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"Growth was small and slow, but the type remained. The germinal period continued through the first one-half of the century, before greater activity and m0re vigor0us development began to show the future city. In 1830, with less than eleven hundred population, there were only three churches. In 1835, the first Catholic, and in 1839 the first Jewish church was organized. In 1846, or at the mid-period of the century, twelve thousand population had eighteen churches, including two Jewish and two Roman Catholic. In 1855 this number had increased to thirty-two, of all creeds ; in 1860, to forty-two; in 1870, to sixty-one; in 1880, to one hundred and sixty-four ; and in 1895, to tw0 hundred and fifty or three hundred, including missions and miscellaneous religious 0rganizations, existing and in operation at the present time." (1)
The Cleveland directory for 1909 gives the following list of churches and missions : Baptist, thirty ; Catholic, sixty-two; Christian, thirteen; Christian Science, three; Congregational, thirty ; Dutch Reformed Church of America, two; Evangelical, seventeen; Evangelical Association, eight; Evangelical Lutheran, twenty-eight; Free Baptist, two; Free Methodist, one; Friends, three; Greek Catholic, two; Hebrew, seventeen; Holland Christian Reformed, two; Methodist Episcopal, forty-four; National Catholic, two; New Jerusalem, two; Presbyterian, twenty-five; Protestant Episcopal, twenty-five; Reformed Church of United States, thirteen; Reformed Episcopal, one; Seventh Day Adventists, two; Spiritualists, four ; The Salvation Army, eight ; Unitarian, one ; United Brethren of Christ, six ; United Presbyterian, five; Universalist, one; Volunteers of America, one; Wesleyan Methodist, one; miscellaneous, twenty-four ; total, three hundred and eighty-five.
Of this number, three hundred and four churches are Protestant, with a property aggregating over ten millions of dollars and a membership of communicants numbering ninety-six thousand nine hundred, or a Protestant population exceeding three hundred thousand.
EPISCOPALIANS.
Of this mighty development, Trinity Episcopal church is the first local church in order of the beginnings. The 9th day of November, 1816, the parish was organized in the house of Phineas Shepherd. At this time the Episcopal church was almost unknown west of the Allegheny mountains. There was no diocesan organization nor even missionary society connected with that church within the state of Ohio.
In the following spring, the Rev. Roger Searle, from Connecticut, visited the infant Trinity parish, and reported thirteen families and eleven communicants. For nine years thereafter Mr. Searle made the parish the object of his watchful care, visiting it almost every year, and to his pioneer work its permanent foundation must, perhaps, be largely attributed.
In September, 1819, Bishop Philander Chase made the first episcopal visitation to Trinity parish, confirming ten persons and celebrating the Holy Communion.
1 - From an address by J. G. W. Cowles, at the Centennial Celebration, 1896.
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Trinity parish had thus far been located in the village of Cleveland, but on Easter Monday, 1820, it was resolved to remove it to Brooklyn, giving an occasional service to Cleveland and Euclid. ' Mr. Searle, reporting this fact to the convention of that year, describes Trinity's numbers as small, but its members as respectable.
Up to this time the services had been held in the old log courthouse, in the academy and in the Mason's hall, but in 1825 the parish had increased sufficiently to wariant the project of erecting a church building for its worship, and it was finally determined, after some rivalry between the two villages, to place the new edifice in Cleveland instead of in Brooklyn, and to move the parish back to its former location.
The money was raised by the Rev. Silas C. Freeman, who now succeeded Mr. Searle in his work, and who obtained liberal donations from Boston and western New York. The new church was duly built on the corner of St. Clair and Seneca streets, and was the first house of worship in Cleveland. Its architecture was a mixture of styles, predominantly colonial. On the belfry were four wooden pinnacles ; each one of which bore a weather cock of sheet iron ; but the iron birds refusing to turn, these were subsequently removed. The exterior of the church was painted white, relieved by green blinds. This building was consecrated by Bishop Chase in August, 1829.
The Rev. Richard Bury succeeded to the rectorship in August, 1839. Under his ministration the number of members increased to such a degree that the establishment of a second parish was warranted, and in 1845 Mr. Bury organized Grace church in the parlor of his rectory.
The Rev. Lloyd Windsor followed in the fall of 1846, and remained seven years. Before the close of his rectorate it was determined to sell the old property and build a larger church farther uptown. The lot upon which the old church stood was sold, but before the building could be disposed of it took fire and was entirely consumed.
The subscription for the new church was started with the gift of one thousand dollars from "T. A. W.," and Mr. Windsor laid the corner stone of the present building, which was completed in the beginning of the ministry of the following rector, the Rev. James A. Bolles, D. D., who succeeded Mr. Windsor in January, 1854. The new Trinity church was consecrated on Ascension Day, May 17, 1855.
Dr. Bolles remained five years and a half, and probably no other rectorship in the long history of Trinity parish has left a deeper or more lasting impression than his. The church home, founded in 1856, is one monument of his zeal and devotion.
He was followed by the. Rev. Thomas A. Starkey, the present bishop of northern New Jersey, with the Rev. William C. Cooley as assistant minister. The brick chapel was erected south of the church by the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. Mather.
The Rev. John Wesley Brown assumed the rectorship of Trinity on Quinquagesima, 1876. In 1878 occurred the fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the parish, an event which was celebrated with appropriate ceremonies and festivities. In this administration, besides the Chapel of the Ascension, St.
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James' and St. Peter's were made definite missions of Trinity. Trinity, indeed, is the mother or grandmother of all the Episcopal churches in Cleveland, St. Paul's, Collamer, being her eldest daughter.
The Rev. Y. P. Morgan took the place of Mr. Brown on Ascension Day, 1882. During his rectorship the following events occurred : The Rev. Dr. Bolles was elected to the office of rector emeritus ; a site for a new church was bought on Euclid avenue and Perry street ; Trinity Church Home was removed to more commodious quarters ; the vested choir of men and boys was introduced ; a chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew was organized, and the early celebration on all Sundays and the daily celebration during Holy Week were made permanent institutions. Early in 1890 Trinity church was offered to the new bishop of the diocese, the Rt. Rev. Wm. A. Leonard, D. D., as his cathedral, and the rector was instituted as dean, and Dr. Bolles as senior canon.
Of the twenty Episcopal parishes thus growing out of Trinity are St. John's parish, organized 1836; Grace Church parish, organized in 1845; St. Paul's parish, organized in 1846; St. James' parish, organized in 1857; St. Mary's parish, organized in 1868; Christ Church parish, organized in 1909; All Saints' parish, organized in 1871 ; Grace (South) parish, organized in 1869 ; Good Shepherd parish, organized in 1873; Emmanuel parish, organized in 1876; St. Luke's parish, organized in 1891; Holy Spirit parish, organized in 1895 ; St. Alban's parish, organized in 1901; Incarnation parish, organized in 1901 ; St. Andrew's mission, organized in 1891; St. Matthew's mission, organized in 1892; The Atonement mission, organized in 1896; The Redeemer mission, organized in 1909; St. Philip the Apostle mission, organized in 1894; St. Agnes mission, organized in 1909.
These parishes have a total of six thousand communicants. They are organized under the diocese of Ohio, Rt. Rev. Wm. Andrew Leonard, D. D., bishop. Bishop Leonard celebrated, in 1909, the twentieth anniversary of his consecration to the episcopate.
From 1893 to 1906 the Very Rev. Charles D. Williams served as dean and rector of the cathedral, when he was called to be bishop of Michigan. Very Rev. Frank DuMoulin succeeded him in
1897.
THE PRESBYTERIANS.
Next in order of arrival are the Congregationalists and Presbyterians, who under the "plan of union" cooperated to establish churches and missions throughout the Western Reserve. The oldest Congregational church in the limits of the city is the Archwood church in the Brooklyn district, organized in 1819 as a Presbyterian church, while the oldest Presbyterian church in the vicinity is that at the village of Euclid, organized by the Connecticut Congregational Missionary society, in 1807. Under this plan of union, churches organized in this district by Congregational missionary societies were united in a presbytery and were therefore counted as Presbyterians. Thus the Euclid Presbyterian church was a member of the Hartford Presbytery, and the Doan's Corners church, which for years occupied the corner of One Hundred and Fifth street and Euclid avenue, now the Euclid Avenue Congregational church, was Presbyterian until
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1862. The present First Congregational church on Franklin avenue and the Plymouth church were organized as Presbyterian churches, while the Old Stone church, organized in 1820, for so many years the mother of Presbyterian churches, was composed chiefly of Congregationalists, and organized by Congregational ministers. These facts explain the liberal character of Cleveland Presbyterians as deriving their forms of faith, as well as their leading laymen and clergymen from the Congregational centers of New England. At all events, the early history of these two great bodies of churches is inextricably interwoven. Quoting from the record of Hon. L. F. Mellen :
The First Presbyterian church, known as the "Old Stone Church," was the outgrowth of a union Sunday school, established in 1820, with Elisha Taylor as superintendent. The First Presbyterian society was incorporated in 1827. In 1828 they worshiped in a hall on Superior street, where now stands the American House. It was rented for five years to be used on Sunday, but during the week was a dancing hall. In 1833 the Old Stone church on the square was opened. Rev. John Keep, of Oberlin, supplied the pulpit for some time. The first settled pastor was Rev. Samuel C. Aiken. He came to Cleveland in 1834 at a time when there was much discussion in the church—"throwing many unstable men off their balance, skepticism, infidelity, mormonism and universalism, was engrossing many minds." Dr. Aiken held on to the old conservative way, with practical wisdom.
The Second Presbyterian church was an offshoot of the Old Stone church and was organized in 1844 with fifty-three members. The first meetings were held in a building where now stands the county jail. In 1851 a fine edifice was built on Superior street, where stands the Crocker block, and was burned down in 1876. The only Presbyterian church in Cleveland that did not spring from the Old Stone church was the Miles Park church, which was founded in 1832 in what was then Newburg.
Perhaps the most famous Presbyterian clergyman in northern Ohio is Dr. Hiram C. Haydn who began his work with the Old Stone church in 1872, and after eight years became secretary of a Congregational missionary society then returned to the pastorate of the historic church in 1884, and continued to serve it for more than two decades after that. Of those who were associated with him in the pastorate, no less than three were Congregationally ordained men.
It was under the leadership of Dr. Haydn and of the Old Stone church and its pastors that the Presbyterian union was formed for the extension of Presbyterianism in Cleveland, as a result of which a number of churches have been organized, and helped to secure buildings and self-support. The union is in vigorous condition and has an important fund left by Mr. T. P. Beckwith to aid in the construction of buildings for, young churches. In this union there have labored effectively Messrs. Dan P. Eels, S. L. Severance, J. L. Severance, S. P. Fenn, and many other of the strong business men of Cleveland.
The Presbyterian churches have a membership of seventy-five hundred communicants and enroll some of the most influential elements in the city. They have ten thousand children enrolled in Sunday schools and gave for missions in the year 1909 over seventy-five thousand dollars.
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In 1906 the Italian work that had been started and carried on by the Congregationalists in "Little Italy" was transferred to the Presbyterians and with the help of the Beckwith fund a church was built and dedicated.
THE CONGREGATIONALISTS.
The early occasional missionaries who visited Cleveland from 1801 to 1810 were of that band of devoted pioneers in the wilderness whom the Connecticut Missionary society sent out, beginning in 1800, to carry the gospel to the sons and daughters of Connecticut in New Connecticut, and most if not all of these men were Congregationalists. The earlier Presbyterian churches of Cleveland were founded by these Congregational missionaries of a Congregational society, and the Connecticut Missionary society before 1825, and the American Home Missionary society after that year aided in their support.
The Archwood church, organized in 1819 as a Presbyterian church, is the first in order of Congregational churches. Thomas Barr was pastor of the Presbyterian church at Euclid (now East Cleveland) from 1810 to 182o. William Hanford, a missionary of the Connecticut Missionary society, was pastor at Hudson from 1815 to 1831. This church seems to have been the first of any denomination on what is now the territory included within the city of Cleveland, except Trinity Episcopal.
Second in the present list in Cleveland is the First church, organized 1834. Until this date the people on the west side had worshiped with the First Presbyterian church in this city, of which at this time Rev. John Keep was stated supply (1833-1835). Of the preliminary plans for the west side organization no record remains.
Third on the list today is the Euclid Avenue church, at its organization outside the city on the east, as Brooklyn was on the south, and the First church on the west; and like them in its beginnings, Presbyterian.
This church is the outgrowth of a Sunday school started in 1841, in an old stone schoolhouse on Euclid road, between what are now Doan and Republic streets. Horace Ford, one of the organizers of that school, was connected with it for a half century. On November 3o, 1843, a Presbyterian church of nineeen members was formed, eighteen of whom were Congregationalists by birth and training.
Plymouth church originated in the Old Stone (First Presbyterian) church, March 25, 1850. At that time Rev. Edwin H. Nevin Was conducting revival meetings in the Old Stone church. He was a reformer and a pronounced abolitionist. Certain of his converts enlisted members of the church of like convictions on the subject of slavery to go out and found a new church, with Mr. Nevin as pastor. The church was called the Free Presbyterian church, and later the Third Presbyterian church. As a Presbyterian church it was independent, with principles and a statement of faith of its own drafting.
Fifth of the churches is Irving Street, originally of the Bible Christian denomination, and affiliated with a conference in Canada. The denomination, which is English, while substantially Methodist in doctrine, is distinctively liberal in policy, and grants equal rights to the laity. The "Orange Street Society"
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—later "Ebenezer Bible Christian Church"—was organized in October, 1852, with ten members, and occupied first a frame structure and then a brick, at the corner of Orange and Irving streets. It recently moved to Kinsman Road.
The sixth is the Jones Avenue church, often spoken of as the Welsh church of Newburg, but naming itself from the year of erection of its present house of worship, Centennial church. As before noted, this is the first of the list of Congregational churches now within the city of Cleveland which was organized as a Congregational church.
Welsh people began coming to Newburg early in the '5os, and two of the number started what has now become the Cleveland Rolling Mills Company. As more came, a Sunday school was started, cottage prayer meetings were held, and at length in the fall of 1858, a church was organized with fifteen members. A house was built and occupied in June, 1860; this was enlarged in 1866, and in 1876 the new and larger house of worship was erected. The church is the leading religious and social force among the Welsh people, not only of Newburg, but of the city. The Welsh are religious, passionately devoted to their mother tongue, and loyal to the church.
Seventh, comes what is now Pilgrim church, known at first as University Heights, and later as Jennings Avenue. Like many another, this church began in a Sunday school, out of which, in a quiet and ideal development grew the church. About the year 1854, in the old university building, on what was then known as University heights a Sunday school was started as a mission school to the little brick schoolhouse on the site of the present Tremont school, and in 1856 it became independent as the "University Heights Union Sabbath School." In 1892, under the leadership of Dr. Charles S. Mills, a structure costing one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was erected and a fully equipped and endowed institutional church was launched which has grown to a membership of eleven hundred. Its Sunday school numbers twelve hundred.
For the purposes of church extension in the rapidly growing city, the Cleveland Congregational City Missionary society was organized in 1892 with Hon. H. Clark Ford its chief promoter and president from the beginning. It has fostered six churches and gathered a property of over seventy-five thousand dollars. In 1882 Rev. H. A. Shauffler, a missionary returned from Austria, began work among the large colony of Bohemians who had settled in the vicinity of Broadway. He built a church under the auspices of the Bohemian board, which was an auxiliary of the National Home Missionary society, and called the church Bethlehem. A school for training young women was also launched under his supervision, and a department organized at Oberlin for the preparation of ministers for Bohemians and other Slavic people in America. Dr. Schauffler died in 1894, but his work has gone strongly forward. The training school for young women on Fowler street has valuable property worth seventy- five thousand dollars. The one Bohemian church has colonized three others, and the Slavic department at Oberlin is steadily training many men for the ministry among Slavic immigrants.
In 1909 Congregationalists numbered over eight thousand communicants in thirty churches with property exceeding one million dollars organized in the Cleveland association, with headquarters in the Plymouth church.
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METHODISM.
Before 1812 the Baltimore conference extended over this lake region. No official mention is made of this tract of country in connection with the Methodist church until 1820, when it has place in the minutes of the Ohio conference. Some idea of the extent 0f the last named may be found in the fact that West Wheeling, Chautauqua, Erie and Detroit were included within its limits.
