USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Annals of the Early Settlers Association of Cuyahoga County, volume IV, no. I > Part 6
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SAMUEL C. BROOKS.
Mr. Samuel Curtis Brooks, for many years a prominent resi- dent of this city, died of pneumonia at his home on Bolton avenue, at an early hour August 17, 1898, in his 79th year. Mr. Brooks came to this city in 1852,.and took a promient part in the advancement of the city. He engaged in contracting and building, and many fine places stand today monuments to his skill.
Mr. Brooks was one of the members of the first workhouse commission, and with him were associated the late Harvey Rice, William Edwards, J. H. Wade and George H. Burt.
Mr. Brooks and his widow, who survives him, celebrated their golden wedding last October. He also leaves two children, Mrs. A. E. Bigelow of No. 172 Bolton avenue, and Arthur S. Brooks of the Brooks Co.
The deceased was a member of the Old Settlers' Association. Until taken sick, he was a regular attendant of the Second Pres- byterian church.
THOMAS BURNHAM.
Thomas Burnham, prominently identified with the growt'ı of this city for more than half a century, died Thursday night. April 7, 1898, at his summer home, in Glens Falls, N. Y. He was in his 90th year, and was vigorous until a few weeks before his death. He was one of the oldest and most highly respected
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citizens of Cleveland, and many friends had hoped to have him with them still other years.
Since attaining the age of 70 years Mr. Burnham visited Europe three times and California many times. This shows his remarkable vigor. . He was preparing to spend a quiet sum- men at Glens Falls, near his birthplace, when he was taken ill.
There are left of the immediate family a wife and three children, the latter being Mrs. J. N. Norris of St. Louis, Mrs. Thomas Kilpatrick of Omaha, Neb., and Mr. T. W. Burnham of this city.
Thomas Burnham came to Cleveland more than half a cen- tury ago, when the city had but 1,700 inhabitants, before a rail- road had been built in Ohio, and when the young west was only beginning to give a hint of the greatness of the future.
Mr. Burnham was born in Moreau, Saratoga county, N. Y., on June 18, 1808. His ancestors were of English origin, the founder of the family coming from England in 1635, and settling in Massachusetts. His grandfather was a soldier in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars, and was a captain at Bunker Hill-land given him for such services being still in the posses- sion of his descendants near Lake George, N. Y.
Mr. Burnham, on completing his majority, passed his first year in the service of a neighbor, and for two years following that he was master of a freight boat on the Champlain canal.
In 1833 he abandoned canal life and on October 29 of that year he was married. With $150 in his pocket he set out to try his fortune in the then far west of Ohio. It took four days and four nights for Mr. and Mrs. Burnham to reach Cleveland from Buffalo by boat. Mr. Burnham, as soon as he arrived, secured a position as school teacher in Brooklyn township. The follow- ing summer Mr. Burnham was one of the proprietors of the Burton House, a hotel that then stood at the corner of Pearl and Detroit streets. In the spring Mr. Burnham entered the service of the Troy and Eric line, a company doing a large busi- ness on the Ohio canal. After having acquired an interst in the
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company he went into the grain business and took control of an elevator on the river, above the present Superior street viaduct. In 1851 he purchased the Erie elevator, at the corner of West Main and River streets, one of the largest then in Cleveland. Mr. Burnham continued in the elevator business until 1871, when he retired from active control. He was one of the chief founders of the malleable iron business west of the Allegheny mountains. For five years he was president of the Cleveland Malleable Iron Company. He was one of the originators of the Chicago Mal- leable Iron Company, and had an interest in that concern at the time of his death.
Mr. Burnham was also a large stock holder in the Cleveland Burial Case Company, and was at one time its president. He was also a stockholder in the Whipple Manufacturing Company. Mr. Burnham was a resident of Ohio City until its annexation to Cleveland. He served for a number of years in the city coun- cil, and became mayor of Ohio City in 1849, and was re-elected to a second term.
At the time of his death Mr. Burnham was a member of the Second Presbyterian church, corner of Sterling avenue and Pros- pect street. He was also one of the original members of the Second Presbyterian church.
DR. GEORGE O. BUTLER.
Dr. George O. Butler, one of the prominent older members of the Cleveland medical profession, died November 4, 1897, at his home, No. 160 Sawtell avenue, of heart trouble. He was 64 years old, and was born in Amelia, Clermont county, O., on February 23, 1833.
