Historical Euclid Ohio from the Euclid Sesqui-centennial Souvenir Program

Featured toward the beginning of the Euclid Sesqui-Centennial souvenir program from 1959 is a brief, single column history of the very beginning of Euclid. It reads as follows:

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Historical Euclid, Ohio

Early History of Indian Tribes and Settlers 

Long before Euclid became a community, the format of its history was being written by pioneering adventurers who believed in reaching beyond their grasp into the unknown. It began when King Charles II of England granted to Connecticut (thru Governor Winthrop) the Northwest Territory. This was identified as a strip of land sixty miles wide along the south shore of Lake Erie and extending westward to the unexplored Pacific. About 3,600,000 acres were in what became the state of Ohio.

Early treaties with the various Indian Tribes were made and broken from 1701 to 1796. For the most part these tribes — Eries, Ottawas, Chippewa, Seneca and Wyandots – roamed this area without establishing permanent year-round villages. It was a land teeming with fish, buffalo, deer, turkey and wildlife in abundance. The Tribes relinquished their heritage slowly and with much bloodshed. In 1796 a final treaty was made with the Iroquois Nation to give all lands east of the Cuyahoga River to the White man. At this point the newly formed Connecticut Land Company commissioned one of its directors, General Moses Cleaveland, to lay out and establish a capitol of the “Western Reserve”.

Early in the spring of that year 1796, General Cleaveland and 66 qualified surveyors and helpers journeyed westward to carry out his company's orders. At Conneaut Creek a camp was made and 41 men remained on that site while General Cleaveland and the others proceeded west to the bank of the Cuyahoga River where a "community site" was laid out for settlement. The trip westward required 18 days to achieve and was blazed thru an untracked wilderness, paths of the Redman and the Buffalo being the major routes to follow. During this three week trip the men at Conneaut Creek became dissatisfied and mutinied. They demanded considerations not specified in their agreement. Cleaveland acting without written authority, laid out a township of 25 square miles and sold it to these men at one dollar per acre. Each man was granted lake front property as well as a farm back in the rocky hills and plateaus. The list of "Original Settlers” is a matter of record and is cited here primarily to identify names which will be more prominently mentioned later.

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At the bottom is a list of original settlers. Neat!

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LIST OF ORIGINAL SETTLERS
 1797 - 1798 - 1799 

The following list is taken from the “Directors Account Book” of the Joshua Stow papers, dated September 1796. Land claims were allotted in relatively equal acreage beginning on the westerly boundary (approximately Coit Road - East 140th Street) and moving eastward following the Lake Shore line and giving every man "lake front property". In addition each man was allotted a “square” of land as identified on the accompanying map.

LAKE FRONT PLOT
1. Machintire
2. George Proudfoot
3. Francis Grey
4. Samuel Farber
5. Elysha Gunn
6. Moses Warren
7. R. Stoddard
8. Amos Little
9. Stephen Benton
10. Amos Barber
11. Samuel Hungerford
12. Wm. Hall
13. Samuel Davenport
14. Asa Mafan
15. Amazi Atwater
16. Joseph Tinker
17. Michael Coffin
18. Ayers
19. Harris
20. Norman Wallace
21. Timothy Dunbar
22. George
23. Shadrasp Benham
24. Samuel Agnew
25. W. Sheppard
26. David Beard