USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 49
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While a resident of Zanesville Captain Queisser also served as president of its cham-
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ber of commerce. He is past exalted ruler of Springfield Lodge No. 51, Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks and is past grand es- teemed leading knight of the order. In Masonry he is affiliated with Windermere Lodge No. 627, Free and Accepted Masons, is past high priest Windermere Chapter No. 203, Royal Arch Masons ; is thrice illustrious mas- ter of Windermere Council No. 113, Royal and Select Masters and past commander Coeur de Lion Commandery No. 64, Knights Templar ; Scioto Consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Thirty-second Degree, and is a member of Al Koran Temple Mystic Shrine and Al Sirat Grotto. He was past vicegerent snark of Ohio, Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoos, and in 1913 was president of the Cleveland Rotary Club and later was a director of the Interna- tional Association. He is a member of the Hermit Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, Tippe- canoe Club. Masonic Club, Cleveland Auto- mobile Club, and is a member and was a direc- tor in 1914 of the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce. Captain Queisser's business offices are in the Schofield Building.
At Springfield, Ohio, November 24, 1887, he married Miss Jessie L. Fried. They have two sons, Charles Fried and Robert L., Jr., both now serving as first lieutenants in the army.
CHARLES LINCOLN STOCKER. In legal cir- cles at Cleveland the name of Mr. Stocker is associated with sound ability and substantial success as a lawyer and outside of his pro- fession he has come to be widely known in the city by his active connection with various civic and business organizations. His profes- sional career covers nearly twenty years, and he is a member of the firm Young, Stocker & Fenner, with offices in the Society for Savings Building. For a number of years Mr. Stocker was associated with the late Judge Carpenter, of the Appellate Court.
The family associations of Mr. Stocker con- nect him with some of Ohio's earliest and most interesting history. Through his mother he is a great-grandson of David Peter. The name of David Peter is found in Howe's His- torical Collection of Ohio, where he is repre- sented as one of the pioneers of the state. He was a member of the Moravian sect, and came from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to Ohio as one of the followers of the great Moravian mis- sionary, David Zeisberger. David Peter ar- rived in Ohio in 1797 and was appointed a merchant by the Moravian Society, and in 1798 opened the first store in Eastern Ohio,
trading with the Delaware Indians of the Tus- carawas Valley. The historic center of the Moravian movement was Gnadenhutten, Tus- carawas County. The Moravian missionaries had made their first effort to Christianize the Indians there in 1772. Congress gave them a grant of 12,000 acres of land in the Tus- carawas Valley, but this land subsequently reverted to the Government. David Peter died and was buried at Gnadenhutten.
The Stocker family is of Swiss ancestry, and were colonial settlers at Easton, Pennsylvania. Solomon Stocker, father of the Cleveland law- yer, was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in 1838, and celebrated his eightieth birthday in January, 1918. Before the war he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln, then a practising lawyer at Springfield, Illinois, and is one of the few men now living who "knew Lincoln," and his unbounded admiration for that great president and statesman led him to name his son in his honor. Solomon Stocker promptly took up the cause of the Union when the Civil war broke out, volunteered his services and for four long years of the struggle followed the flag and did every duty assigned him. He was first a private in Com- pany I, of the 30th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and subsequently was a noncommissioned officer as a hospital steward. He was slightly wounded three times, but never left active serv- ice, and at the conclusion of his first term re-enlisted as a veteran. He has served as commander of his Grand Army Post. In a business way his career is notable as a farmer. While in active life he owned three large farms in Tuscarawas County, and it was a mat- ter of pride with him to keep these farms in the most perfect condition. His fields repre- sented an acme of cultivation, the equipment was always the best, and he was very succesful with live stock. In a public way he has served as township trustee, and has long been active in church and Sunday school work. During the past twenty-seven years it is said that he has missed only two or three sessions of church or Sunday school.
