USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 5
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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. Sherman was kindly and tolerant in judgment, as a man who had clear appreciation of the wellsprings of human thought and action, and his natural optimism and spontaneous humor made him the ever delightful companion, comrade and friend. He took specially deep interest in educa- tional affairs, and was a leader in effecting the establishing of the Univer- sity School in Cleveland. His liberality made him non-offensive in his political attitude, and he was a staunch advocate of the basic principles for which the republican party has always stood sponsor. He was an honored member of the Union Club in his home city, was also a member of the Country Club, and was affiliated with the Delta Kappa Epsilon college fraternity. He was a zealous communicant of the Protestant Epis- copal Church, as a member of the parish of Saint Paul's Church, of which his widow continues an earnest communicant.
On the 2d of June, 1875. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sherman and Miss Harriet A. Benedict, daughter of the late George A. and Sarah
Vol. III-3
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(Rathbone) Benedict, of Cleveland, her father having been a pioneer newspaper man in this city, where he was long the editor of the Cleveland Herald. Of the three children of Mr. and Mrs. Sherman two survive the honored father : Sarah is the wife of Edward P. Carter, and they reside at Baltimore, Maryland, their one child being Edward P., Jr .; Henry S., who still maintains his residence in Cleveland, married Miss Edith McBride, and they have four children: Henry S., Jr., John, Elizabeth and Harriet; George B., youngest of the three children, died at the age of seventeen years.
HARRY FRANKLIN PAYER. One of the law firms whose successful status is recognized throughout Ohio, is Payer, Winch, Minshall & Karch of Cleveland. As the head of this firm, the professional standing of Harry Franklin Payer needs no further evidence. He is best known as a public speaker and trial lawyer, and it is said that his record of favorable verdicts is among the highest in the United States.
He is a scholar, a bibliophile, a linguist and an orator, possessed of a remarkable range of interests and tastes ; and when he appears as a public speaker outside of the courtroom he has more than the experience and learning of an able lawyer to give authority to his opinions.
For several years he has been chairman of the Committee on Judiciary and Legal Reform and Legislation of the Cleveland Bar Association. Legal reform has been the theme of many of his writings and speeches, and he is well known as the sponsor and formulator of salutary measures that have been enacted into law. Recently he was one of three lawyers in the State of Ohio appointed by the Governor as a member of the Judicial Council, and charged with the duty of studying the judicial machinery of the state and recommending necessary reforms.
He is the president of the Adelbert Alumni Association of Western Reserve University, a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor scholarship fra- ternity, the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, the Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland Athletic Club, Acacia Golf Club and numerous fraternal organizations.
His mother, Mary Cross, was born in Cleveland and is still living. Her father established one of the first cooperage establishments in Cleve- land. His father, Frank Payer, was born in Bohemia, having come to Cleveland at the age of twenty-seven, and died there in 1895, after attain- ing prominence in Bohemian fraternal and business circles. Two of Harry F. Payer's sisters, Mamie and Catherine, are teachers in the public schools of Cleveland, and his sister Mamie is also principal of the Amer- icanization School (International Institute) of the Young Women's Chris- tion Association.
Harry Franklin Payer was born in Cleveland, July 3, 1875, was gradu- ated from Central High School in 1893 ; from Adelbert College of Western Reserve University with great honor in 1897 (A. B. magna cum laude) ; from Cleveland Law School, Bachelor of Laws, with honors in 1899. From 1901-1907 he was in public office as assistant city solicitor to Newton D. Baker (afterwards secretary of war) in the administration of Tom L. Johnson, mayor of Cleveland. He appeared in litigation resulting from Mayor Johnson's famous three-cent fare ordinances. At high school and
H
Harry V Payer
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college he had earned distinction and medals as an orator and debater. He participated in political campaigns even before graduation, and at the age of twenty-six was chosen secretary of the Democratic State Committee of Ohio.
