In 1830, the firm of Giddings, Baldwin & Co., which had succeeded that of Merwin & Baldwin, contained seven partners, of whom Mr. Baldwin is the only survivor. The business was mainly forwarding and commission, the forwarding being mostly by canal. The firm was one of the most important on the lakes, owning a line of boats, the Troy and Erie, from Portsmouth, on the Ohio river, to New York In those days the canal lines carried passengers as well as freight, the boats usually taking about thirty passengers and one thousand bushels of wheat. For emigrants, of whom many were pouring into the West, special boats were fitted up with accommodations, such as they were, for about a hundred and fifty passengers. In 1836, Mr. Baldwin left the mercantile business altogether, and thereafter devoted his attention to operations in real estate.
As illustrating the growth of the city and the consequent increasing value of city property, Mr. Baldwin relates having purchased in 1833 three parcels of land, neither of which cost over two thousand dollars, which are now estimated to be worth half a million of dollars each. In 1831, he was offered, in the course of his operations, a strip of land fronting on Superior street and running back to the canal, with a comfortable frame house thereon, for one thousand dollars. The price looked high and Mr. Baldwin, distrusting his own judgment, consulted 'Squire Cowles, then a prominent attorney. Mr. Cowles hesitated, thought the investment somewhat risky, although they might live to see the land worth thirty dollars a foot front. Heeding his own fears, which were not abated by the doubtful opinion of his adviser, Mr. Baldwin refused to purchase. That same land is worth now not merely thirty dollars a foot, but equivalent to three or four thousand dollars a foot front.
As showing the condition of the roads around Cleveland, and the mode of traveling in the early days of its history, it is narrated by Mr. Baldwin, that when living in Hudson he was fond of good horses and kept a team of which he was proud. The distance between Hudson and Cleveland was but twenty-four miles, but that distance had never been done in one day by any team. Mr. Baldwin thought the time had come for performing the feat, and accordingly set out on the journey. Just at tea time he drew rein in front of Merwin's tavern, at the corner of Superior street and Vineyard lane, and shouted to the landlord. The guests had just seated themselves to tea when Mr. Merwin rushed into the room in a state of great excitement, exclaiming, "For God's sake, gentlemen, come out and see a team that has been driven from Hudson to-day!" The guests left the table in a hurry and rushed to the door, scarcely crediting their own eyes.
Mr. Baldwin was married in 1829, and lost his wife in the Spring of 1867. Of this marriage there are now six children living and three dead. One son, Norman A., is engaged in agriculture in the neighborhood of the city.
Leverett Alcott.
Leverett Alcott was born in Walcott, New Haven county, Connecticut, in 1820. From early boyhood his taste was for mercantile pursuits. At the age of seventeen he obtained a position in an extensive country store at Bristol Basin, on the Farmington Canal, (now Plainville.) By diligence and perseverance, he was soon promoted from the duties of errand boy to a responsible position, and in course of time stood at the head of all the clerks in the establishment.
For the benefit of neophytes in commercial life, it may not be uninteresting to state how boys were made merchants in those days, and the remuneration they received for services. They were not (as is too often the case at the present time) transformed in a few months from crude green boys to merchants, but were obliged to learn the business by actual experience. An arrangement was made in this case for three years, on the following conditions: fifty dollars for the first year, seventy-five dollars for the second year, and one hundred dollars for the third and last year, with board in his employer's family. With this modest salary it required the utmost care and rigid economy to clothe and keep himself; but where there's a will there's a way, and the economy thus practiced in early life was no detriment in laying the foundation for a sound business career in after life. After having fulfilled his engagement with his employer, he spent some three years of mercantile life at the South, but the customs of the country, and the barbarous system of slavery were so repulsive to his feelings that he abandoned that field for the more congenial and prospectively profitable activities of the West, and in December, 1842, landed at Medina, in this State. In the Spring of 1845, a mercantile copartnership was formed with Mr. Augustus W. North, under the firm name of North & Alcott. During the subsequent Fall he married Miss Mary A. Williams, with the view of permanently settling at that place, but the mercantile prospects, and the growth of the town not appearing satisfactory to his views, the firm of North & Alcott was dissolved and the business discontinued, to be reconstructed and opened in a wider field and on a broader basis. Accordingly, in the Spring of 1849, (just twenty years ago,) a business arrangement was entered into with his present partner, Mr. Burrett W. Horton, a former school mate, under the firm name of Alcott & Horton. The business was to be the retailing of dry goods, and located at 177 Superior street, in Harrington's Block. The beginning was a moderate one, with a very limited capital, but what was lacking in capital was made up in energy, industry and perseverance. At first a retail trade only was contemplated, which was continued some four years, when the rapid growth of the city and increase of business induced them to open a wholesale department in the lofts of their store. Subsequently they closed their retail business and occupied the whole building for their jobbing trade; but their apartments were soon found to be too strait for their rapidly growing trade, and in August, 1855, they removed to the large new store, No. 141, in Clark's Block.
Mr. Alcott has a knowledge of human nature that imparts a keen perception of the character and motives of men, and hence, almost instinctively knows whom to trust. He is also quick in forming his judgment, ready in the adaptation of means to secure an end, vigorously prosecutes his plans, and seldom fails of a successful issue.
In a young and vigorous country like the United States, where so many opportunities are offered to ambition and laudable enterprise, and where too often, everything else but gold is lost sight of, it is refreshing to find some among our heaviest merchants, who recognize the fact, that man "cannot live by bread alone." Mr. Alcott, through all his active life has found time to attend to his religious duties. He has been for a long time connected with the Second Presbyterian Church, and for many years one of its elders. He was formerly President of the Young Men's Christian Association; actively engaged in missionary Sunday School work in the city--taking a lively interest in all Christian labor; a ready and willing giver toward public improvements, and all benevolent enterprises.