USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, past and present; its representative men > Part 11
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
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the business of New Lisbon. The Fort Wayne road passed it a few miles north, and the Cleveland and Pittsburgh road ran about an equal distance west. Thus New Lisbon was ent off from all the commercial cities, and found its sources of supply tapped at every point by the railroads. Realizing the fate that had overtaken the town, Mr. Garretson, at the opening of the year 1852, closed up his affairs in Columbiana county and removed to Cleveland. There he became associated in business with Messrs. Leonard and Robert Hanna, and the firm of Hanna, Garretson & Co. was established.
The successful operations of that firm have already been chroni- cled in these pages, and it only remains in this place to note the fact, that to the success achieved, the energy and uprightness of Mr. Garretson contributed in full proportion. The partnership lasted nine years.
On its dissolution Mr. Garretson established the house of H. Gar- retson & Co., on Water street, with a shipping house on the river. The business of the new firm was exactly similar to that of the old one, including a wholesale grocery trade, with a Lake Superior com- mission and shipping business. A line of fine steamers was run to Lake Superior, and the high reputation Mr. Garretson enjoyed among the people of that section of country, enabled him to build up a very large business in supplying their wants. In addition, the new firm found customers rapidly increasing in northern and western Ohio, in Michigan, and in other adjoining States. The operations of the firm extended rapidly until it stood, at the close of the year 1867, among the very foremost in the amount of its annual sales, whilst the busi- ness was eminently a safe and solidly successful one.
On the first of November, 1867, Mr. Garretson sold out his whole- sale grocery business, and thus closed a mercantile career extending in this city over sixteen years. His attention was then turned to banking. No sooner had he retired from mercantile life than he pro- jected and organized the Cleveland Banking Company, which went into operation under his presidency February 1st, 1868, with a capital of three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. It immediately found all the business it was able to do, and under the skillful management of Mr. Garretson it has become one of the most reliable and important financial institutions of the city.
It can truthfully be said of Mr. Garretson, that his success in busi- ness has been owing not more to his shrewdness and foresight than to his mercantile honor and social qualities. He made personal friends of his business customers, and by courteous attention, as well as by
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scrupulous regard for their interests, retained their good will and secured their custom. In all the relations of business and social life, Mr. Garretson has uniformly borne himself in such manner as to win the respect and confidence of those brought into contact with him.
JOHN BARR.
John Barr was born in Liberty township, Trumbull county, (now Mahoning,) Ohio, June 26th, 1804. His ancestors, on both sides, were from Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, though on his father's side they originally came from the north of England, in the days of William Penn ; and his mother's, from Germany.
His grandfather, Alexander Barr, was killed by the Indians, in 1785, on the Miami, a short distance below, where Hamilton, in Butler county, now stands. His parents removed from Westmoreland county, Pa., to Youngstown, in 1800; and his father settled as the Presby- terian pastor of a church in that place, and resided there till 1820, when he removed to Wooster, Wayne county, in this State. The subject of this sketch was raised on a farm, literally in the woods, ' and experienced the usual privations and vicissitudes attendant on pioneer life. The new country and poverty of his parents prevented his receiving a common English education, and it was not until after he was of age that he mastered Murray's syntax and Daboll's arithmetic.
On leaving home in 1825, he repaired to the Ohio canal, (then in process of construction, ) where he labored for two years, at various points between Boston and Tinker's creek; where, with hundreds of others, he was prostrated by the malaria of that unhealthy valley.
In 1828, he settled in Cleveland, and acted as deputy for the late Edward Baldwin, sheriff. He took the census of the county in 1830, and was elected sheriff that year, which office he held till 1834. Cleveland city at that time, contained one thousand and seventy-one inhabitants ; its northern boundary was the lake, Erie street on the east, and the Cuyahoga river on the west.
. In 1835, when the idea of connecting Cleveland with other places by means of railroads, was conceived by John W. Willey, James S.
