USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 20
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CHARLES G. HICKOX. While the late Charles G. Hickox came into the high business position earned by his father, the late Charles Hickox, he expressed his individual life in much con- structive achievement, and was one of the most forceful personalities among Cleveland business men for a generation.
He was born in Cleveland January 14, 1846, a son of Charles and Laura (Freeman) Hickox. The career of his father has been sketched upon other pages. Reared in a home of refinement and culture, Charles G. Hickox attended the public schools of Cleveland and was a member of the class of 1867 in the Uni- versity of Michigan. On leaving college he took up a business career with energy char- acteristic of him. His first important work was in the flour mill established by his father and still carried on under the title of The Cleveland Milling Company. Charles G. Ilickox was secretary and treasurer of this large industry until 1890, when he retired from active control.
His unusual talents in the field of finance and business administration were perhaps best exemplified as a railway official. In 1881 he became a director of the Columbus, Hock- ing Valley & Toledo Railroad, and continued as such until 1886. In that year he became a director of The Toledo & Ohio Central Rail- way Company. In 1890 he was chosen its vice president, and was prominent in sustain- ing and expanding that important Ohio rail- way corporation, holding the office of vice president until his death.
He was identified with the executive man-
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agement of many other interests. He was second officer in The Adams-Bagnall Electric Company, The Lakeview Cemetery Associa- tion, The Gardner Electric Drill Company, was one of the directors of The Hocking Val- ley Railway Company, The Kanawha & Mich- igan Railway Company, The Cleveland & Ma- honing Railway Company, The National Acme Company, and was interested in The Litch- field Company, which operates the Hickox Building, built by his father, in Cleveland. This by no means completes the list of his varied connections with the largest business affairs of Cleveland and Ohio. Charles G. Hickox was known and admired among his associates as a man of sagacity in business affairs, with much ability as a manager and wisdom as an inventor.
Like his father he was an earnest republican, and was a member of the Union Club, the Roadside Club and the Country Club. Mr. Hickox died at his home on Prospect Avenue April 23, 1912. He was survived by his widow, a sister Mrs. Harvey H. Brown, and a brother F. F. Hickox of Cleveland.
JOHN JOSEPH STANLEY is one of Cleveland's native sons, and has attained eminence in the world of street railway building and finance. He is now president and a director of The Cleveland Street Railway Company and in 1917 he was elected second vice president of the American Electric Railways Association, composed of the executives and operating of- ficials of nearly all the street railway transpor- tation companies in this country.
Mr. Stanley was born at Cleveland March 5, 1863, a son of Joseph and Eliza (Bragg) Stanley. He was educated in the Cleveland public schools and in early manhood he be- came connected with the street railways of Cleveland, a connection that extends over a period of more than thirty years and prac- tically continuous. He has built many street railway systems, especially in the State of New York. He is a director of The Rochester Railway & Light Company of Rochester, New York, The Central National Bank, The Guardian Savings & Trust Company and The Mutual Building and Investment Company of Cleveland.
Mr. Stanley is a member of the Union Club, Country Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, and the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. His offices as president of The Cleveland Street Railway Company are in the Leader-News Building. Mr. Stanley married at Cleveland
September 2, 1885, Miss Rose Francis. Their three children are Frances, Rhoda and Laura.
COL. ROYAL TAYLOR. The name and career of Col. Royal Taylor belong to the State of Ohio rather than to any one locality, though many of his most conspicuous achievements were in the Western Reserve.
He was born at Middlefield, Massachusetts, September 1, 1800, a son of Samuel and Sarah (Jagger) Taylor. His mother was a woman of marked character. His useful life was pro- longed to the age of fourscore and twelve years. He died at Ravenna, Ohio, November 20, 1892. His great-great-grandfather, Sam- uel Taylor, came from England and settled at Hadley, Massachusetts, in 1666. His son, also named Samuel, was born at Hadley in 1713, and in 1752 moved to the heavily wooded district known as Pontoosuck, now the City of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. An official record of 1753 shows that he was at the head of a syndicate of seven citizens who by special act secured an incorporation under the title of the "Proprietors of the Settling Lots in the Township of Pontoosuck." In 1761 this old Indian name was changed to Pittsfield.
