USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 66
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Mr. Rothkopf was married March 10, 1917, to Miss Sophia Frank of Cleveland, daughter of Morris and Yetta (Katz) Frank. Mrs. Rothkopf was born at Cleveland and was educated in the graded schools and Glenville High School, from which latter she was gradu- ated in June, 1916. The pleasant Rothkopf home is located at Fern Hall, 3250 Euclid Avenue.
SYDNEY ADDISON DAVIES. One of the able and rising lawyers of Cleveland, Sydney Addison Davies has spent his entire career in the Forest City, where he is rapidly gaining a substantial reputation in the field of real estate law. Still a young man, he has so im- pressed his abilities upon the community that he has gained recognition from a number of the larger realty concerns of the city, which he has represented either as special or general counsel. He is a native son of Cleveland and was born December 22, 1892. his parents being John S. and Elizabeth (Williams) Davies.
John S. Davies was born in Wales, and was four years of age when brought to Cleveland by his parents. When he was twelve years of age he became identified with the steel castings business, with which he has been connected ever since, being at this time manager of the Cleveland Steel Castings Company, and a resi- dent of Lakewood, a suburb of this city. He was married at Cleveland to Elizabeth Wil- liams, who was born here, a daughter of Thomas Williams, who fought as a soldier dur- ing the Civil war. The Williams family is one of the oldest of the city. Mrs. Davies' grand- parents, farming people and of Pennsylvania Dutch stock, having come from Pennsylvania with the old Lorenzo Carter colony of pioneers. John S. and Elizabeth Davies have two sons: Sydney Addison; and Howard E., who is at- tending the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
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Sydney Addison Davies is a graduate of the public schools of Lakewood, and after leaving the high school there in 1910 became a student of the Western Reserve University, remained one year in the College of Arts, and then en- tered Cornell University where he completed his studies. During his college career he had a brilliant record as an athlete and finally won his "C" as a member of the 'varsity football squad, although he also took an active and prominent part in other sports. When he re- ceived his degree of Bachelor of Laws, in 1915, and received admission to the bar of New York in June of that year, he returned to Cleveland, and in June, 1916, was admitted to practice before the bar of Ohio. Here he has since continued alone, having opened his present office in the Engineers Building August 25, 1916, and has specialized in real estate law. During his first year after leaving Cornell, Mr. Davies acted as office counsel for the Land Title Abstract and Trust Company, of which he has been general counsel for two years, in addition to which he is one of the attorneys for the Union Mortgage Company and secre- tary and attorney for the W. H. Randall Building Company. He also has other busi- ness interests and is president of the Mayeta County Oil Company. He is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, and in his pro- fession is known as a man of brilliant talents, a clean-cut, progressive representative of the younger generation of Cleveland lawyers. In political matters he is a republican, and while he is not an office seeker has shown a keen interest in the matters that affect his com- munity, and is active in the Lakewood Cham- ber of Commerce. He belongs to the City Club and the Lakewood Tennis Club; is a member of Lakewood Lodge No. 601, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Cornell Alumni Association, and has numerous friends in the Delta Gamma Beta of Lakewood, the Delta Upsilon Association of Northwest Ohio, and the Delta Upsilon, Cornell Chapter, in all of which he holds membership. He also be- longs to Lakewood Congregational Church and is secretary of the board of trustees thereof, and, all in all, is a young man who touches and improves life on many sides.
Mr. Davies was married August 4, 1917, to Miss Lula C. Hess, of East Cleveland, Ohio, daughter of D. Ray and Lula C. (Whip) Hess, Mr. Hess being a real estate and general in- surance broker with offices in the Williamson Building. Mrs. Davies was born at McKees- port, Pennsylvania, graduated from Glenville
High School in 1911, and then studied music at Cleveland under the instruction of Prof. Karl Reimenschneider. For several years prior to her marriage she was engaged in teaching instrumental music.
CLARENCE V. LIGGETT, a member of the Cleveland bar for the past ten years, and senior member of the firm Liggett & Ryan, attorneys and counselors, with offices in the Engineers Building, has gained a successful position in the law by reliance entirely upon his own efforts and talents. He read law by himself and it is said that he was never in a law office until after he was admitted to the bar.