In biographies Harry F. Payer is marked as probably the outstanding figure among American-born Czechoslovaks in this country. Thomas G. Masaryk, president of Czechoslovakia, has been entertained at his home. Jan Masaryk, formerly Charge d'Affaires at Washington, the distinguished president's great son, is one of Mr. Payer's most intimate friends. Mr. Payer is president of the Czechoslovak Chamber of Commerce and presi- dent of the Czechoslovak Club of America. In 1920 he was chosen to deliver a Fourth of July oration to an immense gathering in the City of Prague, and did so both in the English and Bohemian languages. He was one of the largest individual contributors to the movement to free Czecho- slovakia during the war, and in 1921 served as chairman of the Hoover Relief Committee in the Cleveland District.
Mr. Payer has one of the finest libraries in Cleveland, a lover of fine books and rare editions. His collection of art objects has been gathered from all quarters of the globe. He has traveled widely in this country and abroad and has learned many languages. Indefatigably he prescribes for himself a drastic course of study and reading. Long ago he mastered the difficult art of living on twenty hours a day ; and in spite of his ex- tensive legal practice and large participation in reform and philanthropic movements and other constructive activities, he still finds time for his books, his horseback riding and other outdoor sports.
His lecture on "The Psychology of a Lawsuit" was printed in the American Law Review for March-April, 1922; and one gets a view of what he is himself from what he seems to admire in others. He has character, learning, imagination, the habit of intensive preparation for trial, courage and a knowledge of human nature, and these account for his phenomenal success as a lawyer. He has handled a variety of cases, such as come to few individual lawyers. Much of his service has been given without compensation and numerous stories are told of his unadver- tised benefactions. His own early struggles for an education have made him the loyal friend of the indigent student. A man of deep and intense sympathy and convictions, his passionate desire to secure justice for the oppressed and unfortunate, has frequently brought forth inspired efforts that no mere hope of financial reward could produce.
CHARLES E. JENKINS established his home in the City of Cleveland shortly after the close of the Civil war, and here he passed the remainder of his noble and useful life, which was marked by naught of ostentation but which rendered a fullness of genuine service and exemplified the finest of ideals in all human contacts. Mr. Jenkins long held precedence as one of the leading contractors and builders in the Ohio metropolis, and thus contributed in large measure to the material as well as civic advancement of the community, the while he had secure place in popular confidence and respect. He was sixty years of age at the time of his death, August 27, 1909, and in Cleveland his widow has maintained her home since her childhood days.
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Mr. Jenkins was born at Woodstock, Province of Ontario, Canada, on the 18th of July, 1848, and is a son of Alexander and Martha Jane Jenkins, both of whom were born in Scotland, they having been young folk when they came to America and the remainder of their lives having been passed in Canada. Mr. Jenkins profited by the advantages of the common schools of his native province and there, as a youth, he learned the carpenter's trade, at which he became a skilled workman. He came to the United States at the time when the Civil war was in progress, and found requisition for service in connection with the building of hospitals in various sections of the Union. Within a short time after the close of the war he engaged in the work of his trade in Cleveland, and soon he became associated with the ship-building business, in partnership with William Morris. Thereafter he was for a time retained by the firm of Greece & Wiley in the capacity of superintendent of construction, and eventually he directed his energies to independent operations as a con- tractor and builder. His business was initiated on a modest scale, but his ability, his fidelity to terms of contract, and his energetic moving for- ward of all construction work with which he identified himself caused his business to expand rapidly in scope and importance, with the result that he became one of the leaders in his special field of enterprise in Cleveland. He erected many of the early-day business buildings of the larger and better order, including the Drum Building on Seneca Street, opposite the courthouse of Cuyahoga County, the Croxton Building and many others. He was the contractor in the erection of the old Case Avenue High School building, and also the buildings of the salt works at the foot of Wilson Avenue, a thoroughfare now designated as One Hundred and Fifth Street.
Mr. Jenkins always took loyal interest in everything pertaining to the welfare and progress of his home city, but as his supreme interests were centered in his home and his business he had no inclination toward public office. He was, however, a staunch supporter of the cause of the repub- lican party. He and his wife became charter members of the old Presby- terian Church, whose building was erected and presented to the church organization by the late Nelson P. Eels. Mr. Jenkins expressed his deep religious faith in the daily walks of his life, and was ever zealous and liberal in the support of church work, the same attitude having continu- ously characterized his wife, who since his death has done well her part in connection with the activities and service of the church and parish with which she has been long identified.
