A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 64

Author: Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, New York The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 904

USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 64

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On September 4, 1913, Mr. Boyle became chief deputy county treasurer of Cuyahoga County under P. C. O'Brien, and filled that post four years. In the fall of 1916 he was elected on the democratic ticket to the office of county treasurer, and began his duties September 3, 1917. This date by an inter- esting coincidence was the tenth anniversary of his wedding, and his induction into office was the occasion for numerous floral pieces sent him by his friends.

While the record of Mr. Boyle's service as county treasurer has only just begun, there is one feature of it which must not be al- lowed to pass without the comment which it deserves. This refers to the abolition, as a result of a legislative measure introduced by Mr. Boyle, of the notorious tax title sales which have been an onerous burden upon the real estate owners of Ohio for many years. The system has prevailed in practically all other states of the Union, and the advanced position taken by Ohio as a result of Mr. Boyle's influence will undoubtedly be closely studied and followed by all interested in the subject throughout the country. The facts

of the case are well stated by Mr. Boyle in an announcement he had publicly circulated soon after taking officc. These facts are of such value as to deserve complete quotation.

"For more than fifty years in the State of Ohio, the law compelled county treasurers to hold yearly sales of tax titles. Your treas- urer, Mr. Boyle, regarded the sale of these tax titles a decided injustice to those taxpay- ers, who, through no fault of their own, were unable to pay their taxes.

"When sold, property owners lost title to their property, and were compelled to pay to the tax buyer the exorbitant and unjust premium of fifteen per cent penalty the first year, and twenty-five per cent penalty the sec- ond year, with interest at six per cent per annum, from date of sale, in order to redeem their property.

"After two years, if not redeemed, these tax title buyers by applying to the county anditor would receive what was known as a deed of conveyance, and in many cases after the issuance of this deed, property was en- tirely lost to the original owner. The last two tax sales in Cuyahoga County resulted in the sale of tax titles to the amount of $136,- 824.11. If these titles were redeemed during the first year, the tribute paid to tax buyers would amount to $29,964.78, or one-fifth of the total. If none of these titles were re- deemed until two years had elapsed, the trib- ute paid to the tax buyers would amount to $54,929.66, or more than one-third of the total sale. The total amount of unpaid taxes for 1915 tax year in the State of Ohio, as disclosed by the records in the State Andi- tor's office was $2,420,777.83.

"Through the efforts of your county treas- urer a bill prepared by him was passed by the 1917 State Legislature, eliminating tax sales in the State of Ohio for all time. Under this new law a more equitable method for delinquent tax adjustment is now possible. Under the provisions of this law taxpayers are relieved of the burden or exorbitant penal- ties exacted by the tax title buyers, and the necessity of having to deal with individuals living outside the state, in order to get title to their own property as all adjustments are now made through the County Treasurer's of- fice. Property on which taxes have not been paid for two consecutive tax paying periods is advertised (but not sold) and certified delinquent to the state auditor, and eight per cent interest per annum is added, plus sixty cents for advertising, and twenty-five cents for

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certificate. This plan of collecting unpaid taxes not only saves taxpayers a large amount of money, but they do not lose title to their property.

"For the convenience of taxpayers, your County Treasurer, Mr. Boyle, has established a department for the purpose of mailing tax bills to property owners, thereby relieving them of the necessity of writing for them at each tax paying period or applying at the tax office for them. This method has met the approval of the taxpaying public."

Mr. Boyle is a democrat in politics, but his sterling Americanism has always been pre- dominant over partisanship. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, the Ancient - Order of Hibernians, the Knights of Equity, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, City Club, and the Cleveland Real Estate Board. He is an ardent baseball fan, and takes his recrea- tion as a pedestrian. For the past ten years Mr. Boyle and family have been communicants of St. Agnes parish. Before that he was a member of the Holy Name parish. In St. Agnes church, September 3, 1907, he married Miss Julia Marie Perkins. She was born and educated in Cleveland, being a graduate of the Ursuline Academy at Nottingham. Her parents, Marcus Lafayette and Anna Marie (Volmar) Perkins were both born in Cleve- land. Her father died when she was an in- fant. Her mother afterwards married William F. Thompson, who was known as the pioneer in the manufacture of the steel rod and wire industry of America. Mr. and Mrs. Boyle have one son, John J., Jr., born at Cleveland, April 2, 1909.

