A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 37

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 37

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Formerly he was quite active in polites, be- ing aligned with the democratic party, but his preference at all times has been for profes- sional work and he has never accepted a purely political office. None the less his services have been of great value to his city and the state. Besides his work as director of the city law department during the Farley administration, he was one of the committee of three to advise the governor in the preparation of the munic- ipal code during the term of Governor Nash, and by appointment from Governor Harris he was a member of the Ohio tax commission. For two terms Mr. Hogsett was a member of the board of directors of the Cleveland Cham- ber of Commerce and for à time was connected with the Municipal Association. He is justly regarded as one of Cleveland's most influen- tial citizens.

Mr. Hogsett is a member of the Cleveland, Ohio State and American Bar associations, and belongs to the Union Club, the Euclid Club and the Columbus Club. Aside from his profession he finds his recreation and pleasure in golf, motoring and horseback riding. He is a trustee of the Calvary Presbyterian Church.

On June 8, 1883, at Columbus, Nebraska, he married Miss Rebecca Jones, daughter of Barclay Jones. Mrs. Hogsett is of Pennsyl- vania Quaker ancestry and is a graduate of Swarthmore College near Philadelphia. They are the parents of two children: Edith, a graduate of Vassar College, and Robert, a graduate of Dartmouth College.

ARTHUR STANLEY DAVIES is secretary and director of the Ideal Tire & Rubber Company,

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a $2,000,000 dollar Ohio corporation, with a model plant now in course of construction in the Cleveland district to be operated for the manufacture and production of tires, the first and most promising large organization to bring this branch of the rubber industry to Cleveland.

Mr. Davies is a man of much financial and accounting experience, and has achieved a commendable business position at the age of thirty.

He was born at Wadsworth, Ohio, April 23, 1888, a son of Isaac and Miriam (Thomas) Davies. His father died in September, 1917, and the mother is still living in Cleveland. Arthur S. Davies was educated in grammar and high schools, and left school to take up the occupation and profession of accountant. For five years he was an accountant with a contracting concern, and for another five years was office manager of a manufacturing business. On taking up his duties as secre- tary of the Ideal Tire and Rubber Company he resigned his position as auditor of the Buckeye Engine Company of Salem, Ohio, a community where his ability and services were most highly appreciated and esteemed.

Mr. Davies is a member of the Cleveland Automobile Club, is a republican voter, a Bap- tist, and a member of the Independent Order of Foresters. April 15, 1916, at Cleveland he married Margaret Ann Hodges, daughter of William Hodges. They have one daugh- ter, Rachel Margaret Davies.

COL. LOUIS BLACK is one of the veteran business men of Cleveland. He has lived in this city since he was ten years of age and by sheer force of intellect and ability has risen to a commanding position in business affairs.

He was born in Hungary December 24, 1844, son of Morris and Rose Black. His parents were the first Hungarian family to come to Cleveland, making the voyage across the At- lantic and locating in that then small city in 1854. Morris Black and wife spent the rest of their days in Cleveland and he died in the city in 1864. He was a man of large influence especially among his own people. Many Hun- garians followed him to the United States and very often it was the practice to furnish pros- pective Hungarian immigrants with proper identification marks and send them direct to Cleveland where Morris Black took charge and looked after their interests until they were established.

Lonis Black received most of his education

in Cleveland, and from early boyhood was ac- customed to pay his way by hard exertion of physical or mental energy. At one time dur- ing his boyhood he worked on a farm. That farm is today in the downtown district of Cleveland and covered with lofty business blocks. When he was nineteeu years of age he entered the service of the D. Black Cloak Company of Cleveland. A little later he re- signed this position to enlist in 1864 in the hundred days' service as a private in Com- pany A of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He did his part as a soldier in the Union Army, and then re- turned to Cleveland to begin an active busi- ness career which has brought him increasing prominence year by year.

Merchandising has been his chief field, and a distinction sufficient to make him known all over Ohio is the fact that he is president of the Bailey Company, operating one of the largest department stores and wholesale and retail establishments of dry goods and house furnishings in the Middle West. This busi- ness was established many years ago by L. A. Bailey. Later Mr. Black and C. K. Sunshine took over the business and it was incorporated as The Bailey Company, the name that is still retained.

