USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 63
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On his return from abroad Mr. Severance was elected a member of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. To that cause he devoted a large part of his time thence- forward. For a number of years Mr. Sever- ance had a home in New York City. He was a member of some of Cleveland's leading social organizations, including the Union Club, the Country Club, the Euclid Club, the Mayfield Country Club.
In 1862 he married Fannie B. Benedict.
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She died in 1874, leaving three children : John L. Severance, Elisabeth S. Severance and Anne Belle Severance. Elisabeth S. Sever- ance married Dr. Dudley P. Allen, and after his death became the wife of Mr. F. F. Pren- tiss. In 1894 Mr. Severance married Florence Harkness, who died in 1895.
JOHN L. SEVERANCE. To the notable record of the Severance family in Cleveland, cover- ing a period of over eighty years, John Long Severance has contributed achievements and abilities that rank him at once among the foremost business leaders of the city and of the nation.
His grandfather was a pioneer merchant of Cleveland, and his father, the late Louis H. Severance, was for many years an official of The Standard Oil Company and also promi- nent as a banker and philanthropist. There was nothing in the character of John L. Sever- ance which would allow him to remain the son of a successful father. He accepted the fortune of good birth and family position merely as a starting point in the attainment of still larger success.
Born at Cleveland May 8, 1864, he was educated in the common schools of his native city and graduated from Oberlin College in 1885. His active career began as an employe of the Standard Oil Company of Cleveland. He became identified with the broadening scope of that corporation's activities, and for several years was treasurer and secretary of the Cleve- land Linseed Oil Company. Later he became a factor in organizing the American Linseed Oil Company, a corporation which took over the interests of the Cleveland company.
His principal business connection in recent years has been as president of the Colonial Salt Company. He organized this company and has done much to fortify its position as one of the largest business concerns of Ohio. Mr. Severance also had a part in the organiza- tion and for several years was secretary and treasurer of the Linde Air Products Company. Among other corporations with which he is connected are the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company of Youngstown, director; was for years with the Cleveland Steel Company of Cleveland, vice president and director; the First National Bank of Cleveland, director ; the Cleveland Trust Company, director; and the National Carbon Company of Cleveland.
His own career, like that of the business institutions in which he has been an executive officer, has nothing of the meteoric and has
been rather persistent than brilliant. Those most familiar with his business life say that he has come up from the rank and file because he possessed exceptional qualities as a business builder and organizer, and his early training and the sheer force of his inherent ability fitted him well for a captain's rank in the army of industry. In any well conceived list of Cleveland business men the name of John L. Severance would appear in the first dozen if not at the very top.
As his business connections are of national scope and importance, so he is also well known in social centers of other cities. He is a mem- ber of the Union Club, Country Club, May- field Country Club, University Club, Rowfant Club, Cleveland Yacht Club and Cleveland Automobile clubs, and also belongs to the Uni- versity Club of New York, the Automobile Club of America and the New York Yacht Club. He is a trustee of Oberlin College, trustee of Auburn Seminary, Auburn, New York, is an active member of the board of foreign missions of the Presyterian church and is one of the representatives of that great denomination on the board of Nankin Uni- versity, Nankin, China, and the Pekin Uni- versity of Pekin, China. On November 3, 1891, Mr. Severance married Elizabeth Hunt- ington DeWitt, of Cleveland.
REV. EDWARD WILLIAM WORTHINGTON Was for nearly twenty years rector of Grace Epis- copal Church at Cleveland and death inter- rupted a career which had been full of honors, but was especially distinguished for the strength and devotion of his service as a churchman and humanitarian.
He was born at Batavia, New York, May 10, 1854, a son of Gad Belden and Anna Maria (Dixon) Worthington. He was in his sixty- second year when he died at Cleveland on Easter Sunday, April 15, 1906.
Rev. Mr. Worthington prepared for college in the high school at Batavia, Carey Seminary at Oakfield, and in 1871 entered Trinity Col- lege at Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from that institution A. B. in June, 1875, being salutatorian of his graduating class. In 1878 Trinity College conferred upon him the degree Master of Arts. In the meantime he had studied theology in the Berkeley Divinity School of Middletown, Connecticut, where he completed his course in 1878. During 1876-79 he was private secretary to the Bishop of Con- necticut. He was ordained deacon by Bishop
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Williams of Connecticut in 1878, aud in the following year received the orders of priest at New Haven.
