Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46

In 1856, Mr. Morris moved to Cleveland, the amount of business transacted
with this city making this step prudent. Here the firm of Crawford, Price
& Morris was formed, which subsequently became Price, Crawford & Morris,
and finally Morris & Price. On the 15th of February, 1862, he died in the
forty-third year of his age.

[Illustration: Truly Yours, David Morris]

Mr. Morris was active, industrious, and unfailing in his watchfulness
over the interests in his charge, both when an employee and when an
employer. His industry set a good example, which those under him were
induced to follow, and in this way labors which would have wearied and
discouraged men with a less energetic and industrious manager, were
performed with cheerfulness. He was a man of few words but his manner and
acts spoke more forcibly than words, and his men learned to obey and
respect an employer, who, instead of ordering and lecturing them, quietly
showed them how he wished a thing by setting about it with them. He was
careful to restrain his passions, and to act from judgment instead of from
impulse. In this way he was not only successful in business, and respected
by his business associates, but possessed the esteem and confidence of his
workmen, who, when he lay in his last illness, gathered anxiously to learn
every item of intelligence that could be learned in regard to his
condition.

Mr. Morris was simple and unpretending in his habits, and of a religious
turn of mind. He felt his obligations to God, and during his later years,
especially, was diligent in his attention on Divine worship. In the
closing days of his illness, he was constantly engaged in prayer, and
departed this life in the assured hope of a peaceful and joyous hereafter.

The disease that carried him off was typhoid fever, with which he was at
first seized in Cleveland, where he lay at his residence for some weeks.
On his partial recovery he visited Girard, where he suffered a relapse,
and after a lingering illness, died at the residence of his parents. He
was buried in Youngstown cemetery, the funeral exercises being attended by
one of the largest assemblages of friends ever congregated at that place
on a similar occasion.

It was feared that with his death the operation of his works would cease
and a large number of people be thus thrown out of employment. But a short
time before his death he had expressed the desire that the works should be
carried on after his departure the same as before it; "because," said he,
"to stop the work would do much harm to others and no good to us." Mr.
Morris appointed his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Morris, and Mr. Robert McLauchlan,
executors of his will, and trustees of the estate. Mr. McLauchlan, who had
been for a number of years engaged with the firm previous to the death of
Mr. Morris, and therefore familiar with all its business detail, had the
additional qualification of being an able financier, and possessing a
practical knowledge of all branches of the coal interest, and above all,
a character for unimpeachable integrity. His administration has been
eminently successful.

Mr. Morris left a wife and six children to mourn his loss, the eldest of
whom, Mary, is now the widow of the late A. V. Cannon, and the second,
William, is a member of the firm of Ward, Morris & Co., coal dealers. The
third, John, is engaged at one of the estate mines, at Niles, Ohio, the
rest being quite young.

W. I. Price.

W. I. Price was born in Nantiglo, South Wales, May 21st, 1823, and came to
the United States with his father when about twelve years of age. His
father settled at Paris, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch remained
until he grew up to man's estate, when he removed to Cleveland, and was
engaged as book-keeper with Messrs. Camp & Stockly. The confidence of his
employers in his business ability and integrity was soon manifested by
their sending him to Chicago as their agent in the coal business. His stay
in that city was marked by several severe fits of sickness, and he was
eventually compelled to leave that post and return to Cleveland.

Soon after his return he became interested with Lemuel Crawford, in the
business of mining coal, in the early development of which branch of trade
he filled a conspicuous and important part. He often related, after the
coal interest had assumed large proportions, the difficulties to be
surmounted in introducing coal as an article of fuel, especially on the
steamboats. Frequently he has sat up all night watching for the steamers
to come in, and then almost gave away coal in order to induce their
officers to use it.

The firm of Crawford & Price was formed in 1850. With persistent energy it
continued to push its coal business until it assumed considerable
proportions, when, in 1856, Mr. David Morris became a partner, and the
firm name was changed to Crawford, Price & Co., and again in 1858, to
Price, Crawford & Morris. In 1857, the firm of Price, Morris & Co. was
established in Chicago, and Mr. Price was, during much of his time,
actively engaged in the extensive coal transactions of that firm.

[Illustration: Very Resp. Yours, W. I. Price]

Mr. Price was married to Miss Harriet Murray, who died in 1850, after two
years of married life, leaving one child, which only survived her three
months. He was married again August 27, 1856, to Miss Caroline Anderson,
of Manchester, Vermont, daughter of Rev. James Anderson, of the
Congregational church.

