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many other serious menaces to our prosperity and to the perpetuity of our institutions, face us continually and challenge us to effort. To us, much has been given, and of us much, of right, is expected. The sentries must be sleepless, or the labors of the fathers will have been for the despoiler and the robber.

While we cannot make all equal, we can give all justice. We must abrogate laws which favor sects and classes, or we shall some day behold sects and classes destroyed along with the laws that gave them the power to extort and oppress. There is no pessimism in this. History, understood, is inductive logic. History warns us. We shall understand the warning, by the aid of the school teacher-and the school teacher we have-but not thoroughly. Great and constantly augmenting numbers of our youth are taught in schools which inculcate not only loyalty, but reverence also, for another government than that of the Uuited States-a government that has its king, its princes, its aristocracy and its abjectly submissive masses. In a controversy between that government and the government of the Republic, it is not only admitted but vaunted that the fealty of these youth would be to the government which had trained their infancy and had become sponsor for both their temporal and future welfare. In this there is danger, and great danger. To eliminate this false growth is a grave problem. Can it be done without resorting to heroic treatment? Let us hope so, but not trust entirely to hope.

We must stop bonding the energy and honor of our unborn babes for money to pay for present luxuries or we shall assure a future poverty that will be indifferent to the fate of the Republic. Patriotism and home are synonyms in fact, if not in the lexicons. The present mutterings of labor, forced to pay the interest on billions of debt before it can have anything for itself, should be more than a warning.

The evils of alcoholism will lessen as poverty lessens. Pleasant homes are enemies to the saloon. Drunkeness is more an incident than the cause of poverty. Social barriers raised by tinselled, egotistical ignorance, drive men for society into the dram-shops. Our social as well as our statute laws, must be made more democratic. Knowledge alone

can assure the humanity that will widen the circle of brotherhood. We shall have a hard task to convince the community that gambling

under the system of commissions applied to the law of average ultimately absorbs all the substance of the victims-building up great fortunes for the few and leaving the masses in a condition of unpatriotic pauperism.

We can purify politics by giving the ballot to women-the better half of the race. New York recently agreed that "fathers and mothers" may vote for members of the school boards. This is a leak in the dam of prejudice that must broaden till the stream of human rights shall run on deep and smooth over all obstructions. When women vote, the ward "heeler," whose needs make corrupt politics, will be bereaved of his occupation. If he come to the polls at all, it will be to comport himself decently, with his boots, and not his eyes, blackened.

In conclusion, let me emphasize again the thought that the best evidence of the sincerity of our respect for our predecessors will be found in preserving those blessings which their labors have given to humanity, and in eliminating from our customs and laws those elements which have outlived the necessities that invoked them into being. If we shall do this, we may come year after year to these meetings of the early settlers, confident that when the day shall come, as come it must, when their already small number shall have dwindled to a single person, bent with years, yet mentally erect with the pride of memory, we may hear the last of the fathers say:-"You have been faithful. The struggles and privations of the early settlers were not all in vain.”

REMEMBRANCES.

BY WILLIAM WATERMAN.

Among the early inhabitants of Cleveland, before its incorporation as a city, was Mr. James Kingsbury, who was in some respects an eccentric gentleman. He owned a farm out on what is now known as WoodThe following is one of the many anecdotes which are told

land Hills. of him :

At one time he was elected a member of the State Legislature. During his term of office, a gentleman by the name of Stone undertook to ridicule some of his peculiarities, whereupon Mr. Kingsbury instantly arose to

his feet and said: "If some one will be kind enough to bring in a couple of flat stones and carry out this Stone upon them, he will be performing a very kind act." Of course his opponent was effectually silenced.

"OLD UM "

In the employ of Timothy Doan, was a deaf and dumb negro, who was supposed to be a run-a-way slave. He was one of the characters of the town, and went by the name of "Old Um." By some unaccountable instinct he could always tell when the Fourth of July came round, at which time he would invariably go to town, and get on a "genuine spree." In spite of this fact, however, he was a general favorite among the neighborhood in which he lived.

LORENZO CARTER.

Major Lorenzo Carter, one of the pioneers of Cleveland, owned a great deal of property around the hill at the top of which the Bethel now stands, and also all of the "Flats" near what is now known as Whiskey Island. At that time the hill was very steep, and no one ever pretended to use it. Soon after coming here, Major Carter built himself a house, bringing all the lumber for the purpose from Buffalo.

