HARVEY B. SPELMAN,- born in Rootstown, Portage County, O., September 15, 1811; educated in Tallmadge Academy and Twinsburg Institute; after teaching awhile entered employ of Mr. Roswell Kent, of Middlebury, as clerk, afterward becoming his partner and opening a branch store in Wadsworth; in 1831 removed to Franklin Mills (now Kent), in 1841, formed a partnership with Mr. Charles Clapp, and removed to Akron, the firm occupying the corner store in the old stone block, corner Howard and Market streets. An ardent Congregationalist, he was one of the organizers of the Second Congregational Church, in 1842, and one of its first deacons; strongly antislavery, he early allied himself with the Third Party movement, and by the aid of Free-soil Democrats was elected Representative to the State Legislature, in 1849; enthusiastic in the cause of education, was a zealous promoter of the Akron Union School system, and a member of the first board of education thereunder in 1847; in 1851 removed to Cleveland, where he at once actively identified himself with the religious, educational and reform movements of the day; in 1856 removed to Burlington, Iowa; in 1864, under Gen. John Eaton, took charge of cotton raised by "contrabands" on lands brought under government control; in 1866, removed to New York, there and in Brooklyn actively engaging in business and philanthropic work. November 16, 1835, Mr. Spelman was married to Miss Lucy Henry, of Branford, Mass. (sister of the late Milton W. Henry), who bore him three children - Lucy M., born March 4, 1838 ; Laura C., September 9, 1839, (now Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, of New York), and Henry Jennings, born December 1,1842, and died March 15, 1857, Mr. S. himself dying October 10, 1881, his remains being interred in Lake View Cemetery, Cleveland. Mrs. S. still survives, residing with her daughter, Mrs. Rockefeller, in New York.

Fifty Years and Over Of Akron and Summit County,  Samuel A. Lane