Mrs. Elizabeth Clark Scofield
pages 87-96

DIED, January 2, 1914, Mrs. Elizabeth Clark Scofield, wife of Captain Levi T. Scofield.”  To the casual reader, how little that item, as it appeared in the newspapers, would mean, but to those who knew and loved Mrs. Scofield during her many years of activity in the religious and charitable work in the city of Cleveland, it was a most severe shock.
Mrs. Scofield was born in Conneaut, Ohio, on February 9, 1845.  She was the daughter of Marshal Williams Wright and Sarah Ann (Jacobs) Wright.  Mrs. Scofield traces her family history back into the dim past.  Her great-grandfather was Solomon Wright, a weaver in Wilbraham, Massachusetts in the pre-Revolutionary period.  Her grandfather, Sherman Wright, was born in the year 1784 and died in 1847.  Her grandmother was Fanny Howes, of Willimantic, Connecticut.
On her mother's side she traces her lineage in a direct line to George Sexton, who came to America in 1660 and settled in Westfield, Massachusetts.  He died in 1690.
Her mother, the daughter of Asa Jacobs and Sarah Sexton, was born in 1820 and was married to Marshal Williams Wright in 1844, coming soon thereafter to Conneaut, Ohio, where they made their home and Mrs. Scofield was born.
From her early girlhood, Mrs. Scofield was of a very religious nature.  She very early affiliated herself with the Baptist denomination, and during her lifetime became one of the most consistent and prominent workers in the church.  In Cleveland she was a member and an ardent worker in the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church, of which Rev. W. W. Bustard has for many years been the pastor.  Doctor Bustard paid a glowing tribute to Mrs. Scofield in his address at the funeral services over her body.  He said:
“Death is an illuminated valley, and our friend, Mrs. Levi T. Scofield, has just passed throught it to her coronation day.  We have come to celebrate her entrance into the land of immortal life and eternal joy.
“This is not the time nor the place for a great funeral oration on the virtues of a noble Christian woman.  Her life speaks better for itself than we can speak for it.  Poets live in their poetry, writers in their books, painters in their pictures, but Mrs. Scofield will live in the hearts of all who knew and loved her.  Slabs are raised to the memory of kings, pyramids built to perpetuate the names of the monarchs, but the influence of Mrs. Scofield's life will perpetuate he memory in the years to come.
“It is the custom among the Moravians, when one of their number dies, to sound a trumpet with its note of triumph, for death, they say, is swallowed up in victory.  We, too, have come to-day to sound our note of triumph, for, in the passing of our sister, death is swallowed up in victory--swallowed up as the darkness of the night is swallowed up in the light of the morning, as the winter is swallowed in the bright spring.  One of our poets has most beautifully expressed it in the following words:

“It is said of Phidias, the great Grecian sculptor, that in constructing the shield to Minerva he so wrought his own image into it that it became impossible to remove his image without destroying the shield itself.  Mrs. Scofield has so wrought her Christian life into our lives, and the institutions which she served in this city, that it would be impossible to destroy her influence without destroying these things.
“Death is the great interpreter of life.  It sums up all that we have been and done.  We turn then to the death of our friend at this time and ask it to interpret for us her long and useful career.
“The first characteristic of Mrs. Scofield's beautiful life was her strong religious nature.  It makes no difference to us now from whence it came; it might have been wholly the gift of God, perhaps it was a matter of cultivation, or, it may have been born in her as an heritage from strong and noble ancestors of the past.  She came from the sturdy stock of pioneers, whose strong arms and religious faith conquered this country and helped to make it what it is.  This strong religious nature of hers revealed itself in her love for God's house.  For many years she has been a faithful Christian and a constant attendant at the services of the church, where she loved to mingle her voice with others as they were lifted to God in praise and in prayer.  Her religious nature was seen also in her love for God's Word; her soul fed upon its truths as upon the bread of heaven.  She found comfort in its promises and instruction in its precepts; truly it was a lamp to her feet and a light to her path.  The holy scriptures, with prayer, were the means that kept her in constant communion with the Heavenly Father, and even to the very last, prayer to her was the Christian's vital breath.
