USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 34
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Union Steel Screw Company, and in 1873 he accepted the office of secretary of this corporation, a position which he retained thirty-two years, until April, 1906, when he became vice president of the company. He had served also as general manager of the company from 1878 onward, and was the highest-paid official of this important industrial corporation, his interest in which he retained until his death.
With his home, his business and his affiliation with the Masonic fra- ternity as his dominating interests for many years, Mr. Sickels had no desire to enter the arena of practical politics or to become a candidate for public office. His civic loyalty, however, was of the highest type, and his political allegiance was given to the republican party. He was ever ready to lend his influence and tangible aid in the advancing of educational and moral interests, and in this connection it is to be recorded that he was one of the founders of the University School, to the development and upbuild- ing of which he contributed in generous measure, the institution being now an important and well ordered unit of the educational system of Cleveland and the graduating class for the year 1924 mustering fifty-four members.
In the year 1867 Mr. Sickels was raised to the degree of Master Mason in Tyrian Lodge, and he then advanced through the other York Rite bodies until he reached his maximum affiliations, in Oriental Commandery, Knights Templars. After having received in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite the thirty-second degree Mr. Sickels had the distinction of gaining also the supreme and honorary thirty-third degree, which was conferred upon him in the City of Boston in 1880, he having been the thirteenth Mason in the United States to receive this degree and having been the oldest thirty- third degree Mason in this country at the time of his death. He was a past master of Tyrian Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and passed official chairs in the various other Masonic bodies with which he was identified, he having run the full gamut of both the York and Scottish Rites. While in the City of London, England, in 1870, Mr. Sickels received a special invitation that enabled him to attend the meeting of the English Grand Lodge and there to witness the ceremony of inducting the Prince of Wales into the office of grand master, the Prince having later become King Edward VII, and having succeeded Earl de Gray in the office of grand master of the British Masonic Grand Lodge on the occasion when Mr. Sickels was thus present.
In his study of the great mass of material touching the history and teachings of the Masonic fraternity Mr. Sickels manifested an enthusiasm and pertinacity that resulted in his becoming a recognized authority, as stated in the opening paragraph of this memoir. Not until the latter years of his life did he consent to abate his earnest study of Masonry, and then only in accordance with the admonition of his physician, who urged his cessation of such close application. His own estimate of what the Masonic fraternity stands for has been given in the following statement made by him: "I wish to express my belief that one who lives in accord with its tenets is as fully assured of future salvation as one who places his faith in the doctrines of the church."
On his trip abroad in 1870 Mr. Sickels visited France as well as England, and as he was in France at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian
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war, he experienced no little difficulty in leaving the country. He again visited Europe in 1883, and in a diary which he faithfully kept for many years is noted his wonderment at the great expenditure of time and money being made by the Germans in the building of immense forts and the extending of fortifications to manifold strategic points. He lived to see and know the reason for this systematic movement of militarism, as the great World war came to its close the year prior to his death.
September 29, 1864, recorded the marriage of Mr. Sickels and Miss Elli- nor L. Davies, daughter of John and Eliza (Babcock) Davies, her father having been a representative wholesale merchant in Cleveland. Of the five children of this union the first born was Llewella, who is the wife of Charles Keim, of Cleveland ; Bert L. died at the age of sixteen years ; Miss Grace Ella maintains her home in Cleveland, as does also Edith Sheldon, who is the wife of Marley T. Reynolds; and Malcolm Clark, youngest of the number, resides in the City of Chicago, the maiden name of his wife having been Ada Hewston.
CLAUDE ALFRED WILKINSON, vice president and secretary of the United Banking and Trust Company of Cleveland, was born in Brooklyn Village, now a part of the city, on February 24, 1879, the son of Charles A. and Julia A. (Tilby) Wilkinson, and a grandson of Simon Wilkinson, who settled in Hinckley Township when he came to Cuyahoga County from New York State over seventy years ago.
Charles A. Wilkinson was born on the family farm in Hinckley Town- ship in 1854. His wife, Julia A., was born in Parma Township, the daugh- ter of William Tilby, who came over from England and settled on the farm in Parma Township during the '50s.
Claude A. Wilkinson was educated in the common schools of Royalton and the Brooklyn Village High School, and also took the course in a commercial school. At the age of eighteen years he entered the Old Farmers and Merchants Bank as a clerk. In 1904 he joined the organiza- tion of the United Banking and Trust Company as bookkeeper, later was promoted assistant treasurer, then secretary-treasurer, and in 1919 he was elected vice president-secretary, and so continues.
