Cleveland Past and Present
by
Maurice Joblin
Part 8 out of 11
hundred tons of coal per day.
In February, 1867, Mr. Cross retired from the business, and the present
firm of Payne, Newton & Co., composed of N. P. Payne, Isaac Newton and
Charles J. Sheffield, now carry on the extensive business of the entire
concern. They have ample facilities for mining and handling five or six
hundred tons of coal per day.
After the completion of the Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad the Pennsylvania
and Ohio canal was abandoned, the Railroad Company having obtained control
of the stock, and fixed so high a tariff as to cut off all competition
with themselves. This effectually killed the canal, except that portion
between Akron and Kent. The active trade on this part of the Pennsylvania
and Ohio canal will insure its preservation, and as it is an important
feeder (supplying water and trade) to the Ohio canal, the State will
undoubtedly take possession of it. The capital invested by this concern in
the coal trade is about $250,000.
Since his retirement from the coal trade, Mr. Cross has been actively
interested in the Winslow Car Roofing Company and the Cleveland Steam
Gauge Company, both carrying on their manufactories in Cleveland.
Religious
Although originally settled by people from Connecticut, Cleveland was not
in its early days distinguished for its religious characteristics. Old
inhabitants narrate how in the infancy of the settlement the whisky shop
was more frequented than the preaching meeting, whenever that was held,
and how, on one occasion, a party of scoffing unbelievers bore in mock
triumph an effigy of the Saviour through the streets. A regular meeting of
infidels was held, and burlesque celebrations of the Lord's Supper
performed. Still later, when the business of slaughtering hogs became an
important branch of industry, it was carried on regularly, on Sundays as
well as on week-days, and as this was a leading feature in the year's
doings the religious observance of the day was seriously interfered with
during slaughtering season. Trade on the river, in the busy season, went
on with but little regard for the Sundays, except that Mr. John Walworth
invariably refused, although not a church member, to conform to the usage
of his neighbors in doing business on that day. Unlike the modern
emigrants from New England, the Cleveland pioneers did not carry the
church with them.
The first regularly organized religious society in Cleveland was the
Episcopal, which gathered together for religious worship in 1817, under
the ministration of the Rev. Roger Searles. The meetings were held
wherever a room could be obtained, the court-house, old academy building,
and other public rooms being frequently used for the purpose. In 1828,
Trinity Church was regularly incorporated, and the frame building which
stood on the corner of Seneca and St. Clair streets until its destruction
by fire in 1853, is remembered with affection by many Clevelanders as
"Old Trinity."
The next religions organization was Presbyterian. In 1820, a few residents
of Cleveland engaged, the Rev. Randolph Stone, pastor of a church at
Morgan, Ashtabula county, to devote a third of his ministrations to
Cleveland. In June of that year the first Sunday school was established
with Elisha Taylor as superintendent, but it was only by the most
persistent effort that it was enabled to combat the prejudices and
overcome the indifference of the people. In September, 1820, the First
Presbyterian church was formally organized, with fourteen members, in the
old log court-house. In 1827, the society was regularly incorporated, and
in 1834, the old stone church on the Public Square was opened for worship.
During the whole of this time the congregation had no settled pastor, but
was dependent on occasional visits of ministers from other places.
The first attempt at Methodist organization was somewhere between 1824 and
1827. Methodism was not in favor among the early settlers in Cleveland.
The historian of the Erie Conference relates that a Methodist friend in
New England, who owned land in Cleveland, sent on a deed for the lot on
the northeast corner of Ontario and Rockwell street, where Mr. Crittenden
afterwards built a large stone house, which lot would have been most
suitable for a church, and that no person could be found willing to pay
the trifling expense of recording, or take charge of the deed, and it was
returned to the donor. In 1830, Cleveland became a station, with Rev. Mr.
Plimpton, pastor.
The first Baptist meeting was held in the old academy, in 1832, the Rev.
Richmond Taggart preaching to a handful of believers. In 1833, the First
Baptist society was formally organized with twenty-seven members, Moses
White and Benjamin Rouse, who still live in the city, being of the
original deacons. In 1836, their first church, on the corner of Seneca and
Champlain streets, was dedicated with a sermon by the Rev. Elisha Tucker,
of Buffalo, who was afterwards called to the pastorate.
About the year 1835, the first Roman Catholic church was built on Columbus
street on the flats, and was intended to supply the religious needs of the
Roman Catholics of Cleveland and Ohio City, being situated almost midway
between the settled portions of the two places. The first pastor was the
Rev. Mr. Dillon.
In 1835, the first Bethel church, for the use of sailors, was built at the
back of the site of Gorton, McMillan & Co.'s warehouse. It was a plain
wooden structure, which remained there until the erection of the brick
church on Water Street, when the wooden building was removed to make way
for the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad.
In 1839, the first Hebrew synagogue was organized and a brick church was
afterwards built on Eagle street.
From these feeble beginnings have grown up the present religious
organizations of Cleveland, numbering about seventy churches, many of them
of great beauty and costliness, with flourishing Sunday schools and
wealthy congregations. The leading denominations have each several
churches graded, from stately buildings for the older and wealthier
congregations to the modest mission chapels. Nearly all the religious
beliefs of the day are represented by organizations in the city, and all
are in a flourishing, or at least a growing condition.
Samuel C. Aiken.
The ancestors of Mr. Aiken were from the North of Ireland, particularly
from Londonderry, Antrim and Belfast. At an early day one or two colonies
came over to this country and settled on a tract of land on the Merrimac
River, in New Hampshire, calling it Londonderry, after the name of the
city from which most of them had emigrated. Fragments of these colonies
were soon scattered over New England, and a few families moved to Vermont
and purchased a tract of land midway between the Green Mountains and
Connecticut River. The township was at first called Derry, and afterwards
divided, one portion retaining the original name, and the other taking the
name of Windham. In the latter town Dr. Aiken was born, September 21,
1791. His parents were both natives of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Before
their marriage, his mother, whose maiden name was Clark, resided a
considerable portion of her time in Boston, with a brother and three
sisters, and was there when the Revolutionary war broke out. When the city
fell into the hands of the British, they refused to let any one leave. By
some means however Miss Clark escaped and crossed over to Cambridge, where
the American army was stationed under General Washington. After
questioning her as to her escape and the situation of affairs in the city,
Washington told her, that, in the present condition of the country it was
unsafe for her to travel unprotected, and accordingly gave her an escort,
proving that the great General was also mindful of the courtesies of a
gentleman.
When about twelve or thirteen years of age, Dr. Aiken, after a preparatory
course, entered Middlebury college, in 1813. In his junior year a long fit
of sickness placed him under the care of a physician from Georgia, who
bled him forty times and gave him calomel and julep, (such was the way of
curing fever,) sufficient to destroy the best constitution. The
consequence was, his health was so impaired that he was obliged to leave
college for a year. Afterwards returning he entered the class of 1814. In
both classes were quite a number of young men who became distinguished in
Church and State. Among them was Sylvester Larned, the eloquent preacher
of New Orleans, Levi Parsons and Pliney Fisk, first missionaries to
Palestine, Carlos Wilcox, the poet, Silas Wright, afterwards Governor of
New York State, and Samuel Nelson, now on the Bench of the Supreme Court
of the United States.
[Illustration: ]
Dr. Aiken's first religious impressions were occasioned by reading
Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Faithful parental
instruction in the Bible and Shorter Catechism had laid the foundation for
belief in the truth of religion. A revival of religion soon after entering
college awakened a new and solemn purpose to devote his life to the work
of the Gospel ministry. The usual course of three years at Andover
Theological Seminary was passed without any special occurrence. He was
then called by the "Young Men's Missionary Society" in New York, to labor
in their service in that city. He had but just entered the field when an
urgent request from the First Presbyterian society in Utica, New York,
took him to that place, then only a small village, where he was ordained
and installed, the third of February, 1818. Some events of deep interest
occurred while he was in Utica. The building and completion of the Erie
canal was one. The cholera in 1832, was another. It was there and then
this fatal epidemic first appeared in the United States. In Utica also
during his ministry were several revivals of religion of great power and
interest. Moreover, about that time the subject of anti-slavery began to
be agitated; opposition and mobs began to gather, which, under the control
of the Almighty, have resulted in the emancipation of millions of slaves.
Impaired health, after about nineteen years of labor, with very little
relaxation or relief by traveling, such as is common now, determined him
to accept a call from the First Presbyterian church and society in
Cleveland, over which he was installed pastor in November, 1835. Although
the church had been organized fifteen years, Rev. Mr. Aiken was the first
regular pastor. The ministerial duties were performed by supplies.
Soon after Mr. Aiken was installed pastor, a great financial revulsion
took place; and for a period of about ten years he voluntarily
relinquished three hundred dollars out of his salary of fifteen hundred,
lest it should prove burthensome to the church. This low tide in financial
matters was characterized by remarkable religious developments; slavery,
temperance and Millerism became church questions; and it was regarded as
the peculiar mission of Mr. Aiken to distinguish between truth and error.
His moderation, judicious advice, and devoted character were just
calculated to conduct his charge safely through the distractions of that
period. The society increased at such a rate that the building became
crowded, and another church was organized for the West Side. On the East
Side a Congregational church was formed about the year 1840, to which some
of the more radical members of the First Presbyterian church went over. In
process of time the nucleus of the Second Presbyterian church on Superior
street, and the Third, on Euclid street, were formed out of the First
church, not because of any dissatisfaction, however, but for want of room.
But, notwithstanding these offshoots, a new and larger edifice became
necessary, and in 1853, the present enlarged, elegant and substantial
building was put up on the site of that of 1834. In March, 1857, the wood
work of this spacious stone structure was destroyed by fire.
In his physical constitution, with which the mental is closely allied, Mr.
Aiken is deliberate, to a degree which some have greatly mistaken for
indolence. But with a commanding person, and strong will this habitual
absence of excitement was never tame, but rather impressive. He seldom
rose above the even tenor of his discourse, but never fell to commonplace,
was generally interesting and occasionally eloquent. His sermons were not
hasty compositions, without a purpose, but well studied, rich with
original and important thought, artistically arranged and glowing with
genuine piety and embellished with scholastic treasures. Dr. Aiken
possessed the accomplishment, and understood the value of good reading, so
rare in the pulpit, and which is scarcely inferior to eloquence. We
remember but few occasions when he became thoroughly aroused. The
destruction of so fine a church edifice so soon after it was completed
seemed to him a personal calamity. On the following Sunday the
congregation met in Chapin's Hall. His heart was evidently full of grief;
but also of submission. His fine enunciation, correct emphasis, and strong
yet suppressed feelings, secured the earnest attention of every hearer. He
touched graphically upon the power of fire; how it fractures the rock,
softens obdurate metals, envelopes the prairies in flame, and how it
seized upon the seats, ceiling and roof in his darling house of worship,
thence fiercely ascending the spire to strive to rise still higher, and
invade the clouds. From this he turned to the doctrine of submission, in a
manner so earnest and pathetic that a perceptible agitation pervaded the
audience, in which many could not suppress their tears. There was no
laboring after effect. It was the natural result of a lofty sentiment,
expressed with unction, beauty and vigor.
During the same year the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was
held at Cleveland. The slavery question was there presented for the last
time. The Southern members, represented by Rev. Mr. Ross, of Alabama, had
counted upon what they called a conservative course, on the part of Mr.
Aiken. They wished, simply, to be let alone. From the Middle States there
were many clergyman of moderate views, who expected him to take their
ground, or, at least, to be silent. He had advised non-resistence to the
execution of the fugitive slave law, even on the part of the blacks, in
cases where governmental officials were implicated. As usual, the negro
question came up, and a large portion of a day was given to it.
