USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, Ohio, pictorial and biographical. De luxe supplement, Volume II > Part 20
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In the course of a public address at the "Old Roman" banquet Judge Thurman thus referred to him: "For forty years I have been a devoted friend of Rufus P. Ranney, and I firmly believe that he has been mine. It may therefore be permitted to me to say that of all the great lawyers I have ever known, no one ever seemed to me to be his equal. With a quickness of apprehension, almost supernat- ural, with a power of analysis that Pascal might have envied, with an integrity that never for a moment was or could be brought into doubt, with a courage that never permitted him to fear to do what he believed to be right, with an industry that brought all his great qualities into successful operation, and with a mind cultivated be- yond the sphere of his profession, he is, in the eyes of those who know him as I know him, a man of whom Ohio is and always will be most justly proud. He is a star in her firmament that will never be blotted out."
Judge Ranney never sought to appear learned, but rather to adapt his argument to the comprehension of the weakest member of the profession and of a layman. The course of his reasoning is readily followed to a conclusion which is impregnable. His style is charm- ing, his choice of words felicitous. Clearness of expression is matched by purity of diction. His opinions are not more noteworthy for the soundness of the conclusions reached than for the beautiful simplicity of the language in which they are clothed. His tastes were simple and domestic. His home life, in its affection, confidence and constancy exhibited the gentler traits of his strong character.
His attachments to wife and children were of the tenderest and most enduring quality. He married Adeline W. Warner, who at the age of seventy-eight survives and is greatly beloved. Mrs. Ran- ney was a daughter of Judge Jonathan Warner, of Jefferson, Ash- tabula county, who was an associate judge of the common pleas court and one of the pioneers of the state. Their family consisted of six
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children, four sons and two daughters. Both daughters and two of the sons are dead. One son, John R. Ranney, was educated in the law but is not now engaged in practice. The other son, Charles P. Ranney, is a successful business man of Cleveland.
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W.E. Ambler
William E. Ambler
ILLIAM E. AMBLER, secretary and treasurer of X the Curtiss-Ambler Realty Company, is in this con- nection actively interested in one of the most exten- sive real-estate firms of the city. He has been a resident of Cleveland since 1891 and is numbered among Ohio's native sons, his birth having occurred in Medina, this state, December 18, 1845. His father, Chester C. Ambler, a native of Vermont, was for many years engaged in mer- chandising in Spencer, Medina county, Ohio. He wedded Margaret Eglin and in 1859 they removed with their family to Hillsdale, Michigan. Their last days, however, were passed in Cleveland, where the father died July 5, 1905, at the remarkable old age of ninety years, while his wife survived him until 1906.
After attending the public schools, William E. Ambler contin- ued his education in Hillsdale College and subsequently completed a scientific course in Albion (Mich.) College, from which he was graduated in 1865 with the Bachelor of Science degree. He then took up the study of law, completing a course in 1867 at Albany Law School, being a classmate there of William McKinley. Returning to the middle west, he entered Adrian College at Adrian, Michi- gan, where he completed a classical course and won the Bachelor of Arts degree in the spring of 1868. Mr. Ambler then located for practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he remained for a year, after which he removed to Pentwater, Michigan, where he con- tinued as an active and successful member of the bar until 1891. In the meantime he had figured prominently in public life in the community in which he made his home and that he did successful and original work is indicated by the fact that in 1870 Adrian Col- lege conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree, while in 1875 he received the same degree from Hillsdale College. In 1888 he was elected a trustee of Hillsdale College and by reelection has con- tinued in the office to the present time, acting as chairman of the
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board for several years. He is greatly interested in intellectual progress and at all times his influence is a potent element in behalf of public education. His fellow citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, also conferred upon him political honors, electing him to the state senate of Michigan in 1878 and again in 1880. He served as president pro tem of the senate during his last term and was chairman of the important committee on appropriations and finances. He has always been a close student of those questions which are to the statesman and the man of affairs of vital import and his legislative service was characterized by the utmost devotion to the interests of the commonwealth at large. Subsequently he served as judge of the probate court of Oceana county, Michigan.
