A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 81

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

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For ten and a half years Dr. Burton carried St. Mark's through a healthy development in spiritual growth, saw it out of debt and its church consecrated, and accomplished the necessary enlargement of its building. Then he resigned it, December 31, 1881, to his son, Rev. Lewis W. Burton, who meanwhile had been Rector of All Saints' church. Dr. Burton, the father, then devoted his ripe ex- perience and talent for organization to Ascension Chapel, on the Detroit Road. His son having accepted a call to Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Burton resumed charge of St. Mark's on March 1, 1884. Finally, on April 1, 1887, after forty years of continuous active ministry in Cleveland, he insisted upon retirement from the exacting responsibilities of a city rectorship and was elected by the vestry rector emeritus of St. Mark's church. Nevertheless he labored long and hard in se- curing funds for the present edifice of St. Mark's, which, though erected under his successor, was a sort of crown to Dr. Burton's own ministry.

A contemporary biographer has said: "Dr. Burton's ability and fidelity were recognized by his bishops, and the councils and institutions of the diocese of Ohio. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Kenyon College in 1868, and served for several years as a member of the board of trustees of that college and the Theological Seminary at Gambier. He was for years on the missionary

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committee and on the standing committee of the diocese, which latter shares with the bishop the ecclesiastical authority. He resigned the senior examining chap- laincy when its duties and burdens became too onerous for one of his years. Twice he was chosen by the undivided diocese of Ohio to represent it in the general con- vention of the Protestant Episcopal church.

"Dr. Burton, as one of the older residents of the city, also occupied, when he died, the post of chaplain of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga county. In his personal relations Dr. Burton was devotedly true and affectionate to his family and relatives. He had an exalted sense of his religious responsibility as head of the household as well as of his obligations as provider. As a citizen he took a deep interest in politics, but kept their issues entirely separate from his min- isterial functions. He was faithful as long as physical strength held out in the exercise of the suffrage. Almost to the last he desired to have the daily news- papers read to him and during the great tariff discussion of the summer of 1894 his eager question would be 'What is the news from Washington ?'

"In the chancel his handsome face, his dignified and reverend manner, made his presence very impressive. With a naturally fine-toned voice he rendered the service so as to enhance its liturgical richness; and he always 'read in the book of the law of God distinctly' so as to cause the congregation to understand the reading. He was an edifying, interesting preacher and his congregations will remember many powerful sermons they heard from his lips. His keynote was always the Pauline one of Christ crucified. He was no mere dogmatist. but believed sound doctrine was the only foundation of right conduct. While he 'shunned' not 'to declare all the counsel of God' and sought always 'rightly' to divide 'the word of truth,' he was rather a preacher of the love than the wrath of God and preferred to convince and persuade and attract rather than to drive by threats and fear. There was in his impressive delivery that evident sincerity and earnestness which aid so powerfully in carrying truth home to the hearts of hearers. He clung throughout his life steadfastly and consistently to the old paths of orthodoxy ; and there was never a sign of wavering in his faith. But while he took an active part in earnestly contending for 'the faith which was once delivered unto the saints' and while he was uncompromising in his opposition to falsehood and wrong, he was no lover of controversy and never bitter or per- sonal in debate.

"He was a loyal and ardent adherent of the Protestant Episcopal church, rev- erencing its rich historical heritage and believing it to be the best instrument of God's work in the world. But at the same time he would allow no narrowness of spirit to alienate his affections from Christians of other communions. He in- sisted that the church must be in sympathy with the times and in unison with the institutions of the land. The ripening effect of age and experience made him even more tolerant and genial in his intercourse with his fellow clergymen, how- ever they might differ from him. And always to his bishop he was respectful and loyal, without sycophancy or toadyism. He was a lover of peace and order and obedient to law.

