A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 8

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. Haserot's executive ability has also been called into play in connection with various public and semi public interests. At the present writing he is serv- ing as the president of the board of education and is a stalwart champion of the public-school system, believing in continuous progress in lines of intellectual development of the youth. He has served for two terms as a director of the Chamber of Commerce and is active in his cooperation with its measures for advancing the welfare and upbuilding of the city. His powers of management have also been manifest in his political work for he is a stalwart republican and manifests his loyalty to the party by his faithful championship of its interests. For two terms he served as a member of the republican state central committee He belongs to the Unity church (Unitarian) and has served as a member and chairman of its board of trustees. He is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Teachers Pension and thus has concerned himself in many public inter- ests which have profited by his labors and sound judgment. Socially he is con- nected with the Union Club and the Euclid Club.

In 1889 Mr. Haserot was married in Cleveland to Miss Sarah Henrietta Mc- Kinney, and they have three sons and a daughter. While in his business inter- ests Mr. Haserot has been preeminently successful he has not confined his atten- tion solely to commercial and financial interests but is a man of well balanced character who has appreciation for social amenities and regard for the obliga- tions of citizenship. The spirit of broad humanitarianism is strong within him and has prompted his efficient and helpful service in many important public interests.

PHILLIP GAENSSLEN.

Generous, kind-hearted and popular, he left a record which makes his name an honored one among all who knew him. He was born October 14, 1830, in Metzingen, Wurtemberg, Germany, a son of George and Barbara Gaensslen, who were also natives of Metzingen, where the father in his later years lived a retired life. Spending his boyhood days under the parental roof, Phillip Gaenss- len completed the work of the graded schools and for five years attended a noted realschule of Germany-a school of modern languages. He was a man of high education and intellectual attainments, and his sound judgment and wis- dom made his advice often sought by his friends. After he had completed his education he identified himself with the Arnold dry-goods business in Reutlin- gen, Germany, and remained in that employ for six years, his long connection therewith indicating clearly his faithfulness and capability. On resigning his position with that firm he entered the service of Dolphus-Mieg & Company, manufacturers of ladies' wearing apparel, and was with that house for three years.

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

In the meantime his reading and investigation had brought him comprehen- sive knowledge of business conditions in America and of the opportunities of- fered in the new world, and he determined to try his fortune on this side of the Atlantic. Therefore, in 1854, at the age of twenty-four years, he bade adieu to friends and native land and emigrated to this country, settling in Cleveland, where he established himself in the leather business. From the beginning his success was assured, for he possessed energy, determination and keen insight. After conducting the enterprise for some time as a retail establishment, he trans- formed it into a wholesale business and opened tanneries in Gowanda, New York, and Corry, Pennsylvania. As the years passed he won substantial suc- cess, enjoying a prosperity that was the direct reward of his diligence, perse- verance and capable management. He was also the president of the Phoenix Brewing Company and a director and treasurer of the Der Wachter am Erie Publishing Company.

On the 28th of March, 1860, Mr. Gaensslen was married to Miss Agnes Seidel, a daughter of John and Louise Seidel, who came to Cleveland from Fraustadt, Germany, in 1856. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Gaensslen were born six children, namely: Mrs. Emma Nockin, Mrs. Olga Boehneke, Mrs. Otilla Wer- ner, Robert Gaensslen, Mrs. Julia Lucas and Edward L. Gaensslen.

Phillip Gaensslen was one of the most influential German citizens of Cleve- land. He assisted in the early business development of the city, possessing energy and enterprise that enabled him to accomplish what he undertook. He was never deterred by obstacles or difficulties, but always sought a way to over- come them and in the end won his success. What made him most beloved in German society and placed him in the foremost rank among the sons of the fatherland in Cleveland was that he was a man of liberal, friendly and tolerant spirit as well as an enterprising and reliable business man. While he always maintained a deep love for the country of his birth, he was, nevertheless, a most loyal American citizen, and while he upheld and defended the German char- acteristics, at the same time he supported every movement for the benefit of the community in which he lived and died and advocated the most unswerving alle- giance to the land of his adoption. He was an active member of the Cleveland Gesangverein and the Germania Turnverein and a charter member of the Ger- man Casino. In all the various German societies he was an active and helpful worker, and he had a heart readily touched by any tale of sorrow or distress. He was a liberal contributor to various benevolent institutions and possessed a most charitable spirit, but his best traits of character were reserved for his own home and fireside, and to his family he was most devoted, considering no effort or sacrifice on his part too great if it would promote the happiness and welfare of his wife and children. To them he was most devoted, and the family ties were largely of an ideal character.

