USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, Ohio, pictorial and biographical. De luxe supplement, Volume I > Part 16
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Mr. Lawrence arrived home September 3, 1865, after four years and eighteen days spent as a soldier. He was glad to return to civil life but has ever been justly proud of the splendid record of the Third Ohio Cavalry, which was never once regularly defeated. His company never fired a shot when he was not in the ranks and he was never in the hospital nor guardhouse nor under arrest. Three
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of his comrades standing next to him were killed and his coat and haversack and hat were pierced by bullets and a ball slightly cut his upper lip before Atlanta, while a horse was killed from under him at Munfordville, Kentucky, but he was never wounded. Out of one hundred and four men mustered into the company at Milan, Ohio, in August, 1861, he was one of but sixteen who returned to Columbus in August, 1865.
On the succeeding day Mr. Lawrence, allowing himself no leis- ure, began plowing for fifteen acres of wheat on shares on land at Wakeman, and when this was completed devoted three months to hard farm labor-cutting and husking corn, digging potatoes, etc., and at the same time attending a select school three evenings each week. His soldier's pay had largely gone to his mother to aid in the support of her family, so that he had no financial resources. His education up to this time was very limited, for he had never studied grammar nor algebra, nor had he completed Ray's third part arith- metic. In January, 1866, he took up the study of bookkeeping and mathematics in Bryant & Stratton Commercial College at Oberlin, and was there graduated in May. He was then twenty-two years of age and he determined to seek business opportunities. On the 20th of May, 1866, he arrived in Cleveland an entire stranger. After tramping the streets two days and spending nearly every cent he had, he finally obtained a position in the dry goods store of Truscott & Ingham, at the corner of Pearl and Detroit street, at a salary of twelve dollars per month and board. He was to perform the menial labor of the store but before he had been there two months he was considered the best salesman in the house, was sent to bank with the deposits and to wholesale stores to order goods, while his salary was increased to forty-five dollars per month-a good sum in those days.
In July, 1866, Mr. Lawrence became acquainted with Helen Irene Mattison, a protege of his employer, W. H. Truscott, and they were married in the December following at the ages of twenty- three and twenty-one years respectively.
In February, 1867, seeing no future in the dry-goods store, Mr. Lawrence left his position there and sought and obtained a position as west side representative of the Cleveland Leader. In this posi- tion he was to take charge of all the delivery routes of all territory west of the hill on the east side and all on the west side, and to bring reports every day of anything in the way of news from the west side, for which he was to receive ten dollars a week and the profits of the routes. He carried one of the routes himself several months, start- ing at five o'clock every morning and delivering from one hundred
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and fifty to two hundred papers, and returning home in time for a seven.or eight o'clock breakfast. In three months he had more than doubled the Leader's circulation in his territory. He did the col- lecting for all routes, going over each every two weeks. His profit was five cents per week on each subscriber and out of this he was to pay all carriers and stand all losses. He had to visit the west side police station at nine o'clock every night, also the fire station, and if there was any news, make note of it, write it out in the editorial rooms of the Leader, see the proof and then walk home after two o'clock in the morning to be up at five to carry his route. He had not been long with the Leader before he commenced soliciting ad- vertisements, on all orders of which he was paid fifteen per cent. He also engaged to solicit orders for the annual city directory, which the Leader Company then published. He made fifty cents on each order and an additional ten cents for delivering and collecting. He continued this work until December 31, 1867, and found that his net earnings amounted to little over a hundred dollars a month. On January 2, 1868, he closed a contract with the Cleveland Herald, then the leading paper of the city, to solicit advertising, do col- lecting, write all paid reading notices and travel for weekly circu- lation. His first contract was on a combination commission and salary basis and at the end of the year he had earned twenty-eight hundred dollars. The firm then wanted to employ him on a straight salary, which they had previously declined to do. The negotiations resulted in their paying Mr. Lawrence a salary of eighteen hundred dollars for 1869 and thereafter twenty-one hundred dollars per year. He continued with the Herald until April 1, 1872, when he resigned to accept the general special agency for the Wilson Sewing Ma- chine Company at a salary of twenty-five hundred dollars a year and all expenses. In that position he was required to visit the branch houses and general agencies all over the country, investigate their books and manner of doing business, with authority to change or add to any system or rules that he deemed could be improved. During that engagement, which covered eight months, he visited nearly every important city in the United States, including the Pacific coast cities, also went to Japan, China and Malay, traveling in eight months over forty thousand miles and taking his first ocean voyage.
