A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 3

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: 1106

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He is a son of George B. Thomas, who is also a native of this city, having been born here in 1843, and who was married in 1876 to Nellie Morgan, a na- tive of Cleveland. She and her husband reside in the city and he is now manager of the United States Cast Iron & Foundry Company. The Thomas family is connected with the early history of Cleveland, the grandfather of the subject of this biography having built the first house on Wood street and the first lighthouse in Ohio. He was one of the first builders and contractors of the city and belonged to the early Western Reserve people.

After passing through the public schools of Cleveland, George M. Thomas engaged in a hardware business with the George Worthington Company for one year, severing that connection to enter the Atlas Bolt & Screw Company. For two years he was in its office and then became connected with McBroom & Company, dealers in drafting and engineering supplies. After two years there, he was with the Kluger Optical Company for five years, and then, in 1907, embarking in his present undertaking, has since devoted himself to it and its expansion.

In July, 1901, Mr. Thomas married Corrian Curtis, who was born in the city, and they have become the parents of two children: Jack C. and Williard G. Mrs. Thomas' grandfather ran a stage line between Cleveland and Buffalo and was interested in the canal. He, too, was one of the early settlers of this locality. Mr. Thomas is a republican but has not sought public preferment. He is a live, prosperous business man, whose success has been gratifying not only to himself but those who are interested in his progress and proud of his achievements.

OTTO C. WEHE.

No. man is elevated to the position of head of a large concern unless he pos- sesses in marked degree a fitness for discharging the duties of such a position. Upon the executive of any enterprise devolves so much responsibility that he must be able to meet the requirements of his office or the interests centered in him suffer. Otto C. Wche, president of the Pioneer Manufacturing Company, although still young in years, possesses just those characteristics necessary to in-

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

sure success and has had an experience that guides him in his present undertak- ing. He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1879, a son of William and Lena (Schneider) Wehe.

William Wehe was born in central Ohio in 1844, and has always been engaged in the carriage business, first down in the state and later at Cleveland, where he is still engaged in this line. His wife was born in Germany but came to the United States in childhood, locating in Ohio, where they were married. Her demise occurred in 1906. He served as corporal in the Twenty-third Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war.

Otto C. Wehe was educated in Wayne county and Cleveland and his first business experience was obtained with the office of Canfield Oil Company. After ten years spent with them in the offices and at different refineries throughout the country, two years being spent at Pittsburg and three years at Boston, he left the company. So far had he advanced in the confidence of his employers that he was in charge of the Boston branch when he resigned to form new connections with the Sterling Oil Works at Marietta, Ohio, remaining with that concern for two years, when in 1905 he came to Cleveland to incorporate his present com- pany. The Pioneer Manufacturing Company manufactures specialties in oil and paint goods, and their business has increased until their territory embraces the entire country, twenty commercial travelers being required to cover it.

Mr. Wehe belongs to the Sons of Veterans on account of his father's services during the Civil war. At the time the latter enlisted he was on a farm in Wis- consin and, fired with patriotism, entered the service and was a brave soldier. Mr. Wehe is a republican. He is a live, prosperous young business man and his enterprise shows the gratifying results of his experienced efforts.

HON. STEPHEN BUHRER.

Hon. Stephen Buhrer, deceased, was best known to the citizens of Cleve- land as a prominent leader in democratic circles and as an official whose ef- forts in behalf of the city were characterized by far-reaching and beneficial results. Over the record of his public career there falls no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil, and as a councilman and mayor he gave many tangible proofs of his unfaltering and ever increasing devotion to the public good. He was, moreover, a self-made man in the highest and best sense of the term, for, denied the advantages which are usually accorded to the American youth, in the school of experience he learned life's lessons well and made for himself a substantial and honorable place in business circles of the city.

