USA > Ohio > Lucas County > Toledo > Memoirs of Lucas County and the City of Toledo > Part 12
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of cavalry at Pond Springs, capturing its camp equipage, wagons and commissary stores, and in July it assisted in routing the same brigade at Courtland, being the only infantry engaged at either time. It left Decatur in September to reinforce the garrison at Athens, reaching there just in time to repel Roddey's command. It joined in pursuit of Wheeler, overtaking and skirmishing with his rear guard at Shoal creek, and then returned to Decatur. It participated in the successful defense of Decatur against Hood's army, and remained at that place until Nov. 25, when it moved to Stevenson, where it was engaged in building fortifications until Dec. 19. It was then ordered back to Decatur, where it was on garrison duty until Jan. 11, 1865, when it proceeded to Huntsville for post duty. It was ordered to Nashville in June and was mustered out, June 26, 1865. After the close of the war, Mr. Harvey followed farming until October, 1870, when he entered the service of the United States postoffice department as a railway mail clerk, running between Buffalo and Chicago, on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad. He had charge of the first "White Mail" train, which left New York, Sept. 17, 1875. In 1883, he resigned his position in the railway mail service to assist in organizing and putting in operation the Merchants' Delivery Company, of Cleveland, Ohio. Subsequently, he was with the Big Four railway for a year, in the car accounting department, and he was then with the Erie railroad in the claim department at Cleveland five years. In June, 1892, he accepted his present position with the passenger department of the Ohio Central lines, and since then has been a resident of Toledo. Mr. Harvey is an unswerving Republican in his political belief, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, in 1860. He is a member of the Lincoln Republican Club, of Toledo; belongs to Forsyth Post, Grand Army of the Republic; is a member of Anthony Wayne Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution, and is the treasurer of the Ohio State Society of that organization. In his Grand Army of the Republic relations, he has been commander of Forsyth Post three terms, and is now the chief of staff of the Department Commander of Ohio. As before stated, Mr. Harvey was married in March, 1860, and he selected as his helpmate, Miss Deborah F. Wilder,
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a native of Utica, N. Y. Of this union there was born a daughter, who is the wife of Frank T. Baldwin and the mother of three children-a son and two daughters. Mr. Harvey is never con- tented unless he is busy at something, and his efficiency as a railroad man is attested by the fact that he has held his present position for eighteen years. He is a man of genial and sociable disposition and has many warm friends in Ohio railroad circles. He resides at 650 Oakwood avenue, Toledo.
Elmer. C. Dans
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ELMER E. DAVIS
Elmer E. Davis, a well known attorney of Toledo, with offices in the Gardner Building, was born on a farm near New Straits- ville, Perry county, Ohio, Oct. 31, 1865. He is a son of Robert and Alcinda Thorp Davis, being next to the oldest of six children, all of whom are living. His father is a native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and his mother was born in the State of New York. Both his parents came to Ohio when they were small children, the father coming with his parents, in 1838, when but two years of age, and the mother with her parents, a year or so later, when she was about the same age. The parents were reared, educated and mar- ried in Perry county, Ohio, where the father was for many years actively engaged in farming. The father was a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war, and now resides on a farm near Newark, in Licking county, Ohio. His mother died about twenty years ago. Elmer E. Davis was reared in his native county, his early education being such as was afforded by the public schools in the vicinity of his boyhood home. He graduated in the New Straitsville High School when fifteen years of age. After leaving school, he engaged in various occupations for some years, during which time he saved up money enough to enable him to enter the Law Department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in which institution he graduated, in the year 1891, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. A few days prior to his graduation from law school, he successfully passed the examination for admission to the bar, at Columbus, Ohio. In the fall of 1891 he came to Toledo, occupying "desk room" in Captain Everett's office about two years, when he became established in his present suite of offices in the Gardner Building, he and the late John T. Greer being the first tenants of the suite of rooms which now constitute his offices. His practice at first was largely that of a commercial lawyer, but he has gradually drifted from that into a general prac- tice. In his profession he has achieved considerable success, hav-
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ing a large clientele, and is generally regarded as a capable and trustworthy lawyer. At the present time, he is the president of the Lucas County Bar Association. Fraternally, he is a member of several of the various Masonic bodies of Toledo, including St. Omer Commandery and Zenobia Shrine. He is a Republican in politics, and, though never an office seeker, was at one time a mem- ber of the Toledo council, representing that portion of the city which is now known as the Sixth ward. In 1904, he married Grace L. Richards, of Toledo, Ohio, and now resides at No. 2425 Scott- wood avenue.
