Cleveland Past and Present | Page 5

hand, and Ohio City, therefore, took
precedence on point of age. This tended to embitter the jealous rivalry
between the two cities, and it was only after long years that this feeling
between the dwellers on the two sides of the river died out.
The settlement on the west side of the river had been made originally
by Josiah Barber and Richard Lord. Soon after Alonzo Carter

purchased on that side of the river and kept tavern in the "Red House,"
opposite Superior street. In 1831, the Buffalo Company purchased the
Carter farm which covered the low land towards the mouth of the river,
and the overlooking bluffs. They covered the low ground with
warehouses, and the bluffs with stores and residences. Hotels were
erected and preparations made for the building up of a city that should
far eclipse the older settlement on the east side of the river. The
company excavated a short ship canal from the Cuyahoga to the old
river bed, at the east end, and the waters being high, a steamboat passed
into the lake, through a natural channel at the west end.
When it was proposed to get a city charter for Cleveland, negotiations
were entered into between the leading men on both sides of the river
with the purpose of either consolidating the two villages into one city,
or at least acting in harmony. The parties could agree neither on terms
of consolidation nor on boundaries. The negotiations were broken off,
and each side started its deputation to Columbus to procure a city
charter, with the result we have already noticed.
Ohio City was ambitions to have a harbor of its own, entirely
independent of Cleveland and to the advantages of which that city
could lay no claim. The old river bed was to be deepened and the
channel to the lake at the west end re-opened. As a preliminary to this
ignoring of the Cleveland harbor entrance of the Cuyahoga, a canal was
cut through the marsh, from opposite the entrance to the Ohio canal to
the old river bed, which was thus to be made the terminus of the Ohio
canal.
In 1837, city rivalry ran so high that it resulted in the "battle of the
bridge." Both sides claimed jurisdiction over the Columbus street
bridge built by Mr. Clark and donated for public use. Armed men
turned out on either side to take possession of the disputed structure. A
field piece was posted on the low ground on the Cleveland side, to rake
the bridge. Guns, pistols, crowbars, clubs and stones were freely used
on both sides. Men were wounded of both parties, three of them
seriously. The draw was cut away, the middle pier and the western
abutment partially blown down, and the field piece spiked by the west
siders. But the sheriff and the city marshal of Cleveland appeared on
the scene, gained possession of the dilapidated bridge, which had been
given to the city of Cleveland, and lodged some of the rioters in thee

county jail. This removed the bridge question from the camp and
battle-field to the more peaceful locality of the courts.
In 1840, the population had increased to 6071, so that, notwithstanding
that the city had been suffering from depression, there was an influx of
a thousand persons in the last five years.
In 1841, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal was completed, Connecting
the Ohio Canal at Akron with the Ohio river at Beaver, Pennsylvania,
and thus forming a water communication with Pittsburgh.
The United States Marine Hospital, pleasantly situated on the banks of
the lake, was commenced in 1844 and not completed until 1852. It is
surrounded by eight acres of ground, and is designed to accommodate
one hundred and forty patients.
In 1845, the city voted to loan its credit for $200,000 towards the
construction of a railroad from Cleveland to Columbus and Cincinnati,
and subsequently the credit of the city was pledged for the loan of
$100,000 towards the completion of the Cleveland and Erie or Lake
Shore line.
In 1851, the 23d of February, the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati
Railroad was opened for travel; and on the same day forty miles of the
Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad was likewise completed. These
circumstances produced great rejoicings, for during the period of their
construction the city had been almost daily adding to the number of its
inhabitants, so that it had nearly doubled in the last six years, its
population being now 21,140, and in the following year (1852) it added
eighty-seven persons per week to its numbers, being then 25,670.
In 1858, the new court house was built and the old court house on the
Public Square was taken down.
We have thus glanced at a few of the leading incidents in the history