The Cuyahoga river vicinity was embraced in New Connecticut circuit, Ohio district. In 1824 was formed the Pittsburg c0nference, in which were located the lands east of the Cuyahoga, and the west side allotted to the Michigan conference until 1837. James B. Finley being presiding elder of Ohio district, it is said that early in 1818 a circuit rider drew up to a double log farm house built on a quarter section in Brooklyn, our present forty-second ward, and saying that he was lo0king up the lost sheep, gathered a class 0f eight members, f0ur 0f them named Fish, the other half Brainard. It is also quite certain that our gospel was heard in Newburg the same year, but we have of this no absolutely reliable record. In August, 1818, Cuyahoga circuit was made and to its round appointed Ezra Booth and Dennis Goddard. In 1819, the Rev. Wm. Swazy succeeded to Ohio district—a man of extraordinary fervor, abounding in labor.
Thorough research proves that in 1821 a class was formed in Euclid creek, numbering at least ten persons. Our services were held in the cabins of the pioneers, in barns, and later in log and frame schoolhouses. These ministers of the period were men 0f work, eminent in sacrifice; sleeping at night by forest fires of their own kindling with flint and tinder ; saddlebags for pillows, and their camlet cloaks for covering; anon, arising to scare away the prowling wolf. Without bridges, they and their intelligent ponies forded swollen streams. With pole in hand, these itinerants picked their way among ice floes, drying themselves in the wigwams of Red Jacket and other friendly Indians.
It is expected that in this Centennial we are specifically mindful of the pioneers, and personally, I have become, much interested in the clergymen herein named, and in the Rev. Ira Eddy, who organized a class in Hudson, Ohio, in 1822. In 1823, Cleveland was a remote and insignificant point upon Hudson circuit, Portland district, brave Ira Eddy in charge. His circuit embraced six hundred miles of travel. My interest is deep in the Rev. John Crawford, the organizer; in Milton Colt, eloquent and powerful; Francis A. Dighton, talented and of great promise, dying at twenty-six ; earnest Mr. Prescott, whose name is found in Brunswick cemetery; nor shall be omitted young Mr. Bump, the schoolmaster and local preacher-afterward drowned in a bridgeless river of Arkansas during the performance of almost superhuman labor.
What of our church in the city proper? There is a tradition that a New England gentleman wishing to see Methodism planted here in 1820, sent the deed of a lot corner of Ontario and Rockwell streets, but no one was found sufficiently interested, nor with money enough to pay the recorder's fee.
Through the agency of Grace Johnston, wife of a lake captain, preaching was heard here in 1822, and occasionally from that time to 1827, in which year the Rev. John Crawford formed the pioneer class of the first Methodist Episcopal
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church numbering nine persons ; Andrew Tomlinson, leader. Elijah Peet, re, siding in Newburg, used to bring cut wood in his wagon from his distant home over almost impassable roads, and with his wife came early on Sunday mornings and made the fire to keep comfortable the handful of Meth0dist people at the class meeting.
John Crawford organized another class in 1827, enrolling fourteen, at Hubbard's, on Kinsman street, that being a central point for members residing at either extreme of the settlement. Those at Doan's Corners traveled thither up the present East Madison avenue, over an Indian footpath.
Let us for a moment trace the fortunes of the pioneer First church. Fr0m 1827 to 1841, the members worshiped in halls and rented rooms. Unmoved by indescribable adversity, under the pastorate of F. A. Dighton, 1836, the trustees chose the site for old St. Clair, corner of W00d street, then quite in the suburbs of the city. Nearly all of the gr0und n0rth to the lake shore and east of Erie street was covered with oak and hazel, beyond which lay a vast quagmire partly cleared. Not until several years later, April, 1841, was their edifice complete and dedicated.
A class was permanently established at Doan's Corners, now Euclid Avenue M. E. church, in 1831, by the Rev. Milton Colt who organized also the first Methodist Sunday sch00l in the village of Cleveland, in a building known as the infant school room, on the west side of Academy lane, half way from St. Clair to Lake street.
At Newburg, our present Miles Park church, a class of nine was formed early in 1832.
Hanover Street, now Franklin Avenue, saw the light in 1833, at a private house on Pearl street.
We have, then, five original churches : Brooklyn, First, Euclid Avenue, Miles Park and Franklin Avenue.
Mothers are they of Sabbath-schools and missions, developing into thirty denominational centers.
In 1836, our territory east 0f the Cuyahoga became a part of the Erie conference which was formed that year. In 1840, by a revision of boundaries, the North Ohio conference was formed, and that portion lying west of the river boundary was included in it. By another revision in 1876, the East Ohio conference was made and the part of Cleveland known as the East Side became a part of it. Franklin Avenue church, a strong center in the North Ohio division, vigorous and alert, takes high rank among city churches of all denominations.
Epworth Memorial church commemorates the unification of all our young people's associations throughout the world into the Epworth League ; these societies were consolidated May 15, 1889. This church was once called Erie Street, having been colonized from First church in 1850. Upon its removal to the corner of Prospect and Huntington streets, it was named in 1875, "Christ Methodist Episcopal Church." In 1883 it was combined with Cottage mission and became Central church, corner Willson avenue and Prospect street. This historic building is now a Salvation Army barracks, giving place to a structure
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whose architectural symmetry and exquisite arrangement make it celebrated. -(From an address by Mrs. W. A. Ingham.)
The Methodists of Cleveland constitute the largest single b0dy of Protestants, are divided by the Cuyahoga river, those churches east of the river belonging to the East Ohio conference, the scholarly Dr. Geo. K. Morris being the presiding elder of the district, while those west of the river are members of the North Ohio conference with Rev. P. D. Stroup as district superintendent. There are thirty-three churches and eleven missions within the city limits with ten thousand members and property worth one million two hundred thousand dollars. The largest church is Epworth Memorial with twelve hundred members, organized to do institutional work.
BAPTISTS. (1)
The denomination of Christians known as Baptists began their work in Cleveland in 1800, when the Rev. Joseph Badger preached the first sermon ever delivered on the soil. He was the earliest missionary to the Western Reserve, was born in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, in 1757, and graduated at Yale College in 1786. He was a man of learning and ability. He served in the war of the Revolution, and was ordained to the work of the ministry in the year 1787. Prior to the year 1800, the Western Reserve was a land where might gave right, _ and where every man was a law unto himself. The tone of public sentiment and morals was very low. Even in 1816, when the population was about one hundred and fifty, there were only two professing Christians in the place, namely, Judge Daniel Kelly and Mrs. Noble H. Merwin. And Moses White, who afterward became a useful citizen, and who died in Cleveland at an advanced age, in September, 1881, long hesitated about settling here because the place was so godless. The religious destitution was so great that he called it a "heathen land."
But Judge Kelly prevailed upon him to bring his Christian wife and strive with them, by prayerful and godly living, to secure the town from the ascendency of sin. With the growth of the town, the influence of Christianity was more and more felt, and gradually church organizations were formed. The first was Trinity Episcopal, in 1816; the First Presbyterian, in 1824; the First Methodist, in 1827 ; and the First Baptist, in 1833. At this latter date the population was about one thousand three hundred, but there were only six or seven Baptists among them, and not many of any other name. Deplorable darkness pervaded the settlement. In all the place there was but one meeting house and that an inferior wooden structure. They were few in number and financially • poor. But they were loyal to their distinctive beliefs, and they sought to practice them. And while it might seem to a superficial observer that, in the circumstances, the number of Christians of all names being so few, and all of them being poor in material substance, all so-called minor differences in belief should be obliterated for the sake of union, these Baptists would have accounted themselves essentially and absolutely dishonest before God had they failed to keep intact the "faith once delivered to the saints" as they understood
1 - From an address by Dr. H. C. Applegarth.
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it. Like their brethren in all times and climes, they claimed for themselves a separate denominational existence and they justified their claim by avowing beliefs which distinguished them from all other peoples.
In April, 1834, the church felt the necessity of a meeting house adapted to their needs, and to the growing demands of the community. The population of the town had now increased to about five thousand. Congregations were crowding the audience room of the house. They prepared a subscription paper and set about soliciting pledges for a building. The people gave liberally and cheerfully. Many made great sacrifices in order to be able to help. Deacon Pelton, then living at Euclid, mortgaged his farm for two thousand dollars that he might contribute that amount to the project. His neighbors thought him to be demented, so completely astounded were they at his action. But in the end the Lord blessed him and restored the money many fold. Nor was he alone in his devotion to the work of the Lord. It was said of John Seaman that he gave more thought to the finances of the church than to his own business. One morning, coming into his store, he said to his partner, Mr. William T. Smith : "Smith, you go to the meeting tonight and put me down for a thousand, and you put down a thousand, and go to Sylvester Ranney and tell him to put down a thousand." The thousands were put down and paid. Soon a suitable location was found, on the corner of Seneca and Champlain streets, and there, finally, was finished the meeting house of the First Baptist church.
Out of this early planting came the twenty-nine churches and missions of the Baptist order, constituting one of the most aggressive and numerous bodies of Protestant people in Cleveland.
In 1846 a Sunday school mission of the First Baptist church was begun on Erie street. In 1851 a church was organized with Rev. J. Hyatt Smith as pastor. In 1871 the present edifice on Euclid avenue and East Eighteenth street was built and the church called the Euclid Avenue Baptist church. In 1883 one of the trustees of the church was John D. Rockefeller. As the development of business in the downtown district pushed the residents away from the church it continued to work aggressively, keeping an open door, establishing missions, and maintaining a high grade of preaching, thus avoiding the necessity of moving into the residence district further east. This church has raised and spent more than forty thousand dollars in a single year.
The twenty Baptist churches of Cleveland have a membership of five thousand communicants and a property worth five hundred thousand dollars. They own a home for old people located on Prospect street, and are organized into a city missionary society for church extension, and especially for doing work among Hungarians, Slavonians, and Polish immigrants. They spend in this work about Seven thousand dollars each year.
DISCIPLES.
In the year 1827, Ebenezer Williams first preached and gained some converts in Newburg. He was then preaching Restorationism, but was afterward turned from that speculation and became an efficient and faithful preacher of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In 1832, under the preaching of Wm. Hayden,
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the first convert to primitive Christianity was gained in Newburg. Through all the trials and changes of more than forty years, Brother Hopkinson remained faithful to his profession, serving the church acceptably for many years as elder and deacon successively until July, 1874, when he entered into the rest that remains for the people of God.
In 1835 the "yearly meeting" was held in Newburg. This was a historic occasion long to be remembered, for Alexander Campbell was present in all the prime of his magnificent powers, as the principle speaker of the meeting. A. S. Hayden, in "History of the Disciples on the Reserve," page 405, says : "The brethren assumed the duties of a church at this time." At this time in the history of the churches, few of them had any settled pastoral care, and many of them suffered greatly. The little band in Newburg shared in the general decline, and their light was nearly extinct. In their extremity they appealed to Brother J0nas Hartzell who came in April, 1842, and during this meeting reorganized the church with twenty old and fifteen new members, now called the Miles Avenue Church of Christ.
The following is the list of names of charter members, as given in the handwriting of Brother Y. L. Morgan, who was one of them. May I, 1842: John Hopkinson, Betsy Hopkinson, David L. Wightman, Adaline Wightman, Caroline Morgan, Caleb Morgan, Mary Morgan, Eliza Morgan, Eliza Everett, B. B. Burke, Theodore Stafford, John Healy, Dota Healy, W. W. Williams, Mrs. W. W. Williams, Henry Nelson, Hosea Wightman, Lucy Wightman, Julia Rathbon, Harriet Rathbon.
The church thus organized began its career by electing. John Hopkinson and Theodore Stafford elders, and David L. Wightman and John Healy deacons. There is no record of the church having regular preaching during the intervening years until 1864. But we learn from other sources that the work was carried on by able hands, for in these years there appear the names and presence and therefore the ministry of A. B. Green, Jonas Hartzell, A. Burns, J. D. Benedict, J. P. Robinson, L. Cooley and James A. Garfield.
In 1851 the trustees of the church, Thomas Garfield, John Hopkinson and Y. L. Morgan, contracted for the building of a house of worship, for the congregation. The house was to be fifty-two feet long, thirty-five feet wide and twenty feet high to the square; to be a frame house built and finished of the best material, and in the best style of the times, the entire cost to be one thousand, one hundred dollars. The contract was faithfully fulfilled, for the old house at this present writing forms part of the modern house of worship. Through the years from 1842 to 1859 there is nothing in the records to tell the story of the life and struggles of the church, save the entry of the names as they came into the fellowship, and the usual record of letters, deaths, removals and withdrawals. In 1859 the church was under the ministry and leadership of the lamented James A. Garfield.
The Franklin Circle Church of Christ, in Cleveland, was organized with twenty-nine members on the l0th day of February, 1842. John Henry, an exceedingly brilliant Bible student and fluent orator, held the prior evangelistic meeting and directed in the organization. The church first met in Empire hall
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at the east end of Detroit street. Dr. J. P. Robinson and A. S. Hayden alternated in the ministry of the Word to the church. For a time they met in Abell's hall east of the river. J. H. Jones, Wm. Collins, Wm. Hayden, and other able pioneer preachers visited them at intervals. Soon after 1846 the small church house on Franklin avenue and the Circle was built, and L. Cooley elected as pastor.
In the early years of the church the membership was made up of lake captains and seamen and their families. Later the membership included lawyers, teachers and artisans of all trades. The church has had prolific but transitory membership. It has sent many members to the Euclid Avenue church and to the west. It furnished the nucleus of the membership of the West Madison Avenue church, and dismissed about forty in one year to constitute the Jennings Avenue church, and has been a feeder of Dunham Avenue and other churches in the city. The present membership is eight hundred, and under the leadership of W. F. Rothenberger they are growing in numbers. From the first, the Lord's Supper has been observed every first day of the week. During the fifty-six years' existence of the church, offerings for the poor have been taken every Lord's day. To defray the expenses of the church, build up the cause in the city, and for benevolence, education and mission work, the church annually raises six thousand to nine thousand dollars.
The Euclid Avenue Church of Christ was organized October 7, 1843. Our church in the village of Euclid, organized in 1830, had members living in the neighborhood of Doan's Corners, and these arranged for a meeting to be held in a maple grove on Doan brook, near where Euclid avenue now crosses it. This meeting was held July 4th, and the ministers who attended it were Jonas Hartzell, Matthew Clapp, Dr. J. P. Robinson, William Hayden, A. S. - Hayden, William Collins, and Lathrop Cooley. Jonas Hartzell was the chief speaker. There were about thirty conversions.
On August 7, 1843, a petition was presented to the Euclid church, signed by seventeen persons, requesting a formal dismissal that they might organize a church at Doan's Corners. The request being granted, a meeting of conference was held September 4th at the residence of Colonel Gardner. Formal organization was made at his residence October 7, 1843, when twenty-eight persons were enrolled as members, and elders and deacons were chosen. The house in which the organization was formed still stands but slightly changed. It is No. 731 Ansel avenue, near Doan street. Of the twenty-eight charter members, Mrs. Ruth D. Willard is the only one still remaining upon our church roll. Many changes have taken place in these fifty-five years. ,
Meetings were first held in private houses and in the old stone schoolhouse when not used by others. There were in those days but few settled pastors. Our ministers were evangelists, holding meetings everywhere, and visiting the churches at stated times. Matthew S. Clapp, living at Mentor, visited this newly organized church twice a month during the year 1844. Ezra B. Violl, living at Willoughby, visited it once a month during 1845, and William Hayden, living in Geauga county, came whenever his other' engagements would permit. During the year 1846 he came regularly twice a month. It seems that during 1847
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and 1848 no definite arrangement was made with any one for regular preaching services, but occasional visits were made by Almon P. Green, William Collins, J. P. Robinson, William Hayden, A. S. Hayden, M. S. Clapp, William Lilly, Lathrop Cooley and others.
In 1848 permission was granted to the church to erect a building on the public grounds of the village. These grounds are on the north side of Euclid avenue, between Doan and Republic streets. Building was begun in the summer of 1848, but the chapel was not ready for use until April, 1849. It was a frame structure, twenty-eight by forty-two feet, and cost about one thousand one hundred dollars.
In 1809 a modern church complete in all its appointments and seating a thousand people was completed on the southwest corner of Euclid avenue and One Hundredth streets. The pastor, Rev. J. H. Goldner, has been the leader of this great movement f0r eleven years.