While Mr. Lawrence was employed on the Cleveland Herald the office did the press work for the Ohio Farmer and he had to go to the office of that paper each week to collect the bill for press work. Thus he gained a knowledge of the paper and its affairs. He had been reared upon a farm and at this time had had five years' newspaper experience, so that he felt equipped to conduct such a
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paper as the Ohio Farmer. He negotiated its purchase for ten thousand dollars, although it then had not over five thousand bona fide subscribers. Although it had been in existence for twenty-four years, it had never been a paying enterprise. Its founder, George Brown, had failed with thirty-six thousand dollars liability when it was eight years old. Others had been no more successful and on the Ist of December, 1872, Mr. Lawrence took over the paper, which was published under his name as editor and proprietor for the first time on January 2, 1873. To make the purchase he had to borrow nine thousand dollars at ten per cent interest. His friends urgently advised against this, but nevertheless, at the age of twenty-nine years, he became the owner of the Ohio Farmer, determined and ambi- tious to make it a success. During his first two years he employed but five people. He was then fortunate in securing M. E. Williams, assistant editor of a New York agricultural paper, to take charge of the editorial department of the Farmer, and he has since continued in that position, Mr. Lawrence attributing much of the success to his ability, sound judgment and industry. When he took possession the subscription price was two dollars per year. The paper sells for seventy-five cents per year and has a circulation of one hundred and thirty thousand. In all of his undertakings and connection with the paper Mr. Lawrence met with success, carefully forming and exe- cuting his plans and so directing his energies that the best possible results were obtained. He still retains the presidency of the com- pany, although he is not now active in the management. In 1881 he went to France, where he arranged for the sale as sole agent in the United States and Canada of Gombault's Caustic Balsam, a vet- erinary remedy. The Lawrence-Williams Company was then formed and has since handled that commodity, with Mr. Lawrence as president and Lyman Lawrence as vice president.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence were born four sons: M. Lyman, mentioned elsewhere in this volume; George Stone, who was born March 23, 1871, and died October 6, 1872; Mortimer William, born June 12, 1873; and Paul Terry, born November 23, 1878. Mr. Lawrence now makes his home in Washington, the success of the Ohio Farmer rendering him financially independent, so that he is able to enjoy the comforts and the opportunities which only wealth can bring.
Charles M. Dille
HARLES W. DILLE, a member of the Cleveland C bar, specializing to some extent in negligence law, was born in Cuyahoga county in 1869, and with the ex- ception of his college days has always remained a resident here. His father, W. W. Dille, also a native of this county, was for many years engaged in farm- ing but for the past fourteen years has lived retired. He was a very skillful agriculturist of the old school and was very successful in his undertakings, bringing to bear upon his work keen intellectual force and clear discernment at a time when many regarded manual labor as the only necessary factor in farming. He represented one of the old families of this part of the state, the Dilles being among the first settlers in Euclid township, Cuyahoga county. The great- great-grandfather of Charles W. Dille came to this county from a point south of the Ohio river in 1798. His grandson, Eri M. Dille, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was up to the close of the Civil war, one of the leading stockmen of northern Ohio. W. W. Dille wedded Miss Mina T. Gilbert, a native of New York and a representative in both the paternal and maternal lines of old New England families.