Until near the close of the debate the representatives of the Middle and
Southern States were quite hopeful of a moderate policy, or of no policy.
Mr. Aiken sat near the marble pulpit in the Second church without any
apparent interest in the discussion. He rose and spoke with difficulty and
in a weak voice, and few words. In a temperate but firm and patriarchal
manner he recounted the various phases of the question, during his public
ministry. He then touched upon the moral and religions aspect of the case,
but with no asseveration, and concluded by denouncing slavery as an evil,
so monstrous that the church could neither sustain nor ignore it. The
silence was so complete that no word was lost. When he sat down, the
Southern members remarked that their fate within the church was settled.
On a previous public occasion in 1851, when the Columbus Railway was just
completed, and an excursion of State dignitaries made a trial trip to
Cleveland, Mr. Aiken was requested to preach in their presence. As this
discourse is one of a very few that have been printed, we can give a few
literal extracts:
It was my privilege on the Lord's day to address De Witt Clinton and
the Canal Commissioners of New York in recognition of the beneficient
hand of Providence, who had carried them on to the completion of the
Erie Canal. In a moral and religions, as well as in a social and
commercial point of view, there is something both solemn and sublime
in the completion of a great thoroughfare. It indicates not only the
march of mind and a higher type of society, but the evolution of a
divine purpose.
In his quarter century sermon, June 3d, 1850, he says of revivals:
They are as their Divine Author says, like the breath of wind through
fragrant trees and flowers, scattering grateful odors, pervading the
universal church with the treasured sweetness of divine grace. If my
success has not been as great as I would wish, it is as great as I had
reason to expect. I confess I have much to deplore, and much for which
to be thankful. There have been adverse influences here to counteract
those usually falling to the lot of other ministers. So far as the
subject of slavery is concerned I have endeavored without the fear or
favor of man to preserve a course best calculated to promote freedom and
save the church from dismemberment.
With such a style, perspicuous, easy and impressive, it is easy to see
how he might thoroughly absorb the attention of an audience, without
affecting the orator. If he had been more ambitions and more enterprising,
he might have risen higher as a popular preacher, but would have held a
lower place in the affections of his people. The position of a pastor in
an active and growing city is beset with difficulty on all sides. To
retain place and influence in one congregation during a period of
thirty-five years is an evidence of prudence, character and stability of
purpose more to be desired than outside fame in the church.
Though not yet arrived at extreme old age, he is too feeble to perform
much service. It is ten years since he has retired from active duty, but
his congregation continue his annual salary by an unanimous vote. Few
clergyman are permitted to witness, like him, the fruits of their early
labors. He has contributed largely to shape the religions institutions of
a city, while it was increasing in population from three thousand to
ninety thousand. We remember but one instance where he was drawn into a
newspaper discussion. This was in the year 1815, in which he reviewed the
decrees of the Council of Trent in relation to the prohibition of the
Scriptures to the common people. The letters of "Clericus" and "Veritas"
on that subject covered the whole ground on both sides, and are worthy of
publication in a more permanent form.
The Rev. Doctor sustained the relation of pastor to the First Presbyterian
church until 1858, when he resigned, leaving the Rev. Dr. Goodrich sole
pastor. The whole extent of his ministry from the time of his license by
the Londonderry Presbytery, 1817, to the present time, March, 1869, has
been about fifty-three years. During forty-three years of this period he
has been a pastor in only two congregations. The other portion of this
time he has preached and labored in vacant churches and where there was no
church, as health and opportunity permitted.
The Doctor still resides in Cleveland, beloved by the church over which
for so many years he watched and prayed, and honored in a community in
which he has so long been recognized as an unswerving advocate of right.
Retired from active duty, and nearing, as he is, the sunset of life, his
quiet hours may bring to him remembrances of vigorous effort and
unmeasured usefulness, while his gentle nature may be cheered by the
consciousness that he still holds the love of this people.
Seymour W. Adams.
The subject of this sketch, Rev. Seymour Webster Adams, D. D., was born at
Vernon, Oneida county, New York, August 1, 1815. His father's name was
Isaac Adams and his mother's maiden name was Eunice Webster--she was a
niece of Noah Webster, the great American lexicographer. His mother is
still living. His father died in 1861. Dr. Adams was possessed of
remarkable equanimity of temperament, a healthful constitution and great
powers of application and endurance. These traits, the home influences
under which he was nurtured, developed in a high degree. His early years
were passed upon his father's farm at Vernon and in the home circle.
Having before him constantly not only the example of right living, as
generally esteemed, but of holy living, he could not do otherwise than
profit greatly by the example set before him. But he did not only profit
by this example--he went much further. It is said of him, "As a son he was
docile, loving, tenderly attached to his kindred, profoundly obedient and
reverent towards his parents, whose wish was the law of his heart, and
whom he loved to call blessed."
At the age of seventeen he became a member of the Baptist church at
Vernon, and soon after this entered upon a course of preparation for a
liberal education and in due time he entered Hamilton College, Clinton,
New York, from which he graduated after a full course, taking a very high
position in his class.
That the leading traits of his character while young may be appreciated,
some of his early writings are here referred to.
Soon after entering upon his collegiate course he wrote upon "Integrity of
Character," and among other things remarked that the man who suffers his
principles to be violated "sacrifices his honor, barters all that is noble
and admirable, and abandons those principles to which he should cling with
an unyielding grasp."
On another occasion a little further on he is found maintaining the
necessity of the exercise of the physical and intellectual powers of man
"as a wise provision of the Sovereign Ruler of the world" for man's
happiness, and he maintains that not only in this should there be activity
but _energy_.
Afterwards, in 1841, when he had become a senior and was about to bid
adieu to college life, he chose as the subject of his oration,
"Development of Character," maintaining that no one can become "deservedly
great" who does not encounter and overcome the impediments and
difficulties constantly presenting themselves. He says: "Difficulties may
long have met the aspirant at every step and been for years his constant
companions, yet so far from proving detrimental, they have been among the
most efficient means for preparing him for vigorous effort to surmount
still greater barriers."
These references are deemed sufficient to indicate the principles and
leading traits of the youthful Seymour W. Adams, and as we shall see, were
his unvarying guides through life. To him it was the same to resolve as to
perform, for whether in earlier or later life he never put his hand to the
plow and looked back. Therefore, having resolved to become a Christian
minister, he never swerved from that resolution for a single moment, but
went forward with his mind fixed upon his purpose and object as the
mariner's upon his guiding star. In pursuance of his previous
determination, in the Fall of 1841 he entered the Hamilton Theological
Seminary at Hamilton, Madison county, New York, from which in regular
course he graduated, and after acting as ministerial supply in one or two
places, he was called to and accepted the pastorate of the Baptist church
at Vernon, his native place, having previously received ordination. Here
he was greatly beloved by his people and continued there quietly pursuing
his duties, until sought out at his village home and invited to accept the
vacant pastorate of the First Baptist church of Cleveland, Ohio.
When first invited to the Cleveland pastorate he refused to listen, and
declined to entertain the call; but upon the matter being further pressed
upon him, upon the second call he consented to visit Cleveland for the
purpose of becoming acquainted with the people and learning their
situation, but was careful to give them no encouragement that he would
accept their invitation.
Mr. Adams came to Cleveland in pursuance of this call October 19th, 1846,
and after remaining three weeks returned home to Vernon, leaving it in
great doubt whether he would return here. In about a month afterwards, the
church at Cleveland calling him was relieved of suspense by his acceptance
of the pastorate. He entered upon it November 22d, 1846. The subject of
his discourse on this occasion was:
"For they watch for your souls as they that must give
account."--Heb. xiii, 17.
A few words as to this discourse is deemed not out of place here, as it
has become historic in the church to which it was delivered. The doctrine
of the discourse was the reciprocal duty of pastor and people. Reference
will only be made to what appertains to the pastor. He laid down most
rigid rules for him--"that he should be a holy man,"--that he should be
one that "hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his
soul unto vanity." That the injunction was laid upon him, "Keep thyself
pure;" that as the conduct of the minister is observed by many it should
be fitting as an example to others "in word, in conversation, in charity,
in spirit, in faith, in purity." That in preparation for preaching the
Word "time, thought and prayer must be given--that the burden of all his
preaching should be 'Christ and him crucified.'"
How well he observed these will appear hereafter in the language of those
who made addresses at his funeral, or soon afterwards. The reader is also
referred to the Memoir of Dr. Adams, edited by Judge Bishop.
In this pastorate Dr. Adams continued till his decease. No extended
reference can be made to his labors in so brief a sketch as this. A mere
summary only can be given of his life work. The number of sermons preached
by him, including addresses at funerals, is three thousand four hundred
and ninety-three; number of marriages solemnized, three hundred and
fifty-two; number of funerals attended, five hundred and four; number
received into the church, including those received both by letter and
baptism, about seven hundred. In addition to his other labors, in 1858-9,
he wrote the life of Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Kendrick, so long and honorably
known as the founder of the Hamilton Theological School, and which has
since grown to be Madison University and Hamilton Theological Seminary.
While in this work all display and all mere ornament is avoided, it is a
work of decided merit, requiring severe application and patient industry
to accomplish it. His surviving wife has said that "his pastoral labors
were prosecuted regardless of self."
He was three times married. First to Miss Caroline E. Griggs, who died
April, 1847. Second, January, 1849, to Mrs. Cordelia C. Peck, widow of
Rev. Linus M. Peck, and daughter of Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Kendrick; she died
October, 1852. Third, to Miss Augusta Hoyt, August, 1855, who is the
mother of his four surviving children.
He was not only a Christian minister, but he was a true Christian patriot,
and never, during all the terrible struggle for the life of the nation,
when he offered prayer, did he fail to remember his country. Nearly the
last work of his life was to accept an appointment in the Christian
Commission to render service in Washington and at the front, relieving and
comforting the sick and wounded of our army.
On the sixth of July, 1864, he returned home from this service, quite
unwell, but he thought he could find no space for repose, and labored on
more intensely than ever, all which time a crisis was approaching which he
did not anticipate. He at last began to perceive symptoms of severe
illness, and Sabbath, September 11th, he preached his last sermon to his
people from Heb. iii: 7, 8. "To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not
your hearts," &c. All that can be said here of this discourse is, that if
he had known it was his last he could not have spoken more appropriately
or warned more earnestly. From the preaching of this discourse he went to
the sick-room, and on the 27th of September, 1864, Dr. Adams bade adieu to
earth and passed away.
His funeral was attended September 30th, by a great multitude of mourners
and friends, at the First Baptist church, and a large number of the
clergymen of Cleveland participated in the solemnities.
This sketch can not be better concluded than by referring briefly to some
of the remarks made on that occasion, as a fitting testimonial to the
character and worth of Dr. Adams.
Remarks, 1st, by Rev. Dr. Aiken:
I have known him intimately, and I have thought, as I have seen him on
the street, of that passage of Scripture, "Behold an Israelite indeed in
whom there is no guile," for there was no guile in him. You might read
his profession in his daily life. He commended daily the Gospel that he
preached, and gave living witness of its power and showed that he loved
the truth. He was eminently successful as a pastor and useful in the
cause of the Redeemer.
2d, by Rev. Dr. Goodrich:
There was manifest a diligence in his study and a thoroughness of
thought which commanded increased respect the longer we listened to him.
His life and character made him felt in this community even more than
his words. He preached one day in the week to his own flock, but he
lived forth the Gospel of Christ every day before the world. There was
in him a sincerity and consistency which could not be hid. He was
transparent as crystal and honest as a little child. No man ever doubted
him. He was always himself, true, manly, faithful. Men, as they passed
him in the street, said to themselves, "There is a man who believes all
the Gospel he preaches." He is gone, but his works follow him. "Being
dead he yet speaketh."
