| Repository: | Western Reserve Historical Society |
| Creator: | Severance Family |
| Title: | Severance Family Papers, Series III |
| Dates: | 1775-2005 |
| Extent: | 2.41 linear feet (5 containers and 1 oversize folder) |
| Abstract: | The Severance family was a prominent Cleveland, Ohio, family known for its philanthropic activities. Solon Severance, a Cleveland banker, was the son of Solomon Severance and Mary Helen Long, and a brother of Louis Severance. He was also a descendent of John Walworth, an early settler of Cleveland who was a civil engineer and was appointed in 1806 as the Custom Collector for the District of Erie. Solon's wife, Emily Allen, was the daughter of Dr. Dudley Allen, and the sister of prominent surgeon Dudley P. Allen. Solon and Emily's daughter, Julia Severance Millikin, was the wife of Benjamin Millikin, a noted Cleveland opthalmologist. Julia's children included Helen Millikin Nash and Severance, Marianne, Dudley, and Louise Millikin. The collection consists of admission tickets, agreements, booklets, books, charts, church records, correspondence, deeds, diaries/journals, estate documents, forms, genealogies, historical accounts, invitations, journal articles, leases, legal documents, licenses, memoirs, military passes, a museum catalog, newspaper articles, notes, obituaries, personal accounts, poetry, a sermon, and wills. |
| MS Number | MS 5140 |
| Location: | closed stacks |
| Language: | The records are in English and Korean |
The Severance family was a prominent Cleveland, Ohio family known for its philanthropic activities. Solon Severance, a Cleveland banker, and Louis Severance were the sons of Solomon Severance and Mary Helen Long. They were also descendants of John Walworth, an early settler of Cleveland who was a civil engineer and was appointed in 1806 as the Custom Collector for the District of Erie. Solon's wife, Emily Allen, was the daughter of Dr. Dudley Allen, and the sister of prominent surgeon Dudley P. Allen. Solon and Emily's daughter, Julia Severance Millikin, was the wife of Benjamin Millikin, a noted Cleveland ophthalmologist. Julia's children included Helen Millikin Nash and Severance, Marianne, Dudley, and Louise Millikin. Louis Severance married Fannie Benedict and they had four children: John L., Elisabeth, Robert Bruce (who died in infancy) and Annie Bell who died at the age of 28. After Fannie died, Louis remarried Florence Harkness with whom he had no children.
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 born in Groton, Connecticut in 1765 to Samuel Walworth and Hannah (Woodbridge) Walworth. Samuel died when John was only 8 years old, causing his mother to lease the family's land in order to support the family. Hannah Walworth remarried in 1775 to William Avery with whom she had one daughter. William Avery died two years later and so in 1800 Hannah remarried a third time to Peter Avery (not a close relative of her second husband).
John Walworth became 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.
Solon Severance 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.
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for John Long Severance
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Louis Henry Severance
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Solomon Lewis Severance
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Solon Lewis Severance
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for David Long
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Juliana Walworth Long
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History for John Walworth
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History for Elisabeth Severance Allen Prentiss
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Severance Hall
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Dudley P. Allen
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Peter Allen
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Francis Prentiss
The Severance Family Papers, Series III, 1775-2005 and undated, consist of admission tickets, agreements, booklets, books, charts, church records, correspondence, deeds, diaries/journals, estate documents, forms, genealogies, historical accounts, invitations, journal articles, leases, legal documents, licenses, memoirs, military passes, a museum catalog, newspaper articles, notes, obituaries, personal accounts, poetry, a sermon, and wills.
This collection is of value to researchers studying the Severance Family and allied families including the Allen, Long, Millikin, and Walworth families, for genealogical purposes as well as their contributions to the Cleveland, Ohio area in business, medicine, philanthropy, and the arts through the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. This material was used by Diana Tittle in the writing of her book, The Severances: An American Odyssey, from Puritan Massachusetts to Ohio's Western Reserve, and Beyond.
