A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 61

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

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Mr. Olderman was born in Bremer Haven, Germany, June 16, 1865, a son of Theodore and Meta Olderman. He was less than one year old when he came with his parents to Cleveland and has been a resident of this city ever since. He received his education in the schools here, which he attended until his fourteenth year, when he entered the world of business. Only one firm has profited by his services during all these years, for when he left the John Meckes Dry Goods Company, it was to go into the dry-goods business for himself. He engaged with the firm first as a cash boy with a salary of one dollar and a half a week. After three weeks his salary was raised to two dollars and he was entrusted with the duties of delivery boy, and six months later another dollar was added to his weekly wage when he was made bundle wrapper. He continued to give -- satisfaction in this position for two and a half years, when he became salesman,

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advancing in this capacity until, when he left in 1905, he was in charge of the flannels and bedding department. Seeing an opportunity to invest some capital he had acquired where it would bring him good returns, he opened up a grocery store, of which his wife had charge during the day. Later he disposed of this and opened his dry-goods store with a small stock. His experience had taught him the details of the business and his energy and assiduity in satisfying the desires of his patrons enabled him to win and retain a large custom, until now the business has surpassed his most sanguine expectations.

Much as Mr. Olderman's success may be due to his own efforts no one can deny that he owes much, both in actual help and in encouragement and counsel to his wife. In her maidenhood she was Miss Katie Meihsler and they were married on the 4th of June, 1901. They live at 8900 Lorain avenue, where they are ever most hospitable in their reception of friends.

Mr. Olderman's success is most encouraging as demonstrating what a man may do through the exercise of his own sterling qualities and by devotion to business. In all his relations he has been found to be a man of sound principles, which have gained for him the confidence of the public. For sixteen years he has been a member of the Knights of Pythias, and for five years of the Vorwaertz Union, where he has made many stanch friends and where he has been able to show the depth of his own loyalty in upholding the ideals of the societies. By the manner of his life he exhibits the value of Protestant Christianity.

HOMER McDANIEL.

Homer McDaniel, the treasurer and manager of the Sheriff Street Market & Storage Company of Cleveland, was born in Stark county, Ohio, in 1854. His parents, Augustus and Amanda (Stier) McDaniel, were likewise natives of that county, the former having been born in 1828 and the latter in 1834. The father, who was successfully engaged in business as a carriage builder throughout his active career, passed away in 1879.

In his youthful days Homer McDaniel attended the public schools in the acquirement of an education and after leaving school learned the trade of a car- riage trimmer. Subsequently he became one of the organizers of the Canton Spring Company and for twelve years acted as vice president of the concern. In 1894 he came to Cleveland as manager of the Sheriff Street Market & Storage Company, which had been incorporated about three years previously. For the past four years he has likewise been the treasurer of the company and his efforts have contributed in large measure to its success. He is likewise officially con- nected with other concerns, being the treasurer of the Cleveland Tanning Com- pany and a director in the Western Reserve Insurance Company. His con- nection with any undertaking insures a prosperous outcome of the same, for it is in his nature to carry forward to successful completion whatever he is associated with. Mr. McDaniel has taken an active part in the development of the refrigerating industry of the country and is an authority on the subject. In 1908 he was made president of the American committee of the First Inter- national Congress of Refrigerating Industries at Paris, France, and attended the convention in that capacity. This meeting resulted in a permanent organ- ization of an international scope and later in the organization of the Ameri- can Association of Refrigeration, of which Mr. McDaniel was chosen presi- dent. He is also a director of the International Congress of Refrigerating Industries and has served for many years as a director of the American Warehousemen's Association, of which he was chosen president in 1908.

In 1879 Mr. McDaniel was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary A. Cobaugh, of Canton, Ohio. They are now the parents of seven children, as follows : Mrs. J. A. Sullivan; Mrs. R. R. Braggins and Mrs. M. L. Crowell, who are

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residents of this city ; and Edith, Augusta, Louise and Margaret, who are still under the parental roof. In his political views Mr. McDaniel is a republican. In business life he has displayed that close application and unremitting dili- gence which constitute a safe basis upon which to build the superstructure of success. He belongs to the Euclid Golf Club, which indicates the nature of his chief recreation.

ECKSTEIN CASE.

