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CHAPTER V

LAW, GOSPEL, AND EDUCATION

The law and the gospel in their visible forms reached Cleveland at about the same time, in the persons of Samuel Huntington, and the Rev. Joseph Badger. The first named was the earliest lawyer to settle in this city; the latter was the first missionary of importance to follow a line of labor upon the Reserve. We have noted the presence of the Rev. Seth Hart, who came as superintendent of the surveying party of 1797, but beyond his ministrations at the funeral of the drowned David Eldridge, and at Cleveland�s first wedding, there is little to show that he exercised his clerical offices while here.

drawing of Governor Samuel Huntington

Governor Samuel Huntington

Samuel Huntington was a protégé and adopted heir of his uncle and namesake, Governor Huntington, of Connecticut. He was a man of education, had traveled in Europe, was married and near thirty-five years of age. He made a tour of portions of the Ohio Country before becoming a resident, and was doubtless so pleased with the promise of the future that he determined to return. Leaving his home in Norwich, Connecticut, he reached Youngstown in July, 1800, and made a tour of the chief settlements of the Reserve on horseback. He kept a daily record of his movements, and the following brief extract therefrom will show how Cleveland appeared to his eyes in the early days of October: "Left David Abbott�s mill (Wil-

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loughby) and came to Cleveland. Stayed at Carter�s at night. Explored the city and town; land high and flat, covered with white oak. On the west side of the river is a long, deep stagnant pond of water, which produces fever and ague, among those who settle near the river. There are only three families near the point, and they have the fever.

"Sailed out of the Cuyahoga, along the coast, to explore the land west of the river. Channel at the mouth about five feet deep. On the west side is a prairie, where one hundred tons of hay might be cut each year. A little way back is a ridge, from which the land descends to the lake, affording a prospect indescribably beautiful. In the afternoon went to Williams�s grist and saw-mill (Newburg), which are nearly completed."

Mr. Huntington went south as far as Marietta, on the Ohio, where he made the acquaintance of Governor St. Clair and other gentlemen connected with the territorial government. He returned to Connecticut in the fall, and in accordance with a resolution already formed, removed with his family to Youngstown, early in the summer of 1801. He soon after concluded to make Cleveland his home, and arranged with Amos Spafford for the construction of a house of some pretensions, near the bluff south of Superior street, in rear of the site of the American House. He was accompanied by his wife, and Miss Margaret Cobb, a companion and governess; and two sons, Julius C. and Colbert. It is needless to say that their arrival was welcomed as a notable addition to the little community.

Although Mr. Huntington was the only lawyer in the vicinity, it is not supposed that he garnered an extensive amount of practice, with the county court no nearer than Warren, and very few litigants; with not many questions to quarrel over. He was able to make himself useful in various ways, and we find him occasionally mentioned in the early records of the township. Thus, in 1802, he was elected one of the supervisors of highways�certainly not

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an exalted position, but one with many opportunities for usefulness in a new country; in 1807, he was a member of the board of commissioners in charge of that famous lottery (that never came off) for the improvement of the Cuyahoga and Muskingum rivers; while we learn that in 1805 he "abandoned his hewed log house, the most aristocratic residence in Cleveland city, and removed to the mill he had purchases at the falls of Mill Creek"�driven away, probably, by the same malarial causes that had sent so many earlier settlers out to the hills.

A wider field of usefulness was opened before him. Soon after his settlement in Cleveland, the governor appointed him lieutenant colonel of the Trumbull County militia, and in 1802 one of the justices of the quorum, and priority was conceded to him on the bench of Quarter Sessions. He was also, in the same year, elected to the convention to form a State Constitution; was chosen Senator from the county of Trumbull, and on the meeting of the Legislature at Chillicothe was made president of that body. In 1803, he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, his commission, it is said, being the first issued under the authority of the State of Ohio. In 1807, he was elected governor of the State, succeeding Governor Tiffin, who became a Senator of the United States. On the conclusion of his term, Governor Huntington retired to his farm near Painesville, where he remained until his death, in 1817.

It was a characteristic feature of this transplanted New England life and thought that in the pursuit of material things the church and school-house were not forgotten. As a general thing, as soon as the things absolutely essential to physical life were provided, steps were taken for the support of the gospel and the instruction of the young. The missionary was followed by the itinerant minister, and he in turn by the settled pastor, as soon as the strength of the community would permit. The stipend of the latter was of an uncertain quantity and a very indefinite quality, as it came of the commodities of the

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day and region, with a very small percentage of cash. In one ancient subscription list, where the people of five townships banded together for the support of a minister, we find the following pledge:

