USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. II > Part 16
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Oliver Kingsley Brooks, b. 1845; m. Hattie E. Gill of Meadville, Pa.
William Keith Brooks, b. 1848; m. Amelia Shultz of Baltimore, Md.
Charles Ernest Brooks, b. 1851; re- sides in Indianapolis, Ind. Edward Howard Brooks, b. 1854; m. Agnes Endicott Chapin, dau. of H. M. Chapin of Cleveland.
516
1835
BENEDICT
So many men of early Cleveland became prominent merely through their bank-accounts and accumulation of real estate, men whose names never appeared in connection with public duty or public service, that it is a pleasure and a relief to write of one who was a citizen of Cleveland in a higher sense, one who had civic pride, and was willing to give of himself to the city of his adoption whenever necessity prompted.
For long years no one was better known in this community than George A. Benedict, who became a member of it in 1835.
He was the son of Amos Benedict of Watertown, N. Y., whose father was a lieutenant in the revolutionary war. Amos was a cousin of Platt Benedict who founded Norwalk, Ohio, and planted the forest trees that make Main street of that town famous for its beauty.
When Amos Benedict died in 1816, his funeral services were conducted by Rev. Lyman Beecher, the celebrated divine. George A. Benedict was then but three years old.
His widowed mother was Ann Stone, daughter of Capt. Stone of Litch- field, Conn. She lived but ten years after the death of her husband, leav- ing George an orphan at the age of 13.
Relatives on both sides of the family cared for the children's physical comfort and their education. George attended Union College two years and started to finish at Yale, but the death of an uncle, who was financing his course in the latter, compelled him to leave college. He studied law, and in 1834, was admitted to the New York bar.
After his arrival in this city, he became associated with John Erwin, and he was also of the firm of Benedict & Hitchcock.
His public life began as city attorney in 1840. He was clerk of the first, local, Superior Court, president of the City Council, and, from 1865 to 1869, was postmaster of Cleveland.
But as one of the proprietors of the old Herald and its editor was George A. Benedict best known. His share in the daily newspaper was acquired in 1853. All through the dark hours of the civil war the policy of that paper and its splendid editorials guided by intense loyalty to the Union, was a power in keeping alive the spirit of patriotism in the city and throughout the Western Reserve.
Four years after his arrival in the village of Cleveland, Mr. Benedict married Sarah Francis Rathbone, a lovely young woman, of Brownsville, N. Y. Her father was Amos Rathbone and her mother Mary Williams Rathbone. The American progenitor of the family was Richard, 1574.
Mrs. Benedict lost her mother in early life and thereafter made her home with an elder sister, Mrs. Thomas How. Professor How was a fine scholar and he carefully guided the young girl's studies, so that her educa- tion was unusually complete.
In addition she was very musical; for years she sang in Old Trinity Church choir. Her daughter Mrs. William Crowell inherits her moth- er's musical gifts and is an eccomplished pianist.
During Mrs. Benedict's 63 years of continuous residence in Cleveland she was closely identified with its social, religious, and charitable life. Probably no other woman of this city had as many friends, acquaintances, and well-wishers as Mrs. George A. Benedict.
She died in 1902 at the advanced age of 87.
517
1835
BINGHAM
The children of George A. and Sarah Rathbone Benedict :
Mary Williams Benedict, b. 1845; m. William Crowell, son of John Crowell.
Harriet Amelia Benedict, b. 1848 ; m.
George. Stone Benedict, b. 1840; married Clara Woolson. Henry Sherman, son of Judge Charles Sherman and nephew of Gen. Tecumseh, and Senator John Sherman.
George S. Benedict, the only son of the family, served as paymaster in the navy during the civil war. He was instantly killed in 1871, in a terrible railroad accident between New York and Albany. At the time of his death he was a brilliant editorial writer for the Cleveland Herald. His wife was a sister of Constance Woolson, the American authoress.
Mrs. Crowell and Mrs. Sherman are both widows, and are residing near each other on East 93rd street.
