USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 30
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As a boy Alfred B. Smythe attended pub- lie schools in his native town, took a course in the Ohio Business College at Mansfield, and spent four years teaching in country dis- tricts. In 1898 he was elected principal of the high school at Nevada, but soon resigned to enter Oberlin College as a member of the class of 1902. He was in Oberlin until he completed three years of work and left eol- lege to take up the real estate business in Cleveland.
His early successes as a real estate man at- tracted such attention that his services were secured by The Cleveland Trust Company, to organize and manage its realty department. He filled that position until August 1, 1914, gathering thereby a broad experience and widening his acquaintance throughout the city, at which time he resigned to resume busi- ness for himself. Today The A. B. Smythe
A.B. Swy The
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Company is one of the best known real estate firms in Northern Ohio. Its main office is in the Erie Building.
Mr. Smythe is also president of the follow- ing :
President and treasurer of The Smythe Building Company; president of The Glen- gariff Realty Company ; president and treas- urer of The Crucible Steel Forge Co .; presi- dent of The Loop Realty Company ; president of The Land Security Company ; vice presi- dent of the Bankers Guaranteed Mortgage Co., and director in the following companies : Na- tional Mortgage Company, Builders Invest- ment Company, The Shore Acres Land Com- pany, Colonial Savings & Loan Company.
While at Oberlin Mr. Smythe was the star pitcher on the baseball team. He and his teammates had the distinction of winning the championship of Ohio Colleges in 1898 and 1899. His work as a pitcher was of such character as to attract the notice of Jimmy McAleer, at that time manager of the Cleve- land Baseball Club, and in 1900, while still in college, as the result of a favorable proposi- tion made him, Mr. Smythe signed up with the Cleveland Baseball Club for a year. Thus it was professional ball that really first brought him to Cleveland.
Mr. Smythe is gifted with musical talent and fortunately had thorough training during his early youth. For three years he was a member of the Oberlin College Glee Club Quartet, for six years was director of the Adelbert Glee Club, for two years was with the Shubert Quartet, and three years was tenor soloist of the Pilgrim Church Quartet. An- other four years he was director and tenor soloist of the Windermere Presbyterian Church. Another prominent interest has at- tracted him into settlement work. At one time he had charge of the music at Goodrich House and also at Alta House, and for one year was a director of the Glee Club of the Y. M. C. A.
Mr. Smythe is a member of the Cleveland Real Estate Board, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Lakewood Chamber of Com- merce and National Chamber of Commerce. Socially he belongs to the Hermit Club, the Clifton Club, Union Club, Castalia Trout Club, and the Old Colony Club. Mr. Smythe and his family are members of the Lakewood Congregational Church, of which Mr. Smythe is one of the trustees.
November 13, 1902, he married Miss Catherine Loomis of Oil City, Pennsylvania, daughter of Charles and Ida E. Loomis. Her
father, a native of northwestern Pennsylvania, was secretary and treasurer of the Oil City Trust Company until his death. Her mother is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Smythe have two sons, Charles Loomis Smythe, born October 23, 1903, and Marcus Loomis Smythe, born March 12, 1905. Mr. Smythe and family reside in Clifton Park, Lakewood.
GEORGE W. VOCKE has for many years been engaged in the drug business in and around Cleveland, but is now giving his time and attention to his duties as a justice of the peace of Cuyahoga County, with office in the Society for Savings Building.
Mr. Voeke was born at Cleveland December 4, 1884, the oldest of three children of Dr. George A. and Lillie (Zantiny) Voeke. His parents are both now deceased, and were mem- bers of old and respected families on the west side of Cleveland. Of the three children one of the daughters died in infancy and the other is Eda, Mrs. A. E. Batt, of Cleveland.