Colonel Black is in addition to being presi- dent and treasurer of The Bailey Company, president and treasurer of The Acme Realty Company, The Bailey Realty Company, is vice president of The Building and Investment Company, vice president of The Superior Sav- ings and Trust Company, treasurer of The Bailey-Young Company, and treasurer of The Sincere Realty Company. He is also vice president of The Tuscaloosa Cotton Company and is a director of The Central National Bank, The Cleveland Jewish Hospital Associa- tion, The Cleveland Realization Company, The Champont Realty Company and The Acme Foundry Company.

His civic connections have always been those of a public spirited citizen working diligently for the good of his community. He was the first director of fire under the federal plan inaugurated by Mayor Rose. He was also a member of the Cleveland City Council from the First Ward for two years, 1881-83. From 1885 to 1890 he held the rank of colonel in the Second Regiment Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleve- land Rotary Club and Deak Lodge of Knights

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of Pythias. Mr. Black is ex-president of the Hungarian Benevolent Association, of which his father was one of the founders.

Colonel and Mrs. Black celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1917.

DR. FRANK ELLSWORTH SPAULDING. On May 7, 1917, after several months of negotia- tion and discussion, a new superintendent of the Cleveland public school system was elected in the person of Dr. Frank Ellsworth Spauld- ing. A number of things contributed to make this more than an ordinary event in Cleve- land's public life. In the first place the Cleve- land Board of Education had set out with due deliberation to find the ablest man in the coun- try for the position of superintendent. In their final decision they agreed upon an an- nual salary for the new incumbent higher than any paid to a public school executive in any city of America. It was also understood that the new superintendent would inaugurate many radical changes in the Cleveland school system such as to adapt it to the needs of mod- ern life and give the schools a vitality and an organized efficiency such as they had never had before.

Because of all these factors the arrival of Doctor Spaulding in Cleveland and the begin- ning of his administration in September, 1917, made his previous experience, his personality and his career a subject of general interest among all Cleveland people. For several months he has been one of the men of the hour at Cleveland and the local papers have carried many columns of print telling the public who he is, what he has done, and about his plans and program for the Cleveland schools.

Ilis record justifies the claim made for him by his friends that Doctor Spaulding is one of the leading American educators of the present generation. He is now just in the prime of his years and powers. Born at Dublin, New Hampshire, November 30, 1866, a son of Wil- liam and Abby Roxanna (Stearns) Spaul- ding. He was liberally educated during his youth and has been a student all his life, and has come in close touch with educational affairs and life both abroad and in America. He graduated A. B. from Amherst College in 1889 and almost immediately began teaching. Dur- ing 1889 to 1891 he was an instructor in the Louisville Military Academy in Kentucky. From 1891 to 1894 he was abroad as a student at the University of Berlin, at the College de France, the Sorbonne and the University of Vol. II-13

Leipzig. He completed the studies leading to the degrees Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy at Leipzig. It is said that when he returned to America his intention was to be- come a college professor. However, during a year spent as an honorary fellow at Clark University during 1894-95, he came under the influence of that eminent scholar Stanley Hall, and from that time forward his interest and work have been in those departments of edu- cation primarily concerned with child train- ing. Consequently, save for minor exceptions, he has never filled a chair in a university.

Doctor Spaulding was superintendent of schools of Ware, Massachusetts, from 1895 to 1897, had charge of the schools at Passaic, New Jersey, from 1897 to 1904, and for the follow- ing ten years was school superintendent of Newton, Massachusetts. In August, 1914, he took up his duties as superintendent of schools at Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it was from that position that he was called to his present work at Cleveland. Doctor Spaulding was lec- turer on School Administration and Super- vision in Harvard University during the school year 1911-12, and also during the sum- mer schools of 1908-09.

