A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 99

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 99

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Mr. Hoyt for the better part of his career gave his primary attention to the civil law. In earlier years he was a resourceful trial lawyer but latterly he was not a familiar fig- ure in the trial courts. He was retained in many of the most important cases involving corporation and business law, and no Ohio lawyer was better versed in the complications of business law and practice than Mr. Hoyt.

Besides his activities as a lawyer Mr. Hoyt was secretary and director of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, was vice president of the National City Bank, was second vice president and general counsel of the Hocking Valley Railway, was secretary and director of the Pittsburg Steamship Company, the Peavey Steamship Company, the Lake Sn- perior and Ishpeming Railway Company, and a director of the American Shipbuilding Com-

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pany and the Superior Savings and Trust Company.

He had extensive practice and experience as an orator and was famous as an after dinner speaker. His speeches were distinguished by an exceptional clarity of argument and a breadth and liberality of views which dis- played his extensive acquaintance with eco- nomic, sociological and political problems. He was also interested in literature, and was a writer of verse at times, several of his collec- tions of poems having been published. He was a member of the Cuyahoga and Ohio Bar and American Bar associations and a director of the Carnegie Pension Fund. He was also a veteran of Troop A of the local Cleveland Military Organization.

For years his counsels were an influence and factor in shaping the policies of the re- publican party in Ohio. In 1895 he was republican candidate for the nomination for governor. He had a wide acquaintance with prominent men all over the country. Former President William H. Taft, President Wil- liam MeKinley, Elihu Root, Elbert H. Gary and Henry Frick were some of the people en- tertained at different times at the Hoyt home in Cleveland. As a native son of Cleveland Mr. Hoyt seldom failed to grasp an oppor- tunity to give expression to his loyalty and to ally himself with the progressive move- ment in municipal affairs. He was a director and was identified with various movements promulgated by the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.

He found his chief recreations in motoring and golf. He was a member and president of the Union Club, and a member of the Ta- vern, Country, Euclid, Roadside, Mayfield Golf, Chagrin Valley and University clubs of Cleveland. He also belonged to the Alpha Delta Phi college fraternity, to the Century Association, the University Club, the Sewan- aka-Corinthian Yacht Club, New York Yacht Club and Metropolitan Club of New York City.

The Hoyt family home is at 2445 Euclid Avenue. This home has long been one of the distinctive centers of Cleveland's best social life. He was married June 17, 1885, to Miss Jessie P. Taintor, of Cleveland. Mrs. Hoyt has done much to build and support two of Cleveland's best known institutions, the Day Nursery and the Lakeside Hospital, and is a director in both. Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt had two children : Katherine Boardman and Elton.

Elton was graduated from Yale University in 1910.

ELTON HOYT II, a son of James Humphrey Hoyt of a prominent Cleveland family else- where mentioned in these pages, is one of the city's younger business men, and is well known also in club and social affairs.

He was born at Cleveland June 13, 1888, graduated from the Cleveland University School in 1906, and then spent four years in Yale University, graduating in 1910.

During the seven years since his return from Yale Mr. Hoyt has been connected with Pickands, Mather & Company in their ore de- partment. He is now in the sales end of the business and is also a director of the Superior Savings & Trust Company, director in the United Furnace Company, a director of the North American Motor Company of Potts- town, Pennsylvania.

While at Yale he was a Psi Upsilon frater- nity man, also belonged to the Senior Society of Scroll and Key. At Cleveland he is a mem- ber of the most exclusive clubs, including the Union Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, the Country Club, the Tavern Club, of which he is a director: University Club, of which he is also a director; Chagrin Valley Hunt Club, and is a member of the University Club of New York City, Yale Club of New York City and Pittsburgh Club of Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania. Mr. Hoyt is a Presbyterian.

At Cleveland January 3, 1914, he married Cornelia Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Huntington Brown. Their two chil- dren are Cornelia, born January 2, 1915, and James Humphrey II, born September 2, 1916.

COLGATE HOYT. Among the distinguished colony of Clevelanders who make their home and business headquarters in New York, one of the most prominent is Colgate Hoyt, a na- tive of this city and still identified with it by many business interests and social connec- tions. Mr. Hoyt has gained national promi- nence as a financier and a leader in the de- velopment of industrial and transportation affairs.

He was born at Cleveland March 2, 1849, a son of James M. and Mary Ella Hoyt. His father, Hon. James M. Hoyt, was an eminent lawyer, a man of pronounced influence in social and political affairs and honored and loved in the community where he lived. The mother was a woman of singularly rare and

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attractive traits of character and was the charm and grace in all society in which she moved.