3d, by Rev. Dr. Hawks:
Possessed naturally of a strong intellect, he disciplined it by the
severe process of thought and study. His scholarship was accurate and
thorough, his reading extensive and profitable, by means of these he
intended to serve, as he did, Christ and the church. Dr. Adams was a
pastor as well as preacher. He taught not only publicly but from
house to house.
J. A. Thome.
James Armstrong Thome was born in Augusta, Kentucky, January 20, 1813.
He is of Scotch descent on his father's side, and of North Irish by his
mother, a native Armstrong of the border land. His father was a
Presbyterian of the Scotch type, and a ruling elder in the church. His
mother was a Methodist of the original Wesleyan order and period, having
been converted under the labors of the Wesleys at the age of nine. This
difference of the parents in religious beliefs and church affinities
remained unchanged till the death of the mother, each attending their
respective meetings; yet, wide as the distinction then was, and warm as
the prevalent feeling was, between Presbyterians and Methodists,
particularly in Kentucky, there was neither sectarian width nor warmth
between the godly pair, the twain were one flesh and one spirit in
Christ Jesus.
The son usually followed his father to church, though he sometimes
accompanied his mother; and during week-day evenings he had the double
advantage of going to prayer-meeting with the one, and to class-meeting
with the other. To this two-fold, yet harmonious, religious training in
childhood the son is indebted for a breath of religious sentiment and
sympathy which made him early a Presbyteria-Methodist in heart, and led
him subsequently to the mid-way ground of Congregationalism, where many a
Presbyterian and many a Methodist have met in Christian unity,
He owes his early conversion to the faithful teachings and pious example
of his parents, to their religious instruction, to family worship, to
Sabbath observance, to sanctuary means, in prosecution of the covenant his
parents entered into with God when they consecrated him in infancy.
The son's first great sorrow came when he was in his ninth year, in the
death of his mother. The loss was irreparable, but it led him to Christ,
From the sad moment when the dying mother laid her hand upon his head and
spoke in words never to be forgotten, her last benediction, sorrow for the
sainted dead was blended with penepenitentialrow towards God, and prayers
and tears cried to heaven for mercy. It was not, however, until the age of
seventeen that the blind seeker found the Saviour, and conscious peace in
Him. This happy event was immediately followed by union with the
Presbyterian church, and this by personal consecration to the ministry.
Just before his conversion, his college course, early begun, had been
completed. Three years were spent in farther study, and in travel, and
general observation bearing on the chosen calling of life.
At the opening of Lane Seminary, under the Theological headship of Dr.
Lyman Beecher, the young divinity student chose that school of the
prophets, and joined its first class in 1833. It was a class destined to
be made famous by a discussion, in its first year, of the slavery
question, then beginning to be agitated by the formation of an
anti-slavery society on the basis of immediate emancipation, and by the
active agitation of the subject in the neighboring city, Cincinnati,
whereby the mobocratic spirit was aroused, whence threats of sacking the
seminary buildings, and thereupon alarm and hasty action of the trustees,
disallowing further agitation, and enjoining the disbanding of the
society. The students, too much in earnest to yield, after unavailing
attempts at reconciliation with the authorities, the professors mediating,
and Doctor Beecher conjuring his beloved pupils to stay with him, seceded
in a body, in December, 1834. The young Kentuckian, son of a slave-holder,
became a thorough convert to the doctrine of emancipation, joined the
anti-slavery society, agitated with his brethren, delivered an address at
the first anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, in New York,
May, 1834, and seceded with the class. "A Statement of the Reasons which
induced the Students of Lane Seminary to Dissolve their Connection with
that Institution"--a pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, signed by fifty-one
names, and bearing date December 15, 1834, was published and went over the
land, and the city, intensifying the agitation at home, and raising it
throughout the country. Among the signatures to this document are those of
Theodore D. Weld, H. B. Stanton, George Whipple, J. W. Alvord, George
Clark, John J. Miter, Amos Dresser, (afterwards scourged in the Public
Square of Nashville,) William T. Allen, son of a slaveholding Presbyterian
minister in Alabama, and James A. Thome.
Exiled from the Seminary halls, these rebel reformers took refuge in a
building hard by the city, and extemporized a Theological school,
themselves being both lecturers and students. The following Spring,
negotiations being matured for adding a Theological department to the
Oberlin Institute by the accession of Professors Finney and Morgan the
seceders went in a body to Oberlin, where they prosecuted their
preparations for the ministry, which were completed in 1836. Among these
first graduates of Oberlin Theological Seminary was J. A. Thome. The Winter
of 1835-6, he had spent in lecturing on anti-slavery in Ohio, under
commission of the American Anti-Slavery Society. The Winter of 1836-7, he,
with Jos. Horace Kimball, of New Hampshire, visited the British West India
Islands to investigate the results of the abolition of slavery, two years
prior, by act of Parliament. A volume entitled "Emancipation in the West
Indies," prepared by Mr. Thome, and published, in 1837, by the American
Anti-Slavery Society at New York, embodied these observations. The book
was timely and told efficiently on the reform in this country. The Winter
of 1837, was passed in Kentucky, the abolitionist living among
slaveholders, and officiating as the minister in the church of his father.
The next Spring he accepted a call to the chair of Rhetoric and Belles
Lettres in Oberlin college, and in September following was married to Miss
Ann T. Allen, daughter of John Gould Allen, Esq., of Fairfield,
Connecticut. After ten years of professorial labors, in association with
men of great worth, most of whom still retain their connection with the
college, Mr. Thome entered upon the pastoral work, December, 1848, in
connection with the church of which he is still the pastor.
He has enjoyed a pastorate of twenty years, uninterrupted by serious
ill-health, and cheered by successive revivals and consequent accessions
to the church, which, having a membership at the beginning of his
pastorate of little over one hundred, now numbers over three hundred,
after many losses by dismission and death.
Mr. Thome, early converted to anti-slavery, and consistently devoted to
that cause, has lived to see slavery abolished in America. In addition to
the volume on West India Emancipation, he wrote, in 1850, a book on
Slavery in America, which was published by the British Anti-Slavery
Society. Since, a Prize Tract on Prayer for the Oppressed, also a tract
during the war on "What are we Fighting for?" and a treatise on "The
Future of the Freed People."
At the earnest solicitation of the Secretaries of the American Missionary
Association, and with the generous consent of his church, Mr. Thome,
accompanied by his wife and daughter, went abroad early in 1867, to
secure pecuniary assistance from the friends of the freedmen in England
and Scotland for their education and evangelization. He was absent on
this mission one year. The result of his efforts have not yet ceased to
be realized.
After thirty years of unbroken domestic felicity, three beloved daughters
having been reared to womanhood in the enjoyment of the Christian's hope,
and two of them happily wedded, Mr. Thome and his wife were overwhelmed
with sorrow by the sudden death, on the last day of April, 1869, of their
second daughter, Mrs. Maria E. Murphy, wife of Mr. Thos. Murphy, of
Detroit. A lady of singular amiability, purity, and Christian excellence,
she was endeared by her sweet graces to rich and poor, to young and old,
throughout the circle of her acquaintances.
William H. Goodrich.
Rev. William H. Goodrich, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of
Cleveland, is a native of New Haven, Conn. His ancestry is among the most
honorable known in American society. His father was the late Rev. Chauncey
A. Goodrich, D. D., a greatly distinguished professor in Yale College; and
his grandfather, Hon. Elizur Goodrich, for some years a representative in
Congress, and for twenty years Mayor of New Haven; and his
great-grandfather, Rev. Elizur Goodrich, D. D., distinguished both as a
clergyman and an astronomer. His mother was the daughter of Noah Webster,
LL.D., the lexicographer.
He graduated at Yale college, and was subsequently a tutor in that
institution. He studied theology at the New Haven Theological Seminary.
While tutor, it was his duty to preserve order about the college grounds,
and he received, (though not from a student,) during a night disturbance,
a severe injury upon the head, which put his life in peril and
interrupted mental labor for a long period. A part of this time was spent
abroad in 1848; and it was not till 1850 that he entered steadily upon
the duties of his profession. He was first settled as pastor of the
Congregational Church of Bristol, Connecticut, where he remained four
years. He was then called to the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in
Binghamton, N. Y., where he remained till 1858, when he removed to this
city, where, for eleven years, his ministry has been marked by very great
success. The prosperous condition of the church under his care, together
with almost unparalleled attachment between pastor and people, afford
evidence of the ability and faithfulness with which he has discharged his
ministerial duties. To remarkable mental vigor, he adds great delicacy of
character and the warmest sympathies; and those who know most of him,
regard it as no partial judgment which awards him a front rank among
preachers and pastors.
[Illustration: Yours truly, W. H. Goodrich]
Mr. Goodrich has enjoyed the best of opportunities, and is a writer of
rare taste and rhetorical force, and an eloquent and impressive speaker.
As a preacher he is never speculative and theoretical, never dogmatic nor
sectarian, but eminently spiritual and practical. But the strongest point
in his character is his downright, never-failing _common sense_. He never
blunders, and never has to apologize for important mistakes committed. He
is remarkable for insight to the character of all with whom he has to do.
This trait gives him influence with many who care little for the gospel
which he preaches. Though not conspicuously demonstrative in his outward
life, and though free from all approach to obtrusiveness, so earnest and
direct are his ways, that he becomes known to thousands with whom he has
no personal acquaintance.
In this country it is generally regarded as a misfortune to have had a
grandfather. Most Americans who have reached distinction for abilities and
usefulness, have been the sons of parents unknown to fame. As a general
rule, self-made men are the only well made men. By the force of their own
energies they have surmounted the difficulties that stood in their
pathway, and achieved distinction by their own efforts. There are very few
prominent men in our country whose fathers and grandfathers have left
names which will live for a score of years in the memory of society. But
to this general truth the history of our country affords honorable
exceptions. The sons of certain families distinguished for wealth, for
talent and for the highest position in society, have been so wisely and
prayerfully trained that they have escaped the dangers which have proved
fatal to most of those who have inherited honored names, and to this class
Mr. Goodrich belongs. Though not ignorant of the truth that his ancestry
is held in the highest honor by all good men, it seems never to have
occurred to him that anything less than his own personal labors and merits
would avail to give him a good name with those whose good opinion is
desirable. "The poet is born, not made." _Character is made, not born_.
In 1867, Mr. Goodrich was prostrated by severe illness, which for a
season filled the hearts of his friends with most painful apprehension,
but the prayers of a loving people were answered, and after an interim of
six months he again resumed the duties of his pastorate. It soon became
apparent, however, that while the "the spirit" was "willing," "the flesh"
was "weak," and that a longer respite was necessary before he could again
enter upon his work with his wonted zeal. Hoping to renew his impaired
energies by a temporary release from care, and in the pleasures of travel,
Mr. Goodrich, with his wife, sailed for Europe in 1868, where he remained
for eight months, re-visiting the scenes with which he had become
acquainted twenty years before. The ultimate object of his tour was
secured, and at the close of the year he returned to his people in
excellent health, and with an enriched experience from which he seemed to
draw new inspiration for his work.
Soon after his return from abroad, the rapidly failing health of his
mother, residing in New Haven, became to him a constant source of
solicitude, more especially so from the fact of his being the sole
surviving child of that once happy and affectionate household. His
departure for Europe had been saddened by the sudden death of his only
brother, Rev. Chauncey Goodrich. In the month of August, 1869, that mother
passed from a life which seemed rounded to completeness, into the
"day-break of heaven," leaving this son, Rev. William H. Goodrich, to rear
the tablet to her memory, and to go out from a vacant, voiceless home, the
last of his household.
