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1824

HILLARD

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1825

CLARK

     Judah Clark, sixth generation in line from the above "Mayflower" ancestor, was living in Conway, Mass., in the last quarter of the 18th century.  His wife was Abigail Freeman Clark, one of the many inter-marriages between the Freemans and the Clarks.
     Mr. and Mrs. Judah Clark had a typical New England family, eleven children, of whom five died in infancy, and only one of the remainder left posterity.
     Of these one was a son, Edmund Clark, who became a pioneer merchant and banker of Cleveland.  In 1825 he was living in Buffalo, N. Y.,
and was twenty-six years of age, when he was offered a partnership with Peter M. Weddell, who had a dry-goods store at the corner of Superior and Bank streets, the site of the Rockefeller Building.  This partner ship lasted but five years, as Mr. Clark became interested in other lines of business and withdrew permanently from the dry-goods trade.
     He became president of the Cleveland Insurance Company, treasurer of the first railroad project, and a director of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie.  From the latter he withdrew and engaged in private banking, out of which grew the National Bank of Cleveland, the sixth one in the country.
     In connection with Richard Hilliard he invested in real-estate which proved exceedingly profitable.
     Mrs. Edmund Clark was Anna Maria Billings, daughter of William and Polly Williams Billings of Conway, Mass.  She was a beautiful woman, of charming personality, admired and beloved.  Her chief accomplishment was a fine voice, with which she gave pleasure to the church in whose choir she sang and often in private entertainments.  She lost three children in infancy.
     The only living child of Edmund and Anna Maria Billings Clark was Henry Freeman Clark, b. 1839.  He married Eliza S. Crowell, daughter of John Crowell.  They were married in 1859, in old Trinity Church.
     Edmund Clark’s home, at first, was on the corner of Superior and Water streets, where the Perrys had been living.  He then built a home on the south side of the Public Square.  The west end of the May Company’s department store covers the site.  Here the family lived many years, and here Mr. Clark died.
     His portrait hangs in the library of Mrs. Eliza S. Clark, his son’s widow.  There also hangs a beautiful childhood portrait of the late H. F. Clark.
     “The funeral of Edmund Clark was held at his residence, south side of Public Square, Jan. 2, 1862; a large concourse of the older citizens was present.”  His pall-bearers were Orland Cutter, Philo Scovil, H. B. Payne, Joseph H. Crittenden, George C. Dodge, Joseph Perkins.

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     All of the above names save the last one will be recognized as Cleveland pioneers.

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1825

OVIATT

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1825

NOBLE

     In 1826 the first house-moving took place.  Philo Scovil had been keeping a drug-store, and living in a small story-and-a-half house on the north side of Superior street half-way to Water street, and he had concluded to buy this lot belonging to Nathan Perry, and put up a large tavern.  And the small house would either have to be pulled down or moved off.  The latter recourse was made possible through its purchase by a young carpenter who had been living and working in town for the past five years, was about to be married, and wanted the little house for a home for his bride.
     His name was Henry L. Noble, the son of Martin Noble of New Lisbon, N. Y.  He was but 22 years old when he left New York State to seek his fortune in Cleveland, and it gives pleasure to state that he found it.
     We can imagine the interest or curiosity of the adult members of the small community, and the excitement of its children as the building made slow progress up Superior Street.  How it reached its destination, the lot upon which now stands the east end of the Society of Savings Building, whether through the Square, or skirting its north-east corner, we have no means of knowing.  The trees, and the stumps of old ones not yet grubbed out, must have been great obstacles in the way, and often

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threatened disaster, but the little house eventually was safely landed upon the lot, and not long afterward curtains at the windows and a girlish figure flitting in and out of the door proclaimed that it was occupied.
     Mrs. Hope Noble, or “Hopy,” as she was affectionately called, was a slender, blue-eyed woman, very ambitious and energetic.  She was the daughter of Gideon Johnson of Bethany, Conn.  Her mother was a Crittenden, and may have been related to N. E. Crittenden, who afterward lived on the corner of the same lot.
     Mr. Noble must have been a superior workman, for soon he had more work than he could accomplish single-handed, and employed other carpenters to assist him.  These were boarded in his house, which means that his wife was doing her part toward the competency they both had in view.  And doubtless, she stood in the door of her home and watched with pride the old, volunteer fire department, commanded by her husband, march through the Square.  It was a social passport, those days, to be even a member of it, and to be “Chief” was distinction.
     Two years after his marriage, in company with such men as Sherlock J. Andrews, John W. Allen, James S. Clarke, etc., Mr. Noble was organizing Trinity Church, erecting a building for it, and serving as vestry man.  In 1836, he helped to incorporate the City of Cleveland, and he was the man who, as councilman, offered the resolution to buy the first lots upon which to build public schools.
     Ten years after their marriage, we find Mr. and Mrs. Noble living at 90 Ontario street. He had sold the half of his lot facing the Square to C. M. Giddings and John W. Allen.  The latter had erected a tall, brick house, New York style, upon the site of the old one, and Mr. Giddings had built an elegant stone residence on the corner, facing the Square, and close to the Ontario street side. This was afterward occupied for many years by N. E. Crittenden.
     Mr. Noble retained the north end of the lot, reaching to St. Clair street, and here built a nice home for himself, facing Ontario street.  Henry Gaylord afterward lived here, and other early Cleveland people.
     Another flitting, this time to Euclid Ave., where Mr. Noble died in 1842 at the age of 53.

     The children were :

     The first-born, little Eliza Noble, was severely burned at six years of age, and died from the effects of it.
     The family rests in Woodland Cemetery.

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1825

MAY

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1825

ROSS

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1825

STERLING

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1825

SMELLIE

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1825

HAYWARD

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1825

HART

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be, he lost the larger part of his big fortune, was forced to give up the beautiful home, and the family went to live in what had been their coachman’s house.
     The Euclid Ave. home was sold to Zenas King, who in time resold to L. M. Coe, whose widow still occupies it.

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