USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 23
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John Wheelock, son of Amariah, and grandfather of Doctor Wheelock, became a successful farmer and a distinguished citizen in that portion of the state and remained there on the same tract of land all the rest of his life. His son, De Forest, father of subject, was born at Freedom and was there reared and educated. In early manhood he became a traveling salesman and later conducted a grocery store at Slatersville. Still later he became a general merchant at Brooklyn, now the City of Cleveland. In early manhood he married Miss Parshall, who was born at Shalersville, Ohio, and was the daughter of Otis Parshall, one of the early and prominent settlers of that town.
Lincoln A. was reared on his father's farm and while in his adolescence learned much about the intricacies and hardships of farm life. He was given a good education and remained on the farm until he reached the age of eleven years, when he came with his parents to Brooklyn village (now Cleveland) in 1877 and there continued his schooling. He graduated from the high school while quite young, and soon afterward became a book- keeper, which occupation he pursued for many years with success and remuneration. While yet comparatively young he was elected to the office
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of township clerk of Brooklyn Township and was reelected, serving for four years with proficiency and observable superiority. While thus serving the township he took up the study of medicine and at a later date entered the medical school of the Western Reserve University, took the full course and was graduated with credit in 1900 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He at once began the general practice of his profession and has continued the same up to the present time both with success and high dis- tinction. His practice has been general and embraces both medicine and surgery. His reputation for superior skill in the science of surgery became so pronounced that in time he was appointed surgeon for the Cleveland Street Railway Company, in which capacity he served for ten years. And for an equal number of years he served as surgeon for the Nickel Plate Railway Company, at the same time conducting his extensive private practice.
He is a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical Association and the American Medical Association. He is like- wise a member of Brenton B. Babcock Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons and of the Cleveland Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He married Miss Ella, daughter of William A. Cumberworth, a veteran of the Civil war. The children born to this marriage are, namely: Dorothy S., who married William H. Spear; Mary F., who married Arthur E. Davies of Cleveland; they have a son named Griffith and a daughter named Mary Ellen ; and Helen G. Wheelock, who is unmarried.
H. CLARK FORD. For many years before his death, which occurred August 25, 1915, H. Clark Ford was one of the notable men of Cleveland, esteemed for a broad range of intellectual and active interests that made him well known as a lawyer, as a constructive business man and financier, and a helpful factor in many movements for the general welfare of the community.
He was born at Cleveland, August 25, 1853, his death occurring on his sixty-second birthday. He was a descendant in the tenth generation from Andrew Ford, who arrived in Weymouth, Massachusetts, in 1650. Mr. Ford's grandfather came West in 1840, traveling with his family by wagon and team as far west as Massillon, Ohio, and subsequently returning to Cleveland and acquiring land in what subsequently became a valuable section of East Cleveland. Horatio C. Ford, father of the Cleveland attorney, was about fourteen when the family came to Ohio in 1840. He taught school in his early manhood, and he and his brother, Henry Ford, at one time taught the only two schools west of the river. During the Civil war period he had charge of all the schools in Collamer, now East Cleveland. He also engaged in farming, and died in 1876 at the age of fifty-one. He had been a member of the City Council, was a trustee of Oberlin College and exerted a constant influence for the sound development of his community. He married Martha C. Cozad, of French Huguenot ancestry. The Cozad family came from Pennsylvania to Cleveland about 1805, and the home of H. Clark Ford was on a part of a tract of land acquired by the Cozads at that time. The land also included the site of Adelbert College.
H. Clark Ford attended the grade schools in East Cleveland, the old Central High School, was a student in Oberlin College in 1870-72, and
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took his Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Michigan in 1875. In 1878 he engaged in law practice at Cleveland, being a member for a number of years of the law firm of Judge C. C. Baldwin and later of Ford, Ford, Snyder & Henry and still later of Ford, Snyder & Tilden. The large part of the practice handled by this firm was in corporation law.