But a quarter of a century has laid grandparents, parents, brother and
sisters in the grave.
At the present writing, Mr. Goodrich is once more united to his people,
and we but give utterance to the general voice in the desire, that in the
love and confidence of this church and community, he may find solace for
his bereavements; and that henceforth Cleveland may be the home of his
adoption, and the field of his labors.
Isaac Errett.
Among the preachers and writers of the nineteenth century who have pleaded
for a return to primitive Christianity, the subject of this notice stands
pre-eminently among the most distinguished. For more than thirty-five
years he has been connected with the Disciples, and, during the greater
portion of that time, has been an earnest, able and successful advocate
for their plea for reformation.
Isaac Errett was born in the city of New York, January 2, 1820. His father
was a native of Arklow, county of Wicklow, Ireland, and his mother was a
native of Portsmouth, England. His paternal grandfather was shot down in
sight of his own house during the Irish rebellion of 1798. His immediate
parents were both of Protestant families, and became identified with the
Disciples in New York city, as early as 1811--the father being an elder in
the original church in that place. Hence, the son was trained from infancy
in the principles which he now cherishes, and, in the Spring of 1832, at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--where his mother had moved soon after the death
of his father, in 1825--when only a little over twelve years of age, at a
time when the church was without preaching, under the instruction of his
mother, he, in company with an elder brother, went forward and asked the
privilege of baptism. He was baptized by Robert McLaren, one of the elders
of the church.
He now became a diligent student of the Word of God, and, under many
embarrassing circumstances, made constant and encouraging progress.
From the time he was ten years old he has been dependent upon his own
personal exertions for a living; hence his respectable education has been
gathered in the midst of toil and care, by dint of untiring, industrious
application.
While laboring as farmer, miller, lumberman, bookseller, printer,
schoolteacher, and editor, he never ceased to augment his stock of useful
knowledge, and to use whatever opportunities he had for the discipline of
his mental powers.
He commenced preaching in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the
Spring of 1840, and soon gave promise of the distinguished position which
he has since held as a preacher of the Gospel.
He enjoyed the advantages of frequent and intimate association with
Walter Scott, Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, and most of the early
advocates of primitive Christianity in the West; and his association with
these men was of incalculable advantage to him, for they not only gave him
valuable instruction in the principles of the Reformation, but he was
enabled, by coming in frequent contact with them, to draw inspiration from
their lives and characters for the great work upon which he had entered.
His ministerial labors have been divided between the work of an evangelist
and pastor. He was pastor of a church in Pittsburgh three years; New
Lisbon, Ohio, five years; North Bloomfield, Ohio, two years; Warren, Ohio,
five years; Muir and Ionia, Michigan, eight years; and Detroit, Michigan,
two years. At all these points he was eminently successful, and, besides
his regular pastoral labors, did considerable work in the general field.
He removed to Warren, Ohio, in 1851, and while there, was corresponding
secretary of the Ohio Missionary Society three years; and it was he who
first put that society into systematic and active operation.
In 1856, he removed his family to Ionia county, Michigan, and while
laboring to build up a congregation at that point, he was prevailed upon
to take the corresponding secretaryship of the American Christian
Missionary Society, which position he held three years, and succeeded in
bringing the society to a degree of prosperity which it had never before
reached. When heresigned the Secretaryship he was appointed first
vice-president, and afterwards presided at the annual meetings of the
society until 1866, when he was elected president. This, however, he at
once declined. In the Spring of 1856, he removed to Cleveland, Ohio.
In April, 1866, he established the Christian Standard in Cleveland, which
has become a leading and influential religions journal. In August, 1868,
having been elected first president of Alliance College, he removed to
Alliance, Ohio, and at once gave to the new college a successful position
among our literary institutions. In May, 1869, he was elected president of
the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. In August, 1869, he was elected, by
a unanimous vote of the Board of Curators of Kentucky University, to the
presidency of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of that University.
Also, about the same time, Bethany College tendered him the Biblical
Department of that institution. We have not learned whether he has yet
accepted either of these positions.
Mr. Errett's personal appearance is striking and prepossessing. He is
about six feet one inch high, has dark auburn hair, light grey eyes, and a
well developed muscular organization. As a public speaker he has few, if
any, superiors. His language is chaste and copious, containing an
unusually large per cent, of Saxon words; his gesticulation is easy and
natural, but his voice, though well under control, has not volume enough
to give full force to his beautiful and stirring thoughts. His writings,
like his sermons, are full of strong and rugged points, and are frequently
interspersed with brilliant passages of exquisite beauty that will compare
favorably with many of the finest word-paintings in the English language.
In the social circle he is companionable, but not a very good
conversationalist. He needs the inspiration of an audience, or the quiet
solitude of the study, to bring out his full strength; hence, while he is
pleasant in company--full of wit and humor--he does not appear there to
the best advantage.
Benjamin Rouse
Benjamin Rouse was born in Boston, March 23d, 1795, and was brought up as
a builder, working at the trade at first in Massachusetts, and
subsequently removing to New York, where he carried on his business
extensively for about six years. From an early age he had taken great
interest in religions matters, and especially in the establishment of
Sunday schools. In 1830, he accepted the appointment of agent of the
American Sunday School Union for the purpose of going to the West and
establishing Sunday schools and book depositories. For this purpose he
gave up his business and turned his face westward, prepared to endure
hardships and encounter difficulties for the cause in which he was so
deeply interested.
Coming directly to Cleveland, he opened his Sunday school book depository,
near the corner of the Public Square and Superior street. The prospect was
not a hopeful one, but Mr. Rouse had faith, and persevered. There was but
one church building in the place, old Trinity, built by the Episcopalians
with the aid of those of other denominations, and but little religious
sentiment among the people. A Sunday school had for some time struggled
hard to maintain its existence, and had but just become established on a
tolerably firm basis. The depository, aided by the active labors of Mr.
Rouse in the schools, gave a powerful impetus to the cause.
Three months after the opening of the depository Mr. Rouse purchased the
lot on which it stood, for six hundred dollars. In making the purchase he
had little thought of its speculative value, the sole object being a
permanent home for his agency. Time has, however, so enhanced the value of
property that the lot on which stood the little book-room, has now, with
the pile of buildings standing on it, reached a value of eighty thousand
dollars, thus amply repaying Mr. Rouse for his labors in the cause of
religion and morality in the earlier days of the place.
For about three years the depository was continued, and then Mr. Rouse
turned his attention for a while to general store-keeping, abandoning it
finally for the purpose of removing to Richfield, where he went to benefit
the health of his wife. In that place hie remained six years.
Mr. Rouse was a member of the Baptist denomination, and was largely
instrumental in the organization of a Baptist society in Cleveland. When,
in 1835, it was decided to erect a church building on the corner of Seneca
and Champlain streets, the experience of Mr. Rouse, then a deacon of the
church, was called into requisition. In due time the church was built and
a steeple placed on it, which became the wonder and admiration of the
country round about, and Trinity, built by the Episcopalians with the aid
of those of other denominations, and but little religious sentiment among
the people. A Sunday school had for some time struggled hard to maintain
its existence, and had but just become established on a tolerably firm
basis. The depository, aided by the active labors of Mr. Rouse in the
schools, gave a powerful impetus to the cause.
Three months after the opening of the depository Mr. Rouse purchased the
lot on which it stood, for six hundred dollars. In making the purchase he
had little thought of its speculative value, the sole object being a
permanent home for his agency. Time has, however, so enhanced the value of
property that the lot on which stood the little book-room, has now, with
the pile of buildings standing on it, reached a value of eighty thousand
dollars, thus amply repaying Mr. Rouse for his labors in the cause of
religion and morality in the earlier days of the place.
For about three years the depository was continued, and then Mr. Rouse
turned his attention for a while to general store-keeping, abandoning it
finally for the purpose of removing to Richfield, where he went to benefit
the health of his wife. In that place he remained six years.
Mr. Rouse was a member of the Baptist denomination, and was largely
instrumental in the organization of a Baptist society in Cleveland. When,
in 1835, it was decided to erect a church building on the corner of Seneca
and Champlain streets, the experience of Mr. Rouse, then a deacon of the
church, was called into requisition. In due time the church was built and
a steeple placed on it, which became the wonder and admiration of the
country round about, and the especial pride of Deacon Rouse.
On his return from Richfield, Mr. Rouse engaged in the coal business in
connection with Mr. Freeman Butts. About the year 1862, he retired from
active business and thenceforth devoted his time to the cause of
patriotism, religion, and charity. From the breaking out of the war Mr.
and Mrs. Rouse entered vigorously on the work of aiding the nation's cause
by caring for the nation's defenders. Their zeal and activity were
irrepressible, visiting the camps and hospitals, ascertaining the needs of
the soldiers, and then with unresting assiduity collecting money and
materials to supply those needs. Mrs. Rouse became president of the
Soldiers' Aid Society of northern Ohio, and was directly instrumental in
the formation of hundreds of auxiliary societies that made every city,
village, and nearly every home in northern Ohio busy in the work of
preparing and sending forward comforts and luxuries for the soldiers of
the Union. Mrs. Rouse visited camps and hospitals in the South, and her
visits and reports were productive of great good. Her name was known and
respected by thousands of soldiers, was repeated with grateful praise in a
multitude of homes from which brave boys had gone forth to the war, and
has passed into history. In all her labors she was cordially seconded and
efficiently aided by her husband.
Three sons and one daughter have been born to this worthy couple.
Medical.
In the early records of Cleveland, as in those of most western towns, the
story of sickness and death fills a large part. Fever and ague, brought on
by exposure, privations, and by the miasma from swamp, river and uncleared
lands, disabled a large number of the early settlers, and hurried some to
untimely graves. There were no physicians, and save a few drugs and the
simples gathered from the river banks and forest, there were no remedies.
In course of time appeared the pioneer doctor with his saddle-bags, and he
was soon followed by a number of his brethren to practice their skill upon
the settlers. When the first Cleveland Directory was issued, in 1837,
there were already established a round two dozen of physicians and
surgeons, and three "surgeon-dentists." It may be interesting to quote
the names of these brethren of the lancet and saddlebags who purged and
bled the good people of thirty-two years ago. They were, J. L. Ackley, F.
I. Bradley, C. D. Brayton, W. A. Clark, Horace Congar, E. Cushing,
Jonathan Foote, S. B. Gay, Robert Hicks, M. L. Hewitt, Smith Inglehart,
Robert Johnston, Burr Kellogg, David Long, P. Mathivet, George Mendenhall,
Joshua Mills, T. M. Moore, W. F. Otis, A. D. Smith, J. Swain, Charles
Terry, Samuel Underhill, Joseph Walrath. The surgeon-dentists were B.
Strickland, and Coredon & Sargeant.
This list has now swollen to proportions that make the two dozen and three
exceedingly insignificant by comparison, and every school of medicine is
represented. There are two Allopathic medical colleges--the Cleveland and
Charity Hospital colleges--and two Homeopathic--the Western Homeopathic
college and the Homeopathic College for Women. There are also three
hospitals, the Charity Hospital (Allopathic), the Homeopathic Hospital on
University Heights, and the Woman's Hospital on Wilson street.
David Long.
Dr. Long was born at Hebron, Washington county, New York, September 29,
1787. In early life he qualified himself for the practice of medicine and
surgery, studying in Massachusetts and graduating in New York city. In
June, 1810, he arrived at Cleveland and commenced his professional career.
