A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 28

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 28

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burg he became interested in republican poli- tics, and for one term was a member of the Pennsylvania State Committee with Senator Penrose and former Senator Christopher L. McGee. He practically controlled the Four- teenth Ward of Pittsburg, and was one of the most influential leaders in the foreign vote of the State of Pennsylvania. While at Pitts- burg he began the study of law with former Congressman Francis J. Burke at Pittsburg. From Pittsburg he removed to Youngstown, Ohio, where he lived about six years and while there studied law with former State Senator Franklin Benjamin Wirt. On August 29, 1910, Mr. Perry arrived at Cleveland, bring- ing with him $30 in cash and two suit cases. While working to defray his living expenses he continued the study of law and in 1912 took six subjects in the Cleveland Law School, studying at night and was admitted to the bar in 1913 and on November 10, 1914, was admitted to practice in the United States Dis- trict courts. When Mr. Perry began practice at Cleveland in June, 1913, he had only $5 in cash. A splendid practice has since been vouchsafed his ability and some of his loyal friends estimate the value of his practice at $9,000 a year. Fully 60 per cent of his work is in handling criminal cases, and the rest is general civil and business practice.

Mr. Perry still gives much of his time to republican politics, and has accepted places on that ticket as candidate for the State Legis- lature and State Senate. He is a member in good standing of the Cleveland Bar Associa- tion, the John Hay Club, the Tippecanoe Club and the Sons of Italy.

EDWARD W. MCGHEE was graduated Master of Laws from Yale University in 1916, and immediately thereafter located at Cleveland, and in 1917 was admitted to the Ohio bar. He took up active practice at Cleveland in the preceding year, and at first was associated with the well known firm of Morgan & Keenan, with offices in the Guardian Building, until December 1, 1917, when he took up the prac- tice of law at 909 Williamson Building.

Mr. McGhee is a native of the old Hanging Rock Iron region of Southern Ohio, born at Jackson June 20, 1893. His parents, Edward W. and Carrie (Crandall) McGhee, are still living at Jackson. His grandfather, Elias Crandall, was a prominent man of Jackson, active in the iron industry there and at one time a member of the State Senate.

Edward W. McGhee was educated in the

Walter Buyers

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public schools of Jackson, graduating from high school in 1911, spent three years in the Ohio State University in the literary depart- ment, and then entered the law department of Washington University at St. Louis, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1915. After that he spent a year in Yale University Law School, and from there came to Cleveland.

Mr. McGhee is a republican in politics, a member of the City Club, and belongs to the Sigma Chi and the Phi Delta Phi legal fra- ternity. At Yale he was also a member of Corbey Court.

WALTER EDWARD MYERS a rising and able lawyer of Cleveland, is also nationally known because of his work in behalf of the fraternity of Sigma Nu. He is a native son of Ohio, having been born at Alliance, April 29, 1875, and is a son of Jonathan and Emma (Cop- pock) Myers.

Mr. Myers was educated in the public schools of Alliance, graduating in June, 1893, from the Alliance High School. In the following year he entered Mount Union College, where he earned his way through college by teach- ing in intervening terms, and graduated with the class of 1899, securing the degree of Bachelor of Science. Mr. Myers then pro- ceeded to secure his law education. He was still short of means, but found employment in a lawyer's office and thus was able, through rigid economy and great industry, to complete a course in law at the Western Reserve Uni- versity, from the law department of which he was graduated in 1902, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Two years later he be- gan practice at Cleveland, forming a partner- ship with David E. Green under the firm name of Myers & Green. This firm continued until January 1, 1913, when William C. Keough was admitted to partnership, and con- tinued as Myers, Green & Keough until Feb- ruary 1, 1917, when Mr. Myers withdrew from the firm to give part of his time to several business interests with which he was con- nected. Mr. Myers is one of the clean-cut, re- liable attorneys of Cleveland and stands high in his profession. His offices are in the Guar- dian Building. In addition to being a good lawyer, he has numerous substantial business connections, being president of The Ohio Royal Building and Loan Company of Cleve- land, treasurer of the Federal Mortgage Finance Company of Cleveland, president of the Alexandria Company, director in a number

of corporations, and has many other business and legal connections.

