USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 2) > Part 16
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After eighteen months' service in the postoffice Mr. Reid resigned his position to accept the post of manager of the Swift & Company dis- tributing station or house at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nine months later the company transferred him to Cleveland, Ohio, and assigned him the responsibility of opening and managing a distributing house on West Twenty-fifth Street, at the junction of the same with the Nickel Plate Railroad. A year later Mr. Reid resigned this position to engage inde- pendently in business. He formed a partnership with J. B. Olivet, under the firm name of Olivet & Reid, and they engaged in the boiled-ham and provision trade in Cleveland. Two years later Mr. Reid and George Blumenstock entered into a partnership alliance, and the new firm of Blumenstock & Reid engaged in the manufacturing of sausage and boiled ham, with headquarters at 3505 West Twenty-fifth Street, which was then known as Pearl Road. With the growth of the business it was found expedient to incorporate the same in the year 1892, and from that time to the present Mr. Blumenstock has continued the president and Mr. Reid the secretary and treasurer of the Blumenstock & Reid Company, the close friendship of the two principals having continued as unruffled as has their vital and progressive business alliance. This concern has de- veloped one of the important industrial and commercial enterprises lending to the prestige of Cleveland, and the record has been one of consecutive progress. In 1894 the company purchased land and erected their excellent plant at 3261 West Sixty-fifth Street, this now large and modern institu- tion covering one and one-half acres of ground and giving employment to 125 men. The concern has the best of modern facilities for the slaugh- ter and handling of all live stock, and the packing business includes the handling of beef, pork, mutton and veal of the best commercial grades. The principals in this industrial enterprise are men of sterling character and marked civic progressiveness, and both hold high place in connection with the business activities of Cleveland. Mr. Reid is a director of the
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Rockport Greenhouse Company, a stockholder in the Union Stock Yards Company of Cleveland, and is a stockholder also in the Brooklyn Ice Com- pany, the Growers Basket Company, and the Clark-Backer Company (manufacturers of overalls). He has other financial investments of im- portance, and is essentially one of the substantial business men of the city.
Mr. Reid is a past master of the Brooklyn Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is affiliated also with a local chapter of Royal Arch Masons, and Council of Royal and Select Masters. He and his family hold membership in the Archwood Avenue Congregational Church.
Mr. Reid wedded Miss Susan J. Smith, who was born in Canada, a daughter of Joseph Smith, who was a carpenter and contractor. Of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Reid the eldest is Dr. James H., who is engaged in the practice of dentistry in Cleveland, at the corner of Broadview Avenue and West Twenty-fifth Street, the maiden name of his wife having been May Behrand. Ethel A., the second child, is the wife of Alois Knapp, of Cleveland, and they have one son, Edward Allen. Martha Louise is the wife of Frederick Cunningham, of Cleveland. William C. was graduated from Western Reserve University in 1921, with the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery, and in 1922 he was pursuing special post- graduate studies, preparatory to entering the great and celebrated hospital of the Mayo Brothers at Rochester, Minnesota. Margaret A., who re- mains at the parental home, was graduated from the Lincoln High School as a member of the class of 1920.
YACOB A. SARGIS, M. D. In individual attainments as well as in the unusual diversity of his experience, Doctor Sargis is one of the notable physicians and surgeons of Cleveland. His practice in this city for several years past has been limited to internal medicine.
Doctor Sargis was born in Persia, April 12, 1874. His literary and medical education was acquired in the leading colleges of his native land and in foreign countries, and was very thorough and has been supple- mented by habits of work and research in later years. For six years he attended the Presbyterian Academy of Urmia, Persia, one year was a student at Tabriz College under American Station Professors, and in 1893 came to America. During 1895-96 he pursued his studies in Ohio Wes- leyan University. Doctor Sargis graduated Doctor of Medicine from the Ohio State University in 1901, and during 1902-03 took special work in Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. In the meantime, after gradu- ating at Columbus, he had practiced at Cleveland for six months, at the end of which time he was called to the Protestant Hospital as house physician, leaving there to do the work already mentioned in the Jefferson Medical College.
