USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 3
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
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creative, progressive force in the life of Cleveland. His sound advice and his power of harmonizing and bringing together masterful personalities and large interests have been an important factor in the business advance- ment of his city. He has made for peace not for strife, for progress, not for obstruction. His work has been constructive, not destructive.
Mr. Squire is a director of the Union Trust Company, the Cleveland Stone Company, of the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad of which he is president, and has had numerous other business interests.
During the World war he served as a member of the Mayor's Advisory War Committee. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conven- tion at St. Louis in 1896. He is a trustee of Hiram College and Western Reserve University and a director of the Case Library. He has attained the supreme honorary thirty-third degree in Scottish Rite Masonry. In 1909 he was president of the Country Club of Cleveland, and is a member of the Union and the University clubs of that city, and the University Club of New York. On June 24, 1896, Mr. Squire married Mrs. Eleanor Seymour Sea, daughter of Beldon Seymour of Cleveland. Mrs. Squire was regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution at the time of the Spanish-American war and was active in the war relief measures offi- cially sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
JOHN LOUIS MIHELICH, a Cleveland attorney, with offices in the Engi- neers Building, came to Cleveland when a youth of sixteen, and since then, relying upon his own efforts, has mastered the American language and American customs, a learned profession, served his adopted country in the World war, and is one of the ablest representatives of the foreign born in this city.
He was born in Austria, April 13, 1891. The following year, while he was left behind in Austria, his parents, Gasper and Jedert (Gornik) Mihelich, immigrated to, the United States, settling in Minnesota. Five years later they went back to Austria, but again returned to this country and to Minnesota, where the father died two years later. Following his death the widowed mother and other children returned to the old country, where she is still living.
John Louis Mihelich did not accompany his parents on their immigra- tion to America either time. He, therefore, spent the first sixteen years of his life in Austria, where he was educated in the common schools. In 1907, when he came to this country, alone, he made his way direct to Cleveland, where two of his uncles and an aunt were living. He imme- diately found work for his support and contrived opportunities to advance his education. For three years he attended public night school, and spent four years in Central Institute, a private high school. Having mastered a thorough high school education, he entered the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace University, and pursued his studies there until grad- uating with the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1917. He was admitted to the Ohio bar the same year, but did not engage in practice until after the war.
On going into the army he was sent to Camp Gordon and assigned to the Nineteenth Infantry. With this regiment he went overseas, first to Belgium and then into France. With the rank of sergeant he was assigned to duty in the United States Army field postoffice at Aignon, France, until
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
after the armistice. He then returned to the United States, and was mus- tered out at Mitchel Aviation Field, Long Island, New York, in April, 1919.
Immediately on his return to Cleveland Mr. Mihelich engaged in gen- eral practice as a lawyer, and has practiced alone, building up a successful clientage. He is also attorney for the International Building & Loan Company, one of the city's successful institutions. He is proprietor of J. L. Mihelich & Company, handling steamship tickets and foreign ex- change, with offices at East Sixty-third Street and St. Clair Avenue.
He is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, the American Legion and the Catholic Church. He married Miss Anna G. Swingle, daughter of the late Charles Swingle, of Cleveland.
JUDGE OSCAR CLIFFORD BELL, judge of the Municipal Court of Cleve- land, has been well known in this city both as teacher, attorney and public official. Judge Bell is a man of scholastic attainments, and has had an extended experience among men and affairs.
He was born at Biggsville, Henderson County, Illinois, March 15, 1880, son of William and Sarah Martha (Jamison) Bell. His grand- father, Andrew Bell, was a native of Scotland, and settled at North Argyle in New York State. William Bell was born January 1, 1841, and when he was six years of age his widowed mother took him and her other children to Biggsville, Henderson County, Illinois. George Bell, brother of William Bell, served at one time as sheriff of Henderson County, and it devolved upon him in his official capacity to officiate at the only hang- ing in that county. William Bell was educated in public schools in Illi- nois, and at the age of fifteen began teaching. For a score of years teaching was his regular vocation. He also served as a member of the school board of Henderson County for a number of years and is secretary of the Fair Association for seventeen years. The annual fair at Biggs- ville is one of the most noted fairs in the State of Illinois. After he gave up school work he was a general merchant at Biggsville, later a merchant at Swan Creek, Illinois, then entered the United States railway mail service, and finally, in order to give his children better educational advan- tages, he removed to Monmouth, Illinois. For twenty-six years he was a mail clerk, with a run on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, and resigned from the service in 1906, on account of ill health, his death occurring a few months later. His wife, Sarah Martha Jamison, was born in Henderson County, Illinois, in 1844. Her father, Calvin Jamison, was a Kentuckian by birth, was a pioneer in Henderson County, Illinois, and became well known as a farmer, bank director and active leader in the community of Biggsville. Mrs. William Bell died in 1916.
