The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-26

surveyor and soldier, that the town which he founded on the shores of Lake Erie and which was named for him, would one day be as large as his native Windham, Connecti- cut, which at that time numbered 1,500 souls.
 The history of Cleveland begins with the history of the Connecticut River Valley and can be traced to the courage of the Connecticut General Court which, in 1861, voted an address to King Charles II of England, seeking a royal charter with provisions mot inferior or short of what was granted to Massachusetts"
 Liberal Charter
 Because those members of that early General Court spoke up" to their overseas King, they got an ex- ceedingly liberal charter. It con- veyed a strip of land reaching from the Massachusetts line to Long Island Sound and extending West to the Pacific ocean, or, the South Sea and the islands thereunto ad- joining" as the charter said.
 When the Revolutionary war was over Connecticut still upheld her claim to the western territory lying between parallels of 4l and 42-2 and extending from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi River.
 On September IA, 1786, Connecti- cut released to the United States, all claim that she had to land north of the 4lst parallel and west of a meridian to be run 120 miles west of the west line of Pennsylvania. The deed made no disposition of the territory between this meridian and the Pennsylvania line and north of the 4lst parallel, in other words, the territory in the northeast part of Ohio today.
 This area which the Nutmeg state did not cede to the federal govern ment was bounded on the north EH the International Line, on the east by Pennsylvania, on the south by the 41st parallel and on the west by Inc parallel to the west boundary of Pennsylvania and 120 miles from 1t.
 Western Reserve
 Connecticut was said to reserve" this territory and thus the express sion "The Connecticut Western Re- serve" crept into the legal, historical and financial papers of the day. Be- ginning in 1786, the Connecticut General Assembly undertook series of acts which brought money into the coffers from these lanes in the "Western Reserve" In 1792 1t set aside 500,000 acres for Revolution ary war sufferers and the rest Of the land was sold in 1795 to the Connecticut Land Company.
 One of the directors of the Con- necticut Land Company was Moses Cleaveland of Canterbury, in Wind- ham County. In the Spring of 1796 the directors sent out surveying party headed by General Moses Cleaveland, for the purpose of sur veying and stalking out town ships on their land.
 After an arduous trip, Cleaveland and his party arrived in Buffalo where the leader was forced to buy from chiefs of the Mohawk and Seneca Indians, claims to lands cast of the Cuyahoga river. The Indians, bitterly opposed to the westward movement, were soon pla- cated for 800 pounds in cash, 3 beef cattle and 100 gallons of whiskey.
 The journey was immediately re- sumed and Monday July 4th the party arrived at the place where the dividing line between Pennsyl- vania and their reserve, struck Lake Erie. On July 7th the survey set out to find the intersection of the 4lst parallel and the Pennsylvania line and thence to run base l20 miles west. From this base line they were to draw lines five miles apart due north to Lake Erie, featuring 24 ranges numbered from the Pennsyl- vania line. The ranges were to be further cut up into townships.
 Town No. !
 Even before Moses Cleaveland and part of his surveyors rowed and sailed west in an open boat on Lake Erie to find the mouth of the Cuya- hoga river on July p, 1796, Cleve- land was spotted on the party's map as town No. 2, Range l2. Cleave- land got to shore after some diff culty on one of the banks of the Cuyahoga. He was enamored of the spot and 1t became Cleayeland, in the Western Reserve.
 Moses Cleaveland, his surveying duties over, went back to Windham County, Connecticut. He never re- turned to the town be founded, but a year after getting back to eastern Connecticut he wrote: While I was in new Connecticut I laid out a town on the bank of Lake Erie which was called by my name and believe the child is now born that mya live to see that place as large as old Windham."
 The old surveyors estimate was conservative indeed. The town that bears his name, in few years, ex- ceeded Old Windham's population of 1,500. To-day it has more than o0O,O00 and is the center of a rich pulsating section of our population, whose success has been achieved through the optimism and indefa- tigable work transmitted to it's peo- pie by their old Yankee forebears from Connecticut.
 Exposition Planned
 To celebrate the great success and the growth of this area, the Great Lakes Exposition was conceived and brought into being by a group of outstanding Cleveland businessmen last Fall. The year l936 is the tooth anniversary of the incorpo- ration of the City of Cleveland which was only founded by General Moses CleaveIand in i700. These ard-looking business and pro- pesslonal men of the modern Cleye- hnd showed what faith they had m their community when they sub- ecribed. within a period of month