On the 15th of May, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Jenkins and Miss Mary Josephine Kenney, daughter of the late James and Margaret (Morrell) Kenney, she having been born in the State of New Jersey and having been a child of three years at the time when the family home was established in Cleveland. Mrs. Jenkins has been a resident of Cleveland somewhat more than seventy years, and has witnessed its advancement from a small lakeport city to the status of the fair metropolis of the Buckeye State. Her reminiscences concerning the early days are graphic and interesting, and in this connection it may be noted that she takes pleasure in reverting to the fact that she rode on the first street car placed in operation in the city, this first street car line, with
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small cars drawn by horses, having extended from the Public Square out Woodland Avenue to Fifty-fifth Street, where was established and developed a small park in which refreshments were served and other simple means of entertainment provided. The original home of the Kenney family in Cleveland was at the corner of Lake and Bond streets. Mr. Kenney died from injuries received when he fell from a building on which he was working in the City of Toledo, and his daughter, Mary J. (Mrs. Jenkins), was about seven years old at the time. The widowed mother kept her family together and passed the remainder of her life in Cleveland, where she was loved by all who came within the compass of her gentle and gracious influence.
Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins became the parents of five children, all of whom survive the father and all of whom have conferred honor on the family name. Dr. Alfred A., eldest of the children, is a representative physician and surgeon of Cleveland. He married Miss Annie B. Hitchcock, and they have five children : Ruth, Alfred A., Jr., Vincent P., Elizabeth and Robert. Charles O., the second son, who is general manager of the Jenkins Steamship .Company of Cleveland, married Miss Elizabeth Thompson, and they have three children: Stuart, Patricia and Charles O., Jr. Dr. Henry E., like his eldest brother, is one of the successful practicing physicians and surgeons in his native city, the maiden name of his wife having been Clara Powell. William B., who is engaged in the paint business in Cleveland, married Miss Helen Harrington of Boston, Massachusetts, and their two children are Mary E. and Nancy H. Flor- ence May Lillian, only daughter and youngest of the children, is the wife of Eugene F. Bush, and they maintain their residence in Cleveland, their two children being Marion and Virginia Trowbridge.
Mrs. Charles E. Jenkins is sustained and comforted by the devotion of her children and their families and by the continued loyalty of a host of friends who are tried and true.
FRANCIS JOSEPH WING. Many unusual qualities of mind and heart and service of exceptional value distinguished the career of the late Francis Joseph Wing, who for more than forty years was a member of the Cleveland bar. Six years were spent on the bench, at first as judge of the Court of Common Pleas and then as federal district judge.
He was endowed with the qualities inherent in a family that had been American for seven generations, he himself representing the eighth generation of descent from John Wing, who brought his wife, Deborah (Batchelder) Wing, and four sons from England to Boston, arriving June 5, 1632. Bani Wing, grandfather of the late Judge Wing, enlisted, at the age of seventeen, in 1779, and was in active service in several cam- paigns in the closing years of the Revolution, being one of the patriot soldiers present at the execution of Major Andre. His son and youngest child, Joseph Knowles Wing, was the pioneer of the family in Ohio.
Joseph Knowles Wing was born at Wilmington, Vermont, July 27, 1810. and at the age of twenty-one, in 1831, came to the Western Reserve of Ohio for the purpose of opening a store, and he established himself in business at North Bloomfield in Trumbull County, and that proved his permanent home. He lived there until his death, January 1, 1898, at the
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age of eighty-eight. Before coming West he had served three years on the staff of Gen. De Witt Clinton in New York. When the Civil war broke out he was commissioned assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, and served until the close of the war, doing duty as a soldier in the battle line at the battle of Covent, when he was promoted to major, was com- missioned lieutenant colonel by brevet and during the Atlanta campaign was made chief quartermaster of the Sixteenth Army Corps and was . recommended for promotion to the brevet rank of brigadier general.
