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PUBLIC LIBRARY

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THE EARLY SETTLERS' ANNIVERSARY.

JULY 22, 1886.

The early settlers of Cuyahoga county commemorated their anniversary this year at Music Hall, Vincent street, in the city of Cleveland. The day was fine, calm and cool. The assemblage was large and many new memberships were added. Every one seemed happy in renewing early friendships and in narrating experiences of pioneer life. The platform was graced with a beautiful model, in plaster, of the monument proposed to be erected in honor of General Moses Cleaveland, the founder of the city. The Germania orchestra was present and enlivened the exercises with interludes of delightful music. The meeting was called to order by Hon. Harvey Rice, president of the association, at eleven o'clock, A. M., and opened with prayer by the chaplain, Rev. Thomas Corlett, followed with an address by the president.

ADDRESS.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: We have assembled to commemorate the seventh anniversary of our association, and I congratulate you on the opportunity it affords us to take each other by the hand with a fraternal grip. It is a day we love to commemorate, because it brings with it so much of social enjoyment and so many pleasant memories. If there is anything that age delights to recall more than another it is the reminiscences of early days, the scenes of childhood, the old homestead, the endearments of a loving mother, the devotion of a kind father, the gladsome frolics of youthful companionship, the old schoolhouse, and

the social attachments of school life, the changes that time has wrought in our aims and aspirations, and the grand results.

Thus it is that fond memories come back to us in age and enable us to see ourselves as in a mirror, though we may not care perhaps to see Ourselves as others see us. Is is wise in age, however, to forget age and imagine ourselves young. It is still wiser, at whatever age, to live for a purpose, and at the same time in a way that will best promote our own happiness and that of others. This should be the aim of life. Though we have done much work as an association during the past seven years, there still remains much work for us to do. The grand aim of our association is to gather the unwritten frågments of Western Reserve history, still existing in tradition only, and preserve them for the benefit of future generations. The "Annals" which the association has already published are now six in number. These, with a general index in the last number, constitute a volume of six hundred and thirty-three pages. They are records that will increase in value with the lapse of time, and, in fact, have already been sought and placed in many of the public libraries both in eastern and western states.

The association commemorates the twenty-second of July, because it was on that day in 1796 that General Moses Cleaveland, who conducted the original survey of the Western Reserve in behalf of the Connecticut Land company, landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, ascended its eastern bank and beheld for the first time the beauty and natural advantages of the spot. "Here," said he, "will arise at no distant day a great commercial city." He then ordered the spot, to the extent of one square mile, to be surveyed into city lots. This was done. His staff of surveyors named it Cleaveland in honor of their chief. When a year old the infant city had so rapidly grown as to contain three log cabins and a resident population of four souls. The city was, in fact, born in a malarial atmosphere, and enjoyed during its youthful career but a sickly existence. It did not recover robust health until 1836, when its one square mile was incorporated as a city. It is now just ninety years since Cleveland was founded and fifty years since it became an incorporated city. Its original area of one square mile has now expanded into an area of about ten miles in length by five miles in breadth. Its original population of four souls has increased, as estimated, to a

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