USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 3
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Alfred Kelley had the advantages of the common schools and of Fairfield Academy. When he was about ten years old his parents moved to Lowville, New York. In 1807 he entered the law offices of Judge Jonas Platt, of the Supreme Court of New York. In 1810, being well qualified by his previous studies, he came out to Cleveland, fourteen years after the first settlement had been planted there. He rode horseback from New York in com- pany with his uncle, Judge Joshua Stow, and with Jared P. Kirtland, who was then a young medical student. When they arrived at Cleveland they found a settlement containing three frame houses and six log houses. Mr. Kelley was the first attorney to become a permanent resident of Cleveland. He was admitted to the bar November 7, 1810, and on the same day the court appointed him prose- cuting attorney. By successive appointments he held that office until 1822. His career as a lawyer is obscured by his more important activities as a statesman and financier, but all accounts agree that he was a man of power in the advocacy of the interests entrusted to him professionally, and for a number of years he enjoyed as large and lucrative a practice as any attorney in Northern Ohio.
Cleveland was chartered as a village De- cember 23, 1814, and on the first Monday of June, 1815, its first village election was held. There were twelve votes and all of them were cast for Alfred Kelley as president of the vil- lage. He filled that office only a few months, resigning March 19, 1816, and being suc- ceeded by his father, Judge Daniel Kelley, who was the second president of the village.
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
On August 25, 1817, Alfred Kelley married Mary Seymour Welles, of Lowville, New York. To bring his bride out to the Ohio wilderness and the Village of Cleveland, then contain- ing 100 inhabitants, Mr. Kelley bought a one- horse chaise made in Albany, New York, and some days after the marriage he and his bride drove through the Village of Cleveland, and the villagers not only showed a cordial greet- ing to the bride and groom, but expressed admiration over the first carriage brought to the town. Mr. and Mrs. Kelley went to live in a brick house on Water Street, now West Ninth Street, near Superior Street. It was the best residence district and also the busi- ness center of the town. Mr. Kelley's home was the second brick house of the village, and a picture of the old house is still extant. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Kelley had eleven children.
capital of the State of Ohio. In the session following his election Mr. Kelley was the youngest member of the House. He continued at intervals a member of the Legislature, first as representative and then as senator, from Cuyahoga and adjoining counties until 1823.
When the Commercial Bank of Erie, the first bank in Cleveland, was organized in 1816, Alfred Kelley was elected its president. In 1818, while a member of the Legislature, he introduced the first bill, either in the United States or Europe, providing for the abolition of imprisonment for debt. This bill failed to pass but was a notable step toward a great reform, which was not long delayed, and send- ing people to prison for debt is now so obso- lete that the custom has passed almost from traditional memory.
In 1823 Mr. Kelley became one of the State Canal Commission. This commission accom- plished its great task of building the Ohio Canal from Cleveland, its northern terminus, to the Ohio River. In many respects the canal was a monument to the enterprise, en- ergy and sagacity of Alfred Kelley, and as already stated it did more than anything else to fortify Cleveland's position as a great ship- ping center and commercial city. During the construction of this canal Mr. Kelley removed first to Akron and then to Columbus, and he spent the last years of his life at the state capital. When the canal was completed lie
resigned from the commission to recuperate his health and look after his private affairs.
In October, 1836, Mr. Kelley was again elected a member of the Ohio House of Rep- resentatives from Franklin and re-elected for a succeeding term. He was chairman of the Whig State Central Committee in 1840 and did a great deal to arouse support in Ohio for the presidential candidate Harrison, who was the first whig sent to the White House.
From the beginning of the great panic of 1837 for a number of years Mr. Kelley worked unceasingly to strengthen and preserve the credit of the state at home and abroad. In 1840 he was appointed state fund commis- sioner and held that office until 1842. He did everything in his power to combat that grow- ing popular influence in the state which ad- vocated the non-payment of interest on the In 1814 Mr. Kelley had been elected a mem- ber of the Ohio House of Representatives. He and William H. Harper represented a dis- triet then comprising the counties of Cuya- hoga, Ashtabula and Geauga. The Legisla- state debt and even argued for repudiation of the debt itself. Rather than have Ohio face dishonor Mr. Kelley went to New York and to Europe and on his personal credit raised the money to pay the interest, and in ture was still meeting at Chillicothe, the first . later years, when a saner reaction followed, he was designated as the "savior of the honor of the state."