Charles W. Dille was reared on the home farm in the suburbs of Cleveland and for a number of years before entering college he was engaged in railroad train service, subsequent to leaving the pub- lic schools. Desirous, however, of enjoying better educational ad- vantages than he had hitherto received, early in the spring of 1895 Mr. Dille entered the Ohio Normal at Ada and afterward studied in the Ohio State University at Columbus, while through one se- mester he was a student in the University of Denver at Denver, Colo- rado, thus closing a college course covering four years. In the spring of 1900 he was admitted to the bar in Columbus and since that time has been continuously engaged in practice. For the past five or six years he has devoted about half of his time to law of negligence, while the remainder has been given to general practice, and he is well versed in the various departments of the profession. His prose- cution of corporations on charges of negligence has established for
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him a clientele not confined to Cleveland but extending throughout Ohio and the neighboring states.
Mr. Dille is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association. He also belongs to the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, with which he has been connected since his youth. His long affiliation with labor organizations has placed upon him a great amount of responsibility in connection with legislation for the protection of labor. In poli- tics he is a republican, although not strongly partisan. In the past year, however, he has given some attention to political questions and now feels that conditions are such as to demand the interest and activity of all American citizens who desire that municipal, state and national government shall be for the best interests of the people at large.
In October, 1901, Mr. Dille was married in Cleveland to Miss Nettie Luster, a daughter of Samuel Luster, one of the old settlers of the county. They have two children: Helen, seven years of age; and Elizabeth, a little maiden of two summers. Mr. Dille possesses the gift of determination necessary for success at the bar and is making gradual and substantial progress in professional lines.
美花
Ja Sanders
John A. Sanders
OHN A. SANDERS, the well known and popular proprietor of the Sanders Stag Hotel of Cleveland, was born in New Jersey on the 17th of December, 1864, his parents being John H. and Helen (Farley) Sanders. The father, whose birth occurred in New- wark, New Jersey, in 1843, was a moulder by trade and successfully followed that occupation until the time of his re- tirement from active life. His demise occurred in 1896. In 1863 he had wedded Miss Helen Farley, who was born in the year 1841. She was called to her final rest in June, 1908.
John A. Sanders obtained his education in the public schools of Detroit, where the family home was established in 1873, while three years later he came to Cleveland, Ohio. After leaving school he secured a position in a grocery store of Detroit and later worked in a store at Cleveland for a time. Subsequently he engaged in the conduct of a grocery establishment but after about three years sev- ered his connection with mercantile interests and began learning the moulder's trade, with which he was actively identified for twelve years. For the past twenty years, however, he has been actively en- gaged in business as a hotel proprietor and for the past sixteen years has managed the Sanders Stag Hotel at No. 86 Public Square, also conducting a cafe and restaurant. In 1909 he secured a ninety-nine year lease on his present location-the Bank Cafe. In addition to his interests in this connection he is likewise one of the directors of the Standard Brewing Company, the Lake City Ice Company, the Southern Gold Mining Company and the Cooperative Liquor Com- pany.
In 1895 Mr. Sanders was united in marriage to Miss Anna Dowd, a native of Avon, New York. They now have two children, Marian and John. Their city home is at 2196 East Forty-sixth street and they also have a beautiful country home at Noble Beach, where Mr. Sanders owns a splendidly improved estate of sixteen acres. He delights in motoring, shooting and fishing and is a member of the Cleveland Automobile Club. Fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of
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Pythias and the Eagles. From the beginning of his hotel expe- riences he has made it his object to maintain the highest standards in hotel life until his name has become a synonym for the best pos- sible service obtainable in public entertainment of this character.