Being in ill health at the time of his second marriage, Mr. Price, with
his wife, took a trip to Europe, visiting his old home in Wales, and
returned with his health so much improved that he was scarcely recognized
by his friends.

The year 1857 was a most trying time for business men. Mr. Price's labors
were arduous in the extreme; his energy was unbounded, and the labors he
was compelled to perform doubtless so over-taxed his strength that he had
not sufficient vitality to recover.

In the Fall of 1858, he had the first serious apprehensions for his
health. A bronchial difficulty from which he suffered, was aggravated by
traveling and exposure, and in the Spring of 1859, he went to New York
for advice. He was told to make another trip to Europe. This advice was
followed, but he returned very little benefited. After a few weeks he
started with his wife on a tour south, intending to remain there during
the Winter. Reaching Charleston, S. C., about the middle of November, he
remained but a short time, and then set out for the Sulphur Springs, at
Aiken. Here he improved rapidly, but as the cold came on, and the
accommodations were poor, it was thought advisable to go further south.
At Savannah he remained a short time, and after wandering from point to
point, arrived early in February at New Smyrna, where a large company of
English hunters made their headquarters. Here they found better food and
accommodations. After wandering through the South until about the middle
of May, they returned to New York, where they were met by the partner of
Mr. Price, Mr. Morris, and Mr. Price's brother Philip. The latter
accompanied them to Manchester, Vermont. The mountain air of that region
stopped the cough of the invalid, and from Thursday, May 17th, to Monday
21st, he was able to sit up, and was attending to business with his
brother all the morning of the last named day. A friend from Brooklyn
called, and with him he conversed for half an hour. On rising to bid him
good bye, he was seized with hemorrhage, and asked to be assisted to bed.
He never spoke more, and died in fifteen minutes. His remains were
brought to Cleveland and interred in Erie street cemetery, but were
afterwards removed to Woodland. The last illness of Mr. Price was borne
without a murmur.

Mr. Price was modest and retiring in manner, affable in disposition, and
benevolent to a fault. He was most beloved where best known. In business
circles his integrity was proverbial, and his financial ability
everywhere acknowledged. Few men have died so sincerely regretted by
those who knew him.

James Anderson Price, the only child of the subject of this sketch, was
born April 22d, 1858, and though yet very young, presents in personal
appearance and disposition an exact counterpart of his father.

D. W. Cross.

In the Spring of 1855, when the coal trade of Cleveland was,
comparatively, in its infancy, and before the Mahoning Railroad was built,
the late Oliver H. Perry and David W. Cross set about investigating the
coal deposits in the Mahoning Valley, which resulted in their making some
leases of coal lands, and in purchasing a coal tract of about one hundred
and fifty acres, known then as the old Heaton coal bank, of Mineral Ridge
coal. In January, 1856, Perry, Cross & Co. commenced operations in
earnest, opened an office and coal yard on Johnson & Tisdale's dock and
mined and brought to Cleveland the first cargo of Mineral Ridge coal. It
came by the way of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal from Niles, Trumbull
county, Ohio.

At that time, when a gold dollar was only worth a dollar, the coal was
mined at forty cents per ton, the canal freight about one dollar and
seventy-five cents per ton, "dead work," handling, dockage, &c., about
seventy-five cents, making the total cost of that coal on the docks in
Cleveland ready for delivery, about two dollars and ninety cents per ton.

This mine produced about a hundred tons per day. The company that year
also received about eight thousand tons of Briar Hill or "block coal" from
Powers' bank, about two miles below Youngstown. This coal was also brought
in by canal boats.

