USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 72
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He was most ambitious for the prosperity of the city and gave years of his most valuable energies to the purchase of the right of way for the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad (afterward consolidated with other corporations into the Lake Shore Railway Co.), and in securing in spite of the Erie city war and Pennsylvania selfishness, the uniform railway gauge and passage through to Buf- falo, and his services and ability led to his being selected as the president of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad Co., which office he filled with emi- nent success.
When it is considered that in that early day the president of this road was an active organizer and manager, it will be easily understood how much a man of zeal, ambitious for the welfare and prosperity of his road and the city of which it was a great promoter, could and must do. He was untiring in his advocacy of new improvements and new methods; of the introduction of accommodation and suburban trains, and in making successful the only great rival which the lake' steamers, then the largest and finest on this continent, had ever had for the traffic between Cleveland and the west, and Buffalo and the seaboard cities.
He was never suspected of taking a step for personal aggrandizement. His public spirit was his ruling passion. He promoted and engineered the opening of Case and Willson avenues, and contributed to the beauty of the streets by tree planting. He also planted twenty or thirty acres of land on the lake shore with ornamental and fruit trees imported from England and France to assist and stim- ulate their cultivation in the city.
He began in 1859 to erect a building which should accommodate the Young Men's Library Association, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, which he had not lost sight of since I met him in Philadelphia, and of which he had been an active promoter and officer.
He had traveled with his architect, C. W. Heard, and studied all that could aid in making the construction perfect, but, unfortunately for his townsmen, his kinsmen and all who relied upon his bright promise of public usefulness, he died of consumption in 1862, leaving the building unfinished, to be completed and devoted sacredly to the purposes he had intended, by a father and brother who shared his public spirit and approved of all his intentions.
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His mother, Mrs. Case, had died August 30, 1857, soon after the removal of the family into the brick residence on Rockwell street, after the sale of the old homestead to the government.
Leonard Case, Sr., survived his son William only till December 7, 1864.
His contemporaries at the bar, at a public meeting alluded to one trait which was regarded as one of his crowning characteristics. After speaking with un- stinted praise of his fostering influence upon the growth, beauty and institutions of our Forest City they said: "To no other man is due a greater debt of grati- tude from the inhabitants of the Western Reserve.
"For many years he stood as the agent and friend between the original pro- prietors of the soil and the emigrants who settled upon it; faithful and just to the former, he was kind and lenient to the latter. From his position made more familiar with titles than any one else, his knowledge and assistance were al- ways proffered to the innocent holder and sternly refused to the unjust dis- turber."
In spite of his bodily pain which never left him for a day since he was a boy, his industry was incessant, and the volumes of his records of transactions, of maps, accounts and correspondence were marvels of beautiful workmanship and accuracy. But what will be found most interesting and valuable is his his- tory of his whole career, which had been so intimate a part of the history of the Connecticut Western Reserve, which he wrote for his own inspection only, during the last decade of his life, to dispel the tedium of unoccupied hours. I have used it for authentic data in this brief sketch. Its publication some day will add vivid pictures of pioneer life, and much material for the historian of the Reserve.
The survivor, our Leonard Case, had graduated at Yale in 1842. His career at college had been creditable to him in every respect. He wrote frequent and lively letters to his mother, and those which have been preserved give evidence of his desire to cheer and divert her in her feeble health, and a degree of filial affection which would not have been expected from his undemonstrative nature.
He boarded in commons, and participated in Freshman fights with the Sopho- mores, and in riots of the students with the town firemen, in which he acknowl- edges getting thrashed, but, under the hammering of four opponents, considers it no disgrace.
He was thoroughly studious and devoured whole libraries of historical and general literature, and though he did not carry off honors and prizes, his class- mates unite in saying that it was not because he could not have done so if he had chosen. They could only attribute his indifference to the final victory to a wish that his closest competitor should carry off a prize which would ensure a favorable start upon a career; but this is mere conjecture. It is certain that he did not neglect his opportunities, and that he excelled in mathematics and the languages; that he was most industrious and devoted to his studies, as he con- tinued to be in after life.
