USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Cleveland, past and present; its representative men > Part 7
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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
Under other circumstances the journey would scarcely be deemed a pleasant one. It was in early Spring, and the weather was still inclement. The roads were bad, and the lumbering stage floundered heavily through mud, and amid obstructions that made the way one of discomfort, not unmixed with peril, for six weary days, between Geneva and Cleveland. But in addition to the fact that it was a bridal tour, the young couple were cheered by the prospect before them. The charter of the old Commercia. Bank of Lake Erie, estab)- lished in 1816, and which had gone under, had been purchased by the Hon. George Bancroft and his family in Massachusetts, and it was designed to resuscitate it under better auspices. Mr. Handy had
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been invited to become the cashier, and in pursuance of his accept- ance of the invitation, was, with his bride, on his way to Cleveland.
The bank was organized on his arrival and commenced business on the lot now occupied by the Merchants National Bank, at the corner of Superior and Bank streets, the bank lot running back to the present site of the Herald building. Leonard Case, the president of the old Bank of Lake Erie, was president of the resuscitated bank, with T. P. Handy as cashier. It did a thriving business until 1842, when the term of its charter expired, and the Legislature refused to renew it, compelling the bank to go into liquidation. When the great crash of 1837 occurred, the bank had been compelled to take real estate in settlement of the liabilities of its involved customers, and thus the corporation became one of the greatest landholders of the city. Had the property been retained by the bank owners, it would by this time have been worth to them many millions of dollars.
The close of the bank and the winding up of its affairs necessitated the disposal of the real estate for the purpose of dividing the assets among the stockholders. Messrs. T. P. Handy, H. B. Payne, and Dudley Baldwin were appointed commissioners to close up the affairs of the bank and discharge its liabilities. This being done, the remain- ing cash and real estate were divided among the stockholders, who appointed Mr. Handy their trustee to dispose of the property. This was accomplished in 1845, when Mr. Handy made his final settlement. During the time subsequent to the close of the bank, he had been carrying on a private banking business under the name of T. P. Handy & Co.
In the Winter of 1845, the State Legislature passed a law authoriz- ing the establishment of the State Bank of Ohio, and of independent banks. In November of that year, Mr. Handy organized the Commer- cial Branch of the State Bank of Ohio, with a capital of one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, and took position in it as cashier. the president being William A. Otis, and the directors, additional to Messrs. Otis and Handy, being John M. Woolsey, N. C. Winslow, and Jonathan Gillett. Mr. Handy was the acting manager of the institu- tion, and so successful was his conduct of its affairs that the stock- holders received an average of nearly twenty per cent. on their investment through nearly the whole time until the termination of its charter in 1865, a period of twenty years. His policy was liberal, but with remarkable judgment he avoided hazardous risks. and whilst the bank always had as much business as it could possibly accommo- date, the tightest times never affected its credit.
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Whilst the Commercial Branch Bank was having such uninterrupted success, the Merchants Branch of the State Bank of Ohio, on the same street, was experiencing a run of bad fortune. The failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company embarrassed it for a time, and other causes conspired with this to cripple its resources. In 1861, the stockholders invited Mr. Handy to take charge of its affairs as president, and he accepted the trust. His usual success followed him to his new posi- tion, and the affairs of the bank were suddenly and permanently improved.
In February, 1865, in common with most of the State banking institutions, the Merchants Branch Bank stockholders decided to wind up the concern as a State institution, and avail themselves of the provisions of the National Banking Act. The Merchants National Bank was organized with an authorized capital of one million of dollars, of which six hundred thousand dollars was paid in, Mr. Handy assuming the presidency, and having associated with him in the man- agement, Messrs. T. M. Kelley, M. Barnett, William Collins, James F. Clark, Samuel L. Mather, and William Bingham. Under this manage- ment the bank has thus far had an uninterrupted tide of prosperity, with every prospect of its continuance.
