USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, Ohio, pictorial and biographical. De luxe supplement, Volume I > Part 5
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Captain Bradley was of a genial, happy, easy temperament, com- bined with which were thorough business qualifications, making his
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character one that commanded the respect and esteem of all. It is a remarkable fact that with all his numerous and important business enterprises, bringing him constantly into relation with many people, he never had but one case of litigation and that was with an insurance company many years ago. Prudent and enterprising in his affairs, he was a man of the strictest integrity and highest sense of honor- a man whose word was as good as his bond. He was also largely interested in the iron trade, a branch of commerce and manufacture in which Cleveland has an immense amount of capital invested. He was also a heavy owner of real estate, which since his death has greatly increased in value. Captain Bradley retained his activity until the last and could have passed for a man many years his junior. He died November 28, 1885. His career was a splendid example of the pos- sibilities which this country affords to worthy and persevering men. Starting in the world without a dollar, he died possessed of millions.
In 1851 Captain Bradley was married to Miss Ellen M., daugh- ter of John Burgess, of Milan, Ohio, and unto them were born four children, one son and three daughters, of whom two survive: Morris A. and Elizabeth, the latter the wife of N. S. Keller, of Cleveland. Mrs. Bradley died in 1896.
Morris A. Bradley was born in Cleveland, August 15, 1859, and acquired his education in the public and private schools of his native city. In 1880 he entered his father's business and a few years after the death of Captain Bradley assumed the entire management of the large estate, which under his able and careful control has greatly increased in value. He is one of the most extensive owners of real estate in the city and has erected a large number of buildings, many of which have been intended for manufacturing purposes. His busi- ness interests are manifold and of an important character, contrib- uting to the commercial and industrial activity of the city as well as to his individual prosperity. He is the president and treasurer of the Bradley Transportation Company, president and treasurer of the Ohio Transportation Company, secretary and treasurer of the Erie Building Company, vice president of the United States Coal Company, president of the Cleveland & Buffalo Transportation Com- pany, secretary and treasurer of the Alva Realty Company, secretary and treasurer of the St. Clair Street Realty Company, a director of Wickliffe-on-the-Lake Club Company, and president and treasurer of the Bradley Electrical Company, which concern owns an electric light and power plant furnishing light and power for the buildings owned by Mr. Bradley, and of this plant he is sole owner. He is also a member of the University School Corporation.
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Morris A. Bradley
On the 10th of May, 1883, was celebrated the marriage of Morris A. Bradley and Miss Anna Leiminger, a daughter of Charles Leim- inger of Cleveland, and they have five children: Charles L., who married Miss Gertrude Baker; Helen M .; Eleanor F .; Katharine A .; and Alva, who married Marguerite Andrews, and has one child, Caroline. Mr. Bradley is prominent socially, being a member of the Union, Euclid, Roadside, Country and Gentlemen's Driving Clubs. He is very fond of horses and an expert amateur reinsman. He stands today as a splendid example of the man of wealth, to whom business is but one phase of existence, who understands the obligations and responsibilities of life and is appreciative of its so- cial amenities.
John+ Price
John T. Price
J OHN H. PRICE, occupying a central place on the stage of public activity, is making his impress felt upon the proceedings of the bar, upon the political situation of the city and upon its sociological condi- tions, especially in his efforts to promote the welfare of the newsboys and others to whom fate has vouch- safed little opportunity. Although a young man, his life has been one of usefulness in his service to the city and has also been fraught with successful accomplishment in the line of his chosen profession.
