USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 84
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107
Mr. Deibel is a native of Coshocton County, Ohio, having been born on a farm near Fresno, then called Avondale. in Adams Town- ship. September 25, 1881. He grew up in a rural atmosphere, attended the local schools, and at the age of eighteen became a teacher.
He had charge of the same school where he had learned his first lessons, Mr. Deibel then entered Denison University at Grandville, Ohio, where he was graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1911. While a student at Granville he made his home with Prof. Charles B. White, professor of Latin in the university.
From Granville Mr. Deibel entered Western Reserve University Law School, where he graduated in 1914, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in June of that year. He began practice at Cleveland with offices in the En- gineers' Building August 1, 1914; in 1918 he became a member of the firm of Schultz and Schultz, whose offices are also in the Engi- neers' Building.
"While in college Mr. Deibel was a leader in public speaking and debating; he was cap- tain of the Denison debating team for two years, and represented the university in the Intercollegiate State Oratorical Contest of 1910.
In the fall of 1915 Mr. Deibel was a can- didate on the independent ticket for council- man from the Fourth Ward. In national af- fairs he is a democrat. Mr. Deibel is president of the West Side Community Council, is chair- man of the legislative committee of the Cham- ber of Industry and vice president of the Lorain Avenue Business Association. He is attorney, secretary and treasurer of The Com- munity Home Building Company, and is presi- dent of The West Side Community Chorus, which was organized under the auspices of the West Side and Community Council. He is secretary and general counsel of the Ex- position Company, which holds the annual in . dustrial exposition in Edgewater Park. He is head of the War Service League of the Eighth Ward.
His researches and studies in constitutional law led to the preparation of an article which is published under the title "Preferential Voting and the Constitution of Ohio," appear- ing first in the Ohio Law Reporter of June 18, 1917, and the Ohio Law Bulletin of June 4, 1917. This is one of frequent contributions to legal journals. The above is au examina- tion of the constitutionality of that feature of the Cleveland charter by which preferential voting in municipal elections is provided. Mr. Deibel's study is without doubt the most ex- haustive one that has been made on the legal aspects of the preferential voting system. Among many other commendations passed upon his discussion of preferential voting is a letter written by Mayo Fesler, secretary of
Harry S. Aribel
437
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
The Cleveland Civic League, in which Mr. Fesler says: "I was very much interested in your exceedingly well written article on the constitutionality of preferential voting. It seems to me that your article makes a very clear brief on the subject."
Mr. Deibel is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Civic League; is affiliated with Woodward Lodge No. 508, Free and Accepted Masons, Hesperian Lodge No. 281, Knights of Pythias, and is a member of Alpha Delta Tan honorary college fraternity. He is a member of the First Congregational Church of Cleveland.
Mr. Deibel is a son of Jacob Henry and Mary (Wentz) Deibel. Both parents are now past sixty years of age, and since 1916 have retired from their farm and reside at West Lafayette, Ohio. The mother was born in the same neighborhood as her son, while the fa- ther is a native of Bucks Township of Tus- carawas County, Ohio, near Baltic. The fa- ther has a large farm and is a man of affairs in his home township, filling all the local of- fices. He is an active Granger and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and in polities a democrat. Both parents are identi- fied with the German Evangelical Church, and the father was for many years a deacon. Both the Wentz and Deibel families have always shown strong religious convictions.
These families are of German ancestry. The maternal grandfather, Louis Wentz, is now past eighty-five years of age, and his eighty- fifth birthday June 19, 1917, he spent in Cleve- land with his grandson, Mr. Deibel. He spent his active career as a farmer and has had a life of very interesting experience. He is now living with his daughter, Mrs. Fred Zim- merman in Adams Township of Coshocton County. He was born in Bavaria, Germany, in June, 1832, and was ten years of age when his parents came to Ohio and settled in Holmes County and about 1845 moved to Co- shocton County. At that time the Wentz homestead was in the midst of the woods ex- cepting a clearing of a few acres where the little cottage stood. Louis Wentz cleared up 100 acres of land by his own exertions, and it has heen estimated that in his younger years, before the advent of self-binders and reapers, he eradled 2,000 acres of grain. Grandmother Wentz died at the age of fifty. They had five daughters and two sons: Caroline, wife of John Hoffman, living near Newcomerstown ; Mrs. Mary Deibel, Mrs. Harry L. Deibel's mother; Lewis P., who died in the Lutheran
Hospital; at Cleveland in February, 1912; Catherine, wife of Charles J. Maurer, living near Fresno, Ohio; Charles, who died at the age of nineteen ; Mrs. Fred Zimmerman; and Emma, wife of John J. Ladrach, whose home is near Birmingham, Ohio.