Mr. Buhrer was born on the Zoar farm in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, De- cember 25, 1825. As the name indicates, he comes of German ancestry, the family being founded in America in 1817, when Johann Casper Buhrer, from the province of Baden, landed at Philadelphia. On the same ship had come Anna Maria Miller, from Stockach, Germany. They immediately repaired to Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Buhrer had friends, and there were married. During a period of more than a year in which they remained residents of Greensburg their eldest child, Catherine, was born. They were led to change their place of residence from the fact that while crossing the Atlantic Mrs. Buhrer had become acquainted with and formed a warm friendship for some ladies who were also of German birth and who became residents of Zoar, Ohio. Desirous to live near them, Mr. Buhrer and his wife and little daughter made their way to that locality, taking up their abode on a farm near the town in what is now one of the richest agricultural sections of the state. At the time of their arrival the district was largely wild and unimproved, but the industry and thrift of the German population have transformed it into one of the most prosperous and fair regions that represent the agricultural life of the state.

STEPHEN BUHRER

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

The father, however, was not long permitted to enjoy his new home, for in the late fall of 1829 he passed away, leaving two young children to the care of his widow. Two years before his death he had removed from his farm to the village of Zoar.

That town was a center for a society of Friends, called Separatists, and after the death of the father the two children were bound to the society until their majority. They were subjected to very severe discipline, as this venerable re- ligious community exemplified their faith in the ancient adage of not spoiling the child by sparing the rod and enforced the maxim with the utmost patriarchal severity upon the unhappy and helpless children. At a very early age Stephen Buhrer was put to work on the farm and in the factories and had to do other labor for which his years and strength scarcely equipped him. When in his ninth year he was given charge of the sheep in the vast pasture ranges of Zoar. There he labored for three years, or to the age of twelve, when he was placed in a cooper shop belonging to the society. He not only learned the trade of coopering but at different times did almost every kind of work incident to the company's varied industries, such as doing a man's work in the brewing and slaughtering department and often supplemented the same by acting as hostler at the Zoar tavern and driving horses on the Ohio canal. He received no re- muneration for all this service, which he performed for six weary years, nor was he given the educational advantages that were his just due. The only in- struction that he received was in Sunday school and in evening schools which he attended after his tenth year at the close of a hard day's work. Notwith- standing his strenuous labor, failing health, lonliness, discouragement and mental depression, the noble inheritance of the German blood and brain enabled him at last to assert the rights of nature, and in 1842 he left the society and came to Cleveland.

Mr. Buhrer began work at the cooper's trade, but his health was so im- paired that he could hardly earn enough to pay his board. Thinking that he might recuperate in other lines, he accepted a position as traveling salesman, in 1846, his territory covering, at first, Ohio, and later, western Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. As he thus got out into the world his broader interests brought him many valuable experiences and he came to see that Zoar was not the center of the universe nor its religious teachings all that there was of practical Chris- tianity, as he had been taught in his childhood days. The prevailing malarial fevers of that early time, however, cut short his career as a traveling man and he returned by rail as far as Detroit, where his funds became exhausted and necessitated the sale of some of his wearing apparel that he might pay deck passage on a steamboat bound for Cleveland, which city he had come to re- gard as his home. For two months, thereafter, ill health utterly incapacitated him for labor, and as he was without funds he was about to be sent to the poorhouse when the only friend he had in the city came forward and spoke words of encouragement and hope and gave substantial proof of his friendship, guaranteeing the payment of his board bill until his death or recovery. Thus cheered and heartened, he seemed to take new lease of life and hope and was soon enabled to again work at his trade, which he did for a year, gaining thus a good salary, for he was skillful and competent as a cooper. He worked in a shipyard for a brief period in the winter of 1847, but soon returned to coopering.

His health and success were such that Mr. Buhrer now felt justified in es- tablishing a home of his own, to which end in 1848 he wedded Miss Eva Maria Schneider, and they became the parents of three children: John, deceased, who wedded Miss Carrie Downer, the latter residing in Chicago; Mrs. Mary Jane Hanna, of Seattle, Washington; and Mrs. Lois Catherine Barstow, now of East Orange, New Jersey.