Mr. Price was born in Youngstown, Ohio, July 31, 1878, and is of Welsh parentage-a son of Morgan P. and Margaret (Davis) Price. Improving his opportunities for the acquirement of an edu- cation, he was graduated from the public schools of Youngstown with honors and from the Rayen high school with the class of 1897. In the meantime, while still in the grammar schools, he was em- ployed as a newsboy and as messenger boy for the Western Union Telegraph Company, and also worked in the office of the Brown, Bonnell Iron Company. Ambitious to secure an education, he en- tered Mount Union College in the year of his graduation from the high school, working his way through both high school and college by doing newspaper work. He was graduated from Mount Union in 1900 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and during his college days became affiliated with the Sigma Alpha Epsilon and also the Theta Nu Epsilon. During his college days he served as city editor of the Alliance Review and was also editor-in-chief of the College Annual and other college papers. He received honors in debate, becoming the winner in the annual debates and also receiving honors in oratory. He was likewise manager of athletic teams and was popular alike with professors and classmates-a young man alive to the situation, eagerly embracing his opportunities for mental devel- opment and at the same time realizing that education is but a means to an end-a preparation for the practical and responsible duties of life. Appreciative of the value of European experience, he crossed the ocean as a cattle puncher on a cattle boat and roughed it through
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John Th. Price
nine European countries, traveling as a newspaper correspondent throughout Europe in 1900.
In the meantime Mr. Price formed the definite purpose of be- coming a member of the bar and, returning to America in 1901, en- tered the law school of the Ohio State University, at the same time doing special work for the Cleveland Plain Dealer in Columbus. Later he matriculated in the law school of the Western Reserve University and while preparing for the profession edited a history of the Ohio National Guard and Ohio volunteers in the war with Spain, and also edited the Law School Annual. He was well equipped, not only by research but through actual experience, for his historical editorial work, having served with the Eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Santiago, Cuba, participating in the siege of the city.
Mr. Price was admitted to the bar in 1903 and since that time has been actively engaged in the practice of law in Cleveland, mak- ing a specialty of corporation, insurance and constitutional law. He has now a liberal and representative clientage along these lines and in 1909 he was appointed by the attorney general of Ohio as special counsel to the attorney general for Cuyahoga county, having charge of all legal matters for the state in this county. He has been con- nected with various important cases in his capacity as counsel, while his private law business has also brought him prominently before the public in a professional capacity. He is not unknown as a sagacious and successful business man, being secretary and treasurer of the Western Reserve Motor Car Company, and president of the East End Realty Company.
Not only as a prominent and rising representative of the bar is John H. Price known in Cleveland and Ohio. He is recognized as one of the prominent republican leaders of the city and is probably the youngest man who ever served as chairman of the republican committee of Cuyahoga county, being chosen for that office when but twenty-eight years of age. He was termed the " boy chairman " but his clear-cut opinions, definite plans and high ideals were those of a man of thought and action. From his youth he has been deeply interested in political questions and in the situation of the country, availing himself of every opportunity to broaden his knowledge along those lines. He saw that it was with difficulty that young men were making their way in political circles where older men desired to keep their place as campaign orators and as candidates, fearing that their place might be usurped by those of younger years. Mr. Price championed the cause of the young man and his labors were equally efficacious for a campaign of cleanliness and for opposition
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John D. Price
to anything like misrule in public affairs. In 1906 he managed a "moneyless campaign" that was commented on editorially through- out the country, following as it did an era of tremendous campaign expenditure in Cuyahoga county. His efforts were eminently suc- cessful. Since that year he has served continuously as a member of the republican executive committee of Cuyahoga county and is gen- erally chairman of the speaker's committee of the successive cam- paigns. In 1908 he was a candidate for common pleas judge.
Mr. Price was married in 1903 to Miss Floride Gaillard Staats, a daughter of Henry N. Staats, and unto them have been born two sons, John H. and Newman Staats Price. Mr. Price is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken the degrees of the commandery, the consistory, and also of the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise affil- iated with the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. For a number of years he has been a director of the Tippecanoe Club and is a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the Colonial Club and the Ohio State Board of Commerce. He was one of the committee of ar- rangements to the Tippecanoe Club which planned to visit that club at Canton on the occasion of the dedication of the memorial erected to President Mckinley. He holds membership in the Calvary Pres- byterian church and is much interested in sociological work. He holds membership in the Social Service Club and has given much time and attention to the interests and welfare of newsboys in the city of Cleveland, serving for two years as president of the Cleve- land Newsboys' Association. In this connection he was active in the effort to reach boys who cannot afford the membership dues of the Young Men's Christian Association, providing gymnasium facilities and more opportunity for athletic development, realizing that the profitable and enjoyable employment of time is a sure preventive of mischief and crime. John H. Price is particularly alive to the in- terests and vital questions of the day, whether of a professional, po- litical or sociological nature, and his labors and efforts have been of a most practical character, while at the same time he works toward high ideals.