b. Kendall
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CORNELIUS KENDALL
Cornelius Kendall, deceased, late vice-president. of the Shaw- Kendall Engineering Company, was for thirty-eight years promi- nently identified with the business interests of the city of Toledo, and in the course of his activities he took a leading part in the de- velopment of several of the most important industrial plants in the city. It is eminently fitting that in this volume he should be numbered among the leaders of progress and industry and that a brief review should be given of his singularly successful career. Cornelius Kendall was born May 21. 1839, in Quincy, Ill., and when nine years of age removed with his parents to Chicago, Ill., in which city he attended school and received his early training. His father and brothers were quite extensively engaged in the bakery business in that city, and the first engagement of Cornelius in a business way was with this concern, known as the Kendall Bakery. During the Civil war, this firm had a contract with the Government for furnishing bread to the army, but the patriotic endeavors of the subject of this memoir were not confined to his connection with this work. Upon the organization of the famous Chicago Board of Trade Battery of light artillery, he enlisted as a private therein and was mustered into the United States service, Aug. 1, 1862. With the battery he arrived in Louisville, Ky., Sept. 10, following, and was introduced to the stern realities of war in an engagement at Lawrenceburg, Ky., a short time afterward. Compared to subsequent experiences, this was a small affair, how- ever, as one well directed shot from the battery caused the enemy to retreat. At the battle of Stone's River the battery took a prominent part, and at Ringgold, Ga., it fired the first gun, which opened the battle of Chickamauga. On the second day of that fight, it moved through Steven's Gap and fought to the close of that sanguinary engagement. On Oct. 3, it encountered the Con- federates in a severe skirmish, and the following day passed through McMinnville and drove the rear guard of the enemy seven miles
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beyond. At McMinnville and Farmington, the battery was par- ticularly distinguished for gallantry, and, in the spring of 1864, it moved from its winter quarters at Huntsville to Nashville, to refit and reorganize, after which it took part in the Atlanta cam- paign. When General Sherman cut loose from Atlanta, the bat- tery returned to Nashville, after which it went into a place called Gravelly Springs. In the spring of 1865, it took part in the suc- cesses of Selma, Montgomery, Columbus, and Macon, and, June 27, it arrived in Chicago, where it was mustered out. After his retire- ment from the military service, Mr. Kendall went into the employ of John Davis & Co., of Chicago, a concern that was engaged in the manufacture of steam heating apparatus. After the great fire that swept that city, in 1871, he formed a partnership with Daniel C. Shaw, in Toledo, Ohio, by buying out the interests of John Davis, in the firm of Davis & Shaw, and the firm became known as Shaw & Kendall. The firm of John Davis & Co., of Chicago, had, prior to 1871, established a branch store in Toledo, under the name of Davis & Shaw. Later, William Hardee purchased an interest in the concern and the name was changed to Shaw, Kendall & Co. Joseph L. Wolcott also became identified with the company, but the name remained the same. The firm eventually engaged in the oil well supply business, and in 1889 established the Buckeye Supply Company, W. C. Hillman taking an interest. The Shaw, Kendall & Co., the Buckeye Supply Company, and the National Supply Company, of Pittsburg, Pa., were merged into one con- cern in 1896, under the name of the National Supply Company, one of Toledo's greatest commercial enterprises at the present time. After that, in order to give employment to the old hands, the Shaw-Kendall Engineering Company was organized, of which Mr. Kendall was vice-president and manager until his death, which occurred Aug. 15, 1909. Mr. Kendall, while connected actively with his concerns in Toledo, traveled extensively through- out the United States, making contracts and looking after the interests of the business. After some years he gave up this labor and spent some time traveling in foreign countries, which was one of the pleasures of his later years. Besides being interested in the commercial development of the city, he was active in the
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promotion and the support of charitable institutions, to which he was a quiet and generous giver, and in his domestic relations his conduct was such as to stamp him of the highest rank of true manhood. In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Ida Knapp, and the sorrowing widow survives to mourn the loss of a true and generous husband. Mrs. Kendall resides at the home, 531 Lincoln avenue, Toledo, Ohio.
