Part 46 (1/2)
Thomas T. Seelye, M.D., was born in Danbury, Connecticut, August 23, 1818.
His parents were Seth and Abigail Seelye, of English descent. After preparing for a collegiate course, it became necessary for him to take charge of his father's store. At twenty-one years of age he commenced the study of medicine as a private pupil of William Parker, professor of surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, from which college he graduated in the Spring of 1842. He was then appointed a.s.sistant physician in Bellevue Hospital, where he remained one year, when he commenced the practice of his profession in Woodbury, Connecticut.
There he remained until the Spring of 1848, when he sold out his business and removed to Cleveland, having previously leased a tract of land just within the suburbs of the city, covered with native forest and such a profusion of real natural beauty in glen, woodland, and beautiful springs of soft water, that it seemed apparent that art only needed to blend with nature to make this one of the most desirable of localities for a great health inst.i.tution.
His system of practice, though called water cure, in fact drew a.s.sistance from all the experience of the past in relieving physical suffering and curing disease. It was not _orthodox_, it belonged to no _pathy_, and in consequence had the opposition of all branches of the profession. His means were quite limited, as were also his accommodations--not so limited, however, but that the expense of construction and furnis.h.i.+ng greatly exceeded the length of his purse. Business waited for _success_, to establish itself, but the sheriff _did not_. Debts became due, and nothing with which to pay, but hope in the future, which is rather unsatisfactory nutriment for hungry creditors.
But, by and by, patient labor and persistent effort in the right direction began to bring forth fruit. Business increased, the visits of the sheriff were less frequent, and after about five years he could lie down to rest at night without fear of a dun in the morning.
In ten years he purchased the Forest City Cure, which was started in opposition, the capacity of the old Cure having become altogether inadequate for his increased business. After ten years he sold it to the Hebrews for an orphan asylum, preferring to unite the two inst.i.tutions under one roof. He then proceeded to complete the plan he had been perfecting for the past five years, for erecting buildings of an extent that would amply accommodate his ever increasing patronage, and supplied with those conveniences and appliances which an experience of twenty-one years had deemed most desirable for the invalid. The architect has furnished us a sketch of this inst.i.tution, of which, when completed, every lover of our beautiful city will be proud.
In addition to his professional labors he is largely engaged, in connection with W. J. Gordon and others, in the manufacture of the non-explosive lamp, which bids fair to be one of the most successful and extensive manufacturing enterprises ever started in this city.
Within the past three years, Dr. Seelye has purchased the twenty-six acres he originally leased, and twenty-two acres adjoining, making a very valuable tract of real estate, taken in connection with the present and prospective growth of the city.
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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 ca.n.a.l, 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 ident.i.ty in the waters of the lake. Water power, under such circ.u.mstances, 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 ca.n.a.l 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 ca.n.a.l reached Akron, and an experimental s.h.i.+pment 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 quant.i.ty of crude iron of an excellent quality, while, on the other, at about the same distance, we have access by ca.n.a.l 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 s.h.i.+fting from ca.n.a.l-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 ca.n.a.l 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 ca.n.a.l 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 coa.r.s.e 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 ca.n.a.l, 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.”
On the succeeding week appeared some editorial comments in support of the suggestions in the letter, and for some time frequent references, by correspondents and editorially, were made to the matter. On the 25th of April, 1828, appeared in the Herald a notice of a new iron foundry; the first that had been built, and reference to which had been made in the letter quoted. This was built by John Ballard & Co., and an editorial announcing its opening says it ”supplies this place and the surrounding country on short notice and on reasonable terms, with the various articles of cast iron work, for which, before this foundry was established, our citizens were forced to send to a distance, and at the cost of much trouble and expense.”
But with all this urging of newspapers, and talking of far-sighted citizens, the cause of manufacturing progressed slowly. To establish manufactories was a costly experiment, requiring capital, patience, and a faith, which, though some might profess, few actually possessed. As is frequently the case in regard to public improvements, those who pressed them most had no funds to invest in them, and those who had the funds were little inclined to heed the suggestions of moneyless advisers.