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yours truly Addison Hills,
Addison Tills
T HE life record of Addison Hills covered almost the entire nineteenth century, beginning with the 6th of April, 1807, and extending to the 7th of May, 1898. He was born in Enfield, Hartford county, Connecti- cut, and was a descendant of William Hills, who in 1632 settled in Roxbury, Massachusetts, while subse- quently he became a resident of Hartford, Connecticut. Jedediah Hills, the father of Addison, was in the prime of life when he became a resident of Painesville, Ohio, arriving in June, 1814, accompanied by his family. His life evidenced many characteristics of sterling worth, and he became prominent and influential in the business circles and public life of the community in which he passed his life. While living in Painesville he creditably filled the offices of post- master and justice of the peace.
Addison Hills was a youth of seven years when the family came to this state, and when a young lad of thirteen he began his business career, making his initial step as clerk in a general mercantile store. While thus employed he gained a good knowledge of the business, thoroughly familiarizing himself with the methods of the mercantile world. Gradually he worked his way upward until his increased salary and his careful expenditure enabled him, at the age of twenty years, to engage in business for himself. In 1832 he was appointed the first recorder of Lake county, of which Painesville was the county seat, and proved a competent and trustworthy official in that position. The year 1835 chronicled his forceful activity in various lines relat- ing to the public welfare. It was in that year that he became one of the incorporators of St. James Protestant Episcopal church, and throughout his entire life he remained an influential factor in the work of moral development in the communities in which he lived. It was also in 1835 that he assisted in organizing the Painesville & Fairport Railroad and in the same year he became president of the Bank of Geauga. He was one of its organizers and aided in found- ing a substantial moneyed concern which was continued under origi- nal name for over half a century and is now known as the First Na- tional Bank of Painesville. From 1840 until 1844 Mr. Hills con-
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Addison Hills
ducted a warehouse business at Fairport, Ohio, and in the latter year removed to Buffalo, where he entered the employ of Kimberly, Pease & Company, who were conducting an extensive commission business. During his later years, however, his activities were most largely di- rected along the line of railway traffic and management, and as early as 1834 he became auditor of the Painesville & Fairport Railroad. Later he entered the service of the Erie Railway Company at Dun- kirk, Ohio, in 1852 having charge of the company's business in that place and in other districts. This position, with all of its responsi- bilities, he capably filled, and his broadening experience in railway lines qualified him for further responsibility. In 1855 he came to Cleveland to take charge of the local freight business of the Cleve- land, Painesville & Ashtabula Railroad and of the Cleveland, Co- lumbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company. He afterward became gen- eral freight agent for both roads, having supervision of the freight business at the same time. He thus continued until 1858 when the Cleveland, Painesville & Ashtabula and the Cleveland & Toledo lines were consolidated under the name of The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. At that time Lucien Hills, a son of Addison Hills, was appointed general freight agent of the Cleveland, Colum- bus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway. Addison Hills was made general freight agent of The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Rail- way Company and the Northern Indiana Railroad Companies, both of which companies are now operated under the name of The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company. Mr. Hills con- tinued as such general freight agent and so remained until 1881, when he was appointed assistant general manager of the road. On the Ist of December, 1886, further promotion came to him in his appointment as assistant to the president of the road, and he was re- tained in that connection until he passed away. It is interesting to recall the fact that as a railroad traffic man he was the first to con- ceive the idea of and put into practice in the early days the most important and useful plan now in universal use of transferring loaded cars from one railroad to another without unloading the contents of the car.