Judge Voeke attended Kenyon Military Aca- demy for three and a half years, but left on account of illness and afterwards attended the Cleveland School of Pharmacy for two years. When only ten years of age he had begun working in a drug store and in his uncle's store at the corner of Dunham and Lexington, or 66th and Lexington as it is now called, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the busi- ness and became a registered pharmacist. His unele was W. G. Zantiny. All his relatives on his father's side were physicians and all on his mother's side were druggists. In 1902 Mr. Vocke bought out his uncle's business, which had been run under the name W. G. Zantiny, and for two years he conducted it under the name the Dunham Avenne Phar- macy. In 1904 he sold the business to J. B. Ganssert, who still has the store at that loca- tion. Mr. Vocke then started a new store at Independence, Ohio, under his own name. In 1906 he removed it to Newburg Heights, but its present location is 4516 East 71st Street, Cleveland. On September 8, 1908, Mr. Vocke was appointed postmaster of Willow Inn, New- burg Heights, by President Roosevelt, and he continued in that office until he resigned as postmaster October 1, 1914, and at the same time sold out his drug business. The office has since been taken into the city and has free delivery. Mr. Vocke was the youngest post- master in Olio at the time of his appointment. On June 13, 1908, he was also appointed
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justice of the peace by the Council of New- burg Heights and subsequently was elected on the republican ticket for two terms. When he left Newburg Heights in August, 1915, he resigned as justice of the peace and was at once appointed to the same office by the Brook- lyn Heights Council. On September 1, 1916, he was appointed police judge of Brooklyn Heights by Mayor H. H. Richardson of that town. He is still police judge and is also a justice of the peace for the county. In Jan- uary, 1916, he opened an office to handle his court jurisdiction in the Society for Savings Building. Mr. Vocke sold his drug business in Newburg Heights to C. R. Phillips. He finally gave up the drug business because he was tired of it, and has preferred some other line rather than the one in which his family has been so long engaged.
On May 21, 1913, he married Helen G. Romick of Wooster, Ohio. She was born and educated at Wooster, having attended Wooster University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She is a member of the Musical and Women's and Mothers' clubs of Brooklyn Heights.
HENRY APTHORP, who has long been active in the business affairs of Cleveland and whose various public services are well known, was generously endowed at birth with that talent which has been dominant in all the great characters of history-a genius for organizing and directing both material resources and the actions and work of men. Mr. Apthorp has never gotten out of touch with the common interests of mankind. As a young man he earned his living working on a farm, and the viewpoints and aspirations of those who meet the duties of life with courage, industry and sympathy, whether with their hands or with their minds, are thoroughly appreciated by him.
Henry Apthorp was born at Mayfield in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, February 9, 1841, and is a son of William and Chloe (Howard) Apthorp. His father was born at Hinsdale, Massachusetts, in 1809, while his mother was a native of Stockbridge, in the same state, and born in 1808. In 1836 the parents came to the West and located on a farm at Mayfield, Ohio, and the father was a contented and dili- gent agriculturist of Cuyahoga County, was prosperous in a moderate measure, and passed his last years at Nottingham, Ohio, where he died in 1880, the mother surviving him until the year 1898.
A farmer boy, Henry Apthorp attended the district schools of Mayfield, and later went to the Mayfield Academy and subsequently to the Geauga Seminary. The greater part of his employment up to the time that he was twenty-two years of age was found in farming, although at one time he was also employed as a hand in a sawmill. While working in this latter capacity he assisted in sawing some of the lumber for the building of the Kennard House, Cleveland, and drove the team which hauled a portion of it from the mill. On leaving the farm he worked as a lineman and foreman for the Western Union Telegraph Company and the Lake Shore & Michigan Central Railway Company, and built many miles of telegraph lines, and after that his interests developed rapidly, and for the past forty years Mr. Apthorp has filled many posts of responsibility and trust and has done much constructive and creative work.
From 1876 to 1880 Mr. Apthorp was asso- ciate editor of the Democratic Standard, at Ashtabula, Ohio, which city was his home from 1866 to 1911. In 1891 he became managing editor of the Columbus Post, at Columbus, Ohio. From 1887 to 1909 he was special agent for the Lake Shore & Michigan Soutern Rail- way Company, in matters of legislation, and while acting in this capacity in 1892 was largely instrumental, in association with John Newell, then president of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, in securing the passage of the first statute providing for the elimi- nating of grade crossings. Throughout his career he has been known as a man thoroughly fearless in the expression of his opinions. He has had long and varied experience, and this has enabled him to judge accurately as to the merits of different questions which have come before him for judgment and action. His newspaper experience has helped him in other fields, and he has a most forcible and convine- ing literary style. In 1892 Mr. Apthorp wrote and published a pamphlet arguing against the proposed 2-cent-a-mile railroad fare in Ohio, of which over 100,000 copies were sold in Ohio and neighboring states. In 1899 there ap- pear a tract under his signature in the defense of the trusts, and the copyright of this was purchased of Mr. Apthorp by the late United State Senator Mark A. Hanna, to be used by the press and public speakers during the presi- dential campaign. He was also the author in 1903, of an article that had a wide circula- tion and was directed against the heresy of socialism. Mr. Apthorp's courage was shown
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in the fact that this pamphlet, or the greater part of it, was addressed to the regular Sun- day afternoon meeting of the socialists at Army and Navy Hall, Cleveland, April 12, 1903, despite the fact that it was a bitter ar- raignment of socialism, and a convincing, logi- cal argument that was greatly detrimental to the cause and interests of that party.