At this early day there was no physician nearer than Painesville on the
east, Hudson on the south-east, Wooster on the south, River Raisin (now
Monroe) on the west. The arrival of a physician was, therefore, a matter
of no small gratification to the settlers here and the neighboring
settlements.
In this wild region, without roads, streams without bridges, cabins in
many places eight to ten miles apart, did the young and ardent Long
hopefully commence the practice of medicine. Nor were the hopes of the
early settlers disappointed. In rain and snow, in Winter's cold and
Summer's heat, by darkest midnight or mid-day sun the doctor ever
cheerfully responded to all the calls for his services with alacrity and
zeal, forgetful of self, desirous only to administer timely relief to the
suffering and afflicted. In this he was eminently successful, as many of
those who knew him for more than a third of a century can testify.
In proof of the untiring perseverance of Dr. Long in the early part of his
professional life, it has been stated that on one occasion, in the Fall of
the year, about midnight, he rode nine miles in fifty-one minutes. In
another instance of extreme urgency, he rode, in the day time, fourteen
miles in fifty minutes by changing horses twice on the route. He was a
surgeon in the army during the war of 1812, and brought the news of Hull's
surrender at Detroit to this city, from the mouth of Black River, a
distance of twenty-eight miles, in two hours and fourteen minutes. Such
was his character for promptitude to all the calls that were made upon
him, and they were far from being few.
For kindness to his patients and friends he had no superior. In his zeal
in their behalf, in a few years, he sacrificed in a measure one of the
finest constitutions.
After following his profession thirty years or more, Dr. Long retired
from general medical practice, and engaged in other pursuits more
favorable to his health and congenial to his tastes.
In all public measures for the benefit of our city, in the way of
improvements, schools, churches, every effort in behalf of humanity,
religion or science, Dr. Long was ready to place his shoulder to the work
with all the ardor and enthusiasm of youth.
Dr. Long never had any aspirations for political distinctions, but such
was his popularity and so great the confidence of the people in his
judgment and integrity that he could have obtained it had he so desired.
At one time, however, he was elected to fill a vacancy which had
occurred by the death of one of the three County Commissioners.
Unimportant as this may seem now, it then occasioned intense excitement.
The location of a new county court house, presumptively fixing the
county seat for all time, devolved upon these Commissioners. Newburg and
Cleveland were the contestants, both being villages of about an equal
number of inhabitants--the claims of each supported by a single
Commissioner, yet Newburg having the more central location. Though hotly
contested, Dr. Long was elected, and the result was the erection of the
Court house in the south-west corner of the square, which was demolished
about ten years since.
In the year 1834, Dr. Long united with the Presbyterian church in this
city, and by his daily walk and conduct in the community, by his deeds of
love and charity to the poor, his kindness to the sick and afflicted gave
the most striking evidence of a heart renewed by grace and made meet for
the kingdom of heaven. During his last painful illness his calmness and
resignation showed that he had placed his trust firmly upon the sure
foundation.
He filled all the relations of life in a most exemplary manner and thus
embalmed his memory in the hearts of all who knew and survive him. He died
on the first day of September, 1851, at the age of sixty-four years,
lacking a single month.
John Delamater.
Just before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the ancestors of Dr.
Delamater fled from France to Holland. The family name was then De La
Maitre. Being whole-souled protestants, they migrated with other Dutch
families to the Province of New York, and settled on the banks of the
Hudson, near Kingston. Their names are still visible on the ancient grave
stones of that neighborhood. Like the Huguenots, of South Carolina, they
were Calvinist, or puritans of the French school. They became allied by
marriage to the Rogardus family of New York, and others partook of the
blood of Anneke Jans, whose name has become famous in the New York courts.
The investigation of this connexion and heirship, occupied the last years
of Prof. Delamater's life. It was closed only about a month before his
death. His coadjutor in this work, was the late Chancellor Walworth, of
Saratoga, whose ancestors were also in the line of Anneke Jans.
Dr. Delamater was born in Columbia county, New York, near Chatham, on the
State line of Massachusetts, April 18th, 1787. He died at East Cleveland,
in March, 1867, having almost reached the extreme age of four score years.
The Huguenots like English Puritans, and the Scotch Irish, have made their
mark in North America. John Delamater, while a boy, was destined to be a
farmer, on the soil where he was born. He was transferred to the medical
profession on account of an accident, which injured his ability for manual
labor. His father removed to Schenectady, New York, where his son was put
under the tuition of one of the self-denying clergymen of those times,
whose salary did not meet the expenses of living. At the age of nineteen
his medical education was finished and he commenced practice in his native
town. From thence he moved to Florence, Montgomery county, N. Y. Then
stopped a short time in Albany, N.Y., and in 1816, established himself at
Sheffield, Massachusetts. There was a settlement of negroes in this
ancient borough. Dr. Delamater was then, as ever since, an active
philanthropist. He attended the negroes as physician, Sunday teacher, and
preacher. They also drew money from his purse, which was never very well
filled, and paid back very little, either of his fees or of their debts.
After some years of assiduous labor on his colored charge, his views of
the race underwent a radical change. Among the last utterances of his life
he expressed the opinion, based upon his experience at Sheffield, that the
negro is by nature unfit for citizenship. In the days of the Jeffersonian
Republicans and Adams Federalists, Dr. Delamater was in full accord with
the new and rising Democratic party. He left it during the administration
of General Jackson, and since then was a thorough Whig and Republican. No
one hated slavery more. He saw the remnants of it in his early practice
over the line in Connecticut, but never recovered faith in the capacity of
the colored man for self-government.
Returning to his medical career, in which for sixty years he led in the
profession, it is briefly as follows: While practising in the valley of
the Housatonic, he rode almost constantly on a racking horse, about
sixteen hands high, and almost with the speed of the wind, and
occasionally in a two wheeled vehicle, common in those days, called a
chaise, or more often a "one horse shay." At such times one of his medical
students rode beside him, and drove the horse.
Between calls along the road the Doctor read his works, especially those
relating to cases in hand. This custom of keeping up with the new works
and periodicals of the profession he never relaxed, even after old age and
the most distressing physical infirmities prevented his practice. Neither
was the old shay ever abandoned; our citizens remember it well, moving
carefully along these streets, with its huge calash top and faithful
horse. No storm of rain or snow prevented him from keeping an appointment
while he was able to get in and out of his vehicle.
In 1823, Dr. Delamater was made Professer in the Medical Institute of
Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Mass.; in 1827, at the Fairfield Medical
School, Herkimer county, New York. He was at the same time giving lessons
at Bowdoin College, Mass. While at Fairfield, he was invited to lecture in
the Medical College of Ohio, where Kirtland, Drake and Mussey have
occupied chairs. This resulted in an appointment as Professor in the
Willoughby University, Lake county, Ohio, at that time a flourishing
institution. In 1842, he became one of the Faculty of the Western Reserve
Medical College, at Cleveland.
Almost every man has some prominent talent, though with many it is never
developed. With Professor Delamater it was the ability to give prolonged,
profound and perspicuous lectures. This was his special gift and as usual
in such cases he was not a facile writer. It is said he delivered seventy
courses of medical lectures. His memory was perfect and his reading
embraced everything relating to his profession. A good lecturer requires
not only a clear perception of his subject, but a lucid and fluent
presentation of it. Dr. Delamater never wrote lectures. His memoranda were
of the most meagre kind. They were frequently nothing more than a few
hieroglyphics made on the margin of a newspaper drawn from his vest pocket
as he mounted the desk. Every case he had ever treated and all its details
appeared to be thoroughly fixed in his recollection. He sometimes wrote
medical essays for publication, but with evident reluctance. In cases of
malpractice Dr. Delamater was the especial dread of the attorney whose
side he did not favor. His full, clear and logical statements made a deep
and generally an irresistible impression upon the court and jury.
After he became unable to visit patients he was consulted with never
ceasing confidence by physicians and by patients, especially those
afflicted with chronic complaints.
His moral and religious qualities were as conspicuous as his mental ones.
He carried the faculty of conscientiousness to a length which the most
conscientious would regard as extreme. Against the poor his charges for
professional service were merely nominal and were never pressed, and with
the rich he was so moderate and easy that with a large practice he was
barely able to maintain his family, which, like himself, were afflicted
with prolonged constitutional diseases. His rare Christian virtues are
described with fidelity and beauty in the farewell discourse of Rev. W. H.
Goodrich, of the First Presbyterian Church, which, being in print, may be
read and preserved by the numerous friends of the good old man.
Jared Potter Kirtland.
Prof. Kirtland belongs to the class of self-made naturalists who attain to
greater eminence than others of equal talents and better advantages.
Success in this branch of science requires not only a native genius, but
enthusiasm and never tiring perseverance; to the rich and the educated
these last qualifications are frequently wanting, or, if they are not,
instead of growing with the progress of life, they become more and more
weak instead of more and more strong. Industry and ambition are more than
a match for education in minds of the same order.
[Illustration: Your Fellow Citizen, J. P. Kirtland]
Dr. Kirtland originated at Wallingford, Connecticut. His father,
Turhand Kirtland, in 1799, was appointed general agent of the
Connecticut Land Company, on the Reserve. He removed to Poland, in
Mahoning county, the next year, where he became a prominent citizen of
the new county then known as New Connecticut. So long as the Company
existed he was continued in the agency, and survived until 1833 to
witness the developments of the region.
Jared appears to have been left in Connecticut, probably to secure the
advantages of those common schools which were wanting in this western
wilderness. The young man made his appearance in Ohio on horseback, July
4th, 1810, at the age of fifteen years. He was destined to be a physician,
and in 1817 he was sent to the celebrated medical school of Dr. Rush, in
Philadelphia. After leaving that institution he set forth on the way of
life with horse and saddle bags, dispensing advice and prescriptions,
according to the custom of the times, to the people of the townships
around Poland. Every old settler knows what a time the pioneer doctors
had. Their patients were scattered far and wide in log cabins which stood
in small clearings in the forest surrounded by gigantic trees. A messenger
rushed in at any hour of the day or night from a distressed, perhaps a
distant family, requiring immediate attention. It was the duty of the
frontier physician to saddle his horse at the moment and return with the
messenger. The route more often lay along a narrow trail through the
woods, over roots and logs, with mud and water on all sides. In dark
nights, or in storms of rain and sleet, the overhanging boughs of the
trees dripping with water, these visits were not of the most cheerful
character. In those early days bridges were behind roads in regard to
condition and repairs, and it was frequently necessary, in order to reach
a suffering patient, to do as Cassius did--plunge in and trust to a
faithful horse--in order to cross swollen creeks and rivers.
While engaged in this rude professional practice, acquiring a good
reputation as a physician, he was closely observing the fishes, reptiles,
shells and animals of a region teeming with animal and vegetable life.
Scientific works were scarce in that new region, but living subjects were
abundant. This exuberance of life was of more value to a scrutinizing
mind than a surplus of books and a deficiency of specimens. An unusually
rich field for the naturalist lay open to his daily observation for
twenty years.
During his residence at Poland, Dr. Kirtland was twice elected to the
House of Representatives for Ohio. In that body he directed his efforts
especially to a change in the Penitentiary system. It was mainly through
his zeal and activity that the old style of treating State prisoners was
abandoned, and they have been made a source of revenue and not of expense.
Convict labor has thus proven by experience to be valuable to the public
and to the convict a relaxation of the rigor of his situation.
It was while studying the habits of the fresh water shells of the
Mahoning and its branches that Dr. Kirtland made a discovery which
attracted attention throughout the scientific world. The classification
of species had been made upon mere difference of form. Dr. Kirtland
perceived that in the same species a difference of form was due to sex in
_testacea_ the same as in all other animals, and that too many species
had been adopted. This bold announcement, coming from the back woods of
Ohio, created quite a commotion among naturalists. It was, however,
found, on investigation, to be true, though it rendered obsolete a large
number of terrible Latin phrases.