Anyone interested in the Allen Family's role in the development of Kinsman, Ohio, will find the Allen family documents in Series I useful. Of particular note will be the Kinsman Turnpike documents, Kinsman Church records, and Clinton Line Railroad documents. Also included is correspondence of Dr. Dudley Allen and Dr. Dudley Peter Allen, which will shed light on the lives of early physicians in the Western Reserve.
Also in Series I are some Hadden, Harkness, Long, Millikin, Prentiss, Robbins, Severance, Tryon, and Walworth Family materials, mostly correspondence and travel diaries, that are of note to anyone interested in the daily lives and social activities of members of these families. For anyone interested the life and various contributions to Cleveland of Elisabeth Severance Prentiss, her estate documents will be of note. There are also some Severance Family documents, especially family correspondence, that provide a unique look into the personal lives of the members. Of note are the trivia book belonging to Darwin Severance regarding science and morality (1823) and the" young ladies" (ca. 1830) book belonging to Mary Long Severance for a view of the social place of women and society in general at that time. There are also some documents of Solon and Emily Severance's regarding the Quaker City Tour of the Holy Land of which Mark Twain was also on where he met Emily Severance and based his book The Innocents Abroad on that may be of interest.
For anyone interested in the early settlement of the Western Reserve and life in the original Connecticut Western Reserve, the Walworth Family documents will be especially of note. There is much correspondence between John and his mother, Hannah Walworth Avery, that sheds light on what life was like as an early settler (John and his family were one the very first). This correspondence also chronicles his mother's experience, still in the Connecticut Western Reserve as a woman who married three times and outlived each husband, and having a very Calvinistic upbringing and outlook towards this life and what was to come after. Also of note are a diary of Hannah's, a marriage agreement, and her will to illustrate what options as a woman were available at the time as far as marriage, children, property, inheritance, and similar issues were concerned.
Anyone interested more specifically in the straight lineage/genealogy of the Severance Family and its allied families will find the charts, family sketches, historical accounts, published genealogies and biographies in Series II particularly helpful.
For more information on the Severance Family's philanthropic and medical contributions, locally as well as internationally, researchers will want to take a closer look at Series III where some of these contributions are chronicled. Work with Beech Brook in the area of children's services and the establishment of a hospital at Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea are the major foci of this series.
None.
Related MaterialThe researcher should also consult MS 805 Severance Family Papers; MS 4558 Severance Family Papers, Series II; MS 1901 John Walworth Family Papers; MS 3068 Euclid Avenue National Bank, Cleveland, Ohio Records; PG 440 Severance Family Photographs; and PG 585 Severance Family Photographs, Series II.
Separated MaterialPhotographs have been removed to PG 585 Severance Family Photographs
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 5140 Severance Family Papers, Series III, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Gift of Mrs. Elaine Hadden in 2011.
Processed by Hannah Kemp-Severence in 2012. The processing of this collection was made possible through the generosity of Elisabeth H. Alexander, Elaine G. Hadden, Louise N. Robbins, Louise Franke, and William C. McCoy.
Series I: Severance and Allied Families Papers 1775-1996 and undated |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Allen Family: Dr. Dudley Allen, Clinton Line Railroad documents 1853-1884 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Allen Family: Dr. Dudley Allen, correspondence 1840-1865 1894 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Allen Family: Dr. Dudley Allen, will and trust 1894 and 1897 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Allen Family: Dudley Peter Allen, correspondence 1866 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Allen Family: Dudley Peter Allen, journal, The Cleveland Medical Journal-The Dudley Peter Allen Memorial meetings 1915 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Allen