USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 12
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Beginning business in a small way with limited capital, Mr. Kroehle has built up and developed one of the leading and representative food brokerage houses of the country, and of which he has ever since been the executive head and guiding genius.
Aside from his business interests Mr. Kroehle takes active interest in the civic affairs of the community, and has always been found ready to back any and all movements whose object is the welfare and advancement of the city and her institutions.
Mr. Kroehle is a member of the National Food Brokerage Association, and served as its president in 1921. He is also a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Old Colony Club, the Willowick Country Club, and of the following Masonic bodies : Halcyon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Holyrood Commandery, Knights Templar, Lake Erie Consistory, thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite, Al Koran Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and Al Sirat Grotto.
On August 29, 1906, Mr. Kroehle was united in marriage with Miss Jessie A. MacFarlane, who was born near the City of Quebec, Canada, the daughter of the late John MacFarlane, who was a prominent railroad
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man of Pittsburgh, well known in Cleveland. To Mr. and Mrs. Kroehle a daughter, Mary Ellen, was born in 1908.
OSCAR KROEHLE, son of Charles and Mary A. (Schneider) Kroehle, and president of the Protex Signal Company, was born in Brooklyn Village (now the City of Cleveland) on September 21, 1869. He was educated in the grammar and high schools, and began his business life as a salesman, for five years having been head salesman for a Cleveland furni- ture company. In 1896 he engaged in the baking business, and a few years later he founded the Star Baking Company. He has the distinction of having originated and put into practice the idea of having bread leave the bake shop already wrapped, an idea that has since been used by all large bakeries. In 1901 he retired from the bakery business to engage in that of real estate and the building of homes, and he had much to do with the development of the South Side of Cleveland and of Lakewood. In 1920 he perfected and had patented his invention of an automobile signal, the first efficient stop-signal ever put on the market, and known as the "Protex." For the manufacture and marketing of his device he organized the Protex company, with a plant at 1960 West Forty-fifth Street, which supplies a market reaching every part of the world where the automobile is in general use.
Mr. Kroehle is a member of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, the Cleveland Real Estate Board, and the Clifton and City clubs.
In 1891 Mr. Kroehle married Ella A. Prouty, daughter of Charles A. Proutv, and to them the following children have been born: Ralph, Amy and Vernon. The Kroehle home is at 14921 Lake Avenue, Lakewood.
JOHN ZIPP. A native son of Cleveland who has raised himself by indus- try, integrity and strict fidelity in all his relationships to a position of prominence and success in the commercial portions of the city is John Zipp, manufacturer, for many years head of the Zipp Manufacturing Company.
The Zipp family home at the time of his birth, on December 13, 1857, stood on Webster, then known as Columbus Street, in Cleveland. He was a small boy while the great events of the Civil war were taking place, and he was attending the public schools before the war was over. Most of his early education was acquired in the old Brownell School Building. It was inclination as well as necessity that turned him early into lines of com- mercial endeavor. He clerked in a grocery store, also did bookkeeping, and for seven years was employed by the Water Street firm John H. Gause and Company, that period of his life bringing him some capital, but chiefly experience, acquaintance and credit as a basis for his inde- pendent start.
Mr. Zipp on September 1, 1885, founded and began the manufacture of baking powder, flavoring extracts, crushed fruit and syrups, a business that under his energetic and wise guidance has had a remarkable growth and development into one of the largest concerns in Ohio. In 1896 the Zipp Manufacturing Company was incorporated with a capital of $100,000, the products being now confined largely to the manufacture of flavoring
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extracts, crushed fruits and fruit syrup. Mr. Zipp is still president and active head of the business. Practically his entire business experience has been within a radius of a few blocks from the location of his company. In that community he was born and has lived a busy and honorable life.
Mr. Zipp is a republican in politics, is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Willowick Country Club, the Tippecanoe Club, the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Early Settlers' Association, and in all these organizations his name is spoken with respect and admiration for his splendid qualities of character.
In 1881 he married Miss Catherine Emig, a native of Mansfield, Ohio. There are two children. Helen is the wife of Frank L. Fisher, secretary- treasurer of the Zipp Manufacturing Company. The son, John III, is a student in Baldwin-Wallace College at Berea, Ohio.
