"Former Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio W. G. Rose's Home"        Extracted from the newspaper "On the St. Lawrence" - August 18, 1893   .... Another work which posses the stamp of genius is the illumination picture of ex-mayor Rose's cottage and the arched bridge connecting his place with Gypsy Island. Compiled by Mrs. Verda Corbin of Corbin's Studio As reprinted in the Thousand Islands Sun, Alexandria Bay, NY, August 11, 1993.

History of Jefferson County John A. Haddock, 1894 The Thousand Islands - page 168f       HON. WILLIAM O. ROSE, Ex-Mayor of Cleveland. Ohio   His delightful villa is on the east shore of the river, a mile and a half above Alexandria Bay, and about three-fourths of a mile above Castle Rest.  His improvements are upon a liberal scale, and, like those at Manhattan, below the Bay, evince care and artistic taste in all that has been done.   Mr. Rose has retired from active business, having passed an eventful life, beginning as a poor boy in Mercer county, Pa., where he was born in 1829, one of eleven children, all of whom have reared families, and shown the quality of the Scotch-Irish blood which they were fortunate in inheriting.  At 17 he was teaching school.  At 23 he entered the law office of Hon. William Stewart at Mercer Pa. and was admitted to practice in 1855.  Like many other able young men, he leaned toward journalism, and in the Independent Democrat he gave voice to his hatred of slavery.   Although his antecedents were Democratic, he joined the Republican party at its inception, and has steadfastly adhered to its principles from that day to this.  He was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1857, and re-elected in 1858 serving for two terms.  In 1860 he was chosen a delegate to the National Convention at Chicago which nominated Abraham Lincoln as the candidate for President, but was unable to attend because of illness.  He was twice presented by the Republican party of his county as a candidate for Congress, the last time in 1864, the choice being made unanimously.  In 1865 he removed to Cleveland where he gave his attention to the purchase and sale of real estate, in which business he met with financial success.  In 1877 he was elected Mayor of Cleveland, and his services to the city during his term of office were so satisfactory that in 1891 fourteen years thereafter--he was re-elected Mayor under the new charter, known as the "Federal plan".  Under this charter there are but six city departments, each of which has a single head, who is appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the council, after the manner of the President and his cabinet.  So successfully was this plan of municipal government organized and administered by Mayor Rose that it has come to stay.  In 1883 he was nominated by the Ohio Republican State Convention for Lieutenant Governor, and led his ticket all over the State, and in his own county by over three thousand votes.