USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 62
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Leo Oppenheim was edueated in the public sehools of Indianapolis, graduating from the high school of that eity in 1908. For one year he was a student in Leland Stanford Univer- sity in California, where he supported himself by work as a reporter on the San Francisco Post. He then came east to Cleveland, enter- ing the Baldwin-Wallace College in the law department and completed his course and re- ceived his degree in June, 1914. In the same year he was admitted to the Ohio bar and has since been in active practice at Cleveland. He is secretary and attorney for the Merchants Welfare Association, composed of east end merchants, is attorney for The Oppenheim Shoe Company and otherwise enjoys a general practiee as a lawyer. He is private secretary for Judge Samuel Sielbert of the Cleveland Municipal Court.
Mr. Oppenheim has also identified himself with many interests of a eivic and benevolent nature. He is president of the Jewish In- fants Orphans Home of Cleveland and a mem- ber of its Board of Trustees. He belongs to the Civie League, the Knights of Pythias, the B'nai B'rith, the Euclid Avenue Temple and is quite active in democratic politics. Mr. Oppenheim's hobby is swimming and all out- door sports. His home is at 8504 Carnegie Avenue.
EDWARD DAVID. Beginning his career as a boy elerk in a Cleveland law office, Edward
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David familiarized himself by practical experi- ence and by detailed work with many of the complications of the law and later by the good fortune of an appointment in a govern- ment positon at Washington had the oppor- tunity of pursuing his law studies formally in a regular law school. Mr. David won his am- bition to the bar by hard work, and for the past quarter of a century has been one of the leading attorneys of the city.
He was born in Cleveland July 31, 1868, a son of Joseph and Catharine David. He had a brief schooling in the public schools of Cleve- land, and at the age of fifteen was employed as a clerk in Willson & Sykora's law office in Cleveland. He was with this firm until he was twenty-one years of age. Mr. David was then appointed chief clerk of the office of Publica- tion of the Official Records of the Rebellion in the War Department at Washington. He held that office four years, during President Benja- min Harrison's administration. While in Washington he entered the Georgetown Uni- versity Law School, and received his degree LL. B. in June, 1891, and the degree LL. M. in June, 1892.
At the close of his official service he became a member of the Cleveland bar. He was ad- mitted to practice law in Ohio June 9, 1892, and has been in uninterrupted practice at Cleveland since March 15, 1893. He is now a member of the well known firm of David & Heald, with offices in the Engineers Building. He has handled a large amount of general law practice, and has been connected with some of the most important cases tried in the local and state courts.
Mr. David is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, is affiliated with Forest City Lodge No. 388, Free and Accepted Masons. He was married at Massillon, Ohio, June 4, 1894. to Vlasta A. Erhard, daughter of Karl F. and Anna Erhard. They have two children, Carl Edward David, now of Company B, Seventy-ninth Division, United States Engi- neers, Camp Meade, Maryland, and Edytha Vlasta David.
DAVID LONG, M. D. Cleveland in disclosing its memorials to the honored figures of the past might appropriately establish something permanent to symbolize the services of its first physicians. Chief among these was Dr. David Long, to whom history accords the dis- tinction of being the first resident physician of the town.
Among the doctors of the old times David
Long was a man of rare human greatness- strong but tender, brusque but true, with a devotion to duty that bestead him through all storm and stress. He was a successful doctor, a high minded and valuable citizen. He possessed a spirit of tender and knowing love for his brother man.
While it would be impossible to record fully the impress which his services made upon the early life of Cleveland, there is justice in at- tempting a brief survey of his career.
David Long was born at Hebron, Washing- ton County, New York, September 29, 1787, the year the makers of the federal constitution were assembled at their labors in Philadelphia ; he located at Cleveland in 1810; for thirty years diligently pursued his professional work at Cleveland and the surrounding community ; and when still in his sixty-fourth year was called to his final reward, September 1, 1851. His father was a physician and had also given service in the Revolutionary canse.
