A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 69

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 69

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Cooper Research Company. His legal knowl- edge has been of great value in the work of organization in which he is engaged, as well as in the protection of the interests of these companies after organized.

Mr. Koelliker is a republican, but has not been active in this direction. IIc is a mem- ber of the Union Club, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Lakewood Chamber of Com- merce, the Cleveland Athletic Club and the Westwood and Chippewa Lake clubs.

PAUL D. JONES. While all successful busi- ness men cannot claim that it was the spur of necessity in their early days that laid the foundation of later achievement, an interest- ing number of the men of power and position in the business world today can look back to an industrious, self-helping boyhood. An ex- ample may be cited in Paul D. Jones, who is a man of large affairs at Cleveland and is vice president of the Guarantee Title & Trust Company.

Paul D. Jones was born at East Bangor, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, April 30, 1876. His parents were William David and Melinda Jones. William David Jones was born in Wales, January 27, 1849. He had but meager educational opportunities, as he was only nine years old when his people brought him to the United States and located in the coal region in the vicinity of Scranton, Penn- sylvania. Young as he was, he became a worker in the coal mines and continued in that field until 1867. He then went to East Bangor, Pennsylvania, and there was married to Miss Melinda Wiedman, a daughter of Jacob Wied- man, who owned slate quarries in that neigh- borhood. Mr. Jones went to work for his father-in-law in the quarries, and after mov- ing to Bangor was employed until 1887 in other quarries. In that year he came to Cleveland and engaged as a salesman with the firm of Auld & Congor, roofing slate manu- facturers, and continues with that firm. His two sons, Daniel W. and Paul D., are residents of Cleveland.

Paul D. Jones was educated in the public schools of Bangor and Cleveland but in 1891. when fifteen years old. he put aside his school books and started ont to find a job. accepting one as post and office boy with the Bradstreet Mercantile Agency, and performed his duties faithfully for one year, in the meanwhile keep- ing wide awake to other opportunities. After eight months in a clerical capacity with the Valley Railroad he entered the employ of the

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manufacturing firm of Auld & Congor as book- keeper, and continued there for five years, en- gaging then with E. B. Tidd in a general in- surance business, having charge of the fire insurance department. In June, 1900, Mr. Jones retired from that connection and helped to organize the Genesee Savings & Banking Company, becoming its secretary and treasurer and continuing until it was absorbed by the Reserve Trust Company. Mr. Jones by this time had become well known in financial circles and was made assistant secretary of the two branches of the above consolidation, serving as such until 1910.

His years of business experience served to admirably qualify Mr. Jones for his next busi- ness advance, by which he became assistant treasurer of the Guarantee Title & Trust Com- pany of Cleveland, and one year later, in 1911, he was elected treasurer and in 1915 was elected vice president. He is on the directing board of this institution, as also on the boards of the Industrial Discount Company and the Citizens Mortgage Company. In all his busi- ness relations he has ever been honorable and trustworthy and his friends and intimates in business circles are men of like high personal character.

Mr. Jones was married at Cleveland to Miss Georgia A. Hauxhurst on June 27, 1900, and they have two sons, Paul D. and Robert W.

Although Mr. Jones takes no very active part in political matters and votes independ- ently, his good judgment, his business fore- sight and his sound financial sense would seem to particularly qualify him for public respon- sibility at a time when the country has need of its most efficient men. Mr. Jones is an im- portant factor in the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. He finds congenial companionship and recreation as a member of the Rotary Club.

JOSEPH M. BERNSTEIN at the age of twenty- two in July, 1915, was admitted to practice in all the courts of Ohio. Few men of that age bring to the outset of their careers as lawyers a larger degree of vitalized experience and demonstrated capacity than Mr. Bern- stein. And while his real achievements be- long to the future he has more than made good in his profession since beginning practice. Mr. Bernstein has offices in the Engineers Build- ing.

He was born in Bay City, Michigan, August 18, 1892, son of Louis M. and Flora (Kekst)

Bernstein. Both his parents were natives of the City of Riga, Russia, where they grew up and married. On the fourth of July, 1889, they landed at the City of Baltimore, and went direct to Bay City, Michigan, where they had friends. They were the first members of their respective families to come to America. After living five years at Bay City they came to Cleveland, where they still reside. The father is connected with the Swift Company of Cleve- land. There are five in the family, three sons and two daughters: Dora, now Mrs. D. Ban- man of Cleveland; William, manager of a de- partment in The Bailey Company department store; Joseph M .; Barney, a plumber; and Ida, still at home. Dora was a graduate of the Central High School and the Spencerian Business College, and Ida attended the Cen- tral High School but completed her work in the East Tech High School.

