USA > Ohio > History of the Western Reserve, Vol. II > Part 2
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Samuel Mather, of this biography. obtained the early portion of his education in the pub- lic schools of Cleveland, and completed his studies at St. Mark's School, Southborough, Massachusetts. Since leaving school and re- turning to Cleveland, there are few fields either of business or finance into which he has not entered with ability and success. On January 1, 1883, with J. C. Morse and Colonel Jay Pickands, Mr. Mather founded the firm of Pickands, Mather & Company, of which he is now the senior partner. He was also one of the founders and an original director of the Federal Steel Company, and is now a director of the Lackawanna Steel Company, Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company, United States
Steel Corporation and of other companies and banks too numerous to mention. His civic and other outside relations are equally broad. He is president of the Cleveland Civic Federa- tion and a member of the National Civic Fed- eration and the National American Red Cross; is also actively identified with the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, of which he has served as treasurer, and was on the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy (1909). His lineage and family history give him membership in the Sons of the American Revolution, and no citizen of Cleveland has been more generous of time or means in the maintenance and furtherance of charitable and religious movements than Mr. Mather. As an Episcopalian of long and prominent stand- ing, he has served as senior warden and ves- tryman of Trinity parish for many years, and largely assisted in building Trinity cathedral and Lakeside hospital, as well as in maintain- ing the Western Reserve University, Hiram House and Goodrich House (social settle- ments ), the Y. M. C. A. and many other char- ities. Although a citizen of such marked in- fluence in so many ways, he has never sought public office, either directly or through his numerous associates of political power.
In October, 1881, Mr. Mather wedded Miss Flora Amelia Stone, daughter of Amasa Stone, who was descended in the seventh gen- eration from Gregory Stone, an English yeo- man of Kent, who came to America from Ipswich in 1635. Her father was one of the foremost engineers and railroad administra- tors of the country, being at different times superintendent of the Lake Shore, Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, New Haven, Hartford & Springfield, and Cleveland, Lorain & Wheel- ing. all of which he engineered in part or whole. He constructed long-span bridges (of which he was the pioneer in this country), iron mills, woolen mills, car works and other great plants, and, in his administrative and executive capacity, acted, at various times, as director of the Bank of Commerce, Merchants' Bank, Commercial National Bank and others of Cleveland and Ohio, and president of the Mercer Iron and Coal Company. Mr. Stone was the trusted friend and adviser of Presi- dent Lincoln during the Civil war period, his generous philanthropy and broad public spirit making him no less loved than his practical abilities made him widely respected. Among the institutions which he founded may be men- tioned Adelbert College, Children's Aid So-
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ciety and the Home for Aged Women, all of Cleveland. Mrs. Mather received her educa- tion at Miss Guilford's select school in Cleve- land and, like her husband, has been active in the higher movements of the city in which her father was so large and fine a figure. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Mather has resulted in the birth of three sons and a dangh- ter, as follows: Samuel Livingston, born August 22, 1882, who graduated from the Cleveland University School in 1901 and Yale College in 1905, married Miss Grace Flemming Harman, June 28, 1906, and is identified with the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company; Amasa Stone, born August 20, 1884, also a graduate of the Cleveland University School ( 1903) and Yale College (1907), who is connected with the business of Pickands, Mather & Com- pany ; Constance, born September 21, 1889, who was educated at the Hathaway Brown and Briarcliff schools; and Philip Richard Mather, who was born April 19, 1894, and is now a student at the Cleveland University school, where both his brothers have received their preparatory training before entering Yale.
In conclusion, it seems fitting to take up the bright and prominent genealogical threads of the Mather family and trace them more in detail than has already been done. Timothy Mather, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, the first of the name to be born in America, and a direct ancestor of Samuel, of this biography, was the brother of Increase Mather, sixth president of Harvard College, whose degree of Doctor of Divinity was the first granted in this country-and the uncle of Rev. Cotton Mather, even more illustrious than this father as author, patriot and divine. Timothy's first son, Rev. Samuel Mather, was a graduate of Harvard, a minister of Windsor, Connecticut, and one of the founders of Yale College in 1700. He married Hannah, daughter of Hon. Robert Treat, governor of Connecticut. Elias and Sylvester Mather, brothers of the second Samuel Mather, of Lyme, that state, were both active captains in the Revolutionary war. Other noteworthy connections of the family are Commodore O. H. Perry, Jonathan Ed- wards and John Hay (former secretary of state). who married Miss Clara Stone, sister of Mrs. Samuel Mather.