George A. Benedict died in 1870, aged 57 years. His sister Harriet Benedict who made her home with him after his marriage died in 1840, aged 30 years.
1835
BINGHAM
In 1827, Elijah Bingham, a lawyer living in Alstead, New Hampshire, married Miss Thankful Cadwell Hutchinson, a young lady 22 years of age. Her father was Major Samuel Hutchinson, a prosperous merchant of Alstead, who had come to that town from Sharon, Conn., and later re- moved to this place and died here.
A few years after their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Bingham removed to Cleveland. They lived for several years in the late residence of Hor- ace Perry on the south side of the Public Square.
Mr. Bingham purchased land on the south side of Prospect street, and extending through to Garden street. This he allotted, laying out a street which he named "Cheshire," and upon which he built a comfortable home. He took absorbing interest in the new street, planting many forest-trees on each side of it which grew to noble size, their branches meeting overhead and presenting a beautiful view from Prospect street looking south. Alas! they met the fate that in recent years has befallen the foliage that once made the down-town streets of the city so unusually attractive-they died from coal-soot and devastating insects.
Upon Cheshire street long stood the homes of many well-known Cleve- land families, who clung to them until forced to leave through the decad- ence of the neighborhood. John D. Rockefeller was one of these.
Mr. and Mrs. Bingham lived in the home they built, for many years. They there celebrated their golden wedding, and there they died, he in 1881, his wife ten years later. Mrs. Bingham was a gentle, quiet woman, very retiring but greatly interested in all that was transpiring in the outside world, and warmly sympathetic with sorrowing friends and neigh-
518
1835
CLEVELAND
bors. She is said to have possessed the first Chickering piano in the state of Ohio. Her two brothers Samuel R. and Amos Hutchinson were well- known manufacturers of the city, who in after years returned east to live.
Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Bingham had seven children but two of whom lived to maturity.
Ellen Bingham, m. Roland R. Noble,
fine man greatly respected. a They had two sons who died in young manhood.
Charles Edward Bingham, m. Isa-
belle Taintor, and died shortly aft-
erward. His only child, Miss Edith Bingham, is a young society woman of the city residing with her widowed mother on Euclid Ave.
1835
CLEVELAND
A notable arrival this year, 1835, was that of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Cleveland from Litchfield, Conn.
Mr. Cleveland was a brother of Mrs. Erastus Gaylord who had pre- ceded them to the city by two years, and both were the children of Gen. Erastus Cleveland, a cousin of the founder of the city.
Mrs. Cleveland was a Miss Julia Gold, related to several noted New England families, among whom were the Sedgwicks and the Wadsworths. Gen. Elijah Wadsworth, of Canfield, O., was a cousin. She was educated in Litchfield and there acquired accomplishments and developed gifts that not only enriched her own life but were reflected on those of her family and friends. She had a taste for drawing and painting, and through her guidance and instruction her youngest daughter, Mary, early gave evidence of unusual talent in that direction. This gift was transferred to her granddaughter, Miss Emma Cleveland, in a marked degree.
Mrs. Cleveland was a thoroughly domestic woman in the wider sense implied in that expression. Devoted to the happiness of her husband and children, she ignored all outside claims upon her time and attention that would interfere with her duties as mother and housekeeper.
Possessed of much literary taste, she spent her leisure hours in read- ing to her children and assisting them to memorize the poems in which she delighted.
She died in 1852, and what was mortal on earth rests in Woodland cemetery.
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Cleveland had a family of four children, all of whom left the impress of their personality upon the community in which they lived. Especially was this true of Judge James Douglas Cleveland, whose long life was spent in the city, coming to it a lad, and whose death
519
-
1835
CLARK
was a personal loss to every one who had ever known him. He was every inch a gentleman, gentle, refined, scholarly, judicial.
He married Miss Charlotte Bingham, daughter of James and Char- lotte Kent Bingham of Claremont, N. H., who survived him but a year or two.
