USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 2
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The Standard Oil Company from the first encouraged its employees to become stock- holders in the company, and, where necessary, loaned them money to do so. These are num- bered among the many who attribute their success in life to their connection with the company.
As the business grew, other refiners, in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and elsewhere, joined the successful Standard Oil Company. No other was able to do the work so efficiently and at such low cost. All who came into the new concern prospered. Probably never in the history of the world has such an aggrega- tion of able, loyal, devoted men been gathered together under the name of one organization. They provided light for the uttermost parts of the world and habituated all races of men to its use.
Mr. Rockefeller has often expressed his regret that every oil refiner in the country did not come into the Standard Oil Company and enjoy the benefits of co-operation. All who were competing with him had the oppor-
tunity to merge their interests with his and get Standard Oil stock in return for their full value. This many of them failed to do, not only because it seemed to them impossible that the business could be restored to a con- dition of prosperity, but because they really had no equity on which to get a stock repre- sentation in the Standard Oil Company, owing to the losses in the refining business in the late '60s, when the competition became severe.
Cleveland greatly benefited by the activities of Mr. Rockefeller and his associates. When they began their co-operative organization, the city was forty-third in population and im- portance in the United States, and they played a large part in helping it to grow up to sixth place. During fifty-six years the Standard Oil Company and its predecessor in Cleveland has furnished steady employ- ment to many thousands of contented men, industrious and well paid, who have been of the most useful and valuable class in the com- munity. Soon after the Standard Oil Com- pany was firmly established, Mr. Rockefeller became interested in various manufacturing and other enterprises, which he conducted along the same general lines, and it was from the sum of the profits of all his ventures that he derived his vast fortune.
After the organization of the Standard Oil Company Mr. Rockefeller recommended to his old friend and first banker, Mr. Handy, the purchase of some of its stock. Mr. Handy responded that he would be pleased to make the purchase, but his funds were otherwise invested ; on which Mr. Rockefeller loaned him the money for the purpose, and the trans- action resulted to the entire satisfaction of Mr. Handy. Stillman Witt was another Cleveland capitalist who showed kindly inter- est in Mr. Rockefeller. The oil company had had a large fire, destroying their New York warehouses, and Mr. Rockefeller informed his Cleveland bankers of the loss and stated that the company might desire to borrow some money. It proved, however, that they did not need to borrow money on this account; for the insurance company promptly paid the entire loss, amounting to several hundred thousands of dollars. Some years after, it came to the knowledge of Mr. Rockefeller that, when he indicated that he might want to make this loan, the question arose in the board as to whether the paper should be more closely scrutinized on account of the fire; whereupon Mr. Stillman Witt, who was a member of the
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board, promptly called for his strong box, and, presenting it to the board, remarked: "Gentlemen, these young men are all right. If you want any more security, here it is!" Mr. Rockefeller never forgot the incident, and Mr. Witt never had occasion to regret his kindly interest and confidence in the young man.
When Mr. Rockefeller informed his part- ner, Mr. S. V. Harkness, that he might want to call upon him for some assistance on account of the fire-though, as it proved, he never had occasion to do so-Mr. Harkness responded : "All right, J. D .; you can have everything I've got."
These were some of many acts of confidence and kindness shown to Mr. Rockefeller from the beginning of his business career, and for them he never ceased to be grateful.
The confidence of his bankers in him increased with his confidence in requesting assistance, and the Cleveland bankers never had occasion to regard this bold, persistent borrower as lacking in this particular. While they wondered at his assurance, they did not fail to respond to his requests.
On one occasion an aged and conservative bank president said to Mr. Rockefeller: "You are borrowing a large amount of money from our bank, and our Board may want you to come and have a talk with them." To which Mr. Rockefeller answered: "Mr. Otis, I shall be very pleased to do so; because we have got to have a great deal more." The bank did not request Mr. Rockefeller to meet the board.
The kindly treatment of the Cleveland bankers was very helpful and reassuring to Mr. Rockefeller, and gave him courage to push forward with business undertakings which in all the early years were so far in excess of his capital.
In after years, when Mr. Rockefeller had passed the stress of the borrowing stage, and, in turn, was able to render assistance to others, hanks and business concerns as well as individuals, he took pleasure in doing this in every time of financial stress, in some in- stances amounting to many millions of dollars. In the panic of 1907 a leading New York financier early one morning telephoned him: "Rockefeller, I want forty or fifty millions to help out in this panic."
