Pg.. 357 -

1830

CLEVELAND

     Here the Stone church members worshiped before their own building was ready for them, in 1833, and here was the scene of many a festive gathering, terminating in a ball that lasted till the cock crew for sunrise.
     Mr. Kellogg erected other buildings, and was a well known man in town for many years.  He was a vestryman of Trinity church, and all the family were members of it.
     He married his second cousin, Susannah K. Camp, b. 1791, in Norwalk, Conn.  She died in Cleveland aged 83 years.
     She was a daughter of Isaac Camp and Elisabeth Nash Camp.  She had a brother living in Cleveland, Charles L. Camp, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere.

The children of James and Susannah Camp Kellogg:
 

---------------

1830

CLEVELAND

     There are several traces in Cleveland and Newburgh of a James Cleveland who lived at intervals in both places.
His wife was Polly George, born 1802, who died in 1871 at Fond du Lac, Wis.
     James Cleveland died, 1867, in Missouri, aged 66 years.
     Children of James and Polly George Cleveland:
 

---------------

1830

JOHNSON

     The following death-notice, copied from The Cleveland Advertiser of January, 1830, serves a double purpose.  It indicates that Mrs. Philo Johnson was a resident of the village in 1830.  It also is a good specimen of the style of obituary that prevailed for many years preceding and following it.

Pg.. 358 -

Pg.. 359 -

Pg.. 360 -

Pg.. 361 -

Pg.. 362 -

Pg.. 363 -

Pg.. 364 -

Pg.. 365 -

Pg.. 366 -

1830

VINCENT.

     John A. Vincent and his bride Mary Graham Vincent who came west in an ox-sled from Woodville, Pa., in the winter of 1830, were one of the many newly married couples whose wedding journey over hills, down dale, and across rivers brought them at length to the little village at the mouth of the Cuyahoga where they were to found a home and a family.
     The bride of those days usually was very young, but generally experienced in all household lore. Above all she knew how to prepare a tempting meal out of scanty or limited supplies.  Her equipment for culinary effort too often was but an iron kettle and a big bowl.  There were no double boilers, fancy roasters, and endless tools for peeling, whipping, basting, steaming, and stirring. Just the kettle and the bowl.
     The pioneer bride of 1830 knew how to make her modest furniture appear to best advantage, until that day when time with prosperity had added the long needed, and long wished for chairs, tables, and bureaus, with pretty soft carpets for every room in the house.
     John A. Vincent was a skilled cabinet-maker, and his young wife probably gained all these most desirable pieces of furniture much sooner than less fortunate brides.  It is said that the ox-sled in which they traveled was a wedding-gift. But, after reaching Cleveland they could have no use for ox or sled, and doubtless sold or traded them to some farmer in need of both. ~
     They found no vacant houses waiting their convenience.   Every one was occupied.  It seemed an appalling situation to confront them at the end of their long, wearisome journey.  But on Mandrake street, just be low Water street, some enterprising cooper had erected a large shop which he offered to sell them . It was clean, and odorous with the sweet smell of freshly-sawed lumber.  There was a second story, well lighted, and into this John and Mary Vincent took their belongings and themselves, glad of the shelter it afforded.  The lower floor was also rented for John’s cabinet-shop.  Here they remained for a year or more, the upper floor meanwhile having been neatly divided into three good-sized rooms.  In time the household part of the establishment was removed to 34 Waterstreet, close enough, however, to make convenient the call for dinner.
     Cabinet-making proved a most profitable business.  The boom of 1836 brought hundreds of eastern people to the city and county who had burned their bridges behind them—sold off all their furniture-and tables, chairs, and beds were local necessities loudly demanded.  Mr. Vincent prospered, and then kept right on prospering.  He took unto himself a business partner, and built or rented a large store on Water street in which to place the quantities of furniture their factory turned out.
     Today “Vincent,” coupled with Barstow, yet remains a familiar business name to all Clevelanders, though the senior partner of the firm passed into the higher life nearly a quarter century ago.  His portrait hangs in the counting-room of the present elegant establishment of  “Vincent and Barstow” on Euclid ave.  It depicts a fine-looking man with a strong, self-reliant face.

     Mr. and Mrs. John A. Vincent had two sons and two daughters:

Pg.. 367 -
 

1830

ROUSE.