The second son of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Cleveland was Doctor Thomas G. Cleveland, who served as a surgeon of the 41st O. V. I. in the civil war. He married Miss Harriet Wiley, daughter of Nathaniel and Harriet Hunt Wiley, of Nassau, N. H., and Watertown, N. Y. Mrs. Wiley was a sister of Mercy Hunt Abbey, the first wife of Judge Seth Abbey.
Antoinette Cleveland m. Charles Grant Aiken, son of the Rev. Sam- uel Aiken.
Mary Cleveland remained unmarried.
Antoinette Cleveland Aiken died in San Francisco, Cal., aged seventy- three years. She was a prominent worker in the sanitary commission during the civil war, and was the author of several volumes of verses. One poem was a widely quoted patriotic appeal, which helped to prevent the breaking up of the Hartford, Farragut's old flag-ship.
She left three children who are residents of San Francisco. Her hus- band was a son of Rev. Samuel Aiken, the pioneer pastor of the Old Stone church.
1835
CLARK
Ashabel Clark, son of Cyrus and Annie Trumbull Clark, of Coopers- town, N. Y., was a resident of Cleveland in 1835. He was a man of wide business experience, in Albany, in New York, and of Cleveland.
November 18, 1835, he was returning by stage-coach from Columbus, Ohio, where he had been on some errand. He sat by the driver, chatting with him, apparently in perfect health and in the best of spirits. Sud- denly he swayed away from his companion, and would have fallen from the high seat to the ground, had not the driver seized and held him, at the same time calling upon the other passengers for assistance.
Mr. Clark was found to be dead.
His wife was Sabrina Loomis, daughter of Capt. Amos and Lucy Tilden Loomis, twenty-nine years old when thus suddenly widowed. She had three sisters, Mrs. Aurelia Tracy and Mrs. Laura Aiken, both resi- dents of Painesville, and Mrs. Lucy Ely of Cleveland.
Mr. and Mrs. Ashabel Clark had one child,
Mary Clark, who married Dr. Maynard.
Mrs. Sabrina Clark married (2nd) Charles Brayton, and will be found in the Brayton family sketch.
520
1835
CUSHING
Any mention of Dr. Cushing brings to the mind of all old residents of the city the kind, genial, faithful physician and friend, Dr. Erastus Cushing. But to subsequent generations it suggests Dr. Henry Kirke Cushing ,eldest son of the former who followed, long years, in his father's footsteps.
From 1835 to 1911, a period of 75 years, father, son, and, for a few years, a grandson were leading physicians of the city and with a reputa- tion and with patients in many miles surrounding it.
To be so remembered and beloved as was Dr. Erastus Cushing hints of more than art of physical healing, the ability to cure mental distress and heartache as well. He was an American. Six generations back was his ancestor Mathew Cushing who settled in Hingham, Mass., in 1638.
His father was Dr. David Cushing of Stafford's Hill, Cheshire, Mass., where Erastus was born in 1802. His mother, who bore the distinctively New England name of "Freelove" Brown, was the daughter of Joseph Brown of Cheshire, but formerly of Cumberland, R. I. Dr. David Cush- ing removed in 1812 to Adams, Mass., and died there two years later. Erastus thus lost his father at the age of 12 years.
His medical education, however, was of the best and most thorough. First, with a local physician; then, in New York City and at Williams College. After practicing his profession for ten years in Lanesboro, Mass., he completed his studies at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Therefore, when he removed to Cleveland in 1835 and at the age of 33, no physician could be more finely equipped for his work than was Dr. Cushing.
Until his seventieth year he remained in the harness, assisted in his later years by Henry Kirke Cushing, his son, who had received his medi- cal degree.
When 24 years of age Dr. Cushing married Miss Mary Ann Platt, daughter of Abial and Charlotte Mead Platt of Lanesboro, Mass. Like her husband, she was descended from a long line of American ancestors both on her father's and mother's side.
It needs scarcely be added that her grandfathers Abial Platt and Stephen Mead of Lanesboro were Minute-Men of the Revolution, and saw active service.
Mrs. Cushing died in 1868, aged 62.