Joseph M. Bernstein was for two years a student in the Central High School and in 1911 was a member of the second class of graduates from the High School of Commerce. This high school, which has been one of the greatest improvements in public school educa- tion ever inaugurated in Cleveland was estab- lished in 1910 and Mr. Bernstein entered it at the beginning. He was commencement speaker at his graduation and had also been business manager of some of the student activities of the high school. There are now two branches of the High School of Commerce, one on the east and the other on the west side.

Mr. Bernstein is unmarried and has always lived at home with his parents, but since the age of nine has been practically self-supporting and paid his own way while getting his educa- tion and preparing for his legal career. He sold newspapers, blacked shoes, worked at any- thing that would turn him an honest penny. He was a cash boy in The Bailey Company. He early took up salesmanship, and sold beef to the trade for the old S. & S. Packing Com- pany, now the Wilson Company. He was bookkeeper and stenographer for The Hart- man Beef Company, and from there went to The Delivery Company, a $1,000,000 concern, for which he was cashier. He was with that company for two years after graduating from high school. In the meantime he studied law at night, as a student in the law department of Baldwin-Wallace College. He received his degree LL. B. June 3, 1915, was admitted to the Ohio bar on the first of July and on Feb- ruary 9, 1916, was admitted to practice in the United States Court.

Richard. Roche Hawkins

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Mr. Bernstein handles a general practiee as a lawyer and was also one of the organizers and has since been president of The Hippo- drome Realty Company, is secretary of The L. & M. Auto Company and secretary of The J. Bauman Company.

He is an active republican, a member of the Knights of Pythias, the National Union, the Cleveland Independent Aid Society, the B'nai B'rith, the Knights of Joseph, the Sagarer Aid Society, the Bne Yeshrun Temple. He lives with his parents at 2548 East Thirtieth Street.

WILLIAM ROTHENBERG of the law firm Weed, Miller, Rothenberg and MeMorris has spent his entire professional career in Cleve- land, where by his learning, industry, ability and character he has attained a high rank though still numbered among the younger practitioners of the law.

Mr. Rothenberg was born in Cleveland Au- gust 19, 1883, a son of Leopold and Ella (Feniger) Rothenberg. His parents were na- tives of and married in Austria and in 1871 emigrated to America and settled in Cleve- land. Leopold Rothenberg was in the dry goods business at Cleveland from that time until his death on January 26, 1913. The mother passed away February 24, 1915. Wil- liam was the youngest of their six children and the only son. The five daughters are Mrs. S. Toffler of Cleveland, Mrs. M. M. Gleichman of New York City, Mrs. M. Goldreich of Cleve- land, Mrs. Arnold Stern of New York City, Mrs. E. M. Brudno, wife of Doetor Brudno of Cleveland. The first two children were born in Austria, and the others in Cleveland and all received their education in this city.

William Rothenberg was educated in the Mayflower Grammar School, graduated from the Central High School in the class of 1901, and in 1905 received his A. B. degree from Harvard College. He is also a graduate of the Cleveland Law Department of Baldwill- Wallace University with the degree LL. B. He finished there in 1907 and was admitted to the Ohio bar in June of the same year. In 1904 before completing his university career Mr. Rothenberg took up the study of law with the late Albert H. Weed and Maj. Charles R. Miller, when the firm was known as Weed & Miller. After his admission to the bar in 1908, Mr. Rothenberg became associated with that firm and until recently its name was Weed, Miller & Rothenberg. Though both senior members are now deceased the old title

was still continued, Mr. Rothenberg being sen- ior member with Major Miller's son William R. Miller as his associate, and Mr. W. HI. Me- Morris was recently admitted. Mr. Rothenberg and Mr. Miller are young men of the law but have shown conspicuous ability in handling the large business of the firm, which is a gen- eral practice, although they also represent a number of corporations. Mr. Rothenberg is a director in a number of companies represented by the law firm.

