USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 1) > Part 67
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The total assets of the Cleveland Trust Company amount to $197,- 085,375, as given April 1, 1924. It has sixty directors, including many men of great prominence in Cleveland business circles. Its president is Harris Creech, and Edwin Baxter, John T. Feighan, Charles B. Gleason, Henry Kiefer, R. A. Malm, William Rapprich, C. W. Stanbury, Walter S. Bowler, W. F. Finley, F. H. Houghton, A. A. McCaslin, E. L. Mason, George F. Schulze, F. F. Van Deusen and P. T. White are vice presidents. J. W. Woodburn is the treasurer, H. H. Allyn, trust officer, and there are seven assistant secretaries, nine assistant treasurers, eight assistant trust officers, and an executive committee of ten including the president of the bank. Lillian E. Oakley is assistant to the president. A. G. Tame, A. R. Horr and E. B. Green are prominent in the councils and management of this great bank.
This bank began business in cramped quarters in the basement of the old Garfield Building on Euclid Avenue. In 1895 it celebrated its twenty- fifth anniversary in its own building at Euclid and East Ninth Street, having $100,000,000 of deposits and 250,000 depositors. It early established the rule "No loans to officers or directors." In a pamphlet, which it issued at that time, there were articles as follows : President F. H. Goff-"A Quarter of a Century of Banking Service ;" "Pioneering"-A. R. Horr; "Branch Bank- ing"-E. G. Tillotson; "Continuous Daily Audit"-Fred W. Ramsey ; "Commercial Banking"-M. J. Mandelbaum ; "Relation to Industries"- Charles E. Adams; "Living Trusts" -- John L. Severance; "The Employes and the Bank"-J. R. Wyllie; "The Pay Roll Savings Plan"-A. W. Henn; "War Service"-D. C. Wills ; "Service to the Community"-Samuel Mather ; "The Spirit of the Organization"-A. G. Tame ; and "The Future" by F. H. Goff. In this pamphlet there was also an article on "The Cleve- land Foundation," which should be referred to in our history. This was organized in 1914 by F. H. Goff, president of the Cleveland Trust Company. As given in this article it is a trust fund made up from gifts and bequests from citizens who wish to devote funds that they have accumulated to "making their posterity healthier, happier and more worthy." The writer says : "The Cleveland Foundation, as conceived and brought into being by the president of the Cleveland Trust Company, is the most important single contribution of our generation to the art of wise giving and a most potent influence to turn the minds of men from an absorption that is selfish, to a service that is social." This foundation or community trust in its organization consists of trustees, one appointed by the Probate Court, one by the United States District Court, one by the mayor of the
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city and two by the directors of the Cleveland Trust Company. The funds of the Cleveland Foundation already "mount far into the millions" and the trustees have broad powers as to the use of the income for civic better- ment. The Cleveland Foundation is a lasting monument to its creator, Fred H. Goff.
The first officers of the bank were president, J. G. W. Cowles, vice presidents, H. A. Sherwin and H. A. Garfield, secretary, A. B. McNairy, and treasurer, E. G. Tillotson.
Cleveland, as the fourth financial center in the United States, was chosen as the location of the Federal Reserve Bank for the fourth district. It was opened in the city in November, 1914, and the Cleveland Trust Company was the first bank, other than the national banks, who were required by law to do so, to take out membership in the Federal Reserve System. It was the second in the district and the first in the district of any institution with resources of over $50,000,000 to take out membership in the Federal System. There are 754 national banks in the fourth district, of which the Cleveland bank is the head. The district includes all of Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania and six counties of West Virginia. Dayton, Toledo, Erie, Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus, Young's- town and Wheeling are important cities in the district.
Under the law the Federal Reserve Bank is a bankers' bank. Its de- positors are the national banks of the district and such other banks of the district as qualify for membership. The purposes of the Federal Reserve Bank are to provide concentration of the financial reserves of the district, to furnish an elastic currency by the issuance of Federal notes, to afford a means of rediscounting commercial paper, and to provide a more effective supervision of the member banks. The federal reserve notes are issued by the regional bank to its member banks against rediscounted commercial paper at face value.