Eckstein Case was born in Carlyle, Illinois, July 9, 1858, and there resided to the age of twenty-three, during which time he acquired his preliminary educa .. tion in the public schools. In 1878 he entered the United States Military Acad- emy at West Point, where he remained for two years and in 1881 he came to Cleveland, where he took up the study of law under Judge J. E. Ingersoll. For a time his reading was also directed by Judge Rufus P. Ranney, and then in further preparation for the practice of law he entered the University-of Michi- gan, at Ann Arbor, in 1883 and was graduated from the law department with the class of 1884. The same year he was admitted to the bar but never became an active member of the profession. Instead he turned his attention to other pur- suits and in 1887 became the secretary and treasurer of the Case School of Applied Science, to which he has given his best endeavor. He is interested in general educational work and from 1903 until 1905 served as member of the school council of Cleveland. Mr. Case is a member of the Rowfant and Univer- sity Clubs and is also a member of the Masonic fraternity. Politically he is a democrat of liberal views and for five years has served as a member of the exec- utive committee of the Municipal Association of Cleveland.

COLONEL JAMES PICKANDS.

No compendium such as this volume defines in its essential limitations will serve to offer fit memorial to the life and accomplishments of Colonel James Pickands, whose close connection with the varied interests which have been im- portant factors in the upbuilding of Cleveland made him one of the most promi- nent, honored and representative citizens. His name everywhere carries weight in financial and industrial circles and his business affairs were of a character that contributed to general progress as well as to individual success. He was very active in the development of the iron industry and was at the head of the firm of Pickands, Mather & Company, which was a very important element in the business activity of Cleveland. On the battlefields of the south Colonel James Pickands also won fame and honor and yet there have been few men who have taken to themselves so little credit for what they have accomplished or have borne their honors with more becoming modesty.

Colonel Pickands was one of Ohio's native sons, his birth having occurred in Akron, in 1839. His early life was there passed and when yet in his teens he came to Cleveland, where he was employed as clerk in a mercantile house. His promotions, owing to his great adaptability for business, were rapid and he was steadily forging to the front when the outbreak of the Civil war changed, for the time being. the course of his life. Business never engrossed him to the exclu- sion of public interests and duties and he was a close student of the questions and issues which preceded the outbreak of the Civil war. Feeling that Federal au- thority was on the side of the maintenance of the Union, when President Lincoln issued his first call for troops Mr. Pickands was active in organizing regiments of volunteers. Finally when the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio Infan-

JAMES PICKANDS

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try Regiment was formed in Cleveland in 1862, he was induced to accept a com- mission and rapid advancement led him to the rank of colonel. He made a most honorable record as a brave and efficient officer, distinguishing himself in every capacity to which his service called him, but even his closest friends only knew of this from what they heard from his comrades in arms.

Following the close of hostilities between the north and the south, Colonel Pickands concluded to go to the Lake Superior mining region, which was just being opened up. There he established a hardware, coal and general merchan- dise business at Marquette, Michigan, under the firm name of James Pickands & Company, and from the beginning the enterprise proved profitable. He became one of the best known men in the iron ore business in his day and the develop- ment of that part of the Lake Superior iron ore mining region surrounding Mar- quette was due to a great degree to Colonel Pickands. He carried on business there until 1881, when he returned to Cleveland and in that year organized the firm of Pickands. Mather & Company, his associates in the enterprise being Sam- uel Mather and J. C. Morse. This firm controlled interests that constituted a large factor in the business prosperity of Cleveland, and in its control Colonel Pickands took a most prominent part, his initiative spirit, his keen discernment and his executive force constituting valuable elements in the successful manage- ment of the company's extensive affairs. He remained an active factor in the business circles of this city to the very last and not until a year prior to his death did his health suffer any impairment. Indeed, the day before his death he was at his office in the Western Reserve building and on the following day, while rest- ing quietly at his residence, he passed away

"As one who wraps the drapery of his couch about him And lies down to pleasant dreams."

