USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 22
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influence was important in getting the city school buildings opened in 1921 to be used for polling and voting purposes, and likewise securing the com- munity use of the public school auditoriums, so that at the present time the school buildings are opened to all public meetings except those of a religious nature. Mrs. Green has worked steadily to improve the status of the teachers' occupation, to advance it to a profession similar to that of law and medicine. Those best informed on educational matters in Cleve- land say that no other woman has done more for the school or for the advancement of educational reforms than has Mrs. Green. Since 1922 she has been working on a proposition of granting a sabbatical year for teachers who have served for a certain length of time without the loss of a day from school duties. Nothing daunted by the defeat of her first bill introduced in the Legislature in 1903 by Senator George H. Bender, Mrs. Green is now working on a taxation measure for home rule in public school matters of the state.
In 1922, after the political primary election had been held and the major parties had made their nominations, Mrs. Green became an independent candidate for the United States Senate. This step was taken by Mrs. Green without expectation of election, but with the object, if possible, of getting out a large protest vote against both the republican and democratic candidates for that office. She felt that with the advent of women into political affairs it would be well for them to take a decided stand against the methods employed by both of the old parties. With no organization behind her, and with practically no campaign funds, Mrs. Green was tre- mendously handicapped in getting her appeal before the people of the state at large. However, she received between 25,000 and 30,000 votes.
Mrs: Green is a pioneer in Ohio of woman's suffrage. In 1912, in con- pany with Miss Florence Allen (now of the Ohio State Supreme Court), she traveled through the state in an automobile, stopping at towns, villages, cross-roads and wherever two or three people could be gathered together, teaching the doctrine of woman suffrage. She has always been interested in world peace, and has consistently opposed the introduction of military training in the public schools. She was largely instrumental in having established the first public kindergarten in connection with the Cleveland Day Nursery at what was then known as the Perkins' Day Nursery on St. Clair Street. She is a charter member of the City Club, a member of the Board of Directors of the Children's Fresh Air Camp, and a supporter of the Consumers' League. Perhaps the dominant characteristic of Mrs. Green may be epitomized as the socialization of public education.
When Mrs. Green came to Cleveland as a bride in 1876 she brought with her a letter of transfer from her home parish of St. James, Zanesville, to Trinity Cathedral (then Trinity Parish on Superior Street), and she has been a consistent and loyal supporter of that church throughout all these years, continuing as a contributing member at the present time.
WEBB C. BALL was the originator of the system of railroad time inspection that has been of inestimable benefit in the saving of life and elim- inating loss of property in connection with railroad operations in the United States and Canada, and he continued the executive head of his extensive railroad time-inspection service, with residence and headquarters
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in Cleveland, until his death; besides which he was the founder and president of the Webb C. Ball Company, controlling one of the largest enterprises in retail jewelry and watch business in Cleveland.
Mr. Ball was born on a farm in Knox County, Ohio, received the advan- tages of the public schools, and as a youth he served an apprenticeship to the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. He held from 1874 to 1879 the office of business manager with the Deuber Watch Manufacturing Company, and from March, 1879 until his death he was a resident of Cleveland. Here he initiated a modest enterprise in the retail jewelery trade, and eventually he built up an extensive and prosperous business, the amplification of which led to the organization and incorporation of the Webb C. Ball Company, a concern that is now the largest of its kind in this section of the country, and the business of which has been specially notable in the great scope of its service in the handling of the highest grade of standard railroad watches. Mr. Ball gained fame as the inventor of railroad watch move- ments and new appliances used in their construction, and he evolved the admirable system of regular inspection of railroad timepieces that came into use on virtually all important railroad lines in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In developing his great inspection system he maintained his headquarters in Cleveland, retained a large corps of local inspectors, traveling assistants, etc., with branches in Chicago and San Francisco. In building up this remarkable and effective inspection service for railroads Mr. Ball achieved a work that shall ever reflect honor and distinction upon his name.
Mr. Ball was one of the honored and representative business men of Cleveland at the time of his death, and his civic loyalty was of the highest type, he having been an independent republican in politics.