Solomon Stocker married Miss Julia E. Peter, a granddaughter of the Moravian set- tler above named. She died in April, 1910, at the age of sixty-seven. Their six children are still living, three daughters and three sons, Charles Lincoln being the oldest. Mary Agnes, now at home, received the degree A. B. from the Teachers College of Columbia University, New York, and has taught in the Asbury Park schools of New Jersey. Egar A., the third
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child, graduated from Oberlin College A. B., did considerable educational work in high school and also in the schools of Collinwood and Youngstown, Ohio, and is now treasurer of the Youngstown Ice Company. one of the principal firms dealing in ice and builders sup- plies in the state of Ohio. James A. gradu- ated with the degree Civil Engineer from Ohio State University and is now chief engineer of the Toledo and Ohio Central Railway. Jessie L. finished her education in the Musical Con- servatory of Oberlin College, and is now the wife of Frederick W. Taylor, who is at the head of the agricultural department of the state institution at Durham, New Hampshire.
Charles Lincoln Stocker was born at the old family home in Gnadenhutten in Tuscar- awas county, Ohio, August 22, 1868. He was educated in the public schools of his home locality, at Oberlin College both in the acad- emy and regular collegiate departments and graduated A. B. with the class of 1894. He is a graduate of the Gnadenhutten High School with the class of 1886. Mr. Stocker had con- siderable experience in educational work, hav- ing taught two years in the district schools and in the Collinwood High School, and for three years was an instructor in the city night schools of Cleveland. During one year in the Collinwood High School he was assistant prin- cipal and practically performed all the duties of that office since the principal was absent on account of illness.
Mr. Stocker took his law work in Western Reserve University Law School, graduating LL. B. in 1898 and was admitted to the bar in June of the same year. He had in the meantime worked as office boy and clerk with the law firm of Carpenter and Young, and six montlis after his graduation these lawyers of- fered him a partnership under the name Car- penter, Young & Stocker. This title existed in Cleveland law partnerships for sixteen years, from 1899, and was dissolved when Judge Carpenter was elevated to the Appel- late Court Bench. Since, the firm has been Young. Stocker & Fenner. Mr. Stocker has specialized in probate law and corporation law, and much of his time has been taken with trusteeships. He is director and general
counsel of The Guarantee Banking Company, is counsel for The Bankers Guaranteed Mort- gage Company, and handles the work of a number of other corporate interests.
Since beginning practice Mr. Stocker has never withheld his active support and cooper- ation with any worthy public enterprise that seemed to need him. He is now president of the Board of Education of Bratenalil, is a director of Providence Hospital, is president of the Unitarian Club, member of the Cleve- land Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Real Estate Board, the Civic League, Cleve- land Bar Association, and National Security League, and in politics while nominally a re- Emma C., the youngest child, is a graduate . publican is in these critical times a straight- in the classical course of Oberlin College, took special work in physical training, and is now the wife of William Fendrich, of New York City, at present employe as inspector of elec- trical equipment on the great American battle- ships.
forward and undiluted American. In mat- ters of local politics he gives his support to the best man. He served as solicitor for the Village of Collinwood nine years, until that suburb was incorporated in the city. Mr. Stocker retains his membership in the Sons of Veterans organization at his old home town. His church is the First Unitarian of Cleveland.
On October 6, 1900, Mr. Stocker married Miss Emma B. Parks of Cleveland. Mrs. Stocker belongs to a family of pioneers in Northern Ohio. Her grandfather Sheldon Parks came from Connecticut in 1834, and set- tled seven miles east of the Public Square of Cleveland on the shores of Lake Erie. It is a part of the old Parks estate, formerly a farm, that is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Stocker as their home. This homestead com- prises five acres on Lake Shore Boulevard at 13022. Mrs. Stocker is a daughter of Joseph and Maria Jane (Thorpe) Parks. The Thorpe family came to Cuyahoga County in the very first years of the last century. Mrs. Stocker's parents are both now deceased. She was edu- cated in Cuyahoga County, and in 1898 grad- uated A. B. from Western Reserve Woman's College, and for two years was a teacher in the Collinwood schools. She has served two terms as president of the Alumnae Associa- tion of her college and is now president of the Phi Kappa Zeta Sorority. She is active in Sunday School work as a teacher and is a member of the Red Cross. Mr. and Mrs. Stocker have a family of four sons and one daughter: Edgar Parks, Joseph C., Norman Arthur, Charles L. Jr., and Agnes Jane. all of whom were born at the Stocker home on Lake Shore Boulevard.
HON. JOSEPH S. BACKOWSKI, present repre- sentative from Cuyahoga County in the State
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Legislature, began the practice of law here about four years ago, and has found his way to success paved with the durable stones of hard work, carnest and conscientious at- tention to every interest entrusted to his charge, and by a willingness to assume respon- sibilities in behalf of the community and the people at large.
