Fayette County PA Biographies

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Dr. Milton Harlan Cloud

Eliza Maria Gillespie

Clark J. Ross

Dr. Milton Harlan Cloud

Taken From Fayette County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical and Personal History; Genealogical and Personal History of Fayette County Pennsylvania, Vol II; Genealogical and Biographical; Cloud

Transcribed and Donated by Sara Hemp

Nicholas, in "The Norman People and Their Descendants," says: "Cloud is a form of Cloet allied to Clouard , Clouet , etc." Roger Cloet came to England from Normandy between 1185 and 1190 , Peter and William Cloet coming later.

A branch of the family settled in Wiltshire, England, members of the Society of Friends, but as the Wiltshire monthly meeting records none of their marriages or births it is adjudged they became members after they were in elder years. William Cloud, of Calne, in Wiltshire, was the founder of the Pennsylvania family. He was a member of the Friends' meeting at Calne, and while attending a meeting there May 16, 1660 , the meeting "was broken up by a party of soldiers, who came with swords drawn and pistols cockt and violently haled out those that were met, and when asked for their warrant showed their swords, saying: 'This is our warrant." On December 7, 1680, he attended a meeting at Marlborough, but in 1682 seems to have fallen under the censure of the Friends. On September 8 and 9, 1681, William Penn granted to William Cloud five hundred acres of land laid out in Pennsylvania. It is probable he came to America either in the latter part of 1682 or early in 1683. This land was surveyed and laid out to the southward of Naemans creek, but was afterward discovered to be in New Castle county, Delaware. He does not appear to have lived on this land, his home being in Concord township, Chester county, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Chichester meeting, was a contributor to the fund toward the erection of a meeting house and the cost of a graveyard about 1685. The minutes indicate attendance at two meetings in 1690. He died about 1702. His will, proved August 25, 1702 , is recorded in Will Book B, page 244, in the register's office at Philadelphia. He does not mention a wife, she having probably preceded him to the grave. Children: William, Jeremiah, Joseph, John, Robert and Susannah .

(II) Jeremiah, son of William Cloud, died 1717, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. He probably came to Pennsylvania with his father. In 1713 he was selected by his brothers as the one to whom the new patent for the five hundred acres originally purchased by their father should be confirmed to. On February 15, 1715, he conveyed two hundred acres to his brother John. It is not clear where he first settled, but later he was a resident of Rockland Manor, New Castle county, Delaware, and his will, proved December 21, 1717, is on file in that county. He married, in 1685, Elizabeth Baily, who possibly was a second wife. Children: Jeremiah (2), of whom further; William, Daniel, John, Mordecai, Hannah, Sarah and Elizabeth.

(III) Jeremiah (2), son of Jeremiah (1) and Elizabeth (Baily) Cloud, died in 1748. He settled in the eastern part of East Marlborough, now Pocopson township, Chester county. He married, in 1710, Ann Baily. Children: Elizabeth, born 1711, married Thomas Underwood; Joel, of whom further; William, born 1718, died 1791, married 1739, Mary Pierce; Jeremiah (3), born 1725, died 1817, married (first) Lydia Harlan, (second) Hester Henry; Benjamin, born 1727, died young; Mordecai, born 1729, married (first) Ann Harlan, (second) about 1786, Agnes Morrison ; Rachel, born 1733, died young.

(IV) Joel (1), son of Jeremiah (2) Cloud, was born 1715, died 1746; married 1741, Esther Stubbs. Children: David, Joel (2) and Daniel.

(V) Joel (2), son of Joel (1) Cloud, was born about 1744. He married Hannah Pyle, and left five children.

(VI) Jeremiah (3), son of Joel (2) Cloud, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, September 3, 1797. He, as all his forbears in America had been, was a member of the Society of Friends, and a Whig. He was a hatter by trade, also a miller, distiller and farmer of Greene county, Pennsylvania, having settled at Carmichaels, Cumberland township, in that county. He married Jane Morgan; children: Milton, Annie, Marion, Sarah, Ellen, Morgan, Elma and Thomas C.