Mr. Liggett represents one of the families who have been identified with Ohio as a place of residence for fully a century. He was born at Wooster in Wayne County, May 31, 1874, a son of Bentley and Mary (Tarrh) Liggett. The Liggetts have an interesting ancestry. His great-grandfather, George Liggett, came with three brothers from Ireland to America and after arriving here they became separated and George never knew the whereabont or the fate of three of his brothers. He grew up near Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The grandfather of Clarence V. Liggett was also named George and was born in Virginia, and spent his early vears in that state. From there he removed to Center County, Pennsylvania, and later pioneered to Holmes County, Ohio. He was one of the first settlers in the wilderness of that region and his nearest neighbor was ten miles away. Like other pioneers he occupied a humble dwelling built of logs and lived for eight years in the hills of Holmes County. This log cabin later was replaced by a more substantial frame house which is still standing in a good state of repair and is still occupied as a dwelling. Grandfather George Liggett bought his land in Holmes County from the Government in 1816, over a century ago. A patent to the land was granted him in 1830 by President Andrew Jackson. Grandfather George Liggett left the old homestead to his son, Maj. Robert W. Liggett, who died in January, 1915, and Clarence V. Liggett has since acquired this old estate, now a splendid farm of eighty acres and associated with many memories of the family.
Bentley Liggett, father of the Cleveland lawyer, was born at Nashville, Ohio, as was his wife. He is now in advanced years and has been retired from active work for the past five years though he continued diligent at his busi -.
J. J. Ford
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ness until he was seventy-six. He and his wife now reside at Jefferson in Ashtabula County, and their home is a house of New England architecture which is nearly 100 years old. In ante bellum times this house was a station on the underground railway and many slaves were kept in hiding there until they could be forwarded to freedom across the Canadian boundary. The house at Jefferson has known only two owners, the man who originally built it, and Bentley Liggett. Bentley Liggett made farming his permanent vocation in life. Dur- ing the Civil war he was out for about a year in the army and had the rank of orderly sergeant. From this one locality of Ohio there were twelve brothers and cousins of the Lig- gett family who served as soldiers, and several of them attained high rank in the army. Bent- ley Liggett at one time filled the office of justice of the peace in his township and in politics is a republican. He has always been of a retiring nature, and really too much so for his own good at times. He and his wife had only two children, Clarence and Inez V. The latter died in Ashtabula County in 1900 at the age of twenty-one.
Clarence finished his education in the Jeffer- son High School and by study at home pre- pared himself for the bar, to which he was admitted in 1901. He took a year of review studies in the Cleveland Law School. For several years after his admission to the bar he did not practice, but taught school instead in Ashtabula and Summit County for a year, and in 1904 came to Cleveland, where he taught in a night school. Mr. Liggett took up active practice at Cleveland in 1907, practic- ing for three years in office with Matthews & Orgill, and then for four years with Judge Wing. Since then he has been in practice as a partner with Timothy A. Ryan and the firm of Liggett & Ryan now command a large gen- eral practice. Mr. Liggett is not active in partisan politics, and casts his vote and gives his support to the best man. He is affiliated with Viola Tent No. 294 of the Knights of the Maccabees, and belongs to the Cleveland and State Bar associations, and is a mem- ber of the Cleveland City Club. Outside of his law business he finds his chief hobby in read- ing and association with good books.
February 23, 1907, at Cleveland, he married Miss Mary E. Townhill. She was born at Sheffield, England, and was brought to Amer- ica at the age of eight years. Her father was the late Robert E. Townhill, a railroad engi- neer. Her mother is still living at Cleveland.
She was educated in the Cleveland public schools and for several years taught in Ashta- bula County. Mr. and Mrs. Liggett have threc children : Vivian E., Robert G. and Genevieve E., all of whom were born in Cleveland.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HOPKINS is a Cleve- land business man of many associations, being vice president of The Grant Motor Car Corpo- ration, president of The Grant Truck Sales Company, secretary of The Belt & Terminal Realty Company, secretary and treasurer of The Hopkins Holding Company, secretary and treasurer of The Columbia Axle Company, director of The Cleveland Underground Rapid Transit Railroad Company, and director of The Republic Motor Sales Company.
Mr. Hopkins for a number of years found his chief work in the building of railroads. He was one of the promoters of the Belt Line Railway at Cleveland.
