USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, pt 2 > Part 61
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F FREDERICK A. COLBRUNN, a loyal citizen of the United States, is an adopted son of the nation, his birth-place being Westphalia, Province of Lippe-Detmold, Ger- many: there he first saw the light of day An- gust 20, 1836, the fifth of a family of seven cliil- dren of Edward and Angusta Colbrunn. His father was a manufacturer of linen goods, and was also in the employ of the East India trade. On account of the Revolution of 1848 the family decided to emigrate to America, and on the 10th day of October of that year the mother with the children sailed from Bremen, bound for the United States. After a voyage of forty- two days they landed in the port of New York, and thence came directly to Ohio by way of the Hudson river to Albany, thence to Buffalo by rail, and from that city by the lakes to Cleve- land, arriving December 25, 1848, After a short stay in Cleveland Mrs. Colbrunn came to Rockport township, where she purchased a tract of 100 acres of good farming land, on which she settled with her family. In 1850 she was joined by her husband, who had been detained in the old country by business allairs. Mr. Colbrun built a sawmill soon after his arrival
but disposed of it in 1861, and in the same year removed to Cleveland, where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. He was born March 10, 1799, and died Jannary 10, 1868; Mrs. Colbrunn was born December 13, 1800, and died March 4, 1874. They reared a family of seven children: Leopold F. was born May 3, 1827; Adelaide, born January 7, 1830, is the wife of Frederick Klaue; Theodore was born February 13, 1832; Minnie, born Angust 9, 1834, is the wife of B. Strong, of Cleveland; Frederick A. is the fifth-born; Emma, born July 2, 1838, is the wife of Nicholas Elmer; John Edward was born March 9, 1841.
Frederick A. was a lad of twelve years when when he was brought to this country. ITis yonth was spent in assisting his father in the cultivation of a frontier farm, which was in- creased to 300 aeres, and he also superintended the sawmill until it was sold, in 1861. He then engaged in building plank and rail roads, which he carried on extensively for some years. Ile assisted in the construction of the Nickel Plate railroad, and seenred the contract for the plank road from Ohio City to Olmstead; he rebuilt this road in 1873, and has since been superin- tendent for the company owning the road. Ile now resides on a fino farm of seventy-five acres, a portion of his father's purchase after coming to Cuyahoga county. In the spring of 1894 he built a race track one-half mile long on this farm, for the purpose of training blooded horses.
By his first marriage Mr. Colbrunn had five children: Emma, the wife of John Elber; Eliza- beth, the wife of John Fischer; Jennie, the wife of Winthrop Dunham; Edward, a member of the Cleveland Fire Department; and George E., who died at the age of nineteen years. Mr. Colbrunn was married to his second wife Au- gust 11, 1870; her name was Anne Dneker, a daughter of Isaiah and Elizabeth Ducker, na- tives of Essex, England, who emigrated to the United States early in the present century: Mr. Ducker died in 1866, but his wife survives. There were three children born of this union:
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Frederick A., Jr., William W. and Anna M. The mother died July 31, 1882. Mr. Colbrunn was married again Inly 8, 1885, to Miss Jen- nette Ducker, and they have had born to them two children: Eva F. and Wilbur G.
Mr. Colbrunn has always taken a deep inter- est in the allairs of State, and has represented his township in many offices of trust and re- sponsibility: he has been President of the School Board twenty-five years, has been town- ship Trustee and Assessor, and in April, 1893, was elected President of the Board of Trustees for Rockport Ilamlet. Ilis strict integrity and indefatigable attention to public business have won him the respect of all who know him. Politically he adheres to the principles of the Republican party. Mrs. Colbrunn is a most worthy member of the Congregational Church.
0 II. MANN .- Classed among the old and faithful men of the Cleveland & Pitts- burg Railroad Company, is O. 11. Mann, who is completing his twenty-fifth year of ser- vice since he became a fireman, and his twenty- first year as a " knight of the throttle." Mr. Mann was born in this city, October 31, 1851. , lle attended school at the corner of St. Clair and Ald streets, and left off his studies to do time as journeyman carpenter. He had almost finished his trade when a notion seized him to engage in railroading, which he did, in 1869, being made a locomotive fireman at once. For the past eighteen years he has been a yardmaster and responds to his duties withont loss of time.
