In many ways the story of the survey and first settlement of Cleveland has been made familiar to the public. It has been told at pioneer gatherings, reproduced in newspapers and periodicals, enlarged upon in directory prefaces and condensed for works of topographical reference. Within a short time Col. Charles Whittlesey has gathered up, collected, and arranged the abundant materials for the Early History of Cleveland in a handsome volume bearing that title.

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 that department. It is not a complete biographical dictionary of Cleveland, but a volume of biographical selections, made, as the lawyers say, "without prejudice."