Mr. Myers' fraternity record is one of ac- tive, arduous and continued work As treas- urer of the Beta Iota Building Association the brunt of raising the funds which purchased in 1901 a home for its chapter-the first of any fraternity in the State of Ohio to own its own house-fell upon Mr. Myers' shoulders and he piloted its business affairs for fourteen years. As one of the charter members he was one of the organizers of the Cleveland Alumni Chapter, and assisted in establish- ing Delta Alta and Delta Zeta Chapters at Case School of Applied Science and West- ern Reserve University. He has long been prominent in Sigma Nu, serving as chairman of the extension committee from 1909 to 1913, chairman of the jurisprudence committee from 1913 to 1915, and in 1915, at the Denver Grand Chapter, was elevated to a seat in the High Council and given the title of Grand Counselor. He has recodified the laws of Sigma Nu several times and has spent much thankless and unpaid time in shaping up the laws to meet the conditions under the reor- ganized plan. To Walter J. Sears, regent of the fraternity, and Mr. Myers, the grand counselor, belong the credit for redrafting the reorganization plan of government and retouching it into the present well-ordered system which was successfully carried with- out opposition in the Denver Grand Chapter, and has already placed Sigma Nu in the van- guard of the national fraternities. In a recent talk Mr. Myers voiced the need of a construc- tive national policy for his fraternity in the following words : "Think broadly, not nar- rowly; think nationally, not locally; and Sigma Nu will always stand first among fra- ternities." Mr. Myers is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce, City Club and many other civic and social organizations.

At Alliance, Ohio, May 23, 1904, Mr. Myers was married to Miss Etta May Salmon, and they have two sons : Walter Edward, Jr. and Salmon Coppock Myers.

S. S. SAFFOLD is General Agent of the Provi- dent Life & Trust Company of Philadelphia for Eastern Ohio, and during his active career has enjoyed many official associations with various business organizations. Mr. Saffold has been with the Provident Life & Trust

Vol. II-10

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Company thirty-six years of continuous serv- ice, and is one of that company's oldest gen- eral agents. The Provident Life & Trust was established over fifty years ago, and enjoys one of the most enviable records of the con- servative Old Line life insurance companies.

Starks Selbert Saffold was born at Mobile, Alabama, March 15, 1852, a son of Judge Milton J. and Martha (Harrison) Saffold. During his youth he received a private school education and attended Graylock and Emer- son Institutes and has been a business man since early manhood. In 1881 he became con- nected with the Provident Life & Trust Com- pany as agent, and for overy thirty years has represented the company both as Special and General Agent.

Mr. Saffold has occupied official positions ranging from the office of secretary to presi- dent in eight or ten professional and business concerns, but has resigned most of these con- nections. He is now president of the Acme Equipment & Engineering Company, director of the Chippewa Lake Company, of the Los Serros Copper Company, the Ohio Lemon Company, and is secretary of the Union Syn- dicate. He is also one of the honored members of the Cleveland Association of Life Under- writers and formerly its president.

Mr. Saffold is affiliated with Woodward Lodge No. 508, Free and Accepted Masons, Cleveland Chapter No. 148, Royal Arch Ma- sons, Oriental Commandery No. 12, Knights Templar, is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Masonic Club, Euclid Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, May- field Country Club, Cleveland Gun Club, La Carp Duck Club, and the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. His offices are in the Garfield Building.

At Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1881, he married Miss Harriett Webb. She is now Regent of Western Reserve Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. They have a daughter, Mrs. William C. Young, liv- ing in Texas, and one son, J. Webb Saffold, a mechanical engineer, of Cleveland.

JUDGE MAURICE BERNSTEIN. Some sage once stated that every man receives two edu- cations, that which he acquires himself and that which other people give him. To an unusual degree Judge Bernstein of Cleveland had his abilities tested and refined by this dou- ble process, and it was not alone the qualifi- cations he brought from his study of books but also the experience he gained by active contact

with men and affairs that has promoted him at a comparatively early age to the position he now enjoys as a lawyer and citizen.

