A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 31

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 31

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six sons and five daughters, all still living except one daughter. The oldest, Grace, died at the age of twenty-one. In order of birth four of the daughters came first, then the five of the sons, and the youngest daughter is next younger to Robert H. The latter was the eighth in the family.

Mr. Bricker received his early education in the public schools of Wooster, graduating from high school in 1902. For one year he was a student in Wooster University and then spent one year in the Yokum Business College. After leaving business college Mr. Bricker be- came private secretary to Sidney Ball, now president of the Norris, Allister-Ball Company of Chicago. Mr. Ball was then a Cleveland man and in the wholesale department of the Webb C. Ball Company. As private secretary Mr. Bricker came to Cleveland in 1904 and gradually he acquired experience in various departments of the wholesale jewelry firm of the Webb C. Ball Company. While giving most of his daylight hours to this firm he studied law privately and also in the Cleve- land Law School of the Baldwin-Wallace Uni- versity, and completed the course and gradu- ated LL. B. with the class of 1911, being ad- mitted to the Ohio bar in June of the same year. In 1912 Mr. Bricker gave up his posi- tion with the Ball firm and entered the private practice of law, joining Frederick Huston and John Huston, under the firm name of Huston, Huston & Bricker, with offices in the Marshall Building.

After two years of law practice Mr. Bricker returned to the firm and in June, 1915, became representative of Northern Ohio for the Nor- ris, Allister-Ball Company. This is one of the largest wholesale jewelry houses in the United States. In 1916 it did more business than any other wholesale jewelry house in the country. On January 1, 1917, Mr. Bricker became representative of the company for the State of Ohio, with headquarters in Cleveland and with offices in the Marshall Building.

Mr. Bricker is affiliated with Windermere Lodge No. 627, Free and Accepted Masons, Windermere Chapter No. 203, Royal Arch Ma- sons, both of East Cleveland, and is a member of Coeur De Lion Commandery, Knights Templar, of Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a member of the Windermere Methodist Epis- copal Church. He belongs to the college so- ciety Sigma Kappa Phi. February 3, 1908, at Millersburg, Ohio, he married Miss Bernice Huston, danghter of John and Sarah (Close) Huston. Her mother died at Millersburg in

1915. Her father, a prominent attorney of Millersburg, was formerly head of the law firm Huston, Huston & Bricker at Cleveland. Mrs. Bricker was born in Millersburg, grad- uated from high school in 1904, and is an accomplished musician, having studied four years in vocal under Professor Howell. She is a member of the Kings Daughters and is active in various musical societies. Mr. and Mrs. Bricker have two sons : John Robert and William, both born in Cleveland.

FRANCIS W. POULSON. At the age of thirty Mr. Poulson has attained an enviable rank among Cleveland lawyers. In the minds of Cleveland citizens generally his chief distinc- tion rests upon his aggressive actions while city prosecutor. While in that office Mr. Poulson directed a vigilant and unceasing campaign against certain well recognized forms of evil, particularly the loan shark, and it is generally conceded that he accomplished more permanent and wholesome good in that direction than can be credited to the agency of any other individual.

Mr. Poulson has shown character and abil- ity in all his career from college days. He inherits some enviable characteristics from his Scotch-Irish ancestry in the paternal line, and French forbears on the maternal side. The Poulsons were Ohio pioneers, his great- grandfather having brought the family from Kentucky. Mr. Poulson's grandfather, Jack- son Poulson, is still living at the age of seven- ty-seven, sturdy in mind as well as in body, and still maintains an active superintendence over the old homestead of a hundred seventy acres in Holmes County, where three gener- ations of the family have been born, and where the great-grandfather located on com- ing to this state in 1815. Jackson Poulson does his farming only with the aid of one man.