Mr. Hill's first marriage was in 1828 to Miss Emily Tracy, daughter of Rufus Tracy, of Springfield, New York. She died in 1835, leaving two children, Lucien and Emily Malvina. Lucien married Miss Mary Andrews, only one of their children, Mrs. E. A. Foote, of Bratenahl, surviving. On June 6, 1836, Mr. Hills was again married, his second wife having been Olivia Prudence Tracy, sister of his former wife. Of this marriage two children were born, Eliza Tracy and Albert E. Of his children only one survives him,
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Addison Tills
Miss Emily M. Hills. She is a member of the Poets Club of Rome and has published several volumes of her poetic writings, which have received much praise. She has been an extensive traveler and much interested in fine art.
Mr. Hills continued his residence in Cleveland until called to his final rest on the 7th of May, 1898, at the age of ninety-one years. He was a member of Trinity church, and his life was in harmony with his profession. He possessed a most charitable and kindly na- ture, was devoted to the welfare of the city in which he made his home and was never neglectful of his obligation to his fellow men. A long, upright and useful life was brought to a quiet close and left a memory which is enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him and may well serve as an inspiration to those who have regard for all that is best and most honorable in the activities of life.
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Walter C. Baker!
Walter Charles Baker
W ALTER CHARLES BAKER is the president of the American Ball Bearing Company, the largest enter- prise of its kind in the United States. This position he has attained within the comparatively short space of fourteen years for it was in 1895 that he completed his school course and made his initial step in the business world. He was born in Hinsdale, New Hampshire, June 27, 1868. His mother, Mrs. J. R. Baker, is still living in Cleveland. Her maiden name was Jeannette R. Hall, and she is a native of Brattleboro, Vermont. In the Green Mountain state, in 1859, she married G. W. Baker, and they became the parents of a son and a daughter, Walter C., and Ida, now the wife of Frank Cody, a business man of Canada. Mrs. Baker was one of the charter members of the Dorcas Society of Cleveland and has been very active in the organization up to the pres- ent time.
Walter C. Baker largely acquired his education in the public schools of Cleveland, becoming a resident of this city in 1870. He also attended the Case School of Applied Science, pursuing a course in mechanical and civil engineering and after leaving school entered the railway service, becoming connected with the engineering depart- ment of the Valley Railroad. He acted for a short time as chief engi- neer and then returned to school, completing his course with the class of 1890. For three years thereafter he was engaged in civil engineering and on the expiration of that period entered the service of the Cleveland Machine Screw Company as assistant engineer, being the assistant to John J. Grant for one year. In 1895 he organ- ized the American Ball Bearing Company and became its first presi- dent. In this connection he has given his attention to the manufac- ture of many new and original devices and in 1899 produced the first Baker Electric Vehicle. He served until 1906 as the vice president and mechanical engineer of the Baker Electric Vehicle Company. The American Ball Bearing Company, to which he now largely gives undivided attention, is the largest institution of the kind in the United States, producing a general line of ball-bearing parts for all makes
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Walter Charles Baker
of automobiles. He is also the president of the Matthews Boat Com- pany, of Port Clinton, Ohio.
Mr. Baker is identified with several organizations which draw their membership from the ranks of those who are prominent in engi- neering circles. He is a member of the Engineers Club of New York and also of the Civil and Electrical Engineers Club of Cleveland. He is interested in the city, its adornment and its improvement, through the promotion of its commercial and industrial interests, in his membership in the Chamber of Commerce. He belongs to the Union Club, to the Cleveland Athletic Club, to the Automobile Club and to the Lakewood Yacht Club. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and his religious faith finds expression in his attend- ance at the Unity church.