In the year 1859, Hon. Henry B. Payne, who had an interest in the
original purchase of coal lands, with a view of establishing his son,
Nathan P. Payne, in business, bought the entire interest of Mr. Perry in
the concern and the business was continued in the name of D. W. Cross & Co.
Mr. N. P. Payne, then an active young man just from his collegiate studies,
took charge of the retail trade, and Isaac Newton had charge of the books.
In 1860, arrangements were made with the late Lemuel Crawford to run his
Chippewa and Briar Hill mines in connection with the Mineral Ridge mines,
and it resulted in forming the company known as Crawford, Cross & Co., for
one year, at the expiration of which time the firm of Cross, Payne & Co.,
composed of D. W. Cross, Nathan P. Payne and Isaac Newton, carried on the
business. This firm made extensive explorations for coal. They discovered
and opened the Summit bank coal mines, near Akron, built a locomotive
railroad three miles long to the canal at Middlebury, and to the Cleveland
& Zanesville and Atlantic & Great Western railroads; repaired the feeder
canal from Middlebury to Akron, built a basin capable of holding eight
canal boats, extensive shutes, docks, &c., capable of handling four
thousand five hundred tons per day. This coal tract includes between three
and four hundred acres. The coal is a superior quality of the Massillon
grade, about four and a half feet thick, and for steam, manufacturing and
domestic uses is claimed to have no superior. The company employed at this
mine from seventy-five to a hundred and fifty men; built extensive shaft
works for elevating coal to the surface; erected about forty comfortable
tenements for the workmen and miners, and, in short, used all their past
experience to make this a model mine. It is the nearest coal bank to
Cleveland now open.

They also, in connection with the late W. A. Otis, Charles A. Otis and
James Lewis, leased and purchased several hundred acres of coal lands in
Brookfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, and opened the extensive works known as
the Otis Coal Company's bank.

A shaft on this tract was sunk to the coal eight by sixteen feet and a
hundred and fifty-five feet deep, in sixty-one days by Isaac Halford,
superintendent, through solid rock, said to be the quickest work ever
known in the valley. This tract produces an excellent quality of the Briar
Hill grade of coal; a locomotive railroad connects it with a branch of the
Mahoning Railroad, and the works are capable of mining and raising three
hundred tons of coal per day.

In February, 1867, Mr. Cross retired from the business, and the present
firm of Payne, Newton & Co., composed of N. P. Payne, Isaac Newton and
Charles J. Sheffield, now carry on the extensive business of the entire
concern. They have ample facilities for mining and handling five or six
hundred tons of coal per day.

After the completion of the Cleveland & Mahoning Railroad the Pennsylvania
and Ohio canal was abandoned, the Railroad Company having obtained control
of the stock, and fixed so high a tariff as to cut off all competition
with themselves. This effectually killed the canal, except that portion
between Akron and Kent. The active trade on this part of the Pennsylvania
and Ohio canal will insure its preservation, and as it is an important
feeder (supplying water and trade) to the Ohio canal, the State will
undoubtedly take possession of it. The capital invested by this concern in
the coal trade is about $250,000.

Since his retirement from the coal trade, Mr. Cross has been actively
interested in the Winslow Car Roofing Company and the Cleveland Steam
Gauge Company, both carrying on their manufactories in Cleveland.

Religious

Although originally settled by people from Connecticut, Cleveland was not
in its early days distinguished for its religious characteristics. Old
inhabitants narrate how in the infancy of the settlement the whisky shop
was more frequented than the preaching meeting, whenever that was held,
and how, on one occasion, a party of scoffing unbelievers bore in mock
triumph an effigy of the Saviour through the streets. A regular meeting of
infidels was held, and burlesque celebrations of the Lord's Supper
performed. Still later, when the business of slaughtering hogs became an
important branch of industry, it was carried on regularly, on Sundays as
well as on week-days, and as this was a leading feature in the year's
doings the religious observance of the day was seriously interfered with
during slaughtering season. Trade on the river, in the busy season, went
on with but little regard for the Sundays, except that Mr. John Walworth
invariably refused, although not a church member, to conform to the usage
of his neighbors in doing business on that day. Unlike the modern
emigrants from New England, the Cleveland pioneers did not carry the
church with them.

The first regularly organized religious society in Cleveland was the
Episcopal, which gathered together for religious worship in 1817, under
the ministration of the Rev. Roger Searles. The meetings were held
wherever a room could be obtained, the court-house, old academy building,
and other public rooms being frequently used for the purpose. In 1828,
Trinity Church was regularly incorporated, and the frame building which
stood on the corner of Seneca and St. Clair streets until its destruction
by fire in 1853, is remembered with affection by many Clevelanders as
"Old Trinity."