Judge Bernstein was born in Cleveland August 24, 1884, a son of David J. and Au- gusta (Jacobs) Bernstein. Both parents were born in Europe, the mother coming to Cleve- land when an infant with her parents and the father at the age of sixteen with his parents. They were students together in the historic Brownell School at Cleveland and were mar- ried in this city, after which David Bernstein followed the grocery business for many years, but he and his wife are now living retired. He has been a resident of Cleveland fifty years. There were nine children in the family, five sons and four daughters, all still living.

Maurice Bernstein was educated in the pub- lic schools, graduating from the Central High in 1903, and in 1906 received his LL. B. de- gree from the law department of Western Re- serve University. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in the same year and has also been qualified to practice in the Federal courts. Beginning practice in 1906, Judge Bernstein handled an individual clientage until Feb- ruary 1, 1917. At that tme he resigned from the municipal bench to become a constituent member of the law firm of Strong, Desberg, Bernstein & Mooney. This firm has been spoken of as the largest young law firm of Cleveland. Besides the members in the active partnership they employ and have connected with them five other young lawyers, consti- tuting a magnificent aggregate of talent and ability. This is the only law firm in Cleveland which occupies two entire floors for their offices, the tenth and eleventh floors of the Cleveland National Bank Building.

Judge Bernstein when a boy in school helped support himself by selling newspapers and other work, and he learned how to meet and mingle with men long before his pre- paratory education was finished.

He has been a leading democrat in Cleve- land since leaving law school and since he at- tained his majority. In the early part of 1907 he was appointed acting police judge by the late Mayor Tom Johnson to fill a vacancy. In November of the same year he was elected to the city council. He was a member of that body during 1908-09, when Mayor Johnson was in his last term. It was an historic coun- cil, the center of that tremendous fight made over the traction problem. Judge Bernstein was always a warm friend and follower of the late Tom Johnson.

Hangul Sourcen,

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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

January 1, 1910, he was appointed assistant city solicitor under Mayor Baker, now secre- tary of war. He was connected with the Baker administration of Cleveland until Feb- ruary 1, 1912, when he resigned in order to resume private practice. In November, 1912, Mr. Bernstein was elected to the State Senate as a member of the 80th General Assembly. He was one of the five senators from the twen- ty-fifth district, made up of Cuyahoga County. He was chosen as a democrat and was in the Senate until he resigned December 1, 1914, to accept appointment as judge of the Munic- ipal Court of Cleveland to fill a vacancy. He filled out the unexpired term and in the fall of 1915 was elected for a six-year term, but resigned the office February 1, 1917. On the same day that he left the municipal bench he was appointed special counsel for the attorney general of Ohio and is still in the position. It is interesting to note that Judge Bernstein has for different reasons resigned every posi- tion to which he has been elected by popular vote.

He is a member of the Cleveland Bar Asso- ciation, Ohio State Bar Association, American Bar Association, City Club of Cleveland, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Knights of Pythias, Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, Knights of Joseplı, Independent Aid Society, H. B. & S. U., and worships in the Enclid Avenne Temple. Judge Bernstein is now a member of the Democratic Central Committee for Cleveland and Cuyahoga Coun- ty, and taking his career as a whole it seems that politics is his chief hobby, though ap- parently it does not interfere with his splendid success as a lawyer.

On December 25, 1912, Judge Bernstein married Minnie M. Reiss, of Cleveland. Mrs. Bernstein was born in Cleveland and like her husband is a graduate of the Central High School. Their home is at 1442 East 105th Street. Judge and Mrs. Bernstein have two children, Howard Spencer, born at Cleveland December 16, 1913, and George Reiss, born October 2, 1917.

GEORGE C. HANSEN. Among the members of the Cleveland bar none has a better record for straightforward and high professional con- duct, for success earned with honor and with- out animosity, than George C. Hansen, of the firm of Blake, Hansen & Gillie. He is a man of scholarly attainments, exact and compre- hensive knowledge of the law, and, while an active republican taking part in important

civic affairs, has of late years concerned him- self chiefly with the pressing and constantly broadening duties of his profession.

