USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut > Part 98
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
J. C. Weideman married Laura Muntz, who came from Liverpool, Medina County, Ohio. She died in Cleveland. There were three children : Charles, who died at the age of twenty years; Henry W .; and Laura, de- ceased.
Henry W. Weideman was born in Cleve- land October 9, 1855. He graduated from the Cleveland High School in 1873 and is also the possessor of a liberal college education. He is a graduate of Baldwin University with the class of 1877. When he took up his busi- ness career he went with his father in the firm of Weideman & Tiedeman and was sec- retary of the partnership, which was after- wards reorganized as the Weideman Company. This is one of the oldest and largest whole- sale grocery houses of Cleveland and is lo- cated at the corner of West Ninth Street and Mandrake Avenue. Mr. Weideman continued active as an executive of the business until 1908, and though still a director is practi- cally retired.
Mr. Weideman is an independent voter. His Masonic affiliations are with the Bige- low Lodge, Thatcher Chapter, Forest City Commandery and Al Koran Temple of the Shrine.
Mr. Weideman and family reside at 12216 Clifton Boulevard. He married at Cleveland in 1877 Miss Dorothy Burk, daughter of George and Mary Burk, the latter still a resi- dent of Cleveland. Her father was for many years a carpenter and builder on the West Side of Cleveland Mr. and Mrs. Weideman have four children : Carl, a broker living at Lake Avenue and Cove Street ; Pearl W., wife of William Kurz of Cleveland; Myrtle, wife of Walter Theobald, a wholesale flour dealer and miller of Cleveland; and Laura, who is married and lives in Riverview Park.
J. H. WADE. Several prominent institu- tions and memorials in Cleveland serve to make the name Wade one of the most fa- miliar in the daily life and affairs of the peo- ple of Cleveland. The completeness of this historical record of Cleveland demands some special reference to the individuals of the family who have figured most conspicuously in the life of this city. The first of them was J. H. Wade, whose activities link him with the greatest railroad builders of the Middle West and distinctively as the man who estab- lished the first telegraph line in the Upper Mississippi Valley.
He was born in Seneca County, New York, August 11, 1811, and his life was prolonged nearly eighty years. He died August 9, 1890. His father was a surveyor and civil engineer. J. H. Wade early showed a special taste for art. Possessed of a frail constitu- tion in early youth, he made his first profes-
511
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
sion portrait painting. He came west and for a time lived at Adrian, Michigan. About that time one of the early mechanisms for practical photography came to his attention, and with only the printed directions to guide him he used the camera to take the first da- guerreotype ever made west of New York.
The keen perceptions and analytical mind In the popular mind the telegraph is closely allied with the railroad, and in that field, too, J. H. Wade was long a conspicuous factor both as a builder and operator. He served as a director of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway; director of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad for three years; director and vice president of the Atlantic and Great Western (now the Erie) ; director of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway; the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railway; was a director and president of the Cincinnati, Wa- bash & Michigan; and of the Kalamazoo, Al- legan & Grand Rapids Railway Company ; was vice president and director of the Grand Haven Railway; a director of the Saginaw Valley and St. Louis Line and the Hocking Valley and Toledo road; and president of the Chicago & Atchison Bridge Company. He was responsible for the successful comple- tion of the Valley Railroad Company which brought special advantages to Cleveland. of the artist had also many of the talents of the inventor, and while he was never con- spicuous in the field of invention he did much to exploit and promote the inventions of others. He was carly attracted to the tele- graphic systems devised by Samuel Morse, and in 1847 took a contract to build a tele- graph line from Detroit to Jackson, Michi- gan. This line was completed in the same year and Mr. Wade then opened an office at Jackson, installed an instrument, and inau- gurated the first telegraphic service in this part of the west. After that his work more and more concentrated upon the building of telegraph lines. He was instrumental in the construction of the line from Detroit to Mil- waukee and from Detroit to Cleveland and Buffalo. In 1849 he began the erection of a line of his own from Cleveland to St. Louis by way of Cincinnati. This was completed in 1850. He was one of a number of indi- vidnal builders, and the competition between them became so great that all of them lost money. In 1854 Mr. Wade led a movement which brought about a consolidation of many existing lines, involving cities from Buffalo westward to St. Louis. He was general agent of the consolidated lines, and not long afterward was instrumental in creating the Western Union Company, in which he was . president; Second National Bank, of which a moving spirit and in it exemplified his genius for management.
