USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, Ohio, pictorial and biographical. De luxe supplement, Volume II > Part 3
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William Chisholm s"-
Walilliam Chisholm, Sr.
A S the day with its morning of hope and promise, its noonday of activity, its evening of completed and suc- cessful effort, ending in the grateful rest and quiet of the night, so was the life of William Chisholm, Sr., whose record covered the long period of eighty-two years and was frought with prosperous attainment and characterized by substantial qualities that enabled him to make the best use of his life, while at all times his labors were of a character that contributed to the general upbuilding as well as to individual success.
He was born August 12, 1825, in the village of Lochgelly, Fife- shire, Scotland. His father was a mine contractor and at the age of twelve years the son was apprenticed to the dry-goods trade in Kirkaldy. Three years thus passed and at the age of fifteen he went to sea, the succeeding seven years of his life being spent as a sailor. For seven years he trod the decks and climbed the masts and rose to the rank of first officer. He became a resident of the new world in 1847, when he settled at Montreal and carried on a general contract- ing business, constructing the government buildings now standing in that city.
In 1852 Mr. Chisholm came to Cleveland, where he became con- nected with the lake carrying trade. He afterward spent several years in Pittsburg, but in 1857 returned to Cleveland at the solicitation of his brother Henry and from that time on he was closely associated with the development of the iron industry of this state-an industry which has been its chief source of prosperity in the intervening years to the present time. William Chisholm, Sr., became an important factor in promoting the iron industry in this part of the state. Join- ing his brother, they established the plant called the Newburg Iron Works, the firm name being Chisholm & Jones. From this was evolved the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, afterward merged in the American Steel & Wire Company, which is now a component
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part of the United States Steel Company, and in 1860 William Chis- holm, Sr., embarked in the iron business on his own account, manu- facturing spikes, bolts, nuts, etc., in a plant which he erected at New- burg. Several years having been devoted by him to experimenting, resulting in the perfection of plans for the manufacture of screws from Bessemer steel, he in 1871 built the Union Steel Screw Works in Cleveland, where were manufactured the first steel screws which were ever made, all previous to this time having been made from iron, and from the beginning the enterprise was a very profitable one, its output being continuously increased to meet the growing demand of the trade. This industry has now been consolidated with the National Screw & Tack Company of Cleveland. As he prospered Mr. Chisholm ex- tended his efforts to the expansion of his business, including the manu- facture of steel scoops, shovels, spades, etc. He erected a plant for the manufacture of these implements and it is now conducted under the name of the Chisholm Steel Shovel Works. Year by year his business increased in volume and importance, becoming one of the most exten- sive and prosperous industrial enterprises that contribute to the evolu- tionary activities of this city.
During his early life in Cleveland Mr. Chisholm became one of the leading dock pile contractors in this city and also built one of the first lines of the city's present street railway system. This contract first brought to his attention the possibility for steel rail manufacture. In the meantime he had found time to engage in the coal and ore development, as well as the lake carrying trade. He was of an in- ventive turn of mind and took out numerous patents, many of them proving very valuable, especially in the manufacture of shovels, scoops and spades. As he prospered he became the owner of consid- erable bank stock and at all times his investments and business interests were judiciously placed.
In 1848 Mr. Chisholm married Miss Catherine Allan, of Dun- fermline, Scotland, who died in 1881. Of their seven children but two are now living: Henry A., superintendent of the Chisholm Steel Shovel Works; and Mrs. Catherine Wood, of Brooklyn, New York. In 1884 he was married a second time to Mrs. Mary C. Stahl, nee Cowles, a daughter of Charles Cowles and granddaughter of the late General Solomon Cowles, of Farmington, Connecticut, who now survives him. Mr. Chisholm's death occurred January 10, 1908, when he had reached the venerable age of eighty-three years. Thus passed one who had left a deep impress upon the life of the city in many of its phases. Not only was he a foremost factor in its industrial and financial circles, but he was also active in the charitable, philan- thropic, and religious affairs of the city, and when the Euclid Avenue
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Baptist church was erected he gave a tenth of all he was worth toward its construction, and later gave additional gifts thereto. Broad humanitarianism, a spirit of benevolence and marked business capac- ity were well balanced forces in his life. Preeminently a man of affairs, he wielded a wide influence and his labors were a direct stimu- lus to the city's progress in many ways.
