Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/290

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CLEVELAND


CLEVENGER


law, becoming an expert in graphite manufac- ture. In 1861 he was elected alderman of Jersey City as a Democrat and in 1862 was president of the board. In 1864 he was elected mayor of the city and was re-elected in 1865 and 1866. In 1868 he was elected from a Republican district a repre- sentative in the 41st congress, and introduced in March, 1869, the bill that resulted in the centen- nial exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. He was first vice-president of the United States centen- nial commission and the leader of the forlorn hope that finally, after five years' battle with op- position, made the project a reality. In 1884 he ■was again elected mayor of Jersey City by over 1400 majority, although the city had been under Republican control for several years and their last ma^or elected by over 2500 majority. He was re- elected in 1888 by over 7000 majority, and again in 1890. He then retired from public life. He died at Norwich, Vt., March 30, 1896.

CLEVELAND, Rose Elizabeth, author, was born in Fayetteville, N.Y., in 1846; daughter of Richard Falley and Anna (Neal) Cleveland, and sister of Grover Cleveland. She was educated at Houghton seminary, Clinton, N.Y., and be- came a teacher there. She removed to Lafayette, Ind., two years later and was principal of the Collegiate institute. Afterward slie taught in Pennsylvania in a private school. Slie delivered a course of historical lectures at Houghton semi- nary which brought her before the public as a lecturer before schools for young women. This vocation she followed for some time, meanwhile purchasing with her earnings the homestead at Holland Patent and devoting herself to the com- fort of her aged mother, who died in 1882. In 1885 upon the accession of her brother, Grover Cleveland, to the presidency, she became the mis- tress of the White House and dispensed its hospi- talities until relieved by the President's Avife, June 2, 1886, when she returned to her home at Holland Patent, N.Y., and devoted herself to lit- erature, spending her winters in her Florida home. She was for a short time editor of Liter- ary Life, Chicago, 111. She made an extended journey in the Old World, 1893-94.

CLEVENGER, Shobal Vail, sculptor, was born in Middletown, Ohio, Oct. 22, 1812; son of Samuel and Sarah Clevenger. His father, a farmer of French parentage, migrated from New- Jersey. The son was self educated and in 1827 went to Cincinnati and engaged to work with a stone cutter. He manifested artistic ability and by advice of David Guino he learned to sculpture portrait busts directly from freestone. In 1838 he removed to New York City where he devoted himself to art. He was married in 1835 to Eliza- beth, daughter of Thomas and Comfort (Hancock)


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Wright, a niece of Gov. Silas Wright of New York, and a cousin of Jolm Hancock of Massachu- setts. Mrs. Clevenger died in 1897. Mr. Cleven- ger obtained sittings from many distinguished men of the day, and his works found a place in the art galleries and public libraries of New York, Boston and Phila- delphia. His liead of Webster was used on the fifteen - cent U.S. postage stamps ; and liis bust of Henry Clay was placed in the Metropolitan museum of art. New York city, be- queathed by a New Orleans gentleman. In 1840 he visited Italy, where he ex- ecuted his second ideal work, " The North American Indian," the first American subject sculptured in Rome. Among his works, not mentioned above, are the following: "Lady of the Lake " from Scott's poem, his fir.st ideal subject; portrait busts from life of Harrison, Van Buren, Everett, Clay, Webster, Washing- ton Allston, J. Q. Adams, John Hopkinson (the author of "Hail Columbia'"), Dr. James Jack- son, Jeremiah Mason, Benjamin Bussey (in Me- morial Hall, Harvard University), H. G. Otis (in the Old State House, Boston), Samuel Ward and his daughter Julia (afterward Mrs. Julia Ward Howe), Governor Wolcott of Connecticut, Chan- cellor Kent (in librarj'of the city hall. New York, the last executed by the sculptor in Amer- ica), and Louis Bonaparte (former King of Hol- land). He died when on his way home and his body was committed to the Atlantic, a day's sail from Gibraltar. The date of his death was Sept. 27, 1843.

CLEVENGER, Shobal Vail, physician, was born in Florence, Italy March 24, 1843; son of Shobal Vail and Elizabeth (Wright) Clevenger. His early education was acquired at New Orleans and he was graduated from the Chicago medical college. In 1861 he enlisted in the engineer corps of the U.S. army and at the close of the war had reached the rank of first lieutenant. He was U.S. deputy siurveyor in Montana and Dakota, built the first telegraph line in Dakota and was chief engineer of the Dakota southern railroad. He was meteorologist of the U.S. signal service, and settled in Chicago in 1879 as a specialist in nervous and mental disorders. He was physician to seA'eral hospitals and asylums, medical director of the Illinois state insane asylum and professor