"As a pastor he was known in the homes of his people. To the poor and lowly he really gave his best self in his Christ-like desire to be 'no respecter of persons.' He had a special talent for ministering to the sick and consoling mourners. In the years subsequent to his retiring from active charge of a parish his services for funerals and marriages were in demand by those who had personally exper- ienced his tender, prayerful sympathy or who had been, as spectators and audi- tors, impressed by his performance of those rites. He had always a loving care to 'feed the lambs of Christ's flock ;' and for the first fifteen years of his ministry in St. John's church he personally superintended the Sunday school. All through his ministry he was a most efficient aid to the successive vestries with whom he labored in their care for the temporalities of the church ; for he had business quali- fications that would have secured him prominent success in any secular calling. He was an early riser and was impelled by an unusual spirit of industry.

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In all the business of life, particularly in which he did for others, he was con- scientiously painstaking and thorough, even to the smallest details. One did not need to know him intimately to become aware that he was devout in his re- ligion ; pious without affectation or cant on the one hand, and, on the other, without morbid reserve. Above all he was a man of prayer and a diligent reader of God's word, not only for the sake of the grace which these means afforded but also with a positive enjoyment of the higher Christian life which he thus breathed.

"As one of his former parishioners, who had been intimately associated with him in church work expressed it, during his last sickness, 'If the Doctor's work must end now, all I want to say is that it has been a grand one.' Whether he is thought of in the public capacity of a parish clergyman, or in the private relation- ship of head of a Christian home, the epitaph whose inscription none will contest as in the slightest degree overdrawn is, 'He fed them with a faithful and true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power.'"

MRS. JANE WALLACE BURTON.

Mrs. Jane Wallace Burton, the wife of Rev. Lewis Burton, D. D., was born in Petersburg, Columbiana county, Ohio, October 16, 1821, her parents being Judge James Wallace and Mrs. Margaret Chambers Wallace, prominent and highly respected citizens of Canfield, Mahoning county, a half century ago. Judge and Mrs. Wallace came from Ballykeel, in County Down, Ireland, about four- teen miles from Belfast, in 1812. Jane Burton's paternal grandparents were James Wallace and Elizabeth Singer, both the Wallaces and Singers being old County Down families. Jane Burton's maternal grandparents were Alexander and Margaret Hanna Chambers, a family of considerable means living in Dromara, County Down.

The parents of Mrs. Burton, like their ancestors, were pious and godly members of the church, and their house was the source of a bountiful hospi- tality to clergymen, so that she was religiously inclined from her earliest youth. Her father had been a teacher and was a fine scholar. Mrs. Burton was edu- cated at Edgeworth Seminary at Braddock's Fields, in that day the best school west of the Alleghany mountains.

July 8, 1841, in Petersburg, Ohio, she was married to the Rev. Lewis Burton, and in 1847 removed with him to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was successively rector of St. John's Episcopal church twenty-four years, founder and rector of All Saints' and St. Mark's churches and rector of the Church of the Ascension. At his death, October 9, 1894, in his eightieth year, after a ministry of fifty-two years, Dr. and Mrs. Burton had spent forty-seven years on the west side, min- istering continuously within the bounds of his original parish.

Throughout this rarely long period Mrs. Burton was an ideal minister's wife, a helpmate to her husband in all those offices and relations of that sacred voca- tion in which a woman of strong character, vigorous mind, broad sympathies, unfailing tact, practical judgment, cheerfully pious spirit and missionary zeal, can comfort, encourage, guide and sustain a man of God. Nor did her own lov- ing ministry cease with her husband's death. The restor of All Saints' church, on the south side, testified that it was Mrs. Burton's sustained interest in that parish and repeated donations, in addition to Dr. Burton's bequest, that saved it from financial ruin. The rector's pious wish was gratified, in that she lived to see it unencumbered.

The sphere of her influence and labors was not confined to parochial bounds. Broad-minded, charitable, tolerant, she was a stay to all her friends in their troubles, and bore their burdens with unselfish thoughtfulness; they could de- pend upon her stanch and constant steadfastness and upon both advice and help

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that would be as sympathetic in interest as they were wise and practical. The poor and lowly were especially the objects of numberless unobtrusive charities ; and by the bedside of the sick and dying her counsel and prayer opened many a door to faith and hope and comfort.