At its completion a party was held, in celebration of its erection, and during the festivities, a fire broke out, and the house was burned to the ground.

Carter had great control over the Indians, as a general thing, but on one occasion he came near losing his life at their hands. An Indian chief was killed in battle, and at his burial his weapons of war were placed beside him, among them a rifle. Soon after his interment, his rifle was stolen from the grave, and the Indians suspected Major Carter of the theft. They followed him about for some time, intending if they could capture him, to take his life, in revenge for the deed they supposed he had committed; but before they succeeded in their purpose, they found the rifle elsewhere, and thus the Major escaped.

NATHAN PERRY.

When Nathan Perry was a young man, he lived with the Indian chief Redjacket. Later on, he left this home and went into business as a merchant, keeping, at one time, the principal store in this neighborhood.

During all his life he was very kind to the Indians, often taking their chiefs into his house and showing them every hospitality.

He owned a large property at Black river, and also the land where Southworth's grocery now stands. His brother, Horace Perry, bought the lot on the corner of Superior and Water streets, and Nathan, desiring it for himself, traded his property on Ontario street for it.

After a time he gave up business as a merchant and went out on a farm, locating at the southeast side of Euclid avenue, at the corner of Perry street. He was a man who was very fond of fast horses, having no patience with a horse unless he was a good traveler.

Soon after giving up his business, he came very near losing his life very suddenly. One day as he was returning home from town in his buggy, a thunder-storm came up. He drove as rapidly as possible, but only succeeded in reaching a point about half way between the street and his home when a flash of lightning struck his house and his horse, killing the latter, but Mr. Perry himself narrowly escaped unharmed.

LEVI JOHNSON.

Levi Johnson, the first contractor in this part of the country, built the first court-house in Cleveland, which stood nearly in front of the First Presbyterian church. He was compelled to bring all the nails and glass for the building from Pittsburgh, in his own one-horse wagon, traveling over such roads as he could find, which at best were very poor.

DISPOSITION OF PAUPERS.

If any person came to Cleveland whom the authorities considered likely to become a pauper, they could oblige the town from which he came to bear the expense of his care by notifying him to leave town at any time within a year from the time he came here; but if they allowed him to remain a year without such notification, he gained a residence here and the Cleveland authorities were compelled to pay for his keeping.

SAMUEL WILLIAMSON.

Samuel Williamson was in partnership with his brother Matthew, who had a tannery nearly at the foot of St. Clair street hill. During his life there were some men in the place who were engaged in counterfeiting

silver money. The authorities found this out and succeeded in arresting the men and capturing the dies, which they placed for safe-keeping in the hands of Matthew Williamson. When the case was called in court Eleazer Watterman was one of the witnesses. He was asked whether he knew of any dies for counterfeiting money ever having been made here, and replied that he knew of no dies except those that old Uncle Matthew had. They inquired who "Uncle Matthew" was, at which he was very much surprised, and said: "Don't you know who old Uncle Matthew is ?" Further inquiry proved the gentleman referred to to be Matthew Williamson, and the dies were secured from him.

avenues.

JOHN RIDDLE AND THE WOLVES.

John Riddle owned a place east of the corner of Willson and Euclid At that time all of the land in that vicinity was considered very undesirable, and no one would buy it; for, owing to the fact that there was no outlet for the water which covered the ground, it had become a vast swamp, extending from the corner of Scovill and Case avenues over the entire territory thereabouts. It was thickly over-grown with tag-alders, and the abode of large numbers of wolves, which became very ferocious at times.

One day in the winter, as Mr. Riddle was returning home from town in his sleigh, he was attacked by a pack of wolves. Fortunately for him the bars in his fence were down and he drove rapidly into his yard and succeeded in getting out of their reach, and thus narrowly escaped being torn from his sleigh and meeting a speedy death.

Sometime after this, sixty acres of the swamp land were purchased by Leonard Case, for two hundred dollars, and much of it is now covered with pleasant residences.

SNAKES.

I recollect that there was a great abundance of snakes in this neighborhood; and remember, when a child, seeing a large rattlesnake coiled up in the path near the corner of Ontario and St. Clair streets. We children passed it by, when a gentleman doing business near there came out and shot it. Levi Johnson was once bitten by a rattlesnake while in a berry patch at Independence. It was cured up in some way, and he never suffered any from the effects of the bite that I know of.

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