USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, v. 5 number 5 > Part 6
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The exercises that followed the annual address consisted of brief speeches on call, interspersed with old-time songs, some of which were sung as solos by Mrs. Lohmann, and the others by the Home Amateurs. The songs were rendered in excellent taste and with admirable effect. Mrs. Lohmann was repeatedly encored.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE PAST.
BY HON. JOHN A. FOOTE.
MR. PRESIDENT :-
I came fifty years ago to this city. I spent considerable time up- on the Lake shore during that season, and was specially impressed by the rapidity with which Cleveland was then losing her lands in the Lake. It seemed to me that it was only a question of time when all the present great business part of Cleveland must go, unless this process should be stopped. Sometimes the fall would be very gradual. At other times it would be sudden, and then it would push up a long winrow of mud a considerable distance out in the lake. This process continued until Col. Whittlesey was employed by the city authorities to protect the banks between Seneca and Ontario streets. This he did by driving two parallel rows of piles at the foot of the Lake bank and filling the space between with brush and stones, and perhaps taking up the springs in the banks. This proved to be a perfect success, and hereby came the protection of our whole Lake shore by the Rail Roads, when they came here. Mr. Chas. Whittlesey, I think, is entitled to great credit for his agency in this matter-indeed, even more than has been awarded him by our protected city.
But I found a man here, that I was even more interested in than in any of the surroundings of the place. That man was the late Sherlock G. Andrews - a man standing at the head of the legal profession, and equally high in the estimation of the community. When quite a young man he had come to the town where I then lived to attend an academy, he must have staid there some two or three years and boarded at the house next to ours. Here it seemed
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to me that he was so full of fun that he would spend his life in indulging that trait. A fellow boarder by the name of Bush, as Mr. Andrews told me, was reading a book and marking his progress by a book-mark in the book. This mark Andrews would occasion- ally turn back, Bush not discovering it, read on by the mark. When he had finished it, Andrews asked Bush, how he liked the book. Bush replied, very well, but that there was a good deal of sameness in it. This love of fun, this humor stood by him to the last. One of the last times I listened to an argument from him, he was defending Physicians in a suit for malpractice. He showed how powerless human remedies and skill were in the presence of a fatal disease. But he says, how do the schools of Physicians testify about this? The Allopathist says, of course he died ; he was treated by an Homœopathist ; no remedies were administered. The Homeopathist says of the regular treatment, of course he died, he was drugged to death. But Dr. Seelye, a Hydropathist, says, of course he died ; he should have been treated as we make candles ; a wick should have been run through him and we should dip him. In another suit Mr. Andrews was arguing the case of a clergyman, who had brought snit for slander, because he had been called a thief. The counsel opposed had charged that the suit was brought for money, that the clergyman preached for money and that there was not much in religion any way. As near as I now recollect, in reply Mr. Andrews told the jury, that whether the man was correct who could see no evidence of a designer in the Universe; or that man "to whom the heavens declared the glory of God and the firmament showed his handywork," it was not for them to decide. But presenting in a masterly manner the evidence of a God from design, he added, " If chance can do all this, I fear that she may some day erect her judgment seat and bring you and me before her and decide our destinies for eternity." But even in this case he could not get through without his mirth. A witness had testified against the minister. On cross examination, the witness said, that he was a materialist. In commenting on this testimony Mr. Andrews said, he understood that theory to be, that the soul was a kind of gizzard stuck in near the back bone. A handsome
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sum was obtained by the minister both in the Common Pleas and Supreme Court. After Mr. Andrews left the academy, we met again at college, and in this city we were partners from the time I came here to reside until he went on to the bench some fifteen years. I ought to protract these reminiscences, but my time will not permit. I trust this brief allusion to our former vice-president has not been without interest.
REMARKS
BY HON. R. P. SPALDING.
MR. PRESIDENT :-
In the Spring of the year eighteen hundred and twenty-three (1823), and just after I had commenced "house-keeping" in Warren, the Seat of Justice of Trumbull county, I visited the Hon. George Tod, President Judge of the Common Pleas, at his resid- ence on " Brier Hill " in the vicinity of Youngstown. He lived in a log house, upon a tract of land of one hundred and sixty acres, which he had contracted to purchase of Gen. Simon Perkins, at three dollars an acre, but which he was unable to pay for, as he had a wife and six children to support, while his salary was no more than eleven hundred dollars. But there was no limit to the hospitality of the family.
