Moses Cleaveland

Gen. Moses Cleaveland (January 29, 1754 – November 16, 1806) was a lawyer, politician, soldier, and surveyor from Connecticut who founded the city of Cleveland, Ohio, while surveying the Connecticut Western Reserve in 1796.

Moses Cleaveland
General Moses Cleaveland
Born(1754-01-29)January 29, 1754
Canterbury, Windham County, Connecticut Colony
DiedNovember 16, 1806(1806-11-16) (aged 52)
Canterbury, Connecticut
Known forFounder of Cleveland, Ohio
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Early life

Cleaveland was born in Canterbury, Connecticut Colony, to Colonel Aaron Cleaveland (1725–1785) and Thankful Cleaveland (1733–1822). He studied law at Yale College, graduating in 1777. He was commissioned as an ensign in the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army in 1777 during the American Revolution. In 1779, he was promoted to captain of a company of "sappers and miners" (combat engineers) in the newly formed Corps of Engineers.[1]:14 He resigned from the army on June 7, 1781, and started a legal practice in Canterbury.

Militia career

Cleaveland was a member of the Connecticut convention that ratified the United States Constitution. He was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly several times and was commissioned brigadier general of militia in 1796. He was a shareholder in the Connecticut Land Company which had purchased land from Connecticut located in northeastern Ohio for $1,200,000. The land was reserved to Connecticut by Congress and was initially known as New Connecticut, but it came to be known as the Western Reserve.[1]:9

Cleaveland was approached by the directors of the company in May 1796 and asked to lead the survey of the tract and the location of purchases. He was also responsible for the negotiations with the Indians living on the land. In June 1796, he set out from Schenectady, New York. His party was composed of 50 people, including six surveyors, a physician, a chaplain, a boatman, 37 employees, a few emigrants, and two women who accompanied their husbands. Some journeyed by land with the horses and cattle, while the main body went in boats up the Mohawk River, down the Oswego River, along the shore of Lake Ontario, and up the Niagara River, carrying their boats over the seven-mile portage at Niagara Falls.[1]:10

Personal life

Cleaveland married Esther Champion on March 2, 1797, with whom he had four children.[2]

Founding of Cleveland

At Buffalo, a delegation of Mohawk and Seneca Indians opposed the party's entrance into the Western Reserve, claiming it as their territory, but they waived their rights on the receipt of goods valued at $1,200. The expedition then coasted along the shore of Lake Erie and landed at the mouth of Conneaut Creek on July 4, 1796, which they named Port Independence. Nearby Indians were upset at the encroachment on their land, but they were appeased with gifts of beads and whiskey and allowed the surveys to proceed.[1]:11

General Cleaveland coasted along the shore with a surveying party and landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River on July 22, 1796. He ascended the bank and determined that the spot was a favorable site for a city, with the river on the west and Lake Erie on the north.[1]:12 He had it surveyed into town lots, and the employees named the place Cleaveland in his honor. There were four settlers the first year, and growth was slow initially, reaching only 150 inhabitants in 1820.[1]:12 Cleaveland went home to Connecticut after the 1796 expedition and never returned to Ohio or the city that bears his name. He died in Canterbury, Connecticut,[1]:13 where he is also buried, but a statue of him stands in the Cleveland Public Square.

The settlement of "Cleaveland" eventually became known as "Cleveland". One theory is that Cleaveland's surveying party misspelled the name on their original map.[3]

Commemorations

Notes
  1. Cleveland, H. G. (1885). An Account of the Lineage of General Moses Cleaveland, of Canterbury (Wyndham County), Conn: The Founder of the City of Cleveland, Ohio (with Portrait). William W. Williams.
  2. Case Western Reserve University. Encyclopaedia of Cleveland History.
  3. "Moses Cleaveland - Ohio History Central - A product of the Ohio Historical Society". Ohio History Central. 2005-07-01. Retrieved 2012-11-08.

References

Attribution

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