(VII) Thomas C., son of Jeremiah (3) and Jane (Morgan) Cloud, was born January 10, 1826, at Carmichaels, Greene county, Pennsylvania, died June 8, 1898. He was a farmer and a teacher for several years. He was a Republican in politics and a member and deacon of the Baptist church. He married Ann Eliza Hartley, died September 4, 1885, daughter of Josephus Hartley, a farmer of Greene county. Children: 1. Milton Harlan, of whom further. 2. Minor Alonzo, born March 16, 1858, died August 6, 1885. 3. Josephus, born May 22, 1859, died May 30, 1859. 4. William Mesterzatt, born June 24, 1860; married Laura, daughter of Miles Anderson, of Old Frame. 5. Albert Edwin, born January 6, 1863, died June 8, 1896. 6. Sarah Jane, born April 4, 1864; married Edgar Hewitt; lives at Pittsburgh. 7. Jeremiah Morgan, born September 20, 1865, died 1891. 8. Elma Lora, born October 27, 1869, died 1878. 9. Ellen Mora, twin of Elma Lora, died 1878. 10. Marion Edgar, born 1874, now living in Philadelphia. 11. Otho Edmund, twin of Marion Edgar, now living in Philadelphia .

(VIII) Dr. Milton Harlan Cloud, son of Thomas C. and Ann Eliza (Hartley) Cloud, was born near Carmichaels, Greene county, Pennsylvania, February 9, 1857. He was educated in the public schools of Greene county, Greene Academy, at Edinburgh, and the State Normal School of Erie county. He entered the Miami Medical College in 1882, and was graduated in 1886 with the degree of M. D., after reading medicine with Dr. A. J. Gibbons, of Carmichaels, Pennsylvania. For twenty-six years he has been building up a practice in Masontown, and now is at the height of popularity and prosperity. His practice is large and lucrative and steadily increasing. His professional aid is always at the service of anyone, irrespective of wealth or position, and many are the stories which might be told of his deeds of mercy and charity. In the business life of Masontown he is also prominent and active, being vice-president of the Masontown Brewery, director of the Masontown National Bank and director of the Masontown Glass Company. For twelve years as a Republican he served the town in the capacity of school director, but resigned to become councilman and he is also an ex-treasurer of the borough. Dr. Cloud 's fraternal orders are Colfax Lodge, No. 565, A. F. and A. M., the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Loyal Order of Moose. His professional societies are the Medical Society of Fayette County, Medical Society of Pennsylvania and the American Medical Association.

He is a land owner of Greene county, owning two hundred and three acres richly underlaid with coal, although as yet none of it has been mined. He was formerly a Baptist, but now attends the Methodist church. One of Dr. Cloud 's greatest pleasures comes from the possession of good trotting horses, and he has in his stables some of the best stock in the state. He owns three valuable sires, and has lately purchased two trotters - "The Roman," time 2.19 1/4, from George Smith, of Chillicothe, Ohio, and "Kentucky Joe ," 2.24 1-2, in Danvers, Massachusetts. Dr. Cloud occupies a prominent place in the social, business, political and professional life of the town, and has risen to this position through professional skill, industry, perseverance and pluck.

He married, September 15, 1886, Lolo Zoe Provins. Children: 1. Gladys Winifred, born August 13, 1889, died June 19, 1892. 2. Olive B., born April 13, 1891; married Sherman Gabler; they have two children, and live in Salem, Ohio. 3. Silas Randall, born April 21, 1894, died December 30, 1911.

Eliza Maria Gillespie

GILLESPIE. Miss Eliza Maria, religious devotee, known in the Roman Catholic Church as Mother Mary of St. Angela, born in Brownsville, Pa., 21st February, 1824, the oldest daughter of John P. and Mary Myers Gillespie. The father died while the children were still young, and their mother removed to Lancaster, Ohio. Eliza Maria was placed in school with the Dominican Sisters in Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, and afterward with the Sisters of the Visitation, in Georgetown, D. C, and graduated from that institution with the highest honors. The few years she spent in the world were marked by the most earnest work for the sick and distressed, especially the victims of the cholera in 1849. In 1853 she entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross, taking the name of Saint Angela, to be known as "Mother Angela." Almost immediately she sailed for Europe. She made her novitiate in France and took the vows of her religious profession at the hands of Rev. Father Moreau, the founder of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. In 1855 she returned to the United States and was made Superior of the Academy of St. Mary's, then in Bertrand, Mich., to be removed the following summer to its present site, one mile from Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. From that time there stood forth from the ranks of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the United States a personage so remarkable that even the leveling rule of religious profession could not lessen the charm of her individuality, one who, whether as Mother Superior or Mistress of Novius, or director of studies, or simply Sister Mary of St. Angela, carried into her obedience exaltation of purpose, swiftness of execution, grace, self-denial and oblivion of her brilliant place in the world. When the beat of drum, calling on the nation to arm her sons for the defence of the "Stars and Stripes," broke the stillness of seclusion in St. Mary's as well as Notre Dame, she heard and answered on the battlefield and in the hospital, commanding her trained nurses in the name of sweet charity. The war over, Mother Angela and her Sisters returned to St. Mary's to take up the old obedience, whatever it had been. The only thing to indicate their part in the national crisis was the spiked canon, sent a few months after to Mother Angela and her community, as a recognition of their services, by the commander of the division in which they labored. From their return from the war, a new energy pervaded the ranks of the Sisters of the Holy Cross. Called for from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Northwest to Texas, asylums, hospitals, schools were opened and overlooked. She died 4th of March, 1887.

