USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > History of Cuyahoga County, Ohio > Part 83
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Captain Bradley's parents died in Brownhelm upon the old homestead, where a brother and sister still reside. Ile was married in 1851 to Miss Ellen M., daughter of John Burgess, of Milan, Ohio, and of the children born to them there survive one son and three daughters.
FRANCIS BRANCIL.
Francis Branch, son of Seth and Rachael (Hurd) Branch, was born on the 5th of June, 1812, at Middle Hladdam, Connectient. Ilis father, Seth Branch, was a native of the same place, having been born on the 31st of March, 1429, and having been married in 1805 to Rachael Hard. He removed to Ohio in 1818, and settled on what is now known as Brooklyn Hights, Cleveland. There were but few houses in the neigh- borhood at that time, and Mr. Branch was considered very fortunate in securing shelter for his family in the home of Judge Barber, until a dwelling could be erected. His trade was that of a ship-carpenter, which he, however, did not follow after coming West; being engaged in clearing and enltivating his farm. He died on the HEth of Angust, 1825, at the prema- ture age of forty-six; leaving as a legacy to his family only their home in the forest and a name respected by all. He had five children born in Connecticut, viz: John S., born January 9, 1806; Mary, born October 21, 1807: Susan MI., born May 5, 1810; Francis, the subject of this notice, and Jane, born March 4, 1815. Of these, Mary and Susan M. died in infaney, and two other children born in Ohio re- ceived their names, viz: Mary II., born December 21, 1814. and Susan MI., born September 3, 1822.
Francis Braneb remained at home until the death of his father, after which he was apprenticed to a ship-carpenter; John, his elder brother, taking charge of the farm. He followed this trade until 1837. In that year he was married (on the 21st of October) to Sarah Slaght, daughter of Abraham D. Slaght, and, his brother dying, he soon afterward removed to the
homestead on Brooklyn Ilights. He then engaged in agriculture and dairying: meeting with fair success in both. He was also one of the first milk-sellers in that locality, and, after a time, carried on quite an exten- sive traffic in that line.
In 1850 Mr. Branch sold the farm, which had be- come quite valnable, and in May, 1851, removed to a residence on Scranton avenue, where he lived until his death, which occurred on the 4th of November, 1827.
Mr. Branch was eminently a self-made man. Los- ing his father when only fourteen years old, he was thus thrown upon his own resources, and with a lim- ited education acquired a fortune and won an honor- able place in the community. He was Republican in polities, and held various township offices, besides serving three terms as county commissioner. In pub- lic improvements he always took an active interest, and was a liberal contributor to all local enterprises. Throughout life he maintained a high character for integrity and honor, while his many excellent quali- ties and unassuming manners won the respect of all. Mr. and Mrs. Branch have but one child-Josephine L., born November 10, 1838. She was married to J. S. Hfartzell on the 20th of May, 1865. They also have an adopted son, who was born May 28, 1849, and was married November 8, 1876, to Miss Mary A. Cornwall, of Cleveland.
GAIUS BURK.
The father of Gains Burk was among the first of that little band of hardy pioneers who penetrated into northern Ohio about the beginning of the nineteenth century, and of its wilderness made a fruitful garden. The youth and early manhood of Gains were passed amid the struggles and hardships of the frontier, while his entire life, save ten of its earliest years, was closely identified with the rise and growth of Cuyahoga county, which was yet a thing of the future when the boy of ten set foot in Ohio.
Ile was born of old New England stock, in North- ampton, Massachusetts, June 21, 1791, and thence journeyed at a tender age with his parents to Her- kimer county, New York. Sylvanus Burk, his father, was a farmer, and, turming a wistful eye toward the great West, which was then beginning to invite attention to its boundless aeres, he determined to be a Western pioneer. Setting ont from his New York home with his wife and ten children, bestowed in a two-horse wagon, he steered his conrse for Cleve- land, and traveled withont eventful incident until Erie was reached, when, one of his horses dying, he abandoned the highway, and with all his family save two children-Gaius and a daughter-whom he left in care of Reed. the Erie landlord, he made the rest of the trip ria Lake Erie in an open boat. Without tarrying long in Cleveland they proceeded to Euclid, where, in the spring of 1802, they received the two children who had remained at Erie-the little ones
A). Bradley
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
having made the journey from that place across the country on horseback, in company with a band of Western travelers.
