OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 98 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 05 : Issue 98 Today's Topics: #1 Fw: Tid Bits - Part 54 A ["Ohio Archives EV1" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <06b401c58ce6$93a862e0$0201a8c0@margaret> Subject: Fw: Tid Bits - Part 54 A Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" To: Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 1:57 PM Subject: Tid Bits - Part 54 A Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley June 7, 2005 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know your Ohio Tid Bits - part 54 A notes by S. Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - part 54 A. Irish Emigrants to Ohio Although Irish immigration to this country started after the Mayflower landed in 1620, the entry upon Cleveland began only in the 1820's. Although reports there were a few stragglers who appeared earlier, but their stay was considered only temporary and they left no record of settlement. We know of the trader and frontiersman, George Coghan came to the Western Reserve in about 1747, but as you know, traders never stayed put very long. Again another report that the American schooner " American Eagle" arrived in Cleveland from Buffalo on June 22, 1818, bringing six families of Irish, 47 passengers, who were just three months away from Ireland. Where they settled is unknown, as they arrived when Cleveland was just emerging from the log cabin state, and the town square was still dominated by stumps, and the population of Cleveland then was around 600. It is guessed that they may have made their way to work on the Erie Canal. The advent of the Irish in Cleveland in 1825, was probably introduced from the Eastern seaboard and Pennsylvania, when the construction of the Ohio Canal began. Ground breaking for this undertaking began July 4, 1825 in Cleveland. By 1826, there were enough Irish in Cleveland that a Catholic Priest from Perry County came to hold services for them in private homes. His name was Rev. Fr. Thomas Martin. The Irish were not well received in the early day by the Clevelanders. Their reaction to the Irish immigrant followed several stages. First the native America born withdrew altogether from any part of which the Irish settled. Thus he consigned to the Irish, territory in which had previously considered uninhabitable. On the West side he gave them the territory near the Cuyahoga River, including a peninsula running along the shore of Lake Erie which the Indians a half century earlier had abandoned because of its fever breeding swamps. This was called Whiskey Island, and it soon became a major shantytown. Next the Irish were given the west side of the Cuyahoga River bluffs and there built a ghetto of tar paper shacks. This was called Irishtown Bend. On the East side of the river, where the mercantile city was beginning to bloom,; they were forced into ghettos along the shore of the lake or in the swampland north of what is today the financial center of the city. This at the time was considered unhealthy. All the lands were mostly swamp. Whiskey Island When Moses Cleaveland came upon Whiskey Island, it was a delta and he had some difficulty finding the main channel to the river itself. The fact that he had to come upriver three quarters of a mile before reaching solid ground enough to stand on, gives one a clue as to its composition. Joshua Stow later when writng about it reveiled a nice touch of humor. " I could not help but reflect that history was repeating itself," he wrote, "Moses, like his namesake, was caught in the bullrushes." The land around the river's mouth and for half a mile south of it was pure swamp, with the exception of a ridge that had been formed by the Cuyahoga's current as it curved westward on its way to empting into Lake Erie at a point just east of present day Edgewater Park. It would not be until 1827 that the federal funding and engineering expertise allowed local citizens to dig a channel, creating the river's mouth as we now know it. The Irish did the digging. Since that knoll was the only habitable land anywhere about, the irish took possession of it and began erecting tarpaper shanties on it. Amusing enough, that stretch of slightly elevaed land was once the farm of Lorenzo Carter, the city's first resident, who had built a still on its easternmost end. The land that the Irish had already been named Whiskey Island for years before they arrived. The Irish who squatted there, gave a new meaning to the island's name-- they made it a real island of whiskey. In its hey day it boasted of having 12 or 13 saloons, a considerable achivement since the island was only a mile long and a third of a mile across at its widest point. It was from the first and for any years remained the wildest, brawliest section of Cleveland. Actually Whiskey Island was not an actual island, but rather a peninsula. Not even when its first inhabitants, the " irrinons " or Erie Indians, had a permanent camp there in the middle of the 17th century. It is amusing that the French called the Eries " The Cat People." while two centuries later, the Irish dock workers would become known as " Iron Ore Terriers" or " The Dog People." Those two tribes, the Eries and Irish, would have had a rolicking good time, for they were both mercurial temperment, intemperate and amazingly stubborn, especially when it came to admitting the odds were against them. Be that as it