Mr. Backowski was born in Cleveland Sep- tember 24, 1889, of poor but hard working and respectable parents. He is a son of Stanislaw and Frances (Rucinski) Backowski. Stanislaw Backowski died January 16, 1918. Both parents were born in that part of Poland which is now under German rule, and they came to the United States when young peo- ple, first meeting in Cleveland. At that time Stanislaw Backowski was driver of a milk wagon at eight dollars a month. The father worked at various lines of employment as a young man to get a start and after being suc- cessful in various lines of industry he finally became proprietor of one of the best con- ducted meat markets in the city.
Joseph S. Backowski was the second child of his parents. He was educated in the St. Stanislaus parochial school, graduated from the South High School with the class of 1909, then entered Adelbert College of Western Reserve University, and subsequently the law school of the University, where he was gradu- ated LL. B. in June, 1913.
In the same year he was admitted to the bar and at once began practice in the Society for Savings Building, where he is located today.
Mr. Backowski has been a leader in dem- ocratie politics in Cuyahoga County since he began practice. In the fall of 1915 he was a candidate for councilman from the 14th ward. Among six candidates for that position he stood second and lacked less than a hundred votes of being elected. In the fall of 1916 he was a successful candidate for the State Legis- Jature, clected for the term of two years. His presence in the legislature has been a mat- ter of satisfaction to the entire county and especially to his constituents who loyally sup- ported him. He has given careful attention to every matter that has come up during the session of 1917, and among other services he introduced the bill to permit cities and coun- ties to make joint use of county buildings.
Mr. Backowski is one of the oldest members of the Polish Chamber of Commerce of Cleve- land, in which he is a director. He is un- married.
EDWARD W. DISSETTE, in practice as a law- yer at Cleveland since 1902, is a son of the venerable Judge Thomas K. Dissette, the dean of the Cleveland bar, was for many years ac- tively associated with his father and through his work and experience has gained a rec- ognized place as an authority on real estate and tax law.
Though Mr. Dissette has spent most of his life in Cleveland, he was born at Bradford, Ontario, Canada, which was also his father's birthplace. He was born November 3, 1867. A complete account of the unusual record of his father Judge Thomas K. Dissette appears on other pages of this publication. Edward W. Dissette was educated in the Cleveland public schools, in Brooks Military Academy and in Baldwin University at Berea. He grad- uated from the law department of Baldwin University with the class of 1902 and the de- gree LL. B. Admitted to the Ohio bar in June of that year before the Supreme Court of Columbus, he began practice and from the first has had his offices in the building where he is today, the American Trust Building. Mr. Dissette practiced alone until his father re- tired from his service on the Common Pleas Bench, and there was then organized a firm consisting of the senior Dissette, and his two sons, Edward W. and George C. under the name Dissette, Dissette & Dissette. In February, 1912, George Dissette retired from the partnership and since then it has been T. K. and E. W. Dissette, a title still retained, though Judge Dissette has not been in active practice since 1915.
Not only as a lawyer but in other ways Mr. Dissette has been closely identified with the fortune and welfare of his home city for many years. He served as city claim agent from 1895 to 1899, and was tax collector in 1908-09. He was deputy clerk of the Court of Common Pleas from 1888 to 1892. He has proved him- self a vigorous exponent of republican poli- tics, and in 1911 was his party candidate for judge of Municipal Court, when that court was first organized. He was defeated, since in that year Cleveland went democratic by nineteen thousand votes during the Baker landslide.
Mr. Dissette was a member of the Cleveland Grays from 1887 to 1891, and served as second lieutenant of the Fifth Ohio Volunteer In- fantry from 1886 to 1899. He was with that regiment during the Spanish-American peri- od, with the rank of second lieutenant. He was on active duty about a year, but the regi-
Vol. II-17
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ment never got further than Tampa, Florida. He still takes an active interest in military af- fairs, is a member of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the Army and Navy Club and the Cramer Camp, Spanish-American War Veterans.
Business interests also claim a large share of his attention. Mr. Dissette is secretary and a director of the Blaine Mining and Reduction Company of Colorado; is secretary of the Nichols Hat Company of Cleveland, and a director of the Macoban Realty Company of Cleveland.
