Part 4 (1/2)
Mr. Johnson's success as a s.h.i.+p-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 ma.s.sacre, Major Whistler engaging the s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+p-building career.
By this time he had acc.u.mulated 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.
In 1831, he contracted with the Government officers to build the light-house on Water street. In 1836, he built a light-house at Sandusky.
In the following year he constructed seven hundred feet of the stone pier on the east side of the Cuyahoga river mouth. The first thing done in the latter work was the driving of spiles. Mr. Johnson became dissatisfied with the old system of driving spiles by horse-power, and purchased a steam engine for four hundred dollars. Making a large wooden wheel he rigged it after the style of the present spile-drivers, and in the course of two or three weeks, had the satisfaction of seeing the spiles driven with greatly increased speed and effect by steam-power.
About 1839, he took his new spile-driver to Maumee Bay and drove about nine hundred feet of spiling around Turtle Island, filling the enclosed s.p.a.ce with earth to the height of three feet, to protect the light-house.
In 1840, he built the Saginaw light-house, sixty-five feet high, with the adjoining dwelling. In 1842-3, he built the light-house on the Western Sister Island, at the west end of Lake Erie. In 1847, he completed his light-house work by building the Portage River light-house.
Besides his light-house building, Mr. Johnson erected in 1842 his stone residence on Water street, and in 1845, the Johnson House hotel on Superior street. The stone for the former was brought from Kingston, Canada West. In 1853, he built the Johnson Block, on Bank street, and in 1858, he put up the Marine Block at the mouth of the river. This completed his active work.
Since 1858, Mr. Johnson's sole occupation has been the care of his property and occasional speculations in real estate. By a long life of activity and prudence, and by the steady rise in real estate, he is now possessed of personal and landed property to the value of about six hundred thousand dollars, having come to the city with no other capital than his kit of tools, a strong arm, and an energetic purpose. Though eighty-three years of age, his health is good, his memory remarkably active, and all his faculties unimpaired. He has two sons and one daughter yet living, having lost two children. He has had nine grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
n.o.ble H. Merwin.
In cla.s.sifying the early commercial men of Cleveland, the name of n.o.ble H.
Merwin is justly ent.i.tled to stand among the first on the list. In fact he was the founder and father of her commerce, and a man not only n.o.ble in name, but n.o.ble in character.
He was born in New Milford, Ct., in 1782, received a good common school education, and married Minerva Buckingham, of that town. Soon after the war of 1812, he went to Georgia and there engaged in mercantile pursuits, having established a store at Savannah and also at Milledgeville. He came to Cleveland in 1815. His family rejoined him at Cleveland in February, 1816. In coming from Georgia they crossed the Alleghanies, and were six weeks in accomplis.h.i.+ng the journey, having traveled all the way in wagons.
The two elder children were born at New Milford, the other four at Cleveland. The oldest son, George B. Merwin, of Rockport, is now the only surviving member of the family.
After the family arrived at Cleveland, Mr. Merwin engaged in keeping a public house or tavern, as it was then designated, on the corner of Superior street and Vineyard lane, and about the same time established a warehouse at the foot of Superior street and commenced his career in the commerce of the lakes. He built the schooner Minerva, which was the first vessel registered at Was.h.i.+ngton, from the District of Cuyahoga, under the U. S. Revenue Laws. For many years Mr. Merwin, under contracts with the Government, furnished the supplies required at the U. S. Garrisons on the western frontiers, at Fort Gratiot, Mackinaw, Sault St. Marie, Green Bay and Chicago, as well as the Hudson Bay Company at the Sault St. Marie.
In a commercial point of view his business became extensive for those times, and he enjoyed the entire confidence of the Government and of business men generally throughout the lake country. He succeeded in acc.u.mulating a handsome fortune, which consisted mostly in vessel stocks and in lands. He owned a large breadth of lands, extending from the south side of Superior street to the river, which, since his time, has become exceedingly valuable.
But owing mainly to over-work in the various departments of his increasing business, while he was yet in the noon of manhood, his health became seriously impaired, and with a view to recruit it he sailed for the West Indies in 1829, and on the 3d day of November, of that year, died of consumption, at the Island of St. Thomas, in the 47th year of his age. He was a gentleman of fine personal appearance, measuring six feet and four inches in height, erect and well proportioned. In a word, he was a man of heart, and of generous impulses, honest, frank and cordial. In the circle in winch he moved, he was the friend of everybody and everybody was his friend.
John Blair.
The race of men who remember Cleveland in the day of its small beginnings, is fast pa.s.sing away. Of those who were residents of the little village on the Cuyahoga fifty years ago, only about half a dozen now live in the flouris.h.i.+ng city that occupies its site and inherits its name. One of these is John Blair, well known to all the Clevelanders of ante-railroad days, but who is probably a mere name to a large proportion of those who have crowded into the city of late years. Mr. Blair is one of the few remaining links that connect the rude village in the forest with the modern Forest City.
John Blair was born in Maryland on the 18th of December, 1793. His early years were spent in farming, but at the age of twenty-three he dropped the hoe and turned his back to the plow, resolving to come west and seek his fortune. From the time that he shook from his feet the dirt of the Maryland farm, he says, he has never done a whole day's work, at one time, at manual labor.
In 1819, he reached Cleveland, then an insignificant village of about a hundred and fifty inhabitants, who dwelt mostly in log houses, grouped at the foot of Superior street. At the corner of Water street and what is now Union lane, stood the pioneer hotel of Cleveland, the tavern of Major Carter, where good accommodations for man and beast were always to be found. The young Maryland adventurer was not overburdened with wealth when he landed in his future home, his entire cash capital being three dollars.