In the publication of his views, and afterwards for his descriptions of
the fishes of Ohio, he found a liberal patron in the Boston Society of
Natural History. When the State of Ohio organized a geological survey, in
1838, the department of Natural History was of course given to him. There
was barely time to make a catalogue of the fauna and flora of the State
before the survey was suspended, but many of his figures and descriptions
of the fishes have since been published in the transactions of the Boston
Society. This appointment broke up his large medical practice in Trumbull
and adjacent counties. He now accepted the appointment of Professer in the
Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati. About 1838, Prof. Kirtland removed
from Poland to Cleveland, to perform the same duties in the Cleveland
Medical College. With a restless energy he went beyond natural history and
medicine in his investigations, into the field of horticulture,
floriculture and agriculture.
Purchasing a rugged farm on the ridge road five miles out of Cleveland, he
entered with zeal into the business of scientific farming. Here he
demonstrated that a stiff clay soil derived from the underlying Devonian
Shales may be made highly productive in fruit. His success stimulated
others along the ridge road, until the old pastures and meadows on that
side of the city have been changed into the most profitable orchards and
gardens in the vicinity. This required twenty years more of time and
industry, during much of which he came daily to the college and delivered
one or more lectures. In the lecture his style is entirely
conversational, but rapid, fluent, and always intelligible. Here all the
varieties of his studies come into play, as it were, spontaneously. He is
equally at home among the birds, the insects and the reptiles, the fishes
or the mammalia. Their habits are as familiar as those of his children and
grandchildren. He writes but seldom, and thus the teachings of so many
years on so many subjects are confided principally to the memory of the
many hundreds of students to whom they have been delivered.
For several years Dr. Kirtland has declined to lecture on any subject. He
is verging upon four score, a period which with most men, is necessarily
one of rest if not of weariness, but he has never known what it is to
rest. No farmer in Rockport is up earlier or attends more closely to his
grounds. All the valuable varieties of peaches, pears, cherries and
grapes, have been tested by their actual product, or are in the process of
being tested. He is enthusiastically fond of the culture of bees and of
every variety of flowers which will thrive in this climate. A number of
new varieties of cherries have been originated on the Kirtland farm, and
after trial those which are valuable have been scattered over the country.
There are very few men who are enabled to make so many applications of
science to practical subjects, and still fewer who are permitted to live
long enough to witness the fruits of their labors.
Theodatus Garlick.
We are almost at a loss in what class to place Dr. Garlick. By natural
taste and genius he belongs to the artists. His devotion to the healing
art arose principally from the necessities of our race for something to
eat and wear. He had the fortune, probably good fortune, to be born in
Vermont, at Middlebury, March 30th, 1805, in view of the Green
Mountains, among rocks and mountains. This region is principally famous
for marble, slate, iron ore, and hardy young men, generally known as
Green Mountain boys.
An older brother, Abel B. Garlick, having been apprenticed to a marble
cutter, came out West, sometime after the war of 1812, and located at
Cleveland. In 1816, Theodatus, at the age of eleven years, had drifted
as far as Erie, Pennsylvania; in 1819, to Cleveland. The Winter of
1819-20, he spent at Black River, which was then the leading ship yard of
the lakes.
Abel B. had artist's ability also. In this region no marble was to be
found, but a tolerable substitute existed in the fine grained blue
sandstone at Newburg. A mill was erected at the quarry on Mill creek,
below the falls, where these stones were sawed, as they are now, into
handsome slabs.
Like other New Englanders, the Vermont boys are early impressed with the
idea of self-support. Although Theodatus much preferred fun and frolic to
hard labor, he entered cheerfully upon the business of a stone cutter at
the age of sixteen. Their marble yard (without marble) was on Bank street,
where Morgan & Root's block now stands. Abel marked the outlines of the
letters upon incipient grave stones in pencil, and Theodatus carved them
with his chisel. Most of the renowned sculptors of Ohio, such as Powell,
Clevenger and Jones, took their first lessons in the same way. All of them
have left samples of their untutored skill in various angels and cherubs,
now mouldering in old churchyards. The blue sandstone monuments, on which
Dr. Garlick cut inscriptions fifty years since, are still to be seen in
the early cemeteries of the Western Reserve; some are touching enough, but
not a few are more ridiculous than mournful. When Nathan Perry became so
prosperous that he proposed to remove the old wooden store on the corner
of Water and Superior streets and replace it with a brick one, he
concluded to expend something upon ornament. He ordered two oval stone
signs to be made and to be built into the walls over the two doors, one on
each street. These were among the earliest efforts of Dr. Garlick. Both of
these stones were in existence until the ground was cleared for the
present Bank building, when they were broken up and put into the cellar
wall. In those days it was one of the duties of an apprentice to sharpen
the tools at a blacksmith's forge. The young man concluded to carve flying
cherubims with their stone trumpets to ring in the ears of coming
generations no longer.
Having a robust physical constitution, he became passionately fond of
hunting and fishing. In 1822, he lived with a brother in Newbury, Geauga
county, which was then a forest full of game. In a letter referring to the
sporting days of his youth, he wrote as follows:
My brother and myself started out very early one morning for a deer that
we knew had been feeding around the cabin that night; within a quarter
of a mile from the cabin my brother shot him, and as he fired, up jumped
eleven elk; one of our neighbors shot five of them within an acre of
ground; they were near together, at bay, fighting with the dogs. I
helped to get them in; they were a part of a larger herd, we counted
their beds in the snow where they had lain at night, and there were over
one hundred in the drove.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, T. Garlick]
Ten or fifteen years previous to that time, one of those tornadoes, which
occasionally visit this region, had prostrated the timber along a tract a
mile wide and several miles in length, through the township of Newbury. A
thicket of bushes had sprung up among the fallen trees, which furnished
excellent browsing ground and shelter for game, of which there was an
abundance of bear, wolves, elk, deer, turkeys, &c., constituting quite a
paradise for a young Nimrod.
He finally determined to become a physician, and after some years of the
usual experience of medical students, practicing some, and assisting at
operations, he entered the medical department of the University of
Maryland, in the city of Baltimore, where he graduated in 1834.
No sooner was his diploma secured than the artist again broke forth. He
suddenly produced bas-reliefs in wax of five favorite professors without
sittings, which were pronounced perfect likenesses. General Jackson and
Henry Clay gave him a short sitting, and the next day their statuetts were
on exhibition. Mr. Clay expressed his satisfaction for his own in an
autograph letter. Another miniature in relief, full length, of Chief
Justice Marshall, from a portrait by Waugh, was pronounced by Mr. Bullock,
an English virtuoso, as equal to anything produced by Thorwaldsen. But
being surrounded by medical men, who, like men of all professions, regard
their own as more important than any other, Dr. Garlick was induced to
turn his artistic skill upon anatomical models.
He located at Youngstown, Ohio, the same year that he graduated, at which
place, and at the Medical College of Cleveland, he devoted nearly two
years in getting up models of all parts of the human body, taken from
subjects in the dissecting room. They may yet be seen in the Medical
Colleges at Cleveland, Buffalo, Toronto, Charleston, South Carolina,
Cincinnati, and other places. These were such close imitations of nature
that the late Professer Mussey, of Cincinnati, pronounced them superior to
the French models at Paris by Auzoux. At Youngstown he made a life size
bust of Judge George Tod, copies of which are now in the family. In 1853,
after a successful practice at Youngstown, he came to Cleveland, and
formed a partnership in surgery with the late Professer H. A. Ackley, and
for a number of years was a member of the Board of Medical Censors of the
Cleveland Medical College, and vice president of the Cleveland Academy of
Natural Science. As he was a naturalist, he applied the principles of the
anatomical models to animals and parts of animals, especially fishes. He
entered with great zeal upon the artificial propagation of brook trout and
other fish in connection with Dr. Ackley. In 1857, he published a small
book, which is the standard work of the United States on this subject.
He was a skillful physician and surgeon, a diligent student of natural
history, a keen sportsman, and a great lover of the fine arts. A good
physical constitution is at least one-half of the capital of any man,
however gifted in mind. In this respect he was like Christopher North,
with few equals. In the rude contests of strength among the young men of a
new country, the races, wrestling matches, and occasional fights, he never
felt like backing down; but of late years this powerful frame has been
partially stricken with paralysis.
The doctor still resides in this city, devoted to natural science,
especially botany, but the days of his personal activity are past.
J. L. Cassels.
John Lang Cassels, M.D., LL.D., was born in Stirlingshire, Scotland, and
in 1827, while quite a young man, came to this country. Soon after, he
studied medicine with Prof. John Delamater, in Fairfield, New York, and
graduated in 1834, in the College of Physicians and Surgeons located at
Fairfield, N. Y. He was Demonstrator of Anatomy in that school three years,
two years during his pupilage and one after his graduation. He opened an
office for the practice of medicine in Earlville, New York, in the spring
of 1835, and in the fall of the same year received and accepted the
appointment of Professor of Chemistry in Willoughby University, Ohio,
which connection he retained until the fall of 1843, when he and his
associates opened and established the Cleveland Medical College, in which
he still occupies the chair of Chemistry.
In 1837, he received the appointment of First Assistant Geologist of the
New York State Geological Survey, which he occupied for several seasons,
performing field labor in the summer and lecturing on chemistry in
Willoughby Medical College during the winter. His connection with the New
York survey gave him an excellent opportunity to become an expert
practical geologist; his location being on the Hudson river district,
offered him a fine field of action, as it is really the key to the geology
and mineralogy of the State.
In the winter of 1839, he gave a course of demonstrated lectures on
chemistry before the Young Men's Library Association in Cleveland, the
first public lectures on science ever given in the city. The following
winter the citizens of Cleveland invited him to lecture again on the same
subject, and he complied. The city at that time contained mostly young
people--only two gray-headed men attended the Stone Church.
In 1815, he spent most of the season in visiting and collecting specimens
of mineral in the lead region of Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri,
thus becoming familiar with the geology of their rich mineral region.
In 1846, he spent the whole season in exploring the Lake Superior country,
coasting the south shore in a bark canoe, having for his traveling
companions two Indians and a half-breed voyager. At this date there were
no steamers on Lake Superior, and but a very few small sailing craft. It
was during this time that he took squatter possession of a mile square of
the iron region of that country, for the benefit of the Cleveland Iron
Company. He was the first white man that had visited this region, now so
famous for its ferruginous wealth. Near the close of the season he spent a
short time geologizing Isle Royale, and returned to Saut St. Marie on the
steamer Julia Palmer, which had, during the summer, been hauled over the
passage of Saut St. Marie. During the winter following, at the request of
a number of Clevelanders, he gave a public lecture on the Lake Superior
region; at the close of which he said he would venture a prophecy: "Such
was the character of the climate, scenery, etc., of Lake Superior that the
time was not far distant when it would become as great a resort for
invalids and pleasure-seekers as Saratoga and Newport now are." Also, that
there is iron enough in the iron district sufficient to furnish a double
track of the much talked of Whitney's railroad. These statements were then
received with a stormy manifestation of incredulity.
In 1859, the Jefferson College of Mississippi conferred the Degree of LL.D.
on Dr. Cassels.
In 1861, he was elected a corresponding member of the Imperial Geological
Institution of Berlin, Prussia.
