USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 2) > Part 15
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LESTER EDWARD FRANCE, a representative inventor and manufacturer in the City of Cleveland. is here president of the France Manufacturing Company, the offices of which are at Berea Road and West One Hundred and Fourth Street, in connection with the manufacturing plant of the company.
Mr. France was born on the West Side of Cleveland, in a home on West Seventy-fifth Street, and the date of his nativity was December 4,
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1886. He is a son of Charles Edward and Sophia Wilhelmina (Coben) France.
Charles E. France was born at Cobleskill, Schoharie County, New York, a son of Edward France, whose father, Sabastian France and brother were caught by the Indians, the brother being tomahawked before his mother's eyes, while Sabastian broke away and escaped to the woods. Edward France was not only a successful farmer but also the inventor of farm machinery. Edward France and his son, Charles E., became residents . of Cleveland Ohio, when the latter was a young man, and for a time Charles E. was here employed in a hinge factory. He next took a position with the Lampson-Sessions Company, with which concern he continued his connection for the long period of thirty-seven years. His wife was born at Port Colborn, Ontario, Canada, whence her parents, of German birth, later came to Cleveland, where she remained at the parental home until the time of her marriage. Her father was a cooper by trade, but when work was scarce constructed fine cabinet work and worked on special machinery for use in the harbor for loading and unloading boats.
In the year 1906 Lester E. France was graduated from the West High School of Cleveland, and in 1910 he was graduated from the Case School of Applied Science as a civil engineer. He soon.afterward assumed a posi- tion in the engineering department of the Cleveland manufactory of the Peerless Automobile Company, and later he passed eighteen months in the employ of the K. W. Ignition Company. Both he and his younger brother. Merle Coben France, likewise a graduate of the Case School of Applied Science, inherited much of mechanical and initiative genius from both paternal and maternal ancestors, Lester E. showing special talent as an inventor and Merle C. in production and development enterprise. The two brothers thus constituted a resourceful team when they set themselves to the building of a complete automobile, and they succeeded in this feat, the automobile constructed by them having been the second "horseless carriage" ever constructed and placed in effective commission in Cleve- land, its only predecessor having been the machine constructed by Alex- ander Winton, this having been the first practical automobile ever turned out. In 1913, in a shed on the rear of the France home lot, the two France brothers began manufacturing the Ford Shock Absorber, representing their own inventive and constructive ideas. About that time also they began working on the rectifying of electric alternating currents, a work which at that time was generally regarded as impracticable, it having fallen to Lester E. France to achieve in this connection the supposedly impossible result, that of changing an alternating electric current to a direct current. The business of the two young men rapidly expanded in scope and impor- tance, and the partnership which they formed in 1913 eventually led up to the organization. in 1916, of the France Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in that year and which initiated operations with very limited capital but with an abundance of enthusiasm and ability on the part of its founders. In advancing their business enterprise the France brothers enlisted the financial cooperation of Professor Elisha Loomis and Lewis A. Corbett, both of whom were engaged in educational work and both are still financially interested in the France Manufacturing Company. Professor Loomis being a director of the corporation and Mr. Corbett being its treasurer.
