OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
A Part of Genealogy
Express
|
WELCOME to
LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
History & Genealogy |
|
|
BIOGRAPHIES
† Source:
A. History of Northwestern Ohio
A Narrative of Its Historical Progress and
Development
from the First European Exploration of the Maumee and
Sandusky Valleys and the Adjacent Shores of
Lake Erie, down to the Present Time
by Nevin O. Winter, Litt. D.
Assisted by a Board of Advisory and Contributing Editors
Illustrated
Vol. II
Published by
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1917
< CLICK HERE to RETURN to
1917 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
< CLICK HERE to RETURN to LIST
of BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >
|
|
NORVAL BALDWIN BACON
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 978 |
W. BakerSee 1910 History with
another portrait of W. Baker. |
WILLIAM
BAKER. Not too often and not through the agency of too
many vehicles of publication can be recorded the life history of one
who lived so honorable and useful a life as did the late William
Baker, who was one of the pioneer members of the bar of the City
of Toledo, where he was engaged in the practice of his profession
for half a century and where he exerted a large and benignant
influence in connection with civic affairs and community interests
in general. He was a man and a lawyer of signal purity and
exaltation of purpose, recondite in the learning of his profession
and imbued with the fullest appreciation of its dignity and
responsibility; well disciplined in mind; eminently judicial in his
natural attitude as touching men and measures; guided and governed
by inviolable principles of integrity and honor; simple and
unostentatious in his self-respecting and tolerant individuality -
such a man could not prove other than a dynamic power for good in
whatsoever relation of life he might have been placed. He
honored his native state both by his character and achievement and
he was honored as one of the staunch, loyal and influential citizens
of Toledo, where he continued to maintain his home until his death,
at the age of seventy-two years. In paying tribute to his
memory recourse is had in certain degree to an appreciative estimate
prepared by one definitely familiar with the different stages of his
long and useful career.
William Baker was born at Norwalk, the judicial
center of Huron County, Ohio, and the date of his nativity was Feb.
5, 1822. He was a scion of one of those sturdy New England
families whose industry, good judgment and distinct virtues gave
them an influential part in the development and upbuilding of the
historic Western Reserve of Ohio. His alert and vigorous mind
enabled him to profit fully from the educational advantages that
were afforded him in his youth, and scholastic standards were high
in the Western Reserve even at that early pioneer period. At
the age of nineteen years Mr. Baker was graduated in
Granville College, and in consonance with his well formulated plans
and high ambition he then entered the law school of Harvard College,
as the historic university was then known, in which he was graduated
as a member of the class of 1844 and from which he received the
degree of Bachelor of Arts. He returned to Ohio and was
forthwith admitted to the bar of his native state, where, in
November of the same year, he established his permanent residence at
Toledo, which was then little more than a village, and here engaged
in the practice of his profession, to which he here continued to pay
active and unfaltering allegiance until the time of his death, which
occurred on the 17th of November, 1894. He was not only one of
the distinguished member of the bar of Lucas County during the
course of many years, but was also a prominent and influential
figure in all activities and movements pertaining to the
intellectual, civic, moral and material progress and well being of
Toledo, his loyalty to his adopted city having been most
appreciative and absolutely unfaltering.
In 1847 Mr. Baker formed a law partnership with
the late Judge Myron H. Tilden and this alliance continued
until 1850. Thereafter he conducted an individual practice
until 1857, from which year forward to 1870 he had as his
professional coadjutor the late Judge William A. Collins.
From 1881 until his death he was senior member of the
representative law firm in which his associates were his youngest
son, Rufus H. Baker, and Barton Smith. Mr.
Baker had a comprehensive and accurate knowledge of the science
of jurisprudence and was never lacking in facility in applying his
knowledge to his effecttive work both as a resourceful trial lawyer
and as a counselor of mature judgment and much conservatism, the
while he was tireless in his efforts to protect and forward the
interests of his clients, through invariably refusing to identify
himself with causes whose justice he knew to be of negative quality.
In short he was at all times and under all conditions a man of the
strictest integrity and one who never sacrificed the dictates of
conscience for any matter of personal expediency. Thus it was
but natural that he should achieve success in his profession, with
the concomitant respect and confidence of his fellow men.
Early in his career at the bar he won secure vantage ground, and
from that time forward until his death his prestige and success were
marked by cumulative tendencies.
That a man with so broad a mental ken, so sure a
judgment and so marked practical circumspection should become
influential in connection with the march of civic and material
advancement was virtually a matter of logical sequence. With
such men as Morrison R. Waite, Samuel M. Young, Peter F. Berdan,
Joseph K. Secor, Horace S. Walbridge, Abner L. Backus and
others, he was a prominent factor in building up the institutions
upon which now rest Toledo 's prosperity and precedence. He
was especially active and influential in securing the construction
of the Toledo, Norwalk & Cleveland Railroad, the line of which now
constitutes the Norwalk division of the New York Central Lines; and
also in effecting a similar service in connection with the Wabash
Railroad. His active influence was given also in the promotion
of the building of the
Boody House, which was long the best known and leading hotel of
Toledo, and his activities along business lines were potent also in
the establishing of the Wabash grain elevators, the Milburn Wagon
Company and a number of other important concerns that have
contributed greatly to the growth and commercial prestige of the
city.
When the
First Baptist Church of Toledo was organized Mr. Baker
and his wife became members of the same, and from that time until
the close of his life he continued one of its zealous adherents and
staunchest supporters. For many years he was superintendent of
its Sunday school, besides being active and liberal in the
furtherance of the work of other departments of the church and their
service. His religion was not confined to the matter of creed
or individual belief, but he conscientiously endeavored to make his
abiding faith evident through good works and kindly deeds.