A keen observer and a diligent reader, she had clear, positive, courageous and fixed convictions upon the great questions and issues of the day. When during the Civil war our country needed woman's sympathy and help, her heart and hand freely responded. She was one of the three vice presidents of the Soldiers' Aid Society of Northern Ohio and her name is inscribed as such on the tablets of the soldiers' monument in the Public Square.

Vice and injustice and wrong found in her an unflinching but intelligent op- ponent. As a member of standing committees she helped to govern, with sane and conservative principles and methods, the great temperance movement of 1874 and 5. And for years afterward, in the Pearl Street Friendly Inn work, her Bible readings were a spiritual inspiration and uplift to the Mothers' Meet- ings, where two hundred and seventy were enrolled. She was one of the oldest members of the Woman's Christian Association, a vice president and member of its board of managers. It was her suggestion, born of pity for those who, though refined, had no other refuge in their poverty and aged helpfulness than the City Infirmary, that led to the erection of the Aged Women's Home. And through her declining years, when too feeble to attend church, she delighted to worship in the chapel of this institution which is near her daughter's home, in which she spent her winters and where she died.

Her full, rounded and balanced character made all these good works and vigorous interest in the reforms of the age consistent with a well regulated home and the most painstaking uprearing of her children. Indeed the household and her family were ever the chief objects of her sagacious concern and industry. And it is only those who knew her in the intimate relations of the home circle that fully realized how, with all the strong elements of character that gave her the personality of a born leader, were intertwined the tenderest qualities of wifely and motherly devotion and self-abnegation. In her later years of retirement her affection seemed to hover like an over-shadowing wing above children and grandchildren and they could not escape the blessings which her brooding pray- ers brought down.

She possessed her senses and faculties unabated, save for failing eyesight, till her fatal illness. Amid all the changes of religious belief so common in this skeptical age, she clung tenaciously to the simple faith which accepted the Bible as God's word written and Christ crucified as the only Saviour of sinners. Thus, amid all the consolations and aspirations of the blessed Eastertide, on April 15, 1901, entered into the inheritance of the saints in light this strong and beautiful womanly character, true in all the relations of life, a rare union of the spirit of prayer with the ministry of unselfish works.

All her children and three grandchildren survived her :- Mrs. Amelia Wal- lace Leslie, the widow of Henry G. Leslie, of Youngstown, Ohio; Mrs. Eliza Jennings Backus, the widow of the Rev. Arthur M. Backus, late rector of St. Paul's Episcopal church, Dedham, Massachusetts, with her daughter Jean Wallace Backus; and Bishop Lewis William Burton, D. D., of the Episcopal diocese of Lexington, who married Miss Georgie Hendree Ball, and has two daughters, Sarah Louise and Cornelia Paine Wallace Burton. Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Backus live in Cleveland; Bishop Burton in Lexington, Kentucky. Of a large family of Mrs. Bur- ton's sisters and brothers, two, whose death preceded hers, lived in Cleveland :- Mrs. Eliza Jennings and Mrs. Minerva Wetmore. The former gave her home- stead with twelve acres of land on Detroit street to the Children's Aid Society for an industrial school, and subsequently became the founder of the Eliza Jennings Home for Incurables in the same neighborhood. One of Mrs. Burton's brothers was the Rev. John Singer Wallace, an Episcopal clergyman and chap- lain in the United States Navy.

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Mrs. Burton's interment was beside her husband in Lake View cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio. The inscription upon the family monument specially refer- ring to her is "The memory of the just is blessed."

CHARLES E. ALDEN.

