USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 41
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Dr. Moses Chapin Sanders received good educational advantages and prepared himself for the medical profession. He was for a time engaged in the practice of his profession at Manchester near Canandaigua, New York, and in 1818 he made the overland journey with team and wagon to Ohio, the beautiful and opulent Western Reserve having been at that time little more than a forest wilderness where Indians still disputed dominion with the wild beasts and where civilization yet maintained a somewhat precarious foothold. Doctor Sanders became a pioneer physician in Huron County, established his home at Peru, then a frontier hamlet and was faithful and unselfish in his professional stewardship which involved many hardships. In his humane ministrations he traveled about on horseback, over roads that hardly deserved the name, in summer heat and winter cold with his saddlebags for the transporting of his medicines and other pro- fessional accessories. It is interesting to record that his saddlebags are preserved as a family heirloom and are now in the keeping of his grandson, Franklyn Sanders. Doctor Sanders continued in the active practice of his profession in Huron County until his death which occurred in May, 1856. He wedded Miss Harriet Maria Thompson, who was born in Saratoga
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County, New York, January 24, 1798, her father having been a prominent physician at Ballston Spa of that state. Mrs. Sanders survived her hus- band a few years. They reared to maturity three of their children, William David, John Chapin and Elizabeth Chapin.
After a preliminary education along academic lines, Dr. William David Sanders entered the theological seminary or department of Western Reserve University, then established at Hudson, Ohio. He was graduated in this institution and was ordained a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. His first pastoral charge was at Ravenna, Ohio, and eventually he removed with his family to Jacksonville, Illinois, where he became a member of the faculty of Illinois College. In this institution which was founded in 1830 under the auspices of the Congregational Church, he continued his effective services during the remainder of his active career, and after his retirement he continued to maintain his home at Jacksonville until his death. His wife was a daughter of Ezra Smith, Jr., who was born January 30, 1805, a son of Ezra Smith, Sr., who was born January 13, 1754. Ezra Smith, Jr., who was but thirty-four years of age at the time of his death, December 20, 1840, was a pioneer of Peru, Huron County. He became a successful merchant and miller, and though he died when still a young man, he had accumulated a substantial fortune as gauged by the standards of the locality and period. The maiden name of his mother was Phoebe Wolcott. Ezra Smith, Jr., married Miss Amy Grønnell Brownell, who was born March 17, 1807, and who survived her husband a term of years. They reared three daughters, Cornelia Ruth, Albina Gertrude and Mary Ermina.
Doctor and Mrs. William David Sanders became the parents of five children, namely: Cornelia, William Brownell, Charles, now deceased, Mary, who died in childhood, and Clarence. Cornelia is the wife of Frank Elliott, a prominent banker at Jacksonville, Illinois.
Judge William B. Sanders was afforded the advantages of Whipple's Academy at Jacksonville, Illinois, and thereafter continued his studies in the Illinois College of which faculty his father was a member as previously noted. From this institution he received the degrees of both Bachelor and Master of Arts, and the college subsequently conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. After his graduation from the Illinois College, Judge Sanders entered the Albany Law School in the capital city of New York State and in this celebrated school he was graduated as a member of the class of 1875 with the degree Bachelor of Laws. In the same year he was admitted to the bar of his native state, Ohio, and in the summer of 1875 he initiated the practice of his profession in the City of Cleveland where he has remained during the long intervening years, and where the records of jurisprudence give evidence of his large and worthy achieve- ment in his profession. Here he continued in general practice until the year 1888, when Governor Foraker appointed him to fill a vacancy on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas for Cuyahoga County. In the same year he was duly elected to this judical office of which he continued the incumbent until 1890, in January of which year he resigned to resume the active practice of his profession. He has since continued a member of the representative law firm of Squire, Sanders & Company, which controls a large and important law business and has high rank at the Ohio bar.