In 1844 Mr. Kelley was elected to the State Senate and served two consecutive terms. While in the Senate he originated the bill to organize the State Bank of Ohio and other banking companies. This measure, so care- fully drawn up by him, afterwards became the basis of the national banking law pre- pared by Secretary of the Treasury Chase and known as the National Bank Act of 1863. Mr. Kelley closed his public career as a mem- ber from Columbus of the State Senate in 1857. His health was gradually declining, yet it was characteristic of his fidelity to his work that he went daily to the Senate and helped carry out a number of important measures. He was especially concerned with financial legislation, and at every opportunity sought to improve the condition of the state treasury and secure the safety of the public funds. He also recognized the heavy burdens borne by the people and was active in remodeling the tax laws so as to relieve land owners from excessive taxation.
He should also be remembered as a construc- tive factor in the upbuilding of Ohio's sys- tem of railways. He was president of the Columbus and Xenia Railroad, and in 1845 he was elected president of the Cleveland, Co- lumbus & Cincinnati Railroad, most of which was constructed under his direction. The
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati was one of the first two railroads built out of the City of Cleveland. It is now part of the Big Four system. A great celebration occurred in Cleveland on February 21, 1851, attended by Governor Wood and many other promi- nent officials. This was the occasion of the running of the first train on the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati. It is said that when Alfred Kelley was elected president of the road he assumed tremendous responsibility in the task of raising money for its completion. By his influence the city voted $200,000. Mr. Kelley then called a mass meeting in Empire Hall, had the doors locked, and it was an- nounced that no one should be allowed to leave until enough money had been raised to make a start on construction work. Subscrip- tions came so rapidly that in a short time the doors were opened. In 1850 Mr. Kelley was elected president of the Cleveland, Painsville & Ashtabula Railroad, now a part of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern of the New York Central lines. This road began operating east from Cleveland in 1851. Mr. Kelley finally resigned his executive offices with these railroad companies, but remained a director until his death.
Alfred Kelley died at Columbus December 2, 1859, a few weeks past the age of seventy. He had given nearly half a century of his life to Ohio and its interests. He was a stren- uous worker, accomplished big things, and practically wore himself out by faithful at- tention to his duties as a financier and pub- lie official.
HON. VIRGIL P. KLINE. One of the most distinctive personalities and for years an emi- nent lawyer of Ohio was the late Virgil P. Kline, whose sudden death at his home in Cleveland January 18, 1917, brought a long and eventful career to a close.
Mr. Kline had been a resident of Cleveland nearly half a century, for many years was personal attorney of John D. Rockefeller, and for thirty years was attorney for the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. The last professional work he did was obtaining an injunction against the collection of taxes on Rockefeller's personal property in East Cleveland. He was noted as being as powerful and resourceful in intellect as he was vigorous and determined in contesting the interests of his clients before court or jury. He was a master of many in- volved and complicated branches of learning aside from the law itself, and had made a
close study of financial and economic ques- tions. He served the Standard Oil Company in all its legal fights in Ohio.
