But Col. Whittlesy's volume closes with the war of 1812, when Cleveland
was still a pioneer settlement with but a few families. The history of the
growth of that settlement to a village, its development into a commercial
port, and then into a large and flourishing city, with a busy population
of a hundred thousand persons, remained mostly unwritten, and no part of
it existing in permanent form. The whole period is covered by the active
lives of men yet with us who have grown up with the place, and with whose
history that of the city is inseparably connected. It occurred to the
projector of this work that a history of Cleveland could be written in the
individual histories of its representative men, that such a volume would
not only be a reliable account of the growth of the city in its general
features and in the development of its several branches of industry, but
would possess the additional advantage of the interest attaching to
personal narrative. This idea has been faithfully worked out in the
following pages, not without much labor and difficulty in the collection
and arrangement of the materials. Besides the personal narratives, an
introductory sketch to each of the departments of business into which the
biographical sketches are grouped gives a brief account of the rise and
present position of that particular industry; these, taken together,
forming a full and accurate business and professional history of the city.
An introductory sketch of the general history of Cleveland gives
completeness to the whole, whilst the numerous illustrations and portraits
add greatly to the interest and value of the work.

Numerous as are the sketches, it is not, of course, claimed that all are
represented in the volume who deserve a place in it. This would be
impossible in a work of ordinary dimensions, even were it convenient, or
even possible, to obtain the necessary materials. The aim has been to
sketch sufficient of the representative men in each leading business and
professional department to give a fair idea of the nature and extent of