Thus he was earnest in the support of charitable and benevolent
objects, and many menwho afterward became prosperous and influential
in connection with the business life of Toledo owe their initial
steps toward success to his timely advice and assistance. It
not infrequently falls to the lot of those who thus strive to aid
others to become victims of misplaced confidence, and Mr.
Baker was not permitted to offer his claims to being an
exception. He at times suffered heavy financial losses through
the unworthiness of those to whom he extended a helping hand, but
these losses never rendered him uncharitable or served to destroy
his confidence in humanity. Of him it has been said that no
man "in whose integrity and ability he believed, ever asked his help
in vain." During the Civil war Mr. Baker
was a member of the sanitary commission, in connection with the
important work of which he rendered efficient service, as did he
also as president of the Toledo branch of the United States
Christian Commission.
At the time of the death of Mr. Baker one
of the leading newspapers of Toledo paid to him in its editorial
columns the following tribute:
"It is a distinct loss to a city when such a man as
William Baker passes away. Broadminded and thoughtful,
with a sincere belief in his fellow men and an earnest desire to do
what lay in his power for their prosperity and progress, Mr.
Baker was one of the human factors, and a large one, in the
arduous work of laying the foundations upon which the superstructure
of Toledo's growth and prosperity has been erected. Quiet and
unassuming in his manner, he was not one to pose constantly before
the public, but there was no project for the advancement of the real
prosperity of Toledo as a commercial and manufacturing center which
did not find in him an earnest advocate and sagacious supporter.
Though not a demonstrative man, the energy and thoroughness
characteristic of his New England ancestry made his support count
for much. Nor was he less a factor of usefulness and progress
in the upbuilding of the social fabric of the city. His fifty
years' residence in Toledo was one of continuous helpfulness to the
development of her moral, religious and educational progress.
A consistent and active Christian, he was a tower of strength to the
church of which he was a member, and his influence extended far
beyond the limits of his immediate field. He has gone to
his rest, full of years fruitful in good works and leaving to his
fellow citizens an example that all may emulate with honor to
themselves and credit to Toledo.''
The domestic chapter in the life history of Mr.
Baker was one of ideal type, and in the sanctuary of the home
his noble and gentle nature shown in fullest refulgence and
graciousness. On the 28th of August, 1849, was solemnized his
marriage to Miss Frances C. Latimer, who died Feb. 23,
1911. Three sons and one daughter survive them. Herbert,
the eldest of the children, is president of the Home Savings Bank of
Toledo; Arthur E. is identified with business interests in
Toledo; Rufus H. is here upholding the professional prestige
of the name which he bears and was a law partner of his father at
the time of the latter 's death; Katharine is the widow of
John J. Manning.
† Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page
963 |
PORTRAIT |
EDWARD E. BALMER
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 752
|
Calvin Barker |
CALVIN BARKER
is a veteran Toledo business man,
Though he recently passed his eighty-second birthday, he exemplifies
the truth of the philosophy that man is only as old as he feels.
Many men twenty years his junior have not the forcefulness and
energy to put into the execution of important plans that Mr.
Barker daily furnishes to the business routine of the Barker,
Frost & Chapman Company, real estate and general insurance.
This is one of the oldest and most reliable insurance
firms in Northwest Ohio. Mr. Barker, who has
been an important figure in business circles at Toledo for over
sixty years, entered the general insurance business in
1878. Since then he has made a constant study of general
insurance and from the foundation up has built a business and agency
of great prestige and value. During the first year Mr.
Barker had his offices in the old Fort Industry Block at the
corner of Monroe and Summit streets. At the end of that time
he was joined by the late L. W. Frost, making the firm
Barker & Frost. Their offices were at 411 Madison Avenue.
In 1894 Louis L. D. Chapman was admitted to the firm, and the
offices continued in the same location. On Mar. 1, 1910, the
company moved to spacious offices on the second floor of the
Nicholas Building, but on Mar. 1, 1913, they occupied their present
position on Madison Avenue, the ground floor of the building
opposite the Nicholas Building. This firm represents over
eighteen fire insurance companies, including some of the oldest and
strongest both in America and in foreign countries. They are
also agents for life, accident, burglary, plate glass, automobile,
steam boiler and marine insurance and for surety bonds. Mr.
Barker is president of the company; John D. Nolen,
vice president; Louis L. D. Chapman, secretary and treasurer.
Calvin Barker was born on Staten Island, New
York, in 1834. His father, Capt. John Barker, was born
at Sudbury, Massachusetts, in 1799. The parents of Captain
John were encamped at Lexington during the siege of Boston in
the Revolutionary war, and both his father and other members of the
family proved valiant defenders of the American independence.
The old Barker homestead at Sudbury is still owned by members
of the original family. Around that venerable place, where the
Barkers located in the earliest years of the eighteenth
century, gathered the associations and traditions of the family for
more than two centuries. Capt. John Barker, who died at
Factoryville, Staten Island, New York, Apr. 27, 1863, in his
sixty-fourth year, was for more than forty years superintendent of
the Staten Island Dyeing and Printing establishment.
Reared and educated in his native state, on Aug. 1,
1850, Calvin Barker entered as clerk in a wholesale dry goods
house on Hanover Square, New York, City, this being the wholesale
section of New York City in those days, no wholesale business having
been done above Wall Streets. He was twenty-two years of age
when he came to Toledo in 1857, the same year that the republican
party had its first presidential campaign. Toledo then had a
population of barely 7,000. He at once entered upon an active
career in local commerce, becoming managing partner of the first of
W. H. Ketcham & Company. Much of the push and energy
that has always distinguished him became manifest at the beginning
of his career in Toledo, and about ten years later, in 1866, he
engaged in the wholesale and retail millinery business and helped to
make Toledo a wholesale center. From that in 1878 he turned to
the line of business which has now occupied him for nearly forty
years.
