USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 35
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Throughout his long career in the law Mr. Stearns has constantly cultivated the highest ideals and ethics of the profession, and has been devoted to its welfare. For a period of ten years, from 1894 to 1904, he was professor of the law of suretyship and mortgages and of bills and notes in the Western Reserve University Law School. He has contributed many articles to the Western Reserve Law Journal and other legal publications and is author of a treatise on the "Law of Surety- ship" and of "Annotated Cases in Surety- ship." Both widely used in law schools. The "Encyclopedia of Law and Procedure" con- tains a chapter on the "Law of Indemnity" by him.
Outside of his profession Mr. Stearns has sought none of the many honors open to the able lawyer. He was for many years secretary ยท and in 1907 was president of the Cleveland Bar Association. In May, 1908, the Munici- pal Traction Company chose him as its repre- sentative in the arbitration of the Cleveland street car strike. The institution to which he has given his time liberally is Buchtel College, his alma mater, which he served eighteen years as a trustee, and during 1887- 88 was its financial agent. Since 1914 Mr. Stearns has been a member of the Cleveland Public Library Board.
His chief recreation is travel, and he made seventeen trips to Europe before the war, cov- ering practically every point of interest in Europe. He is a republican in politics, a member of the Union Club, Country Club, University Club, and the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.
He has three children, Elliott E., Helen H. and Dorothy D. The son Elliott has also taken up the law as a profession and is asso- ciated with his father.
CLYDE R. CUMMINS is president and owner of The C. R. Cummins Company, general rail- road contractors, with offices and headquarters in the Leader-News Building at Cleveland, but with an operating service that covers several states, though chiefly in Ohio. Mr. Cummins has been identified with railroad construction practically since he was a boy, and has been an independent contractor almost continuously since he reached his majority. He has handled contracts involving the expenditure of many millions of dollars for the Pennsylvania and other large railway corporations and his busi- ness record is a highly creditable performance for a man still under forty.
The C. R. Cummins Company enjoys at least one enviable and enjoyable distinction of being the largest Ohio incorporated company doing business in this class of work.
Mr. Cummins is a native of Ohio, born at Wellsville August 16, 1881, son of Charles B. and Emma (Riggs) Cummins. His father, who was born at Massillon, Ohio, went through the Civil war as a private soldier in the Thir- teenth Ohio Regiment, and practically fought from the beginning to the end of that great struggle. After the war for a period of thirty- five years he was a bridge engineer and en- gaged in construction work for the Pennsyl- vania Railway.
Clyde R. Cummins was educated in the Wellsville public schools and when about eighteen years of age gained his first experi- ence in railway construction. As an inde- pendent contractor he has built many miles of railroad in Ohio and also in Indiana and Illi- nois. At the present time the company has sixteen contracts for railroads under construc- tion. The company has in course of construc- tion eight miles of new line for the Wheeling & Lake Erie, is double tracking twenty-nine miles on one division of the Pennsylvania, and is also building all the passing tracks on one of the divisions of the Pennsylvania lines in Ohio. The company has its forces at work on five different divisions of the Pennsylvania lines. The C. R. Cummins Company was in- corporated in 1913. Its first headquarters be- ing in Chicago, from where they were moved to Cleveland, with branch offices elsewhere in Ohio. Among other contracts Mr. Cummins is constructing a large engine house at San- dusky for the Pennsylvania, and in the past and today most of his business has originated with the Pennsylvania and the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railways. The operations of more than 1,000 men are controlled and directed through the main office of the company at Cleveland.
It is significant that Mr. Cummins counts his chief recreation and pleasure as railroad contracting and his earnestness and enthusiasm in the business have undoubtedly been pri- marily responsible for the signal success he has won. As minor recreations he acknowl- edges an interest in motoring and baseball. He is a republican in politics, and is both a York and Scottish Rite Mason. He has affiliations with the Scottish Rite Consistory and Shrine at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lived in 1913, is a member of the Knights Templar Commandery at Wabash, Indiana, and is
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affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Greencastle, Indiana. He is also a member of the Cleveland Automobile Club, the Clifton Club at Lakewood and the Cleveland Athletic Club.