Mr. Wilkinson is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland Chamber of Industry, of Brooklyn Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Webb Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and of the Westwood Country Club, Clifton Club and the Cleveland Athletic Club.
Mr. Wilkinson married Alta B. Mawby, who was born in Fremont, Ohio, daughter of the late John Mawby, and to their marriage two sons have been born: Wesley A., aged seventeen years, and Paul W., aged twelve years.
MRS. MAY C. WHITAKER. As a writer for newspapers, magazines and clubs, as a leader in civic and philanthropic activities, Mrs. May Tarbell Cannon Whitaker is one of the best known women of Cleveland. She is a member of the Western Reserve Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, and has done much conscientious work in proving up her ancestry.
She was born at Bedford, Ohio, October 15, 1858, daughter of Leverett
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and Mary Helen (Tinker) Tarbell. The Tarbells were pioneers of the Ohio Western Reserve. One of her ancestors in the paternal line was William Tarbell, who served as a soldier in the American Revolution. William Tarbell married Ann Chapman. Mrs. Whitaker's grandfather, Col. Abner Chapman Tarbell, of the Ohio and Connecticut Militia, married Lucy Parke Jones, daughter of Asa Jones, another Revolutionary veteran. The wife of Asa Jones was Lucy Parke, daughter of Nehemiah Parke, another soldier of the American Revolution. Col. Abner Chapman Tarbell, grandfather of Mrs. Whitaker, was born at Colchester, Connecticut, August 24, 1791, a son of William and Ann (Chapman) Tarbell. He founded his family on a farm in Wickliffe, Ohio, in 1817, where they lived until very recently, when a part of the Tarbell farm became the estate of Frank Rockefeller, Esq. Col. A. C. Tarbell died January 6, 1869. Leverett Tarbell was born November 17, 1819, in what is now Willoughby ( Wick- liffe), Lake County, but was then Chagrin, Cuyahoga County. In early life he was a school teacher. In 1849 he engaged in merchandising at Bedford and was a merchant there for a quarter of a century. He also handled real estate and served as postmaster and justice of the peace. He died in 1903, his wife having passed away in 1902.
Mary Helen Tinker, who became the wife of Leverett Tarbell and the mother of Mrs. Whitaker, was born in Columbus, New York, May 22, 1829. When she was five years old her parents, John and Marilla (Holt) Tinker, moved to Ohio and located in Cleveland. John Tinker was born in Guilford, Vermont, son of Almarin Tinker, of Windham, Connecticut, and grandson of Nehemiah Tinker, a Revolutionary soldier. Almarin Tinker married Leafa Stowell, of Vermont. Nehemiah Tinker married Mary Huntington, of Connecticut. Marilla Holt, wife of John Tinker, was the daughter of Elijah and Anna (Dickey) Holt, of Wilton, New Hampshire. Elijah Holt was a son of Jeremiah Holt. Referring again to the paternal line of Mrs. Whitaker, her ancestor Nehemiah Parke married Sybil Douglas, whose ancestors include for three generations the notable Deacon William Douglas of New England.
The first husband of Miss May Tarbell was Grove Gordon Cannon, born at Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, son of Alonzo S. and Delia R. (Hawkins) Cannon. Alonzo Samuel Cannon, born in Aurora, Portage County, was the son of Victor M. Cannon and Caroline (Baldwin) Cannon. Caroline was the daughter of Samuel Smith Baldwin, the first sheriff of Cuyahoga County. Delia R. Hawkins was a daughter of Jesse Gould Hawkins of Streetsboro Corners, Portage County, Ohio. Grove G. Cannon, who died February 5, 1888, at the age of thirty-three, was a traveling salesman, representing the old wholesale grocery house of Babcock, Hurd & Company. By her first marriage Mrs. Whitaker had three children.
Tom Tarbell Cannon, her oldest son, was born at Marion, Ohio, August 8, 1881. He was educated in the Bedford graded schools, the City High School of Cleveland, Case School of Applied Science, and is now a member of the Cleveland Stock Exchange. He married Dell Fulton, daughter of H. F. and Elizabeth (Boyd) Fulton, and they had one daughter, Elizabeth May, who died in 1920 at the age of eight years. Mr. and Mrs. T. T. Cannon now reside in Pasadena, California.