From 1842 to 1844 he devoted his attention to the study of law and lec- tures in the Cincinnati Law School, and was admitted to the bar after the re- quired examination.
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He opened a law office, but his endeavor probably never aimed at general practice, but rather to fit himself to be useful to his father and to the estate which must at all times demand his attention.
He also largely devoted himself to literary pursuits; wrote full and racy letters when on travels, and poetry of a humorous tone on the slightest provo- cation and with the greatest facility.
His travels included a journey to Washington with Jacob Perkins in 1845, when they paid their respects to President Polk; a trip to Germany, Italy and Switzerland, with Prof. St. John of Western Reserve College and Prof. Loomis of Columbia College, from which he was brought home prostrated with sick- ness.
He had always been confident of his atheletic powers, and had participated in all the games of college life.
Now he challenged his guide to a pedestrian race through the mountains and valleys of Switzerland. It was a hard contest against a hardy mountaineer, but youth and an extraordinary activity won the race. It was at a great cost. He was desperately sick with fever after it, and his courier carried him in his arms to the steamer in which he sailed from Havre, and nursed him till he de- livered him safely to his friends in New York.
He made, in 1863, during the war, an excursion with a party of comrades to Knoxville while the contending forces under Burnside and Longstreet were battling and countermarching for the possession of East Tennessee.
He afterward, in 1873, made, with friends, a journey to California, Mount Shasta and the Modoc lava beds in that vicinity, and was a guest of the United States post having in custody and charged with the execution of the Modoc chiefs condemned to be hanged for the murder of General Canby and others under a flag of truce.
He had assisted his father in many ways, especially in office work and matters of account; but while he was most expert in all map making, letter writing, record making, calculations, prolonged and persistent labor with pen and pencil, he disliked the conducting of business generally, and upon the death of his father, in 1866, he called to his assistance Henry G. Abbey, as his general business manager and confidential agent.
From that time to his death, in 1880, Mr. Case was enabled to devote himself to studies, literary and mathematical, to the care of his precarious health, and to the chosen friends whose society he enjoyed with keenest relish.
Mr. Abbey relieved him of all business cares and was most eminently quali- fied for the duties which he had been called to undertake.
We must not suppose Leonard Case to be for a moment idle. From his earliest boyhood he was noted for his industry. He never went from home without mak- ing most elaborate histories of the incidents and accidents of his journeys; and to these are added full statistics and descriptions of all the places and persons he became acquainted with.
Many volumes of hundreds of pages each were filled with these writings, and other volumes with solutions of complicated and difficult problems which had been given out in astronomical and other journals for solution by any who could cope with the subject.
LEONARD CASE. JR.
WILLIAM CASE
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Besides these were the poetic works; among them that most admirable and witty poem, "Treasure Trove," the racy and charming mixture of comedy, tragedy and satire, written about 1860 and published in the Atlantic Monthly, and after- ward by Osgood & Company, of Boston, with spirited illustrations by Eytinge. Also a great many other shorter poems ; paraphrases of Italian poesy-of which "The Swallow," a translation from Tomasso Grossi's novel "Marco Visconti" seems to show the highest poetic merit, and is by many thought to be a more successful rendering of the exquisite sentiments of the original than any of the translations made by William Cullen Bryant, and other poets.
Both of these translations, together with the original poem, were published in the Cleveland Herald after Mr. Case's death.
There were some traits by which Leonard Case was distinguished from many other men of wealth whom we have known. Before he left school to go to college, his fellow students began to know him as one who hadn't a selfish thought. He loved to win in any athletic sport, and he generally did in any feat of run- ning, jumping, or test of active energy.
He loved to win, too, by the excellence of his standing in recitation; but there were instances when he was known to have failed in this contest when no reason could be suspected except that he was not willing to win at the ex- pense of another fellow's feelings and ambition-but that was only a suspicion ; no one knew it from Leonard.
