A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 88

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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BURTON P. FARAGHER.

Burton P. Faragher, thoroughly equipped for his chosen calling, is a building engineer who contracts for concrete construction work, to which he devotes his undivided attention. Through his innate ability and natural adaptation to this work and by constant application to duty he has gradually worked his way up- ward to his present influential position as a contractor. He was born near Salina, Kansas, November 3, 1872. His father, William Faragher, was born on the Isle of Man in 1834 and came to America about ten years later. Settling in Ohio, he followed agricultural pursuits for some time but later secured employment on the lakes and became a vessel owner. He is still the owner of several lake craft al- though he is now retired from active life,-a course made possible by his previous success. He married Emma Humphrey, who was born in the east and died when her son Burton was eight years of age.

Burton P. Faragher spent a portion of his boyhood in Kansas, whence he removed to Ohio with his father, who eventually located in Cleveland. Here Burton P. Faragher attended the public schools. Ambitious to enter business life on his own account and especially desirous of becoming affiliated with the build- ing trades, he secured employment in the office of one of the leading engineers of Cleveland, in whose employ he remained for three years. He was next em- ployd by the city as engineer of the park department, performing the duties of that position for four years, when he resigned and was associated with the city waterworks department through the ensuing three years. He next spent one year as an engineer in railroad construction and about 1902 returned to Cleveland, where he conducted business independently for four years. He then organized the Faragher Engineering Company, which is still doing business in the south. Returning to Cleveland, he is now in business alone as a concrete contractor. He built a large power plant and dam at Rhinelander, Wisconsin, did similar work in North Carolina and also erected one of the largest concrete buildings in the latter state. During the past year he has taken up forestry and landscape engin- eering and expects to carry on this work on an extensive scale. He has met with substantial success in his chosen field and has become financially interested in a number of other business concerns.

In 1896 Mr. Faragher was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Geist and they have two children : Roger W. and Burton P. Mr. Faragher is a stanch sup- porter of the republican party. He belongs to Halcyon Lodge, No. 498, F. & A. M., the Cleveland Civil Engineers Club and the Ohio Engineers Society and occu- pies an enviable position among those following his profession in this city.

FRANK E. ABBOTT.

For the past five years the abilities of Frank E. Abbott have found scope for activity as secretary of the Bruce-Meriam-Abbott Company, manufacturers of gas and gasoline engines. He shares the birthday of the Father of Our Country, having been born February 22, 1870, in Rochester, New York, and is a son of Williard and Caroline Abbott. His maternal grandfather was M. C. Younglove,

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who was born in 1811 in Union Village, New York. He was a capitalist, and in 1837 came to Cleveland, where he started the first book store the town ever pos- sessed. He also organized a gas company and a number of other concerns which met with success, and died in 1903 at the age of ninety-two years. Willard Ab- bott, the father of our subject, was born in Burmah, India, March 29, 1837, but a part of his life was spent in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he engaged in the mercantile business, and part of it in Toledo, Ohio. He died in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1907.

Mr. Abbott took advantage of the benefits offered by the public schools of Cleveland until his seventeenth year, when he was employed as clerk by the Root & McBride Company and remained with them for six years. He then traveled for various firms until 1903, when he was offered his present excellent position with the Bruce-Meriam-Abbott Company, and is now serving both as secretary and treasurer.

Miss Root, a daughter of R. R. Root, of the firm of Root & McBride, became the wife of Mr. Abbott, their marriage being celebrated, April 4, 1894. Their home is situated at Wilson's Mills. Politically Mr. Abbott is republican and re- ligiously an Episcopalian.

RANDALL PALMER WADE.

As long as Cleveland endures and its history is known to her citizens the name of Wade will be honored. While the representatives of the family in the first and second generations have passed from life, the benefits of their labors still remain, for the impetus which they gave to commercial and industrial activity constituted a foundation for much of the progress and prosperity of the present age.

