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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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THE TABOR ICE CREAM COMPANY
is a Cleveland institution that deserves consideration and study
for more reasons than one. It is a model manufactory to
begin with, has kept its management and products up to the
highest standards of sanitary and wholesome production of an
article whose popularity with the consuming public of America
needs no explanation. It is also a very efficient and at
the same time democratic business organization, and as such the
results achieved and methods followed might be studied with
profit by many other concerns.
The business was incorporated Feb. 23, 1915, by
Frank B. Tabor, president, R. O. Rote, vice
president, H. S. French, treasurer, and J. D.
Alexander, secretary. On Oct. 10, 1916, the business
was reorganized, taking in four new members, and since then the
officers have been: J. B. Crouse, president; Frank B.
Tabor, first vice president and general manager; A. A.
Chapin, second vice president; H. A. Tremaine,
treasurer; C. E. Kennedy, secretary and assistant
treasurer, and other directors are H. S. French,
George B. Siddall and George B. Sacks.
The company was at first capitalized at $100,000, and
in August, 1916, the capitalization was increased to $2,000,000,
$1,000,000 common and $1,000,000 preferred stock.
Doubtless the greatest public interest will be felt in
some statistics reflecting the tremendous growth and the
vitality of this business. The first year the sales
amounted to 300,000 gallons of ice cream, the second year the
sales were $570,000, while in 1916 the total was $630,000. The
company began with only 5,200 square feet of floor space, while
today their model plant furnishes 130,000 square feet, and those
who are expert and in a position to judge assert that this plant
has not a superior among the ice cream factories of the entire
world. Of course efficiency in operation, installation of most
modern appliances and machinery, are all emphasized, but the
feature which will chiefly impress the public is the emphasis
placed upon sanitary measures. Every room in which milk or
cream is handled is finished in white tile — ceilings, walls and
floors. In connection with the plant the company operates
four 100 ton per day compressors, furnishing refrigeration
equivalent to the melting of 400 tons of ice. These
machines serve a double purpose and can be used either for
direct refrigeration or the manufacture of ice. The
company when it started employed only forty people, while today
the pay roll provides salaries for 135. In the way of
equipment they operate 65 wagons and automobiles.
Another interesting feature of the business is the
contract which they made at the beginning and which still
continues with a mutual milk producing organization known as the
Erie County Milk Association. This association furnishes
the company all its cream. The Erie County Milk
Association is noteworthy in being the only one of its kind in
the United States comprised of farmers which has held together
and has done business and prospered for more than a generation.
The Tabor Ice Cream Company itself was founded
on a basis of integrity of purpose and with the object of giving
the people of Cleveland a high grade of ice cream such as would
measure up to every test and standard of perfection. The
successful carrying out of this ideal purpose accounts for the
fact that the demand for the product has doubled in less than
three years. The company maintains an open-door policy in
that the public is invited day or night, to inspect the premises
and examine all the processes connected with the manufacture of
the ice cream, and it is only an organization absolutely and
confidently assured of its sincerity and integrity of practices
which could afford to expose itself to inspection and criticism
under every condition of time and circumstance.
Reference has already been made to the model system of
administration within the company. They attain some of the
results which are theoretically cherished in an ideal form of
industrial organization. There is a complete
democratization of the business. No employe is ever
dismissed by the heads of departments until he is given a fair
trial before a committee of his fellow workmen. The idea
is that it does not pay to punish any employe for a fault, and
the object to be obtained is correcting that fault, and
dismissal is provided only for ineradicable faults. The company
also gives a monthly lunch and business meeting to all the
employes and the entire force are required to attend, and
criticisms and suggestions for the benefit or the correction of
faults in the institution are invited and any grievances on the
part of employes are taken up and discussed and become the basis
of alterations of policy and practice during the next month.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 26 - Vol. III |
Chas. G. Taplin |
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ALEXANDER
SACKET TAYLOR, a native of Cleveland, born
Apr. 3, 1869, which city has always been his home. He is
using his personal talents and opportunities conferred by a
secure business position to promote the city's growth and
development.
In 1892 he became a member of the firm V. C. Taylor
& Son, real estate and investments, with offices in the
Williamson Building, one of the best and oldest real estate
firms in the city organized in 1872. While in the general
real estate business this firm has for a number of years
specialized in the larger industrial property transactions.
It handles much of the high class property in the downtown
district and many of the ninety-nine year leases have been
executed through their offices. This firm handled the
business details of the transaction resulting in the erection of
the First National Bank Building, the Hippodrome Building, the
Higbee Building, the Wilbrandt Building and the New Statler
Hotel.
Mr. Taylor is a son of Virgil Corydon and
Margaret M. (Sacket) Taylor. Virgil C. Taylor's
mother was a member of the noted Carter family of
Virginia, with which colony its fortunes were identified in
1649. William Taylor, Jr., grandfather of
Alexander S. Taylor, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
Margaret M. Sacket was a daughter of Alexander
Sacket, who married a daughter of
Levi Johnson,
one of the founders and first citizens of Cleveland, whose
record also appears in this work.
Alexander S. Taylor was educated in the
Cleveland public schools and graduated from Brooks Military
Academy in 1888. He soon afterward took up the real estate
business with his father and has been junior member of the firm
for the past twenty-five years.
During that time many business and executive
responsibilities have been assumed by him. He is a
director of The Guarantee Title and Trust Company, president of
The Coventry Road Land Company, vice president of The Wilbrand
Company, president of The United Realty and Investment Company,
member of auxiliary board of directors of The Guardian Savings &
Trust Company. Mr. Taylor served as
president of the Cleveland Real Estate Board in 1908 and was
president of the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges
of America during the year 1910. He is a trustee of the
Cleveland Real Estate Board and director of the National
Association of Real Estate Exchanges. He is also a trustee
of The Babies Dispensary and Hospital, was director of the
Cleveland Chamber of Commerce two years, and is prominent in
social and club life, having membership in the Union Club,
Country Club, Mayfield Country Club, Rotary Club, Loyal Legion,
Western Reserve Chapter Sons of American Revolution and the Ohio
Society of New York.
Mr. Taylor has always taken an active
interest in civic affairs. His splendid public spirit has
made him a leader there and in 1910 he was considered for the
republican nomination for mayor. He declined to become a
candidate. In 1911 he was tendered the directorship of the
Board of Public Works under Mayor Baehr. He
declined these honors but did accept membership on the Union
Depot Commission. Mr. Taylor is a member of
St. Paul's Episcopal Church. For four years he was a member of
the Gatling Gun Battery, from 1889 to 1904.
He was married at Cincinnati May 16, 1894, to Clara
Therese Law, daughter of John H. and Georgia (Overacre)
Law. Mrs. Taylor's father was born at Savannah,
Georgia, and her mother at Natchez, Mississippi. They have
one son, Virgil Corydon Taylor, second, who was a student
in Yale University but left his college life to enter the
services of the United States Army at the age of twenty-one
years and joined the Second Ohio Artillery as a private, later
being promoted to a lieutenant in the One Hundred and
Thirty-fifth Field Artillery, in active service abroad.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 217 - Vol. II |
Daniel R. Taylor |
DANIEL R. TAYLOR
With a record of fifty years of residence and business activity
at Cleveland, Daniel R. Taylor is the pioneer real estate
man of the city, and the men of that profession have never
hesitated to recognize and appreciate not only his expert skill
and success but his many unselfish services rendered in putting
the business on its present high plane.
If ever a man was fortunate in his birth and early
environment and experience it is Daniel R. Taylor.