David Long took up the study of medicine in Massachusetts under his uncle, Dr. John Long. From there be removed to New York City, attended medical college, and was granted his degree. He was in his twenty-second year when, in June, 1810, he came to Cleveland, then little more than a village, and less than fifteen years after General Moses Cleaveland had brought his party to this Lake Erie port.
When David Long began practice at Cleve- land there was no other physician nearer than Painesville on the east, Hudson on the south- east, Wooster on the south and River Raisin (now Monroe) at the west. It was a wild and almost trackless region. The streams had no bridges, and the cabins of the pioneer settlers in many places were ten miles apart. No modern day physician can comprehend all the conditions that made difficult and ardnous the performance of professional duty in such a country when David Long began practice. In rain or snow, winter's cold and summer's heat, at midnight or in midday, he cheerfully responded to all the calls for his services, and forgetting self he exemplified that self-sacrific- ing zeal for which the old time doctor has been idealized in literature.
Some of the journeys he made over this region seem nothing less than remarkable when the condition of the country is recalled. One day his assistance was asked in a case of extreme emergency. The patient was four- teen miles away. He rode that distance in fifty minutes, changing horses twice. On an- other time he was called out at midnight. His
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horse carried him nine miles in fifty-one minu- utes. During the War of 1812 he was a sur- geon in the American army. When General Hull surrendered Detroit it was Doctor Long who brought the news all the way from the mouth of Black River to Cleveland, a distance of twenty-eight miles. He covered that stretch of ground in two hours and fourteen minutes. Just one more instance may be recalled. Dur- ing the winter of 1823 he and a Mr. Sears started from Sandusky for Cleveland in a one horse sleigh. After going a short dis- tance the snow melted, and they then deter- mined to risk themselves on the ice of Lake Erie. This dangerous ride of nearly fifty miles was accomplished in safety, though it required constant vigilance on the part of the drivers.
The first home occupied by Doctor Long was on Water Street near the old Light House. From there he removed to a double log house which had been built by Governor Hunting- ton and which stood back of the present Amer- ican House. In later years he occupied more modern residences which for comfort and pre- tention ranked with the best in the rapidly improving city.
Doctor Long had a part in the business and civic life of his community. At one time he was proprietor of a dry goods and notion store on Superior Street. This store was man- aged by John P. Walworth. Doctor Long joined heartily and liberally with other Cleve- land citizens in constructing a section of the Ohio Canal. His investment in that enter- prise caused him severe financial reverses. For many years he steadily practiced his pro- fession, but toward the close of his life gave the most of his time to business affairs. In public spirit and disinterested helpfulness to his community he was not excelled by any other Cleveland man of his generation. But he did his work retiringly and without the slightest manifestation or desire for the hon- ors of public office. Only once did he deviate from his strict rule to avoid political honors. When the question of a location of a new county court house came up for decision he was persuaded to stand as a candidate for the office of county commissioner. His per- sonal popularity brought him election, and as a member of the board he passed the deter- mining vote by which Cleveland was given the court house rather than Newburg.
Doctor Long especially had close to his heart and desire the welfare of the community as represented in the institutions of schools and
churches and those influences that make for culture and right living. He personified generosity, kindliness and unrestricted human sympathy. Both he and his wife were noted for their thorough culture, and at the same time for the amiability which distinguished their relations with the community.
In 1811, the year after he arrived at Cleve- land, Doctor Long married Juliana Walworth. She was a daughter of Judge John Walworth. Doctor Long and wife had only one child to survive them, Mary H. Long. She became the wife of Solomon Lewis Severance, and special attention is given to her name on other pages.
MARY H. SEVERANCE. The record of Cleve- land's notable women of the past might well begin with Mary H. Severance. Wealth and social position were hers by inheritance. She dignified and elevated this heritage by the way she did in rearing two sons who became notable business men and philanthropists, also by her direct participation in church and philanthropy of wide extended usefulness.
