USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. I > Part 28
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1821 TOWNSEND
Bennet Townsend, son of Chrystopher Townsend of Albany, N. Y., came to Cleveland either with the Jonathan Bliss family or soon after- ward. He was a brother of Mrs. Hershael Foote. About 1832, he mar- ried Anna Norris of East Cleveland, a daughter of Abram and Abigail McIlrath Norris, and settled on Euclid Ave. near Noble Road. He clerked for Hershael Foote in the latter's store nearby. It is said that the family removed to Elkhart, Ind., when so many East Cleveland families formed a colony in the '40s, and helped to found that town .*
Mr. and Mrs. Townsend had three daughters:
Pamelia Townsend, b. 1833; m. Anna Townsend, b. 1838; m. George John Elliot of Erie, Pa. Wright; d. in Jackson, Mich.
Martha Townsend, b. 1835; m. James Harper; d. in Leetonia.
* The city directory for 1845 contains the name, "Albert B. Townsend, Sexton of 2nd Presbyterian Church."
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1821
HULBERT
Soon after Aaron Hubbard moved to Ohio, in 1821 Timothy Hulbert exchanged his farm in Broome, N. Y., for land in Newburgh adjoining that of the Hubbards. With his wife Nabby Stocking Hulbert and their daughter Harriet, they journeyed to Newburgh. With them also was their granddaughter Florilla Searles, daughter of Amos and Hannah Hulbert Searles, who had remained with them when her parents removed to Richfield in 1817. They afterward settled on the Hubbard land on Kinsman street, now within the city limits. Only a small clearing had been made in the very heavy timber when they began their new home. They were past middle age, and could hope to reap little from the hard- ships they encountered. Mrs. Hulbert died in 1853, aged 87 years.
Their children were:
Hannah Hulbert, b. 1791; m. Amos Searls. Harriet Hulbert, m. Harvey Porter.
Rhoda Hulbert, m. Israel Hubbard.
Abigail Hulbert, m. Daniel Searls of Richfield.
Mrs. Harriet Porter was a lady much esteemed by her relatives and the community in which she lived.
The children of Harvey and Harriet Porter:
Edwin Porter, m. Almina Curtis, Leman Porter, m. Arzelia Benedict, daughter of Joseph Curtis. of Bedford. Mary Porter, unmarried.
1821
CHAMPION
Reuben Champion was the son of Andrew Champion of East Had- dam, Conn., and in 1821, the year he came to Cleveland, was about twenty- six years old. He was a tinsmith, and had a shop at the north-east corner of Superior and Seneca streets. He owned quite a frontage there, and in 1835 built two small frame-houses facing Superior street east of his shop.
They were the first tenement houses in the village, all others having been built by their owners for their own first use.
It was a public-spirited act, for in the boom that struck the town in the early '30s the demand for houses was so great that established fami- lies had to give up parts of their own homes and suffer much inconveni- ence rather than see the people in distress for want of shelter. Within a short time the population had almost doubled, and Mr. Champion's houses supplied a pressing need.
Mrs. Reuben Champion was a Miss Zerviah Fitch Hyde, of Ellington, Conn. Her parents were William and Sarah Bartlett Hyde. On the
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1821
SAMUEL BIDWELL
Bartlett side Mr. and Mrs. Champion were related, as both were descend- ants of James Otis, the signer of the Declaration.
They had been married about four years when they came to this town, and their residence was at 54 Huron street, a large, Colonial style house set back from the street. Their nearest neighbors, for a time, were Mrs. Mary Long Severance and Mrs. George Kirk. The former recalls Mrs. Champion as an excellent woman much esteemed by her friends.
Mr. Champion sold out his tinshop and gave his attention to real- estate, which proved profitable. He died in 1841, aged forty-seven years. His wife survived him eighteen years, dying at the age of sixty-seven. The Champion family was well connected, belonging on both sides to the best blood of New England. There is no one representing this family now residing in the city.
The children :
Mary Hyde Champion, b. 1829; m. Chauncy H. Roberts, brother of Ansel Roberts.
William Henry Champion, m. Sarah Mann Irving, a widow. He was
a lawyer, a fine scholar, fluent speaker, and for years resided in Washington, D. C. He was con- nected with the Indian Bureau. He had no descendants.
1821
SAMUEL BIDWELL
Samuel Bidwell and his wife Martha Louise Bidwell removed from Connecticut to Cleveland about 1825, perhaps earlier. He was of old, New England stock, whose ancestor came to this country from England in 1630, and the son of Capt. Benjamin Bidwell of Revolutionary fame.
