USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 86
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Doctor Eaton began his career as a preacher in 1886, when he was only eighteen years old. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1893, and for two years was pastor of the First Bap- tist Church of Natick, Massachusetts, was pas- tor of Bloor Street Baptist Church of Toronto 1895 to 1901, and from that church came to Enelid Avenne Church in Cleveland in 1901. This is often called the John D. Rockefeller Church, since it is the only church in which Mr. Rockefeller has ever had membership. Doctor Eaton left Cleveland in 1909 to accept his present charge as pastor of the Madison Avenue Church of New York.
Through all these years he has sustained many other responsibilities. He was so- ciological editor of the Toronto Globe from 1896 to 1901, was associate editor of the West- minster of Toronto in 1899-1901, and was
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special Canadian correspondent of the New York Tribune and Boston Transcript from 1897 to 1901. He is a member of the board of directors of the Baptist Educational Society of New York, was a member of the executive board of governors of MeMaster University at Toronto from 1897 to 1901, and was formerly a trustee of Denison University at Granville, Ohio. He has served as president of the South- ern New York Baptist Association, of the New York Alumni Association of Acadia Univer- sity, is a member of the Ohio Society of New York, has been president of the Canadian So- ciety of New York, is a member of the Amer- ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence, is a republican and belongs to the Union League Club of New York. Doctor Eaton is also widely known as an author, having pub- lished "Troubled Hearts" in 1899, "The Old Evangel and the New Evangelism," 1901. Doctor Eaton has traveled widely both in America and Europe, and several seasons he filled prominent pulpits in London. He has been heard all over America on the lecture platform, and is one of the foremost person- alities in that field today. Doctor Eaton is a thinker, a scholar, a man of broad human sympathies. In matters of religious faith he is a conservative, while in matter of method he is radical.
June 26, 1895, Doctor Eaton married Miss Mary Winifred Parlin, daughter of Capt. William D. Parlin, of Natick, Massachusetts. They are the parents of six children.
CYRUS STEPHEN EATON. The field and de- partment of business in which Cyrus S. Eaton has especially distinguished himself and marked the passing years by special achieve- ments is as an organizer and operator of pub- lie utilities, particularly electric light and power companies. Mr. Eaton has been a resi- dent of Cleveland for the past thirteen years, and that has been practically the period of his active work since leaving college.
Mr. Eaton was born in Nova Scotia Decem- ber 27, 1883. His parents, Joseph Howe and Mary (McPherson) Eaton, are now living re- tired at Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Cyrus S. Eaton was liberally educated, attending preparatory school, Woodstock College at Woodstock, Ontario, and McMaster University of Toronto, from which he was graduated with the degree B. A. in 1905.
In 1911, at Cleveland, Mr. Eaton took a prominent part in establishing the Continental Gas and Electric Corporation, of which he is Vol. II-29
now president. Mr. Eaton is a director of and has been actively connected with the de- velopment of the Washington, Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railway Company, which stands as the most successful example of clec- tric railway operation in the world. He is director in many other public utility com- panies, and altogether has a position as officer or director in more than a score of gas, elec- tric lighting, street railway and water com- panies in the United States and Canada.
Mr. Eaton is a member of the well known investment banking house of Otis & Company at Cleveland. He is a director of the Lake Shore Banking & Trust Company, and director and member of the executive committee of the National Acme Company of Cleveland.
Mr. Eaton is a trustee of the Cleveland Y. M. C. A., a trustee of Denison University, member of the board of managers of the Amer- ican Baptist Foreign Mission Society, is a trustee of the East End Baptist Church of Cleveland, is member of the Ohio Society of New York and the Canadian Society of New York, belongs to the Union Club, University Club, Mayfield Country Club, Roadside Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, Colonial Club, City Club, Civic League, and Chamber of Com- merce, all of Cleveland. Politically Mr. Eaton exercises his franchise as an independent re- publican.
