A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 81

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 81

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At Macomb, Illinois, June 21, 1893, Mr. Hull married Adelina V. Sommers. Mrs. Hull Mr. York is also connected as a stockholder or director in twenty or more companies at Cleveland and elsewhere, including the In- terstate Foundry Company and the Morris Plan Bank of Cleveland. He served as presi- dent of the City Club of Cleveland in 1916-17 and is a member of the Cleveland Chamber League, Cleveland Athletic Club, University Club, Mayfield Country Club, Cleveland Auto- mobile Club, Ohio Society of New York, and the Euclid Avenue Christian Church. He has his home on Sheridan Road, South Euclid. was born at Macomb, Illinois, a daughter of Col. S. L. Sommers, who was an officer in the Confederate army and on General Lee's staff. Both Colonel Sommers and his wife and their ancestors far back were members of First Families of Virginia and represented the flower of the Virginia aristocracy. Mr. and. of Commerce, Union Club, City Club, Civic Mrs. Hull have three children : Margaret E .. the oldest, graduated from the East High School in 1913 and is now a senior in the Col- lege for Women of the Western Reserve Uni- versity. The son, John S., graduated with the class of 1917 of the Shaw High School, while Elizabeth, the youngest child, is in the class · of 1919 in the Shaw High School. All were

January 16, 1896, he married Miss Kate Dougherty, of Mason County, Kentucky. Mrs. York was born and educated in Kentucky, a

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daughter of Dr. Jacob and Amanda (Miner) Dougherty, both of whom died in that state. Mr. and Mrs. York have one daughter, born at Cleveland, named Georgia.

JAMES RITCHIE has been a resident of Cleve- land almost continuously since 1884. As a eivil and consulting engineer his special serv- ices and his general practice have brought him an enviable reputation in American engineer- ing circles. Railway officials in particular re- gard James Ritchie as one of the experts most nearly infallible in all matters of engineering detail connected with the laying out and con- struction of roads.

Mr. Ritchie was born at Roxbury, now part of the City of Boston, Massachusetts, August 1, 1856. His choiee of a technical profession is in part at least a matter of inheritance or of emulation of his father. His father, James Ritchie, Sr., was born at Needham. Massa- chusetts, and graduated from Harvard Col- lege with the class of 1835 and the degree B. A. When he left college he started to teach school. About the time of his graduation he was given a letter of recommendation as a teacher from the then president of Harvard College. This letter, written more than eighty years ago, is carefully preserved by his son James. James Ritchie, Sr., was teacher and principal of Partridge Academy at Duxbury, Massachusetts. It was within view of this old town where he may be said to have begun his mature eareer that he lost his life while attempting to bring a yacht into the Duxbury Harbor. The boat struck a rock just outside the harbor, was capsized, and went to the bot- tom. The body of James Ritchie was never re- covered from the sea. This tragedy occurred March 15, 1873, when he was fifty-eight years of age. He was born in 1815. After teaching at Partridge Academy several years he took up civil engineering and was on the survey for the original location of the Genesee Valley Canal in New York. At one time he served as mayor of Roxbury, and was a member of the executive council of Massachusetts under Gov- ernor Andrew during Civil war times. He was a member of the State Legislature and was United States assessor of internal revenue with offiees in Boston. Politically he began voting as a free soiler and later became a rock ribbed republican. He was a Mason, being affiliated with Washington Lodge, Ancient Free & Ac- cepted Masons, at Roxbury. He married at Needham, Massachusetts, Mary J. Kimball. who was born at Hingham, Massachusetts. She

died at the home of her daughter at Hyde Park, Massachusetts, in March, 1897, aged sev- enty-nine. She was the mother of four chil- dren, three daughters and one son. Two of the daughters are still living.

Mr. James Ritchie is the only member of the family in Ohio. IIe was educated in the famous preparatory school, Roxbury Latin School, and graduated in 1878 from the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology with the de- gree Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering. Only a brief outline of his important asso- eiations, experiences and work during the sub- sequent forty years can be attempted.

