The subject of this sketch worked on a farm until nearly seventeen years of age, when he began to fit himself for college, after which he entered Brown University, Rhode Island, where he graduated with the second honors of his class, in the year 1822, and was soon afterward elected a tutor in that institution, which position he held until the year 1824, when he resigned, to commence the study of the law, which he pursued in the office of Judge Swift, in Windham, Connecticut, and afterwards in attendance upon the lectures of Chancellor Kent, of New York. He was admitted to the Bar of Ohio at Columbus, in the Winter of 1826-7, and soon after settled in Cleveland, then a village of a few hundred inhabitants, and was recognized as a lawyer of learning and ability in this and the adjoining counties. Mr. Starkweather was prominent among the leaders of the Democratic party of this State, when its principles were well defined, and was a strong adherent to the administrations of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, but his being always in the political minority in the part of the State in which he lived, prevented those high political preferments which otherwise would have been conferred upon him. In this connection it is proper to say, that for Mr. Starkweather to have attained the highest eminence in the legal profession, it was only necessary that he should have made it his specialty. Under the administrations of Presidents Jackson and Van Buren, Mr. Starkweather held the office of Collector of Customs of this District, and Superintendent of Light-Houses, and under his supervision most of the sites were purchased, and the light-houses erected on the Southern shore of Lake Erie. He continued to hold these offices in connection with his practice of the law, until 1840. In 1844, Mr. Starkweather was elected Mayor of the city of Cleveland, having previously taken a leading part in the City Councils. He was re-elected in 1845, and was again elected Mayor in 1857, for two years, and in these positions was active in promoting those improvements in the city which have tended to its prosperity and beauty. To Mr. Starkweather the public schools of the city are much indebted for the interest which he has always taken in their behalf; and to his advocacy and efforts, with those of Mr. Charles Bradburn, the High School of the city owes its first establishment.