USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 2) > Part 36
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them being the father of the subject of this narrative. The latter has traced back his ancestry as follows :
The father of Dr. Wilson H. was Leslie N .; his father was Joseph II, born July 8, 1803, and died October 16, 1887 ; his father was Joseph I, born January 16, 1765, and died October 16, 1818, and married Annie Mckinney ; father of Joseph I was John, born in 1708; his father was Simon, born in 1683 ; his father was Cornelius, born in 1657; his father was Peter, born in 1625; his father was Nicholas, born in 1597. So far as known the Wyckoffs are of Dutch descent and came to America at an early date.
Dr. Wilson H. Wyckoff was given a sound education at the common schools in his early years, and finished his literary training by graduating from the Chagrin Falls High School while yet in his teens. Having at this time made up his mind what he intended to follow as a business, he entered the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, took the full course and was graduated with distinction in the class of 1902 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Soon afterward he opened his office at Solon, Ohio, and began the practice, both medical and surgical, and continued the same there for five years. During this eventful period he studied diligently to keep pace with the numerous and remarkable improvements that took place in the medical and surgical world. He became proficient and was given a large practice and made many friends. In 1907 he located his office at Bedford and here he has practiced up to the present time. He has taken deep interest in all matters affecting the welfare of this community and has aided materially the growth and development of the civic and commercial and municipal strides of the town. He served as a member of the town council and distinguished himself by his work for community progress. His keen activities brought him forward in 1916 as a candidate for the mayoralty, to which exacting position he was duly elected and continued to occupy until 1921, greatly to the welfare of the town and to his own renown and fame. He is past master and past high priest and past eminent commander of York Rite Masonry, and is also a thirty-second degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Mason. On September 4, 1901, he was joined in matrimony with Miss Grace A. Pelton and they have two sons: Stanley R., born July 28, 1902, and Winston L., born December 6, 1905; both have been given excellent educations and training.
JAMES JOSEPH MUNZ. Following many years of successful activity in commercial lines and as a blooded stock raiser in Pennsylvania, James Joseph Munz came to Cleveland as an executive of one of the motor com- panies of the city, but now gives his time and ability to the Lakewood Savings and Loan Company, of which he is secretary. He is a resident of Lakewood.
Mr. Munz was born at Elysburg, Pennsylvania, June 9, 1872. His father, Charles J. Munz, was a native of Berlin, Germany, and was liber- ally educated in the German universities. For a time he was professor of mathematics in the University of Berlin. When about thirty years of age, and unmarried, he came to the United States. At New York City he was connected with a pottery firm for two years, and in that time mastered the art of pottery manufacture and then established a similar business of his own in Elysburg, Pennsylvania. For thirty years he carried
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on a large and profitable business, his manufactured wares being sold all over the country. After a life of unusual activity and accomplishment death took him in 1892. His wife was Mary Reardon, who was born in Northumberlandshire, England, daughter of Squire J. Reardon. Her father was manager of one of the large landed estates of England. After his death Mrs. Reardon brought her family to America, locating at Danville, Pennsylvania. Her daughter Mary was twenty-two years of age when she came to this country. Mrs. Charles J. Munz lived to the age of eighty years, passing away in 1916.
James J. Munz was educated in the public schools at Elysburg and also in an academy there. He graduated from the Pennsylvania State Normal School at Lock Haven in 1894, and for several years was prominently identified with educational work and institutions. For two years he was also a student at Dickinson College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. His active work as a teacher covered a period of five years, first as principal of ward schools at Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and then as principal of city schools at Plymouth in the same state.
Mr. Munz in 1898 became associated with the International Cor- respondence School at Staunton, Pennsylvania. He was identified with that institution and corporation for fifteen years. One of the properties of this corporation was the Lackawana Coal and Lumber Company, and it was with this industry that Mr. Munz was identified during most of his connection with the International Correspondence School. When he resigned in 1913 he was general manager and general sales manager of the company.
