Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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The party with which Dr. Newberry was connected, spent nearly a year in
exploring the country bordering the Colorado, adding much to our knowledge
of our western possessions, and giving, in their report, an interesting
and graphic description of, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of the
earth's surface. Half of the report of the Colorado Expedition was
prepared by Dr. Newberry, and so much importance was attached to his
observations by his commanding officer, that in the preface he speaks of
them as constituting "the most interesting material gathered by the
expedition."

In 1859, having finished his portion of the Colorado Report, Dr. Newberry
took charge of another party sent out by the War Department, to report to
Captain J. N. Macomb, topographical engineer, U.S.A., for the exploration
of the San Juan and upper Colorado rivers. The Summer of 1859 was spent in
the accomplishment of the object had in view by this expedition, during
which time the party traveled over a large part of Southern Colorado and
Utah and Northern Arizona and New Mexico, filling up a wide blank space in
our maps and opening a great area before unknown, much of which proved
rich and beautiful, abounding in mineral wealth, and full of natural
objects of great interest. Among the results of this expedition were the
determination of the point of junction of Grand and Green rivers, which
unite to form the Colorado, and the exploration of the valley of the San
Juan, the largest tributary of the Colorado; a stream as large as the
Connecticut, before almost unknown, but which, though now without an
inhabitant upon its banks, is for several hundred miles lined with ruined
towns or detached edifices built of stone, and once occupied by many
thousands of a semi-civilized people. The report of this expedition made
by Dr. Newberry, containing much new and interesting scientific matter,
was finished just before the war, but yet remains unpublished.

Immediately after the commencement of the war, the United States Sanitary
Commission was organized. Dr. Newberry was one of the first elected
members, and it is, perhaps, not too much to say that no other one
individual contributed more to the great success that attended the labors
of that organization. In September, 1861, he accepted the position of
Secretary of the Western Department of the Sanitary Commission, and from
that time had the general supervision of the affairs of the Commission in
the valley of the Mississippi; his head-quarters being first at
Cleveland, and subsequently, as the frontier was carried southward, at
Louisville, Kentucky.

Through his efforts branches of the Sanitary Commission were established
in the principal cities of the West, and agencies for the performance of
its work at all important military points, and with each considerable
sub-division of the army. Before the close of the war the entire West was
embraced in one great System of agencies for the production and
distribution of supplies, and the care of sick and wounded on the
battle-field, in hospital or in transitu. The magnitude of the work of the
Sanitary Commission at the West may be inferred from the fact that there
were at one time over five thousand societies tributary to it in the loyal
States of the Northwest--that hospital stores of the value of over
$5,000,000 were distributed by it in the valley of the Mississippi--that
over 850,000 names were on the records of its Hospital Directory at
Louisville, and 1,000,000 soldiers, for whom no other adequate provision
was made, were fed and sheltered in its "homes."

Of this great work Dr. Newberry was the responsible head, and by the
wisdom and energy displayed by himself very much of the harmony and
efficiency which characterized this organization are to be ascribed.

As his labors in connection with the Sanitary Commission were drawing
to a close, Dr. Newberry was appointed Professor of Geology in the
School of Mines of Columbia College, New York city. He entered on the
duties of the position in 1866. In 1869, he was appointed by Governor
Hayes to the office of State Geologist, created by the Ohio General
Assembly of that year.

The scientific acquirements of Professor Newberry have given him a
world-wide fame. As a Geologist his reputation ranks among the foremost.
He has been honored with the membership of the most of the learned
societies of this country, and of many in Europe; was one of the original
corporators of the National Academy of Sciences; was recently elected
president of the American Association for the advancement of Science, and
is now president of the New York Lyceum of Natural History.

