Case Sr., Leonard

Leonard Case Sr. was Cleveland's first real estate tycoon and one of the city's early boosters.

Born in Pennsylvania, Case moved with his family to Trumbull County near Warren Township in 1800. Soon after he was struck by a crippling illness that left him hobbled and in pain for the rest of his life. He later wrote that, "The prospect before me was a life of ordinary duration — of dependence — absolute unmitigated dependence for my daily bread upon the labor of others — a prospect more horrible than most persons can conceive."

But he learned to make chairs and baskets to support himself and learned to write and do arithmetic. Eventually he found work in the land commissioner's office in Warren. His clear writing hand and knowledge of the lands of the Western Reserve brought him to the attention of a group of Clevelanders who were forming the city's first bank. Since real estate lending would be a principle business of the new bank and knowledge of recent transactions was hard to come by, they hired Case as cashier of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie.

The bank failed in 1819, and Case turned to the practice of law and the real estate business. He also served several terms in the state legislature and was president of the Cleveland Village Council from 1821 to 1825. For many years he represented the state of Connecticut in the area and invested in land on his own.

When the bank reopened in 1832, Case became its president, but his main focus remained his real estate holdings. He was particularly astute in buying up land offered for sale in the aftermath of the Panic of 1837.

During his life Case had a special interest in education and helped fund early efforts to bring a medical college from Willoughby to Cleveland. He also helped launch a college, Cleveland University, which briefly operated in what is now the Tremont area.

His efforts at bringing higher education to Cleveland did not succeed in his lifetime. But his son, Leonard Jr., carried on in his father's name, donating $1 million to found the Case School of Applied Science, now a part of Case Western Reserve University.