USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 70
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On June 7, 1881, Mr. Rockwell married Cordelia A. Geiger, daughter of Stephen Geiger, who was a merchant at St. Joseph, Missouri. Mrs. Rockwell, who died July 27, 1908, was very active in social and club af- fairs at Cleveland, was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the King's Daughters, and the Sorosis So- ciety. The family of Mr. Rockwell comprises four children : Samuel, Jr., who was educated in Kenyon and Princeton colleges and is a civil engineer and contractor; William, a com- mission merchant; Stephen Geiger Rockwell, a graduate of the United States Naval Acad- emy at Annapolis and a ship builder; Emily Gertrude, who is still busied with her educa- tion.
WILLIAM ROCKWELL was born at St. Paul, Minnesota, February 26, 1889, a son of Sam- uel and Cordelia A. (Geiger) Rockwell.
Second in order of age, he was brought to Cleveland in early childhood and edu- cated in the public schools of this city. In 1908 he graduated from one of New England's most famous preparatory schools, Phillips Andover Academy, and the fol- lowing year he spent in the Scientific School of Yale University, his father's alma mater. For eighteen months he was a student of
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medicine in the Ensworth Medical College at St. Joseph, Missouri, but at the end of that time discovered distaste for his proposed pro- fession and for that reason and on account of ill-health took up outdoor work. He was with an engineering party in Arkansas for a time, and since December 1, 1910, has been engaged in contract construction work, largely in New York State. He was with the Me- Arthur Brothers Company, of 11 Pine Street, New York City, and for four years was with the Walsh Construction Company of Daven- port, Iowa. Both these firms are among the largest railroad contractors in the country. Mr. Rockwell learned construction engineer- ing largely through hard service and experi- ence. On February 1, 1917, he established himself in Cleveland in business.
He is now head of the William Rockwell Company, with offices in the Citizens Building at Cleveland, and handling contractors' and railways' supplies and equipment. He buys and sells contractors' supplies of all kinds, and has made some influential connections with some of the principal firms in his line of busi- ness. He represents several well known man- ufacturing houses, including The George Worthington & Company, Crandall Packing . Company and A. Leschen & Sons Rope Com- pany.
He is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club and Chi Phi fraternity of Yale College. His home is at 1875 Crawford Road. March 19, 1917, Mr. Rockwell married Miss Bertlia Augusta Dost of Syracuse, New York, where she was born and educated. They were mar- ried at Syracuse.
EARL J. ANDREWS is a Cleveland architect and builder, reference to whose career and work and methods will be greatly appreciated. Mr. Andrews has a rather distinct position among the architects and builders of Cleve- land, and for a number of years his name has been associated with nothing but the very highest class of residential buildings.
Mr. Andrews was born at Wilmington, Clin- ton County, Ohio, November 16, 1882. Few citizens of Cleveland have their Americanism rooted farther back in the past than Mr. An- drews. It is said that some of his ancestors came over with or at the time of the May- flower. Comparatively speaking the family is of equal antiquity in Ohio: People of the name located in Clinton County about 1801. before Ohio became a state. The Audrews
were Friends and established a Friends settle- ment at Wilmington, along with Jackson, Garner and the Moon families, who have lived there for more than a century, have married and intermarried, and the generations have become so closely knit that nearly everyone in that community is now related directly or remotely. The grandfather, Jonathan An- drews, was born on an old homestead which has been in the ownership of members of the An- drews family since the Government gave the first title deed to the land. This old home- stead is now the home of William Garner and Rachel (Jackson) Andrews, parents of the Cleveland architect. Both were born in that locality and William G. Andrews was for many years a grain merchant. He was also a farmer by training and experience, and in 1892 removed to Marion, Indiana, where he was a hay and grain shipper for many years. He retired from active business in 1912 and settled at the old homestead in Clinton County, Ohio. There are just two sons in the family, and the older is Clifton G. Andrews, who lives at Kokomo, Indiana. He is one of the constructing engineers for the United States Steel Company.
Earl J. Andrews was educated in the public schools of Wilmington, graduated from Wil- mington High School with the class of 1900, is a graduate of Ohio State University with the class of 1904, and from there went to New York and studied technical courses in the New York Technical School. He also enjoyed con- siderable training and had the inspiration of the splendid work done in the offices of An- drews & White, architects of New York City. He was with that firm eighteen months. The head of that firm, who is now retired, one of the best known of American architects, was a cousin of Earl J. Andrews while the junior member of the firm was the late Stanford White.