Mr. Cummins and family reside on Erie Cliff Drive in Lakewood. July 9, 1906, at Chi- cago, he married Miss Mary A. Evans. She was born and educated in Indianapolis, where her mother, Mrs. Lillian B. Evans, still resides. Two children have been born to their marriage, John Thomas, born at Indianapolis, and James Evans, born at Cleveland.
CLARENCE ROBERT BISSELL has been a mem- ber of the Cleveland bar twenty years and has always given his time and energies to the handling of a large private practice withont participation in politics save as a public spirited citizen.
Mr. Bissell, who was born at Aurora in Portage County, Ohio, August 10, 1873, repre- sents some prominent pioneer families of Northern Ohio. He is a son of Calvin and Sarah A. (Oviatt) Bissell, both of whom were born at Aurora and were married there in 1863 The father is now a retired farmer at Aurora and the mother died January 26, 1907. This branch of the Bissell family traces its ancestry back to John Bissell who came from England in 1628 and settled at Windsor, Con- nectient. The great-grandfather of the Cleve- land lawyer was Robert Bissell, who came from Middlefield, Massachusetts, and settled at Aurora in Portage County in 1806. Mr. Bissell now owns a fifty-acre farm at Aurora that came into the family ninety years ago, and was settled and developed by his ancestors.
One son of Robert Bissell and a great-unele of Clarence R. Bissell was the noted Rev. Samuel Bissell, who graduated from Yale Col- lege in 1823 and in 1828 established his home at Twinsburg in Summit County, where he began preaching and where he also laid the plans for the establishment of an academy. He fitted up a rude log cabin for the residence of his young disciples in learning and made a blacksmith shop into an academy building. That was the founding of the famous Twins- burg Academy, which developed into a modern college with 300 students during the next forty years. About the time of the Civil war the Twinsburg institution suffered a deeline, but its founder refused to give up the great cause in which he had embarked. In 1866, at the age of seventy years, he erected a new stone
building literally with his own hands, and after a time had the satisfaction of seeing the usefulness of his institution restored. During its existence it is estimated that the Twins- burg Institute educated fully 6,000 students, among whom were more than 200 Indians. Rev. Samuel Bissell died in 1895, at the ven- erable age of ninety-eight years. Many noted citizens of Cleveland and elsewhere credit that institution with their early education and many influences that shaped their lives.
Clarence R. Bissell in the maternal line is a grandson of Silas Oviatt, who was also a pioneer in Ohio, coming from Massachusetts. Silas' grandfather had fought as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. One brother of Clarence R. Bissell died in infancy. His brother W. D. Bissell is a dentist at East Cleveland and his only sister is Mrs. Estella B. Judd, of Cleveland. All these children were born at Aurora.
Clarence R. Bissell was educated in the public schools of his native town, graduated Ph. B. from Hiram College in 1894, and for two years was a teacher, one year in the grade schools at Rockport, Indiana, and one year as principal of the high school at Gar- retsville, Ohio. He then entered the law school of Western Reserve University, but was com- pelled to leave school on account of sickness
in his senior year. He was admitted to the bar in 1897 and in the spring of that year began practice at Cleveland. For three months he was associated with the firm of Hadden & Parks Brothers, but with this brief exception has always practiced alone, having always been associated, however, with Sheldon Parks. Mr. Bissell is a lawyer of the highest standing and with a general practice of considerable corporation work and has handled many cases before the United States District courts. In polities he is willing to be classified as a mug- wump.
He is a member of the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar associations, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the City Club, the Civic League, and is a member and trustee of the East Con- gregational Church. For the past seventeen years he has been active in the Hiram House as a trustee and as its treasurer, and is a trustee of Hiram College.
February 22, 1900, at Warren, Ohio, Mr. Bissell married Alice L. Seymour, of Wind- ham, Portage County, Ohio. Her father died when she was quite young. He was a farmer. Her mother, Mrs. Harriet Seymour, died at
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the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bissell in 1910. Mrs. Bissell was born at Windham, Portage County, Ohio, and was educated there in the public schools. She is very active in the Con- gregational Church and is now serving as state president of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior of that church, this position taking a great part of her time. Otherwise she is also aetive in the church Sunday school and is a member of the Hiram College Club of Women and the East Congregational Read- ing Circle. Mr. and Mrs. Bissell have one son, Howard Seymour Bissell, born at East Cleve- land July 2, 1903. The family home is in East Cleveland at 1738 Northfield Avenue. Mr. Bissell is a member of the Cleveland Automo- bile Club, the East Cleveland Chamber of Commeree, and finds his reereations in tennis, canoeing and farming.