In polities he is a republican, is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Excelsior Club, Oakwood Country Club, Cleve- land Council of Sociology, Cleveland, Ohio State and American Bar associations, and is chairman of the membership committee and on the executive committee of the association. He also belongs to the City Club, the Civie League, the Rotary Club in and of which he is counsel, is a member of the Delta Theta Phi law fraternity, and the Cleveland Automobile Club. He is one of the board of trustees of the Couneil Educational Alliance. Mr. Roth- enberg finds his chief reereation in golf, mo- toring and among his books. He and his fam- ily reside at 2104 Stearns Road.

He married Miss Martha Hahn of Cleve- land, daughter of Dr. Aaron A. and Thresia (Kalb) Hahn. Her mother died in 1912. Her father, Doctor Hahn, was formerly a rabbi but is now in the active practice of the law with his son Edgar A. Hahn, with offices in the Engineers Building. Mrs. Rothenberg was born in Cleveland, graduated from the Cen- tral High School in 1903, the Cleveland Nor- mal School in 1905, and then taught a year in the Cleveland publie schools. She is an active member of various clubs, ineluding the Wom- an's Club of Cleveland.

RICHARD ROCHE HAWKINS. Judged by worthy achievement and universal publie esteem, Richard Roche Hawkins, now filling the responsible office of Justice of the Peace for East Cleveland, occupies a foremost place among the men who, through high personal character and breadth of mind, have won the right to be named representative of the best interests of this great city. For almost a quar- ter of a century he has been honorably iden- tified with the city's business life, has been an important factor in local politics in the struggles of the community for progress in municipal affairs, and has been a ceaseless worker in the paths of religion, temperance and patriotism.

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Richard Roche Hawkins was born in the City of Manchester, England, January 28, 1854. His parents were James and Ann M. (Roche) Hawkins. On the maternal side the ancestry discloses an old Scotch-Irish family of education and standing, a present day dis- tinguished member being Dr. William J. Roche, who fills the high office of Minister of the Interior of the Dominion of Canada and Commissioner of Indian Affairs of the Do- minion. This prominent member of the Can- adian ministry, while on a visit to his cousin Richard Roche Hawkins, in the fall of 1916, delivered an address before the Canadian Club of Cleveland, at the Statler Hotel, in which, at Mr. Hawkins' request, he spoke on the great European war. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Hawkins, Richard Roche, was bailiff for Lord Mount Norris of County Wexford, Ireland. Afterward he emigrated to Canada and settled at Exeter in Ontario, where he was the first innkeeper. Both he and wife were laid to rest there after lives of kindness and usefulness. They gave their four children, one daughter, who became the mother of Richard Roche Hawkins, and their three sons, liberal educations, and the latter were graduated from Trinity College, Dublin. The eldest son joined the army and was lost in India, but the other two were men of prominence in their section of Canada, both in educational and business affairs.

James Hawkins died in the City of Liver- pool when his son, Richard Roche was five years old. He was a tailor by trade, and main- tained a comfortable home for his wife and four children as long as he lived. In August, 1859, Mrs. Hawkins with her children crossed the ocean to Canada and landed at Quebec but settled at Port Colborne. Ontario, and lived there for three years. Later, removal was made to Erie, Pennsylvania, Mrs. Hawk- ins having been married at Kingston, Ontario, to John Robinson. He was a native of Bos- ton, Massachusetts, and was a deep sea sailor. He survived his wife but a short time, and both were interred in the old cemetery at Port Colborne, Ontario. To her first marriage one daughter and three sons were born. The daughter was the eldest and she preceded her mother and the sons to Canada and died there. Richard Roche was the second in order or birth. His brother John is a farmer near Macdoel, Siskiyou County, California. and his brother William carries on a tailoring bnsi- ness at Port Colborne, Ontario. To the sec- ond marriage a son and daughter were born,

the latter surviving the former, Edward J. Robinson, who was born in Erie. Pennsylvania, and was residing at Los Angeles, California at the time of his demise: the daughter was born at Port Colborne, Ontario, and is the wife of Brace R. Davis, who is a millwright in business at Stockton, California.