For several years prior to that Mr. Munz had been conducting a high class stock farm at Mercer, Pennsylvania. This farm specialized in the raising of registered Jersey cattle, Oxford sheep and Berkshire hogs. After resigning his connection with the International Correspondence School Mr. Munz gave his undivided attention to the operation and management of his farm. He took his registered stock all over the country, and con- tinued the business on a very prosperous basis until 1918. In that year he sold his farm and moved to Cleveland. He assisted in organizing and financing and became an executive officer of the Temple Motors Com- pany. He resigned from this company in 1920, and took a much needed rest from business affairs. Then, in October, 1922, he became secretary of the Lakewood Savings and Loan Company, an institution that had been organized in March, 1921. The primary purpose of this company is to finance home building in Lakewood. The company has an authorized capi- tal of $500,000. All the stock has been sold, and the institution is one of the strongest financially and in service facilities in this field of financial organizations in Ohio.
Mr. Munz is a member of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Yacht Club and the Lakewood Methodist Episcopal Church. In Masonry he is affiliated with Lodge No. 316 at Franklin, Pennsylvania, and the Royal Arch Chapter at Oil City, Pennsylvania. On February 17, 1903, he married May Jackson, of Meadville, Pennsylvania. Her father, Walker Jackson, was a prominent importer of Percheron horses from France. Mr. and Mrs. Munz have two children. Walker, who graduated from the Lakewood High School in 1921, is now a junior in Oberlin Col-
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lege, and plans to prepare for the medical profession. Paul J., the second son, graduated from the Lakewood High School in 1923, and is specializing in agriculture at Ohio State University.
THOMAS A. BURNS, of 1357 Westlake Avenue, Lakewood, Ohio, was born in Cleveland, and has devoted most of his active career to some phase of the printing and publishing business. He is now in business as a photo engraver.
Mr. Burns was born at the family home at Lorain and Mechanic streets in Cleveland. His grandfather spent all his life in Ireland and was in the Government service as a mail carrier. After his death his widow and two sons came to the United States, settling at Cleveland, where she lived out her life. Her son James started for Alaska about 1850, and was never heard from.
Thomas Burns, father of Thomas A. Burns, was born in County Water- ford, Ireland, and it was about 1848 that he came to the United States by sailing vessel, being six weeks on the ocean, and located at Cleveland before this city had become a railroad center. He worked for a time in the old Waddell House, and for twenty years was a trusted employe of the West Side Railroad Company. During his last years he lived retired, and died in 1896, at the age of seventy-eight. He married Mary O'Connor, who was born at Wexford, Ireland, and she came to the United States with a sister Margaret and three brothers, Arthur, John and Patrick. Her brothers and sister all settled at Fort Dodge, Iowa. Her brother John reached the venerable age of one hundred years and six months. Mrs. Thomas Burns died at the age of seventy-six, having reared five children : Mary, Elizabeth, Thomas Arthur, Clara and Emma.
Thomas A. Burns was educated in public school, and when twelve years of age began an apprenticeship with the firm of Nevin Brothers, printers. He served four years, and then did journeyman work as a compositor and pressman. For a time he fed the two cylinder press then in use in the Cleveland Plain Dealer office. He also followed his trade elsewhere, hav- ing been connected for varying lengths of time with the Oberlin News, with the Canton Repository and with the Youngstown Register and Tribune, also in a job printing office at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Since 1905 he has been engaged in the photo engraving business.
In 1889 Mr. Burns married Miss Carrie Brown, who was born in Milton Township, Mahoning County, Ohio. Her father, George Brown, was born on the ocean while his parents were coming to America from Scotland. On coming to this country they settled near Youngstown, Ohio. George Brown learned the trade of pattern maker, followed it for a number of years, and then engaged in farming in Milton Township. He died there in 1876. He married Caroline Woodward, who was born in Milton Township, Mahoning County, daughter of Richard Woodward, a pioneer of that section who hewed a farm out of the wilderness. The mother of Mrs. Burns died in 1889, having reared eight children, named Mary, Emma, Georgie, Annie, Grace, Carrie, Samuel and George. Mr. and Mrs. Burns had one daughter, Grace, born to them in 1894, now Mrs. W. R. Amos of this city.