The father of the Cleveland manufacturer and business man whose career has been briefly sketched was John Zipp, Sr., one of the earliest of the German immigrants to settle in Cleveland. He was born in Ger- many, in 1823, acquired a fair education and learned the trade of stone mason in his native land, and in 1843, at the age of twenty, came to America, locating in Cleveland. A man of industry and ambition, he readily found employment at his trade, and in time began taking contracts for masonry construction. At first he was foreman for one of the early contractors of the city, Mr. Warner, who handled a great deal of building work in Northern Ohio. As foreman he assisted in constructing a num- ber of conspicuous buildings, including the old stone church still standing on the square, and the old postoffice of Cleveland. Many others he helped construct have long since been torn down and made way for modern structures. His own work as a contractor was characterized by the best skill of the building trades of that day. At the time of his death he held the contract for stone work on the old Case Block.
John Zipp, Sr., also was in business as a coal, stone and wood merchant, having his yards at the foot of East Ninth Street on the canal. Any con- tract that he undertook he carried out with scrupulous fidelity, no matter how many difficulties were involved. He had come to America with the express purpose of building a home and founding a family in this new world, and he brought with him and exemplified not only the sturdy vir- tues of the fatherland, but also a fine degree of morality and civic pride and public spirit. He was a consistent member of and held various posi- tions in the German Reformed Church, and always voted the democratic ticket.
John Zipp, Sr., married not long after coming to America, Miss Catherine Kreckel, who was born in Germany in 1823, the same year as her husband, and also came to this country in 1843. Her father soon after his arrival built a house still standing at the lower end of Scoville Street, near Ninth, then known as Parkman Street. This home was then on the outskirts of the city, and some members of the Kreckel family objected to living there since it was "out in the country."
John Zipp, Sr., died in January, 1864. He had been in America only twenty years, but had succeeded well in his ambition to achieve a fair degree of material wealth. His widow survived him until May, 1890.
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BLASER. One of the leading real estate men of Cleveland is Benjamin F. Blaser, of the Blaser Realty Company, whose efforts have contributed greatly to the development of the Brooklyn sec- tion of the city, to which they have given most of their time for the last twenty years.
Mr. Blaser was born on a farm in Wyandot County, Ohio, on July 11, 1878, the son of Godfrey and Rosina (Kuenzli) Blaser, his father a native of Switzerland, his mother of Holmes County, Ohio. The grand- parents on the paternal side came from Switzerland and settled in Holmes County when Godfrey was a boy of about ten years. After he was mar- ried he located in Wyandot County and followed farming the remainder of his long life, dying there in 1917, at the age of eighty-five years. While carrying on his farm work he served as a minister of the Evangelical Church for many years. His first wife, Rosina, died in 1885, when her son Benjamin F. was a boy of seven years. His second wife, Sarah Enfield, who was born in Holmes County, Ohio, survived him several years.
Benjamin F. Blaser was reared on the home farm, and received his preliminary education in the district schools and the high school at Nevada, the neighboring village. Later he taught for a time in the district schools. He then entered Ohio Northern University, where he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts with the class of 1902, and with the degree of Bachelor of Laws with the class of 1904. He was admitted to the Ohio bar, and for a time he was in the practice of law at Barberton, Summit County, and then located in Cleveland and continued in practice for two years. In 1906, associated with his brother Jonathan W., he organized the Dennison Realty Company, and began the development of the Dennison- Brooklyn sub-division, and in 1914 they incorporated as the Blaser Realty Company and located their offices in Brooklyn. Since that time they have continued their sub-division enterprise, with six different allotments. The company is now giving special attention to the handling of business prop- erties and the building of residences on the South Side; and controls 400 acres of valuable land, situated from four to fourteen miles distant from the Public Square.
