USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Annals of the First Presbyterian church of Cleveland, 1820-1895 > Part 13
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logical work seems to have led to antiquarian research. For fifty-three years he was a voluminous writer on geology, history, archaeology and religion. He was a leader in organizing the Western Reserve Historical Society, and its collections are largely a monument to him and Judge Charles C. Baldwin. He was pro- foundly religious, and believing that there was thor- ough harmony between revealed religion and science, he endeavored most earnestly to make it clear to others. At the time of his death the New York Herald said: "His contributions to literature have attracted wide attention among the scientific men of England and America."
There have been a strikingly large number of prominent lawyers in the Stone Church congregation. One who obtained a wide reputation was Hiram V. Willson. He was born in 1808 in Madison County, New York, and was graduated from Hamilton College. He came to Cleveland in 1833, and with his dis- tinguished partners commanded a very extensive busi- ness. In 1854 President Pierce appointed him the first judge of the United States District Court for this district. He was called upon to decide some very important cases in connection with the growing busi- ness on the lakes, but his name will always be particu- larly associated with what are known as the Oberlin Rescue cases, in which professors in Oberlin College and others were charged with rescuing a slave. These cases occupy an important place in the history of the popular movement which resulted in the election of Lincoln to the Presidency. It was not a pleasant
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task to enforce the fugitive slave law in a Free Soil community, where the excitement was fanned on every occasion by speeches from the prisoners; but he pre- sided over the heated discussions of the trial with calmness and dignity, guiding the jury to the con- clusion which he believed to be demanded by the law. At his death the Bar gave his memory the richest praise that it can bestow, by pronouncing him a learned, upright and fearless judge.
Samuel Starkweather was born in Pawtucket, Mass. He was graduated from Brown University in 1882 with honor. He was admitted to the Bar about four years later, and came at once to Cleveland. While he was a prominent lawyer, he did not confine himself to the practice of his profession. He was one of the leaders of the Democratic party, and a warm sup- porter of Jackson and Van Buren. During both administrations he was collector of customs. He was elected Mayor of the city three times. He had a deep interest in the public schools, and the early establish- ment of the High School was due chiefly to him and Charles Bradburn. He was also the first judge of the Court of Common Pleas for this County under the present constitution. Judge Starkweather was noted for his conversational gifts; and his classical and literary scholarship, combined with eloquence, wit and humor, made him an effective speaker, and caused him to be called upon to express the popular feeling on such occasions as the reception of Kossuth, and the opening of the railroad to Columbus. I have heard some of his contemporaries say that in his prime he
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was acknowledged to be the wittiest member of the Bar. Judge Starkweather was one of the charter members of this Society, and served on the committee which prepared the plans for this building, and devised a method for securing the money needed to carry them out.
Among lawyers Sherlock J. Andrews was pre- eminent. He was a native of Connecticut, and a graduate of Union College. After assisting Prof. Silliman for a time in chemistry, he studied law, and in 1825 he came to Cleveland and was admitted to the Bar. He was judge of the Superior Court, a repre- sentative in Congress, and a member of two constitu- tional conventions. But no account of what Judge Andrews did can give any conception of what he was, or of the impress he made upon the people of this city. He was an able and accomplished lawyer in every respect. He was learned; he had a keen per- ception of right and wrong; he had the advantage of a liberal education, wide reading and perfect literary taste, and his judgment was quick and accurate. But while other lawyers were his rivals in many respects, his position as an advocate was unchallenged. Every weapon of the successful advocate was at his imme- diate command. Learning, wit, humor, pathos, sarcasm, invective, the voice of an orator and a face which revealed every emotion, the gift of eloquence and familiarity with the language of the Bible and Shake- speare, combined with a quick perception of the strong points of his case and the character and reliability of witnesses to make him well nigh invincible. A dis-
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tinguished lawyer confesses that on one occasion when he was opposed to Judge Andrews, he was so com- pletely carried away by the tide of his eloquence that he forgot his own part in the case, and had to be taken out of hearing before he was sufficiently relieved from the spell to reply. But it would be great injustice to his memory to leave the impression that his strength lay in any or all these things. It did not. It lay in his remarkable purity of character. Without this his weapons would have been shorn of half their power. He was not only pure himself, but seemed to create an atmosphere of purity wherever he appeared. Nothing in his career is more remarkable than his failure to arouse resentment in those who fell under his stinging rebuke, or to extort from them a malignant word. Why is it that those whom he denounced most severely were never vindictive? I know of but one answer. It was because they knew there was not a tinge of per- sonal bitterness in his rebuke; that he was exposing vice or meanness, rather than the man who exhibited them, and that denunciation of wrong was compelled by the very purity of his own character.
