USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, Pt.1 > Part 53
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G. D. Knight spent the first eight years of his life on a farm, and the next half decade was passed in the village of Port Jervis, where he received a liberal education. In 1880 the fam- ily located in Cleveland, Ohio, where young Knight obtained employment as fireman for the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, remained there three years, then became a brakeman on the Eastern Division of the Erie Railroad, dur- ing the following year seenred the position of
fireman on the West Shore Road, a few months later returned to Cleveland, and soon afterward went to Jacksonville, Florida, for the purpose of working on the Florida and Key West Rail- road. After arriving there, Mr. Knight be- came dissatisfied with the outlook, and returned to Atlanta, Georgia. IIe found employment with the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad, running between Atlanta, Chatta- nooga and Macon, but six months afterward was foreed from the South by the prevailing malarial diseases. Soon after his return to Cleveland, Mr. Knight began work on the Val- ley road.
Ile was married in Port Jervis, New York, February 4, 1887, to Minnie, a danghter of J. W. Roloson, formerly a conductor on the East- ern Division of the Erie Railroad, but now re- tired from active labor. Mr. and Mrs. Knight have one child, May R., born December 30, 1887. Mr. Knight is a member of the P. II. C., of the Grievance Committee of the B. of L. E., and for three years was Councillor of the O. U. A. M.
D R. ELROY M. AVERY, State Senator for the Twenty-fifth Ohio District, an able educator, a popular author, and an ideal American citizen, is a descendant of that old Norman family of Averys who found their way into England with William the Conqueror in the year 1066.
Christopher Avery, born in England about 1590, came to Massachusetts in the transport Arbella, with Governor Winthrop, and landed at Salem in June, 1630. IIe was a selcetman of Gloucester, Massachusetts, for eight years. Later, he lived in Boston, and in New London, Connecticut, and was made a freeman of that colony in 1669, dying ten years later. His de- seendants are found in every State of the Union.
Contemporary with Christopher Avery were John Avory, who died in Boston in 1654; Thomas Avery of Salem, a blacksmith, who
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came over in the vessel Jolm and Mary in 1633; and Dr. William Avery, of Dedham, who came to Ameriea in 1654 and died in Boston in 1687 (the houses of Dr. William Avery and of Chris- topher Avery were united, probably for the first. time in America, by the marriage of Catherine llitelicock Tilden and Dr. Elroy M. Avery, the subject of this memoir); Dr. William Avery, Dr. Jonathan Avery, Dorothy (Avery) Angier, Dorothy (Angier) Hitchcock, Gad Hitchcock, M. D., Catherine (Hliteheock) Tilden, Junius Tilden, Catherine HI. Tilden, Elroy M. Avery, Caspar II. Avery, Amos W. Avery, Abraham Avery, William Avery, John Avery, James Avery and Christopher Avery.
Christopher's only child was James, founder of the Groton Averys. When ten years old, he eame with his father to Massachusetts. Joanna Greenslade of Boston beeame his wife. Ile moved to Gloucester, and six years later, 1650, moved to New London, where his friend, the younger Winthrop, had made a settlement five years before. James Avery was a large land- owner in and near New London, and in 1656 built the " llive of the Averys" at Poquonnock Plain, and lived there till his death. The build- ing is still in good repair and owned and oc- enpied, as it always has been, by an Avery. James Avery became a famous Indian fighter, a very active business man, and an influential citizen. Ile seems to have been invariably designated to treat with the neighboring In- dians, and to settle the controversies between them and the whites. He was townsman twenty years, was twelve times elected to the Comecti- cut General Court, was a Peace Commissioner, Assistant Judge of the County Court, and a prominent member of the church. After the death of his first wife he married Mrs. Abigail Holmes, in 1698. He died April 18, 1700.
John Avery, James's third sou, married Abi- gail, daughter of Samuel Cheesbrough, in 1675. The records show him to have had strong mili- tary inclinations. In 1700 he became one of the original proprietors of New Lebanon, Con- neetient.
William Avery, John's third son, married Anna Richardson in 1715. Ilis second wife was Sarah Walker.
Lieutenant Abraham Avery, the ninth son of William Avery, served as a soldier in the Revo- Intionary war. Later, ho became a privateer and was captured by the enemy. After suffering on a prison ship, he was landed at Elizabeth- town, New Jersey, and begged his way back to Connectient. He married Mercy Packer of Groton, six children being born of the union. Ile moved.to New York about 1794, and about 1800 settled at Preston, Chenango county. He died at Earlville, Madison county, New York, in 1843.