He is a son of the late Colonel Royal Taylor, whose
notable career in Ohio has been sketched elsewhere in this
publication. Daniel R. Taylor was born at his
father's home in Twinsiburg, Ohio, Mar. 28, 1838. His
mother was Sarah Ann Richardson and through her he is
descended from Holland-Dutch ancestry that settled in
Connecticut about 1668. There is also an admixture of
French Huguenot and English blood.
Daniel R. Taylor grew up in a home of culture,
was liberally educated in the academies at Twinsburg and Chagrin
Falls, and had the inestimable advantage of early association
with his father, then and long afterward one of the most
remarkable business men of the state.
Mr. Taylor's first practical experience
was as a school teacher. In 1856 he was appointed station
agent on the newly opened Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad.
Following that he was assistant to his father, who represented
many of the heirs of original owners of land in the Western
Reserve and of Yale College, in the handling of that
institution's extensive land holdings through several states of
the Middle West.
In 1862 Mr. Taylor enlisted in the
Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was appointed
quartermaster sergeant, but found his chief duties in the
administration of work at which his father was the head.
In 1863 he was made Ohio State Military Agent and served as such
at Louisville and Nashville until the close of the war. It
is said that he considers his activities during this period as
the most serviceable to mankind in which he ever engaged.
Mr. Taylor came to Cleveland and engaged
in the real estate business in 1867. Five years later
William G. Taylor came and successfully engaged in the same
business and the two brothers have jointly occupied the same
office ever since. While his operations have been
conducted on a large scale, it is not so much his achievements
as a dealer as his broader services that require special
mention. Mr. Taylor was one of the pioneers
in recognizing that close relationship that exists between the
broad welfare of a community and its building development, and
long before "city planning" was an appreciated factor in
municipal development Mr. Taylor recognized that
the preservation of individual homes and pleasant surroundings
and the prevention of insanitary crowding of population was an
ideal of greatest importance in the wholesome growth of a city.
More than that, he realized the responsibility of real estate
dealers in the well ordered development of a community.
During his residence at Cleveland Mr. Taylor has
witnessed the city's growth in population from 71,000 to over
700,000, and throughout all this time has consistently used his
every effort to further the ideals above advanced, not only in
the minds of the general public but particularly with his
colleagues and associates in the real estate field.
Mr. Taylor has been very active in
developing much real estate in this city. During the past
fifty years he has owned wholly or in part about 500 acres of
land. Several subdivisions were opened up and improved by
him on which there are now hundreds of homes and a large number
of manufactories. Mr. Taylor was one of the
first to suggest that Euclid Avenue was to become a business
street, assuming that it being a direct line from the heart of
the city to the best residence portions it would naturally, as
the city developed, become an important business street. As all
the property on Superior Street west of the Public Square was
occupied for business purposes and as the property owners were
not willing to tear down old buildings and construct suitable
new ones to meet the growing demand, the natural outlet for this
growth was to be Euclid Avenue. Many contended that the
growth of business should be extended out Superior Street east
of the Square. He insisted, however, that the Public
Square, postoffice, Case Hall and the city hall
made a serious break in the business channel, and that saloons
and eating houses contiguous thereto were objectionable to a
good class of business. With Waldemer Otis and
George N. Case he secured the old St. Paul Church property
at the southwest corner of Euclid and Sheriff (now East Fourth
Street), tore down the church and subdivided and sold the land
for business purposes. They also bought the Warner and
Williams homesteads on the north side of Euclid Avenue, at the
corner of what is now Sixth Street, a portion of which was taken
for an extension of Bond Street through from Superior to Euclid.
They also vacated an alley running north of Euclid, west of
these properties, and gave the city the alley running west from
Bond Street to the Arcade. Mr. C. G. King, who
recognized the foresight shown, aided largely in the growth and
development of Euclid Avenue. Mr. Taylor's
idea has been that Cleveland was a natural manufacturing city
and meeting place for crude material, as well as being a good
distributing point. Acting on this belief, he has owned or
controlled and sold at different times several miles of railroad
frontage, the largest tract being that bounded by Quincy,
Oakdale, North Woodland and Woodhill Road.
It was wise forethought and care on the part of Mr.
Taylor that raised his operations as a buyer and seller
of real estate from a mere business transaction to a profession,
requiring careful study of economics, and the development of a
prophetic business sense, so as to be adequate as far as
possible in anticipating and preparing for the future. It
followed as a matter of course that he was one of the leaders in
organizing the Cleveland Real Estate Board, and the emphasis
placed by that organization upon business probity and fair
dealing as fundamentals can largely be traced to the influence
of Mr. Taylor.
When the Cleveland Real Estate Board was organized an
appropriate honor was conferred upon him in making him its first
president. He is still honored with the position of vice
president. Individually Mr. Taylor has been
connected with many manufacturing and real estate development
companies and has served as president, treasurer, secretary or
director in many of them. At the end of fifty years he is now
taking life somewhat leisurely, but has surrounded himself in
his office with a number of young men who have seized his ideals
and inspired by his guidance and instruction are giving
increased power to the long continued energies of this veteran
builder and developer of Cleveland.
Mr. Taylor has never married. While a
republican in politics he has never sought political honors of
any kind and has found his chief pleasure and satisfaction in
life in the orderly development of a large business. He
was one of the original members of the Union Club of Cleveland
and several other clubs, and is still a member of the Union Club
and of the Rowfant Club.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 103 - Vol. |
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JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR.
One of the most familiar articles in business offices and
elsewhere is the "rubber stamp." It is regarded as an
indispensable part of business equipment. There was a time
not so many years ago when rubber stamps were a novelty.
Nearly fifty years ago John Edward Taylor, now president
and treasurer of the Taylor Brothers Company,
manufacturing an extensive line of rubber stamps and kindred
products, undertook in a small way the manufacture of these
stamps and has been steadily engaged in that one line of
business for over forty years at Cleveland.
Mr. Taylor, who has now attained the dignity of
three score and ten years, was a very youthful soldier during
the American Civil war. He was born in Stark County, Ohio,
July 5, 1848. Several generations of the Taylors
have lived in that part of the state. His grandfather,
John Taylor, a native of Ohio, was descended from a family
that came from England to this country in early pioneer times.
Grandfather John Taylor was a farmer and local preacher
of the Methodist Church, and died in Indiana when past ninety
years of age. William Taylor, father of
John E., was born in Stark County, Ohio, in 1826, and grew
up and married there. By trade he was a carpenter, but
during the Civil war conducted a flour mill at Massillon, Ohio.
After the war he sold his business interests and removed to a
farm in Iowa, but after several years returned to Stark County.
He was also engaged in a line of business that had more than
ordinary interest. In the early days he became a weaver of
wire screens, doing that work by hand looms. He came to
Cleveland in 1878 and conducted a wire weaving industry, and was
in fact one of the pioneers in that business in the United
States. Wire screens when produced by hand looms sold at a
price of about ten cents a foot wholesale. A number
of years later machinery was invented for the weaving of such
screens, and after that the hand loom became antiquated and
could not be operated at a profit. About that time
William Taylor retired from business and in 1901
removed to California, where he died in 1903. He was a
republican and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. William
Taylor married Elizabeth Alexander, who was
born in Pennsylvania in 1828 and died in California in 1902.
A brief record of their children is as follows: Philip N.,
who was associated with his brother, and died at Cleveland in
January, 1916; John E.; Catherine Jane, who
married Abram Mort, a miller in Ohio, and
afterwards removed to California, where both died; Sarah
Amanda lives in California, widow of John Mitten,
a carpenter by trade; W. N. Taylor, in the bicycle
business on Prospect Avenue in Cleveland; Charles W., a
salesman living at Los Angeles, California; Laura, a
resident of Cleveland, widow of Sydney Hollowed, who was an
electrician.