Mals Rose
Jon. Wlilliam Grey Rose
H ON. WILLIAM GREY ROSE is numbered among those who have been active in shaping the history of Cleveland and few men in public life have incurred so little enmity. Even those opposed to him politically entertained for him the warmest personal regard and admiration. It is said that he never forgot a friend- the playmates of his boyhood, the associates of his early manhood and those with whom he labored in legislative circles were remem- bered through all the years of their added responsibilities and honors. He was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, September 23, 1829. His parents were James and Martha (Mckinley) Rose. The father, who was of English lineage, defended American interests in the war of 1812, while the maternal great-grandfather, David McKinley, who was also the great-grandfather of President McKinley, was num- bered among the heroes of the Revolutionary war.
Spending his boyhood days under the parental roof William Grey Rose was provided with good educational privileges, attending suc- cessively the public schools, the Austinburg Grand River Institute and Beaver Academy. In the latter institution he was made instructor in Latin and mathematics and in 1853 he studied law with the Hon. William Stuart, of Mercer. Becoming interested in politics and desiring to use his influence to further the principles which he deemed of greatest value in good government, he bought out the Independent Democrat, which he made a freesoil paper, and through the labor which he did in that connection he turned the district into one strictly republican and so it has remained to the present time. Interested in every vital question, few, if any, were better informed upon the issues of the day or discussed with more clearness, fairness and force the questions which were agitating the public mind. In 1857 he was elected to the state legislature and in 1860 was appointed a delegate to the republican convention which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. When the differences of opinion between the north
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and south led to the inauguration of Civil war he volunteered for service and joined a Pennsylvania regiment at Mercer, Pennsylvania. With his command he went to Parkersburg, West Virginia, being there when Morgan was captured.
At the close of the war Mr. Rose engaged in the oil business and later turned his attention to real estate, where his sound judgment and judicious investments won substantial success within two years. He then sought a home in St. Louis and afterward in Chicago, while eventually he located in Cleveland. He was elected its mayor in 1879 and during his administration introduced many restrictive regulative and constructive measures. He stood unequivocally for righteous- ness in public office and was a terror to city officials who conducted the city business for personal profit. His administration was pro- ductive of various needed reforms as well as progressive measures.
At the close of his term of office Mr. Rose went to Europe where he closely inspected the methods of economy in the government of cities there and later proceeded to put his knowledge into practical use. After his reelection to the mayoralty in 1891 he succeeded in materially reducing the cost of gas. He was a friend to the laboring classes and took an active part in settling a street railroad strike. He also liquidated the debt of a quarter of a million dollars on the via- duct, increased the sinking fund for the city and spent more than a quarter of a million dollars for street paving, one-half of the sum being met by the property owners and one-half by the city. His work was at all times of a most practical character and his public-spirited citizenship and devotion to the general good were manifest in the most practical way.
In 1858 Mr. Rose was united in marriage to Miss Martha E. Parmelee, a daughter of Theodore Hudson and Harriet (Holcomb) Parmelee, of Tallmadge, Summit county, Ohio. They had four chil- dren: Evelyn, Hudson, Frederick and William Kent. The death of Mr. Rose occurred in Cleveland September 15, 1899, and a life of much usefulness was thus ended. His life record finds embodi- ment in the words of Pope:
Statesman, yet friend to truth; of soul sincere,
In action faithful and in honor clear ; Who broke no promise, served no private end, Who gained no title and who lost no friend.
Mrs. JUL. G. Rose
I N no age has the world been so largely indebted to womankind as at the present time. Thoroughly aroused to the needs which have been brought about through modern conditions and recognizing also the value of organized effort, women are today meeting and forming societies which are doing a most splendid and effective work toward ameliorating hard conditions of life. Mrs. Rose occupies a prominent place among those who are giving much time to charitable and philanthropic work, her labors in this direc- tion being far-reaching and beneficial. She is also equally well known as a leader in cultured society circles where opportunity is had for intellectual and esthetic advancement.
