USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 31
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HORACE KELLEY was a native son of Cleveland, a member of one of the representative pioneer families of this city, and the citizens of the Ohio metropolis owe to his memory an enduring tribute of honor and appreciation, especially by reason of liberality and civic loyalty that found expression when he gave the major part of his fortune for the erection and maintenance of the city's magnificent museum of art. Nearly all of his fortune, estimated as more than $600,000, Horace Kelley left to trustees for the purpose of founding in Cleveland a museum of art. This sum, together with subsequent accumulations, was combined with funds given by the late John Huntington, and made it possible to found in Cleveland a museum of art that is today one of the chief objects of local civic pride,
Horace Kelley was born in Cleveland July 18, 1819. and here his death occurred December 4, 1890. He was a son of Joseph R. and Betsey (Gould) Kelley, and a grandson of Judge Daniel Kelley, one of the honored and influential pioneer citizens of Cleveland. Mr. Kelley gave the greater part of his time and attention to the management of extensive properties, including lands in the heart of Cleveland and also on what is now known as North Bass Island. One of the wealthy men of Cleveland, he used his resources not only in his benefactions to his native city but also in broadening his intellectual horizon through extended foreign travel. He married Fanny Miles, of Elyria, Ohio, and she sur- vived him, no children having been born of their union.
MARY H. SEVERANCE was a lifelong resident of Cleveland, was the daughter, wife and mother of prominent and honored citizens, and was a gracious gentlewoman who was widely known and loved. She was born in Cleveland March 1, 1816, the only child of Dr. David Long, the dis- tinguished pioneer physician of Cleveland. She received excellent edu- cational advantages and became a woman of distinctive culture. In 1883 was solemnized her marriage to Solomon Lewis Severance, a successful young merchant whose death occurred five vears later. The two children of this union were Solon L. and Louis H. Mrs. Severance continued as a loved and influential figure in the representative social and cultural
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activities of her native city until her death, October 1, 1902, at the venerable age of eighty-six years and seven months. In her girlhood she became a devoted member of the First Presbyterian Church, later she became a charter member of the Second Presbyterian Church, and in 1872 she assisted in founding the Woodland Avenue Presbyterian Church, with the support and upbuilding of which she was actively identified. She was a zealous and devoted worker in patriotic lines in the Civil war period, especially in connection with the sanitary commission, and she assisted in the founding of the Protestant Orphan Asylum and the Lakeside Hospital, of the latter of which she continued a trustee until her death. In all of the relations of life she went about trailing the beatitudes in her train, and her gentle and gracious life signified much to Cleveland.
WILLIAM G. ROSE was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, Sep- tember 23, 1829, and his death occurred in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, September 15, 1899. He received a liberal education, as gauged by the standards of the period, and in 1855 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar. He joined the republican party at the time of its organization, he for a time was publisher and editor of a newspaper in his native county, and from 1858 to 1860 he was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was a delegate to the republican national convention of 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency, and he was twice nominated by his party for Congress. He served in the Civil war, under the three months' term of enlistment. In 1865 he established his residence in Cleveland, and his activities in the oil fields and the real estate business brought him such substantial returns that in 1874 he virtually retired from business. In 1877 he was elected mayor of Cleveland, and he gave a most able and loyal administration during a period of grave importance in the affairs of the city, the state and the nation. He served as mayor until 1879, and in 1891 he was again elected chief executive of the city government. In 1883 he was the republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Ohio. Mr. Rose did splendid service in advancing and fos- tering the interests of Cleveland, and here his name and memory are held in lasting honor. In 1858 he married Miss Martha E. Parmelee, who survived him and of whom individual mention is made on other pages of this publication.
SAMUEL H. KLEINMAN, through his enterprise as a real estate man, has helped shape and mould a considerable part of the physical bulk and greatness of the modern city of Cleveland. Through his vision, foresight and ability he has built up the largest organization of its kind in the state, the S. H. Kleinman Realty Company, of which he is president.
