Orestes Cleveland


Orestes Cleveland, Sr. was an American manufacturer and Democratic Party politician who represented from 1869 to 1871, and served two separate stints as Mayor of Jersey City.

Biography

Born in Duanesburg, New York, Cleveland attended common schools as a child. He moved to Jersey City, New Jersey in 1845 and became involved in the manufacturing of black lead, stove polish and pencils. With Joseph Dixon he helped organize the Dixon Crucible Company, one of the world's largest graphite products manufacturers by the 1870s-1880s, when he served as company president. He married and had a son, Orestes Cleveland, Jr..
He was a member of the Jersey City Board of Aldermen in 1861 and 1862, serving as president in the latter year, and was mayor of Jersey City from 1864 to 1867.
Cleveland was elected a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1868, serving from 1869 to 1871, being unsuccessful for reelection in 1870.
Afterward, he engaged in business with the Forbes Fibre Company in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Governor of New Jersey in 1880 losing to George C. Ludlow, and was again mayor of Jersey City, serving again from 1886 to 1892. Cleveland was one of the organizers of the Jersey City Board of Trade in 1888 and served as its first president. He moved to Tenafly, New Jersey in 1892 and then again to Englewood, New Jersey. He died in Norwich, Vermont on March 30, 1896, where he had gone in search of health. He was interred in Fairview Cemetery in Norwich.