Judge Sanders is a loyal and liberal citizen who takes lively interest in
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all that touches the welfare of his native city and state, and is identified with various civic organizations of representative character. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he is an active member of the Cleveland Bar Association. He holds memberships in the Union Club, the University Club, the Kirtland Country Club and the Mayfield Club, all of Cleveland, and in the City of New York, he has membership in the University Club and the Down Town Association. In Cleveland he has served as vice president of the Society for Savings, and a director of each the Guardian Trust Company and the National Commercial Bank, besides which he has become a stockholder in various industrial corpora- tions of local order. Judge Sanders and his family have an attractive summer home at Kennebunkport, Maine, and his New England holdings include also a fine stock farm near Woodstock, Vermont, where are to be found the best types of fine Guernsey cattle and Morgan horses.
In the year 1884 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Sanders and Miss Annie E. Otis, who was born and reared in Cleveland, and who is a daughter of the late Charles A. and Eliza (Shepherd) Otis. Judge and Mrs. Sanders have one daughter, Mary Erminie, who is the wife of Harold T. Clark of Cleveland, their children being five in number, namely: David Sanders, Mary Erminie, John Terry, William Sanders and Annie Otis.
SYDNEY LEVIN, M. D. One of the highly qualified young physicians and surgeons of the South End of Cleveland, Doctor Levin was born in this city, and through his mother is descended from one of the pioneer Jewish families, one which had much to do in early days with the welfare of the people.
Doctor Levin was born in Cleveland, June 5, 1898. His father, Jacob Levin, was born in Russia, and was nine years of age when brought to the United States and to Cleveland. Here he married Sarah Copperman, a native of Cleveland. Her father, Isaac R. Copperman, was born in Russia, and came to the United States a short time before the outbreak of the Civil war. Landing at New York he struck out for the West on foot. For a brief time he was at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, being there when John Brown the abolitionist was under arrest awaiting execution for his raid. Not long afterward the war broke out, and while Harpers Ferry he found a confederate $100 bill, which at that time had full market value. With the proceeds of the find he arrived in Cleveland, and established himself in business as a bottle exchange broker. He became very successful and used his prosperity in many ways for the benefaction of his people. Jacob Levin, father of Doctor Levin, has been an oil salesman for many years and at present is traveling representative for the Warren Refining Company in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
A year after the birth of Doctor Levin his parents removed to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he first attended public school, later the family lived at Fairmont, in the same state, where Doctor Levin finished his high school course. He then entered West Virginia University at Morgantown, and was graduated Bachelor of Science in 1920. He did his medical work in the University of Cincinnati, graduating Doctor of Medicine in 1922. After a year's interneship in the Mount Sinai Hospital of Cleveland,
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Doctor Levin engaged in private practice as a physician and surgeon with offices in the Union Trust Company's branch bank on Buckeye Road.
He is a member of the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, the Ohio State and American Medical associations, and belongs to the Sigma Lambda Pi college fraternity.
H. A. RITTER. The wonderful success that has attended the activities of H. A. Ritter, of the Ritter Commercial Trust, Cleveland, would seem by the magnitude of his operations to have come about through some happy chance or fortuitous circumstance. On the contrary it has been attained through the possession of foresight and ability and the capacity for taking full advantage of business opportunities.
Mr. Ritter was born at Upper Sandusky, Wyandot County, Ohio, February 18, 1888, and is a son of F. C. and Elizabeth (Koppe) Ritter. His father, who was of Swiss ancestry, was also born at Upper Sandusky, where he was engaged in the furniture business for thirty years, and was a man of ability and energy, whose integrity made him highly esteemed by the people, of his community. He is now living in retirement at Upper Sandusky, where resides also Mrs. Ritter, whose father was from Germany while her monther came from Holland. Mr. and Mrs. Ritter has one son and one daughter, the former the elder.
