The Severance Family of Cleveland, Ohio, descends from John Walworth and his wife Juliana (Morgan) Walworth who migrated to Painesville, Ohio, from Aurora, New York, in 1800, and then moved to Cleveland in 1806. John Walworth was a civil engineer who was employed by the state of Connecticut. He was later appointed by President Thomas Jefferson to the post of Custom Collector for the District of Erie. The Walworths' daughter, also named Juliana, served as a nurse during the War of 1812, tending wounded soldiers who were brought to Cleveland. In 1811, she married David Long, who arrived in Cleveland from Hebron, New York, in 1810. Long was the first physician to practice in Cleveland and also served as a surgeon during the War of 1812.
David and Juliana Long had three children, but only one, Mary Helen Long, lived to maturity. She was a charter member of the Young Ladies' Missionary Society of Cleveland's First Presbyterian Church, an association continued throughout her life. In 1833, she married Solomon Severance, who had recently arrived in Cleveland from Shelburne, Massachusetts. Mary and Solomon became the progenitors of one of Cleveland's most prominent families of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They had two sons, Solon and Louis. Solomon Severance died in 1838, less than a month before Louis was born, leaving his wife to raise their two young sons by herself.
Louis Severance had four children with his first wife, Fannie Benedict. Their son John L. Severance was a patron of the arts; Severance Music Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra) is named after him, because he provided most of the funds for its construction (the rest was provided by members of the Bingham family). Daughter Elisabeth (called Bessie as a child) is remembered for the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Foundation, which supports medical research. Robert Bruce Severance died in infancy and Annie Belle Severance died unmarried at the age of 28. Fannie Benedict Severance died in 1874 and Louis remarried to Florence Harkness, with whom he had no children.
The family of Solon Severance, however, is the one most prominently featured in this collection. Solon was a prominent Cleveland banker. In 1860, he married Emily Allen who, like his mother, came from a family of physicians. Emily Allen's grandfather, Peter Allen, was an early doctor in Kinsman, Ohio, and her father, Dudley Allen, practiced medicine in Kinsman and in Oberlin, Ohio. Her brother, Dudley P. Allen, was a prominent Cleveland surgeon and was also the first husband of the aforementioned Elisabeth Severance (she married Francis Prentiss after Allen's death). Solon and Emily Severance had four children: Julia Walworth Severance, Allen Dudley Severance, Mary Helen Severance, and Paul Frame Severance (died in infancy).
Julia Severance, the oldest child of Solon and Emily Severance, was born in 1862. In the early 1880s she attended Wells College in Aurora, New York, graduating in 1885. She later served on the college's board of trustees, a post she held from 1912 until her resignation in 1934. After her graduation, she travelled extensively, touring Europe in 1888 and 1889. In 1891, she married Benjamin Millikin, a noted Cleveland ophthalmologist who worked closely with her uncle, Dudley P. Allen. The Millikins had five children: Helen, Severance, Marianne, Dudley, and Louise. All of the daughters attended Wells College; Helen followed in her mother's footsteps when she was elected to the board in 1936. Helen Millikin was married in 1923 to Richard Preston Nash, whose father, John Nash, had been the proprietor of a meat packing house in Cleveland. The Nashes had three children: Julia, Richard Preston, Jr., and Louise.
The Severance Family Papers, Series II, 1826-1989 consist of historical and biographical data, diaries, other writings, correspondence, wills, genealogical notes, deeds, notices of events, and newspaper clippings.
This collection pertains primarily to the lives of members of one of Cleveland's wealthiest families during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The person most prominently featured is Julia Severance Millikin. The letters written to her while she was a student at Wells College provide much detail about the lives of the family members who were home in Cleveland and the surrounding area. The letters Emily Allen Severance wrote to her daughter are an especially valuable source for women's history. It was not unusual for Emily to write three or four lengthy letters to Julia per week. Others who wrote frequently to Julia were her sister, Mary Severance; her cousin, Elisabeth Severance; and her grandmother, Mary Long Severance. After Julia Severance's graduation, she received numerous letters from classmates, as she maintained the friendships she formed while in college well after graduation. One of the classmates she received letters from was Frances Folsom Cleveland, the wife of President Grover Cleveland, of whose wedding party she was a member. The biographical sketches of Juliana Walworth Long, Mary Long Severance, and Emily Allen Severance are also useful for students of women's history as are Emily Severance's diaries and Julia's diaries. The collection can also be utilized by those interested in the early history of the medical profession in Cleveland and northeastern Ohio. The biographical data on David Long and the journal of Dudley Allen are particularly valuable sources of information on this subject. Several of the Severances married members of the medical profession or relatives of medical professionals, thus establishing permanent ties to medicine in Cleveland. This is reflected in their continuous contributions to Cleveland hospitals and other medical organizations. There is also material in the collection on the nineteenth century author Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain). Clemens accompanied Solon and Julia Severance on a voyage around the world in 1867. He based his novel The Innocents Abroad on this trip and the collection includes information about the voyage. Other travel diaries in the collection detail journeys in England, Scotland, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, and France during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The material also includes some information on the family's philanthropic activities, particularly Julia Severance Millikin's work with Wells College, John L. Severance's arts patronage, and the Elisabeth Severance Prentiss Foundation.
The collection is arranged in five series.
All photographs have been removed to PG 440 Severance Family Photographs.
Researchers should also consult the following collections for additional information on the Severance and Walworth families: MS 805 Severance Family Papers; MS 1901 John Walworth Family Papers; and MS 3068 Euclid Avenue National Bank, Cleveland, Ohio Records.
Processed by Richard Hite in 1991.
None.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4558 Severance Family Papers, Series II, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Given in memory of Helen Millikin Nash by her family: Richard P. Nash, Jr.; Louise Nash Robbins; and the Children of Julia Nash McCoy (Sarah, Louise, William B., and Peter), 1990. Diary of Julia Severance Millikin, 1887, photocopy made in 1994 from original owned by William C. McCoy, (subsequently donated to Wells College).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.