A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 8

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 8

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GEORGE BENNETT SIDDALL is one of Cleve- land's foremost lawyers and most helpful and sterling citizens. His abilities have been espe- cially recognized in the field of banking and corporation law, where he is probably not excelled by any other member of the Cleveland bar. Mr. Siddall has been in practice at Cleve- land for twenty years, and is a member of one of the city's best known law firms, Hender- son, Quail, Siddall & Morgan.

The Siddall family have been identified with Ohio since pioneer times. Some of his an- cestors were soldiers in the War of the Revolu- tion and the War of 1812. George Bennett Siddall was born at Oberlin, Ohio, December 13, 1866. a son of Dr. James F. and Orinda (Candee) Siddall. His father was of Virginia ancestry. and his mother of New England stock. His mother was of Scotch and English origin and her lineage was closely entwined with that of the MeAlpine family. Dr. James F. Siddall was born in Ohio, and became a prominent dentist at Oberlin, where he located in 1854. He died at Oberlin October 12, 1909,

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

at the age of seventy-seven. His wife, who was born in Michigan, is still living. Five of their six children survive, and one of them is Dr. W. A. Siddall, a dentist at Cleveland.

Fourth in age among his brothers and sisters, George Bennett Siddall grew up in Oberlin, attended the public schools and Ober- lin College, and received the A. B. degree from that splendid institution in 1891. He possesses scholarly attainments that would have enabled him to adorn any profession, and for two years after his graduation he con- tinued with Oberlin College as a teacher of mathematics. Choosing the law, he entered the Western Reserve Law School, where he pursued his studies two years, and on March 12, 1896, was admitted to the bar at Columbus. Beginning practice at Cleveland, he steadily fought his way to success where competition was keenest, and has won a number of notable triumphs in corporation practice. It was Mr. Siddall who organized and furnished both the legal and commercial wisdom for the develop- ment of The Peerless Motor Car Company, of which he is a director and secretary. He has various other financial and commercial connections. On January 1, 1904, he became associated with the old firm of Henderson & Quail and Mr. Morgan subsequently became a member of the partnership.

Mr. Siddall is a member of the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar associations, is a democrat on issues of national politics, but has been looked upon as somewhat of a leader in inde- pendent movements when municipal questions are at stake. Outside of the law he has given much of his time to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. For one year he was a director and for three years served as chairman of its committee on education. In the latter capacity he was instrumental in formulating the present school code of the state. In the Chamber of Commerce he has also been chair- man of the committee on legislation. Among the various other organizations in which he has membership are the Union University, and Mayfield clubs of Cleveland, the Co- lumbus Club of Columbus, and the Uni- versity Club of Chicago. His principal recreation is golf. He is a member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church of Cleveland.

Mr. Siddall was married August 17, 1892, at Calumet, Michigan, to Miss Nettie M. Dan- ielson, daughter of John A. Danielson. Her father was in the continuous employ of the Calumet and Hecla copper mines for nearly sixty years, and during the later years of his

life was its superintendent. Mrs. Siddall is a woman of thorough culture and especially well known in musical circles in Cleveland. She is a graduate of the Conservatory of Music at Oberlin with the class of 1891. Mr. and Mrs. Siddall have a beautiful home, and they have the social position which people of culture most desire.

ZERAH COSTON MONKS, who died at his home in Cleveland May 25, 1909, at the age of sixty-eight, was for nearly forty years an active resident of this city, and for the last ten years of his life had served as inspector of buildings for the board of education and library board, a position which he held until his last illness.

He was born at Curlsville, Clarion County, Pennsylvania, in 1841. He came of old American stock. His grandfather, William Monks, came to this country from the north of Ireland in time to participate as a soldier in the Revolutionary war. William Monks married a Scotch woman.

The parents of Zerah C. Monks were Rev. William and Harriet (Burns) Monks. Rev. William Monks was born in 1806 and died in 1860, while his wife was born in 1807 and died in 1845. They were married at Curlsville, Cla- rion County, Pennsylvania. Rev. William Monks was a circuit rider of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and carried on his mis- sionary and pastoral enterprise for years in the vicinity of Akron, Ohio.