H. A. Ritter attended the graded and high schools of Muncie, Indi- ana, and after taking a commercial course in a business college began the study of law in an attorney's office. He gave up that profession, however, to become a salesman of securities, a line in which he con- tinued until 1915, in that year embarking in business on his own account under the firm style of H. A. Ritter Company. In 1916 he incorporated the business for $6,000, and in the following year the capital was increased. In 1918 the business was turned over to the Ritter Com- mercial Trust, and the present paid-up capital is over $1,000,000. The Ritter Commercial Trust is now a holding company, but operates from its offices the following: the Metropolitan Securities Company, one of the largest and oldest companies in the world devoting its activities solely to handling automobile loans and discounts; the Metropolitan Motor Insurance Company, an Ohio corporation which is licensed to furnish all forms of automobile insurance, and writes a standard stock company form of policy, being the only company of its kind at Cleveland; the Ritter Commercial Company, dealing in investment securities, and the Cleveland Credit Company, which furnishes credit reports and renders a collection service for banks, business houses and professional men. The organization occupies about 8,000 square feet of space in its Cleveland office, at 423 Euclid Avenue, and also maintains branch offices in the Haberich Building, Akron, Ohio; the Wick Building, Youngstown, Ohio; the Crosby Building, Buffalo, New York; and at 185 Devonshire Street, Boston, Massachusetts. About 100 people are given employment. In the building up of this great organization Mr. Ritter has made use of his inherent ability and of the opportunities which have come to hand, and has established the enterprise on a solid foundation, its operations being carried on along legitimate channels of trade.
Mr. Ritter is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland,
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and is a thirty-second degree and Knight Templar Mason, belonging also to Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise holds membership in the Cleveland Grays, the Cleveland Athletic Club; the Boston City Club of Boston, Massachusetts; the National Republican Club of New York City, and the Acacia Country Club of Cleveland.
GEORGE W. LINK, who is an expert accountant and who as such is employed in his native City of Cleveland, is a representative of the third generation of the Link family in Cuyahoga County. Mr. Link was born in the family home, then on Swan Street, Cleveland, and is a son of August and Wilhelmina (Puklowski) Link, both natives of Prussia, where the former was born in Libenau and the latter in Sal- field, her parents having passed their entire lives in that district of Prussia, she having come to Cleveland to join her sister Louisa, who is now the widow of Fred Kallanbach. Christian Link, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, eventually, as the only son, inherited the old homestead farm which his father owned and operated in Prussia, and there he continued his activities until the spring of 1873, when, with his family, he set forth to establish a home in the United States. Upon arriving at the port of Bremen his wife was attacked with a severe illness, and it was not deemed best for her to attempt the voyage across the Atlantic under such conditions. She remained at Bremen, therefore, in the care of her son August, while the other members of the family embarked, on the 3d of April, for the voyage to America. They landed in the port of New York City and thence came to Cleveland, where Christian Link passed the remainder of his life and where his death occurred in the year 1881. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Scholke, succumbed to the illness that had attacked her at Bremen, and in that city her death occurred April 9, 1873, her son August, who had remained with her, having attended to her burial and having then on the 19th of the same month, set sail to join the other members of the family in the United States. After a tempestuous voyage he landed in New York City on the 19th of June, and thence he came forthwith to Cleveland. On the 6th of August he here entered the employ of the city, and since the 16th of July, 1883, he has retained a permanent position in the service of the city government. He received his early education in his native land, and is a member of a family of five chil- dren, Louisa, Mary, August, Gottfried and Herman, all of whom came to the United States. Louisa became the wife of Christian Jornbefski and Mary became the wife of Gottfried Kujem. December 23, 1873, recorded the marriage of August Link to Miss Wilhelmina Puklowski, and the children of this union are five in number: Mary A. is the wife of Rudolph Gilbert and they have one son, Ray; Herman was the next in order of birth, Henry is the next younger, George W. is the immediate subject of this review, and Ruth is the wife of John W. Woodburn, their one child being a son, John W., Jr. The religious faith of the family is that of the Catholic Church.
