A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 100

Author: Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, New York The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 904

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 100

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and Charles Wellman organized the Electric Controller & Supply Company, which has de- veloped into a large and important enterprise. Mr. McGeorge maintains offices at No. 1053 Leader-News Building.

On March 5, 1873, Mr. MeGeorge married Miss Ellen Sarah Reynolds, of Stockport, England, and they became the parents of nine children : Harold, who is an engineering sales- man ; Ernest, a consulting engineer of Cleve- land, whose sketch will appear on another page in this work; Herbert, who is chicf draughtsman for Chandler & Price, manufac- turers of printing machinery; William, who is engaged with the Park Drop Forge Com- pany ; and two sons and three daughters who are deceased. Mr. McGeorge lost his wife by death in the spring of 1917. He is a member of Victoria Alumni, the Cleveland Engineer- ing Club, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Knights of Pythias. Since 1896 he has been connected officially with Hough Avenue Congregational Church, and at present is a member of the building com- mittee thereof. In his profession he is recog- nized as one of the most talented and capable men in the country, a reputation built up alone upon merit and accomplishments.

F. WILLIAM STEFFEN has for many years been identified with the printing business and arts in Cleveland, part of the time as a journeyman and part of the time as propri- etor of a shop of his own. He has gained a higli position among typographical workers in this city, and is now and for a number of years has been secretary and treasurer of Cleveland Typographical Union No. 53.

Born in Cleveland November 5, 1868, he is a son of one of the early settlers of the city, Henry G. Steffen, who now at the age of eighty-four is still a resident of the city, his home being at 1780 East Twentieth Street. He was born in Germany in 1833 and came to the United States as a boy of seventeen in 1850. From that time forward for many years he was an industrious worker and busi- ness man in Cleveland, was a sash, door, blind and cabinet maker, and later had charge of the sewing machine department of the Kuntz Furniture Company. He is now retired from active responsibilities. Politically he has voted as a republican and is a member of the German Lutheran Church. Henry G. Stef- fen married Katherine Bruehler, who was born in Baden, Germany, in 1832, and died at Cleveland in 1915 at the age of eighty-

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three. They had a family of eight children, F. Williams being the sixth in age. Henry, the oldest, died at Cleveland at the age of twenty-two. Caroline is unmarried and is her father's housekeeper. Anna, who lives at her father's residence, is the widow of C. H. Fark, a Cleveland shoemaker who died in February, 1917. The daughter Katherine died at the age of fourteen years. Lillian is unmarried and lives with her father. George W. has a book binding establishment on Frankfort Avenue in Cleveland, and Ella, the youngest child, is the wife of J. J. Kis- siek, who has charge of the Division of Build- ings for the Board of Education of Cleve- land.

F. William Steffen grew up in Cleveland under normal conditions, and his early years were chiefly devoted to obtaining a common school education. He was a student in the public schools and also the Zion German Luth- eran School. At the age of fourteen he was confirmed, and soon afterward left school to learn the trade of book-binder. He served an apprenticeship of four years, following which he worked in various printing offices as a printer until 1901. That year he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Cleve- land Typographical Union No. 53, but in 1904 resigned as secretary-treasurer of Cleveland Typographical Union to engage in business for himself. In 1904 he organized The Acme Printing Company, which he sold in 1908. He then organized The Art Printing Com- pany, but after conducting this for two years again sold out. The next year he spent as an organizer for the International Typo- graphical Union, and in 1912 resumed his du- ties as secretary and treasurer of Union No. 53, with offices at 717 Superior Avenue.

Mr. Steffen is a member of the Cleveland Printers Club and is giving much of his time to the duties of his responsible office as a member of the present progressive Cleve- land Board of Education. He was elected to that post in November, 1915, and his four year term began in January, 1916. He is also a member of Cleveland Lodge No. 18. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; Cleveland Lodge No. 63, Loyal Order of Moose, and is a member of the Tippecanoe Club, an organization of local republicans.

J. W. WILSON, president and treasurer of the Wilson Florist Company, has an experi- ence covering thirty-five years in the garden- ing and greenhouse industry at Cleveland,

and is proprietor of one of the larger estab- lishments producing flowers for the general trade. His extensive greenhouses are famil- iarly known by all who pass along the Wood- worth Road near One Hundred and Forty- first Street.