“Her religious nature revealed itself in her love for God's work.  Mrs. Scofield was not only a praying Christian, she was a working Christian.  She possessed the highest kind of faith, which James tells us is a faith that works by love.  These very streets bear the marks of her foot-prints, where she traveled them many years on her errands of love and service.  She was an indefatigable worker and never tired in the faithful performance of the work for God and others which had been entrusted to her care.
“Her death reminds us also of her mother's great heart.  Mrs. Scofield was an old-fashioned mother, the kind, indeed, that never goes out of fashion.  She was just the kind of a mother that the husband, son, and daughter loved the best.  With her, home always came first, nothing could ever take its place.  It was in the home that she broke the alabaster box of love and the perfume of the ointment filled the house with its sweetness.  Before anything else she was a wife faithful and true, a mother kind and loving.  Her pleasant ways and cheerful manners always filled her home with the sunshine of her presence.  In the midst of life's afflictions and sorrows she was ever brave and courageous.  Had she been a man she would have been a soldier.  Life brought to her much of grief as well as joy.  She was always the same even-tempered Christian mother.  She reminds me of the Spartan mothers of old, only she had with their courage a Christian faith, about which they knew nothing.  With true Christian courage and trust she arose above life's sorrows, ever strong in the belief that God would make all things work together for good.
“In the last place we notice that Mrs. Scofield had the spirit of a philanthropist.  She loved others.  She loved them not for the good they could do her, but for the good that she could do them.  She loved them regardless of their social condition.  She loved because sh could not help it--it came from her heart just as the light comes from the sun and the perfume comes from the flowers.
“Like her Master, it was her highest joy to go about doing good, and she lived not for those who could minister unto her, but for the privilege of ministering unto others.
“When one of Story's statues was unveiled in London, he was asked to speak.  Touching the statue with his finger he said, ‘This is my speech.’  We look at the beautiful Young Women's Christian Association, where she served as treasurer and president for so many years, and we say, ‘This is her speech.’  The work that she did in this and many other institutions will speak for her in the many years to come.  She has taught us all that the Christian life is the unselfish life.  Any life that is selfish cannot be Christian.  ‘If we bury the truth in self it soon appears tarnished; if we share it with others, as she did, it shines like a star.’
“Mrs. Scofield leaves behind her that which is more precious than riches--a good name.  No heritage is richer than that which she has left to her family and her friends; the sweet memory of a noble Christian woman, whose works can never die and whose character will never end.  It has all been summed up for us in the beautiful picture Margaret E. Sangster gives us in her poem called ‘The Elect Lady.’

Ms. Scofield was one of the founders of the Young Women's Christian Association of Cleveland, and served in various official capacities in that organization for twenty-five years, the greater part of that time being its treasurer.  At the retirement of Mrs. Dan P. Erlls, Mrs. Scofield was made the president of the Association, and retained that office until the time of her death.  Nothing could be said that could show the high esteem in which Mrs. Scofield was held by the members of the Young Women's Christian Association that is said in the memorial resolution adopted by that organization at the time of her death.  It follows:
“The Young Women's Christian Association of Cleveland sustained a great loss in the passing of Elizabeth Clark Scofield, its honored President, on the afternoon of January the second, nineteen hundred and fourteen.  For twenty-five years her life had been interwoven with the activities of the organization, and her faithful and self-sacrificing service in the various positions which she filled helped in large measure to bring its projects to fruition.
“A woman of rare personal charm and loving nature, she endeared herself to every one with whom she came in contact.  Her sincerity was absolute and her loyalty to the Association, its former presidents, and her co-workers, never wavered; her friendship was a benediction.  Though modest and considerate of the opinions of others, her abiding faith in the care and guidance of her Heavenly Father opened her eyes to the heavenly vision, endued her with a keen perception of the possibilities of larger service, and gave her the courage of he convictions.  In every emergency she was strong and resourceful; she never swerved, and he quiet words of counsel always stilled troubled hearts and gave courage for more consecrated and determined effort.
“We the trustees and members of the Association, feel a deep personal loss in the removal of Mrs. Scofield from our sight.  Our hearts are sad, but we rejoice in the blessed inspiration which her life has been to us as individuals and as an Association, to the National Board, and to the community at large.  Her work on earth is finished, but her beautiful life has left its impress, and its influence will ever continue.
“To her bereaved husband and family, we tender our heartfelt sympathy, and pray the Holy Spirit to comfort and sustain them in this hour of trial.