Ile was assistant engineer on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, assistant engi- neer on the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, assistant engineer on the Mississippi River Im- provement under Capt. W. L. Marshall, U. S. Army. Coming to Cleveland in the fall of 1884, he has served as park engineer at Cleve- land, instructor in civil engineering in the Case School of Applied Science, engineer in charge of construction of second track, bridges and shops of the Erie Railroad from Cleveland to Youngstown. His duties then called him to Pennsylvania, where he was general superin- tendent of the Mckeesport & Belle Vernon Railroad, chief engineer of the Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory. He served as principal assistant engineer of the C. C. C. & St. L., the Big Four System. Some of the larger in- dividual achievements of Mr. Ritchie as an engineer are as follows: Designed and super- intended the construction of Lorain Drydock No. 1, 500 feet long ; Bay City Drydock, 450 feet ; Baltimore Drydock, 625 feet ; Cleveland Drydock No. 2, 500 feet; Lorain Drydock No. 2. 700 feet ; Buffalo Drydock No. 4, 450 feet ; two fueling docks on St. Mary's River in Michigan for the Pittsburgh Coal Company and for Pickands, Mather & Company. and the boiler, machine shop, shipbuilding shops and the launching ways of the American Ship- building Company at Cleveland and Lorain.

He served as engineer in charge of the sur- vey party for the Deep Waterways Commis- sion of the United States as city engineer of Cleveland; consulting engineer for the Grade Elimination Commission of Cleveland ; con- sulting engineer on the Anrora, Elgin & Chi- cago Electric Railway; the Rockford. Beloit & Janesville Electric Railway, the Fort Wayne & Springfield Electric Railway, and the Cleve- land. Painesville & Ashtabula Electric Rail- way. While all his work has had more or less public or corporation character, he has never

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been a candidate for any elective office in politics, and the only formal public offices he has held has been as park and city engineer of Cleveland.

Mr. Ritchie is secretary and treasurer of the National Foundation and Engineering Company of Cleveland. He was chief engi- neer for this company during the construction of the Cherry Street bridge over the Maumee River and the Ash-Consaul Street bridge over the same river at Toledo, and the Clark Ave- nue viaduct and the B. & O. Railroad bridge at Cleveland ; also for the foundations of the Lincoln Memorial at Washington, D. C.

Recently Mr. Ritchie offered his services to the United States Government with the or- ganization of Cleveland Engineers in the war. He has always been interested in military af- fairs, and in 1885-86 was a member of the Cleveland Grays. He is a member and for- mer president of the Cleveland Engineering Society, a member of the American Society of Civil Enginers, and the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.

Angust 25, 1886, Mr. Ritchie married Mrs. Sarah E. Ruple, of Cleveland, sister of the late John F. Pankhurst, who was president of the Globe Iron Works of Cleveland, as men- tioned on other pages of this publication. Mrs. Ritchie is a member of the Fortnightly Musical Club and for many years has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Cleveland. Mr. Ritchie attends and supports this church but his membership is still with the First Congre- gational Church at Roxbury, Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Ritchie reside at 2046 East Nine- ty-sixth Street.

HAWKEN SCHOOL is a Cleveland institution which, though by its very nature can supply only a limited portion of the public with its privileges and advantages, deserves wider rec- ognition and to be better known. The familiar type of private school which so many Ohio boys and girls attended thirty or forty years ago has given way before the superior abili- ties and resources afforded by the public school system. But at the present time and for some years to come at least the public school, even in large and wealthy cities, has its deficiencies due to the necessary standardization of inethods and the lack of individual attention and care inevitable under a system where one teacher must supervise anywhere from twenty to eighty pupils.

Hawken School might therefore be called a school of "specialized attention," in which,

however the enrollment may increase, there is a definitely fixed relationship between the num- ber of pupils and instructors.

But the aims and scope of the school can best be stated in the words of the school pros- pectus itself.

"The school is a small day school for boys between the ages of five and fourteen. The aim of the school is found in Professor James' definition of the work of education, which he makes to consist chiefly and essentially in training the pupil to behavior; 'taking be- havior not in the narrow sense of his man- ners, but in the very widest possible sense, in- cluding every sort of fit reaction on the cir- cumstances into which he may find himself brought by the vicissitudes of life.' Our ef- fort is to increase and develop in the boy all the powers with which he is endowed, to meet successfully and control his environment ; and to do this while the boy has for his normal surroundings the home and home circle. We are training the boy only in such matters and in such ways as can be done more conveniently and more effectively than by the family itself. The school is so closely related to the home that the home and school life of the boy be- come a continuons whole. To preserve this unity our enrollment list shall always be small.

