USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 27
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While that year was the culmination of a great panic, Mr. Stone embarked his modest capital in a business of his own. He established a small general store in a room 20 by 45 feet at 9606 Madison Avenue. He was well fortified by long experience with the knowledge required of a successful merchant, and his establishment was increased from year to year in proportion to the expanding trade. Finally he was occupying the entire building, and also erected a $600 addition. This was his business home for ten years. In the meantime Mr. Stone had purchased ground and in 1904 erected a four-story brick block, 80x125 feet, at 9702-10 Madison Avenue. This is one of the substantial business structures in that section of the city and also contains twelve apartments on the upper floors. Mr. Stone disposed of his business in March, 1923.
While building up this successful business concern Mr. Stone did not neglect his obligations to the community. He is a charter member of the Chamber of Industry, has served as its vice president, and for three years represented Ward No. 1 on the Board of Directors. In all committee work of the Chamber he has taken an active part, and has labored faithfully for
arthur S. Cooley.
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the success of the various movements and the plans inaugurated by that organization for the benefit of the West and South sides. Mr. Stone is a member of the Rotary and Advertising clubs and the Lakewood Christian Science Church.
September 5, 1889, soon after coming to Cleveland, Mr. Stone married Miss Lillie May Lucas. She was born at Rows in Ashland County, daugh- ter of Hiram H. Lucas. Mr. and Mrs. Stone have two daughters: Helen Caroline Lucas, who assisted her father in the merchandise business; and . Bertha May Lucas, wife of Nelson Parker Waits, of Cleveland.
ARTHUR SEYMOUR COOLEY. In the profession of veterinary medicine Arthur S. Cooley, of Cleveland, has been one of the most prominent men of Ohio, both in his practice and in the constructive work he has done for the profession in general, and also for the valuable services he has rendered to the live stock growers of the state.
Doctor Cooley is a native of Cuyahoga County, and is of the third generation of his family in this county, his grandfather, Asher Cooley, having settled in Dover Township in the early part of the nineteenth century. Asher Cooley was born in Massachusetts, in the year 1787, and was a descendant of Robert Cooley, who was born in England in 1596, and with his wife, Anne, and three sons, sailed from England for America in April, 1634, and settled in the Massachusetts Colony. His son, Ben- jamin Cooley, the ancestor of Doctor Cooley, became one of the first citizens of Springfield, Massachusetts. In the year 1808 Asher Cooley married Lydia Smith, who was born in Connecticut in 1789, and a few years after their marriage they came to the Western Reserve and settled at what is now Dover Village, where they passed the remainder of their lives, Asher dying in 1853, his wife in 1866.
John M. Cooley, youngest of the ten children born to Asher Cooley and wife, was born on the Cooley farm in Dover Township on November 20, 1830, and died in 1907. On January 26, 1854, he married Lucy, the daughter of Bennet Seymour, who came from Connecticut to Ohio at an early date. She died on April 28, 1887. John M. Cooley devoted his active life to farming the old family home farm. In May, 1864, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, and was serving in the One Hundred Day service when the Civil war came to a close. He took an active part in local public affairs, served as postmaster at Dover for a number of years, and in 1874 he was elected as a republican to the Ohio General Assembly.