The thirteen Disciple churches of Cleveland are formed into a union for church extension, and have accomplished much aggressive work in planting churches in needy parts of the city. There are more than five thousand church members and a large Sunday school enrollment. A feature of the Disciple organization is the Bible study development to secure trained teachers for the Sunday school.
In 1909 the United Presbyterians numbered five churches with five pastors, with a vigorous membership and a fine property.
In 1843 the first United Presbyterian church was organized, mostly of Scotch people, and built a church on Erie street, near Bolivar street. From Horatio Ford's diary, he says : "The Presbyterian church in East Cleveland was built in 1846, by many small contributions. People gave labor, lumber and stone proceeds from the sale of farm products. Not a man in East Cleveland had a bank account."
LUTHERAN.
In 1843 several Lutheran families withdrew from the congregation of the "Schifflein Christi" and organized the Evangelical Lutheran Zion church. A church was built by this congregation on the corner of Erie and Bolivar streets. From this mother church have developed nearly all the evangelical Lutheran congregations of the city. David Schuh was the first pastor and served one year, succeeded by August Schmidt. Dr. H. C. Schwan was called to the pastorate in 1851, and to his wisdom and zeal the church owes, in large measure, its prosperity. In 1902 it began a splendid new church building.
Evangelical Lutheran Trinity church was organized in 1853, the first German congregation on the west side. Rev. J. C. W. Linderman was the first pastor.
The English Evangelical Lutheran Emmanuel church was organized in 1880, St. John's church in 1878, Christ church in 1889, St. Luke's in 1895, St. Matthew's in 1884, St. Paul's in 1873, and St. Peter's in 1883.
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EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT CHURCHES.
In 1853 the First Evangelical Protestant church was organized on the west side under the name of the "United German Evangelical Protestant Church of the West Side." The corner stone of its first church was laid November 28, 1853. The building stood on Kentucky street. Phillip Stempel, a learned man, driven from the fatherland by the revolutions of that period, was pastor. He served the church until 1875.
In 1858, St. Paul's church was organized, the first house of worship standing on the corner of Scovill avenue and Greenwood street, by Rev. M. Steinert.
Zion church was organized in 1867 by Pastor Bauer. Its first church stood on the corner of Tremont and College streets.
INDEPENDENT LUTHERAN CHURCHES.
The first German church formed in Cleveland was the congregation of "Zum Schifflein Christi," The Ship of Christ. It was organized in April, 1835, and built its first church on the corner of Hamilton and Erie streets in 1842. It prospered, and in 1875 built a large church on Superior street.
In 1875 the Case Avenue Independent Lutheran church was organized, and in 1879 the Independent Protestant Evangelical church, on Harbor street.
GERMAN EVANGELICAL REFORMED CHURCHES.
In 1848 a small chapel was erected on Tracy street, where a number of German families gathered weekly for prayer meetings. They had no regular pastor, and called themselves `"ruder Gemeinde"—Brethren Congregation. In 1858 it was incorporated and the following year Dr. H. J. Ruetenik was chosen pastor. Soon thereafter, a new church was built on the corner of Penn and Carroll streets.
This mother church has aided in the establishing of nine Reformed churches. The Second church was organized in 1864, the Eighth Reformed church in 1886.
EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION.
The oldest church of this denomination in Cleveland is the Salem church on Linden street. It was organized in 1841 as a mission. In 1854, Superior Street church was founded, and in 1863, the Jennings Avenue church. These have multiplied into prosperous churches.
In 1876 Cleveland was chosen as headquarters for the denomination and its extensive publishing house was erected on Woodland avenue. Since that date, many of its leading ministers have made Cleveland their home. Among these, none is more revered and influential than Bishop Wm. Horn, whose literary attainments have brought him wide recognition.
GERMAN BAPTIST.
The First German Baptist church was organized in 1866 and built their church on the corner of Front and Scovill avenue. The Second church was organ-
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ized in 1877, and this edifice built on Case avenue and Kelly street. The Publishing house of the denomination was brought to Cleveland in 1877, and its denominational literature has been printed here since that date.
GERMAN METHODIST.
The first German Methodist church was organized as a mission in 1846 and built a church on Prospect street, near Miami street ; this church, now called the Bethany church, has been the mother of three other congregations and several missions.
UNITARIAN.
The church of the Unity dedicated its first house of worship on Prospect street near Erie, on October 17, 1880. Previous to this time the congregation had worshiped in various halls ; in Case hall in the '60s, when Rev. T. B. Forbush was the pastor ; in the '70s in Weisgerber's hall. Rev. F. L. Hosmer was called to the church in 1878 and remained until 1892, building up a notable congregation. But the beginnings of Unitarianism in Cleveland antedate these events. As early as 1836, Rev. Geo. W. Hosmer, then of Buffalo, later President of Antioch College, visited the Unitarian families in Cleveland, who had come here from New England. Other clergymen preached here occasionally and in 1854 through the efforts of Chas. Bradburn, Rev. A. D. Mayo of Massachusetts, began a pastorate, that was of only one year's duration, but of large interest and influence throughout the state. In 1904 the congregation occupied its new church on Euclid avenue and Genesee (East Eighty-third) street, where, under the leadership of Rev. Minot 0. Simons, its influence is constantly widening.
It will be seen by the foregoing records and tables, that nearly all the Protestant denominations are represented among the Cleveland churches. The older denominations with their strong organizations leading in numbers and influence, and increasing rapidly. But some of the best work done is by denominations which are represented by but one or two organizations, such as the Free Baptists, the Dutch Reformed, the Reformed Episcopal, the Wesleyan Methodists, and the Friends. As is usual the great stream runs along the orthodox lines, but such churches as the Unity church on Euclid avenue which stands for intelligent liberalism with its cultured and public-spirited pastor is a large and helpful influence in the life and thought of the city. The Salvation Army with its eight corps, reach certain discouraged classes of the community for uplift and reform. The Christian Scientists, though a recent development, have three churches with a fine property, and an increasing constituency.
From these various churches go the interest and enthusiasm which sustains Cleveland's multiform charities, and public institutions. In more recent times, these varied denominations cooperate for evangelistic services of a general character. Each month the ministers of all denominations meet in an association to discuss the general ethical and religious problems of the city. The antagonisms of former days are now unknown among the representatives of these various branches of the Christian church of Cleveland. The exchange of pulpits among the pastors is a common incident. Groups of churches of different orders unite for Thanksgiving services and evening services in the parks, during
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the summer. And in the Young Women's and Young Men's Christian Associations is found a common ground for human service. Ministers of a dozen denominations unite in clubs to discuss theological questions, and all are satisfied that "God fulfils himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
CHAPTER XL.
CATHOLICITY IN CLEVELAND.
BY THE RIGHT REV. MONSIGNOR GEORGE F. HOUCK.
(1826-1909) .
Full thirty years elapsed after Moses Cleaveland landed on the banks of the Cuyahoga, before any Catholics settled in the territory now covered by Ohio's metropolis. Their advent dates back to 1826, when many Catholic Irish were induced to come hither to work on the construction of the Ohio canal, ground for which had been broken on July 4, 1825, in Cleveland, then numbering about five hundred inhabitants. The influx of Catholic laborers doubled this number within a year.
The Right Rev. Edward Fenwick, first bishop of Cincinnati, was informed that many of his flock were located at Cleveland, and along the canal as far as Akron, and that they were without the ministrations of a priest. Accordingly he directed the Dominican fathers, stationed in Perry county, Ohio, to send a priest to Cleveland, whose duty it should be to visit them at stated times and attend to their spiritual wants. The Rev. Thomas Martin, a member of the Dominican order, was sent in compliance with the bishop's direction, his first visit being made during the autumn of 1826. Later on he was succeeded by the Very Rev. Stephen T. Badin (the first priest ordained in the United States), who came at irregular intervals. There is no record of any other priests having come to Cleveland, until the advent of the Rev. John Dillon, who was sent here by Bishop Purcell in the early part of 1835, as the first resident pastor. He as his predecessors, said mass in private houses, as there was no other place to be had then. However, shortly after his arrival he succeeded in securing a large room, thirty by forty feet, known as Shakespeare hall. It was in the upper story of the Merwin building, located at the foot of Superior street, near the present Atwater block. This hall he fitted up as a temporary place of worship, as best he could with the limited means at his disposal, and in it said mass for a short time.
Among the frequent attendants at the Catholic services held in this hall were several Protestant gentlemen. They were attracted by the eloquence of Father Dillon, for whom they had conceived a great regard and admiration, because of his talent and amiability. One of these gentlemen was the Hon. Harvey Rice, who died in 1891, and was one of Cleveland's most distinguished
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citizens. He settled in Cleveland in 1824, two years before a Catholic priest or layman had come. He was, therefore, a living witness to the wonderful growth of Catholicity in Cleveland, and to him the writer is greatly indebted for much of the information here given in connection with the early history of the Catholic church in this city. Of Father Dillon he said, that he was a cultivated and scholarly gentlemen, polished in manner and an eloquent preacher ; that his zeal was limited only by his physical ability, and that he was truly a father to his spiritual children.
The Hon. Truman P. Handy, one of our honored citizens, was also personally acquainted with the Rev. Dillon and held him in high esteem.
When Father Dillon came to Cleveland, he found the Catholics very few in numbers and very poor as to worldly possessions. Added to this he also unfortunately found much intemperance, and very little regard for the sacredness of the Sunday, but he set manfully to work to correct these evils and to elevate the moral and social condition of his poor and despised charge.
The next place in which Father Dillon held public services in Cleveland, was in a one story frame cottage, on the west side of Erie street (now East Ninth street), near Prospect avenue. The building is still standing on the old site. In it there were several rooms, the largest serving as a "church," the others as the pastoral residence. A few months later Father Dillon secured Mechanics' hall, in Farmers' block, at the corner of Prospect avenue and Ontario street, and transformed it into a temporary church. He continued, however, to reside in the house above mentioned, till his death.
Father Dillon had tired of halls as makeshifts for a church. Besides, the growing number of
Catholics made such inconveniently small for their accommodation. But the people were too poor to build a church. He therefore sought help elsewhere and obtained much from kind and generous Protestants. He also went, among other places, to New York city, where his eloquent appeals for assistance resulted in his returning with about one thousand dollars for the proposed church. But shortly after his return to Cleveland, he fell a victim to bilious fever, and died October 16, 1836, at the age of twenty- nine years—a little more than two years after his ordination to the priesthood. His death was a severe blow to his little flock, and was lamented by all. , The Cleveland Advertiser, a secular paper, in its issue of October 20, 1836, said of him : "The death of Father Dillon will be deeply felt by his bereaved and afflicted church. He was one of the first of our clergy in point of talent and piety, and though he labored in obscurity, yet he labored faithfully and well." His remains were interred in the Erie street cemetery, but a short distance from the place in which he had resided and died. Eleven months the Catholics of Cleveland were without a resident pastor. The Rev. H. D. Juncker came occasionally from Canton, where lie was stationed between 1836 and 1837. In September, 1837, the Rev. Patrick O'Dwyer, a recent arrival from Quebec, was sent as Father Dillon's successor. His pastoral residence was a small frame cottage, located at the corner of Superior and Muirson streets. During his pastorate, he said mass in the third story of the Farmers' block, above mentioned.
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October 24, 1837, Messrs. James S. Clark, Richard Hilliard and Edmund Clark, conveyed by land contract to the Right Rev. John B. Purcell, bishop of Cincinnati, "in trust for the Roman Catholic society of Our Lady of the Lake, of said Cleveland, the following piece or parcel of land, to-wit : Lots numbered 218 and 219 (corner Columbus and Girard streets), in the plat of Cleveland centre," subject to the following conditions : "Provided always, and these are on the express condition, that said society shall within and during the space of four months from the date of this agreement, erect, build, finish and complete outwardly a respectable and suitable frame house or church building for public worship, and commence regularly holding their meetings -therein; to have and to hold the above premises with the appurtenances thereof so long as the same shall be occupied as aforesaid, and so much longer as said church shall own and occupy regularly a respectable lot and house for public worship upon the plat at Cleveland centre." A deed was executed by the above named gentlemen on November 21, 1842, covering the land contract.
Father O'Dwyer at once set to work to increase the building fund secured by the lamented Father Dillon, and to begin the much needed and long looked- for church. In a few months the building was erected on the above mentioned lots, but could not be completed for lack of means. Meanwhile also, Father O'Dwyer left Cleveland, about June, 1839. The church stood unfinished for months, till Bishop Purcell, coming to Cleveland during September of the same year, and remaining for three weeks, had it so far pushed towards completion that mass was said in it for the first time in October, 1839. During his stay in Cleveland at this time the bishop also prepared a class of children for first communion, which was administered to them in the new church by Father Henni, who had come from Cincinnati to assist the bishop.
Although the Catholics of Cleveland now had a church, they were without a resident pastor from the time Father O'Dwyer left. Meanwhile, however, through the exertion of the laity the church was plastered and properly provided with the necessary outfit, and all were anxiously awaiting its dedication and the appointment of a shepherd for the shepherdless flock.
The former expectation was realized on Sunday, June 7, 1840, when the solemn and impressive dedicatory ceremonies were performed by the Right Rev. Doctor de Forbin-Janson, bishop of Toule-Nancy, France, then on a visit to the United States. The Right Rev. Bishop Purcell assisted at the ceremony and preached an eloquent and appropriate discourse on the occasion. The frame building, fifty-three by eighty-one feet, had four well wrought Doric columns and was neatly plastered and pewed. The cost of the building, exclusive of furniture, was about three thousand dollars.
The church was dedicated to "Our Lady of the Lake," but by popular usage the name, was soon changed to St. Mary's on the "Flats," that part of the city being so called. The church served as a house of God for all the Catholics of Cleveland till 1852,
In October, 1840, the Rev. Peter McLaughlin was appointed Father O'Dwyer's successor. He received a most cordial welcome from the Catholics of Cleveland, who had been without a resident pastor for nearly a year, depending solely on occasional visits of priests from Cincinnati and Dayton. The
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pastorate of Cleveland's Catholics was Father McLaughlin's first appointment, he having been ordained by Bishop Purcell only a few weeks previous. He was a man of much energy and an eloquent preacher. Being also conversant to some extent with the German language, he satisfied the wants of his "mixed" congregation, many of the members having come from Germany. Under his direction the new church was entirely finished, a choir was organized and a reed organ secured.
With a sharp, keen eye to the future growth of Catholicity in Cleveland, and with a view to locating a . church in the upper and better portion of the city, and more conveniently situated for his congregation, Father McLaughlin purchased from Thomas May four lots, fronting Superior and Erie streets, the site of the present cathedral. The lots were secured by land contract, dated January 22, 1845; the purchase price was four thousand dollars. The lots were bought on Father McLaughlin's responsibility, transferred to and assumed by Bishop Purcell, October 15, 1845. Father McLaughlin was much blamed by some of his parishioners for buying lots "in the country." Erie street was at that time the east boundary 0f the built up portion of the city.
The purchase 0f these lots was the beginning of an unkind feeling towards Father McLaughlin. Finding that he could no longer profitably serve their spiritual interests, he asked his bishop to relieve him from the pastorate of St. Mary's. His request was granted, and to the grief of the greater portion of his congregation, and to the sorrow of all the Protestant citizens of Cleveland, who learned to respect him for his ability and honesty of purpose, he left in February, 1846, after nearly six years of faithful and disinterested work among his people. A few days before his departure the Rev. Maurice Howard arrived as his successor.
Besides attending to St. Mary's congregation, Cleveland, Father Howard had charge of missions in Lake, Lorain and Geauga counties, which had been attended by Father McLaughlin. He had as his assistant for some months the Rev. Michael A. Byrne, who had also shared Father McLaughlin's labor a short time. During his pastorate the diocese of Cleveland was erected, and the Rt. Rev. Amadeus Rappe consecrated bishop thereof, October to 1847. ,
Bishop Rappe saw the pressing need of better and more ample church facilities for the rapidly increasing number of Catholics of his Episcopal city, the church on the "Flats" having become much too small to accommodate them. Besides, the Germans were clamoring for sermons in their native tongue. The bishop secured the aid of the Sanguinist Fathers from Thompson, Seneca county, the Revs. Mathias Kreusch and Jacob Ringeli, to minister to the Germans, who now received separate services in old St. Mary's.