Louis Wentz came to Ohio with his father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig Wentz. Ludwig Wentz was also a man of strong physique and mental ability, and he died on the old homestead in Adams Township in 1887 at the age of eighty-four. He was very pro- ficient in mathematies and he compiled a manuscript for an arithmetic.
Mr. Deibel's paternal grandfather, Henry, died in 1904 at the age of eighty-six. He was born in Bavaria, Germany. The paternal grandmother, Christina Deibel (Schmaltz), also a native of Germany, died when Jacob H. Deibel was a young man. The Deibel fam- ily settled in Ohio about 1840; Henry and Christina Deibel had ten children, all living: John, Henry, Phillip, Fred, Jacob, August, Christian, Lewis, Mary (Mrs. Burcaw), and Emma (Mrs. George Wentz).
Harry L. Deibel is the oldest of five chil- dren. His brother, Elmer E., is a farmer and dairyman near West Lafayette. Charles A. lives on the old Deibel homestead and with his brother, Edward O., operates that farm. Mary Christina, a handsome and talented young lady, died in 1907 at the age of eight- een. All the children were horn on a farm adjacent to the homestead in what is famously known as the "Campbell House." It is a ven- erable brick mansion built by early English land owners by the name of Campbell. The mansion is nearly one hundred years old. The Deibel children secured their early education in a schoolhonse located on the Deibel farm. This is known as "Woods College" since it stood in the midst of heavy timber.
On July 31, 1916, Mr. Deibel married Miss Marian C. Brubaker, a very talented woman, prominent and popular as one of the leading vocalists in Cleveland. Many regard her as the superior of any singer of sacred music in the city. For the past four years she has sung in the East End Baptist Church. She is well educated in music, both instrumental and vocal, and has a beautiful contralto voice. Mrs. Deibel was born in the Town of Monnt Nebo near Columbia on the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She is a daughter of William H. and Ella F. (Young) Brubaker and is a niece of Rev. Edward C. Young, assistant pastor of the Second Presby-
438
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
terian Church of Cleveland. Mrs. Deibel has lived in Cleveland since early girlhood and was educated in the local public schools. She studied music under Caroline M. Lowe. Mr. and Mrs. Deibel reside at 4729 Franklin Av- enne ; they have one child, Frances Mary, born October 4, 1917.
Mr. Deibel finds his chief recreation in read- ing and writing poetry. There has recently been published a piece of music, of which he is author of the words while his wife com- posed the music.
LOUIS G. JUSTH is a successful Cleveland business man whose specialty is furniture manufacture, beginning with the technical processes of upholstering, a trade which he learned when a boy, and continuing through all the branches of manufacture, sale and dis- tribution.
Mr. Justh is vice president, treasurer, di- rector and general manager of the Cleveland plant of the Kroehler Manufacturing Com- pany, a furniture house of national if not in- ternational reputation, and widely known as makers of Kroehler Bed Davenports and a popular but high class line of couches and liv- ing room chairs. The Kroehler Bed Daven- ports were given the highest award at the Panama-Pacific Exposition and these convert- ible davenports probably represent the highest attainable ideal in a convenient, satisfactory and efficient combination of an article of par- lor furniture with bedroom usefulness. The Cleveland plant is only one of seven large fac- tories owned and operated by this company, the other plants being at Naperville and Kan- kakee, Illinois: Binghampton, and Long Is- land City, New York; Grand Rapids, Michi- gan, and Stratford, Ontario.
