Part 45

With the breaking out of the rebellion, a new era in General Stager's life commenced. With the firing of the first rebel gun on Fort Sumpter, and the resultant demand for troops to defend the nation's life, the Governors of Ohio, Illinois and Indiana united in taking possession of the telegraph lines in those States for military purposes, and the superintendent of the Western Union Telegraph Company was appointed to represent these in their official capacity. General Stager acted with promptness and vigor, and no small share of the credit accorded to those States for the promptness with which their troops were in the field and striking effective blows for the Union, is due to General Stager for the ability with which he made the telegraph coöperate with the authorities in directing the military movements. When General McClellan took command of the Union forces in West Virginia and commenced the campaign that drove the rebels east of the mountains, General Stager accompanied him as chief of the telegraph staff, and established the first system of field telegraph used during the war. The wire followed the army headquarters wherever that went, and the enemy were confounded by the constant and instant communications kept up between the Union army in the field and the Union government at home. When General McClellan was summoned to Washington to take command of the Army of the Potomac, General Stager was called by him to organize the military telegraph of that department. This he accomplished, and remained in charge of it until November, 1862, when he was commissioned captain and assistant quartermaster, and by order of the Secretary of war, appointed chief of the United States Military Telegraphs throughout the United States--a control that covered all the main lines in the country. He was subsequently commissioned colonel and aid-de-damp, and assigned to duty in the War Department, and was also placed in charge of the cypher correspondence of the Secretary of War. The cryptograph used throughout the war was perfected by him, and baffled all attempts of the enemy to translate it. At the close of the war he left the active military service of the government, retiring with the brevet of Brigadier General, conferred for valuable and meritorious services.

At the close of the war the Southwestern and American Telegraph Companies were consolidated with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and a re-organization of the latter company effected. The general superintendency of the Consolidated company was urged upon General Stager, but as this would necessitate his removal to New York, he declined it, preferring to live in the west. For a time he meditated retiring altogether from the telegraph business and embarking in newspaper life, for which his early training had given him a taste, and towards which he always maintained an affection. Eventually the company persuaded him to remain in connection with them, and to suit his wishes, the field of the company's operations was divided into three divisions, the Central, Eastern and Southern. General Stager assumed control of the Central, which covered the field with which he had so long been identified, and which left him with his headquarters in the home he had for years occupied, in Cleveland. Early in 1869, the duties of his position rendered it necessary that he should remove to Chicago, which he did with great reluctance, his relations with Cleveland business, and its people, being close and uniformly cordial.

General Stager is a man with a host of friends and without, we believe, one enemy. His position was such as to bring him into contact with every kind of interest, and frequently, of necessity, into conflict with one or other, but his position was always maintained with such courtesy, as well as firmness, that no ill feeling resulted from the controversy, however it terminated.

Socially he is one of the most genial of companions; in character the personification of uprightness and honor; firm in his friendships and incapable of malice toward any one. Well situated financially, happy in his domestic circle, of wide popularity, and possessing the esteem of those who know him best, General Stager is one of those whose lot is enviable, and who has made his position thus enviable by his own force of character and geniality of disposition.

City Improvements

Cleveland covers a large extent of territory. The width of its streets and the unusual amount of frontage possessed by most of the dwellings, made the work of city improvements in the way of paving, sewerage and water supply, at first very slow of execution. The light gravelly soil, on which the greater portion of the city is built, enabled these works to be postponed, until the increased number and compactness of the population, and excess of wealth, would render the expense less burdensome.

The first attempts at paving were made on Superior street, below the Square, and on River street. The paving was of heavy planks laid across the street, and was at the time a source of pride to the citizens; but when, in coming years, the planks were warped and loosened, it became an intolerable nuisance. On River street the floods of the Cuyahoga sometimes rushed through the warehouses and covered the street, floating off the planks and leaving them in hopeless disorder on the subsidence of the waters. It was at last determined to pave these streets with stone. Limestone was at first chosen, but found not to answer, and Medina sandstone was finally adopted, with which all the stone paving of the streets has been since done. Within two or three years the Nicholson wood pavement has been introduced, and has been laid extensively on the streets above the bluff. On the low land along the river valley the paving still continues to be of stone. At the present time there are between seventeen and eighteen miles of pavement finished or under construction, about half of which is Nicholson wood pavement, and the remainder Medina sandstone.

