USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 21
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FRED J. PENNEY. For many years the name Penney has been familiarly known in business circles at Lorain, and has been chiefly identified with the coal and builders' supply trade. Fred J. Penny now has extensive yards and a large amount of capital invested in coal and other necessary commodities, with plant and yards at 1463 Broadway. He is one of the younger and very enterprising business men of Lorain County.
Born at Port Huron, Michigan, June 23, 1875, he is a son of Daniel J. and Catherine (McDonald) Penney, who moved from Michigan to Lorain, Ohio, in the fall of 1891. Daniel Penney was for many years engaged in the coal and building supply business at Lorain and his son Fred grew up in the business, and is now sole proprietor, the con- cern having been conducted under his individual name as F. J. Penney since July, 1915, he having then bought out the interests of R. J. Mills. He was formerly a member of the firm of Penney & Smith, a coal and supply company, and operated in that line for several years.
Mr. Penney is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Fra- ternal Order of Eagles and is a member of Pioneer Tent No. 1072, Knights of the Maccabees. On April 30, 1915, he married Miss Martha Wenger of Lorain.
DANIEL WEST HYLAND. Not many men now past seventy in Lorain County have filled their years with more activities than Daniel W. Hyland, who has earned the right to retire and enjoy life at leisure. During his active career his name was chiefly identified with the coal and ice trade in Elyria. Outside of his honorable business and civic record, he is especially distinguished by his service in the Civil war, where he fought in a score of the battles familiar to every schoolboy and did more arduous duty than many who came out with officer's straps upon their shoulders.
While his home has been in the United States as long as he can re- member. he was born in England, at a place about sixty miles below London, on October 18, 1842. His parents, Thomas and Martha (West) Hyland, about six months after his birth, set out for the new world, and on a sailing vessel that was six weeks between ports arrived in Canada in April, 1843. From Quebec they went to Port Stanley, and after six years in Canada came to Lorain County. The father bought a farm of 120 acres in Carlisle Township, but had not long to cultivate it or enjoy its fruits. He bought in April and died the following September 29,
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1849. His widow subsequently married John Lees, another farmer in Carlisle, and she survived him many years, passing away at the home of her youngest daughter in Eaton on November 11, 1906, aged ninety-four years six days. There were eight children in the Hyland family, two sons and six daughters. Two died in infancy in England, five came to the United States, and one died in Canada. Only the two youngest are now living, Daniel W. and his sister Sarah, the wife of Jacob Jonas, who lives on the farm in Eaton Township. The little family party that emi- grated from England to Canada also included the grandfather and grandmother Hyland, and they also came to Lorain County. The grandfather died in an old brick house which stood where the Second Congregational Church is now in Elyria. The grandmother died just after Daniel Hyland went away to the army. The grandfather's name was also Thomas.
Daniel W. Hyland was about old enough to attend school when he came to Lorain County, and his education came from the district schools of Carlisle and Amherst. Up to the age of sixteen his working experience was with farming, but he then learned the trade of harness making and carriage trimming in Amherst, and earned his living at it three years before going to the war.
It was a full three years' service that he gave to the Union in the dark days of the Civil war. August 6, 1862, he enlisted at Amherst, and was mustered in as private at Camp Mitchell, Kentucky, in Company F of the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry under Capt. P. C. Hayes and Col. J. S. Casement. The regiment was attached to the Second Brigade, Third Division, Twenty-third Army Corps. His record of service included the following engagements and campaigns: Monticello, Kentucky, May 1, 1863; Carter's Depot, Tennessee, Septem- ber 20-21, 1863; Jonesboro, September 21; siege of Knoxville, Novem- ber 17 to December 5, 1863; Dandridge, January 6 to 17, 1864; Dalton, Georgia, May 8 to 13, 1864; Resaca, in May ; promoted to corporal May 4th; at Cartersville, Georgia, May 20th; battles about Dallas, New Church and Altoona Pass, May 25 to June 5, 1864; near Marietta, June 1 to 19; Kenesaw Mountain, June 10 to July 2; Lookout Mountain, June 15 to 17; Muddy Creek, June 17; Noyes Creek, June 19; Kenesaw Mountain, June 27; Nickajack Creek, July 2 to 5; Chattahoochee River, July 5 to 17, and his was the first regiment to cross; Decatur, July 18- 19; siege of Atlanta, July 22 to September 2; Lovejoy Station, Sep- tember 26; Columbia Ridge, November 24-27; Franklin, Tennessee, November 30; Nashville, December 15-16; Sugar Loaf Battery, North Carolina, February 11, 1865; Fort Anderson, February 18-19; Wilming- ton, February 22; Johnston's surrender, April 26, 1865. Thus he was in practically all the campaigns which drove the Confederate forces out of Kentucky and Tennessee, Georgia and the Carolinas. On June 12, 1865, he received his honorable discharge at Raleigh, North Carolina.
