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Biographies
Source:
History of Cleveland and its Environs
The Heart of
New Connecticut
Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New
York
1918
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JOHN ADOLPHE
FERENCIK, also sometimes spelled Feriencik, now
living retired at Cleveland, has at different times been
identified with this city in his capacity as an editor and
journalist, and is one of the most widely known men in newspaper
and literary circles among the Slovak nationality in America.
He was born May 30, 1865, in the City of Zvolen in
Austria-Hungary, a son of John George and Amalia Ferencik.
His father died in Austria and his mother in England. The
father was a revolutionary leader in Hungary, associated with
the great Kossuth. He was one of the party that
accompanied that distinguished Hungarian patriot on his tour of
the American continent about seventy years ago.
John A. Fereneik was educated in the public
schools and colleges of his native land, graduating in 1884.
For a time he was instructor in a school, and then took up
journalistic work and in 1887 was member of the editorial staff
of a Slovak newspaper at Budapest. He soon became
unpopular with the Hungarian government on account of his
pan-Slavism, and unable to rest content under the suppressive
conditions he sought a new home in America, where he would be
free to write his convictions as he felt them. Thus in
1890 he came to the United States, and since then has been
editor of many Slovac newspapers. He was editor of one of
the leading papers of that nationality in New York, and during
thirty-five years of active newspaper life has owned and edited
many Slovac journals throughout the country. He finally
retired in 1917, his last position having been as editor of the
National Slovak Daily of Chicago, the largest daily published in
that language in the world.
As a youth in his native land he served a brief time with an
artillery organization but had no active military experience.
From 1900 to 1908 he was supreme secretary in the National
Slovak Society. Politically he is a republican of the
stand-pat variety, and has supported all the republican
presidents since he came to this country. He is member of
the various Slovak secret societies, is a Lutheran in religion,
and is a member of the Gun Club of Pittsburgh.
During his career he has written many books, short
stories and poems, and is well known among American Slavs as a
playwright. Since retiring h has used his time profitably
in writing books and plays and in contributing editorials to
various newspapers.
Mar. 8, 1886, in Austria-Hungary he married Mary
Marko, daughter of Andrew and Anna (Benko) Marko.
They are the parents of two children, John, Paul and
Beatrice.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of
New Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago
and New York - 1918 - Page 328 |
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JOHN P. FERENCIK.
Of the young and forceful citizens of Cleveland who have come to
the front in recent years in public and professional life, few
have greater achievements to their credit than has John P.
Fereneik. Still in his twenties, he has impressed
himself upon the community as a lawyer of sound ability, with
many notable successes in his career, while in Slavonic circles
of the city he has gained a reputation, standing and influence
second to none. His entire life at Cleveland has been
composed of a series of successes, all self gained and all well
merited.
Mr. Fereneik was born at New York City, Jan. 25,
1890, son of John A. Fereneik, elsewhere mentioned in
this publican. John Paul Ferencik, after completing
his preliminary educational training, became a student at
Pittsburgh of the Pittsburgh academy. While there he began
to display his ambitious and capable qualifications and in
addition to the general literary course took military training
and won high honors as a debater. He had the affirmative
end of the question in regard to the adoption of the commission
for of government for Pittsburgh, and won this debate over
worthy opponents. It was held at the Carnegie Institute in
1910 at the twentieth annual debate of the Knickerbocker
and Emanon Literary Society. While in Pittsburgh he
also served as president of the Emanon Literary Society.
On leaving Pittsburgh he also served as president of the Emanon
Literary Society. On leaving Pittsburgh Academy he entered
Adelbert College at Western Reserve University, and from there
enrolled as a student at the University of Michigan, where he
remained for two years, receiving his A. B. degree. Then
entering the Cleveland Law School he graduated LL. B. in 1815
and on the first of July in the same year was admitted to the
bar of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio and at once began
practice in Cleveland. He opened offices in the Engineers
Building and at present is in the office of the law firm of
David & Heald and carries on a general practice. While
in active professional work only a short time Mr. Fereneik
has already attracted a large, influential and representative
clientele, and as the only Slavonic attorney in Cleveland,
practically controls the practice of that nationality. He
also represents The Zivena, as their attorney in Ohio.
This is the largest Slavonic Ladies Benefit Society in the
United States. He is also building up a good following in
other directions and is making such rapid advancement in his
calling that he may be accounted one of the lawyers of promise
of the city.