Mr. Worthington had charge of the church of St. John the Evangelist at Yalesville, Con- necticut, in 1878-79 ; was rector of Christ Par- ish, West Haven, Connecticut, 1879 to 1882; of St. John's Parish at Mount Morris, New York, 1882 to 1887; and was with Grace Epis- copal Church at Cleveland from 1887 until his death.
Among the many honors and responsibilities conferred upon him by his church he was assistant secretary of the House of Deputies of the General Convention from 1883; secre- tary of the Diocese of Ohio from 1890 to 1901; president of the Standing Committee of the Ohio Diocese from 1896; a deputy to the Gen- eral Convention from 1892; and also a trustee of the Church Home.
Rev. Mr. Worthington was author of sev- eral books. His "Ember Days and Other Papers," published in 1897, was a volume of religious essays still widely read and studied. He was also author of "The Holy Eucharist, Devotionally Considered," published in 1901, and a voluminous work entitled "A Study of Occasional Offices of the Prayer Book," pub- lished in 1903. He also wrote extensively for various church publications.
While long regarded as one of the most scholarly men in the ministry of Cleveland, Mr. Worthington is doubtless best remembered for the quality of his work among the poor and unfortunate. Whenever a family in sickness or distress called on him he never refused to give them aid and was ready to go at any time, whether day or night, to visit the sick in the hospitals. All the downtown hospitals of Cleveland welcomed his presence but he was especially interested in the work of the Huron Street Hospital. He commanded the love and admiration of all who knew him, and was re- garded as the highest type of a Christian min- ister. He sought none of the public notice which has been received hy some ministers of the Gospel and always did his work quietly and without ostentation and guided entirely by his devotion to duty unselfishly performed.
The funeral services at Cleveland were con- ducted by Bishop W. A. Leonard of Ohio, Bishop Charles D. Williams of Michigan and by Bishop Worthington of Nebraska, the last a cousin of Mr. Worthington. The remains were than taken to Batavia, New York, and laid to rest in the seenes of his boyhood. Mr. Worth- ington was survived by his widow, who still
lives in Cleveland, and four children. In 1880 he married Miss Eleanor Lobdell. Eleanor, the oldest of their children, graduated from the College for Women of Western Reserve University with the elass of 1904 and the de- gree A. B. She has charge of the English Department at Harcourt Place School for Girls at Gambier, Ohio. Edward Lobdell Worthington, secretary of the Tillotson & Wolcott Company of Cleveland, is mentioned in other paragraphs. Donald, a graduate of Kenyon College and of the Michigan Agricul- tural College, is a practical and scientific farmer. Dorothy is a student in the classical course in the class of 1918 of the College for Women of Western Reserve University.
EDWARD LOBDELL WORTHINGTON, sceretary of the Tillotson & Wolcott Company, eorpora- tion bonds, is one of the younger business men of Cleveland and has already achieved a most successful career.
A son of the late Rev. Edward William Worthington, a sketch of whose career appears on other pages, Edward L. was horn at Mount Morris, New York, June 2, 1886. He was about 11% years of age when his father re- moved to Cleveland and became pastor of Grace Episcopal Church, and in the public schools of this city he completed his education, graduating from the Central High School with the class of 1905. Mr. Worthington was reared in a home of culture and refinement and in which every activity was tested by the touchstone of high ideals, and has carried those early influences iuto his business career.
On leaving high school Mr. Worthington spent one year with The Sherwin-Williams Company of Cleveland, and another year with The Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. He then entered the bond department of The Cleve- land Trust Company, and was with that insti- tution two years. Mr. Wolcott was then man- ager of the trust company bond department. Mr. Tillotson, then vice president and mana- ger of The Cleveland Trust Company, became associated with Mr. Wolcott in organizing The Tillotson & Wolcott Company, dealers in cor- poration bonds. Mr. Worthington went with these men into the new organization as a direc- tor and eity salesman, and upon the death of Mr. Wolcott became secretary of the company. Mr. Worthington is also a director of The American Fire Clay Company of Cleveland.