Within a few years the work of sewering the city has been systematized and pushed forward vigorously. At first, the sewers were made to suit the needs of a particular locality, without any reference to a general system, and consequently were found utterly inadequate to the growing necessities of the city. Proper legislation was obtained from the General Assembly, money was obtained on the credit of the city, the territory was mapped out into sewer districts, with sewer lines for each district, so arranged as to form a part of one harmonious whole, and the work commenced. All the main sewers drain into the lake. There are now about twenty-seven miles of main and branch sewers finished, and additional sewers are in progress of construction.

The rapid growth of the city, and the gradual failure, or deterioration, of the wells, in the most thickly settled parts, rendered it necessary to find some other source of a constant supply of pure water. It was determined to obtain the supply from Lake Erie, and for this purpose an inlet pipe was run out into the lake, west of the Old River Bed. The pipe is of boiler plate, three-eighths of an inch thick, fifty inches in diameter, and three hundred feet long, extending from the shore to the source of supply at twelve feet depth of water, and terminating in the lake at a circular tower, constructed of piles driven down as deep as they can be forced into the bottom of the lake. There are two concentric rows of piles, two abreast, leaving eight feet space between the outer and interior rows, which space is filled with broken stones to the top of the piles. The piles are then capped with strong timber plates, securely bolted together and fastened with iron to the piles. The outside diameter of the tower is thirty-four feet, the inside diameter is eight feet, forming a strong protection around an iron well-chamber, which is eight feet in diameter and fifteen feet deep, which is riveted to the end of the inlet pipe. An iron grating fixed in a frame which slides in a groove, to be removed and cleaned at pleasure, is attached to the well-chamber, and forms the strainer, placed four feet below the surface of the lake, through which the water passes into the well-chamber and out at the inlet pipe. A brick aqueduct connects the shore end of the inlet pipe with the engine house, three thousand feet distant. From the engine house the water is conveyed to the reservoir, on Franklin, Kentucky and Duane streets, built on a ridge thirty feet higher than any other ground in the city.

The Cleveland Water Works were commenced on the 10th day of August, 1854, and were so far completed as to let water on the city on the 19th day of September, 1856. The time required to build the Works was two years and thirty-nine days. The capacity of these Works to deliver water is greater than the originally estimated wants of the population the works were intended to supply, which was for 100,000. They are, however, capable of supplying at least 300,000 inhabitants with abundance of water. By an enlargement of the main pump barrel and plunger to each Cornish engine, which was contemplated in the plans, the supply may be increased to an almost unlimited extent. No fear can be entertained that the present Water Works in the next fifty years will fail to yield a superabundant supply of water.

The water was first introduced into the city temporarily at the earnest solicitation of the Mayor, Common Council, and Trustees of Water Works, in which the citizens generally participated, on the occasion of the State Fair, on the 24th of September, 1856. Apart from the Fair, this event was hailed with demonstrations of great joy as the celebration of the introduction of the waters of Lake Erie into the city of Cleveland. At the intersection of the road ways, crossing at the centre of the Public Square, a capacious fountain, of chaste and beautiful design was erected, from which was thrown a jet of pure crystal water high into the air, which, as the centre, greatest attraction, gratified thousands of admiring spectators. It became necessary after the Fair to shut off the water as was anticipated, to remove a few pipes near the Ship Channel which had broke in two by the unequal settling of the pipes in the quicksand bed through which they were laid. These repairs were promptly made, and the water let on the city again; since which time the supply has been regular and uninterrupted. The length of pipes laid up to the first of January, 1869, aggregated thirty-nine and one-half miles. The total cost of the Works to that period was $722,273.33. The earnings, over running expenses, for 1868, were $36,340.23, being a little over five per cent, on the capital invested. The preliminary work is now doing for the construction of a tunnel under the bed of the lake, in order to obtain a water supply at such a distance from the shore as to be beyond the reach of the winter ice-field and the impurities collected beneath the ice-crust.

Three commodious and tasteful markets have been erected within a few years, one on the west side of the river, one in the fifth ward, and the Central Market, at the junction of Woodland avenue and Broadway.

Four horse railroads are in active operation within the city: the East Cleveland, organized in 1859, and running from the junction of Superior and Water streets, by the way of Euclid avenue and Prospect street, to the eastern limit of the city on Euclid avenue, thence continuing to East Cleveland. This line has also a branch running off the main line at Brownell street, and traversing the whole length of Garden street, to the eastern limit of the city. The Kinsman street line, organized in 1859, runs from the junction of Superior and Water streets, through Ontario street and Woodland avenue to Woodland Cemetery. The West Side railroad runs from the junction of Superior and Water streets, by way of South Water, Detroit and Kentucky street, to Bridge street, with a branch along Pearl street. The St. Clair street railroad, the latest built, runs along St. Clair from Water street to the eastern line of the city. Besides these, a local railroad, operated by steam, connects the Kinsman street line with Newburg, and another of a similar character connects the West Side railroad with Rocky River. Charters have been obtained for a railroad to connect the Pearl street branch of the West Side railroad with University Heights, and for a line to run parallel with the bluff overlooking the north bank of the Cuyahoga from River street, to the boundary between the city and Newburg township.

