USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 89
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William Patterson never was married. He died soon after the close of the war of diseases contracted in the service and was buried with military honors in Wood- land cemetery in Dayton, Ohio.
On a farm just outside of the city limits of Dayton, on the 20th of December, 1842, occurred the birth of STEPHEN JOHNSTON PATTERSON, now actively engaged in the development of rich coal resources. As a mine owner and dealer, he is closely associated with the coal trade and to this position of business prominence he has attained through his own efforts. His youthful days were not characterized by events of unusual importance. In fact his boyhood was spent in the manner of most farm lads, the district schools affording him his early educational privi- leges, while he received ample training in farm work. Later he had the oppor- tunity of attending Miami University at Oxford, but while pursuing his studies there, he put aside his text-books that he might respond to his country's call for troops, enlisting in April, 1862, as a private of Company A, Eighty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served for four months in the mountains of West Virginia. He was then mustered out at White Sulphur Springs, Ohio. On his return home, he resumed the work of the farm, in which he was busily engaged until twenty-six years of age, when, feeling that broader business opportunities might be obtained in the city, he came to Dayton, in 1868, accompanied by his widowed mother, and entered the coal business as a retail dealer. Applying him- self closely to the work of building up a substantial trade he was, at the end of fifteen years, able to engage in mining coal as an operator, while previously, in 1876, he had become a factor in the wholesale trade. From time to time, he has made investments in mining property and is now the owner of rich coal fields in Jackson, Ohio, and West Virginia. In fact he is one of the leading operators and dealers in this part of the state, being president of the Weyanoke Coal & Coke Company of Mercer county, West Virginia, president of the Gulf Coal Com-
F. J. PATTERSON
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pany of Raleigh county, West Virginia, and president of the Tom Corwin Coal Company of Jackson county, Ohio, besides other interests of minor importance.
On the 12th of June, 1879, Mr. Patterson was married in Madison county, Ohio, to Miss Lucy A. Dun, a daughter of R. G. Dun. Their children are : Robert Dun, born January 21, 1881, married to Henrietta Lowe; Julia Johnston, born June 21, 1883, married to Turner Morehead; and Anne Love, born July 21, 1886. Mr. Patterson stands now in the prime of life a strong man, strong in his honor and his good name, in his ability to plan and to perform. Gradually throughout his business career he has extended his interests until they have reached ex- tensive proportions.
FRANCIS J. PATTERSON, born June 15, 1849, on the Rubicon farm south of Dayton. He was married June 4, 1890, to Julia Shaw and their children are: Jefferson, born May 14, 1891 ; Mary Perrine, born March 22, 1894; and Frank Stuart, born September 3, 1896. As a boy, Frank Patterson attended the public schools of Dayton and for a time was a pupil at St. Mary's Institute. His edu- cation was completed at Dartmouth College and upon his return to the home of his boyhood, be became a business man, for which career he was splendidly quali- fied. Together with his brother John H. he engaged in the coal business and in the management of mines in southeastern Ohio. During these years, his atten- tion being directed to an arrangement for recording sales, the idea came to both brothers that such a machine could be of immense value in the business world. The venture was a rash one in the opinion of many friends, but the far-seeing commercial faith of the Pattersons triumphed and now the product of their acu- men is seen in every country in the world. While John H. pushed the manu- facture and sale of the Cash Register to such large results, it was Frank J. whose clear mind, attention to detail, and judicial character made the indispensable fac- tors in the success of the concern. Incorporated in 1884 as the National Cash Register Company, the business and it development constitutes the most import- ant chapter in the industrial history of Dayton. Frank Patterson was a large stock holder and vice-president of the company for a number of years, the asso- ciation terminating only on his death, July 4, 1901.