Doctor Sargis in 1903 returned to his native land, and at Urmia was appointed "Kahn" (Lord) physician to the government, doing special work of his own. In 1908 he was commissioned physician and surgeon in the Persian Artillery, and served as chief physician and surgeon to the Sixth Regiment in the war against the Kurds. At the close of this revolution he was awarded for skillful services two medals and the Persian shawl, receiving the titles "Arastu Il Hukama and Shafa Il Mult," signify- ing the "healer of the nation," and he was addressed as Shafa. Later he served as physician to the Russian Consulate colony. Early in the World
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war Doctor Sargis was captured by the Turks and held a prisoner for six months. During that time he was compelled to act as army physician to his captors, from whom he received the title "Nuri Tibb." Making his escape, Doctor Sargis returned to Tabriz, Persia, in 1915. A year later he was proclaimed Armenian National physician. The Asiatic cholera beginning, he devoted his time to fighting the epidemic.
Being an American citizen, the American consul notified him to re- turn to this country, and in 1916 he left Persia, by way of Tifflis, landing at New York City February 19 of the same year. During the spring he returned to Cleveland and resumed private practice. His offices have been located at the corner of Dennison Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street for the past six years. Doctor Sargis is a man of scholarship, of world- wide travel, and combines the penetrating intelligence of the Orient with the resourcefulness given him by his American education.
Doctor Sargis in 1902 married Miss Nora Hempy, of Columbus, Ohio. She accompanied him on his return to Persia the following year, but died shortly after their arrival. In 1906 he married Emma Auraham, of Persia. To this union were born three sons and one daughter, named William, Harold, Wallace and Olive.
IVAN ISAAC YODER, M. D. Judged by his early training and thorough preparation, his increasing professional duties, his record with the army as a surgeon in the great war, Doctor Yoder commands a place among the men of medicine and surgery in Cleveland.
He was born, December 30, 1875, at Wadsworth, Medina County, Ohio, son of Noah M. and Susan (Overholt) Yoder. His grandparents were Abraham and Elizabeth (Nold) Yoder, natives of Pennsylvania and Mahoning County, Ohio, respectively. Susan Overholt was born at Blake, in Medina County, daughter of Henry and Susan (Markley) Over- holt, both representing two old Medina County families. Noah M. Yoder was a native of Mahoning County, was a merchant in Columbiana County in early life and later moved to Medina County, where he followed farm- ing. He served a term as county commissioner of Medina County, and died in 1915, at the age of sixty-five. His widow is now living at Wads- worth.
The early environment of Doctor Yoder was his father's farm in Medina County. He attended the local schools of that vicinity, and was on the farm until he was seventeen. Doctor Yoder graduated from the Medina High School in 1897, and by strenuous exertion on his own part acquired a liberal education. His scholastic record is attested by three degrees. He graduated Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1901. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1904 from the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1915 Ohio Wesleyan awarded him the Master of Arts degree. After graduating from medical school he spent a year as house physician at St. Alexis Hospital in Cleve- land, and then took up the real routine of a physician and surgeon and devoted his best energies and talents to his work until the beginning of his service in the World war.
Doctor Yoder volunteered for the medical service, was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps August 27, 1917, at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana. Later he was commissioned a captain at Camp
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Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. He had a special course of instruction as a medical officer at Washington University in St. Louis six weeks, and on August 15, 1918, he sailed with his command from Camp Upton, Long Island, arriving in France September 15. He was detailed for surgical duty at Base Hospital No. 53 at Langres ; thence to Chalons sur Marne (Cuprey), where he was captain of a surgical team, then at Hos- pital No. 5, LaVeure, thence to Hospital No. 18, at St. Mihiel, back of the second army. November 20, 1918, he left St. Mihiel for Briey, near Metz, on the eastern boarder of France, and was on duty there until ordered home. All his work in France was in evacuation hospitals. Cap- tain Yoder sailed for the United States in April, 1919, landed at Camp Hill, Virginia, and was mustered out at Camp Sherman, Ohio. He at once returned to Cleveland and resumed his private practice. However, in the same year he took special post-graduate work at the Institute of Surgical Technique in Chicago. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished surgeons in the city. Doctor Yoder is a member of the staff of the Lutheran Hospital. He belongs to the Local, State and American Medical associations, and is a member of the Clinical Club. He also belongs to the Civic League, Chamber of Industry, City Club, Halcyon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Holy Grail Commandery and Al Koran Shrine, and to the Franklin Methodist Episcopal Church.
