Roland J. Clelland

History of Kent County - Page 567 & 568 - Roland J. Clelland has to his credit virtually a quarter of a century of successful stewardship as one of the representative members of the Grand Rapids bar, he being here engaged in the general practice of law in an individual way, and his substantial and representative law business having involved his association in a professional way with many of the leading industrial corporations and business firms of Michigan’s vital "Valley City." Mr. Clelland maintains his office in the Michigan Trust building and his home is at 101 Benjamin avenue. Mr. Clelland was born at Coopersville, Ottawa county, Michigan, June 25, 1869, and the family home is still maintained at that place. He is a son of Daniel and Mary (Morrison) Cleland, the former having been born in the state of New York and the latter, who is now deceased, in the province of Ontario, Canada. Daniel Cleland has been a resident of Ottawa county since 1866, and there he was, for several years, engaged in farm enterprise. After 1872 he conducted for a number of years a general merchandise store at Coopersville. Now, (1925) eighty-two years of age, he is one of the venerable and honored retired and pioneer citizens of Ottawa county. He is a Republican in politics and holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. The public schools of his native place afforded Rolland J. Clelland his preliminary education, which was supplemented by full course in Michigan Agricultural College (now Michigan State College), near Lansing, in which fine old institution he has graduated as a member of the class of 1889 and with the degree of Bachelor of Science. After leaving college Mr. Cleland came to Grand Rapids and began the study of law in the office of Earl & Hyde. One year later, he entered the law department of the University of Michigan, and in the same he was graduated as a member of the class of 1891, his admission to the bar having been coincident with his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws. His professional novitiate was served in the Grand Rapids law office of Judges Stuart and Knappen, the later of who (Judge Royal E. Knappen) is represented in a personal sketch elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Cleland maintained this alliance one year, and thereafter he was for five years engaged in practice in the city of Detroit. He then returned to Grand Rapids, which has since continued the central stage of his able and successful professional activities. He has been prominent and influential in the Michigan councils and campaign activities of the Republican party, and in the time-honored Masonic fraternity he is past master of Valley City Lodge No. 86, A. F. & A. M., and past high priest of Grand Rapids Chapter No. 7, R. A. M. His maximum York Rite affiliation is with DeMolay Commandery No. 5, Knights Templar, he is past potentate of Saladin Temple of the Mystic Shrine and also the third-second degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, affiliated with Dewitt Clinton Consistory, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is a trustee of the Grand Rapids, Masonic Temple Association and is a member of the Masonic Country Club, and also of the Peninsular Club and the Highland Golf Club. As a student in the University of Michigan, Mr. Cleland there became affiliated with the Sigma Chi fraternity, besides having been made a life member of the University of Michigan Union.

In 1903 Mr. Cleland wedded Miss Minnie Schiermeyer, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have three children: Jeanette, who was graduated in the Grand Rapids high school, thereafter attending Sullins College, Bristol, Virginia, one year, and in 1925 she is an active and popular student in the Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. Mary, the younger daughter, is a member of the class of 1927 in the Grand Rapids Central high school and there is also a son, Devere Cleland, who is married and resides in Lansing, Michigan.