Since coming to Cleveland in 1891 Mr. Ambler has been en- gaged in the real-estate business and as secretary and treasurer of the Curtiss-Ambler Realty Company has been connected with ex- tended activity in this line, for the firm is very prominent in real- estate circles. He is also the vice president of the Cuyahoga Building & Loan Company and few men are so well informed concerning realty values and the possibilities of their rise or diminution as is Mr. Ambler.
On the 25th of December, 1871, in Lyons, Michigan, Mr. Ambler was married to Miss Flora E. Lewis, a daughter of Charles E. and Ann (Tufts) Lewis. They have become parents of two sons and two daughters. Jay C., the eldest, now of Manchester, Tennessee, is a graduate of Hillsdale College, of Hillsdale, Michigan, and is engaged in the ranch business. Angell was educated at the Women's College of the Western Reserve University and following her graduation entered the Teachers' College, of New York, where she completed the course. She is now the wife of Dr. S. M. Weaver, a well known dentist of Cleveland, and has two children, William Ambler and Marshall. William, the younger son of W. E. Ambler, was graduated from the Case School of Applied Science in Cleve- land and also completed the literary course in Hillsdale College, of Michigan, and the electrical course in Cornell University. He was for two years instructor in electricity at Cornell and for two years assistant professor of electricity in the Case School of Cleve- land. He then left the educational field to go into business for himself as a real-estate dealer. He has become a well known citizen of Cleveland and is now vice president of the Colonial Club. Mar- guerite Faye is a graduate of Miss Mittleberger's school in Cleve- land and the National Park Seminary in Washington, D. C. In 1909 Mr. Ambler erected a modern residence at No. 1696 Magnolia Drive, near Wade park, which is the family home. The political
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allegiance of Mr. Ambler has always been stanchly given to the republican party and since coming to Cleveland he has been a val- ued and popular member of the Colonial Club, of which he has been a director. He possesses one of the largest collections of auto- graphs and autograph letters and manuscripts in this country, hav- ing a large library of autograph books. Those who know him socially entertain for him the warm regard which is always given genuine worth when free from ostentation, while those who meet him in busi- ness circles recognize in him a reliable man of marked enterprise and progressive spirit.
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HabeBall
Talebb C. Ball
EBB C. BALL has been a dynamic force in a project W of vital significance to the whole country, although his work is in some measure unknown to those not thoroughly acquainted with the "up-to-date" system of railroad operation. However, his name in the press now awakens general interest, for he has become known as the originator and inventor of railroad watch movements and new appliances used in their construction, his skill in that direction win- ning him fame throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. More than all this, he stands at the head of his extensive Railroad Time Inspection Service which has been of incalculable benefit in preventing the loss of life and the destruction of property through railroad accidents. Aside from these connections, he is recognized in Cleveland as one of the leading and prosperous merchants of the city. His youthful days were passed on his father's farm in Knox county, Ohio, where his birth also occurred, but agricultural pur- suits did not prove especially attractive to him, his natural tendencies being mechanical, especially in more minute and intricate phases. He was therefore, apprenticed to the watchmaking and jewelry trade, for four years, his wages being fixed at one dollar per week the first two years, and seven dollars per week the third and fourth. (Would a young man now a days be willing to start on such a meager basis?) For eight years he worked at the bench, while from 1874 until 1879 he occupied the responsible position of business manager with the Deuber Watch Case Manufacturing Company, whose plant was then located in Cincinnati.
