USA > Ohio > The Western Reserve of Ohio and some of its pioneers, places and women's clubs, Vol. I > Part 17
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The stockholders of the Valley R. R. at once sent to England men to report the Valley Road, if paid for, could rent to other roads and make a fortune for them. They paid their indebted- ness, but alas, could not rent to a rival road. The manufac-
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tories soon filled up the vacant spaces from Euclid avenue to Newburgh with expensive works.
The mayor found the Superior viaduct would not be done in the time allotted by the contract. Mr. Ensign, a man from Buffalo, was not employing Cleveland men and he was sending material to other bridges and neglecting this one. The mayor sent him a letter calling attention to the fifteen dollars a day he would lose after the time when it was to be finished. He paid no attention to the letter. When the time expired, Mayor Rose had the end of the bridge toward Superior street made of struc- tural iron and it has served as well as stone arches. He em- ployed men from Cleveland and in three months it was ready for use.
He proposed to have "an opening," sending out invitations. A wealthy man said, "Why not wait until spring?" His reply was, "After we have used it three months we could not have an opening. Cleveland has been invited to all the lake cities and to Rochester and now we have an opportunity to ask them in return."
They had the celebration. The day was bright with sun- shine, and brighter still because of snow falling which made the air filled with rainbows. Letters were received from Congress- men and neighboring cities, east and west. The Cleveland Leader of Saturday, December 28, 1878, giving an account of it, says, "The great viaduct is now open to the public. The day opened with a morning salute; it had a grand procession, much eloquence and ends with a royal banquet; reviews by the gov- ernor and staff; letters from great men of the country; toasts and responses. A successful time and a glorious ending." Thou- sands of carriages, wagons and sleighs. At the Tabernacle where the exercises were given prayer was by Rev. Charles
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F. Pomroy of the Second Presbyterian Church. Then Mayor Rose gave an account of the "war of the Cuyahoga" on its sev- eral bridges. A high level bridge was talked of in 1836. Also the annexation and the sinking fund. In 1872 the city was given power to issue $1,100,000 to build the viaduct. Members of the house of representatives were H. R. Beavis, Allen T. Brinsmade, W. C. McFarland, H. M. Chapman, C. H. Babcock, H. W. Curtis and George Noakes. The total cost, including the right-of-way, was about $2,170,000, but the city has a great structure to show for it. The Cincinnati suspension bridge cost $1,800,000 and the estimated cost of the Brooklyn bridge is $6,000,000. The time saved to business men and laborers would go far toward paying the interest on the cost of the structure."
At the close of Mayor Rose's speech, Honorable R. C. Par- sons spoke, then Judge F. J. Dickman, followed by W. W. Arm- strong and Governor Bishop of Ohio, Governor Matthews of West Virginia, Mayor Parsons of Rochester, N. Y., Mayor Jones of Toledo, who said, "It is one of those useful things which ben- efit all the people. It was made for the whole people and noth- ing but the people." Mayor Horn of Windsor, Canada, said, "The city of Cleveland is better known and better appreciated in our little Canada than almost any city along the border. My friends at home said, 'You are going to one of the most hos- pitable places, don't miss it for anything.'" Mayor Butts of Dayton closed the speeches. At the banquet in the evening there were many who responded to toasts. General Albert Rar- nitz "To the citizen soldier." He was also marshal of the day. All pronounced the day successful.
The question of toll was settled, by an estimate of what would be received. The collectors would take it all, therefore it was made a free bridge and it opened up a large section of land, near to business, that could be reached by pedestrians.
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Mayor Rose was known as the friend of the working man. The iron ore handlers were the first to petition him for an in- crease from nine cents per ton to fifteen cents per ton. Their business could not continue during the winter. Many had six to eight in their families. They earned about $150 in the season and must depend upon the city's "out-door relief," which was a fund set apart from the city treasury. Surely the rich men who em- ployed them ought to support them during the year. The mayor after a thorough investigation gave twelve per cent as the price. One of the company came to say they would not accept his judg- ment, but he could choose a man, who gave only a raise of one cent. A few weeks later an employer said to him, "That difference of two cents will make $65,000 in our pockets in the year." When these facts became known, he made great efforts to appear as the friend of laboring men.
The next strike was by the street car drivers, who worked fourteen hours a day. Mayor Rose talked with the men and told the company they must have shelter from the storm and work but ten hours a day. If that was done he would have the Pinkerton detectives withdrawn. Only one day did the people have to walk, for he superintended the running of the cars him- self, so as to have no trouble. The men were given shelter and the same wages for ten hours.
