|
Biographies
Source:
History of Cleveland and its Environs
The Heart of
New Connecticut
Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New
York
1918
<
BACK TO BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX FOR 1918 >
< BACK TO ALL
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES FOR CUYAHOGA COUNTY >
|
|
GEORGE H. SCHRYVER.
The particular place of usefulness occupied by Mr.
Schryver in Cleveland's life and affairs is as an insurance
specialist. It is significant that Mr. Schryver
regards insurance not only as his regular business but also
as his hobby. To it has gone out the best enthusiasm and
creative energy of his active years. He has had nineteen
years of active experience in the business and each year had a
large volume of personal business to his credit before he gave
up representing one company or one line to furnish the value of
his study and experience to the public at large covering the
entire field of insurance.
An interesting little booklet tells the vital points in
the Schryver Service. It discusses facts which are
generally admitted that the average person has a most casual
knowledge of the contents of his insurance policies and that
while careful business men call in expert opinion on matters of
law, engineering, architecture, real estate and personal
illness, the buying of insurance is left largely to the
persuasive eloquence of the representative of a certain company
or a certain contract. The Schryver Service is a
medium between the buyer of insurance and the entire range of
companies and organizations offering insurance for sale, and in
his selective capacity he is in a position to pick and choose
the best contract and company for the specific protection needed
by each individual client.
Since establishing his service as an insurance
specialist Mr. Schryver has been exceedingly
careful to maintain the high standards and ideals under which he
started, and has developed this unique service to such
proportions that it is now availed by many of the most careful
individuals and corporations in Cleveland, who leave to his
judgment the kind and type of insurance covering their special
needs, whether in fire or life, accident or health, or any of
the multitudinous risks which at the present time are covered by
insurance organizations.
George H. Schryver is a native of Cleveland,
born Sept. 5, 1878, son of George L. and Fannie (Hapgood)
Schryver. His father was born at Napanee, Ontario,
Canada, and is still living at Cleveland. He has been
identified with different business firms in the city and is now
in the real estate department of the Cleveland Trust Company.
The mother was born at Warren, Ohio, was married in Cleveland
and died in this city Sept. 4, 1907. Their children,
Florence M., Mrs. R. T. Sawyer, Albert A. and
George H., are all natives of Cleveland and all were
educated here. George H. Schryver graduated from
the University School of Cleveland in 1897. He then
attended Cornell University two years, and in 1899 took up
insurance as his chosen vocation. In 1900 he became a
member of the firm of Neale Brothers & Schryver,
general insurance. He was member of that general agency
until 1910, and then utilized his varied experience and study of
insurance to good advantage as state manager of the United
States Fidelity & Guaranty Company. In 1914 Mr.
Schryver established the Schryver Service as an
insurance specialist, and along the special lines above
described he is the only business man of the kind in Cleveland.
Mr. Schryver is a republican in national
politics, is a member of the Cleveland Y. M. C. A., the Kappa
Alpha Society of Cornell University and of the Cleveland
Advertising Club.
On Washington's birthday, Feb. 22, 1916, at Cleveland,
he married Miss Fannie Irene Sheppard, of Cleveland,
daughter of William and Almacia (Demory) Sheppard.
Her parents have lived in Cleveland since 1914, her father being
a building contractor. Mrs. Schryver was born in
Virginia and was educated at Washington, D. C. They have
one daughter, Fannie Alberta, born in Cleveland.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 418 - Vol. |
|
|
ALBERT WILLIAM SMITH
since 1891 has been professor of chemistry in Case School of
Applied
Science at Cleveland. He is one of the distinguished men
in scientific circles in America, and his services have
conferred distinction upon Cleveland as an educational center.
Mr. Smith was born at Newark, Ohio, Oct. 4,
1862, son of George H. and Mary (Sanborn)
Smith. His father was born in Ohio in 1819 and died at
Newark in 1865. He was a carpenter and contractor, and
during the Civil war served as a captain in the State Militia.
His wife Mary Sanborn was born at Salem, Massachusetts,
in 1829 and died at Cleveland in 1910.
Albert William Smith graduated from the
University of Michigan with the degree Ph. C. in 1885 and in
1887 received his Bachelor of Science degree from Case School of
Applied Science at Cleveland. Later he went abroad and has
his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Zurich
conferred in 1891. He is a member of two scientific Greek Letter
fraternities, the Tau Beta Pi and the Sigma Psi.
On returning from abroad Doctor Smith took his
present chair as professor of chemistry at Case School of
Applied Science. Besides his heavy duties as teacher he
has found time to participate in the conventions and gatherings
of scientific men all over the country and has contributed a
number of technical papers to such conventions and also to
scientific magazines. He is a member of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, of the American
Chemical Society, the American Institute of Mining Engineers,
the American Electro-Chemical Society, the Society for Promotion
of Engineering Education, the French and English Societies of
Chemical Industry and the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers.
Doctor Smith resides at 11333 Belleflower
Road, with Judge John C. Hale. Professor Smith
married at Cleveland on June 5, 1890, Miss Mary
Wilkinson. He is the father of four children, and two
of his sons are now in the army. The oldest child, Cara
Hale, is a graduate of the College for Women of Western
Reserve University and is the wife of Russell C. Manning.
Mr. Manning is a captain in the Ordnance
Department of the United States Army. Kent H., the
oldest son of Doctor Smith, is a graduate of Dartmouth
College and of Case School of Applied Science, having the degree
Bachelor of Science from both institutions. He is now a
lieutenant in the aviation service of the army. Vincent
Kinsman, the second son, graduated Bachelor of Science
from Dartmouth College, is a first lieutenant in the Heavy
Artillery. Kelvin is a member of the junior class
of Dartmouth College.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 544 - Vol. II |
|
|
ALLARD SMITH,
general manager of the Cleveland Telephone Company, is a
graduate electrical engineer and has spent nearly twenty years
in practical telephone work, and is today one of the leading
executive telephone men of the country.
He was born at Eau Claire, Wisconsin, June 23, 1876, a
son of William H. and Catherine
(Fox) Smith, now retired at Eau Claire, where they have been
residents for over sixty years. Mr. Smith's
great-grandfather Smith was a captain in the
Revolutionary army, and the family removed to Wisconsin from the
northern part of Maine.
Allard Smith, fourth of five children and
the only one of the family a resident of Ohio, was educated in
the public schools of Eau Claire, graduating from high school in
1894 and then entering the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
He received his degree as electrical engineer in 1898, and went
direct from university to Chicago, where he was assigned to a
place as a night employe in the switchboard department of the
Chicago Telephone Company. He was one of those fortunate
young men who find a congenial sphere of work immediately on
leaving college. He was promoted from time to time, and
finally was superintendent of construction of the Chicago
Telephone Company. From 1911 to the end of 1913 he was
employed as construction engineer of the Bell Telephone System,
covering the five states of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan
and Wisconsin. In March, 1914, Mr. Smith
came to Cleveland as general manager of the local Bell Company,
and has since been also a director of the company.
Mr. Smith had some military training in
his younger years, being a member of the Wisconsin National
Guard from 1896 to 1899. At the time of the
Spanish-American war he was accepted as an ensign in the navy,
but the war was over and the nearest he got to the front was Old
Point Comfort.
He is well known as a citizen of Cleveland and is a
director of the Morris Plan Bank of Cleveland, director And vice
president of the City Club, and is active in the Cleveland
Chamber of Commerce, Union Club, University Club, Advertising
Club and Shaker Heights Country Club. Mr. Smith
is independent in politics and has no active partisan
affiliations.
June 30, 1901, at Viroqua, Wisconsin, he married
Miss Margaret Elizabeth Butt, daughter of Colonel C. M.
Butt, who is now living retired at Viroqua. Mrs.
Smith was born in that Wisconsin town, graduated from the
Viroqua High School, and was a member of the class of 1899 in
the University of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
reside on Ashbury Avenue.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 354 - Vol. II |
Frank Smith |
FRANK WARREN SMITH
was installed chief of police of the City of Cleveland Jan. 1,
1918. His appointment by Mayor Davis was
only a promotion, since Chief Smith has been a
tried and seasoned veteran of the city police force for nearly a
quarter of a century. Mr. Smith has made the
police business a profession, an object of thought and study,
ever since he was put on the force as a patrolman, and being a
man of brains as well as brawn, he is easily distinguished today
as one of the most efficient police heads in the country.
