flight, but as a rule the people had by this time become pretty well seasoned to rumors of war, and they generally waited for further advices.

T'wo entire divisions of militia, residing southward and sontheastward from Fort Meigs, were ordered out by the governor, but those on the lake shore were rightly considered as having enough to do to defend their own localities, and were not required to take the field at that time. "The gallant Major Croghan with his little band successfully defended the fort, and compelled the withdrawal of the enemy before any of Governor Meigs' levies arrived; and again, fora while, tere was a period of comparative quict.

But the British fleet was still mistress of the lake; no movement against Canada was likely to be successful until that fleet could be overcome, and no one knew at what moment an invading force might be Janded at any point on our long and feebly defended frontier. All eyes were anxiously directed toward the harbor of Erie, where a young lieutenant of twentysix, called commodore by courtesy, was straining every nerve to equip his little fleet, get out to sea, and settle by actual combat the question whether the stars and stripes or the red cross of St. George should float victorious over Lake Erie.

At length, on the 5th day of August, Perry took his fleet out of the harbor and immediately sailed in search of the foe. In a few days he passed up the lake, feeling sure that he would soon bring the enemy to battle. 'The fleet Jay to off the mouth of the Cuyahoga to get supplies, and the youthful commodore came ashore. Little Diana Kingsbury was in the village at the time with her father, and the venerable Mrs. Stedman still retains a vivid recollection of the tall, slender, erect young man, in the glittering uniform of the United States navy, with noble bearing and handsome, radiant face, on whom more than on any other man, at that moment, rested the fortunes and honor of America in the Northwest.

The object of the brief delay having been accomplished, the commander returned to his flag-ship, the fleet spread its sails to the favoring breeze and stood away to the westward in gallant array. There were the "Lawrence," the commodore's flag-ship, with twenty guns; the '' Niagara," with twenty guns, under Lieutenant Elliott; the '* Caledonia," with three guns, under Lieutenant Turner; the "Ariel," with four guns, under Lieutenant Pickett; the "Scorpion," with two guns, under Lieutenant Champlin; the ''Somers," with four guns, under Sailing-master Henry; the '' Porcupine," with one gun, under Midshipman Senat; the '' Tigress," with one gun, under Midshipman Conklin; the '''Trippe," with one gun, under Midshipman Holdup. In long procession they swept past the shores of Brooklyn, Rockport and Dover, and sailed away in search of the foe, followed by the hopes and prayers of all the people for the ardent commander and his gallant crew.

Inter arma leges silent, says the old Roman proyerb; that is, amid the clang of arms the laws are powerless. But for all that the Cuyahoga people did not stop building a court-house because war was going on around them. On the 10th of September, 1813, Levi Johnson and some of his hired men were busy putting the finishing work on the rude temple of justice which he had contraeted to build a year before. Some of them heard a noise in the distant west, which was wt first supposed to be thunder. Looking up, however, they were surprised to see no clouds as far as the eye could reach in every direction. The sounds continued. Suddenly Johnson exclaimed:

In a moment all the workmen by common consent threw down their hammers and nails, scrambled to the ground and hurried to the lake shore with their employer at their head. In a short time all the men of the village, with many of the women-and children, were gathered on the beach, listening to the sounds of battle. The scene of conflict was seventy miles dis- ; tant, but the wind was favorable and the listeners

From The War To The Canal

_At length there was only a dropping fire; one fleet had evidently succumbed to the other. Finally heavy shots were heard, and then all was silent.

"Hip, hip, hurrah!" promptly responded the crowd, willing to believe the assertion, but yet separating with anxious hearts, uncertain what might be the result. In fact, the English had some as heayy guns as the Americans, but not so many of that class.

Not only in Cleveland but all along the lake shore, among the scattered inhabitants of Dover, Rockport, Brooklyn and Buclid, the sounds of battle were heard; the people soon divined that it was not thunder, and listened with mingled dread and hope to the deathnotes from the west. Nay, even as far east as Krie, Pennsylvania, a hundred and sixty miles from the scene, the sounds of the conflict were heard, but merely as a low rumbling, which was supposed to be distant thunder.

Soon the welcome news of victory was borne along the shore, and the people could freely give way to their exultation. It was not merely joy over the great nitional triumph which gladdened their hearts, though this was deeply felt, but also the knowledge that, with Lake Erie in the possession of the Americans, their homes, their. wives and their children were safe from British invasion and Indian foray.