Oscar Clifford Bell was reared at Biggsville, attending grammar and high schools. He graduated from high school in 1900, and then entered the University of Illinois, where he completed his law course and received the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1903. Instead of engaging in the prac- ' tice of law he was for three years principal of the Belmont. Illinois, High School, and subsequently a member of the faculty and athletic coach at Monmouth College, Illinois. From 1907 to 1911 he held similar posi- tions at the Kirksville, Missouri, Normal School.
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Judge Bell became a resident of Cleveland in 1911, and for a time was a teacher and coach of athletics at the East Technical High School. He began the practice of law in 1914, associated with Judge J. M. Shal- lenberger. In 1916 he became instructor in civics and business law at West Technical High School, and was also athletic coach there. On resigning this work he became chief examiner of the Cleveland City Civil Service Commission, and subsequently Mayor Fitzgerald appointed him chief police prosecutor of the Municipal Court. Later Director of Law Lamb, during the Kohler administration, appointed him assistant director of law. This office he resigned in September, 1923, to enter the race for Municipal Court judge, and in November was elected for a term of two years, beginning January 1, 1924.
Judge Bell is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, the Big Ten Club, the City Club and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. On Sep- tember 17, 1921, he married Mabel Holland. She was born at Sandusky, Ohio, daughter of John W. Holland. She is a graduate of the Woman's College of Western Reserve University, and she and Judge Bell became acquainted while she was teaching in the West Technical High School.
"CORNELIUS MALONEY has been an active member of the Cleveland bar for over twenty years. Nearly all his life has been spent in Ohio, and in the paternal line his ancestors for several generations back bore the christian name of Cornelius. Mr. Maloney has his offices in the William- son Building.
He was born at Elmira, New York, October 3, 1878, son of Cornelius and Elizabeth (Glynn) Maloney. The Maloney family came to America about 1811. . One of the ancestors of the Cleveland attorney was Cor- nelius Maloney of County Clare, Ireland, who married Eleanor Cecil, a niece of the Earl of Kildare. Their son, Cornelius, married Martha Fitzgerald, of County Clare. A son of this couple was Cornelius Maloney of County Clare, who married Inez Welsh. They were the grandparents of the Cleveland lawyer, and were early settlers in New York State. Cornelius Maloney, son of Cornelius and Inez (Walsh) Maloney, was born at Oswego, New York, and took up the business of railroading. He married Elizabeth Glynn, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, daughter of James Glynn. She came to this country when a young lady with relatives. Cornelius Maloney, the railroad man, moved to Ohio in 1879, locating at Kent in Portage County, as headquarters for his work in the maintenance-of-way department of the Cleveland. & Pitts- burgh Railway, now part of the Pennsylvania System. He died at Akron in 1896, and his wife, in 1899. They were parents of three sons, Thomas, Charles and Cornelius. Charles died at West Point Military Academy in 1889.
Their son Cornelius Maloney was about a year old when his parents came to Ohio. He attended high school at Kent, Ohio, spent four years ยท in Buchtel College, now Akron University, and for three years was a student of law in Western Reserve University at Cleveland. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in June, 1901, and immediately engaged in private practice at Cleveland. Mr. Maloney has been active in republican politics. He served as chairman of the campaign committee of the League
LouisH. Winch
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
of Republican Clubs of Cuyahoga County in 1912-1915. In 1913-1915 he was a member of the Cuyahoga County Republican Executive Com- mittee. During the World war Mr. Maloney was a member of the legal advisory board in the Twentieth Ward. He is a member of the National Rifle Association, and from 1892 to 1897 was a member of the Eighth Ohio Regiment, known as McKinley's Own, of the Ohio National Guard. He is a member of Gilmore Council, Knights of Columbus. He and his family are communicants of St. Agnes Catholic Church.