With the added incentive of having a home for which to provide, Mr. Buhrer, ambitious to engage in business on his own account, formed a partnership

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

for the conduct of a coopering enterprise, which he conducted for three years. He then sold his interest to his partner in 1853, at which time he turned his attention to the business of rectifying and purifying spirits, which undertaking continued to claim his time and energies throughout his remaining days and returned to him a very substantial reward for his labor and capable business management.

In the meantime Mr. Buhrer had won recognition among his fellow citizens by reason of his upright life, his industry, his laudable ambition and determina- tion in business affairs, and the spirit of progressive citizenship which he at all times manifested. He had been a resident of Cleveland for only eleven years and was but twenty-nine years of age when, in 1855, he was elected a member of the city council and in 1863 and 1865 was again chosen to the same position, the last time without opposition. He served in the council during the period of the Civil war and was known as a stalwart champion of the Union cause and an active participant in every movement to advance the interest of the Federal government. It was only a physical infirmity that prevented him from doing active military service on the battlefields of the south. However, he did valuable work as a member of the city council and especially was his presence needed in his own ward, where his friendly care and helpful spirit were con- tinually called into requisition in behalf of many women and children whose fathers were doing service at the front or had already fallen in battle. Twice was his ward subjected to draft and would have had to submit to a third but for the energetic action of Mr. Buhrer, who prevented this by largely con- tributing to the payment of bounties to volunteers. He gave most freely to this cause as also to assistance in individual cases and thus rendered untold benefit to the Union, for it was as necessary to care for those at home as it was to meet the enemy upon the fields of carnage. It was doubtless in rec- ognition of his important service in his ward and in the city during the most gloomy days of the civil strife in his capacity of trustee that he was returned to the council for a third term with unprecedented unanimity.

Hardly had his third term as councilman expired when higher honors were conferred upon Mr. Buhrer in his election to the mayoralty in April, 1867. His party was not usually in the ascendant but his personal popularity and the confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen gained for him the strong support which was given him and which placed him in the chair of Cleveland's chief executive. His administration was characterized by all that marks the loyal citizen and the careful man of business. His duties were then no sine- cure, for the work that devolved upon him as the head of the city government was often of a most strenuous character. The only official colleagues of the mayor then were the city clerk, who was also auditor, and the treasurer and a board of city improvement, of which the mayor was chairman, having in charge public works of great magnitude and including the expenditure of large sums of money. He was entrusted with the sole control and management of the police force and was therefore made responsible for its fidelity and effici- ency, besides exercising a careful and constant supervision over the fire and water and every other department of the city government with a view to the promotion of financial economy. The rigid discharge of duty which he had required of the police and the avoidance at the same time of everything op- pressive or of the exercise of a seemingly undue official severity, won alike their regard and the public approbation.

Largely through the influence and during the mayoralty term of Mr. Buhrer. the Cleveland House of Correction and Workhouse was completed, its humane purpose being to reform and reclaim, if possible, as well as punish, the vicious and criminal. This work had the hearty endorsement of Mayor Buhrer, who at all times stood for enterprises and projects of public progress, improvement and advancement. He opposed anything like misrule in public affairs and his name has ever been largely regarded as a synonym for all that

