USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, past and present; its representative men > Part 41
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M. B. CLARK.
M. B. Clark was born in Malmsbury, England, September 6, 1827. From early boyhood until he was nearly of age he was employed in all the various occupations of an agricultural district. About this time the United States, as a promising country for the working man, was attracting considerable notice in his native village, and young Clark, being favorably impressed with reports from America, secretly resolved to husband his means and follow the example of those who had recently gone.
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In the Spring of 1847, he left home with but barely sufficient means for the expenses of the journey. On the 17th of June in that year he landed at Boston, amidst martial music and parade of military, cele- brating the battle of Bunker's Hill. This, however, was but poor consolation to the English lad, who found himself penniless and friendless. He used every effort to find employment without success, and in the meantime was obliged to sleep wherever night overtook him. At last he obtained work on a farm, in the little town of Dover, Massachusetts, at ten dollars per month. He remained in this situa- tion until October, when, with the regrets of his employer, he left for the West.
On arriving in Ohio, he first obtained employment at chopping wood and teaming, in Lorain county. In the following Spring he returned to Cleveland and obtained a situation as helper in a hard- ware store. Here it became apparent to him that he was sadly deficient in an educational point of view, and that it offered an almost insuperable barrier to his advancement in life. To remedy this, so far as possible, he devoted all his leisure hours to study, and on the establishment of the evening schools the following winter, he availed himself of them, and the advantage soon became apparent.
With a view to the improvement of his circumstances, in 1851, he engaged himself to Hussey & Sinclair, with whom he remained six years, when he returned to his former employers, Otis & Co., and remained with them three years longer.
In 1859, he established himself in the commission business, associ- ating with him John D. Rockefeller, the firm name being Clark & Rockefeller; both young men of limited means. By strict attention and honorable conduct they soon built up a lucrative business. In 1860, G. W. Gardner became a member of the firm, and continued as such for two years, when he retired.
In 1863, Mr. Clark's attention was attracted to the manufacture of petroleum oils, a business then in its infancy. In connection with his partners, he erected a factory on the Newburg road, the capacity of which was about fifty-six barrels of crude oil per day. They soon discovered that there was money in the enterprise, and before the end of the year they had increased the capacity of their works four- fold; and the enterprise of this firm has aided materially in making Cleveland what it is to-day, the successful rival of Pittsburgh in the manufacture of petroleum oils. In 1865, the manufacturing branch was purchased by his partner, and the general commission business was continued by Mr. Clark until 1866, when he sold out his interest,
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remaining nominally out of the business until June of that year, when he wearied of idleness and sought active business once more. Pur- chasing the controlling interest in another refinery, he set to work, vigorously, enlarging the capacity of the works and bringing capital and energy to bear with such effect upon the business of the firm, that it now ranks among the leading oil refining establishments of the country.
Mr. Clark has been no niggard with the wealth that has accrued to him from his business. During the war he contributed liberally and was active in aiding the cause of the government by giving every practical measure his cordial and generous support. In other matters he has manifested a like liberal spirit. In politics he has acted with the Republicans, and has been active in furthering the success of that party. In 1866, he was elected member of the city council from the fourth ward, and was re-elected in 1868. In religious matters he has always connected himself with the Wesleyan Methodists, and has been a leading supporter of that congregation in Cleveland.
Still in the vigor of life, Mr. Clark has the opportunity of doing much more for the prosperity of the city by increasing the manufac- turing business, and this his practical nature leads him to do.
It will be seen that Mr. Clark has been the architect of his own fortune. His sympathies are with the industrial classes, from which he sprang, and in return he has the confidence and good will of a large portion of that class.
Mr. Clark was married in 1853, and has a family of five children.
JACOB LOWMAN.