JULIA WINGATE PATTERSON, born March 15, 1857, married Joseph Halsey Crane, April 24, 1883. Her children are: Joseph Graham Crane, born April 29, 1884; Jefferson Patterson Crane, born May II, 1885. Joseph Halsey Crane was the son of Joseph Graham Crane, who was the son of Joseph Halsey Crane, who was the son of Colonel William Crane of the Continental army under General Washington. Joseph Graham Crane was a colonel in the United States army and served throughout the Rebellion in the Army of the Potomac. Joseph Halsey Crane's mother was Sarah S. Schenck, a daughter of Rear Admiral James F. Schenck, of the United States navy, and a niece of General Robert C. Schenck, who was minister to England during President Grant's first administration.
JOHN H. PATTERSON. While through more than a century the various mem- bers of the Patterson family have borne active, helpful and important part in the upbuilding of Dayton, in the utilization of the natural resources of the country and in the improvement of the city along many lines, by the consensus of the pub- lic opinion, John H. Patterson stands foremost in the work that has been most beneficial to Dayton. In his life splendid business ability and executive force are
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well balanced factors. Born in 1844, he passed through consecutive grades of the Dayton district and high schools and was then afforded the advantages of a col- lege course at Dartmouth, from which he was graduated with the class of 1867.
On the 18th of December, 1888, in Brookline, Massachusetts, by the Rev. Howard N. Brown, Mr. Patterson was united in marriage to Katharine Dudley Beck, who was born at Eastham, Massachussets, a daughter of Frederick and Lucy (Doane) Beck. By her marriage, she became the mother of two children : Frederick Beck, born in Dayton, June 22, 1892 ; and Dorothy Forster, born Octo- ber 27, 1893. The wife and mother passed away June II, 1894, and was laid to rest in Woodland cemtery.
The business career of John H. Patterson is a most notable one. In his youthful days, he worked his father's saw and gristmill and following the com- pletion of his education in Dartmouth College, he acted as collector of tolls on the Miami canal from 1867 until 1870. Subsequently he engaged in the retail coal business in Dayton and afterward became interested in coal mining in Jackson county, Ohio. He was manager for the Southern Ohio Coal Company for several years and in connection with his mining interests, he conducted a general store for supplying the miners. He found after three years business, though he had sold large quantities of goods, the profits had been very small. He felt that there was reason for this-that all the returns of the sales did not come to him. Hearing of cash registers he ordered two by telegraph. It is a strange coincidence that these were the first ever sold to retail stores. They were very crude affairs and did nothing more than punch holes in a roll of paper and indicate the amount of a purchase to the customer. Almost immediately after their installation in the store, however, the daily receipts of Mr. Patterson increased and he became con- vinced that what was good for his store would be a good thing for every other retail establishment in existence. It was thus that he became interested in a business which he purchased in 1884, and which under his guidance has become one of the most extensive manufacturing enterprises of the world.
The first cash register was invented in 1879 by Jacob Ritty, a retail merchant of Dayton. While on his way to Europe, Mr. Ritty noticed in the engine room of the vessel a recorder on a propellor shaft. He was worried about trusting his business to his clerks while away and wondered why a small contrivance could not be made to record sales in his stores. He, therefore, shortened his stay abroad, returned to Dayton and built the first cash register, resembling somewhat an old parlor clock. It was not practical, however, and was never marketed. Later an indicator was substituted for the dial and thus was inaugurated an idea which through development has produced the cash register of today. Mr. Ritty after placing his machine in his own store began the manufacture of cash registers but, owing to his lack of capital, sold his invention to the National Manufacturing Com- pany. In 1882 John H. Patterson became connected with the company, was chosen a director and after purchasing the controlling interests he and his brother, Frank J. Patterson, organized the National Cash Register Company, of which he has since been the president and manager. Business was begun with a paid up capital of fifteen thousand dollars. The register has been improved by tedious and labo- rious yet natural transitions until it has developed into a perfect piece of mechanism.