JEPTHA HOMER WADE.

Many years ago another Jeptha Homer Wade, the grandfather of him whose name introduces this review, came to Cleveland. In his life in the middle west he largely met the conditions of pioneer experience, not only in natural resources but also in installing the various lines of business which constituted the center of its trade development. Then came the son, who, as his father's assistant, was a fac- tor in the control of business lines which he had established. His son in turn was trained for business management and yet faces an entirely different condition, so that he must work out the solution of his own problems, brought about through the complexities and changes in business life at the present day. His is the stewardship of great wealth and, competent and capable in its control, he belongs

J. H. WADE

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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

to that class who have made the term capitalist an honored one by reason of the wise use to which they have put the means entrusted to them.

Born in Cleveland, October 15, 1857, J. H. Wade pursued his education in pri- vate schools of Cleveland while spending his youth in the home of his parents, Randall P. and Anna R. (McGaw) Wade. He was also for sometime under a competent tutor but his business training was received under the care and guid- ance of his father and grandfather, who knew that he would one day be called upon to take up the labors which they laid down. His father's early death brought upon him heavy responsibilities when he was yet young in years and he bent his energies toward mastery of all the points bearing upon the estate and the management of business interests therein involved. When his grandfather passed away in 1890 there was little for him left to learn concerning the business save that which each day's experiences bring in the solution of problems con- cerning investment and control. The majority of the important business concerns of Cleveland have been benefited by Wade investments and today Mr. Wade is vice president of the National Bank of Commerce, chairman of the Citizens Savings & Loan Association; a director of the Guardian Trust Company; the vice president of the Cleveland Stone Company; director of the Cleveland City Railway Company ; president of the Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids Railway Company ; president of the Montreal Mining Company; vice president of the Cleveland Cliff Iron Company ; director of the Grasselli Chemical Company and director of the Sandusky Portland Cement Company. He is also largely in- terested in lake vessels property and Cleveland real-estate.

On the 15th of October, 1878, Mr Wade was married to Miss Ellen Garret- son, a daughter of Hiram and Ellen (Howe) Garretson, and they have three chil- dren. Their social prominence is a foregone conclusion but in the Wade home there is no ostentatious display of wealth, everything suggesting an innate culture and refinement that could have no sympathy with such a course. Mr. Wade's generous support of charitable work and institutions is well known and yet in this he is free from all display and in fact would prefer that his benefactions should be known only to himself. However, he is a trustee of most of the leading educational and charitable institutions of Cleveland and gives most generously to their support. He has studied many of the sociological and economic problems and where it is possible to extend a helping hand to secure immediate or future relief he at once follows such a course.

J. A. C. GOLNER.

A newsboy at eleven years of age, J. A. C. Golner is now well known as an iron, steel and ship broker of Cleveland and has been the owner of several ves- sels and is now the possessor of considerable real estate. He has accomplished all this in a short space of time for he is yet a young man, his birth having occurred in Detroit, Michigan, January 18, 1879. His parents were Benjamin and Amelia Golner, and, while spending his early youth in the family home at Detroit, he attended the public schools of that city, but at the age of eleven years he was obliged to put aside his text-books and has since been dependent entirely upon his own resources. There is hardly a successful man whose youth was spent in the city that did not make his start in life by selling papers or at one time had a paper route. Mr. Golner is no exception to this rule for when he left school he became a newsboy. He afterward worked in a canning factory for a while and later removed to Toledo, becoming press feeder in a job printing shop. Eventually, however, he returned to his native city where he resided un- til 1904-the year of his arrival in Cleveland. While in Detroit, he had become connected with the brokerage business, found it congenial and learned that his qualities were adapted to the attainment of success in that field and, coming to

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

Cleveland therefore, he established a general brokerage business, later adding to his line the buying and selling of steel lake vessels. He has himself owned several large lake steamers and he now handles principally iron, steel and ships, in the conduct of his brokerage enterprise. He has thoroughly acquainted him- self with the market in these lines and that he has prospered in his undertakings is evidenced in the fact that he is now the owner of desirable real-estate inter- ests in Cleveland.

