USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 35
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"While Whittern, being a professional phrenologist, claimed that he could tell what was inside his pupils' heads by feeling the bumps on the outside, luckily he was not possessed of prophetic power, and could not predict their future. Otherwise there would have been some long faces in our little school.
"The best school-teacher who ever taught me was this strolling English phrenologist, named Charles R. Whittern, for whose memory I have a profound affection. My father induced him to teach a three months' subscrip- tion school in the neighborhood, and, finding that he was a splendid teacher, he and others induced him to teach in that vicinity for more than a year- in fact, until he died. I thought then that he knew everything. I know now that he did not know very much, but what he did know he could teach better than any other man that I ever clapped my eyes on. As between a teacher who knows little, but can incite in his pupils a love of learning. and one who knows a great deal and has not the power, to incite a love of learning, I prefer the former. He is far the more valuable of the two. Whittern built up a great reputation for teaching arithmetic, and a lot of grown men came to school. I was a little lad, only ten years old, but I could outfigure any of them, and those bearded men made a great pet of me."
The death of Charles R. Whittern occurred in Kentucky, in the '60s, and there his remains lay at rest. His wife, whose maiden name was Augusta Stroud, was born in Parma Township, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in August, 1840, and she long survived her husband, her death having
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Dr. Ward C. Bell
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occurred at Cleveland in 1920, after she had attained to the venerable age of eighty years. Mrs. Whittern was a daughter of Charles Stroud, and the ancestral line is supposed to trace back to Holland Dutch origin. In honor of representatives of this family the Town of Stroudsburg, Penn- sylvania, was named. Charles Stroud became one of the pioneer settlers in Parma Township, Cuyahoga County, where he obtained a tract of tim- bered land and literally hewed out a farm from the forest wilds. He married Sally Emerson, of English ancestry, and they continued to reside in Parma Township until their deaths.
Charles S. Whittern, of this review, is the youngest of a family of three children. Carrie is the wife of Charles Holmes, of Bloomingdale, Michigan, and Mary, a former school teacher, is the wife of George Geiger, they being residents on the old homestead which was the place of her birth, in Parma Township.
A son of a father who was signally appreciative of the value of education, Charles S. Whittern received in his youth good educational advantages, and in his eighteenth year began teaching in the district schools of his native county. He continued his successful pedagogic activities until 1884, when he assumed the position of deputy county clerk, under the administra- tion of Dr. Henry W. Kitchen. His ability in the handling of the manifold details of the office led to his being retained in service by the two successive county clerks, Harry L. Vail and William R. Coates, and by his appointment, in 1904, to his present office, that of grand-jury assignment commissioner, he having continued in official service in his native county for a period of forty years. He is widely known throughout the county and has a circle of friends that is equal to that of his acquaintances. He is a repub- lican in politics, and his wife is an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The year 1883 recorded the marriage of Mr. Whittern and Miss Emma A. Pillars, who was born in Wood County, Ohio, a daughter of John M. and Emeline (McBride) Pillars, the former of whom was born in Pennsyl- vania, and the latter was of Scotch ancestry. Hon. James Pillars and Hon Isaiah Pillars, brothers of John M., became influential citizens of Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Whittern have two children: Emerson, who has adopted the original spelling of the family name, Whit- horne, is a talented composer of music, is married and has one son, Cedric V. Miss Hazel Whittern is a graduate nurse and is now (1924) taking a post- graduate course in Columbia University, New York City.
WARD C. BELL, physician and surgeon, with offices in both Lakewood and the West Park district, and residence in the latter, was born on the Bell homestead near Utica, Licking County, Ohio, and is descended from an old family of the state. His great-grandfather, James Bell, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Ohio in 1810 and took up half a section of Government land in Washington Township, Licking County, and there spent the remainder of his life engaged in farming. His son Samuel, grandfather of the doctor, was a lad of ten years when he came with his parents to Ohio. David P. Bell, father of the doctor, was born on the old family farm in 1850, and died in 1892. Like his father and grand- father, he spent his life on the farm. The mother of the doctor, Belle
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Clutter, was born in Knox County, Ohio, the daughter of John and Rachel (Marlin) Clutter, natives of Pennsylvania, who were early citizens of Knox County.