Mr. Ford served as a member of the City Council of Cleveland from 1879 to 1885, part of the time being vice president. He organized in 1886 the old East End Savings Bank Company, and in August, 1892, the Garfield Savings Bank Company, and served as president of the latter until his death. He was one of the organizers of the Cleveland Trust Company, withdrawing to help organize the Western Reserve Trust Company, and when the latter was consolidated with the Cleveland Trust Company, in 1905, he assisted in the merger and was on the Board of Directors until his death. He helped organize and became president of the Williamson Company, which erected and owned the Williamson Building, at that time,. 1900, the largest and finest office building in Cleveland. The company also owns the Otis Block and the New Amsterdam Apartments. Another line of interest took Mr. Ford into the railroad and electric traction field. He was president for a number of years of the Eastern Ohio Traction. Company, and at the time of his death a director of the Cleveland and Eastern Traction Company. In 1895 he became a member of the executive committee of the Wheeling Traction Company, owning a large number of electric traction lines in and around Wheeling, also the Toronto, Canada,. and Syracuse electric lines.
For a number of years before his death Mr. Ford was a trustee of Oberlin College and chairman of its finance committee, was a member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and a member of the board and chairman of the finance committee of the Congre- gational Board of Ministerial Relief, and from its organization in 1892 acted as president of the Cleveland Congregational City Missionary Society. His first membership was with the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church, of which his father and grandfather were charter members. He was a member of the Zeta Psi college fraternity, and belonged to the Union Club of Cleveland.
On October 17, 1877, he married Miss Ida M. Thorp, who survives him. Her father, John H. Thorp, was a prominent figure in Cleveland's early business history. The six children born to Mr. and Mrs. Ford were: Mildred E., who died in September, 1918, wife of James M. Cobb; Horatio; Cyrus Clark; Loreta, who died when ten years old; David Knight ; and Baldwin Whitmarsh, who died when seventeen years of age. The son David was on the border during the Mexican trouble and was in France during the World war.
GEORGE WORTHINGTON became a resident of Cleveland in the year 1835,. and now that he has passed from the stage of his mortal endeavors it is easy to gain a perspective view that indicates significantly the value of his life and labors as touching the civic and business interests of the Ohio metropolis in an earlier period of its history. There was much of largeness and vital constructiveness in the career of this man of thought and action, and the very solidity of his character could not but insure effective service
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in connection with the activities of his long and useful career. He meant much to Cleveland, and the city and its interests ever meant much to him, as shown in his loyal support of measures tending to advance the general welfare of the community, as well as his cooperation in the furthering of business enterprises of major importance. His mature judgment and admin- istrative ability made for the maximum success of any undertaking with which he consented to identify himself, and his work, in whatever field, was always constructive, straightforward and marked by that characteristic integrity of purpose that so definitely denoted the man of resourceful strength and sterling natural attributes.
George Worthington was born at Cooperstown, New York, September 21, 1813, a son of Ralph and Clarissa (Clark) Worthington, representatives of families that were early founded in this country. Mr. Worthington was reared and educated in the old Empire State, and there gained also his initial experience in connection with business affairs. In 1835, as noted in the opening paragraph of this memoir, he came to Cleveland, and here he founded the George Worthington Hardware Company, and in the local hardware trade he built up the leading establishment of his day-one that continues to have similar precedence at the present time, as the enterprise is still continued, and under the original corporate name that consistently perpetuates the name and achievement of the honored founder. Mr. Worthington's original hardware store was maintained on the site of the present Bethel Building. He later purchased the business of the firm of Cleveland, Stalling & Company, established at the corner of Water and Superior streets, where later was erected the building of the National Bank. In the development of his business Mr. Worthington admitted Wil- liam Bingham to partnership, and the latter sold his interest in 1841. Thereafter Mr. Worthington had as associated principals in conducting the ever expanding business two other citizens whose names likewise became prominent in local business circles, Gen. James Barnett and Edward Bingham.
