Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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[Illustration: Yours truly, W. H. Goodrich]

Mr. Goodrich has enjoyed the best of opportunities, and is a writer of
rare taste and rhetorical force, and an eloquent and impressive speaker.
As a preacher he is never speculative and theoretical, never dogmatic nor
sectarian, but eminently spiritual and practical. But the strongest point
in his character is his downright, never-failing _common sense_. He never
blunders, and never has to apologize for important mistakes committed. He
is remarkable for insight to the character of all with whom he has to do.
This trait gives him influence with many who care little for the gospel
which he preaches. Though not conspicuously demonstrative in his outward
life, and though free from all approach to obtrusiveness, so earnest and
direct are his ways, that he becomes known to thousands with whom he has
no personal acquaintance.

In this country it is generally regarded as a misfortune to have had a
grandfather. Most Americans who have reached distinction for abilities and
usefulness, have been the sons of parents unknown to fame. As a general
rule, self-made men are the only well made men. By the force of their own
energies they have surmounted the difficulties that stood in their
pathway, and achieved distinction by their own efforts. There are very few
prominent men in our country whose fathers and grandfathers have left
names which will live for a score of years in the memory of society. But
to this general truth the history of our country affords honorable
exceptions. The sons of certain families distinguished for wealth, for
talent and for the highest position in society, have been so wisely and
prayerfully trained that they have escaped the dangers which have proved
fatal to most of those who have inherited honored names, and to this class
Mr. Goodrich belongs. Though not ignorant of the truth that his ancestry
is held in the highest honor by all good men, it seems never to have
occurred to him that anything less than his own personal labors and merits
would avail to give him a good name with those whose good opinion is
desirable. "The poet is born, not made." _Character is made, not born_.

In 1867, Mr. Goodrich was prostrated by severe illness, which for a
season filled the hearts of his friends with most painful apprehension,
but the prayers of a loving people were answered, and after an interim of
six months he again resumed the duties of his pastorate. It soon became
apparent, however, that while the "the spirit" was "willing," "the flesh"
was "weak," and that a longer respite was necessary before he could again
enter upon his work with his wonted zeal. Hoping to renew his impaired
energies by a temporary release from care, and in the pleasures of travel,
Mr. Goodrich, with his wife, sailed for Europe in 1868, where he remained
for eight months, re-visiting the scenes with which he had become
acquainted twenty years before. The ultimate object of his tour was
secured, and at the close of the year he returned to his people in
excellent health, and with an enriched experience from which he seemed to
draw new inspiration for his work.

Soon after his return from abroad, the rapidly failing health of his
mother, residing in New Haven, became to him a constant source of
solicitude, more especially so from the fact of his being the sole
surviving child of that once happy and affectionate household. His
departure for Europe had been saddened by the sudden death of his only
brother, Rev. Chauncey Goodrich. In the month of August, 1869, that mother
passed from a life which seemed rounded to completeness, into the
"day-break of heaven," leaving this son, Rev. William H. Goodrich, to rear
the tablet to her memory, and to go out from a vacant, voiceless home, the
last of his household.

But a quarter of a century has laid grandparents, parents, brother and
sisters in the grave.

At the present writing, Mr. Goodrich is once more united to his people,
and we but give utterance to the general voice in the desire, that in the
love and confidence of this church and community, he may find solace for
his bereavements; and that henceforth Cleveland may be the home of his
adoption, and the field of his labors.

Isaac Errett.

Among the preachers and writers of the nineteenth century who have pleaded
for a return to primitive Christianity, the subject of this notice stands
pre-eminently among the most distinguished. For more than thirty-five
years he has been connected with the Disciples, and, during the greater
portion of that time, has been an earnest, able and successful advocate
for their plea for reformation.

Isaac Errett was born in the city of New York, January 2, 1820. His father
was a native of Arklow, county of Wicklow, Ireland, and his mother was a
native of Portsmouth, England. His paternal grandfather was shot down in
sight of his own house during the Irish rebellion of 1798. His immediate
parents were both of Protestant families, and became identified with the
Disciples in New York city, as early as 1811--the father being an elder in
the original church in that place. Hence, the son was trained from infancy
in the principles which he now cherishes, and, in the Spring of 1832, at
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania--where his mother had moved soon after the death
of his father, in 1825--when only a little over twelve years of age, at a
time when the church was without preaching, under the instruction of his
mother, he, in company with an elder brother, went forward and asked the
privilege of baptism. He was baptized by Robert McLaren, one of the elders
of the church.

