USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland, (Vol. 3) > Part 6
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John Newton Weld was born at Richfield, Summit County, Ohio, May 15, 1863, and was a son of William and Rebecca (Newton) Weld. After completing his studies in the public schools he attended a collegiate pre- paratory school at Hudson, and in 1882 he entered Adelbert College, now an integral part of Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, an institu- tion in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886 and from which he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In consonance with his well formulated plans for a future career he forthwith began the study of law, under the preceptorship of the representative Cleveland law firm of Baylor & Hall. He was admitted to the bar in June, 1888, and soon afterward formed a law partnership with the late State Senator Clark. Later he was associated in practice with Major Burns, and after the latter's retirement from the firm he formed a partnership alliance with Judge Whelan, with whom he continued to be thus associated until 1903, when he became junior member of the law firm of Judson & Weld. This partnership continued until the death of Mr. Weld, but during the last fifteen years of his life Mr. Weld gave the major part of his time and attention to the management of the large estate of his uncle, the late John Newton, of Toledo. In his profession Mr. Weld proved a resource- ful trial lawyer, but he was best known for his exceptional ability as a counsellor and for the fine judicial discrimination that enabled him to determine with authority the points of equity and justice in every cause to which he directed his professional service. Though a staunch advocate of the principles of the republican party, and admirably fortified in his opinions concerning economic and governmental policies, Mr. Weld had neither the nature nor the ambition that prompt to political activity or the seeking of public office. He considered his profession worthy of his un- divided allegiance, and by his character and achievement he lent distinction and dignity to the vocation of his choice. His devotion to home and friends was flawless, and he was loved and admired for his intrinsic nobility of character.
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On the 5th of May, 1923, the Cleveland Bar Association held a special service in memory of Mr. Weld, who had been one of its honored and popular members for many years, and from the eulogy delivered on this occasion by his former law partner, Calvin A. Judson, are taken the fol- lowing quotations :
"Mr. Weld will be remembered by the older members of the Cleveland bar as an able and upright lawyer, a sincere and loyal friend, a man of sterling worth. He was, however, a poor partisan. To him there were two sides to every question. Possessing the judicial mind, he would have made an excellent judge. The stamp of candor, honesty and fairness was on all his dealings. Snap judgments and ex parte hearings he abhorred. Tender, considerate and kind in all human contacts, the nickname of 'Gentle John' was fairly earned. His one shortcoming was, perhaps, his modesty. Yet, we are told that 'In times of peace there is nothing so becomes a man as modesty.' A simple shaft of Parian marble should mark his grave, bearing the inscription : 'John Newton Weld, Gentleman.'"
On the 23d of May, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Weld and Miss Louise Cole, of Geneva, Ashtabula County, she being a daughter of Lyman M. and Angeline (Rouse) Cole, and a representative of a family that was founded in New England in the early Colonial period of our national history, members of this family having come from England to America on the historic ship Mayflower, and ancestors of Mrs. Weld having been patriot soldiers in the War of the Revolution, so that she is eligible for and affiliated with the Society of the Daughters of the Amer- ican Revolution. Mrs. Weld maintains her home at 1780 East Eighty- ninth Street, Cleveland, and is active and popular in social, cultural and church circles in her home city.
HON. JOSEPH JOHN ROWE is a native son of Cleveland, has spent thirty years in the business program, being president of two successful companies, is a resident of Lakewood, and is in his second term of service as a member of the Ohio State Senate.
His parents were William J. and Mary (Symons) Rowe, natives of England, where they were married. Coming to the United States, they located at Cleveland during the early '70s. William J. Rowe took up rail- roading, and for many years, until he retired on pension, was with the Lake Shore and the New York Central Railway. After retiring he spent a number of winters in California, and died at Los Angeles in 1921, at the age of seventy-three. His wife died in 1913.
Joseph John Rowe was born at Cleveland October 3, 1873, and his education was acquired in the city grammar and high schools. Leaving school he took up business, and for several years he proved his faithfulness in the discharge of minor duties as a preparation for an independent career. Later he organized the J. J. Rowe Company, wholesale dealers in coal and builders' materials. This firm has its offices in the Hanna Building.
