USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 33
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
Mr. Dresser is a member of the Cleveland Athletic Club and the Masonic order. He married in New York City Miss Helen Wallian.
CARL ALBERT STEIN, who is Northern Ohio manager for the Ely & Walker Dry Goods Company of St. Louis, Missouri, maintains his execu- tive headquarters in his native City of Cleveland, where his offices are in the Columbus Building.
In the old Stein homestead, at the junction of the present Woodland Avenue, Fifty-fifth Street and Kinsman Road, a locality that became later known as Rock's Corners, Carl A. Stein was born October 14, 1875, and from that time to the present Cleveland has continued to be his home. He is a son of the late Sigmund and Josephine (Statemeyer) Stein, who at the time of their death were old and honored citizens of Cleveland. Sigmund Stein was born in Germany, and became a resident of Cleve- land, Ohio, in 1848, his wife, who was a native of Switzerland, having arrived in this city a few years later and their marriage having here been solemnized. Sigmund Stein was for many years a successful representa- tive of the real estate business in Cleveland, and he was one of the sub- stantial, well known and highly honored citizens of the Ohio metropolis at the time of his death, in 1906. His widow passed away in 1908.
Carl A. Stein attended the public schools until he was fifteen years of age, and then found employment in a local factory. A few years later he entered the employ of the old established dry goods house of Root & McBride, and with this Cleveland concern he continued his alliance twenty years. He learned all details of the wholesale dry goods business and gradually won advancement until he became one of the most successful
246
CUYAHOGA COUNTY AND
and popular traveling salesmen for this old and reliable house. In November, 1917, Mr. Stein assumed the position of manager of the Cleve- land office of the Ely & Walker Dry Goods Company of St. Louis, and he now has executive charge of that concern's business in Northern Ohio, besides personally acting as salesman for his house in the larger cities of his assigned jurisdiction, including Akron and Toledo. Mr. Stein is a member of the board of directors of the Colonial Savings & Loan Com- pany of Lakewood, and is vice president of the First National Bank of Rocky River, he having been one of the organizers of this institution. He maintains his home in the attractive Village of Rocky River, where he has given nine years of effective service as a member of the Municipal Council and four years as a member of the Board of Education. Of his secure status in popular confidence and esteem in his home village further assur- ance is given in the statement that he is now (1923) serving his sixth consecutive year as mayor. He is one of the liberal and progressive citi- zens of Rocky River, and is an active member of its Chamber of Commerce. His York Rite Masonic affiliations are with Dover Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Cunningham Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; Holy- rood Commandery, Knights Templar; while in Lake Erie Consistory of the Valley of Cleveland he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, besides being a Noble of Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine.
Mr. Stein married Miss Eva M. Mastic, who was born in Rockport Township, Cuyahoga County, and who is a daughter of Frank and Hannah Mastic. Mr. and Mrs. Stein have two sons, Sigmund F. and Carl M. The elder son is a member of the class of '24 in the University of Ohio.
ARCHIBALD J. KENNEL, assignment commissioner of the criminal branch of the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, was reared and educated in this city, and since youth has been well known in newspaper circles, being a former political writer for some of the leading Cleveland dailies.
Mr. Kennel was born in the City of St. Louis, Missouri, October 24, 1878, and is of German-Swiss ancestors. His parents, William H. and Caroline (Weaver) Kennel, were also natives of Missouri, and his father spent most of his life in the newspaper printing business. The family moved to Cleveland in 1887, and William H. Kennel died in this city November 21, 1892. His widow survives him.
Archibald J. Kennel was educated in public schools, and after leaving school went to work with the Cleveland World, at first in the mechanical department and later in the editorial room. His newspaper experience included service with the Cleveland Press and later with the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He spent five years as political writer for the Plain Dealer.
Failing health compelled him to give up the strenuous duties of a news- paper worker. When the Cuyahoga County Liquor Licensing Board was organized, September 1, 1913, Mr. Kennel was appointed its first secre- tary, and he held that office five or six years. When the Court of Common Pleas created the office of assignment commissioner of the criminal branch, the judges of the court by unanimous vote elected Mr. Kennel as assign- ment commissioner. He has performed the duties of this office since Feb-
247
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
ruary 1, 1919. Two years later the judges also appointed him jury com- missioner, and since then he has filled both positions.
