A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 95

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 95

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Jeremiah F. Donahue was born November 1, 1870, and has spent his entire life in Cleveland. He received his early education in St. Patrick's parochial school, pursuing his lessons until seventeen years of age. Then he went to work

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with his brother John, assisting him in the dairy business which their father had established and remaining with him until he was twenty-two, when, having gained sufficient experience and saved enough to justify his embarkation upon the same line of work, he organized the Donahue Dairy Company. Through industry and a careful management, he has made the concern a most profitable enterprise. He recently retired from active business, however, and now devotes his time to the management of his real-estate and private business interests. He is a stock- holder of the Ohio Savings & Loan Company.

Mr. Donahue has not married. Ever since the parish of St. Coleman's was established, as a branch of St. Patrick's, about twenty-six years ago, he has been a devout member and generous in its support. In addition to his dairy business and also as a result of the success he has gained from it, he is the owner of some valuable real estate in the city which is proud to number him among her native sons. As a recreation he engages in shooting and fishing.

HENRY CHISHOLM.

Henry Chisholm, one of the foremost iron and steel manufacturers of his day in America and the founder of a business that has been a most substantial contributor to Cleveland's industrial growth, was of Scottish birth. His father was Stewart Chisholm, a mining contractor, who lived at Lochgelly, in Fifeshire, where his son was born on the 22d of April, 1822. The father died when Henry Chisholm was only ten years of age, but the boy had previously had an oppor- tunity for attending school and continued there until he was twelve years of age, when he became an apprentice to a carpenter. He wrought at this trade for five years or until his term of indenture was completed, when he removed to Glasgow, the commercial metropolis of Scotland. There he stayed for the fol- lowing three years, on the expiration of which period he emigrated to Canada, finding employment in Montreal. He remained in that city for seven years and during the latter portion of the time was engaged in business on his own ac- count. In this he met with excellent success, his establishment soon becoming one of the largest upon the St. Lawrence.

Foreseeing the future prominence of Cleveland, he removed to this city in 1850, when he was twenty-eight years of age. In association with a friend from Montreal he built a breakwater for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad Company at the lake terminus of their road, giving the work his own personal supervision. This occupied him about three years. It was done thoroughly and substantially and on its completion he received numerous offers from other per- sons and corporations for like work. For some time after he was kept busily em- ployed in building piers and docks along the lake front of Cleveland. In 1857 he began as a manufacturer of iron. There was very little then made in Cleve- land or its vicinity, or even in the state of Ohio. He united other parties with himself, under the firm name of Chisholm, Jones & Company, in the manu- facture of railroad iron at their rolling mill. In a short time the name of the firm was changed to Stone, Chisholm & Jones. The capacity of the mills at that time was about fifty tons a day, to produce which about one hundred and fifty men were employed. A part of the work was the rerolling of old rails, the materials for new rails being iron from Lake Superior ores, reaching Cleve- land by the lakes. In 1859 an important addition to the works was made by the erection of a blast furnace at Newburg, the first built in that part of Ohio. The next year another furnace was erected and additions were made to the rolling mill for the purpose of manufacturing all kinds of merchant iron as well as rails.

Mr. Chisholm next erected a rolling mill in Chicago and two blast furnaces · in Indiana with which to partially supply the Chicago works with pig iron, which was manufactured, like the pig iron of the Cleveland furnaces, from Lake Su-