Doctor Bell was born on July 27, 1880, and spent his boyhood on the farm. He was graduated from the Utica High School in 1900, and took the four years' course at Denison University. After taking the four years' course in medicine at Western Reserve University he then entered the Toledo (Ohio) University, where he was graduated with the Doctor of Medicine degree with the class of 1911. During his last year in college he served as interne in the Toledo City Hospital. He entered the general practice of medicine and surgery in Lakewood in 1911, soon extending his practice to West Park, maintaining his residence in the latter, which is now a part of the City of Cleveland. During the last four years he has specialized in obstetrics in which branch of practice he has been very successful. He served as health commissioner of the then City of West Park for four and a half years.
Doctor Bell married Miss Beulah Allyne, who was born in Cleveland, the daughter of the late Joseph Allyne, a former well-known citizen of this city. To Doctor and Mrs. Bell three children have been born : Robert Allyne, Alison Nora, and George Weightman.
Doctor Bell is a member of Ohio Lodge No. 101, Free and Accepted Masons, and the order of the Modern Woodman, and is a member of the official board of West Park Baptist Church.
HARRY HARPER WILCOXEN has been engaged in the practice of law in the City of Cleveland since 1910, and has won distinct prestige and success in the profession for which he had thoroughly equipped himself.
Mr. Wilcoxen was born at Wellsville, Columbiana County, Ohio, Janu- ary 28, 1888, and is a son of Robert and Martha (Geer) Wilcoxen, the former of whom died at Wellsville in 1907, and the latter now resides in Cleveland. She was born in Hancock County, Virginia (now West Vir- ginia ), daughter of Benjamin and Ellen (Jackson) Geer, representatives of families that were founded in the Old Dominion State at an early period of its history.
Robert Wilcoxen was born in Hancock County, Virginia, in 1850, this county being later made a part of the new state of West Virginia. His father, Henry Hardy Wilcoxen, was born in Maryland, and became a pio- neer settler in what is now Hancock County, West Virginia, where he estab- lished his home long before the era of railroad construction in that section, his removal from Maryland having been made with teams and wagons. He reclaimed and improved a productive farm and continued a resident of Hancock County until his death. Robert Wilcoxen was reared in his native county, where he received the advantages of the common schools of the period. Later he moved to Wellsville, Ohio, where he passed the remainder of his life. He was in the employ for nineteen years of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and he was successful also as a builder. Of the two children, the subject of this review is the elder, and the younger, Helen, is the wife of Alfred Morgan, of Palo Alto, California.
In the public schools of Wellsville Harry H. Wilcoxen continued his studies until his graduation from high school, and in preparation for his
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chosen profession he thereafter entered the law department of the great University of Michigan. In this institution he was graduated in 1910, and his reception of the degree of Bachelor of Laws was attended with his admis- sion to the Michigan bar. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of Ohio, and since that time he has been continuously engaged in the general practice of his profession in Cleveland.
March 18, 1913, recorded the marriage of Mr. Wilcoxen and Miss Jessie Whipple, who was born at Providence, Rhode Island, a daughter of Edward and Nettie (Worthington) Whipple. Mrs. Wilcoxen passed to the life eternal on the 4th of March, 1919. Her only child, Robert, died at the age of fifteen months.
On the 18th of October, 1923, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Wilcoxen and Miss Helen Miller, who was born and reared at Ravenna, Ohio, and who is a daughter of E. E. Miller:
BENJAMIN E. LING, director of the Ohio Committee on Public Utility Information at Cleveland, with offices in the Illuminating Building, has been identified with Cleveland journalism practically since he left school, except for the time he was in service during the World war. Mr. Ling was born in the Ling family home on Trowbridge Street in Cleveland. His father, Armin Ling, a native of Germany, was the youngest of thirteen children. Two of his brothers preceded him to America and served as Union soldiers in the Civil war. Armin Ling after getting a good education came to America and located at Cleveland. For upwards of thirty years he was superintendent of the City Insane Asylum, and remained a resident of Cleveland until his death. His wife, Catherine McCrehen, who is a native of Fredericksburg, Ohio, was reared and educated in Wooster, Ohio. They have two children, Benjamin E. and Armin.