Mr. Mann's father was Stephen Mann, who emigrated to Cleveland from Vermont, his na- tive State. In his early experience in Cleve- land he was engaged in the grocery trade near the foot of Superior street. Bent on retiring from this business he entered the lake trade as steward of a vessel and followed the water twenty-five years. His death occurred in 1874, at the age of seventy-five years. His second wife, the mother of our subject, was Miss
Snedaker, of French extraction. By a former marriage, to Miss White, one child was born. Of the second marriage, there were three chil- dren, viz .: Anna E., who married John Burgess, a lake captain; Oliver P., an engineer for the Cleveland & Pittsburg Road, at Wellsville, Ohio; and O. Il.
Mr. O. 11. Mann was married in this city in 1874, to Sophia, a sister of Captain Loftus Gray and a daughter of Charles and Sophia Gray, of English birth. Their children are: Bertha R., deceased; Oliver P., deceased, and Edith May. Success has come to Mr. Mann because of his unceasing devotion to business, the key note to snecess in any calling.
H ENRY HOFFMAN, an undertaker at 733 Clark street, Cleveland, was born in this eity, February 20, 1860, a son of Henry and Christina (Nuss) Iloffman, natives of Germany. They came to Cleveland in 1843, were married at Independence, this county, in 1847, and in 1849 returned to this eity, locating at the corner of Walton and Rhodes streets. The father, born in 1825, died in 1881, and was then serving his third term as Conneilman of the old Twelfth ward, now the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth wards. Ile was also employed as shipping clerk at the depot for many years, and, owing to his fluency in both the English and German languages, rendered a most valuable service. Mrs. Hoffman departed this life in 1863, at the age of Forty-one years. She was a member of the Independence Protes- tant Church. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman had six children, viz .: Mary, wife of HI. A. Heimsath, of Cleveland; William, a resident of Michigan, but was married in Cleveland; Helena, wife of Herman Imbery; John, of Cleveland, was united in marriage with Franees Burkhardt; Henry, our subject; and Dora, wife of Herman Herkle.
llenry Hoffman began work for himself at the age of twenty-one years, at the undertaking business, and has since followed that ocenpation.
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Ile is also engaged in real-estate transactions. Mr. Hoffman was married in 1881, to Miss An- toinette, a daughter of John Karda, who has re- sided in Cleveland for the past fifty-five years. Ile had three children: Frank, deceased in 1892, at the age of forty-seven years, served as a member of the City Council for two terms, and was Assistant Police Clerk for six years; August G , a resident of Cleveland; and Antoi- nette, the wife of our subject. Mr. and Mrs. Hoffman have six children: Antoinette, Henry, Emma, Mamie, Stella and Grover. Our sub- ject is identified with the Democratic party. In his social relations he is a member of the Uni- formed Rank, Knights of P'ythias, of the For- esters, and the Willkommen Union. Mr. Ifoffman has also served as member of the Board of Education, and was chairman of the repair committee.
R A. BALDWIN, one among the Cleve- land coterie of Cleveland & Pittsburgh passenger engineers, is a representative of that famous Baldwin family distrib- uted throughout the East and northern Ohio.
The subject of this notice was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, November 28, 1843. As this branch of the family was made up of agri- culturists, with few exceptions, R. A. was born on a farm. Ile seenred a liberal education from district school and academy, beginning his career as a business man at nineteen. His first duty about this time was to enter the army, enlisting at Conneaut, Ohio, in the Second Ohio Battery, which was assigned to the Army of the South- west. The command rendezvoused at St. Louis, Springfield and Jefferson City, Missouri, for short periods, on its way into the Confederate country in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. They met the enemy at the battle of Pea Ridge, routed them and proceeded to Helena, on the Mississippi river, where Mr. Baldwin was discharged from service, October 12, 1862.
In June, 1863, Mr. Baldwin engaged with the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad Company as fireman; in January, 1865, was promoted to the place of engineer. For several years he has been on a passenger run between Cleveland and Pittsburgh. When annual prizes were paid by the company to engineers, Mr. Baldwin received the second one given in 1875, and a good share of the monthly premiums issued thereafter.
The paternal grandfather of Mr. Baldwin was Remus A. Baldwin, born in Now Milford, Connecticut. He brought his family to Penn- sylvania when our subject's father, L. Baldwin, was a small boy. L. Baldwin continued to re- side in Erie county, Pennsylvania, until 1873, when he removed to Conneaut, Ohio, where he now lives, aged eighty-four, with his wife, nee Rosina Battles, aged eighty-one. Mr. Baldwin's maternal grandfather, was an carly settler near Girard, Pennsylvania, being there when the land where the city now stands was public domain.
