A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 94

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 94

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is thoroughly posted on insurance matters, construction and fire protection and is a contributor to leading insurance and other journals.

Mr. Patton holds membership with the Euclid Golf, Congress Lake and Cleveland Athletic Clubs. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and is interested in progressive movements initiated and supported by that organiza- tion. To such he gives earnest and helpful support and stands at all times as a loyal defender of good government and of municipal progress. He has never sought or desired office, however, although he has always been a loyal republi- can. He is recognized as a business man of keen perception and undaunted en- terprise, well qualified to assume the responsibilities incident to the line of work in which he is now engaged. With Mr. Patton as head of the bureau, its success is assured and he is constantly engaged in enlarging its facilities and bettering its service. His success is meritorious and his energy, perseverance and strong char- acter well fit him for the profession he has chosen and so successfully conducted.

COFFINBERRY.

This family, of more than one hundred and thirteen years' standing in the state of Ohio, is allied by marriage with families that are and have been promi- nent in the colonial and state history of our country. And, too, members of the family have participated in the Revolutionary struggle, were doughty pioneers of the new country west of the Ohio river and subsequent generations have placed the name high in legal and business circles in northern Ohio. Reference is made to George L. Coffinberry, of Virginia, the patriot soldier and pioneer; his son, Andrew Coffinberry, lawyer and a prominent figure in the early history of north- western Ohio; the latter's son, the late Judge James M. Coffinberry, of Cleveland, fearless and able jurist and public-spirited citizen, and the present Henry D. Coffinberry, successful business man and able financier of Cleveland, who worthily sustains the family name and prestige.

The family is of German extraction. The great-great-grandparents of Henry D. Coffinberry were early pioneer settlers of Berkeley county, Virginia, now West Virginia. George L. Coffinberry, their son, was born near Martinsburg, in that county, February 10, 1760, his father being a Baptist preacher. He served through the war of the Revolution under General Greene. He married Elizabeth Little, of French and German descent, and removed to Wheeling, Vir- ginia, in 1794, and thence to Ross county, Ohio, in 1796, through an almost un- broken wilderness, cutting the underbrush and blazing his way as he came. From Ross county he removed to Lancaster, Ohio, where he published the Olive Branch, the first newspaper published in Fairfield county. From Lancaster he removed to the embryo village of Mansfield in the spring of 1809, where he built and kept the first hotel ever conducted in the village, but lived in one of the two block- houses erected on the village site when menaced by hostile Indians in the war of 1812 and 1813. He died in Mansfield, August 13, 1851. Throughout his long life of nearly ninety-two years he was esteemed as an honest, brave and ex- emplary man. His wife spoke the English, French and German languages cor- rectly and was for her time and place a remarkably accomplished woman. She died in Mansfield in her ninetieth year.

Andrew Coffinberry, grandfather of Henry D., was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, August 20, 1789, and died at Findlay, Ohio, May 11, 1856. He learned the printer's trade in the office of his father at Lancaster and commenced the pub- lication of a newspaper at St. Clairsville, Ohio, but finding his patronage inade- quate to the support of the business, he went to the city of Philadelphia, where he worked for a time with cases, types and an old Ramage press once used by Benjamin Franklin. Here he shipped as an ordinary seaman and served two years in the Federal navy, under Bainbridge and Hull, serving on the old frigate Constitution. Rejoining his parents, he read law in Mansfield in 1811 and 1812,