Mr. Blaser is a member of the board of directors of the Broadview Savings & Loan Company and secretary-treasurer of the Altoona-Pearl Company. He is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, the Cleveland Real Estate Board, and a member of the Official Board of the Pearl Road Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1913 Mr. Blaser.was united in marriage with Miss Emily E. Suroski, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, and came to America with her parents when she was six years of age. To Mr. and Mrs. Blaser was born a daughter, Dorothy, who died at the age of six years.
ARTHUR EDWIN HOFFMAN. One of the progressive business men and citizens of the South End of Cleveland is Arthur E. Hoffman, secretary- treasurer of the A. E. Hoffman Company, real estate operators and build- ers, which company has been an important factor in the development of the Brooklyn section of the city.
Mr. Hoffman is of the third generation of his family in Cuyahoga
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County, the family having been settled here nearly three-quarters of a century ago by his grandfather, Jacob Hoffman, a native of Germany. Soon after his marriage in the old country Jacob Hoffman came to the United States. Coming direct to Cleveland, he settled in Parma Township and was engaged in farming his own land for many years, and on his farm he and his wife, Catherine, passed the remainder of their lives.
Andrew E. Hoffman, son of Jacob and Catherine Hoffman, and father of Arthur E., was born on the family homestead in Parma Township in 1852. When he was a lad of about fifteen years he came into the city and served an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, worked at his trade as a journeyman for a number of years, and then engaged in contracting and building on his own account, and has since continued. He is still active in business as president of the A. E. Hoffman Company. Mr. Hoffman married Lena Killer, who was born in Cleveland in 1855.
Arthur E. Hoffman was born in the family home on Walton Avenue, Cleveland, on December 18, 1885. He attended the Sackett Public School and completed the course at the Spencerian Business College. He entered the employ of the Home Savings & Banking Company, where he continued for two years, then spent two years with the Forest City Savings & Trust Company, and then became an employe in the Pearl Street Savings & Trust Company, with which institution he is now identified as a member of its board of directors.
In 1909 Mr. Hoffman became associated with his father in the building and contracting business, they organizing the A. E. Hoffman Company, of which he became secretary and treasurer. In 1913 the business was incorporated under the old name and officers, and has since continued as one of the important business organizations of the city. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Pearl Road Company, a corpora- tion handling real estate.
Mr. Hoffman is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, and takes an active part in the civic affairs of the community. He is a member of Elbrook Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Forest City Commandery, Knights Templar, Lake Erie Consistory, Scottish Rite, thirty-second degree, Al Koran Temple, Mystic Shrine, and Al Sirat Grotto.
Mr. Hoffman married Miss Anna Bush, who was born in Cleveland, the daughter of the late Arthur and Anna Bush, and to their union two sons have been born, Robert Arthur and Kenneth Andrew.
SAMUEL JAMES WEBSTER. One of the well known physicians of Cleve- land is Dr. Samuel J. Webster, who has been in active practice in the Brooklyn section of the city for over twenty-five years, and has gained prestige both in his profession and as a worthwhile man and citizen. He was born in Montville, Geauga County, Ohio, October 26, 1875, the son of Dr. Henry H. and Martha (Jones) Webster.
Dr. Henry H. Webster was born at Jamestown, New York, and was descended from an old New England family, his father having gone to New York State from Massachusetts. He was graduated from the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, Doctor of Medicine, in 1873, and entered practice in his home town, but later removed to North Jackson, Mahoning County, Ohio, where he continued in general practice until the
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year 1904, when he came to Cleveland and took up his residence and offices in Brooklyn. His death occurred at the family home in 1917. He was a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, of the Ohio State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association, and held membership in the orders of Masonry and Knights of Pythias. His wife was born in Lordstown, Trumbull County, Ohio, the daughter of Samuel Jones, a native of Ohio. She survives her husband.
Dr. Samuel J. Webster was reared at North Jackson, Ohio, and re- ceived his preliminary education in the public schools. After a course of study at Hiram College he entered Western Reserve University Medical School, and was there graduated Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1896. During the year 1897 he served as interne at Cleveland City Hos- pital, and the following year he served as house physician at the Ohio Hospital for Epileptics at Gallipolis, and then entered practice in associa- tion with his father. In 1903 he went abroad and took post-graduate work in the hospitals of Vienna, Austria, and on his return home he resumed practice with his father. Since 1910 he has been visiting physician and chief of the medical clinic of Cleveland City Hospital.