He now became a diligent student of the Word of God, and, under many
embarrassing circumstances, made constant and encouraging progress.

From the time he was ten years old he has been dependent upon his own
personal exertions for a living; hence his respectable education has been
gathered in the midst of toil and care, by dint of untiring, industrious
application.

While laboring as farmer, miller, lumberman, bookseller, printer,
schoolteacher, and editor, he never ceased to augment his stock of useful
knowledge, and to use whatever opportunities he had for the discipline of
his mental powers.

He commenced preaching in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the
Spring of 1840, and soon gave promise of the distinguished position which
he has since held as a preacher of the Gospel.

He enjoyed the advantages of frequent and intimate association with
Walter Scott, Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, and most of the early
advocates of primitive Christianity in the West; and his association with
these men was of incalculable advantage to him, for they not only gave him
valuable instruction in the principles of the Reformation, but he was
enabled, by coming in frequent contact with them, to draw inspiration from
their lives and characters for the great work upon which he had entered.

His ministerial labors have been divided between the work of an evangelist
and pastor. He was pastor of a church in Pittsburgh three years; New
Lisbon, Ohio, five years; North Bloomfield, Ohio, two years; Warren, Ohio,
five years; Muir and Ionia, Michigan, eight years; and Detroit, Michigan,
two years. At all these points he was eminently successful, and, besides
his regular pastoral labors, did considerable work in the general field.

He removed to Warren, Ohio, in 1851, and while there, was corresponding
secretary of the Ohio Missionary Society three years; and it was he who
first put that society into systematic and active operation.

In 1856, he removed his family to Ionia county, Michigan, and while
laboring to build up a congregation at that point, he was prevailed upon
to take the corresponding secretaryship of the American Christian
Missionary Society, which position he held three years, and succeeded in
bringing the society to a degree of prosperity which it had never before
reached. When heresigned the Secretaryship he was appointed first
vice-president, and afterwards presided at the annual meetings of the
society until 1866, when he was elected president. This, however, he at
once declined. In the Spring of 1856, he removed to Cleveland, Ohio.

In April, 1866, he established the Christian Standard in Cleveland, which
has become a leading and influential religions journal. In August, 1868,
having been elected first president of Alliance College, he removed to
Alliance, Ohio, and at once gave to the new college a successful position
among our literary institutions. In May, 1869, he was elected president of
the Ohio Christian Missionary Society. In August, 1869, he was elected, by
a unanimous vote of the Board of Curators of Kentucky University, to the
presidency of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of that University.
Also, about the same time, Bethany College tendered him the Biblical
Department of that institution. We have not learned whether he has yet
accepted either of these positions.

Mr. Errett's personal appearance is striking and prepossessing. He is
about six feet one inch high, has dark auburn hair, light grey eyes, and a
well developed muscular organization. As a public speaker he has few, if
any, superiors. His language is chaste and copious, containing an
unusually large per cent, of Saxon words; his gesticulation is easy and
natural, but his voice, though well under control, has not volume enough
to give full force to his beautiful and stirring thoughts. His writings,
like his sermons, are full of strong and rugged points, and are frequently
interspersed with brilliant passages of exquisite beauty that will compare
favorably with many of the finest word-paintings in the English language.

In the social circle he is companionable, but not a very good
conversationalist. He needs the inspiration of an audience, or the quiet
solitude of the study, to bring out his full strength; hence, while he is
pleasant in company--full of wit and humor--he does not appear there to
the best advantage.

Benjamin Rouse

Benjamin Rouse was born in Boston, March 23d, 1795, and was brought up as
a builder, working at the trade at first in Massachusetts, and
subsequently removing to New York, where he carried on his business
extensively for about six years. From an early age he had taken great
interest in religions matters, and especially in the establishment of
Sunday schools. In 1830, he accepted the appointment of agent of the
American Sunday School Union for the purpose of going to the West and
establishing Sunday schools and book depositories. For this purpose he
gave up his business and turned his face westward, prepared to endure
hardships and encounter difficulties for the cause in which he was so
deeply interested.