HENRY CHISHOLM

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perior and Missouri ores. The Chicago mill was placed in charge of Mr. Chis- holm's oldest son, William, as manager. In 1864 the firm of Stone, Chisholm & Jones organized the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, into which the part- nership merged, and the Lake Shore Rolling Mill was added to the property by purchase. In 1865 the company constructed the second Bessemer steel works in the United States, one of the most successful and perfect works of the kind then in existence. The product of their mill immediately came into request. Beginning with a capacity of twenty thousand tons annually, it has been enlarged until its capacity now reaches one hundred and fifty thousand tons yearly, giv- ing employment to six thousand men and manufacturing products to the value of twelve millions dollars annually. The steel rails from this manufactory were shipped to all parts of the country and the demand was large. Steel rails did not form the only products of this immense mill. At least ten thousand tons of other classes of steel, such as tire, merchant and spring steel, were made. A wire mill was also added, which turned out from twenty-five to thirty thousand tons of steel wire annually, from the coarsest size to the finest hair. All shapes of steel forging were also produced at the Bessemer works. The furnaces were supplied with ore from the company's own mines in Lake Superior, where about three hundred men were kept in steady employment. The value of the products of different establishments of the company in Cleveland grew to about fifteen million dollars annually in Mr. Chisholm's lifetime. In 1871 he organized the Union Rolling Mill Company of Chicago, independent of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. In connection with his Chicago partners he also erected a roll- ing mill at Decatur, Illinois. The business of all these concerns Mr. Chisholm lived to see aggregate twenty-five million dollars annually, and gave employ- ment to eight thousand men. This was the outgrowth of the small concern es- tablished in Cleveland in 1857. Perhaps no achievement in the iron business of the United States during Mr. Chisholm's lifetime ever paralleled the enormous growth from such small beginnings in such a short space of time. When he landed at Montreal, in 1842, he had not a dollar, but he commenced the iron manufactory in 1857 with twenty-five thousand dollars saved from his earnings as a contractor, and in less than eighteen years the business which he had begun with such a moderate capital came to represent an investment of ten millions. No panics materially affected the business of these great concerns, and from the heavy amount of capital controlled they were able to give material aid to many of the large and small railroad companies of the country, carrying them over periods of depression and helping them out of their difficulties.

Mr. Chisholm knew no such word as fail. His industry was untiring. In political affairs he took no part except to perform his duty as a good citizen. His heart was large. Nothing meritorious appealed to him in vain. The re- ligious and benevolent institutions of Cleveland missed his helping hand. To every institution of this kind he contributed liberally, and those engaged in char- itable and philanthropic enterprises learned to put assurance in his sympathy and support. His employes were treated by him, after he had attained riches, in the same hearty, genial manner which had characterized his relations toward them when his income was small. They were sure of his rectitude of action. He was accessible to the humblest workmen in his mills and they entertained for him high esteem. They looked upon him as belonging to their own class and as having simply been more fortunate than they. He was a man of strong domestic attachments and loved to be at home, surrounded by his family and friends. He was a trustee or director of four of the charitable institutions of the city and for twenty years was an active member of the Second Baptist church of Cleveland. He was a heavy stockholder in several banking and manufactur- ing institutions.

Before leaving Scotland Mr. Chisholm was married to Miss Jean Allen, of Dumfermline, Fifeshire. He had three sons and two daughters. The oldest son, William Chisholm, was a thorough and energetic business man, full of life

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and energy, and took his father's place in the Cleveland rolling mill. He was for seventeen years vice president and general manager of the Union Rolling Mill Company at Chicago. When that was sold out he came back to Cleveland and for a year before his father's death acted as his general assistant, relieving him of many cares. He later became president and director of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, but is now deceased. Stewart H. Chisholm, the second son, is mentioned on another page of this work. Wilson B. Chisholm, the third son, is one of the representative citizens of Cleveland. The two daughters are Mrs. A. T. Osborne and Mrs. C. B. Beach.

Henry Chisholm died May 9, 1881, after a short illness of three weeks. The news of his death affected the community like a blow. The men in his employ- ment immediately stopped work and went to their homes. They could not go on. The societies with which he was connected passed appropriate resolutions. the works were closed down, and the community felt that one of their best men had been taken from them. He was a man of great power, but above all of love for his fellowmen, and as such is regretted.

HENRY P. McINTOSH.