Mr. Rowe's home has been in Lakewood for a quarter of a century. Throughout that time he has been prominent in the affairs of the com- munity. Before Lakewood became a citv he served three years as presi- dent of the Village Board of Trustees. He was the first mayor of Lake-
JBboffinberry
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wood under the city charter, and after serving a full term was reelected without opposition. He was elected on the republican ticket a member of the State Senate in 1920, and reelected in 1922. He has been one of the most influential members of the Cuyahoga County delegation in the Senate. At the regular Eighty-fourth Session of the General Assembly in 1921 he was chairman of the important senate committee on public works, as well as a member of other committees. In the Eighty-fifth Assembly of 1923 he was chairman of the committee on roads and highways. At both ses- sions he took a prominent part in all legislation pertaining to taxation, and introduced several important bills that were enacted in the laws.
Mr. Rowe is a member of Newburg Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner.
JOHN BEACH COFFINBERRY. The Coffinberry family, of which John Beach Coffinberry of Cleveland and Lakewood is an honored member, has been in Ohio for almost a century and has given to the state several of her most distinguished jurists, business and professional men. The family is of Holland Dutch extraction and its founders in America settled long before the Revolutionary war, in Berkley County, Virginia.
George L. Coffinberry, the pioneer of the family in Ohio, was born near Martinsburg, Virginia, February 10, 1760, son of a Baptist minister, but not imbued with such peaceful principles that they interfered with his serving as a brave soldier under General Greene, in the Revolutionary war. He married Elizabeth Little, who was of French-German descent, and in 1794 removed to Wheeling, now in West Virginia, and in 1796 came to Ross County, Ohio. Later he went to Lancaster, Ohio, where he bought the Olive Branch, which was the first newspaper published in Fairfield County. In the spring of 1809 he removed to the village of Mansfield, where he erected and conducted the first hotel, but he resided in one of the blockhouses that were erected on the village site during the War of 1812- 13 when the Indians menaced the place. Both he and wife lived into old age, her death occurring in her ninetieth year, and when he died on August 13, 1851, he was almost ninety-two years old.
Andrew Coffinberry, son of George L. and Elizabeth (Little) Coffin- berry, was born at Martinsburg, Virginia, August 20, 1789, and died at Findlay, Ohio, May 11, 1856. He learned the printer's trade in his father's newspaper office at Lancaster, Ohio, and later published a paper of his own at St. Clairsville, after which he went to Philadelphia, where he worked as a printer for a time and then shipped as ordinary seaman and served two years in the Federal navy under Commanders Brainbridge and Hull, on the old frigate Constitution. He returned then to his parents' home at Mans- field and read law from 1811-1812 and was admitted to the bar in 1813 and became distinguished in his profession. According to the custom of the time, he traveled on horseback over the circuit, its era extending from Mansfield to Lake Erie and on the west to the Indiana state line. His son James M, adopted his profession and became a celebrated judge at Cleve- İand.
Abraham Coffinberry, youngest son of Andrew Coffinberry, was born at Mansfield, Ohio, in 1812. He followed farm pursuits until 1849, when he crossed the plains to California in company with others, but reached no
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farther than Sacramento, where he was taken ill and soon died. In those days it took a long time for news of any kind to be transported, and many weary months went by before his family learned that he would never return. The maiden name of his wife was Eliza Beach, who was born near Mans- field, Ohio, and died at Springfield, Ohio. Her father, the maternal grand- father of John Beach Coffinberry of Cleveland, was Jonathan Beach, who came to Ohio from Scotland and settled early in Richland County. To Abraham and Eliza (Beach) Coffinberry eight children were born. The youngest of these, John Beach Coffinberry, was born at Spring Mills, a few miles distant from Mansfield, Ohio, on April 7, 1847. He attended the common schools, and leaving the farm at an early age went to Mans- field. From there the family moved to Bellefontaine, Ohio. At the age of eighteen he came to Cleveland. He then went East for three years, engaged with a sewing machine company in Pennsylvania and New York. In 1870 he came back to Cleveland, where he read law in an attorney's office and attended law school. He then went to Tennessee and met with much business success in that state. He remained there for two years, at the end of that period being admitted to the Tennessee bar. He was a member of the Cleveland City Council in 1882, ran for Congress in 1896 on the democratic ticket for the Fourteenth District.