Amos Walker Avery, Abraham's third son, was born at Colerain, Massachusetts, in 1789. In 1808 he married Nancy Mccutcheon, settled in Monroe county, New York, and later moved to La Salle, Michigan, where he died in 1863.
Casper Hugh Avery, the oldest child of Amos W., was born at Preston, New York, July 25, 1809. Ile settled at Erie, Monroe county, Michigan, in 1833 and married. Dorothy Put- nam, September 26, 1843. She died March 17, 1868, and he followed March 5, 1873.
Elroy MeKendree Avery, the oldest child of Caspar IL., was born at Erie, Monroe county, Michigan, July 14, 1844, soon after which his father moved from his farm to the county seat. Dr. Avery's business education began when he became carrier for the two newspapers published in Mouroe, at a weekly compensation of thirty cents from cach. To this pittance he soon added small sums earned as bill-poster and distributor. Ile was by nature a student, and soon became able to teach, his first school being in French- town township, Monroe county, when he was only sixteen years of age. lle "boarded around " and enjoyed all the luxuries and com- forts implied by that term.
The " Smith Guards " was the first company raised in Monroe county for service in the Civil war, and one of the teachers aud many of the larger boys of the union school joined it, young Avery among the number. This company be-
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camo Company A, Fourth Michigan Infantry. On account of his youth he was denied muster- in, and the regiment went to Washington with- out him. But ho could not content himself at home; accompanying a lator regiment to Waslı -* ington, ho joined his classmates, July 14, 1861, just as they were preparing to advance toward Bull Run. Taking the gun and uniform of a siek comrade he crept in under the canvas, so to speak, and became a Federal soldier. The first week of his seventeenth year closed witlı the battle of Bull Run. This experience brushed away some of the novelty of soldiering, and when the First Michigan returned to their State after a three months' service the school- boy soldier accompanied them, at the earnest solicitation of his mother. Ile subsequently enlisted in the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Michigan Regiments, but each time his loving mother prevented his being mustered in. In 1863 the young military enthusiast was mus- tered in as a private in Company E, Eleventh Michigan Cavalry. Ile remained with his regiment through all its campaigning under Burbridge, Stoneman and other leaders, and was promoted from the ranks to Sergeant- Major on the field of the hand-to-hand contest at Saltville, Virginia. He was a war corre- spondent for the Detroit Daily Tribune, the beginning of a journalistie career which was continued for many years after the war with both pleasure and profit. At the end of the war (August, 1865), he was mustered out of service at Pulaski, Tennessee.
Promptly turning his attention again to the attainment of a better education, he attended the Mouroe (Michigan) high school in order to prepare for the University of Michigan, where he matriculated in September, 1867. Ilis sophomore and junior years found him with- scant means for finishing his studies, and to replenish his depleted purse he accepted the principalship of the Battle Creek (Michigan) high school, at an annual salary of $1,000. After a satisfactory service of four months he resigned this position, accepted another on the
editorial staff of the Detroit Tribune, caught up with his elass at Ann Arbor, carried his college and journalistic work, and was grad- nated in June, 1871.
Before graduation Mr. Avery was offered and accepted the superintendency of the Char- lotte (Michigan) public schools, but at his own request he was released from his engagement to accept a like position in the East Cleveland (Ohio) schools, offered him in July, 1871. In August, 1871, he resigned his editorial work and began anew his pedagogical career. In the following year the village of East Cleveland was annexed to the city of Cleveland, but for a time the school supervision was not much affected thereby. When the growth of the East high school demanded all of his time as principal he was released from his responsibility as super- visor. In 1878 the East high school and the Central high school were consolidated, and Mr. Avery was transferred to the principalship of tho Cleveland Normal School, then the apex of the public-school system of the city. The next year he retired from pedagogical duties and assumed a work more lucrative but not more congenial.
As an educator Dr. Avery has no superior in this or any other State. ITis knowledge is broad and general; his mind and habits are disciplined; systematic method is visible in everything he does. He has the rare and happy faculty of being able to impart instruction in a clear and pleasing maner, creating among his pupils much enthusiasm and a desire for orig- inal investigation. In consequenco he was popular and successful in the schoolroom. If he has anything to say through the press or from the platform the public is at once im- pressed with the fact that he has mastered both his subjeet and its proper presentation.
