21st February: This Day In Cleveland's History: Completion of the Columbus/Cleveland Railroad

On this date in 1851, there was a huge celebration in Cleveland over the completion of the Cleveland/Columbus/Cincinnati railroad.  Governor Wood, the General Assembly and other prominent officials celebrated the completion of the Cleveland/Columbus portion by boarding a grand excursion train with 425 other passengers in a torrential downpour in Columbus.  The party headed to Cleveland, and returned to Columbus after a day's layover.  By 1868, the Cincinnati portion was complete.

On their way up, they stopped in Shelby for lunch, and State Librarian John Greiner was hoisted onto a table, where he began to sing a song just written for the occasion - Mr. Baker of the Senate chimed in as they sang:

            We hail from the city, the Capital City,
            We left in the storm and the rain;
            The cannon did thunder, the people
            did wonder
            To see pious folks "on a train."

            The ironhorse snorted, he puffed and he started,
            And such a long tail as he bore!
            And put for the city that grows in the woods,
            The city upon the Lake Shore.

The next day, swarms of Clevelanders saw the party off - amid similar fanfare.  Eventually, the line included Cincinnati, and cross-state travel was easily made from the southern shores of the Ohio River to our Great Lake Erie.

But what about our Ohio railroad that preceded the 3C line?  The Underground Railroad was well underway in our state by 1810.  Some members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) all across the north were known to help runaway slaves as early as the 1780s.  But Ohio - and Cleveland in particular - was a critical part of this history.  Because the US Constitution, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 permitted slave owners to reclaim their runaway slaves, even if the African Americans had moved to a free state, enslaved and fleeing African Americans were forced to make it into Canada to be safe. 

The Cleveland "station" on the slaves' journey was code-named "Hope".  It was their last stop before Canada.  While there are places all around northeast Ohio you can still visit where slaves hid and were aided, one of the most famous stops was right here on Euclid Avenue (known as Buffalo Road then) - where they would be hidden in freedman John Bell's barbershop before boarding a boat for Canada.

COZAD-BATES HOUSE

Other stories of heroism and humanity abound throughout Greater Cleveland and northeast Ohio from the years leading up to the Civil War. The Cozad-Bates house is further testimony to this history.  The beautiful Italianate home, originally lived in by Justus Cozad, and once a stop on the railway to freedom for so many, now sits in the heart of Cleveland’s cultural and intellectual district in University Circle. The Cozads and their neighbors, the Fords (well documented "conductors" on the Underground Railroad), owned much of the land now occupied by Case Western Reserve, Cleveland Museum of Art, the Botanical Gardens, The Natural History Museum, University Hospital and Severance Hall.  

What stories do YOUR Ohio pre-civil war ancestors tell?  Were they conductors? Slaves making their way to freedom? Providers? Writers? Activists?

There is a remarkable group of men and women right here in northeast Ohio who can help you find your way through these questions.  The African American Genealogical Society was founded over 20 years ago and stays true to their original mission.  Find them, their records and their good work here: http://www.aagsclev.org .

Oh, and by the way - Justus Cozad? - he was, ironically, a general superintendent and chief engineer for that very railroad company I mentioned earlier.