The victory of Harrison over Proctor on the Thames, accompanied by the death of Tecumseh, followed on the 5th of October, 1813; making the assurance of safety doubly sure on the part of the inhabitants of this frontier. The army of Harrison, or such part of it as was not discharged, soon after went down tothe shores of Lake Ontario, and the tide of war drifted away from all this region. General Harrison and Commodore Perry went down the south shore of 'Lake Erie to Buffalo, stopping at Cleveland, where they were entertained with a banquet, while Judge Kingsbury brought about the assemblage of a special meeting of Masons in their honor, at his farm on the fidge.

The lake was open to a late period that year, and on the 2ist of December the people a!ong the shore saw the gallant Lawrence sailing down on its way to Erie, where it became a, hospital-ship; being followed slowly by the captured British vessels, Detroit and Queen Charlotte.

On New Year's Day, 1814, the residents of Cuyahoga county were shocked and startled to learn that, two days before, the British and Indians had captured and burned the village of Buffalo, having previously captured Fort Niagara and devastated the whole Niagara frontier. For a short time some of the inhabitants were alarmed lest the foes they had so long looked for from the west should come up the shore of the lake from the northeast. But the invasion was only temporary, and during the succeeding campaign the tide of war ebbed and flowed between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, entirely on Canadian soil, while northern Ohio and the Territory of Michigan were alike blessed with profound peace. The only event worthy of mention, occurring in the county during the year, was of a civil nature; the incorperation of the village of Cleveland on the 23d of December, 1814.

But though the immediate pressure of war was lifted from this region, yet its existence checked progress and stopped immigration, and it was with great delight that in the latter part of January, 1815, the people heard that peace had been made between the United States and Great Britain by means of the treaty of Ghent.

Rapid Development - Previous Unfavorable Cireumstances - Settlement of Various Townships - Slow Growth of Cleveland- - First Bank - Planning the Canal - A Cuyahoga Man's Idea - The First Newspaper - A Surprising Phenomenon The ' Walk-in-the-Water '' - Improvement under Difficulties - Articles of Lake Commerce - Names of Lake Vessels - Pennsylvania Wagons - A Fast Man of Yore - The Cleveland Herald - General Trainings - Wolves and Bears - The Hinkley Hunt - The Gathering - The Officers - The Skirmish Line - The Advance - The First Bear - Slaughter of the Deer - Closing up - Furious Fun - The Last Square Mile - ''A Wolf! A Wolf!" - Slaying the Marauders--The Grand Finale - Number of the Victims - A Line of Stage Couches - Stage Coaching Experience - '' Going on Foot and Carrying a Rail " - Increasing Commerce - Legislative Action on the Canal - Alfred Kelley a Commissioner - Prices of Farm Produce - Fondness for Whisky - Tne Militia again - -Capital Scarce - Various Small Industries - Formation of Lorain County - Its Organization - The Southwestern Turnpike - The Medical Society - The Election of 1824 - The Kinsman Road - A Mild Winter---Law authorizing the Canal.

THE period of fifteen years succeeding the war of 1812 was one of rapid development of the agricultural portion of the county. Previous to 1815 settlement had been very slow. At first, people were deterred by the unfavorable reputation of the region in regard to sickness. Rumors of Indian war also checked immigration, and the war of 1812 completely stopped it. But with the close of that war, the certainty that the Indians were completely subdued and the improving condition of the county in sxegard to health, the people poured in, in numbers increased by the previous restraint. Hitherto the settlements had nearly all been along the lake shore, but now the hardy pioneers hastened into all the townships of the county in rapid succession, even to its southernmost border.

Nearly or quite half of the present civil townships of Cuyahoga county were both settled and organized between the beginning of 1815 and the end of 1825. In nearly every township, not previously occupied, settlements were begun within five years after the close of the war. The present township of Chagrin Falls was settled, though only by a single resident, in 1815. Olmstead and Rockport were both settled in the same year. Rockport was organized in 1819.