LISTON G. SCHOOLEY, who first came to Cleveland about ten years ago as a life insur- ance man, has been a practicing lawyer since 1912, with a large general practice and with offices in the Engineers Building.

Mr. Schooley is a native of Virginia and both he and his wife are prominently con- nected with old southern families. He was born in the Village of Waterford in Loudoun County, February 4, 1879, a son of George W. and Elizabeth A. (Kepler) Schooley. His mother was born near Zanesville, Ohio, and belonged to the prominent Spurgeon family of this state, being a cousin of the famous English divine, Doctor Spurgeon. She is still living in Cleveland. George W. Schooley died at the summer home of his son Liston at Hern- don, Virginia, twenty-five miles from Wash- ington, August 15, 1906. He came from old

Virginia plantation stock. The parents were married at Waterford, Virginia, in 1869. George W. Schooley during early life lived on a plantation. His grandfather was a Virginia slave owner. Both George W. and his father were strong Union men, but many others of the family were equally ardent Confederates, and much bitterness was occasioned in the family on this account. Grandfather Schooley was in the War Department at Washington during the war, while George W. enlisted as a private and subsequently became first lieu- tenant. Both were in service at the time of the threatened invasion of Gen. Jubal Early against Washington. After the war George W. Schooley moved back to Waterford, Vir- ginia. Grandfather Schooley was one of the greatest admirers Abe Lincoln ever had, and believed no man ever lived who was quite his equal. George W. Schooley was for twenty- two successive years mayor of the Village of Waterford and immediately after the Civil war he established the Methodist Episcopal Church at Waterford and with the exception of ten years was superintendent of the Sunday school the active part of his life. In politics he was a republican. The Schooley family originated in Wales, and the first American settlement was made around Schooley Moun- tain in New Jersey. Other descendants of the family went to Virginia, where many of the name are still found.

Liston G. Schooley was the third in a family of five sons and one daughter. Leon E., the oldest, died in the Sibley Hospital at Wash- ington, D. C., November 15, 1906. Vietor O. lives at Paeonian Springs, Virginia. Heber V. lives at Waterford, Virginia. Vota L. is the wife of E. E. Talley of Cleveland. Merrill W. is also a resident of Cleveland. All the children were born and educated in Virginia.

Liston G. Schooley attended school at Waterford, Virginia, and took his college course in William and Mary College at Wil- liamsburg. the old colonial capital of Virginia. This is the second oldest college in the United States, and numbers among its alumni Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Tyler, and James Monroe. Mr. Schooley was in school there three years and then taught one year in Keezletown and two years at Catoctin, Vir- ginia. He then spent a winter at home clerk- ing and in August, 1900, removed to Washing- ton, D. C., where he entered the life insurance business with Col. E. J. Gresham, being chief clerk in Colonel Gresham's office until 1902. Colonel Gresham died at Washington, May 31,

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1902. Mr. Schooley then continued with the Northwestern Mutual Life of Milwaukee, until 1906, and on the 26th of December of that year arrived in Cleveland as special agent. In 1908 he transferred his services to the Prudential Insurance Company and was with them until February, 1915, in the same capacity.

In the meantime Mr. Schooley took up the study of law in the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace University, graduating LL. B. June 6, 1912. He was admitted to the bar June 25th of the same year. Since begin- ning practice he has had his office in the Engi- neers Building, and was associated with L. E. Skeel until November, 1915, since which time he has handled his general practice alone.

Mr. Schooley is a republican. In 1915 he was candidate for councilman from the First Ward on an independent ticket, and stood sec- ond among the five making the race. He was a delegate to the County Convention of 1913 and also to the Republican State Convention of 1916. Mr. Schooley has Masonic affiliations with Herndon Lodge No. 154, in Virginia, and was elected its junior deacon, but went to Washington before taking the office. He is also a member of Potomac Chapter No. 3, Royal Arch Masons at Washington. He be- longs to the Cleveland Bar Association, the Sigma Kappa Phi fraternity of the Cleveland Law School. and Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church at Cleveland.