may, when Mose's made his way through Cuyahoga's bullrushes, Whiskey Island was a peninsula jutting westward from where the River's present day mouth is to about West 54th Street. When the river was straigtened to allow nature to assist in the clearing of the sandbars which clogged its mouth, the original entrance to the Lake was filled in and the peninsula then became anchored on its western end. It is now difficult to imagine what a beehive of humanity Whiskey Island was from the 1830's to the turn of the century. The only traces of humanity left on the Island are remnants of Riverbed Road and footers from a number of houses and business establishments. Oh what a hey day of the early Irish settlers! Whiskey Island was triangular in shape, almost an isosceles but not quite, with its northern boundary as its base. The land now north of there resulted both from action of the lake and the action of men, who carted fill there faster than the lake could reclaim it. It is even more difficult for one looking over the Island today to imagine that all told, it had 22 streets crisscrssing it. These streets were laid out by a group of ill-fated investors who purchased the land from Lorenzo Carter. The longest thoroughfare was Bennet Street, which ran the length of the island along its northernmost boundary. It was often said, with some justification, " that most nights on Whiskey Island were lively ones and when the police answered a riot call, the horses would automatically head in that direction." The Irish who inhabited the Island were, indeed, hard-drinking, brawling, and often lawless men, but then, they had plenty of reasons to be all three. They were rootless outcasts of society, a shunned and largely despised group of men, who despite their crude ways, were not insensitive to the injustices that had been heaped upon them from the moment they first set foot on American soil. They had to take out their frustrations on someone and since no one else was available, they took it out on each other. Many of them had aspirations that went beyond three squares. a place to flop and a bottle of whiskey, and they were to prove that in relatively short order, despite being caught up in a mentality common oppressed people. The Irish of early-day Cleveland fluctuated between rage ad despair and needed their bottles and brawls to stave off madness on a epidemic scale. If it weren't for the fact that they were able to retain a collective sense of humor, none of them would have made it, for then they didn't even have consoling words of a priest to get them through their worst moments. Whiskey Island was well within the fever and ague line. It was, in fact, the very heart of the swamplands in which resided the dread malaria carrying mosquito which certainly left its mark upon them who dwelled there. The only question that remained which would get the inhabitants body first, malaria or diarrhea. Living there took a heap of suviving in the 1820's. The early Cleveland Irish and their families working in various places were also plagued by the two legged variety of creature, called man. They were often swindled by hucksters an even more often were victims of a more direct form of thievery. The Cleveland Leader, dated June 6, 1826, wrote an article stating the fact that the Irish were being afforded unfair treatment, as subcontractors and employers were cheating them out of their pay, meager as it was. It was the old game, no matter how long or hard he might labor, he found himself in position of owing the company money at the end of each month. No matter what choice he had, things had to be squared away on the ledger, such as lodging, food, and etc, on the job sites, since jail terms for debtors were still the law of the land. But it did get better for them after the typhoid fever epidemic which originated in the canal areas. +++++++++++++++++++ Moving West In order to understand the plight of the early Ohio Irish, we need to go back to the earlier days when the Irish from the Eastern seaboard cities became to realize that circumstances of poverty was to be no longer tolerated, and they had no future in places where a dozen men applied for every job that opened up. The Irishman's first chance to escape the poverty that existed was provided by a man by the name of DeWitt Clinton, who at the time was Governor of New York, who was championed the cause of the Erie Canal and turned the first shovelful of dirt himself in 1817. The Erie Canal, was 368 miles long, stretching from Rome, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo on Lake Erie, a stretch of water that would join the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes. The Irish in New York and far away as Boston and Baltimore came pouring out of their homes at the first sign up call for work. So many an irishman, 3,000 signees, signed up to dig the big ditch that made it a Paddy affair. The work was back breaking, the pay low and the living conditions poor. But a job was a job, and the Irish could not afford to be choosey. Just clearing the adjoining towpaths was difficult enough, but the digging of the canal was harder work. The Erie was a well planned ditch. It was to be 40 feet wide at surface level, stopping to a width of 26 feet at the bottom of its four foot depth. Megatons of dirt had to be moved from a ditch of 368 miles long. In return for their labor, the canal diggers received $. 