Both links take you to Wikipedia:
- Cleveland.
Cleveland was established on July 22, 1796, by surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company when they laid out Connecticut's Western Reserve into townships and a capital city. They named the new settlement "Cleaveland" after their leader, General Moses Cleaveland, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Cleaveland oversaw the New England-style design of the plan for what would become the modern downtown area, centered on Public Square, before returning to Connecticut, never again to visit Ohio.
. . . In spite of the nearby swampy lowlands and harsh winters, the town's waterfront location proved to be an advantage, giving it access to Great Lakes trade. It grew rapidly after the 1832 completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal. This key link between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes connected it to the Atlantic Ocean via the Erie Canal and Hudson River, and later via the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Its products could reach markets on the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River. The town's growth continued with added railroad links.
. . . In 1836, Cleveland, then only on the eastern banks of the Cuyahoga River, was officially incorporated as a city, and John W. Willey was elected its first mayor. That same year, it nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two communities. Ohio City remained an independent municipality until its annexation by Cleveland in 1854.
Home to a vocal group of abolitionists, Cleveland (code-named "Station Hope") was a major stop on the Underground Railroad for escaped African American slaves en route to Canada. The city also served as an important center for the Union during the American Civil War.
- History of Indigenous people in Cleveland.
One of the first Indigenous peoples to live in what is now known as Cleveland were the Erie people. The Erie inhabited most of the southern shore of Lake Erie, and they were wiped out by a war with the Iroquois Confederacy in 1656. Erie survivors assimilated into neighboring tribes, especially the Seneca. After the Erie people, northeastern Ohio remained sparsely populated until Lenape from Delaware migrated into the area in the mid 1700s. The first settlement in present-day Cleveland was Pilgerruh or Pilgrim's Run, founded in 1786 by Moravian missionaries and Christian Lenape on the bank of the Cuyahoga River.
The Northwest Indian War between the newly formed United States military and the Native American tribes living in the Northwest Territory resulted in the first of many official land cessions. The Treaty of Greenville in 1795 formally ceded any Native American claims to land east of the Cuyahoga River and all of southern Ohio. A series of treaties continued to cede land to the United States until the Treaty of St. Mary's signed away the last Native American land claims in the state of Ohio. Further treaties forcibly removed Indigenous tribes from their reservations within Ohio to new land in the West. The 1842 Treaty with the Wyandot moved the last Indigenous peoples in Ohio, the Wyandot, from their land in the Upper Sandusky Reservation to land west of the Mississippi River. It is documented by Bill Moose Crowfoot that 12 Wyandot families chose to stay behind.[citation needed] Crowfoot was the last full blood Wyandot to die in Ohio, in Upper Arlington in 1937, and according to the Draper manuscripts there were a few Lenape, Shawnee, and Mingo who did as well.
After forced removal of Native people from their traditional lands, there were not many Indigenous people living in Cleveland. In 1900 there were only 2 Native American residents in Cuyahoga County, and in 1940 the population only increased to 47. The Indian Relocation Act of 1956 changed federal policy toward American Indians from reservations toward relocations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs chose Cleveland as one of 8 destination cities, dramatically increasing the Native population in following decades. By 1990, the population of American Indians in Cleveland reached 2,706.