Colonel Pickands' interests were varied and extensive. In addition to the _ presidency of the firm of Pickands, Mather & Company, he was president of the Western Reserve National Bank. He, was also a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and one of the most interested and active workers of that body. He belonged to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and to the Army & Navy Post of the Grand Army of the Republic, also to the Loyal Legion and to the Union Club. All matters of civic virtue and civic pride elic- ited his interest and his cooperation was given to every movement which he be- lieved would further the public good. While he worked toward high ideals he used practical methods and his labors were resultant factors in the city's growth and prosperity.

Colonel Pickands was twice married. His first wife and the mother of his children was Miss Caroline Outhwaite, a daughter of John Outhwaite, of Cleve- land, prominent in connection with the iron industry some years ago. Mrs. Pick- ands died in 1882, leaving three sons: Joseph O., of Cheboygan, Michigan; Henry S .; and Jay M., both of whom are mentioned elsewhere in this volume. Colonel Pickands was survived by his second wife, who was Seville Hanna, a sister of the late Hon. M. A. Hanna, of Cleveland.

The death of Colonel Pickands occurred July 14, 1896, and was the occasion of deep and uniform sorrow throughout Cleveland, and in fact wherever he was known. Nearly every vessel on the Great Lakes carried their colors at half mast in respect for Colonel Pickands. He had lived an industrious life, had contrib- uted liberally to charity and was always known to suppress everything that would bring to him notoriety, and yet the character of his life and its worth was such that he became widely known personally and by reputation and all who knew aught of his career honored and respected him. He was one of Cleveland's most successful business men and enterprising citizens and an excellent estimate of him was given in the Cleveland Leader, which said editorially: "It is hard for Cleveland to fill such gaps in the ranks of her public-spirited citizens as that caused by the death of Colonel James Pickands. Although not a native of the Forest city, Colonel Pickands has proved during his residence in Cleveland his

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deep devotion to the best interests of the thriving metropolis of Ohio. He was always foremost in movements designed to increase the power and influence of this city and in every way he was a citizen of whom all might feel proud. Although few had heard it from his own lips, Colonel Pickands had won distinc- tion in the Civil war as commander of the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Regi- ment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, the title he bore having been conferred upon him for his bravery and zeal in defense of the Union. Hundreds of Cleveland people who had the pleasure of the acquaintance of that genial and public-spirited man must have learned with pain and surprise of his sudden taking off in the prime of life, and without any warning in the form of serious or apparently dangerous illness."

The life record of Colonel Pickands was indeed far-reaching in its influence and beneficial in its effects. There was nothing narrow nor contracted in his na- ture. He never measured anything by the inch rule of self but rather by the broad standard gauge of humanity. His business capacity and energy were such as to bring him into prominent relations with financial and industrial interests and, while he won notable success, he realized as few men have done the obligations and responsibilities of wealth. He never sought by precept to make the world better but his life was a living example of the power of honorable, forceful manhood, and he lives today in the memory of his friends, enshrined in the halo of a gra- cious presence and charming personality as well as with the record of successful accomplishment in connection with individual business interests and with the public service.

THE OHIO APOSTOLATE.

The Ohio Apostolate was established in the fall of 1894 by Rev. Walter Elliott, the famous Paulist missionary, upon the invitation of Bishop Horstmann. Father W. S. Kress was relieved of parish work in order to assist Father Elliott during the year 1894-5, and learn from him how to make mission work most effective. The Ohio Apostolate was the first of twenty-five diocesan bands that are now preaching their faith to the non-Catholics of America. Father Kress has been on the road continuously since its establishment in 1894 and associated with him were the Revs. E. P. Graham, I. J. Wonderly, J. P. Brennan, J. P. Michaelis, John I. Moran, J. P. Reilly, Robert Pratt, Thomas J. O'Hern and S. W. Wilson, at various times, although the present members of his band are: Revs. William S. Kress, John P. Brennan, and Charles Alfred Martin. Two of the former associates were converts from Protestantism and were eminently fitted to reach the non-Catholic in the work the church is pushing so strenu- ously throughout the state as well as all over the country.

HENRY E. HANDERSON, M. D.

Dr. Henry E. Handerson is now living retired. His contribution to the work of the profession, however, brought him eminence as a practitioner, and as an educator and author in professional lines he became widely known. He was born at Orange, Ohio, March 21, 1837, a son of Thomas and Catherine (Potts) Han- derson. The ancestry of the family can be traced back to John Handerson, who was a resident of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1660, and for many generations the family was represented in New England. Thomas Handerson was a native of Massachusetts and, following his removal to the west, engaged in farming in Orange, where he died about 1839. His widow long survived, passing away at Chagrin Falls, July 4, 1886, at the age of eighty-two years.

