USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 2) > Part 39
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Henry Carlton Spaulding, son of John and Caroline (Newbre) Spaulding, and father of Orson F., was born on the Spaulding farm in Emmett Township, Calhoun County, Michigan, on December 16, 1844, and died in Battle Creek, that state, on July 3, 1901. He married Lucy Carey, who was born on February 22, 1844, and died in Los Angeles, California, in 1916.
Orson F. Spaulding was born in Battle Creek on December 30, 1882,
Vol. II-19
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and was reared and educated in the public schools of that city. At the age of sixteen years he became a Western Union Telegraph messen- ger boy in Battle Creek. When he was seventeen he went to work in a book bindery. When he was eighteen he went to work for a Battle Creek undertaker, and there laid the foundation for his successful business career. In 1903 he took the examination and was granted a state license as an undertaker, and in January, 1905, he engaged in business on his own account in Battle Creek, and continued in business in that city until July, 1912, when he removed to Cleveland. For four years after locating in this city Mr. Spaulding was associated with what was then the "Funeral Reform," and on January 1, 1917, he entered business on his own responsibility, beginning in a modest way on a small capital. His first place of 'business was in a storeroom at 3848 West Twenty-fifth Street, where he later rented an additional storeroom, and continued there until the growth of his business compelled him to secure larger quarters. On May 1, 1920, he removed to his present commodious funeral parlors on Denison Avenue.
Mr. Spaulding is prominent in the civic and social affairs of his section of the city. He is a member of Dennison Lodge No. 640, Free and Accepted Masons (master from 1922 to 1923) ; of John K. Corwin Chapter No. 205, Royal Arch Masons; of Forest City Commandery No. 40, Knights Templar, and of Valley of Cleveland Lake Erie Con- sistory (thirty-second degree), Scottish Rite, and is a member and a past chancellor commander of Pearl Lodge No. 163, Knights of Pythias. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Brooklyn Masonic Temple Association, and is president of the Men's Club of Brooklyn Memorial Church.
Mr. Spaulding married Carol G. Payne, of Battle Creek, Michigan, the daughter of Thomas and Frances Payne, and to them two children have been born: Carlton Francis, who died May 15, 1915, and Isadine Loretta, who died May 23, 1915, both having passed away within a week's time.
Mr. Spaulding is recognized as a leader both as a business man and progressive citizen of the community, and has won a large circle of friends and patrons. He is broad in his views and ideas both in business and civic affairs, and is always found ready to help in any movement for the welfare of the city.
MORTIMER B. LEGGETT was one of the leaders of the Cleveland bar who earned national fame before he located in this city. He was born at Ithaca, New York, April 19, 1831, his parents being friends or Quakers. Brought as a boy to Ohio, he graduated in medicine at Willoughby in 1844 and in. 1846 organized the first system of Union Free schools in the state under what became known throughout the west as the Akron School Law. He was admitted to the bar in 1845, and was a professor in the Ohio Law College for several years, was superintendent of schools at Zanesville, but at the outbreak of the Civil war raised the Seventeenth Ohio Infantry, was appointed its colonel in January, 1862, and advanced through all the officer's grades to the rank of major general. In 1871 he was appointed United States commissioner of patents, and after four years' service in
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Washington, located at Cleveland, where he was acknowledged as one of the foremost patent lawyers in America.
VIRGIL P. KLINE, who died in January, 1917, was of the veteran class of Cleveland attorneys. He was born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1844, prepared at the Eclectic Institute at Hiram for college, graduated from Williams College in 1866, and for several years following was superin- tendent of schools at Cuyahoga Falls. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1869, and thereafter for nearly half a century was one of the very able and successful lawyers of Cleveland. He never abandoned his demo- cratic principles, and several times was mentioned by his party in con- nection with the governorship. He was a member of the Board of Educa- tion of Cleveland in the '80s, and was several times democratic candidate for the Supreme Bench, the Circuit and Common Pleas Court.
