USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II > Part 17
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Mr. Hawley was one of the organizers and for a number of years, until 1892, was secretary of the Cleveland Baseball Club of the National League, his associate officers being the late Frank DeHass Robinson, who was the president, and George H. Howe, treasurer. Mr. Hawley was also one of the organizers and a director
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of the Cleveland Athletic Club and has ever been a lover of good, clean sport. Fraternally he is a veteran in the Masonic order, being a member of Cleveland City Lodge, No. 15, A. F. & A. M .; Webb Chapter, No. 14, R. A. M .; Cleveland Council, No. 32, R. & S. M .; Oriental Commandery, K. T .; and Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
In November, 1873, Mr. Hawley was united in marriage to Miss Mary Switz, of Cleveland, and they have one son, Davis Hawley, Jr., born October 5, 1878. He completed his education in Cleveland at Rockwell University School with the class of 1896 and entered Cornell University, from which he was graduated in law in 1900. He is now a practicing attorney of Cleveland, being admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1901. In 1908 he married Miss Ellen Harshaw, of Cleveland.
Mr. Hawley enjoys the well earned distinction of what the public calls a self- made man. He has made steady progress in his business career through adapta- tion to the needs and conditions of the situation and through unfaltering indus- try became recognized as one of the leading hotel men of Cleveland, and is today prominently known in real-estate circles, controlling and owning large interests. He has ever been loyal to the welfare of the city and its substantial progress, and his efforts in behalf of public improvement have not been without result.
L. LOUIS MALM.
L. Louis Malm, the Swedish vice consul at Cleveland, was born in Umea, Sweden, December 15, 1850. His father, John August Malm, was a son of Ed- ward Theodore Malm. The former was a mining engineer and became exten- sively engaged in the lumber business, displaying notable discernment and enter- prise in the conduct of his affairs. He was born in 1813 and died in 1868. The family came of Finnish ancestry. The mother of our subject, who bore the maiden name of Augusta Sophia Wahlin, died in 1887.
In the government school and college of his native city L. Louis Malm pursued his education and after leaving school went to sea as an apprenticed seaman. His ability won him rapid advancement through various promotions to the rank of second mate, and while in the marine service he visited the various important ports of the world, spending three and a half years on the water. He also made a short stay in America but returned to Sweden, where he was engaged in the ship-chandler business for a year. However, having been impressed by the ex- ceptional opportunities offered in the new world, he again came to the United States, arriving on the 15th of June, 1872. Locating in Pennsylvania, he was connected with the Titusville Gas & Water Company and remained in that place until 1874, when he was chosen superintendent of the company and as such man- aged its affairs until 1884. In that year he was elected treasurer of the Danvers (Mass.) Gas & Electric Light Company, with which he was associated until June, 1889, when he was appointed superintendent of construction of the Cleveland Ar- cade Company. Thus serving, he had charge of The Arcade, and on its comple- tion he assumed the management of the building and still retains his official con- nection therewith.
On the 24th of June, 1895, Mr. Malm was appointed vice consul'for Sweden and Norway, this being the first consular service in the city. When the countries were divided he retained the Swedish consulate, which position he still occupies. Since 1903 he has been director of Augustana College and Theological Seminary at Rock Island, Illinois, and is a director of the Gustavus Adolphus Orphanage at Jamestown, New York. These associations indicate that his nature is not self-centered, for his interests reach out to lines beneficial to humanity at large.
Mr. Malm is also a member of the Swedish-American Historical Society. He belongs to the Swedish Chamber of Commerce and to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, while his religious faith is manifest in his membership in the Swedish
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Lutheran church. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, but outside of his present office he has never sought or desired political preferment.