As a boy Colgate Hoyt attended private and public schools at Cleveland and at the age of fifteen entered Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts. An injury to one of his eyes caused his return home and he forthwith entered upon a business career in the hardware store of Colwells & Bingham in his native city. While he never completed a college education, his many attainments in the field of finance and business were prop- erly honored by the University of Rochester in 1895, when it conferred upon him the honorary degree Master of Arts. Several years Mr. Hoyt was a partner in his father's business of buying and selling real estate, and as a result of those operations he still owns some substantial blocks of property in Cleveland.

His permanent home has been in New York City since 1881. There he entered banking as a partner in the Wall Street firm of James B. Colgate & Company. In 1882 President Arthur appointed him Government director of the Union Pacific Railway and in 1884, backed by a large stock interest, he was elected a regular director. After several years he and his colleagues transferred their interests to the Northern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Hoyt was elected a member of the executive and fi- nancial committees of the board of directors of that road and vice president of some of its principal branch lines. In 1884 he also became identified with the Wisconsin Central Railroad, and pushed the continuation of its line west to St. Paul and south to Chicago. In Chicago he helped organize and finance the Chicago & Northern Pacific Railway, owning large terminals in the center of the city, now known as the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railway, a subsidiary of the Baltimore & Ohio. In 1889 Mr. Hoyt became vice president of the Oregon & Transcontinental Company, and in the same year became identified with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, and for twenty years served on the board and as vice president. He was at one time vice president of the Duluth & Manitoba Railroad.

Mr. Hoyt organized and financed the noted Spanish-American Iron Mines of Cuba, after- wards sold to the Pennsylvania Steel Com- pany and now a part of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation. His business interests are wide- spread and besides his position as senior part-

ner in the brokerage house of Colgate, Hoyt & Company of New York, he is vice president and director of the St. Joseph & South Bend Railway, and a director of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, Canada Copper Corpora- tion, Cuba Copper Company, Phoenix Mines, and United States Cast Iron Pipe & Foundry Company.

One of his business achievements of spe- cial interest to Cleveland people was his or- ganization in 1888 of the American Steel Barge Company. This was as a result of the transportation requirements of iron mines on the Great Lakes with which he was connected. The company built and operated upward of sixty "whalebacks" a peculiar form and type of steel barge and steamer for heavy freight. The shipyard of the company at West Superior, Wisconsin, was afterwards sold to the American Ship Building Com- pany, and the fleet of vessels acquired by the United States Steel Corporation.

Mr. Hoyt is a former president of the Au- tomobile Club of America, and during his administration the club's beautiful home in New York City was financed and built. He is also a former president of the Ohio Society of New York City, and that was also a nota- ble administration in the history of the organization. For some years he was vice president of the Aero Club, and is a trustee of Brown University. Mr. Hoyt is a life member of the Western Reserve Historical Society, the United States Navy League, is a republican in politics, and is a member of the Automobile Club of America, the Sea- wanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club, Union League Club, Metropolitan Club, New York Yacht Club, Chamber of Commerce, Metro- politan Museum of Art, Union Club of Cleve- land, Pilgrims Society, Mill Neck Club, Ohio Society of New York, Sleepy Hollow Country Club, American Social Science Association, Canadian Camp Club, Empire State Society, Sons of the American Revolution, New York Society Founders and Patriots of America, New York Zoological Society, City Midday Club, North Shore Horse Show Association, Piping Rock Club, Oyster Bay Board of Trade, Aero Club of America and Bankers Club.

October 16, 1873, Mr. Hoyt married Miss Lida W. Sberman, of Cleveland, the third daughter of Judge Charles T. Sherman and a niece of Gen. W. T. Sherman and Senator John Sherman. Mrs. Hoyt died in 1908. Of their five children four are living: Charles

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Sherman, Annie Sherman, Colgate Hoyt, Jr., and Elizabeth B. Sherman Hoyt. The only one married is Colgate, Jr., whose wife was formerly Jeannette Myers of New York. In 1912 Mr. Hoyt married Mrs. Katharine Sharp Cheesman of New York. All his four children are now engaged in war service. Charles Sherman is a ship builder by pro- fession and is now junior lieutenant in charge of the inspection of submarine chasers in course of construction. Colgate Hoyt, Jr., is first lieutenant of the One Hundred and Fifth Machine Gun Battalion, Fifty-third Brigade, stationed at Spartansburg, South Carolina. The daughter Elizabeth holds the rank of major in the Red Cross, has been to France on missions for Director Davidson and is now at Washington on Red Cross as- signment. The daughter Annie has gone to France on Red Cross work for the length of the war.

