USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 17
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Deacon Jonathan Pelton was the son of Joseph Pelton, of Chatham, Conn. Elisabeth Pelton, his wife, was the sister of Timothy and Nathan- iel Doan. Her parents were Seth and Mercy Parker Doan, and through her father, who was held prisoner by the British in 1776, all her descend- ants are eligible to the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution.
Deacon Pelton lived 16 years after making Cleveland his home, and his wife outlived him another 16 years, dying at the age of 85. They had a family of 10 children, four of whom were married when their parents left Chatham. One of these, at least, came west, but of the others it is uncertain.
Children of Jonathan and Elisabeth Doan Pelton :
Deborah Pelton, b. 1783; m. Samuel Cooper.
Jonathan Pelton, b. 1785 ; died at sea in 1802.
Elisabeth Pelton, b. 1787; m. John Wilcox in 1809.
Parker Pelton, b. 1789; m. Laura Warner in 1813, died in Montville, 0.
Beulah Pelton, b. 1791; m. Dennis Cooper in 1810.
Joseph Pelton, b. 1793; m. Obedience Russell in 1818; 2nd, Sally Bid- lake.
Seth D. Pelton, b. 1795; m. Mary Porter in 1821.
Mary Pelton, b. 1797; m. Silas Bel- den in 1821.
Sarah Pelton, b. 1799; m. William Treat in 1822.
Harriet Pelton, m. Milo Hickox.
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1814
KELLEY
A mother's love stronger than the attractions of an established home, comforts, ease, and the close ties of neighbors and kin accounted for the arrival in Cleveland of Daniel and Jemima Kelley in the month of Octo- ber, 1814. He was nearly 60 years of age, and his wife 51 years. They came from Lowville, Oneida Co., N. Y., a place they had helped to found 17 years previously. Mr. Kelley was the son of Daniel and Abigail Reynolds Kelley, and was born in Middletown, Conn., in 1755. His American ancestor, Joseph Kelley, was a ship-builder who settled in Norwich, about 1716.
Mr. Daniel Kelley was a conspicuous figure in the business and social life of Lowville, and had acquired considerable real-estate and personal property. Mrs. Kelley was the daughter of Elihue and Jemima Paine Stow. Her father, a stern man, perverted the teaching of Jesus Christ, a disciple of whom he professed to be, into a theology that repelled rather than convinced or won. He thought that a woman's sole purpose in life was to rear a family, her only recourse, when each day's duties were per- formed, the Bible. It is not strange that his children's early training succeeded in estranging them from what was deemed in those days, religion.
Mrs. Kelley had two brothers, Joshua and Silas Stow, both brilliant men. Judge Joshua Stow was a large, landed proprietor, a pioneer of the Western Reserve, and a notable man in Ohio's early history.
The first break in the Kelley family of six sons was when Datus, then twenty-two years of age, became discontented with the severities of western New York winters, and started on foot for Cleveland in 1810. The same year, Alfred Kelley came on, and was soon followed by Irad and Reynolds. The younger boys, Thomas and Daniel, were the only children remaining in the homestead.
Doubtless, the older sons had become interested in Cleveland through the frequent letters of their uncle, Joshua Stow, one of the original members of the Connecticut Land Co. and one of the surveyors who in 1796 laid out the future city. Mrs. Kelley's yearning over her absent boys finds expression in letters written in 1811, in which she says, "It is a severe trial to part with children, to hear of their being sick and not to be able to be with them," and again, "I sometimes almost envy the days that are past when all my children were with me."
And so, in 1814, the household treasures were mostly sacrificed, for but little furniture could be carried in the long journey, and for the second time in their married lives, Mr. and Mrs. Kelley became pioneers of a new country, and voluntarily assumed all the privations that a home in the wilderness entails.
But financially, they were in much better circumstances than almost any other Cleveland settler of that day, as they were able to give each of their sons a thousand dollars to invest in land or business.
The ground-plan of an attractive, brick cottage had been planned by the mother, and she expected it to be in readiness for occupation when she reached Cleveland. But masons were not to be had in the little hamlet, and even the frame-house in which she began housekeeping was not erected until after her arrival.
Meantime, she visited Datus Kelley, her son, who had purchased a
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large farm on the lake shore a mile west of Rocky River. He had returned to Lowville, N. Y., their former home, in 1811, and brought back a bride, Miss Sarah Dean, and established her in a commodious log-house. He was the oldest of the Kelley children and the first to marry. Daniel, the youngest son, accompanied his parents to Cleveland, while Thomas re- mained at school in the east.