Benjamin E. Ling acquired his early education in parochial schools in Cleveland, and in 1908 was graduated from St. Ignatius College. On leav- ing college he became a reporter on the staff of the Cleveland Leader, and in 1911 became a reporter for the Cleveland Press. Mr. Ling in 1918 entered the Government service, being assigned to duty in the quartermas- ter's department at Washington, with the rank of captain.
In the spring of 1919, on being honorably discharged, he returned home, again became a reporter for the Press, but in 1920 resigned to become director of the Ohio Committee on Public Utility Information.
Mr. Ling married, in 1912, Miss Clara F. Schrod, a native of Cleveland, and daughter of Michael and Barbara Schrod. They have three children, Rosemary, Eugene and Anita. The family are members of St. Rose's Catho- lic Church. Mr. Ling is a member of the National Press Club of Washing- ton, D. C., the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, and the American Legion.
PIERRE A. WHITE, a representative member of the bar of Cleveland, a former judge of the Municipal Court and for the past decade an out- standing figure in political and civic affairs in the Ohio metropolis, was born at Sandusky, this state, April 21, 1889. He is a son of Charles and May (Zube) White, the former of whom was born in New York City and the latter in Sandusky, Ohio. Charles White was actively identified with newspaper work for a term of years, in the East and
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later in Ohio, and his death occurred in 1897, in the City of Cincinnati, his widow being now a resident of Cleveland.
Judge Pierre A. White was graduated from the East High School of Cleveland as a member of the class of 1905, and in 1910 he was graduated from the Cleveland Law School of Baldwin-Wallace College, from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Laws, with a virtually coincident admission to the bar of his native state. Upon leaving high school Judge White took a clerical position in the law offices of White, Johnson & Cannon, of Cleveland, and he continued his association with this firm, in varied capacities, including that of student of law, until 1910. After his admission to the bar he was engaged in practice with the law firm of White, Johnson & Neff until December 21, 1915, when he was appointed by Governor Frank Willis to the bench of the Municipal Court of Cleveland. At the time when he assumed this judicial office he had the distinction of being the youngest judge of a court of record in the entire United States. Upon the expiration of his term on the bench Judge White resumed the active practice of his profession, and since 1918 he has been a member of the representative Cleveland law firm of Calfee, Fogg & White, with offices in the Williamson Building.
Under the administration of Governor Davis, Judge White served as assistant attorney-general of Ohio, for the Cleveland district, and from this office he retired January 1, 1923.
Judge White is active and influential in the Ohio ranks of the repub- lican party and has gained distinctive reputation as an eloquent and con- vincing campaign orator. He was toastmaster at the Mckinley Day banquet held in Cleveland at the time when Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, was the guest of honor and delivered his splendid address, entitled : "William McKinley, and Twenty Years After." Judge White served as president of the League of Republican Clubs, and is a member of the Tippecanoe Club and the Cleveland Athletic Club.
August 1, 1914, recorded the marriage of Judge White and Miss Lola Eileen Lowe, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, and they are popular figures in the social life of their home city.
LUNDUS ABIATHAR HILDIE, vice president of the Universal Valve & Fittings Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, was born at Dresden, Ontario, July 31, 1875, son of Christopher W. and Mary (McLeod) Hildie. His parents were Canadians of Scotch ancestry and came to the United State in 1884, locating on a farm in Huron County, Michigan. Subse- quently selling that place, they removed to Kingston, Tuscola County, Michigan, where Christopher W. Hildie died in 1914, at the age of seventy years. His widow is now in her eightieth year.
Lundus A. Hildie began his education in the common schools of Canada, attended a school in Michigan and finished his education in the Normal School at Bad Ax, Michigan. His home has been in Cleve- land since 1895, from the time he was twenty years of age. His first employment was with the Cleveland & Buffalo Transportation Company. The work which led to his permanent business establishment began with his service in the W. M. Pattison Supply Company, hardware and mill
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supplies. He continued with that firm until August, 1921. For fifteen years he represented the company as a salesman of heating and ventilat- ing apparatus, and made a thorough and practical study of everything connected with this business. He has handled a number of important contracts in Cleveland and vicinity for the installation of heating and ventilating apparatus.