He studied in the district schools and then in the Clermont Academy, from which he graduated in 1847. After that he studied medicine with is uncle, Dr. Leavitt Pease, at Williams- burg, and graduated from the Western Reserve Medical College in 1854. He practiced with his preceptor for one year and then
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in West Virginia for a somewhat longer period, removing to Cleveland in 1856.
In 1862 he was appointed surgeon of the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. After the war he resumed his practice in Cleveland, and has long been known to those living near Rock's Corners. Since 1872 he has been a member of the Northern Ohio Medical Society, and in 1868 was one of the organizers of the old Cleveland Academy of Medicine.
He has been a promient member of the Knights of Pythias. In 1885 he was appointed a member of the United States Pension Examining Board of Surgeons, and was for three years the sec- retary of the board. He has also written considerably upon medical subjects.
In 1855 he was married to Miss Cordelia L. Parker of Cleve- land, who survives him.
MRS. JAMES CANNON.
Mrs. James Cannon died in our city of Cleveland, April 4, 1898, after an illness of only four days, aged 77 years.
She was one of the noblest women that ever drew breath. A devoted Christian, an earnest temperance worker, a woman who loved her own home and worked and prayed for the blighted homes of our country.
For fifteen years she kept a "Temperance Home" in Rocky River-a beacon light amid the saloons of that neighborhood. She and her husband were largely instrumental in planting a Christian church in that hamlet, and for this church they wrought and prayed. She was a teacher in the Sunday school for more than sixty years.
She would practice the utmost self-denial and economy that she might help her church and the temperance cause.
She was a member of our Central W. C. T. U. and we never possessed a more faithful worker. No day so stormy as to keep her at home on the days of the regular meetings.
She was a woman without malice, loving every human be-
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ing and continually seeking to make the world better. God saw fit to grant her a painless translation. From the first hour of her illness she became unconscious, and quietly passed over the river and awoke upon the bright shores of God's eter- nity. Her example is more precious than silver and gold. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. She has left a hus- band and two children .- From True Republic.
MRS. JANE CANNELL.
Mrs. Jane Cannell, one of the best known pioneer residents of the South End, passed from life January 12, 1898. The imme- diate cause of her death was old age. She retained conscious- ness to the last, and was able to recognize her children and other relatives.
Mrs. Cannell was born May 1, 1800, on the Isle of Man, in the English Channel. Her husband, John Cannell, died in 1869. She was well known among the older residents of Cleveland, and during the early history of this city did much towards fos- tering the various charitable enterprises which have lived through the years and are now powerful factors in this regard. She came to this country from her Manx home in 1827 and located in Newburg, which at that time was a small hamlet, but a strug- gling rival of Cleveland. In fact, Cleveland was referred to at that time as the port of entry for Newburg, six miles distant.
Mrs. Cannell was the mother of eleven children, three of whom are now living: Mr. Eli Cannell, No. 1957 Woodland Hills avenue, with whom Mrs. Cannell was living at the time of her death ; Mrs. L. E. Jenkins, also of this city, and Mr. Charles Cannell of Titusville, Pa.
MRS. ELIZA CARLISLE.
Mrs. Eliza Carlisle, who had lived in and near Cleveland almost constantly since 1834, died January 19, 1898, at the home of Dr. J. M. Lewis, No. 1264 Willson avenue. Mrs. Lewis is a
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daughter of Mrs. Carlisle. The latter had been ill about three months.
Mrs. Carlisle's maiden name was Quigley, and she was born in St. Johns, Newfoundland, January 3, 1819. Thus she would have been 80 years of age had she lived until after another holi- day season.
Her parents moved with her in about the year 1820 to Bos- ton. Some eight or ten years later they moved again, going to New York city. There she was married to William C. Carlisle, in the year 1834.
That year, with her mother and the late Joseph Turney, who was her cousin, they came to Ohio and settled on a farm be- tween Bedford and Newburg. In 1836 the family moved to Pittsburg, but four years later they returned to the farm in Bed- ford township. Again they moved, going in 1851 to Southern Illinois, in 1854 returning to settle in Ridgeville, Lorain county. There Mrs. Carlisle buried her venerable mother in 1860. Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle moved to Mt. Gilead in 1868, where, eight years later, Mr. Carlisle died.
