USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > History of the city of Cleveland : its settlement, rise and progress > Part 26
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Thomas, bought Mr. Dickerman's interest, thus forming what has since been so favorably known as the firm of Lamson, Sessions & Company. In 1869 this business was moved to Cleveland and at once took a front rank among the industries of this busy city.
In 1872 he formed with a few others a limited partner- ship for five years for the manufacture of nuts and wash- ers, under the name of the Cleveland Nut Company. The plant was erected and the business successfully conducted until the expiration of the partnership in 1877, when it was sold out to other parties in interest. In 1879, he, with others, erected the large plant now owned by the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Company in this city for the manufacture of hardware, and operated the same till 1881, when the business was consolidated with that of the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Company, of Southington, Connecticut. He was also one of the original stockholders who, in 1880, organ- ized the Union Rolling Mill Company for the manufacture of iron. Its operations have been successfully carried on to the present time. Mr. Lamson was instrumental in 1874 in the formation of the South Side Street Railroad Company, and the extension of the general system of sur- face-railway travel in the city.
It soon became evident that more ample accommoda- tions would be needed by the Lamson-Sessions Company, and, therefore, the foundations of a commodious factory were laid in 1881, and in the autumn of '82, the new build- ing, equipped probably as completely as any similar estab- lishment in the world, was finished and occupied. But, sad to relate, Mr. Lamson was not permitted to enter the
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works after their completion, and share with his partners in the joy which well-earned and brilliant success brings.
For some time Mr. Lamson had been in declining health, and after it became evident that his disease had reached a critical point, he went, in the summer of '82, with his devoted wife, to Lenox, Massachusetts. But even the air of his native hills and the ministrations of kind friends failed to afford permanent relief. He grad- ually failed, and on the seventeenth of August, after two days of unconsciousness, peacefully expired. His body rests in Riverside Cemetery-one of Cleveland's beautiful Cities of the Dead, and of which he and Mr. Samuel W. Sessions were among the founders.
Mr. Lamson was a man who avoided publicity even when publicity sought him. Broad in his views, sincere in his religious convictions, noble and generous in his im- pulses, he was a safe counselor, a tried Christian, a public benefactor, a faithful friend, and a blessing to his adopted city.
For twelve years he was a constant attendant at the Heights Congregational church, where, with willing heart and hand, he aided both pastor and people in every branch of Christian work. Those who ever had the good fortune to cross the threshold of his beautiful home will never forget the genuine hospitality extended to friends, nor the genial individuality that characterized his utter- ances.
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SAMUEL WILLIAMSON.
W HEN Cuyahoga county was organized in 1810, the subject of this sketch was two years old, and there- fore he was among the few very earliest residents of Cleve- land. He was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, on the sixteenth of March, 1808. He was the eldest son of Samuel Williamson, a native of Cumberland county, who removed to Crawford county about the year 1800, where he was married to Isabella McQueen, by whom he had a family of seven children. He came to Cleveland in 1810, where, with a brother, he carried on the tanning business until his death in 1834. He was a man of enterprise and public spirit, highly esteemed, and was an associate judge of the court of common pleas.
Samuel Williamson graduated at Jefferson college in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1829, and soon thereafter entered the office of Judge Andrews, with whom he read law, and was admitted to that bar in 1832. He was associated with Leonard Case as a partner until 1834, when he was elected county auditor. This office he held for eight years, when he returned to legal practice. He was associated with A. G. Riddle, under the firm name of Williamson & Riddle, for many years and until that gen-
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tleman was elected to Congress, about 1860. He retired from general practice in 1872, to accept a position of president of the Society for Savings in the city of Cleve- land, the largest institution of the kind west of New York, and continued to fill this position until his death. He was called to many positions of trust. Fidelity and public confidence went hand in hand with him throughout his long and honored life. He was a member of the House of Representatives in 1850, and was president of the board of equalization in 1859-60. He was elected to the State Senate in 1862, and served two terms. He was a member of the city council and, in 1850, the board of education, and ever took the active interest of a good citizen in pro -. moting public improvements and educational institutions. He held the office of prosecuting attorney for the county for two years, was a director in the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad company, president of the First Presbyterian society, and vice-president of the Mercantile Insurance company. He lived to become the oldest resi- dent of the city and died in 1884, lamented by his life-long friends and revered by the public he had served so honestly and so well.
