USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, Ohio, pictorial and biographical. De luxe supplement, Volume II > Part 18
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presented the resolution that has resulted in greatly simplifying the courses of study in elementary schools. On May 27, 1907, as chairman of the committee on athletics, he reported the plan that placed athletics under the department of instruction; and on October 21, 1907, he presented a comprehensive plan for a playground system for the schools. On November 11, 1907, he called the attention of the board to the need of a new normal school and of a high school of commerce. A new normal school is now under construction, and through his ini- tiative, a high school of commerce was opened in the fall of 1909 . On December 9, 1907, Mr. Orth introduced a resolution which resulted in the forming of evening classes for machine shop practice in the manual training buildings. On February 17, 1908, he introduced a resolution reorganizing the courses of study in the Normal School. These were the larger movements he was instrumental in helping along as a member of the board of education.
D. I. AMpler
P J. McMYLER, deceased, was for many years prom- inently and successfully identified with the business life of Cleveland. He was born in this city on the 4th of March, 1854, a son of John and Anna McMyler, who were pioneer settlers here. He completed the prescribed course of study in the grammar schools and attended several terms of night school, for when but twelve years of age he secured a position as clerk in a coal office and his time was thus occupied during the day. In 1878 he became interested in the coal business in connection with the firm of Foltz, McMyler & Com- pany and six years later turned his attention to the oil trade. He was made treasurer of the National Refining Company and also became a director in the Northern Ohio Oil Company, the Globe Oil Com- pany, the Plumo Specialty Manufacturing Company and the Atlas Oil Company. He was likewise one of the vice presidents of the Lake- wood Savings Bank and acted as a member of its advisory board after it was consolidated with the Cleveland Trust Company, and his sound business judgment and keen insight proved an important factor in the success of this institution as well as of the other concerns with which he was connected in an official capacity. The Chamber of Commerce numbered him among its valued members and he was also on the board of trustees of Riverside cemetery.
On the 2d of November, 1890, Mr. McMyler was united in mar- riage to Miss Bertha G. Aiken, whose birth occurred in Cleveland in 1855, her parents being Hiram and Lydia (Lindley) Aiken, natives of Connecticut. The father, a farmer by occupation, was numbered among the early settlers of this city, taking up his abode on the south side. Mrs. McMyler is a granddaughter of Seth Aiken and one of her ancestors, Joseph Triscott, was a prominent factor in the early history of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. McMyler became the parents of four children, namely: Helen Gertrude, who was born November 2, 1891, and is now attending college; Doris,
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whose natal day was September 10, 1895; and Sterling C. and Aiken, both of whom are deceased.
In his political views Mr. McMyler was a stanch republican but not actively interested in politics, preferring to concentrate his time and energes upon his business affairs. He attended religious services at the Unitarian church, and held membership relations with the Clifton Club. He found pleasure and recreation in music, and was also an ardent disciple of Izaak Walton and was very fond of travel, but was happiest at his own fireside in the companionship of his wife and children. He justly merited the proud American title of a self- made man, for an analyzation of his life record indicates clearly that his success was due to his utilization of opportunity and his strong and determined purpose to accomplish what he undertook. His death which occurred on the 18th of April, 1908, when he had attained the age of fifty-four years, was the occasion of deep and widespread regret in both the business and social circles of the city in which his entire life had been spent. Mrs. McMyler has resided in Cleveland from her birth to the present time and is widely and favorably known here, having won the warm regard and esteem of all with whom she has come in contact.
John B. Crouse
I N John B. Crouse Cleveland has a citizen who has achieved a most enviable prominence in the industrial world. Following a course that is unique in its far- sighted purpose and results, he has been active in the notable movement to annihilate competition by coop- eration and put into the business world as a practical asset of value that energy which was previously dissipated in an effort to build up one business at the sacrifice of another's success.