December 14 finds Mrs. Kelley established in her new home, but unsatisfied because of her separation from Thomas, and she writes, "I almost feel as if I wanted to turn the wheel of time faster. I have seen my five children together, but the want of the other one renders it very incomplete." The desire of her heart was granted, but another three months found the united family circle again broken, not by the tempo- rary absence of a child, but by the departure from earth of the devoted mother. She died September 15, 1815, of the prevalent malarial fever.
Mrs. Kelley was a reader and a student. She prepared herself for the vicissitudes of pioneer life by studying subjects that would be of use to her in the new conditions surrounding her life, especially medical lore. She was venerated by her family and friends for her goodness, wisdom, and usefulness. She had a keen sense of humor, and her sayings that often were epigrams in strength and conciseness were quoted long years after the dear mother had gone to her eternal rest.
The father and his sons, Alfred, Irad, and Thomas Kelley, made their home with Reynolds and his wife, after the death of Mrs. Kelley, but in 1817 Alfred married and began housekeeping in the brick cottage on Water Street, and his father accompanied him there.
Mr. Daniel Kelley served the county as its treasurer, and was the city's postmaster in 1816. He was a very kind, affectionate man, and his sons' wives all adored him. He died in 1831. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley were first laid away in the Ontario Street Cemetery and afterward removed to Erie Street Cemetery.
Irad Kelley was 22 years old when he came to Cleveland in 1813. He was not considered as brilliant a man as his younger brother Alfred, although, had he engaged in a professional rather than in a mercantile business he might have gained an equal reputation at the bar. He was a spare man of medium height; had a Roman nose, blue eyes and a firm mouth. No man ever living in Cleveland was better known or more frequently quoted. "He was generous-hearted, high-spirited, full of fun, and utterly unconventional." He never cared whether people agreed or disagreed with him, and his opinions, always vigorously expressed, and quite different from those cherished by the majority of his associates, were adopted at a later day by the community as sound conclusions. He was far ahead of the time in which he lived.
In a controversy over fencing the Public Square, he argued earnestly against the measure, and when the majority ruled to enclose it, he would never walk around it but proceeded to climb over the fences, much to the amusement of the public. In time the fence was voted a nuisance, obstructing commerce, and detrimental to the best interests of the city. This instance is but one of the many occasions in which Mr. Irad Kelley was justified in his judgment of popular measures. He built a frame- store and dwelling on Superior Street where South Bank Street now
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KELLEY
begins, and here with his brother lived for two years; then he built a brick store in front of it, the first brick store in town. He bought and sold general merchandise. Part of the time he had a partner, Prentice Dow, his wife's brother-in-law. The firm name was "Kelley & Dow." He was made the village postmaster in 1817, and served for 12 years, receiving $125 a year, out of which he had to pay expenses.
The wooing of his bride in 1819 was most characteristic. She was Miss Harriet Pease, 19 years of age, and daughter of George and Esther Thompson Pease. Her parents had removed from Hudson, Ohio, to Cleveland four years previously. She had given him little encourage- ment, and finally, in order to avoid his advances, or perchance to test through absence her own feelings, she went to Hudson to visit an uncle and other relatives living in that town. Irad Kelley laid siege to her parents, and gained their consent to his suit. Riding upon one horse and leading another he proceeded to Hudson, and informed Miss Pease that he had come for her, as her parents had accepted him, and now it was her turn to do the same. His bride was a beautiful girl, and remained most attractive all her life. She was a good mother, good neighbor, and kind friend. Her length of life was 68 years.
Mr. Irad Kelley was part-proprietor of Kelley's Island, and some of his descendants now reside on it. He built a fine residence on Euclid Avenue, where he lived until death. He had gone into the banking business, which proved to be unsuccessful, and he lost much money through this investment.
The children of Irad and Harriet Pease Kelley:
Gustavus Kelley, b. 1820; was drowned at four years of age; died 1894.
George Kelley, b. 1822; died on Kel- ley's Island; 1894 married Mar- tha J. Eastland, daughter of Col. James and Mary Swan Eastland of Virginia.
Dr. Edwin Kelley, b. 1826; m. Mary A. Beebe of Hudson, Ohio, who died 1876.
Charles Kelley, b. 1828; m. Ada Proeser of Marietta, Ohio. He
lived on Kelley's Island. No chil- dren.
Franklin Kelley, b. 1836; m. Mattie Hanna of Detroit, Michigan. They lived at 6908 Euclid Ave.
Martha Louise Kelley, b. 1833.
