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1796

CARTER

     Major Lorenzo Carter has justly been called.

THE PIONEER OF THE PIONEERS.

for it is doubtful if many of the earliest settlers would have survived the periods of great deprivation they experienced but for Major Carter.
     He was their leader and protector.  His courage sustained and fortified them in days of trial and danger.  The skillful use of his rifle often saved them from starvation or from the terrors of wild beasts.  His sturdy presence held in check any hostile demonstration of the Indians.  Moreover, his continued residence in the hamlet - seventeen years in all - had driven the Stiles, Guns, Hawleys, Kingsburys and Edards to the heights now outlined by Woodhill Road.
     He must have been a striking figure even those days of picturesque, half-Indian attire; six feet in height, erect, with black hair that hung in length to his shoulders; and with an alert, resolute bearing that betokened the born leader.
     We learn that he was honest and generous, as well as brave and capable.  It was a common saying that "Major Carter was all the law Cleveland had.  He was kind to the poor and unfortunate, hospitable to the stranger, would put himself to great inconvenience to oblige a neighbor, and was always at the service of an individual or the public when a wrong had been perpetuated.
     It is not the purpose of this history of the Cleveland pioneers to dwell upon their American ancestry.  But, as Lorenzo Carter was so unique a personage and filled for so many years so prominent a place in the hamlet, it seems proper to touch lightly upon his forebears, in order to explain him —to account for his intelligence and unusual traits of character.
     (1) Rev. Thomas Carter was educated at Cambridge, England, and there took his degree of M. A.  He came to America in 1635, and seven years later was ordained at Woburn, Mass.  He became minister of the Congregational church in that town, and continued so for forty-two years.
     (2) Thomas Carter, Jr. cultivated a large farm near Woburn, but resided in the old omestead, built in 1642, a part of which is still standing.  He married Margery, daughter of Francis Whittemore.
     (3) Thomas Carter 3rd, born in Woburn, removed to Litchfield, Conn.  His wife was Sarah Gilbert, a descendant of Jonathan Gilbert, Hugh Welles, James Rodgers, and other early lights of Colonial days.  Evidently he was a man of considerable property, as he deeded a generous amount of land to each of his six sons.  These sons all served their country in the struggle for American independence.
     (4) Lieut. Eleazer Carter enlisted in the Continental Army.  His company was disbanded temporarily, and he returned home, to die of small-pox, in his thirty-seventh year, leaving a widow and six children, the oldest of whom—Lorenzo Carter—was but eleven years of age.
     Elizabeth Buell Carter, wife of Eleazer, was the granddaughter of Ensign William Buell, of Windham County, Conn., and a descendant of the Griswolds, of Winsor, and the Collins, of Hartford.  An educated woman, well-fitted for the years of trial and struggle that lay before her, she was

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 capable of instruction her children when other opportunities of education failed them.
     Warren - the small village of Litchfield County, in which they lived - possessed an unusual library for that day, and her children were taught to use it freely.  The list of books drawn by Lorenzo from that library, and later from one of Cleveland, witness to his good taste in literature and frequent indulgence in it.
     About 1783 - the close of the Revolutionary War - Mrs. Carter married, secondly, Major Benjamin Ackley, who took her and her children, together with some of his own, by a former marriage, to Castleton, Vt., where her brother, Major Ephraim Buell, had recently settled.
     At least three more children were born to her, all of whom lived to be very aged.  They were John A., Eleazer, and Orange Ackley.  The former was once well known in Cleveland, as was his son, John M. Ackley, late of Brewton, Ala., to whose courtesy the writer is greatly indebted for valuable data concerning the family.
     In 1789 Lorenzo Carter married Rebecca Fuller, and settled down on a small farm in Castleton. But not for long. He soon became dissatisfied with the old circumscribed life of a poor farmer, his imagination became fired by glowing descriptions of “New Connecticut,” and in company with another man he came West, either in the fall of 1795, or very early the following year, to investigate for himself the future site of Cleveland.  He returned to Vermont, and in the late fall of 1796, in company with Ezekiel Hawley, Lucy Carter Hawley, his wife—who was Lorenzo’s sister —and their young child, the Carters started for their new home in the wilderness.
     They had three children at that time, Alonzo, Laura, and Rebecca, aged respectively six, four and two years.  When the party reached the little hamlet of Buffalo, N. Y., it seemed expedient not to proceed any farther on the journey that season.  There were no accommodations for the two families there. Buffalo was simply a store-house and a log-hut or two, so the party crossed over to the Canadian side of the Niagara River, where, at the close of the American Revolution, thirteen years previous, a settlement had been made by Tory refugees, chief of whom was John Clement, formerly of Schenectady, N. Y.—one of Butler’s rangers in the dreadful warfare carried on by Tories against the patriots of the Mohawk Valley during the struggle of the American Revolution.
     December 13, another child was born to the Carters—little Henry, who ten years later was drowned in Cuyahoga River.  Mrs. Carter engaged a young Canadian girl to assist her in the care of the babe, by the name of Chloe Inches, who had an admirer in William Clement, a son of John Clement, the ranger.
     She accompanied the family to Cleveland, but two months afterward was followed and claimed by her lover, and they were married the following July.  A full account of this wedding will be found in the pages of this volume.
     At what date the Carters and Hawleys resumed their journey is not ascertained, but they reached here in May, 1797.  As there were young children in the party, including a babe five months old, and as the weather in this latitude is often at freezing point in the early part of April, it is