I spent the night at the house, as I frequently did. In the course of the evening, the Judge and his daughters (one of whom was afterwards Mrs. Grace T. Perkins, mother of the lady who has just now entertained us so highly), sang several songs for my amusement, and, at last, the Judge said to me, with somewhat of a boastful air : " Mr. Spalding, all my children are singers ; they can all sing well. Where is David ? Do some of you call David."
Very soon a young man, some fifteen or sixteen years of age, dressed in a suit of home-spun, with a broad-brimmed felt hat on his head, entered the room, and, bowing respectfully to the Judge, asked him what he wished him to do. "My son," said he, " I have been singing, and your sisters have been singing for Mr. Spalding, 5
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and I have told him that all my children are singers ; now I want you to show him how well you can sing."
The young man, without moving a muscle of his face by way of evincing emotion. immediately struck up the old tune of MEAR with the words :
" Old Grimes is dead, That good old soul, We ne'er shall see him more, He used to wear His long-tailed coat All buttoned up before."
Again he bowed, and left the room, when his father said to me with much apparent feeling, " Mr. Spalding, there is more in that boy than comes to the surface. Oh, if it could only be developed."
Said I, "Why do you not, then, send him to school, and thus give him a chance for development ?" The reply was, " I am so poor, I cannot afford to do it."
"Send him up to Warren," I said to the Judge, " and so long as I have anything to eat, he shall share it with me."
The offer was accepted, with a stipulation by Judge Tod that he should feel at liberty to send me occasionally from the products of his farm such articles, as would be useful to my family.
In this manner DAVID TOD left his father's log-cabin at Brier Hill, and entered upon a course of study that, within ten years, enabled him to pay up his father's contract with General Perkins, and made him the proprietor of the valuable coal mines that lay buried in that tract of land, and ultimately gave to the country the patriotic war Governor of Ohio in 1861-2.
So much for the encouragement of our young men of slender means ! ! ! -
But I come to the stand, mainly for the purpose of tracing the history of one of the religious institutions of our city :
On the 9th day of November 1816, sundry persons, who lived in the village of Cleaveland and its vicinity, met at the house of Phinehas Shephard for the purpose of nominating officers for a Protestant Episcopal Church in said Cleaveland.
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The minutes of that meeting read as follows :
" TIMOTHY DOAN was chosen Moderator and Charles Gear, Clerk. Phinehas Shephard,
Abraham Scott, Wardens.
Timothy Doan,
Abraham Hickox, Vestrymen.
Jonathan Pelton,
Dennis Cooper, Reading Clerk.
Adjourned till Easter Monday next.
Charles Gear, Clerk."
On the 2d day of March 1817 at a Vestry Meeting, " especially warned," and held at the " Court House in the village and town of Cleaveland," present, the Rev. Roger Searl, Rector of St. Peter's Church of Plymouth, Conn., Timothy Doan, Phinehas Shephard, Jonathan Pelton, Parker Pelton, Abraham Scott, Abraham Hickox, Charles Gear, Dennis Cooper, John Wilcox, ALFRED KELLEY, IRAD KELLEY, T. M. KELLEY, NOBLE H. MERWIN, DAVID LONG, D. C. HENDERSON, PHILO SCOVILL and others, it was resolved, that the persons present were attached to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, and they did, thereby, unite themselves into a Congregation, by the name of "TRINITY PARISHI OF CLEAVE- LAND, OHIO," for the worship and services of Almighty God, according to the forms and regulations of said Church."
This was the first organized Religious Society in the city of Cleveland.
Afterwards, on Easter Monday, April 7th, 1817. at a meeting of which the Rev. Roger Searl is recorded as the President "Ex- Officio," and David Long as Clerk, the following elections were made for the year :
Timothy Doan, Phinehas Shephard, Wardens.
Jonathan Pelton, Noble H. Merwin, Alfred Kelley, Dennis Cooper, Charles Gear,
Vestrymen,
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Wm. Ingersoll, Dennis Cooper and Abraham Scott were chosen Laymen, for the purpose of " Reading Service."
From this time and for three years ensuing, Trinity Parish had but little more than a name to live. The village had only a poplu- ation of two hundred and fifty. The Church had no house in which to meet, and was too poor to pay a settled minister. The good Mr. Searl visited the parish at intervals, and administered the Holy Ordinance. For the most part, they were obliged to rely upon their Lay Readers.