Jacob Lowman was born in Washington county, Maryland, Sept. 22, 1810. He worked with his father on the farm until he was eighteen, at which time he became an apprentice to the smithing department of the carriage building trade. At the expiration of his apprenticeship, in 1832, he came to Ohio. He stopped in Stark county for a few months, and then came to Cleveland, in search of work, which he readily obtained, with Elisha Peet, on Seneca street, where Frankfort street now intersects it. He worked about a year
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and a half, for which he received nine dollars per month and board. Being of steady habits, he saved in that time about seventy-five dollars. Mr. Lowman then bought out his employer, and commenced at once on his own account, at the same place. After two years, he built a shop where the Theatre Comique now stands, and remained there eight years. At first he labored alone, after awhile he had one journeyman, soon adding still another, and another, till, at the end of the eight years, he employed about fifteen inen. He then removed to Vineyard street, having built shops there to accommodate his increasing business. This was about the year 1842 -- 3. After moving to the new buildings, his business constantly grew with the city, and more men were employed. In 1851, Mr. Lowman commenced the erection of a still larger building to meet his increasing demands ; he was then employing from thirty-five to forty men. About this time too, he associated with him Mr. Wmn. M. Warden, who had then been in his employ for about ten years. Their facilities were sufficient till about the time of the war, when they erected a large briek building on Champlain street, now occupied as a smith shop, trimming shop, store room, etc., since which they have employed about sixty men. Mr. Lowman, for a number of years, did little beside a local trade, but for the last five or six years he has built up quite a large foreign trade, shipping West extensively-Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana and Kentucky, being the principal markets.
Mr. Lowman has been strictly temperate all his life. He has taken a lively interest in the Sunday schools of the city, in connec- tion with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been a member nearly since he came to the city.
He was married in 1841 to Miss Minerva E. Peet, by whom he had four children, three of whom are now living-the oldest son being in business with his father. He suffered the loss of his partner in life in 1857. He married again in 1863, to Mrs. Sarah D. Goodwin, of Lorain county, Ohio, formerly of Vermont.
He attributes his success in business to the fact that he had an object in view, and endeavored to attain it, strict attention to business, economy, and studying to give satisfaction by his work.
He is only fifty-eight years of age, and well preserved, and in all human probability will live to enjoy the fruit of his labor for many years to come.
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Yours Truly Hely Wilson
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W. G. WILSON.
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W. G. Wilson, now president of the Wilson Sewing Machine Company of Cleveland, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, on the first of April, 1841. His education was obtained at a village school house. When he was in his thirteenth year his parents re- moved to Ohio, and the lad remained with them until his eighteenth year, when he left home with a somewhat indefinite idea of doing something for himself, although possessing neither money nor friend: to aid him in his start in life. Until the year 1864, he wandered from place to place, turning his hand to various employments, but was dissatisfied with them all, being convinced that he had not yet found his right vocation or location.
In 1864, he was visiting some friends at Madison county, Ohio, when his attention was attracted by a cheap sewing machine. Believing that money could be made by the sale of such machines he purchased one, mastered its mode of operation, and took a travel- ing agency. Finding this a more profitable business than any he had yet undertaken, he prosecuted it with vigor, and being of an inquiring mind, soon picked up important facts concerning the business, the manufacture of the machines, and the profits of the manufacturers and dealers. He discovered that the largest profits were not made by those who retailed the machines, and, therefore, he set to work to change his position in the business and so enlarge his profits.
In Fremont, Ohio, he formed the acquaintance of a young man in the grocery business, who had thought at times of entering on the sewing machine trade. A partnership was formed. Mr. Wilson contributed his whole available means, sixty-five dollars, to which he added the experience he had gained, whilst his partner contributed to the common stock three hundred dollars. With this slender cash capital, but abundant confidence in their success, the new firm came to Cleveland, which they selected as the base of their operations on account of its superior shipping facilities, and opened a wareroom in Lyman's Block, having previously made arrangements with manufac- turers in Massachusetts to make machines for them. The new firm of Mather & Wilson were successful beyond their expectations.
