USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > The pioneer families of Cleveland 1796-1840 Vol. II > Part 26
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He was born 1816 in Levant, Maine, the son of Gordon Freese, a poor farmer; few New England farmers were not poor in those days.
Andrew was a slender, delicate lad, unfitted for the rough, hard work on the farm. At ten years of age he lost his mother, Hannah Allen Freese. It was a most distressing loss to a child who particularly needed the tenderness and intuitions of a mother to tide him over the difficulties that faced him at that period of his life. He had an alert mind, was fond of books, and very studious, so it was not long before he was able to teach in country schools and in that way to fit himself for college and to work his way through it.
In 1840 the Cleveland public schools were established, and at the age of 24 years, Andrew J. Freese was sent for, and became the principal of one of the grammar schools of the city. Seven years later, July, 1847, when the first high school was opened in the basement of a small Congre- gational church on Prospect street, northwest corner of East 7th St., Mr. Freese was placed in charge of it. There were 24 pupils, all boys; but the following year girls were admitted. For several years the average at- tendance fell far short of 100, and part of the time Mr. Freese had but one assistant.
In 1853 when the public school system of the city had grown to such proportions as to need a man of educational experience to give it his whole time and attention, Andrew J. Freese was the natural candidate for the position, and thus became the first superintendent of the Cleve- land Public Schools.
He held the office for eight years, and that he remained in it no longer was a reflection upon the Board of Education for the year he retired.
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COE
The man who superseded him retained the position but two years. Since then the office has been filled successively by many men. Some of them gained reputations, more or less deserved, for great ability in their line, but not one was better fitted personally and mentally to manage the school system than was Andrew J. Freese. The writer entered a grammar school of the city in 1857 and well remembers the enthusiasm that prevailed in the class room during the frequent presence there of Mr. Freese. He made every pupil feel alive, alert, and inspired with the idea that books and study were the most delightful things in this world. He had a happy faculty of drawing out the very best in a pupil, and even a stupid one would respond to his adroit questioning in a way to astonish the regular teacher.
Mr. Freese remained a resident of the city until his death in 1902. During the long years of his inactivity in educational matters, for he was but 45 when his connection with the public schools was closed, nothing seemed to give him such satisfaction as an occasional visit to a school building and to offer prizes for exceptional work.
The year he was made principal of the high school Mr. Freese mar- ried one of his young teachers. She was Miss Elisabeth Merrill, daugh- ter of Rev. Moses and Nancy Lee Merrill of Haverhill, N. J. She was born in 1825. Her father was a Methodist minister famous as a Greek scholar. He settled in Brooklyn, O., and Elisabeth attended the Acad- emy of that town. Like her father she was scholarly, and a natural lin- guist. She excelled in mathematics and rhetoric. Miss Merrill taught in Brooklyn and subsequently became an assistant in the Cleveland high school. She was a very amiable young woman and often her marriage proved to be naturally domestic although retaining her interest in intel- lectual pursuits until her death in 1893.
The family lived on the corner of Prospect and Huron streets, the site of the Osborn Building.
Mr. and Mrs. Freese had two daughters, only one of whom survived. Elmina Freese, married James G. Hobbie of Belfast, Maine. Resides on Hampshire Road, East Cleveland.
1840
COE
Charles W. Coe, son of Dr. Benjamin and Matilda Parsons Coe, fol- lowed his elder brother S. S. Coe to this city in 1840. His first employ- ment was secured with Newton E. Crittenden the pioneer jeweler on Su- perior street. Afterwards he became an accountant for Pease & Allen, the River street commission merchants, and later was associated in busi- ness with his brother and with Charles Hickox. C. W. Coe was an unself- ish, generous-hearted man with frank, genial manners. He resided with his widowed mother at 112 Lake street, until his marriage in 1846 to Miss Maria L. Ives, daughter of John C. and Lucy Coe Ives of Oswego, N. Y. The couple lived at 48 Ontario street. The lot adjoined that of
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S. S. Coe. The Hotel Lincoln now covers both the Coe lots. To the north of them lived Henry Castle, Augustus Foot, and Joseph Sargeant. Later on, Mr. Marshon, engaged in millinery, built a fine home. All three houses are still standing.
The children of Charles W. and Maria Ives Coe:
C. C. Coe, b. 1848; m. Emily Lamb Parker Leland of Holliston, Mass.
of Toledo, Ohio. Mary E. Coe, b. 1856 ; unmarried.
Matilda L. Coe, b. 1850; m. Evard
The Charles W. Coe family removed to Toledo in
Mr. Coe died in 1909, aged 87 years. Mrs. Coe died in 1902, in her 81st year.