He belongs to the Ohio State Bar Associa- tion, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, to Woodward Lodge No. 508 F. and A. M., the Colonial Club, Cleveland Lodge No. 4 Inter- national Ship Masters Association of the Great Lakes, to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and is active in the Twentieth Ward Re- publican Club. Aside from his profession and business he finds his recreation chiefly in boat- ing and other water sports.
Mr. Dissette was married February 21, 1888, to Miss Ruth D. Morgan of Cleveland, daugh- ter of Captain Arthur and Lanra Dell (Bates) Morgan. Her mother is still living, and Cap- tain Morgan was drowned at Alpena, Michi- gan, when Mrs. Dissette was a child. Mrs. Dissette finished her education in the Mora- vian Seminary at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. They are the parents of two children. The daughter, Ruth Margaret, graduated from high school in 1914 and is now attending the Woman's College at Western Reserve Univer- sity. The son, Thomas K. Dissette II, is a member of the class of 1918 in the Cleveland High School.
CAPT. RUFUS C. SPROUL up to forty years ago was one of the best known mariners of the Great Lakes. Altogether he spent nearly forty years as a sailor and vessel captain on salt and fresh water seas, and while he was a familiar figure and well known in nearly every port around the Great Lakes, he had a specially large following of friends and acquaintances of Cleveland, where he lived for many years.
He was born in Windsor, Maine, February 22, 1821, and died at his home in Cleveland February 7, 1878, aged fifty-six years, eleven months, fifteen days. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His family originated in Scotland, went from there to the north of Ireland, and thence came to America. Captain Sproul like many New England boys early evinced a fond- ness for the sea, and at the age of thirteen he
enlisted for service on the ocean with a whal- ing vessel. In the course of his experience he rose through the various grades until he was captain of an ocean boat, and about 1845 he came to Cleveland and for many years sailed as a captain and officer on Great Lakes boats. During the last seven years of his life he was proprietor of a livery business on the west side of Cleveland. He came to be well known to all the older residents of the city and bore a reputation for probity and honor that is one of the best legacies he could have beqneathed to his children. He was also active in politics, an out and out republican, and at one time served as assistant street commissioner.
He married Miss Lydia Blake, who is still living in Cleveland in her eighty-sixth year. She is of English ancestry and some of the Blakes came to America on the boat that fol- lowed the Mayflower to the bleak coasts of New England early in the seventeenth century. Captain and Mrs. Sproul had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Four of them are still living. The oldest was Capt. William H. Sproul, who for over fifteen years followed the Great Lakes, part of the time as captain, and died at his headquarters in Chicago in the spring of 1914, aged sixty-two. The daughter, Ella, is now the wife of U. B. Hird, a farmer at Geneva, Ohio. Hattie is the wife of Dr. J. G. Lewis of Cleveland. Frank B. was in the livery business at Cleveland until his death in the fall of 1914, aged fifty-six. Ernest B. is connected with the Newburg & Sonth Shore Railroad. The youngest of the family, Herb- ert R., is a well known Cleveland attorney.
HERBERT RUFUS SPROUL has been one of the busy lawyers of Cleveland since his admission to the bar in 1899, and his activities as a lawyer have been both agreeable and profitable and have brought him high standing in the bar of his native city.
Mr. Sproul was born in Cleveland June 3, 1875, a son of Capt. Rufus C. and Lydia (Blake) Sproul. Of his father, who died in 1878, a more complete account will be found on other pages. The mother, though eighty- six years of age, is still strong and active, and lives with her son, Herbert. Out of a family of seven, two daughters and two sons are still living.
The youngest of the children, Herbert R. Sproul, was three years old when his father died and he grew up and received his early education in Cleveland. He is a graduate of
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the West High School and took his law work in the law department of Western Reserve University, where he graduated Bachelor of Laws in 1898 and Doctor of Laws in 1899. After his admission to the bar in the fall of the latter year he began practice, was alone one year, and then formed a partnership with W. H. Hill under the name Sproul & Hill. For ten years this firm did a large and varied busi- ness with offices in the Society for Savings Building. The partnership was dissolved when Mr. Sproul undertook a commission to promote a sugar company in Cuba, and he was absent in that island about two years. Since his return to Cleveland he has resumed the practice of law as an individual, with offices in the Engineers Building for three years, but sinee 1913 his offiees have been in the Rocke- feller Building. He returned from Cuba in 1910. While he handles a general practice, much of his time is taken up with his duties as attorney and general counsel for the Loco- motive Engineers' Mutual Life and Accident Insurance Association. This association, which furnishes insurance protection to the order Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, is one of the oldest companies of its kind in America, having been founded fifty years ago. The headquarters of the association are in Cleve- land, and as its general counsel for the past four years Mr. Sproul has handled its legal work from all parts of the country.