Day & Latin
Jay C. Latimer
I N these days of rapid discovery, development and ex- pansion along electrical lines an almost limitless field of business has been opened out, and many a sub- stantial competency has been won by those whose foresight has enabled them to realize the value of the opportunities thus presented. Of this number is Jay E. Latimer, who was born in Cleveland in 1863. He is now identi- fied with various corporate and business interests, figuring promi- nently in real-estate circles as well as in connection with the electric- light and power enterprise. He was reared in this city and after completing his education in the public schools turned his attention to the real-estate business, in which he formed a partnership in 1887 with W. M. Southern, under the firm style of Southern & Latimer. This association was maintained until 1892, when the junior part- ner sold out and became interested in electric railways. He be- came a pioneer in that field of operation in northern Ohio and was the promoter and builder of the Cleveland and Chagrin Falls elec- tric line. In 1895 he promoted and built the Columbus, Delaware and Marion electric line, also the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashta- bula electric railway. His achievement in this field further extended to the development and construction of the Buffalo, Dunkirk & Western electric railway in 1902. In 1905 he became interested in electric lighting and power and is now president of the United Light & Power Company and president of the Commercial Electric Com- pany, owning and controlling electric plants at Painesville, Fair- port, Madison and Geneva, Ohio. He is also the vice president of the Terminal Land Company and president of the Fireproof Stor- . age Company with warehouse at 5700 Euclid avenue. This is the first of the kind in this city and also the largest. Finding still further scope for his energies, Mr. Latimer became the promoter and or- ganizer of the Cleveland Mausoleum Company, thus instituting new methods of putting away the dead through a public compartment system. The company is now engaged in the construction of its first building in Brooklyn Heights cemetery and has already received large engagements, so that the business promises to be a profitable
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one. In numerous other corporations Mr. Latimer is a stockholder and director, for his business judgment is regarded as sound and re- liable. He is preeminently a man of affairs and one who has wielded a wide influence. His theories are ever of a practical character, and his careful formulated plans are easily executed with results that prove their worth.
In 1889 Mr. Latimer was married to Miss Jennie C. Weidner, of this city, and they have three children: Ruth, a graduate of the Central high school; and Helen and Jay, who are students of the grammar school. Mr. Latimer belongs to the Cleveland Athletic Club, and also to the Gentlemen's Driving Club, associations which indicate the nature of his interests and recreation. He has a wide acquaintance in this city, where he has always lived, and the fact that many of his stanchest friends are those who have known him from his youth to the present is an indication that his life has ever been an honorable and upright one.
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John & Darby
ohn Caton Darby, M. A.
F OR nearly a half century Dr. John Eaton Darby has been a most worthy and distinguished representative of the medical fraternity of Cleveland. Time tests the merit of all things and it has proven the ability of Dr. Darby in his chosen field of labor. His birth occurred at South Williamstown, Massachusetts, on the 20th of August, 1835. The family is of English origin and the first representative of the name in this country was the great-great- grandfather of our subject. The immediate ancestors of Dr. Darby settled in Boston, Massachusetts, and later removed to Springfield, that state, while subsequently the grandfather took up his abode in North Adams, Massachusetts, where he passed away. William Darby, the father of Dr. Darby, was a farmer by occupation and spent his entire life in the old Bay state, his demise there occurring about 1872, when he had attained the age of seventy-nine years and three months. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Electa Ed- wards, came of old Rhode Island Quaker stock. She passed away in 1884 at the age of eighty-six years. Unto Mr. and Mrs. William Darby were born four sons and three daughters who reached years of maturity but only two are now living, namely: John Eaton, of this review; and Frank, who follows merchandising at North Adams, Massachusetts.
John Eaton Darby remained on the home farm until fifteen years of age and attended the district schools in the acquirement of his primary education, while subsequently he pursued his studies at Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, and later in Graylock Seminary at South Williamstown. In 1854, when a young man of nineteen years, he entered Williams College, from which institution he was graduated in 1858, winning the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In September of that year he came to Cleveland, Ohio, taking up the study of medicine in the office of Dr. Proctor Thayer, under whose preceptorship he read for three years. The fact that he had but a dollar and a half on arriving in this city made immediate employ- ment a necessity and he therefore secured a position as teacher of Latin and Greek at the Cleveland Institute, where he taught for three years in order to defray the expenses of his medical course.