"Our classes are composed of no more than eight boys under the care of one teacher. This group arrangement is made to give the teacher the opportunity of adapting his methods to the needs of the individual boy. Recognizing that the boy not only differs from his com- panions in physical characteristics but pos- sesses individual and peculiar tendencies, tal- ents, tastes, etc., the school makes it the first duty of the teacher to learn the native ten- dencies of each boy, his characteristic traits, his abilities and disabilities. This knowledge is used in the classroom, and a record of it is kept for reference and for comparison with future data. Such a record, which includes each teacher's independent estimate of the boy, is given to the parents in the form of a report. In this way the teacher approaches each boy in the terms of the boy's own in- dividuality, and co-operation is obtained be- tween the parent and teacher in the common cause of discovering and leading out all that is best in the heart and mind of the boy and removing all hindrances to the development of that best.

"The subjects taught are those common to most primary and elementary schools. A very important place is given on our program to

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manual work, play and sense-training. Stand- ard tests for measuring ability in reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, etc., will be given monthly to each boy, but the educational value of the knowledge acquired by the boy at the school must be determined solely by its effects on the boy's will.

"An essential part of the school's cur- riculum are the formal classes in habit form- ing-specific drills that are intended to start the formation of the habits of obedience, ob- servation, concentration, attention, courtesy, and so on."

Ilawken School was established in 1915. The first year the enrollment was sixteen boys, and during the school year 1917-18 the enroll- ment was forty-eight.

FRANKLIN AYLESWORTH HANDRICK, M. D. Without the inscrutable wisdom which sees life in all its compensations and adjustments, humanity will express special regret and grief when some of the noblest lives are cut short in the midst of their most useful service and expression. This was true in Cleveland when the community suffered by death the loss of Dr. Franklin Aylesworth Handrick, one of the most brilliant physicians and surgeons of the city, who died there September 20, 1901, at the early age of thirty-three.

Doctor Handrick was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, in 1868, and in his brief life he gave much to mankind and added lustre to the dignity of an old American name. He was the son of Dr. E. L. and Martha D. (Leet) Handrick. His mother's family gave their name to Leet Island off the coast of Massachusetts, and the Leets have been promi- nent for 300 years in the affairs of Con- necticut and other New England colonies and states. Doctor Handrick's great-grand- father, Capt. Luther Leet, was a soldier and officer in the Revolutionary war. His grand- father, Dr. Calvin Leet, was a successful physician and surgeon, and Doctor Handrick inherited his profession also through his father, who became one of the best known doctors in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. Dr. E. L. Handrick was born in Snsquehanna County, in Jessup Township, June 9, 1840. He was educated in local schools, and was gradu- ated from the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. He began practice during the Civil war in the Borough of Friendsville, and was in active practice there for many years. He finally took up his residence at Friends- ville, Pennsylvania. Dr. E. L. Handrick's

father was Urania Stone Handrick. The Ifandricks are of Holland-English descent.

About the time Dr. E. L. Handrick located at Friendsville lie married Miss Martha D. Leet, daughter of Dr. Calvin D. Leet, of Friendsville. She died there April 3, 1907, while Dr. Handrick died November 5, 1916. Both are buried in the old Quaker Cemetery at Choconut, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Franklin Aylesworth Handrick was graduated from the same institution as his father, Jefferson Medical College of Philadel- phia. In 1895 he located at Cleveland, Ohio, and for the six years until his death, Sep- tember 20, 1901 was in active practice. April 5, 1899, he married Miss Gertrude M. Foran, a daughter of Judge Martin Foran. Doctor Handrick left two children surviving him. A sketch of Mrs. Gertrude M. Handrick appears below.

For one year Dr. Handrick served as house physician at the St. Alexis Hospital, for two years was district physician and for two years physician at the workhouse. His distinguish- ing traits were intense passionate love for his family, trne, sterling honesty, and the deep- est devotion to the daily duties of a doctor's life. Even his brief lifetime left its impress on many lives and encouraged loftier aims, purer thoughts and nobler deeds. Dr. Hand- rick was the only child of his parents, and he was laid to rest in the old Quaker cemetery in Pennsylvania where his father and mother lie buried.