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probable they delayed starting until later in the month, which would bring them to their destination after the middle of May.
     Mr. Carter bought lot 199, which was on the river bank west of Water Street, and nearly at the foot of St. Clair Street. It contained nearly two acres, and cost $47.50. The contract with and description of it from the Connecticut Land Company is still preserved.
     Upon this lot he built a large log-house, containing two rooms, with rough puncheon floors. They must have been furnished in the most primitive fashion, as the only household effects that could be transported from the East at that early day were bedding and the simplest cooking utensils.  One iron kettle and a skillet often served for half a dozen purposes in preparing a meal, and frequently only part of a family could eat at a time for want of sufficient dishes.
     This first log-house, on the side of the hill and close to the river, was the center of many pioneer activities.  It was a dwelling, Indian trading-post, store, and headquarters for all the settlement.  Here, in 1801, was celebrated the Fourth of July, ending in a dance, participated in by about a dozen women and fifteen men.  The only refreshment served, it is said, was whiskey and water, sweetened with maple sugar. But as the report of this social affair was written by a man, it may have been biased by his own taste in the matter of refreshments—the hot drink probably remembered, the food that appealed to the women forgotten.
     Timothy Doan’s eldest daughter, Nancy, aged fifteen, was one of the party.  She had arrived the previous April with her parents, and was visiting her uncle Nathaniel at Doan‘s Corners.  She was escorted by a young man living transiently in Newburgh, named Bryant.  He wore a gingham suit, and his hair—queued—was tied with a yard and a half of black ribbon.  It had previously been greased and sprinkled with flour as thick as it would stick.  He wore a wool hat and heavy shoes.  By means of the latter he hoped to make a fine clatter in his “pigeon wings” while dancing the Fisher’s Hornpipe or “Hie Betty Martin.”
     Doan’s Corners was four miles east from the Carter home, and two miles or more north of Newburgh, and Bryant went for Nancy on an old horse along the road now known as Woodhill Road.  “He alighted by a stump near the Doan cabin, and Nancy mounted the stump, spread her under-petticoat over old Tib’s back, secured her calico dress from the mud splashes sure to assail it, and mounted behind him.”  It is reported that they had a good time.
     In 1801 Mr. Carter added to his possessions by acquiring more city property. The deed and description of it is still retained in the family.  It began at the north-west corner of Water (W. 9th) and Superior streets, and embraced all the lots between that point and lot 199—the one he was occupying.
     Upon the corner he built a large frame-house—the first one in the settlement—which, when nearly finished, was set on fire by children playing with the dry shavings left on the floors.  It must have been a serious loss to the family, as well as a great disappointment.  However, another one was soon erected, but this time of hewn logs.  There is some dispute regarding the exact year in which this last house was finished, but the oldest son of the family was thirteen years of

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age at the time, and his testimony should have due weight.  He says it was in 1803.  The house consisted of a large living room, kitchen and two bedrooms on the ground floor, and several small rooms in the half-story above. 
     A large chimney stood in the center of this primitive structure, in which were two fire-places.  The one in the kitchen had an iron crane, upon which Mrs. Carter hung venison, wild turkey or other meats to roast, while the few vegetables obtainable were cooked either in the hot ashes or in iron pots and skillets set close to the fire and requiring continual turning to secure an even heat within.  The baking-oven was built in the chimney.
     The oldest daughter of the family—Mrs. Laura Miles Strong—stated that the furniture in this log-cabin was all made by a Cleveland carpenter out of lumber brought from Detroit.
     Mrs. Carter was fully in sympathy with her husband in all his plans for the future. There were many strangers constantly arriving to inspect the new settlement, with a view of joining it, and these were freely and generously invited to partake of the hospitality of the Carter home.  Finally it became apparent that a public inn was necessary, and Mr. Carter made his new log-house a tavern. 
     Although the cares of this house, of strangers, and of her children required an immense amount of labor, Mrs. Carter was ever ready to comfort or aid any suffering neighbor by sympathy, tender nursing, or by supplying daintily prepared food for the helpless.  Her intense religious nature, combined with her early training, led her to be among the first to assist in the organization of a religious society, which held its early services in Carter’s tavern before a “meeting-house” was built. 
     It is a great satisfaction to the writer, and will be to the reader, that so much of this representative pioneer woman has been preserved.  It is due to the loyalty and zeal of her great-granddaughter—Miss L. Belle Hamlin, of Milford, Conn.—a genealogist of our day, whose researches secured knowledge of her ancestress that otherwise would have been unattainable. 
     Rebecca Fuller Carter was the daughter of Amos and Mercy Taylor Fuller, who, with several neighbors, removed from Lebanon, Conn., to Carmel, a beautiful little village of Eastern New York.  But during the War of the American Revolution, fifteen years later, that locality became so unsafe that after innumerable hardships the family were compelled to return to Connecticut, and Mr. Fuller, then nearing sixty years of age, was obliged to found a new home.  This he did in Warren, a little village in the mountains of Litchfield County.  It possessed, for that period, an unusually good library and an excellent school.
     Here also lived the widow Carter and her children, and the Ackleys.  Abel Fuller, Rebecca’s brother, was in love with Roxanna Ackley, after ward the step-sister of Lorenzo Carter.  Two years after the marriage of Mrs. Carter to Roxanna’s father, and the removal of the families to Castleton, Vt., Abel followed them, and Roxanna Ackley became his wife.
     In time Rebecca Fuller visited her brother in Castleton, and a friend ship that had existed between Lorenzo Carter and herself was renewed.

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It matured into strong affection, and they were married in January, 1789.  She was twenty-two years of age.
     No pioneer woman of Cleveland was more illy fitted to endure the dangers, deprivations and toil which existed for all those first settlers than was Mrs. Carter, whose shy, timid, imaginative temperament, created unnecessary terrors, and whose physical frailty made the struggle for existence difficult.
     The surrounding Indians were a source of continual anxiety, for she possessed none of that fearlessness so characteristic of her husband, and she suffered greatly from an unconquerable dread of their approach.  The common occurrence of one peering into the house with face pressed close against the window-pane would cause her to run away screaming with terror.  Or, did they appear in the house when her husband was away, she would look herself and children in another room, or would hide in the woodpile until they disappeared.
     This fear of them was apparent to the Indians, and, perhaps in resentment of it, they seemed to enjoy tormenting her.
     Once, knowing that Mr. Carter was away hunting, an Indian came into the house, and ordered her to cook a meal for him, and, growing ugly at some delay, he raised his arm threateningly and started towards her.  She ran through the open door and circled round and round the woodpile, closely followed by her pursuer.
     The aspect of this scene was suddenly changed by the appearance of her husband standing with gun leveled at her tormentor, and while she skulked limping away, carrying with him a stringing and personal knowledge of Lorenzo Carter's skill as a marksman.
     Mrs. Carter had five more children born to her after she came to Cleveland, making nine in all.  Her little Rebecca, who came with them from Vermont, died the fall after their arrival, and in 1808 she lost two more children - Cleveland born - in less than two months.  Three years later her ten-year-old son Henry the one born in Canada, was drowned in the river.
     But she had yet to face a greater sorrow, one that demanded her uttermost fortitude.  Lorenzo Carter, in the very prime of life, was smitten with that dreadful and fatal disease - cancer.  It appeared upon his face, and he went East to consult the most eminent physicians, but returned, knowing that for him life was short.  Brave and daring as he had shown himself hitherto, he could not resign himself to his fate.  As the disease gradually disfigured his countenance, he grew morbid sensitive, refused all visitors, and retired to an upper room to avoid friends and strangers alike.
     There were days when, tortured by pain and his own thoughts, he would pace his room, furiously raging at his hard fate.
     His gentle wife would then endeavor to pacify him in every way that love prompted, but often - so impatient and desperate was his mood - he would drive her away.  Then she would sit down on the stairs near his door and pray to be taught how to comfort him.
     That he appreciated her devotion and reciprocated her affection, is evi-

