USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, Pt.1 > Part 3
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The son, Ashbel W. Walworth, was a worthy successor of a noble sire and added new honor to a good name. In this record of the strong men who laid such good foundations and built so well thereon, the lives of father and son fit
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in so well together that the story of the two can best be told as one. The family is of English descent and can trace its line of ancestry baek to Sir William Walworth, Lord Mayor of Lon- don in 1381, who was knighted by Richard HI. for striking down the rebel Wat Tyler. The first named of the family mentioned in America was William Walworth, a descendant of the above, who came from London to this country at the elose of the seventeenth century and set- tled on Fisher's island as a tenant of Governor Winthrop. The numerous incursions of Captain Kidd, the pirate, npon the unprotected islands and coasts made his residence unsafe and he re- moved to Connecticut. John Walworth, one of his direet descendants, was of Connecticut birth and was born on June 10, 1765. He was mar- ried to Jnlianna Morgan, of New London, and in 1800 came to Ohio, where he had previously located and purchased a farm at the month of the Grand river, now known as Fairport, four miles north of Painesville. That point then promised to be a better place of investment than Cleveland, the excellence of the harbor leading to the expectation that it would be of more sig- nal growth and might become the foundation of a great city.
The early settlers were so near the stirring scenes of '76 that they never forgot their patri- otism, and the anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence was celebrated with more fervor in the early days of the century than is displayed in these later times. In 1801 the first Fourth of July outburst ever noted in Painesville occurred at the residence of John Walworth. He had purchased a tract of land embracing near 1,000 acres, and ont of this had selected about 300 acres as a farm for his own use, where he erected a log cabin on the high bank immediately overlooking Grand River. It was in this cabin that the people of all the neighboring country decided to hold their patri- otic celebration.
A. W. Walworth was born in Stonington, Connectient, on December 6, 1790, and was consequently ten years of age when the long
western trip was made to Ohio. Ile remembered it distinctly and took great pleasure in after years in narrating incidents connected there- with. He was naturally apt and ready, and be- gan at an early age to be of help to his father in the many public trusts that devolved upon him, gaining in this way an experience that was of the utmost value to him when compelled to carry publie responsibilities of his own in later years.
The year of John Walworth's arrival in Ohio, 1800, was one of no small importanee, as it saw the settlement in this section of a number of men of commanding strength and influence and the forward movement along a number of lines of progress. Mr. Walworth settled at Fairport, Edward Paine located at Painesville, Benjamin Tappan at Unionville and Ephraim Quinby at Warren. Being a man of good education, sound judgment and good address, Mr. Wal- worth soon found himself one of the leading spirits of the community, and his physical strength was not such as would permit him to undergo the severe labors of a farm in a new country at a time when labor-saving machinery had not been heard of. He therefore naturally drifted into public life. He filled many posi- tions of trust with signal fidelity and in such a manner as to gain for him the unquestioned praise and respect of the community. A num- ber of the commissions issued to him have been preserved by his descendants and are historie relics of great interest. The following dates have been taken from these commissions: On July 4, 1802, he was made Justice of the Peace for Trumbull county; on April 14, 1803, he was appointed by Governor Edward Tiflin to the position of Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of Trumbull, for the period of seven years. As a judge the ap- pointee showed excellent judgment and was highly spoken of by contemporary opinion. On November 14, 1804, Judge Walworth was ap- pointed Postinaster at Painesville. ITis com- mission was made by Gideon Granger, then Postmaster General of the United States, and
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the office was held until the removal of the ap- pointee to Cleveland in 1806. In 1805 the Government decided that this coast should no longer be left open to free trade with Canada. A collection district was established for the south shore of the lake, called the District of Erie, and Judgo Walworth appointed Collector. Ilis commission was signed by Thomas Jeffer- son, President, and countersigned by James Madison, Secretary of State. Judge Walworth had for some time contemplated a removal to Cleveland, and on this appointment decided on a change.