He married Miss Margaret P. House, daugh- ter of Dr. A. F. and Mary (Cleve) House, both of whom are now living retired at Los Angeles, California. Her father was a prominent sur- gcon of Cleveland for many years. Mrs. Eaton was born and educated in Cleveland, a grad- uate of the Hathaway Brown School of this city, and she and Mr. Eaton were married De- cember 29, 1907. She has given much of her time in the last year or so to the Cleveland Red Cross. Mr. and Mrs. Eaton have five children, all born in Cleveland, named Mar- garet G., Mary A., Elizabeth A., Anna Bishop and Cyrus Stephen Eaton, Jr.
THEODORE ARTER was one of the men who grew old in the service of the Standard Oil Company. He was for thirty-five years one of the company's timber experts, and for twenty-nine years was located at Hinton, West Virginia, supervising the manufacture of staves for barrels used by that company. He did stave contracting until he retired from business at the advanced age of seventy-five.
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He died at Yonkers, New York, which city had been his home for about five months before his death, January 31, 1910, aged seventy-seven. He was laid to rest in Lake View Cemetery at Cleveland.
Theodore Arter was born at Hanover, Co- lumbiana County, Ohio, June 30, 1833, rep- resenting a pioneer family in the State of Ohio, from Maryland. His parents were David and Charlotte (Laffer) Arter. David Arter was born in Frederick County, Mary- land, and came to Ohio when a year old and about the time Ohio was admitted to the Union. The family reached the state when nine-tenths of its area was a total wilderness, and when Indians were almost as numerous as whites. David Arter was a merchant and after his marriage settled in Hanover, Colum- biana County. His brother, Michael Arter, had served as the first mayor of Hanover in 1815. Charlotte Laffer Arter was born at Sandyville, Ohio. The Laffers came from Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsyl- vania, and were also pioneers in the settle- ment of Ohio.
Theodore Arter grew up and received his education in the public schools of Hanover and was engaged in merchandising there until 1867. At that date he identified himself with the oil industry, at first as a refiner, and from about 1870 until 1908, when he retired, was a timberman and stave contractor with the Standard Oil Company.
Theodore Arter was an officer in the Union army, being adjutant of the One Hundred and Forty-third Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infan- try. He was with Grant's army around Rich- mond and in many other battles and cam- paigns. He was active in the Grand Army of the Republic and was also a member of the various Masonic bodies, including the Knights Templar Commandery and the Mys- tic Shrine in West Virginia. He was a repub- lican and grew up under the influence of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
January 20, 1857, Theodore Arter married Miss Susan Pritchard, daughter of Judge Resin Pritchard of Sandyville, Ohio. Mrs. Susan Arter is still living in Cleveland. She is the mother of seven children: James Pritchard, who married Lillias H. Hastings, of Green Bay, Wisconsin; Charlotte L., Min- nie C., and Sherman, all unmarried; Theo- dore J., who married Gertrude Phelps; John Yates, who married Laura Comstock ; and Bes- sie, who married Charles J. Donahue.
SHERMAN ARTER has been one of the well known and prominent names in the Cleveland bar for thirty years. He has sought success in the arduous field of general practice, with- out dependence upon political affiliations or partnership associations, and his business in- dicates that his abilities fully justified his course.
Mr. Arter is a son of the late Theodore Arter, concerning whom a separate article is published in these pages. His mother, Susan (Pritchard) Arter, is still living in Cleveland. Sherman Arter was born at Hanover, in Co- lumbiana County, Ohio, February 5, 1865, and was reared and educated in Cleveland. He attended Adelbert College of the Western Reserve University, taking his A. B. degree in 1886 and his Master of Arts degree in 1889. Mr. Arter was admitted to the bar in 1888 and has been continuously in practice at Cleveland since that date and always alone. His offices are in the Williamson Building.
Mr. Arter has given much attention to old- time families and pioneer associations of this locality, and is secretary of the Early Set- tlers' Association of Cuyahoga County. His interest in this field has made his services highly valuable as one of the advisory and contributing editors of the present publication, under the editorial management of Elroy Mc- Kendree Avery. Mr. Arter was for three years a member of the Cleveland Grays and is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce, City Club, Civic League, the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and is a member of the West- ern Reserve Society of the Sons of the Amer- ican Revolution. He has served as president of the Men's League for Woman Suffrage, is a republican voter and a member of the Epworth Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church.