"We do by these presents bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, and administrators firmly, to pay the sums annexed to each of our names, without fraud or delay, for the term of three years, to the Rev. Giles Cowles, the pay to be made in wheat, rye, corn, oats, potatoes, mess-pork, whisky, etc., the produce of farms, as shall be needed by the said Mr. Cowles and family, together with chopping, logging, fencing, etc. We agree, likewise, should any contribute anything within said term of three years toward the support of the said Mr. Cowles, it shall be deducted according to the sum annexed to each man�s name. We likewise agree that the preaching in each town shall be in portion to what each town subscribes for said preaching."

drawing of Rev. Joseph Badger

Rev. Joseph Badger

One of the first sermons heard on the Reserve, after its settlement, if not the first, was delivered by the Rev. William Wick, of Washington County, Pennsylvania, who held services at Youngstown, on September 1st, 1799. The Rev. Joseph Badger was, however, the most prominent of the Protestant missionaries sent into this wilderness, and his services were such as to entitle him to more than a passing mention. He was a native of Massachusetts, where he was born in 1757; enlisted at eighteen in the Revolutionary Army, where he gave a valiant service for three years; entered college in 1781 and graduated in 1785; studied for the ministry, and was licensed to preach in

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1786. He occupied a pulpit in Massachusetts for a short period, when he resigned, and accepted a call to go, as a missionary, to the Western Reserve, under the auspices of the Connecticut Missionary Society.

On the 15th of November, 1800, he mounted his horse, and set out for his far-away field of labor. He passed through Pennsylvania, crossed the Allegheny Mountains in a snow-storm, and reached Pittsburg on December 14th. After a couple of days of rest, he again pushed on through the woods, and late on a Saturday night reached Youngstown. His first sermon on the Reserve was preached on the Sabbath following to almost the entire population finding shelter in a half-dozen log-cabins of which the town was composed. He soon pushed on to other settlements, visiting Vienna, Hartford, Vernon, Cleveland, and elsewhere in turn. "In this way," says his biographer,75 "Rev. Mr. Badger visited, in the course of the year 1801, every settlement and nearly every family throughout the Western Reserve. In doing this, he often rode from five to twenty-five or thirty miles a day, carrying with him in saddle bags a scanty supply of clothing and eatables, and often traversing pathless woodland, amid storms and tempests, swimming unbridged rivers, and suffering from cold and hunger, and at the same time, here and there, visiting lone families, giving them and their children religious instruction and wholesome advice, and preaching at points wherever a few could be gathered together, sometimes in a log-cabin or in a barn, and sometimes in the open field or in a woodland, beneath the shadows of the trees. At about this time he preached the first sermon ever heard in Cleveland."

He was a visitor at this city on the 18th of August, 1801, and lodged at Lorenzo Carter�s. On the 6th of September he enters this record: "We swam our horses across the Cuyahoga by means of a canoe, and took an Indian path up the lake; came to Rocky River,

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the banks of which were very high, on the west side almost perpendicular. While cutting the brush to open a way for our horses, we were saluted by the song of a large yellow rattlesnake, which we removed out of our way." In the year following, 1802, he again visited Cleveland, and did not receive a favorable impression concerning the religious desires of its people. He says: "Mr. Burke�s family in Euclid, had been in this lone situation for over three years. The woman had been obliged to spin and weave cattle�s hair to make covering for her children�s bed. From thence I went to Cleveland visited the only two families, and went on to Newburg, where I preached on the Sabbath. There were five families here, but no apparent piety. They seemed to glory in their infidelity."

In the fall of 1801, Mr. Badger visited Detroit on horseback, laboring by the way with both white and red as they came across his path. It is not a specially engaging view of the moral condition of the day, when we read his statement that he found no one in all the region whom he could regard as a Christian, "except a black man who appeared pious." On his return he paid a visit to Hudson�a little later the seat of learning of north-eastern Ohio�where he found material from which to organize a church, the membership of which consisted of ten men and six women. To Hudson, therefore, belongs the credit of the first church organization on the Reserve.

In October, he returned to New England, where he made arrangements to return to the west with his family, on a salary of seven dollars per week. On February 23rd, 1802, he loaded his household effects and family into a wagon drawn by four horses, and started upon his long journey, covering the six hundred miles in sixty days. He decided to make his home in Austinburg, where he purchases a small lot of land and put up a log-cabin. He soon resumed his labors in the field, traveling from point to point as before. A little later a revival season on considerable power was commenced as the result of his min-

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istrations. He organized many churches and schools and continued still in the field, although his eastern sponsors reduced his pay to six dollars per week. In 1809, he returned to Connecticut, made a final settlement with the missionary society, and worked no longer under its direction. He came back to the Reserve, and labored as a missionary among the Indians between the Cuyahoga and Detroit; He took an active interest in the

War of 1812, and at the command of General Harrison filled the position of chaplain. He afterwards settled as the pastor of a church at Austinburg; held various charges in other locations, and died at Perrysburg in 1846, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.

