John Rollin Blakeslee
John Rollin Blakeslee, who was identified with the City of Cleveland from 1878 until his death, was a prominent manufacturer and business man, founding and serving many years as president of The Ajax Manufacturing Company.
The success he attained was partly due to the expression of his individual character and also by many worthy qualities which he inherited from his ancestry. The record of the Blakeslee family in America goes back into the seventeenth century. They were a most sturdy class of English people, were high-minded, independent thinking, and able in both word and deed. One of the salient characteristics of the family was its devotion to church and religion.
The great-grandfather of the late John R. Blakeslee was Samuel Blakeslee, a soldier and officer in both the Revolution and War of 1812. In his declining years he wrote out for the benefit of his descendants a record of the early family and of his own career, especially the incidents of his military service. It is chiefly from a transcript of this record that the following account is condensed.
The American founders of the family were two brothers, Samuel and John Blakeslee. They were blacksmiths and on coming from England they brought their anvil, vise and other implements, landing at Boston. They bought the narrow and barren strip of land joining the peninsula of the Town of Boston to the mainland, and known then and since as Boson Neck. Here they lived with their families a few years and endeavored to support them by blacksmithing. As the Village of Boson was then poor and small and the land where they were located unproductive, they left that locality with their families and going around by the seashore reached New Haven, Connecticut. Here Samuel bought land while John went northwest of New Haven and into the western part of what is now the State of Connecticut. John founded a family that afterwards had many prominent representatives. It is to be remarked that the brothers on leaving Boston did not sell their land, thinking it would enhance in value in after years. Time went on and they failed to look after their interests and let the title lapse by inattention to land which is now worth many millions.
Of the two brothers, Samuel Blakeslee what the founder of the branch in which this article is particularly interested. In the course of years his descendants became scattered all about the several towns in which the original Town of New Haven was divided, most of them being in North Haven. Samuel Blakeslee the immigrant had a son Ebenezer, one of whose sons was named Samuel, and this Samuel was the father of Joseph, father of the Revolutionary soldier Samuel Blakeslee. Samuel, grandfather of the soldier, had his home in the Town of Wallingford, Connecticut, part of the original Town of New Haven. He lived and died there, as did his son Joseph in the same house.
Grandfather Samuel married Elizabeth Dolittle, and was the father of two sons and nine daughters. The sons were Joseph and Samuel, the latter dying at the age of nineteen. Samuel Blakeslee, the writer of the record, was about two years of age when his grandfather died, and it was at his request that the grandson was named Samuel. The daughters in the family were named Elizabeth, Susannah, Abigail, Miriam, Zuriah, Thankful, Hannah and Phebe. All of these lived to be a great age and had large families of children.
Joseph Blakeslee, father of Colonel Samuel, was born on the 1st day of April, old style, and was married the 1st day of April, new style. The maiden name of his wife was Lois Ives. She was the daughter of Stephen Ives, of Wallingford. Joseph Blakeslee was a noncommissioned officer in the French war and was in the battle of Lake George. He married after his return from the war. They had twelve children, the first two dying in infancy. Among these Col. Samuel Blakeslee was born November 23, 1759.
Colonel Samuel's record of his Revolutionary service has an abiding interest for all his descendants and is a valuable commentary upon some phases of the struggle for independence. The record is therefore given entire.
