Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men / Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens

by Unknown

But the groundless scare of the impecunious Major was a trifling affair compared with the grand scare that overtook the whole people along the lake in the autumn of 1812, at the time of Hull's surrender One day a fleet of vessels was seen bearing down upon the coast. It was first noticed in the vicinity of Huron by a woman. No sooner had she seen the vessels bearing down towards the coast from the westward, than she rushed into the house, emptied her feather bed and placed the tick on a horse as a pack-saddle; then catching up one child before her and another behind, she rode at the top of the animal's speed, thinking torture and death lay behind her. Whenever she passed a house she raised an alarm, and at two o'clock in the morning, more dead than alive with terror and fatigue, she urged her jaded horse into the village of Cleveland, screaming at the top of her voice, "The British and Indians are coming! The British and Indians are coming!" Men slept lightly at that time, with their senses attent to every sound of danger. The shrieks of the woman and the dreaded notice of the approach of the merciless foe awoke the whole village and curdled the blood of the villagers with horror. In that brief announcement, "The British and Indians are coming," were concentrated possibilities of frightful outrage, carnage and devastation. Wild with the terror of her long and agonized night ride, the woman reiterated her piercing warning again and again, filling the air with her shouts. A chorus of voices, from the childish treble to the deep bass of the men, swelled the volume of sound and added to the confusion and alarm. In a few minutes every house was empty, and the entire population of the village swarmed around the exhausted woman and heard her brief story, broken by gasps for breath and by hysterical sobs. She insisted that a fleet was bearing down upon the coast with the purpose of spreading carnage and devastation along the whole lake frontier, that the vessels were crowded with British troops and merciless savages, and that before long the musket bail, the torch and the scalping knife would seek their victims among the inhabitants of Cleveland.

At once all was hurry; the entire population prepared for speedy flight. The greater part took to the woods in the direction of Euclid, the women and children being guarded by some of the men, the others remaining to reconnoiter, and, if possible, defend their property. As soon as the non-fighting portion of the settlement was cared for, a picked force of twenty-five men, contributed by Cleveland, Euclid and Newburgh, marched to the mouth of the river and kept guard. It was evening when this little army reached the river, and for hours after dark they patrolled the banks, listening intently for the approach of the enemy. About two o'clock in the morning a vessel was heard entering the river; the guards hastily gathered for the attack, but before firing, hailed the supposed foe; an answering hail was returned. "Who are you, and what have you on board?" shouted the river guards. "An American vessel loaded with Hull's troops!" was the reply. The astounded guard burst into laughter at their absurd scare. The alarm spread with greater swiftness than the report of the facts, and for days armed men came pouring into Cleveland from so far as Pittsburgh, prepared to beat back the enemy that existed only in their imagination.

It was during this year that the Indian, Omic, was hung for participating in the murder of the trappers, Gibbs and Wood, near Sandusky, in return for the shelter given by the trappers to their two murderers. After committing the murder, the Indians set fire to the hut, and the flames became the instrument of their capture, for some boys returning from Cold Creek Mill saw the fire, went to it, and discovered the partly consumed bodies of the murdered men. The murderers were demanded from the Indians, and Omic was captured by them and surrendered.

The prisoner was lodged in Major Carter's house until the trial which was held under a cherry tree at the corner of Water and Superior streets. Alfred Kelly prosecuted for the State, and Johnson was one of the jury. Omic was convicted and sentenced to be hung. Johnson, who sat on the jury that condemned him, was now employed to build the gallows to hang the criminal. When Omic was led out by Sheriff Baldwin to execution, he remarked that the gallows was too high. He then called for whisky and drank half a pint, which loosened his tongue, and he talked rapidly and incoherently, threatening to return in two days and wreak his revenge on all the pale-faces. More liquor was given him, and he asked for more, but Judge Walworth denounced the giving him more, that he might die drunk, as an outrage, and his supply of liquor was therefore stopped.

Time being up, Sheriff Baldwin was about to cut the drop-rope, when he saw that the condemned man had clutched the rope over his head to save his neck from being broken. The Sheriff dismounted from his horse, climbed up the gallows and tied the prisoner's hands more firmly behind his back. The gallows was braced, and Omic contrived to clutch one of the braces with his hands, fastened behind his back as they were, as he fell when the drop-rope was cut. He hung in that position for some time, until his strength gave way and he swung off. When he had hung sufficiently long, the by-standers drew him to the cross-beam of the gallows, when the rope broke and the body of the wretched murderer fell into his open grave beneath.

In the same year Mr. Johnson was path-master of Cleveland, and he retains in his possession the list of names of those who did work on the roads in that year, armed with good and sufficient shovels according to law.

Mr. Johnson's success as a ship-builder encouraged him to persevere in that business. In the autumn of 1815, he laid down the lines of the schooner Neptune, sixty-five tons burden, not far below the neighborhood of the Central market. In the following Spring she was launched, and run on Lake Erie, her first trip being to Buffalo, whence she returned with a cargo of merchandise for Jonathan Williamson, of Detroit. In the Fall of that year a half interest in the Neptune was sold to Richard H. Blinn, Seth Doan, and Dr. Long. In 1817, she made a trip to Mackinac, for the American Fur Company, and remained in that trade until the Fall of 1819.

In the Summer of 1818, Major Edwards, Paymaster Smith, and another army officer came to Mackinac on the Tiger, and engaged Mr. Johnson to take them to Green Bay, agreeing to pay him three hundred dollars for the trip. The same vessel, under Johnson's command, took the first load of troops from Green Bay to Chicago, after the massacre, Major Whistler engaging the ship for the purpose.

In 1824, Johnson left the Neptune, and in company with Turhooven & Brothers, built the steamer Enterprise, about two hundred and twenty tons burden. This was the first steam vessel built in Cleveland, and her hull was made near the site of the Winslow warehouse. The engine, of sixty to seventy horse power, was brought from Pittsburgh. Johnson ran her between Buffalo and Detroit until 1828, when hard times coming on and business threatening to be unprofitable, he sold his interest in her, and left the lakes. In company with Goodman and Wilkeson, he built the Commodore, on the Chagrin river, in the year 1830, and that closed his ship-building career.

By this time he had accumulated about thirty thousand dollars, a respectable fortune in those days, with which he invested largely in real estate, and waited the course of events to make his investments profitable.