Lake Erie, The Cuyahoga River, & The Ohio and Erie Canal

Photo taken by Laura Hine

The Cuyahoga River, the Ohio & Erie Canal, and Lake Erie all brought industry to Cleveland and made Cleveland what it is today.  Industry built Cleveland, and brought many industrial men and their money to Cleveland.  

See the great list of links at the Cuyahoga County USGENWEB site for more information about our various waterways!

https://usgenwebsites.org/OHCuyahoga/Lake%20Erie/index.html

More links here:  https://sites.google.com/site/faqcuyahogactyresearch/frequently-asked-questions/helpful-websites?authuser=0

Lake Erie and Downtown Cleveland - Photo taken by Michael C. Liegl

Lake Erie - Photo taken by Michael C. Liegl

The Ohio & Erie Canal and its Top Proponent - Alfred Kelley

Two images above:  The Erie Canal Terminus Tablet at Heritage Park. 1520 Merwin Ave. This area is the site of the boat basin where boats tied up and unloaded at the north end of the Ohio Canal. In 1825 construction was begun to connect Ohio with the eastern markets. Prominent lawyer and state legislator, Alfred Kelley, succeeded in having Cleveland named the northern terminus of the canal and gave land for the terminus to the Canal Commission. The canal was completed to Akron in 1827 and to Portsmouth on the Ohio River in 1832. The opening of the canal meant the end of the pioneer era in Cleveland. 

ALFRED KELLEY – THE FATHER OF THE OHIO & ERIE CANAL (1789-1859)

Son of Daniel Kelley and Jemima Paine Stow

Brother of Datus Kelley (1788-1866) and Irad Kelley (1791-1875)

Cleveland became a major commercial center primarily due to Alfred Kelley and his work in creating the Ohio & Erie Canal.  George Washington had first explored this idea in the 1780’s, but nothing came of it.  Alfred Kelley was born in 1789 in Middlefield, Middlesex County, Connecticut to Daniel Kelley and Jemima Paine Stow.  They had six sons:  Datus, Alfred, Irad, Joseh, Thomas, and Daniel.  Alfred arrived in Cleveland in 1810.  He was drawn to Cleveland by stories he had been told by his uncle, Joshua Stow, who surveyed northern Ohio along with Moses Cleaveland.  Alfred was a surveyor by trade. He opened the first law office in Cleveland and was appointed prosecuting attorney for Cuyahoga County.  When Alonzo Carter died 1814, Kelley took his place as one of the most important men in Cleveland.  Alfred sent word back to his family extolling the virtues of Cleveland, and his parents and brothers joined him in Cleveland.

On December 23, 1814, due to Alfred’s hard work, the Ohio Legislature chartered the settlement as the incorporated Village of Cleveland.  Kelley was elected president by a total of 12 votes, four of them coming from his family.  Alfred and his brother Datus purchased Island Number 6 on the Connecticut Land Company’s survey and named it Kelleys Island.  In 1816, Alfred and his brothers founded the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, with Alfred becoming the president.  In 1817, Alfred married Mary Seymour Welles.

Alfred was then elected to the Ohio House of Representatives.  On his trips to Columbus, he noticed that the farmers were poor and many of their crops went to waste.  He began lobbying to have a statewide Canal system created so that the settlers could get their surplus to market.  He pushed for a commission to study the feasibility of such canals and surveyed the routes for those canals.  The Erie Canal in New York state had opened in 1819, and that didn’t escape Kelley’s attention.  He planned to model the Ohio & Erie Canal after it.  At that time, Cleveland’s Public Square held a log court house and the square was filled with stumps.  In 1822, the Ohio Legislature passed acts to fund the canal system, and Alfred Kelley was appointed Canal Commissioner.

In 1825, ground was broken on the Ohio & Erie Canal in Newark, Ohio.  Alfred was instrumental in having Cleveland designated as the northern terminus of Ohio Erie Canal.  He had crews start digging in Cleveland (which would eventually meet up with the canal construction coming up from the south,) so that there would be no doubt that Cleveland would be the northern terminus.  On July 4, 1827, the first canal boat floated into Cleveland from Akron and Bath.  The entire canal was completed by 1833.  Due to Alfred Kelley’s efforts, the Ohio & Erie canal had the lowest cost per mile of any canal of comparable length in Europe or America.  It would operate from 1827-1913, but were most prosperous from the 1830s to the early 1860s.

The Canal terminated at the Cuyahoga River a half mile south of the mouth of the river. Ships could not enter because a sandbar clogged the mouth.  A Federal grant was obtained to straighten the mouth of the river.  During the dry season, the river was dammed at the last bend.  The straight mouth was outlined and when the rains came, the flow slammed against the dam and the water tore into the land and created a channel to the lake.  From that point on, ships from Buffalo and Detroit could dock and take on cargo from the canal boats.  A row of warehouses grew at this point and money started flowing into Cleveland.  The frontier period was over, and Lorenzo Carter's lands became located on the west side of the river.  ("Cleveland:  The Best Kept Secret" by G.E. Condon, 1967).  With the canal operating and the straightened access to Lake Erie, Cleveland grew exponentially, all thanks to Alfred Kelley.