He has the right equipment for a man in that position. A
man of action himself, he has also the qualities of leadership,
possesses judgment and decision, and understands how to get his
orders executed with a minimum of friction. He has
increased the effectiveness of the police department, has
rigidly enforced all laws against gambling and vice of every
description, and it has been the chief effort of Mr. Smith
to make Cleveland a clean and safe city, and in this he has the
heartiest support and co-operation of the mayor.
Accepting the office with a due appreciation of the
responsibilitie involved, Mr. Smith has in
addition to taking vigorous hold of the routine administration,
already planned extensive improvements with an especial view to
training and educating the force under him to a better degree of
efficiency.
Frank Warren Smith was born at Flint, Michigan,
Nov. 20, 1869, son of Romanzo Orville and Josephine (Jenks)
Smith. The residence of the family was only temporary
in Michigan and Chief Smith grew up at Pearl Creek, near
Rochester, New York. In that locality his family have
lived for many generations. Chief Smith was
recently quoted as of the opinion that his native locality was
the original home of the Smiths, and there were so many
of the name that it was necessary to get some other
distinguishing mark than a mere Christian name, numerals being
frequently employed to designate the different Franks and
Williams and others.
Chief Smith is descended from Isaac Smith,
who fought as a soldier with Washington in the Revolutionary
war. His great-grandfather, Josiah Smith, was born
on the old Smith homestead at Attica, Wyoming County, New
York. The grandfather of Chief Smith was Warren
Smith, who grew up on the old farm, and was widely known in
that section of the state as the champion collar and elbow
wrestler. He lived to be eighty-two years of age.
Chief Smith's father, Romanzo Orville Smith,
was born at Attica, New York, in 1847, and is now living
retired, in his seventy-first year, at Wolcott, New York.
For many years he was active as a farmer and livestock dealer,
as was his father before him. Shortly after his marriage,
Romanzo O. Smith yielded to an inspiration to come West,
and from 1868 to 1873 was in Michigan, part of the time at
Flint, where his son was born, and also at Saginaw and Bay City.
He was in the lumber business while in Michigan. Frank
W. Smith's mother was of Welsh ancestry. She died at
Wolcott, New York, in 1917, at the age of seventy-one.
There were eight sons and five daughters in the family, ten of
whom are still living, five sons and five daughters. Two
of the children died young. The only two in Ohio are Frank
W. and his sister, Mrs. George Fairchilds, also of
Cleveland.
Frank W. Smith grew up on his father's farm and
received his primary education in the little white schoolhouse
at Amity, and afterwards attended the Rochester Business College
at Rochester. During his early residence in Cleveland he
took a course in the night school of Baldwin-Wallace College.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 256 - Vol. III |
|
|
HARRY G. SMITH.
When the Pennsylvania Rubber & Supply Company, now one of
Cleveland's most important business enterprises, was launched in
1908, its manager was Harry G. Smith, who not only has
served continuously through its great expansion as such, but at
the present time is also treasurer of the company. Mr.
Smith has many of the qualities indispensable to the
successful business man and his success in the management of
this enterprise, from its beginning until less than a decade
later when it does a million-dollar business annually, has been
notable.
Harry G. Smith was born in the great city of
London, England, Dec. 31, 1871. His parents are William
Thomas and Elizabeth Jane Smith. He attended the
public schools until eleven years old and then began to be
self-supporting. For three years he worked in a London
barber shop and then found employment in a pawnbroker's shop,
where he remained for two years. He then crossed the
Atlantic Ocean to Canada, and for twelve years worked in his
grandfather's meat market in Fort Erie. He was not yet
satisfied with the outlook for his future and decided to come to
the United States, hence he located at Akron, Ohio, in order to
become an employe of the Diamond Rubber Company and learn the
trade of tiremaking. That his work was entirely
satisfactory may be adduced from the fact that in December,
1904, the company sent him to Cleveland in charge of their
repair shop and also as demonstrator of their new double tube
tire, which was then first being offered to the public.
In 1906 Mr. Smith was made manager of the
Diamond Rubber Company's racing crew and in that capacity
traveled all over the United States. In 1908 he returned
to Cleveland and in the same year became identified with the
Pennsylvania Rubber & Supply Company, of which he was both
manager and secretary in 1913 and since 1915 has been treasurer
as well as manager. Mr. Smith has additional
business interests, and is a director in the Peters
Machine and Manufacturing Company.
Mr. Smith was married at Fort Erie, Canada, June
25, 1895, to Miss Susan Patterson, who died Jan. 14,
1915, survived by two sons, Henry George and David
William. Henry George Smith, who was born in
1897, attended Oberlin College, and at present is machinist
mate, second class, of the Naval Reserves at Newport, Rhode
Island. David William Smith, who was born in 1900,
is a graduate of the Cleveland High School and at present is a
student in Culver Military Academy.
In politics Mr. Smith believes in the principles
of the democratic party. He is a Royal Arch Mason and he
and sons are members of the Episcopal church. He has led a
busy life and is practically a self made man. Talent and
industry have placed him in positions of trust and
responsibility and his performance of every duty has not only
been creditable to himself, but of incalculable benefit to his
associates in the enterprise in which they are mutually
interested.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 161 - Vol. III |
|
|
JOHN ALVARO SMITH,
senior member of the law firm of Smith, Griswold,
Green & Hadden, is in point of years of continuous
service one of the oldest members of the Cleveland bar. He
was graduated from the Ohio State and Union Law School at
Cleveland in 1872, with the degree LL.B., was admitted to the
Ohio bar in the same year and to the United States courts on the
4th of July of that year. During his practice he had
gained the reputation and the influential connections of the
successful lawyer, and of his later enviable eminence at the bar
nothing could be said that would more distinguish him than his
present position at the head of the firm above named.
Mr. Smith was born at Plain City, Ohio, Dec. 12,
1848. His parents, John Whitmore and Esther Ann
(Keys) Smith, were early settlers in Union County, Ohio,
where his father had a large farm. Both parents died in
Union County. Of the ten children eight are living today.
John A. Smith acquired a liberal education
as a preparation for his chosen career. He was graduated
A. M. and B. A. from the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware in
1871, and in the following year graduated in law at Cleveland.
Mingling with his strict professional activities as a lawyer
have come many business and civic interests. He is a
director in bank and commercial corporations, including the
following: The Guarantee Title and Trust Company, the Pearl
Street Savings & Trust Company; the Forest City Savings & Trust
Company, the State Banking & Trust Company, the Columbia Savings
& Loan Company, the McLean Tire & Rubber Company, the Detroit
Street Investment Company, the Merchants Banking & Storage
Company, the Citizens Mortgage Investment Company, and the C. S.
Realty Company.
He is an honored member of the Cleveland Bar
Association and the Ohio State Bar Association. For 6 x 4
years he served as a member of the Cleveland Library Board, was
a member of the city council one term, 1888-90, and was
president of the East Cleveland Council and vice mayor of East
Cleveland from 1911 to 1913. Mr. Smith is a
thirty-second degree Mason, a member of Holyrood Commandery of
the Knights Templar, and of Lake Erie Consistory. He also
belongs to the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Castalia Trout Club
and the Masonic Club. His church is the Windemere
Methodist Episcopal.
Mr. Smith was married in Cleveland, July
18, 1876, to Marietta Edmondston, now deceased.
The one child of their union is John William Smith, an
attorney and now a member of the law firm of Smith,
Griswold, Green & Hadden.
On Dec. 18, 1915, Mr. Smith married
Elizabeth A. Williams, daughter of the late Thomas H. and
Mary (Lewis) Williams. Her parents were married in
Wales and about a year later came to the United States, locating
at Hubbard in Trumbull County, Ohio, where her father was a coal
operator. She was educated in the grammar and high schools
of Hubbard, Ohio, took preparatory work in the Baldwin-Wallace
University at Cleveland, and is a graduate of the Cleveland Law
School. She was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1908 and is a
member of the Cleveland Bar Association and the Ohio State Bar
Association. Mrs. Smith is active in the
Woman's Suffrage Movement, is a member of the Woman's Club of
Cleveland and was a delegate to the National Convention held at
Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1916, by that organization.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 165 - Vol. II |
|
|
JOHN H. SMITH,
of the firm Smith Brothers, marine architects,
surveyors and appraisers, in the Rockefeller Building,
represents one of the most noted families of ship builders
around the Great Lakes. This is a class or profession
whose services the world now appreciates as never before in
history. The responsibilities of Mr. John H. Smith
were never heavier than at the present time, since in addition
to his regular duties he is a superintendent of the United
States Shipping Board.
