CLEVELAND — Cleveland is celebrating its 226th birthday today!
This year, a birthday celebration is taking place at Public Square to honor The Land's birthday.
The event will begin at 11 a.m. and go until 1 p.m. on Friday, July 22.
The Early Settlers Association (ESA) will honor Moses "Cleaveland" during the birthday celebration.
The annual tradition is to honor Cleveland's founder as well as the yearly recipient of the Herrick Award.
The award is given to an individual who the ESA recognizes for their accomplishments that have promoted and honored Cleveland.
Last year's winner was Kathleen Hackman Crowther, the president of the Cleveland Restoration Society.
Today's event in Public Square is free and open to the public.
Last year, Cleveland City Council shared how the city of Cleveland came to be:
The founding of Cleveland is quite a story. Arriving at the mouth of the Cuyahoga on July 22, 1796, General Moses Cleaveland believed that the location “where river, lake, low banks, dense forests and high bluffs provided both protection and shipping access, was the ideal location for the ‘capital city’ of the Connecticut Western Reserve.”
Cleaveland had served in the Revolutionary War in a Connecticut Continental Regiment. Resigning his commission in 1781, he practiced law. As one of the founders of the Connecticut Land Co., and one of 7 directors, Cleaveland was sent out in 1796 to survey and map the company's holdings.
His surveyors plotted a town, naming it Cleaveland. In Oct. 1796, Cleaveland and most of his party returned to Connecticut, never returning to the Western Reserve.
It would take 40 more years for the city of Cleveland (the letter "a" was dropped in 1831) to become incorporated on March 5th, 1836. It was an exciting year; it nearly erupted into open warfare with neighboring Ohio City over a bridge connecting the two communities.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above previously aired on 3News on July 22, 2021.