Once more complete, the family were soon again on the move, turning toward what is now Independence township, in which they were the first white settlers, and in which, it may be remarked, they were all prostrated on the same day, soon after their arrival, with fever and ague. This was emphatically a dis- heartening commencement, but they bore it doubt- less with the philosophie resignation common to plo- neer days. A three-years stay in Independence, how- ever, brought a desire for a change of location, and so, in 1805, they moved to what is now the village of Newburg, where Mr. Burk purchased one hundred acres of land for which he agreed to pay two dollars and a half an acre. This payment his two sons, Brazilla B. and Gaius, undertook to make for him by carrying the government mail over the route from Cleveland to Hudson, Deerfield and Ashtabula. Gaius was a lad of fourteen and his brother but a trifle older, and that they had the spirit to undertake and the courage to fultil the arduons task is con- vincing proof that the pioneer boys were composed of the material that made men, and men too of the sort much needed then. Once a week for three years the boys carried the mail afool, and during their entire term of service faithfully performed every detail of their contract, albeit their journeys were not only laborious and tiresome ones through an almost un- broken wilderness, but were beset moreover with suf- ficient dangers to appal much older persons.
After completing his mail contract Gaius busied himself at clearing land, and it was while engaged in that work, in 1815, that by the fall of a tree upon him he lost his leg, and was otherwise so crippled that ever after he was deprived also of the use of his right arm. Discouraged, mayhap, but not disheartened, he set himself thereafter to do the best he could, and, entering the public arena, was chosen constable. His services were appreciated, his popularity waxed strong, and after serving as collector under Treasurer Baldwin for several years, he was in 1828 elected county treas- urer for two years, (being the second to hold that office) and at the expiration of that time was re-elected for another term.
Mr. Burk was a man of decided intelligence and unswerving integrity, and kept in every respect not only abreast but ahead of the time in which he lived. The Whig party claimed his staunch adherence until its dissolution, and after that he was a faithful fol- lower of Republicanism, to whose principles he was attached until his death. Having by active par- ticipation in the events which marked the wonderful progress of his adopted home, carned the luxury of rest, he passed the evening of his life upon the old homestead in Newburg in quiet ease, and died there on the 20th of August, 1865, where his father and mother had passed away before him.
Philo Taylor, a pioneer settler of Rockport as well as of Dover. Of the seven children born of the union, the four survivors are Oscar M. and Augustus M .. chief proprietors of the Lake Shore Foundry in Cleveland, and Laney J. Webster and Helen Burke, both residing in Kansas. The oldest son. Harvey. was elected treasurer of Cuyahoga county in 1860, and died in 1861, while holding that office. A daugh- ter. Mrs. Justina M., wife of Dr. P. HI. Worley, died in Davenport, Iowa, in 1825.
STEVENSON BURKE.
Hon. Stevenson Burke was born in St. Lawrence county. New York, November 26, 1826. In March, 183t, his father removed from New York to Ohio, and settled in North Ridgeville, Lorain county, where he resided fill the time of his decease, in Au- gust, 1825. The subject of this sketch had in early life such facilities as the common schools of the time afforded, which consisted of about ninety days of very indifferent instruction in the winter, and none during the rest of the year. At about the age of sixteen he had the benefit of instruction in a very good select school at Ridgeville Center; afterwards he studied several terms in a private school, conducted by T. M. Oviatt, at Elyria. Later still, he studied a year or so at Delaware University, and at Delaware, in 1846, he began the study of law with Messrs. Powell & Buck. In the spring of 1818 he returned to Elyria and com- pleted his studies, preparatory to admission to the bar, under the instruction of Hon. H. D. Clark, being ad- mitted by the supreme court on the 11th of August, 1848, when he commenced practice at Elyria. In April, 1819, Mr. Clark, who was then one of the most. prominent and successful lawyers at the bar of Lorain county, admitted him into a copartnership, which continued till May, 1852.
