USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > Centennial history of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 12
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Mr. Kalb was married in 1884, the lady of his choice being Miss Laura Alice Needles, who was born December 17, 1859. Her father, George W. Needles, was also born in Madison township, February 14, 1832, and belonged to one of the early families of this county. When a young man he taught school to some extent but throughout life gave his attention principally to farming. He married Eliza A. Gray, who died November 17, 1886, and he passed away in 1874. Their children were Mary Belle, Laura Alice and Stanton Thomas. Mary Belle died in 1889.
Mr. Kalb is a republican in his political views and affiliations and is a member of the Asbury Methodist Episcopal church, of which he has served as steward for the past eighteen years. He is a Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree, belonging to Scioto consistory at Columbus and he is also identified with the Mystic Shrine. Beginning life in the humble capa- city of a farm hand, Mr. Kalb has persistently and energetically worked his way upward until today he is numbered among the well-to-do and sub- stantial citizens of Madison township and Franklin county, commanding the respect and good will of all with whom business or social relations bring him in contact.
PROFESSOR JACOB A. SHAWAN.
Columbus has been favored in the class of men who have served as superintendent of instruction and have been the organizers and promoters of her splendid school system. Usually the incumbents in the office of school superintendent have held for long periods because of their marked ability and the interests of education have been materially advanced through their practical and progressive labors. Professor Jacob A. Shawan has for twenty years been at the head of the Columbus schools and throughout this entire period has made constant advance in the good will and regard of the citizens of Columbus, an honorable manhood and superior powers as an educator winning him the enviable position which he now occupies.
He had his nativity in one of the historic regions of northwestern Ohio, his birth having occurred at Wapakoneta in the Anglaize district. During his early boyhood his parents removed to Champaign county, Ohio, where he attended the country schools, while later he pursued his education in the high school of Urbana, Ohio, although he did not continue his course to grad- uation. Instead he withdrew and began teaching, successfully following the profession through the ensuing four years. Ambitious, however, to enjoy better educational opportunities than he had hitherto received, at the end of that time he entered Oberlin College. from which he was graduated in 1880
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with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Three years later his alma mater con- ferred upon him the Master of Arts degree and in 1893 he received from Muskingum College the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
As a school superintendent Professor Shawan has been eminently suc- cessful. Inspiring teachers and pupils with much of his own zeal and interest in the work, he has throughont his professional career sought out new methods for the improvement of the schools, prompted always by the land- able purpose of training each individual to reach the highest perfection pos- sible for him. He acted as superintendent of schools at St. Marys, Ohio, from 1880 until 1883 and then accepted a call to Mount Vernon, where he remained until 1889, when he came to the capital city, where a great and promising field of effort presented itself. The opportunity for great service has ever called forth his best efforts and with unwearied industry he has given himself to the work of developing and improving the educational system of Columbus. Professor Shawan quickly won the respect and esteem of the teachers and pupils of this city and that sentiment, rather than on the wane, is still full-tide and shows no symptom of diminution.
Not since his accession has there been a decrease in the growth, efficieney, and progress of the system, but on the contrary an easily appre- hended increase. His policies have always been broad and liberal. There were between six hundred and seven hundred high school pupils when he came to Columbus. He soon advocated the district high school system and as a result, Columbus now has five high schools erected at a moderate cost and nearly three thousand high school pupils. An interesting feature of this enrollment is that the sexes are about equally divided. Along with this policy of giving a chance for higher education to all, has been coupled the other policy of preparing each one as far as possible for his chosen field of activity, which is accomplished by means of a flexible course of study ranging from the most practical business to the most thorough preparation for college and the university.
Mr. Shawan has always been an advocate of manual training and indus- trial education, believing that one of the best characteristics of a good citizen is his ability to earn an honest living for himself and those that may be dependent upon him. Within the last few years, the schools have been thoroughly equipped with centers for manual training and domestic science. To these centers are sent all of the boys and girls of the seventh and eighth grades. No better facilities are offered in like grades anywhere. There is a growing interest in vocational and trade schools with strong indications of their carly introduction. thus adding to their value and efficiency.
Professor Shawan during his entire career has been an active worker in all associations of his profession in city, county, state and nation. He has been president of the Central Ohio Teachers Association. He was the first president of the Central Ohio School Masters Club, one of the strongest organizations of its kind in the central west. For ten years he served as treasurer of the Ohio State Teachers Association and is now president of that body. He has served as first vice president of the department of super- intendence of the National Educational Association, the most influential
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. educational body in America and has served two terms as state director and one terin as vice president of the National Educational Association, the largest body of the kind in the world. He is now a member of the National Council of Education, having been recently elected for a term of six years.
In December, 1881, at DeGraff, Ohio, Professor Shawan was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Koch Holmes. They and their three sons, Harold K., M. D., Robert F., M. E., and Jacob A. Jr., constitute a typical Columbus, Ohio, and American family.