Henry S. Stevens.

To Henry S. Stevens, more than to any other man, are the citizens of Cleveland indebted for their facilities in traveling, cheaply and comfortably, from point to point in the city, and for the remarkable immunity the Forest City has enjoyed from hack driving extortions and brutality, which have so greatly annoyed citizens and strangers in many other cities. To his foresight, enterprise and steady perseverance is Cleveland indebted for its excellent omnibus and public carriage system, and for the introduction of street railroads. Both these improvements were not established without a sharp struggle, in the former case against the determined opposition of the hack drivers who preferred acting for themselves and treating the passenger as lawful prey, and in the case of street railroads, having to overcome interested opposition, popular indifference or prejudice, and official reluctance to permit innovations.

Mr. Stevens was born in Middlesex county, Massachusetts, January, 1821. After spending seven years at school in Salem and Boston, his father's family moved to New Hampshire. He attended school there for two years. Before he was twenty years of age he developed a desire to visit new scenes and a propensity for observing strange characters and manners, which seems to have strengthened with his years. Our railroad system and ocean steam navigation were then in their infancy, and the first journey he made was almost equivalent to a journey around the globe at the present day. He took passage in a packet ship from Boston for the West Indies, visiting Porto Rico, Matanzas and Havana, thence to New Orleans, the interior of Texas and Arkansas, and remained a winter at Alexandria, in western Louisiana. About a year after his return to New Hampshire the family removed to Maryland, where he resided nine years, and finally came to Cleveland in 1849, when this city had less than a fifth of its present population. He was one of the early proprietors of the Weddell House, and upon his retirement from the business, he established the omnibus local transit for passengers and baggage at a uniform rate of charge, which system has been generally adopted in the principal cities in the country.

In 1856, in company with two other gentlemen from New York, he explored the southern part of Mexico from the Gulf to the Pacific ocean, with reference to its availability for a railroad and preliminary stage road. The result was, that two years later he completed an arrangement with the Louisiana Tehuantepec Company to carry out the provisions of their charter. He chartered a vessel at New York and shipped mechanics and other employees, coaches and materials, and in two months thereafter the line commenced moving a distance of one hundred and twelve miles through the forests and over the rolling plains of Southern Mexico.

For nearly a year this continued successfully, and it was owing either to his good fortune or good management, that no accident to passengers or property was incurred, and of the large number of his employees from the States, every one returned in good health. The rebellion was then in its incipiency, and the Southern owners of the route decided to suspend operations until their little difficulty was adjusted with the North.

Mr. Stevens, however, is better known as having started the street railroad system here, which has proved so great a convenience to our citizens, and which has enhanced the price of real estate in this city more than any other one cause. He built the Prospect street, Kinsman street and West Side railroads; the first two without aid from capitalists, and in the face of many discouragements. In the Fall of 1865, he went to Rio Janeiro for the purpose of establishing street railroads in that city. These roads are now in successful operation there. In this journey Mr. Stevens visited many other places in Brazil, including Pernambuco, Bahia, St. Salvador and Para, on the river Amazon. Returning by the way of Europe, he stopped at the Cape de Verde Islands, on the coast of Africa, thence to Lisbon and across Portugal to Madrid. During his sojourn in Spain he visited Granada, the Alhambra, and many cities in the south of Spain. His route home was through Paris, London and Liverpool. Two years later he made an extended tour over Europe, including Russia, Hungary, and other places of the Danube.

Mr. Stevens has served four years in the city council, and for two years was president of that body. During his official term he was noted for regularity and punctuality of attendance, close attention to business, and watchful care of the public interests. As presiding officer he had few equals. Dignified, yet courteous, in manner, and thoroughly impartial, he possessed the respect of all parties in the council, and was always able to so conduct the deliberations as to prevent unseemly outbreaks or undignified discussions. Methodical in the disposition of business, he was able to get through a large amount in a short time, without the appearance of haste.