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Early in 1917, prior to the nation's formal entrance into the World war, the France Manufacturing Company began the erection of its factory .. Both of the France brothers were eligible for military service under the draft, but both drew numbers calling for later entrance into service. Later the draft board gave permission for one of the brothers to enter the nation's service while the other remained to give attention to the business of the company. Lester E. France prevailed upon his brother to permit him to be the one to enter military service, and he was assigned to duty with the First Division, Twenty-sixth Infantry, and later to the Intelli- gence Group, and in July, 1917; he accompanied his command to France. With rank as corporal and sergeant in turn, he gained his full quota of experience in connection with the great conflict, and he had command of a squad which went "over the top" in the Saint Mihiel drive, to the left of Mount Sech. He fortunately escaped wounds, and later he was transferred to the Argonne sector, where he received his promotion to a sergeancy. He was later assigned to duty as acting second lieutenant in the Intelligence Group, and finally he was detailed on map coordination in "No Man's Land," in which service he was in the German barrage after the unit ahead had been thrown back, it having been in this connection that he was severely gassed and fell on the field of conflict. He lay in a shellhole all that day, and then succeeded in crawling over a nearby hill. In the protection of a large rock he lay among the dead and wounded an entire day, and at night, while he was attempting to make his way to the rear, he encountered a badly wounded comrade. to whom he administered his own "first aid." He then assisted the comrade on the way until they encountered a sergeant in charge of a stretcher borne by two German captives, the wounded comrade having been placed on the stretcher and conveyed to the rear. Mr. France finally was placed in the hospital in a badly gassed condition. one of his lungs being virtually closed. After a time he was sent to Vichey, France, to apply the healing waters at that famed resort as a remedial agent. He was there located at the time the armistice was signed, and three months later he was returned home. as a casual, he having been discharged and mustered out in Februarv, 1919, at Camp Sherman, Ohio. Bv reason of his records having been blown up and lost, Mr. France was entirely out of communication with his family and business for a year, and his first knowl- edge of home affairs was gained while he was on the transport returning home. he having looked over a copy of Popular Mechanics and having found in the magazine a two-inch advertisement placed by the France Manufacturing Company. When he left Cleveland the foundation of the factory had been laid. and when he returned he found the plant in success- ful operation, under the supervision of his brother: The brother, Merle C., died January 31. 1923. from an attack of pneumonia. at a time when his future looked the brightest and when his sterling usefulness was at its height. Lester E. France now has his factory in such order that it is not necessary for him to supervise its operations, and he is giving much of his time to experimental work. He is a member of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. the Cleveland Industrial Association, the Veterans of Foreign Wars. the Case Club, the Masonic fraternity and the People's Methodist Episcopal Church of Cleveland, in which he is serving as a trustee and steward and as teacher of a bovs' class in the Sunday School.
Mr. France wedded Miss Hildred Smith, who was born and reared
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in Cleveland, a daughter of Henry Smith, and the two children of this union are a daughter, Gloria, and a son, Rollin Charles.
THOMAS A. KNIGHT, newspaper man, author and real estate dealer at Cleveland, with offices in the Arcade Building, has been well known in this city for many years. In the real estate business he has specialized exclusively in handling factory sites, and his long experience has given him an authoritative knowledge in this particular field.
Mr. Knight was born in Toronto, Canada, February 24, 1876. His father, Stephen W. Knight, was born at Manchester, England, in 1843, of pure English ancestry. He acquired his early education in private schools, attending the famous Eton Preparatory School. At the age of twenty-one he married and brought his bride to America, first locating at Cleveland, and then going on to Chicago, where he built up a successful flour and feed business. The Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed his business and also his home, and soon afterward he moved to Toronto, Canada, and later came to Cleveland, to engage in the insurance business. He was founder of some of the beneficial fraternal societies of Cleveland and elsewhere, and continued in the insurance business until his death in 1912, at the age of sixty-nine. His wife, who died in the same year, at the same age, was Clara Oram, who was born at Gainesborough, England. Her father died in England and her mother then married Mr. Richworth, and the family came to America, settling at Toronto, where Mr. Rich- worth was a banker. The living children of Stephen W. Knight and wife in a family of ten are: Frederick H., Charles E., Thomas A. and Walter W.
Thomas A. Knight was reared in Cleveland, attending school to the age of fifteen. He then became office boy with the Cleveland Leader, in a short time was made a cub reporter and then promoted to staff reporter. He was assigned to cover "politics" for the Leader, and reported the speakers and other incidents in the campaigns of such notable men as Marcus Hanna, President McKinley, William J. Bryan and Tom John- son. In 1900, resigning from the staff of the Leader, he became editor of the Interstate Architect, a weekly publication, and was also editor of the Ohio Architect and Builder. Later he returned to the Leader, where he remained until 1904, and for several years devoted his time to literary work. He edited and published "History of the Cleveland Police," "Country Estates of Cleveland Men," "Country Estates of the Blue Grass," and "The Kentucky Horse." For several years his home was in Lexington, Kentucky, where he gained a reputation as an expert in live animal photography. He has written and contributed many articles to magazines.
