Adams, Josiah Barber, Mrs. Eliza Harris Chapman, Thomas Davis, Erastus F. Gaylord, W. C. Johnson, Mrs. Catharine Lemen, Caleb Morgan, Hon. George Mygatt, W. P. Cook, Mrs. D. W. Lamb, Rev. A. McReynolds, Hon. N. P. Payne, Alexander Sacket, T. P. Spencer, Mrs. Louisa Kellogg, F. Weidenkoff, George Angell, Homer Strong, Mrs. M. A. Gayton, Levi Kerr, Mrs. Julia I. Warner, Jonas S. Welch, William Fuller, Amanda Ferris, and Charles Crosby, an honorary member. THOMAS CORLETT, CHAPLAIN. The report was followed by instrumental music, a sweet plaintive air, rendered by the German orchestra. RESOLUTIONS. On motion the following resolutions were adopted: Resolved, That our present executive committee of five be increased to seven, and that Wilson S. Dodge and Solon Burgess be, and they are hereby appointed additional members of said committee. Resolved, That said Executive committee be requested to meet within ten days and organize by electing a chairman and secretary, and proceed to secure the erection of a monument in honor of Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the founder of the city of Cleveland, to be placed, the city council permitting, in the central park of the city, the pedestal of said monument to be granite, ten feet high, surmounted with a life-size bronze statue of the general, and having first procured a lithograph of the design, with an estimate of actual cost, proceed to solicit subscriptions from the citizens generally to defray the expense, and when a sufficient amount has been subscribed, contract for the monument as herein suggested, and report results to the next annual meeting of this association. Resolved, That David L. Wightman be and he is hereby appointed Marshal of the Day, of the Early Settlers' association, whose duty it shall be to see that its exercises and arrangements at its annual meetings are conducted in such orderly manner as will best promote the comfort and enjoyment of its members. Resolved, That the secretary be requested to prepare and publish in the next number of the Annals a complete index to the six numbers of the Annals that will then have been issued, giving page and number. On leave, H. M. Addison introduced the following resolution which was read and referred to the executive committee.— Resolved, That this association caused to be prepared an engraved certificate of membership, a copy of which shall be furnished to each member. ELECTION OF OFFICERS. On motion the following officers were elected for the ensuing year : President, Hon. Harvey Rice. Secretary, Thomas Jones Jr. Chaplain, Rev. Thomas Corlett. Marshal of the Day, David L. Wightman. Executive Committee, George F. Marshall, R. T. Lyons, Darius Adams, John H. Sargeant, M. M. Spangler, Wilson S. Dodge and Solon Burgess. WHAT I REMEMBER. A PAPER READ BY JOHN H. SARGENT. MR. PRESIDENT : The second decade of the present century may fairly be said to form the lowest strata of civilization in Cuyahoga county. Among the upper beds of that formation I find myself. In the spring of 1818, Levi Sargent stowed himself, wife and four children away in the hold of a little schooner, at the mouth of the River Raisin, now Monroe, Michigan, and ran down to the little hamlet at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. We came to anchor off the mouth of the sand-barred entrance, and were taken to the shore in lighters. After a short sojourn at the then Grand Hotel of the place, Noble H. Merwin's-where we children had for our playmates, George, Gus and Minerva Merwin, the eldest of whom, George, is still one of us-we domiciled ourselves with "Uncle Abram on Euclid street, near what is now Bond street-" Levi" (being also a blacksmith) and "Abram" struck their irons while they were hot together on Superior street, near where the Weddell house now stands. It becoming necessary to swarm, we soon after moved into a little red house on Water street, about where the Board of Trade building now stands. The notorious Wm. G. Taylor, also from "River Raisin," came soon after and built a palace, for those times, on Water street, overlooking the lake. Orlando Cutter dealt out groceries and provisions at the top of Superior lane, looking up Superior street to the woods in and beyond the public square, and I still remember the sweets from his mococks of Indian sugar. Nathan Perry sold dry goods, Walsworth made hats, and Tewell repaired old watches on Superior street. Dr. Long dealt out ague cures from a little frame house nearly opposite Bank street, at first; but not long after from a stone house that stood a little back from Superior street, about where Baldwin's store now is. His daughter Mary, now Mrs. Severance, we have still among us; his son Solon died young. These, with