John Edward Taylor spent a
considerable part of his boyhood and youth at Massillon, Ohio.
He attended public schools there, including high school.
When seventeen years old, in the spring of 1865, he joined
Company B of the One Hundred Ninety-first Ohio Infantry.
With that regiment he went into service before the war ended and
was out six months, being then honorably discharged and mustered
out. On his return from the army he finished his
schooling, and then went to work with his father in the wire
weaving business.
It was in 1871 that Mr. Taylor first
began the manufacture of rubber stamps, utilizing a very meager
equipment and a small shop at Wooster, Ohio. For a brief
time he was also located at Zanesville, and in 1873 came to
Cleveland and established the rubber stamp business which has
been growing and prospering ever since. He ranks among the
pioneer rubber stamp manufacturers of the United States. In
consequence of the continued growth and enlargement and
expansion of the industry it was incorporated in 1915 under the
laws of Ohio as the Taylor Brothers Company. The
present officers are: John E. Taylor, president and
treasurer; W. J. Taylor, vice president; and Warren N.
Taylor, secretary. The company has an extensive plant
at 706-710 Superior Avenue Northwest, and twelve persons are
employed in the manufacture of rubber stamps, steel stamps,
brass stencils and seals, and of a line of seals, checks and
other commodities suited to the general demands of business
houses. The firm does a large business in Cleveland and
throughout the trade territory surrounding the city.
Mr. Taylor is an honored member of the Army and
Navy Post No. 187 of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is
a republican voter. His home is on East Ninety-third
Street at Cleveland. In 1870, in Wayne County, Ohio, he
married Miss Anna Bailey, who died at Cleveland in 1882.
She was the mother of two sons, Ralph, who died at the
age of nineteen; and Benjamin, who died when two years
old. In 1884, in Cleveland, Mr. Taylor
married Miss Helen C. Oviatt, a native of this city.
They are the parents of five children: Harry E., a
graduate of high school in Cleveland and now in the stationery
business here; W. J., who is also a high school graduate
and vice president of the Taylor Brothers Company;
Mary E., living at home, a graduate of high school; Helen
L., who has also completed the high school course and is at
home; and Mildred N., a student in Fairmount School 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 356 - Vol. III |
Royal Taylor |
ROYAL TAYLOR.
The name and career of Col. Royal Taylor belong to the
State of Ohio rather than to any one locality, though many of
his most conspicuous achievements were in the Western Reserve.
He was born at Middlefield, Massachusetts, Sept. 1,
1800, a son of Samuel and Sarah (Jagger) Taylor.
His mother was a woman of marked character. His useful
life was prolonged to the age of fourscore and twelve years.
He died at Ravenna, Ohio, Nov. 20, 1892. His
great-great-grandfather, Samuel Taylor, came from
England and settled at Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1666. His
son, also named Samuel, was born at Hadley in 1713, and
in 1752 moved to the heavily wooded district known as Pontoosuck,
now the City of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. An
official record of 1753 shows that he was at the head of a
syndicate of seven citizens who by special act secured an
incorporation under the title of the "Proprietors of the
Settling Lots in the Township of Pontoosuck." In 1761 this
old Indian name was changed to Pittsfield.
The first white child born at Pittsfield in 1764 was
Samuel Taylor, the third of that name and the father of
Royal Taylor. In 1770 the Taylor family
removed to Middlefield, Massachusetts, where Samuel
Taylor lived until 1807, at which date he brought his
family, including his small son Royal, to the wilderness
district of the Western Reserve at Aurora in Portage County,
Ohio. Samuel Taylor died there six years later, in
March, 1813.
Royal Taylor was only thirteen years of
age when his father died. He possessed to a remarkable
degree all the qualities which have distinguished the pioneers
of the great West. He assumed heavy responsibilities in
connection with the maintenance of the family, and applied
himself to the hard and unremitting labor by which existence was
possible in this region of Ohio 100 years ago. It is said
that his first efforts at self support were as a workman in a
sugar camp, where he was paid his own weight, seventy pounds, in
maple sugar. He also worked in the first brick yard at
Aurora, the brick being used in the construction of the old
Presbyterian Church there. The fifteen dollars a month he
earned by this service he invested in sixty acres of land at
Solon in 1816. The purchase price was $300.00, but several
years later he sold the land for only $200.00. With this
discipline he grew up a healthy, tall and handsome young man,
with great powers of endurance, and always equal to any
emergency. As the Western Reserve was largely settled by
New Englanders, he had the good fortune of coming into
association with many educated men and women and from them
acquired a common school education. His first ambition was
for the law, and he studied that subject two years, and while
the knowledge proved invaluable to him his real forte and
destiny was as a leader in practical business.
In 1822 he went to Kentucky as a school teacher and
while there studied mathematics and Latin. His associates
while there were the Marshalls and other men who became
prominent in national affairs, and with whom he ever maintained
a friendly acquaintance. In 1824, in that state, he
married Miss Rebecca Saunders, and in the
following year they returned to Ohio and lived successively at
Aurora, Russell and Twinsburg. His first wife died at
Twinsburg in 1836, leaving him five young children. In
1837 he married Miss Sarah Ann Richardson, daughter of
Captain Daniel Richardson, of Connecticut. She was
born at Barkhamstead, Connecticut, in 1813 and came with her
parents to Twinsburg, Ohio, in 1824. She was a cousin of
the famous John Brown of Kansas and Harpers Ferry
fame and had the qualities of mind and heart which distinguished
the true noblewoman. She became the mother of four sons
and three daughters, and passed away in 1865. After her
death Royal Taylor married Mrs. Annetta Hatch.
Royal Taylor was a strong, vigorous man,
always a promoter of improvements and industries and helping to
develop the educational and political necessities of a new and
growing country. In the years following his first marriage
he was associated with his brothers Samuel and
Harvey Baldwin of Aurora in opening up the export
trade for the cheese product of Northern Ohio to the Southern
states, the first important export trade from the Western
Reserve. This product was carried to the South by boats
and barges on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. After the
panic of 1837 Royal Taylor took charge of some
bankrupt mercantile establishments. Here his legal
training served him well and his success in rehabilitating
broken concerns was such that all his energies were soon engaged
in handling large financial affairs for local and non-resident
capitalists. One important commission given him was for
the sale of lands held by the heirs of General Henry
Champion, W. W. Boardman and others of the
original purchasers of the 3,000,000 acres of the Connecticut
Western Reserve. In 1858 he acted as agent for the Yale
College, which had through the will of Henry L. Ellsworth
become possessor of lands in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.
In the course of time Royal Taylor had the
supervision and care of upwards of half a million acres of land
in Ohio and other states, and in looking after these interests
it is said that he visted every western state east of the
Rocky Mountains.
During his residence in Portage County he served as
county commissioner and later as state commissioner for the
Blind Asylum. From 1842 to 1868 he had his home in
Cuyahoga County. This position enabled him the better to
handle his business as a land agent and he was also agent for
the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad and one of its earliest
promoters.
Royal Taylor was a prominent member of
the whig party and in 1848 assisted in the organization of the
free soil party and was a delegate to the first county
convention of that party in Cleveland, and also a delegate to
the original state convention of the party at Columbus. In
1856 he became permanently identified with the republican
organization.