LOVETT TAFT SCOFIELD.
Lovett Taft Scofield, who has made continuous advancement since start- ing in business life as a clerk in a country store, is now president of the Andrus-Scofield Company, dealers in teas, coffees and spices. He was born in Reynoldsburg. Franklin county, Ohio, August 10, 1858. His father, Frederick A. Scofield, was a native of the state of New York and in his boyhood days became a resident of Reynoldsburg. where in later years he followed merchandising. continuing in active connection with the trade interests of that place until 1868. He then removed to Westerville, Franklin county, where he again engaged in merchandising. He was widely and favorably known throughout the county and in Columbus, and was a suc- cessful business man whose enterprise and firm determination constituted the secret of his business progress. He was a splendid example of the self-made man of the old school, modest and retiring in disposition, yet possessing that force of character which enabled him to win success along the lines of legitimate trade. He died November 21, 1903, having for about eighteen years survived his wife, who passed away in 1888. She bore the maiden name of Martha E. Davis, and was a native of Lancaster county. Pennsyl- vania.
Lovett T. Scofield pursued his education in the public schools of Rey- noldsburg, Kirkersville, and Licking county, Ohio. He left the high school at the age of eighteen years to become his father's assistant in the country store at Kirkersville and at Westerville. Some time later he was admitted to a partnership in his father's business, and the relations between them continued for fifteen years. In 1881 Mr. Scofield came to Columbus and purchased an interest in the tea, coffee and spice business owned by W. F. Andrus, and the firm became a partnership arrangement under the style of the Andrus. Scofield & Company. On the 1st of January. 1905. the busi- ness was incorporated as the Andrus-Scofield Company, Mr. Andrus remain- ing the president until the 1st of June, 1908. when Mr. Scofield purchased his interest in the business of which he is now practically the sole proprietor. In disposing of his product he handles it through salesmen and jobbers and does an extensive business, represented by a large annual figure. He specializes in teas, coffees and spices, yet also handles other commodities and manufactures flavoring extracts, bluing, ammonia, et cetera. The trade
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has constantly grown and the business is one of considerable importance as an element in the commercial activity of Columbus. Mr. Scofield is also president of the Federal Manufacturing Company and a director of the North American Lead Company of this city.
In 1892 occurred the marriage of Mr. Scofield and Miss Minnie H. Huffman. of Carey, Ohio. He votes with the republican party and, as every true American citizen should do, keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day, but the honors and emoluments of office have had no attrac- tion for him. He belongs to the Ohio, and Columbus Country Clubs, and in Masonry has attained the Knight Templar degree. He is also connected with the Elks lodge, and the Knights of Pythias. He is known locally as a pedestrian and in this exercise finds much of the rest and recreation 80 necessary as a preparation for the onerous duties of a business career that makes close demands upon his time and energy. The secret of his success is largely due to his concentration, combined with clear insight into com- plex business situations.
ALBERT E. SARTAIN.
The commercial interests of Columbus find a worthy representative in Albert E. Sartain, who is now actively connected with the management and control of the Blumer & Sartain Packing Company and is also conducting an individual business under his own name in the production of boneless ham. He possesses determination and force of character and allows no obstacles to bar his path if they can be overcome by determined and honorable effort. Careful analyzation of his record shows that industry and persistency have been the chief concomitants in his success, making him one of the prosper- ous merchants of the city. Mr. Sartain is a native of Franklin county. his birth having occurred in Harrisburg. in 1869. He was one of the eight children born unto Robert and Emma (Sutton) Sartain, both natives of England, born in 1830 and 1832 respectively. They were married in their native country in 1853 and their elder children were born there ere their emigration to the new world. The members of the family are Mrs. Lonisa Miller, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, Mrs. Salina Blumer, Mrs. Alice Coffrin, Wil- liam H., Albert E. and Mrs. Anna Longhenry. All are still living with the exception of Mrs. Blumer. who died in 1893. It was in the year 1861 that Robert Sartain brought his family from England to the new world and began business in Harrisburg. Franklin county. as a harnessmaker. He met with success in his undertakings and continued there until 1886, when he removed to Columbus to enlarge the scope of his labors in a city of greater size. Here he is still engaged in the harness business although seventy- eight years of age and is still numbered among the valued merchants of the city. Since becoming a naturalized American citizen he has given loyal and stalwart support to the republican party. while his religious opinions are indicated in his membership in the Presbyterian church.
