A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 23

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 23

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The third vineyard in the great lake shore grape belt was set out by Mr. Saxton at Euclid Ridge in Euclid. He also laid the first rod of pike road on Kinsman Avenue. Though his active business career closed about twenty years before his death, he was never an idle man. The habit of industry was thor- oughly ingrained and he found something use- ful to engage his time and energy until his death.

While so much of his life was spent in practical affairs he was noted as an indefa- tigable reader. His range of knowledge was widely extended and for a man who had grown up in the back woods and had never gone near a college as a student, he was un- usually well informed. Among American statesmen he gave his greatest admiration to Abraham Lincoln. He believed in and prac- ticed the gospel of thrift, yet he always exer- cised charity and justice and was especially liberal with the poor and unfortunate. But no record survives him of the many acts of kindness and helpfulness he thus rendered. He was never a professed churchman, but led

an exemplary moral life, and his integrity was such that literally his word was as good as his bond. His remains are now at rest in the Lakeview Cemetery at Cleveland.

His wife, Emeline Axtell Morse, was born at Jay, York County, Maine, March 18, 1821, and died at her home, 1930 Euclid Avenue, September 28, 1898, at the age of seventy- seven. She had come with her parents to Cuyahoga County in 1833, and for forty-four years she lived on Euclid Avenue. She was well fitted for companionship with such a strong and positive character as the late J. C. Saxton. She had a personality and intel- lectual vigor which made her notable among the women of her day, and many of the ex- cellent characteristics of this worthy couple were inherited by their daughter Mrs. Mary Josephine Ammon. When J. C. Saxton died he was survived by seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, and there was one other great-grandchild when Mrs. Saxton passed away. Their four children were: Mrs. Matilda Dowling, Hawley Saxton, L. D. Sax- ton, and Mrs. Josephine Ammou. The grand- children are: Mrs. Addie Arnold of St. Louis, Frank Dowling, John S. Dowling, Mrs. Hattie J. (Ammon) Cowing, J. R. Ammon, Harry Ammon and Mark A. Ammon.

HATTIE JOSEPHINE AMMON COWING, a daughter of Colonel John Henry and Mary Josephine (Saxton) Ammon, elsewhere men- tioned in this publication, has spent her life in Cleveland and has many interesting asso- ciations and interests in the social life of that city.

She was born in Euclid Township of Cuya- hoga County September 30, 1868, was edu- cated in the local public schools, and for four years continued her education at Providence, Rhode Island. She graduated from the Friends Boarding School, now known as the Moses Brown School, in 1889. On January 15, 1890, she was married at Cleveland to John Philo Cowing, a son of George and Helen D. (Hutchinson) Cowing and a grand- son of Judge Moseley Hutchinson, of Cayuga County, New York, and of John Philo Cow- ing of Seneca Falls, New York. Mr. Cowling is a mechanical engineer, and has gained dis- tinction as one of the most expert bridge builders in the United States. He is now liv- ing in Chicago.

Mrs. Cowing is the mother of two sons. John Ammon Cowing, born November 17, 1890, in Cleveland, was educated in the Cleve-

Nabefall

117

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

land public schools, in the Culver Military Academy at Culver, Indiana, and is a metal- lurgist by profession. He is a member of the Culver Alumni. Jay Clinton Cowing, the second son, was born July 13, 1892, and was educated in the Cleveland public schools.

For many years Mrs. Cowing has been ac- tive in club affairs in Cleveland. She is a former president of the Cleveland Emerson Class. For over twenty-four years she has been active in the Western Reserve Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. For six years as chairman she had charge of the work of marking the graves of Revolu- tionary soldiers. She was the first registrar and for three years held that office in the Commodore Perry Chapter United States Daughters of 1812. The marking of graves was also part of her work with that order. For four years she was state registrar of the United States Daughters of 1812 of the State of Ohio. She is a stockholder in the Woman's Club of Cleveland. She was formerly a mem- ber of Emanuel Episcopal Church and was a charter member of the Church of the Epiph- any of the Reformed Episcopal Church. She also belongs to the organization known as the Guardians of the Flag and Early Settlers Association.