Louis G. Justh was born at Vienna, Austria, August 31, 1874, son of Phillip and Cecilia Justh. He was reared and educated in his native city, attending the public schools there to the age of fourteen, after which he served a very thorough apprenticeship lasting four years in the upholstering trade. It was with this experience and training that he came to America to utilize his abilities in a country where opportunity was practically unlimited. For several years he lived in Chicago and was employed as an upholsterer with the high class furniture manufacturing house of S. Karpen & Brothers. He then established an upholstering business of his own in Chicago, and was there until 1910, when he sold out his interests to the Kroehler Manufacturing Com-
pany. With this organization he remained as sales manager, and in 1913, when the company bought a plant at Cleveland, he came to this city as vice president, treasurer, director and general manager of the local plant. This is now a large business of itself, 100 people are employed in the various departments, and the output in 1917 was valued at between $350,000 and $400,000, half of which was sold in Ohio. The Cleveland plant has 70,000 square feet of floor space, and the company manufactures the regular line of Kroehler goods, including dav- enports, chairs and rockers. The company op- erates under patents that cover practically every important feature by which the Kroehler furniture is distinctive in usefulness and ef- ficieney. The business of the Kroehler Manu- facturing Company is rapidly growing, and it is a company that spends over $100,000 an- nually in national advertising campaigns, with space representing and describing the goods in such great publicity mediums as the Curtis publications and Sunday newspapers in the largest cities of the country.
Mr. Justh is a member of the East Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Automobile Club, retains membership in Crescent Lodge No. 895, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, at Chicago, and in politics is independent. Re- ligiously he is a member of Doctor Woolsey's Temple.
At St. Paul on January 21, 1902, Mr. Justh married Miss Matilda Goodman. Their only daughter, Hortense Roslyn, is a student in the Cleveland public schools.
GEORGE G. GRIESE. The young and progres- sive business element of Cleveland has an able representative in the person of George G. Griese, vice president and a director of the Euclid Builders' Supply Company. As com- pared with the great majority of men whose biographies appear in this work his career has just begun, yet he has already displayed the possession of qualities which have placed him in an enviable position and which in the future will doubtless carry him to eminent business honors.
Mr. Griese was born April 30, 1894, at Cleve- land, and is a son of Gottlieb G. Griese, a native of Plymouth, Wisconsin, born in 1860. In his youth Gottlieb G. Griese went to Kan- sas City, Missouri, where for some years he was engaged in business as an architect and builder, and on coming to Cleveland continued in the same lines in partnership with his brother, David C. Griese. This association
439
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
was a successful one, and the brothers designed spent practically a lifetime in the contracting business. He died in 1902.
and built a large number of structures here, both business and residential in character, and had other and varying interests. Gottlieb G. Griese died in 1902, after an honorable and prosperous business career. He was married at Mount Clemens, Michigan, to Caroline Wellhausen, who survives him and resides at Cleveland.
George G. Griese attended the German Luth- eran Evangelical School until he was eight years of age, at which time he became a pupil in the public schools. He left high school when fifteen years of age and attended Culver Military Academy for two years, then return- ing to Cleveland, where he went to the West Technical High School for one year. At that time Mr. Griese embarked upon his business career by identifying himself with the Euclid Builders' Supply Company (in which concern he had been a stockholder for some time) as foreman of the No. 2 West . Side yard and warehouse. Eight months later he became city salesman, a position which he retained for four months, then advancing to the post of super- intendent of warehouses, an office which he still retains. In May, 1916, he was elected vice president of the company, and in May, 1917, became a member of the board of di- rectors. Mr. Griese is accounted a man of sonnd judgment and acumen in the handling of business affairs and possesses the full con- fidence of his associates. He is a stockholder in the National Screw and Tack Company and in the National Acme Manufacturing Com- pany. His business interests thus far have kept him too busily occupied for him to take more than a public-spirited citizen's interest in public affairs, and in politics he has re- mained independent. He belongs to the Cleve- land Athletic Club.
Mr. Griese was married June 6, 1917, at Cleveland, to Miss Gladys Merritt.
CLARENCE E. GRIESE. For a man not yet thirty years of age, Clarence E. Griese has a business record of which older men might well be proud. He grew up in Cleveland, and has been in keen competition with the resources and ability of this commercial metropolis. Mr. Griese is now president and general manager of the Euclid Builders' Supply Company, one of the largest concerns of its kind in Ohio.