Kelley went on to be elected to the Ohio Senate in 1844.  He soon realized that railroads would take over transportation needs and replace his beloved canal.  He became president of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad, which opened in 1851, as well as other railroad systems.  Alfred Kelley died on December 2, 1859 and was buried in Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus.  At the time of his death, the flats contained few of the cabins that were originally located there.  People had moved up and out of the river valley beginning in 1833 as the canal caused industries to move in.

From 1861-1879, Ohio leased the canal to private owners.  The State resumed ownership in 1879 and discovered it had not been maintained well.  Lands along the canal had also been sold illegally to private owners.  In 1873, Cleveland City Council created a committee to study the canal.  They approved a contract and authorized payment of $125,000 to the state for canal lands within the city limits, however, they then quickly sold the canal development rights to the Valley Railway Company, who used the canal right-of-way for its new railroad line.  Parts of the canal bed were filled with rail ballast to hold railroad tracks.  However, Cleveland realized there was still a profit to be made from the canal, and retained its role as the northern terminus, relocating the weigh lock to a place near the foot of Dille Street along Independence Road.  This northern section operated locally, filling short-haul needs.

By 1877, the canal had ceased to operate as a transportation system from Cleveland to Portsmouth.  As late as 1880, the Cleveland Stone Company’s quarry in Independence and Peninsula shipped sandstone blocks on the canal.   Cuyahoga Valley farmers used the canal for local shipments of their produce, even after the opening of the Valley Railway in 1880.  By 1911, most of the southern portion of the canal had been abandoned.

The end of the canal came about unexpectedly in late March of 1913.  After a winter of record snowfall, three days of spring rains led to massive flooding statewide.  This flooding destroyed aqueducts, washed out banks, and destroyed most of the locks.  This was the end of the Ohio & Erie Canal as a statewide transportation system.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer described the devastation:

“No one could have known at the time that this would come to be known as Ohio's greatest natural disaster. James Dillow Robinson gave a personal account of the flood of 1913 which destroyed the Canal. The water was rapidly rising, and Dillow had to act quickly to save himself and the state maintenance boat tied up at Fourteen Mile Lock (Lock 37 on Canal Road near Alexander Road in Independence). Later he would learn that thousands of individual dramas were unfolding throughout the state. Hundreds would lose their lives, and property damages were estimated to be over $300 million. Over 65,000 were left homeless. The great flood of 1913 swept away the canaller's unique way of life and the viability of the canal as a transportation artery.  As Robinson saw the water level rising, with the help of others, he tied up the State boat.  He and his helpers moved off of the boat and stayed at the nearby Brady Knapp house on the east side of the canal at Hillside Road. They were in the house for about two days and two nights. They saw the nearby bridge sink into the canal. The boat, which was tied to it, survived, secured to the trees. After two days and nights, the rising waters forced them to higher ground and they all moved up to the home of a farmer named Carter. After a time, the waters began to recede and they found the boat still floating.”

Other Ohioans didn't fare as well. The March 25, 1913 Cleveland News headline was: "City is Flood-Bound - Many Lives are Lost throughout Ohio. Just a few miles downstream from where Robinson and his neighbors were waiting out the storm, the Cuyahoga River had overflowed its banks and the floodwater was carrying bridges, homes, debris, and everything else in its path into Lake Erie.

“Twenty-seven men, women and children were marooned by the flood under the Denison Harvard Bridge. The flood inundated railroad tracks and depots located along the Cuyahoga River. In Cleveland, the rising flood had halted both streetcar and railroad service and shut down factories. The Cleveland Press printed a Boil Water advisory to avert the threat of a typhoid epidemic.”

According to Ohio Historian George Knepper, the March 1913 flood took 428 lives and destroyed more than 20,000 homes. Though the canal had survived floods in 1828, 1843, 1858, 1868, 1873, and 1883, the 1913 flood was the last blow to the canal. Robinson recalled that there had been very little traffic after about 1906 or 1907 when they rebuilt the locks out of concrete and dredged the channel.

“After the flood, the canal ceased to function as a complete transportation source, but industries continued to use canal water for their operations. American Steel & Wire, later U.S. Steel, maintained a long-term hydraulic lease on the canal through the Cuyahoga Heights and Valley View area to utilize the water for its factory in Cleveland. American Steel & Wire performed routine maintenance on the canal and ancillary structures such as the Mill Creek and Tinker's Creek aqueducts.