THE BROOKLYN ICE COMPANY is one of the large and important industries of its kind at Cleveland. This is due not only to its large and well equipped plant but to the fact that the men who officer the company are all thoroughly practical and widely experienced ice men, not only in the manufacturing and production end of the business but in all the details of distribution and service.

This company was organized February 2, 1913, and the men who established it and are its principal officers today are Raymond L. Walter, Henry C. Miller and R. B. Way. Mr. Walter is president, Mr. Way is vice presi- dent, and Mr. Miller secretary and treasurer. The offices and plant are at 3319-3323 Hen- ninger Road. The company has an artificial plant with a capacity for manufacturing fifty tons every day, and also extensive warehouses, equipment of trucks and other facilities for distribution, and has perfected its service to the most minute detail.

Raymond L. Walter, president of the com- pany, was born in Cleveland March 6, 1888. His grandfather, John Walter, was born in Ohio in 1835, was a farmer around Cleve- land and died at Parma, a Cleveland suburb, in 1900. George M. Walter, father of Ray- mond L., was born in Cuyahoga County in 1858, and grew up in the vicinity of the old village of Brooklyn, now a part of Cleve- land. For many years he was engaged in the quarry industry and afterwards for sev- enteen years was in the ice business. He owned twenty-four acres of land at Parma,

conducted it as a farm, but sold out in 1917 and is now living practically retired at Brook- lyn in Cleveland. He is a member of the Ger- man Evangelical Church. George M. Wal- ter married in Brooklyn Catherine Dentzer, who was born at Parma in 1857 and died at Brooklyn in 1913. Their children are: Ray- mond L. and Olivia, the latter the wife of R. B. Way. The mother of these children married for her first husband Philip Klein, who was a pioneer quarryman of Cleveland. By this union there were three children, George, John and Philip, the latter two dying in childhood, while George is a resident of Lakewood and is bookkeeper for The M. A. IIanna Company of Cleveland.

Raymond L. Walter was educated in the public schools of Cleveland, attended the Edmiston Business College 11% years, and at the age of sixteen left school to begin work with his father in the ice business. Two years under his father's direction enabled him to start in a business for himself, and he was thus independently engaged, until the or- ganization and establishment of the Brooklyn Ice Company in 1913, since which date he has been its president. Mr. Walter is independ- ent in politics and is a member of the Asso- ciated Club. In 1909 at Cleveland he mar- ried Miss Lydia Brant, a native of Cleveland. They have three children: George, born in May, 1912; Burdette, born in February, 1914, and June, born in June, 1916.

Henry C. Miller, secretary and treasurer of the Brooklyn Ice Company, was born at Cleveland July 14, 1878. His father, Charles Miller, was born in Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany, in 1851. In 1860, when nine years of age, he came to America with his brothers, John and Fred, locating in Cleveland. These brothers are still living in this city, John be- ing night watchman for The City Ice De- livery Company, while Fred is now retired after a long service as porter at the Erie Railway Station. Charles Miller grew up and married in Cleveland and for twenty-seven years was connected with The Lake Erie Ice Company and after that was in the ice busi- ness for himself seventeen years until he re- tired. He resides at 4231 West Twenty- fourth Street. He is a member of the Ger- man Evangelical Church. In Cleveland he married Minnie Homan. She was born in 1857 in Rostock, Schwerin, Germany.

Henry C. Miller, the only child of his par- ents, was educated in the Cleveland public schools and the Spencerian Business College,

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which he attended one year. When only thir- teen years of age he began working for the Lake Erie Ice Company, and was with that company seven years, a period that gave him a most thorough and practical apprenticeship in every detail of the ice business. After that he was an active business associate of his father for seventeen years, and in 1913 with the partners named organized the Brooklyn Ice Company. Mr. Miller is an independent voter, is a member of the Brooklyn-Parma- Royalton Civic Association, and is affiliated with Cleveland Lodge No. 18, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Another business interest is a co-partnership with E. D. Loewe in the ownership of the Johnson House situ- ated at the corner of Pearl and Broadview Road.

In 1907 at Cleveland Mr. Miller married Miss Idella Hall, daughter of James J. and Carrie (Loewe) HIall, residents of Cleveland, her father being manager of the Johnson House. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have two chil- dren, Helen, born in 1910, and Ruth, born in Angust, 1917.

