USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 25
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Plymouth Congregational church was organized March 25, 1850, with thirty members. During the summer of 1852 the congregation moved into the church at the corner of Euclid and Erie, subsequently sold to the First Baptist congregation. In January, 1857, they purchased a building on Prospect street. The building was after- wards sold, and Plymouth chapel built and dedicated in 1874. The stately and beautiful audience room was built in 1880 and '81, fronting on Prospect. Rev. George R. Leavitt, pastor.
The Jennings Avenue church was organized in November, 1859. In 1866 it moved to the house of worship on Jen- nings avenue, at the corner of Howard street, which it still occupies after having been enlarged and remodeled. Rev. J. M. Sturtevant is the pastor.
Mt. Zion church (colored) was organized in 1864, being the first congregational church for colored people in the West. A church edifice was purchased on Maple street.
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near Garden, which is still occupied. S. A. Brown, pastor.
The Welsh Congregational church was organized Oc- tober, 1870, and meets at 144 Ontario street. Rev. J. M. Evans is the pastor.
The Madison Avenue church was established as a mis- sion, forming a church in 1875. It is situated at the corner of East Madison avenue and Quincy street.
Franklin avenue church was organized in 1876, at the corner of Franklin and Waverly streets. Rev. Herbert M. Tenney is the pastor.
Irving Street church is situated at the corner of Orange and Irving streets. Rev. F. M. Whitlock is the pastor.
Grace church is on Gordon avenue at the corner of Col- gate street. Rev. J. H. Hull, pastor.
The Centennial Welsh church is on Jones avenue, near Broadway.
Several missions are: Cyril chapel, Selden avenue, Rev. H. A. Schauffler pastor; Bethlehem church, Broadway, Rev. H. A. Schauffler, pastor; Olivet chapel, Hill street, Rev. John Doane, pastor.
There are thirty-four German and German-English churches in Cleveland bearing the general name Evangelical, and yet arranged under five minor differences of creed. The first of these was organized in 1834, and in 1837 the con- gregation moved into the brick church at the corner of Dodge and Superior, known as Schifflein Christi, of which Rev. J. Andres is pastor. The number of the churches will permit only of enumeration. They are: Evangelical Friedens, 116 Linden, Rev. F. Lenschau, pastor; First
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German church, Erie, corner of Ohio, Rev. E. A. Fuenfstueck, pastor; St. John's, McBride street, Rev. J. W. Groth, pas- tor; St. Paul's, Scovill avenue, Rev. H. Eppens, pastor ; Trinity church, Case avenue, Rev. August Kimmel, pastor ;. United German church, Bridge street, Rev. William Angel- berger, pastor; Zion's church, Jennings avenue, Rev. Th. Leonhardt, pastor; Evangelical Independent church, St. Johannes', 336 Harbor street, Rev. Carl Weiss; Evangelical Reformed, First church, Penn street, Rev. J. H. C. Roentgen, pastor; Second church, Henry street, Rev. C. H. Schœpfle, pastor; Third church, 396 Aaron street, Rev. Wm. Friebolin, pastor; Fourth church, 44 Louis street, Rev. N. Wiers, pastor; Fifth church, Higgins street, Rev. W. Renter, pastor; Sixth church, Smith avenue, Rev. August Schade, pastor; Seventh church, Willcutt avenue, Rev. Wm. Dreher, pastor.
Evangelical Lutheran, Holy Trinity church, Putnam street, Rev. A. H. Bartholomew, pastor; Immanuel church, Scranton avenue, Rev. H. Weseloh, pastor; Scandi- navian congregation, Rev. Olaf E. Brandt, pastor; St. John's, Bessemer street, Rev. C. Kretzmann, pastor; St. Matthew's church, Meyer avenue, Rev. J. J. Walker, pastor; St. Paul's, Superior street, Rev. Paul Schwan, pastor; St. Peter's, Quincy street, Rev. Max A. Treff, pastor; Trinity, Jersey street, Rev. J. H. Niemann, pastor ; Zion, Erie street, Rev. Carl M. Zorn, pastor; Evangelical Association, Cal- vary church, Oakdale street, Rev. S. S. Condo, pastor; Emanuel, Jennings avenue, Rev. J. D. Seip, pastor ; Friedenskirche, Herald street, Rev J. G. Theuer, pastor; Salem, Erie street, Rev. W. Lingelbach, pastor; Trinity,
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E. Madison avenue, Rev. S. P. Spreng, pastor ; Zion, Col_ gate street, Rev. J. A. Hensel, pastor; Zion, Aaron street, Rev. Leonhart Scheuermann pastor.