About the year 1862 Mr. Worthington effected the organization of the Cleveland Iron & Nail Works, with William Bingham as his coadjutor in the enterprise. Within a year the concern completed the erection and equipment of its manufacturing plant and initiated active operations, with special attention given to the manufacturing of gas pipe. Under the able and progressive administration of Mr. Worthington this grew to be one of the large and important industrial concerns of Cleveland. He became interested also in the ownership and operation of blast furnaces, and, all in all, was one of Cleveland's most influential captains of industry in his day.
In 1863, shortly after the passage by Congress of the act providing for the establishing of national banks, Mr. Worthington organized the First National Bank of Cleveland, he having been the first president of this institution and having continued ably to guide its administration in this capacity of chief executive until the time of his death, which occurred in the year 1871. He made a special journey to Washington, District of Columbia, to obtain the charter for the new bank, and this trip was attended by no little peril and difficulty, owing to the fact that the Civil war was then in progress. Mr. Worthington likewise gave the benefit of his initiative and executive ability to the upbuilding of the Ohio Savings & Loan Bank,
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of which he was a director at the time of his death. He was concerned also in the insurance business, was president of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, and was for years a director of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincin- nati & Indianapolis Railroad. It should be noted that the wholesale business of the George Worthington Hardware Company had grown prior to his death to be one of the largest of the kind west of New York City. Mr. Worthington was one of the most liberal and progressive business men and citizens of his day and generation in Cleveland, and his capacity for the achievement of large things was equaled by his courage and tenacity of purpose when he once set his hand to the wheel and initiated the guidance of any vessel of industrial enterprise with which he became concerned. He was a leader in civic and material development and progress in his home city, and in all of the relations of life he ordered his course in such a way as to merit and receive the unqualified confidence and good will of his fellow men.
While Mr. Worthington had a full equipment for effective service in offices of public trust, his tastes and inclinations militated against his consenting to become a candidate for such preferment. His political alle- giance was given to the republican party, and his religious faith was that of the Presbyterian Church. In this religious denomination he became one of the organizers of the Old Stone Church of Cleveland, and later he was one of the thirteen members that withdrew from this organization to become founders of the present Third Presbyterian Church, in the beautiful edifice of which a fine memorial window of most artistic design offers an enduring tribute to this honored member and founder.
The domestic chapter in the life of Mr. Worthington was one of ideal relations, and there can be no desire to offer any revelation of its gracious intimacies through the medium of this publication. It is sufficient to state that on the 16th of November, 1840, Mr. Worthington was united in mar- riage with Miss Maria Cushman Blackmar, who was born in the State of New York, September 14, 1817, and who preceded him to the life eternal, her death having occurred March 3, 1862. Of the eight children of this union only four are living at the time of this writing, in 1924. Ralph is a resident of Miami, Florida ; George maintains his residence at Bennington, Vermont; Mary is the widow of Clark I. Butts, to whom a specific tribute is offered on other pages of this publication; and Clara is the wife of W. B. Hale.
GEORGE R. WILKINS, M. D. One of the members of the medical pro- fession of Cleveland who has won success as a physician and surgeon and prominence as a citizen is Dr. George R. Wilkins, who has been in practice on the west side of the city for over twenty-five years.
Doctor Wilkins was born in Union City, Pennsylvania, on February 8, 1870, the son of John P. and Sidney A. (Shreve) Wilkins, both natives of the Keystone State, where they continue to reside. The lineage of the Wilkins family traces back to English origin, while that of the Shreve family goes back to Holland-Dutch ancestors, both families having been founded in America in Colonial days. The records show that a Shreve served in the Revolutionary war, and was with General Washington's army at historic Valley Forge.