Though well advanced in years when the Civil war came
on, the service of Royal Taylor to his country is
one of the most conspicuous features of his record. In
1862 it was discovered that many sick and wounded soldiers from
Ohio after their discharge from the army had become the prey to
hordes of self-styled claim agents at Louisville, who bought
their pay vouchers for a mere pittance. Governor David
Todd of Ohio deputized Mr. Taylor to
investigate the matter, and his report showed that great
injustice was being done to the defenders of the Union.
Royal Taylor was then appointed military agent, with
the rank of colonel, and going to Louisville took such vigorous
action with the hearty support of the Secretary of War, as to
put an end to the flourishing system which had grown up around
the army organization. In the interests of the Ohio troops
Colonel Taylor maintained an office at Louisville,
and the following year at Nashville. In the spring of
1864, on orders from Governor Brough, he moved his
headquarters to Chattanooga, where his service was very helpful
in promoting the efficiency of the great army under Sherman
during its notable campaign. In 1865 Colonel
Taylor was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Military
Claims in Ohio, and with headquarters at Columbus administered
this office with signal efficiency for two years and ten months,
until by his recommendation the office was discontinued. In this
position it is said that with the aid of his son and cashier,
James Royal Taylor, he collected and distributed to
soldiers, and their widows and orphans several million dollars,
and the records of the department show that the accounts were
kept within the accuracy of a single cent.
From 1868 until his death Colonel Taylor
lived at Ravenna. In his seventy-fifth year he traveled
through Upper and Lower Canada and to England, partly on
business and partly on pleasure.
Of some of the more intimate characteristics of
Colonel Taylor the following has been appropriately
written: "He was a thorough temperance man and a regular
attendant of the Presbyterian Church, though not a member.
The personal accomplishments of Colonel Taylor
were far superior to those of the average business man of his
day. He was a constant and careful reader and that
intellectual resource abided with him even into extreme age.
This was evidenced in that he and his wife followed for four
years the reading course of the Chautauqua Literary and
Scientific Circle, of which they were two of the oldest members,
Colonel Taylor being eighty-four years old the
year of their graduation. Not content with this they read
for post-graduate credits for two years longer. His mental
faculties remained practically unimpaired until the last.
He had traveled extensively, and his faculty of observation was
phenomenal and never failing. He never lost his lively
interest in the affairs of the world, and, a true patriarch, his
mind held a vast fund of knowledge derived from the study and
various experiences of a long and eventful career.
Attractive in person, courteous and gentle in his bearing, he
stood as one of the most noble specimens of the true gentlemen
of the old regime, honored and beloved by all who came within
the sphere of his individuality. His manuscripts, even
down to the end of his life, were as plain, free and legible as
those of the most expert accountant, and his style of
correspondence evinced his literary taste and a most retentive
memory."
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 101 - Vol. II |
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SAMUEL GEORGE TAYLOR,
a resident of Cleveland for more than forty years, was formerly
connected with several of the well-known commercial houses of
the city, and since 1905 has been superintendent and assistant
secretary of the Brooklyn Heights Cemetery Association.
Mr. Taylor was born near Oakville,
Ontario, Canada, Aug. 28, 1852. His grandfather, George
Taylor, was a native of England. About 1812 he and
his wife, Mary, brought their family to America and were
pioneers in Trafalgar Township in the Province of Ontario.
They cleared up and developed a tract of new land in that
locality, and spent the rest of their days there.
George Taylor died in 1861, when past eighty years of age,
and his wife passed away in 1869.
Thomas Taylor, father of Samuel G.,
was born in England in 1807, and was about five years old when
his parents came to Canada. He grew up and married in
Trafalgar Township and for a number of years conducted a farm
and also did an extensive business as a hop grower in Trafalgar
Township, near Oakville. He finally moved to Paris,
Ontario, and for two years gave his exclusive attention to hop
growing. Finally, on account of ill health, he retired,
and died at Paris in 1859. He was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. His second wife, and the
mother of Samuel George Taylor, was before her marriage
Mrs. Ann (Hill) Richardson. She was born in England
in 1814, a daughter of Thomas Hill, who was a
native of the north of Ireland, of Scotch descent. When a
young man he went to England, and married there Martha
Parker. In 1818, on coming to America, he settled in
Ohio, but subsequently moved to the vicinity of Toronto, Canada,
where he was a homesteader and farmer, and developed a number of
important business interests. He also had an office at
Osgood Hall in Toronto. He died at Weston, near
Toronto, in 1860. After the death of Thomas Taylor
his widow, with her only child, Samuel G., removed to
Dubuque, Iowa, in April, 1864. She spent her last days
there, but died in 1868 while visiting at Palermo in Trafalgar
Township, Canada.
Mr. S. G. Taylor received his first advantages
in the public schools of Paris, Canada, and later attended
school at Dubuque, Iowa. His education was finished at the
age of fifteen, and after the death of his mother he paid his
own way in the world. He was employed as clerk and in
other positions in Dubuque, Iowa, and in 1875, on coming to
Cleveland, had a brief term of service with the W. P.
Southworth Company, following which for a year and a half he
was in the dry goods house of E. M. McGillen & Company.
For ten years Mr. Taylor was salesman for T. W.
Brainerd in his wall paper house on West Twenty-fifth
Street. Following that for thirteen years he was office
man with the Hill Clutch Company, and in 1904 came with the
Brooklyn Heights Cemetery Association as lot salesman, but in
1905 was made superintendent and assistant secretary. This
is one of the large and modern cemeteries of Cleveland, covering
102½ acres. The
cemetery offices are on West Twenty-fifth Street. Mr.
Taylor resides at
3304 Mapledale Avenue. For the past thirty-two
years he has been a member of the official board and is now
secretary of the People's Methodist Episcopal Church. Has
also always been very much interested in temperance work in the
International Order of Good Templars, and is a member of the
international and national grand lodges and for the past twenty
years has been the secretary of the Ohio Grand Lodge. He is also
a notary public, and politically is a republican.
June 9, 1879, at Cleveland, Mr. Taylor married
Miss Jessie P. Lapham, daughter of Simon S. and Mary
C. (Jett) Lapham, both now deceased. Her father was an
old-time resident of Cleveland and for a number of years was a
manufacturer of washboards. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor
have an interesting family of children, five of whom are living.
Mabel Jessie is the wife of F. E. Stannard, living
in Lakewood, Mr. Stannard being a collector for the
Standard Oil Company. The second child, George Stephen,
died when seven years old. Wilbur Davidson, whose
home is on West Thirty-third Street, is with the Ivanhoe Metal
Works of the General Electric Company. Helen
Isabel is the wife of Thomas Mills, foreman
for a Cleveland hardware concern, their home being on Cedar
Avenue. Samuel George, Jr., residing
on West Thirty-second Street, is a clerk for the Upson
Nut & Bolt Company. Jessie Lapham married
Earl E. Hall, a clerk for the Cleveland Motor Cycle Company,
their home being on Ivanhoe Road in Collinwood. The
youngest child, Marguerite, 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 262 - Vol. III |
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VIRGIL CORYDON TAYLOR
came to Cleveland sixty years ago. He was then a very young man,
with only such experience in business as had been acquired by
clerking in his father's store. He possessed an excellent
inheritance, his people having been of the substantial New
England sort, and his early life had been such as to stimulate
ambition and form good character. Mr. Taylor has
accomplished much during the sixty years of his Cleveland
citizenship. His enterprise has been well rewarded
financially, but his position of esteem is due not so much to
his wealth as to the influence he has exercised as a
constructive factor in the upbuilding and improvement of
Cleveland. He has been one of the men upon whom the city
could rely in its times of crisis and also in its times of
prosperity.