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JOSEPH LAKE WOLCOTT
Joseph Lake Wolcott, who died at his home in the city of Toledo, Dec. 1, 1900, was one of the honored citizens of Lucas county, and it is but consonant that in this compilation be incor- porated a tribute to his memory and to his worthy life and services. He was born in Walpole, N. H., Oct. 10, 1845, and was a scion of families founded in America in the Colonial era of our country's history. His parents were James and Caroline (Bellows) Wolcott. James Wolcott was one of the first settlers in Maumee, and in 1839 was appointed an associate judge of the Common Pleas Court, under the old Constitution. The old Wolcott homestead, still standing on the right bank of the Maumee river, between Miami and Maumee, was the first house built by a white man in this end of the Maumee valley. It is a quaint old residence, clapboarded over solid walnut logs and finished throughout with walnut. It is still picturesquely furnished with ancient spinet and numerous relics of early days. Joseph L. Wolcott was a mere baby when he was brought to the western country by his parents, and soon thereafter his home was established in Toledo, where he grew up as a Toledo boy and a Toledo man, and where his business energy and integrity were manifest in the many successful business institu- tions with which he was connected. His education was secured in the Toledo public schools, and at an early age, imbued with the spirit of patriotism, he offered his services to the government in response to the call for troops to put down the Southern insur- rection. He went to battle with the famous Sixty-seventh Ohio infantry. Because of his youth he could not secure admittance into the earlier organized commands, but, filled with martial ardor, he persuaded Mavor Brigham, a well-known citizen of Toledo, to teach him how to drum, and was thus able to enter the service as a drummer boy, enlisting Oct. 22, 1861, in Company B, Sixty- seventh Ohio infantry, being then just past sixteen years of age. The regiment left Columbus for the field Jan. 19, 1862, going into Western Virginia. It was the first to engage the enemy at Win-
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chester on March 23. At Harrison's Landing it campaigned with the Army of the Potomac till the evacuation of the Peninsula, when it went to Suffolk, Va. Being then transferred to the Caro- linas, for seven months it heroically endured all the hardships, privations and dangers of the siege of Charleston, taking part in the attack on Fort Wagner, and on Jan. 1, 1864, it reënlisted and returned home on furlough. After the expiration of his furlough, Mr. Wolcott, with his fellow soldiers, returned to the field, reach- ing Bermuda Hundred May 6, 1864. Then, with his command, he participated in all the battles and campaigns of the Army of the James until the surrender of Lee. During the spring, sum- mer and fall of 1864 the regiment confronted the enemy at all times within range of its guns, and it is said by officers competent to judge that in that time it was under fire 200 times. It was in the siege of Petersburg, witnessed the close at Appomattox, and then did guard and garrison duty at different points until Dec. 7, 1865, when it was finally mustered out. Mr. Wolcott was pro- moted to corporal May 1, 1862, in which rank he remained until he was made sergeant, Jan. 12, 1865. Afterward he was promoted to commissary sergeant, and then to second lieutenant of Com- pany F, in which position he served until he was honorably dis- charged. For four years, one month and eleven days of active campaigning he wore his country's uniform and fought under his flag, during most of which period he carried a musket in the ranks. He was wounded at Charles City Crossroads by a gunshot in the neck. At the close of the war Mr. Wolcott returned to Toledo and, after a brief period of farming, entered the employ of Olm- stead, Jones & Lavelle, in their saddlery hardware business, located on Summit street. In 1870 he became a partner in the firm of Whitaker & French, under the name of Whitaker, French & Wol- cott, and remained there two years, retiring to engage in the brass business of Allen & Heath, on lower Summit street. After a year's work the firm consolidated with Umsted, Rowe & Co., under the name of Wolcott, Rowe & Co., and two years later Mr. Wolcott bought out Umsted, Rowe & Co. and formed a co-part- nership with Shaw, Kendall & Co. This was in 1877, and he was actively engaged with this firm until it went out of business.