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H. D. COFFINBERRY

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being the first law student in that village. He was admitted to the bar as early as 1813, from which time he practiced his profession until a few years before his death. His practice in several of the counties of northwestern Ohio began with their organization, his riding, or circuit, (always performed on horseback) extending from Mansfield north to Lake Erie, and west to the Michigan and Indiana state lines. A man of rare endowments and marked characteristics, he was widely known and greatly esteemed for his pure and upright life, while his quaint wit and genial manners gave him ready access to the hearts of all classes. He was called the Good Count Coffinberry by the younger members of the pro- fession in grateful recognition of services rendered and courtesies shown them when they most needed direction and encouragement from such veterans of the bar. His sobriquet of count was first playfully given him by his professionl as- sociates from some real or supposed resemblance to the illustrious German jurist and publicist, Count or Baron Puffendorf, the title was recognized as being so ap- propriate to the man that it stuck to him for life, and thousands of those who knew him long and well never learned it was not his real name. He married October 26, 1813, at Bellville, Mary McClure. She was a daughter of James Mc- Clure, the first proprietor and settler of the site of the pretty town of Bellville, Ohio. He was of Scotch and his wife of Irish descent. They were natives of Kentucky but came to the site of Bellville in 1809 or 1810. He was one of the first board of county commissioners elected in Richland county. Andrew Coffin- berry was an early and deeply interested student of geology and accumulated a valuable cabinet of geological and archaeological specimens. Geology being then very generally denounced as the science of the infidel from the pulpit and religious press, his views of the age of one planet, and the derivation of our race through a long line of animal progenitors by a process of natural development as opposed to a miraculous creation, militated somewhat against his social, political and pro- fessional success. In 1840, he wrote and published the Forest Rangers, a metrical tale of seven cantos, descriptive of the march of General Wayne's army and its victory over the Indians, led by Chief Turkey Foot and Simon Girty, at the battle of the Fallen Timbers, on the Miami of the lakes in 1794.

Judge James M. Coffinberry, father of Henry D., was born May 16, 1818, at Mansfield, Ohio, and received only such an education as was obtainable in the district school of a pioneer village. He studied law with his father, then residing at Perrysburg, and was admitted to the bar in 1841, opening an office in partnership with his father the same year at Maumee. His superior ability and personal integrity were soon recognized and secured his election as prose- cuting attorney for Lucas county, which position he filled with distinguished abil- ity for several years. In 1845 he moved to Hancock county and for about ten years practiced his profession successfully, at the same time editing and publish- ing the Findlay Herald. In 1855 he removed to Cleveland and entered at once into a large and lucrative practice, devoting himself exclusively to his profession, maintaining and confirming the reputation that had preceded him and taking a high rank at a bar embracing among its members some of the most eminent law- yers of the state. In 1861 he was elected judge of the court of common pleas and held that office for a full term of five years, winning for himself in this new field the increased esteem of the public and respect and honor of the bar. His charges to the jury were models for clearness, directness and logical compactness. It is complimentary to his judicial learning and professional ability that no legal opinion pronounced by him was ever reversed on review by a higher court. He delivered many able opinions, both verbal and written, that received the most favorable consideration of the profession. He was remarkable for seizing upon the strong points of a case and also for an original manner of presenting his argu- ments and opinions, his apparently intuitive perception of legal truth giving to his utterances a freshness and vigor that commanded the admiration of all. While he had a fine appreciation of the learning of the profession and was never un- mindful of its nicest distinctions, he made them subservient to the broad and

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liberal views of the case, looking beyond the mere technicalities of the law, thus evincing a broad, liberal and well developed judicial mind. After retiring from the bench he returned to the practice of his profession, but was soon compelled to retire from active work by ill health. He devoted many of his leisure hours to scientific reading and investigation, in which he took great interest. Actively engaged in business enterprises, he was a thorough business man. He was a member of the city council for two years and was president of same. Formerly a whig, in the Fremont and Buchanan canvass he allied himself with the demo- crats and ever afterward was a strong supporter of the party. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he was chairman of the democratic central committee of Cuyahoga county but a strong supporter of the Union cause, laboring to help the recruiting service, and to a great extent was influential by his example and forcible public speeches in rallying the democratic body in northern Ohio to the support of the war, to vindicate the authority of the constitution and law. He was prin- cipal secretary of the great Union convention of Ohio, presided over by ex-United States Senator Thomas Ewing, which nominated David Tod for governor on a platform embodying the Crittenden compromise resolutions, which for a time abolished party distinctions in Ohio, harmonized all discordant elements and thoroughly aroused and stimulated the patriotic sentiments of the people. He remained a conservative Union man during the war but in private conversation disapproved of some of the more radical war measures as being unconstitutional and of dangerous precedent. For several years he was the standing candidate of his party for representative in congress and common pleas judge, but was in no sense a politician. He was one of the originators of the Superior street viaduct and one who most earnestly advocated that it should be a free bridge. On the evening of April 8, 1875, while returning with his wife from Mount Vernon, where they had been to attend the marriage of their son, after they had reached the city and were being driven across the railroad track near the Union depot, their carriage was struck by freight cars. They were both severely injured, he suffering the loss of a foot. His wife, though terribly bruised and mangled, was restored to comparative health. Judge Coffinberry survived the accident for a number of years and died November 29, 1891. His residence was at what is now 3105 Franklin avenue, at that time one of the choice residential sections of the city. The homestead was occupied by the family of his daughter and son-in- law, Mr. and Mrs. Brooks, until 1909. In January, 1841, he married Anna Marie Gleason, born April 8, 1820, in Sutton, Vermont, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Gleason. Thomas Gleason, her father, was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, October 20, 1788, and married Elizabeth Fitch, daughter of James Hillhouse and Polly (Barney) Fitch, who were married at St. Johns- bury, Vermont, October 16, 1817.

