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From: "Ohio Archives EV1" <>
Subject: Fw: Tid Bits- part 8
Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2005 23:28:37 -0500

----- Original Message -----
From: "Darlene & Kathi kelley" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 3:26 AM
Subject: Tid Bits- part 8



File contributed to
USGenWeb Archives
by Darlene E. Kelley
Feb 15, 2005.

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Historical Collections of Ohio
And Then They Went West
S.L. Kelly diaries
Series of Articles
by Darlene E. Kelley
Tid Bits - Part 8.

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The First Bridges

The ice masses of the glacerial period is analogous to a river. The
current being supplied by snowfall in far northern regions. This immense
masses of ice, thousands of feet in thickness, moved slowly southward,
sweeping away vast forests, tearing off tops and sides of ledges. mixing
debis with its own mass, and grinding much of it together to form
boulder clay.

Gravel, sand, clay and boulders picked up or torn off by the ice were
thus carried southward and there left as the ice-sheet melted. The
granite hard-head boulders that are not uncommon on the surface of this
sandstone region of northern Ohio were thus imported from Canada and
laid down at Ohio's doors in this way, the drainage of the glaciated
region, of which Cuyahoga County ia a part, was so changed that the
country resmbles, on a large scale, a checked and worm eaten plank which
a carpenter has filled with putty.

After the great glacer had thus plastered
its debris in a thick layer over the Cuyahoga, the drainage system had
to be created. In the course of time, a hundred centuries or more, the
valleys of the Cuyahoga and of the lesser streams that divide Cleveland
into the East Side, the West side and the South Side, and the numerous
ravines that subdivide these sections, were cut by running water thus
creating an imperitive demand for bridges and viaducts. The lower part
of the Cuyahoga river flows to the Lake along its deep preglacial valley
but far above its ancient bed. The borders and the depth of this
preglacial valley has been somewhat accurately determined from the
records made in drilling wells for water, gas, and oil.

When Moses Cleaveland and some of his party first arrived at the mouth
of the Cuyahoga River on July 22, 1796, they had advanced a little way
up its channel and attempted to land, but in their efforts to do so,
they ran their boat into the marshy growth of wild vegetation which
skirted the easterly bank of the river and thus were stranded. Here
Moses, like his ancient namesake, found himself cradled in the
bulrushes.

The place where they landed was at the end of an old Indian trail, the
passage thence to what we call the West Side being generally made by
canoe.

In the following year, 1797, Elijah Gunn, who had been the keeper of the
stores of Conneaut; came to Cleveland and for years operated a ferry
across the river at the foot of Superior Street, the only easy means of
getting across the river to Brooklyn.

One of the first bridges across the River was a floating bridge of
whitewood logs.
When a vessel had to pass, the logs were floated to one side; and when
it had passed, the logs were drawn back into place by ropes. These ropes
were drawn by horses and oxen.

In 1833, James S. Clark and associates
laid out Columbus Street to the river through what was then called
Cleveland Center. Several years later, they alloted what they called
Willeyville, named in honor of the then Mayor of Cleveland. Through this
Willeyville they laid out an extenson of Columbus Street to the Wooster
and Medina turnpike on the west side. They then graded their new street
down to the river and in 1835, spent $15,000 more to build a bridge to
connect the two sections of their Columbus Street
properties, thus creating a short route to Cleveland from the south and
west and practically side-tracking Brooklyn village which lay near the
mouth of the river. This was the first substancial bridge across the
Cuyahoga.

The first city directory printed in 1837, states that the bridge was
supported by a stone abutment on either shore and piers of solid masonry
erected in the center of the river. Between the piers, there were a draw
sufficient to allow a vessel of forty-nine feet beam to pass through.
The length was two hundred feet, the breadth, including the sidewalks,
thirty-three feet, and the height of the piers, above the surface of the
water, was estimated at twenty four feet. The whole, with the exception
of the draw, was roofed and enclosed.

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Growing up in Rockport

Emeline Kelley wrote her recollections
of growing up in the little community of Rockport, Ohio. She was the
daughter of Datus Kelley and Sara ( Dean ) Kelley, and grandaughter of
Daniel Kelley and Jemima ( Stow ) Kelley, one of the pioneer founders of
Cleveland, Ohio.

In her recollections she writes;

" I was born on June 10, 1819 at Rockport, Ohio. My parents were both
natives of Connecticut and moved with their parents when quite young to
Lowville, NY. My grandfather Dean settled in Martinsburg, a short ride
from Lowville where my father and mother were married in 1811 and moved
to Ohio.

My father selected his farm out of a wilderness of forests and Indians
eight miles west of a small town of 600 inhabitants called Cleveland.
The roads were horrid with no bridges over the two rivers and long steep
hills on both sides of the rivers.

The lake ( Erie ) in small boats was quite often used for travel.
Fathers choice of a farm proved to be a good one. In Jan 1845 it was
considered one of the finest locations in Cuyahoga Co., and was sold in
1887 for $47,000. Geo B. Merwins widow bought it from Father in 1835 for
a little over $7,000.

One this farm I was born and lived until I was 16 years old. I had six
brothers and two sisters. One of my brothers died when 10 months old and
died before I was born.
Eight of us lived to be men and women, with Daniel dying at age of
maturity ( 21).
The rest of us ( 7 in all ) were married and had childen. We were all
taught good manners thanks to the good moral training our parents gave
us, and perhaps to the good blood my parents possessed.

My Father, Datus Kelley was a leader in the town in all public work. He
hired the teachers; went for them, took them home, boarded them over
Sundays. The teachers pretended to board around with those who were sent
to school, but headquarters were at our house.