Mr. Wilson comes of a family of gardeners and landscape artists. He was born in Coun- ty Down, Ireland, September 22, 1868. He is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and a number of generations back there was a common ances- tor from whom his own family are descended and also that of President Woodrow Wilson. His father, James Wilson, was born in County Down in 1834. He was a skilled and highly famed gardener, and after coming to the United States in 1878 and locating in Cleve- land was employed in his business in Gor- don Park for many years. He died in Cleve- land in 1906. As a voter he was an independ- ent republican, and was a very active sup- porter and member of the First Glenville Methodist Episcopal Church. He also be- longed to the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. James Wilson married Nancy MeBur- ney, who was born in County Down in 1833 and died at Cleveland in 1908. They had five children : William, who resides at Bra- tenahl and for the past thirty years has been a gardener at the large Cottingham grounds; J. W .; A. B. Wilson, who owns greenhouses at Painesville, Ohio; R. A. Wilson, a farmer at Mentor, Ohio; and C. A. Wilson, who lives at Mentor and for many years was gardener for Horace Andrews and is now employed in the same capacity by D. C. Norton.

Mr. J. W. Wilson was ten years old when his parents came to Cleveland and here he finished his education in the public schools. He began work at the age of fourteen, and ever since has been connected with some of the practical phases of gardening and green- house management. He established his first greenhouse in 1893 on Eddy Road, but in 1908 removed to his present location on Woodworth Road, and now has greenhouses covering two acres. He has one of the chief businesses of its kind in Cleveland and sup- plies a large part of the market for cut flowers and potted plants in Cleveland and vicinity.

Mr. Wilson is a democrat in politics. As a resident of the suburb of Glenville he has served on the school board and on the health board. He is a member of Woodworth Lodge Free and Accepted Masons and the Royal Arcanum.

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His home is at 14H3 Woodworth Road. Mr. Wilson married at Cleveland in 1896 Miss Nellie Sutherland, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Sutherland, the latter now deceased. Her father is a retired machinist now living in California. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have one son, Kenneth, born January 22, 1897, a grad- uate of the Technical High School of Cleve- land and now assisting his father in the florist business.

GEORGE W. VAN CAMP. The Van Camp Varnish Company. Van Camp varnishes have a recognized standard of quality and ex- cellence all over the United States. Various brands made by the company have been wide- ly advertised, and contribute their share to the growing fame of Cleveland as the center of the paint and varnish industry.

The Van Camp family, in fact, have been pioneers in that business in Cleveland. The father of Mr. Van Camp was the late Elijah Van Camp, who for many years was a prom- inent official in the Cleveland Varnish Com- pany. The Van Camp ancestors came from Holland to New Amsterdam about the time of Peter Stuyvesant. Originally the name was spelled Van Campen. A forefather of the present Cleveland family was Major Van Campen, who fought as a soldier and officer in the War of the Revolution.

Elijah Van Camp was born in New York State in 1831. His father, Jared Van Camp, lived in the Chemung Valley of New York, and in that locality Elijah grew to manhood and acquired his education in the public schools. As a young man he came to Cleve- land in 1854 and for abont eighteen years was in the employ of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company as a locomotive engineer. He was one of the most careful and trasted engineers with the company. He gave un railroading to become identified with the Forest City Varnish Oil & Naptha Co. and was with that pioneer organization until 1881. In the meantime he acquired a thorough knowledge of all branches of varnish manu- facture. In 1881 he and William Roeder organized the Cleveland Varnish Company. This was developed to one of the biggest con- eerns of its kind in the country. Elijah Van Camp remained as its vice president for twenty-six years, and it was his effective management, liis vital force in making new plans for the growth and expansion of the business, that had much to do with its splendid prosperity and success,

For forty years before his death, which oceurred July 2, 1907, Elijah Van Camp made his home at what is now 2109 East 40th Street, but erected a new residenee on that site in 1891. He was a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce and greatly interested in the growth and development of Cleveland and always willing to lend his aid to any substan- tial project. He and his wife were very ac- tive and supporting members of the First Baptist Church. A well deserved tribute to his life and character was the following : "He was ever faithful to duty, whether of a pub- lie or private nature, and no trust reposed in him was ever betrayed to the slightest de- gree. He knew that infinitely preferable to wealth, fame or position was his own self respect and the merited esteem of his fellow men, and while he gained a ereditable place in manufacturing cireles he never sacrifieed his ideals concerning right or wrong to any desire for prosperity. Moreover, his sueeess was attributable to his own efforts, for he worked his way upward along well defined lines of trade, his interests growing in volume and importance as the years passed. His lead- ing characteristies were ever of a sterling quality and won for him the favorable posi- tion which he occupied in the regard of friends and business associates."

