Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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A careful census of population and business, made towards the close of
1868, in compliance with a request from one department of the Government
at Washington, showed that the population had increased to ninety
thousand; the value of real estate was valued at fifty millions of
dollars, and of personal property at thirty millions. The commerce,
including receipts and shipments by lake, canal, and railroad, was taken
at eight hundred and sixty-five millions of dollars; the value of
manufactures for the year at nearly fifty millions; the lake arrivals and
clearances at ten thousand, with an aggregate tonnage of over three
millions of tons; and the number of vessels and canal boats owned here at
nearly four hundred. Seventy years ago Major Carter resided here in lonely
state with his family, being the only white family in the limits of what
is now the city of Cleveland. The cash value of the entire trade of
Cleveland at that time would not pay a very cheap clerk's salary
now-a-days.

Levi Johnson

The biography of Levi Johnson is, in effect, the history of Cleveland, and
a sketch of the more active period of his life involves the narrative of
life in Cleveland during the earlier years of its existence. It is,
therefore, of more than ordinary interest.

Mr. Johnson is a native of Herkimer county, New York, having been born in
that county April 25th, 1786. He commenced life in a time and place that
admitted of no idlers, young or old, and in his tenth year it was his
weekly task to make and dip out a barrel of potash, he being too young to
be employed with the others in wood-chopping. Until his fourteenth year he
lived with an uncle, working on a farm, and laboring hard. At that age he
determined to be a carpenter and joiner, and entered the shop of Ephraim
Derrick, with whom he remained four years. At eighteen, he changed masters
and worked with Laflet Remington, and at twenty-one changed again to
Stephen Remington, with whom he worked at barn building one year.

It was whilst he was with Stephen Remington that an event occurred that
shaped Levi Johnson's future life. Considerable interest had been excited
in regard to Ohio, towards which emigrants were frequently seen taking
their way. A brother of Stephen Remington was sent west to spy out the
land and report on its desirableness as a home. This committee of one, on
lands, came to Newburgh, and was so strongly impressed with the advantages
of the place from which Cleveland was afterwards said to be but six miles
distant, that he allowed his imagination to run away with his veracity. He
wrote back that he had struck the richest country in the world; that the
soil was marvelously fertile, and that corn grew so tall and strong that
the raccoons ran up the stems and lodged on the ears out of the way of the
dogs. Great was the excitement in Herkimer county when this report was
received. Such wonderful growth of corn was never known in York State, but
Ohio was a _terra incognita_, and Munchausen himself would have had a
chance of being believed had he located his adventures in what was then
the Far West. Stephen Remington quit barn-building, shut up his shop,
packed up his tools and started in the Fall of 1807 for the new Eden, on
Lake Erie. In the succeeding Spring, Johnson followed in his footsteps as
far as East Bloomfield, near Canandaigua, where he worked during that
Summer, building a meeting-house.

In the Fall of 1808, he shouldered his pack and set out on foot for the
West. At Buffalo he found work and wintered there until February, when his
uncle came along, bound also for the land of promise. There was room in
the sleigh for Levi, and he was not loth to avail himself of the
opportunity of making his journey quicker and easier than on foot. On the
10th of March, 1809, the sleigh and its load entered Cleveland.

By that time it had come to be hard sledding, so the sleigh was abandoned
and the two travelers, determining to put farther west, mounted the horses
and continued their journey to Huron county. Here they fell in with Judge
Wright and Ruggles, who were surveying the Fire Lands. They wanted a
saw-mill, and Johnson's uncle contracted to build one at the town of
Jessup, now known as Wakeman. Levi turned back to Cleveland, and was
fortunate in finding a home in the family of Judge Walworth. The Judge
wanted an office built, and Johnson undertook to make it. Hitherto, all
the houses were of logs; but the Judge, having a carpenter boarding in his
family, aspired to something more pretentions. The building was to be
frame. At that time Euclid was a flourishing settlement, and rejoiced in
that important feature--a saw-mill. The lumber was brought from Euclid,
the frame set up on Superior street, about where the American House now
stands, and every day the gossips of the little settlement gathered to
watch and discuss the progress of the first frame building in Cleveland.
The work occupied forty days, and when it was completed, there was great
pride in this new feature of Cleveland architecture. The erection of the
first frame building marked the commencement of a new era.