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ALBERT E. SARTAIN
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THATEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ACTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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Reared in the place of his nativity Albert E. Sartain pursued his educa- tion in the schools of Harrisburg and entered business life as an assistant to his father at the harnessmaking trade. At the age of eighteen years, however, he became connected with the wholesale meat business and has con- tinued in this line to the present time, being closely associated with the sell- ing department of the Blumer & Sartain Packing Company. He has grad- ually increased the business from the start, owing to his unfaltering energy and diligence and has thus contributed in considerable measure to the success of the company in which he is now one of the directors. He conducts as well an individual business under the name of A. E. Sartain, in the prepara- tion and sale of boneless ham. He established this enterprise in 1895 and the business has gradually increased until the sales of 1907 amounted to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. His sales are confined to the state of Ohio, where he has an extensive and growing patronage, the business having long since become a very profitable investment.
In 1895 Mr. Sartain was united in marriage to Miss Mary J. Bresna- han. They are well known in the city where they have long resided and the hospitality of their home is greatly enjoyed by many friends. Mr. Sar- tain has always been enthusiastic in politics although he never sought nor would become a candidate for office until 1905, in which year his friends nominated him for sheriff. He was defeated in that year but in 1908 was again made the nominee of the republican party and was elected by a plural- ity of thirty-seven hundred and ninety-two. For four years he has been a director of the Buckeye Republican Club and docs all he can to place the republican party beyond the pale of possible diminution of power. His official service has been acceptable, characterized by unfaltering devotion to the general good and promptness in the execution of the duties of the office.
Mr. Sartain is well known in fraternal circles, being a charter member of the Lodge of Moose of Columbus, a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Elks. the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America, while of the Buckeye Fishing Club he is now president. He possesses a genial manner, is kindly and approachable and has appreciation for the manhood of others who through persistent effort are working their way upward through the wise use of their talents and opportunities. It has been in this manner that Mr. Sartain has achieved his success and his record is most commendable and worthy of emulation.
JOHN HENRY HOLTERMANN.
John Henry Holtermann was born November 15, 1858. in Brokel, Amt Rotenburg. Province Hanover, Germany. His father's, and for that matter, the name of the eldest son for generations before him, was the same. His mother was Anna Maria Lnedemann. The father was a farmer, owning a tract of not too fertile land, which also contained some peat and heather. Being the eldest son. he had inherited this, together with the mortgage and
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an obligation to pay each of his six brothers and sisters a stipulated zum. As it would have taken a lifetime of hard toil and the most frugal sort of living to accomplish this, he concluded to sell and emigrate to America.
Not being able to dispose of the land and the "America-Fieber" being strong upon him, he left it in charge of his brother-in-law, a bürgermeister in the village of Hemslingen, Friedrich Luedemann, who later sold it and sent the residue, seven hundred and fifty dollars, to America. The family, consisting of father, mother and four children, of which Henry. the subject of this sketch. was the eldest, came to this country in May, 1870.
When they arrived here, the father had just forty dollars left with which to begin the struggle for existence in a strange country. They rented what was known as the Round Bottom farm, a very fertile but partly swampy piece of land on the southern bank of the Manmee river, three miles above Napoleon. Henry county, Ohio.
The first year was a very hard one for these immigrants. The country not yet drained, the air fever-laden, they soon succumbed to the prevailing dis- ease, the agne, an intermittent fever, attended by alternating cold and hot fits. During the harvest season the father over-exerted himself at "eradling" wheat and died after a long siege of illness. During this time Henry prepared the ground for the next year's wheat erop. As the ague claimed all his attention three days out of six and had the effect of greatly weakening him besides, the task of plowing the land with a pair of old blind horses was not an Basy one for this eleven-year-old lad.
A year after the death of the father, the mother married Friedrich Benien, and once more the little flock was united that had been scattered by the death of the father. For the next four years Heury worked for his step-father, helping him earn the money to buy a small farm. Then he hired out to a grocery firm in Napoleon, at the munificent salary of one hundred dollars and board for the first year. At the end of the year he still had ninety-three dollars to his credit. for he had lived very frugally, put- ting in his spare time at reading Indian stories in the New York Weekly. a paper that came to the store regularly. It was a laborious task, this reading, for Henry had only received a very meager edneation. There was not much time for school in those pioneer days. But the stories were interesting and his desire for learning the English language was great, so he gradually. in this manner, absorbed an "education." What he once learned he never for- got. Thus, while he knows nothing abont grammar and cannot parse a single sentence, his orthography and diction in the English as well as Ger- man language, would not be a discredit to some college students.
As a financier, though, Mr. Holtermann himself does not claim to be a remarkable success. While he possesses the knack to acquire and accumu- late. he is now comparatively a poor man. Fate and his inherent trust in the honesty of his fellowmen have always connived in again and again decimating his various modest fortunes.
When eighteen, a fire destroyed the building in which he slept. and he barely escaped with his life. In a trunk in his room his entire posses- sions, consisting of about two hundred dollars in paper money and his ward-
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robe, were reduced to ashes. At twenty he had again accumulated a little money, invested it in a grocery and again lost it all by fire, which destroyed half the town, including the courthouse. From that time his successes in business and politics were varied, until 1901, when he once more lost his entire fortune through the manipulations of friends he had trusted, not wisely, but too much.