Dr. Arthur S. Cooley, son of John M. and Lucy Cooley, was born on the Cooley homestead, which he now owns and occupies, on June 11, 1858. He grew up on the farm, and early in life manifested the scientific interest in live stock which decided his choice of a vocation, and which has brought him unusual prominence throughout the state in later years. His early education was acquired in the Dover schools, from which he entered Ohio State University. He then entered the Chicago Veter- inary College (taking a part of the curriculum at the Eclectic Medical College of Chicago), where he was graduated with the degree of Veterinary Surgeon in 1887, and in the same year he entered the practice of his profes- sion in Cleveland. While Doctor Cooley won success and lasting pres-
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tige as a practitioner, it is in the domain of public affairs that he has won statewide prominence. For seventeen years he was a member of Troop A, Ohio National Guard, during which period he served as veter- inarian to the Ohio Squadron of Cavalry, with the rank of lieutenant, under commission from Governor Harris. He was active in organizing the Veterinary Section of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, and continues a member of the Academy. During the administration of Governor Willis, and a part of the administration of Governor Cox, Doctor Cooley served as state veterinarian. In 1920 he was elected on the republican ticket a member of the Ohio General Assembly, and was reelected in 1922. During the regular session of the Eighty-fourth Assembly he served as a member of the house committees on agriculture, public health and state and economic betterments. During the regular session of the Eighty- fifth Assembly he served as chairman of the dairy and food committee of the House and as a member of the committees on public health, county affairs, state and economic betterments, and on the important steering committee of the House. He introduced House Bill No. 187, regulating the length of time of storage for cold storage houses, which was enacted into law. Following Governor Donahey's message to the General Assembly in 1923, recommending the abolishment of the State Research Laboratory at Reynoldsburg, Doctor Cooley took the leading part in the effort to retain the laboratory, he having introduced the joint resolution providing for the retention of the institution, which resolution was adopted. In many ways have the services of Doctor Cooley been of great value to the live-stock growers of Ohio. He has been active in assistance to boards of health in the prevention of the sale of infected meats and the intro- duction of diseased stock into the state, giving much of his time to the advancement of the public welfare in those directions. After a suc- cessful active professional career of over thirty years, Doctor Cooley retired from practice in 1921.
Doctor Cooley is a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine (Veterinary Section), is a member of and former president of the Ohio State Veterinary Medical Association, is a member and former vice presi- dent of the American Veterinary Medical Association, and a member and former vice president of the United States Live Stock Sanitary Association. He belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Cleveland Army and Navy Club, and is a veteran member of Woodward Lodge No. 508, Free and Accepted Masons.
On May 10, 1894, Doctor Cooley married Miss Flora A. Arnold, of Cleveland, and they are the parents of three children, as follows: Richard Seymour, a graduate of Ohio State University, is dairy and food com- missioner of the City of Lakewood, Ohio. He married Myrle Krause, and is the father of two children, Marian Louise and Richard Arthur. Ellen L. married Kenneth Carter, an attorney of Cleveland, and is the mother of two children, Thalia Lucy and Jane Ellen. Lucy S. married Stiles W. Koons, assistant treasurer of the Cleveland Automatic Machine Company, and is the mother of a son, John David. The daughters of Doctor Cooley are twins. They were educated at Shaw High School, Western Reserve University and the Cleveland School of Art.
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FRANK H. PELTON, a member of the Cleveland law firm of Krueger & Pelton, with offices in the building of the Fidelity Mortgage Company, in which corporation both members of the firm are interested, is a scion of one of the old and honored pioneer families of the Western Reserve in Ohio, the while he is a representative in the ninth generation of direct descent from John Pelton, who came from England to America in 1632 and settled first in Boston, whence he later went to Connecticut, with the annals of which commonwealth the family name long continued to be prominently identified. Ephraim Pelton, great-grandfather of him whose name initiates this review, was born and reared in Connecticut, and became an early settler in the Genesee Valley of the State of New York, where was born his son Henry, grandfather of Frank H. of this sketch. In the year 1826 Henry Pelton came to the historic Western Reserve in Ohio and settled at Wiloughby, Lake County, in which section of the state he passed the remainder of his long and useful life, he having been one of the honored pioneer citizens of that county at the time of his death. His son John, father of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, was born and reared in Lake County, where he still resides and is successfully engaged in farm enterprise, a basic industry which there had a substantial representative in the person of his father, who contributed distinctly to the civic and material development and advancement of that favored section. John Pelton wedded Miss Jennie Baker, who was born at Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, and who is a daughter of the late Simon Baker, likewise a native of Painesville, his father, Henry Baker, having been another of the sterling pioneers of that part of the Western Reserve.
