USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, Pt.1 > Part 6
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Mr. Gage was married September, 1855, to Miss Mary J. Cole, daughter of Win. II. Cole, of Warrensville, this county. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Gage have been blessed by the birth of the following children: Cora B., now the widow of A. R. Newton; Mattie G., now the widow of J. W. Street; and Julia J., now Mrs. W. B. Gerrish, of Oberlin, Ohio.
H ENRY CLAY WIIITE, a member of the bar of Cuyahoga county, was born in the town of Newburg, in said county, near the city of Cleveland, on the 23d day of February, A. D. 1839. His father, Wileman W. White, emigrated from Berkshire county, Massachusetts, to Cleveland, Ohio, when it was a struggling village, in the year 1815. He was bred to the trade of carpenter and joiner, and entered at once upon an active
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career as a builder and contractor in the grow- ing village of Cleveland, and constructed the first frame church edifice in the city, and the first bridge across the Cuyahoga river. IIe was an active builder and business man until 1838, when he removed from the city and purchased a large farm with mill, etc., in the township of Newburg and located upon the Ohio canal, which was then the great line of communica- tion between the lakes, Pittsburg, Cincinnati and other points.
The mother of the subject of this sketch was also a native of Massachusetts, born in Berk- shire county. The father died in 1842, leav- ing Henry, his youngest son, only four years of age. He thus lost the nurture and guiding land of his father, and from domestic vicissi- tudes very soon lost his home and was obliged to resort to many humble occupations to make a living. In 1851 he attended school for a year or more at the Eclectic Institute, the prede- cessor of Hiram College, Ohio, and later, in 1856, returned to that school, when it was pre- sided over by James A. Garfield, then its yonng principal. Mr. White spent five years at this school, laying the fondation for a fair educa- tion. He was one of those who, to the extent of his capacity, was blessed by the inspiration and ideals received from the teaching and in- tercourse with Mr. Garfield, who early achieved success as a great teacher. Mr. White, in the fall of 1860, entered the Law Department of the University of Michigan and gradnated there in 1862 as B. L .; he then came to Cleveland, Ohio, where he has since resided, having been admitted to the bar in 1862. For ten years after his admission to the bar, in consequence of the depression in legal business dne to the war of the Rebellion, he entered the Clerk's office of the Court of Common Pleas and served there in all capacities for ten years, until 1874, when he entered actively into the practice of law. In the fall of 1887 he was a candidate for Probate Jndge of the county of Cuyahoga, seeking the nomination at the hands of the Republican party, having for his chief opponent
IIonorable Daniel R. Tilden, who had held the office for thirty-three years in succession. Mr. White was nominated and elected by a hand- some majority, and entered upon his first term on the 9th day of February, 1888, and has since been twice re-elected and is now holding said office for his third term. In politics he is a Republican, having taken part in the cam- paign of 1860, which resulted in the election of Abraham Lincoln. He is a member of the Disciples' Church. He was married in 1866 and has four children.
1895263
R EUBEN WILLSON WALTERS, phy- sician and surgeon of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, was born at Russell, Geauga County, Ohio, August 22, 1838, a son of Reuben R. Walters, who was born in Herkimer county, New York, in 1804, a son of Nathaniel Walters, born in Dutchess county, New York, a son of John Walters, a native of England. Na- thaniel Walters, a grandfather, married a Miss Robins, also anative of New York State, Dutch- ess county, and a daughter of an old family of the State.
Reuben R. Walters, father of Reuben W. Walters, came to Ohio in 1837 and settled in Russell. He was a carpenter and joiner and cabinet-maker by trade, and was a good me- chanic. Ile was the man that cast the first Ab- olitionist vote in Geauga county. Later lie became a Republican and finally a Prohibition- ist, was a Deacon in the Free-will Baptist Church, and died at Chagrin Falls, January 9, 1888, at eighty-three years of age. The mother's maiden name was Emily White; she died at Chagrin Falls, March 10, 1890, aged eighty- five, surrounded by all the care and comforts her son, our subject, conld give her. She had one other son, Franklin R., who died in 1854.
