A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 13

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 13

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ANSON W. BEMAN practiced law in Cleve- land for over thirty years and was widely known as a citizen and business man.

A son of Anson and Clarissa (Wheelock) Beman, he was born on a farm near Ravenna, Ohio, July 13, 1834. The active period of his life covered nearly forty years and he died at his home in Cleveland November 4, 1903, at the age of sixty-nine.

He was educated in the public schools of Ravenna and Hudson, and also attended for a time the Western Reserve University. His law studies were carried on under the direc- tion of two prominent members of the Ravenna bar, Hon. Alphonso Hart and Judge Conant. His admission to the bar occurred May 7, 1863, and he was admitted to practice in the United States courts in 1865. Mr. Beman began practice at Ravenna in the firm of Willard and Beman, but in 1870 removed his home and offices to Cleveland, where he was a member of the firm Eddy, Gaylord & Beman and later Beman & Cowin. For thirteen years before his death he was alone in practice and in the real estate business. Mr. Beman handled many important real estate deals in the city. As representative for the Leland family, prom- inent Chicago hotel owners, he sold the grounds to the Catholic Church and to the city govern- ment which were subsequently developed as Calvary Cemetery and Garfield Park. On ac- count of failing health he retired from busi- ness more than a year before his death. His body was returned for burial to his old home at Ravenna.

Mr. Beman was elected a member of the Board of Education of Cleveland and served during 1889-91. By appointment from Goy- ernor James E. Campbell he was a member of the State Board of Equalization in 1891. In the same year he was nominated for the State Senate on the democratic ticket, but went to defeat with the entire ticket. While on the board of education Mr. Beman secured the erection of the Miles Park School and the

purchase of the land for the South High School.

Mr. Beman was the type of citizen whose usefulness would be valued in any community : With ability as a lawyer and business man, went a splendid integrity of character, which made him a force for good in the community. In its early history he was an active worker for the Humane Society of Cleveland, and for several years served as its attorney.

On December 30, 1873, he married Miss Clara E. Williams. Her father, Cyrus Wil- liams, who died when she was one year old, was a civil engineer and lived at Ohio City (the west side). His name is found in the first Cleveland city directory of 1837 as a member of the city council. Mrs. Beman's stepfather was G. A. Hyde, for fifty years general superintendent of the Cleveland Gas Light & Coke Company.

A. W. Beman and wife reared a family of children of exceptional attainments and ac- complishments. Their names were Lytton S., Lamar T., Edith I., Ethel E., Lynn W. and Lois E. All the children have taught school at some time in their careers. Lytton S. was formerly principal of the Elementary Indus- trial School of Cleveland and is now a teacher in the Glenville High School. He resides with his family at 10606 Pasadena Avenue in Cleve- land, and by his marriage to Olive Dutnall has two sons. The daughter, Edith I., is a gradnate of the Western Reserve College for Women, also attended the University of Chi- cago and the University of Michigan one sum- mer in each, and is now a teacher in the High School of Commerce of Cleveland. Ethel E. is a graduate of the Cleveland South High School, the Cleveland Normal Training School and is a teacher in the Bolton School of that city. Lynn W., a graduate of the Cleveland South High School and the Bradley Poly- technic Institute at Peoria, Illinois, is a teacher in the Glenville High School. Lois E. gradu- ated from the Cleveland South High School, spent three years in the Western Reserve Uni- versity College for Women, is a graduate of the Cleveland Normal Training School, spent two summer quarters in the University of Chicago, and is now a teacher in the May- flower School of Cleveland.

LAMAR T. BEMAN, present director of the Department of Public Welfare at Cleveland, is a man unusually alert to the opportunities and the needs and problems of American life.

Lamar T. Beman

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

He is still young, but it is doubtful if any man in Cleveland could be found better qualified and fortified by a varied experience and re- search for the duties of his present position.

Mr. Beman is an attorney, was formerly a teacher, is a student and writer. His liberal education was superimposed upon sound na- tural ability and talent inherited in part from a most worthy American ancestry. The Bemans have been Americans since 1764. He is a son of the late Anson W. Beman, a promi- nent Cleveland attorney whose sketch appears on other pages.