Mr. Stevens is one of that class of travelers of whom there are, unhappily, but few, who not only travel far, but see much, and are able to relate what they saw with such graphic power as to give those who remain at home a pleasure only secondary to visiting the scenes in person. His several wanderings in Mexico and Central America, in South America, Western Europe, and Russia, have all been narrated briefly, or more at length, in letters to the Cleveland Herald, which for felicity of expression and graphic description, have had no superiors in the literature of travel. This is high praise, but those who have read the several series of letters with the well known signature "H. S. S." will unqualifiedly support the assertion. In his journeyings he generally avoided the beaten track of tourists and sought unhackneyed scenes. These were observed with intelligent eyes, the impressions deepened and corrected by close investigation into the historical and contemporary facts connected with the localities, and the result given in language graphic, direct, and at the same time easy and graceful. A collection of these letters would make one of the most delightful volumes of travel sketches in the language.

Theodore R. Scowden.

Theodore R. Scowden, son of Theodore Scowden, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was born June 8, 1815, and was educated at Augusta College, Kentucky.

On leaving college, in 1832, he was apprenticed to the steam engine business at Cincinnati, and continued at this about four years, when he engaged as engineer on a steamer plying between Cincinnati and New Orleans. From the time of commencing engine building, he employed all his spare moments in studying mechanics, hydraulics and civil engineering. He remained in the position of engineer on the river for about eight years, when, in 1844, he turned his attention to the work of designing and planning engines, and so put into practice the knowledge acquired by application for the previous twelve years, and, in fact, for which he more particularly fitted himself while at college. He was then appointed by the city council of Cincinnati, engineer of water works, the primitive works then existing being inadequate to the increased wants of the city. The water was conveyed in log pipes, and the work before Mr. Scowden was to replace these logs by iron pipes, and to design and erect new works. In about a year from his appointment his plans were perfected and he was ready to commence operation. A great difficulty under which he labored, was, the necessity of keeping up the supply of water all the time, and being at the same time compelled to place the new reservoir and engine house in the exact spot of the old. This made the construction extend through nearly eight years, during which time from forty to fifty miles of iron pipe were laid, and a reservoir of great capacity constructed. This was his first great public work completed, and was a perfect success.

The first low pressure engine ever successfully used in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, was designed by Mr. Scowden and introduced into these works. It was found that the sedimentary matter of the Ohio river cut the valves in the condensing apparatus, and so destroying the vacuum, rendered the working of the engine ineffective. This Mr. Scowden overcame by introducing vulcanized india rubber valves, seated on a grating. Since that time he has designed several low pressure engines for the Mississippi river, which are still working successfully.

In 1851, Mr. Scowden was commissioned by the city of Cincinnati, to make the tour of England and France for the purpose of examining the principles and workings of public docks, drainage, paving and water works. After returning and making his report he resigned his post and came to Cleveland, for the purpose of constructing the water works now in operation in this city. The plan and designs were completed during 1852, and active operations commenced in 1853. The site of these works is said to have presented more engineering difficulties than any other in the country. At the time the tests were made for the foundation of the engine house, the water was nearly knee deep, and four men forced a rod thirty feet long and three-quarters of an inch in diameter twenty-eight feet into the ground. By the aid of five steam engines and pumps he succeeded in excavating to the depth of fourteen feet, and not being able to proceed further, he commenced the foundation. It is well to note the fact here, that the soil was in such a semi-fluid state that it could not be handled with a shovel, and altogether the chances of success for securing a permanent foundation looked, to the public, at least, very dubious. The citizens grew uneasy; they thought it was a waste of public money, but Mr. Snowden never despaired, though he with his own hand thrust a pole down twelve feet from the bottom of the excavation.

He laid down over the whole area two courses of timber laid cross-wise, leaving a space of twelve inches between each timber. The first timber was drawn by a rope, and floated to its place. In order to get a bed he scooped a space of two feet in length at one end, which was filled with gravel. This process was continued through the whole length of the timber. The second timber was floated to its place, leaving a foot between them, and the same operation was performed throughout the whole foundation.

All the spaces between the timbers were filled with broken stone and hydraulic cement; then the cross timbers were laid, filling the spans with the concrete also. It is to be observed that not a single pile was driven in all the foundation.

The masonry was commenced upon the timbers, and carried up about nineteen feet, and, notwithstanding the misgivings of scientific and experienced contractors and builders, and others, the superstructure was completed in 1855, and from that day to this not a crack in an angle of the building has been seen, although it may with truth be said that the engine house floats on a bed of quicksand. There were three thousand feet of aqueduct from the engine house to the lake, which presented similar difficulties, as did also the laying of pipes under the Cuyahoga river.