In politics Mr. Golner is an independent republican, but the honors and emolu- ments of office have no attraction for him. He is, however, very loyal to Cleve- land and its interests and believes the city has a splendid future owing to its advantageous situation on the lakes as well as the fact that it is located in the midst of one of the greatest coal fields of the world, thus furnishing a basis for extensive manufacturing interests. The analyzation of his life work indicates that he has ever made it his purpose thoroughly to familiarize himself with any task that he has undertaken, and at every point in his career he has attained the utmost success that could be won at that point.

NORMAN M. POND.

In this age of increasing complexity in business life the work of the courts is being continually augmented not only by reason of the fact that there is much litigation but also because the law must set its limits upon the advisability and legality of certain courses and questions in business. Almost every corporation has its legal representative, whose judgment constitutes a silent but, nevertheless, effective force in determining its policy and the extent of its activities. Norman M. Pond, specializing in the departments of commercial and corporation law, has gained wide and well merited reputation in Cleveland. He was born in New London, Ohio, April 25, 1861. The ancestry of the family is traced back through ten generations, and representatives of the name fought in the early colonial and New England wars. The great-great-grandfather, Abel Pond, a native of Lenox, Massachusetts, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war and a son of "Patriarch" Dan Pond. His son Stephen Pond was born in Lenox, Massachusetts, in 1779 and in 1828 came to Ohio, settling in Middlebury, Knox county. He followed the occupation of farming until his life's labors were ended in death. He passed away in New London, Ohio, in 1868. Daniel S. Pond, the grandfather, was born in Poultney, Vermont, June 29, 1805, and leaving the Green Mountain state in 1826 made his way to Portage county, Ohio, walking the entire distance. The following year he removed to Middlebury, Knox county, Ohio, and in 1838 took up his abode in New London township, where he carried on general farming. He was also station agent on the Big Four Railroad from 1865 until 1875 and at different times filled public offices in prompt and capable manner, serving as county treasurer of Huron county for one term in 1847-8. At all times he up- held the political and legal status of the community, standing for all that is progressive in citizenship. He died at Norwalk, Ohio, January 24, 1892, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. Asahel A. Pond, the father of Norman M. Pond, was born in Knox county, Ohio, May 28, 1829, was reared to the occupa- tion of farming and for many years devoted his energies to the work of tilling the soil but is now living retired. Like his father, he, too, was a man of influence in local affairs and in 1875 became infirmary director of Lorain county, Ohio, which position he filled for two years. In 1864 he responded to the country's call for aid and enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Ninety-first Ohio Vol- unteer Infantry, with which he served throughout the remainder of the war, holding the rank of corporal. He participated in the Shenandoah Valley cam- paign, where the Union troops were in pursuit of Colonel Mosby and his guer- rillas. He is now living retired, enjoying well earned rest in a comfortable home

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

in Norwalk, Ohio. He wedded Mary M. Crandall, who was born near Oberlin, Lorain county, Ohio, May 18, 1832, a daughter of Ezekiel Crandall, who was born in the state of New York and was a lineal descendant of Rev. John Cran- dall of Newport, Rhode Island.

In his youthful days Norman M. Pond attended the country schools of Lorain county, Ohio, and afterward continued his education in the Ohio Normal School at Ada. He afterward engaged in teaching, became principal of the Rochester high school and was also principal of the schools of Chillicothe, Kansas. While in the west he also worked in the land office of the Union Pacific Railway. After- ward he became the township superintendent of schools at Ridgeville, Ohio, and superintendent of the schools of Brooklyn township. He likewise taught in Cleveland business colleges, but, thinking to find a more congenial and profitable field in the practice of law, he began acquainting himself with Blackstone, Kent and other legal authorities and after thorough preparatory training was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1900. In 1901 he commenced the practice of law as attorney for the Forest City Realty Company of Cleveland. He has since practiced alone, making a specialty of commercial and corporation law, having a large clientage in the latter department. He also engages to some extent in general practice and is, moreover, secretary of the Buckeye Development Company.

On the 3d of August, 1887, Mr. Pond was married to Miss Lotta H. Howard, a daughter of William H. and Charlotte (Laboree) Howard, of Rochester, Ohio. They hold membership in the Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. Pond belongs to Pearl Tent of the Knights of the Maccabees. In politics he is an independent republican and while living in Rochester served as councilman and was a delegate to county and congressional conventions, but has not been very active in politics since locating in Cleveland. He regards the practice of law as his real life work and feels that the pursuits of private life are in themselves abundantly worthy of his best efforts.