Dr. Erastus Cushing survived her for 25 years. He died in 1893 aged 91 years, and was placed by the side of his wife in Erie st. cemetery.
The Cushing homestead, which long years had been a landmark of the south side of the Square at the beginning of Euclid Ave. after the death of Mrs. Cushing was demolished, and the Cushing Block erected on the site.
The children of Dr. and Mrs. Cushing were all born in Lanesboro, but of tender age when brought to this city. The eldest son was eight years old, the younger one seven years, and the only daughter a babe of five months. They were:
521
1835
CUSHING
Henry Kirke Cushing, b. 1827; m. Betsey M. Williams ; d. 1910.
William David Cushing, b. 1829; m. Caroline J. F. Shaw of Lanesbo- ro; died in Cleveland 1874, and was buried in Erie st. cemetery. He represented navigation interests in the city. His only children died in infancy.
Cornelia Cushing, b. 1835; married eorge Patrick Briggs, son of a Massachusetts governeor. She died in Cleveland of consumption in 1858, and was buried in Erie st. cemetery. There were no chil- dren.
1835 CUSHING
Henry Kirke Cushing, son of Dr. Erastus Cushing and Mary Ann (Platt) Cushing, was born in Lanesboro, Mass., July, 1827, was brought from there to Cleveland when his parents removed hither in October, 1835, and lived here till his death, Feb., 1910. He graduated at Union College, 1848, studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, re- ceiving the M. D. degree there in 1851, and practiced medicine actively in Cleveland till about 1893, when he withdrew in favor of his son Ed- ward F. Cushing who had come home after medical school and hospital training and begun practice here in association with him.
Henry Kirke Cushing served as Surgeon of the famous 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with the rank of Major, from May to August, 1861; Professor in Western Reserve Medical Department, from 1856-1865, 1878- 1881; afterwards trustee of Western Rserve University for several years.
He married in Cleveland, June, 1852, Betsey Maria Williams (daugh- ter of William Williams and his wife Lucy Fitch). She died in Cleveland, Oct., 1903. Of their ten children (all born in Cleveland) three died in infancy. The others were:
1. William Erastus Cushing, b. Sept., 1853; A. B., Western Reserve, 1875; LL. B., Harvard, 1878; mar- ried Carolyn J. Kellogg of Pitts- field, Mass .; lawyer, Cleveland.
2. Alice Kirke Cushing, b. Feb., 1859 ; resides in Cleveland.
3. Henry Platt Cushing, b. Oct. 1860 ; B. Ph., Cornell, 1882; M. S., Cornell, 1885; Professor of Geol- ogy, Adelbert College and Cleve- land College for Women; resides in Cleveland ; married Florence E. Williams of Ithaca, N. Y .; three children living.
4. Edward Fitch Cushing, b. June, 1862 ; B. Ph., Cornell, 1883 ; M. D., Harvard, 1888; Professor of Dis-
eases of Children, Western Re- serve University, 1894-1911; on Lakeside Hospital Staff; married Melanie Harvey; died in Cleve- land, March, 1911; one child, Ed- ward Harvey Cushing.
5. George Briggs Cushing, b. April, 1864 ; resides Acampo, Calif.
6. Alleyne Maynard Cushing, b. Aug., 1867 ; died April, 1903.
7. Harvey Williams Cushing, b. April 1869; A. B., Yale, 1891 ; M. D. and A. M., Harvard, 1895; Associate Professor of Surgery, Johns Hop- kins University; surgeon, Balti- more, Md .; married Katharine S. Crowell of Cleveland; four chil- dren.
522
1835
GILLETTE
For twenty-five years or more Jonathan Gillette was a successful Cleveland merchant. Part of that time he was associated with Isaac L. Hewitt and Richard T. Lyon in the commission business on the river.
Mr. Gillette was identified with the growth of the city from some year in the early '30s until 1862, the date of his death. He was a gener- ous, public-spirited citizen, interested in every good work, churches, schools, and charitable organizations. He was genial and hospitable, with a circle of warm and admiring friends.