While giving the bulk of his attention to his rapidly
increasing practice, Mr. Ferencik has had experience in
other directions. Before taking up the law he was
interested in colonizing in Southern Mississippi, during which
as the assistant manager of sales for The Mississippi Farms
Company, he founded the enterprising and thriving Town of
Slavonia, Mississippi.
In political matters Mr. Ferencik is a
republican. During the campaign of 1916 he took charge of
the Slavonic end of the campaign at Cleveland for Charles
Evans Hughes. He has interested himself in
matters pertaining not alone to the interests of the Slavonic
people in this country, but those in connection with general
matters of public importance as well. His intelligence and
good judgment have more than once made him a valuable citizen in
public spirited civic movements. In his profession he is
known among his fellow members in the Ohio Bar Association as an
attorney who respects the highest ethics of the law. Among
other connections he holds membership in the City Club of
Cleveland.
At Buffalo, New York, July 6, 1917, Mr. Ferencik
married Miss Ella L. Beers, daughter of Elmer S. and
Della A. (Gambee) Beers, both now deceased. Mrs.
Ferencik is a great-granddaughter of the late
multi-millionaire, L. H. Wade, one of the early pioneers
of Cleveland. Socially Mrs. Ferencik has for
several years been prominent at Cleveland and is
secretary of the Harroff School of Expression of this city, and
a very talented teacher of dramatic act. She was born at
Adrian, Michigan, is a graduate of Wooster College in Ohio and
in Chicago School of Dramatic Art.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of
New Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago
and New York - 1918 - Page 329 |
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ARCHIE N. FERGUSON.
To find one's work in the world and to devote to it every
faculty, ounce of energy and hour of time has been proved again
and again a sure road to success. When Archie N. Ferguson
completed his education at the age of nineteen he thought that
he knew what he wanted to do. He had already acquired
considerable knowledge of the mechanical arts that enter into
the building trades, and after a year of additional training
under his father went out to Los Angeles and spent a couple of
years supervising building construction of bungalows under
Walter R. Wright.
With this equipment of experience he returned to
Cleveland and formed the partnership of Ferguson
Brothers, his associate being his brother, Albert R.
They did a satisfying business as contractors until the firm was
dissolved in 1909, at which time Archie Ferguson
established the new partnership of the Ferguson-Bolmeyer
Company, contractors. Two years later he sold his
interests there and established a contracting business of his
own, and put up many local homes and apartment houses. In
1915 Mr. Ferguson organized the Ferguson
and Flanigan Company, of which he has since been
president and manager.
The extent and quality of his work can best be told by
reference to some of the contracts his firm has carried out.
These include residences for Fred Knodler, C.
W. Fuller, F. H. Ulmer, F. B. Wolcott, W.
B. Lutton, J. T. Webster, William J. Van Aiken,
Dr. J. H. Brett, all of them being homes ranging in cost
from $10,000 to $20,000. Other features of their record as
building contractors are the Goulder Block at One Hundred
Eleventh Street and Superior Avenue, the apartments at the
corner of One Hundred Seventeenth Street and St. Clair Avenue,
the Vikers Annex at Sixty-fifth and Euclid Avenue, Yellow Taxi
Cab Garage at Twenty-second Street near Payne, the building for
the Standard Top and Equipment Company at Sixty-fifth Street
near Euclid, the Kayvee Building at 6203 Euclid Avenue, and many
others.
Archie N. Ferguson was born at Cleveland Oct.
10, 1880. His father, William B. Ferguson, a native
of Toronto, Canada, came to Cleveland during the early '60s and
was one of the important building contractors of the city until
his death in 1904. After coining to Cleveland he married
Effie A. Pettes. They had four sons, Archie N.,
Albert, William and David, all residents of
Cleveland. Archie N. Ferguson was graduated from
the Central High School of Cleveland at the age of nineteen.
He is affiliated with the Royal Arcanum, Loyal Order of Moose,
Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club, First Baptist Church, and
casts his vote as an intelligent republican.
June 1, 1905, at Cleveland he married Maude E.
Williams. They have two children, Norton, aged
eleven, and Jack, aged seven, both boys being in the
local public schools.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of
New Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago
and New York - 1918 - Page 16 - Vol. III |
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CHARLES H. FERGUSON
was born in Cleveland about thirty years ago, on May 21, 1887,
son of Charles A. and Elizabeth (Parkin) Ferguson.