For thirty-one years Mr. Ball has been a resident of Cleveland, coming to this city on the 19th of March, 1879, at which time he began business in the watch and jewelry trade on his own account on the site where he still remains. The years have chronicled a constant increase of business until he today has the largest house for the sale of railroad standard watches, precious stones, jewelry and solid sil-
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Malebb C. Ball
verware in this part of the country. Two show cases and a work bench on one side of the room constituted the nucleus of the present establishment. The trade steadily increased in extent and volume, and in 1891 a stock company was formed, up to which time Mr. Ball had been alone in the ownership and control of the enterprise. The Webb C. Ball Company was then incorporated under the laws of the state with a paid-up capital of one hundred thousand dollars, Mr. Ball acting as manager and treasurer for some time, while later he became president of the company. The name of Ball is today a synonym for accuracy in construction of railroad watches through- out the entire country.
It has been in this line that the ingenuity and mechanical skill of Mr. Ball have been brought into play. He has made a special study of the requirements of railroad men in the matter of time- pieces and in his efforts to keep abreast of the marvelous strides of recent years in railroad speed and equipment, he has produced sev- eral distinct watch movements, covered by his own patents and trade- marks. Each is adapted to fill the requirements of those for whose use it was constructed and is a triumph of mechanical art, unexcelled in the history of railroad watch construction.
In an article written by James B. Morrow and published Janu- ary 16, 1910, in a large number of leading papers, Mr. Ball was mentioned as "the man who holds a watch on one hundred and twen- ty-five thousand miles of railroad." He was, moreover, character- ized as "time expert," and to him was given the credit which is justly his due, of being the pioneer in the field of railroad watch inspection. and regulation. His becoming interested in the subject was the re- sult of a railroad collision, which occurred on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad, April 18, 1891, between the fast mail and an accommodation train. Nine United States postal clerks lost their lives besides both engineers and firemen. In the trials which followed Mr. Ball was frequently called to testify, and the facts brought out in the trial proved that the accident was due to deficient watches in the hands of trainmen in charge of the accommodation train. Soon afterward Mr. Ball was authorized to prepare a plan of inspection and to investigate conditions on the Vanderbilt lines east of Chicago. He found there was no uniformity in trainmen's watches ; they were of any make which the owner wished to use and at times freight trains were operated according to alarm clocks hung in the caboose. He also found that clocks in roundhouses and train dispatchers' offices were not regulated according to a uniform sched- ule. As the result of this investigation, Mr. Ball evolved a plan of inspection for the watches used by railroad employes, and for the
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Standard clocks as well. This plan provides that watches of standard grade must be carried by men in charge of trains. No discrimination is permitted against any watch manufactory if its products meet the requirements, the railroad grades of eight leading watch factories being accepted under the inspection rule. Local inspectors are ap- pointed at division points, with Mr. Ball's head office at Cleveland. To these local inspectors trainmen must report every two weeks; they are furnished with a clearance card certificate which must record any variation in their watches. If anything is found amiss the train- men must secure a Standard Loaner watch and leave his own for ad- justment. These loaned watches are furnished without expense to the trainmen. By this card system a perfect record is kept and the trainmen cheerfully comply, as it safeguards the service and them- selves as well. Thus liability to accident is avoided under this sys- tem of time and watch inspection. Over seventy-five per cent of the different railroads are employing the system instituted by Mr. Ball. The value of this system cannot be overestimated and stands as one of the crowning efforts of a well spent life, having undoubtedly saved the lives of hundreds and perhaps thousands, as well as rail- road property of great value. Mr. Ball maintains a large office force in Cleveland, also in Chicago and San Francisco, with traveling as- sistants whose duties are given entirely to the Time and Watch In- spection Service. The railroad lines in eastern and central districts are administered from the Cleveland office, while the railroads in the Chicago, middle western and southern districts are administered from the Chicago office and Pacific lines from the San Francisco office. Correct records of all the watches carried by the employes of the different railroads are on file in one or other of these offices.
In 1879 was celebrated the marriage of Webb C. Ball and Miss Florence I. Young, daughter of William H. Young, of Kenton, Ohio, and their family now numbers a son and three daughters. Politically an independent republican, Mr. Ball is without aspiration for office and yet no one manifests a higher spirit of progressive citizenship or is more loyal to the interests of the community. Through the estab- lishment and control of a large commercial enterprise, in addition to his extensive railroad time service, he has contributed to the ma- terial development of Cleveland and his influence at all times is given to every movement for the public good. Mr. Ball's life is a splendid illustration of the fact that not in the fortune of birth or early en- vironment lies the secret of success, but rather in the individual who calls forth his inherent powers to meet and utilize the opportunities as they arise.