“The last years of the working canal saw pleasure boating, limited commercial traffic, major rehabilitation, and monumental flood damage, the last sending the canal into a deep slumber. Nostalgic out-of-work canallers and history buffs kept the stories and lore alive here and there along the banks, while wildflowers and wildlife reclaimed the narrow piece of state real estate. The original purpose of the waterway was no longer viable, but a new one was dormant in the mud, awaiting the right time and the right minds to bring it to life. In recent years, communities have come to view the old canal not as a nuisance, but as a resource - for understanding the past, for recreation, and for wildlife. Along the canal, cities, counties, and park district are maintaining the towpath and the canal basin itself for recreational use. About 20 miles of the canal lie within the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Only six miles of it are kept watered. The Cleveland Metroparks manages another four miles of watered canal north of the park.

“Several initiatives in the second half of the 20th century supported the protection of the canal. The Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area was established in 1974 as a National Park Service unit, providing federal protection of land and resources, including the canal. The Ohio Historical Society promoted and expanded its operations at Zoar Village, creating expanded interest in the canal's heritage. And, in 1996, the U.S. Congress designated the section of the canal from Cleveland to Dover-New Philadelphia a National Heritage Corridor, now known as the Ohio & Erie National Heritage Canalway. Sections of the canal with the highest degree of historic integrity in the National Heritage Canalway are the sections between Cuyahoga Heights and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park; in the Canal Fulton area; and in Zoar. This remaining physical evidence, along with museums, visitor centers, the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, and exhibits along the trail, transports today's visitors to the time when Ohio as we know it was emerging from the wilderness of the Wild West.”

ALFRED KELLY COMPLETES THE ERIE AND OHIO CANAL

By S.J. Kelly

January 16, 1940 Plain Dealer

It was July 4, 1827, that the first boat came down the Erie and Ohio Canal from Akron to Cleveland village.  The night before, Gov. Trimble and his party, aboard the packet State of Ohio, had been joined by a welcoming group miles up the canal.  In the morning, the party was met by another crowded boat a few miles out of town.  Together, the three wound their way through bending canal curves to the village.

Bands played, crowds cheered, cannon thundered; and then the gayly decorated boats stopped – just stopped – for the termination of the canal had not been revealed.  At the foot of Superior Street, a procession formed under Marshal H. H. Sizer.  Mechanics and farmer of the vicinity joined in the parade, marched to an arbor on the square.  The Declaration of Independence was read.  Reuben Wood delivered an oration, and at 3:00 a sumptuous feast was served at Belden’s Tavern with many toasts and much jollity.  Another group dined at the Franklin House amid similar observations.  Many festive couples attended the ball that evening in Belden’s Assembly Room.

During the two years the canal had been built in the Summit, nearly two-thirds the heights of Terminal Tower, work continued south of Akron.  In December, 1825, contracts were let as far as Kendal, 65 miles away.  The canal was completed to Portage Summit, nine miles south.  Summit Lake was crossed by a towing bridge.  From the high level down the Tuscarawas Valley, a drop of 238 feet with 29 locks, 109 miles was finished to Dresden.  Crossing the Tuscarawas by a dam, the canal passed over the Walhonding by an aqueduct near Roscoe, 138 miles from Cleveland.  Dresden was the low level between the two summits.  Here the waters discharged into the Muskingum by the two-mile “Muskingum Side Cut.”  Shooting upward from Dresden, the canal entered Licking Valley, ascending 160 feet by 19 locks in 42 miles to Newark.

On July 10, 1830, the first boat from Newark reached Cleveland.  Passing through the great Licking Reservoir, it descended 14 locks to Groveport, crossed the Scioto Valley at Lockbourne, 219 miles from Lake Erie, having passed through 16 more locks.  From Lockbourne, a feeder ran 11 miles north to Columbus.  The canal followed the Scioto’s east bank southward and near Circleville crossed above the river to the Scioto aqueduct.  Down the west of the river through Chillicothe, over Paint Creek, through Pike and Scioto Counties, it finally entered the Scioto River a short distance above the Ohio, 94 feet below Lake Erie and west of Portsmouth.

In its course through the middle Ohio Valley, the canal had descended 211 feet through 24 locks.  In 1831, the first boat reached Chillicothe, and in 1832, the first through trip was made from Cleveland to Portsmouth.  Alfred Kelley remained in charge to finish the canal.  Locks from end-to-end of the canal numbered 146, not including two built on the flatlands at Cleveland, almost a story in themselves. Total cost was $4,695,202.  While being constructed, as early as 1829, branches were chartered or planned leading into the next line.

On the completion of the section from Cleveland to Akron, rules were put in force. These included tolls on freight and passenger boats and their passengers.  Navigation regulations were adopted. The first notice of “arrivals” and “departures” of canal boats from the “Port of Cleveland” was published July 29, 1827.  It listed as arriving, one boat with flour, three with flour and passengers, one with flour and whisky, one with whisky, and one with lumber. Cleared were four boats of merchandise; two with sand, and one with salt.  The first day the canal was opened, a breach of the embankment on Portage Summit held up all boats for four days.