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Clarke, T. P. Handy, Edmund Clark, R. Hilliard, C. M. Gidings, HI. B. Payne, Anson Haydn, H. Canfield and others, Mr. Barr joined in and spent a good deal of time in furthering the project. Late in the Fall of that year, he visited Cincinnati, distributing petitions along the line of a proposed route to Cincinnati from Cleveland, and spent most of the Winter at Columbus, during the session of the Legisla- ture. A charter for that road, and one for a road to Pittsburgh, being granted, Mr. Barr brought the first copies of them, duly certified under the seal of the State, to this city.
During 1836 and 7, Mr. Barr devoted a good deal of time in collect- ing statistics of this port, the business of the city, its population, &c., &e., and also of the west generally, and laying them before the public in the papers of Philadelphia and other eastern cities. In company with Mr. Willey and the late Governor Tod, he visited Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, endeavoring to enlist the attention of capitalists to aid in those enterprises. But the crash of 1837, and the general prostration of business, that followed all over the country, rendered it unavailing. In the Winter of 1838, Mr. Gidings, S. Starkweather, Frederick Whittlesey, Wm. B. Lloyd and Mr. Barr were appointed a committee to attend a railroad convention at Harrisburgh, Pa., to promote the project of the railroad from Cleve- land to Philadelphia, by way of Pittsburgh. In 1838 and 9, at the request of John W. Willey, he still spent much of his time in sending a series of articles on the importance of the project, that were pub- lished monthly in the North American, a paper in Philadelphia devoted to such projects.
Through the disastrous state of the times, these various measures had to yield, and become, for the time being, failures; but time has shown that those who were engaged in them were only in advance of the spirit and means of the age.
In 1844, when this subject again arrested the attention of the Cleveland public, Mr. Barr, although crushed by the storm of 1837, again resumed the subject with his pen, and gave to the public in the National Magazine, published in New York, quite a history of the city, its early settlement, &c., together with a full description of the shipping on their lakes, tonnage, trade, &c., that cost weeks of hard labor and patience, more particularly to place our city in a favorable view before the eastern public.
In 1846, a friend of Mr. B. sent him a petition to circulate and send to the Hon. Thomas Corwin, one of Ohio's Senators, asking Congress for aid to survey and establish a railroad to the Pacific.
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In circulating this petition, Mr. Barr was gravely inquired of by one of our citizens, " if he expected to live to see such a road built ?" Mr. Barr replied, " if he should live to the usual age of men, he did expect to see it commenced, and perhaps built." The reply was, " If you do, you will be an older man than Methusalah !" Both have lived to know that great work has been achieved.
Mr. Barr procured over six hundred names to his petition, which was duly presented by Mr. Corwin. Cleveland has now reason to be proud of the interests she manifested in that great work, at so early a day.
In 1857, Mr. Barr brought the first petroleum to this city, made from cannel coal, to be used as a source of light. This was new and regarded as utopian. The article was very odorous, and failed to be acceptable to the public, but as time rolled on, improvements in refining were made, and now the largest manufacturing business in our city is that of petroleum.
Few, if any, of citizens have spent more time and pains in collect- ing and giving to the public reminiscences of early days and early settlers-those who located in this region, and who under such privations, trials, hardships and sufferings commenced levelling these mighty forests, erecting log cabins, and in due time made this formi- dable wilderness " bud and blossom as the rose." In that respect Mr. Barr has done much to preserve and lay before the public from time to time, brief histories of many of those brave men and women who left their homes and friends in the east, and comparative com- forts, to settle in the western wilderness, to build up homes for their children and future generations. Howe's history of Ohio, and Col. Chas. Whittlesey's history of the city of Cleveland, bear witness that his generous heart and gifted pen have furnished tributes of respect to the memory of the noble pioneers, after the battle of life with them was over, and thus supplying links to our historic chain that makes it comparatively perfect.