He was born in Windsor, Conn., in 1808, the son of Jonathan and Mary Skinner Gillette.
In 1839 he married, in this city, Susan Sloan, one of the accomplished daughters of Major Douglas W. Sloan, late of Williamstown, Mass. Their beautiful home on Euclid Ave. adjoined that of T. P. Handy, No. 60, and Parker Handy (whose wife was Mrs. Gillette's sister), occupied a dwell- ing near by.
In this home Mr. Gillette entertained a bountiful hospitality, his charming wife presiding with rare grace and dignity. She also made her home a delightful family circle as well as a social center, and maintained it until Mr. Gillette's sudden and tragic death, an event over which the whole community mourned.
Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Gillette, Mrs. Parker Handy, and several members of the Sloan family rest in Erie street cemetery, to the left of the main drive.
The children of Jonathan and Susan Sloan Gillette:
Harriette Douglas Gillette, married Jonathan Edwards Gillette, died in early manhood.
William Leete Stone, A. B., A. M., LL. B. William Backus Gillette, married Mary Apgar.
Douglas Cogswell Gillette, died in early manhood.
Three children died in infancy.
Mrs. Harriette Gillette Stone, the only surviving member of her im- mediate family, resides in Mt. Vernon, N. Y. Her husband, the late Col. William Leete Stone, was an historical and biographical writer of promi- nence, accomplishing much valuable work. He belonged to many histori- cal and literary societies, either as an honorary or corresponding mem- ber.
1835
GOULDER
Christopher Goulder, Sr., and his wife Julia Brooks Goulder, came to Cleveland from England in 1835. They brought with them an interest- ing family of two sons and three daughters.
Mr. Goulder was a sailor, and both his sons followed the same occu- pation. The family lived at 23 Bond street where Mrs. Goulder died in 1856, having outlived her husband a year or two. He died while away from home, and was buried in England.
523
1835
HANKS
The children of Christopher and Julia Goulder:
Catherine Goulder, m. Benjamin Ho- ran, who was first assistant or sec- retary to U. S. Minister to court of St. James. Mrs. Horan died in London in 1859.
Christopher Goulder, Jr., b. 1815; m. in 1846 Mrs. Barbara Freeland, widow of John Brown.
Harwood Goulder, unmarried.
Emily Goulder, m. - Crosby. Julia Goulder, m. Hiram Blunt. They removed to New York City where Mr. Blunt died in 1859.
Christopher Goulder, Jr., followed the lakes. He lived on Crockett street, near Perry, and between Garden and Scovill. He died in 1896.
The children of Christopher and Barbara Goulder, Jr .:
Charles Goulder, b. 1847; m. Marian C. Clements.
Robert Goulder, b. 1849; m. 1st, Re- becca Jacobs; 2nd, Lizzie Herren.
Harvey D. Goulder, m. Miss Mary Rankin of Washington, D. C.
The youngest son of this family is a prominent lawyer of the city re- siding at 7023 Euclid Avenue. His wife, recently deceased, was an ex- regent of the Western Reserve Chapter D. A. R., and a member of the Cleveland Woman's Press Club; a woman much beloved in the patriotic and literary societies with which she was affiliated.
1835
HANKS
Jarvis F. Hanks possessed several talents and many virtues. He also may have had faults, but moral cowardice was not one of them, else he never could have faced the disapproval and, in some cases the serious displeasure, of a minority of the Euclid Ave. Congregational church, that Sabbath morning, so many years ago, by carrying a violin into the choir of which he was chorister, and, first softly tuning it, boldly draw the bow across its strings and lead the singing of the first hymn.
Many of the congregation were interested and pleased at the innova- tion. Others were shocked beyond measure, especially the oldest mem- bers, who looked upon the "fiddle" as the instrument of the Devil himself. The church was stirred to its foundations. But progress, musical prog- ress, at last won out, and soon the strains of a violin soaring above the highest tenor or soprano voices lost all novelty, and as the sustaining power of the instrument became noticeable its value was appreciated, and, in time opposition ceased.
