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Moses Cleaveland statue In Cleveland, Ohio

Source: Lawrence Thornton / Getty

LAKEWOOD, Ohio — On Thursday in Lakewood a Moses Cleaveland tree is being taken down because it’s become a hazard.

At more than 200 years old the tree is currently being held up with wires and cables.


But what is a Moses Cleaveland tree?

First let’s answer the obvious. No, we are not misspelling Cleaveland. Moses Cleaveland, the man who discovered Cleveland, had an ‘A’ in his name.

So what happened to the ‘A’?

According to William Barrow, with the Cleveland Memory Project at Cleveland State University, we’re not sure.

“Nobody really knows what happened to the A,” Barrow said. “Best story is that a newspaper editor deliberately or accidentally dropped it, but that doesn’t seem convincing.”

Now back to Moses Cleaveland trees.

The idea is pretty simple.

Which trees in the Cleveland area are old enough to have witnessed the arrival of Moses Cleaveland when he discovered the area in 1796.

The designation of the of the trees however, didn’t happen until 1946.

“In 1946, Arthur B. Williams, a Museum educator and a naturalist with the Cleveland Metroparks, decided to identify 150 trees which would have been standing when Moses Cleaveland discovered the city of Cleveland 150 years earlier,” according to Wendy Wasman, a Librarian & Archivist with The Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Williams was very deliberate about the 150 trees he chose.

“He wanted to make sure that the trees were located along highways, streets, park trails, or other places where they might easily be seen and appreciated by the public,” Wasman said.

 

READ MORE: Cleveland19.com

Article Courtesy of WOIO Cleveland 19 News

First Picture Courtesy of Ilias Katsouras and Getty Images

Second Picture Courtesy of Lawrence Thornton and Getty Images

First and Second Video Courtesy of Facebook and WOIO Cleveland 19 News

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