A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 84

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

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III > Part 84

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In the public schools of Cuyahoga Falls, Frank Billman pursued his education and after graduating from the high school spent three years in Wooster University completing the work there up to the senior year. Mr. Billman concluded the prac- tice of law was most attractive and began reading in the office of Ranneys & Mc- Kinney, with whom he remained until admitted to the bar in 1892. He has since practiced law alone in Cleveland, Ohio, and has given considerable attention to corporation and commercial law.

Mr. Billman is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Young Men's Business Club, the Second Presbyterian church and the Delta Kappa Epsilon alumni association. In politics he is a republican and from 1896 until 1900 was representative in the city council from the first district, which included what is now the first, second, third and fourth wards, during which time he was constantly in the public eye by reason of his activity in securing legislation effecting the welfare of the city of Cleveland.

GEORGE H. BILLMAN.

An untarnished public record, characterized by efficient work in behalf of mu- nicipal interests, has made George H. Billman well known to the public, while in legal circles he ranks with the strong and able lawyers of the Cleveland bar. He was born March 21, 1865, at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and is a son of Alexander G. and Eliza (Hartman) Billman. Spending his youthful days in his parents' home, he pursued his education in the public schools until he had passed through consec-

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utive grades to his graduation from the high school with the class of 1883. He completed a four years' course at the University of Wooster in 1887, and later on he received the degree of M. A. from the same institution. He took his law course at the University of Michigan and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1891. He lo- cated for practice in Cleveland in 1892 and has since made substantial progress here. He has never specialized in any department of the law but is equally at home in all divisions of the court work and has been accorded a liberal clientage.

Politically Mr. Billman is a republican aggressive in the work of the party and always active in the interests of good government. He was president of the Cleve- land city council for two terms, from 1898 until 1900, having been elected a mem- ber thereof from the city at large. He also represented the fourth district in the council from 1895 until 1901. He was an ex officio member of the Cleveland park board from 1898 until 1900 and during his incumbency in these various offices his official duties were discharged in such a manner as to leave no question as to his reliability and deep interest in all that pertained to municipal progress.

On the 2d of February, 1909, Mr. Billman was married to Miss Anita Boyce, a daughter of Rev. Isaac Boyce, D. D., bishop of Mexico, his clergical office being created for him in that country. Mr. Billman was a member of the Beta Theta Pi college fraternity at the University of Wooster and the University of Michigan, and is also identified with other clubs and societies. He likewise belongs to the Presbyterian church and the motive springs of his conduct have their root in those principles which constitute the basic elements of honorable and upright manhood.

REV. NICHOLAS PFEIL.

The Rev. Nicholas Pfeil, rector of St. Peter's Roman Catholic church, is a native of Cleveland. He was born November 4, 1859, in the home of his parents, which at that time was one of the comfortable dwellings on Chatham street and to this day may be seen at the southeast corner of the intersection of Chatham avenue and West Thirty-second street, formerly known as Penn street.

His parents belonged to that sturdy class of pioneer German settlers who did so much for the development of northern Ohio and of Cleveland in particular. Leav- ing their village in Baden, where they had been engaged in the bakery business, they joined a band of emigrants for America, to seek their fortune in this western hemi- sphere. Germany in those days did not enjoy the prosperity it was blessed with later on. Being divided into almost countless small dukedoms and principalities, each supreme in its little territory, the people were harassed by all kinds of petty, galling laws. The opportunity to emigrate to a free country, that held out every promise of freedom in the pursuit of civil and religious happiness, was hailed with delight by unnumbered thousands of liberty-loving sons of the fatherland.