At length, on the 15th of May 1820, at a vestry meeting held at the house of Noble H. Merwin in the village of Cleaveland, at which the Rev. Mr. Searl presided, the following appointments were made, to wit :
JOSIAH BARBER, Clerk, pro tem. GEO. L. CHAPMAN, Clerk. JOSIAII BARBER, Treasurer.
PHINEHAS SHEPHARD, JOSIAH BARBER,
Wardens.
TIMOTHY DOAN, DR. DAVID LONG, JOHN CLARK, ASA FOOTE,
Vestrymen.
WM. INGERSOL,
JAMES SEARS, ABRAHAM HICKOX, J
JOSIAHI BARBER was appointed Lay Reader.
On motion, it was resolved, "That it is expedient in future to have the Clerical and other public services of the Episcopal Church in Trinity Parish, heretofore, located in Cleaveland, held in Brooklyn ordinarily, and occasionally in Cleaveland and Euclid, as circum- stances may seem to require."
And thus matters continued until the Fall of the year eighteen hundred and twenty-six, when the Rev. Silas C. Freeman, of Virginia, was induced to become the Rector of Trinity Parish on a salary of $500 per annum, with the understanding that the Church at Norwalk should employ him one-third or one-half of the time, paying their proportion of the five hundred dollars.
-
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The " PARISH OF TRINITY " was, at this time, restored to the village of Cleaveland, and religious services. were held in the old Court-house. On the 13th of December 1826, the vestry instructed Judge Barber to address a memorial to Rt. Rev. Bishop Chase praying for assistance from the missionary fund to enable them to sustain their Rector.
At the next annual meeting held on the 14th of April 1827, Rev. Mr. Freeman in the chair, the following persons were chosen wardens and vestrymen, viz. :
JOSIAH BARBER,
PHINEHAS SHEPHARD, Wardens.
CHARLES TAYLOR,
HENRY L. NOBLE, REUBEN CHAMPION,
JOHN W. ALLEN,
JAMES S. CLARKE,
LEVI SARGEANT, SHERLOCK J. ANDREWS,
Vestrymem. .
At this meeting, the following resolution was adopted significant of the limited resources of Trinity Parish in 1827, as compared with its condition in 1884 :
" Resolved, That the Rev. Mr. Freeman be appointed an agent, to go to the East for the purpose of endeavoring to raise funds, with which to erect a church in this village."
Mr. Freeman was very successful in this expedition, and Trinity Parish was thus enabled to erect in 1828-9, the first Church edifice that was built in Cleveland. It stood at the intersection of Seneca and St, Clair streets, southeast corner, and the whole cost of the structure was $3,070.
In February 1828, the Parish was incoporated by a special act of the General Assembly, and the names of the corporators were as follows: Josiah Barber, Phinehas Shephard, Charles Taylor, Henry L. Noble, Reuben Champion, James S. Clarke, Sherlock J. Andrews, Levi Sargeant and John W. Allen, who were then wardens and vestrymen.
In the year 1830, the vestry believed themselves so strong financially, tliat they ventured to call on the Rev. Mr. McElroy to
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be their Rector, and agreed to pay him, for his whole time, at the rate of $450 per annum.
During this last fiscal year, this old Parish of Trinity has raised, by voluntary contribution for Church and charitable purposes, the sum of seventy-one thousand eight hundred and sixteen dollars and sixty-two cents ($71,816.62).
The Parish is free from debt, and has property in possession, worth, at a low estimate, one hundred and thirty-three thousand dollars. It is the mother church of all the Episcopal churches in the city, and has under its exclusive charge a " Home for the Sick and Friendless," that is an honor to humanity.
In the words of the message, first transmitted through Morse's telegraph, I say, with reverence :
" WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT !"
Several other prominent gentlemen were expected to favor the audience with brief speeches, but the lateness of the hour pre- vented.
The exercises of the day were now closed with the song of " Old Folks at Home " by the Home Amateurs and the singing of the doxology, in which the audience joined.
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HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
AN INTERESTING LETTER.
HON. HARVEY RICE, President of -the Early Settlers' Association.
DEAR SIR :- Agreeably to your request I herewith contribute, as one of the oldest inhabitants of Cleveland, and a native of the Western Reserve, my mite to the historical collection of our Association. I shall necessarily make myself apparently unduly prominent, but I trust that will be overlooked.