MacCabe's Directory of Cleveland and Ohio City for 1837-8, says that at that time there were on the east side of the river, in the corporation of Cleveland, ”four very extensive iron foundries and steam engine manufactories; also, three soap and candle manufactories, two breweries, one sash factory, two rope walks, one stoneware pottery, two carriage manufactories, and two French run millstone manufactories, all of which are in full operation.” A flouring mill was in course of erection by Mr.
Ford which, it was predicted, would be, when finished, ”the largest and most complete establishment of the kind in the State of Ohio.” At the same time Ohio City was described as possessing ”among the princ.i.p.al manufactories of the place, the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace, the Saleratus manufactory, and the Glue manufactory.” The Cuyahoga Steam Furnace had turned off in the previous year five hundred tons of castings, besides a great quant.i.ty of wrought iron work, and gave employment to seventy men.
In noticing the description of the iron furnaces and steam engine manufactories on the East side of the river as ”very extensive”, it must be borne in mind that the standard of size and importance for such establishments in Cleveland was much smaller then than now.
In spite of all the attempts made to stir up an interest in manufactories, slow progress was made until a comparatively late period. One great obstacle in the way was the opposition or indifference of the land-holders, who directly rebuffed the proposals of intending manufacturers, or placed a value on their land so high as to require an amount of capital sunk in the soil that rendered the chances of profit very hazardous. There was also a strong prejudice against factories on the part of very many persons because they were ”so dirty,” and would tend to make the neat and trim residences and door-yards of Cleveland as s.m.u.tty as those of Pittsburgh.
It was not until the breaking out of the war for the Union called into existence manufactories all over the land to supply the needs born of the war, that manufactories found a home and cordial welcome in Cleveland. The exigencies of the time, and the intense feeling excited, scattered to the wind all the prejudices against the dirt and smoke of iron manufactories, and establishments of this kind sprang up on all sides, calling into existence a host of other manufactories dependent on and contributing to the successful conduct of iron foundries and iron mills. The war found Cleveland a commercial city, whose trade, if not languis.h.i.+ng, threatened to soon reach its turning point; it left Cleveland a busy, bustling manufacturing city, over a great part of which hung a perpetual cloud of dense smoke, and with a population nearly doubled in numbers and greatly changed in character owing to its change from a commercial to a manufacturing city. The petroleum discovery in North Western Pennsylvania and the coincident opening of direct railroad communication between Cleveland and the oil regions, contributed greatly to the rapid increase of the population and wealth of the city. Oil refineries grew up rapidly like mushrooms in the valleys and ravines around, and lined the railroad tracks, but, unlike mushrooms, did not disappear with equal rapidity. A great number of people found employment in this new industry, and wealth poured in with greater volume from this source than had ever been known to flow from any species of trade or manufacture hitherto established. From this time the future of Cleveland was a.s.sured. Year by year it has grown with astonis.h.i.+ng increase and new manufactories of every description are springing up on every side. The flats that had lain deserted and of but little value were brought into requisition for iron furnaces and iron mills, and wherever lands could be had at reasonable rates in convenient neighborhood to transportation lines, factories of some kind were established.
The four or five small iron manufactories in and about Cleveland in 1837, have grown to fourteen rolling mills, having two hundred puddling furnaces and a daily capacity of four hundred tons of finished iron, not including the nails spikes, nuts, bolts, horseshoes, &c. Several of these mills own their own blast furnaces, and nearly all have coal mines of their own.
There are also five stove foundries; one malleable iron works; one axe and tool company; half a dozen boiler plate and sheet iron works of large capacity; nearly as many factories of steam engines of all descriptions, and other machinery; three foundries for making car wheels and castings for buildings; one large manufactory of cross cut, circular and other saws, and several saw and file works of smaller dimensions.