Mrs. Bidwell was the daughter of Caleb and Martha Goodrich Hills of Hartford, Conn., and a descendant of William Hills who came from England to Massachusetts in 1632. The Hills family were patriots in the Revolutionary War, and furnished many officers and privates to the Continental Army.
Samuel Bidwell was about 40 years old and his wife 35 years when they came to Cleveland. They brought four young children with them, and another daughter was born after their arrival here.
Mr. Bidwell did not live long enough to become well established in business. Within three years he had been laid away in the little Ontario Street Cemetery. Malignant malaria in 1823 caused the death of many men and women who were invaluable members of the commercial and social circles of the village.
Mrs. Bidwell was left with five fatherless children to care for. She had a brother, however, George Hills, a prominent business man of the place, who stood closely by her in her hour of anxiety and bereavement. She died in 1839, aged 53 years.
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1822
JOHNSON
The children of Samuel and Martha L. Hills Bidwell :
Charlotte Bidwell, b. 1810; married David Morison.
Samuel Bidwell, Jr., b. 1816; died 1850.
Lucy Bidwell, b. 1811; died unmar- Abigail Bidwell, b. 1819; died 1857. ried, 1857. Sarah Bidwell, b. 1821; died 1884.
Charlotte and Lucy Bidwell had a millinery store, and lived on the north-west side of the Public Square for several years. They are remem- bered as unusually ladylike and refined, and very popular in the village. Charlotte was the only member of the Bidwell family who married. Her husband was a widower with two children. He was a ship-chandler merchant, and a manufacturer of ropes, etc., a prominent citizen of the West Side. He was the son of David Morrison of Scotch descent.
Charlotte Bidwell Morison had five children: Anna, David, Helen, Thomas, Charlotte, and Martha Morrison.
1822 JOHNSON
Capt. William Johnson lived in Erie before coming to Cleveland to reside, and one authority claims that his wife also was first a resident of that town. She was Miss Grace O'Kane, and was born in Derby, Conn. She came here with her husband in 1822.
It is with regret that we have secured so little regarding Capt. Will- iam Johnson. But his wife left an impression of herself through her deep religious nature, and her prominence in church work. Her parents were Episcopalians, and her girlhood was spent in that faith. But one day she attended a service held by the noted Methodist divine Francis Asbury and became a convert to his gospel of simplicity which forbade the wearing of bright colors, elaborate trimming, jewelry, or flowers.
She was one of the founders of Methodism in this town. Through her solicitations, the year following their arrival, Capt. Johnson sent for a Methodist circuit rider to come to Cleveland and start a "class meet- ing," which appeal brought one of those hard-working, self-sacrificing, and devoted men who started or kept alive religious faith in the wilder- ness of Ohio.
The Johnson home was ever open to these circuit riders. Here they rested, and met the little band of local Methodists who sought encourage- ment and guidance. This first class remained intact for four years. It culminated in the organization of the First Methodist Episcopal Church, whose first home on the corner of St. Clair and Wood, now East 3rd street, yet stands, and whose present one, corner of Euclid Ave. and Sterling Ave., now East 30th street, is the pride of local Methodism.
Capt. William and Grace O'Kane Johnson lived on Bank street, now
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1822
JOHNSON
East 6th, a few doors north of St. Clair Ave. They had three daughters, Charlotte, Louise, and Emily Johnson. The latter married Mr. Cridland.
Capt. Harpin Johnson, another very early lake captain making his home in Cleveland, was a brother of Capt. William Johnson and Mrs. Philip B. Andrews. He was living in the village in 1821, and probably came much earlier. He married Lucretia Allen, sister of Mrs. Jonathan Johnson. She was the eldest daughter of Holden Allen of Black Rock, N. Y. She was considered a beauty both in her girlhood and more mature years, consequently received much admiration and attention. She was good as well as beautiful, and, like her younger sister Minerva, pos- sessed accomplishments that made her society valuable to her friends.
When the British burned Buffalo, the three Allen sisters fled from their home in Black Rock, terror-stricken, and secreted themselves be- hind some dense bushes. An American sharpshooter, passing by, stopped and twice pointed his gun in their direction, each time lowering the weapon as if in doubt. Finally he made a detour and came slowly upon them from the rear of their hiding-place. Lucretia wore a red shawl, and it was a glimpse of it that had occasioned his action. He thought a Brit- ish soldier was lurking in the bushes.
"Your red shawl nearly cost you your life!" he exclaimed, and gaz- ing with respectful admiration at the lovely young girl, he added, "If I had shot you, I would have wanted to kill myself."
The Harpin Johnsons lived on Erie street, East 9th, while it was yet the city limits.