GEORGE H. WILSON, D. D. S.

Dr. George H. Wilson was born at Painesville, Ohio, March 3, 1855. His father, Dr. David C. Wilson, was a native of Middlebury, Vermont, and was five years of age when in 1836 his parents removed with their family to Paines- ville. In early manhood he studied dentistry and was engaged in practice there until his death, which occurred in 1894, at the age of sixty-three years. In the paternal line he was descended from a New England family of English origin. His mother was a descendant of Captain Thomas Munson, who came from England in 1634 and resided in Hartford, and later in New Haven, Connecticut. He served with the rank of lieutenant in the Pequot war and was a captain in King Philip's war. Thaddeus Munson, the great-grandfather of Dr. Wilson, was a soldier of the Revolution, and David C. Wilson, the father of our subject, participated in the Civil war of the '6os. The latter was married in Painesville to Miss Marion Flanders, a native of that place, to which her father had removed on leaving Massachusetts about 1830. The Flanders family is of French Hugue- not lineage, the original American ancestors having located at Newburyport, Massachusetts, about two hundred and fifty years ago. The death of Mrs. Marion Wilson occurred in 1863, when the subject of this sketch was eight years of age. She left a family of two children ; the younger is Mrs. W. S. Van Valkenburgh, of Cleveland.

As a public-school student Dr. Wilson attended the high school of Paines- ville. In the fall of 1873 he took up the study of dentistry under his father and Dr. W. H. Fowler. In the fall of 1876 he entered the dental department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1878. He then located for practice in Painesville, where he remained until the fall of 1891, when he

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

accepted the chair of clinical prosthetic dentistry in the Cleveland University of Medicine and Surgery, filling that position for one academic year. In January, 1892, he entered upon the private practice of dentistry in this city. In the spring of that year he accepted the chair of prosthetic dentistry and metallurgy in the dental department of Western Reserve University, which he held until June, 1904, when he resigned and devoted his entire time to private practice. Since 1896 he has specialized entirely in the department of prosthetic dentistry. In 1879 he joined the Northern Ohio Dental Association and in 1887 was elected its president. In 1880 he joined the American (now the National) Dental Asso- ciation and in the same year became a member of the Ohio State Dental Asso- ciation, of which he was president in 1893. He joined the Cleveland Dental Society in 1891 and was elected to the presidency in 1897. He is also an hon- orary member of several local and state dental associations and was one of the organizers and the first president of the Cleveland Dental Library Association. In 1895 he was made a member of the supreme chapter of the Delta Sigma Delta (a dental fraternity). For the three years prior to 1909 he was one of the editors of the Dentist's Magazine. He is one of the authors of the American Text Book of Prosthetic Dentistry and is now engaged in writing another text- book upon the same subject. He has written many dental magazine articles, and also, on numerous occasions, has been called upon to read papers and hold clin- ics before dental societies.

On the Ist of January, 1880, Dr. Wilson married Miss Kittie Cooley, a daughter of the Rev. Lathrop Cooley, of Cleveland. Mrs. Wilson died August 25, 1907. Their two sons, Harris R. C. Wilson, D. D. S. (W. R. U. '05), and Paul L. Wilson, A. B. (Hiram College), are both engaged in business in this city.

Dr. Wilson is of a quiet and studious disposition, devoted to his profession and ever looking to its interests and those of his fellowmen. It is but just to say of him that the profession accounts him one of its most honored members.

ISAAC PORTER LAMSON.