His age is mentioned at the beginning because the
reader will regard it as significant that a man with so few
years to his credit has accomplished so much in the way of
substantial achievement in business affairs. His schooling
ended when he left the Shaw High School at the age of seventeen.
The next six months he worked as an office boy with the Cuyahoga
Telephone Company. That was only a temporary experience,
and some of life's real opportunities opened to him during the
year and a half he spent in the drafting room of the Carey
Construction Company. It has been in the construction
business that he has made his success. From the drafting
room he was put out in the field by the Carey Company as
timekeeper for seven months, and then for two years acquired
both knowledge and experience by working as a day laborer with
the firm. This was really in the nature of an
apprenticeship or service in the ranks, from which he was
promoted to foreman, and finally to superintendent. After
leaving the Carey Company he was for eight months
superintendent of construction for Andrew Dall,
contractor, and then went on the road as a salesman for two
years with the American Steel & Wire Company.
The C. H. Ferguson Company is a young
organization but it has within it all the elements of growth and
expansion. At the beginning there were three persons in
the office and a field force of five men, while today the office
force comprises nine and at seasons of the year from 150 to 200
men are required in the work of installing and erecting on the
present contracts of the company. In 1917, practically the
first year of the company's operations, the value of business
done was fully $150,000.
The company's headquarters in Cleveland are in the
Vickers Building at 6523 Euclid Avenue, and they also have a
branch office at Buffalo, New York. It is obvious that the
business of this firm is not confined to one city or one
locality. The extent of their operations is revealed by
contracts now in course of fulfillment or recently filled.
They installed steel windows in buildings at Madison, Wisconsin;
Savannah, Georgia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Indianapolis;
Chicago; Buffalo; Watertown, New York; and Cincinnati, Akron and
Carey, Ohio. Only recently this company did the finishing
window work for the Curtis Aeroplane factory at Buffalo,
New York, the largest factory of its type in the United States,
and incidentally it may be mentioned that the building was put
up in the shortest time on record. Most of the work of the
Ferguson Company is now Government orders.
Associated with Mr. Ferguson as president of the
company is H. S. Mills as vice president and A. C.
Butler secretary and treasurer.
Though at the head of a successful business, Mr.
Ferguson is also carrying his studies in the Cleveland
Law School and will in time be a member of the bar, though
whether business or the profession makes the chief claim upon
his energies remains to be decided later. In politics
Mr. Ferguson is a republican. He married at
Elyria, Ohio, Sept. 13, 1908, Miss Laura Hengartner.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of
New Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago
and New York - 1918 - Page 446 - Vol. III |
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RICHARD FERGUSON.
Cleveland as a great center of industry has attracted many of
the most expert factory and business executives in the country,
and one of these is Richard Ferguson, now general manager
of the Grant-Lees Gear Company.
Mr. Ferguson has had a very active
career. He spent seven or eight years in the United States
army, and after leaving the service he made rapid advancement in
business in the field of mechanical engineering. He was
born at Lowell, Massachusetts, Feb. 6, 1876, a son of Fergus
Ferguson. In 1881 his parents came to Detroit,
where he grew up and attended the public schools until 1892.
He then entered the United States army as candidate for
commission, saw considerable active service at Fort Walla Walla
and Fort Vancouver, State of Washington, and afterwards went to
the Philippines with the Fourth United States Cavalry.
After being mustered out in 1900 Mr. Ferguson
spent three years as a machinist apprentice with the Solway
Process Company of Detroit, and for a year and a half was
superintendent of the Wayne Construction Company. After
that he was foreman of a machine shop of the Dodge
Brothers at Detroit, and next entered the Michigan Auto
Parts Company, which soon afterwards became the General Motors
Corporation. Through this corporation Mr.
Ferguson was assigned as an efficiency and production expert
with the Buick Motor Car Company.
In 1912 he came to Cleveland, was made assistant
superintendent of the Grant-Lees Gear Company,
became superintendent in 1913, in 1915 factory manager, and
since 1916 has been the vice president and general manager of
this large and important corporation.
This company is the outgrowth of the John D. Grant
Ball Bearing Company. Mr. Grant associated
himself with Mr. Lees of the Lees Machinery
Company and they took up the manufacture of gear machinery and
finally reorganized their facilities for the manufacture of
gears themselves. In 1913 the business took its present
title of Grant-Lees Gear Company, with G. B.
Collings president; C. W. Blossom, treasurer; and
Mr. Ferguson as general manager. In 1913 the company
began manufacturing complete transmission equipment.