The wife and mother died in 1831, while in the prime of life, and was laid away in Erie Street Cemetery. The children of Harpin and Lucre- tia Allen Johnson :
Jane Johnson, m. Rev. Mr. Fielder. and in late years has resided in Henrietta Johnson, m. Judge Wilson of Dubuque, Iowa. Lakewood, a western suburb of this city.
John Johnson, m. Rebecca Warren,
Sybel Allen, third daughter of Holden Allen, and sister of the Mrs. Jonathan and Harpin Johnson, married, at one of their homes, Walter Bell. Their own home was on the corner of Bolivar and Sheriff streets, and the site is now covered by a towering business block.
Nothing has been learned concerning this family, save the names of their children :
Mary Bell. Walter Bell.
Holden Bell. Leroy Bell.
Ellen Bell, m. Walter Phelps of Rockport, Ohio.
265
1822
WILLEY
Not a little sentiment is connected with the successive stages of a city's growth, especially when some decidedly forward movement in its development places it on an equality or in advance of an adjoining com- munity struggling for supremacy. Therefore, there was much rejoicing in 1836, when Cleveland discarded its village clothes and donned those of a municipality ; relegated the president of the town council to second place, and elected a mayor to fill the highest office in its new civic govern- ment. Much interest centers in the first official. What type of man was chosen to head the long line of mayors, good, bad, and indifferent, who have succeeded him? What were his qualifications? And what were his limitations ?
The year 1822 brought to Cleveland a young New Hampshire lawyer destined to become almost, immediately, a brilliant figure in the legal, political, and social life of the town. Hon. John Wheelock Willey, judge, state senator, and Cleveland's first mayor, should have established a high standard of qualifications for that office, for he was a representative member of the community, first and last a gentleman, learned, dignified, courteous, honest.
From the testimony regarding him we glean that "he was a logician by nature, a ready debater, fertile of expedient, and persuasively elo- quent." As a judge, he showed a wonderful memory, power of analysis, promptness of decision, strict impartiality. He was the author of the city's charter, and one who was authority in such matters, says, "The language is clear and precise, bearing the impress of an educated, experienced, legal mind, one that had a clear understanding of municipal rights and duties. For clearness, precision, and certainty, it will not suffer by com- parison with any other municipal code enacted."
And yet, the life of John W. Willey was comparatively short. He was 28 years old when he reached Cleveland, and only 47 years of age when he died. He lived but a year after his appointment as judge, and during that time, and for many previous years, was slowly dying of consump- tion. The only portraits of him in existence were painted after he had been stricken with the disease, and therefore fail to convey any correct idea of his normal appearance. For four years previous to his death, he was in financial difficulties, which added mental worry to the physical distress he was suffering.
Previous to the disastrous panic of 1837, he had invested extensively in real-estate, and was a heavy loser thereby. The delinquent taxes pub- lished in the Cleveland Herald of 1838 and 1841 show 111 lots in his name situated in "Cleveland Center," between Columbus Ave. and the river, his home, corner of Ontario and Michigan streets, valued at $3500, and other valuable lots on Michigan and Seneca streets.
The insertion here of a coincidence may be pardoned. In these days of Cleveland's wonderful land values, many attempts are being made to clear titles obscured or jeopardized by old tax liens. Legal notices are frequently inserted in the daily press calling upon heirs of original own- ers of city property to appear and quiet claims. Such a notice appeared while the writer was arranging data for this sketch. It notified the heirs of John W. Willey that a certain party held possession of a lot once owned by said John W. Willey, and sold for taxes in 1838.
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1822
WILLEY
Mr. Willey was born in Goshen, N. H. His father was Allen Willey, his mother Chloe Frink Willey of Windham, Conn., and both were born in 1760. They were married in 1781, and had nine children, all born in Goshen. Of this number, five lived for some years in Cleveland, and four of them rest in Erie Street Cemetery. Besides these members of the Willey family, the widow and children of yet another one lived and died here. For this reason, it seems fitting that all the family of Allen and Chloe Frink Willey should have a place on these pages.
The children :
Allen Willey, b. 1782; m. Margaret Moore. Rev. Elijah Willey, b. 1784; died in Cleveland.
Lucy Willey, b. 1787; married Mr. Chapman. Newton Willey, b. 1788; married his cousin Lucretia Willey. His widow died in Cleveland.
Lydia Willey, b. 1790; m. James Adams.
Hon. John Wheelock Willey, b. 1794; m. Laura M. Higby.
Fanny Willey, b. 1796; m. Luther Willes, first editor of The Cleve- land Herald.