Mr. Taylor was born in Twinsburg, Summit
County, Ohio, Aug. 4, 1838, a son of Hector and Polly
(Carter) Taylor. The Taylor family has
been identified with Ohio for eighty-five years, and came out of
New England. William Taylor, Jr., the grandfather,
spent all his life in Connecticut except the time when he was a
soldier in the Revolutionary war. He served in Company A
from Simsbury, Connecticut, and fought in the battles of
Lexington and Monmouth. Hector Taylor was
born in New Hartford, Connecticut, in April, 1799, and came to
Ohio in 1832, being one of the early settlers at Twinsburg.
He established a general merchandise business and kept it
growing in proportion to the community and for many years
conducted a profitable business. He finally retired in
1870 and came to Cleveland to live with his son Virgil.
He died in Cleveland in November, 1874. In early manhood
he married Miss Polly Carter, daughter of Noah
Andrew and Lydia Carter, of Bristol,
Connecticut.
Virgil Corydon Taylor has always considered
himself fortunate that he lived in the atmosphere of a small
town when a boy. He was educated in the public schools of
Twinsburg, and afterwards took advanced studies in Geauga
Seminary. Leaving school at an early age, he found a place
in his father's store and there received a general training in
merchandising. In 1856, at the age of eighteen, he came to
Cleveland and was connected with a dry goods business until the
outbreak of the war.
Mr. Taylor is an honored veteran of the
Civil war. He became a member of Company E of the
Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was commissioned first
lieutenant, and was with that regiment in its various campaigns,
marches and battles as part of the Army of the Potomac.
At the close of the war Mr. Taylor
resumed with increased energy and purpose his business career.
He became cashier in the Farmers Bank of Cleveland, held that
post for eight years, but since 1873 has been primarily engaged
in the real estate business. In forty-four years he has
made his business a source of constructive improvement in
Cleveland. He has worked constantly for the city welfare
and deserves credit in connection with the making of this city
the sixth in rank and population in the United States. The
firm of V. C. Taylor & Son, with offices in the
Williamson Building, has been and is today one of
Cleveland's most reliable real estate organizations.
For over half a century Mr. Taylor has
lived at 6620 Euclid Avenue*. His is one of the
best known residence landmarks in that party of the city.
While his work and citizenship have never been sectional in
character, he has done much to improve his part of Cleveland,
and for a number of years was a member of the old school board
of East Cleveland. He was one of the three members of that
board who brought Dr. Elroy M. Avery, editor of this
publication, to the city in 1870. Mr. Taylor is a
member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland
Real Estate Board. Outside of business and civic affairs
his tastes run to literature and to outdoor life. He has a
fine private library, and his summers are usually spent among
the Thirty Thousand Islands in Canada, where he indulges his
proclivities as a fisherman and hunter. He is a member of
the Union Club and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. In
polities a republican, he has not allowed himself to be rigidly
bound by party ties and has frequently expressed himself
independent of party leaders. This is especially so in the
selection of candidates for local offices. He is also a
member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.
One of the oldest of Cleveland's real estate men, he
has long been associated in the work with his son Alexander
S. Taylor. Mr. Taylor was married June 23,
1863, to Miss Margaret Minerva Sacket. Her parents
were Alexander and Harriet (Johnson) Sacket. She
was a granddaughter of Levi Johnson, elsewhere
referred to as one of Cleveland's earliest pioneers, the builder
of the first courthouse and county jail and in many other ways
identified with the city's founding and early improvement,
Levi Johnson died in 1871. Alexander
Sacket, father of Mrs. Taylor, was for many
years one of Cleveland's merchants. Mrs. Taylor
was born May 3, 1838, and died May 6, 1908, after a happy
married life of nearly forty-five years. Outside of her
home interests she was closely connected with the work of the
St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Cleveland and the various
charities of that organization. She was a woman of
splendid culture and of such character as to cause her memory to
be deeply cherished. She was the mother of four children.
The oldest is Harriet, now the wife of Dr. Prank E.
Bunts, the noted surgeon of Cleveland; Catherine is
the wife of R. O. Carter. Alexander S. is
the business associate of his father. Grace, the
youngest, is the wife of John B. Cochran, son of the
former vice president of the Erie Railroad.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 46 - Vol. II
* Building does not appear to be there anymore. |
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WILLIAM W. TAYLOR
is president and general manager of The Taylor Machine
Company at
7804 Carnegie Avenue. This business was
established Jan. 1, 1907, by Mr. Taylor and for
ten years was conducted under his name. In 1917 it was
incorporated as the Taylor Machine Company under the laws
of Ohio.
This is one of the important industries of Cleveland,
and manufactures lathes, multiple spindle drill presses, priming
cups and also does general jobbing in a kindred line of
products. The market is all over the United States, and
during 1917 the firm shipped $50,000 worth of goods to England
and also large amounts to France. It is an industry that
employs the services of ninety persons. Mr.
Taylor is president and general manager; P. D. Crane
is vice president; and R. T. Maskell is secretary and
treasurer.
William W. Taylor was born at New Straitsville,
Ohio, Aug. 8, 1879. His father, Thomas Taylor,
was born in County Durham, England, in 1841, and came to America
and settled at New Straitsville in 1866. For many years he
was in the coal business but is now living retired at New
Straitsville. He has done much in a public way in his
community, having served on the Board of Education and in
connection with other local movements. He is active in the
Methodist Episcopal Church and for many years has been
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Thomas
Taylor married Esther Hilton, who was born in Kentucky in
1854. Their children are William W.; Henry, in the
mining business at Straitsville, Ohio; and Elizabeth, who
died unmarried at the age of twenty-three.
William W. Taylor, who was educated in the
public schools of New Straitsville, came to Cleveland Mar. 25,
1898. Here while serving his time and learning the trade
of machinist he attended night school for four years,
specializing in mechanical studies. He then engaged in his
present business and in ten years has built up his company to
rank among the prominent industries in the city. Mr.
Taylor is a member of the Trinity Congregational Church, and
is affiliated with Brenton D. Babcock Lodge, Ancient Free and
Accepted Masons, Mount Oliver Chapter, Royal Arch Masons,
Woodward Council, Royal and Select Masters, Holyrood Commandery,
Knights Templar, and is a member of the Cleveland Automobile
Club and Cleveland Credit Men's Association.
Mr. Taylor owns real estate in Cleveland and
resides at
2314 East Eighty-fifth Street. He married at
Cleveland August 9, 1904, Miss Mary Beerer, daughter of
Joseph and Annie (Bailey) Beerer, both now deceased.
They have two children: Ralph, born Feb. 21, 1906; and
Mildred, born Nov. 21, 1911.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 189 - Vol. III |
 |
ALBERT
R. TEACHOUT. One of the communities
around Cleveland that most clearly exemplified and represented
the character and ideals of the old Connecticut and the New
England spirit is North Royalton in Cuyahoga County. In
pioneer days it was a typically New England community where men
and women closely adhered to the fundamental rules of conduct
that made New England the source of some of the most vital
forces that have entered into our national life. Many
prominent and noble men and women have come from North Royalton,
and one of the families originating there who have had much to
do with Cleveland's industrial and civic life is that of
Teachout. In the present generation this family is
represented by Albert R. Teachout, who has become the
active executive head of the great business established by his
father many years ago as a lumberman and building supply
merchant. The business is now known as the A. Teachout
Company, of which Albert R. is president.