During that year the output was 3,000 units. At the
present rate the output for the year 1917 will be 70,000 units.
Sixty-three men were on the pay roll in 1913, and today the
force is fully 500. This company is now manufacturing
transmission equipment for forty-three automobile companies.
Mr. Ferguson is also vice president of
the Federal Gear Company, president of the Columbia Clutch
Company, secretary of the Metal Planing Company, and a
stockholder in several other large corporations. He is a
member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland
Athletic Club, the Willowick Country Club, the American Society
of Mechanical Engineers and the Masonic order, having taken all
the degrees up to and including the thirty-second, Al Koran
Temple and Patrol, and is chairman of the entertainment
committee.
At Flint, Michigan, May 12, 1912, Mr.
Ferguson married Virginia Holland. They
have three children, Alice, Melba and Richard,
the latter born in 1916. The daughters Alice and
Melba are attending the Hathaway
School for Girls.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of
New Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago
and New York - 1918 - Page 305 - Vol. III |
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WILLIAM SINTON FITZGERALD,
director of law of the City of Cleveland, has been a member of
the Cleveland bar since 194. He possesses exceptional
attainments both as a lawyer and as a speaker, and has become
one of the recognized leaders among the younger element of the
republican party in Northern Ohio.
Both his father and grandfather were soldiers.
His grandfather was David FitzGerald, Sr.,
who was born in Montreal, Canada. In early life he entered
the British army, serving as a subaltern with the Forty-fourth
Regiment of English Infantry. He died when still in the
army at Bombay, and was buried in the English cemetery in that
city. His death occurred at the early age of thirty-three.
David FitzGerald, Jr., father of the Cleveland
lawyer, was born at London, England, June 8, 1843. He was
graduated from Trinity College of England, and was qualified as
a civil engineer. Coming to the United States in the early
'60s, he had been here only a short time when he offered his
services to the Union army. He acted as General
Belknap's adjutant until severely wounded. He was
struck in the thigh by a shell and never fully recovered from
that wound. However, he lived for many years, though
always suffering poor health, and he died at Washington, D. C,
Oct. 13, 1897. After the war he was appointed by
President Grant as librarian of the War Department Library,
and filled that office nearly thirty years. David
FitzGerald, Jr., married Miss Esther Sinton, who is
now living at Cleveland with her only son and child. She
was born at Jedburgh, Scotland, and her father, Thomas
Sinton, was a contractor and built many bridges in Scotland,
where he developed a large business. He was a native of
Scotland but spent his last years in Keokuk, Iowa.
William Sinton FitzGerald was born at the City
of Washington Oct. 6, 1880, and was educated in the public
schools there, graduating from high school in the class of 1897.
He then entered the law department of the Columbian University
at Washington, where he completed the course and received the
degree LL. B. in June, 1903. The following year he
continued a post-graduate course and was awarded a Master of
Laws degree.
Admitted to the bar in the District of Columbus in
1904, Mr. FitzGerald in the same year came to Ohio and
was admitted to the Ohio bar. He practiced law in
Washington until October, 1904, and since that date has
practiced at Cleveland. His thorough qualifications as a
lawyer, together with the increasing experiences, have brought
him many of the more substantial successes of the able lawyer.
He served as one of the two county examiners whose duty it was
to examine all contracts wherein the county was interested.
He was appointed to this position by the Court of Common Pleas,
to which his reports were made. He also served as special
counsel for the state to the attorney general of Ohio. Mr.
FitzGerald was appointed director of law of Cleveland
under the Davis administration, and began his official
term of two years on Jan. 1, 1916.
Mr. FitzGerald was orator of the day at
the McKinley day banquet Jan. 29, 1906, and at the fifth
McKinley banquet on Jan. 29, 1908, he acted as
toastmaster. Among the guests at that banquet was
President William H. Taft. His powers and talents as a
public speaker have made him widely known. He has been a
delegate to several county and state conventions of the
republican party and in 1907 served as chairman of the Cuyahoga
County Republican League. In the fall of 1912 he was elected a
councilman from, the Eleventh Ward, and during his two terms of
service in that position was minority leader in the council.
Mr. FitzGerald and his mother reside at the New
Amsterdam Hotel. He is a member of the University Club,
and the Tippecanoe Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the
Cleveland Automobile Club, belongs to the Lawyers Club Obiter,
is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa.
In religion he is a Presbyterian.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 78 - Vol. III |
S. A. Fuller |
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