Prior to this time Mr. Andrews had served an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade in Cleveland during his summer vacations. He had finished the trade in 1903 and at the same time he studied alone in drawing and design- ing and thus laid a thorough practical ground- work for the technical education and train- ing which he afterwards acquired in the East.
In the latter part of 1905 Mr. Andrews es- tablislied himself in business at Cleveland and his present offices are in the Citizens Building. He is the only architect of any consequence in Cleveland, who does his own building, and
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in fact he was the first Cleveland architect to dispense with sub-contractors and other in- termediaries who are so often responsible for expensive delays and that weakness which is always present more or less where there is lack of concentration of responsibility. Mr. An- drews as both architect and builder employs his own labor, furnishes material, and makes himself responsible for every detail of any given building plan and contract. One of the greatest advantages of this method to his clients is the elimination of annoyance due to dealing with a number of contractors who are practically unco-ordinated under any cen- tral plan and supervision. During the early years of his work in Cleveland Mr. Andrews built 100 high grade homes in the neighbor- hood of Wade Park. Sixty of these homes cost all the way from $25,000 to $80,000 apiece. For the past ten years he has specialized and worked exclusively with "homes of quality" and handles practically no contract involving less than $25,000, and from that all the way up to the most lavish sums spent upon private residences. He has built 136 homes in Cleve- land, representing a total investment of over $2,000,000. Mr. Andrews' entire work has been concentrated in Cleveland, and only once has he gone beyond the city limits to construct a building. This exception was his father's new home at Wilmington on the old home- stead. Mr. Andrews has been busied not only with the designing and carrying out of all these contracts but has carefully studied every feature of the building industry as it affects high class homes, and he has introduced many important modifications and improvements on plans that will insure greater comfort and con- venience to all who live in and occupy his resi- dences, from the owners down to the servants. He has the enviable distinction of never hav- ing once failed to deliver a home complete at the specified time. The secret of his prompt- ness and efficiency has been an absolute com- mand of all trades involved in construction, in other words complete centralized authority and responsibility.
Mr. Andrews is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Build- ers' Exchange, the Civic League, is an hon- orary member of the Tippecanoe Club, a mem- ber of the Cleveland Manufacturers' Club, the Shaker Heights Country Club, the Willowick Country Club, the Cleveland Athletic Club and the Cleveland Automobile Club. In Ma- sonry he is affiliated with Woodward Lodge
No. 508, Free and Accepted Masons; McKin- ley Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Coeur de Leon Commandery, Knights Templar; Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and be- longs to Cleveland Lodge No. 18 of the Be- nevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His winter recreation is bowling. In the summer he divides his time between baseball and golf. He does his own bowling with the Elks' Lodge and for several years has financially backed one of the best bowling teams in the city, known as "The Andrews Builders." He has also maintained a baseball club in Cleveland under the same name for some seasons. Mr. Andrews was brought up in the faith of the Friends Church of his ancestors but is now affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland. Someone has called Mr. Andrews a thirty-third degree baseball fan and it is known that he is one of the regular season box holders at the Cleveland Ball Park and is said not to have missed a local game of the Cleveland team for six years.
He and his family reside at 2170 South Overlook Road. On April 10, 1904, he mar- ried Miss Birdette Wertenberger of Canton, Ohio, where she was born and educated. Mrs. . Andrews is a graduate of the Canton High School and of Heidelberg University at Tif- fin.
ROBERT CARRAN. A remarkable life, identi- fied with Cleveland and Environs by a resi- dence of over eighty years, came to a close with the death of Robert Carran on November 16, 1914. To live more than a century is of itself a distinction that constitutes a matter of gen- eral interest everywhere. But Robert Carran was more than a centenarian, he was a thor- oughly useful worker and citizen and a man whose interests and sympathies touched nearly every point of Cleveland's life and history from the time it was a village until it ranked as one of the foremost cities of the country. It was only a proper tribute to the worth and significance of his noble life that at the time of his death all the flags over the new and old city hall and on the public square were set at half mast.