A son of the late John H. Smith, Sr., one of the
most eminent ship builders in the Middle West, whose career is
told on other pages, John H. Smith was born at Cleveland
Mar. 17, 1882. He was educated in the Cleveland public schools,
graduating from the West High School with the class of 1900.
He and his brothers have all become identified with some phase
of the ship building industry. Mr. Smith at
the age of seventeen entered the service of the Cleveland Ship
Building Company at its Lorain plant. His abilities and
responsibilities have always outdistanced his years. In
1903 he became foreman on construction with the Chicago Ship
Building Company at Chicago. In 1906 he was made manager
of the Ship Owners Dry Dock Company at North Chicago. In
1909. he became general manager of the Chicago Ship Building
Company and the Ship Owners Dry Docks Company. In the
plant of the former company he built in eighty-eight days and
placed in commission one of the big car ferry steamers that
operate across Lake Michigan.
In 1912 Mr. Smith became assistant
manager of the Western Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Company at Port
Arthur, Ontario. That plant was then only partially
completed and its full installation was effected under his
personal supervision. In 1913 he was advanced to general
manager and a number of large and important contracts were
carried out under him. One of the vessels built under his
direction was the steamer Noronica, the largest single screw
passenger steamer on the lakes. Another was the steamer
W. Grant Morden, the largest bulk lake freight carrier, with
a length of 625 feet.
In 1914 Mr. Smith returned to Cleveland and
formed his present partnership with his brother, Allen A.
Smith. The services of the Smith brothers have been
widely sought in marine circles all over the country, and in
addition to the general work of their profession they are
managers for the Vessel Fire Register, a classification for
wooden boats, revised for underwriting purposes.
His intensive and practical experience in all phases of
shipbuilding gives to Mr. Smith 's judgment and
suggestions the weight of authority. He has contributed
much valuable data toward the solution of a peculiarly insistent
problem of modern transportation, the design of an economical
and efficient type of vessel for shallow water inland
navigation, suitable to the canals and river ways of the
country. Perhaps his most notable public discussion of
this subject was contained in the Marine News of April, 1915,
presenting a technical study and description of practical types
of freight barges adapted to coast and inland navigation. In
September, 1917, Mr. Smith was appointed superintendent
of the United States Shipping Board.
While a thorough business man and wrapped up in his
profession, Mr. John H. Smith is esteemed for his good
fellowship and has always been active socially in the various
communities where he has made his home. He is unmarried
and lives at the Smith homestead on Franklin Avenue.
He is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club, is a charter
member of the Shuniah Club of Port Arthur, Ontario, is
affiliated with Golden Link Lodge of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows at Chicago, of Harbor Lodge No. 781, Free and
Accepted Masons, at Chicago; Calumet Commandery, Knights
Templar, Chicago, and Medinah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at
Chicago. His chief recreation and hobby is shooting and
fishing.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 38 - Vol. III |
|
|
JOHN H. SMITH, SR.
who was born at Pembroke Dock, South Wales, in 1846, and died at
Cleveland Oct. 21, 1893, was for many years manager of the Globe
Iron Works Company of Cleveland, and did pioneer work in
shipbuilding, especially in the construction of iron vessels for
the Great Lakes, which gives him lasting fame in American marine
circles. He was liberally educated in his native country
and while there served an apprenticeship in an iron shipbuilding
firm at Hull, Yorkshire, and also at London. While in the
government shipyards at London he worked on the warships
Northumberland, Minotaur, Agincourt, Black Prince and others.
For a time he was employed in private dockyards. He had
the Welsh genius for skillful details and neglected no
opportunity for observation, and study which would be of
practical benefit to him in the future.
John H. Smith came to the United States in 1869.
In 1871 he assisted in the construction of the steamer Japan at
Buffalo, New York. Soon afterward he was in the employ of
the Anchor Line. One of the Anchor steamers was docked at
Erie, Pennsylvania, for repairs. Instead of taking it to
dry dock and requiring much time and expense, Mr.
Smith successfully carried out the plan of listing the boat
on shore and making all necessary repairs to the bottom at a
minimum of delay and expense. This added not a little to
his growing fame around the Great Lakes. Finally the
Chicago & Grand Trunk Railway officials secured his services to
superintend the construction of the iron car ferry steamer
International at Buffalo, and later a second ferry boat, the
Hudson, at Point Edward. For some time he was located at
Point Edward as chief engineer of the Grand Trunk. He also
was superintendent of the construction of bridges for that
railway company. In the meantime he constructed a blast
furnace on Lake Champlain, New York, and in a remarkably short
time had it in full and perfect operation.
After his employment with the Grand Trunk Railway,
Mr. Smith came to Cleveland and became general
superintendent of the Globe Shipbuilding Company's yard, the
office he filled until his death.
The late John H. Smith was eminently qualified
to carry out many great projects. While he was quiet of
demeanor and never sought attention outside his immediate work,
his place in the Globe Iron Works Company was regarded as so
important that his death was a real calamity to that industry.
The first large iron steamer, the Onoko, was built by Mr.
Smith for the Globe Iron Works Company. This was
the first iron vessel constructed in Cleveland for the Great
Lakes and was the largest among the first metal steamers for
that purpose. It was constructed under Mr.
Smith's immediate supervision. This vessel foundered
in 1916 in Lake Superior. He also built the car ferry
Sarana, which is still in service. Later he superintended
the building and launching of over fifty steel steamers.
These boats cost from $150,000 to $250,000 apiece. During
one year he launched a steel steamer every month. Much of
his success is attributable to the fact that to the very last he
made it a rule to exercise supervision over the smallest details
as well as the largest plans of construction in the ship yards.
Besides his position as a general superintendent he was also a
stockholder in the Globe Company and he practically grew up with
that industry at Cleveland. The steamers of the Northern
Steamship Company, regarded as the best type of ship
construction of the time, derived many of their splendid
qualities from the knowledge and skill of John H. Smith.
This was particularly true of those designed for passenger
traffic.
John H. Smith was a master and general of
efficiency long before the "science of efficiency" was a phrase
in common every day use. When invitations were sent out to
friends of the ship building industry to attend a launching at a
certain hour, Mr. Smith was always ready for the event to
a minute. He was a master of organization, never seemed to
have a surplus number of men engaged on any one piece of work,
and always kept a project moving along evenly and without break
or halt. While he used men to the best advantage he also had the
faculty of retaining their support and good will.
It is said that in the work of repairing steel ships
the late Mr. Smith had no superior in any yard of the country.
In this respect he so gained the confidence of owners and
underwriters that they entrusted matters of the greatest value
to his integrity.
Of the esteem which he enjoyed from men it was a simple
but significant testimony in the thousands of all classes who
gathered to pay their respects at the time of his funeral.
He was an honored member of the Cambrian Society, composed of
his Welsh countrymen. He was a Royal Arch Mason and an Odd
Fellow.
In 1874 he married Miss Margaret Allen, of
Amherst Island, one of the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence
in Canadian waters. She was born there and is still
living, residing at the old family homestead, 6710 Franklin
Avenue. Mrs. Smith was the mother of eight
children, one son dying in infancy. The others are all
living, five sons and two daughters. The sons are all
shipbuilders and eminent in their respective lines. A
brief record of the children is as follows: A. G. Smith,
now general manager of the American Shipbuilding Company of
Cleveland; Mrs. Will L. Sherman, of Cleveland; Allen
A., of the firm Smith Brothers; John H., also
of Smith Brothers, marine architects, surveyors and
appraisers; Mrs. Will Shaffer, of Cleveland; Samuel S.,
of Toronto; and Chester A., who is in one of the United
States navy yards. The three older children were born in
Canada and the others at Cleveland. The Smith family
have lived in Cleveland since 1882.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 37 - Vol. III |
Matthew Smith |
MATTHEW SMITH.
Newcomers to Cleveland frequently express surprise that they
find nowhere in the city any of the stores of the great Atlantic
and Pacific Tea Company, a retail selling organization which is
one of the marvels of the age, and which has extended its
service within the last five or ten years to nearly all the
larger towns and to practically all the big cities of the United
States. Why such a tremendous organization should not be
represented in Cleveland is in fact a peculiar tribute to the
forceful ability of one of its former managers. Five years
ago the great Atlantic and Pacific Company had its chain of
stores at Cleveland. For over thirty years the local
business of the company had been directed by Matthew Smith.