Laura Kelley, b. 1839; m. William Darwin Hills, son of Nathan and Sobrina Loomis Hills.
William Henry Kelley, b. 1841; mar- ried Rose Spencer, daughter of Timothy and Mary Reeve Spen- cer.
Irad Kelley died of pleurisy in his 86th year. He had started for Brazil, at that time of life, and was taken suddenly ill at the beginning of the proposed journey.
Joseph Reynolds Kelley, or "Reynolds," as he was called, was the fourth son of Daniel and Jemima Stow Kelley, and came to Cleveland in the winter of 1814, aged 20 years. Although associated in business with his brothers, he was really a land-agent and real-estate dealer, but his life was short. He died aged 29 years. When only 20 years old he married
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Betsey Gould. The young couple made their home at the north-west corner of Bank and Lake streets. Their only child, Horace Kelley, was born in 1819 and was but four years old at his father's death.
Horace Kelley m. Fanny Miles of Elyria. They had no children. Horace inherited a large land-property from his father, and to it he added greatly by wise investments. This at his death in 1890 was left to the City of Cleveland for an art gallery, the nucleus for which was a private collection of valuable paintings and other work of art which had adorned his home.
The large sum of money he bequeathed to the city for art purposes and the care of his art treasures was left in charge of trustees of his own choosing. Twenty-three years have passed since his death, and no sign as yet of any art gallery open to the public .*
Thomas M. Kelley, fifth son of Daniel and Harriet Kelley, was 18 years old when he came to Cleveland. He was a merchant and a banker, and lived here all the remaining years of his life, and passed away aged 81 years, the last member of his family. He married in 1833 Lucy Harris Latham of Thetford, Vt., eldest daughter of Wm. H. Latham and his wife Azuba Jenks Latham.
The first home of Thomas and Lucy Kelley was the one that Irad Kelley had occupied until 1833, and in which Daniel Kelley had died two years previously. It was back of the store on Superior Street, at the head of Bank Street. Three years later, he built a beautiful homestead on the north-west corner of Euclid Avenue and Huntington Street. It was of Colonial architecture, the front ornamented with four great two-storied pillars.
Mr. Kelley was a kind, jovial man, very much respected and liked in the community. Mrs. Lucy Kelley, a lovely woman, had hosts of admiring friends. The T. M. Kelley homestead was one of much hospitality and good cheer. It has been sad for those who once frequented that home and others that flanked it for a block or two on Euclid Avenue, to pass the spot and to note the radical changes time has made in a neighborhood once occupied by exceptionally beautiful, stately, private houses, in and out of which passed notable people of years long gone by. These homes were each a center of social life, the memories of which many people yet living love to recall with tender regret. Mr. Kelley died in 1874, aged 64 years.
The children of Thomas M. and Lucy Latham Kelley :
Lucy Kelley, b. 1836; m. George S. ter T. Cole. They resided in the
Mygatt of Cleveland. She died 21 T. M. Kelley homestead.
years of age, leaving no children. Mary Alice Kelley, b. 1845; m. Ches-
Thomas Arthur Kelley, b. 1849; m. Eva Magrue.
* The building is now in process of erection in Wade Park.
158
1815 POPULATION, ABOUT 100
CLEVELAND VILLAGE ORGANIZED
President, Alfred Kelly.
Trustees, David Long, Nathan Per- ry, Samuel Williamson.
Recorder, Horace Perry.
Treasurer, Alonzo Carter. Marshal, John A. Ackley (half- brother of Lorenzo Carter). Postmaster, Ashbel Walworth.
COUNTY OFFICERS
Commissioners, Philo Taylor, Sam- uel Dodge.
Treasurer, David Long.
Surveyor, Samuel S. Baldwin.
Judge of Common Pleas, Erastus Miles.
Clerk of Common Pleas, Horace Per- ry. Sheriff, Eben Hosmer.
Only as yet three streets in town-Superior, Water, Bank.
1815
The sudden ending of the War of 1812 ruined many who had pur- chased supplies for the army. The war had destroyed commerce. The national debt was a hundred million dollars. Banks all over the country were obliged to suspend specie payment. Men in New England and Middle states were out of work. Land in Ohio was cheap, and a great western movement set in this year. The close of the Napoleonic wars in Europe also brought large immigration to this country from England.
Married-Isaac Fuller and Minerva Peet.
1815
A young merchant named Stephen Dudley had a store on the south side of Superior Street near Seneca. He remained in town until 1825, at least as he figured in an incident of that date. He was a gay, light- hearted young man, a favorite in the small society of the hamlet. A Stephen Dudley died in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1856, who may have been the early Cleveland merchant. He was a native of New Hampshire, and married Miss Hannah Turner.