The first white child horn at Pittsfield in 1764 was Samuel Taylor, the third of that name and the father of Royal Taylor. In 1770 the Taylor family removed to Middle- field, Massachusetts, where Samuel Taylor lived until 1807, at which date he brought his family, including his small son Royal, to the wilderness district of the Western Reserve at Aurora in Portage County, Ohio. Samuel Taylor died there six years later, in March, 1813.
Royal Taylor was only thirteen years of age when his father died. He possessed to a remarkable degree all the qualities which have distinguished the pioneers of the great West. He assumed heavy responsibilities in connection with the maintenance of the fam- ily, and applied himself to the hard and un- remitting labor by which existence was pos- sible in this region of Ohio 100 years ago. It is said that his first efforts at self support were as a workman in a sugar camp, where he was paid his own weight, seventy pounds, in maple sugar. He also worked in the first brick yard at Aurora, the brick being used in the construction of the old Presbyterian Church there. The fifteen dollars a month he earned by this service he invested in sixty acres of land at Solon in 1816. The purchase price was $300.00, but several years later he
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sold the land for only $200.00. With this discipline he grew up a healthy, tall and hand- some young man, with great powers of endur- ance, and always equal to any emergency. As the Western Reserve was largely settled by New Englanders, he had the good fortune of coming into association with many educated men and women and from them acquired a common school education. His first ambition was for the law, and he studied that subject two years, and while the knowledge proved in- valuable to him his real forte and destiny was as a leader in practical business.
In 1822 he went to Kentucky as a school teacher and while there studied mathematics and Latin. His associates while there were the Marshalls and other men who became prominent in national affairs, and with whom he ever maintained a friendly acquaintance. In 1824, in that state, he married Miss Rebecca Saunders, and in the following year they re- turned to Ohio and lived successively at Au- rora, Russell and Twinsburg. His first wife died at Twinsburg in 1836, leaving him five young children. In 1837 he married Miss Sarah Ann Richardson, daughter of Captain Daniel Richardson, of Connecticut. She was born at Barkhamstead, Connecticut, in 1813 and came with her parents to Twinsburg, Ohio, in 1824. She was a cousin of the famous John Brown of Kansas and Harpers Ferry fame and had the qualities of mind and heart which distinguished the true noblewoman. She became the mother of four sons and three daughters, and passed away in 1865. After her death Royal Taylor married Mrs. Annetta Hatch.
Royal Taylor was a strong, vigorous man, always a promoter of improvements and in- dustries and helping to develop the educa- tional and political necessities of a new and growing country. In the years following his first marriage he was associated with his brothers Samuel and Harvey Baldwin of Au- rora in opening up the export trade for the cheese product of Northern Ohio to the South- ern states, the first important export trade from the Western Reserve. This product was carried to the South by boats and barges on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. After the panic of 1837 Royal Taylor took charge of some bankrupt mercantile establishments. Here his legal training served him well and his success in rehabilitating broken concerns was such that all his energies were soon engaged in handling large financial affairs for local and non-resident capitalists. One important com-
mission given him was for the sale of lands held by the heirs of General Henry Champion, W. W. Boardman and others of the original purchasers of the 3,000,000 acres of the Con- necticut Western Reserve. In 1858 he acted as agent for the Yale College, which had through the will of Henry L. Ellsworth become possessor of lands in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. In the course of time Royal Taylor had the supervision and care of upwards of half a million acres of land in Ohio and other states, and in looking after these interests it is said that he visted every western state east of the Rocky Mountains.
During his residence in Portage County he served as county commissioner and later as state commissioner for the Blind Asylum. From 1842 to 1868 he had his home in Cuya- hoga County. This position enabled him the better to handle his business as a land agent and he was also agent for the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad and one of its earliest pro- moters.