30 a day for 12 hours on the job, plus board and lodging. The board consisted of coffee and hardtack, with a little bacon ( sowbelly ) for breakfast, a lunch of bacon, bread and beans, and a dinner of stew, in which the potatoes outweighed the meat. While meat was often maggoty, the potatoes were always good and the beans always filling. A jigger of whiskey was supplied at the days end. Whiskey was, of course, part of any labor contract involving Irishmen, even those negotiated in the cities. The lodging the diggers were provided were army tents, circa War of 1812. They were of good size, but hardly comfortable, especially when a dozen men were crammed into each one. The canvas abodes were suffocating in summer; icebox cold in winter, wet in spring that one could drown in one; but lovely in the the autumn. The westward ho irishmen soon discovered it was not only the wear and tear on their back muscles that were dangerous, but the wear and tear on their insides by creatures they knew nothing about. Those invisible creatures came to be highly respected, if not feared, for they disabled more irishmen than all the back spasms ever suffered by men the world over. It is said that one worker, wrote his family in Ireland, telling about his life and job in the brave new world, " I don'y know dear ones, if any of us will survive, but God willing, we will live to see a better day. Six of my tentmates, died this very day and were stacked like cordwood until they could be taken away. Otherwse I am fine." This gentleman evidently had some upbringing, as although most of the canal diggers were largely illiterate, they provided those who could write a steady souce of added income, for many letters, were sent across the Atlantic. Though an inordinate number of irishmen died beside that 368 mile stretch of water, their passing was no more than a ripple in the construction that was the Erie Canal. No sooner would a irishman be buried in a shallow, unmarked grave, than two would show up and apply for his job. While it might be a tear for some, it was equally a stream of hope and ambition for others. It was that during the two years before the Erie Canal was completed in 1825, the main topic of conversation among the Irish who labored on it was that a new canal was rumored to be in the making. Best of all, it was to be in the nearby Ohio country and almost as long as the Erie, which meant at least eight years work with steady pay and no questions asked about one's ancestry. Things were lookng up for the survivors of the first big ditch. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To be continued in Tid Bits - part 54B -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 1431 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now! ______________________________ ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 00:52:33 -0400 From: "Ohio Archives EV1" To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <06c001c58ce6$d7c53700$0201a8c0@margaret> Subject: Fw: Tid Bits - Part 55. Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" To: Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2005 12:46 PM Subject: Tid Bits - Part 55. Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley June 10, 2005 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know your Ohio Tid Bits - part 55. Notes by S. Kelly Newspapers and Articles ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - Part 55 Early Newspaper Competition In the 1850's Mr. J.W. Gray was editor of the " Plain Dealer, " and Mr. J.A. Harris editor of the " Herald," there was great strife each year between the two newspapers to be first in printing the President's message. During a Whig administration, the editor of the Herald, who was a Whig in politics, got permission from the postoffice department to open a mail bag in transit, some distance from Cleveland, and take from the pouch a copy of the message, which on a fleet horse was quickly conveyed to the Herald office, and thus the Herald was able to appear with the message in its columns before the Plain Dealer had received its copy. This led to an angry discussion between the two papers. The Plain Dealer charged the editors of the Herald with rifling the mail; with filing off the lock on the mail pouch with a " rat-tail file." Soon a libel suit was brought by the Herald against the Plain Dealer. In one of the issues of the Plain Dealer, Mr. Gray claimed he could prove all he said, except perhaps, a " three-cornered file " had been used instead of a " rat-tail file," as he had charged; but if anyone could send him a rat, with a tail which was three-cornered instead instead of round, his defense would be complete. During the controversey the word " liar " frequently passed between the two papers and the readers of each concluded that both were telling the truth. While this was going on, one day the Plain Dealer had a local item saying that Mr. Richard Hilliard, a prominent merchant in the city, that morning had started for New York. Soon after the appearance of the paper, Mr. Gray met Mr. Hilliard on the street, when the following conversation is said to have taken place: Mr. Gray: " Why Dick.' in my paper today I have said that you had gone to New York, as you told me you were going; for God's sake don't let Harris see you here; if you do, I'm undone; he will prove me a liar," to which Mr. Hilliard is said to have responded: " Gray, I did expect to get away this morning for New York, but could not. As for you and