Doctor Yoder married Miss Bertha Zeigler, daughter of Ephraim and Ovilla (Huff) Zeigler, of Seville, Ohio.
ISAAC CHARLES GLAUBER, a director and general manager of the National Woolen Company, one of the important industrial and commercial concerns of Cleveland, was born in this city on the 14th of April, 1870, and has gained secure status as one of the vital and progressive business men of the Ohio metropolis. He is a son of Mark and Rosa (Heller) Glauber, the former a native of Austria and the latter of Germany, their marriage having been solemnized in Cleveland, Ohio, where the death of the father occurred in 1902 and where the venerable mother still maintains her home. Mark Glauber was born in the year 1833, was a young man when he came to the United States and joined one of his older brothers in Cleveland, and for many years he was a successful merchant on the east side of the city, with high standing as a loyal citizen and prosperous business man. His widow was born in the year 1849, and was a young woman when she came to this country and established her residence in Cleveland.
Isaac C. Glauber is indebted to the public schools of Cleveland for his youthful education, and as a boy he gained practical experience by being a bootblack and selling newspapers on the streets of his native city. After leaving school he found employment in a shoe store, and in 1886, when sixteen years of age, he entered the service of F. Muhlhauser & Company, founders of the business now conducted under the corporate title of the National Woolen Company. By faithful and effective service Mr. Glauber won consecutive advancement with this representative concern, and finally was made superintendent of the manufacturing plant. After the enterprise was taken over by the National Woolen Company, in 1902, incidental to a reorganization that followed financial reverses of the original firm, Mr. Glauber, who acquired a substantial financial interest in the business,
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continued as superintendent. A few years later he assumed his present responsible office, that of general manager, and he has since had the active executive charge of the mill and the general office of the company. His broad and accurate knowledge of all details of the business had made his administration one of special efficiency and progressiveness, and the con- cern is one of the largest of its kind in America, and now holds high rank among the industrial and commercial corporations that lend precedence to the Forest City. Mr. Glauber is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Pearl Street Savings & Trust Company, one of the strong and well ordered financial institutions of Cleveland, and the years 1922 and 1923 record him a member of the Board of Directors of the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, in the affairs of which he takes lively interest. He is a director of the National Association of Wool Fibre Manufacturers, National Counsellor to the Chamber of Commerce, U. S. A., holds member- ship in the National Association of Manufacturers, National Knitted Outerwear Association, and during the period of the nation's participation in the World war he gave most loyal and valued service by serving on the sub war board of fibre manufacturers in connection with the work of the Council of National Defense. He is also a member of the Cleveland Civic League.
In the time-honored Masonic fraternity his basic affiliation is with Elsworth Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, his capitular mem- bership being in Webb Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and his maximum York Rite affiliation being with Oriental Commandery, Knights Templar. In the Scottish Rite he has received the thirty-second degree, in Lake Erie Consistory, and he holds membership also in Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine and the Masonic Club of Cleveland.
Mr. Glauber wedded Miss Helen Gertrude Goldowski, who was born and reared in Cleveland, a daughter of John and Anna Goldowski, natives of Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Glauber have three children: Mildred is the wife of J. N. Miller, of New York, and they have one child, Curtis G .; Edwin M., is associated with the National Woolen Company, of which his father is general manager, and married Rosalind Friedman, of Cleveland, and they have one son, I. Warren; and Norman Sheldon, who married Miss Lillian Weisskopf, of Chicago, likewise resides in Cleve- land, and is also connected with the National Woolen Company.
LEONARD G. FOSTER. With an active life of labor covering many years, largely concerned with the tilling of the soil and the handling of its products, Leonard G. Foster combined gifts and insight for the life of nature about him, and has expressed this talent and experience through poetry and song that have stirred and brightened all who have read his poetic selections. While he has been successful in business, his perma- nent place in the history of Cleveland is that of a nature poet.