Mr. Kennel is well known and influential in democratic party politics of Cleveland. He is a member of the Democratic County Executive Com- mittee. He is affiliated with the Woodward Lodge of Masons and the Cleveland City Club.
He married Miss Elma A. Kenel, daughter of Emery A. Kenel, whose parents came from Germany. The three daughters of Mr. Kennel are : Marjorie Grace, born in 1910 ; Elma Anna, born in 1913, and Irene Lucille, born in 1917.
ALBERT GEORGE STUCKY, who is one of the vice presidents of the Guardian Savings & Trust Company, entered the employ of that great Cleve- land financial institution twenty years ago, and his promotions indicate the fidelity of his service and his unusual qualifications.
Mr. Stucky was born in Kirchdorf, Switzerland, March 17, 1878, and was brought to the United States when a child by his parents, Edward and Elizabeth (Frey) Stucky. The community in which he passed his boyhood and early youth was New Philadelphia, Ohio, where he attended high school. Mr. Stucky's early ambitions were inclined toward a banking career. He was twenty-four when in 1902 he became a clerk of the Guardian Savings and Trust Company. He was promoted to assistant secretary in 1913, and since 1918 has been vice president and trust officer.
Mr. Stucky is affiliated with Glenville Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons ; Mckinley Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; Holy Grail Commandery, Knights Templar ; Lake Erie Consistory of the Scottish Rite ; and Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, the Lakewood Country Club, the Cleveland Automobile Club, the City Club, and Electrical League. His church home is the Detroit Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Stucky married at New Philadelphia, Ohio, May 3, 1904, Miss Mar- garet M. Kinsey, daughter of John W. and Anna (Meyer) Kinsey. They have four children : Edward K., Ralph E., Margart A. and Marian L.
CHARLES EDWARD BENHAM at the age of nine years "went to sea" on the Great Lakes. That was about 1856, the year the republican party presented its first national candidate for president, and five years before the outbreak of the Civil war. Captain Benham has been closely associated with marine transportation, and for some years sailed the lakes as master and vessel owner, and has been a witness of and participant in a remarkable period of development and change affecting the destiny of the City of Cleveland.
He was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, September 29, 1847, son of Samuel and Harriet N. (Williams) Benham. His parents represented old New England families, his father being a native of Middletown, Connecticut, and his mother of Weymouth, Massachusetts. She died in 1897, at the age of seventy-five. Samuel Benham, as a young man, located at Ashtabula, where for many years he was engaged in merchandising, and after 1852 was identified with mercantile interests in Cleveland, being first located on River Street and later on Detroit Street. He, too, died in 1897, aged
248
CUYAHOGA COUNTY AND
seventy-seven years. During the Civil war, with headquarters in the Northern Transportation Building on River Street, he shipped provisions to the army for the Government. Prior to that he had been interested in the vessel business at Ashtabula, interests that coincided with the early experiences of his son, Charles E., on the Great Lakes.
Charles Edward Benham was educated in the public schools of Ashta- bula, and in the Bryant and Stratton Business College at Cleveland. From his earliest recollections he had a great fondness for the water, and began sailing on the lakes in the summer seasons when only nine years old. During the winter months, following the completion of his commercial course, he read medicine with Doctors Boynton and Van Norman for two years, and afterwards with Doctor Van Norman alone for two years, likewise attended lectures at the Huron Street Homeopathic Medical College, but with no intention of engaging in practice as a life work, his reading being done simply for his interest in the profession, and while navi- gation on the lakes was closed.
On August 13, 1862, when sixteen years of age, he sailed his first vessel, as master of the Industry, on Lakes Erie and Huron, and from that time forward was in command of vessels of every description. He first became financially interested in shipping at the time he was made master, and gradually increased his investments, owning at different times the schooners Henry C. Richards, Queen City, Zack Chandler, C. H. Johnson, Reindeer, George Sherman, and the steamers Metropolis, Ketchum, Nahant, H. B. Tuttle and Edward S. Pease, some of which he also sailed. For eleven years he was the owner of the tug Sampson, the most powerful tug- boat on the Lakes, which he sailed for five years. He also owned numerous other tugs, and at one time controlled and operated the White Stack Tug Line of seven tugs. In 1882 he practically left the Lakes, but has continued his financial connection with vessel interests to some extent to the present, although he ceased to be actively interested therein when he entered the United States Government service as special deputy collector of customs in 1898.
