USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, Ohio, pictorial and biographical. De luxe supplement, Volume II > Part 21
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Captain Wilson, however, began to grow tired of the sea and, hav- ing prospered in business, in 1872 he built a boat of his own. This was a fine freight steamer and was named D. M. Wilson, after the beloved boy then just born to him. The D. M. Wilson proved a good venture and the Captain grew ambitious to become more extensively a vessel owner. He therefore soon built another steamer, the Hia- watha, and her consort, the Minnehaha. Not long afterward he built the Tacoma, later Wallula and Kesota and in 1886 built the George Spencer, each of these being large, fine steamers and peculiarly adapted for the lake service. With increasing demand for lake car- riers other vessels were constructed from time to time. The last boat he built was the Henry M. Oliver, one of the modern vessels of her day. The Wilson fleet at that time comprised, among other and well known steamers, the Andrew Carnegie, W. D. Rees, Yuma, Sitka, Wallula, C. Tower, Jr., and the Volunteer; also the schooners D. Z. Norton and Yukon.
Captain Wilson, was, as well, a man of extensive and diversified interests and prominently identified with financial affairs of Cleve- land. He was president of the Central National Bank, chairman of the board of trustees of the old Music Hall Association, vice presi- dent of the Lake Carriers Association and a valued member of the Chamber of Commerce. In all business transactions and social re- lations he was regarded as the soul of honor. No suspicion of lack of honesty or integrity has ever been cast upon him; nor has ever a doubt been uttered regarding loyalty to his convictions. His word by all was considered as good as his bond. On all matters, political and religious, public or private, he expressed his opinions, if called upon, graciously and fearlessly. He was void of all temporizing, of time-serving plans. He believed in calling everything by its right name and abhorred all compromise of principle for the sake of pol- icy. The sturdy old Scotch characteristics of frankness and fearless- ness in him predominated. No man on leaving him was at a loss to know what he thought of the case in hand or how he would deal with matters up for discussion. Captain Wilson had an enviable reputa-
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Captain Thomas Wilson
tion for honorable success in business and for unfaltering devotion to principle. His friends were numerous among all classes of citi- zens, he having won his friendship among the rich by the sterling qualities of his character and among the poor by his abounding char- ities. Being a member of the Masonic fraternity, he was a firm be- liever in the general freemasonry of man to man. Yet in all of his benefactions he was exceedingly unostentatious. His plan was to place a liberal sum in the hands of his pastor at Thanksgiving or Christmas time for the purchase of delicacies for distribution among the poor of his church, strictly enjoining his pastor that his name should not be associated with the gift. Captain Wilson had connec- tion with several organizations of Cleveland and was a liberal sup- porter of the same, especially of the Seamen's Floating Bethel, of which he was president. He was identified with all local enterprises, especially with the temperance cause, in which he always had a deep interest and for which he gave liberally. Captain Wilson was long an honored member and officer of the Euclid Avenue Congrega- tional church and one of its most liberal supporters. No secular business, if it could be avoided or delayed, was ever allowed to inter- fere with his obligations to the church or his attendance upon its meetings, either on week evenings or on the Sabbath. With all the pressure of care and labor upon him, he gave first place to his re- ligious duties and looked on life's service as preparatory to the life hereafter.
In September, 1870, Captain Wilson was married to Mrs. Can- non, a daughter of the Hon. David Morris, of Cleveland, and to them were born one son and two daughters. The son, D. M., died in January, 1886, at the age of thirteen years. The daughters are Mrs. Noble and Mrs. Stearns. The death of Captain Wilson oc- curred March 22, 1900, in Jerusalem, while he was making a tour of the Holy Land with his wife and daughter Mabel. His remains were brought back to Cleveland for interment in Lake View ceme- tery, and thus was closed the life history of a prominent and hon- ored Cleveland citizen, but his influence has not ceased to be felt by reason of the impetus which he gave to shipping interests and the active part which he took in humanitarian and benevolent work.
