182 
Frank Carney 
Cleveland. Among these early population centers mention 
should be made of Cleveland, though for a long time it was a 
place of little importance. It was at the mouth of a river, but the 
harbor was not inviting, and there was no distant trade that fol- 
lowed Lake Erie, no railways from the eastern end of the lake 
to transport goods to the big markets; it was not until the Erie 
canal was opened that Cleveland commenced to be much more 
than a village; in the decade, 1830 to 1840, its population increased 
464.2 per cent. During the pre-canal period both Brooklyn and 
Newburg were larger towns, because they were situated on higher 
ground and were more approachable from the farming areas, 
south and west. Brooklyn particularly had a handicap on Cleve- 
land in the river channel, which stood in the way of traffic from 
the west. Farmers on the east side of the Cuyahoga and a few 
miles south of the lake, in order to reach Cleveland, had to use a 
difficult roadway involving many long grades; it was much more 
convenient for them to transact their business on the top of the 
escarpment at Newburg. 
With the impetus given lake trade by the facilities for freighting 
through the Erie canal, Cleveland at once became a transporta- 
tion point both for goods from the east and for goods that the 
people in that locality wished to market, and this trade was 
further increased when the Ohio canal was opened. With this 
exchange, Cleveland commenced to grow, but Cleveland's growth, 
unlike that of these other places above noted, was not largely 
dependent on agriculture. Secondary industries, because of the 
shipping, became important early in the history of this town; 
chief among these was boat building. Goods for Buffalo and the 
other lake ports were shipped by boats, and the Cleveland ship- 
yards foreshadowed the commerical future of the city. 
With the opening up of the Ohio canal, a new source of indus- 
trial energy was attracted to Cleveland. South of Cleveland, it 
had long been known, the hills bore coal-beds, but there was no 
demand for coal in the little village at the mouth of the Cuya- 
hoga, so there was no incentive to mine coal. When the Ohio 
canal reached Cleveland, insuring low freight rates, these coal 
mines at once were opened, and the cheap fuel brought to Cleve- 
land led to the establishment of still other industries. Cleve- 
land is not an agricultural city in its origin; it is a manufacturing 
city, always has been, and will probably never be anything else. 