October 23, 1848, the bishop purchased from. Thomas May, five lots adjoining those secured some years previous by Father McLaughlin. On one of these lots, immediately east of the present cathedral and on the site of the Episcopal residence, he had a temporary frame structure erected, known as the church of the Nativity. Mass was celebrated in it for the first time on Christmas, 1848.. The building served as a "chapel of ease" to St. Mary's on the Flats, till the completion of the present cathedral, November, 1852.
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January, 1848, the Rev. Louis de Goesbriand succeeded Father Howard in the pastorate of St. Mary's, and was also appointed the vicar general of Bishop Rappe, retailing the latter position till his consecration as bishop of Burlington, October, 1853. Father de Goesbriand was assisted during the time of his pastorate of Clel eland's first and only congregation by the Rev. James Conlan, and occasionally by the above named Sanguinist fathers.
From October, 1847, till November 7, 1852, St. Mary's church on the Flats, as yet the only Catholic church in Cleveland, served as the first cathedral of the diocese. On last mentioned date the present cathedral; corner of Superior and Erie streets, was finished and consecrated. St. Mary's was then assigned to the Germans who were placed under the pastoral care of the above mentioned Sanguinist fathers and the Rev. N. Roupp, till the advent of the Rev. John H. Luhr, February, 1853. He was appointed their first resident pastor. As the Catholic Germans lived too widely separated to make St. Mary's conveniently located for all, Father Luhr's proposition, to have those living east of the river organize as a distinct congregation, was approved by Bishop Rappe, who authorized them to purchase a site for church purposes at the corner of Superior and Dodge streets. This was the beginning of St. Peter's congregation.
The Germans living west of the river were formed in November, 1854, as a congregation under the title of St. Mary's of the Assumption, and were given the use of the church on the "Flats," till the dedication of their present church, corner Carroll and Jersey streets, in 1865. The Revs. J. J. Kramer, F. X. Obermueller and J. Hamene had successively charge of St. Mary's congregation, till last mentioned year. From 1865 to 1879 old St. Mary's was the cradle of the following congregations ; St. Malachy's 1865; St. Wenceslas', (Bohemian) 1867; Annunciation, (French) 1870. The Poles of Cleveland were the last to occupy the venerable proto church of Cleveland, viz.: from 1872 to 1879, when they organized as St. Stanislas' congregation. In 1879 the old church was practically abandoned, as the Catholics residing in its neighborhood were not sufficient in number to warrant the organization or maintenance of a congregation. On the feast of Epiphany, January 6, 1886, Bishop Gilmour directed his vicar general, the Right Rev. Monsignor F. M. Boff, to celebrate mass in it—the last divine service held within its hallowed walls. It was a typical winter's day, with plenty of snow and ice covering the interior of the building, open for long to wind and weather. Two years previous a ruthless storm had blown down its much decayed spire, and the cold blasts had full sway in the church through broken roof and almost paneless windows. The forlorn looking edifice was packed to overflowing with an interested audience, composed largely of the old Catholic settlers of Cleveland, who had worshiped within its sacred walls in earlier years, when they were in the prime of life and the. church attractive in appearance. The old mother church of Cleveland's Catholics then looked tattered and torn, while her daughters, decked in splendor, were carrying aloft in every part of the city, the Sign of Redemption on lofty tower or graceful spire. After mass a general desire was expressed to have the old church repaired and put in as good condition as it was when built— thus to be preserved as a relic for future generations of Catholics of Cleveland. An opportunity was offered to put into execution this laudable sentiment, by contributing the money necessary for the proposed expenditure, estimated at about
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two thousand dollars ; but the project failed. Hence, the tooth of time was allowed to still further gnaw at the venerable church. Meanwhile the heirs of the original grantors of the lots, on which the church had so long stood, sued for reversal of title to said lots, owing to the nonfulfillment of conditions, mentioned in the deed of transfer. They based their suit on this fact, that now, and for some years past, the church had not been used, and that there was no Catholic church in use in the part of the city known formerly as "Cleveland centre." The suit was heard in the court of common pleas at its session, in the spring of 1888. A compromise decree was issued ordering the sale of the lots, the proceeds to be divided equally between the diocese of Cleveland and the heirs of the original grantors. To clear the lots preparatory to their sale Bishop Gilmour had the church torn down in September, 1888.
In 1854 Bishop Rappe established St. Patrick's congregation, to accommodate the large number of Irish Catholics living west of the Cuyahoga river, in that part of Cleveland, then known as Ohio City. Their church, a brick ediftce, was located on Whitman street, and has since been replaced by the present large and handsome structure on Bridge street. Two years later another Irish congregation was organized in the eastern section of the city, under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. Their first house of worship was a frame building which stood in the rear of the cathedral. It had been used for a time as a "chapel of east" and as a parochial school. Bishop Rappe had it removed out Superior street near McHenry street. Later it was replaced by the present splendid stone church, corner of Superior and Lyman streets. In 1858 St. Bridget's parish was organized on Perry street, its first church being a very primitive looking brick building, since replaced by the present imposing structure. The Irish Catholics living on the south side were clamoring for a church of their own, as they found the distance too great to St. Patrick's or to the cathedral. Hence Bishop Rappe granted their petition, and the result was the organization of St. Augustine's parish, which erected a frame church on Jefferson street in 186o. There they worshiped until 1896, when they secured a splendid church property on Jennings avenue, formerly owned by the Congregationalists. A like petition was granted in 1862, to the English speaking Catholics living in Newburg, who were organized as a parish under the title of the Holy Rosary, which was changed to the Holy Name when they built their second church, in 1881.
The Germans belonging to St. Peter's church, living south of Euclid and west of Erie were organized in 1862, as a separate congregation, known as St. Joseph's. Their fame church was located on Woodland avenue, corner Chapel street, and was replaced in 1873 by their present brick church which ranks among the largest and handsomest in the city. The rapid growth of the English speaking Catholics of the west side (Ohio City) necessitated the formation of another parish, which was done in 1865, their chosen patron being St. Malachy. For a time they had services in the old church on the Flats, until 1869, when they moved into their own church, located on Washington street.
The Bohemians began to settle in Cleveland about 1865. Among them were many Catholics. They became sufficiently strong in numbers to organize a congregation, which was done in 1867. They secured lots on Arch street, where they built their first church under the patronage of St. Wenceslas. They are now wor-
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shipping in their second church—a fine structure located on Broadway, near Forest avenue. The large increase of Germans living in the western part of the city made the formation of a new parish a necessity. This was done in 1869, by dividing St. Mary's parish and organizing St. Stephen's, whose first church, a plain brick building, was located between Courtland and Scott streets. It was replaced in 1876 by the present splendid stone church, located on Courtland street (West Fifty-fourth). In 187o three parishes were established: The Annunciation (Hurd street) for the French ; St. Columbkille's (corner Superior and Alabama), and Holy Family, now known as St. Edward's (Woodland avenue), for the English speaking Catholics.
In August, 1870, the Right Rev. Amadeus Rappe resigned as bishop of the diocese of Cleveland, to the great regret of his people who loved him, and of the non-Catholics who respected and admired him for his grand work in behalf of religion and public morals. His name is held in benediction to this day and will live in the history of the Catholic church in the United States. (1) Pending the appointment of his successor, the Very Rev. Edward Hannan had charge of the diocese from August, 187o till April, 1872, when the late and lamented Bishop Gilmour took up the arduous work so well done by his saintly and apostolic predecessor.
The Poles, who had been worshiping in St. Mary's church on the Flats for several years (from 1872 till 1879), built their first church, a frame structure, in 1879, on lots they had purchased on Tod street, in South Cleveland. Two years later they began their present church—the largest, and ranked among the finest in the country. It is under the patronage of St. Stanislas, their national saint.
The second church (St. Procop's) for the Bohemians, was built in 1875, on Burton street. It was replaced in 1907, by the present large and beautiful church. Another Irish parish was organized in 188o, in the then extreme west end of the city. The church, known as St. Colman's, is located on Gordon avenue (West Sixty-fifth street). During the same year the Germans, east of Willson avenue, built a frame church for themselves under the title of Holy Trinity—replaced in 1907 by the present stone church, and considered an architectural gem. In 1883 the Bohemians established two parishes—St. Adalbert's, on Lincoln avenue; and Our Lady of Lourdes, on Randolph street. The latter parish built its second, present and much larger church in 1892. In 1882 St. Michael's (German) congregation was organized. Their first church was a small wooden structure. They grew so rapidly in numbers that soon they were obliged to build a second and much larger edifice. It was finished in 1891 and is admitted by all who have seen it to be one of the finest in. Ohio, if not in the United States.
In 1887 the old Turner hall on Central avenue was bought by Bishop Gilmour and fitted up as a church for the Italians of the city, and served them as such until the erection of their present brick church, in 1904. During the same year a new parish of Germans was established in the east end. Their first church, a frame structure, was dedicated to St. Francis. In 1905 it was replaced by the present splendid stone church, located at the corner of Superior and Becker avenues.
The Slovaks of the city were organized as a congregation in 1888. They built a frame church on lots purchased on Corwin avenue, and had it dedicated to their
1 - He died at St. Albans, Vt., Sept. 8, 1877. His remains rest in the crypt of the Cleveland Cathedral, which he built.
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national patron, St. Ladislas. Two years later the Poles organized a second parish. Their combination church and school, a frame structure, is located on Marcelline avenue, in South Cleveland, and is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A third Polish parish was established in the northeastern, section of the city, in 1891, under the patronage of St. Casimir. In the same year a second Italian parish was organized in the east end. Its first church (frame) was replaced in 1908 by a fine stone edifice. It is dedicated to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
April 13, 1891, the Right Rev. Bishop Gilmour succumbed to a long siege of serious illness, after having successfully governed his diocese for nineteen years. He was recognized as a public spirited man by those not belonging to his flock. He was acknowledged by his people as a prelate watchful over his charge, and looked to as a leader by the members of the Catholic hierarchy of this country. His death was deplored by Catholics and Protestants as a distinct loss to the church and to society, as was testified at a mass meeting held in Music hall, shortly after his demise.
The Right Rev. Monsignor F. M. Boff was then appointed administrator of the diocese, acting as such until the advent of the Right Rev. Ignatius F: Horstmann, who succeeded Bishop Gilmour in March, 1892. On his arrival he was welcomed by thousands of Cleveland's citizens, and soon gained the good will and respect of all who came in official or social contact with him.
A second Slovak parish was organized in 1893, under the patronage of St. Martin. Their first place of worship was the German Reformed meeting house, located on Henry street, and bought by them. It was replaced by the present splendid church, in 1908, and fronts on Scovill avenue, at the corner of East Twenty- third street. In 1893 the Catholic Hungarians (Magyars) were formed into a parish under the patronage of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. They have a neat brick church on South Woodland avenue. Their example was followed a year later by the United Greek Catholics, whose first church was built on Rawlings avenue, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. They now have a handsome brick combination church and school on Buckeye road, near Woodland Hills avenue.
Between the years 1892 and 1908 there was a wonderful increase in the Catholic population of Cleveland. It is evidenced by the fact that it necessitated the formation of thirty parishes during that period, and composed Mostly of the Slav race, with its variants of Slovaks, Poles, Bohemians, etc., who came from "fatherland" to better their condition in Ohio's metropolis. Following is a list of the parishes organized between 1892 and 1908: Blessed Sacrament, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Nativity, Sacred Heart of Mary, St. Agnes, St. Aloysius, St. Andrew, St. Barbara, St. Boniface, St. Catharine, St. Elias, St. Elizabeth, St. Emeric, St. George, St. Helena, St. Hyacinth, St. Ignatius, St. John Baptist, St. John Can- tins, St. John Nepomucene, St. Lawrence, St. Marian, St. Martin, St. Nicholas, St. Paul, St. Philomene, St. Rose, St. Thomas, St. Vitus, St. Wendelin.
At present there are fifty-nine Catholic parishes in Cleveland. Classified according to languages Spoken (thirteen) in their respective churches, there nineteen English speaking, and Irish parishes ; nine German ; eight Polish ; five Bohemian ; five Slovak ; three Italian ; two Magyar ; two Slovenian ; three Uniate-Greek Slovak ; one Croatian ; one Lithuanian ; one Rumanian ; and one Syrian.
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According to the diocesan census published in 19o8 there are upwards of one hundred and twenty-five thousand Catholics in Cleveland. Of these the vast mac jority belong to the laboring class, who cheerfully and generously support the cause of religion, as the many large, fine, and even splendid church and school edifices attest. At least ten of the churches rank in size and beauty with the best in the country—in large measure the result of the laborer's pittance and the widow's mite. Truly, the acorn planted in 1826, by Father Thomas Martin has developed into a mighty oak of sturdy and healthful growth.
The grim messenger of death summoned almost suddenly the third bishop of Cleveland—the gentle, generous Ignatius Frederick Horstmann. He died at Canton, Ohio, after less than a day's serious illness, May 13, 1909. His death was deeply mourned, not only by his own flock, whose devoted chief pastor he was for sixteen years, but also by non-Catholics generally. His obsequies, attended by an immense concourse, were most impressive. The remains of the lamented prelate repose in the cathedral crypt, near those of his three predecessors. Monsignor F. M. Boff was then given temporary charge of the diocese, until the installation of the Right Rev. John Patrick Farrelly, D. D., as fourth bishop of Cleveland, June 16, 1909.
PART II-SCHOOLS AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.
In 1848, shortly after the advent of Bishop Rappe to Cleveland, a frame building was erected back of the cathedral, on the site now occupied by the bishop's residence on Superior avenue. It served as a "chapel of ease" for the Catholics living east of Erie street. On week days the sanctuary was closed by folding doors and the nave of the little structure served thus as a school—the first parochial school in Cleveland. Since that time the parochial school system has been extended to every Catholic parish in this city, with only five exceptions, the members being too poor to support schools of their own. Every effort was made by Bishops Rappe and Gilmour to perfect the system. There are now fifty-four parochial schools in Cleveland with an attendance of upwards of fifteen thousand pupils.
Nor has the higher education of the young been neglected. As early as 185o Bishop Rappe invited a number of Ursuline Sisters, from France, to establish an academy for girls, which they did in a building purchased from Judge Cowles and located on Euclid avenue. For nearly sixty years they have trained thousands of girls who bless their Alma Mater, as the place wherein they received a solid Christian education, and who in later years sent their children to the same painstaking sisters for a like training. The alumnae of this institution, now located at the corner of East Fifty-fifth street, and Scovill avenue, are to be found among the most influential Catholic and Protestant families in Cleveland.
In 1874, Bishop Gilmour had a colony of Sisters of Notre Dame come from Germany, to establish an academy for girls. Their flourishing institution is located at the corner of Superior avenue and East Eighteenth street. They also have a branch academy and boarding school on Woodland Hills.
A third academy was opened for girls, on Starkweather avenue, in 1889, by the Sisters of St. Joseph, and a fourth, in 1891, by the Sisters of the Humility
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of Mary, on Lorain street. The former is now located at West Park, and the latter on Franklin avenue, and both are meeting with well deserved "success.
Besides the Theological seminary, located, since 1850, on Lakeside avenue, but founded near Bond street, in 1848, for the training of young men for the priesthood, is the very flourishing college of St. Ignatius, on ,Jersey street. It was established in 1886, by the Jesuits. In 1906, they also opened Loyola high school, 0n Cedar avenue. Like all institutions conducted by these model trainers of boys and young men, these two institutions have thus far realized the highest expectations of friends and patrons. As most of our Catholics are poor, or only in moderate circumstances, financially, and hence unable to afford their sons more than a common school education, it accounts for the fact, that Catholics have but two institutions in this city, where their sons can enjoy the advantages of higher education.
Bishop Gilmour was also a firm believer in the press as a public educator. He put his belief into practical effect by establishing, at great personal sacrifice of money and time, a journal to expound Catholic doctrine and defend Catholic rights. He named it "The Catholic Universe," whose first issue appeared on July 4, 1874. In line with its founder's idea of Catholic journalism, it has ever since continued the course marked out for it.
PART III-CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
The orphan, the sick, the wayward, and the aged poor have also been cared for by the Catholics of Cleveland, to the fullest extent of their limited means. Bishop Rappe, who justly earned the title of "Father of the orphans," established two orphan asylums in 1851, viz.: one on Monroe street, for boys, under the name of St. Vincent's, and placed in charge of the Sisters of Charity, a religious community founded by himself ; the other, on Harmon street, for girls, and known as St. Mary's, which he entrusted to sisters, known as the Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary, who had come from France at his invitation, and in our city established their first home and asylum in the United States. They have since founded asylums and other charitable institutions in many of our large cities, notably in the east.
