A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 76

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 76

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F. J. Gottron attended the public schools of Cleveland until he was seventeen, when for a year and a half he worked with his father in the grain elevator busi- ness. On leaving his father he entered the employ of Dyer & Company as field manager, and for six years superintended the erection of beet-sugar plants in Colorado, Utah, Michigan, Idaho and Ohio. Though he had filled the position with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his employers, he resigned it on being elected secretary of the P. A. Geier Company. He has been diligent in the execution of his duties in this capacity and has helped to place the firm high among concerns engaged in similar business. Yet his duties have not required so much of his time but that he could also fill the position of secretary-treasurer of the Royal Specialty Company, manufacturers of electric vibrators.

Much of his social diversion Mr. Gottron takes in company with his brother Elks, who find him a man fully alive to the joys of friendly intercourse. He ex- ercises his franchise with discrimination independent of party affiliation. A young man of industry, push and high principles, he gives fair promise of a most suc- cessful career.

FRANK F. GENTSCH.

One of the more successful among the younger representatives of the legal fraternity in Ohio is Frank F. Gentsch. He was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, July 22, 1874. His paternal grandfather, John Conrad Gentsch, was born in Thurgau, Switzerland, and coming to the United States cast his lot with the pioneer residents of Cleveland, where he engaged in shoemaking. Later he became proprietor of a hotel in New Philadelphia, Ohio, where he maintained his residence until called to his final rest. He attained considerable prominence among the early Swiss and German settlers of Ohio and his name appears in the first directory issued in Cleveland in 1837. In that year he was a warden of the German church and in the same year his was the first name that appears on the standing committee of the German Society, of which he was chairman.

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His son. Dr. Daniel C. Gentsch, was born in New Philadelphia, November 18, 1844, and is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. He won his M. D. degree from Georgetown University and in his practice has specialized in the treatment of diseases of the eye, nose and throat. He formerly took a very active part in the medical associations of the state and was chief of the special examination division of the pension department at Washington, D. C., from 1885 until 1889 and was its assistant medical referee from 1893 until 1898. He married Elizabeth Holly Powleson, a daughter of Richard and Celinda (Neighbor) Powleson, who was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, December 25, 1847. Her father was a native of New York and her mother was born in German Valley, New Jersey. The maternal family name was Anglicized from the German Nachbar. At the time of the Civil war Dr. Gentsch responded to the country's call, enlisting in the Eighty-eighth Ohio Infantry, but after three or four months became ill. Thus unfitted for active duty he afterward served as a civilian in the commissary department.

Frank F. Gentsch was educated in the public and high schools of New Philadelphia and Washington, D. C., being graduated with the class of 1892 at New Philadelphia. He had previously spent three years as a pupil in the public schools of Washington, D. C., and after graduation he did three years' special work in Georgetown University preparatory to his law course. He at- tended the Columbian University Law School, from which he was graduated in 1895 with the LL. B. degree, while the following year that institution con- ferred upon him the degree of Master of Law. Entering the government serv- ice he was employed in the law division of the United States pension bureau, having charge of the disbarment of attorneys and criminal prosecutions for violations of the pension laws. In 1896 he was transferred into the field as special examiner for the pension bureau at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and also at Columbus, Indiana. There he remained until July 1, 1898, after which he located in Cleveland and entered upon the practice of law in the office of L. A. Russell, with whom he remained until the first of April, 1901. On that date he joined L. Q. Rawson in organizing the firm of Rawson & Gentsch, and they have since engaged in general practice gradually drifting into corporation work. Mr. Gentsch has thoroughly qualified for his labors in this connection by com- prehensive study and is regarded as an able advocate and safe counselor. Aside from his profession he is a director of a large number of corporations and is interested in real estate, owning considerable property in Cleveland.

On the IIth of June, 1902, Mr. Gentsch was married to Miss Jane F. Mc- Clean, a daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Fribley) McClean of New Phila- delphia, and their children are Elizabeth M. and Frank F., Jr. Mr. Gentsch belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity, the National Union and the Wood- men of the World. He is also a member of the Automobile Club of Cleveland and was president of the County Cabinet of the National Union in the year 1906. He finds rest and recreation in motoring and in pleasant association with the members of the different fraternities with which he is associated.