"The Revolutionary war broke out when I was about fifteen years old. The country being in an uproar and confusion volunteer companies were raised, the boys caught the military fever and boy companies with wooden guns were raised. In one of these companies I was chosen captain, this being in the year 1775. The next year I conceived the idea of going into the army. In those days a boy of sixteen was liable to bear arms. The British then lay in Boston and after many pleadings with my parents they game me leave to enlist as a soldier under Capt. Isaac Cook, of Wallingford. This being about the month of February, 1776. My father took me to the captain for enlistment. The captain said I looked like a good strong boy and, as he thought, a little too small for a soldier, but if I could measure five feet five inches tall he would take me. But to my mortification I was only five feet four and one-half and was of course denied enlistment. The following June there was a company raised by Capt. John Thatcher, of New Haven. Ephraim Chamberlain, of Wallingford, one of his lieutenants, agreed to enlist me as a soldier. I accordingly enlisted under him in July, 1776. I joined my company at New Haven, received my arms and marched on to the northward as far as Skeensborough, now Whitehall, and joined the army there, lying then under the command of General Waterbury. Here our army became sick with the ague and suffered everything but death. Generals Gates and Arnold, with the remnant of the army that fled from Quebec, were stationed down the lake at Ticonderoga, and all the effective men at Skeensborough were ordered there. At this time I was so sick that I could scarcely help myself, but was determined to go down the lake. My officers game me liberty to do so and I was helped on board of a galley and was landed at what was called Old Ty Point, but the same day crossed the lake to Mount Independence with the rest of our regiment. The mount at this time was a wild forest. I laid sick on the ground night and day for some time by a fire with the well soldiers until they built a small log hut. At this time the American fleet moved down the lake. Generals Arnold and Waterbury and all the men that were acquainted with seafaring were put on board the fleet. My captain and part of his company were on board. They had a naval engagement and the American fleet was destroyed. My captain and his men were made prisoners and sent home on parole, but those that escaped set fire to Crown Point Fort and Bannock's Barracks which were consumed with a tremendous fire and smoke that exhibited scenery at Ticonderoga. Here I stayed until about the 1st of December, was then discharged, and after a long and wearisome journey arrived at my father's house the 16th day of December, worn out and sick. There were enlisting orders for two months and a half for men to go to White Plains. I conceived the notion of trying another short campaign. In enlisted on the 1st of January, 1777, under Lieut. Dan Johnson, of Wallingford. The company was commanded by Capt. Augustus Collins of Guilford and joined the regiment at New Rochelle, near White Plains, commanded by Colonel Cook, of Wallingford. In these two campaigns I was too slender and young for a soldier. However, I bore them with military fortitude.
"In the spring of 1777 I was drafted from the militia and stationed at New Haven. At this time the standing army was being raised and Connecticut regiments were rendezvousing at this place. The fine regimentals and martial music so raised my feelings that I resolved to become a soldier in the standing army. I obtained a pass from my officers to go home for two days, which was eighteen miles distant. The reason I obtained this pass was to consult my parents about enlisting. The first time I enlisted as a soldier I promised them that I would never enlist without their consent, but I secretly resolved that I would not leave teasing them until I had worn out their patience, which was the case in my first two enlistments. On my arrival at home I candidly told them my errand. I told it to my mother first, and to my surprise she told me that my father and herself had been talking on the same subject and thought that since soldiers must be had it was likely that I would be called away in the militia and that I might as well make a business of it first as last and be receiving my pay. My parents were poor but industrious and found it hard to support their family in the time of war. I was a saving boy and out of my five months wages at the northward, which was $6 a month, making $30, I brought home to my father $20 1 shilling and 1 sixpence, and I saved all my wages that were paid me for my ten weeks winter campaign, which was paid my father by my captain. I expect that the distress of the times and the urgency of their case was a great inducement to them to make me a soldier. The next day after my arrival father took me to Lieutenant Chamberlain and I enlisted under him for three years service in the standing army. The bounty paid my father down was, from the United States $20 and the town for encouragement of the recruiting service paid each soldier $40, amounting in all to $60. At the time of raising the standing army the Legislature, for the encouragement of the war, passed an act that any two men that would hire one man for the service should be exonerated from being called on themselves during his service. At this time my father and Charles Ives hired Barngath Hall for three years and paid him $40. At my enlistment he sold me to Robert Rice, the other man I have forgotten or never knew, for $106.66, paid in hand, so that my father cleared himself by hiring for three years and sold me for the same time with a savings of $86.66, in addition of the $60 for the state and town.