Lawrence Pfeil, the father of the subject of this sketch, was but twenty-six years of age when he resolved to try his fortune abroad. Accordingly he sold his business and the few acres he had inherited, and departed from Koenigheim in the northern part of Baden, accompanied by his little family, consisting of wife and one child. In all his undertakings he was loyally supported by the faithful partner of life, who with a true Christian character combined all the noble qualities of a thrifty housewife. Before her marriage she had been Francisca Reinhart, the daughter of an industrious cobbler in the neighboring village of Gissigheim. Though the part- ing from relatives and home was intensely painful to her young and tender heart, she recognized it her bounden duty to leave her father and relations and to cling to her husband. A young woman of but twenty-four summers, with an infant at her breast, she joined the emigrant band and bade adieu to her home in Franconian Baden forever. Sailing down the Main and Rhine rivers, they arrived at Rotter-

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REV. NICHOLAS PFEIL

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dam in the forepart of September, 1847. Here they took passage in a sailing vessel and reached New York on the 14th day of October of the same year, after a voyage of thirty-six days. Staying a short while in the metropolis, they came on directly to Cleveland, where they spent the rest of their natural lifetime.

The first home of this worthy couple, who had spent considerably more than a half century in the present city of Cleveland, was in a dwelling that stood on the banks of the canal near the site occupied today by the Baltimore & Ohio depot. Cleveland in those days was little more than a straggling village. The Cuyahoga valley reeked with poisonous exhalations, to which the immigrant readily fell a vic- tim. Fever and ague were epidemic. What little money was left after a long and expensive journey was often consumed by sickness. This, too, became their lot. Having recovered from the ravages of the fever, they set about with characteristic energy to make an honest livelihood.

Lawrence Pfeil at first followed the trade of a baker. The shop he worked in stood on Seneca street, now West Third, about opposite the present courthouse. When his work began to grow slack, he took up ship-carpentering, which in those days was in a flourishing condition. The old river bed near Whisky island was the scene of intense activity. To be near his work he built a house on Pearl street hill and paid for it with his hard earned savings. Finding the location less conducive to health, he acquired additional property on Chatham street and removed thither, building and selling houses, until he had saved up sufficient funds to purchase a twenty-nine acre farm on Lorain street. He now engaged in truck farming until the city encroached upon his field, and old age enfeebled his strength. He and his wife lived to see the straggling village of Cleveland become the metropolis of Ohio with about a half of a million of inhabitants.

Their family consisted of seven children as follows : Charles J .; Mary, who be- came Mrs. C. Faulhaber ; John ; William; Frances, now Mrs. G. Schraff ; Nicholas ; and Aloysius. Having, like most Germans, received a thorough education, the parents saw to it that their offspring were well instructed in the elementary branches of a common-school training. Convinced that a child's education is incomplete un- less also his moral faculties are ennobled by religious instruction, they sent their little ones at an early age to the first parish school which they helped to establish near St. Mary's on the Flats, as the lower portion of the Cuyahoga valley with Cleveland Center was called.

Being stanch Catholics, they remained faithful in the practice of their religion to their dying day. Industrious, energetic, honest in all of their business transac- tions, they held the respect and esteem of their neighbors and fellow citizens to the end. Mrs. Pfeil died at the age of nearly seventy-eight years, fifty-four of which she had spent as a resident of Cleveland. Her husband survived her by six years. He died on the 17th of April, 1906, at the ripe old age of almost eighty-six years, more than fifty-nine of which he lived as an active, upright, law-abiding citizen of Cuyahoga county.

A large outpouring of relatives and friends, clergy and laity at their respec- tive funerals, which were celebrated at St. Stephen's church, testified to the high esteem and deep veneration in which the memory of this pioneer couple was en- shrined in the hearts of their fellow citizens, aside from a large number of priests, even Bishop Horstmann honoring the solemn obsequies of Mr. Lawrence Pfeil with his presence. Long before the time of their death they had the satis- faction of seeing all their children comfortably settled in life.

The early boyhood days of Nicholas, the subject of this sketch, were spent in the home of his parents on Chatham street. Though born in the year of John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry (1859), he was not too young to remember some incidents connected with the late Civil war. He still can recall the marching of soldiers through the streets, the blue uniforms worn by some of the boys in the neighborhood, who had returned from the field of battle minus a leg or arm and were now seen bandaged or hobbling on crutches along the sidewalk,-objects of unbounded admiration in the eyes of the small boy.