A native of New York, Randall P. Wade was born at Seneca Falls, August 26, 1835, the only son of Jeptha H. and Rebecca Louisa (Faur) Wade. He was but a young lad when his parents removed to Adrian, Michigan, and on the western frontier he spent his boyhood and youth. His father was among the first to become interested in the extension of telegraphic lines in the middle west and when a lad of eleven years the son entered the telegraphic service as messenger boy but with ambition which took him beyond that humble employment. He was not yet seventeen years of age when he had learned to read the instruments by sound. At that day, however, telegraphic messages were received on a paper tape-a system of dots and dashes which the operator might translate at his leisure. Progressing in this field of labor, Mr. Wade eventually filled the posi- tion of chief operator at different times in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati. Realizing the advantages to be derived from thorough mental training and dis- cipline, he withdrew from the business world and devoted four years to study, being graduated, at the age of twenty-one, with the highest honors from the Kentucky Military Institute near Frankfort. He also enjoyed the distinction of being the most expert swordsman in that student body and in these things mani- fested a trait which was always characteristic of him-that of great thorough- mess in everything which he undertook. This characterized his entire life and was one of the foundation stones of his substantial success.

In 1856 Mr. Wade was united in marriage to Miss Anna R. McGaw, of Co- lumbus. He spent the succeeding three years as a member of the executive force in one of the largest banking houses of Cleveland and then, realizing the value of a legal education in a business career but with no intention of practicing law, he took up the study under the direction of Judge Hayden. He manifested such ap- titude in mastering the principles of jurisprudence that he soon won a certificate upon examination, allowing him to practice in both the state and United States courts.

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When the Civil war broke out Mr. Wade was offered the position of chief clerk of the United States military telegraph department, with headquarters at Washington. He accepted and was one of the four men who understood the se- cret cipher used in transmitting messages to the front. He was soon after com- missioned quartermaster with the rank of captain, which office placed him second in command in the military telegraph department, with headquarters at Cleve- land. To him was also assigned the duty of purchasing and supplying all the military districts with telegraphic materials but the complexity of detail work and technicalities that must be gone through with in this branch of the govern- ment service became so irksome to him that at the end of two years he resigned.

At that time Mr. Wade became a factor in commercial circles of the city, at one time owning the largest retail jewelry business in Cleveland. After several years he disposed of his interests in this line and devoted his time to the manage- ment of the family estate, which then claimed the entire attention of himself and his father, for as the years had passed they had made investments in many lines of business and in real estate and had attained a place among the most prosper- ous and prominent men of the city. As a capitalist his position was no less im- portant than it had been while he was still concerned in the active management of various business enterprises. At all times the public was either a direct or indi- rect beneficiary in his labors, general progress and advancement being promotel through his investments and business interests. He was well known as secretary of the Cleveland and Cincinnati Telegraph Company ; as secretary, treasurer and director of the Cuyahoga Mining Company ; as secretary, treasurer and director of the Chicago & Atchison Bridge Company; as president and director of the Nonesuch Mining Company ; as a director of the Kalamazoo, Allegany & Grand Rapids Railway Company ; as director of the Citizens Savings & Loan Associa- tion and as president and director of the American Sheet & Boiler Plate Com- pany.

In his religious views Mr. Wade was liberal, generally attending the Church of the Unity, of which he was treasurer. He looked at life from a broad hu- manitarian standpoint, nor was he ever unmindful of his obligations to the city or to his fellowmen. He was himself in social circles a most congenial and com- panionable gentleman, was an excellent linguist, speaking German and French fluently and was also a talented musician. He was only forty years of age when on the 24th of June, 1876, he passed away but he had accomplished a work equaled by that of few men of his years. While engrossed in the control of business affairs, he found time to cultivate the graces of character and mental attainments which serve as a balance wheel to intense business activity, keeping the individual from abnormal development in a certain line and maintaining the equable poise between the material, the intellectual and the moral forces.

FRANK H. ADAMS.