That job done, Levi turned back to Huron to fulfill the contract made by
his uncle for the erection of a saw-mill. This was a heavy job for so
small a force, and between three and four months were spent in it.
Slinging his kit of tools on his back, he then turned once more towards
Cleveland, in which he settled down for the remainder of his life, the
next two or three years being spent in building houses and barns in
Cleveland, and in the more flourishing village of Newburgh. A saw-mill
also was put up on Tinker's creek.

When Mr. Johnson was building the saw-mill at Jessup, he fell in with a
young lady, Miss Montier, who enjoyed the distinction of being the first
white girl that landed in Huron, where she lived with a family named
Hawley. The young carpenter fell in love with the only pretty girl to be
found in the neighborhood, and she was not unkindly disposed to the young
man. When he returned to Cleveland she was induced to come also, and lived
with Judge Walworth, at that time the great landed owner, and consequently
prominent man in the thriving village of sixty inhabitants. In 1811, the
couple were married.

In the Fall of 1812, Johnson made a contract with the County
Commissioners, Messrs. Wright, Ruggles and Miles, to build a Court House
and Jail on the Public Square, opposite where the First Presbyterian
Church now stands. The material was to be logs, laid end-wise for greater
security. The work was pushed forward rapidly the next Summer, and towards
noon of September 12th, Johnson and his men were just putting the
finishing touches to the building, when they were startled by what seemed
the roar of distant thunder. On looking out of the windows not a cloud
could be seen in the sky, but the reverberations continued, and at once
the conviction that the noise was of cannons seized them. Throwing down
their tools they ran to the bank of the lake, where nearly all the
villagers at home to the number of about thirty, were already gathered,
stretching their eyes to the westward, whence the sounds came. Now the
reports of the cannon could be plainly distinguished. They knew that
Perry's fleet had passed up the lake, and that, consequently, a battle
could be at any moment expected. The louder reports told when the
Americans fired, for their guns were of heavier caliber than the English.
At last the firing ceased for a while. Then three loud reports, evidently
American, were heard, and the little crowd, convinced that their side had
won, gave three hearty cheers for Perry.

About two days afterwards, Johnson and a man named Rumidge picked up a
large flat-boat that had been built by General Jessup for the conveyance
of troops, and then abandoned. Each of the finders purchased a hundred
bushels of potatoes, took them to the army at Put-in-Bay, quadrupling the
money invested, and giving Johnson his first financial start in life.

As General Jessup needed the boat to transfer his troops to Malden, he
retained it, taking Rumidge also into service, and leaving Johnson to
return to Cleveland on the gunboat Somers, of which he was made pilot for
the voyage. Shortly afterwards Rumidge returned with the boat and brought
news that the American forces had fought a battle with the British at
Moravian Town. Johnson resumed command of the flat-boat, and with his
associate freighted it with supplies for the army at Detroit. The
speculation was successful, and Johnson engaged with the quartermaster of
the post to bring a cargo of clothing from Cleveland to Detroit. The
season was far advanced, and the voyage was cut short by the ice in the
upper part of the lake, so that the boat was headed for Huron, where the
cargo was landed and the freight for that distance paid.

Johnson was now a man of means, the successful transactions with the army
having given him more money than he had ever possessed at one time before.
His voyages and trading success had given him a taste for similar
occupations in the future, and his first step was to build a vessel for
himself. His first essay in ship-building was something novel. The keel
was laid for a ship of thirty-five tons, to be named the Pilot. There was
no iron for spikes, but wooden pins supplied their place. Other devices of
similar primitiveness were resorted to in the course of the work, and at
last she was finished. Now came the question of launching, and it was not
lightly to be answered. Modern builders sometimes meet with a difficulty
owing to the ship sticking on the "ways," but this early ship-builder of
Cleveland had a greater obstacle than this to overcome. He had built his
ship with very slight reference to the lake on which she was to float. For
convenience in getting timber, and other reasons, he had made his
ship-yard about half a mile from the water, near where St. Paul's Church
now stands on Euclid avenue, and the greasing of the "ways" and knocking
out of the blocks would not ensure a successful launch. Here was a
dilemma. Johnson pondered and then resolved. An appeal for aid was
promptly responded to. The farmers from Euclid and Newburgh came in with
twenty-eight yoke of cattle. The ship was hoisted on wheels and drawn in
triumph down the main street to the foot of Superior street hill, where
she was launched into the river amid the cheers of the assembled crowd.

