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The interest in business that T.C. acquired at anearly age would be called upon sooner than anyonesuspected. 3Caroline married into a clan of entrepreneurial Presbyterians whosemembers were among the founding families of Cleveland, Ohio.Her husband, Theodoric Cordenio Severance—pictured here (left)with his youngest brother, John Long Severance, in 1858—beganhis career in the banking industry due to the influence of his fosterfather, David Long, a backer of Cleveland’s first bank. The Severancefamily’s involvement in the social reforms of the day, and T.C.’sunconventional belief in women’s abilities, reinforced Caroline’sparticipation in antislavery and women’s rights circles in Cleveland,Boston, and Los Angeles.Private family collectionAt age fourteen, T.C. wrote this poem about hispreoccupied, scholarly father:The Doctor he is always goneI have the store to tend aloneHe says he does not want your cashThe very way to make us crashIf we could have what you owe usIt would save amazing deal of fussFor if you’d pay us what is dueI’d fill the store cram full anewAnd you can have what you do wantFor cash or note or on accountSometime after 1828—the date of T.C.’s poem—Robert was infected with the bacterium thatcauses tuberculosis. The deadly disease, whichmost commonly attacks the lungs, was rampantin Shelburne township, and its cure would haveto await the development of antibiotics in themid-twentieth century. The sight of their obviouslysick father must have been especiallyterrifying to the Severances’ youngest sons,seven-year-old John Long and twelve-year-oldErasmus Darwin. The victims of tuberculosiswere living wraiths, their eyes red and swollen,their skin pallid, their bodies racked by fever andprolonged fits of coughing that often expelledgouts of blood. Robert Bruce Severance died onFebruary 10, 1830, two months before SolomonLewis turned eighteen. 4The thought of having to provide for four childrenwithout the assistance of a husband wouldhave been daunting to any mother, but Robert’swidow was herself wasting away from consumption,as tuberculosis was then called. Although“accustomed . . . by her religious views as by hernatural feelings, to look upon the bright side ofthings,” Diana Severance recognized that her illnesswas fatal. Before passing away five monthsafter the death of her husband, she had “purchasedher grave clothes and with perfect composuregave directions to have them made.” Shealso arranged for “good protectors” for her sons. 5Massachusetts state law required towns andtownships to pay for the care of its impoverishedresidents and vested in local boards, calledoverseers of the poor, the authority to installdependent minor children in workhouses orplace them in private households as servants orapprentices. Unwilling to condemn her sons tofates that would be characterized today as Dickensian,Diana prevailed upon her cousin, DavidLong, and his wife, Juliana Walworth, to becomeCalifornia History • volume 88 number 1 2010