No lawyer in Ohio was a more ready or powerful advocate, or more industrious as a student of his cases. To a remarkable degree he commanded the confidence of the court and enjoyed many warm friendships among the judges and members of the bar. He possessed an extraordinary talent for effective work and was a genius for quick and comprehensive perception and safe judgment. Wherever he went he was recognized as a man of forceful ability, of decided opinions and distinctive personality. In physique he resembled Na- poleon and that resemblance was frequently noted since he possessed the same qualities as a fighter as did the Little Corporal. In his personal relations he was regarded as most approachable and kindly, and many younger members of the Cleveland bar have reason to be grateful for his assistance and advice. Speaking of Mr. Kline's individual traits, one who was a very close friend says: "I have known many men, but he less than any man of my acquaintance manifested the least jealousy of rivals. He was so big, strong and courageous he did not need to see or fear them, "'
Virgil P. Kline was born at Congress in Wayne County, Ohio, November 3, 1844, and was in his seventy-third year when he died. His parents were Anthony and Eliza Jane (Montgomery) Kline. When he was a boy his parents removed to Conneaut in Ashtabula County, and he grew up and received his early education in the public schools there. At Conneaut in 1860, when not yet sixteen years of age, young Kline and a boy com- panion O. M. Hall, also an Ohioan by birth and who afterwards attained distinction as a congressman from Minnesota, started a little newspaper, publishing it as partners under the firm name Kline & Hall, editors and pro- prietors. It was a year full of national des- tiny, when Lincoln and Douglas were the rival candidates of their respective parties in the North. The boys published the paper until the opening of the presidential campaign. Young Kline was an ardent Douglas democrat and Hall was equally zealous in behalf of the republican party. Differing in politics, the boys determined to break up partnership. Kline told Hall he would pay him two dollars and a half if the latter would publish the re- maining two issues of the little paper which they had been issuing monthly. Hall accepted
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
the offer and the next two issues were highly colored with his views on politics and with his fervid republican principles. The paper was called "The Young American," and was de- voted to literature, news, fun, poetry, etc. While it did not have a large circulation, it was an enterprise of considerable distinction considering the youth of the editors, and was read in many family circles. The paper con- tained four pages, and was a nine by eleven inch sheet. Not long afterward Hall moved to Minnesota and became a democrat himself, and he and Mr. Kline were always the best of friends.
During the early '60s Mr. Kline pursued preparatory studies in the Eclectic Institute at Hiram, Ohio, and in 1866 was graduated from Williams College. His first important responsibility in life was as a teacher, and for two years he was superintendent of schools at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. He then came to Cleveland and took up the study of law in the office of Albert T. Slade. Admitted to the bar of Ohio September 15, 1869, he began practice in association with Mr. Slade under the firm name of Slade & Kline, and that partnership continued until the death of the senior partner in 1876. Subsequently Mr. Kline was associa- ted with John M. Henderson, and when S. H. Tolles joined the firm it took the name of Hen- derson, Kline & Tolles. Mr. Henderson with- drew in 1895, and a year later W. F. Carr and F. H. Goff were admitted, making the firm title, Kline, Carr, Tolles & Goff. This was succeeded by Kline, Tolles & Morley. At the time of his death Mr. Kline was senior member of the firm of Kline, Clevenger, Buss & Holliday. Their offices were in the East Ohio Gas Building.
Mr. Kline was a lifelong democrat. He had a reputation as an orator that was not con- fined entirely to the court room. He always took a lively interest in public questions and affairs, and his addresses on various topics were accorded the closest of attention as ex- pressions of the unusual personality of the or- ator and also because they were full of in- formation and meaning. In 1891 he was men- tioned as the democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, and on several occasions was the candidate for his party for the Com- mon Pleas, Circuit and Supreme Benches. Mr. Kline was a member of the Union and University Clubs and the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity; was a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and belonged to the Castalia Fishing Club of Castalia, Ohio, and
the University Club of New York. Much of his wide information he gained by reading in his private library, which is said to have been one of the finest in Cleveland. Though a man of wealth, he led the simple life and his tastes ran chiefly to books, bronzes and orien- tal rugs. He was one of the founders of the Cleveland Bar Association, and at its first meeting in March, 1873, was elected corre- sponding secretary. Subsequently he served as president of the Ohio Bar Association. He did much to elevate the courts of Ohio to their present high standards.
Mr. Kline was survived by his widow, one son and two daughters. Mrs. Kline was form- erly Miss Effie Ober. The son, Virgil P. Kline, Jr., is a resident of Parkersburg, West Vir- ginia. The daughters are Mrs. Charles S. Brooks of New York City and Mrs. Carlyle Pope of Cleveland, wife of Dr. Carlyle Pope.