GEORGE W. CROUSE .- It was given George W. Crouse to gain prominence and a large measure of success in the business world, to
make definite impress upon the industrial and commercial activities of his native city and state, and to retain in all the relations of life the confidence and respect of his fellowmen. He was one of the venerable and popular citi- zens of Akron, a member of one of the ster- ling pioneer families of Summit county, a veteran of the Civil war, and one who served in various offices of public trust, including that of member of Congress from the district in which virtually his entire life was passed. Honors and distinction come only when mer- ited, and the record of Mr. Crouse is one which indicates beyond peradventure his legitimate hold upon the regard of the community in which he lived and labored to goodly ends. Many of the leading industrial enterprises of Akron enlisted his capitalistic and executive support, and among the more prominent con- cerns with which he was identified as a stock- holder 'may be mentioned the following: The Buckeye Mower & Reaper Works, the Whit- man & Barnes Manufacturing Company, the B. F. Goodrich Company (Akron Rubber Works), the Thomas Phillips Company, the Akron Iron Company, the Akron Woolen & Felt Company, the Diamond Match Company, and the Selle Gear Works.
Mr. Crouse was born in Tallmadge town- ship, Summit county, Ohio, on the 23d of No- vember, 1832, and is a son of George and Margaret H. (Robinson), Crouse, the former of whom was born in the state of Pennsyl- vania, of German lineage, and the latter of whom was also a native of Pennsylvania, and of Irish ancestry. The Crouse family was founded in America in the colonial era of our national history, and the.paternal grandfather of George Crouse was a valiant soldier in the continental line in the war of the Revolution, in one of whose battles he fell, a martyr to the noble cause of independence. The family name has long been identified with the annals of Ohio, and in Summit county it fell to the portion of George Crouse to reclaim a farm from the virgin forest and to become one of the honored and influential citizens of Green township, where both he and his wife con- tinted to reside until their death, and where they reared their family of ten children. The parents were members of the Presbyterian church and were folk of sterling character, well meriting the esteem in which they were uniformly held in the county in which they were pioneers.
On the old homestead farm George W.
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Crouse, the immediate subject of this sketch. was reared to maturity, and from his boy- hood days he contributed his quota to its work, the while waxing strong in mind and body through the invigorating discipline ever given those who thus live close to nature. He duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools, and when seventeen years of age he began teaching. For five years he de- voted his attention to teaching in the district schools during the winter terms and in the summers found occupation in farm work. He had by this time sufficiently impressed his in- dividuality upon the people of his native county to gain their good-will and confidence, and this was shown when, in 1855, he was tendered the position of deputy county treas- urer. He accepted this office and took up his residence in Akron, where he remained incum- bent of the position noted and also served as deputy county auditor until 1858, when he was elected county auditor. In this office he made so excellent a record as to insure his re- election in 1860, but before the expiration of his second term he was called upon to fill out an unexpired term in the office of county treasurer, owing to the death of the regularly elected incumbent. These preferments, ac- corded him while he was still a young man, indicate the popular appreciation of his execu- tive ability and of his signal integrity of pur- pose, which dominated his entire career.
Mr. Crouse was thus an official of his native county at the inception of the Civil war, and in his official capacity and as a private citizen he did all in his power in support of the cause of the Union. He was active in securing vol- unteers and in making proper provision for them, by securing favorable action on the part of the board of county commissioners. Finally, in May, 1864, he himself enlisted, in the one hundred days' service. He became a private in Company F. One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which command he was in service, principally on the Potomac, until August, 1864, when he received his hon- orable discharge. He was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and also further manifested his interest in his old comrades in arms by retaining affiliation in the Ohio Com- mandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He was made a third-degree member of this commandery at the time of its organization and at his death had the distinction of being the only mem- ber of the commandery holding this degree, so
that he naturally found much satisfaction in wearing the tri-color insignia to which he was thus entitled. The Soldiers' Memorial Chapel in Akron, one of the most beautiful structures of the kind in the state, was secured largely through his efforts and personal munificence.