For the last ten years, in addition to the duties of his chair in the
Cleveland Medical College, he has regularly filled the chair of chemistry
and natural history in the Western Reserve College at Hudson. During the
past twenty years he has given several courses of popular experimental
lectures in his favorite branches of chemistry and geology in a number of
our neighboring towns, Akron, Canton, &c. He is also the regular lecturer
in these branches in the Female Seminary in Painesville.
Perhaps few men have been as extensively engaged in texicological
examinations during the past twenty years as Dr. Cassels. Many of these
have been of great interest, both in a social and moral point of view. In
all such cases he is regarded with great confidence, both on account of
his scientific skill and his high sense of moral integrity.
As an analytical chemist he has few superiors, and is much of his spare
time engaged in the analysis of waters, ores, coal, limestone, &c. In
1866, he analyzed the water of Cleveland which is brought from Lake Erie
and distributed through the city. He analyzed this water taken from
different parts of the city and from the point where it entered the pipes
to be forced into the reservoir; also from a point in the lake three
thousand four hundred and fifty feet from the shore, where he advised that
the inlet pipe ought to be located. All these analyses are embraced in his
report to the Trustees of the city water works; in which also are many
valuable suggestions respecting supply pipes and the character of the
water for steam purposes.
J. S. Newberry.
J. S. Newberry, M.D., LL.D., was born at Windsor, Connecticut, of old
Puritan stock, his ancestry having formed part of the colony which in
1635, emigrated from Dorchester, colony of Massachusetts Bay, and founded
the town of Windsor, the first settlement made in Connecticut.
[Illustration: Yours Very Truly, J. S. Newberry]
The family continued to reside at Windsor for two hundred years, during
which time it held an honorable place in that community and contributed
several representatives, who took an important part in the affairs of the
State government, or in the defense of the colony against the Indians, and
in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. Dr. Newberry's
grandfather, Hon. Roger Newberry, a distinguished lawyer, and for many
years a member of the Governor's council, was one of the directors of the
Connecticut Land Company, which purchased a large part of the Connecticut
Western Reserve. The town of Newberry received its name from him. His son,
Henry Newberry, inherited his interest in the land of the company, by
which he became possessed of large tracts in Summit, Ashtabula, Medina,
Lorain and Cuyahoga counties, including one hundred acres now within the
city of Cleveland. Looking after these interests he made three journeys on
horseback (the first in 1814,) from Connecticut to Ohio, and, in 1824,
removed his family to Summit county, where he founded the town of Cuyahoga
Falls, remaining there till his death, in 1854.
Dr. Newberry graduated at Western Reserve College, in 1846, and from the
Cleveland Medical College in 1848. The years 1849 and 1850, he spent in
study and travel abroad. Returning at the close of the latter year he
established himself, early in 1851, in the practice of medicine in
Cleveland. Here he remained till 1855, when his professional business
became so engrossing as to leave him no time for the scientific study to
which he had been devoted from his boyhood. To escape from too great
professional occupation, and impelled by an unconquerable passion for a
scientific career, in May, 1855, he accepted an appointment from the War
Department, and became connected with the army as acting assistant
surgeon and geologist to the party which, under Lieutenant R. S.
Williamson, U.S.A., made an exploration of the country lying between San
Francisco and the Columbia river. The results of this expedition are
embodied in Vol. 6 P. R. R. Reports. The reports of Dr. Newberry on the
"Geology, Botany and Zoology of North California and Oregon," are
republished in a volume of 300 pp., 4to., with 48 plates. In 1857-8, he
accompanied Lieutenant J. O. Ives, U.S.A., in the exploration and
navigation of the Colorado river, one of the most interesting
explorations made by any party in any country. The object of the
expedition was to open a navigable route of communication with our army
in Utah. To this end an iron steamer was constructed in Philadelphia,
taken in sections to the head of the Gulf of California, where it was put
together and launched. With this steamer the river, before almost
entirely unknown, was navigated for five hundred miles, opening a route
of travel which has since been extensively used. Beyond the point reached
by the steamer the course of the river is for several hundreds of miles
through the "Great Canon," as it is called, a chasm worn by the stream in
the table lands of the "Colorado Plateau." This canon has nearly vertical
banks, and is nowhere less than three thousand feet deep; in some places
six thousand feet, or more than a mile in depth.
The party with which Dr. Newberry was connected, spent nearly a year in
exploring the country bordering the Colorado, adding much to our knowledge
of our western possessions, and giving, in their report, an interesting
and graphic description of, perhaps, the most remarkable portion of the
earth's surface. Half of the report of the Colorado Expedition was
prepared by Dr. Newberry, and so much importance was attached to his
observations by his commanding officer, that in the preface he speaks of
them as constituting "the most interesting material gathered by the
expedition."
In 1859, having finished his portion of the Colorado Report, Dr. Newberry
took charge of another party sent out by the War Department, to report to
Captain J. N. Macomb, topographical engineer, U.S.A., for the exploration
of the San Juan and upper Colorado rivers. The Summer of 1859 was spent in
the accomplishment of the object had in view by this expedition, during
which time the party traveled over a large part of Southern Colorado and
Utah and Northern Arizona and New Mexico, filling up a wide blank space in
our maps and opening a great area before unknown, much of which proved
rich and beautiful, abounding in mineral wealth, and full of natural
objects of great interest. Among the results of this expedition were the
determination of the point of junction of Grand and Green rivers, which
unite to form the Colorado, and the exploration of the valley of the San
Juan, the largest tributary of the Colorado; a stream as large as the
Connecticut, before almost unknown, but which, though now without an
inhabitant upon its banks, is for several hundred miles lined with ruined
towns or detached edifices built of stone, and once occupied by many
thousands of a semi-civilized people. The report of this expedition made
by Dr. Newberry, containing much new and interesting scientific matter,
was finished just before the war, but yet remains unpublished.
Immediately after the commencement of the war, the United States Sanitary
Commission was organized. Dr. Newberry was one of the first elected
members, and it is, perhaps, not too much to say that no other one
individual contributed more to the great success that attended the labors
of that organization. In September, 1861, he accepted the position of
Secretary of the Western Department of the Sanitary Commission, and from
that time had the general supervision of the affairs of the Commission in
the valley of the Mississippi; his head-quarters being first at
Cleveland, and subsequently, as the frontier was carried southward, at
Louisville, Kentucky.
Through his efforts branches of the Sanitary Commission were established
in the principal cities of the West, and agencies for the performance of
its work at all important military points, and with each considerable
sub-division of the army. Before the close of the war the entire West was
embraced in one great System of agencies for the production and
distribution of supplies, and the care of sick and wounded on the
battle-field, in hospital or in transitu. The magnitude of the work of the
Sanitary Commission at the West may be inferred from the fact that there
were at one time over five thousand societies tributary to it in the loyal
States of the Northwest--that hospital stores of the value of over
$5,000,000 were distributed by it in the valley of the Mississippi--that
over 850,000 names were on the records of its Hospital Directory at
Louisville, and 1,000,000 soldiers, for whom no other adequate provision
was made, were fed and sheltered in its "homes."
Of this great work Dr. Newberry was the responsible head, and by the
wisdom and energy displayed by himself very much of the harmony and
efficiency which characterized this organization are to be ascribed.
As his labors in connection with the Sanitary Commission were drawing
to a close, Dr. Newberry was appointed Professor of Geology in the
School of Mines of Columbia College, New York city. He entered on the
duties of the position in 1866. In 1869, he was appointed by Governor
Hayes to the office of State Geologist, created by the Ohio General
Assembly of that year.
The scientific acquirements of Professor Newberry have given him a
world-wide fame. As a Geologist his reputation ranks among the foremost.
He has been honored with the membership of the most of the learned
societies of this country, and of many in Europe; was one of the original
corporators of the National Academy of Sciences; was recently elected
president of the American Association for the advancement of Science, and
is now president of the New York Lyceum of Natural History.
D. H. Beckwith.
The first Homeopathist in Cleveland was W. K. Adams, who succeeded in
converting Dr. Hoyt, with whom he formed a partnership. Very soon after,
in 1845, Drs. Wheeler and Williams were added to the list. There were but
six families in the city having firm faith in the principles of
homeopathy, and these were silent followers of Dr. John Wheeler, not
willing to be known as such, so strong was public opinion against them.
Dr. Wheeler continued unshaken by the strong opposition he met with, and
heeded neither sneers nor denunciations. His course was onward and his
practice successful, every month adding to his list of converts, and the
profits of each year doubling the preceding one. Dr. Wheeler was the first
member of the profession to propose that a homeopathic medical college
should be located in Cleveland, and he earnestly pressed his theory that
Cleveland should be the centre of homeopathy in the West. His name was the
first signature to procure a charter, and when the college was organized
he was selected as the President, and held the office for the first eleven
years of its existence, contributing materially to its success, and
resigning only when increasing age rendered its duties too onerous, when
added to a large practice.
From the little beginnings in the early days of Dr. Wheeler's
practice, homeopathy has grown in Cleveland, until it now reckons a
flourishing college, a woman's medical college, two hospitals, an
insurance company, twenty-six practicing physicians, and a host of
believers in homeopathic principles and modes of treatment.
Prominent among the number of practicing physicians is D. H. Beckwith,
M.D., who was born in Huron county, Ohio, in 1826. His father was one of
the pioneers of the northern part of the State; emigrating from the State
of New York in 1815, and making the journey the most of the way on foot,
occupying more than six weeks. He remained a few days in Cleveland, and
not admiring the soil for agricultural purposes (little thinking it was
the site for a city of its present beauty and magnitude), he journeyed on
until he reached more fertile soil in Huron county, where, by economy and
industry, in a short time he accumulated sufficient to purchase a small
farm, on which he lived until his death, having seen his family of six
sons and one daughter arrive at mature age.
[Illustration: Truly Yours, D. H. Beckwith]
The subject of this memoir remained at home during his boyhood, attending
school during the winter and working on the farm in the summer season. At
the age of sixteen he entered the Norwalk Seminary, pursuing his studies
with vigor for a few years, when it became necessary for him to earn his
own living. He taught several schools and was among the first in the State
to inaugurate the normal school system to elevate the standard of teaching
and improve public schools.
Early in life he decided that the medical profession would be his choice,
and all his leisure hours were spent in studying medical books. After
securing a sufficiency from teaching (as he supposed,) to meet the
expenses of a medical education, he studiously applied himself, under the
tuition of John Tiff, M.D., one of the most scientific practitioners of
the State. During the third year of his studies his money was expended,
and not wishing to call on friends for assistance he concluded to commence
the practice of medicine. A partnership was offered him in an adjacent
town, and arrangements were made for him to commence his professional
career. He unfolded his plan to his preceptor, who listened attentively to
his future plans, and then rising from his chair, exclaimed with much
emphasis: "If there is anything, sir, that I despise, it is half a
doctor," and immediately left the office. The brilliant prospect was
clouded. With but eight months more study the young student could commence
the practice of medicine and be an honor to his preceptor and to himself,
but the lack of money was a seemingly impassable barrier. It was a dark
day to the student, but he had learned "never to let his energies
stagnate." One resource was left him. He determined to open a select
school for advanced scholars. In four days from that time he entered the
school room with one hundred scholars, many of them his former pupils.
Morning and evening he clerked in a drug store, for which he received his
board and washing. On Wednesday and Saturday evenings he was examined in
his medical studies with two other students who devoted their entire time
to their studies. Thus for thirteen weeks he was daily performing the
duties of a teacher, so arduous that many would have complained, though
they had no other occupation. In addition to this he was several hours
each day compounding and dispensing medicine, and at the same time keeping
pace with his class in the study of materia medica and botany.