Raymond B. Way, vice president of The Brooklyn lee Company, was born in North- field, Ohio, July 27, 1884. His father, John W. Way, was born in the southern part of England in 1852, and came with his parents to the United States in 1861, the family first settling iu Akron, Ohio, from there moving to Northfield, where he was reared, trained to the life of a farmer. and married. Ile spent his career there as a farmer and died in 1901. Ile was a member of the Masonic fraternity. John W. Way married Lyda Barnhardt, who was born in Boston, Ohio, in 1857, and now lives at Akron. She was the mother of four children : Charles W., who died at North- field at the age of twenty-three; Jessie, wife of John Schneider, a school teacher at Ot- tawa, Illinois; Raymond B .; and Rexford D., a veterinary surgeon living on East Eightieth Street in Cleveland.

Raymond B. Way had a public school edu- cation at Northfield, graduating from high school in 1902, and the first two years out of high school he spent on a farm. Then for two years he was employed by the Buckeye Pipe Line Company and his duties took him all over Northern Ohio. On coming to Cleve- land in 1908 he spent a year with F. M. Ran- ney, real estate, then farmed a year, after which he engaged in the ice business with R. L. Walter, and that association was contin- ned until The Brooklyn Ice Company was es-

tablished and he was elected vice president of the organization.

Mr. Way is independent in politics and is affiliated with Glenn Lodge of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows. He lives at Parma. He married at Cleveland in 1909 Miss Olivia Walter, sister of Mr. Raymond L. Walter.

REV. C. H. LEBLOND occupies a highly responsible position in connection with the institutions and affairs of the Catholic Church at Cleveland, being a director of Catholic charities in the city and also superintend- ent of St. Anthony's Home at 8301 Detroit Avenue, where he has his residence, his office being in the Standard Theater Building.

Father LeBlond is of French ancestry, and a number of men of note ocenr in his lineage. His great-grandfather named Celest LeBlond emigrated from France during the French Revolution, first settling in Pennsylvania and later moving to Ohio. There has been Le- Blonds in Ohio for fully a century. The grandfather, Frank C. LeBlond, who was born in this state in 1815, spent a long and active career at Celina, where he died in 1897. He was a well known attorney and dur- ing the Civil war represented his Ohio dis- trict in Congress. He was a graduate of Monnt Union College at Alliance, Ohio. Frank C. LeBlond married Louise MeGinley, who was born at Elyria, Ohio, in 1829, and died at Celina in 1916.

The next generation of the family was rep- resented by the late Hon. Charles M. Le- Blond, father of Rev. C. H. LeBlond. He was born at Celina, Ohio, in 1857, was reared in his native town, finished his education in the University of Michigan where he graduated LL. B., practiced law at Celina until 1889, when he removed to Cleveland, and was an active member of the bar of this city until 1903. That year seeking health he went to the Hawaiian Islands and was there until his death in 1911. He was an active democrat, and was very prominent in state polities while a resident of Celina. He was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives, served as speaker of the House, and was also a mem- ber of the State Senate. He was a member of the Catholic Church. Charles M. LeBlond married Anna Brennan, who was born in Cleveland in 1862 and is still living in this city. Her children are Luke, in the bonding business at Wichita, Kansas; Father C. H. Le- Blond; and Charlotte, wife of Charles Mc- Tague, a resident of Buffalo, New York, and

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assistant general freight agent of the Lacka- wanna Railroad.

Father LeBlond was born at Celina, Ohio, November 21, 1883. He received an unusu- ally thorough and liberal education, and from an early age his career was pointed to the service of the church. He attended St. John's Cathedral School at Cleveland, for six years was a classical student in St. Ignatius Col- lege at Cleveland, where he graduated in 1903, and the following six years he spent in theological work at St. Mary's Seminary at Cleveland. He was graduated in 1909 and ordained to the priesthood June 29th of that year. For the first two years he was curate of St. John's Cathedral and his special ad- ministrative abilities were then recognized by his appointment in 1911 as superintendent of St. Anthony's Home, of which he has had charge now for six years. Since 1912 he has been director of Catholic charities.

St. Anthony's Home is an institution main- tained for the benefit of working boys, lo- cated at 8301 Detroit Avenue, and has accom- modations for fifty. As director of Catholic charities Father LeBlond has concentrated under his authority the many responsibilities involved in the administration of the varied charities of the Diocese of Cleveland, and through his office are conducted the financial and business administration of the hospitals. orphanages, infant asylums, old folks homes, and other institutions.

Father LeBlond is a member of Forest City Council Knights of Columbus, and is a mem- ber of the City Club of Cleveland.

ERNEST MCGEORGE. Because of his substan- tial professional achievements as well as his recognized high personal career, Ernest Me- George, consulting engineer, may be num- bered with the representative men of Cleve- land. He was born in England, in 1877, and is a son of John and Ellen (Reynolds) MeGeorge, old family names not unknown in different parts of Great Britain.