Coming directly to Cleveland, he opened his Sunday school book depository,
near the corner of the Public Square and Superior street. The prospect was
not a hopeful one, but Mr. Rouse had faith, and persevered. There was but
one church building in the place, old Trinity, built by the Episcopalians
with the aid of those of other denominations, and but little religious
sentiment among the people. A Sunday school had for some time struggled
hard to maintain its existence, and had but just become established on a
tolerably firm basis. The depository, aided by the active labors of Mr.
Rouse in the schools, gave a powerful impetus to the cause.

Three months after the opening of the depository Mr. Rouse purchased the
lot on which it stood, for six hundred dollars. In making the purchase he
had little thought of its speculative value, the sole object being a
permanent home for his agency. Time has, however, so enhanced the value of
property that the lot on which stood the little book-room, has now, with
the pile of buildings standing on it, reached a value of eighty thousand
dollars, thus amply repaying Mr. Rouse for his labors in the cause of
religion and morality in the earlier days of the place.

For about three years the depository was continued, and then Mr. Rouse
turned his attention for a while to general store-keeping, abandoning it
finally for the purpose of removing to Richfield, where he went to benefit
the health of his wife. In that place hie remained six years.

Mr. Rouse was a member of the Baptist denomination, and was largely
instrumental in the organization of a Baptist society in Cleveland. When,
in 1835, it was decided to erect a church building on the corner of Seneca
and Champlain streets, the experience of Mr. Rouse, then a deacon of the
church, was called into requisition. In due time the church was built and
a steeple placed on it, which became the wonder and admiration of the
country round about, and Trinity, built by the Episcopalians with the aid
of those of other denominations, and but little religious sentiment among
the people. A Sunday school had for some time struggled hard to maintain
its existence, and had but just become established on a tolerably firm
basis. The depository, aided by the active labors of Mr. Rouse in the
schools, gave a powerful impetus to the cause.

Three months after the opening of the depository Mr. Rouse purchased the
lot on which it stood, for six hundred dollars. In making the purchase he
had little thought of its speculative value, the sole object being a
permanent home for his agency. Time has, however, so enhanced the value of
property that the lot on which stood the little book-room, has now, with
the pile of buildings standing on it, reached a value of eighty thousand
dollars, thus amply repaying Mr. Rouse for his labors in the cause of
religion and morality in the earlier days of the place.

For about three years the depository was continued, and then Mr. Rouse
turned his attention for a while to general store-keeping, abandoning it
finally for the purpose of removing to Richfield, where he went to benefit
the health of his wife. In that place he remained six years.

Mr. Rouse was a member of the Baptist denomination, and was largely
instrumental in the organization of a Baptist society in Cleveland. When,
in 1835, it was decided to erect a church building on the corner of Seneca
and Champlain streets, the experience of Mr. Rouse, then a deacon of the
church, was called into requisition. In due time the church was built and
a steeple placed on it, which became the wonder and admiration of the
country round about, and the especial pride of Deacon Rouse.

On his return from Richfield, Mr. Rouse engaged in the coal business in
connection with Mr. Freeman Butts. About the year 1862, he retired from
active business and thenceforth devoted his time to the cause of
patriotism, religion, and charity. From the breaking out of the war Mr.
and Mrs. Rouse entered vigorously on the work of aiding the nation's cause
by caring for the nation's defenders. Their zeal and activity were
irrepressible, visiting the camps and hospitals, ascertaining the needs of
the soldiers, and then with unresting assiduity collecting money and
materials to supply those needs. Mrs. Rouse became president of the
Soldiers' Aid Society of northern Ohio, and was directly instrumental in
the formation of hundreds of auxiliary societies that made every city,
village, and nearly every home in northern Ohio busy in the work of
preparing and sending forward comforts and luxuries for the soldiers of
the Union. Mrs. Rouse visited camps and hospitals in the South, and her
visits and reports were productive of great good. Her name was known and
respected by thousands of soldiers, was repeated with grateful praise in a
multitude of homes from which brave boys had gone forth to the war, and
has passed into history. In all her labors she was cordially seconded and
efficiently aided by her husband.