Elijah Van Camp married at Corning, New York, in 1854, Margaret Revill, who was born in New York State in 1836 and died at Cleve- land in 1916. Her father was a native of New York State and was killed in battle while a soldier of the Union army during the Civil war. The Revill family is a very old one in America, dating baek several centuries. Eli- jah Van Camp and wife had the following ehildren : Nellie, wife of L. E. Green, who is manager of mannfaeturing interests in Brook- lyn, New York; Lillie, wife of A. Weiden- kopf, a salesman living at Cleveland; Mar- garet, who died in 1906, wife of George Rose ; George W .; and Fred. who is connected with a manufacturing company in New Jersey.

Georg( W. Van Camp was born at Cleve- land in October, 1873, and was liberally edu- eated, attending grammar and high schools at Cleveland, a military school at Woreester, Massachusetts, for a year and a half, and in 1894 completing a course in the Institute of Technology at Worcester. On returning to Cleveland he entered the varnish business and his work and interests have been steadily along that one line of industry ever since. In 1913 he organized the Van Camp Varnish Com-

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pany and established its plant at 4476-4486 East 71st Street. The present brick struc- ture housing most of the offices and plant was constructed in 1913. Van Camp varnishes are well known to the trade, the market ex- tending all over the United States.

Mr. Van Camp is a republican in politics. He has an interesting military record, having served with the Cleveland troops of the First Ohio Cavalry for a period of twelve years. He was a member of the organization when the Spanish-American war broke out, and was commissioned captain and went to Tampa, Florida, serving from April, 1898, to the close. of the war. He is a member of the Spanish- American War Veterans' Association and the Military Order of Foreign Wars. Mr. Van Camp also belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland Athletic Club.

Mr. Van Camp married at Cleveland in 1916 Miss Sarah Goldstein, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Goldstein. Mrs. Van Camp was born in Southern Ohio.

WILLIAM L. HEIDELOFF is a man who has been much of his active life identified with Cleveland business and to some extent with its public affairs. He is secretary of The Cuyahoga Rendering & Soap Company at 808 Denison Avenue.

He was born in Cleveland June 28, 1872. Ilis father, Henry Heideloff, who was born at Cassel, Germany, in 1843, was educated in the old country and came to America at the age of sixteen, spending a few months at Baltimore and arriving at Cleveland in 1850. He was a carriage and wagon maker by trade and was one of the old time employes of the widely known firm of Rauch & Lang Carriage Company at Cleveland. He continued to fol- low his trade more than half a century, retir- ing in 1911. He died in Cleveland in 1915. He began voting as a demoerat but eventually turned over to the republican party. He was a member of the Evangelical Church at Bridge Avenue and was affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. Henry Heideloff mar- ried Margaret Eyring, who was born in Ger- many in 1849 and died at Cleveland in 1913. A brief record of their four children is: George C., a patrolman with the Cleveland police force living on Riverside Avenue: Con- rad, a finisher and painter who died at Cleve- land in 1917 ; William L., and Elizabeth, wife of Alvin Kieselbach, living on Lineoln Ave-

nue in Lakewood, Mr. Kieselbach being con- nected with the Zimmerman Company.

William L. Heideloff attended the public schools through the grammar grades, and for four years was in the Spencerian Business College, from which he graduated in 1888. Then followed a long employment of twenty years with A. J. Wenhams Sons, the well known wholesale grocery house of Cleveland. He left that firm with an honorable and effi- cient record to take the position of chief clerk of the water connection department in the City Hall during the administration of Mayor Baehr.

On April 29, 1912, Mr. Heideloff joined The Cuyahoga Rendering & Soap Company as bookkeeper and accountant and from those responsibilities has been promoted to secre- tary. The plant and offices are at 808 Deni- son Avenne. This is a general rendering and soap manufacturing plant, one of the impor- tant industries of Cleveland in this line em- ploying about 100 men in the different depart- ments, while its products are shipped all over the United States.

Mr. Heideloff is a republican voter, is af- filiated with Ellsworth Lodge Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Hillman Chapter. Royal Arch Masons; Riverside Lodge Knights of Pythias, belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, and the Cleveland Commercial Travelers Association. His home, which he owns, is at 3220 Library Avenue. He mar- ried at Cleveland in 1894 Miss Amelia Loff, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Loff, both now deceased. Two children have been born to their marriage, Clayton H., born June 20, 1895, is a graduate of the LineoIn High School of Cleveland and is now enrolled with the National Army in the grade of sergeant ; and Henry, born October 23, 1905.

