The "Reserve" in our name begins with a simple geographical question: what was Connecticut doing in Northeast Ohio?
We have already covered what it means to ramble. The second half of our name sends us back to an 18th-century map—specifically, a 120-mile strip of land along the southern shore of Lake Erie that Connecticut held onto when it surrendered the rest of its western land claims.
The name outlived the claim. You still pass it every day on Northeast Ohio campuses, museums, and street signs, often without stopping to ask what was being reserved, or by whom.
A Piece of New England in the Midwest
Connecticut’s 1662 royal charter claimed a band of territory stretching westward across the continent. Other colonies held overlapping charters—expansive assertions of ownership drawn up an ocean away, with little regard for the Indigenous nations already living on the land.
In 1786, Connecticut ceded the bulk of its western claim to the young United States, but kept a strip extending 120 miles west from the Pennsylvania border between Lake Erie and the 41st parallel. That retained territory became known as the Connecticut Western Reserve.
Surveying the Reserve
In 1795, Connecticut sold most of the Reserve to investors in the Connecticut Land Company for $1.2 million. This was Indigenous homeland, not empty wilderness awaiting discovery; the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 and the Treaty of Fort Industry in 1805 were pivotal steps in the dispossession that opened the Reserve to New England settlement.
Moses Cleaveland led the company’s surveying party to the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in the summer of 1796. His crew laid out a town grid named in his honor, and Cleaveland returned home to Connecticut that autumn, never to set foot in Ohio again. For someone whose name we encounter on nearly every corner, his local stay was remarkably brief.
And the missing "a" in Cleveland? The familiar folklore about a cramped newspaper masthead is only half the story: official records were already spelling it "Cleveland" by 1814. Even the city’s spelling comes with a footnote.
The Legacy We Ramble Through Today
Settlers from New England left their imprint on the region’s town greens, street grids, and white-spired churches. Walking through Northeast Ohio today means moving through those visible layers—and asking whose plans shaped the street, and whose history the map left out, makes every walk a little richer.
That habit of looking twice at familiar ground is what the name Rambler Reserve means to us. It runs through pieces like The Garfield Memorial Heavyweight T-Shirt, The James A. Garfield (JAG) Cap, Cleveland The Heart of Forest City Washed Cap, and Cleveland The Forest City Oversized Hoodie.
A little Forest City history for your next ramble.
Explore the embroidered, garment-washed cap inspired by Cleveland’s historic nickname.
Quick Reference: What was the Connecticut Western Reserve?
The Connecticut Western Reserve was a 120-mile strip of land in Northeast Ohio along the southern shore of Lake Erie that Connecticut retained in 1786 when ceding its broader western colonial charter claims, before selling the tract to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795.
Down the Rabbit Hole
The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History’s Western Reserve entry details the 1786 land claim, the 1795 sale, and the treaties that followed, while its guide to Cleveland’s names tracks the missing "a." For another 19th-century moniker worth tracing, read The Forest City: The Deep Roots of Cleveland’s Oldest Nickname.
