Richard Falley Cleveland

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Congregationalist/Presbyterian
minister
Spouse
Ann Neal
​
(m. 1829)​
Children9, including
Frances Folsom (daughter-in-law)
Richard F. Cleveland (grandson)
Esther Cleveland (granddaughter)
Ruth Cleveland (granddaughter)
Philippa Foot
(great-granddaughter)

Richard Falley Cleveland (June 19, 1804 – October 1, 1853) was an American

Congregationalist and Presbyterian minister. A graduate of Yale College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he spent most of his life as a pastor, outside of a brief period as a district secretary for the American Home Missionary Society. He is best known as the father of Grover Cleveland, who was twice President of the United States
.

Early life

Cleveland was born into an

Baltimore, Maryland, where he began working as a teacher in a private school. At the same time, he began his advanced theological studies, initially under a local minister and later for a brief period at the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey.[1]

Ministry

On October 18, 1829, Cleveland was ordained as a minister in the

Congregational Church.[1] His first appointment led him back to his home state, as the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Windham, Connecticut. His tenure there was not overly successful – the parishioners chided his wife for her colorful clothing and jewelry and were scornful of their decision to bring an African-American woman with them from Maryland as a maid. Cleveland and his family left Connecticut in 1833 and secured an appointment as acting minister of a Presbyterian church in Portsmouth, Virginia.[2]

In November 1834, Cleveland moved to a pastorate in

gastric ulcer that he had developed.[3] Cleveland sought a return to the easier life of a pastor, and in September 1853 found an appointment at a Presbyterian church in Holland Patent, New York. He preached only a single sermon there, dying the following month at the age of 49.[4]

Marriage and family

In Baltimore, Cleveland began courting Ann Neal, the daughter of a well-to-do bookseller. They married on September 10, 1829, and eventually had nine children together, born in several different states.[1] Cleveland had his family live a frugal and inextravagant lifestyle, motivated by religious piety and also by his meager salary (never more than $1,000 per year). He was a strict Sabbath keeper, requiring his children to devote the entirety of Sundays to worship and prayer.[3] At the time of Cleveland's death, seven children were still living at home. The Holland Patent congregation came to the family's aid by buying the house they lived in, and allowing them to live there free of charge.[4]

Cleveland's fifth son,

Frances Folsom.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0786401826
    .
  2. ^ Young (1997), p. 103.
  3. ^ a b Young (1997), p. 104.
  4. ^ a b c Young (1997), p. 105.
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