USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
Mrs. William Bliss was Cynthia Wolcott, daughter of Albert and
181
1816
BLISS
1
Hanna Loomis Wolcott of Windsor, Conn. She was married in 1813, when 24 years of age, and four years later came to Cleveland.
They had three sons and two daughters:
Albert Wolcott Bliss, their oldest child, died at the age of 35, leav- ing no posterity.
Nancy Eliza Bliss, died unmarried at the age of 25.
Louise Bliss was born blind, and after the death of both parents was tenderly cared for by a cous- in living in Michigan, Nancy Warner, afterward Mrs. Proctor Pease.
Stoughton Bliss married Miss Maria Sweet of Buffalo, who died the following year, 1850. He remained a widower until his death. For many years previous to it he boarded at the Kennard House. He was thought to strongly resemble Oliver Wol- cott, the signer of the Declara- tion of Independence.
William S. Bliss, the youngest child of William and Cynthia Bliss, born 1827, married Lucy Gur- ley. At her death he married secondly, Annie M. Johnston of Columbus, Tenn. He was a newspaper publisher, and lived away from the city a number of years, but returned and died, 1881, in Glenville, on the site of the present Roadside Club house. They had two children born in Co- lumbia, Harry A. and Maria Lou- ise Bliss. These two children are now the only representatives of the Wolcott and Bliss families who once lived in the city. The former has an office in the Superior Ar- cade, and the latter married Charles Hoor of La Grange, Ill., and resides in that place.
William Bliss, Sr., died in 1828 of malarial fever, aged 38 years. His widow was living at 90 Superior Street in 1845. She died three years later.
The family rest in Erie Street Cemetery.
William Bliss, at his death, owned valuable Cleveland property which if kept in his family would have netted half a million, years ago. May 3, 1831, this property was advertised by John W. Allen, administrator, to be sold at the courthouse, probably by auction. It consisted of part of lot 77, situated on the south side of Superior Street just east of Bank Street, West 6th, running through to Champlain, with a frame-house upon it. Six lots of ten acres each, and one containing five acres, situated on the north side of Lake Street, between Ontario and Erie streets, and 50 acres of lot 279, half of one of the 100-acre lots then outside the village limits, but now looked upon as "down town."
Jonathan Bliss lived but seven years after coming to Cleveland. He died of malaria fever in 1823, aged 43 years, and was buried in Ontario Street Cemetery, and afterward removed to Erie Street Cemetery. After much research, the writer has been unable to learn the maiden name of Mrs. Bliss, save that it was Hannah. The marriage of Jonathan Bliss to Hannah Kent is recorded in Connecticut, but there is a discrepancy between the ages of that Mrs. Bliss and the Cleveland one of the same name. It is possible that the latter may have been older than her friends supposed. Mr. Bliss was her third husband.
182
1816
BELDEN
From all that can be learned, she had led a checkered life, one full of ups and downs in circumstance. At one time she was mistress of a fashionable boarding house in Washington, D. C., where many prominent statesmen were her guests, among them Daniel Webster, and she had lived in Saratoga Springs and mingled there in high society. Her man- ner bore evidence of this, as she was cultured and refined, and very interesting in conversation.
Jonathan and Mrs. Bliss had no children of their own, but brought with them to Cleveland a little girl named Pamelia Townsend who had been left an orphan in infancy, and whom Jonathan Bliss adopted.
Pamelia Townsend Bliss was married in 1831 to Herschel Foote of Cleveland and lived in East Cleveland for many years. The Footes re- moved to Saratoga Springs, N. Y., where Mrs. Bliss died in 1859, aged 81 years. She was buried there, but 15 years later her remains were disinterred and taken to Larchmont Manor, a later residence of the Foote family.