“It is our wish that these words of appreciation of our beloved president, co-worker, and friend be sent to her family, and that they also be inscribed in the records of the Association.
“Committee on Resolutions,
        “Mrs. H. A. Sherwin, Chairman,
“Mrs. H. A. Griffin,         Mrs. W. P. Champney,
“Mrs. D. P. Allen,         Mrs. Chas. W. Chase.
“Accepted and adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Young Women's Christian Association, January the thirteenth, nineteen hundred and fourteen.”
Many were the tributes and encomiums that were paid Mrs. Scofield when the news of her death was carried to the various charitable institutions and religious organizations in which she had such a large interest.
The Trustees of the Phyllis Wheatley Home Association siad:
“We the trustees of said Association do unanimously resolve as follows:
“That in the death of the late Mrs. Levi T. Scofield, we feel that the cause of humanity suffers a loss, the extent of which only time can unfold.
“Deeply imbued with the teachings of the Savior of mankind, her sympathies were as broad and deep as the whole world; cosmopolitan in her nature, she knew, in her merciful ministrations, no race or creeds, and, towards all, her impulses were generous and her hand liberal.
“She was far-sighted, self-denying, and industrious in the causes espoused by her, and altruistic to the overflowing of the measure.
“In her loss we bow beneath a personal affliction and extend to her bereaved husband and children deepest regret and profoundest sympathy.
“January 7, 1914.”
On the twenty-sixth of June, 1867, Mrs.Scofield was united in marriage at Kingsville, Ohio, to Captain Levi T. Scofield, of Cleveland, coming immediately to Cleveland, where she made her home until her death.
Captain Levi T. Scofield is one of the most prominent architects, sculptors, and engineers in America.  He was born in Cleveland on the ninth of November, 1842.  His father was William Scofield, and his mother was Mary Coon.  His father came to Cleveland in 1816 with his parents, at the age of six years.  He was a native of New York.  He was born in 1810 and died August 14, 1872, in Cleveland.
William and Mary (Coon Scofield) had five children; Emily, who died at the age of three years; Harriet, who died at the age of sixteen years; William, who died at the age of fourteen years; Levi T., and Mary E., who was the wife of Alfred S. Field, of Columbus, Ohio.
It might be, at this date, interesting to note that William Scofield build the first house on Walnut Street in the City of Cleveland, just back of where the Gillsy Hotel now stands, and it was there he took his bride.
Levi T. Scofield attended the public schools in Cleveland, where he received his early education and where he first took up the study of engineering and architecture.  In 1860, however, he went to Cincinnati to continue his studies in those branches.  Upon the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Mr. Scofield returned to Cleveland and enlisted in the First Regiment, Ohio Light Artillery.  Upon the expiration of his enlistment he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the 103d Ohio Infantry, from which rank he was promoted to First Lieutenant in February, 1863, and was made a Captain in November, 1864.  During his infantry service his engineering abilities were appreciated by his superior officers, and he was frequently assigned to do engineering work.  He participated in the pursuit of Kirby Smith in 1862 and of General Morgan in 1863.  He was with General Burnside in his campaign over the Cumberland Mountains, and was also at the siege of Knoxville, as well as at the defeat of Longstreet.
From June, 1863, to June, 1865, Captain Scofield's service was continuous as an engineering officer.  He was in the battles of the Atlanta campaign and the campaign of Nashville; took part in the pursuit of General Hood to the Tennessee River, and served in North Carolina early in 1865, being present at the capture of Raleigh, and the surrender of General Johnson.  At the close of the war he went to New York City, where he continued his work in architecture, but very shortly returned to Cleveland and has since resided in that city.
Since 1865, Captain Scofield has engaged in his profession of architect and engineer.  Many of the public buildings throughout Ohio are the result of his architectural genius.  He built the Cleveland High School in 1878, the Athens and Columbus Asylums for Insane in 1869; in 1871 he built the Soldier's and Sailors; Orphan's Home at Xenia, Ohio; the Raleigh Penitentiary in 1870, and the Cleveland House of Correction in 1867.  In 1884 he built the Mansfield Reformatory, and in 1901 he erected the Scofield Building in Cleveland, of which he is both architect and owner.  It is located on the corner of Euclid Avenue and Ninth Street, and is one of the handsomest office buildings in the Forest City.
