USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 54
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then resumed his studies, and on December 20, 1899, was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He at once began practice at Reading, and had an office alone for about six years. He then became connected with the Maryland Casualty Company and came to Cleveland as resident claim manager for two years. He was admit- ted to the Ohio bar in 1908. From Cleve- and he was transferred to New York City and then to Baltimore, where he was assistant manager or examiner of claims. Mr. Stevens again came to Cleveland, this time as claim attorney for The General Accident, Fire and Life Insurance Corporation, Limited. He re- turned to Cleveland September 17, 1912, and in September, 1916, he gave up his work with the insurance company to engage in the gen- eral practice of law. He is secretary of The International Motors Accessories Company of Cleveland and secretary and a director of The H. E. McMillan & Son Company of Cleve- land. While connected with insurance com- panies he tried cases in thirty-seven states of the Union.
Mr. Stevens is a noted orator and was on the National Board of Speakers of the demo- cratic party during three of the Bryan cam- paigns. He was nineteen years old when Bryan was first a candidate for president, and during the summer and early fall of 1896 he went all through the New England states speaking for Bryan and was widely known as the "schoolboy orator." He was also a mem- ber of the campaigu committees of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and for several years was his father's right hand man in politics in that section. It is characteristic that he has never been a candidate for office himself. Mr. Stevens is a member of Reading Lodge No. 549 Free and Accepted Masons at Read- ing, Pennsylvania, and was formerly a mem- ber of the Berks County Bar Association. His church is the Presbyterian.
September 4, 1901, he married Miss Sarah S. Stayman of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, daugh- ter of Joseph B. and Mary S. (Shelley) Stay- man, bothı deceased. Her people were retired farmers and an old family of Carlisle. Mrs. Stevens was born at Mechanicsburg, Pennsyl- vania, where she received her early education, and graduated from an academy at Carlisle. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens reside at 1608 East 84th Street. Their two children are Garrett Barca- low, born at Reading, Pennsylvania, and Mary Catherine, born in New York City.
PIERRE A. WHITE was born at Sandusky, Ohio, April 21, 1889, son of Charles and May
A. (Zerbe) White. His mother is a resident of Cleveland on Prospect Avenue and was born at Sandusky. The father, who died at Cincinnati when Judge White was about eight years of age, was born in New York City and spent much of his active life in newspaper work.
The only child of his parents, Judge White . was educated in the public schools of Cleve- land, graduating from the East High School in 1905. From high school he entered the old and prominent law firm of White, Johnson & Cannon, and was employed by them as a col- lector and in other business, and from 1907 for three years, though still a junior in years and not yet admitted to the bar, was employed in many matters usually given to the atten- tion of a mature lawyer. In the meantime lie was studying law in the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace College, and graduated LL. B. in June, 1910. Judge White is now a member of the faculty of the Cleveland Law School, and for some time has been professor of the law of agency. Judge White after his admission to the bar continued his connection with the firm of White, Johnson, Cannon & Neff until he was appointed judge of the Municipal Court, December 21, 1915, by Gov- ernor Frank Willis. He succeeded Judge Fielder Sanders, who had been made traction commissioner as successor of Peter Witt. At the time of his appointment Judge White had the distinction of being the youngest judge of a court of record in the United States, being only twenty-six years of age. The appointment of such a youthful judge was commented on by many newspapers throughout the state and the United States. His term expired January 1, 1918. He is now a member of the law firm of Calfee, Fogg & White with offices in the Williamson Building.
From early manhood Judge White has been one of the most aggressive young republicans of Cleveland. In the Municipal Court he was assigned as automobile judge during the last three months of 1916, while sitting in the criminal branch of the court. Judge White is a member of the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar Associations, the Commercial Law League of America, the City Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Athletic Club, Law Library Association of Cleveland, the Knights of Pythias, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Tip- pecanoe Club, Western Reserve Club, the League of Republican Clubs, the John Hay Club, the Lawyers Republican Club, the Obiter Club, and the Gyro Club. In college
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he was a member of the Delta Theta Phi fra- ternity. He is an enthusiast of outdoor life, is a baseball and football fan, and a tennis player.