During the last named period he was engaged successively in the sewing machine, grocery, newspaper, furniture and undertaking and, again, in the newspaper business. Through a loan made to the publisher of the "Demo- krat" at Napoleon he was eventually compelled to take the business over, to save, not only his investment, but also to keep the paper from becoming extinct. He founded, successively, Die Post, at Wapakoneta; Der Anzeiger, at Sidney; Minster Post. at Minster, Ohio; and was for five months owner of the "Demokrat," at Ottawa, Ohio, and for fourteen months of the Wood County Democrat, at Bowling Green, Ohio. At the latter he lost quite heavily but made it up again at the former named paper at Ottawa, which be bought for five hundred and fifty dollars, all it was then worth, and sold it for two thousand dollars five months later, when he had practically built it up anew.
Until 1901 he had always lived in small towns. In January of that year he came to Columbus, where he was first employed as managing editor of the old "Westbote," a daily and weekly German publication, which had gotten into financial difficulties. During his short connection with this paper he managed to revive it once more to an extent that made it self- sustaining. In 1902 he resigned this position and accepted that of secre- tary to the director of public safety. C. C. Philbrick, which he occupied for nine months, when he again resigned to accept a position as salesman for the stock of a large cement manufacturing concern, with which he remained as long as it had stock for sale. Then he once more launched into business for himself, this time choosing the real-estate business, which he conducted quite successfully until June, 1908. Having absolute faith in the concern he had helped to finance, he not only invested all of his commissions in the stock he had been selling, but also bought and traded for it later, until his holdings amounted to eighteen thousand dollars. A few years later it went into the hands of a receiver and Holtermann lost his entire investment.
In 1906 he organized the Home Brewing Company, built a brewery in South High street, Columbus, and was its first president. This venture also was a failure, for the temperance wave which had already begun to sweep over the land became more intense and prevented the ready sale of the stock. This was followed by the panic of October, 1907, which com- pleted not only the failure of the brewery project but also resulted in the ruin of his real-estate business.
Mr. Holtermann has filled various political offices. In Napoleon, in 1884, he was appointed to the office of county treasurer, to fill the unexpired term of another. He served one and a half years and was not a candidate for reflection. He was only twenty-five years old, when appointed. In 1887 he was elected a member of the common council and served until his removal
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from Napoleon in 1889. In Wapakoneta he served as a member of the school board.
He joined the Knights of Pythias in 1888; belongs to the United An- cient Order of Druids; the Columnbus Liederkranz, a German singing society; the Humboldt Verein, a German social society; has a membership in the South Side Business and Improvement Association and of St. Paul's Evan- gelieal Lutheran church. He was a member of the German Editorial Asso- ciation from 1886 to 1901. Politically his affiliations are with the demo- cratie party and always have been.
On September 4, 1881, Mr. Holtermann married Anna Margaretha, daughter of Jacob J. Stockmann, a merchant in Florida. Henry county, Ohio, at Napoleon. Their married life has been a very happy one and resulted in the birth of three children: Ernestine, born October 2, 1882; Edwin H., born January 28, 1886; and Karl C. L., born April 16, 1889.
JOHN W. BRAUN.
For many years the thoughts of the American people centered upon the Union soldier as the typical representative of American patriotism but in more recent years there have come into public notice younger men who have proved equally loyal to their country in carrying its ensign on the battlefields. Among this number is John W. Braun, one of the veterans of the Spanish-American war. At present he is devoting his energies with constantly increasing success to the practice of civil engineering, making his home in Columbus, his native city, where he was born November 3. 1874. The family, as the name indicates, is of German lineage, his grandfather, Joseph Braun, having been a forester to the emperor of Germany. The father, Joseph Braun, Jr., who was born in 1847, became a contractor in heavy stone and bridge work and did nearly all the important work of this character in Columbus, including the building of the High street viaduct. the Fourth street viaduct and the Broad street bridge. As the years pas-ed he prospered and in 1899 retired from business with a handsome compe- tence. He came to America from Germany in 1865 and in the years of his residence here won the prosperity which he now enjoys. he and his wife being now residents of California. Mrs. Braun bore the maiden name of Catherine Bopp, and was born in Columbus, June 18, 1858, her father having been one of the leading grocers here.
At the usual age John W. Braun was sent to the public schools, where he passed through consecutive grades until he completed the work of the Fulton street school and entered the Columbus Central high school, from which in due course of time he was graduated. He also attended the Ohio State University but left that institution in 1898 and joined the Second Regiment of Volunteer Civil Engineers. The command was sent to Cuba, remaining for five months, but did not participate in battle, and Mr. Braun, with his regiment, being mustered out of the army returned home.
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