At the beginning of the Spanish-American war, during the administra- tion of Luther Allen as president of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, Captain Benham, as chairman of the Navigation Committee, converted the United States cutter Andy Johnson into the First Naval Reserve Ship of Ohio, and commanded her for a number of trips.
About 1882 Captain Benham entered the firm of Palmer and Benham, vessel owners and agents, and while associated therewith represented the marine interests of the Mercantile Insurance Company and also looked after the wrecking and appraising for several different companies. The firm of Palmer and Benham was the first to occupy quarters in the Perry- Payne Building. This relation was discontinued in 1897, when the firm became C. P. Gilchrist & Company, vessel owners, the principal partners being C. P. Gilchrist and Charles E. Benham. Later Captain Benham con- ducted an extensive business in marine surveying, appraising, wrecking and looking after the construction of steel and wooden ships. Probably no other man in Cleveland has a wider acquaintance with the various crafts which navigate the lakes or is more competent to speak with authority upon shipping interests.
249
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
In 1887 Captain Benham moved his residence to the West Side, becoming a member of the Water Board of the West Cleveland Corporation, of which he was chairman until the annexation of that district to Cleveland. He was chairman of the West Cleveland annexation committee and also chairman of the joint committee of annexation of the two cities. As a member of the water board he established the same system as used in Cleveland for the tapping of all water lines and also the system of keeping records in the office. Thereafter, under the Gardner administration, he was a member of the Infirmary Board, and under Mayor McKisson was a member of the City Council. During his term of service he acted as chair- man of the committee which investigated the books of the Consolidated Street Railway Company to ascertain the cost of carrying passengers. Aside from his private business interests and public service already men- tioned, he was for a term of years the first vice president of the West Cleve- land Banking Company, now a branch of the Cleveland Trust Company, with which he has been connected since its organization. He is likewise interested in various other financial and commercial institutions and enter- prises, and is the owner of valuable West Side real estate. He has been an active member of the Chamber of Commerce for many years, and at one time was chairman of the navigation committee ; has for a long period been a member of the river and harbor committee, and has recently been made a life member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed by Cleveland to represent the city in the deep water convention held in Toronto, and in many other ways has put forth effective and far reaching efforts for the promotion of public progress. He was elected to serve the unexpired term of Herman Baehr as president of the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, when that gentleman was elected mayor of Cleveland, and was later reelected, serving for the ensuing year 1911. Captain Benham is also a member of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce.
In an organization which has had for its object the benefit of shipping interests Captain Benham is known as senior past grand president of the International Shipmasters Association of the Great Lakes. The social side of his nature has found expression in his membership in the Cleveland Yacht Club, the Rough Riders Club and Tippecanoe Club, and in his membership in all branches of the Odd Fellows, Masons and other fraternal organizations.
Captain Benham is numbered among the few lake commanders who have not only mastered navigation but have also displayed marked ability in dealing with the financial problems of lake transportation. Through the utilization of the opportunities which have been opened in connection with the shipping interests of Cleveland he has won a thoroughly creditable success. At the same time he has never lived a self-centered life, but with broad outlook he has cooperated with concerns of public importance wherein the city has been a direct beneficiary ; nor has he been unmindful of the social and beneficial amenities of life, which are a source of much happiness to him.