There is no doubt, however, about his generosity. Books were expensive in those days, and when he gave away a Greek Reader, or Cicero, or Virgil to the boys of the lower classes whose fathers were in poor circumstances, and wouldn't wait to be thanked, it was a surprise of which they were in after years reminded by his greater generosities. He was never known, I think, to make a gift without care being taken that it should not have unnecessary publicity.
If there was anything he hated and despised it was public mention of his gifts, and he disliked to have any expression of gratitude from those upon whom he conferred benefactions. He studied concealment of these, and his strata- gems to secretly convey gifts to deserving objects were most ingenious.
When the great forest fires destroyed the settlers' cabins, barns, crops and cattle in the Saginaw bay counties of eastern Michigan in 1870, and the sym- pathies of all the lake cities were aroused, Woods, Perry & Company, lumber merchants in this city, offered to transport and distribute the contributions of the citizens free.
A steam barge took a cargo of provisions, building materials, household goods, tools and bedding, gifts of the people. When the barge was loading, one of the partners was approached by Mr. Case, who was, to him, a stranger, and after a few questions to ascertain whether money could be distributed, he said he had hunted in that country and had been hospitably entertained at many of the cabins of the settlers. He did not wish to send aid to any particular one, but to those most in distress, and he laid on the desk his check for a handsome sum-the largest that had been given. Mr. Perry told him that his wishes should be carried out carefully, and that the contribution would appear in the Leader on the next day, with others. Mr. Case took back the check at once and said
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very firmly : "This can go only on the condition that it be kept from any pub- licity in the newspapers." Of course it went.
When Mr. Andrew Freese, the first superintendent of the high school, whom Mr. Case held in high regard, came to him to ask him to send a lad to college, a lad who was poor but burned with a thirst for a better education, Mr. Case told him he would not give the boy the amount necessary, but he would lend it, and it must never be spoken of except as a loan; and the terms had but one other condition-that the lad should loan an equal amount to some other boy for the same purpose, when he should come to such success in life as would allow him to do it. Mr. Freese told me that the boy went to college on these terms.
So skillfully and ingeniously did he sometimes manage the giving, that his gifts seemed to the recipients to come from the sky, and there seems to be an indelicacy in our now speaking aloud of some which raised clouds of sadness from whole families, and brightened lives that, otherwise, would have known no sunshine.
There were surprises given to the worn out minister which told him to go and take a rest in the Green Mountains ; and checks to the chaplain of the Bethel that gave him a vacation on the seaboard, and their surprise and enjoyment was his benediction. His confidence and regard for the wisdom and goodness of Dr. Goodrich, pastor of the Old Stone church, was such that he gave the doctor liberty to draw on him at any time for such amounts as he thought Mr. Case ought to contribute to any case of distress within his parish.
He never made any demonstration of religion, but these things speak louder than words, that he had respect for religious teachers and charitable women, and a full estimation of the work they do in elevating mankind. Nor did he allowd any display of hard conditions in his most important gifts; for instance, the en- dowment of the Case Library association of twenty thousand dollars, which was done by Mr. Abbey's simple act of laying down twenty United States bonds of one thousand dollars each on the table of the society's treasurer, without a condition or a receipt, marginal note or practical observation to mark so important a benefaction.
In 1876 he conveyed the library building and Case hall to the library associa- tion, with no reservation except the rights of existing leases, one of which was to his chosen friends the "Arkites;" and it need hardly be mentioned here, for it can never be forgotten that he gave to the Cleveland Orphan asylum the ground on St. Clair street on which its present elegant home is situated; and large addi- tions to the acreage occupied by the home of the Industrial Aid society on Detroit street.