On the 15th of December, 1874, Mr. Malm was married to Miss Wilhelmina Peterson, daughter of C. and Emma Peterson. Mrs. Malm is very active in church and charitable work, doing much to further the interests of the church in various lines. The children of this marriage are eight in number : John Lawrence, a mining engineer, who is a graduate of the Case School of Applied Science and is now located in Denver, Colorado; Helen, the wife of W. G. Oswald, of Cleve- land; Rudolph A., who is with the Cleveland Trust Company; William E., a metallurgist of Denver, Colorado; Herald A., a student in the State School of Mines at Golden, Colorado; Royal A., who is attending the Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland; and Irma and Douglas, who are pupils in the Rosedale school. The family reside at No. 1448 East One Hundred and Fifteenth street.
Mr. Malm is a Royal Arch Mason, belonging to Webb Chapter, and he is a member of the Scandinavian Brotherhood of American. The nature of his pas- times is indicated in the fact that he belongs to the Cleveland Yacht Club. He is particularly fond of boating and is one of the oldest members of that organiza- tion. He is never too busy to be social or too social to be busy. The interests of his life are well balanced forces, and his success is due to his ability to grasp op- portunities as they have presented themselves. He has traveled very extensively in all parts of the world and is a gentlemon possessing that broad culture and knowledge such as only travel can bring.
NICOLA CERRI, M. D.
Dr. Nicola Cerri, Italian consul at Cleveland, where for some years he also successfully engaged in the practice of medicine, was born in Avezzano, Abruzzi, Italy, March 30, 1875. His paternal grandfather, Giovanni Domenico Cerri, was an attorney at law, and the family were prominent in bringing about the unity of Italy and the overthrow of the Bourbon rule. Dr. Antonio Cerri, the father, was a physician of Avezzano, where he is still living, although he has retired from practice. He wedded Marianna Ietti, a native of Aquila, Italy, and a daugh- ter of Baroness Alferi Osorio Branconio.
Dr. Cerri pursued his education at Vittorio Emanele II, College, at Naples, completing his course there in 1892. He then entered the University of Rome, from which he was graduated on the completion of the six years' course in 1898, receiving the degree of Medico Chirurgo, equivalent to that of M. D. in this country. He then entered upon the practice of his profession at Rome, where he remained for a year, when he heard and heeded the call of the western world, arriving in America in December, 1899. He located for practice in Cleveland where he opened an office and soon established himself in a good business. In June, 1900, he was appointed as the representative of the Italian government for the northern district of Ohio. The duties of the office have greatly increased until he has been obliged gradually to drop his practice and during the past two years has confined his attention almost exclusively to his governmental work. In consideration of the services rendered the crown in this capacity he was knighted by King Victor Emanuel III, on the 14th of March, 1903. Dr. Cerri still retains his membership in the Ohio State Medical Society and in the Academy of Medi- cine in Cleveland.
In December, 1903, in Washington, D. C., Dr. Cerri was married to Miss Josephine Grace Rittman, a daughter of the Hon. Frederick E. Rittman, a for- mer banker of Cleveland and auditor of the war department. Mrs. Cerri is a mem- ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a direct descendant of General Anthony Wayne. She is an accomplished musician, having studied in Dresden and in Paris and is active and prominent in the musical and social circles
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of Cleveland. The family reside at No. 1929 East Ninetieth street. Dr. Cerri is a great lover of painting and sculpturing, and the various forms of art in these and musical lines find expression in his home. A cultured Italian gentleman, re- fined, courteous, modest and unassuming, he has gained the high regard of all. who know him in the adopted city of his residence.
ABRAHAM H. SHUNK.
When the record of one's good deeds, noble purposes and generous and help- ful spirit remains for years in the memory of those with whom they were asso- ciated while active factors in the affairs of life, it cannot be said that they lived in vain. Indeed their work is an impetus in the world's progress, especially toward reaching that ideal condition where the spirit of mutual helpfulness instead of that of selfishness prevails. There has been no citizen of Cleveland who has won a warmer hold on the affections of those who knew them than did Abraham H. Shunk, for thirty-four years the superintendent of the Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asylum. He was born in Knox county, Ohio, on the 24th of October, 1834, his birthplace being in the village of Fredericktown. His father, John Shunk, came to Ohio from Maryland during the pioneer epoch in the history of this state and was at one time sheriff of Knox county. He was deeply interested in railroad building, realizing the value and worth of such to the community at large and was largely instrumental in securing the building of the railroad to Cardington. He was a contemporary of Amassa Stone and other distinguished men of Ohio.