Charles Willey, b. 1799; m. his cousin, Anna Willey; 2nd, Elisa- beth Dennis.
Amos Shepard Willey, b. 1801. Died in Cleveland, unmarried.
These children received a liberal education. The sons were fitted for professional or mercantile life, and were successful in their chosen voca- tions. The daughters were all bright, capable, accomplished women. There are yet in existence bundles of old letters written to their parents from the children living in Cleveland; letters full of filial affection and respect. They invariably begin, "Honored and Revered Parents."
Amos, the youngest of the family, either came west with his brother John in 1822, or soon afterward. A gravestone in Erie Street Cemetery records his death in the following year. Rev. Elijah Willey, ten years the senior of his brother John, was a resident of Cleveland many years. He had been a distinguished Baptist clergyman in New England, was twice married, and without children. He was fond of nature and established near his home, corner of Woodland Ave. and Erie street, a flourishing nursery of fruit and flowers popularly known as the "Willey Garden." He died of a malignant throat disease in the same year of his brother John's death, 1841, aged 57 years. His funeral was held at the First Baptist Church, and much respect paid to his memory. His grave is at the left of the main entrance to Erie Street Cemetery.
Laura Maria Higby, wife of John W. Willey, was the daughter of Dexter and Rosannah Ellsworth Higby of Castleton, Vt., and later of Chillicothe, Ohio. She met John W. Willey while on a visit to her sister, Mrs. Joshua Mills, who had preceded her to Cleveland a year or so, and was married to Mr. Willey at the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Mills in 1829. Rev. S. C. Freeman, rector of Trinity Protestant Episcopal Church, per- formed the ceremony. The bridegroom was 35, and the bride 20 years of age.
They began housekeeping in a small house adjoining the Mills resi-
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1822
WILLEY
dence. Both were the property of Mrs. Juliana Walworth Keyes, and stood on the south side of Superior street, just west of Seneca, now West 3rd street. They removed from this place to a beautiful home erected for them on the south-west corner of Michigan and Ontario streets, and fac- ing the former. The lot stood above the grade of the streets and was reached by steps cut in the bank. The rooms of this house were spacious and well adapted for the brilliant social life that prevailed in them.
Mrs. Willey was a beautiful, aristocratic woman, and fond of society. Often the highest officials of the state capital were her honored guests. Governor Wood and family, Governor and Mrs. Shannon of Columbus, Major Conover of Cincinnati, and other distinguished people from south- ern or central Ohio, were frequently entertained at "Willey Cottage."
Michigan street and Ontario street, south of the Public Square, were resident districts in the '30s, and after the Willeys moved there, and the Dr. Mills family followed and took possession of the Skinner homestead, north-west corner of Ontario and Commercial streets, that locality became fashionable and desirable.
Mr. and Mrs. Willey had no children, but they were much and ten- derly interested in their nephews and nieces, the fatherless children of Newton and Lucretia Willey. Another favorite niece was Lydia Willey Adams, who was married at their house to Benjamin Andrews, one-time postmaster of the city. These, with the son and daughter of Mrs. Joshua Mills, formed a coterie of young relatives who came to look upon the home of "Uncle John and Aunt Laura" as their own.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Willey continued to live in her Cleveland home until 1846, when, in May of that year, she married Dr. Edwin Smith of Dayton, Ohio, and removed to that town. Dr. Smith was a widower with eight children, all in or beyond their teens. He was owner of a palatial home, and as Dayton was one of the social centers of the state, Mrs. Willey Smith spent her declining years among cultured and congenial people. The result of her second marriage was a son, whom she named for her first husband, John Willey Smith. Eventually, this son came to the city to live. He married Caroline the accom- plished daughter of a Cleveland pioneer and a musician. Willey Smith died within the last two years, leaving a widow. Mrs. Laura Willey Smith died in February, 1872, aged 65 years, and was buried beside John W. Willey in Erie Street Cemetery.
Lucretia Willey, widow of Newton Willey, once a leading Boston, Mass., merchant, came to Cleveland with her children to be near her hus- band's brothers and sister, and to receive their assistance in the care and responsibility of raising her family. She was remembered by her chil- dren as a fine, motherly woman, devoted to her family of fatherless chil- dren.
They were:
Caroline Willey, m. Mr. Cunning- Charles Willey, m. Paulina Perry, ham; 2nd, Mr. Price. She never lived in Cleveland. granddaughter of Horace Perry, the Cleveland pioneer.
Henry Willey, died unmarried.
Mary Ann Willey, m. Gen. H. H.
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1822
BELDEN
Dodge. See sketch of Dodge fam- ilies.