He was born in Brooklyn, now part of the City of Cleveland, Sep- tember 10, 1840, son of Ebenezer and Elmyra (Williams) Foster. His father was born at Stonington, Connecticut, April 19, 1810, and his mother, at Elmyra, New York, December 12, 1812. Ebenezer was twelve years of age when the Foster family came to Ohio by wagon and team from Connecticut and settled in Brooklyn Township, acquiring land there at seven dollars an acre. Ebenezer Foster pursued the lifelong vocation
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of a market farmer, tilling his own land. He died in his eighty-seventh year and his wife, in her eighty-fourth year.
Leonard G. Foster was educated in the common schools, in the old Brooklyn Academy, and in Baldwin University at Berea. His last formal schooling was in Humiston's Cleveland Institute. Following that he was principal of the Tremont Public School, and left that work in 1863 to go with the Eighth Ohio Battery into active service during the Civil war. The war over, he resumed teaching at Tremont for about a year, and then purchased a part of the old home farm. Mr. Foster continued garden farming actively until 1918. In that year he turned over the management of his affairs, including the farm, a number of rental properties and a plant for the manufacture of building blocks, to his only son, Lawrence. Mr. Foster married Lyde Holmden, a native of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Foster is deceased, and of the three children born to them the only sur- viver is the son Lawrence.
Mr. Foster is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Brook- lyn, was a member of the school board and examiner of the teachers for several years, also clerk of the Brooklyn City Council for years.
Mr. Foster was only eight years old when he composed his first poem, consisting of less than thirty words. Since then he has been a constant and prolific writer of poems and gem-thoughts, the total of which runs into many hundreds. His published works include "Whisperings of Nature," which ran through five editions ; "Blossoms of Nature," one edi- tion of 500 copies ; "The Early Days," one edition of 500 copies; "Songs of Nature," 100 copies printed in sheet music and in periodicals. Of his songs "Old Glory" and "Little Brown Brown Button" are the most widely known. Now, in his eighty-third year, he is still writing with all the ease and ability of former years. Each year he attends the Lake Geneva Chautauqua and recites his poems. He has been on the program there for many seasons. During 1922 he composed 100 poems for delivery for the forum at this Chautauqua.
His permanent fame is in the realm of poetry. As a poet he has given distinction to the City of Cleveland. Consequently it is appropriate to conclude this brief sketch of his life with an appreciation written by one of America's most widely known lecturers and writers, Dr. James Hedley. What Doctor Hedley says of Mr. Foster and his writings is contained in the following four paragraphs :
"In these days when the material of life seems to absorb human in- terest, to the exclusion of the ideal, it is refreshing and comforting to know that the divine fire of poetry still burns upon the altar of an occa- sional soul. He who by the touch of the wand of romance, or the gentle lure of fancy, can make us forget money and houses and lands, and cause us to walk with willing feet and happy hearts in the realms of the dreamer and the singer, is a benefactor of his time. When we are brought face to face with a poet, to whom the ring of a woodsman's ax in a forest aisle is a choral, and the whirl of the wheel of an old mill is a symphony, we must concede the quality of genius. When our spiritual senses are wakened to the perception of the presence of God in the temples of Nature, and are made to feel the grasp of His hand, and to hear the call of His voice, we must recognize the presence of a preacher who is above human creed, and beyond the pale of human dogma.
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"These thoughts came to me with masterful strength after reading two volumes of poems, 'The Early Days' and 'Blossoms of Nature,' by Leonard Gurley Foster. 'The Early Days' is a tribute to the brave, un- selfish, sturdy men and women who transformed the wilderness into the civilization we enjoy today. It turns back the clock of Time and paints upon the canvas of the imagination faithful pictures of old-fashioned Yesterdays. It is a sweetly simple book; but its simplicity is its sublimity. It is so true, so clear, so photographic, that it lingers like the echo of a loved voice, or the glory of a long sunset. The vision of the early days is transparent; it shines with the clearness of a diamond. The clearing, the cabin door, the calm-eyed oxen, the old grist-mill, the flying flail, the sweetheart at the rail-gate, and the dear old mother with her spinning, are all actually seen as one reads. The songs of robins and bobolinks, the call of the whippoorwill, the joyous voices at the singing-school, and the low- toned benediction of the young minister, are heard as distinctly as if the reader were present with them. 'The Early Days' should be read in the quiet of the evening, with curtains drawn, and before an open glowing hearth, if its sweetful spirit is to be caught. It is a book for Thanks- giving and Christmas. I am glad Mr. Foster has given us this book. It is a teacher of contentment, and an evangel of peace in these days of con- tentment and voice.