April 22, 1901, Mr. Maloney married Miss Grace Evelyn True, daughter of Alfred and Sadie (Adams) True. Her mother was a descendant of the Massachusetts family of Adams which gave two presi- dents to the United States. Her ancestors on both sides served under General Washington in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Maloney was born at Canton, Ohio. She is the mother of five children: Cornelius, Jr., Eleanor, Lawrence, Isabell and Thomas.
JUDGE LOUIS H. WINCH, former judge of the Ohio Court of Appeals, has been a prominent figure at the Cleveland bar for nearly forty years. He is a native of Cleveland, and his father was a pioneer business man of the city.
Judge Winch was born June 17, 1862. The Winch family in Colonial times came from Kent, England, to America. His grandfather, Benjamin Winch, was born in 1766. The old family seat was at Salem, Massa- chusetts. Some of the early records of that town refer to the Winch family. Benjamin Winch learned surveying. On leaving Salem, Massa- chusetts, he moved to New York State and settled in what later became Oswego County. He surveyed the original township lines of that county.
Thomas Winch, father of Judge Winch, was born at Richland, Oswego County, New York, in 1806. In 1836, as a young man of thirty, he arrived at Cleveland, and became a factor in the pioneer transportation business centering at the lake port. He was a forwarding merchant both on the lake and canal, which had been opened only a few years before. He owned several boats. Still later he engaged in the coal trade, and finally became an oil refiner. He died at Cleveland in 1886.
In 1842 Thomas Winch married Sarah Hall Allen. She was born at Ellenburg, Jefferson County, New York, daughter of William Allen, who was a prosperous farmer, and at one time a member of the New York General Assembly. Her brother, William F. Allen, was the first president of the Cleveland Board of Trade. It was during a visit in Cleveland, at the home of her brother, that she first met Thomas Winch. Mrs. Winch died at Cleveland in December, 1914, when in her ninetieth year.
The old Winch homestead in Cleveland, where Judge Winch was born, was situated at the corner of East Third Street and Hamilton Avenue. in almost the exact center of the present City Mall or "Court of Honor." From his early memories and associations Judge Winch can reconstruct much of the older Cleveland business district. Judge Winch as a boy attended public schools, and then entered Western Reserve University. In 1884 he graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree and with scholarship honors that gave him membership in the Phi Beta Kappa. He also studied law at Cleveland, and was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1886, and the same
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year received his Master's degree. In the early years of his practice he gave evidence of sound learning and great industry and resourcefulness in handling the interests entrusted to him.
He had achieved the reputation of a sound and able lawyer long before he became a candidate for the bench. In 1902 he was elected judge of the Circuit Court for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, including the counties of Cuyahoga, Lorain, Medina and Summit. In 1908 he was reelected to the Circuit Bench, and in 1911 was chosen chief justice of the Circuit Courts of Ohio. Under the new Ohio constitution adopted in 1912 the Circuit Court became the Court of Appeals, and Judge Winch continued his duties with that branch of the judiciary until 1915.
The Republican State Convention of 1912 nominated Judge Winch as a candidate for judge of the Supreme Court. In a year marked by the defeat of Taft and nearly all other republican candidates, Judge Winch likewise failed of election. When he retired from the bench three years later he resumed private practice and since 1915 has been a member of the well known Cleveland law firm of Payer, Winch, Minshall & Karch, with offices in the Discount Building. In 1898, in collaboration with M. S. Hinman, many years journal clerk of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, Judge Winch published a book on "Journal Entries," which has been a standard authority on that subject ever since. He has also prepared a manuscript history of all the sections of the General Code of Ohio, which has not been published, and is the author of special essays on Workmen's Compensation, Torrens System of Land Registration, Negligence Law in Ohio, etc.
Judge Winch is a member of the Cleveland and Ohio State Bar asso- ciations, is a member of the Cuyahoga Early Settlers Association, is one of the veteran members of Tyrian Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and the Cleveland Scottish Rite Consistory, and belongs to the Congregational Church.
FELIX T. MATIA has become well known at the Cleveland bar and as an official of the city and county, and is also an ex-service man of the World war.