Mr. Coffinberry returned then to Cleveland, but shortly afterward visited Texas and during his stay there was much impressed with the vast possi- bilities of that state, and the need of modern transportation facilities for the development of her business centers. His interest along this line con- tinued and at a later date he returned to Texas and, representing eastern capital, he built the line of interurban railway from Dallas to Fort Worth.
For a number of years Mr. Coffinberry was a prominent citizen of Lorain, Ohio, serving as mayor of that city and identifying himself with its most important enterprises. He was one of the builders and was president of the Lorain & Elyria Interurban Electric Railway, and was instrumental in having the Johnson steel works removed from Pennsylvania to Lorain. He was serving as mayor at the time a military company was recruited here for the Fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and helped raise the necessary funds for the same and entered its ranks as a private. When the war with Spain came on the company was called out. On account of his age he was advised to resign, but this recommendation was entirely distasteful to him, his reply being that he had belonged to the regiment in time of peace and as a good soldier could not resign in time of war. Therefore he accom- panied the organization to Florida, where he was transferred to the com- manding general's headquarters to be given the rank of captain. When it became evident that his regiment would never be needed in Cuba, he accepted a furlough and returned home, where he later was discharged. He had, however, set an example of patriotism and devotion to duty that is not forgotten and may well be emulated.
Mr. Coffinberry was married in Ohio to Miss Bertha Shotter, who was born in Connecticut, her parents being natives of the Dominion of Canada. They have two sons: John, who attended Harvard University and the Iowa State Agricultural College, then went to South America and spent two years there in the cattle business; and Arthur S., who is a student,
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND
taking special courses in the Case School of Applied Sciences at Cleveland.
After establishing his home at Lakewood, Ohio, Mr. Coffinberry was elected mayor, later served on the board of education and in other capacities of civic importance. He was one of the organizers of the Colonial Savings & Trust Company of Lakewood and is vice president of the same, and also was one of the organizers of the Lakewood State Bank and was a member of its board of directors when that bank was taken over by the Guardian Savings & Trust, and a director for another year. He still is active in the business world, extensively interested in real estate in Ohio and Michigan, and since 1918 has been treasurer of the R. C. Products Trust Company of Cleveland. He is a man of modest pretension who, nevertheless has great reason to be proud of his life's achievements. Mr. Coffinberry was a member of the war board during the World war and served until the war was over.
JOHN RICHARD CAUNTER was a young man of twenty-one years when he left his native England and came to the United States. He made Cleveland his objective point, and in this city, by his own initiative, resourcefulness and energy, he has developed a substantial and prosperous business enterprise that is conducted under the title of the John R. Caunter Company.
Mr. Caunter was born at Pondsworthy Mills, Devonshire, England, May 22, 1872, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Hanaford) Caunter, who passed their entire lives in Devonshire, where the former died at the age of eighty-two years and the latter at the age of seventy-five years. John Caunter operated a farm, a saw mill and a wagon shop, and also was the village undertaker-a substantial citizen who ever commanded unquali- fied popular confidence and respect.