It has always seemed singularly interesting, the beginning of another phase in his life. At the book store of Cobb Brothers there appeared one day in 1865, a plain young man with a rustic air who enquired of the senior brother if they had that work of the great astronomer La Place of France, the "Mechanique Celeste." Mr. Cobb was astounded. It was the first time he had ever had such a call for a work he had himself only read of in the scientific catalogues. When he had taken in the seriousness of the young man's enquiry he told him that they not only had not the work, but it was doubtful if there was a copy on the continent outside of
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the college libraries, or in the observatories where astronomers were found who could use it. The young man said he wished he would ascertain.
Mr. Cobb promised, and the youth left his name and his residence on a Brecks- ville farm.
Mr. Case coming in soon after, Mr. Cobb told him of the unusual enquiry. Mr. Case said he had the work and wondered what manner of man was he who sought a book only known to the astronomers and mathematicians.
He rode fifteen miles the next morning and made the most gratifying discovery of his life. It is said that the greatest discovery that Sir Humphrey Davy made was the discovery of Farraday ; so the happiest discovery that Leonard Case made was that of John N. Stockwell, and what came of it should be told by one who knows the results of the close friendship of these two men.
Months and years were occupied in associated study, and in calculations of problems incident to the movements of the heavenly bodies ; measuring planetary influences, and striving to give greater accuracy to the predictions of the celestial phenomena. These results were published at great cost by Mr. Case. They can only be read and tested by a few men-astronomers who are able to cope with the subjects ; but they have added to the common stock of knowledge in America and Europe, and reflected credit upon the authors and the city from which they were sent forth.
In 1876 the project of devoting a share of his estate to the founding of a scien- tific school seems to have been fully perfected. It is not necessary to enquire whether the idea was entirely original with him. It was foreshadowed by his father's expressions of a desire to do something for the education of indigent youth, having been taught by the struggles of his early life how bitter is the lot of men who, born with a divine thirst for knowledge, are unable to attain it; and it was foreshadowed by the half formed projects of Wm. Case, who lived, moved, and had his highest enjoyment in anticipations of libraries, galleries and museums of art and natural history ; projects unrealized, but never forgotten by the sur- viving brother.
It remained for Leonard, the last one of his family, to fully and carefully devise a plan by which he would benefit the youth of his native city.
It was a work to which he brought the most generous spirit, a long foresight of the future wants of a country expanding and developing untold resources of mines and manufactures, and a religious regard for the honor and wishes of his father and the enthusiastic projects of his brother.
He sought every aid for the development of his thought by consulting others who had wisdom, experience, and love of learning. He corresponded with Dr. John S. Newberry of the School of Mines, Columbia college, and other eminent educators in this country, all of whom confirmed him in his determination to found a School of Applied Science.
He believed that he could do most to express the debt of gratitude which his father always acknowledged to be owing to the city in which he had prospered, by extending a helping hand to those who were making a start in life. He had begun to do this in occasional instances; now he would put the business upon a broad and well founded basis, equipped and fortified for all future time. He believed that he could devise nothing better for the youth of Cleveland and his
.
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state than to provide them with the means of obtaining at their very doors, a sound, extensive and practical scientific knowledge.
He thought that colleges which only aimed at the culture of men by long years of devotion to the ancient Greek and Latin literature and mathematics, ought to be supplemented by schools where the application of pure science to particular classes of problems would meet the demand of an age of progress in manufactures, arts, mining, railroads, and electrical engineering, and enable men to unlock the secrets of nature and our country's hidden resources.
He hoped to enable every lad whose capacity, ambition and strength of fiber were sufficient to pull him through the grammar and high schools of the city, and to profit by the opportunities offered him by a scientific school, to step at once into the practical application of all his knowledge and culture to the problems with which a daring, aggressive, energetic people were already wrestling.
The country was full of minerals and coals, and all the incidents of transpor- tation and manufactures required engineering, chemistry, science, to give perfec- tion and success to the forces and processes to be used. Men must be thoroughly trained to do good work, and good work is alone of any value. Others must be trained for original investigations ; to carry the light into the darkest and remotest secret of the natural world, which gives up its best and most valuable things only to the hardest fighter, the most persistent brain, the most untiring searcher after truth.