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dent in his will, in which careful directions are given for her future welfare.
     Lorenzo Carter died in February, 1814, and was buried in Erie Street Cemetery, to the left of the main drive, and close to the front entrance.  Beside him lies his wife, Rebecca Fuller Carter who survived him thirteen years and died at the age of sixty-one.
     The births, deaths and marriages of the Carter children were copied from the family Bible and kindly furnished as data for his work.
 

Alonzo Carter, b. in Castleton, Vt., 1790;      m. Julia Atkins Laura Carter, b. in Castleton, Vt., 1792;      m. Erastus Miles and (2d) James Strong Rebecca Carter,      b. in Castleton, Vt., 1794; d. Sept., 1797. Henry Carter,      b. in Niagara, Ont., Dec., 1795; d. Sept., 1806 Polly Carter, b. in Cleveland, 1798;      m. William Peets, and (2d) _____ ______

Rebecca Carter,      b. in Cleveland, 1800; d. Aug., 1803. Lorenzo Carter,      b. in Cleveland, 1802; d. Sept., 1803. Mercy Carter,.      b. in Cleveland, 1804; m. Asahel Abels. Betsey Carter,      b. Cleveland, 1806; m. Orison Cathan.

     Soon after his arrival in Cleveland, Lorenzo Carter bought a large farm on the west side of the river, most of it lying directly opposite his homestead.  This he either gave or sold to his eldest born and only son Alonzo, who lived on it and cultivated it for many years.  His house, painted red and always mentioned as "the red house," stood where it was conspicuous from Superior Street, being directly opposite the foot of it.
     Alonzo Carter married, in 1815, Julia Akins, who was the daughter of George and Tamison Higgins Akins, who had come from Haddam, Conn., in 1811, and settled in Brooklyn on the farm where the City Infirmary has stood for so many years.
     In the red house Alonzo and his wife entertained the traveling public, and their tavern was as well-known as stopping-place as, for fifteen years, his father's had been.  The Buffalo Land Company bought the farm some time in the 30s, and erected one of the finest hotels in the West, either on it or close at hand.  But the grand hotel proved less profitable than the small pioneer tavern, and eventually fell into ruin, after many years of base usage as factory and slum tenement.

THE FIRST TREASURER OF CLEVELAND.

He was unanimously elected to that office in June, 1815, when the village of Cleveland was incorporated, and probably it was a tribute to the well-known Carter honestly.
     The marshal chosen in that election of 1815 was John A. Ackley, the half-brother of Lorenzo Carter.
     Alonzo seems always to have been held in much respect.  He was associated with leading citizens of the town in various enterprises.  He inherited the kind, generous qualities of his parents.  This was exemplified in an incident which will be found in Johnson's History of Cuyahoga County, p. 417.

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     After the sale of the farm he removed to the vicinity of Broadway and Miles Ave., where his sons also lived and died.

     Children of Alonzo and Julia Akins Carter:

Rebecca Sarter,      m. 1835, Joseph Few, of New York State. Laura Carter,      m. 1844, Stewart Rathbun. Julia Carter,      m. 1845, Dr. Charles Northrup of Olmstead Falls. O. Amelia Carter, m. Corydon Rathbun.

Lorenzo Carter,      m. Eunice Brockway. Edward Carter      m. Margaret Stewart, widow of Augustus Stewart. Charles Carter,      m. Anna Rock. Henry Carter,      m. Julia McNamara

     Alonzo Carter died in 1872, and his wife ten years later.
     Laura Carter, the oldest daughter of Lorenzo and Rebecca Carter, was a tall, straight, black-eyed girl, and, like her father, courageous and fearless.  Her remembrance of the long journey from Vermont to Cleveland was but slight, but some of her recollections of events that transpired
after the family reached their destination remained vivid through life, especially that of the Indians crowding into their cabin and sometimes filling the living room with their numbers.
     At first they peered curiously around, handled all articles that amused or puzzled them, watched closely the movements of the family, and showed particular interest in Mrs. Carter’s method of cooking.  The bread baking was a wonderful mystery, and when she placed the bread dough near the fire to hasten its rising they would watch its gradual rising upward, shaking their heads with solemnity, mutter “bad spirit,” and edge to a distant corner.
     Very early Laura learned that she could protect her timid mother from these invasions.  She knew they both respected and feared her father, and that they would immediately disperse upon his arrival home.  So she would glance out of the window, and, turning, call, “Father is coming!” or, going to the door, would pretend to be talking with him at a distance away.  Whereupon the Indians would take to the woods.
     One night, Alonzo and Laura planned to have some fun with several of their prostrate forms, the children placed handfuls of horse-chestnuts in the hot ashes, and then hid to watch results.
     Soon a sputtering and cracking began, then a shot, followed by a resounding explosion, issuing from that fire-place.  The Indians sprang to their feet and fled out into the night.  The following day they told of how “an evil spirit came down the Carters’ chimney, and they could not rest there.”
     One night, during Mr. Carter’s absence, about fifteen Indians came in and took possession of the cabin.  Their carousing and smoking greatly frightened Mrs. Carter, who was lying ill in an adjoining room.  Laura was then but thirteen years old, but she walked in boldly, swinging a broom right and left, hitting heads, legs and arms indiscriminately, and crying, “Get out! my mother is sick!”  The Indians, taken by surprise, almost unconsciously obeyed the command of the daring little girl.
     In 1809, at the age of seventeen, Laura married Erastus Miles, who