It was a day or two before this that Mr. Rockefeller was called up at midnight and asked if he would meet Melville Stone of the Associated Press, if he would come
right up, for the purpose of agreeing upon a dispatch to send out to the public, with a view to reassure them in this time of critical financial stress. To which Mr. Rockefeller answered: "It won't be necessary for you to come up. Let's agree upon the article right here and now, right over the telephone." Mr. Rockefeller gave him a message which was sent out, in which he pledged the half of his fortune, if necessary, to stop the panic. Men came to Mr. Rockefeller afterward from distant cities, and with the tears in their eyes expressed their gratitude for that message, which marked for them the turning point.
Mr. Rockefeller has always had the cordial support of his family in his philanthropic undertakings, and from the earliest recollec- tion of his children these topics were upper- most in the daily conversations in the home. Mr. Rockefeller found, in 1890, that the bur- den of examining the merits of causes here and there had grown too heavy to he borne. It was driving him toward a nervous break- down. For years it was the custom to read at table the letters received relating to the various benevolences, but now the task had grown beyond the possibility of accomplish- ment without trained help. Mr. Rockefeller had to appoint an aid or stop giving-and the latter, of course, was out of the question. The necessity was forced upon him to organize and plan this department of daily duties on as distinct lines of progress as he did his busi- ness affairs. His ideal was to contribute all that he could, whether of money or service, to human progress. His great ability and his vast fortune were alike dedicated to that purpose.
Though he had contributed for years to many philanthropic objects, one of the first great benevolent enterprises founded by Mr. Rockefeller was the University of Chicago. To comhat ignorance, to extend true educa- tion, appealed to him as one of the best ways to help men to help themselves. His first gift, $600,000, toward the founding of the uni- versity was made in 1889. In making his last gift, of $10,000,000, in 1910, which brought the total contribution up to $35,000,- 000, Mr. Rockefeller definitely ended his per- sonal connection with the project. He wrote : "I am acting on an early and permanent con- viction that this great institution, being the property of the people, should be controlled, conducted and supported by the people, in whose generous efforts for its upbuilding I have been permitted simply to co-operate."
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
As Mr. Rockefeller's ability increased to enlarge his contributions in the interest of humanity, he began to feel that it would be desirable to crystallize into separate organiza- tions the work which he had been carrying on himself. Beginning with a pledge of $200,000, in 1901, he established the Rocke- feller Institute for Medical Research, to seek the cause and the cure of diseases that afflict mankind. A corps of doctors of the highest ability, provided with proper salaries and thus enabled to give all their time to study, have already discovered in the hospital and laboratories of the Institute the means of cur- ing several obscure and virulent diseases. These discoveries, given free to all the world, have saved thousands of lives, and will prob- ably save many thousands more. The Insti- tute has thus far used $10,000,000, and has assets of $17,000,000.
The General Education Board was estab- lished in 1902 for the purpose of promoting "education within the United States of Amer- ica without distinction of race, sex or creed." The board consists of business men and able educators, who seek to make its benefactions afford the greatest good to the greatest num- ber. It has given aid to public education of white and colored people, in fourteen southern states, has made large gifts to the medical departments in four great universities, and has helped more than one hundred schools and colleges. The board has already thus bestowed nearly $24,000,000. It has remain- ing a fund of about $35,000,000.
The Rockefeller Foundation, chartered in 1913, "to promote the wellbeing of mankind throughout the world," was established in order to provide an agency, not dependent upon the life of any individual, which should deal with the problems of philanthropy in accord with the principles and methods approved in each generation. Mr. Rockefeller has thus far given $132,000,000 to the Founda- tion. Its most important achievements liave been. the establishment of the International Health Board, which has already restored hundreds of thousands of sufferers; the appointment of the China Medical Board, to help improve the public health in China, and the formation of a War Relief Commission, which has given first aid to stricken Belgium and already aided in the work of the Ameri- can Red Cross with many millions of dollars. It is believed that the Rockefeller Foundation will be of benefit and a blessing to countless generations of men.
Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Junior, testified before the United States Commission on Industrial Relations, in January, 1915, his belief that his father had given a quarter of a billion dollars for philanthropy, and it is known that in the succeeding three years he gave $50,000,000 more.
Mr. Rockefeller married, in 1864, Miss Laura C. Spelman, daughter of Mr. H. B. Spelman, of Cleveland. Five children were born to them. Their home for some years was a spacious house with grounds bounded by Euclid and Case avenues and Prospect Street, whence they removed in 1876 to the Forest Hill estate of 200 acres in what is now the eastern part of the City of Cleveland. Here during the most active years of his career Mr. Rockefeller spent hours of many business days in planting trees and building roads. Here he laid out his private golf course, on which he still loves to play when he visits in the summer his former home; and here he has received from year to year visits of his old neighbors, delegations of the lead- ing citizens of Cleveland, who came to con- gratulate him on his birthday and to thank him for his great part in building up the prosperity of their city as well as for his munificent gifts to it.
Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller had much to do with the growth and support of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church not only, but of many other of the benevolent institutions of Cleve- land. And though he has spent much of his time in New York, beginning in the late '60s, and has made his home there since the early '80s, Mr. Rockefeller still retains his member- ship in the old church and his deep, abiding, cordial interest in the welfare of its people, the survivors and the children and grand- children of his old friends in Cleveland.
HORACE KELLEY. Every citizen of Cleve- land knows and appreciates the name and services of Horace Kelley, if for no other reason than because his liberality gave the bulk of the fortune which enabled the city to erect and maintain its magnificent museum of art.
Nearly all his fortune, estimated of upwards of $600,000, Horace Kelley left to trustees for the purpose of founding a museum of art in Cleveland. This sum, together with subse- quent accumulations, was combined with funds given by the late John Huntington and made it possible to found in Cleveland a museum of art that is today one of the chief
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sources of civic pride among the people of Cleveland.
Horace Kelley was born at Cleveland July 18, 1819, and spent his life in that city, where he died December 4, 1890. He was a member of the Kelley family that from the earliest times in Cleveland have been factors in its history and development. He was a son of Joseph Reynolds and Betsey (Gould) Kelley and was a grandson of Judge Daniel Kelley, who with his sons Datus, Alfred, Irad, Joseph R. and Thomas Moore Kelley inaugurated the Kelley family activities in Cleveland during the years from 1810 to 1814.
Horace Kelley spent his active life largely in the management of extensive properties, including lands in the heart of Cleveland, and also the Isle St. George, now North Bass Island. One of the wealthy men of the city, he employed his means not only as a public benefactor but also in following his tastes as a traveler, and altogether he spent a number of years of his life abroad. Horace Kelley married Fanny Miles, of Elyria, Ohio. Mrs. Kelley is now living at Los Angeles, Cali- fornia. They had no children.
HERMON A. KELLEY. It would be difficult to find in Ohio or in any other state a group of lawyers with a higher degree of specializa- tion of ability and more thoroughly covering the general branches of jurisprudence than those who are members of or practicing un- der the firm Iloyt, Dustin, Kelley, McKee- han & Andrews in the Western Reserve Build- ing at Cleveland.
Of this firm Hermon A. Kelley has long en- joyed first rank as an admiralty lawyer. Be- sides his well won distinctions in the profes- sion, his career is interesting in a history of Cleveland because he represents family names of the oldest antiquity and prominence in Northern Ohio. In his paternal line the rec- ord goes back to Joseph Kelley, who was born in 1690 and was one of the early settlers at Norwich, Connecticut, where he died in 1716. Of a later generation Daniel Kelley was born in Norwich March 15, 1726, and died in Ver- mont in 1814. He was the father of Judge Daniel Kelley, the great-grandfather of Her- mon A.
Judge Daniel Kelley was prominent in Cleveland's early history. He was born at Norwich, Connecticut, November 27, 1755, and died at Cleveland, Ohio, August 7, 1831. Judge Daniel Kelley was the second president or mayor of the Village of Cleveland. The
first president of the village upon its incor- poration in 1814 was Judge Daniel's son, Al- fred Kelley, to whose career a special biography is devoted on other pages. Alfred Kelley resigned his post as village president on March 19, 1816, and was sneceeded by his father, Judge Daniel, who received a unani- mous election. Considering his standing as a man and other qualifications it is not strange that he was the unanimous choice of the twelve voters who then composed the electo- rate of the village. Thus members of the Kel- ley family had an active part in shaping the policy of Cleveland when it was in no spe- cial way distinguished from other settlements along the Lake Erie shore.