ANSEL ROBERTS.
M R. ANSEL ROBERTS, elected county auditor in the fall of 1866, was a public officer of much prominence. During a period of ten years-from 1860 to 1870-he was
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continually a faithful and devoted public servant. In 1861 he was elected a member of the board of education from the second ward, serving two years in that body. Before the expiration of his term, he was, in 1862, chosen a coun- cilman in the same ward, and continued to represent it through six successive reelections. He was the choice of the people for two terms as auditor of Cuyahoga county .. He retired from that office in 1870, and thereafter declined all political preferment. For a time he was assistant United States assessor in the eighteenth Ohio district. President Johnson appointed him collector of internal revenue for this city in 1867, and the Senate confirmed him as such, but he promptly sent on his declension.
Mr. Roberts was first and always a Republican. He took a remarkable interest in municipal affairs, giving them his best efforts. He was a very valuable official, and being a popular man of character and dignity, his advice was much sought and his opinion carried much weight.
Mr Roberts was born October 17, 1807, in Mendon, Ontario county, New York. His parents removed to Ash- tabula, Ohio, in 1818, and subsequently to Lower San- dusky, or Fremont. Heentered a commercial establishment in Ashtabula when quite young, remaining in the same until 1831, when he went to Rochester, New York, and carried on a mercantile business. In 1846 he removed to Cleveland, and engaged in the wood trade. Later he became interested in the Cleveland Paper company, of which he was many years president, and at differ- ent times was a director in the Society of Savings and the Ohio National bank. Mr. Roberts was a Christian
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gentleman and a churchman of high standing. He was an Episcopalian for nearly half a century. For twenty- seven years and up to the time of his death, which occurred March 19, 1883, he was senior warden in Trinity church. In 1836, Mr. Roberts was married to Sarah J. Hatch, who died in 1863. In 1867 he married Mrs. Amanda Bartlit Cowan. Mrs. Roberts, his widow, an estimable lady, is. still living.
JAMES M. COFFINBERRY.
T HE subject of this sketch was born in Mansfield, Ohio, May 16, 1818.
His father, Andrew Coffinberry, was a man of rare en- dowments and decisive character, and was widely known as a distinguished lawyer from 1813 to 1856. He trav- ersed the circuit, always on horseback, in the earlier days from Mansfield to the Lake Erie, and west to the Indiana. line. He was esteemed for his pure and upright life, and his genial manners and quaint humor gave him ready access to the hearts of all classes.
In 1840 he wrote the "Forest Rangers," a metrical tale in seven cantos, descriptive of the march of General Wayne's army, and its victory over the Indians in 1794. James M. Coffinberry studied law with his father, then residing in Perrysburg, and was admitted to the bar in 1841, and the same year opened an office in partnership with his father at Maumee City. His abilities were at
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once recognized and he was elected prosecuting attorney for Lucas county, which office he held for several years to the public satisfaction. In 1845 he removed to Hancock county, and for some ten years practiced his profession with eminent success, and was at the same time editor and proprietor of the Findlay Herald, a Whig journal.
In 1855 Mr. Coffinberry removed to Cleveland and speedily acquired a good practice, devoting himself ex- clusively thereto, and taking high rank at the bar, and in 1861 was elected judge of the court of common pleas. He served a full term of five years, establishing a high judicial reputation. He was always clear, forcible and logical, and during his term delivered some very able opin- ions both verbal and written.
Prior to his judicial term he had been a member of the city council, and was president of that body in 1858. He has been connected with many important public enter- prises, and was one of the originators of the great Viaduct and its foremost advocate as a free bridge.