Mr. Burns is a member of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce and
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Chamber of Industry and the Early Settlers' Association of Cuyahoga County. Mrs. Burns is affiliated with Pearl Tent of the Maccabees.
WILLIAM GREIF, one of the industrialists of Cleveland and numbered among its most exemplary citizens, has been one of the potential characters in building up a great modern city. He is one of eight children born to the marriage of Vincent and Mary (Mayer) Greif. The parents of Vincent Greif and of Mary Mayer came to the United States with their families long before the Civil war, rearing their families with American privileges, giving the children good educations in the public and the private schools. Vincent Greif learned the cooper's trade in early manhood, and backed by his inherited tendency to thrift and industry from his Germanic ancestry, he worked hard and steadily at the trade and managed not only to support his family, but to lay aside considerable for the so-called "rainy day."
William Greif was the oldest son of his parents and was born in Cleve- land, Ohio, on August 16, 1855. He grew up under the usual environments of American children and was blessed with a good education, attending the parochial schools and finally ended his scholastic career by attending the Union Business College. On the 17th of July, 1876, when twenty-one years of age, he started in business on his own account and responsibility by becoming a retail coal dealer with a capital at first of $900. He had managed to save this sum from his former promiscuous labors and employments. One year's experience with this business convinced him that he should change his occupation. Accordingly, with small capital and even smaller facilities, he embarked in the cooperage business, and there- after no doubt immensely enjoyed seeing the industry expand and spread in all directions. The business grew so fast that he soon needed assistants, and therefore admitted his next eldest brother, Charles O., as a partner, and a little later, when the concern became incorporated, he admitted two
other brothers, Louis M. and Thomas, all the four brothers thus becoming stockholders. The business grew very fast and was profitable. For forty . years Mr. Greif saw the concern which he had founded spread out, until it became the largest industry of the kind in the world. At the end of the forty years it had twenty-six branch establishments, gave employment to 3,000 men and produced annually 7,500,000 barrels and kegs.
Mr. Greif possessed a natural aptitude and capacity for this needful industry, and was able to anticipate demands and to meet them with exceptionally serviceable goods and products. But he was not content to remain within the enclosure of this business. As time advanced he per- ceived the profit offered in other lines of business. He and his brother, Charles O., incorporated the Fanner Manufacturing Company, of which he became president. This company made stove trimmings, to which later was added malleable and gray iron foundry castings. He soon built up this concern so that it likewise became large and profitable and gave employ- ment to 400 men. He also became interested financially and was president for years of the Beckman Woolen Mills Company of Cleveland, which gave employment to 300 workers. He was president of the Star Drilling Machine Company of Akron, Ohio, manufacturing drilling devices for water, gas and oil wells and which employed about 800 men. He also became financially interested in several other projects which returned their expected portion of success.
Im Greif.
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In 1906 Mr. Greif was the sixth largest corporation director in the City of Cleveland, being actively identified with twenty-seven corporations. Thus his whole life has been one of almost phenomenal activity and suc- cess. His business sagacity and capability of foreseeing unprofitable indus- trial ventures and his superiority and prominence in establishing business ventures on a sound and profitable basis have brought him many offers from outside concerns of tracts of land in the suburbs of other towns on which to erect other industrial projects, but as a whole he has confined his greatest efforts to the expansion of the industries of the City of Cleveland. It may be truthfully stated that the city owes him a debt of gratitude for his devotion to local interests.
In 1918 he retired from active business, but has given considerable attention to board meetings, buying and selling coal lands and other such investments. He is vice president of the United Banking and Trust Com- pany; vice president of the Ohio Savings and Loan Company; on the advisory board of the Cleveland Trust Company; director of the Morris Plan Bank ; president of the Cleveland, Akron and Canton Terminal Rail- road. He is a member of the Athletic, Cleveland Yacht and Clifton clubs, the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Industry. In 1881 he married Mary Hitch; they had one child, a daughter named Lillian, who died in infancy.