He is a republican in national polities. and for four years was a member of Troop A of the Ohio National Guard. He enjoys the best
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associations of both business and social life, being a member of the Union Club, the Coun- try Club, the Rowfant Club, the Cleveland Automobile Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Civic League. He is a member and trustee of Grace Episcopal Church, of which his father was rector for so many years. He is also a member and in 1915-16 was president of the Episcopal Church Club of Cleveland. Mr. Worthington finds his chief recreation from business in golf and tennis. December 10, 1917, he married Miss Ruth Everett, daughter of Sylvester T. and Alice (Wade) Everett of Cleveland.
EDWIN S. GRIFFITHS. At the age of four- teen, soon after coming to America, Edwin S. Griffiths was in charge of an air compress- ing engine at the coal mines near Scranton, Pennsylvania. Among the successful leaders in Cleveland industries today it is doubtful if any began life with more restricted oppor- tunities and had a humbler position than this. Mr. Griffiths spent his years before coming to America in South Wales, where he was born August 26, 1872, a son of William and Rachel Griffiths, and where he had received the ad- vantages of the local schools.
While he was driving the air compressor at the Scranton coal mine he was putting in many a diligent hour in study at Woods Col- lege. He attended school at night or in day, according to the shift on which he worked. At sixteen and a half he graduated, then re- signed his position. worked three months as stenographer with Judge H. M. Edwards and for two years was county court reporter.
With this amplitude of experience Mr. Griffiths arrived in Cleveland and for four years was bookkeeper for the Ohio Adamant Company, manufacturers of gypsum. The company then sent him on the road as travel- ing representative, and he sold that product until 1900.
Mr. Griffiths has been an increasingly con- spicuous figure in Cleveland industry for the past seventeen years. In 1900 he organized The Cleveland Machine and Manufacturing Company, which upon incorporation had the following officers: R. C. Moodv. president ; E. I. Leighton, vice president : Mr. Griffiths, secretary and treasurer. That plant was ready for operation in 1901 and from handling ma- chinerv as johbers they developed into the manufacture of rolling mill machinery. Their force of ten men with which thev began busi- ness in 1901 has increased until today they
have 200 men on the payroll. The first year's output was $25,000 and a conservative esti- mate of the business for 1917 is $750,000. The present officers are: Edwin S. Griffiths, presi- dent; John Jaster, vice president and treas- urer; E. A. Kohler, secretary; and K. F. Dailey, manager.
Even after reaching the dignity of an in- dependent business man Mr. Griffiths kept up a rigorous course of self-improvement. From 1901 to 1906 he took private lessons in mathematics under Professor Houghton and also pursued a special course in engineering under J. P. Mills, a graduate of the Case School of Applied Science and at that time special instructor at the Young Men's Chris- tian Association.
In 1915 Mr. Griffiths was elected president of The Bishop-Babcock-Becker Company. This firm has one of the large industries of the Cleveland manufacturing district and makes soda fountains, pumps of all kinds, vacuum and air lines system of heating, bottling ma- chinery, welding machinery, chemicals, beer pumps, coolers and various lines of brewing machinery. The business is one that employs 6,000 people.
Mr. Griffiths is president of The Buckeye Engine Company at Salem, Ohio, manufac- turers of steam and gas engines, and this in- dustry has 750 people on the payroll. He is vice president of The Cromwell Steel Com- pany of Lorain County. The plant of this company is now in course of construction and operations will start September 1, 1917. The company will manufacture open hearth steel and the plans are to start the business with 1,000 workmen. Mr. Griffiths is also a director in the National City Bank. He is a York and Scottish Rite Mason, and one of the lead- ing members of that order in Ohio, having attained the thirty-third supreme degree of the Scottish Rite in the Northern Masonic jurisdiction in 1911. He served as grand master of the Ohio Grand Lodge in 1912-13. He is a member of the Union Club, the Willo- wick Country Club, the Roadside Country Club, Cleveland Engineering Society and the Engineers Club of New York City. He is a republican and a member of the Baptist Church. At Cleveland December 31, 1903, Mr. Griffiths married Miss Margaret N. Rusk.
JOHN ADOLPHE FERENCIK, also sometimes spelled Ferieneik. now living retired at Cleve- land, has at different times becu identified with this city in his capacity as an editor and jour-
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Edwin. S. Griffith -
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nalist, and is one of the most widely known men in newspaper and literary circles among the Slovak nationality in America.