Mr. Baker was married October 27, 1891, to Miss Fannie E. White, a daughter of Rollin C. and Elizabeth (Warren) White, of Cleveland. Mrs. Baker is a graduate of the Hathaway-Brown School and is well known in the art and musical circles of the city. She is also interested in the affairs of the Unity church and its charities, is interested in the Children's Fresh Air Camp, and does active service in connection with other benevolences. Mr. and Mrs. Baker reside at Clifton Park, and a motor car adds much to their pleasure in leisure hours. Mr. Baker is also fond of yachting, shooting and fishing and served for a time as vice commodore of the Lakewood Yacht Club. Moreover, he is greatly interested in scientific instruments, of which he has a fine collection. His interests have never been so ex- clusively confined to one line as to produce an abnormal development in that direction but have covered a wide range, making him a well rounded man who wields a wide influence in the various lines of activ- ity, social, musical and commercial, to which he directs his energies.
Albert D. Ernne
HE life record of Albert D. Ernne, whose name appears T on the list of Cleveland's honored dead, is another illustration of the fact that in a land, unhampered by caste or class, success may always be attained by per- sistent and intelligently directed labor. Mr. Ernne came from across the water to seek his fortune in the new world and, greatly embracing the opportunities that offered, he worked his way steadily upward until he reached a creditable and gratifying position in commercial circles, being for many years closely associated with the jewelry trade of Cleveland.
A native of Switzerland, he was born in Zurich on the 26th of June, 1836, and pursued his education in the schools of that country. At the age of eleven years he began to learn the watchmaker's trade under the direction of an uncle and after a time became so expert that he could make every part of a watch. At the age of twenty years he went to England and engaged as manager of a watch factory there, his ability contributing to the reputation which Switzerland has always enjoyed as the home of the most efficient and expert watch- makers that the world has produced. Thinking to find still better business opportunities in the new world Mr. Ernne crossed the Atlan- tic in 1871 and at once came to Cleveland, where he entered the employ of Mr. Crittenden as a watchmaker and repairer. He was thus employed for eighteen years, during which time he had charge of their business. He then engaged in the jewelry and watch repair business for himself, opening a store at No. 94 Euclid avenue, where he continued for about ten years. When the colonial arcade was built he was the first person to open a store there and in the ensuing years he built up an extensive business. He was known as one of the best watchmakers of the country, and watches which were made in Swit- zerland were sent to him from all parts of America to be repaired. His ability was of an expert character and he not only built up an exten- sive trade in the line of watch repairing but also as a jewelry merchant, carrying a large and well selected line of jewelry and precious stones. At the time of his death he had in his possession a watch, every piece of which he had made when only a boy.
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Albert D. Ernne
Mr. Ernne was married to Miss Mary Burt, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, whose parents, however, were married in Cleveland. Mr. and Mrs. Ernne had one daughter, Josephine R. He was a man very domestic in his tastes, devoted to the welfare of his family and finding his greatest happiness at his own fireside. He gave his political alle- giance to the democracy and was a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He was greatly interested in charitable work and was president of Concordia Lodge, a German benevolent society. His kindly spirit prompted him to respond readily to every tale of sor- row or distress and to put forth every effort to alleviate trouble. In business circles he was known as a man of the utmost reliability, ener- getic and determined, and his commercial probity and honor gained him the unqualified respect of those who knew him. Mr. Ernne died very suddenly, just as he was closing his place of business to return home, on the 14th of January, 1909. His death brought a sense of personal bereavement to many friends for he had gained the kindly regard and good will of all with whom he came in contact, and enjoyed the close companionship of many with whom his association was of a more strictly social character. For years the family home was at No. 1567 Crawford Road.
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Otto Miller
O TTO MILLER stands as a typical example of the col- lege-bred young man of the present day, whose natural powers and acquired ability enable him to become a forceful factor in business, while his enterprise leads him as well into active connection with other interests that are vital elements in public life. A native of Cleveland, he was born on the Ist of July, 1874, his parents being James H. and Sophia M. (Hensch) Miller. The father was a Union soldier who served as lieutenant and adjutant in the First Ohio Light Artillery under General James Barnett.
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