The schools of his native community afforded John R. Caunter his early education, and in the meanwhile, as a lad of nine years, he began to assist in the work of the home farm, plowing and planting having there been successfully negotiated by him when he was but thirteen years old. Later he served his time at the carpenter's bench, and as a boy and youth he frequently expressed a determination to come eventually to the United States, a desire that was increased when elder brothers here established their homes. He, the youngest in a family of sixteen children, mani- fested his filial solicitude by remaining at the parental home until he attained to his legal majority. He then, with money he had earned and saved, defrayed the expenses of his voyage to the United States, and he made Cleveland his destination, as four of his brothers were at the time residents here. He arrived in Cleveland October 7, 1893, and here he worked at the carpenter trade until the panic of that year brought a virtual cessation of building activities. He then found a job driving a team, and in the spring of 1895 he made his initial and modest venture in the sawdust and kindling business. He paid $25 for a wagon, hired a horse for $3 a week, and with this equipment he peddled sawdust and kindling about the city. Gradually his little enterprise increased in scope, and finally he established permanent headquarters at 2315 East Thirty-eighth Street. Of the success that has attended his vigorous and well directed efforts evidence is given in the
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statement that he now has a business that requires the operation of seven automobile trucks and gives employment to several men. He now sup- plies 90 per cent of the shavings and sawdust used in Cleveland for commercial purposes, and his clientage includes many of the leading manufacturing, industrial and commercial concerns of the city. He keeps available at all times a large stock of pine, hardwood and cedar sawdust and shavings, as well as kindling wood of all kinds, and his business is now the largest of its kind in Northern Ohio.
Mr. Caunter is specially and vitally interested in the local and inter- national affairs of the Kiwanis clubs, and he has the distinction of being president (1923) of the Cleveland Kiwanis Club, which was the second to be organized in the United States, and the service of which has been of inestimable value in furthering the civic and material interests of the Ohio metropolis. Prior to his election to the presidency of this fine organ- ization he had served as a director and as vice president of the club.
In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Caunter affiliates with Bigelow Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Thatcher Chapter, Royal Arch Masons ; Windermere Council, Royal and Select Masters ; Holy Grail Com- mandery, Knights Templar; Lake Erie Consistory of the Valley of Cleveland, besides being a Noble of Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine, and affiliated with Al Sirat Grotto, Veiled Prophets of the En- chanted Real, in which he is chief justice at the time of this writing, in 1923.
Mr. Caunter wedded Miss Minnie Graber, who was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, a daughter of Alfred and Mary Graber.
WILLIAM HENRY BECKER. At the beginning of the third decade of the twentieth century Cleveland was the metropolis of Ohio and had attained rank among the great centers of America not only in population but in all those activities that represent the flower and fruit of a noble city. The source of Cleveland's importance in the early years of the nineteenth century was its port and shipping. They attracted and provided the indis- pensable condition for commerce and manufacture. Even the most self- sufficient city has a work to do, a service to perform for the world, and no small share of the goods and services of modern Cleveland go out through its port and lake shipping interests.
A little more than a century after Cleveland had welcomed the appear- ance of the first steamboat on Lake Erie, there passed away a man whose energies, enterprise and vision for a third of a century had contributed to the enrichment and growth of Cleveland not only in its transportation facilities but in its all-round development.
This was William Henry Becker, whose death on January 31, 1921, brought a sense of loss to diverse interests and men of prominence from one end of the chain of Great Lakes to the other. He had come to success through resources within his own strong mind and character. Born in Oswego, New York, May 1, 1860, he came to know the fascination of the lakes by going when a boy with his father on many voyages. His parents were Capt. Daniel M. and Mary (Kelley) Becker, of Oswego. His father was captain of many lake boats, and after moving to Cleveland sailed for the Bradley fleet until his death.
William Henry Becker had the formal advantages of only the public
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schools, but through a career of intense practical action he cultivated those interests found in books. In his Lakewood home he accumulated an ample library, his favorite authors being Scott and Dickens.
After school and a brief period of work for a grocery house he became office boy to J. H. Outhwaite & Company. A member of this firm was W. G. Pollock, and there began the acquaintance which ripened into ideal friends and kept Mr. Becker and Mr. Pollock closely associated in business and personal affairs. While a clerk for this shipping firm Mr. Becker was carefully bestowing his savings with a view to independent operations, becoming an owner in some of the small vessels at the port of Cleveland. He and Capt. William S. Mack were associated in the operation of a fleet of wooden vessels for some years.
Mr. Becker by his own example helped in the elimination of the old wooden type of boat from the Great Lakes. His first steel steamship was the Francis L. Robbins, which he launched at Cleveland January 19, 1905. It was rapidly followed by others of the same class until he controlled a large fleet, including a number of the 600-foot steam freighters, any one of which could handle a larger cargo than all the boats on Lake Erie a century ago.