In 1879 Mr. Ball wedded Miss Florence I. Young, of Kenton, Ohio, and they became the parents of one son and three daughters.
CHARLES A. OTIS is a representative of the third generation of the Otis family in Cleveland, and in his splendid achievement in connection with large and varied business interests and with civic affairs he has well upheld the prestige of the family name. He is proprietor and publisher of the Cleveland News, and has other large and important financial and business interests in his native city.
Mr. Otis was born in Cleveland July 9, 1868, a son of Charles A. Otis, Sr., and a grandson of William A. Otis, both of whom write their names large in the record of Cleveland civic and material progress. In 1890 Mr. Otis was graduated in Yale University, with the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and thereafter he took a course in the law school of Columbia University. For three years he was identified with the cattle business in the West, and upon his return to Cleveland he became one of the organ- izers of the firm of Otis, Hough & Company, in 1895, this concern entering the iron and steel brokerage business. In 1898 he became one of the organ- izers of the firm of Otis & Hough, bankers and brokers, and this firm played a prominent part in the establishing of the Cleveland Stock Exchange. The firm has long controlled a large and important business of wide rati- fications. Mr. Otis has been identified also with the steel industry, as senior member of Otis, Bonnell & Company; and his further connections have
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included his alliance with the Lenox Realty Company, the Tavistock Building Company, the Cuyahoga Company, the Citizens Savings & Trust Company, the National Commercial Bank, the Standard Sewing Machine Company, the Bankers Surety Company and the American Lumber Com- pany. In 1910 he became president of the Cuyahoga Telephone Company.
After having been for several years president of the Finance Publish- ing Company, Mr. Otis, in 1905, initiated his connection with daily-news- paper enterprise in his native city. He first purchased the Cleveland World, and evening paper, and soon consolidated therewith the evening editions of two other local papers, under the title of the Cleveland News, which thus became the only afternoon paper in the City. Mr. Otis has made the News a power in the local field and it is one of the leading news- papers of the Buckeye State.
Near Willoughby, Ohio, Mr. Otis owns the fine rural estate known as Tannenbaum Farm, and he takes deep interest in the management of this splendid property. He has membership in the Gentlemen's Driving Club, the Forest City Fair & Live Stock Association, the Cleveland Fanciers Club, and the Union, Tavern, Hermit, Roadside, Euclid Country, Cleveland Athletic, Cleveland Automobile, University and Mayfield clubs of his home state, as well as the Lambs, University and St. Anthony clubs in New York City. He has given loyal and effective service as president of the Babies Dispensary & Hospital of Cleveland.
Mr. Otis married Miss Lucia R., a daughter of the late Col. William Edwards, of Cleveland.
HARVEY DANFORTH GOULDER early gained for himself a position of distinction as one of the able and representative members of the bar of his native City of Cleveland, and his has been a great and benignant influ- ence in advancing maritime interests on the Great Lakes and their tribu- taries.
Mr. Goulder was born in Cleveland March 7, 1853, a son of Christopher and Barbara (Freeland) Goulder. He was graduated in the Cleveland High School and thereafter gave his attention to the study of law until he so fortified himself as to gain admission to the Ohio bar, in 1875. Cleve- land has figured continuously as the central stage of his professional and civic activities, and his has been special prominence in connection with mari- time, insurance and corporation law. He did great service as counsel for the Lake Carriers Association, and was specially active in the furthering of legislation for the improvement of channels on the Great Lakes and their tributaries, and in the rehabilitating of the United States merchant marine.
In 1878 Mr. Goulder married Miss Mary Rankin, daughter of the late Rev. Jeremiah E. Rankin, of Washington.
SAMUEL MATHER, a native son of Cleveland, has played a large part in the business and industrial activities of the Ohio metropolis, and has stood exponent of the fine civic loyalty that has characterized each succes- sive generation of the distinguished New England colonial family of which he is a scion. The Mather family has been also one of prominence and influence in Cleveland for many years.