Mr. Smith had increased the number of stores from
two to seventeen, and apart from the general plan and system
which are distinctive features of the great Atlantic and Pacific
Tea Company, the local business was altogether due to the
exertions and management of Mr. Smith.
The company undoubtedly recognized this fact when it
agreed to sell to Mr. Smith the local business,
and to give him a free hand in the sixth city of the United
States to continue a business similar in character but impressed
with the special efficiency of his individual organization and
under his name. Thus it is that at the present time it is
the Matthew Smith Tea, Coffee & Grocery Company rather
than the great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company that operates
"stores all over the city" and furnishes all the service and
more which people from the outside have come to associate with
the stores of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Company.
Matthew Smith is one of the most interesting
personalities in the business field of Cleveland. Like
many successful American merchants he rose from a humble sphere
to position of responsibility and influence. He was born
in the Parish of Thornhill, County Tyrone, Ireland, Nov. 9,
1856. He attended the national schools of Ireland and at
the age of sixteen came to the United States in 1872, for three
years lived in New York City, and while there made his first
connection with the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.
His first employment was addressing envelopes. Since then he has
been through every department and detail of the business and for
forty years he gave all his abilities and energies to a
corporation which has attained a rank as the greatest retail
grocery house in the world. From 1875 to 1880 Mr.
Smith was located at New Brunswick, New Jersey, as
manager of one of the branch stores in that city. On Jan.
12, 1880, he entered upon his new duties as general manager of
the company's business at Cleveland, which at that time
consisted of only two stores. He remained general manager
until Mar. 1, 1913. In the meantime he had promoted the
business of the company in Cleveland, gradually adding new
stores, until in 1913 he negotiated the sale which brought under
his individual management and control all the interests of the
Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company in Cleveland and he
acquired seventeen stores. Mr. Smith then
incorporated the Matthew Smith Tea, Coffee &
Grocery Company, of which he is president, and in five years'
time has extended the scope of his organization until it is no
longer mere rhetoric when the company claims "stores all over
the city," since there are in fact sixty-one stores at the time
of the present writing and other new ones are in prospect. The
company also have stores at Lorain, Painesville and Willoughby,
Ohio. Mr. Smith has the headquarters of his
vast organization in the Ninth Street Terminal Warehouse, from
which the business of his three score stores are managed.
That he has eminent business ability would be accepted
without question in face of the facts briefly reviewed. He
is also a man of great geniality and has a personality which
attracts and wins many friends. The best evidence of this
is that he is one of the few men to enjoy the dignities and
honors of the supreme honorary Thirty-third degree in Scottish
Rite Masonry. He holds this degree in the Northern Masonic
jurisdiction, and is grand senior warden of the Grand Lodge of
Ohio. His other Masonic affiliations are with Emmanuel
Lodge No. 605, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he is past
master, Cleveland Chapter No. 148, Royal Arch Masons, of which
he is past high priest, Cleveland Council No. 36, Royal and
Select Masons, Holyrood Commandery No. 32, Knights Templar, of
which he is past eminent commander, and Al Koran Temple of the
Mystic Shrine. Mr. Smith is also a trustee
of the Ohio Masonic Home. He has been a member of the
Knights of Pythias since he was twenty-one years of age, and
also belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.
He married in 1887 Miss Irene M. French, who was
born and reared in Cleveland. They have a family of two
sons and two daughters, and four grandchildren. Both sons
are now doing service for their country in France. The
names of the children in order of age are Emily M., Matthew,
Jr., William McKinley and Irene. Emily, who was
educated in the public schools and Miss Mittleberger's
private school, is the wife of Nicholas C. Broch, manager
of the Matthew Smith Tea, Coffee & Grocery Company.
Mr. and Mrs. Broch have four children. The son
Matthew, Jr., is now a sergeant in the
quartermaster's department of the American Expeditionary Forces
in France, while William McKinley is with the Red Cross
service in France. Mr. Smith for many years gave
the closest attention to his business, and well earned the
comparative leisure which he now enjoys. He keeps in close
touch with all his business affairs but is usually in Cleveland
during the summer only two days in the week, the rest of the
time being spent in his fine summer home at Salida Beach at
Mentor, Ohio. The city residence of the family is at
12832 Euclid Avenue * in East Cleveland.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 428 - Vol. III
-----
Note: Another view of
12832 Euclid Avenue |
Stiles C. Smith |
SAMUEL LEWIS SMITH.
Sixty years ago the late S. C. Smith came to Cleveland
and entered the tea, coffee and spice wholesale trade. He
also later, in 1868, became one of the founders of the Cleveland
Malleable Iron Company, the manufacturing business that is
now carried on as part of the National Malleable Castings
Company, with plants and offices in Cleveland and four or five
other large cities, and the family interest in this connection
is still continued by his son Samuel Lewis Smith, who has
continued in the malleable iron and steel casting industry for
nearly thirty years.
The memory of the late Stiles Curtiss Smith is
still fresh in Cleveland, because he was not only one of the
solid business men of the town, but also gave of his time and
talents for the benefit of his fellow men and the community at
large.
Representing an old New England family, Stiles
Curtiss Smith was born at South Britain, in the Town of
Southbury, Connecticut, Mar. 20, 1831, and died at his home in
Cleveland Dec/ 5, 1907, at the age of seventy-six. He
finished his education in a private academy in his birthplace,
and first came out to Cleveland shortly after 1850 and moved
here in 1857. In a few years he was senior member of
Smith & Curtiss, wholesale tea, coffee and spice merchants,
and it was this business, conducted with steadily increasing
prosperity, that proved the foundation of his fortune.
Later his efforts extended into other business fields. He
was a director of the First National Bank for many years and
vice president and director of the Cleveland, Southwestern &
Columbus Railway Company, and was identified with several of
those companies which constitute a large and important group in
the malleable iron industry, including the National Malleable
Castings Company and the Eberhard Manufacturing Company,
being a director of both companies. As a business man he
was noted among his associates for his fairness and high
integrity and he was generally recognized, when actively at the
head of the firm of Smith & Curtiss, as a remarkable
judge of teas and coffees.
Also, few men ever realized more fully the
responsibilities of a moderate fortune, and, as he prospered in
his undertakings, he gave generously to many measures for the
public good. He was a trustee of the Associated Charities, of
the Children's Fresh Air Camp, the Jones Home, the
Huron Street Hospital,
the Western Seaman's Fund Society. His usefulness did not
cease with advancing years, and, practically, up to the time of
his death he was associated with a number of charitable and
financial undertakings. He was a member of the Cleveland
Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and was
one of the organizers and for some years served as treasurer of
the New England Society of Cleveland. He was also a member
of the Union Club and of the Country Club. In politics he
was a republican, never a seeker for office, but always
regarding politics as the business and duty of every private
citizen and was keenly interested in every movement for the
public good. He was a prominent member and chairman of the
board of trustees of Plymouth Congregational Church for many
years. In Cleveland he married Miss Catherine Gleeson,
who was born near Cleveland Apr. 22, 1831. Her father,
Moses Gleeson, was a pioneer resident of Cuyahoga
County. Five children were born to their marriage:
George S. and Caroline M., both, deceased; Anna,
who married Henry S. Abbott of Columbus; Samuel
Lewis; and Flora M., wife of Frank R. Gilchrist.
Samuel Lewis Smith, only living son of his
father, was born at Cleveland Aug. 22, 1867, and attended the
local public schools until the age of fourteen, after which his
education was continued in the Cleveland Academy and at the age
of sixteen he entered Phillips Academy at Andover,
Massachusetts,
where he completed his preparatory course in 1885.
Entering Yale University, he graduated A. B. in 1889 and all the
years since then have been filled with business duties. On
returning to Cleveland from the university he started to work
for the Eberhard Manufacturing Company and on July 1,
1891, became clerk to the sales manager of the National
Malleable Castings Company. He later was traveling
salesman in the railway sales department, manager of the coupler
sales department, and was finally elected vice president in
charge of sales. He is now a director both in the
Eberhard Manufacturing company and the National Malleable
Castings Company and also in the Cleveland, Southwestern &
Columbus Railway Company. Mr. Smith spent a
large part of his time from 1900 to 1912 in Europe, representing
his company in the railway sales department.