"In personal appearance," to again quote from his biographer, "Rev. Joseph Badger was tall, slim, erect, had blue eyes, brown hair, and a pleasing expression of face. In temperament and action, he was quick and somewhat impulsive, yet he was considerate and slow of utterance, rarely, if ever, uttering an imprudent word. In his social intercourse, he was sedate or facetious, as the occasion seemed to require. He enjoyed hearing and telling amusing anecdotes. In his style of preaching, he was apostolic, plain, simple and logical. In creed he was an orthodox Presbyterian. He had but one grand aim in life, and that was to do what he could to advance the moral and spiritual welfare of mankind. In a word, Rev., Joseph Badger, though dead, still lives and will ever live in memory as the early western missionary whose philanthropic and life-long labors were prompted by the spirit of a true Christian manhood." 76

The arrival of Samuel Huntington and Mr. Badger near the same period, and their connection in the beginning

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of this chapter as Cleveland�s first bodily exponents of the law and the gospel, recall a reputed experience of each, in illustration of the fact that life and travel in the early days were not without bodily danger. It is told of Mr. Huntington that, while a resident of Cleveland, he came near being devoured by wolves, as he rode in from Painesville, on the Euclid road. He was on horseback, alone, in the dark, and floundering through the swamp near the present corner of Willson and Euclid avenues. A pack of hungry wolves fell upon his trail, and made a combined attack upon horse and man. The former, in desperate fright, made the best possible use of his heels, while the latter laid about him with the only weapon at command�an umbrella. Between speed and defense, both were saved, and brought up in safety at the log-house down near Superior street.

The experience of Mr. Badger was of a similar character. He was urging his faithful horse through the woods of the Grand River bottoms, while the rain was pouring down in torrents, and a place of shelter was one of the uncertain possibilities of the future. There came to him after a time the knowledge that some wild animal was on his trail, and raising his voice, he sent up a shout that would have frightened many of the smaller denizens of the forest. But it had no such effect on the big bear that was on his trail. On the contrary, the brute was aroused to immediate action, and made a rush for the missionary, with hair on end and eyes of fire. The only weapon Mr. Badger had about him, if such it might be called, was a large horseshoe, which he threw at the bear�s nose, and missed. Then he rode under a beech tree, tied his horse

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To a branch, deserted the saddle with celerity, and climbed upward. He kept on for a long distance, found a convenient seat, tied himself to the tree with a large bandanna, and awaited results. The bear was meanwhile nosing about the horse, as though preparing for an attack. The wind came up, the thunder rolled, and the rain fell in torrents. The occasional flashes of lightning showed that the horse was still save, with the bear on guard. And there the poor missionary clung all night, cold, wet through, tired and sleepy; and there the bear waited for him to come down. But at daybreak he made for his lair, while Mr. Badger worked his way down as well as he could, and rode for the nearest settlement.

As a matter of historic good faith, it must be admitted that Mr. Badger and others who made note of ungodliness, and more or less of actual evil, on the Reserve, in these early days, were fully justified in all they said. In Cleveland, for instance, they managed to exist until 1816 without a church organization, and possessed no church building until 1829, while constables, and courts, and the machinery for the conduct of civil affairs, made their appearance at a much earlier day. It has become a popular impression that the pioneers of not only the Western Reserve, but of all western sections where New England elements predominated, were pious and God-fearing men, who had little need of courts or the officers of the law. This impression is too often strengthened by those who talk of "the good old times" in a strain that would indicate that all of the early times were good, and nothing but good.

On the other hand, it is a fact that the strong arm of the law was needed in early north-eastern Ohio as elsewhere. There was no lack of hardy virtues of courage, hospitality, comradeship and backwoods chivalry, nor was there an absence of qualities of a less attractive character. The view is well supported by one writer,77

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who points out the fact that "the first settlers were not generally godly men, such as founded Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, or even Marietta and Granville, Ohio. The men who have created the traditional view of the early history of the Reserve have either been ignorant of the following facts, or they have accorded to them little weight: First, the Reserve was opened to settlement at a time when religion in New England was at a low ebb. Secondly, Old Connecticut did not at first send, as a rule, what she considered her best elements to New Connecticut. At a later day, the character of the emigration improved in respect to religion and morals; but the first emigration was largely made up of men who desired to throw off the heavy trammels of an old and strongly conservative community, where Church and State were closely connected, and where society was dominated by political and religious castes. Still further, the east was at this time swept by an epidemic of land speculation; while the laxative moral influence of a removal from and old and well-ordered society to the woods produced its usual effects."