J. HAMILTON MILLAR. Among the repre- sentative business men of Cleveland today, the banking interests find in J. Hamilton Mil- lar, eashier of the University School, an ex- ample of financial ability and high and trust- worthy character. He has served with honor in both public and private capacities, and has a military record covering twenty-three years, of which he may well be proud.

J. Hamilton Millar was born in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 26, 1850. His parents were James and Sybilla C. (Jack- son) Millar. James Millar was of French de- scent but his birth took place in England, in

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1819, and his death occurred at Philadelphia, in 1868. He came to the United States and located at Philadelphia in early manhood, and there became an accountant. He was married to Sybilla C. Jackson, who was born in Lan- caster County, Pennsylvania, and died at Philadelphia in 1888. They had the follow- ing children : Robert Nicholas, who died when fourteen years old; J. Hamilton, who was so frail in health in his youth that his parents feared he would not outlive boyhood; Wil- liam S., who is a very prominent citizen of Seranton, Pennsylvania, for fifteen years be- ing postmaster and for twenty succeeding years an alderman, and at present is agent for the Government Industrial Commission ; Mardula, who died young; Sallie, who died in Philadelphia, was the wife of Thomas Wynn, who is librarian of the library at Hessian- ville, which is a suburb of Philadelphia; and Maggie B. and Eli, both of whom died in youth. These children were reared in the Episcopal Church.

When twelve years old, J. H. Millar was taken out of school by his solicitous parents because of his delicate health, and he spent the next three years on a farm and during that time grew strong and sturdy. He did not return to school, however, but on the other hand began to be self supporting and worked as a newsboy on the Pennsylvania Railroad for about seven months. In a posi- tion of that kind, a steady, quick-witted youth acquires a large amount of practical knowl- edge and this was the case with Mr. Millar and that he was capable of properly using knowledge thus gained was proved by his ap- pointment as superintendent of the Union News Company on the above road, and his remaining there for seven years earning and receiving many promotions until he became an auditor for the company. Later he was appointed superintendent of the home office of the railway division with which he had so long been connected, from which he retired in 1898 to enter the war with Spain. Mr. Millar became a resident of Cleveland in 1883, upon his retirement from the office of audi- tor, and this city has been his home ever since.

Mr. Millar's military career began on March 27, 1893, when he enlisted as a pri- vate in Troop A, Ohio National Guards. His first promotion was to corporal and on March 17, 1904, he was appointed quartermaster- sergeant of this troop and was honorably dis- charged March 27, 1908. His troop was called out for service in the Spanish-Ameri-

can war and he was sent to Lakeland, Florida. Ile re-enlisted in the Guards on March 26, 1911, and was retired May 5, 1911, with a commission of second lientenant of cavalry and was placed on the retired list of officers on June 6, 1913. In addition to regular war service, Mr. Millar was called out on many occasions when rioters had to be dispelled and when order had to be preserved during strikes and on one occasion to disperse the night-rid- ers in Kentucky troubles.

After returning from the Spanish-Ameri- can war, Mr. Millar returned to Cleveland and went with the Pickands-Mather Company, in the Western Reserve Building, Cleveland, and was cashier at the N. Y. P. N. O. dock un- til 1911, in which year he accepted his pres- ent position, that of cashier of the University School.

Mr. Millar was married first in 1874, in Philadelphia, to Miss Elizabeth Meyers, who died at Cleveland in 1903. They had two chil- dren : Joseph H., who resides at Lakewood, Ohio, and is on the stock exchange, repre- senting the Hayden Miller Company; and Daisey C., who is the wife of Laurence P. Bas- sett, who is president of the Forman-Bassett Company, wholesale stationers and printers. Mr. Millar was married second, June 23, 1917, to Miss Hermine Root, who was born at To- ledo, Ohio. The beautiful family residence is at Euclid Heights.

In politics Mr. Millar has always been a republican. Since 1883 he has been a mem- ber of Trinity Episcopal Church, at Cleve- land, unostentatiously contributing to its many worthy movements and quietly but helpfully giving to its faithful rector the practical kind of encouragement that never comes amiss in a large parish.

HARVEY E. VOLMAR. The most substantial men in business and affairs are with few ex- ceptions those who have grown with their op- portunities and have shown widening capacity with each successive step and change in their relation to the business world. One of the business men of Cleveland whose career may be indicated by a successive progress through different connections and positions is Harvey E. Volmar, auditor for the Upson Nut Com- pany and president of the Volmar Realty Company.

