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1825

ELLET

          Rufus Ellet and his wife Mary Tift Ellet lived north of Euclid Road on a lane which afterward was widened into a street, and named Willson Avenue.  The north side of Euclid Road at that point was a sandy hill.
     Mr. and Mrs. Ellet had a son Rufus, Jr., who removed to Akron.  Previous to that he married Ruth Hudson.
     The Ellets also had a daughter Delia. There may have been other children, but the above were all that could be recalled by the “oldest inhabitant.”

     James Douglas, a cabinet-maker, had a shop in a frame-building at the foot of Superior street, and facing that thoroughfare.  His shop was in the west end of the building and on the second floor.
     In the spring of 1826, he removed to a lot on the north side of Superior street, and owend by Capt. Levi Johnson.  His name is not found in the first city directory, eleven years later, and, meanwhile he probably left town, as there is no trace here of his family.

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1825

ANDREWS

     John Andrews, a prominent physician of Wallingford, Conn., furnished to the village of Cleveland in 1825, a well-educated, unusually talented son, and a few years later, an intelligent, accomplished daughter.
     Sherlock J. Andrews was 25 years old, and but recently graduated from Union College, with a supplementary course of legal study, when at the end of his journey from the east he found himself in the small Ohio town upon which, in after years, he was to make such a definite personal impress.
     From many sources regarding him, it is gathered that while gifted in a high degree, and remarkably self-reliant for one so young, he was exceedingly modest and unassuming.  Ready to face any difficulty, and to assume any legal responsibility required of him, yet, when playtime permitted, boyishly full of fun and frolic.
     Mrs. Mary Long Severance, in an interview with the writer, said that

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in the vernacular of that day, he was a “cut-up” and the life of the small social gatherings where the successful event of the evening would be his rendition of “Old Grimes is dead,” accompanied by various original and mirth-provoking gestures and grimaces. It is related of him by one of his classmates that while preparing for college, he was so full of pranks that it looked as if his love for fun might preclude earnest efforts.  How ever, his long life of fine achievement in the law, in congress, and on the judicial bench suggests that a keen sense of humor may be essential to such a degree of success.  He was a Christian gentleman of the highest type, loyal to his friends and his beliefs.
     Ursula McCurdy Allen, a young woman made an orphan through the recent death of her mother, naturally longed to join her brother John W. Allen in Cleveland, as soon as circumstances would permit.  Within three years this was accomplished.  Mr. Allen married Miss Perkins of Warren, and soon thereafter Ursula took the long journey from Litchfield, Conn., and was welcomed by her beloved brother at his own fireside.  The arrival of a young lady endowed with various mental and personal at tractions, and fresh from the social advantages of a far eastern town, received immediate attention from the coterie of professional and unattached young men of the western one.  To Mr. Allen’s great delight, Sherlock J. Andrews, his cherished friend, proved to be the favored suitor, and he had the gratification of giving his sister’s hand in marriage to one he so much esteemed.
     Mrs. Andrews was the noble, life-long companion of the young man whose fortunes she joined in her youth.  She was his helpmate in her home, in society, and in the church with which they were affiliated. 
     A story characteristic of Mrs. Andrews’ quick sympathies and resolute activities is herein given publicity for the first time. In 1879, the writer, while on the staff of the old Cleveland Daily Herald, was assigned the subject of women’s employment in the city, especially that of making garments for the wholesale clothing establishments.  The result was a reptition of the “Song of the Shirt” in dismal prose.  Conditions were found to be unutterably sad, and the first article of the series on the subject was received with much public comment and commiseration.
     By ten o’clock of the morning the article appeared, Mrs. Andrews’ carriage stood in front of the Herald office, and she was within pleading to be introduced to the young man responsible for the article, and was much astonished to learn that one of her own sex was engaged in that line of work.  And naturally so, for "the writer was the second, and at that time the only newspaper woman in the city. When seated and fully launched upon her mission, Mrs. Andrews’ bonnet-strings trembled with her excitement.  She was eager to assist in the particular cases of poverty and over-work, so much so that only immediate pecuniary help could relieve the tensity of her feelings.  Several women who were most in need of her ministrations she tenderly guided into more lucrative lines of work, and ministered to their necessities as occasion offered.
     The first home of the Andrews family was on Water street, now West 9th St., near where the light-house stands.  Dr. and Mrs. Long were their close neighbors, and the Kelleys not far away on the same side of the street.  Later they removed to a small house on the Public