1816
BELDEN
Silas and Sarah Andrews Belden lived in Canaan, Conn., and probably were married soon after the close of the Revolutionary War. They had two sons and two daughters. Silas, the second son, was born in 1795. He left home quite young, and went to Lenox, Mass. He was a car- penter, and probably hoped to secure work in that town and was disap- pointed, for he came to Cleveland in 1816 when he was but 21 years old. Five years later he married Mary Pelton of Pelton's Corners, East Cleve- land. She was a daughter of the pioneer Deacon Jonathan Pelton and his wife Elisabeth.
The home of the Beldens was on St. Clair Street, directly opposite the residence of the Hilliards and Cutters, and they remained there long after those families had forsaken that neighborhood for the more fash- ionable and attractive Woodland Avenue. Very little can be learned of Mr. Belden's life in Cleveland, but that little indicates much the measure of esteem in which he was held in the community. Whenever his name is mentioned in connection with city affairs we find him in excellent company.
The threatened visitation of cholera in 1831 hastened the organization of the first, local, board of health, the members of which were three well- known physicians: Edwin Cowies, Dr. St. John, Dr. Joshua Mills, with Silas Belden and Charles Dennison.
In 1836 we find him as one of three election judges in the incorpora- tion of the city, his associates being John Blair and Daniel Worley, with John A. Vincent and Dudley Baldwin as clerks. But best of all, the fol- lowing year he heads the names of three members of the board of educa- tion, Henry Sexton and Henry H. Dodge being the other two.
Mrs. Belden belonged to a fine family of New England stock, who
183
- 1816
BELDEN
gave its name to a well-known locality of East Cleveland. During most of her life she lived neighbor to her sister Mary Pelton, Mrs. Milo Hickox, and they are both spoken very kindly of by the people yet living who recall them.
Of her six children, two died young in the same year. Her own death occurred in 1838 when her oldest child was 16, and the youngest but six years of age. They were:
Caroline Belden, born 1832; married Harrison Belden, born 1825; unmar-
Albert B. Northrup. ried ; died 63 years old.
Emily Belden, born 1824; unmar-
Sarah Belden, born 1829; married
ried; died 71 years old. L. O. King of Mansfield, O.
Albert and Caroline Belden Northrup lived in Cleveland and Wil- loughby, O., for some years and then moved to Kansas City, Mo. She was one of the earliest public school teachers of the city.
Harrison was purser for many years on a line of steamboats. In the last years of his life he was book-keeper for the King Iron Works of Buffalo, N. Y. He never married.
L. O. and Sarah Belden King removed to Prairie du Chien, Wis., in 1857.
Nearly three years after the death of his wife, Silas Belden married (2) Cornelia E. Northrup, dau. of Abijah and Betsey Northrup. The children of this marriage were: Charles M. Belden, who died at five years of age, and Albert Belden, who married Hattie E. Blodgett. They both died in Willoughby, O.
Silas Belden died in 1872. His mother, Sarah Andrews Belden, came from Canaan, Conn., to live with him and Mrs. Ebelone Southworth her daughter after the death of her husband. She died in 1843 of old age, and with her son and his family is buried in Erie Cemetery.
1817
"Thousands of New England families this year sacrificed their homes and furniture for whatever it could obtain and started westward. The past two years had been so cold and bleak in New England that it caused a stampede to Ohio. Pitiful scenes were common all along the route. Families that had left their homes in haste and extreme depressions of spirit struggled westward, suffering from lack of provisions and comforts of all kinds. In some instances the long, hard journey was attempted on foot, the father and his boys taking turns in dragging along an impro- vised hand-wagon loaded with remnants of household goods, and occa- sionally giving the baby and mother a ride. Many of these people were in extreme poverty, and begged food as they toiled wearily on. Not a few perished on their arrival in Ohio from fatigue and privation, and others fell victims to fever and ague, almost certain, at that time, to attack new settlers."
If you were on foot and wished to cross the Cuyahoga River, Chris- topher Gunn would take you over in his skiff for sixpence. If you were
184
1817
SHERMAN
driving a team, Mr. Gunn would use a big flat scow for the purpose, and the charge would be a shilling.