She was born in Norton, Ohio, March 5, 1834, of the marriage of . Theodore Hudson Parmelee and Harriet Holcomb. She is a grand- daughter of Captain Theodore Parmelee, of Litchfield, Connecticut, whose long continued and patriotic service in the Revolutionary war was rewarded by a grant of land. In 1811 Theodore H. Parmelee removed from New England to Ohio with his uncle, David Hudson, who founded the Western Reserve College, of Hudson, Ohio, now Adelbert College of Cleveland. Following his death his widow removed to Oberlin, taking up her abode there in 1847 and in the excellent schools of that city the daughter received her collegiate training, winning her diploma in 1855. Following her graduation she engaged in teaching music in the seminary at Mercer, Pennsyl- vania, and it was there that she became acquainted with W. G. Rose, who sought her hand in marriage. They were married in 1855 and in Cleveland they reared their family of four children.
Mrs. Rose is very widely known here in charitable and philan- thropic circles. Prompted by no sense of duty but by the higher motive of a sincere interest in and love for her fellowmen and by recognition of the brotherhood of the race, she has done much effec- tive work for the benefit of others. She has been particularly inter- ested in the working women of the city and has devised and put into operation many plans for the relief and improvement of their condi- tion. She founded the Women's Employment Society, which gave work to needy women who could sew, put the garments in stores in ex- change for more goods and had private sales. She also obtained government work from the Indian affairs department at Washington, receiving eight hundred dollars for furnishing shirts and trousers for that department. In 1881 Mrs. Rose was made president of the Cleve-
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land Sorosis, which in three years-the term of her office-increased its membership to two hundred and sixty-nine, thirty-one of whom went in a private car to the general federation of women's clubs held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She founded the Health Protective Association in 1898, after an address made by Colonel George Wing, junior street commissioner of New York. They took his children's pledge and petitioned the city to put in waste paper boxes, which are to be seen at present. Mrs. Rose attended the general federation of Women's clubs at Los Angeles, California, as a delegate from Chau- tauqua, New York. She there met Mrs. Herman Hall, whom she invited to come to Cleveland and aid in forming a civics club. She was made the chairman of playgrounds and through her instrumen- tality three were located, the first in Cleveland Heights. Once a year the children visited the fresh air camp, Bostwick animal show or Euclid beach. Forty-five children were enrolled at that playground. For three years these children met in Mrs. Rose's rooms to make raffia work, burnt wood and garments.
Mrs. Rose wrote up the trade schools of France, under the name of Charles C. Lee, for the daily papers and in that way aided and established the manual training schools of Cleveland, a valued de- partment of high-school work. In many ways she has created public sympathy and interest in movements that have been most valuable in promoting benevolent work. She became a charter member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Cleveland, also treasurer of the National Health Protective League and president of the Cleve- land Health Protective Association. Wherever she sees the need of assistance it is her earnest desire to aid and her kindnesses are num- bered by the thousand. Many of these have been of a most quiet character, known only to herself and the recipient, for she seeks or desires no public praise for her work.
Mrs. Rose is the mother of four children, who are married and doing well in business. One son was graduated from the Boston School of Technology and another from Harvard in the classical department, and one was four years at Cornell University with his sister, who there graduated in 1880. He is now one of the trustees. Mrs. Rose is the author of three books : one is Travels in Europe and Northern Africa; another, An Album; and a third, Reminiscences or Character Building. She has given rooms for a mission for a purity league and for a boys' club. She is a lady of remarkable exec- utive skill and business ability with a faculty for organization, and her foresight and tact have enabled her to do most excellent service in philanthropic lines and to awaken the cooperation of other women in this field of labor throughout the middle west.