In the place of his nativity Abraham H. Shunk spent his early life and then started out to earn his own living. For seventeen years he had charge of the railroad station at Cardington, Morrow county, Ohio, where his unfailing cour- tesy, spirit of gentle helpfulness and unqualified faithfulness won him the kindly regard of the general public and the unfaltering confidence of the company which he represented. Because of failing health he at length left his position and went to central Kansas, where for nearly four years he was interested in a stock ranch. He then returned to Ohio, taking up his abode in Cleveland in 1874. Here he married Miss Julia Warren, a daughter of Daniel Warren, who was an early resi- dent of Warrensville, in whose honor the township was named. From that time Mr. Shunk was superintendent of the Cleveland Protestant Orphan Asylum for thirty-four years, or until a short time prior to his death. His kindly spirit, his deep interest in his fellowmen and his desire to aid the unfortunate, especially the little ones who were thrown upon the world's cold mercies, constituted an excel- lent foundation for faithful service. The asylum indeed lost a faithful friend when he was called away. He proved a most efficient and capable superintendent in the management of the business affairs of the institution as well as in his influ- ence over the children who came under his care and guidance. His wife acted as matron of the institution, and they gave themselves unreservedly to its best inter- ests, nothing ever being allowed to interfere in the slightest degree with its use- fulness. The management of the house, the conduct of its business affairs, the accurate and orderly methods of records, the monthly and annual reports all evince his masterful grasp of the situation. Fellow workers along similar lines held him in highest esteem for his good judgment and wise methods in caring for destitute children, and one of them wrote of the organization under his care as "a pioneer in the new order of orphan asylums," and of Mr. Shunk personally as one to whom "the world owes far more than the mere matter of carrying on a good institution all these years." It was to his character and ability in the man- agement of children that the highest measure of praise was due. The number of orphans annually placed in homes for many years averaged at least one hundred, besides nearly as many others temporarily cared for and returned to friends.
A. IL. SHUNK
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With those who were true wards of the asylum he kept in touch, so that many hundreds must have had his personal knowledge. Multitudes of letters were con- tinually received expressing personal love and gratitude to him for his kindliness and helpfulness. From homes where these otherwise homeless little ones have gone come many words from foster parents telling of their enjoyment in having had the children sent to be their "very own" and thanking Mr. Shunk for his kind offices in selecting and sending them. The children of the institution regarded him as a father, and to him they came with the tales of their sorrows and their joys. He was always tender and kind to them, tactful in his dealings, wise in government, and regarded his trust as sacred and his work as true missionary effort. Those who were associated with him in the various capacities in the household ever found in him a friend and an adviser, while the trustees and ladies of the board of managers reposed entire confidence in his judgment and held him in highest esteem. There was great sorrow at the institution when in June, 1907, he resigned his position because of failing health.
Mr. Shunk at that time went to the home of his niece, Miss Julia Beebe, at No. 2117 East Twenty-second street and there passed away March 27, 1908. In recognition of his faithfulness and tirelessness in the work, which he regarded as a mission and a trust, the management of the orphanage requested that his funeral be held in the asylum building, which was done. He had long been a devoted member and an elder in the Eells Memorial church, and his funeral ser- vices were conducted by its pastor, Rev. Leonard A. Barrett, who said: "Chap- ters of the biography of our friend here are written in the living hearts of nearly four thousand children, whom he loved and influenced for good." Seated in the audience were middle-aged men and women, some with grown children of their own, who as helpless little ones had found a father's love and protection in the man then lying dead before them. Said one who knew him well, "I never once saw him out of patience and I was a frequent visitor at the orphanage." One had to but gaze into his face to know something of the character of the man. Kindliness and geniality beamed from his eye, and his great warm heart took into its embrace all of the children of the institution with their multiplicity of childish joys and sorrows, while at all times he sought out their best good in temporal and spiritual lines. The child at once and instinctively recognized in him a friend, and in all of his work Mrs. Shunk shared, being equally interested in the little ones who came under her motherly care as matron of the institution. How much better is such a record than that of him of whom it can only be said "he achieved success in business." A. H. Shunk left the impress of his individuality upon the hearts of hundreds of little ones, while his words of kindly advice and wisdom sank deep into their minds to remain as influencing factors for good throughout their entire lives.