Even as a boy he had visions of constructive development that would transform some of the outlying sections of the city and thereby greatly increase the scope of Cleveland as a residential, commercial and industrial center. While still in his twenties he began the unfolding of his plans and started the nucleus of the big business which is today the S. H. Kleinman Realty Company. He was the pioneer in developing parcels of real estate as the site for homes built for people of moderate means, and so financed as to permit a purchaser to build a home on the installment plan. It is
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estimated that in the past twenty years since Mr. Kleinman began business, 38,000 people have acquired their present or future homesite from his company.
Mr. Kleinman has developed seventy subdivisions, which have more than 125 miles of street frontage-more Cleveland property that any other one man or organization.
That his faith in Cleveland as a whole has been his basis for activity, rather than only one section, is emphasized by the fact that his residential and business developments are located in every section of the city and range from city homesites and suburban estates to business property of all kinds. The zenith of his aspirations was reached in the magnificent new lake shore residential community at the eastern city limits of Cleveland, surpassing anything of its kind along the shores of Lake Erie, and which owes its existence to Mr. Kleinman's energy, ability and high ideals gained through years of experience. Six million dollars is represented in this premier effort, which is known as "Utopia Beach," being one of the sev- enty developments. Other large developments are "Beverly Hills," on Euclid Avenue, "Traymore Estates," "Clifton Boulevard Subdivision," "Lakewood Allotment," all being located in Cleveland.
Mr. Kleinman purchased the initial tract of ground for his first real estate development twenty years ago. This tract was on the West Side, close to a country road and some distance from the built-up section. He went ahead with his plans, relying on the future of Cleveland, against the advice of his friends. By his personal efforts he sold the property, it being known as Regal Park. Regal Park is today bounded by West Ninetieth, West Ninety-first, West Ninety-second, West Ninety-third streets and Almira Avenue, while the country road is Denison Avenue.
Mr. Kleinman is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Oakwood Country Club, the Cleveland Advertising Club, the City Club, the Chamber of Industry, the Southwestern Civic Association, the Civic League, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Mortgage Association, the Euclid Avenue Association, the Cleveland Association of Building Owners and Managers and the Cleveland Bar Association, and is a mem- ber of the congregation of the Euclid Avenue Temple.
Mr. Kleinman's hobby is breeding fancy Holstein cattle, and he operates a large farm at Hudson, Ohio, and is a member of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America.
In addition to being president of the S. H. Kleinman Realty Company, Mr. Kleinman is president of the Mortgage Syndicate Company ; treasurer of the Ninth-Chester Company and treasurer of the Lake Shore Land & Development Company.
Mr. Kleinman is married and has a daughter, Bertha Mae, and a son, S. Herbert Kleinman.
HARRY L. DAVIS served as treasurer of the City of Cleveland in 1910-11, and in 1916 he initiated his specially loyal and progressive administration as mayor of the Ohio metropolis, which is his native city, his birth having here occurred January 25, 1878, and he being a son of the late Hon. Evan H. Davis, who was an honored and influential citizen and who served as a representative of Cuyahoga County in the
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State Legislature, besides having held for seven years the office of district factory inspector.
Harry L. Davis gained in the public schools of Cleveland his early education, and as a youth he was for several years employed in the rolling mills at Newburgh. He was for some time associated with the service of the Cleveland Park Board, was later a solicitor for the Bell Telephone Company, and eventually he became president of the Davis Telephone Rate Adjustment Company. In 1912 he was national organ- izer for the Loyal Order of Moose, and thereafter he was engaged in the general insurance business until his election to the office of mayor, in November, 1915. He is a republican and has served as chairman of the republican executive committee of Cuyahoga County, as well as a member of the Republican State Central Committee of Ohio. He is identified with leading clubs and other social organizations in his home city, has served as president of the local Welsh Society, and in the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. Mr. Davis married, in 1902, Miss Lucy V. Fegan.