Ox Bow Bend on the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland Center aka Gravity Pointe, and The Battle of the Columbus Street Bridge over the Cuyahoga River in 1836 

OX BOW BEND OF THE CUYAHOGA RIVER

Part 1 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 4, 1941 Plain Dealer

Ox Bow Bend!  This first great bend as you ascend the Cuyahoga has its history.  Like a great serpent, the river comes north and almost at once twists south in another great sweep.  Known through the years as Collision Bend, this sharp curve was removed during the last decade in the dekinking of the stream.

Land enclosed by Ox Bow Bend, amounting to a good-sized farm, was not on the Cleveland maps surveyed by Pease and Spafford in 1796.  It remained without the legal village boundaries for nearly 40 years.  The tract had passed from the Connecticut Land Co. to Samuel Huntington in 1802.  Robert Parkman bought it from the Huntington estate and sold it to Dr. David Long for $2,500, who disposed of it to Leonard Case Sr., for $1,350.  On September 24, 1831, the land was deeded by Case to Edmund Clark, Richard Hilliard, and James S. Clark for $15,000.  Except on the north, the river surrounded the 51 acres and 30 rods.  This border ran close to Superior Hill around Noble Merwin’s lot at the top, and down Vineyard Lane, crossing the neck of the bend.

The First Settler

That lowland, with its swamp and canebrake and scattered trees, was the camping ground of the Senecas.  Flocks of wild gees lit near the southern end and often a bear swam across and ambled through the thick grass.  Rodolphus Edwards, the Bend’s first settler, built his cabin south of the hill near the stream in 1797.  His family joined him, and by imbibing plenty of bark tea, the group fought off malaria for two years.  Then they moved to the ridge not far from Newburg.  In the fall of 1800, David Bryant and his son, Gilman, built a distillery beside the Edwards’ cabin.  Water from spring was piped in a wooden trough and whisky was distilled from wheat.  It was a loafing place for the Senecas as well as Ottawas and Chippewas from west of the river.

Edmund Clark

When Clark and his associates purchased Ox Bow Bend, they announced an allotment of the tract.  They planned to establish a center outside the village limits.  Cleveland had 1,100 inhabitants and a civil government with a president, three trustees, recorder, treasurer, and marshal.  And it had one hand pumping fire engine.  The municipality was growing.  New streets were being platted.  Officials controlled improvements, assessed taxes and fines, and some even received fees.  Though the allotment shouldered the village’s southern line and was choice residential property, it was outside the village and subject only to light government and taxation.  By legislation it could become a separate corporation. 

Clark was one of the leading real estate speculators of those early days.  From when he came and his family tree are not evident, but he must have arrived 126 years ago, for on November 30, 1823, he married Lucynthia Smith of Euclid.  That year he built Mowery’s Tavern with Dr. McIntosh, who acquired through a mortgage, and was elected county sheriff, an office he held until 1827.  He did not grow wealthy through this position, for Treasurer Daniel Kelly paid him only $200 salary and fees during his first year.  The next year he was nominated for Congress, but withdrew his name.  He became Cleveland’s most successful real estate dealer, served as executor of estates, and moved westward, purchasing large tracts of land at tax foreclosures.  He was associated with other Clarks, though there is no evidence of relationship.

With acquired wealth, Clark, with a team of lively mules and a coachman, drove Cleveland streets with his wife and family beside him.  Euclid Avenue was a narrow road, so much more than a wagon track, crowded by trees and underbrush beginning at Erie (East 9th Street).  Houses in the vicinity were unpretentious.  Clark was actively associated with such men as Nemiah Allen, Josiah Barber, and Ashbel Walworth in organizing the anti-slavery Colonization Society.  Clark died in 1830 and was buried in Erie Cemetery.

THE STORY OF OX BOW BEND (CLEVELAND CENTRE & GRAVITY POINTE)

Part 2 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 5, 1941 Plain Dealer

When James S. Clarke, Richard Hilliard, and Edmund Clark bought Ox Bow Bend in 1831, it comprised all the land enclosed by the Cuyahoga first big bend, and though its northerly line coincided with the borders of Cleveland, it was entirely outside the village limits.  For years it had been Case’s Point.  A few scattered shanties had been built in the loop, and a rough wharf or two south of Superior Hill faced the Cuyahoga before old warehouses on the site of Bryant’s log distillery and Rodolphus Edwards’ cabin.  These were leveled and the tract cleared of underbrush and trees.  Low marshy spots were filled.

Speculation

Today, Ox Bow Bend, through its center, from its northerly line along Superior Avenue to the southmost dock, measures 3,688 feet.  From where the north line hits the Cuyahoga straight across the neck to the head of the New York Central bridge, is 1,075 feet.  From the end of the bascule bridge on its eastern side it is 1,300 feet across the tract from channel to channel of the river.  Nearly three-quarters of a mile long, averaging close to a quarter-mile in width, it was about the same dimensions in an early day. 