Reuben W. grew up in Chagrin Falls and here received his early education. During the war he enlisted, Angust 15, 1862, at the time of Lincoln's call for " 300,000 more," and in the
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Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company D, and as hospital steward he served until March, 1865. Ile was at the battles of Lookont Monn- tain, Missionary Ridge, ete., Georgia, and other engagements of less note. As hospital steward he served with credit and honor.
Doctor Walters graduated in the Medical De- partment of Western Reserve University, Feb- ruary 19, 1867, and also graduated at the Homeopathic Hospital College of Cleveland six years later.
Doctor Walters was married December 5, 1867, at Conneautville, Pennsylvania, to Sarah Francis White, a lady of education, refinement and good family. She was born at Garretts- ville, Ohio, a danghter of II. K. White, now deceased, and Lanra (Ellinwood) White. Before her marriage she was a successful and popular teacher. She died March 20, 1893, leaving two sons: Wilson Il., a graduate of the Chagrin Falls high school in 1892; and Frank, a boy of fourteen, attending school at Mount Vernon, Ohio. Mrs. Walters was a worthy wife and mother, a helpmate to her husband, a Christian lady.
Doctor Walters is a member of the G. A. R., N. L. Norris Post, No. 40. IIe is one of the twelve commissioners of the Soldiers' and Sail- ors' Monument, at Cleveland, Ohio. He is a worthy member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The Doctor has been active in the best interests of the town, and is one of its most worthy citizens. The Doctor was President of the Board of Education from 1879 to 1882, and clerk of the same during those years.
RANK S. CLARK, M. D .- In the great competitive struggle of life, when oach man must enter the field and fight his way to the front, or else be overtaken by disaster of circumstance or place, proving either a coward or a victim, there is evor a particular interest attaching to the life of one who has turned the tide of success, has surmounted ob- stacles and has shown his ability to cope with
others in their rush for the coveted goal. The record of such lives must ever be a feeund source of interest and incentive.
Dr. Clark, who has gained enviable prestige as one of the most able and successful of the younger practitioners of medicine and surgery in the city of Cleveland, was born in Summit county, Ohio, on the 27th of May, 1865, a son of II. J. and Lizzie P. (Blackman) Clark, both of whom are natives of Ohio. The father is now actively engaged in the general mercantile business. In early life he was for about twenty years a prominent teacher, being for some time superintendent of the public schools at Oberlin, Ohio. IIe is a graduate of the Western Reserve University, and at one time he had charge of the academy at Poland, Ohio. He is a resident of Oberlin, and has for years been a Deacon of the First Congregational Church of that place.
Our subject is the second of a family of five children, two of whom died in childhood. Those living are noted as follows: Mary A. is a grad- uate of Oberlin College, and has been a success- ful teacher. She taught at Nashville, Tennes- see, under the anspices of the American Mis- sionary Association of the Congregational Church. Edward W. Clark is a graduate of Oberlin College, in which institution he was for two years an instructor in Latin and Greek, for the teaching of which languages he is now (1893) in Germany perfecting himself.
Dr. Clark completed a classical course at Oberlin and graduated in 1887, receiving the degree of A. M. in 1890. In the fall of the same year he began the study of medicine in the medical department of the Western Reserve University, gradnating in 1890. He filled the position as house physician at Lakeside Hospital for one year and then entored upon a general practice in the city of Cleveland, leaving the hospital in April, 1891. He had charge of the Maternity Hospital for one year after sev- ering his connection with the Lakeside Hospital. Hle is a member of the Cuyahoga County and the Clovoland Medical Societies and is also identified with the State medical association.
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Dr. Clark has met with success in his pro- fessional work, has gained recognition for his worth and ability and is one of the most proul- ising among the young physicians of the Forest City. Ile has been a close and conscientious student, is thoroughly abreast of the progress made in the science of medicine and is en- thusiastie in his profession. IIe is at present visiting physician and surgeon to St. Alexis Hospital.
H ON. HENRY B. PAYNE, an eminent citizen, lawyer and statesman, was born in Hamilton, Madison county, New York, November 30, 1810. Ilis father, Elisha Payne, was a native of Connecticut, and left Lebanon in that State in 1795, settling in Hamilton, where he was instrumental in found- ing the Hamilton Theological Seminary, being a man of pure personal character and publie spirit. The Payne family is of English origin, but the mother of Henry B. Payne came of the noted Douglas stock.