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Doctor Wilkins acquired his preliminary education in the common and high schools of Union City, Pennsylvania, where he also took a course in business college. Coming to Cleveland, he entered the Cleveland Homeo- pathic Medical College, from which he was graduated Doctor of Medicine with the class of 1899. He then served for six months as interne at Huron Road Hospital, this city, following which he entered the general practice of medicine and surgery on the West Side, and has so continued with the exception of a year he spent in his country's military service abroad.
When this nation entered the World war Doctor Wilkins promptly volunteered for active service in the United States Army Medical Corps, was accepted, and in July, 1918, he was ordered to report for duty at Camp Perry, Ohio. From that camp he was ordered to Hoboken, New Jersey, where he was assigned to the Three Hundred and Ninth Ammu- nition Train, Eighty-fourth Division, for transportation purposes, and with that command he sailed from that port on August 18, 1918, for France, via London, England. Arriving in France, the doctor was assigned to duty at Camp Hospital No. 5, at Jeannecourt, near Bordeaux, where he con- tinued on active duty the major part of his service until his return to this country in the middle of July, 1919. Arriving at Camp Sherman, Ohio, he was honorably discharged and mustered out of service on August 24, 1919, and immediately returned to his practice which, notwithstanding the inter- ruption caused by his service for his country, was in no wise impaired, and has since increased.
Doctor Wilkins is a member of the staff of Grace Hospital, and is a member of the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical Society, the Ohio State Homeopathic Medical Society and the American Institute of Homeopathy. He is a member of the Halcyon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Thatcher Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Forest City Commandery, Knights Templar ; Al Koran Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine; Valley of Cleve- land, Lake Erie Consistory and Council; Scottish Rite, thirty-second de- gree, and of the Order of the Eastern Star. He is also a member of the Lakewood Country Club and of the United Service No. 75, American Legion, and of the Forty and Eighth. He and wife are members of the Lakewood Methodist Episcopal Church.
Doctor Wilkins was united in marriage with Anna M. Thomas, the daughter of Edward M. and Sarah (Dunham) Thomas, of Union City, Pennsylvania, where Mrs. Wilkins was born. Her mother is now deceased, her father residing in Cleveland. To Doctor and Mrs. Wilkins a daughter and son have been born: Marjorie E. and Robert.
Doctor Wilkins maintains offices at 9806 Madison Avenue, the family residence being at 1084 Nicholson Avenue, Lakewood.
GEORGE ARMSTRONG GARRETSON. No single metewand can suffice to gauge accurately the value of the services that were rendered to the world by Gen. George Armstrong Garretson, who was long one of the honored and influential citizens and representative men of affairs in the City of Cleveland. To measure his worth and his usefulness by means of any one standard of delineation is impossible by reason of the many and diverse avenues along which he directed his splendid energies, with a loyalty of personal stewardship that betokened a nature that was signally true to
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itself and to all that it touched in the complex affairs of life. Within the necessarily prescribed limitations of a publication of this order it is possible to sketch in only the briefest outline the record of the character and achieve- ment of General Garretson, but even this circumscribed review can not fail to offer lesson and incentive.
On the paternal side General Garretson was a scion of a sturdy Holland Dutch family that was founded in New Jersey in 1670, and each successive generation gave to the nation men of prominence and influence in their respective fields of activity. General Garretson was born at New Lisbon, Columbiana County, Ohio, January 30, 1844, and was a son of Hiram and Margaret King (Armstrong) Garretson, he having been a youth at the time of the family removal to Cleveland. Hiram Garretson became promi- nently identified with marine transportation between Cleveland and the great Lake Superior copper region, besides which he founded, in 1868, the Cleveland Banking Company, of which he became the president, as did he later of the Second National Bank, with which the former institution was merged in 1872. He was chief commissioner from the United States at the Vienna International Exposition in 1873, and long held place as one of the leading citizens of Cleveland.
On the maternal side General Garretson was of Scotch-Irish lineage. His maternal grandfather, Gen. John Armstrong, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and served as brigadier general in the Ohio militia of the pioneer days. Basileal Armstrong, an uncle of the subject of this memoir, was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and was in active service as an officer in the Mexican war. One of his grand- fathers and several others of his kinsmen were patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution.