Cleveland with its pulsing industrial and commercial activities is constantly drawing to it men of business enterprise, while the native sons of the city recog- nize its opportunities and, retaining their residence within its borders, achieve success if they have but the determination and energy to overcome obstacles and utilize the chances which are offered to all. There was nothing at the outset of his career to indicate that Henry P. McIntosh would gain a place among the competent representatives of financial interests in Cleveland, but as the years have passed his persistency of purpose, coordination of forces and power of bringing seemingly diverse interests into unity, have won for him continuous advancement until he is now widely known as the president of the Guardian Savings & Trust Company. He was born in Cleveland, October 27, 1846, and in his life has displayed many of the sterling characteristics of his Scotch an- cestry. His father, Alexander McIntosh, was a native of Auldearn, Scotland, and on coming to America in 1835 settled first at Astoria, Long Island, where he engaged in the nursery business. After five years he removed to Ohio and in 1843 came to Cleveland, where he also established a nursery. As the years passed he developed a profitable business in that connection and moreover was active in city government, serving for some time as a member of the council, during which period he exercised his official prerogatives in such a manner that the public welfare was conserved thereby. He was long a member of the old Cleveland board of improvement and was in hearty sympathy with each project of practical use in advancing Cleveland's interests. He married Agnes Nicol, a daughter of Alexander Nicol, of the north of Scotland, in which district the wedding was celebrated, their voyage to the United States constituting their wedding journey. They became the parents of eight children : Eliza, Agnes and Elizabeth, all now deceased; Margaret, the wife of R. W. Teeters, of Alliance, Ohio; John, who has passed away; 'Alexander, of New York city; George T .; and Henry P.

The last named was a pupil in the Cleveland public schools and when his school days were over he took up the study of telegraphy and was employed with the Cleveland & Erie Railway Company. In 1868 he turned his attention to the banking business in Alliance, acting as bookkeeper. There he remained until 1876, after which he returned to Cleveland and entered the employ of the Hon. H. B. Payne and Colonel O. H. Payne, remaining as manager of their properties until 1899, when he became associated with the Guardian Savings & Trust Com- pany as president. He is now concentrating his attention upon executive man-

H. P. McINTOSH

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agement and administrative direction and his keen insight and ready solution of financial problems constitute important and forceful elements in his success and business progress.

On the 19th of January, 1871, Mr. McIntosh was married to Miss Olive Manfull, a daughter of C. C. and Hannah J. (Shourds) Manfull. Their chil- dren are six in number: Ralph, now deceased; Fannie, the wife of John Sher- win, president of the First National Bank of Cleveland; Alexandrine, the wife of Robert D. Beatty ; Olive Marie, the wife of Edwin H. Brown; Henry Payne, who is assistant manager of the real-estate department of the Guardian Savings & Trust Company ; and John Manfull. The family resides at No. 7341 Euclid avenue. Both Mr. and Mrs. McIntosh hold membership in the Calvary Pres- byterian church, of which he is a trustee. Mrs. McIntosh also takes an active and helpful interest in church and charitable work and is especially interested in the Home for Aged Women, of which she is a trustee. Mr. McIntosh belongs to the Country, Euclid, Union and Rowfant Clubs and is popular among his associates in those organizations. He is a member of the American Bankers' Association and president of the trust company section of that organization. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. In fraternal relations he is a promi- nent Mason, having taken the thirty-third degree and is a past grand commander of the Knights Templar of Ohio. In politics he is a democrat where national questions are involved but locally votes without regard to party ties. He has never sought nor desired public office but feels a hearty concern for the public welfare and has been helpful in bringing about those purifying and wholesome reforms which have been gradually growing in the political, municipal and social life of the city.

JAMES A. JOYCE.

James A. Joyce is the chief engineer of the Cowing Engineering Company of Cleveland, engineers and contractors for the Cowing lift bridges, turntables, swing bridges and structural steel work. His birth occurred in Ohio on the 23d of April, 1866, his parents being James W. and Catherine (Roney) Joyce, who were likewise natives of this state. The father, who was born on the 25th of November, 1835, was successfully engaged in the retail cigar business throughout his active career. His demise occurred on the 10th of April, 1890. In 1862 he had wedded Miss Catherine Roney, whose natal day was December 5, 1844, and who still survives.