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As two of his older brothers belonged to the first music band that ever ex- isted on the west side-the old "Aurora" as it was called-his ears were habitu- ated to martial strains such as "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys Are March- ing" and "Bring the Good Old Bugle, Boys, We'll Sing Another Song," etc., from his earliest childhood. The fact that his cradle stood in an atmosphere of music,-for aside of the strains mentioned above, his father was quite an adept in playing the flute-probably accounts for the unfailing appreciation and love which he manifested at all times for the sweet harmony of tones. In the typical German home where he was reared, the Volkslied was not wanting. Of an evening when the work was done, his mother, who was blessed with not only a beautiful mind but also a fine voice, it was no unusual occurrence to hear her sing with her children some popular German song, remarkable at once for at- tractiveness of melody and nobility of sentiment.

At the age of seven years he was taken by his mother to St. Mary's School and entrusted to the Brothers of Mary from Dayton, who then, as at present, were conducting the work of education in the boys' department. The good which these noble men wrought among the rising generation of those early days cannot be overestimated. They were most efficient teachers, sacrificing their time and ener- gies in behalf of the education of youth with a devotion truly admirable. Among the boys that sat on the school benches in those days were some of the most success- ful men at the present time in church and state.

When the subject of this sketch was about nine years of age, his parents re- moved from the city to what was then still country, to a small farm on Lorain street, now absorbed by greater Cleveland. In those days the city limits on the west were at Harbor or West Fourty-fourth street. Beyond this point there were but few houses, no sidewalks, fields and pastures extending on all sides. Lorain avenue, which today boasts almost an uninterrupted double row of handsome store fronts to within a short distance of the city limits, at that time was skirted by country ditches and rail fences of various construction. A plank road with a toll-gate, at first located where Ridge avenue, now West Seventy-third meets Lorain street, and later on moved out further to the top of the hill where Denni- son runs into Lorain avenue, was one of the features of this thoroughfare at that period. An Irishman by the name of J. Dillon was the trusted and faithful toll-gate keeper. He and his wife have long since passed away like many of the thousands who journeyed along the old plank road in those days. The old Yankee farmers in the neighborhood have meanwhile all disappeared and gone to the great beyond. The Pfeil homestead was situated on Lorain street at the northeast corner, where Henley, now West Ninety-eighth street, met the afore-mentioned thorough fare.

It was from here that every day, rain or shine, the children of the family were obliged to walk to and from school on Jersey, now West Thirtieth street-a distance of nearly three miles. In 1870 St. Stephen's school was opened on Courtland, now West Fifty-fourth street. From this time on Nicholas attended this new institution of learning. Here he met the Rev. Casimir Reichlin, whose 'kind and priestly ways attracted the boy and influenced him in the choice of a vocation. After finishing the parochial school course he with a younger brother entered Canisius College, Buffalo, New York. With the knowledge he had ac- quired under the direction of the above named reverend gentleman, he was en- abled to complete the classical course in five years and was graduated in the summer of 1878. It was his good fortune to have had some of the best educators that Canisius College ever possessed. They were German schoolmen, Jesuit Fathers, renowned for thorough learning and solid piety.

In the fall of 1878 he passed the examination for admission into St. Mary's Theological Seminary, Cleveland, and after five years was ordained by Rt. Rev. Richard Gilmour on the Ist of July, 1883. Although but twenty-three years of age, Bishop Gilmour judged him fit to be made pastor of St. Patrick's church, Hubbard, Ohio, shortly after his ordination. On March 2, 1884, he was appointed

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to the pastorate of Holy Trinity congregation in 'Avon, Lorain county. This charge he held for thirteen years and three months, when he was promoted to the rectorate of St. Peter's church, Cleveland, as irremovable pastor, May 10, 1897.

In the midst of pastoral occupation he found time to do considerable literary work. Aside of translating from German into English a book on "Christian Edu- cation" he wrote at various periods for the press. In 1895 he made an extensive tour through the British Isles, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, an ac- count of which was given in a series of letters published in the "Catholic Uni-

verse." In 1903 he crossed the ocean for a trip through Holland, the Rhine- land, Baden, Bavaria, Prussia, Bohemia, Switzerland and Austria. In the sum- mer of 1908 he made a third voyage to the Old World, landing at Hamburg and visiting new and old points of interest in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. In the fall of the same year he joined a pilgrimage of Swiss Catholics to the Holy Land, setting sail from Ancona and arriving at Jaffa after a voyage of six days. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the country about the Jordan, including the Dead Sea and various points in the border land of the Holy City, were made the objects of special study by him on this occassion, the result of which he has given to the public of late in a long series of letters published in the "Stimme der Wahrheit" of Cleveland. He visited Rome twice and was received in audience by Pope Leo XIII and Pius X.