In 1863 Mr. Crouse was chosen secretary of the Akron Board of Trade, which has ever maintained high civic ideals, and he later be- came specially active in this and other connec- tions in encouraging and promoting .the loca- tion of manufacturing industries in Akron, now known as one of the leading manufactur- ing cities of the same comparative population in the entire Union. In 1863 also Mr. Crouse became the financial manager for the local in- terests of C. Aultman & Company, of Canton, Ohio, who were erecting a branch factory in Akron, and later he became financial man- ager of the initial plant of what is now one of the greatest manufacturing concerns in Ohio-the Buckeye Mower & Reaper Works. When a stock company was organized and in- corporated for the carrying forward of this industry, in 1865, Mr. Crouse became the first secretary and treasurer, and later was made president of the corporation, in which posi- tion he did much to further the upbuilding of the great enterprise. Few, indeed, of the larger and more substantial industrial con- cerns of Akron have failed to profit from the counsel and material co-operation of Mr. Crouse, and his reputation as a business man of great capacity and marked initiative power has been reinforced by years of productive energy and close application. In 1870 he was one of those concerned in the organization and incorporation of the Bank of Akron, and he was a director and executive officer of the institution until 1890, when he became presi- dent of the City National Bank, of which posi- tion he continued in tenure until 1893. For a time he was proprietor of the Akron Beacon, and in divers other channels of useful activity has his beneficent influence been exerted.
In politics Mr. Crouse had ever given an unwavering allegiance to the Republican party, and in the promotion of its interests his efforts were admirably directed, the while he has been in turn honored by the party, through which he had been chosen to various offices of public trust aside from those already men- tioned. In 1872 lie was elected county com- missioner, and in this office he served three years. In 1885 he was the candidate of his party for the office of state senator and was
O. J. Hodge
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elected by a flattering majority. In the fol- lowing year he was elected a member of con- gress, as representative of the Eighteenth con- gressional district of Ohio, and during his term he made his influence tangibly felt in the promotion of wise legislation. He was an able representative of a state that has sent to the halls of Congress many a distinguished citizen, and he was fully appreciative of the honor thus conferred upon him by his native commonwealth. In all that pertains to the welfare and progress of his home city Mr. Crouse had ever shown a lively and helpful interest. He served as a member of the city council and as president of the board of edu- cation. He was a member of the board of trustees of Buchtel College, one of the valued institutions of Akron, and one of his gifts to this college is the Crouse gymnasium, which stands as a perpetual monument to his gener- osity and public spirit. Mr. Crouse was a member of the Episcopal church and belonged to the Masonic fraternity.
On the 18th of October, 1859, was solem- nized the marriage of Mr. Crouse to Miss Martha K. Parsons, who was born in Portage county, Ohio, and is a daughter of the late Edward and Clementine ( Kingsley) Parsons. Mr. and Mrs. Crouse have one son and four daughters : Martha P., Julia M., Mary R., Nellie J. and George W., Jr. The only son is a prominent manufacturer and representa- tive business man of Akron, where he is ably upholding the prestige of the honored name which he bears. Mr. Crouse, Sr., died Feb- ruary 20, 1905.
ORLANDO JOHN HODGE .- A soldier of the Mexican war, first clerk of the Cleveland po- lice court ; president of the Connecticut sen- ate; president of the Cleveland city council ; speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives : editor and owner of an influential paper for a decade ; president of the Early Settlers' As- sociation ; president of the New England So- ciety ; president of the Sons of the American Revolution ; vice-president of the Western Re- serve Historical Society ; a qualified member of the bar; a large owner and dealer in real estate, and president of various business cor- porations-these are simply rough milestones in the broad, varied and useful career of Hon. Orlando J. Hodge, of Cleveland, a venerable citizen, now in his eighty-second year. He is one of the few men living who has been an active Republican from the founding of the
party, and who has voted for Lincoln and every Republican presidential candidate since. For many years he has also been a leader both in humane activities and legislation. The big humane society of Cleveland he founded nearly forty years ago, and now (1910) is its presi- dent. He has done much in the making of history himself, and is widely known in the literary field, both as an investigator and a contributor.