As indicating the size of this great addition to the financial organizations of Cleveland, it may be said that three years after it opened its doors it had, besides a capital of $12,000,000, deposits of more than $109,000,000. Its new home at the corner of Superior and East Sixth Street is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. D. C. Wills is chairman of the board.
The Cleveland Clearing House Association was organized December 28, 1858. Its constitution recites its purpose. It reads : "The object of this association shall be to effect at one place, and in the most economical and safe manner, the daily exchange between the several associated banks and bankers ; the maintenance of uniform rates for eastern exchange and the regulation of what description of funds shall be paid and received in the settlement of balances." Its first members included the Commercial Branch Bank, the Merchants Branch Bank, the Forest City Bank, Wason Everett and Company, H. B. and H. Wick and Company, Whitman Standart and Company, and Fayette Brown. Its first officers were T. P. Handy, president of the Commercial Branch Bank, president, W. L. Cutter, assistant cashier of the Merchants Branch Bank, secretary, and an executive committee consisting of T. P. Handy, Lemuel Wick and Fayette Brown. In the '80s T. P. Handy was president, and Alfred Wick, secretary and treasurer. Among the first things done by the association was to decide that settlements of balances may be paid in current funds or New York draft at the option of the debtor bank. This association has enlarged to keep pace with the wonderful growth of the city, but in a history of financial Cleveland, T. P. Handy, who built the first fires and wrestled with the first problems must always stand out as a conspicuous figure. As an illustration of the fact that the banks are closely allied with the business prosperity of the city it should be noted that Mr. Handy was a close friend of John D.
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Rockefeller, believed in him and his business ability and backed him up in the days when he most needed financial backing.
The Guardian Savings and Trust Company with a capital and surplus of $8,000,000 and resources of over $110,000,000 is the third largest bank in the city. It was incorporated as The Guardian Trust Company in 1894 and has therefore been in business thirty years. It was the first trust com- pany in Cleveland to be incorporated under the act of the Legislature per- mitting this class of institutions to transact business in Ohio. The act was passed in May, and the company formed in June following. It began business in December of that year in the Wade Building on Superior Street. In 1902 an uptown office was opened in the Arcade on Euclid. Its business increased rapidly and a twelve story building was erected at 322 Euclid Avenue, where the bank's Arcade Branch was removed in 1906. In the meantime the capital had been increased from $500,000 at the time of its incorporation to $1,000,000 and its name changed to The Guardian Savings and Trust Company. In 1912 the original office in the Wade Building was removed to the Euclid Avenue Building. In 1914 the com- pany purchased the New England Building on Euclid near East Sixth Street. This was remodeled into a modern office and bank building and is the present home of the bank. Its capital and surplus have been from time to time increased until they now aggregate $8,000,000, as we have said.
The business of the bank is divided into four general departments- banking, trust, real estate and safe deposit. It has six branches, the Commercial at West Sixth Street and Superior Avenue, the One Hundred and Fifth Street Branch, Euclid and East Forty-sixth Street Branch, the Lakewood and Rocky River branches and one at Woodland Avenue and East Thirty-first Street.
Henry P. McIntosh is chairman of the board of directors, and J. Arthur House is president. Harry C. Robinson, Phillip C. Berg, John Fish, Lewis B. Foote, Archie R. Frazer, William R. Green, William E. Guerin, George B. Johnson, Louis J. Kaufman, Henry P. McIntosh, Jr., Clarence R. Megerth, Thomas E. Monks, Louis A. Murfey, William D. Purdon, Earl T. Shannon, Howard I. Shepherd, Albert G. Stucky, Frank W. Wardwell and Arthur F. Young are vice presidents. This long list of vice presidents is not an accidental selection. Each man has gained the title by efficient service in the bank and the whole constitute a masterly work- ing force. Roscoe P. Sears is secretary, and Louis E. Holmden, treasurer. Charles F. Bruggemeier, Clayton W. Force, Walter N. Hoppe, John J. Luth, Herbert W. Penniger, J. A. Purcell, Edward A. Stockwell and Joseph A. Ward are assistant secretaries. Howard A. Carleton, George A. Church, Odell W. Fullerton, Elmer H. Guentzler, Hubbard C. Hutch- inson, Edward F. Masch, Gustav J. Pravo, George F. Reuter, William H. Steinkamp and Frank G. Steuber are assistant treasurers, Tod F. Busard, Herbert J. Coates and T. Philip Rutinger are assistant trust officers. Rodney H. Garner is auditor of the bank.