The next religions organization was Presbyterian. In 1820, a few residents
of Cleveland engaged, the Rev. Randolph Stone, pastor of a church at
Morgan, Ashtabula county, to devote a third of his ministrations to
Cleveland. In June of that year the first Sunday school was established
with Elisha Taylor as superintendent, but it was only by the most
persistent effort that it was enabled to combat the prejudices and
overcome the indifference of the people. In September, 1820, the First
Presbyterian church was formally organized, with fourteen members, in the
old log court-house. In 1827, the society was regularly incorporated, and
in 1834, the old stone church on the Public Square was opened for worship.
During the whole of this time the congregation had no settled pastor, but
was dependent on occasional visits of ministers from other places.

The first attempt at Methodist organization was somewhere between 1824 and
1827. Methodism was not in favor among the early settlers in Cleveland.
The historian of the Erie Conference relates that a Methodist friend in
New England, who owned land in Cleveland, sent on a deed for the lot on
the northeast corner of Ontario and Rockwell street, where Mr. Crittenden
afterwards built a large stone house, which lot would have been most
suitable for a church, and that no person could be found willing to pay
the trifling expense of recording, or take charge of the deed, and it was
returned to the donor. In 1830, Cleveland became a station, with Rev. Mr.
Plimpton, pastor.

The first Baptist meeting was held in the old academy, in 1832, the Rev.
Richmond Taggart preaching to a handful of believers. In 1833, the First
Baptist society was formally organized with twenty-seven members, Moses
White and Benjamin Rouse, who still live in the city, being of the
original deacons. In 1836, their first church, on the corner of Seneca and
Champlain streets, was dedicated with a sermon by the Rev. Elisha Tucker,
of Buffalo, who was afterwards called to the pastorate.

About the year 1835, the first Roman Catholic church was built on Columbus
street on the flats, and was intended to supply the religious needs of the
Roman Catholics of Cleveland and Ohio City, being situated almost midway
between the settled portions of the two places. The first pastor was the
Rev. Mr. Dillon.

In 1835, the first Bethel church, for the use of sailors, was built at the
back of the site of Gorton, McMillan & Co.'s warehouse. It was a plain
wooden structure, which remained there until the erection of the brick
church on Water Street, when the wooden building was removed to make way
for the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad.

In 1839, the first Hebrew synagogue was organized and a brick church was
afterwards built on Eagle street.

From these feeble beginnings have grown up the present religious
organizations of Cleveland, numbering about seventy churches, many of them
of great beauty and costliness, with flourishing Sunday schools and
wealthy congregations. The leading denominations have each several
churches graded, from stately buildings for the older and wealthier
congregations to the modest mission chapels. Nearly all the religious
beliefs of the day are represented by organizations in the city, and all
are in a flourishing, or at least a growing condition.

Samuel C. Aiken.

The ancestors of Mr. Aiken were from the North of Ireland, particularly
from Londonderry, Antrim and Belfast. At an early day one or two colonies
came over to this country and settled on a tract of land on the Merrimac
River, in New Hampshire, calling it Londonderry, after the name of the
city from which most of them had emigrated. Fragments of these colonies
were soon scattered over New England, and a few families moved to Vermont
and purchased a tract of land midway between the Green Mountains and
Connecticut River. The township was at first called Derry, and afterwards
divided, one portion retaining the original name, and the other taking the
name of Windham. In the latter town Dr. Aiken was born, September 21,
1791. His parents were both natives of Londonderry, New Hampshire. Before
their marriage, his mother, whose maiden name was Clark, resided a
considerable portion of her time in Boston, with a brother and three
sisters, and was there when the Revolutionary war broke out. When the city
fell into the hands of the British, they refused to let any one leave. By
some means however Miss Clark escaped and crossed over to Cambridge, where
the American army was stationed under General Washington. After
questioning her as to her escape and the situation of affairs in the city,
Washington told her, that, in the present condition of the country it was
unsafe for her to travel unprotected, and accordingly gave her an escort,
proving that the great General was also mindful of the courtesies of a
gentleman.

When about twelve or thirteen years of age, Dr. Aiken, after a preparatory
course, entered Middlebury college, in 1813. In his junior year a long fit
of sickness placed him under the care of a physician from Georgia, who
bled him forty times and gave him calomel and julep, (such was the way of
curing fever,) sufficient to destroy the best constitution. The
consequence was, his health was so impaired that he was obliged to leave
college for a year. Afterwards returning he entered the class of 1814. In
both classes were quite a number of young men who became distinguished in
Church and State. Among them was Sylvester Larned, the eloquent preacher
of New Orleans, Levi Parsons and Pliney Fisk, first missionaries to
Palestine, Carlos Wilcox, the poet, Silas Wright, afterwards Governor of
New York State, and Samuel Nelson, now on the Bench of the Supreme Court
of the United States.