Three sons and one daughter have been born to this worthy couple.

Medical.

In the early records of Cleveland, as in those of most western towns, the
story of sickness and death fills a large part. Fever and ague, brought on
by exposure, privations, and by the miasma from swamp, river and uncleared
lands, disabled a large number of the early settlers, and hurried some to
untimely graves. There were no physicians, and save a few drugs and the
simples gathered from the river banks and forest, there were no remedies.

In course of time appeared the pioneer doctor with his saddle-bags, and he
was soon followed by a number of his brethren to practice their skill upon
the settlers. When the first Cleveland Directory was issued, in 1837,
there were already established a round two dozen of physicians and
surgeons, and three "surgeon-dentists." It may be interesting to quote
the names of these brethren of the lancet and saddlebags who purged and
bled the good people of thirty-two years ago. They were, J. L. Ackley, F.
I. Bradley, C. D. Brayton, W. A. Clark, Horace Congar, E. Cushing,
Jonathan Foote, S. B. Gay, Robert Hicks, M. L. Hewitt, Smith Inglehart,
Robert Johnston, Burr Kellogg, David Long, P. Mathivet, George Mendenhall,
Joshua Mills, T. M. Moore, W. F. Otis, A. D. Smith, J. Swain, Charles
Terry, Samuel Underhill, Joseph Walrath. The surgeon-dentists were B.
Strickland, and Coredon & Sargeant.

This list has now swollen to proportions that make the two dozen and three
exceedingly insignificant by comparison, and every school of medicine is
represented. There are two Allopathic medical colleges--the Cleveland and
Charity Hospital colleges--and two Homeopathic--the Western Homeopathic
college and the Homeopathic College for Women. There are also three
hospitals, the Charity Hospital (Allopathic), the Homeopathic Hospital on
University Heights, and the Woman's Hospital on Wilson street.

David Long.

Dr. Long was born at Hebron, Washington county, New York, September 29,
1787. In early life he qualified himself for the practice of medicine and
surgery, studying in Massachusetts and graduating in New York city. In
June, 1810, he arrived at Cleveland and commenced his professional career.
At this early day there was no physician nearer than Painesville on the
east, Hudson on the south-east, Wooster on the south, River Raisin (now
Monroe) on the west. The arrival of a physician was, therefore, a matter
of no small gratification to the settlers here and the neighboring
settlements.

In this wild region, without roads, streams without bridges, cabins in
many places eight to ten miles apart, did the young and ardent Long
hopefully commence the practice of medicine. Nor were the hopes of the
early settlers disappointed. In rain and snow, in Winter's cold and
Summer's heat, by darkest midnight or mid-day sun the doctor ever
cheerfully responded to all the calls for his services with alacrity and
zeal, forgetful of self, desirous only to administer timely relief to the
suffering and afflicted. In this he was eminently successful, as many of
those who knew him for more than a third of a century can testify.

In proof of the untiring perseverance of Dr. Long in the early part of his
professional life, it has been stated that on one occasion, in the Fall of
the year, about midnight, he rode nine miles in fifty-one minutes. In
another instance of extreme urgency, he rode, in the day time, fourteen
miles in fifty minutes by changing horses twice on the route. He was a
surgeon in the army during the war of 1812, and brought the news of Hull's
surrender at Detroit to this city, from the mouth of Black River, a
distance of twenty-eight miles, in two hours and fourteen minutes. Such
was his character for promptitude to all the calls that were made upon
him, and they were far from being few.

For kindness to his patients and friends he had no superior. In his zeal
in their behalf, in a few years, he sacrificed in a measure one of the
finest constitutions.

After following his profession thirty years or more, Dr. Long retired
from general medical practice, and engaged in other pursuits more
favorable to his health and congenial to his tastes.

In all public measures for the benefit of our city, in the way of
improvements, schools, churches, every effort in behalf of humanity,
religion or science, Dr. Long was ready to place his shoulder to the work
with all the ardor and enthusiasm of youth.