This view is supported by the comments made by Rev. Dr. Thomas Robbins,78 a missionary whose labors upon the Reserve were contemporaneous with those of Mr. Badger. He came to Ohio in 1803, reaching Poland in November, where his first sermon was preached. He traveled all over the Reserve, making notes of his impressions by the way, and describing affairs as they presented themselves to his vision. There is little doubt that his observations were made from an unusually high moral standpoint, and that he saw evil where others might have noted only an absence of religious interest. His language is plain and to the point. There was inattention to spiritual matters everywhere. At Canfield the people "appear very stupid in matter of religion and are not "disposed to attend lectures;

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many people held bad principles in religion, and some were much inclined to infidelity." At Warren they "were careless about religious affairs;" and later he adds the surprising statement that "the greater part of the New England people in the country are pretty loose characters."

In Poland they are "pretty stupid in regard to the excellency and spirit of religion;" in Hudson even "the serious people" were "dull and worldly." In Cleveland he found the people "loose in principles and conduct." And "few of them had heard a sermon or a hymn in eighteen months." According to his rigid views, there were few serious persons in Middlefield, in Mesopotamia they are "much included to infidelity:" in Mentor they traded on the Sabbath. It is only fair to assume that in all this Mr. Robbins spoke from an extreme standpoint, and meant simply that all that which was not directly religious needed his condemnation.

The year 1802 was not eventful, so far as the fortunes of Cleveland were concerned. Elisha Norton opened a store in Carter�s house. Mr. Spafford re-surveyed the streets and lanes of the city in November, and "planted fifty-four posts of oak, about one foot square, at the principal corners," for which he charged a half-dollar each, "and fifty cents for grubbing out a tree at the north-east corner of the Square." Local improvements were certainly not progressing at a promising rate. It is a comfort to learn that the health of the people was good.

photograph of John Doan

John Doan

Among the arrivals was that of Samuel Hamilton and family, who settled in Newburg. Another notable ac-

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cession was that of the family of Timothy Doan, a brother of Nathaniel Doan, whose location in Cleveland and subsequent removal to Doan�s Corners has already been recorded. Timothy was a resident of Herkimer County, N. Y., but was "seized with the western fever," as we are told by his son, John Doan.79 The family consisted of father, mother and six children�Nancy, Seth, Timothy, Jr., Mary, Deborah and John, who was then but three years old. They traveled with ox teams, and one pair of horses. The father and one son pushed on ahead from Buffalo, by way of Indian trails, carrying a part of the household goods on the backs of horses and oxen, as there were no roads for wagons. "In 1799, a road had been surveyed from the Pennsylvania line to the Cuyahoga River," to quote from the son�s narrative, "but no bridge had been built over the intervening streams. They pushed through to Uncle Nathaniel�s house in East Cleveland, and were soon enjoying their first attack of ague.

The mother and the four children left with her at Buffalo, made the trip by water. She was accompanied by an Indian, and several white men who had been engaged to assist her on the journey. They came in a tow-boat propelled by oars at times, and again by a tow-line carried on the bank. Besides their furniture and household goods, they carried a box of live geese, which were declared to be "the first domesticated birds of the kind ever brought into Ohio." At the mouth of Grand River the boat was overturned, throwing mother, children, good and box overboard. By good fortune the water was shallow, and while the red man carried the children ashore, the white men and Mrs. Doan saved the goods. The geese were carried out into the lake, but becoming in some way freed from their prison, swam ashore, and were recaptured.

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At this point, Timothy and Nathaniel met them, and the boat was taken on to Cleveland without further adventure. Mrs. Doan, however, had no further desire for marine traveling, and insisted upon coming overland. "As none of the men could be spared to accompany mother," says the son John, "Uncle Nathaniel came with her. They came on horseback, having two horses, and bringing three children. Polly and Deborah rode with Uncle Nathaniel on one, and mother riding the other carried me. The first clearing we reached was at Mentor, where there were two or three houses. The next break in the woods was at Willoughby, where �Squire Abbott, who had arrived in 1798 and built the first mill in this section, lived. For another six miles we saw no houses. Then we passed the log residence of Joseph Burke, one of the earliest settlers on the Reserve, who had a brother living in Newburg. After traveling nine miles further west, without passing or seeing a single house, we arrived at Uncle Nathaniel Doan�s log-cabin, in April, 1801. It may be considered by some a rather remarkable fact that in the eighty odd years since my advent into East Cleveland, I have always lived within two and a half miles of the spot where Uncle Nathaniel�s house then stood."

Timothy purchases two one hundred and sixty-acre sections of land, for which he paid a little over one dollar an acre. He built a log-house under a hill south of the Euclid road, six miles east of the Public Square, into which they moved in November. "The location," adds the son, "which was in the midst of a large hickory grove, proved very desirable that winter, for we were able to get little but hickory nuts to eat. There was a camp of Indians within forty rods of the house, and my only playmates for several years were Indian papooses. We lived in this lot-cabin about six years, father and the older boys clearing away the timber and raising corn and potatoes among the stumps. The did not plow the ground, but dragged it.