James A. Joyce obtained his early education in the public schools and after- ward pursued a special course in engineering under one of the professors from the Case School of Applied Science and bridge engineering under F. C. Osborne and was tutored by several graduates from the best engineering schools. By hard study and years of practical experience he secured a good engineering education. He then entered the employ of the King Bridge Company in the capacity of draftsman. He remained in the service of that concern for fourteen years and during that period received various promotions until he became checker of drawings which others had finished. On severing his connection with the King Bridge Company he associated himself with J. P. Cowing and in 1905 was one of the organizers of the Cowing Engineering Company, being made its vice president. Later he became chief engineer and in this connection has found ample scope for the exercise of his superior ability and knowledge in the line of his chosen profession. The Cowing Engineering Company has gained a prominent position in industrial circles of Cleveland as engineers and contractors for the Cowing lift bridges, turntables, swing bridges and structural steel work, their operations extending over the entire country. Mr. Joyce designed the Jefferson avenue lift bridge for Cleveland, the structural steel work and hydraulic stage work of

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the Cleveland Hippodrome building and the shops of the Cowing Engineering Company. He likewise had charge of the preparation of the plans and con- struction of the Genesee avenue bridge at Saginaw, Michigan, the detail draw- ings and rotating machinery for the New York Central four-track draw bridge over the Harlan river, the largest swing bridge in the world. He also had charge of the plans and details for the Nickel Plate double track swing bridge over the Calumet river in Chicago and the double track swing bridge for the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern in the same city.

In his political views Mr. Joyce is independent, always casting his ballot in support of the candidate whom he believes best qualified for office regardless of party affiliation. His rapid and substantial rise in his profession is attributable to the thoroughness with which he has mastered everything bearing upon the subject of engineering, combined with his unwearied industry and his profes- sional integrity.

REV. JOHN PATRICK BRENNAN.

The Rev. John Patrick Brennan, acting pastor of St. Edward's church of Cleveland, was born in Napoleon, Henry county, Ohio, December 24, 1866, a son of James Brennan, who was born in 1827 and died March 7, 1867. He was a soldier of the Civil war, enlisting from Ohio, and he recruited two companies, being later commissioned captain in the Army of the Tennessee. By profession he was a civil engineer and one of the additions of his town was named after the family, he helping to lay it out. He had participated in the rebellion of 1847 in Ireland, his native land, and therefore had to leave and eventually came to the United States in 1850. He married Mary Malone, who was born in 1846. She survives and is residing in Cleveland.

Father Brennan was educated in the parochial schools and at the same time learned telegraphy, so that at the age of fifteen years he was employed as oper- ator by the Wabash Railroad. At the age of eighteen, deciding upon becoming a priest, he entered Canisius College of Buffalo and later attended Xavier Col- lege at Cincinnati, while there starting a college paper which he continued to publish for a year after leaving. His final studies were pursued at St. Mary's Seminary at Cleveland, where he was ordained a priest, October 18, 1894, by Bishop Horstmann. He said his first mass October 19, that year. in St. Au -. gustine's church in Napoleon.

Father Brennan was then appointed assistant priest at Youngstown, where he remained for four and one-half years. At the expiration of this time he was sent to St. Edward's parish temporarily, but returned to St. Columba's church, Youngstown. On June 17, 1899, he came to St. Edward's church, Cleveland, as acting pastor. This parish is in charge of the Ohio Apostolate. There are six hundred families in the parish and five hundred sixty-seven pupils attend school. Ten teachers look after them and the course pursued in the school is an excellent one. The parish built a combination hall, theater and school. Both

the hall and theater have stages and there are thirteen schoolrooms. The build- ing cost forty thousand dollars including the foundation, while the heating plant and janitor's rooms cost eight thousand dollars additional. Two sixty horse- power boilers heat five buildings. The Sisters' house has twenty rooms and was built in 1905 at a cost of five thousand dollars. The parish house is a substantial one, and the parish itself is in good condition financially. The first mass was said here in 1863, but the parish was not organized until 1871, with Father Kuhn as first priest.