Probably his greatest exploit in the exten- sion of telegraph lines was in formulating the plans and pushing the construction of the Pacific telegraph. He was the first president of the Pacific Company, which began con- struction at St. Louis and carried the lines half way across the continent to San Fran- cisco by August, 1861. This was the first transcontinental telegraph line in America, and its successful operation proved a potent influence and the line was in fact a fore- runner of the first transcontinental railway, which was built largely along the route fol- lowed by the telegraph wires. Later the Pa- cific Company was consolidated with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and Mr. Wade was president of this corporation un- Vol. II-33
til 1867 and for several years afterward was a director of the company.
In addition to the part he played in the management and promotion of telegraph com- panies, he invented a type of insulator which is still in use. He also demonstrated the prac- ticability of a submarine cable.
The range of his interests is also indicated by his connection in some official capacity with the following organizations: Citizens Savings & Loan Association of Cleveland, which he helped organize in 1867 and was its first president; National Bank of Com- merce, which he served as vice president and he was a director throughout its period of existence; Cleveland Rolling Mill Company : Cleveland Iron Mining Company, Union Steel Screw Company, and the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company, in all of which he was a director. He was also one of the chief orginators and the first president of the Lake View Cemetery Association.
The most familiar memorial Cleveland peo- ple have to him is the beautiful Wade Park, which he laid out, beautified and gave to the city. While a trustee of the Protestant Or- phans Asylum he also built the stone build- ing on St. Clair Street at his own expense, known today as the Protestant Orphan Asy- lum, and one of the distinctive institutions of charity in the city. In a public way he served in several positions which he honored and dignified by the importance and quality
512
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
of the service rendered. He was a Sinking Fund commissioner, a member of the Public Park Commission, a director of the Cleve- land Workhouse Board, a member of the ex- ecutive committee of the National Garfield Monument Association. For several years he was vice president of the Homeopathic Hospital and was president of the Homeo- pathic College of Medicine. It was through these and many other canses and institutions that he found means of expressing that depth of human sympathy and generosity which distinguished and elevated him above mere practical business men, and it was for what he gave of himself and his means as well as for what he achieved in a great area of trans- portation and communication that gave his career the qualities of enduring memory.
RANDALL PALMER WADE. The only son of J. H. Wade was Randall Palmer Wade. His mother was Rebecca Louisa (Facer) Wade. Most of his life was spent in Cleveland and, though brief, it was impressive in its quali- ties and substance of achievement.
He was born at Seneca Falls, New York, August 26, 1836, and died June 24, 1876, in his forty-first year. His personal experience and achievement did much to enlarge upon his notable inheritance and environment. The qualities he inherited from his distin- guished father and the influences that sur- rounded his early life were as seeds that fell on extremely fertile soil.
During his boyhood in Southern Michigan he came to share with his father an enthusi- asm for the newly invented telegraph, and as a messenger boy in a telegraph office he had his first employment. Telegraph mes- sages at that time were recorded mechani- cally by dots and dashes on a long roll of paper similar to the "ticker tape" of mod- ern times. Young Wade soon mastered the art of reading the messages by sound. He had positions as chief operator in Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, but finally retired from commercial employment to complete his education in the Kentucky Military Institute, from which he was graduated with the high- est honors at the age of twenty-one. The following three years he had an executive position in one of Cleveland's largest banks. He also studied law under Judge Hayden and upon examination was licensed to prac- tice in both the State and Federal courts. He became learned in the law merely for the
purpose of rounding out his education, and never practiced.
At the beginning of the Civil war he be- came chief clerk in the United States Mili- tary Telegraph Department at Washington. He was one of the four men entrusted with the secrets of the cipher code used in trans- mitting military instructions. Later he was promoted to quartermaster with the rank of captain and made second in command in the military telegraph department, with head- quarters at Cleveland. This office brought him the further duty of purchasing and sup- plying telegraph materials for war purposes. The tremendous burdens of such an office are understood at the present time, when some of the finest executive and administrative minds in American business are being strained to the breaking point by their duties on the various war boards. It is possible to understand therefore the reasons why Mr. Wade resigned after two years in that branch of Government service.