Royal Taylor was a prominent member of the whig party and in 1848 assisted in the organization of the free soil party and was a delegate to the first county convention of that party in Cleveland, and also a delegate to the original state convention of the party at Co- lumbus. In 1856 he became permanently iden- tified with the republican organization.
Though well advanced in years when the Civil war came on, the service of Royal Taylor to his country is one of the most conspicuous features of his record. In 1862 it was dis- covered that many sick and wounded soldiers from Ohio after their discharge from the army had become the prey to hordes of self-styled claim agents at Louisville, who bought their pay vouchers for a mere pittance. Governor David Todd of Ohio deputized Mr. Taylor to investigate the matter, and his report showed that great injustice was being done to the de- fenders of the Union. Royal Taylor was then appointed military agent, with the rank of colonel, and going to Louisville took such vigorous action with the hearty support of the Secretary of War, as to put an end to the flourishing system which had grown up around the army organization. In the interests of the Ohio troops Colonel Taylor maintained an office at Louisville, and the following year at Nashville. In the spring of 1864, on orders from Governor Brough, he moved his head- quarters to Chattanooga, where his service was very helpful in promoting the efficiency of the great army under Sherman during its
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notable campaign. In 1865 Colonel Taylor was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Military Claims in Ohio, and with headquart- ers at Columbus administered this office with signal efficiency for two years and ten months, until by his recommendation the office was discontinued. In this position it is said that with the aid of his son and cashier, James Royal Taylor, he collected and distributed to soldiers, and their widows and orphans several million dollars, and the records of the depart- ment show that the accounts were kept within the accuracy of a single cent.
From 1868 until his death Colonel Taylor lived at Ravenna. In his seventy-fifth year he traveled through Upper and Lower Canada and to England, partly on business and partly on pleasure.
Of some of the more intimate characteristics of Colonel Taylor the following has been ap- propriately written: "He was a thorough temperance man and a regular attendant of the Presbyterian Church, though not a mem- ber. The personal accomplishments of Colonel Taylor were far superior to those of the aver- age business man of his day. He was a con- stant and careful reader and that intellectual resource abided with him even into extreme age. This was evidenced in that he and his wife followed for four years the reading course of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, of which they were two of the oldest members, Colonel Taylor being eighty-four years old the year of their graduation. Not content with this they read for post-graduate credits for two years longer. His mental faculties remained practically unimpaired un- til the last. He had traveled extensively, and his faculty of observation was phenomenal and never failing. He never lost his lively interest in the affairs of the world, and, a true patriarch, his mind held a vast fund of knowl- edge derived from the study and various ex- periences of a long and eventful career. At- tractive in person, courteous and gentle in his bearing, he stood as one of the most noble specimens of the true gentlemen of the old regime, honored and beloved by all who came within the sphere of his individuality. His manuscripts, even down to the end of his life, were as plain, free and legible as those of the most expert accountant, and his style of cor- respondence evinced his literary taste and a most retentive memory."
DANIEL R. TAYLOR. With a record of fifty years of residence and business activity at
Cleveland, Daniel R. Taylor is the pioneer real estate man of the city, and the men of that profession have never hesitated to recog- nize and appreciate not only his expert skill and success but his many unselfish services rendered in putting the business on its present high plane.
If ever a man was fortunate in his birth and early environment and experience it is Daniel R. Taylor. He is a son of the late Colonel Royal Taylor, whose notable career in Ohio has been sketched elsewhere in this publication. Daniel R. Taylor was born at his father's home in Twinsburg, Ohio, March 28, 1838. His mother was Sarah Ann Rich- ardson and through her he is descended from Holland-Dutch ancestry that settled in Con- necticut about 1668. There is also an admix- ture of French Huguenot and English blood.
Daniel R. Taylor grew up in a home of culture, was liberally educated in the acad- emies at Twinsburg and Chagrin Falls, and had the inestimable advantage of early asso- ciation with his father, then and long after- ward one of the most remarkable business men of the state.
Mr. Taylor's first practical experience was as a school teacher. In 1856 he was appointed station agent on the newly opened Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad. Following that he was assistant to his father, who represented many of the heirs of original owners of land in the Western Reserve and of Yale College, in the handling of that institution's extensive land holdings through several states of the Middle West.