A Cleveland paper not long ago noted a striking similarity in the careers of Judge White and of Judge Ralph W. Sanborn, who became an associate justice of the Municipal Court in 1918. Judge White and Judge San- born were both graduated from high school in the same year, practically worked their way into the legal profession, were members of the same college fraternity and of the Knights of Pythias, and both were married by the same pastor Rev. A. B. Meldrum of the Old Stone Church. Judge White married August 1, 1914, Miss Shem Lowe of Lakewood. She was born at Meadville, Pennsylvania, was edu- cated in that city, graduating from the Mead- ville High School, and took a technical course in the Cleveland Library School of Western Reserve University. Besides her practical ex- perience in the University Library she was before her marriage assistant librarian of the Carnegie branch on the west side of Cleve- land. Her father the late Frank Lowe was an attorney at Meadville, Pennsylvania. Her mother lives in Cleveland. Judge and Mrs. White have two children, John Winthrop and Nancy Fairbanks, both born at Cleveland.
C. J. BENKOSKI. While an active member of the Cleveland bar less than twenty years, Mr. Benkoski has the distinction of being the first genuine Polish attorney in Cleveland, and therefore the oldest in point of service prac- ticing Polish lawyer of the city. He is a man of high attainments and in a professional way is connected with many of the prominent in- stitutions of the city.
He was born in the City of Barcin, Posen, Poland, March 18, 1875, a son of Ignatius and Frances (Bialecki) Benkoski. When he was six years of age he came with his mother and other children to the United States, landing in New York and coming on direct to Cleveland, where they joined his father, who had located here two years previously and after getting settled sent on for his family. The father was born in the Province of Plock, Russian Poland, while the mother was a native of Posen. The father died in Cleveland in 1911 at the age of seventy-eight and the mother in 1909, aged seventy-sir. Ignatius Benkoski followed the trades of miller and carpenter in the old coun- try, but in Cleveland was a general workman. The mother was a member of a well to do
family of Poland, and was a graduate of the Medical University of Vienna. She practiced medicine in Cleveland for many years. She was the type of woman who is constantly doing good. While she had a large family of her own, her range of interests and service was never confined entirely to her home, but ex- tended practically to the limit of her energy and strength among all who called upon her. While she was thoroughly trained in medicine, her bigness and kindness of heart always sur- passed her skill, and made it doubly effective. She was ready to go at an instant's notice to help among the poor and needy, and the best tribute given to her life of unselfish effort came at the time of her funeral when the big church in which it was held was utterly inade- quate to hold the concourse of sorrowing friends who gathered to pay her tribute. She was the mother of fifteen children, nine sons and six daughters, ten of whom grew up and six are still living. All of them were born in Poland and C. J. Benkoski was next to the youngest.
Mr. Benkoski was educated in Cleveland in St. Stanislaus Parochial School and then took a commercial course in St. Joseph College at Teutopolis, Illinois, where he also remained as a classical student but finished his classical education in St. Ignatius College at Cleveland, where he graduated in 1895. For a year he studied law in the office of the late P. J. Brady, and then entered Western Reserve University Law School, where he finished the three years' course in two years, graduating LL. B. iu 1898. Hle associated with Mr. Brady until 1899. Mr. Benkoski was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1898 and in 1907 was qualified to practice in the Federal courts. He has a large general prac- tice derived from the Polish, German, English and Slavonian peoples of Cleveland.
He is a director and general counsel for The First Slavonian Building and Loan Associa- tion, The Tatra Savings and Loan Association, general counsel for The St. Hyacinth Building and Loan Association, member of Supreme Law Council of the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, attorney and general counsel for Polish Roman Catholic Union of Ohio, attor- ney for Polish Roman Catholic Union of the Immaculate Conception of Ohio, and is mem- ber and trustee of St. Stanislaus Parish and at one time its secretary, and is now general legal adviser of the parish and was at one time of the entire diocese under the late Bishop Horst- mann. IFe is also attorney for The Cleveland Slavonic Union.