Mr. Gentsch has become somewhat favorably known as an amateur rose grower and gardener, the greater part of his spare time during the spring and summer being devoted to his roses and garden and it is his boast that his roses come as early and bloom as profusely as any and that only the rigors of cold winter make them cease. This taste for flowers and the beautiful, he in- herits, especially, from his maternal grandfather, who was of old Holland Dutch stock, whose old house at New Philadelphia was the pride not only of his heart but of New Philadelphia as well, it being truly said that from the time the crocus shot its head through the snow in the early spring, all through the long summer and fall until the snow fell again, his large garden was never without its profusion of bloom, and it is this example that Mr. Gentsch is naturally following. His home is always filled with flowers and he is rarely, if ever, seen without a choice rose on his lapel.

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Recognizing the fact that close study must be the basis of legal knowledge and the latter the foundation upon which is built professional success, he has carried his investigation far and wide into the realms of jurisprudence and is well versed on principle and precedent. He is well known in connection with the work of the democratic party in Ohio, has been a leader and delegate in various state conventions for many years and was a member of the state central committee from 1900 until 1902. He was an ardent follower of W. J. Bryan in 1896 and 1900 and during the latter campaign especially, in both the state and national conventions exerted all of the powers of his indomitable will and energy to secure the renomination of Mr. Bryan. He served on the board of elections from 1904 until 1908, and during the first two years of that time was president of the board. In Cuyahoga county during the days of the supremacy of the so called "Kid Democracy" he was one of its leaders and earned a reputa- tion of being bold and fearless in a fight, a good counselor, and prizing above all an undeviating loyalty for his friends. His opinions carry weight in the councils of his party, for he is thoroughly informed concerning political prin- ciples and is continually studying out new methods for the ultimate advancement of the principles in which he believes. Since his retirement from the board of elections, he has given his time almost exclusively to the practice of law, partici- pating in politics only so far as the demands of good citizenship required.

WILLIAM KNIGHT.

William Knight, vice president and treasurer of the O'Donahue Coffee Company of this city, is a man of unusual attainments who has been carefully trained in certain special subjects and who has made himself well known among those engaged in scientific research as well as in business circles. He was born in Tiffin, Ohio, in 1852, and is a graduate of both high school and academy, being a member of the class of 1872 in the latter institute. After graduating, he took up civil engineering for eighteen months with a division of the Lake Erie & Western Railroad but at the expiration of that time he embarked in the grocery business with Edward Townsend & Company, wholesale grocers, as traveling salesman. For five years he was thus employed and then went with The Weide- man Company as a traveling salesman, continuing thus for twenty years, gain- ing an experience that makes him so valuable to his present company.

In 1902 Mr. Knight became associated with the O'Donahue Coffee Company as general manager for a short time and then was elected vice president and treasurer. Under his able management the company has forged forward to a remarkable and gratifying success. Mr. Knight has always been interested in chemistry and applies his knowledge to his business, judging of the blends and values of his coffees through this science instead of by the old methods. He has also made a practical discovery of producing electricity from water and is devoting the time he can spare from his business to perfecting a storage battery strong enough to retain the power thus produced.

Mr. Knight is a man of many talents. Not content with what he has already accomplished, he is just completing a five-year law course in the Sprague Law School of Detroit. He took this up in order to fit himself for successfully hand- ling the legal business of his company. In addition he is interested in psy- chology, being a student of it for twenty-five years, and a graduate of the Chi- cago School of Psychology, of the class of 1900. In 1898 he connected himself with New York Scientific School, of New York city, and is taking a course in the sciences of graphology, in which he is an expert, and also chiriology, phre- nology and physiognomy and the science of character reading.

