The population of the city had grown in 1835 to 5,080, having more than
doubled in two years. There was at this time an immense rush of people to
the West. Steamers ran from Buffalo to Detroit crowded with passengers at
a fare of eight dollars, the number on board what would now be called
small boats, sometimes reaching from five hundred to six hundred persons.
The line hired steamers and fined them a hundred dollars if the round trip
was not made in eight days. The slower boats, not being able to make that
time with any certainty, frequently stopped at Cleveland, discharged their
passengers, and put back to Buffalo. It sometimes chanced that the shore
accommodations were insufficient for the great crowd of emigrants stopping
over at this port, and the steamers were hired to lie off the port all
night, that the passengers might have sleeping accommodations. In that
year fire destroyed a large part of the business portion of Cleveland. At
the same period James S. Clark built, at his own expense, the old Columbus
street bridge, connecting Cleveland with Brooklyn township, and donated it
to the city. Two years later this bridge was the occasion and scene of the
famous "battle of the bridge," to be noticed in its proper place.

In 1836, Cleveland was granted a charter as a city. Greatly to the
mortification of many of the citizens, the people across the river had
received their charter for the organization of Ohio City before that for
the city of Cleveland came to hand, and Ohio City, therefore, took
precedence on point of age. This tended to embitter the jealous rivalry
between the two cities, and it was only after long years that this feeling
between the dwellers on the two sides of the river died out.

The settlement on the west side of the river had been made originally by
Josiah Barber and Richard Lord. Soon after Alonzo Carter purchased on
that side of the river and kept tavern in the "Red House," opposite
Superior street. In 1831, the Buffalo Company purchased the Carter farm