While his chief distinction rests upon his practical work as an educator and administra- tor, he is also widely known in educational cir- cles as a writer and contributed to various magazines and also as an author. For his Doctorate at the University of Leipzig he took as his thesis "Richard Cumberland as the Founder of English Ethics." In 1905 was published his "The Individual Child and his Education." He is joint author with Wil- liam D. Miller of the graded school speller, comprising seven volumes, and compiled joint- ly with Catherine T. Bryce; "Living Thoughts for all Ages," three volumes published in 1903; "The Passaic Primer," 1904; "The Page Story Reader," 1906; "The Aldine Readers," five volumes, 1907; "Learning to Read, a Manual for Teachers," 1907; "The Aldine Language Books." He was also a joint author in the Portland Survey.

Doctor Spaulding is a member of various learned societies, including the Massachusetts Commission on Immigration, the Social Edu- cational Club, the National Geographic So- ciety, the National Education Association, the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Throughout his career it is evident that Doctor Spaulding has been a thorough pro-

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gressive in all matters of education. He is one of the foremost exponents of vocational training, which has now won a tardy recog- nition in America, but only a few years ago was looked upon with general distress. He has also carried out many of the ideas which have gained such wide currency under the name "Gary System," though Doctor Spaul- ding was applying some of the principles be- fore the steel city of Gary came into existence. He has also insisted upon what the majority of broad-minded men would approve as a proper division of responsibilities between the school executive head and the board of busi- ness management and control whether known as School Board, Board of Education or other- wise. All matters connected strictly .with school administration Doctor Spaulding has insisted should be subordinated under the one responsibility, the superintendent of schools.

In order to answer a question which was in the minds of all Cleveland people regarding Doctor Spaulding in the early months of 1917, the Cleveland Press sent a special correspon- dent to Minneapolis to inquire into what he had done there as superintendent of schools. In the summary of results drawn up by the correspondent the chief features were as fol- lows:

Adapted some of the features of the Gary System to the Minneapolis schools, notably the double platoon plan to relieve overerowd- ing, thus making four class rooms do the work of six. Reorganized the system so that the business head of the schools is an assistant superintendent working under the direction of the superintendent and responsible to him instead of the school board. Established a vocational guidance bureau. Fostered the metropolitan high schools in which students can take an academic, technical or commercial course in the same building. Encouraged the wider use of public school buildings for poli- tical and recreation purposes. Established an educational council. Started "Opportu- nity rooms for the misfit and retarded boy." Doubled the number of kindergartens, started junior high schools, established short two-year high school courses, and permitted commercial high school pupils to get practical experience by working part time at school headquarters, stores and offices.

These were some of the things which caused the Cleveland Board of Education to bring Doctor Spaulding to this city. In announcing his program of work for Cleveland he included

practically those things which featured his work at Minneapolis. He said : "There must be an educational program adequate to pre- pare every child to do his bit. Junior high schools, vocational schools, extension of prac- tical courses in senior high schools, continua- tion schools, special schools for special types of children-all these mean new or better edu- cational opportunities and use. The maximum of education effort and the largest funds any- where available are so inadequate to the com- plete realization of a program of truly uni- versal education that they should be employed with the utmost regard for economy and effi- ciency. Waste of time, effort or money, through carelessness, ignorance or inexcusable ignorance, is robbery of the children and of the future welfare of the community."

Doctor Spaulding married October 17, 1895, Mary Elizabeth Trow of Northampton, Massa- chusetts. They have four children, Francis, William, Mary and Catherine. Francis, the oldest, graduated from Harvard University with the degree A. B. at the age of nineteen, and was elected to the honor fraternity Phi Beta Kappa. He is now an instructor in the Dunwoody Institute, a technical school of Minneapolis. The son William is a student in Harvard University, and the two daughters are in Cleveland schools, one in the College- for Women of Western Reserve University and the other in the public schools.

WILLIAM ROY STUART, manager of the Northern Ohio District of Connecticut Gen- eral Life Insurance Company, is a native of Cleveland, but only recently returned to this city from the East, where he had completed his education and where he took up the pro- fession of the law and of insurance. Mr. Stuart is one of those exceptional men who find in insurance a lifework demanding every element of character, integrity, industry and that he has already gone far toward success needs no other proof than the mention of his present relationship with one of America's largest and oldest insurance companies.