Doctor Webster is a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine and a member of its board of trustees, and is a member of the Ohio State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Pasteur Club.
GEORGE R. MADSON. To those who knew the late George R. Madson, of Cleveland, in either business or social connections, there remains a memory of a singularly gracious personality and of a man who exemplified the finer ideals of life. He was successful in business, but along this line, as in all other relations of his generous and worthy life, a genuine steward- ship of high order marked his course. He was in the very prime of his strong and useful manhood at the time of his death, which occurred December 11, 1923.
Mr. Madson was born at Black Earth, Wisconsin, on the 9th of December, 1877, and thus his death occurred only two days after the forty- sixth anniversary of his birth. His parents, Martin and Mary Madson, still reside in the City of Chicago, where the family home was established when the subject of this memoir was a child. The public schools of the great western metropolis thus afforded George R. Madson his early edu- cation, and his initial business experience was gained in the wholesale jewelry establishment of his father. In 1911 he came to Cleveland as district manager for the Columbia Phonograph Company, the business of which he here developed to one of large and prosperous order. In touching upon his later activities it is a privilege to offer the following extracts from an appreciative estimate that appeared in the trade publication known as the Cheney Resonator, in its edition of February, 1924 :
"With profound sorrow and genuine sense of loss we announce the sudden death of Mr. George R. Madson, president of the Cheney Phono- graph Sales Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It is difficult to speak, without losing one's control, of what George Madson has meant to the Cheney Talking Machine Company and to the men of that organization who have worked with him. To begin with, he was one of the very first men to take on the Cheney and to start out with the object of developing a territory
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for its sales. He was a pioneer Cheneyite, and went through all the diffi- culties and all the troubles which pioneers always have to face. He believed in the Cheney from the first, and made it his own. He worked day and night, he overcame all obstacles, and when he was so suddenly and grievously taken from us, he had his company's territory (Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia) in such shape it might be called one of the most, if not the most, completely Cheneyized territories in the country.
"George Madson was an optimist, a most cheery fellow worker, and a man who never, so far as any of his associates can remember, complained, whined or kicked. He was always cheerful, always ready to encourage, and always genial, in no matter what circumstances. To have known him is an inspiration. His loss is to us a heavy blow, heavier than we can at this moment express. His memory will be to all of us a very lovely and a blessed memory. * 'He labored well, and his work liveth after him.'"
In the time-honored Masonic fraternity, of whose teachings and history he was deeply appreciative, Mr. Madson received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, his maximum York Rite affiliation being with the Commandery of Knights Templars at Cleveland Heights. He was greatly interested in music, and did much to further the popular appreciation of the "divine art." He was an active member of the Cleveland Music Club, and was influential also in advancing the work and interests of the Ohio State Music Dealers' Asso- ciation. He was a loyal patron also of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and held membership in the Cleveland Art Museum. He attended and gave earnest support to the Trinity Cathedral of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Cleveland, and of the cathedral parish his widow is a devoted communicant.
On the 20th of February, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Madson and Miss Mabel Dunn, daughter of Adam E. and Ella Dunn, she having been a resident of Evanston, Illinois, at the time of her mar- riage and having there been graduated from the music conservatory of Northwestern University. As a talented pianiste Mrs. Madson is fre- quently called upon for public appearances, and she is one of the leading piano teachers in Cleveland, as well as a popular figure in the representa- tive social and cultural circles of the city. Mr. Madson is survived also by four children, namely: George Ralph, Jr., Herbert D., and Mary and Eleanor, who are twins. The elder son is (1924) a student in Northwest- ern University, Evanston, Illinois.
WILBUR GEORGE WEISS, M. D. One of the successful younger mem- bers of the medical profession of Cleveland is Dr. Wilbur G. Weiss, of the Brooklyn section of the city, who is a native of the East Side.