It is not alone as a banker that Mr. Handy has made himself prom- inent among the citizens of Cleveland. He has been intimately connected with other enterprises tending to increase the prosperity of the city, and it is remarkable that all the undertakings he has been connected with have proved profitable, to himself to a greater or less extent, as might be expected, but in a far greater degree to others, the stockholders, for whose interests he was laboring. Few, if any, men in Cleveland have made more money for others than has Mr. Handy.
In addition to his banking duties, he filled the position from 1850 to 1860, of treasurer of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati rail- road, and managed its finances with that skill and ability which were peculiarly needed in the earlier portion of that period, when the road was' an experiment, carried on under the heaviest difficulties. In 1860, he resigned his position as treasurer, and is now a director in that company. He has also been interested in other railroads center- ing in Cleveland.
In 1856, a Cleveland built schooner left the lakes for the ocean, and crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool, thus commencing the direct trade between the lakes and European ports. In 1857, another Cleve- land built vessel was sent across, loaded with staves and lumber, and
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returned with crockery and iron. The success of these ventures attracted the attention of the enterprising business men of the lakes, and in the Spring of 1858, a fleet of ten vessels left Cleveland, all but one loaded with staves and lumber, for European ports. Their depart- ure was marked by demonstrations on the part of the authorities and leading men of business, and with a fair breeze and good wishes the fleet bore away for salt water. Of the ten vessels, three were sent by Mr. Handy, the R. H. Harmon, bound for Liverpool, the D. B. Sexton, for London, and the J. F. Warner, for Glasgow. All of the vessels made quick and profitable trips, and the trade thus begun has been carried on with profit to the present time, although at the - breaking out of the war American vessels were compelled to with- draw from it, leaving the enterprise wholly in the hands of English parties, who purchased vessels for the trade.
Whilst his vessels were in Europe, Mr. Handy availed himself of the opportunity to visit Great Britain and the Continent, to attend to his interests, and at the same time to study some of the institutions of the old world, especially the financial, religious and educational. In educational matters he had always taken a deep interest, having watched with a careful eye the growth of the public schools of Cleve- land, and for some time was associated with Mr. Charles Bradburn in their management, as members of the Board of Education. And this, which was wholly a labor of love, with no remuneration but the con- sciousness of having done some good by hard work, was the only public office ever held by Mr. Handy, or ever desired by him. At the same time he was deeply interested in the growth and management of the Sunday schools of the city, and for many years has taken a leading part in all movements calculated to extend their field of usefulness and increase their efficiency. In Great Britain he visited the Sunday schools and was warmly welcomed by teachers and scholars, who were greatly interested in his account of the working of Sunday schools here, whilst the narration of his experiences on that side of the Atlantic frequently delighted the scholars at home on his return.
Although rapidly approaching the period allotted by the psalmist to man as his term of life, Mr. Handy is still as full of vigor and business energy as much younger men, and is as earnest as of old in managing large financial undertakings, or in teaching his class in Sunday school. His heart is as young at sixty-two, as at twenty- seven, and the secret of his continued health and vigor undoubtedly lies in his temperate and upright life, his kindly disposition, and that
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simple cheerfulness of spirit that makes him thoroughly at home in the society of children, who, in their turn, are thoroughly at home with him. One of the most energetic and successful of business men. he has never allowed business to so engross his time and attention as to leave no opportunity for religious or social duties or enjoyments. In this way he has won the confidence and esteem of all classes of citizens as a successful financier, a good citizen, a man of the strictest probity, a warm friend, and a genial acquaintance.
Mr. Handy has but one child living, a daughter, now the wife of Mr. John S. Newberry, of Detroit. His only other child, a boy, died in infancy.