AMOS TOWNSEND, who had many conspicuous connections with Cleve- land life and affairs, was born near Pittsburgh in 1831, and as a youth came to Ohio and was a merchant at Mansfield for some years. He acted as marshal to the Congressional Investigating Committee sent out to report on the condition of affairs during the early Kansas struggles. In 1858 he removed to Cleveland and was in business for many years as a wholesale grocery merchant, being connected with several of the leading firms of the city, eventually as senior member of William Edwards & Company. In 1865 he was elected to the City Council, serving five consecutive terms, was a member of the Ohio Constitutional Convention of 1873 and in 1876 elected to Congress, being relected in 1878 and 1880. Much of the federal legislation affecting Cleveland during that period bore the impress of his active influence. He was also a member of Cleveland's first park com- mission, was a member of the Cleveland Grays, and belonged to many social organizations, his genial temperament and splendid address making him exceedingly popular.
JOHN C. COVERT, one time editor of the Cleveland Leader, was a force- ful writer, a remarkable linguist, and also a practical printer and experi- enced editor. He was born in New York State, February 11, 1839, and secured his education in a printing office. He acquired a speaking knowl- edge of the French, German, Italian and Spanish languages. He served in the Ohio Legislature two terms and in 1897 was appointed United States consul to France, and while there corresponded for various papers. He was decorated by the French minister of public instruction. He was author of a treatise on the silver question in 1896, which was distributed by the Republican National Committee.
HARRIET L. KEELER, a veteran educator of Cleveland, is known to many thousand of readers by the books that she wrote and compiled as a help to nature lovers, particularly the volumes, "Our Native Trees," "Our Northern Shrubs," "Our Garden Flowers," and "Wild Flowers of Early Spring." She was born in New York State, in 1846, graduated from Oberlin College, and received honorary degrees from the Western Reserve University. She taught as superintendent of primary instruction at Cleve-
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land from 1871 to 1879, was teacher in the Central High School from 1879 to 1909 and superintendent of schools for a few months in 1912.
LYDIA HOYT FARMER, who died in 1903, was a Cleveland woman and the author of a number of books that appeal most to young and mature readers. Among them were: "Boy's Book of Famous Rulers," "Girl's Book of Famous Queens," "A Story Book of Science," "What America Owes to Women," and a "Short History of the French Revolution."
SUSAN COOLIDGE, who was also known as Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, was a Cleveland woman, who earned distinction in the field of literature. Her best work was done in juvenile writing. Some of her books known to the children of comparatively recent times were: "What Katy Did," "Eye Bright," "Cross Patch," "A Round Dozen," "Just Sixteen."
Susan Coolidge died in 1905.
CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON, one of Cleveland's women to reach a high plane in the general field of literature, wrote novels and poems read and praised on two continents. One literary critic said, "No woman of rare personal qualities, or with more decided gifts as a novelist, figured in our own generation of American writers." She was a granddaughter of James Fenimore Cooper, and was born in New York, but was educated in Cleveland and in the French School in New York City. Her home was at Cleveland from 1873 to 1879. After that, much of her time was spent in travel, giving her the material that enabled her to write novels and descrip- tive work of such realistic force. Some of her better known books were, "Anne," "Old Stone House," "Castle Nowhere," "Lake County Sketches," "Dorothy and Other Italian Stories," "East Angels," "Juniper Lights," "The Transplanted Boy" and "Two Women."
SARAH K. BOLTON, who died February 21, 1916, was one of the most prolific and able writers among the distinguished women of Cleveland. She was born in Connecticut September 15, 1841, and was educated in the school conducted by Catherine Beecher at Hartford. She was married to Charles E. Bolton and was the mother of Charles K. Bolton, distinguished librarian and author at Boston. The Boltons, after the Civil war, located at Cleveland, where he entered business and was also active in the educa- tional bureau of the Young Men's Christian Association, and a traveling lecturer. In this way Mrs. Bolton gathered much valuable material, and was a regular contributor to Harper's Bazaar, The Independent, the Con- gregationalist, and other publications. She was author of a long series of books, the first published in 1864 and the last in 1907. These books in- cluded a large number of biographical studies of successful men and women, famous statesmen, artists, authors and leaders among men, and similar books.