At the age of twenty-one Zerah C. Monks enlisted as a soldier in the Union army, and was first in Company C of the Fifty-second Regiment and then in the Fifty-fifth Penn- sylvania Volunteer Infantry. He held the rank of first sergeant, and was in the great Army of the Potomac. On the second day of the battle of Gettysburg he was captured and spent a number of months in the rebel prison at Belle Isle in the James River.

He removed to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1871 and for many years was a leading carpenter con- tractor on the south side, until he accepted the position of building inspector with the board of education and the library board. His funeral was held at the Jennings Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was long a member.

His wife, Mrs. Hannah T. Monks, who died at her home in Cleveland January 31, 1912, was born in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1842. She had lived on the south side in Cleveland over forty years. She was survived

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

by her sister, Mrs. E. Holmden, in Cleveland, and also by a sister in Oklahoma and a sister and brother in Vineland, New Jersey.

Zerah C. Monks and wife had four chil- dren : William J., now assistant principal of the Lincoln High School at Cleveland; Thomas E., president of the Cleveland Na- tional Bank; Dr. Margaret B., whose offices as a physician are in the Lenox Building; and Hattie E., wife of Claude E. Betts. Mrs. Betts is a teacher in the West Boys School and is actively interested in the Juvenile Court work of Cleveland.

THOMAS ELBRIDGE MONKS, president of the Cleveland National Bank, even when a school- boy was a storehouse of energy and started his career with more business push than many men acquire in a lifetime of experience. It is said that while he was attending high school he carried one of the largest paper routes on the south side of the city, and the spirit of service that actuated the newsboy was a qual- ity that attracted to him even then many warm friends. He sold his paper route at the same time he left school and in the past thirty years has been carving out a career for himself of no inconsiderable magnitude.

Mr. Monks was born in Greenwich, Con- necticut, August 9, 1869, but has spent prac- tically all his life in Cleveland since he came here in 1871 with his parents, the late Zerah C. and Hannah T. Monks. A sketch of his honored father appears on other pages. Thomas E. Monks was educated in the Cleve- land public schools, attending the West High School. From high school he entered upon his first regular position with the Lockwood-Tay- lor Hardware Company, now a part of the Lockwood-Luetkemeyer-Henry Company. Two years later he left this firm to take a job in the freight department of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company under G. W. Andrews, the local freight agent. After one year there he transferred his abilities to the Erie Railway in the freight department under J. M. Booth, freight agent. During his long service with this company the dynamic energy of his nature was given a thorough dis- cipline and Mr. Monks credits the training he received in the freight department of that rail- road with much of his later success. He re- mained with the freight department ten years, being appointed chief clerk of the forwarding department.

From the railroad he entered the employ of the city as deputy city treasurer, having

been appointed by George P. Kurtz in 1899. He remained in the city treasurer's office for seven years, three years under Mr. Kurtz and four years under Mr. H. D. Coffinberry.

All of this was a very fine training for the banker. On January 3, 1906, Mr. Monks be- came loan clerk in The Guardian Savings and Trust Company, and after one year was elected assistant secretary of the institution and remained a useful and appreciative fac- tor in that great banking house until he was chosen president of the Cleveland National Bank on August 4, 1916. He has been presi- dent of this bank since September 1, 1916.

The Cleveland National Bank, which was organized in 1883, has enjoyed a phenomenal increase of business during the years since Mr. Monks became president. The bank is now almost a $10,000,000 institution in point of resources, an itemized report of June, 1917, crediting it with resources of over $9,000,000. From June, 1916, to June, 1917, its deposits increased 116 per cent, the total increase be- ing nearly $3,500,000. Mr. Monks is also on the advisory board of The Guardian Savings & Trust Company, and several of the active officers are connected with both institutions. The chairman of the board of the Cleveland National is Mr. H. P. McIntosh, president of The Guardian Savings & Trust Company. The other executive officers are F. W. Wardwell and T. W. Hill, vice presidents, and R. P. Sears, cashier.

Mr. Monks has been more or less active in local Cleveland politics, and at the present writing he would classify himself as a mug- wump. In national affairs generally he is a republican. Some years ago he was a candi- date for city auditor and also county clerk of Cuyahoga County, but he says there were too many democrats around who did not want him in those positions.

Mr. Monks is a member of the Union Club, Bankers Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, Clif- ton Club, Hermit Club, American Institute of Bankers, Cleveland Automobile Club, West- wood Country Club, of which he is secretary, Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and for two years was a director and is still a member of the West Side Chamber of Industry. His recreations are golf and motoring and, chief of all, banking.