In 1862 Mr. Taylor enlisted in the Eighty- fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was ap- pointed quartermaster sergeant, but found his chief duties in the administration of work at which his father was the head. In 1863 he was made Ohio State Military Agent and served as such at Louisville and Nashville until the close of the war. It is said that he considers his activities during this period as the most serviceable to mankind in which he ever engaged.
Mr. Taylor came to Cleveland and engaged in the real estate business in 1867. Five years later William G. Taylor came and successfully engaged in the same business and the two brothers have jointly occupied the same office ever since. While his operations have been conducted on a large scale, it is not so much his achievements as a dealer as his broader services that require special mention. Mr. Taylor was one of the pioneers in recognizing
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that close relationship that exists. between the broad welfare of a community and its build- ing development, and long before "city plan- ning" was an appreciated factor in municipal development Mr. Taylor recognized that the preservation of individual homes and pleasant surroundings and the prevention of insanitary crowding of population was an ideal of great- est importance in the wholesome growth of a city. More than that, he realized the respon- sibility of real estate dealers in the well ordered development of a community. During his residence at Cleveland Mr. Taylor has wit- nessed the city's growth in population from 71,000 to over 700,000, and throughout all this time has consistently used his every effort to further the ideals above advanced, not only in the minds of the general public but particu- larly with his colleagues and associates in the real estate field.
Mr. Taylor has been very active in develop- ing much real estate in this city. During the past fifty years he has owned wholly or in part about 500 acres of land. Several sub- divisions were opened up and improved by him on which there are now hundreds of homes and a large number of manufactories. Mr. Taylor was one of the first to suggest that Euclid Avenue was to become a business street, assuming that it being a direct line from the heart of the city to the best residence por- tions it would naturally, as the city developed, become an important business street. As all the property on Superior Street west of the Public Square was occupied for business pur- poses and as the property owners were not willing to tear down old buildings and con- struct suitable new ones to meet the growing demand, the natural outlet for this growth was to be Euclid Avenue. Many contended that the growth of business should be extended out Superior Street east of the Square. He insisted, however, that the Public Square, post- office, Case Hall and the city hall made a seri- ous break in the business channel, and that saloons and eating houses contiguous thereto were objectionable to a good class of business. With Waldemer Otis and George N. Case he secured the old St. Paul Church property at the southwest corner of Euclid and Sheriff (now East Fourth Street), tore down the church and subdivided and sold the land for business purposes. They also bought the War- ner and Williams homesteads on the north side of Euclid Avenue, at the corner of what is now Sixth Street, a portion of which was taken for an extension of Bond Street through
from Superior to Euclid. They also vacated an alley running north of Euclid, west of these properties, and gave the city the alley running west from Bond Street to the Arcade. Mr. C. G. King, who recognized the foresight shown, aided largely in the growth and devel- opment of Euclid Avenue. Mr. Taylor's idea has been that Cleveland was a natural manu- facturing city and meeting place for crude material, as well as being a good distributing
point. Acting on this belief, he has owned or controlled and sold at different times several miles of railroad frontage, the largest tract being that bounded by Quincy, Oakdale, North Woodland and Woodhill Road.
It was wise forethought and care on the part of Mr. Taylor that raised his operations as a buyer and seller of real estate from a mere business transaction to a profession, re- quiring careful study of economics, and the development of a prophetic business sense, so as to be adequate as far as possible in antici- pating and preparing for the future. It fol- lowed as a matter of course that he was one of the leaders in organizing the Cleveland Real Estate Board, and the emphasis placed by that organization upon business probity and fair dealing as fundamentals can largely be traced to the influence of Mr. Taylor.
When the Cleveland Real Estate Board was organized an appropriate honor was conferred upon him in making him its first president. He is still honored with the position of vice president. Individually Mr. Taylor has been connected with many manufacturing and real estate development companies and has served as president, treasurer, secretary or director in many of them. At 'the end of fifty years he is now taking life somewhat leisurely, but has surrounded himself in his office with a number of young men who have seized his ideals and inspired by his guidance and in- struction are giving increased power to the long continued energies of this veteran builder and developer of Cleveland.