He had faith in the theory that it was better to build up strong, intellectual, practical men than to pile marble monuments to the skies. It was godlike to en- dow a man for time and eternity ; the monument was but the perishable plaything of mortal man. More than this-that the work of such men, ambitious to dis- cover and explore, to spread abroad the knowledge of their conquests over mate- rial things, and their crucial tests of truths, was only excelled in value by another result-the elevating, purifying influence which highly educated men, loyal to truth and superior to mere mercenary motives-always radiate over and through the community in which they live.
Who can estimate the influence of the life of such a man as Agassiz, or of the sentiments he illustrated when he replied to the tempting offers of men who told him he could make a fortune by a lecturing tour through the country-by saying, simply, "I cannot afford to waste time in making money."
To the foundation of a school of applied science, then, Leonard Case resolved to devote a handsome share of his fortune, leaving another large share for the law to distribute among his father's kinsmen.
He availed himself of the counsel of the Honorable Judge Rufus P. Ranney and his careful drafting of the legal papers to ensure the proper limitations of the trust, and perpetuity of the benefaction.
On February 24, 1877, he delivered the trust deed to Mr. Henry G. Abbey which invested him with the title of lands to endow "The Case School of Applied Science" in the city of Cleveland, in which should be taught by competent teachers, mathematics, physics, engineering, mechanical and civil, chemistry, economic geol- ogy, mining and metallurgy, natural history, drawing and modern languages, and such other kindred branches of learning as the trustees of said institution might deem advisable.
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As there was nothing he disliked more than notoriety, and especially such notoriety as is won by apparently ostentatious deeds of benevolence, the course he took in this matter effectually prevented any public knowledge of his purpose unti! he was beyond the reach of any public or individual gratitude.
His death occurred January 6, 1880. By an unremitting battle with disease he succeeded in reaching nearly his sixtieth year. For the last six or eight years, however, it had been a struggle for mere existence, his broken health gradually but surely declining in spite of the best care and highest medical skill.
That day one of his oldest friends paid this tribute to his character: "Those who knew him well must say that no kinder-hearted, no truer friend had lived than Leonard Case; and nowhere could be found a man more worthy of the name of gentleman, in its highest sense."
Immediately after the death of Leonard Case, Jr., Mr. Abbey, to whom the trust deeds, constituting the foundation of Case school were executed, filed the deeds for record and proceeded to form a corporation to receive the trust. The first deed was dated February 24, 1877. Subsequently Mr. Case was compelled to encumber the properties for a large amount, and on October 16, 1879, he executed the second deed, making the encumbrance a charge upon the balance of his estate.
The lands conveyed by the deeds were parts of original ten acre lots 45, 46 and 47, and of original two acre lots 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67, upon part of which was situated the present city hall building, then under lease to the city, and the double house built for renting purposes in 1837, which was subsequently, upon the purchase by the United States government of the postoffice site in 1856, remodeled and occupied by the family as a homestead until the death of Mr. Case in 1880.
The articles of incorporation were filed with the secretary of state in April, 1880, and were as follows:
ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION.
Whereas, Leonard Case, late of the city of Cleveland, now deceased, in his lifetime conveyed and assured to Henry G. Abbey, by deeds dated February 24, 1877, and October 16, 1879, certain real estate therein described, and upon the limitations, conditions and trusts therein fully expressed, and thereby directed the said Henry G. Abbey, immediately upon his death, to cause to be formed and regularly incorporated under the laws of Ohio, an institution of learning, to be called "The Case School of Applied Science," located in said city of Cleveland, in which should be taught, by competent professors and teachers, mathematics, physics, engineering-mechanical and civil-economic geology, mining and metallurgy, natural history, drawing, and modern languages; and immediately upon the regular organization of such corporation to convey by sufficient deed in fee simple, and free and clear of all encumbrances whatever, the said premises to such corporation, to be held and enjoyed by it in perpetuity for the sole and only purpose of collecting and receiving the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and applying the same, or the proceeds of said property, to the
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