Clarke continued his dashing real estate speculations.  In 1831, he bought the site of the future American House and financed the Kellog Block, which was made into the hotel.  Richard Hilliard was president of Cleveland Village.  Edmund Clark was a trustee, a financier, and later a banker.  James S. Clarke was planning streets, blocks, and lots of their new suburb.  In December, 1833, they laid out Ox Bow Bend, calling it Cleveland Center.  It was to rival the village in name, population, and business, but as a separate corporation controlled by its promoters.

Starting at the present bascule bridge on the east river bank, a circular space was left for a park.  From this radiated eight streets to an avenue that followed the Cuyahoga on the west of the tract.  Columbus Street (Columbus Road), shot north and south through the suburb and the center of Gravity Place.  The avenue bordering nearly the entire river bend was variously named.  The first part south from Superior was Merwin Street.  A straight wharf at the southwest was Noble’s Landing.  Then came South Street.  Across Columbus it was Case Street.  Following the eastern side, it blended with one of the radial roads.  These were China, Russia, Commercial, British, French, German, and Leonard Streets, the latter ending their swing toward the north.  James Street crossed the neck north of the canal.  Parallel and south of it came West and Division Streets.  Since many of these highways, or fragments of them, exist with their names today, it is well to list and locate them.  It gives a word picture of the gridiron of thoroughfares laid out in the bend over a century ago.

Cleveland was booming.  In the two years from 1831 to 1833, the population jumped from 1,100 to 1,900.  Speculators knew that expansion was coming, and that public leaders were planning to convert the town to a city.  Cleveland Center boomed.  Homes, blocks, and stores sprang up.  James S. Clarke built Centre Block at Division and Columbus Streets.  He was the first to introduce the sale of lots on time payments.  The whole neck soon teemed with industry.  At Gravity Place, converging point of many streets, a bronze tablet was placed declaring it the business center of Cleveland.  Two avenues – not yet mentioned – ran half way the length of the suburb between Merwin and Columbus Streets.  Called Summer and Winter Streets, these were considered choice residential thoroughfares.  Today the former continues as Fall Street.  Winter Street can be picked out in broken sections with the same name.

Boom Years

Cleveland Center’s business boomed on the river.  At Noble’s Landing, sometimes called the “upper landing,” the steamers Superior, Enterprise, and the new steamer Sheldon Thompson, received passengers and freight.  The first night line between Buffalo and Cleveland was established in 1833, and the Niagara and William Peacock docked at the wharf.  Around the river bend were 50-odd schooners and sloops that made Cleveland each week.

THE STORY OF OX BOW BEND

Part 3 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 11, 1941 Plain Dealer

Cleveland Center

When James S. Clarke was developing Cleveland Center in Ox Bow Bend, he was prominent in public affairs.  On March 3, 1833, with Sherlock J. Andrews, Irad Kelley, John Barr, John W. Allen, Leonard Case Sr., and others, he incorporated the Cleveland Lyceum.  It held weekly meetings in the Court House on the Square and its purpose was the dissemination of knowledge.”  Lyceums became fashionable throughout the country – dedicated to the improvement of self and others.

The next year, Clarke became a manager of the Cleveland Free School.  On the board were A.C. Potwin, Samuel Starkweather, J.A. Vincent, T.P. Handy, and Dave Beardsley.  School was held in the Bethel Hotel basement for a year, with 200 enrolled, and an average attendance of 60.  Maintenance cost was $350. Clarke that season lifted the Cleveland Hotel to four stories.  It occupied the site of the present Hotel Cleveland, and he lived there for some years.

At a public meeting, he was appointed a committeeman to draft a memorial to Congress urging a ship canal around Niagara Falls.  Another meeting was called to consider means of preventing lake banks giving way to erosion.  He was made secretary.  In other public endeavors, his associates were Peter M. Weddell, James L. Conger, T.M. Kelley, and Richard Hussey.

Prosperity

Cleveland Center thrived in the river bend.  The canal extended to the Ohio River, and its northern terminal crossed the busy district now occupied by the B. & O. Railroad.  The high lift bridge visible as you look down Superior today marks the spot of the last canal lock.  Behind the lock to the east, and connected with it was the canal basin, more than 200 feet long and 150 feet wide.  Lake vessels could enter it.  Canal boats entered from the east and exchanged cargoes alongside the larger vessels.  “Merwin’s Basin,” with its high-masted square-rigged brigantines and schooners – Sir Henry, Austerlitz, Independence, Atlantic, Velocipede, Louise Jenkins, Maumee, and many others – presented a busy scene set off by brightly painted canal boats.  These little craft, traveling night and day, rounded river bends and landed passengers on special docks in the long pool.  Steamers brought crowds of emigrants to the Cuyahoga landing.  Many remained to fill the smaller hotels of Cleveland Village.