Samuel Mather was born in Cleveland July 13, 1851, a son of Samuel
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Livingston Mather and Georgiana Pomeroy (Woolson) Mather. He profited by the advantages of the Cleveland public schools and thereafter attended St. Mark's School at Southborough, Massachusetts. He proved an effective successor of his father in connection with large and important industrial and financial interests in Cleveland, where he became the senior member of the firm of Pickands, Mather & Company, miners of coal and iron ore and manufacturers of pig iron. His prominence was further advanced by his becoming president of the Hemlock River Mining Com- pany, vice president of the Bank of Commerce, and director of the United States Steel Corporation, and a director of the Lackawanna Steel Company. His interests have included also his connection with more than twenty- five other corporations of important order. Mr. Mather has long been known as one of the liberal and progressive citizens of Cleveland, has served as a member of the executive committee of the National Civic Association, and he held membership with the, central committee of the American Red Cross, besides which he has served as a trustee of the Carnegie Peace Foundation.
October 19, 1881, recorded the marriage of Mr. Mather to Miss Flora A. Stone, of Cleveland.
CHARLES ALFRED JILEK, Cleveland attorney and former chief police prosecutor for the city, is a veteran of the World war, who completed his law studies and engaged in practice after his return from overseas. He was born in Cleveland, April 10, 1889, and represents one of the pioneer Bohemian families of this city. His parents, Charles and Anna (Jirele) Jilek, were both born in Bohemia, his father having come to the United States in 1880, locating at once in Cleveland, where for many years he was a contracting carpenter. He died in 1909. Anna Jirele, his wife, was about one year old when she was brought to the United States by her parents. Her father, John Jirele, was an iron molder by trade, and worked at that occupation for a time after arriving in Baltimore, but before the close of the Civil war period he located at Cleveland, and was one of the very early men of his nationality in the city, being a pioneer in the Bohemian colony of this city. She is still living.
Charles A. Jilek acquired his early education in the public schools, attending the Central High School until his junior year, and then went to work as a clerk in the offices of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way. For six years he held a clerkship, studying and taking examinations from time to time, and entering the building department of the City of Cleveland he was later promoted chief clerk of that department. During that time he also pursued and completed two years of the course in law.
When the United States entered the war against Germany Mr. Jilek volunteered, though married and a father, and entered the first Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant, and sent to Camp Sherman, Ohio, and was assigned to duty with the Three Hundred and Thirty-first Infantry. Subsequently he was detailed to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as instructor in grenade work, and was made general instructor for the division, teaching grenade and the use of automatic rifles, particularly the French gun, known as the Chauchat automatic rifle. On May 23, 1918, with his command,
Chas. a. gilek
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he left Camp Sherman for overseas, landing in England June 6, and thence proceeding to an eastern area in France. Later his division was assigned duty in the Lemon area, where he was put in charge of the ordnance department of that area and remained there until after the close of the war. On his return to the United States he was honorably discharged and was mustered out March 15, 1919. He was offered a commission if he would remain in the service, but declined.
On returning to Cleveland he immediately resumed his law studies, and was graduated from the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace Uni- versity in 1920, and in 1922 he took a post-graduate course in the John Marshall Law School of Northern Ohio University, and received his Doctor of Laws degree. Admitted to the bar in June of 1922 he engaged in law practice in association with the firm of Payer, Winch & Minshall, one of the foremost law firms in Cleveland. Five months later he withdrew to engage in private practice, and he has distinguished himself as one of the best qualified of the younger attorneys in the city.
In 1920 he was an unsuccessful candidate at the republican primaries for the nomination for the Legislature. He was appointed assistant police prosecutor January 1, 1922, and on September 1, 1923, was promoted to chief police prosecutor, which position he resigned in 1924 to enter private practice. He is generally active in political and civic affairs, and frater- nally he is affiliated with the Masons, the Knights of Malta, the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. -
Mr. Jilek married Miss Sarah Smith. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but her father, William R. Smith, brought his family to Cleve- land, and has lived here for twenty years or more. Mr. and Mrs. Jilek have one son, Byron Charles, born February 14, 1917.