St. Peter's parish, of which he is rector, is the oldest German-speaking con- gregation in Cleveland, having been established as early as 1853. At present it is composed of about seven hundred families. Originally the immigrant German population of the Roman Catholic faith worshiped in St. Mary's on the Flats, which was the first Catholic church ever built in Cleveland. Almost co-eval with the building of the cathedral on Erie street, the German-speaking Catholics on the east side founded St. Peter's congregation and bought property and built a church on the southeast corner of the intersection of Superior and Dodge, now East Seventeenth street.

A very efficient parochial school has been a feature of this parish ever since its inception. Some of the most successful business and churchmen received their early training within its walls. At present between six and seven hundred chil- dren receive in this institution under the direction of the Rev. N. Pfeil, a thor- ough education, which means the development of not merely their intellectual faculties by secular science, but also the training of their moral powers by re- ligious instruction and the practice of their faith. Like all true educators, the rector of St. Peter's is convinced that a child, to become a good and law-abiding citizen must early be imbued with enduring morality, for, with George Wash- ington, he holds that "religion and morality are the pillars of the commonwealth."

ALBERT MORREAU.

Among those adopted sons for whose acquisition Cleveland is grateful is Albert Morreau, president of the Morreau Gas Fixture Manufacturing Company. He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, August 17, 1861, his parents being Leo- pold and Amelia Morreau. His father, also a native of Hesse-Darmstadt, was born in 1833, and engaged in the dry goods business. He was a man who enjoyed the respect of his associates and he played an important part in the affairs of his native place. He died in 1900.

Albert Morreau received his education in the schools of Hesse-Darmstadt and was graduated from the higher department in 1879. Going to Frankfurt am Rhein, he entered a dry-goods store and served as apprentice for five years. At the end of his apprenticeship he left Frankfurt and went to Manchester, England. where he secured a position in an export house as assistant correspondent in the German, English and French languages. Being so near the current of emigration

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he was, after two years, caught in its whirl and came to America. He located in Cleveland and found employment for five years as stock clerk and salesman in the house of Landesman, Hirschheimer & Company.

Possessing a spirit of independence, he started in business for himself in 1887 when yet a very young man. His new establishment was on Seneca street and three men were employed in the manufacturing of gas fixtures. In 1890 he re- moved to Huron Road and thence to 2047 East Ninth street, where the offices and retail store is at present located. The factory, grown from a three-man affair to one of the city's largest concerns, is located at 1303 Oregon avenue, Northeast. The building, situated upon a lot sixty-six by one hundred and fifty feet in extent, is four stories high and has forty-two thousand square feet of space. A force of one hundred and fifty men is employed. The Morreau Gas Fixture Manufac- turing Company does its own designing, four experts being engaged in this kind of work. The product, which has a reputation for great excellence, is disposed of by twelve salesmen, whose combined territory covers the entire United States. Nothing could be more convincing as to the high quality of work produced than a survey of the Cleveland First National Bank and the Chamber of Commerce which are among the public buildings fitted out by this company. Mr. Morreau is president of this splendid concern, having held this position since the com- pany's incorporation in 1899.

Miss Lea Nora Heller of Cleveland became the wife of Mr. Morreau, Jan- uary 7, 1893. Their union has been blessed by the birth of two children : Myron H., aged fourteen, attends the Technical high school; and Leopold S., aged ten, is a pupil in the public schools. They reside at 2331 East Fifty-fifth street.