Mr. Payne graduated at Hamilton College at the age of twenty-two, distinguished for mathe- matieal and elassical attainments. He immedi- ately began the study of law in the office of Jolm C. Spencer, an eminent lawyer of Canandaigua, afterward Secretary of War in President Tyler's Cabinet. Stephen A. Douglas was at the same time a student in the office of a rival law firm, and then and there Payne and Douglas began a personal and political friendship of a life-time. In 1833 westward was the course of empire for young men of education and high spirit, even as it is now, and the two young lawyers emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, then a thriving village of abont 3,000 people. Douglas had preceded Payne some months, and when the latter arrived he fonnd the future senator of Illinois siek nigh nnto death. His first mission was to nurse his friend back to health or close his eyes in death. For three weeks he never left the bedside of Donglas. When the latter
recovered he announced his intention of going further west. Mr. Payne, while regretting the separation, aided him financially to make the journey, and three years later was gratified to hear of Douglas as Proseenting Attorney of Sangamon county, Illinois.
Mr. Payne, sagaciously prophesying the bright future of the then handsome village, adopted Cleveland for his permanent abode, and after a student year in the office of Sherlock J. An- drews, then the foremost advocate of northern Ohio, he was admitted to the bar. The follow- ing year he formed a partnership with the late Judge Hiram V. Willson. The legal firm of Payne & Willson starting under favorable auspices, in a few years they found their office doing the leading business in the State.
The professional life of Mr. Payne was com- paratively short, embracing only some twelve years, as he was compelled, in 1846, in the midst of an overwhelming business, to retire from practice by reason of physical debility arising principally from hemorrhage of the lungs, the result of ernshing mental and physi- cal labor. After the lapse of fifty years but few of his contemporaries remain who knew him at the bar. If, however, the legends which have come down the decades from the lips of eminent veterans of the profession may be re- lied on as history, they bear testimony to his legal accomplishments and great forensie abilty, even from his first appearance. His characterist- ies were quiekness of perception, a seeming in- tuitive knowledge of the principles involved, a wonderful comprehension of testimony, and as an advocate he possessed rare and peculiar gifts. Ile did not, however, trust alone to his inherent powers. Being an alert and industrious student he thoroughly prepared every ease, and then donbly armed he was a formidable opponent.
In 1836, upon the organization of the gov- ernment of the city of Cleveland nuder a mu- nicipal charter, he was appointed the first of that long list of legal advisers designated City Attorney or Solicitor. The same year he mar- ried Miss Mary Perry, the accomplished and
CUYAHOGA COUNTY.
only daughter of Nathan Perry, a worthy mer- chant of the pioneer days of northern Ohio. In counnemoration of the happy event and life-long domestic companionship, he recently, after the lapse of nearly sixty years, erected on Superior street the monumental and beautiful structure appropriately christened " Perry-Payne."
After his retirement from the bar and the restoration of his health, he was not inactive; he not only devoted himself to his extensive private affairs, but such was the public confi- dence in his financial abilities and personal in- tegrity that his services were almost constantly demanded, cither in the Council to aid in re- storing or sustaining municipal credit, or in the reconstruction of its various departments,- always a gratuitous service.
Mr. Payne was an early and leading spirit in railroad enterprises in Ohio. In 1849 he, with John W. Allen, Richard Hilliard and John M. Woolsey, inaugurated measures for the con- struction of the Cleveland & Columbus Rail- road, and mainly to Henry B. Payne, Richard Hilliard, and Alfred Kelley the success of the great enterprise was due. The road was com- pleted in 1851 and Mr. Payne was elected its president, which office he resigned in 1854. He became a director in 1855 of the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula (afterward Lake Shore) Railroad. These and other enterprises and in- dustries with which his name has been associ- ated as subscriber and promoter, have largely contributed to advance the little village of his adoption in 1833, to a city of 300,000 in 1893. In 1855 he served as a member of the first board of Water Works Commissioners, under whose auspices that great and indispensable system was planned and executed in behalf of the city.
In 1862 he became president of the Board of Sinking Fund Commissioners, which position he has ever since held. The city takes pride in the management of its sinking fund, which in the hands of able and honest commissioners, in thirty years, has augmented from about $360,- 000 to $3,000,000, with a nominal annual ox-
pense of only a few hundred dollars for clerical service,-an unprecedented example of the man- agement of a public financial trust.