Mr. Ilansen was born May 30, 1868, in the province of Schleswig, Germany, of Danish parents, and was five years of age when he was brought to the United States by his parents, Henry William and Catherine (Petersen) Hansen, the family arriving at New York July 4, 1873, and immediately making their way to Wood County, Ohio, where they located on a farm. In his native land he had been a schoolteacher, but in the United States Mr. Hansen always followed farming and con- tinued to be engaged in that calling until the time of his death, which occurred when he was seventy years of age. The mother still survives and makes her home on the Wood County farm. Henry W. Hansen was one of the men who had made his own way in the world, having come to the United States with but $100 in gold, with which to build up a home and business and take care of a family of seven children. Therefore he believed that all should start to work as soon as they were able, not only for the income which might be made, but also as a means of education. There were twelve children in the family, four being sons and eight daughters, of whom nine lived to years of maturity, and four danghters and two sons still survive, although George C., the fifth in order of birth, is the only resident of Cleveland.

The district schools of Wood County fur- nished George C. Hansen with the preliminary part of his education, and when he was four- teen years of age he began making his own way in the world. It was his father's belief that if the children wished greater educational training than that furnished by the public schools they should themselves earn it, and this the youth set about to do. In 1889 he secured a position as teacher of a country school in Wood County, remaining there through that and the two following years, and then went to Hoytville, Ohio, where he taught from 1892 until 1894. In the mean- time, in 1891, he had been able to secure a commercial course in the Toledo Business Col- lege. He was a teacher in the University of Florida for one year, and superintendent of the Perrysburg, Ohio, schools from 1896 to 1897. During this time he had attended the Ohio Northern University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1895 and the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and next entered the law department of the University of

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Michigan, where he completed the regular three-year course in two years, graduating in 1898 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He was admitted to the bars of Ohio and Michigan, as graduation from the University of Michigan was the only thing necessary dur- ing those days for such admission, and began the practice of law in June, 1898, in the same building at Cleveland in which his offices are now located. He has since been admitted to practice in the United States and Federal Courts. Mr. Hansen has carried on a general practice and has been a member of several legal combinations, in June, 1917, becoming a member of the firm of Blake, Hansen & Gillie, with offices at 632 Society for Savings Build- ing. He belongs to the Cleveland Bar Asso- ciation, the Ohio State Bar Association and the National Bar Association, and is a director in numerous banks and corporations, in which his knowledge of the law is considered a val- uable asset. Politically a republican, and very active in the affairs of his party, his only public office has been that of assistant prosecutor of Cuyahoga County, which he filled from 1908 to 1910, under John Cline. During the year 1912-3 he served as president of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce; and from 1908 to 1910 was president of the Cuya- hoga County Sunday School Association. At this time he belongs to the Lakewood Christian Church, and his fraternal connections are with the Odd Fellows and Lakewood Lodge No. 601, Free and Accepted Masons. The beautiful family home of Mr. Hansen is located at 12612 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, five miles from the Public Square, and is situated on a tract of about two acres of land, which forms one of the real show places of the suburbs of Cleve- land. The spacious home, while built nearly fifty years ago, has been made modern in every way and is very attractive, but the real attrac- tion of the estate is found in the grounds. All his life Mr. Hansen has been a great lover of the outdoors, and on his grounds are planted specimens of every native tree that grows in this section, about every hardy tree of the country and some of them nearly seventy years old, and a wealth of vines, hedges, bushes and shrubbery of every kind. While at college he taught botany and geology and he has retained in full degree his love for flowers and all growing things. Another of his hobbies is natural history, and his library in this connection is said to be one of the largest and most complete in the country. Mr. Hansen is still an active man and one of

the best players of the Lakewood Tennis Club.

On June 29, 1904, Mr. Hansen was married to Miss Orra Phillips, of Cleveland, Ohio, daughter of Ross and Mary Phillips, now resi- dents of Cleveland but formerly of Colum- biana County, where the Phillips family is an old and honored one, having been the first Orangemen of that locality. Mrs. Hansen was born in Columbiana County and educated there and at Salem High School. She taught in the Cleveland public schools prior to her marriage and is an intellectual and well-in- formed woman. Her home is her chief inter- est in life, yet she finds time to take an active and helpful part in the work of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Mr. and Mrs. Hansen have three children, Paul G., Ruth M. and George Phillips, all born at Lakewood, where they are attending the public schools.

