USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II > Part 18
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WILL E. RUPLE.
One does not think of agriculture in connection with city life, and yet more and more city men are recognizing how valuable and productive an investment is the ownership of farm land. Will E. Ruple is numbered among Cleveland's residents who derive their income from agricultural interests, owning and operat- ing valuable property in this district. He was born January 14, 1853, in the same house in which his father, James W. Ruple, first opened his eyes to the light of day. The mother, who in her maidenhood was Susan M. Derby, was a native of the Empire state.
Spending his boyhood days in his father's home, Will E. Ruple pursued his education in East Cleveland and on leaving school took up the occupation of farming, working with his father until the latter's death on the 2d of May, 1884, when he became proprietor of the farm which he still owns and carries on. This is a tract of rich and productive land, that responds readily to the care and labor that is bestowed upon it and the modern and enterprising methods which Mr. Ruple employs have made it a source of gratifying annual profit.
In his political views Mr. Ruple is a democrat but without ambition for office. He owns the home where he lives and concentrates his energies upon his agri- cultural interests.
J. C. BEARDSLEY.
J. C. Beardsley, a civil engineer residing in Cleveland, is the western represen- tative of the Thomson Meter Company of Brooklyn, New York. He was born in this city on the Ist of March, 1863, a son of Eri S. and Sarah A. (Peck) Beardsley. The father, whose birth occurred in New York on the 9th of No- vember, 1825, made his way to Summit county, Ohio, in early life. For a great many years he remained in the service of the Adams Express Company at Cleve- land, Ohio, and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, proving a most capable and trusted employe. The last few years of his life were spent in honorable retirement from labor, and his demise occurred in 1907. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah A. Peck and who was born in Massachusetts on the 7th of August, 1829, was brought to Summit county, Ohio, when but four years of age. The year 1850 witnessed her arrival in Cleveland, and she has since remained a resident of this city, having won an extensive circle of warm friends here in the intervening period.
In his youthful days J. C. Beardsley attended the public schools in the acquire- ment of an education and subesquently spent a short time as a student in the Case School of Applied Science. After leaving that institution he was engaged in the profession of engineering for three or four years and in 1885 enlisted in
J. C. BEARDSLEY
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the regular army for a five years' term. On the 6th of February, 1888, however, he received a commission as second lieutenant and remained in the service until he resigned in July, 1893, doing duty on the frontier during the entire period. At the time of the Spanish-American war he served as captain of Company B, Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered out in November, 1898. From 1893 until 1904 he acted as assistant engineer in the city water-works department and afterward successfully followed the profession of civil engineering in a pri- vate capacity for a number of years. He is now the western representative of the Thomson Meter Company of Brooklyn, New York, and in this responsible posi- tion is daily proving his thoroughness and proficiency in the line of his chosen vocation.
In 1897 Mr. Beardsley was united in marriage to Miss Inez E. Porter, of Dalton, Ohio, by whom he has two daughters, Dorothy and Virginia. Politically Mr B.eardsley is a man of liberal tendencies, always taking into consideration the capability of a candidate rather than his party affiliation. Fraternally he is iden- tified with the Masons, being a worthy exemplar of the beneficent teachings of the craft. For the past seven years he has served as the secretary of the Cleveland Engineering Society, and for the past twenty years he has been a member of the Military Service Association, a national organization of the United States army. A resident of Cleveland throughout his entire life, he has a large circle of friends, including many who have known him from boyhood and who recognize him as one worthy of their high personal regard.
CHARLES C. DEWSTOE.
Charles C. Dewstoe, whose life has been largely devoted to public service in military and political lines, in which connection he has ever borne himself with signal dignity and honor, is now postmaster of Cleveland and is also well known in business circles as the president of the Dewstoe & Brainard Company, plumb- ing and heating. A native of West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, he was born May 10, 1841, and when a young man removed to Michigan. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted at Fort Wayne, in Detroit, on the 25th of May, 1861, becoming a private of Company F, Second Regiment of Michigan Volunteers. He participated in the first battle of this regiment at Blackburn's Ford and three days later in the first battle of Bull Run. On the 18th of De- cember, 1861, he was transferred to the signal service and was made sergeant in June, 1863. While in this department he engaged in military operations along the Chickahominy river and participated in the engagements ot Fredericksville, Mary's Heights and in all engagements of the Army of the Potomac, with the exception of the second battle of Bull Run. After the war he went to Little Rock, Arkansas, where for a year he remained in the quartermaster's department.