This was not the first of Cleveland ship-building. About the year 1808,
Major Carter built the Zephyr, used in bringing goods, salt, &c., from
Buffalo. After good service she was laid up in a creek, a little below
Black Rock, where she was found by the British during the war and burned.
In 1810, the firm of Bixby & Murray built the Ohio, an important craft of
somewhere about sixty tons burden, the ship-yard being lower down the
river than the point from which Johnson's craft was subsequently
launched. Towards the close of the war she was laid up at Buffalo, when
the Government purchased her, cut her down, and converted her into a
pilot boat.

Whilst Johnson was building his vessel another was under construction on
the flats near the present location of the works of J. G. Hussey & Co. This
craft, the Lady of the Lake, about thirty tons, was built by Mr. Gaylord,
brother of the late Mrs. Leonard Case, and was sailed by Captain Stowe,
between Detroit and Buffalo.

Johnson was now literally embarked on a sea of success. His little ship
was in immediate requisition for army purposes. Cargoes of army stores
were transported between Buffalo and Detroit. Two loads of soldiers were
taken from Buffalo to the command of Major Camp, at Detroit, and on one of
the return voyages the guns left by Harrison at Maumee were taken to Erie.
The absconding of a quarter-master with the funds in his possession, among
other sums three hundred dollars belonging to Johnson, was a serious
drawback in the Summer's operations.

In the Spring of 1815, he recommenced carrying stores to Malden, reaching
there on his first trip March 20th, and on this voyage Irad Kelley was a
passenger. His second trip was made to Detroit. When passing Malden he was
hailed from the fort, but as he paid no attention, Major Putoff fired a
shot to make the vessel heave-to and leave the mail. The shot passed
through the foresail, but was not heeded. A second shot was fired and then
Johnson considered it prudent to heave-to and go ashore. He was sternly
questioned as to his inattention to the first orders to heave to, and
replied that being a young sailor he did not understand how to heave-to.
The officer told him to bring the mail ashore, but was met with a refusal,
it being contrary to instructions. Johnson started back to his craft and
was followed by a party of men from the fort, who manned a boat and gave
chase. Johnson, on boarding his vessel, spread sail, and being favored
with a good breeze, drew away from his pursuers and reached Detroit, where
he placed the mail in the post-office.

During the early part of the war, whilst Johnson was building his vessel
and in other ways kept busy, he was chosen coroner of Cuyahoga, being the
first to hold that office in the county. The sparseness of the population
rendered his duties light, the only inquest during his term of office
being over the body of an old man frozen to death in Euclid.

Samuel Baldwin was the first sheriff of the county, and Johnson was his
first deputy. His first experience in office was noticeable. Major
Jessup, in command of the troops, had brought to Cleveland from
Pittsburgh a Mr. Robins, who built from thirty to forty flat bottomed
boats, or batteaux, to be used in the transportation of the troops. The
Major ran short of funds and left a balance unpaid in the cost of
construction. Robins brought suit, and the Major, thinking the deputy
sheriff probably had some unpleasant business for him, studiously avoided
an interview with Johnson, and whenever they met by chance, pulled out
his pistols and warned Johnson to keep his distance. It so happened,
however, that no legal documents had been put in his hands for execution,
so that the Major was alarmed without cause.