As the number of orphans steadily increased, it was found necessary, in 1862, to build a second asylum for orphan girls. It is located on Woodland avenue, and is known as St. Joseph's asylum. It was modernized and greatly enlarged in 1894-5, so that now it accommodates all the Catholic orphan girls in the city, St. Mary's asylum, on Harmon street no longer serving its original purpose.
Up to 1873 Cleveland had no shelter for waifs, disowned- by their unnatural and criminal parents. So Catholic charity came to the rescue. Under the direction of Bishop Gilmour a frame house was secured on Garden street (now Central avenue) near Charity hospital. It was fitted up for the reception of these worse than orphaned children, and placed in charge of the Sisters of Charity, who have since then given them a mother's care. A brick building was erected in 1874. It was located on Marion street, in the rear of Charity hospital, and known as St. Ann's Foundling asylum. Under the same roof and management, but in separate quarters, was the Lying-in hospital, where the victims of man's perfidy
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were sheltered before confinement, and for a reasonable time thereafter, secure against the world's uncharitable tongue. Respectable but poor married women were also received in private rooms, and given every attention by a competent staff of physicians who, daily, and at call, visit both these institutions. A radical change in the location and equipment of St. Ann's asylum and Lying-in hospital was made in Igor, when Bishop Horstmann purchased the Severance property, with its frontage of one hundred and fifty feet on Woodland avenue, and nearly three hundred feet on Long street. The fine large mansion on the property was remodeled and additional buildings erected to accommodate the growing need of this excellent, but for long, much misunderstood institution of charity, transferred in 1904 from its cramped quarters to its present healthy and very desirable location.
In 1852 the Sisters of Charity opened a hospital on Monroe street, in a small frame building, near St. Vincent's asylum. It was known as St. Joseph's hospital, but for want of support its existence was of short duration. In fact, Cleveland had not as yet reached the period when the need of a hospital was felt. But during the Civil war this need was most keenly felt, when many of our sick and wounded soldiers were brought here from Southern hospital or battlefield, for medical or surgical care, and no hospital, public or private, to receive them!
It was then Bishop Rappe, always on the alert to do good where it should and could be done, offered to erect a hospital and furnish efficient nurses, if the citizens of Cleveland would give him financial assistance. His offer was promptly accepted, and the result was that in August, 1865, Charity hospital, located on the spacious grounds, bounded by Perry, Garden and Marion streets, was opened to the public, Governor Tod presiding at the opening ceremonies. The only passport to be shown by those desiring its benefits is : Need of medical or surgical attendance. Neither race, creed nor color, was then, or since, a barrier to admission. From the day the hospital doors were opened for the reception of patients, down to the present time, the Sisters of Charity have ministered to many thousands of Cleveland's sick and maimed. And well equipped St. Vincent's Charity hospital, with its faithful nurses and excellent staff of physicians and surgeons, takes front rank with the hospitals of this country.
The city's rapid growth necessitated more hospitals. This want was generously met by public and private funds, so that Cleveland is now well supplied in that respect. Since the opening of Charity hospital, two more have been established under Catholic auspices, viz.: in 1884, St. Alexis' hospital, under the careful supervision of the Franciscan Sisters, on Broadway, corner of McBride street ; and, in 1894, St. John's hospital, a large frame building, located on Detroit street, near Lake avenue, also in charge of the Franciscan Sisters. This was the last work originated by the late Bishop Gilmour. Both these hospitals are most favorably known to Cleveland's citizens, irrespective of creed, conducted as they are, on the same lines as Charity hospital.
As a safeguard for wayward girls, and fallen but penitent women, the Home of the Good Shepherd was founded by Bishop Rappe, in 1869, and placed in charge of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, whose life work it is throughout the world to rescue the unfortunate outcast of their own sex. They began this work in Cleveland under very adverse circumstances, in a house secured for them on
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Lake street. A few years later they transferred the home t0 the large brick building which they erected at the corner of Sterling avenue and Sibley street. They are now in prosperous condition and have been the means of untold blessings to those committed to their care. And let it be recorded here, that many of Cleveland's non-Catholic and wealthy citizens have been and are still their benefactors. Among them the late Wm. J. Gordon, Joseph. Perkins, John Huntington and J. H. Wade were the most conspicuous.
Until the advent of the Little Sisters of the Po0r, in 1870, Cleveland's aged poor had no home excepting the "Poor House," known also under its better sounding name of "City Infirmary." As many of them were in poverty or reduced circumstances, through no fault of theirs, often "proud, but honest and poor," they keenly felt what they considered a disgrace, to be obliged to seek food and shelter at public expense. To spare their feelings and provide them a comfortable home, with no stigma attached, the Little Sisters of the P00r opened a temporary asylum for them on Erie street, in 1870. Two years later the present home on Perry street gave them welcome. As the number of inmates increased, the buildings were remodeled or enlarged, the last addition having been completed in 1894, so that now the Home for the Aged Poor ranks with the largest and best appointed in the country. Here, as in our hospitals, no distinction is made as to race, creed, or color, the only requisites for admission being, that the applicants are at least sixty years of age, and poor. The Little Sisters are exceedingly popular in Cleveland, and acknowledge with gratitude the many benefactions they have received, and are continually receiving from its citizens. Among their special benefactors were the late Wm. J. Gordon, John Huntington and Joseph Perkins.
St. Mary's Home for Young Women, was opened in 1895 on Harmon street, in the building formerly used as an asylum for orphan girls. It is in charge of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart and is intended as a temporary home for girls and young women seeking employment.
The latest Catholic charity established in Cleveland is St. Anthony's Home for Working Boys. It was founded by the late Bishop Horstmann, in 1907, and is located on Detroit avenue, a short distance west of. St. John's hospital. From their very start St. Mary's Home and St. Anthony's Home became, popular, thus showing that both institutions met a long felt want.
From the above it will be seen that Catholic charity has not been idle in Cleveland. Under its auspices there are now three hospitals, with accommodations for about four hundred patients ; two orphan asylums, with over five hundred orphans ; one foundling asylum ; one maternity home, one home for fallen women; one home for the aged poor, with nearly two hundred inmates ; a home for young women, and a home for working boys.
With the exception of a home for the wayward boys, which will also be established as soon as the means can be secured, Cleveland's Catholics have provided for every form of human misery. And they have generously done so, out of their not plentiful means, true to the mission of their church : "To provide homes for those on the threshold of death ; to provide asylums in which the poor and the aged may find refuge in the storms of life and at the same time a novitiate in which to prepare for death ;" and in accord with the Scriptural injunction : "Bear ye one another's burden, and so ye shall fulfill the law !"
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CHAPTER XLI.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF CLEVELAND.
By Rabbi Moses J. Gries.
THE FIRST SETTLERS.
Seventy and three years ago, 1837, the first Jewish settler, Simson Thorman, of Unsleben, Bavaria, came to Cleveland. Within the next two years, a number of others from his native town, some with families, followed him to the New World and to the Western Reserve.
Political unrest in Europe and unfavorable conditions of life in the Old World, seem to have been the causes which impelled these pioneers to seek opportunity in the unknown western world. Thus, one year after Cleveland was chartered as a city, the Jewish settlement began. Four generations, descendants of these first pioneers, have been born and are now living in Cleveland.
CONGREGATIONS.
In 1839, it seems that the first permanent religious organization was established, under the name of the Israelitic Society. In 1840, a burial ground was purchased in Ohio City, at a cost of $100. To worship God, to unite the living, to care for the sick and the poor, and to bury the dead, the little community formed its definite organization.
The Israelitic Society was not destined to a long life. Though small in number, it was divided in 1842, and the seceders formed the Anshe Chesed Society. The Israelitic Society worshiped in a hall on South Water Street and Vineyard Lane, and the Anshe Chesed Society in Farmers Block, on Prospect Street.
ANSHE CHESED CONGREGATION.
The wounds were healed and the two societies were reunited in 1846 and received a charter under the name of The Israelitic Anshe Chesed Society of the City of Cleveland. This marks the real beginning of the oldest Jewish congregation in Cleveland.
It is an interesting revelation of the spirit of the times to note that Leonard Case presented to the Anshe Chesed Society, a lot on Ohio Street, for the building of a synagogue. This lot was exchanged for the one on Eagle Street, on which the first synagogue in Cleveland was built, at a cost of $1,500.
Again dissension split the congregation in 1848, resulting in the formation of the Tifereth Israel Congregation, in 1850.
The Anshe Chesed Congregation, by reas0n of growth, enlarged its synagogue, which was rededicated April 14, 1860, by Dr. Wise of Cincinnati. Questions of ritual, strife concerning the prayer book and the form of service, and personal differences, caused repeated dissensions. In 1866, the Rabbi, G. M.
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Cohen, withdrew, and with him went twenty-one members, all of whom joined the Tifereth Israel Congregation.
The Jewish population continued to increase and the congregation continued to grow. On October 21, 1886, the cornerstone was laid for its new temple on Scovill Avenue and Henry Street (now East 25th Street). This building was dedicated September 2, 1887, and has been the home 0f the congregation until this time.
The Presidents of Anshe Chesed Congregation have been : Abraham Strauss, 1857; Simon Thorman, 1858; Simon Newmark, 1859-1860; S. Goodhart, 1861; J. Rohrheimer, 1862; A. Schwarz, 1863; M. Loeser, 1864; S. Newmark, 18651868; Nathan New, 1869; M. J. Moses, 1870-1871; Nathan New, 1872-1875; S. Newmark, 1876-1878; I. Reinthal, 1879-1881; S. Skall, 1882-1890; I. Reinthal, 1891-1893; Moses Halle, 1894-1895; Isaac Levy, 1896.
The following Rabbis have served Anshe Chesed C0ngregation: E. Hertz- man, 1860; G. M. Cohen, 1861-1866; Nathan, 1866; G. M. Cohen, 18671874; M. Tintner, 1875.
In 1876, Dr. M. Machol was chosen Rabbi and continued in active service thirty years. In 1901, the congregation celebrated the silver anniversary of his ministry. He was elected Rabbi Emeritus in 1907.
In September, 1906, Rabbi Louis Wolsey of Little Rock, Arkansas, was elected as Rabbi, and was installed in office August 30, 1907.
The Euclid Avenue Temple League of young men and the Euclid Avenue Temple Sisterhood are new activities of the congregation.
The Anshe Chesed Congregation now has 385 members. In July, 1907, the congregation purchased a lot on the southeast corner of Euclid and East 82nd Street, on which they plan to erect a new temple.
THE TIFERETH ISRAEL CONGREGATION-THE TEMPLE.
Tifereth Israel Congregation was organized May 26, 1850, with forty-seven charter members. Its first worship was conducted in a house on Lake Street, and later in other homes. From 1851 to 1855, its services were held in a hall in Kelley's Block on Main Street, now Superior Street.
In 1854, the Congregation received a bequest of $3,000 from Judah Touro, the distinguished patriot and Jewish philanthropist. On May 11th of the same year, a lot was bought on Huron Street for $4,200. The bequest of Judah Touro made it possible for the struggling congregation to buy a permanent site and to build a temple.
Forty years thereafter, the service of Judah Touro was recognized by the erection of a memorial tablet, in his honor, in the new Temple, dedicated in 1894.
The temple on Huron Street was dedicated on or about December 14, 1855. It was remodeled in 1861 and rededicated on August 23, 1861, by Rev. Dr. Max Lilienthal of Cincinnati. It was enlarged in July, 1866; again, on May 21, 1874, there was a rededication by Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati.
Its presidents have been: Alexander Schwab, 1850; Marks Wolf, 1852; Selig Hexter, 1853; David Kaufman, 1854; Solomon Wolf, 1856; Solomon Hyman, 1857; Mosle Ezekiel, 1860; Solomon Wolf, 1862; Solomon Hyman,
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1863; Aaron Halle, 1866; Kaufman Hays, 1867; Sigmund Mann, 1871; Jacob Rohrheimer, 1874; Sigmund Mann, 1881; Jacob Rohrheimer, 1882; Simon Sampliner, 1884; Henry Richman, 1886; Morris Ullman, 1887; Marcus Grossman, 1889; Martin A. Marks, 1890; Abram Lewenthal, 1905 ; Martin A. Marks, 1907 to the present time. With the exception of the two years from 1905 to 1907, Mr. Lewenthal's term of office, Mr. Martin A. Marks has been president of the Congregation from 1890 to 1910.
The Rabbis of Tifereth Israel Congregation have been : Isadore Kalisch, 1850-1855; Wolf Fassbinder, 1855-1857; Jacob Cohen, 1857-1866; Gustav M. Cohen, 1866-1867; Jacob Mayer, 1867-1874; Aaron Hahn, 1874-1892; Moses J. Gries, 1892 to present time.
Dr. Aaron Hahn resigned as Rabbi of the congregation in 1892 and retired from the ministry to study and later to practice law in Cleveland.
The congregation resolved to build a new temple and in 1892 purchased the lot at the southeast corner of Willson and Central Avenues.
Rabbi Moses J. Gries of Chattanooga, Tenn., who had previously been elected as Rabbi, came to Cleveland on November 20, 1892. On July 16, 1893, the cornerstone of the new Temple was laid. Saturday, April 28th, and Sunday, April 29, 1894, the last services were held in the old temple on Huron Street. The new Temple was dedicated September 21 to 24, 1894. Dr. Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati laid the cornerstone and preached the dedicatory sermon. The first religious service, following the dedication, was the confirmation of fifteen boys and girls. The dedicatory services were distinguished by a noteworthy "fellowship" evening, in which the representative ministers of all denominations participated, in the presence of a great assembly of people. "The Temple," as the congregation and the new house of worship were called, soon made remarkable strides in the growth of its membership and in its varied organizations. From time to time, it has established many kinds of endeavor for men and women and for boys and girls. Historically, it is the first "Open Temple" or institutional church among Jews in the United States, and in the world.
The Temple Society, established in November, 1894, conducted University Extension Classes and Popular Lectures, which, in 1896, developed into the well known "Temple Course," which continued until 1909.
Among the institutions of The Temple are a free Public Library, opened October 2, 1898. It has a fine collection of books in English on Jews and Judaism, in addition to a general library of other books and magazines. On January 22, 1904, the Cleveland Public Library assumed direction of the Temple Library, since which time it has experienced a large increase, both in circulation and attendance.
The Congregation has grown from its original membership of forty-seven in 1850, to a membership of 125 in 1892, and to a present membership of 595.
"The religious attitude of the community differs but little from that of others in the West," says Dr. Wolf enstein, in his article on Cleveland, published in the Jewish Encyclopedia, "save perhaps, that the Reform movement has advanced more rapidly in Cleveland than elsewhere. All shades and varieties of Judaism are to be found, from the most rigidly Orthodox to the ultra-
Radical Reform—on the one hand, an unswerving adherence to tradition ; on
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the other, at Tifereth Israel synagogue, now called 'The Temple,' almost an entire abolition of it. The Temple congregation worships on Sunday, a large number of its attendants being non-Jews. It has abolished the reading of the Torah and practically all Hebrew from its service and Sabbath School. Its Sabbath School session is held on Sunday afternoon."
Sunday lectures were established in the Huron Street Temple in 1886, and the first Sunday Service, under the ministry of Rabbi Gries, October 8, 1893. The Sunday afternoon sessions of the Sabbath School began September 18, 1898.
The Temple Alumni Association, the junior organization of The Temple, composed of former Confirmation boys and girls, now has a membership of 572, of which about 200 are active.
ORTHODOX CONGREGATIONS.
The oldest and most important of the Orthodox congregations is the Hun- garian, Bene jeshurum Congregation, organized in 1865 and reorganized in 1886. In 1865, its first worship was held in the residence of Herman Sampliner in California Alley ; in 1866, on St. Clair Street; and then on Hamilton Street, and during the great Holy Days, public worship was conducted in Gallagher's Hall on Erie and Superior Streets ; in 1869, in Halle's old hall; in 1878, on Michigan Street. In 1886, the Congregation bought the temple on Eagle Street from the Anshe Chesed Congregation, but did not take possession until 1887.
Its Rabbis were : Morris Klein, 1875; Sigmund Drechsler, 1887-1995; A. E. Dobrin, 1906-1908. Samuel Schwartz was installed June 18, 1909.
The Congregation has passed through many struggles, differences and divisions, but has survived them all. In 1905, it completed its new temple on the southeast corner of Willson and Scovill Avenues. It now has a membership of 454.