When I attended the last meeting of our Association, I met many whom I knew when they were young, when their steps were light, when their hair was of the original hues, when, imbued with the enthusiasm of youth, they looked forward with a hopeful feel- ing of having a pleasant journey through life. When I looked at that white haired matron, the mother and grandmother of many children, I remembered her well, when a boy, as a young society belle. When I gazed on that stately and venerable gentleman, I could hardly realize that I knew him once as a favored beau, a handsome young man and a first class dancer. When I first met with the esteemed President of our Association, he had a fair young bride, his present wife. The first time I saw the genial face with its kindly expression of the Hon. John A. Foote, he was pre- siding over the meeting of a debating society, in Phoenix Hall, on Superior street, in the Winter of 1838-9. He was then com- paratively a young man and proved himself a good presiding. officer, judging by the manner in which he called James A. Briggs, now of Brooklyn, N. Y., to order for some violation of rules of debate. The question under discussion was, " Is Slavery right and justifiable ?" I remember, Mr. Briggs took a high place in my heart by taking the negative position. His opponent was a lawyer by the name of Randall. When I listened to his defence of the in- fernal institution of slavery, my boyish feelings against him were
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akin to those I had subsequently towards a "slave hunter." Young as I was, I am proud to say, I was an intense abolitionist. I im- bibed my abolition sentiment when a lad from a good old Anti- Slavery Aunt, who used to dilate on the cruelty and injustice of slavery. She is still living in Austinburg, a venerable lady of eighty.
That old pioneer, George B. Merwin, Esq .- the first time I remem- ber seeing him was in December, 1838, when he was marching with the Cleveland Grays, on their first public parade. He was second lieutenant of that company, and a gay and fine looking officer he appeared. The Grays had subsequently a great reputation as one of the best drilled companies in the Union. It was commanded by Capt. Timothy Ingraham, who, during the war of the rebellion, did some good service for the government. He has since passed away at his home in New Bedford, Mass. The venerable General Sanford, who with his wife were among the old settlers who graced the re-union by their presence, was the first lieutenant of the Grays. The first time I saw him was when he was showing attention over half a century ago to a handsome widow lady, Mrs. Hayward, whom he afterwards married. She is the mother of Col. Hayward, who was a high private in the Grays when that company was first organized in 1838. I first knew the colonel when my father occupied his mother's house, which was situated on Superior street, next east of the Excelsior Block. He was a harum scarum lad, full of mis- chief, but withal a good hearted boy. The house of Mrs. Hay- ward was previously occupied by an Englishman by the name of Bennet. He run the only brewery in the place. The first piano I ever heard was owned by him, on which his beautiful black- , eyed daughters used to play. He brought it over from England, and it was the only piano in Cleveland in 1832. Just think of Cleveland with only one piano during the early period of our lives. Now there is not a farming town in Northern Ohio, but what has npwards of a dozen, and our city, at this moment, has probably over two thousand ! This illustrates most forcibly the great advance we have made in musical culture.
Among the gray-haired gentlemen in the audience, I noticed
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Bushnell White, Esq. He too was a member of the gallant Grays. I saw him first when he accepted on behalf of that company a flag from the late C. M. Giddings, in front of his stone mansion, on the corner of Ontario street and north side of the square. He made an eloquent speech on that occasion, for in his prime he was quite an orator.
I listened with absorbing attention to the interesting remarks of Judge Spalding. I first saw him in 1843, when he called at the Herald office and settled a bill. He was a fierce but intellectual looking gentleman. In his days he was a famous politician, and as a drafter of resolutions at a political con- vention he stood unrivalled - in fact, he was the champion drafter of resolutions. If the different Presidential National Con- ventions had only employed the Judge on a salary to construct their platforms, he would have given them a far better job than any of them ever have had. He can write a resolution in most elegant English and in the most terse style. No wonder the Plain Dealer was wont to call him "The Honorable Resolutionary P. Spalding." The Judge is now eighty six, yet he does not appear to be more than seventy-five. . He is indeed a remarkably well preserved old gentleman, and may he live to celebrate his hundreth birthday is my most sincere wish.