He was born in Cleveland, son of Thomas and Frances (Otto) Matia. His parents were born in German Poland, now included in the republic of Poland. Thomas Matia came to the United States in 1880, locating in Cleveland the same year, and was an employe of the old Cleveland Rolling Mills, part of the American Steel & Wire Company. He was in the employ of the city, and then engaged in the dry goods and men's fur- nishing goods business on his own account on Sowinski Avenue in Cleve- land. He was a pioneer of the old Polish colony at Newburg, and was a man of such character as to win the respect of many leaders in public affairs, including Hon. Theodore Burton. He was forty-two years old when he died in 1907. The widowed mother, now aged fifty-six, is the daughter of Joseph Otto, who was born near Danzig, East Prussia, and was one of the pioneer Polish citizens of Cleveland.
Felix T. Matia acquired his education in the public schools of Cleve- land, including the East High School, and graduated from the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace University in 1914. In the same year
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
he was admitted to the bar, and in a comparatively brief time gained recog- nition for his solid talents and attainments in his profession.
From January, 1913, to December 31, 1916, Mr. Matia served as pro- bation officer in the Municipal Court of Cleveland. He was assistant prosecuting attorney for Cuyahoga County from January 1, 1917, to January 1, 1921, resigning after four years' service to engage in private practice.
While assistant prosecuting attorney he was granted a leave of absence to enlist for the World war. On November 1, 1917, he joined the colors as a member of the Officers' Training School at Camp Sherman, Ohio, and received a commission as second lieutenant. He was sent to Camp Gordon, Georgia, was commissioned a first lieutenant January 4, 1918, and put in the Ninth Replacement Regiment. Later he was transferred to the Intelligence Department on duty at Camp Gordon and vicinity, and was under orders for overseas duty when the armistice was signed. Jan- uary 1, 1919, he was mustered out and honorably discharged at Camp Custer, Michigan. Immediately on his return he resumed his duties as assistant prosecuting attorney.
Mr. Matia is a member of the Polish National Alliance, the Polish Alliance of America, the Polish Falcons, the Cleveland Society of the Z. N. P., the Knights of Columbus and St. Casimer's Catholic Church. In his profession he is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association and the Sigma Kappa Phi fraternity. Mr. Matia married, August 27, 1920, Miss Mary Olszeski, daughter of Casimer and Frances Olszeski, of Dil- lonvale, Jefferson County, Ohio.
A. BURNS SMYTHE. Only those who possess the rare faculty of an organizing and executive mind can make a record of achievements and acquire such substantial connections with business, civic and social bodies as make up the record of the career of A. Burns Smythe of Cleveland. His life has been one of interesting diversity as well as the practical achievement that is familiarly associated with long and persistent effort.
Mr. Smythe was born in Nevada, Ohio, August 4, 1874, son of Mar- cus M. and Mary Comfort (Burns) Smythe. His mother came from Scotland. His grandfather, William Smythe, came from Ulster County, Ireland, in 1832, first lived in Washington County, Pennsylvania, then in Jefferson County, Ohio, and late in life moved to Holton, Kansas, where he died. He was a wool manufacturer and a farmer. Marcus M. Smythe was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and was a boy when the family moved to Jefferson County, Ohio. He is now eighty-five years of age, spending his summers in Cleveland and his winters in Florida.
A. Burns Smythe was the youngest in a family of four children, and grew up at Nevada, Ohio, where he attended the public schools. He con- tinued his education in Oberlin Academy and Oberlin College, and his prowess there in athletics caused him to pursue for a time professional baseball as a vocation. His early business experience included work as salesman for the Clifton Park Land and Improvement Company of Cleve- land, for some years having had the ambition to get into the real estate business for himself. In 1903 he opened his own office, but after four and a half years was induced to organize the real estate department of
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the Cleveland Trust Company. He was the head of the department as general manager until August 4, 1914, and the decade since then has cov- ered the period of his most important achievements in the real estate and business field.
On leaving the Cleveland Trust Company he organized the A. B. Smythe Company, which occupies a suite of offices in the Erie Building at the corner of East Ninth Street and Prospect Avenue. The company has an office force of approximately fifty people, and maintains branches throughout the city. The business has grown until it now handles millions of dollars' worth of business annually.
