ain there, promising to secure
him admission to a law office in Buffalo. He remained with his uncle for
a time, assisting him in the preparation of the manuscript of the
"American Herd Book," a work upon which he was then engaged; but in the
course of a few months (in August, 1855) he secured admission as a
student in one of the best known law offices of the city--that of
Rogers, Bowen, & Rogers. Blessed with good health and industrious
habits, with an earnest determination to succeed, he entered upon the
work before him. For a time he boarded at his uncle's house, taking the
long walk to and from the office at morning and night; but after a few
months he was enabled to be of such assistance in the office in clerical
and other work, that, from the modest compensation allowed, he secured
lodgings in the city and provided for all his humble wants.

After four years of unremitting study and toil, he was admitted to the
Erie county bar, having laid the foundation for future professional
success in a thorough mastery of legal principles and all the details of
practice, and in those well-established habits of thought and
application by which his subsequent life has been so fully
characterized. He had gained, also, the confidence and esteem of his
preceptors and employers, and after his admission continued with them as
confidential clerk in charge of the office business, receiving a salary
which enabled him, then, to contribute materially to the assistance of
his mother in providing for the wants of the family and maintaining the
comforts of the humble home in Holland Patent, toward which his fondest
thoughts have turned in all the years of his busy life, and where such
periods of recreation as he has felt warranted in indulging have mainly
been spent.

In 1863 Mr. Cleveland received an appointment as assistant district
attorney for Erie county, a strong testimonial to the legal abilities of
so youthful a practitioner, considering the array of professional talent
in the county and the responsibilities of the position. The war was then
in progress; two brothers, one the next older, and the other younger
than himself, had enlisted in the Union army; and when, a few months
after his appointment, as he had fairly familiarized himself with the
details of important cases intrusted to his care, he was himself
drafted, he pursued the only practicable course, and provided a
substitute for the service. In the fall of 1865, while yet se