I may not close without mentioning one other of the many lawyers who have worshipped here. John A. Foot belonged to a distinguished Connecticut family, his father having been Governor and United States Senator. The famous Admiral Foot was his brother. Mr. Foot was graduated from Yale College, and practiced law seven years before he came to Cleve- land in 1833. He formed a partnership with Judge Andrews immediately. Afterwards James M. Hoyt
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became a member of the firm. He was elected to both branches of the Legislature. He was a Whig and a Republican in politics, and a Presbyterian in religion, and supported both his party and his church with an enthusiasm which removed them from the field of criticism. He never permitted himself to shirk a duty. Attendance upon the political caucus, public worship, the prayer meeting, and even that much neglected function, the annual meeting of the Society, was recog- nized as a duty, and therefore invariably performed. Year after year he moved the election of the Society officers, because he was the only person present who could do it with becoming modesty. He was not a profoundly learned lawyer, nor did he excel in calm, clear statement and reasoning. But when the asser- tion of some right appealed to his conscience or his sympathy, he was a very formidable adversary, and sometimes almost invincible. Mr. Foot was especially interested in establishing the Ohio Reform Farm and the Industrial School of Cleveland, and they retained a large share of his interest and affection until his death. But all his thoughts and aspirations centered in the loving service of his Master, and it is as a teacher and office bearer in this church that he will be best remembered by those who knew him in later life. "Love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned" were his, and his also was the blessed- ness that belongs to the man whose "delight is in the law of the Lord." As he retired from practice almost entirely over forty years ago, few of us have heard him at the Bar; but his peculiar power was shown at
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the meeting of the congregation after the fire of 1884 to determine where they should rebuild. Having con- cluded reluctantly that the church could not be sup- ported financially if it remained on the Public Square, he struggled rather feebly to convince himself and others that it would be wise to remove to the present site of Calvary Church; but the moment he saw the way open to even temporary support, he seized the opportune moment, asked some one else to take his place as Chairman, and made a clear, ringing speech in favor of rebuilding the old church, which captured his audience so completely that public discussion was useless.
I suppose I cannot excuse myself from saying just a word about him who presided over the Society from 1860 to the time of his death in 1884, and was offi- cially connected with it for almost half a century. Samuel Williamson was a Pennsylvanian by birth, but the family removed to Cleveland in 1810, when he was two years old. He was graduated from Jefferson Col- lege in 1829, studied law with Judge Andrews, and commenced the practice of his profession as a partner of Leonard Case. He filled various public offices, gen- erally reluctantly and from a sense of duty. For many years prior to his death he was the President of the Society for Savings. Beyond this meagre state- ment I do not trust myself to speak of him dispassion- ately. A single sentence spoken of him by another must suffice for this occasion. "He was so true, so pure, so unfaltering in duty, so grounded in rectitude, so sincere and affable in ever patient attention to the
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wants and rights of the obscurest and weakest of those seeking guidance and counsel, no less than to the pros- perous and influential, that his life became to all of us a constant example of obedience to the Divine injunc- tion to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God."
I have consumed more than the time allotted to me, and yet many names crowd into your memories, as into mine, which have not been mentioned; but surely I have mentioned enough to make evident that the Old Stone Church has added not a few to the cloud of witnesses that compass us about, whose testi- mony to the power of faith should inspire us to run with patience the race that is set before us.
THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.
THE ORIGINAL "OLD STONE CHURCH," THE "MOTHER OF US ALL."
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THE HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM IN CLEVELAND.