PHILIP HENRY BAKER. From farm boy to Cleveland man of busi- ness. Written by a business associate who has for three years been in a position to appreciate his capacity for hard work and intelligence in its performance. Philip Henry Baker, better known as "Phil Baker," first saw the light of day on April 7, 1885, at Stone Creek, Ohio, a village of less than 100 inhabitants. His father's home cornered up against the railroad station at the edge of the little village. The old saying that "the boy is the father of the man" was well born out in Phil's case, for he could scarcely walk when he fell in love with horses. He looked upon them as almost human-and to see one of them roughly handled cut his little heart to the very quick. As he grew older his chief delight was to organize his boy playmates into a trading community, and it was always observed that certain long sticks set by Phil at intervals along the fence were "horses," each with a name, and any of them for "sale if the boy buyers had the price." The first real rough-and-tumble fist fight he ever had was with a little village lad, and bigger than he, too, who made the mistake of declaring that those animals were not horses at all, but mere pieces of board from the Baker woodshed.
When little Philip was ten years old the Baker family moved from Stone Creek to a farm one mile and a half west of Tuscarawas, Ohio, in what is known as Sharon Valley, where the boy soon became very home- sick for his former playmates in the village. He was a total stranger to the forty odd children in the country school he now attended, but being naturally of a friendly disposition he soon made many chums among them, and further showed his best toward organization by inaugurating a "spelling bee," with added attractions in the way of recitations, songs, etc., such as he was used to in the village. A program was arranged, but when the night for the entertainment arrived and the teacher called upon the different children to recite, their nerve failed them. Little Phil Baker, with a courage that nothing could daunt, jumped into the breach-so to speak-and saved the entertainment by giving the audience three recitations and as many songs, which were not only loudly praised by the teacher but which made
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him the acknowledged leader of the school. Later he received a very good common school education there, but did not move on to high school, as he felt his father needed his service on the farm. He now says frankly that this was a mistake, and he always advises boys to get a thorough schooling, no matter at what cost.
At the age of fifteen Phil was the only one of the three brothers and one sister of the family left at home, and as his father fell sick, all the work of the farm was done by Phil, with the help of a hired man and a hired maid. Two years later his father sold all the stock and implements of the farm and retired from work, an older brother moving his goods home and. taking charge. That year, 1903, Philip worked for a River Valley farmer named John Wolf, whose farm was a large one, conducted very systematically, giving the boy a good insight into business methods as applied to agriculture. He constantly kept his eyes open for new ideas, and when in the following spring he decided to come to Cleveland he was well supplied with health and courage for taking on more responsible duties.
Thus in the spring of 1904 he began to work for the Telling Brothers Ice Cream Company, where for the better part of twelve years he toiled in various capacities, from doing common labor to handling deliveries and assisting in the sales.
The following incident, which had a good deal to do with his promo- tion, and which illustrates his natural faculty for "sticking" to any task assigned him, shows how he began to learn the streets of a big city. He had been placed on a retail delivery wagon taking in every street north of Euclid Avenue and east of what is now known as East Fortieth Street, clear out to the city limits. His first trip was on Thanksgiving day and his wagon, containing seventy private orders, he had loaded, without proper instructions, in a haphazard manner, instead of the load piled according to the streets and their numbers in succession. Here was Phil, knowing abso- lutely none of the streets to be traversed excepting Hough Avenue, Euclid, St. Clair and Superior avenues. It was a day full of trouble. He left the factory at 9:30 in the morning and should have had all the orders delivered by 1 o'clock in the afternoon. He actually did return at 5:30 and brought back five orders for houses he could not find. A good deal of his time had been spent consulting city directories in corner drug stores, you see. All along the way he had worried, and became thoroughly disheart- ened, but the good old Pennsylvania German in his blood made him stick it out. He sure had visions that raw cold day of losing his job, and prob- ably returning to "the old home town" to get his second wind before tackling the big city again. Imagine then his surprise and relief when the foreman actually praised his work, saying he had done better than he expected, as the task was about the biggest even an experienced driver could ever tackle, and had been given Phil because they were desperately short of help.