He was born May 30, 1865, in the City of Zvolen in Austria-Hungary, a son of John George and Amalia Ferencik. His father died in Austria and his mother in England. The father was a revolutionary leader in Hungary, associated with the great Kossuth. He was one of the party that accompanied that dis- tinguished Hungarian patriot on his tour of the American continent about seventy years ago.
John A. Ferencik was educated in the pub- lie schools and colleges of his native land, graduating in 1884. For a time he was in- structor in a school, and then took up journal- istic work and in 1887 was member of the editorial staff of a Slovak newspaper at Buda- pest. He soon became unpopular with the Hungarian government on account of his pan- Slavism, and unable to rest content under sup- pressive conditions he sought a new home in America, where he would be free to write his convictions as he felt them. Thus in 1890 he came to the United States, and since then has been editor of many Slovac newspapers. He was editor of one of the leading papers of that nationality in New York, and during thirty- five years of active newspaper life has owned and edited many Slovac journals throughout the country. He finally retired in 1917, his last position having been as editor of the National Slovak Daily of Chicago, the largest daily published in that language in the world.
As a youth in his native land he served a brief time with an artillery organization but had no active military experience. From 1900 to 1908 he was supreme secretary in the Na- tional Slovak Society. Politically he is a republican of the stand-pat variety, and has supported all the republican presidents since he came to this country. He is member of the various Slovak secret societies, is a Lutheran in religion, and is a member of the Gun Club of Pittsburgh.
During his career he has written many books, short stories and poems, and is well known among American Slavs as a playwright. Since retiring he has used his time profitably in writing books and plays and in contributing editorials to various newspapers.
March 8, 1886, in Austria-Hungary he mar- ried Mary Marko, daughter of Andrew and Anna (Benko) Marko. They are the parents of two children, John Paul and Beatrice.
JOHN P. FERENCIK. Of the young and forceful citizens of Cleveland who have come to the front in recent years in public and pro- fessional life, few have greater achievements to their credit than has John P. Ferencik. Still in his twenties, he has impressed himself upon the community as a lawyer of sound ability, with many notable successes in his career, while in Slavonic circles of the city he has gained a reputation, standing and influ- ence second to none. His entire life at Cleve- land has been composed of a series of suc- cesses, all self gained and all well merited.
Mr. Ferencik was born at New York City, January 25, 1890, son of John A. Ferencik, elsewhere mentioned in this publication. John Paul Ferencik, after completing his prelimi- nary educational training, became a student at Pittsburgh of the Pittsburgh Academy. While there he began to display his ambitious and capable qualifications and in addition to the general literary course took military training and won high honors as a debater. He had the affirmative end of the question in regard to the adoption of the commission form of government for Pittsburgh, and won this de- bate over worthy opponents. It was held at the Carnegie Institute in 1910 at the twentieth annual debate of the Knickerbocker and Ema- non Literary Society. While in Pittsburgh he also served as president of the Emnanon Literary Society. On leaving Pittsburgh Academy he entered Adelbert College at West- ern Reserve University, and from there en- rolled as a student at the University of Michigan, where he remained for two years, receiving his A. B. degree. Then entering the Cleveland Law School he graduated LL. B. in 1915 and on the first of July in the same year was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio and at once began prac- tice in Cleveland. He opened offices in the Engineers Building and at present is in the office of the law firm of David & Heald and carries on a general practice. While in active professional work only a short time Mr. Feren- cik has already attracted a large, influential and representative clientele, and as the only Slavonic attorney in Cleveland, practically controls the practice of that nationality. He also represents The Zivena, as their attorney in Ohio. This is the largest Slavonic Ladies Benefit Society in the United States. He is also building up a good following in other directions and is making such rapid advance- ment in his calling that he may be accounted one of the lawyers of promise of the city.
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While giving the bulk of his attention to his rapidly increasing practice, Mr. Ferencik has had experience in other directions. Before taking up the law he was interested in coloniz- ing in Southern Mississippi, during which as the assistant manager of sales for The Missis- sippi Farms Company, he founded the enter- prising and thriving Town of Slavonia, Missis- sippi.
In political matters Mr. Ferencik is a repub- lican. During the campaign of 1916 he took charge of the Slavonic end of the campaign at Cleveland for Charles Evans Hughes. He has interested himself in matters pertaining not alone to the interests of the Slavonic people in this country, but those in connection with gen- eral matters of public importance as well. His intelligence and good judgment have more than once made him a valuable citizen in pub- lie spirited civic movements. In his profession he is known among his fellow members in the Ohio Bar Association as an attorney who re- spects the highest ethics of the law. Among other connections he holds membership in the City Club of Cleveland.