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About a year had been passed in this way when suits were brought against Mather & Wilson, in common with a number of other parties throughout the West, for an alleged infringement of a sewing machine patent. Under the pressure of these suits, which were prosecuted with a large capital to back up the litigating parties, Mr. Wilson endeavored to secure the cooperation of the more powerful of the defendants, but without success, each party preferring to fight the battle singly. After a hard fight in the courts, a compromise was effected, the suit against Mather & Wilson withdrawn on each party paying his own costs, and they were allowed to carry on the business unmolested.
Shortly afterwards Mr. Wilson sold out his interest in the firm. A few weeks subsequently he made an agreement with H. F. Wilson, whereby the latter was to perfect and patent a low priced shuttle machine, and assign the patent to the former. In two months the machine was in the patent office, and in 1867 the manufacture was commenced in Cleveland. No money or labor was spared in per- fecting the machine, which achieved an instant success and became exceedingly profitable.
In 1868, the Wilson Sewing Machine Company was organized with a paid up capital of one hundred thousand dollars, the principal portion of their stock being owned by Mr. Wilson, who is president of the company. The business of the concern has grown until it now reaches five hundred machines per week, and branch houses have been established in Boston and St. Louis, with general agencies in the principal cities of the United States. Through the rapid develop- ment of their business the company have recently purchased a tract of land at the junction of Platt street and the Pittsburgh railroad crossing, in Cleveland, for the purpose of erecting a large building for the manufacture of their sewing machines, that will give employ- ment to between two and three hundred men.
The Wilson Sewing Machine Company is one of the latest estab- lished manufactories in Cleveland, but promises to take rank among the most important. It deserves especial mention among the record of Cleveland enterprises, as producing the first local sewing machine that has succeeded, although many attempts have been made.
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ALBERT C. MCNAIRY.
This department of the present work would be imperfect without a reference to the firm of McNairy, Claflen & Co., which ranks among the heaviest and most important contracting firms in the country.
Albert C. McNairy, the head of the firm and a man of great enterprise and energy of character, was born June 14, 1815, at Middletown, Connecticut, and was early engaged in work of a similar character to that now undertaken by the firm. In 1848, he con- structed the famous Holyoke Dam, across the Connecticut river at Holyoke, which is over a thousand feet between the abutments, and thirty feet in height. In 1851, he became a member of the bridge building firm of Thatcher, Burt & Co., of Cleveland, whose operations in the construction of bridges were very extensive. In 1864, the firm name became McNairy, Claflen & Co., by the admission of Henry M. Claflen, who had been in the employ of the firm since 1854. In 1866, Mr. Thatcher and Mr. Burt retired and Harvey T. Clatlen, (who had been connected with the establishment since 1852,) and Simeon Sheldon were admitted.
From 1851 to a recent date, the Howe Truss Bridge was nearly the only bridge made by the concern. They now are largely engaged in the construction of iron bridges and all kinds of railway cars. The concern has built three thousand two hundred and eighty-one bridges -about sixty miles in the aggregate. The streams of nearly every State east of the Rocky Mountains are spanned by their bridges, and it is a historical fact that not one bridge of their construction has fallen.
Three hundred and fifty men are employed by the firm, and the aggregate of their business reaches two millions of dollars yearly.
The firm is now constructing the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad, from Oneida to Oswego, a distance of sixty-five miles, and furnishing the cars.
The general management of the affairs of the company is in the hands of Messrs. McNairy and Henry M. Claflen. The management of
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the works is assigned to Harvey T. Claflen, whilst the engineering department falls to the particular superintendence of Mr. Sheldon. The Messrs. Claflen are natives of Taunton, Massachusetts, and Mr. Sheldon of Lockport, New York
J. H. MORLEY.
J. H. Morley is a native of Cayuga county, New York. He came to Cleveland in 1847, and commenced the hardware business on Superior street, under the firm name of Morley & Reynolds. This firm continued, successfully, for about twelve years, after which, for some time, Mr. Morley was engaged in no active business. In 1863, he commenced the manufacture of white lead, on a limited scale. Three years subsequently, a partnership was formed with T. S. Beckwith, when the capacity of the works was immediately enlarged. Every year since that time they have added to their facilities. Their fac- tory has a frontage on Canal and Champlain streets, of over three hundred feet. Their machinery is driven by a hundred horse-power engine, and four hundred corroding pots are run. About one thou- sand tons of lead are manufactured yearly, and find a ready market in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and New York.