On the severance of his connection with military affairs Mr. Dewstoe pur- sued a course in the National Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and in May, 1866, came to Cleveland, where he established himself in the plumbing business, in which he is still interested. His enterprise has enjoyed a continu- ous growth and he is now at the head of an extensive plumbing and heating busi- ness as president of the Dewstoe & Brainard Company. Close application, intelli- gently directed effort and unquestioned probity have been salient features in his business career, winning him well merited success.
Mr. Dewstoe has on several occasions been called to public office, and in all his various connections with the public welfare his course has been characterized by a devotion to the general good that has won him high commendation. In 1882 he was elected on the city board of health and was reelected in 1884. The same year he was chosen sheriff of Cuyahoga county, in which position he served for two years. On the 15th of July, 1899, he was appointed postmaster to fill
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out an unexpired term and on the 19th of December of that year was regularly appointed for the four years' term and by reappointment has been continued in the position to the present time, covering an entire decade. His administration of the office has been notably satisfactory, owing to his promptness and accuracy in handling all mail and his careful systematization of the business. In politics he has ever been a stalwart republican, active and helpful in promoting the in- terests of the party. He is also prominent in Grand Army circles, was formerly commander of Post No. 141, of Cleveland, and now holds membership in the Army and Navy Post, No. 187, G. A. R., of which he is a past commander. While dignified in manner, he is always courteous and genial, and his friends, who are many, recognize in him a social gentleman, highly appreciative of the pleasures that come through comradeship. In every relation of life he has stood for high ideals, and his public service has been characterized by the same loyalty that marked his course as a soldier of the Civil war, when he faced the enemy's bul- lets that the Union might be preserved intact. In all of his official relations he has placed the public welfare before partisanship and the capable discharge of duty before self-aggrandizement.
JOHN STANTON FISH.
To all interested in historical research concerning the people and events that have left their impress upon the annals of Cleveland and Cuyahoga county the name of Fish is familiar, for the family was one of the first established in this sec- tion of the state. The branch of the family to which John Stanton Fish be- longed made a wearisome journey across the country from Connecticut to Cleve- land about 1818 or 1820 and settled in that section of the city which was formerly the village of Brooklyn. There the parents, Ebenezer and Joanna Fish, estab- lished their home, the former purchasing a large tract of land, in the develop- ment and improvement of which he became known as one of the leading and suc- cessful farmers of this part of the state. He was also prominently connected with many events that were features in the history of Cleveland. He gave the land and contributed a large sum of money toward the erection of the first Meth- odist Episcopal church in Brooklyn, in which he served as an officer, and in dif- ferent ways he aided in the work of public progress along material, social, in- tellectual and moral lines. In his later years he retired from active business and enjoyed a well earned rest. His father, Ebenezer Fish, had served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
John Stanton Fish was born March 26, 1830, at the family home in the village of Brooklyn, on the site of the present new Methodist Episcopal church of Cleve- land. For seventy-three years he lived to witness the changes and development of the city as its boundaries were extended and its industrial and commercial in- terests augmented, transforming it from a comparatively small town to one of the largest and most important cities of the country. In his youthful days he at- tended school on the west side and also continued his course as a high-school student. He afterward went east and took up the study of law, one of his school- mates at that time being Judge Prentice. He was a man of broad, liberal educa- tion and became well versed in legal principles, but never engaged in the active practice of law. Returning to Cleveland he entered the dry-goods and notion business on Pearl street, now West Twenty-fifth street, where he continued for about ten years, conducting a growing and profitable business. He then sold out and purchased a part of his father's farm. which was bordered by Pearl street and Forestdale avenue. Noting the growth of the city he entered the real-estate field by platting his land into lots and erecting many houses thereon. He also opened up and named Forest street, now Forestdale avenue, before that section was included within the corporation limits of Cleveland. Mr. Fish never sold
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his real estate but retained possession of all and from his improved property de- rived a very substantial rental that made his annual income a most gratifying one. He also organized the company that built the first opera house on the west side and became its president and chief stockholder. His business judgment was of a keen and discriminating character and was seldom, if ever, at fault so that his labors brought substantial return and the years chronicled his success as one of the representative business men of the city.