" 'Blossoms of Nature' is a more pretentious volume, and treats of more pretentious things. With some few exceptions, it has to do with phases of thought which pertain to the philosophical, the scientific, the theological, the sociological. It is, all in all, a volume for the student. There is a spirit of reverence in this book, which is strong, and, on the whole, unusual, in these days. Every 'blossom of nature' leads the reader to the garden of God, and one stands knee-deep in fields of asphodel, by crystal streams, while following the author's pages, especially in the poem entitled 'Nature,' which perhaps is the strongest composition in the volume. All in all it is a noble conception, broad, comprehensive and convincing.
"The 'Rally Song' is sweet and reverent, and should be set to music. It is worthy a place with the best hymnology. There are passages in 'Blossoms of Nature' worthy of Wordsworth and Thomson. There are bits of philosophy of which Pope would be proud. Many will greatly enjoy this creation of Mr. Foster's even more than his 'Early Days.' For myself, my heart goes out to the latter book. I am happy in its posses- sion. Mr. Foster's books should be read widely. All discriminating readers will be grateful for what he has done. He has given a distinction and a dignity to the old Brooklyn Village portion of Cleveland of which the residents are proud, and has contributed much that is worthy of poetic literature."
HARRY E. DURBIN has been a factor in real estate and financial circles of Cleveland for a number of years. He began his business career as a glass worker, and later was a traveling salesman.
He was born in Steubenville, Ohio, July 3, 1874. His great-grand- father, John Durbin, moved from Maryland to West Virginia, buying a farm near Fairview and spending his last days in the Village of Fairview. The grandfather, Ephraim Durbin, was probably born at Fairview, West
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Virginia, learned the trade of carpenter, and followed that occupation through his active life, spending his last days retired at Fairview. He was a Union man in sentiment when the Civil war came on and enlisted and served as a member of the First Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, Federal Troop. His wife was Mary Prosser, who survived him and spent her last days at Cumberland, West Virginia.
John B. Durbin, the father of Harry E., was born at Fairview, West Virginia, in 1847, and was still in his teens when he came to Ohio. When President Lincoln issued his call for troops for the rebellion, he enlisted and saw active service with the One Hundred Fifty-seventh Ohio Volun- teer Infantry until the expiration of his term of enlistment. He lived at Steubenville for a number of years, finally coming to Cleveland, where he died in 1892, at the age of forty-five. John B. Durbin married Almira Wheelock, a native of Amsterdam, New York, and daughter of Samuel and Harriet (Marceles) Wheelock, who came to Ohio about 1857. Her father for a number of years was an engineer on steamboats on the Ohio River and finally a stationary engineer at Steubenville. Harriet Marceles was a lineal descendent of Jan Von Bommel, who was born at Bommel Gelderland and married Annettie Gersitse, coming to America in 1660. Mrs. John B. Durbin is still living, the mother of two children. Her daughter, Harriet, is the wife of Louis Rolandt.
Harry E. Durbin was educated in public schools at Steubenville, and when fourteen years of age went to work in a glass factory in that city, learning the glassblower's trade. He first worked in a bottle factory and later in a plant making lamp chimneys. When he was nineteen years old he became a traveling salesman, handling silverware, at first with head- quarters at Steubenville, but after 1898 in Cleveland. Giving up this work in 1902, Mr. Durbin organized the Permanent Income Club, being made its president, and for a number of years has faithfully directed and guided that institution, making it one of the most successful savings societies of Ohio. It was organized with the primary object of affording opportunity and encouraging men of modern means to save and invest their savings in productive real estate, out of which in course of time they might expect a permanent income. The company also is privileged through its charter to buy, own and sell real estate. He is the organizer of several other organizations, including the Vista Apartment Company, the Huntington Apartment Company, the United Mansions Company, the Cleveland Mansions Company, and the Cleveland Merrill Apartment Company. These affiliated organizations constitute the heavy business responsibilities Mr. Durbin carries today. He is also president of the H. E. Durbin Insurance Agency Company.
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