From 1879 Mr. Barker was closely associated with
the late Lewis W. Frost until the death of r. Frost
on Nov. 17, 1911. Since then the old firm name has still
been retained, and as the Barker, Frost & Chapman Company it
is known in insurance circles far beyond hte immediate boundaries of
Toledo.
In the meantime Mr. Barker became identified
with others business enterprises and has acquired extensive real
estate holdings both in and around Toledo. His public spirit
has been displayed on more than one occasion when he has given his
influence and means to some worthy improvement and more than once he
has assured the success of some such undertaking. During the
Civil war he was a member of the finance committee of the Third Ward
of Toledo, and was foremost in the organization work in looking
after the interests of the departing soldiers and performing duties
such as are now the province of the Red Cross Society. At the
close of hostilities this committee had in its treasury
approximately $5,000 unexpended, and this became the nucleus of the
fund that built the present Memorial Building on Adams Street.
Mr. Barker, who confidently anticipates
that he will live to be a hundred, is an example of right living.
He has always been industrious, had good physical development to
begin with, and has been temperate in all things, and with a
reasonable degree of activity has pursued a constant purpose in
life, and to a greater degree than most men has accomplished what he
set out to perform.
In December, 1856, the same year he came to Toledo,
Mr. Barker married Miss Mary A. White,
daughter of Rev. Samuel White of Staten Island, New York. The
only son of their marriage was John S. Barker, who was
connected with a New York life insurance company. He died Dec.
29, 1915. Mrs. Barker died at Toledo, Mar. 24, 1910.
On Apr. 26, 1916, at East Orange, New Jersey, Mr. Barker
married a sister of his first wife. Mrs. Frances J. Viot,
who for a number of years resided in Toledo but for some time before
her marriage had made her home in and about New York.
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1067 |
Mrs. R. A. Bartley |
R.
A. BARTLEY. One of the most satisfying rewards of a
successful business career is to make an individual name stand for
something and mean something in the world of affairs. That has
been the achievement of all the great merchants of America.
Save and reliable merchandising, high class products, purity of
goods, and a complete efficiency or organization that pervades every
department and benefits every customer and even the ultimate
consumer are some of the qualities associated with that old and
standard wholesale grocery house of Toledo, which has been built up
by forty-two years of successful work by R. A. Bartley.
While it is recognized that Mr. Bartley has been the
mainspring of this notable institution, he would be the last to
claim that he was the sole source and author of its resources and
energy. With a great faculty of constructive enterprise, Mr.
Bartley is really only the general, directing
the movements of a small army of disciplined and efficient workers.
He has built up an organization which might now exist
self-sufficient and effective without his directing services, just
as Marshall Field, John Wanamaker
and other great merchants have done. But it is an enviable
distinction in which only a few can share that this lofty building
housing R. A. Bartley 's wholesale grocery house in Toledo
and its widespread activities have their chief significance because
his name stands at the beginning. It is said that fully
three-fourths of Mr. Bartley 's men have been in his
employ from ten to thirty-five years, many of them beginning in the
stock room and promoted regularly on the basis of merit to
responsible positions in the sales department or in the executive
offices. And while referring to the personnel of the
organization, another partner and sharer in his success should also
be mentioned, Mrs. Bartley, who
worked side by side with him when the business was starting and who
both as a worker and adviser has deserved credit for the magnificent
achievement now associated with the name R. A. Bartley.
Two years ago a handsome booklet of thirty-two pages
illustrating and describing this great Toledo wholesale house, was
issued under the title, "Forty -two Years of Success." By
photographic reproduction this booklet showed in graphic manner the
equipment and organization of the great wholesale house, and a part
of its pages was devoted to the personal career of the man behind
the business. The chief facts in such a personal record must
not be omitted from this history of Northwest Ohio.
R. A. Bartley was born in Wittenberg, Germany,
in 1851, a son of Gebhardt Bartley, who was a baker by trade,
and finally acquired by frugal saving enough to bring his family to
America in 1853. They settled in the Village of Perrysburg, in
the Maumee Valley of Ohio, and later moved to a farm not far from
the village. There the mother died, and three children were
left to the father's care.
In such a home the virtues of thrift, economy and hard
work were necessarily inculcated in all the members. R. A.
Bartley grew up there and had only the advantages of the
district schools. In 1868 at the age of sixteen he came to
Toledo and since then for almost half a century he has been
associated with the grocery trade. For thirty-four of those
years he has been at the head of his own business, and for nearly
thirty years has conducted an exclusively wholesale grocery, which
it is believed is the largest individually owned wholesale grocery
in the United States.
On coming to Toledo he found employment in a grocery
and general store conducted by H. & P. Barnes located at St.
Clair and Adams streets. As his time was then subject to his
father, he made an arrangement by which he should send home $15 a
month in lieu of his services on the farm. His wages were only
$8 a month, so he had to go in debt for the remaining $7. In a
short time his willingness and proficiency brought an in crease to
$15 a month, but it all went to pay his father, and further
increases enabled him to wipe out his debt.
At the end of about a year he was working at $25.00 a
month in the general store of J. A. Spyer at the corner of
Summit and Orange streets. Later his wages were made $35.00 a
month, and from this he saved $200.00 by the time he was twenty-one.
With those cash assets he borrowed $100.00 from B. P. Richardson
and then formed a partnership with Enos Cousino,
and the firm of Cousino & Bartley opened a retail
grocery at 307 Summit Street. This was in 1872.
In the booklet already referred to is a photographic
representation of the various homes of the Bartley grocery
house. It was a squat two-story building that was occupied by
the firm in 1872 and it was almost lost sight of by higher buildings
on either side. The two proprietors did all the work for
several years, bought the stock, sold it, and slept in the store at
night. One of them used a hand cart in delivering the goods,
it being a mutual agreement that each partner should deliver the
goods he sold. The house acquired friends and the business
grew, but all the profits went back into enlarging the scope of the
enterprise.