FREDERICK N. HAIT.
Railway interests of this section of the country largely center in Cleveland, which is headquarters of various trunk lines with their subsidiary interests. Ac- tive in control of important business relative to the management and operation of the railways are men whose ability has placed them prominent in business circles here. To this class belongs Frederick N. Hait, freight agent for the Lake Shore and the Lehigh Valley Railway Companies. He is the son of Israel and Mary M. (Webster) Hait, natives of Onondaga county, New York. His birth occurred at Skaneateles in that county, December 19, 1872, and in the public schools of Jordan, New York, he pursued his education until he reached the age of fourteen when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Ohio, the family home being established at Mansfield. Three years later he went to Lorain, this state, and became assistant timekeeper for the United Brass Company. He has
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since continuously remained in railway service and his broadening experience, his careful and systematic manner of discharging his duties and his capability in readily understanding the requirements that have been made upon him in dif- ferent positions have led to liis promotion from time to time. In 1889 he came to Cleveland and was appointed clerk at the Wasson Street depot. He was for four years with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company and eventually was promoted to the position of cashier at the freight station. He then went to the Union Pacific Railroad Company as soliciting freight agent for a year and afterward spent two years in a similar service with the West Shore Railroad. On the expiration of that period he was sent to Milwaukee as assistant city pas- senger agent for the Northwestern but a year later returned to Cleveland and became traveling freight agent for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway for four years. Then he became connected with the Lake Shore & Lehigh Valley Route as agent. He has been a potent force in only not managing the freight in- terests of the company but in enlarging the business of his department and en- joys in full measure the trust and confidence of those whom he represents.
Mr. Hait's social relations have to some extent been in connection with so- cieties formed among the railway men in his branch of the service. He belongs to the National Association of Freight Traffic Agents, of which he was honored with the presidency and he also holds membership with the Cleveland division of the Traffic Club. For a number of years he has been a loyal and exemplary representative of the Masonic lodge and is a member of the Masonic Club, of which he served as vice president for one year and as president for a year. His political endorsement is given to the republican party when the names of candidates for national offices head the ticket but at city elections, where no po- litical issue is involved, he considers only the capability of the candidate and the measures to be supported. In 1895 he married Miss Marietta Lamb, a daughter of Andrew Lamb, of Cleveland, and in this city they have many friends, their circle of acquaintances constantly increasing in the years of their residence here.
WILLIS EMERSON WHITE.
Willis Emerson White, who since the Ist of March, 1905, has been a member of the firm of Griswold & White, and in his practice makes a specialty of pro- bate law, was born in Cleveland, January 3, 1878. His father, Henry C. White, was a native of Newburgh, Ohio, born February 23, 1830. The White family came originally from Scotland. The paternal grandfather, Wateman White, was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, and at a very early epoch in the development of Ohio came to this state. He was a bridge builder and contractor and built the first bridge across the Cuyahoga river. His death occurred in 1842. His son, Henry C. White, who for a number of years gave his attention to the practice of law, in 1887 was elected probate judge of Cuyahoga county and the capability of his service is indicated in the fact that he was five times reelected to the office, being a candidate of the republican party, the principles of which he stanchly advocated. His death occurred January 15, 1905, and the county thereby lost one of its most trustworthy and loyal officials and citizens. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sabrina Capron, was born in Geauga county, Ohio, May 15, 1840, and is still living in Cleveland. She is well known socially here and is a member of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her father. Henry Capron, was born in Connecticut in 1814, was a farmer by occupation and died in 1862.