There was a riot in Pittsburgh. The rioters came to Cleve- land. The mayor knew of it and ordered all fire arms to be sold only at one place, where they could be under lock and key. He then studied the law and found it was a penitentiary offence to be in or aid in a riot. A grocer from Merwin street called to say, "This blocking of business has got to be stopped. We have perishable goods," and the mayor showed him letters that said, "The fuse has been laid for the residences of some of your
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business men; your name is the first on the list." "But here is the law just off the press. It will be posted conspicuously to- day." It was done and the rioters left the city secretly. This grocer went to his place of business saying to all he met, "The mayor is right. He will prevent a riot such as they had in Pittsburgh."
About this time at 2 o'clock in the morning Mr. Rose was called by telegraph saying, "The lines between the city and the 'Iron Ward' are cut. We can get no answer from there." In a few minutes he was dressed and, taking a revolver that would shoot through a two-inch door, he went in his carriage to the street. There stood two coaches. He leaped out holding his re- volver where it could be seen and went to the nearest one, when a man slipped out of the door on the further side, ran to the other carriage, mounted with the driver and they galloped furi- ously toward the city. Mr. Rose followed them until they turned north on Perry street. Then he went south to Prospect and called up Dr. Sterling to go with him and they went to- ward Newburgh. On arriving at the place where the telegraph wire was cut, the operator said he had occasion to go to his home and so disconnected it for a while. How much this had to do with the former circumstances was only conjecture.
The streets of the city were very dusty; only the main streets were swept at night. The delivery wagons carried mud from unpaved streets onto those paved. Mayor Rose proposed, "The residents pay one-half cost, the city pay the other half and leave it to their choice of the kind of pavement." This was done and more than a million dollars was thus contracted for. Indeed, Mayor Blee had not finished them during his adminis- tration.
The second term of Mayor Rose was from 1891 and 1892.
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During the twelve years from his first mayoralty he had visited Europe and California and examined their method of keeping roads, lighting the streets and reduction of sewage. He had spent some winters in Columbus, saying to the Assembly, "The mayor of cities has no control of officials. He cannot choose his cabinet. If things go wrong and he speaks of it, he is told by the officers that it is none of his business." Therefore the cabinet plan was adopted and he chose men to fill all places of public trust. In monarchies all public business is owned by the monarch. It is his legitimate resource. No one would think of giving a franchise to private persons and thus make wealth, by which they could perpetuate themselves in their business. The United States is taxed beyond any other nation because she does not assert her rights.
When made mayor in 1891, the subject of gas was put into the care of the city attorney, General E. S. Meyer. Experts were called from New York and from Case School of Applied Science to tell its cost. The city had been paying $1.50 for 1,000 feet and some had offered water gas for 5 cents per thousand. For this there was no material from which it could not escape. There was six months' discussion. The result was gas was put at 80 cents per 1,000 feet and the city to receive one-tenth of the gross receipts, to be applied to a fund for a new city hall. The present one was unsanitary, but the rental went to Case School of Applied Science. $36,000 per year was the rental. Some were slow or lax in the payment of their rent.
The first year the city received from its tenth of the gross receipts $21,000 and it yearly increased until more than half a million was in the treasury. Meanwhile, the Group Plan was proposed and architects employed at large salaries to prepare it. The fund was raided upon for various purposes. At last it was
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proposed to let it pay for playgrounds, and it was said, "The children on Washington street playground would come at six in the morning and stay until six at night. They were children or foreigners, never had on any underwear. This was the rea- son for breakfasts being prepared for school children by some of the city charities.
Mayor Rose was afflicted with rheumatism, as many others who had their offices in the City Hall.
He refused another nomination, but had changed its meth- ods from those of an extended village to that of a first class city. Now it is the sixth city of the United States. He died Septem- ber 15, 1899, seventy years of age, and is buried in Lake View Cemetery. He left a wife and four children to mourn his death -Evelyn Rose Miller, wife of attorney Major Charles R. Mil- ler; Hudson Parmelee, Frederick Holland and William Kent, two reside in New York City and two in Cleveland, and Mrs. Wil- liam G., 2084 Cornell road.