In 1882, at the age of thirty, R. A. Bartley
bought his partner's interest and in the same year bought the retail
grocery of J. C. Wuerfel, moving his main stock into the
double brick building next door originally occupied by Wuerfel,
and keeping the old building for a storeroom. Since that date
Mr. Bartley has individually owned the business during
all its successive stages of growth.
In the meantime the wholesale department was gradually
growing, and in 1887 the business became exclusively wholesale, and
at that
time the store was moved to the Messinger Tobacco Building,
at the corner of Summit and Lynn streets. This was the third
successive home of R. A. Bartley and it was for the time a
large store, being a four-story business block. The next
addition came in 1897 when a two-story warehouse was constructed at
one side of the larger building, and a year later a five-story
building was erected at the other end. This group of buildings
occupied the entire block from Lynn to Cherry street on Summit.
In 1908 this building was destroyed by fire, and the
business for some time occupied temporary quarters. While
planning the present building Mr. Bartley took every
possible thing into consideration. He selected the highest
point of land in the business district, at the corner of Washington
and Ontario streets, and a site especially adapted to the wholesale
trade, with railroad tracks at the door. Here was constructed
the new Bartley Building, a fire-proof structure,
seven stories high and basement, with ground dimensions 140 by 120
feet, and with a total floor space of more than 5½
acres. This building has every facility for the expert
handling of the vast volume of business drawn from the three states
of Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, and while business is first the
welfare of the army of employes who use the building is also a
primary consideration and an expert would hardly find a single
detail omitted in the matter of lighting, sanitary comforts, and the
general well being of all who pass their working hours in that
structure.
While it would be a sufficient distinction to have
built up such a great business in the course of a lifetime, Mr.
Bartley has not neglected those calls made upon a good
citizen's time and energies for social and civic service. For
two terms he served as president of the Toledo Business Men's
Chamber of Commerce, is actively identified with the Toledo Commerce
Club, served five years, two years as president, on the Toledo Board
of Education, and for years has been a director of the Toledo Humane
Society and for a number of years was president of the Adams Street
Mission. He is a director in the National Bank of Commerce.
While still a struggling young business man Mr.
Bartley was married at Adrian, Michigan, to Mrs.
Hattie Josephine (Barnes) Dutton, a widow
with one child, whom he took in as his own, and gave the name of
Bartley. Her parents were Dr. L. B. and Olive Leaf
(Evans) Barnes. Her father was a well known practicing
physician and surgeon in Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana and
Ohio. For many years they lived on a farm in Calhoun County,
Michigan, near Union City, and both died in Michigan. Mrs.
Bartley was born in Steuben County, New York, was graduated
from the high school at Coldwater, Michigan, and also attended
Professor Taylor's College at Lansing, Michigan.
Before her marriage to Mr. Bartley she taught school in different
sections of Calhoun County and after her marriage when she took
charge of Mr. Bartley 's home she also showed a large
capacity for business and her work was a large factor in laying the
foundation of the present R. A. Bartley Wholesale Grocery
house. In fact she was associated as a partner with Mr.
Bartley for more than ten years, looking after the financial
end and keeping the books, and the results of her management were no
less creditable than her husband's. When Mrs.
Bartley first became a partner in the enterprise the business
was conducted in a story and a half building with a 20-foot front.
From that time on she was one of the prime factors in building up
what is today the largest individually owned wholesale business in
the world.
With the splendid success that has crowned their united
efforts, Mrs. Bartley has turned her time and energies
to many departments of social and civic service. She has been
successful as a business woman, home maker, a leader in church and
Sunday school work, and is one of the most highly cultured women of
Toledo. The Bartley residence at 1855 Collingwood
Avenue is truly one of the mansions of the city.
Mrs. Bartley is a member of the
First Baptist
Church and active in all its departments and Sunday school and
twelve years ago she organized a ladies' class of the church that
now has a membership of forty-five. She is a member of the
Shakespeare Club, the Woman's Educational Club, The Woman's Building
Association and is identified with the Woman's Suffrage movement. Mrs.
Bartley is a student, has read and associated her mind with
the best products of literature and has indulged a discriminating
taste in building up a private library which is undoubtedly one of
the finest collection to be found in any home in Northwest Ohio.
Throughout her life it has been a cardinal principle with her to do
all the good she could and no one knows the real extent of her
benefactions and her generous influence. Mr. and Mrs.
Bartley reared three girls from the respective ages of eight,
ten and twelve years, and also three boys and gave them the
advantages of their splendid home and the best educational training,
and all of these children except one boy are now married and have
homes of their own.
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 969
SHARON WICK'S NOTE:
CLICK HERE to see
pictures of the Bartley home.
Also.. Biography with portrait of R. A. Bartley can be found
HERE |
PORTRAIT |
ROBERT BAUR
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1242 |
| |
BEATTY, WILLIAM
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 991 |
| |
BERNHARD BECKER
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1068 |
| |
THOMAS
E. BELL. The successful standing of Thomas E. Bell
as a farmer rests upon many years of activity, and for the past ten
years he ahs borne his share of private and public responsibilities
in Sylvania Township, his home being in the western part of that
township.
Mr. Bell was born at Gallipolis, Ohio, Jan.
20, 1852. When he was nine years of age his parents moved to
Oberlin, where they spent the rest of their days. He grew up
at Oberlin, received his education in the schools there, and when
starting out for himself found employment in that city for a year.
He then took up his permanent vocation as a farmer four miles west
of Oberlin. Having sold his interests in Lorain County,
Thomas E. Bell in 1905 moved to Sylvania Township in this county
and located on his wife's father's farm, the old Thomas
homestead. During his residence there he has introduced a
number of excellent improvements, and his fine orchard gives him
special place as one of the fruit growers of Lucas County. His
farm is 1 1/2 miles northwest of Silica.