In the public schools of Cleveland Willis Emerson White pursued his educa- tion until he was graduated from the Central high school with the class of 1897. He afterward took special work in Adelbert College and also attended the Frank- lin T. Backus Law School and the Western Reserve University, from which
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he graduated on the completion of a law course in 1901 with the LL. B. degree. He at once began practice in Cleveland and was alone until the Ist of March, 1905, when the present partnership was formed, and the firm of Griswold & White has since enjoyed a large practice. Mr. White has made a specialty of probate law, in which he is thoroughly versed. He is also president of the Public Hand Laundry Company and thus from industrial as well as professional lines draws his income.
On the Ist of January, 1902, Mr. White was united in marriage to Miss Ger- trude F. Taylor, a daughter of William G. and Belle F. (Ferre) Taylor, of Cleve- land. Her father is a real-estate broker of this city. They have three children: Florence F., Henry C. and Jeanette H. Mr. White belongs to the Beta Theta Pi and the Phi Delta Phi, fraternities of the Western Reserve University. His political allegiance has always been given to the republican party, of which he is an active supporter. He has frequently been a delegate to many county con- ventions and also attended the last state convention. He belongs to the Euclid Avenue Chrisian church and formerly served on its official board. Although a young man he has made substantial progress in his profession, winning success that many an older practitioner might well envy.
MORRIS ANISFIELD.
Morris Anisfield was one of Cleveland's citizens of foreign birth who had no occasion to regret his determination to seek a home in America, for in this land of opportunity he prospered and became recognized as one of the leading business men of his race in Cleveland. He was born in Krakau, Austria, and died March 24, 1907. His parents were Israel and Amelia (Geldwerth) Anis- field, also natives of Austria. The son attended school in his native town and also in the vicinity of Vienna until fifteen years of age, when he determined to seek a home in America and began making preparations toward that end. The following year saw the consummation of his cherished plan. He arrived in the United States in 1886 and made his way at once to Cleveland, here becoming connected with his brother, John Anisfield, who had crossed the Atlantic in 1876 and was engaged in a manufacturing enterprise here. Morris Anisfield worked in the factory for about a year, in order to become thoroughly acquainted with business methods and at the same time gain a knowledge of the English language. He then went upon the road as a traveling salesman for the firm, when seventeen years of age, and so continued for fifteen years. In 1902 he became a half partner in the Silver & Gross Company, now Gross, Dallas & Company, with which he was connected for two years. He also became an equal partner in the Feigenbaum Trunk Company at at the same time retained an interest in the John Anisfield Company. In 1904 he left the road and assumed the manage- ment of the Feigenbaum Trunk Company, being thus actively associated with the business until his death.
Morris Anisfield was married March 27, 1904, in Seattle, Washington, to Miss Ruby Kreidel, a daughter of Samuel Kreidel of Krakau, Austria, and of Pauline Harris Kreidel of San Francisco, California. Her father was one of Seattle's pioneer merchants, conducting a department store in that city for many years. The business developed along substantial lines and for a considerable period was the largest establishment of its kind in Seattle. Mr. Krcidel is now engaged in business at Ellensburg, Washington. For a short time before going to Seattle he was also connected with mercantile interests in San Francisco, and his labors have been a potent clement in the commercial development of the Pa- cific coast. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Anisfield were born two children : Montross and Amelia.
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Mr. Anisfield was a Mason of high standing and belonged also to the Com- mercial Travelers' Association. A self-made man and largely self-educated, he was just attaining substantial success and fame when death overtook him. He was very well known in Jewish circles, being a member of the Willson Avenue Temple and also of the B'nai B'rith. His political allegiance was given to the republican party, but he never sought nor desired office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs, which were carefully conducted and brought to him a very gratifying financial return. Mrs. Anisfield is well known for her charitable acts and assists many poor and needy families in the city. She, too, is well known in Jewish circles and has many friends here who entertain for her warm regard and friendship.
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