GERTRUDE M. HANDRICK. The barriers of convention are high and strong, but so far as they have operated to restrain women from usefulness and service for which they are es- pecially qualified such barriers are being rap- idly broken down. Women have earned no- table distinction in the fields of education, in medicine, the law and as practical business executives.

It is noteworthy that where courageous lead- ership on the part of one individual effects an entrance into hitherto conventionally re- stricted arenas, the example is quickly fol- lowed by others. Thus Gertrude M. Hand- rick after her admission to the bar of Ohio by examination before the Supreme Court at Columbus, December 21, 1911, was the first woman lawyer to take up active practice in Cleveland, but today, after only five years, the bar of that city contains eighteen women lawyers.

Mrs. Handrick was Cleveland's first woman attorney, the first to practice in the city, and

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has undoubted rank as the leader of her sex in the profession. She also enjoys the envi- able distinction of being the only woman at- torney in Cleveland to whom has been entrusted the handling of large and important cases. She is both an advocate and a coun- selor, and when addressing a crowded court room she seeks no favors, except such as her merit and ability deserve. Mrs. Handrick is a lady in every sense of the word, and her presence in the profession has served to ele- vate its general tone. While she is in general practice, she does not encourage business con- nected with criminal cases or divorce cases, and much prefers corporation work and dam- age suits. In the course of her practice she has earned some splendid fees on such cases.

Mrs. Handriek was born in Cleveland, May 1, 1871, a daughter of Judge Martin A. Foran and Katherine (Kavanagh) Foran. Her father is now one of the judges of the Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, and his career is given in a special article on other pages of this publication. Her mother died in Cleve- land, May 20, 1893. Mrs. Handrick was born in one of her grandfather Kavanagh's houses, located on the West Side, on what was then called Washington Avenue and later Twenty- third Avenue, but today is Tillman Avenue, Northwest. The old house which was her birth- place is still standing. Grandfather Kavanagh was one of the early settlers of Cleveland, coming from Ireland. Besides his own resi- dence he built a number of tenant houses around it, after the fashion of grouping such houses as followed in Ireland. The house- holders all obtained their water from one well, and there were various other community prac- tices, such as modern American tenement districts no longer follow.

Mrs. Handrick was educated in private schools, in the Ursuline Convent at Villa An- geline, Ohio, and completed her literary train- ing in the Academy of the Visitation Con- vent at Georgetown, Washington, D. C., which she attended while her father was in Congress. Visitation Convent is one of the oldest, if not the oldest convent in the United States. She was graduated there June 20, 1888.

On April 5, 1899, at the old Wedell house, which is now torn down, at Cleveland, she married Dr. Franklin Avlesworth Handrick, a brilliant young physician and surgeon, who died September 20, 1901. A sketch of Doctor Handrick appears on other pages. At his death Mrs. Handrick was left with two chil- dren, Martha A., the older, died May 13, 1907,

at the age of seven years, two months. Mar- tin Foran Handrick, the only son, was born in Cleveland, June 12, 1901, and at the age of fifteen is said to be the strongest and best physically developed boy of his age in the city. He stands six feet, one inch tall, weighs 230 pounds, and is a graduate of the Loyola High School, a branch of the St. Ignatius Jesuit College. He plays left guard on the Loyola football team, and his ambition is to be an all-American guard. He has been appointed to enter Annapolis and will take examination February 19, 1919.

Even as a young girl Mrs. Handrick recog- nized strong predilections for the profession in which her father was a distinguished mem- ber. After her husband's death she deter- mined to earn a place in that vocation. As a stenographer she was employed in several different law offices, and for three years was secretary to her father before he went on the bench. Judge Foran was by no means favorable to her decision to become a lawyer, believing that the profession called for too much hard work for a woman, but he soon real- ized that her resolution was not subject to change, and he did all he could to increase her qualifications and early experience. In 1908 Mrs. Handrick entered the law department of Baldwin University, and was the only woman graduate in a class of thirty-six in 1911. Be- sides her law course she had been well trained under her father's direction. After her ad- mission to the bar she began practice at Cleve- land, January 1, 1912, and on March 20th of that year opened the office in the Society for Savings Building, where she is still located.