Mr. Fish gave his political allegiance to the republican party and such was his standing among his fellow townsmen that he was reelected again and again to the office of mayor of Brooklyn, in which position he served for many years. He also did effective work in the interest of public education as a member of the school board. He was a member of the Early Settlers Association and also a de- voted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, which his father founded. John Stanton Fish gave liberally to the support of this organization, participated in its various activities and conformed his life to its teachings.
On the 6th of April, 1851, he laid the foundation for a pleasant home life in his marriage to Miss Chloe Clark, and unto them was born a daughter, Clara, whose birth occurred in 1874 and who died in 1856. The wife and mother passed away in 1874, and on the 16th of May, 1883, Mr. Fish was married to Miss Jennie M. Turner, a daughter of Asa M. and Nancy (Wilson) Turner. Her grandfather, Conrad Turner, was the third son of Sir Charles Llewellyn Turner, of England, who located in Connecticut about 1800 and in 1808 became a resident of that section of the state now included in Mahoning and Medina counties, Ohio. It was in that district that Asa Turner was born. He was a college man and for many years engaged in teaching in Youngstown, Ohio, but in 1885 removed to Cleveland, where he lived retired. By the second marriage of Mr. Fish there were two children : Mary Stanton, who was born July 22, 1896 and Karl Turner, born February 10, 1898. The death of Mr. Fish occurred September 20, 1903. In the later years of his life he lived retired at his home on Forestdale avenue, his previous business activity and his wise investments supplying him with finan- cial resources that placed him among the men of affluence in the city. At all times he manifested the qualities of honorable manhood and progressive citizen- ship, which made him a valued factor in the community. Over his official record there fell no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil, and the same high standard of honor was maintained in all of his business affairs and in his social relations so that wherever known he enjoyed the confidence, good will and high esteem of those with whom he came in contact.
DAVID COURTNEY WESTENHAVER.
Earnest effort, close application and the exercise of his native talents have won David Courtney Westenhaver prestige as a lawyer at the bar, which has numbered many prominent representatives. He was born in Berkeley county, West Virginia, January 13, 1865. His father, David Westenhaver, who is of Dutch lineage, was a farmer of that county and is still living there, retired, at the age of seventy-seven years. He married Harriet Turner, a representative of an old Virginia family of English origin. Her death occurred July 26, 1886.
David C. Westenhaver was the fifth in order of birth in a family of eight children, seven of whom are yet living. He pursued his education in public and private schools, spending some time as a student in Georgetown College at Georgetown, D. C. Before completing his classical course he took up the study of law in that institution and was graduated therefrom in 1885, with the degree of Bachelor of Law. Admitted to the bar at Martinsburg, West Virginia, lie immediately entered upon practice there, and his natural ability, earnest effort and close application, combined with his thorough preparation of cases, soon
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brought him a good legal business. While residing at Martinsburg, he served as a member of the city council and at the age of twenty-one was appointed prose- cuting attorney for his county to serve out an unexpired term, at the end of which he was nominated for the office but was defeated with the others on the ticket. He continued in the private practice of law in Matrinsburg and for a brief time was alone but later became a partner of W. H. H. Flick, a prominent lawyer, under the firm style of Flick & Westenhaver. The relation was main- . tained until a short time prior to his removal to this city, and to his partner Mr. Westenhaver credits a large amount of his practical technical training. Upon coming to Cleveland in the fall of 1903 Mr. Westenhaver entered the firm of Garfield, Howe & Westenhaver, previously composed of Harry A. and James R. Garfield and Frederick C. Howe. The first two severed their active connec- tion at that time and in 1906 M. Howe withdrew, leaving Mr. Westenhaver at the head of the firm. His associates are W. H. Boyd, James C. Brooks and Max J. Rudolph, and the firm name is Westenhaver, Rudolph & Brooks. They en- gage in general practice, and Mr. Westenhaver has avoided commercial attach- ments in order to confine his attention entirely to his profession. He has made some investments in other business interests, but his energies are chiefly devoted to the practice of law, in which connection his ability has carried him into im- portant relations. He is a safe counselor and a strong advocate, his arguments being characterized by perspicuity and force, based upon a thorough understand- ing of legal principles and a correct application thereof to the points in litigation. He is a member of various bar associations, and his standing in the profession is indicated by the fact that when chosen to the presidency of the State Bar Association of West Virginia, he was the youngest presiding officer that organiza- tion has ever had.