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Politically Mr. Benkoski is a republican and member of the county executive committee and was appointed January 7, 1918, by Mayor Davis and confirmed by the council city clerk of the City of Cleveland, being the first Polish man in Cleveland to be distinguished by this honor. He is a member of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, of Ohio, of the National Polish Alliance and of the Alliance of Poles in Ohio, the Catholic Mutual Benefit Association, is a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Cleveland Bar Association, Polish Chamber of Commerce, the Polish Non-Partisan Political League, the Tippecanoe Club, City Club, Cleveland Automobile Club, and Cleveland Law Library Association. Mr. Benkoski finds his recreation in baseball and motoring. In . earlier days he played professional baseball, and spent three seasons with the Southern League.
June 21, 1899, in St. Stanislaus Church, he married Miss Helen Mosinski. Mrs. Benkoski was born in Cleveland, a daughter of Frank and Josephine (Russiek) Mosinski, both na- tives of Poland and now living retired at Cleveland. Her father was formerly a busi- ness man and one of the first Polish settlers of Cleveland. Mrs. Benkoski attended St. Stanis- laus Parochial School and the Cleveland High School. She is secretary of the Ladies' Aid Society and a member of various other organ- izations. To Mr. and Mrs. Benkoski were born five children, one of whom died in infancy. Flora is now a member of the class of 1918 of St. Joseph Academy at West Park, while Frank, Martha and Stanley are students in St. Stanislaus Parochial School; Frank aud Martha will both graduate in 1918. The chil- dren were all born in Cleveland. The Ben- koski home is at 6703 Fleet Avenue.
WILLIAM ROCKWELL has been a practicing lawyer forty years, and since 1903 has been an active member of the Cleveland bar. Much of his work as a lawyer has been taken up with land matters, especially land titles, and for a number of years he was connected in that field with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. Mr. Rockwell has an enviable mili- tary record.
Ile represents an ancient family of New England and New York. He was born at Fort Hamilton Village, Town of New Utrecht, in Kings County. Long Island, his birthplace now being included in the Greater New York. He
is a son of William and Susan L. (Prince) Rockwell. ITis first American paternal an- cestor was Deacon William Rockwell, of Litch- field, Connecticut, who was a leader of one of the early colonies of New England, and sub- sequently founded a town in Connecticut. The Rockwell family more remotely is de- scended from Baron de Rocheville, a Norman officer who went to England with William the Conqueror. The family connections con- tains some of the best blood in England. By marriages since the family came to America there is a relationship with the family of Gen. U. S. Grant. Mr. Roekwell's grandfather and great-grandfather both served in the Revolu- tionary war, the latter as an officer.
Mr. Rockwell's mother was descended from William Brewster. who was the elder and religious head of the Plymouth Colony and went with the first load of colonists in the Mayflower. Her immediate relatives were among the best families of Brooklyn and Flat- bush. Major Duffield, one of her ancestors, was a surgeon in General Washington's staff.
William Rockwell, Sr., was also a lawyer, a graduate of Yale College with the class of 1822. He studied law at Sharon, Connecticut, and while in practice at Brooklyn served as United States District Attorney and after- wards was a justice of the Supreme Court of New York for the Second Judicial District, which office he was holding at the time of his death. After his death his wife Susan became the wife of Rev. William P. Strickland and moved to Bridgehampton, Long Island, where Mr. Strickland was pastor of a Presbyterian church. She died in 1877. The old Prince homestead stood on Fulton Avenne near Duf- field Street, the farm covering a large arca in the heart of the present business section of Brooklyn.
Mr. William Rockwell was graduated Ph. B. from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University with the class of 1874 and studied law in the Columbia Law School, from which he received his law degree in 1877. He was admitted to the New York har in that year and at once began practice. He was a member of the bar of New York City from 1877 until 1898. Mr. Rockwell became a member of the Seventy-first Regiment New York National Guard in 1891, and was twice called out for active duty, at first during the Switchmen's strike at Buffalo in 1892, and in 1895 was on duty during the Brooklyn street car strike. At the beginning of the Spanish-American war he enlisted and saw active service at San-
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tiago, Cuba, being first lieutenant of Company D. He was mustered out in the fall of 1898 and honorably discharged and after the war he went with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad Company at Toledo. He moved to Cleveland in 1899, and was employed in looking after real estate and title matters for the railway company until 1910, at which date he began practice for himself.