In her home at 1892 Knowles Avenue Mrs. Cowing preserves many interesting papers and documents as valued heirlooms. These contain a number of old papers and letters with original signatures, some colonial candle- sticks which have been handed down to her through more than 300 years, and she also has a gun which saw service during Shay's Rebel- lion and in the War of 1812 and which was carried by Lieut. Nathan Morse. One article which has special interest is a tinder box, which was carried through the Revolution by her ancestor Capt. Samuel Stewart, grand- father of her grandfather. This Revolu- tionary patriot is buried at Royalton, Ohio. The tinder box was at the battle of Bunker Hill and was afterwards on the plains of Quebec where the gallant Montgomery fell. Mrs. Cowling has an original letter written and signed by George Washington. History, and especially early American history, has been a subject in which Mrs. Cowing has pursued her researches far and wide, and she has the equipment of the true historian, hav- ing a remarkable memory for dates and facts and has a splendid reference library which enables her to pursue this vocation in the privacy of her own home.

WEBB C. BALL was born in Knox County, Ohio, and educated in the public schools of that county. His father being a farmer, the boy learned to handle the somewhat crude farm implements of that day, but this ma- chinery did not satisfy his inclinations for mechanics of a higher grade and finer type. His was undoubtedly the natural genius which has given America some of the greatest of world's experts in the field of mechanical invention.

The result was that Webb C. Ball was soon apprenticed to a watch maker and jeweler for a term of four years. The schedule fixed his wages at $1 a week for the first two years, while during the third and fourth years he was to receive $7 a week. Thus he was put to work in handling the tools and repairing the delicate machinery of watch and clock mechanism. Mr. Ball has been in the jewelry business since May 13, 1869. From 1875 to 1879 he was business manager of the Dueber Watch Case Manufacturing Company, whose plant was then located in Cincinnati. This is now a part of the great Dueber-Hampton Watch Company of Canton, Ohio.

On March 19, 1879, Mr. Ball established himself in business at Cleveland. The site of his first shop was Superior Street, corner of Seneca. He was in that location thirty-two years. The Webb C. Ball Company, of which he is president, is now located in the Ball Building on Euclid Avenue. Beginning busi- ness in Cleveland with a very limited capital, his shop consisted of two show cases and a work bench on one side of the room. There was a steady increase in the business both in quality and volume. In 1891 a stock company was formed. Prior to that Mr. Ball had been sole owner and manager of the business. The Webb C. Ball Company was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio with a paid up capital of a $100,000. For several years Mr. Ball was manager and treasurer of the company, after which he became presi- dent. During 1894-95-96 he was associated with the Hamilton Watch Company at Lan- caster, Pennsylvania, as vice president, di- rector and mechanical expert. As a jewelry house the Webb C. Ball Company is one of the largest in the Middle West, but as the home of railroad standard watches it is without doubt the greatest watch business in America.

Mr. Ball has devoted practically his entire life to originating and improving watch mech- anism, adapting it to every test and require- ment of railroad service. He has improved

118

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

railroad watch movements and many invented appliances used in their construction. His business is both a wholesale and retail jewelry house, and the fame of the firm is by no means confined to the United States but extends throughout Canada and Mexico.

The occasion which prompted him to the development of that great service which is his chief contribution to American railroad life was a tragedy. On April 19, 1891, there oc- curred a collision on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad between a gov- erument fast mail train and an accommoda- tion train. The engineers and firemen of both engines and nine United States postal clerks lost their lives. Investigations and trials fol- lowed by the public authorities. In these trails Mr. Ball was frequently called npon for expert testimony. It was finally proved that the accident was due to defective watches in the hands of the trainmen in charge of the accom- modation train. Mr. Ball, as a recognized expert on watch construction, was soon after- ward authorized to prepare a plan of inspec- tion and investigate conditions on the Lake Shore lines.