Many of his shipping enterprises were handled by the firm of Pollock and Becker, which grew out of his early associations with W. G. Pollock. When this business was incorporated as the Pollock and Becker Company, Mr. Becker became treasurer, an office he held until his death. This firm were dock owners and operators and also lake representatives of the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Becker was president of the Valley Steamship Company ; manager of the Interstate Steamship Company ; treasurer from its organization until his death of the Lake Carriers' Association; and member of the advisory committee of the Great Lakes Protective Association. In business he exemplified great energy, clear vision and sound judgment, he inspired confidence and proved a safe leader. His absolute honesty extended not only to money matters but to every transaction, deed or word. His life was worthy of the respect and admiration given it.
He possessed varied tastes, and his enjoyment of life came from many points of contact with the world. Beside the fascination of his business. his home and fireside, he loved the outdoors, and for some years owned and maintained a large farm, spending much time in its supervision. He was a member of several hunting and fishing clubs, the Cleveland Athletic, Union, Westwood, Clifton and Roadside clubs. In Masonry his affiliations included the Lodge, Chapter, Council, Knights Templar Commandery, Scottish Rite Consistory and Mystic Shrine. Movements identified with the public welfare had a constant avenue to his cooperation and generosity, but in politics his interest did not extend beyond voting the republican ticket.
Mr. Becker married, October 31, 1882, Miss Mary Gibson, daughter of William A. and Catherine (Burke) Gibson. Her father was a pioneer oil operator, connected with the Standard Oil Company for years, but at the time of his death was with the M. A. Hanna Company of Cleveland. He was a native of Scotland and his wife of Ireland, having been brought to America when children. Mrs. Becker's home is at 13431 Lake Avenue, Lakewood. Three children were born to her marriage, the first, Joseph .
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Outhwaite, dying in infancy. The daughter, Zuleike M., is the widow of Robert D. Mansfield, who died at the age of thirty-three, having been chief engineer of one of the Becker freight steamers. Mrs. Mansfield has one child, William Becker Mansfield.
William Daniel Becker, the surviving son, was associated with the shipping interests of his father for seven years, and is now president and manager of the Becker Steamship Company. By his marriage to Mildred A. Andrews he has two children, William D. II, and Shirley H. Becker.
FREDERICK C. WITTHUHN. In point of years of continuous expe- rience Frederick C. Witthuhn is one of the oldest of Cleveland's florists. He has been in that business on his own account for over thirty years. Mr. Witthuhn has his retail establishment at 3600 West Twenty-fifth Street at the corner of Dover, while his main greenhouses are located on Schaaf Road.
His success has been due in part to the fact that he has devoted almost a lifetime to the growing and handling of flowers under glass. He was born in Germany, in 1864, and learned the floral business in all its technical details, beginning as a boy. He was an expert, accomplished in all branches of the industry, when he came to the United States and to Cleveland in 1888. His first work in Cleveland was in the employ of Mr. Ziechmann, a pioneer florist, whose sons still continue the business. Later he was with the late William Gordon, whose greenhouses were on land now included in Gordon Park on the lake front. In 1890 Mr. Witthuhn became manager for Jacob Selzer, a florist in old South Brooklyn village, on the site of the present Riverside Cemetery. After two years with Mr. Selzer, Mr. Witthuhn determined to embark his modest capital and his wide experience in a business of his own. He established his greenhouse at the corner of what was then Pearl and Dover streets. His present retail establishment occupies a corner just opposite to that location, and is across the street from Riverside Cemetery. It was due to the gradual upbuilding and for the purpose of securing larger and a better site that Mr. Witthuhn subsequently established his main greenhouses on the Schaaf Road. For thirty years, therefore, he has been in business as a florist in this part of the city.
Mr. Witthuhn is a member of the Cleveland Florists Association, Cleve- land Florists Club, Society of American Florists, and is affiliated with Elsworth Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Hillman Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Al Sirat Grotto, belongs to the Maccabees, the Royal League and the German Beneficial Society.
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