Family: Frame Family members (married into Allen Family), correspondence 1833-1839 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Allen Family: Francis Allen, correspondence 1823 and 1868 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Allen Family: Janet Allen (wife of Dudley Allen ), correspondence 1841 | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Allen Family: Jennie Allen, diary/journal 1866-1867 | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Allen Family: miscellaneous/unidentified individuals, correspondence 1844 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Allen Family: miscellaneous/unidentified individuals, deeds 1818-1867 | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | Allen Family: miscellaneous/unidentified individuals, Kinsman Church Records 1838-1849 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Allen Family: miscellaneous/unidentified individuals, Kinsman Turnpike documents 1820-1821 | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | Allen Family: miscellaneous/unidentified individuals, newspaper clippings undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 15 | Allen Family: Peter Allen, correspondence 1824-1864 | |||||||||
| 1 | 16 | Hadden Family: Alexander Hadden, diary/journal/notebook ca. 1873-1874 | |||||||||
| 1 | 17 | Hadden Family: John A. and Marianne Hadden, miscellaneous documents 1927-1992 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 18 | Hadden Family: Marianne Millikin Hadden, diary of 1921 European tour with Elisabeth Severance Prentiss and Francis Prentiss 1921 | |||||||||
| 1 | 19-20 | Hadden Family: miscellaneous individuals, miscellaneous documents 1924-1996 | |||||||||
| 1 | 21 | Harkness Family: Florence Harkness, correspondence ca. 1894 | |||||||||
| 1 | 22 | Long Family: David and Juliana Long, correspondence 1813-1864 | |||||||||
| 1 | 23 | Long Family: Juliana Long, sermon regarding her by [Reverend J.H. Harrles, D.D.] 1866 | |||||||||
| 1 | 24 | Millikin Family: Julia Severance Millikin, account of 1888 grand tour of Europe with her mother Emily and cousins John and Bessie (Elisabeth Severance Prentiss) Severance 1888 | |||||||||
| 1 | 25 | Millikin Family: Julia Severance Millikin, correspondence; and poetry 1882-1887 and 1942-1944 1913, 1942 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 26 | Millikin Family, Severance Millikin, American Expeditionary Forces identity card; correspondence and forms 1919 1959-1960 | |||||||||
| 1 | 27 | Prentiss Family: Bessie Sill (Elisabeth) Severance Allen Prentiss, correspondence and estate documents 1892, 1944, and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 28 | Robbins Family: Louise Nash Robbins, correspondence and article regarding Mark Twain correspondence to Mrs. S.L. Severance 1960 and 1986 | |||||||||
| 1 | 29 | Severance Family: Annie Bell Severance, correspondence 1896 | |||||||||
| 1 | 30 | Severance Family: Darwin (Erasmus Darwin) Severance, trivia game 1823 | |||||||||
| 1 | 31 | Severance Family: John Long Severance, correspondence 1833, 1859, and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 32 | Severance Family: Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance (John L. and Bessie Huntington DeWitt) wedding invitation 1891 | |||||||||
| 1 | 33 | Severance Family: Louis Severance, correspondence regarding him, military passes and permits to travel 1861-1863 and 1909 | |||||||||
| 1 | 34 | Severance Family: Mary Long Severance, book, The Young Ladies Book-A Manual of Elegant Recreations, Exercises, and Pursuits inscribed to Mary Long ca. 1830 | |||||||||
| 1 | 35 | Severance Family: Mary Long Severance, correspondence to Emily Allen, Louis Severance, and from Isham Morgan 1860-1864 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 36 | Severance Family: Mr. and Mrs. Solon and Emily (Allen) Severance, correspondence 1858-1915 | |||||||||
| 1 | 37 | Severance Family: Mr. and Mrs. Solon and Emily Severance, marriage license (oversize material removed to Oversize Folder 1) 1860 | |||||||||
| 1 | 38 | Severance Family: Mr. and Mrs. Solon Severance, "Items for Future Reference" miscellaneous documents undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 39 | Severance Family: Mr. and Mrs. Solon Severance, Quaker City Tour of the Holy Land promotional materials; other passengers included Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) (original material removed to the Vault) 1867 | |||||||||