James Hillhouse Fitch was lost at sea on a voyage to the West Indies on one of his father's trading vessels. The Barneys, too, were shipowners and a sea- going family of New Haven. Jonathan Fitch, great-grandfather of Mrs. J. M. Coffinberry, was sheriff of New Haven county, Connecticut, in 1753, as appears by his autograph in a volume of the Acts and Laws of His Majesty's English Colony of New England in America, published in 1750 and in possession of the family.

Mrs. Coffinberry survived her husband until August 22, 1897, when she passed away. She was a woman of unusual intellect and force of character, displaying rare judgment and ingenuity in many matters outside of the ordinary line with which women are familiar. Her experience in the railroad accident above men- tioned impressed her with the necessity of some safeguard against a repetition of similar accidents and, with characteristic foresight, demanded of the railroad company, as part of the terms of settlement for the personal damages, that the company must erect safety gates, such as she had seen in use elsewhere, and which at that time were not used in Cleveland. This was done and thus were the first safety gates erected in Cleveland. Several children were born unto Mr.

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and Mrs. Coffinberry but only two reached adult age, Henry D. and Mary E. The latter is the wife of Stephen E. Brooks, a prominent business man of Cleve- land, president of the Brooks Company. They have two sons. James Coffinberry, an attorney, member of the firm of Westenhaver, Boyd, Rudolph & Brooks, mar- ried Frances, a daughter of Jacob B. Perkins, and has one son, James Coffin- berry Brooks, Jr. Charles S. Brooks is connected with the Brooks Company. He married Minerva, a daughter of Hon. Virgil P. Kline.

