USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 30
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JOSEPH PERKINS.
T HE public, business, and personal life of one who filled so large a measure of usefulness in these three directions as did Joseph Perkins must be seen and studied, year in and year out, to be appreciated and understood; and any description thereof seems commonplace and inad- equate beside the broad and remarkable character of the man as he was. Yet, in a community of which he was so prominent and useful a part, memory and appreciation
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can fill in the details of a sketch that, like this, is, perforce, in outline only.
Mr. Perkins was born in Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, on July 5, 1819-the son of General Simon Perkins, one of the honored pioneers of the Western Reserve-and died at Saratoga Springs, New York, on August 26, 1885. His early years were passed in school at Warren and Burton, and at Marietta college, from which he gradu- ated at the age of twenty. Returning home, he entered his father's extensive land-office, and gave himself indus- triously and attentively to its duties, until the death of General Perkins, in 1844. Several succeeding years were devoted to the settlement of his father's extensive estate, and that being accomplished, he removed to Cleveland in 1852, which city was afterwards his home. He at once entered upon a busy career, making his business genius, his philanthropic heart, his unerring judgment, and his capital, effective in many ways for the advancement of the material, moral and educational interests of the city and State. To give anything like a fair and complete account of these various labors, would demand far more space than these pages can allow, and only a mention of the most important of them can be made. In his earlier days he was a director of the old Western Reserve bank, at Warren, and of the Bank of Geauga, at Painesville. In 1853 he was elected to the presidency of the Bank of Commerce, of Cleveland, now the National Bank of Com- merce, and during the remainder of his life was officially connected with it in that capacity or as vice-president and director. He was also for a number of years officially
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connected with the Cleveland Society for Savings. He was one of the earliest and staunchest friends of the Cleveland & Mahoning railroad, holding the presidency at the time it was leased. Other business interests engaged his atten- tion from time to time, needless to enumerate in this connection, and to them all he gave a service that found its motive in the good of others and the general weal. But it was in work of a charitable, reformatory and edu- cational character that his best efforts were put forth, and by which he will be the longest and most lovingly remem- bered. The most prominent of these was his membership in the Ohio Board of State Charities; and it is but to repeat the testimony of all having knowledge of the facts, to declare that his was the hand that prepared the work and shaped the policy of that body from the beginning. He was appointed in 1867, upon the formation of the board, and remained a member until his death. The plan of the famous and humane "Jail System of Ohio"- copied the land over-was his creation, as were also the improved infirmary system and the model plan of the State Children's Home. He was for many years identified with works for temperance reform, and in the "Women's Crusade" of 1874 was chairman of the Advisory Board, giving of his time and means to advance the cause; and when, some years later, the Ohio Women's Christian Temperance Union were considering the movement that afterwards inaugurated "the Second Amendment " cam- paign, he took such steps as set it forward and made it possible, and was the loyal and generous friend of the amendment and the Union, from first to last. He was a
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constant friend of the Friendly Inns established in Cleve- land, and in his desire to care for the temporal and moral needs of those about him, was led to a labor in connection with the Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asylum that cannot be overestimated, and the results of which will run on in good through many years of the future. He was made one of its trustees in 1860, and president in 1871, holding both positions through the remainder of his life. He was offi- cially connected with the Western Reserve College, in impor- tant capacities ; a friend to Oberlin College and other educa- tional institutions; president of the association having charge of the Retreat; built and presented to the Women's Christian Association the day nursery that now bears his name; was a member of the Euclid Street Presbyterian church, one of its most active workers, and for twenty years the superintendent of its Sunday school. Some idea of the widespread character of his benevolence and activ- ity can be found in the fact that at the time of his death- some years after he had retired from active business-he still held the following responsible positions: President of the National Bank of Commerce, of the Lake View Ceme- tery Association, of the Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asy- lum, of the Board of Trustees of the Non-Partisan Women's Christian Temperance Union, and of the Board of Trust- ees of the Women's Christian Association; vice-president of the Society for Savings, of the Western Reserve University, of the Western Reserve Historical Society, of the Humane Society, and of the Young Men's Christian Association ; treasurer of the Republic Iron Company; director in the Citizens'Savings and Loan Association and the Mahoning