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Telegraphy.
THE telegraphic history of Cleveland is mainly written in the story of the connection with this city of the two leading telegraphers whose biographical sketches are given in this work. The master spirit of the great telegraphic combination of the United States, and the chief executive offi- cer of that combination, have made Cleveland their home and headquarters. Their story, as told in the immediately succeeding pages, is therefore the telegraphic history of Cleveland.
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JEPTHA H. WADE.
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Foremost on the roll of those who have won a distinguished posi- tion in the telegraphic history of the West, is the name of Jeptha H. Wade, until recently president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and who still, although compelled by failing health to resign the supreme executive control, remains on the Board of direc- tion, and is one of the leading spirits in the management.
Mr. Wade was born in Seneca county, New York, August 11, 1811, and was brought up to mechanical pursuits, in which he achieved a fair amount of success. Having a taste for art, and finding his health impaired by the labors and close application consequent on his mechanical employment, he, in 1835, turned his attention to portrait painting, and by arduous study and conscientious devotion to the art, became very successful. Whilst engaged in this work, the use of the camera in producing portraits came into notice. Mr. Wade pur- chased a camera, and carefully studied the printed directions accom- panying the instrument. These were vague, and served but as hints for a more careful investigation and more thorough development of the powers of the camera. By repeated experiments and intelligent reasoning from effects back to causes, and from causes again to effects, he at length became master of the subject, and succeeded in taking the first daguerreotype west of New York.
When busy with his pencil and easel taking portraits, and varying his occupation by experimenting with the camera, news came to him of the excitement created by the success of the telegraphic experi- ment of building a line between Baltimore and Washington. This was in 1844. Mr. Wade turned his attention to the new science, studied it with his accustomed patience and assiduity, mastered its details, so far as then understood, and immediately saw the advan- tage to the country, and the pecuniary benefit to those immediately interested, likely to accrue from the extension of the telegraph system which had just been created. Without abandoning his devo- tion to art, he entered on the work of extending the telegraph system. The first line west of Buffalo was built by him, between Detroit and Jackson, Michigan, and the Jackson office was opened
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and operated by him, although he had received no practical instruc- tion in the manipulation of the instruments. In the year ISIS, an incident occurred, which, though at the time he bitterly deplored it as a calamity, was, in fact, a blessing in disguise, and compelled him perforce to embark on the tide which bore him on to fame and for- tune. He was an operator in the line of the Erie and Michigan Telegraph Company, at Milan, Ohio, when a conflagration destroyed all the materials and implements forming his stock in trade as a por- trait painter. After a brief consideration of the subject, he decided not to replace the lost implements of his art, but to cut loose alto- gether from the career of an artist, and hereafter to devote himself solely to the business he had entered upon with fair promise of success.
The first years of telegraph construction were years of much vex- ation of spirit to those engaged in such enterprises. Difficulties of all kinds, financial, mechanical, and otherwise, had to be encoun- tered and overcome. There were those who objected to the wires crossing their land or coming in proximity to their premises, fearing damage from the electric current in storms. Those who had invested their capital wanted immediate large returns. Some of those who had to be employed in the construction of the lines were ignorant of the principles of electrical science, and their ignorance caused serious embarrassments and delays. ' Defective insulation was a standing cause of trouble, and telegraphers were studying and experi- menting how to overcome the difficulties in this direction, but without satisfactory result. In the face of all these difficulties, Mr. Wade proceeded with the work of extending and operating telegraph lines. In addition to the interest he had secured in the Erie and Michigan line, he constructed the " Wade line " between Cleveland via Cincinnati, to St. Louis, and worked it with success. The " House consolidation " placed Mr. Wade's interest in the lines mentioned in the hands of the Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, and before long this consolidation was followed by the union of all the House and Morse lines in the West, and the organization of the Western Union Telegraph Company. In all these acts of consolida-
tion the influence of Mr. Wade was active and powerful. Realizing
the fact that competition between short detached lines rendered them unproductive, and that in telegraphing, as in other things, union is strength, he directed his energies to bringing about the consolida- tion, not only of the lines connecting with each other, but of rival interests. The soundness of his views has been proved by the
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unremunerativeness of the lines before consolidation and their remarkable prosperity since.