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It was in this year 1801 that Cleveland celebrated the Fourth of July with the first grand social gathering it had attempted. It was regarded as a success in all essential features, and was held in Major Carter�s double log-house, on the hill, near the corner of Union and Superior lanes. It is related in the manuscript collections of Judge Barr that John Wood, Ben Wood and R. H. Blin acted as managers. Major Samuel Jones was chief musician and master of ceremonies; while about a dozen ladies and twenty gentlemen constituted the company. "Notwithstnding the floors were of rough puncheons, and their best beverage was made of maple surer, hot water and whisky, probably no celebration of American independence was ever more joyous than this."

The arrival of Timothy Doan�s family in the preceding spring afforded one young man an opportunity of showing his gallantry, by a ride of six miles and back as escort, and has given us a pleasant little picture of the social life of the day. Gilman Bryant, whose father had cut Newburg�s first mill-stones, and set up Cleveland�s earliest whisky still, has described his part in this ball in the statement already quoted: "I waited on Miss Doan, who had just arrived at the Corners, four miles east of town. I was then about seventeen years of age, and Miss Doan about fourteen. I was dressed in the then style�a gingham suit�my hair queued with one and a half yards of black ribbon, about as long and as thick as a corncob, with a little tuft at the lower end; and for the want of pomatum, I had a piece of candle rubbed on my hair, and then as much flour sprinkled on, as could stay without falling off. I had a good wool hat, and a pair of brogans that would help to play �Fisher�s Hornpipe,� or �Hie, Bettie Martin,� when I danced. When I went for Miss Doan I took an old horse; when she was ready I rode up to a stump near the cabin, she mounted the stump, and spread her under petticoat on Old Tib behind me, secured her calico dress to keep it clean, and then mounted on behind me. I had a fine time!"

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In 1802, the administration of territorial affairs had so changed that citizens of the townships were permitted to elect their trustees, appraisers, supervisors of highways, fence-viewers, overseers of the poor and constables, by viva voce vote, although the choice of their justices of the peace and militia officers was not yet permitted them. It was ordered, in the February preceding, by the Court of Quarter Sessions that the first town meeting for Cleveland should be held at the house of James Kingsbury. The following is the official report of that gathering:

"Agreeable to order of the Court of General Quarter Sessions, the inhabitants of the town of Cleaveland met at the house of James Kingsbury, Esq., the 5th day of April, A. D. 1802, for a town meeting, and chose:

"Chairman, Rodolphus Edwards.
"Town Clerk, Nathaniel Doan.
"Trustees, Amos Spafford, Esq., Timothy Doan, Wm. W. Williams.
"Appraisers of Houses, Samuel Hamilton, Elijah Gun.
"Lister, Ebenezer Ayrs.
"Supervisors of Highways, Sam�l Huntington, Esq., Nath�l Doan, Sam�l Hamilton.,
"Overseers of the Poor, William W. Williams, Samuel Huntington, Esq.
"Fence Viewers, Lorenzo Carter, Nathan Chapman.
"Constables, Ezekial Hawley, Richard Craw.
"A true copy of the proceedings of the inhabitants of Cleaveland at their town meeting, examined per me,

Nathaniel Doan, Town Clerk."

At the August sitting of the court that had ordered the above election, Amos Spafford and Lorenzo Carter were each granted a license to keep a tavern on the payment of four dollars. Carter put up a frame house80

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the west end of Superior street, on the south side. Amos further proved his enterprise in the year following by the erection of yet another frame house, on the brow of the hill, between Superior and Vineyard lanes, at the end of Superior street. This building is identified to the remembrance of the older settlers by a memorandum in the Barr manuscripts,81 to the effect that Daniel Worley, postmaster, once occupied it as a residence.

The public instruction of the young was inaugurated in Cleveland in the year now under consideration, by Miss Anna Spafford, who made effective use of the well known "front room" of Major Carter�s, where she gathered perhaps a dozen youngsters of the settlement, and taught them the simplest forms of book knowledge.82 It is really to be regretted that the early chroniclers, who tell us so much about Bryant�s distillery, and the hanging of a young Indian, have left such meager details concerning this modest venture. When the history of education in Ohio comes to be fully written, it will be found that out of these little educational gatherings, found here and there in the scattered settlements, was evolved that wonderful force that, in the hands of men like Harvey Rice and his helpers, was made a mighty power in our common school system of a later day.

Education was, even in that day, a matter of almost religious duty with the New Englander, and when the sons of Connecticut and Massachusetts brought their small possessions and large ambitions into the wilderness, they

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Brought, also, their faith in knowledge, and set up the school-house as soon as the log-cabin and the church were completed. A most potent fact in illustration of this is found in a comparison of those settlements in the new west which were settled from the south, with those whose population came from New England.