Once more at home a private citizen, he worked two years in a harness shop at South Amherst, and for four years was engaged in farming in Ionia County, Michigan. On his return in 1872 he was with the grocery department of the Starr Brothers establishment in Elyria until March, 1873, when the Heman Ely Block burned. The site of that old building is now covered by the Commercial Block. For a time, including the year made notable by the women's crusade, he and Orin Dole were in the soft drink business under the name of Dole & Hyland, but on selling his interest Mr. Hyland spent a year and a half in Cleve- land with the wholesale drygoods house of Alcott & Horton. The next year he conducted the grain elevator at Elyria for Clark & Sampsell, and from that graduated into the coal and ice business, which, together
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with the handling of general supplies, formed his chief commercial interests for the next thirty years or more. With Mr. Dole he organized what was known as the Elyria Coal & Ice Company. After three years Mr. Dole sold out, and D. M. Clark came into the organization for three years, at the end of which time Mr. Hyland sold to Clark and then became connected with the City Fuel & Ice Company along with Ed Carter. A number of years later he bought out Carter and sold a half interest to John Murbach. With Mr. Murbach he was associated for the long period of seventeen years in conducting the Elyria Coal & Ice Company.
Mr. Hyland has a most successful record in business affairs at Elyria. For the last ten years he has been retired from more active responsi- bilities, though he employs his capital in the buying and selling of farms and city property, and has handled no small amount of real estate in his time. His own substantial home on Sixth Street he built about twenty-seven years ago. He is also vice president of the Hygienic Ice Company, and is one of the original stockholders in the Lorain County Banking Company.
He has always maintained kindly and helpful associations with old army comrades, and in the Elijah Hayden Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Elyria, is now post commander and has filled that office several times before. While a republican, he has never sought an office. Besides owning city property in Elyria, he has some interests in lands in Ionia County, Michigan. His name has been on the rolls of mem- bership in the Elyria Chamber of Commerce since it was organized.
On May 7, 1866, a few months after his return from the army he married Miss Sade Shephard of Elyria. Her death occurred in May, 1867. On December 28, 1872, he married Miss Lena E. Howe at Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was her home. After more than forty years of wedded companionship she passed away February 20, 1913.
FRANK A. SANFORD. For more than a score of years Frank Allen Sanford has maintained his residence in the City of Lorain and as a vigor- ous, alert and progressive business man of the younger generation in Lorain County he has proved effectually his administrative and con- structive power, especially through his active association with the syndi- cate that succeeded to the ownership and control of much of the valuable property and business of the Sheffield Land & Improvement Company when the affairs of this important corporation were placed in the hands of a receiver. Through his connection with the extensive activities initiated by this company Mr. Sanford has become very prominently identified with the civic and material advancement and development of Lorain, and is to be designated as one of the representative men of affairs in this city.
The Sheffield Land & Improvement Company was organized in 1894 and was incorporated with the gigantic capital of $1.000,000. The company purchased 4,400 acres of land in Lorain County, and initiated the development and upbuilding of South Lorain, as a virtual extension of the City of Lorain. It platted a large district into city lots, improved streets and established proper water and sewer systems, as well as installing effective street car service. The company erected in this section of the county 800 houses and loaned money for the construction of 200 additional houses. The best type of street paving and sidewalks marked the development of the new district, and the company achieved a splendid work in furthering the material and industrial progress of Lorain, though its affairs finally became involved and necessitated a receivership.
