Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-11-20

OfIove. of JOY, of peace and plenty, where,
Supporting and Imported, polished friends,
And dear relations, mingle into bliss.
Singular as is the fact, the American
Islands in the west end of Lake Erie still
remain a part of the original Western
Reserve. The records of the dealings OF
the State of Connecticut with the COnnec-
ticut Land Company, to whom the State
sold the fee of the Connecticut Western
Reserve. show that these islands were not
included in the Fire Lands grant. The
deed of grant makes the southern shore OF
Lake Erie, and not the boundary line be-
tween the United States and Canada, the
northern boundary of the Fire Lands.
The Connecticut Land Company's pur-
chase covered the whole of the Re
serve. They owned as tenants in com
mon, and when the Reserve was
divided by lot among the several mem
bers of the Company, Island No. @
| or Cunningham's Island, as Kelley's Island
was caIled-was attached to Township
No. ;, range Is, now Carlisle, Lorain
county. to make it equal to the average value
of townships. 1t. w thought of oIlttle
value that the island was not regularly
surveyed until 1919, when it was divided
pro rata among the owners of said Town
ship No. s.
KeIley's Island was one the home and
the huntingand fishing grounds Of Indians
for a long period. Ancient burial places
flint arrow-heads, stone axes, bone fish
hooks. pipes, and rude pictorial inscriP-
tions on the rocks, are all that is known OF
the history of the Fries. Even Indian
tradition does not extend farther back than
near the close of the last century. Snakes
seem 10 have been about the sole posses
sors of the Island after the Indians disap
peared. for Morse's Geography, of 1892
; asserts that the shores of the islands II
? Lake Erie are much infested by rattle
snakes. so much so as to make ii dangerou
. GLAND in them. Mr.. Huntington, in HI
Historical Sketch of Kelley's Islanc
: states that when he first visited there froI
Cleveland, in 1885, he met on the islam
a man collecting snakes for exhibition, an
adds:
Here was Doctor Morse's snake storyrt
vived again, and under circumstance
tending to give it some color ofreality-
: nresume there are many in this section
country who will recollectthat sometwel
ty-fve or thirty years ago there was a ma
i travelling about the country exhibiting,
: his posters and advertisements had 1t, 'oI
y hundred live snakes This was the We
table individual. He told us he had so
z. out his old stock on speculation, and ha
= ing heard that Cumingham5s Island W
a good place to get up another stock X,
. had come down for that purpose. In
he had been eninently successful we hi
). not only his assertion, but occular demo
. s~tration. The time has now passed, no
ever when any M need feel any app
= bcnsion of meeting the loathsOme rept
in their walks about the island"
In the summer of 1888 the broth
ny patus Kelley, of Rockport, and Trad h
lev. of Cleveland, purchased the Island
r., Gen. simon Perkins, oflNarren, the ag'
aE for the owners, Mr.. Trad Kelley, stru
with the Crusoe idea Of being "moual
,m- dfalrI survev,p and Mr.. patas hel
with the intrinsic value IN the timber
for stone with which the island was known
=, 4 abound. The land cost them only aDot
dollar per acre, and the cost OF getting
TE- of five or six squatters was about as IN
iade more. Mr.. D. Kelley-now the venera
tho patriarch of the island-became manag
AGENT for the firm Of /. & D. Kelley,
ting commenced Improvements. A dock,
70 nucleus of the present steamboat dock,
sod. built. The stone dock on the north
The was built the following winter, and