"My enlistment was made on the 1st of May, 1777, and I was called to leave home about the 1st of June with my officer, Lieutenant Chamberlain, and a number of other soldiers. My father accompanied us with a horse to help along our baggage as far as Danbury, about fifty miles, where he game me his farewell address, which I shall not do him justice to mention without weeping. The next morning my father returned home and we took up our march for Peekskill and joined the army, which was collecting at that place. Here the army was taught the military exercise and had many hard marches as scouting parties. I well recollect that I was on private guard when one John Murray was confined and under sentence of death to be executed the next day. I stood sentry over him more than sixteen hours out of twenty-four. I was taken sick in the night but did my duty until relieved the next morning by a new guard. At the 8 o'clock drum the troops were paraded and marched to Gallow's Hill, I under arms with the rest, and saw him hanged. After being dismissed I was soon found to be broke out with the measles. However, I was fit for duty again in a few days. About this time Lord Howe land his army at the head of the Elk River and a part of the troop was called for. Eight regiments were sent to the southward, six from Connecticut and two from Rhode Island. My colonel was Homer Swift. The battle of Brandywine was before our arrival, but we hastened and joined Washington's grand army. In about a week we had marching orders about sunset, and marched all night. About 4 o'clock in the morning we received information that Lord Howe had the day before marched his army to take possession of Philadelphia, but had left 4,000 men as a rear guard and General Washington was calculating to take or destroy them. This information was conveyed from rank to rank by whispers. This aroused my feelings as I had never seen bloodshed in all my service. However, I was determined to stick and hang. I had at that time sixty-four rounds of cartridges with three buckshot in each. The battle commenced at daylight with a tremendous roar, a little on our right, by Lord Sterling, and the British gave way. I then belonged to the left wing of the army commanded by Major General Stevens, of Carolina, but the fate of the day turned against us and we had to retrace our steps. After these events the army took up their winter quarters at a place called Valley Forge, where I was stationed on General Varnum's Guard, from whence I was taken and put under the care of a drum major by the name of William Chandler and by his instruction and my own exertions became a good drummer, in which employ I continued during my term of service, which was about two years. About the last of May, I think, Lord Howe left Philadelphia for New York. General Washington followed him up until he arrived at Monmouth, New Jersey, where he gave him battle that terminated favorable for the Americans. After this battle the army marched to Peekskill, from thence to White Plains, from thence to winter quarters, some one way, some another. The Connecticut troops built huts at Danbury, in their native state. During the winter provisions, clothing and pay became very scarce and the troops grew uneasy. The Connecticut troops, about 600 of them, disbanded and took their march for Connecticut, but were met by General Putnam and after some conversation returned to their duty, although there was one man killed by the name of Crosby. In the month of February a draft of 150 men was sent to New London. My captain was sent and I was taken with him as drummer. My captain was Stephen Hall of Guilford, father of Gen. Amos Hall, of Bloomfield. This captain that went to New London was the same that I enlisted under, but had been promoted to captain of another company. I was stationed at Groton Fort till the troops were recalled to join the grand army in the May following, at or near Fishkill. About the first week of July following there was a brigade of infantry taken out of the army, Captain Chamberlain was taken from our regiment. I belonged to Colonel Swift's regiment. The infantry I was put into was commanded by Colonel Meigs. General Wayne commanded the brigade of infantry and the 15th of July marched from Sandy Beach, about six miles below West Point Fort, through the woods back of the Highlands about fourteen miles down the river to Stony Point Fort, and on the 16th in the morning stormed the fort, made prisoners of the garrison and captured the contents, which consisted of about 600 men, twelve pieces of artillery, magazine, etc. this brigade lay in the tents until the 31st of December, then it broke up and troops from the different states returned to their respective regiments from which they were taken. The Connecticut troops were halted in Morristown Wood, New Jersey, where I found my old company. This was a very cold and destroying winter, both on account of the severity of the weather and the want of provisions and clothing for the army. About the last of March I was put on the line with a large body of troops at the town of Springfield, where my term of enlistment expired. Here I received an honorable discharge from the army and returned home to my father's family in Connecticut in the year 1780, in the twenty-first year of my age. But it was not long before I was drafted in the militia for a short time and my father was drafted also. He being a non-commissioned officer in the household band I thought it my duty to go in his stead. Accordingly I went for him for about two weeks."
