the first Senator elected from Trumbull county, afterwards chosen Supreme Judge, and subsequently elected Governor of the State. Stanley Griswold also was Town Clerk, but soon appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate from Ohio, and at the end of his term appointed by the President, Judge of the northwest territory. On the 2nd day of March 1799 Congress divided the northwest territory into custom collection districts, the Erie district including the shores of lake Erie from the Pennsylvania line to the Maumee river, then called the Miami of the lake, and the port of entry was ordered to be established at said Miami river, or near Sandusky; and two ports of delivery were also authorized. The eigth Congress at its 2nd session, on the 3rd day of March 1805 divided this district, making the west boundary thereof the Vermillion river, and authorized the President by proclamation to designate the port of entry. This was done by the President, and he designated Cleveland as such port of entry. but no authoritative date of that proclamation can be found in Cleveland, as the records of the office have been destroyed by fire; but on the 17th day of January, 1806, Judge John Walworth was commissioned collector of the district. On the 15th day of October, 1814, the Township of Newburgh was organized from the territory of this original seventh Township of the 12th Range, the north line thereof being a prolongation of the original north line of the seventh Township till it reached the ten acre lots; thence south and west on the line of the ten acre lots to the northwest corner of 100 acre lot 278. It embraced within its limits the residences of those then important citizens, James Kingsbury, Erastus Miles, and Rudolphus Edwards. Indeed, Newburgh township, for a considerable period, was the more important place, as water power was to be found there, and a good mill had been built. Most of you doubtless remember in former days the sneer of our rival cities on the lake shore, who described Cleveland as the town on the lake six miles from Newburgh. The prejudices of the emigrants against the soil gradually disappeared as its capacities became known, and the advantages of its situation began to prevail. Its being established as a port of entry, and its location as

the county seat, all tended to increase the population, and on the 23rd day of December 1814, an act was passed by the General Assembly to take effect on the first Monday of June following, "To incorporate the Village of Cleveland, in the County of Cuyahoga." The boundaries of the village are described in the act as so much of the City plat of Cleveland, in the Township of Cleveland and County of Cuyahoga, as lies northwardly of Huron street so-called, and westwardly of Erie street so-called, in said city plat as originally laid out by the Connecticut Land Company, according to the minutes and survey and map thereof in the office of the recorder of said County of Cuyahoga. Agreeable to said act, on the first Monday in June, 1815, twelve of the inhabitants of that village met, and unanimously elected Alfred Kelley as President, Horace Perry Recorder, Alonzo Carter Treasurer, John A. Kelley Marshal, George Wallace and John Riddle Assessors, Samuel Williamson, David Long, and Nathan Perry, Trustees.

Let us pause a moment in our narrative, to consider the situation of affairs at the time the General Assembly enacted the law incorporating the village. The war with Great Britain, which had been declared on the 18th of June 1812, was still raging, although in fact on the next day the commissioners of the two countries agreed upon the terms of a treaty of peace and the suspension of hostilities, but owing to the slowness of communication, for some time this was not known, and after the actual signing of the treaty, naval engagements took place, and the battle of New Orleans was fought. At the time this legislature assembled to act upon the affairs of the State, the war was in full progress. During all the previous Summer the great navy of our then enemy kept the seaboard coast in constant alarm, and actually landed a force on the Maryland shore, which ravaged the country, and captured and burned the capitol of the nation. All along the Canadian border, on both sides troops were stationed and occasionally fierce and bloody attacks were made by the respective forces over the lines. The great forests of the northwest were filled with savage Indians, who hung upon the border like a dark cloud in the horizon, incensed perhaps justly by the greed of advancing emigrants, and stimulated

by the money and promises of the enemy, scalping and murdering any unwary settler, and ready to fall on any undefended settlement. Happily, by the gallantry of Perry and his brave sailors, the naval banner of St. George had been hauled down and surrendered on lake Erie, and over its waters the Stars and Stripes floated triumphantly.