JOHN MICHAEL PINDRAS. In the law and its relationship to individuals and corporations and business, John Michael Pindras has found a busy career since his admission to the Cleveland bar. He has been satified to measure his achievements within this profession rather than in politics. He is one of the prominent Polish citizens.
He was born in Kornarski, Province of Posen, Poland, October 15, 1876, son of Michael and Antonina (Glowny) Pindras. He was seven years of age when his parents immigrated to the United States in 1883, the family settling in the old Polish colony at Newburg, now part of the City of Cleveland. In Poland Michael Pindras, Sr., was owner of two flour mills and considerable land. The autocratic and repressive measures of the Prussian rule perhaps reached their climax in that portion of East Prussia known as Posen, the original stock of which was almost entirely Polish. There being no redress for their grievances, a large part of the Polish population rather than suffer longer determined to come to America, and during the '80s of the last century a number of thousands of Poles came from that section. Similar reasons brought Michael Pindras and his family, and in making the move he sacrificed practically all his holdings, having barely enough money to pay the passage across the ocean. After reaching Cleveland he went to work for the old Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, now the American Steel and Wire Company at Newburg, and with his wages was able to educate his four children until they were more than self sustaining. He then retired from active work, and died in 1917, at the age of sixty-five. He was active in the different Polish affairs, being one of the organizers of St. Stanislaus Church and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, one of the earliest Polish societies of Cleveland, and still in exist- ence. Michael Pindras was survived by his widow, Antonina, who died in 1922. They had four children: John Michael; Walter, engaged in the
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tire and automobile accessory business at Cleveland ; Stella, wife of Frank Bednarski, who is employed by the American Steel and Wire Company; Wladyslawa, wife of Vincent Izydorczyk, who owns and operates a bakery in Cleveland.
John Michael Pindras acquired his education at Cleveland, graduating from the St. Stanislaus School in 1889, and from the Spencerian Business College in 1897. In that year he entered the Western Reserve University Law School, also taking supplementary work in Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. He received his law degree in June, 1900, was ad- mitted to the Ohio bar, and now for a quarter of a century has been en- gaged in a successful general practice. His offices are in the Ulmer Building on the Public Square.
In a professional way Mr. Pindras is attorney for the consulate of the Republic of Poland at Cleveland. He is attorney for the Warsaw Sav- ings and Loan Company, and is also attorney for the Bank of Cleveland and for the Leading Home and Investment Company.
Mr. Pindras has served as president of Group No. 9 of the Polish National Alliance for past eight years, has served as president of Com- mune No. 6 of the Polish National Alliance, is president of the Polish Citi- zens' State Committee, is chairman of the Board of Control of the Polish National Committee and is a member of the Alliance of Poles of America, also of the Polish Falcons. He is a member of the American-Polish Cham- ber of Industry and vice president of the Cleveland Society. He is president of the Polish Daily Monitor. He belongs to the Cleveland Bar Association, is a member of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church, and in former years was much interested in the success of the democratic party, though now he prefers to devote his entire time to his civic and professional work.
February 11, 1907, he married Miss Olga B. Chotek, who was born in Texas. Her father, Count Hugo Chotek, was a Bohemian nobleman, and for family reasons gave up his title and patrimony in Bohemia, immi- grating to the United States over forty years ago. Eventually he settled in Cleveland, and was conspicuous as a journalist and author. He died in Cleveland in 1911.
JOHN E. HEENE, who died January 22, 1924, for over thirty-five years had some active share in the great commercial life of Cleveland and at the same time maintained a deep and sympathetic relation with the cause of religion and social welfare. Mr. Heene was secretary-treasurer of the Automatic Stamping Machine Company.
He represented one of the old German families of Cleveland. His parents, Jacob and Regina (Maier) Heene, were natives of Germany, were married there, and in 1854 embarked on a sailing vessel that landed them in New York City. Thence they proceeded up the Hudson River by canal boat to Buffalo and a lake vessel brought them to Cleveland. For a time they lived on what is now Greenwood Street, opposite Woodland Avenue, where Jacob Heene followed his occupation as a gardener. Two years afterwards he bought his first home in America, situated on Univer- sity Heights, on the South Side of the city. He had a tract of land there which he used for gardening and truck growing, and he continued in the
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profession and business of gardening the rest of his active life. In the old home on the South Side the mother passed away in 1875, and Jacob Heene died there in 1902. Both were active members of the Lutheran Church. They had eight children: Elizabeth, Edward G., Carrie, Louise, John E., George W., Mary R. and Clara L.
