USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 2) > Part 28
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
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a member of the general grievance committee, handling the grievance and wage questions between the Brotherhood and the railway officials. He continued a member of that committee for twelve years, four years as secretary and treasurer, and four years as chairman of the committee. At the convention of the Brotherhood at Washington, in 1913, he was elected a member of the board of directors, and by reelection has served continuously. From July, 1919, to July, 1923, he was secretary of the board, and in July, 1923, was elected chairman.
In the meantime, in 1920, Mr. Kauffman resigned his position as an engineer with the Pennsylvania system, and in that year came to Cleveland and entered the president's department of the Brotherhood. As chairman of the board he assists annually in auditing thirteen separate accounts of the organization, involving a total of $12,000,000 of Brotherhood funds.
In 1920 Mr. Kauffman became a resident of Lakewood, and when Edward A. Wiegand was inaugurated mayor of Lakewood, January 1, 1924, he invited Mr. Kauffman to take a place in his cabinet as director of finance, and on January 15, 1924, he assumed the duties of this office, having obtained from the. Brotherhood a leave of absence for the purpose. Fraternally he is affiliated with Clifton Lodge No. 664, Free and Accepted Masons, with Lakewood Lodge No. 429, Knights of Pythias, and Lodge No. 3385 of the American Yoemen.
Mr. Kauffman married, June 23, 1903, Miss Emma Greenwood, who was born and reared in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, daughter of James and Catherine Greenwood. They have one son, Harold Curtis Kauffman, born January 11, 1911.
CARL ORLIKOWSKI, who came to Cleveland in boyhood, and on account of the early death of his father, and other circumstances, almost imme- diately began the duties that earned his own support and contributed to the necessities of the household, has made himself a figure in banking circles, and is a splendid type of the successful Polish business man and citizen.
He was born in territory that is now the free city of Danzig, formerly German Poland, on November 1, 1873, son of Michael and Julia (Sla- winski) Orlikowski. It was in May, 1888, that his parents and the other children came to the United States, locating at Cleveland, in the old Polish Colony. Michael Orlikowski after coming here worked at paving, but died within two years. The widowed mother survived until 1904.
Carl Orlikowski was fifteen years of age when brought to America. His elementary schooling had been acquired in the old country. As a boy worker he was employed by paving concerns, also in the local mills and in a printing office. Being ambitious as well as industrious, he not only paid his own way, but gained something equivalent to a higher education by attending St. Ignatius College and the South High School: In July, 1896, he entered the service of the old Broadway Bank as a messenger. His increasing usefulness to the institution was represented by a progress from one responsibility to another until he was auditor of the bank when it was taken over by the Union Trust Company, becoming what is now the Fifty-fifth Street and Broadway branch of the Union
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Trust, and its largest and most important branch. Since this transfer to the Union Trust Company, Mr. Orlikowski has been assistant treasurer of the East Fifty-fifth Street and Broadway branch, and in the many years of his service has created many friends and much popularity for the institution.
In 1906 Mr. Orlikowski organized the Warsaw Savings & Loan Company. This began as a small concern, opened for business only one night in the week, but it has grown steadily in volume of business and assets. In September, 1916, it was incorporated with a capital of $500,- 000. In August, 1921, the capital was increased to $1,000,000, and in January, 1924, its capital stood at $2,000,000, with 600 stockholders and 3,000 depositors and over 700 borrowers. Mr. Orlikowski has been president of the Warsaw Savings & Loan Company since it was founded, and its remarkable prosperity in no small degree has represented his personal integrity and his energetic management.
While contributing in this notable way to the success of two financial institutions, Mr. Orlikowski has also taken an active part in Polish civic affairs and welfare work. He has been especially interested in the Polish singing societies and in former days in the dramatics, these still being his hobbies. He is a member of the Polish National Alliance, the Polish Alli- ance of America, the United Polish Singers of America, and for several years has served as national treasurer and librarian of the latter organiza- tions. During the World war he and his bank exercised their full influence for the success of the campaigns for the sale of Liberty Bonds, Saving Stamps and the raising of funds for the Red Cross and community funds.