On the 20th of December, 1780, Samuel Blakeslee married Phebe Curtis, at Wallingford. They had nine children: Osi, born November 24, 1781; Samuel, born November 17, 1783; Asenath, born June 4, 1785; Joel, born August 13, 1787; Phebe, born October 30, 1789; Federal, born January 25, 1792; Gad, born June 13, 1794; Lois Ives, born October 12, 1796; John Adams, born June 4, 1799. For about eighteen months after his marriage he lived with his father in a part of the old home, and then moved to Colebrook. He had previously taken a farm of new land for ten years from Mr. Isaac Ogden. Mr. Ogden built a fine house and barn and it was the agreement that Mr. Blakeslee should clear and cultivate twenty-five acres, put out an orchard, take care of it, pay the taxes and leave it at the end of ten years. He cleared and finished the other items of the agreement in fire years, and was able to buy five acres a mile south, where he built a small house, barn and sawmill. Even after settling down to the quiet vocation of farming his military service was by no means ended. About a year after he located at Colebrook he was appointed drum major in the Twenty-fifth Regiment of the militia and filled that station fen or twelve years. Subsequently he was chosen lieutenant of the 117 men commanded by Capt. Samuel Mills, and served one year. On the promotion of Captain Mills he was chosen almost unanimously as captain of the company. A year later he was made captain of a light infantry company, and had charge of this for six years. During this time he sold his farm and bought a much larger and better place in the north part of the town. In the early years of the century he again volunteered for service in the west against the British and Indians, but did not reach the scene of action. He was also appointed to the Thirteenth Regiment of the Army of the United States, and was stationed at Hebron, and raised a company which joined the regiment at New Haven. During his service with the military of Connecticut he was an adjutant two years, was then appointed first major and two years later became colonel. About that time he was elected a representative to the General Assembly and while in the Legislature resigned his position in the army, which, after considerable delay, was granted. He was reelected for a second term in the Assembly. About that time he sold his property in Colebrook and moved his family to Avon, Ontario County, now Livingston, New York. That was the home of his later years. He left Colebrook January 26th and arrived at Avon, then Hartford, February 12, 1808. His first wife died there November 29, 1812, and on December 11 he married the widow of John Pearson.
When the second war with Great Britain came on Colonel Blakeslee felt a reviving of the old Revolutionary spirit. He was chosen captain of a company of Home Guards, made up of men exempt from regular military duty. But when the alarm came from the west he and his men started towards Buffalo, and as his previous military experience made him a natural leader he was in course of time made lieutenant colonel of the New York Volunteers. Thus it happened that he was one of the principal officers in command at the historic engagement known as Black Rock. The chief incidents of the campaign when he noted in his personal record deserve quotation.
