USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 48
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HORACE NEFF has been a member of the Cleveland bar since 1902, and his offices are in the Illuminating Building.
He is a son of Judge William B. and Eliza- beth H. (Hyre) Neff, of a well known and highly respected Cleveland family. Horace Neff was born on Bolton Avenue June 24, 1878. He was educated in the public schools and attended the law department of Western Reserve University, from which he was gradu- ated with the class of 1901. For two years he served as deputy city clerk of Cleveland under W. R. Coates. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1902, and in January of the following year began practice. For a short time he was in the law offices of Hile & Horn, and for nearly four years was in the office of Foran & Powell. He has never had a law partnership and for over ten years has practiced alone. For some time he gave considerable attention to the criminal branch of practice, but for the last two years his work has been along general lines. Mr. Neff is a republican in politics. June 15, 1912, he married Miss Lillian Alice Balthaser. Mrs. Neff was born at Amanda in Fairfield County, Ohio, daughter of John A. and Mary (Warner) Balthaser. She was reared there and educated in the common and high schools. Her father was a farmer and business man and the Balthasers were among the first settlers of Fairfield County. Mrs. Neff's great-grandfather, General Kramer, served in the armies of the great Napoleon. The Balthasers are numerously represented in Ohio and only recently a large family reunion occurred at Amanda. Mrs. Neff's parents are both now deceased.
ARTHUR G. HYDE, M. D. For the past eleven years Dr. Arthur G. Hyde has figured prominently in the medical profession of Cleveland, and has maintained throughout his career a high standard of ethics and honorable principles. A man of skill, knowledge and capability, he has risen steadily in his pro- fession, deservedly winning the rewards of devotion to his calling, and in 1914 recogni- tion of his talents and executive powers was
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expressed in his appointment as superintend- ent of the Cleveland State Hospital, a position which he retains at this time.
Doctor Hyde was born January 16, 1876, in Ashland County, Ohio, a son of Anson and Jennie Hyde. His father was born in Lan- caster County, Pennsylvania, July 5, 1852, and was there reared and educated, and on arriving at man's estate engaged in farming. In 1869 he moved to Ashland County, Ohio, where he lias since carried on general farm- ing and dairy operations and is accounted one of the substantial and reliable men of his com- munity. He was married January 21, 1875, to Jennie Gordon, and they are the parents of four children: Dr. Charles W., who is engaged in the practice of medicine and sur- gery at Washington, D. C .; Dr. David C., a graduate of the veterinary department of the Ohio State University, and now state vet- erinary surgeon of Ohio; Mrs. Mildred M. Nicholls, a resident of Sullivan, Ohio; and Arthur G.
After attending the graded and high schools of Ashland County, from the latter of which he graduated in 1896, Arthur G. Hyde entered Hiram College, where he was a student for two years, subsequently enroll- ing at the Ohio Northern University, at Ada, where he was graduated in 1899 with the degree of Bachelor of Science. He continued his education in the medical department of Miami Medical College (now University of Cincinnati) and graduated therefrom in 1901, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and to further his training took an interneship in the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Home, where he remained for one year. Doctor Hyde en- tered upon the active practice of his profes- sion at Rowsburg, Ohio, where he remained four and one-half years, and at the end of that time received an appointment as assistant physician of the State Hospital at Cleve- land. His appointment as superintendent of that institution, September 15, 1914, came as due recognition of excellent professional skill and capacity for management. In this position Doctor Hyde has established an en- viable record, both as an executive and a physician. His labors have resulted in many needed improvements being made in the in- stitution and in the establishment of a sys- tem that makes this hospital one of the best governed in the state. He keeps thoroughly abreast of the progress made in medical science, and is a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, the Ohio Medical So-
ciety and the American Medical Association. Fraternally he is affiliated with Newburgh Lodge No. 379, Free & Accepted Masons. He likewise belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and to the Cleveland Athletic Club.
Doctor Hyde was married at Cleveland, June 15, 1910, to Carrie L. Cooke, and they are the parents of two children : Arthur Gor- don, Jr., born in 1912; and Caroline Jane, born in 1917.