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Square two doors west of the Stone Church, and here two of their children were born. In 1837, they were living on Euclid Ave., opposite the Opera House.  Here their neighbors in time were the Ashbel Barneys, and later the Benedicts.
     Judge and Mrs. Andrews died in a stately residence on the avenue nearly to Willson, now E. 55th Street, and were laid away in Woodland Cemetery.
     Their children were eleven in all, several dying young:

     Miss Anna Rodman, a relative from the east, visited the family at an early day, and died here.  She was buried in Erie Street Cemetery.

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1825

BARNETT

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1830

DUTY

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1826

FREEMAN

     Much local interest centers in the Rev. Silas C. Freeman for several reasons.  First, he was virtually the first rector of Old Trinity Church, 1826-1830.  The Rev. Roger Searl had officiated at long intervals as a missionary clergyman, his charges were scattered over northern Ohio, and seldom could he get back to Cleveland and visit the little church society of less than 20 communicants.
     Second - For nearly five years all the services of the church, mostly conducted by lay-readers, had been held in the private residences of Phineas Shepard and Josiah Barber across the river in Ohio City, West Side.  Simultaneously with the arrival of an established rector, the services were henceforth held in the small courthouse on the north-west corner of the Public Square.
     Third - It was through the efforts of the Rev. S. C. Freeman that Old Trinity's first edifice was erected.
     Fourth - During the four years’ residence of this Protestant Episcopal clergyman in the village of Cleveland, he officiated at the weddings of many of its pioneer sons and daughters.
     The annals of Old Trinity in its early years are very meager.  They furnish nothing of the previous history of the Rev. S. C. Freeman nor of his subsequent career.  Of the former there has been but one clue—he came to Cleveland from Virginia.
     Right Rev. Bishop Gibson of Virginia has graciously supplied partial data, and but for the lingering illness of the Secretary of the Diocese of Pennsylvania at this time, complete records might be secured.
     In July, 1823, the Rev. Silas C. Freeman was made rector of Lexington Parish, Amherst County, Virginia.  Where and when he was ordained are not on the records of that society.  His work in that field seemed to have been effective, especially in reviving the church there.  He remained until in the summer of 1826, when he closed his connection with Lexington Parish, and in November of that year began his ministry in Old Trinity at a salary of $500 a year, or rather at that rate, as he was to give part of his time to St. Paul’s, Norwalk, 60 miles west of here, and what-

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ever he received from his ministrations there was to be deducted from the $500.
     It is open to suspicion that his salary was not easily raised nor prompt ly paid, for we find him teaching a private school in the old Academy on St. Clair Street, and again he is conducting one at Chagrin Falls.  In 1827, Mr. Freeman was sent east to solicit funds for the erection of a church edifice.  He was successful, and Old Trinity’s first church building was the result.  It cost $3070. It stood on the corner of St. Clair and Seneca streets, and facing the latter.  It had a square, two-story tower, which formed the entrance. It was lighted by four windows on each side and two in front, all screened with green blinds.  The lot upon which the church stood was enclosed by low posts connected by a railing.
     The wardens and vestry men were Josiah Barber, Phineas Shepard, Charles Taylor, Henry L. Noble, Reuben Champion, James S. Clarke, Sherlock J. Andrews, Levi Sargeant, and John W. Allen. The first three lived on the West Side.
     The missionary spirit that probably caused Rev. S. C. Freeman to sever his connection with a flourishing parish in an old settled state and come to Cleveland to a struggling, homeless one, led him, in turn, to leave the latter when well housed and in a growing condition, and to strike out for a point farther west; therefore, in 1830, we find him rector of St. John’s in Detroit, where he remained about the same length of time as in Cleveland.  From there he returned east as far as Philadelphia, where records of him cease, or are not at present secured.

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1826

CONGER

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