Who is Cleveland Ohio named after? Origins of Cleveland Ohio’s name revealed through first founder.
Cleveland is the 52nd largest city in the United States and the second largest in the state of Ohio (behind Columbus).
Much of Cleveland sits on Lake Erie, with Edgewater Beach proving to be a popular summer time hangout among residents.
The city is well-known for its sports teams including the Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA), Cleveland Browns (NFL), and Cleveland Indians (MLB).
Cleveland is also home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with the term “rock and roll” accredited to Clevelander Alan Freed.
Who is Cleveland Ohio named after? It’s a question people want to know the answer to, so let’s explore it.
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Who is Cleveland Ohio named after?
On 22 July 1796, surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company founded Cleveland.
On that day, one of its directors, General Moses Cleaveland, arrived at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River to survey the land.
Cleaveland quickly saw the land, which had belonged to Native Americans, as an ideal location for his company’s “capital city”.
Cleaveland and his surveyors quickly began making plans for the new city and soon after decided to name it Cleaveland, after their leader.
In 1831, however, the city dropped the “a” in “Cleaveland”. This happened after the newspaper Cleveland Adviser left it out to fit the name on its masthead.
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Moses Cleaveland after founding Cleveland
After naming the city, Cleaveland oversaw the New England-style design of the plan for what would become Public Square. This remains the central plaza of downtown Cleveland today.
In October 1796, Cleaveland and most of his party returned to Connecticut. He continued his law practice until his death, never returning to the city of Cleveland.
A memorial near his grave in Canterbury, Connecticut, erected 16 November 1906, reads Cleaveland was “a lawyer, a soldier, a legislator and a leader of men”.
The first permanent settler in Cleaveland was Lorenzo Carter, who built a cabin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River.
Cleveland continued to grow into the 19th century and, after the American Civil War, became a major industrial city.