On the platform I noticed one of the Vice-Presidents of our Association, Mrs. J. A. Harris. She is a fair sample of the noble Pioneer women of the past. She was a worthy helpmeet of her husband when he tackled the Cleveland Herald in 1837, and for years was struggling to make the venture a success. He boarded nearly all of his employés, which was a custom in those good old days, in order to keep down expenses. It was my fortune to be one of Mr. Harris' apprentices, and I boarded with him along with the rest of the boys. I can testify to the kindly care Mrs. Harris used to exercise over "her boys," and to her great popularity among them all. The absence of her husband from our gatherings makes me feel sad, for I know of none who would have enjoyed meeting with the early settlers more than he. I first made his acquaintance in the Winter of 1838-9, nearly forty-six years
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ago, when he was seated at the "Old Round Table," in his office in the Central Building, then located on the present site of the National Bank Building. I had then commenced learning my trade, that of " the art preservative of all arts." Mr. Harris was a man of extraordinary industry. He was editor of the Herald, and his own city editor, reporter, commercial editor, financial editor, mailing clerk and book-keeper. In those days the Herald was considered a great newspaper, and Mr. Harris a great editor. The expense of publishing, the Herald, including everything, did not exceed eighty dollars a week. The hand-press turned out only 240 impressions on one side per hour, equal to 120 sheets printed on both sides. The news was received by mail carried in the old- fashioned stage coach. They had no 'telegraphic news, no special dispatches, no special correspondents, no staff of editors, and no lightning presses. Now, for the purpose of showing the contrast between the Herald when I first knew it and the papers of to-day, I will compare it with the Leader as a sample. My apology for doing so, is that I am familiar with the cost of running it and with its details. The weekly cost of publishing this last named paper ranges from forty-two hundred to forty-five hundred dollars a week. Its presses have turned out during the Garfield funeral 500 papers per minute printed both sides, pasted, cut and folded. Its staff consists of one editor-in-chief, one managing editor, a writing editor, news editor, commercial editor, financial editor, railway editor, city editor, telegraphic revisor and eight reporters. In addition the Leader has two correspondents stationed at Washing- tion, who are considered members of the staff. Scattered all over the country are nearly two hundred correspondents, who are paid for every piece of news they send. Instead of waiting for a stage- coach to arrive with a later batch of newspapers, from which to cull our news, as Mr. Harris used to do, the night editor will receive a dispatch from say New York as follows : " Several failures in Wall Street, Great excitement, How many words ?" The reply would be, perhaps, "Send one thousand." A dispatch from Cin- cinnati will be received saying for instance : "A riot brewing. It promises to be a serious affair. How many words ?" The reply
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would be, "Send full account." Our Boston correspondent may send as follows : " Beacon street terribly excited. A girl of wealth and culture eloped with her father's coachman. How many words ?" The answer may be, " Four hundred." It is in this man- ner the great modern dailies gather the news by telegraph from all parts of the Union. Also by means of the associated press news from Europe, Africa, Asia and South America. Yet in spite of the difference of circulation being in favor of the modern paper, as compared with that of the Herald forty-five years ago, Mr. Harris as editor, was considered a far greater man than your humble servant is as editor of the Leader to-day ! In fact Mr. Harris, was considered the biggest man in the city. Editors have rather degenerated in the estimation of people, compared to what they were forty years ago.
I served Mr. Harris as an apprentice off and on for several years. I was not a very good apprentice, I am sorry to say, for I had a proneness for quarrelling and fighting with some of the boys in the office, and as a result I was discharged three different times and taken back each time. But I revenged myself on the " old man," as we used to call him, by employing him years afterwards to edit the Leader. Two of Mr. Harris' apprentices - my fellow apprentices - have risen to prominence. One of them, Dr. J. C. Reeve, has become an eminent physician, and he now lives in Dayton. The other, George K. Fitch, is the editor of the San Francisco Bulletin, and part owner of that paper, also of the San Francisco Daily Call. He stands high as a citizen and journalist. To show the great regard he had for his old employer, years ago, when he was over here on a visit, he presented Mr. Harris with a magnificent gold watch as a memento of his friendship. Mr. Fitch can be claimed by us as one of the early settlers, for he resided in this city from 1842 till 1847. While visiting him at his home in San Francisco, last year, he referred to Mr. Harris in terms, I might say, of affection. Would that this veteran journalist could have been with us at our last meeting. How he would have enjoyed the occasion, for he had been himself an old settler, and he had such a reverence for the early pioneers. But he
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