She was the only daughter and child of Dr. David Long, Cleveland's pioneer physi- cian. Her birth occurred in the double log cabin on Superior Street, near the site of the late American House, then a fairly preten- tious dwelling among the group of humble log and frame structures that adorned and made up the Village of Cleveland. She was born March 1, 1816. During her childhood her father erected a substantial stone house on the site of the old log structure, and she was reared in other homes built by her father and more in keeping with his reputation and the rising standards of living in the city.
Being an only child and her father a man of wealth and influence, she was accorded the most liberal training at home and in the best schools then available for the education of young women. She attended boarding schools in Warren and Elyria.
Miss Long was only seventeen years of age when, in 1833, she married Solomon Lewis Severance. Mr. Severance was at that time a young merchant in Cleveland and had before him a career of great promise. He had come to the city in 1830 from Shelburn, Massa- chusetts. After five years of married life Mr. Severance died, survived by his widow and son, Solon L. The son, Louis H. Sever- ance was born after his father's death. Mrs. Severance and her children then returned to the home of her father, and for many years following his death, which occurrred in 1851,
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she continued to live in the fine old Long homestead on Woodland Avenue, at the cor- ner of what is now East Thirty-first Street. She finally removed to the corner of Euclid Avenue and East Eighty-ninth Street, and there spent her last days. Mrs. Severance died October 1, 1902, at the age of eighty-six years, seven months.
A native and life-long resident of Cleveland, the daughter, wife and mother of prominent, useful citizens and intimately associated by family connections or social interests with most of the representative people for three generations, there was no woman of her time who was more widely known or beloved in the community. Possessed of an energetic nature and animated by a strong desire for usefulness, she was identified with much of the work done for the promotion of Christian and benevolent enterprises and generally for the advancement of the best civic interests.
Mrs. Severance became a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland when only fourteen years of age. For many years she sang in the choir. She was enthusiastic in the spirit in which she entered into every religious activity. Much of her zeal for mis- sionary undertaking descended to her son, the late Louis H. Severance. It was Mrs. Sever- ance who assisted in organizing the society that equipped and sent out the pioneer missionary to the east coast of Africa. She became a charter member of the Second Presbyterian Church, and in 1872 assisted in founding the Woodland Avenue Presbyterian Church and contributed generously to its upbuilding.
The home of Mrs. Severance was a center for some of the agitation and work done in Cleveland in the anti-slavery cause. When the war actually came she proved her loyalty and patriotism by an increasing efficiency in the work of the sanitary commission.
In all that she did for Christian uplift and charity, the work was characterized by a singu- lar disinterestedness and unselfishness and a steadfast direction toward one object alone, the substantial good of others. Of Cleveland's institutions that are something of a memorial to her generosity should be mentioned the Protestant Orphan Asylum, which she assisted in establishing, and also the Lakeside Hospital, of which she was a trustee until her death.
SOLON L. SEVERANCE. In the death of Solon L. Severance, May 8, 1915, at the age of eighty- one, Cleveland lost not only one of its oldest native sons but a man who had been closely
and intimately identified with the upbuilding of that financial power which makes Cleveland today one of the greatest moncy centers of America. Solon L. Severance was a banker from carly manhood. He possessed little less than genius in financial matters, and his name and influence came to be respected at every gathering and meeting of bank and business directors at which he appeared.
Ilis was a clean record, made without ostentation. The influence which his character necessarily exerted cannot be measured by the ordinary standards of achievements. Outside of business he was known for his love of the fundamental things of life. He was a great traveler, and he made his travels a source of inspiration and instruction to many who must perforce stay at home. Above all his devo- tion to the practice of simple honesty in the affairs of men is a most enduring legacy.
Member of a family that has long been prominent in Cleveland, son of Solomon Lewis and Mary H. (Long) Severance, he was born at Cleveland, September 8, 1834. As a boy he attended district and private schools, and on leaving school he formed a connection with a local banking house and by preseverance and ability rose to eminence in financial affairs.
When the Euclid Avenue National Bank was established he participated in the organi- zation and became its first cashier. He after- ward served as president of the bank until it was merged with the Park Bank. The Euclid Park Bank subsequently was succeeded by the present First National Bank of Cleveland, the largest bank in the State of Ohio. Mr. Sever- ance was officially connected with all these institutions and remained a director of the First National Bank until his death.