However, for the past fifteen years Mr. Knight has been engaged in the real estate business. He was the first exclusive dealer in factory sites in Cleveland, and is now the only man occupying that field. He has acted not only as a broker in transactions involving industrial acreage, but has been instrumental in securing for Cleveland a number of industrial corporations that have been factors in the growing commercial prosperity of the city.
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In 1896 Mr. Knight married Miss Leora Agnes Squire, a native of Cleveland, and daughter of Frank E. and Martha (Lewis) Squire. They have two children, Edith L. and Dorothy M. Edith married Harrie J. Dean, and has two children, Donald S. and Helen Dorothy. The home of Mr. Knight and family is known as "Chestnut Mound," in Brecksville Township. The name of the home is due to a beautiful grove of nearly 200 fine chestnut trees, and the home site is a beautiful spot elevated 300 or 400 feet above the general level of Cleveland.
Mr. Knight has been active in the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and is former president of the Board of Health of Lakewood. He is also a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Chamber of Industry and the Citizens' League. He is a member of the executive committee of the Southeastern Planing Association and a member of the Brecksville Village Council. His great-grandfather was a class leader in John Wesley's Church in Epworth, England, and all the Knights have been identified with the church founded by the Wesleys.
E. E. ADMIRE. One of the most successful men in the field of com- mercial education in America, the late E. E. Admire, who died in 1918, was founder of the Metropolitan Business College of Cleveland, now owned and conducted by Mrs. Admire. He was a man of many interests and enthusiasms, and a recognized leader in the life and affairs of Cleve- land.
He was born at Trafalgar, Indiana, December 7, 1861, son of James and Elizabeth (Dean) Admire. His father was a Union soldier in Com- pany D of the Thirty-first Indiana Infantry. He lost the sight of an eye while in the service, and during the last few years of his life became totally blind. However, he survived his son, and was eighty-six years of age when E. E. Admire died. He spent his active career as a farmer in Indiana and Kentucky.
E. E. Admire was a graduate of the Normal and Commercial Depart- ments of Valparaiso University. He was an expert penman, and became a master of the various technical arts of business and was a very forceful teacher and a capable executive as well.
He brought with him to Cleveland a wide and successful experience as manager of commercial schools in Chicago and Detroit. In 1904 he founded the Metropolitan Business College on the West Side, the college becoming the first tenant of the Union Bank Building, and that was its home until recently, when Mrs. Admire completed the new building entirely devoted to the use of the business college. He also bought in 1906 the Modern School, naming it the Ohio Business College, and after his death his brother James Admire became its president.
The work he did as a citizen of Cleveland was largely due to his gifted personality, his large following who were always ready to accept his leader- ship. This leadership was thoroughly enlightened and disinterested. His name appears first on the list of charter members of the West Side Cham- ber of Industry, which was organized in the rooms of the Metropolitan College. He served it as vice president two years, and the Chamber of Industry was one of several organizations of Cleveland that drew up
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special resolutions of tribute to his fine citizenship. He also owned and operated a model farm in Portage County, consisting of 169 acres located near Aurora. He thoroughly enjoyed outdoor life and sports of all kinds, particularly bowling, billiards, fishing, and was one of the best bowlers in the city and helped the West Side Chamber of Industry team win many trophies. He was twice a candidate for member of the Cleveland Board of Education, and in both campaigns had a large majority of the votes cast on the West Side of the river. He also organized and established a weekly newspaper on the West Side, and was one of the directors of the Majestic Theatre. He was a prominent member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, was a member of the City Club, and was deeply interested in philanthropic and charitable movements of all kinds. He was affiliated with the Lodge of Masons at Morgantown. Indiana, and belonged to Al Sirat Grotto at Cleveland. His funeral services were conducted by the Masonic Order.
PHILOMENE E. ADMIRE, owner of the Metropolitan Business College of Cleveland, has been the source of the splendid spirit and system that characterized this educational institution from its beginning. To a large extent she handled all the matters of school technique and some of the management during the life of her husband, the late E. E. Admire, who was administrative head. Since his death she has made the Metropolitan School greater than ever.