Always a modest and retiring gentleman he has never been a political aspirant, yet he has many times been utilized by his party friends on their judicial and congres- sional tickets.
Judge Coffinberry was married in 1841 to Anna M. Gleason of Lucas county. They have a son and daughter. The son, Henry D., was an officer during the war in the Mississippi gun-boat flotilla, and is now the president of the "Cleveland Ship-building Company." The daughter, Mary E., is married to Mr. S. E. Brooks, a prominent young business man of the city.
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DAVID A. DANGLER.
D AVID A. DANGLER, one of the most prominent among those of Cleveland's citizens who have been eminently successful both in private and in public life, is a native of Lebanon county, Pennsylvania. At an early age he removed with his parents to Stark county, Ohio, where upon his father's farm, he gained that arduous training of personal industry which has served him so well in later life. At the age of fifteen young Dangler began business as a clerk in the general store of Isaac Harter, at Canton, Ohio. Here, through steady applica- tion and mastery of details, he outlined for himself the thorough business method which has marked his subse- quent career.
In 1845 Mr. Dangler removed to Massillon, at that time one of the most thriving towns in Northern Ohio. Here he remained during several years.
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In 1852 Mr. Dangler, in partnership with John Tennis of Massillon, established a wholesale hardware house at Cleveland, a venture which was successfully continued under the same management till 1868, when the association was dissolved by the withdrawal of Mr. Dangler.
At the present time Mr. Dangler is the official head of numerous extensive and important enterprises. He is the founder of "The Dangler Vapor Stove Company," and the recognized pioneer of this new and valuable invention, which has become one of the great industries of Cleveland. Mr. Dangler is also the founder and president of the Stand- ard Carbon company, another important industry of
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our city. In the manufacture of carbons Cleveland has taken the lead and is now shipping her product to all parts of the world.
Mr. Dangler's distinguished official career can be traced but briefly in this place. In 1864 he represented the Fourth ward in the city council. He was made chairman of the committee on schools, at that time a position of much im- portance, as the board of education did not then exercise the extensive functions that have since been accorded it. In 1865 he was elected by the Republican party a represen- tative in the State Legislature.
Up to 1866 the police organization of Cleveland had been merely an extension of the village system of marshal super- vision-a system wholly inadequate to the needs of a large and growing city. Mr. Dangler saw the importance of ousting this system and of introducing in its stead the effi- cient metropolitan system of police control, the work- ings of which he had carefully studied in various cities, east and west. It was with this as a primal aim that Mr. Dan- gler took his position in the State Legislature. A bill pro- viding for a competent police department was drafted by Mr. Dangler, and through his efforts soon afterward went into operation. In 1867 he was elected as senator from the Cuyahoga district. During his service at Columbus he was at various times the chairman of important commit- tees, in which capacity he gained an enviable reputation as a skillful and efficient debater.
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RENSSELAR R. HERRICK.
T HE subject of this sketch was born at Utica, New York, January 29, 1826. Mr. Herrick has the just pride of an honored ancestry, the American branch of the family tracing its origin to that sturdy Puritan, Ephraim Herrick, who came to this country from Leicester, England, in 1629. The father of Rensselar, Sylvester P. Herrick, was prominent during many years among the mercantile cir- cles of western New York. At his death, which occurred at Utica, in 1828, the boy Rensselar, then but two years of age, was left dependent upon the care of a widowed mother. The years of his childhood were very brief. At ten years of age (in 1836) he came to Cleveland, his future home, and began life in the office of the Ohio City Argus.
The career of a printer was not, however, to this young man's taste, and it was soon abandoned to enter, in a modest way, upon what was to prove the business of his' active life. In 1843, at the age of seventeen, young Her- rick engaged with a prominent builder. Three years later, a master builder, he was prepared to enter upon an in- dependent business.
During the next quarter of a century Mr. Herrick de- voted himself unremittingly to the labors of his profession. His reputation for trustworthy work andcareful estimates met with its due reward; enabling him in 1870 to retire from active business and to enter upon the no less arduous duties of a conscientious leisure. In the years that have intervened, Mr. Herrick has held various positions of ad- ministrative responsibility.