Herbert Grove Cannon, the second son, was born April 10, 1883, was
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educated in the School of Mines of Columbia University, receiving the Mining Engineer degree, and is a mining engineer of Cleveland, identified with interests in this city, in New York and California. He married Clarion Buell, a daughter of Dr. A. C. and Ada (Wait) Buell, of Cleveland, and they have one son, Herbert Grove, Jr., born May 2, 1911.
Dana Alonzo Cannon, the third and youngest son, was born May 26, 1885. He was educated in the public schools of Cleveland, and is now head of Cannon & Company, manufacturers of brick and tile at Sacra- mento, California. He married Claire Lavenson, daughter of Gus Laven- son, a shoe merchant of Sacramento. They have one daughter, Patricia, born March 4, 1917.
On October 15, 1894, Mrs. Cannon became the wife of Alfred Whitaker. Mr. Whitaker was born August 3, 1851, and was killed at a railroad cross- ing, February 8, 1896. His parents were Andrew M. and Mary Jane (Smith) Whitaker. His father, born in Mifflin Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1823, was a son of Abraham and Mary (McClure) Whitaker. Abraham Whitaker spent his life in Pennsylvania and for over a quarter of a century served as justice of the peace. Mary McClure, the wife of Abraham Whitaker, was a daughter of Andrew McClure, a native of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who married Mar- garet Barnett. Andrew McClure Whitaker, father of Alfred Whitaker, came with his mother to Ohio in 1847, but a year later returned to his old home in Pennsylvania. In 1849 he married Mary Jane, daughter of Joseph and Phoebe Smith, of W. Brownville, Pennsylvania, and in 1850 they came to Ohio, residing in Bedford, Cuyahoga County until this aged father entered the great beyond, one month after the tragic death of his son.
Alfred Whitaker was a well known business man of Cleveland. He was the founder of the Brooks Oil Company of this city and was owner of the same at the time of his death. He was a leader in democratic politics. The family home was in Bedford, but following her husband's death in 1896 Mrs. Whitaker brought her little family to Cleveland for better educational facilities.
By her second marriage Mrs. Whitaker has one son, Alfred Andrew Whitaker, born September 23, 1895. He was educated at Dartmouth Col- lege and Western Reserve University, graduating from the latter in 1917. Immediately he entered the First Officers' Training Camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. He was commissioned a lieutenant and assigned to Camp Sherman. He went overseas with the Eighty-third (Ohio) Division and was on duty in France for eight months. He is now associated with Cannon & Company at Sacramento, California.
Mrs. Whitaker spent her girlhood in her native town of Bedford, where she attended high school. It was her steadfast ambition to get a liberal edu- cation, something that young women of that time seldom achieved. By teaching school she paid her expenses while in college and university, attended Willoughby College and subsequently graduated Bachelor of Lit- erature from Ohio Wesleyan University with the class of 1879. In 1905, in recognition of her work in philanthropy, Ohio Wesleyan University conferred upon her the honorary degree Master of Arts. Soon after graduating she was married and went to live with Mr. Cannon at Marion, Ohio, which was a convenient residence for him as a traveling salesman.
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Later they returned to Bedford, Ohio. Mrs. Whitaker many years ago became prominent in the non-partisan Woman's Christian Temperance Union, conducting in Cleveland Central Friendly Inn, Mary E. Ingersoll Working Girls Club, Training Home for Friendless Girls, Lakeside vacation cottages for working girls and Rainey Memorial Institute. She served several years as city and state president of that organization.
Throughout her residence in Cleveland Mrs. Whitaker has been promi- nent in democratic politics. In 1901 she entered the democratic primaries for nomination for member of the Cleveland School Council, campaigning with Tom L. Johnson. She was nominated and during the campaign that followed she addressed meetings in every precinct. She was elected by a substantial majority, and served four years. While a member of the council she was responsible for the founding of the special schools for defectives and served as chairman of the committee on revision of rules and chairman of the committee on old buildings.