his ward, Catharine Phelps, were among our schoolmates, in a little two-roomed schoolhouse, standing on St. Clair street, where the central fire department now is. This house sufficed for the whole town, both sides of the river The "Ox Bow, Cleveland centre," was then a densely wooded swamp. Alonzo Carter lived on the west side of the river, opposite the foot of Superior lane. He was a great hunter; with his hounds he would drive the deer onto the sand spit between the lake and the old river bed, where they would take to the water, when Carter's unerring aim would convert them into venison. Brooklyn township was originally owned by Samuel P. Lord of Connecticut, and his son-in-law, Josiah Barber, came at about that time to occupy the land. He built a log house on what is now the corner of Pearl and Franklin streets. This log house gave way about 1825 to the first brick house west of the river-my present residence. Josiah Barber became one of the men of mark in the new settlement. He was one of the fathers of the Episcopal church, especially west of the river. He also established there its first manufactory—a distillery— and was elected successively justice of the peace and judge of the court, and in company with his brother-in-law, Richard Lord, gave the village of Brooklyn, now the West Side, its first boom. Of Levi Sargent "Greelyized" and crossed over to Brooklyn in 1819, and built there its first smithy, and one of the first frame houses on Pearl street, near Franklin. Himself and his wife lived to the good old age of eighty-four. A son was born to them in 1819, on Water street. their five children only one has died, our lamented sister Mrs. Eliza Harris Chapman, who has passed away since our last meeting, in her eightieth year. You would hardly find a better record of longevity in all New England. The land along the old river bed was a marshy and wooded swamp, and I well remember my father killing a bear near the site of the presen't water works. Walworth Run was a little mill stream of crystal waters. Chapman and Foote built a paper mill on it, opposite where Monroe street cemetery now is. A carding machine stood just below "The Wooster Turnpike," now Pearl street, while lower down was Kelley's flouring mill. The carding machine afterwards fell into the hands of Elijah F. Willey, a Baptist clergyman, who turned it into a brewery. When we look back and see that the leaders in religion were the introducers of strong drink, while now they are the leaders in its suppression, we can take courage, and have some hope yet for this soiled world of ours. Tom A. Young and Philo Scovill were back in the forests of Big Creek with their saw mills. These are the recollections of a lad from four to nine years of ageit would not be strange if they were a "little off" in some particulars, but they are very vivid in my memory and seem as of yesterday. From 1823 to 1833, Cleveland's progress is a blank to me. In the winter of 1823, a Mr. Harris from Boston, a little settlement up the river, took Asa Foote, my mother and myself, in a two horse sleigh, from here to Vermont, in the remarkably quick time of two weeks to the Hudson river. My grandfather claiming me, I remained with him until 1833, when a severe attack of the western fever carried me off-or rather brought me back to Cleveland. How great had been the change in that ten years! When I left, the Walk-in-the- Water puffed solitary and alone upon the lake, awaking the echoes with her signal gun off our literally land-locked river. Returning, I found the lake alive with steamers and white winged messengers, able to range along the river docks with great warehouses ready to receive and give them freight. The river was alive with packets, line boats, and scows, which passed freely between the waters of the two gulfs. Water was king. The land lubbers had few rights the jolly tars were bound to respect. A single bridge, a bridge of logs, had taken the place of the old time ferry. From that little float bridge to the viaduct, the "bridge war" was constant and at times vindictive. A new set of men had come to the front, of whom Leonard Case, Peter M. Weddell, May and Barnett, Richard Hilliard, Irad Kelly, N. C. Baldwin, Tylers and Folsome may be taken as samples. It took twenty years to submerge this strata of humanity. The flood that then came was not a flood of water-it came on rails of iron, o'er hill and dale. But as this fossil is getting out of its bed, I will close with SONG OF THE CUYAHOGA. The prowling wolf, and savage clan Their prey they sought, their time beguiled; Where nature smiled, and quiet slept, The cat-fish, sturgeon, muscalunge, Bucks and squaws and dusky daughters, No deadly filth-nor fetid oils, |