USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 22
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Of New England birth and ancestry, Addison E. Lord was born in
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Warehouse Point, Connecticut, on the headwaters of the Connecticut River, October 15, 1842. His parents were Chester A. and Lucretia (Moran) Lord. When he was two years old his mother died and his father passed away in 1882. He was one of a large family, and several of them found their way into this section of Northern Ohio. His brother Cordon O. was one of the first cigar manufacturers in Lorain County, and died at Elyria. . Gilbert was also a resident for some time in this county, but finally returned to Connecticut where he died. Atkins A. spent all his life in the East. Three of Mr. Lord's sisters came to Lorain County in 1857, and lived here the rest of their lives. Clara M. was the wife of Lorain Wood. Martha was the wife of Samuel Hines. All these are now deceased. Cynthia Wells is still living at Elyria, the widow of Addison Wells, who died shortly after the war. Another sister was Lavina who married Stephen Clark in Connecticut and both died there. The oldest of the children was Cordon, while Addison E. was the youngest.
The latter obtained his early education in the public schools of his native village, but gained a more substantial and practical training by actual contact with the world and with men after he was fifteen years of age. An experience such as very few residents of Lorain County can include in their careers was four years spent on a whaling vessel, and in that time as a boy employed in the hard and exciting life of whaling he saw a great deal of the world. Returning home, at the out- break of the war he enlisted in the navy, or as the more exact term was "shipped in the navy." This was in July, 1861, and his service con- tinued until September, 1864. While much of the time he was on blockade duty, he was also in the naval engagements around the mouth of the Mississippi by which the City of New Orleans was captured by the Federal forces, and he was also at the siege of Mobile. The boat on which he served was part of the West Gulf blockading squadron.
On being discharged from the navy Mr. Lord came to Elyria in Oc- tober, 1864. Since that date this has been his home. He was employed in different capacities and with his brother Cordon learned the cigar- making trade, and in 1873 started in that business for himself in part- nership with F. H. Sudro under the firm name of Lord & Sudro. Their establishment was located where the cigar and tobacco store now stands. They carried on both a retail and wholesale business, and were very successful.
On accepting the nomination for sheriff of Lorain County, an office to which he was elected, Mr. Lord sold his interests to his partner, Sudro, and began his official duties in January, 1894. For four years he made an enviable record of efficiency and faithfulness to duty in this office. Mr. Lord cast his first vote for president in the fall of 1864 after coming to Elyria, and almost as a matter of course gave his support to Abraham Lincoln. Since then he has been steadfastly aligned with the republican party. In one of the Elyria papers there recently appeared an interest- ing comment on the old volunteer fire force of the city, in which Mr. Lord was mentioned as one of the four survivors of the forty who com- posed the old hook and ladder company of 1868. The old fire organiza- tion had many associations with the social life of the city, and everyone was interested in the conventions and tournaments at which contests were staged between various fire companies. Mr. Lord in those days was frequently called to duty with the ladder company and is now one of the oldest of the surviving company. The old fire truck which was built by John Topliff in 1869 for this company is still in good condition and is often taken to the volunteer conventions.
After leaving the office of sheriff for seven years Mr. Lord was en-
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gaged in business as a telephone constructor. He erected plants through- out this county, at Columbia, Eaton, Grafton, LaGrange and Amherst, also installed plants at Medina and Berea. He was a member of the firm of Rawson & Company in this business. For about a year while in the telephone construction business he was at Joplin, Missouri, and while there acquired some interests in the zinc mines, but that never proved a profitable venture, and he has no very pleasant memories of the experience.
For the past eight years Mr. Lord has lived retired and usually spends about three months each summer with his son in Benzie County, Michigan. This son is a successful fruit grower, having about eighty acres devoted to apples, peaches and cherries, and during the last year he sold fourteen tons of cherries to the local canning factory. In 1902 Mr. Lord built his substantial home on West Avenue in Elyria. He is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons, with Elyria Lodge No. 103, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in the Richard Allen Post, Grand Army of the Republic, has held all the offices, being now a past commander.
