Birth of a City

I was remiss yesterday in not noting the birthday of the founder of my fair city, Moses Cleaveland. On a fateful day in 1796, Mr. Cleaveland arrived on the banks of the Cuyahoga River (which at that time was not burning) and pronounced it a lovely spot on which to build a city. Then he promptly left and never returned.

But not before leaving in his stead four hearty souls who managed to drum up enough enthusiasm (despite, as Wiki says, "the insalubrity of the locality") for the newly formed village that in a mere 24 years the population had veritably exploded to 150. Hmmm.

Thirty-four years after its founding, the city's name changed from Cleaveland to Cleveland because --wait for it-- the full spelling wouldn't fit on the masthead of the first local newspaper (The Cleveland Advertiser) so the editor just decided to drop the "A." And we think the press nowadays takes liberties.