A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 40

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II > Part 40

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For a number of years prior to his retirement from active business in 1906 Mr. Bidwell had been recognized as one of the most widely informed men in America in his line of business. Despite his years of intense activity he is a re- markably well preserved man, active in mind and body, a man of attractive ad- dress, a superior conversationalist, genial and social in nature and worthy of the highest esteem. His friends are numbered among the most prominent citizens of Cleveland. The acquaintance which he formed in this city was the cause of his portrait being painted and placed in the rooms of the Western Reserve Historical Society in recognition of his worth as a citizen.

At Warren, Rhode Island, in 1858, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Bid- well and Miss Harriett N. Simmons, a daughter of Jonathan R. Simmons, a car- riage manufacturer of that town. One son, Oria N., has been born to them. Fol- lowing in his father's footsteps he has also engaged in the manufacture of screws. He married Miss Lucella Randall, of Providence, Rhode Island, and they have one daughter, Hope, who is fifteen years of age.

Mr. Bidwell is a member of the Engineers Club, which he helped to organize, while fraternally he is a Knight Templar, belonging to St. John's Commandery, No. 1, of Providence, Rhode Island. While still an apprentice at school and but fifteen years of age, he joined the Sons of Temperance and has ever been a strict observer of his pledge given then. Politically he is independent of party allegi- ance taking an active interest in public affairs and voting for men or measures as he believes best for the commonwealth.

Such in general outline is the history of Jason A. Bidwell, a man whose activi- ties have wrought for good not only to his own benefit but also to the welfare of the public. He has been a champion of progressive measures which have been the motive force of Cleveland's industrial and business development, and since his retirement lias applied his energy and working power to wider and more impersonal interests bearing upon phases of municipal progress and philanthropic activity.

WILLIAM HENRY LAMPRECHT.

William Henry Lamprecht, holding a position of distinctive precedence as a financier of Cleveland, has throughout his long connection with banking interests stood as an honored representative of a department of activity that has ever been a most important factor in conserving the business development and progress of every community. While today at the head of the banking house of Lamprecht

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Brothers & Company, he is through investment and official service also connected with many other leading business concerns of the city that are substantial forces in its industrial and commercial growth. Ohio numbers him among her native sons, his birth having occurred at Cardington, Morrow county, January 1, 1851. He comes of German ancestry prominently represented through several genera- tions in the Lutheran ministry. His father, William Frederick Lamprecht, was born in the city of Pforzheim, in Baden, Germany, in 1825. Holding political views in accordance with those of the monarchical party in the revolutionary times of 1848, he determined to seek a home in the new world and sailed for America in 1849. He was married a year later to Charlotte Kelley, of York county, Pennsyl- vania, who was of German and Scotch descent. In the early period of their mar- ried life they removed to Cardington, Ohio, where for many years the father con- ducted a profitable business.

William H. Lamprecht, the eldest of four sons, spent his youthful- days in his native town and mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools there, manifesting special aptitude in his studies. He left the high school at the age of fifteen years to make his initial step in the business world, and throughout his entire career he has been connected with banking. His first employment was in the First National Bank of Cardington, where he remained until the fall of 1867, when he felt that his capital, saved from his earnings, was sufficient to justify him in his long cherished hope of pursuing a college course. Accordingly he entered Oberlin College but later was persuaded to return temporarily to the Cardington Bank in the capacity of assistant cashier. He had thus served for a year, when he resigned and became a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, where he continued until he had almost completed the course, having in the mean- time, however, devoted some months to teaching in the grammar school of his native town.

