During this
Buffalo Creek treaty, Red Jacket expressed his views upon the
white man's religion, which Holley summarizes as follows: "You
white people make a great parade about religion, you say you have
a book of laws and rules which was given you by the Great Spirit,
but is this true ? No," says he, "it was written by your own
people. They do it to deceive you. Their whole wishes center here
(pointing to his pocket), all they want is the money." He says,
"White people tell them, they wish to come and live among them as
brothers, and learn them agriculture. So they bring on implements
of husbandry and presents, tell them good stories, and all appears
honest. But when they are gone all appears as a dream. Our land is
taken from us, and still we don't know how to farm it.
From Buffalo
Creek, the party continued westward along the lake shore, reaching
the mouth of Conneaut Creek, on the east side of which the
surveyors pitched their tents, and, says the Journal of Moses
Cleaveland, " We gave three cheers and christened the place Fort
Independence." It was July 4th (1796), and the party including
men, women and children, "ranged themselves on the beach and
fired a federal salute of fifteen rounds and then the sixteenth in
honor of New Connecticut." Several toasts were drunk, one of
which was, "May the Port of Independence and the fifty sons and
daughters who have entered it this day be successful and
prosperous," and another, "May these sons and daughters multiply
in sixteen years, sixteen times fifty." Cleaveland's diary for
that day closes with, (We) "drank several pails of grog, supped,
and retired in remarkable good order."
The settlement of
the Western Reserve properly dates from this celebration. The next
day after the jollification, narrates Harvey Rice, in "Pioneers of
the Western Reserve," the party united in cutting timber, and in
erecting a huge, elephantine log structure for their own temporary
accommodation and named it "Stow's Castle," in honor of Joshua
Stow, commissary of the party. "It was built of unhewn logs, and
covered with a thatched roof of brush, wild grass and sod," a
grotesque looking edifice that greatly amused the visiting
savages.
A few days after
the completion of the "Castle" the Cleaveland party was called
upon by a deputation of Indians headed by their aged Chief Paqua,
and his son Cato, who came to inquire the purpose of the invasion
of the whites, and to ask what they intended to do with the
Indians. Cleaveland replied in a most conciliatory manner assuring
the tribesmen that they should not be disturbed in their rights
but that all would live amicably together. The Indians were
further pacified with gifts of glass beads for the Squaws and a
keg of whiskey for the "braves." The Indians then consented that
the intended land surveys might proceed.
Some two weeks
after the landing at Conneaut, Cleaveland with a portion of the
party, embarked in an open boat, and coasted westward along the
lake shore, bound for the Cuyahoga River. They came to the mouth
of a stream not traced on their chart and supposing it to be the
Cuyahoga, they entered it. Upon discovering their mistake, they
felt so chagrined about it, says Rice, that they named the river
"Chagrin"—a designation it still retains; though James H. Kennedy
in his "History of the City of Cleveland" states the authorities
do not agree upon the origin of this river's name. The party now
continued their voyage along the coast until they reached the
"veritable Cuyahoga," which they entered July zzd. Colonel
Whittlesey, with realistic imagery portrays the landing: "It was
necessary to proceed some distance along this shore, before there
was solid ground enough to effect a landing. As the Indians had,
from generation to generation, kept open a trail along the margin
of the lake, it is probable that Cleaveland's party, scanning with
sharp eyes every object as they rowed along the river, saw where
the aboriginal highway descended the hill, along what is now Union
Lane. Here they came to the bank, and scrambling out, trod for the
first time the soil of the new city. While the boat was being
unloaded, the agent had an opportunity to mount the bluff, and
scan the surrounding land. His imagination doubtless took a
pardonable flight into the future, when a great commercial town
should take the place of the stunted forest growth, which the
northern tempest had nearly destroyed. But whatever may have been
his anticipations, the reality has outstripped them all." Very
soon the party proceeded to erect a log storehouse and several log
cabins, for their own accommodation, and that of the few
immigrants who had followed them with the purpose of settling or
finding employment in the opening of a new country.
This settlement
thus established on the lake, destined to become the metropolis of
northern Ohio, was fittingly named after its founder, Cleveland.
Just how the "a" was dropped from the name is a matter somewhat in
dispute. The original spelling "Cleaveland" seems to have been
retained for some thirty years or more, when, one explanation is,
the publisher of the "Cleveland Advertiser," omitted the "a" from
the name at the head of his paper because he could not fit, with
the type used, the name in full, as a headline, to the width of
his form. Another version is that, in early days, the first "a" in
the "Cleaveland Herald" got battered and put out of commission and
was never replaced. The new spelling was adopted by other papers
and in due time became the common acceptation. As the change
occurred before the days of phonetic spelling it doubtless
resulted from some accident or exigency as related above.
Moses Cleaveland,
the hero and leader of this settlement on the lake shore, was a
prominent and much respected citizen of Canterbury, Connecticut,
where he was born in 1754. He was a graduate of Yale, Class of
1777. He studied for the bar and after admission entered upon the
practice of law in his native town. In August, 1789, he was
appointed by Congress, a Captain of Sappers and Miners in the
Continental Army. His ability and public usefulness are attested
by the fact that he served several terms as a member of the
Connecticut General Assembly. He also served in various capacities
in the state militia, and in 1796, not long before he engaged in
the Connecticut Land Enterprise, he became a general of the Fifth
Brigade. In 1794 he was married to Esther, daughter of Henry
Champion. According to the description of Harvey Rice, Cleaveland
was a man of few words and prompt action; his morality was an
outgrowth of Puritanism and as rigid as it was pure; he was manly
and dignified in his bearing and so sedate in his looks, that
strangers often took him for a clergyman; in personal appearance
he was of medium height, erect, thick-set, and portly, had black
hair, a quick, penetrating eye, muscular limbs, and a military air
in his step, indicating that he was born to command.