For two seasons after leaving the schoolroom Dr. Avery was in the lecture field with an ilhistrated experimental Iceture for non-seien- tific people on electric light. He carried nearly two tons of apparatus with him and succeeded in making a scientific lecture pay. In May,
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1881, he began the organization of Brush elee- trie-light and power companies in the larger cities of the country.
While he was a teacher some of his spare hours had been employed in text-book anthor- ship. Ilis Elementary Physies was published in 1876, and was immediately adopted for uso in the Cleveland high schools. In 1878 his Elements of Natural Philosophy appeared, and met with a snecess so marked that its publish- ers called for "more copy:" they have since published his Elements of Chemistry, Complete Chemistry, First Principles of Natural Phil- osophy, Modern Electricity and Magnetism, Teachers' Handbook and Physical Technies. IIis text-books are largely used by the better class of high schools in the United States and in Canada. Other books written by him, and issued by other publishers, have also had wide circulation. His published addresses have been much commended for their force and finish. For the last eight or nine years he has had in hand an extensive historical work which he hopes to finish by the end of the century.
In politics Dr. Avery has made himself felt as a representative of the people. In the spring of 1891, without his consent and even against his will, he was made a candidate for Council- man from the Sixth District, comprising the Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second and Twenty-third wards. At the election (April 7, 1891), his majority was 1,027, larger than that given in any other district in the city. This eonneil had to deal with the organization of the new city government under the " Federal plan," and the ordinances for the creation of the de- partments of Public Works, Law, Aceonnts, Fire, Police and Charities and Correction, bear his name. He took the leading part in the in- vestigation, and the passage of the ordinance which reduced the price of gas from a dollar to eighty eighty cents per thousand enbic feet, and secured the payment into the city treasury of five per cent. of the gross receipts of the gas companies. He was chairman of committees for the investigation of the street railroads of
the city, and of the eity infirmary. His anti- smoke ordinance, declaring the emission of dense smoke to be a nuisance and affixing a penalty therefor, is another evidence of his wis- dom and publie spirit. Ilis pet project was the founding of a city farm school for evil dis- posed, incorrigible or vicions youth, abandoned children, or those ill-treated by intemperate or brutal parents. This measure stirred a respon- sive chord in the hearts of a vast majority of the thinking and reputable men and women of the city, and was passed by the Council by a vote of sixteen to two, but was killed by the mayor's veto. Had this bill become a law many youthful offenders would have been saved from contact with hardened criminals; they would have been tanght trades and given the fundamentals of a common education, and finally returned for good citizenship, and wholly free from any criminal record. But the end is not yet.
At the end of the year Dr. Avery felt that he could not afford to give the time necessary for the proper performance of the duties at- tached to publie service, and positively declined a re-election.
In the summer of 1893 he was forced by leading citizens into a contest for the Repub- liean nomination for a State Senatorship, and under the popular vote plan won a magnificent victory. He spoke every night during the en- suing campaign and helped materially to win the magnificent victory for the Republican ticket in November, his plurality being only fifteen short of nine thousand. He led led the entire legislative ticket.
Dr. Avery was the founder of the Logan Club, the oldest permanent Republican club in the city, and still serves as its president. IIe is general secretary and treasurer of the Ohio Protective Tariff League, and has been for many years a member of the Republican county central committee. He was the second presi- dent of the Ohio Conference of Charities and Correction. He is a member of the American Historical Society; a life member of the Ohio
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Archeological and Historical Society; of the Western Reserve Historical Society and of the American Economic Association; a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a charter member of the Forest City Post, G. A. R .; and president of the Western Reserve Society of the Sous of the American Revolution. He is a Knight Templar, and re- ceived the thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite Masonry, in February, 1878.
r July 2, 1870, Mr. Avery married Catherine llitchcock Tilden, who had succeeded him in the principalship of the Battle Creek high school. She was his most able assistant during his pedagogical career in Cleveland. Generous in sympathy, capable of advising with wisdom, she has been in every way an ideal companion.
Thus Dr. Avery's life has been and is full of activity, abonnding in practical application, always progressive and unusually successful.
