Cuyahoga County, Ohio - Chapter 46: The Village from 1815 to 1825, |, 1870

Chapter 46: The Village from 1815 to 1825, |

- N. H. Merwin - Mrs. P. Scovill - Going to Church by Bugle-call - Leonard Case's Description - The Traveled Streets - Woods, Swamp and Brush - The Residents and their Families - Moses White - Prominent Men of Newburg - ''Cleveland, Six Miles from Newburg '' - The Buclid Road - Laid out to the Corner of the Square - Framed Warehouses - Stone Quarry and Mill at Newburg - Commercial Bank. of Lake Erie - Orlando Cutler - Samuel Cowles and Reuben Wood - Land on the Square sold for $100 per Acre - Ansel Young - Steamboat and Newspaper - ''The God of Lake Erie" - Carding Machines and other Items - P, M. Weddell - Michael Spangler - Religious Matters - A, Theatrical Performance - John Brooks and other N ewburgers - Killed by a Limb - Hunting Deer - The First Bridge - Business Rivalry - The Cleveland Academy - The Cleveland Forum - The West Side - Poor Harbors - The Canal - The Turning Point - J. W. Allen.

On the first Monday of June, 1815, the first village election took place. 'The following officers were unanimously elected; each receiving twelve votes: Alfred

Kelley, president; Horace Perry, recorder; Alonzo Carter, treasurer; John A. Ackley, marshall; George Wallace and John Riddle, assessors; Samuel Williamson, David Long, and Nathan Perry, Jr., trustees.

The hopes entertained of great immediate prosperity on the return of peace were by no means realized. In fact, the sudden change in the value of paper money and the general financial stringency which came upon the country immediately after the war, combined with the cheapness of agricultural products, the difficulty of sending them East, and the general indebtedness for land, rendered the five years next succeeding the war even more discouraging than the period which preceded it.

Nevertheless there was quite a number of new residents came in that period and there was quite an amount of bu8iness done, considering how small a place Cleveland actually was.

This year the enterprising boat-builder, Levi Johngon, laid the keel of the schooner '' Neptune," of sixty-five tons, near the site of Central Market, and it was afterwards moved to the water by the same mcans employed in the case of the '' Pilot."

Noble H. Merwin, long a prominent citizen of Cleveland, came to that place in 1815, and began keeping the tavern previously kept by George Wallace, at the corner of Superior street and Virginia lane. He also engaged largely in the provision trade, vessel-building, and other business connection with the lake.

Among the newcomers of 1816 was Miss Bixby, now the venerable Mrs. Philo Scovill. She mentions among those who were then residents in the village, Levi Johnson, Alfred Kelley, Phineas Shepard, the widow Carter, whose house had a large rye-field in front of it, Phineas Shepard, who kept the old Carter tavern, Dr. Long, before mentioned, Dr. Mackintush, N. H. Merwin and Hiram Hanchett, the tavern-keepers, Horace Perry, Philo Scovill, afterwards her husband, who kept a drug store, etc.

There was no chureh nor settled minister, and when a traveling preacher occasionally came along, meetings were held in the school-house in winter and in the court-house in summer. 'The people were called to meeting by the blowing of a bugle by a Mr. Bliss.

A detailed description of Cleveland in 1816 was made in writing by the late Leonard Case, who first came to the village on the second day of August, in that year. From this document, for the use of which we are indebted to the courtesy of Mr. Williamson, we select the principal points. The only streets cleared were Superior, west of the square, Euclid street (or more properly the Euclid road), which was made passable for teams, and a part of Ontario street. Water street was a mere winding path in the bushes. Vineyard lane and Union lane were paths running none of it being worked. Seneca and Bank streets were all woods. Ontario street, north of the square, Superior street, east of it, Wood, Bond and Erie streets were all in a state of nature. Ontario street, south of the square to the site of the market, and thence along the line of Broadway, was open for travel, as that was the road to the thriving village of Newburg. There was also the Kinsman road (now Woodland avenue), but that was entirely out of town.

Nearly all the ground between the hill and the river was what Mr. Case designates as swamp, with occasional picces of pasture land. On the hill there were the improved lots along Superior street, and north of it the rye-field of ten acres, also mentioned by Mrs. Scovill. Levi Johnson had « field where the City Hospital now is. The rest of the land covering all between St. Clair and Lake streets, and most of that between Superior and St. Clair, and running east to Erie street, was in brush or slashing; the larger timber having been cut down for use and the rest left standing. It afforded considerable pasturage to the cattle of the villagers, and the children found large quantities of strawberries there.