Among the many reminiscences of early times related to us by Mr. Barr, there is one we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of relating, and preserving: William Coleman, Esq., came to Euclid in 1:03. selected a lot of land and with his family settled upon it in 1$04. For several years the few settlers experienced a good deal of incon- venience in having only the wild game of the country for meat, and which, at certain seasons of the year, was unfit for the table. In the Spring the streams that put into the lake abounded with excellent fish, and the season lasted about four weeks. The question arose,
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"could these fish be preserved in salt for future use?" The universal answer was No! The idea of preserving fresh water fish in salt seemed incredible; the red man was appealed to, but he shook his head in contempt at the idea, and in broken English said, "put him on pole, dry him over smoke." One Spring Mr. Coleman repaired to Rocky River, famous for its fine pike and pickerel, and laid in his stock, carefully laid them down in salt, which cost him over thirty dollars a barrel, (at a great risk, as his neighbors thought,) and watched them carefully from time to time till harvest. Much to his own and his neighbors' satisfaction, he found it a success, and proved not only a happy change of diet for health, but also a luxury, un- known before. From this circumstance, small at that time, originated a new source of comfort, which proved, in time, a mine of wealth to the West, and a luxury to the persons who located in the interior of the State. Well was it said by the school boy of Massachusetts about those days, "Tall oaks from little acorns grow, large streams from little fountains flow."
Mr. Barr says he made this circumstance a matter of much research and inquiry, and fully believes that to William Coleman belongs the credit for so useful and important a discovery.
J. B. COBB.
The oldest bookselling house in Cleveland is that of the Cobbs, now existing under the firm name of Cobb, Andrews & Co. It has grown with the growth of the city, from a small concern where a few books and a limited stock of stationery were kept as adjuncts to a job printing office, to a large establishment doing an extensive business throughout the northern half of Ohio and north-western Pennsylvana, and in parts of Michigan and Indiana, and which has planted in Chicago a branch that has grown to be equal in importance with the parent establishment. Through financial storm and sunshine this house has steadily grown, without a mishap, and now ranks as one of the most important and staunchest business houses in the city.
The head of the firm, Junius Brutus Cobb, was born in 1822,
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received a good common school education, and was then sent to learn the trade of a cabinet-maker. When his apprenticeship expired he worked for a short time as a journeyman, but was dissatisfied with the trade, and for a year or two taught school. In 1842, he decided to try his fortune in the West, and reached Cleveland, where he found employment as clerk in the store of M. C. Younglove. Mr. Young- love was then doing a job printing business, and kept in addition a stock of books and stationery. Opportunity sometime after offering, two younger brothers of Mr. Cobb followed him, and were employed by Mr. Younglove. In 1848, the three brothers united in the purchase of an interest in the establishment, and the firm of M. C. Younglove & Co. was formed, the store being located in the American House building. Here the firm remained some years, the book trade steadily increasing, until the old quarters were too strait for its accommo- dation.
In April, 1852, Mr. Younglove parted with his entire interest in the concern to his partners, and the firm name of J. B. Cobb & Co. was adopted. Before this the printing department had been aban- doned, and the concern was run as a book and stationery store, with a bindery attached. The old store being too small, new and more commodious quarters were found further up Superior street on the opposite side, and with the change the business increased with greater rapidity than previously.
In February, 1864, it was decided to open a similar house in Chicago. A store was engaged, and Mr. J. B. Cobb went up to open it, taking with him a relative of the firm who had formerly been their clerk, Mr. Daniel Pritchard. The business of the new establishment instantly became large and remunerative, the jobbing trade com- mencing auspiciously, and rapidly increasing to extensive dimensions. At the same time the parent house in Cleveland added a wholesale department to its former retail trade, and this grew rapidly. the need of such an establishment being keenly felt by the numerous small stores throughout the country that had hitherto been dependent on Cincinnati or the dealers at the East. The rapid growth of business in the two establishments necessitated a new arrangement of the firm, and Cobb, Pritchard & Co. took charge of the Chicago house, whilst Cobb, Andrews & Co. manage the Cleveland establishment. The latter firm was made by the accession of Mr. Theodore A. Andrews. who had been brought up as a clerk in the house, taking his place as a partner in April, 1865. Mr. J. B. Cobb took up his residence in Chicago, leaving his brothers, C. C. and B. J., in Cleveland.