In 1884 Mr. Knight married Lizzie K. Frost of Tiffin, and they have one son, James T., who is now attending the Hough avenue school. Mrs. Knight

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is a member of the First Baptist church. Mr. Knight belongs to the Credit Men's Association, the National Union, the Cleveland Commercial Travelers and United Commercial Travelers Associations and is popular in all. He is a man of ambitious spirit, never content but ever pressing onward. He has accomplished much but doubtless the future will reveal more of his accom- plishments and discoveries in both the scientific and business world.

JUSTUS L. COZAD.

Justus L. Cozad needs no introduction to the readers of this volume, for he has long been one of Cleveland's citizens, prominently known for many years as a leading surveyor here. Moreover, the high and upright principles of his life have commended him to the confidence and good will of all with whom he has been brought in contact. He was born in Cleveland, August 18, 1833, and is one of her oldest native sons. He comes of a French Huguenot family. His ances- tors at the time of the great persecution fled from the north of France to Leyden, Holland, whence Jacques Cozad sailed on the 14th of October, 1662, establishing his home at Brooklyn, New York. His son Anthony was born in that city in 1673 and was the father of Jacob Cozad, whose birth occurred in Brooklyn in 1701. He became the founder of the family in New Jersey, where occurred the birth of his son Samuel, who was born in 1725 and married Anna Clark. Their son, Samuel Cozad, Jr., was born in New Jersey in 1756 and wedded Jane McIl- rath. They were the parents of Andrew Cozad, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1801. He came to Cleveland with his parents in 1807, when this city was a tiny village upon the border of Lake Erie, with the great un- broken forests stretching for miles around. He married Sally Simmons of Fre- donia, New York, and their children were: Jane Celestia, Mary Ann, Nathaniel Clark, Justus L., Charlotta, Andrew Dudley, Henry Irving, Mrs. Sarah L. Duty and Marcus Eugene. The death of the father, Andrew Cozad, occurred May 20, 1873, while his wife departed this life April 6, 1884, at the age of seventy-nine years. They were among the honored pioneer residents of Cleveland and for 2 century the name of Cozad has figured prominently in the history of this city, its members taking an active and helpful part in the work of upbuilding and pro- gress as the years have gone by.

Justus L. Cozad was born on his father's farm, which was in the vicinity of Euclid avenue and Mayfield road. The grandfather, father and uncles of Justus L. Cozad owned and cultivated nearly all the land on what is now Euclid avenue from Doan brook to Cemetery creek. They were among the first settlers of the Western Reserve and aided in planting the seeds of civilization on the frontier. Andrew Cozad, the father of our subject, was a small boy of six years and assisted in driving the domestic stock from Pennsylvania to Cleveland as the family jour- neyed to their new home. As he grew to manhood he took a prominent place in the life of the community and served as justice of the peace for a number of years, being known as Squire Cozad. As a business he always followed farming. He was a very public-spirited man and took much interest in establishing the schools and laying out the roads. The present generation can little realize the conditions of travel in those early days when no grading was done and the road was scarcely more than a path through the forests. Mr. Cozad was one of the few who helped to improve Euclid avenue, building the plank road in 1849. This was a toll road, but he advocated that it might be made a free road. During the days when he was an active and prominent factor in the upbuilding of Cleveland this city was known as a "village on the Lake Shore four miles from Newburg," for at that time Newburg was a place of much greater importance, having the only water power and grist mill in this entire district.

JUSTUS L. COZAD

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Justus L. Cozad early formed the acquaintance of W. R. Coon, who was a neighbor and a surveyor of superior ability. He took great interest in the boy and allowed the lad to accompany him on his early surveys about the county. Mr. Cozad thus became interested in the work and decided to take it up as a life vocation. He had much difficulty in obtaining the proper instruction on the sub- ject of higher mathematics. He first attended Grand River Institute in Austin- burg, Ohio, for two years, after which he spent two years as a pupil in Cleveland University which had been established by Asa Mahan while Mr. Cozad was in Austinburg, and was in existence from 1850 until 1852. When that school ceased to exist he accepted a position with the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Rail- road at a salary of sixty dollars per month, which was considered a high wage at that time. He was also assistant engineer on the Lake Shore Railroad. between Cleveland and Erie, Pennsylvania, which position he held until 1855, when he re- signed to become United States deputy surveyor, at the age of twenty-two years, with field work in Kansas and Nebraska, running a portion of the boundary line of the two states. While engaged in that work Justus L. Cozad married Orten- tia Whitman, who was one of the early school teachers of Cleveland, beginning the work at the age of fourteen and continuing for twelve years. They were married in 1858 and their wedding journey consisted of a trip to Nebraska, where Mr. Cozad had purchased a farm on which was a log cabin. In this they lived while their new home was being built and it was probably the finest house in Ne- braska at that time. As a honeymoon trip Mr. Cozad took his wife from St. Louis up the Missouri river to a town near the mouth of Platte river, they being on the water for over a week. They settled near Plattsmouth, Cass county, Nebraska, where they lived until he left the employ of the government.