The counting room in the New Guardian Building, the home of its own construction, is one of the most attractive and convenient in the city. It has a board of directors of twenty-nine men of prominence in the city, whose business connections are a great asset to the institution. As put forth in a prospectus : "The combination of conservatism and business enterprise, is the foundation of 'The Guardian Way,' a familiar expression in the community, a motto among bankers-the trade mark of a remarkably successful institution."
The first president of the bank was John H. Whitelaw and the secretary William G. Dietz.
The State Banking and Trust Company, established in 1899, has in
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seven years a capital and surplus of $675,000 and deposits of $3,000,000. The officers were Henry W. Kitchen, president, John Jaster, vice president, W. K. Rose, treasurer. Mr. Jaster was also secretary. Its Market Branch was then established. It now has six branches and has grown many fold, and is a large factor in the financial life of the city.
The Midland Bank, occupying the rooms in the Williamson Building formerly used by the Federal Reserve Bank, is one of Cleveland's newest banks and its history is in the making. S. H. Robbins is chairman of the board, D. D. Kimmel, president, Carl E. Lee and Harold C. Avery, vice presidents, J. Brenner Root, cashier, Carl S. Spring, auditor, and James W. Kennedy, trust officer. It has made a brilliant start and is an institution to be reckoned with in the future history of financial Cleveland.
One of the most interesting of Cleveland banks, holding a position in the hearts of the people similar to the Society for Savings, is the United Banking and Savings Company of the west side, which for many years was the leading bank in that part of the city. Annually it holds stockholders' meetings, in which the men and women sit down to a splendid dinner and talk over the bank's activities and its policies. It has no branches. It now has in process of construction a magnificent new building at Lorain and West 25th Street, which will exceed any building on the west side and rival many in the city. It has a capital and surplus of $2,200,000 and resources of over $20,000,000. William E. Heil is chairman of the board, and Arthur H. Seibig is its president. The vice presidents are William Grief and C. A. Wilkinson, who also is secretary. J. A. Zimmer is its treasurer, and R. P. Ransom, trust officer. Among its directors are William Wayne Chase, Guy E. Conkey, E. S. Cook, J. C. Dix, W. C. Fischer, William Grief, Theodore Kundtz, W. J. Hunkin, Edgar A. Meckes, Christian Schuele, Henry G. Oppman and Charles J. Snow. Henry W. S. Wood was president for many years and was succeeded on his death by the present head, Arthur H. Seibig.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers' Cooperative National Bank of Cleveland, organized in the fall of 1920, the first of its kind in the United States, was looked upon at first as an interesting experiment. Its career has proved it to be no longer an experiment, but a success. It is capitalized at $1,000,000. The purpose of its organization was primarily to loan funds of the brotherhood at reasonable rates. Its declared intention was to assist in building homes for the members of the brotherhood and the stock is owned exclusively by the brotherhood. Some surprise was manifest, in view of the declared purpose of the institution, that a national bank charter was taken out, but the reply from President Warren S. Stone was : "We chose a national bank because of its greater security."
This new bank in nearly four years of operation has probably exceeded in growth that of any other financial institution in the city, in the same length of time, with the possible exception of the Federal Reserve Bank. It has employed the method of banking by mail and, having 85,000 members in the brotherhood, the patronage has been large in that field alone, but its patrons have been of the community and its doors are open to all depositors. It was located at the southwest corner of St. Clair and Ontario streets, but its main office is now on Euclid Avenue. A new twenty story building is now in process of construction which will be the home of the bank in the future. This is on the original site and will be connected by tunnel under the street with the Engineers Building, which is one of the finest office buildings in the city. The officers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers are directors of the bank. Warren S. Stone, as we have said, is president, and W. B. Prenter, vice president and cashier.