Mr. Volmar was born in Cleveland July 4, 1881, was educated in the rural schools of Cuyahoga County and in 1898 graduated from the Euclid Avenue Business College. The

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subsequent period of twenty years he has utilized is thus briefly noted: One year as bookkeeper with the Newburg Reduction Com- pany; a brief employment with the South Cleveland Banking Company ; six months as clerk with Peck & Flick Provision Company ; then beginning as cost clerk with the Otis Steel Company was promoted to paymaster, an office he filled until 1909 ; with Ernst-Ernst Public Accountants as accountant until 1911; one year with the Penton Publishing Com- pany; and in March, 1912, coming with the Upson Nut Company as auditor. Ilis offices are at 1912 Scranton Road.

Mr. Volmar's great-grandfather came from France and established the family in this country nearly a century ago. The grand- father, Gustav Volmar, was born in 1835, and as a young man came to Cuyahoga County and spent his life here as a farmer. He died at Cleveland in 1907. Gustav married Har- riet Sawyer, a native of Vermont.

Julius E. Volmar, father of Harvey E., was born in Newburg Township of Cuyahoga County in 1857, and has spent .all his life in that locality. For twenty-five years he was a teamster and was with the Otis Steel Company for fourteen years. He retired in 1918 and is now living in Newburg Heights Village. He is a member of the Miles Park Presbyterian Church and is a democratic voter. He married Catherine Cartwright, who was born in Cincinnati in 1860. Of their family of children Harvey E. is the oldest. Estella is the wife of Clarence Nie- mann, an electrician in Cleveland; Emma is the wife of Bayard Kiddle, with the Forbes Varnish Company of Cleveland; Elsie is un- married and lives with her parents; William is a wood pattern worker in Cleveland.

Mr. Harvey E. Volmar is affiliated with Ashlar Lodge No. 639, Free and Accepted Masons and with the Independent Order of Foresters. He is an independent democrat in politics. He built his home at 3807 Har- vard Avenue in 1914. Mr. Volmar married at Cleveland in 1906 Miss Lillian Heimberger, daughter of August and Katherine (Gross) Heimberger, the former now deceased and the latter still living in Cleveland. Her fa- ther was a patrolman. Mr. and Mrs. Volmar have one son, Harvey, born June 28, 1907.

EDWIN A. KAMERER is senior member of the firm Kamerer & Benes, the leading merchant tailors of Cleveland. It is a business of long and steady growth having been established

by Mr. Kamerer over a quarter of a century ago. For forty years or more he has been ac- tively identified with the clothing business or dry goods trade, and has filled every position from clerk to traveling salesman and propri- etor of a business of his own.

Mr. Kamerer is a native of the rugged and historical section of Western Pennsylvania, Mercer County, and was born at Greenville in that county December 15, 1853. His an- cestors, the Kamerers, were originally Hol- landers and came to America in pioneer times. The grandfather, Jacob Kamerer, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and died in Mercer County in 1859 at the age of eighty-six. He went to Mercer County as a pioneer and acquired about 600 acres of the heavily timbered land of that section. He gave each of his five sons, Samuel, Daniel, Joseph, Simon and Levi, a farm of 100 acres, and still kept 100 acres for himself.

Joseph Kamerer, father of the Cleveland merchant, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1814 and went as a boy with his parents to Mercer County, where he later occupied and developed the 100 acres given him by his father. Much of it was cleared by the labor of his own hands, and he was one of the most prosperous farmers of that section for many years. He died at Green- ville in April, 1867. Politically lie was a dem- ocrat, which was the prevailing politics of the county, and was an active member and supporter of the German Reform Church. In Mercer County he married Susan Christman. She was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1819, and died in Mereer County in 1907. when at advanced age. Her children were : Sarah, who never married and died at Green- ville at the age of sixty-nine; Reuben, who was a farmer and died at Greenville; Eliza, wife of John Fisher, a carpenter, living at Conneautville, Pennsylvania ; Jacob, a farmer who died at Greenville; Lydia, who lives at Greenville, widow of James Deifenderfer, a farmer who died in 1912; William, a retired resident of Greenville; Edwin A .; Charles, who died at Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of fifty-three; and Arminda, the youngest and ninth child, who died at the age of five years.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 100

Author: Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935; Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, New York The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 904

Author: Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, New York The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 904