South of the gardens on Superior street, as far east as lot eighty, the land was also a brush pasture. Up along the high banks as far as the Walworth farm on the road to Newburg there was more woods and less pasture. Kast of Pittsburg strect, (the Newburg road,) all was woods with occasional patches of brush.

Mr. Case also gives an account of all the inhabitants, though our space will not permit us to go so fully into detail as he does. On Superior street there were Noble H. Merwin, his wife Minerva, his clerk, William Ingersoll, and his boarders, Thomas O. Young, Philo Scovill, Leonard Case and others; Hiram Hanchett, his wife Mary and five children; Silas Walsworth and wife; James Gear and wife, (the last two named men were hatters;) Darius B. Henderson, his wife Sophia and their daughter; Dr. David Long, his wife Juliana and two children; A. W. Walworth, postmaster and collector; Daniel Kelley and his sons Joseph R., Alfred, Thomas M. and Irad, of whom J. R. and Irad were merchants in company; Almon Kingsbury, who was carrying on a store in company with his father James Kingsbury; Pliny Mowry, who kept tavern on the site of the Forest City House; Horace Perry and his wife Abigail; Abram Hickox, the blacksmith, and his family; Levi Johnson and his wife Margaret; Amasa Bailey; Christopher Gun, who kept the ferry; George Pease; Phineas Shepard, who kept tavern in the old Carter building, part log and part frame; Nathan Perry and his wife Paulina (the former being the owner of a store, with a good assortment); John Aughenbaugh and family (butcher); one negro family (name unknown); Dr. Daniel O. Hoyt, who soon moved to Wooster; Geo. Wallace (tuvern keeper), his wife Harriet and four children, and his boarders, James Root, 8. 8. Dudley, H. Willman, William Gaylord and C. Belden; Asahel Abell, cabinet maker; David Burroughs, Sr., and Jr., blacksmiths.

On Water street there were Samuel and Mathew Williamson, tanners; Maj, Carter's widow, on the bank of the hill; John Burtiss, brewer and yessel builder;

John A. Ackley and family; Dr. Donald McIntosh; William ©. Johnson (lake captain) and family; Harpin Johnson (lake captain) and family. Alonzo Carter was then living on the west side of the river, and his appears to have been the only family there.

'Those who came somewhat later the same season were Luther M. Parsons, Moses White, James Hyndman, Abram Winston, Chas. Frisbee, Sherman Peck, George G. Hills, Eleazer Waterman, Daniel Jones, Orlando Cutter and Thomas Rumage.

Mr. Moses White, one of the newcomers, is still a resident of the city and gives a similar description of the primitive village. He mentions a little new school house where the Kennard House now stands. It was eighteen feet by twenty-eight, with a stone chimney. Mr. White: put up a tailor's shop the next year, it being the first in Cleveland. When he wanted to get it, painted he had to go to Newburg for a painter. There were two stores there and about twenty-five houses. Daniel, Theodore and Erastus Miles and Allan Gaylord were among the principal citizens. Also Aaron Shepard, Gaius Burke and his brothers, and N. Bates. It was hardly as large as Cleveland, but was surrounded by a more flourishing country. Letters used to come, directed to ''M. White, Cleveland, six miles from Newburg, Ohio.

Bilious fever, as well as fever and ague, was still prevalent here, and at the rival port of Buffalo they told Mr. White that if he came to Cleveland he would not live over night. But he did live and the town lived, too. The relics of Fort Huntington, erected during the war, were still standing, between Seneca and Ontario streets, but soon disappeared.

The Euclid road did not originally come to the Public Square but stopped at Huron street. As there were no improvements in the way, however, the people traveled on to the square, and soon after the incorporation of the village, the road or street was extended along the same line.* In order to strike the corner of the square, it was necessary to. make a slight angle at the junction of Huron street. It would hardly be noticed by the casual traveler, but may éasily be seen on careful observation. Bond and Wood streets, and a street around the square were laid out at the same time. The total assessed valuation of the whole original plat of the village; in 1816, was twenty-one thousand and sixty-five dollars.