During the span of this one man's life the world was practically made and remade. He was born on the Isle of Man December 11, 1812. He was nearly three years old when the battle of Waterloo was fought. That closed one era of attempted domination and imperial control of Europe, if not the world, and only
X
Robert Garan
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a few weeks before Robert Carran died at Cleveland, November 16, 1914, and nearly a century after the battle of Waterloo, the world was again thrown into tumult and confusion by another imperial clique which aspired to world domination not less than Napoleon. Robert Carran during his youth on the Isle of Man learned and followed the trade of miller. He came to America early in life, lived at Buffalo, New York, and in 1834 came to Northern Ohio and settled at Warrensville. He bought a large farm in that vicinity. Cleveland at that time had less than 5,000 population, and was divided into three vil- lages, Ohio City, now the West Side, Newburg and Cleveland. Land in Cleveland itself could be bought for $5 an acre. For a num -. ber of years Mr. Carran was connected with the firm of Seaman & Smith, shoe merchants, but finally retired and worked his farm. For twenty-four years he held the office of justice of the peace at Warrensville. Every case that came before him he settled without recourse to the routine of law and financial penalty, and did an untold amount of good in that way. For fifty-eight years he served as a school di- rector of his district. He was a man of almost perfect physical habits, and these no doubt contributed to his long life. He never smoked in all his years and a well balanced will and intellect and useful work no doubt enabled him to pass the century mark and lack only a month of the age of a hundred two years.
In politics he was a democrat. For a great many years he attended state conventions of his party, and beginning to vote in the time of Andrew Jackson he east his last ballot for Woodrow Wilson in 1912. At that time he remarked it would be his last presidential elec- tion.
Robert Carran was prominent in Scotch and Manx societies and on December 11th of each year his birthday was celebrated by Cleveland Manxmen. Early Settlers' Day, September 10, 1914, he celebrated the occasion by dress- ing, as was his enstom, in a Prince Albert coat and a silk hat, and with his own hands he raised the old flag at the Public Square in Cleveland. He had been a participant in flag raising exercises for many years. Thirty years before his death he and Rev. Harris R. Cooley stood side by side with bowed heads while the old flag rose to the masthead at one of the meetings of the Early Settlers' Association. The duty devolved upon Rev. Mr. Cooley to
preaeli the funeral services over his comrade's body. At the time of his death Robert Carran was the oldest member of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County.
He died at the home of his son, Charles HI. Carran, 1496 West Clifton Boulevard, and his funeral was conducted at the home of his son, Lewis C., 1963 East Seventy-third Street. He was laid to rest in Highland Park Cemetery, Kinsman Road, in Warrensville. As a young man Robert Carran had helped clear the land and lay out this cemetery. He was the father of eleven ehildren, and was survived by three sons and a daughter: Charles H., Lewis C., Robert A. and Mrs. Nattie Carr, all of whom reside in Cleveland.
In commemorating the memory of Robert Carran resolutions adopted by the Conneil of the City of Cleveland at the time of his death are here inserted :
"File No. 35034.
"Mr. McGinty.
"Whereas, Robert Carran, the oldest resi- dent of Cleveland dies this day in the hun- dred and second year of his age; and
"Whereas, Robert Carran has for years rep- resented to old and young alike in this eom- munity that sturdy, pioneer type of citizen- ship which has made both the material prog- ress and the idealism of the city possible ; now, therefore,
"Be it Resolved: That the Council of the City of Cleveland does hereby extend to the family of Robert Carran its respectful sym- pathy and by this resolution records upon its official proceedings the respect and affection of the people for this pioneer, early settler.
"Adopted by a rising vote November 16, 1914.
"Approved by the Mayor November 18, 1914.
"I, Richard E. Collins, Clerk of the Council of the City of Cleveland, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct eopy of resolution (File No. 35034) adopted by the Couneil of the City of Cleveland on November 16, 1914.
"Witness my hand and official seal at Cleve- land, Ohio, this 3rd day of January, 1914. "RICHARD E. COLLINS, "Clerk of Council."
LEWIS C. CARRAN has been a well known Cleveland citizen and prominently identified
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with the oil industry and oil business for a long period of years. He is a son of the late Robert Carran, who died recently in Cleveland more than a century old after having lived in the city for three-quarters of a century. The career of this notable Cleveland man is sketched on other pages. Robert Carran mar- ried Elizabeth Kneale, who died when Lewis C. was an infant.