February 12, 1901, Mr. Schooley married at Washington, D. C., Miss Bessie E. Gresham, danghter of the late Col. E. J. and Fanny (Williams) Gresham. Her mother lost her life during a fire in Houston, Texas, in 1908. Her maternal grandfather, Colonel Williams, was the first West Point officer to resign his commission and join the Southern army and was also the first Confederate officer to be rein- stated in the United States army after the close of the war. The Gresham family long had their home in Chesterfield County, Vir- ginia, and was descended from Sir Thomas Gresham of England. Colonel Gresham was in the Stonewall Jackson Brigade throughout the entire war. He was also a big lumber merchant around Petersburg, Virginia, but lost his fortune in the panic of 1871. He then traveled throughout the South for the Equit- able Life Insurance Company of New York, and later for twenty-five years was general agent at Washington, D. C., for the North- western Mutual Life of Milwaukee. At first his territory comprised the District of Colum-

bia and Maryland, Delaware and Northern Virginia, but in later years his business was confined to the City of Washington. Mrs. Schooley's mother in the maternal line was related to the old Curtis family of Virginia, and her mother was a niece of President John Tyler, and through the Curtis family had con- nections with Presidents Jefferson, Madison and Monroe. Altogether five presidents are found in her family tree. Her grandfather was commanding officer at the time Fort Sam Houston was built. Colonel Williams spent the latter part of his life in San Antonio. He died in San Antonio in 1891. Mrs. Schooley was born in St. Louis, Missouri, was educated in the public schools of Washington, D. C., graduating from the Central High School there. Mr. and Mrs. Schooley reside at 1978 West 99th Street and they have a summer home at Herndon, Virginia. Their two chil- dren are Liston Gresham, born at Washington, and Frances Elizabeth, born at their summer home in Virginia.

JOHN C. HEALD. As a trial lawyer John C. Heald has few peers in Northern Ohio. Ever ready, resourceful, with an active experience of over thirty years, Mr. Heald is just now in the prime of his strength and usefulness. He has been a resident of Cleveland over twenty years and is member of the law firm of David & Hcald with offices in the Engineers Building.

Mr. Heald was born at Anamosa, Iowa, March 11, 1865, son of Eli and Lydia A. (Wil- liamson) Heald. At Mr. Heald's Cleveland home his father, Eli, is living now at the age of ninety. His mother, Lydia A. Ileald, died in 1907. Mr. Heald is of old American family stock, his forefathers, Quakers, having settled in Philadelphia many years before the advent of William Penn. One branch of his ancestry goes back to Robert Morris, the eminent finan- cier who did so much for the Revolutionary cause and who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

John C. Heald spent most of his early life in Nebraska, going with his parents to Ponca in that state when thirteen. He attended the Silver Ridge Seminary at Silver Ridge, Ne- braska, four years, and studied law with Judge J. B. Barnes of Ponca, now a judge of the Supreme Court of Nebraska. In his early experience he served as deputy county clerk of Wheeler County, Nebraska, and after being admitted to the bar filled out an unexpired term as county prosecutor of that county.

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Later he was for two years police judge at Greeley, Nebraska.

Mr. Heald practiced law in Nebraska from 1886 to 1895. In March of the latter year he came to Cleveland and here he has found a large and profitable clientage to serve in his capacity as a court lawyer. He does all the court work for the firm of David & Heald and is employed in looking after the court business of several other firms and individual attor- neys. He has conducted successfully many important cases in Northern Ohio. One of them was the successful prosecution of a case through the Supreme Court of Ohio involving more than $1,000,000 in the Sinking Fund of Cleveland, a case which established a prece- dent for the entire state. Mr. Heald is also representative of several large corporations.

He is a prominent Ohio republicau and has always taken au active part in politics, his services as a campaign speaker being in great demand. In 1912 he was a candidate for the republican nomination for Congress from the Twentieth Ohio District. He was frequently importuned to become a candidate for mayor of Cleveland in 1917, but declined to do so.

Mr. Heald is a member of the Willowick Country Club, the Loyal Order of Moose, the Modern Woodmen of America, and belongs to several other local organizations. While one of his recreations is motoring, he has given much of his time the past three years to prac- tical agriculture, and has two fine farms in operation in Geauga County. Mr. Heald mar- ried at Cleveland in 1902 Miss Elizabeth Frick, daughter of Gustav and Mary Frick, well known Germans of the West Side.

WILLIAM H. McMORRIS, member of the law firm, Weed, Miller, Rothenberg & McMorris, with offices in the Engineers Building, has been a resident of Cleveland for the past six- teen years, and with growing prominence in his profession has also found time and oppor- tunity to wield an influence in public affairs and especially those movements relating to Cleveland's prosperity.