Dr. Long never had any aspirations for political distinctions, but such
was his popularity and so great the confidence of the people in his
judgment and integrity that he could have obtained it had he so desired.
At one time, however, he was elected to fill a vacancy which had
occurred by the death of one of the three County Commissioners.
Unimportant as this may seem now, it then occasioned intense excitement.
The location of a new county court house, presumptively fixing the
county seat for all time, devolved upon these Commissioners. Newburg and
Cleveland were the contestants, both being villages of about an equal
number of inhabitants--the claims of each supported by a single
Commissioner, yet Newburg having the more central location. Though hotly
contested, Dr. Long was elected, and the result was the erection of the
Court house in the south-west corner of the square, which was demolished
about ten years since.

In the year 1834, Dr. Long united with the Presbyterian church in this
city, and by his daily walk and conduct in the community, by his deeds of
love and charity to the poor, his kindness to the sick and afflicted gave
the most striking evidence of a heart renewed by grace and made meet for
the kingdom of heaven. During his last painful illness his calmness and
resignation showed that he had placed his trust firmly upon the sure
foundation.

He filled all the relations of life in a most exemplary manner and thus
embalmed his memory in the hearts of all who knew and survive him. He died
on the first day of September, 1851, at the age of sixty-four years,
lacking a single month.

John Delamater.

Just before the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the ancestors of Dr.
Delamater fled from France to Holland. The family name was then De La
Maitre. Being whole-souled protestants, they migrated with other Dutch
families to the Province of New York, and settled on the banks of the
Hudson, near Kingston. Their names are still visible on the ancient grave
stones of that neighborhood. Like the Huguenots, of South Carolina, they
were Calvinist, or puritans of the French school. They became allied by
marriage to the Rogardus family of New York, and others partook of the
blood of Anneke Jans, whose name has become famous in the New York courts.
The investigation of this connexion and heirship, occupied the last years
of Prof. Delamater's life. It was closed only about a month before his
death. His coadjutor in this work, was the late Chancellor Walworth, of
Saratoga, whose ancestors were also in the line of Anneke Jans.

Dr. Delamater was born in Columbia county, New York, near Chatham, on the
State line of Massachusetts, April 18th, 1787. He died at East Cleveland,
in March, 1867, having almost reached the extreme age of four score years.

The Huguenots like English Puritans, and the Scotch Irish, have made their
mark in North America. John Delamater, while a boy, was destined to be a
farmer, on the soil where he was born. He was transferred to the medical
profession on account of an accident, which injured his ability for manual
labor. His father removed to Schenectady, New York, where his son was put
under the tuition of one of the self-denying clergymen of those times,
whose salary did not meet the expenses of living. At the age of nineteen
his medical education was finished and he commenced practice in his native
town. From thence he moved to Florence, Montgomery county, N. Y. Then
stopped a short time in Albany, N.Y., and in 1816, established himself at
Sheffield, Massachusetts. There was a settlement of negroes in this
ancient borough. Dr. Delamater was then, as ever since, an active
philanthropist. He attended the negroes as physician, Sunday teacher, and
preacher. They also drew money from his purse, which was never very well
filled, and paid back very little, either of his fees or of their debts.
After some years of assiduous labor on his colored charge, his views of
the race underwent a radical change. Among the last utterances of his life
he expressed the opinion, based upon his experience at Sheffield, that the
negro is by nature unfit for citizenship. In the days of the Jeffersonian
Republicans and Adams Federalists, Dr. Delamater was in full accord with
the new and rising Democratic party. He left it during the administration
of General Jackson, and since then was a thorough Whig and Republican. No
one hated slavery more. He saw the remnants of it in his early practice
over the line in Connecticut, but never recovered faith in the capacity of
the colored man for self-government.

Returning to his medical career, in which for sixty years he led in the
profession, it is briefly as follows: While practising in the valley of
the Housatonic, he rode almost constantly on a racking horse, about
sixteen hands high, and almost with the speed of the wind, and
occasionally in a two wheeled vehicle, common in those days, called a
chaise, or more often a "one horse shay." At such times one of his medical
students rode beside him, and drove the horse.