WILLIAM T. REDMOND has been in practice as a lawyer at Cleveland for the past five years and has already attained a promising general practice and a reputation as a safe and reliable counsellor. His offiees are in the Society for Savings Building.
Mr. Redmond is a native of Cleveland, born August 7, 1882, a son of William C. and Mar- garet (Owens) Redmond. He is their only surviving child, his older brother having been drowned when about ten years of age. Wil- liam C. Redmond was born in Wexford County, Ireland, and has been a resident of Cleveland over sixty years. He is a mill- wright by trade, formerly was in the teaming business and for the past five years has lived retired. The mother, who was born in Cork, Ireland, came to America with her parents and lived in New York, but was married in Cleveland, where she had her home for over forty-five years, until her death on June 10, 1914.
William T. Redmond received his early edu- cation in St. John's Parochial Sehool, where he graduated, and took preparatory work in Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indiana. Subsequently he entered the law de- partment of Western Reserve University at Cleveland, and completed his eourse and was given the degree Bachelor of Law in 1912. Since then he has been in aetive practice. Recently Mayor Davis appointed him a mem- ber of the committee for the purpose of bring- ing conventions to Cleveland.
Mr. Redmond has surrounded himself with all the facilities for the successful practice of
law, ineluding a splendid library, and this is unusually large and well selected for a man who has been in practice only a few years. He is aetive in social affairs and takes the keenest interest and delight in athleties, especially baseball. Mr. Redmond is affiliated with Cleveland Lodge No. 18, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and was exalted ruler of that lodge in 1912. He also belongs to the Cleve- land Automobile Club, the Cleveland Athletie Club and the Cleveland Bar Association. On June 19, 1906, he married Miss Mollie Gross, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Emil Gross, of Cleveland. Mrs. Redmond was born and edu- eated in Cleveland. They have one daughter, Euniee M., born at Cleveland.
ARTHUR B. CROTTY, though one of the younger members of the Cleveland bar, has attained a secure position and has won the respeet and esteem of profession and public.
His position is such as might be expected of a young man of influential family connee- tions. He is a son of Martin M. and Agnes N. (Kelly) Crotty. Both parents were born in Ohio, his father in a log eabin on Johnny Cake Ridge Township of Cuyahoga County, while the mother was a native of Toledo. They were married in Toledo, and Martin Crotty las for a number of years been a leading arehiteet and contraetor at Cleveland, where the family is an old and honored one.
Arthur B. Crotty is the older of two sons. His younger brother, Oswald MI., was born in Cleveland, attended Western Reserve Univer- sity two years and took his higher education in the Catholic University of America at Wash- ington, District of Columbia, from which he received the degree A. B., LL. B. and LL. M. He is now in active practice in St. Louis, Missouri.
Arthur B. Crotty during his childhood at- tended the publie sehools of Cleveland and St. Ignatius College. In 1907 he completed the law course of Western Reserve University and in 1908 was granted the degrees Ph. B. and LL. M. by the Catholic University of America at Washington. Then in 1909 he received the degree doctor of common law from the same institution.
Mr. Crotty was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1907. The years 1910 to 1913 he and his brother spent in extensive travel over the United States, and in 1914 Mr. Crotty began private practice in Cleveland, with offices in the Society for Savings Building, where he has
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since been established in the handling of a general clientage. One of Mr. Crotty's chief hobbies is the collection of rare and valuable books. Both he and his brother are members of the Beta Theta Pi Chapter of Western Re- serve University. Mr. Crotty is unmarried and still lives at home with his parents.
