The survey of the city was commenced on the 16th of September, and completed about the 1st of October, 1796. Holley's notes state that on Monday, October 17th, he "finished surveying in New Connecticut; weather rainy," and on the following day he records: "We left Cuyahoga at 3 o'clock 17 minutes, for home. We left at Cuyahoga, Job Stiles and wife, and Joseph Landon, with provisions for the Winter." Landon soon abandoned the spot and his place was taken by Edward Paine, who had arrived from the State of New York, for the purpose of trading with the Indians, and who may be considered the first mercantile man who transacted business in Cleveland. Thus, during the Winter of 1796-7, the population of the city consisted of three inhabitants. During the Winter a child is reputed to have been born in the cabin, which had only squaws for nurses. Early in the Spring of 1797, James Kingsbury and family, from New England, with Elijah Gunn, one of the surveying party, all of whom had continued during the Winter at Conneaut, where they had endured incredible hardships, removed to Cleveland. His first cabin was put up on the site of the Case Block, east of the Public Square, but he subsequently removed to a point east of the present city limits, somewhere on a line with Kinsman Street. Here he remained until his death. The next families who were attracted to this settlement were those of Major Lorenzo Carter and Ezekiel Hawley, who came from Kirtland, Vermont, the family of the Major being accompanied by Miss Cloe Inches. In the Spring of the following year, (1798,) the former gentleman sowed two acres of corn on the west side of Water street. He was also the first person who erected a frame building in the city, which he completed in 1802; but an unfortunate casualty proved fatal to the enterprise, for when he was about to occupy the residence it was totally destroyed by fire. In 1803, however, he erected another house on the site of the destroyed building, but on this occasion he confined himself to hewn logs. The fourth addition of the season was that of Nathan Chapman and his family, who, like the patriarchs of yore, traveled with his herd, and marched into the Forest City at the head of two yoke of oxen and four milch cows, which were the first neat stock that fed from the rich pasturage on the banks of the Cuyahoga. In the Summer of 1797, the surveying party returned to the Western Reserve and resumed their labors, with Cleveland as a head-quarters. It was a very sickly season and three of the number died, one of whom was David Eldridge, whose remains were interred in a piece of ground chosen as a cemetery, at the corner of Prospect and Ontario streets. This funeral occurred on the 3d of June, 1797, and is the first recorded in the city. Recently, while making some improvements to the buildings now occupying that location, some human bones were discovered.