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In 1886 the capital stock was increased to a hundred thousand dollars. In 1888 a large brick building was erected and since that time the capacity of the plant has been continually increased. The cash register mechanism is one of Dayton's con- tributions to the inventions, utilities and industries of the world. The Patterson brothers, on becoming proprietors of the enterprise, bent their energies to the ex- tension of the markets and organized the personnel of the company's employes with unflagging zeal and ability which can be only known and recorded by its results. Today the present capital stock is ten million dollars and they have thirty-four acres of floor space used solely to manufacture National cash registers. The main factory is at Dayton, but there are branch factories in London, Berlin and Toronto, Canada, while the executive offices are at the corner of Twenty-eighth and Broadway, New York city. In these various factories and office about five thousand people are regu- larly employed and in addition there are over a thousand men in the various sales offices in all parts of the world. The company has twenty-eight thousand, five hun- dred patent claims and fifteen hundred and seventy patents. They have sold over seven hundred and fifty thousand National cash registers and have a daily output of three hundred and fifty or one for each minute and a half. About one-third of the output goes to foreign countries. The cheapest cash register manufactured is sold for fifteen dollars and the most modern and highly improved on the market today brings seven hundred and ninety dollars.
Mr. Patterson has written largely on important questions and municipal and legislative reform, and no one man is more competent to speak with authority upon such subjects for he has proven the practicability of his theories and has demonstrated the worth of his work. It is said that there is no factory in the world which shows as high an average of intelligence on the part of its employes, where there is such a degree of harmony, with the absence of all friction, jealousy and strife that leads to labor troubles. After an exhibit at the Paris Exposition of 1900 of his company's industrial enterprise and especially of his efforts for the ben- efit of his employes, John H. Patterson received the decoration of Legion of Honor from the French government.
Mr. Patterson always gives full credit to the able corps of assistants and em- ployes that he has drawn around him for the success of the mammoth enterprise of which he is today the head. It is said of him that he never forgets a friend, and the playmates of his youth, the associates of his early manhood, those with whom he labored in his early days of mining and mercantile experience and those with whom he has been associated with the control of a gigantic enterprise have been alike remembered through all the years with their added responsibilities and honors. Characteristic of Mr. Patterson was his entertainment of his old schoolmates at his beautiful home at Far Hills. On the 17th of November, 1906, he held a reunion there of the old pupils of the brick schoolhouse that used to stand at the junction of Main and Brown streets, where the Patterson log cabin is now to be seen. It was an occasion never to be forgotten by any who participated therein. With an absence of all formality, the friends and associates of long ago, now men and women in va- rious walks of life, gathered on this occasion and the afternoon was spent in de- lightful reminiscences and in other ways of entertainment provided by the host. One of the most cherished features of the occasion was a souvenir volume pre- sented by Mr. Patterson to his schoolmates. It contains a group picture of those
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who were present at the reunion, together with views of the school and reproduc- tions of photographs of many of the pupils who attended there during his boy- hood days.
One of the most remarkable of Mr. Patterson's characteristics is the ability to grasp new ideas and put them into practice. No plan, however large and appar- ently visionary, ever daunted him. He has been continually on the search for the best suggestions and the best expert opinion. Gathering them up from books. or from men and things he welded them together in his own mind and suddenly the finished product sprang into actual existence. In every venture he "went one bet- ter" than the man who had at first attempted it. While slower minds were consid- ering and asking questions he was already putting the new scheme into practice. This initiative and compelling power were great incentives to younger men whose ambitions he roused by his example of energy and will. Like his grandfather Col- onel Robert Patterson, he is a born worker and a born fighter.
CHARLES L. G. BREENE.
Charles L. G. Breene, enterprising and progressive, is conducting a large and growing merchant tailoring business in Dayton, his native city. The year of his birth was 1858, his parents being William Gale and Margaret (Journee) Breene. The father was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1815 and in his youthful days came to America, remaining for a time in New York city, after which he removed westward to Dayton, which was then a small and comparatively inconsequential town, having a population of only a few thousand, while many districts of the state were largely uninhabited. He bought out a merchant tailor shop for eight dollars at the southwest corner of Second and Main streets and, bending his energies toward the development of a trade, he secured a constantly growing pat- ronage, which increased with the growth of the city and which he handled in profitable manner up to the time of his death in 1895. He had been married in New York city to Miss Margaret Journee and unto them were born nine children, seven of whom are living. The wife and mother departed this life in 1896, and the father about one year later. Mr. Breene was a member of the Masonic fra- ternity in hearty sympathy with the underlying principles of the craft. He en- joyed the friendship and regard of all with whom business and social relations brought him in contact for his life displayed those sterling qualities of manhood which in every land and clime awaken honor and good will.