[Illustration: ]

Dr. Aiken's first religious impressions were occasioned by reading
Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Faithful parental
instruction in the Bible and Shorter Catechism had laid the foundation for
belief in the truth of religion. A revival of religion soon after entering
college awakened a new and solemn purpose to devote his life to the work
of the Gospel ministry. The usual course of three years at Andover
Theological Seminary was passed without any special occurrence. He was
then called by the "Young Men's Missionary Society" in New York, to labor
in their service in that city. He had but just entered the field when an
urgent request from the First Presbyterian society in Utica, New York,
took him to that place, then only a small village, where he was ordained
and installed, the third of February, 1818. Some events of deep interest
occurred while he was in Utica. The building and completion of the Erie
canal was one. The cholera in 1832, was another. It was there and then
this fatal epidemic first appeared in the United States. In Utica also
during his ministry were several revivals of religion of great power and
interest. Moreover, about that time the subject of anti-slavery began to
be agitated; opposition and mobs began to gather, which, under the control
of the Almighty, have resulted in the emancipation of millions of slaves.

Impaired health, after about nineteen years of labor, with very little
relaxation or relief by traveling, such as is common now, determined him
to accept a call from the First Presbyterian church and society in
Cleveland, over which he was installed pastor in November, 1835. Although
the church had been organized fifteen years, Rev. Mr. Aiken was the first
regular pastor. The ministerial duties were performed by supplies.

Soon after Mr. Aiken was installed pastor, a great financial revulsion
took place; and for a period of about ten years he voluntarily
relinquished three hundred dollars out of his salary of fifteen hundred,
lest it should prove burthensome to the church. This low tide in financial
matters was characterized by remarkable religious developments; slavery,
temperance and Millerism became church questions; and it was regarded as
the peculiar mission of Mr. Aiken to distinguish between truth and error.
His moderation, judicious advice, and devoted character were just
calculated to conduct his charge safely through the distractions of that
period. The society increased at such a rate that the building became
crowded, and another church was organized for the West Side. On the East
Side a Congregational church was formed about the year 1840, to which some
of the more radical members of the First Presbyterian church went over. In
process of time the nucleus of the Second Presbyterian church on Superior
street, and the Third, on Euclid street, were formed out of the First
church, not because of any dissatisfaction, however, but for want of room.
But, notwithstanding these offshoots, a new and larger edifice became
necessary, and in 1853, the present enlarged, elegant and substantial
building was put up on the site of that of 1834. In March, 1857, the wood
work of this spacious stone structure was destroyed by fire.

In his physical constitution, with which the mental is closely allied, Mr.
Aiken is deliberate, to a degree which some have greatly mistaken for
indolence. But with a commanding person, and strong will this habitual
absence of excitement was never tame, but rather impressive. He seldom
rose above the even tenor of his discourse, but never fell to commonplace,
was generally interesting and occasionally eloquent. His sermons were not
hasty compositions, without a purpose, but well studied, rich with
original and important thought, artistically arranged and glowing with
genuine piety and embellished with scholastic treasures. Dr. Aiken
possessed the accomplishment, and understood the value of good reading, so
rare in the pulpit, and which is scarcely inferior to eloquence. We
remember but few occasions when he became thoroughly aroused. The
destruction of so fine a church edifice so soon after it was completed
seemed to him a personal calamity. On the following Sunday the
congregation met in Chapin's Hall. His heart was evidently full of grief;
but also of submission. His fine enunciation, correct emphasis, and strong
yet suppressed feelings, secured the earnest attention of every hearer. He
touched graphically upon the power of fire; how it fractures the rock,
softens obdurate metals, envelopes the prairies in flame, and how it
seized upon the seats, ceiling and roof in his darling house of worship,
thence fiercely ascending the spire to strive to rise still higher, and
invade the clouds. From this he turned to the doctrine of submission, in a
manner so earnest and pathetic that a perceptible agitation pervaded the
audience, in which many could not suppress their tears. There was no
laboring after effect. It was the natural result of a lofty sentiment,
expressed with unction, beauty and vigor.