Mr. Orlikowski in 1901 married Marion Karpinski, who was born in Poland. Her parents died in the old country, and she came to America alone. Mr. and Mrs. Orlikowski have three children. Julia, born Sep- tember 10, 1902, was educated in the Saint Stanislaus parochial school, graduated from the South High School and the Cleveland School of Education, and is now a teacher in the public schools of Cleveland. The son, Charles (or Carl), Jr., was born in 1905, and is now a student at Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. Roman, born in 1908, is now in the South High School.
MICHAEL PETER KNIOLA, banker and prominent Polish citizen, has lived in Cleveland nearly forty-five years, and has been identified with most of the organizations and institutions promoted and sustained by the Polish element of the local population of Cleveland.
He was born in Samostrzel, Poland, September 16, 1859, son of Peter and Anna (Nowakowski) Kniola. The Kniola family left Poland in 1873. The party consisted of the parents and four children, Albertina, now deceased, Michael P., Stanislaus, of Cleveland, and John, who is deceased. They arrived at the Port of New York, April 1, 1873, and then moved to Spotswood, New Jersey, where Andrew Kniola, an older brother of Peter Kniola, was living. Spotswood was the home of the family for seven years. In September, 1880, the parents arrived in Cleveland, where Peter, the father, was employed in the wire mill of the Newburg Rolling Mill Company, now a plant of the American Steel & Wire Company. In his later years he was employed in his son Michael's grocery store, and
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died June 6, 1891, at the age of sixty-eight. His widow passed away March 23, 1908, aged seventy-five.
Michael P. Kniola acquired his preliminary education in the old coun- try, attended Sunday School and night school in Spotswood, New Jersey, and subsequently improved his advantages in the old Broadway Night School in Cleveland. While at Spotswood, New Jersey, he worked in a tobacco factory two years, and then in a brick yard at Sayersville, New Jersey.
In New York City, February 7, 1880, he married, and with his wife and her parents came to Cleveland, arriving at Cleveland on Saturday, April 3, 1880. Two days later he went to work in the wire mill of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, at first as laborer, and later as foreman in a department. June 2, 1886, Mr. Kniola opened a grocery store on the site of his present home and place of business, at 924 Tod Street, now 3690 East Sixty-fifth Street. Four years later, in 1890, he built an addition and opened an office to handle insurance, steamship and foreign exchange, and gradually this business assumed an importance sufficient to justify most of his time, and in 1900 he disposed of his grocery stock. During the past thirty years many interests have crowded in upon the attention of Mr. Kniola. In 1905 he became a director in the old Broad- way Bank, and continued so until it was merged with the Union Trust Company in 1921. He was a promoter and incorporator and has since been vice president and director of the Warsaw Savings & Loan Com- pany. He was one of the incorporators of the Leading Home & Invest- ment Company, and has served it as vice president and director since its organization. He is vice president and a director of the Bank of Cleve- land, and was one of the incorporators and is president of the Forest City Bottling Company. In 1896 he helped organize and incorporate and became manager of "The Polonia," the first Polish weekly newspaper in Cleveland, and continued with the paper for ten years. He was one of the incorporators and purchasers and is president of the Home of Polish Falcons, and is a director and treasurer of the Polish Falconers, Branch No. 141.
Colonel Kniola assisted in organizing a number of the Polish military and benevolent associations, becoming a captain, and by reason of organiz- ing a battalion was commissioned major, and when a division was organ- ized he was commissioned colonel, a title he still holds. He was active in all the public military parades during the World war, being on the staff of Captain Shupe, who had charge of such demonstrations. He is a director of the Polish Alliance of America, and of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of the United States. He is active in the Harmonian Chopin Singing Association, and was one of the organizers and for many years a trustee of St. Stanislaus Parish of the Roman Catholic Church. He is a captain in the Knights of St. Casimer, and is a director of the Polish-American Chamber of Industry. For many years by reason of his serving as administrator, he has done much work in the Probate Court. He cast his first vote in 1880 as a republican, and has been active in the affairs of that party ever since.
Colonel Kniola married in New York, February 7, 1880, Miss Mary Skarubski. She was born in Poland and came to America with her
Ralph & MBude
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parents, reaching this country after a seven weeks' voyage in a sailing vessel. Eleven children were born to Colonel and Mrs. Kniola, and five are now deceased, Peter, Joseph, Edmund, Leo and Hattie. The living children are: Carrie M., wife of Stanley Sobczak, of Cleveland, and the mother of four children; Bernard John, who married Nellie Kency; John Bernard, associated in business with his father, married Julia Barski and has two children; Roman John married Bernice Kemski, and Cecelia F. and Casimer R. are both at home.