     Benjamin Rouse, son of Joseph Rouse, was left an orphan at the tender age of six years, and thenceforth made his home with his maternal grandmother.  When only 17 years old he served in the war of 1812.
     In the prime of life, 35 years, he came direct from the city of New York, even then the national metropolis, to the quiet little village of Cleveland numbering but a thousand people, in order to spread the gospel; not as an ordained minister or as a missionary, but as a colporteur to distribute tracts and as a salesman of good, religious books in a community sadly deficient at that time in such literature.
     He came in the interests of the American Sunday School Union, which was endeavoring to establish repositories for their publications in every town in the western pioneer states.
     Mr. Rouse did not begin his business life with any such occupation in view.  He was a builder and contractor, and in 1824 left Boston, his native place, for New York to seek larger opportunities for his special line of work, but being a man of quick, generous sympathies and religious tendencies, he became interested in the poor districts of the big city, and his success in winning the confidence and affection of the people living in them attracted attention, and the Sunday school union recognizing him as a valuable man for their purposes, eventually persuaded him that the building of houses was as nothing compared with the building of character.  Therefore, in October, 1830, accompanied by Mrs. Rouse and their
three children, he arrived in Cleveland and opened up a little store on Superior street below the American House for the sale of the books selected for the occasion.  Afterward it was on the north-west corner of  Superior street and the Public Square (the site now occupied by Marshall’s drug-store) .  The purchase price was $600.
     As early as in 1821, Hershel Foote had kept a small stock of secular books, stationery, etc., in the same spot with what success has never been stated.  He removed to the vicinity of Euclid Ave. and Noble road about the time the Rouse family arrived.  It is possible that upon learning a big concern like the S. S. Union was about to open another book-store, he relinquished a business that could stand no competition.
     Shoulder to shoulder with Benjamin Rouse in this new enterprise, was Rebecca Eliott Rouse his wife, 31 years of age, to whom he was married in 1825.  She was born in Salem, Mass., and was the daughter of John Cromwell who died when she was a child.
     Little did the idle loiterer and the curious neighbor dream as they watched, perchance, this slight young woman unpack her household effects, or arrange the books in the store with a view to their convenience

Pg.. 368 -
or attraction, that one day thousands of soldiers marching down Superior street and passing this spot on their way to the battle-fields of a great civil war would think of her or address her lovingly as “Mother Rouse,” and that as many more thousands of soldier boys would also bless her name; and yet, before that time arrived, her energies and enthusiasms had long given promise of her greatest of all efforts when a national appeal stirred her soul to its depth.
     The cause of temperance in the town early claimed her attention, and in 1842 she organized a Martha Washington society as an auxiliary to the effort of John A. Foote and other earnest citizens to check the drink habit that was fastening upon the community in an alarming degree.
     She also was one of the founders of the Protestant Orphan Asylum and an active member of its management many consecutive years.
     Mr. and Mrs. Rouse were charter-members of the First Baptist church organized in 1833, and of which Mr. Rouse was long a deacon.
     He also drove around the country presiding at religious meetings in little churches in the absence or lack of regular pastors. For a time, just how long has not been ascertained, the family left the city temporarily and resided in Richfield, O.; doubtless the move had some connection with the S. S. Union work; meanwhile the Superior street home was early relinquished for a more quiet one on Wood street below St. Clair Ave.
     The civil war brought national prominence to Mrs. Rouse through her connection with the Soldiers’ Aid Society, the headquarters of which was located in Cleveland, but including in its membership all northern Ohio. She was its very efficient president, and largely responsible for its wonderful success in ameliorating the condition of federal soldiers on the field, in camp, and in the hospital during the four years of the terrific conflict.
     In the latter years of his life, which closed in 1871, Mr. Rouse engaged in several lines of business greatly to his financial advantage.
     Mr. Rouse lived 16 years afterward, and died at the advanced age of 88 years, having lived in the city over half a century.

     The children of Benjamin and Rebecca Rouse:

     Mrs. Loren Prentiss, the only daughter of the family, was her mother’s  worthy successor in church work and all benevolent activities.  In turn her daughter, Mrs. Felix Hughes, preserves the family traditions through her tireless energy and enthusiasms in Cleveland’s musical world.  She has proven that a woman can be a successful impresario, and to her this city owes the opportunity of hearing the most famous musicians of this and other countries.

  < CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO TABLE OF CONTENTS >