There are four Dutch Reformed churches : Christian, 414 Waverly street, Ebenhæzer, Lawn street, Rev. George Niemeyer, pastor; First church, Blair street, same pastor ; and Holland Christian church, 33 Calvert street.
There is one Friends' Society whose house of worship, at 179 Cedar avenue, was built in 1874. Rev. J. T. Dor- land is the minister.
There are three United Brethren churches, First, Second and Third, located respectively on Orchard, Elton and Kinsman streets.
The Church of the Unity was organized February 1, 1867, and their handsome edifice at the corner of Pros- pect and Bolivar streets was erected in 1879-80. Rev. F. L. Hosmer is the pastor.
The Swedenborgian church was organized March 22, 1868, and in 1874 their building was erected on Arling- ton street. Rev. P. B. Cabell is the pastor.
The Tabernacle church which was organized in the old Tabernacle on Ontario street, and now meets in the Music Hall, has a flourishing congregation under the care of Rev. William Johnson, pastor.
There are also eight Jewish congregations, of different nationalities, the oldest of which is the Anshe Chesed con- gregation, at Scovill avenue, corner of Henry street. Rev. M. Machol, rabbi. The Tiffereth Israel congregation, on Huron street, is one of three other English speaking con- gregations in the city. Rev. A. Hahn, rabbi.
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Besides the foregoing enumeration is a large number of miscellaneous chapels and missions in various parts of the city, each doing its part toward the reformation of society and the uplifting of the, world.
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PREFACE TO BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
T HE following biographical sketches, illustrated with steel portraits of the subjects, are of Cleveland men representing every important branch of business, the city government, and every decade since the village of Cleveland was incorporated. We regret that the space at command would not permit of more. No attempt has been made to write a biographical history of the city, but merely to . present a sufficient number to show the kind of men who have built up and developed the city. Without this inter- esting and important feature the book would be incom- plete. Those who wish a work embracing the lives of all pioneers, self-made and prominent citizens of Cleveland, are referred to other works, which have been written for this special purpose. The omission of many men entitled to a place in this volume, as much as those whose sketches are given, is no intentional inference that the editor con- siders them of less worth, merit or importance. The line must be drawn somewhere, and unless it included several hundred (which would make the work a history of indi- viduals instead of a history of the city), many very worthy names must necessarily be left outside of it. Some of our readers may be disappointed in not seeing par-
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ticular prominent gentlemen of their acquaintance men- tioned, whom they think deserving of it, and feel that an invidious discrimination has been made or poor judgment exercised ; but after looking at the matter in the proper light we trust that they will appreciate the circumstances and forbear criticism. We consider that our object, above explained, has been satisfactorily accomplished. The steel plates of several worthy subjects for representation were expected to be embraced, but could not be found, rendering publication of them impossible.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
GENERAL MOSES CLEAVELAND.
G ENERAL MOSES CLEAVELAND, the founder of the city that bears his name, was born at Canterbury, Connecticut, January 29, 1754. He was descended, in the fourth generation, from Moses Cleaveland, of Woburn, Massachusetts, who came to this country from England in 1635. The subject of this sketch was a son of Colonel Aaron Cleaveland, a person of note and respectability in his adopted State.
The career of General Moses Cleaveland, briefly outlined, is as follows: In 1777 he graduated from Yale College, and immediately thereafter began the study of the law in his native town. In 1779 he was appointed captain of a company of sappers and miners in the United States army, in which capacity he continued to serve for several years. In 1796 he was made a general in the State militia. Both before and after the historic expedition to the Western Reserve, General Cleaveland was, during several terms, a distinguished member of the State Legislature.