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had located in Cleveland in 1801, and the following year had been made town clerk.  He held this office many years, and in 1810 was appointed a justice of the peace.  His stirring energy appealed strongly to Laura’s father, and soon after the marriage they were associated together in various enterprises, one of which was the building of the “Zephyr,” the first vessel built in Cleveland.
     As it seemed impossible to leave her frail mother to the labor and care the tavern entailed, the young couple decided to remain there until Mercy and Polly, the younger sisters, were older.
     During the War of 1812 the tavern was overrun with soldiers coming by the boat-load into Cleveland—especially after Perry’s victory.  Laura and her sisters cooked night as well as day for those hungry men, and years afterward they used to refer to the barrels of bread they had then baked—often in the hours of the night.
     Laura Carter Miles was her father’s chief nurse during his fatal illness.  Her strong, self-reliant, cheerful nature sustained and comforted the stricken man in a way impossible to his delicate, grief-stricken wife.  She was with him to the end, and two weeks later gave birth to her second child.
     Soon after, Mr. Miles built a residence in Newburgh, and removed his family there.  This building, though changed beyond all recognition, still stands on the corner of Broadway and Miles Ave.  At the same time he opened a store, and started for New York to purchase goods to stock it.  Mrs. Miles accompanied him, riding all the way on horseback.
     On this trip, while visiting relatives, she learned to make salt-rising bread, much to the convenience of her neighbors, whom she instructed in the art, as fresh yeast was not always easy to obtain.
     In 1826, after a few days only of illness, Erastus Miles died.  Two years later Laura married Mr. James Strong of Cleveland—son of the pioneer—and thenceforth lived in his home on Euclid Avenue, at the corner of E. 89th Street.  The Severance mansion now occupies the site.
     Here she spent twelve happy years. Mr. Strong was very kind to her children, and she was equally so to his by a former marriage, and in the course of time three more came to bless the household.
     Mr. Strong died in 1840, and his widow moved to Olmstead Falls, and subsequently to Elkhart, Ind., where she died in 1863.

     Children of Erastus and Laura Carter Miles:
 

Emily Miles, b. 1810;      m. Timothy T. Clark;      2nd, Joseph K. Curtis. Lorenzo Miles, b. 1815;      m. Margaret Lawrence, of Mt. Morris, N. Y. Edwin Miles, b. 1817; d. 18 years of age.

Lucretia Miles, b. 1818;      m. Hon. Edward S. Hamlin, of Elyria, O. Charles Miles, b. 1812;      m. Electa A. Lawrence - sister of Margaret.

     Children of James and Laura Carter Strong:

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1797

HAWLEY - HOLLY

     Ezekiel Hawley of Carthage, Vermont, married Lucy Carter in Castleton, Vt.
     The Hawley genealogy, recently published, contains no one by the name of Ezekial, and as this pioneer family wrote their name or allowed it to be written Holly quite as often as Hawley, the former spelling may have been the correct one.  Mrs. Juliette Jackson Hawley, who married into the family, asserted this to be the case.  In 1803, Elisabeth Buell Ackley, mother of Mrs. Hawley, wrote a letter to her daughter, which was directed to Mrs. Lucy Holly, care of Ezekial Holly; but the descendants of the pioneer evidently prefer the name of Hawley.
     The young couple, with their little daughter, accompanied the Carters in the long journey from Vermont, with them spent the winter of 1796 on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, and together they reached Cleveland in May, 1797.
     Mr. Hawley was the original purchaser of lots 49, 50, and 51, on Superior Street.  Each lot was 132 feet front, and contained two acres.  Had he bought lot 52 also, his homestead would have included the whole square between Superior and St. Clair, Water and Bank streets.  Lot 52, upon which now stands the Rockefeller building, was bought by David Clark, another Vermont pioneer.
     Mr. Hawley built a log-cabin upon lot 49.  Careful research leads one to believe that it did not stand directly on the corner of Superior and Water streets, but a little north and east of it, facing on Water Street.  This log-cabin later was used by Elisha Norton as a trading post and dwelling, and in 1806 the first post-office was located in it, with Elisha Norton as postmaster.
     That same year, or the following one, Nathan Perry, Sr., purchased Mr. Hawley’s three lots, also lot 52, and established himself directly on the corner of the two streets, Superior and Water.
     Ezekial Hawley remained in the hamlet but two years, at the end of that time removing to the heights between Woodland Avenue and Broadway, which was then in the township of Newburgh, and which, in after years, was annexed to the city of Cleveland.  He was, by occupation, a farmer, and the six acres of sand on Superior Street may have been too constricted for one used to more land and richer soil.  Besides this, the prevalence of malaria, making life miserable for every resident of the hamlet, undoubtedly hastened a decision to remove to higher ground.  Ezekial Hawley thenceforth led a very quiet life.  The only public record of him to be found is that he was one of three who held the office of “Fence Viewer.”
     Mrs. Hawley was the daughter of Eleazer and Elisabeth Buell Carter, and the sister of Alonzo Carter, the pioneer.  Her family of living children was small, but she may have lost some on the frequent local epidemics, where the mortality among children was great.  Little can be gleaned of her life in Cleveland, save that she was every inch a Carter, or a Buell, —whichever family it was that handed down to her and her brother the characteristics of courage, self-reliance, fortitude, and the instinct for wisely directing and guiding others.
     Mr. and Mrs. Hawley were victims of the epidemic of fever that swept the village in 1827.  He was 63 years, she was 57 years of age.

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     The children of Ezekiel and Lucy Carter Hawley:
 

Fanny Hawley,      m. Theodore Miles Lauren Hawley,      unmarried

Alphonso Hawley,      m. Juliette Jackson, daughter of Morris Jackson, Sr.