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Valley railway; trustee and elder in the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian church, and the oldest member in service of the Board of State Charities. Many other avenues through which his usefulness was felt, and the unbounded flow of his generosity sent, might be added to the above. But it is needless. The people of Cleveland know his deeds, and it seems fruitless that words should be multi- plied or monuments erected to keep alive his memory. When it was known that his noble life was ended and his useful hand and willing heart had ceased their many efforts for the good of those about him, many were the public expressions of the general loss-a word or so from some of them telling the story of his helpful life in brief compass: From the resolutions of the Cleveland bankers: "The community has lost a valued and much esteemed citizen, whose public and private worth is best attested by the many generous actions marking his residence among us." The directors of the National Bank of Commerce: "In the discharge of official duty, Mr. Perkins was invariably attentive, patient, faithful, prompt, conservative and wise." The society of the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian church: "One of the original founders of this church, he was always liberal in its support by giving generously of money, as also his wisecounsel and personal labor. More- over, he was, in the church, in the Sabbath school, in the prayer circle, as well as in the daily walks of life, a most perfect exponent of an ideal life fully imbued with the spirit of our great Teacher and Master." The directors of the Republic Iron Company : "He has administered his office among us, as he has every other trust during his whole
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life, faithfully, wisely and well." District Assembly No. 47, Knights of Labor: "The working classes of the city of Cleveland have lost a sincere friend, who, though rich, was never forgetful of the needs of the poor." The Women's Christian Association : "His interest in our work, and his benefactions, reach back to the first year of our organiza- tion, increasing as years and experience were added to our undertaking, culminating at last in the two homes which his hands so largely reared." The trustees and officers of the Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asylum: "He always took an active interest in the work of the asylum, and contrib- uted largely of his time and means to its support." The Ohio Board of State Charities: "Traces of his long and valuable service are seen in all the annual reports of the board, and the plans and estimates for jails and infirmaries therein published, and which we regard as the best in the world, are mainly his work, and were gotten up entirely at his expense." These words tell the story in full-the story of a remarkable and many-sided man, whose service to humanity was only equaled by the modesty with which he kept himself from the public gaze.
WILLIAM. J. GORDON.
T HOMAS GORDON, ancestor of the subject of this sketch, came to America in 1684. He was a distin- guished man in Scotland and a brother of the Laird of Strobach. Becoming involved, however, in the political
' ageting of Western dist
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schemes of the Gordon clan, he emigrated to this country with his wife and children. He settled in New Jersey and finally located in Freehold. He re- ceived many marks of favor from James II., with whom he was personally acquainted but to whom he was politically opposed. It was on his farm that the battle of Monmouth was fought, and it was there also that the home of the Gordon family remained for many generations. W. J. Gordon was born in the county of Monmouth, New Jersey, September 20, 1818, and passed his early boyhood days on his father's farm. He enjoyed the opportunities of a good common school education, and was reared in a home where Scottish purity of life was the rule of every action. But the death of his father in 1830, and of his mother a year later, threw the lad on his own resources, and he started out in life. For some years he served as clerk in Red Bank, New Jersey, and.in New York City. Visiting the West, however, he saw the future of Cleveland was promising, and at the age of twenty-one he established himself among the merchants of the village. Diligence and integrity crowned his efforts with success, and in due time his wholesale grocery became one of the largest in Ohio. In 1856 he became associated with George A. Fellows, of New York, and carried on business in that city in connection with his Cleveland house. To accommodate the increasing business of his firm, a large business block was erected on the corner of Superior and Merwin streets, and the house became the largest in the West. In 1857 S. D. McMillan was taken in the firm, and in 1865, M. R. Cook. Mr. Gordon had become convinced