Henry Darling Coffinberry was born in Maumee, Ohio, October 14, 1841, and was fourteen years old when his parents removed to Cleveland. He received his early education in the public schools and for two years was a student at the high school. He was in the employ of Benton Brothers as bill clerk when the Civil war broke out. His parents were deeply solicitous to afford their only son a thoroughly good education as the best possible equipment for a successful and useful life, but, being in his eighteenth year, in good health, with no one dependent upon him, he felt it to be disgraceful to remain at home seeking his personal good when the union of the states hung trembling in the balance. He had a strong love for the water and, securing the reluctant consent of his parents to enter the navy, he shipped as an ordinary seaman at Erie, Pennsylvania, was sent to the receiving ship Clara Dolson at Cairo, where he was promoted, on the recommendation of Commanders Pennock and Phelps, to master's mate and reported, on the first call for active duty to Lieutenant Commander Richard Mead on the ironclad gun- boat, Louisville, one of the six original ironclad steamers, upon which he served until the close of the war. The first engagement in which he participated was that of Haines Bluff, where the fleet, under the immediate command of Rear-Admiral David D. Porter, was obliged to retire after a stubborn fight and the loss of commander Gwinn and several seamen. His next engagement was that of the capture of Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, after a hard battle of nine hours at short range. Immediately after this sanguinary engagement he was promoted on recommendation of Admiral Porter to the rank of acting ensign. He shared the fortunes of his ship in running the batteries of Vicksburg, the two engagements at Grand Gulf on the Mississippi, and those of the second Yazoo Pass and Red river expeditions. Soon after the return of the fleet from the latter of these, he was examined and promoted to the rank of acting master and executive officer of the Louisville and finally commanding officer of that ship. At the close of the war he put the Louisville out of commission and took command of the United States steamer Fairy, which position he held until ordered home on a three months' leave of absence. After returning home in the summer of 1866 and engaging in civil pursuits, he was agreeably surprised by the receipt of a letter from his veteran commander, Admiral Porter, tendering his support and influence in case he wished to remain in the navy as a permanent calling. Preferring civil life in time of peace, he was honorably discharged with the thanks of the department. Having reached his majority before the close of the war, he did not return to school but engaged as a partner with Messrs. Leavit and Crane in founding the first carriage and wagon axle manufactory in Cleveland. The business requiring more capital than he could command, he sold his interest in it and purchased a fourth interest in a small machine shop doing business under the firm name of Robert Wallace & Company, Robert Wallace, John F. Pankhurst and Arthur Sawtel constituting the firm. Mr. Sawtel soon after sold his interest to the partners, who prosecuted the business for several years with such a measure of success as to embolden them, in 1869, to purchae the interest of William Bowler, Robert Cartwright and Robert Sanderson in the Globe Iron Works, John B. Cowles, the remaining part- ner, retaining his interest and joining the new firm, which retained the name of the Globe Iron Works, Mr. Coffinberry being the financial manager of the firm, as he had been that of Robert Wallace & Company. Finding the business a great success, they soon after purchased a half interest in the Cleveland Dry Dock Company, George Presly, owner of a half interest, remaining the general manager and Mr. Coffinberry taking financial charge of the business. This company at

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once commenced to build wooden vessels and soon made for itself a reputation for probity and good workmanship which secured a large and profitable business. Soon after engaging in wooden shipbuilding Mr. Coffinberry became deeply im- pressed with the great superiority of steel and iron ships over wooden for fresh water navigation, and after thorough investigation and reading up the, best au- thorities on the subject, he secured the cooperation of his partners and founded the plant which was soon afterward incorporated as the Globe Shipbuilding Com- pany, of which Mr. Coffinberry was elected president and financial manager, John F. Pankhurst, vice president and designing engineer, Robert Wallace, secre- tary, and John B. Cowles, treasurer. Differing in judgment as to the manner of conducting business, Messrs. Coffinberry, Wallace and Cowles sought to pur- chase the interest of Mr. Pankhurst, failing in which they sold their interests in the Globe Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company to M. A. Hanna and others, Mr. Cowles retiring from active business. In the summer of 1886 Messrs. Coffin- berry and Wallace, with the cooperation of a few enterprising capitalists, pur- chased the plant of the old Cuyahoga Furnace Company, adding largely to the realty and more than quadrupling its capacity for general machine and foundry work, and adding a boiler shop and an iron shipbuilding yard capable of con- structing four of the largest class of iron ships per annum. This company was organized and incorporated as the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company, Mr. Coffin- berry becoming president and financial manager. The corporation had a paid up capital of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and proved a timely and eminently successful enterprise. This company was largely instrumental in the building of the Ship Owners Dry Dock Company, with gigantic dry docks capable of receiving the largest hulks then afloat. Mr. Coffinberry continued in the official capacity of president and financial manager of the companies mentioned until he resigned his office to devote his entire attention to the management of his private interests. A few years later the companies became a part of the merger now known as the American Shipbuilding Company. He has lived to witness the growth from the small beginnings, with which he has been so conspicuously as- sociated, into the mammoth enterprises which have contributed so largely toward revolutionizing the carrying trade upon the Great Lakes and made the city of Cleveland the Clyde of fresh water shipbuilding on this continent. He was a patriotic seaman, a gallant naval officer, faithful to every trust and adequate to every duty. He is an enterprising, public-spirited citizen, a modest, unpretending gentleman, eminently worthy of the large measure of public respect and con- fidence so freely awarded him.