Mr. Lord's domestic life has been one peculiarly happy and on January 20, 1916, he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anni- versary. They were married in Elyria at the old Methodist Episcopal parsonage. Louise L. Ward, who became his bride at that time, was born in Elyria, educated in that city, and is a daughter of James and Calista Ward, who were early settlers in Lorain County from Vermont. Her father was for many years a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Lord have two children living. Edward G. is the Michigan fruit farmer already mentioned. Pearl Louise lives at home in Elyria. Both were born in this city and received their education here, graduating from the high school when it was under the superintendence of the late Professor Parker. Another child, Burton H., died in 1871 when a year and a half old.
JOSEPH MARTIN HOUFF. The Houff-McNeil Company is one of the largest flour milling concerns around the southern shore of Lake Erie. It was organized at Lorain in May, 1911, with a capital stock of $60,000. The capital stock remains the same to the present writing and the com- pany now has all the facilities for manufacture of grain products of the very highest quality. The main building is 40 by 70 feet. with a capacity of eighty barrels of flour per day. The modern roller process is employed exclusively, and about sixteen people have a place on the payroll. At the organization the first officers were : J. M. Houff, presi- dent; Adam Kolbe, vice president; and Miss Ida Houff, secretary and treasurer. The present officers are: J. M. Houff, president; William B. Thompson, vice president; and Mrs. Margaret C. McNeil, secretary and treasurer.
The company has the benefit of the experience and thorough business ability of Joseph M. Houff as its president. Mr. Houff has for many years been engaged in the grain trade, and is one of the successful manufacturers of Lorain County. He was born at Sandusky. Erie County, Ohio, May 26, 1866, a son of Martin and Margaret (Maher) Houff. His father was a contractor. Mr. Houff as a boy attended the public schools at Bellevue, Ohio, and at the age of fifteen learned telegraphy and became an operator. From that he got into the grain business, buying and selling grain for ten years, but since August, 1904, has been in the milling industry, and was mainly responsible for organiz- ing the Houff-McNeil Company and has brought the business to its present prosperous condition.
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Bart S. Friday.
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On February 2, 1892, Mr. Houff married Miss Christina Arnold, of York Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. To their marriage have been born seven children: Arnold, who is connected with the milling company at Lorain; Margaret, at home; Gordon; Gerald; Rachel; Jonathan; and Robert Hugh.
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CARL G. FRIDAY. One of the oldest and at the same time one of the most progressive business houses of Elyria is that now conducted under the name of Friday & Thomas, a furniture and undertaking concern that has won a firmly-established place in the business history of the city. It was founded here in 1861 by the maternal grandfather of Carl G. Friday, the senior partner, Henry Rimbach, Sr., who was succeeded by his sons, Henry and George Rimbach, who conducted the busi- ness under the style of Rimbach Brothers. When they dissolved part- nership Henry Rimbach, Jr., was alone in the business for eighteen years, or until his death, when it was continued by Ernest and George Rimbach, who restored the old name of Rimbach Brothers, it being carried on as such for six years. At the time of Ernest Rimbach's death, Carl G. Friday bought his interest from Mr. Rimbach's widow, the firm name then becoming Rimbach & Friday, which continued until, one year before his death, Mr. Rimbach sold his share in the enterprise to Glade B. Thomas, Friday, October 13, 1913, the firm then becoming, as at present, Friday & Thomas, the first time in more than fifty years that the name of Rimbach had not been connected with the establish- ment.
Carl G. Friday, senior member of the firm of Friday & Thomas, was born at Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio, February 14, 1881, and is a son of Charles F. and Anna M. (Rimbach) Friday. His father, a native of Germany, was about four years of age when he came to the United States with his parents, who settled at Elyria. Here the youth was reared and educated, and as a young man became identified with railroading, in which he has passed his entire career, having been for twenty-nine years in the employ of the New York Central Lines, first as fireman, and later, as at present, as locomotive engineer. Mrs. Friday was born, reared, educated and married at Elyria, and like her husband survives and is living in their comfortable home. They are the parents of three children, namely : Carl G., of Elyria; E. Louise, of Cleveland, Ohio; and Clara May, residing with her parents at Elyria. All three children were born and educated at Elyria, and E. Louise was given the advantages of a business course at Oberlin.