Strongsville was settled in 1816 and organized in 1818. The first pioneers located in Orange in 1815 or 716, and an organization was effected in 1820. Solon was scttled in the latter year. Bedford was settled in 1813, and Warrensville in 1810. Brecksville had first been occupied in 1810 and Independence about the same time. Middleburg was also settled before the war. 'The pioncers of all these townships, as well as those previously settled in the county, were principally from New England or New York, though occasionally a sturdy Pennsylvania German made his way from that State, and entered into competition with the keeneyed Yankees. ILuron county was organized in 1815; leaving Cuyahoga unencumbered with outside temporary territory, but still extending to Black river.

Every where-the axe was heard resounding amid the grand old forest-trees, the smoke from numerous log cabins was seen rising above their tops, and the deer, the bears and the wolves were rapidly driven back before the rifles of the advancing pioneers. The stories of the various localities are told in the township histories, but the general result was that Cuyahoga county speedily emerged from the wilderness condition which had previously characterized the principal part of- its area, and cntered on a career of prosperity which has only seldom been checked from that time to this.

The village of Cleveland, however, showed but a slight expansion for ten years after the war. The first bank in the county, the Commercial Bank of Lake Eric, was organized there in 1816, but it did a very modest business indeed, and ere long became defunct. In 1817, N. H. Merwin built the schooner "Minerva," the first vessel registered at Washington from the district of Cuyahoga, under the United States revenue laws; this being one of the first operations in the great business of vessel building, which has since grown to such large proportions.

Meanwhile far-sighted men were looking forward to the establishment of a great city at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, and planning the opening of a great highway of commerce between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, with one of its termini atthe point just mentioned. New York had already begun to build the Erie canal, and public opinion in Ohio was turning toward a similar work. The first resolution looking to the construction of a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio was introduced into the legislature in 1817, though the work in question was not begun until 1825.

We may note in passing, as indicative of the thorough identification of Cuyahoga county with the most liberal ideas of modern progress, that in 1818 lion. Alfred Kelley, then a representative from that county, introduced into the lower house of the legislature a bill to abolish imprisonment for debt, which is said to have been the first movement of that kind made in any legislative body in either this country or Europe. The bill did not at that time become a law, but it exerted a great influence in calling public attention to that subject, and ere many years had

On the 31st of July, 1818, the first newspaper was issued in the county; being called the Cleveland (azette and Commercial Register. It was intended to be a weekly sheet, but sometimes ten, twelve or fourteen days elapsed between its issues.

But a newspaper, although rightly considered an important institution, was something which everybody had seen before; on the first day of September of the same year an entire novelty - the like of which not one in five hundred of the inhabitants had ever before seen - presented itself before the people of Cuyahoga county. On the day named the residents along the lake shore of Euclid saw upon the lake a curious kind of a vessel, making what was then considered very rapid progress westward, without the aid of sails, while from a pipe near its middle rolled forth a dark cloud of smoke, which trailed its gloomy length far into the rear of the swift-gliding, mysterious traveler over the deep. They watched its westward course until it turned its prow toward the harbor of Cleveland, and then returned to their labors. Many of them doubtless knew what it was, but some shook their heads in sad surmise as to whether some evil powers were not at work in producing such a strange phenomenon as that, on the bosom of their beloved Lake Erie.

«« Yes, yes, it's the steamboat; it's the stoamboat," was the general shout, and with ringing cheers the people welcomed the first vessel propelled by steam which had ever traversed the waters of Lake Erie. The keel had been laid at Black Rock, near Buffalo, in November, 1817, and the vessel had been built during the spring and summer of 1818. It had received the name of ' Walk-in-the-Water," from a Wyandot chieftain who was formerly known by that appellation ; which was also extremely appropriate as applied toa vessel which did indeed walk in the water like a thing of life.

This harbinger of the numerous steam-leviathans of the upper lakes, and of the immense commerce carried on by them, was of three hundred tons burden, and could carry a hundred cabin passengers and a still larger number in the steerage. Its best speed was - from eight to ten miles per hour, and even this was considered something wonderful. All Cleveland swarmed on board to examine the new craft, and many of the leading citizens took passage in it to Detroit, for which place it soon set forth.

great difficulties. ILardship was the expected lot of the pioneers, but even in the older sections of the county, where good farms had been cleared up, the agriculturist found his vocation an unprofitable one on account of the difficulty of finding a market for his products. In fact, for grain there was almost no market; the only purchasers in this vicinity being the few hundred traders and mechanics who were concentrated at Cleveland and Newburg. Hardly a bushel of wheat or a barrel of flour was shipped down the lake until after the opening of the Erie canal in 1825; the expense of transportation being so great as to "'cat up" the whole price of the article.