June 22, 1893, Mr. Monks married Miss Mabel B. Allen, daughter of Rev. J. B. and Sarah (Barnum) Allen. Her father was a Presbyterian minister and died at Cleveland as the clock struck midnight on Thanksgiving,

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

November 30, 1893. Mrs. Monks' mother was a member of the Barnum family of Olmsted Falls, and died in Cleveland January 20, 1905. Mrs. Monks was born at what is now known as Rocky River near Cleveland, and received her education in old Calvin College on West Twenty-fifth Street in the Village of Brook- lyn. This college was under the management of a board of trustees appointed by the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Monks have one daughter, Catherine E., who grad- uated from the Lakewood High School in 1911 and for three years was a student in the Woman's College of Western Reserve Uni- versity, ill health preventing her completing the course. The Monks family live at 1071 Maplecliff in Lakewood.

REV. JOIIN B. ALLEN. The memory of Rev. John B. Allen is chiefly preserved in the Vil- lage of Brooklyn, now part of the City of Cleveland, where for many years he labored with enthusiasm and a singularly high devo- tion in the cause of the ministry of the Pres- byterian Church.

He was of old New England ancestry, born at Sturbridge, Massachusetts, October 12, 1813. Largely by his own efforts he ac- quired a liberal education, graduating from Union College in the class of 1840, and was honor man in a class of more than 100 stu- dents. After leaving college he spent one year in the Union Theological Seminary, and then went to the seminary at East Windsor, Connecticut, where he completed his theo- logical course two years later. He was or- dained to the ministry and entered upon his life work as pastor of a small Presbyterian Church at Covington, Pennsylvania. Rev. Mr. Allen was called to the Brooklyn Church near Cleveland in 1856 and served there con- tinnously for eleven years. Though he had other pastorates it is in connection with his work at Brooklyn Village that he will be long- est remembered. He was a man of strong character and was remarkably modest of his attainments, and others placed a much higher estimation upon his abilities and services than he did himself. Altogether he lived a busy and unselfish life and the community sus- tained a severe loss when he was taken away, though he died in the fullness of years. His death occurred at his home at No. 12 Mills Street in Brooklyn Village as the clock struck twelve, midnight, on Thanksgiving night No- vember 30, 1893, when a little past eighty

years of age. He was laid to rest in River- side Cemetery.

Rev. Mr. Allen was active in the ministry until about 1887. For about twenty years he had pastorates in churches at Brooklyn and Rockport, and at one time was also pas- tor of the Archwood Avenue Congregational Church.

His last marriage occurred at Rockport, Ohio, October 31, 1867. Sarah Barnum, daughter of John and Eunice Barnum, of the old Barnum family of Olmstead, Ohio, became his wife. She was born September 13, 1831, and died at the home of her only child and daughter, Mrs. Thomas E. Monks, Jan- uary 20, 1905, at the age of seventy-three. Mrs. Monks, whose maiden name was Mabel Boyd Allen, was born in what is now Rocky River.

WILLIAM H. BOYD. That the Cleveland bar contains some of the ablest and brightest minds of the legal profession in America is a state- ment requiring no special proof. Among so many who have justly earned the laurels of the profession, individual distinctions are mainly hased upon special lines of service within the profession. During the twenty- five years he has practiced at Cleveland Wil- liam H. Boyd has come to rank among the leaders of the bar and in the opinion of men well qualified to judge he ranks with hardly a superior as a trial lawyer between New York and Chicago.

It was the possession of thorough natural talent and hard working industry that brought Mr. Boyd to his present place rather than influential connections and bestowed advan- tages during his youth. He is a native of Southern Ohio. having heen horn at Fairview in Guernsey County, August 11, 1864. He is a son of George W. and Mary A. Bovd. He grew up in a rural community. attended dis- triet schools and also the public schools of Fairview. Like many professional men he did his time as a teacher. He taught school four years. In 1888 he hegan the study of law under private instruction at Clairsville, Ohio. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1890 and the same year located at Cleveland. Mr. Boyd is a member of the well known law firm of Westenhaver. Rovd & Brooks, with offices in the Garfield Building.