On New Year's eve of 1867 Captain Benham married at Cleveland Miss Mary J. Prescott, a daughter of William Prescott, of Boston, Massachu- setts. Mrs. Benham, who died January 10, 1899, was very active in chari- table and benevolent work, and was a past grand president of Edgewater
250
CUYAHOGA COUNTY AND
Rebekah Lodge No. 264. She was a liberal contributor to the Old Ladies Home and other benevolent institutions. By marriage she became the mother of five sons and two daughters: Capt. C. A. Benham, master of steamers of the Hutchinson fleet until his death in July, 1919; William P., master of the steamer C. L. Hutchinson; George E., master of the steamer John Owen, which was lost on Lake Superior, near Caribou Island, with the entire crew on November 13, 1919; Robert H., formerly chief engineer of the steamer J. J. Sullivan, now Government inspector of steam vessels at Cleveland ; Harrison M., who graduated from Case School of Applied Science and is now division superintendent of the New Jersey division of the New York Telephone Company ; Eva May, wife of J. U. Karr, of the Pioneer Marine Supply Company, dealers in ship supplies ; and Jennie M., wife of Lawrence J. Efferth.
On March 16, 1911, Captain Benham married Miss Minnie M. Hayes, daughter of the late Thomas J. and Jennie Hayes, formerly of Wooster, Ohio. Mrs. Benham successfully filled various positions as bookkeeper and public accountant in Cleveland for about twenty-five years and has been for the past seven years recorder for the Ladies Oriental Shrine of North America, and is connected in an official way with other fraternal organi- zations.
ROBERT HENRY SUNKLE, M. D. In the twenty-six years Doctor Sunkle has practiced medicine and surgery in Cleveland, he has divided his time and energies both with a large private practice and a professional service of a public nature. He has been thoroughly successful in every way, is a hard working doctor, a public spirited citizen, and is a man of unusual interests and accomplishments.
Doctor Sunkle, whose home is on the South Side, was born at Wines- burg, Holmes County, Ohio, November 15, 1863, son of Louis. and Rosina (Unselt) Sunkle. His father was born in Bolanden, near the River Rhine, in Germany in 1836. His family were involved in the German Revolution of 1848, and largely on account of their democratic sympathies and activities they exiled themselves from Germany and came to America. Louis Sunkle subsequently took part in the movement to establish a free state in Kansas, and after that experience settled at Winesburg, Ohio. For many years he was in the grocery business, and also kept a tavern there and owned a small farm near the town. His wife, Rosina Unselt, was born near Stone Creek in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, in 1843, and died at Winesburg in 1915. She was one of the very busy, old- fashioned type of mother and housewife, and in addition to looking after her home she contributed to the family income by running a millinery store. Louis Sunkle and wife had nine children, seven of whom are living : John, deceased ; Robert H .; Leonora, wife of A. Shilgenbauer, a resident of Cleveland; Etta, wife of George Roller, a resident of Winesboro, Ohio; Charles P., a grocery merchant at Cleveland ; Emma, wife of Levi Kinsley, of Cleveland; Theo J., of Cleveland; Irene, deceased ; and Walter L., a salesman of Cleveland. The parents of these children were members of the German Evangelical United Church at Winesburg.
Robert H. Sunkle grew up in the old town of Winesburg, attended the public schools there, and in after years he largely earned the money to
BH. Sunkle ML
251
THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
complete his higher education and prepare himself for a profession. In 1889 he graduated Master of Arts from Ohio Northern University at Ada. He took his professional course in Western Reserve University, being president of both the junior and senior classes in medical school and graduating Doctor of Medicine in 1898. Following his graduation he was appointed an interne in the Lakeside Hospital, and he remained with that institution as resident physician in charge of the dispensary for a period . of twelve years. In the meantime Doctor Sunkle had begun private prac- tice, locating in 1899 in the building of the Pearl Street Savings and Trust Company on West Twenty-fifth Street and Clark Avenue. At that time he was a well qualified physician, but as yet had not accumulated a practice that was highly profitable. When he opened his offices in the Bank Building he had to borrow money to purchase a bicycle on which to make his professional calls. Subsequent years have brought him all the success that would satisfy any reasonable ambition. Doctor Sunkle is now a director in the Pearl Street Savings & Trust Company, and the Broadview Savings and Loan Company, is owner of a fine home on Clark Avenue, and has a good farm of a 100 acres near the city. Prac- tical farming is one of his hobbies, and he is also devoted to literature and travel. In 1923 he made the trip around the world, visiting all prin- cipal countries. The trip consumed five months, and at present he is writing a book of his travels, entitled "Glimpses on a Journey Around the World."