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Following is a brief outline of Mr. Herrick's public career: In 1855, shortly after the union of Ohio City and Cleveland, he became a member of the city council. For some years he was prominently associated with Mr. Charles Bradburn in the effort to extend and perfect the organization of the public schools, and to secure for them more ample accommodations. It were needless to give in greater detail all the measures with which Mr. Herrick's name was identified during the years of his service in the city council.
In 1873 Mr. Herrick was made a member of the board of city improvements, in which body he continued to serve till 1877. The work of this board, at all times important, was especially so at the period under consider- ation. New territory (East Cleveland village) had re- cently been added to the city, and was to be assimilated to the general organization; many miles of sewerage were demanded, and plans for its construction required skilled and painstaking attention; and most important, the ar- rangements and estimates preliminary to the great Viaduct, were pressing for decision. Mr. Herrick's position on the board was that of "citizen member"-a position without pecuniary compensation of any sort. Mr. Herrick may well regard his services on the board of improvements as among the most important of his official life.
In 1879 Mr. Herrick was nominated by the Republican municipal convention as candidate for the mayoralty. He was elected by a handsome majority-a fit recognition of faithful service in years past. In his inaugural address Mr. Herrick declared for "an efficient administration," to
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be secured by unity of purpose; by avoidance of political issues, and by an unvarying reference of all municipal esti- mates to actual sources of income.
That this avowed policy was carried out in action is attested by the fact that Mayor Herrick was re-nominated in 1881 and triumphantly reëlected. In his address this year the mayor expressed in a single sentence the policy of his en- tire career as executive officer. In referring to the policy of raising funds by a large issue of bonds on the city's credit, he said: "It is not a course which they themselves (men of business) would pursue or recommend to a friend; yet they insist that it is a proper thing for the city to do." Business principles, he proceeded, which are applicable to an individual are equally applicable to a municipal corpora- tion. This was not an advocacy of penuriousness. It was an advocacy of true economy. The peculiar thing about it is, that the theory was applied in practice.
GEORGE W. GARDNER.
M R. GEORGE W. GARDNER was born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, February 7, 1834. In that year the family removed to Cleveland, where Mr. Gardner has since resided. As a boy he attended the city schools, and was for a time a pupil of Andrew Freeze at the old Pros- pect Street school. He began business as a newsboy, sell- ing papers along the wharves to the passengers of incom- ing steamers. In these associations he was not long in
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acquiring a passion for life on the water-a passion which his discreet father thought best to gratify. Arrangements were accordingly made with the owners of the propeller Ogontz to take young Gardner as second clerk. Although at that time but fourteen years of age, such was the ability of the young officer that he was soon promoted to the position of chief clerk. In this capacity he remained on the lakes till the fall of 1852, when he accepted a clerk- ship with Wick, Otis & Brownell, bankers of Cleveland. Since 1857 the name of Mr. Gardner has been familiar to the business community of the west, in connection with the extensive enterprises which he has conducted, among which are the extensive elevator of Gardner & Clark and the large milling business of Clark, Gardner & Company.
Before his election to the responsible position of mayor of Cleveland Mr. Gardner served several terms in the city council, and during this time was chairman of various important committees. His election to the mayoralty was in May, 1885, the eve of an important crisis in the industrial history of Cleveland. In the summer of that year occurred the great strike at Newburg. The Cleveland Rolling Mill Company had given notice of an intended re- duction in wages of ten per cent. The strikers, among whom the Polanders predominated, assembled frequently at the "Peach Orchard" and other places, where griev- ances and the means for redressing them were discussed by the leaders. Mr. Gardner was desired by the men to arbitrate the difficulty. This he endeavored to do, but his efforts proved unavailing in consequence of the refusal of the Rolling Mill Company to treat with the strikers. In the hos-
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tilities which ensued, particularly after the attack on the of- fice of the Union Steel Screw Company, Mr. Gardner ex- erted himself with energy and success to quell disturbance. On the last mentioned occasion he told the strikers in de- cided terms that at the next exhibition of mob violence on the streets the artillery would be brought out and opened upon them. Another of Mr. Gardner's executive acts which was strongly indorsed by the people and the press all over the country, was his refusal at various times to allow anarchists to hold meetings within the city limits, thus breaking up that diabolical element, which, for a time, threatened to concentrate in Cleveland.