Marietta, on the Ohio, built by the descendants of the Puritans of Massachusetts, had hardly been set fairly under way before Daniel Story was at work in his combined office of minister and schoolmaster. As early as 1790, Bethesda Rouse conducted a school for boys and girls in Belpre; down on the Ohio, at Columbia. Frances Dunlevy opened a school near the close of 1792; in 1802, a school was established in Harpersfield, and soon enjoyed a noted reputation, under the able direction of Abraham Tappan.

The subject of education was frequently discussed in the territorial legislatures, and although little or nothing was done, there was enough said to show that the matter was counted of no small importance. In the first constitution of the State, it was made an imperative duty that schools and the means of education should be carefully looked after, while in another section the interests of the poor in this regard were carefully guarded. It was required in the ordinance of 1787, that schools and the means of education should be encouraged, while the new constitution pointed out how this end could be secured. "From 1802 to 1821," to quote from an able article along this line of thought,83 "the acts of the Legislature regarding education, under the power conferred by the constitution, were confined to the passage of bills authorizing the incorporation of seminaries, religious and educational societies, and providing for the lease of school land. Nothing was done toward the establishment of schools by means of local or general taxation. . . . It must not be understood that there were none to

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lift up a voice to advocate a system of common schools. During the first twenty years of Ohio�s existence, the men holding office were earnest in their endeavor to obtain a wise legislation on the part of the General Assembly. Private citizens were not lacking who tried to show the Legislature the importance of the trust confided to their keeping, and who were swift to denounce the power of abuse over the common school lands, by which the children of the next generation would be deprived of their just rights."

The schools within reach of all classes prior to the passage of the Ohio common school law were such as were provided by private means. In the days when Miss Doan and Miss Spafford taught the youngsters of Cleveland and "the Ridge," only the rudest surroundings and the humblest appliances were within their reach. One of the earliest school-houses has been thus described: A log-cabin with a rough stone chimney; a foot or two cut here and there to admit the light, with greased paper over the openings; a large fire-place; puncheon floor; a few benches made of split logs with the flat side up, and a well developed birch rod over the master�s seat. A teacher who, as late as 1813, received ten dollars a month, payable in produce, was looked upon as receiving good wages. We are told of an ambitious young man of Lorain County, who desired higher instruction than the neighborhood afforded, and rode over one hundred miles before he could find a Latin dictionary. Even books of the commonest character were not to be had in abundance, and in one of the schools the letters of the alphabet were pasted on one side of a small wooden paddle, and the multiplication table on the other. It was passed from hand to hand for the purpose of study, and often, when not in use as an educational factor, was converted into an instrument for the enforcement of obedience.

"If a family possessed a Webster�s Spelling Book," says one of the pioneers,84 in writing of a little later

Facing Page

North-West Section of the Public Square,1839

North-West Section of he Public Square, 1839

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time, "an American Preceptor, or a Columbian Orator. or a Dwight�s Geography, which were used for reading books, a Daboll�s or Adams�s Arithmetic, and a slate and pencil for ciphering, and paper, ink and goose quills for writing, and possibly a Murray�s Grammar for such as wished to study grammar; with these it was supposed that the youths were fully armed and equipped for school exercise. Taking the dinner basket filled with the noon repast, they put out for the log school-house, perhaps from one to three miles distant, and the greater part of the way through the woods. And on their arrival thee, spent their hours with their teacher in acquiring a knowledge of what was called a common school education." Judge Dickman, in the address already quoted, tells of three Western Reserve boys of the early day who left home for Connecticut to get their education, with fifteen dollars among them, and so frugally did they fare, and so economically did they travel, that on their arrival East they still had twelve dollars; while another young man, who went to New England for an education "bought him a cow, and trudging at her heels with his book, lived on her milk and what he got in exchange for it, and sold her at an advance when he reached his point of destination."

If the records show us but little concerning the schools kept by Miss Spafford and Miss Doan, the same cannot be said of a more ambitious endeavor that came but a few years later. Asael Adams, who was born on July 9th, 1786, at Canterbury, Conn., was brought by his father to Liberty township, Trumbull County, O., in 1802. (He became a brother-in-law of Camden Cleaveland, who was a brother of Moses Cleavelend.) When but twenty years of age, young Adams came to Cleveland, where he opened a school�the first of the kind of any pretension of which I have found trace. His salary was ten dollars per month and board, and among his patrons were Samuel Huntington, James Kingsbury, W. W. Williams, George Kilbourne, Susannah Hammil, Elijah Gun, and David Kellogg. Governor Huntington sent four children