1840
FORD
Hezekiah and Huldah Cobb Ford, of Cummington, Mass., had four sons who became Ohio pioneers. Two of them settled on Euclid ave., near Mayfield Road. They were twin brothers, Cyrus and Darius Ford, born in 1790. They came to Cleveland from Cummington by the way of Mas- sillon, where they remained for a time engaged in an attempt to raise silk worms. They contracted malaria, and were so prostrated by it that a change of residence was deemed advisable. Cyrus Ford bought a farm of 100 acres on Euclid ave. for $18 an acre, and another of the same size on Mayfield Road, near the Garfield monument, for $16 an acre. He lived to sell 4 acres of the latter for $1000 an acre.
The Fords were partly Quaker in descent, and therefore took a de- cided stand in their views on the slavery question. Their homes became stations of the famous "Underground Railroad," and they helped many an escaping negro to reach Canada and freedom. One of these was a beautiful Kentucky girl and a little boy, both so nearly white as to easily pass for such. They had been sold to a cruel New Orleans planter and fled north into Ohio, being passed on from one anti-slavery family to another until they at last reached the shores of Lake Erie and were received and secreted in the home of Cyrus Ford. A little steamer was then plying between Cleveland and Port Stanley, but its dock was being closely watched by emissaries of the southern master. The woman was dressed in rich apparel, her little boy disguised as a girl, and they were driven in a fine turnout to the boat, and those watching out little guessed that the elegantly attired lady who walked over the gangplank was the poor woman they had planned to seize and return to slavery.
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The Fords were esthetic in their tastes and progressive in farming methods. The acres of forest and field they purchased soon became or- chards of fruit and gardens of vegetables and flowers. Mr. Ford was never afraid to try anything that came to his notice, and his experiments were more often successful than otherwise. Mrs. Ford was Clarissa Whitmarsh, daughter of Deacon Jacob and Anna Poole Whitmarsh. She was about 50 years of age when she came to Cleveland. Very tall and very vigorous, she made light of her frequent task of weaving from 20 to 40 yards of linen or woolen cloth. Her hair, of a Titian shade, never turned gray, but retained its color and its luster to the end of her days.
She was a woman who could do her own thinking, arrive at her own conclusions, and give her reasons for them with logical clearness. She was inclined to be reserved with strangers, but friendly and chatty with people she knew well.
The children of Cyrus and Clarissa Whitmarsh Ford:
Horace Ford, m. Sarah Dawes. Horatio Ford, m. Martha C. Cozad.
Henry Ford, m. Martha Slaght. Francis Ford, m. Mercy Fuller.
Lewis Ford, m. Anna Fenn.
Children of Horace and Sarah Ford:
Mary Ford, m. Jesse B. Fay, attor- Arthur Ford, m. Anna Barclay of ney. Willoughby.
Nellie Ford, m. W. J. Alton.
Children of Horatio and Martha Ford:
Clara Ford, m. Lyman A. Gould of H. Clark Ford, m. Ida Thorpe. Indianapolis. Kate F. Ford, m. Bryant Whitmore. Ella Ford, m. Will Brunner.
Children of Henry and Martha Slaght Ford :
Alice Ford, m. George Ashland, Harry Ford, m. Minnie Hull. M. D. Louise and Julia Ford.
Children of Francis and Mercy Fuller Ford :
Frank L. Ford, m. Eva Hurlbut. Maria Ford, m. Rev. Harry Jones.
Edwin Ford, m. Nellie Keith. Charles, Minnie, and Fannie Ford.
Children of Lewis and Anna Fenn Ford:
Harriet Ford, m. William F. George Ford, m. Frances Bailey.
Sprague. Lewis Ford, Jr., m. Bessie Mead.
Grace Ford, m. James Monroe.
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1840
COBB
The mother of Moses Cowan Younglove, Mrs. Chauncy L. Ransom, and those well known early citizens, the Cobb brothers, was so unusual a woman that the little to be secured about her only stimulates the wish to know more. And could one of her children be alive to tell the tale it surely would be an interesting one.
At nineteen years of age she married Moses Younglove who died within two years, leaving her with a little daughter. Ann Eliza Young- love, who married Chauncy S. Ransom and died aged eighty-eight, and a son, Moses C. Younglove, born a month after his father's death.
After five years of widowhood she married (2d) Solomon Cobb, and within the next fourteen years nine children were added to her house- hold. Again she became a widow, and subsequently joined her older sons, who had preceded her to this city to engage in business with their half- brother, Mr. Younglove.
