Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 7).djvu/87

CLENDENIN torical society, serving as president of it from 1890 until 1894. lie wrote much on historical subjects for magazines and newspapers, and published in book-form "Sketches of the First Emigrant Set- tlers in Xewton Township " (Camden, 187").

'''CLENDENIN. David Ramsay''', soldier, b. in Lancaster county. Pa., 24 June, 1830 ; d. in Oneida, 111., 5 March, 1895. A graduate of Knox college in 18B1. he entered the army as major in the 8th Illinois caralry. being promoted lieutenant-colonel in Dec, 1863. " He was mustered out 17 July, 1865. having been brevetted colonel of volunteers, 28 Feb., 18C5, and brigadier-general in July. lie en- tered the army again as major of the 8th U. S. cavalry in 1867, was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 3d cavalry, 1 Nov.. 1882. colonel of the 2d in Oct.. 1HS8. and was retired on 20 April, 1891.

'''CLEVELAND. Cynthia Eloise'''. author, b. in Canton, N. Y., 13 Aug., 1845. She was educated in Michigan and Medina, N. Y.. and engaged in business in that place and Pontiac, Mich. In 1880-'2, as president of the Women's Christian temperance union of Dakota, she organized unions with so great success as to influence the vote of the territory for constitutional prohibition. She then settled in Pierre, and was admitted to the bar in 1883. In 1884 she entereeing the flrst woman that ever spoke in public for the Demo- cratic party. She removed to Washington, D. C, in 1885, and was ap|>ointed a law-clerk in the treas- ury department. She has written "See-Saw. or Civil Service in the Departments" (Detroit, lliST), a political novel, and " Is it Fatet" (1888).

CLEVELAND, Grover. twenty-second and twenty-fourth president of the United States, was born m Caldwell, Essex co., N. J., 18 March, 1837. On the [Miternal side he is of English origin. Moses Cleveland eniigratetl from Ipswich, county of Suffolk, England, in l(i35, and settled at Wo- bum. Mass.. whi're ho died in 1701. His grand- son was Aaron, whose son. Aaron, was great-great- grandfat her of Grovcr. The second Aaron's grand- son. William, was a silversmith and w^atchmakor at Norwich, Conn. His son. Itichard Falley Cli-ve- land, was gra<luated at Yale in 1824. was onlainod to the Presbyterian ministry in 1829, and in the same year married .Vnnc NVal, daughter of a Ralti- more merchant of Irish birth. These Iwn were the parents of (Jrover Clevelanil. The Presbyterian parsonage at Caldwell, where Mr. Cleveland was born, was first oecupied by the Kev. Sti-phen Gro- ver, in whose honor the Ijoy was nameil ; but the first name was early dropped, and he has b«'en known as (trover Cleveland. When he was four years old his father acceprod a call to Kavetteville, near Syracuse, X. Y., where the son had an acad- emy schooling, and aftcrwanl was a clerk in a country store. The removal of the family to Clin- ton, Oneida co., gave (irf>ver additional educAlional advantages in tiie academy there. In his s«'ven- teenlh year he IxK^ame a clerk and an assistant teacher in the New York institution for the blind in New York city, in which his elder brother, Will- iam, an alumnus of Hamilton college, now a Presbyterian clergyman at Forest Port. X. Y., was then a teacher. In 1855 Grover left Iliilland Pat- ent, in Oneida co., where his mother then resided, to go to the west in search of employment. On his way be stopped at Black Rock, now a part of Buffalo, where his uncle, Ijewis F. Allen, induced bim to remain and aid him in the compilation of a volume of the " American Herd-BiK>k," receiving for six weeks' service $60. He afterward assisted in the preparation of several other volumes of this work, and the preface to the fifth volume (1861) acknowledges his services. In August, 1855, he secured a place as clerk and copyist for the law firm of Rogers, Bowcn & Rogers, in Buffalo, began to read Blackstonc, and in the autumn of that year was receiving four dollars a week for his work. He was admitted to the bur in 1859, but for three years longer he remained with the firm that first employed hira, acting as managing clerk at a salary of fGOiO, soon advanced to |il,(X)0, a part of which he devoted to the supjwrt of his widowed mother, who died in 1882. lie was appointed assistant dis- trict-attorney of Erie CO., 1 Jan., 1863, and held the ofHc-e for three years. At this time strenuous efforts were being made to bring the civil war to a close. Two of Cleveland's brothers were in the army, and his mother and sisters were dependent largely upon him for support. Unable to enlist, he borrowed money to send a substitute, and it was not till long after the war that he was able to repay the loan. In 1865, at the age of twenty- eight, he was the democratic candidate for district attorney, but was defe»itetl by the republican can- didate, his intimate friend, tjvman K. Bass. He then became a law partner of Isaac V. Vanderpool, and in 1869 became a member of the firm of Lan- ning, Cleveland & Folsom. He continued a suc- ces.sful practice till 1870, when he was elected sheriff of Erie co. At the expiration of his three years' term he forme<l a law partnership with his personal friend and political antagonist, Lyman K. Ba-ss, the firm being Bass, Cleveland & Bis.sell, and. atU'T the forced retirement from failing health of Mr. Bass, Cleveland & Bissell. The firm was pros|)erous, and Cleveland attained high rank as a lawyer, by the simplicity and directness of his logic and expression and thorough mastery of his cases. In 1881 he was nominated as democratic can- didate for mayor of Buffalo, and was elected by the largest majority ever given to a candidate in that city prior to that time. In the same election the republican state ticket was carrietl in Buffalo by an average majority of over 1,600; but Clevelanil had a partial republican, inclcpendent, and "reform" movement support. lie entered upon the office. 1 Jan., 1882. He soon liccame known as the " veto mayor," using that preroga- tive fearlessly in checking unwis<>, illegal, or ex- travagant expenditure of the public money, and enforcing strict compliance with the requirements of the state constituticm and the city charter. By vetoing extravagant appropriations he saved the city neariy f l.OOO.OOO in the first six months of his a<lministrati<m. He oppose<l giving f500 of the taxjiayers' money to the firemen's benevolent society, on the ground that such appropriation was not permissible under the terms of the state con- stitution and the charter of the city. lie vetoed a resolution diverting $.500 from the Fourth of July appropriation to the observance of Memorial day for the same rcas<m. and immediately suViscrilM-d one tenth of the sum wonted for the purpose. His admirable, impartial, and courageous aoministra- tion won tributes to his integrity and ability from the press and the people irresiK'ctive of party. On the second day of the demf)cratic state con- vention at Syracuse. 22 Sept., 1882, on the third ballot, by a vote of 211 out of 382, Grovcr Cleve- land was nominated for governor, in opposition to Charles J. Folger. then secretary of the U. S. treas- ury, noniinateil for the same office three days be- fore by the republican state convention at Sara- toga. In his letter accepting this nomination Mr. Cleveland wrote : " Public officers are the scrvonts and agents of the people, to execute the laws which