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to the school, George Kilbourne three, James Hamilton two, James Kingsbury five, David Kellogg three, and W. W. Williams four. "The log school-house," says the son85 of this teacher, from whom this information was obtained, "stood near the foot of Superior street. This school was the simple expression of the will of a sturdy community to give its boys and girls as good a chance as the community could then afford to pay for." The agreement made in October, 1806, under which Mr. Adams taught, was as follows:

"Articles of agreement made and entered into between Asael Adams on the one part and the undersigned on the other, witnesseth, that we, the undersigned, do agree to hire the said Adams for the sum of Ten Dollars ($10.00) a month, to be paid in money or wheat at the market price, whenever such time may be that the school doth end, and to make said house comfortable for the school to be taught in, and to furnish benches and fire-wood sufficient. And I, the said Adams, do agree to keep six hours in each day, and to keep good order in said school."

The year 180386 is introduced by one of our earlier local historians, as characterized by three blessings: Good health for the people; an increase in emigration, and the organization of the State of Ohio.

The two first-named had a direct bearing upon the fortunes of Cleveland. The third may not have been so early in its effects, but of course the formation of a stable State government had in the long run an influence for good upon the growth and development of all the territory within its borders.

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The election of Edward Paine to the Territorial Legislature has already been recorded. He found that body divided into factions, and with much heat discussing the question whether Ohio should continue in her present condition, or form a State Government. There was no small opposition to Governor St. Clair, and in 1801 Thomas Worthington was sent to Congress by those opposed, and largely through his efforts a law was passed authorizing a State Convention for the purpose of considering the expediency of a State Government, and to form a Constitution if the people so wished.

In accordance with this act, the first Constitutional Convention met at Chillicothe, on November 1st, 1802. As already stated, Samuel Huntington represented Trumbull County. The duty entrusted to that great body was soon performed. The organic law, expressed in the document there carefully prepared, was sound and practical, and the people of Ohio lived under its restrictions and safeguards for over fifty years. It was never submitted to the people, but adopted directly by the body in which it was formed. By an act of Congress it was approved on February, 1803, and Ohio proudly took her position as the seventeenth State in the Union.

Under the provisions of the Constitution, State officers were elected, and on March 1st, 1803, the first State Legislature met at Chillicothe. Courts were created, and election laws passed; new counties organized and State officers appointed�Samuel Huntington taking his seat as one of the first judges of the Ohio Supreme Court.

In Cleveland, the town election of 1803 was held very much in the same manner as that of the year before under St. Clair and the Territorial Government, and at the same place�the residence of James Kingsbury. The record of this gathering is tersely given in the ancient township book among the archives of Cleveland�s city clerk, from which quotation has already been made. The record is illegible in several places, but enough remains to show that in the spring of 1803 "the inhabitants of the Town

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of Cleveland met at the house of James Kingsbury, Esq., for a township meeting, and proceed and chose,

"Amos Spafford, Esq., Chairman.
"Nathl. Doan, Town Clerk.
"Amos Spafford, Esq., James Kingsbury, Esq., and Timothy Doan, Trustees.
"James Kingsbury, Esq., and James Hamilton, Overseers of the Poor.
"Rodolphus Edwards and Ezekiel Hawley and Amos Spafford, Esq., Fence Viewers.
"Elijah Gun and Samuel Huntington, Esq., Appraisers of Houses.
"James Kingsbury, Esq., Lister.
"Wm. Elivin, James Kingsbury, Esq., and Timothy Doan, Supervisors of Highways.
"Rodolphus Edwards, Constable."

In the June following, the electors again met at the residence of James Kingsbury, for the purpose of choosing two justices of the peace. Samuel Jones acted as chairman; Amos Spafford and Timothy Doan were elected to the offices named. The next entry upon this record is as follows:

"The qualified voters of the township of Cleveland met at the house of James Kingsbury, Esq., the eleventh day of October, one thousand eight hundred and three, to elect one senator and two representatives to the Assembly. When met, proceeded and appointed James Kingsbury, Esq., Timothy Doan, Esq., and Nath. Doan judges, and Rodolphus Edwards and Stephen Gilbert clerk of the election, and after being qualified received the votes and by examining them found that Benjamin Tappan had seventy-one votes for senator. David Abbott seventy-two for representative toe the Assembly, Ephraim Quimby nineteen votes for representative to the Assembly, Amos Spafford one vote for senator and one for representative to the Assembly, and David Hudson one vote for representative to the Assembly, which may appear by the Poll Book in this office."