Mr. Taylor has never married. While a re- publican in politics he has never sought po- litical honors of any kind and has found his chief pleasure and satisfaction in life in the orderly development of a large business. He was one of the original members of the Union Club of Cleveland and several other clubs, and is still a member of the Union Club and of the Rowfant Club.
THOMAS S. GRASSELLI. It is by no means common in America to find a family identified
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with one profession or business for generation after generation. The Grasselli family are en- titled to this distinction, and beginning with a small business as manufacturing chemists in Cincinnati nearly eighty years ago the family through three successive generations have en- larged and extended the business until it is now of world wide importance. The Grasselli Chemical Company is one of the big names in American manufacturing annals.
The profession of chemist has been followed by the family for four generations at least. More than a century ago a chemical manufac- turer and a scientist of no mean attainments lived in Strasburg, in what is now the German province of Alsace. He was by name Jean Angelo Grasselli. He built up a large busi- ness in that city and was well known for his scientific investigations.
His son Eugene Grasselli was the founder of the family and the business in America. Eugene was born at Strasburg January 31, 1810, and was given very liberal educational advantages, particularly in chemistry. In 1836 he came to America and for several years was employed with the Philadelphia firm of Farr & Kuenzie, predecessors of a more widely known firm of Powers & Weightman. It was Eugene Grasselli's ambition to found a busi- ness of his own. For that purpose he removed to Cincinnati and in 1839 began on a small scale the manufacture of chemicals. It was the first distinctive business of the kind west of the Alleghenies. There was little field for chemical manufacture at the time beyond sup- plying the needs of an apothocary shop and a few laboratories and industries, and doubtless Engene Grasselli did not even dream of the immense possibilities of the business which he founded. His industry grew under his capable management and his products came into favor throughout the Middle West. In 1867 he established a branch house at Cleveland, and this city has been the home of the Grasselli business for half a century, though other plants and branch houses are now found in a number of cities and industrial centers. The founding and growth of the business at Cleve- land was the direct result of the masterful mind of Eugene Grasselli, who continued in close touch with the business until his death, which occurred in Cleveland January 10, 1882. He had for some years been recognized as one of Cleveland's foremost business men and he also received the respect and honor due to a man of tremendous force of character and of most kindly and charitable impulses and
benefactions. He was both a scholar and a cultured business man. Eugene Grasselli married June 17, 1837, Miss Frederica Eisen- barth, a native of Wuertemberg, Germany. They were the parents of nine children, three. sons and six daughters.
Caesar Augustine Grasselli, one of the sons, has for many years been a notable figure in Cleveland business and social affairs. He was born at Cincinnati November 7, 1850, and received his education largely under the direc- tion of his father. With respect to his excep- tional attainments Mount St. Mary's College of Maryland conferred upon him the degree Doctor of Science in 1904.
In 1885 he became president of the Grasselli Chemical Company and continued at the head of that great corporation until January, 1916, .when he was made chairman of the Board of The Grasselli Chemical Company. He has been president of The Woodland Avenue Sav- ings & Trust Company of Cleveland since 1887, and president of The Broadway Savings & Trust Company since 1893. He is a director of the Union National Bank, The Glidden Var- nish Company, and The Akron & Chicago Junetion Railroad.
His many active interests are reflected in his membership in the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Mining En- gineers, the American Institute of Banking, American Academy of Political and Social Science, National Civic Federation, Western Reserve Historical Society, the American Mu- seum of Natural History of New York, the Ohio Society of New York, while in 1910 Vice- tor Emanuel III decorated him with Knight Order of Golden Crown of Italy. He is a republican and a member of the Catholic church, and belongs to the Union, Athletic, Shaker Heights and Country Clubs of Cleve- land, the Chemists Club of New York, and the Drug Club of the same city. He married August 1, 1871, Johanna Ireland of Cincin- nati.
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