Contact Info
Hours: T, W, TH 10a-3p or by appointment
Questions? 315.637.6374 x318
Linda Ryan, Local History Librarian
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| A
portrait of Grover Cleveland's father Richard, around the time he was
minister of the Presbyterian Church. |
The Presbyterian
Church at the time Rev. Cleveland was there. Replaced in 1850
by what is now the United Church. |
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 The house where Grover Cleveland lived in Fayetteville, at 109 Academy Street. The above picture is from 1976, and the one to the left is 1899. |
 A sketch of the
'main street' of Fayetteville, from the Once a Week article, circa 1893.
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"…Fayetteville, nine
miles from Syracuse, in a region then remote from beaten paths, quite
inaccessible and, I thoroughly believe, entirely to the liking of any
healthy, mischievous boy, abounding in cool woods to be hunted in,
babbling brooks to be used for swimming, ponds wherein repose the lazy
mud fish, numerous orchards to be robbed of blushing apples,
bright-eyed village maidens in neat gingham frocks to be taken to
church, to be slyly handed May apples in school, to be kited down the
snow-incrusted hills in Winter, to be fought for, wooed and won –
in brief…Fayetteville…offered ideal opportunities for the
delights of boyhood." (an excerpt from an article in the magazine Once a Week) John McViccar's store, where Grover worked as a clerk for two years, is the third building from the left. He was paid $50 a year, and lived in an unfinished room in the attic while working there. |
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| Grover Cleveland’s Sled, which he used as a delivery boy while working in John McViccar’s store. |
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 This article, published in the Post Standard on March 14, 1926, details much of Grover's life in Fayetteville, and includes three essays written by Grover in his youth. The article is based on materials found in the Fayetteville Free Library. |
"Grover Cleveland, a boy in Fayetteville before he was president of the United States in Washington, was full of all kinds of pranks, but never was an outstanding student in the village schools. He was just a normal boy, unless the unusually active mind, as suggested by his constant activity, predicted his brilliant career. "…We are indebted to Miss Cole for the only recollections of Grover’s school life and those are few. An interview with her about 50 years after Grover was her pupil, did not reveal much…he was an ordinary boy, good-natured, lively and full of fun, but with no remarkable qualities as a student. "…The original records of the old academy, which stood across the street from the Cleveland home for the first few years of its existence, are in the Fayetteville library." |
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This article, published in the Post Standard on December 29, 1929, shares a few stories of childhood pranks played by Grover in Fayetteville. “Any boy who had a hand in that rascality will come to no good end,” declared the deacon as he gazed on the decorated old nag on top of the village store.It was Fourth of July morning in Fayetteville in 1849, and the hoisting of the decrepit horse to the top of the store was one of the ways in which the boys of the village celebrated. But what a looking horse! It was spotted to begin with, but the boys had made the spots into stars and had painted stripes around the old nag’s middle until the animal looked like the star spangled banner wrapped around a barber’s pole." |
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 The Cover of the Inauguration Issue of Once a Week, published on March 11, 1893, in honor of Cleveland's 2nd inauguration. The illustrated article inside contains a wealth of information on Grover's childhood in Fayetteville. The cover illustration is of the Inauguration Ball. |
“…Whenever he was about to spring a joke, his face assumed a peculiarly serious aspect. He would talk on, quietly, slowly, until he would come to the point of his joke; then he could no longer restrain himself; and I recall even now how his fat face would puff up, his cheeks expand, and the color rush to his head; then he would burst out laughing, for he could no longer hold in. Maybe he would laugh before he really reached the point of his story.” (told by Dr. F. G. Tibbitts, who worked in McViccar’s store with Cleveland) |
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