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~ Source:
TOLEDO
and
LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
1623 - 1923
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VOL. II
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ILLUSTRATED
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Chicago and Toledo
The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1923
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Harry E. King |
HARRY ELDRIDGE KING.
Harry Eldridge King was born near Cumberland,
Allegany county, Maryland, May 12, 1857, the tenth child in
a family of five sons and seven daughters born to Captain
Alexander and Lavina M. (Collins) King, both of
whom were members of noteworthy southern families.
On the paternal side Harry Eldridge
King was a grandson of Colonel Alexander
King, who served as a representative in the Virginia
general assembly from 1802 to 1812. Mr.
King's father, Captain Alexander King,
was born and reared in Virginia but removed in early manhood
to Cumberland, Maryland , where he was long engaged in
mercantile business. He was a prominent and
influential citizen, esteemed for his probity of character,
public usefulness and ability. In 1843, during the
construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal, serious
rioting occurred in the vicinity of Cumberland, and as
captain of a local military organization known as the
Cumberland Guards, he displayed signal courage and
efficiency when called to assist in suppressing the
disturbances. He was a member of the board of county
commissioners of Allegany county, Maryland, from 1843 to
1845 and judge of the orphans court from 1856 to 1854.
During the Civil war, notwithstanding the prevalence of a
strong pro-southern sentiment in the community where he
resided, he was at all times a pronounced and active
supporter of the Union. After retiring from business
he lived on an extensive plantation about six miles north of
Cumberland, near the present town of Ellerslie, Maryland.
The mother of Harry E. King was, like his
father, a native of Virginia. She was a descendant on
the maternal side of the Tomlinson family,
which from an early period occupied a prominent position in
Allegany county, Maryland. Her grandfather,
Benjamin Tomlinson, was elected a member of the Maryland
house of delegates in 1791 and at various times for
thirty-one years subsequently.
The childhood of Harry E. King was spent at
Cumberland, while the armies of the north and south were
struggling to decide the issues of the Civil war.
Later he attended the schools at Cumberland, but his regular
education was interrupted by the death of his father when
the son was only sixteen years of age. This threw him
upon his own resources, but with the endowment he received
from his sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestors he entered upon his
individual struggle without fear and with a steady outlook
toward higher things. After the death of his father,
during 1874-75 he attended the State Normal School at
Millersville, Pennsylvania, was in the Collegiate Institute
at Fort Edward, New York, in 1877, and in Eastman's National
Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1878.
He attended these institutions not as a routine performance,
but as a means to an end which the practical and efficient
service which characterized his subsequent career.
During 1879-81 he was clerk in a general store at Sulphur
Springs, Texas. These early experiences brought him a
considerable knowledge of the country and of men and affairs
in different sections. With the savings acquired in
Texas he took a course in the law department of the
University of Michigan. Through all the preceding
years he had worked steadily with the law as his ultimate
goal and he allowed no obstacle to prove more than a
temporary embarrassment to his ambition. He remained
in the University of Michigan during 1881-82, and in March,
1882, located at Toledo, where he made arrangements to
continue his law studies in the office of Swayne,
Swayne & Hayes, a partnership holding then a
distinctive place in the Northwest Ohio bar. He was a
student in that office until 1883, and then passed the Ohio
state bar examination, and on February 6th was admitted by
the supreme court to practice in Ohio. Two years later
he became a member of the firm of Swayne, Swayne & Hayes
and continued in that association until Apr. 1, 1892, when
he organized with Thomas H. Tracy the firm of King
& Tracy. This firm, besides having a large general
practice, was employed as counsel for a number of prominent
corporations and business houses.
Source: Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio 1623-1923 - Vol.
II - Publ. 1923 - Page 40 - 44 |
Peter J. Kranz |
PETER JOSEPH KRANZ.
The life record of a self-made man is always a source
of interest to others. There is something stimulating
in the history of one who wrests fortune from the hands of
fate and who comes off conqueror in all those struggles and
trials which must precede ascendancy. Such has been
the career of Peter Joseph Kranz, who
in the real estate field has operated largely and
successfully, conducting important dealings as the president
of the P. J. Kranz Company. He was born in
Alsdorf, near Trier, Germany, July 22, 1866, and was the
youngest in a family of eleven children, eight sons and
three daughters, four of which number died in infancy, while
the others reached adult age. Their parents were
Peter and Mary ( Roles ) Kranz, who were
also natives of Alsdorf, Germany. The father was a
millwright by trade and when he joined the army in
accordance with the military regulation of his native
country he was assigned to the Royal Guards at Berlin, from
the fact that he was six feet, two inches, in height.
He passed away in his native country at the age of
fifty-six. His wife survived him to the age of
seventy-six years.
Peter Joseph Kranz was educated while spending
his youthful days under the parental roof, but immediately
after putting aside his textbooks he left Germany in order
to join his eldest brother, who had become a resident of
Toledo in 1880 and who here passed away Apr. 6, 1909.
On reaching his destination Peter J. Kranz secured
employment with Casey & Streicher, a firm of
paving contractors, and six months later he began clerking
in a grocery store, after which he was employed in several
grocery houses. In 1888 he became bookkeeper for the
Mutual Savings Association and during his three or four
years' experience in that connection he formed the
acquaintance of many men of business and financial standing
in the city - an acquaintance that was of value to him when
he later entered the real estate field on his own account.
