Woman of the Century/Rose Elizabeth Cleveland

CLEVELAND, Miss Rose Elizabeth, author, born in Fayetteville, N. Y., in 1846, and ROSE ELIZABETH CLEVELAND. moved to Holland Patent, N. Y., in 1853. She is a sister of ex-President Cleveland and a daughter of Rev. Richard Falley Cleveland, a Presbyterian preacher, who was graduated from Yale College in 1824. Her mother's maiden name was Neal, and she was the daughter of a Baltimore merchant of Irish birth. The Clevelands are of English descent, in a direct line from Moses Cleveland, of the county of Suffolk, England, who came to the Colonies in 1635 and settled in Woburn, Mass., where he died in 1701. Miss Cleveland is in the seventh generation. Her father was settled as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Holland Patent in 1853. Rose was one of a large family. Two of her brothers. Louis and Frederick, were lost at sea in 1872 on the return trip from Nassau. The father died in 1853 and the mother in 1882. One married sister, Mrs. Louise Bacon, lives in Toledo, Ohio. The parents were persons of marked force of character, morally and intellectually. Rose was educated in the seminary in Houghton. She taught in that school after graduation, and then was called to Lafayette. Ind., where she took charge of the Collegiate Institute. She taught later in Pennsylvania in a private school. She then began to lecture on history before classes in Houghton Seminary. Her courses of lectures were well received, and after her mother's death, in 1882, she kept her home in Holland Patent and continued her school work. Her reputation as a lecturer grew, and her services were called for in other schools. When her brother was elected President, she accompanied him to Washington, D. C., and presided as mistress of the White House until his marriage, in June, 1886. Her best womanly qualities were displayed in that delicate and difficult position, and she took into the White House an atmosphere of culture, independence and originality that was exceedingly attractive. The brightest men of the time found in her a self-possessed, intellectual, thoroughly educated woman, acquainted with several modern languages and fully informed on all the questions of the day. After her brother's marriage she returned to Holland Patent. She afterwards taught history in a private school in New York City. She has not written much. Her published works are "George Eliot's Poetry and Other Studies" (New York, 1888), and "The Long Run," a novel, (Detroit, 1886). She accepted a position as editor of "Literary Life," a magazine published in Chicago, but, not satisfied with the management, she resigned. She has written some verse, but has published very little. She is now engaged in literary work.