Grover Cleveland was born at Caldwell, New Jersey, March 18, 1837. His
ancestors came from England. His father was a Presbyterian minister
and he was named after the Rev. Steven Grover. In 1841 the family
moved to Fayetteville, New York, where the future president was
educated in the public schools. Between lessons he acted as clerk in
a country store. He received further education at a local academy,
and was later appointed assistant teacher in the New York Institution
for the Blind. In 1855, while helping his uncle, Lewis F. Allen, at
Buffalo, compiling “The American Word Book,” he began to read law,
and, in 1859, was admitted to the bar. He was appointed assistant
district attorney of Erie county in 1863, but in 1865 he was defeated
for the district attorneyship of the same county. Thereupon he became
a member of a Buffalo law firm. In 1871 he was elected sheriff of Erie
county. At the close of this term he helped to form the firm of Bass,
Cleveland & Bissel. In 1881 he was elected mayor of Buffalo by the
largest majority to a mayoralty candidate ever given in that city. In
1882 he was made governor of the state of New York. He was nominated
as Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1884, was elected, and
inaugurated on March 4, 1885. His term of office was notable on account
of his exercising the veto power beyond all precedent. He vetoed one
hundred and fifteen out of nine hundred and eighty-seven bills, which
had passed both houses, one hundred and two of these being private
pension bills. On June 2, 1886, he was married, in the White House,
to Frances Folsom, the daughter of one of his former law partners. In
1888 Mr. Cleveland was candidate for a second term as president, but
was defeated by Benjamin Harrison. In 1892 he was again a candidate,
and this time he was elected. Mr. Cleveland was without doubt the most
popular Democrat of his time when running for the presidency. He is an
enthusiastic devotee of gun and rod, an ideal host, and even those who
differ with him politically admit his statesmanship.