At Buffalo, New York, July 6, 1917, Mr. Ferencik married Miss Ella L. Beers, daughter of Elmer S. and Della A. (Gambee) Beers, both now deceased. Mrs. Ferencik is a great- granddaughter of the late multi-millionaire, L. H. Wade, one of the early pioneers of Cleve- land. Socially Mrs. Ferencik has for several years been prominent at Celveland and is secretary of the Harroff School of Expression of this city, and a very talented teacher of dramatic act. She was born at Adrian, Michi- gan, is a graduate of Wooster College in Ohio and the Chicago School of Dramatic Art.
JOHN J. BOYLE. For several years John J. Boyle has carried some of the important responsibilities in connection with the munici- pal government of Cleveland, and was recently inducted into the office of county treasurer of Cuyahoga County, having been elected in the fall of 1916.
Mr. Boyle has spent most of his life in Cleveland and came up from the ranks of labor and has the hroad sympathies of a man who had to earn his living by the sweat of his brow. This active sympathy has no doubt been responsible in part for some of the valuable reforms he has instituted in the methods of transacting public business, all for the benefit of the general public rather than for the favored few.
Mr. Boyle was born in County Mayo, Ire-
land, June 2, 1868, the oldest child of Pat- rick and Winifred (Stanton) Boyle. When he was five years of age his parents came to the United States, first locating in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, where his father was employed in the iron business. In 1879 the family came to Cleveland. The father is still active for his years, in good health and en- joying life. The mother died December 7, 1913. There were three sons and three daugh- ters, the daughters all dying in infancy in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. John J. was the only child of the family born in Ireland. All the others claim Mercer County, Pennsyl- vania, as their place of nativity. His brothers are Thomas S. and Michael J. Thomas has been connected with the Standard Oil Com- pany at Whiting, Indiana, since it began oper- ations there more than twenty-eight years ago. Michael has been connected with the Postal Telegraph Company for the past fifteen years, and prior to that was employed by the West- ern Union Telegraph Company.
John J. Boyle has lived in Cleveland since he was eleven years of age. He received his early education in the public schools of West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, and in Cleveland also attended public night school, taking a course in mathematics and bookkeeping under the well known old educator, Professor Bland- in. He became self supporting when a boy, and for a number of years was employed in the mills of the old Cleveland Rolling Mills Company at Newburg.
In 1892 he took up insurance work with the Metropolitan Life and the Prudential Life. He was with those two companies in various capacities, both in the field and on the road traveling. The Metropolitan Life sent him out as a general inspector, locating agencies in the West and throughout the South, where he opened offices for the com- pany at Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, and also at Rockford and Freeport, Illinois.
Leaving his insurance work in 1900, Mr. Boyle was given a post in the Cleveland city government by Mayor Farley. He was em- ployed in the inspection department, es- pecially in looking after underground con- struction work and seeing that all public util- ity corporations had the necessary work in- stalled before streets were paved. He con- tinued also through the administration of the late Tom L. Johnson. In May, 1905, he was selected as secretary of the commission that had charge of the erection of the new Cuya- hoga County court house, and continued his
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duties as secretary of the commission until the building was completed in 1913.
An interesting feature of his work with that commission is told in the report of Nau, Rusk & Swearingen, certified public accountants to the Cuyahoga County Building Commission, under date September 28, 1915. In that re- port Mr. Boyle was complimented upon the methods installed by him of keeping the rec- ords and accounts of the Building Commis- sion, and the public accountants in connec- tion with their report stated : "We examined all contracts and vouchers, and journal en- tries supporting disbursements of funds and find no disbursement which was not properly authorized by the commission. We found the books of account and records to be comprehen- sive and adequate, and the supporting date preserved in the files in such a manner as to be readily accessible to the end that all transactions of the commission since its or- ganization can be readily verified, and we take this opportunity to commend the neat- ness and accuracy of the work of the secre- tary in recording the minutes of the com- mission in the journal, and the excellent system of accounting installed by him." It should be noted in this connection that all of the $4,668,155.96 expended in the con- struction of the new court house passed through the hands of Mr. Boyle.
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