In planning Cleveland Center, Clarke followed a set scheme.  Columbus Street ran through it, stopped at Division Street south of the canal, and followed it sharply east.  Crossing the canal at Alfred Kelley’s wooden bridge afforded an easy detour for traffic through Champlain and Michigan Streets, opened a decade before.  The latter road followed old Maiden’s Lane and came out on Ontario opposite Prospect.  From the southernmost tip of the bend on into Cleveland, traffic was directed to arrive south of the Square.

Across the river to the south and west lay fertile farms and thriving towns.  But all around the river loop that encircled Ox Bow Bend, there was but one bridge – one of floating logs at the foot of Center Street.  Farmers west of the Cuyahoga with wagons of produce, townspeople bent on trade, and passing travelers, followed the Medina Turnpike (West 25th Street), the stage road to Elyria (Lorain Avenue) and Detroit Road.  They stopped at Brooklyn Village.  There they traded goods, shopped, and put up at the local hotels.  The floating bridge was used only monthly for urgent business.

Clarke capped the climax of his scheme in 1834 by starting his Columbus Street Bridge.  On the south side of the Cuyahoga up the slope, he commenced grading an extension of Columbus Street to meet the old Pearl Street Turnpike at a sharp angle a half-mile south of the big river bend.

THE STORY OF OX BOW BEND

Part 4 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 12, 1941 Plain Dealer

Cleveland Center Draw Bridge, built by James S. Clarke in 1834-1835, was counted the best structure of its kind in northern Ohio.  Crossing the Cuyahoga at the southern end of Cleveland Center at Columbus Street it connected with Brooklyn Township.  Later, this section leading southward up the hill from the river became part of Ohio City. 

The bridge was 200 feet long and 32 feet wide, including sidewalks.  It was supported by a stone abutment at either shore and two piers in the river channel.  Between these was a “draw,” in reality the middle section of the bridge.  Each half was hinged to a pier and could be raised so a vessel of 49-foot beam could pass through.  The balance of the structure at either end was a covered bridge.  The average height of its roadway was 24 feet above the water.

From the start of the bridge, the boom of Clarke’s suburb began in earnest.  He had foreseen that when this first permanent structure across the Cuyahoga opened, nearly all travel from the south, southwest, and west would descent into the valley and cross to Cleveland, giving thriving Brooklyn a wide berth.  Traffic would come down steep “Ox Path,” now Columbus Road hill; down Lorain and Detroit Street hills, and over the bridge, and would follow Columbus Street north through Cleveland Center; turn east on Division Street at Clarke’s big Center Block; avoid steep Vineyard Lane (S. Water Street Hill) and, winding a short distance along the east bank of the canal, go up the easy grade of Michigan Street to Ontario.

Clarke bought lots cornering on Ontario and Prospect Streets.  On the northeast corner where the Bailey store stands, he built the Farmers’ Block.  On the opposite southeast corner, he built Mechanic’s Block.  Their top floors became the drill halls of Cleveland’s crack military companies.  In his “center” in Ox Bow Bend, two taverns were built on either side of the entrance.  While the bridge was building, Cleveland Center lots sold at fabulous prices.  Homes and stores sprang up.  Anticipating that Columbus Street would become the busiest avenue of trade, blocks were planned or erected its entire length to Columbus Street Bridge.

Wharves and warehouses crept along the Cuyahoga around Ox Bow Bend.  Thousands of feet of lumber and thousands of shingles arrived.  Lumber yards started around Merwin’s Landing, and among the first was Joseph Strangsman’s.  The canal was opened its 309 miles from Cleveland to Portsmouth.  Nearly 75,000,000 pounds of freight came yearly.  Of this, about a third was transferred from canal boats to outbound lake vessels in the canal basin.  Although there were no canal packets, freight boats were fitted up and 1,600 passengers were arriving monthly.  The major part of the freight, which included thousands of tons of wheat, corn, mineral, coal, flour, pork, whisky, butter, cheese, merchandise, and furniture, and all canal passengers were landed on the basin docks within Clarke’s growing “center.”  His enterprises aroused jealousy of even Cleveland, since it was evident he was carrying out his plan to make his suburb “the center of business in the town.”

Over in Brooklyn Village, opposite Superior Hill, west of the river, watchful eyes had long been directed at the expanding allotment.  His scheme to divert business from Brooklyn aroused the most militant spirit.  Suddenly Cleveland swooped down on Clarke’s development.  On February 18, 1834, representatives secured the passage of an act in the State Legislature annexing Ox Bow Bend to the Village of Cleveland.  Brooklyn was aroused, as it believed Cleveland was drifting toward incorporation as a city.