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Early in the oil development of Ohio the Buckeye Supply Com- pany was formed, with Mr. Wolcott as its president. In 1896 the National Supply Company of Pittsburg, the Shaw-Kendall Com- pany and the Buckeye Supply Company, in all of which organiza- tions Mr. Wolcott was a stockholder and director, were merged into one company and continued business as the National Supply Company, of which Mr. Wolcott became president, and the success of the company under his management was great, the mammoth factories and immense office being testimonials to his ability. He was actively engaged in oil operations and was the owner of much improved real estate in the city, the residences in all cases being up to a high standard of architectural beauty. He was a director in the Palmer Oil Company and was a director and vice- president of the Ohio Savings Bank & Trust Company, besides being president of the Genoa & Rocky Ridge Lime Company. In 1870 Mr. Wolcott was married to Miss Mary Kassick, of Jackson, Mich., and she alone survives him, no children having been born of their union. Mr. Wolcott was a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of all the local Masonic bodies, of Lake Erie Consistory at Cleveland, the Ohio Commandery, Loyal Legion, and the Toledo Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He was also a member of the Toledo and Country clubs. In closing a memorial, his comrades of Toledo Post paid the following beautiful tribute to his memory: "As a citizen he was as modest, as exemplary, as faithful and as devoted to his trusts as he was while a soldier. At the close of the war he was a poor young man, but by his industry, application and capacity he achieved splendid success, and was at the head of great business enterprises and institu- tions. And when at last he was forced to yield to the attacks of death, the great conqueror, he was yet in the prime of life and intellectual power. His character and disposition were such as always endeared him to his friends and all who knew him. A good soldier, a good citizen, an honorable and exemplary man of affairs, a kind neighbor, a loving and affectionate husband, the memory of Joseph L. Wolcott will long be a sweet and pre- cious remembrance among the people of this community and all who in his life knew of him."
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LAFAYETTE SYLVESTER SULLIVAN
Lafayette Sylvester Sullivan .- A strong and noble character was that of him to whom this memoir is dedicated, and who exerted an emphatic influence in connection with industrial and civic affairs in the course of his significantly useful career as one of the honored citizens of Lucas county. A native-born son of the county, he gained success through his individual application and ability, the while he ever stood exemplar of that integrity of purpose which figures as the plumb of character and makes for objective valuation in connection with the varied affairs of life. Mr. Sullivan was born in Holland, Lucas county, Ohio, May 16, 1858, and was 'a son of Dennis and Hannah Divine (Ruynions) Sullivan, who were, so far as data at hand determine, natives, respectively, of Canada and the state of Pennsylvania, the for- mer born in 1825 and the latter Oct. 2 of the same year. Dennis Sullivan was a ship carpenter by trade, and before coming to Lucas county was located at Prescott, in the province of Ontario, Canada. Upon his removal to Lucas county he located at Hol- land, where he continued to reside until 1863, when he took up his residence in the city of Toledo, where he and his good wife maintained their home until death removed them from the scene of life's activities. His good wife died Jan. 8, 1876, and he passed away Jan. 17, 1880. They became the parents of five children, of whom only two are living, Nathaniel and Henry, who are con- nected with the river traffic in Toledo. Lafayette S. Sullivan, who is the subject of this memoir, gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of Toledo, the one he attended being known as the Bush Street School, located at the corner of Bush and Ontario streets. Later he attended the Jordan Business College, but, being largely dependent upon his own resources, he gave up his studies at an early age and started upon his inde- pendent career. Upon leaving school he first entered the Blade office, as a messenger and errand boy in the mail and editorial
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rooms, and this may be said to have been the beginning of an industrious and eminently successful period of business activity on his part. In 1870, at the tender age of twelve years, he shipped on a scow with his father, who at that time was engaged in the sand trade between Amherstburg, Canada, and Toledo, and he spent about two years in that kind of employment. In the spring of 1872 he entered the employ of John Stevens & Co., in the ship brokerage and vessel agency business, as errand boy, and so faith- ful was he in the performance of the duties assigned him that he eventually became bookkeeper for the concern and remained in the employ of the company for a period of nine years. The office of the company was located on Water street, in Toledo, and the nine years of Mr. Sullivan's employment was during the period when the business of grain shipping was at its height and was being conducted on a large scale. It was while thus employed that he gained a thorough knowledge of the shipping and vessel agency business. He was frugal and economical in his habits, and out of his wages for these nine years of employment he saved enough to enable him to engage in business for himself. In 1881 he established a ship brokerage business on his own account, and soon thereafter purchased an interest in the steam yacht "Sally," which was used as a ferry boat, and this, together