Mr. Westenhaver was married at Martinsburg, West Virginia, in June, 1888, to Miss Mary C. Paull, a daughter of Henry W. Paull of that place. They now have one son, Edward P., who at the age of nineteen years, is a student in Princeton University. The family residence is at No. 1944 East Ninety-third street. In early life Mr. Westenhaver was what might be termed a philosophic democrat but for many years has been independent in politics. Though his prac- tice has allied him closely with political issues and measures at different times, he avoids political activity and public service. He has for many years been a member of the American Economical Association and the American Academy of Political & Social Science. He was president of the Cleveland Council of Sociology in 1906-07, and his reading has covered a wide range in the sociological and economical fields and in all those lines of thought which are of vital moment to the statesman and the man of affairs. He holds membership with the Nisi Prius Club, the famous local legal club, which is a very exclusive organization. He also belongs to the Cleveland Athletic Club and the University Club of this city and to the Columbus Club of the capital city. He has been an occasional contributor to legal and economical publications, and his writings are at once clear and concise, bearing the impress of the legal mind.
SAMUEL MANSFIELD EDDY.
Samuel Mansfield Eddy, characterized by the public press, as by all who knew him, as an eminent lawyer of Cleveland, equally well remembered and honored because of his generous spirit and kindheartedness, passed away October 5, 1891. He was born at Perington, Monroe county, New York, October 25, 1840, and traced his ancestry back through several generations to the Rev. William Eddy, of Cranbrook, England, whose son Samuel with his brother John sailed from London in the ship Handmaid on the 10th of August, 1630, and landed at Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, October 29, 1630. His son, Samuel Eddy, was the repre-
S. M. EDDY
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sentative of this branch of the family in the second generation, and the Christian name has figured to a considerable extent among the Eddys. George Eddy, the father, was born at Great Bend, Pennsylvania, and in Geneva, New York, was married on Christmas day of 1833 to Miss Temperance Hedges Cook, a native of Albany, New York. Several of her ancestors were soldiers of the Revolution- ary war. In 1852 George Eddy removed with his family from the Empire state to Ohio, taking up his abode at Milan where he followed the occupation of farming.
Samuel Mansfield Eddy, at that time a youth of twelve years, supplemented his public-school education by study in the Milan Academy at Milan, Ohio, the Western Reserve Academy, and the Western Reserve College in Hudson, Ohio. He was graduated from college in 1864 as a member of a class that numbered many prominent Cleveland men, including Judge Samuel E. Williamson, Edward P. Williams, William H. Gaylord, Charles L. Cutter, and others. Soon after his graduation Mr. Eddy came to Cleveland and entered the law office of Backus & Estep as a student. Following his admission to the bar he formed a law part- nership with William H. Gaylord under the firm name of Eddy & Gaylord, and thus practiced until 1873, when he was appointed assistant prosecuting attorney, acting in that capacity until 1877 when he was elected prosecuting attorney for the county. Throughout his entire connection with the Cleveland bar he enjoyed the highest respect of his colleagues and contemporaries because of his close con- formity to a high standard of professional ethics. He possessed much natural ability but was withal a hard student and was never contented until he had mas- tered every detail of his cases. He was never surprised by some unexpected dis- covery by an opposing lawyer, for in his mind he weighted every point and forti- fid himself as well for defense as for attack. Whatever he did was for the best interests of his clients and for the honor of his profession, and no man gave to either a more unqualified allegiance or a riper ability. He had already attained prominence throughout Ohio as a criminal lawyer when he was called upon to defend in the common pleas court of Portage county one of the most notorious criminals of recent years in the annals of the state-Blinky Morgan. Mr. Eddy did in truth "well and truly try the issues" of that famous murder case and only failed to save Blinky from the gallows for the reason that no one could have done it with the case that the state had against him and the state of public feeling at the time. Through his connection with that trial Mr. Eddy became known in his profession throughout the United States.