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that Lake Superior was an iron region which could be developed greatly to the advantage of Cleveland, and the result of a visit there led him to invest heavily in the ore fields. He became president of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, and remained at its head until 1865, when he left for Europe. The success of the company and the ad- vantages it gave to Cleveland and the State were mar- velous. It was in the fall of 1853 that Mr. Gordon, in company with Samuel Kimball, of the Jackson Iron Com- pany, shipped over a tram railway the first load of ore sent by rail from the mines of that region. In connection with J. H. Gorham, Mr. Gordon founded the first wooden- ware factory in this part of the country, and was largely interested in the Cleveland Non-Explosive Lamp Company which became one of the leading industries of the State. In 1846 he was one of the organizers of the Commercial Mutual Insurance Company, of Cleveland, which was an exceedingly prosperous concern until the Chicago fire of 1871. Not discouraged by this disaster, he rendered great service in the establishment of the Mercantile Insurance Company, of which he is yet president. Mr. Gordon has been largely interested in real estate, and has built homes on easy terms for people in moderate circumstances, open- ing up various allotments with streets, courts, sewers and other improvements. His fortune has been largely used in developing industries which have enlarged the growth and advanced the wealth of Cleveland. Though he re- tired from active business in 1871, he is still largely en- gaged in various enterprises of a public and private use- fulness. Mr. Gordon in politics is a Democrat, but has
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repeatedly declined high honors of a public character, which had been tendered him. In 1848 and again in 1853, he served in the City Council. To be mayor of Glenville, the little suburb where he finds his home, is the height of his political ambition. Mr. Gordon's tastes for open air enjoyment has led him to the extensive cultiva- tion of plants and flowers and the building of great pri- vate conservatories in which he can display the finest collection of orchidaceous plants in the State, and in mid- winter can pluck from his gardens the most luscious of fruits. He expended large sums in beautifying the wilder- ness a few miles east of the city, until Gordon park is to-day one of the most exquisite private grounds in the country. It is a beautiful tract of land on the shore of the lake, where hundreds of men have been employed in beautifying it with walks, drives, grottoes and bowers. . Here are his conservatories, his stables with many of the best horses in the country, and it is here that Mr. Gordon enjoys himself in walking on his grounds and among his plants, or handling the reins behind a team of trotters.
Mr. Gordon is a man of great executive ability, sound judgment and eminent fitness for the discharge of great duties. He has a mind of unusual breadth and force, an iron will, a high character, and a rare genius for business.
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SYLVESTER T. EVERETT.
T HE official relations of Mr. Everett with the munici- pality of Cleveland have been long and eminent. For fourteen years he held the responsible office of City Treas- urer, being elected thereto for two terms by large majori- ties of the Republican party, and subsequently for five terms being endorsed by the Democratic party for that office, when his election was not only made doubly sure, but absolutely unanimous-a circumstance unprecedented in the history of the municipality. Such manifestation of personal and official regard of a people is the highest and best evidence of the public and private virtues of a citizen.
The first year of Mr. Everett's election to the treasury- ship he found the municipal credit so low that its bonds and other evidences of its obligations had for a series of years been negotiated at a rate of discount so much below par as to indicate a distrust of public faith regarding municipal securities, and his first financial efforts were directed to the correction of such a discreditable state of the city's credit.
The financial facilities at Mr. Everett's command, both at home and abroad, enabled him to negotiate the first series of bonds issued under his administration of the treasury, not alone at par, but at a premium. It was a. new departure and a financial revolution, and a surprise to many local financiers, and especially to a few investors who knew the intrinsic value of Cleveland municipal bonds, and expected to obtain them as usual at an enormous rate of discount and shave. To such a financial standing did
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he elevate the city's credit in the money market, the first year of his advent in office, that never since has a bond been sold for less than its face, but invariably such securi- ties have commanded a high premium through competitive bids for the loan from both foreign and domestic monied institutions and private capitalists.
In the fourteen years of his financial administration of the municipal government-from 1869 to 1883-Mr. Everett not only won for himself a deservedly high repu- tation in financial circles, but also did much to establish the present welfare and to secure the continued advance- ment and prosperity of Cleveland; and it is worthy of note that these public services were rendered and the bene- fits secured to the city when he was comparatively a young man, just entering upon that period called the prime of life.