CHARLES WILLIAM SWARTZEL. In both pro- fessional and business circles of Cleveland Charles William Swartzel has established a creditable reputation for success gained hon- orably and without animosity. He is a lawyer by profession, while his chief business identifi- cation has been with real estate affairs, and it has been his fortune to have combined his activities in the two directions so that each has assisted the other. Mr. Swartzel was born October 17, 1875, at Winthrop, Iowa, and is a son of Henry and Emma (Newell) Swartzel.
On the paternal side Mr. Swartzel is de- scended from Pennsylvania Dutch stock, his grandfather being Solomon Swartzel, while his maternal grandfather was George Newell, and both emigrated from Ohio to Iowa during the early history of the latter state. Henry Swartzel, who is now deceased, was born in Ohio, near Dayton, while Mrs. Swartzel was a native of Iowa. Charles W. Swartzel first attended the public schools of his native place, following which he was brought to Cleveland and pursued a course at the West High School, from which he duly received his diploma. He displayed his industry and am- bition even as a youth, for during vacations, while nearly all of his companions were spend- ing their time in recreations of various sorts, young Swartzel occupied himself and im- proved his leisure by engaging in sales and agency work and thus gaining experience that has proven very valuable to him in subsequent years. After leaving high school he went to Adelbert College, taking a special course of two years, and in 1897 enrolled as a student at the Western Reserve University, being graduated therefrom with the class of 1900. Next he entered the William Bachus Law School of Western Reserve University, and in 1901 received his degree of Bachelor of Laws. While he was admitted to the bar the same year, Mr. Swartzel did not at once enter the active practice of his profession, but spent much of the first year after his graduation in the sale of real estate. He has since won creditable success both in his professional call- ing and in the sale of and operating in real
estate, residence property and vacant lots, es- pecially at Lakewood, Ohio, and at the present time is in the possession of a healthy and grow- ing business, from which his personal earn- ings are derived. He is familiar with realty values and an excellent judge of property, and by a number of associates is accounted one of the well informed men in the real estate business.
While he has not been an office holder, Mr. Swartzel is interested in local affairs as a good citizen, being a republican in politics, with independent and progressive tendencies. He belongs to no secret organizations, but is an active broker member of the Cleveland Real Estate Board, a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Industry and the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Swartzel is a great lover of music, in fact a large part of his happiness and his recreation are derived therefrom. He belongs to the Lakewood Music Club, and at his pleasant home, at No. 1207 Marlowe Avenue, Lakewood, he has a modern Victor phonograph, with a large and tastefully selected number of standard vocal and instru- mental music records. With his family Mr. Swartzel belongs to the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Lakewood.
Mr. Swartzel was married September 28, 1905, at Fairview, Kansas, to Miss Clara M. Schenkelberger, daughter of John M. and Martha Schenkelberger. Mrs. Swartzel was born in Ohio, and when two years of age was taken to Kansas by her parents, who became very prosperous farming people of that state, where Mr. Schenkelberger died. Mrs. Swart- zel is artistic and musical in her tastes, and the only child, Helen Catherin Swartzel, has inherited her parents' tastes in these direc- tions, being talented in dancing and a lover of all kinds of music and expression work. She was eleven years of age on February 19, 1917. -
REV. GEORGE W. WILLIS AND WIFE GENE- VIEVE E. WILLIS. George Washington Willis was born in Ashland, Ohio, and is of English, French and German extraction. On his pater- nal side he descends from the English and French; and on the maternal side from the Germans. His father was of English descent on the Willis side with a splendid ancestry from the noble and gentleman classes, and from his mother's side was a descendant of the French nobility and the Huguenots-both sides bearing their significant crests. It has
Harrier Jean Hillis
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been said that George W. Willis "was hewn out of his very cradle into an evangelist and preacher."
The public press has also said-"Most of his life has been spent in evangelistic work, not only among the Methodist people, but in work of an interdenominational character, his engagements having taken him to various points from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific and his labors having been attended with large success." He has also been invited abroad in his special evangelistic work. Both the secular and religious press endorsed his work most heartily. He pursued various courses of instruction under the direction of different in- stitutions of learning and has received other degrees besides the honorary degree of doctor of divinity.