D. H. Beckwith.

The first Homeopathist in Cleveland was W. K. Adams, who succeeded in
converting Dr. Hoyt, with whom he formed a partnership. Very soon after,
in 1845, Drs. Wheeler and Williams were added to the list. There were but
six families in the city having firm faith in the principles of
homeopathy, and these were silent followers of Dr. John Wheeler, not
willing to be known as such, so strong was public opinion against them.
Dr. Wheeler continued unshaken by the strong opposition he met with, and
heeded neither sneers nor denunciations. His course was onward and his
practice successful, every month adding to his list of converts, and the
profits of each year doubling the preceding one. Dr. Wheeler was the first
member of the profession to propose that a homeopathic medical college
should be located in Cleveland, and he earnestly pressed his theory that
Cleveland should be the centre of homeopathy in the West. His name was the
first signature to procure a charter, and when the college was organized
he was selected as the President, and held the office for the first eleven
years of its existence, contributing materially to its success, and
resigning only when increasing age rendered its duties too onerous, when
added to a large practice.

From the little beginnings in the early days of Dr. Wheeler's
practice, homeopathy has grown in Cleveland, until it now reckons a
flourishing college, a woman's medical college, two hospitals, an
insurance company, twenty-six practicing physicians, and a host of
believers in homeopathic principles and modes of treatment.

Prominent among the number of practicing physicians is D. H. Beckwith,
M.D., who was born in Huron county, Ohio, in 1826. His father was one of
the pioneers of the northern part of the State; emigrating from the State
of New York in 1815, and making the journey the most of the way on foot,
occupying more than six weeks. He remained a few days in Cleveland, and
not admiring the soil for agricultural purposes (little thinking it was
the site for a city of its present beauty and magnitude), he journeyed on
until he reached more fertile soil in Huron county, where, by economy and
industry, in a short time he accumulated sufficient to purchase a small
farm, on which he lived until his death, having seen his family of six
sons and one daughter arrive at mature age.

[Illustration: Truly Yours, D. H. Beckwith]

The subject of this memoir remained at home during his boyhood, attending
school during the winter and working on the farm in the summer season. At
the age of sixteen he entered the Norwalk Seminary, pursuing his studies
with vigor for a few years, when it became necessary for him to earn his
own living. He taught several schools and was among the first in the State
to inaugurate the normal school system to elevate the standard of teaching
and improve public schools.

Early in life he decided that the medical profession would be his choice,
and all his leisure hours were spent in studying medical books. After
securing a sufficiency from teaching (as he supposed,) to meet the
expenses of a medical education, he studiously applied himself, under the
tuition of John Tiff, M.D., one of the most scientific practitioners of
the State. During the third year of his studies his money was expended,
and not wishing to call on friends for assistance he concluded to commence
the practice of medicine. A partnership was offered him in an adjacent
town, and arrangements were made for him to commence his professional
career. He unfolded his plan to his preceptor, who listened attentively to
his future plans, and then rising from his chair, exclaimed with much
emphasis: "If there is anything, sir, that I despise, it is half a
doctor," and immediately left the office. The brilliant prospect was
clouded. With but eight months more study the young student could commence
the practice of medicine and be an honor to his preceptor and to himself,
but the lack of money was a seemingly impassable barrier. It was a dark
day to the student, but he had learned "never to let his energies
stagnate." One resource was left him. He determined to open a select
school for advanced scholars. In four days from that time he entered the
school room with one hundred scholars, many of them his former pupils.
Morning and evening he clerked in a drug store, for which he received his
board and washing. On Wednesday and Saturday evenings he was examined in
his medical studies with two other students who devoted their entire time
to their studies. Thus for thirteen weeks he was daily performing the
duties of a teacher, so arduous that many would have complained, though
they had no other occupation. In addition to this he was several hours
each day compounding and dispensing medicine, and at the same time keeping
pace with his class in the study of materia medica and botany.

Having already attended one course of lectures in an allopathic college,
and not being satisfied with that mode of prescriptions for the sick, he
attended the Eclectic College of Cincinnati, where he listened to the
first course of lectures ever delivered in any chartered college in the
country on homeopathic medicine, by the lamented Prof. Rosa who had no
superior in his profession. After receiving his degree he commenced the
practice of medicine with his preceptor. The prompt and curative effect
produced by homeopathic remedies soon convinced him of its superiority
over other systems of medicine and decided him to adopt it as his system
of practice for life. The success that has attended his labors ever since
has well proved the correctness of his choice.