In 1859 Mr. Cozad ran a portion of the boundary line between Nebraska and Kansas, his beginning point being one hundred and fifty miles west of the Mis- souri river. To reach this point he had to cross country where there were no roads. When about a hundred miles from the river the party discovered some- thing in the distance which a good field glass disclosed to be buffaloes. The party struck the trail of the Pawnee Indians on their way from their village to the buf- falo range. Their course gradually approached the trail of the Indians who were then returning from their hunt, three thousand of them marching in single file. They had many ponies and had had a very successful hunt, every squaw and pony having all the buffalo meat and hides they could carry. Most of the men were out on picket duty miles in advance of the caravan. The Pawnee Indians were then fighting the Sioux and the main herd of buffaloes was quietly feeding on the neu- tral ground between the two hostile tribes. Mr. Cozad ran a line forty-eight miles in length between the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and during that time was never out of sight of buffaloes. From that line he ran north twenty-four miles, then east forty-eight miles and was still in sight of buffaloes. The last line of forty-eight miles crossed many buffalo wallows, where the animals were stand- ing in water a few inches deep. The surveying party were compelled to get their drinking water from these wallows. Mr. Cozad had a team loaded with casks to be filled with water. It was hot July weather and the sun and buffaloes destroyed the drinking water. One morning they could not get water for coffee. The men became thirsty before noon and they had to leave their work and take the most di- rect road to the Republican river. In a few miles they came to a branch filled with pools of water in which the buffaloes were standing. By digging in the bed of the creek, however, they found nice clear water and camped at that point for one night, washing out and filling their water casks there, after which they went about their work. The next day brought them to the Platte river, along which was the great emigrant trail to California. One afternoon, some two weeks after meeting with the Pawnee Indians, as the surveying party were pitching tent for the night, some forty Sioux rode up to their camp on horseback as hard as they could ride, each Indian carrying a pole about ten feet long on the end of which was a bayonet held just high enough to strike a man in the breast. As the white

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men showed no signs of fear and as the Indians did not stampede the stock the formidable looking weapon was raised to a perpendicular position and each In- dian held out his hand and said "how ! how!" They rode on past the camp for a few hundred yards and there camped for the evening. Before long they asked for an interview and seated themselves on the grass in a semicircle around the camp door of the Cozad party, being anxious to find out all they could about the Pawnees. They treated the men, however, with civility and respect and at early dawn made their departure. The surveying party were within forty miles of Fort Kearney, Nebraska, where there were quite a number of soldiers, for it was at the time of President Buchanan's Mormon war. These soldiers served to keep the Indians on their good behaviour. In September, 1908, Mr. Cozad received the following letter from the secretary of the Nebraska State Historical Society : "Lincoln, Nebraska, September 24, 1908. "Hon. Justus L. Cozad, Cleveland, Ohio.

"Dear Sir :- We are very anxious to secure a biographical sketch of yourself, together with your recollections of the early days in Nebraska and a photograph for preservation in the archives of this Society. May we not hear from you soon with reference to this matter. Thanking you in advance, I remain,

Yours very truly, C. S. PAINE, SECRETARY."