So, while several more experienced men were laid off at the end of the busy season, Phil went along regularly with his wagon the entire winter. Soon he was promoted to a wholesale wagon delivering to stores, and three or four years later was made a route foreman. In speaking of his experi- ence along about this time Phil recently said: "Most men promote them- selves-by this I mean that when an employe goes out of his way, regardless
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of regular hours of work, to do things for the good of the concern he is working for, you can safely bet that it counts to his credit. I know it was so in my case. Instead of dodging when the wagons were fully equipped with drivers, I took many hours of such days to go out along the different routes and try for new customers, or devoted my time to working out new ideas for the betterment of the ice cream business; and I say it without wanting or meaning to boast, that every improvement upon cabinets and ice cream delivery wagons that was made by that company during the last seven or eight years I worked there was originated by me."
"When did you come into close touch with Mr. Tabor?" the writer asked.
"It was soon after I went on the delivery wagons. Mr. Tabor was general sales manager and secretary of the company, and naturally took an interest in the men responsible for delivering his products to the trade. He was quick to notice and compliment me upon my disposition to make friends for the company among the retail dealers. I also worked with him when he was establishing the Akron and Youngstown branches ; secur- ing stores also in many other Northern Ohio towns. As a result when Mr. Tabor decided to organize a company of his own he asked me to join him, and I did so in spite of very flattering offers then made to me by the older company, which I had served twelve years. (In fact my former employers suddenly concluded my poor services were worth 50 per cent more than ever before.) I am a little proud of the fact that I was the first man on the job with the Tabor Ice Cream Company. I assisted Mr. Tabor in laying plans for the new business, buying equipment, etc., and was with him day and night in the strenuous battle for stores that was waged-and in fact is still going quite merrily and successfully on. Today we are operating sixteen auto trucks, wagons, and over 100 men are in the delivery and sales department under my immediate direction. I am personally acquainted with all but a very few of the store owners we serve, and know nearly every one we do not sell to. I know every street and avenue in Cleveland, and about every road and cross road in nearby towns, which naturally helps me in my delivery arrangement. I am particularly fortunate in having loyal and experienced men about me, many of them at one time working for the other company, and others who have been taken on since. Upon all young men I try to impress the fact that they can promote themselves-it all depends upon their loyal interest in the work and ability to forget the 'clock' when there are things to do that will advance the interests of the Tabor Ice Cream Company."
On March 15, 1919, after a large interest purchased the controlling interests of the Tabor Ice Cream Company, bringing in many new acquain- tances into the forces, I could see no further future for myself, and on that day I resigned my position with the Tabor Ice Cream Company and formed a new company known as the Baker Ice Cream Company, located at 4605 Dennison Avenue, and having a large acquaintanceship among deal- ers. This company has made a great success from the start. After being in business three years, with a large volume of business, it consolidated with a Youngstown company operating factories in Youngstown, Wheel- ing and Huntington, West Virginia, and is now known as the Baker-Evans Ice Cream Company, Mr. Evans being a former associate, with a well
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known reputation, which helps to strengthen the Baker forces. The Baker- Evans Ice Cream Company employs more than 250 employes, and sales for 1924 will be approximately 1,500,000 gallons. Mr. Baker is president of the new corporation and supervises his own business, and keeps in close touch with all his employes, and his organization is made up of men of practical experience, trained under his supervision for a great many years. Many men have been with him as long as twenty years, and have gone with him in every change he has made.
CÆSAR AUGUSTINE GRASSELLI, chairman of the board of directors of the Grasselli Chemical Company, one of the leading concerns of its kind in the United States, has done a large part in the development and upbuilding of this important manufacturing industry, of which his father, the late Eugene Grasselli, was the founder, he having been a native of the historic old City of Strasburg, Province of Alsace, France, where he was born in 1810, he having been one of the honored citizens and repre- sentative business men of Cleveland at the time of his death, in 1882.