Carl G. Friday received only meager educational advantages in his youth, as his parents were in modest circumstances at that time, and the family needed the wages which he could earn. However, he was a bright, alert lad, possessing industry that caused him to take advantage of every opportunity and a retentive mind that made him an excellent scholar, and during the time he attended the German Lutheran schools he acquired an education far in advance of many of his fellows who enjoyed greater advantages. He was only fourteen years of age when he put aside his studies to accept his first position, employment at the old candy factory of Clark & Company, on Cheapside, located on the present site of Bivins' Walk-Over Boot and Shoe Store. Later he drove a delivery and grocery wagon for Seward & Goldberg, prior to the erection of the first Elyria Block, which was destroyed by fire, and which stood on the present site of the new Elyria Block. Mr. Friday's next employer was W. H. Smith, the West Side grocer, for whom he worked for five years, then entering the employ of the National Tube Company of South Lorain, where he was employed as chemist in the
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chemical labratory for five years under W. B. N. Hawk, who is still chief chemist there and who remains as one of Mr. Friday's best friends.
Mr. Friday entered business on his own account at Elyria, in May, 1905, in partnership with George Rimbach, under the firm name of Rimbach & Friday, as before mentioned. At that time, in order to prepare himself for his new duties, he took a course at the Massachusetts College of Embalming, at Boston, from which he was duly graduated. He is also a graduate of the Barnes School of Anatomy, Sanitary Science and Embalming, of Chicago, Illinois, and received his state license from the Ohio State Board of Embalming Examiners in June, 1906.
In addition to carrying the largest stock of furniture at Elyria, the firm of Friday & Thomas conducts the leading undertaking business here. Mr. Friday is a thorough master of the art of embalming and has received letters from people in various parts of the United States where he has shipped bodies commending his work. The business has grown from a $10,000 per year concern, as when Mr. Friday came, to an enterprise doing a business annually of $50,000. The chapel and morgue are located at No. 580 Broad Street, while the furniture estab- lishment is at No. 582, next door, and occupies two floors, in addition to which there are maintained three warehouses. Mr. Friday has charge of the undertaking department, while Mr. Thomas has full control of the furniture end of the business, although both are capable men in both directions and assist each other when necessary. The firm has the finest automobile funeral equipment in the northern part of Ohio, not excepting Cleveland, and has just purchased one of the finest auto- mobile invalid carriages in the country. This is a combination of hearse and invalid carriage, with a full limousine front and very pleasing body design, being ornamented tastefully with hand-carving to relieve the plainness. The finish is a beautiful silver gray with gold striping, and the interior of the car is veneered with genuine mahogany. An adjust- able invalid bed is included, one that may be taken up and down the average stairs. The chassis is the Riddle Coach & Hearse Company's, of Ravenna, Ohio, six-cylinder, forty-five horse-power, a motor which under severe tests has shown itself capable of traveling the worst roads in the country.
Mr. Friday is a member of the Ohio Funeral Directors' Association, and of various civic and social organizations at Elyria. Still a young man, he has gained such an excellent reputation in his native community that in 1915 the citizens of Elyria circulated a paper, with 200 signa- tures, boosting Mr. Friday for the mayoralty, and even in the face of Mr. Friday's prompt and decisive refusal tried for a long time to persuade him to be a candidate. However, he finally convinced them that it is his belief that public service and business are not congenial. Last year Mr. Friday served as treasurer of the Democratic Club, of which he is vice president at this time. He owns his own home at No. 123 West Bridge Street, which he erected in 1912.
On November 27, 1910, at Elyria, Mr. Friday was united in marriage with Miss R. Mae Arpin, of Alpena, Michigan, who was reared and educated in the city of her birth and is now well and popularly known in social circles of Elyria.