His home has been in Lakewood since 1911, and he has become one of that city's prominent men of affairs. In the fall of 1918 he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the Lakewood City Council, and was regu- larly elected in 1919 and reelected in 1921. For two years he was president of the council, and served as chairman of the committee on streets, the committee on rules and ordinances, the committee on city property and parks, the committee on finance, claims and accounts, and was vice chairman of several other committees. He championed the new traffic and present zoning ordinances, and was particularly active in securing the land now in use by the city for park purposes. During the World war Mr. Hildie served as ward captain of Ward No. 2 in three of the Liberty Bond campaigns.
For two years he served as a director of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the City Club. Fraternally he is affiliated with Halcyon Lodge No. 498, Free and Accepted Masons; Cunningham Chapter Royal Arch Masons ; Holy Grail Commandery, Knights Templar ; Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine; the Grotto, and also Lakewood Lodge of Elks, No. 1350. He and his family are members of the Lake- wood Methodist Episcopal Church.
Mr. Hildie married Miss Agnes M. Milliken. She was born at Bay City, Michigan, daughter of John and Emily Milliken. The one son of their marriage is J. Newell Hildie, born April 14, 1910.
ADAM H. LINTZ is an engineer by profession, and has rendered important service with industrial corporations, for the Government and the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce.
He was born at Kenton, in Hardin County, Ohio, in 1889. His father was John Lintz, a native of Germany. John Lintz had a brother, much younger than himself, also given the name John. This brother was born after Mr. Lintz left Germany. On coming to the United States he settled at Belle Center, Ohio, where he spent the rest of his life. In America he always spelled his name John Lins. There were seven children, five of whom now survive him. John Lintz acquired a good education in Germany, and was a young man when he came to America, settling at Kenton, where he established the first meat market in that town. He continued in business there until his death. By his
first marriage he had three sons: John, William and Henry.
His
second wife was Marie Dorn, who came to America with her widowed mother and a brother and sister, and was married in Kenton, where she still resides. She reared a family of five daughters and two sons : Lena, Elizabeth, Katherine, Mary, Flora, Louis and Adam H.
Adam H. Lintz was reared at Kenton, attending the public schools. He was graduated from high school in 1907, and soon afterward went to work as an employe of the Toledo & Ohio Central Railway Company.
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He spent six months with that railroad, and for a year and a half was an employe of the Big Four Railway Company. In this way he earned the money to begin his technical education, working also while in col- lege. In 1909 he entered the Case School of Applied Science at Cleve- land, where he completed his technical education, graduating as a Bachelor of Science in 1913.
After graduating Mr. Lintz became an employe in the plant descrip- tion department of the American Steel & Wire Company, and was pro- moted to chief of the department. In 1914 he was put in charge of the safety department of the work of this corporation in the Pittsburgh district. In 1916 he was transferred to the engineering department, in charge of the construction of a coke plant.
Mr. Lintz was given a leave of absence by the American Steel & Wire Company in August, 1917, to permit him to enter the Government service. He was assigned to duty in the Norfolk Navy Yard as safety engineer during the war. In July, 1918, he was transferred to Philadel- phia as assistant chief safety engineer to the United States Shipping Board, covering 178 shipbuilding plants and 1,000 auxiliary plants. After leaving the service of the Federal Government, Mr. Lintz returned to Cleveland, and in April, 1919, was appointed the first manager of the Cleveland Safety Council, local branch of the National Safety Council, a subsidiary organization of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. In this capacity he has been continued to the present time.
He married in 1923 Miss Sylvia J. Powell, who was born at Kenton, Ohio, daughter of James H. Powell. He is a member of the Sigma Chi and Theta Nu Epsilon college fraternities and was president and treasurer of the Sigma Chi fraternity while in school and has served as secretary of the Alumni Association of same. In Masonry he is affiliated with Latham Lodge No. 154 at Kenton, and is a member of the Al Sirat Grotto No. 17, in Cleveland. He also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Cleveland City Club and the Chamber of Commerce.
LINDA ANNE EASTMAN, librarian of the Cleveland Public Library, has with brief exception been identified with that public institution for thirty years.
