In at least one golden-age story Clark sent his story to a ohio newspaper. That does not prove that he lived in Cleveland. Jerry & Joe could have done that as a nod to that newspaper or as an in-joke.
That was Action Comics #2. Action Comics #11 more specifically notes that Clark Kent lives in Cleveland.
Superman in the comics was never based in cleveland. Before his city was identified as Metropolis, it was implied to be New York. Before Smallville was created it was implied that Clark grew up in metropolis. Or a suburb of it. Smallville (untill the Byrne/Wolfman reboot) was in the same state as metropolis, not kansas.
Smallville was placed in New Jersey in the LSH comics, or "hundreds of miles away in the midwest", or any number of places. The Superman movie placed Smallville in Kansas, and Byrne went with that. Whatever state Metropolis was in changed a lot -- Ohio (as Cleveland with Toronto skyscrapers), Illinois (as Chicago), Delaware (not a whole lot of room for a Smallville and Metropolis in Delaware

), New York, etc.