The first few years of his practice were spent among the acquaintances of
his childhood, in the beautiful village of Norwalk. In 1852, he left a
large practice and many warm friends to seek a larger field for future
work, and located in Zanesville, Ohio, where he continued his profession
until the year 1863. The climate not being adapted to the health of his
family he moved to Cleveland and soon obtained what he had left in
Zanesville--a large and lucrative practice. By close attention to his
patients, being always ready to give his services to the poor as
cheerfully as to the rich, and his unusual kindness to all persons placed
under his professional care, he has won the affection and esteem of his
patients to a degree rarely equaled.

He has always taken a lively interest in the advancement of medical
science, firmly believing in the immutable principles that govern the
administration of homeopathic medicine as well as the curative effect. He
has always been anxious to induce young men that proposed to study the
science of medicine to follow the example of the illustrious Hahnemann.
His lectures in the Cleveland Homeopathic College have always been
characterized by practicability. He has not only published a medical
journal, but has largely contributed to the pages of many others in this
country. He has always been a leading member of county and State medical
societies, as well as of the Northwestern and American Institute of
Homeopathy, holding the office of Vice President of all the above named
societies. In 1866, he was chosen by the American Institute as one of the
committee to prepare an essay on Cholera, its nature and treatment.

He was among the first to establish the Hahnemann Life Insurance Company
of Cleveland, being one of its incorporators and procuring a large amount
of capital stock for its support, besides giving his time in organizing
it. He was chosen their chief medical examiner, and the great success of
the Company is largely due to his skill in selecting good and healthy
risks for insurance.

[Illustration: T. T. Seelye]

Thomas T. Seelye.

Thomas T. Seelye, M.D., was born in Danbury, Connecticut, August 23, 1818.
His parents were Seth and Abigail Seelye, of English descent. After
preparing for a collegiate course, it became necessary for him to take
charge of his father's store. At twenty-one years of age he commenced the
study of medicine as a private pupil of William Parker, professor of
surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, from which
college he graduated in the Spring of 1842. He was then appointed
assistant physician in Bellevue Hospital, where he remained one year, when
he commenced the practice of his profession in Woodbury, Connecticut.
There he remained until the Spring of 1848, when he sold out his business
and removed to Cleveland, having previously leased a tract of land just
within the suburbs of the city, covered with native forest and such a
profusion of real natural beauty in glen, woodland, and beautiful springs
of soft water, that it seemed apparent that art only needed to blend with
nature to make this one of the most desirable of localities for a great
health institution.

His system of practice, though called water cure, in fact drew assistance
from all the experience of the past in relieving physical suffering and
curing disease. It was not _orthodox_, it belonged to no _pathy_, and in
consequence had the opposition of all branches of the profession. His
means were quite limited, as were also his accommodations--not so limited,
however, but that the expense of construction and furnishing greatly
exceeded the length of his purse. Business waited for _success_, to
establish itself, but the sheriff _did not_. Debts became due, and nothing
with which to pay, but hope in the future, which is rather unsatisfactory
nutriment for hungry creditors.

But, by and by, patient labor and persistent effort in the right direction
began to bring forth fruit. Business increased, the visits of the sheriff
were less frequent, and after about five years he could lie down to rest
at night without fear of a dun in the morning.

In ten years he purchased the Forest City Cure, which was started in
opposition, the capacity of the old Cure having become altogether
inadequate for his increased business. After ten years he sold it to the
Hebrews for an orphan asylum, preferring to unite the two institutions
under one roof. He then proceeded to complete the plan he had been
perfecting for the past five years, for erecting buildings of an extent
that would amply accommodate his ever increasing patronage, and supplied
with those conveniences and appliances which an experience of twenty-one
years had deemed most desirable for the invalid. The architect has
furnished us a sketch of this institution, of which, when completed, every
lover of our beautiful city will be proud.

In addition to his professional labors he is largely engaged, in
connection with W. J. Gordon and others, in the manufacture of the
non-explosive lamp, which bids fair to be one of the most successful and
extensive manufacturing enterprises ever started in this city.