The birthplace of Frank H. Pelton was in the same room of the old homestead in which his father likewise was born, and the year of his nativity was 1882. In the public schools of his native town of Willoughby Frank H. Pelton continued his studies until his graduation from the high school as a member of the class of 1900. His higher academic education was obtained in Adelbert College, now a part of Western Reserve Uni- versity, where he was a recognized leader in athletics and college activities. He was graduated in 1904, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1906 he was graduated from the law school of Western Reserve Univer- sity, and his admission to the bar of Ohio was virtually coincident with his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In 1908 he was admitted to practice in the United States District and Circuit courts in Ohio.
Shortly after his graduation from law school Mr. Pelton engaged in the work of his profession in Cleveland, where he continued to be asso- ciated with the law firm of Treadway & Marshall until April, 1921, when he became a member of the firm of Townes, Krueger, Portmann & Pelton. He continued this professional alliance until the spring of 1922, when both Mr. Krueger and himself withdrew from the partnership and formed the present law firm of Krueger & Pelton. The members of the firm and associates have well proven their powers as resourceful advocates and counselors and have a secure vantage-ground as representative members of the Cleveland bar. August 20, 1911, recorded the marriage of Mr. Pelton and Miss Elsie Ann Johnson, the daughter of Capt. Thomas Johnson, vice president and manager of the Great Lakes Towing Company.
Mr. Pelton takes vital interest in all that concerns the well-being of his
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native state and his home city. He is on the directorate of many successful companies, and is actively identified with the Cleveland Chamber of Com- merce, is a popular member of the Cleveland Bar Association, the Uni- versity Club, the Mid-Day Club and the Shaker Heights Country Club.
FRANCIS MARTIN JAKSIC. The career of Francis Martin Jaksic is one which illustrates the awards which may be secured through hard and earnest effort when well directed, even though the obstacles in the way of advancement be numerous and difficult of overcoming. Starting his career in a humble capacity, when still a mere lad, with only a public school education and his ambition to aid him, he has worked his way to the fore- front among bankers and business men of Cleveland, and now, in addition to being connected with numerous other enterprises of a varied and important character, he is secretary and manager of the North American Banking and Savings Company.
Mr. Jaksic was born at Zuzemberk Village, in what is now Jugo Slavia,. Europe, December 11, 1887, and is a son of Frank and Theresa Jaksic, natives of the same country. When he was but a year old his father came to the United States to prepare a home for his family, consisting then of Francis Martin and his mother, who followed in 1889. On his arrival in this country Frank Jaksic settled at once at Cleveland, and this city con- tinued to be his home during the remainder of his life. He was a man of industry, who engaged in various occupations, but did not live to enjoy success, his death occurring in 1905. Mrs. Jaksic, who survives her hus- band, is a resident of Cleveland.
Francis Martin Jaksic was brought up to habits of industry, to an appreciation of the value of hard work and to principles of integrity. He acquired his rudimentary education in the parochial school of St. Peter's Catholic Church, and later spent a short time at St. Ignatius College, Cleve- land. He was but thirteen years of age when he entered upon his business career, his first experiences being those gained in a printing office, where he mastered the trade in all its branches. However, he did not care for the business as a regular vocation throughout life, and accordingly gave up the trade for the retail grocery business, which he followed for a time with a partner. Mr. Jaksic then evidenced a desire for the law, and entered the legal department of Cleveland Law School, where he spent two years, during which time he also served as deputy in the office of the county clerk of Cuyahoga County. While he has never followed the law as a regular profession, the knowledge which he gained during those two years has been of incalculable value to him. When he left law school Mr. Jaksic became associated with Anton Grdina in conducting the Grdina Furniture Company, a business in which he still is interested. At the close of the World war Mr. Jaksic spent eight months in his native land, engaged in relief work, and on his return, in 1919, with Dr. J. M. Seliskar and others organized and chartered the North American Banking and Savings Com- pany, of which he has since been the secretary and manager. This institu- tion has enjoyed a rapid growth and is now numbered among the leading banking organizations of the city. In addition Mr. Jaksic is vice president of the Euclid Foundry Company, vice president of the St. Clair Avenue Improvement Association and chairman of the finance committee of the
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Slavonian Mutual Benefit Association. He is affiliated with Cleveland Council, Knights of Columbus, and his religious connection is with St. Vitus Catholic Church, in the work of which he is active. He has always been a supporter of worthy civic measures.