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

is best in mayoralty service. He ever placed the good of the city before par- tisanship or personal aggrandizement and he sought the betterment of muni- cipal conditions without the useless or extravagant expenditure of the public funds. It was his desire to retire from office on the expiration of his first term that he might give his attention to his business, which he felt demanded his time and care, but his party renominated him and in April, 1869, he was again elected to the mayoralty, receiving an unprecedented majority of nearly three thousand. Thus came to him the endorsement of the general public con- cerning his previous service, notwithstanding the fact that he was ever recog- nized as a loyal democrat and the republican party was then in the ascendant in Cleveland. His party further honored him in the following autumn in making him the candidate for state treasurer, but in that year Ohio gave its usual republican support to the candidates for state offices. In April, 1871, Mr. Buhrer was again urged to become the mayoralty candidate. He respect- fully but emphatically declined for he felt now that he had rendered such serv- ices to the public as was commensurate with the duties of a good citizen and preferred the quiet of home life and the opportunity for the conduct of in- dividual business interests. Notwithstanding his refusal he was nominated but this was the presidential year and, moreover, the republican party gathered in its strength, saying that for a third term a candidate should not be elected upon his personal popularity. The republicans bent every energy to accomplish their purpose and succeeded, Mr. Buhrer losing in the race, although his opponent won by a very small majority. Later, without his knowledge, the democrats twice nominated him for county treasurer and kept his name upon the ticket notwithstanding his protest. In 1874 he was returned to the city council, though his ward was largely republican, but his fellow townsmen recognized the fact that very important measures were pending which his presence would pro- mote. The finance committee and the board of improvement absorbed almost his entire time during the ensuing two years' service. Later he was appointed on the board of workhouse directors, in which connection his labors were of signal benefit to the public. He stood at all times for measures, movements and institutions that would promote the general good, including the Home for Wayward Children who needed the care and attention of the public. He was the first who officially recommended the high level bridge which spans the val- ley of the Cuyahoga river, known as the Superior street viaduct.

While the public life of Mr. Buhrer made constant and heavy demands upon his time and attention, his deepest interest, nevertheless, centered in his home. In the early springtime of 1889 he lost his first wife, who had long been an invalid. A year later, on the 29th of March, 1890, he married Miss Marguerite Patterson, a daughter of William and Anna (Marshal) Patterson. Her father came from Scotland to America and after some years' residence in New York removed to Cleveland. The death of Mr. Buhrer occurred December 9, 1907, and thus passed one who had long been a central figure on the stage of ac- tivities in Cleveland. His commercial enterprise was unfaltering but his vision was never narrowed to the boundaries of personal interests alone. He viewed life from higher standpoints, recognized his duties and his opportunities. ful- filling the one and improving the other to the benefit of the city at large.

MRS. MARGUERITE PATERSON BUHRER.

A life largely devoted to service for humanity has given Mrs. Marguerite Paterson Buhrer firm hold upon the regard and affection of Cleveland's citi- zens. She came to this city in her childhood days in company with her parents, William and Anna (Marshal) Paterson, the former born in Scotland, March 17, 1807, and the latter in New York, May 1, 1841. The daughter acquired her

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

education in the public schools and for one year was a teacher in a private school. During all her life she has been interested in charitable and mission work and is today one of the best known women in charity circles in this city. Her labors have been of a most practical character and of far-reaching benefit. They have not consisted of the giving of a sum of money without thought of the recipient; on the contrary she believes in investigating the different cases and in addition to substantial gifts, which have met the physical needs, she has been quick to speak the word of sympathy and encouragement that has brought hope to many a heart and caused the hearer to again put forth earnest effort to rise superior to conditions and environment. It has been said that no worthy person has ever been turned from her door empty handed.

The secret of this life of service is found in her church membership. From childhood she has been identified with the Franklin Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, has been a most active worker in the different women's organizations, and has filled the office of president of the Home Mission Society. Believing that anything that tends to uplift humanity and inspire to nobler purpose and higher living a feature of church work, she has extended her efforts into various fields, the far-reaching influences of which are immeasurable. She was one of the charter members of the Health Protective Association, the first civic so- ciety of Cleveland, and for one year served as its president and for seven years as its secretary. She did much active work in introducing and promoting the plan for an outing for poor mothers and working women to different parks of the city during the summers of 1899 and 1900. She was also instrumental in introducing gardening in vacant lots that children's time might be thus employed during the summer of 1898. She was associated with others in the establish- ment of the first public playground and sewing school, a work introduced at the Eagle Street school and continued through the summers of 1898, 1899 and 1900.