DONALD D. HERR. Ideas backed with in- defatigable energy-the desire and power to accomplish big things-these qualities make of success not an accident but a logical result. The man of initiative is he who combines with a capacity for hard work an indefatigable will. Such a man knows no such thing as de- feat and his final success is on a parity with his well directed efforts. Since 1906 Donald D. Herr has been engaged in the engineering business in Cleveland, and he is now one of its prominent citizens.
Donald D. Herr was born at Bennington, Kansas, March 6, 1880, while his parents were crossing the continent. He is a son of Edwin
Sherman arter
Inpaint Pince
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CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
and Anneta M. (Young) Herr. Mr. Herr at- tended the public schools of Washington, D. C., and was gradnated in high school in the cap- ital city in 1896. He was then matriculated as a student iu West Point, where he pursued the study of military tactics for one year, at the termination of which he entered Penn- sylvania State College, in which institution he was graduated as a mechanical engineer in 1902. He then came to Cleveland and here entered the employ of the American Steel & Wire Company, remaining with that concern for a period of three years, at the end of which he accepted a position as superintend- ent of construction of the Clairton plant of the Carnegie Steel Company at Clairton, Pennsylvania. One year later, in 1906, he re- turned to Cleveland and entered into a part- nership alliance with Arthur G. McKee to engage in general engineering work. January 1, 1915, this business was incorporated as Arthur G. McKee & Company, and Mr. Herr was elected vice president, in which capacity he is still serving. This concern controls an extensive business in Cleveland and is well known for the reliable character of the work contracted for.
Mr. Herr is a man of sterling character and is recognized in the business world for his honorable, straightforward methods. He is a member of the Union Club, the Cleveland Ath- letic Club, the Mayfield Country Club, the Cleveland English Society, the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and the American So- ciety of Mechanical Engineers. In politics he is a stanch supporter of republican principles, and he was reared in the faith of the Presby- terian Church. He is not married.
STEPHEN L. PIERCE. While Cleveland is not generally recognized as among the great centers of shoe manufacturing in the country, it is the home of several large and important industries in that line, and chief among them is the Ferris Shoe Company, whose plant at Cleveland was originally established by Stephen L. Pierce and who is still manager of the S. L. Pierce & Co. branch and one of the executive officers of the Ferris Company.
This Cleveland industry was established in 1884 under the name of S. L. Pierce & Com- pany, the other partner being W. W. Cham- herlain. The company invested a very modest amount of capital in facilities for the manu- facture of shoes, and occupied one floor of a building on Frankfort Avenue near West Sixth Street. There was vitality in the busi-
ness and it grew and prospered until 1896 the company erected a five-story and basement building 50 by 200 feet on West Sixth Street between St. Clair and Lakeside avenues.
In March, 1915, the Cleveland business be- came a part of the larger Ferris Shoc Com- pany, which maintained factories at Camden, New Jersey, Philadelphia and Cleveland. Al- bert Theis is president of the company ; Stephen L. Pierce is vice president, treasurer and general manager of the Cleveland busi- ness; W. W. Chamberlain is second vice presi- dent; and Hon. F. W. Treadway is secretary. The headquarters of the company are in Cleve- land.
Through the different plants the company has an output of 5,000 pairs of shoes a day. They specialize in footwear for children and girls. At Cleveland 250 people are employed in the various branches of the industry, and every working day means an output of 1,500 pairs of shoes. On December 1, 1917, the Cleveland business was moved to a new plant at West Forty-seventh Street and Ra- vine Avenue.
Stephen L. Pierce has been a resident of Cleveland the greater part of his active life. He was born at Birmingham, Erie County, Ohio, November 4, 1854, son of Bennett and Nancy (Clarey) Pierce. His early youth was spent at Oberlin, where he attended the pub .. lie schools and also Oberlin College until 1871. In that year at the age of seventeen he came to Cleveland and went to work as clerk with Childs, Groff & Company, wholesale shoe job- bers. It was in their store and offices that he acquired the fundamental knowledge and ex- perience which enabled him thirteen years later to embark in business for himself as a shoe manufacturer.