Charles L. G. Breene, who was the seventh in order of birth in his father's family, spent his youthful days under the parental roof and at the usual age entered the public school. He likewise attended the Miami Commercial College and was thus trained for the onerous duties of the business world. He put aside his text-books at a comparatively early age that he might learn the tailor's trade under the direction of his father, William G. Breene, and on his father's retire- ment in 1874 he and his brother William H. Breene established a merchant tailoring business under the firm name of Breene Brothers, thus continuing from 1875 until 1884. The brother then passed away and since his death Charles L. G
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Breene has been alone in business. For more than seven decades the name of Breene has figured prominently in connection with this line of business in the city and in fact has ever been a synonym for high class workmanship and for high commercial integrity.
In 1890 in Dayton was celebrated the marriage of Charles L. G. Breene and Mis Stella B. Wise and unto them has been born one son, Gale Breene. Neg- lecting no duties of citizenship Mr. Breene votes with the democracy and yet does not seek the honors and emoluments of office. He is identified with several fra- ternal organizations, being an Elk, an Eagle and an Owl. He likewise belongs to the Vingt Et Un Club, the Country Club. the Dayton City Club and the Bicycle Club. These are among the leading social organizations of the city, indicating Mr. Breene's standing among those who are prominent in the life of Dayton. His business ability is pronounced, his energy leading him constantly forward, while his capable direction and management of his affairs are manifest in the success which attends his establishment.
JONATHAN HARSHMAN, JR.
Jonathan Harshman, Jr., was born in Harshmanville, Montgomery county, Ohio, February 15, 1812, and died in Dayton, Ohio, December 25, 1876. His grandfather, Christian Harshman, (sometimes spelled Herschman) was born in Germany, April 22, 1744, and died October 26, 1816, in Frederick county, Maryland.
His father, Jonathan Harshman, Sr., was born in Frederick county, Mary- land, December 21, 1781, and died in Harshmanville, March 31, 1850. He was a miller, farmer, shipper, merchant and banker, a very successful man and left a comfortable fortune to each of his eight children.
The subject of this sketch was married October 4, 1836, to Abigail, daughter of John Hivling, a prominent citizen of Xenia. Their children were Martha, who married Thomas O. Lowe; George, who married Julia Deuel; Susan, who mar- ried Oswald Cammann, of New York. Two others, Charles and Mary, died be- fore their parents.
Jonathan Harshman, Jr., went to Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, when thir- teen or fourteen years old and after leaving there followed his father in milling, farming and banking and added largely to his inherited wealth, but lost it all on Black Friday, 1873.
In 1852 he formed a co-partnership with Valentine Winters, James R. Young and Robert R. Dickey for the purpose of carrying on a general banking business in the city of Dayton under the firm name of Harshman, Winters & Company. Robert R. Dickey and James R. Young soon retired from the firm and the name was then changed to Harsman & Winters and afterward called the Exchange Bank. In 1857 he sold his interest in the firm to his partner and in 1860 the bank- ing house of Harshman & Company was formed, which in 1863 was merged into the Second National Bank, of which he was president. Shortly after he and his brother Joseph Harshman formed the banking house of Harshman & Company
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and also owned mills at Osborn, Ohio, and did a large business in shipping grain and flour.
During the first years of the late Civil war he always honored certificates of deposit regardless of the strict letter of legal obligation. For instance if there had been placed upon the certificate a memorandum merely which indicated gold or silver or both as was often the case although the body of the draft contained . no sign of coin and the premium on gold at that time was fifty to one hundred per cent, he honored the draft. He was interested with Valentine Winters and E. H. Drake in building and equipping the first railroad in Minnesota in 1862.