Mr. Rockwell is an associate member of the Cleveland Real Estate Board, and at present is examiner of land court titles appointed under the Torrens Law by the Common Pleas Court. Mr. Rockwell's offices are in the Society for Savings Building and he is asso- ciated with the law firm of Litzler & Schaefer. Politically he is a republican in his affilia- tions but has never engaged actively in poli- tics. He is a member of the Delta Psi college fraternity, a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, and is unmarried.
JOHN FISH, assistant treasurer of The Guar- dian Savings and Trust Company is a lawyer by training but has given his services contin- ually since he was admitted to the bar to the great financial institution in which he is now one of the executive officers.
Mr. Fish was born in Auburn, Geauga County, Ohio, November 5, 1877, son of Dr. John and Mary Spencer (Peabody)' Fish. His parents, both now deceased, represented old families in Geauga County. His father, who was born in a little town in Northern New York on the Welland Canal, was brought to Ohio when about eight years of age, locating in Auburn. The mother was a native of New- port, Rhode Island, and was also about eight years old when her people came to Ohio, both families arriving abont 1843. Dr. John Fish was a surgeon by profession, and was in the Union army in a professional capacity with the rank of major. John Fish is the youngest in a family of four children. His three sis- ters are: Mrs. A. P. Ruggles of Cleveland ; Mrs. W. S. Wing of Auburn; and Mrs. S. L. Hill of Berlin Heights, Erie County, Ohio.
Mr. Fish was graduated from the Central High School of Cleveland with the class of 1898. He then entered Adelbert College of Western Reserve University, receiving his de- gree Bachelor of Philosophy in 1902 and Mas- ter of Arts from Western Reserve University in 1903. Taking up the study of law, he com- pleted the course, and received his degree LL. B. in June, 1908, from the law department of Baldwin-Wallace University.
Admitted to the bar in June, 1908, Mr. Fish entered the legal department of The Guardian Savings & Trust Company. He filled the posi- tion of Assistant Counsel until July, 1917. At that date the legal department was abolished and he was retained in the company as assist- ant treasurer in charge of the mortgage and loan department. Mr. Fish is a thorough busi- ness man, and his abilities and personality have made him one of the most valuable men in the organization of The Guardian Savings & Trust Company. Experience has brought him a most comprehensive knowledge of the technique and details of banking and finance, and the fact that he makes friends wherever he goes is another undoubted asset to any in- stitution with which he is connected.
Mr. Fish is active in Masonry, having his affiliations formerly with Forest City Lodge No. 388 Free and Accepted Masons, but in 1916 took a demit and became a charter mem- ber of Heights Lodge Free and Accepted Ma- sons. He also belongs to Cleveland Chapter No. 148 Royal Accepted Masons, is a member of the City Club and the college fraternity Alpha Tau Omega. His church home is the Wade Park Methodist Episcopal.
September 30, 1911, Mr. Fish married Miss Eva M. Hauxhurst of Cleveland, daughter of George I. and Emma A. (Motter) Hauxhurst. Her father died a number of years ago and her mother is still living. Mrs. Fish was born at Lakeside, Ohio, but was reared and edu- cated in Cleveland and graduated from the Central High School in 1898 in the same class with her husband. She afterwards entered the College for Women of Western Reserve University, took her A. D. degree in 1902, and then taught school until her marriage. She taught two years in the schools of Huntsburg, Ohio, and for five years was a teacher in the Lincoln High School of Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Fish have two children, both born in Cleveland, named John Spencer and Betty Wolcott.
DAVID EDWARD GREEN, of Smith, Griswold, Green & Haddon, attorneys, with offices in the Marshal Building, has been a Cleveland law- ver for the past thirteen years, and his work has been almost entirely in the field of com- mercial and corporation law.
Mr. Green has lived a very active life and has identified himself with many interests, particularly in church and civic affairs. His . early life was spent on a farm. He was born at Renrock in Noble County, Ohio, April 3,
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1874, son of David J. and Mary (Fairchild) Green. David J. Green, a native of the same locality, has for many years been a successful breeder of thoroughbred cattle. In 1894 he represented Noble County in the State Legis- lature. He is still living in that locality, and owns a fine farm of 355 acres. He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has always taken an active part in civic affairs. His wife Mary Fairehild was born in Illinois and died at Ren- rock in 1881 at the age of thirty. She was the mother of four children, three sons and one daughter, all of whom are living. The father's second wife, Mary Wilson, whom he married in 1884, was a splendid mother to these chil- dren. Charles F., the oldest, is a farmer at Pataskala, Ohio; David E. is second in age; Mr. Otis Green is with Otis & Company of Cleveland. The only daughter, Lnella M., is a student nurse at St. Luke's Hospital.