In 1884 at Oberlin Mr. Bell married Mary
Ellen Thomas, daughter of William Thomas, reference to
whom is made on other pages herein. Mr. and Mrs. Bell
have one child, Dorothy Lucile, born in 1902.
Politically Mr. Bell is an active republican.
During his residence at Oberlin he served as justice of the peace
and as township trustee and town clerk. In Sylvania Township
he is now a member of the election board.
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1324 |
| |
JOHN BICK
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1277 |
PORTRAIT |
THOMAS BIDDLE
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1323 |
PORTRAIT |
HERMAN HENRY BIRKENKAMP
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1094 |
PORTRAIT |
HARRISON WILLIAMS BLEVINS
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1027 |
| |
AVERY W. BOARDMAN
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1295 |
| |
WHITMAN ALBERT BOARDMAN
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1129 |
PORTRAIT |
NOLAN BOGGS
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1060 |
| |
OLIVER S. BOND
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1020 |
| |
SHERMAN
BOND. One of the landmarks of Toledo for many years has
been the Hotel Boody and to the many thousands who know Toledo not
as their home city but as travelers and transient guests the most
definite impressions and some of the most grateful associations
center about this noted old hostelry.
The Hotel Boody, at the corner of Madison Avenue and
St. Clair Street, was built in 1870, and for forty-five years has
held its own in the march of improvement and progress. It is
located close to the shopping district and theaters, and its high
standard of service has gained for the house a wide popularity, not
only in Northwest Ohio but all over the country. As a material
structure and a name it is now passing into memory and on its site
is being erected a magnificent modern hotel, to be known as the Bond
House. In recent years the Boody House presented an example of
an architecture somewhat obsolete in such a thriving and progressive
city as Toledo, though in the vital considerations of satisfactory
service it had lost none of its former popularity. The 165
guest rooms had been brought up to modern equipment and were
maintained in style of furnishing equal to the best found in any
hotel in the Central West. It particularly excelled in its
cafe and cuisine, and many thousands will be found who will vouch
for the assertion that in cuisine, the Boody House cafe has not been
excelled by any city in the Middle West.
The success of the Boody House in later years was due
to its popular landlord, Sherman Bond, who has made hotel
keeping a business almost continuously since boyhood, and who has
made an ideal boniface as well as a highly enterprising citizen of
Toledo. Mr. Bond was for four years proprietor of the
Jefferson Hotel at Toledo, and much of his wide experience as a
hotel man has been gained in the State of Ohio. His father was
an old soldier and a great admirer of the leader who cut through the
heart of the Confederacy and made the historic march from Atlanta to
the sea. As a token of this admiration he gave one of his sons
the name Sherman. Sherman Bond was born in Hancock
County, Ohio, May 3, 1866, a son of Col. J. H. and Elvira (Siddell)
Bond. Both parents are now deceased, the mother having
died at the age of twenty-six when her son Sherman was six
years old. The father, who did at Sandusky, Ohio, June 9,
1915, aged seventy-three years thirteen days, had enlisted as a
private early in the War of the Rebellion, served four years four
months with the Fifty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry and came out
with the rank of colonel. Of the four children, one son
died at the age of two years, while the others are still living,
namely: Mrs. Levi Gorby, the wife of a farmer near
Macomb, Ohio; Sherman; and James M., a mason
contractor living at Shelby, Ohio.
After his mother's death Sherman Bond lived
among relatives for several years. It was soon discovered that
there were three other persons by the name Bond who had also
been christened in honor of the famous general, and in order that
there might be no mistake as to his own identity there was still
further borrowing from the name of the great military leader and
Mr. Bond's full name is Sherman William Tecumseh Bond,
although he is familiarly known in Toledo simply as Sherman Bond.
It was not altogether a life of ease which
Sherman Bond lived during his boyhood. At an early age he
shifted for himself and though he has been unusually successful and
is rated among Toledo's first men in business affairs, he has won
prosperity often at the hands of adversity. For four years of
his boyhood he worked on a farm, and during that time gained all the
schooling that was his privilege, perhaps twelve months in all.
At the age of fourteen he had his first experience in hotel work,
being employed as bellboy and in other capacities at wages of $3 a
month and board with the Sherman House at Findlay, Ohio.
He was in that hotel during three winters while the two summers he
worked as a house painter in the employ of Dick Pfeifer, who
is now a resident of Toledo and still in the painting business.
In his younger years Sherman Bond was very fond of athletic
sports and outdoor life, and at one time held the state championship
for the 100-yard dash.
From Findlay Mr. Bond went to Antwerp, Ohio, and
for three years worked as a bartender. He then became a hotel
runner for the old Russell House at Defiance, remaining in that work
four months, and then returning to Antwerp for another eight months.
He and a partner went out to the Northwest and at Portland, Oregon,
they struck upon financial rocks and were soon broke. In order
to make a living Sherman Bond worked six weeks in a sawmill,
and then hired out to the local hotel proprietor, with whom he
remained fourteen months. Returning to Antwerp, Ohio, he soon
became night clerk for the Gault House at Carey, Ohio, was
there nine months and then became manager of the Watkins
House at Warsaw, New York. After eight months he returned to
his old employer at Carey, Ohio, and four months later became clerk
in the Hayes House at Fostoria. He was again with his
former employer at Carey for about a year and he then bought the
Gault House and entered upon his career as a hotel manager and
proprietor. That he has made good in hotel management is
evidenced from the fact that he started with a minimum of capital.
