[Pg. 208]

1818

     Mrs. Terry had one son who died in his teens. After the death of Mr. McGregor, she founded the McGregor Home for the Aged, on Lee Road, East Cleveland.
     She was a very bright, attractive woman, and was of much use to the world.  Her death took place in a southern state in 1912.

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1818

McINTOSH.

     Dr. Donald McIntosh was a very early Cleveland physician, also a tavern-keeper; for like all other professional men of that day he did not attempt to earn a livelihood for himself and family through his practice alone but combined with it another occupation.
     Dr. McIntosh was born in New York and educated in Quebec.  He was of Scotch descent and of good family.  He was considered a skillful physician, but devoted too much of his time to horses, dogs, racing and, alas! drink.
     Nothing can be learned regarding his wife save that her Christian name was Susan, and that she outlived him.
     But the doctor’s children, two or three sons and a daughter were the schoolmates or playmates of others of their age who recalled them in after years.  One of the latter was the late Philander Johnson who was

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* Since deceased.

[Pg. 209]
born on Water Street and who furnished the writer with partial data concerning the McIntosh family.
     The eldest son, Donald McIntosh, Jr., became a sailor on the lakes, a calling he followed many years and finally disappeared from knowledge of all early friends.  There was another son, Grovenor or Grosvenor McIntosh, of whom no trace can be found.  Both boys were nice-looking and much liked by their associates.  So far as can be recalled there was but one daughter in the family, Elizabeth McIntosh.
     Dr. McIntosh was profane to a degree and not always careful to abstain from bad language when in the presence of patients.  In connection with this an incident is related.  Squire Hudson of the Ohio town of that name, was very ill and a call upon Cleveland was made for medical aid.  Why Dr. Long was not sent to his relief is a query, as he had a much better reputation and withal was a gentleman.  However, Dr. McIntosh was dispatched to the scene.  He found Squire Hudson very ill and very despondent.  The patient thought he could not recover and refused to take the proffered medicine, which was not surprising when we recall that in those days nauseous drugs in quantity were administered for every ill.
     Dr. McIntosh, an irritable, quick-tempered man, turned on the Squire, a pious deacon of the Presbyterian Church, and berated him in his choicest vocabulary. “Die then and go to hell!” was his parting shaft.
     But the good deacon, horrified at such language, was aroused to expostulation and rebuke.  He probably concluded that there was still work for him in this world when such very ungodly men were yet living in it.  He took the medicine, recovered, and for many a year following was a religious power in his community.
     Dr. McIntosh kept the Eagle tavern on Water street, corner of St. Clair. In 1820, Pliny Morey, who built a tavern in 1812 on the south-west corner of Superior Street and the Public Square, got into financial difficulties through signing a note for a friend.  Leonard Case, the holder of the note, foreclosed, and the tavern was put up at auction, bid in, and later sold to Dr. Donald McIntosh for $4,500.  The lot was the easterly half of original lot No. 63, with a frontage of 82.66 feet on Superior Street and a depth to Michigan Street.
     In 1830 a new two-story house on Seneca Street south of Superior street is advertised for sale, “now in the occupancy of Dr. McIntosh,” which would denote that tavern-keeping had ceased to be one of his occupations.
     Dr. McIntosh lost his life early in the year 1834 while horse-racing by moonlight.  He was thrown from his horse and his neck broken.  The following June his wife Susan McIntosh, as administratrix of his estate, legally notified his creditors to exhibit their accounts within a year, and calls upon his debtors to make payment to Harvey Rice, Esq., who will transact all business connected with settling the estate.
     Nothing farther can be traced of the family.

[Pg. 210]

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     Gen. Ahaz Merchant was born in Connecticut in 1794, and came to Cleveland in 1818.  He was a civil engineer, and did much work in that line for the state and city.  He was a contractor also, and erected many notable buildings in the business section of the city, among them the Angier House, afterward renamed “Kennard House.”  He tried his hand at farming with success, and the latter part of his life was spent upon a large farm on St. Clair street.  He died “land poor,” having invested freely in it, especially on the West Side, a locality in which he was much interested.
     Gen. Merchant commanded the militia, and was a prominent figure in all military parades.  His death occurred in 1862 at the age of 69.  The family lived at 39 Euclid Ave. when in the city proper.
     Mrs. Merchant was a Miss Catherine Stewart who came from Morristown, N. J., in 1819.  Her sister Hannah Stewart married Abram Ruple of East Cleveland. Ahaz Merchant had a brother Ira, and a sister Rebecca who came to East Cleveland a year or two earlier than he.  Rebecca was a widow with two children, and married later, John Welsh.
     The children of Ahaz and Catherine Merchant:

Aaron Merchant,    m. Mary Ann Warner Ammock. Martha Merchant,    m. Charles Cadman. Harriet Merchant,    m. R. M. Taylor

Mary Merchant,    m. Madison Miller. Silas Merchant,    m. 1st. Julia Riddle;    2nd, Celia Tuttle

     The sons of Ahaz Merchant assisted him in his work, and after his death followed the same lines of business.  Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Taylor were host and hostess of the Angier House for many years.
     The only representative of the family bearing the name of Merchant is Charles C. Merchant, son of Aaron.  Silas Merchant had no children, but adopted a nephew and niece of his first wife. He became involved in his business affairs and removed to New Philadelphia, in this state.