Within the past three years, Dr. Seelye has purchased the twenty-six acres
he originally leased, and twenty-two acres adjoining, making a very
valuable tract of real estate, taken in connection with the present and
prospective growth of the city.

Although Dr. Seelye is not engaged conspicuously in public charities, few
hands are so frequently open as his to the wants of the poor. Great
comprehensiveness of intellect, an indomitable energy, a rare penetration
and control over other minds, combined with an unblemished integrity of
character, have given him a high reputation among physicians in the West.

[Illustration: Water Corm.]

Manufacturing

With neither water power nor steam power very little can be done in the
way of manufacturing. Cleveland, until the construction of the Ohio canal,
was without either of those two requisites for a manufacturing point. The
Cuyahoga river, though giving abundant water power along a considerable
portion of its course, enters Cleveland as a slow moving stream, winding
its sluggish way in so tortuous a course that it seems reluctant to lose
its identity in the waters of the lake. Water power, under such
circumstances, is out of the question, and, as with no coal, and a rapidly
decreasing supply of wood, steam cannot be economically used for
manufacturing purposes, the people of Cleveland turned their attention
wholly to buying and selling instead of producing.

The construction of the Ohio canal to the coal fields of Summit county
opened the eyes of the more enterprising citizens to the possibilities of
a great future for Cleveland as a manufacturing city. No sooner had the
canal reached Akron, and an experimental shipment of coal been made to the
future city--with but poor success, as already narrated--than attention
was called to the importance of the new field thus opened to Cleveland
enterprise. On the 7th of March, 1828; a letter appeared in the Cleveland
Herald, from which the following is an extract:

"We possess, beyond a doubt, decided advantages over Buffalo, or any other
town on Lake Erie, in our contiguity to inexhaustible beds of pit-coal and
iron ore, very justly considered the basis of all manufacturing. On the
one hand, at the distance of about thirty miles, we can obtain any
quantity of crude iron of an excellent quality, while, on the other, at
about the same distance, we have access by canal to exhaustless mines of
coal of good quality. This last most invaluable, and all important article
in manufacturing, can not be obtained anywhere else on the Lakes without
the extra expense of shifting from canal-boats to other craft.

"When these mines shall have become extensively worked, coal will be
delivered in this place very little, if any, above that paid in
Pittsburgh, say from four to six cents; and good pig-iron can and is now
delivered at a less price here than in Pittsburgh. Doctor Cooper further
says: 'The very basis of all profitable manufacturing is, plenty of fuel,
easily, cheaply and permanently procurable;--the next desirable object is
plenty of iron ore; iron being the article upon which every other
manufacture depends. It is to the plentiful distribution of these two
commodities that Great Britain is chiefly indebted for the pre-eminence
of her manufactures and her commerce.' Surely it need not be thought
strange that Cleveland must one day become a great manufacturing place,
if we consider,

"_First_, That the canal will give us access to one of the finest portions
of country in the United States, sufficient for vending, to almost any
extent, articles such as might be manufactured here;--and, _Secondly_,
That power and materials in great abundance are 'easily, cheaply and
permanently procurable.' There is probably not a town in the Western
country, Pittsburgh only excepted, that unites these two objects so
happily as this place does.

"Every steam-engine wanted for boats on the Lake, for mills and factories
near the Lake, and on and near the canal should be made at this point.

"Not a pound of nails, a wagon-tire, an anchor, a cable, a cast-iron
stove, pot, kettle, ploughshare, or any article made of cast-iron--a yard
of coarse cotton, a gallon of beer, an ax, a shovel, nor a spade, should
be sent east for. There ought to be in full operation before the
completion of our canal, at least one steam engine manufactory, one
establishment for puddling iron, one rolling and slitting mill, and nail
factory, two or three iron foundries, in addition to the one now going
into operation under very favorable auspices, a cotton factory, a woolen
factory, a steam grist and saw mill, a brewery, &c."