There are about twenty Orthodox Jewish Congregations, mainly Hungarian, Russian and Polish, in the city, the most prominent of which are: Anshe Emeth, East 37th Street near Woodland ; Agudath Achim, Scovill avenue and East Thirty- first street (Rabbi Benjamin Gitelsohn) ; Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Beth Israel, Woodland Avenue and East 27th Street ; Keneseth Israel, East 46th Street near Woodland ; Ohave Emuno, Scovill Avenue and East 37th Street (Rabbi Nachman H. Ebin) ; Oheb Zedek, Scovill and East 38th Street (Rabbi H. A. Liebovitz ; membership, 250). Anshe Emeth Congregation is said to have been organized in 1867, and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Beth Israel in 1868. All of these Congregations have erected new synagogues within recent years. Anshe Emeth Synagogue was dedicated in July, 1904. Since September, 1904, Rabbi Samuel Margolies has been in charge. Its present membership numbers 300.
The religious instruction of the children, in all probability, began, from the time, the first families came to Cleveland, in 1838 and 1839. The first Hebrew School seems to have been established in a house on Lake Street, but no record has been found of a permanent Sabbath School organization until 1858. Instruction was given in the Jewish religion and in Jewish history and in Hebrew.
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The Jewish community has no "parochial" schools. Its religious schools are supplementary to the public school instruction. The Religious School sessions are held on Saturday and Sunday mornings, and in The Temple on Sunday afternoons. Hebrew Schools, with almost daily instruction, are held in the afternoons after public school hours. Some of the congregations maintain Hebrew Schools. Oheb Zedek Congregation has 120 children in its Hebrew School and 200 pupils in its Sabbath School. Anshe Emeth Congregation reports 407 children in its Sabbath School. The Orthodox community has established the Sir Moses Montefiore Hebrew School Talmud Torah. The school is conducted in its own building, 2495 East 35th Street, and gives instruction to about 300 children.
Cleveland is celebrated throughout the country for its large religious schools. Bene Jeshurun in its Hebrew School has 160 children, and in its Sabbath School more than 400 children are enrolled. Anshe Chesed has 215 pupils.
The growth of The Temple Sabbath School has been remarkable. From the eighty children who were gathered for Sabbath School instruction in 1892, the school has grown, until its membership for a succession of years has been from 700 to 800. This Sabbath School, both because of its unusual membership and its new methods and its magnificent organization, has attracted the attention of the entire country.
LARGEST SCHOOLS.
Cleveland has the distinction of having the largest Jewish Congregational Sabbath School, viz., at The Temple ; and the Council Sabbath School, which began in 1896 with about 100 children and now has a regular enrollment of 1,242, is the largest "Mission" Sabbath School.
CEMETERIES.
The first burial ground was purchased in 1840 in Ohio City. In 1853, additional land was bought on Willett Street and the cemetery was again enlarged in 1862. On July 31, 1887, more than twenty acres of land, fronting on Mayfield Road, were acquired for cemetery purposes ; on July 6, 1890, the Tifereth Israel Congregation and the Anshe Chesed Congregation entered into an agreement for joint control and maintenance of the United Jewish Cemeteries of Cleveland. The chapel in the new Mayfield Cemetery was dedicated on Decoration Day, May 30, 1893. The Bene Jeshurun Congregation located its cemetery in Glenville, in 1880. A number of other Jewish Cemeteries, under the control of societies and lodges, are scattered around the city.
CHARITIES.
Jews endeavor to take care of their own poor. Though they contibute to every public cause for good, it is their aim to support their own charities. The Jews in the United States have taken pride in maintaining both the letter and the spirit of the charter granted more than two hundred and fifty years ago to
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the Jews of New York, which provided that their poor should not be a burden to the state.
HEBREW RELIEF ASSOCIATION.
The early records of the Jewish charitable organizations of Cleveland seem to have been lost or destroyed. According to report, a benevolent society was established in 1858, with membership dues of $4 per year. The present Hebrew Relief Association is said to have been established in 1875. For many years the members of the Board of Directors did all the necessary work, both of investigation and relief—there were no paid officers or other employes. During the eighties and early nineties when, under the pressure of European perkcution, immigration increased, special relief funds were raised and the Russian Refugee Committee was organized. Agents were employed to give part or whole time.
I
n 1894 a Personal Service Society was established. This society was merged the same year with the newly formed Council, of Jewish Women. In 1895, the Relief Association welcomed the help and cooperation of the Council of Jewish Women, in the care of the sick poor—an arrangement which was not discontinued until 1910.
The year 1904 marks the reorganization of the Hebrew Relief Association and the employment of a trained superintendent. It endeavors to do all relief work for the Jewish poor. It cooperates with the City Department of Charities and Corrections, the Associated Charities, and all other philanthropic agencies. It has three paid workers, and its budget for the year igio amounts to $21,000. The annual meeting of 1908, held on January 7th, was the occasion of the formal presentation of its present headquarters, located at 2554 East 4oth Street. The gift, valued at Five Thousand Dollars, is a memorial in honor of Isaac N. Glauber, and assures the Relief a permanent home.
HEBREW FREE LOAN ASSOCIATION.
Cooperating with the Hebrew Relief Association, but, in nowise a part of it, is the Hebrew Free Loan Association. It was organized in 1905 as a Gemilath Chesed Society and reorganized in 1907 under its present name. In 1909 it made 699 loans, amounting to over $20,000. These loans are free, without interest, but are secured by responsible endorsement. Although in three years the Association has loaned about $36,000, its losses have been but $168. It has an established contributing membership of nearly five hundred, paying $3 per year. Its chief purpose is to prevent the poor from asking for charity, by giving them an opportunity to maintain their self-respect and to establish their own independence.
INDEPENDENT MONTEFIORE SHELTER HOME.
During the Russian immigration, in the eighties, a house was rented on Perry Street, to shelter incoming immigrants and the transient poor. In later years, there were other temporary quarters. But in 1904, this work was reorganized and a new and commodious building was erected at 3902 Orange
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Street. It is open day and night to anyone requiring shelter. During 1909, it expended about $2,000 and housed 883 inmates and furnished 2,859 days of shelter and served 8,599 meals. It is supported by small membership dues and by an appropriation from the Federation of Jewish Charities. The Society now bears the name of The Independent Montefiore Shelter Home.
THE JEWISH ORPHAN ASYLUM.
No story of the Jewish charities of Cleveland would be complete without an account of the Jewish Orphan Asylum and of the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites.
The Jewish Orphan Asylum is the pride of the Cleveland Jewish community and an enduring monument to the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith (Sons of the Covenant) who founded it. The Orphan Asylum is more than a local institution—it is partly national. It receives both children and support from many Jewish communities, in many states of the Union.
In July, 1867, District Grand Lodge No. 2, Independent Order B'nai B'rith, in session at Milwaukee, resolved to establish an orphan asylum. After due investigation, Cleveland was chosen as the location, and the Cleveland "Water Cure" was purchased for $25,000. The Orphan Asylum was dedicated on July 14, 1868. Of the original Trustees, only two survive—one being Mr. A. Wiener of Cleveland, who is still a Trustee, and who served as President for seven years. One of the original Board of Directors was Mrs. Kaufman Hays, daughter of Simson Thorman, the first Jewish settler in Cleveland—she was a member of the Board from 1868 until the year of her death, 1907. Mr. Kaufman Hays has been actively associated for many years and has been Treasurer since 1891. Mr. and Mrs. L. Aufrecht were the first Superintendent and Matron, from September, 1868, until 1878. The Orphan Asylum opened with thirty-eight children.
DR. S. WOLFENSTEIN.
On July 1, 1878, Dr. S. Wolfenstein became the Superintendent, and has continued in office until the present time. It is because of his individuality that the Orphan Asylum has won for itself such unusual distinction as a model institution.
Concerning it, General Brinkerhoff of Mansfield, Ohio, former President of the State Board of Charities of Ohio, and a well known authority in philanthropy, said, "The Cleveland Jewish Orphan Asylum is admirably administered and is a model for imitation by all our county homes for dependent children. In fact it is not only an honor to the city of Cleveland, but it is an honor to the state and nation. I have visited hundreds of child-saving institutions, but I have never been in an institution where there was such a manifestation of affection and regard for the superintendent, as I saw in this home."
Dr. Wolfenstein has trained leaders and workers. The heads of the Orphan Asylums at Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, Rochester and San Francisco were his former assistants at Cleveland.
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ITS GLORIOUS RECORD.
In 1888, the new main building, fireproof and splendidly equipped, Was dedicated. The quarter centennial was celebrated in 1893, and Governor William McKinley, afterward President, was a guest of honor.
The boys and girls of the Orphan Asylum have gone out into the world and have honored their former home by their remarkable record. Little more than one per cent have ever become recipients of charity, "in every instance because of sickness or death of husband, a still smaller percentage, not quite one-half per cent, have made a shady record." "A considerable number are occupying prominent positions in the professional world, as rabbis, physicians, lawyers and trained nurses. A very fair percentage are pursuing trades as machinists, electricians, printers and different other trades. The girls are milliners, dressmakers, and quite a large number stenographers." They are found in almost every walk of life.
The Orphan Asylum for a number of years has been full to its capacity50o children. Since its opening, 2,941 children have been admitted, and 2,410 have been discharged—only thirty-one have been lost by death.
The total expenditure to the end of the forty-first year amounts to $2,500,000.
The Orphan Asylum has a sinking fund of $475,000. Its grounds and buildings represent an investment of $35o,00o. There is a magnificent main building, with separate school and manual training buildings and other buildings ; also two hospitals. Its property fronts 412 feet on Woodland Avenue and has a depth of 73o feet ; also 165 feet front on Sawtell Avenue ; comprising altogether more than seven acres.
At the present time, there is under consideration a plan to move from the heart of the city into the country adjacent to Cleveland.
HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM ISRAELITES.
The Sir Moses Montefiore Kesher Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites was established at Cleveland in 1881. Its property is at the southwest corner of Woodland and Willson Avenues, extending to Seelye Avenue, and was purchased for $25,000.
The Home was founded by District No. 4 of the Order Kesher Shel Barzel, a Jewish Fraternal Order, now out of existence. In the preamble, adopted by the Order, the purpose of the Home is declared to be : "the care, support and maintenance of aged and infirm Israelites of both sexes." The original name was "Aged and Infirm Israelites Home, of District No. 4, O. K. S. B."
It was dedicated and opened June, 1882. On March io, 1884, the Supreme Lodge of the Order, "desiring to erect a lasting monument" to the memory of Sir Moses Montefiore, the celebrated English and Jewish philanthropist, voted an endowment of $ro,000, and gave the institution the name which it now bears. On January 31, 1898, the Home was incorporated as an institution, independent of the Order.
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The building was enlarged in 1889, at a cost of $20,000. It has accommodations for sixty. It receives inmates and also support from a number of states. It accepts both men and women from the age of sixty-five, and husbands and wives are permitted to spend their closing days together in peace.
The institution now has forty-six inmates. Since the opening of the Home until 1907, 192 inmates have been received, ninety-nine of whom have died at the average of nearly seventy-nine years.
The property of the Home fronts 197 1/2 feet on Woodland Avenue, 355 feet on Willson, and 412 1/2 on Seelye Avenues, comprising altogether about four acres. The building and grounds cost more than $50,000, although their present value is far higher. The Institution has a sinking fund of more than $86,000. Up to July I, 1909, the total receipts from all sources have amounted to more than $499,000.
Within recent years, an Orthodox "Old Home" has been established, supported by the Orthodox Jewish community. It is located at 5912 Scovill Avenue.
THE JEWISH INFANT ORPHANS' HOME.
The Jewish community offers care and protection not only to the orphan and the aged and the infirm, but also to the orphan child of tenderest age. The Infant Orphans' Home accepts children from the day of birth until they are five years old. The youngest inmate has been but two days old.
In 1899, a group of women organized, to care for homeless infant children. On August 4, 1901, a house was bought at 301 Forest Street, now East 37th, and the Home was dedicated and opened in the same year. In 1906, a large private residence, 2200 East 40th Street, was purchased and it was opened on the 13th day of March, 1897. It now has fifty-one children, and in 1909 expended about $8,000. About one year ago, the final payment was made toward the purchase of a house one door south of the Home, which is now being used as a shelter for unorphaned homeless and friendless children.
The women's organizations date back to 1860, in which year the Daughters of Israel began. This Society is still in existence, although not very active.
THE CLEVELAND COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN.
In 1894, the Ladies' Benevolent Society, The Ladies' Sewing Society and the Personal Service Society amalgamated and organized under the name of The Cleveland Council of Jewish Women. Its first regular meeting was held at The Temple, November 20, 1894. The Society began with 271 members. Later, a group of young women known as the Progressive Mission, became affiliated.
Rabbi Moses J. Gries was the first President and continued in office until October 6, 1896, when Mrs. M. B. Schwab was chosen President and led the organization for ten years. On May 6, 1906, the Acting President, Mrs. A. Wiener, was elected President, and Mrs. M. B. Schwab was made Honorary President.
The Council of Jewish Women rented a house at 297 Woodland Avenue, October 1, 1895. On February 4, 1896, it voted to become a branch of the
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National Council of Jewish Women, from which body it resigned on June 16, 1908.
The Council has been a pioneer in work for children and for men and women. It conducted evening classes in 1893; a public playground in 1901, and vacation schools in 1904.
"The Martha House"—a home for working girls, under the control and auspices of the Council, but governed by an independent Board, was established in 1907. In May, 1907, the Council leased a home on East 46th Street, and this same property was purchased on November 1, 1908, for $5,500. Fifteen girls are now living at the Martha House. The House accommodates sixteen.
A "Charity Fair" was held in 1898. The total proceeds were more than $13,000, of which the Hebrew Relief Association received $2,000 and the Council more than $11,000. With this fund, it was planned to purchase a permanent home. After negotiations for the purchase of the "Joseph" home at 300 Woodland Avenue (now 2104) the old homestead was offered as a gift, through the Council, to the Jewish community. The money was set aside for a building fund, and ten years after was used to help purchase the new settlement building, which now houses the work of The Council of Jewish Women and The Council Educational Alliance.
The Council conducts all manner of work, especially for women and girls and children. There are about fifty classes and clubs. Together with the Alliance, it rallies more than 200 volunteer workers. The attendance during 1909, although the building was closed for two months, due to moving and remodeling, and although the work was conducted under many difficulties, numbered 212,298.
In addition to this important philanthropic work, the Council conducts the usual activities of a woman's club, with study circles and social meetings. It is a thoroughly representative woman's organization. The membership has risen from 271 in 1894 to 1,051 in 1910.
The Council does not confine its efforts to Jewish charities, but from time to time contributes to non-sectarian organizations. It gives support to a number of Jewish National causes, and makes a special assessment for the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives. It is affiliated with the Ohio Congress of Mothers ; the Council of Women, and the Cleveland Federation of Women's Clubs. Throughout its history, it has revealed a splendid spirit of social service.
THE COUNCIL EDUCATIONAL ALLIANCE.
The Council Educational Alliance was incorporated in April, 1899. From its very origin, its work and its history were very closely interwoven with the Council of Jewish Women. They have always labored side by side. The Council has the right to nominate a majority of the Board of the Alliance and the two organizations and their officers have always cooperated.
To the Council Educational Alliance, on April 27, 1899, Moritz and Yetta Joseph gave the deed of their old home, 2104 Woodland Avenue. This gift marked an epoch in the history of the Jewish community, being the first large individual gift for Jewish philanthropy.
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The Alliance work has always been conducted along settlement lines, but it was not a real settlement, with workers in residence, until after the dedication of its new building in 1909.
On May 30, 1899, Mrs. A. Wiener was chosen as the first President of the Alliance. She resigned on the 27th of June of the same year and Mr. B. Mahler was elected President. He continued in office until his resignation, December 7, 1903. On January 11, 1904, Rabbi Moses J. Gries was elected and continues as President at this time.
The Alliance endeavors to be the "social center" for its neighborhood. It reaches more than 2,50o individuals. With the Council, it has more than zoo volunteers and a paid staff of workers, teachers and attendants, numbering twenty-six.