To specially distinguish one man from another in a large city like Cleveland, is to indicate that he possesses qualities or ability more than his competitors ; that he is able to distance them in one way or the other. Secure in the enjoyment of a good business and the realization that success has been attained through hard work and not any chance advantage of fortune, Frank H. Adams, manager of the Wentworth Motor Car Company, is rapidly forging to the front rank in his self- appointed line. He was born at Blackheath, England, in 1882, and was brought to the United States by his parents, who located immediately in Cleveland. He is a son of Alfred Adams, a mechanic who has been in charge of one of the depart- ments of the American Steel & Wire Company's plant, since coming to this city.

After taking a common school course, Mr. Adams entered the Young Men's Christian Association school and went through their commercial department.

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He and his brother William then engaged in the bicycle manufacturing business, making a wheel called the Melba Special, and continued in that line for three years. Being a bicycle rider of more than local celebrity, Mr. Adams entered the field as a racer and won a number of road races of note, and holds the record for time between Cleveland and Buffalo. He entered a number of local events, as well as for racing on the track at Madison Square Garden and at Atlantic City. In addi- tion he established a motor cycle record for a mile at Glenville track, that was undisputed for five years. In 1898 Mr. Adams began his connection with auto- mobile interests working on one of the first Stearns' cars ever built. From the Stearns people he went to the Shelby Motor Car Company of Shelby, Ohio, as demonstrator, thus continuing for two years. Then with Harry S. Moore he was on Crawford road for five years, having entire charge of the garage and sales agency. In 1907 he organized the Wentworth Motor Car Company, doing a gen- eral garage business and is sales agent for the Mora car. In a Mora "6", 1908, Mr. Adams established a record on the road of three hundred and nineteen miles in ten hours. In the same year and with the same car he won the Toledo, Co- lumbus and Cleveland endurance test of nine hundred miles. His score was per- fect and he was the first in at control. Mr. Adams is not unknown as an inventor. In 1904 he was the inventor and patentee of a "double jump" spark plug for auto- mobiles, which is now in general use all over the United States, and he is receiv- ing a very substantial royalty from its sale and manufacture. He has a patent pending now for "The Adams Never Break," a universal joint which is the only practical joint of its kind in use and has met with the full approval of automobile experts. He is recognized as an inventive genius of a very practical turn and is continually working on something that tends to improve the efficiency of auto- mobiles. He possesses mechanical knowledge as well as strong mentality that enables him to recognize and, through invention, meet the needs of the business world in his special field. Already he has accomplished much and his inventive genius will probably win for him still higher renown in the future.

In October, 1907, Mr. Adams married Miss Emma Gertrude Strauss of Cleve- land. He belongs to the Cleveland Commercial Travelers and the Cleveland Auto- mobile Clubs. Perhaps no young man of the city has more warm personal friends outside of Cleveland than Mr. Adams. Wherever he goes, he makes friends, and they are all extremely proud of him and the records he has made. He is a splen- did business man, and takes a pride in his car and exploiting its merits, while his work as an inventor entitles him to wide recognition.

FRANKLIN B. MEADE.

Franklin B. Meade, a well known Cleveland architect, was born in Norwalk, Ohio, January 6, 1867. His father, Alfred N. Meade, also a native of this state, was a graduate of the Wesleyan College and served as a captain of the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Ohio Infantry during the Civil war. At its close he removed to Cleveland, where he was engaged in the lumber business to the time of his death which occurred in 1903 when he was sixty-seven years of age. His wife bore the maiden name of Mattie M. Morse.

It was during a visit of his parents at Norwalk that Franklin B. Meade was born, Cleveland, however, being his home throughout his entire life save when business interests have taken him elsewhere. He continued his education in the public schools until he was graduated from the Central high school with the class of 1884, after which he entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was graduated in 1888. While there he became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. After the completion of his course he spent four years in Chi- cago with the firm of Jenney & Mundie, office building architects, that he might supplement his theoretical training by practical experience and further study.

F. B. MEADE

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In the fall of 1893, however, he returned to Cleveland and opened an office for the practice of his profession, in which he has since continued, making a specialty of residences of the highest class but also doing architect work on factories and office buildings. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and is interested in all that pertains to the advancement of the pro- fession. He has confined his attention almost entirely to his chosen calling and important contracts have been awarded him in this connection.