Mr. Apthorp has long been a vigorous ele- ment in Ohio politics. He served two terms as a member of the Ashtabula City Council, in 1872-73 and again in 1883-84. From 1885 to 1887 he was railroad commissioner of Ohio, from 1893 to 1889 was a member of the board of managers of the Ohio State Penitentiary, and from 1897 to 1900 of the Ohio State Re- formatory. For a number of years his busi- ness interests have been largely centered in Cleveland and he now maintains his offices in the East Ohio Gas Building.
RAYMOND T. CRAGIN. Only the possession of an extraordinary faculty and business judgment could have placed Raymond T. Cragin so far along in the business world as his thirtieth year finds him. Mr. Cragin has been active in real estate circles in Cleveland since he left school. When only twenty-four years of age he began speaking before com- mittees and assemblages of real estate mnen and his solid achievements in that field con- stitute a more than ordinary distinction.
Mr. Cragin was the first man in Cleveland to specialize in handling acreage city prop- erty on the wholesale plan, acting as a broker between the owners and real estate dealers for the development of such property. He is now a man of many varied interests. His real estate offices are in the Williamson Building. He is also secretary and director of the Manu- facturers Realty Company, secretary and di- rector of the Harbor View Company, vice president of the Settlement Property Com- pany, vice president of the Triskett Property Company, president and treasurer of the Cragin Land Company, assistant secretary of the West Coast Iron Company of Cleveland and San Francisco, assistant secretary of the Home Building Company; president of the Mclaughlin Realty Company; president of the Buckeye Home & Building Company and vice president and treasurer of the Semiole Realty Company.
His family have long been identified with Cleveland, but he was born in Seattle, Wash- ington, March 29, 1888, where his parents had their home for a number of years. He is a
son of True L. and Rena Belle (Mix) Cragin. His father was born in Lorain County, Ohio, where the Cragins at one time owned a large amount of land. The mother was born at Chagrin Falls in Cuyahoga County. They were married in the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland. True L. Cragin was one of the early hardware merchants at Seattle, Washington, and was in active business when that city was a village. He resided in Seattle about eight years. His death occurred while spending the summer at Catawba Island, Ohio, August 7, 1895. The widowed mother is still living in Cleveland. The family consisted of two sons, Raymond T. and Laurence L. The latter graduated from the Western Reserve University in 1917 and is now associated with his brother in the real estate business.
Raymond T. Cragin attended the Cleveland public schools, graduating from the Central High School with the class of 1907. He soon afterward entered the office of Daniel R. Tay- lor, a pioneer real estate man of Cleveland, and was with him until 1913, when he engaged in business for himself.
Mr. Cragin is a member of the Board of Governors of the Ohio Association of Real Estate Boards, and was formerly its vice presi- dent. He is also a member of the Cleveland Real Estate Board and the Ohio State Asso- ciation of Real Estate Boards, and the Na- tional Housing Association. Before its merger with the Ohio State University he was a trus- tee of the Cleveland Polte Medical College of Cleveland. In politics he is a republican and is a member of the Union Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, City Club, Civic League, Cleve- land Automobile Club, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and Old Colony Club.