With the passing years his interests and re- sponsibilities have become greatly enlarged. He is a director of the First National Bank of Cleveland, director in the Guardian Savings & Trust Company, director of the Engle Air- craft Company, is vice president of the Stone Shoe Company, and is well known in social and civic circles. He is a director of the Fresh Air Camp. He belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Industry, Cleveland Advertising Club, the Union and Clifton clubs, and the Westwood Country Club. His church is the Congregational and politically he casts his vote as a republican.
At Cleveland May 10, 1882, he married Kit -- tie Josephine Hawkins, who died October 2, 1916. Her father, Henry C. Hawkins, was for
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many years secretary of the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County.
1
JOSEPH N. ACKERMAN. Based on mental alertness, sterling integrity, decision of char- acter and willing industry, professional abil- ity in the law attaches to many of the younger as well as older members of the Cleveland bar. Some of these younger practitioners have made a specialty of certain branches of the law, finding a wide field to cover. When life was less complex laws were fewer and nat- urally their exponents and interpreters were not so needed, but in modern days, in the great mass of business, social and even do- mestic transactions, few can be completed sat- isfactorily without the aid of a specially trained lawyer. One of this younger genera- tion at Cleveland is Joseph N. Ackerman, whose achievements since his admission to the bar, presage a future of real distinction.
Joseph N. Ackerman was born in Austria- Hungary, August 8, 1889. He is a son of David and the late Sarah Ackerman, both of whom were born in Austria-Hungary. They settled in the City of New York when they came to the United States and there the mother died in 1909, two years after her son, Joseph N. had joined his parents. The father still resides in New York and is a manufacturer of ladies' wear.
Joseph N. Ackerman has been a resident of the United States since 1907, in that year land- ing in the harbor of New York. He was in school in his native land when his parents emi- grated and it was thought advisable for him to complete his school course there. He im- mediately entered school in New York City, attending the night sessions and working as a bank employe during the day time, in this way thoroughly learning the English lan- guage, and supplementing his high school and college course in Austria-Hungary. Mr. Ack- erman became the manager of a foreign bank in New York but he had an ambition to enter the law and diligently applied himself to study in that direction. In 1915 he was most creditably graduated from the Baldwin-Wal- lace Law College with his degree of LL. B., and in the same year was admitted to the Ohio bar, having established his residence at Cleve- land in 1912, subsequently to the United States and Federal courts, and his practice covers some special features as well as general jurisprudence.
Mr. Ackerman has become one of the live- stock magnates of this section, being the owner
of a stock and dairy farm at Royalton, twelve miles from Cleveland. His estate there con- tains 225 acres and he makes a specialty of thorough-bred Holstein cattle. He has valu- able real estate holdings also at Cleveland and has interests in other lines.
For some years Mr. Ackerman has been quite active in the political field, having early identified himself with the republican party. In 1916 he was a candidate for the state senate with sixty-four others and was second highest but was defeated with the ticket although his personal following was very flattering. He is very generally popular, making a good im- pression on first acquaintance and usually fol- lowing it with hearty friendship. His mem- bership is sought and valued in such clubs and fraternities as the following : City Club, West- ern Reserve Club, Cleveland Museum of Art, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias, and he belongs also to organizations of a purely social character. He maintains his offices in the Engineers' Building, Cleveland.
STANLEY J. OLSTYN. The industry with which the Olstyn family has been chiefly iden- tified in Cleveland has been vehicle manufac- turing, particularly heavy load trucks and wagons of different types and for different purposes and in later years the business has been more and more turned to the service of the motor truck body manufacture.