In 1876 Mr. Everett became president of the Second National Bank and also of the National Bank of Com- merce, its successor, upon reorganization, with increased capital and extended business. In 1883, having resigned the position last mentioned, he became largely instru- mental in the association of capitalists and the establish- ment of the Union National Bank, and, as vice-president and general manager thereof, soon advanced it far on the highway of business prosperity.
Mr. Everett is recognized as possessing excellent execu- tive abilities which havecalled him into intimate and active association with many enterprises of a commercial and manufacturing nature, such as the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, Citizens' Savings and Loan Association, Rail-
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road and Telegraph Company, including his appointment by President Garfield as Government Director of the Union Pacific railroad, and he is also a member of the Cleve- land Sinking Commission. Nevertheless his long and emi- nent services as City Treasurer-best known to the people of all his business life-will ever remain as the most happy and satisfactory page in his public record, and on which he may well be content to rest his personal and financial reputation.
Mr. Everett has not been unknown in politics, though incidental and of secondary importance to him personally. He was a delegate from the Cleveland district to the National Republican Convention at Chicago in 1880, and was an earnest and active supporter of General Garfield in his successful campaign, to whom, and his friends, he ten- dered a reception at his residence on his return from Chicago.
In 1882 Mr. Everett was nominated for Congress, but the fate of his party that year proving disastrous, he of necessity went down with it; but gallant and brave in the field of action, he fell with his face to the foe.
Socially Mr. Everett is genial and pleasant and always approachable. Sometimes the unavoidable necessity arises of refusing to grant a financial favor, but with him it is ever accompanied with a kindness and grace of manner that relieves and mollifies even disappointment.
Mr. Everett was born in Trumbull county in 1838, mar- ried a lady in Philadelphia in 1860, but whose life was brief. In 1869 he married Miss Wade, daughter of the late Randall P. Wade and grand-daughter of Mr. J. H.
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Wade. Happy domestic relations and an elegant home are attractions and incentives which inspire to mental and physical activity and give assurance of future triumphs and enterprises to be ably and honorably achieved.
IRAD KELLEY.
T T HE fifth postmaster of Cleveland village was Irad Kelley. He succeeded Daniel Kelley in that office, holding it from 1817 to 1829. His brief but ample ac- count book, now in possession of the heirs, is an interest- ing relic which should be carefully preserved.
Mr. Irad Kelley was born of Puritan parents in Middle- town, Connecticut, October 24, 1791. He served in the War of 1812, in the vicinity of Ogdensburg, and received a pension for gallantry. His term of enlistment as a min- ute man having expired, he came West in October, 1812, and purchased a farm in Huron county. He was still iden- tified with the war movements, being with General Harri- son at Fort Meigs, at Detroit, after Hull's surrender, and on board the historic Queen Charlotte on the night suc- ceeding Perry's victory.
At the close of the war he sold his farm and removed to Cleveland. In company with his brothers, Joseph R. and .: : Thomas, he engaged in marine business, running the schooner Merchants, which the brothers owned jointly ..
About 1815 Mr. Irad Kelley opened a general merchan- dise store on the site of the present Kelley block on Supe-
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rior street. Mr. Kelley subsequently erected on this spot the first brick building in Cleveland. He was a staunch politician, formerly an old line Whig, an active business man, a public-spirited citizen, and was universally known throughout Northern Ohio. He was one of the original twelve voters who elected Alfred Kelley president of the village in 1815.
In 1833 Mr. Kelley and his brother, Datus, purchased Cunningham's Island, which has since borne the name of "Kelley's Island." His sons, Norman and George Kelley, now own a part of this beautiful and fertile isle. Norman Kelley operates its extensive limestone quarries.
Mr. Kelley was a writer of pith and eloquence, a fre- quent contributor to the city papers, and his political odes and criticisms, his essays and papers on philosophical and other topics, evince culture and extensive information. Mr. Kelley was married to Miss Harriet Pease, of Cleve- land, in 1819. Ten children were born to them, four of whom are living-two sons on Kelley's Island and two daughters in this city.