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General Cleaveland became one of the share-holders of the famous Connecticut Land Company, and was com- missioned by its directors "to go on said land as super- intendent over the agents and men sent to survey and make locations on said land, and to make and enter into friendly negotiations with the natives." He was given absolute control to make such drafts on the company's treasury as might be necessary to accomplish the purpose of his commission. With a party of fifty he set out in June, 1796, for the "Western Reserve." At Buffalo a dele- gation of Seneca and Mohawk Indians, headed by Red Jacket, met General Cleaveland with the determination of opposing his further progress into their territory. A brief parley with the chieftain, resulting in the transfer of a few hundred dollars worth of goods, weakened the war- like purpose of the red men, and the surveying party went on their way unmolested. Following the shore of Lake Erie, the company, on the twenty-second of July, 1796, entered the mouth of the Cuyahoga. Impressed with the natural advantages of the location, he set his men at work surveying the site for a mile square into city lots. The surveyors gave to the new-born city the name of Cleaveland, in honor of their chief.
The events of the years following 1796, events which have secured to the name of General Cleaveland a worthy and enduring fame, have been detailed in the opening chapter of the history. The duties of director and chief agent of the Connecticut Land Company's pioneer expe- dition to the Western Reserve required, for their proper
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execution, ability, energy and tact. These qualities Gen- eral Cleaveland displayed in an eminent degree.
Moses Cleaveland saw into the future as he stood on the banks of the Cuyahoga, but his vision did not touch the possibilities that lay before the young village which he located.
General Cleaveland was a man of few words but of inflex- ible purpose. His life was pure, his character manly and dignified. In personal appearance he was of medium height, erect, thick set and portly. His black hair, his penetrating eye and military bearing gave him a striking appearance in any company. He died at Canterbury, November 16, 1806, in the fifty-third year of his age and in the midst of his honors.
JAMES A. GARFIELD.
B ORN in Orange, Cuyahoga county, on November 18, 1837, amidst the poverty and hardships of Western pioneer life, left fatherless in infancy, Garfield's growth and instruction depended upon the sacrifice and prayer of a devoted and Christian mother. It was here that he learned the ruling principles of his life, the determination "rather to be beaten in the right than succeed in the wrong." His struggles to rise above his lowly position, the self-dependence and heroism he displayed, have been often duplicated amongst his sturdy cotemporaries, men whom the city, the Reserve and the Nation have learned
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to honor. Bravely rising from amidst discouraging sur- roundings, he acquired a classical education and became an accomplished and cultivated scholar. He enlisted in the agitation against slavery with that resolution and heroism that seemed the proper fruit of this northern soil, and when the war was precipitated to fortify that crime, he was among the first to volunteer his life for its destruc- tion. Without a military education, he rapidly rose in the ranks by his mere innate powers, and showed that pre- science and courage which marked him as a leader of men; and yet, though great by natural powers, he left no un- dertaking to the chance of genius. "Occasion may be the bugle call that summons an army to battle, but the blast of a bugle can never make soldiers or win victories." While in the field he was elected to Congress from the Western Reserve, and repeatedly returned to that honor- able post for seventeen years, when he became the leader of his party. He was elected to the Senate from his native State in January, 1880, but before he could take his seat was called to the higher position, that of President of fifty- two millions of free and independent fellow-citizens. A new era of peace and good-will seemed dawning on the land when he took up the duties of this high calling-a new beacon of hope that would cast a shade over the bitter- ness of the past, but a gleam of promise on the future. In his policy, "statesmanship consisted rather in removing the causes than in punishing or evading results." But these bright hopes were blasted; in the very dawn of promise, after a noble and thoughtful life had prepared him preëminently to meet his mission, he was cut down
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by the assassin. Yet with Christian bravery he accepted the decrees of God. "If the good of this country, the in- terests of free government and of the people against one- man power, demand the sacrifice of my life, I think I am ready." And thus he passed down the dark Valley of the Shadow of Death, lighting up its gloom by the purity and faith of his life, and leaving a name and a history to stim- ulate the lives of others, the Christian scholar, soldier and statesman. His career throughout its varied length is the brightest honor to the Western Reserve and to the princi- ples which he here obtained; while around Cleveland her- self, the scene of his triumphs and of his sublime funeral pageant, the guardian of his ashes, it will always cast the most sacred associations. The history of his life, so closely connected with the history of Cleveland and her tributary territory, fairly represents that of hundreds who have here distinguished themselves in every walk of life.
SHERLOCK J. ANDREWS.
F IFTY-FIVE years were embraced in the professional, official and judicial life of Judge Andrews in Cleve- land-from 1825 to 1880-eleven years of village citizen- ship and forty-four under the city charter. But few have lived so long and been so intimately connected with the growth of the city, and so identified socially and officially
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with a community that advanced from a few hundred toa quarter of a million inhabitants while he yet lived.