The old friend at Antwerp for whom he had tended bar loaned him
$1,000 to make the first payment on the Gault House and the
previous owner of the hotel gave him $25 to put in the till on the
day he opened business. For six years he conducted the
Gault House very successfully, then sold out and bought the
Hotel Marsh at Van Wert, Ohio, and there a year and seven
months, then trading the hotel for the Barnes Hotel at
Paulding. By an interesting coincidence Mr. Bond opened
business at Paulding one the day that President McKinley was
shot, in September, 1901, and remained there until July 1, 1902.
On the selling out he returned to Carey, Ohio, but in August of the
same year he came to Toledo and for a year and seven months was
manager of Conley's restaurant. After several months of
comparative idleness, he and W. C. Anderson bought an
interest in the Jefferson Hotel at the corner of St. Clair and
Jefferson streets. At the end of five months he had progressed
so far that he bought Mr. Anderson's interest and was the
active proprietor of the Jefferson Hotel about four years. He
first bought the Puffer's interest in the Boody House.
That gave him half the stock in the Boody House and thus for a time
he was interested in two of the best hotels of Toledo. After
nine months Mr. Bond acquired all the interest in the Boody
House, and from June, 1910, conducted, as owner and proprietor, this
fine old hostelry until early in 1916, when a stock company was
formed and plans were matured and put in execution for the erection
of a magnificent $2,000,000 hotel, known as the Bond Hotel,
on the site of the present Boody House. On Feb. 1, 1911,
Mr. Bond sold his interest in the Jefferson Hotel.
He has been the leading spirit in the organization of
the Bond Hotel Company, and in R, 1916, was elected president
of the company. The other directors in this organization are:
Morrison W. Young, F. J. Reynolds, Thomas Tracy, Rathbun Fuller,
E. H. Close, O. W. Holmes, Charles Tiedtke, George M. Jones, W. T.
Hubbard, Frank P. Chapin, Alfred B. Koch, Mr. H. Gasser, George S.
Mills and Thomas Davies. One of the last events of
a public nature in the old Boody House was a dinner given there in
honor of Mr. Bond by the Toledo Transportation Club, in the
course of which the club members paid some fine tributes to the
proprietor and also to the historic hotel, and pledged their support
to the new enterprise, the Bond Hotel, which will be completed in
1918. As a token of their appreciation for the many favors
which Mr. Bond had shown the Transportation Club, the
president of the club, Joseph A. Goldbaum, president of Ann
Arbor Railroad, presented Mr. Bond with a fine gold watch.
The new Bond Hotel will be the seventeen story
structure, to cost $3,000,000 and to contain 600 guest rooms, each
one with individual bath. The hotel will have a frontage of
181 feet on St. Clair Street and a frontage of 120 feet on Madison
Avenue. It is to be built thoroughly modern and absolutely
fireproof. The first three stories will be of Indiana
limestone, above which the walls will be laid in smooth gray brick
with terra cotta trimmings.
An interesting feature in the financing of this new
hotel requires notice. This is the setting aside of a block of
7 per cent preferred stock, divided into shares of $100 each, and
secured by a sinking fund that will redeem the stock at 110 after
five years. By offering these shares on easy payments an
opportunity was offered, which has been liberally availed of, for
people of moderate means to acquire an interest in this latest
improvement in Toledo's business district.
Mr. Bond is an honorary member of the Toledo
Transportation Club, belongs to all the hotel associations, and is a
member of the Toledo Club, Inverness Country Club, Maumee River
Yacht Club, Toledo Yacht Club, Toledo Commerce Club, Toledo
Automobile Club, and fraternally is affiliated with Toledo Lodge No.
53, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and with all the
Masonic bodies at Toledo, including Toledo Lodge No. 184, Free and
Accepted Masons, and the thirty-second degree Consistory of the
Scottish Rite. As an appreciation of his helpful aid he has
been made an honorary life member of the Yondota Lodge No. 572, Free
and Accepted Masons, at East Toledo.
On July 9, 1892, at Carey, Ohio, Mr. Bond
married Miss Bessie Shuman. They are the parents of a
daughter and a son. Ethel M., the daughter, was married
Oct. 1, 1913, to George J. Pfeifer, who is active manager of
the Boody House. Mrs. Pfeifer is a graduate of the
Ursuline Convent at Toledo. The son, Howard S. Bond, is
a graduate of the preparatory school at Asheville, North Carolina,
and will enter Princeton in 1916.
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 696 |
| |
WALTER C. BOND
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1020 |
PORTRAIT |
ADAM CHARLES BOWERSOX
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1083 |
| |
FRED W. BOX
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 853 |
| |
WEBSTER S. BRAINARD
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 990 |
| |
CHARLES G. BRIGHAM
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1111 |
| |
CHARLES OLIVER BRIGHAM
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1110 |
| |
MAVOR BRIGHAM
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1285 |
Calvin S. Brown
Jennie Fleetwood Brown |
CALVIN S. BROWN,
president of the Toledo Library Board, has been a resident of Toledo
more than forty years, though his extensive business associations
and interests have also identified him with a number of other
localities. He is now in his seventy-second year, and largely
retired from the active responsibilities of business life. Few
men even so old have compressed such an interesting record of
experience into a lifetime. He is a westerner by birth and
training, and saw and knew the typical wild and woolly West in its
prime. He is an honored veteran of the Civil war.
In ancestry he is of Scotch-Irish stock. His parents,
James A. and Rachel (Stewart) Brown, were born and married in
Pennsylvania. James Brown was a miller and farmer.
His attention was early attracted to the frontier district west of
the Mississippi. Arriving in Iowa Territory he entered a
quarter section of Government land in what is now Van Buren County.
He was alone at the time and remained there several months, putting
up a log cabin and clearing a small space for the cultivation of a
crop. This done he retraced his steps back to Pennsylvania,
,where his family had remained in the meantime, and soon afterward
they all started for the new destination in what was at that time
the very far West. Going down the Ohio River on a flatboat as
far as Cairo, Illinois, they then took a small steamer up the
Mississippi as far as Warsaw, Illinois. Purchasing a yoke of
oxen, loading a few household possessions in the wagon, James A.