After attending the schools of Cleveland and an academy at Cornwall- on-the-Hudson, New York, Gen. George A. Garretson finally entered the United States Military Academy, and in this institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1867. Thereafter he was a lieutenant in the Fourth United States Artillery until 1870, when he resigned and returned to Cleveland. He here became an interested principal in the wholesale grocery business of Briggs, Hathaway & Garretson, but in 1875 he assumed a position in the Second National Bank, in which he won rapid advancement and of which he was the vice president at the time when it was succeeded by the National Bank of Commerce, of which he became vice president. In 1890 he was elected president of this important finan- cial institution, which later was consolidated with the Western Reserve National Bank, under the corporate title of the Bank of Commerce National Association. Of this corporation General Garretson continued the president until his death, December 8, 1916, at the age of seventy-two years, he having had at the time seniority among all bank presidents in Cleveland. General Garretson became a recognized authority in all matters pertaining to banking enterprise, and as such his advice and counsel were much in demand. He was a close student of governmental and economic problems, and thus fortified himself thoroughly for the management of the great financial interests with which he was identified. He was a director of the Citizens Savings & Trust Company, the Guardian Savings & Trust Company, and the Cleveland Stone Company; was chairman of
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the directorate of the Great Lakes Towing Company, and was treasurer of the Montreal Mining Company. Concerning his connection with the banking business, the following appreciative estimate has been written; "During his association with the development and life of the banking institutions of Cleveland, his was a staying and upbuilding influence at all times. The business world witnessed several panics during his life as a banker, and the monetary institutions of Cleveland faced several crises, but in every trying situation General Garretson's position and influence were strong in harmonizing and drawing together all the banks and insuring their acting in such unison that Cleveland has for the past generation stood in the front as a city where the bankers work concordantly and at all times for the good of every depositor and that of the community. Occupying the position of president and active manager of one of the largest and most important banks in the State of Ohio, it can consistently be said that General Garretson ranked with the leading bankers of America. He was not unknown also in railroad circles, as he served for a number of years as a director of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad."
In his military career General Garretson added new honors to the family name and to an ancestry that had given loyal soldiers to the various wars in which the nation has been involved, including that of the Revolu- tion. At the age of eighteen years, on the 26th of May, 1862, he enlisted for service as a soldier in the Civil war. He became a private in Com- pany E, Eighty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with this command he was in service in West Virginia and Maryland, until he received his honor- able discharge September 20 of that year. On July 1 of the following year he entered the United States Military Academy, in which, as previ- ously noted, he was graduated in 1867.
General Garretson never lost his vital interest in military affairs and ever stood exponent of lofty patriotism. In 1877 he became one of the organizers of the First Cleveland Troop, which later became Troop A of the Ohio National Guard, and of this splendid organization he served as captain from 1884 until his resignation in October, 1891. In the period of 1880-84 he was aide-de-camp on the military staff of Governor Charles Foster of Ohio, with the rank of colonel. At the initiation of the Spanish- American war he promptly tendered his services to the government, and May 27, 1898, was commissioned brigadier general of the United States Volunteers. He was assigned command of the Second Brigade, First Division, Second Army Corps, and with his command he entered active service in Cuba in the following July. The brigade took part in the demonstrations against the Spanish works at the entrance of Santiago harbor, and after the capitulation of that city he was in command of the first United States troops to land on the island of Porto Rico, where he led his forces in important conflicts with the Spanish troops and compassed the surrender of the city of Ponce. His achievements in this connection led to his being recommended, in the reports of General Miles and General Henry, for advancement to the brevet rank of major general, by reason of his gallantry in action. He was actively identified with the Porto Rico campaign until the cessation of hostilities, and received his honorable dis- charge, November 30, 1898, the board of regular army officers having like wise recommended him for rank of brevet major general.
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