AMBROSE SWASEY has given to the City of Cleveland a special distinction through his large and noteworthy achievement in connection with important manufacturing industry and applied science. He was born at Exeter, New Hampshire, December 19, 1846, and was there reared and educated. His education along scientific lines eventually carried itself to distinction, and it is to be noted that in 1905 he received from the Case School of Applied Science, at Cleveland, the degree of Doctor of Engineering, and that in 1910 Denison University, at Granville, this state, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science.
In 1880 Mr. Swasey formed a partnership with W. R. Warner, under the title of Warner & Swasey, and engaged in the manufacture of machine tools and astronomical instruments. By this concern were manufactured the famed 36-inch Lick telescope; the 26-inch telescope of the Naval Observatory, in Washington; and the 40-inch Yerkes telescope. Many other important products perpetuate the fame of this firm, including an exceptionally accurate dividing engine. Mr. Swasey invented the Swasey Range and Position Finder, adopted by the United States Government. He became a director of the Cleveland Trust Company, a trustee of Denison University, and a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, France (1900). In 1894 he was president of the Cleveland Engineering Society, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers found in him an influ- ential and valued member. He served as president of the Cleveland Cham-
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ber of Commerce, and became a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, Great Britain; a member of the British Astronomical Society ; and a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He became also a member of the Engineers Club of New York, and served at one time as president of the Union Club in Cleveland. To the literature of applied science Mr. Swasey made valuable contributions, including his monograph on "A New Process for Generating and Cutting the Teeth of Spur Wheels," and his article entitled "Some Refinements of Mechanical Science."
October 24, 1871, recorded the marriage of Mr. Swasey to Miss Lavinia D. Martson, of Hampton, New Hampshire.
NEWTON DIEHL BAKER, who served with distinction as United States Secretary of War during the climateric period of American participation in the World war, and who has continued in the practice of law in the City of Cleveland since his retirement from the cabinet of President Wilson, claims the State of West Virginia as the place of his nativity. He was born at Martinsburg, that state, December 3, 1871, and is a son of Newton Diehl Baker and Mary (Dukehart) Baker. In 1892 Mr. Baker was graduated in Johns Hopkins University, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and in the law department of Washington & Lee University, Virginia, he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894. In 1896-97 he was private secretary to the postmaster general of the United States, and in 1897 he engaged in the practice of law at Martinsburg, West Virginia. From his native city he finally came to Cleveland, Ohio, and in connection with his professional work here he served as city solicitor in the period of 1902-12. He was mayor of the city for the terms of 1912- 14 and 1914-16, and in 1916 President Wilson appointed him United States Secretary of War. In this office his record of service has become a part of national history, and needs no reviewing in this sketch.
Mr. Baker has been known as a stalwart and effective advocate of the principles of the democratic party, is affiliated with the Phi Gamma Delta college fraternity, and in his home city he has membership in the Union and University clubs. July 5, 1902, recorded his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Leopold, of Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
JOHN BERNARD MCGEE, M. D., whose death on the 10th of February, 1923, brought to a close a life of signal honor and usefulness, had for forty years been recognized as one of the leading physicians and surgeons in the City of Cleveland. As a national authority in the domain of thera- peutics he had made large and valuable contribution to the advancement of medical science. Doctor McGee held for many years the chair of thera- peutics in the medical department of Ohio Wesleyan University, and it has consistently been stated that he was "widely known for his scientific attainments, both within and without the strict path of his profession." The noble professional stewardship of Doctor McGee was based not alone on technical knowledge and skill but also upon an abiding human sympathy that found expression in a loyal service of helpfulness.
