Cleveland, Mesa County, Colorado 1889 Cleveland Mesa Colorado USA A small town, founded in 1889 and adjacent to Fruita on the southeast. Cleveland was fiercely competitive with the larger town. It eventually merged with Fruita and is represented now only by Cleveland Avenue in Fruita. In 1883, Frank and Joseph Kiefer purchased 160 acres of land east of Fruita. In 1889, the Kiefer brothers and their brother Ben platted the land and sold the plots, so creating the town of Cleveland (named for President Grover Cleveland). A Caroline Avenue, named for Kiefer matriarch Caroline Kiefer, and a Kiefer Avenue still exist today. Cleveland had a hotel, a blacksmith shop, stores and two churches, while Fruita had a post office, a livery stable, a jail, two stores, a blacksmith shop, three churches and a school. Cleveland allowed the sale of alcoholic beverages, while Fruita did not. The two towns were in competition over the post office. According to early resident Cordelia (Hamilton) Files, the two towns would steal the post office and relocate it to their own town overnight. The post office went back and forth that way, with some physical altercations involved, until the US Postal Service ordered the post office to remain in Fruita, because it was closer to the depot. yes yes