The persistency of purpose which Mr. Lamprecht displayed in pursuing his col- lege course has characterized his business career as well and has carried him into important commercial and financial relations. He had almost completed his college work when a favorable opening in business led him to put aside his text-books and enter mercantile circles in Cardington, Ohio, as proprietor of a hardware store. After conducting business there for two years he continued in the same line of trade at Mount Gilead, Ohio, and then came to Cleveland in 1874 to accept the po- sition of cashier with the South Cleveland Banking Company, since which time he has been a resident of this city, his developing business powers and constantly ex- panding financial interests bringing him to a position of distinction in financial cir- cles of the city. On the incorporation of the South Cleveland Banking Company in 1874 he became a director, secretary and treasurer, remaining in those capacities until the year 1882, his varied and broadening experience well equipping him for the step which he next took in organizing the private banking firm of Lamprecht, Hayes & Company. Through the succeeding four years the firm conducted an ex- tensive and important business, the success being attributable in large measure to the keen discernment, indefatigable energy and resolute purpose of Mr. Lam- precht. In January, 1886, he withdrew from that connection and became associ- ated with a brother and an uncle in organizing the banking house of Lamprecht Brothers & Company. He has since remained at the head of this institution, con- trolling its affairs with signal ability and unusual success. His judgment has come to be regarded as practically infallible concerning the complex problems of bank- ing and finance, for his progressiveness is tempered by a safe conservatism and based upon a thorough understanding of the conditions of the money market and the business principles involved.

As the years have passed Mr. Lamprecht has extended his efforts into other lines which have benefited by the stimulus of his activity and enterprise and profited by his clear discernment. He is the vice president of the National Refining Com- pany, president of the Conneaut Water Company, a director of the South Cleve- land Banking Company, the Cleveland & Southwestern Traction Company, the

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East Ohio Traction Company, the Cleveland, Youngstown & Eastern Railway Company, the Oberlin Gas & Electric Company and the Northern Oil Company. He is also a member of the Cleveland stock exchange and of the New York stock exchange.

Since 1873 Mr. Lamprecht has been identified with Masonry and has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is one of the charter members of Baker Chapter, R. A. M., and for a long period was chairman of the finance committee of Oriental Commandery, K. T. He is independent in his religious views, holding largely to the ideas of the Emersonian school. His political faith is that of the republican party and, unlike many men who are prominent in busi- ness life, he has never been neglectful of the duties and obligation of citizenship but on the contrary has put forth effective and earnest service in both an official and private capacity for the welfare of the community and the advancement of municipal interests. In 1880 he was elected a member of the city council and during his service acted as chairman of the committee on street railways and a member of the finance committee. A contemporary biographer has said of him: "Mr. Lamprecht possesses strong mental attributes and a philosophical cast of mind, enriched by liberal education and close habits of study and research. He reads and speaks the German language with fluency and is a recognized authority on the classic literature of that country, while his naturally refined tastes bear the impress of the culture of the student and thinker."

JAY P. DAWLEY.

Jay P. Dawley, of equal fame in criminal and civil law, having devoted the earlier years of his practice to the former department of jurisprudence and later years to the latter, was born in Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, March 7, 1847. His father, Perry P. Dawley, is also a native of Ravenna, born in 1823, and comes of an old family that for generations has been represented in America but is originally of Scotch and English lineage, one of the Dawleys having been a chieftain of a Scotch clan. For a considerable period the family was represented in New England, the birth of Daniel Dawley, the grandfather, occurring in Ver- mont. He was a farmer by occupation and, leaving New England, removed to Ravenna, Ohio, being one of its earliest settlers. There Perry P. Dawley was reared and became a farmer of Portage county, devoting his life to agricultural pursuits. He also filled the position of county commissioner for many years and was a man of considerable local prominence. He wedded Rebecca Clements, who was born about 1820 and died in 1850. She, too, belonged to an old New England family that for generations was represented in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Jay P. Dawley was educated in the Union school at Ravenna, Ohio, and in the Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio, and in September, 1873, was ad- mitted to the bar on passing an examination before a committee that was appointed by the circuit court, as was the custom in those days. He at once entered upon the active practice of law, forming a partnership with Silas M. Stone, under the firm style of Dawley & Stone. For three years this relation was maintained, after which Mr. Stone went to New York and Mr. Dawley subsequently joined Judge J. K. and A. C. Hord in the firm of Hord, Dawley & Hord. This con- tinued until 1882, when the firm of Foran & Dawley was formed, the partnership existing for twelve years, or until 1894. Mr. Dawley was afterward for a short period in partnership with ex-Mayor McKisson, since which time he has been alone. He has ranked as one of the foremost criminal lawyers at the Cleveland bar and of late years has enjoyed a large practice in civil law. His early reputa- tion, however, was made in the branch of criminal law and he advises young men to follow the same course that he pursued, believing that the defense of the liber- ties of the citizen well qualifies one to understand the best methods of defending