CONCISELY TOLD BY HIRAM C. HAYDN, FEBRUARY 5, 1893, BROUGHT DOWN, IN MOST RESPECTS, TO JAN. I, 1896.
EZEKIEL, 17: 8 .- It was planted in a good soil, by many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine.
These words from Ezekiel befit our Church, albeit not writ of us nor in our day. The vines of the Lord's planting-earlier and later-have in them the elements of growth and fruit-bearing.
Ecclesiastically, our Presbyterian and Congrega- tional Churches dating from the early years of this century, owe their origin, for the most part, to teh Connecticut Home Missionary Society. This was virgin soil then, and the wise people of New England knew well the importance of following the pioneer with the institutions of religion and education. In the spirit of accommodation, surely to be commended in its intent, the churches formed were allowed to deter- mine their own internal polity, and then make their affiliations with the prevalent Ecclesiastical organiza- tion of the vicinity. So it happened that many Con- gregational Churches came under Presbyterian rule,
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and when the dividing line was drawn, some of them became out-and-out Presbyterian and others out-and- out Congregational. Just which got the best of the arrangement, probably matters little, and though much discussed by them to whom Church polity means almost more than Church itself, I am not aware that the controversy was ever settled. It was easy for Connecticut Congregationalists to acquiesce in the principle of accommodation, for they were con-sociated, and con-sociation was Presbytery writ small. They were early on the Reserve in the person of Rev. Joseph Badger.
The First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland was the outgrowth of a union Sunday School held in a primitive log court house, on what is now the Public Square. The site is noted as being then "near a copse of alder bushes," where now the park fountain plays betimes. The court house itself was made of hewn logs, boarded outside, and painted red.
Cleveland was then a straggling village of a hundred and fifty people, the greater part, not religiously inclined. The school opened in June, 1819-Mr. Elisha Taylor, Superintendent, and Mr. Moses White, a leading Baptist, Secretary-issued Tuesday, Septem- ber 19 of that year, in the organization of the First Presbyterian Church. It is said to have been due to Mr. Taylor, chiefly, that the little band of fourteen, six upon confession of faith, were led to "adopt the Presbyterian doctrine and discipline." Of Mr. Taylor himself it is written: "He was probably the equal of any of his contemporaries in natural gifts; and his
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education and culture were superior to theirs. He was a man of inflexible resolve, as well as of very sudden and intense emotions; and if sometimes in his haste he aroused enmity toward himself and even toward the cause he professed, no one could observe him nearly and throughout, without feeling the power of a genuine, earnest and positive Christianity."*
Mr. Taylor appears, further on, as one of the founders of the Euclid Avenue Church. It should be said that in April of this year the Rev. Randolph Stone, of Morgan, had been engaged by a few persons to preach here a third of the time, and that the pre- liminary meeting for Church organization occurred July 18, Rev. Wm. Hanford, of Hudson, also being present. The first Sunday in November, their number now grown to fifteen, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered for the first time. Not one of the founders now survives.
Their names are thus chronicled in the records of that time: Elisha Taylor and Ann, his wife, T. J. Hamlin, P. B. Andrews, Sophia L. Perry, widow, Bertha Johnson, widow, Sophia Walworth, Mrs. Mabel How, Henry Baird and Ann, his wife, Rebecca Carter, widow, Juliana Long, Isabella Williamson, Miss Harriet How, Minerva Merwin. These were the fore- runners of thousands who, since their day, have here professed the Presbyterian faith.
It is difficult for us to do justice to the Cleveland of seventy-five years ago. The town, as laid out on paper, reached westward, down into the valley following the
*Dr. W. H. Goodrich's Half Century Sermon.
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winding course of the Cuyahoga; out eastward, one tier of lots beyond Erie street ; and southward, near to the present site of the Central Market, the "Public Square" being very nearly in the center. Prior to 1820 the growth of the community had been very slow. Beginning under the hill, near the river, it crept, little by little, up on to the bluff. The oak trees were cleared off, the bears and wolves driven back, the Indians conciliated and treated to whisky, new settlers invited, and some induced to stay. So late as 1811, an explorer, who reached the mouth of the Cuy- ahoga and tarried for a night, entered in his journal "that he found hardly any inhabitants and bore away a dismal impression of the place ; the air was infected with insects and loaded with miasm." He gives it as his opinion that no considerable population could ever be induced to settle here; all of which proves him to have been no true prophet.