We have thus in a few lines sketched the career, until the time when he commenced the practice of the law alone, of one who for more than twenty-tive years has occupied a very prominent position at the bar in northern Ohio. From 1852 to February, 1862, Mr. Burke devoted himself to the practice of his profession with such zeal and devotion to the interests of his chents, as to merit and command success. There were few cases tried in the court of common pleas or district court of Lorain county, or in the supreme court, taken from Lorain county, in which he was not engaged. His industry and attention to business were quite remarkable. He spent no time in idle- ness, and his patrons were always sure to find him in his office in business hours, unless engaged in his duties elsewhere. His close attention to business and sedentary habits seriously affected his health, and in 1861 he found it so very much impaired as to render a change of occupation necessary; and his friends having secured his election as one of the judges of the court of common pleas of the fourth
Hle was married in 1819 to Sophia, daughter of | judicial district of Ohio, he gave up his practice
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THE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
and entered upon the discharge of his duties as judge.
After serving a term of five years to the satisfaction of the bar and the people, he was again elected in 1866 to the same office. He served, however, but two years of his second term, when, having regained his health, he resigned his position as judge, on the 1st of Jan- uary, 1869, and at once commenced the practice of law in Cleveland, in partnership with Hon. F. T. Backns and E. J. Estep, Esq. Mr. Backus died in 1820, but the partnership with Mr. Estep continned until the spring of 1825, since when Judge Burke has practiced alone. His practice in Cleveland has been a very suc- cessful one. He has been constantly engaged in the courts and in his office, and during the last ten years has probably tried as many cases of importance, involy- ing large amounts of money or property, as any lawyer in northern Ohio. He has during that period argned many cases in the supreme court of the State of Ohio, several in the United States supreme court, and also in the supreme courts of adjoining States. The history of the profession in northern Ohio furnishes few ex- amples of a more successful practice.
In addition to his professional business, Judge Bnrke has devoted much attention to other matters; he is now, and has been for several years past, a director, and chairman of the finance and excentive committee, of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railway Company, and is its general counsel. He has held for several years and still holds the position of director, general counsel, and chairman of the finance and excentive committee, of the Cleve- land and Mahoning Valley Railway Company, and he is also the representative in this country of all the stock of the last-named company; it being owned in Enrope. He is likewise the representative of the own- ers of the stock of the Shenango and Allegheny Rail- road Company, and also of the Mercer Mining and Manufacturing Company, and a director in both of the last-named companies. He has been for some time a director of the Cincinnati, Springfield and Indian- apolis and the St. Louis railroad companies. He has also for several years been a director of the Lake Shore Foundry, and a director and the president of the Cleve- land and Snow Fork Coal Company, both large cor- porations.
The foregoing is a brief outline of an extremely ac- tive professional and business life. It is too early yet to compare the subject of this sketch with others, or to go into detail in regard to his professional, judicial and business career; he is still in the prime of hfe. Time has dealt gently with him, and his appearance indicates that he has many years of activity still be- fore him.
LEONARD CASE.
The name of Leonard Case will long be hell in grateful remembrance in the city of Cleveland, to
the early prosperity of which he was an active con- tributor, and for the benefit of which so much of the property he acquired has lately been devoted through the generosity of his son bearing the same name. He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylva- nia, on the 20th of July, 1784. In the year 1800 he accompanied his father to Trumbull county, Ohio, where the latter located on a farm near Warren. Young Leonard was then sixteen years of age, and, as the eldest son, assumed, in the invalid condition of his father, the chief management of affairs on the farm.
A very severe illness left the youth a cripple in 1801, and seeing, therefore, that his days as a farmer were over, he turned his attention to educating himself as a surveyor. By the aid of means gained by sneh mechanical labors as he could perform, he acquired from books a fair knowledge of the business. In 1806 he obtained employment in the land com- missioner's office at Warren, where his efforts won him favorable notice, and created valued friends, Mr. John D. Edwards, recorder of the county, being one of the most steadfast. Under his advice young Case acquired sufficient knowledge of the law to be admit- ted to the bar.