My father was the first temperance advocate and the first to refuse to
treat drunks in our home.

Father was a great reader, but never read works of fiction. Mother did
not get the time to read much; but heard father read outloud and had
great discussons over his well digested reading. Mother greatest fort
outside of her many household duties, such as weaving our dresses;
spinning and carding wool for stockings; dipping candles; making butter;
and etc and etc; doing the work for the family , with always an infant
in her arms or nearby; was to go to the sick for miles around. Her three
brothers living about a mile away had 10 to 12 chilren each and mother
was the first to help with their births, besides a good many other
infants around Rockport.
There was only one Doctor, west of Cleveland for many years and she
never charged anything for her services with the sick; and I never knew
of her getting any presents. For 20 years of her Rockport life, she had
a baby not 2 years old.

No acreage was cleared when Father and Mother moved on to the farm. The
first thing was to build a log house for shelter, and clear a garden
spot. It took a great many men to remove the huge trees, burn them, save
the ashes and make potash of it. The men had to be boarded. Thank
goodness that not as many dishes was used as now. One plate, knife and
fork, a cup and saucer, and spoon was all one person needed at one meal.
Then with the boarders they also needed them, so they took turns with
the meals, boarders first, and then the family.

Not more than 3 months before I was born, Father built a new frame
house. It was the first frame house in Rockport. My oldest brother
Addison was the first male child born in Rockport.

How one woman could do the work my mother did in those days is past my
comprehension. Very little help could be had at any price for sewing or
housework in those days. One nice thing was that a dress spun and wove
by a hand machine would last for years as it was the fashion then to
have few dresses. Our homemade plaid dresses were colored with madder
roots and indigo blue, which I thought very pretty. We wore shoes about
to our ankles and the dresses came to the tops of our shoes.

When there was snow, our shoes would get full and packed like ice. A
knife would have to be used to dig the ice out when we got home from
school. In the summer
all children under 10 went barefoot and then again, some of the older
did too. I always wanted my shoes off early in the spring, so I could
splash through the puddles of water and wade in the lake.
My feet at night would be so sore and cracked open by being wet, they
would look like a toads back and ache dreadfully. Mother would give me a
little cream and a rag to wind around them and send me to bed. The next
morning I would be all well and ready to splash in the water again. It
was great fun to make the water fly.

When I was 12 years old I had pantaloons to wear for the first time.
They were very comfortable; but most every one thought them very boyish,
and were teased for putting on boyish clothes. I remember what a
comfortable addition it was to my clothing.

When I was ten years old Gov. Wood (then Judge Wood) moved to Rockport
from Cleveland and lived on the next farm East of us. Their oldest girl,
" Loretta " became my fast chum until her death in 1884.

She was in Cleveland a good deal and brought home all the newest styles
going, and so I had to dress about as she did, and do as she did. She
was a great favorite with my older brothers, as she was a good dancer,
and in that way I got to the public balls very young. Dancing parties at
our house were quite frequent. Father never danced in his life; but
mother did and when they built the frame house they put up a board
partition between the two back chambers, so it could be taken down
easily and throw them together which made a room 30 feet long by 14 feet
wide. We commenced dancing in those days about 4 o'clock P.M. and about
1 o'clock the fiddler ( Judge Coe ) would put up his fiddle and leave.
We had refreshments about 11 P.M. We danced the plastering off the
kitchen overhead, some of it every time, which made quite a mess to
clean up.

The house Judge Wood moved into was not finished. No rooms upstairs were
plastered and rats and mice cantered all over it. The Judge being gone a
great deal and the family were afraid to stay there nights, and would
come over after me
( 10 years old mind you ) to protect them and be company. I was used to
living in the country and fearless, so many a night I spent with them
until their house was completed. I enjoyed it very much, being thought
so brave and of course they all made it very pleasant for me. Mrs. Wood
and my mother became great friends, and next to my mother, she was the
best woman I knew. She was always getting me up in great style, to go to
parties with Loretta.

I had a man's saddle horse and a hard riding horse. Father would send me
5 miles with a bag of corn to get it ground into meal. Mr. Taylor, the
man who owned the mill ground the corn and sent me on my way with the
meal.

Going a mile to school was what took up my time 7 months in the year.
Five and a half days in the week. 4th of July, New years, and Christmas
was our only Holidays.

In the spring Father made a barrel or two of maple sugar, and some
syrup. We would start out in the morning with an iron kettle between us
on a horse, with I and Loretta. We were expected to boil down enough to
get what we wanted to eat. We would spend our time playing, and keeping
the sap boiling. The sap would sometimes boil over an put the fire out
and sometimes would get nearly cold for the want of fire.

I learned to milk very young. In fact it was the first thing I did
unless it was to squall, and then my brothers had to milk. She had to be
milked twice a day.

Our first school house was a log building with three windows, one
door, a punchion floor and an open fireplace with stick and mud chimney,
The mud was dug from under the floor, which made a hole and used often
to put bad schollers in by raising a plank in the floor. There were
cracks between the puncheons wide enough to drop quill pes and slate
pencils and etc into this hole. We were ordered to stand when we
recited, read, or spelled, with our toes close to a crack in the floor
to keep us in line. Sometimes the bad boys in the hole stuck the old
pens through the crack and prick our bare feet.

In 1829 the township with my father's help built a frame school house.
The old one was so dark that father thought best to put a small window
in front of each desk and to prevent one scholor jiggling his neighbors
elbows when writing, a board partition was put between each desk.

It was a funny looking building inside and out, and I never saw one like
it. Beauty of architecture was left out. It was an improvement over the
old log school house and more convienient than beautiful."

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Continued in part 9.

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