Colonel Wing was one of the last surviving real "Sons of the Revolu- tion," and in 1896 he was made a life member of the Ohio Society Sons of the Revolution. In 1897 he was elected a member of the first class of the Military Order of the Loyal Legions. He was twice elected and served as a member of the Ohio Legislature. Colonel Wing in 1842 married Miss Mary Brown, a daughter of Ephraim Brown, one of the prominent pioneers of the Western Reserve. She was born in New Hampshire, May 28, 1812, and died December 15, 1887. They were the parents of seven children, the two sons being George Clary and Francis Joseph Wing, both of whom became lawyers, and for a number of years were associated in practice in Cleveland.
Francis Joseph Wing was born at North Bloomfield, Trumbull County, September 14, 1850, and spent his youth in that village, which had been laid out by his father and grandfather. He was educated in public and private schools, and Phillips Academy at Andover, and attended Harvard University from 1868 to 1871. He studied law a year in Boston under Caleb Blodgett, continued his studies in Ohio and in 1874 was admitted to the bar. He immediately engaged in practice at Cleveland. He had several law partners, and for many years his ability was employed in a large and important volume of general practice. In the law he found full satisfaction for his ambitions, and the only offices he held were those for which only a lawyer is eligible. During 1880 and 1881 he served as assistant district attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Under appointment from Governor Bushnell he was judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Cuyahoga County from 1899 to 1901, and Presi- dent Mckinley a short time before his assassination appointed him United States district judge in the Northern District of Ohio, and he was on the bench from 1901 to 1905, when he resigned.
On September 25, 1878. Judge Wing married Mary Bracket Reming- ton, whose father, Stephen G. Remington, was for some years active with the Lake Shore Railway Company. Judge Wing passed away February 1, 1918, and was survived by three daughters, all of whom were born in Cleveland, where they attended Miss Mittleberger's School for young ladies, finishing their educations in Eastern schools. The youngest daugh- ter, Stephanie Remington, attended a school at Rosemond, Pennsylvania, and became the wife of William M. Kennedy and they reside on the old Wing homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy have two children, Stephanie and William. The oldest daughter, Miss Virginia Remington Wing, attended Ogontz Seminary, during the World war was with the Civilian Relief Committee of the Red Cross, and is now executive secretary of the Anti-Tuberculosis League. She is also educational secretary of the Cuyahoga County Health Association.
M.A. Boyel
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Miss Marie Remington Wing, the second daughter, finished her educa- tion in Bryn Mawr College, and has been distinguished as an exceptional worker in the social service field. In 1915 she took charge of the West Side Branch of the Young Women's Christian Association in New York City and brought that up to a notable organization of more than 3,000 active members. In the fall of 1917 she was director of all the branches of the Young Women's Christian Associations in New York City, but on January 1, 1918, returned to Cleveland to become general secretary of the Young Women's Christian Association. She is now executive secretary of the Consumer's League of Ohio, and has offices in the Electric Building, and is also a member of the present Cleveland City Council.
WILLIAM HOWARD BOYD has by his ability and his excellent profes- sional stewardship gained high rank at the bar of his native state, and his reputation as a lawyer and publicist has transcended mere local limitations. He has been established in the practice of his profession in the City of Cleveland for thirty-three years.
Mr. Boyd was born in Londonderry Township, Guernsey County, Ohio, on the 11th of August, 1864, and is a son of George W. and Mary A. (Campbell) Boyd. Mr. Boyd passed the period of his childhood and early youth on the homestead farm of his parents in Guernsey County, and in the meanwhile he profited by the advantages of the district schools. His public school education was so effectively advanced that he proved his eligibility for pedagogic service and gave four years to successful work as a teacher, principally in the schools of his native county. Thereafter he read law under effective private preceptorship, and in June, 1887, he was admitted to the bar. The year 1890 recorded his establishing a law office in Cleveland, where he proved his technical powers in his profession and built up a substantial law business. He continued in individual prac- tice until 1908, when he became a member of the representative law firm of Westenhaver, Boyd, Rudolph & Brooks. In 1913 the firm name became Westenhaver, Boyd & Brooks. A subsequent change, in 1917, gave to the firm the title of Boyd & Brooks, and since October of that year the firm, one of the strongest in the Ohio metropolis, has been Boyd, Cannon, Brooks & Wickham.
