on July 31, to take action in aid of the cholera sufferers at Sandusky. It was decided that no money could be legally appropriated for that purpose, but a committee, consisting of John W. Allen, John A. Foot and S. G. McCurdy, was appointed to receive subscriptions of money and engage nurses and physicians to go to the relief of the stricken people. The gas makers must have gone on with their works, as a special committee is held in September, to discuss the lighting question, at which a proposition was made by the gas company to place sixty-six lamps on River, Superior and Merwin streets, two sides of the public square, Water street from Superior to St. Clair, Bank street from Superior to Center, and St. Clair from Water to Wood. It was announced that the gas would be ready for burning by November. The whole matter was referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. Hughes, Case and Cross. At the next meeting this committee reported in favor of lighting Superior street; Ontario street, between the public square and the market; Water street; River street; Merwin street, between Superior street and the Canal bridge; and one light at the foot of Bank street. The expense of each light was announced at about twentythree dollars per annum; and the cost of lamp posts on Superior street and the intersection of other streets at thirty-seven dollars each; on other streets, thirty dollars each. The recommendation was made with the provision that the question of ways and means be properly settled. The report was ac cepted and its recommendations adopted.* In October the speed of locomotives through the city was defined at the rate of five and ten miles an hour, and the Cleveland, Columbus. & Cincinnati railroad company was directed to "keep a man with a red flag by day and a red light by night along the line of the track, at the arrival and departure of each train." A special committee, consisting of Messrs. Seymour, Case and Brownell, was appointed to ascertain upon what terms a favorable site for a new cemetery could be obtained and to report to the council as soon as possible. As an evidence of the size of Cleveland at this period, I will reproduce here the result of the annual school census of the residents of the city, as reported to the council in November, 1849: First ward.. Second ward Third ward.. 80 Males. Females. Total. Colored. Resolutions were adopted appointing a special committee to look into the condition of vagrant children of Cleveland and learn what can be done in their behalf, and approving with some show of eloquence the project of a railroad from Lake Michigan, calling on congress to give its aid to the scheme. * The presence of gas soon made itself felt. Instructions are given to have it placed in the council chamber; a standing committee on gas lights is created; a petition comes from a number of citizens complaining of a leak in a gas main on Superior street, which has "destroyed the drinking water of upwards of two hundred families;" an ordinance was passed to prevent injury to gas lights. With that the old administration went out of power, in the early days of the second half of the century. Mr. Flavel W. Bingham, the tenth man to hold the office of mayor of Cleveland, studied law in the office of John C. Spencer, a noted jurist of Utica, New York, and was a graduate of Union college, Albany. He came to Cleveland in 1835, and entered on the practice of law. He was largely interested in various public measures, among them being the organization of the Cleveland Gas company. He remained at the bar until 1852, and was regarded by all as a man of high character and sound ability. In the year last named he was elected probate judge of Cuyahoga county and held the office for three years. At the close of the war he went into the service of the government and was stationed at New Orleans, where he died within a year or two. SOCIAL AND BUSINESS GROWTH. The foregoing covers the municipal history of Cleveland up to 1850, but a brief reference should be made to its social and business growth. The advance of the city along a line of material prosperity had not been steady, and at some critical periods there was an open question as to whether there would be an advance at all. The five or six years following the incorporation of the village in 1815 were full of uncertainty and gloom. The prosperity that was expected with the return of peace did not materialize. The sudden change in the value of paper currency, the great financial stringency that was at a cli max in 1819, the cheapness of agricultural products and the distance from a market, had their serious and discouraging effects. The turning point really came with the canal in 1825. Work on this important artery of communication was begun on July 4, and the possibilities that were thus suggested drew attention to Cleveland with such force that people were attracted to this point, and we learn that before the end of the year the population had increased some three or four hundred. In 1827 the canal was opened to Akron, and the growth of the place received a new impetus. The first iron industry of Cleveland was seen in 1828, when the firm of John Ballard & Company put its new iron foundry into operation, and in the same year Henry Newbury shipped the city its first consignment of coal. Sickness consequent from the digging of the canal prevented much development from 1826 to 1830, but after the last named date there was so marked an advance that by 1833 there was a population of two thousand five hundred. This had reached about five thousand and eighty in 1835. These were the "flush times," when business of all kinds was brisk, men ripe for any speculation and venture, and a tide of emigration was flowing from the east to the west. There was a vast amount of money in circulation "nominally redeemable in cash, but practically irredeemable on account of the general worthlessness of the security." It was, no doubt, the golden haze and promise of these halcyon days, that led the people on the two sides of the river to vie with each other as to which hamlet should first don municipal honors, and that brought the city of Cleveland and Ohio City into a troubled and anxious existence. The climax came toward the end of 1836, and there was a dam of difficulty thrown across this tide of on-rushing life and joy. Banks broke in all directions, private fortunes collapsed, and the panic of 1837 was fully on. There was no growth in Cleveland from 1836 to 1840, and a glance at what has gone before will show that only matters of routine character occupied the attention and filled the hands of law-makers and municipal officers. After the last named date affairs began to brighten. The iron works established by William A. Otis gave a new impetus to manufacturing, and the people began to take heart. By 1845 the city was once more on the full tide of prosperity, its population reaching 9,473, while that of Ohio City was 2,462. In 1850 these figures had reached 17,034 for Cleveland, and 3,950 for Ohio City. Cleveland was at this time almost altogether a commercial city, as the iron ore regions of Lake Superior and the coal fields of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania had not yet met each other at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, to create a great manufacturing center and build up a trade that should reach into all the corners of the land. The eve of greatness had come, but the day had not yet dawned. J. H. KENNEDY. DR. W. J. SCOTT. DR. W. J. SCOTT, as a physician, surgeon and public-spirited citizen, has so long been known and respected in Cleveland and northern Ohio, that any introduction, or extended explanation as to his standing in his profession or in the esteem of the community, seems superfluous. The good he has done, the success he has won in a difficult profession, and the genial influence he carries wherever he goes, were known long since to everybody. His descent, as his name implies, is Scottish-his grandfather coming to America before the Revolution and settling in Virginia, and loyally serving his adopted country as a soldier during the war for her inde pendence. John, the son of this old. soldier, came to Ohio in 1830 and settled in Knox county. His son, William Johnston, the subject of this sketch, was born in Culpepper county, Virginia, on January 25, 1822. He aided his father on the farm and attended district school until he was twenty-one, when his thirst for knowledge and the feeling that he had powers that fitted him for other and wider fields, led him to decide upon gaining such education as seemed open. to his command. He went to Gambier and entered the preparatory department of Kenyon college. His purpose then did not go beyond a study of mathematics and engineering; but those above |