THE STORY OF OXBOW BEND

Part 5 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 14, 1941 Plain Dealer

Discrepancy

Histories give 1837 as the year of the “Battle of the Bridge” between Cleveland and Ohio City.  Even Col. Charles Whittlesey, in his early historical writings, sets this as the time.  But investigation discloses that the riotous clash over the Columbus Street Bridge – the first real bridge across the Cuyahoga – occurred in 1836, and that the first hostile act leading to the pitched battle in which more than 1,000 men participated, was perpetrated a few weeks after the cities organized under charters.  That was early that year.  The actual conflict between east and west sides was six months later.  The “war” between the cities was strung out for a full year.

Animosity was aroused west of the river by the boom growth of James S. Clarke’s town within the first big bend of the Cuyahoga.  This new Ohio City continued to fan the resentment of Brooklyn Village.  The plan of promoters of thriving Cleveland Center in Ox Bow Bend was disclosed as a scheme to sidetrack Brooklyn and detour trade and travel over the Columbus Street Bridge and through Clarke’s suburb into Cleveland.  They decided to block these East Side plans by attacking the bridge.  Attempts to cripple the structure and traffic obstructions led to open warfare and mob conflict.

Clarke and his associated had gracefully submitted to annexation in December, 1834, and that same year he was an incorporator of the Cleveland & Newburgh Railroad, running from a Newburgh quarry down Euclid Avenue to the Square.  This tramway road afforded the easy transportation of stone to his development on the flats.  In 1835, he served on committees promoting railroads to Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

Incorporation

Cleveland was incorporated as a city on March 5, 1836.  Ohio City had rushed in and incorporated on March 3.  On March 16, Clarke presided at a banquet at the Franklin House celebrating the chartering of city and railroads.  But for the raising and lowering of its draws, Columbus Street Bridge was completed, and travel over it had started.  One of the Cleveland Council’s first acts was to accept the bridge as a gift to the city. Though chartered as a toll-bridge, it was to remain free of toll.

On April 30, an ordinance was introduced in the east side Council to remove the white-log floating bridge at Center and Division Streets. It was pulled to the docks by ropes when a vessel sought passage, and returned to its position by the same tedious method.  During the night, it disappeared.  Who removed it remains a mystery to this day.  Though this floating bridge was an obstruction to navigation, unsafe, and often blown into the lake, except for the Columbus Street Bridge, it was the only means of crossing from Ohio City, if small boats were excepted.

To the west side residents, this was a call to war, craftily commenced with the utmost determination, though with questionable legality.  Ohio City organized quickly after securing its charter.  Its population was about 2,400.  Josiah Barber was mayor.  On April 26, its Council passed an ordinance declaring the drawbridge at Columbus Street a public nuisance and directed the same to be abated.  On the night of May 27, or early the next morning, Marshal George L. Chapman descended upon the bridge with a posse.  The structure stood complete, but for the counter-weights controlling the two center sections.  While Cleveland slept, they quietly unhinged the southern draw and dropped it into the river.  As a further obstruction, they built a breastwork of logs, brush, and sand across the far end.

Cleveland woke to find itself minus a bridge.  The Council promptly came back in the name of its 6,000 population, and the night following the outrage, passed an ordinance declaring that “certain persons unlawfully seized upon and cut away the southern draw or lift of the city bridge across the Cuyahoga River on Columbus Street.”  It directed the street commissioner to complete repairs as soon as possible.  This ordinance, passed May 29, 1836, was signed by Mayor John W. Willey, president of the Council, and City Clerk H.B. Payne.

THE STORY OF OX BOW BEND

Part 6 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 19, 1941 Plain Dealer

Meeting

About two weeks after the south draw of the Columbus Street bridge was thrown into the river by the marshal of Ohio City, Clevelanders visited the spot.  One left a brief description of that visit of June 16, 1836.  Cleveland authorities had repaired the bridge.  The south draw was in place, both lifting sections were working, and traffic was accommodated.  The trip was made about dark.  It was not considered safe for them to be found on the west side, but they ventured over and saw a breastwork of logs, brush, and sand.  Suddenly from the gloom came a number of armed men.  They seized the Cleveland men as accomplices of Mayor John W. Willey in a scheme to ruin Ohio City by building Columbus Street Bridge.  The mayor stepped forward and demanded their release.  Wrenching and punching, they broke loose and hurried away.

The Argus

During the week of the first attack in May, the Ohio City Argus sprang into existence.  A large, well-edited paper, its motto was: “Federal, Union, and Republican Government.”  In its second issue, early in June, it defended the west side, saying: “The Argus regrets exceedingly the destruction of the draw gate of the bridge, but it was an act of self-protection, the great law of nature.”  Cleveland’s jurisdiction extended only to the center of the Cuyahoga River, it added, and “the marshal proceeded to remove such of the draw as lies in our city limits as a defense of fundamental rights and vital interests.”  It concluded declaring the slogan of Ohio City would be: “Not one bridge, but many bridges.”  A military air pervaded the flats and west side.  Residents were preparing resistance to east side bridge plans, even to open warfare.