Mr. Sproul has appeared as a figure in lo- eal polities only once as a candidate, though he has always taken an active part in promot- ing the welfare of the republican organization. In 1905 he was a candidate for the state senate on the ticket headed by Governor Herrick, in which year the entire state ticket went down in defeat.
For variation and pastime from his office Mr. Sproul indulges a more than passing in- terest in baseball, but his chief hobby and pleasure is chicken raising. This side issue is staged on his little two-aere farm at his home at Bay Village. In the season of 1917 Mr. Spronl raised 1,700 chickens of one of the best egg producing types known.
Fraternally he is affiliated with Emanuel Lodge No. 605, Free and Accepted Masons, and with Al Sirat Grotto No. 17, M. O. V. P. E. R. He was formerly very prominent in the Improved Order of Red Men in Cuyahoga Tribe, served six years on the state board of appeals of the order, filled all the local chairs, and resigned the former office in 1908, when he went to Cuba. He is a member of the Ohio
State Bar Association, the Cleveland Bar As- sociation, the Civic League of Bay Village, and attends worship at the Methodist Episcopal Church.
June 30, 1912, he married Miss Ellen M. Quinn, of Lakewood, daughter of John and Mary (Wilkins) Quinn, both of whom live at Youngstown, where Mrs. Sproul was born and educated.
VERNON H. BURKE. The tendency of the able lawyer to become identified in inereas- ing measure with business affairs is illustra- ted in the case of the late Vernon H. Burke, whose position at the Cleveland bar was one of highest standing and who for years en- joyed a practice that would satisfy the de- sires of the most ambitious attorney. At the same time he had almost as many interests in a business way as in the direct line of his profession. And the decided versatility of his mind is shown in the fact, that though bur- dened with material affairs, he paid constant and devoted attention to the realm of pure lit- erature and the humanities.
An able lawyer, a business man, a one time leader in republiean polities, and devoted friend of charity and civic welfare, Cleveland felt and expressed a sense of heavy loss in the death of Mr. Burke, which occurred at the Charity Hospital, following an operation for appendicitis, on January 10, 1918.
He was born at Saybrook, Ashtabula Coun- ty, Ohio, December 22, 1866. His father, John F. Burke, was born in Dublin, Ireland, and came to America at the age of fourteen, lo- rating in Ashtabula County, Ohio. Mr. Burke's mother was Minerva C. (Stewart) Burke. Her father was A. M. Stewart, of New York State, a distant relative of the great New York merchant, A. T. Stewart.
That Mr. Burke possessed the qualities of an unusual mind is shown by the rapidity with which he assimilated knowledge and covered the various courses of schools and colleges as a boy. He attended the district schools of Saybrook, also had a course in Bryant & Strat- ton's Business College, and at the age of fif- teen entered Canisius College at Buffalo, New York. On returning home he took up the study of telegraphy, and was soon pronounced a proficient operator. At sixteen he entered Notre Dame University at South Bend, Indi- ana, and in 1886, at the age of twenty, he re- ceived from that institution degrees repre- senting the completion of satisfactory work in four different departments of the univer-
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.
sity. The degrees from Notre Dame are LL. B., S. B., A. B., and C. E. He was soon after- wards admitted to the Indiana bar and the Ohio State bar and then removed to Cleve- land.
For a year and a half Mr. Burke was con- nected with the law offices of Everett, Dellen- baugh & Weed. He then formed his first partnership with Capt. M. B. Gary under the name of Gary & Burke. In the law his success was due not so much to specialization as to the handling of a broad general practice. For over a quarter of a century he handled a voluminous practice, involving nearly every branch of the civil and criminal law, and in recent years had specialized in automobile law. He defended more automobile cases than any other lawyer in the United States and be- came a recognized authority on all branches of the law governing that industry.
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