JAY P. DAWLEY

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the property rights. It is more difficult to practice criminal than civil law, for in the former one must be constantly on the alert and on his guard all the time. Many cases with which he has been connected have attracted widespread attention and he has probably acted for the defense in more murder cases than any other lawyer of Cleveland and has been very successful in his practice. He was the principal counsel in the Cassie Chadwick case, being attorney for Mrs. Chadwick and was also one of the leading attorneys in the case of determining the constitu- tionality of the liquor laws of Ohio in 1884. He acted for the defense in the Moran murder case, Moran being accused of the murder of Fox and Blakesley on Christmas eve of 1891. He was convicted of murder in the second degree but was afterward pardoned. In later years Mr. Dawley has withdrawn somewhat from the department of criminal law practice and has given his attention more to corporation law and the trial of important civil cases. For a number of years he has been one of the attorneys of the Cleveland Electric Railway Company and was one of the counsel for Olga Nethersole in her libel case against the Cleveland Leader. These are but a few of many important cases with which he has been and is now connected. He does all his own briefing and prepares his cases himself, employing no assistants in the office and therefore going to the trial thoroughly prepared with comprehensive personal understanding of every point bearing upon the cause. He has endeavored in recent years to retire some- what from active practice but finds it difficult to do so because of the persistent demands of would-be clients for his services. He is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association and the profession as well as the general public accord him high rank as one of the most promiennt representatives of the legal fraternity of Cleveland.

Mr. Dawley is entitled to wear the Grand Army button from the fact that on the 19th of May, 1864, when but seventeen years of age, he offered his services to the government and became a private of Company C, Eleventh Ohio Infantry. He acted as an orderly on the staff of General Jefferson C. Davis, who was a cousin of Jefferson Davis of the southern Confederacy. He remained with the army for a year, taking part in the Atlanta campaign, the march to the sea under Sherman and the battle of Goldsboro. He was mustered out in May, 1865, and participated in the grand review, the most celebrated military pageant ever seen on the western hemisphere. He has always been active in support of measures per- taining to the municipal welfare but is a lawyer and not a politician, never seeking nor desiring the rewards of office for his political allegiance, which is unfalteringly given to the republican party. He has, however, done valuable service for the city in various ways, including four years as a member of the board of education and also as a member of the library board. These offices, however, are not of a political character and in many other tangible ways has he given proof of his public spirit.

On the 12th of September, 1873, Mr. Dawley was united in marriage to Miss Iva G. Canfield, a daughter of Harrison and Lydia (Frarey) Canfield, of Corry, Pennsylvania. Unto them have been born four children. Frances C., a graduate of Miss Middleberg's Seminary of Cleveland and educated in music and modern languages in Germany and France, is now the wife of Harry L. Shafer, of Los Angeles, California, and has one child, Lee. William J., a graduate of the Harvard Law School of 1908, is now assisting his father in practice. Arthur A., is a grad- uate of Phillips Exeter Academy of Massachusetts and is now a senior of Adel- bert College of Ohio. Ruby Louise, was educated in Mary Baldwin Seminary of Virginia. The wife and mother, who was born in October, 1850, died October 6, 1900. Mr. Dawley is a member of the Cleveland Yacht Club and of the Masonic fraternity, and his son William is the youngest thirty-second degree Mason in the state. He is the possessor of one of the finest private libraries in Cleveland of a general character, embracing science, biography and general literature and he also has a fine law library. His leisure hours are largely devoted to reading and he is particularly fond of writers of standard fiction, his favorite author being

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Dickens. He greatly enjoys the interpretation of character as presented by the leading authors of ancient and modern times and his reading along scientific lines has been equally broad and varied. He is a man of broad general culture as well as marked ability in the profession of law and finds his friends in those social circles where intellectuality is a necessary attribute to congeniality.