Richard Roche Hawkins was educated in the public schools of Erie, and later during the Civil war period, at Buffalo, New York, and remembers well the interest excited when General Grant, the great Federal commander passed through Erie for the front. After his schooldays were over the task of bread winning naturally assumed importance, and being of a mechanical turn of mind Mr. Hawkins at first thought of learning to be an engineer, but changed his mind and later accepted a position as steward on one of the large vessels plying on the great lakes, and for six years continued sailing on fresh water and afterward, for seven years filled a similar position on salt water vessels. On May 24, 1876, he sailed as steward on a vessel bound for Queenstown, Ireland, and afterward sailed on different vessels running between British, French and Spanish ports. He made one trip around Cape Horn and also visited Cuba and the Isle of Martinique before the great earth- quake.

In 1882 Mr. Hawkins returned to the United States and located in the City of Chicago, Illinois, and there carried on a plumbing and steam fitting business until 1896. In that year he came to Cleveland, and in this city has been an active business man interested in several lines, mainly plumbing and gro- ceries, and for many years was one of the proprietors of the Boulevard Plumbing and Heating Company of Cleveland.

Broadened by travel and experience, Mr. Hawkins naturally has progressive views on many subjects, and has taken a hearty and public-spirited interest in public problems. In 1902 he was elected a member of the city council of Cleveland, and served as a repub- lican, for two years under the administra- tion of the late Tom Johnson, mayor, from what was then the Third District, compris- ing the Ninth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth wards. He has also been ward assessor several times, and in November. 1915. was elected justice of the peace of East Cleveland for four years, assuming the duties of this office on January 1, 1916. In polities as in busi- ness, Judge Hawkins has shown himself a man of practical efficiency.

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Along other lines Mr. Hawkins has demon- strated qualities and aims that entitle him to the high esteem in which he is held. Reared in the Episcopal Church, his religious life has been a vitalizing element and his religious duties and responsibilities have always heen recognized. While living in Chicago he served as the first Sunday school superintendent of St. George's Episcopal Church, and was a member of St. George's vestry, and since coming to Cleveland was superintendent of the Sunday school of Christ Church for eighteen months, and has been a member of the vestry of Christ Church and the Church of the Good Shepherd, and at present is a member of the vestry of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. His generous interest is noted in many of the church's noblest beneficent movements. To some, perhaps, the duties pertaining to these various offices and activities, would seem at times very onerous, but to Mr. Hawkins, with- out doubt, the time and energy contributed, are but outward expressions of deep and sin- cere religious convictions, and an acknowledg- ment of his sense of brotherhood and responsi- bility to others.

On January 27, 1879, Mr. Hawkins was mar- ried at Glasgow, Scotland, by the Presbyterian minister of the Established Church of Scot- land, there residing, to Miss Frances Alicia Haig Melville, who was born in Glasgow, the youngest child of John and Margaret (Aird) Melville. John Melville was a trained gardner. and had charge of the estate of Sir John Cheap. When Mrs. Hawkins was christened her god-mother was Mrs. Haig, the wife of the proprietor of the great Haig distilleries of Scotland, and she gave the infant her own name. Thus it may be seen why Mrs. Hawk- ins, aside from her natural patriotism, takes a deep interest in the marvelous military tac- ties of General Haig in his operations in France during the present world war.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins five children have been born, one son and four daughters, name- ly : James M., who is a clerk in the Collin- wood postoffice, Cleveland ; Margaret A., who is the wife of William J. Somerwill, of Cleve- land; Frances E., who lives with her par- ents; Viola M., who is a deputy clerk in her father's office on Ontario Street, and Mary E., who resides with her parents. The son was born at Glasgow, Scotland, and the daugh- ters at Chicago, Illinois, and all attended the East High School in Cleveland.

Mr. Hawkins is identified with numerous organizations and these include the Orange-

men, the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Malta, the Eagles, the Sons of St. George, St. Andrew's Brotherhood and the Men's Club of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Cleveland. He was one of the organizers of the Canadian Club, of which he is yet a member and has been its secretary. Extremely patriotic, he is interested in all the problems now facing American manhood, and in every way endeav- ors to assist in solving them. When the Span- ish-American war was an issue he presented himself for enlistment hut was not accepted. He is also a pronounced advocate of temper- ance and throws his influence in the dirce- tion of total abstinence for the entire coun- try.