Brown made his own trail through the woods and finally arrived
at the log cabin in Van Buren County. No individual or family
knew what frontier life was better than the Browns during the early
years of Iowa. Their home was on the banks of the Des Moines
River about forty miles fro Keokuk. The Brown Family
were among the vanguard of civilization in that region. All
around them was an unbroken wilderness, filled with wild game and
dangerous animals and Indians. When James A. Brown left
his cabin to work in the fields he took his gun along for
protection, and he also encountered innumerable hardships amid the
stern conditions of time and place. James A. Brown
should be credited with having put up one of the first, if not the
first, grist mill in Iowa along the Des Moines River. In 1852
he built the Bentonsport mill and in 1854 erected a four-story brick
grist mill. This brick grist mill was the fruit of his later
enterprise in Iowa, and he had been a settler there for fifteen
years before his activities culminated in its erection.
James A. Brown was born in Pennsylvania in 1812 and died in Iowa
in 1865 at the age of fifty-three. At the time of his death he
owned a grist mill, sawmill, paper mill, linseed oil mill and a
woolen factory, all of them in a row along the Des Moines River.
He was a man of tireless energy, indomitable will, and one of those
sturdy, energetic Presbyterians who never lost a minute's time.
He was justly regarded as one of the foremost business men of
Southeastern Iowa. His widow survived him many years and
passed away at the old home in Van Buren County in 1900 at the ripe
age of eighty-nine. In their family were nine children, five
sons and four daughters, all of whom lived to grow up, and three of
the sons still survive.
The only one of the family in Ohio, Calvin S. Brown,
was born in the pioneer home of his parents in Van Buren County in
what was then the hunting grounds and reservation of the Sacs and
Fox Indians, Apr. 17, 1845. Naturally he came to know as a boy
all phases of pioneer existence. The schoolhouse which he
first attended in Iowa was a log cabin, fitted up with rough slab
benches without backs, and all the paraphernalia of the schoolroom
were of the simplest kind. He also attended the Bentonsport
Academy in Van Buren County. Fellow seekers after knowledge in
that same academy included several boys who attained a more than
ordinary degree of fame in subsequent life. Two of them became
United States senators, one being former Senator William E. Mason
of Illinois and the other Senator Clark of Montana, both of
whom are old personal friends of Mr. Brown.
The first seventeen years of his life Mr. Brown
spent on a farm, but never liked farming, and this disinclination to
agriculture and the possession of an unusual fund of energy and
enterprise soon led him away from the scenes of home. In 1862
at the age of seventeen, he started across the plains as a "bull
whacker" and went to Pike's Peak. He remained there about a
year prospecting in mining, herding cattle, living in mining camps
and getting experience in the rough and ready life of the Far West
in every phase of its existence, even as a cowboy. While in
Colorado he enlisted for service in an organization headed by the
great western scout, Kit Carson, but the regiment was
disbanded before being mustered in. In the fall of 1862 Mr.
Brown, with five others, started north to what is now the State
of Idaho. Precious metals were being discovered in that
region, and the first flow of white settlers was starting in that
direction, but Mr. Brown and his companions got no further
than 100 miles of Salt Lake City in Utah. The determined
hostility of both the Indians and the Mormons drove them back, and
after several narrow escape from the Indians the party burned their
wagons, kept just enough provisions to supply them on their return
journey and made their way back after two months of difficult
traveling on the backs of their mules. They finally reached
the San Miguel River in the extreme southwest part of Colorado.
It should be remembered that all this varied experience
came when Mr. Brown was a boy seventeen or eighteen
years old. In the spring of 1863 he left the West and returned
to his old home in Iowa, where for a brief time he remained on the
farm and also attended the Bentonsport Academy until November, 1863.
At that date his adventurous spirit led him to enlist in the Third
Iowa Cavalry. With that gallant regiment he was in the field
until the close of the war, and was finally given his honorable
discharge in September, 1865. He participated in a number of
noted battles and campaigns, including Guntown, Mississippi, in
which he served under General Sturgess, and Tupelo,
Mississippi, under Gen. A. J. Smith, was in service west of
the Mississippi under Steele in Arkansas, was under
Washburn in Tennessee and also under Maj. Gen.
J. H. Wilson. He participated in what is generally
regarded as the last battle of the Civil war at Columbus, Georgia,
Apr. 16, 1865. The day after that battle Mr. Brown
was twenty years of age.
A veteran in experience though not in years, he
returned after the war to Iowa and again resumed his studies, this
time in the Birmingham College in Van Buren County. He
remained a student until the spring of 1866. and then came
east, and for the past fifty years has found his interest and
pursuits largely in the district around the Great Lakes. He
first went to Buffalo, New York, where he completed a course in
bookkeeping at the Bryant & Stratton Business College.
Following that he began contracting in the buying of supplies for
the Buffalo Stock Yards, and remained at that business for two
years. For the following eighteen months he was proprietor of
the Montgomery House at Fort Plain, New York, selling out then and
returning to Buffalo, where he was once more a contractor for the
stock yards.
In the meantime he married, and in the fall of 1871
moved to East Aurora, New York, the old home town and center of
industry honored by the late Elbert Hubbard.