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Horacek Corner
Horace B. Corner
H ORACE B. CORNER has for forty years been iden- tified with the Citizens Savings & Trust Company of which he is now the vice president. Through the steady progress that results from close application, well directed energy, persistency of purpose and the wise utilization of time and opportunity he has reached the position of distinction which he now occupies in finan- cial circles in Cleveland, standing with that honored class of Amer- ican citizenship who are known as self-made men. He was born in McConnelsville, Ohio, June 26, 1846, and is a son of William M. and Mary Trow (Bassett) Corner. His paternal grandfather, Ed- win Corner, was one of Ohio's pioneer settlers, belonging to a party of thirty colonists who came from Macclesfield, England, and located at or near Marietta, Ohio. Subsequently he removed to McConnels- ville, where he engaged in general merchandising and in the banking business and for a time represented his district in the state legislature. His son, William M. Corner, was born in McConnelsville, Janu- ary 8, 1822. In 1857 he removed to Cleveland, where he was en- gaged in mercantile pursuits until his retirement. He died February 16, 1900, and a life of great usefulness was thus ended. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Trow Bassett, a lady of superior education and lineal descendant of William Bassett, who landed from the ship Fortune at Plymouth in 1621. She was educated in the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, having been a pupil of Mary Lyon, one of the famous women educators of the time. She herself gained distinction in connection with educational interests, being for a time principal of the McConnelsville schools, principal of the Worthington Seminary and also of Howard University at Wash- ington, D. C., and for many years conducted a private school for young women in Cleveland. In McConnelsville she became the wife of William M. Corner and unto them were born two sons : Hor- ace B. and Charles, the latter a resident of Savannah, Georgia. At
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Dorace B. Corner
the close of the Civil war Mrs. Corner became deeply interested in the freedmen's educational movement and for a time was engaged in that work in Montgomery, Alabama. She was born in Hawley, Massachusetts, December 18, 1818, and died in Savannah, Georgia, December 10, 1893, having spent her last years in the south.
Horace B. Corner came to Cleveland in 1857, at the age of eleven years, and continued his education, begun in the public schools of McConnelsville, in the public, private and commercial schools of this city, his training being received principally under his mother's personal tutelage. He was one of the first newsboys of the city and at different times in his youth he visited his uncle in Massachusetts and learned something of farming. He subsequently took a position as cashier and bookkeeper in a dry-goods house in Columbus, Ohio, where he remained for two years. Returning to Cleveland he entered the office of the Buckeye Insurance Company of this city, with which he was connected for two years, and on the Ist of February, 1870, he became identified with the Citizens Savings & Trust Company. He was first made teller and bookkeeper, being the original incumbent in the former office. Since that time owing to various promotions, he has served successively as secretary and treasurer, director, mem- ber of the finance committee and in 1903 was elected vice president -his present position. For forty consecutive years he has been con- tinuously connected with this bank, which at the outset had not more than fifty customers a day while at the present time it annually serves over three thousand daily and is now probably the largest financial in- stitution in the state. In point of service Mr. Corner is the second oldest bank official in the city and no man is more honored and re- spected in financial and business circles, not only by reason of what he has achieved but also through the honorable, straightforward methods which he has ever followed. He has other interests and has been at times associated with many of the city's financial enterprises.
On the 26th of November, 1884, Mr. Corner was married in Cleveland to Miss Amelia Coolman Ranney, a daughter of Henry C. and Helen (Burgess) Ranney. Mrs. Corner is very active in church and philanthropic work. She was born in Warren, Ohio, August 7, 1855, and during her childhood days came to Cleveland with her parents. She is the mother of two sons: Kenneth Ranney, who was educated in the Cleveland public school and the University School; and Horace Ranney, who pursued his education in the Univer- sity School and Williams College, Massachusetts. The family resi- dence is at No. 1895 East One Hundred and Fifth street.
Mr. Corner has never allowed personal interests or ambition to dwarf his public spirit or activities and has cooperated in many
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movements for the general good. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and endorses all of its measures for the upbuilding of the city. He belongs to the Union Club and was for two years the presi- dent of the Colonial Club. His political allegiance is given to the republican party. He finds recreation in motoring and travel, hav- ing made various tours abroad. A cultured mind, combined with strong intellectual powers with which nature endowed him, has given him keen appreciation of the riches of literature. As a financier he occupies a most honored position among Clevelands' business men.
