Yesterday's Lakewood: Stormy Weather-Henry Howe's Account Of Early Lakewood

In today’s busy world, many of us forget that only two hundred years ago, Lakewood was a primitive wilderness. Bears, wolves, mountain lions, badgers, wolverines and other dangerous animals inhabited the area’s thick forests. Few humans lived in the area. On occasion a Native American hunting expedition or trapper would pass through, but no permanent human settlements were located in the area until the early 1800s.

During my many years in Lakewood, one of my great pleasures was the opportunity to meet many interesting Lakewood residents. Among the most interesting was the late Dan Chabek, Lakewood’s most respected local historian. Dan and I shared several passions, including a love of Lakewood, a love of the written word, and a love of history. For many years, Dan wrote a local newspaper column called “Lakewood Lore” in which he wrote about Lakewood history.

Among Dan’s favorite resources was Henry Howe. Howe traversed Ohio, much of the time on horseback, during the mid to late 1800s and wrote elaborately detailed accounts of the residents, commerce and history of each of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Howe’s famous, “Historical Collections of Ohio--in Two Volumes” which was copyrighted in 1888 and published in 1900, serves as a valuable primary and secondary source of historical research.

Howe’s chapter on Cuyahoga County includes some of his observations and tales of Cleveland and the west shore area during this time.

Among the most interesting accounts is found on page 497, volume 1.  “Sad Incidents”--Early in the spring previous (in 1806), a small boat, containing a Mr. Hunter, wife and child, a black man named Ben, possibly a fugitive slave, and a small black boy, who were moving to Cleveland, “was overtaken on the lake by a squall of wind and driven ashore east of the Rocky River. The bluff being perpendicular, they were unable to ascend. They however, climbed up the rocks as far as possible-- the surge constantly beating over them--with the vain hope that the storm would subside: but on Saturday it increased and during Sunday Mrs. Hunter expired, the children having died previously. On Monday, Mr. Hunter expired.  Black Ben held out until Tuesday, when, the storm subsiding, some French traders, going in a vessel from Cleveland to Detroit discovered him, took him aboard and returned with him to Cleveland. Thus, for three days and four nights he had been without sleep or food and with little clothing, exposed to the continued surge and holding on for life to some small bushes in the cervices of the rocks. Ben was treated with great kindness by Major Carter, in whose family he remained an invalid over a year.”

Lakewood, of course, did not exist in 1807, but we can infer from the description of the area, “just east of the Rocky River…the bluff being perpendicular” that the location described in this tragic account is what now is the present day Lakewood, probably somewhere between Webb Road and Lakewood Park. And any of us who have lived in Lakewood even for a short time, can appreciate Lake Erie’s unpredictable temper and being overtaken by a springtime “squall of wind” as described by Howe.

And how tragic a tale, a young family, no doubt simply seeking a better life, stranded through a terrible storm, desperately clinging to life, through the chilly driving rain, holding on to branches and rocks, unable to fully scale the perpendicular bluff, perishing one by one, sadly witnessed by the survivors.

So next time you drive down Lake Avenue or Clifton Boulevard, admiring the tall oaks and the breeze off Lake Erie, listening to music in your car and secure in knowing that EMS, fire and police are just a phone call away, consider the brave early settlers of Lakewood and their fragile and dangerous existence...and how well off we have life today.

Thomas George

50+ years proud Lakewood resident BA Journalism, THE Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, general assignment reporter Ohio State Lantern daily newspaper active in civic and community affairs in Lakewood all my adult life

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Volume 8, Issue 1, Posted 8:41 PM, 01.10.2012