Some cattle were driven overland to Philadelphia or New York, and hides in considerable quantities, besides the furs-of. wild animals, were sent down the lake. From an old marine record we find that the articles going down the lake at this period (1815 to 1820) taking one vessel after another, comprised furs, fish, cider, furs, paint, dry goods, furniture, scythes, furs, grindstones, skins, furs, cider, paint, furs, fish, household-goods, grindstones, skins, scythes, coffee, fish, building-stone, crockery, hardware, pork, seythes and clothing. It is difficult to imagine where the coffee and some other articles came from, but probably they had been sent up the lake from the East and were returned for lack of a market. It will be observed that neither potash, pearlash nor '' black salts," figure in the list of exports, though these are mentioned by most of the early settlers I have met as being the principal cash articles they could produce. It is probable that it was not till after 1816, (the date of the foregoing list) that black salts, etc., became articles of export from northern Ohio.

The upward bound freight at the same time consisted of whisky, dry goods, household goods, naval stores, dry goods, groceries, hardware, salt, fish, spirits, household goods, mill-irons, salt, tea, whisky, butter, whisky, coffee, soap, medicines, groceries, household goods and farm utensils. It will be seen that a good many classes of articles went both ways, but no furs nor skins went up the lake,

The lake vessels of the period in question were almost all schooners, the following being a nearly complete list: The schooners ''Dolphin," ''Diligence," « Hrie," '' Pomfret," '* Weasel," '* Widow's Son," "Merry Calvin," ' Firefly," '' Paulina," ' Mink," "Merchant," "Pilot," "Rachel," "Michigan," ''Neptune," "Hercules," "Croghan," "Tiger," ''Aurora," "Experiment," "Black Snake," ''Ranger," ''Fiddler" and ''Champion;" also the sloops ''Venus," ''American Eagle," '' Perseverance," ' Nightingale" and «Black River Packet." 'lhe solitary steamer has already been mentioned.

Whatever freight was brought to Cleveland at this period from the adjoining counties was carried (except when there was sleighing) on big vehicles, called '* Pennsylvania " or '' Conestoga" wagons, drawn by A solid vehicle and a strong team were absolutely necessary, especially in spring and

Even in summer these rude highways were by no means easy to travel. It is narrated that in 1819 # resident of Hudson, Summit county, who had a fine team of which he was especially proud, drove up to the door of Noble H. Merwin's hotel in Cleveland, just as the guests of the latter were sitting down to supper.

""Come out here; come out here," cried the excited landlord to the occupants of the supper table; '' here is a man who has come through from Hudson today;" and forthwith all rushed out to gaze on this extraordinary phenomena. As the distance from Cleveland to Hudson was only twenty-four miles, it may be presumed that the roads must have been something terrible to make such a day's journey seem remarkable.

The second newspaper in the county, and the oldest one now surviving, was the Cleveland Herald, which was first published in 1819. In the early files we have found many incidents bearing upon the history of the county at that period.

The militia was then an institution of much more consequence than at present, and the number of divisions, brigades and regiments, with their corresponding major-generals, brigadier-generals and colonels was something almost tremendous. Among numerous other cases we notice that in June, 1820, Colonel Daniel Miles was elected brigadier-general in place of General Lewis R. Dille, of Euclid, resigned, The "general training" of those days was next to the 4th of July the greut holiday of the summer season. When a regiment of four hundred or five hundred men, dressed in sheep's gray and blue jeans, and many of them in their shirt sleeves, armed with rifles, muskets and fowling-pieces of every pattern, stood in irregular line in some convenient. meadow, while the colonel, glorious in brass buttons, with epaulets as large as tea-plates, and a cocked hat of tremendous circumference, dashed up and down the lines on the best farm horse to be obtained for love or money - ah, then indeed the assembled boyhood of all the country round felt that the acme of glory had been reached, and that with such defenders Columbia was safe from all her foes.

Europe, but the wolves which devoured their sheep and the bears which ate up their hogs. To reduce the number of these enemies, to obtain their skins and to supply themselves with venison, as well as for the sport afforded, hundreds of young and middleaged men made a specialty of hunting during the winter months.