OF stolyour
Joseph Franklin Dobson, M. D.
D R. JOSEPH FRANKLIN HOBSON, one of the most prominent members of the medical profession in Cleveland, was born in Flushing, Belmont county, Ohio, on the 30th of August, 1861, his parents being Stephen and Margaret (Bailey) Hobson. The Hob- son family is of English origin and the first represen- tatives of the name in this country located at Watertown, Virginia, about 1700. Later the family was represented among the earliest settlers of Jefferson county, Ohio, Joseph Hobson, the grandfather of our subject, taking up his abode there toward the close of the eighteenth century. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Ruth Ball, had several brothers in the ranks of the Continental army. The maternal ancestors of Dr. Joseph F. Hobson were among the pioneer settlers of Belmont county, Ohio.
Stephen Hobson, the father of Dr. Hobson of this review, was a native of Jefferson county, Ohio, and for many years was success- fully engaged in the conduct of a general mercantile establishment at Flushing, Belmont county. It was largely owing to his efforts that the Cleveland, Tuscarawas Valley & Wheeling Railway (now a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system) built its line through that section of the country. He was one of the foremost citizens of Flush- ing and a leader in every movement calculated to promote the gen- eral welfare. He established the First National Bank of that city and was widely recognized as one of its most prominent and esteemed residents. His demise, which occurred at Flushing n 1887 when he was fifty-seven years of age, was the occason of deep and widespread regret. His widow still survives at the age of seventy-four years and yet lives on the old homestead. She is a devoted member of the Friends church, having been reared in that faith. Two of her brothers loyally defended the interests of the Union throughout the entire period of the Civil war.
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Joseph Franklin Dobson, A. D.
Joseph Franklin Hobson spent his boyhood days in the place of his nativity and supplemented his preliminary education, obtained in the Friends schools, by a course in the academy at Barnesville, from which he was graduated in 1880. He then studied pharmacy at Philadelphia for one year, on the expiration of which period he returned to Flushing and began the study of medicine under the direction of a cousin, Dr. John A. Hobson. Afterward he matricu- lated in the medical department of the Western Reserve University, where he won the degree of M. D. in 1886. Following his gradua- tion he was appointed house surgeon to the Lakeside Hospital, thus serving until October, 1887, when he entered upon the private prac-
tice of his profession, establishing an office on Erie street (now Ninth street) on the present site of the Rose building. Three years later he purchased a piece of property on the corner of Eighteenth street and Prospect avenue, where he built a handsome residence and has since made his home. His attention was given to the practice of both medicine and surgery until 1897, when he went abroad, spend- ing a year in special work at Vienna and other European cities. Since his return to the United States he has confined his professional labors to surgery. From 1887 until 1892 he was a teacher of anatomy and surgery at the Western Reserve University Medical College, and since 1892 has held the chair of professor of surgery at the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has been chief of staff and visiting surgeon to St. Luke's Hospital since its organization and was on the staff of its predecessor, the Cleveland General Hospital, from the time of its organization in 1893. He is likewise visiting surgeon to the Cleveland City Hospital and to St. John's Hospital. Since entering professional ranks he has been surgeon for the Penn- sylvania Company and for many years has also acted in that capacity for the Lake Shore Railway. He is grand lodge medical adviser of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, the largest and best managed organization of railwaymen in the world. His high standing in the profession is indicated by these various connections and by the im- portant and extensive private practice accorded him. He keeps in touch with the advancement that is being continually made by the medical fraternity through his membership in the Cleveland Acad- emy of Medicine, the Ohio State Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the Cleveland Medical Library Associa- tion and is an officer in the last named. At the same time through private study and research he has continually promoted his efficiency and is justly regarded as one of the ablest practitioners of Cleveland, manifesting at all times a close conformity to a high standard of professional ethics.