ULYSSES G. WALKER.

It seems a long step ahead from the position of messenger and office boy to that of bank president, but such is the course which Ulysses G. Walker has fol- lowed in an active business career which has eventually brought him to a position of distinction in financial circles as the chief executive officer of the South Cleve- land Banking Company. His record is one entirely creditable to this, his native city. He was born February 23, 1865, and is of Scotch lineage. His paternal grandparents were James and Agnes Walker. His father, James Walker, was a native of Scotland, born February 29, 1828, and coming to America in 1848 he was for a time engaged on the construction of the national capitol at Washington, D. C. The year 1857 witnessed his arrival in Cleveland, where he engaged in the stone-contracting business and eventually became an extensive land owner, for as he prospered in his undertakings he made judicious investment in real estate. His fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability, also called him to public office. He served as clerk and treasurer of Newburg township, and such was his capability and fidelity that he was reelected again and again by the combined vote of both parties. At length he turned his attention to the banking business and became one of the founders of the South Cleveland Banking Company, having as associates Joseph Turney, Captain C. P. Jewett, Judge E. T. Hamilton and A. J. Hamilton. For many years prior to his death James Walker served as treas- urer and vice president of the company and on the 27th of January, 1897, passed away, honored and respected by all who knew him, for his life had ever been in conformity with the highest standards of upright manhood. His wife, Miriam J. Walker, was born December 28, 1832, and died November 5, 1905. She was the daughter of Spencer J. and Sarah Cullver Warner. Her father settled in Newburg in 1816, was a farmer by occupation and one of the most prominent men of the locality in the early days.

Ulysses G. Walker pursued his studies in the old Walnut Street school and in the Central high school but discontinued his course before graduation to enter the service of the South Cleveland Banking Company as messenger and office boy. He applied himself diligently to the mastery of the tasks assigned him and to the work of familiarizing himself with every phase of the banking business that came in his department, and thus he worked his way upward through all of the subsequent positions, until in 1890 he was appointed assistant treasurer. For nine years he acted in that capacity, was chosen treasurer in 1897 and in 1901 was elected to the presidency, since which time he has remained as the chief ex- ecutive officer of what is one of the strongest financial institutions in that part of the city. He has completed his thirtieth year in continuous connection with the bank, and his faithful service has been a forceful element in its success, indica- ting as well his potentiality as a business man. His fertility of resource has led to his active connection with other business interests, and he is now treasurer of the Provident Building & Loan Association, which position he has occupied since its organization in 1893, is a director in the Union National Bank and a director of the National Refining Company. That he is interested in the concerted effort to promote Cleveland's growth along lines of industrial and commercial develop- ment and for its improvement and adornment as well is indicated in the fact that he belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. His political support is given to the republican party, but his allegiance thereto does not extend to local elections,

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where no issue is involved. On such occasions he votes independently, regard- ing the capability of the candidate as the paramount issue.

On the 6th of February, 1890, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Cloe Howe, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Howe, and with their two chil- dren, Russell Howe and Margaret, they reside at No. 2034 East Eighty-first street. He is identified with Newburg Lodge A. F. & A. M. of which he is a past master and also associated with the commandery and the consistory and with the Mystic Shrine, while a fine library in his home indicates his literary taste, for therein he finds his chief source of recreation, spending many of his happiest hours in the companionship of the master minds of all ages.

JULIUS TIMENDORFER.

Julius Timendorfer, a well known representative of real-estate and insurance interests in Cleveland, was born at Rosdin, Silesia, Germany, September 7, 1856. His father, M. Timendorfer, was a teacher in the high school there and later a mer- chant. He married Henrietta Fischer, who died September 2, 1870, while the father's death occurred in Berlin in 1898.