Thomas S. Poulson, father of the Cleve- land lawyer, was born in the same vicinity of Holmes County, for a number of years was a farmer, and afterwards moved to Mill- ersburg to educate his children, and during the twenty years spent there was connected with the Commercial Bank. In 1910 he came to Cleveland, where he and his wife still re- side. Thomas S. Poulson married Lyda Vic- toria Corberand. She is of French ancestry, her father, Jean Francis Corberand, having been born in Alsace-Lorraine, France. He was active in the French army, being an offi- cer in the 13th Division of the 10th Regiment

Francis W. Poulson

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of Infantry, and was granted an honorable discharge at Pau, France, January 2, 1854. Soon afterward he came to the United States at the outbreak of the Civil war and en- listed and served four years with an Ohio regiment. When the war was over he lo- cated on a farm south of Millersburg and spent the rest of his life there. By trade he was a stone mason and mason contractor. Thomas S. Poulson and wife had eight chil- dren, three sons and five daughters. They are all still living except two sons who died in infancy. In order of age the living are : Edna R., wife of Frederick E. Pulse, assistant audi- tor of The American Steel and Wire Com- pany at Cleveland ; Francis W .; Mary A., wife of Allen Thayer, city chemist of Detroit, where they reside; Florence V., Evelyn and Helen, at home with their parents in Cleveland; Helen being a student in the Glenville High School.

Mr. Francis W. Poulson was born on his father's farm in Hardy Township, Holmes County, near Holmesville, May 12, 1887. Most of his early youth was spent in the town of Millersburg, where he attended the gram- mar and high schools, graduating from high school with the class of 1905. A few days later he came to Cleveland, on a temporary visit as he thought. While here he accepted a position with The Chandler & Price Com- pany, 6000 Carnegie Avenue, and it was five years before he left their service. He began as timekeeper, filled other responsibilities, and finally resigned the position of traffic man- ager. While with that firm Mr. Poulson took up the study of law in the night courses of the Cleveland Law School, and after three years of diligent study received his LL. B. degree from this department of the Baldwin- Wallace University in 1910. In June of that year he was admitted to the bar, and has since been admitted to practice in the Federal courts.

Mr. Poulson began practice at Cleveland with Edgar M. Bell, under the firm name of Bell & Poulson in the Society for Savings Building. This firm dissolved January 1, 1912, on account of Mr. Poulson's appointment as prosecuting attorney of Cleveland by the late E. K. Wilcox, who was then director of law. Mr. Poulson served as city prosecutor until the change of administration on January 1, 1916. In the fall of 1915 he was candidate for judge of the Municipal Court. There were three vacancies to be filled and twenty

candidates. Mr. Poulson stood fourth in the race, being beaten by only a few hundred votes.

His work as prosecutor was memorable in many ways. In 1914 he instituted a deter- mined campaign of prosecution against the loan sharks of Cleveland. Before he was through forty-five loan offices were put out of business. The success of Mr. Poulson's cam- paign in Cleveland brought about similar cam- paigns in Toledo, Dayton, Youngstown, Colum- bus and Cincinnati, and from these larger cities the reform spread over the state, being made effective by the passage of the so-called "Lloyd Act," by which money lenders must secure licenses from the state and are placed under the direct supervision and jurisdiction of the State Banking Department. At the present time there is not more than a tenth of the number of these loan agencies in Ohio as existed before Mr. Poulson began his on- slaught at Cleveland. The regulation of the loan sharks was a movement which received from Mr. Poulson every encouragement and assistance within his power, not merely in Cleveland but in the state. He and Hugh Huntington, of Columbus, and A. D. Baldwin, of Cleveland, drew up the bill known as the Lloyd Act, and Mr. Poulson personally ap- peared before the House and Senate on four different occasions to plead for its passage. The director of the remedial loan division of the Russell Sage Foundation has called this bill a model law, and it is one of the distinctive pieces of legislation by which Ohio now leads all the states and many other commonwealths have closely followed its provisions in similar legislation. The act has already been passed upon and adjudged constitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.

In addition to the routine matters that came before him as prosecutor, Mr. Poulson also undertook the prosecution of fake employment agencies, and also led several crusades against dope peddlers. The regulation of employment agencies is a reform only less in importance to the loan shark evil, and it is a matter which through a recent decision of the United States Supreme Court is destined to receive attention and study from reform organizations.

After leaving his public office Mr. Poulson resumed private practice with offices in the Rockefeller Building in partnership with George R. Mckay and R. A. Baskin, under the firm name of Mckay, Poulson & Baskin. Mr. Baskin retired April 1, 1917, and the firm is

Vol. 11-11

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now Mckay & Poulson, with their offices in the new Guardian Building. This firm handles a general practice.

