SKETCH OF A PIONEER.

Almon Penfield Turner, born in Monkton, Vermont, in 1807, came to Cleveland in 1817. His father settled his family in Newburgh, afterwards removed to Brecksville. In 1832 Turner came to Cleveland to reside. In 1844 removed to Pearl street on the west side of the river. Here he lived forty-two years. He died February 10, 1886. He was in every sense a pioneer. Had helped to fell on the Public Square of our city the scrub oaks that once grew upon its sterile soil. He had been an interested observer of the growth of the entire city from the small village to the great metropolis, had hunted the deer, the bear, the wolf and the rattlesnake in the suburbs. He was always an active member of the Anti-slavery party, first a Whig, then a Free-soiler; afterwards a Republican. He never missed an election. He was forty-two years a member of the Franklin Avenue Disciple Church; was a member of the Pioneer Society-the Early Settlers' Association. He was my father, whose memory I shall ever revere with gratitude and affection.

Wardsworth, Ohio, Aug. 5, 1886.

MAY E. HINSDALE.

A GOOD TALK.

MY DEAR MR. RICE:

SARATOGA SPRINGS, July 16, 1887.

Your kind letter inviting me to the anniversary meeting of your "Early Settlers' Association," on the twenty-second instant, came duly to hand. I wish with you, that I could be present and give you a talk" of "reminiscences of men and things" about and of "old Cuyahoga" in the "long ago," of those who inhabited your "Paradise of the west," and the country around about it, when it was something of a "log cabin" land, and when there were lots of good cheer, and of good feeling in them.

I was first in Cleveland in October, 1832, and was in the justice court of Guerdon Fitch, Esq., the father of Lieutenant-Governor Fitch and James Fitch, Esq. George Hoadly, Esq., was a justice of the

peace and a very able and efficient one. He was not only thoroughly learned in the law, but in all of human history, and had ability and acquirements that would have given him reputation on any bench of any court. A graduate of Yale, a student of the celebrated Chauncey of Philadelphia, a Washington correspondent of the United States Gazette in 1801 and 1802 at a more interesting time in our history; a welcome guest in the best and most cultivated and elegant circles of life, in Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, he was well fitted for high judicial position if his ambition had led him to that field. How rich and admirable must have been his letters from Washington. How invaluable and interesting to the student of history now, if they could be placed before him. Ask your fellow citizen, Mr. Henry B. Payne, and he will tell you how much he was indebted to the wise and judicious counsel and advice of Judge Hoadly. Mr. Payne, or his gifted son, ex-Governor Hoadly, should write a memoir of this remarkable man who was so long held in such high esteem by the people of Cuyahoga county.

If I had time it would give me great pleasure to write of the early members of the bar of Cuyahoga, most of whom have crossed the "dark river." I think that Mr. John W. Allen and yourself are the two oldest living. What histories you could write, what incidents relate! How full of interesting fact and personal narration! I was admitted to the bar of Ohio, October 22, 1833, at Zanesville.

How very few of the names who were in active life among you fifty and less years ago, are now remembered! Who now, except at a few hearth-stones, mention the names of Card and Allen and Fuller and Asher and Coe and Cowles and Barber and Warren and others, who were the associate judges of your court of common pleas at an early day? And who can tell of the Camps, of Meeker, and Coleman and Barker and Condit and West and the Doans and McIlraths and Coit and Cady and Lindsey and Foot and Adams Deacon Crosby and many others of Euclid; of Hamilton, and Jewitt and Burke and Garfield, uncle of President Garfield of Newburgh; and Burnett and Alvord of Orange; Gates and McDowell of Mayfield; and Patrick and Robbins of Riley; and

Robbins shipwreck and capture by the Algerines, of Bull and others of Solon; and of Leverett Johnson and Oakes of Dover; of Harvey and Strong and J. B. Stewart and Miles and Graves and Fish and many others, all cultivators of the soil and good citizens, once active among you, but now known only in memory, as it will soon be with us.

And Cleveland, how changed, since it was "a village six miles from Newburgh," and when there was a great strife in the county in the election of a commissioner, whether the court-house should be in Newburgh or in Cleveland, and the election of Dr. David Long of Cleveland, decided the matter.

How have manufacturers grown and multiplied since the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace company, and Franklin's Pocket Furnace were the two principal concerns in Cleveland, and Messrs. Giddings, Baldwin and Pease, and Mr. Richard Winslow, were the two prominent commission houses on the river and in the west, and Cleveland was the great grain depot of the west, and cargoes of flour were sent up the lakes to feed the emigrants for Chicago, Milwaukee and other points, until after 1840 or 1843.