One of the most prominent citizens of Polish. birth and ancestry in Cleveland is Telesfor Olstyn. He was born in Posen, Germany, Jan- uary 6, 1869. He was educated in the old country, learned the blacksmith's trade there and at the age of eighteen came to America in order to escape the system of militarism. In Cleveland he worked as a blacksmith in va- rious large wagon shops until 1891, when he began making carriages and wagons in his own shop under the name T. Olstyn. In 1908 the business was incorporated as the Olstyn Car- riage Company, of which he continued as president and manager until the plant was sold to the Truck Engineering Company on August 11, 1917. Since that date Telesfor Olstyn has concerned himself chiefly with other business interests. While active in the manufacture of vehicles he specialized in mak- ing ice, brewery and milk wagons. He is now president of the Wanda Furniture Company, a director of the Polish-American Realty Trust Company, director of the Warsaw Building and Loan Association, and director of the El-
Aorph. D. Caferway
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ler-Olstyn Motor Sales Company. In 1917 he served as chairman of the draft board in District No. 10. While he has always been prominent among the Polish population of Cleveland, he is a whole-hearted American, and he meets every test of loyalty and pa- triotisin. He is a member of the Order of Elks, a republican and a member of the Auto- mobile Club. At Cleveland in July, 1888, he married Agnes Blazejczyk. Their four chil- dren are: Stanley J .; Thaddeus C., aged twenty-six, a ship fitter on the United States warship, Montana; Emely, who finished her education in the Cleveland School of Music and is now Mrs. George De Woyno of Cleve- land; and Edward, who is a student in the public schools.
Stanley J. Olstyn, who has succeeded to and continued the development of many business interests started by his father, was born at Cleveland May 3, 1889. In 1907 he graduated from the Central High School and during the next year was a student in the Western Re- serve University. His father's ill health com- pelled him to abandon his college career and when his father incorporated the Olstyn Car- riage Company the son became secretary and treasurer. When this business was sold in August, 1917, to the Truck Engineering Com- pany, the younger Olstyn became vice presi- dent and general manager of the new corpora- tion and is also one of its directors. W. C. Spalding is president, A. V. Cannon is sec- retary and C. B. Johnson is treasurer. The company, employing forty workmen, spe- cializes in the manufacture of truck bodies and also continues the line of output of the Olstyn Company, wagons designed and con- structed for special use in such industries as ice, milk and brewery distribution.
Stanley Olstyn is a director of the Wanda Furniture Company, president of the Eller- Olstyn Motor Sales Company, president of the Clayton Furniture Company, a member of the advisory board and manager of the foreign department of the Cleveland Mortgage Com- pany, a stockholder in the National Mortgage Company, and owns some valuable real estate interests in Cleveland.
He is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Chamber of Commerce, Knights of Pythias and Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics he is independent. On June 29, 1909, Mr. Olstyn married at Cleve- land Clara Sawicki. They have one child, Felicia, who was born in 1912.
C. A. FORSTER. The modern world is com- iug to recognize that a man's service, useful- ness and value are to be estimated in propor- tion as the service he renders or represents is indispensable to his fellow men. To the in- creasing number of people who in Northern Ohio are owners of Packard motor cars and trucks, there is a whole-hearted appreciation of the service rendered by Mr. C. A. Forster in his capacity as president and directing head of the Packard-Cleveland Motor Company, which is responsible for Packard service in Northern Ohio, and especially in the main plants, warerooms and service stations at Cleveland, Akron and Canton. Nowhere in the country is there anything more complete as to equipment and personnel than the head- quarters of Packard service at Cleveland, com- prising a magnificent building, with three acres of floor space, with sales and display rooms, with complete service and repair plant, equipment and mechanical skill for the prompt overhauling and repairing of cars and their return to owners with the least possible delay.
Automobile owners who could not possibly claim for themselves the facilities furnished by the Packard-Cleveland Motor Company would be inclined to regard as an expression of their long felt ideal of service the explana- tion made by Mr. Forster to his employes of the meaning of Packard policy. This explana- tion cannot be condensed into a few words and included here, but one paragraph may be taken as typical of the ideal and the spirit of the whole: "It is not sufficient that the pub- lic buy our goods because of the goods them- selves; it is much more important that they should buy our product because of the absolute confidence they have in us to care properly for their requirements after they have pur- chased. This result can be realized only by extending to our customers a fair, square and efficient deal at all times. It means a properly classified stock on hand continually ; it means careful attention to the filling of orders for parts, realizing that the spelling of a name, the tabulation of an address is of importance, as well as the accurate filling of the order. But most of all do I want to call your attention to the fact that we must make it a part of our business to save money for our customers. We are not running our service department as a source of profit."
Only a broad-gauge business man could ex- press himself in that way, and those who as assistants or associates know the president of
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the Packard-Cleveland Motor Company have no hesitation in endorsing such a characteriza- tion of him.
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