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There was an accession to the commercial interests of the city in 1804, when Oliver Culver, who had been here previously as a surveyor, arrived with a boat-load of dry goods, groceries, liquors, etc., and opened a store. He had loaded at Black Rock, and had paid three dollars per barrel for transportation. For some reason his stay was brief, and the next year saw him settled upon a farm in New York. The main business interests of the settlement had been for some time in the hands of David Bryant, whose commodity was of a liquid nature; David Clark and Elisha Norton, who carried on trade with the Indians; and Alexander Campbell, a Scotchman who built a trading house and devoted himself to the same line of business. "This little cluster of cabins around the distillery," says one authority,87 "under the hill, formed a constant attraction for both Indians and squaws, especially at the time of their annual return from their hunting expeditions up the river. The squaws bought the gaudiest calicos they could find, and scarfs of the brightest hues, and were not averse while trading to exchanging glances with the traders, who were great men because they had so much calico. The warriors, more simple in their desires, bought whisky." These Indian neighbors, upon the whole, seemed to have been moderately well behaved, there being but little upon the record which shows the contrary. The killing of Menomppsy, already noted, and the crime for which O�Mic was executed at a later day, were so exceptional in their character as to stand out as marked exceptions.

In those days, when the danger of Indian attack was always present, and the relations of the United States with the British neighbor across the lakes were not always of an amicable nature, it was natural that military affairs should receive some attention. In 1804, a serious attempt was made to properly organize the militia, and on April 6th Major General Wadsworth issued an order dividing his district into two brigade districts, the second of which

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embraced Trumbull County. This was subdivided into two regimental districts, in one of which was found all of the present Cuyahoga County east of the river, and other adjacent territory; containing eight company districts, the fourth of which comprised the civil township of Cleveland.

In the same order the companies were directed to hold elections on the second day of the May following, when each was to choose its own officers. In accordance therewith, "the qualified electors of the fourth company district, in the second brigade, of the fourth division of the Ohio Militia," met "at the house�of James Kingsbury," of course; the people about Cleveland had come to look upon that hospitable cabin as headquarters for all such gatherings.

There was trouble on this occasion. The redoubtable Lorenzo Carter was elected captain; Nathaniel Doan, lieutenant, and Samuel Jones, ensign, all of which is duly attested in a report88 to General Wadsworth, by James Kingsbury, Nathaniel Doan and Benjamin Gold, judges of election. The opposition expressed themselves in a somewhat formidable document, add4ressed to the same high military authority. There were eight signers, among whom we find our old acquaintances, Messrs. Spafford, Edwards, Williams and Hamilton. They declare that the proceedings were illegal and improper, in that persons under the age of eighteen were permitted to vote; that some not liable to military duty were also allowed to vote, in admitting others who did not "belong to the town;" by not comparing the votes with the poll book at the close of the election. Then comes the most surprising charge of all: "We also consider the man who is returned as chosen captain ineligible to the office. Firstly. By giving spirituous liquors to the voters previous to the election. Secondly, On account of having frequently threat-

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ened to set the savages against the inhabitants. All which charges we consider proveable, and able to be substantiated by good and sufficient witnesses. We, therefore, beg leave to request that the appointment of officers in the township of Cleveland may be set aside, and the said company led to a new choice.

(Signed)

"Thadeus Lacey.

William W. Williams.

"Rodolphus Edwards.

Amos Spafford.

"Joel Thorp.

Robert Carr.

"James Hamilton.

Abner Cochran"

General Wadsworth may have investigated these charges, but there is nothing to show that he did. There was certainly nothing done toward a new election, and Captain Carter held the command to which he had been elected until the succeeding August, when he was elected to the office of major in the State militia. Viewing the charges against him in the calm light of this later day, and from what is known of the man, we must set down the second charge as the hasty and ill-considered action of disappointed men. That Major Carter may have been a little free among the electors with the products of the still across the way�he was an ambitious man, and those were convivial days�we do not doubt; if the objectors had drank and voted upon the same side that day, we should have heard nothing upon that point. But that Lorenzo Carter ever, for a moment held an idea of acting the part of Simon Girty�of inciting the red man to deeds of violence against the white, we cannot for a moment believe. Just what action of ill-considered word may have laid the foundation for this charge, is not known; that it was more than a misunderstanding, those who have followed the career of Carter will not for a moment believe.

In the town meeting of April, 1804�still referring to that early book of record�it is noted that a "town tax" of ten dollars was ordered; and under date of April 14th occurs this entry: "The trustees of the township of Cleveland met at Nathl. Doan�s and divided the township into

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districts for the several supervisors, in the following manner: To Loreno Carter the road leading from the City of Cleveland to Hudson, to Daniel Ruker�s; and the road leading from sd. city to Euclid to the ridge near [illegible] Tillotson; and to Timothy Doan the road from Isaac Tillotson�s to the east line of the town of Euclid; and to James Kingsbury the road leading from Nathl. Doan�s to Williams� Mills; and to Thadeus Lacy the road from Daniel Ruker�s leading to Hudson, to the south line of the Town of Cleveland.


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