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The Cobbs have maintained for themselves a high reputation for honesty. fair dealing, and courtesy in business, and in this way have secured prosperity. The trade that, when they first took it, amounted to about $25,000 a year, had grown, in 1868, to over $200,000. The qualities that gained for the head of the firm so many valuable business friends, was shared in by his brothers, and these again impressed them on the young men brought up under their control. The result is seen in the large number of customers frequenting the store daily, and in the extensive wholesale trade done.
A. G. COLWELL.
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Mr. Colwell is a native of Madison county, New York, and came to Cleveland in 1852, soon after the opening of the different railroads had given the city an important start in the road to prosperity. Mr. Colwell immediately engaged in the hardware trade, on Ontario street, where he has continued to the present day. As the city grew in size, and its area of commerce extended, the business of Mr. Col- well steadily increased. The retail trade gradually developed into wholesale, and this grew into important proportions, pushing its ramifications through northern Ohio, Michigan, and northwestern Pennsylvania.
Mr. Colwell has attended closely to his business, taking no other interest in public affairs than is the duty of every good citizen. But whilst carefully conducting his business he has found time for the gratification of a cultivated taste in literature, and has taken pleasure in participating in every movement designed to foster a similar taste in others. In a recent tour in Europe, undertaken for the benefit of his health, he visited the principal points of literary and artistic interest, and brought back with him many rare and curious souve- nirs of travel.
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WILLIAM BINGHAM.
Whilst few men, if there are any, in the city of Cleveland are more highly respected than William Bingham, there are none less desirous of notoriety in any form. To do his duty to himself, his family, and his fellow men, and to do it quietly and unobtrusively, is the extent of Mr. Bingham's ambition, so far as can be judged by the whole tenor of his life. Did the matter rest with him, no notice of him would have appeared in this work; but to omit him would be a manifest injustice, and would at the same time render the volume imperfect.
Mr. Bingham is a native of Andover, Connecticut, and on his arrival here from the East, became a clerk in George Worthington's hard- ware store. After a few years' service in this capacity he set up in the same line for himself, and for about a quarter of a century has carried on business with marked success. The operations of the firm of William Bingham & Co., though at first small, have grown to large proportions, and Mr. Bingham has grown rich, not through lucky operations, but by steady, persistent application to business, aided by sound judgment and powerful will. In addition to his hardware business, he is interested with Mr. Worthington in the Iron and Nail works, and has furnace interests in the Mahoning Valley.
In all his dealings, commercial or otherwise, he has been strictly conscientious, and this has secured for him the esteem of all with whom he has come in contact, and the respect and confidence of the general public. His word is inviolable, and no one has ever uttered a whisper against his unsullied integrity. In all works of genuine charity his aid is efficaciously, though unobtrusively given, whenever required. To the young men in his employ he is as much a father in his care of their interests and conduct, as he is an employer.
In politics Mr. Bingham has steadily acted with the Republican party, but he is in no degree a politician. He has been chosen by the people to places of municipal trust, but always without any desire on his part, and solely because those selecting him considered his services would be valuable to the city ; and whenever selected as a candidate he has been elected, the opposing party having full confi-
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denee in his ability and integrity. In his case, the place invariably sought the man, and not the man the place ; and it has always been with great reluctance, and because it seemed the good of the people required it, that he consented to hold public office. It would be better for the people were there more men like William Bingham, and sufficient wisdom among political managers to invoke their services on behalf of the public.
WILLIAM J. GORDON.
A history of the leading commercial men of Cleveland, with no mention of W. J. Gordon, would be not much unlike the play of Hamlet with the part of the Danish prince omitted. Few men in the city have occupied so prominent a position in its mercantile history as has Mr. Gordon ; but, from a natural distaste of public notice of any kind, on the part of Mr. Gordon, we are comparatively without data, and obliged to depend upon what we know of his history in general.