On the succeeding week appeared some editorial comments in support of the
suggestions in the letter, and for some time frequent references, by
correspondents and editorially, were made to the matter. On the 25th of
April, 1828, appeared in the Herald a notice of a new iron foundry; the
first that had been built, and reference to which had been made in the
letter quoted. This was built by John Ballard & Co., and an editorial
announcing its opening says it "supplies this place and the surrounding
country on short notice and on reasonable terms, with the various articles
of cast iron work, for which, before this foundry was established, our
citizens were forced to send to a distance, and at the cost of much
trouble and expense."

But with all this urging of newspapers, and talking of far-sighted
citizens, the cause of manufacturing progressed slowly. To establish
manufactories was a costly experiment, requiring capital, patience, and a
faith, which, though some might profess, few actually possessed. As is
frequently the case in regard to public improvements, those who pressed
them most had no funds to invest in them, and those who had the funds were
little inclined to heed the suggestions of moneyless advisers.

MacCabe's Directory of Cleveland and Ohio City for 1837-8, says that at
that time there were on the east side of the river, in the corporation of
Cleveland, "four very extensive iron foundries and steam engine
manufactories; also, three soap and candle manufactories, two breweries,
one sash factory, two rope walks, one stoneware pottery, two carriage
manufactories, and two French run millstone manufactories, all of which
are in full operation." A flouring mill was in course of erection by Mr.
Ford which, it was predicted, would be, when finished, "the largest and
most complete establishment of the kind in the State of Ohio." At the same
time Ohio City was described as possessing "among the principal
manufactories of the place, the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace, the Saleratus
manufactory, and the Glue manufactory." The Cuyahoga Steam Furnace had
turned off in the previous year five hundred tons of castings, besides a
great quantity of wrought iron work, and gave employment to seventy men.
In noticing the description of the iron furnaces and steam engine
manufactories on the East side of the river as "very extensive", it must
be borne in mind that the standard of size and importance for such
establishments in Cleveland was much smaller then than now.

In spite of all the attempts made to stir up an interest in manufactories,
slow progress was made until a comparatively late period. One great
obstacle in the way was the opposition or indifference of the
land-holders, who directly rebuffed the proposals of intending
manufacturers, or placed a value on their land so high as to require an
amount of capital sunk in the soil that rendered the chances of profit
very hazardous. There was also a strong prejudice against factories on the
part of very many persons because they were "so dirty," and would tend to
make the neat and trim residences and door-yards of Cleveland as smutty as
those of Pittsburgh.

It was not until the breaking out of the war for the Union called into
existence manufactories all over the land to supply the needs born of the
war, that manufactories found a home and cordial welcome in Cleveland. The
exigencies of the time, and the intense feeling excited, scattered to the
wind all the prejudices against the dirt and smoke of iron manufactories,
and establishments of this kind sprang up on all sides, calling into
existence a host of other manufactories dependent on and contributing to
the successful conduct of iron foundries and iron mills. The war found
Cleveland a commercial city, whose trade, if not languishing, threatened
to soon reach its turning point; it left Cleveland a busy, bustling
manufacturing city, over a great part of which hung a perpetual cloud of
dense smoke, and with a population nearly doubled in numbers and greatly
changed in character owing to its change from a commercial to a
manufacturing city. The petroleum discovery in North Western Pennsylvania
and the coincident opening of direct railroad communication between
Cleveland and the oil regions, contributed greatly to the rapid increase
of the population and wealth of the city. Oil refineries grew up rapidly
like mushrooms in the valleys and ravines around, and lined the railroad
tracks, but, unlike mushrooms, did not disappear with equal rapidity. A
great number of people found employment in this new industry, and wealth
poured in with greater volume from this source than had ever been known to
flow from any species of trade or manufacture hitherto established. From
this time the future of Cleveland was assured. Year by year it has grown
with astonishing increase and new manufactories of every description are
springing up on every side. The flats that had lain deserted and of but
little value were brought into requisition for iron furnaces and iron
mills, and wherever lands could be had at reasonable rates in convenient
neighborhood to transportation lines, factories of some kind were
established.