In the year 1869 one of New England's manufacturing enterprises was re- moved from Mount Carmel, Connecticut, to Cleveland, and has since been con- ducted under the name of the Lamson & Sessions Company. From its inception Isaac P. Lamson has been active in its management and control and throughout this entire period his close conformity to a high standard of commercial ethics, as well as his diligence and determination, have brought to him as a reward for his labor not only a handsome competence but the merited respect of his fellow- men. He was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, September 2, 1832, and spent his boyhood and youth amid the beautiful hills and valleys of that district. The family is of English origin and was established in America in 1635 or 1636, when three brothers of the name braved the dangers incident to an ocean voyage of that day and became residents of Massachusetts. They were Barnabas, Wil- liam and Timothy Lamson, the first named being the ancestor of the branch of the family to which I. P. Lamson belongs. He embarked from Harwich, Eng- land, in the ship Defense, August 10, 1635, in company with the Rev. Thomas Shepard. They settled at Newtowne, now Cambridge, Massachusetts, and almost immediately found themselves placed in responsible positions there. The pro- prietary records of Cambridge show that at different times Barnabas Lamson sold land, that in 1636 he was a selectman and in 1637 a surveyor. He died about 1640, while his wife probably passed away at a previous date, and it seems likely that several of their children were born in England. The terms of his will pro- vided that his estate should be divided equally among his five children, the youngest of whom was Joseph Lamson. While there is no definite record concerning his

I. P. LAMSON

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

birth, it is probable that he was born in 1638, at Charlestown, Massachusetts. By the terms of his father's will, being still a minor at the time of his father's death, he went to live in the family of Deacon Bridge and was still a member of the household according to an old church record of 1658. No further mention of him has been found until 1679, when the Middlesex probate record mentions his death as occurring in February of that year. Although the records of those early days are very incomplete, mention has been found of five children, of whom Savage says: "There is no positive evidence that these are his children but it is the consensus of opinion that they are." The third of these children was Ebenezer Lamson, who was married at Concord, Massachusetts, April 19, 1698, to Sarah Hartwell, a daughter of John and Priscilla (Wright) Hartwell. The death of Mrs. Sarah Lamson, who was born in December, 1677, occurred November 13, 1715. There has been no record found concerning the second marriage of Ebe- nezer Lamson, but from the date of the birth of his youngest child it is supposed that such a marriage occurred. His eldest child, Timothy Lamson, was born at Concord, Massachusetts, July 25, 1699, and was married at Woburn, Massa- chusetts, October 22, 1734, to Patience Thompson, who was born October 25, 1713, a daughter of Jonathan and Frances (Whitmore) Thompson and a grand- daughter of Jonathan Thompson, Sr., who was the first male teacher of North Woburn, Massachusetts. The children of Timothy and Patience Lamson were seven in number, the fourth being Ebenezer Lamson, who was born at Concord, April 13, 1741. He made his home in childhood with his guardian and fourth cousin, Captain Isaac Hartwell, of North Gore, Massachusetts. He received a good common-school education and after his marriage became converted and soon commenced preaching. On the 10th of June, 1778, he was ordained as pastor of the First Baptist church at Ashford, Connecticut. He was peacefully dismissed in November, 1782, the church recommending him as a faithful gospel preacher, but he did not take his dismissal kindly and criticised the church with great severity. He afterward preached at Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1788 until 1794. In later years he became a Universalist and owned a pew in the church of that denomination at Oxford, Massachusetts. From the force of cir- cumstances he was compelled at the age of eighty to seek a new home two hundred miles west of the birthplace of his children. He went to live with his son Isaac at Mount Washington, Massachusetts, where on July 4, 1824, when eighty-three years of age, he was the principal orator at a celebration held on Mt. Everett, the highest point in southern Berkshire. A published genealogy of the family says : "The address consumed two hours in its delivery. He gave many humorous anecdotes of his war experience (he had been a chaplain in the Revo- lutionary war) and, being a fine singer, interspersed the same with Revolutionary songs." His grandson, O. E. Lamson, gives the following description of him: "He was of florid complexion, had light brown hair, hazel eyes, Roman nose and thin lips. He had a ready tongue and a voice that was clear, soft and rich in melody. He was a fluent speaker with just a bit of sarcasm to make an impres- sion upon his listeners. He preached extemporaneously, and his sound eloquence gained for him the cognomen of elder. A good logical reasoner, he made a good impression, but his masterpiece was music. Such a voice few ever possess; at the age of ninety-one, clear soft and sweet, without a tremor. At any time in life he could fill a church full of the richest melody." He died July 4, 1834, at Mount Washington, Massachusetts, predicting his death the night before. He was married April 28, 1763, to Ruth Phillips who was born at Oxford, Massa- chusetts, October 17, 1744, and died September 2, 1803. She was a daughter of Joseph and Ruth (Towne) Phillips, the former a grandson of the Rev. George Phillips, the first minister of Watertown, Massachusetts, and a direct ancestor of Wendell Phillips and Phillips Brooks.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 8

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