But there were in some localities large tracts which, usually on account of their swampy nature, were the especial resort of wild animals. Occasionally, after the farmers' sheep had suffered severely from wolves which harbored in such a tract, the people would turn out from far and near to surround and clear out the haunt of the marauders. these grand batiues in this part of the State was the ''Tlinckley hunt," which took place in December, 1818. The township of Hinckley, which was the scene of the great raid, was just outside of Cuyahoga county; lying immediately south of Royalton, and being now the northeasternmost township of Medina county - yet as huntsmen participated in it from all parts of Cuyahoga, even from as far as Huclid, we have chosen it as a specimen of the onslaughts occasionally made on the denizens of the forest by the pioneers of northern Ohio.

Notice having been given throughout Cuyahoga and Medina counties, including the present county of Summit, nearly five hundred hunters, all eager for the fray, assembled one cold morning in December on the borders of the wolf-haunted township. A commander in chief was chosen by universal suffrage, as well as four captains, one for each side of the area to be enclosed, Squire Ferris, of Royalton, was the captain on the northern side. Then the commander sent his companies to the right and left, and in due time the whole township was enclosed by what in military phrase would be called a skirmish line, with the men fifteen or twenty rods apart. There was at that time only one family living in Hinckley ; so that the assailants had a clear field.

"' Forward march !" shouted the chief. '' Forward march!" repeated the men in succession, and the four lines moved forward toward the center of the township. At intervals along the line good woodsmen were placcd, with special instructions to take a straight direction to the center of Hinckley, to whose movement the others were directed to conform, gradually closing up as they progressed. 'The venerable Abial Haynes, of Strongsville, though then but a youth, was one of the linesmen, or '' guides," and has given us a description of the principal events of this exciting day.

Ere the lines had marched a mile toward the center a few deer were seen, a part of which were killed while others sped away in the opposite direction from the crackling rifles. After the first mile bears began to be observed. Mr. Haynes and John Hilliard met one and both fired at once, at a distance of a few rods. Both balls struck him and he fell, but immediately scrambled up and ''loped" back into the forest. He was soon killed, however, and was found to weigh six hundred pounds; being almost as heavy as a small ox.

The lines marched' on and deer became extremely numerous, while bear were quite frequent. There was a continuous fusilade along the line as bucks, and does, and fawns fell in rapid succession before the rifles of the hunters. Those that did not fall generally ran back from the line of death-dealing riflemen, but occasionally some brave old buck would fling his antlered head aloft, burst through the line of his foes, perchance escape their bullets, and dash away to seek a more healthy residence.

- Turkies, too, flew up in enormous numbers; so that it was said in somewhat exaggerated phrase that every bullet fired that day killed a turkey. Turkies and deer were so numerous that their deaths caused no excitement, but when a bear curled up to die a triumphant shout was raised by his conquerors, which was echoed far along the line.

All this while not a wolf was to be seen; the wary rascals snuffed danger from afar and retreated as fast as possible from the sound of the deadly rifles. As wolves were the very animals it was most desirable to kill, some disappointment was felt at their non-appearance, but the old hunters were certain they had retreated toward the center and encouraged the others to press on.

When within about two miles of the middle of the township the fun became fast and furious The men were now but four or five rods apart and it was very difficult for anything to escape between them. Nevertheless, at one time fifty or sixty deer, in one frightened herd, made a dash at the line; the antlered leaders bounding five or six feet from the ground, and all snorting with frantic terror. Most of them escaped, in spite of the rattling fusilade with which they were assailed:on either side. Scarce a moment passed in which a deer was not seen bounding with all the speed of terror through the forest, or a bear- lumbering along at his best pace, but far too slowly to escape the vengeance of his unsparing foes. Crack! crack ! went the rifles with scarcely a moment's intermission; corpses strewed the ground on every side and the excited hunters, with all the enthusiasm of victorious

When the last square mile in the center of the township was reached the deer had entirely disappeared ; all were slain or had broken through the lines and escaped. The bears, too, had become scarce; only three or four being killed on the last square mile. The men were now within a few paces of each other, and eager asso many bloodhounds. At length a gaunt gray form was seen gliding among the trees.