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1818

     In 1818, upon the south-west corner of the Public Square and Superior Street, a site now occupied by Marshall’s drug-store, there stood a small frame-building used as a book-store and a doctor’s office.  Between that store and Seneca street, now West 3rd, there was no other building save one near the corner of Seneca that had been constructed for weighing hay.  It was a quaint little structure, only 10x20 feet, and one story high.  The front of the roof had been built to project a little more than the
width of a wagon, and from this hung four stout log-chains which were fastened to the wheels of the vehicle to be weighed, which was then raised  from the ground with the help of a long heavy beam used as a lever.
     In this crude place was started the first newspaper published in the city of Cleveland, on the same street and but a short walk from the pres-

[Pg. 211]
ent great printing establishments of the Cleveland Leader and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, each representing a fortune and housed in many storied and costly buildings of its own.  This first newspaper venture was made by Andrew Logan, an ambitious young printer and future editor.  He is said to have resembled John A. Logan of the Civil War,
who was of medium height, stockily built, and of swarthy complexion, and like the late general, he claimed descent from Logan, the noted Mingo chief.
     Andrew Logan brought his type from Beaver, Pa., which may have been his home, for a time at least.  The type was much worn, so much so that some of the letters made almost illegible impressions.  But he started his newspaper July 31, 1818, under the pretentious title, “The Cleveland Gazette and Commercial Advertiser.”  A copy of it is preserved in the Western Reserve Historical Library, and it will be found a very creditable sheet.
     The big beam that served as a lever for the weighing apparatus ran nearly through the length of the room, and young Logan must have had to step over or around it many times a day, but as he was also official “weigher” for the town, the obstruction, like his type, was a means of livelihood.  The Cleveland Weekly Herald, starting a year later with far better equipment, must have discouraged the young printer from further effort to make ends meet, and within a few months following its first issue, he ceased the publication of his own paper.  To his position as weigher was added that of “village inspector,” and he remained in or near town several years after the close of his printing establishment.  Meanwhile, he had married Phila Sherwin, daughter of Amahaaz and Ruth Day Sherwin, who had come to Cleveland in the fall of 1818, from Middleburg, Vt., in company with her parents.
     The indifference of descendants has made it difficult to gain correct information concerning Andrew Logan’s subsequent life.  But this much has been gleaned, that he removed to Iowa, continued in the printing and publishing business, and for many years was the editor of the Davenport News.  Only the names of two children have been secured, Dr. Augustus Rodney Logan, who died in Mexico, 68 years of age, and Sherwin Logan, who married his cousin Caroline Sherwin.  She was the daughter of Ahimaaz Sherwin, Jr., and born in this city where she grew to womanhood.

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1818

HAMLIN

     The records of the Presbyterian church of Lenox, Mass., for August, 1820, contained an item that had an important bearing upon the struggling little society of the same faith in Cleveland.  It was a record of withdrawal of Samuel Isbell Hamlin, twenty-five years of age, who had been absent from his native town for two years, and now transferred by letter to the Presbyterian church of Cleveland.

[Pg. 212]

     He was one of the small band of Christians headed by Elisha Taylor who, in 1819, started the first Sunday-school of the town, and for half a century kept his shoulder close to the church wheel in readiness to push or lift in times of discouragement or difficulty.  From a young, ardent recruit, he became an officer and pillar of what is now called the "Old Stone Church."  He was "Deacon" Hamlin for many long years before his death in 1868.  He was the son of Ichabod Hamlin of Lenox, Mass., and early learned the carpenter trade.  He became a contractor and was financially prosperous.
     Six years after he arrived in Cleveland,  He married Cynthia Jones, the daughter of Daniel and Lucretia Jones.  She was born in Cheshire, Conn., in 1804, and was twenty years of age when married.
     Deacon Hamlin and his wife kept open house for the ministers of their faith, and loved to entertain them.  Many weekly services were held at their home before the first church edifice was erected.  One of their sons became a minister, which doubtless gave the good deacon and his wife unbounded satisfaction.

     Samuel and Cynthia Jones Hamlinhad ten children, five of whom died young.

     Mrs. Hamlin survived her husband twenty-one years.  She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Martha Hamlin Dewey, in Bennington, Vt., aged 85 years.  The family burial lot is in Erie Street Cemetery.

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1818

NICHOLS.