May Goodman
Max P. Goodman
O NE of the most notable examples of a man rising from a humble position to one of prominence is Max P. Goodman, widely recognized as one of the leading factors in legal and financial circles in Cleveland. His is the story of a man's life that seems to have been an orderly progression under the steady hand of one who is a constant master of himself and possesses well balanced ca- pacities and powers. He is eminently a man of business. What he has undertaken he has accomplished, and few men of his years have done as much in an equal length of time. Born in Cleveland on the 28th of August, 1872, Max P. Goodman is a son of J. W. and Rosa (Herskowitz) Goodman, both of whom are natives of Aus- tria-Hungary. Coming to America in 1864 the father located in Wellsville, Ohio, and in 1866 removed to Cleveland, where he was connected with various mercantile enterprises until his retirement about ten years ago. He is still living in this city, but his wife died about eight years ago.
Max P. Goodman pursued his education in the public schools, continuing his course until he became a high-school student, but at the age of twelve years was obliged to put aside his text-books on account of business reverses of his father's, which necessitated that he provide for his own support. The enterprising spirit of the lad was manifest in the readiness with which he faced the situation and began work. He at first had a small peanut stand and was so success- ful in the sale of the goobers that he increased his stock and gradually the business developed into a grocery store. After a time he opened a meat market in connection and also engaged in selling coal. He displayed marked industry and unfaltering perseverance, which are the foundation of all success in business. He not only strongly pos- sessed the commercial instinct but, moreover, was endowed with much musical talent, which he cultivated as opportunity offered, and
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Max P. Goodman
at seventeen years of age he began to play a violin in an orchestra. For several years he devoted his evening hours to studying music with the intention of following it as a profession. During this time, he also continued his high-school studies at home in the evening, giv- ยท ing especial attention to Latin, grammar and algebra. Two years later he took up the study of shorthand at the Spencerian College and made such rapid advance therein that after five weeks Mr. Hum- phreys, the superintendent, secured for him a position in the law office of Peter Zucker at his present location. He did not consider the arrangement anything but temporary, yet is proved to be per- manent, for after a little time spent in the office he took up the study. of law, to which he devoted the hours usually termed leisure. He also continued his orchestra work in the evenings and wrote several musical compositions, among which was Mckinley's Inaugural March, used at the time of his inauguration as governor of Ohio. In 1894 Mr. Goodman took the law examination at Columbus, passing with the highest average in a class of fifty-two. He was then ad- mitted to the bar, and returning to Cleveland he entered upon active practice in the Zucker office, becoming associated with Charles Zucker, a partnership which was continued until the death of the latter in 1906. Since that time Mr. Goodman has been alone and in his practice specializes in commercial, real-estate and corporation law. His ability is carrying him into important professional rela- tions. His practice has been extensive, and the many favorable ver- dicts which he has won are incontrovertible evidence of his ability and comprehensive knowledge of the law. Of notable, resourceful capacity, he has left the impress of his individuality upon business interests outside of specifically professional lines. He promoted the Youngstown & Ohio River Railroad Company, an interurban rail- way, which is now in operation, is a director of the Bankers Surety Company, secretary and treasurer of the Trenton Rock Oil & Gas Company, secretary-treasurer of the Majestic Oil Company, presi- dent of the Woodland Building & Improvement Company, a large real-estate enterprise, vice president and director of the Optimo Lead & Zinc Company and a director in various other corporations.
In political circles Mr. Goodman became well known as an ac- tive, influential republican and remained one of the local leaders of the party until his health failed six years ago. In 1900 he was elected a member of the city council and served for one term, during which time he introduced the ordinance which resulted in the appointment of the first grade-crossing committee made by Mayor Farley and resulting in the abolition of grade crossings in the city of Cleveland. While on a pleasure trip in the east he had noticed that many cities
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Max p. Goodman
were abolishing grade crossing, and he investigated their systems and other methods of securing the same. Upon his return he drew up an ordinance, which he introduced before the council, and secured its passage. This was turned into a bill by that body and passed in the state legislature, compelling the railroads to comply with the new plan and authorizing the appointment of a grade-crossing commis- sion by the mayor of Cleveland.