Mr. Jaksic married Jeanette Mary Grdina, daughter of John Grdina, of Cleveland, and to this union have been born three children: Frank R., Genevieve and Richard.
JOSEPH KREMZAR, the present business partner in the Grdina Furniture Company at 6017-19 St. Claire Avenue, was born in the Village of Brezavic, Jugo-Slavia, on March 3, 1876, and is the son of Joseph and Mary Kremzar. Unfortunately for his family the father died when his son Joseph was only seven weeks old, and the result was a lack of education for the children as well as the want of tutelage and support. But their mother came to the rescue and reared the children to ages when they could care in the main for themselves. Under her support Joseph received four years of school- ing, but was then, to a large degree, placed upon his own resources and obliged to care for himself. While quite young, a mere boy, he began to serve a three years' apprenticeship at the cabinet maker's trade, at the end of which time he was proficient enough to work independently, and did so for another three years, laying up in the meantime considerable money. He then determined to widen his opportunities and improve his business surroundings.
Accordingly, in 1901, he secured a ticket and took passage on a vessel across the Atlantic and landed in New York, where for about one month he worked at his trade for various concerns where he could get the best remuneration. He then had heard more about the Slavonian colony in Cleveland, Ohio, to induce him to leave the "Metropolitan City" and go west to the big city growing so swiftly in the Western Reserve. He secured a ticket and came direct by rail to Cleveland, where he was wel- comed and assisted by his fellow countrymen who had preceded him to the New World.
Upon reaching the historic shores of Lake Erie and the sprightly city of Cleveland he soon secured a permanent position with the Lake Shore Lumber Company's sash and door factory, and there remained, gaining prominence and popularity year after year and greatly increasing his knowledge of the ways and intrigues of the American workmen and people. Greatly to his credit he remained in the employ of that company for eleven years, thus proving his qualifications and his fitness for the tasks set before him, and being required to serve a portion of the time as foreman, an exact- ing and expanding position.
Upon leaving the employ of the Lake Shore Lumber Company he began. working as a journeyman carpenter for various contractors, and was thus employed for about eleven years, during which time he managed to save considerable wages and profits. He then determined to branch out for himself along independent lines of the trade that had served him so well. Accordingly he began taking his own building contracts on a moderate scale, and so continued until the 1st of January, 1918, when he became shipping clerk and repair supervisor for the Grdina Furniture Company. His services were so well appreciated that in 1920 he was advanced to a
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membership in the company and was placed in charge of both the main store and the Nottingham branch store, both establishments being among the largest and most prosperous in the east end of the city. The company have three stores, the third being at Waterloo and Huff avenues. Mr. Kremzar is now a well-known and prominent business man, not only of the Slavonian colony, but of the great city itself.
He has attained eminence in other walks of life in America. He is one of the original stockholders of the North American Banking and Sav- ings Company, one of the prominent and prosperous banking concerns of the city. He is a zealous and steadfast member of the St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church and a member of several worthy Slavonian fraternal organizations. He married Mary Cufer, a native of Jugo-Slavia, and to this union five children have been born: Albin J., aged twenty years ; Jennie, aged sixteen years ; Gladys L., aged fourteen years ; William, aged twelve years; and Carrie, aged ten years. The parents are giving their children sound and practical educations.
FRANK SEITHER. Among the native born citizens of Cleveland none perhaps was better known than the late Frank Seither, banker and promi- nent in other directions, who spent practically all his long and busy life here, and through business sagacity and spirit of enterprise added greatly to the city's commercial prosperity.