Those who are in any way familiar with the efficient system of wateh and clock time regulation now in use on practically all rail- roads of the country will be interested at the results of Mr. Ball's personal investigations. He discovered that no uniformity existed or was supposed to be essential in trainmen's watches. Watches were of any make which the owner wished to use. The clocks in round- houses and dispatcher's offices were seldom regulated to any uniform schedule. After this careful study and investigation Mr. Ball evolved a plan of inspection and time com- parison for the watches used by railway em- ployees and for the standard clocks as well. This plan provides that watches of standard grades must be carried by men in charge of trains. No discrimination is permitted against any watch factory provided its products meet the requirements. There are now seven lead- ing watch factories whose watches are ac- cepted under the uniform standard inspection rule.

Thus Mr. Ball was responsible for the estab- lishment of the first watch inspection service on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in 1891, and since then that service has been extended to include the New York Central and all other Vanderbilt lines, the Illinois Central, the Rock Island and Frisco systems, the Union Pacific, Sonthern Pacific

Oregon Short Line, the Nashville, Chatta- nooga and St. Louis, Missouri, Kansas City and Texas, El Paso and Southwestern, Sun Set Central lines, Western Pacific Railway, Lehigh Valley Railway, Boston and Albany,, New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. Fully seventy-five per cent of the railroads throughout the country employ the system of inspection instituted by Mr. Ball. As a result of that system thousands of lives have been saved, the general efficiency of railroad opera- tion has been promoted, and a vast volume of railroad property has been conserved.

The main office of this extensive inspection service is located at Cleveland and local in- spectors are appointed at division points along the various railway lines. To these local in- spectors trainmen must report every two weeks for time comparison. They are fur- nished with a clearance card certificate which must record any variation in their watches, the limit being thirty seconds per week. If anything is found amiss the trainman must secure a standard loaner watch and leave his own for adjustment. These loaned watches are furnished without expense to the train- men. By this card system a perfect record is kept and the trainmen cheerfully comply, as it safeguards the service and themselves as well. The Ball inspection service requires a large office force in Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco and Winnipeg, with a number of traveling assistants. The railroad lines in eastern and central districts are administered from the Cleveland offices while the railroads in the Chicago, middle western and southern districts are administered from the Chicago office, the Pacific lines from the San Francisco office, and from the Winnipeg office the Cana- dian Railroad lines are handled. Correct rec- ords of all the watches carried by the employes of the different railroads are on file in one or other of these offices.

Today the name "Ball" is a synonym for accuracy in construction of railroad watches throughout the entire country. In this field Mr. Ball's ingenuity and mechanical skill have a free play. He made a special study of the requirement of railroad men in the matter of timepieces and has been able to keep abreast of the marvelous strides of recent years in railroad speed and equipment. His genius as an inventor has produced several distinct watch movements, covered by his own patents and trade marks, and each adapted to fulfill the requirements of their users. Many times Mr. Ball has been referred to in recent

119

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

years as "the man who holds a watch on one hundred seventy-five thousand miles of rail- road" and also as "the time and watch expert."

Besides his noteworthy place among Cleve- land citizens as a business man Mr. Ball is a charter member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Union Club and Advertising Club, a director of the Cleveland Convention Board five years and its president in 1902. In politics he is a republican. Mr. Ball was married in 1879 to Miss Florence I. Young, of Kenton, Ohio. They have one son and three daughters.

In August, 1913, Mr. Ball established a wholesale watch and jewelry business in Chi- cago, known as the Norris-Alister-Ball Com- pany, with his son Sidney Y. Ball as presi- dent. Branches have since been opened in San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Birmingham, Alabama; Cleveland, Ohio; and Syracuse, New York.

THE WEBB C. BALL COMPANY is a great business institution. As is true of every great business its primary principle and object is service. The company not only sells mer- chandise, but supplies an indispensable serv- ice in more fields than one. It is a composite organization. In fact few people of Cleveland appreciate the magnitude of the work that goes on and is directed from the offices of the Ball organization in the Ball Building on Euclid Avenue. There are four distinct de- partments. It is the home of the Ball Rail- road Standard Watch, of the Ball Watch Com- pany, of the Ball retail jewelry store and of the Ball system of railroad watch inspection.

All of these services have a personality behind them. That personality is Mr. Webb C. Ball, whose interesting career and achieve- ments are the subject of another article on other pages of this publication. Like other great business men Mr. Ball has not depended. entirely upon his own energies. He has built up a great business around the loyalty and faithful cooperation of men and women who have made special studies of their particular line and who have found it profitable and pleasant to stay with the organization for years. It is for the purpose of furnishing some additional facts concerning this company and noting some of the major personalities involved besides Mr. Ball that the present article is written.

