To keep the commissary supplied was no easy problem in the new settlement. Sometimes they ate boiled rattlesnake in default of anything better. On one occasion, while the little band of settlers was assembled in prayer in one of the log cabins, someone espied a bear swimming across the Cuyahoga River. The coming of the bear was looked upon as providential, and the congregation suspended the prayer-meeting, killed the bear, and then returned to their devotions.
Capt. Cleaveland's plans for his new settlement were ambitious, and he built a number of substantial roads through the forests, usually following the old Indian trails, now the right of way of the New York Central and other lines. With the opening of the Ohio Canal to the Ohio River (1832), Cleveland became the natural outlet on Lake Erie for Ohio's extensive agricultural and mineral products. The discovery and commercial exploitation (beginning about 1840) of large deposits of iron ore in the Lake Superior region placed Cleveland in a strategic position between these vast ore fields and the coal and oil resources of Ohio, Pa., and W. Va., and it is from this time that the city's great commercial importance really dates.
In 1836 Cleveland had been chartered as a city. The name, though chosen in honour of Capt. Cleaveland, had been abbreviated to its present form some years before. Tradition credits the changed form to a newspaper which left out the letter "a" in order to make the word fit a headline.
The building of the railways during the decade 1850-1860, and the stimulus to industry during the Civil War, when Cleveland supplied large quantities of iron products and clothing to the government, gave impetus to the city's growth. With a population of only 1,076 in 1830 and 6,071 in 1840, Cleveland had become in 1870 a city of 92,829 (more than double its population in 1860). Thirty years later (1900) the population had grown to 381,768 and in 1920 it was 796,836, an increase of 42 per cent over 1910.
The later history of Cleveland has been distinguished for some notable experiments in city planning, popular education and municipal ownership (particularly with respect to street railways). The street railway situation had been a source of trouble ever since 1899, when a strike of serious proportions occurred. Mobs attacked the cars, some of which were blown up with dynamite. In 1901 Tom Johnson was first elected mayor, and, largely as a result of his advocacy, municipal ownership became a greater issue in Cleveland than in any other great city in the country.
Tom Johnson (1854-1911) was a successful business man who entered politics on a reform platform. He was an ardent single-taxer, and in spite of the fact that he was financially interested in street railways, steel plants and other industries, a staunch advocate of municipal ownership. He served as mayor of Cleveland for 4 successive terms (from 1901 to 1909) and was later elected to Congress. Single Taxers were much pleased by his strategy in getting an entire book—Henry George's Progress and Poverty—printed in the Congressional Record.
Johnson and his followers demanded a 3-cent fare on the street railways and in 1906 it was actually put into effect. The private owners were compelled in 1908 to lease their property to a municipal holding company, but in 1910 (after Johnson's defeat for re-election in the preceding year), the street railway system was leased to a new corporation, the rate of fare under the new arrangement to be based on an adequate return to the investors.
Cleveland was the home of Mark Hanna who became famous in national Republican politics.
Marcus A. Hanna was born in Lisbon, Ohio, in 1837, removed with his father in 1852 to Cleveland, where he graduated from Western Reserve University, and in 1867 entered into partnership with his father-in-law (Daniel P. Rhodes) in the coal and iron business. Under Hanna's guidance the business prospered enormously, but it was not till somewhat late in life that he became prominent in Republican affairs in Cleveland. As chairman of the National Republican Committee in 1896 he managed with great skill the campaign against Bryan and free silver, and came to be acknowledged as a leader of great adroitness, tact, and resource. He entered the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 1898, and was one of the principal advisers of the McKinley administration. He took a vital interest in problems affecting labor and capital and was one of the organizers in 1901 and first president of the National Civic Federation. He died in 1904 at Washington.
The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce has done much in the betterment of local politics. It was also instrumental in 1902 in securing the adoption of the "Group Plan" by which some of the principal public buildings are arranged in a quadrangle on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. Cleveland appropriated $25,000,000 to promote the plan. On one side of the quadrangle (nearest the lake) are the courthouse and city hall; on the opposite side and 2,000 ft. south are the post office and library ($2,500,000). There is to be a Mall 600 ft. wide, with public buildings on either side, connecting the court-house and city hall with the post office and library. The granite buildings forming this quadrangle were designed under the supervision of Arnold Brunner, John M. Carrere and D.H. Burnham.