He was born in Cleveland December 17, 1888, a son of Gottlieb and Caroline Griese. Ilis father was also a native of Cleveland, and
Clarence E. Griese had the advantages of the Cleveland public schools, graduating from high school in 1908. Thus at the age of twenty he was ready for his business career. For three years he was employed in different ca- pacities and chiefly profiting by his experience in the Kirk-Latty Manufacturing Company. After that he was connected with the Auto Manufacturers' Agency until 1913, when he sold his interests and organized the Enclid Builders' Supply Company. At first he was treasurer of this organization, in 1914 was elected secretary and treasurer, and since 1915 has been president and general manager. The Enelid Builders' Supply Company handles a general line of builders' supplies, with main offices at 637-639 Leader-News Building. The first year the company was organized it did $300,000 worth of business. The record for 1916 was a business worth $800,000. One of the younger concerns of Cleveland, it is at the same time one of the most prosperous and progressive. The company maintains several warehouses located in different parts of the city.
Mr. Griese is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Cleveland Yacht Club and is a member of the Lutheran Church. He was married in his native city January 14, 1914, to Miss Agnes M. Winton, daughter of Alexander Winton, the inventor of the Winton Automobile. They have one child, Catherine.
LOUIS E. NOBLE, vice president and secre- tary of the Cleveland Automobile School Com- pany, concerning which a separate article ap- pears on other pages, is an expert automobile man, of many years practical experience, and was for a long time head tester for the White Automobile Company and has traveled as trou- ble man for different automobile organizations.
Mr. Noble was born at Mesopotamia, Ohio, December 12, 1886, a son of Elson L. and Nellie E. (Sperry) Noble. His father, who was born at Windsor, Ohio, November 21, 1862, was educated in the old Grand River Institute at Austinburg, Ohio, was a merchant at Mesopotamia for three years, married there, and then located on a farm nearby. For a number of years now he has been engaged in the Iumber and milling industry and is also a county commissioner of Trumbull County. He and his wife have three children: Leon C.,
440
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
of Cleveland; Lonis E .; and Leonard S., at home.
Louis E. Noble had a grammar and high school education in his native county, and in 1906, on leaving high school, attended Oberlin College for one year. The next year he came to Cleveland and was employed as an in- structor in the automobile school of the Y. M. C. A., the nucleus of the present Cleve- land Automobile School. The following year he was traveling trouble man and tester for the White Motor Company and in 1909 be- came one of the incorporators of the Cleve- land Automobile School, of which he has since been vice president and secretary and also school principal.
He is a member of the Cleveland Automobile Club, the National Society of Automobile En- gineers, and is affiliated with Brenton D. Bab- cock Lodge No. 600, Free and Accepted Ma- sons ; Chardon Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and Warren Council, Royal and Select Masters, at Warren. In politics he is a re- publican. Mr. Noble married at Cleveland May 20, 1917, Margaret L. English.
ERIE C. HOPWOOD was born at North Eaton, Ohio, February 7, 1877, being a son of Henry C. and Emily (Cook) Hopwood. His father, of English descent, was born in 1840, in Lorain County, Ohio, received a common school edu- cation and engaged in the cheesemaking busi- ness, which he followed until the outbreak of the Civil war. At that time he enlisted in the Twelfth Ohio Cavalry, with which organiza- tion he served as corporal until the close of the war, and then returned to Lorain County and again engaged in cheesemaking. In 1879 he removed with his family to a farm in Lenox Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio, and there he has since continued, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Mr. Hopwood is a Mason, having been for several years master of Tuscan Lodge, and a member of the chapter, commandery and council. He was married in Lorain County to Emily Cook, who was born in Franklin County, New York, daughter of a pioneer of the eastern part of Ohio, who mi- grated in a wagon to Trumbull County. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hopwood, namely : Burton C,, a graduate of the Jeffer- son Educational Institute and now a black- smith at Jefferson, Ohio; and Erie C.
Erie C. Hopwood attended the public schools of Lenox Township, Ashtabula County, whence he had been taken by his parents as a child, and at the age of seventeen years en-
tered the Jefferson Educational Institute, which he attended for four years. Subse- quently he was a student at Adelbert College, being graduated therefrom with his literary degree in 1901, and at that time became prin- cipal of the high school at Middletown, Ohio, and remained in that position one year. Mr. Hopwood was, however, drawn irresistably to newspaper work and gained his first experi- ence therein as police reporter for the Cleve- land Plain Dealer. He remained in that ca- pacity for two years, when he was advanced to the position of assistant city editor, remain- ing one year, and finally was advanced to the desk of city editor. Three years later he was made night editor, and in August, 1912, be- came managing editor, the post he now oc- eupies.