David E. Green while a boy attended public schools at Renrock. He learned much about farming as a youth, though his aspirations were early set for the law. In 1897 he gradu- ated from Doan Academy at Granville, Ohio, and continued his higher studies in Dennison University at the same place, where he took the Bachelor of Science Degree in 1901. This is followed by the full course of the Western Reserve University Law School, from which he graduated LL. B. in June, 1904, and re- ceived admission to the Ohio bar in the same month. He has since been admitted to the United States District Court. His first con- nection, formed immediately after graduating, was in the office of Amos Burt Thompson at Cleveland, but on May 1, 1905, he began private practice in partnership with Walter F. Myers. The firm of Myers & Green re- ceived an additional member on January 1. 1913, in Mr. William C. Keough, making the style of the firm Myers, Green & Keough, which continued until February 1, 1917. On October 1, 1917, Mr. Green became a member of the firm of Smith, Griswold, Green & Haddon.
Mr. Green is a republican but has been chiefly aetive in politics as a leader in the tem- perance forces. Ile was manager of the dry campaign committee of Cuyahoga Connty in 1914 and 1915 and was vice chairman of this committee in 1917. For the past three years he has served as chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Cleveland Association of Credit Men. He is an active member of the First Baptist Church of Cleveland, and was
recently related to the office of trustee, which he has held for ten years. For a similar time he has been a trustee of the Cleveland Baptist City Mission Society, a corporation holding most of the real estate of that denomination in Cleveland. He has also been chairman of the Legal Committee of this society for a num- ber of years. In 1916-17 he was president of the Federated Churches of Cleveland. Since 1915 he has been a trustee of Denison Univer- sity, and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Cleveland Welfare Federation, and is also trustee of the Hungarian Baptist Seminary of Cleveland. He is a member of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity, the City Club, the Civic League, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar Asso- ciations.
Mr. Green and family have their winter home at 2030 East Sixty-ninth Street, and their summer residence on Blue Stone Road in Cleveland Heights. July 30, 1909, he mar- ried Miss Alice Dunham of Cleveland. Their marriage was celebrated in London, England. Her father was for many years active in mer- cantile affairs at Cleveland, being a member of the firm of Griswold & Dunham, linseed oil merchants. This business was finally taken over by The Sherwin-Williams Company. Mr. Green's mother, Mrs. Truman Dunham, is still living at Cleveland. Mrs. Green was born in Cleveland, is a graduate of the Central High School and the Woman's College of Western Reserve University with the degree Bachelor of Arts. She studied abroad three different times, first when she was nine years of age, again for one year between high school and college, and another year after completing her college course. She takes an active part in church work.
WILLIAM E. PERRINE. Assistant general manager and director of production of the Standard Parts Company, while still a young man has had a most unusual and varied busi- ness experience and training, and his record is one of consecutive advancement from minor roles to those higher places which are fa- miliarly associated with business success.
Mr. Perrine was born at Freehold, Mom- month County, New Jersey, July 22, 1879, a son of William Augustus and Annie (Conk) Perrine, and a descendant from one of the early Jersey families. William A. Perrine learned the iron molding trade and stove making in Freehold, and for some years was general superintendent of the Abraham Cox
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Stove Corporation at Philadelphia. For a number of years past he has been general man- ager of the Thatcher Furnace Company at Newark, New Jersey, and president of the Peerless Flask and Molding Machine Company of Newark.
In 1883, when William E. Perrine was four years old, his parents moved to Brooklyn, New York, in which city he grew up and received his education. While attending school, during vacation periods, and for the first few years after leaving school, he gained business ex- perience in many fields, as follows: Manu- facturing jewelry, lithographing and engrav- ing, wholesale drugs, fire insurance and whole- sale dry goods.
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