There was at that time what served for a hotel, under the hill, and hard by, a whisky distillery. This institution ante-dates school and church, and every legitimate industry. Indeed, the people who lived here prior to 1820 were many of them likely to want whisky, and some, alas to indulge freely.
It is scarcely probable that the irreligiousness of the first settlers of Cleveland will be exaggerated. "Not a few of them had fled from New England, not only to improve their fortunes but to get rid of relig- ious restraints, and especially taxes imposed by government to support what was styled 'the standing orders of the Church.' The sabbath enforced was a
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weariness to them. And to free themselves from these and similar restraints many had migrated to the new and cheap lands of Ohio, where they could believe anything or nothing and live accordingly. Hence the majority of the first settlers either embraced infidelity or inclined towards it, or were indifferent to Christi- anity. Its friends were few and feeble, and against errors in belief and practice, bold and shameless, they had to contend against fearful odds."*
Sunday was the great market day for many years. The crack of the rifle, in the copse hard by, often disturbed Church services. Indeed, "religion, prior to 1820 had become a theme of coarse jesting. At one time a party of scoffing infidels bore in mocking pro- ยท cession through the streets, an effigy of Christ. Burlesque commemorations of the Lord's Supper were also given and other incidents of His life were coarsely parodied."+ The same bitter hostility to the Chris- tian faith characterized the founders of Fairport, thirty miles below.
The Connecticut Home Missionary Society had followed these pioneers in the person of Rev. Joseph Badger, who visited Cleveland in 1801, but found more people and greater encouragement in Newburgh than here. This was true well on to 1820.
Meanwhile Trinity Church was organized Novem- ber 9, 1816. Services were for several years conduct- ed by lay readers, issuing in the first confirmation September 29, 1819, Trinity Corporation 1828,- one year later than the incorporation of First Presby-
*Dr. Aiken's Quarter Century Sermon.
tDr. Goodrich's Half Century Sermon.
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terian Society, January 5, 1827-and a Church edifice, consecrated August 12, 1829, on the corner of St. Clair and Seneca streets.
It is thus apparent that the Cleveland of 1820 was a very unpretentious village, located in an allotment a mile square, mostly uncleared, but exceedingly eligible as a site for residences, daily expected to spring up. In this year the first stage coach arrived from the East and gave the citizens public communication with the outside world. Two years later the first steamer plowed the waters of Lake Erie, also increasing their facilities for traffic and travel. Gradually the life of the village centered around the "Public Square" and extended to the lake, and for fifty years, till 1870, and somewhat beyond, old settlers held their own in this vicinity against the pressure of business and the seduc- tions of the now fairer locations eastward. At that time there was a little hamlet at Doan's Corners and another at Newburgh. Between rose primitive forests, where wolves and bears sometimes contested the right of possession.
For thirteen years, until the basement of the First "Old Stone Church" was ready for occupancy, the little band of believers had no fixed habitation. "For two years they met in the court house, but sometimes in the school house on St. Clair street ; then in the academy, also on St. Clair street; and finally in the third story of "Dr. Long's building," now embraced in the American House. "The congregation was still small and generally poor," and the building of a church a formidable undertaking. But the society
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having been incorporated in 1827, after many meet- ings and discussions, plans were adopted ; and the building, commenced on the present site in 1832, was dedicated February 26, 1834. The number of com- municant members about doubled during the first ten years, and at this time numbered ninety-four. This was followed by the first general revival that blessed this community and added to this Church thirty by profession. Ninety-one were also added by letter this same year.
The Rev. John Keep, at this time stated supply, December 18, 1834, moderated a meeting on the west side of the river, which resulted in the organization of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, and he became its pastor. This Church, by a process of evolution, is now the First Congregational Church of Cleveland. Brooklyn became Ohio City and then, in 1855, a part of Cleveland.