Cæsar A. Grasselli was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 7, 1850, and received his youthful education largely under the direction of his father, a man of exceptional intellectuality and high scientific attainments. In 1904 Cæsar A. Grasselli received the degree of Doctor of Science from Mount St. Mary's College, Maryland. In 1885 he became president of the Grasselli Chemical Company, and he continued the executive head of this great Cleveland industrial corporation until January, 1916, since which time he has been chairman of its board of directors. He is presi- dent of the Woodland Avenue Savings & Trust Company and the Broad- way Savings & Trust Company, and is a director of the Union National Bank, the Glidden Varnish Company, and the Akron & Chicago Junction. Railroad. Mr. Grasselli is a member of many important scientific and civic organizations, including the American Chemical Society, the Amer- ican Institute of Mining Engineers, the American Institute of Banking, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the National Civic Federation, the Western Reserve Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural History (New York), and the Ohio Society of New York. In 1910 he received from King Victor Emanuel III the distinction of being made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Crown of Italy. He is a republican, a communicant of the Catholic Church, and has membership in various representative clubs in Cleveland and New York. In 1871 he married Miss Johanna Ireland, of Cincinnati, and their son, Thomas S., succeeded his father as president of the Grasselli Chemical Company.
THEODOR KUNDTZ figures as the founder and upbuilder of one of the great industrial enterprises of Cleveland, that of the Theodor Kundtz Company, of which he is the president and which controls an immense business in the manufacturing of sewing machine woodwork, school desks, church furniture and automobile bodies. Five modern manufacturing plants are operated by this progressive corporation.
Mr. Kundtz was born at Metzenzef, Hungary, July 1, 1852, and in his native land he received good educational advantages, besides learning,.
F. A. Shepherd
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in his father's shop, the trade of cabinetmaker. In 1873 he came to the United States and found employment at his trade in Cleveland. Two years later he assumed control of the little shop that figures as the nucleus of the great manufacturing industry of which he is now the executive head and which represents the results of his ability and well directed efforts. He continued the business in an individual way until 1915, when the Theodor Kundtz Company was incorporated, and he has since been president of this corporation. Mr. Kundtz is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and is valued as a sterling citizen of distinctive public spirit and much civic liberality. He is a republican, a member of the Tippecanoe Club, and a communicant of St. Rose Church. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Balasch, was born and reared in Cleveland, and here their children were born.
WILLIAM W. TAYLOR is president and general manager of the Taylor Machine Company, an important Cleveland concern devoted to the manufacturing of lathes, drill presses, priming cups and other kindred products.
Mr. Taylor was born at New Straitsville, Ohio, August 8, 1879, there received the advantages of the public schools, and in 1898 he came to Cleveland and entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of machinist, besides which he advanced his scientific and mechanical knowledge by attending night school. In 1907 he established the business of which he is still the executive head, and the enterprise was conducted under his name until 1917, when he effected the incorporation of the Taylor Machine Company, of which he has since been the president and general manager. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, holds membership in representative local clubs, and he and his wife are members of Trinity Congregational Church. In 1904 Mr. Taylor wedded Miss Mary Beerer, daughter of the late Joseph Beerer.
FRANCIS ASBURY SHEPHERD, a resident of Cleveland for thirty years, is a lawyer by profession, but his name is most prominently associated with the banking and financial interests of the South Side. He is president of the Home Savings & Trust Company, and the success of that strong insti- tution is largely the result of his capable direction since its founding.
Mr. Shepherd was born in Carroll County, Ohio, June 5, 1866. This branch of the Shepherd family was established in Carroll County more than a century ago. The Shepherds were Protestants from Ireland, and were among the pioneer home makers and developers of Carroll County. The grandfather of the Cleveland banker was George Shepherd, whose life was spent as a farmer in Carroll County. Francis A. Shepherd is a son of Elijah and Jane (Kneen) Shepherd. His father was also a native of Car- roll County, was a farmer, and died at his fine homestead near Harlem Springs in 1887. His wife, Jane Kneen, was born on the Isle of Man, a British subject, and came to the United States and to Carroll County with her parents, who were among the first Manx settlers of Ohio. After the death of her husband she made her home with her son in Cleveland, where she died in 1903.
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