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Being but two years of age at the time of his father's death Dr. Handerson was then adopted by his uncle, Lewis Handerson, a pioneer druggist of Cleveland, whose name as a member of the firm of Handerson & Punderson appears in the first city directory. He was well known not only as a leading merchant but also as a prominent and influential citizen in other lines. He continued a resident of Cleveland up to the time of his death, which occurred September 13, 1880. Dr. Handerson remained in Cleveland from 1839 until 1851, his early education be- ing acquired in private schools. He was then sent to a boarding school at New Hartford, near Utica, New York, where he remained for two years. In 1851 his father removed to Tennessee and as Dr. Handerson's health soon afterward failed he, too, went south, where he remained until 1854, when he returned northward to enter Hobart College, at Geneva, New York, where he spent four years, being graduated therefrom in 1858, with the Bachelor of Arts degree, while in 1867 his alma mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. Following his graduation he went to Tennessee and later to Louisiana as a pri- vate tutor and while in the south pursued a course of medical lectures at New Orleans in 1860-1:

On the 17th of June, of the latter year, Dr. Handerson enlisted as a private of Company B, Ninth Louisiana Regiment. In September, 1862, after the battle of Antietam he was elected second lieutenant of his company and in 1863 at Gettysburg was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant of the Ninth Louisiana Regiment. In October of that year he was promoted to the captaincy and also made assistant adjutant general of the Second Louisiana Brigade with which rank he served until captured. On the 5th of May, 1864, he was captured and spent thirteen months in prison at Fort Delaware, Morris Island and Fort Pulaski. During that time six hundred officers were taken from various prisons to Morris Island and put under fire including Dr. Handerson, who spent two months at that place. He was discharged from the United States military prison at Fort Delaware June 17, 1865.

When the war was over Dr. Handerson went at once to New York, where he completed his medical course, being graduated from the College of Physicians & Surgeons of that city in 1865. He then devoted twenty years to general practice in the metropolis, after which his health became impaired and in 1885 he re- moved to the middle west, settling in Cleveland. For a few years he continued to practice to some extent in this city among old acquaintances, but for the past fifteen years has lived retired. From 1894 until 1907 he occupied the position of professor of hygiene and sanitary science in the medical department of the University of Wooster, now the Cleveland College of Physicians & Surgeons. His writings have covered a wide range, for he has been a frequent contributor to medical journals. He also translated Baas's History of Medicine from the German, and some years ago wrote a pamphlet on School of Salernum. He is a thorough Greek and Latin scholar and while in prison taught classes in those languages as a pastime. He also fluently reads several other languages and since his retirement from active practice his time has largely been given to re- search and study. He was a member of the Cuyahoga County Medical Society, of which he was president in 1895-6. He was also one of the founders of the Cleveland Medical Library Association and its president from 1895 until 1904, while with the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland and the State Medical Society he also holds membership.

Dr. Handerson was married in New York city, October 16, 1872, to Miss Juliet Alice Root, who died in 1881. There were four children born of this marriage but only one is now living-Juliet, at home. In Cleveland Dr. Hander- son, on the 12th of June, 1888, wedded Miss Clara Corlett, a daughter of Wil- liam K. Corlett, of this city, and their two sons are: Clarence and Philip, twenty and twelve years of age, respectively. The parents are members of Grace Episcopal church, in which Dr. Handerson is serving as senior warden. He has always been a man of scholarly tastes, devoting the greater part of his

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time to reading and literary work. He is today considered the best read man in Cleveland on the history of medicine while his learning along other lines is almost equally wide and thorough. He is a man of strong personality and of high character yet with a hatred of sham and pretension that makes him most modest and unassuming in manner and approachable to all. Though seventy- two years of age he is well preserved, having the energy and vigor of a much younger man and he belongs to that type whose intellectual force carries them into continually increasing usefulness in lines of intellectual progress. He re- sides at No. 1924 East Sixty-sixth street, where a large and well selected library is one of the most important features of his home.