MRS. W. A. INGHAM PRESIDENT OF WOMAN'S AUXILIARY CENTENNIAL, 1876-1896
NOTED WOMEN OF WESTERN RESERVE
MRS. M. B. INGHAM
Mary Bigelow Ingham attended Norwalk Seminary and Baldwin Institute. When 18 years old she came to Cleveland as a teacher in the public schools and was very soon head of the primary department. She, for one year, boarded with Madame Pierre Gollier, and learned to speak French.
She was appointed professor of French and belles lettres in the Ohio Wesleyan College for women at Delaware, O. There she studied German, Spanish and Italian.
On the 22nd of March, 1866, she married W. A. Ingham, publisher and book seller, removing to Cleveland. In 1870 she was chosen to inaugurate the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society in northern Ohio, with the wife of Bishop Clark, of Cincinnati. She addressed also large audiences in Baltimore, Washington, New York, Buffalo, New Haven, and Minneapolis. She led the temperance crusade in Cleveland and helped to establish Friendly Inns and Reading Rooms, and for seven years was head of the Pearl Street Inn. Mrs. Ingham was at the meeting in Chautauqua that projected the organization of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which met, by her invitation, in Cleveland, November 18, 19, 20, 1874, and was elected its first Treasurer. In 1882 she was chosen the first Secretary of Young People's Work in the Woman's Home Mis- sionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. During the year previous she was journalist for that national society, writing for sixteen church papers. In 1884 she became a founder of the Cleveland School of Art, was secretary of its Board of
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Directors and journalist for ten years. In 1896 she became, at the request of the Early Settlers' Association of Cleveland and the Reserve, President of the Woman's Department of the Centennial Commission, and for one and a half years carried forward that work assisted by able women, chief of whom were Mrs. W. G. Rose, wife of the Mayor of Cleveland, Mrs. Wm. Bradford and Kate S. Avery. Mrs. Ingham had a facile pen; her first story was "Something to Come Home To," suggested by Professor W. G. Williams, of Delaware, O. Other articles followed, among them letters from Europe and from Florida. At the request of Mr. Edwin Cowles, editor of the Leader, and Miss Sarah E. Fitch, President of the Woman's Christian Asso- ciation, she wrote "Women of Cleveland and Their Work," mak- ing a three years' series in the Leader. These were subse- quently gathered into a book published in 1893. She also wrote the history of the First Methodist Church, which was gratefully received by the Western Reserve Historical Society.
Her Flag Festival was a popular entertainment for years. A friend of hers saw it played in Sitka, Alaska.
She was a charter member of Sorosis and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Ingham now resides in Los Angeles, Cal.
She sent to the Early Settlers' Association an account of the pioneers of the West Side, and is still writing for news- papers in her eighty-first year, being born March 10, 1832, in Mansfield, Ohio. Rev. John Jaynes was her father. Her mother, Hannah Brown, as a girl with her sister, Rebecca Brown, founded the First Methodist Church of Ann Arbor, Mich., and her grandfather, Daniel Brown, Sr., and Daniel Brown, Jr., helped to establish Michigan University at Ann Arbor.
Mrs. Ingham's sister, Emma Jaynes, is in the employ of the
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United States Government and is a writer of repute in Washing- ton, D. C. Her brother is a prominent railroad man of Toledo, O. In her retirement, Mrs. Ingham enjoys the religious life of Los Angeles, being a member of Rev. Chas. Edw. Locke's Church with its Sabbath School of over 3,000 and membership of more than 2,500. Her address is 1009 W. 36th street, Los Angeles, Cal.
Mrs. Mattie Parmalee, wife of our Mayor, W. G. Rose, is one of those unselfish spirits destined to live forever in the hearts of her friends and the people. She was thoroughly edu- cated at Oberlin College. As a good mother, she reared children who are an honor to their parents, and in public life she con- tributed largely to the city's welfare. So skillfully did she transform the Western Reserve Club that she became the founder of Sorosis and for years was its popular president. Most of all, to my mind, was she brilliant during the Centennial Commission of 1896. She suggested the Western Reserve ban- quet for the close of Women's Day. All its twelve counties were represented by splendid people. Governor and Mrs. Mc- Kinley standing for Stark County, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Hanna, with a host of others, representing Cuyahoga. So large was the attendance and so extraordinary the management that over $1100.00 were placed in the treasury of the woman's department She is still active in all good work.
MARY B. INGHAM.
SARAH KNOWLES BOLTON
Author of twenty-eight books, among which the "Lives of Poor Boys Who Became Famous," "Girls Who Became Famous," "Famous American Authors," "Famous American Statesmen," "English Statesmen of Queen Victoria's Reign," poems, and similar subjects.