Mr. Cozad complied with the request in a very able manner, giving the society many items of interest with which he was connected while in the state from 1855 until 1862. In 1855 when he surveyed a part of the counties of Johnson and Pawnee, there was not a settler in Nebraska with the exception of one who lived more than a mile west of the Mosi river. Tecumseh, the county seat of Johnson county, is located on one of the old Cozad camping grounds, and good steamboat landings along the Mosi river were claimed as town sites. In a few of these towns there were small stores, while Nebraska City and Omaha had quite good stores. Not a bridge had been built over any stream nor a street graded in any town. At Nebraska City the government blockhouse was still standing, about eighteen feet square, built of foot square timber and two stories in height, the top story being placed across the lower story and loop holes cut in each so that men could shoot through them in every direction. Mr. Cozad's experience while on the govern- ment surveys in the states of Nebraska and Kansas were very interesting from a historic point. The surveys of government land were made by the United States deputy surveyors under contract with the government. The deputies had to give bond for faithful fulfillment of the contract and there was a printed manual of instruction describing the manner in which the surveys were to be made. These contracts were made with the deputies soon after an appropriation was made each year by congress but the appropriations were usually made so late that the dep- uties were kept out in cold weather. It was Mr. Cozad's fortune to spend four Decembers in camp.

While in Nebraska Mr. Cozad secured a farm and the Honorable Paul Mor- ton was his neighbor. In 1862 Mr. Cozad raised one hundred acres of wheat and forty acres of corn. When his wheat was threshed and in the bin, in August, he started with his own team and light spring wagon, accompanied by his wife and two children, for Cleveland. It was one hundred and sixty miles to Mount Pleas- ant, Iowa, the nearest railroad station. A neighbor went with him in order to re- turn with the team and Mr. Cozad timed his trip so as to be in Chicago to attend the first great railroad convention of the leading railroad men of the country to consult on the feasibility of a railroad to California. He attended the convention for two days, but nothing resulted from it because of the progress of the war. His purpose was to return to Nebraska but before he had made plans to again go to the west he was offered a position on a branch of the old railroad where he had first been employed on a part of the Big Four system. He accepted and became general superintendent and chief engineer of two hundred and two miles of rail- road from Indianapolis to Galion, Ohio, which position was formerly held by

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John Brough, who soon afterward became governor of Ohio. After several years Mr. Cozad resigned to become chief engineer in the location and construction of seventy-three miles of railroad beteween Indianapolis and Terre Haute, In- diana, and when that road was completed, because of ill health he retired from railroading in 1871. In 1875 he went into the abstract business with his brother and J. M. Odell. Soon buying out his brother he and Mr. Odell continued equal partners for nine years. That partnership was dissolved and another was formed known as The Cozad-Belz-Bates Abstract Company. Since then he has led a re- tired life.

In 1890 Mrs. Cozad passed away, leaving four daughters, Florence, Olive, Jennie and Gertrude. Olive is the wife of Theodore Bates and has five children, two sons and three daughters. The eldest son is a teacher in Yale, one daughter was graduated from Vassar in the class of 1908 and the other children are attend- ing the city schools. Jennie is the wife of Rev. H. B. Newell, D. D., a missionary in Japan, and they have four children, who were born in that country and are being educated in Oberlin. Gertrude is at the head of an evangelistic school at Kobe, Japan, and has been a missionary on the American board in that country for twenty-one years. In June, 1893, Mr. Cozad wedded Mrs. L. A. Newell, of Ply- mouth, Massachusetts. Mr. Cozad has been a very active member of the Euclid Avenue Congregational church for sixty-two years and his upright life has made him one of Cleveland's most honored citizens. He has lived to see remarkable changes since he started upon life's journey in this city seventy-six years ago. With the exception of brief periods he has resided here continuously throughout the entire time, and his life work both as surveyor and civil engineer has been of value to the community at large.

ALEXIS SAURBREY.

Alexis Saurbrey, consulting engineer and one of the most successful men in his line of work, is one of the representative men of Cleveland. He was born in Korsor, Denmark, May 2, 1880, and lost his father when he was eight years old. The latter, Viggo Saurbrey, was born in Denmark and was an officer in the army in early life but for the last twenty years he was connected with the state railroad system. His wife was also born in Denmark and still lives in her native land.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 76

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