John E. Heene was born at the old homestead on the South Side, Sep- tember 10, 1866. After completing a public school education he entered the office of G. H. Foster, a Cleveland attorney. He pursued his law studies for a time, but eventually gave up the idea of a legal career in favor of practical business. The opportunity came to him to go to work for an oil refining company in which Mr. Foster was interested. Three years later he entered the oil business on his own account by establishing the Pacific Refining Company. While building up a successful oil business Mr. Heene became interested in the manufacture of machinery, and finally disposed of his oil interests in order to give his full time and capital to manufacturing. His business went on with uninterrupted progress until 1920, when, following the death of his wife, he decided to retire from active business. After a year, however, he found retirement inconsistent with his energetic disposition, and he then organized the National Auto- motive Manufacturing Company, becoming its secretary and treasurer. He was financially interested in several other business industries.
For a good many years church and welfare work made a strong appeal to Mr. Heene's time and means. In this he had a devoted co-worker in his wife during her life time. Mr. Heene in 1884 joined what is now the Lincoln Park Methodist Episcopal Church, but later transferred his mem- bership to the Brooklyn Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church on Arch- wood Avenue. For over seventeen years he was superintendent of the Sunday School, also a choir leader, and for many years a member of the Board of Trustees, and was on the building committee when the present beautiful edifice was erected. He was active as a member of the Board of Church Extension and the church historian. Among the various lines of welfare work he served as an official in the Anti-Saloon League from the time it was organized, and interested himself in the program of Ameri- canization in the foreign districts of the city.
On November 18, 1891, Mr. Heene married Miss Emma J. Warming- ton. She was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, a daughter of Hans and Nancy Warmington. She came to Cleveland when a young lady, was married here and was not only a splendid housewife and mother, but bore her share of duties in the church and charitable undertakings, in conse- quence of which her death on January 5, 1920, was widely lamented. The surviving daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Heene is Lillian R., wife of W. Lester Corbley, of Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Corbley have two daughters, Emma Marie and Eleanor Maisie.
JOHN HUNTINGTON was born in Preston, England, March 8, 1832, and his residence in Cleveland covered a period of nearly half a century. In his native land he received good educational advantages, and he was twenty years of age when, in 1852, he came to the United States and established his residence in Cleveland. He soon proved his resourceful-
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ness in business enterprise and eventually, in 1863, he became associated with Clark, Payne & Company in the oil refining industry, in which connection he made valuable inventions and obtained patents on the same. The firm with which he thus early identified himself eventually joined with other concerns to form the Standard Oil Company. Mr. Hunt- ington likewise became interested in other business enterprises of importance as bearing on the advancement of Cleveland. He was prom- inently concerned in lake shipping and became also the vice president of the Cleveland Stone Company. Beginning in 1862, Mr. Huntington gave thirteen years of loyal and valuable service as a member of the city council. He acquired a substantial fortune and used the same to goodly ends. In 1889 he established the John Huntington Benevolent Trust, and placed in the service thereof the sum of $200,000, the income from this permanent fund being divided among various charitable and edu- cational institutions of Cleveland. He made provision also for the establishing and upbuilding of an art gallery and an evening polytechnic school in Cleveland, and, all in all, he played a large and worthy part in shaping the destiny ,of Cleveland. His death occurred in London, England, January 10, 1893. In 1852 Mr. Huntington married Miss Jane Beck, of Preston, England, and in the same year they came to the United States. Mrs. Huntington died in Cleveland and was survived by one son and three daughters. The second marriage of Mr. Huntington was with Mrs. Mariett L. Goodwin, daughter of Talmage W. Leek, of Cleveland.
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