Mr. Gordon was brought up on a New Jersey farm, on which the battle of Monmouth was fought, and that had remained for genera- tions, and still is, in the possession of his family. His earliest recollections were of rural life, its boyish enjoyments and boyish tasks. He obtained a good common school education, such as could be obtained in that neighborhood. Whilst yet a lad he manifested a strong taste for business pursuits ; and to gratify and develop that taste he was sent to New York, where he became a clerk.
But, young as he was, he reasoned that there was a better chance for a successful struggle in the new West than in the already crowded marts of the East, and that for the young man of energy and enter- prise, there was every prospect of achieving distinction and fortune in assisting to build up the business of the new western cities. With this impression he bade adieu to New York in 1838, and started westward on a tour of observation, he being then in his twentieth year. He reached Erie without stopping, and remained there for some time, carefully observing its commercial facilities and its pros-
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pects for the future. Not altogether satisfied with these, he moved farther west, and made his next stay in Cleveland. Here he speedily became convinced that a great future was before that city, and he determined to remain and share in its benefits. A whosesale grocery establishment was opened, small at first, as suited his means and the limited requirements of the place, but which more than kept pace with the progress of the city.
Mr. Gordon believed that to shrewdness and persistence all things are possible. His constant endeavor was to discover new avenues of trade, or new modes of doing business, and then to utilize his discov- eries to the full extent, by persistent energy and unwearied industry. He was always on the alert to find a new customer for his wares, and to discover a cheaper place to purchase his stock, or a better way of bringing them home. Whilst thus securing unusual advantages in supplying himself with goods, Mr. Gordon was losing no opportunity of pushing his business among the buyers. His agents were diligently scouring the country, looking up new customers, and carefully observing the operations of old customers, to ascertain how their trade could best be stimulated and developed, to the mutual profit of the retailer and the wholesale dealer from whom he obtained his supplies. Men of pushing character and large business acquaintance were sought out and engaged, that they might aid in developing the business of the establishment. As these withdrew, to set up in business for themselves, others took their place. It is a noticable fact that no house has sent out more young men who have achieved success for themselves ; and that success was undoubtedly in large measure due to the training received under Mr. Gordon.
He tolerated no sluggards around his establishment. A hard worker himself, those around him were stimulated to hard work. He was at the warehouse with the earliest clerk and left it with the latest. He demanded unflagging industry from his employees, but asked no more than he manifested himself. It was through this per- sistent energy that he achieved success where others might have failed.
When Mr. Gordon's capital had increased to such an extent as to warrant his employment of some of the surplus in investment out- side of his regular business, he made some highly profitable opera- tions of this kind. Among them was his uniting with some others of like foresight in the purchase of a tract of mineral land on Lake Superior, and the formation of iron mining companies which, though not immediately profitable, eventually yielded an enormous percent-
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age on the original outlay, and bids fair to be equally profitable for many years to come, besides being a source of immense wealth to the city.
In 1-57, Mr. Gordon's health failed, and since that time he has paid but little personal attention to business; but by an extended tour to Europe, it has been in a great measure restored, and being still in the meridian of life, he has the prospect, unless some mishap occurs, of long enjoying the fruits of his far-sighted intelligence and unwearied industry.
HENRY WICK.
Lemuel Wick, the father of Henry, was among the early settlers of Youngstown. The Rev. William Wick, his uncle, preached from, time to time as a missionary of the Presbyterian church, in the settlements on the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio, as early as 1779. Henry's father was a merchant, in whose store he became a clerk, at the age of fifteen. At twenty-one he engaged in the project of a rolling-mill at Youngstown, which proved successful. In company with a brother, his father's interest in the store was purchased, and, having a successful future in prospect, Mr. Wick married, about that time, Miss Mary Hine, of Youngstown, whose father was a prominent lawyer of that place. In 1848, he became a citizen of Cleveland, disposing of the rolling mill to Brown, Bonnell & Co., who have since become leading iron men of the Mahoning Valley.
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