In his fraternal relations Mr. Goodman is a Mason. He be- longs also to the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith and to many other organizations. He likewise holds membership in the Sco- vill Avenue temple. He resides at East Forty-sixth and Portland streets in the Melvina apartments which he owns, having several other large real-estate holdings here. Starting out in business as a peanut vender, he has acquired a comfortable fortune at the age of thirty-seven years and has won high standing in financial as well as professional circles. In manner courteous, quiet and unassuming, he possesses nevertheless a social, genial disposition, which has won him the warm regard of those who know him. He is recognized as a man of unusual energy and capacities and has accomplished splen- did results.
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Fred A. Pease
RED A. PEASE, general manager of The Fred A. F Pease Engineering Company, with offices in the Wil- liamson building, belongs to that class of young men who, becoming fully cognizant of conditions in the business world at the present time, qualify to meet the demands which the exigencies of modern busi- ness life create. Choosing the profession of civil engineering as a life work, he has made such progress in his chosen calling that he is now accorded high rank among those who direct their efforts in the same field of labor. He was born in Kingsville, Ohio, July 17, 1873. His father, H. H. Pease, was also a native of Kingsville and became a mason contractor. He wedded Mary Elizabeth Barnum, of Rock Creek, Ohio.
At the usual age Fred A. Pease began his education in the public schools of his native village, passing through consecutive grades until he was graduated from the high school at the age of seventeen years. He then began preparation for business life by undertaking engineer- ing, being employed in supervision and construction work in the northwest and in Canada for two years. On his return to Cleveland he took up the further study and practice of civil engineering, which he pursued along various lines. Mr. Pease was appointed assistant county engineer in charge of road construction in 1899. He con- tinued in this office until 1901, when he organized and established The Fred A. Pease Engineering Company, becoming vice president and general manager. He occupies the dual position at the present time and in this connection has done much important work in the line of his profession. This engineering company are engineers for the villages of Cleveland Heights, East Cleveland, Rocky River and Euclid. In addition to that they execute extensive municipal im- provement work, design subdivisions and engage in electric railway work. They are engineers in charge of the Gates Mills development work for the Maple Leaf Land Company, Oakwood-on-the-Lake,
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Fred A. Dease
Rocky River, the Shaker Heights Land Company and the Deming- Forest Hill subdivisions. Their services in an engineering capacity have been employed on electric railway work by the Eastern Ohio Traction Company, the Wheeling Traction Company, the Cleveland, Southwestern Railroad Company and by various other enterprises in this and adjoining states.
Mr. Pease is devoted to hunting in the western states, which af- fords him a pleasurable source of recreation, and as a member of the Cleveland Grays he is identified with military organizations of the city. He also belongs to the Cleveland Athletic Club, the Cleveland Auto Club, the Builders Exchange and as a member of the Chamber of Commerce is associated with various activities for municipal bet- terment. In more strictly professional lines he is an associate mem- ber of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Cleveland Engineering Society. His time is given almost exclusively to his business interests, which have shown remarkable development in extent and importance, as The Fred A. Pease Engineering Com- pany occupies a representative position in professional circles of this city.
Engraved by Samue: Sartain , Philad' Photo by Ryder.
Henry Chisholic
Henry Chisholm
H ENRY CHISHOLM, one of the foremost iron and steel manufacturers of his day in America and the founder of a business that has been a most substantial contributor to Cleveland's industrial growth, was of Scottish birth. His father was Stewart Chisholm, a mining contractor, who lived at Lochgelly, in Fife- shire, where his son was born on the 22d of April, 1822. The father died when Henry Chisholm was only ten years of age, but the boy had previously had an opportunity for attending school and continued there until he was twelve years of age, when he became an apprentice to a carpenter. He wrought at this trade for five years or until his term of indenture was completed, when he removed to Glasgow, the commercial metropolis of Scotland. There he stayed for the follow- ing three years, on the expiration of which period he emigrated to Canada, finding employment in Montreal. He remained in that city for seven years and during the latter portion of the time was engaged in business on his own account. In this he met with excellent suc- cess, his establishment soon becoming one of the largest upon the St. Lawrence.