THE WARNER & SWASEY COMPANY. No in- stitution in Cleveland has more of the dis- tinguishing assets and characteristics of age, strength, integrity and tested and proved re- liability of status than the Warner & Swasey Company. Employment with that company has always been regarded as a badge of effi- ciency and of honor. The two men whose names are borne in the company title are sub- jects of sketches elsewhere, and the following paragraphs represent an effort to give briefly and concisely some idea of the scope and the history of this business.
The partnership of Warner and Swasey was established at Cleveland in 1881. The firm were designers and manufacturers of machine tools and special machinery. That was a rather general field and the company did not long remain without important departures in specializations therefrom. The accomplish- ments of Warner & Swasey in mechanical and engineering lines early brought them commis- sions for the construction of great telescopes and other scientific instruments for astronom- ical observatories. That has ever since been one of the distinguishing features of the com- pany's equipment and facilities and output.
While the design and construction of astronomical instruments has made the War- ner & Swasey Company renowned in the sci- entific world, the manufacture of machine tools has brought equal reputation in the world of manufacturing, until today machine tools manufactured by this concern are in use in the leading factories of practically every manufacturing country in the universe.
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
Among the most noted telescopes designed and constructed by this company are included the great 36-inch Lick Telescope, of the Lick Observatory, University of California. This telescope was completed in 1887 and for years was the largest refractor in the world. In 1893 the 40-inch Yerkes Telescope at Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago, was com- pleted, and this telescope still remains the largest refractor yet constructed. Other large telescopes include the 26-inch telescope of the United States Naval Observatory at Washing- ton, and many others.
The Warner & Swasey Company recently completed a 72-inch reflecting telescope for the Dominion of Canada, containing the largest reflector yet completed. It is also manufactur- ing a 60-inch reflecting telescope recently de- signed and now under construction for the Argentine Republic.
The products of the Warner & Swasey Com- pany have been awarded high honors at every exposition where they have been exhibited, beginning with the Paris Exposition of 1889. Grand prizes for separate exhibits of machine tools and astronomical instruments-outrank- ing the gold medal-were awarded at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.
In 1900 the Warner & Swasey Company was incorporated. With a world reputation as manufacturers of machine tools and optical instruments of precision, the facilities of their great plants have been tested to full capacity in recent years in the production of optical instruments for the army and navy. In addi- tion to the works and main office in Cleveland the Warner & Swasey Company has branch of- fices in New York, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago and sales agencies in the principal foreign countries.
WORCESTER REED WARNER, senior member of the old partnership and the present cor- poration of the Warner & Swasey Company, bears, together with his honored partner, one of the most honored names in American in- dustry.
He was born at Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. May 16, 1846, a son of Franklin J. and Vesta Wales (Reed) War- ner. His Americanshin is a matter of two centuries of family residence. The first Amer- ican of the name was Andrew Warner, who settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 1632, and moved to Hadley in 1650. The suc- cessive heads of generations with their wives Vol. II-2
are as follows : Andrew Warner married Esther Selden; Daniel, who married Martha Boltwood; Daniel, who married Mary Hub- bard; Joseph, who married Mary Whipple; Joseph, who married Olive IIolbrook; Frank- lin J., who married Vesta Wales Reed; and Worcester Reed Warner, who married at Cleveland June 26, 1890, Cornelia F. Blake- more of Philadelphia. Mr. and Mrs. Warner have one daughter, Helen Blakemore Warner.
Mr. Warner was born on a farm, was edu- cated in the district schools of Cummington and left home at the age of nineteen to serve as an apprentice machinist. He learned his trade at. Boston, Massachusetts, and Exeter, New Hampshire, where he worked as a me- chanical draftsman, and in 1869 went to the shops of the Pratt & Whitney Company as foreman. He was with that company at Hart- ford, Connecticut, from 1870 to 1880, and while in Exeter. New Hampshire, met Ambrose Swasey, beginning an acquaintance and com- radeship which they recently celebrated as forty-eight years of partnership. While at Hartford Mr. Warner pursued studies in astronomy and other scientific branches and experimented in telescope building as a recrea- tion. He and his partner, Mr. Swasey, made their first independent venture together in Chi- cago with a capital of $10,000, but soon dis- covered that it was impossible to secure trained workers that far west, and therefore in 1881 they began their partnership as machine tool makers at Cleveland.