Mr. Seither was born July 23, 1848, at Cleveland, Ohio, in a log house that stood on the corner of Wilson and Superior avenues, now East Fifty- fifth Street and Superior Avenue. He died at the residence on Bosworth Road which had been his home for the last thirty years. His parents were Leonard and Sibella (Wetengle) Seither. Leonard Seither was born in Germany, May 3, 1825, and had come to the United States in 1840, leaving his own land secretly because he was a man of peace and abhorred his country's military policy. He was landed at the Port of New Orleans, where he occupied himself variously for six months and then came to Cleveland, where, shortly afterward, he married Sibella Wetengle. She was born in 1826 in the same province as himself in Germany, and had come along to the United States, and her death occurred at Cleveland in 1888, he surviving until 1905. To Leonard and Sibella Seither the follow- ing children were born : Frank ; Henry, who is a resident of Defiance, Ohio ; Elizabeth, who is the widow of William Brooker; and Annie, who is the widow of Milton Haffner, both daughters residing now in California.
It is difficult for residents of Cleveland to think that within the memory of many of its citizens the territory adjacent to Wilson Avenue, now the heart of the city, was a belt of heavy timber, and it was there that Leonard Seither first provided for his necessities by chopping wood. In 1851, through industry and thrift, he had become able to invest in land, and bought fifteen acres in Brooklyn Township, Cuyahoga County, which was the nucleus of his fortune, for he kept on adding to and improving his prop- erty until, at the time of death, he owned a valuable, well improved farm of seventy acres.
Frank Seither grew up on the home farm and attended the district schools in boyhood. When twenty-one years old he started out for himself as an agent, and for about ten years sold reapers and mowers to farmers all
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over Cuyahoga County. In 1879 he went into the business of manufactur- ing oleomargerine at Cleveland, a comparatively new enterprise, and pros- pered greatly for a time, the product having a wide sale. The profits of the business, however, fell away after the decision of the government in regard to artificial coloring, and, although Mr. Seither fought the decision in the courts, he finally retired and turned his attention to his many other business interests. One of these, the Star Baking Company, of which he was president and chairman of the board of directors at the time of his death, has been developed into one of the important business concerns of Cleveland. After closing out his oleomargerine business he moved the bakery to the plant on Clark, near West Twenty-fifth Street, where it has been expanded and is one of the best equipped and most modern baking plants in the country. Mr. Seither was a charter member, vice president and chairman of the finance committee of what is now the Pearl Street Savings and Trust Company, one of the largest banking institutions of the city. He was also vice president of the National Woolen Mills Company, also a corporation of strength and importance. He was vice president and director of the Becker Steamship Company and prominently identified with other large enterprises.
In 1869 Mr. Seither married Miss Sarah Tuttle, who was born at Cleve- land, and died here in 1905. Her father, Jesse W. Tuttle, was a pioneer in Cuyahoga County, and settled on the farm in 1835 which Mr. Seither now owns. Mr. and Mrs. Seither became the parents of four children : Frank, who is secretary and treasurer of the Defiance Pressed Steel Com- pany, Defiance, Ohio, married Ella Beauhope, and they have one daughter, Irene; Esther, who is the wife of Wilfred Singleton, now president and general manager of the Star Baking Company, and they have two sons and one daughter; Eugene, who is president and manager of the Defiance Pressed Steel Company, married Clara Palmer; and Blanche, widow of George Clough, and who resides at Springfield, Massachusetts, where her two sons are attending school.
Mr. Seither's second marriage, to Miss Anna Fisher, connected him with another of the old pioneer families of Cleveland. Mrs. Seither was born in this city, and her parents were John Leonard and Katherine (Meyer) Fisher. Her father was born in one of the agricultural provinces of Germany, in 1833, and died at Cleveland in 1912, and her mother, born in Germany in 1832, came alone to Cleveland in young womanhood, married here, and died in 1887. John Leonard Fisher was only three years old when brought to Cuyahoga County by his father, Jacob Fisher, and his grandfather, also Jacob Fisher. They were all buried in the old Erie Cemetery, which is now in the very heart of the business district of the city.
Frank Seither took no interest in social affairs, he never joined either lodge or club, nor was he known to attend any of these gatherings. His entire life was devoted to his family and to the organization and develop- ment of various business enterprises which stand today as monuments to his far-sightedness and thrift. His remains now rest in Riverside Cemetery.
OTTO WILLIAM CARPENTER, president of the Lakewood Savings & Loan . Company, and general agent of the Union Central Life Insurance Company for the City of Cleveland, was born in Mansfield, Richland
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