During the war of 1812 Mr. Case was appointed to collect the taxes of non-residents on the Western Reserve, and in 1816 was called to Cleveland to be cashier of the newly organized Commercial Bank of Lake Erie. To his banking business he added the ocenpations of lawyer and land agent. After leaving the bank he devoted himself assiduously to the pursuits just named, and after 1834 gave all his time to the land business, in which he acquired a very large fortune. Mr. Case took a warm interest in the progress of Cleveland, contributed liberally to all public improvements, and is said to have begun the work of planting the trees, the luxuriant foliage of which now so pleasantly shade the thoroughfares of the Forest City. From 1821 to 1825 he was presi- dent of Cleveland village, and was the first anditor of Cuyahoga county. He was a warm advocate of the canals in the State legislature, and was one of the projectors of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati railway.
His fortune increased with his age, but it did not, as in so many cases, harden his heart or close his hand, and every good cause found in him a generous friend. Hle died on the 7th of December, 1864, leav- ing a very large amount of both real and personal estate, which passed to his only surviving son, also named Leonard Case. That the latter has inherited his father's disposition, as well as his name and prop- erty, is shown by many acts, and especially by his crowning gift of the "Case building," valued at three hundred thousand dollars, to the Cleveland Library Association-a gift seldom equaled in the annals of private muniticence.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
SELAHI CHAMBERLAIN.
This gentlemen is of English descent, and was born in Brattleboro, Vermont. on the 4th of May. 1812. His father, also named Selah Chamberlain, was a na- tive of that place and by occupation a farmer. He received a good education in his native town and. at the age of twenty-one. entered a grocery store in Bos- ton. Massachusetts, where he remained two years.
He then removed to western Pennsylvania and en- gaged in the construction of the Erie extension of the Pennsylvania canal. and afterward of the Ohio and Pennsylvania canal. By prudent and sagacious management he soon became enabled to enlarge his operations, and next obtained contracts on the Wa- bash and Erie canal. In 1845 he removed to Canada, and during two years was engaged on the canal im- provements on the St. Lawrence river. At the expi- ration of his connection with that work he returned to Vermont and established the firm of Chamberlain. Strong & Co. This firm had the largest portion of the contract for the building of the Rutland and Bur- lington railroad, connecting Boston with the lakes. and the entire management of its construction. While carrying on this work Mr. Chamberlain also became prominently interested in the construc- tion of the Ogdensburg and Rouse's Point (now Lake Champlain) railroad.
In 1849 he removed to Cleveland, Ohio, and took the entire contract for the construction of the Cleve- land and Pittsburg railroad, which was successfully completed in 1851. Subsequently he was engaged for several years in railroad-building in the West and Northwest, mainly in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. One of the principal lines constructed by him was the Lacrosse and Milwaukee railroad. which he operated under lease or mortgage until the bond- holders reimbursed him in full. He also constructed the Minnesota Central railroad, and afterward became largely interested in it and the president of the com- pany owning it.
His latest work in that line was the building of the Lake Shore and Tuscarawas Valley railroad, of which he was the largest stockholler. as well as sole con- tractor. In addition to these railroad operations he was also connected with other important industrial enterprises. He was a large stockholder and also president of the Cleveland Transportation Company, an organization which he was mainly instrumental in forming.
He was a director of the Cleveland Iron-Mining Company, in which he held a heavy interest. In 1821 he established a general banking-house, under the name of Chamberlain, Gorham & Perkins, which soon became widely known as one of the most sub- stantial banking firms in the State. In 1823 the Res- idence Insurance Company, of which he is one of the founders, elected him as its president. In lan- uary, 1875, he became largely interested in the pur- chase of the Lake Shore and Tuscarawas Valley rail-
road, which was changed to the Cleveland, Tusca- rawas Valley and Wheeling railroad, of which he was made president in February of that year.
Mr. Chamberlain has been remarkably successful in all his business undertakings, and entirely by his own efforts has acquired a capital which enables him to carry great enterprises to a successful termination.
As a citizen he enjoys an enviable reputation, and is known as a liberal but unostentatious contributor to all benevolent purposes or public interests. He was an earnest supporter of the Union during the rebellion, and contributed freely to aid the cause of freedom.
Ile has, for many years been a prominent member of the Second Presbyterian church, and a liberal sup- porter of the charitable and benevolent enterprises connected with it. Ile was married. in 1844, to Miss Arabella Cochran, of Pennsylvania.