The last ten years of his life were spent in business at Cleveland. At one time he owned the largest retail jewelry house in the city, but eventually concentrated all his time and energies upon the management of the family estate, and in association with his father. Mr. Wade was secretary of the Cleve- land and Cincinnati Telegraph. Company : secretary, treasurer and director of the Cuy- ahoga Mining Company; secretary, treas- urer and director of the Chicago & Atchison Bridge Company; president and director of the Nonesuch Mining Com- pany ; director of the Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids Railway Company; a director of the Citizens Savings & Loan Association; and president and director of the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company.
Mr. Wade is remembered as a man of great versatility of talents, but his outstanding characteristic was thoroughness in everything he did. When he was attending military school as a boy he took up with enthusiasm sword practice, and in the entire student body was regarded as the most expert in that branch of military technique. He mastered telegraphy both as a science and as a business. was a talented musician, had the command of several languages, and was a most keen and resourceful business man. Without os- tentation he took upon himself many philan- thropic and civic responsibilities. He was at one time treasurer of the Church of the Unity at Cleveland.
513
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
He married in 1856 Miss Anna McGaw of Columbus.
J. H. WADE. Bearing the name of his grandfather, Jeptha Homer Wade, and a son of Randall P. and Anna (McGaw) Wade, J. H. Wade has been the medium through which most of the activities and influences of this well known family have become identified with the modern Cleveland of the present generation.
Heavy responsibilities were prepared for him long in advance of his mature years and he was carefully trained and fitted to handle those responsibilities both by his father and grandfather. Mr. Wade was born at Cleve- land October 15, 1857, and was only nine- teen years of age when his father died. He was educated in private schools and under a private tutor and for over forty years had been busied with a great variety of large and important interests, including banking, rail- way and industrial administration, real es- tate and other properties. Since the death of his grandfather in 1890 most of the Wade interests at Cleveland and elsewhere have concentrated in him.
Mr. Wade is chairman of the board of di- rectors of the Citizens Savings and Trust Company, and at different times has been vice president of the National Bank of Com- merce, a director of the Guardian Savings and Trust Company, vice president of the Cleveland Stone Company, director of the Cleveland City Railway Company, president of the Kalamazoo, Allegan & Grand Rapids Railway Company, president of the Montreal Mining Company, vice president of the Cleve- land Cliffs Iron Company, director of the Grasselli Chemical Company, and director of the Sandusky Portland Cement Company. He has also served as trustee and member of the executive committee of a number of edu- cational and charitable institutions. For all the larger and broader citizenship which these positions and connections suggest, Mr. Wade is one of the most quiet and modest citizens of Cleveland, and has always been content to allow his work to speak for it- self.
October 16, 1878, Mr. Wade married Miss Ellen Garretson, daughter of Hiram and Ellen (Howe) Garretson. Three children were born to their marriage, two sons and a danghter. Mr. and Mrs. Wade were de- voted to their home life, but from it their interests and sympathies extended to many
of the most helpful institutions of the city. Mrs. Wade died May 21, 1917. Most of the objects and worthy movements which re- ceived a strong personal impulse from her during her life will continue to benefit in years to come through the trust established in 1917 by Mr. Wade, known as the "Ellen Garretson Wade Memorial Fund," consist- ing of about $1,250,000.
CARL F. UHL, JR. One of the contracting firms of Cleveland that represent a high de- gree of organization and technical skill is The Uhl-Jaster Company, in the Euclid Build- ing. Mr. Uhl, president of this company, is a graduate of Case School of Applied Sci- ence, and is looked upon as one of the most progressive younger men in his line of work in the city.
He is a native of Cleveland, born in this city August 21, 1886. His father, Charles Frederick Uhl, Sr., was born in Germany in 1845, but the family has been in Cleveland for fifty years or more. Grandfather Louis Uhl came to the United States and located at Cleveland in 1855 and spent the rest of his years here. Charles Uhl, Sr., grew up and married in Cleveland, and for several years was head mechanic with the Brush Electric Company. He then turned his attention to the jewelry and art business and had one of the well known and largely patronized es- tablishments of its kind on the East Side of Cleveland. He died here January 4, 1917. He was a republican and a member of the Ma- sonic fraternity. Mr. Uhl, Sr., married Julia Beilstein, who was born in Cleveland in 1850 and is still living in the city. Her father, who died at Cleveland in 1890, was one of the early pioneers in the furniture and cabi- net-making business in this city. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Uhl, Sr., had three children, Louis F., Henry W. and Carl F., Jr. Louis is auditor for The American Fork and Hoe Company of Cleveland, while Henry W. is a photographer at Rogers City, Michigan.