In 1883 the parents of Ernest MeGeorge came to the United States and in 1896 the family settled at Cleveland. The father was an engineer of wide experience and was chief engineer for the Wellman-Seaver-Morgan Company during the busy days of steel de- velopment in this country. He is one of Cleveland's most reliable consulting en- gineers. The mother of Mr. MeGeorge died at Cleveland in the spring of 1917.

Ernest McGeorge was educated in the

Cleveland public schools, and through home study, furthered by natural inclination, he taught himself the principles of engineering. His first work test was with the Wellman- Seaver-Morgan Company, where his father was chief engineer, and he continued there nine years. Since 1909 Mr. MeGeorge has served the Peerless Motor Car Company and the Ferro Machine & Foundry Company as consulting engineer, designing and supervis- ing the building of $1,000,000,000 worth of work for the two companies. As engineer in the office of J. Milton Dyer, he supervised the construction of the foundations of the new heating system for the tuberculosis hospital on the Cooley Farm at Warrensville.

Mr. MeGeorge opened his present offices in the Leader-News Building, Cleveland, on March 1, 1913. He specializes on the design, construction and supervision of manufactur- ing plants, warehouses and commercial buildings. His principal clients are the Peer- less Motor Car Company, the Ferro Machine & Foundry Company, the Parrish & Bingham Company ; the Winton Engine Works, on the West Side, the Chandler Motor Car Company, the H. J. Walker Company, the Briggs Manu- facturing Company, the Elyria Iron & Steel Company, the Cleveland Switchboard Com- pany, and much out of town work. His suc- cess in his profession has been pronounced.

Mr. MeGeorge was married in 1904 to Miss Eleanor Wooters, who is a daughter of Charles Wooters, of Cleveland, and they have two children, Marjory and Marian. Mr. McGeorge and wife are members of Hough Avenue Congregational Church.

In addition to his profession Mr. MeGeorge is interested in the Simon's Flat Slab Com- pany and in several industrial concerns of less note. He has never had any military experience, but is a contributing member of the Ohio National Guard. Interested in all concerns the development of Cleveland, he is an active member of the Chamber of Com- merce, and belongs also to the Cleveland En- gineering Society and to the Cleveland Athletic and Automobile clubs. Not active in politics, he is, however, a close student of public questions and votes as an independent republican.

JOHN MCGEORGE. During a long period of years one of the best known names among the consulting engineers of Cleveland has been that of John McGeorge, who has been asso- ciated in his professional capacity with the

Emeathe George

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erection of some of the largest structures of the Forest City. Mr. MeGeorge was born at Manchester, England, May 2, 1852, a son of William and Elizabeth (Cook) MeGeorge, the former a native of Castle Douglas, Scotland, and a blacksmith foreman.

When John McGeorge was two years of age the family removed to Stockport, England, where they made their home for twenty-two years and where the father died. It was in the common schools of that place that John McGeorge was educated, and there he began Lis apprenticeship as a machinist when only fourteen years old. In order to further his education he attended evening school at Owen College, now & part of Victoria University, at Manchester, England, and by the time he was twenty-one years of age was placed in charge of a factory as general manager. This plant, which manufactured horizontal steam engines, was located at Manchester and there Mr. MeGeorge remained for a period of seven years. He next went to Nottingham, Eng- land, where he was engaged for three years in designing sugar machinery, and the next two years were passed at Hornby Grantham, England, where he was a draughtsman for agricultural machinery. He then went to Guilford, England, to assume charge of an agricultural implement shop as general man- ager, but in the meantime had become in- terested in opportunities offered for advance- ment in the United States, and after two years left his position and crossed the At- lantic, locating at Bellaire, Ohio, where he beeame designer of special machinery for the Bellaire Stamping Company. In 1888 Mr. MeGeorge removed to Washington, Pennsyl- vania, where he built the glass works and in- stalled the machinery, a work which required his efforts until 1890, when he went to Pitts- burgh as chief engineer of the Pittsburgh Iron and Steel Engineering Company, being there located during the next three years. ITis next connection was with the Wellman Iron and Steel Company of Philadelphia, for which concern he was chief engineer three years. Coming to Cleveland in 1896, in conjunction with S. T. and C. H. Wellman, he founded the Wellman-Seaver Engineering Company, which is now operating under the name of Wellman- Seaver-Morgan Company. Mr. MeGeorge was chief engineer of this concern until 1903. when he severed his relations therewith to engage in business on his own account as a consult- ing engineer, later becoming vice president of the Cleveland Engineering Company. IIe

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A history of Cleveland and its environs; the heart of new Connecticut, Part 99

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