Mr. Crouse, now widely known in his present commercial and industrial connections, was born November 29, 1842, in Hartland, Michigan, and after attending the common schools was graduated from the high school of Ann Arbor, Michigan. He then turned his attention to general merchandizing and also became connected with the milling business in Highland, Michigan. Gradually he extended the scope of his activities, recognizing and improving opportunities and utilizing each legitimate advantage to further his interests. He became associated with H. A. Tremaine in the establishment and conduct of a pickle and vinegar factory-an association which has been maintained ever since in other and more extensive and important enterprises. They came to Cleveland in the '8os and here conducted business under the name of the Cleveland Carbon Company, their enterprise, however, being merged with the Bolton & Crystal Carbon Company, forming the Standard Carbon Company, Mr. Crouse being at the head of the sales department. A controlling interest in the latter company was sold to the National Carbon Company, yet they continued to operate the plant for three years, after which they sold out the remainder of their holdings to the National Carbon Company. Mr. Crouse continued in active business association with H. A. Tre- maine, going to Fostoria, Ohio, where they conducted business under the style of the Crouse & Tremaine Carbon Company. Later they sold a half interest to the National Carbon Company and continued to operate the plant. Mr. Crouse, in company with H. A. Tremaine,
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B. G. Tremaine, R. Crocker and Ira Cadwalder, organized the Sen- eca Banking Company at Fostoria, Ohio, also the Fostoria Incandes- cent Lamp Company, Mr. Crouse becoming president of the latter company. The partners in those enterprises soon afterward pur- chased the Fostoria Bulb & Bottle Company, changing the name of the plant to the Fostoria Glass Specialty Company. The output of this factory was largely used by them in the incandescent lamp busi- ness. Continually studying for new methods to improve their busi- ness, to extend trade and to meet competition, J. B. Crouse, H. A. Tre- maine, J. R. Crouse, F. S. Terry and B. G. Tremaine, after many discussions of the problems and questions that confronted them in manufacturing lines, conceived the idea of concentrating the lamp business of the country with the result that the National Electric Lamp Association was formed. This is today one of the most note- worthy and commendable business organizations of the country. America is fast coming to realize that the greatest success and pros- perity are to be found in cooperation, which must exist not only among manufacturing interests but must extend in unbroken chain from the manufacturer to his distributor and thence to the ultimate consumer, and interest has largely been directed to the broad-gauge policy of cooperation instituted and maintained by the National Electric Lamp Association. Years before its organization there was bitter warfare between lamp manufacturers, and competition was so great that in order to make sales various companies were sacrificing quality, a truth which the public came to realize and then demanded a return to the former and a higher standard. Understanding the conditions, several of the most prominent of the lamp manufacturers decided to unite upon a standard of quality and, as stated, Mr. Crouse, H. A. Tremaine, J. R. Crouse, F. S. Terry and B. G. Tremaine organized the National Electric Lamp Association. The first step in this direction was the establishment of a mutual engineering department. and the laborato- ries were established and an organization perfected in Cleveland, this city being the natural center of the industry. Other members joined the association and hardly had the engineering department been estab- lished when the commercial and executive heads of the various houses represented in the membership found other opportunities toward which cooperative effort might be directed. Many thought the move- ment a visionary, impractical scheme, but as the broad-minded, enter- prising business men came together they found that mutual under- standing and cooperation would be beneficial rather than detrimental, and soon widened the scope of their cooperative effort until it em- braced sections in chemical and physical research, testing, factory inspection and organization, illuminating engineering, technical pub-
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licity, business development and managerial and sales conferences. An interchange of knowledge, experience and understanding of methods did not serve to work harm to any but good to the whole, for processes of manufacture were improved and sales accordingly in- creased. For the betterment of the trade in general the association established in Cleveland a physical laboratory, operating at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars a year, exclusive of equipment. Here scientists of recognized standing are undertaking investigations so advanced that they may be termed excursions into the unknown in the field of light and illumination. The association has also estab- lished a school of electrical illuminating engineering, from which one hundred or more technical graduates are entered for training. This plan is continuous. Each year a new student body enters, the graduates being absorbed by