CHARLES BRADBURN. ,
That Charles Bradburn is a merchant long and honorably known in the commercial history of Cleveland, and that he still retains a prominent place in the business circles which he entered thirty-three years ago, are undeniable facts. And yet, the great feature of Mr. Bradburn's busy life, and that of which he is justly most proud, is not his business successes, but his connection with the public schools of this city. His money, made by anxious care in his warehouse and among business men, was freely spent to promote the cause of education, and the labor, solicitude and anxiety with which he prosecuted his business, great as they necessarily were, must be counted small compared with his sacrifices of time and labor in the effort to extend and improve the school system and make the school houses of the city a source of gratulation and pride to the citizens. But whilst his hardest labor was in the service of the schools, it was purely a labor of love, whilst his work on the river was a labor of business, and therefore he must, in this record of Cleveland's noted men, take rank among his commercial brethren.
Mr. Bradburn was born at Attleborough, Massachusetts, July 16th, 1SOS. His father was a cotton manufacturer when that great industrial interest was in its infancy. The first manufacture in this country of several articles of twilled fabrics was in his factory.
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At the age of seven years Charles Bradburn had the misfortune to lose his mother, a lady highly esteemed by all who knew her. This loss was a serious one, as it left him almost entirely to his own resources. When sixteen years old he entered the Lowell machine shop as an apprentice, and after a service of three years, graduated with a diploma from the Middlesex Mechanics Association. He served as a journeyman for two years, when, feeling that his education was not adequate to his wants, he left the mechanic's bench for the student's desk, entering the classical school of Professor Coffin at Ashfield, in the western part of the same State. Subsequently he resumed his mechanical labors, which he continued until 1833, part of the time as a journeyman, but during the greater part as a manufacturer on his own account. At that date he changed his business from manufacturing to commerce, opening a store in Lowell.
In 1836, he decided to remove to the West, and in that year brought his family to Cleveland, where he commenced the wholesale and retail grocery business in the wooden building now standing, adjoining the old City Buildings, which were not then finished. The next year he rented the two stores adjoining in the then new City Buildings, of which but a portion now remains. In 1840, he built the warehouse now standing at the foot of St. Clair street and moved his business to that place, abandoning the retail branch. At the same time he established a distillery on what was then known as " the island," on the west side of the river. In 1854, he removed to the spacious warehouses, 58 and 60 River street, now occupied by him and his partners under the same name, "C. Bradburn & Co.," that graced the walls of the City Buildings in 1836. During his long commercial life Mr. Bradburn has enjoyed largly the confidence and esteem of the commercial community and is now one of the most energetic business men of the city.
But it is in his devotion to the cause of knowledge and popular education that Mr. Bradburn appears especially as a representative man. He was one of the first officers of the Mercantile Library Association, and in its early history took much interest in its prosperity. His great work, however, lay in the schools. In a letter to a friend recently written, he, with characteristic modesty, writes : "After a life almost as long as is allotted to man, the only thing I find to glory in is having been able to render some service to the cause of popular education ; to be called by so many of our ablest educators the father of our public schools, was glory enough,
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and ample compensation for many years of hard labor and the expenditure of much money in the cause."
Mr. Bradburn was in 1839 elected to the City Council from the Third ward. As chairman of the Committee on Fire and Water he reorganized the Fire Department, which was then in a wretched condition, and, with the assistance of Mr. J. L. Weatherly, who was made Chief Engineer, and the aid of new laws, made it one of the most efficient of any at that time existing in the country. As chairman of the Committee on Streets, at that time an office of much responsibility and labor, he rendered the city valuable service.
In 1841, he was elected a member and made chairman of the Board of School Managers. This body was merged into the Board of Education, and for several years he filled the office of president. For thirteen consecutive years he served as member of the Board of School Managers and of the Board of Education, during much of which time he had almost unaided control of the educational affairs of the city. Mr. Bradburn succeeded in getting through the Legislature a bill authorizing the establishment of a High School. the first institution of the kind, connected with the public schools. in the State of Ohio. A school of this character was started in June. 1846, and maintained in spite of fierce opposition. But there was no building to receive it, and its earlier years were spent in the basement of a church on Prospect street, the room being fitted up by Mr. Bradburn and rented by the city for fifty dollars per annum.