Perhaps the most celebrated work which Captain Scofield has designed, is the Cuyahoga County Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, which stands in the public square in Cleveland, and of which he was both architect and sculptor.  This monument was built in 1894; when dedicated the principal address was delivered by William McKinley, at that time the Governor of Ohio.  It is stated that the procession which formed the parade on that gala occasion, was the most impressive and largest ever seen on the streets of Cleveland.  The total cost of this monument was $314,5000.00, of which amount $257,000.00 was paid by the county, and $57,000.00 was contributed by Captain Scofield himself.  The tax through which funds were raised to pay for the monument, was distributed over fourteen years, and amounted to one and nine-tenths mills on every hundred of the table value of the property throughout the county.  The monument has an esplanade of one hundred feet square, a tablet room forty feet square.  The total height to the top of the figure of Liberty is one hundred and twenty-five feet.  The building is of black Quincy granite.  The shaft is of the same material, highly polished, and [the] esplanade is of red Medina stone.  There are one hundred tons of cast bronze in the statuary, doors, grills, etc., and the names of ten thousand soldiers are engraved on the marble tablets.  The work was done under the supervision of a commission of twelve members, who were all veterans of the Civil War.  The expenditure of this amount of money was contested in the courts, and it took two and a half years before work could formally begin.  The commission was enjoined by both the common Pleas and the Circuit Courts, but the members of the commission carried the fight first to the Supreme Court of Ohio and then to the United States District and Appellate court, in both of which the decision of the lower courts was reversed.
Thus to-day Cleveland has, through the genius of Levi T. Scofield, and the never-say-die spirit of this body of twelve men, a fitting monument to perpetuate the memory of the soldiers who died in defense of their flag.
Captain Scofield devoted more than seven and a half years to the work of designing and building this monument, without compensation, and when the co-operation of the County Commissioners was refused, he sacrificed his private fortune in order to defray expenses.
Captain Scofield is a member of the military orders of the Loyal Legion and of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Captain Scofield could cease work to-day and rest well content with the laurels he has won during the many years he has spent in his native city of Cleveland.
To the union of Capain and Mrs. Scofield there were born five children.  They are as follows:
First.  William Marshal Scofield who was born in 1868.  He received his education in the public schools in Cleveland and through private tutors, but his technical training was all in the office of his father.
At a very early age he began assisting in his father's offices doing some work as early as fifteen years of age, and when he had reached the age of eighteen, he began to work regularly as an architect with his father, and has been associated with his father in that capacity ever since, with the exception of a brief period of a little over two years, from 1898 to 1901, when he served his country as an officer during the Spanish-American War, and later in the Philippines.  From early youth he was very fond of military tactics,a nd while still young he joined the State militia.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War he was Second Lieutenant of his company in the State militia.  In April, 1898, he was given a captain's recruiting commission, whereupon he recruited a troop of cavalry, which was mustered into the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry as Troop C, with Lieutenant Scofield as Captain.  The regiment was mustered in at Columbus, Ohio, April 24, 1898; then sent to Chickamauga Park, where they remained for a short period and were then transferred to Lakeland, florida.  Some time later the regiment was sent to Huntsville, Alabama.
At the close of the hostilities in Cuba, his regiment was returned to Ohio, and his troop was mustered out in Cleveland on October 22, 1898.  However, seemingly, Captain Scofield had not had enough military service, so in June, 1899, without request, he was given a commission as captain in the volunteers, and was assigned to the Thirty-first United States Volunteer Infantry.  In October, 1899, his regiment was ordered to the Philippine Islands, where Captain Scofield remained the greater part of the time on detached service.  Leaving the Philippines he returned to Cleveland, where he again took up his work in his father's office.
In January, 1903, Captain Scofield again entered the State militia as Captain of Troop A, Ohio Cavalry.  In 1910, he was given a commission as Major of the First Squadron of the Ohio Cavalry, Ohio National Guard.
Captain Scofield is a member of the Cleveland Athletic and the Cleveland Rotary clubs.  He is an indefatigable worker and finds his greatest pleasure and recreation in following his chosen profession.