"A wolf! a wolf!" cried those who saw it. Half a dozen rifles were fired at once, and the enemy of the sheep-fold was numbered with the slain. Another and another were soon seen and dispatched. As the deadly lines, now closing into a circle, pressed forward to the center, the grisly prowlers were seen running hither and thither, as terrified as the lambs they had formerly pursued. Caution was now necessary lest the bullets of the hunters should wound their friends on the other side of the circle, but caution was a difficult virtue among such an excited and jubilant crowd. Ifowever, it must have been exercised to some extent ; for none of the hunters were killed or wounded. 2

At last the triumphant .riflemen closed swiftly in together, the last wolf went down beneath their bullets, the cirele, became a band, and a succession of ringing cheers gave vent to their excited feclings.

On counting up their victims, eight wolves were found (all killed on the last square mile); a number which, though not large in comparison with that of tlie other animals, was sufficient to carry destruction into hundreds of flocks of sheep.

Twenty bears were also found '' weltering in their gore" on the field of battle, eighteen of which were drawn together and flung into a shaggy heap. Of deer, no less than two hundred and sixty were drawn together in the same manner. 'The hunters certainly could not complain that this was '' not a good day for deer." As we have before mentioned, many of these fleet-footed foresters escaped, but Mr. Haines stated that he believed that all of the bears and wolves in the township were killed. At all events the hunt completely broke up the haunt of wolves which had previously existed there, and for atime, at least, there was peace for the neighboring sheep.

There were other grand Jattwes of the same description in and near the county, but the Hinckley hunt was the most celebrated and most successful of them all, and its description will suffice for cither of the others.

In 1820 a step farther in advance was made when a line of coaches was put on the route from: Cleveland to Columbus, passing through the townships of Brooklyn, Parma, the corner of Royalton, Strongsville, and so on through Medina county. Those were direful times for travelers. In summer the big coaches bowled along with comparative ease, save when one of the wheels jolted over the root of an overshadowing oak, or collided with the stump of a lately felled beech. Even these disturbances did not prevent the clusely packed passengers from beguiling their way with many a pleasant tale, until "' stage-coach stories " have become renowned for their wit and jollity. In wipter, too, by curling up in the bottom of the sleigh, surrounded with plenty of buffalo and bear skins, the travelers could generally manage to perform their journey with considerable rapidity, and without

But alas for the unfortunate man doomed to a stage-coach journey in the spring or fall. He was sure to be called on to go on foot a large portion of the time, and was often expected to shoulder a rail and carry it from mudhole to mudhole, to pry out the vehicle in which he was in theory supposed to be riding. ''To go on foot and carry a rail," and to pay a stage company for the privilege, was a mode of trayeling very widely celebrated but extremely unpleasant. Not: only were roads poor. but bridges were scarce. There was not one across the Cuyahoga river in the county. A notice was published in April, 1820, by which ''all having an interest in or wishes concerning the building of a bridge across the river at or near Cleveland are requested to mect at the court-house, to consult in relation thereto."

As a marked example of what must seem to our readers the extreme slowness with which the news was carried in those days, we may mention that while King George the Third, of England, died on the 29th day of January, 1820, the announcement of his death was not made in the Cleveland Herald until the 28th of March, (two months lacking a day after the event took place).

The commerce of the lake slowly but steadily increased. The Herald of April 25, 1820, reported the following clearances at the 'port of Cuyahoga" ina single week: Cleared; schooner " Fairplay," Johnson master, loaded with pork, flour, whisky and passengers; schooner ''Commodore Perry," Tayler master, for Detroit, loaded with flour, beef, cattle, etc.; schooner '"'American Hagle," Gaylord master, loaded with produce; schooner '' Friendship," Kelly master, also loaded with produce. The arrival of some of the same yessels from Detroit was noted, but the nature of their cargoes was not mentioned.

It will be observed that flour is spoken of as going both up and down the lake. In the latter case it was doubtless used by the garrisons of the posts on the upper lakes, or by the settlers of Michigan who had not yet raised crops. This was about the beginning of the great trade in grain and breadstuffs along the upper lakes, which has already grown to such enormous proportions.

In this year (1820) the first legislative action was taken in regard to the construction of a canal from Lake Erie to the Ohio river.. An act was passed by the legislature providing for the appointment of three canal commissioners, who were authorized to employ a competent engineer and assistants, for the purpose of making preliminary surveys of some of the routes considered most available for the proposed work.

In 1822 Hon. Alfred Kelly, of Cleveland, was appointed one of the canal commissioners, and for many years thereafter was busily and zealously engaged in forwarding the construction of the canal, and in other public services. Hon. James Geddes, of New York, one of the principal engineers of the Erie canal, was employed to make a survey of the routes of the Ohio canal.