1817
SHERMAN
Ephraim Sherman, Jr., and his family came to town in 1817. His father, Ephraim Sherman, Sr., accompanied them, but his mother Mary Sherman remained east, expecting to join the family when it was well established in the new home. The Shermans were originally from Graf- ton, Mass., but in 1803 removed to Walpole, N. H., where they resided 14 years and again sold out and came to Ohio. The family were descend- ants of Roger Sherman, and were very proud of the fact. Mrs. Sherman, Remember Cooke, was born in Rhode Island, but married in Grafton, Mass.
Ephraim Sherman, Sr., and his son settled on Broadway, but seemed to be disappointed or dissatisfied with the conditions they encountered and the two men and older grandsons went to Vermilion, and built a large cabin of hewn logs, intending to make it the family home. The women, left alone, were in constant fear of Indians and wild animals which abounded in the vicinity. The former would frequently ask to stay all night by the Sherman fire-place, rolling themselves in their blankets and lying with their heads nearest the fire. At such times Mrs. Sherman and her daughters were too timid to sleep and kept vigil until dawn. The weird howling of wolves close to the cabin also was a sleep-destroyer. The early settlers kept a big bonfire going near by their homes in order to intimidate wild animals.
Once, Clarissa Sherman went to a spring for water, when an Indian sprang up from the thicket, and she ran for her life, screaming all the way home. But the red men meant no harm and doubtless understood that the Sherman household of women were afraid of them, and took advantage of it to have some fun with them.
Mary Sherman never came to Ohio, for her husband died in Vermilion in 1818. The following year, the whole family, who, meanwhile had moved to that town, were all very ill with malaria, and Ephraim, Jr., also died. He was buried in a cemetery that eventually was washed into the lake, and the bones of both father and son were carried away by the waves.
Mrs. Remember Cook Sherman, and all but three of her large family of children returned to Walpole. One of her daughters, Harriet Sherman Staffard, married and lived in a beautiful home in Lowell, Mass. Here the mother was tenderly cared for in her old age, and in every way possible, encouraged to forget the long years of change, trial and sore bereavement. She died in 1841, aged 78.
The three Sherman children remaining in Cleveland were Nancy, Clarissa and Remember. Nancy had become the second wife of Capt.
185
1817
STEWART
W. W. Williams, Jr., of Newburgh. Clarissa and Remember lived with her a year or two, then Clarissa married Arial Harris, son of Calvin and Susannah Bullock Harris, and Remember married Frederick Onstine of Amherst, Ohio.
1817
STEWART
Samuel Stewart came to Newburgh in 1817, and located on land now occupied by the Kinsman Street Reservoir. He married Cherry Edwards, daughter of Rudolphus Edwards. He kept a country tavern and road- house many years.
Samuel and Cherry Stewart had four sons :
Jehiel Stewart, m. Sophia Thomas. Calvin Stewart.
Noble Stewart, removed to Marion Rudolphus Stewart, m. Margaret
County and married there. Sayles.
1817 SARGEANT
Levi Sargeant was born in Vermont in 1777. He married in 1804, Rosamond Harris of Connecticut, but the wedding took place in Plain- field, N. H. Their first children were born in Vermont. He evidently moved to Plainfield, N. H., for their third child was born there. He lived in Carthage, near Rochester, N. Y., about 1813, and four years later left that place for Monroe, Mich. The prospects there proved unfavor- able, and again he made a change, this time a permanent one. He reached Cleveland in 1818, and lived in a small red house on the west side of Water Street, the same house probably, in which David Clark lived and died.
Mr. Sargeant entered into partnership with Abram Hickox, whose blacksmith shop stood on the south side of Superior Street near Seneca Street. Mr. Sargeant evidently retained his shop here long after taking up residence on the West Side. In the early '30s, he calls for helpers in his work, stipulating that men must be of good moral character. This last was the key-note of Levi Sargeant's character, making of him a most unusual man. Probably there never lived in Cleveland one who main- tained higher ideals of morality and honesty.