Mr. McMorris was born in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania, January 30, 1874, son of William J. and Catherine (Steel) McMorris and member of a rather noted family of that state. His grandfather, Dr. Patrick McMorris, with his brother, Dr. William McMorris, came from Edinburgh, Scotland, and settled in Pennsylvania when the Pennsylvania Canal was being constructed. Both were prominent in their profession and Doctor Patrick was a

very skillful surgeon. He lived at Duncannon and New Buffalo, Pennsylvania. His greatest distinction in surgery was acquired when he amputated the arm at the elbow of an unborn child. This child afterwards grew up and had children of her own. At the time this opera- tion was practically unique in the annals of surgery. Dr. Patrick McMorris attained the supreme honorary thirty-third degree in Masonry in Pennsylvania.

W. II. MeMorris' parents were both natives of Pennsylvania. His father in early life spent about twenty years as an operator of boats on the Pennsylvania Canal and latterly for many years was a railroad contractor. He is now seventy-eight and retired, having given up active business in 1908 at the age of seventy. His wife died in 1885 at New Buffalo, Pennsylvania. William J. McMorris lived for many years at Philadelphia but is now a resi- dent of Harrisburg. There are two sons, Wil- liam H. and Samnel S. The latter is an engi- neer with the Pennsylvania Railway Company and is also chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, with home at Harrisburg.

William H. McMorris was educated in the public schools of Newport, Pennsylvania, grad- uating from the high school there in 1891, graduated from Dickinson Seminary at Wil- liamsport in 1893, took his A. B. degree from Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecti- cut, in 1897, and studied law in Yale College, where he was graduated LL. B. in 1899.

Mr. MeMorris was admitted to the Connecti- cut bar in 1899 and for four years practiced at Torrington, in that state. Coming to Cleve- land in 1903, he was admitted to the Ohio bar and has since been steadily in practice in this city. For a time he was associated with Sterling Parks under the name Parks & Mc- Morris, was then alone for a time, and in February, 1918, the firm of Weed, Miller, Rothenberg & MeMorris was established.

Mr. McMorris is a republican in politics and has been quite active as a stump speaker. He was associated with Judge Meals as active fac- tors in the Roosevelt campaign. He is a mem- ber of the City Club, the Civic League, the Cleveland Bar Association, belongs to Forest City Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Pyth- ian Star Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and Loyal Order of Moose, and is a member and steward of the Parkwood Methodist Episcopal Church.

At Montgomery, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1900, Mr. MeMorris married Miss Maude M. Thomas, daughter of William and Margaret

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Jane (Williamson ) Thomas of Montgomery. The Williamsons were a noted old family of Pennsylvania and of colonial revolutionary stock, while the Thomases had also long been established in that state. Her grandfather was known as "Iron John" Thomas, a name be- stowed npon him because he was in the iron business. He had come from Wales. The Williamsons were of English ancestry and were noted for their longevity and the fact they reared large families. Mrs. McMorris' father, William Thomas, was a California forty-niner and came back from the gold coast with a large amount of gold dust. Afterwards he was a miller in Montgomery, also a farmer and had many other interests. Mrs. McMorris, who was born at Montgomery, Pennsylvania, and whose parents are now deceased, was edu- cated in Dickinson Seminary at Williamsport, where she graduated in 1894 with the degree Master of English Literature. She is very active in church work, and also a member of the Melvin Reading Club and takes much part in the Red Cross movement. Mr. and Mrs. MeMorris have three children : Helen Mar- garet, Margaret Jane and Jean Elizabeth. The first was born at Torrington, Connecticut, and the other two at Cleveland.

WILLIAM BROWNELL SANDERS. In point of continuous service William Brownell Sanders is one of the oldest members of the Cleveland bar. Aside from the service he rendered sev- eral years as judge of the Common Pleas Conrt of Cuyahoga County, he has been continuously in practice in Cleveland for over forty years. He has long been a member of one of the strongest law firms of Northern Ohio, and his ability and wide range of experience have caused interests of far reaching importance to be entrusted to his legal charge.

