Richard Falley Cleveland

Richard Falley Cleveland (June 19, 1804 – October 1, 1853) was an American Congregational and Presbyterian minister. A graduate of Yale College and Princeton Theological Seminary, he spent most of his life as a parish priest, outside of a brief period as a district secretary for the American Home Missionary Society. He is best known as the father of Grover Cleveland, who was twice President of the United States.

Cleveland was born into an family in Norwich, Connecticut, the son of Margaret (née Falley) and William Cleveland (a watchmaker by profession). His maternal grandfather, Richard Falley Jr., fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Cleveland's parents reputedly decided at his birth that their son would become a minister. Described as a "thin, pale, and intelligent boy" by Allan Nevins, he worked for periods at an uncle's cotton mill and as a store clerk before winning acceptance into Yale College. He graduated summa cum laude in 1824, and almost immediately moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he began working as a teacher in a private school. At the same time, he began his advanced theological studies, initially under a local minister and later for a brief period at the Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey.

On October 18, 1829, Cleveland was ordained as a minister in the Congregational Church. His first appointment led him back to his home state, as the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Windham, Connecticut. His tenure there was not overly successful – the parishioners chided his wife for her colorful clothing and jewelry, and were scornful of their decision to bring an African-American woman with them from Maryland as a maid. Cleveland and his family left Connecticut in 1833 and secured an appointment as acting minister of a Presbyterian church in Portsmouth, Virginia.

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