GLADE B. THOMAS. Among the business men of the younger genera- tion at Elyria, one who has attained success through his own efforts and who occupies a substantial position and has a high reputation, is Glade B. Thomas, junior member of the undertaking and furniture concern of Friday & Thomas. Mr. Thomas was born in Union County, Ohio, July
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4, 1884, and is a son of R. F. and Nattie A. (Bailey) Thomas, who both reside at Columbus, Ohio, R. F. Thomas being a funeral director of that city. . The elder Thomas has been an undertaker at different loca- tions in Ohio since 1889 and during this more than a quarter of a century has won and held his associates' regard and esteem by reason of his integrity and straightforward dealing. Both the parents were born in Logan County, Ohio. They have had four children: Glade B., who is the only son; and Fleeta, Mona and Tempa, who were educated in the public schools of the communities in which their parents have lived and who are now residing at home.
The public schools of Marion, Ohio, and Marion Business College furnished Glade B. Thomas with his education, but some time before his graduation from the latter institution he had received his introduc- tion to business, having learned the art of embalming largely under the preceptorship of his father. In the spring of 1898, when he completed the embalmer's course and secured a certificate, he was not quite four- teen years of age and was the youngest certified embalmer in Ohio. He continued to be engaged with his father until 1905, when he entered the employ of the Cleveland Burial Case Company, as traveling sales- man, selling undertakers' supplies. During the next six years he went over the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Michigan, or four separate and distinct territories. It is a significant fact that, starting in with the worst territory, he finished with the best the company had.
With the foregoing experience and preparation, in October, 1911, Mr. Thomas decided he was ready to enter upon a business career of his own, and accordingly accepted the opportunity offered of buying the interest of George Rimbach, in one of the oldest-established business enterprises of Elyria. This concern had been founded in 1861 by Henry Rimbach, Sr., who was shortly succeeded by his sons, Henry and George Rimbach, who carried on the business under the name of Rimbach Brothers. Later Henry Rimbach, Jr., conducted the business alone for eighteen years, and at his death Ernest and George Rimbach became the owners and restored the old name of Rimbach Brothers, which it kept for six years. Ernest Rimbach then died and Carl G. Friday bought his interest from the widow, the firm name then becoming Rim- bach & Friday, which it continued until Mr. Thomas bought into the firm. which became Friday & Thomas, its present style. The firm now carries the largest stock of furniture at Elyria, Mr. Thomas being in charge of the furniture department, while Mr. Friday carries on the funeral directing. The business has steadily grown from modest pro- portions to a venture doing $50,000 worth of business annually, having a modern chapel and morgue at No. 580 Broad Street, with the furniture store next door, at No. 582, where it occupies two floors, in addition to which the firm maintains three warehouses. The firm also has the finest funeral automobile equipment in the northern part of this state, and this does not except the City of Cleveland. In it is what is considered the most complete and up-to-date combination of hearse and invalid carriage in the country, a vehicle manufactured for this concern by the Riddle Coach and Hearse Company, of Ravenna, Ohio. Mr. Thomas is a member of the Ohio Funeral Directors' Association. He has been prominent in the business life of Elyria as a promoter of movements for the welfare of the city's commercial and industrial interests, having been a member of the industrial committee of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce for two years, and at this time being a member of the publicity committee of that body. Fraternally, he is affiliated with King Solomon Lodge No. 56, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of Vol. 11-10
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Elyria, and the various bodies of Masonry up to and including Al Koran Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Cleveland; and the local lodges of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Phythias.
On April 11, 1911, Mr. Thomas was married to Miss Frances Zeiner, who was born and educated at Jamestown, Ohio, and they have two daughters, Una Clare and Martha Fleeta, both born at Elyria.
THEODORE CHRIST Gow. A practical electrician by trade, Theodore C. Gow has applied his knowledge to a capable performance while in the employ of others, and now for a number of years has been an inde- pendent business man and is head of the Parkside Auto Company at Lorain.