Judge Sanders was born in Cleveland, Sep- tember 21, 1854. His parents, Rev. William D. and Cornelia R. (Smith) Sanders, were also natives of Ohio, and were descended from some of the old New England stock that came West early in the last century. His father was a minister of the Presbyterian Church and also a school man. When Judge Sanders was a year old the family moved to Jackson- ville, Illinois, where his father became profes- sor of rhetoric in Illinois College.

He grew up in the atmosphere of a college town and is a graduate of Illinois College, receiving his degree Bachelor of Arts in 1873 and subsequently being awarded the Master of Arts degree. Judge Sanders studied law Vol. II-22

in one of the oldest and most dignified of American law colleges, Albany Law School in New York. He took the full course and grad- uated LL. B. in 1875. Graduation was cquiv- alent and entitled him to admission to the New York State Bar.

He began practice at Cleveland and was junior member of the firm Burke, Ingersoll & Sanders. Though comparatively unknown in the city, he soon made his ability and character felt and established a high position at the bar.

When Judge MeKinney resigned from the bench of the Common Pleas Court in Feb- ruary, 1888, Governor Foraker appointed Mr. Sanders to the vacancy. In the succeeding month he received the unanimous republican nomination and was elected for a regular term. However, he resigned from this office in Janu- ary, 1890, in order to resume private practice. As a judge he distinguished himself by highly exact and impartial conduct, as is disclosed by a writer in the Bench and Bar of Ohio. "During his official career Judge Sanders ex- hibited abundant evidence of the possession of the qualities of mind and character which serve to dignify the bench and invest the judiciary with the attributes which command respect and deference. He kept the ermine pure and unsullied. He maintained the tradi- tional scales in equipoise. He saw clearly the rights of litigants as disclosed in the pleadings, but never saw the parties them- selves. The personality of the plaintiff or defendant had no weight, but the rights of each received most patient scrutiny from the bench."

Since leaving the bench Judge Sanders has been a member of the firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. For a quarter of a century this has been one of the largest and best known law firms of the state.

Judge Sanders is vice president of the So- ciety for Savings and a director of the Guard- ian Trust Company of Cleveland, the National Commercial Bank, the Cleveland Stone Com- pany, the Kelley Island Stone Company, and has interests in various other corporations. He is also well known in civic and social circles and is a member of the Union Club, University Club, Tavern Club, Country Club, and Roadside Club of Cleveland and of the University Club and Downtown Association of New York City. Judge Sanders was married April 30, 1884, to Miss Annie E. Otis, daughter of Charles A. Otis, of Cleveland. Judge and Mrs. Sanders have one daughter.

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JONATHAN EDWARDS INGERSOLL. Cleveland had one of its most talented citizens in the person of the late Judge Jonathan Edwards Ingersoll, and the word citizen has been used advisedly because he was much more than a lawyer, eminent though he stood in that pro- fession. In fact he was master of two profes- sions, and in early life had practiced as a physician and rendered valuable service in that profession as surgeon during the Civil war. He was large of mind and heart, and was one of Cleveland's residents whom the present generation delights to honor.

Of old New England stock, he was born at Lee, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Novem- ber 16, 1827. Soon after his birth his father removed to the vicinty of Rochester, New York, where eight years of the judge's early education was obtained. In 1840 he was sent to college at Oberlin. spending five years in that noble institution and graduating in 1845.

For two years he taught school in the neigh- borhood of Rochester and for four years at Conneaut, Ohio. His spare time while teach- ing was diligently directed to the study of medicine, and he pursued his studies both at Conneaut and at Hudson. He was graduated from the Western Reserve Medical College in February, 1853. Perhaps almost at once he recognized his greater capabilities and his dis- tinctive preferences for the law, since in the fall of 1853 he began the study of law with Bolton & Kelley, being admitted to the bar in October, 1855.

However, he practiced medicine for some time, and in 1862, during one of the most critical periods of the Civil war, word having come north that Ohio soldiers were suffering from want of proper treatment in the Memphis Hospital, Doctor Ingersoll, as he was then known by title, volunteered his services as a physician. This voluntary offer was gladly accepted by Governor Brough, who gave him a special commission. He rendered a kindly and effective service in the field and hospitals and for thirty days was before Petersburg dur- ing the siege of that city.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 64

Author: Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935; Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, New York The Lewis Publishing Company Number of Pages: 904

Author: Avery, Elroy McKendree, 1844-1935; Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, New York The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 904