In 1920 she began the erection of the present College Building at the corner of Bridge Avenue and Fulton Road. It is one of the finest com- mercial college buildings in Ohio. It was completed and occupied in June, 1921. The building is a three story brick, with gymnasium in the base- ment, and with offices and class rooms dividing the two floors. The build- ing occupies ground space of 60x100 feet.
The greatest of all professions is education, but only those born with natural gifts for the work can excell and achieve such results as has been credited to Mrs. Admire. She has been a teacher more or less continuously since she was sixteen years of age. She was born near Paris, France, daughter of Thecphile E. and Marguerite (Beaudin) Herie. When she was two years old her parents came to America and settled near Ottawa, Canada. She graduated in 1885 from the Villa Maria Convent at Mon- treal. When she was sixteen her parents removed to Pittsfield. Massa- chusetts. Her mother died in 1899 and her father in 1913. Of their twelve children, the first eight were born in France and the other four in Canada.
Her first teaching was done in the St. Bernard School at Rockville, Connecticut, where she had charge of the French Department. While in those duties she met and married Mr. Alexander A. Appleton, a relative of a noted New York family of publishers. Their marriage was terminated fourteen months later by the death of Mr. Appleton. In the meantime they had lived at Providence, Rhode Island. As a means of supporting herself and her infant son Mrs. Appleton resumed teaching at Springfield, Massachusetts, and soon took up commercial instruction. As a young woman she had become an expert shorthand writer, and her work at dif- ferent times won her high commendation as a court reporter. However,
Mrs&admire
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her real field was teaching, and she has trained hundreds of young men and women to proficiency in the commercial art and at the same time has exercised an invaluable and wholesome influence on their developing char- acters. She was a teacher in the Bryant and Stratton Business College at Buffalo, and then in the Vories Business College at Indianapolis. While there she became acquainted with Mr. E. E. Admire, and they were married at Ottawa, Canada, December 23, 1900.
At the time of their marriage her personal abilities as a teacher had much to do with the success of several schools operated by Mr. Admire. She taught in the Detroit School of Business, of which he was president until 1902. From the beginning of the history of the Metropolitan Busi- ness College in 1904 Mrs. Admire had increasing responsibilities in the management of that school and also of the Ohio Business College of Cleveland. Under her management and ownership the Metropolitan Business College has had an average annual enrollment for several years of about six hundred pupils.
Her individual work has made her one of the prominent leaders in the field of commercial education in America, and she has been active in various educational organizations. She is author of a system of touch typewriting. For two consecutive years students of the Metropolitan Business College have won the typewriting contest given by the Northeastern Teachers' Association. For twenty-two years Mrs. Admire has been a member of the Federation of Teachers, and has frequently delivered addresses before business college conventions. In December, 1920, she delivered an address at the Gregg Shorthand Federation meeting in Cleveland.
Associated with her in the management of the business college is her son by her first marriage, Alexander A. Appleton. Mr. Appleton was in service during the World war, with the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth Depot Brigade Headquarters at Camp Sherman, Ohio, and was made corporal and later promoted to sergeant-major.
NELSON O. NEWCOMB has been an active Cleveland business man for forty years. The section of the city that has known him longest in business affairs is in the vicinity of West Sixty-fifth Street. Mr. Newcomb is presi- dent of the Lake Erie Provision Company.
He was born, August 26, 1861, in Brecksville Township, Cuyahoga County, and represents some of the old families of the county and the Western Reserve. His ancestry in America runs back to the time of the Mayflower. His father, Orlen W. Newcomb, was born in Parkman Township, Geauga County, Ohio, in 1826. Early in life he moved to Brecksville Township, Cuyahoga County, was a farmer there, and was township trustee. In 1867 he came to Cleveland, and for several years was a contracting teamster and then connected with the firm of C. Beck & Company, meat packers. In 1881 he retired from active business and spent his last years at Lakewood, where he died in 1893. His wife was Lucy Wilcox, who was born in Brecksville, in 1832, and died in 1919. Her father was Orrin Wilcox, and her grandfather, Ebba Wilcox, who was a settler at Brecksville as early as 1817.