Mr. Hodge comes of pioneer Connecticut stock, the reputed founder of the family in America being John Hodge, born March 4, 1643-4, and who was married, August 12, 1666, to Susanna Denslow, born September 3. 1646. His direct line then descends through Samuel, born October 4. 1686; Benjamin, born April 10, 1731 ; Benjamin II, born Feb- ruary 1, 1753; and Alfred, the father of Or- lando J., born March 9, 1795. It is probable that John Hodge, the American progenitor, was born in Massachusetts. It is known that he was a farmer, and that he married, spent most of his life in Connecticut, and there died. So that it is historically logical to call the American branch of the family as of Con- necticut origin. Alfred Hodge married Miss Sophia English, daughter of Abel and Anna (Caulkins) English, and one of her grand- fathers in the fourth generation back was Jo- siah Dewey, Admiral Dewey's grandfather in the sixth generation. The father, Alfred Hodge, who was a farmer, served in the war of 1812, and died July 11, 1832. His wife was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, April 12, 1795, and died January 13, 1846, in Cleveland. Orlando J. Hodge is a native of Hamburg, a town adjoining Buffalo, New York, and was born in a log house, November 25, 1828. His father died of cholera when the boy was less than four years old, and his mother died a few years later. Orlando became a perma- nent resident of Cleveland in 1842, where he was first employed in a printing office at a dollar a week and his board, his chief duty being to keep the forms properly inked with a big hand roller while the press work was in progress. In 1847 he was a volunteer in the Mexican war. On the way to the scene " of operations, by way of New York, the At- lantic and the Gulf, the vessel on which he sailed was shipwrecked and lost, but he was rescued by a passing ship, taken to Cuba and then to Mexico. For sixteen months the youth carried an old flint musket, and then returned to Cleveland, with a good record. As a forci- ble reminder of the Mexican war and a com-
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plete bar to further military duty on his part, ever since the war he has carried two wounds in his leg. His next serious business was to complete his education, for which purpose he attended the Geauga (Ohio) Seminary in 1849-51, during a portion of this period hav- ing as classmates James A. Garfield and his future wife, Miss Lucretia Rudolph. Two years afterward he was elected first clerk . of the Cleveland police court, by the largest vote for any candidate for any office cast at that election. This was the commencement of a somewhat remarkable political and public career, extending into two states.
In 1860 Colonel Hodge went to Litchfield county, Connecticut, on business connected with the settlement of an estate, and what he planned as a temporary stay was lengthened into a residence of seven years, crowded with important events of his life. In 1862 he was elected to the lower house of the Connecticut legislature, and to the senate in 1864 and 1865, serving as president of the upper house in the latter year, although he was the young- est member of the body. And the significance of the selection was doubly emphasized by the unanimous vote which placed him in the pre- siding chair. The period of his residence in Connecticut covered that of the Civil war. He was twice honored by Governor Bucking- ham by being sent to the front on special mis- sions, thereby acting as a formally appointed representative of the state. Six years he was postmaster of the village of Robertsville, four years deputy United States collector of inter- nal revenue and one year a member of the board of managers of Yale College. Certainly seven eventful and most creditable years. In 1867 Mr. Hodge returned to Cleveland, and a few years later was again called to serve the public. Three times he was elected to the city council ( 1871-77), being made presi- dent in 1876, and a fourth term in 1885-86, being again honored with the presidency. His career as a state legislator in Ohio began in 1873. with his election to the Ohio House of Representatives. Mr. Hodge served in the legislature four terms, being speaker pro tem. in 1875 and 1876, and speaker in 1882 and 1883. The constancy and the ability which he manifested in the support of Republicanism earned him the nomination for Congress, as a representative from the Twenty-first district, in 1892, but the Democratic landslide of that year, which elected Grover Cleveland, buried him. with other party candidates. Since that year, although his standing with the party and
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the public is as high as ever, he has not been active in politics, leaving the field to younger leaders.