Mrs. Sargeant was a strong character. She was a famous nurse ready to respond to the call for help whenever needed. And in those days, that meant almost continuously, for the hamlet was scourged with malarial fever, year after year. Mr. Sargeant built the second house
186
1817
YOUNG
erected on Detroit Street, West Side, where they died, he in 1862, and Mrs. Sargeant in 1866.
The children of Levi and Rosamond Sargeant:
Jerusha Tracey Sargeant, b. 1804; m. Epaphras Lord Barber, son of Judge Josiah Barber.
Elisabeth Harris Sargeant, b. 1805; m. George Lord Chapman of East Haddam, Conn.
Julia Ann Sargeant, b. 1808; m. Robert Seldon of East Haddam, Conn.
John Harris Sargeant, b. 1814; m. Julia Jackson Hull, daughter of Morris Jackson.
Charles H. Sargeant, b. 1819, in Cleveland; m. Hannah Lawson of Cincinnati.
A fine pen picture of the daughters of this family, written by Mrs. Stella T. Hatch, will be found on pages 199 and 200 of the Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve.
The following quaint advertisement appeared in a Cleveland Herald of an early day:
"Notice is hereby given that the subscriber has released to his son John H. Sargeant the use of his time. He is therefore authorized to trade on his own account and on his own responsibility and for his own benefit.
LEVI SARGEANT, Feb. 16, 1834."
1817
YOUNG
Ansel Young of Tolland, Conn., who came to Cleveland in 1817 at the age of 29, was a tanner and a fuller. He had a tannery and factory on Doan Brook, near Wade Park Avenue.
But, though well trained in two trades, and a man who supported his family, he was ever above mere dollars and cents. His mind dwelt naturally on higher things. For many years in succession he made the astronomical calculations of local almanacs. He was an intimate friend of several well-known eastern scholars, among them Jared Sparks, and his love of books was a passion. His mother was a Miss Thankful Jenne, for whom he named his daughter. The Youngs lived on Ansel Avenue, and when Wade Park Avenue was cut through that street, their house stood facing the west and directly in the way. Ansel Avenue was named in honor of Ansel Young.
His wife was Sarah Hollister, and they were of the same age. She was a short, plump woman, very even-tempered, never known to scold or to say an unkind word of the absent. She was a direct descendant of John Carver of the Mayflower.
187
1817
OWEN
The children of Ansel and Sarah Young:
Minerva Young, who died unmar- ried at 87 years of age.
Thankful Jenne Young, m. Benj. T. Blackwell.
Martha Young, m. Isaac A. Pills- bury, a civil engineer.
They all died in Cleveland.
The Blackwells and Pillsburys were well known in the community. One of the old families who settled in the East End were the Blackwells. They bought, on what is now Ansel Avenue, a seven-acre lot at $6 an acre. It extended from the park, taking in part of the Boulevard to East 93rd Street. They built a home upon Ansel Avenue in 1831, which has stood until recently, and is now being torn down to make room for the erection of the new Homeopathic Hospital, which for many years was called the Huron Street Hospital.
Benjamin Titus Blackwell was the son of Andrew and Rebecca Titus Blackwell of Hopewell, N. Y. His mother died when he was a year old, and his parental grandparents took him into their keeping until he was 19 years old. His grandfather kept a hotel in Hopewell. He married Thankful Jenne Young, daughter of Ansel Young the East End pioneer. She was an exceptional character in many respects, cheerful, always in the same mood, with a kind word for and of every one.
Their first son was named for Jared Sparks the celebrated college professor, who gave the child a library.
Jared Sparks Blackwell, married Abby Morgan, daughter of Will- iam Morgan, and they lived for 25 years on a hundred-acre lot ad-
joining Shaker Lakes, bought by Blackwell, Sr., for $6 an acre.
Jane Maria Blackwell, the only daughter of Benjamin, married Robert S. Averv of Groton, Conn.