Harris, from what I read in your papers, I believe you both liars, but to save you in this instance I will go home where I will stay out of sight until I can get away in the morning." Mr. Hilliard " got away" in the morning an with him he took, as Mr. Gray used to tell, a bottle of good old port. furnished at the expense of the Plain Dealer editor. +++++++++++++++++++++++ Eccentric Irad Kelley Mr. Irad Kelley for many years was a prominent character in Cleveland. He inherited a small property, which he managed well, added to, and in time became a man of considerable means. In 1814, he and his brother erected the first brick buildng in Cleveland, which then boasted of having twenty-four residence and business buildings. Before 1830, r. Kelley was village postmaster for many years. He was a man of about medium size, perhaps a little below the average, had rather a sharp face, and in his latter days his head was nearly bald. His movements were quick, and as he hurried about the street was sure to attract attention. Everybody knew " Irad." His eccentricities were quite observable. Several times, of his own volition, he was an independant candidate for congress. I remember, once at least, he carried one or more of the wards, and perhaps also some one or more of the townships. After the election, Mr.Gray, of the Plain Dealer, in a mirthful newspaper article insisted was the real repesentative of the parts of the district he had carried, and in all matters pertaining to them, should be consulted rather than the congressman elect. In fact, that it was the duty of Mr. Kelley to go to Washington when congress met, and remain there during the session. Mr. Kelley, when any matter came before the public for consideration, was always sure to be on the " off side." At one time he " hung" a jury for two days, and succeeded in preventing an agreement. When asked why the jury did not agree he replied, as the story went, " I agreed at once, but the other eleven hung out; they were the os stubborn lot of fellows I ever met." It was said that the foreman of the jury in giving an order for meals, called for ham and eggs for eleven men and a bale of hay for one mule. In 1854, a fence was put around the Public Square which very much displeased Mr. Kelley. In passing through the inclosure in a direction where there was no opening he was sure to jump the fence. Just before the spring election, 1855, he got out a large poster calling a meeting at the old court house, which stood on the southwest section of the Public Square, to nominate a municipal ticket, to be composed of men opposed to the fence, to which he so much objected. The court room was filled with people to witness the fun which was expected. Mr. Kelley was called to act as chairman. A committee, of which I was chairman, was appointed to make up a ticket. While the committee was out much amusement was created by the offering of various resolutions. Mr. Buchanan had just been nominated for president, and knowing that there were many more Democrats out of office than were in, thought to make a point by proclaiming in favor of rotation in office. This was caught up by some one at the Kelley meeting, who proposed this: " Resolved, that we believe in rotation in office; rotation from a poorer office to a better one, as exemplified in the whole political career of James Buchanan." This hit brought great applause, soon after which the committee on nominations made its appearance. The proposed ticket was read off commencing at the bottom with constable, for which some of Cleveland's most prominent men were named. So on up, persons were selected for office beneath their consideration or for which they were well known to be unfit. Finally the time for naming a man for mayor came, when with due gravity the chairman said the committee after much reflection and great labor, had come to the unanimous conclusion that the exigencies of the times, and the important problem to be met, called for the nomination of the Hon. Irad Kelley. Mr. Kelley who had for some time had been sitting apparently uneasy in his chair, for about the first time in his life, realized that he was being made the butt of ridicule, and he left the meeting much as though he was shot from a gun. ++++++++++++++++++++ An Old Time Song O Jabob, get the cows home and put them in the pen. For the cousins are a-coming to see us all again; The "dodgers" in the pan, and the turkey's on the fire, And we all must get ready for Cousin Jedediah. Now Obed, wash your face, boy, and tallow up your shoes, While I go see Aunt Betty, and tell her all the news; And Kitty slick your hair, and put on your Sunday gown, For Cousin Jedediah comes right from Boston town. And Job you peel the onions, and wash and fix the taters, We'll have them on the table in those shiny painted waiters, Put on your bran' new boots and those trousers with the straps, Aunt Sophia'll take a shine to you, if you look real slick, perhaps. Tell Josh to put the colt in the double-seted chaise, Let him just card down the cattle, give them a little hay, I'll wear my nice bell-crown I bought of old Uriah, And I guess we'll astonish our Cousin Jedediah. Chorus: There's Hezekiah and Azariah and Aunt Sophia and Jedediah, All coming here to tea. Oh! won't we have a jolly time, Oh! won't we have a jolly time, Jerusha put the kettle on, we'll all take tea. ++++++++++++++++ Rates of Postage in Cleveland 1837/ 38 On Letters.