RALPH C. McBRIDE, treasurer of Cuyahoga County, has been active in local business circles for a number of years, and at all times, beginning even before he reached his majority, has taken a keen interest in politics and public affairs. He is undoubtedly one of the most influential men in the republican party of the county.
Mr. McBride was born at Cleveland, May 6, 1875, son of John R. and Emma (Schomer) McBride. His paternal grandparents, Robert and Eliza (Agnew) McBride, were born in the North of Ireland. They were mar- ried in Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the Civil war Robert McBride enlisted in what was called Colonel Gorham's Mounted Rangers. When the organization reached Washington they became Company A of the Eighth Pennsylvania Cavalry. Robert McBride was in service through two enlistments, until honorably discharged at the close of war, in 1865. Both he and his wife died in Philadelphia.
John R. McBride, father of the county treasurer and an honored re- tired citizen of Cleveland, was born in Philadelphia, June 6, 1850. He learned the trade of blacksmith under his father. As a young man he moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and in 1871 established his home in Cleveland. In this city he was employed as a blacksmith in the shops of the Lake Shore Railroad, later was in the employ of Silas Merchant, manufacturer of freezing machines, and still later with the H. P. Nail Company. Giving up the work of his trade, he entered the postal service, and for over forty years he was a letter carrier and then a clerk in the Cleveland Post Office. In 1920 he was retired with a pension, and though seventy years of age he declined to submit to complete leisure, and since then has been with the Union Trust Company in the collection department.
John R. McBride has long been prominent in Masonic circles. He is a past master of Forest City Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, is past high priest of Webb Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, thrice illustrious master of Cleveland Council, Royal and Select Masters, past eminent commander of Oriental Commandery, Knights Templar, past sovereign Prince of Bahu- ram Council of the Scottish Rite, a member of Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine, of the Grotto and is past patron of the Eastern Star.
In October, 1873, John R. McBride married Miss Emma Schomer. She was born in Cleveland on the southwest corner of Ontario and Lake- side, daughter of Michael Schomer, who also served in the Civil war. Her father was an early conductor on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. The five children of John R. McBride and wife are, Ralph, Harry, Ida, Jessie and Mildred.
Ralph C. McBride attended public schools, but before completing his high school course was attracted into professional baseball, and for one
Vol. II-14
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season or more was a member of a Schenectady team in the New York State League. On leaving baseball he returned to Cleveland, and for a time was in the employ of the Standard Lighting Company, then a clerk for Justice of the Peace F. M. Nellis, later a clerk with the Adams Express Company, then with the Nickel Plate Railway, and, for a time was traffic manager for Samuel Austin Sons Company and then bookkeeper for Cray Brothers, carriage hardware.
All this time he was making his influence felt in local republican politics. In 1916 he was appointed cashier and assistant city treasurer under Mayor Davis. While in that position he became one of the organizers of the Commonwealth Building and Loan Company and was elected its secretary.
In 1920 Mr. McBride received the nomination at the republican pri- maries for county treasurer, and was elected in the fall of the same year. He has been a delegate to numerous city, county and state conventions, and in all of them has been an active worker.
Like his father, he has given much time and study to Masonry and is affiliated with Silvercord Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, with the Royal Arch Chapter, Council and Oriental Commandery in the York Rite, Lake Erie Consistory of the Scottish Rite, Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine and is past monarch of Al Sirat Grotto. He is also affiliated with National Lodge Knights of Pythias, the Royal League, Lookout Camp of Sons of Veterans and the Lakewood Country Club. Mr. McBride married Julia M. Wilker, daughter of Henry Wilker, of Cleveland. They have one daughter, Mildred, attending the Cleveland School of Art.
BOLESLAW FILIPIAK has been a resident of Cleveland for twenty years, has been active in business, and is one of the prominent representa- tives of the Polish nationality in the city. He is secretary and a director of the Warsaw Savings & Loan Company.
He was born in Russian Poland, in the small city of Wloclawek, October 16, 1876, son of Vincent and Frances (Kotlinski) Filipiak. His parents spent all their lives in their native country. His father died in 1913, at the age of fifty-seven. His mother lives in Poland with a son.