Down to this time all the warehouses had been of logs. In 1817, Leonard Case and Captain William Gaylord built the first framed one, on the river, north of St. Clair street. Soon afterwards Levi Johnson and Dr. David Long built another framed warehouse, below Caso and Gaylord's, and, ere long, still another was built near it by John Blair. Between Blair's warehouse and Murray's log one was an impassable marsh.

grained, blue sandstone from Newburg. Ere long a mill was erected at the quarry on Mill creek (Newburg) below the falls, where the stone was sawed, as it now is at Berea and elsewhere, into slabs for use. This was the first establishment of the kind in the county. '

About this time (1817) Mr. Josiah Barber, one of the proprietors of land on the West Side, established a store there, and offered inducements to persons to purchase and settle there. Phineas Shepherd moved over and went to keeping tavern. He had possibly done so as early as 1816. 'There were already clearings back in what is now the township of Brooklyn, but none near the mouth of the Cuyahoga, except Alonzo Carter's place, until the time in question. Another account gives the date of Mr. Barber's movement as late as 1819.

The Commercial Bank of Lake Erie had been started in 1816, with Leonard Case as cashier, but there was hardly business enough to support it and it went down in 1819. It, however, revived and went on.

The prominent arrivals of 1818 were Orlando Cutter, who began business with a stock of twenty thousand dollars, then considered an immense amount; Samuel Cowles, a lawyer and business man, and Reuben Wood, also a lawyer, who afterwards became governor of the State. At this time James Kingsbury sold to Leonard Case five acres where the post office and neighboring buildings now stand, for one hundred dollars per acre, whieh was then considered a good price. Another gentleman who came in that year died during the present one, at the age of ninetyone. 'This was Ansel Young, who settled at Doan's Corners, where he was long known to the general public as the only maker of almanacs in this region, and to his acquaintances as a man of marked scientific acquirements, and as the intimate friend of the eminent historian, Jared Sparks.

We have noticed in the general history the arrival of the first steamboat, the renowned '' Walk-in-the- Water," and the establishment of the first newspaper, the Register, in 1818, and the seeond one, the Herald, in 1819. One of the earliest issues of the latter sheet had an article satirizing the fever and ague, which was still the great bugbear of this region. It ran as follows:

'¢ AGUEAGUESHAKESHAKE, THE Gop oF Lake ERig, Takes this opportunity to announce his high satisfaction for the devotion offered at his shrine by the new conyerts on the shores of his dominion. He dence through the winter, but, having lately experienced much rough handling from his enemy, Jack Frost, the Demon of the Forest, he is now under the necessity of holding his court among the alcoves of Erie, among his liege subjects, the Muscalonges and Catfish. On the 4th day of July next, he will remove

Among other things, we learn from the Herald of 1819, that Ephraim Hubbel was then putting up two carding machines at the mills at Newburg, and would soon do carding for six and a fonrth cents a pound; that Dr. David: Long was selling salt, plaster, iron, buffalo robes, ete.; that Merritt Secley had purchased the stock of Orlando Cutter; that S. 8. Dudley sold goods, and took bills of the bank of Cleveland and similar financial institutions; that E. Childs was selling fanning-mills; that John B. Morgan was making wagons, and that H. Foote was keeping a book store.

In 1820 that well-known citizen, Peter M. Weddell, established himself in Cleveland; engaging in mercantile pursuits, and by his energy and enterprise contributing largely to the welfare of the slowly-growing village.

Another newcomer of 1820, less prominent' than Mr. Weddell, but still a very active citizen, was Michael Spangler, who began to keep the '' Commercial Coffee-House,"' previously the Wallace stand, where he remained twelve years. From his widow we have obtained some items regarding the period in question. Mr. and Mrs. Spangler being of Pennsylvania-German extraction, the farmers of that blood, of whom there were many in northern Ohio, used generally to stop at the '' Coffee House" when they came into town with their flour and other products. There were many other travelers, too, especially in the spring and autumn; and sometimes, when the opening of navigation was unexpectedly delayed, people would be compelled to stay at the Cleveland hotels two or three weeks, waiting for the boats to run.

Religious advantages were few. An Episcopal Church (Trinity) had been organized as early as 1816, but there were only occasional services by a minister.