Born on a farm in Elyria Township of Lorain County July 13, 1871, he is a son of Henry and Hannah Gow, both of whom were born in Germany and came to the United States in 1866. Though reared on a farm and educated in country schools, Mr. Gow has spent all his active career in the industrial centers of Lorain County. Learning the electrical trade, he was in the employ of the National Tube Company of Lorain for eleven years, and then became one of the interested parties in the Lorain Electric and Automobile Company, of which he was president for eleven years. On selling out his interests in that concern in Sep- tember, 1914, Mr. Gow organized the Parkside Auto Company, and built for it a brick and cement fireproof garage and shop at Washington and West Erie avenues in Lorain. This company now handles the agency for the Chalmers and Dodge Bros. cars, and carries on a large business with its capitalization of $10,000. Mr. Gow is well known among automobile men, is a very popular citizen in Lorain, and fraternally is identified with the Knights of Pythias Lodge.
In September, 1896, he married Elizabeth Geist of Erie County, Ohio. They are the parents of four children: Irving Frank, Harold Paul, Lester Carl and Gladys May. Mr. Gow and family are members of the German Evangelical Church. He is a republican in politics and a member of the board of commerce.
CHARLES E. TUCKER. There are few offices that furnish greater opportunities for real and substantial service to a community than that of mayor in a thriving commercial city like Elyria. While the present incumbent of that office, Mr. Tucker, has made an admirable record as a business man in this city and was also for eight years county recorder, it is probable that his most lasting claim to local distinction will rest upon 'his able, conscientious, efficient and economical administration as mayor of Elyria.
First elected to that office in 1911, and now a candidate on an inde- pendent ticket for re-election, Mr. Tucker has been a real executive, has devoted himself without reserve to the practical needs of the city, and has performed his exact duties both in the letter and spirit regardless of political consideration.
Perhaps the soundest testimonial to his service is found in the hearty response given to his present candidacy for re-election. Recently The Elyria Democrat, in a strong editorial, explained its position in urging the re-election of Mayor Tucker instead of the regular democratic nominee. After stating the cardinal principle that party politics should have as little influence as possible in the selection of candidates to mu- nicipal offices, the editorial continued: "The city of Elyria is in a position where everything must soon be put on the most economical basis. That means every department must be run at a maximum of effiicency. Now, does it appeal to anybody of good judgment that a
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good official who has worked towards that end and made good, should be turned out simply because a party candidate wants to win for his party's advantage? Mr. Tucker has made a good mayor. He has at- tended to the work faithfully and his appointees have been men of ability and judgment and the city has had better service through their efforts than it has enjoyed for years. Why should the voters throw him out and put in an entirely new set of men who will experiment on dif- ferent lines and then in turn likely be thrown out in two years? This does not make towards an economical and intelligent administration of ยท city affairs. Mr. Tucker is honest, industrious and capable. Keep him in for four years if possible."
Lorain County was Mayor Tucker's birthplace. He was born in Carlisle Township February 11, 1860, a son of the late William H. and Clarissa (Andrews) Tucker. His mother died at Elyria January 20, 1870, and his father passed away May 22, 1902. William H. Tucker was born March 21, 1826, in Windham, Portage County, Ohio, the youngest son of Jacob and Chloe Tucker. As a boy he removed with his parents to Lorain County, the family settling in the woods of what is now Eaton Township. It was a time when the public school system had not yet been fairly started, though he received advantages as liberal as most boys of that time. As the result of his hard work and close savings he afterwards completed a higher education in a select school at Ridge- ville. For many years his work was as a teacher, and many of the older men and women of Lorain County recall with gratitude his influ- ence on their early lives. This occupation he followed for twenty-two years, in different parts of Ohio. In 1864 he was elected recorder of Lorain County, a position he held by re-election for nine consecutive years, finally retiring from the office in 1874. In the meantime he had taken up the study of law, and on retiring from the recorder's office was admitted to the bar during a session of the District Court at Cleve- land. From 1864 until the close of his life, William H. Tucker was a resident of Elyria, and as a lawyer he enjoyed a substantial practice. He was also prominent in the organization at Elyria of the Royal Arcanum and the Knights of Honor, and in those two fraternities filled the highest positions in the State of Ohio.
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