The founder of the family at North Royalton was
Abraham Teachout, who was born in New York state in 1782,
He was reared and married in that state, and along in the '20s
came to North Royalton with his family. Besides managing a
farm he also conducted a country store. He died at
Liverpool, Ohio in 1857. The ancestors of the Techout
family originally lived in Holland, and it was the father of
Abraham Teachout who, with two other brothers, came to
this country. Abraham Teachout married Miss
Troop, also a native of New York state.
Abraham Teachout, Jr. who was born in New York
state in 1818, was a small boy when brought to North Royalton
where he was reared and educated. In 1841 he removed to
Cleveland, and began his business career on the Ohio Canal,
owning a boat and acquiring the title of captain. He
operated this boat between Cleveland and Portsmouth, Ohio.
Later he gave up transportation work, returned to North Royalton
and married, and then established a sawmill in that community.
He entered this business at the solicitation of citizens in that
locality and conducted his mill for many years. He also
operated a country store and became a man of much local
prominence. He was an ardent prohibitionist at a time when
the practice of that doctrine was by no means so easy as at the
present time. The historian, of the family states that
Abraham Teachout was the first man in North Royalton
to substitute hot coffee and fried cakes for whiskey at the
raising of a building. Those familiar with pioneer customs
need not be told that whiskey was considered an almost
indispensable part of the ration given to men who participated
in such work. In 1853 Abraham Teachout moved
to Madison, Ohio, and operated a grist mill, and for about ten
years was proprietor of a similar mill at Painesville, Ohio.
In 1873 he returned to Cleveland and established the business
which is still conducted under his name, including a saw and
planing mill and general supply plant for all classes of lumber
material. For some years the business was conducted as
A. Teachout & Son, and later was incorporated under the
present title of the A. Teachout Company.
This business, the largest of its kind in Ohio, has its
headquarters at 321-331 West Prospect Avenue. Other plants
are located in different parts of Cleveland and also in
Columbus. The firm does a jobbing business in doors, sash
and other mill work, glass and lumber, and its market extends
over several states. The officers of the company at the
present time are: A. R. Teachout, president; D. W.
Teachout, vice president and treasurer; and D. T. Jackson,
secretary.
The late Abraham Teachout, who died in Cleveland
in 1913, was a prominent member of the Church of Christ or
Disciples, and at Cleveland was for many years elder in the
Franklin Circle Church. Abraham Teachout was three
times married and his only child is Albert R.
Albert R.'s mother was Julia Ann Tousley, who was
born in Vermont in 1818 and died at Cleveland in 1878.
Albert R. Teachout was educated in public
schools at Painesville, Ohio, attended Hiram College, and on
leaving college in 1870 had a general business experience as a
merchant at Painesville, Cleveland and Columbus, and also had
mercantile interests at Pittsburgh, New York and Philadelphia.
At the death of his father he succeeded to the presidency of the
A. Teachout Company, and is also active head of its
various affiliated concerns, being president of the Teachout
Sash, Door, & Glass Company of Columbus; president of the Euclid
Avenue Lumber Company; Broadway Lumber Company; Edgewater Lumber
Company; Brooklyn Lumber Company and Clifton Park Lumber
Company, and director in several other lumber firms in
Cleveland. He is one of the prominent officials of the
Central National Bank, of which he is director and member of the
Executive Committee. Mr. Teachout is also a
trustee of Hiram College, is an elder in the Franklin Circle
Church of Christ, a trustee of the Ohio Christian Missionary
Society, and has been treasurer of its trust fund for over
thirty years. He is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of
Commerce.
His home is at 1605 East One Hundred and Fifteenth
Street. He is also one of the Cleveland men who have
country residences at Gates Mill. This summer home of the
Teachout family is known as Forest Villa. In
1873, at Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mr. Teachout
married Miss Sarah A. Parmly, who was born at Perry in
Lake County, Ohio. She died at Gates Mill in 1912.
In 1914 at Cleveland, Mr. A. R. Teachout married Miss
Minevieve B. O'Connor, a native of Cleveland. Three
children were born to the first marriage: Kate P., a
graduate of Hiram College, is now deceased. She married
Rev. W. F. Rothenburger, a minister of the Church of the
Disciples. Albert R., Jr., is a resident of
Tacoma, Washington. David W., who resides at Euclid
Heights, is a graduate of Hiram College and received his A. B.
degree from Harvard University. Early in 1918 he became
general camp secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in the war work of
that organization at Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio, where he
continued for several months until called to that highly
responsible position of general secretary in national Y. M. C.
A. work in connection with the United States army.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 363 - Vol. III |
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ALBERT E. THOMPSON
is one of the veterans of the Great Lakes traffic. He has
been a resident of Cleveland thirty years, and since then and
prior to that time has been almost continuously identified with
some work connecting him with Great Lakes transportation.
He has filled grades of service from about the lowest to some of
the most responsible offices, and at present is assistant to the
general manager of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Company, one
of the largest individual organizations among Great Lakes
carriers.
Mr. Thompson is a native of England, born
at Barnsley, in Yorkshire, May 14, 1863. His father,
Robert Thompson, was born at Thirst, in Yorkshire, in
1840, and spent all his life in England. He was a dry
goods merchant at Barnsley for forty years. He died at
Manchester in 1913. He was a liberal in politics and a
very active leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Robert Thompson married Mary J. Newsome, who
was born at the same place in Yorkshire as her husband, in 1843.
She died at Manchester in 1911. Her children were:
Thomas R., a retired resident of Cleveland; Joseph,
who lives at Manchester, England; Albert E.; Sarah,
who married Laban Solomon, a professor of music at
Elseear, England, and both are now deceased; Emma, wife
of Lee Horner, a designer living at Manchester:
and Edith, unmarried, and living in London.
Albert E. Thompson was given his early education
at Barnsley and in 1882 graduated from the Brampton Commercial
College. About his first experience was teaching school at
his native town for two years. In 1885 Mr.
Thompson came to America, and his first location was at
Toronto, where for eight months he was associated with M.
Quinn in the dry goods business. He then came into the
United States and at Detroit found opportunity to go to work for
the D. & C. Navigation Company as a cabin boy. That was
his entrance into the field of Great Lakes transportation.
Hardly a phase of the work has escaped his experience. For
a number of years he was in the steward's department, and in
1888 removed to Cleveland, where with Mr. T. F. Newman he
established the city ticket office of the D. & C. Navigation
Company and the Nickel Plate Railway, the office being in the
old Weddle Building. He was office manager there for five
years. For a time he was out of direct connection with
lake transportation through organizing the Euclid Beach Park
Company, and bought sixty-three acres on the lake. He was
manager of this business and recreation enterprise for two
years, when he resigned and returned to the D. & C. Navigation
Company as their commercial agent. That position he filled
fourteen years. Mr. Thompson then organized
the Eastland Steamship Company of which he was manager two
years. He then operated a steamer between Cleveland and
Port Stanley, organizing the Cleveland and Port Stanley
Navigation Company, of which he was general manager three years.
In 1913 Mr. Thompson came with the Cleveland &
Buffalo Transit Company as excursion agent. Other
responsibilities have been given him, until he is now assistant
to the general manager. His offices are at the foot of
East Ninth Street. The public is generally familiar with
the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Company. It operates both
passenger and freight steamers between Cleveland and Buffalo and
has the very largest boats afloat on the lakes.
Mr. Thompson is an independent voter, a
member of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, and is
affiliated with the Masons, Knights of Pythias and the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
His home is at 9903 Clifton Boulevard. Mr.