The latter was born at Cleveland October 13, 1852, and was well educated, graduating in 1870 from Baldwin University at Berea and in 1874 from Knox College at Gambier, Ohio. For the past thirty-five years he has been in the oil business and for a number of years was head of the L. C. Carran Company, oil manufacturers. He owned and operated a refinery but about thirty years ago sold out to the Standard Oil Company and since then has been a dealer in wholesale oils. In 1874, on finishing college, he was appointed by the state commissioners as superintendent of in- struction at the Ohio Reform School and filled that office two years.
Mr. Carran was a member of the Cleveland City Council from 1885 to 1889 and has always been a stanch republican. He is now a di- rector of the Dime Savings & Trust Company, and was one of the earliest members and is still active in the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce. He also belongs to the City Club, the Willowick Country Club, St. Agnes Church, and is prominent in the Early Settlers' As- sociation.
A very happy and appropriate honor was bestowed upon Mr. Carran when he was ap- pointed by former Mayor Baker and subse- quently by Mayor Davis to succeed his honored father as the official flag raiser on Cleveland day, September 10th of this year, for the an- niversary of Perry's victory on Lake Erie. Judge Alexander Hadden, president of the Early Settlers' Association, also appointed him chairman of the program committee for the celebration of Perry's Day, an annual event which takes place on the Public Square at Cleveland. It was the late Robert Carran's express wish when he died that his son, Lewis, should succeed him as flag raiser and it was also by invitation of the City of Cleveland that Mr. Carran accepted the honor of carrying forward the tradition of raising the flag on the Public Square to inaugurate Cleveland Day. Together with this invitation went a letter from the Director of Public Service
which contained the following words: "Your father performed this service for years and was the city's appointed custodian of this tradition. It is entirely fitting that its con- tinued performance in the future be kept in the Carran family in memory and out of respect to him who initiated it."
The raising of the flag is an act symbolizing and rededicating Cleveland every year to the patriotism which inspired the founders of the city and the founders of the nation, and no family could exhibit more cogent proofs of patriotic sacrifice as a justification of the flag- raising honor than the Carrans. Robert Car- ran at the outbreak of the Civil war is said to have called his four boys home from college, and all of them responded to the invitation to join the colors and help preserve the Union. Three of them filled soldiers' graves. One of them was color bearer of his regiment and was struck down at the battle of Missionary Ridge. Reference to this was made by the flag-day orator in June, 1917, after L. C. Carran had for the first time officiated in his new duties after the death of his father. "We are gath- ered here," said Attorney J. J. Sullivan, "to pay a fitting tribute to the brave sons of 'Old Man' Carran, who sent four sons to the Civil war and who for thirty-five years after raised the flag on Flag day, here on Public Square."
Mr. L. C. Carran married at Peninsula, Ohio, November 23, 1896, Miss Grace E. Cas- sidy, daughter of A. R. and Agnes (Doherty) Cassidy, of Peninsula. Her parents now live retired in Cleveland. Her father in his active days was a cheese manufacturer and had the largest business of its kind in Summit County, Ohio, operating in his time fourteen factories. Mr. and Mrs. Carran have three children : Agnes E., L. C., Jr., and A. J. Carran.
MARK ANSON COPELAND is a prospering Cleveland lawyer. qualified to practice over fifteen years ago, he has been steadily making his way to the front in his profession. He now has a large general clientage, and has offices in the Williamson Building.
He was born at Bristolville, Trumbull County. Ohio, December 16, 1877. His father, Anson T. Copeland, was born at Lorraine, New York, where his father was a carpenter and contractor. Anson T. was born in 1830, was educated in the Wesleyan University at Mid- dletown, Connecticut, and prepared for a career as a Methodist minister. He joined the
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East Ohio Conference in the early '70s and had different charges at Kent, Bristolville, Bedford, Canfield and Rootstown, Windsor, Lisbon, Green, Freeport and Nelson. He re- mained in the ministry an active worker until shortly before his death which occurred at Girard, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1897. Rev. Mr. Copeland married Minerva Detchon, who was born in Poland, Ohio, March 31, 1839, and died at Cleveland July 30, 1899. Her father, Solomon Detchon, was a native of England and for many years a prosperous farmer at Poland, Ohio. She had a brother, Wilbur Fisk Detchon, who went with an Ohio regiment in the Civil war, was a sharpshooter and was killed at the explosion of a mine at Petersburg, Virginia. Mark A. Copeland was one of four children. His brother, Wilbur F., is a schoolman and educator. The sisters are Blanche, widow of Frank S. Masten, a Cleve- land attorney, and Rena, widow of Clinton D. Goss of Cleveland.