The preliminary education of George W. Link was acquired in a parochial school in Cleveland, and thereafter he continued his studies by attending the Dykes School, which was then one of the excellent
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educational institutions of his native city. Upon leaving school he found clerical employment, and he has made a record of success in his work as a skilled accountant. He has continued an enthusiastic student and reader, and in his attractive suite of bachelor rooms, on the second floor of the fine new residence erected by his father in 1890, for the family home, at 7611 Decker Avenue, he maintains a comprehensive and well selected private library, which he puts to use most effectively in his otherwise leisure hours. He has shown exceptional taste in the selection of the various appointments of his rooms, notably in providing effective repro- ductions of paintings by old masters and various other artists. He delights in extending to his many friends the hospitality of his individual suite and of the parental home as a whole.
CHRISTOPHER B. WILHELMY. The Wilhelmy family has been identified with the florist and nursery business in Cleveland for two generations. The active head and owner of the business today is Christopher B. Wil- helmy, whose training in that line dates back to early boyhood. He is a thorough business man, has built up one of the largest enterprises of the kind in Northern Ohio, and is a thoroughly public spirited citizen as well.
Mr. Wilhelmy was born in Cleveland, September 22, 1874, son of Mathias A. and Catherine (Weigle) Wilhelmy. His parents were both born in Germany, but were brought to the United States when children. Mathias Wilhelmy was born in 1852, and in 1855 his father, Peter Wil- helmy, brought the family to the United States and settled on a farm at Avon in Lorain County, Ohio. Peter Wilhelmy lived out his years on that farm. Mathias came to Cleveland at the age of fifteen, and found his first employment in a hardware store. In 1872 he married, and soon went to work for his father-in-law, Christopher Weigle, who at that time had charge as manager of the old Case Nurseries. These nurseries, well known to the older generation of citizens, extended from St. Clair Street between what is now Thirtieth and Fortieth streets, to the lake front. Subsequently Mr. Weigle bought land on old Doan Street, now 105th Street, and Superior Avenue, and there developed extensive nurseries of his own. This continued to be a flourishing business for a number of years. A short time after his marriage Mathias Wilhelmy and J. M. Curtis established what was known as the Forest City Nursery Company on the old Columbia Road, now West Twenty-fifth Street. While still in business with Mr. Curtis, he also established a floral shop on the corner of West Twenty-fifth and Dover streets, and conducted a branch nursery there. Mathias Wilhelmy was in business at that location until his death in 1902. His wife died in 1900.
Christopher B. Wilhelmy acquired his education in the parish schools and in St. Ignatius College. He graduated from college in 1890. Already he had devoted several years during holidays, vacations and after school hours to learning all the details of the nursery and floral business, from work in the greenhouses to looking after the sales end, and after his school days ended he was actively associated and had increasing responsi- bilities until he was practically manager at the time of his father's death. Later he acquired the ownership, steadily year after year has expanded
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the volume of business and increased its facilities until his is one of the most successful industries of the kind in the city.
Mr. Wilhelmy is a member of the Society of American Florists, of America, and the Cleveland Florists' Association. He belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, is a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, being a member of Gilmore Council, and is a communicant of Blessed Sacrament Catholic Parish.
He married Margaret Aspell, daughter of Patrick and Margaret Aspell of Cleveland. Their family consists of three daughters and one son : Margaret, Christopher B., Jr., Catherine and Dorothy.
JOSEPH E. KREFT is secretary and manager of the Oak-Homes Realty Company, a subsidiary of the United States Mortgage Company of Cleveland.
Mr. Kreft was born in Toledo, Ohio, December 12, 1893, and is a son of the late Ignatius Kreft, who was born in Germany, and who was for twenty-five years successfully engaged in the dry goods and notions business in the City of Toledo, he having been one of the substantial and highly respected citizens and business men of Toledo at the time of his death, March 20, 1920. Of the family of six sons and two daughters, all survive the father except one son, the subject of this sketch having been the third child in order of birth.