the various companies forming the or- ganization. The standard of admission is high and the curriculum comprehensive along both theoretical and practical lines, the leading technical schools of the country being drawn upon for students. Today the National Electric Lamp Association has a membership of twenty- three companies, manufacturing about forty per cent of the total number of incandescent lamps used. Every question involved in the manufacture of four hundred and thirty-five sizes, styles and types of incandescent lamps is discussed by the association. Advanced research work is carried on by the association and test work, whereby each member company knows the quality of its product from month to month, while tests are made as often as any company may request. It was found that variation in quality was often due to the quality of the chemicals and raw material used in manufacture, and one direct result of the association's move has been an improvement in such raw ma- terials, the dealers coming to understand that member companies of the association will accept only such as will stand a test made by their engineering department. A cooperative feature of the work of this department is that of supplying superintendents or skilled assistants to any member company that may need such. Extended research and development work are carried on as the work of a special depart- ment and there is also a commercial engineering department, which prepares and publishes bulletins, pamphlets and articles on subjects broadly devoted to illuminating engineering. The bulletins of the association are perhaps the most prized commercial publications printed, being regularly accepted by central stations, illuminating engineers and even by leading schools and colleges as authority. They are kept absolutely free of commercial bias and the data contained has stood the most critical inspection of scientific men. The cooper- ative spirit is fostered and furthered and, in fact, largely has its root
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in the semi-annual meetings which are held on an island of sixty-five acres in Lake Ontario, near Sackett's harbor. There is maintained a well equipped camp, the tents all being supplied with electric light and running water, and there are tennis courts, a handball court, a common, a bathing beach, bowling alleys and boathouses. There the men meet in a social intercourse which brings them into close acquain- tance, resulting in lifelong friendships. There are days which are given over only to outdoor sports, but there is another side to this camp intimacy : each man learns how the other thinks and feels, each learns to appreciate the other's good points and is quick to forgive faults. This personal relation is undoubtedly one of the strongest elements in the success of the association, doing away with the feeling of warfare and contest that existed between hitherto rival manufac- turers. The members have come to know that they may give and take, that the ideas and plans of one company may be of benefit and assistance to another and that the upbuilding of the trade through the promotion of quality and utility will react in favor of all. To his duties in connection with this association Mr. Crouse is devoting much attention and at the same time is superintending his private interests. In addition to his previously mentioned connection he is also vice president of the Cleveland Gas & Electric Fixture Company.
Ever a busy man, Mr. Crouse finds time to devote to a side interest -an ideal dairy farm. He has converted the old Crouse homestead farm at Hartland, Michigan, into one of the most modern and up-to- date dairy farms in the country, on which he has built a barn after his own ideas of modern substantial construction, embodying all the latest sanitary features. The floors, mangers and feed troughs are of cement, while the stanchions and partitions are of iron. The utmost regard is paid to cleanliness and sanitary conditions. The milking is done by machinery, one man milking sixty cows. Although Mr. Crouse has invested many thousands of dollars in this, he takes great pride in conducting it upon a paying basis. The herd consists entirely of Jersey cows, and the butter is marketed under the name of Crouse's Jersey Creamery Butter and is regarded as the standard of excellence in the market where it is sold. The plant has a capacity of four thousand pounds of butter each week and consumes the cream pur- chased from neighboring farmers as well. It is characteristic of Mr. Crouse to succeed in everything that he undertakes and he has done this in the conduct of the dairy farm as well as in the commercial and industrial interests of magnitude to which he gives his attention.
At Hartland, Michigan, in 1864, Mr. Crouse was united in mar- riage to Miss Betsey Westfall and they had one son, J. Robert, who was graduated from the Central high school of Cleveland in 1893
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and from the University of Michigan in 1897, since which time he has been his father's intimate associate and partner in business enter- prises. The mother died in 1893 and in 1900 Mr. Crouse wedded Mrs. Edith May Avery, of Stockbridge, Michigan, who by her former marriage had two daughters: Gladys, a graduate of the East high school of Cleveland and now a student in Vassar College and Grace, who is attending the East high school and will complete the course this year.