On June 13, 1908, it was decided to buy the property of the Excelsior Club, located on the south side of Woodland Avenue, between Forest and Putnam Streets, now 37th and 38th Streets. The purchase was consummated and possession given on January 1, 1908. The building was remodeled and its capacity increased at a cost of about $25,000. Almost $20,000 was raised by special subscriptions to the building fund. The Joseph homestead and adjoining property belonging to the Alliance were sold for $25,000.
After months of labor and expectation, the new building, remodeled, enlarged and beautified, was dedicated on September 8, 1909. It is a completely equipped settlement building, one of the best in the country. It represents an investment in land and buildings and equipment of approximately $100,000.
The dedication of the Alliance was a memorable occasion. Representatives of the City, of the Public Schools, of the Public Library, and of the Federation of Jewish Charities, participated. in the public exercises. There were addresses by the President of the Council Educational Alliance and of the Council of Jewish Women. The guest of honor was the Governor of Ohio, Hon. Judson A. Harmon.
CAMP WISE.
The Council of Jewish Women and the Council Educational Alliance united in the establishment of a Summer Camp for boys and girls, and, to a limited extent, for men and women. Mr. Samuel D. Wise offered the free use of his property along the east shore of Lake Erie, formerly known as Stein's, and located at Stop 133.
The Camp was opened in the summer of 1907 and proved so remarkable a success that in November of the same year it was determined to form a permanent Camp Wise Association. To this Association Mr. Samuel D. Wise tendered his property as a gift, to be used as a summer camp. He repaired and remodeled the buildings and cottages, and improved the grounds, and, on March 26, 1908, he deeded his property to the Camp Wise Association. It includes 173/4 acres of land, a hotel building and a group of cottages. The estimated value of the property was $25,000. Later, a special fund of about $5,000 was raised to provide better sanitation and water supply and other necessary improvements.
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An Emergency Cottage, the gift of Mrs. A. E. Brown, was offered in 1909 and is now being built.
During 1909, the Camp was open ten weeks and cared for an average of 125 men, women and children per week, not including the campers. The cost was approximately $3,500.
The wonderful success of the Camp has been due to the fine spirit of the young men and young women who were in active charge through the whole summer.
MOUNT SINA1 HOSPITAL.
The Jewish Women's Hospital Society was formed in 1900. This organization succeeded, in 1902, in purchasing a private residence at 2371 East 37th Street, formerly Forest Street, for $7,500. The residence was remodeled for hospital service, at a cost of $7,500 additional. On May 3, 1903, it was formally dedicated, and on May 4th, was opened for the reception of patients.
The hospital has been hindered by adverse conditions and the lack of public support, and by its limited facilities and capacity. It contains thirty beds, of which fourteen are in wards.
The many difficulties and struggles for the successful maintenance of the hospital, led to a complete reorganization in 1909. During this year, the hospital cared for 539 patients, with 1,446 days of charity work, and 419 days for which one-half payment was given. The total operating cost amounted to nearly $10,000, of which amount the Federation of Jewish Charities gave $4,200. The hospital also conducts a training school for nurses.
At the present writing, there is serious discussion and investigation of the need and advisability of building a modern and thoroughly equipped Jewish hospital.
THE FEDERATION OF JEWISH CHARITIES.
The charities of the Jewish community of Cleveland, are under communal and not under congregational control. The temples and the synagogues do not maintain their own charitable societies and institutions. All the Jewish charities of the city are controlled and supported by the Jewish community in general.
In recent years, however, there has been manifest a tendency on the part of the newly arrived immigrants and the increasing Russian Jewish community, to create their own organizations and to establish their own institutions.
All of the important institutions and societies are affiliated with The Federation of Jewish Charities, chartered under the laws of the State of Ohio, November 17, 1903.
In the previous year, on November 21st, the first meeting was held for the purpose of formulating a plan and devising ways and means for the federation of the Jewish charities of Cleveland. The following persons were present: Messrs. Edward M. Baker, Charles Eisenman, Julius Feiss, Jacob Furth, Moses J. Gries, Isaac Joseph, M. J. Mandelbaum, Martin A. Marks, Sig. Shlesinger and Meyer Weil. On November 15, 1903, the constitution was adopted and
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the following institutions affiliated with the Federation and were enrolled as beneficiaries :
The Cleveland Council of Jewish Women,
The Council Educational Alliance,
The Hebrew Relief Association,
The Infant Orphans' Mothers Home,
The Jewish Orphan Asylum,
Mt. Sinai Hospital,
The National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives,
The Sir Moses Montefiore Kesher Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites.
The first Board of Trustees elected by the incorporators on November 3oth were the following: Edward M. Baker, Herman Einstein, Charles Eisenman, Julius Feiss, Moses J. Gries, Sol. M. Hexter, Isaac Joseph, Isaac Levi, Henry A. Newman, Manuel Reinthal, Abraham Steam, Meyer Weil.
The officers elected at this meeting were as follows : Charles Eisenman, President ; Julius Feiss, Vice President ; Meyer Weil, Treasurer ; E. M. Baker, Secretary.
All of these have continued in office to this time. The number of Trustees was increased to fifteen at the annual meeting in 1908.
Other societies and institutions have become beneficiaries from time to time —the Free Loan Association in 1905, the Shelter Home in 1906, and the Camp Wise Association in 1908.
An Educational Endowment Fund, to aid worthy students, was founded on March 7, 1904, by the gift of $2,500 from the Mrs. H. Black estate.
During the year, the close of which marked the formation of the Federation, the total sum collected for the Jewish Orphan Asylum, the Jewish Infant Orphans' Home, the Montefiore Home, the Hebrew Relief Association, the Council Educational Alliance, and the Hospital for Consumptives amounted to approximately $20,000. This year the Federation has succeeded in collecting approximately $70,000.
Year by year, the effort has been made to increase the amounts given for charity and also to multiply the number of the givers. Prior to the formation of the Federation, six to seven hundred were enrolled as contributors. This number has been steadily increased, until now, about 1,650 are regular subscribers. The present office of the Federation is at 1028 Citizens Building.
The Federation plans to collect and distribute all the contributions for the regular maintenance of its affiliated societies and institutions. It is exercising a marked influence upon the development of the charitable work of the Jewish community and is now being held up before the whole city, as a model and as an incentive toward the federation of all the important charities of the city.
SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS AND LODGES.
The leading social organizations are the Excelsior, the Oakwood, and the Standard clubs.
The Excelsior Club was organized on October 20, 1872. Until 1874 it had no fixed location. From 1874 to 1877 its headquarters were at Corlett's Hall,
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corner Erie and Sumner Streets, and for ten years, from 1877 to December 24, 1887, at Halle's Hall, corner Woodland and Erie Streets. It built its own clubhouse on Woodland Avenue, opposite Putnam Street and occupied it from December 24, 1887, to December 31, 19o8. During 1908, the clubhouse was sold to the Council Educational Alliance. The club began with a membership of thirty, and at the time of the opening of its clubhouse, in 1887, had 148 members. The present membership is 315. On the eve of the New Year, 1909, the new and palatial clubhouse, located at 111 11 Euclid Avenue just east of Wade Park, was formally opened.
The Oakwood Club is a country club, whose grounds, covering 106 1/2 acres, are located in East Cleveland Township, on Mayfield and Warrensville Roads. It possesses a comfortable clubhouse, splendid golf links, baseball field and tennis courts. The club began with forty-four members, July 1, 1905. The clubhouse was opened in the fall of 1906. Ninety-nine seniors and seventeen juniors constitute the present membership.
The Standard Club was organized September 30, 1907, and was formally opened January 26, 1910. Its present membership is about 150, including senior and junior members. The club holds a ninety-nine-year lease on its building at the northeast corner of Euclid Avenue and East 71st Street.
The Young Men's Hebrew Association was planned at a preliminary meeting, held on Sunday, January 6, 1889. Thirty-four young men enrolled as charter members. On the following Sunday a definite organization was created, and a constitution was adopted on January 21, 1889. By July of the same year, 350 members had joined. The information and the records concerning the beginnings of the Association are not available. The chief organizers were a group of young men, formerly members of the Cleveland Literary Union.
The new association worked along social, educational and philanthropic lines. Its original headquarters were in Fix' Hall, on Scovill Avenue near Perry Street (now East 22d). Later, a building was rented, with auditorium and gymnasium, at 234 Woodland Avenue, near old Brownell Street. Efforts were made to secure a permanent building. Subscriptions were pledged, but for various reasons the building project was allowed to slumber. Temporary quarters were rented later at 299 Woodland Avenue.
Interest began to wane and the Association's days seemed to be numbered. Then followed a revival of enthusiasm, under which stimulus, in 1894, the membership was pushed' to 450. On December 15, 1894, the new headquarters at "Brooks School," on Sibley Street, were dedicated. There was a notable increase of general activity. Again subscriptions were pledged for a new building, which, however, seemed destined not to be erected. The Association passed out of existence about 1899.
Within the past two years, another attempt has been made to establish a Young Men's Hebrew Association. Temporary meeting places were provided and now a private residence has been rented at 2611 East 47th Street, the present home of the Association. One hundred and sixty members constitute the new Association.
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Prominent among the societies and lodges whose membership is largely or wholly Jewish, are the long established Hungarian Aid Society and the very prosperous Hungarian Benevolent and Social Union, and the Independent Aid Society. These organizations are social in character and allow some special privileges, such as sick benefit, and do some philanthropic work.
The Order Knights of Joseph, a Jewish fraternal organization for men and women, received a charter from the State of Ohio, on February 14, 1896. Its first lodge was organized in Cleveland on May 14, 1896, with a membership of twelve. Since that time the order has grown to 11,214 members. Its national headquarters are located at Cleveland.
PUBLICATIONS.
The Cleveland community has two Jewish weeklies, published in English, and one daily paper, printed in Yiddish. The oldest of these papers, the Hebrew Observer, began publication in 1889, and was merged, in 1899, with the Jewish Review, under the name of The Jewish Review and Observer. On March 9, 1906, the Jewish Independent issued its first number. Since May 25, 1906, its editor has been Mr. Maurice Weidenthal, for many years active in the Cleve- * land newspaper world.
Yiddish papers have been published in Cleveland from time to time. All have ceased publication, with the exception of the Jewish Daily Press, established May I, 1908.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY.
The Jewish Community of Cleveland has always been identified with important Jewish movements throughout the United States.
The first American Rabbinical Conference ever held in this country, met in Cleveland October 17, 1855.
The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, organized in 1873, convened its first "Council" in Cleveland, January 14, 1874.
The Central Conference of American Rabbis, representative of the most prominent Rabbis of America, founded by Rev. Dr. Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati, in 1889, held its first regular conference in Cleveland, July 13 to 15, 189o.
The Cleveland community lends its support to the National Conference of Jewish Charities, the Jewish Publication Society of America, the Jewish Chautauqua Society, the National Farm School, and other good causes.
During the dedication services of The Temple, a "Fellowship Evening," in which representative ministers participated, took place on September 23, 1894• It marked an epoch in the religious life of the city.
The first "Union" Thanksgiving Service, was held at The Temple on November 29, 1894, in which the Anshe Chesed Congregation and the Unity Church joined.
The Educational League, for the higher education of orphans, was planned in 1896. Its first meeting was held at The Temple. It was established under the auspices of the Baron de Hirsch Lodge, now part of Cleveland Lodge,
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No. 16, Independent Order B'nai B'rith. At the organization meeting, July 12, 1897, Mr. Martin A. Marks was elected President. Rabbi Gries was elected July 11, 1898, and has been president until this date. The League offers help toward a higher education to orphan boys and girls of talent and genius.
The National Council of Jewish Women assembled in triennial session at The Temple, March 4, 190o.
The B'nai B'rith, District Grand Lodge No. 2, held its annual convention at The Temple, in May, 1903. The Convention was honored by the presence of the Hon. Leo N. Levi, the President of the Order.
The Knights of Joseph, a Jewish Fraternal Order, was organized in Cleveland, and Cleveland is its national headquarters.
On May 16, 1908, two important associations organized in Cleveland and held their first meetings at The Temple—The Jewish Religious Education Association of Ohio, composed of the Rabbis and teachers and superintendents of religious schools—and the Ohio Rabbinical Association. Rabbi Gries was elected President of both.
THE JEWS OF CLEVELAND.
The Jews of Cleveland have not been very prominent in the political life of the city—they have not sought public office. A few individuals have been active in the political world, and some have held responsible positions in the administration of the affairs of the city. Representative Jews have been closely identified with all non-sectarian philanthropic work, and have been very active in all civic organizations for the public good.
Their business interests are most varied. They are engaged in very important industrial and commercial enterprises, particularly in the manufacture of cloaks and clothing, and all the affiliated garment industries. They control the chief brass foundries and are the chief makers of agricultural implements.
They conduct the leading department stores ; many are engaged in petty trading and in- small stores. Thousands are skilled workers in the garment industries ; a number of the more recent immigrants are active in the building trades, as contractors, carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, and the like.
Individuals have for many years been influential in the strongest financial institutions of Cleveland. Some have been interested in the development of the street railroad business, both urban and interurban.
According to conservative estimate, there are seventy Jewish physicians, the most prominent of whom are Dr. Marcus Rosenwasser and Dr. A. Peskind ; and about Too lawyers in Cleveland. A number of others are engaged in professional work, as architects, decorators and engineers. Cleveland has produced two artists of international reputation—Louis Loeb and George Peixotto, the son of Benjamin Franklin Peixotto. Benjamin F. Peixotto, for a number of years, was active in the Jewish life of Cleveland. He was appointed by President Grant, United States Minister to Roumania, and under President Hayes he was United States Consul General to Lyons, France.
A goodly number of the ablest and most successful men in the business and professional world have administered the affairs of the Jewish institutions and
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societies for a long period of years. Many have been in constant service for more than a quarter of a century.
The Jewish population has come from all parts of the world—chiefly from Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland and Russia. There is a large American born population, and many are descendants of the pioneers who settled here at the very beginning of the Jewish community. It is impossible to give an accurate statement of the number of Jews in Cleveland. They live in all sections of the city, and no independent Jewish census has ever been taken. An estimate, based upon the number of Jewish children enrolled in the public schools, located in the large Jewish neighborhoods, figures the Jewish population of Cleveland to be about 50,000.
The few pioneers of 1837, 1838 and 1839, in the course of seventy years, have multiplied to about 50,000. The feeble congregations struggling for life for several decades, have developed into influential organizations, ranking with the best and strongest in the land. The very modest houses of worship have been transformed into large synagogues and magnificent temples. The community has grown steadily in population, prosperity and power. The last quarter of a century has witnessed the rise and development of institutions and organizations which distinguish Cleveland as one of the most important centers of Jewish life in the United States.
CHAPTER XLII.
THE PRIVATE CHARITIES OF CLEVELAND.
By J. W. Walton, Treasurer of the Associated Charities.
The early settlers were of New England stock, one mark of which is thrift. Measured by twentieth century standards no one was rich, yet the primitive manners forbade grinding poverty.
A rough and ready neighborhood charity prevailed, bare larders, if not filled by the rifle, were replenished from a neighbor's barrel until the recipient could repay in kind. To watch with the sick, to bury the dead, were not as yet relegated to hired hands. Farming communities in northern Ohio still practice this simple and wholesome method.
Cleveland's growth, however, was the result, not of the cultivation of her sandy soil, but of canal and lake commerce. Closed for months of each year by frost, these waterways offered but intermittent employment. Not all boatmen and sailors are blessed with means and foresight. Wrecks sometimes destroy the bread-winner. Thus the first charities naturally ministered to the necessities of these men and of their families.
Apart from the churches of Cleveland, which here, as everywhere, abounded in works of benevolence, the first organization of which record remains, was the Western Seamen's Friend society, founded in 1830. The work was distinctly religious in its character, including preaching and a Sunday school, in
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which the Protestant churches took the laboring oar. The same laborers sought the destitute and supplied their wants through the collection and distribution of clothing, food and money. Its headquarters, originally located on Water street overlooking the lake, were called the Bethel. From the loins of this institution sprang, in later years, the Cleveland Bethel Union.
The early private charities of the city must have been carried on in accordance with the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount, at least in respect to their avoidance of publicity, for almost no record has come down to us covering Cleveland's first fifty years. A few scattered accounts there are of societies for fraternal help, but these made no broad or lasting mark. Churches and lodges did their own work, each in its own way.
In the year 1852, when the era of railroad construction was well under way, yet before the junction of Ohio City with its four thousand to Cleveland with its seventeen thousand inhabitants, the attention of the public seems to have become aroused to the lack of organized aid for the helpless of all ages.