A NDREW A. BUTLER, a farmer of Brecksville township, was born Sep- tember 27, 1831, at Hillsdale, Columbia county, New York, of which county his father, Peter Butler, was also a native. An- drew's grandparents are from Scotland. Peter Butler was bnt three years old when his father died, and was brought up by his nele, Andrew Adams, to whom the Adams homestead fell by descent of property. On this farm Mr. Butler located. He married Charlotte Iliuman, who was born in Woodbury, Connectient, a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier, who became a ser- geant and participated in the battle of Danbury, Connecticut, so near home that his wife could hear the noise of the fire-arins. Peter Butler's children were: Jane, who married William Shepherd and died aged forty years, in Van Bnren county, Michigan; Andrew A. was the next in order of birth; Mary S., who married Colonel Frank Sutton, of Clinton, lowa; and Ann E., the widow of Henry Bruner, of Cuya- hoga Falls. Their father left his home in New
York in 1837 for Tallmadge, Ohio, and came through with a team of two horses, having a very tedious journey, of four weeks. Previ- ously he had visited this region and purchased land on which were a few rude improvements; but he had the misfortune of losing his wife there in 1846. He afterward married again, in Talhnadge, went to Goodhne county, Minne- sota, and was located fifty miles from any mar- ket; but Canon Falls near him soon became a market. He married again, in that State, and lived there till 1886, when he returned to Ohio, then aged eighty-six years. IIe had been badly dealt with and deprived of a very comfortable farm. Andrew A. paid his way back to Ohio and gave him a home for the remainder of his life. Ile died in 1887, and is buried in Tall- madge beside his first wife. In his political views he was a Democrat, and in religion a Methodist. Was six feet tall and weighed 200 pounds. He had a powerful frame and in his life-time did an immense amount of work.
Mr. Andrew A. Butler, our subject, was reared to farm life, not having more than six weeks' schooling after he was fourteen years of age. While yet a boy he assumed the responsibilities of caring for three sisters besides himself, until they became sell-supporting, by teaching school. In the spring of 1851, with his savings, he went to Dubnqua, Iowa, to look up a location there, and pre-empted a tract of land in Clinton county, but afterward surrendered it, and the next spring started Tor California, during the gold-mining excitement. With a company of eight he started from Sabula, lowa, and in four months and twenty-one days arrived at Downieville, Sierra county, California, where they commenced work. Ile was in that State fonr years, and was successful. May 3, 1856, he left San Francisco on the Golden Gate for Aspinwall, and sailed on the Vanderbilt to New York, whence he came to Richfield, Summit county, Ohio, where he purchased 106 acres of land. He has always been a farmer, making his start from almost nothing. The success which he has attained proves him to be a man of good judgment. Ile
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was a Democrat up to the `fire on Fort Sninter, since which time he has been a Republican. For eight years he has been township Trustee; in the fall of 1892 he was elected Justice of the Peace.
December 3, 1857, he married Miss Esther HI. Ingham, who was born in Manchester, Eng- land, July 5, 1837, a daughter of William Ing- Iram, who came to America in 1845, settling in Sharon, Medina county. He resided upon his farm until 1867, and then came to Brecksville township, locating npon 264 acres in the north- western part of the township. In 1887 he re- moved to Brecksville Center, where he has since resided. ITis children are: Lottie, now Mrs. George McCreery, of Brecksville township; and Frank A., a farmer of the same township. A foster child, Nellie C., has been given a good edneation and regarded as one of the family. Mr. Butler's clegant farm of 264 acres is fully in the hands of his children. While not a church member he contributes to the support of the churches whenever asked. There is probably no more systematic farmer in the township than he, and he is a thorough business man and a representative citizen.
OHIN WARREN TAYLOR, manager of real-estate investments and estate counsel- or, 5 Enclid avenne, Cleveland, is a native of Mecca, Trumbull county, Ohio, a son of William D. and Mary (Moran) Taylor. Ilis uncle, Rev. Dr. Moran, was one of the most prominent and able men in the Methodist Church Sonth during the war. Mr. Taylor's parents were natives of the north of Ireland, but of English and Scotell descent. Shortly after their marriage in 1849 they came to America, settling in Mecca, Ohio. Mrs. Taylor died in 1853, and Mr. Taylor, now seventy-four years of age, is living at Cortland, Ohio. Of the three sons our subject is the only survivor, his broth- ers, Edward and Robert, having died some years sineo.