Mr. Crouse is a thirty-second degree Mason, belongs to Al Koran Temple of the Mystic Shrine and has many pleasant social relations of other characters, but is preeminently a man of affairs and one who is wielding a wide influence in support of a broad-gauge business policy that is awaking the country at large to an appreciation of the fact that the best interests of the individual are promoted through co- operation of the whole.
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Rufus P. Ranney
A MONG all the illustrious names preserved in the records of the supreme court of the state, none is higher, nobler or purer than that of Rufus P. Ranney. He died at his home in Cleveland on the 6th of December, 1891, at the age of seventy-eight years. The sketch of his life, together with the analysis of his character and the estimate of his public services here presented, is the collaboration of Allen G. Thurman, Richard A. Harrison, Jacob D. Cox, Francis E. Hutchins and Samuel E. Williamson. The memorial prepared by Judge Williamson for the State Bar Association in 1892 furnishes the material relating to Judge Ranney's work in the constitutional convention and some of his important judicial decisions. As a man, as a lawyer, as a judge and as a statesman, he left a record without a blemish; a character above reproach ; and a reputation as a jurist and a statesman which but few members of the bar have attained.
Judge Ranney came from New England, a land of robust men of wonderful physical and mental fiber and endurance. He was born at Blandford, Hampden county, Massachusetts, on the 30th of October, 1813. His father was a farmer of Scotch descent. In 1822 the family moved to Ohio, which was then a "western frontier." They settled in Portage county. In the son the old blood of New England had forceful inheritance; and his hard struggles with pioneer life were favorable to the full development of his great natural endowments, ยท his inherited characteristics and the attainment of the highest excel- lence. The means of public instruction were quite limited; but the stock of intelligence in the family, with a few standard books brought from Massachusetts, coupled with an active, penetrating and broad intellect, aroused in the son a desire to get an education. And he had one of those exceptional minds that take to learning by nature, as Shakespeare and Columbus did. Not until he had nearly arrived at man's estate was he able to manage, by means of manual labor and
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teaching in backwoods schools, to enter an academy, where in a short time he prepared himself to enter college. By chopping cord wood at twenty-five cents per cord, he earned the money to enter Western Reserve College but, for want of means, he could not complete the college course. He made up his mind to study law, and at the age of twenty-one years entered the law office of Joshua R. Giddings and Benjamin F. Wade and began his preparation for the bar, to which he was admitted in 1836. Mr. Giddings having been elected to con- gress, the firm of Giddings & Wade was dissolved, and upon Mr. Wade's suggestion he and young Ranney entered into partnership. This firm was the leading law firm in northeastern Ohio. In 1845 Mr. Wade was elected judge of the court of common pleas. Shortly afterward Mr. Ranney removed to Warren, Trumbull county, which was the chief center of business and wealth in that section of the state. He at once commanded a large practice. In 1846, and again in 1848, he was nominated as a candidate for congress but, his party being hopelessly in the minority, the opposing candidate was elected. In 1850 he was elected, as a delegate from Trumbull and Geauga coun- ties, to the convention which had been called to revise and amend the constitution of the state. In this convention he served with distinction on the committees on the judiciary, on revision, on amendments and others. His associates on the committee on the judiciary were Stan- berry, Swan, Groesbeck and Kennon. Although he was then a young man, he was soon recognized as one of the leading members of the convention. In this body of distinguished lawyers, jurists and states- men, there were few members who had so thorough a knowledge of political science, constitutional law, political and judicial history and the principles of jurisprudence, as Judge Ranney displayed in the debates of the convention. There was no more profound, acute and convincing reasoner on the floor of the convention, and in the com- mittee rooms his suggestive and enlightened mind was invaluable. The amended constitution conforms very nearly to the principles and provisions advocated by him. In March, 1851, he was elected by the general assembly judge of the supreme court to succeed Judge Avery; and at the first election held under the amended constitution in 1851, he was chosen to be one of the judges of the new supreme court. He was assigned the longest term and served until 1856, when he resigned and removed from Warren to Cleveland, where he resumed the prac- tice of his profession as a member of the firm of Ranney, Backus & Noble. In 1859 he was the unsuccessful candidate of his party against William Dennison for governor of the state. Three years afterward he was nominated, against his expressed desire, as a candidate for supreme judge. One of his partners, Franklin Backus, was nomi-