Like his honored father he has found interests outside
of business not only in social lines but in organizations that
express the cultural and educational features of life. In
Cleveland he is a past president and director of the Tavern
Club, member of the Union Club, Athletic Club, Roadside Club,
Country Club, Mayfield Country Club, Chagrin Valley Hunt Club,
and also has membership in the University Club of Chicago,
Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh, University Club of New York City,
Yale Club of New York City, Engineers Club of New York City,
Graduates Club of New Haven, University Club of New Haven, Sons
of the American Revolution, New England Society of Cleveland and
Western Reserve Historical Society. He is well known as a
Yale alumnus and has given much of his time to the promotion of
the interests of his alma mater. He is president of the
Western Federation of Yale Clubs, a member of the Alumni
Advisory Board of Yale University and a member of the Committee
on Plan for Development of Yale University. He also
belongs to the Automobile Club, Civic League and Chamber of
Commerce at Cleveland, attends Trinity Episcopal Church and in
politics is a republican.
On Oct. 14, 1896, at Philadelphia, Mr. Smith
married Miss Ellen Bown Lucas of Philadelphia.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 423 - Vol. III |
 |
ALFRED BURNS SMYTHE,
president of The A. B. Smythe Company, real estate and
insurance, has been an active figure in local real estate
circles practically since he left college. While
personally responsible for the splendid position his company now
enjoys in business circles, Mr. Smythe is a man of varied
interests, was at one time a professional baseball player, and
has long been prominent in musical and philanthropic affairs in
this city.
He was born at Nevada, Ohio, Aug. 4, 1874, and has some
very substantial family associations, all Scotch-Irish.
His paternal grandfather, William Smythe, was born in
Washington County, Pennsylvania, in 1807 and died at Holton,
Kansas. His wife, Mary (Story) Smythe, was born in.
Ohio in 1808. Marcus M. Smythe, father of Alfred
B., was born in Jefferson County, Ohio, in 1837. He
married Mary Comfort Burns, who was born in Mansfield,
Ohio, in 1846. Her grandfather was an own cousin of the
great poet Robert Burns. Her father, Rev. John
Burns, was graduated with the degree Master of Arts from
Kenyon College in 1856, and for a number of years was principal
of the Milford Academy. Marcus M. Smythe and wife
had three daughters and one son. The daughters are Mrs.
Josiah Catrow of Germantown, Ohio; Mrs. E. V.
Wells of Cleveland, and Mary Alice Smythe of
Berkeley, California.
As a boy Alfred B. Smythe attended public
schools in his native town, took a course in the Ohio Business
College at Mansfield, and spent four years teaching in country
districts. In 1898 he was elected principal of the high
school at Nevada, but soon resigned to enter Oberlin College as
a member of the class of 1902. He was in Oberlin until he
completed three years of work and left college to take up the
real estate business in Cleveland.
His early successes as a real estate man attracted such
attention that his services were secured by The Cleveland Trust
Company, to organize and manage its realty department. He
filled that position until Aug. 1, 1914, gathering thereby a
broad experience and widening his acquaintance throughout the
city, at which time he resigned to resume business for himself.
Today The A. B. Smythe Company is one of the best known
real estate firms in Northern Ohio. Its main office is in
the Erie Building.
Mr. Smythe is also president of the following:
President and treasurer of The Smythe Building
Company; president of The Glengariff Realty Company; president
and treasurer of The Crucible Steel Forge Co.; president of The
Loop Realty Company; president of The Land Security Company;
vice president of the Bankers Guaranteed Mortgage Co., and
director in the following companies: National Mortgage Company,
Builders Investment Company, The Shore Acres Land Company,
Colonial Savings & Loan Company.
While at Oberlin Mr. Smythe was the star
pitcher on the baseball team. He and his teammates had the
distinction of winning the championship of Ohio Colleges in 1898
and 1899. His work as a pitcher was of such character as
to attract the notice of Jimmy McAleer, at that
time manager of the Cleveland Baseball Club, and in 1900, while
still in college, as the result of a favorable proposition made
him, Mr. Smythe signed up with the Cleveland
Baseball Club for a year. Thus it was professional ball
that really first brought him to Cleveland.
Mr. Smythe is gifted with musical talent
and fortunately had thorough training during his early youth.
For three years he was a member of the Oberlin College Glee Club
Quartet, for six years was director of the Adelbert Glee Club,
for two years was with the Shubert Quartet, and three years was
tenor soloist of the Pilgrim Church Quartet. Another four
years he was director and tenor soloist of the Windermere
Presbyterian Church. Another prominent interest has attracted
him into settlement work. At one time he had charge of the
music at Goodrich House and also at Alta House, and for one year
was a director of the Glee Club of the T. M. C. A.
Mr. Smythe is a member of the Cleveland
Real Estate Board, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Lakewood
Chamber of Commerce and National Chamber of Commerce.
Socially he belongs to the Hermit Club, the Clifton Club, Union
Club, Castalia Trout Club, and the Old Colony Club. Mr.
Smythe and his family are members of the Lakewood
Congregational Church, of which Mr. Smythe is one
of the trustees.
Nov. 13, 1902, he married Miss Catherine Loomis
of Oil City, Pennsylvania, daughter of Charles and Ida E.
Loomis. Her father, a native of northwestern
Pennsylvania, was secretary and treasurer of the Oil City Trust
Company until his death. Her mother is a native of
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Smythe have two
sons, Charles Loomis Smythe, born Oct. 23, 1903, and
Marcus Loomis Smythe, born Mar. 12, 1905. Mr.
Smythe and family reside in Clifton Park, Lakewood.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 152 - Vol. II |
Martin Snider |
MARTIN SNIDER,
the eldest son of Abijah and Martha Snider, was born in
Dayton, Ohio, Aug. 16th, 1846, and died in Cleveland, Ohio, Jan.
1st, 1918.
After a course in the public schools and the Dayton
Business College, he gave his entire attention to his father's
timber and cooperage business. Early in his career the
business became of great importance due to the phenomenal growth
of the oil industry. The increased demand for products of this
factory necessitated the Snider 's removal, first to
Wapakoneta, Ohio, in 1868 and from there to Cleveland in 1871,
where they had built, what was for those times, an extensive
plant.
By 1878, dependable and sufficient cooperage had become
so essential to the Standard Oil Company's success in the
transportation of oil, that they recognizing Mr. Snider
's unusual knowledge and ability, invited him to sell his
business to, and become associated with them. This he did,
becoming at once manager of their cooperage department.
This became Mr. Snider 's life work as he
remained the executive head of that branch of the Standard Oil
Company business, until his retirement on Aug. 16th, 1916.
During Mr. Snider 's residence of nearly fifty
years in Cleveland he was identified with many of its business
and civic interests. He was particularly interested,
however, in The Guarantee Title and Trust Company, of which he
was at one time president, The Cleveland Trust Co., of which he
was a director for many years, and the Riverside Cemetery, of
which he was treasurer.
He was a member of The Union and Mayfield Clubs of
Cleveland, The Castalia Sporting Club, and the Ohio Society of
New York.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 500 - Vol. II |
Harvey R. Snyder |
HARVEY R. SNYDER,
member of the law firm J. R. and H. R. Snyder in the
Williamson Building, has had an active and successful career in
the law and in real estate and is probably one of the best known
college and university men of Cleveland. He is especially
well known in athletic circles both as a former Harvard
University football man and football coach.
He was born at Mapleton, Stark County, Ohio, Oct. 17,
1880, son of John J. and Maria (Shearer) Snyder.
His father, who died July 2, 1914, at Paris in Stark County, had
spent practically all his life within a few miles of that
locality. He gained a national reputation as a stockman
and was the owner of a five hundred acre stock farm in Paris
Township of Stark County. He was for about twenty years
president of the Stark County Agricultural Association, and his
farm produced some of the finest specimens of thoroughbred
cattle, hogs and horses. This important stock business is
still continued by one of his sons. The mother is still
living at Louisville, Ohio. The parents were both born at
Mapleton, the Shearers having come to Ohio from Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania. Grandfather Snyder
came from Alsace-Lorraine, Germany, about 1826, being at that
time six years of age. His parents settled in Ohio, and he
died at Mapleton May 5, 1915, at the advanced age of
ninety-five. John J. Snyder was a director of a
savings bank in Canton and was affiliated with the Junior Order
of United American Mechanics. He and his wife had four
sons, all living: John R.; A. Talmage, an attorney at
Canton; Irvin A., who runs the old stock farm; and
Harvey R. All the sons were born at Mapleton.