Good Bishop Amadeus Rappe, the pioneer shepherd of the Roman Catholic flock, was a leader in the founding of orphanages and within a year had planted St. Mary's, afterward known as St. Joseph's, for girls, and St. Vincent's for boys. The public of all faiths contributed to the building funds of these houses and shared in their benefits. In the year 1852 was likewise inaugurated the Protestant orphan asylum. The founders were its president, John M. Woolsey, together with Mesdames S. J. Andrews, Philo Scovill, J. K. Miller, Henry W. Clark, Stillman Witt, C. D. Williams, Elisha Taylor, George A. Benedict, J. A. Harris, Buckley Stedman, Mary H. Severance and A. H. Barney. Mr. Benjamin Rouse was an early and active trustee. Hon. Sherlock J. Andrews was its second president and remained such for a long term of years.
Through the bequest of Captain Levi Sartwell, a handsome endowment was inaugurated to which were subsequently added generous gifts from Jephtha H. Wade, Joseph Perkins, Dr. Allyne Maynard and others so that the institution was placed upon a firm financial basis. Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Shunk were for more than a score of years the ,efficient superintendent and matron.
In 1853-54, a mission school was located near the foot of Champlain street, under the direction of the Rev. Dillon Prosser, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Lowman, Mr. and Mrs. George W. Whitney, Lucius F. Mellen and others, for the care of ragged and destitute children. This subsequently came to be known as the Industrial school, and in 1858 an organization grew out of it called the Children's Aid Society. The first officers of this society were : president, Hon. Truman P. Handy ; vice president, Hon. George Mygatt ; superintendent, Robert Waterton. Its efficiency in corralling and taming neglected children of both sexes was so apparent that the city council of the period granted "Father" Waterton the free use of a vacant school building on the site of the present police headquarters, adding, for a time, the paid services of the day school teachers employed there.
A fourth orphan asylum, known as St. Mary's, was founded in 1854. A Young Men's Christian Association was organized in that same year, its first officers being: president, Dr. John S. Newberry ; recording secretary, Samuel B. Shaw ; corresponding secretary, Loren Prentiss ; treasurer, A. W. Brock-
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way. Committees were formed for various charitable purposes such as the relief of the sick and the securing of employment for young men.
The financial panic of 1857 affected the city of Cleveland in common with her older and larger sisters. For a time the few charitable societies struggled for a bare existence and could not grow, yet most of them seem to have survived. Four years later, when the financial skies grew brighter, came the Civil war with its unspeakable horrors. During this life and death struggle all energies were strained to save the Union and its brave defenders. The story of what was done by the women of Cleveland in this emergency, so simply set down in the volume entitled "Our Acre and its Harvest," quickens the reader's pulse and kindles his enthusiasm.
A notable event took place in the early part of 1863, during some of the darkest days of the War of the Rebellion. This was the successful accomplishment of the Northern Ohio sanitary fair in aid of sick and wounded soldiers and sailors. The authorities permitted a temporary structure covering sixty-four thousand square feet to be erected on the public square. The counties supplementary to Cleveland participated in this imposing bazaar, which was opened on Washington's birthday and lasted sixteen days amid great enthusiasm. The roster of the executive committee is of interest, embracing, as it does, the elite of Cleveland's leaders in charity. These were : T. P. Handy, H. M. Chapin, Dr. J. S. Newberry, Amasa Stone, Jr., Stillman Witt, William B. Castle, Samuel L. Mather, Joseph Perkins, George B. Senter, Peter Thatcher, Jr., Mrs. Benjamin Rouse, Mrs. William Melhinck, Mrs. L. Burton, Miss Mary Clark Brayton, Miss Ellen F. Terry, Mrs. John Shelley, Mrs. J. A. Harris, Mrs. Charles A. Terry, Mrs. Samuel Williamson, Mrs. George A. Benedict, Mrs. L. M. Hubby and Mrs. William B. Castle.
Other well known and public spirited workers were Messrs. Moses C. Young- love, William J. Boardman, John F. Warner, J. V. N. Yates, George Willey, Dan P. Eells, A. W. Fairbanks, Colonel W. H. Hayward and Captain John N. Frazee. The total cash receipts were one hundred thousand, one hundred and ninety-one dollars and six cents, of which about thirty-five thousand dollars were profit and were expended for the cause. Much was additionally given in kind.
Aside from the Marine hospital, owned and conducted by the general government and which still overlooks Lake Erie, Cleveland was lacking in accommodations for the care of her sick. Charity hospital, founded in 1852, was small and inadequate. Before the smoke of war had cleared away, a successful movement was set on foot by Bishop Rappe to furnish a plant worthy of the growing city, which should succeed the feeble one just mentioned. The result was the noble St. Vincent's hospital, built in 1865, still called by the name of Charity. While under the mangement of the church, the faculty, as well as the constituency of donors and patients was as broad as the term implies.
During the Civil war a number of citizens met in the parlors of the Old Stone church to form an organization known as the Home for the Friendless, renting a building on the south side of Lake street near Erie. This institution was formed particularly for the benefit of refugees from the south. In 1866 this body was incorporated and took the name of the Cleveland City hospital.
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Joseph Perkins was elected president and Edmund C. Rouse, F. B. Scott, George A. Stanley, Henry Chisholm, William B. Castle, W. J. Boardman, H. C. Blossom and G. W. Whitney, were trustees.
It was not until 1868, however, that hospital work was taken up, and that was on a union plan participated in by both the leading schools of medicine. A dwelling house on Clinton park was rented and the Wilson Street hospital opened its doors. H. B. Hurlbut was its president.
At the close 0f the first year, it was deemed unwise to continue the dual practice and the Homeopathic brethren accordingly withdrew, setting up for themselves in a building on the south side, formerly known as the Humiston Institute. Mr. Hurlbut bought the Wilson Street hospital plant and presented it to the Allopathic division. In 1873 the foundations of the present Huron Street hospital were laid, but the structure was not occupied until five years later.
Meanwhile, the first building having proved inadequate, the Wilson Street hospital was transferred to the United States Marine hospital, additions to which were made under an arrangement with the general government. Mr. Hurlbut was president until the close of his life in 1883, giving much time, counsel and pecuniary aid. He was succeeded by George H. Ely, and he by Leander McBride.
The first president of the Huron Street hospital was Alton Pope, whose successors were Hon. T. P. Handy, Hon. Marcus A. Hanna, and Jephtha H. Wade, Jr, Prominent upon the faculty were Drs. David H. Beckwith, H. F. Biggar and H. H. Baxter. The original building was greatly enlarged in 1894-95.
About this same time the lease of the Marine hospital having expired, a new and indeed wonderfully complete plant was erected immediately northeast of the same, the name of Lakeside hospital having been adopted in 1889. Among the heavier contributors we find the names of Charles W. Harkness, Eliza A. Clark, Mrs. Amasa Stone, Mrs. James F. Clark, Mr. and Mrs. W. S. Tyler, Ralph W. Hickox, J. L. Woods, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Mather, Mrs. Anna Y. Root, Louis H. Severance, Mrs. Mary H. Severance, H. M. Hanna and J. H. Wade.
The Young Men's Christian association which during the war had fallen into decay, was revived in 1867 largely through the determined efforts of Charles E. Bolton. It has ever since enjoyed a continuous growth until it has come to be recognized as one of the most effective organizations of its kind in the world. Dr. H. J. Herrick was the first president under the reorganization and he was succeeded by Henry S. Davis, to whose indefatigable efforts the association owes its financial existence during those struggling years. In the fall of 1868 the need of a similar organization for young women was felt, and a meeting looking toward this end was held in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian association in the third story of the building on the northwest corner of Superior and Seneca streets. Attempts have been made to show that this was the first of a chain of similar societies throughout the United States and the world. This claim is disputed by Montreal and perhaps another city. It is probable that three sporadic movements sprang up at about the same time. The first officers were : President, Miss Sarah
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E. Fitch ; vice presidents, Mesdames 0. E. Huntington, George E. Whitney, Ira Clark, S. F. Smith, C. W. Lepper and John Coon ; corresponding secretary, Mrs. A. W. Fairbanks ; recording secretary, Mrs. Charles E. Bolton ; treasurer, Miss Ann White; the directors being Mesdames Linus Austin, James Barnett, L. F. Mellen, Dan P. Eells, A. T. Osborn, W. H. Keith, W. P. Cooke, W. Mittelberger, 0. B. Skinner, George Presley, George L. Chapman, S. H. Sheldon, P. B. Clapp and James W. Clarke, together with Miss Mary E. Baldwin and Mrs. Dr. Houtz.
A boarding home for young women was at once inaugurated on Lake street, which in 1869 was transferred to more commodious quarters on Walnut street and named for its promoter the Stillman Witt home. In the fall of that same year a Retreat for unfortunate women was opened on Perry street which outgrew its quarters so that in August 1872 a building was commenced on land donated by Leonard Case and situated on St. Clair avenue adjoining the Protestant Orphan asylum. This fine building was dedicated in 1873, much of the cost having been defrayed by Joseph Perkins. In 1876 Amasa Stone built a three story brick home for aged women, on Kennard street. This was subsequently turned over to the Young Women's Christian Association. Thus the association's modest beginnings grew and spread, becoming the prolific parent of a great range of charities.
Among the latter was the Women's Christian Temperance union, which was nested under the wings of the parent organization until it was fully fledged by incorporation in 1880. A system of free kindergartens was another, though secondary offshoot and one of the most important. In it Cleveland blazed the way as a leader for other cities to follow. A chief promoter and for twenty-five years the president of this movement was Mrs. M. E. Rawson. Through the efforts of this society nearly a score of kindergartens and day nurseries have been planted in various parts of the city, providing places for the daily care and training of the young children of working women who would otherwise be obliged to leave them neglected while their mothers were at their daily tasks. The influence of this noble and far-seeing charity can scarcely be overstated.
Later on, in 1894, a training school for kindergartners was located in the Lend-a-Hand house, with Mrs. Worcester R. Warner as president and Miss Netta Faris, principal. The home for incurables, with its seven and a half acres on Detroit avenue, was the gift in 1887 of Mrs. Eliza Jennings. One is reminded of a clear mountain brook flowing on and growing into a fertilizing stream, blessing great plains in its progress toward the sea.
In 1870 Christian work among railroad men was inaugurated by Henry W. Stager at the Union station. This movement, begun in a feeble way in Cleveland, has been encouraged by far-seeing railroad companies until it has come to encircle the globe. Care of the sick and disabled is a feature of all association work and this fact properly brings it within the scope of our story of charities.
The Jewish Orphan asylum, a national institution, was inaugurated in Cleveland in 1868, by members of the Independent order of B'nai B'rith. Its superintendent, Dr. S. Wolfenstein, has under his wise tutelage some five hundred children who, together with thousands whom he has graduated during his long and useful career, look up to him with reverence and affection.
In 1869 the House of the Good Shepherd was founded, situated on the corner of Sterling avenue and Sibley street, now known as Thirtieth street and Carnegie
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avenue. Its purpose is the reformation of women and girls and the protection and education of orphaned or destitute girls, preferably over five years of age. The sisters in charge have wrought a great work in this field.
In 1870 the Home for the Aged was started under the auspices of the Little Sisters of the Poor, its building located on Perry, now Twenty-second street. The year 1873 saw the modest beginning of St. Ann's Infant asylum and Maternity hospital, which in 1901 took possession of the Severance homestead on Woodland avenue.
The disastrous fire which swept Chicago in 1871, called for large help from this city and the response was generous.
Another period of financial depression suspended the launching of new enterprises, and it is only in the '80s that these were resumed on a large scale.
Meanwhile in 1877 a home for aged Israelites was founded on Woodland avenue and a unique mission for mariners, denominated the Floating Bethel, was in a literal sense launched by Chaplain John D. Jones, a well known and successful worker.
The year 1884 was prolific. In it were founded by the Council of Jewish Women the Martha house for working girls with its annex, Camp Wise, a summer vacation home. Mr. Harry R. Hatch built the Lida Baldwin Infants' rest, conducted by the Humane society, for abandoned babies.
The Humane society was founded in 1873 and has been entrusted by the state with increasing powers in dealing with certain classes of parents and children, as well as in the protection from abuse of domestic animals. While thus clothed with an official character its funds are contributed by the charitable public.
In 1884 was also founded the Rebecca Aid society for helping the worthy poor, and in 1885 the Dorcas society also, by a number of charitable ladies, to wit: the wives of J. A. Harris, H. H. Little, C. Lester, James Warwick, A. McIntosh, William Hancock, J. M. Richards, H. M. Chittenden, Horace Fuller, J. O. Mason, William T. Smith, William Richardson, Charles Wheeler and H. A. Lathrop. This society conducts a home for aged invalid white women, with a capacity for seventy-five. Its work had its roots in the stirring temperance movement of 1874 in which many women of the city were actively engaged. Among them Mrs. M. C. Worthington, widow of a leading hardware merchant, purchased the old Waring Methodist Episcopal church building and opened it as a shelter home.
Other outgrowths which have successively sprung from this same popular movement, inaugurated, as already described, by the Young Women's Christian association, are the Central Friendly inn, near the old Haymarket, the Girls' Training home on Franklin avenue, the Eleanor B. Rainey Memorial institute and the Rest cottage.
The year 1884 witnessed devastating floods along the Ohio river causing a great amount of suffering and loss. Cleveland came nobly to the rescue and more than twenty-five thousand dollars worth of money and goods were contributed. The same generous response occurred in the time of the Michigan fires of 1881, of the Russian famine, of the Johnstown flood of 1889, when fifty-one thousand dollars were raised in Cleveland, followed, in 1892, by generous aid to sufferers through flood and fire in western Pennsylvania, to starving miners and their families in Ohio in the winter of 1894-5, to the ruined city of Galveston, Texas, in
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two, by seventy-five thousand dollars given to San Francisco, 1906, and large gifts to sufferers by the Italian earthquakes in 1908.
We have hurriedly traced the progress of Cleveland's private charities from their obscure and humble beginnings for more than three quarters of a century, The marvelous growth of the city after the close of the Civil war, due largely to its commerce and manufactures as well as to its schools and its attractive situation, caused a new departure in the field of its philanthropy. In the early days its citizens knew each other, there was a common impulse, carried out by those who were all on a friendly footing. Did an emergency arrive, the people fell into line, keeping step with one another, following their natural leaders.
A tremendous influx of foreign immigration changed all this. New center: of population arose. People were grouped by languages—a score of them. Club: sprang up with their social cleavage, the population grew less homogeneous; in short, the drawbacks, as well as the advantages, of a growing metropolis were increasingly in evidence. Compassion was not lacking for the sick and the poor for helpless children and for the wreckage of humanity; yet in place of the oid neighborly, concentrated, charitable efforts such as we have been considering the energies of the charitably disposed were diverted, while new societies sprang up like mushrooms, each with its own circle of devoted enthusiasts.
From the year 1885 until the close of the century there were brought intc being the King's daughters, the mercy and help department of the Epworth league the Deaconess' home, the Hebrew Relief association, the Home for aged Colorec people, the Jones school and home for friendless children, the Children's f rest air camp, largely through the personal influence of "Father" H. M. Addison, the Home of the Holy Family, the Jewish Infant Orphan's home, the Altenheim, the Eliza Jennings home, the St. Clair hospital, Maternity home, St. John's hospital German hospital, Women and Children's free dispensary, Cleveland Genera hospital, Evangelical Lutheran hospital, Sir Moses Montefiore home, City hospital, Training home for friendless girls, Council of Jewish Women, Home Gardening association, Lend a Hand home in the Mary Whittlesey memorial, and doubtless many others, including such momentous ventures as the Alta house and the Goodrich Social settlement, Hiram house and the Council Educational alliance, all on the most approved plans, and each a center of social and civic betterment.
During this same period was organized the Cleveland work of the Salvation army, with its Industrial home for inebriates, Rescue home and Day nursery, also that of the Volunteers of America, with its Working Girls' Christian home and other activities.
No thoughtful person could fail to see that the growth of societies calling for labor and money was more than keeping pace with the ability of the workers and givers. To use a commercial phrase, the market was overstocked. Each group carried on a campaign for the securing of helpers and contributors, applying here and there, but never overlooking the best known philanthropists. Solicitors commonly volunteered their services, but the custom grew of hiring successful agent for this purpose, giving them, in some instances, exorbitant commissions. The situation was fast becoming intolerable.