Mr. Hopkins was born at Cleveland, June 13, 1876, son of David J. and Mary (Jeffreys) Hopkins. He is a brother of the prominent Cleveland lawyers, William R. Hopkins and Evan Henry Hopkins.
He was educated in the Cleveland public schools including Central High School, at- tended Western Reserve Academy and Adel- bert College of Western Reserve University. Mr. Hopkins is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club, Cleveland Automobile Club, Clifton Club, Cleveland Engineering Society, is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner and a member of Cleveland Lodge No. 18, Benevo- lent and Protective Order of Elks. June 5, 1912, at Hot Springs, Arkansas, he married Miss Evelyn Brooks Lower. They have one child, David Jeffreys Hopkins.
JUDGE SIMPSON STEPHEN FORD has earned a high place in his profession and in the public life of Cleveland, where he has been a resident lawyer for over thirty years. Members of the bar give him their particular esteem for the dignity and impartiality with which he presided over the court of Common Pleas for so many years.
Judge Ford was born at Richmond in Jef- ferson County, Ohio, October 7, 1854, a son of William and Eliza J. Ford. Judge Ford comes of the same family stock as Henry Ford, the great automobile manufacturer of Detroit, and there is considerable personal resemblance between the two men.
In early life Judge Ford distinguished him- self as a student. He took his higher literary
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education in that splendid small college of Pennsylvania, Allegheny College at Meadville, where he was graduated in 1881. He was class orator and was also elected a member of the honorary college fraternity Phi Beta Kappa. He was a school teacher at eighteen, and for two years after leaving college taught mathematics and English. In the meantime he read law and was admitted to the bar in 1884.
He carried on a private practice at Cleve- land without interruption of outside interests until 1892, when he was elected the first pres- ident of the board of education of the city under the federal plan. He served four years as a member and president two terms. He then entered the law department of the city as second assistant corporation counsel, and in 1896 was promoted to first assistant city solicitor, an office he held until 1898. In 1899 he was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court, and by re-election in 1904 served on that bench from 1900 to 1912. Since leav- ing the bench he has resumed his private prac- tice and has offices in the Society for Savings Building. Judge Ford is a member of the board of trustees of Allegheny College, his alma mater. He is president of the Guarantee State Savings and Loan Company, vice presi- dent of the Stecker-Overlook Land Company, president of the Rapid Transit Land Com- pany, director in the Cleveland-Belmont Coal Company, a member of the Tippecanoe Club, the Cleveland Athletic Club and the Colonial Club, and a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fra- ternity.
He was married October 5, 1887, to Miss Altai M. Scott. They have one son, William Harold.
HENRY ALFRED ROCKER is not only a success- ful Cleveland lawyer but has been the moving spirit in building up and developing the Jew- ish World of Cleveland, the only daily Jewish paper published between Chicago and New York.
Mr. Rocker was born on a farm in the Province of Saros in Hungary, September 17, 1882, a son of Samuel and Hannah (Fried- man) Rocker. His father was a native of the Town of Gorlice in Austria. This town as a result of the war has now been wiped off the map. The mother was a native of Hungary. Henry A. Rocker was brought to the United States when twelve years of age by his mother. His father had preceded the family about four
years. Henry A. Rocker arrived in Cleveland in September, 1894.
At the age of fourteeu he left school and apprenticed himself to the printer's trade at $4 a week. In February, 1898, then only six- teen years of age, he borrowed $20 from his father, secured some type and a small press, and set himself up in the job printing business. That printing shop has a more than ordinary interest to Cleveland people, since out of it grew what is today the Jewish World, the first and only daily paper published in the Middle West in the Hebrew language, and one of the largest and most influential papers of the kind in the country. It was in 1908 that Mr. Rocker organized the company to publish this paper and in 1913 he organized The Rocker Publish- ing Company, which took over the publication. It is published both at Cleveland and in Cin- cinnati, and Mr. Rocker is secretary and treas- urer of the company, while his father is presi- dent of the company and editor of the paper.
Throughout his career Mr. Rocker has been very active among the Jewish people and also in civic affairs generally in Cleveland. He gained admission to the bar by study under private tutors and by attending the Central Institute, and still later the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace College, from which he received his degree LL. B. with the class of 1907. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in June of that year and at once began practice. Mr. Rocker was in practice alone for ten years, but in June, 1917, became asso- ciated with Benjamin H. Schwartz under the firm name of Rocker & Schwartz, and they maintain well equipped offices in the Engi- neers Building, and have a splendid general law practice.