Stone, pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Ashtabula county, to give one-third of his time to Cleveland, and in June of that year the First Presbyterian church was organized with fourteen members.

iven this late, the place seems to have been sometimes pretty well blocked up in the winter. The Herald, of January 18, 1820, announced that there was no news from Columbus; no mail having arrived

The very first that we hear of theatrical representations at Cleveland is in the winter of 1820, when an entertainment was advertised which certainly offered sufficient variety - including as it did the comic opera entitled '''The Purse, or the Benevolent Tar;" scenes from 'The Stranger;" and '*The Village Lawyer;" concluding with a '' Dwarf Dance;" and all for the sum of fifty cents - children half price. By this time Newburg, which had long kept up a rivalry with Cleveland, began to fall behind in the race. Still Cleveland grew but slowly, and some zealous Newburgers thought that something might yet happen to give their village the advantage. John Brook owned the gristmill there in 1820, and Harrison Dunche was another well-known resident. Among the young men of that place at an early day were the three brothers Caleb, Ashbel and Youngs Morgan, all still residents in that part of the city.

It was about 1820 that while several men, resident near Doan's Corners, were riding back from the village one evening, a limb fell from a forest tree near the present corner of Willson and Euclid avenues, breaking the leg of one of the men, named Ooles, who afterwards died of the injury. There were then a few clearings between Willson avenue and the Corners, but it was all woods from that avenue to Erie street.

Deer were common in the forest on both sides of the Huclid road in 1820 and as late as 1825. Captain Lewis Dibble says that when the young men wanted some fun three or four would go with their rifles to watch at the shore of the lake; another would range the woods on the tract now in the central or eastern part of the city with hounds, and would almost always start one within an hour, He would almost invariably head for the lake, and was very fortunate if he escaped the waiting riflemen. Sometimes one would swim out far into the lake and then return; landing a mile or more from the place where he entered. :

In 1822 Willman White and S. J. Hamlin as contractors, built the first bridge over the Cuyahoga at Cleveland; Josiah Barber (west side), Philo Scovill and Reuben Champion being the supervising committee. Thecitizens subscribed considerable amounts to build it, and those who could not pay money furnished wheat, rye, whisky, lumber, etc.

There was plenty of business rivalry in those days, and some bitterness over it; for in 1822 a merchant advertised that all the goods mentioned in his advertisement, could be found in his 'small, white store," notwithstanding the insinuations put forth from the "'large brick store," with so many displays of superior advantages. -

It was at this period, 1822, that a brick school building, called the Cleveland Academy, was erected. A school was opened in it immediately afterwards, and for many years it was the pride of the village. Not only was education earnestly desired, but other efforts at mental improvement were made. The '' Cleveland Forum" was an institution of some permanence, which met regularly during successive winters, to practice debating and employ other means of improvement.

The City Of Cleveland

By this time there was a small cluster of houses on the west side, the locality being known with the rest of the township by the name of Brooklyn.

The bar at the mouth of the Cuyahoga prevented any but small vessels from entering, and even these often did so with difficulty. Large vessels lay to, and were unloaded by means of yawls. The various ports along the lake were all jealous of each other, and sought to exaggerate the poorness of each other's harbors. In 1825 the Sandusky Clarion declared that the yawls which unloaded vessels at Cleveland had lately stuck several times on the bar at the mouth of the river. The Cleveland Herald retaliated by stat- 'ing that canoes entering Sandusky Bay, had rm afoul of the catfish there, and been detained until the latter had their daily ague-fits, when the boats were shaken off, and proceeded joyfully on their way.

This was the turning point in the history of Clevedand. It had been twenty-five years since it was laid out by Moses Cleaveland, with the design that it should be the emporium of the Western Reserve, and still it was only asmall village. Hon.John W. Allen, then a young law student, who came in 1825, estimates the population of Cleveland, at that time, at about five hundred inhabitants, and that of the village on the west side, then known ag Brooklyn, at about two hundred. The actual beginning of work on the canal uttracted gencral attention to this point, and within a year the population had rose to one thousand. Mr. Allen, himself, who had come from the East to find a growing town in which to make his home, wrote back that Cleveland was the most promising point for a city that he had seen, and he accordingly entered himself as a student in the office of Samuel Cowles.

Of this new Cleveland, which has since that time, notwithstanding occasional drawbacks, made» such rapid strides toward greatness, we will speak in the succeeding chapters.