--- 61/4 cents for any distance not exceeding 30 miles; 10 cents, if over 30 and not exceeding 80 miles; 12 1/2 cents, if over 80 and not exceeding 150 miles; 18 3/4 cents, if over 150 and not exceeding 400 miles; 25 cents if over 400 miles. Double letters are charged double, treble letters, treble, and quadruple letters, quadruple these rates. Postage on heavier packages in proportion. On Newspapers.--- Not carried over 100 miles, or for any distance within the state where they are printed, one cent each. If carried over 100 miles, and out of state where they are printed, One and a half cents each. Periodicals, Pamphlets and Magazines.--- Carried not over 100 miles, one cent a sheet; carried over 100 miles two cents a sheet. Those not periodicals, 100 miles or less, 4 cents a sheet; over 100 miles, 6 cents a sheet. No deduction will be made on postage on letters charged double, treble, or quadruple, unless they are opened in the presence of the postmaster, ot his assistant, or someone belonging to the office. ++++++++++++++++++ The Churchman and the Shaker The shakers formed a settlement to the southwest of the city in the suburbs now often called " Shaker Heights." The Shakers, as well known, according to their religious faith, never marry or have children. About the time they formed their settlement near Cleveland, the following lines appeared in a Cleveland newspaper: Churchman. " Salvation is of us the bigot cried Accept and live, or perish in your pride! Salvation is of us-- we are the church; Seek Heaven here, or else give up the search." Shaker. " How many Reverend sir, are on your roll, Of all earth's millions spead pole to pole?" Churchman. " Why, one in twenty thousand, less or more, Is seeking Heaven through ours, only door." Shaker. " If none but you are saved, and all else damned, Then Heaven runs no risk of being cramed; But, of those few, who form your congregation, How many souls are certain of Salvation?" Churchman. " Not one in five suceeding in his search, Finds a new heart, repents, and join the church." Shaker. " Art thou married ?" Churchman " Yes, thank God ! I have a wife, And ten dear children, blessings of my life." Shaker. " Oh worse than brute! Slave of unhollowed lust; Against such odds, to raise up souls from dust; Does not thy conscience smite thee, thus to have given Eight souls to hell and only two to Heaven? If human nature be indeed so base, Why do you thus perpetuate the race? Either the doctrines taught by thee are evil, Or thou art but a panderer to the devil, Oh how can peace witin thy bosem swell Recruiting sergeant to the ranks of hell? Go then enlarge your schem for man's salvation, Or, else, in God's name, cease your propagation." +++++++++++++++++ MR. LINCOLN ARRIVES IN CLEVELAND. February 15, 1861 at 4 o'clock p.m. Mr Abraham Lincoln arrived in Cleveland from Pittsburg by the C.& P. R.R., on his way to Washington to assume his duties as President. As the train was sighted the Cannon began to boom. A great con- course of people had assembled at the Euclid Avenue station, and down Euclid Avenue to the Weddell House. Mr. Lincoln was placed in an open carriage drawn by four white horses. The Cleveland Grays, four artillery companies, the Cleveland Light Dragoons, Phoenix Engine Company No. 4. and a large number of carriages, formed the procession. The weather was raw and the streets covered with mud and snow. Te hotel was reached about five o'clock, where twenty-four rooms had been reserved for Mr. Lincoln and his party. Soon after arriving at the Weddell, the President-elect appeared on the balcony. Hon. I.U. Masters, President of the City Council, on behalf of the city, and Hon. Sherlock J.Andrews, on behalf of the Citizens' Committee, delivered addresses of welcome. Mr. Lincoln in his reply said that there was no reason why any portion of the Union should bet excited, and intimated that nothing would be done by his administration calculated to interfere with the lawful rights of the Southern people. He called upon the people to stand by the Union, saying, " If all don't join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage." After his speech several bouquets and floral wreaths were presented him. In the evening there was a general reception. Gen. John Crowell, nearly as tall as Mr. Lincoln, and Col. George Mygatt, presented the people. The Grays acted as bodyguard and kept order in the hotel. Mr. Lincoln left on the morning train for Buffalo, the Grays forming an escort to the Union depot. The line of march was down Superior Street, Union Lane and River Street. Messrs. George S. Benedict and H.S. Whittlesey headed a party of young men, about forty in number, on horseback, who, placing young Robert T. Lincoln on a fine horse, escorted him in procession to the Weddell House. In the morning he rode to the depot in the carriage with Mr.Wm. Edwards and Mr.Neil Dennison, the latter of Columbus. Thus the great and beloved Abraham Lincoln came to visit, honoring our city and people, and went from Cleveland to his all important duties. We are greatly honored Mr. President ! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits to be continued in part 56. -- I am using the free version of SPAMfighter for private users. It has removed 1431 spam emails to date. Paying users do not have this message in their emails. Try www.SPAMfighter.com for free now! -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V05 Issue #98 ******************************************