LOUIS JOHN ESTY began the practice of law at Cleveland in 1901. The first important step in his advancement came with his appoint- ment as attorney for the Savings and Trust Company, now the Citizens Savings & Trust Company. The legal affairs of this bank re- quired practically his entire attention until January 1, 1909. At that date he became as- sociated with F. C. MeMillin and C. W. Pat- tison, under the firm name of McMillin, Esty & Pattison. He was later with Horr & Lewen- thal, but Mr. Horr died in April, 1917, and the firm then beeame Lewenthal & Esty. This is one of the most substantial titles in the direc- tory of the Cleveland bar. The firm's offices are in the Williamson Building. Mr. Esty has been called upon to give his ability in the
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solution of many legal and business problems and he has to a large degree realized the suc- cess he started out to acquire when a young man. Among other interests he is vice presi- dent and treasurer of the Cleveland Realiza- tion Company, a corporation formed by N. T. Horr and himself in April, 1912. This was the pioneer company formed for the pur- chase of second mortgages, which has been a material aid to real estate operations.
Mr. Esty was born in Cleveland, April 12, 1877, and represents a family of honored activity in Ohio and with a good American ancestry. Mr. Esty owns the sword which his great-grandfather carried in the battle of Lundy's Lane during the War of 1812, and some of his ancestors also fought as Revolu- tionary soldiers. His grandfather, Ezra B. Esty, who was born in Ohio in 1826 and died September 19, 1903, grew up at Hiram Rapids and in 1868 removed to Cleveland. For many years Ezra B. Esty had charge of the sales department of the old Peerless mowers and reapers, and afterwards was a special agent for the Equitable Life Assurance Association. The last twenty-five years he lived retired. He was a republican but never sought a political office. He was a Knight Templar Mason and a man of splendid social qualities as well as business ability.
Louis J. Esty is a son of John B. and Carrie E. (Griffin) Esty. In the maternal line he is also of old American and English stock. The Griffins were of New York. His mother, Car- rie E. Griffin, was born at Ravenna, Ohio, and her father, Alexander Buell Griffin, was born in New York State September 18, 1819. His parents were Richard C. and Ann C. (Buell) Griffin. In the Buell line the ancestry goes back in England to a Lord Mayor of London and the record in direct line runs back to the twelfth or thirteenth century. One of Mr. Esty's great-grandfathers in the maternal line was Auren Stowe, a man of considerable prominence in the early days of Ohio. Some documents now in the possession of Mr. Esty are signed hy Return J. Meigs, postmaster general of the United States, and President Thomas Jefferson, commissioning Auren Stowe to carry the mail over the route between Cleveland and other points. Alexander B. Griffin, the maternal grandfather, was for many years a prominent factor in business en- terprise at Ravenna. He was owner of the Ravenna IInh and Felloe works, one of the leading manufacturing establishments of that city. For two terms he was mayor of Ra-
venna, was clerk of courts, a member of the city council and a man of such character and ability as could dignify every public position. His death occurred in 1901.
Louis John Esty was two years old when his father died. His father was for some years identified with the iron industry as sec- retary of the Cleveland Iron, Steel & Nail Company. That business is still continued, though under another name.
After his father's death Louis J. Esty grew up in the home of his grandparents in Ra- venna. He acquired a liberal education, grad- nating bachelor of science from Ohio Western University in 1899 and LL.B. from Western Reserve University in 1901. Mr. Esty is a republican, a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, is a Knight Templar Mason and has had an active membership in the Masonic Club, the Cleveland Gun Club, the East End Tennis Club, the Cleveland Athletic Associa- tion, and the Shaker Heights Country Club. On May 15, 1902, he married Miss Grace L. Davis, daughter of Edward L. and Emma L. (Davis) Davis, of Garrettsville, and their danghter, Janet L., was born February 22, 1914. Mr. and Mrs. Esty's son, Roger E., was born January 26, 1905.
STARR CADWALLADER, a resident of Cleve- land since 1896, has been long known to the people of the city as a prominent social settle- ment worker and leader in educational and other civic movements. Some of the institu- tions by which Cleveland expresses its social service and moral power have had and still have the active co-operation of Mr. Cadwal- lader.
In a business way he is member of the firm Green-Cadwallader-Long, Real Estate Invest- ments, with offices in the Marshall Building. This firm acts as sales agent for the Van Sweringen Company in their Shaker Heights suburban property and the firm now gives its exclusive time and energies to this field.
Mr. Cadwallader was born in Howard, New York, June 11, 1869, a son of Joseph Shepard and Ann E. (Starr) Cadwallader. His parents spent their lives in New York State, his father being a farmer and mechanic by occupation. Mr. Cadwallader was the older of the two children, his sister Grace living in Springfield, Missouri.