She was born at Oberlin, Ohio, July 17, 1867, daughter of William Harvey and Sarah (Redrup) Eastman. Her father was a direct descendant of Myles Standish and also of Roger Eastman, the first of the family to come from England to America, in 1638. Her grand- parents came to Northern Ohio from New York State in 1828.
Linda Anne Eastman was educated in the public schools of Cleve- land, also by private study, and from 1885 to 1892 her work was that of a teacher in the public schools. She taught both in West Cleveland and Cleveland. In 1892 she was appointed assistant at the Cleveland Public Library, and during 1895 and 1896 acted as assistant librarian and cataloguer at the Dayton Public Library. Since 1896 her service has been continuous with the Cleveland Public Library, as vice librarian from 1896 to 1918 and since 1918 as librarian.
She was an instructor in the Library School of Western Reserve
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University from 1904 to 1918, and since the latter year has been assistant professor and library councillor of the same school. She is a member and for several terms was on the council and executive board of the American Library Association, she having served on its training board and is a member of its commission on the library and adult education. She is a member of the American Library Institute, and is a charter member and was president in 1903-1904 of the Ohio Library Association. She has been a contributor to library periodicals, and is one of the nationally known members of her profession. Oberlin College in 1924 conferred upon her an honorary degree of Master of Arts "for conspicuous service in library work."
Miss Eastman is a member of the executive board of the Welfare Federation of Cleveland, serving two years as second vice president of that organization, is a member of the boards of Cleveland Recreation Council, Cleveland Girl's Council, Howe Publishing Society for the Blind, and vice president of the Cleveland Cinema Club and a member of various other philanthropic boards. She belongs to the League of Woman Voters, is a charter member of the Woman's City Club of Cleveland, and served on its board of directors six years and for one term each was second and first vice president.
JAMES H. VAN DORN, founder of the Van Dorn Iron Works at Cleveland, was an inventor and manufacturer, who contributed in notable measure to Cleveland's supremacy as an industrial center during the last half century.
His ancestry was pure Dutch in name and blood, the name being variously spelled, Van Doorn, and in other forms. The nobility of Holland to which many of the early Van Doorns belonged, always recog- nized as the true name, Van Doorn and Van der Doorn. The earliest of whom there is record was Stephen Van Doorn, high sheriff of the Margravate of Antwerp in 1088 under the famous Godfrey de Bouillon. Many later Van Doorns were persons of note in Holland. The family was established in New York as early as 1642. The ancestor of James H. Van Dorn was Didlof Doorn, the first record of whom is of his marriage at Brooklyn in 1680. His son Cornelius Doorn was born probably on Long Island about 1683 and died in 1755, and was a weaver by trade. He moved to Middletown, New Jersey. His son, Nicholas Dorn, was born at Middletown about 1724, and died in 1796. He was a farmer and weaver, and probably was the Nicholas Dorn who served as a private in the Monmouth County Militia in the Revolutionary war. His son, Nicholas Dorn, was born in New Jersey, April 4, 1762.
His son, Isaac Van Dorn, grandfather of James H. Van Dorn, was born at Middletown, New Jersey, October 30, 1791, and died about 1872 in Fulton County, Illinois. He married Mary Chapman, who was born at Saratoga, New York, December 23, 1791, and died September 8, 1828. Their son, Peter Van Dorn, was born in Onondaga County, New York, March 28, 1812, and as a youth moved to Ohio. Between the years 1830 and 1850 he had the reputation of being the "greatest barn builder in Northern Ohio." When he was fifteen years of age, he apprenticed himself to a barn builder near Syracuse, New York, and
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when twenty years of age, began to erect barns in Northern Ohio. It is said of him that "he could spot more timber, lay out and raise a barn quicker than any man in that part of the country." He finally settled on a farm in Lorain County, and stood well in the community. "He was arbitrary in the management of the premises and allowed no swearing, tobacco chewing, smoking or drinking. His strongest trait was the- raising of boys. He knew what to do with a boy from the very start up and the boy generally knew what to do every hour. He was anxious to raise a president of the United States."
Peter Van Dorn died May 13, 1881. He married Keziah Gardner of Connecticut, born December 8, 1812, and died July 12, 1864. They were the parents of ten children.
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