While still a resident of Guernsey County Mr. Boyd served as clerk of the Village and Township of Flushing, and in the period of 1897-1899 he was assistant director of law for the City of Cleveland. In 1905 he was made the republican nominee for mayor of Cleveland, and the debates in which he participated, in the ensuing campaign, with his democratic opponent, the late Tom L. Johnson, has established an historical record in connection with such municipal campaigns, the Johnson-Boyd debates having gained wide celebrity. Mr. Boyd was a Roosevelt delegate to the Republican State Convention of Ohio in 1912, and was selected as one of the "Ohio Big Four" to represent the Buckeye State as Roosevelt dele- gates to the Republican National Convention of that year in Chicago. In the primary elections of 1920 he was specially active in promoting the can- didacy of Gen. Leonard Wood for the presidency of the United States, and was a delegate at large to the Republican National Convention of that year.
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Mr. Boyd holds active membership in the Cleveland, the Ohio State and the American Bar associations, and is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and the Cleveland Athletic Club. He has, as may be inferred from preceding statements, been a leader in the councils and campaign activities of the republican party in Ohio. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a member of the Euclid Avenue Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
September 7, 1892, recorded the marriage of Mr. Boyd and Miss Anna Maud Judkins, of Flushing, Guernsey County, and she passed to the life eternal on the 23d of September, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Boyd became the parents of two daughters, Mildred A. and Mary G., both of whom sur- vived the mother, but the death of Mildred A. occurred about three years later, on the 22d of January, 1911.
HON. MARTIN L. SWEENEY, judge of the Municipal Court of Cleve- land, was born in this city, and was elected a member of the Legislature before he was admitted to the bar. He has been a prominent and influen- tial leader in civic affairs and politics, and is a very capable attorney and judge.
He was born in Cleveland, April 15, 1885, son of Dominick and Anna (Cleary) Sweeney. His grandfather, John Sweeney, was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, and settled in Cleveland during the '50s, his wife and children joining him in 1859. Dominick Sweeney was born in County Roscommon in 1848, and was about eleven years of age when he came to Cleveland. He was active in local politics as superintendent of catch basins taxations under the administration of Mayor Blee. He died November 4, 1897. His wife, Anna Cleary, was born in County Sligo, Ireland, and was a young woman when she came to America. They were married in Cleveland.
Martin L. Sweeney was twelve years of age when his father died, and he then left the parochial schools, going to work to help support his mother. Later he continued his education in private schools, and was a salesman for several years. Along with his business career he combined an active interest in participation in local politics, and in 1912 was elected on the democratic ticket a member of the House of Representatives in the Eightieth Ohio General Assembly. In that assembly he served as a mem- ber of the House Committee on benevolent and penal institutions and the committee on temperance. He was elected a member to represent Cuva- hoga County to assist in the preparation of the "Model License" bill. He was also active in behalf of much labor legislation of that assembly.
Having in the meantime begun the study of law, Mr. Sweeney was formally enrolled as a student of law in Baldwin-Wallace University at Cleveland, and was graduated Bachelor of Laws in 1914. He had nine years of active and successful experience as a practicing attorney at the Cleveland bar before he was elected to the Municipal Court on November 6, 1923. He entered upon his duties on January 1, 1924. His term of service on the municipal bench is for six years.
Judge Sweeney is a member of the Cleveland Bar Association, the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the
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Knights of Columbus, and is past president of Cleveland Aerie No. 35, Fraternal Order of Eagles. He is also a member of the Sigma Kappa college fraternity.
Judge Sweeney married, August 2, 1921, Miss Marie Carlin, who was born in Cleveland, daughter of Martin and Bridget (Graham) Carlin. They have two children : Martin L., Jr., and a daughter, Anna Marie.
JOHN NEWTON WELD was engaged in the practice of law in the City of Cleveland during a period of more than thirty years, was known for his comprehensive and exact knowledge of the science of jurisprudence, and he put this knowledge effectively into use in connection with his important and representative law business, the scope of which marked him as one of the influential members of the bar of the Ohio metropolis. A gentle, kindly and generous spirit had John N. Weld, and his abiding human sympathy and tolerance, as combined with his gracious personality, gained to him the respect and loyal affection of those who came within the sphere of his influence. Thus he was deeply mourned in his home community when he answered the one inexorable summons, his death having occurred February 7, 1923.
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