The Central National Bank, Savings and Trust Company, located in the
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Kirby (Rockefeller) Building, on the site of the once famous old Weddell House, organized by Hon. J. J. Sullivan, who was for many years and until his death its president, has been and is a commanding figure in the financial life of Cleveland. It was J. J. Sullivan and Myron T. Herrick, who, a quarter of a century ago, when disaster threatened the banking interests of the city, when the New York papers predicted that many of the Cleveland banks were destined to go down in a general financial crash- it was these two men who led the fight to save the day, and they did. It is a matter of secret history that they placed agents on all the trains to buy up and divert these papers from the reading public of Cleveland until the crisis had passed.
Corliss E. Sullivan, a son of the former chief officer, is president of this bank, E. W. Oglebay is chairman of the trust committee, and there are seven vice presidents. J. B. Holmden is trust officer, F. C. Schlundt is cashier, J. H. Cole, comptroller, and there are three assistant cashiers. The bank has a capital and surplus of $4,000,000 and the resources are correspondingly large.
The Lorain Street Savings and Trust Company should be mentioned in connection with any mention of the present financial institutions of the city. It is located at the corner of Fulton and Lorain, has a capital and surplus of $765,000 and resources of $7,500,000.
Second in importance to the banks are the savings and loan companies of the city. They are under the supervision of the loan department of the state, and, while they play an important part in the financial operations of the city, do not do a general banking business. Long after Cleveland became the metropolis of Ohio, the clearing house reports of Cincinnati lead those of Cleveland. This was attributed to the large number of building (or savings) and loan companies of that city, Cincinnati having five times the number of Cleveland. Scattered in a general geographical distribution these companies were making construction loans on monthly payments, building up their stock on monthly payments, and the banks were their depositories. The drama of the active dollar was being enacted and thrift and home owning was being encouraged. The number of these companies has increased in the last ten years in Cleveland in a geometric ratio.
The two oldest of these companies in Cleveland were organized in 1891. The Union Building and Loan Company organized in 1891 has now resources of over $5,000,000 and the Ohio Mutual Savings and Loan organized the same year has resources of over $2,000,000. The Equity Savings and Loan Company, the third in date of organization, is first in its resources and size of its surplus fund. This is located at Euclid Avenue near East Fifty-fifth Street. There are now nearly a hundred of these companies in the city.
Third in importance in this connection are the mortgage companies. These companies loan on second mortgages, the loan companies, under the charters granted by the state, as a rule can loan only on first mortgage realty. The only collateral loans made are on their own stock. In the building of homes the mortgage companies often play an important part, enabling the prospective home owner to build where he could not other- wise finance the enterprise. The Ulmer Mortgage Company and the Cleveland Discount Company are large organizations of the city belonging to this class of financial enterprises. If rightly managed these various mortgage companies are excellent factors in the financial life of a com- munity. There are more than a hundred in the city.
The Morris Plan Bank, Borton & Borton, Otis & Hough, Hayden
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Miller & Company, W. J. Hayes & Sons, and Roland T. Meacham & Company are Cleveland firms engaged in financial enterprises.
Banks have failed in Cleveland as in other cities, but the percentage of failures has been small. Usually in case of a forced closing of the doors careful liquidation has prevented loss by depositors. The Dime Savings and Banking Company operating for a number of years was com- pelled to close its doors, but there was no loss to depositors. The Central Trust Company failed, but the receivers by careful management paid depositors in full and the stockholders received some 80 or 90 per cent of their investment. Other failures have been more serious. The Market National Bank and the Farmers and Merchants Banking Company, whose failures were brought about by criminal action of employes, whose acts were punished by penitentiary terms, were sad episodes in the banking history of the city. In the case of the latter bank many school teachers and others of limited means lost their savings of years in the crash. As we write, the receivers of the Municipal Savings and Loan Company are investigating the condition of that company in connection with the Repre- sentative Realty Company, the Representative Mortgage Company, the Representative Construction Company, the Representative Manufacturing and Supply Company, the Representative Investment Company, the Municipal Realty Company, and the Municipal Mortgage Company. These various companies, largely working together under the direction of Sol Peskind, were engaged in a gigantic building and stock selling plan. If the affairs of the Municipal Savings and Loan Company shall prove to be in bad shape and the company insolvent this will be the first loan company in the city to fail.
The people have general confidence in the banks and bankers and on this confidence has been built up the great prosperity of the city. T. P. Handy and others of the city had a vision and the people do not perish.