His father being a minister, the Copeland home during Mark's early life was in differ- ent towns and cities and in each of them he advanced by a term or two of instruction in the local schools. In 1894 he graduated from the high school of Girard, Pennsylvania, and then spent one year in Allegheny College at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and another year in Adelbert College of Cleveland. He is a vet- eran of the Spanish-American war, having en- listed June 2, 1898, as a private in Company K of the Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to the rank of corporal and re- mained on duty with his regiment for nine months.
In 1901 Mr. Copeland graduated LL. B. from the Western Reserve University Law School at Cleveland, and before taking up in- dividnal practice had the value of association and experience for fourteen months in the law offices of Goulder, Holding & Masten. He then formed a partnership with Pierce D. Metzger, under the name Metzger & Copeland, which firm was dissolved in 1906. He has many well won distinctions and successes as a member of the Cleveland bar.
Mr. Copeland is a republican in politics. September 14, 1904, he married Miss Louise Wellsted, daughter of Thomas H. and Eliza- beth (Bisonnette) Wellsted of Cleveland. Her father died in 1893. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Copeland are Mark Anson, Jr., born July 31, 1905, and Thomas Wellsted, born July 10, 1907.
LUCIEN SEYMOUR. By reason of his position as grand secretary of the Grand Council of Ohio of the Royal Arcanum Lucien Seymour is undoubtedly one of the best known men in the state. While he has filled this office on two different occasions, Mr. Seymour has been prominent in other lines of business en- deavor, both at Ashtabula and Cleveland. He is a man of exceptional qualifications for his present post and it is also an honor fitly be- stowed considering the fact that he is one of the veteran members of the Royal Arcanum.
Historically this great fraternity and in- surance order was organized at Boston with nine members on June 23, 1877. On October 11, 1879, a little more than two years later, Mr. Seymour became affiliated with the order and there is perhaps no man in Ohio who is better acquainted with Royal Arcanum his- tory and has been more interested in main- taining and upbuilding the great organiza- tion. Besides his present office he is also a past grand regent of Ohio for the order. His offices as grand secretary are in the Engineers Building at Cleveland.
Mr. Seymour was born in Plymouth Town- ship, Ashtabula County, Ohio, September 2, 1853. His people were pioneers in Ashtabula County, his grandfather Robert Seymour set- tling in Plymouth Township in 1814, while the War of 1812 was still in progress. The Seymour family was established by three brothers in Connecticut at the very earliest period of the history of that colony. Mr. Sey- mour's great-grandfather was a soldier patriot of the Revolutionary war and he is eligible to membership in the Sons of the American Revo- lution and his only sister is a Daughter of the American Revolution. Coming west to Ohio, Grandfather Seymour drove the entire dis- tance with an ox team and spent many useful years of his life as a farmer. He died at Ashtabula when ninety years of age. The parents of Lucien Seymour were William and Virginia (Cooper) Seymour. William Sey- mour was born in Plymouth Township in 1824 and his wife at Camillus, New York, in 1826. They were married at Rochester, New York. For a number of years William Seymour fol- lowed farming but in 1862 removed to Ashta- bula, learned the carpenter's trade and fol- lowed that trade and worked as a contractor for many years. For a time he and others were associated in the operation of a planing mill at Ashtabula. He was a very active citi- zen, always put himself in line with other
Vol. 11-24
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citizens in promoting something of good to the community, served as a member of the board of education and as a member of the city coun- cil of Ashtabula and was the first mayor of that city elected under the municipal code making the term of two years. Politically he was what might be described as a red hot re- publican. His death occurred in Ashtabula September 13, 1899, at the age of seventy-five, and his widow passed away March 22, 1903. Both are buried at Ashtabula. They were members of the Episcopal Church. Their two children were Lucien and Fanny, wife of J. F. Munsell, an attorney at Ashtabula.
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