In the public schools of his native city, Joseph E. Kreft continued his studies until he had duly profited by the advantages of the high school, and thereafter he took a thorough course in a leading Toledo business college. As a youth he took a position in the Ohio Savings Bank & Trust Company in Toledo, and with this institution he continued his connection seven years. When the nation became involved in the World war Mr. Kreft enlisted for military service, and in the same he continued nine months, or until the war came to a close. After receiving his honorable discharge he held for one year a position in the Probate Court at Cleveland, and for the ensuing period of two and one-half years he held the position of teller in the offices of the Union Trust Company of this city. Since severing his connection with this banking corporation he has been associated with the real estate department of the United States Mortgage Company, with which he became salesmanager of the Oak-Homes Realty Company on the 15th of November, 1921, he being now secretary and manager of this important subsidiary company, the offices of which are in the Hickox Building. Mr. Kreft is loyally aligned in the ranks of the republican party, and his religious faith is that of the Catholic Church, in which he is a zealous communicant.
THE UNITED STATES MORTGAGE COMPANY. So broad, varied, benig- nant and valuable is the influence of this important Cleveland corporation that this publication may consistently accord to it specific recognition by incorporating, with minor elimination and paraphrase, a review that appeared in a recent edition of the Cleveland Legal News.
One of the notable organizations of Cleveland, and one which is inher- ently sound and gives every evidence of becoming increasingly valuable and successful, is the United States Mortgage Company, the offices of which are in the Hickox Building, which was established in 1921 and has an authorized capital of $250,000. Its plans and methods are distinctive.
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Realizing that continued success over a long period of time comes only as a result of effective service rendered to those with whom it does business, the United States Mortgage Company has developed an organization and a plan of operation that represent the greatest possible advantages to both stockholders and clients.
The company's plan is to handle worth-while developments in and around Cleveland. It specializes in individual homes and small housing projects, believing that such enterprises are the most favorable to the community and the soundest basis for mortgage investments. The com- pany's service to clients comprehensively includes everything incidental to the development of such properties. The real estate department assists in the selection of building sites, carefully analyzing the comparative values of different localities ; the architectural department prepares plans for buildings, and these are not only well adapted to the sites chosen but also combine the maximum facilities and space which may be obtained for any given investment. The construction department of the company, known as the N. P. McCallum Engineering & Construction Company, is a subsidiary of the United States Mortgage Company. It handles con- struction work at actual cost to clients. Under its direction the best materials for the purpose are purchased in the open market for cash, thus assuring minimum cost. All subcontracts are handled by a carefully selected corps of concerns, each of the subcontractors being a stockholder in the United States Mortgage Company, and all of them being consequently interested in the success of the company and the quality of its service.
D. A. Dyche, president of the United States Mortgage Company, has been active in construction and mortgage lines virtually all his life. He has had comprehensive experience and has made a substantial success. R. R. Lane, vice president and secretary of the company, is president of the Lane School at Euclid Avenue and East Fifty-seventh Street. He has made a real success in his line, and is well and favorably known. Frank P. Gaffney, the company's treasurer, is now a merchant in Cleveland and was in the city treasurer's office under the administration of Mayor Tom Johnson. W. W. Gard, a director of the company, gives much of his time to its interests. He was for twenty-five years in the banking business in Columbus and Newark, and is highly respected in the financial circles of the state. Mrs. Mary E. Leibel, of Conneaut, Ohio, is likewise a director and was selected for this position as the choice of a large number of the company's stockholders in her home locality. Albert Strauch, assistant secretary of the company, was for some time assistant secretary and treasurer of the National Steel & Tube Company.
J. E. Kreft, secretary and manager of the subsidiary organization known as the Oak-Homes Realty Company, is individually mentioned in the preceding sketch. N. P. McCallum, head of the construction department and a member of the Board of Directors, has had a long and successful experience. He is a graduate of Penn State College, and was for some time in the bridge, engineering and construction department of the Pennsyl- vania Railroad. In connection with the engineering department of the City of Los Angeles he was there associated with harbor development, and in the World war period he was chief cost engineer of the United States Housing Corporation at Washington.
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