Lorenzo Carter

Major Lorenzo Carter was the first permanent settler in Cleveland, Ohio.

Born in 1767, Carter spent his early years in Warren, Connecticut. Where he visited the local library frequently and developed an appreciation of books. When his father, Lieut. Elazer Carter enlisted in the Continental Army when Lorenzo was 11 years old, he came home from his temporarily disbanded unit and died of smallpox. About seven years later when his widowed mother remarried and moved to Vermont, the 18-year-old Lorenzo struck out on his own. Within four years, Lorenzo Carter bought his own land, cleared it, farmed it and married Rebecca Fuller. Lorenzo Carter is described as a swarthy, muscular man whose “gaze and speech were as direct as his actions” (Ellis, 1979, p. 42)Carter was a natural leader whose “interests transcended farming or making a living.” (Ellis, 1979, p. 42) In 1797 he left with his brother-in-law for the New Connecticut settlement of Cleaveland (now Cleveland, Ohio) via Canada. Lorenzo Carter bought Lot 199, nearly 2 acres (8,100 m²) of land for $47.50. Carter made friends with the local Native Americans and it was his friendship with Chief Seneca (also known as Stigwanish) that kept the Cleaveland colony alive through years of disease, floods and poor crops.