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nated by the opposing party for the same office. To his own surprise, Judge Ranney was elected. He qualified, but resigned two years afterward and resumed the practice of law in Cleveland. The de- mands upon his professional services were now more than he could comply with. Anything like a selfish regard for his own pecuniary interest would have induced him to select for his attention the most important and lucrative business that was offered, but the needs of a man or woman in difficulty or distress were more likely to secure his devoted services than the offer of a large fee. When the Ohio State Bar Association was organized in the year 1881, he was unanimously elected its president.
Toward the close of his life Judge Ranney gradually withdrew from the practice of his profession ; but the urgent solicitation of some old friend, or an attack upon some important constitutional or legal principle, drew him occasionally from his library to the courtroom. The announcement that he was to make an argument never failed to bring together an audience of lawyers, eager to learn from him the art of forensic reasoning, of which he was a consummate and acknowl- edged master, to be entertained and instructed by his sympathy and familiarity with the more recent advances in the science of jurispru- dence. The well-earned leisure of his later years was far from being indolence. If he had needed an inducement to continue his reading and study, he would have found it in the pleasure it gave him to share with others the results of such study. He was anxious that young men should have the educational advantages which had been denied to him, and it was for the double purpose of helping to provide such advantages and justifying the confidence which had been reposed in him by a valued client and friend, that he devoted much time for several years to placing the Case School of Applied Science at Cleve land upon a firm foundation and providing for it adequate buildings and equipment. From the time of Judge Ranney's admission to the bar he found time, by means of his ability to dispose of business rapidly and by unremitting industry, to make up to some extent the deficiency in his early education. Accident and taste combined to direct his at- tention particularly to the language of France and as soon as he could read it easily he made a profound study of her literature, politics, history and law. The civil law and the debates which resulted in the Code Napoleon became as familiar to him as the Commentaries of Blackstone and had their part in forming his clear and mature con- ceptions of natural justice and views of public policy. Judge Ranney was a man of great simplicity of character, wholly free from affecta- tion and assumption. He was a man of native modesty of character. He could have attained the highest standing in any pursuit or station
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requiring the exercise of the best intellectual and moral qualities, but his ambition was chastened and moderate and he seemed to have no aspirations for official place or popular applause. While always dig- nified, he was a genial and companionable man, of fine wit and rare humor. He had singular powers of memory. Every fact, every rule, every principle, when once acquired, remained with him always. He combined extensive and varied general knowledge with remarkable accuracy of judgment. His originality of mind was not impaired by his accumulation of knowledge and the ideas of others. No man was more fearless in asserting the right and in the performance of what he deemed his duty. His known integrity and honesty, and his never- failing common sense and sagacity in affairs of business, placed in his hands weighty and responsible trusts embracing important interests and large amounts of property. From the beginning of his career as a lawyer, by reason of the professional learning, the clear and persua- sive method of reasoning, the nice power of discrimination, the strict sense of justice, the inflexible integrity and the great practical wisdom which characterized and adorned all his efforts, he occupied the po- sition of a leading representative of the Ohio bar. He had remark- able power of analysis and saw with the quickness of intuition the prin- ciples of law as well as the right of morality of a controversy. In the argument of a cause he never made a useless parade of authorities. He used authorities only to illustrate principles.
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