"During our stay on parade there had been several unsuccessful detachments sent down to Black Rock. A body of British troops and Indians had landed that evening and lay in ambush. These detachments of militia had been sent down at the flash of a few British guns. A few wounded men fled back into the woods. About 4 o'clock on the morning of December 30, 1813, I was ordered to march my regiment to the Rock and do the best I could but be sure to keep good my flanks. I had never been at the Rock, the night was dark, and I requested a pilot. A brave Sergeant Smith volunteered his services and led me safely into the field of slaughter. A little before I halted my regiment I met Colonel Chapin, who had been unsuccessful with his detachment. Of him I got information that a small party of British were landed and were in ambush, and, being by some circumstance convinced that there were but few of them, was very urgent that I should destroy them. We went on until the British fired a few shots on a party of horsemen which was about 20 rods in my front. The regiment was in two battalions, the first commanded by myself and the second by Major Gardner. In this situation I called a council of war. * * * * It was agreed best to attack the British and not wait for them to attack us. The plan of operation was this, that I should march the first battalion with charged bayonets and not fire until we had landed our bayonets among the British soldiery, and as soon as I had left the ground Major Gardner was to march his battalion on to the ground that I had left and stand ready to take the second charge in case I failed in the first. I gave my orders accordingly. The men being prepared I gave the order shoulder arms. This plan had it been pursued would have been very rash and I would have lost myself and my regiment. At the instant I was going to give the word charge and march Captain Rowley stepped from the ranks to me and very politely said, `Colonel, we are willing to fight, but would it not be more prudent to wait a few minutes, it is almost daybreak, and then we can better know how to fight and hat we are fighting.' I thought his observations good and embraced them and waited for daylight, which soon came.
"While we were waiting some of the artillery from both sides of the river began to play. The British threw hot shot, spherical and bomb shells, which made a grand military display. I continued my position for about twenty minutes, when an express arrived from General Hall for me to return, for the British boats were discovered to be crossing the river above us and to meet them if possible at the water's edge. I immediately wheeled off my regiment by platoons and with a forced march met them a few rods from the shore and poured in such a shower of balls among them that out of three boats loads, sixty men in each, there were but about fourteen left that were not killed or wounded. Here I lost a few men. The British and Indians that I had left behind me rose from their ambush and followed me to this place. After destroying the men in the boats I faced the regiment about and attacked them in good earnest. These were, according to the best information I can get, about 800 British and 200 Indians. A number of brave men joined in the action from other regiments that had been scattered in the night. This attack on the British and their attack on us continued one hour but we being overpowered by number and discipline a retreat became necessary, which was made in much confusion. The British set fire to the village of Black Rock and marched to Buffalo, which they pillaged and partly burned and then recrossed to Canada. My men being scattered, the most of them having gone home, I had no command and stayed at Eleven Mile Creek the next day. The day following, which was the 1st of January, 1814, the British troops came over and destroyed the remainder of Buffalo, but for want of men and ammunition on our part there was but little fighting done and but two or three killed on either side. About 11 o'clock in the evening I set out for home, where I arrived safely in about three days."
That Colonel Blakeslee was a very stanch (sic) and cool soldier has abundant evidence. During the battle of Black Rock the commanding British officer, about eight rods distant, observed Colonel Blakeslee on horseback and ordered a volley of balls to be fired in his direction, saying, "If that old devil lives we shall lose the day; kill him and the day is ours." His orders were obeyed, but he shot went by the American colonel except for a minor wound in the foot. Some women who were taken prisoners with the British were asked "what old man that was that fought so like the devil at Black Rock?" The reply was that it was Colonel Blakeslee, commanding a regiment of Federals from Ontario county. The British officer, as these women were being returned said; "Give my compliments to the old gentleman and tell him that I would rather fight three democrat regiments than one Federal, for they fight more like devils than men."
Only a partial record of the children of Col. Samuel Blakeslee can be given. His oldest child, Osi, died suddenly at Chardon, in Geauga County, Ohio. Joel removed from Connecticut to Colebrook, Ashtabula County, in 1819, and died there in 1863, leaving three sons, Samuel, Lemuel, and John Adams. Asenath married at Avon, New York, a Mr. Merrill. Phebe married a Mr. Fenn and they lived at Medina, Ohio. Federal married Miss Whaley and lived at Conneaut, Ohio. Gad married a Miss Brown, of Caledonia, New York, and they had a son Frank and a daughter Eliza.
Samuel, a son of Colonel Samuel, and grandfather of the late John R. Blakeslee, of Cleveland, married Rowhannah Loomis. They had two children, Aurelia, who died in infancy, and Samuel. This Samuel was three months of age when his mother died, and in 1815 the father married the widow of James Applebee, of Franconia, New Hampshire. Her maiden name was Abigail Whitmore, and she had two sons by her first marriage, Calvin and Gillman Applebee.
