Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens

Part 37

Chapter 374,005 wordsPublic domain

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.

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.

Between calls along the road the Doctor read his works, especially those relating to cases in hand. This custom of keeping up with the new works and periodicals of the profession he never relaxed, even after old age and the most distressing physical infirmities prevented his practice. Neither was the old shay ever abandoned; our citizens remember it well, moving carefully along these streets, with its huge calash top and faithful horse. No storm of rain or snow prevented him from keeping an appointment while he was able to get in and out of his vehicle.

In 1823, Dr. Delamater was made Professer in the Medical Institute of Pittsfield, Berkshire county, Mass.; in 1827, at the Fairfield Medical School, Herkimer county, New York. He was at the same time giving lessons at Bowdoin College, Mass. While at Fairfield, he was invited to lecture in the Medical College of Ohio, where Kirtland, Drake and Mussey have occupied chairs. This resulted in an appointment as Professor in the Willoughby University, Lake county, Ohio, at that time a flourishing institution. In 1842, he became one of the Faculty of the Western Reserve Medical College, at Cleveland.

Almost every man has some prominent talent, though with many it is never developed. With Professor Delamater it was the ability to give prolonged, profound and perspicuous lectures. This was his special gift and as usual in such cases he was not a facile writer. It is said he delivered seventy courses of medical lectures. His memory was perfect and his reading embraced everything relating to his profession. A good lecturer requires not only a clear perception of his subject, but a lucid and fluent presentation of it. Dr. Delamater never wrote lectures. His memoranda were of the most meagre kind. They were frequently nothing more than a few hieroglyphics made on the margin of a newspaper drawn from his vest pocket as he mounted the desk. Every case he had ever treated and all its details appeared to be thoroughly fixed in his recollection. He sometimes wrote medical essays for publication, but with evident reluctance. In cases of malpractice Dr. Delamater was the especial dread of the attorney whose side he did not favor. His full, clear and logical statements made a deep and generally an irresistible impression upon the court and jury.

After he became unable to visit patients he was consulted with never ceasing confidence by physicians and by patients, especially those afflicted with chronic complaints.

His moral and religious qualities were as conspicuous as his mental ones. He carried the faculty of conscientiousness to a length which the most conscientious would regard as extreme. Against the poor his charges for professional service were merely nominal and were never pressed, and with the rich he was so moderate and easy that with a large practice he was barely able to maintain his family, which, like himself, were afflicted with prolonged constitutional diseases. His rare Christian virtues are described with fidelity and beauty in the farewell discourse of Rev. W. H. Goodrich, of the First Presbyterian Church, which, being in print, may be read and preserved by the numerous friends of the good old man.

Jared Potter Kirtland.

Prof. Kirtland belongs to the class of self-made naturalists who attain to greater eminence than others of equal talents and better advantages. Success in this branch of science requires not only a native genius, but enthusiasm and never tiring perseverance; to the rich and the educated these last qualifications are frequently wanting, or, if they are not, instead of growing with the progress of life, they become more and more weak instead of more and more strong. Industry and ambition are more than a match for education in minds of the same order.

Dr. Kirtland originated at Wallingford, Connecticut. His father, Turhand Kirtland, in 1799, was appointed general agent of the Connecticut Land Company, on the Reserve. He removed to Poland, in Mahoning county, the next year, where he became a prominent citizen of the new county then known as New Connecticut. So long as the Company existed he was continued in the agency, and survived until 1833 to witness the developments of the region.

Jared appears to have been left in Connecticut, probably to secure the advantages of those common schools which were wanting in this western wilderness. The young man made his appearance in Ohio on horseback, July 4th, 1810, at the age of fifteen years. He was destined to be a physician, and in 1817 he was sent to the celebrated medical school of Dr. Rush, in Philadelphia. After leaving that institution he set forth on the way of life with horse and saddle bags, dispensing advice and prescriptions, according to the custom of the times, to the people of the townships around Poland. Every old settler knows what a time the pioneer doctors had. Their patients were scattered far and wide in log cabins which stood in small clearings in the forest surrounded by gigantic trees. A messenger rushed in at any hour of the day or night from a distressed, perhaps a distant family, requiring immediate attention. It was the duty of the frontier physician to saddle his horse at the moment and return with the messenger. The route more often lay along a narrow trail through the woods, over roots and logs, with mud and water on all sides. In dark nights, or in storms of rain and sleet, the overhanging boughs of the trees dripping with water, these visits were not of the most cheerful character. In those early days bridges were behind roads in regard to condition and repairs, and it was frequently necessary, in order to reach a suffering patient, to do as Cassius did--plunge in and trust to a faithful horse--in order to cross swollen creeks and rivers.

While engaged in this rude professional practice, acquiring a good reputation as a physician, he was closely observing the fishes, reptiles, shells and animals of a region teeming with animal and vegetable life. Scientific works were scarce in that new region, but living subjects were abundant. This exuberance of life was of more value to a scrutinizing mind than a surplus of books and a deficiency of specimens. An unusually rich field for the naturalist lay open to his daily observation for twenty years.

During his residence at Poland, Dr. Kirtland was twice elected to the House of Representatives for Ohio. In that body he directed his efforts especially to a change in the Penitentiary system. It was mainly through his zeal and activity that the old style of treating State prisoners was abandoned, and they have been made a source of revenue and not of expense. Convict labor has thus proven by experience to be valuable to the public and to the convict a relaxation of the rigor of his situation.

It was while studying the habits of the fresh water shells of the Mahoning and its branches that Dr. Kirtland made a discovery which attracted attention throughout the scientific world. The classification of species had been made upon mere difference of form. Dr. Kirtland perceived that in the same species a difference of form was due to sex in _testacea_ the same as in all other animals, and that too many species had been adopted. This bold announcement, coming from the back woods of Ohio, created quite a commotion among naturalists. It was, however, found, on investigation, to be true, though it rendered obsolete a large number of terrible Latin phrases.

In the publication of his views, and afterwards for his descriptions of the fishes of Ohio, he found a liberal patron in the Boston Society of Natural History. When the State of Ohio organized a geological survey, in 1838, the department of Natural History was of course given to him. There was barely time to make a catalogue of the fauna and flora of the State before the survey was suspended, but many of his figures and descriptions of the fishes have since been published in the transactions of the Boston Society. This appointment broke up his large medical practice in Trumbull and adjacent counties. He now accepted the appointment of Professer in the Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati. About 1838, Prof. Kirtland removed from Poland to Cleveland, to perform the same duties in the Cleveland Medical College. With a restless energy he went beyond natural history and medicine in his investigations, into the field of horticulture, floriculture and agriculture.