Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens
History
Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens
Cleveland (Ohio) -- Biography; Cleveland (Ohio) -- History
From his arrival in Cleveland, he was forward in all the moral and
religious enterprises of the place, first in union with all the religious
denominations represented, and afterwards he was more particularly
identified with the Baptist Church, in which he has been for nearly forty
years a deacon.
He now enjoys more than usual health and vigor for one of his age, and has
the respect, confidence and esteem of every person who knows him.
His wife having died in 1858, he has since that date made it his home with
his daughter, Mrs. J. P. Bishop, of Cleveland, with whom he now resides.
In many respects Deacon White's history furnishes an example worthy of
imitation. In the times of his boyhood, in New England, when a boy did not
possess the means for establishing himself in business, or of educating
himself for some professional calling, and particularly if he was an
orphan, he was required to learn some trade. In his case, his friends not
only recommended this, but he was desirous himself, of doing it. He
accordingly went from Mendon to Boston, a distance of about forty miles,
where, alone and among strangers, he sought a place where he might serve
as an apprentice. For days he wandered about seeking such an opportunity
and finally fell in with John Willson, the merchant tailor before
mentioned, who received him as an errand boy, and finally as an
apprentice, in which position he continued, passing through all the grades
incident to such employment, till he was twenty-one years of age.
Without father or mother, or friends to look up to for counsel and advice,
he persevered, and preserved his integrity, having the confidence of all
with whom he was associated.
In those early days, nothing was more common than to emigrate to the
West, leaving the principles of New England education, in religion and
morality, behind. Judging from accounts of society in Cleveland in very
early times, such must have been the case of some, at least.
But such was not the case with the youthful Moses White. Though he found
not many congenial spirits in this far-off western region, yet whenever,
in the little village of Cleveland, he heard of a place of prayer, or a
meeting, or association for the promotion of temperance or morality,
thither he bent his footsteps. Now in a ripe and happy old age he enjoys,
not only the retrospect, but also the present--and not only these, but he
is constantly looking for a consummation of perfect happiness, beyond what
either the past has, or the present life can afford.
Finally, so far as accumulating wealth is concerned, he has not been as
fortunate as some, and yet less unfortunate than many others, and now
enjoys a competence abundantly sufficient to provide for all his wants and
to transmit something to his children. Well may worldly ones say, "O that
my last days might be like his!"
David H. Beardsley.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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