Having already attended one course of lectures in an allopathic college,
and not being satisfied with that mode of prescriptions for the sick, he
attended the Eclectic College of Cincinnati, where he listened to the
first course of lectures ever delivered in any chartered college in the
country on homeopathic medicine, by the lamented Prof. Rosa who had no
superior in his profession. After receiving his degree he commenced the
practice of medicine with his preceptor. The prompt and curative effect
produced by homeopathic remedies soon convinced him of its superiority
over other systems of medicine and decided him to adopt it as his system
of practice for life. The success that has attended his labors ever since
has well proved the correctness of his choice.
The first few years of his practice were spent among the acquaintances of
his childhood, in the beautiful village of Norwalk. In 1852, he left a
large practice and many warm friends to seek a larger field for future
work, and located in Zanesville, Ohio, where he continued his profession
until the year 1863. The climate not being adapted to the health of his
family he moved to Cleveland and soon obtained what he had left in
Zanesville--a large and lucrative practice. By close attention to his
patients, being always ready to give his services to the poor as
cheerfully as to the rich, and his unusual kindness to all persons placed
under his professional care, he has won the affection and esteem of his
patients to a degree rarely equaled.
He has always taken a lively interest in the advancement of medical
science, firmly believing in the immutable principles that govern the
administration of homeopathic medicine as well as the curative effect. He
has always been anxious to induce young men that proposed to study the
science of medicine to follow the example of the illustrious Hahnemann.
His lectures in the Cleveland Homeopathic College have always been
characterized by practicability. He has not only published a medical
journal, but has largely contributed to the pages of many others in this
country. He has always been a leading member of county and State medical
societies, as well as of the Northwestern and American Institute of
Homeopathy, holding the office of Vice President of all the above named
societies. In 1866, he was chosen by the American Institute as one of the
committee to prepare an essay on Cholera, its nature and treatment.
He was among the first to establish the Hahnemann Life Insurance Company
of Cleveland, being one of its incorporators and procuring a large amount
of capital stock for its support, besides giving his time in organizing
it. He was chosen their chief medical examiner, and the great success of
the Company is largely due to his skill in selecting good and healthy
risks for insurance.
[Illustration: T. T. Seelye]
Thomas T. Seelye.
Thomas T. Seelye, M.D., was born in Danbury, Connecticut, August 23, 1818.
His parents were Seth and Abigail Seelye, of English descent. After
preparing for a collegiate course, it became necessary for him to take
charge of his father's store. At twenty-one years of age he commenced the
study of medicine as a private pupil of William Parker, professor of
surgery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, from which
college he graduated in the Spring of 1842. He was then appointed
assistant physician in Bellevue Hospital, where he remained one year, when
he commenced the practice of his profession in Woodbury, Connecticut.
There he remained until the Spring of 1848, when he sold out his business
and removed to Cleveland, having previously leased a tract of land just
within the suburbs of the city, covered with native forest and such a
profusion of real natural beauty in glen, woodland, and beautiful springs
of soft water, that it seemed apparent that art only needed to blend with
nature to make this one of the most desirable of localities for a great
health institution.
His system of practice, though called water cure, in fact drew assistance
from all the experience of the past in relieving physical suffering and
curing disease. It was not _orthodox_, it belonged to no _pathy_, and in
consequence had the opposition of all branches of the profession. His
means were quite limited, as were also his accommodations--not so limited,
however, but that the expense of construction and furnishing greatly
exceeded the length of his purse. Business waited for _success_, to
establish itself, but the sheriff _did not_. Debts became due, and nothing
with which to pay, but hope in the future, which is rather unsatisfactory
nutriment for hungry creditors.
But, by and by, patient labor and persistent effort in the right direction
began to bring forth fruit. Business increased, the visits of the sheriff
were less frequent, and after about five years he could lie down to rest
at night without fear of a dun in the morning.
In ten years he purchased the Forest City Cure, which was started in
opposition, the capacity of the old Cure having become altogether
inadequate for his increased business. After ten years he sold it to the
Hebrews for an orphan asylum, preferring to unite the two institutions
under one roof. He then proceeded to complete the plan he had been
perfecting for the past five years, for erecting buildings of an extent
that would amply accommodate his ever increasing patronage, and supplied
with those conveniences and appliances which an experience of twenty-one
years had deemed most desirable for the invalid. The architect has
furnished us a sketch of this institution, of which, when completed, every
lover of our beautiful city will be proud.
In addition to his professional labors he is largely engaged, in
connection with W. J. Gordon and others, in the manufacture of the
non-explosive lamp, which bids fair to be one of the most successful and
extensive manufacturing enterprises ever started in this city.
Within the past three years, Dr. Seelye has purchased the twenty-six acres
he originally leased, and twenty-two acres adjoining, making a very
valuable tract of real estate, taken in connection with the present and
prospective growth of the city.
Although Dr. Seelye is not engaged conspicuously in public charities, few
hands are so frequently open as his to the wants of the poor. Great
comprehensiveness of intellect, an indomitable energy, a rare penetration
and control over other minds, combined with an unblemished integrity of
character, have given him a high reputation among physicians in the West.
[Illustration: Water Corm.]
Manufacturing
With neither water power nor steam power very little can be done in the
way of manufacturing. Cleveland, until the construction of the Ohio canal,
was without either of those two requisites for a manufacturing point. The
Cuyahoga river, though giving abundant water power along a considerable
portion of its course, enters Cleveland as a slow moving stream, winding
its sluggish way in so tortuous a course that it seems reluctant to lose
its identity in the waters of the lake. Water power, under such
circumstances, is out of the question, and, as with no coal, and a rapidly
decreasing supply of wood, steam cannot be economically used for
manufacturing purposes, the people of Cleveland turned their attention
wholly to buying and selling instead of producing.
The construction of the Ohio canal to the coal fields of Summit county
opened the eyes of the more enterprising citizens to the possibilities of
a great future for Cleveland as a manufacturing city. No sooner had the
canal reached Akron, and an experimental shipment of coal been made to the
future city--with but poor success, as already narrated--than attention
was called to the importance of the new field thus opened to Cleveland
enterprise. On the 7th of March, 1828; a letter appeared in the Cleveland
Herald, from which the following is an extract:
"We possess, beyond a doubt, decided advantages over Buffalo, or any other
town on Lake Erie, in our contiguity to inexhaustible beds of pit-coal and
iron ore, very justly considered the basis of all manufacturing. On the
one hand, at the distance of about thirty miles, we can obtain any
quantity of crude iron of an excellent quality, while, on the other, at
about the same distance, we have access by canal to exhaustless mines of
coal of good quality. This last most invaluable, and all important article
in manufacturing, can not be obtained anywhere else on the Lakes without
the extra expense of shifting from canal-boats to other craft.
"When these mines shall have become extensively worked, coal will be
delivered in this place very little, if any, above that paid in
Pittsburgh, say from four to six cents; and good pig-iron can and is now
delivered at a less price here than in Pittsburgh. Doctor Cooper further
says: 'The very basis of all profitable manufacturing is, plenty of fuel,
easily, cheaply and permanently procurable;--the next desirable object is
plenty of iron ore; iron being the article upon which every other
manufacture depends. It is to the plentiful distribution of these two
commodities that Great Britain is chiefly indebted for the pre-eminence
of her manufactures and her commerce.' Surely it need not be thought
strange that Cleveland must one day become a great manufacturing place,
if we consider,
"_First_, That the canal will give us access to one of the finest portions
of country in the United States, sufficient for vending, to almost any
extent, articles such as might be manufactured here;--and, _Secondly_,
That power and materials in great abundance are 'easily, cheaply and
permanently procurable.' There is probably not a town in the Western
country, Pittsburgh only excepted, that unites these two objects so
happily as this place does.
"Every steam-engine wanted for boats on the Lake, for mills and factories
near the Lake, and on and near the canal should be made at this point.
"Not a pound of nails, a wagon-tire, an anchor, a cable, a cast-iron
stove, pot, kettle, ploughshare, or any article made of cast-iron--a yard
of coarse cotton, a gallon of beer, an ax, a shovel, nor a spade, should
be sent east for. There ought to be in full operation before the
completion of our canal, at least one steam engine manufactory, one
establishment for puddling iron, one rolling and slitting mill, and nail
factory, two or three iron foundries, in addition to the one now going
into operation under very favorable auspices, a cotton factory, a woolen
factory, a steam grist and saw mill, a brewery, &c."
On the succeeding week appeared some editorial comments in support of the
suggestions in the letter, and for some time frequent references, by
correspondents and editorially, were made to the matter. On the 25th of
April, 1828, appeared in the Herald a notice of a new iron foundry; the
first that had been built, and reference to which had been made in the
letter quoted. This was built by John Ballard & Co., and an editorial
announcing its opening says it "supplies this place and the surrounding
country on short notice and on reasonable terms, with the various articles
of cast iron work, for which, before this foundry was established, our
citizens were forced to send to a distance, and at the cost of much
trouble and expense."
But with all this urging of newspapers, and talking of far-sighted
citizens, the cause of manufacturing progressed slowly. To establish
manufactories was a costly experiment, requiring capital, patience, and a
faith, which, though some might profess, few actually possessed. As is
frequently the case in regard to public improvements, those who pressed
them most had no funds to invest in them, and those who had the funds were
little inclined to heed the suggestions of moneyless advisers.
MacCabe's Directory of Cleveland and Ohio City for 1837-8, says that at
that time there were on the east side of the river, in the corporation of
Cleveland, "four very extensive iron foundries and steam engine
manufactories; also, three soap and candle manufactories, two breweries,
one sash factory, two rope walks, one stoneware pottery, two carriage
manufactories, and two French run millstone manufactories, all of which
are in full operation." A flouring mill was in course of erection by Mr.
Ford which, it was predicted, would be, when finished, "the largest and
most complete establishment of the kind in the State of Ohio." At the same
time Ohio City was described as possessing "among the principal
manufactories of the place, the Cuyahoga Steam Furnace, the Saleratus
manufactory, and the Glue manufactory." The Cuyahoga Steam Furnace had
turned off in the previous year five hundred tons of castings, besides a
great quantity of wrought iron work, and gave employment to seventy men.
In noticing the description of the iron furnaces and steam engine
manufactories on the East side of the river as "very extensive", it must
be borne in mind that the standard of size and importance for such
establishments in Cleveland was much smaller then than now.
In spite of all the attempts made to stir up an interest in manufactories,
slow progress was made until a comparatively late period. One great
obstacle in the way was the opposition or indifference of the
land-holders, who directly rebuffed the proposals of intending
manufacturers, or placed a value on their land so high as to require an
amount of capital sunk in the soil that rendered the chances of profit
very hazardous. There was also a strong prejudice against factories on the
part of very many persons because they were "so dirty," and would tend to
make the neat and trim residences and door-yards of Cleveland as smutty as
those of Pittsburgh.
It was not until the breaking out of the war for the Union called into
existence manufactories all over the land to supply the needs born of the
war, that manufactories found a home and cordial welcome in Cleveland. The
exigencies of the time, and the intense feeling excited, scattered to the
wind all the prejudices against the dirt and smoke of iron manufactories,
and establishments of this kind sprang up on all sides, calling into
existence a host of other manufactories dependent on and contributing to
the successful conduct of iron foundries and iron mills. The war found
Cleveland a commercial city, whose trade, if not languishing, threatened
to soon reach its turning point; it left Cleveland a busy, bustling
manufacturing city, over a great part of which hung a perpetual cloud of
dense smoke, and with a population nearly doubled in numbers and greatly
changed in character owing to its change from a commercial to a
manufacturing city. The petroleum discovery in North Western Pennsylvania
and the coincident opening of direct railroad communication between
Cleveland and the oil regions, contributed greatly to the rapid increase
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