Entering into partnership with Henry Heeman
under the firm style of Heeman, Kranz &
Company, he conducted a real estate, loan and insurance
business, whereby he has come into prominence and success,
being regarded today as one of the leading realtors in
Toledo. Mr. Kranz was also the secretary
of the Builders Exchange from 1892 until 1905 and when he
resigned his position in the latter year he sought larger
quarters for his rapidly growing business , a removal being
made to the second floor of the Gardner building,
where the P. J. Kranz Company still maintains its
offices. The business was carried on under the
original style of Heeman, Kranz & Company
until Nov. 30, 1910, when it was incorporated under the
present name, with Mr. Kranz as president,
C. J. Spear, vice president, and W. J. Schroeder,
secretary, while the sons of Mr. Kranz are
directors of the corporation. The business of the
company has reached an immense volume in all of its
departments, covering insurance, real estate and loans.
Constantly the activities of Mr. Kranz have
expanded in accordance with the growth and development of
the city and on the 30th of August, 1905, he incorporated
The Kranz Realty & Investment Company, of which he
likewise became the president. From 1913 until 1916 he
was the secretary of the United States Malleable Iron
Company of Toledo, but sold his holdings in the concern in
the latter year. A considerable portion of the real
estate activity in Toledo throughout the present century has
been promoted through the efforts of P. J. Kranz and
no one is more familiar with realty conditions, the market,
the valuation and the opportunities for exchange or purchase
than he. His close application, his indefatigable
energy and his persistency of purpose have been strong
features in his growing success. Among his other
business interests he is secretary of the Marbleite
Manufacturing Company of Toledo.
On the 8th of February, 1890, Mr. Kranz
was married to Miss Helena Ramm of Toledo,
daughter of Henry Ramm. She was born in
Holstein, Germany, and when twelve years of age accompanied
her parents to America, the family home being established in
Lucas county, Ohio, in 1881. The father devoted his
remaining days to farming in Washington township and in that
section of the county Mrs. Kranz pursued her
education in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Kranz
are blessed with an interesting family of sons: Leo P.
has a daughter, Louise, born Sept. 2, 1921; Albert
J.; Karl J. has a son, Donald J., born
Mar. 29, 1921; Bernard H.; and Gerold I.
All the sons are stockholders, officials , and directors of
the P. J. Kranz Company and the Kranz Realty &
Investment Company. Albert J. pursued a
literary course in the University of Michigan and afterward
studied law in Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana.
The family adheres to the Catholic faith, attending St.
Peter and St. Paul's church, to the work of which Mr.
Kranz is a generous supporter. He also has
membership in the Knights of Columbus and belongs as well to
the Toledo Chamber of Commerce, being one of the earliest
members of that organization; the Toledo Automobile Club;
and the Slagle Resort Club, of which he is secretary and
treasurer. He has always been keenly interested in the
city's welfare and progress and his devotion to the general
good has been manifest in many tangible ways. He was
appointed by Mayor Milroy a member of his
cabinet in December, 1915 , being made director of finance
and in that office served until Apr. 1, 1916, when private
affairs obliged him to resign. He has always been a
stanch advocate of democratic principles and untiring in his
efforts to secure their adoption. He is a member of
the Toledo Real Estate Board, the Ohio Real Estate Board and
the National Real Estate Board and is a well-known figure in
real estate circles throughout the country. He is also a
member of the Toledo Art Museum, the Historical Society of
Northwestern Ohio, and the Ohio State Board of Commerce.
His methods have been actuated by a most progressive spirit
and he has never feared to venture where favoring
opportunity has pointed the way. While he has risen to
prominence and attained most gratifying success he has never
allowed the pursuit of wealth to become the whole end and
aim of his life. On the contrary, he has recognized
all of the duties and obligations that fall to the lot of
every individual and has capably met every responsibility of
citizenship, of friendship and of home ties. Mr.
Kranz is not without his hobbies, and his love of art
best finds expression in his magnificent collection of
United States and foreign stamps, comprising over fifty-five
thousand specimens, and representing more than forty-five
years of activity as a collector. His collection is
one of the most valuable and complete possessed by any
individual in the middle west and one of the very few
private collections containing a complete set of United
States Government postage and revenue stamps, envelopes and
post cards. His collection of private proprietary
stamps is also complete with the exception of a few
practically unobtainable specimens. Since 1888, he has
been a member of the American Philatelic Society and is
numbered among the prominent philatelists of the country.
Mr. Kranz is extremely fond of open-air life,
being an enthusiastic hunter and angler, and probably his
greatest recreational pleasure is trout fishing. In
later years he has traveled extensively abroad and by reason
of his wide experiences has become a man of liberal culture,
well prepared for anything that life may bring. The
high ideals which he cherishes have ever found embodiment in
practical efforts for their adoption and because of the
innate refinement of his nature he has rejected everything
opposed to good taste. Mr. Kranz's residence is
at No. 635 Lincoln avenue.*
Source: Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio 1623-1923 - Vol.
II - Publ. 1923 - Page 570 - 574
* It appears that the house is no longer standing. |
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