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In the meantime he attended lectures at the Cleveland Medical College and was graduated therefrom in February, 1861, as valedic- torian of his class. He next opened an office on Cleveland Heights, on the south side, where he practiced for a year and then enlisted in the Union army as acting assistant surgeon of the Eighty-fifth Ohio, a three months' regiment, being later appointed assistant sur- geon. After being mustered out he was made assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for two years and was then appointed surgeon of the Eighty-fifth United States Colored Infantry. He was finally mustered out on the 30th of January, 1866, lacking but two weeks of completing a four years' term of military service.
After returning to Cleveland Dr. Darby resumed practice on St. Clair street, where he remained for a few years and then estab- lished an office on Superior street, near Alabama, there residing until 1888. In that year he took up his abode at No. 850 Doan street, and in 1907 removed to No. 1077 East One Hundred and Fifth street, where he has remained to the present time, enjoying a large and lucrative patronage as a practitioner of medicine and sur- gery. During the years 1861 and 1862 he acted as demonstrator of anatomy at the Cleveland Medical College. In 1867 he was ap- pointed to the chair of materia medica, therapeutics and pharmacy in the medical department of the Western Reserve University, which he held until 1906 or for a period of thirty-nine years-the longest term of service in the history of Cleveland. He was con- nected with the Lakeside Hospital for twenty years after its incep- tion, was surgeon for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad for a period of twenty years and also acted in that capacity for the Otis Iron & Steel Company and the Cleveland Rolling Mills for several years. Dr. Darby has always taken a great interest in temperance work, has made a thorough study of the effects of alcohol upon the system and occasionally writes on the subject. He has always been a student of natural history, made a special study of ornithology conchology and has nearly a complete collection of the birds of this state, numbering almost a thousand specimens. He likewise has an extensive collection of shells, including two hundred different spe- cies of fresh water clam shells. For many years he has been a mem- ber of the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Society and the Cleveland Academy of Medicine, and has fre- quently contributed books to the Cleveland Medical Library Asso- ciation, though his name is not on its membership rolls.
Dr. Darby has been twice married. In the year 1862, in Cleve- land he wedded Miss Julia Frances Wright, who was called to her
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final rest in 1867. Her father was William Wright, of Hudson, Ohio. She followed the profession of teaching prior to her mar- riage and was very active in the sanitary commission during the Civil war. On the Ist of May, 1872, Dr. Darby was again married, his second union being with Miss Emma Mabel Cox, a daughter of Charles A. and Julia Cox, of Cleveland, and she died June 2, 1888. The Doctor has two children, namely: John Charles, a prac- ticing physician of Cleveland; and Maybelle Claire, a senior in the Women's College of Western Reserve University.
Dr. Darby is a Master Mason and also belongs to the Indepen. dent Order of Odd Fellows and various other fraternal orders, in- cluding the Delta Psi, a literary college fraternity. He is a man of large, athletic build and though now past the seventy-fourth mile- stone on life's journey, is as strong and active as ever. A profound scholar, he is nevertheless plain and unassuming in manner and his kindly, sympathetic nature has made him the loved family physician in many a household.
1. W. M Pitaen
William W. Whitacre
A LIFE of well directed activity brought to William W. Whitacre a substantial measure of success and also gained for him the respect and good will of his fellow townsmen, who saw in him those substantial elements which constitute the good citizen. He was born in New Lisbon, Ohio, January 23, 1851, and spent his last years in Cleveland, where he departed this life August 19, 1905. He represented one of the old colonial families founded in America in the eighteenth century, when representatives of the name located in Loudoun county, Virginia. There Caleb Whitacre, the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in 1755, while John Whitacre, the grandfather, was born in 1778. Both continued to reside in Loudoun county, where they followed farming. Robert Whitacre, the father of our subject, was born December 3, 1806, and in Washington, D. C., in May, 1839, he married Miss Eliza- beth W. Wood, who was born January 13, 1821. They removed from Virginia to New Lisbon, Ohio, at an early day and were farm- ing people of that district. Mrs. Whitacre was a descendant of Francis Scott Key, the author of The Star Spangled Banner, and also a descendant of John Hoyt, who was born in 1610 and was the ancestor of those of the name who settled in America in the early part of the eighteenth century.
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