J. H. SOMERS. It is only during the last half century that the coal industry of the Middle West has assumed proportions over- shadowing that of all primary sources of heat and energy. Even some thirty or forty years ago railway locomotives were still burning wood as fuel. These facts are mentioned to indicate the important relations sustained by three generations of the Somers family to the coal industry of the Middle West, the first generation having mined coal for a limited local supply, while the present generation represented at Cleveland is busied with ex- tensive operations proportionate to the in- dispensable and vital part that coal now sus- tains to the productive energies of the world.
The middle generation of the family was represented by the late J. H. Somers, who in 1868, half a century ago, succeeded to a coal business established by his father in Columbus, Ohio, and who spent the last twen- ty-five years of his life at Cleveland, from which point he directed the operation of many extensive mines. He was one of the largest stockholders of the Roby Coal Company, which deals in gas, oil, steam, coal, and in fact, was one of the biggest coal operators in the en- tire country.
He was born at Marietta, Ohio, in 1842, a son of Jonathan F. Somers, who was the pioneer of the family in the coal business in Ohio. J. H. Somers grew up at Marietta, lived at Newark for some years, but in 1868 took up the business established by his father at Columbus. From there in 1883 he removed to Cleveland. He contributed much to the technique and modern processes of coal min- ing and coal distribution. He was associated with the movement for the development of the coal fields of Saginaw, Michigan, and also extensive fields in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. He was an executive in corporations that employed thousands of men and did a business involving many hundreds of thousands of dollars. For many years he was vice president of the J. H. Som-
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ers Coal Company, having assisted in organiz- ing that firm and also the Roby Coal Com- pany.
His success was due to the phenomenal energy which characterized him all his life. He practically died in the harness, having been busied with affairs at his office on the day preceding his death, which came sud- denly at Cleveland, November 18, 1908. He was laid to rest in Lake View Cemetery.
Of his qualities as a citizen and business man the following has been written: "Those who knew Mr. Somers personally found him at times brusque, and yet his sympathies were easily aroused. He was strong in his likes and dislikes and stood firm for what he be- lieved to be his right. On the other hand he was extremely just and fair, according to others what was their due. He cared nothing for public office, yet was a stanch republican and manifested in public affairs the interest of a business man who wisely recognizes that he is a part of the community, to which he owes an obligation, while at the same time he receives the benefit of all that constitutes the public life. His word was as good as a bond and he was widely known for his un- faltering probity, as well as his notable suc- cess."
His wife died in 1906, and he was suc- ceeded in business by his only child, Charles W. Somers. He was also survived by a broth- er, J. O. Somers, a retired coal dealer of Columbus, and a sister, Mrs. Myra Snydam of Cleveland.
CHARLES W. SOMERS. To a vastly discrimi- nating section of the American public that is dominated by one interest and passion throughout an important season of every year, the name Charles W. Somers is best known as one of the founders in 1901 of the Ameri- can League of Baseball, and as president of the Cleveland Baseball Company. Nearly all of the owners and directors of major league- baseball in America are substantial business men and to this rule Charles W. Somers is no exception.
He represents the third generation of a family that has been prominent in coal mining industry since pioneer times, and in the coal circles of America today is rightly classed as a major league operator. Mr. Somers is presi- dent of The Roby Coal Company, of The J. H. Somers Coal Company, The Roby-Somers Coal Company, The Massillon Elm Run Coal Company, The Somers Mining Company, The
Somers Company, and throughout the thirty years of his active career not even his strong and insistent interest in the national pastime has run athwart his concentrated energies in this primary family business.
Concerning his father something is said on other pages. Charles W. Somers, only child of J. H. and Philomena (McCrum) Somers, was born at Newark, Ohio, October 13, 1868, but spent much of his early boyhood at Colum- bus, where he attended public school, and at the age of fifteen in 1883, came with his par- ents to Cleveland, where his education was completed. From school he entered with characteristic enthusiasm into the business interests of his father and had soon gained the confidence of the senior Somers and made for himself a ranking position among the coal operators of the day. For a number of years before his father's death he assumed many of the heavy responsibilities, and has been a mem- ber of the firm since 1896 and practically every year since then has seen some addition to his business responsibilities. He is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club, Western Reserve Club, and Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. His interest in baseball is not a mature enthu- siasm, but has been one of steadily growing volume since early boyhood.