Judge Daniel Kelley married Jemima Stow. Her father, Elihu Stow, was a soldier of the American army throughout the period of the Revolutionary war. On account of that serv- ice his descendants in the Kelley family have eligibility to membership in the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution. Joshua Stow, a brother of Jemima, was a member of the Connecticut Land Company which acquired by purchase most of the West- ern Reserve from the State of Connecticut. Joshua Stow was a member of the surveying party which, under the leadership of Gen. Moses Cleaveland, landed at the month of the Cuyahoga River and founded the City of Cleveland in 1796.
Datos Kelley, oldest son of Judge Daniel Kelley and grandfather of the Cleveland law- yer, was born at Middlefield, Connecticut, April 24, 1788. For a number of years he lived on his farm near Rocky Run, but in 1833 bought the entire island since known as Kelley's Island in Lake Erie, near the City of Sandusky. That island comprises about 3,000 acres. Datus Kelley moved his family to this island in 1836, and with the aid of his six sons most of the early development of that island was carried on. Datus Kelley died at Kelley's Island January 24, 1866. Be- sides his six sons he had three daughters. Of his sons Alfred S. Kelley, father of Hermon A., was the business head of the family.
Alfred S. Kelley was born at Rockport. Ohio, December 23, 1826. He planned and put into execution the cultivation and im- provement of Kelley's Island, and the indus- trial development there even to the present day has been influenced by his work. He was also a prominent business man, was a merchant, banker, owned docks and steam- boat lines, and in his time was considered one
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
of the most prominent business men of North- eru Ohio.
Alfred S. Kelley married Hannah Farr. She was born at Rockport, Ohio, August 9, 1837, and died February 4, 1889. Her an- cestry is traced back to Stephen Farr of Ac- ton, Massachusetts, who was married May 23, 1674. The line of descent comes down through Joseph Farr, Sr., of Acton, Joseph Farr, Jr., who was born at Acton August 3, 1743, Eliel Farr, who was born at Cumming- ton, Massachusetts, June 16, 1777, and died at Rockport, Ohio, September 6, 1865, and Aurelius Farr, father of Hannah Farr Kel- ley, who was horn September 18, 1798, and died December 11, 1862.
Hermon A. Kelley began life with the heri- tage of a good family name and with all the advantages that considerable wealth and social position can bestow. He was born at Kelley's Island May 15, 1859, was educated in public schools and Buchtel College at Akron, where he graduated A. B. in 1879 and soon after- wards put into execution his plan to study law. In 1882 he was granted the degree of Bachelor of Laws by Harvard Law School, and he also had the privileges of a student residence abroad, during which time he took special work in Roman law at the University of Goettingen, Germany. In 1897 his alma mater conferred upon him the honorary de- gree Doctor of Laws.
Mr. Kelley began practice in 1884 at De- troit, but a year later removed to Cleveland, where he was a partner with Arthur A. Stearns until 1891. In that year Mr. Kelley became first assistant corporation counsel of Cleveland, and on retiring from that office in 1893 became junior partner of the firm of Hoyt, Dustin & Kelley. During its exist- ence of more than twenty years this partner- ship has grown in strength and ability until it is reckoned as second to none among the law firms of the state. Later Homer H. Mc- Keehan and Horace Andrews were admitted to the partnership.
Mr. Kelley's specialty, as already noted, is admiralty law. His knowledge of marine law and affairs is so comprehensive and exact that his opinions have come to be accepted as authority by his fellow lawyers and are seldom seriously questioned in courts.
While devoted to his profession and strictly a lawyer, Mr. Kelley has taken a commend- able interest in public affairs in his home city, and at every opportunity has sought to strengthen the arms of good government and
extend the work and prestige of the city. He is an active republican, is a member of the Union Club, University Club, Country Club, Roadside Club and Euclid Club. He also be- longs to the Cleveland, Ohio State and Amer- ican Bar associations. Mr. Kelley is presi- dent of the Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution and also of the Western Reserve Society of the same order. He is a trustee and is secretary and treasurer of the Cleveland Museum of Art and was a member of the building committee which had charge of the erection of the beautiful new Art Build- ing. He is also a member of the board of trustees of Buchtel College, now the Munici- pal University of Cleveland.
