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Survey and establishment, 1796–1820

As one of thirty-six founders of the Connecticut Land Company, General Moses Cleaveland was selected as one of its seven directors and was subsequently sent out as the company's agent to map and survey the company's holdings. On July 22, 1796, Cleaveland and his surveyors arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Cleaveland quickly saw the land, which had previously belonged to Native Americans, as an ideal location for the "capital city" of the Connecticut Western Reserve. Cleaveland and h...

Village to city, 1820–1860

Cleveland began to grow rapidly after the completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal in 1832, turning the village into a key link between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes, particularly once the city railroad links were added. The spelling of the city's name was changed in 1831 by The Cleveland Advertiser, an early local newspaper. In order for the name to fit on the newspaper's masthead, the first "a" was dropped, reducing the city's name to Cleveland. The new spelling stuck, and long outlasted...

Civil War, 1861–1865

Strongly influenced by its New England roots, Cleveland was home to a vocal group of abolitionists who viewed slavery as a moral evil. Code-named "Station Hope", the city was a major stop on the Underground Railroad for escaped African American slaves en route to Canada. However, not all Clevelanders opposed slavery outright and views on the slaveholding South varied based on political affiliation. Nevertheless, as Bertram Wyatt-Brown noted, the city's "record of sympathy and help for the bla...

The Progressive Era, 1900–1919

Early in the 20th century, Cleveland was a city on the rise and was known as the "Sixth City" due to its position as the sixth largest U.S. city at the time. Its businesses included automotive companies such as Peerless, People's, Jordan, Chandler, and Winton, maker of the first car driven across the U.S. Other manufacturers in Cleveland produced steam-powered cars, which included those by White and Gaeth, and electric cars produced by Baker. The city's population also continued to grow. Alon...

The Roaring Twenties, 1920–1929

The Roaring Twenties was a prosperous decade for Cleveland. By 1920, the year in which the Cleveland Indians won their first World Series championship, Cleveland had grown into a densely-populated metropolis of 796,841 with a foreign-born population of 30%, making it the fifth largest city in the nation. Despite the national immigration restrictions of the 1920s, the city's population continued to grow. In 1923 the speed nut was invented by Cleveland industrialist and inventor Albert Tinnerma...

The Great Depression, 1929–1939

On October 24, 1929, the stock market crashed, plunging the entire nation into the Great Depression. The crash hit Cleveland hard, with industrialist Cyrus Eaton once stating that the city was "hurt more by the Depression than any other city in the United States."By 1933, approximately fifty percent of Cleveland's industrial workers were left unemployed by the Depression. Anti-Prohibition sentiment continued to grow. Tired of gang wars in Cleveland and Chicago, Fred G. Clark founded an anti-g...

Comeback and stagnation, 1980–2005

By the beginning of the 1980s, several factors, including changes in international free trade policies, inflation, and the Savings and Loans Crisis, contributed to the recession that severely affected cities like Cleveland. While unemployment during the period peaked in 1983, Cleveland's rate of 13.8% was higher than the national average due to the closure of several steel production centers. It was in these conditions, in addition to Cleveland's default, that the city began a gradual economi...

Continued evolution, 2006–Present

At the beginning of Jackson's mayoralty, the city faced continued challenges, including efforts to retain the city's residency laws, the impact of the Great Recession on city neighborhoods, and a federal corruption investigation into Cuyahoga County officials. However, by the turn of the 21st century, Cleveland succeeded in developing a more diversified economy and gained a national reputation as a center for healthcare and the arts. Additionally, it has become a national leader in environmen...