Nelson O. Newcomb had a public school education, completing a high school course. While in school and for several vears afterward he worked under his father in the packing business. Following that he learned the
Vol. II-8
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drug business, and bought a drug store at the corner of Pearl, now West Twenty-fifth, and Lorain, and conducted a prosperous establishment at that point for nine or ten years.
Mr. Newcomb has been a leading spirit in building up the business of the Lake Erie Provision Company. He was secretary and treasurer of the company until 1917, and since that year has been its president. He is also one of the organizers of the Cleveland Cooperage Company, and was its president until he resigned in 1921. He is a director in the Pearl Street Savings & Trust Company, and the State Banking & Trust Company.
Mr. Newcomb is affiliated with Lakewood Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Cleveland Athletic Club and the Clifton Club. He married Miss Amelia Ziemer. She was born at Cleveland, where her father, Gustave Ziemer, was an early settler. Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb have three children. Chester G., a graduate of Dartmouth College and now secretary of the Lake Erie Provision Company, married Laura Weide- man, and has a daughter, Jeanne, and a son, Chester. Norma, a graduate of the Women's College of Western Reserve University, is the wife of Leslie Clark, and has two sons, Donald and Richard. Nelson O. Newcomb, Jr., the youngest of the family, is a student in Dartmouth College.
THOMAS REID is secretary and treasurer of the Blumenstock & Reid Company, which conducts a substantial meat-packing industry in Cleve- land, and is known as one of the progressive and resourceful men in the business circles of the Forest City.
Mr. Reid was born near Portadown, County Armagh, Ireland, on the 16th of November, 1862, and is a son of the late William and Margaret J. (Hardy) Reid, both natives of County Armagh, Ireland. William Reid was reared and educated in Ireland, and was a young man when, in 1852, he immigrated to the United States, the sailing vessel on which he took passage having required ten weeks to complete the voyage across the Atlantic. He continued his residence at Philadelphia until 1857, when he returned to Ireland for a visit. However, he never came again to the United States, but after his marriage engaged in farm enterprise in the Emerald Isle, where both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, he having died in 1907 and his widow having passed away in 1909. Of their family of three sons and one daughter the subject of this sketch is now the only survivor.
The early activities of Thomas Reid were in connection with the operations of his father's farm, and in the meanwhile he profited by the advantages of the schools of the locality. He accompanied his two brothers. William J. and James H., both older than himself, to the United States, the three landing in Philadelphia and thence making their way to Chicago, where William J. and Thomas became associated with the meat-packing industry and James H. engaged in the grocery business, he having continued his residence in Chicago until his death. William J. Reid was eventually sent to the City of London, England, as representative of Swift & Company, the great Chicago packers, and after spending seven years in London he returned to the United States, the closing period of his life having been passed at Ishpeming, Michigan.
In his native town Thomas Reid served a four years' apprenticeship in a grocery establishment, this having been in his boyhood and having
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represented his initial business experience. In Chicago he entered the employ of the Anglo American Packing Company, the business of which was at that time conducted under the firm name of Fowler Brothers. After two years of service as cashier for this concern he utilized his savings wisely by advancing his education. He completed a one-year course in Wilberham Academy, Massachusetts, and upon his return to Chicago was made timekeeper for the same company by which he was previously employed. In this connection he had time supervision of 4,000 employes. Later he was for some time associated with his brother James in the grocery business, and thereafter he was for a period engaged in the meat-market business. His next advancement was to the position of assistant superintendent of the Town of Lake, a stockyards district of Chicago, and still later he was made superintendent of the money-order department of the postoffice of this town, his bond given when he assumed this office having been signed by Gustavus F. Swift, who was then the head of the great packing concern of Swift & Company and through whose influence he had obtained the position in the postoffice. Mr. Swift enlisted the support of other wealthy men of the district in signing Mr. Reid's bond, and postal authorities at the time declared that this bond had the signatures of a greater number of millionaires than had any other similar document filed with the postoffice department of the Government.
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