USA > Ohio > Lorain County > A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio: An Authentic Narrative of the. > Part 7
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which he was driven when the Civil war broke out. Mr. and Mrs. Mosher are the parents of eight children: Alfred R., who graduated from Oberlin College in 1898 and lives on a plantation in Texas; William E., referred to on other pages; Clifford C., who was a soldier in the Spanish-American war and is now superintendent and manager of the East Machine Co. of Lima, Ohio; Bessie B., who is private secretary in a wholesale chair company at Chicago; Margaret Eleanor, who graduated from Oberlin College in 1906 and is now the wife of Charles A. Capron, an attorney of Upper Montelair, New Jersey; Charles A., who is now representing the Goodrich Rubber Company of Akron, Ohio, at Aber- deen, South Dakota; Gladys Elizabeth, who completed a domestic science course in Rochester, New York, and now teaches at Morenci, Arizona; Marion, who is in the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin.
Mr. and Mrs. Mosher are members of the Second Congregational Church and in politics he is a progressive republican, and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Foresters.
WILLIAM EUGENE MOSHER for the past ten years has filled the chair of German Language and Literature at Oberlin College. Professor Mosher is an American born, and is a son of George A. Mosher, one of the best known citizens of Lorain County, where for a number of years he has been superintendent of the Children's Home.
Born in Syracuse, New York, November 26, 1877, William Eugene Mosher was graduated from the high school of that city in 1893. He took one year of preparatory training at Oberlin and was graduated from Oberlin College in 1899. For three years he was an instructor in the academy, and followed that with two years of study abroad in the universities at Berlin and Halle. He was given the degree Ph. D at Halle in 1904. Returning to the United States, he became Associate Pro- fessor of German Language in Oberlin College, but after a year again went abroad and continued his studies in Berlin.
On his return to Oberlin he was given the chair of German Lan- guage and Literature in the college and has since devoted his entire time to his professional duties. Besides the time spent abroad in study he has traveled extensively during the vacations of his college work. Mr. Mosher is author of three books. One of these is a German text book, which has been adopted and which has had an extensive sale, known as "Lern- und Lesebuch." "Wilkommen in Deutschland" is a second year text book. He is also author of "The Promise of the Christ Age in Recent Literature."
In June, 1905, Professor Mosher married Laura M. Camp of Akron, Ohio. Their four children are: Horace Camp, aged eight ; William E., Jr., aged six; Richard Thayer, aged four; and Frederick, aged two. The family reside in a beautiful home on Forest Street, one of the most attractive places in Oberlin Village. This house was built under the direct supervision of Mr. Mosher. He is a member of the First Congre- gational Church and in politics is independent.
CHARLES R. SUMMERS. For at least seventeen years Charles R. Summers has been enrolled among the lawyers of Northern Ohio, and since 1904 has been well established in practice at Oberlin. He is known as an industrious and careful attorney, a man who gives all his energies to his profession, and has attained a position of commendable success. His character is further illustrated by the fact that he paid his way through school for his higher education, and completed the regular three years law course in two years.
Though the greater part of his life has been spent in Northern Ohio, Charles R. Summers was born in Polk City, Iowa, July 31, 1875, a son
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of Roland M. and Anna (Strawn) Summers. His paternal grandfather was Horace Summers, who was of West Pennsylvania ancestry, and he himself was a carpenter by trade and in the early days moved to Indiana. The maternal grandfather was Charles W. Strawn, a native of Ohio and a farmer. Roland M. Summers was born in Indiana in 1851 and his wife was born in Ohio in the same year. They are now living at Elyria, Ohio, which has been their home since 1897. After their marriage in Ohio they drove across the country to Iowa, and the father bought land in that state and worked it as a farmer for ten or eleven years. He then moved to Norwalk, Ohio, and for a number of years was traveling salesman for the Chase Piano Company. Retiring from the road in 1897, he established a retail piano business in Elyria and has since developed a large trade all over Lorain County. He is an active repub- lican, member of the Elyria Lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his wife belongs to the Christian Church. There were four children, and the three now living are: Myrtle, wife of William H. Wildman, who is a manufacturer of flavoring extracts and spices at Norwalk; Horace W., who is associated with his father in the music store at Elyria; and Charles R.
Charles R. Summers acquired most of his early education in the Norwalk public schools. He was a student in Oberlin College for two years and then entered the law department of Baldwin University at Cleveland, where, after making the three years course in two years, he graduated LL. B. in 1899. Mr. Summers practiced four years at Norwalk before coming to Lorain County, and then for one year was editor and manager of the Elyria Chronicle. After this brief experience in the newspaper business he came to Oberlin and has since been looking after his law practice. He has served as justice of the peace since January, 1907, and is also teacher of commercial law in the Oberlin Business College.