It was about 1904 that Mrs. Whitaker took up writing as a serious vocation. Her first paid article was "A Canvas Cottage," published in the magazine, Suburban Life. This article describes her three summers' experience of living in a tent cottage at Bedford. Subsequently she con- tributed to various magazines and newspapers and was admitted to the Cleveland Women's Press Club, now the Cleveland Writers' Club, of which she has been three times elected president. For a number of years she was on the staff of the Cleveland Press, writing at space rates. In 1915 she entered the Press office as associated editor of the woman's depart- ment, writing the column called "Mrs. Maxwell's." When the World war came on this department, as an information bureau, gave special attention to the location and welfare of the boys from Cuyahoga County, thereby giving much comfort to distressed parents. On all war questions Mrs. Whitaker's department became an authority, second only to the Red Cross, and news pertaining to units was, by order of the editor, submitted to Mrs. Whitaker before publication.
Mrs. Whitaker is a member of the executive board of the women's department of the Cleveland Centennial Commission. This was organized for the centennial of 1896, and is a self perpetuating commission designed to preserve the early history of the city and to provide material for the celebration of the next centennial of the city. Mrs. Whitaker is a member of the committee having in charge the publishing of "The Memorial to the Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve," recently completed in five volumes. She is a member of the Epworth Euclid Methodist Episcopal Church. She is a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of Cuya- hoga County and the state. As this brief sketch indicates, Mrs. Whitaker is a woman of most versatile talents. Much business passed through her hands because of being twice left a widow. She opened and sold several allotments and incorporated The Brooks Oil Company and acted as its presi- dent for three years. One of Mrs. Whitaker's most cherished memories is the statement of the probate judge in commending most highly her work as guardian of the persons and estates of her four children.
H. RALPH HADLOW, who is one of the representative construction engineers established in business in Cleveland, was born and reared in this city, and is the only male scion of the third generation of the Hadlow Vol. III-17
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family in Cuyahoga County. In the work of his profession he maintains his well appointed offices in the Finance Building.
Mr. Hadlow, who was here born on the 30th of December, 1881, is a son of John Hadlow, who was born in a district now included in the City of Cleveland, in the year 1839, a son of Henry R. Hadlow, who was born and reared in Hadlow, England, and who became the pioneer representative of the family in Cleveland. Henry R. Hadlow came to the United States about the year 1830, and on a portion of his westward journey to Cleve- land he utilized wagon and ox team as a medium of transportation. At that period the section now embraced in the western part of Cleveland was given over to farms and forest tracts. He purchased land that is now bounded by West Twelfth, Starkweather, Fruit and Castle Avenue, and there conducted a successful market-gardening business for a long period of years, he having been upward of ninety years of age at the time of his death, was one of the sterling pioneer citizens of the Ohio metropolis. The family name of his wife, who was well advanced in years at the time of her death, was Fields, and she likewise was born in Hadlow, England. They became the parents of seven children, namely: Thomas, Henry, James, George, John, Sarah and Lydia. John Hadlow eventually purchased the interest of the other heirs and came into full ownership of the old homestead place. There he continued the market-gardening busi- ness several years, and with the substantial growth of the city in that district he finally found it expedient to sell his land, which was acquired by a syndicate and which is now substantially built up as an integral part of Cleveland. John Hadlow lived virtually retired for a number of years prior to his death, which occurred in 1920, within a few months after his eightieth birthday anniversary. He married Miss Hannah M. Raines, who was born in Merthyr-Tydvil, Wales, a daughter of John and Sarah (Evans) Raines, with whom she came to the United States about the year 1863, the family home having been established in Cleveland, where her father was identified with the oil-refining business until his death. Mrs. Hadlow still resides in Cleveland, and is the mother of three children, Gertrude, Carolyn and H. Ralph.
In the public schools of Cleveland H. Ralph Hadlow continued his studies until his graduation from the high school, and for a time thereafter he was a student in Williams College. He next completed a thorough engineering course in the Case School of Applied Science, Cleveland, and he has since been engaged in successful business as a constructing and consulting engineer. He takes loyal interest in all that touches the welfare and advancement of his native city, is a republican in politics, a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and he and his wife hold membership in the Congregational Church.
The year 1910 recorded the marriage of Mr. Hadlow and Miss Luella Allen, who was born in the City of Rochester, New York, a daughter of John and Margaret (Campbell) Allen, both of Scotch lineage. Mr. and Mrs. Hadlow have one son, John Allen.
GEORGE HUMPHREY CAMP, D. D. S., who has been engaged in the prac- tice of his profession in Cleveland for twenty years, has become a leader both in his profession and as a citizen in the Brooklyn section of the city.