BENJAMIN F. TAYLOR, who died in 1887, was one of the most versatile writers who went forth from Cleveland. During the Civil war, as a news- paper correspondent at the front, he left such graphic and enduring pic- tures as "Mission Ridge" and "Lookout Mountain" and "Pictures of Life
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in Camp and Field." His exquisite sketches of nature were represented by "Summer Savory," "January and June" and "November Days." A character etching was "Theophilus Trent," and he was also author of "Taylor's Poetical Works."
REBECCA ELLIOTT ROUSE. The name of Rebecca Elliott Rouse was closely identified with many of Cleveland's first important individual and organized efforts at charity, and she was one of the founders of the Cleve- land Associated Charities. In a quiet way she probably did more to pro- mote the growth of organized Christian work during the pioneer days of the Western Reserve than any other woman. She was the wife of Benja- min Rouse. Her maiden name was Cromwell and she was born at Salem, Massachusetts, October 30, 1799. She died at Cleveland, December 23, 1887. She was well educated for a woman of her time and had the benefit of extended travel abroad. She was eighteen when she married Benjamin Rouse, and in the fall of 1830 they arrived at Cleveland, Mr. Rouse having come west to act as agent for the American Sunday School Union in the Western Reserve, and she equally eager to share with him in missionary labors. She and her husband became one of the first seventeen original members of the first Baptist society at Cleveland. She organized and became president in 1842 of the Martha Washington Society, one of the first benevolent organizations in the city. Out of this grew the twenty- sixth orphan asylum, of which Mrs. Rouse was for many years managing director. She was prominent in forming the Soldier's Aid Society of Cleveland, which has the distinction of being the first society of women ever organized for the noble work of caring for the soldiers and families. She was president of the society, and not only looked after the work at home, but frequently visited the front and the military hospitals. In recog- nition of this service, a bronze figure of Mrs. Rouse has been placed on the Cuyahoga County soldier's monument in the Cleveland public square.
HORACE E. ANDREWS, who died December 1, 1918, was born in 1863, son of Samuel Andrews, at one time a partner of John D. Rockefeller, in the firm of Rockefeller & Andrews. Horace E. Andrews was educated at Yale University, and made his home in Cleveland and in later years. New York. He was best known as a railway official, being president of the New York State railways, the Mohawk Valley Company, the Rochester Railway & Light Company, director of the New York Central Railway, the Michigan Central Railway, West Shore Railway, Schenectady Railway Company, Havana Railway, Light & Power Company.
WILLIAM RILEY BROWN is prominently identified with business affairs of important order in the City of Cleveland, where he is vice president of the Realty Bond & Mortgage Company, and holds the same office in the Bankers Investment Company.
Mr. Brown is a native of the old Hoosier State and is a scion of one of its sterling pioneer families, his paternal grandfather having been a wealthy merchant and extensive landowner in Jackson County, Indiana, where his father was a pioneer settler and, clearing and draining, reclaimed a large area of rich farm land. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Brown
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likewise owned a large landed estate in Indiana. He served as a gallant soldier and officer of the Union in the Civil war, and his death resulted from the hardships he endured while in this patriotic service.
William Riley Brown was born at Brownstown, Indiana, March 25, 1884, a son of Mack and Emma B. (Prow) Brown, both likewise natives of that state. The father conducted a merchandising business at Bed- ford, Indiana.
The preliminary education of William R. Brown was acquired in the public schools of his native place, and was supplemented by his attending Marion Normal College, Marion, Indiana; Valparaiso University, at Val- paraiso, that state, and by three years of study in Northwestern Uni- versity, Evanston, Illinois. After leaving the university Mr. Brown entered the investment brokerage business, and he has developed admirable initiative and administrative ability in the organization of well ordered mortgage companies. He was the promoter and organizer of the Realty Bond & Mortgage Company of Cleveland, of which he is now vice president, and also of the Bankers Investment Company, corporations that are functioning normally and most successfully in connection with financial affairs in Cleveland. Mr. Brown is a republican in political allegiance, is an active member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland Real Estate Board, and is a liberal and progressive citizen. His religious faith is that of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His offices are established in the Leader-News Building.
WILLIAM G. MATHER, iron and steel manufacturer of Cleveland, is a native of that city, born September 22, 1857, son of Samuel Livingston and Elizabeth Lucy (Guinn) Mather.