Mr. Kelley was married September 3, 1889, to Miss Florence A. Kendall. Her father was Maj. Frederick A. Kendall of the United States Regular Army. Her mother, Virginia (Hutchinson) Kendall, was a daughter of one of the noted Hutchinson family of singers of New Hampshire. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley have three children: Virginia Hutchinson, Alfred Kendall and Hayward Kendall.
JUDGE DANIEL KELLEY was one of the most prominent of the early settlers of Cleveland, and numerous references to his name and career are found elsewhere in this publica- tion. To concentrate a few of the more im- portant facts of his personal history the following sketch is.given :
He was born at Norwich, Connecticut, No- vember 27, 1755. He was a son of Daniel Kelley and Abigail Reynolds Kelley, and a grandson of Joseph and Lydia (Caulkins) Kelley. These grandparents were among the early settlers of Norwich, Connecticut, where they established their home in 1698.
Judge Daniel Kelley moved to Middle- town, Connecticut, where in 1787 he married Jemima Stow. Her brother, Joshua Stow, was one of the thirty-five original members of the Connecticut Land Company and one of the surveying party which with Moses Cleaveland founded the City of Cleveland in 1796.
In 1798 Daniel Kelley removed to Lowville, New York, and while there was elected first judge of Lewis County. In the fall of 1814 he came to Cleveland, whither his previous reputation followed him, so that he was al- most at once a man of importance in the com- munity.
In March, 1816, he was elected to succeed his son Alfred as president of the Village of
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Cleveland, an office to which he was re-elected in 1817, 1818 and 1819. He was also post- master of Cleveland until 1817, when he was succeeded by his son, Irad Kelley. In 1816, with his son, Alfred, Datus and Irad, Judge Kelley was among the incorporators of a com- pany for the building of the first pier at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River.
In many other ways he was a factor in movements of importance in the early life of the city and he lived here until his death on August 7, 1831.
ALFRED KELLEY. Local history gives Al- fred Kelley the distinction of being the first resident attorney of Cleveland, the first presi- dent of its village government, active in the organization of its first bank, and in several other things a priority of action and influ- ence. However, his life is not to be measured by these minor evidences of leadership. It was in connection with the broader, more per- manent and significant issues of early Ohio and the City of Cleveland that his life and work were most important. No other man was so vitally identified with that great move- ment, common to the entire United States at the time, known as the era of internal im- provements, which began early in the eight- eenth century and came to a somewhat disastrous conclusion in the middle '30s, the great financial panic of 1837 coming as a con- sequence upon this period of industrial build- ing and inflation rather than a cause of the decline. One notable result of this era of internal improvements was the construction of the old Ohio Canal, a transportation route largely conceived and carried out by the genius of Alfred Kelley. This canal was soon superseded by railroads, but in the mean- time Cleveland, at the northern end of the canal, had been fortified against all time as one of the great cities of Ohio.
Hardly less important was the service ren- dered by Alfred Kelley during the hard times that followed the panic of 1837. When state credit was at a low ebb and when citi- zens everywhere were clamoring for a relief from the burdens of an onerous state debt, Alfred Kelley set himself sternly against re- pudiation and largely through his own re- sources and his personal credit he saved the financial honor of Ohio.
Alfred Kelley was born in Middlefield, near Middletown, Connecticut, November 7, 1789. He was the second son of Judge Daniel and Jemima (Stow) Kelley. A more complete
account of his family connections will be found on other pages. Alfred Kelley was a New Englander and had the best characteris- tics of its people. From his mother's family he inherited intellectual force, tenacity of purpose and a strong will. Through his father he was left with a cool judgment, a disposition for thorough investigation and an evenly balanced temperament. His early as- sociations were with the sturdy and well ordered inhabitants of New England. His early life was also spent in what might might be called the heroic age of America. It was a time when the brilliant success of the inde- pendence struggle filled men's hearts and minds and when Americans carried their patriotic zeal almost to excess and were pos- sessed of indomitable energy and enterprise for conquering the obstacles and dangers of environment and the new fields of the West.
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