     Children of Alphonso and Juliet Hawley:

     Mrs. Juliette Hawley lived to be a very old lady, dying at the residence of her son on Doan Street.  She had possessed the characteristics of the Jackson family in a marked degree,—self-reliance, firmness of purpose, direct speech, industry, and fearlessness.  She retained her memory to the last.  As a reason for her inability to tell more of Ezekial Hawley’s antecedents, she exclaimed, “We were all too busy in getting his descendants enough to eat to give any attention to his ancestors.”
     The Holly homestead adjoined that of Samuel Dille, on Broadway, about a mile and a half from the Public Square.  The Grasselli Chemical work occupy the western part of the farm.

     The children of Ezekial and Lucy Carter Hawley:

Fanny Hawley,      m. Theodore Miles. Lauren Hawley, unmarried.

Alphonso Hawley,      m. Juliette Jack      son, daughter of Morris Jackson, Sr.

Children of Alphonso and Juliette Hawley:
 

Lucy Hawley,      m. Alexander Hunter. David Hawley,      m. Frances Hutchins. Henry Hawley,      m. Ada Hickox.

Morris J. Hawley,      m. Isabelle Carver Harriet Hawley,      m. Edward Rose. Juliette Hawley ,      m. George Morgan.

     Mrs. Juliette Hawley lived to be a very old lady, dying at the residence of her son on Doan Street. She had possessed the characteristics of the Jackson family in a marked degree,—self-reliance, firmness of purpose, direct speech, industry, and fearlessness. She retained her memory to the last. As a reason for her inability to tell more of Ezekial Hawley’s antecedents, she exclaimed, “We were all too busy in getting his descendants enough to eat to give any attention to his ancestors.”
     The Holly homestead adjoined that of Samuel Dille, on Broadway, about a mile and a half from the Public Square. The Grasselli Chemical work occupy the western part of the farm.

1797

KINGSBURY

     When Col. James Kingsbury concluded to make a “hazard of new fortunes” by leaving Alsted, N. H., for the wilds of Ohio, he little dreamed that it would take a whole year to reach his final destination.  Further more, could he have foreseen even a part of the tragedy awaiting him, it is more than probable Cleveland would have lacked one of its pioneers of 1797.  In his haste to make the change, he did not wait for surveyors to lay out the land and report conditions, but left New Hampshire, June, 1796, about the time that Moses Cleaveland and his party arrived in Buffalo on their way to the Western Reserve.
     It is difficult, from the stand-point of to-day, when the average man is over-careful, perhaps, regarding the health and comfort of his family, why or how a husband and father could be induced to burn all his ships behind him and, in absolute ignorance of what awaited his wife and little ones, start with them on a journey of hundreds of miles, in order to settle down in a trackless wilderness, out of reach of medical aid, and all else that pertains to the safety of civilization.  That another babe was added to the number and perished, and that the whole family nearly lost

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their lives through starvation and exposure, seems a natural consequence of a rash undertaking.
     But Judge Kingsbury was not the only Cleveland pioneer to take such risks, and the only reason that his experiences were not identically those of many others, was simply through great good luck rather than wise
precaution.  He was the son of Absolm Kingsbury, of Norwich, Conn.  As that part of Connecticut was aflame with patriotism through the Revolutionary period, it is not remarkable that all his older brothers saw active service in the cause of freedom.  He himself born in 1767, was too young to engage in the strife.  After the close of the war, members of the family removed to New Hampshire, and at the age of 21 Mr. Kingsbury married Miss Eunice Waldo.  She was the daughter of John and Hannah Carleton Waldo.  Her grandfather.  Lieut. John Carleton, her father, and two brothers reinforced the garrison of Ticonderoga when it was besieged.  When they started for Ohio, Mr. and Mrs. Kingsbury had three children.  The oldest, a daughter, was three years old, the next, a boy, was two years old, and the youngest, also a boy, was an infant.  They took with them a cow, horse, yoke of oxen, and a few household necessities.
     Accompanying them was a young lad by the name of Carleton, the nephew of Mr. Kingsbury, who assisted by driving the animals in advance of the family, or following with them close in the rear.
     When Oswego was reached, the party continued the journey in an open, fiat-bottomed boat, which conveyed them through Lake Ontario, and, perhaps, Lake Erie, while the nephew on foot or horseback drove the animals along the shores.  They arrived in Conneaut, Ohio, in October, four months from the time they started on their journey.
     Moses Cleaveland and his surveyors left Cleveland on their way back to civilization, October 18, and Conneaut, Oct. 21.  Whether the Kingsburys reached the latter place in time to meet the surveyors has not been stated, and just where the family spent the following winter months is a matter of conjecture.  They could not have been with the Guns at Castle Stow, for no mention whatever is made of the Guns in the narration of all that befell the Kingsburys in their desperate struggle for existence.
     Conneaut is on the site of an Indian village, about a mile and a half from the mouth of the river and Castle Stow.  It consisted of a number of rude but comfortable cabins, occupied in the summer months by a remnant of the Massasaugas, who, at the approach of the winter, vacated until spring, spending intervening time farther south.
     Mr. Kingsley may have taken advantage of this to obtain the use of one of these cabins, which would explain why the family seem to have been living separate from the Guns.
     Why it seemed expedient for him to leave his family under such circumstances and return at once to Alsted, N. H., has never been clearly explained.  He intended to make the journey there and return on horse back within six weeks.
     Meanwhile, he had been storing up malaria in his system, and by the time he reached his former home, it began its work.  For weeks he lay on his bed, too ill to start back for Ohio, and before he was able to do so, Mrs. Kingsbury passed through the supreme peril of motherhood alone