During those many long years whatever con- cerned the welfare and advancement of Cleve- land was the matter that received liis utmost attention and loyalty. He was also sincerely devoted to religion and philanthropy, and at an early age united with the Second Presby- terian Church and subsequently became a charter member of the Woodland Avenue Pres- byterian Church, which he served many years as an elder and also as superintendent of its Sunday School.
While he accepted many of the opportuni- ties for leisurely enjoyment of world travel, he was never a mere sightseer nor one who traveled to get away from himself. He was a student of life in many phases, and travel meant to him a great opportunity for self culture and the means of making his own
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work and influence more efficient. It is re- called that he was one of the voyagers on the Quaker City, the pioneer tourist craft that went from America into Eastern waters. The story of that cruise is subject of the great American classic by Mark Twain, "Innocents Abroad." Later Mr. Severance made two visits to China and Japan and encircled the globe. The results of his observations abroad he turned into illuminating addresses for entertainment and instruction at home. He introduced the stereopticon when that was a new device, and his travel talks became noted, especially in his home city. One of the fundamental purposes in giving these talks was to betray conditions and enlist co-opera- tion in behalf of the missionary cause.
On October 10, 1860, Mr. Severance mar- ried Emily C. Allen. She was born in Kins- man, Trumbull County, Ohio, and both her father and grandfather were prominent pioneer surgeons in that locality of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Severance had three children. The daughters are Julia W. and Mary H. Julia W. graduated from Welles College and mar- ried Dr. B. L. Millikin. The son is Prof. Allen D. Severance, who graduated from Amherst College in 1889, subsequently pursued his studies at Oberlin and at Hartford Theological Seminary and in the Universities of Halle, Berlin and Paris. For nearly twenty years he has been connected with Adelbert College and the College for Women of Western Re- serve University. He now holds the chair of Associate Professor of Church History.
LOUIS H. SEVERANCE. The life of such a man as the late Louis H. Severance is a great gift, a splendid hoon to any city or community where its influences and activities are spread. While the greater part of his years was spent in Cleveland, where he was conspicuously suc- cessful in business affairs, Mr. Severance was cosmopolitan in his interests. Like the sage of old he might have said truly "Nothing that is human fails to touch my heart and inter- ests." He was peculiarly gifted as a financier and business executive, and for many years he made his life and fortune a great gift to the extension of civilization and Christianity to the uttermost parts of the world.
He was born at Cleveland, August 1, 1838, and died in that city June 25, 1913. A very few words will suffice to indicate his family relations. He was a son of Solomon Lewis and Mary H. (Long) Severance. His father was an enterprising young merchant of Cleve-
land, and died less than a month before the birth of his son Louis. The mother was the only daughter of the noted Dr. David Long, Cleveland's first physician.
After attending the public schools of Cleve- land until the age of eighteen Louis H. Sever- ance entered the Commercial National Bank of that city and remained with it connectedly for eight years, save for his hundred days' service in the Union army in 1863. After the war he went to Titusville, Pennsylvania, and became connected with the oil industry. While there he formed connections and associations which later made him a power in that group of men who established and developed the colossal Standard Oil Company. He returned to Cleveland in 1874, and from 1876 to 1895 was treasurer of the Standard Oil Company and one of the chief factors in its successful management. After resigning the office of treasurer he continued as one of the large stockholders of the corporation.
It would be a difficult task and perhaps superfluous to enumerate all his varied associ- ations with business and financial undertak- ings. He was a stockholder and director in railway companies, banks and industrial corpo- rations. Shortly before his death he was elected vice president of the Society for Sav- ings, which he had previously served as trustee.