Feeling strongly that he could render better service to the cause of popular education in the City Council than he could in the Board of Education, in 1853 he resigned his seat in the latter body and was elected to the City Council. When Ohio City was united with Cleveland, he was chosen president of the united Councils
Having, on taking his seat in the Council, been appointed to a position on the Committee on Schools, his first and continuous efforts were directed to bringing the Council to provide suitable buildings, not only for the High School, but for all the schools of the city. In consequence of his earnest and persistent labors an ordinance was passed authorizing a loan for school purposes of $30,000. The loan was negotiated at par without expense to the city. Mr. Bradburn. and the Building Committee, of which he was chairman, immediately made plans for the Central High School, and the Mayflower, Eagle and Alabama street Grammar schools, all of which were put under contract without delay, and finished under their supervision to the entire satisfaction of the Council and Board of Education. The
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teachers of the public schools in gratitude for his services in the cause of education, induced Mr. Bradburn to sit to Allen Smith, Jr .. for his picture, which was then hung in the hall of the Central High School. At a subsequent date the High School teachers presented him with a massive gold-headed cane, engraved with a compli- mentary inscription, but this highly prized token was unfortunately lost, together with a number of other cherished mementoes and all the family pictures, in a fire which destroyed his residence in February, 1868. In the fire also perished a valuable library of over four hundred volumes, the result of a lifetime's collection, and Mr. Bradburn barely escaped with his own life from a third story window, being badly injured in the descent.
In public matters he has done but little during the past few years, devoting himself entirely to his business, but he may be seen on all occasions where the cause of popular education can be benefited by his presence. In 1848, he was the Whig candidate for Mayor, but, being ill at the time, gave the canvass no personal attention, and was defeated by a few votes, the opponents of the High School, of whatever party, voting against him.
To Mr. Bradburn the credit belongs of procuring, after a hard battle against parsimony and prejudice, the establishment of the first free High School in the West.
SAMUEL RAYMOND.
Samuel Raymond was born in Bethlem, Connecticut, March 19, 1805. Like most of the sons of New England, his boyhood was passed in plowing among the rocks on one of the stony farms of that rocky and hilly State. At the age of sixteen he commenced teaching the village school, and continued teaching for six years, a portion of that time being spent in New York State, in one of the many pretty towns that are scattered along on either side of the Hudson. Returning to Connecticut at the end of his six years' trial of teaching, he was ` employed to keep the books of the old and wealthy firm of Messrs. A. & C. Day, dry goods commission merchants, at Hartford. The
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late Governor Morgan, of New York, was, at the same time, a sales- man in the house.
In 1:33, Mr. Raymond married Mary North, daughter of James North, of New Britain, Conn.
In the Spring of 1835, he determined to try his fortune in the Far West, away out in Ohio. With Kansas as the present geographical centre of the Union, it is difficult for us to conceive of the New Englanders' idea of the West at that time. It was something of an undertaking. It was a journey of weeks, not a ride of twenty-three hours in a sleeping coach or palace car. It meant long and tedious days of staging - a monotonous ride along the Erie canal from Sche- nectady to some point a little farther west, and finally, when the lake was not frozen over, the perils of lake navigation. In 1835, Cleve- land, Erie and Sandusky were all struggling for supremacy. When Mr. Raymond got as far west as Erie, he thought that might be a good place for him "to drive a stake," but the number of newly made graves suggested to him, on second thought, the propriety of getting out of the place as speedily as possible. Cleveland at that time was beginning to put on city airs- Kellogg's great hotel (the American) was slowly going up. The only vacant store to be had by Mr. R. was a little wooden building on the site of the present Rouse block-a location at that time about as far out of town as it would be safe for a prudent merchant to venture. Henry W. and Marvin Clark were associated with him in business, under the firm name of Raymond & Clark.
Mr. Raymond was a merchant of more than ordinary business ability, a man of scrupulous exactness in his business dealings. His extreme conservatism in business management carried him safely through every commercial crisis.
