Moses Cleaveland Moses Cleaveland ( January 29 , 1754 – November 16 , 1806 ) was a lawyer , politician , soldier , and surveyor from Connecticut who founded the U . S . city of Cleveland , Ohio , while surveying the Western Reserve in 1796 . Early life . Cleaveland was born in Canterbury , Windham County , Connecticut . He studied law at Yale University , graduating in 1777 . That same year , with the American Revolutionary War in progress , he was commissioned as an ensign in the 2nd Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army . In 1779 he was promoted to captain of a company of " sappers and miners " ( combat engineers ) in the newly formed Corps of Engineers . He resigned from the army on June 7 , 1781 and started a legal practice in Canterbury . As a Freemason he was initiated in a military lodge and the became W . Master of Moriah Lodge , Connecticut . Militia career . He was known as a very energetic person with high ability . In 1788 , he was a member of the Connecticut convention that ratified the United States Constitution . He was elected to the Connecticut General Assembly several times and in 1796 was commissioned brigadier general of militia . He was a shareholder in the Connecticut Land Company , which had purchased for $ 1 , 200 , 000 from the state government of Connecticut the land in northeastern Ohio reserved to Connecticut by Congress , known at its first settlement as New Connecticut , and in later times as the Western Reserve . He was approached by the directors of the company in May 1796 and asked to lead the survey of the tract and the location of purchases . He was also responsible for the negotiations with the Native Americans living on the land . In June 1796 , he set out from Schenectady , New York . His party included fifty people including six surveyors , a physician , a chaplain , a boatman , thirty - seven employees , a few emigrants and two women who accompanied their husbands . Some journeyed by land with the horses and cattle , while the main body went in boats up the Mohawk , down the Oswego , along the shore of Lake Ontario , and up Niagara River , carrying their boats over the long portage of seven miles at the falls . Founding of Cleveland . At Buffalo a delegation of Mohawk nation and Seneca tribe Indians opposed their entrance into the Western Reserve , claiming it as their territory , but waived their rights on the receipt of goods valued at $ 1 , 200 . The expedition then coasted along the shore of Lake Erie , and landed , on July 4 , 1796 , at the mouth of Conneaut Creek , which they named Port Independence . The Indians were propitiated with gifts of beads and whiskey , and allowed the surveys to proceed . General Cleaveland , with a surveying party , coasted along the shore and on July 22 , 1796 , landed at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River . He ascended the bank , and , beholding a beautiful plain covered with a luxuriant forest - growth , divined that the spot where he stood , with the river on the west and Lake Erie on the north , was a favorable site for a city . He accordingly had it surveyed into town lots , and the employees named the place Cleaveland , in honor of their chief . There were but four settlers the first year , and , on account of the insalubrity of the locality , the growth was at first slow , reaching 150 inhabitants only in 1820 . Moses Cleaveland went home to Connecticut after the 1796 expedition and never returned to Ohio or the city that bears his name . He died in Canterbury , Connecticut , where he is also buried . Today , a statue of him stands on Public Square in Cleveland . The statue makes occasional appearances in popular media referencing Cleveland , including the movie Major League and the viral video " Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video " , in which he is credited for " inventing " Cleveland . The place called " Cleaveland " eventually became known as " Cleveland " . One explanation as to why the spelling changed is that , in 1830 , when the first newspaper , the " Cleveland Advertiser " , was established , the editor discovered that the head - line was too long for the form , and accordingly left out the letter " a " in the first syllable of " Cleaveland " , which spelling was at once adopted by the public . An alternative explanation is that Cleaveland ' s surveying party misspelled the name of the future town on their original map .