Mr. Mather is a graduate of the class of 1877 from Trinity College, Connecticut, and the following year entered the office of the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company. In 1890 he became president of this organization. He has also served as chairman of the board of the Otis Steel Company, president of the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railway Company, and a director and officer in many industrial, banking and other corporations.
Mr. Mather, who is unmarried, has served as a trustee of Trinity Col- lege, Connecticut, Kenyon College in Western Reserve University in Ohio, is a member of the American Institute of Mining & Metallurgical Engineers, the American Antiquarian Society, Western Reserve Historical Society and in 1916 was appointed a member of the Cleveland City Planning Com- mission. He is a republican, a member of the Union Club of Cleveland, and University Club of Cleveland.
GEORGE EDWARD SCHMEHL has been well known in Cleveland com- mercial circles for thirty years. He was proprietor of several well known drug stores in Cleveland until he engaged in a special line of business handling cutlery and barbers' supplies.
Mr. Schmehl was born in South Brooklyn Village, now the City of Cleveland, June 8, 1872, son of the late John and Louise (Deuble) Schmehl. His grandfather, Sylvester Schmehl, brought his family from Germany to America in 1851, settling in Cuyahoga County. He was the first blacksmith in South Brooklyn Village operating his own shop. In
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that shop his son, John Schmehl, learned the trade. John Schmehl was born in a village near Frankfort-on-the-Main in Wurttemberg, Germany, in 1839, and was twelve years of age when the family settled in Cuyahoga County. He eventually succeeded to the business of his father and con- tinued it for many years. He also manifested a keen interest in public affairs, serving several years on the Village Council. John Schmehl, who died in 1914, married Louise Deuble, who was born at Liverpool, now called Valley City, in Medina County, Ohio, in 1849. Her father, Christian Deuble, was born in Germany, came to America during the '40s and was the first tanner in Medina County. Mrs. John Schmehl died in 1921.
George Edward Schmehl as a boy attended the old Treat and Dennison Avenue public schools. He was only fourteen when he left school to go to work in the drug store of Henry W. Stecher. While getting a working familiarity with the drug store he also utilized his spare time in attending the Cleveland School of Pharmacy. He was graduated from that school with the Graduate in Pharmacy degree in 1891 and received a similar diploma in 1893 from the School of Pharmacy of Buffalo, New York. After ten years of employment under Mr. Stecher he opened a store of his own at 55th Street and Hough Avenue. He sold this business four years later and opened a new store in the old Masonic Temple at the corner of East Sixth and Superior Avenue, on the present site of the Federal Reserve Bank. He was in business at that location three years.
At the end of that time Mr. Schmehl took up an entirely different line, handling barbers' supplies and cutlery. Out of this grew the business re- organized as the Cleveland Cutlery Company, of which he became manager, and continued so until 1924, in which year he opened the Ye Grinde Shoppe, at 731 Vincent Street, in the same line of business.
Mr. Schmehl has interested himself in community affairs, but never was a candidate for public office. He is a stanch republican and a member of the Tippecanoe Club. He married Maude Gilbert, a native of Cleveland and daughter of the late Dr. G. H. Gilbert. They have one daughter, June Gilbert Schmehl.
JOHN H. FARLEY, who was mayor of Cleveland from 1883 to 1885 and again from 1899 to 1901, when he was succeeded by Tom L. Johnson, was born at Cleveland February 5, 1846. His father, Patrick Farley, a native of Ireland, settled in Cleveland as early as 1833, and for a number of years had the contract for the distribution of mail and expressage coming to or passing through the city, this being before the introduction of the modern mail and express car. He was a charter member of the first Knights Templar Commandery of Cleveland. His wife, Ann Schwartz, was born in Germany, daughter of John Schwartz, who settled in Lorraine County, Ohio, in 1832.
John H. Farley received a public school education, and for a number of years was a manufacturer of brass goods. He continued active in this business until about 1883, after which he was almost continuously identified with some form of public office. In 1871 he was elected a member of the City Council and twice reelected. He was twice a candidate for mayor before he made his first successful race for that office in 1883 as demo- cratic candidate. Following his first term, he was appointed by President
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Cleveland inspector of internal revenue. In the spring of 1893 he was appointed director of public works at Cleveland, and subsequently served again as mayor. He was called and fully deserved all the implications of the title "Honest John." He was a delegate to several democratic national conventions. In 1884 he married Margaret Kenney, daughter of Capt. Wil- liam Kenney, who organized and took from Cleveland the first company of volunteers at the outbreak of the Civil war.