Harvey R. Snyder was educated in the public
schools of Paris, Ohio, took his preparatory work in Mount Union
College, Alliance, and in the fall of 1902 entered the sophomore
class of Harvard University. He received his A. B. degree
in 1905 and in the fall of the same year took up the study of
law at Harvard Law School. He played on the Harvard
football team in 1905, and he also excelled at basketball.
He received his law degree from Harvard in 1908. During
the seasons of 1906 and 1907 he coached the Oberlin College
football team, returning to his studies at Harvard after the
close of the season and completing the full year of work.
In 1908, after the conclusion of his law studies, he again
coached
the football team at Oberlin and then took charge of the Akron
Realty Company at Akron, with which firm he was connected until
August, 1909. At that date he opened a law practice in the
Williamson Building and in 1910 formed a partnership with
his brother, John R., under the title above given.
As a diversion Mr. Snyder was coach at Oberlin in
1909 and 1910, and each year gave that college a state
championship football team. In 1911, 1912, and 1913 he was
football coach of Western Reserve University. There has
probably not been a season in the past ten years when Mr.
Snyder has not returned to his alma mater at Harvard,
either to assist on the coaching staff or to witness some of the
games. He is a member of the Harvard Varsity Club, the
Harvard Club of Cleveland, the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar
Associations, the Cleveland Real Estate Board, of Iris Lodge No.
259, F. and A. M., Webb Chapter No. 14, R. A. M., and a member
and an officer in the Pythian Star Lodge No. 526, Knights of
Pythias. He is a member of its third rank team, which won
first honors in the State meet at Columbus, Ohio, May 12, 1917.
Mr. Snyder is an active churchman, elder and
trustee in the Lakewood Presbyterian Church, and assistant
superintendent of its Sunday School. He also belongs to
the Alpha Nu Chapter of the Alpha Tau Omega college fraternity.
Mr. Snyder married at Alliance, Ohio, Mar. 20,
1910, Miss Charlotte Bracher. Mrs. Snyder
was born at Alliance, daughter of John and Katherine (Kolb)
Bracher, who now live at Lakewood, Cleveland. Mrs.
Snyder graduated from the Alliance High School in 1900 and
from Mount Union College with the degree of A. B. in 1905.
She is a member of the Alpha Psi Delta Sorority, the Cleveland
Alumnae Association of Mount Union, of the College Club, and
Cleveland Chapter of the Eastern Star. Mr. and Mrs.
Snyder reside at 1361 Gill Avenue, Lakewood. Their two
daughters, Mary Katherine and Grace Olive, were
both born in Cleveland.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 112 - Vol. II |
|
|
JOHN ROYAL SNYDER,
head of the well known Cleveland law firm of J. R. and H. R.
Snyder, with offices in the Williamson Building, has enjoyed
a good living practice and a growing reputation as a lawyer and
citizen of Cleveland for the past six years.
Mr. Snyder was born in Stark County, Ohio,
Feb. 11, 1876, son of John J. and Maria (Shearer) Snyder
and a brother of his law partner, Harvey R., under whose
name will be found other details of this well known old family
of Stark County.
Mr. J. R. Snyder completed his literary
education in Mount Union College at Alliance, where he graduated
A. B. in 1899. After leaving college he became active in
Stark County politics, served as deputy county treasurer from
1899 to 1902, was then elected county treasurer, filling that
office with credit from 1902 to 1906. From 1902 to 1904 he
was also treasurer of the City of Canton. He studied law
in Harvard Law School and was graduated LL. B. in 1909.
Mr. Snyder is a life member of Lodge No. 68, Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks, at Canton and is also affiliated with
Canton Lodge No. 60, Free and Accepted Masons, Minsilla Lodge
No. 39, Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Canton,
and Junior Order of United American Mechanics, No. 171. He
belongs to the college fraternity Alpha Tau Omega and finds his
recreation in the sports of tennis, baseball and football and
also as a practical farmer. Mr. Snyder owns one of
the finest 160 acre farms in Ohio, located in Stark County.
While he is not able to give it his personal supervision on
account of his law practice, he spends considerable time there
during certain periods of the summer and fall helping to harvest
the crops, and this is partly a source of good wholesome
exercise and is also almost a necessity on account of the great
scarcity of good farm hands. Mr. Snyder is a
splendid specimen of physical manhood and keeps himself fit by
much exercise. In college life he was a participant in all
classes of good clean sport, and has carried the ideals of good
sportsmanship into his professional and civic life at Cleveland.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 111 - Vol. |
|
|
ARTHUR ADELBERT
STEARNS is a senior member of the firm Stearns,
Chamberlain & Royon in the Williamson Building.
This is one of the most important law firms in Ohio, and besides
his work as a practicing lawyer Mr. Stearns's reputation
is also widely extended through his long service as a law
educator and as a legal author.
He was born at North Olmsted, Cuyahoga County, a son of
Edmund and Anna (Marsh) Stearns. He acquired a
liberal education. graduating A. B. from Buchtel College with
the class of 1879. That institution, now a part of the
Akron Municipal University, conferred upon him the degree M. A.
in 1883 and LL. D. in 1908. Mr. Stearns took his
law course in the Harvard Law School, completing it in 1882.
He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1882 and has since been in
active practice at Cleveland. From 1884 to 1890 he was
associated with Herman A. Kelley in the firm of
Stearns & Kelley, and for the past fifteen years has been
associated with John A. Chamberlain. The firm of
Stearns & Chamberlain was subsequently enlarged by the
admission of William F. Carr and Joseph C. Royon.
Mr. Carr died in September, 1909, leaving the firm in its
present form as Stearns, Chamberlain & Royon.
Besides the three principal partners other lawyers are
associated with the firm.
Throughout his long career in the law, Mr. Stearns
has constantly cultivated the highest ideals and ethics of the
profession, and has been devoted to its welfare. For a
period of ten years, from 1894 to 1904, he was professor
of the law of suretyship and mortgages and of bills and notes in
the Western Reserve University Law School. He has
contributed many articles to the Western Reserve Law Journal and
other legal publications and is author of a treatise on the "Law
of Suretyship" and of "Annotated Cases in Suretyship."
Both widely used in law schools. The "Encyclopedia of Law
and Procedure" contains a chapter on the "Law of Indemnity" by
him.
Outside of his profession Mr. Stearns has sought
none of the many honors open to the able lawyer. He has
for many years secretary and in 1907 was president of the
Cleveland Bar Association. In May, 1908, the Municipal
Traction Company chose him as its representative in the
arbitration of the Cleveland street car strike. The
institution to which he has given his time liberally is Buchtel
College, his alma mater, which he served eighteen years as a
trustee, and during 1887-88 was its financial agent. Since
1914 Mr. Stearns has been a member of the Cleveland
Public Library Board.
His chief recreation is travel, and he made seven trips
to Europe before the war, covering practically every point of
interest in Europe. He is a republican in politics, a
member of the Union Club, Country Club, University Club, and the
Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.
He has three children, Elliott E., Helen H. and
Dorothy D. The son Elliott has also taken up
the law as a profession and is associated with his father.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs
-
The Heart of New
Connecticut -
Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 178 |
|
|
FRANCIS L. STEVENS.
Prominent among the representatives of the legal profession of
Cleveland is Francis L. Stevens, whose career has been a
somewhat remarkable one. The common, every-day man,
engrossed in the business avocation which brings him his daily
sustenance, is representative, perhaps, of the nation's
citizenship. This is the normal type, and his life begins
and ends, in many cases, with nothing more distinctive than is
the ripple on the stream when the pebble is thrown into the
water. It is the unusual type that commands attention and
it is his influence exerted on his community and the record of
his life that are interesting and valuable as matters of
biography. In the professions, and especially in the law,
the opportunities for usefulness and personal advancement depend
almost entirely upon this unusually-gifted individual, and here
natural endowment is as essential as is thorough preparation.
The bar of Cleveland has its full quota of brilliant men, and
one of its foremost members is Mr. Stevens.
Francis L. Stevens was born at Alvinston,
Ontario, Canada, Apr. 5, 1877, and is a son of Elijah and
Louise J. (Oke) Stevens. His father was born at
Nilestown, near London, Ontario, and spent his boyhood there,
while his mother was born at Whitby, Ontario. They met and
were married at Alvinston, where the father was engaged in the
bakery and confectionary business, but subsequently went to
Wallaceburgh, Ontario, and May 9, 1899, came to the United
States and located at Lorain, Ohio, where Elijah
Stevens also followed the bakery and confectionery business.