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in the wilderness.  Before she could attend once more to household affairs, the nephew, through ignorance of the consequences, poisoned the cow by feeding it oak twigs.  Those of the elm or beech would have been harm less, and twigs of trees and bushes were the only provender available, but the boy did not know that any difference existed.
     Then Mrs. Kingsbury became ill, and while burning with the fever, natural sustenance for the babe ceased, and she had to endure its moans of starvation, unable to relieve it.
     It died as Mr. Kingsbury came staggering back from the East, his poor horse having dropped exhausted by the way.
     With the help of his nephew he fashioned a rude coffin, and dug a grave in the frozen ground.  As they bore the little body out of the cabin, Mrs. Kingsbury sank back unconscious. There was no food in store, and Mr. Kingsbury started back for Erie to obtain corn, dragging a hand sleigh there and back.
     This corn, partially crushed, was all the family had to eat until March, when pigeons and other wild game began to return from the South.  When, in 1797, the second surveyor party, on its way to finish the work of the previous summer, arrived at Conneaut, they found the Kingsburys in a feeble condition of health through lack of proper food and medicine. Their immediate wants were relieved, and they accompanied the surveyors to Cleveland.
     Whether from the start this place had been Mr. Kingsbury’s objective point, or that he concluded to accept the offer of 100 acres of land from the Connecticut Land Company, should he become a settler of the frontier hamlet, has not been ascertained.
     The family took refuge in an old trading hut on the west side of the river, nearly opposite the foot of St. Clair Street, in which they remained until their own cabin was built.  Mr. Kingsbury had selected original lots 59 and 60—the site of the Old Stone Church and old court-house, but as Cleveland was all woods, with lots only partially defined, he may have made a mistake when he built on lot 64.  The post-office and E. 3rd Street now occupy lot 63, so that the site of Kingsbury’s cabin is now covered with the city hall building.  Within two years they removed to the north west corner of Kinsman and Woodhill Roads, on a farm, a portion of which was underlaid with fine building-stone, and proved of great value.  Mr. Kingsbury also owned several city lots, which ultimately netted a fortune.  The light-house on Water Street stands on one of these.  The large frame-house that remained the homestead for 45 years was, in its day, considered quite pretentious, and was the center of hospitality and good cheer.
     Mrs. Eunice Kingsbury was a good, kind-hearted woman.  It was but natural that she could never endure the thought of allowing any one to go hungry, and was prompt to relieve necessity in any form.  The homestead stood far enough from town for young and old to make it the terminus of merry sleighing parties, who were welcomed, warmed and feasted with typical, old-fashioned hospitality.  Memories of it lingered with the early settlers so long as life lasted, and traditions of it handed down to posterity.  The kindly spirit that pervaded it, the big elm trees that shaded it, the apple and cherry trees surrounding it—whose deli-

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cious fruit was freely shared with many who had none, and the children who overflowed it, leading happy, natural lives.
     Col. Kingsbury became “Squire Kingsbury,” and then “Judge Kingsbury,” and filled many places of trust in the city and county.  He died in 1847, aged 80 years.  His three older brothers, Dr. Asa Kingsbury, Lieut. Ephraim Kingsbury, and Obadiah Kingsbury, were soldiers of the American Revolution.  His sister Margaret married John Carleton, whose children settled in Western Reserve.
     Mrs. Eunice Waldo Kingsbury died in 1843, aged 73 years.
     Judge and Mrs. Eunice Waldo Kingsbury were both laid to rest in Erie Street Cemetery.
Their children were:

Amos Kingsbury, b. 1793; m. Clarrissa Ingersoll;      2nd, Mary Sherman. Almon Kingsbury, b. 1795;      m. Lucy Cone. Abigail Kingsbury, b. 1792;      m. Dyer Sherman, of Vermont. Elmira Kingsbury, b. 17 94;      m. Perley Hosmer.

Nancy Kingsbury, b. 1798;      m. Caleb Baldwin Cleveland. Calista Kingsbury, b. 1800;      m. Runa Baldwin. Diana Kingsbury, b. 1804;      m. Buckley Steadman. Albert Kingsbury, b. 1806;      m. Malinda Robinson; 2nd, Mrs. Sophia Bates Laughton. James Kingsbury, b. 1813;      m. Lucinda Williams.

     Of Amos Kingsbury, the oldest son of Judge Kingsbury, little can be learned.  He married his first wife, Clarissa Ingersoll, in January, 1815. 
     She died, leaving a little son, Dyer (?) Kingsbury, who lived in his later years in Wisconsin.
     Amos Kingsbury married, secondly, Mary Sherman—sister of Dyer Sherman, his brother-in-law, in January, 1820.  Only one son was born of this union, the Rev. C. T. Kingsbury, of Alliance, Ohio.
     Both children were brought up in their grandfather’s home.  Amos Kingsbury was somewhat of a religious enthusiast.  He suffered from ill-health many years, and was obliged to seek a warmer climate.  Re
ceiving a government position in Arkansas, he removed to that state.  But his heart was in missionary work, and while there he labored and preached among the poor and illiterate, either black or white. He was a
good man, respected and loved.
     Almon Kingsbury was a quiet, dreamy sort of a man, very impractical in business affairs.  He kept a store in early days on Superior Street, just west of Uncle Abram Hickox’ blacksmith shop.  A story illustrating his business stand-point is told, which may or may not be true.
     A man wishing a saw picked one out at Almon’s store, and inquired the price of it.  There were in stock several other saws of assorted sizes.  Almon looked at the saw, hesitated, and then remarked, “I guess I don’t want to part with that.  I have a complete assortment of sizes now, and if I let you have it the set will be broken.”
     Needless to add that he did not acquire any property save what was left him by his father.  His wife, Lucinda Cone Kingsbury—whom he