Second.  Donald, deceased, was also associated with this father in the architectural work, being a graduate, class of 1896, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Boston.  Upon leaving college he returned to Cleveland, where he took up his profession under his father and served in that capacity until the time of his death.  He also, was in the volunteers in the Spanish-American War, being Sergeant of Company D, Tenth Ohio Infantry.  Unpon returning to Cleveland at the close of operations in Cuba, he entered the Ohio National Guard and was made First Lieutenant in the Engineers Corps.  He was in charge of his company en route to Washington, D. C., to attend the inauguration of Mr. Roosevelt as President in 1905, when he, with several members of his company, was killed in a railroad wreck.
Third.  Sherman Wright Scofield also associated with his father as an engineer and architect in their offices in the Schofield [Sic.] Building.  He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, and returning to his home, took up the practice of his profession.  During the Spanish-American War he served as a private in Troop A., First Ohio Cavalry, and upon his return to Cleveland again took up his work as an architect.  He is a member of the Hermit and Cleveland Athletic clubs.
Fourth.  Harriet Elizabeth, who is the wife of Winthrop G. Bushnell, of New Haven, Conn.  They have one daughter, Elizabeth.
Fifth.  Douglas Franklin Scofield, deceased, was also associated with his father from the time of his graduation at the University School in Cleveland, on July 21, 1909.  He was married to Miss Josephine A. Skelly, of Cleveland.  They had two children, Douglas Franklin, Jr., and Josephine Scofield, who make their home with their mother in Cleveland.  Douglas Franklin Scofield passed away in 1912.
There could be no more fitting conclusion of this sketch of the life and activities of this remarkable woman, Mrs. Levi T. Scofield, than to reproduce, herewith, the following tribute that was addressed to Mrs. Scofield's family after her death by Mrs. T. E. Adams, for many years an associate of Mrs. Scofield's in the various charitable works in the city of Cleveland:
“The womanhood of the world is poorere to-day, because a leader in the world's though lies with hand folded over a quiet heart.  The Baptist women of Ohio lost a color-bearer from their very front ranks.
“The women of Cleveland and all northern Ohio speak an honored and beloved name through their tears, with a prostrating sense of loss, as the news of the death of Mrs. Levi T. Scofield came from her beautiful home on the hill.  A master spirit, a natural leader, a student of humanity, a sociologist of distinction--the most exalted type of Christian womanhood--make a composite picture of one of the most gracious and commanding figures among this generation of Cleveland's women.
“Upon the public square of Cleveland stand the stately Soldier's Monument, the realized dream in granite and bronze of her artist husband.
“Uptown a little farther an eight-story structure of stone rears itself, and chiseled over the entrance one reads, ‘The Young Women's Christian Association,‘ of which Mrs. Scofield was the president, of which she was one of its founders, and for many years its treasurer--her realized dream of a home and training ground for young women.
“Still further up Prospect Avenue is a less pretentious but still interesting building, the ‘Baptist Home of Northern Ohio,’ of which she was its treasurer, incorporator, friend--another of her realized dreams of a home for the aged of the denomination she loved.  A few blocks farther east is an attractive house of handsome appearance, over whose entrance are the words, ‘The Phyllis Wheatley Home,’ another realized dream of its founder and lessee, as a home and training place for young colored women.
“Mrs. Levi T. Scofield was, not so long ago, the president of the Baptist Women's Ohio Society, and she was known the country over as one whose views and thoughts were of importance and value.
“When the foreign Mission Jubilee celebration was held in Cleveland, the name of Mrs. Scofield was suggested as chairman for that memorable session.  With one voice from all denominational representatives, she was proclaimed the leader.
“There was no situation so lofty in social life to which she did not add by her very presence.  She enjoyed the highest social advantage, and the musical and artistic life and atmosphere of this Western Reserve was enhanced by her own contribution of art knowledge.
“She fostered every enterprise which would contribute to the happiness of people and to the development of fine character.
“To have served with her, to have enjoyed her counsel, her friendship, and her dreams was in itself a great reward.  Mrs. Scofield carried into all her activities ‘the freshness of the morning and the lavish heart of youth.’  In writing an appreciation of this beautiful and unusual woman, one is reminded of one's inadequacy at every word.  This week there will be a service at which even Dr. W. W. Bustard will say brokenly some expressions of comfort.  Her life-long friends, the Rockefellers, will step more slowly, and so from the most powerful to the least person of her acquaintance will share for the time the democracy of a common grief.  Can one say more?”

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