Julius Timendorfer was educated in the public and manual training schools of his native city and Berlin, his parents removing to the German capital when he was twelve years of age. When a youth of fifteen he entered upon an apprenticeship in a small department store, where he served for three years without pay in order to learn the business. He was afterward employed in the same establishment as a clerk for a year and later accepted a clerkship in a silk house at Koenigsburg, where he continued for a year. He next entered into the coal and lumber business with his father in Berlin as city salesman, but he heard the call of the new world, and it proved irresistible. Concluding his arrangements for a trip to the United States, he landed at New York, January 28, 1877, when twenty-one years of age, and first secured employment as a laborer in a coal yard. After ten days he started westward and arrived at Cleveland with but ten cents in his pocket. He then went to work for Lloyd Fisher, a farmer, with whom he remained for three months, after which he spent four months in the Cleveland Rolling Mill. He next became a porter in the employ of Strauss, Miller and Orth but after ten days was promoted to a position of salesman in the calico department, and thirty days later he was advanced to salesman in the dress-goods department, while after ninety days he took charge of the black goods, silk and cloak departments. His history is another illustration of the fact that true worth and ability will win recognition and secure promotion. He remained with that house for about ten years, or until the fall of 1887, his wages and his responsibilities being pro- portionately increased from time to time as promotion came to him. When a decade had passed, however, on account of ill health he went west to Onaga, Kansas, where he continued for a year and a half, and then returned to Cleve- land. On again locating in this city Mr. Timendorfer opened a grocery store at the corner of Scoville and Kennard streets, where he remained for a year and a half, when he sold out and went into the real-estate business, opening a real- estate and insurance office. He has done a large brokerage business and has been extensively connected with the erection of many of the extensive business blocks of the city. He was the first broker to operate on Erie street and has made fifty per cent of the sales on that street in the last fifteen years. He has also organ- ized about fourteen corporations in real-estate and manufacturing lines, with some of which he is still connected. Nearly all have proven very successful and are the visible indications of his executive power and careful direction. He is now secretary and manager of the Euclid Building Company, secretary and manager of the Boardman Realty Company, secretary and manager of the Wil- son Improvement Company, president, treasurer and manager of the Trio Im-

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provement Company, and director of the Acme Improvement Company. and financially interested in others. He is also president of the Cleveland Real Estate Board.

On the 4th of October, 1886, in Cleveland, Mr. Timendorfer was married to Miss Anna Rosenthal, a daughter of Rev. I. Rosenthal, of Stuttgart, Wur- temberg, Germany. They have two daughters, Florence and Irma, aged re- spectively seventeen and fourteen years. Mr. Timendorfer is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Credit Men's Association and the Business Men's Club, all of which are factors in the city's substantial progress and development. He is likewise connected with the Cleveland Gesangverein, the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, and the Royal Arcanum. His political allegiance is given to the republican party at the polls but otherwise he is not active in its ranks. He is a member of Scoville Avenue Congregational church, is one of the trustees and chairman of the building committee. Since coming to America he has ad- vanced steadily step by step in fields of activity, bringing him into prominence in business circles, while his labors, too, have largely been of a character that have promoted public prosperity as well as individual success.

SAMUEL ELADSIT WILLIAMSON.

Samuel Eladsit Williamson, who stood as a man among men, his splendid intellect and powers as an attorney being well balanced by his literary attainments, his love of all that is beautiful in art and nature and his splendid Christian char- acter, came to be uniformly loved and admired not only in Cleveland, the city of his residence, but throughout the state and in all parts of the country where he was known. His life seemed to be a personification of the qualities which in- spired trust, owing to the combination of his spiritual and intellectual gifts and the remarkable purity of his character. His freedom from ostentation or display was the very essence of simplicity but the honor and prominence which he did not demand for himself came to him as the freewill offering of those among whom he lived and labored.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 40

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Orth, Samuel Peter, 1873-1922; Clarke, S.J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago-Cleveland : The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1150