In 1817 Samuel Blakeslee brought his family to Conneaut, Ohio, and he spent the rest of his life there. His second wife died in January, 1864, and he passed away in the following May. By his second marriage there were six children: Orville, born November 6, 1816; Amelia, born March 4, 1818; Harriet, born March 6, 1820; Eliza M., born January 13, 1823; Maria A., born in October 1825; and Chauncy, born in 1826.
Samuel Blakeslee, grandson of Colonel Samuel and father of John R., grew up in Connecticut in the home of his Aunt Aurelia Loomis. September 12, 1835, he married Maria Antoinette Van Cott, of Long Island. They lived at Torringford, Connecticut. They were the parents of ten children: Aurelia Ann, born April 3, 1837, married Warren Booker, had thirteen children, and died August 31, 1885; Sara Louisa, born August 10, 1839, married George Bentley, of Goshen, Connecticut, and had six children; Samuel A., born August 7, 1841, and died in 1850; John Rollin (see below); Ransom S., born October 2, 1845, married Elizabeth Meyers, of Charlotte, North Carolina; Martha Elizabeth, born December 18, 1847; died at Torringford Connecticut, February 25, 1908; Charles Samuel, born January 19, 1851, died October 9, 1894; Theodore Chauncy, born September 19, 1853; became a resident of Northern Ohio in 1873 and died in Cuyahoga County December 28, 1892; Charlotte Augusta, born July 10, 1856, married Edward Bronson and lived at Waterbury, Connecticut; and George Franklin, born July 21, 1859, has his home at the old homestead in Connecticut. Samuel, the father of these children, died June 25, 1865, and his widow passed away May 1, 1893.
John Rollin Blakeslee was born at Winstead, Connecticut, September 15, 1843, and died at his home, 11118 St. Clair Avenue, in Cleveland, November 9, 1906, at the age of sixty-three. He grew up on a farm, had a district school education, and at the age of eighteen enlisted in the Second Connecticut Regiment as a private. He was in the Union army until the close of the war. For about five years after his military service he was employed by A. S. Upson in the Upson Nut & Bolt Company, at Unionville, Connecticut. He then came west to Indianapolis, Indiana, from there went to Youngstown, Ohio, and became permanently identified with Cleveland in 1878. In Cleveland he went into the machinery business on the West Side, starting in a small shop on the flats. This business was conducted as the Blakeslee Manufacturing Company, but in 1892 he reorganized and incorporated as The Ajax Manufacturing Company. Since 1898 this important Cleveland industry has been located at Lakeside Avenue and East Thirty-eighth Street.
John. R. Blakeslee was an active business man for upwards of forty years. In 1904 he sold his interests in the company to his son and Harris Creech, and spent the last two years of his life retired.
John R. Blakeslee was a man of exceptional executive ability, forceful in everything he undertook, and as an individual he contributed no small share to the industrial life of Cleveland. He was not inclined to seek the honors of public affairs. Aside from his two terms of service as mayor of Glenville, an office that was forced upon him by his friends, he steadfastly declined any active participation in politics. At one time a movement was started to make him the republican nominee for mayor of Cleveland, but that an every other similar movement he completely discountenanced. He had many tried and trusted friends, was widely known in the Masonic order, but after his business his home was his chief delight. In Masonry he was affiliated with Terion Lodge and was a member of the Roadside Club.
John R. Blakeslee married Miss Ada E. McDowell, at Cleveland, on February 15, 1872, on her eighteenth birthday. She was the daughter of Robert and Margaret Susanna (Morton) McDowell, her mother still living at the age of eighty-two. Mrs. Blakeslee was born and reared in Cleveland. She is the mother of two children: Edna, the wife of F. S. Burgess, who lives with her mother; and John Robert, now head of the business founded by his father, and mentioned below.
From Cleveland - Special Limited Edition, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York, 1918 v.1