Father Brennan has been a writer for a number of years, contributing mainly to Catholic publications, especially to Benziger's Annual. Among other stories from his pen are: "The Lawyer's Counsel" and "In Honor of the Flag," the

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latter being partly founded on fact. He is the author of two plays: "Esther, the Persian Queen," in blank verse, and "Robert, the King." He still contrib- utes to newspapers and periodicals, and is at present editor of the "Cleveland Magazine." In 1907 he established St. Edward's Alumni Association, for which he wrote a ritual exemplifying three degrees. In 1909 he organized two com- panies of St. Edward's Cadets, armed as rough riders. He is a member of the Sons of Veterans, Camp Lookout, No. 466. His sister, Helen J. Brennan, is also a writer, contributing to the Ave Maria and a Buffalo paper. Father Bren- nan is a member of the Ohio Apostolate, but is not active in it except that he gives instructions twice a week to non-Catholics.

LORD MORTIMER COE.

Lord Mortimer Coe, whose life record was well rounded out to an old age, while his years were fraught with successful accomplishment in business and characterized by sterling traits that made his an honorable manhood and won him the respect and esteem of all who knew him, departed this life on the 2d day of August, 1909. He had for years figured prominently as the president of the City Forge & Iron Company and was thus closely associated with the iron trade of Cleveland, which has long been one of the most potent sources of Cleve- land's wealth and commercial power.

Mr. Coe was born in Penn Yan, New York, the 14th of November, 1828, and traced his ancestry in a direct line back to Robert Coe, who came to this country from England in 1630 and was one of the founders of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. His great-grandfather, also Robert Coe, was the second United States senator from Connecticut. His father, John Coe, a native of New York, served with the rank of colonel in the United States army. His mother, Mrs. Sabina (Orton) Coe, was also a representative of an old Connecticut family and a daughter of Colonel John Orton, of the regular army.

L. M. Coe received his education in a small school of Penn Yan, New York, and left home when a young man, going to Buffalo, New York, where he became an engineer on one of the first steamships on the lakes. Within the next five years he became financially interested in three or four freight vessels and was thus a factor in lake navigation until 1861, when he sold his vessel interests and in company with R. H. Harman, Albert Harman and George B. Ely, formed the Cleveland City Forge & Iron Company, of which he became general manager. He was in charge of the business continuously until the death of R. H. Harman in 1902, when he was elected to the presidency. He also extended his efforts to other lines, being for years a director of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company. He was a director of the Society for Savings and various other financial and commercial institutions which have constituted factors in the business activity of the city. He was at the time of his death a member of the advisory board of the Citizens Savings & Trust Company and was recognized as a man of sound business judgment, of keen discrimination and of the highest principle.

In 1873 Mr. Coe was married to Miss Lorinda Benton, a daughter of Curtis Benton, one of the representative business men of Cleveland in his day and prominently identified with the wholesale drug business. He gave his political allegiance to the republican party from its organization and served as a member of the city council during the Civil war. He held membership with the Chamber of Commerce and was interested in all movements for municipal progress to the extent of giving hearty cooperation thereto. He was well known as a mem- ber of the Country, Euclid, Cleveland Yacht and Castilia Trout Clubs, which indicated much of the nature of his interests and recreation, and his fellow members of these organizations considered him a most congenial companion. Until his last illness he was always active, progressive and at the front in civic

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matters. His death occurred at his home, 4719 Euclid avenue, having attained the age of eighty years in the previous November. He was well known as one of the pioneers in the iron trade in this city, long recognized as a forceful man in business circles, and the associations which bear upon the municipal progress and upon the welfare of the city in various lines of advancement. Mr. Coe was survived by his widow and son, Ralph M. Coe.

JOSEPH FRANKLIN HOBSON, M. D.

Dr. Joseph Franklin Hobson, one of the most prominent members of the medical profession in Cleveland, was born in Flushing, Belmont county, Ohio, on the 30th of August, 1861, his parents being Stephen and Margaret (Bailey) Hobson. The Hobson family is of English origin and the first representatives of the name in this country located at Watertown, Virginia, about 1700. Later the family was represented among the earliest settlers of Jefferson county, Ohio, Joseph Hobson, the grandfather of our subject, taking up his abode there toward the close of the eighteenth century. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Ruth Ball, had several brothers in the ranks of the Continental army. The maternal ancestors of Dr. Joseph F. Hobson were among the pioneer settlers of Belmont county, Ohio.

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A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume III, Part 95

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