On the 3d of November, 1898, in Trinity cathedral in England, Mr. Meade was joined in wedlock to Miss Dora Rucker, who is an accomplished musi- cian and is prominent in social circles. They reside at No. 7122 Euclid avenue. In politics Mr. Meade is a republican where national issues are involved but votes independently at municipal elections. He is an active and valuable.member of the Chamber of Commerce. He is fond of outdoor life and equally ardent in his love of music, especially of the violin, of which he is a master and which furnishes him much of his recreation. He is also well known in club circles, was one of the organizers of the Hermit Club and has been honored with its presidency from the beginning. He likewise belongs to the Union, Roadside, Euclid Clubs of Cleveland, and the Erie Club and Lambs Club of New York, and his personal qualities make him popular in these organizations.

AMZI MILTON BARNES.

Amzi Milton Barnes is the president and general manager of the Miller Chem- ical Engine Company of Ohio, conducting an extensive business in the sale of fire extinguishers. His birth occurred in Connecticut, on the 23d of March, 1855, his parents being Isaac and Theada (Spencer) Barnes. Both the paternal and maternal ancestors of our subject were early settlers of Connecticut, and were noted for their patriotism and loyalty. The great-grandfather on the paternal side served as an officer in the Revolutionary war and the grandfather participated in the war of 1812. Isaac Barnes, the father of A. M. Barnes, is likewise a native of the Charter Oak state. At the time of the gold excitement in 1849 he made his way to California in search of the precious metal and subsequently spent a number of years traveling around the world. In 1850 he owned eight hundred acres of land where the city of Oakland, California, is now located and was also the proprietor of a tavern on the present site of the Oakland ferry. On return- ing to the east he embarked in the lumber business, operating mills at a number of different places. He was likewise prominent in public affairs and for two or three terms ably served as a member of the house of representatives in Connec- ticut. He spent his last days in retirement from business and died in Burlington, Connecticut, April 29, 1909. His first wife died at a comparatively early age, passing away in 1862. They have four children: Georgia, who died at the age of nineteen years; Katie, the wife of Frank Banning, of Bristol, Connecticut; Charles I .. , of New Britain, Connecticut ; and Amzi M. For his second wife Isaac Barnes chose Nellie Smith, who survives him . They were the parents of three sons : Clifford S., Stanley I. and Luther M., all in business in Connecticut.

A. M. Barnes obtained his early education in the public schools of his native state, subsequently entered the Chester Military Academy and later continued his studies at Williston Seminary of Easthampton, Massachusetts. After graduating from the last named institution he went to Poughkeepsie, New York, and there pursued a commercial course in the Eastman Business College. He next made his way to Utica, New York, where he secured a position as a hotel clerk and at the end of two years became the proprietor of the hostelry. In 1876 he severed his connection with hotel interests and for a few months devoted his time to the sale of fire extinguishers. He spent nearly a year in the Canadian woods and af-

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terward was engaged in the sale of kid gloves as the representative of a New York firm, his time being thus occupied for five years. On the expiration of that period he came to Cleveland and embarked in business as a manufacturer of agri- cultural implements but later removed to Akron, where he remained for nearly five years. On selling out his interests at Akron he returned to Cleveland and, organizing the Miller Chemical Engine Company, became identified with the line of business with which he has been connected to the present time. The concern is engaged in the manufacture of fire extinguishers to some extent but they deal mostly in the patent goods of other firms. Mr. Barnes now owns all of the com- pany's stock and under his capable guidance the business has steadily grown along substantial lines until it is one of large proportions, extending throughout Ohio and parts of Michigan, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He is likewise the first vice president and director of the Bayne Subers Tire & Rubber Company and the Bayne Subers Invention & Development Company, and is financially interested in a number of other concerns.