SAMUEL ROCKWELL in his capacity of en- gineer has been helping build American rail- ways and other large engineering and con- struction projects for nearly half a century. He has been with surveying parties over regions of the West and Northwest where the stakes they set and the lines they run were the first tangible evidences of the advance of white men into a country where barbarism had reigned supreme for untold centuries. However, for over a quarter of a century Mr. Rockwell's services have identified him with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Rail- way chiefly in Ohio and with headquarters in Cleveland.

Mr. Rockwell was born at Brooklyn, New York, February 20, 1847, and is in the eighth generation of one of the oldest New England families. His ancestors beginning with the first in America are noted in the successive generations as follows : William Rockwell, who married Susanna Chapin; Samuel Rock- well, who married Mary Norton ; Joseph Rock- well, who married Elizabeth Alvord Drake; Joseph Rockwell, who married Hannah Hunt- ington : Samuel Rockwell, who married Heps- bah Pratt; Samuel Rockwell, who married Hannah Reed; William Rockwell, who mar- ried Susan Lawrence Prince; and Samuel Rockwell.

The family was established in America by Deacon William Rockwell, who was a native of England, and arrived on the ship Mary and John May 30, 1630, locating first in Dor- chester and afterwards moving to Windsor, Connecticut, where he died May 15, 1640. He and most of his immediate successors were farming people in the vicinity of Windsor, Connecticut. Samuel Rockwell of the fifth generation was a captain in the Revolutionary

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army, while his son, Samuel Rockwell, of the sixth generation, was a physician at East Windsor, Connecticut.

William Rockwell, father of the Cleveland engineer, was born at Sharon, Connecticut, September 21, 1803, was graduated from Yale College in 1823, and gained distinction in the law and public life. He practiced law at Brooklyn, and was judge of various courts there and twice was nominated for mayor. He died July 26, 1856. On April 7, 1840, William Rockwell married Susan Lawrence Prince, who was born in Brooklyn in 1818, daughter of Christopher and Anna (Duffield) Prince. She survived her husband over twenty years and died October 10, 1878.

Samuel Rockwell was only nine years of age when his father died. As a boy he attended various schools in Flatbush, New York, Suf- field, Connecticut; Morristown, New Jersey; New Haven, Connecticut, spent six years at sea and finally entered Yale College, and was graduated from the Sheffield Scien- tific School of that university with the degree Ph. D. in 1873. Already he had acquired considerable practical experience in engineering. During the summer vacation of 1871 he spent four months running a level on the survey for the St. Paul & Pacific Rail- way. During 1862 he was for six months in charge of location and construction of the St. Paul and Pacific northwest of St. Cloud and on the Green Bay and Lake Pepin Railway, between Dexterville and Merillan.

Immediately following his graduation in 1873 Mr. Rockwell went to work for the Dela- ware, Lackawanna & Western at Hoboken, New Jersey. During the next four years he built the tunnel through Bergen Hill and also handled the separation of grades to the Ho- boken terminal. From 1877 to 1885 he was variously employed on municipal waterworks and general engineering practice and contract- ing. The years 1885 to 1887 he spent as lo- cating and constructing engineer for the St. Paul. Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, and as chief engineer of the Eastern Minnesota Railway from 1887 to 1890 he located and built that road and its terminals at West Su- perior and Duluth. In 1890 he was employed as chief engineer to locate the extension of the Santa Fe system to the Pacific Coast, until the failure of Baring Brothers called a halt. In 1891 as chief engineer of the Duluth and Winnipeg he located and built the part of it from Cloquet to West Superior. While build-

ing that road he accepted his position as engi- neer of the Michigan Southern Division of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway at Toledo on September 20, 1891. Since that date all his work and services have been with the New York Central lines. On December 1, 1899, he was appointed principal assistant en- gineer at Cleveland, and May 1, 1905, assistant chief engineer at Cleveland, July 15, 1905, chief engineer, and since September 1, 1912, until retired for age limit, had been consult- ing engineer with headquarters at Cleveland.

Mr. Rockwell has been well content to be known entirely by his professional work and professional interests, has had nothing to do with politics, and has avoided rather than courted many of the favors that are so fre- quently bestowed upon men of his profes- sional standing. He is a member of the Amer- ican Society of Civil Engineers, the American Railway Engineering Association, is a Royal Arch Mason, belongs to the Cleveland Athletic Club, and when a few days' vacation appears as a rift in his routine experience and hard work he is glad to devote that time to hunting and fishing as his favorite recreations.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 69

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