CHAPTER XXXIV
CLEVELAND'S INDUSTRIES
"What we buy in a broom, a mat, a wagon, a knife, is some application of good sense to common want."-Emerson
There are 15,000 different articles manufactured in Cleveland. In the limits of this chapter we can only touch upon some of the more prominent and glance at those industries that have the most to do with the early life of the city and its building up into its present greatness. Cleveland is the greatest iron ore market in the world because of its varied industries. It leads in the manufacture of twist drills. The central plant and office of the largest paint and varnish works, the Sherwin-Williams Company, is located here. Cleveland is second in the United States in the manufacture of ready made women's clothing, it leads in the manufacture of astronomical instruments, and of nuts and bolts. Its manufacture of vacuum cleaners is not second to any. It leads in the manufacture of electric batteries and in the manufacture of automobile parts. It manufactures more job printing presses than any other city in the United States. It is a leader in the manu- facture of iron castings, chemicals, hardware, and incandescent lamps, and it leads all other cities in the manufacture of heavy machinery. It is one of the largest distributors of motion picture films in the world. Cleveland is the "birthplace of the American automobile," for its first one was made in 1898. It now manufactures eleven different makes. It is a great oil center and woolen center. It is a large manufacturer of brick.
There are 3,000 industrial plants in the city, 11 blast furnaces, 300 foundries and machine shops, and 81 steel and iron concerns. Cleveland is the center of a great manufacturing and raw product district. It ranks fifth among American cities as to the value of its manufactured products. The municipality is a manufacturing concern, for it collects about 75,000 tons of garbage annually, over the length and breadth of the city, and renders it into useful products.
All this has come about in a brief time, that is within the lives of many of its citizens, who are living today, because it was not until after the Civil war that the city became really a manufacturing town. In 1879 a great steel pole was erected on the Public Square and at its top was placed the first electric lamp, the invention of Charles F. Brush, a Cleveland man, born in Cuyahoga County, who has been referred to as "the father of the arc lighting industries of the world."
Something of this remarkable man, who is one of Cleveland's most respected citizens, would seem appropriate in this chapter. He was born in Euclid Township, Cuyahoga County, March 17, 1849 and is therefore past the three score and ten, but is still active and engaged in scientific investi- gations. He has an office in the Arcade. His latest work has been a study of gravity, which, as he recently stated, is little understood. He is a son of Col. I. E. Brush, of English descent. His boyhood was spent on the Euclid farm. He attended school at Wickliffe and later at Shaw Academy in Collamer, now East Cleveland. As a youth he had a special
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taste for chemistry, physics and engineering. He graduated with honors from the Cleveland high school in 1867. While in school he made a number of telescopes for himself and his schoolmates, grinding the lenses himself. He evolved and perfected the igniting and extinguishing of street lamps by electricity. All his experiments had a practical bent. The subject of his graduating oration was "The Conservation of Force." He entered the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, graduating in 1869, a year ahead of his class. In 1873 he formed a partnership with C. E. Bingham, of Cleveland, for the purpose of marketing Lake Superior pig iron and iron ore. While in the partnership he continued his scientific experiments. In 1876 he constructed a new type of dynamo, the first of his inventions. He
Gold Bond"
NORTHWEST CORNER OF PUBLIC SQUARE Showing Rockefeller Building, Marshall and Ulmer buildings, old court- house, Illuminating Building and Old Stone Church.
continued to invent and was careful to secure patents. In 1877 the pig iron and ore company was dissolved and Mr. Brush entered into a contract with the Telegraph Supply Company to manufacture his patents, put them on the market and pay him a royalty. In 1881 the name of this company was changed to the Brush Electric Company, which name became known over the world. It may be interesting to note in this connection that shortly after the great arc light was glowing on the top of the steel pole on the Public Square in Cleveland, a similar one was raised in Melbourne, Aus- tralia, on the opposite side of the earth. It was in 1877 that Mr. Brush constructed his first commercial arc light.
His next most important invention was the fundamental storage battery. In this he had much competition and it was not until after four years of litigation that he obtained letters patent. He secured foreign patents on many of his early inventions and these he sold to the Anglo American Brush Electric Light Corporation, Limited, of London, receiving $500,000.
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