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Joseph Franklin Dobson, M. D.
In November, 1892, at Cleveland, Dr. Hobson was joined in wed- lock to Miss Anna Schlather, a daughter of Leonard Schlather, one of the substantial and representative business men of this city. Their union has been blessed with one daughter, Helen Emily, who is now fifteen years of age and is a junior student at the Hathaway-Brown school. Mrs. Hobson was educated in Germany, where she spent five years, and speaks the language of that country fluently. She was a piano pupil of one of the court teachers in Vienna and is deeply in- terested in music and art, still pursuing her studies under one of the best masters of this city. She also devotes much time to the pipe organ and recently a fine instrument has been installed in her home. In musical circles of Cleveland she is a well known and prominent factor and her home is the scene of many interesting functions, all musicians of merit having the entree thereof. Mrs. Hobson began her art studies abroad during her school days, later continued them at the Cleveland School of Art and since leaving that institution has been under the instruction of one of the most distinguished portrait artists of this city. At the last exhibition of paintings by Cleveland artists which was held at the Art School, several of her productions were accepted by the committee and occupied the choicest positions on the walls of the salon.
Dr. Hobson is a valued member of the Union and Clifton Clubs and finds his chief sources of recreation in motoring and tennis. He spends the summer months at his fine home on the west bank of the Rocky river but during the winter seasons resides with his family at No. 1721 Prospect avenue. Both he and his wife are very fond of travel and have been able to indulge their taste in this direction, having visited many points of interest in this and other countries. They are also lovers of good literature and possess a large and well selected library. The Doctor is a large, athletic man of fine appearance, and comes from a family large of stature, hardy and long-lived. Nature, travel and culture have vied in making him an interesting and en- tertaining companion, and his genial manner, unfailing courtesy and unfeigned cordiality have won him the high regard of those with whom he has been brought in contact.
Captain Thomas Wilson
F EW, if any, men of his time were better known in the Forest city than Captain Thomas Wilson. He was not only one of Cleveland's foremost citizens but a man who for more than a third of a century had been prominently identified with the growth and develop- ment of the shipping interests of the Great Lakes. He - was the founder and managing owner of Wilson's Transit Line, and at the time of his death was the president of the Wilson Transit Com- pany.
Captain Wilson was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, on the 3d of Oc- tober, 1838. His father, Thomas Wilson, Sr., and his grandfather were sea captains, as also were the father and grandfathers of his mother. The Captain himself was thus a natural born sailor and fond of the sea from his earliest youth. When he was three years of age his father was appointed a customs house officer at Gwedore, Donegal county, in the north of Ireland. Thither he removed with his family and there they lived for several years, enjoying the confidence and high respect of the community and of the government. Young Wil- son had few educational advantages, attending only such schools as were accessible to him in Gwedore and vicinity, which were not of the highest type. Being, however, thoughtful and ambitous, he be- came somewhat proficient in the common branches of an English edu- cation, sufficiently so as to qualify himself for any business enterprise upon which he might embark. Trained as he was in a home of high morality and Godliness, he grew up to be a conscientious, manly boy, scorning anything low and mean. When yet in his teens his father with his family removed to America. On their arrival at New York, Thomas Wilson immediately "shipped before the mast" and spent three years in ocean sailing, visiting numerous distant ports and be- coming thoroughly conversant with seafaring life. By ready acquaint- ance with the duties of the sailor, prompt obedience to his command- ing officer and strict attention to all details of his service, he rapidly
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rose from ship boy to mate and then to master. At the end of those three years of ocean life he began service on the lakes, was first mate, then captain on one lake steamer after another, being always sought for responsible positions and always implicitly trusted with property and life. For about twenty-five years his home was on the lakes, he commanding the finest steamers on that great Transit Line. His em- ployers as well as the public recognized him as one of the most careful captains and he became exceedingly popular with vessel owners and with the traveling public.
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