The children of Mrs. Carlisle were the Hon. James Carlisle, Andrew Carlisle, John L. Carlisle, Mrs. Jennett Bennett, William M. Carlisle, Mrs. Nellie C. Lewis, R. H. Carlisle, of the firm of Strong, Carlisle & Turney, and Frank D. Carlisle of Columbus. The two first mentioned are deceased.
Since the loss of her husband Mrs. Carlisle has spent most of her time with her children in Cleveland.
THOMAS D. CROSBY.
Nine decades and part of the final lap toward a century of earthly life was the period of experience among men of Thomas D. Crosby, whose funeral was held from his late home, No. 4083 Euclid avenue, in the village of East Cleveland. His death came on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 28, 1897, after a slow decline in strength through the last few years.
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He had lived to be 93 years of age, being born on Decem- ber 14, 1804, in the town of Lee, Berkshire county, Mass. The Crosby family moved in 1811 by ox teams to the Western Re- serve, settling near Euclid, and acquired a good tract of farm property, where the village of Collinwood has since arisen. Mr. Crosby's wife survives him. She was Miss Mary A. Ingersoll, and they were married in the old East Cleveland Presbyterian church on April 29, 1832.
The surviving children are Miss Mary L. Crosby, Miss Anna E. Crosby, living at the East Cleveland home, Mrs. H. K. Chamberlin of Pittsburg, Mrs. C. A. Fuller of Toledo, and Mr. Henry M. Crosby, a well-known business man of Cleveland.
LYMAN PERRY FOOTE.
By the death of Lyman Perry Foote, which occurred at an early hour Wednesday morning, Nov. 23, 1897, after a brief ill- ness, Cleveland loses one of her oldest and most respected citi- zens. Mr. Foote passed away at his home on Franklin avenue after an illness of ten days. He was 81 years of age, and for one of his long life had been in comparatively good health up to the moment of his last sickness. The tidings of his death was a source of surprise and sorrow to a wide circle of acquaintances.
Mr. Foote had been a citzen of Cleveland for fifty-seven years, during the greater part of which time he was prominent as a vessel builder, having been connected with some of the largest ship building concerns on the lakes. He was born in Dover on March 22, 1817, and came to Cleveland to enter into the practice of his trade at the age of 24. Previous to this time his life was spent on a farm in Dover. During his entire resi- dence of fifty-seven years in the city he lived on the West Side, and for thirty-one years of that period dwelt at the home where his death occurred, at No. 341 Franklin avenue.
Mr. Foote was first connected as a ship builder with the
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well known firm of Thomas Quayle & Sons, whose shipyard was situated on the old river bed on the West Side. Latterly he became the leading member of the firm of Foote & Keating.
TRUMAN P. HANDY.
At the great age of 91 years and as honored and beloved as it is possible for any man to be, Truman P. Handy passed away March 25, 1898, in his home on Euclid avenue. Mr. Handy was almost the last to pass beyond of the men of affairs who were pioneers in Cleveland and who acquired fortunes. He was contemporaneous with J. H. Wade, W. J. Gordon, Joseph Perkins, Stillman Witt, Amasa Stone, H. B. Payne, Henry Wick and others of high standing, almost all of whom have passed away.
To eulogize Truman P. Handy would be superfluous. His life was its own culogy, his steadfast Christian purpose and his career of good deeds its own enduring monument. His purity was at once an example and a refining influence. His citizen- ship was of the highest type. His family and social relations were of the sort that only his relatives and his friends can understand and appreciate. His loss is a loss to the fireside, the church, the community and the poor.
Mr. Handy was ill about five weeks. His trouble was a catarrhal cold, which extended to his stomach, and his condition finally became such that he could receive no nourishment, and the end was a question simply of time. His physician employed the strongest medicinal agencies known to bridge over the dan- ger, but nothing availed. Mr. Handy's age was against him. His magnificent constitution would have stood him in stead even in so severe an attack of disease had he been twenty years younger, but at 91 it was difficult for medical skill to avail when disease has a firm grip.