Boleslaw Filipiak attended school in his native town and learned and followed the barber's trade. In 1899 he came to the United States, and worked at his trade for a time at Pearl River, New York, and then came to Cleveland. While employed at his vocation he attended public night school, and subsequently opened a shop of his own at East Sixty-fifth Street and Fleet Avenue. Selling this shop, he purchased other property and continued in business. In 1909 he began the erection of the Vandora Picture Theater at 6304 Fleet Avenue, and after opening it continued it in operation successfully under his management until 1917. In that year he sold his theater business and bought a farm of 265 acres in Auburn Township, Geauga County, Ohio. For five years, including the World war period, he devoted his time to the intensive cutlivation of the soil. In 1922, having sold his country property, he returned to Cleveland, and for about six months was in the employ of a dairy company. He has been a member of the board of directors of the Warsaw Savings & Loan Com- pany for several years, and since July, 1922, its secretary, giving all his time to his duties in that company.
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Mr. Filipiak is a member of the Polish National Alliance, the Alliance of Poles in America, the Polish Singing Society and the Polish Falcons. He and his family are members of Saint Stanislaus Catholic Church.
He married, May 12, 1908, Miss Frances Konrad. She was born at Cleveland, daughter of Michael Konrad, a native of Poland. Mrs. Filipiak was educated in the East High School, is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, and also graduated from the Brownell Street Medical College in Cleveland. A successful woman physician, she practiced for a number of years. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Filipiak are Mary, Felicia and Thadeus.
ANTHONY L. MARESH. Among the well known and prominent business men and citizens of the Broadway-East-Fifty-fifth Street district of Cleve- land is Anthony L. Maresh, who was born in this city and is of the third generation of the old Maresh family, which was settled in what was then Newburg (now a part of Cleveland) nearly sixty years ago, and is one of the oldest Bohemian families in Northern Ohio.
Joseph Maresh, the grandfather of Anthony L., left Bohemia in 1866 on account of the frequent wars and the confusion resulting therefrom in Central Europe, and came to the United States, bringing his family of two generations with him-his children and his grandchildren. He settled in the Bohemian quarter of this city, and there passed the remainder of his long life. One of his sons, Frank, was for many years engaged in the tin- smith business in this city, while his son Mathew was for over a quarter of a century connected with the Cleveland police department, and later with the city law department under Newton D. Baker, he having been a linguist with a command of several languages, his duties with the above depart- ments having been in the immigration offices.
Mathew Maresh was born in Bohemia, on December 29, 1853, and was a lad of thirteen years when he came to America with his parents. He died at his home in Cleveland on March 17, 1924. His circle of friends and acquaintances were so wide, and so universally was he esteemed both as a man and as a citizen, that his funeral was one of the largest and most note- worthy private ones ever held in Cleveland. He married Julia Rybnicek, who was born in Bohemia, in 1858, and to their marriage two sons and a daughter were born: Charles, who served for several years as state fire marshal of Ohio; Anthony L .; Sylvia, who was educated in music and was a teacher of the same, and died at the age of twenty-two years.
Anthony L. Maresh, son of Mathew and Julia (Rybnicek) Maresh, was born in Cleveland on October 2, 1877. He attended old Mayflower public school, and as a boy gave evidence of musical talent above the ordinary, inherited, no doubt, from his father, who was an accomplished violinist. A neighbor, Albert Weisenberger, a music teacher, encouraged young Anthony to study the piano and persuaded his mother to buy an old piano for his use in practice. He made the utmost of his opportunities, studied and practiced with diligence, with the result that the at the age of fourteen he was playing for neighborhood dances and parties; by the time he was seventeen he was teaching piano, and a few years later he had more pupils than he could take care of. In the meantime, however, in order to supply his pupils with instruments, he began the sale of musical merchandise, with
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his salesroom in the family residence. The growth of his sales soon necessitated larger quarters, and he rented a storeroom at the corner of East Fifty-fifth Street and Grand Avenue; but the business soon outgrew that room, and he moved to larger quarters at East Forty-ninth Street and Broadway. By the year 1911 his business had outgrown these quarters, and he then purchased land and erected his present brick block at the corner of East Fifty-fifth Street and Drake Avenue, which block is of two stories, 55 by 75 feet, and is fully stocked with a selected line of pianos, violins, talking machines and various musical merchandise.