The nomenclature of her second brood of little ones is most original, and hints of many things concerning herself, strength of character, indif- ference to established precedent, continuity of thought, and, for those days, a rare knowledge of ancient history.
It may have been a revolt against the ever-recurring biblical names in her own family. Her father was David, her first husband Moses, her second one Solomon, and both her mother and herself were "Hannah." Doubtless she had uncles and aunts and cousins who were Davids, Dan- iels, and Hannahs.
As will be noticed, her own daughters received the beautiful stately names of Marcia and Lucia, and they proved by no means misnomers.
Mrs. Hannah Cobb was fifty-two years old when she came to Cleve- land, and, with three of her sons and perhaps both daughters, resided at 83 Seneca street.
As a family Mrs. Cobb's children were book sellers, book publishers, and manufacturers of paper to make books, and, if one can absorb knowl- edge through the handling of books, they should have been, and probably were, exceptionally well informed.
The children of Solomon and Hannah (Younglove) Cobb:
Lucius M. Cobb, b. 1817; m. Mary McMillan. He died aged 74 yrs. Marcius L. Cobb, b. 1819; m. 1st, Catherine Ward; 2nd, Anna Gray. He died ae. 72 yrs.
Junius B. Cobb, b. 1820; m. Alice Aldrich Wilkinson. He died aged 73.
Lucia M. Cobb, b. 1822; m. Elijah Reed Fenton. She died at 82 yrs. Brutus J. Cobb, b. 1824; m. Rose Bill. He died aged 76.
Caius C. Cobb, b. 1826; m. Helen M. Andrews, daughter of the Cleve- land pioneer. He died aged 72. Cassius C. Cobb, b. 1827; m. 1st, Susan Blackwell; 2nd, Ella Hit- tle. He died aged 83.
Marcia L. Cobb, b. 1830; m. Edwin Stair. She died aged 46.
Daniel Wells Cobb, b. 1832; the only
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1840
HODGE
Mrs. Sophia Hodge, the mother of Mrs. David L. Wood, and Orlando J. Hodge, lived long enough with her daughter in this city to entitle her to space in this history of pioneer families.
She was the daughter of Abel and Anna Caulkins English, and was born in Lebanon, Conn. In 1810, her parents removed to Hamburg, a farming district near Buffalo, N. Y. Here, in 1820, she married Alfred Hodge who had been recently given a government position in Macki- nac, Mich., and the young couple started at once in a sailing vessel for that far-off, frontier fort.
Mrs. Hodge kept a diary of each day's experience throughout the eight years she remained there, and of her journey to Mackinac. In it she relates of the boat passing Cleveland so close that she had a good view of the village: "A few houses, most of them painted white, stand- ing among the trees high up on the lake bank. They looked very pretty and gave us a good impression of the place." At first, Mrs. Hodge was the only white woman in Mackinac.
Mr. and Mrs. Hodge returned to Buffalo in 1828, and four years later, Mr. Hodge fell the first victim of the cholera epidemic of 1832. His widow was left with three little children, Mandana, Alfred, and Orlando John Hodge, the latter but four years of age. She died in 1846, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Wood, 55 Wood street, and was buried in Erie street cemetery.
During the last days of his long life of 84 years, her son, Col. O. J. Hodge, wrote in detail the personal experiences of his boyhood, man- hood, and old age, a precious and private legacy to his family. The writ- ing is very fine but clear and distinct as script, and is a remarkable ex- hibit of the possibilities of a man 84 years. With but an inkling of the vicissitudes of the writer's life, one could imagine that its pages would be of absorbng interest. The simplicity and sincerity of its diction makes it almost a classic, while often its pathos moves one to tears ..
Left fatherless at a tender age, his life at first, was a long struggle with poverty. But he was singularly proud spirited and independent, insisting always upon earning his own way. In later years he had a supreme contempt for a dead beat or a sponge, knowing through early experience that seldom, if ever, is a man obliged to beg.
When but a lad, he walked, from Cleveland to Buffalo in order to enlist in the Mexican War, and at his death, he was the sole survivor, in this locality, of that conflict.
His association with his brother-in-law, General Wood, gave him at an early age a working knowledge of the printer's trade which resulted, years afterward, in the establishment of the Sun and Voice, Cleveland's first Sunday newspaper, of which he was for 11 years editor and prin- cipal owner.
The public life of Col. Hodge embraced so much and lasted so long that space will not admit of enumeration. Only here and there can it be touched upon merely. As a legislator at Columbus, he was Speaker of the House for four years. He was president of the Sons of the Ameri-
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OVERACHER
can Revolution, of the New England Society, and of the Old Settlers' Association.