Mr. Handy had virtually been dying since Monday after- noon. when he was seized with a chill and a sinking spell. His
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death would not have surprised his physician and his relatives had it taken place during the night Monday, but what with Mr. Handy's wonderful constitution, he lasted till Tuesday afternoon at about 1 o'clock, at which time he peacefully passed away, there being present his daughter, Mrs. John S. Newberry of Detroit, and several members of his household.
MR. HANDY'S CAREER.
Mr. Handy was born in Paris, Oneida county, New York, January 17, 1807. Having received a thorough training in the English branches, at the age of 18 he accepted a clerkship in the Bank of Geneva, at Geneva, N. Y. Five years later he removed to Buffalo to assist in organizing the Bank of Buffalo, in which he held the position of teller for one year.
In 1832 he came to Cleveland and accepted the position of cashier of the reorganized Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, whose charter, obtained in 1816, had recently been purchased by the historian, George Bancroft. This institution was very prosper- ous under his careful management. At the expiration of its charter in 1842, a renewal was refused by the legislature.
In the financial crash of 1837 it had been compelled to ac- cept in payment of the obligations of its customers a large amount of real estate, so that it became one of the largest land- holders in the city. In closing up the affairs of the bank, Mr. Handy was appointed trustee to divide up this property among the stockholders. This task was completed to the entire satis- faction of all in 1845.
In the meantime, in 1843, he organized a private banking house under the firm name of T. P. Handy & Co., whose busi- ness was prudently conducted and quite profitable.
Upon the establishment of the State Bank of Ohio, in 1845, Mr. Handy organized the Commercial Branch bank. He was by far the largest stockholder, and during the entire period of his connection with it, was the chief executive officer, being its cashier at the outset and later its president. Its affairs were
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so ably administered that during the entire period of twenty years through which its charter extended it paid upon an aver- age more than 20 per cent of its capital stock.
The Commercial National Bank succeeded to its business in the year 1865. The failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Com- pany, in 1857, precipitated the remarkable financial crisis of that year, and seriously involved the Merchants' Branch Bank, which up to that time had never been prosperous.
With diminished resources and impaired credit, it strug- gled to regain its lost ground until January, 1862, when Mr. Handy accepted its presidency and assumed control.
In a very brief space of time the results of his management became apparent. A large amount of new and profitable busi- ness was attracted to it ; old losses were soon made good, and in a little more than a year it was placed upon a solid, dividend- paying basis, so that, upon the expiration of its charter, in 1865, it was one of the strongest and most prosperous banks in the state.
The Merchants' National Bank, now the Mercantile Na- tional Bank, was organized in February, 1865, with Mr. Handy as its president, which position he retained for many years. From the first it occupied a position among the foremost of the national banks. It has been a United States depository from its organi- zation and has rendered the government efficient aid in negotiat- ing all its loans. Its management has been characterized by the exercise of prudence and caution.
It is agreed that while Mr. Handy had at all times associated with him able men as directors, the principal credit for this great success belonged to him alone.
While as a business man Mr. Handy will always be known as a banker, he was also largely identified with railroad, mining and manufacturing enterprises. He was among the earliest and most efficient friends of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company. He was its treasurer and principal financial officer from its organization until 1860. when he resigned, and
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since that time he has been a director and member of the execu- tive committee. He was also a director in the Bellefontaine railway until its consolidation with the C., C., C. & I. Railway.
He was also for many years a large stockholder and direc- tor in the Cleveland Iron Mining Company and a large stock- holder in the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company and several other large manufacturing corporations.
As a citizen Mr. Handy was always warmly interested in the policy of protecting domestic industries against foreign compe- tition, and of establishing just relations between labor and capi- tal, but at the same time he uniformly declined to accept any political preferment.
In the war for the Union he was a steadfast supporter of the policy of Abraham Lincoln, and contributed largely, both in time and means, in caring for wounded and disabled soldiers at the front and in the hospitals. He was treasurer of the Cleveland branch of the Sanitary commission from its organization. In educational and charitable institutions he was always largely in- terested.
For ten years he was a member of the Board of Education. where he rendered most efficient service in conjunction with the late Charles Bradburn, George Willey and others in organizing the present system of graded schools and establishing upon a sure foundation the Central High School.
He was for many years a trustee of Western Reserve Col- lege and one if its most generous patrons. He was also a trus- tee and a liberal benefactor of Lane Theological Seminary. He was one of the founders of the Cleveland Industrial School and Home, and was president of its board of trustees from the first. He was also president of the Homeopathic Hospital, and very largely through his efforts was the present commodious build- ing erected.