Mr. Taylor was raised on a farm in Trumbull county, Ohio, received his literary education in Western Reserve University, taught school for three winters, was salesman in the furnishing store of C. S. Fields in Warren, Ohio, four years; at the age of nineteen he commenced the study of law with Taylor & Jones at Warren, and was admitted to the bar of Ohio in 1876; afterward, taking the law course in Ann Arbor University of Michigan, he graduated there in 1878, at which time he was admitted to the Michigan bar. Returning to his native county in 1878, he opened a law office at Warren, where he enjoyed a good practice till 1884, in the meantime serving a term of three years as Justice of the Peace.
While never seeking an office Mr. Taylor has always taken a lively interest in politics; was one of the managing Republican Central Com- mittee men at Warren during the memorable Garfield campaign when the mammoth Grant and Conkling meeting was held there.
In July, 1884, Mr. Taylor moved to Cleve- land, since which time he has been engaged in the liandling of estates and real estate invest- ments of his own, in 1893 purchasing, improv- ing and platting Douglas Park, consisting of thirty acres of choice territory in the East End, upon which ho has erected a large number of houses. While largely engaged in real-estate matters, his legal talents are constantly em- ployed in the care and management of numerous estates entrusted to his care as well as in real- estate matters and the law of real estate and titles generally, in which he is especially proficient.
While bnsily engaged in other affairs he still clings to his first occupation, that of farmer, as a recreation. Ile owns and manages a farm of 128 acres a few miles out of Cleveland, where he is engaged in rearing some fine horses. He also has seventy six acres of garden land in the city of Toledo and interests in timber lands in Michigan.
lle is a self-made man in every sense of the word, having started at the bottom of the ladder.
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Intolerant of trickery and duplicity, he has achieved his success in life by upright, straight- forward methods, a keen business judgment and diligent application to the affairs in his charge. Ile is a member of Holyrood Commandery and resides at 1253 Euclid avenue.
D AVID HENRY KIMBERLEY, who for years has been a well known and es- teemed citizen of Cleveland, is a native of England, being born at Great Borton, a sub- urb of Birmingham, on September 22, 1842. His father, George Kimberley, was of English nativity, and a manufacturer of nails in Great Borton, but subsequent to the birth of the son above mentioned he removed to the city of Bir- mingham, where he was engaged in the grocery business until 1862, in which year he died, at the age of sixty-seven years. He married Maria Ashwell, who was born at Brownsgrove, England, in 1800. Iler father was the Rev. James Ash- well, a Baptist minister, who emigrated with his family to the United States in the year 1831, landing at New York and coming direct to Cleveland; but owing to the fact that at that date Newburg was larger than Cleveland, he soon afterward removed to Newburg. Not long thereafter he returned to Cleveland, where for many years he preached and resided. In his ministerial work his labors were not confined solely to Cleveland, but extended over the sur- rounding country. In those early days in the history of this section the minister's compensa- tion was very small, and his was inadequate for the support of himself and family, and this made it necessary that he should engage in some industrial enterprise. In his boyhood he learned the nail-making trade, to which he resorted, and for quite a period, six days in the week he spent in his shop, and on Sundays occupied the pulpit. Rev. Ashwell was not only a pioneer settler of Cuyahoga county but a pioneer minister, and
upon the communities in which he labored he left his impress. . IIe was a man of sterling qualities, resolute and firm, devotedly religious and universally esteemed.
Ile was twice married. By his first marriage he had two children,-Mrs. Maria Kimberley and her brother James. In the history of this family is noted an unusual feature, namely, that the mother of our subject at the time of her brother's birth, was twenty-one years of age, and the mother of a child whose birth preceded that of her own brother. The second marriage of Rev. Ashwell was consummated in his seven- ty-sixth year, his wife being in her seventy-fifth year.
When Mr. Kimberley of this sketch was five years of age his mother formed a desire to join her parents in the United States, and her hus- band declining to leave his business in Birming- ham,-at least at that time,-and being willing that his wife and children should come to this country, she and six children sailed for America in the Henry Clay, in 1846, leaving the father and the eldest son in Birmingham. The family set sail from Liverpool and after a voyage of six weeks landed in New York, on Christmas eve of 1846. On the voyage the Henry Clay caught fire while at sea, but before much damage was done the flames were extinguished. That same ship on the next voyage was burned in mid ocean and all on board perished.
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