Joel Scranton, whose name is associated with much of the history of Cleveland, during the period when it grew from a small village to a city well on the way to permanent prosperity, was born in Belchertown, Mass., April 5, 1792. Whilst yet a child his parents removed with him to Otsego county, N. Y., where a considerable portion of his early life was spent. About the year 1820 he removed to Cleveland, where he engaged in business and remained until his death, of apoplexy, on the 9th of April, 1858, having just completed his sixty-sixth year. In the later years of the village of Cleveland and the early days of the city, Mr. Scranton's leather and dry goods store, at the corner of Superior and Water streets, was a well known business landmark. In the prosecution of his business he succeeded in saving a comfortable competence, which was increased by his judicious investments in real estate. These last have, by the rapid growth of the city, and increase in value since his death, become highly valuable property. Mr. Scranton was industrious, economical, and judicious in business transactions; of strong mind and well balanced judgment; a kind parent and a firm friend. Orlando Cutter. Orlando Cutter first beheld the harbor and city of Cleveland on the 30th of June, 1818, having spent nine dismal days on the schooner Ben Franklin, in the passage from Black Rock. He was landed in a yawl, at the mouth of the river, near a bluff that stood where the Toledo Railroad Machine Shops have since been built, about seventy-five rods west of the present entrance to the harbor. In those days the river entrance was of a very unreliable character, being sometimes entirely blocked up with sand, so that people walked across. It was no uncommon thing for people to ride over, or jump the outlet with the help of a pole. [Illustration] Mr. Cutter walked along the beach and on the old road to Water street, and thence in a broiling sun to the frame tavern of Noble H. Merwin, on Vineyard lane, near Superior street. Here he was first introduced to Philo Scovill, a robust young carpenter, who was hewing timber for Merwin's new brick tavern, afterwards called the Mansion House.