He disposed of his interests on the Grand river, and soon after made a purchase of a farm of 300 acres, ahnost literally bounded and de- fined by the limits of the First ward of Cleve- land under the recent redistricting-IIuron, Erie and Cross streets, and the Cuyahoga river. Ife brought his family here in 1806, and made this place his home for the remainder of his life. One of his daughters, Julianna, afterward the wife of Dr. David Long, and mother of Mrs. Mary H. Severance, has left a record of that trip in which she says: " My father, John Walworth, moved to Cleveland from Painesville in April, 1806. We came up in an open boat, which was wrecked, and my father came near being drowned. Ile was so weak when he came out of the water that he could barely crawl on his hands and knees." IIe was known by every- body and was soon as bnsy and useful in the new home as he had been in the old. He was made Postmaster of Cleveland before actually settling here. On October 22, 1805, the com- mission was issued and Judge Walworth be- came Postmaster of Cleveland. January 17, 1806, saw him commissioned " Inspector of the Revenue for the Port of Cuyahoga," over Thomas Jefferson's hand, and under the countersign of James Madison, Secretary of State. Ilis ap- pointment as "Collector for the District of Erie " bears the same date, and comes from the same source of power. On January 23, 1806, Governor Tiffin appointed him Associate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Geauga
County, to hold for seven years "if he shall so long behave well." Cuyahoga County was at that time attached to Geauga, for judicial pur- poses.
Judge Walworth was public-spirited in many ways, and was engaged in any measure that had in view the advancement of the interests of this section. When the scheme was originated in 1807 for the improvement of the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas rivers, so as to give better connec- tion between Lake Erie and the Ohio river, he was one of the leaders therein, and made agent and a inember of the board of commissioners that had it in charge. Although he held sev- eral offices, the amount of business in each was so small that he was not compelled to neglect any of them. His report to the Government for the season running from April to October, 1809, shows that the total amount of goods, wares and merchandise exported from this conn- try to Canada was but $50.
In 1810, on the organization of Cuyahoga county as such, Judge Walworth was made Clerk of the Court and also Recorder. This laid one more responsibility upon him, but nothing suffered in his hands. He found time for labor or recreation in other fields. He was one of the founders of the first Masonic lodge in northern Ohio, organized in Warren in 1803, and was one of its officers. He was a friend to education, and one of the founders of the insti- tution ont of which Western Reserve College afterward grew. In 1801, when the entire pop- ulation of the Western Reserve was not over 1,500, the Rev. Joseph Badger, the famous missionary preacher, presented a petition to the Territorial legislature, asking for a charter for the establishment of an academy or college. The request was not granted. In 1802 Ohio was admitted to the Union as a State, and in 1803 an act was passed incorporating the Erie Literary Society. John Walworth was one of the incorporators, among his associates being Rev. Mr. Badger, John S. Edwards, Turhand Kirtland and other men of character. They re- ceived parcels of land from various persons,
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from the proceeds of which, in 1805, they erected an academy in Burton, Geanga connty. This was the first school of the kind in northern Ohio, and was the germ of Hudson College. In fact, the name of Judge Walworth is met-on almost every page of the early records of the section. In regard to him Colonel Whittlesey's history says:
"John Walworth, though not among the car- liest, was one of the most prominent, settlers of the Western Reserve. . Like most young men who live near salt water he spent several years at sea, and visited the South American States. He came to settle at Aurora, Cayuga Lake, New York, in 1792. They reached their new home at Painesville on the 8th of April, 1800. IIe was small in stature, of very active habits, and had a pleasing countenance. Mr. Walworth could not have been selected to fill so many offices in the organization of the new gov- ernment if he had not been worthy of them. In those days professional office hunters seldom became the successful candidates. .
It was no small part of Mr. Walworth's good for- tune that he had a wife well suited to the cir- cumstances by which they were surrounded. Mrs. Walworth is remembered as a kind, noble, dignified, jndieious woman, spoken of with re- spect and kindness by all who shared her society or her hospitality. When the stampede occurred at Cleveland on the occasion of Hull's surrender, she was one of three ladies who refused to leave the place. (Her husband was lying siek at the time.) She rode a horse not merely as a grace- ful exercise, but took long journeys in company with her husband. In 1810 she erossed the mountains in this manner, by way of Pittsburg and Philadelphia, to her old home in the East- ern States. With such training, a vigorous physique and a cheerful disposition, it is not strange that she survived three generations -- long enough to witness the results of her hus- band's expectations. She died at Cleveland March 2, 1853."