Carl F. Uhl graduated from the Cleveland High School in 1904 and from there entered Case School of Applied Science, from which lie received his degree Bachelor of Science in 1908. He specialized in civil engineering, and in the ten years following his college ca- reer has had a vast and varied experience in engineering and building lines. For three vears he was with the Courtney Engineering Company, and spent another year with the W. I. Thompson & Son Company, contractors. In
514
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
1912 he established The Uhl-Jaster Company, general contractors, and the business is in- corporated under the laws of Ohio. The sec- retary and treasurer is J. L. Jaster, Jr.
Mr. Uhl while at Case became affiliated with the Zeta Psi and the Tau Beta Pi Greek Let- ter fraternities. Ile is independent iu pol- ities. In 1916 at Cleveland he married Miss Ethel C. Sumner, daughter of Frank L. and Nettie L. Sumner. Her mother still lives in Cleveland. Her father was a jeweler.
-
FRANK S. MACOUREK, a man of broad and varied experience in industrial lines, is now secretary and treasurer of the Vlchek Tool Company, one of Cleveland's largest insti- tuitions for the manufacture of automobile tools of all kinds. The plant, where 350 men are employed, is located at 10709 Quincy Ave- nue. He is also secretary and treasurer of the Vleliek Company as well as secretary of the K. & M. Brass and Aluminum Casting Company.
Mr. Macourek is a native of Cleveland, born here August 11, 1877, son of John Macourek, who was born in Bohemia in 1850. John Ma- courek came to the United States and located at Cleveland in 1868 when eighteen years old. He married here, and spent his active life as a molder. He died at Cleveland in 1913. In politics he voted as a democrat. John Macourek married Ana Rychlik, who was born in Bohemia in 1848 and died at Cleveland in 1910. Several of their children are among Cleveland's industrious, home owning and worthy people. The oldest daughter, Mary, is the wife of Anthony Cada, an insurance man of Cleveland. Anna married James Denk, a shoe merchant of Cleveland. James of Cleveland is a core maker by trade, and has charge of the core department of the K. & M. Brass and Aluminum Castings Com- pany. Carrie is the wife of Frank Shipka, a farmer, living at Cleveland. The fifth of the family is Frank S. Bertha married Frank Kallal, a grocer at Cleveland. John, at Cleve- land, is chief inspector for the Forest City Machine and Forge Company.
Frank S. Macourek was educated in the public schools of Cleveland, and though he left school at the age of fifteen he supple- mented and acquired a good education by reading and studying at home, using all his leisure time for several years in the better equipping himself for the serions duties and responsibilities of life. The first position he held was as office boy for two years in the
shipping room of the Eberhardt Manufactur- ing Company. Then for two years he was office boy for the Cleveland Antomatic Ma- chine Screw Company. In the meantime he had acquired a knowledge of shorthand and as a stenographer he was for five years with the Shelby Steel Tube Company at Shel- by, Ohio. His knowledge of this business caused him to be promoted and called to Pittsburgh as assistant buyer for the National Tube Company, where he remained three years. Returning to Cleveland in 1903, he was purchasing agent for the Peerless Motor Car Company until November 1, 1917, at which date he joined the Vlchek Tool Com- pany as its secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Macourek is a member of the Chris- tian Science Church, of the National Lodge of Knights of Pythias, Cleveland Athletic Club, and is a republican. His home is at 11702 Cromwell Avenue. He married in Cleveland in 1903 Miss Rose Hejduk, daughter of John and Barbara Hejduk, both now de- ceased. Her father was a professionl mu- sician. Mr. and Mrs. Maconrek have one child, Lawrence H., born April 15, 1907.
JAMES MADISON HOYT. The annals of the Cleveland bar have been enriched and digni- fied by a continuons membership of the Hoyt family through a period of eighty years. As a lawyer the late James Madison Hoyt long stood at the head of his profession, but he rendered services almost equally notable in other fields. For many years he was not in active practice but gave his time to his real estate interests and his work as an ac- tive promoter of religions enterprises.