Mr. Stuart was born at Cleveland April 27, 1876, a son of William F. and Agnes (Roy) Stuart, both of whom are now living retired in Cleveland. He is of pure Scotch descent on both sides of the family. His father was born in Canada and his mother in New York State. This branch of the Stuarts runs back in direct line to the royal family of Stuarts in England. His mother's father was of the

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Rob Roy Clan, and the Roys gave to the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, what is today known as "The Green." William F. Stuart was for many years active in the carriage business at Cleveland, connected with The Raugh & Lang Electric Company.

William Roy Stuart was educated in the grammar schools of Cleveland, the prepara- tory school of Oberlin Academy, and from there went East entering Yale University, where he graduated A. B. in 1903. In the intervals of other employment he took the regular courses of the New York Law School, and received his LL. B. degree in 1907, being admitted to the New York bar in that year.

Besides his practical work in insurance lines Mr. Stuart has made a close study of the subject in theory and as a profession, and has done much lectural work in connec- tion with schools and as a writer on various phases of the business. In one of his various articles, entitled Insurance as a Profession, he tells how while a senior at Yale University he and a classmate discussed the various vo- cations which they might take up after leav- ing college and how after a survey of them all they decided upon insurance as offering the best opportunities and calling for the largest aggregate of abilities and service com- mensurate with the rewards. Having made definite choice of his life work Mr. Stuart gained his first experience as assistant cashier for the New York Life Insurance Company, and a year later resigned to become cashier with the Actna Life Insurance Company in the office at Yonkers. Mr. Stuart was a resi- dent of Yonkers for seven years, and while there was admitted to the practice of law in New York State and until 1911 was a mem- ber of the law firm of Stuart & Leary, his partner being Russell W. Leary. In 1911 Mr. Stuart having left the Aetna Company, became manager of the Brooklyn, New York, office of the Travelers Insurance Company. In 1916 he resigned to accept the work which brought him back to his native city as man- ager of the Northern Ohio District of the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, a position he has held since June 1, 1917.

While he has enjoyed some of the substan- tial honors of the insurance profession and has been exceedingly busy, he has given much time to promoting the broader interests of insurance and has delivered many talks and formal addresses before Young Men's Chris- tian associations, high schools, and other or- ganizations on the subject of insurance. Many

of the colleges and universities of the coun- try have in recent years installed courses on insurance in their curricula, and Mr. Stuart lias been insurance instructor or lecturer at the University of Akron and at Wooster Col- lege, an dis now conducting an evening class once a week at his offices in the Citizens Build- ing at Cleveland for the study of the prin- ciples of insurance. He has written numerous articles on the subject, one of which, pub- lished in pamphlet form, has already been referred to.

Mr. Stuart represents the broad interests of the man who has traveled extensively both in his home country and in Europe. At Cleveland he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and City Club, of Lakewood Presbyterian Church, is a republican, and has filled one public office, justice of the peace at Yonkers, New York, from 1908 to 1912. He is a member of the Masonic Order, a charter member of Kent Chapter of the Delta Theta Pi fraternity, and was president of the Owl's Head fraternity in 1907 at the New York Law School.

Mr. Stuart has one sister, Mrs. John Schmehl of Lakewood. On June 2, 1911, at Barnesville, Ohio, he married Maude L. Little, daughter of Charles and Margaret (Arm- strong) Little who live retired at Barnesville. Mr. and Mrs. Stuart have one son, William Little Stuart, born at Brooklyn, New York, May 4, 1914.

JOSEPH S. GRANNIS was a prominent mem- ber of the Cleveland bar for many years, and is well remembered both for his success in the profession and for the enviable personal qual- ities which brought him many strong and last- ing friendships.