About the year 1907 they came to Cleveland, where Mr.
Stevens was employed by the George Worthington
Company, a wholesale hardware concern, until his death, which
occurred Feb. 19, 1916. Mrs. Stevens still
survives her husband and is a resident of Cleveland. Mr.
Stevens was widely known in fraternal circles of the
city, being a member of King Solomon Lodge, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, Elyria; Elyria Chapter, Royal Arch Masons;
Elyria Council, Royal and Select Masons; Holy Rood Commandery,
Knights Templars. Cleveland; Lake Erie Consistory, Select
Royal Masons; and Al Koran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the
Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Cleveland; Cleveland Chapter, Order
of the Eastern Star; Suydenham Valley Lodge No. 120, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, Wallaceburgh, Ontario, and the Encampment
of that order at the same place; the Independent Order of
Foresters; the Canadian Order of Foresters; the Ancient Order of
United Workmen; the Canadian Order Woodmen of the World; and Rokeby Lodge No. 19, Knights of Pythias, of Wallaceburgh.
He was very active in religious work and a helpful member of the
Peoples Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland.
Francis L. Stevens, his parents' only child,
attended the graded schools of Alvinston and the high school at
Wallaceburgh, Ontario, where he was graduated in the class of
June, 1891. After going to Lorain, Ohio, he learned the
machinists 's trade, at which he worked for nine years, holding
a stationary engineer's license and working at various places
all over the country. Finally he took a position as
foreman in one of the Erie shops, and it was while he was thus
engaged that he became interested in the law and decided to
enter upon its practice. He was compelled to work and to
support a wife and three children, but despite this fact he not
only graduated from the law department of Baldwin-Wallace
College, but was one of the honorary members of the graduating
class of 1911. He commenced practice at once, even before
hearing that he had successfully passed the examination before
the Supreme Court, and from that time to the present has been in
the enjoyment of a constantly-growing clientele. He
carries on a general practice, being equally familiar with the
various branches of his profession, and maintains offices in
suite No. 1126-29, Williamson Building. His success in his
profession has been remarkable and he enjoys the esteem and
friendship of his fellow practitioners and his fellow members in
the various orders of the law with which he is connected.
Like his father, Mr. Stevens has been
greatly interested in fraternal orders and their work. He
is now a member of Euclid Lodge No. 599, Free and Accepted
Masons; Garrett Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Garrett, Indiana;
Apollo Commandery, Knights Templars, Kendallville, Indiana; and
Garrett Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star; Anchor Lodge No.
908, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Cleveland; Holman Lodge
No. 699, Knights of Pythias, of Lorain, Ohio, and several
insurance orders. He has been twice noble grand of Anchor Lodge
of Odd Fellows, and has the distinction of having presided at
the largest meeting of any one lodge ever held in Ohio, this
being Dec. 19, 1912, at a special meeting of Anchor Lodge to
confer the third degree upon fifty-seven candidates.
Politically Mr. Stevens is a republican.
With his wife and children he belongs to Calvary Evangelical
Church of Cleveland. Mr. Stevens is so much of a home man
that this may be said to be his hobby, but this must be shared
with a love for mechanics, which he has retained since his
youth.
Mr. Stevens was married at Lorain, Ohio,
Mar. 26, 1902, to Miss Loreetha E. McCleary, of that
city, daughter of Clayton A. and Henrietta (Holmes) McCleary,
the former of whom died when Mrs. Stevens was about two
years old. Mr. and Mrs. McCleary came from Harrison
County, Ohio, where they lived in the vicinity of Cadiz, and the
former's people traced their ancestry back to the Mayflower
band, while the latter 's earliest ancestor in America came
about ten years after the arrival of that ship. Mrs.
Stevens was educated at Science Hill School, near Cadiz,
and graduated in elecution from Franklin College.
She belongs to the Order of the Eastern Star, the Rebekahs and
the Pythian Sisters, and is widely known in religious and club
circles of Cleveland. Mrs. Stevens is
descended from the same common ancestry as was President
Lincoln, both being descendants from Obediah Holmes,
who came to America in 1638. Among his ten children were
Lydia, from whom President Lincoln descended, and
Jonathan, Mrs. Stevens' ancestor. Her
ancestry to Jonathan Holmes runs through the male line
with the exception of her mother. Mrs. McCleary
still survives and is making her home at Columbus, Ohio, with
her eldest daughter. To Mr. and Mrs. Stevens the
following children have been born: Harold L., born Mar.
8, 1905, at Garrett, Indiana; Waldo Holmes, born
Mar. 29, 1907, at Columbus, Ohio; Clayton Perrine,
born Aug. 8, 1910, at Cleveland; and one child who died in
infancy.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 171 - Vol. |
Frank E. Stevens |
FRANK E. STEVENS,
judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the Eleventh Judicial
District, has been an active member of the Cleveland and Ohio
bar over twenty years, and for the greater part of that time has
been identified in some capacity with the public business of
Cleveland.
Judge Stevens was born at Tarentum,
Pennsylvania, Sept. 12, 1870, a son of Rev. W. D. and Harriet
E. (Brooks) Stevens. His father was born at Ravenna,
Ohio, and his mother at Norwich, New York. They were
married in Salem, Ohio, in 1861. Rev. W. D. Stevens
was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and had a long
and active career in the ministry, filling many pulpits in
Eastern and Southeastern Ohio, was for a brief time located in
Pennsylvania, and from 1880 to 1882 was pastor of the Miles Park
Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland. He gave
forty-four years of his life to the ministry and died at
Cleveland Oct. 14, 1906. his wife following him in July, 1907.
Of their four children, Judge Stevens was the only
one born in Pennsylvania, the others claiming Ohio as their
native state. These children were: Sarah B., of
Cleveland; Edgar D., who died in Harrison County, Ohio,
at the age of twenty, while teaching school; Frank E.
and Emma, wife of John Hemming, of
Cleveland.
As is true of all ministers' sons, Judge
Stevens had his early educational advantages in many
different schools and localities. Most of the schools he
attended were in the southeastern part of Ohio. From
public school he entered Franklin College, graduating A. B. with
the class of 1892. He taught school three years, being
principal of a school at Bridgeport, Ohio, two years.
While teaching he was also studying law, and in 1896 was
admitted to the bar and removed to Cleveland. Judge
Stevens then engaged in private practice until 1901.
In that year he was made secretary of the Municipal Association
of Cleveland, now known as the Civic League, and handled much of
the executive and routine work of the organization until 1906.
In 1906, Newton D. Baker, now Secretary of War,
appointed him an assistant in the city law department, and he
was Mr. Baker's assistant until Jan. 1, 1913. Judge
Stevens was elected to the Court of Common Pleas in the
fall of 1912 for a term of six years. He began his duties
on the bench in January, 1913, and still has over a year to
serve. He has commended himself to the bar and public by
his conscientious thoroughness and impartiality and the legal
and human wisdom which he brings to every case brought before
him.
Judge Stevens is a democrat, a member of
Glenville Lodge, No. 618, Free and Accepted Masons, Knights of
Pythias, City Club, Council of Sociology, Cleveland Bar
Association, Cleveland Automobile Club and outside of his home
and profession finds his chief recreation in motoring and
fishing.
June 26, 1902, at Cleveland, Judge Stevens
married Miss Fanny Swingler. They have one son,
Joseph Brooks, born at Cleveland Jan. 23, 1904.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 66 - Vol. III |
|
|
GARRETT STEVENS
first came to Cleveland as representative of an insurance
company and was identified with the claim departments of several
companies both in Cleveland and elsewhere until 1916, when he
opened his office for the private practice of law in the
Guardian Building. Mr. Stevens has been a
lawyer for many years, and grew up in the atmosphere of that
profession and in close association with democratic politics in
Old Berks County, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Stevens was born at Reading, Pennsylvania,
Dec. 19, 1877, a son of Garrett B. and Catherine Mary
(Zeller) Stevens. His father was born on a farm near
Feasterville in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, while the mother was
a native of Reading, and in that city they were married.
Both parents are now deceased. Garrett B. Stevens
practiced law at Reading for more than thirty years, and for
twenty years was the recognized democratic leader in Berks
County. He never held an office for himself. His
death occurred in 1910 at the age of sixty-five, while the
mother passed away in 1911, aged sixty-six. During most of
the time Garrett B. Stevens practiced law alone, but
subsequently was associated with Judge W. Kerper Stevens
under the firm name of Stevens & Stevens.