Politically Mr. Poulson is a democrat from conviction, and also from inheritance since both his father and grandfather have been stanchly aligned with the same party, his grandfather being a true Jackson democrat. Mr. Poulson is a member of the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar Associations, is a member of Battery A, Ohio National Guard Field Artil- lery and Troop A of Ohio Cavalry, belongs to the Knights of Pythias, Tyrian Lodge No. 370, Free and Accepted Masons, Cleveland Lodge No. 18, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the City Club. He was the first president of The Investment Security Company of Cleve- land when it was organized. He is a director of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland and be- longs to the Sigma Kappa Phi college fra- ternity. As a college man Mr. Poulson was much interested in athletics. His special forte was football, and then and later he played with several professional teams in Ohio in the days when Willie Heston and "Germany" Schultz the great Michigan University stars, were in their prime. He is also a baseball fan and an enthusiastic automobilist. Other recreations which claim some of his time in the summer are tennis and swimming.

Mr. Poulson and family reside at 1969 East 81st Street. He married at Cleveland Novem- ber 6, 1913, Miss Fay Marie Downing, daugh- ter of the late Frederick E. Downing. Mrs. Poulson was born in Cleveland, was liberally educated, graduating from the East High School with the class of 1910, and then entered Lake Erie College at Painesville. She is a member of the Lake Erie College Alumni Asso- ciation, but did not graduate since Mr. Poul- son exercised a preferred claim upon her and secured her consent to marriage before gradu- ation honors were ready. Mrs. Poulson is active in Cleveland social life and they have an ideal home.

WILLIAM SHELDON KERRUISH. Those lawyers who were concerned with the Cleve- land bar before the great civil conflict which rent the nation have almost without excep- tion long since laid down their briefs and have either retired or have been called to the greater bar. A notable exception is William S. Kerruish, now recognized as the oldest prac- ticing attorney in Cleveland. Eighty-six years of age, he is still hale and vigorous, and

has much of the versatility and the fluency which so long characterized his splendid ef- forts as a trial lawyer. He has been a member of the bar almost sixty years.

Mr. Kerrnish was born in Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, October 30, 1831. His parents, William and Jane (Kelly) Ker- ruish, were both born in the Isle of Man. After their marriage they emigrated to the United States in 1827, locating in Warrens- ville, Ohio, where the father followed farm- ing. The mother died in 1883, having outlived her husband; and Mr. Kerruish's only sister, Mrs. Jane Caine, is now deceased.

William S. Kerrnish owes his long. and in- dustrious life partly to the inheritance of sturdy stock and partly to his wholesome rural environment when a boy. There is hardly a finer exemplar of "mens sana in corpore sano." He has not only possessed a vigorous body and a vigorous mind, but a mind of un- usual range of interests and attainments. As a boy he attended the public schools at War- rensville and prepared for college in the Twinsburg Institute. In 1852 he entered the sophomore class of Western Reserve College, continued his studies there two years, at the close of which he was admitted to the senior class of Yale College. He was graduated from Yale with the class of 1855, and is now one of the last survivors of that class. The year following his graduation from Yale he taught languages in Twinsburg Institute, and in 1857 began the active study of law in the office of Ranney, Backus & Noble. Admitted to the bar in 1858 by examination before the Su- preme Court at Columbus, he at once became a competitor for the professional honors in the Cleveland bar and has outlived practically all of his many eminent contemporaries. After practicing alone for a time he became a mem- ber of the firm of Hayes & Kerruish, and was again alone after the dissolution of the part- nership. He became head of the firm Ker- ruish & Heisley, and later was a partner of George T. Chapman as Kerruish & Chapman, and in time his son, S. Q. Kerruish, was ad- mitted to partnership. On the death of Mr. Chapman in 1906, the firm became Kerruish & Kerrnish. In 1912, George E. Hartshorn and George W. Spooner were admitted to the partnership, whose title continues as Kerruish, Kerruish, Hartshorn & Spooner, with offices in the Society for Savings Building in the City of Cleveland.

In his early career Mr. William S. Kerruish took an active part in political life. He was a

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republican in those days, and still leans to that party, though his actions in the main are in- dependent. In time his law practice became so extensive and involved so much of his study and attention that he felt obliged to forego the privilege of participation in political affairs.

As a lawyer he has especially excelled in the trial of cases. As a trial lawyer his work was difficult and onerous for many years, and he has been connected with the trial of as large and important a volume of litigation as perhaps any other lawyer in Northern Ohio. He early distinguished himself by his success in murder cases. He is an orator of no mean ability, and a power to express himself forc- ibly and fluently was a large factor in his professional reputation. Many times he has appeared on public occasions as a speaker, and he has been as much at home in discussing economic and civic questions as in the logical and persuasive dialectics of the court room.