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In 1904 Mr. Summers married Miss Nettie J. Smith, daughter of Wil- liam M. Smith. Her father is a real estate and insurance man at Elyria. They are the parents of four children : Thelma May, in school; Roland M., also in school; and Stella Anna and Elsie Frances. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Mr. Summers takes much interest in fraternal matters, particularly in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He has passed all the chairs, is past district deputy in that order, and is a retired captain of the Independent Order Odd Fel- lows of Canton. In politics he is a republican.
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MISS ELCIE M. JOHNSTON. Not so many years ago it was considered the proper attitude to assume that women had, as a sex, not been gen- erously endowed with what is termed, a "business" sense. Idealists were ready to acknowledge their many other admirable qualities, their beauty, grace and charm, their helpful sympathy and their natural virtues, but neither they nor the whole body of mankind could believe that behind all these qualities and attributes, existed the talent, and the good, hard, practical commonsense that, in more recent days, has been shown in womanly achievement. No better nor more convincing ex- ample may be cited than that afforded by the success which has been won by Miss Elcie M. Johnston, the president, owner and director of the Elyria Business College, at Elyria, Ohio. The original undertaking was one of magnitude, requiring courage, diplomacy and foresight, and with the keenest of business intelligence she has conducted the enter- prise to its present prosperous condition.
Miss Johnston was born near Detroit, Michigan. That she was an unusually apt pupil in the public schools may be inferred because of her early completion of the course, being creditably graduated when
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E. M. Johnston
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only sixteen years of age. In making plans for her future, Miss John- ston considered one useful career after another, hesitating for a time between that of a trained nurse and a teacher. Finally, deciding to become an educator, she accepted, shortly afterward, a position in the county schools. She proved entirely acceptable to the school board, but her observation soon inclined her to the belief that commercial teaching offered better opportunities for advancement, and, being frankly am- bitious, in the following year she entered a commercial college and com- pleted the business course and afterward became a teacher in the college from which she was graduated.
After experience as a commercial teacher, Miss Johnston realized that a course in business experience would be one of the most helpful assistants in the line of work to which she had committed herself, there- fore she accepted an office position in which she rendered service as a stenographer for two and one-half years for one of the largest manu- facturing firms in the state. During this time not only her days but her evenings were busy for she taught night classes in the Y. M. C. A. and in a business college, additionally having private pupils. After resigning the above mentioned office position, she still further advanced her own education, taking a special teacher's course in the Gem City Business College, which school has probably the largest annual attend- ance of any business college in the world. Upon the completion of this special course of study, Miss Johnston was offered a responsible position as private secretary to the manager of a large electrical cor- poration. She continued with that corporation for two years, when, through the death of the president of the company the Boston and New York offices were consolidated and Miss Johnston returned to her native city. During this business connection she had learned much concerning the methods of conducting a large business enterprise and had in- evitably, because of her natural quickness of mind, added largely to her general knowledge.
Upon her return to Detroit, Miss Johnston accepted a position which gave her charge of the Actual Business Section of the Shorthand de- partment in the largest business college in the city, and her previous business and teaching experience made her services very valuable. From this college she subsequently went to a still more responsible position, becoming teacher, storekeeper and private secretary to the superintend- ent of the state industrial school. While the arduous duties and close confinement of this position somewhat impaired her health and caused her subsequently to resign, she has always felt that the experience was a very valuable one because of the opportunity it gave her of studying human nature, as every nationality and type came under her personal observation. Later she was identified with a company manufacturing special machinery for all purposes, and here, again, her time was not lost, for, possessing a natural interest in the wonderful devices that go under the name of machinery, she studied machines at first hand. In later years many of her graduate students have expressed their grati- tude on account of the unusual information she has been competent to give on many other than that pertaining to business methods and acquirements.
For many years prior to 1901, when Miss Johnston came to Elyria, she had cherished the hope of eventually owning her own school. This ambition she satisfied when she became the owner of the Elyria Business College, which was incorporated in 1900 and of which Miss Johnston is president. This institution stands for all that is most helpful and pro- gressive in this line of endeavor. While she has been marvelously suc- cessful, she has met with some serious discouragements, one of these being a confiagration in which the Elyria Block was burned, in which
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the entire equipment belonging to the college was destroyed. Informing and interesting is the following quotation from a letter to Miss John- ston, from Albert R. Green, secretary of the Elyria Chamber of Com- merce about this time.