In looking over the acts of that General Assembly, one can scarcely imagine the country was in a state of war. They were proceeding to enact laws the same as if in a state of profound peace. Among other acts passed, I find those. regulating the course of descents and distribution of personal estates, to establish churches and library associations, to prevent injury by dogs, to regulate the practice of the courts, to provide for the improvement of the rivers, and many others, indicating a well ordered civil society. There is, however, an undertone discoverable from the act to levy and collect the direct tax apportioned that year to the State of Ohio by the General Government, and the act for the discipline of the militia. The State had been divided into brigade and regimental divisions, and to each regiment there was authorized one company of cavalry, and one of artillery; and every able bodied citizen between the ages of 18 and 45, either residing in, or coming within the State, was obliged to enroll himself in the militia, if not a member of a cavalry or artillery company; and within twelve months after such enrollment, and sooner, if notified, provide and equip himself with a good musket and bayonet, fusee or rifle, a knapsack and blankets, and two spare flints, a pouch with a box therein containing not less than 24 cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or fusee, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball, or pouch and powder horn with 24 balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder. The spirit of the people is well expressed by a resolution of the General Assembly referring to the situation, wherein they declared: "We will suffer every hardship, submit to every privation in support of our country's right and honor; though we love peace and invoke its blessings, yet we will not shrink from the dangers of war."

Indeed, the State of Ohio was formed by no ordinary race of

men. The constitution which they adopted was made and perfected within the short space of 29 days, and it was the purest and most remarkable constitution for a representative government, which up to that time had ever been adopted. The whole legislative power of the State was vested in the General Assembly; the Governor had no part in the legislative voice, but was merely the executive officer; nor was there any Lieutenant Governor to preside over the Senate; the judiciary also were appointed by the General Assembly, to hold their offices for brief terms, or so long as they should well behave. The early emigration to Ohio represented in its composition fully and adequately the spirit of the Union. On her fruitful soil the culled grain from New England, the Middle States, and the South was sown, and the product was a race of giants. If these emigrants were not versed in the learning of universities and colleges, they had been educated at a higher academy. The prominent elder men had been soldiers of the revolution, and the young men had graduated in that school of self-sacrifice, nobleness and exalted patriotism, which eminently fitted them to become the founders and builders of a State. In looking back to that period, they seem to resemble in appearance the great trees of the virgin forest which covered the land, and not the smaller timber of a second growth. It may be Ohio vaunteth herself, but not unseemly.

To resume our narration of the village history, the Council of the village immediately organized, and continued to exercise the ordinary municipal control of the territory embraced in the corporate limits. For several years the officers of the corporation were, as at first, unanimously elected; but as numbers increased, often more than one ticket was in the field. On the 15th day of October, 1815, upon the petition of John A. Ackley, Levi Johnson, and others, the Council laid out and established Bank, Seneca, and Wood streets from Superior street to the lake; also St. Clair street, which was extended to the river. A jog was made at Erie from Federal street, undoubtedly from the fact that a continuation of that old street on its original line to the river would have destroyed the lots fronting on Mandrake Lane. Also Euclid street was then

established, from the Square to Huron street, the space between that point and the old middle highway being in the Township. That street in the early days, and for a long time afterwards, was by no means a popular highway. Stretching along at the southerly side of the ridge, it was the receptacle of all the surface waters of the region about it, and during much of the time was covered with water, and for the rest of the year was too muddy for ordinary travel. Diamond street, as it was then called, was also laid out around the Square.

Many interesting facts in regard to the early history of the village might be re-called from the records of the village Council. I noticed among other things, that in 1817 the Council passed an ordinance to reimburse 25 citizens, who had subscribed in all $198 towards the building of a school house, by giving them orders on the treasurer, payable in three years. Indeed, it seems that city orders were the currency of that period, for in the previous year the village had authorized the issue of orders on the treasurer, but with a proviso limiting the amount to double the funds in the treasury, and in the following year, to provide small change, orders were authorized to be issued in small sums to any person depositing with the treasurer good, sound bank bills or specie, but not to exceed $100 to any one person. In 1829, by a vote of a majority of the trustees, a fire-engine was purchased at the cost of $285, for which a treasury order was issued in payment. .This was thought to be a piece of extravagance, and at the next election the dissenting trustee was reëlected with an entire new board of officers; but the usefulness of the machine vindicated the wisdom of the purchase, and subsequently the trustee who was most active in the matter, was made president, and reëlected till he was promoted to a higher office. In 1832 active measures were taken to prevent the spread of the "Indian" Cholera, as it was called, a Board of Health was appointed, and vigorous sanitary action taken. A quarantine was established and a hospital provided for strangers or emigrants coming into the village attacked with the disease. In spite of all their efforts, the scourge came and for sometime was quite destructive, as it was in all the lake towns. Among others who held the