The experiences of his early life made him particularly sympathetic and tender-hearted with children. Many a little newsboy has been marched into a shoe store by Col. Hodge and had his feet properly shod, or guided elsewhere to displace his ragged coat for a warmer one. The constant appeal of dependent childhood and of suffering animals led to the organization of the local Humane Society, of which Col. Hodge was charter member and for long years an active worker.
At 27 years of age, Col. Hodge married Lydia R. Doan, daughter of David Clark Doan, a Cleveland pioneer. She died in 1879, from the effects of an accident. This marriage of his youth was a happy one upon which he loved to dwell in reminiscence. "Lydia was the most truthful person I had ever met," he affirmed. "I never knew her to equivocate in the slightest degree."
They had one child, Clark R. Hodge, who married and died in early manhood, leaving no family.
In 1882, Col. Hodge took a most fortunate step in marrying Mrs .. Virginia Shedd Clark of Columbus, a young widow many years his junior but with tastes singularly in accord with his own. Intelligent, accom- plished, and possessed of a lovely disposition, her devoted companionship cheered and comforted the last 30 years of Col. Hodge's life.
1840
OVERACHER
Beginning in the late '30s, for nearly 20 years, Gennet Overacher was landlord of a hotel on Ontario street, corner of Michigan street. Part of the time he was located where Seth Abbey had once "kept tav- ern," and later he managed the Farmers' Hotel on the opposite corner.
Mr. Overacher had daughters who attended, with Elisabeth Blair and sisters, the select school taught by Miss Maria Blackmer, afterward Mrs. George Worthington. The mother and children of the Overacher family were recalled by Mrs. Blair as refined in manner, and greatly respected.
Gannet Overacher may have been a descendant of Michael Overacher, a justice of the peace who was a Mayfield, O., pioneer before 1819.
The following marriages are recorded in Cuyahoga Co. probate court:
1820. Adam Overacher to Chloe Burk, by Michael Overacher, J. P.
1821. Joseph Witten to Esther Overacher, by Michael Overacher, J. P.
1821. Moses Metcalf to Sally Overacher, by above.
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1840
SMITH
In 1836, Edwin Smith turned his back upon Windham, Conn., where he had been born, grown to manhood, and married, and set his face toward the west in search of better opportunities than old Windham had thus far afforded him.
It demands considerable courage in a man 36 years old with a family depending upon him to relinquish a certain living and start off to en- counter he knows not what hardship, misfortune, or failure. But courage and endurance were an inheritance with Edwin Smith. Had not his fa- ther been a drum-major in the battles of White Plains and of Monmouth in the war of the Revolution? And surely possible poverty and western wolves were no more dangerous than cannon-ball or leaden bullets. His patriot father was Nathaniel Smith, and his mother was Submit Hunting- ton of the well-known Connecticut family of that name.
Edwin Smith started his hazard of new fortunes at Black Rock on the Niagara river, but remained there but a year, then tried Newark, O., which place proved no more satisfactory for the business he had in view than had the former. Cleveland then became his next field of experi- ment, and the family arrived here in 1840, just in time to become pio- neers of this city.
Mr. Smith soon became established in a forwarding business in a ware- house on the river, and the family settled on the east side of Bank street near Lake street. But after a time, a new house for it was erected on the south side of Prospect near Perry street; one that in future years became the residence of Dr. John Sanders, Jr.
Here Mr. and Mrs. Smith lived until 1870, when they returned to Connecticut, the children, meanwhile, having reached maturity, and well established in life.
Mrs. Amanda Smith was the daughter of Andrew and Phila Stowell Frink of Windham, Conn., was 37 years old when she came to Cleveland, and lived to be nearly 90. She must have had an exceedingly interesting father, judging from the picture of him hanging in the library of his grandson R. F. Smith. It is that of a fine-featured, noble-looking old man, the face framed in beautiful white hair that looks as soft as spun silk.
Close by hangs a picture of the homestead built by him in the 18th century. It is typical of the time and the place, wide, two-storied, its front entrance in the center and flanked on either side by many green- shuttered windows.
Andrew Frink for long years was the village blacksmith, honored and revered. He never came to Cleveland, but his daughter was the link that connected him and the old town on the Connecticut river with the new one on the Cuyahoga.
Edwin Smith was the brother of Mrs. Kelsey, Sr., who was also a Cleveland pioneer. Mr. Smith and his wife were members of the Old Stone church on the Public Square, and their son Reuben was "Deacon Smith" of the same society for long years.
The late R. F. Smith was president of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh R. R. He was a man whose honorable life was patterned as closely as pos- sible from those of his paternal and maternal grandfathers. His recent
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death was keenly felt and sincerely mourned by the Old Stone church society.