In the production of the Ball railroad standard watch the superintendent and head

of the mechanical department for the adjust- ing and finishing of these watches is Mr. L. N. Cobb, who has been connected with the com- pany since 1889. Mr. Cobb is a man of enthu- siası as well as an expert in his particular field. He has made his department a marvel of efficiency and has introduced some new principles of shop management. In many watch factories it is customary to furnish each workman with a small equipment of tools val- ued at perhaps $10 to $20, while in the depart- ment supervised by Mr. Cobb cach man has a complete set of individual tools valued at from $500 to $3,500.

Of the requirements maintained for effi- cient service in this department some inter- esting facts have been furnished by Mr. Cobb. "The very efficiency of a watch-adjusting es- tablishment," he says, "depends on the length of service of the watchmaker or adjustor. Be- fore a man can reach a position to be of real value in this work he must have served with close study for at least five years. Then he has much to learn in regard to adjustment for heat, cold and position, that only experi- ence can teach him. In this department we have a staff of men and women who have been with us for years and who are thoroughly skilled." The assistant superintendent of this department is C. P. Gerdum, with thirty-five or more of other expert finishers and adjust- ors. Miss Mary Foot has kept the shop rec- ords and she is an expert statistician.

One of the chief men connected with this department as well as with others is Mr. H. L. Mowatt, who has been identified with the Ball organization for thirty years. He was largely responsible for making the Ball watch known all over the United States, Canada and Mexico. He spent several years introducing the Ball railroad standard watches and elocks on the railroad lines in Mexico.

The retail store at Cleveland has been under the able management of Mr. W. S. Gaines for the past thirty years. Mr. Gaines is one of the best known local jewelers of the city. While he is a veteran in the work Mr. Ball has many other capable assistants who have been with him for years. Mr. Gaines is head of the diamond department in the retail store, and his assistant is H. R. Avery. The head of the watch sales and clock departments is F. G.

Story ; George A. Sheakley has charge of the watch repair department; W. G. Edwards and Louise Montgomery, of the silverware depart- ment; Miss Catherine O'Neill, of the gold jewelry department ; and E. T. Hastings, of

120

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

the accounting department. Of the retail store conducted under the name the Webb C. Ball Company Mr. Webb C. Ball is president; R. J. Gross, vice president; W. S. Bowler, secretary, while other directors are F. I. Ball and S. Y. Ball. The members of the retail department take special pride in the remark- able growth of this institution, and some of them were connected with the store in its early days when it was started in one side of a small millinery store on Lower Superior Avenue at the corner of West Third Street. The store has been in the Ball Building since November, 1910, and now occupies three floors.

Several years ago Mr. Ball branched out into the wholesale railroad watch business. The rapid growth of this enterprise necessi- tated constant changes and additions. In 1913 Mr. Ball bought the long established Norris- Alister Company, a wholesale jewelry house of Chicago, and consolidated the wholesale railroad watch business of Cleveland with the Chicago house and changed the name to the Norris-Alister-Ball Company. It is incorpo- rated under Ohio laws, and Sidney Y. Ball, a son of Mr. Webb C. Ball, is president. The headquarters of the wholesale business are now on the ninth and tenth floors of the Gar- land Building, corner of Washington Street and Wabash Avenue in Chicago. Under the direction of Sidney Y. Ball this has now grown to be the largest wholesale distributing house of railroad standard watches in the United States. It also stands on equal foot- ing with many other large companies in the importation of diamonds, the distribution of clocks, silverware, tools, optical goods, etc. Mr. Webb C. Ball is chairman of the board of directors of this wholesale company, with his son as president, R. J. Gross, vice presi- dent, C. H. Spencer, general manager, H. F. Taber, treasurer and secretary. The company employs about twenty traveling salesmen, cov- ering the entire United States, with branches in San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Bir- mingham, Alabama; Syracuse, New York; and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

How it was that Mr. Webb C. Ball inau- gurated and became the pioneer of watch and clock inspection system for American rail- roads has been told elsewhere. This inspection system now requires a large and efficient or- ganization and is a great institution by itself. As a result of the watch inspection system the railroad standard watch is now regarded everywhere as the standard authority and source of correct time. Every day in the

year thousands of people set their watches to correspond with the timepieces of railroad men.