Doctor Sunkle is on the staff of the Lutheran Hospital as chief ob- stetrician. He is a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, and the Ohio State and American Medical associations. Fraternally he is affiliated with Ellsworth Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; Hellman Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Forest City Council, Royal and . Select Masters; Holyrood Commandery, Knights Templar; Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine; Lake Erie Consistory of the Scottish Rite. He belongs to the Brooklyn Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church.
Doctor Sunkle married Clara Viola Karch. She was born at Mount Hope in Holmes County, Ohio, daughter of Frederick and Mary (Pounds) Karch. Doctor and Mrs. Sunkle have two children: Hunter Robert is a graduate of the Lincoln High School and is now attending Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. The daughter, Judith Elizabeth, is a student in the Lincoln High School.
SHELDON SICKELS attained to the venerable age of eighty years. and nearly sixty years marked the period of his residence in the City of Cleve- land. There is no fixed ultimate, no definite maximum in the scheme of human motive and action, but the man who best uses his intrinsic powers and objective opportunities comes most nearly to the realization of his maximum potentiality. This was significantly shown in the career of Sheldon Sickels, who made his influence large and benignant in connection with business affairs, whose intellectuality and well poised personality well equipped him for a goodly measure of influence in the directing of popular thought and action, and whose aid was given loyally to the advancement of educational interests and all other agencies making for social betterment. This nation has had very few who have been closer and more appreciative
252
CUYAHOGA COUNTY AND
students of the history and teachings of the Masonic fraternity, and in much pertaining to this time-revered organization Mr. Sickels was a nation- ally recognized authority. A man who thought well, taught well and worked well was this honored and veteran business man of the Ohio metropolis, and it is gratifying to pay in this work a tribute to his memory.
Sheldon Sickels was born at Albion, the judicial center of Orleans County, New York, March 25, 1839, and at his home in the City of Cleveland, Ohio, his death occurred November 7, 1919. He was a son of Henry J. and Rebecca (Sheldon) Sickels, who continued their residence in the old Empire State until their death, the father having been one of the prominent and honored citizens of Albion, where he served a number of years in the office of postmaster, besides having represented Orleans County in the New York Legislature. Sheldon Sickels profited by the advantages afforded in the public or common schools of his native place, and also attended a business college in the City of Rochester, but in the acquiring of a really liberal education in the passing years he had recourse to fortifying self-discipline through well ordered study and reading, the while he made the most of the progressive influence which practical experience ever lends. As a lad of fourteen years, Mr. Sickels began to assist his father in the Albion postoffice, and later he was appointed to a clerkship in the New York State Legislature, of which his father was a member at the time. When he was about eighteen years of age he went to the State of Michigan, and after having there been employed a few months as a bookkeeper he returned to the old home in New York.
On the 29th of April, 1860, about one month after celebrating his twenty-first birthday anniversary, Mr. Sickels arrived in Cleveland, the city that was to continue the stage of his activities during the remainder of his long and useful life. Here he found employment as bookkeeper in the office of the Gordon, Fellows & McMillan Company, and with compensation represented only in the providing of his room and board during the first month he so definitely proved his efficiency that he was given a regular salary of $35 a month. Out of his salary for the first year he saved eighty dollars, and as a mark of special appreciation of his efficient and faithful service Mr. Gordon, one of his employers, presented him with a bonus of $50, which he was thus able to add to his reserve. Mr. Sickels continued to give evidence of his capacity for larger responsibilities, and thus won advancement of consecutive order. In three years he thus gained promotion to the position of cashier for this company, which was then the largest concern of its kind west of New York, its province being the handling of wholesale groceries, etc. In his two years of service as cashier Mr. Sickels became an expert in the detecting of counterfeit money, and it may be said in this connection that all through his signally active business career he made each successive experience render to him knowledge of enduring value.
After leaving the employ of the company mentioned in the preceding paragraph Mr. Sickels here became a manufacturer of sewing-machine cabinets, and after establishing the industry on a solid foundation he sold the same, taking the buyer's note for virtually the entire purchase price. Under the changed control the business failed before the note matured, and Mr. Sickels consequently realized nothing from his labor and his investment. In the meanwhile he had formed the acquaintance of the officials of the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.