Grover Cleveland

He was born in Caldwell, New Jersey, on March 18, 1837, the fifth of nine children. His father, the Reverend Richard Cleveland, was extremely poor but was highly educated, graduate of Yale, and a Presbyterian minister. Grover spent his childhood in the central New York towns of Fayetteville and Clinton, where his father ministered until he died. [32] His mother was from Baltimore and was the daughter of a bookseller.[33)

In 1841, the Cleveland family moved to Fayetteville, New York, where Grover spent much of his childhood.[34]

In 1850, Richard Cleveland moved his family to Clinton, New York to work as a district secretary for the American Home Missionary Society.  The missionary jobs did not pay well and the family was extremely poor.  [35]

Age sixteen at the time of his father’s death, Cleveland had to forego his dreams of college and employment to help support his family. He worked with his older brother in New York City and then as a clerk and part-time law student in Buffalo. Although he never attended college, he was admitted to the bar in 1858 at age twenty-two. [36]

In 1865, he ran for District Attorney, losing narrowly to his friend and roommate, Lyman K. Bass, the Republican nominee. [71]  In 1870, with the help of friend Oscar Folsom, Cleveland secured the Democratic nomination for Sheriff of Erie County, New York. He won the election by a 303-vote margin and took office on January 1, 1871 at age 33 [73]

In 1881, Cleveland would be elected Mayor of Buffalo where he would become known to purge government corruption. [78]