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Mr. Sanford associated himself with the real estate department of the Sheffield Land & Improvement Company in 1900, in the capacity of sales- man, and when the business of the corporation was placed in the hands of a receiver Mr. Sanford became an interested principal in a syndicate that purchased a large part of the company's property, so that the new organization practically succeeded to the control of the property and business of the original company, and Mr. Sanford is one of the repre- sentative factors in the handling of the extensive affairs of the syndicate, his association with which has brought to him large success and dis- tinctive precedence in connection with broader business activities in his home city and county, where he has secure place in popular confidence and good will.
Frank Sanford was born in Lewis County, West Virginia, on the 23d of June, 1875, and is a son of Rev. James L. and Lillie (Simpson) Sanford, his father being a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church and having also achieved success as a merchant in Lorain, Ohio, where he established his residence in 1895 and where he and his wife still maintain their home.
To the public schools of West Virginia and Ohio Frank A. Sanford is indebted for his early education, which was effectively supplemented by a course of high study in the Ohio Wesleyan University, in the City of Delaware. He left this institution in his senior year and then became associated with his father in the mercantile business at Lorain, where he soon made an excellent record as a reliable and progressive young business man. In 1900 he identified himself with the Sheffield Land & Improvement Company, as previously noted, and this context has already given adequate record concerning his activities since that time.
Mr. Sanford is distinctively popular in business and social circles in Lorain County, is a member of the Elyria Country Club, at the county seat. and is affiliated with the Lorain lodges of the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On November 9, 1912, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sanford to Miss Bess Whitmore, of Lorain, she being a daughter of Frederick C. Whitmore, who is now manager for a machine company in the city of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Sanford have one child, Betty Jean.
JOHN JOSEPH SMYTHE. One of the youngest members of the Lorain County bar, Mr. Smythe is a lawyer with a promising practice, and has already obtained some distinctions which furnish indications of a useful and honored career. He is a member of the firm of Baird & Smythe, with offices both in Elyria and Amherst.
John Joseph Smythe was born at Dennison, Tuscarawas County, Ohio, December 12, 1889, a son of Joseph Weaver and Elizabeth Smythe. His father, who is of English descent, is a railroad engineer in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company: The mother is of French-Canadian birth and parentage, and when a child came from Quebec to Pennsylvania.
John J. Smythe graduated from the Dennison public schools in 1908. His parents were not wealthy people, and while they contributed all they could to further the ambitions of the young man, he early became dependent upon his own resources and by his own work paid practically all his way through college. In the year of his graduation from the public schools he entered the Ohio State University in the College of Arts, and in the following year entered the College of Law, from which he was graduated LL. B. in 1912. While in university he was much interested in athletics and was captain of the university baseball team
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in 1911-12, and has taken much interest in athletic affairs since locating in Lorain County.
After graduating from law school Mr. Smythe worked with William Herbert on Page's Ohio Digest until January, 1915. He then located in Elyria and opened a law office with D. A. Baird under the name Baird & Smythe. In April of the same year he established and took charge of the branch office of the firm at Amherst. This firm represents several corporations, including the Amherst German Bank and the Amherst Home Telephone Company.
One month after settling in Amherst Mr. Smythe was appointed city solicitor of the village by the village council, and after being a resident there only six months, on account of his prominence in municipal affairs, was nominated on a non-partisan ticket for mayor and in No- vember, 1913, at the age of twenty-three, was elected to the office. At that time he was reported as being the youngest mayor Ohio had ever known. He is a democrat, and in November, 1914, was candidate for clerk of courts of Lorain County, being defeated by the republican nom- inee of Lorain, William H. Oldham. Mr. Smythe is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Knights and Ladies of Security.