RAYMOND J. LOGAN has been a practicing attorney of the Cleveland bar for the past eight years, and is a native of this city, being well known in public affairs as well as in his profession.
Mr. Logan was born in Waring, now East Thirty-first Street, in Cleve- land, January 13, 1891, son of James A. and Martha (Greve) Logan. His grandfather, Thomas Logan, was a native of Ireland, and on coming to the United States located in the Mahoning Valley of Ohio, where he was engaged in coal mining. He lost his life in a fatal accident in the mines.
James A. Logan was born in Mahoning County in 1870, and in 1888 moved to Cleveland, where for many years he was engaged in the coal business. He is now in the real estate business.
Raymond J. Logan graduated from the East High School of Cleveland in 1908, and had some varied experience as a wage earner until he entered the service of the city as assistant secretary of the police department in 1912. After two years in the police department he was for a similar length of time connected with the city contract department. In the meantime he took up the study of law, and in 1916 graduated from the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace University with the Bachelor of Laws degree. Admitted to the Ohio bar in 1916, Mr. Logan at once engaged in general practice, and has made an enviable record as a sound and well qualified attorney. His offices are in the Society for Savings Building. About the time America entered the World war, Mr. Logan was severely injured in an automobile accident, and for over a year was in a hospital.
His name in Ohio public life is familiar through his interesting candi- dacy for the office of lieutenant-governor on the republican ticket in 1922. It is a matter of special pride to him that he carried Cuyahoga County. He is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association and of several fraternal organizations. Mr. Logan married Miss Elsie Gilmore, a native of Cleve- land, and daughter of William Gilmore, who for many years was in the employ of the East Ohio Gas Company at Cleveland.
DAVID AITKEN, SR. The career of David Aitken, Sr., successful business man of Cleveland, is but another illustration of what may be accomplished by a man who though handicapped by early environment yet possesses natural ability and a determination to rise above his early sur- roundings and make a place for himself in the business world. Left an orphan at an early age, without relatives or family friends, bound out to a farmer at the age of eleven years, and denied early educational advantages, Mr. Aitken has by his own efforts made for himself a position as director in one of Cleveland's largest mercantile houses.
Mr. Aitken was born in the City of Toronto, Canada, on February 16, 1874, and at the age of eleven years was bound out to a Mr. Robinson, a
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farmer of Orangeville, Ontario. He finished his indenture with the farmer at the age of eighteen, and left the farm to become a clerk in a department store in Orangeville, Ontario, where he spent the next four years, during which time he laid a good business foundation for his future efforts. Leaving the department store in 1896, he tried prospecting in the gold fields of Canada, but not meeting with expected success he turned his steps in other directions, and eventually found employment as clerk in a store at Rat Portage, Western Canada.
In the spring of 1897 Mr. Aitken came to the States, and at Erie, Penn- sylvania, found a position as storekeeper for the Erie plant of the Edison Light & Power Company, and continued in that position for four years, and then resigned, in April, 1901, to come to Cleveland. One of his first acts after coming to this city was to take out his naturalization papers and become a citizen of the United States.
Mr. Aitken's first position in Cleveland was as store manager for the Cleveland Supply & Manufacturing Company (now the Erner Electric Company). With that company he was advanced to the position of city salesman, and later to that of state representative of the concern for Ohio, resigning that position in April, 1902, to join the organization of the George Worthington Hardware Company, one of the city's largest and most important business concerns, with which he has risen to the management of one of its departments and to a place on the company's board of directors. He was the first man in Cleveland to sell the idea of a hardware house putting in a department for the handling of electrical supplies, a policy now followed by practically all of the leading hardware houses of the country.
Mr. Aitken is active in civic affairs, and is a director in the Electrical League, a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, a director in the Brookwood Club, and a vestryman of the Church of Incarnation, Protestant Episcopal. He is a member of Halcyon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Mount Olive Chapter, Woodward Council and Al Sirat Grotto.
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