CAPT. LEVI JOHNSON was one of the most interesting of the early characters of Cleve- land, and a man whose constructive enterprise had much to do with changing and directing the current of business activities which even- tualized in the rearing of a mighty city where at his early acquaintance had stood only a vil- lage with no special distinction to mark it out from half a dozen or more other places of similar size and importance. Two specific dis- tinctions have always been accorded Captain Johnson in local history. The first frame building in the town was put up by him, and he also owned the first ship ever launched at this port.

He was born in Herkimer County, New York, April 25, 1786, and was early left an orphan. He remained in the home of an uncle until he was fourteen. He worked on a farm, attended school when opportunity offered, and from the first his training was one of diligence and good habits of body and mind. He spent four years with Ephraim Derrick in learning the trade of carpenter and joiner. He pos- sessed a mechanical ingenuity, and though his school opportunties were limited he had ac- curate processes of thought and a methodical mind which did much to promote his subse- quent business success. After leaving his first employer he was with Laflet Remington as a journeyman workman for three years. He also put in a year building barns in his section of New York, being associated with Stephen Remington.

This brings his life up to 1807. The great tide of immigration which was destined to peo-

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ple and develop the Middle West had already begun to flow, and thousands were interested in the lands west of the Alleghenys. A brother of Stephen Remington had toured Northern Ohio, and was especially favorably impressed with the advantages of the settle- ment of Newburg in Cuyahoga County. On his return East he made a report of his inves- tigations, which was the direct cause of in- ducing a large number of people to go from New York to Ohio. One of them was Stephen Remington, who at once shut up his shop as a carpenter, packed his tools, and in the fall of 1807 started for Cuyhoga County.

In the spring of 1808 Levi Johnson followed suit. However, his journey to Northern Ohio was a series of stages. On reaching Bloom- field, New York, he spent the summer working at his trade, and a few months later proceeded westward, carrying a knapsack on his back. Arriving at Buffalo, he again found employ- ment and put in the winter there. In the month of February his uncle reached Buffalo, also on his way to Ohio, and the two then jour- neyed together westward. They arrived in Cleveland March 10, 1809. They had traveled in a sleigh to Cleveland. Warmer weather set in, the snow disappeared, and the sleigh had to be abandoned. Some of the party then pro- ceeded on horseback to Huron County, where they met Judge Wright and Mr. Ruggles, who were agents for the Connecticut "fire land," in that part of Ohio. One of the immediate needs for the development of that country was a saw mill. Levi Johnson took the contract to build one at the town of Jessup, now known as Wakeman.

In the interval Mr. Johnson returned to Cleveland and fortunately found a home in the family of Judge Walworth, then the leading citizen of the village. Judge Walworth se- cured Mr. Johnson's services to build an office. Up to that time all the houses in Cleveland were of logs. Judge Walworth's office was the first frame building. At that time Euclid was a flourishing settlement and had the only saw mill in that section of the country. That saw mill made the lumber which was used by Mr. Johnson in putting up the frame office on Superior Street where the American House now stands.

Having thus laid his first claim to distinc- tion in the history of Cleveland, Mr. Johnson returned to Huron County for the purpose of carrying out his contract to erect a saw mill for his uncle. It required three or four months to do this, and Mr. Johnson then re-

turned to Cleveland determined to make this his permanent home. For several years he was almost constantly employed building houses and other buildings in Cleveland and in New- burg. He was employed in constructing a saw mill on Tinker's Creek for Mr. Jessup, and while working there made the acquaintance of Miss Margaret Montier. She was the first white girl to come to Huron County and lived there with a family named Hawley. Captain Johnson and Miss Montier became well ac- quainted, determined to proceed through life as partners, and she went back to Cleveland with Mr. Johnson and temporarily lived in the home of Judge Walworth, which was then the chief place in the village of sixty inhabitants. In 1811 Levi Johnson and Miss Montier were married, and they soon set up their home in a log cabin he had erected on Euclid Avenue near the square.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 28

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