Foreseeing the future prominence of Cleveland, he removed to this city in 1850, when he was twenty-eight years of age. In associa- tion with a friend from Montreal he built a breakwater for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Railroad Company at the lake terminus of their road, giving the work his own personal supervision. This oc- cupied him about three years. It was done thoroughly and substan- tially and on its completion he received numerous offers from other persons and corporations for like work. For some time after he was kept busily employed in building piers and docks along the lake front of Cleveland. In 1857 he began as a manufacturer of iron. There was very little then made in Cleveland or its vicinity, or even in the state of Ohio. He united other parties with himself, under the firm name of Chisholm, Jones & Company, in the manufacture of railroad
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Denry Chisholm
iron at their rolling mill. In a short time the name of the firm was changed to Stone, Chisholm & Jones. The capacity of the mills at that time was about fifty tons a day, to produce which about one hun- dred and fifty men were employed. A part of the work was the re- rolling of old rails, the materials for new rails being iron from Lake Superior ores, reaching Cleveland by the lakes. In 1859 an impor- tant addition to the works was made by the erection of a blast furnace at Newburg, the first built in that part of Ohio. The next year an- other furnace was erected and additions were made to the rolling mill for the purpose of manufacturing all kinds of merchant iron as well as rails.
Mr. Chisholm next erected a rolling mill in Chicago and two blast furnaces in Indiana with which to partially supply the Chicago works with pig iron, which was manufactured, like the pig iron of the Cleveland furnaces, from Lake Superior and Missouri ores. The Chicago mill was placed in charge of Mr. Chisholm's oldest son, William, as manager. In 1864 the firm of Stone, Chisholm & Jones organized the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, into which the part- nership merged, and the Lake Shore Rolling Mill was added to the property by purchase. In 1865 the company constructed the second Bessemer steel works in the United States, one of the most successful and perfect works of the kind then in existence. The product of their mill immediately came into request. Beginning with a capacity of twenty thousand tons annually, it has been enlarged until its ca- pacity now reaches one hundred and fifty thousand tons yearly, giv- ing employment to six thousand men and manufacturing products to the value of twelve million dollars annually. The steel rails from this manufactory were shipped to all parts of the country and the demand was large. Steel rails did not form the only products of this immense mill. At least ten thousand tons of other classes of steel, such as tire, merchant and spring steel, were made. A wire mill was also added, which turned out from twenty-five to thirty thousand tons of steel wire annually, from the coarsest size to the finest hair. All shapes of steel forging were also produced at the Bessemer works. The furnaces were supplied with ore from the company's own mines in Lake Superior, where about three hundred men were kept in steady employment. The value of the products of different establishments of the company in Cleveland grew to about fifteen million dollars annually in Mr. Chisholm's lifetime. In 1871 he organized the Union Rolling Mill Company of Chicago, independent of the Cleve- land Rolling Mill Company. In connection with his Chicago part- ners he also erected a rolling mill at Decatur, Illinois. The business of all these concerns Mr. Chisholm lived to see aggregate twenty-
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five million dollars annually, and gave employment to eight thou- sand men. This was the outgrowth of the small concern established in Cleveland in 1857. Perhaps no achievement in the iron business of the United States during Mr. Chisholm's lifetime ever paralleled the enormous growth from such small beginnings in such a short space of time. When he landed at Montreal, in 1842, he had not a dollar, but he commenced the iron manufactory in 1857 with twenty- five thousand dollars saved from his earnings as a contractor, and in less than eighteen years the business which he had begun with such a moderate capital came to represent an investment of ten millions. No panics materially affected the business of these great concerns, and from the heavy amount of capital controlled they were able to give material aid to many of the large and small railroad companies of the country, carrying them over periods of depression and helping them out of their difficulties.
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