Cleveland Past and Present
Its Representative Men
Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and ProminentCitizens
With a History of the City and Historical Sketches of Its Commerce,Manufactures, Ship Building, Railroads, Telegraphy, Schools, Churches,Etc., Profusely Illustrated with Photographic Views and Portraits
1869
Photographically Illustrated by E. Decker
Preface.
In many ways the story of the survey and first settlement of Cleveland hasbeen made familiar to the public. It has been told at pioneer gatherings,reproduced in newspapers and periodicals, enlarged upon in directoryprefaces and condensed for works of topographical reference. Within ashort time Col. Charles Whittlesey has gathered up, collected, andarranged the abundant materials for the Early History of Cleveland in ahandsome volume bearing that title.
But Col. Whittlesy's volume closes with the war of 1812, when Clevelandwas still a pioneer settlement with but a few families. The history of thegrowth of that settlement to a village, its development into a commercialport, and then into a large and flourishing city, with a busy populationof a hundred thousand persons, remained mostly unwritten, and no part ofit existing in permanent form. The whole period is covered by the activelives of men yet with us who have grown up with the place, and with whosehistory that of the city is inseparably connected. It occurred to theprojector of this work that a history of Cleveland could be written in theindividual histories of its representative men, that such a volume wouldnot only be a reliable account of the growth of the city in its generalfeatures and in the development of its several branches of industry, butwould possess the additional advantage of the interest attaching topersonal narrative. This idea has been faithfully worked out in thefollowing pages, not without much labor and difficulty in the collectionand arrangement of the materials. Besides the personal narratives, anintroductory sketch to each of the departments of business into which thebiographical sketches are grouped gives a brief account of the rise andpresent 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 givescompleteness to the whole, whilst the numerous illustrations and portraitsadd greatly to the interest and value of the work.
Numerous as are the sketches, it is not, of course, claimed that all arerepresented in the volume who deserve a place in it. This would beimpossible in a work of ordinary dimensions, even were it convenient, oreven possible, to obtain the necessary materials. The aim has been tosketch sufficient of the representative men in each leading business andprofessional department to give a fair idea of the nature and extent ofthat department. It is not a complete biographical dictionary ofCleveland, but a volume of biographical selections, made, as the lawyerssay, "without prejudice."
History of Cleveland.
For the records of the first sixteen or seventeen years of the history ofCleveland, what may be styled its pioneer history, the local historianwill hereafter be indebted to the work of Col. Whittlesey, where everyknown and reliable fact connected with that period of Cleveland's historyis carefully preserved.
The city was originally comprised in lands purchased by the "ConnecticutLand 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 thefollowing year, it commissioned General Moses Cleaveland to superintendthe survey of their lands, with a s