DAVID OTIS SUMMERS has his chief claim to recognition among Cleveland business men as the founder and for thirty years proprietor of The D. O. Summers Cleaning & Laundry Company. This is a business which began on borrowed capital and in restricted quarters. Its growth and prosperity were directly based upon the quality of service rendered. Mr. Summers thoroughly appreciated what was be- fore him in building up a satisfactory busi- ness in the face of keen competition, and there has never been a time when he did not em- phasize his qualities of thoroughness and promptness and the magnificent establishment of the company today, occupying a large plant at 6202-6220 Carnegie Avenue, Southeast, is a monument to the word service. The plant is now one of the largest cleaning and laundry establishments in Cleveland or in the State of Ohio. It was started thirty years ago as a eleaning shop and for years it has specialized in the higher class work of this nature, the facilities having been developed for cleaning of carpets and rugs, draperies and laces. in addition to the ordinary branches and serv- ices rendered by such an establishment.
Mr. Summers was born in Orange Township,
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Ashland County, Ohio, June 14, 1860. That section of Ohio was still almost an unsettled portion of the wilderness when in 1817 his grandfather came out of Pennsylvania and set- tled there and developed a farm. His father, Daniel Summers, was born and reared at that pioneer homestead, was in early life a teacher, and for many years a practical farmer at Charlotte, Michigan. He finally removed to Cleveland, where he spent his last years. Daniel Summers married Mary Wherry, who survived her husband and moved to Cali- fornia.
As a boy David Otis Summers attended pub- lic school at Charlotte, Michigan, and in early youth came to Cleveland, where during the day he worked in the lumber and planing mill of Davidson & House, and at night finished his education in the Spencerian Business College. He was with Davidson & House until 1882, and his willingness to assume responsibilities caused the firm to put him in charge of the mill with a force of twenty men under him when he was hardly more than twenty-one. From 1882 to 1887 he was employed as a me- chanie with Sterling, Welch & Company.
In 1887 there were four carpet cleaning es- tablishments in Cleveland. With all this com- petition Mr. Summers believed he saw an op- portunity to set up a shop of his own, and though he had to borrow the necessary capital and he started business in an upstairs room on East Prospect Street, he soon had a patronage satisfied and increasing and an outlook for the future that fully justified him in continuing in the business. One of the early features of his business was renting awnings for parties and weddings. One of the first important extensions of the business came in 1896 when he established his rug factory for the manu- facture of domestic rugs. He was a pioneer in what is now recognized as the modern and standard practice of cleaning carpets by means of air. At first, however, he utilized com- pressed air which was forced or expelled through the rugs instead of the now more familiar principle of vacuum cleaning. This was the first establishment of that kind in Cleveland. He developed many of the ideas and practices now used in air cleaning proc- esses. In 1902 another department was added for dry cleaning and lace cleaning, and in 1905 the D. O. Summers Cleaning & Laundry Company was incorporated. Mr. Summers has since been its president and treasurer and he is also a member of the board of the Ohio State Dry Cleaners' and Dyers' Association
and one of its directors. In recognition of his superior knowledge of the cleaning business, Mr. Summers was called to Washington through instructions of the Reclamation De- partment, Quartermaster General's office, to appear on a board of five experts on dry clean- ing to formulate plans and establish a place for the government, that they might know just what to do in the Reelamation Depart- ment.
Naturally other business interests have at- tracted Mr. Summers into active participa- tion, and he is president of the Standard Tire & Rubber Manufacturing Company at Wil- loughby, Ohio. He was one of the organizers of this business, was elected vice president in January, 1913, and in October, 1917, became president. He. is vice president of the Big Lake Land & Lumber Company, a corpora- tion owning and operating timber lands in Arkansas. He was formerly a director of the Hough Bank & Trust Company. He is a mem- ber of the Laundry Workers' National As- sociation, of the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, the Old Colonial Club, Incorporated, of New York, the Cleve- land Automobile Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, and is active in Masonic circles. His affiliations are with Woodward Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons; Cleveland Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Holyrood Commandery, Knights Templar; Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Mr. Summers is a member and was first president of the board of trustees of the Hough Avenue Congregational Church at the time the church edifice was constructed.
