Well, it seems that the Brooklyn Centre Bicentennial timeline begins right about now, with the construction of James Fish’s $18 cabin, noted below where it’s highlighted. The link at the end of the post will take you to Sandy Rozhon’s WIKI.
[From the Cleveland Memory Project -- Chapter 10 of "A History of the City of Cleveland"]
- "Exactly when and where the first white resident of Brooklyn made his appearance is not known. Most of the glimpses we have had of the forerunners of civilization upon the West Side, were caught down near the lake and about that part now known as Main and Detroit streets. There was, however, out near the present Riverside Cemetery, a grassy slope running up from the Cuyahoga River, which, even in late years, was known as "Granger’s Hill." Here came, from Canada, one Granger, who became a "squatter," but at what date is not certainly known. He was there when James FISH, in May, 1812, became the first permanent settler of the Brooklyn Township of the later days. The stay of the squatter, however, was not long, as he migrated, in 1815, to the Maumee country.
- James Fish came from Groton, Connecticut, having purchased land of Messrs. Lord and Barber. He left home, in the summer of 1811, with his family stored away in a wagon drawn by oxen. He was accompanied by quite a company of pioneers, and spent forty-seven days upon the road. He passed the winter in Newburg; early in the spring of 1812, he crossed over to Brooklyn, erected a log-house at a cost of eighteen dollars, and in May took his family over and commenced house-keeping. In the same year came Moses and Ebenezer FISH, the last named serving as one of the militiamen guarding the Indian murderer, whose execution in 1812 has been elsewhere recorded.
- In 1813, came Ozias BRAINARD, of Connecticut, with his family; while in 1814, six families arrived as settlers within one week—those of Isaac HINCKLEY, Asa BRAINARD, Elijah YOUNG, Stephen BRAINERD, Enos BRAINARD, and Warren BRAINARD, all of whom had been residents of Chatham, Middlesex county, Conn. They had all exchanged their farm lands at home for those placed upon the market in this section of the New West. Their journey and reception has been described thus—with what warrant of exact truth we are not prepared to say: "All set out on the same day. The train consisted of six wagons, drawn by ten horses and six oxen, and all journeyed together until Euclid was reached (forty days after leaving Chatham), where Isaac Hinckley and his family rested, leaving the others to push on to Brooklyn, whither he followed them within a week. "
- Brooklyn Township, the land west of the Cuyahoga River, was known as the Lord and Barber allotment. All settlers would have purchased their land from Samuel P. Lord and Josiah Barber.
- The first permanent white settler of Brooklyn was James Fish.
- Brooklyn Centre consists of two of the main lots, #65 and #74, as surveyed and marked out for the Western Reserve.
- The early settlers of Brooklyn Centre were brothers, Ebenezer and Moses Fish on lot #65 and Ozias Brainard on lot #74.