(Source: American Women by Frances Elizabeth Willard, Mary Ashton Rice Livermore, Vol. 1, 1897. Transcribed by Marla Snow)

Clark J. Ross

CLARK J. ROSS, Banking and Railroading, Los Angeles, California is a native of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, born April 10, 1850. His father was John Clark and his mother Mary (Andrews) Clark. He married Miriam A. Evans on April 16, 1878, at Butte, Montana. There were two children, Ella H., now Mrs. Henry C. Lee, and Walter M. Clark, who died a hero with the sinking of the Titanic, refusing to take a place in the lifeboats while any women or children remained on the vessel.

Mr. Clark attended the public schools of Penna., concluding with a course in the Academy of Bentonsport, IA.

When Mr. Clark grew up his position, environments and opportunities were far different than those of the young men of today. Towards the setting sun stretched that vast country known to Americans as the Great West. It was indeed to be a Greater West, for it was just entering on that phenomenal period of growth that has had no equal in the history of the world. It was young, wild and undeveloped. The Indians had not yet been subdued, the vast mineral deposits lay untouched, unlimited timber tracts stretched away toward the mountains and the thousand and one industries that were later to add to the wealth and power of the country were unknown. Mr. Clark decided to try his fortunes there and, leaving Iowa in 1871, went directly to Montana, then one of the most rugged, yet wealthy, regions of the West. He went into business in the vicinity of Butte, Montana, with his brother, Senator William A. Clark, who had preceded him to Montana by several years. It was a hard struggle in those days. There were no railroads; stages being the only means of transportation known in those wilds. It took the strongest kind of character, courage and persistency to face the trials which confronted the pioneer, but all through the years that followed, Mr. Clark, determinate, remained in that country, and its history is linked largely with his success.

Between the years 1871 and 1893, Mr. Clark was engaged in banking and mining throughout the Montana district, being closely associated with his brother in many of the largest copper mining enterprises of the Northwest. In 1876, the same year in which General Custer fought his battle on the Little Big Horn River, the Clarks established a private bank at Butte, Montana, which financial institution is still in operation.

Mr. Clark became heavily interested in numerous mineral deals, in the building of smelters and in other industries adapted to the Montana country. He was identified with every great move for the development of that State as well as with the neighboring territories; with the founding of cities, construction of railroads, organization of territorial government, and in fact his work is part of the history of Montana.

In 1892 he moved to Los Angeles, where he saw an immense field for operation, and where his family could live amid more beautiful surroundings. Mr. Clark's record in Southern California has been as brilliant as it was in Montana, and he has shared in the development of Los Angeles to a high degree. In 1896 he built the Los Alamitos sugar factory in Southern California, which he managed for several years. He later turned this business over to his son, who managed it during the remainder of his life.

As vice president of the Salt Lake Railroad, of which his brother, the Senator, is the principal genius, Mr. Clark has made a conspicuous success. He is also a liberal philanthropist and aids many worthy institutions. Perhaps his most generous assistance was rendered when the Young Men's Christian Association of Los Angeles was in severe straits. Ever ready and willing to put his shoulder to the wheel, Mr. Clark took charge of the destines of the association, and after a long, hard campaign for new life, new home and new funds, he put the association in the position it occupies today - a splendid institution, with branches in all parts of the city, engaged in a wonderful work.

He is deeply interested in many Southern California corporations, is Vice President of the Los Alamitos Sugar Company and is a Director and Vice President of the Citizens' National Bank of Los Angeles. He is identified with many of the larger movements for a Greater Los Angeles and has played the part of a distinguished factor in the growth of the Southwest. He is a member of the California, the Jonathan and Sierra Madre Clubs, the Bohemian Club of San Francisco and the Silver Bow Club of Butte, Montana.

[Being The Portraits and Biographies of the Progressive Men of the West, Press Reference Library - Transcribed by Therman Kellar]