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married in August, 1820—was a fine woman, and her children were a credit to the Kingsbury name.  Louisa Kingsbury, for some years, was a Cleveland public school teacher.  She married Mr. Crooker, of Buffalo,
     Lucy Kingsbury married Cornelius Lansing Seymour, son of Alexander Seymour.  Dianna Kingsbury married Samuel Hastings, of Boston, Mass.  James Kingsbury married Philanda Phelps, of Milwaukee.  George Kingsbury m. Fanny _____ , and lives in Buffalo.
     Abigail Kingsbury, or “Nabby,” oldest daughter of Judge Kingsbury, led an eventful life.  While yet in her teens, a brother and sister arrived from Vermont, named Sherman. The former Dyer Sherman laid siege to Miss Kingsbury’s heart and won it.  They were married February, 1808.  They were a popular couple, and while keeping a tavern on Broadway, near E. 55th Street, became widely known.  It stood on a 50-acre lot, the gift of Judge Kingsbury.   He also afterward gave them 160 acres of land on the road to Warrensville, upon which they lived in late life.  Previous to this Mrs. Sherman had received a city lot from her father, which she sold to the government for a large sum in gold.  But in their old age, the greater part of this fortune had melted away.  It is said that the chief reason of this was the sudden appearance of a woman and a middle-aged son from Vermont, who claimed Dyer Sherman for husband and father, and that he gave up everything he possessed to appease them and evade court process and penalty.
     Dyer and Abigail Kingsbury Sherman had two daughters—Susan and Margaret, neither of whom married fortunately nor wisely in the two ventures they each made in matrimony.  The latter lived and died in a Western state.  Early in December, 1814, there was a double wedding in the old Kingsbury homestead, and great merry-making.  Two daughters of the household—Nancy and Calista, married the Baldwin brothers —Caleb and Runa—and in less than a month afterward Amos Kingsbury married his first wife, Clarissa Ingersoll.
     Runa and Clarista Baldwin began housekeeping in a home belonging to them on the north-west corner of Woodland and Wilson—E. 55th Street. Here they lived in health and prosperity for 20 years, when, in the summer of 1834, Runa Baldwin was stricken with cholera, an epidemic that year, and died, of course, suddenly. Clarrissa survived him many years.
     They had an interesting family of children.
     Sherman and Albert Baldwin became celebrated physicians of San Francisco.  Almon Baldwin lived in Toledo.  Alfred Baldwin died in Cleveland.  Sophrona Baldwin married a Mr. Burrows, of Schalersville, O. Martha Baldwin married a Mr. Lougee, of Oakland, Cal. 
     Nancy Kingsbury was the second wife of Caleb Baldwin.  His first marriage was with Phaebe Gaylord, of Newburgh.
     When the Mormon excitement was at its height, and its teachings were being discussed pro and con at every fireside, Caleb and Nancey became converts of the new faith.  There was an element of mysticism in it sufficient to be an attraction to people of intense religious emotion, and it is possible that the former Baptist minister, who lived in the county, and whom they often met, may have been the influence that

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decided them to leave their comfortable home and its environment of kinship and life-long neighbors, to face what proved to be danger and many hardships.
     Elmira Kingsbury Hosmer had four children. She lived and died in Chicago, Ill.
     Diantha Kingsbury became the second wife of the once well-known Buckley Stedman. He kept a large market, for years, in Cleveland.  Diantha made a model step-mother to his children by the first wife.
     The (family became wealthy, and subsequently removed to Washington, D.
     James Waldo Kingsbury, the youngest child of Judge and Eunice Kingsbury, was born in the old homestead in 1813, and remained in it until his death in 1881—68 years.
     He inherited this property with other and valuable land. Like his brothers, he possessed less business qualifications than other and more desirable gifts.  He was a good, kind man, an indulgent father, and the most enviable of neighbors.
     But little by little his inheritance slipped through his hands, until little remains in the possession of his children. He was long an invalid before his death.
     His wife was Lucinda Williams, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth DeWolfe Williams, who died in 1870, aged 54.
     They had ten children. The first five died in infancy.
     Those remaining were Egbert, Norman, Fanny, Caroline and Ellen Kingsbury—Mrs. William Parton—now a widow with these sons.
     Mr. Kingsbury left the homestead to his youngest son, who died soon after his marriage, leaving it to his wife.
     She married again for her second husband a man bearing a German name, who remodeled the house following a fire that nearly destroyed it, so that the old landmark has passed out of the family, and is greatly changed from its former appearance.
     Mrs. Eunice Waldo Kingsbury, wife of Judge Kingsbury, had a brother —Roswell Waldo-—who was a pioneer of Schalersville in 1815.
     As was also their sister, Hannah Waldo Thompson.
     Another brother, Dr. Carleton Waldo, was a pioneer of Butler County.

1797

THE FIRST CLEVELAND WEDDING

(An Address Delivered by Mrs. Wickham before the Old Settlers’
Association in 1903.)

In the fall of 1797, when Lorenzo Carter and Ezekiel Hawley, his brother-in-law, with their families, arrived in Buffalo, on their way from Rutland, Vermont, to Cleveland, O., they concluded to tarry in that vicinity and rest from their long and tedious journey.  Buffalo was then

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but a trading post, and contained no houses in which to shelter them, so they crossed the Niagara River, where they found accommodation for the winter.
     When they resumed their travels and reached their destination the following May, the Carters were accompanied by a maid-servant by the name of Chloe Inches.
     The surname is an unusual one, and though English nomenclature embraces many that are equally so, the writer is inclined to think that Inches is not an English name, but a misspelled French one, and corrupted from something quite different.
     Take, for instance, the name familiar to us, as “Sizer.”  A century ago, Sizer was D’Zascieur, and, we can all recall similar instances where the English tongue, unfamiliar with the eccentricities of French vowels, has twisted French names out of all semblance to their original form, the owners of them helplessly answering to their new cognomens.
     No research enables us to decide whether Chloe Inches started with the party from Vermont, or attached herself to the Carters while they were in Niagara.  The only mention of her is in connection with her marriage in Cleveland the following July.
     Chloe Inches appears upon the annals of early Cleveland in one sentence, and disappears suddenly in the next.  Her previous history and parentage are, and probably ever will be, unknown.  Notwithstanding, this slip of a girl acquired distinction that July day when she simply and naturally took her place at the head of the great army of Cuyahoga County brides, estimated at 200,000.
     And did she also lead the divorced women of this county down the path of regret and repudiation? No. Some other bride is responsible for the beginning of this sad procession of the unhappy, one that increases in shameful ratios with each succeeding year.
     Chloe Inches also made an impress upon the economic life of Cleveland households in that she was its first domestic, and, as such, established precedents that have caused unending annoyances to mistresses from that day to this.
     For, alas! Chloe had a follower!
     He followed 180 miles or more, from Niagara, Ontario, to Cleveland, in order to woo Mrs. Carter’s little maid-servant.
     How he came, by row-boat or sail-boat, hugging the shore and camp ing by night in creeks or coves, or whether he walked all the way, or rode horseback, no evidence is adduced. As I have stated, accounts of the affair are most meager, and imagination must supply the details that early Cleveland annals fail to furnish. His name was William Clement, and we easily can fancy that Miss Chloe sometimes spoke of him tenderly as “my Will.”
     We do not know what objections, if any, Mrs. Carter raised to the young man’s unexpected appearance and strenuous wooing.  She certainly had more reasonable cause for remonstrance than any Cleveland mistress that followed her, for her helplessness to successfully cope with the situation is apparent when we realize that she had no intelligence office to fall back upon, no columns of “Situations Wanted—Female,” to scan, no hope of coaxing away the services of some other woman's serv-