In addition to his skill as a pianist Mr. Maresh has won wide recognition as a composer, his compositions numbering over 150, many of which have been played in all parts of the world. Probably his greatest fame has come from his composition, "Life Is But A Dream." The late Lieut. Dan God- frey, bandmaster of the British Guards Band of London, England, played Mr. Maresh's compositions on world tours, and the Czecho-Slovakia Moravian Band played several of his compositions on its world tour in 1923, which included Cleveland.
Mr. Maresh is also active in civic and republican political affairs. Espe- cially is he active in Czecho-Slovakian organizations, in which he takes a deep interest. He is treasurer of the All-American League, which organization represents fourteen different nationalities. He was for seven years secretary of the Cleveland Music Trades. He is a member of the Sokol-Cleveland Society, of Polacky Lodge No. 37, Knights of Pythias, and of Columbia Lodge, C. S. P. S.
Mr. Maresh married Miss Julia L., the daughter of Frank and Mary Lear, of New York City. Her father was for a number of years editor and publisher of a Bohemian newspaper. To Mr. and Mrs. Maresh two sons have been born : Anthony L., Jr., and Mathew Francis.
JOSEPH W. BARTUNEK. Among the prominent citizens and successful business men of the Broadway-East-Fifty-fifth-Street district of Cleveland, Joseph W. Bartunek holds high rank for what he has done in the develop- ment of that section, and for what he stands for in citizenship.
Mr. Bartunek was born in Czecho-Slovakia (old Bohemia) on October 12, 1868, the son of the late Joseph and Catherine (Vales) Bartunek, who came with their family of three children from Bohemia in 1872 and took up their residence in the old Bohemian settlement in what was then Newburg, and of which settlement they were pioneers. Their children, three of whom were born in Bohemia, were: Marie, who married Joseph Dunovsky, of Cleveland ; Joseph W .; Frank C., now of Medina, Ohio; John M., of Cleveland; Matilda, who married John Vavruska, of Cleveland, and Charles, of this city. The father of these children died in 1899, at the age of seventy-three years, the mother dying in 1921, at the age of eighty-six years, both having had the esteem and friendship of all who knew them. for they were worthy citizens and pioneers in Cleveland from their native Bohemia, whose citizens have played an important part in Cleveland and elsewhere in this country.
Joseph W. Bartunek was a boy of three years when he came with his parents to Cleveland, and his entire life since then, with the exception of less than two years, has been spent in this community. After finishing at
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the parochial schools he began an apprenticeship at the tailoring business,. and by the time he had reached his eighteenth year he had completed his apprenticeship and, in order that he might gain experience and broaden his- views, he traveled and worked at his trade in different parts of the country, spending a year in Montgomery, Alabama. He returned home in 1888, and opened a modest tailor shop of his own, and a few years later also engaged in the coal business as a member of the firm of Minarik & Bartunek. In 1903 he sold his coal interests and entered the clothing business, opening a store at No. 5416 Broadway, where he continued for ten years, and then moved to No. 5462 Broadway, where he spent another ten years. In the meantime, however, he began the erection of his own business block at Nos. 5728-30 Broadway, which was completed in 1923, and which he has since occupied, doing a general business in clothing and gentlemen's fur- nishings. This handsome brick block is of two stories, with a front of forty feet and a depth of eighty-five feet, the entire lower floor being given up to Mr. Bartunek's business, the upper floor containing seven handsome office suites. For over twenty years he has been in business at three locations, all within a stone's throw of each other, and it is needless to state that his business has been so conducted that, should he so desire, he could continue in the same business in the same location for another twenty years. In recognition of the long and faithful service rendered him by his employes, men who have in no small degree contributed to the success of his clothing business, on February 1, 1924, Mr. Bartunek formed the Joseph W. Bartunek Company, taking in as partners three of his old employes and two of his sons. The employes are: Yaro Sindeler, who has been with Mr. Bartunek as salesman for twenty-one years; James Ptak, salesman for fifteen years; and Joseph Borovicka, tailor for twenty-one years; the other members of the company being Emil A. and Otto J. Bartunek.
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