Another Bridge

Soon after the removal of the floating log bridge at Center Street, a permanent bridge was commenced by Ohio City.  Piles were driven and a pier constructed.  Executors of N.H. Merwin’s estate, which owned land on the east side, applied for an injunction.  E. Folsom, Ohio City councilman, and others were named.  It was “vacation time” for the court, and an injunction was granted until the fall term.  This was the signal for another attack on the Columbus Street Bridge.  A night attempt was made to blow up its south abutment.  Some stones were dislodged, but the charges failed and the conspirators fled.  Summer wore away with Cleveland and Ohio City at swords’ points.

In the last week of October, Judge Burchard ruled against dissolving the injunction, pleaded that Common Pleas Court was embarrassed for time and continued the case to the next term. With this decision, the population west of the Cuyahoga declared war.  The night of its announcement, October 27, an explosion occurred in the southern abutment overthrowing some of it.  Next night a mob of 50 assembled and with powder, crowbars, and axes, rendered the bridge impassable.  Cleveland’s Council promptly ordered repairs.  Men went to work under guard. For 10 days public feeling in Ohio City ran high.  Night attacks having failed, leaders announced an attack by day.  C.L. Russell, assistant foreman of the city’s first Washington Engine Company No. 1, was looked upon to lead them.

THE STORY OF OX BOW BEND

Part 7 of 7

By S.J. Kelly

November 10, 1941 Plain Dealer

Daylight Attack

The great daylight attack on Columbus Street Bridge, in which guns and cannon played a part, took place October 31, 1836.  Cleveland records it as the Battle of the Bridge.  Accounts of the conflict written by residents on either side of the river fail to agree.  Some reports, fragmentary and brief, describe it as quickly over.  One or two accounts are colored with fanciful details.  But a riotous clash took place on the bridge, damaging both structure and combatants.  This appears to be an unbiased report.

It was known that morning that an attack would be made on the drawbridge before night.  Ohio City men armed with rifles and other weapons gathered at Pearl and Detroit Streets.  Later, the crowd was reinforced with sympathizers from other western towns.  C.L. Russell, foreman of the fire department and a tumultuous factor of the West Side, had been admitted to the bar that summer.  His small law office was nearby.  He acted as leader, and several inflammatory speeches were made. 

News of the mob reached the East Side, and men gathered on the streets and in taverns and hotels.  An excited crowd filled the Franklin House office where Editor, John R. St. John, in a fiery address, demanded that the bridge be defended.  “Before we will cowardly submit to this great injustice, we will give them war,” he cried.  “War to the knife, and the knife to the hilt.”  Calling on Sheriff S.S. Henderson to lead the way, the crowd thronged Superior Street where many joined them.  A cannon used to celebrate the Fourth was rolled down Champlain and Columbus Streets.  Loaded, it was planted to rake the bridge.

In Ohio City, a mob of 1,000 men gathered by noon.  Besides crowbars, axes, and saws, many carried old swords, pistols, and knives.  Russell formed them into a long marching line, and as the courts had just enjoined them from building a second bridge at Center Street, the rallying cry was: “Two bridges or none.”  Rev. J.D. Pickands, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, invoked a divine blessing.  The command was given to march down Detroit Street Hill.  A noted historian living here says the procession marched “bearing aloft the Stars and Stripes, and keeping step to the music.”

Battle

Word reached Cleveland, and the mayor of the city was summoned.  Almost as large a crowd of half armed men gathered in Clarke’s “Center” near the north end of the Columbus Street Bridge.  Mayor John Willey drove through Ox Bow Bend to the scene.  One historian says militia had been stationed “to sweep the bridge with their fire.”  If so, it must have been the state militia, for Cleveland had no military troop.  The mayor advanced across the bridge with other citizens.  Meeting Russell’s procession at the breastwork, he attempted to speak, but retreated under a volley of stone.

The militia, it is said, started across when Russell’s men raised the draw on their side.  This “apron,” as it was called, now perpendicular, protected them from gun fire.  Its destruction was then attempted.  Axes, saws, and crowbars were used.  Planks and timbers were thrown in the river.  The roof was partly wrecked.  Then the draw was lowered and a general fight followed.

Shots were fired, clubs we4re swung.  Venerable Deacon Slaght of the West Side forces received a rifle ball through his nose.  Another aged combatant, Deacon House of Ohio City, is said to have staggered over the bridge and spiked the cannon.  Several were wounded.  Cuts and bruises were numerous.  Lawyer Russell, tradition says, engaged in a vicious encounter, in which a tall Scotchman named Donald Frazier, and an unknown Clevelander figured, and in which a sword was threatened.

Years afterward, dredging the river for a new bridge, the sword was recovered and is now in the museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society.  Sheriff Henderson arrived with his deputies, and with some assistance, took possession of the bridge; the West Side army retired; and thus ended “The Battle of the Bridge,” although hostilities continued for a full year.

Columbus Street Bridge looking to the Southeast

The Columbus Street Bridge Battle

Cleveland Centre and Gravity Pointe