The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-01-01


OF things far too glad to be,
And l wakened with lips saying close TO m
Papa fot would you take for me ?"
The Elect.
TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 28.-The inclose
was written By an old friend of the Cleve
land family. 1t puts Cleveland in bet
| ter light than anything ever said of him
if it is true. 1t ought to be told for tn
credit of the Nation, | have persuade,
Pierson to give it to me for you, thinkin,
you might make q strong point on 1t afte
your strong fight against Cleveland.
For the information of your readers
will say that the writer, the Rey. Hamil
ton w. Pierson, d. D., has been resident
of our city more than twenty years HI
was Secretary of the United States Chris
tian Commission for Northern Ohio, anG
during the war gave his services to this
work and to teaching the United States
colored troops and other freedmen. lie is
an author whose books have been publish
ed by the Harpers. Scribners and Apple
tons, and he has been requested to repeat
in New York and Newark, n. j., papers
read by him before the New York His
torical Society. by Messrs. George Ban
croft. Hamilton Fish, William M. Evarts
F. G. Frelinghuysen, Courtlandt Parker
| Henry NJ. Bellows, D. D., and many
others.
l have no interest in the following
sketch except friendliness to DR.. Pierson
and the L,ter-O Ocean. WIN. Fl. MAHEn.
GROVER CLEVELAND.
| made the acquaintance Of the Rev.
Richard f. Cleveland. father Of the Presi-
dent-elect, in ls4s, during the closing
months of my three years in Union Theo-
| logical Seminary, New York. He was at
the time pastor of the Presbyterian church
in Fayetteville, New York, and came to
the city with members of his family to
secure the professional services of the late
DR.. Detmold. For months we were shelter
ed by the same roof. I would not, unad-
yised, self-prompted, and without the
knowledge of another human being take
the responsibility of revealing anything
of all that l have known of the sacred
privacies of that family during the inter-
vening years, did I not know that with
my countrymen the intensest partisanship
soon yields to the highest patriotism, and
every American is jealous of his country IS
honor, and glad of all that keeps it bright.
The father of Governor Cleveland died
in Holland Patent, Oneida county, n. Y,
October, 1858, leaving family of nine
children, four Of whom were younger than
Grover, who was then in his 18th year.
Young as he was he secured a position as
teacher i'll the New York Institution for
Blind, where he spent.a year. The follow
ing fell he returned to his home, entered
the village academy, and devoted himself
to the further prosecution of his studies in
the ancient languages. An older brother
had graduated at college. In the death of
his father that pleasure was denied him.
In the following spring he went forth de-
termined not only to make his own way
in the world but to add to the comforts of
the home he had left behind. At the age
of 10 he entered the law office of Bowen &
Rodgers. Buffalo, n. y, gentlemen promi-
nent both in the legal profession and the
Democratic party In Western New York.
At the age Of q he was admitted TO the
bar, end soon employed as assistant dis
tr1SI 6rney in Erie county. During al
his struggles for self-support he never for
got the mother and little ones he had left
scanty earnings with them. AS business
came rapidly to him from year to year, and
the earnings of his early professional life
increased, bis bounties to his mother and
those at home were constantly enlarged.
During recent years his success at the bar
has enabled him to enjoy the comforts and
luxuries Of life and to live i'll a style befit-
ting his high position, but by voluntarily
denying himself of these the closing years
of the life of the mother he so loved and
adored Ito whom he alluded with so much
touching pathos in his letter to Mrs.
Henry Ward Beecher) were crowned with
abundance and the most tender and loving
care and the children younger than him.
self enjoyed the advantages Of the best in
situations of learning and as they mar
RED and settled in life, he has stood to
them financially in the place OF generous
father. His oldest sister, the wife of the
Rev. Eurotas p. Hastings, D. d., sailed
for India with her husband the June pre-
ceding her fathers death, where they have
since labored as honored missionaries of
the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions.
Though 80 far away. she has never been
forgotten by this brother. The missionary
stipend has often been supplemented from
his generous and ever open purse. When
four of their childaen, two sons and two
daughters, came to this country he most
naturally and cheerfully assumed for them
the same anxious solicitude and generous
care he had so long bestowed upon his
own brothers and sisters.
The mother of Grover Cleveland was a
native of Maryland. She possessed in an
eminent degree the gentleness and the re-
pose OF manner so marked in the highest
type of Southern-born natives. In the
home so generously provided for her, her
serene old age was happy and bright. Here
she welcomed her children and grand
children. and to those from India she ex.
tended generous and long-continued hos
pitality. From that home she was borne
to her grave but a short time before her
son was elected Governor Of New York.
Since the death Of his father, in 1858,
his beneiactions IL his mother and all
these her descendants have swelled tc