Three sons and two daughters were born in the family of this worthy couple,-Ashbel W.,
Horaee F. and Jolin P., and Mrs. Dr. Long and Mrs. Dr. Strickland.
Judge Walworth did not live to see anything like a full realization of the dreams he had al- ways held of the greatness of the country, but died on September 10, 1812, in the very darkest days of the war. He was followed to his grave by the united and sincere sorrow and respect of the community, and great sympathy was ex- tended to his mourning wife and children. Judge Walworth's life had been lived in the sight of men, and his character stood each test that was applied to it. He was one of the most useful as he was one of the most honored of Ohio's pioneers.
Ashbel W. Walworth was but sixteen years of age when his father removed to Cleveland, but the maturity of his mind was such that even at that age he was of great assistance to his father in the conduct of the many trusts reposed in the hands of the latter. When the father was away, the son would take his place, and so able was the discharge of those duties that on the death of his father he was appointed to sev- eral of the offiees the other had held. He had been made Deputy Postmaster on September 9, 1809, and on the death of his father in 1812 was made Postmaster, holding the office until 1816, when he resigned, and was sneceeded by Daniel Kelley. IIe was also made Collector of the Port of Cleveland, holding the office from 1812 to 1829, when he was succeeded by Judge Samuel Starkweather. He was in demand in all quarters where public trust needed the ex- perience and faithful care he was so able to give. In 1815 he was elected Township Clerk of Cleveland, being re-elected in 1816 and again in 1817. In 1821 he was made Township Treas- urer, and again in 1822; became a Justice of the Peace in 1823, and again held that office in 1826; and continuously held the office of Treas- urer of Cleveland village from 1817 to 1829. In 1840 he represented the First ward in the Cleve- land City Council.
lle was foremost in any good work. In 1827, on the organization of the Cuyahoga coloniza-
Dia. Garfield
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tion society, a branch of the national society, he filled the important position of Treasurer. The purpose of this organization was to provide homes for colored people in Africa as rapidly as they could be freed and sent over there. One public service in which Mr. Walworth was for come time engaged, while Collector of this Port, was of great moment to the shipping in- terests of Cleveland and Lake Erie. The diffi- calty of entrance to the month of the Cuyahoga by way of the old river bed was of the most arrions character, and an insurmountable barrier to the growth and development of Cleveland. The attention of the general Government was called to the matter, and in the winter of 1-21 25, Congress passed att act appropriating :5,000 for the construction of such a breakwater at the month of the Cuyahoga a- to enable vessels to enter this port in safety. This matter was " andet, without instructions, to the hands of Mr. W dwwith, who expended the money under arntthe advice, in the construction of a pier running ont from the river month. Little bene- tit was obtained, and, at a mass meeting of citi- zens in the fall of 1525, it was decided to send Mr. Walworth to Washington to secure another appropriation for the work. He met with much opposition, but finally, in 1826, $10,000 were voted to the scheme, and the present new river month was opened and the problem solved.
In 1816 Mr. Walworth was one of a party of leading Cleveland gentlemen who associated themselves under the name of the Cleveland Pier Company, for the purpose of erecting a pier in Lake Erie at this harbor, for the accom- modation of vessels too large to come near the shore. A pier was actually started, but the treacherous bed of the lake and the fierce storms for which Erie was always noted, brought the scheme to naught. He was for some time as- sociated with Thomas M. Kelley, under the firm name of Kelley & Walworth. They were en- gagged in the forwarding and commission busi- ness on River street, and quite extensively on- gaged in shipping.
Mr. Walworth's family residence stood on Superior street, where the Leader building now stands. A small office at one side was used for the transaction of his business. IIe was mar- ried, on Angust 24, 1820, to Mary Anne Dunlap, of Schenectady, New York, who survived him nearly a quarter of a century, dying September 17, 1870. They had six children, of whom four are now living, to wit: John Walworth, Anne Walworth, Sarah Walworth, and Mary W., now Mrs. S. A. Bradbury. The second son, William, and youngest daughter, Jane, are deceased.