The public press further says : "Besides be- ing an evangelist of wide reputation Mr. Willis is also a lecturer of repute." He was formerly well known in his early ministry as a prominent "Quaker evangelist," but hoping for a larger field of service was ordained as a Methodist preacher in 1907, but nevertheless is pleased to co-operate with any or all Chris- tian churches. His wife Genevieve E. Willis -- nee Kinsel-was formerly a very successful school teacher. She also comes from a sturdy ancestry-from the English on her mother's side and the German on her father's side of the house. She has the degree Bachelor of Sacred Literature (Litt. B. S.) and Doctor of Music (Mus. D.). She is an "eloquent and gifted" public speaker and lecturer and de- lights to champion the cause of prohibition and temperance. The secular and church press have repeatedly spoken of her public efforts in solo and lecture work in the most complimentary terms. She is highly con- nected-one of her maternal ancestors having been a countess. Also another relative was a minister abroad in the United States Govern- ment service. She has been an able assistant to her husband in his chosen calling.
HARRIET JEAN WILLIS. On the window of No. 207 American Trust Building in Cleve- land appears the above name followed by the simple word lawyer. That word furnishes hardly a hint of the achievements and attain- ments of one of Cleveland's able women.
Miss Willis became a lawyer under the in- fluence of a direct "calling." She was first of all an expert stenographer, did newspaper re- porting, and for several years had an office for
court and general reporting. During that time she took up the study of law. She at- tended night school, completing the law course while supporting herself by stenography. She came in daily contact with legal forms and phrases, court methods and procedure, and was a lawyer almost before she knew it- absorbing law at court and in the routine of her daily work. When she first took the law course she had no intention of practicing, merely for the purpose of equipping herself the better for other work. But clients came and continued to come abundantly, to her agreeable surprise, and she now finds time for little else but her practice. It is a success- ful professional career both in essential quali- ties and in influence and remuneration.
Miss Willis exemplifies the possibilities of the legal profession as a factor in social serv- ice. It has opened to her many doors of op- portunity-to bind up the broken hearted, to reunite disrupted families, to restore domestic tranquility and to set at liberty the captive.
Miss Willis received her degree LL. B. from the Baldwin-Wallace College and was ad- mitted to the bar July 1, 1915. She is a mem- ber of The Woman Lawyers' Association of New York and is affiliated with "Groupement Amical des Avocats de France."
Harriet Jean Willis was born at Ashland, Ohio. She inherited unusual mental attain- ments and it is said that when only five years of age she could read and write. She received her early education in the Ashland public schools, graduating from the high school. Fol- lowing that she went to the City of Phila- delphia, and became cashier with A. W. Den- nett's on Chestnut Street opposite the state house, and subsequently was cashier for the same firm on South Ninth Street opposite the postoffice. Having made a definite choice for herself in the business field she located in Cleveland, being employed as a bookkeeper by day and at night pursuing a course in short- hand and typewriting at the Euclid Avenue Business College, from which she graduated. At graduation she was put in charge of the shorthand and typewriting department and for several years taught. Subsequently she re- ported for newspapers and was a sermon re- porter and then did public stenographie work at The Forest City House and at The Hol- lenden and other prominent Cleveland hotels. After about two years she established her court and general reporting business and at one time conducted two offices, one in the New
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England Building and the other in the Ameri- can Trust Building.
Miss Willis was offered a chair in the Uni- versity of Dakota and subsequently was of- fered an important position in the United States Civil Service at Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1908 at Chautauqua, New York, she took a complete course in Esperanto (the universal language), and attended the first Esperantists Convention held on American soil. She also attended the Chautauqua School of Expres- sion, and has completed the entire Literary and Scientific University Extension Course, the University Research Extension, and the four years' study in Original Documents. In October, 1908, she won a memory contest on Biblical lore. For two solid hours she was requested to repeat instantly any passage of Scripture called for and was awarded hy Helen M. Gould (now Mrs. Shepherd) an ex- quisitely bound autograph copy of the Bible. In 1910 Miss Willis was presented by the Frances Scott Key Memorial Association with a souvenir certificate for aiding in the preser- vation of the home of the author of the "Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem. In 1904 she was presented by the American Flag- House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association with a souvenir certificate for materially aid- ing in the preservation of the birthplace of our nation's flag and for the erection of a national memorial in honor of Betsy Ross.
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