These partners were not related. Later he had his son
John B. Stevens as a partner under the firm name of
Stevens & Stevens. There were five children in
the family, Garrett being the oldest. Wallace,
who took special work in Harvard University, graduated in law
from the University of New York and is now an attorney and vice
president of a bonding company at Hartford, Connecticut. John
B., still in practice at Reading, graduated A. B. from the
University of Pennsylvania and studied law under his father.
The two daughters are Elizabeth B. and Catherine M., both
living in Philadelphia. Elizabeth holds the degree
Bachelor of Domestic Science from Drexel Institute of
Philadelphia while Catherine is a graduate of the Reading High
School. Elizabeth is now a teacher of domestic
science in the public schools of Philadelphia while Catherine
is secretary of the correction department of Municipal Court
at Philadelphia. All the children were born at Reading,
and all the sons are successful lawyers.
Garrett Stevens graduated from the
Reading High School in 1895, spent two years in the literary
department of Yale College and from there entered Dickinson
College of Law at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he was graduated
LL. B. in 1899. In 1898 at the outbreak of the
Spanish-American war his entire class with the exception of two
members enlisted in Company G of the 8th Pennsylvania Infantry.
Mr. Stevens got only as far as Camp Alger at
Washington, where he suffered a sunstroke and after three months
was sent home. He then resumed his studies, and on Dec.
20, 1899, was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He at once
began practice at Reading, and had an office alone for about six
years. He then became connected with the Maryland Casualty
Company and came to Cleveland as resident claim manager for two
years. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1908. From
Cleveand he was transferred to New York City and then to
Baltimore, where he was assistant manager or examiner of claims.
Mr. Stevens again came to Cleveland, this time as
claim attorney for The General Accident, Fire and Life Insurance
Corporation, Limited. He returned to Cleveland Sept. 17,
1912, and in September, 1916, he gave up his work with the
insurance company to engage in the general practice of law.
He is secretary of The International Motors Accessories Company
of Cleveland and secretary and a director of The H. E.
McMillan & Son Company of Cleveland. While connected
with insurance companies he tried cases in thirty-seven states
of the Union.
Mr. Stevens is a noted orator and was on
the National Board of Speakers of the democratic party during
three of the Bryan campaigns. He was nineteen years
old when Bryan was first a candidate for president, and
during the summer and early fall of 1896 he went all through the
New England states speaking for Bryan and was widely
known as the '' schoolboy orator.'' He was also a member
of the campaign committees of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and
for several years was his father's right hand man in politics in
that section. It is characteristic that he has never been
a candidate for office himself. Mr. Stevens
is a member of Reading Lodge No. 549 Free and Accepted Masons at
Reading, Pennsylvania, and was formerly a member of the Berks
County Bar Association. His church is the Presbyterian.
Sept. 4, 1901, he married Miss Sarah S. Stayman
of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, daughter of Joseph B. and Mary S.
(Shelley) Stayman, both deceased. Her people were
retired farmers and an old family of Carlisle. Mrs.
Stevens was born at Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where she
received her early education, and graduated from an academy at
Carlisle. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens reside at 1608 East
84th Street. Their two children are Garrett Barcalow,
born at Reading, Pennsylvania, and Mary Catherine, born
in New York City.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 278 - Vol. |
J. J. Sullivan |
COL. JEREMIAH L. SULLIVAN.
In many of those broader movements and enterprises which have in
their results brought about the greater Cleveland of today,
Colonel Jeremiah J. Sullivan has expended his efforts and
influence to the permanent advantage of the community and in
such a way as to redound to his lasting credit as a Cleveland
man.
Taking his life as a whole it has been a long and
useful one and of versatile service and experience. His
birth occurred on a farm near Fulton, Stark County, Ohio, Nov.
16, 1845. He had only a public school education, and he
first passed the horizon of the great world when in his
seventeenth year he enlisted as a private in the Third Ohio
Independent Battery. He was one of the youngest of the
volunteer soldiers of Ohio. This battery was recruited
largely from Stark and Columbiana counties. He went into
the war before the climax and in time to participate in those
eventful and decisive campaigns of Vicksburg, Atlanta and
Nashville. After more than two years of service he was
granted his honorable discharge July 31, 1865. He was not
yet twenty years of age when he returned home a veteran of the
great war.
In 1867 he became part owner of a general store at
Nashville, Holmes County, Ohio. Two years later he bought
his partner's interest and continued the business alone until
March, 1878. He then sold out and moved to Millersburg
in the same county, and there for a number of years he was known
successfully as a general hardware merchant. In 1889 Mr.
Sullivan closed out his business in Millersburg and
removed to Cleveland, where he has been an active citizen for
over a quarter of a century.
He became well known in the public life of the state
before he came to Cleveland. In 1879 he was elected on the
democratic ticket to the Ohio State Senate from the district
comprising Wayne, Holmes, Knox and Morrow counties. With
the close of his first term he declined a renomination. In
1885, however, he was again made a candidate and was elected
without opposition. The work by which his service in the
Senate should be especially remember was in connection with
legislation affecting the various state institutions.
Mr. Sullivan had charge of the bill which resulted in
establishing the Soldiers Home at Sandusky. Not long
afterward he became a trustee of the Soldiers Home and served
until August, 1911, when all the state institutions were placed
under the direct control of a general board of administration.
In 1887, while a member of the Senate and without his
knowledge or solicitation, President Cleveland made Mr.
Sullivan a national bank examiner for the State of Ohio.
In that position he gained a very thorough and technical
knowledge of banking affairs, a business to which he has since
devoted his time and energies with such conspicuous success.
He resigned after three years as national bank examiner to
become managing director of the Central National Bank of
Cleveland. He had taken a leading part in the organization
of this bank in March, 1890, and from the beginning to the
present has been its controlling spirit, wisely directing its
policies and fortifying by his individual character and
resources its splendid prestige in the Cleveland financial
district. Since April, 1900, Mr. Sullivan
has been president of this bank.
In 1898 he bought the controlling interest in the First
National Bank of Canton, Ohio, was its president until July,
1911, and since his resignation he has continued as a member of
its board of directors. In 1904 Colonel Sullivan
established the Superior Savings and Trust Company of Cleveland,
and has been its president and directing officer throughout the
twelve years of its prosperous existence. The two
Cleveland financial enterprises which owe their origin to his
ability and experience as a financier are among the strongest
and most representative in the city and in the state.
Colonel Sullivan would in fact be named among any group of
prominent American bankers.
His opinions have long been quoted as authoritative
utterances on the general currency and financial problems of the
country and also on many technical phases of banking and bank
administration. While the banks with which he has been
connected have always been known as conservative institutions,
Colonel Sullivan himself has exhibited decided
progressiveness in his views on financial subjects. While
the average banker perhaps over emphasizes his conservatism,
Colonel Sullivan has expressed it with a decided
tinge of optimism. This was revealed during the current
discussions and criticisms of the currency legislation, before
Congress during the summer of 1913. Colonel
Sullivan was able to recall from his own memory similar
apprehensions felt at the time the National Banking Act was
passed in 1863. In a published interview he said: ''We
will not discuss the merits or demerits of the so-called
administration bill or Federal Reserve Act, but whatever its
defects may be we regard it as a long step forward. If
enacted into law its practical workings will reveal its
weaknesses and a future Congress will eliminate its defects."
After the currency bill of 1913 was adopted Colonel
Sullivan was made chairman of the committee of Cleveland
citizens in the movement to secure one of the Federal Reserve
banks for Cleveland. The successful result was largely due
to efforts put forth by Mr. Sullivan.
Any number of large organizations and movements have
benefited by his active participation and membership. He
has served as president of the National Board of Trade, the Ohio
State Bankers Association, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and
the Cleveland Clearing House Association. He has been
treasurer since organization of the Merchant Marine League of
Cleveland, and is himself interested in Great Lakes snipping as
a director and officer of several steamship companies. He
also belongs to many of the leading social organizations of the
city, and the title by which his friends and associates know him
is the result of service as colonel of the Fifth Regiment, Ohio
National Guard, an office to which he was elected in 1893.
Colonel Sullivan married in 1873 Miss Selina J. Brown.
He is the father of one son and two daughters.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 24 - Vol. III |
NOTES: |