"It is my pleasure, on behalf of the Elyria Chamber of Commerce, to commend your college and its management for their energy as mani-" fested by the manner in which your college was rehabilitated after the total loss you sustained by the recent destruction of the Elyria Block by fire. To have secured new quarters and refitted them with even temporary facilities in such a short time (one day) and to have restored the classes to their usual studies under such trying circumstances, speaks volumes for the efficiency of your college and can not help but energize the working spirit of your recruits into the ranks of business." As indicated, Miss Johnston found a new location before the fire was extinguished, picnic tables, pine boards and boxes, with new typewriters making up the equipment. These rooms being inadequate were occupied by The Elyria Business College but two months when the classes moved to the present building which had been purchased. remodeled and enlarged immediately after the fire. The new college building is situated on Second Street, Elyria, and is unique in that it is the only private school in Ohio housed in a building belonging to the school owner, unoceu- pied by other tenants and the only business college and building in the United States owned and managed by a woman. Miss Johnston is well known among private school owners as the one woman in the profession who owns and manages her own building and also a fully accredited busi- ness school, this college being a member of the National Accredited Schools Association.
On many occasions Miss Johnston has been signally honored. As a member of the National Commercial Teachers Federation, admiration, confidence and esteem was shown her by election to office, serving three successive years as a member of the executive committee ; as vice presi- dent of the School Managers' Section, and at the convention of the fed- eration held at the Sherman Hotel, in Chicago, in December, 1914, she was not only reelected a member of the executive committee from the Managers' Section, but was elected also second vice president of the entire association, and during the convention held in Chicago during Christmas week, 1915, was elected first vice president. As the federation is composed of the best schools in the United States and as more than 700 members were present, this distinction was creditable to Elyria and a recognition of the standards maintained by Miss Johnston in her college. An exceed- ingly interesting feature of the above convention was the fine address made by Miss Johnston, who took for her subject. "The Woman in Busi- ness." The 1914 convention was reported as being the most successful in the history of the association in that recognition was secured from the Educational Bureau at Washington and a committee appointed to secure an appropriation for the establishment of a Bureau of Commercial' Edu- cation.
It would be unjust to close this too brief sketch of this able woman's success in business, without giving a glimpse of the womanly side of her character in which she is seen to possess all the admirable attributes of her sex. In each student who comes under her care, she sees a potential future and, with perceptions quickened by experience, she is able to judge of capacity. earnestness and probable success along one or another line of study. Her helpfulness, her interest and sympathy have been appreciated and by the yearly increasing body of successful graduates of her school, she is universally held in high esteem. While she has become a factor to be counted on in the business world, she is still
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feminine to the core when it comes to family affection, womanly sym- pathy and social service.
THE ELYRIA BUSINESS COLLEGE. With the motto, "Trains for Suc- cess," this institution offers encouragement at the outset very welcome to the ordinary student as he enrolls his name on a roster which shows that this claim is not an idle one but has meant prosperity and content- ment to many before him. The first school in Northern Ohio to teach stenotypy (machine shorthand), it is equally progressive in other de- partments and thorough in every one.
The Elyria Business College is located at Elyria, Ohio, a city with beautiful and healthful surroundings and with an intelligent and edu- cated citizenship that insures peace and order and civic and cultural advantages. It has large industrial plants, well managed business houses in which the graduates readily secure employment, and many fine resi- dences and hospitable homes, a public library and an advanced public school system, churches of all denominations and a wholesome social life, so that students who come from all parts of the United States, to this Ohio city to enter the Elyria Business College find not only a complete school with highly trained experienced business men and women as teachers, but a most desirable place of residence.
This college, which is a commodious two-story pressed brick building, beautifully finished and decorated, is situated on Second Street. It is equipped with everything that modern art has provided or educational science has evolved for the instruction and convenience of students in every one of its many departments, including penmanship, bookkeeping, stenotypy, shorthand and typewriting, each department covering every detail, manner and method accepted by the business world.
The Elyria Business College was established in 1896 and was incor- porated in 1900. In 1901 it was purchased by its present able president, Miss Elcie M. Johnston, whose previous business training and experi- ence admirably qualified her for the responsible duties she assumed. She entered upon these with enthusiasm and no one questions her unusual capacity. For fifteen years- she has directed the affairs of the college with wisdom and efficiency and has the satisfaction of knowing that she has established its standing on a stable foundation. Not only may the graduates of this institution be found occupying important positions at Elyria, but all over the United States are efficient, thoroughly equipped young men and women who owe their prosperity to the training received in this college and sound the praises of their alma mater together with their expressions of sincere regard for Miss Johnston, and her corps of efficient teachers. whose help and encouragement they feel to have been of inestimable value.