Though he came to Cleveland a comparative stranger. Mr. Bovd soon found himself and after a few preliminary experiences hecame recognized as one of the most resourceful ad-

M.N. Boydo

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

vocates before a jury among the younger gen- eration. He possesses exceptional powers as an orator both in court and in the public forum, and these qualities, combined with a broad knowledge of the law, has given him his numerous important relations with the legal profession of Northern Ohio. By dint of long practice he has acquired the power of swiftly formulating his arguments and is at the same time one of the most concise and powerful pleaders before a court or jury.

With him his professional work has always been supreme, and lacking the time to give to outside interests he has always declined to become a director or officer in any corpora- tion and his public record has also been brief. While living in Southern Ohio he was clerk of the Village and Township of Flushing dur- ing 1888-89. In 1897-98 he served as assistant director of law of Cleveland. In July and August, 1891, he was acting police prosecutor in Cleveland during the absence of Mr. Fielder, the regular prosecutor. In politics he is a republican and has given invaluable service to his party as an exemplar of fairness and honesty. In 1905 he was republican candidate for mayor of Cleveland against the late Tom L. Johnson.

On September 7, 1892, he married Miss Anna Maud Judkins, of Flushing, Ohio. Mrs. Boyd died at Cleveland September 23, 1908. Their daughter Mildred A. died Jannary 22, 1911. There is one surviving daughter, Mary G. Boyd. Mr. Boyd is a member of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church and be- longs to the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Tippecanoe Club, the Western Reserve Club, and is a Mason and Knight of Pythias.

GEORGE HUMPHREY BURROWS. The achieve- ment of success is usually a matter of per- forming the duties that lie nearest, persis- tently and faithfully, through a considerable period of years. The individual capacity ex- pands with increasing responsibilities and op- portunities, and the chief actor is very often uneonscious of being more than ordinarily successful.

This has been true in the case of Mr. George H. Burrows, a Cleveland lawyer and business man, whose position, judged by his contempo- raries, is securely anchored in snecess. Mr. Burrows was born at Wakeman, Huron County, Ohio, May 18, 1863. He is a son of Asa William Burrows, of old Connecticut stoek, who moved to Melrose, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, during the eighteenth

century, and for several generations the family were well-to-do operators of woolen mills. Mr. Burrows' father was born in Sus- quehanna County, graduated from Jefferson Medieal College of Philadelphia in 1848, and afterwards practiced medicine in Ohio, part of the time in Cleveland, until his death in 1877. Doctor Burrows married Nancy Ann Humphrey. She was born in Cleveland March 30, 1837. Her birthplace was a log house standing back of the site now occupied by the Cleveland Trust Bank Building on East Ninth Street. Her grandfather served as postmaster of New York about 1790. Her father married Janette Ball, and for a time lived on Grand Island in Niagara River, where Indians were frequently guests in their log house.

George H. Burrows was fourteen years old when his father died. In the meantime he had made the best of the advantages of the Cleve- land public schools, but after his father's death he had to work for a living, and during four successive summer seasons he served as a common seaman on a schooner on the Great Lakes. The winters were spent in school and he entered Riverside Academy at Wellsville, New York. Though he finished the regular course, his money failed and he had to go to work before graduating.

After leaving school his first regular oecu- pation was in the office of the A. S. Herenden Furniture Company. He began there in 1885 on a salary of $10 a week. He was getting that modest stipend when he married. In 1887 a better opening came to him as secretary of the Cleveland Coal Exchange, at $50 a month, a position he held for two years. At the same time he became secretary of the Mer- chants and Manufacturers Exchange Com- pany, an association including nearly all of Cleveland's wholesale houses. He began there at $50 a month, and finally was promoted until he had a salary of $3,000 a year and remained with the Exchange for ten years.

While a substantial living was thus assured him and his family, he turned his attention to the study of law under P. H. Kaiser of Cleveland. He was admitted to practice Octo- ber 5, 1893. but continued his work as seere- tary of the Merchants and Manufacturers Ex- change Company until he entered general practice in 1898.