Charles E. Alden, a member of the firm of Mccullough, Alden & Hopple, attorneys practicing before the Cleveland bar, is one of Ohio's native sons who is winning distinction in the difficult profession of the law. He was born in the town of Middlefield, Geauga county, Ohio, December 18, 187.5, and is descended from an English family, members of which came to America when it was first being colonized by those in search of liberty and religious freedom. John Alden, the first of the name to settle in this country, crossed the Atlantic in the Mayflower in 1620, and, locating in Massachusetts, became secretary to the first governor of Plymouth. In 1656 he built a house in Duxbury, Massa- chusetts, and it is a notable fact that for nine generations it has been owned and occupied by a John Alden. This family, which was so early identified with the life of the colonies, contributed noble men to the cause of independence -one, Colonel Amos Alden, having won especial distinction as the aide to a Revolutionary general. Others braved the hardships of pioneer life, for Enoch Alden, the grandfather of Charles E. Alden, came to Ohio in the early part of the nineteenth century. He was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and when he came west settled in Geauga county, Ohio, his name being enrolled as one of the early settlers of that section of the state. His son, Edward H. Al- den, was born in Middlefield, Geauga county, in July, 1846. For a number of years he was engaged in agricultural pursuits but is now living retired in Hiram, Portage county, Ohio. In his early manhood he wedded Miss Hercey Dunham, who was born in Oneida county, New York, in 1843. Her father, Simeon Dunham, was a native of Connecticut but later became a resident of New York and then of Newark, New Jersey, whence he removed to Livingston county, Illinois. After coming west he engaged in farming but while living in the east his time was devoted to manufacturing interests of various kinds.

Charles E. Alden, whose name introduces this review, is ten generations removed from the ancestor who established the Alden family in America and in his chosen field of work is rapidly winning a distinction that makes him a worthy descendant of patriots and pioneers. The foundation of his success was laid in the broad education he received in his youth, for having completed the course of the public schools of Middlefield-his birthplace-he entered the preparatory department of Hiram College, receiving the degree of A. B. from the latter institution in 1901. Thereafter he took special training for the pro- fession of law, spending two years in the Cleveland Law School and one year in the Franklin T. Backus Law School of Western Reserve University, and was admitted to the bar in 1905. In the meantime, however, he had worked in different offices and from 1901 to 1902 was employed in a law office in Akron,. Ohio. On the Ist of January, 1906, he engaged in general practice in Cleveland, establishing the firm of Alden & Hopple, now Mccullough, Alden & Hopple. Although yet a young man he is rapidly rising to a position of importance in professional circles and before the courts, for he is very careful and systematic in the preparation of a case and his arguments are ever characterized by terse and decisive logic.

On Christmas day, 1902, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Alden and Miss Ina May Gibbs, a daughter of Alexander and Paulina (Green) Gibbs, of Brunswick, Medina county, Ohio. One daughter, Marcella Eugenia, has been born to the couple.

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On questions of national importance Mr. Alden is a democrat in his politics, but in local matters he believes that men and measures are of more importance than party affiliation and accordingly gives his vote to the candidate he thinks most deserving of the office. In his religion he is a Christian, holding member- ship in the Dunham Avenue Church of Christ, of which he is an elder. He has ever evinced in his life record a fidelity to a high standard of honorable man- hood and professional service, and the success he is winning follows as a natural sequence of the commendable traits of his character.

HARRY F. PAYER.

Harry F. Payer, for ten years a practitioner at the Cleveland bar, was born in the Forest city, July 3, 1875. His father, Frank Payer, was born in Austria in 1842, and there served as a military officer. When about twenty- seven years of age he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, making his way direct to Cleveland, where he continued to live until his death in 1895. His mother, who bore the maiden name of Mary Cross, was born in Cleveland in 1855, a daughter of John Cross, who was one of the first residents of this city, landing from a sailing vessel upon which he made the voyage and establishing one of the first cooperage shops in Cleveland.

In the public schools Harry F. Payer pursued his education until he was gradu- ated from the Central high school with the class of 1893. He completed a classi- cal course in Adelbert College, of the Western Reserve University, in 1897, at which time the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred upon him, and he was graduated with great honor (magna cum laude). His scholarship at Adelbert gained him admittance to the Phi Beta Kappa fraternity, an association of college honor men in the United States. While at Adelbert College he was selected as its representative in the oratorical contest, in which any college in the state could send competitors, and won the oratorical prize. In 1899 he won the Bachelor of Law degree from the Cleveland Law School. In the same year he was admitted to the bar and at once entered upon active practice.