19W Cowles
John G. dal. Comles
T HE specific and distinctive office of biography is not to give voice to a man's modest estimate of himself and his accomplishments but rather to leave the per- petual record establishing his character by the con- sensus of opinion on the part of his fellowmen. Throughout Cleveland Mr. Cowles is spoken of in terms of admiration and respect. His life has been so varied in its activity, so honorable in its purposes, so far-reaching and benefi- cial in its effects that it has become an integral part of the history of the city and has also left an impress upon the annals of the state. In no sense a man in public life, he has nevertheless exerted an im- measurable influence on the city of his residence: in business life as a financier and promoter of extensive business enterprises ; in social circles by reason of a charming personality and unfeigned cordial- ity; in politics by reason of his public spirit and devotion to the general good as well as his comprehensive understanding of the questions affecting state and national welfare; and in those depart- ments of activity which ameliorate hard conditions of life for the unfortunate by his benevolence and his liberality.
Further investigation into the history of John Guiteau Welch Cowles indicates the fact that he comes of an ancestry honorable and distinguished. The Cowles family is of English lineage and was founded in America by John Cowles, who in 1635 left England, his native land, and became a resident of Massachusetts, whence he later removed to Hartford, Connecticut. His descendants are now numerous and included the late Edwin Cowles of the Cleveland Leader. The father of J. G. W. Cowles was the Rev. Henry Cowles, D. D., who left the impress of his individuality and activity upon the religious and educational development of northern Ohio through a period of many years. He was born in Norfolk, Con- necticut, April 24, 1803, of the marriage of Samuel and Olive (Phelps) Cowles. Determining to devote his life to the work of
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the church, he became a clergyman of the Congregational faith and in 1828 was ordained as a missionary to the Western Reserve. He graduated at Yale in 1826 and Yale Theological School in 1828. For a time he engaged in preaching the gospel in Ashtabula and afterward in Sandusky, Ohio, while subsequently he became pastor of the Congregational church of Austinburg. There he remained for five years and in 1835 he allied his interests with the Oberlin movement, which had been originated two years before and which has resulted in the development of one of the strongest denomina- tional schools of the country. He was elected professor of Greek and Latin and for a period of forty-six years continued in active connection with this school in different capacities, his labors con- stituting a strong and forceful element in the growth of the college and the extension of its usefulness.
Rev. Henry Cowles was married in 1830 to Miss Alice Welch, whose parents were Dr. Benjamin and Louisa (Guiteau) Welch of Norfolk, Connecticut. The maternal ancestry was French Hugue- not, representatives of the Guiteau family fleeing to America at the time of the religious persecution of the Huguenots in France. Dr. Ephraim Guiteau, the maternal great-grandfather of John G. W. Cowles, was a physician, under whose direction Dr. Welch, later his son-in-law, studied for some time. Following their marriage the Rev. and Mrs. Henry Cowles came at once to Ohio and Mrs. Cowles proved her great usefulness as principal of the ladies' de- partment of Oberlin College. Her pleasing personality ad cul- ture made her a favorite in the social circles there and her influence was a dominating factor for development in intellectual and moral lines.
It was in the classic atmosphere of Oberlin that J. G. W. Cowles spent his youthful days. He was there born March 14, 1836, and after pursuing his studies in the public schools of the town pursued a preparatory course and in 1852 was matriculated in the college, being at that time but sixteen years of age. He was graduated in 1856, at the age of twenty years, and soon afterward entered upon preparation for the ministry. It had been his original purpose to become a member of the bar but his plans of life changed in his senior year and he took up his theological studies, depending, while pursuing that course, as he had while pursuing his classical studies, upon his own labors for the money necessary to meet his college ex- penses. The vacation periods were devoted to teaching and in later years he also had charge of classes in the academic or preparatory departments of the school, his special branch being elocution. While pursuing the work of the senior year in the theological school
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John G. TU. Cowles
he began to preach as a licentiate, filling the pulpit of the Congre- gational church at Bellevue, Ohio, in the fall of 1858. The follow- ing spring he was graduated and at that time not only entered the ministry but also laid the foundation for a happy home life in his marriage to Miss Lois M. Church, of Vermontville, Michigan, who had also graduated from Oberlin in 1858. Accepting a regu- lar call from the Bellevue church, Mr. Cowles continued his work there until 1861, when he offered his services to the government, then engaged in the Civil war, that he might carry religious mes- sages and ministrations to the boys in blue in the field. He was elected chaplain of the Fifty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which had been raised among his old neighbors in Huron, Erie, Sandusky and adjoining counties and was commanded by Colonel John C. Lee, afterward lieutenant governor of Ohio.