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ant. Her only resource would be an Indian maid, not available because of her own desperate fear and aversion to the redskins.  So, for several years afterward, Mrs. Carter was obliged to perform all her household duties, and care for her children unaided.
     The wedding of William Clement and Chloe Inches took place July 4th, 1797.
     The Declaration of Independence was just twenty-one years old.  Only nineteen years lay between Valley Forge and that Cleveland day of double celebration, only fourteen since the close of the Revolutionary War.  Therefore, the Fourth of July meant more to those early residents of Cleveland than it does to us of today.  They had lived, suffered, and, perhaps, lost dear ones in the recent struggle.  They had not had time to become weary of Fourth of July celebrations, nor indifferent to the patriotic memories for which that day stands.
     I assume that the first Cleveland wedding was the only one in which the guests included its whole population, therefore no imp of mischance mislaid, misdirected, or missent wedding invitations, thus paving the way for fancied slights and future misunderstandings.
     Doubtless every one in town was informally bidden to the first patriotic and social event. There were present Mr. and Mrs. Job Phelps Stiles, Mr. and Mrs. Ezekiel Hawley, Mr. and Mrs. James Kingsbury, the two young men of the town—Edward Paine and Pierre Maloch, the minister, Rev. Seth Hart—superintendent of the Connecticut Land Co., and Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo Carter, the host and hostess of the occasion, fourteen adults.  Added to this, being seen and not heard, as befitted the youth of that day, may have been the ten children of the settlement.
     As there were none but married people in the town, and very young children, Chloe must have lacked the support of bridesmaids upon this momentous occasion, and if either of the young men served as the groom’s best man, history fails to record it.
     The dearth of material for a fashionable wedding, however, had its recompense. The expenses did not include a bill for the bride’s favors or masculine stick-pins.

     THE WEDDING SUPPER?

     Imagination fails us here.  The Rev. Seth Hart may have donated from the supplies of the Connecticut Land Co., otherwise they could have had no wedding cake, since neither the Carters nor the other settlers possessed sugar or wheat flour.  However, we may be sure that the hostess  drew upon all her resources, and that all the other housewives added to the menu such offerings as their scanty larders permitted.
     The wedding journey!
     The second sentence in the annals of early Cleveland concerning this event reads, “He bore her away to Canada.”
     Now, in those days this term had a wide meaning; anywhere to the north of us, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the shores of Lake Superior.  And within this land of wide domain the young couple vanish for 106 years.
     The little hamlet of Cleveland becomes a vast metropolis, and its infancy sinks nearly out of sight and interest.  Then comes its hundredth

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anniversary, when everything connected with its earliest history takes on new value.
     As historian of the woman's department of the Centennial Commission, your speaker became interested in the pioneer women of the Western Reserve, and for some years has been trying to trace Mr. and Mrs. William Clement and learn something of their subsequent history.  Finally, when all other efforts failed, a communication was sent to the Toronto Globe, begging for assistance in the matter.  The Globe kindly gave it publicity, and the result justified her faith in the power and value of the press.  Out of the many letters received, but one was definite and satisfactory.  Mr. Alexander Servos, of Niagara, Ontario, is the gentleman through whose efforts we are enabled to trace the Clements into their home in Canada.
     William Clement was the son of an American Tory, John Clement, one of Col. Butler's rangers, who devastated the Mohawk and Wyoming valleys during the Revolutionary War.  He was a resident of Schenectady, N. Y.  At the close of hostilities, with many others, proclaiming themselves as "United Empire Loyalists," he settled in Niagara, Ontario.  He became a prominent man in the community, and died wealthy.  Over his grave in St. Mark's Cemetery, of that township, a stone records that "Ranger John Clement died in 1845, aged 87 years."
     William Clement, his son, took his bride, Chloe Inches Clement, to a farm of 400 acres in St. Davids, a small hamlet within NIagara Township.  St. Davis is about two miles from the Niagara River, and six miles from the falls.  It is under the brown of a very high hill or mountain, with a never failing spring stream running through it, and is now surrounded with thrifty orchards and vineyards.  Here they raised a family of five children, three sons - Robert, James, Joseph, and twin daughters - Ann and Margaret.
     William and Chloe Clement are buried in the cemetery of St. Davids, one stone marking their graves.  The date of their deaths is 1835.
     It is a pleasure to find that their descendants always were, and still are, honorable and respected citizens of the communities in which they live.  I shall not dwell on this to the extent of wearying your patience, but will touch lightly upon the principal features that characterized them as a family.
     Richard Clement settled in Norfolk County, Ontario; Joseph Clement in Brantford County, while James Clement remained in St. Davids and owned a large farm.
     The twin daughters, Ann and Margaret Clement, married Richard and William Woodruff, of Connecticut, who settled in Niagara about 1802.
     The only living grandchild of William and Chloe Clement, bearing the name, is a resident of St. Davids, and 76 years of age.  He is an honest, wealthy farmer.
     The Woodruffs have distinguished themselves in many ways as professional men, large mill-owners, prominent merchants, or extensive land owners.  Margaret Clement’s son, Samuel D. Woodruff, is still living at the age of eighty-five.  He is a civil engineer, and for many years was superintendent of the Welland Canal.

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     As the Canadian stock of the Clements had its origin in New England and New York State, it is but natural that members of the younger generation should drift back to this country of their ancestors, and where their grandparents were married on its national anniversary.  Therefore, we are not surprised that many have done so, and that this city at any time may possess an honored citizen, who is the direct descendant of the young couple who furnished the first wedding in Cleveland.

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