In 1848 he was a Presidential Elector on the Cass ticket. In 1851 he was elected State Sen- ator, serving two years with sneh ability as to win universal recognition in the State as a par- liamentary leader and statesman. The first ap- preciation of the public talents of Mr. Payne, and the devotion of his party in that Legislature to him, is recorded in the twenty-six ballotings for United States Senator, in which his party remained true to him in every ballot, while their opponents, the Whigs, matched him alternately with many of their ablest men, Ewing, Corwin, Andrews, and several others, the balance of power being held by some few Free Soil mem- bers, the ultimate result being the election of Benjamin F. Wade by one majority.
The stirring event in the State in 1857 was the nomination of Mr. Payne by the Democratic party for Governor. The conclusion of his brilliant and captivating speech accepting the nomination was alike gallant, inspiriting and characteristic, when he said, " In the battle in which we are engaged I ask no Democrat to go where I am not first found bearing the standard which you have placed in my hands." He made a canvass so remarkable for its spirit, aggressivo- ness and brilliancy that although his party had but recently been in a minority of 80,000, he came within a few hundred votes of defeating Governor Chase for his second term. The ofli- cial count alone determined the result.
He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention held at Cincinnati in 1856, which nominated Buchanan for president; and dele- gate at large to the convention at Charleston in 1860, and reported from the committee the minority resolutions, which were adopted by the convention. He was selected by Senator Douglas to reply to the attacks of Yancey and Toombs in that convention. The speech made by Mr. Payne in the Charleston convention was remarkable for its perspienity, brilliancy and power, -- condenming incipient secession and
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uttering prophetic warnings to the South if they persisted in going out of the Union. The speech made him a national reputation, winning for him the gratitude of the Northern delegates and commanding the respect of the Southern members.
In 1872 the Democratic State convention, held at Cleveland, selected him as a delegate at large to the convention which nominated Horace Greeley. IIe was made chairman of the Ohio delegation, and on his return entered with his accustomed zeal and spirit into the campaign.
In 1874 he accepted the Democratic nomina- tion in the Cleveland District for Congress, and in a district which has always given a large Re- publican majority he was elected by nearly 2,500 majority. It was at a time when there was expressed, justly or nujustly, much public indignation touching financial scandals in Con- gressional and official service, and in his speech accepting the nomination he was moved to say: " If elected, and my life is spared to serve ont the term, I promise to come back with hand and heart as undefiled and clean as when I left you;" and he kept the faith. He at once took ligh rank in Congress and was appointed on the committee on Banking and Currency. This was his appropriate field of labor, and his propositions, explanations and arguments in committee commanded the profoundest con- sideration. The financial bill known as the " Payne Compromise" was doubtless the master work of his Congressional life. The Resump- tion Act had recently passed, and all the West- ern Democrats had been elected with the under- standing that it should be repealed. The Eastern Democrats were in favor of cast-iron resmup- tion. The bitterest feeling sprang np between the two factions, and a split upon the currency question seemed imminent. Payne had always been faithful to his convictions as a Democrat, but "soft" money was not a portion of his creed. The extreme "hards " wanted to abolish paper currency: the extreme "softs" wanted to wipe out the banks. There were some forty propositions pending. Payne then presented
his plan. He proposed to retain both the banks and their currency and the greenbacks, but was in favor of the Government making the paper money as good as gold. Ile proposed that the banks and the Government should bear the burdens of resumption by returning twenty per cent. of the paper each had in circulation, thus reducing the volume of the paper, and paving the way for a natural resumption. His plan met with decided opposition from both factions, but he calmly reasoned with his opponents until he made many converts among thinking men, both statesmen and bankers. The Payne plan was adopted by a Democratic caucus, after nearly three months of discussion, and reported to the House by Mr. Payne. Senator Bayard gracefully yielded to Mr. Payne's views, saying to him, " I have made a careful examination of your proposition and find there is no sacrifice of principle in it. It is an adjustment of some financial principles to a strained condition of affairs." Mr. Seligman, the eminent New York banker, said, "The principles of Payne's com- promise if enacted into law would prove a soli- tion of our complicated system, and give us a safer currency than England. It made no war on banks, but it recognized them as a safe medium for handling the currency, and increas- ing and decreasing the volume of currency, ac- cording to the needs of trade, and removed it from the domain of politicians, too many of whom knew but little about the financial affairs of the country."