Children of Reuben and Rebecca Smith:
Clifford C. Smith, m. Emma Lewis of Chicago.
Carrie B. Smith, her father's com- panion and housekeeper at the
Augustus F. Smith, m. Mary P. time of his death.
Sackett of Cuyahoga Falls.
The children of Edwin and Amanda Smith :
Andrew Frink Smith, died young in Black Rock, N. Y.
Reuben Fairbanks Smith, b. 1830; m. Rebecca Wylie Peters of Col- chester, Conn., daughter of Gen. Peters.
Ermina Smith, died unmarried.
Edwin Smith, Jr., m. Louise
of Ravenna, O. He died in Oak- land, Cal.
1840
WOOD
David Lusk Wood, son of Eli and Laura Lusk Wood, was born in Bark- hamstead, Conn. His paternal grandparents were Obidiah and Roxa Burnham Wood.
David L. Wood sailed the lakes in the summer and set type in the winter season. But at heart he was neither a sailor nor a printer. All his tastes and inclinations leaned to a military life. At the age he came to Cleveland-21 years-he should have been about to graduate from West Point-a full-fledged Lieutenant, U. S. A., instead of seeking em- ployment as a civilian in a strange city. But occasionally there are peo- ple who by sheer will-power rectify Fortune's mistakes, and David L. Wood was one of them. There had been no money nor influence to land him where he belonged-in a military academy, but that did not prevent a born soldier from remaining one all his life.
A few years previous he had left Connecticut where born, and came west as far as Buffalo. There he joined the Buffalo Guards, the crack militia company of that city. In 1837, while on a visit east to relatives in his native state, word came that the government needed the services of the Guards in patroling the boundaries between this country and Canada. The latter had a small civil war on her hands, and certain American citi- zens were taking sides too openly, she complained. Young Wood hastened back to take his place in the ranks of the Buffalo Guards, and for his serv- ices at that time he received 160 acres of government land-possibly now
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the site of some flourishing city or town. But we may rest assured that neither Wood nor his comrades held on to their bounties long enough to realize any future values. Wild, western land was far off, and money in the hand temptingly near, especially in those days of scarcity-so these young American Esaus parted with their possessions for a song.
In the summer of 1838, the Buffalo Guards came to Cleveland on a steamer to visit our own military organization-the "Grays," and young Wood accompanied it. It was quite natural, then, that when he came alone in September of the following year, he should at once affiliate him- self with the Grays. He was requested to organize a "gun squad" as aux- iliary to it, which he did, and thenceforth was "Captain" Wood.
During the Mexican War, he opened a recruiting station in the city, and raised a company, which, however, was not forwarded to the scene of activities, the sudden close of the war making it unnecessary. After that episode he was "Major" Wood.
Meanwhile, Major Wood was active in all military affairs of the city, and when the civil war broke out, with it came his opportunity. As Quar- termaster General, under both governors-Chase and Dennison-he armed and equipped over 100 regiments, and gave to six of Ohio's noted generals in the war their first military instruction.
But he wanted to be at the front, and although passed the age of serv- ice, he accepted a commission as captain in the regular army, and was wounded in the battle of Stone River.
Gen. Wood was a frank, outspoken man, who had no use for shams in any guise. Previous to 1840, a grove of oaks and chestnuts pressed closely upon the rear of the Case homestead, facing the Public Square, and extended from the present site of the City Hall to the lake. A street was cut through this and named Wood street. Gen. Wood built a home upon it where he lived the remainder of his life. At that time it was num- bered 55.
Mrs. Mandana S. Wood was the daughter of Alfred and Sophia Hodge of Buffalo, N. Y. Her American progenitor was John Hodge, 1643, a Con- necticut farmer. Mrs. Wood's widowed mother resided with her for a short time, and also her young brother, Orlando J. Hodge, who in after years became one of Cleveland's most distinguished citizens.
Mrs. Wood was a woman of much intelligence, a constant reader, and possessed a wonderful memory. No local event, whether of public or local importance, was ever forgotten. She was at the front part of the time her husband was in service, and while there did her whole womanly share in ameliorating the condition of sick and wounded soldiers. She had a keen sense of humor, which enlivened her own life, and brightened that of others. Dr. Beckwith, a noted local physician, told an amusing and characteristic story of her, which was printed four years since in the Annals of the Old Settlers' Association.
The only child of General and Mrs. Wood was Laura Sophia Wood, born 1841. She married, in 1867, Nelson H. Lawton, son of Acres Wells and Elisabeth Clark Lawton, and is now a widow, residing in New York City. No children.
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