The Ball watch inspection system has on duty local watch inspectors on every railroad division and also maintains general offices in Cleveland, Chicago, San Francisco and Win- nipeg, Canada. While the main headquarters of this service are in Cleveland, the service itself is separate from the wholesale or retail departments or watch making business of the Ball Company. The assistant general time inspector is Mr. H. L. Mowatt, together with F. A. Tinkler and H. J. Cowell. Mr. Cowell, who holds the post of cashier, is one of Mr. Ball's oldest associates. The manager and as- sistant general time inspector at the Chicago office maintained in the Railway Exchange Building is W. F. Hayes, with L. L. Doty as assistant. Stanley A. Pope is manager and assistant general time inspector in the San Francisco office, while the office at Winnipeg is managed by O. H. Pyper, assistant general time inspector.

In front of the Ball Building on Euclid Avenue stands a large bronze street clock. When the name The Webb C. Ball Company is read above the clock face, the mechanism takes on added significance, especially when the facts herein stated are considered, and time itself and its regulations has a meaning that is seldom realized by the average person whose daily routine and movements must conform to a less strict standard than is required of the great railway companies.

JUDGE WILLIAM LOUIS DAY. Perhaps no family of Ohio has furnished more dis- tinguished and capable men to the life and affairs of the state and nation than the Day family. William Louis Day is one of the younger generation. His home has been in Cleveland for a number of years, where he attended to his duties as United States Dis- trict Judge, and where he is now actively en- gaged in private practice.

Judge Day is a son of Judge William R. Day and Mary E. Schaefer, his wife. While his father is now an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, and for twenty years has been one of America's most dis- tinguished men, his career was in many ways associated with Cleveland and for that reason this publication includes a sketch of his life. Justice Day's wife died at Canton, Ohio, Jan- uary 5, 1912.

William Louis Day was born at Canton,

121

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

Stark County, Ohio, August 13, 1876. He re- ceived his early education in the public schools of Canton, took his preparatory work in the Williston Seminary at Easthampton, Massa- chusetts, where he graduated in 1896, and in the following year entered the law department of the University of Michigan, where he was granted his degree Bachelor of Laws in 1900. In the same year he was admitted to the Ohio bar and at once took up private practice at Canton. He was junior member of the prom- inent law firm of Lynch, Day & Day. In 1906 he was elected City Solicitor at Canton, and after the close of his first term was reelected, but in March, 1908, resigned to take up his duties as United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. He was ap- pointed to this position by President Roose- velt.

He served as district attorney from 1908 to 1911. On May 13, 1911, he was elevated to the United States District Bench, attend- ing court largely in Cleveland and since then his home has been in that city. On May 1, 1914, Judge Day resigned from the district bench to take up the private practice of law. His offices are in the Leader-News Building. Judge Day is now practicing as a member of the old and prominent law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. Thus before he was forty years of age Judge Day filled offices which have always been regarded as the crowning distinctions of the legal profession, and he has added not a little to the prestige which the family name bears in Ohio.

Before his appointment as United States district attorney he was very active in repub- lican party affairs, especially in the Eight- eenth Ohio Congressional District. Judge Day is a member of the Hermit, Nisi Prius, and Cleveland Athletic Club, also the Union Club, the University Club, the Country Club, and the City Club. On September 10, 1902, he married Miss Elizabeth E. McKay, of Caro, Michigan. She is a daughter of Hon. William Mckay. Judge and Mrs. Day have one son and one daughter, William R., born in 1904, and Jean Cameron, born in 1910.

JUDGE CHARLES D. CHAMBERLIN, a lawyer and for years engaged in handling much busi- ness before the Federal courts, is most widely known in the oil industry as secretary and general counsel of The National Petroleum Association, the headquarters of which asso- ciation are in The Guardian Building at

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 23

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