| 1 | 40 | Severance Family: Mr. and Mrs. Solon Severance, wedding announcements and calling cards 1891 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 41 | Severance Family: Mrs. Solon Severance (Emily Allen Severance), poetry, scripture verses, notes, and book 1845-1909 and undated | |||||||||
| 1 | 42 | Severance Family: Theodoric and Caroline Severance, admission ticket to lecture by Caroline; correspondence; and poetry 1861 ca. 1828 1828 | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 1 | Tryon Family: Mrs. W. Gregory Tryon (Louise Severance Millikin Tryon), correspondence and paperwork regarding donations to Western Reserve Historical Society and The Dittrick Museum of Historical Medicine 1973 | |||||||||
| 2 | 2 | Walworth Family: Hannah Walworth Avery, correspondence 1807-1827 | |||||||||
| 2 | 3 | Walworth Family: Hannah Walworth Avery, diary; lease and memorandum; marriage agreement with William Avery; and will (early copy) ca. 1798-1811 1792 and 1787 1775 1816 | |||||||||
| 2 | 4 | Walworth Family: Juliana Morgan Walworth Keyes, correspondence 1822-1825 | |||||||||
| 2 | 5 | Walworth Family, Hannah Walworth, correspondence 1840 | |||||||||
| 2 | 6 | Walworth Family: Horace Walworth, correspondence 1861-1863 | |||||||||
| 2 | 7 | Walworth Family: John Walworth, appointment to collector for the District of Erie by Thomas Jefferson (copy) 1806 | |||||||||
| 2 | 8 | Walworth Family, John Walworth, arithmetic book 1780 | |||||||||
| 2 | 9 | Walworth Family: John Walworth, correspondence 1800-1812 | |||||||||
| 2 | 10 | Walworth Family: John P. Walworth (1798-1882), correspondence 1866 | |||||||||
| 2 | 11 | Walworth Family: Julia Severance Millikin, correspondence regarding how Walworth documents came into Severance Family possession 1944 | |||||||||
| 2 | 12 | Walworth Family: miscellaneous individuals, miscellaneous documents 1807-1839 and 1892 | |||||||||
| 2 | 13 | Walworth Family: Samuel Walworth, correspondence (to half sister Sally Avery) 1794 | |||||||||
| 2 | 14 | Walworth Family: William Walworth, correspondence, newspaper clipping and note 1862 and undated | |||||||||
Series II: Severance and Allied Families Genealogical Material 1867-1992 and undated |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 2 | 15-17 | Charts (contents of folder 17 have been removed to container 5) 1913-1915 and undated (compiled) | |||||||||
| 2 | 18 | Family sketches and historical accounts 1901-1958 and undated | |||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 3 | 1-2 | Notes and miscellaneous materials 1867-1992 and undated | |||||||||
| 3 | 3 | Published genealogies and biographies, Alexander Hadden: A Short Biography by John A. Hadden, inscribed to Dick and Helen from Jack ca. 1955 | |||||||||
| 3 | 4 | Published genealogies and biographies, Genealogy of the Allen and Witter Families by Asa W. Allen, inscribed Emily Allen Severance from MHS (Mary Helen Long Severance) 1872 | |||||||||
| 3 | 5 | Published genealogies and biographies, Mark Sibley Severance, An Autobiography (privately printed), Louise Tryon's copy 1924 | |||||||||
| 3 | 6 | Published genealogies and biographies, The Severans Genealogical History compiled by Rev. John F. Severance (photocopy) and Twelve Generations in America: Being the Lineage of William Lord Brookfield, Henry Morgan Brookfield, Jr., Samuel Lord Brookfield sons of Henry Morgan Brookfield and Louise Lord (photocopy) 1893 and undated | |||||||||
Series III: Severance and Allied Families' Institutional Affiliations 1976-2005 |
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| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 4 | 1 | Beechbrook, collection of reports, articles, correspondence, resolutions, and related documents ca. 1976 | |||||||||
| 4 | 2 | Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, quarterly publication Forecast showcasing Dr. David Long, Dr. Peter Allen, Dr. Benjamin Love Millikin, and Dr. Dudley P. Allen 1984 | |||||||||
| 4 | 3 | Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland, 75th anniversary booklet ca. 2003 | |||||||||
| 4 | 4-5 | Yonsei University College of Medicine, Severance Hospital, anniversary booklet, general information booklet, and museum catalog ca. 2005 | |||||||||
Oversize Removals 1860 1913-1915 and undated |
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| Box | |||||||||||
| 5 | Genealogical charts removed from Container 1, Folder 17 1913-1915 and undated (compiled) | ||||||||||
| Oversize Folder 1: Oversize Material removed from Container 1, Folder 37 1860 | |||||||||||