GEORGE LOUIS BUELL. It is a man's first duty to provide for his family while he lives and to see that suitable provision is made for those dependent upon him after he has passed away. One of the most effective methods of providing for future contingencies due to death is by means of insurance-a fact so generally recognized nowadays that the insurance business has grown to be one of the largest and most important in the country. One of its leading representatives in this section is George L. Buell, of Lorain, who was born in Summit County, Ohio, November 10, 1861. His parents, Ichabod and Mary (Robinson) Buell, were farming people. He was educated in the public schools and in the normal school at Medina, Ohio, and at the age of twenty years began industrial life as a telegraph operator. After being thus occupied for about four years, he came in 1885 to Lorain and for three years subsequently was here engaged in the same line of work. Then, in company with James Reid, he established himself in the insurance business. Subsequently the firm became Buell and Cozad, its present style, real estate being added to the interests of the concern, which, since its establishment has steadily advanced in prosperity. Mr. Buell organized The Black River Telephone Company, of which he was also manager for some time. One of Lorain's leading citizens, he has served for the last fifteen years as a justice of the peace. In politics he is aligned with the republican party, while his fraternal affiliations are with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In 1890 Mr. Buell married Miss Anna Reid, daughter of James Reid of Lorain.
WILLIAM MILNE ADAMS. Of the class of men who owe their success in business life solely to their own efforts and abilities, William Milne Adams, of Elyria, is an excellent example. Induced to come to this country in his youth by stories of the wonderful opportunities awaiting ambitious young men here, he found that in America, as elsewhere, the only road to prosperity and position was over the highway of hard and persistent work. This road he has traveled perseveringly, and at length has reached the goal of success, occupying an honorable position among Elyria's business men as the Elyria and Lorain representative of the Citizens Gas and Electric Company.
Mr. Adams was born March 20, 1851, in the City of Forfar, County
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Forfar, Scotland, and is a son of George and Emily (Tuck) Adams, both born at that place, the father of Scotch and the mother of Scotch- English descent. In his early life George Adams was engaged in con- tracting, but later took up gardening, and for over forty years acted in that capacity for a number of wealthy families in Scotland. He died in that country in 1902, aged eighty-seven years, while the mother passed away in 1898, aged eighty-three years. They were the parents of three children : William Milne; Betsy, who came to the United States a num- ber of years after her brother, married John Taylor, and resided near Youngstown, Ohio, where she died, and Rev. John C., a graduate of the College of London, England, who became a missionary to the Orkney Islands, and was found frozen to death after his failure to return from making calls, the supposition being that he had suffered an attack of heart failure.
William Milne Adams received but scant educational advantages in the public schools of his native city, but was a young man of industry and ambition, and when only sixteen years of age was foreman in a linen manufacturing factory, with over 125 girls under his superin- tendency. It would seem that a position of such responsibility would have satisfied a youth of his age, but he had repeatedly heard stories of the wealth to be easily gained in the United States, and in 1869, when between eighteen and nineteen years of age, he resigned his position and set sail for New York, determined to rapidly gain a fortune. When he arrived in this country, he found that the conditions pictured as so favorable had been greatly exaggerated, and he was glad to accept such honorable employment as came his way. In a factory at Ithaca, New York, he learned to make hubs and spokes, and resided in that city until about 1871, when he went to Ilion, New York, and secured a position with the Remington Arms Company, where he assisted in the manufac- ture of 350,000 guns used in the Franco-Prussian war. Still later he went to Paterson, New Jersey, where he worked in a factory in the manufacture of machinery for the making of silk ribbons, but in 1873 left that position to come to Toledo, Ohio, where, and at Delphos, Ohio, he was engaged in making hubs and spokes. In 1884 Mr. Adams received his introduction to matters electrical when he located at Fremont, Ohio, and worked for the Central Union Telephone Company, and after four years in that capacity entered the service of the Fremont Gas, Electric Light and Power Company, becoming one of its stock- holders and remaining in that city until 1905, although he sold his stock in the concern in 1902. On April 1, 1905, he came to Elyria, where he has since been connected with the electric light and natural and artificial gas business, having since that year been representative of the Citizens Gas and Electric Company for the cities of Lorain and Elyria. He is a member of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce and the Lorain Chamber of Commerce, and has an excellent reputation in business circles of both cities. In political matters he is a republican and his first vote was cast for an old friend, with whose family he had become acquainted while a resident of Fremont, Rutherford B. Hayes, who subsequently became President of the United States. He has continued to be a stanch sup- porter of republican candidates and principles, although not a seeker for . preferment at the hands of his party. Fraternally, Mr. Adams belongs to Brainard Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of Fremont, Ohio, and Elyria Lodge No. 465, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in both of which he has numerous friends. He attends and supports St. Andrew's Episcopal Church of Elyria, of which his wife is a member.