Lamar T. Beman was born June 2, 1877. His early education was acquired in the Miles Park School, from which he graduated in 1893. During the following year he attended the Central High School, and from 1894 until his graduation in 1897 was a student in the South High School. He was a student of Adelbert College from 1897 to 1901, when he graduated A. B., and during the following year was in the Ohio State University, re- ceiving the degree Master of Arts in 1902. Mr. Beman was a graduate student of Western Reserve University from 1903 to 1906, and spent the summer sessions of 1907-08 in the University of Wisconsin. He was graduated LL. B. in 1915 from the Cleveland Law School and admitted to the bar the same year.

Like his brothers and sisters, he was for many years actively engaged in educational work. From 1902 to 1915 he was connected with the faculty of the East High School. Politically he has always been a republican, and in 1912 was nominated for the State Legislature, but was defeated on account of the split in the party that year. He was ap- pointed and took up his duties as director of the Public Welfare January 1, 1916. Besides his other qualifications Mr. Beman has dis- tinguished himself in his official administra- tion by his courtesy and his thorough under- standing of people as well as practical prob- lems.

Mr. Beman is author of "Compulsory Arbi- tration of Industrial Disputes," published in 1911 in the Debaters Handbook Series, and of "Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic," published in the same series in 1916. Nearly every high school student and college worker is familiar with this valuable debaters series. His first work on compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes is found in a volume of 147 pages, containing selected articles on both sides of this subject. The third edition of this book has just been issued [1917]. For the Prohibi-

tion Handbook Mr. Beman filed a large num- ber of quotations with a view to presenting fully and fairly the case for and against prohibition. He selected the best of what has been written and exercised his editorial judg- ment to keep out everything that is of a bitter or passionate nature. In presenting the case for prohibition he quoted the opinions of such men as Frank J. Hanly, Robert G. Ingersoll, William J. Bryan and Arthur Capper. On the other side the opinions are expressed by such men as Hugo Munsterberg, William H. Taft, Oscar W. Underwood and Hugh F. Fox, A second and revised edition of this Hand- book has just been published by the H. W. Wilson Company of New York City. This contains a selected bibliography and affirma- tive and negative briefs, the entire book con- taining 237 pages.

In 1916 Mr. Beman was professor of Con- stitutional Law at the Rufus P. Ranney Law School. He is a member of the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Alpha Tau Omega and Delta Theta Phi legal fraternities, and also the honorary debating fraternity, the Delta Sigma Rho. In Masonry his local con- nections are with Meridian Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Cleveland Chapter No. 148, Royal Arch Masons. Mr. Beman is a charter member of the City Club and a mem- ber of the American Political Science Associa- tion and the American Economic Association, also the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Miles Park Presbyterian Church. Mr. Beman is unmarried.

LEE CLARK CURTISS. When The Guardian Savings and Trust Company of Cleveland were constructing their magnificent new home known as the Guardian Building, they called from the East as superintendent of construc- tion a building engineer of wide and capable experience for many years connected with the firm of McKim, Mead & White, architects of New York City. Since the completion of the Guardian Building Mr. Lee C. Curtiss has remained in Cleveland and is member of the firm The Craig-Curtiss Company, general contractors, with offices in the Guardian Building. This company was incorporated February 24, 1917. Mr. Curtiss was born in New York City February 8, 1879, a son of George Brooks and Laura M. (Clark) Cur- tiss, both of whom are of old Connecticut ancestry, where the families have lived for generations. His father was born in South- ington, Connecticut, and his mother in Hart-

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

ford. They were married in New York City. George B. Curtiss received his degree B. A. from Yale College in 1863, and for about five years was a teacher in the Southington Acad- emy in Connecticut. He then entered the wholesale hardware business at New York City and founded the George B. Curtiss Com- pany, located on Chamber Street. He was one of the leading hardware merchants of that city for over forty years, and he died in New York City in February, 1911. His wife died in November, 1905, and both were laid to rest at Southington, Connecticut. At their respective deaths the father was sixty-seven and the mother fifty-five. George B. Cur- tiss while living in New York City was twice a candidate on the republican ticket for Con- gress, but was defeated owing to the large normal majority of the democrats in his dis- trict. George B. Curtiss had an only sister, who died quite young, while his wife was an only child. Thus Lee C. Curtiss has neither aunts, uncles or first cousins, and his imme- diate relatives are his brother and three sis- ters, there being five in the family. George L., the oldest, is manager of The Southington Cutlery Company in Southington, Connecti- cut: Agnes Isabel is the wife of H. M. Mc- Callum, of Yonkers, New York; Julia H. is the wife of Andrew H. Green Evans, of New York City; the fourth in age is Lee C .; and Laura T. is still a resident of New York City.