Up to this time there had been no settled ministry, and "supplies had been rather transient than stated." The Church itself was for a while a mission Church, aided from without. Of the first six men who minis- tered here during the first fifteen years, the term of the Rev. S. J. Bradstreet was much the longest. Of him Dr. Aiken says: "Often have I heard him spoken of by the old inhabitants as an able, self-denying and faithful minister, who received for his services more affection than money. Indeed, as most of them have now gone to their reward, it is not improper for me to say that all were devoted and excellent men."*
* Quarter Century Sermon.
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In 1835 two things of consequence happened. Prof. Finney began his memorable work in Oberlin, and Silas C. Aiken, D. D., of Utica, N. Y., was called to the pastorate of this Church. He accepted, entered upon his labors the 7th of June, and was installed 24th November.
Of the man and period no one is better qualified to speak than Dr. Goodrich. Of both he says: "There was, at this time, an unusual disposition toward spur- ious excitement, which gave abundant occasion for mischief in the Church, especially among the newer settlements. The dreams of perfectionism, the vagaries of Millerism, and the premonitory stir and struggle of the great anti-slavery and temperance movements were engrossing many minds, and throw- ing unstable men everywhere off their balance." In such a time Dr. Aiken came to the pastorate of the First Church. "To his clear and practical wisdom, his weight of character, as well as to his unselfish con- secration to the service of Christ, we owe it that this Church escaped the disorders which rent so many other Christian bodies, and held on its way with growing strength and unity."
At the time of his coming the population of the village was 5,080. The next year Cleveland was in- corporated as a city. Besides Trinity Church, the Methodists had gained a footing since 1830, the Bap- tists were organized since 1833, the Roman Catholics built their first Church in 1835 on the flats, and the same year the first Bethel Church was opened on the side-hill. There were now five denominations repre-
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sented in the village. At Newburg a Church had been organized in 1832, which is now the vigorous Miles Park Church of 450 members. At Doan's Corners a Presbyterian Church was organized in 1843. One woman, it is said, carried it for Presbyterianism against thirty or forty men, but it did not stick. It separated from Presbytery, and after ten years of independency, became the Euclid Avenue Congrega- tional Church. Eastward in Collamer there had been a Church since 1807, organized on "the plan of Union." It elected elders at the beginning, became Presbyterian March 15, 1810, and united with Hart- ford Presbytery August 23, the same year. Rev. Thomas Barras was installed pastor.
From this time, 1835, the growth of the city was more rapid. At the time of Dr. Aiken's resignation in 1860 the population was 43,838. He had seen five seasons of marked religious interest, two of which added large numbers to the Church. The accession from the new families was also large from the first. The Church edifice was soon outgrown, indeed, almost immediately. The competition for pews created dis- satisfaction and drove people away to other Churches. To relieve the pressure a colony of "twenty of the best families" "went forth in 1836 to form a second Presbyterian Church, securing a charter under date of April 3, 1837. After about a year the enterprise was abandoned, and the members returned to their original home in the First Church." The financial crash of 1837 is thought, for one thing, to have crippled its strength.
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A powerful revival in 1840, under the ministry of Rev. J. T. Avery, added to this Church about one hundred and seventy members, and prepared the way for a secession from the mother Church of some who had become dissatisfied with Dr. Aiken's moderately conservative position on the slavery question, to form a Congregational Church. This enterprise was wrecked by Second Adventism, the current "perfec- tionism" of the day, and kindred errors. The spirit of disputation was unfavorable to growth and by reason of debt they were forced to sell their Church edifice and to disband. Some of them returned to the mother Church.
In June, 1844, the Second Presbyterian Society was organized on the old charter of 1837, and a Church of fifty-eight members, all but five from the First Church, was constituted. The meeting for this purpose was held in the basement of the Stone Church, Dr. Aiken presiding. This step was taken with utmost good feeling, though for the time being it was regarded as a serious crippling of the mother Church. Espec- ially was the loss of Mr. T. P. Handy deeply felt. As a young man he had identified himself with the activ- ities of the First Church and given promise of what he has since become, one of the best known and best beloved Presbyterian laymen in the country. Of the original charter members thirteen are known to be living.
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