     Humphrey Nichols of Ware, N. H., arrived in Cleveland in 1818.  He had been raised on a farm, and, upon reaching town, at once looked for land suitable for farming purposes.  Whether he brought the money with him or later earned the $500 which paid for 100 acres of $5 an acre has not been learned, but it was a good investment even when later he had to pay as much again for it.
     The land was bounded by Wade Park Ave., Lamont street, E. 105th, and E. 93rd streets.  It was purchased of the Western Reserve college, then situated in Hudson, Ohio.  The land had been a gift of an eastern man named Law.  A disregard by the college trustees of conditions required, or some flaw in the title reverted the property to Law's heirs.

[Pg. 213]
and in 1841 Mr. Nichols had to pay $6 more an acre in order to hold it.  The Nichols descendants still retain a few acres of the original 100-acre farm.  The city holds possession of a portion lying along Rockefeller Park Boulevard.
     Humphrey Nichols married, in 1824, Maria Bunts, b. 1803.  Her mother, a widow with two other children, Richard and Levi, had married Charles Broff, a widower also with children.

     The children of Humphrey and Maria Nichols:
 

Jesse Nichols,      m. Jane Jones of Ogdensburg, N. Y. Caroline Nichols,      m. Mathew Penticost.

Abigail Nichols,      m. Lorenzo James Minerva Nichols, died aged 25 years. Edwin Nichols, died aged 50 years.

     Before her marriage, Mrs. Nichols had been a member in good standing of the East End Methodist Church.  Mr. Nichols had not as yet professed conversion, and declined to join the church, whereupon Miss Maria Bunts was notified that her choice of a husband was not regarded with favor, and the society put her “upon probation.”  Many times in the years that followed the Methodist church would gladly have welcomed her into its folds, but she refused all overtures in that direction.
     She died in 1864, aged 61 years.

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1818

WELLMAN.

[Pg. 214]

[Pg. 215]

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1818

WOOD

[Pg. 216]

[Pg. 217]

[Pg. 218]

1818

GRAVES

     Dr. Ezra Graves, the pioneer physician of Cleveland, and contemporary of Dr. Long, is frequently mentioned in records of early dates.  He lived where the Adelbert and Case colleges now stand.  His practice was mostly with the pioneers living east of Willson Ave., now E. 55th St.  He was eccentric in manner, but a skillful practitioner.
His family:
Hiram Graves.           Deborah Graves.           Temperance Graves.

     Deborah Graves married Dr. Jonathan Simmons of East Cleveland, in 1818, and died 1834. They had four children, Ezra Graves Simmons, who married Eliza Harris, daughter of Arial and Clarissa Sherman Harris, Sophrona Simmons, married Holly Miles of Newburgh; Mary Simmons, married William Given of Cleveland, and Peter Simmons, removed to Denver, Col.  If living he would be 80 years of age.

1818

     Eliam and Mary Edson Wilbur were living on a farm in Batavia, N. Y., when their eldest son James B. Wilbur left home in 1818 to see for himself the little settlement on the south shore of Lake Erie about which reports had reached him, reports that were most favorable and alluring. 
     He had been here but a short time when he sent for his parents and sisters.  The family consisted of two sons and two daughters.  After his arrival in Cleveland, Eliam Wilbur was engaged in several occupations.  He was employed by the town to lay out our Erie Street Cemetery, and he planted many of the trees that in after years made that sacred place so beautiful.
     The family residence was on Bond Street in 1837.  James B. Wilbur clerked for Nathan C. Hills in his grocery, corner of the Square and Superior street, where Marshall’s drug-store now stands.  Afterward he opened a grocery of his own, which he conducted for two or three years.  He was in the stamp department of the post-office for a long time, and finally turned hotel-keeper with much success, managing the Forest City House.
     In 1842, he married Miss Loretta Welch, many years his junior, and the daughter of that good woman, Mrs. Benjamin Welch.  She is still living and young in heart through the ministrations of three marrieddaughters of her own.
     Nelson Wilbur, the other son of the family, became a Methodist minister, and preached most of the time in the south.  He married a lady residing in a southern town where he was located.
     Angelica Wilbur remained unmarried all her life.
     Mary Wilbur married and died childless.
     The above were sisters of James B. Wilbur.

[Pg. 219]

1818

CUTTER

[Pg. 220]

[Pg. 221]

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1819

     The first marriage notice in Cleveland Herald.

          "On the 25th day of September last, at Monroe, by John Bean, Esq., Elder John Blodgett of Salem, to the amiable Miss Monroe and Salem mentioned may have been in this state.

[Pg. 222]

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1819

[Pg. 223]
Sophia Walworth, Mrs. Mabel Howe, Miss Harriet Howe, Henry Baird, Mrs. Ann Baird, Juliana Long, Mrs. Isabelle Williamson, Mrs. Minerva Merwin, and Rebecca Carter, widow of Lorenzo.

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1819

FOOTE

[Pg. 224]

[Pg. 225]

     The children of Herchel and Pamelia Foote:
 

Alfred Mills Foote, b. 1822;      m. Ruth Adams;      2nd, Miss Sally Brush.  His later years were spent on a

fruit farm in New Jersey. Edward Bliss Foote.

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1819

WILLES

[Pg. 226]

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