Cleveland perhaps has no more gifted stu- dent and master of languages. Gaelic was his mother tongue and he is one of the few living Americans who have a perfect familiarity with that language and its literature. Ile also ac- quired the German; and the Latin language and literature have been subjects of life-long study with him. In other realms of knowledge his interest has been attracted by economics, and for years he has carried on a careful in- vestigation of economie problems and has used his broad information in promoting public progress and in behalf of various local or- ganizations.

Mr. Kerruish is the father of an interesting family. He was married in 1859 to Miss Margaret Quayle, a native of the Isle of Man. She came to the United States when a young girl. Nine children were born to them and six are still living: Sheldon Q., law partner of his father; Mona, at home; Maud, now Mrs. M. S. Towson ; Grace Antoinette, now Mrs. E. S. Whitney; Miriam G., now Mrs. C. W. Stage; and IIelen Constance, now Mrs. F. D. Buffnm. Mr. Kerruish has ten grandchildren. Ile and his family attend St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

SHELDON QUAYLE KERRUISH, a Cleveland lawyer since 1885, is now active head of the firm Kerruish, Kerruish, Hartshorn & Spooner, one of the largest and most impor- tant legal firms in Northern Ohio. The senior partner is William S. Kerruish, who as else- where mentioned is the oldest practicing at-

torney of the Cleveland bar today, and while in his office daily he has gradually turned over to his son and other partners the heavier re- sponsibilities of practice.

Sheldon Quayle Kerruish was born at Cleve- land February 26, 1861, a son of William S. and Margaret (Quayle) Kerrnish. As a boy he attended public and private schools in Cleveland, graduating from the Brooks School in 1878. He then entered Yale College, from which he received the bachelor of arts degree in 1883. Mr. Kerruish took up the study of law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar in 1885 and later became a partner with his father. After some years the firm of Kerruish & Kerruish was enlarged by the admission of George E. Hartshorn and George W. Spooner, making the firm title as above given. The offices are in the Society for Sav- ings Building. The firm does general practice in all courts and in all branches of the civil law.

While his profession has called upon him for almost constant devotion and study, Mr. Kerruish has formed connections with various business corporations in which he is serving as a director. For seven years he was a mem- ber of Troop A of the Ohio Cavalry. He is a democrat in politics, a member of the Masonie Order and Psi Upsilon College Society and be- longs to the Union Club of Cleveland, the Yale Club of New York City, the Nisi Prius Club of Cleveland and the Cleveland Bar As- sociation. He is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Kerruish is un- married.

PAUL G. KASSULKER. In the difficult field of corporation, realty and insurance law, the mere possession of important position indicates the possession of abilities beyond the ordinary. This is preeminently the domain of practical law, in which fertility of resource and vigor of professional treatment, hard fact and solid logic, and intimate knowledge of conditions and values, are usually relied upon, rather than the graces of oratory and ingenious theory. In this field one of the leading members of the Cleveland bar is Paul G. Kassulker, senior member of the firm of Kassulker & Kassulker, who, during a period of thirty-three years, has gained a substantial reputation as a close student of the law and a painstaking, able and strictly reliable lawyer.

Mr. Kassulker was born at Portage, DuFort, Ontario, Canada, January 7, 1863, a son of Charles A. and Dora Kassulker. As a child he

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was brought by his parents to Cleveland, where he acquired his early education in the parochial schools, and subsequently was instructed by a private tutor until he attained his majority. Admitted to the bar of Ohio October 7, 1884, he at that time opened an office at Cleveland, where for the greater part of the time he has practiced alone, although now in partnership with his son, with offices in the American Trust Building. His knowledge of the law is re- markable for its comprehensiveness and accu- racy, in its application he is concise, earnest, forceful and logical, which accounts in large measure for the high and substantial nature of his standing. At various times he has been counsel for some of the largest interests of Cleveland in litigation involving important matters and bringing out fine legal points, and is still connected, either as counsel or official, with many prominent concerns, both in and outside of Ohio. His profession has absorbed the great bulk of his time, so that, had he the inclination, it would have been injudicious for him to seek public preferment as an office holder. As a widely-read and thoughtful man, however, he has always had firm convictions on all questions of public polity, and has con- sistently supported the principles of the re- publican party. He belongs to the Cleveland Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Associa- tion, the American Bar Association, the Cleve- land Athletic Club and the Cleveland Auto- mobile Club.