Mr. Walworth was suddenly called out of the useful labors in which he was engaged and the happy home he loved so well, on Angust 24, 1844. Hle had been a professing Christian for a number of years, showing his faith in his works, and meckly following the lead of the Master. Ile was a member of the First Pres- byterian Church, and gave its interests his best thought and most loyal service. He was a man of great industry, strict habits of life and of the utmost honor and honesty in all the relations of life. He was of a very social disposition, and made friends wherever he went. He had the hospitable habits of the old settlers, and his home was always open and made welcome to whomsoever might come. His heart was kind, his sympathies broad, and his manners genial. When he was called to the rest of the other life, the feeling of the entire community was that a good and noble man had gone to his reward.
AMES ABRAM GARFIELD, twentieth President of the United States, was born November 11, 1831, in the wilds of Orange township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Paternally, he descended from a Puritan family, his ances- tors coming from Chester, England, to the colony of Massachusetts Bay as early as 1680. Maternally he was from a French Inguenot family. His parents were Abram and Eliza (Ballou) Garfield, who were married in 1820, he aged twenty, she eighteen years. The father
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was a native of Worcester, Otsego county, New York, and the mother of New Hampshire, and a relative of Hosea Ballon, the celebrated preacher and anthor. Abram and Eliza Garfieldl had four children: Mehetable, Thomas, Mary and James A. In May, 1833, the father died, and upon his death-bed he said to his wife, " Eliza, I have planted four saplings in these woods: I leave them to your care."
James was less than two years old when his father died, and a low point of human need seemed to have been reached by his family; but, displaying a vigor and endurance of which they themselves had hitherto been ignorant, with all their industry and toil, his mother worked on the farm and at the spinning-wheel, while Thomas, the eldest son, although but a youth, entered at once upon the responsibilities and hard labor of manhood. Amos Boynton, a half- brother of Abram Garfield, lived near by, and, though of limited means himself, cheerfully aided them as much as he could, while the hardy settlers in the neighborhood were gen- erous and sympathetic toward the unfortunate family.
From the outset the life of James was one of toil. Born and fostered in a log cabin, his childhood was as humble and rude as backwoods life could make it. The opening of his life was most unpromising, and adds another example to the thousands in the lives of the great men of America, showing that poverty and want in childhood need not prevent growth in goodness or achievements in greatness. By force of eir- cminstances he was compelled to work in early childhood and youth, and thus was developed that habit of industry and that physical strength which made his after success possible. During his youthful days he was not distinguished above other boys, either for his genins as a farmer, woodsman or herdsman, or for his accomplishments as a debater in the country lyceum, or as a scholar in the schools. He was regarded as being neither precocious nor dull as a boy, but as having good common sense and doing his work well.
Until he was abont sixteen years of age he had an intense longing to lead the life of a sailor, but, failing to secure a position giving him opportunity to gratify this longing, he be- came a driver on the Ohio & Pennsylvania canal, as an employee of his cousin, Amos Leteher. For a short time ouly, however, he hold this position, for having sickened of fever he returned home. Abont this time his atten- tion appears to have been turned toward literary attainments and the higher ambitions of life. Hitherto he had given little attention to books, and now he firmly and irrevocably resolved that, at whatever sacrifice, he wonld obtain a colle- giate education.
By day he worked upon the farm or at the carpenter's trade, and at night studied his books. By this means he was soon enabled to enter the seminary at the adjoining town of Chester. With the earnings of his vacations, together with the heroic self-sacrifice of his mother and elder brother, he was enabled to seenre the ad- vantages of several terms at that seminary. From Chester he went to Hiram College, an institution established in 1850 by the Disciples of Christ, to which church he, as well as nearly all of the Garfield family, belonged. In order to pay his way at Hiram he assumed the duties of janitor, and at times tanght school. At Hiram he continued his studies till sufficiently advanced in the classies and mathematics to be qualified to enter Williams College, Massachu- setts, two years in advance. September, 1854, he entered that college, and graduated with honors in 1856. Returning to Ohio he became a teacher at Hiram, where he was also pressed into the additional work of preaching the gos- pel. He soon became popular both as a teacher and preacher, and within less than one year he was promoted to the presidency of Hiram Col- lege, where he was the loved and honored friend of rich and poor, great and small.