Judge Andrews was born in Wallingford, Connecticut, in 1801. His father was a prominent physician and gave his son a preparatory course of study in the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire. In 1821 he graduated with honors at Union College, Schenectady, New York, then studied law in New Haven, where he attended lectures in the law school in that city, and served as assistant-professor of chemistry in Yale College.
In 1825 young Andrews came to Cleveland, then a small village, its business part being confined principally to the river. The Ohio canal was not yet opened. There was hardly a steamboat on Lake Erie, nor a railroad in the United States. Yet even then men prided themselves on the advanced state of human knowledge.
Mr. Andrews was a partner with Judge Cowles for several years and until the retirement of the latter in 1833, when the partnership of Andrews, Foot & Hoyt was formed, which continued more than twenty years. The brilliant talents, untiring industry and genial social qualities made Mr. Andrews a leading man in the com- munity, and in 1840 he was elected to Congress. How- ever, he preferred his profession to politics, and at the end of a single term declined a reelection. Severe professional labor after many years somewhat impaired his health, and for several years he acted as adviser and advocate in only the more important cases, until 1848, when he was elected judge of the Superior Court of Cleveland, a position which he filled with conspicuous ability.
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In 1849 Judge Andrews was made a member of the con- vention to revise the State Constitution. He was one of its most prominent and leading members, and was assigned to the judiciary and other important committees. The revision of the judiciary system abolished the Superior Court, and Judge Andrews again returned to the practice of law. He confined his practice, however, to the most im- portant cases before the Federal and State Courts. He had become not only one of the best lawyers of the Ohio bar, but he was a man of such high principles and stainless purity of character that his opinions and advice had almost the weight of law.
Again, in 1873, another Constitutional Convention was authorized, and Judge Andrews was chosen by unanimous selection of both the great political parties to head the delegation from this district. He was the strength and inspiration of the Committee on Revision of the Judiciary, and the report of that committee was the most important of the new Constitution which was sub- mitted to the voters of the State. With the dissolution o. the convention the public life of Judge Andrews may be said to have closed. He had then arrived to the age of seventy-two years, and had done the work of a long, earnest and faithful life. He continued, however, in prac- tice, especially as a counselor and arbitrator in important and involved cases in equity. His ripe experience, his clearness and grasp of intellect, and above all his swerve- less integrity, had placed him at the head of his profession, and his opinions as an arbitrator were as conclusive as judicial opinions of the Supreme bench.
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As an advocate, a man to move and convince a jury, Judge Andrews had, during the period from 1835 to 1850, no superior at the har of this State. His eloquence was electrical and irresistible. He swept the whole gamut of the emotions that sway and control the hearts of men. Of a nervous and magnetic temperament, he was at times roused by the logic of an intricate case to an effort which carried before it judge, jury and audience. The keenest wit, the profoundest pathos, sarcasm, ridicule, humor and invec- tive were all at his command, and it is traditional among the oldest members of the bar that when he had theclosing argument he almost invariably carried the case, even against the previous convictions of the jury. In fact, he had all the elements that make up a great advocate: fine education and literary attainments, and a most keen per- ception and good judgment along with it all and crown- ing all. An eminent contemporary, in reviewing Judge Andrews' life and expressing an exalting opinion of him as a lawyer and a jurist, said: "If there was any one thing that was characteristic of him, it was that shrinking modesty which never allowed him to claim even that which was due him among his fellow-men. His profes- sional life has been an eminent and complete success; honesty, fidelity and ability have characterized him throughout."
In 1828 Judge Andrews married Miss Ursula Allen, of Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of John Allen, who represented a Connecticut district in Congress, and sister of the late Hon. John W. Allen, of this city. Mrs. Andrews and five children of a happy, wedded life,
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extending over more than half a century, survive him. Judge Andrews died February 11, 1880, at the age of seventy-nine years, and the public journals pronounced a triumphant verdict upon a life of nearly eighty years, and the bar and the bench cooperated in making up the most beautiful and appreciative summary of the characteristics and labors of the grandest life that has ever been placed upon our judicial records.
RUFUS P. RANNEY.