HENRY CHISHOLM.
Henry Chisholm, the president and chief manager of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. (the largest establishment of its kind in this or any other country) landed in America in 1842, an almost penniless youth : in fifteen years from that time he was the head of an important manufacturing firm and since then he has achieved the distinction of being one of the greatest manufacturers in the world.
Mr. Chisholm was born in Lochgelly. Fifeshire, Scotland. April 27, 1822, and at the age of ten lost his father by death. Forced by this unhappy circum- stance to take upon his shoulders in his early youth a share of the support of his widowed mother's family, he left school when but twelve years old and appren- tieed himself to a carpenter. with whom he remained until his seventeenth year. lle then began work as a journeyman carpenter in the city of Glasgow, where, shortly afterwards. he married Miss Jane Allan, of Dunfermline.
Impatient at the slow progress he made in his na- tive land he resolved to go to America, and in 184 ?- when only twenty years old-he landed at Montreal. Canada. He soon found employment at his trade, and so well did he prosper that at the end of two years he became a master carpenter. Succeeding from the outset in making profitable contracts, he saw himself ere long the most extensive contractor in Montreal. His reputation as a capable and energetic builder spread year by year, and in 1850 he undertook, with others. the construction of the railway break- waters at Cleveland. After being engaged in this work three years-having become in the meantime a resident of Cleveland-he followed it with other im- portant enterprises of a similar character in that city, until the year 1852. In that year Mr. Chisholm founded, at Newburg, the iron-manufacturing firm of Chisholm, Jones & Co., from which beginning arose the great establishment which is the pride of Cleveland and one of the marvels of modern times.
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TIIE CITY OF CLEVELAND.
Besides being president and controller of the Cleve- Jand Rolling Mill Company, Mr. Chisholm is a director in each of three of the most important banking insti- tutions of Cleveland, and is also closely identified in many other ways with the remarkable growth and enterprise of the city of his adoption. Owing nothing to the assistance of others, depending entirely on his own inflexible will, indomitable perseverance, and rig- orous integrity, Mr. Chisholm is, in every sense, the author of his own fortunes, and the story of his life furnishes a striking instance of the possibilities offered in this favored land, to him who bravely and energetically seeks success.
Alike amid the struggles of his earlier years, and the multifarious eares of his later life, Mr. Chisholm has been an unswerving believer in the truths of re- ligion, and for upwards of thirty-five years he and his estimable wife have been members of the Baptist Church. Endowed with a bountiful share of this world's goods, as the reward of a busy life, cherished as an upright and honored member of the community in which he lives, and surrounded by a worthy family of sons and daughters, Mr. Chisholm still retains, at the age of nearly three seore, the vigorous and vigil- ant business habits which marked his younger man- hood, and bids fair to hold for many years to come a prominent place among the active workers of the Forest City.
WILLIAM CHISHOLM.
The subject of this sketch was born on the 12th of August. 1825, in the village of Lochgelly, Fifeshire, Seotland. ITis father, who was in moderate circum- stances, died when he was about seven years of age. llis educational advantages were limited, but of a practical character, and consisted of such knowledge as he would be most likely to need in making his way in the world. When twelve and a half years of age he was apprenticed to learn the dry-goods busi- ness with a merchant in Kirkaldy, a seaport town on the Frith of Forth. Finding this occupation unsuit- ed to his tastes and having an ardent desire to see something of the world, he, after two years or more spent in Kirkaldy, engaged his services to a ship owner as a sailor. He left his native land in Septem- ber. 1840, and joined the ship "Burley," of Glas- gow, at Antwerp, Holland. He sailed in this vessel for a period of four and a half years, making voy- ages from England, Scotland and Ireland to Sonth America, the East Indies, Australia, the West Indies and the coasts of Nicaragua and Central America. Sub- sequently he was engaged on different vessels, stop- ping at the principal American Atlantic ports between the month of the Mississippi river and the gulf of St. Lawrence.
Becoming weary of this life he, in September, 1847, abandoned the sea, after just seven years of ae- tive service, during which he had filled the various positions on a ship, from that of cabin boy to that of
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