Doctor Weiss was born in Cleveland on January 4, 1891, and is the son of George A. and Mary (Gerhardt) Weiss, both natives of this city, and both living. He was graduated from East High School in 1908, following which he continued a student at that institution, taking the German, Latin and scientific courses, in which he was graduated the fol- lowing year. He then entered the medical department of Ohio State
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University, where he was graduated Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1916. Leaving medical college, Doctor Weiss served as interne in Grace Hospital, Detroit, and then entered the general practice of medicine and surgery, with offices on the corner of Pearl Road and Broadview Avenue in South Brooklyn, where he has since continued, meeting with success and establishing a representative practice.
Doctor Weiss is a member of the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical Society, the Ohio State Homeopathic Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy, and also holds membership in the Pi Upsilon Rho college fraternity.
In 1917 Doctor Weiss was united in marriage with Miss Dorothy Kinsley, who was born in Illinois, the daughter of the late N. Kinsley. To their marriage a son has been born, Robert Kenneth, aged four years.
Doctor and Mrs. Weiss are members of the Pearl Road Methodist Episcopal Church. The doctor is a member of Brooklyn Lodge 576, Knights of Pythias, and a member of the Southwestern Civic and Business Men's Association.
WILBUR JAY SAWYER, M. D., a prominent physician, engaged in prac- tice on the West Side of Cleveland, has gained secure standing as one of the able and representative members of his profession. He was born at Inde- pendence, Cuyahoga County, on the 4th of November, 1887, and is a son of Frank E. and Sylvia Arena (Skinner) Sawyer, representatives of old and well known families of this county. Frank E. Sawyer was born at Bedford, Cuyahoga County, and his wife was born in the old family home- stead at Independence, this county. The paternal great-grandfather of Doctor Sawyer was a native of England and became a resident of the State of Maine, where was born his son David P., who was the pioneer representative of the family in Cuyahoga County and who was the grand- father of the subject of this sketch. The lineage of the Skinner family likewise traces back to sterling English origin. The parents of Doctor Sawyer are graduates from Oberlin College, and for many years the father was engaged in welfare work for the City of Cleveland, he having then retired to his farm near Independence, this county, where he and his wife still maintain their home.
In the public schools of Cleveland Doctor Sawyer continued his studies until his graduation from the Lincoln High School, and in 1913 he was graduated Doctor of Medicine from the medical department of Ohio State University. After graduation he gained valuable clinical experience by serving as interne in the Cleveland City Hospital, and he then established himself in the active general practice of his profession, with headquarters at 2662 West Fourteenth Street, where he still maintains his office, with a substantial practice of representative order. He is actively identified with Lutheran Hospital. He is affiliated with the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. In the World war period Doctor Sawyer volunteered and enlisted in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, but he was not called into active service.
Doctor Sawyer wedded Miss Clementine Odell, who was born and reared in Cleveland, a daughter of Lewis and Anna (McInerney) Odell. The two children of this union are Dorothy Jayne and Wilbur Jay, Jr.
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PETER JOHN KMIECK, A. B., M. D. In the professional ranks of Cleveland one who is making rapid strides in the profession of medicine and surgery is Dr. Peter J. Kmieck, who possesses the equipment for success in his chosen calling in a good education and careful training.
Doctor Kmieck was born at Freeland, Pennsylvania, June 2, 1893, and is a son of John and Theckla ( Sokolowski) Kmieck. His parents, natives of Austria, of Polish ancestry, immigrated to the United States separately, prior to their marriage, which event was solemnized at Freeland, Pennsyl- vania. The family resided in Pennsylvania until 1900, when they came to Cleveland, and the father died in this city sixteen years later. For a number of years he was in charge of the docks of the American Steel & Wire Company at Cleveland, and was a man of industry and integrity who had the respect of his superiors and the friendship and esteem of those in his employ. There were the following children in the family: Peter John, of this review; James, a graduate of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion School of Accountancy, and a Bachelor of Arts from John Carroll University, Cleveland, 1924; Anthony, a student of Western Reserve School of Dentistry ; George, a novice at Florissant, Missouri; Francis, a graduate of law from the John Marshall Law School, Cleveland, and engaged in the practice of law in Cleveland; and Marie, who resides with their mother.
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