Titus Blackwell, a cousin of Benjamin, bought an acre of ground on the corner of St. Clair and Wood Street in 1831. He made one payment on it. When the cholera plague broke out in the city, he was seized with a panic and abandoning the property to its original owner, he fled back to Albion, N. Y., his former home.
1817
OWEN
Mr. and Mrs. Silas Owen lived in Sundersfield, Conn. Mrs. Owen was Miss Lucy Maches, born 1770. In 1817, they converted their farm and stock into money and started for Newburgh, Ohio, in a sleigh. When the snow failed them they traveled on the ice of Lake Erie. Mr. Owen
188
1817
GUPTIL
was killed on the Ohio Canal by a cave-in of soil, and Mrs. Lucy Owen was left with her four children. They were:
Betsey Owen, who remained unmar- ried. Lucy Owen, m. Alvah Brainard.
Lydia Owen, m. James Williams.
Silas Owen, m. Julia Brainard.
Grandma Owen lived in her old age with her daughter Lucy Owen Brainard. This last daughter was married in 1829, and at the time of the Cleveland Centennial was still living at the age of 86. She had a bright intellect, was usually in good health, and loved to talk of the early days when she came from Connecticut. She spun yarn when so young that she had to walk on a thick plank in order to reach the big spinning- wheel.
Mrs. Lucy Owen Brainard not only raised her own family, but took into it and cared for her brother Silas' daughter Lydia Owen. She was thin and spare, but quick as lightning, a very smart woman in many direc- tions. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Alvah Brainard:
Harriet Brainard, m. Fayette Glea- Demming Brainard, m. Lurinda Pal- son.
Eunice Brainard, m. Henry Adams
of Olmstead.
mer.
Addison and George Brainard never married.
1817
GUPTIL
John H. Guptil, who had a shoe "shop" on Water Street, and later a shoe "store" 79 Superior Street, was a native of Maine, who in childhood was taken into Vermont, and, when only 16 years of age, took part in the Battle of Plattsburg. Three years after the close of the war, 1817, he came to the village of Cleveland, and married Lucy White, daughter of Levi and Sabrina Kinney White. Sixty years afterward the couple were alive and well with their daughter Mrs. Roberts in Hayes City, Kansas. Mr. Guptil was an industrious, intelligent man, who stood well in the community. He was fond of fun, and considered quite a wag through his dry, funny speeches on the characteristics of his associates and on local events. As for Mrs. Guptil, the fact of her being one of the White family ensured to her own family a faithful wife and conscientious mother who instilled into her children all the old-fashioned virtues that conduce to right living and thinking.
The children married and became widely separated. They were: Caroline Guptil, b. 1822; m. Mervin Clark; removed to Dakota.
James S. Clarke Guptil, b. 1824.
Edwin A. Guptil, removed to Oak- land, Cal.
George Guptil, removed to Minne- sota.
Wheeler S. Guptil, removed to Grin- nell, Kansas.
Minerva Guptil, m. Z. Roberts of Hayes City, Kansas.
189
1817
SKINNER-BROWER
James Skinner and his sister Sarah were from Foxborough, Mass. They settled in Newburgh in 1817. James married Lydia Warner, and his daughter Laura Skinner became the wife of William Belden of Cleve- land.
Sarah Skinner, sister of James, married David Brower of Newburgh. They began housekeeping on the smallest scale possible, were very poor for several years, and often were hungry. Upon several occasions there was nothing to eat for breakfast, and Mr. Brower would arise early, take his gun, and start on a long tramp after game. Usually he was success- ful in the hunt, and return home with meat enough to last several days. Future years brought comforts and ease, but the family were proud of having acquired it, and openly referred to their privation of earlier years. There was a daughter, Pulcherry Brower, in this household; no son has been recorded.