Mr. Hopwood is a member of Heights Lodge No. 612, Free and Accepted Masons, having joined it at its inception; of the City Club, of which he was the third president; the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Council of Sociology. He is independent in his political views.
Mr. Hopwood was married at New Phila- delphia, Ohio, July 20, 1903, to Ida R. Walter, and they have three children: Eleanor, who is attending high school ; Marian, attending the graded schools; and Henry, who is not yet four years of age.
GEORGE G. G. PECKHAM is well and favor- ably known in Cleveland automobile circles, having established his business here about five years ago, after his establishment was de- stroyed in the great flood that swept over Day- ton, where he had his home for a number of years. Mr. Peckham was originally in the carriage business, and his is a case which illus- trates the growing predominance of the auto- mobile, which has largely supplanted the old horse-drawn vehicle trade. One of Mr. Peck- ham's interesting distinctions is that he sold one of the first year's cars put out by the Buick Motor Company, and he has been sell- ing Buick cars continuously ever since.
He was born at Troy, Ohio, August 1, 1874, son of George W. and Lavina J. (Shilling) Peckham. He grew up on a farm, and had the advantages of district schools until the age of eighteen. That was followed by a six months' course in the Miami Commercial Col- lege at Dayton. He was fortunate in his choice of a business position, since the first work he did became a link in the growing chain of experience which has continued without a
Le& Pack ham
441
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
break to the present time. He was first em- ployed as assistant bookkeeper with the Lei- digh Carriage Company at Dayton. He was with that concern six years, and variously employed as bookkeeper, cashier and assistant superintendent, and for several years also sold buggies on the road a part of each season.
Resigning his place with the Leidigh Com- pany, he organized the Peckham Carriage Company as a retail dealer and became presi- dent. He was one of the first carriage mer- chants to appreciate the growing popularity of the automobile, and in 1900 introduced his first cars into his showroom. This branch of the business soon overshadowed the carriages, and in 1904 the business became the Peckham Motor Car Company, with Mr. Peckham as president. In a short time he had discon- tinued the sale of carriages and the antomo- bile thenceforward was his exclusive field.
It was in 1904 that the Buick Automobile Company delivered their first output of au- tomobiles. The company manufactured thir- ty-seven machines that year and one of them was sold by Mr. Peckham. He continued busi- ness on a growing scale of prosperity at Day- ton until the flood of 1913, when his plant, his home and practically his entire property pos- sessions, were swept away. Seeking a new home and a chance to begin over again, he came to Cleveland and bought the Buick au- tomobile branch, organizing the Ohio Buick Company, of which he has since been presi- dent. Mr. Peckham is also president of the Standard Equipment Company and a director in several other large local enterprises.
He has long been prominent in Masonic circles, is past master of Dayton Lodge, No. 147, Free and Accepted Masons, past thrice illustrious master of Recse Council, No. 9, Royal and Select Masters; member of Unity Chapter, No. 16, Royal Arch Masons; past commander of Reed Commandery, No. 6, Knights Templar, and is a member of the Valley of Dayton Scottish Rite Consistory and Antioch Temple of the Mystic Shrine. At Cleveland he belongs to the Chamber of Com- merce and the Cleveland Athletic Club, Shaker Heights Country Club and Automo- bile Club. He is a republican voter and a member of the First Baptist Church of Day- ton. At Dayton, on January 5, 1898, Mr. Peckham married Miss Elizabeth Finch. Their one child, Phyllis, is now a student in the Laurel School.
MERVIN C. HARVEY, a partner in the stock and bond firm of Otis & Company, with of- fices in the Cuyahoga Building, has had an active business career at Cleveland for over ten years, and has gained a firm foothold in the commercial and civic life of the city.
He was born at Cleveland June 25, 1877. His father, Henry A. Harvey, born at Chilli- cothe, Ohio, in 1845, was brought to Cleveland by his parents when quite young and com- pleted his education there in the public schools and also attended Western Reserve College when it was located at Hudson, Ohio. llis education finished, he returned to Cleveland and became connected with the flour mill of the family and continued in that line until his death in 1881. At Cleveland he married Mary Williams, and they had three children : Perry W., of Cleveland; Allyn, vice president of the Pittsburg Steamship Company of Cleve- land; and Mervin C.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.