Prices of all kinds of farm produce were exceedingly low; the following being a list of the prices paid in Cleveland in January, 1822: Flour, two dollars and a half per barrel; wheat, thirty-seven cents to fifty cents per bushel; rye, thirty-one cents; corn, twentyfive cents; oats, nineteen cents; beans, fifty cents; flax seed, fifty cents; peas, forty-four to fifty cents; rye, thirty-one cents; butter, eight to ten cents per pound; cheese, four to six cents; lard, four to five cents; pork, two to three and a half cents; beef, three to four cents; tallow, eight to ten cents; whisky, twenty to twenty-six cents per gallon; wood, thirty to fifty cents per cord; hay, six to seven dollars per ton.

It was pretty hard to raise wheat and sell it for thirty-seven. cents a bushel, but on the other hand with whisky only twenty cents a gallon the people were doubtless reasonably happy. For there is no use in evading the unquestionable fact - the sturdy pioneers who destroyed the wild beasts, leveled the forests and subdued the virgin soil of Cuyahoga county, were as a general rule decidediy fond of whisky. Every township had one or more distilleries, where the article was manufactured in the cheapest possible manner, and each had plenty of customers in its own vicinity. Whisky was an important item at every "raising" or ''logging-bee," or other assemblage of the people, and was in. frequent use in the houses of the most reputable classes.

It should be remembered, however, that men who spent twelve hours a day chopping, logging, plowing, splitting rails, etc., could more easily ''work off" the effect of frequent drams of liquor than could their degenerate descendants, who think eight hours constitutes a hard day's work, and many of whom do no hard work at all.

General training was one of the occasions at which a liberal use of whisky was considered to be the proper thing, notwithstanding the requirements of discipline. The officers couldn't keep whisky out of camp, wlthough there was an abundant supply of those dignitaries. 'This was a part of the ninth division, Ohio militia. Among the numerous notices and orders which appeared within a few months, in 1822, we observe one directing the members of the first company of cavalry, second brigade, ninth division, Ohio militia, to hold an election for company officers at the court-house; signed by the brigadier-general, per John W. Wiley, aide. Also one requiring the first artillery company of the first regiment, fourth brigade, cte., to meet to elect officers; signed by P. M. Weddell, captain. Another ordering the company officers of the first regiment, etc., to meet to elect a major; signed by P. Baldwin, colonel.

A short time afterwards the following staff and non-commissioned-staff officers of the first regiment were announced by H. Wellman, colonel: Donald McIntosh, surgeon; S. A. Henderson, surgeon's mate; Runey R. Baldwin, adjutant; John H. Camp, quartermaster; Horace Perry, paymaster; William

Capital of all kinds was scarce, and this fact of course retarded the general progress of the county. Yet the absence of large amounts of capital encouraged men with a little money to embark in various small industries, in different parts of the county, which haye now passed away. If a man wanted to start a little business of any kind, and had barely enough to begin with, he could go ahead in comparative safety; there was no danger of any "' bloated eapitalist" crushing out his enterprise by driving him into a hopeless competition.

which had a wide reputation for the excellence of its produetions. A little later there was a ship and boatbuilding establishment in the same township, more fully described in the special history of Kuclid. Another industry of the period (1822, etc.) - a somewhat curious one - was a castor-oil factory, situated in the township of Brooklyn, a mile from Cleveland. 'That fragrant business, we imagine, has entirely passed away from the county.

We now come to a material change in the western boundaries of Cuyahoga county. By a law passed on the 26th day of December, 1822, the county of Lorain was established. It embraced a large part of Huron county, and took from Cuyahoga the townships of Troy (now Avon), Ridgeville, Haton, Columbia, and the west part of Lenox (now Olmstead). It will be observed that Troy (Avon) and Ridgeville then extended to Black river, which was the western boundary of Cuyahoga county.

The new county was not organized at that time, and the townships named in the last paragraph remained temporarily attached to Cuyahoga county. A list of the civil townships of the latter county, which

Chagrin (now Willoughby), Brooklyn, Brecksville, Bedford, Columbia, Dover, Euclid, Eaton, Independence, Mayfield, Newburg, Orange, Ridgeville, Royalton, Rockport, Strongsville, Troy (Avon), and Warrensville. Nineteen in all; the same number as there are at present (aside from Cleveland) - the number of those which have been detached haying been made good by new formations.