Mr. Summers has enjoyed an ideal domestic life, and he and his family have both a city home and a country home at Chagrin Falls. He married Miss Josephine Kaighin, a native of New York City and daughter of Philip Kaighin. Mr. and Mrs. Summers have two sons and two daughters. The oldest is Bessie O., wife of John H. Marshall of Erie, Penn- sylvania. The older son is Otis D., now secre- tary of The. D. O. Summers Cleaning and Laundry Company. The second son, Harry K., is a director of the cleaning and laundry company. The younger child, Ruth, is still at home. Both sons were well educated, the older having spent one year in the Ohio Wesleyan University. The sons arc members of Terion Lodge of Masons. Harry K. Summers had an active experience of three months on the Mexi- can border with Company C of the First Ba- tallion of Ohio Engineers. This organization
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is now the One Hundred Twelfth Regiment of Engineers in the National army. All told Harry K. Summers was with this organization for seven months. Harry K. Summers is president of the Motor Equipment Company of Cleveland and is member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. Both sons belong to the Hough Avenue Congregational Church.
RABBI ELIAS ROTHSCHILD. The death of Rabbi Rothschild at Cleveland, June 17, 1914, marked the passing of a man whose goodness, generosity and liberality were of common knowledge to all the people among whom he had lived for nearly forty years, and who in his simplicity, his constant self-sacrifice, measured up to the best elements of greatness in mankind.
He was born at Marienpole, Russian Poland, in 1853, a son of Max Rothschild, who also lived for some years in Cleveland but who later returned to Jerusalem and lived in that sacred city five years before his death and is buried there. Elias Rothschild was brought to America when a mere child, and during his youth was greatly befriended by Mr. J. H. Kantrowitz, a noted philanthropist, merchant and communal worker in New York City. He married his benefactor's daughter, Jennie Kantrowitz, whose father was one of the prominent men among the Jewish population of New York City for over forty years.
After his marriage Rabbi Rothschild moved to Rochester where he carried on his duties as rabbi and from there came to Cleveland. In this city he found constant opportunities for work and the expression of his generous char- acter nearly forty years. He was an ardent worker in the religious, ecclesiastic, educa- tional and social circles. He worked hard for the welfare and good treatment of both the native and the stranger, the old settlers and the new comers, the poor and the needy, shel- tering time and again wayfarers and super- annuated rabbis in his own scanty apartments and sharing with them his food, drink and rai- ment, his insignificant salary and small earn- ings notwithstanding. He was goodness in- carnate and kindness personified, having a smile, an expression of comfort and a cheerful word for one and all at all times and seasons. He was a member of both Anshe Emeth and Ohavei Amunah Synagogues, Montefiore Lodge, Independent Order B'rith Abraham, Knights of. Joseph and B'nai Isaac Society, and president of Burial Society of Hessed sliel Emeth and Ladies Free Loan Society of Gem-
iluth Hassodim. He was also chairman for all funds collected in Cleveland to be used for religious objects at Jerusalem. It is character- istic that a great majority of his kindly deeds were never heralded abroad, and one of his most dominant traits was his modesty. It was a signal tribute to his work and character that one of the largest outpourings of Jewish peo- ple ever seen in Cleveland appeared as mourn- ers at his funeral. He was laid to rest in the cemetery of the Anshe Emeth Congregation.
Rabbi Rothschild was survived by his widow, and by twelve children, four sons and eight daughters, all of whom have grown up and have become useful and respected citizens of Cleveland.
ISIDORE J. ROTHSCHILD with his brother Julius compose the firm known as "Roths- child" real estate brokers with offices in the American Trust Building. This is a firm of aggressive and successful young men, both ex- perts in their line, and has done an important business in general real estate. They also handle loans and insurance.
I. J. Rothschild of this firm was born at Cleveland November 9, 1881, son of the late Rabbi Elias Rothschild, elsewhere referred to in this publication. As a boy the son attended the Cleveland public schools, including the Central High School, and his first business ex- perience was in a drug store. It was his in- tention at the time to become a druggist, but he abandoned this because his employers in- sisted that while learning the drug trade he also do duty as a soda clerk. Later for a time he was employed in the jewelry establishment of The Charles Ettinger Company in the Tay- lor Arcade. He was there seven years, and then in 1908 went in the real estate business for himself. He opened his first office in the Williamson Building alone, and sought a clientage about the time the panic of 1907 was still severely felt in all business circles. From the Williamson Building he removed to the Engineers Building, where he was one of the first tenants. In October, 1917, the firm moved to the American Trust Building.