Mr. Rocker has taken an interested part in city affairs and is a republican in national politics. He was a candidate on the republican ticket for the Legislature in 1910 and in 1912 his name was on the progressive ticket for the same office. He is affiliated with Forest City Lodge No. 388, Free and Accepted Masons, Webb Chapter No. 14, Royal Arch Masons, Al Sirat Grotto No. 17 of Master Masons, Owa- tonna Lodge of Knights of Pythias, and is a member of Benedict Spinoza Lodge No. 92, Order of Knights of Joseph and a member of the executive council of the Grand Lodge. He belongs to the Cleveland Independent Aid So- ciety, the Cleveland Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, and the City Club and the Civic League. He is an ardent follower
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of baseball, and that constitutes his chief recreation aside from business.
December 1, 1907, Mr. Rocker married Miss Sadie Hollander, a native of New York City, but reared and educated in Cleveland. She is a graduate of the Central High School. Her parents, Benjamin and Bertha Hollander, are living retired at Cleveland. Mrs. Rocker is active in the Council of Jewish Women and a member of the Jewish Infants Home. Their three children, all born at Cleveland, are Mendel M., Frances L. and Elmer E. The family home is at 2185 East 73rd Street.
COL. DANIEL H. POND is one of the interest- ing men and valuable citizens of Cleveland. He is one of the few civilians who, during the peaceful times of the last generation, have taken pains and interest to equip themselves with a thorough technical and practical knowl- edge of military affairs, and his title is by no means an honorary one, but stands for active service in the regular army, in the Ohio Na- tional Guard and in the new National army. Colonel Pond is also prominent in business affairs, and for many years has been actively and officially identified with The Economy Building & Loan Company, besides various other business and social organizations.
Colonel Pond was born at Petroleum Center, Pennsylvania, March 11, 1870, son of Henry H. and Mary Maria (Gates) Pond, and is a descendant of one of the early New England families, the genealogical record being traced as follows :
The first official record of the Pond family is found in the archives of Windsor, Connecti- cut, wherein is recorded the fact that one Samuel Pond was married November 14, 1642. There is no official record that the Samuel Pond of the second generation, who was born on March 4, 1648, was the son of the first Samuel Pond, but historians and biographers are of the opinion that the second Samnel Pond was the son of the first Samuel Pond as above noted.
First Generation-Samuel Pond, married at Windsor, Connecticut, November 14, 1642.
Second Generation-Samuel Pond, born March 4, 1648, took the Freeman's oatlı at Hartford, Connecticut, in 1672, as from Bran- ford, Connecticut.
Third Generation-Samuel Pond, born July 1, 1679, at Branford, Connecticut.
Fourth Generation-Philip Pond, born June 15, 1706, at Branford, Connecticut. The Patriarch.
Fifth Generation-Dan Pond, born March 4, 1726, at Branford, Connecticut, moved to Poultny, Rutland County, Vermont, where he settled on what is known to this day as Ponds Hill and from this sire and from Ponds Hill is where the Pond family got a real start, as fifteen children were born on Ponds Ifill.
Sixth Generation-Abel Pond, born October 27, 1753, settled in Lennox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts. He died in Poultny Flats, Rutland County, Vermont. A Revolutionary war soldier.
Seventh Generation-Joel Anders, born May 9, 1807, at Poultny, Vermont, moved to Randolph, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, thence to Townville, Pennsylvania, where he died.
Eighth Generation-Henry H. Pond, born June 6, 1844, at Steuben, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, a practitioner physician at Meadville, Pennsylvania, where he died Febru- ary 24, 1877. Married Mary Maria Gates, September 9, 1867.
The early education of Colonel Pond was acquired in the public schools of Bristolville, Ohio, but in 1882 he came to Cleveland with his mother and was a student in the local pub- lie schools for two years. At the age of fifteen he entered the preparatory school of Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and re- mained there two years. This school, while in general a preparatory institution for Alle- gheny College, was also conducted on the mili- tary plan, and it was there that Colonel Pond received his first military training and in- struction.