Doctor McGee was born in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, on the 3d of July, 1853, and in that state his parents, Peter and Mary A. (Don- nelly) McGee, passed their entire lives. The Doctor was doubly orphaned
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when he was but six years of age, but the loss of his parents did not deprive him of proper fostering care. He profited fully by the advantages of the excellent public schools of his native city, including the Boston Latin School, and there also he gained his initial experience in connection with the drug business. He was eighteen years of age when, in the autumn of 1871, he came to Cleveland, Ohio, where for the ensuing five years he was employed as a pharmacist. This association had an inherent tendency to promote in him a desire for wider activities and led to his preparing himself for the exacting profession in which he was destined to gain both distinction and priority as a practitioner and as an educator. In 1878 Doctor McGee was here graduated from the medical department of Western Reserve University, and he won the honors of his class as well as his degree of Doctor of Medicine. From that year forward until his death Doctor McGee continued in the general practice of his profession in Cleveland, where he built up a practice that was of notably representative order and that attested alike his ability and his secure place in popular confidence and esteem. In 1896 Doctor McGee became professor of thera- peutics in the medical department of Ohio Wesleyan University, this medical school being in Cleveland, and his service in this important chair continued until his death. He served also as secretary of the faculty of the school from 1900 until the close of his life.
In addition to the splendid service he rendered in a direct way as an educator Doctor McGee also made large and valuable contribution to the standard and periodical literature of his profession. He ever continued a close student, and his research and investigation were conducted along broad lines. As an authority on therapeutics he was called upon to review many leading medical books and to suggest changes and additions that should tend to enhance their value. He wrote much, and his work along this line is of permanent value in the domain of medical science. His was a life of service, and the intrinsic nobility of the man, as well as the high order of his service, gained to him the high regard and appreciative affection of those with whom he came in contact, no one member of his profession in Cleveland having had a wider circle of loyal friends.
In 1907 Doctor McGee was elected president of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, and he was one of its most honored and influential members at the time of his death. He was actively identified also with the Ohio State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Anthropological Association and the Cleveland Medical Library Association. He gave many years of service as attending physician of St. Josephs Orphan Asylum, and was for several years associate editor of the Cleveland Medical Journal. In 1899 the Doctor did post-graduate work in leading medical colleges and clinics in Europe, and in every stage of his long and useful career he was the exponent of advanced thought and service in his profession. His range of reading and study covered the best in literature of all kinds, and he was specially interested in genealogy, besides having become an authority on the pedigrees of all famous horses, his love for the horse having been distinctive.
In October, 1884, Doctor McGee wedded Miss Levina Rodgers, of Cleveland, and her death occurred in May of the following year. On the
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17th of September, 1892, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Elizabeth Dieter, of Cleveland, who survives him and who still maintains her home in the Ohio metropolis. Of the two children the elder is Eliza M., who is the wife of Richard Wilkins, of Boston, Massachusetts, and the younger daughter is Miss Hilda Jeanette.
LINCOLN A. WHEELOCK, M. D., distinguished physician of the east end of Cleveland, was born on the old Wheelock farm at Freedom, Portage County, Ohio, on the 24th of March, 1865, and is the son of De Forest and Sophronia (Parshall) Wheelock. The ancestors of the present Wheelocks came West soon after the Revolutionary war and settled per- manently in what is now Portage County and there they remained for at least two generations engaged in farming and trading and assisting in building up the foundation of the present gigantic commonwealth. When they first came there the whole region to the westward was swarming with Indians who often camped along the streams in Portage County and mingled with the whites to secure pork and flour, and perhaps captives and other victims.
The geat-grandfather of Doctor Wheelock was Amariah Wheelock, who served the Colonies in the Revolution and also fought Great Britain in the War of 1812 and was afterwards awarded, according to acts of Congress, a tract of land in Portage County where now stands the town of Freedom. With his wife and nine children Amariah formed a wagon train at Tyring- ham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, left his old home there and started for the West in a long and tiresome march across the mountains and val- leys intervening. While on the march in the State of New York and at a critical stage of the journey, he received a fatal stroke of paralysis and perished before the aid of a physician could be secured. The widow and the children suffered the horrors of the situation, but, after his interment, continued the sad journey and finally reached their destination and located on the land at Freedom which had been assigned to Amariah by the Govern- ment.
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