My Way: The Life and Times of Kenneth I. Cleveland

By Vern Westfall

Where one comes from and when one lived all frame the circumstances that shape one’s character and determine one’s future. Kenneth Irving Cleveland began life on a farm in Charlton Massachusetts but larger circumstances shaped his future. Ken was born into troubled times and a failing economy. His early career choices were limited, but as post war markets recovered, Ken took advantage of unplanned opportunities and became successful in an unwanted profession. Through quirks of history and a twists of fate, Ken’ surname, Cleveland, prefaced his future, determined his career, and the place where it would begin.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9781532092480

Vern Westfall

Vern A Westfall is an author, a philosopher, a pilot, a teacher, and a designer of fine homes. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Miami University attended the United States Air Force Academy and has flown many aircraft, including jet tankers and supersonic spy planes. He has lived and worked in many countries, has served as a foreign liaison officer, has been a college instructor, a high school teacher and a teacher of talented and gifted children. He has designed over one hundred luxury homes and has extensive experience in civil and industrial engineering. Now semi-retired, he writes fictional and non-fictional works related to humanity’s search for a place and purpose in an expanding universe.

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Copyright © 2020 Vern Westfall.

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ISBN: 978-1-5320-9247-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5320-9248-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020900642

iUniverse rev. date:    01/20/2020

The Life and Times of

KENNETH I. CLEVELAND

W here

one comes from and when one lived all frame the circumstances that shape one’s character and determine one’s future. Kenneth I. Cleveland began life on a farm in Charlton Massachusetts but larger circumstances shaped his future. Ken was born into troubled times and a failing economy. His early career choices were limited but as post war markets recovered, Ken took advantage of unplanned opportunities and became successful in an unwanted profession. Through quirks of history and a twists of fate, Ken’s surname, Cleveland, prefaced his future, determined his career and the place where it would begin.

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A s a youth, Ken was unaware that an eleven-year-old Moyses Cleavland had arrived from Ipswitch England in 1631 and would send his surname, with an adjusted spelling , through many generations for Ken to share. As a youth, Ken had no way of knowing that three hundred years after Moyses arrived in the Colonies as an indentured apprentice to a Master Builder, his own future would include a similar apprenticeship. Ken was aware that a City on the shore of Lake Erie shared his name and that his father had a good friend from Cleveland who owned a farm in Massachusetts close to theirs. Ken may also have been aware that another distant relative had founded the City of Cleveland, but he had no way of knowing that the city with his name would shape his future.

General Moses Cleveland, a direct descendent of the apprentice Moyses Cleaveland, was born in Windham County Connecticut one hundred and twenty three years after Moyses arrived from England. He studied law at Yale and served as a commissioned officer during the revolutionary war. Moses continued to serve in the Continental Army after hostilities, advanced to the rank of General, became a Freemason, and an investor in The Connecticut Land Company. To establish a presence in a portion of the land owned by the Connecticut Land Company, known as The Western Reserve, Moses led a