After his return to Cleveland he was for two years purchasing agent and salesman with The Cleveland Baking Company, and then gave up business altogether for one year dur- ing which he served a period of enlistment as a private in Company G of the Seventh United States Cavalry.
On leaving the army he was clerk with the Adams Express Company and later had a run as messenger between Cleveland and Pitts- burgh for two years. From that he engaged in the real estate and fire insurance business as member of the firm Ferguson & Pond. In 1894 Colonel Pond became vice president and gen- eral manager of The Economy Building & Loan Company, of which O. J. Hodge was president and Colonel Pond's brother, H. W. Pond, secretary and treasurer. The treasurer of the company since 1902 has been H. C. Wiek. Upon the death of Mr. Hodge in 1911
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Colonel Pond succeeded him as president and general manager.
Recently the Cleveland News had an inter- esting article on the general work and char- acter of The Economy Building & Loan Com- pany and because of the company's importance as a Cleveland institution and because of the active relationship of Colonel Pond with its work, it is appropriate to quote something of what the article said :
"Before Ohio laws took such drastic control of the loan situation, Colonel D. H. Pond and his associates in the Economy Building & Loan Company had started a movement which re- sulted in the Ohio Association of Remedial Loan Men. This association had for its object the ending of ruinous loan terms and the lend- ing of money to those who needed it without the necessity of surrendering self respect and soul. This remedial association has been in- strumental in placing on the Ohio Statute books laws which controlled the loan sharks who have remained in' business, and laws which have forced many out of business.
"From its inception the Economy Building & Loan Company has been of that class of loan associations which aimed to make a fair profit and charge a just rate consistent with the risk involved. Colonel Pond points with pride to a long list of firm friends made through the fair methods of his concern. There are a num- ber of men and women in Cleveland who have been pulled out of despondeney and discour- agement and started with new encouragement through the assistance rendered them by the Economy. This company is chartered to make loans on chattels and is one of the few in the state which also is authorized to make loans on real estate and to receive deposits. In fact its building and loan deposits have been increas- ing for a number of years and have been an- other means by which the door of independence has been opened to many men and women through use of the key of thrift. Colonel Pond and his associates have also constituted them- selves friendly advisers to many individuals who have been the victims of their own care- lessness and loose methods in handling and conserving their incomes. In these and many other ways Colonel Pond and his associates have been able to make the Economy an in- stitution of real merit in Cleveland life."
Colonel Pond is also vice president of the Ohio Forge Company. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club, City Club, Army and Navy Club, Military Order of Foreign Wars. He is a strong prohibitionist
though nominally allied as a republican voter, and is a member of the Methodist Church.
His detailed military record is briefly as follows: Private Company G, Seventh United States Cavalry ; private Company I, Fifth In- fantry, Ohio National Guard, September, 1890; sergeant, November 20, 1890; sergeant major, October 20, 1891; first lieutenant Com- pany K, Fifth Infantry, August 3, 1892; cap- tain, December 10, 1894; lieutenant, senior grade, Ohio Naval Brigade, February 2, 1897; captain Company C, Fifth Infantry, Ohio National Guard, April 23, 1898; lieutenant colonel Fifth Infantry, Ohio National Guard, August 15, 1899. He was put on the retired list May 19, 1902, but January 20, 1917, re- turned to the active list (by par. 3 s. o. 30 A. G. O.). During 1917 Colonel Pond served on the observation detail on the Mexican border. During his earlier active service he was a com- manding officer during the period of the Span- ish-American war, and of his military duty within the state some of the chief incidents were in connection with labor troubles in the Massillon coal district, the Brown Hoist, the Berea quarries and street railway and protec- tion of property during labor difficulties.
Colonel Pond married at Cleveland, April 17, 1891, Ola Clark. His only son, Ralph Herbert, aged twenty-four, is a graduate of the grammar and high schools and of the min- ing engineering course of the Case School of Applied Science. He is now employed as chemist for the Ohio Forge Company.
CAPT. GEORGE A. MCKAY. A resident of Cleveland almost seventy-five years, a veteran of the railway service and also a local employe of the Federal Government, the late Capt. George A. McKay was doubtless most widely known for his brilliant record as a soldier and officer in the Union army and for the in- fluential part he took in association with and in behalf of many patriotic and Grand Army enterprises at Cleveland after the war.
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