But the groundless scare of the impecunious Major was a trifling affair
compared with the grand scare that overtook the whole people along the
lake in the autumn of 1812, at the time of Hull's surrender One day a
fleet of vessels was seen bearing down upon the coast. It was first
noticed in the vicinity of Huron by a woman. No sooner had she seen the
vessels bearing down towards the coast from the westward, than she rushed
into the house, emptied her feather bed and placed the tick on a horse as
a pack-saddle; then catching up one child before her and another behind,
she rode at the top of the animal's speed, thinking torture and death lay
behind her. Whenever she passed a house she raised an alarm, and at two
o'clock in the morning, more dead than alive with terror and fatigue, she
urged her jaded horse into the village of Cleveland, screaming at the top
of her voice, "The British and Indians are coming! The British and Indians
are coming!" Men slept lightly at that time, with their senses attent to
every sound of danger. The shrieks of the woman and the dreaded notice of
the approach of the merciless foe awoke the whole village and curdled the
blood of the villagers with horror. In that brief announcement, "The
British and Indians are coming," were concentrated possibilities of
frightful outrage, carnage and devastation. Wild with the terror of her
long and agonized night ride, the woman reiterated her piercing warning
again and again, filling the air with her shouts. A chorus of voices, from
the childish treble to the deep bass of the men, swelled the volume of
sound and added to the confusion and alarm. In a few minutes every house
was empty, and the entire population of the village swarmed around the
exhausted woman and heard her brief story, broken by gasps for breath and
by hysterical sobs. She insisted that a fleet was bearing down upon the
coast with the purpose of spreading carnage and devastation along the
whole lake frontier, that the vessels were crowded with British troops and
merciless savages, and that before long the musket bail, the torch and the
scalping knife would seek their victims among the inhabitants of
Cleveland.

At once all was hurry; the entire population prepared for speedy flight.
The greater part took to the woods in the direction of Euclid, the women
and children being guarded by some of the men, the others remaining to
reconnoiter, and, if possible, defend their property. As soon as the
non-fighting portion of the settlement was cared for, a picked force of
twenty-five men, contributed by Cleveland, Euclid and Newburgh, marched to
the mouth of the river and kept guard. It was evening when this little
army reached the river, and for hours after dark they patrolled the banks,
listening intently for the approach of the enemy. About two o'clock in the
morning a vessel was heard entering the river; the guards hastily gathered
for the attack, but before firing, hailed the supposed foe; an answering
hail was returned. "Who are you, and what have you on board?" shouted the
river guards. "An American vessel loaded with Hull's troops!" was the
reply. The astounded guard burst into laughter at their absurd scare. The
alarm spread with greater swiftness than the report of the facts, and for
days armed men came pouring into Cleveland from so far as Pittsburgh,
prepared to beat back the enemy that existed only in their imagination.

It was during this year that the Indian, Omic, was hung for participating
in the murder of the trappers, Gibbs and Wood, near Sandusky, in return
for the shelter given by the trappers to their two murderers. After
committing the murder, the Indians set fire to the hut, and the flames
became the instrument of their capture, for some boys returning from Cold
Creek Mill saw the fire, went to it, and discovered the partly consumed
bodies of the murdered men. The murderers were demanded from the Indians,
and Omic was captured by them and surrendered.

The prisoner was lodged in Major Carter's house until the trial which was
held under a cherry tree at the corner of Water and Superior streets.
Alfred Kelly prosecuted for the State, and Johnson was one of the jury.
Omic was convicted and sentenced to be hung. Johnson, who sat on the jury
that condemned him, was now employed to build the gallows to hang the
criminal. When Omic was led out by Sheriff Baldwin to execution, he
remarked that the gallows was too high. He then called for whisky and
drank half a pint, which loosened his tongue, and he talked rapidly and
incoherently, threatening to return in two days and wreak his revenge on
all the pale-faces. More liquor was given him, and he asked for more, but
Judge Walworth denounced the giving him more, that he might die drunk, as
an outrage, and his supply of liquor was therefore stopped.

Time being up, Sheriff Baldwin was about to cut the drop-rope, when he
saw that the condemned man had clutched the rope over his head to save
his neck from being broken. The Sheriff dismounted from his horse,
climbed up the gallows and tied the prisoner's hands more firmly behind
his back. The gallows was braced, and Omic contrived to clutch one of
the braces with his hands, fastened behind his back as they were, as he
fell when the drop-rope was cut. He hung in that position for some time,
until his strength gave way and he swung off. When he had hung
sufficiently long, the by-standers drew him to the cross-beam of the
gallows, when the rope broke and the body of the wretched murderer fell
into his open grave beneath.

In the same year Mr. Johnson was path-master of Cleveland, and he retains
in his possession the list of names of those who did work on the roads in
that year, armed with good and sufficient shovels according to law.