On the first day of April, 1824, Lorain county was duly organized, and the territory above described was permanently detached from Cuyahoga county. 'The west half of Lenox (Olmstead) was then made a part of Ridgeville, Lorain county, while the east half was attached to Middleburg, Cuyahoga county.

We said the territory in question was '' permanently" detached from Cuyahoga county. That is to say, the detachment was intended to be permanent, but in regard to the west half of Lenox it was not so. The residents of Lenox were much dissatisfied with the decree which had cut their thriving young township in twain, and had placed the severed halves in two different counties, and three years later they procured the passage of an act, dated January 29, 1827, by which the west half of the township in question was set buck into Cuyahoga, where the two portions, once more united, became the township of Olmstead, as narrated in its special history. The facts mentioned in this paragraph are a little in advance of the period wllotted to the present chapter, but we want to close the account in regard to the western boundary of the county. No changes have been made in it from the reannexation of the west half of Lenox to the present time.

From a casual record we learn that the white males, over twenty-one years of age, resident in Cuyahoga county in 1823, numbered sixteen hundred and fiftyfive; an average of eighty-seven to each of the nineteen townships.~

Another record of the same year mentions that the State had directed the laying out of a ''free road" from Oleveland through Newburg, Bedford and Solon, and so on southeast, striking the Ohio river in Columbiana county. Samuel Cowles, Esq., of Cleveland, was one of the commissioners to lay it out.

The first movement was also made this year to turnpike the stage road running .from Cleveland southwest through Brooklyn, Parma and Strongsville; and thence through Medina to Wooster, the county seat of Wayne county. A company was formed, called the Wayne, Medina and Cuyahoga 'Turnpike Company, and in April, 1823, the books were opened to receive subscriptions fo the stock. 'The movement was a success, and the turnpike in question became one of the great highways of the State.

By this time, thirteen years after the advent of Dr. David Long, the first physician in the county, the doctors of this and Medina counties (which, by a law of the State, constituted the nineteenth medical district of Ohio) had become sufficiently numerous to orgunize a medical society, and did so in May, 1828. Dr. Long was the first president.

In the autumn of 1824 took place the great quadrangular contest for the presidency between Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun. The last named gentleman received no votes in this county. Of the others, strange as it may seem, Jackson received very few votes; . the strength of the county being divided between Clay and Adams, with the former as a decided favorite. The following table shows the vote by townships. township of Chagrin (now Willoughby) was included in the list, casting ninety-eight votes, but we have omitted it in order to show the number cast in the territory now constituitug Cuyahoga county, except the west half of Olmstead, then attached to Lorain county, and containing but very few voters.

It will, perhaps, surprise some of our readers to learn that as late as 1824 the township of Kuclid cast seventeen votes (wbout fifteen per cent.) more than Cleveland, but such was the fact. While the agricultural townships made steady progress after the war of 1812, the growth of Cleveland was extremely slow down to the year 1825. Itshould be remembered, however, that Euclid at that time ineluded the greater part of the present township of Hast Cleveland.

In this year (1824) an act was passed directing the laying out of another State road; running from Cleveland through Warrensville and Orange, and thence nearly due east to Kinsman, on the eastern line of the State. It was called the Kinsman road, and the westernmost part of it is now known as Kinsman street, in the city of Cleveland.

The winter of 1824-5 was celebrated for its mildness, and the Cleveland Herald of December 8th records that violets, pinks and marigolds were then in bloom, that pea vines had pods half-grown upon them, and most remarkable of all that ripe strawberries, grown in the open air, had lately been brought into the office.

During the previous five years engineers had been at work, more or less, making preliminary surveys for the great Ohio canal. Public opinion, too, had been steadily growing more favorable to the proposed enterprise, and at length, on the 4th of February, 1825, a law was passed authorizing the canal commissioners to build acanal along the Scioto and Muskingum valleys, and thence north to Lake Erie. The commissioners were left free to choose, as to the northern part, between the route by the "Cuyahoga valley to Cleveland, and that through Wooster, and down the valley of Black river to its mouth. The seven commissioners (of whom Alfred Kelley, of Cleveland, was one of the most influential), reported in favor of the superior cheapness and convenience of the Cuyahoga route, and it was formally adopted.