In 1912 Mr. Rothschild organized The Sixth City Realty Company for the purpose of buy- ing property near Euclid Avenne and East 105th Street. After this property was sold in December. 1917, and the object of the com- pany having been realized its organization was abandoned.
Mr. Rothschild has two big interests in life. his business and his home, and other things
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are subsidiary to those. However, he is well known in charitable and civic circles. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the In- dependent Order of B'nai B'rith, Independ- ent Aid Society, Federation of Jewish Char- ities, is a contributor to the Denver Consump- tive Sanitarium at Denver, Colorado, and a yearly contributor to the schools of New York City for the education of young rabbis. He worships as a member of Anshe Emeth Con- gregation, with which his father was formerly connected, and was also in the Euclid Avenue Temple. His wife is a member of the Temple organization and of the Jewish Infants Or- phans Home.
September 10, 1913, Mr. Rothschild married Miss Dora Mendelson, daughter of Jacob and Ella (Ettinger) Mendelson, who have been residents of Cleveland more than forty years and now retired. Mrs. Rothschild was for ten years a successful teacher in the Cleveland public schools, was educated here and is a graduate of the Central High School and the Cleveland Normal. Mr. and Mrs. Rothschild have one daughter, Alice.
JULIUS ROTHSCHILD is a son of the late Rabbi Elias Rothschild of Cleveland, and a brother of I. J. Rothschild, with whom he is associated under the name "Rothschild" real estate brokers in the American Trust Building.
Julius Rothschild was born in Cleveland April 8, 1886, was educated in the public schools, and from school went to work with The Charles Ettinger Company, a prominent jewelry house of Cleveland. After several years of active experience, he joined his brother in 1912, and in the past five years has become one of the expert men in Cleveland business affairs, and has made the firm one of the leading ones of the kind in the city. Julius Rothschild is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, with the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith, and is unmarried.
CAPT. ROBERT L. QUEISSER, Next to the national flag itself perhaps the most familiar emblem of war times in America is the "serv- ice flag," with its star or stars representing in- dividuals from the home, the church, the busi- ness or the factory who are serving under the colors in the uniform of a soldier. Probably not one person in a thousand knows the origi- nator and inventor of this service flag. He is a Cleveland man, for many years prominent in business circles, and has a personal record of military service with the Ohio National Guard
organization, having been in command of the Machine Gun Company of the Fifth Regiment Ohio Infantry on the Mexican border in 1916-17.
Capt. Robert L. Queisser is the originator and designer of the service flag. The service flag and pennants and all manner of novelties using the Service Flag design are now being made all over the United States.
Captain Queisser has been well known in Ohio military circles for a number of years. His record reads as follows : Regimental adjutant, Third Regiment Infantry Ohio Na- tional Guard; battalion adjutant, Seventh Regiment Infantry; captain-commissary and captain Machine Gun Company, Fifth Regi- ment Infantry; and four years aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor Judson Harmon.
Robert L. Queisser was born at Indianapolis, Indiana, August 9, 1866, son of Julius and Caroline Jeanette (Schliebitz) Queisser. He was educated in the grammar and high schools of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Business College, and spent a number of years of his earlier life in railroad work. He left a re- sponsible position in the traffic department of the Baltimore & Ohio to become manager of The Ohio Press Brick Company at Zanesville. This was one of the subsidiary companies of The Hydraulic Pressed Brick Company, of St. Louis, Missouri. Since then he has gained wide prominence among the clay products manufacturers of the country. He was with the Ohio Press Brick Company five years, and then, with William H. Hunt and C. A. Bliss, organized The Hunt-Queisser-Bliss Company of Cleveland. This firm engaged in the brick and builders' supply business. In 1911 Cap- tain Queisser acquired the Hunt interests and the name of the firm was changed to The Queisser-Bliss Company, and in 1915 to The R. L. Queisser Company. Captain Queisser is a former president of the Brick Builders Asso- ciation of America, was for five years secretary of The Ohio Face Brick Manufacturing Asso- ciation, and for three years secretary and treasurer of the Face Brick Dealers Associa- tion of America, is president and general man- ager of The R. L. Queisser Company, and a member of the Cleveland Builders Exchange and the Cleveland Engineering Society. He is also a director of The Doan Savings & Loan Association, The Guardian Mortgage Com- pany and president of The Oak Investment Company.
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