As a lawyer Mr. Burrows has given a large share of his time and attention to business affairs. He is properly classed as a corpora- tion lawyer, and has organized and promoted a number of large enterprises, with which he

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

has been officially identified. He is a stock- holder in the Vero Beach Development Com- pany, an Ohio corporation owning large prop- erty interests on the east coast of Florida and is organizing the Casa-Grande Hotel Com- pany. This company now has under construc- tion a $1,500,000 hostelry, known as the Casa- Grande Hotel at Miami Beach, Dade County, Florida. When completed the Casa-Grande Hotel will be one of the greatest hotel prop- erties in Florida and the company will be incorporated at $1,500,000. It will without doubt be one of the finest properties both as an investment and resort in that section of Florida, and Mr. Burrows has given much of his valuable time to the promotion of this enterprise. He was active in the organization and building and is attorney for, director and stockholder of the Ideal Tire and Ruhber Com- pany, manufacturers of automobile tires and tubes. This is a $2,000,000 corporation. He has been similarly identified with the Mason Tire and Rubber Company, a $3,000,000 or- ganization, and is a director and stockholder in the Portage Packing Company, whose plant is at Akron, a stockholder of the Cleveland Development Company, the Chagrin River Land and Investment Company, and at dif- ferent times has been identified with a num- ber of other smaller concerns.

A number of years ago Mr. Burrows was a member of the Pennsylvania National Guards. In politics strict party allegiance has never been deemed a virtue by Mr. Burrows, and he has voted for the man and the principles rather than the party, though his leanings are toward the republican organization. Likewise he has never indulged any individual political aspirations. He is a member of the United Commercial Travelers, the Old Colony Club, the Cleveland Commercial Travelers and Ac- cident Association, the Cleveland Automobile Club, and is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church.

April 8, 1885, at Cleveland he married Miss Ida Bell Folliett, a daughter of Henry C. and Mary Folliett. Her family is of Connecticut stock. They have two children. Ethel Ida Gamble, whose husband is fighting in France. G. Howard Burrows is now a senior in the School of Architecture at Ann Arbor, Michi- gan.

JUDGE THOMAS K. DISSETTE has been one of the most distinguished citizens and lawyers of Cleveland for over half a century. Only

recently he retired from the burdens of active practice and as much as any other Cleveland citizen has deserved the distinction described in the classic phrase "otium cum dignitate." He has a varied and interesting career, and for a number of years was a judge of the Common Pleas Court. To that office he brought an experience and wisdom which made his findings and decisions noted for im- partiality and accuracy.

Judge Dissette was born at Bradford, Sim- coe County, Ontario, Canada, September 22, 1838. He has now attained those years which when associated with so much that is good and worthy in life furnish ample reason for calling him, as many of his younger associates do, the "grand old man of the Cleveland bar." Judge Dissette had a liberal educa- tion. He attended the public and classical schools in Canada, and in 1863 came to the United States and in the following year en- tered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the North Ohio Conference. Dur- ing 1864 he served in the Christian Commis- sion before Petersburg and Richmond in the Ninth Corps Army of the Potomac. He was active in the ministry until 1875, filling pul- pits at Bolivar, Millersburg, Ontario, Ash- land, Berea and the Lorain Street Church in Cleveland.

In 1874 he entered the Cleveland Law School and was graduated and admitted to the Ohio bar by the Supreme Court in 1875. For the following year he was in partnership with the late Judge W. E. Sherwood under the name Sherwood & Dissette. From June, 1878, to July, 1879, he was a member of the firm of Dissette & Mitchell, his partner he- ing the late William Mitchell. From 1880 to July, 1885, he was associated with M. W. Cope under the title Dissette & Cope. Mr. Dissette in the earlier period of his prac- tice had much to do with the communities of Glenville and Collinwood. For a number of years he was legal adviser to the editor of the Ohio Farmer, and he was author of a legal work known as the Ohio Farmer's Law Book. He also for a time was president of a brick and tile manufacturing company at Collin- wood.

During 1879-80 he served as captain of Company B in the Fifteenth Ohio National Guard. Judge Dissette was made assistant prosecuting attorney of Cuyahoga County on January 1, 1885, and had charge of the solici- tor's department. He held that office for nine

CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS

years. He resigned this position to go on the Common Pleas bench. Judge Dissette was judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Cuyahoga County from December, 1894, un- til December, 1904. He served two successive terms, ten years in all. After leaving the bench he resumed private practice with his son Edward W. under the name Dissette & Dissette, but in 1915 he retired from all pro- fessional work.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 8

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