He has always remained alone and has made a notable record by reason of the important character of his service and the success that has attended him. In 1901, when but twenty-five years of age, he was appointed assistant city solicitor and so continued until April, 1907, when on account of the growth of his private practice he resigned. When in the law department of the city he had charge of the condemnation proceedings whereby property was secured for the city's use. He was also counsel for the city hall commission and tried all cases that were necessary in the acquisition of land for the new city hall and municipal buildings in accordance with Cleveland's plan, which it is now pursuing, of grouping its city and government buildings. This work required many months in court and he was very successful in all cases, securing the property for less price than was offered by the city, the purchases involving about one million dollars. He also had · charge of the law work pertaining to the acquisition and opening of parks and boulevards. This work was of a complex nature, necessitating the invention of forms and methods for the appropriate and harmonious restriction of contiguous property as well as the solution of many intricacies of title.

Mr. Payer also tried many personal injury suits and this is his specialty, if he can be said to have any. He has been very successful in this line of practice and has a reputation of hardly ever having lost a jury case since his admission to the bar. In a recent case he secured the highest verdict ever secured in Ohio under similar circumstances. He was the attorney in the case in the United States circuit court of appeals, in which the doctrine was first established in Ohio by the United States court of appeals that an action for wrongful death can be main- tained by an administrator in behalf of non-resident alien beneficiaries. As attor-

HARRY F. PAYER

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ney for the Italian consulate and government for all of Ohio, which appointment he has held continuously for eight years, he has successfully contended for the doctrine that consular officers have the prior right in behalf of their countrymen of intervening in the administration of estates. Numerous contests in the courts conducted by Mr. Payer for the Italian consulate have resulted in the establish- ment of that salutary doctrine by the invocation of treaty provisions and principles of international law, and thereby the interests of foreign subjects are now pro- tected as never before.

Mr. Payer is a man of broad interests whose efforts have by no means been concentrated alone upon the attainment of success through the avenues of his profession. He has figured before the public in many ways and is not unknown as a prominent leader in democratic circles in Cleveland. He was chosen secre- tary of the democratic state central committee in July, 1901, and was chairman of the Buckeye Club, the largest democratic organization that Ohio has ever known. He is a man of splendid oratorical power, whose ability in this line has been used in his championship of the political principles that he espouses. In 1901 he was charman of the committee that presented the petition to Tom L. Johnson, soliciting his candidacy for mayor. In the same year he presided as toast master at the General Jackson day banquet and has been equally prominent on other public occasions. He is thoroughly in sympathy with the projects and pur- poses of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, in which he holds membership, and he is equally strong in his advocacy of the beneficent spirit of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree. He also holds membership with the Elks and Eagles. In more strictly social lines he is connected with the Colonial Club and the Cleveland Athletic Club, whie his professional re- lations are with the County and State Bar Associations.

On the 24th of June, 1902, Mr. Payer was married to Miss Florence Graves, a daughter of Thomas and Julia (Black) Graves, of Cleveland. They have two children, Dorothea and Franklin, and the hospitality of their home makes it most attractive to their many friends.

OBED CALVIN BILLMAN.

Obed Calvin Billman, a patent lawyer with a large practice, confining his attention to patent, trademark and copyright branches of the law, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, April 20, 1875. He is fortunate in having back of him an honorable ancestry. The line is traced to Conrad Billman and comes down through David Billman, the great-grandfather, who was a native of Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, whence he removed to Wayne county, Ohio, becom- ing one of its pioneer settlers. He received a patent of land from the govern- ment, his deed being signed by President Madison, and he assisted materially in the development of the county as it was transformed from a wild western wilderness into one of the rich agricultural sections of the state. He owned and operated a large tract of land and was recognized as a man of prominence in his community. His son, Jacob Billman, was also a native of Westmore- land county and removing at an early day to Wayne county, Ohio, there reared his family, which included Joseph Billman, the father of our subject. His birth occurred in Wayne county in 1835 and throughout his business life his attention was given to general farming. He wedded Mary Feightner, also a native of that county and now a resident of Smithville, Ohio. She survives her husband, who passed away September 3, 1905.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 81

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1150