The aim of this college as announced in its handsomely bound fif- teenth annual catalog is: to prepare men and women for the work which the business man wants done; to train all students to become efficient in the shortest possible time consistent with good work; by environment to create a desire for moral living and high ideals in business: and to assist all students, at all times, old graduates as well as beginners, in securing better positions and better opportunities for advancement. Once a student. personal interest is never discontinued. There is little show or assumption about this school for it does precisely what it offers to do, each student standing in the same relation to president and teacher and each one required to live up to the established standard. Advice is given students when they desire it as to what branch of study would enable them to excel, but there is no compulsion, every pupil being per- mitted to make his own choice and individual instruction being given
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him. Social features are offered the students for their entertainment, and the college provides a reading room with musical instruments, a well selected library, current magazines and daily and weekly papers.
The Elyria Business College is the only school in this part of Ohio employing a teacher whose entire time is devoted to teaching touch typewriting and correct office forms. The college supplies all the lead- ing makes of machines, including the Wahl Adding Machine, filing de- vices and card systems, in the use of which the student is carefully instructed, and that excellent work is done by the graduates is shown by the important positions they are holding in the business world. Spe- cial attention is given to training teachers for business colleges and the commercial department of high schools. The diploma from this school has been accepted, without further examination, by schools in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Always alert to any advance in business methods, the college showed its progressive spirit by being the first school in Northern Ohio to install the stenotype, the fastest writing machine in the world as a part of the equipment in the shorthand department. A number of young students who had mastered its mechanism, at a shorthand contest held in Cleve- land on October 22, 1914, astonished all who attended by their speed records. The Elyria Business College is justly proud of the achieve- ments of several of these students, William Henke, whose remarkable record was a net speed of 138 words a minute, carrying away state honors, and Edward Feron, who won second place with a net speed of 121 words a minute.
The Graham System of Shorthand is also taught in the shorthand department, and the fact that every graduate from this department is employed should convince all who are interested that it pays to attend a school where the teachers have had actual office experience. This de- partment is under the direct supervision of Miss Johnston, who by writing and teaching shorthand, has become thoroughly familiar with the demands of business men who want first-class stenographers. This department is also equipped with every modern device, including a com- plete multigraph outfit, upon which instructions are given and most of the school literature is printed. This part of the work includes actual office practice, where outside work is taken and prepared by the students who are about ready for positions. This not only gives the student experience in doing real work before he leaves school, but it enables many of the students to earn considerable sums with which to pay their expenses while in school.
In the bookkeeping department, is taught the famous Rowe Book- keeping and Accountancy, which system is approved by leading ac- countants through the United States, and includes a course in banking, according to the lines prescribed by the American National Bankers Association. The Burroughs Adding Machine and other office devices used in the large business offices are found in this department and the student is given thorough instruction not only in bookkeeping, but in arithmetic, penmanship, commercial law, business English, banking, and all forms of actual office practice.
The Accredited Schools Association, of which the Elyria Business College is a member, is a national body of high standing among edu- cators. President Johnston was elected second vice president of the National Commercial Teachers Federation in 1914 and first vice president at the annual convention held in Chicago in 1915, and is one of the best known commercial educators in the country. The high standard she has ever maintained and the wisdom and good judgment with which she has managed her business have brought her universal respect and have
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proved valuable assets for her enterprise. She occupies a somewhat unique position in that she owns the only private school in Ohio housed in the owner's building unoccupied by other tenants and additionally is the only woman in the United States who owns and manages a business college.
It is the proud boast of the faculty of the Elyria Business College that every graduate is employed, and one of its slogans is, "A position the day you complete the course.
THOMAS HENRY ARTRESS. Among the men who have been most closely identified with the business life of the City of Lorain during the last thirty or forty years a place of special prominence belongs to Thomas H. Artress, who now has many active relations with business affairs and has held a number of civic responsibilities. The success of his career is accentuated by the fact that as a boy he endured many privations, and depended upon hard work and honest efficiency to win him a place in the world.
A native of England, he was born in Gloucestershire, April 21, 1859, a son of William and Mary Artress. In 1868, when he was nine years of age, the family emigrated to the United States and located on a farm in Lorain County, where the parents spent the rest of their days.
It was a limited education that was assigned to Thomas Henry Artress as a preparation for life. When only thirteen years of age he was regularly employed at farm labor, and four years later began an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's trade. Having completed this appren- ticeship at the age of twenty, he set up a shop in the little town of Grafton, and from there in 1880 moved to Lorain, where he was a workman in the shops of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and also in the Brass Works. Thus by means of a mechanical trade Mr. Artress laid the foundation for his present substantial means and influence.
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