Mr. Kassulker was married March 27, 1884, to Miss Bessie R. Curtis. Their son, Walter Scott Kassulker, is a graduate of the academic department of the University of Chicago, and attended the law department of that uni- versity. At the university he was famous as a star of the gridiron. He later read law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar of Ohio. He was associated in practice with his father until he enlisted for service on the Mexican border, subsequently graduated from Fort Benjamin Harrison as first lieutenant and is now stationed at Chilli- cothe, Ohio. Mr. Kassulker's daughter, Flor- ence Adelaide, is a graduate of East High School of Cleveland and Lake Erie Seminary, Painesville, Ohio. She was married August 28, 1913, to R. J. Mills, of Cleveland.

WILLIAM VERNON BACKUS has had a suc- cessful career as a lawyer and business man but his important services to mankind have not been confined to the medium of any one profession or vocation. A person of more dis-

tinguished versatility of achievements and in- terests it would be difficult to find. A few years ago Mr. Backus originated "Talos- ophy," which has been described as "the art of making happiness epidemic." It now num- bers its practitioners and followers by thousands and thousands and its contribution to the sum total of human happiness is beyond all estimate. Mr. Backus is also a doctor of chiropractic, has the honorary degree of Ph.C., and is now giving nearly all his time to the work of suggestive therapeutics and chiropractic, working through the one for mental adjustment to life's problems and through the other for those physical readjust- ments by which nervous and chronic diseases are eliminated from human reckoning.

Mr. Backus is a native of Cleveland, born August 24, 1860, only son of Capt. William and Lena (Strobel) Backus. His father was one of Cleveland's pioneers and for many years a leading German American citizen. During the Civil war he served as captain of the Twentieth Ohio Battery. He afterwards gave a long service as a member of the city council of Cleveland.

William Vernon Backus was educated in the grammar schools and high schools of Cleve- land and by private tuition perfected himself in the English, German and Spanish languages and also took special courses in law, philos- ophy, vitosophy, psychology and natural therapy. He is a post-graduate student of chiropractic under Dr. Willard Carver of the Carver College of Chiropractic and of orificial surgery under Doctor Santanelli. He is a graduate of the Weltmer Institute of Sugges- tive Therapeutics and has also been a pupil of Dr. William Windsor, Character Analyst of New York. Doctor Backus has been a stu- dent at the American University at Chicago, was a student of methods of Dr. Paul Dubois, professor of Neuro-Pathology at the University of Berne, Switzerland. His studies have been pursued in this country, in New York, London and Paris. As a lawyer Mr. Backus practiced for twenty years in Cleveland, New York, and Mexico City. While in Mexico he carried many important cases before the supreme court of that republic. Along with the law he has been a practical and constructive factor in business affairs and has brought about the organization of many companies. The most important have been the Mexican Imperial Plantation Company, a $5,000,000 corporation, the Royal Danish Marble Company and the Santa Teresa Banana Company of Mexico. In

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1906 he organized the Jalisco and Michoacan Railroad Company, of which he was vice presi- dent and general counsel. While in Mexico he invented Synthetic marble, for which patents were issued in the leading countries.

In his younger years Mr. Backus was editor of various newspaper publications, among others The Spur, The Courier, The American Union and for some years was on the editorial staff of The Cleveland Press. He was presi- dent of the Cleveland Board of Education from 1890 to 1895.

At all times Mr. Backus has given the bene- fit of his services as a naturopath physician without charge but in recent years has been compelled to confine his ministrations prin- cipally to the members of the Appreciation League, an organization incorporated by him in 1913 with entirely altruistic motives and objects. This league grew out of his great work "Talosophy-the Art of making Happi- ness Epidemic," which was published in 1913 and which has been widely and enthusias- tically commented upon by press and pulpit. Talosophy has been described by a prominent anthor and minister as "Christianity in Ac- tion," and has given deserved and practical emphasis to an attitude of the human mind as a result of which the good things in human conduct and human life are sought out for praise and appreciation rather than the faults and the bad things for adverse criticism. In 1888 he invented a half tone process for photo- engraving.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 31

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