Lee Clark Curtiss, the only member of the family living in Ohio, was educated in the public and private schools of New York and in 1901 graduated with the degree Civil En- gineer from Dartmouth College. For about two years he was connected with the engi- neering department of the Manhattan Ele- vated Railway Company, now the Metropoli- tan Street Railway Company of New York City. He then joined the firm of McKim, Mead & White and remained with them in various capacities for ten years, following which for two years he was building superin- tendent of the Canadian Pacific Railway Com- pany with headquarters at Montreal.

In January, 1915, Mr. Curtiss came to Cleveland as superintendent of construction for the New Guardian Building and contin- ued on duty until that, one of the finest downtown office and bank buildings in Cleve- land, was complete. He and Mr. George L. Craig then established the present company, and both of them being men of wide ex- perience and highest connections have been

accorded an exceptional amount of business for so young a firm.

Mr. Curtiss is a charter member of Fern- brook Lodge No. 898, Free and Accepted Ma- sons, at Yonkers, New York; member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and Cal- vary Presbyterian Church of Cleveland. In school and college days he was athletic, play- ing on baseball and football teams, and also tennis, and in a general way has kept up an active interest in outdoor sports.

In New York City September 12, 1906, he married Miss Elise Duval Henderson, of Nash- ville, Tennessee, where she was born. She was educated chiefly in New York City, being a. graduate of the Morris High School there. She is a daughter of S. J. and Jennie M. (McNairy) Henderson. Her father was for a number of years a prominent lawyer at Nashville but died in New York City in 1907. Her mother is still living at Nashville. Mr. and Mrs. Curtiss, who reside at 2256 Bell- field Avenue, have two daughters, Elizabeth Lee, born in Yonkers, New York, and Mar- garet Duval, born in Cleveland.

FRANK ASBURY ARTER, a retired resident and business man of Cleveland, became ac- tively identified more than fifty years ago with the petroleum oil industry, when it was in its infancy. For a long period of years he was actively associated with the leaders in that business and at the same time acquired many other large interests, some of which he still holds, though largely in a nominal capacity.

Mr. Arter was born at Hanoverton, Colum- biana County, Ohio, March 8, 1841, a son of David and Charlotte (Laffer) Arter. He ac- quired a liberal education and attended that fine old Methodist institution known as Alle- gheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he graduated A. B. in 1864 and A. M. in 1865. Soon after leaving college in 1866 he entered the oil industry and only retired from it in 1907. He still keeps an office in the Schofield Building at Cleveland, but only to look after his private interests.

Mr. Arter is a director of the First Na- tional Bank, The Cleveland Life Insurance Company, and The Land Title Abstract Com- pany. For a great many years he has used his means and personal influence to promote the welfare of his old alma mater Allegheny College. He is also a director of St. Luke's Hospital and is one of the prominent laymen of the Methodist Episcopal Church, being

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

treasurer of the Superanuuates Fund Associa- tion of the Northeast Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served as a lay delegate to the General Conferences of 1888, 1896, 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1916. Mr. Arter has given generously of his means to educational and benevolent objects.

He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and the Phi Kappa Psi college fraternities, of Union Club, Colonial Club, Wickliffe-on-Lake Club, and Willowick Country Club. Politi- cally he is a republican.

Mr. Arter resides in Shaker Heights Vil- lage. He married Eliza Kingsley, daughter of Bishop, Calvin Kingsley of Cleveland. They have three children: Mary Alice, the widow of the late Fred L. Taft, a prominent Cleveland lawyer and former member of the law firm Smith, Taft, Arter & Smith; Fran- ces Blanche, Mrs. Lewis E. Myers, of Cleve- land; and Charles K. Arter, a prominent young lawyer of the Cleveland bar.