with his tug business, was his first independent venture. In the tug business he gradually branched out until he had acquired an interest in the "William E. Rooney," the "Syracuse" and the "Roy," the last named of which was crushed by ice on Lake Erie, off the city of Monroe, Mich., Dec. 16, 1895. Later he acquired an interest in the "Doan," the "Birckhead," the "A. Andrews, Jr.," the "Ameri- can Eagle," and also the powerful tug "S. C. Schenck," a noted ice-breaker and one of the best tug boats that ever floated on Lake Erie and the Maumee river. Mr. Sullivan also owned inter- ests in other steamboats and schooners, such as the "David W. Rust," the "C. C. Barnes," the "John Schuette," the "Chicago Board of Trade" and the "H. H. Badger." He lost the "Pulaski" off Good Harbor, on Lake Michigan, in 1888. In 1882 he suc- ceeded to the management of the Toledo Harbor Tug Line, on the retirement of M. T. Huntley. This tug line was established
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in 1870, and in 1882, when Mr. Sullivan succeeded to the man- agement, it was composed of his own and outside tugs. He con- tinued as manager of the line until 1903, at which time he grad- ually began to dispose of his tugs and tug line interests. In the last named year he became the local manager of the Great Lakes Towing Company, a large corporation of Cleveland, Ohio. In addition to his interests in this connection he became a stock- holder in and promoter of the Vulcan Iron Works, now known as the Vulcan Steam Shovel Company, and he was a member of its board of directors for several years, finally selling his stock in the concern. He then purchased an interest in the Home Tele- phone Company, but later disposed of his holdings therein and again invested in the vessel business, each of these financial trans- actions having been profitable to him. He also became interested to a considerable extent in steel boats, being a stockholder in both the Adams and Monroe transportation companies, each having vessels plying the Great Lakes in the ore and coal trade. In 1906 he became interested in the Toledo Steamship Company, a new company, which built the steamer "Eugene Zimmerman" and was engaged in the ore and coal trade on the Great Lakes. Of this company he became the general manager and remained in that position until the time of his death. For many years he was the only vessel broker in Toledo, and he was well known on the Great Lakes in that capacity. In 1902 he was instrumental in getting the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company to purchase land in and adjacent to Toledo, with the end in view of having a manufacturing plant estab- lished here. The property is still owned by the company, and con- sists of several hundred acres, located on the Maumee river, below the city. As yet it has not been utilized for the purpose intended. Mr. Sullivan was a member of the board of directors of the Lum- ber Carriers' Association of the Great Lakes at the time of his death, and he also was a member of the Lake Carriers' Associa- tion. In 1896 he served as vice-president of the last named organ- ization and filled the same position at various other times. At the time of his death he was second vice-president of the Dime Savings Bank at Toledo. He was a man of broad mental ken, a citizen of utmost loyalty and public spirit, and his fraternal nature
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found expression in a valued membership in the Masonic order. He was a member of Rubicon Lodge, No. 237, Free and Accepted Masons; Ft. Meigs Chapter, No. 29, Royal Arch Masons; Toledo Council, No. 33, Royal and Select Masons; Toledo Commandery, No. 7, Knights Templars, and of Zenobia Temple, Ancient Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He never entered the arena of practical politics, though he took an intelligent interest in all pub- lic affairs, and in religious matters he was for years an earnest supporter of the First Baptist Church of Toledo, but in the later years of his life he also gave his support to other denominations as well. He took a commendable interest in all that tends to conserve the general welfare of the community, and his influence was ever given in support of worthy causes and enterprises. As a boy he was true and faithful to every trust and early exhibited those sterling characteristics that were so conspicuous in his after life-honesty, fine business ability and determination. Of a home- loving disposition, fond of children, his presence in the family circle was as a ray of sunshine to the members of his household. He enjoyed traveling very much, but the incessant demands of his varied business interests denied him much of that pleasure; and his untimely death, which occurred at his home in Toledo, April 19, 1909, brought to a close a life of marked industry and application. Mr. Sullivan was twice married. On Jan. 31, 1883, he was wedded to Miss Alice Pallister, daughter of William and Hannah (Porrett) Pallister, of Detroit. These parents were natives of England, who came direct to their Michigan home from the land of their nativity. The father was a sailor in his early life, but some time after locating at Detroit he purchased a farm near that city and spent the greater portion of his remaining years of activity in agricultural pursuits. He is now living at Big Beaver, Oakland county, Michigan, at the advanced age of eighty-four years, his helpmate and companion having died in August, 1901. Mrs. Alice (Pallister) Sullivan was born April 28, 1863, at Spring- field, Mich., near Detroit, and died in Toledo, Feb. 2, 1901. Of her union with Mr. Sullivan there were born five children, of whom the following mention is appropriately made in this con- nection : LaFayette W., born July 14, 1886, is the successor of
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