With the regiment Mr. Cowles went to West Virginia and saw service under General Robert C. Schenck, General Milroy and General John C. Fremont in the active campaigns of 1861-2. In the spring of the latter year he was with Fremont in his famous pur- suit of Stonewall Jackson up the valley of the Shenandoah and was with the Fifty-fifth Ohio at the battle of Cross Keys in June, 1862. In the fall of that year he resigned as chaplain to accept the pas- torate of the Congregational church in Mansfield, Ohio, where he continued his ministerial labors until the spring of 1865. In that year he became pastor of the Congregational church at East Saginaw, Michigan, and during the six years which he there spent not only greatly increased the spiritual strength of the people but also was instrumental in erecting a fine church at a cost of sixty-five thousand dollars. For a year while at East Saginaw ill health pre- vented his public speaking and during that period he was editorially connected with the Saginaw Daily Enterprise, a republican paper. Owing to continued physical disability that prevented his preach- ing, he accepted a position as associate editor of the Cleveland Leader, then owned and managed by Edwin Cowles. In January, 1871, therefore, he came to this city and for about three years wrote the leading editorials for that paper. He possessed superior literary style and his writings also indicated a thorough understanding of the questions which he discussed as well as a spirit of patriotism and devotion to the general good. From this time forward he was no longer active in church work as a minister but his interest in re- ligious progress has never ceased and in the communities where he formerly labored there is yet entertained for him the warmest friendship. Ties then formed have never been broken and fre- quently he has been called to return to the scenes of his ministerial
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labors to take part in some occasion of rejoicing or sorrow or in some public affair.
During the years of his residence in Cleveland, Mr. Cowles has made steady progress in business life, bending his efforts to the suc- cessful accomplishment of everything that he has undertaken. Grad- ually he drifted into the field of real estate, largely through the de- sire of friends outside the city who wished him to make investments for them. He also began buying property on his own account and in 1873 his operations in the real-estate field had become so impor- tant and extensive as to necessitate the severance of his connection with journalism. He has long been recognized as one of the promi- nent representatives of real-estate interests in Cleveland and his course has been marked by the most honorable methods, his irre- proachable probity being especially evidenced in the course which he pursued following the widespread financial disasters of 1873. In that year Cleveland property was selling at a good rate and the city was enjoying rapid but healthful growth. The widespread financial panic, however, had immediate effect here, as it did in hundreds of other cities, operations practically ceasing in the real-estate field, while values were greatly reduced. However, Mr. Cowles had taken up real estate as a life work and he continued in that field, facing the disasters of the situation, which occasioned him heavy losses. He was forced to incur a great indebtedness and during the ensuing eighteen years he bent his energies toward discharging his financial obligations. A rigorous self-sacrifice was practiced and in due course of time every financial obligation was discharged. He was frequently advised to take advantage of the national bank- ruptcy law then in force but he replied that if life and strength were left him he would redeem every pledge that stood in his name and pay to every creditor that which was his due. This herculean task he accomplished and no stain of dishonor has ever rested on his name. As years passed and financial affairs returned to the normal his business increased and in later years he has had charge of im- portant real-estate interests for different corporations and individ- uals. He has purchased much property for others, especially for railroad and manufacturing corporations or for capitalists who de- sire investments of a specific character. He also sells property for others and in fact is controlling an extensive real-estate business, not only in the outright sale or purchase but also in negotiating lease- holds, especially of down-town business property on some of the principal thoroughfares of the city. He has conducted the negotia- tions whereby leases have been secured on the land on which a num- ber of the most important office and modern business buildings are
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