1817 BALDWIN
Seth Cogswell Baldwin of Ballston Springs, N. Y., who came to Cleve- land in 1817, was a soldier of the American Revolution. He was with Ethan Allen at Ticonderoga, and subsequently served under Col. Gros- venor in other campaigns of that war. He was twice a prisoner, having been one of the founders of Ballston Springs, where he attained large property and business interests. But reverses overtook him, and with magnificent courage for one at his time of life, 55 years, he started out to begin all over again, to create a home and recruit his fortunes in an Ohio wilderness. He was the son of Daniel Baldwin of Connecticut, and married in young manhood Ruth White. Mr. and Mrs. Seth Baldwin had eight children, when, at the birth of the youngest, in 1805, Mrs. Baldwin died. The motherless infant received her name as a legacy, Ruth White Baldwin.
The children who accompanied their father to Cleveland intermarried with well-known pioneer families, and Seth C. Baldwin's descendants are some of the finest people residing in this city. Mr. Baldwin married, secondly, Miss Abigail Kellogg, who died the year following her arrival here. Mr. Baldwin settled on a farm located in Newburgh, now Woodhill Road, and, at one time lived in the Doan Tavern at Doan's Corners.
The contrast between their luxurious home in Ballston Springs, which had been the center of hospitality, and the frontier tavern whose isolation was almost complete, its loneliness seldom broken save by the passing of pioneers westward, must have been a most disheartening con- trast. That the young wife and mother succumbed to the situation within a year is not surprising. She left a son nine years of age, a little daughter, and the family of children whose care she assumed at her marriage.
With her death Mr. Baldwin's misfortunes seemed to culminate. Sor- row seemed to be his only portion. But he struggled on a few years
190
1817
BALDWIN
longer, keeping a brave front, and making himself as useful as possible to the little scattered community in which he had cast his lot.
He had a knowledge of surveying, and many a farm in the township and county was staked out by him. He became interested, at once, in local military affairs, as a regimental notice signed by him appeared in the small weekly newspaper of 1819.
The children of Seth Cogswell and Ruth White Baldwin :
Thomas Palmer Baldwin.
Ann Olivia Baldwin, m. John Doan,
Seth Cogswell Baldwin. son of Timothy Doan.
Samuel W. Baldwin. Ann Eliza Baldwin, m. James Charles N. Baldwin. Strong.
Edward Baldwin, m. Mercy Doan, Ruth Baldwin, m. Henry Camp; 2nd, Robert Marsh.
daughter of Nathaniel Doan.
The children of Seth Cogswell and Abigail Kellogg Baldwin :
Dudley Baldwin, b. 1809; m. Hen- Abigail C. Baldwin, m. Rev. M. rietta Hine. Wood.
The marriages of Edward, Anna Eliza, and Ann Olivia Baldwin were celebrated not long after the family arrived in Cleveland. That of Edward and Ann Olivia was a double wedding, occurring in January, 1820, four months later than that of the older sister.
Dudley Baldwin was yet a lad when left an orphan by the death of his father. He began to clerk for Peter M. Weddell in his store on the Superior Street corner now occupied by the Rockefeller Building. Mr. Weddell took great interest in him, and at length young Baldwin became a partner in the concern.
Other interests developed as the years passed, banking and the pro- motion of railroads leading to and from the city, all of which hastened its growth and increased the value of property.
Physically, Mr. Baldwin was slight and rather frail, his appearance much at variance with his indomitable will and energy. Had his earlier life been less pressing, he would have chosen to become a scholar, and his latter years of ease were spent in indulgence of his love for literature.
In 1833 he married Henrietta Hine of Youngstown, Ohio, daughter of Homer and Mary Skinner Hine. Her grandparents were Col. Noble Hine of Milford, Conn., and Capt. Abraham Skinner of Painesville. The first home of the young couple was on Bank Street adjoining the store, and here the groom, 24 years and the bride 23 years of age, set up house- keeping in a story-and-a-half frame-cottage with a little garden around it, including an arbor in which to sit during long summer evenings. We may be certain that Mrs. Weddell took great interest in the planning and furnishing of that little house, and that from her own pretty garden of native and rare flowers she helped to stock the new one, and that the bride in moments of perplexity over culinary mysteries, often slipped over to the older home so near and convenient to ask advice and secure help.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.