She was born in Farmington, Conn., in 1841 and at 17 years of age became a member of her uncle's family in Hartford, Conn., where she met Lydia Sigourney, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others like them. She graduated from Cath- erine Beecher's school. Later she married Charles E. Bolton, a graduate of Amherst, and removed to Cleveland. He died in 1901. She has one son, Charles Knowles Bolton, of Boston, Mass.
She wrote a temperance story called "The Present Prob- lem." She was invited and did become one of the editors of The Congregationalist, in Boston, Mass.
She was two years abroad, making a special study of woman's higher education and what is being done for the mental and moral help of the laboring people by their employers.
She is now at Windermere Hill and sent the enclosed poem. She is intensely interested in the care of dumb animals. Her latest book is "Our Devoted Friend, the Dog."
HIS MONUMENT
He built a house, time laid it in the dust;
He wrote a book, its title now forgot;
He ruled a city, but his name is not Can gather from disuse, or marble bust.
He took a child from out a wretched cot,
SARAH KNOWLES BOLTON
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Who on the State dishonor might have brought, On any tablet graven, or where rust And reared him in the Christian's hope and trust.
The boy, to manhood grown, became a light
To many souls, and preached for human need The wondrous love of the Omnipotent.
The work has multiplied like stars at night
When darkness deepens; every noble deed Lasts longer than a marble monument.
MRS. SARAH K. BOLTON.
MRS. SARAH K. BOLTON'S FAMOUS BOOKS "Readable without inaccuracy."-Boston Post.
POOR BOYS WHO BECAME FAMOUS.
Short biographical sketches of George Peabody, Michael Faraday, Samuel Johnson, Admiral Farragut, Horace Greeley, William Lloyd Garrison, Garibaldi, President Lincoln, and other noted persons who, from humble circumstances, have risen to fame and distinction, and left behind an imperishable record. Illustrated with 24 portraits. 12mo.
GIRLS WHO BECAME FAMOUS.
Biographical sketches of Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Eliot, Helen Hunt Jackson, Harriet Hosmer, Rosa Bonheur, Florence Nightingale, Maria Mitchell, and other eminent women. Illustrated with portraits. 12mo.
FAMOUS MEN OF SCIENCE.
Short biographical sketches of Galileo, Newton, Linnæus, Cuvier, Humboldt, Audubon, Agassiz, Darwin, Buckland, and others. Illustrated with 15 portraits. 12mo.
FAMOUS AMERICAN STATESMEN.
Biographical sketches of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Webster, Sumner, Garfield, and others. Illustrated with portraits. 12mo.
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FAMOUS ENGLISH STATESMEN.
With portraits of Gladstone, John Bright, Robert Peel, Lord Palmerston, Lord Shaftesbury, William Edward Forster, Lord Beaconsfield. 12mo.
FAMOUS ENGLISH AUTHORS OF THE 19TH CENTURY.
With portraits of Scott, Burns, Carlyle, Dickens, Tennyson, Robert Browning, etc. 12mo.
FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS.
Short biographical sketches of Holmes, Longfellow, Emer- son, Lowell, Aldrich, Mark Twain, and other noted writers. Illustrated with portraits. 12mo.
FAMOUS EUROPEAN ARTISTS.
With portraits of Raphael, Titian, Landseer, Reynolds, Ru- bens, Turner, and others. 12mo.
FAMOUS TYPES OF WOMANHOOD.
With portraits of Queen Louise, Madam Recamier, Miss Dix, Jenny Lind, Susanna Wesley, Harriet Martineau, Amelia B. Edwards, and Mrs. Judson. 12mo.
FAMOUS VOYAGERS AND EXPLORERS.
With portraits of Raleigh, Sir John Franklin, Magellan, Dr. Kane, Greely, Livingstone, and others. 12mo.
FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG MEN.
With portraits of Napoleon, Wendell Phillips, Thomas Ar- nold, Charles Kingsley, General Sherman, and others. 12mo.
FAMOUS LEADERS AMONG WOMEN.
With portraits of Catherine II of Russia, Madam Le Brun, Catharine Booth, etc. 12mo, cloth.
FAMOUS GIVERS AND THEIR GIFTS.
With portraits of Andrew Carnegie, Stephen Girard, John D. Rockefeller, and others. 12mo.