During Mr. Gardner's term as mayor the great high level bridge was voted, the fire-boat was built, and other reforms were made.
JOHN H. FARLEY.
J OHN H. FARLEY was born at Cleveland, February 5, 1846. He was educated in the public and private schools of the city and received a special training for busi- ness life at a local mercantile college.
His official career in this city has comprised several terms of able service in the city council, and one term as mayor, to which position he was elected in 1883. During his incumbency of this office the executive functions were performed with rare energy, and the entire administration displayed the most thorough integrity of purpose. It
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should especially be noted that the police organization of the city was at this time made amenable to a responsible head, in contrast with the previous system of divided con- trol. Under this administration, also, the Broadway ex- tension high bridge was constructed, a work which has proved itself a factor of great importance in subsequent industrial development.
In July, 1885, Mr. Farley was appointed collector of in- ternal revenue for the eighteenth Ohio district, a position which he now occupies. In the discharge of the important duties of his present office, as also in those which he has formerly occupied, Mr. Farley has gained the esteem of all classes, and-what is of greater significance-the entire confidence of the business community.
WILLIAM G. ROSE.
W ILLIAM G. ROSE was born September 23, 1829 in Mercer county, Pennsylvania. He was one of eleven children of James and Martha Rose. His family was of that celebrated Scotch-Irish stock which has num- bered some of the ablest of American statesmen and pa- triots.
Mr. Rose passed his boyhood in the ordinary routine of labor on the farm and attendance at the district school. At the age of seventeen his attainments were such as to qual- ify him for the duties of a district school teacher, which
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occupation, varied with an occasional term at a high school or an academy, he pursued during several years.
At the age of twenty-three Mr. Rose was entered a stu- dent at the law office of Honorable William Stewart, of Mer- cer. Here he remained till 1855, in which year he was ad- mitted to the bar and began practice in his native county. The career of Mr. Rose during the next few years is similar in its main outlines to that of many of our ablest public men. Those were days of passionate discussion of the question of slavery extension. Should the territories be free-soil or slave-soil ? Very few young men-least of all young attorneys-of abounding life and energy could long remain neutral with such an issue before them. At this period, accordingly, we find Mr. Rose an associate editor on the staff of the Independent Democrat, the leading newspaper of Mercer county.
From 1857 to 1859 Mr. Rose was a member of the Penn- sylvania Legislature, representing in that body the ad- vanced policy of the recently organized Republican party. In 1860 he was chosen a delegate to the National Repub- lican convention which nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Presidency, but was prevented by serious illness from at- tending.
In 1865 Mr. Rose removed to Cleveland, where he has since resided. His career in this city, in official and in pri- vate life, is too familiar among all classes to make necessary a statement in detail. We will mention a few only of the more important events and lines of policy with which his. name has been connected.
In 1877 Mr. Rose received the Republican nomination
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for the mayoralty, and was elected by a large majority over the opposing candidate. His administration fell in perhaps the most critical period of Cleveland's history. Following close upon the financial panic of 1873, the first year of Mr. Rose's administration saw the culmination of the great railway strikes in the memorable riots at Pitts- burgh. The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern railway, along which line the force of revolt was most apparent, had its official headquarters in this city; and the great freight yards of the company, the chief point of threatened danger, were but a few miles distant. The course adopted in this emergency reflects great credit upon the good sense and discretion of the official management. At the first sug- gestion of danger, Mayor Rose took measures for a thor- ough but secret organization of the police and militia- the result being that a force was soon provided competent for any contingency that might arise.
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