Mr. Coffinberry was a member of the first board of fire commissioners of Cleveland. He is president of the Minch Transportation Company, president of the Nicholas Transit Company, director of the First National Bank, Peoples Savings Bank Company, Land Title Abstract Company, Brown Hoisting Ma- chinery Company and the Elwell-Parker Electric Company. Socially he is a mem- ber of the Union, Clifton, Country and Rowfant Clubs. He is eligible for mem- bership in the Sons of the American Revolution, is a member of the Loyal Le- gion and of the Grand Army of the Republic. Shortly after his retirement from active business he was appointed treasurer of the city of Cleveland to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Kurtz. He was later elected to fill the unex- pired term of one year, was then reelected for two years and declined to serve longer.

On April 17, 1875, Mr. Coffinberry was married to Harriet Duane Morgan, a daughter of the late General George W. and Sarah H. (Hall) Morgan, and great-great-grandaughter of Evan Morgan, who emigrated to the United States from Wales and established himself at Prospect, a country seat near Princeton, New Jersey. Prior to the war of the Revolution his son George became a mem- ber of the firm of Baynton, Wharton & Morgan, one of the largest commercial houses of Philadelphia. In 1764 he married Mary Baynton, a daughter of the senior member of the firm. Her mother's name was Chevalier and her parents

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were both of French extraction. In April, 1776, a few months prior to the Dec- laration of Independence, the continental congress appointed George Morgan In- dian agent, with instructions to negotiate certain treaties with the Indians. In this capacity he rendered great service to the state and negotiated several impor- tant treaties. His success with the Indians arose from the fact that he never de- ceived them. The Delawares conferred on him the sobriquet of Tamemund- the Truth Teller-after the great Delaware chief who had borne that title. Dur- ing the war of the Revolution George Morgan acquired the rank of colonel and became deputy commissary general. Some years after the recognition of Ameri- can independence Colonel George Morgan purchased a farm, long known as Morganza, near Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. It was from him that President Jefferson received his first intelligence of Burr's conspiracy. It was at the trial of Burr, at Richmond, whither Colonel George Morgan and his sons, John and Thomas, had gone as witnesses, that Thomas Morgan, the grandfather of Mrs. Coffinberry, met Katharine Corcoran Duane, who later became his bride. She was a daughter of Colonel William Duane, editor of the Aurora, the recognized organ of Thomas Jefferson. General George W. Morgan was one of Ohio's brave and noted men, a colonel in the Mexican war until the battle of Cheru- busco, where he was severely wounded. For brave and meritorious conduct he was made brevet brigadier general in the regular army of the United States when but twenty-seven years old. Later he was consul at Marseilles, France, and minister to Portugal. During the Civil war he rendered most valuable and brave service upon the field of battle until he resigned because of failing health in June, 1863. For a half century he practiced law at Mount Vernon, Ohio, and was three times nominated by acclamation and three times elected to congress. In the forty-second congress he received the democratic vote for speaker of the house. In 1864 he was nominated by acclamation as the democratic candidate for governor of Ohio.

Three daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Coffinberry, one dying in infancy, the others being Nadine Morgan and Maria Duane. The former married John E. Morley, a well known attorney of Cleveland, of the firm of Cline, Tolles & Morley, and a son of George W. Morley, of Saginaw, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Morley have two children, John Coffinberry and Nadine May. John Coffinberry Morley will inherit two Loyal Legion buttons and is also eligible to the Aztec So- ciety, the latter eligibility coming through his great-grandfather, General George W. Morgan.

JEREMIAH F. DONAHUE.

For more than two generations the citizens of Cleveland have been supplied with dairy products by different members of the Donahue family, one mem- ber of which, Jeremiah F. Donahue, is the president of the Donahue Dairy Company. One of Cleveland's native sons, he is the son of Daniel Donahue, who was born in Ireland but came to this country when a young man. More than fifty years ago he settled on territory that is now included within the boun- daries of Cleveland, purchasing six hundred acres of land. He paid only a small sum for it and later sold the greater part of it at some profit but still at a small price as compared with the value the property has on the real-estate mar- ket today. His son's dairy, at 6616 Lorain avenue, is located upon a part of this tract. After coming to Cleveland, the father established the dairy business which some member of his family has since conducted. He passed away in 1875. His wife, who was Miss Catherine Driscoll before her marriage, was also of Irish birth and died in April, 1907.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 94

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