T HE subject of this sketch was born October 30, 1813, in Blandford, Hampden county, Massachu- setts. In 1824 the family removed to a wholly unsettled portion of Portage county, in this State, where he was engaged until he was about seventeen years of age, in assisting to clear off the heavy forests for which that sec- tion was distinguished. Until after that time, the oppor- tunities for obtaining any education were very few, nor could he be well spared from the active labor he was pursu- ing. When he did resolve to make the attempt, he was well aware that beyond good will and encouragements of his parents, he must depend wholly upon his own unaided exertions. This he accomplished with less difficulty than might be supposed, by the use of his axe, and teaching two terms as he progressed. He entered the Nelson Acad- emy, then under the charge of Dr. Bassett, an excellent teacher, where he acquired a very good start in the Latin
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and Greek languages, and from these went to the West_ ern Reserve College at Hudson. He was interrupted there longenough to go through another term of teaching, and at its conclusion, instead of returning to the college as he had intended, he was induced by the urgency of a college friend to accompany him to Jefferson, Ashtabula county, and commence the study of the law with Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin F. Wade, then partners-a step he had never contemplated as possible, and without knowing a single person in the county to which he went. He pursued his studies there about two and a half years, and was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court in the fall of 1836. Mr. Giddings was soon after elected to Con- gress, and the firm of Wade & Ranney was formed, which continued for about eight years, and until Mr. Wade was elected to the Common Pleas Bench-although Mr. Ranney resided at Warren, Trumbull county a considerable part of that time; and from this county and Geauga in 1850, in connection with the late Judge Peter Hitchcock and Jacob Perkins, he was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention which framed the present constitution of the State. He was afterwards three times elected a judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and served in that tribu- nal in all for eight years. He removed to this city in the spring of 1858, and for several years practiced law with the late Franklin T. Backus and C. W. Noble, now of Detroit. In 1865 he resigned his seat on the Bench, and from that time to the present has practiced his profession, interrupted only by the execution of some gratuitous trusts, amongst which might be noted that of president
D.h. Samo
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of the State Board of Centennial Commissioners, and president of the "Case School of Applied Science " from its organization to the present time.
His practice has been laborious and extensive in the courts of the State, extending in important cases to a number of neighboring States and to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mr. Ranney has merited the reputation which he has achieved. He is unquestionably the greatest jurist of the West, and one of the greatest living masters of persuasive eloquence. It is a common observation that the life of a lawyer is barren of incident. The moving forces are intel- lectual. They are not seen from the surface. They appear to the world only in the masterly argument, with its lucidity and logic of arrangement; and this manifesta- tion is soon forgotten, together with the subject which called it forth. It is not, however, probable that Cleve- land will soon forget the character and achievements of her most distinguished citizen. She cannot, at least, forget him so long as he continues in her midst with his powers of mind and body unabated.
THOMAS H. LAMSON
T HE foundation of Cleveland's prosperity dates back . to that era when her business interests were in- trusted to those who, like Thomas H. Lamson, the subject of this sketch, established a healthy public sentiment in
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favor of temperance, sterling integrity, charity and com- mercial fidelity. Mr. Lamson was born in Sheffield, Mas- sachusetts, July 16, 1827. He passed his boyhood days attending the village school and assisting his father on his small farm. At the age of twenty, his father discovered the boy's growing distaste for agriculture and an increas- ing desire to enlarge his horizon. Thomas, therefore, with parental encouragement, left Sheffield and journeyed to Southington, Connecticut, where he at once obtained work in his uncle's clock factory. Here he toiled so faithfully that, at the end of six years, he became a partner of this uncle. After two years the connection was dissolved by mutual consent, Thomas accepting a directorship in a. joint stock company for the manufacture of carriage-bolts. Unfortunately, but through no fault of his, this company shortly failed, sweeping away his entire earnings. Not discouraged by this misfortune, he soon accepted the position of foreman in the extensive bolt shops of Honor- able Julius B. Savage, in Southington. Fully conversant with the bolt industry, and confident that the market. would sustain another factory, Mr. Lamson left Mr. Sav- age and formed a co-partnership at Mount Carmel, Con- necticut, with Honorable William Willcox and Mr. Walter N. Woodruff, which business was sold two years later to the Peck, Stow and Wilcox Company, of Southington. He soon after formed a new company at Mount Carmel with Mr. John Holt and Mr. Augustus Dickerman. In a few months Mr. Holt's interest was bought by Mr. Samuel W. Sessions, a,friend of Mr. Lamson of long standing, and, soon after, Mr. Isaac Lamson, a younger brother of
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