Thompson married, at Detroit, in 1887, Miss Ella Clowrey,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Clowrey, now deceased.
To their marriage have been born five children. Robert, a
graduate of Wooster University at Wooster, Ohio, is a resident
of Youngstown and manager of the Youngstown branch of the
Republic Truck Company; William Laban, the second
child, is a graduate of Kenyon College and is now captain of the
Three Hundred and Twentieth Infantry in the United States army;
Mabel married Emanuel Brunner, a sergeant
in the aviation service at Dayton, Ohio; Helen is the
wife of Harry D. Fay, a professor of music living at
Lakewood, Ohio; the youngest is Violet, a student in high
school.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 443 - Vol. III |
|
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CARMI ALDERMAN THOMPSON,
who now resides at Cleveland, is a former treasurer of the
United States, and long prominent in both state and national
affairs.
He was born in West Virginia Sept. 4, 1870, son of
Granville and Mary E. (Polley) Thompson. He was
graduated from the Ohio State University in 1892 and received
his law degree in 1895. In the latter
year he was admitted to the bar, and began practice at Ironton
in Southern Ohio, and was organizer and director and attorney
for the Iron City Bank. He served as city solicitor from
1896 to 1903, and from 1904 to 1907 was a member of the Ohio
House of Representatives and speaker of the House
during 1906-07. He was elected and served as secretary of
state for Ohio from 1907 to 1911, and was then called to
Washington under President Taft and was assistant
secretary of the interior from Mar. 6, 1911, to July 1, 1912,
and secretary to President Taft until Nov. 20,
1912. His service as treasurer of the United States was
from Nov. 20, 1912, to Apr. 1, 1913.
Since leaving public life Mr. Thompson
has served as general manager of the Great Northern Iron Ore
properties as president of the Cottonwood Coal Company, the
South Butte Mining Company of St. Paul, and in 1917 came to
Cleveland as vice president and general manager of the Tod-Stambaugh
Company, iron ore. Mr. Thompson is a
republican, a Mason and a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the
Columbus Club of Columbus, Ohio, the University and National
Press clubs of Washington, the Minnesota Club of St. Paul and
the Union Club of Cleveland. May 3, 1899, he married
Leila Ellars.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 554 - Vol. III |
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WILLIAM A. THOMPSON,
secretary of the Permanent Products Company, one of the newer
industrial corporations of Cleveland, whose history is briefly
told on other pages, has spent his active career as a salesman.
Mr. Thompson was horn in Conneaut
Township of Erie County, Pennsylvania, Mar. 6, 1868. As a
boy he attended the grammar and high schools of Corry,
Pennsylvania, but left school at the age of fifteen, and spent
two years learning the machinist's trade at Corry. Thus he
knows more about the machinery business than from the sales end.
As a boy he showed an alertness to accept any opportunity that
would give him a legitimate profit. One winter he hired a
barn and boarded eight horses, working from 6 o'clock in the
morning until midnight looking after the animals. At the
end of the winter he had $40 clear. He spent a year
studying law, but in 1887 moved to
Conneaut, Ohio, and accepted employment in a tile
factory owned by his brother, Hiram F. Thompson, who
subsequently became a minister of the gospel. While
lifting heavy tiles, Mr. Thompson was injured so
that he had to give up all heavy work. This was really
fortunate, since it started him in his career as a salesman, a
work that lie has made a profession. He first sold goods
in the capacity of agent for carpet sweepers in Oil City,
Pennsylvania. For three seasons he represented the Singer
Sewing Machine Company at Conneaut,
Ohio. In February, 1892, Mr. Thompson came
to Cleveland and was salesman for the Globe Chemical Company
until the fall of 1894. He then sold bicycles for H. A.
Lozier & Company until the fall of 1897, following which for
four years he represented the Black Manufacturing Company
of Erie, Pennsylvania, selling the Tribune bicycles. From
1895 to November, 1917, Mr. Thompson had his
home at Greenville, Pennsylvania. All these years he has
been a salesman or sales manager. For a number of years he
was sales manager of the Capital Gas Engine Company of
Indianapolis. He was also at one time advertising manager
for Western Pennsylvania for the Shedd-Brown
Manufacturing Company, and district sales manager for the Shelby
Electric Company at Pittsburg. Thus he has fully twenty
years of experience
in manufacturing, purchasing and superintending sales.
Mr. Thompson returned to Cleveland as a home in the
fall of 1917, and prior to that time had begun the active work
of organizing the Permanent Products Company from its financial
standpoint. Mr. Thompson maintains an
absolutely independent attitude in politics. He is a
member of the Presbyterian Church and is affiliated with
Eureka Lodge, No. 290, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at
Greenville, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Thompson has a very interesting
family history. His great-grandfather, William Thompson,
was born in "Western Scotland, and in colonial days settled in
New York State, where he followed farming. He died near
Albany. Hiram Thompson, grandfather of the
Cleveland business man, was born near Albany, New York, in 1806,
and died in Conneaut Township of Erie County, Pennsylvania, in
1878. He was one of the early settlers there, and
developed a farm in that rugged district. He married
Angeline Stuart, who was born at West Springfield,
Pennsylvania, and died in Erie County, that state. Her
father, Amasa Stuart, was a native of
Massachusetts, and died on his farm in West Springfield,
Pennsylvania. The Stuart family came from Scotland
to Massachusetts, and the father of Amasa served as a
soldier in the Revolutionary war.
Eliot Stuart Thompson, father of
William A. Thompson, was born in West Springfield,
Pennsylvania, in 1831, and was reared and married in that
locality. He began life as a farmer, after which he
entered the lumber business, and was in that industry in Canada
for several years. As a lumberman he shipped most of his
products to Cuba and he suffered financial ruin during one of
the rebellions on that island, as a result of which a large
consignment of lumber was seized or destroyed and he could never
realize anything from it. From Canada he returned to
Corry, Pennsylvania, where he was in the grocery business a
number of years. In 1911 he retired and is now living at
Oberlin, Ohio. In politics, like his son, he has refused
to abide by the dictates of any party, and has been strictly
independent. He is a consistent member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church and affiliated with the Masonic fraternity.
He is a life member and the oldest living member of
Conneaut, Ohio, lodge of
Masons. He also had a military record, enlisting in 1864
and serving until the close of the war. When he went away
to the army he left his wife and three small children on the
farm.
Eliot Stuart Thompson married Antoinette
Tubbs, who was born in Conneaut Township of Erie County,
Pennsylvania, in 1838, and died at Corry in 1910. Her
father, Frederick Tubbs, was born in 1802 on the present
site of the Town of Amboy,
Ohio. He was a sailor and owned and was captain of a lake
schooner, the Brandywine, engaged in the grain trade between
Duluth and Buffalo. He died in shipwreck off Dunkirk, New
York. Frederick Tubbs married Irene
Clifford, who was born at Grafton, New Hampshire, and died at
Corry, Pennsylvania, though her home was at Albion in that
state, at the age of seventy-two. She passed away in 1889.
The Tubbs family came originally out of England
and settled in colonial days at Bedford, Massachusetts.
The original ancestor was a whale fisherman. The father of
Irene Clifford was Patrick Clifford,
who was born in New York State and died at
Amboy, Ohio, where he had a farm. He married
Josephine Buffum, a native of Massachusetts, who
died at Grafton, New Hampshire. Her parents were Jedediah and
Ruth (Joselyn) Buffum. An interesting
story is told concerning the father of Jedediah Buffum,
who lived in the early colonial days of Massachusetts. He
on one occasion gave shelter to a persecuted woman accused of
witchcraft, and the hostility of the community was directed
against him. He was put to a horrible death, a door being
laid over his body and weights piled upon it until life was
slowly crushed out of him.