In Cleveland, Mr. Daniel Worley was the excellent post master, and he also ran on the Ohio river one of the first steam-boats that ever navigated the waters of the "La Belle Rivere." Samuel Starkeweather, Esq., was collector of the port, at the seat of customs, and if, when he settled in Cleveland, he had been thrown on his own resources-had been without any patrimony-had been "obliged to root hog or die," an inelegant expression understood at the west, refused the collectorship of the port, and all other offices, and given his time and his talents exclusively to his profession, he would have taken very high rank as an eloquent advocate at the bar, and as an eminent jurist. He was an elegant scholar, thoroughly educated in the great principles of the law, well-read in ancient and modern literature and history, a very remarkable conversationalist ; but taken from the bar, by accepting an office, he fell far short of what he "might have been," as many others have done in life.

I remember when President Charles B. Storrs of the Western Reserve college, used to come up to Cleveland and occasionally

preach in the court-house. He was intellectually one of the ablest men in all the land, but tabooed by the church and its many people because of his right and righteous opinions on the slave question and temperance. It was an intellectual treat to hear Dr. Storrs, either at Hudson or at Cleveland. The late Judge Humphrey of the Cuyahoga circuit, told me that he was one of the most eloquent men he ever heard. Who has not read, with quivering lip and with feelings of irrepressible admiration, William Lloyd Garrison's poem on the death of President Storrs ? That poem alone, would give immortality on earth to Storrs and Garrison. Dr. Storrs belonged to an intellectual and eloquent family; he inherited very strong mental and moral qualities. His nephew, Rev. Dr. Storrs, now of Brooklyn, is one of the strongest men, in or out of the pulpit, of this age.

Times have wonderfully changed in Ohio. My old friend, Mr. E. J. Ferris of Little Mountain, Lake county, in a letter on "Reminiscences of Early Times," in a late number of the Painesville Advertiser, says the late Judge Peter Hitchcock of Geauga county, a graduate of Yale college, and for long years an able and honored judge of the supreme court of Ohio, "taught school in Burton for eight dollars a month and boarded himself, collected his pay himself, and took pork and other provisions at the market price in payment." What could have been the market price in those early days?

The late General Ahaz Merchant, known to all old residents of your county, once told me it was great good luck, in early times, to get appointed clerk on election day in October, as the pay was one dollar and fifty cents, and this would pay the taxes.

You are to erect a statue to General Moses Cleaveland soon in your city, named after him; and why not, after that date, spell the name of your city, Cleaveland, as he spelled his name?

But I must close. Memories and names and incidents come thronging through my brain, and some of them, blessed memories, come welling up from the "deep, still chambers of my heart." I wish I could be with you once again as in days passed away, and cross palms" with old friends of "early days," whose names I cherish as sacred things; but I cannot. I probably shall never go to

Cleveland again, until this paralyzed body goes there to be laid at rest in Lake View Cemetery, and there it will lie among friends; but there, in that beautiful place, the song of birds and the voices of children we shall not hear.

"The time of our departure is at hand." We must soon pass "to the other side "-to the land where the subject is equal with the king, where wealth has no power, pride no prerogative, and where life is ever upward, onward and eternal, in the light and glory and peace of the Everlasting Father. Till then farewell.

Yours truly,

JAMES A. BRIGGS.

A LONG LIFE.

Lewis Lodowick Davis, who died October 7, 1886, aged ninetythree years, was born in Bristol township, Hartford county, Connecticut, September 10, the year 1793. Married in the year 1820, to Ann G. Hickox of Alfred, Allegheny county, New York. Removed to Lockport, New York, in the year 1823. Wife died in the year 1824. He was again married to Cynthia Lewis of Lockport, in the year 1835. He remained in that place until November, 1839, when he removed to Cleveland, building a home and residing upon the west side of the river, which was then known as Ohio City. He was actively engaged in the stave and lumber business for many years, and was the first person to enter that business in the city. He served as a member of the council for a number of years; was strongly opposed to the annexation of that city to Cleveland, feeling that it was destined to be the larger and more prosperous of the two. He always manifested great interest in political affairs, sustaining the Federal and Whig parties until they ceased to exist, and from that time has ever been a staunch member of the Republican party. Has voted for all the Presidents but three, and with but few exceptions voted at all the state and municipal elections since attaining his majority. He was for many years a member and vestryman of St. John's Episcopal Church of the West Side. Notwithstanding his advanced age, he retained his mental faculties to the time of his