HOWARD BLACKETT. Now settled in the con- genial routine of a profitable law practice, head of the firm Blackett & Elsner, with of- fices in the Guardian Building, Howard Blackett has as the background of his profes- sional life an exceedingly varied and inter- esting experience. He began to practice the gospel of self help when a boy, and he knows the world and men through the avenues of experience.

His birth occurred in Macomb County, Michigan, October 22, 1885. He is a son of Alfred Thomas and Madeline (George) Black- ett. The farm where he spent his boyhood was acquired in pioneer times by his grand- father, Thomas Blackett, who came from Eng- land and settled in Southern Michigan when all was a wilderness and when the Indians were still numerous there. Alfred T. Black- ett was born on the same farm as his son Howard, while his wife was born in the same county about two miles east at a place known as Fridayguest. She is of German stock, while the paternal line is Scotch-English. Al- fred T. Blackett had a public school education and was a graduate of the Michigan Agricul- tural College. His vocation has been farm- ing, and always on scientific and efficient lines. In Macomb County he had 150 acres, and was regarded as one of the most prosperous and methodical agriculturists in that section. Besides rearing a large family of sixteen chil- dren he made what might be regarded as a small fortune through his farming activities,

estimated at $40,000. In 1909 he sold his Michigan property and moved to Summer- dale, Alabama, twenty miles west of l'ensa- cola, Florida. Pensacola is his market town. There he acquired a section of southern land in the coast country. This land he has de- veloped and worked on the same high class plan which prevailed on his Michigan farm. He has put into practice intensive and mixed farming. In the way of fruit he has 2,000 fig trees, twenty-two acres of oranges, mulber- ries, and his chief product is sugar cane. He also raises cotton and rice, and in 1916 he produced 15,000 bushels of potatoes.

He is a republican, and in Michigan served as school director and county assessor. The sixteen children comprised six daughters and ten sons, and all of them grew up and are still living except two sons, who died at the respec- tive ages of four and three months. Some of these are now in Detroit, others with their father on the plantation, and Howard is the only one in Ohio.

While a boy on the Michigan farm Howard Blackett attended the public schools. There was in him a zest for adventure which could not be satisfied in the narrow environment of a Michigan homestead, and at the age of fourteen he left home and enlisted in the navy. He was in the naval service nearly four years. The last 11/2 years he was as- signed to the Hospital Corps and for about a year was at the northernmost naval station in the United States, Kittery, Maine. For some time he was also in the Boston Naval Hospital, and on leaving the navy he was employed as a male nurse in the Boston City Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hos- pital of Boston While there he managed to make up the deficiencies of his earlier educa- tion, one winter attending the high school at Cambridge, Massachusetts. His liberal education has come largely as a matter of ex- perience. He has taken courses through the International Correspondence School of Scranton and the Spencerian Commercial College of Cleveland. For about two years he lived at Buffalo, New York, where part of the time he was conductor on the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Suburban Line, and the last year was timekeeper and cost clerk for the Century Telephone Construction Company.

On May 1, 1908, Mr. Blackett arrived in Cleveland from Bulaffo. His first position here was as bookkeeper and cashier of The Cleveland Athletic Club. He secured this po- sition through Victor Sincere, general man-

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

ager of The Bailey Company of Cleveland, for whom Mr. Blackett has since entertained the highest degree of respect and admiration. He was cashier of the club two years, and while there he took preparatory work in the high school of the Baldwin-Wallace Univer- sity, and he also studied law in the Cleveland Law School, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1913 and admitted to the Ohio bar on June 27th of the same year. While studying law he also worked as assistant credit man and manager of the claim department of The Halle Brothers Company of Cleveland.

After his admission to the bar Mr. Blackett began practice with the firm of Bartholomew, Leeper & White, but on October 1, 1916, began practice for himself. March 1, 1917, he asso- ciated with himself Sidney E. Elsner, under the firm name of Blackett & Elsner. Their chief practice is commercial and corporation work. Mr. Blackett has also been admitted to practice in the Federal courts.

He is treasurer of the Cleveland United States Naval Club, is a member of General Garretson Camp No. 4, Spanish American War Veterans at Cleveland, and the Cleve- land Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Bar Association, the Young Men's Christian As- sociation, and Britannia Lodge No. 38, Sons of St. George. While living in Buffalo he was a member of Company E of the Seventy- fourth New York National Guards.