524
1835
HANKS
In those days, the Congregational church stood on the north corner of Euclid ave. and Doan street, E. 105th, back of it was a small ceme- tery dotted with grave-stones. Here many of the earliest pioneers were laid away in their last sleep. When the church organized a Sabbath School, Jarvis F. Hanks was its first superintendent and in the Sunday School auditorium of the costly church edifice hangs a very life-like pic- ture of him.
He was also an artist as well as musician. His regular occupation at first, was ornamental sign-painting, which developed eventually into a higher class of work. He received many orders for portraits. Some of these, showing considerable merit, still hang on the walls of Cleveland homes. He was especially fortunate in portraits of aged people and of children.
Jarvis F. Hanks was a very public-spirited citizen and took a lead- ing part in anti-slavery and temperance movements. He was the oldest child of Joseph and Anna Frary Hanks of Pawlet, Vt., who, shortly after their marriage, removed to Pittsford, Otsego co., N. Y., where their son was born in 1799. Eighteen years later, with their family of eleven chil- dren, the youngest a babe in its mother's arms, they set out in a prairie schooner for Gallipolis, O., near the Ohio river, but after many years of what proved useless hardship in that region, they returned east. Several of the children eventually made their home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where the parents died and were buried in the cemetery of that town. The American ancestor of Joseph Hanks was from Holland, while the descent of his wife Anna Frary Hanks is traced to the Pilgrims.
In 1823 Jarvis Frary Hanks married in Charlestown, Va., Miss Char- lotte Gasbee, daughter of Christian Gasbee of Rockingham, Va. She was born in 1802 and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1890.
Mr. and Mrs. Hanks came to Cleveland in 1835, bringing with them a family of young children, who in after years were scattered from New York to California. But one, at this date, survives, Mrs. Leffingwell of Colchester, Conn.
The first Cleveland home of the family was on Muirson street, but for many years afterward it was on the north-east corner of Euclid Ave. and E. 93rd street, the present site of Charles Wasson's residence. There was no 93rd street, however, at that time. It was laid out through his own grounds by Mr. Wasson's father and named Amesbury Ave. Mr. Hanks died in 1853 and was buried in Erie st. cemetery.
The children of this family were:
Romelea L. Hanks, m. Everett Clapp of New York City.
Henry G. Hanks, m. Ellen Barker of San Francisco. Frederick L. Hanks, unmarried.
Edwin J. Hanks, m. Anne Deal of Philadelphia.
Virginia Hanks, died in her 20th year in Cleveland.
Arthur T. Hanks, m. Mary Buckley of New York.
Leslie C. Hanks, unmarried. Walter S. Hanks, m. Ellen
Emmeline C. Hanks, m. John E.
Leffingwell of New York.
525
1835
HOYT
Jarvis F. Hanks had a brother, Oliver Hanks, who came to Cleveland in the early '40s, and lived on Euclid Ave. near Lakeview cemetery. He was a fine man and much beloved by his brother's children.
His daughter, Mrs. Emily H. Prentiss, resides with her daughter in Bloomfield, N. J., while Mrs. Catherine Hanks Whittlesey and Mrs. Jose- phine Hanks Street still make their home in Cleveland. The three sisters are accomplished women.
1835
HOYT
James Madison Hoyt was but 20 years of age when he came to Cleve- land fresh from his graduation at Hamilton College, and entered as a student the office of Andrews & Foote, two of the most prominent lawyers of Cleveland, both of whom succeeded to the judicial bench. This is men- tioned because not long afterward they took the young man into part- nership with them, which indicates that he must have been exceptionally bright and unusually promising for his age.
Mr. Hoyt was the son of David P. Hoyt and Mary-Barnum-Hoyt, who removed to Utica, N. Y., from Connecticut in 1820. There was a large exodus of New England families into western New York about that time, and a few years later many of these families who had settled in or near Utica, again sold out and removed to Cleveland or its vicin- ity. Several of the best known pioneers of this city came here from Utica.
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