On October 16, 1884, Mr. Adams was married at Toledo, Ohio, to Miss Catherine Elizabeth Botsford, daughter of Hiram and Eliza (Caton) Botsford, natives of New York State, who died at Toledo, where
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their daughter, Mrs. Adams, was born and educated. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Adams: Emily, born at Fremont, Ohio, a graduate of the Fremont High School, who also took a business course in that city, married W. J. Derr, of Toledo, Ohio, who is engaged in the musical instrument business, and has two daughters, Mary Louise and Emily, the latter of whom was born in the same hour of the same day of the same month as her uncle, William H. Adams; and William Hiland, a graduate of the Elyria High School, class of 1906, who attended Gambria College, Mount Vernon, Ohio, now agent of the Logan Natural Gas and Fuel Company, at Ashland, Ohio, married Miss Fay Bankard of Mount Vernon, and has one daughter, Lois.
THOMAS RATH. For fully twenty years Thomas Rath has been an effective factor in the industrial life of Lorain. He is division manager at Lorain for the National Stove Company, a division of the American Stove Co., and has been the chief man locally responsible for the progress and direction of that enterprise almost since its establishment.
What is now a branch of a great manufacturing corporation was established in 1893 at Lorain as The National Vapor Stove & Manu- facturing Company. At that time about fifty people were employed in the plant. In 1902 the business was taken over by the American Stove Company, and since then many changes and extensions have been made. Nearly two hundred and twenty-five persons are now on the regular payroll of the plant, and the works cover a large tract of ground. The main building is 450 by 60 feet, with a wing 119 by 45 feet. The warehouse is 80 by 150 feet; the japanning plant is 80 by 40 feet ; the plating room and brass foundry is 70 by 40 feet ; the enameling room is 180 by 60 feet ; the power plant is 40 by 60 feet ; and the storage room is 30 by 110 feet. The products of the works at Lorain are sent all over the world and include all classes and types of stoves and ranges.
Thomas Rath was born in Cleveland, Ohio, November 3. 1866, a son of John and Mary (Mackin) Rath. Educated in private schools, when only fourteen years of age he became an office boy with the Hall Vapor Stove Company of Cleveland. Since then he has earned every step in his progress. He possessed natural capabilities for higher positions, and with experience and maturity has graduated from one grade of the service to another. While at Cleveland he worked his way to division manager, and in 1895 took charge of the works at Lorain, and is now the chief executive official of that extensive industry.
At the same time he has been closely identified with the civic and general business life at Lorain, and is a member and former director of the board of commerce. On September 4, 1890, he married Sarah Ann Taylor of Cleveland. Their four children are: Raymond George, who is associated with his father in the stove works; Charlotte Frances, Thomas Joseph and Joseph Edward.
ADDISON E. LORD. During the past half century few men have touched at more points the business and civic community of Elyria than Addison E. Lord, who several years ago reached that stage in his busi- ness life which enabled him to retire and enjoy a well-earned leisure, and who first became identified with Elyria soon after leaving the . navy, in which he served during the Civil war. Mr. Lord was for many years a tobacco manufacturer, was subsequently in the telephone con- struction business, and is also remembered for his service in the old volunteer fire department of Elyria and in the office of sheriff of Lorain County.
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