He was liberally educated, attending pre- paratory schools and Utica Academy in his native state, and graduating A. B. from Hamilton College with the class of 1893. He
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also took post-graduate work for several years and in 1896 received the degree of A. M.
Mr. Cadwallader is a pioneer in the Young Men's Christian Association and other insti- tutional religious movements, and was con- nected with the Young Men's Christian Asso- ciation actively in 1887, 1888 and 1890. From 1892 to 1895 he was a teacher in private schools.
He came to Cleveland in 1896 to act as head worker of the Goodrich Social Settlement and gave all his time to this institution until 1903. In that year he became a trustee and since 1906 has been secretary of the settlement.
During 1902-05 Mr. Cadwallader was school director of Cleveland and from 1905 to 1908 was secretary of the board of trustees of the Cleveland School of Art and from 1908 to 1910 was superintendent of the Department of Health, now called the Health Commission. He has organized several social service under- takings and is now a member of the execu- tive committee of the Cleveland Associated Charities.
Mr. Cadwallader entered the real estate business in 1910 as a member of the firm Green-Cadwallader-Long. The senior mem- ber of this firm dicd June 9, 1916, but the old name is still retained. Mr. Cadwallader's ac- tive associate is Theodore T. Long.
The vast workings and enterprise of the Van Sweringen Company of Cleveland are de- scribed on other pages of this publication. Their Shaker Heights village property is a Cleveland suburb known to every resident and one of the most modern suburban towns of the United States. The entire property has been developed as a restricted exclusively resi- dential town and the most modern ideas of town planning and home environment have been carefully worked out and introduced. The village is six miles east of the Public Square of Cleveland, but within fifteen minutes' ride and is a section of high class homes from which every undesirable feature and element have been carefully excluded.
Mr. Cadwallader's own residence is in the Shaker Heights Village and in 1916 he was elected a member of its village board of edu- cation to serve the four year term until 1919. He is now chairman of the building committee. A model grammar school has already been erected in the village and a new high school is in course of construction and will be fin- ished by September, 1918. Mr. Cadwallader is actively interested in various civic organiza- tions in the village, but still finds time to
serve in the larger program of social and educational interests. He was a member of the board of trustees of the Kent State Normal School until he was appointed a member of the State Board of Administration, during 1913- 1915. Politically he is a democrat, and has membership in the Cleveland Chamber of Commeree, the City Club, the Cleveland Auto- mobile Club, the University Club, the Shaker Heights Country CInh, the Columbus Athletic Club of Columbus, the Alpha Delta Phi and the Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Cadwallader is a lover of books and literature and for all his engrossing business activities finds time to write occasionally for magazines and other publications.
On July 30, 1896, at Utica, New York, hc married Harriet E. Gomph, daughter of J. and Margaret (Baker) Gomph, who are still living at Utica. Mrs. Cadwallader was born and received her education in that city. They have two children, Elizabeth and Starr, Jr. Elizabeth is now a student in the Hathaway- Brown School at Cleveland, while Starr, Jr., is in the Shaker Heights Village School. Both children were born in Cleveland.
ROBERT HUTCHINSON BRICKER is Ohio repre- sentative, with offices in the Marshall Build- ing, for the Norris, Allister-Ball Company, wholesale jewelers, with headquarters in Chi- cago. Mr. Bricker has been with the Ball jewelry firm of Cleveland for a number of years, is a lawyer by profession, and after a brief but successful experience in the law re- turned to his present company and is one of its competent sales managers.
Mr. Bricker was born in Smithville in Wayne County, Ohio, January 3, 1884, a son of Joseph U. and Evelyn (Miller) Bricker. On both sides he is of German stock. The parents were born in Wayne County, and Grandfather Bricker and Grandfather Miller came to this state from Pennsylvania. Joseph U. Bricker was a soldier in the Civil war, in the One Hundred and Sixtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a private, serving from 1861 to 1864, more than three years. He and his wife now reside at Wooster, and for over twenty- seven years he has been in the railway service and for a long time chief clerk in the postal service department on the Pennsylvania line between Chicago and Pittsburg. He is a re- publican, formerly was quite a figure in local politics, but as a Government employee does not actively esponse any special party. He and his wife had a family of eleven children,
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