From there he soon came to Toledo, and this city has been his home
ever since. In Toledo he was at first assistant superintendent
of the Toledo Stock Yards, a position he held until 1875. Then
followed a somewhat disastrous experience. He built a store
building on Woodville Street and opened up a stock of general
merchandise. At the end of eighteen months he had exhausted
all his resources and his business was a failure. Losing no
time in vain regrets, Mr. Brown at once made the best
of the situation and accepted a place with the old wholesale dry
goods house of Luce, Chapin and Bass. He
remained with that firm until 1880. In that year. he was
appointed secretary of the Toledo Waterworks, and filled that office
until 1884. After that
his main line of active business was as a representative of several
meter companies. For five years he traveled on the road over
the Middle West for the National Meter Company and then took a
similar position for the Hersey Manufacturing Company of Boston,
Massachusetts. That firm he represented seven years, and in
that time traveled from Maine to California and covered practically
every state of the Union. His next connection was with the
Neptune Meter Company of New York, and besides traveling for that
firm a number of years he also acquired stock in the enterprise, is
still on the payroll, and put in twenty years of efficient work for
the firm. Altogether Mr. Brown gave thirty-two
years of his active business life to the interests of these various
meter companies. Since 1912 he has been largely retired from
business, though he still has numerous financial connections.
He is a stockholder in the McNaull Tire Company
of Toledo, of the Batcheldor Marble Works of Detroit and the
Economic Heater Company of New York.
Politically he has always been a republican. Many
years ago during the administration of the Mayor Marks he
served as city sealer of weights and measures at Toledo. For
six years he was a member of the workhouse board, his first
appointment being received under Mayor "Vince" Emmick. Mr.
Brown was elected a trustee of the waterworks board and filled
that office for two terms of three years each. Mayor Carl
Keller appointed him in 1914 to the library board, and he has
since filled a position with that organization, and in May, 1914,
was elected president and was re-elected to that office for 1915 and
1916. He is an active member of the Toledo Commerce Club.
Fraternally he stands high in Masonry, being affiliated with
Sanford L. Collins Lodge No. 396, Free and Accepted Masons, with
the Chapter, Council and Knight Templar bodies in Toledo, and with
Zenobia Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of
Toledo Lodge No. 53, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr.
Brown has found his chief recreation from business in the game
of billiards.
The late Mrs. Brown was one of Toledo's noblest
women, and her whole life was one of unselfish devotion and of
noteworthy work in the realm of practical philanthropy and charity.
Her maiden name was Miss Jennie Eliza Fleetwood. She
was born in Oneida County, New York, was educated in Auburn,
graduating from the high school of that place, and she and Mr.
Brown were married at Auburn, Sept. 20, 1871. She died at
her home on Glenwood Avenue, in Toledo, Feb. 22, 1912, at the age of
sixty years. Her father, N. J. Fleetwood, moved to
Auburn when she was a small girl. At her death she left Mr.
Brown and one daughter, Edna J., now Mrs. Carl B.
Spitzer. Reference to the Spitzer family of Toledo,
will be found on other pages. Since Mrs. Brown's death
Mr. Brown has made his home at the Belvidere, one of Toledo's
best family hotels, on West Bancroft Street.
The late Mrs. Brown and the late Mrs. Charles
G. Wilson founded the Toledo Boys' Home. Mrs. Brown
was closely identified with its welfare and maintenance for a
quarter of a century, and when she died this institution had taken
care of about 4,000 boys and found places for many of that number.
The Boys' Home was maintained in various quarters until a number of
years ago when funds were secured for the building of a permanent
home. Mrs. Brown's heart went out with peculiar
sympathy to the homeless, motherless boys, and the Boys' Home is
truly a memorial to her love and unselfish care. She gave her
time and efforts to its maintenance for a quarter of a century, and
with the instituting of that noble work her name will always be
closely associated. She was also a member of the 1896 Literary
Club of Toledo, and was very prominent in church affairs, being a
member of the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church, of which Mr. Brown
is also a member. In her later years one of her cherished
ambitions was to provide suitable care, instruction and direction to
the people of foreign birth who were flocking in increasing number
to Toledo, but she did not live to see those desires to take
definite form of realization.
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 979 |
PORTRAIT |
ORVILLE SANFORD BRUMBACK
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1253 |
| |
LEANDER BURDICK
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 739 |
PORTRAIT |
HENRY E. BURNHAM
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1258 |
PORTRAIT |
SAMUEL STEPHENS BURTSFIELD
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1115 |
| |
REV. H. BUSHKUHL is one of the active ministers of the
Catholic Church in Northwest Ohio, and is now pastor of St.
Elizabeth Parish at Richfield Center in Lucas County.
This parish was organized in 1914 from a part of Rabb
Parish. The cornerstone for the church and school building was
laid May 24, 1914. The first pastor appointed was Rev.
Francis Schmuck, whose appointment was dated Aug. 28, 1914.
Mass was celebrated in the new building for the first time Sept.
20, 1914, and four days later the school was opened with fifty-five
pupils enrolled. This has since been the average enrollment.
The building was formally dedicated Oct. 6. 1914.
Besides St. Elizabeth Parish, Father Bushkuhl
has a mission at Sylvania. He was born at St. Louis, Missouri,
and later his parents removed to Tiffin, Ohio. He attended the
common, and high schools in St. Louis and the choice of his career
having been definitely settled he entered St. Francis Seminary at
Milwaukee, where he took a classical course, and studied philosophy
and theology in St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore. He was
ordained to the priesthood Oct. 15, 1913, and sent to Fremont,
Ohio, as assistant in St. Joseph Church, and later was transferred
to Edgerton, Ohio, and on Aug. 20, 1915, was appointed to his
present work in St. Elizabeth Parish. He is a man of
constructive ability and is well qualified for the task of building
up this new parish, where he has already acquired a host of warm
friends.
† Source: History of
Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ 1917 - Page 1324 |
.
|
CLICK HERE to RETURN to
LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO |
CLICK HERE to RETURN to
OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS |
FREE GENEALOGY RESEARCH is My MISSION
GENEALOGY EXPRESS
This Webpage has been created by Sharon Wick exclusively for Genealogy Express
©2008
Submitters retain all copyrights |
. |