Like most business men Mr. Raymond had but little time to devote to political discussions. He voted the Whig ticket as long as the old Whig party had an existence. In religious principles he was a Pres- byterian, and united with the First Presbyterian Church in 1840, at that time under the pastoral charge of Rev. Dr. S. C. Aiken.
In the Winter of 1866, in compliance with his physician's advice, he took a journey south for the benefit of his health, which had been impaired by his unremitting devotion to business. . In company with a party of friends from Cincinnati, he and his wife left Louisville for Havana, in January. On the 2d of February a telegram was received by the remaining members of his family in Cleveland, informing them that Mr. Raymond was among the missing on the ill-fated
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steamer Carter, which was burned when within a few miles of Vicksburg.
When the alarm was given, Mr. Raymond and his wife were asleep. Hastily dressing themselves and providing themselves with life-pre- servers, they jumped through the cabin window, Mr. Raymond having a state-room door which he had wrenched from its hinges. Mrs. Raymond clung to a floating bale of hay and was saved after an hour of peril and suffering in the icy water. Nothing was seen of Mr. Raymond after he floated away from the wreck, clinging to the door. His death was mourned by a large circle of friends who appreciated his worth.
By diligence and economy he accumulated a valuable estate, leaving to his family property valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
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RICHARD T. LYON.
The first secretary of the Cleveland Board of Trade, and its presi- dent for the year 1869, Richard T. Lyon, is probably the oldest established merchant now doing business on the river. He arrived here in 1823, when there were but a few hundred people in the village, and for some time resided with his father-in-law, Noble H. Merwin, on the lot now occupied by Bishop's Block, about where N. Heisel's confectionary store now stands. In 1838, he entered as clerk in the forwarding house of Griffith, Standart & Co., at the foot of Superior street, continuing in that position until the Spring of 1841, when he formed a partnership with I. L. Hewitt, and carried on a forwarding and commission business on River street, under the firm name of Hewitt & Lyon. The partnership continued until 1847, when Mr. Hewitt retired, and Mr. Lyon continued the business in his own name at 67 Merwin street, where he has remained until the present time. In the Spring of 1868, his son, R. S. Lyon, was taken into partnership, the firm name being changed to R. T. Lyon & Son. For a number of years Mr. Lyon has been the largest dealer of salt in the city, having had the agency of the salt works in western New York.
Mr. Lyon has held, from his first entry into commercial life to the
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present time, the esteem and confidence of the business men of Cleve- land, and that confidence has been shown by the fact, that for many years he was the treasurer of the Board of Trade, having been elected to that position on the organization of the Board; was subsequently made vice-president, and in the Spring of 1869, was elected president. This compliment was well merited, for he is now one of the very few remaining members of the Board who took part in its organization, and has never flagged in his interest in its affairs.
H. M. CHAPIN.
In the commercial, political, patriotic, and literary history of Cleve- land for the past fifteen or twenty years, the name of H. M. Chapin will always have honorable prominence. In all these departments his persistent energy and unshaken faith, even in the darkest hours, have been potent for good.
Mr. Chapin was born in Walpole, N. H., July 29th, 1823, and received a good common school education. When fifteen years old, he re- moved to Boston, and entered a dry goods importing house, in which he remained nearly ten years. In the Spring of 1848, he left Boston for Cleveland, where he became a partner in the wholesale grocery warehouse of Charles Bradburn & Co., with whom he remained four years. In 1852, he commenced business as a provision dealer and packer of pork and beef. For a time it was up-hill work, but his native perseverance overcame all difficulties, and in the season of 1862-3, his business had grown to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. From that time there was a steady decline in the amount of packing done in Cleveland, the supply of cattle and hogs decreasing until but a very small quantity, in proportion to the facilities for packing, could be depended on. The slaughter-houses of Chicago arrested the great stream of live stock, and what escaped them went forward to the Atlantic cities for immediate consumption. In the Winter of 1867-8, Mr. Chapin, therefore, resolved to remove his pack- ing business to Chicago, and commenced operations there with gratifying success. He intended abandoning Cleveland altogether as
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