Mrs. Handrick is one of the ablest and most influential leaders in the suffrage movement in Cleveland, and was chairman of the Busi- ness Woman's Suffrage League in 1912 for one year. She took an active part in the suffrage campaign of 1912 and 1914, being captain of the Ninth Ward suffrage campaign of 1912. She also was one of the marchers in the suffrage campaign parade in Colum- bus in 1912, and at Cleveland in 1914.

Mrs. Handrick was the first woman attor- ney admitted to membership in the Cleve- land Bar Association. In 1913 she served on the committee on Woman's Organizations of the Cleveland Commission, Perry's Victory Centennial. She is a member of St. John's Cathedral, belongs to the Catholic Ladies of Columbia, being president of branch No. 14 of Cleveland for two years and delegate to conventions in 1912 and 1914. She was for-

El Tech.

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merly a member of the Ladies' Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland, but gave up active membership on account of the accumulating business connected with her profession.

THOMAS F. NEWMAN is one of the promi- nent figures in the Great Lakes transportation interests centering at Cleveland. Born and reared in this city, his first opportunity was given him as a minor workman and employe when he was about twenty years of age. Since that time he has been steadily climbing to re- sponsibility, and out of his experience and ability have come the chief part of the per- sonal resources that have developed the Cleve- land & Buffalo Transit Company as one of the larger organizations handling water traffic on Lake Erie.

Mr. Newman was born in Cleveland April 8, 1858. His father, Thomas Newman, was born in Huntingshire, England, in 1814, was reared and educated in the old country and learned the trade of cooper, and engaged in that business for himself. In 1850, coming to Cleveland, he established a cooperage plant and continued it in successful operation until his death in 1890. He identified himself with American politics as a republican voter and was a faithful member of the Baptist Church. In his native shire of England in 1838 he mar- ried Mary Ann Stokes. Of their six chil- dren the only one now living is Thomas F.

Thomas F. Newman had a public school education until he was sixteen. His first em- ployment was as assistant bookkeeper for the Cleveland Bulk Oil Company. In 1875, at the age of seventeen, he found a new oppor- tunity and went to work as general utility boy with the Detroit & Cleveland Steam Naviga- tion Company, now the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company. His industry and rapid comprehension of the business attracted atten- tion, and in 1878 he was advanced to chief clerk, and when in 1884 death removed Capt. L. A. Pierce, then general agent for the Cleve- land territory, Mr. Newman was appointed the captain's successor. He filled that position and acquired a valuable experience and knowl- edge of the lake boating business for about ten years.

In 1893 he resigned in order to organize the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Company, of which he has ever since been secretary and general manager. The president of the com- pany is M. A. Bradley, the vice president Al- bert Chisholm, and the treasurer A. T. Zill-

merr. This company operates four well known lake boats: The Seeandbee, which is the larg- est steamer of her class in the world; the ('ity of Eric, City of Buffalo, and State of Ohio. All these boats were built under the direct supervision of Mr. Newman with the excep- tion of the Ohio. These boats and the facili- ties of the company compete and receive a large share of the passenger and freight traf- fic between Cleveland and Buffalo, and also have Cedar Point, Put-in-Bay and Port Stan- ton as ports of call. It is a big business. re- quiring the services of 500 men, and though the company started on a small scale and mod- est 'capital there has been an increase since the beginning of fully 800 per cent. In 1901 Mr. Newman accepted a challenge for a con- test of speed between his steamer City of Erie and the steamer Tashmoo. a boat owned at Detroit. The course was laid between Cleve- land and Erie, Pennsylvania, a distance of 100 miles. The City of Erie won the race by forty-five seconds, and that proved her the fastest boat on the lake. The maximum speed on the coarse was better than twenty- five miles, while the average for the entire 100 miles was 227/8 miles.

While navigation and shipping have always constituted Mr. Newman's chief interests, he is a director in a number of large business en- terprises. He is a member of the Union Club, Clifton Club, Automobile Club, Transporta- tion Club, the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce, the Ellicot Club of Buffalo, the De- troit Club of Detroit. He is a republican voter and attends the Baptist Church. In 1887 MIr. Newman married Miss Carrie Lucia Glover, of Howell, Michigan.

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 81

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