Mr. Grannis made his home in Cleveland for over half a century. He was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, and came to the city of Cleveland in 1854 and his first work here was as a teacher in the Penn Street School. In those early days he formed a friendship with R. C. Parsons, and both of them roomed and studied together for several years in preparation for the law. On being admitted to the bar Mr. Grannis formed a law partnership with R. S. Spaulding, and they were associated together for seven years under the name Spaulding & Grannis. Mr. Grannis then joined forces with his old classmate and fellow attorney R. C. Parsons, and their long association was not broken until less than two years before the death of Mr. Grannis. An-

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other law partner was J. H. Hardy who was also a classmate of Mr. Grannis and they were close friends as well as professional associates.

Mr. Grannis finally retired from active law practice on account of advancing age, and about 1907 he built a winter home at Orange Mills, Florida. In the fall of 1908 he went Sonth and was living at Orange Mills when the end came on December 11, 1908. With respect to his wish he was buried in that southern climate. In 1861 Mr. Grannis mar- ried Eliza J. Harrison of Cleveland, who sur- vived him and died at Cleveland December 20, 1910. She is buried in Cleveland. They were the parents of two daughters, Mrs. A. D. Wiese and Mrs. Josephine G. Yergin, both of Cleveland.

A. D. WIESE, whose name figures promi- nently among leading Cleveland real estate men, and who was recently elected treasurer of the Cleveland Real Estate Board, was born on a farm in Germany September 9, 1876, and arrived at New York City after a passage across the Atlantic on May 1, 1895, at the age of nineteen. His cash assets when he put foot on shore at New York were $6.40. With money he borrowed from a friend there he was able to go to Cleveland, and this city has been his home ever since.

His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, and he had of course the usually thor- ough education of a German youth, both in the common schools aud in the high school. With no knowledge of the English language and spurred by the necessity of self preserva- tion, A. D. Wiese went to work in Cleveland as a day laborer at wages of $1.25 per day. However, most of the first two years in this country were spent as a farm hand, and for the long hours and the steady work he got $14 a month. At the same time he put in many diligent evenings in a night school to learn the English language, and during his third year he entered the Spencerian Commer- cial School which awarded him his diploma in 1900.

On December 15, 1900, Mr. Wiese accepted an opening in the real estate office of A. G. Frisbie, with whom he remained about six years. He then opened a real estate office of his own in the Williamson Building and up to the present time has been very successful in handling general real estate and allotments and has been connected with transactions in-

volving some of the best homes and large prop- erty interests of Cleveland.

June 3, 1903, at Cleveland Mr. Wiese mar- ried Mildred J. Grannis, daughter of Joseph S. Grannis, an attorney and old time resident of Cleveland, whose career is briefly reviewed on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Wiese have one daughter, Alice Antoinette Wiese, born at Cleveland December 1, 1904.

Mr. Wiese has been an active member of the Cleveland Real Estate Board since 1914, is a trustee, and in December, 1917, was elected treasurer of the board for 1918. He is also a member of the National Association of Real Estate boards. Mr. Wiese is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the City Club, Cleveland Automobile Club and Cleve- land Museum of Art, Civic League and the Tippecanoe Club. His interests outside of business and home are largely represented by art and artistic organizations and by a fond- ness for travel. He is a member and trustee of the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church and in Masonry is affiliated with Iris Lodge No. 229 Free and Accepted Masons.

EARL T. SHANNON is a Cleveland man, grew up in this city, and his education was obtained chiefly in the schools of this city. His friends and associates say that Mr. Shannon at every successive step of his career has shown him- self worthy of responsibility and capable of doing hard and conscientious work. He is by 110 means an old man now and was much younger when he was given an opportunity and a position in the National Commercial Bank, and in the fifteen years he has been con- nected with that institution has gained one promotion after another until he is now its cashier. The National Commercial Bank of Cleveland with resources of $13,000,000 is one of the big banks of the Central West and a position among its executive officers is a highly dignified station worthy of any man's utmost strivings and ambition to attain.

Mr. Shannon was born at Cleveland March 3, 1878, a son of James Wilson and Mary L. Shannon. His father was one of the early wholesale commission merchants of Cleveland, but he died at Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1888, when his son Earl was only ten years of age. Mrs. Mary L. Shannon is still living at Cleve- land, the mother of two sons, Earl T. and James, L., the latter also a resident of Cleve- land.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 37

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