Mr. Johnson's success as a ship-builder encouraged him to persevere in
that business. In the autumn of 1815, he laid down the lines of the
schooner Neptune, sixty-five tons burden, not far below the neighborhood
of the Central market. In the following Spring she was launched, and run
on Lake Erie, her first trip being to Buffalo, whence she returned with a
cargo of merchandise for Jonathan Williamson, of Detroit. In the Fall of
that year a half interest in the Neptune was sold to Richard H. Blinn,
Seth Doan, and Dr. Long. In 1817, she made a trip to Mackinac, for the
American Fur Company, and remained in that trade until the Fall of 1819.

In the Summer of 1818, Major Edwards, Paymaster Smith, and another army
officer came to Mackinac on the Tiger, and engaged Mr. Johnson to take
them to Green Bay, agreeing to pay him three hundred dollars for the trip.
The same vessel, under Johnson's command, took the first load of troops
from Green Bay to Chicago, after the massacre, Major Whistler engaging the
ship for the purpose.

In 1824, Johnson left the Neptune, and in company with Turhooven &
Brothers, built the steamer Enterprise, about two hundred and twenty
tons burden. This was the first steam vessel built in Cleveland, and her
hull was made near the site of the Winslow warehouse. The engine, of
sixty to seventy horse power, was brought from Pittsburgh. Johnson ran
her between Buffalo and Detroit until 1828, when hard times coming on
and business threatening to be unprofitable, he sold his interest in
her, and left the lakes. In company with Goodman and Wilkeson, he built
the Commodore, on the Chagrin river, in the year 1830, and that closed
his ship-building career.

By this time he had accumulated about thirty thousand dollars, a
respectable fortune in those days, with which he invested largely in real
estate, and waited the course of events to make his investments
profitable.

In 1831, he contracted with the Government officers to build the
light-house on Water street. In 1836, he built a light-house at Sandusky.
In the following year he constructed seven hundred feet of the stone pier
on the east side of the Cuyahoga river mouth. The first thing done in the
latter work was the driving of spiles. Mr. Johnson became dissatisfied
with the old system of driving spiles by horse-power, and purchased a
steam engine for four hundred dollars. Making a large wooden wheel he
rigged it after the style of the present spile-drivers, and in the course
of two or three weeks, had the satisfaction of seeing the spiles driven
with greatly increased speed and effect by steam-power.

About 1839, he took his new spile-driver to Maumee Bay and drove about
nine hundred feet of spiling around Turtle Island, filling the enclosed
space with earth to the height of three feet, to protect the light-house.
In 1840, he built the Saginaw light-house, sixty-five feet high, with the
adjoining dwelling. In 1842-3, he built the light-house on the Western
Sister Island, at the west end of Lake Erie. In 1847, he completed his
light-house work by building the Portage River light-house.

Besides his light-house building, Mr. Johnson erected in 1842 his stone
residence on Water street, and in 1845, the Johnson House hotel on
Superior street. The stone for the former was brought from Kingston,
Canada West. In 1853, he built the Johnson Block, on Bank street, and in
1858, he put up the Marine Block at the mouth of the river. This completed
his active work.

Since 1858, Mr. Johnson's sole occupation has been the care of his
property and occasional speculations in real estate. By a long life of
activity and prudence, and by the steady rise in real estate, he is now
possessed of personal and landed property to the value of about six
hundred thousand dollars, having come to the city with no other capital
than his kit of tools, a strong arm, and an energetic purpose. Though
eighty-three years of age, his health is good, his memory remarkably
active, and all his faculties unimpaired. He has two sons and one daughter
yet living, having lost two children. He has had nine grandchildren, and
five great-grandchildren.

Noble H. Merwin.

In classifying the early commercial men of Cleveland, the name of Noble H.
Merwin is justly entitled to stand among the first on the list. In fact he
was the founder and father of her commerce, and a man not only noble in
name, but noble in character.

He was born in New Milford, Ct., in 1782, received a good common school
education, and married Minerva Buckingham, of that town. Soon after the
war of 1812, he went to Georgia and there engaged in mercantile pursuits,
having established a store at Savannah and also at Milledgeville. He came
to Cleveland in 1815. His family rejoined him at Cleveland in February,
1816. In coming from Georgia they crossed the Alleghanies, and were six
weeks in accomplishing the journey, having traveled all the way in wagons.
The two elder children were born at New Milford, the other four at
Cleveland. The oldest son, George B. Merwin, of Rockport, is now the only
surviving member of the family.