In 1883 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Barnes and Miss Hattie M. Pike, of Jamestown, New York. They have two children : Blanche G. and Harry C. The former, now the wife of Roderick D. Grant, of Cleveland, was educated in Laurel Institute and Bradford Academy of Massachusetts. She is an accom- plished musician and was a leader in college musical work. Harry C. Barnes was educated in the Hough school, Hendershot Academy and Gambier College and is now proprietor of a business conducted under the name of the Motor Boat & Supply Company, the first enterprise of its kind in Cleveland. Mr. Barnes has membership relations with the Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Association of Credit Men and the Colonial Club. In nature he is cordial and kindly and he possesses a personality which, while inspiring respect, also wins him the warm friendship of those with whom he comes in contact. His business career has been actuated by laudable ambition and characterized by unfaltering industry, com- bined with a close adherence to a high standard of business ethics.

HENRY APTHORP.

Henry Apthorp, capitalist of Cleveland, was born to be an organizer, de- veloper and producer, possessing in marked degree the characteristics neces- sary to insure success along these lines. He was born February 9, 1841, at May- field, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, a son of William and Chloe (Howard) Apthorp. The former was born in Hinsdale, Massachusetts, in 1809, while his wife was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1808. In 1836 they moved to Mayfield where the father carried on farming. His death occurred at Nottingham, Ohio, in 1880, while his wife died in the same place in 1898.

Mr. Apthorp received a district-school education at Mayfield, later attending the academy there and the Geauga Seminary. In early life he worked in a steam saw-mill which sawed some of the lumber, and drove a team of horses that hauled some of that lumber which went into the building of the Kennard House in Cleveland. Until he was twenty-two years of age he was largely em- ployed in farming and then in 1863 was engaged in repairing and constructing telegraph and telephone lines, as foreman and lineman, by the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Lake Shore Railroad Company, and continued in this work until 1885. In the meanwhile he became interested in editorial work and was associate editor of the Democratic Standard of Ashtabula, Ohio, from 1876 to 1880. In 1891 he became managing editor of the Columbus Post at Columbus, Ohio. From 1887 to 1909 he was special agent of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad in matters of state legislation in Ohio, and ac- complished some remarkably good work. He called his pen into service and in 1892 wrote and published a pamphlet against the proposed two-cent railroad

HENRY APTHORP

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fare. This was so popular that in 1899 he also issued a defense of trusts, and in 1903 opposed socialism in a skillfully worded pamphlet.

On December 8, 1859, Mr. Apthorp was married in Willoughby, Ohio, to Harriet E. Strong. They have one son,-Warren. Mr. Apthorp has also been exceedingly prominent in politics, and served for two terms as a member of the council of Ashtabula, from 1872 to 1873 and 1883 to 1884. He was railroad commissioner of Ohio from 1885 to 1887; a member of the board of managers of the Ohio penitentiary from 1893 to 1896, and a member of the board of man- agers of the Ohio State Reformatory from 1897 to 1900.

It is almost impossible to properly estimate the influence of a man like Mr. Apthorp, who is fearless in the expression of his opinions and prompt to carry out his ideas of reform. His long experience in many diverse lines enable him to judge accurately as to the merits of a question, and his judgment is relied upon by many of his associates in both the business and political world. His literary style is forcible and convincing and it is a matter of regret to his admirers that he has not devoted more of his time to correcting abuses with his facile pen.

J. H. WADE.

Around J. H. Wade as a central figure cluster many of the events which have shaped the history not only of Cleveland and of the state, but have had im- portant bearing upon the annals of the country. He was the first man west of the Allegheny mountains to use a camera, established the first telegraph line in the upper Mississippi valley, was one of the promoters of an organization that eventually led to the formation of the Westen Union Telegraph Company and as a railroad builder opened up large sections of the country, for no single agency has had such direct and important bearing upon national growth and progress as railroad building. Moreover he was the first representative of the Wade family in Cleveland and while widely known and honored in this city, where for many years he maintained his residence, his friendship was valued be- cause of his many sterling qualities, while his business activity contributed in large measure to the growth and improvement of the city.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume II, Part 88

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