Mr. Warner, like his partner, has enjoyed many individual distinctions both in Cleve- land and elsewhere. In 1897 the Western Uni- versity of Pennsylvania conferred upon him the degree Doctor of Mechanical Science. He served as manager from 1890 to 1893 and as president iu 1896-97 of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. is past president of the Civil Engineers' Club of Cleveland, is a past president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Association for the Advancement of Science, member of the British Astronomical Society, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, trustee of West- ern Reserve University and of the Case School of Applied Science. He is a director of the Guardians Savings and Trust Company, and the Cleveland Society for Savings, member of the Union Club. Country Club, University Club, Sleepy Hollow Country Club of New York and is a republican in politics. Mr. War- ner's home is at Tarrytown-on-Hudson, and
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
he also maintains offices both in Cleveland and in New York. .
AMBROSE SWASEY. So much that is strong, lasting and good, so many movements and or- ganizations have proceeded directly from the heart and brain and executive power of Am- brose Swasey in Cleveland that an adequate sketch of his life and influence would cover many pages and it is manifestly impossible to convey even an approximate outline of his achievements in the few brief paragraphs and sentences to which this article is limited.
Mr. Swasey is of New England birth and ancestry, was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, December 19, 1846, a son of Nathaniel and Abigail Chesley (Peavey) Swasey. His early education was acquired in the public schools of his native town. There he learned the ma- chinists' trade and while there made the ac- quaintance of W. R. Warner, thus beginning a partnership which has now endured for forty-eight years, thirty-seven years as an actual firm of Warner & Swasey and since 1900 as the Warner & Swasey Company in Cleveland.
Reference has already been made to the his- tory and product of the Warner & Swasey Company of Cleveland. Mr. Swasey's indi- vidual talents have contributed much to the success of this Cleveland industrial institu- tion. He invented the Swasey Range and Position Finder, adopted by the United States Government. He has contributed to various engineering subjects, and particularly to the article published under the title "A New Process for Generating and Cutting the Teeth of Spur Wheels and Some Refinements of Me- chanical Science."
Many honors have been bestowed upon Mr. Swasey. In 1900 he was decorated by the French government as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for his achievements in the design and construction of astronomical in- struments. In 1905 Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering, and in 1910 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Denison University, Granville, Ohio. He was one of the original forty-eight men to organize the American So- ciety of Mechanical Engineers, serving as vice president in 1900-1902, and as president in 1904. In 1916 he was made an honorary mem- ber of the society. He is past president and honorary member of the Cleveland Engineer- ing Society. His connection with foreign en-
gineering and scientific societies includes mem- bership in the Institution of Mechanical En- gineers of Great Britain, the British Astron- omical Society, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In 1914 Mr. Swasey made the initial gift to- wards the establishment of the Engineering Foundation. So far as is known, this is the first instance of a foundation devoted to en- gineering purposes, an establishment of a means of promoting the good of mankind through the work of the engineer along the broadest lines. In 1917 the income of the foundation was devoted to the work of the Na- tional Research Council.
Mr. Swasey served as a member of the jury of awards of the Nashvile, Pan-American and St. Louis expositions, and as vice president of the jury of awards of the Jamestown Exposi- tion.
Mr. Swasey has held many positions of trust in the business world, and is deeply interested in civic affairs. In 1905 he served as president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. He has traveled extensively at home and abroad, having been twice around the world, and in 1917 for the third time visited China, where for many years he has given special attention to the promotion of education.
He was married at Hampton, New Hamp- shire, October 24, 1871, to Lavinia D., dangh- ter of David and Sarah Ann (Dearborn) Marston. She died in January, 1913.
ALEXANDER MCINTOSH had an active and honorable part in the life and affairs of Cleve- land for forty-five years. His name is one that can be recalled without apology and deserves to stand in the list of those who maintained progress and stability here during the middle period of the last century.
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