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1815
O'CONNER
Lawrence O'Conner and his wife Phebe Bostwick were natives of Ontario, Canada. The data furnished the writer leads to the supposition that they brought four children with them. They were:
Almira O'Conner, m. Joseph House. Miranda O'Conner, m. Philip Cady. Angeline O'Conner, m. Andrew Mc-
Ilrath. She died in Bedford, O.
Avernon O'Conner, m. Clarissa Dra-
Demilah O'Conner, m. Samuel White; lived in Bedford, O. per. Alanson O'Conner, m. Lucy Bishop. Washington O'Conner, m. Elisabeth Dille.
1815
WELCH
Benjamin S. Welch was a soldier of the War of 1812, Indian agent, surveyor, sheriff, farmer, and tavern-keeper at different periods of his life; whether successful in each and all of these has not been stated. But one fact remains, both he and his good wife left memories that are pleasant to recall.
Mr. Welch married Miss Sophia Wilson in Troy, N. Y. She was but 16 years of age and yet attending school. Shortly after the event, he was appointed assistant Indian agent in Mackinac, Mich., and with his young bride made the journey thither. Alaska is much easier to reach in this day than Mackinac was in that one. They spent a year or more in the wilderness and among the Indians, then, in 1815, came to Cleveland, which, though a small hamlet, must have seemed to them, after their late experience, as quite a town.
Mr. Welch bought the farm on the corner of Euclid Avenue that now intersects with the east end of Superior Street. It ran back and up Euclid Heights. Here they remained until after two of their children were born. He then sold the farm and removed to Collinwood, where he served as its sheriff for several years. At one time, he was assistant for Ahaz Merchant, the surveyor, who for long years located county and township property lines. After that, or perhaps before, he ran the old Spangler Tavern on Superior Street between Seneca and Bank, and later the one on the corner of Ontario and Michigan streets, a tavern which, by that time, had shed its pioneer name and taken on that of "Coffee House."
Mr. Welch's services in the War of 1812 created an interest in mili- tary affairs that lasted through the remainder of his life. He was always connected with the local militia and an original member of the Cleveland Grays.
During all the strenuous years of their early and middle life, Mrs. Sophia Welch stood shoulder to shoulder with her husband. It began, when, little more than a child, she accompanied him to the wilds of Mackinac. There she found but two white women on the island besides
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1815
WHITE
herself, and she became very lonely and homesick. The beauty of the wilderness, however, appealed to her, and she daily took long walks, at first alone, and later with an Indian "Medicine Man" who, noticing her interest in the strange flora of the island, taught her the Indian name of all the weeds, roots, and herbs growing luxuriantly in the edges of the forest, also the medicinal properties of each. She was a natural healer, and had she been born of the other sex, she would have become, with study, a skillful physician. She was a fine nurse, however, and the knowledge of roots and herbs acquired in Mackinac proved most valuable to her friends and neighbors in time of sickness. She was fear- less in exposing herself to contagious diseases, but avoided small-pox on account of her family.
An amusing story is told of her while landlady of the Spangler Tavern, as it was then called. It was in the first cholera epidemic, the summer of 1832, and several business men, who had shut up their homes, and sent their families out of town, were boarding with her. Every one had become uneasy, if not fearful, at the ravages of the terrible scourge. It had already claimed two victims at the Scovill Tavern farther down the street, and might any day appear at the one the Welches were con- ducting. Mrs. Welch prepared a concoction, known only to herself, and required all her boarders to march through the only entrance to the dining-room while she dealt out to each a teaspoonful of the medicine.
"I will not have cholera break out in this tavern," she declared, "and if you will not take the dose, you can leave, and go to the other one." Her husband, though in great fear of the scourge, was the only man who balked at her dose, and would not take it. He thought that abstinence from all fruit, vegetables, etc., would secure indemnity without the medi- cine. Strange to relate, he, and he only, was attacked by the disease. He lived through it, however, and concluding he had had enough of town life, bought a farm just this side of Warrensville and removed to it.
The children of Benjamin and Sophia Wilson Welch:
Oscar F. Welch, b. 1817; m. Eliza Caine. He died 1892.
James Welch, b. 1821; m. Caroline Dunham, dau. of Rufus Dunham. Loretta Welch, b. 1826; m. James B. Wilbur, son of Eliam Wilbur.
Rosalia Welch, m. Henry Howes of Elyria.