Mr. Handy was a devoted member of the Presbyterian church from his boyhood, and was for nearly fifty years an elder of the church. He was a member of the Second Presbyterian
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church since its organization. He was an active worker in the Sunday school, either as teacher or superintendent, for almost sixty years.
For many years he was a corporate member of the American Board. This position he resigned at the reunion of the old and new school branches of the Presbyterian church. He was an earnest advocate of that measure, and was a member of the joint committee which framed the articles of reunion. He often rep- resented his presbytery in the General Assembly and was widely known throughout the denomination.
Mr. Handy was married in March, 1832, to Miss Harriet N. Hall of Geneva, N. Y. There were born to them two children, a son who died in infancy, and a daughter who married Hon. John S. Newberry of Detroit. Mrs. Handy died July 5, 1880.
He possessed the rare benignity of manner and a generous sympathy for the young. Positive in his own convictions, he was charitable toward the opinions of others, and no man in the state was more widely known or more universally respected as a broad-minded Christian philanthropist. His successful busi- ness career attested the soundness of his judgment. With firmness and decision he combined unvarying courtesy, and was one of the few who could say no without giving offense.
Mr. Handy's memory was wonderful, and in 1896, when various writers were engaged in the work of putting into better form the history of the city, he was a much sought, and seldom failing, source of data.
Although having passed through the experience of nine decades, Mr. Handy, up to within a short time of his death, dis- played vigor equal to that of men a quarter of a century younger. He almost daily attended to his business at the Mercantile Na- tional Bank, where he was a director. This bank, at the corner of Superior and Bank streets, is at the spot on which he first lived in Cleveland, and he was connected with institutions hav- ing that spot for a location, with very few breaks, from the first until the time of his death.
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For a decade it has been customary for Mr. Handy's many friends to call upon the veteran banker and express congratula- tions at his birthday anniversaries. Many others expressed them- selves by telegraph. He built and occupied as a dwelling what is now the Union Club building, when it was the only brick building in the community.
This year he varied his usual custom as to celebrating his birthday, in that instead of receiving his friends at home, he went to Detroit and celebrated the occasion in the home of his daughter, Mrs. John S. Newberry, on Jefferson avenue, in that city. Mrs. Newberry's children, his grandchildren, are at least three in number, Truman Handy Newberry, Mrs. Harry B. Joy and J. S. Newberry, Jr. J. S. Newberry, Sr., the son-in-law, has been dead nearly, if not quite, twenty years. He was in con- gress from the Michigan district, including Detroit, and he and Senator McMillan of Michigan were business partners, and founded their large fortunes together.
Mr. Handy had four great-grandchildren. Mr. Truman H. Newberry is the father of three children, and Mrs. Joy has a child only a few months old.
Recently Mr. Handy was brought prominently before the public eye in connection with the fifty-year celebration of the Second Presbyterian church as the veteran of the church organi- zation and a surviving member of the original founders of the church society. In his anniversary sermon, at the beginning of these services, the late Rev. Dr. Charles S. Pomeroy addressed himself personally to Mr. Handy and spoke of his long life and of the future life, too. No one dreamed at that time that Dr. Pomeroy would precede Mr. Handy into the life beyond.
A story told by an old resident illustrates as well as any- thing could the kind of a man Mr. Handy was. It was Mr. Handy's practice to devote annually a given portion of his in- come to the church and to charity. A business crisis came, and Mr. Handy, like nundreds of other men of means, felt the ef- fects of it. Like many another, he was pinched for enough
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money to carry on business, though possessing much property. In view of this he economized in all directions excepting that he did not cut down a cent on what he gave to the church and to charity.
ARTHUR HEMENWAY.
Another old settler and long time resident of Cleveland has passed away November, 1897. in the person of Arthur Hemen- way, who was born at Ogdensburg, N. Y., April 7, 1816.
He was of Puritan ancestry, being a lineal descendant of one Ralph Hemenway, whose grave is still to be found in Roxbury, Mass., marked 1634, and great-grandson of Dr. Ebenezer Hem- enway, who graduated from Harvard College with John Adams, whose cousin he married.
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