Only a few months later he was called upon to try for the state in this county a case that created, because of its unusual character, widespread attention every- where. Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Breck were put on trial before Judge Lamson in the spring of 1888 for forging the will of Mrs. Martha Hall MacDonald. The case was almost unprecedented and had to be made against the defendants by expert testimony and circumstantial evidence. The Brecks were defended by Hon. Vir- gil P. Kline and two associate counsel and the trial occupied six weeks, lapping over from the January to the April term of court. At this critical time Alexander Hadden, the then prosecuting attorney of the county, was taken sick. The im- portance and magnitude of the case led Mr. C. W. Collister, Mr. Hadden's assist- ant, to believe that he ought to have assistance in its prosecution. The court upon his application appointed S. M. Eddy special prosecuting attorney to try the case. For the entire six weeks Mr. Eddy conscientiously and painstakingly wound the coils of conviction around the Brecks until there was no chance of escape, and liis cross examination of Mrs. Breck was so clever that out of her own mouth she was condemned, and it was her own testimony that insured the final verdict of "guilty as charged."
It was in cross examination that Mr. Eddy achieved his great success There was nothing of the bulldozing, insulting kind in his questions. He was wont to begin with a show of candor and fairness that impressed the witness he was talking to his best friend, and the first that witness knew he was fully committed
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to a damaging admission. Neither would Eddy let a witness get away from the point he wanted to evade. The witness who tried that might for a moment imag- ine he was succeeding, but in a minute or so he would hear that question repeated in the blandest tone imaginable. Mr. Eddy never talked fast even in cross-exam- ining witnesses. His every move in life was deliberate.
The military chapter in the history of Samuel M. Eddy was an interesting one, for in his college days, in connection with many other students, of the West- ern Reserve University, he enlisted in May, 1862, as a member of the Eighty-fifth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the officers of the company being mem- bers of the college faculty. The company served until September of that year, and at the close of the period Mr. Eddy was second sergeant of Company B. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi, a college fraternity. He became a mnem- ber of the college church at Hudson, Ohio, but during the latter years of his life attended St. Paul's Episcopal church in East Cleveland. He was in thorough sympathy with its different lines of church and charitable work.
. On the 27th of October, 1870, Mr. Eddy was married to Miss Sarah L. Smyth, a daughter of the Rev. Anson and Caroline (Fitch) Smyth. They be- came parents of three children who died in infancy, Constance, Samuel M. and Robert. Their living children are Carroll William Eddy, who married May Elizabeth Graham, of East Cleveland; Ethel R., the wife of Carlos A. Chapman, an attorney of Cleveland; and Harold Mansfield, of East Cleveland. The death of Mr. Eddy occurred October 5, 1891. He was a man whose life was character- ized by great generosity and unfailing kindness to all with whom he came in con- tact, and few men have shared so largely in the love and esteem of their fellows. He was always a man of unfailing cheerfulness and exemplary habits, having attained an eminence in his profession that would have brought wealth to most men he died with a comparatively small competence, because of the fact that the poor were never turned away, and many were the occasions when he improved his opportunity to bestow a worthy charity. His home relations were largely ideal, and he represented in his life the highest type of manhood and citizenship in his relations to his family, his friends, his profession and the city of his residence.
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