OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Moses Cleavland / Western Reserve [2]
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Darlene E. Kelley
http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374
June 26, 1999
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Historical Collections of Ohio
The Kelley Family Collections
Newspaper article, Plains Dealer
compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925
And Then They Went West
by Darlene E. Kelley  1998
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Second in Series-- Moses Cleaveland Starts for Western Reserve--

Westward Ho !--

    Has Moses Cleaveland's journey to the Western Reserve in 1796 ever
been satisfactorily described ? Recently I reproduced three letters
written by him to Oliver Phelphs, one of seven directors of the
Connecticut Land Co.
     Cleaveland tells of overcoming financial difficulties at Albany,
and of obtaining credit for the company; and of his arrival at Fort
Independence (Conneaut Creek),on July 4 and of his meeting with a mild
tribe of Marengo ( Massaasagoe) Indians and his assurance that they may
remain and cultivate the land. Part of the correspondence covers a trip
up the Cuyahoga.  He does not say that he landed on the site of
Cleveland but mentions the high clay banks on the east and describes the
timber as seen from the river.  He speaks of the lake 10 miles west as
if hearsay or viewed not far from the Cuyahoga, and recalls the coast as
he approached from the east. He is soon back at Conneaut.
     Yet it was on this excursion that he made his memorable entry into
the Cuyahoga on July 22,1796, a water and land pageant.

History--

    To understand this expedition to what was then called the far west,
one must recall the formation of the Connecticut Land Company.  In 1662,
King Charles ll
granted the colony of Connecticut a charter which superceded all others
and confirmed rights to all territory between the 41" and 42" 2' of
latitudes from the colony's eastern border to the Pacific Ocean.  This
charter continued until the Revoluntionary War.  In 1786 in settling
conflicting claims of States, Connecticut released her rights to this
long strip across continent, except a tract starting with the
Pennsyvania State line, extending west 120 miles between the parallels
mentioned.
     Known as the Western Reserve, this was said to embrace more than
3,500,000 acres of land.  In 1795, the State of Connecticut sold to 25
parties 3,000,000 acres at its eastern end for $1,200,000. For her
citizens who had suffered depredations of war, the State reserved
500,000 acres at its western end.  The Connecticut Land Company, was
immediately formed and Moses Cleaveand, one of the directors, was made
general agent to conduct the surveys.
     In this surveying expedition of 1796, Gen. Cleaveland was
superintendent; August Porter, principal surveyor; Seth Pease,
astronomer; Amos Spafford, John M. Holley and Moses Warren, surveyors;
Joshua Stow, commissary, and Theodore Sheppard, physician, Elisha Gun
and his wife,Anna; Job Stiles and Talitha, his wife, joined the party on
the way. Nathan Chapman and Nathan Perry accompanied the surveyors and
furnished fresh beef.

Employees--

     In addition there were 37 employees of the company.  They were;
Joseph Tinker, boatman, George Proudfoot, Samuel Forbes, Stephen Benton,
Samuel Hungerford, Samuel Davenport, Amzi Atwater, Elisha Ayres, Norman
Wilcox, George Gooding, Samuel Agnew, David Beard, Daniel Shulay, Titus
V.Munson, Charles Parker, Nathaniel Doan, James Halket, Onley F. Rice,
Samuel Barnes, Joseph M'Intyre, Francis Gray, Amos Sawtel, Amos Barber,
William B. Hall, Stephen Burbank, Asa Mason, Michael Coffin, Thomas
Harris, Timothy Dunham, Shadrach Benham, Wareham Shepard, John Bryant,
Joseph Landon, Ezekiel Morley, Luke Hanchet, Jame Hamilton, and John
Lock.
     This made 50 in all.  Since many of the employees settled in
Cleveland and streets were named after them, they are listed.  Early in
1796, the party assembled at Schenectady and set out for the Reserve.
Horses and cattle were driven overland through the wilds of western New
York to Buffalo.  The main expedition took to the water route in open "
Schenectady" boats down the Mohawk, across the portage, through Oneida
Lake, down Oswego River into Lake Ontario, thence around Niagara and
reached Buffalo after much hardship through an unexplored wilderness.
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To be continued in third Series--