Eliot Stuart Thompson and wife had
five children: Charles F., a physician and surgeon,
living at Sioux City, Iowa; Hiram F., a Congregational
minister located at Parkman, Ohio; Bert F., a toolmaker
living at 54 Beresford Road in East Cleveland; William A.;
and Fannie A., wife of Raleigh A. Godfrey, a
toolmaker living at Oberlin, Ohio.
Mr. William A. Thompson lives at 1306 Grace
Avenue* in Lakewood. He married at
Conneaut, Ohio, in 1889, Miss Jessie A. Brown,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Lindley Brown, both now
deceased. Her father was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs.
Thompson have one son, Robert S., who is a graduate
of the high school at Greenville, Pennsylvania, and is a civil
engineer by profession, his home still being with his father and
mother.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 244 - Vol. III
* Building appears to be gone.
** Go to
www.conneautohio.us to do further searching for this family |
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THOMAS THOMSON
is an expert mining engineer with experience in mining and
reduction plants in various sections of the country and for the
past four years has been a resident of Cleveland, where he is
general superintendent and second vice president of the Lake
Erie Smelting Company.
Mr. Thomson is a native of Scotland, born
at Roslin, July 7, 1880. His father, Joseph Thomson,
who was born in the same place in 1836 was a miner and for a
number of years owned an interest in a coal mine at Roslin,
where he died in 1889. He was a member of the Presbyterian
Church. Joseph Thomson married Barbara
Adams, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1837.
She died in 1891 at Little Bay, Newfoundland. Several of
their children have been conspicuous in mining and general
engineering circles. The oldest of the family, George,
is a mining engineer living at Berwick, Nova Scotia.
Christina is the wife of William Megill, a
retired metallurgist living at Frederickstown, Missouri.
Joseph is a mining engineer with home in Alberta, Canada.
Agnes married George Langmead, jeweler at
St. Johns, Newfoundland; James is a metallurgist with
home in Brooklyn, New York; Barbara married Robert
Moore, a resident of Elizabeth, New Jersey, and connected
with the Benjamin Moore Company, paint
manufacturers.
Thomas Thomson, youngest of the family,
was taken after his father's death to Little Bay, Newfoundland,
where he received his early education in the public schools.
In 1897 he graduated from the high school at Elizabeth, New
Jersey, and then went and entered the Colorado School of Mines
at Golden, where he was graduated in 1901 with the degree Mining
Engineer. Then followed two years of active experience in
the copper mines of Arizona, but since that time his work has
been chiefly in reclaiming secondary metals at the big
industrial plants. He was in that work at Tottenville, New
York, for eight years and in 1913 came to Cleveland, where he
was superintendent of the department for the reclaiming of
secondary metals with several different plants. In 1914 he
became general superintendent and second vice president of the
Erie Smelting Company at Seventy-eighth Street and Bessemer
Avenue. Their plant is for the general reduction and
reclaiming of secondary metals, and the output of brass and
copper ingots is distributed all over the United States.
Mr. Thomson is a republican in politics
and is a vestryman of the Episcopal Church. He is
affiliated with Elbrook Lodge Free and Accepted Masons, James
Corbin Chapter Royal Arch Masons, Brooklyn Lodge of the
Knights of Pythias and the Royal Arcanum. He is a member
in good standing of the American Institute of Mining Engineers.
Mr. Thomson's home is at 3426 Krather
Road* in Brooklyn, Cleveland. He married at Perth Amboy,
New Jersey, in September, 1903. The maiden name of his
wife was Sarah E. Phillips, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
George B. Phillips, both now deceased. Her father was
at one time very prominent in politics at Key West, Florida.
Mr. and Mrs. Thomson have three children: Joseph,
born June 7, 1904; Dorothy, born Aug. 23, 1906; and
Genevieve, born Dec. 24, 1913.
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
* The home appears to be gone now. |
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JOHN G. TOMSON
is commissioner of streets of Cleveland. His appointment
was one of the many creditable selections which have made
Mayor Davis' term as head of the city administration
notable in municipal history. Mr. Tomson and
several of his brothers have made names for themselves in the
mechanical trades and indxistries of Cleveland, and aside from
his official service he has been identified with the men of
industry here most of his life.
Mr. Tomson was born in Cleveland Mar. 17,
1879. His grandfather, Martin Tomson, was
born in France, came to America in early days, was a farmer by
occupation and died in Iowa in 1860. Barney
Tomson, father of the street commissioner of Cleveland, was
born at Ebenezer, New York, in 1845. He grew up in his
home locality and as a boy of sixteen, in 1861, enlisted in the
Union army in the One Hundred Eleventh New York Cavalry.
At the beginning of his service he was one of General
Scott's bodyguard, and afterwards saw active service with
his regiment through the Peninsular campaign, at Gettysburg and
in many other battles and scouting service until the close of
the war. For several years he conducted a carriage factory
at Warsaw, New York, and in 1870 removed to Cleveland, where he
was proprietor of a blacksmith and carriage shop on Pearl Road
for many years. He died in this city in 1910. He was an
active republican. The maiden name of his wife was
Pauline Schneckenberger,
who was born in Switzerland at Zurich in 1845, and is still
living at Cleveland. She became the mother of six
children: Edward, engineer and superintendent of a power
house plant at Chardon, Ohio; Albert, a blacksmith at
Cleveland; Barney, a stationary engineer in Cleveland;
Lydia, wife of John Healy, a draftsman for the
White Motor Company at Cleveland; John G.; and Otto,
who is connected with the Tomson Motor Company of
Cleveland.
John G. Tomson was educated in the Cleveland
public schools, but left at the early age of thirteen to take up
the serious affairs of life. For three years he drove a
team and then learned the trade of blacksmith and followed it
actively until 1910, for several years conducting a shop
on Carnegie Avenue. Mr. Tomson 's induction
into the public service of Cleveland came in 1910 with his
appointment as assistant superintendent of street repairs under
Mayor Herman Baehr's administration.
A year later, under the same mayor, he was made superintendent
of sidewalks. On leaving this office he resumed his trade
on East Seventy-first Street for four years, until Jan. 1, 1916,
when he was made a member of Mayor Davis'
administration as commissioner of streets, with offices in the
city hall. In 1911 he represented the Twenty-first Ward in the
city council.
Mr. Tomson is president of the Western
Reserve Club, a republican organization, and has been one of the
leaders in his party in the city. He is vice dictator of
the Loyal Order of Moose, is past chancellor of Forest City
Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and in Masonry is affiliated with
Elbrook Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, John K. Corwin Chapter,
Royal Arch Masons, Forest City Commandery. Knights
Templar, Cleveland Council, Royal and Select Masons, Al Koran
Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and Al Sirat Grotto. Mr.
Tomson is a member of the Christian Science Church.
His home is at
2106 Broadview Road. In 1902, at Cleveland, he
married Miss Louise Westfall, who was born in
Switzerland. She died at Cleveland Nov. 3, 1916, leaving
one daughter, Adah, born Sept. 26, 1903. On Nov. 8,
1917, at Cleveland, Mr. Tomson married Miss Carrie
MacTavish, daughter of Alexander and Ella (Corson)
MacTavish, the former now deceased. Her father was a
captain on lake steamers.
Source: History of Cleveland and its Environs - The Heart of New
Connecticut - Publ. The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago and
New York - 1918 - Page 357 - Vol. III |
NOTES: |