He was elected county commissioner in 1864. He was a great Bell and Everett man. He was much interested in the First Presbyterian church and was a great friend of some of the well known pastors of that church, particularly the Rev. P. D. Gurley, who after leaving Dayton went to Washington and was pastor of the church which Abraham Lincoln attended and was with Lincoln when he died. He was a man of irreproachable morals, great kindliness of disposition, of broad views and generous impulses, a kind and loyal friend and was highly esteemed by his fellow citizens.
HENRY HOLLENCAMP.
There is no royal road to wealth, and, as an eminent New York financier has expressed it, "If you would win success you must be willing to pay the price-the price of earnest, concentrated effort and unwearied industry and perseverance." Realizing this fact at the outset of his business career, Henry Hollencamp has built his success along the lines indicated and is today widely known as a leading mer- chant tailor and clothier of Dayton, Ohio. Cincinnati claims him among her native sons, for his birth occurred there October 31, 1850.
The father of our subject was born at Ankum, Hanover, Germany, June 17, 1818. He emigrated to America in 1840 and landed at New Orleans. Later he re- moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was married to Mary T. Wellmeier on Octo- ber 23, 1849. In 1851 he removed to Dayton, where he followed his trade of mold- er. In December, 1874, he was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died at the age of sixty-one, while he survived until December, 1889, reaching an age of nearly seventy-two. They were the parents of one son, Henry Hollen- camp, and two daughters, Mary T., the deceased wife of William Poepplemeyer, and Philomena, the wife of Henry Weber, of Dayton.
Henry Hollencamp has been a resident of Dayton throughout his entire life with the exception of his first year. In his youth he attended the Catholic schools, but ill health debarred him from otherwise continuing his education. At the age of thirteen he became an employe in the foundry of McGregor & Callahan, his duty being to make cores, in 1865 his name appearing in the Dayton city direc- tory as a laborer, but thinking to find other pursuits more congenial, in the fall of the above year he secured a position as an errand boy in the merchant tailoring establishment of Colonel Henry Miller. There he learned and performed all the
HENRY HOLLENCAMP
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different tasks connected with a mastery of the business, became an expert tailor and cutter, also in managing the executive force necessary in the control of the labor of others. In 1873, when but twenty-two years, he embarked in business on his own account as the successor of the firm of Toban & Breene, who in turn had purchased the business of William Breene-one of the oldest established merchant tailoring houses in the city, forming the partnership of Edelman & Hollencamp, but the widespread financial panic of 1873 had also its effect on them and after two years of business the partnership was dissolved, Mr. Hollencamp assuming the entire indebtedness of the firm. His position at this time well indicated the quali- ties which have characterized his entire life-an indomitable spirit and an uncon- querable business integrity. He set himself to the task of meeting all of the finan- cial obligations of the house and within a few years the entire indebtedness of the firm was cleared away and Mr. Hollencamp found himself upon the high road of prosperity. From the beginning he has made his establishment a standard for excellence in the line of men's wearing apparel, and today he is widely recog- nized as one of the leading merchant tailors and clothiers in the state. The growth of his business is indicated by various removals which he has made, necessitated by the demand for more commodious quarters. In 1888 he left his old location at No. 7 South Jefferson street to continue his business in a fine four-story brown stone and brick building, fifty-five by fifty feet, which he had erected upon ground that he had purchased at the corner of Jefferson and Market streets. This is known as the Hollencamp block. After a few years this, too, became inadequate and he purchased another building in 1894 which is used for store and office pur- poses. In 1903 the business was incorporated as The H. Hollencamp Sons Com- pany, Henry Hollencamp, president and treasurer ; Frank A. Hollencamp, vice- president ; Charles H. Hollencamp, secretary ; Sargent D. Williamson and Henry Hollencamp, Jr., serving as directors. They employ in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty workmen and sales people, the trade having reached very ex- tensive proportions. In 1906 they again added an additional room fifty by forty feet to their place of business. Henry Hollencamp is a typical business man and has had a successful business career extending over thirty-six years that speaks for itself. He is also a director of The Dayton Savings & Trust Company and the president of The Dayton Land Title Company, which was the founder of Crown Point. He is also the president of The Xenia Ice & Cold Storage Company, of Xenia, Ohio.
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