George Willey, m. 1st Catherine
Summers, who died 18 years of age; 2nd, Julia Vaughn, daugh-
ter of John C. and Sarah Clark Vaughn of South Carolina.
Samuel Willey, m. Mary Irvine, daughter of John R. Irvine of St. Paul, Minn.
Samuel Willey, born in Boston, 1827, graduated from the Cleveland Medical College, and became a distinguished physician. He died in Bay- field, Wis., 1871.
Lucretia Willey is buried in the Dodge lot in Erie Street Cemetery.
1822
BELDEN
Captain Clifford Belden was a brother of Mrs. Judah Belden Hart, the mother of Edward William Hart, the pioneer furniture dealer. The Beldens came from Norwich, Conn., but were formerly of New Britain.
Capt. Belden commanded the schooner Minerva, built by Noble Mer- winin 1822, and he may have been in town before that date. He was long a revenue officer in charge of the custom house. He married Han- nah Strong of East Cleveland in 1830, who died not long afterward, leaving no children. Capt. Belden never remarried. He boarded at the Scovill tavern, and was deemed eccentric by his associates, being a man of few words, and spending his evenings in his own room engaged in read- ing and studying. He fell dead on the street, one day, and was buried on the Hart lot in Woodland Cemetery.
1823
INSCRIPTION ON TOMBSTONE IN ERIE STREET CEMETERY NEAR THE MAIN ENTRANCE
"Elihu, only son of Elihu and Ede Moore Rockwell, 1823, aged 18 years."
"Good friends, for Jesus' sake forbear To move the dust enclosed here."
The body had first lain in the Ontario Street Cemetery and removed when the latter was destroyed in order to run Prospect Street through it.
Again the grave will be opened, should the efforts of real-estate dealers succeed in removing Erie Street Cemetery altogether.
269
1823
BRADSTREET
In 1823 there came into the village of Cleveland, either on foot or on horseback, a young home missionary named Stephen Ingalls Bradstreet. He had traveled over the Alleghenies and then north-easterly through the State of Ohio all the way from Lynchburg, Virginia, preaching as he journeyed whenever and wherever he found the opportunity and the congregation.
He did not leave Virginia through lack of a charge nor of apprecia- tion, but because the life there was too easy for himself, the people too prosperous. He was now in search of a place that most needed him, one nearly or quite destitute of gospel privileges. And this, in a measure, he found in Cleveland. The society of what is now called "The Old Stone Church" was without a pastor or a home. The small congregation, meet- ing at irregular intervals in the old Academy on St. Clair Street, joy- fully engaged him to preach for it every other Sabbath, at least. His services were also needed in the East Cleveland Congregational Church, and he divided his time between the two places. He boarded while in East Clveland with Dr. Elisha Burton, and the only surviving member of that family, the venerable Dr. E. D. Burton, still residing in the old homestead, remembers Mr. Bradstreet and his wife distinctly, although a very young child at the time they were there.
The Rev. Bradstreet was a direct descendant of Governor Simeon Bradstreet, and was born in Greenfield, N. H., in 1794.
At the age of 20 he became fired with the desire to become a foreign missionary, and bent all his energies to the accomplishment of that pur- pose, working hard to fit himself for Dartmouth College, and then earn- ing his way through it, graduating in 1819. Two more years were spent in Andover Seminary.
After all, he was debarred from a foreign field because of physical weakness. Naturally of a delicate constitution, his over-work and self- sacrifice proved too great a strain upon it. He then turned to Home Missionary work as the next expedient and took the first and farthest field offered, the State of Virginia, where he preached from place to place between Lynchburg and Staunton many times a week. He found in Cleve- land a former friend and perhaps, classmate, John W. Willey, who came the previous year from New Hampshire. They were of the same age, 30 years, and both graduates of Dartmouth.
Mr. Bradstreet was a religious zealot who wore himself out in the burning desire to save souls. He preached twice, and often three times, every Sabbath, and each sermon usually was two hours long.
The Congregationalists and Episcopalians shared the Academy be- tween them, one holding services in the morning or afternoon, the other in the afternoon or evening.
One year, when Christmas fell upon the Sabbath, it is said that Uncle Abram Hickox, who was the head and front of the episcopacy as repre- sented by Trinity Church, begged Parson Bradstreet not to preach one of his "darn long-winded sermons" that afternoon, so that he, Hickox, would have time to trim the room with evergreens and candles for the Christmas evening service.
The story does not state whether Mr. Bradstreet acceded to the old man's request and cut out any of his "and thuslys" and "furthermores."
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1823
DUNHAM
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