Although Dr. Seelye is not engaged conspicuously in public charities, few hands are so frequently open as his to the wants of the poor. Great comprehensiveness of intellect, an indomitable energy, a rare penetration and control over other minds, combined with an unblemished integrity of character, have given him a high reputation among physicians in the West.
[Illustration: Water Corm.]
Manufacturing
With neither water power nor steam power very little can be done in the way of manufacturing. Cleveland, until the construction of the Ohio canal, was without either of those two requisites for a manufacturing point. The Cuyahoga river, though giving abundant water power along a considerable portion of its course, enters Cleveland as a slow moving stream, winding its sluggish way in so tortuous a course that it seems reluctant to lose its identity in the waters of the lake. Water power, under such circumstances, is out of the question, and, as with no coal, and a rapidly decreasing supply of wood, steam cannot be economically used for manufacturing purposes, the people of Cleveland turned their attention wholly to buying and selling instead of producing.
The construction of the Ohio canal to the coal fields of Summit county opened the eyes of the more enterprising citizens to the possibilities of a great future for Cleveland as a manufacturing city. No sooner had the canal reached Akron, and an experimental shipment of coal been made to the future city--with but poor success, as already narrated--than attention was called to the importance of the new field thus opened to Cleveland enterprise. On the 7th of March, 1828; a letter appeared in the Cleveland Herald, from which the following is an extract:
"We possess, beyond a doubt, decided advantages over Buffalo, or any other town on Lake Erie, in our contiguity to inexhaustible beds of pit-coal and iron ore, very justly considered the basis of all manufacturing. On the one hand, at the distance of about thirty miles, we can obtain any quantity of crude iron of an excellent quality, while, on the other, at about the same distance, we have access by canal to exhaustless mines of coal of good quality. This last most invaluable, and all important article in manufacturing, can not be obtained anywhere else on the Lakes without the extra expense of shifting from canal-boats to other craft.
"When these mines shall have become extensively worked, coal will be delivered in this place very little, if any, above that paid in Pittsburgh, say from four to six cents; and good pig-iron can and is now delivered at a less price here than in Pittsburgh. Doctor Cooper further says: 'The very basis of all profitable manufacturing is, plenty of fuel, easily, cheaply and permanently procurable;--the next desirable object is plenty of iron ore; iron being the article upon which every other manufacture depends. It is to the plentiful distribution of these two commodities that Great Britain is chiefly indebted for the pre-eminence of her manufactures and her commerce.' Surely it need not be thought strange that Cleveland must one day become a great manufacturing place, if we consider,
"First, That the canal will give us access to one of the finest portions of country in the United States, sufficient for vending, to almost any extent, articles such as might be manufactured here;--and, Secondly, That power and materials in great abundance are 'easily, cheaply and permanently procurable.' There is probably not a town in the Western country, Pittsburgh only excepted, that unites these two objects so happily as this place does.
"Every steam-engine wanted for boats on the Lake, for mills and factories near the Lake, and on and near the canal should be made at this point.
"Not a pound of nails, a wagon-tire, an anchor, a cable, a cast-iron stove, pot, kettle, ploughshare, or any article made of cast-iron--a yard of coarse cotton, a gallon of beer, an ax, a shovel, nor a spade, should be sent east for. There ought to be in full operation before the completion of our canal, at least one steam engine manufactory, one establishment for puddling iron, one rolling and slitting mill, and nail factory, two or three iron foundries, in addition to the one now going into operation under very favorable auspices, a cotton factory, a woolen factory, a steam grist and saw mill, a brewery, &c."