Mr. Morreau has various pleasant affiliations, among them membership in the Excelsior Club, the Oakwood Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Cleve- land Commercial Travellers' Association and the United Travellers' Associa- tion. He is a golf enthusiast, devoting much of his leisure to this game. He is of Jewish faith and a supporter of the republican party. Mr. Morreau, who came to this country a young man without especial resources, has in something like a score of years made for himself an enviable place in the commercial life of Ohio's greatest city. Commanding the respect and admiration of all those with whom he comes in contact, he may be truly accounted a representative man.

EDWARD MARTIN QUINN.

Edward Martin Quinn, of the firm of Quinn & Harris, retail cigar dealers in the Hollenden Hotel, was born in Townsend township, Sandusky county, Ohio, June 8, 1863. His father, Arthur Quinn, was a native of Ireland, and coming to America about 1830, settled in Detroit, Michigan. He turned his attention to the real-estate business but after his removal to Sandusky county, Ohio, engaged in farming, which pursuit he followed up to the time of his death in October, 1906. He reached the venerable age of eighty-five years and was known throughout the community as a successful and highly respected farmer. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Julia Ryan, was a native of Kilkenny, Ireland. They became ac- quainted and were married in Detroit and Mrs. Quinn still survives her husband at the age of seventy-seven years.

Edward Martin Quinn was reared on the old home farm in his native county and attended the district schools, while later his attention was given entirely to the work of the home farm as he assisted his father in its operation until twenty- seven years of age. In the meantime his elder brother, John Ryan Quinn, had become a retail cigar merchant of Cleveland, and on the 27th of June, 1891, Edward M. Quinn arrived in this city and entered his brother's store, where he received his commercial training. Later he joined Frank R. Harris in a partner- ship and they established their present business in the Hollenden Hotel. under the

E. M. QUINN

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firm style of Quinn & Harris. They are conducting here a retail cigar business unexcelled throughout the United States, their sales having reached notably large proportions. This is due to well formulated and carefully executed business plans and to the close application and untiring efforts of the proprietors.

On the 3d of June, 1903, Mr. Quinn was married to Miss Lottie May Fike, of Cleveland, a daughter of George A. Fike, of this city. They have one son, John Ryan, born March 7, 1904. Mr Quinn maintains only a citizen's interest in politics but does not fail in the exercise of his right of franchise, believing that every American should support the principles which he deems essential to state and national affairs. He is fond of hunting and fishing but his home is his club. Leaving the farm, with only the experiences of agricultural life, he has become one of the prominent retail merchants of Cleveland, his pleasant manner, affa- bility, keen business sagacity and unfaltering energy bringing him to a position in trade circles that many a man of twice his years might well envy.

JAMES B. HOGE.

James B. Hoge, widely known throughout Ohio in connection with his owner- ship and operation of telephone and street railway systems, was born in Belmont county, Ohio, December 20, 1866. The ancestral history of the family can be traced back to 1150, A. D., the line being carefully brought down by the Rev. Moses Drury Hoge, of Richmond, Virginia, and ex-Governor J. Hoge Tyler, of that state. Representatives of the name went from Normandy to Scotland, and William Hoge, the first of the family in America, came to the new world from Burwickshire, Scotland, in the seventeenth century. He married Barbara Hume, a cousin of David Hume, the historian. Locating in Virginia, representatives of the name are still to be found in that state and in Pennsylvania. Isaac Hoge, the great-grandfather of James B. Hoge, was the founder of the family in Ohio, set- tling in Belmont county in 1821. He had been born in Loudoun county, Virginia, and removing westward was closely associated with the pioneer development of the the Buckeye state. Many interesting historical facts are connected with the family history, both in this and other lands. Sir Walter Scott derived his right to be buried in Dryburgh Abbey through being a descendant of the Hoges.

Byron M. Hoge, the father, was born in this state in 1844, served as a soldier in the Civil war and devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, passing away about two years ago. He wedded Tamzen Lodge Merritt, of an old family of Loudoun county, Virginia, her grandfather, Josiah Merritt, having been a soldier of the Revolutionary war, and one of her mother's ancestors was Sir Thomas Lodge, Lord Mayor of London in 1562. The death of Mrs. Hoge occurred in 1889. The family numbered three sons : James B., Arthur W. and Frank Garfield.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 84

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