He was chairman of the House Conference Committee on the Electoral vote, a strong ad- vocate of the Electoral Commission bill, and a member of the Commission himself. ITis record through all that exciting period is creditable to him in the highest degree, both as a represent- ative Democrat and a statesman.
From the disruption of the Charleston con- vention Mr. Payne was conscions that an attempt would be made to separate the States, and it was in his first public utterance there- after, and before the first act of secession, that he replied to the hostile sentiments expressod
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by a Sonthern gentleman, declaring that "the Union had a mortgage npon every dollar that he owned for its preservation." In the gloomy days of 1862 he nited with other citizens in a guarantee to the county treasurer against loss by advancing $50,000 for military necessities, trusting to a future legislature to sanction such advances. During the reverses of the Union army early in the war, when the President called for 500,000 volunteers, Governor Tod appealed to him for his influence in aiding to meet that call. He reported with alacrity, stumping the State, encouraging enlistments, raising funds, and preaching the salvation of the Union.
Mr. Payne's name was presented as a candi- date for the Presidency before the national Democratic convention held in Cineinnati in 1880. Ohio had instructed her delegates to vote for Timrman, which they felt obligated to do mless released by him. Although Mr. Payne did not receive a single vote from his own State, he, nevertheless, was the third highest in the list on the first ballot, which stood: Hancock 171; Bayard 153; Payne 81, the remainder of 738 being widely scattered. At this juncture, if Mr. Payne conld have received the Ohio vote, to which, as her leading candidate, he seemed fairly entitled, he could have been nomi- nated, but the delegation being unable to get released from their instructions, Mr. Payne promptly requested the withdrawal of his own name.
In 1885 Mr. Payne was elected United States Senator for the term of six years, ending in 1892, being the first Democrat ever elected from the northern half of the State. It was an unsought and gratuitous gift of the Legislature, and of the party with which he had been for a lifetime recognized as one of its most brilliant leaders-and a graceful climax of an honorable life.
Mr. Payne's family relations have been for- tunate and happy. Ilis wife, a few years his junior, is still by his side. They have had five children, but sadly three times the family circle
has been broken, first in the death of the youngest, and then of the eldest son; and lastly in the death of Mrs. W. C. Whitney, of New York. The survivors are Colonel Oliver H. Payne, of New York, and Mrs. Bingham, of Cleveland.
R EV. J. II. C. ROENTGEN, D. D., pas- tor of the First Reformed Church, which was the first German church on the West Side in Cleveland, Ohio, was born in El- berfeld, Rhein Province, Prussia, Germany, Jnne 19, 1844. His parents were Ferdinand and Henrietta (HInesser) Roentgen. The mother died in Germany in 1860, aged fifty-two years. The father, acigar manufacturer, came to Amer- ica with his family in 1872. They stopped at Sheboygan, Wisconsin, where they remained some two years, removing thence to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1874. Here the father died in 1882, aged seventy-six years. Both father and mother were life-long members of the Reformed Church.
Rev. Dr. Roentgen is the third in a family of five children, three of whom died in early life. A younger sister, the wife of Rev. Julius Granel, resides at Olney, Illinois, where her husband has a charge. She and Dr. Roentgen are the only surviving members of their family.
Dr. Roentgen was educated in Europe and came to this country with his father. Here he studied theology at Franklin, Sheboygan county, Wisconsin, graduating in 1874, and was ordained by the Sheboygan Classis of the Reformed Church in the United States, October 11, 1874. He took his first eharge, a mission at La Crosse, Wisconsin, October 18, 1874. Here he labored effectively, erecting a building for the parochial school, and so wisely directing his efforts that when he left in December, 1882, what had been a mission was a self-sustaining church of nearly 200 members. From La Crosse Dr. Roentgen came to Cleveland, January 8, 1883, to become pastor of the First Reformed Church, which he
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has served ever since. This church was organ- ized in 1848. When he came the membership numbered between three and four hundred; it now numbers between four and five hundred. The Sabbath-school has over 250 members. .
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