Mr. Blackett and family reside at 2621 East One Hundred Thirtieth Street. Aside from business he finds his chief recreation in gar- dening and in flowers and in a happy family life. He married at Cleveland November 1, 1908, Miss Margaret E. Nally. She was born in Cleveland, was educated in the public and commercial schools, and is a daughter of Martin W. and Margaret (McGrath) Nally, who were born and married in Ireland and came to Cleveland thirty-four years ago. Her father has throughout this time been car in- spector for the Standard Oil Company on the Cleveland West Side. Mr. and Mrs. Black- ett have three children: Howard William, Kenneth Emery and Patricia Marie, all of whom were born in Cleveland.

H. W. BEATTIE, diamond merchant in the Arcade on Euclid Avenue, has been in that business in this city for about thirty years, and has been identified with the jewelry busi- ness in general lines since early youth and for the past eleven years has been an exclusive diamond merchant.

The Beattie store is not a large one, since obviously precious stones do not require the space for display that other merchantable commodities do. But, notwithstanding, the Beattie establishment probably attracts more attention daily from the citizens of Cleveland than any other place of business. The unique window displays have no doubt been a large factor in the popularity of the establishment. Every day thousands of dollars worth of un- mounted jewels are used in making up popular emblems and designs in the center of the win- dow. This window is heavily barred with steel inside, affording protection to displays which frequently are valued at many thousands of dollars. The American flag is one of the most popular designs with Mr. Beattie. In the lat- ter part of May the largest display ever at- tempted showed a design of the flag made by using oriental rubies, sapphires and diamonds. The flag was about 3 by 2 inches and the pole about 6 inches high. The gems represented in the ensemble were valued at $10,000. Un- der the design Mr. Beattie laid out amethysts to spell "The Stars and Stripes Forever." These designs vary from day to day, and even some of our national men have been portrayed. Both Washington and Lincoln have been used as subjects in these designs, and artists abroad have complimented Mr. Beattie on the artistic manner in which he has made his displays.

Recently another patriotic sign made of un- set stones composed the colors red, white and blue. The gems were laid in the effect of a badge from which hung the words "Enlist." Never a day passes but what something attrac- tive is to be found in the Beattie display win- dow.

Concerning this small and exclusive store a local journal recently published a column article, from which it is appropriate to quote some of the paragraphs :

To a Cleveland diamond merchant is given the credit of displaying a small fortune in precious stones every business day in the year, and this merchant is attracting more attention than ever these days because of the patriotic fervor that is sweeping the City of Cleveland. According to traveling men his displays have never been equalled by anyone in the country. Mr. Beattie's son, Reveley G. Beattie, is him- self an artist and is associated with his father. They deal in nothing but gennine precious stones of all kinds, and their motto is: "We Sell Perfect Diamonds Only." For years past the Beattie window, which marks the entrance to one of the smallest retail stores in Cleveland,

ANH Beattie

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

has been the mecca for all who appreciate the novel and the fine. The reason is the designs shown in this window. Upon backgrounds of various colors as a foundation the pic- ture is created in diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, pearls and other stones. Nothing else is shown in the window and hence the at- tention of the onlookers is riveted upon the designs, and this in turn creates a desire to possess precious stones. These designs differ according to seasons and new events. One in February, 1917, attracted unusual attention on account of the break with Germany and the United States. The display was based upon this national event, and was kept on view two days instead of one as is the usual rule. One of the pictures presented was Uncle Sam, probably one of the most expensive ever shown, worth $10,000. There has also appeared this year in the window display a portrait of George Washington, made up of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires, which repre- sented a value of $15,000. In honor of the Grand Circuit races held at North Randall track, near Cleveland, Mr. Beattie had a very timely display of unset cut stones designed to form the head and neck of a horse outlined with cut amethysts. The eye of the horse was a diamond and the trappings and bridle were diamonds.

Hugh Wilson Beattie, founder and propri- etor of this business, was born at St. Marys, in Perth County, Ontario, Canada. His parents were Samuel and Sarah Jane ( Wilson) Beattie. His father was born in the north of Ireland and his mother at Stratford, Ontario. Samuel Beattie was for many years a shoe manufacturer at St. Marys, Stratford, and also at Cleveland. He and his wife came to Cleveland about 1880 and both parents died in this city.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 13

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