Mr. Kelley possessed some eccentricities of character, especially in after life, which some people, not understand- ing, misinterpreted. He was a kind-hearted and charita- ble man, a substantial citizen of severe integrity, and ex- erted a good influence upon the community at large, both in business and society.
Over thirty years ago he represented to Congress the feasibility of building a transcontinental railroad connect- ing the two oceans, and urged upon government the neces- sity of such an enterprise as a matter of National defense,
IRAD KELLEY.
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as well as of general commercial benefit to the country .. His efforts were not then appreciated, being considered impracticable. He lived to see his cherished plans adopted and realized.
Irad Kelley died of apoplexy January 21, 1875, in his eighty-fourth year, while in New York City on his way to South America. His remains were brought to Cleveland and now rest in Lake View cemetery.
RT. REV. BISHOP GILMOUR.
R T. REV. RICHARD GILMOUR, D. D., Catholic bishop of the diocese of Cleveland, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on the twenty-fourth day of September, 1824. His parents, John Gilmour and Marion Callander were zealous Covenanters and educated their only son in strict conformity with the doctrine and requirements of the Covenant of Sanquahar. Four years after his birth, the future bishop was brought by his parents to Nova Scotia, where, with other Scotch families who had accom- panied them on the voyage, the family settled on a farm in a beautiful valley in the neighborhood of New Glasgow. Here he spent his early school days and learned the wierd and bright traditions of his race, and here, amid the struggles and privations of the hardy colonists, he developed an indomitable courage that knows no difficulty, and a ten- derness of heart that stoops to every misery. But before Richard's boyhood had far advanced, the Covenanter's love:
Western Brul rih
RGilmour
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of freedom impelled his father to seek a home in the United States. He crossed the border, traveled southward, and invested the price of his Acadian home in Pennsylvania land, near Latrobe. The schools of the place had an ardent pupil in Richard. His love for reading and scientific inves- tigation increased with his years, and here he met the first Catholic that ever crossed his path. In hiseighteenth year he went to Philadelphia, where he made the acquaint- ance of a venerable Catholic clergyman, Rev. Patrick Raf- ferty, whose candor, kindness and charity soon won his heart and cleared his mind of prejudice against the faith of which he has been for years the guardian and sturdy defender. His desire to become a priest was simultaneous with his desire to become a Catholic. Unaided and alone, he made a thorough study of the doctrines of the Catholic church. He made his profession of faith, and after two years matriculated at Mount St. Mary's college, Emmets- burgh, Maryland. His college course was exceptionally brilliant and successful. From the beginning he held an honored position in his class, and was graduated, Master of Arts, in 1848. Four years after, at the completion of his theological course, he was affiliated to the diocese of Cin- cinnati and ordained a priest by Archbishop Purcell, in St. Peter's cathedral, on the thirtieth of August, 1852.
The first spiritual charge of Father Gilmour extended over eight counties in Southern Ohio, Kentucky and Virginia. His home was at Portsmouth, where he built the present English speaking Catholic church and whence he went out weekly to find and minister to the few Catholics scattered over the vast, wild territory committed to his care. He
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frequently crossed the Ohio and rode through the pathless woods of Kentucky and Virginia to impart joy to the sorrowful; he labored among the miners of Ohio, built a church at Ironton, renewed the mission at Galli- polis and Wilksville, and in many other ways proved him- self worthy of a more important trust. In 1857 he was called to the pastorate of St. Patrick's church, Cincinnati. The congregation was large but unorganized, and destitute of parochial ambition. Order and life came at his bid- ding ; a fine school-house was built, and St. Patrick's stood among the first parishes of the Archiepiscopal city. He resigned his charge, in 1868, and was appointed to a profes- sorship in Mount St. Mary's Seminary. This new field of labor, though congenial to his studious habits, was yet too full of routine and leisure for a mind schooled to the activity of the mission. In 1869 he was assigned to the pastoral charge of St. Joseph's church at Dayton, which he successfully held until consecrated bishop of Cleveland, in April, 1872.
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