MORTIMER JAMES LAWRENCE.

Mortimer James Lawrence, while practically retired, still retains the office of president of the Lawrence Publishing Company and the Lawrence-Williams Company of Cleveland, although he makes his home in Washington, D. C., occu- pying a magnificent residence at No. 2131 Wyoming avenue. His history, from the period of his earliest struggles with an adverse fate down through the years, has been marked by a steady progress that has eventually won him much sub- stantial and merited success. He was born at Springfield, Erie county, Penn- sylvania, just east of the Ohio line, December 8, 1843. His father, John Horatio Lawrence, was an Englishman, born of respectable parentage at Birmingham, England, the family being connected with mechanical pursuits there. When twenty-three years of age he came to the United States and settled at Lockport, New York, where he married Sarah Evans, the daughter of a Methodist min- ister. During the infancy of their son Mortimer they removed to Conneaut, Ohio, and when he was two years old to Copley, Summit county, making the journey by wagon and canal, for it was before the era of railroad building. Later two years were spent at Camden, Lorain county, and when Mortimer J. Lawrence was about six years of age the family removed to Wakeman, Huron county, Ohio, which remained his place of residence until he had almost reached the age of twenty-two years. When he was a youth of thirteen his parents separated. His father, who was a shoemaker by trade, left the mother without a cent of money and eight children, two older and five younger than Mortimer Lawrence. With the brave and unquenchable spirit that only a mother shows, she did carpet weav- ing and other work that she might support the family, while the three elder chil- dren, John, Ann and Mortimer, also sought employment. The last named worked for many days at ten cents a day and board, and well remembers with what pride he took home to his mother his first dollar-the earnings of ten days' hard work. With close economy the family managed to meet expenses and the children at- tended the public school for two or three months in a year, their financial condi- tion becoming easier as the other children grew and were able to provide at least in part for their own needs.

When Mortimer J. Lawrence was a youth of fifteen and his brother John seventeen, they began cultivating land on shares and soon had a work team and tools of their own. At the first call of President Lincoln for troops after the fir- ing upon Fort Sumter in April, 1861, Mr. Lawrence enlisted but was not ac- cepted because of his youth. In August of the same year, however, he joined Company B, Third Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, and was mustered in, although four months less than eighteen years of age. The company was organized at Milan, Erie county, and the regiment at Monroeville, Huron county. In December they went to Camp Dennison and in January, 1862, to Louisville, Kentucky, where about the 20th of that month, they were first paid and Mr. Lawrence for the first time saw the United States greenback and postal currency. In February, 1862, they started on a march through Kentucky to Nashville, Tennessee, and soon after

MORTIMER J. LAWRENCE

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marched across the latter state with General Buell's army to join General Grant at Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee river, where they participated in a hotly contested battle. The Third Ohio Cavalry was in all the battles and skirmishes in the siege and capture of Corinth, Mississippi, and in many others during the long march back to Louisville. In the summer of 1862 the troops of that com- mand took part in the battle of Perryville, Kentucky, thence marched to Nash- ville, and were in many skirmishes and raids, and were also in the battle of Stone River and at Murfreesboro under General Rosecrans on the 31st of Decem- ber, 1862 and on the Ist of January, 1863. Mr. Lawrence with his command par- ticipated in the march of Rosecrans' army to the Tennessee river in the spring of 1863, in the siege of Chattanooga, the battle of Chickamauga and afterward did some desperate fighting with the Confederate cavalry under Wheeler, relieving their communications so that supply trains could get through to save the Army of the Cumberland from starvation. But Joe Hooker with his corps came from the east and soon afterward General Grant took command, and then came Sher- man with his corps from Vicksburg and the great battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge were fought, driving the Confederate army under Bragg from its strong position around Chattanooga and opening up the way for General Sherman's Atlanta campaign in the spring and summer of 1864, in all of which the Third Ohio Cavalry took active part, including the battles of Resaca, Kene- saw Mountain, Chattahoocheeiver and the slow, hard approach to Atlanta. Mr. Lawrence was with the regiment in the celebrated Kilpatrick raid around Atlanta, in which for five consecutive days and nights the command never unsaddled their horses nor lay down. There was never an hour in which they were not under fire and twice had to cut their way.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 61

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