Catherine Welch, an adopted daugh- ter, m. Andrew J. Aiken.
1815
WHITE
Wileman White of Lenox, Mass., a young carpenter who had gained some knowledge of bridge-building as well, set out for Cleveland in 1815, certain that in this region where rivers and streams abounded, his serv- ices would be in demand. Within the following two years, this reasoning was confirmed, and so assured seemed the future for himself that he re-
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WELCH
turned to his native state for a brief visit, and to persuade Miss Sabrina Williams of Stockbridge to make her nineteenth birthday also her wedding day, and to accompany him on his return trip to Ohio.
The wedding journey was a sleigh-ride of 500 miles. At the end of 19 days they reached East Cleveland, where they rested for ten days at the home of Seth and Lucy Clark Doan. Mr. White built a two-story frame-house on the corner of Bank and St. Clair streets, where the young couple made their first home. This building was standing until in very recent years. The little town, not having as yet attained to the dignity of a church edifice, Mr. and Mrs. White with other church-going people attended frequent services in the upper story of the jail, then situated on the north-west corner of the Public Square.
Mr. Wileman White's business took him often to Newburgh, and for the convenience of his family he removed out there some time in the late '30s. He died there in 1842, aged 49 years, and rests in Harvard Grove Cemetery, where his wife was laid beside him 33 years later, together with several children.
Mrs. White was a woman of steadfast character, of high aspirations, and much natural artistic ability. But the illness and death of her hus- band leaving her with a large family of young children, made life most strenuous for many following years. It is said that James A. Garfield, who became President of the United States, boarded with her while he was working on the tow-path of the Ohio Canal, and at that time she was a mother to him in the numberless little ways in which mothers look out for the comfort of their men-folks. Be that as it may, the future Presi- dent in after years was a warm friend of Mrs. White and her children. She lived to be 77 years old, long enough to enjoy the social standing and business success of her family of boys and girls.
Henry C. White was the most prominent of her children in the com- munity. He was a lawyer of unusual ability, a brilliant orator, and for many years one of the most popular citizens of Cleveland. His office as judge of the probate court brought him in contact with all classes of society, and his winning personality made him a friend of rich and poor alike. He possessed a warm heart and generous nature, so much so that though the recipient of a large salary extending over many years, he left but a modest property at his death in 1905. His income had melted away under the many and frequent calls made upon it by the poor and unfort- unate.
Mr. and Mrs. White had a family of eight children, six of whom were born in Cleveland. Four died in childhood. They were:
Henry Williams White, b. 1818 ; died aged 16 years.
Adeline White, b. 1820; died aged 3 years.
Janette White, b. 1822; died aged 18 years.
*Julia A. White, b. 1828; m. Gus- tavus Andrews; d. 1906.
*Jane S. White, b. 1828; m. William White; died 1881.
Henry Clay White, b. 1838 in New- burgh; died in Cleveland 1905; m. Sabrina Capron.
Adeline M. White, b. 1840; d. 1841.
* Twins.
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1815
BAILEY
At intervals, for twelve years, the writer endeavored to trace through court records or newspaper files the descendants of Amasa and Richard Bailey, Cleveland merchants in 1815. Amasa early disappeared from the history of the town, but Richard, in 1837, was still in active business. When all further quest seemed hopeless, it was learned accidentally that Joseph Bailey, a son of Richard, a lifelong resident of the city, and who, it is said, had its history, its early inhabitants, etc., at his fingers' ends, had died recently on Broadway Avenue at the advanced age of 89 years.
He was all alone, and had made his home for years with a personal friend. In view of the almost insurmountable difficulties attending re- search of this character, and the fact that Joseph Bailey would have been a mine of information regarding early residents whose life records prove most.elusive, it seems strange that no old settler had the interest in this labor of love to acquaint the writer with his presence in the city. But, through his death, the address of a niece living in the west was obtained, and through her, other addresses were secured, until, at last, the long sought for data was at hand.
Amasa Bailey was born at Cummington, Mass., in 1792. When he was seven years of age, his mother died, leaving a family of young children. He was bound out to a farmer named Hazen, where he remained until old enough to learn the saddle and harness trade, which he carried on in Cleveland on lot 87, south-east corner of Superior Street and the Public Square. This he bought of Abram Hickox for $100. He also bought of Dr. Long, in 1821, a lot on Huron Street. His only living child, Amasa Bailey of Massillon, has possession of these deeds. His residence and shop was removed to make room for the famous Lemen cottage, which was superseded by the Hoffman Block, and today, 1910, the site is occupied by the Cuyahoga Building.
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