Louis H. Severance was a Cleveland citizen whose reputation is based not only upon wealth and substantial influence, but upon honorable character and useful activities in every busi- ness and personal relation. The door which opened to him the widest usefulness in human- itarian enterprise was the Presbyterian Church of which he was a consistent member from boyhood. In 1875 he united with the Wood- land Avenue Presbyterian Church, and was one of its active members until death. He became assistant superintendent of its Sun- day School in 1882, was elected superintendent in 1897, and from 1894 until his death was a church elder. Of his home church associa- tions Rev. Dr. Stanley White wrote in the Missionary Review of the World in the issue of December, 1913: "Mr. Severance's love and devotion for this church never wavered. He gave it his time, his thought and his sup- port. It was a noble tribute to him that at the memorial service on Sunday, September 8, the great church was almost filled by those who had learned to consider Mr. Severance not simply their benefactor, but their brother and servant for Christ's sake."
It was his individual generosity that made
Los deverano
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possible the building of the Mayflower and Boulevard chapels of Cleveland, both of which institutions were dedicated in 1897. Another cause, the worthiness and value of which he early recognized, was the Young Men's Chris- tian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association, and he contributed to their work both in Cleveland and elsewhere. From 1893 until 1903 Mr. Severance was presi- dent of the Cleveland Presbyterian Union. The Presbyterian churches of the nation and the world owed much to his thought and liberality. In 1900 he was a delegate to the Ecumenical Conference, held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in 1904 was vice moderator of the General Assembly.
Few men even of great wealth have exceeded the breadth of his devotion to Christianity as the fundamental principles of life. Reference to this phase of his character is found in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine of October, 1913, where Dr. Dudley P. Allen, his son-in-law, writes : "While his philanthropies were very broad and he responded to appeals of every sort, he seems to have been dominated by one fundamental idea,-the building up of the Christian church. His chief ideas seemed to be that by the training of young men to enter the Christian ministry the church would be furnished with the motive power essential to its usefulness. With this in view he turned his attention to the subject of Christian educa- tion."
And in the field of Christian education and missionary enterprise the best monuments of his career are found. He was a trustee of Wooster University, Oberlin College and the Western Reserve University. He donated spe- cial buildings to each of these, and furnished assistance in other ways. Wooster University in particular owes him a heavy debt of grati- tude for his liberality after the fire which de- stroyed so many of the buildings on its campus. Numerous other American colleges were at different times indebted to him for assistance. Large sums came from him for the benefit of the Presbyterian College board. While he found such abundance of opportunities through the manifold enterprises of his home church, he was only less interested and in sympathy with Christian effort of other de- nominations both at home and in foreign lands. His name is connected in a practical way with federation work in the United States. The International Young Men's Christian As- sociation had his active co-operation particu-
larly in Manchuria, Japan and other parts of the Orient.
Doubtless it was from his mother, known as an earnest promoter of missionary enter- prise, he inherited his early zeal in that cause. One of the most enduring satisfactions of his life came from the financial means he was able to furnish missionary endeavor. It has been said that during the last twelve years of his life he was "Known to have given about five hundred thousand dollars to the work for missions-probably but a small part of the total amount, since it was his habit to give in a way that would not be publicly known."
In addition to the many thousands of dollars that were contributed to the regular and cnr- rent work of missions, Mr. Severance under- took at different times enterprises of his own. He bought tracts of land and erected resi- dences, schools and hospitals and other build- ings at missionary stations. Noteworthy among these should be mentioned the Sever- ance Hospital and Severance Medical College at Seoul, Korea. Both of these have proved highly successful institutions. During 1907-08 Mr. Severance made a tour around the world, continuing sixteen months. Perhaps the larger part of the time was devoted to a per- sonal examination of the mission fields. As a result he was able to see for himself conditions and needs, and in many cases applied a prompt and generous remedy. The tour also gave him an opportunity to acquire a personal acquaint- ance among the missionaries, and during the remainder of his life he maintained an active correspondence with these practical workers for Christianity. Significant is the fact that of many letters that have come from the foreign missionary field since his death the dominant note was emphasizing not so much the material benefits received from Mr. Sever- ance as the friendly co-operation, wise counsel and sympathy which he manifested for the individual missionaries in their labors and in all times of need.
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