In 1899 Mrs. Buhrer worked hard to secure the passage of an ordinance in the city council making it a misdemeanor for any one to expectorate on side- walks or in the street cars and thus constitute a menace to public health. The introduction of waste-paper baskets throughout the city was another law that came about through her diligent work, and it was Mrs. Buhrer's thought and effort that resulted in the establishment of the board of women visitors ap- pointed by the governor to visit the state public institutions. She was instru- mental in organizing a society among the deaf and dumb of the city and thus adding much to lives deprived of many things that the majority of mankind enjoy. She filled the office of national secretary to the National Health Pro- tective League for five years and she is a member of the Ohio State Suffrage Association, serving at the present time as chairman of the enrollment com- mittee. She has also been selected as state delegate to the National Women's Suffrage Association at the three meetings held at Buffalo, Seattle and Wash- ington.

Seven years ago the Cleveland Emerson Class was organized in her home and with the literary development of the city she has also been connected. A close student of the great economic and sociological questions which confront the country, she has so informed herself on these subjects that her exposition and support of a cause is always a clear enunciation of facts as well as of prac- tical plans along which organized effort may reach substantial and desirable re- sults. At present she is endeavoring to procure rest and recreation rooms for the young boys, as well as girls, employed in factories and stores, where they can go after their lunch for a chat or a game or to rest or to sit and read awhile before returning to work. Another feature of her success along many lines is the interest she has awakened in other women in certain important questions of industry, philanthropy and civics, getting them to work with her and then stepping quietly aside that they may have the credit of the work ac-

MARGUERITE PATERSON BUHRER

HISTORY OF CLEVELAND

complished. In this way she has gained the interest and cooperation of many women who heretofore knew little of the human side of life outside of their own beautiful homes. Mrs. Buhrer's home life has ever been the happiest, as she says her home was her heaven up to the death of her husband.

JOSIAH BARBER.

On the pages of Cleveland's early history the name of Judge Josiah Barber stands conspicuously forth as one who did much to mold the development of the city in its formative period and to lay broad and deep the foundation upon which has since been built its present prosperity and progress. His first wife was Abigail Gilbert, who died leaving one daughter, Mrs. Abigail (Barber) Russell, the mother of Mrs. D. P. Rhodes and Mrs. U. C. Hatch, both of whom have descendants still living in Cleveland. For his second wife Mr. Barber inar- ried Sophia Lord, a daughter of Samuel Phillips Lord, of Hebron, Connecticut, who purchased a large tract of land from the Connecticut Land Company on the west side of the Connecticut river. Deciding to make his home in Ohio, Mr. Barber and his family journeyed from Hebron, Connecticut, by horse and carriage, their household goods in wagons, bringing their cows with them. They arrived in the fall of 1818. The Branch and Watkins families were also in the company, and Richard Lord, Mrs. Abigail Lord Randall and Samuel P. Lord, Jr., came later. Mr. Barber built the first brick house in Ohio City on the corner of Pearl street and Franklin avenue. On the marriage of his daughter Harriet to H. N. Ward he gave her that house and built the one on Franklin Circle in which he died and which is now the orphanage of the Protes- tant Episcopal church through the generosity of Mrs. Sophia Lord Russell Rhodes, Mrs. D. P. Rhodes.

He sought the development and progress of the town and gave to the city the Market House property and also Franklin Circle. He was very active in many respects and his judgment in relation to public affairs was regarded as sound and reliable. His fellow townsmen, recognizing his worth and ability. called him to public office and in 1834 made him circuit judge.

His son, Epaphras Barber, was sixteen years of age at the time of the re- moval to the west. He was educated in Connecticut and passed away ere the close of the first half of the nineteenth century, his death occurring in 1849. He married Jerusha Sargent, whose parents. also came to Ohio City in 1818. She was a daughter of Levi Sargent, a blacksmith, who arrived in Cleveland at a very early day and conducted a shop on Pearl street. That he was one of the pioneers here is indicated in the fact that he built the second frame house on the west side of the river. Mrs. Sargent was said to have been the first advocate of abolition and temperance. All of the family were members of the St. John's Episcopal church on Church street, and the Barbers and Lords founded and built the first church of that denomination on the west side. Mr. and Mrs. Sargent were the parents of two sons and three daughters. John Sargent, one of the sons, was a surveyor of note in his day and laid out the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 3

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: 1106

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: 1106