MRS. S. M. PERKINS
MRS. ANNA K. SCOTT, M. D. SWATON, CHINA" MISSIONARY FOR THIRTY YEARS
SARAH M. PERKINS
Sarah M. Perkins, editor of "The True Republic," a preacher in her husband's church after his death, and member of Sorosis' Health Protective Association and W. C. T. U. A lecturer of note. From her life written by herself we take the following :
"I have had seventy years in temperance work. because I signed the temperance pledge when I was eight years old. It was called the Tetotal Pledge, so I thought it prohibited tea. Consequently I drank no tea. Then because the children of drunkards were abused by their schoolmates, I got the children with whom I played to sign the temperance pledge. In Sunday School, every spring, we made additions of books to the library. Girls were given blanks, to secure subscriptions-some reported three dollars. I had sixty dollars and urged them to buy Sar- gent's Temperance Books, just out, and to please me they bought the whole series. This money raising brought me in contact with many good people whose influence has helped me to higher ideals. At fifteen I was made a teacher in the Sabbath School. In season and out of season I talked temperance.
"I taught a district school at eighteen. I had them, in a day for elocution, recite a poem or an extract from old Lyman Beecher, who was the apostle of temperance in New England. I then joined the Sons of Temperance, a secret society, but I do not know what their secrets were. I urged my husband to preach temperance sermons; he was warned by a maiden lady that he would have trouble, but he told her: 'I shall preach against the liquor curse as long as I live and if they do not
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want to hear it, they can get another pastor.' The woman went away and was the same good friend, but it showed me the re- form was unpopular.
"When the Civil War came women took the places of men in the lecture field. I went to hear Miss Anna Dickinson and I said to myself, I can do that. I can do that. I wrote out lectures and waited my opportunity. Three divine openings came and I went into pulpits and told them the most sacred mission was temperance. The Good Templars were formed in my home place and I joined them. I spoke in my home church, Cooperstown, N. Y. My family was there to criticise, but they did not, and gave me pleasant encouragement.
"My husband was for woman's suffrage. I told him I had now a wider sphere than I could properly fill. I went to Boston and heard Julia Ward Howe. She and Lucy Stone invited me to the platform. They asked me to speak. The papers next morning said: 'A bright woman from the West could be heard, and that was more than could be said of the Boston women.' This was the turning point in my life. I began to study civic conditions; the corruption of politicians; the wages given and how boys could be protected. I said the moral influence of women was needed in our government.
"Rev. Olympia Brown heard me in New York City, where we met to organize a Woman's Congress. She invited me to come to Connecticut and work six weeks with the suffragists. I said the church women should help us and then we can speak in the churches. The next morning the papers were full of the crusade in Ohio. They ridiculed the helplessness of women who knelt before saloons in prayer. I said to Mrs. Brown, Those women, after futile efforts, will see they never can close saloons without the power of the ballot. The gospel and the law must go together.
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"Mrs. Thompson, a daughter of an ex-governor, inaug- urated the crusade in Hillsboro, O. Women are the greatest sufferers. In Chautauqua, N. Y., it was asked that the cru- saders be organized into a society. Mrs. Mary B. Ingham was in that meeting and led the crusade in Cleveland, O. The meet- ing was called for Cleveland and held in the Second Presby- terian Church. Mrs. Wittermeyer of Pittsburg was made pres- ident; Miss Frances Willard, first secretary.
"A few years afterward God called me to Ohio. I came for two weeks and have stayed twenty-three years. God had taken my husband and father and I said, what was the use of all this reform work. I was given a broken limb and as I lay in bed for sixteen weeks, I became submissive. I said I would do the work that came to me and would enter every door for service.
"I called on Jennie Duty and asked for temperance work. She gave me Geauga County to organize. In two weeks I re- turned with nine unions-one town had not heard of my com- ing, sent two little girls who went to every house. About twenty- five came, that union is still alive. At another place our horses became frightened by a threshing machine, tipped us out and our boy driver got a broken leg. I hired a man to take me to the appointment and gave an address and organized a union. In it was Mrs. Chase of Cleveland, a splendid worker. Mrs. Chase often refers to that evening.
"In another place the wheel came off and I had to go to a farm house, then another and another; all said they would not take horses out in such bad roads. At last a man walked with me, carrying a lantern. When I got to the meeting they were singing hymns waiting for my arrival. The stage driver had told them I was coming. When the voting day came I thought God was going to give us the victory. Women had prayer meet-
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