Mr. Hodge's journalistic career extended from 1878 to 1889, during which period he was editor and chief owner of the Sun and Voice. In 1890 he published the "Hodge Genealogy," and, in 1892, "Reminiscences." He has been identified with the Chamber of Commerce during its entire existence, being one of the members of the original Board of Trade, organized July 7, 1848. In 1893 he became president of the Economy Building and Loan Company, and has been at its head ever since; is also president of the Lion Oil Company, and, as stated, has long been a large dealer in and owner of real estate. In the course of his long and active business ca- reer there is no one circumstance in which Mr. Hodge takes more pride than that he has never been sued for a debt or the non-fulfil- ment of an agreement. A large portion of Mr. Hodge's time, earnestness and executive abil- ity have been devoted in more recent years to the guidance of institutions of a literary, social and charitable nature. He is one of the vet- eran Odd Fellows of the United States, having joined the order in 1858, and for a number of years was a member of the Union and Colonial Clubs. Albeit he has never engaged in active practice, Colonel Hodge was admitted to the bar by the supreme court of Ohio in 1874, and his military title was authorized in 1889, by appointment and service on the staff of Governor J. B. Foraker.
On October 15. 1855, Mr. Hodge married Miss Lydia R. Doan, who died September 13, 1879, and their only child, Clark R. Hodge, who was born July 16, 1857. died November 29, 1880. He wedded his second wife, Vir- ginia Shedd Clark, on April 25, 1882. Mrs. Hodge is a daughter of Edmond Earl and Aurelia Edna (Thompson) Shedd, her father being the oldest and leading wholesale grocer of Columbus, Ohio. She is a graduate of the high school of that city. and has been prominent for some years in the Daughters of the American Revolution, having served as a state regent of the national organization and as its vice-president. Mr. and Mrs. Hodge reside in a beautiful home at 4120 Euclid ave- mnie, although they are persistent and enthu- siastic travelers. Together they have jour- neyed over a distance which would encircle the globe more than three times, having vis- ited every state and territory in the Union and extended their delightful pilgrimages through
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old Mexico, the West Indies, Hawaiian Is- lands, Africa and all parts of Europe. Upon one of their trips they reached the Arctic Cape at the most favorable opportunity for witnessing the solemn glories of the northern heavens, and for five days the midnight sun was never beyond their range of vision. The experience is something to recount in every waking hour of a lifetime, as well as to live over in one's dreams.
JAIRUS R. KENNAN .- In two important pro- fessions has Judge Jairus R. Kennan achieved to' success and prestige-those of pedagogy and the law-and his career has been marked by signal enthusiasm, close application and generous accomplishments in his chosen fields of endeavor. He is now incumbent of the office of judge of the probate court of Medina county and is one of the best known and most honored citizens of Medina, in which city he was for more than a score of years superin- tendent of the public schools.
Judge Kennan is a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of the Western Reserve, within whose. borders his life thus far has been passed. He was born in the city of Norwalk, Huron county, Ohio, on the 17th of July, 1850, and is a son of Jairus and Char- lotte (Gardiner) Kennan, the former of whom was born in Moira, Franklin county, New York, in 1813, and the latter of whom was a native of Connecticut, where she was born in 1814. The father, who was a son of Rev. Thomas Kennan, a clergyman of the Pres- byterian church, was reared and educated in the old Empire state of the Union, where he continued to reside until about the year 1832. when he came to Ohio, where he passed the residue of his life. He devoted his attention to the practice of law, and for many years prior to his death was a resident of Norwalk, where he died in the year 1872. His wife, who was a daughter of William Gardiner, a sea captain, long resident of New London, Connecticut, survived him by nearly a score of years, as her death occurred in the city of Springfield, Ohio, in 1888. She was a sister of John Gardiner, long one of the leading bankers and influential citizens of that place. Jairus and Charlotte (Gardiner) Kennan be- came the parents of nine children, of whom five are living. The parents were zealous members of the Presbyterian church, and in politics the father supported the cause of the
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