Cleveland Past and Present Its Representative Men

Excerpt

Preface.

In many ways the story of the survey and first settlement of Cleveland has been made familiar to the public. It has been told at pioneer gatherings, reproduced in newspapers and periodicals, enlarged upon in directory prefaces and condensed for works of topographical reference. Within a short time Col. Charles Whittlesey has gathered up, collected, and arranged the abundant materials for the Early History of Cleveland in a handsome volume bearing that title.

But Col. Whittlesy's volume closes with the war of 1812, when Cleveland was still a pioneer settlement with but a few families. The history of the growth of that settlement to a village, its development into a commercial port, and then into a large and flourishing city, with a busy population of a hundred thousand persons, remained mostly unwritten, and no part of it existing in permanent form. The whole period is covered by the active lives of men yet with us who have grown up with the place, and with whose history that of the city is inseparably connected. It occurred to the projector of this work that a history of Cleveland could be written in the individual histories of its representative men, that such a volume would not only be a reliable account of the growth of the city in its general features and in the development of its several branches of industry, but would possess the additional advantage of the interest attaching to personal narrative. This idea has been faithfully worked out in the following pages, not without much labor and difficulty in the collection and arrangement of the materials. Besides the personal narratives, an introductory sketch to each of the departments of business into which the biographical sketches are grouped gives a brief account of the rise and present position of that particular industry; these, taken together, forming a full and accurate business and professional history of the city. An introductory sketch of the general history of Cleveland gives completeness to the whole, whilst the numerous illustrations and portraits add greatly to the interest and value of the work.

Numerous as are the sketches, it is not, of course, claimed that all are represented in the volume who deserve a place in it. This would be impossible in a work of ordinary dimensions, even were it convenient, or even possible, to obtain the necessary materials. The aim has been to sketch sufficient of the representative men in each leading business and professional department to give a fair idea of the nature and extent of that department. It is not a complete biographical dictionary of Cleveland, but a volume of biographical selections, made, as the lawyers say, "without prejudice."

For the records of the first sixteen or seventeen years of the history of Cleveland, what may be styled its pioneer history, the local historian will hereafter be indebted to the work of Col. Whittlesey, where every known and reliable fact connected with that period of Cleveland's history is carefully preserved.

The city was originally comprised in lands purchased by the "Connecticut Land Company," and formed a portion of what is termed the Western Reserve. This company was organized in 1795, and in the month of May of the following year, it commissioned General Moses Cleaveland to superintend the survey of their lands, with a staff of forty-eight assistants. On the 22d of July, 1796, General Cleaveland, accompanied by Augustus Porter, the principal of the surveying department, and several others, entered the mouth of the Cuyahoga from the lake. Job P. Stiles and his wife are supposed to have been with the party. General Cleaveland continued his progress to Sandusky Bay, leaving enough men to put up a storehouse for the supplies, and a cabin for the accommodation of the surveyors. These were located a short distance south of St. Clair street, west of Union lane, at a spring in the side-hill, in rear of Scott's warehouse. During the season a cabin was put up for Stiles, on lot 53, east side of Bank street, north of the Herald Building, where Morgan & Root's block now stands. This was the first building for permanent settlement erected on the site of the city, although huts for temporary occupancy had been previously built in the neighborhood.

Upon the return of the party from Sandusky, Mr. Porter prepared the outlines of the city. He says: "I surveyed a piece of land designed for a town--its dimensions I do not recollect--probably equal to about a mile square, bounding west on the river, and north on the lake. I made a plot of this ground, and laid it off into streets and lots. Most or all the streets I surveyed myself, when I left it in charge of Mr. Holley to complete the survey of the lots."

The survey of the city was commenced on the 16th of September, and completed about the 1st of October, 1796. Holley's notes state that on Monday, October 17th, he "finished surveying in New Connecticut; weather rainy," and on the following day he records: "We left Cuyahoga at 3 o'clock 17 minutes, for home. We left at Cuyahoga, Job Stiles and wife, and Joseph Landon, with provisions for the Winter." Landon soon abandoned the spot and his place was taken by Edward Paine, who had arrived from the State of New York, for the purpose of trading with the Indians, and who may be considered the first mercantile man who transacted business in Cleveland. Thus, during the Winter of 1796-7, the population of the city consisted of three inhabitants. During the Winter a child is reputed to have been born in the cabin, which had only squaws for nurses.

Early in the Spring of 1797, James Kingsbury and family, from New England, with Elijah Gunn, one of the surveying party, all of whom had continued during the Winter at Conneaut, where they had endured incredible hardships, removed to Cleveland....