As an organizer and executive Mr. Smythe's name has been associated with many enterprises. He is president of the Shore Acres Land Com- pany, which built the beautiful sub-division of Shore Acres on the East Side on the lake front. He organized, planned and built the Euclid- Forty-sixth Street Market and buildings surrounding, owned by the Glengariff Realty Company, of which he is president. He built the Smythe Building on Euclid Avenue, each of the First National Bank Building. He is president of the Carnegie-Euclid Company, which bought and developed the old Bolton property, containing all the property from Euclid to Carnegie Avenue, between East Sixty-ninth and East Seventy-first streets. Mr. Smythe organized the North Olmstead Improvement Com- pany, of which he is president, and also the Metropolitan Development Company, owning large holdings on Superior Avenue, and the S. K. and W. Investment Company, owning the old American Ship Building Company property on the Superior viaduct. He is president of the Smythe Investment Company, which owns over 100 acres around West- wood Golf Club.
Mr. Smythe is a director of the Union Mortgage Company, of the Superior Bond & Mortgage Company, of which he is also vice president, and is a director in the Lake Erie Trust Company. He is president of the Cleveland Real Estate Board, is a member of the Chamber of Com- merce of Cleveland and of the United States, is a trustee of the University School and one of the founders of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He was one of the founders and builders of the Lakewood Congregational Church, of which he is a trustee. For several years he has been president of the Oberlin Alumni Association of Oberlin College. Mr. Smythe is a member of the Union Club, Hermit Club, Country Club and the Cas- talia Trout Club.
He married, November 13, 1902, Miss Catherine Irene Loomis, daugh- ter of Charles E. and Ida E. Loomis, of Oil City, Pennsylvania. She died May 2, 1919. Subsequently Mr. Smythe married Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Jenks, widow of Dr. Nathan Jenks, who was a prominent surgeon at Detroit, Michigan. Mrs. Smythe was educated in a private school at Detroit and at Mrs. Ely's finishing school in New York City. By her first marriage she has a daughter, Sally Jenks, now a freshman in the Hathaway-Brown School at Cleveland.
By his first marriage Mr. Smythe was the father of two sons, Charles Loomis Smythe and Marcus Loomis Smythe, young men of interesting attainments and of remarkable promise, and of whose records any father might be proud. Charles Loomis Smythe, born October 23, 1903, gradu-
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
ated from the University School of Cleveland in 1922. He was president of his senior class, president of the Cadmean Debating Society, cap- tain of the track team, was picked as all-scholastic half-back for the City of Cleveland all-scholastic football team, and while in the University School broke two records, one in the high jump and the other in the quarter mile. He entered Williams College in the fall of 1922, was pres- ident of the freshman class, and became a member of the football and track team, the freshman orchestra, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon fra- ternity.
Marcus Loomis Smythe, who was born March 12, 1905, had what is perhaps a unique distinction for a younger brother in winning the same honors in athletics and scholarship as Charles Loomis Smythe. He was president of his class during the last three years at University School, a star in football, basketball and baseball, and was captain of the undefeated 1922 football team of the University School, being selected by all the newspapers of the city as captain and quarterback on the all-scholastic football team. The names of these two brothers were engraved on the University School wall on a bronze tablet known as the Cadmean trophy for being the students who had the best influence and standing in their respective classes during the four years attending University School.
EDWARD CREIGHTON MCKAY. has significantly demonstrated in his achievement as a progressive man of affairs and civic loyalty, it having been a matter of special satisfaction to him that he has been able to con- tribute through his activities to the general advancement of his home city of Cleveland, where he is prominently concerned with real estate opera- tions and has other business interests and alliances of important order.
Mr. McKay was born in Cleveland, November 19, 1876, and is a son of Col. George Alexander McKay and Margaret Adam (Creech) Mckay, the latter a daughter of James and Mary (Rome) Creech. The lineage on the maternal side is traced back to the Earl of Douglass, in Scotland, and on the paternal side to Baron Rea. Sir Poulkney Markham, admiral of the British fleet that took Napoleon to his exile on the Island of St. Helena, was a first cousin of Mrs. Mary (Rome) Creech, maternal grandmother of the subject of this review. In Mr. Mckay's father's family there were produced six lieutenants general in the Napoleonic wars.
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