American general and pioneer, born at Canterbury, CT, on the 26th of January 1754; was graduated at Yale in 1777; practiced law, and was commissioned captain of a company of sappers and miners serving during the close of the Revolutionary War. He was several times elected to the legislature and was commissioned brigadier-general of militia in 1796. He was a shareholder in the Connecticut land company which had purchased from the state, for $1,200,000, the land north of the Ohio, reserved to the state by Congress, and afterward known as the Western Reserve. Cleaveland was appointed to survey the land, and selected the site of what became the city of Cleveland; the present spelling of the city named in his honor arising from the fact that in 1830, when the first newspaper was being issued at the place it was discovered that the title chosen, “Cleaveland Advertiser,” was too long for the form, to overcome which the editor shortened the first word by one letter, which spelling was adopted by the citizens. Cleaveland died in his native town on the 16th of November 1806.