While a student at Hiram he met in one of its classes Lucretia Rudolph, and in the autumn of 1858 married her, in her father's honse at Wirant, and began a home life of his own. Sho
.
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ever afterward proved a worthy consort in all the stages of her husband's career. They had seven children, five of whom are still living.
After his marriage he began the study of law, and giving to it his extra hours he was able in 1860 to pass the necessary examination and was admitted to the bar. le was a man of strong moral and religions convictions, and as soon as he began to look into politics he saw innumerable points that could be improved. He was attracted to legal studies by his aetive and patriotic interest in public affairs. Ile was an Abolitionist, Free-soiler and Republican, and always open and bold in the declaration of his political principles, whether in college, clinreh or canens. In 1859 he made his first politieal speeches, and in the fall of that year he was elected to the Ohio State Senate by a sweeping majority, and when he took his seat, in Jannary, 1860, he was the youngest member of that body, being but twenty-eight years of age.
During the trying years of 1860 and 1861 he was a very nsefnl and eloquent member of the State Senate, and on the breaking out of the Civil war in 1861 Mr. Garfield resolved to fight as he had talked. IIe was appointed a member of Governor Dennison's staff to assist in organ- izing troops for the war. August 14, 1861, he was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Forty-second Regiment of Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, composed largely of his classmates and students at Hiram College. Colonel Garfield's regiment was immediately thrown into active service, and before he had ever seen a gun fired in action he was placed in command of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of cavalry, charged with the work of driving the Confederates, headed by Humphrey Marshall, from his native State, Kentucky. This task was speedily accomplished, although against great odds. On account of his success, Presi- dent Lincoln commissioned him Brigadier-Gen- eral, Jannary 11, 1862, and, as he had been the youngest man in the Ohio Senate two years be- fore, so now he was the youngest general in the
army. He was with General Buell's army at Shiloh, also in its operations around Corinth and its march through Alabama. June 15, 1862, General Garfield was detailed to sit in a trial by court-martial of a lientenant of the Fifty-eighth Indiana Volunteers. In this case his skill, combined with his momory of judicial decisions, elicited from officers sitting with him in the court commendation of his signal ability in such matters.
On account of fever and ague he obtained a leave of absence July 30, and during the sum- mer months he was at Hiram.
Recovering his health he reported to the War Department at Washington, according to order from the Secretary of War. This was about September 25, 1862. He was ordered to sit in the court of inquiry in the case of General Mc- Dowell, and November 25, 1862, he was made a member of the court in the celebrated trial of General Fitz John Porter for the failure to co- operate with General Pope at the battle of Bull Run.
In January, 1863, he was ordered into the field, being directed to report to General Rose- crans at Murfreesborongh. He became chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then commanding the Army of the Cumberland. His military history elosed with his brilliant services at Chiekamanga, where he won the stars of Major- General.
In the fall of 1862, withont any effort on his part, he was elected as a Representative in Congress from the Nineteenth Congressional district of Ohio, which had been represented for sixty years mainly by two men, -Elisha Whit- tlesey and the renowned anti-slavery champion, Joshua R. Giddings. He resigned his com- mission on the 5th of December, 1863, having served in the army more than a year after his election to Congress, and took his seat on the same day in the House of Representatives, where he served nntil elected to the United States Senate in 1880, just before his nomina- tion to the presidency. Ilis election to the Senate by the Ohio Legislature was a just and
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reasonable compliment to him for his eminent services through sixteen years of a most activo legislative life. During his life in Congress ho compiled, and published by his speeches there and elsewhere, more information on the issnes of the day, especially on one side, than any other member. Upon entering Congress he was the youngest member, but for this work he was well endowed by nature and ed neation. IIe was a ready speaker,-apt, eloquent, pointed, vehe- ment. He was possessed of all the physical characteristies of dignity,-strength, counte- nance and voice, which are so useful in the public forum. Thus he was well equipped for a place in a deliberative assembly.
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