This Cleveland citizen of a previous gen- eration was born at Utica, New York, in 1815. Both by training and by nature he was a man of culture. He was graduated from Hamilton College, New York, in 1834, and at once began the study of law. After coming to Cleveland he continued his studies in the office of An- drews & Foot. In 1837 he was admitted to the firm, which became Andrews, Foot & Hoyt. When Mr. Andrews went to the bench of the Superior Court in 1848 his partners continued practice as Foot & Hoyt until 1853. In that year James Madison Hoyt withdrew from active practice, and thereafter his busi- ness duties were largely in connection with his real estate interests in Cleveland and vicin- ity.
His life touched Cleveland at many points and always for the good of the city and its
James It. Hoyt.
515
CLEVELAND AND ITS ENVIRONS
people. After retiring from the law practice he was in 1854 licensed to preach the Gospel, though he was never ordained. To a singular degree he exemplified the virtues of true Christian manhood, and was closely identified with the work of Protestant churches. In 1854 he was chosen president of the Ohio Bap- tist State Convention, and was annually re- elected to that position for more than twenty- four years. He was also president of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, the national organization for Baptist missions in North America, and he performed the many arduous duties of that office until resigning in 1890. For fifteen years he was president of the Cleveland Bible Society, an auxiliary to the American Bible Society, of which he was one of the vice presidents at the time of his death. While he was never conspicuons in politics, he was elected in 1870 a member of the State Board of Equalization, and in 1873 represented the citizens of Cleveland on the Board of Public Improvement.
During his practice as a lawyer he was noted for his thorough scholarship, and with the ample means and leisure of his later years he acquired a genuine and liberal culture such as few men in Ohio excelled. He was well versed in the physical sciences, philosophy and history, and in recognition of his attain- ments Dennison University at Granville, Ohio, conferred upon him in 1870 the degree LL. D. Through all his active years he contributed liberally to religious and charitable objects, and during the Civil war gave valuable aid in numerous ways to the Union.
The death of this honored old Cleveland citizen occurred in April, 1895. He was mar- ried in 1836 to Miss Mary Ella Beebe, of New York City. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt : Rev. Dr. Wayland Hoyt; Ella; Colgate Hoyt; Mrs. Farmer, of Cleve- land; James H .; and Elton Hoyt. The two living are Colgate and Elton.
JAMES HUMPHREY HOYT was one of the distinguished members of the Cleveland bar for forty years. Besides his prominence in the profession he exerted an influence as a vigorous thinker and a courageous public leader, and the republican party of Ohio rec- ognized him as among its ablest advisers.
Ilis position in the bar was well indicated hy his senior membership of the firm Hoyt, Dustin. Kelley, McKeehan and Andrews. Much of the splendid prestige of that firm can properly be credited to Mr. Hoyt.
Cleveland knew Mr. Hoyt only in the vigor of his manhood, with mind undimmed and with resources unabated. From his large practice as a lawyer he sought recreation dur- ing the early winter of 1917 at St. Augustine, Florida, and after a brief illness of pneumonia he passed away in that city March 2Ist. .
He was a son of the late James Madison and Mary Ella (Beebe) Hoyt, and was born at Cleveland November 10, 1850. His father, to whom reference is made on other pages, gave up active practice at the Cleveland bar soon after the birth of James Humphrey. The latter was educated in the public schools, prepared for college at Hudson, Ohio, spent one year at Western Reserve University and two years at Amherst College. In 1871 Mr. Hoyt entered Brown University, where he was graduated in 1874.
For a year he read law with Spaulding & Diekman, and in 1875 entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated LL. B. with the class of 1877.
Mr. Hoyt began his career as a lawyer at Cleveland in partnership with the firm of Willey, Sherman & Hoyt. The firm subse- quently became Sherman & Hoyt, and finally Sherman, Hoyt & Dustin. With the death of Mr. Sherman, Hoyt and Dustin continued in practice, and those two names have stood at the head of a partnership which by various stages has been Hoyt, Dustin & Kelley and now Hoyt, Dustin, Kelley, McKeehan & An- drews. For years the firm had their offices in the Western Reserve Building, but since Mr. Hoyt's death they have been located in the Guardian Building.
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.