Mr. Wade was one of the principal originators of the first Pacific telegraph, and on the formation of the company he was made its first president. The location of the line, and its construction through the immense territory-then in great part a vast solitude-between Chicago and San Francisco, were left mainly to his unaided judg- ment and energy, and here again those qualities converted a haz- ardous experiment into a brilliant success. Mr. Wade remained president of the Pacific Company until he secured its consolidation with the Western Union Telegraph Company, to accomplish which, he went to California, in the latter part of 1860, and succeeded in harmonizing the jarring telegraphic interests there. On the com- pletion of this consolidation, Mr. Wade was made president of the Western Union Telegraph Company, his headquarters being in Cleveland.
At a meeting of the Board of Directors, in July, 1867, a letter was received from Mr. Wade, declining a re-election to the office of pres- ident. The following resolutions were unanimously adopted by the Board :
Resolved, That in receiving the letter of J. H. Wade, Esq., declining re election to the presidency of this company, we cannot pass it to the official files without recording our testimony to the distinguished service he has rendered to the general system of American Telegraphs, and especially to the company whose management he now resigns.
Connecting himself with it in its earliest introduction to public use, and interesting himself in its construction, he was the first to see that the ultimate triumph of the telegraph, both as a grand system of public utility, and of secure investment, would be by some absorbing process, which would prevent the embarrassments of separate organizations.
To the foresight, perseverance and tact of Mr. Wade, we believe is largely due the fact of the existence of one great company to-day with its thousand arms, grasping the extremities of the continent, instead of a series of weak, unreliable lines, unsuited to public wants, and, as property, precarious and insecure.
Resolved, That we tender to Mr. Wade our congratulations on the great fruition of his work, signalized and cemented by this day's election of a Board representing the now united leading telegraph interests of the nation, accompanied with regrets that he is not with us to receive our personal acknowledgements, and to join us in the election of a successor to the position he has so usefully filled.
Office of the Western Union Telegraph Company, New York, July 10th. 1867.
WILLIAM ORTON, President. O. H. PALMER, Secretary.
As before mentioned, Mr. Wade remains a director and leading spirit in the Board, where his suggestions are listened to with respect
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and acted on without unnecessary delay. In addition to his connec- tion with the telegraph Company, Mr. Wade is heavily interested in several of the most important manufactories, in the railroads, and in the leading banks of Cleveland. The wealth he has accumulated is mostly invested in such a manner as to largely aid in building up the property of Cleveland, a city in which he feels a strong interest, not only from the fact that it has been for the past twenty years his place of residence, but that the wealth enabling him to enjoy the beautiful home he has secured there, was made in Cleveland.
It has already been noted that Mr. Wade, when a painter, took the first daguerreotype west of New York. Soon after his entering upon the business of telegraphy, he put into practice, for the first time, the plan of enclosing a submarine cable in iron armor. It was applied to the cable across the Mississippi, at St. Louis, in 1850. Weights had been applied to the previous cables, at regular distances, on account of the sand, change of bottom, drifts, and other difficulties that interfered with the safety of the cable. Mr. Wade conceived the idea of combining weight and protection in the cable itself. He constructed it with eighteen pieces of wire, placed lengthwise around the cable, and bound together with soft iron wire at intervals. While the spiral cordage of hemp, such as was used at that time on the cable from Dover to Calais, would stretch, and allow the strain to come on the cable itself. This invention caused the strain to come on the armor. It was a complete success, and lasted until the line was abandoned. Mr. Wade also invented, in 1852, what is now known as the Wade insulator, which has been used more extensively, perhaps, than any other.
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