V. Grover Cleveland, third son and fifth child of Richard Falley and Anne (Neale) Ceveland, was sixteen years of age when his father died. The sad event necessarily marked a turning-point in his career. He was forced to look life and duty seriously in the face, and he proved himself equal to the emergency. It had been a cherished hope of his boyhood that he might secure the benefit of a classical education at Hamilton College, from which his eldest brother, William (now a Presbyterian clergyman at Forestport, N.Y.), had then recently graduated. But this was now out of the question. He had not only to provide for himself, but he felt bound to aid his mother in the support of the younger members of the family. The idea of the college course, for which he had partially fitted himself in the preparatory school at Clinton, was relinquished, and the battle of life commenced in earnest. He had already learned something of the lesson of self-reliance, having served for a year or more as a clerk in a grocery at Fayetteville, and he soon secured a situation as an assistant in the Institution for the Blind in the city of New York, where his brother William was then engaged as a teacher. Here he remained nearly two years, faithfully discharging the duties assigned him, and promptly forwarding to his mother such portion of his moderate wages as remained after providing for his own personal necessities. The situation, however, grew irksome. As the young man's capabilities developed his ambition was aroused. There was no way of advancement open before him here, and he felt that his duty to himself, as well as others, demanded that he make the best practicable use of the powers with which he was endowed. Returning home for a short visit, and taking counsel with his mother, he soon set out for the "West," the field toward which ambitious young men have turned, with hearts full of hope, for the last half century.

His proposed destination was Cleveland, Ohio; his cherished ambition the study and practice of the law. He was accompanied on his journey by a young friend of kindred aspirations. Arriving at Buffalo he called on an uncle, Mr. Lewis F. Allen, who had a fine stock farm, just out of the city, and who finally induced him to remain there, promising to secure him admission to a law office in Buffalo. He remained with his uncle for a time, assisting him in the preparation of the manuscript of the "American Herd Book," a work upon which he was then engaged; but in the course of a few months (in August, 1855) he secured admission as a student in one of the best known law offices of the city—that of Rogers, Bowen, & Rogers. Blessed with good health and industrious habits, with an earnest determination to succeed, he entered upon the work before him. For a time he boarded at his uncle's house, taking the long walk to and from the office at morning and night; but after a few months he was enabled to be of such assistance in the office in clerical and other work, that, from the modest compensation allowed, he secured lodgings in the city and provided for all his humble wants.

After four years of unremitting study and toil, he was admitted to the Erie county bar, having laid the foundation for future professional success in a thorough mastery of legal principles and all the details of practice, and in those well-established habits of thought and application by which his subsequent life has been so fully characterized. He had gained, also, the confidence and esteem of his preceptors and employers, and after his admission continued with them as confidential clerk in charge of the office business, receiving a salary which enabled him, then, to contribute materially to the assistance of his mother in providing for the wants of the family and maintaining the comforts of the humble home in Holland Patent, toward which his fondest thoughts have turned in all the years of his busy life, and where such periods of recreation as he has felt warranted in indulging have mainly been spent.

In 1863 Mr. Cleveland received an appointment as assistant district attorney for Erie county, a strong testimonial to the legal abilities of so youthful a practitioner, considering the array of professional talent in the county and the responsibilities of the position. The war was then in progress; two brothers, one the next older, and the other younger than himself, had enlisted in the Union army; and when, a few months after his appointment, as he had fairly familiarized himself with the details of important cases intrusted to his care, he was himself drafted, he pursued the only practicable course, and provided a substitute for the service. In the fall of 1865, while yet serving as deputy, he was unanimously selected by the Democratic Nominating Convention as candidate for district attorney. The county was strongly Republican, but young Cleveland received a support beyond his party strength and was beaten, by a few hundred majority only, by the Republican nominee, Lyman K. Bass, then and since his warm personal friend.

Upon the expiration of his term of service as deputy district attorney, in January, 1866, he entered actively into practice, having formed a partnership with the late Isaac K. Vanderpoel, a prominent lawyer and ex-State treasurer. The burden of the labor fell to the share of the junior partner, and through his close attention to the interests of clients the business of the firm soon became extensive and the income fairly remunerative. Three years later the partnership was dissolved, through the election of Mr. Vanderpoel as police judge, and soon after the new firm of Cleveland, Laning, & Folsom was formed. In 1870 Mr. Cleveland was urged by leading Democrats of Erie county to accept the party nomination for sheriff. The proposition was by no means in accordance with his desires or inclinations. The office, although a most important one in a large and populous county, and commanding liberal compensation in fees, was a most thankless one in many respects: its duties, always delicate and exacting, sometimes disagreeable in the extreme, and its responsibilities great. It was felt, however, that the acceptance of this nomination by one who so thoroughly commanded the confidence of the people, and whose professional training and experience gave him superior qualification for the office, would insure to the county ticket of the party, with due care in the selection of other candidates, the strength necessary to success in the election. As a loyal member of the party to whose principles he had ever been devotedly attached, and in the support of whose cause he had labored in every consistent capacity since becoming a voter, he finally yielded, accepted the nomination, and, as had been hoped, was duly elected along with the entire ticket. He administered the office, upon which he entered in January following, upon strict business principles, and to the eminent satisfaction of the courts, the bar, and the public at large, during the full term of three years. There were no duties, however irksome, from which he shrank; no responsibilities which he failed to meet in a becoming manner; and when, on the first of January, 1874, his term expired and he returned to his legal practice, it was with a larger measure of popular esteem than he had ever before enjoyed.

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