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Doctor Camp was born at the old Camp homestead in Columbiana County, Ohio, September 20, 1884, son of Castner and Margaret (Consor) Camp. This is a pioneer family name in Columbiana County. Its founder in that section of Eastern Ohio was Daniel Camp, a native of Pennsylvania and of German parentage. His son, Garrett Camp, was born in Colum- biana County. Castner Camp, son of Garrett and father of Doctor Camp, was a native of the same county and is still active in the management of the old homestead there. His wife, Margaret Consor, was born in the same county, daughter of John F. Consor, also born there, where his parents settled in pioneer days.
Doctor Camp as a boy attended district schools near the home farm, also the graded and high schools at Salem, Ohio, and took up the study of dentistry in the office of Dr. E. E. Dyboll and later in the office of Dr. Homer G. Rymer, both of Salem. Doctor Camp in 1901 entered the Dental School of Western Reserve University, graduating Doctor Dental Science in 1904. Immediately after his graduation he established his office at the corner of West Twenty-fifth Street and Dennison Avenue, and subsequently removed to the corner of West Twenty-fifth and Archwood streets. All his practice has been done in one general locality, including the old Village of Brooklyn. Doctor Camp is a member of the Cleveland, the Northern Ohio, the Ohio State, and National Dental societies, and also the Cleveland Chapter and the Supreme Chapter of the Delta Sigma Delta fraternities. He is also affiliated with Brooklyn Lodge of Masons and the Zion Evangelical Church. Doctor Camp married Miss Cliffie B. Steitler, a native of Owensboro, Kentucky, and daughter of Adam, Jr., and Elise Auer Steitler.
CHARLES S. WHITTERN, who holds the office of grand-jury assignment commissioner for Cuyahoga County, is showing in this connection the same loyalty and effective stewardship that have characterized his activities throughout a career of distinct service and usefulness.
Mr. Whittern is a native of Cuyahoga County, he having been born on the parental home farm, on York Road in Parma Township, July 31, 1857. His father, Charles Richard Whittern, was born in Hawley, England, in 1833, a son of Richard Whithorne, who was born and reared in that same district in England and who there remained until 1845, when he came with his family to the United States. This voyage of the Whithorne family was made on a sailing vessel of the type common to that day, and after landing in the port of New York City the family passed a few years in Schoharie County, New York. Removal was then made to Cuyahoga County, where Charles Whithorne, a brother of Richard, had previously established residence, at Newburg. Richard Whithorne rented a farm in Newburg Township, and there engaged in gardening and minor farm enterprise. There he remained until after the death of his wife, and he passed the closing years of his life in the home of his brother Charles, who had removed to Monroeville, Indiana. Mrs. Whithorne, who was a widow at the time of her marriage to Richard Whithorne, died about the year 1861. Of her second marriage were born two sons, Thomas and Charles Richard.
In England Charles Richard Whithorne attended one of the branches
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of the Winchcombe Union School, and at the age of eight years he was one of the three most deserving pupils who were each awarded five pounds and a family Bible, the presentation having been made by Lord Ellenborough, who placed his signature on the flyleaf of the Bible presented to Mr. Whit- horne, the leaf bearing this signature being now in the possession of Charles S. Whittern. In the State of New York Charles R. Whithorne advanced his education by attending Schoharie Institute, where he fitted himself for service as a teacher. Soon after his arrival in Cuyahoga County he engaged in teaching, and several years later he moved to Kentucky, where he continued his effective pedagogic service. He taught school in the Glen Creek Meetinghouse, near Lawrenceburg, Washington County, that state, and among his pupils was the late Hon. Champ Clark, ex-speaker of the House of Representatives in the United States Congress. Incidentally it may here be noted that Charles R. Whithorne found it expedient to change the original spelling of the family name, Whithorne, to the present form, Whittern, this action on his part having been taken because the original spelling led to popular misspelling and mispronunciation of the patronymic.
Of special interest are the following quotations, taken from the recently published autobiography of Hon. Champ Clark :
"Of Whittern's arithmetic class, one was voted a gold medal by Congress for heroic conduct on the field (Civil war), one was killed fighting valiantly under Quantrell, one was wounded, under Banks, at Mansfield, the Prather twins were killed in a private feud (Levi Coulter, who killed them became a fugitive from justice), and the youngest member became speaker of the House of Representatives.
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