L. Baldwin was the father of twelve children, eight of whom are still living, namely: R. A .; Byron, of Chicago; the wife of James Moore- head, of Erie county; Georgiana, who married Mr. Gould, of Prescott, Arkansas; Susan, wife of Mr. Goddard, of Conneant, Ohio; K. K. Baldwin, of Chicago; and Elmer, of Conneaut, Ohio.
In 1865 R. A. Baldwin married, in Erie county, Pennsylvania, Adaline, a daughter of William Foote, a farmer. Mr. Ballwin's chil- dren are: William I., born in 1867; Brainard, born in 1870, a fireman on the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad; Marion, born in 1873; Charles, born in 1877, a machinist; and Ethel, born in 1880.
F FRANCIS A. COSGROVE, A. B., Super- intendent of the Schools at Brooklyn Village, Ohio, was born August 26, 1856, at Defiance, Ohio. He is a son of Elliott and Emily (Berkshire) Cosgrove. His parents were natives of Cumberland county, Pennsylvania.
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The father is a farmer by occupation and is a man of advanced years. lle is a pioneer of Defiance county, where he is esteemed and re- spected as one of their best citizens. Ilis wife died in April of 1877. She was a beloved woman.
Upon the farm Professor Cosgrove was brought up. Ile first attended the country school and at the age of sixteen years entered the Wesleyan University at Delaware, and there graduated in 1884 with the degree of A. B. Before his graduation he took up school-teach- ing and taught at several places, including . South Brooklyn, Farmersville and other places. At Farmersville he spent four years and at South Brooklyn one year. In 1880 he returned to college and there remained until he gradu- ated. He was then elected Superintendent of Schools at Prospect, Ohio, where he remained one year. He was then for a time engaged in the insurance business at Delaware, Ohio. Two years later he was elected Superintendent of Schools in Brooklyn village and still holds that position.
As an educator he has been remarkably sue- cessful. Ile is a student possessed of an analyt- ical and philosophieal mind and is well fitted for the training and nurturing of the youthful mind. He is a man of excellent moral habits and thus is a man of influence, not only among his pupils but among his patrons. Since his taking charge of the schools at Brooklyn Vil- lage these schools have wonderfully increased in their excellency and importance, an excellent building has been erected, a number of the best teachers are employed, and the number of pupils enrolled is over 1,000. Thus it may be ob- served that this his work has not been one of little importance, but in the exceution of his work he has been remarkably successful.
In polities he is not active nor ardent, nor zealous, but casts his vote with the Republican party. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonie order and of the Knights of Pythias.
Ile was married immediately after his gradu- ation, in 1881, to Miss Belle Waite, of Welling-
ton, Ohio. She was a student also at Delaware, with himself. Unto the marriage there were born three children, of whom one is deceased. These children are,-I., born in 1885; E., born in 1887; and Belle, who died in 1890, in in- fancy. March 22, 1890, the mother of these children was called away in death. She was a beloved wife, mother and friend, an estimable woman, and an active Church worker.
E E. ARNOLD is the secretary and gen- eral manager of the Bedford Chair Company, one of the most prosperous manufacturing concerns in the county. The company was organized in December, 1890, with C. J. Milz as president; G. L. Bartlett, vice-president; W. O. Gordon, general superin- tendent, and Mr. Arnold, secretary and general manager. The success of this enterprise has been almost phenomenal from the first, and is due in a large measure to the practical knowl- edge the officers have of the business and to their wide experience in the commercial world.
Mr. Arnold is a native of the State of Michi- gan, born in Clinton township, Lenawee county, February 23, 1863. Ilis parents were N. C. and Lucy Jane Arnold, the father being a native of New England, and the mother of New York. They reared a family of three children, one of whom is deceased; Fannie is the wife of James Flick, of Bedford, Ohio. E. E. Arnold re- ceived his education in the public schools of Teemmseh, Michigan, completing the course in the high school of that place. In March, 1885, he entered the employ of the Taylor Chair Company of Bedford, and the relationship con- tinued more than five years. He then took a position with Burbank & Ryder, wholesale manufacturers, as traveling salesman, his terri- tory including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. In 1890 he became a member of the Bedford Chair Company, as stated above.
Juno 14, 1893, Mr. Arnold married Miss Emma Dawson, a daughter of James William Dawson, a
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respected citizen of Bedford. Mrs. Arnold is a consistent member of the Disciple Church, and is a woman of superior intellectual attainments. In politics our subject adheres to the principles of the Republican party. Ile belongs to Bed- ford Lodge, No. 375, A. F. & A. M .; to Summit Chapter, No. 74, R. A. M., and to Holyrood Commandry, No. 32, K. T. Ile is a man of excellent business qualifications, and is worthy of the confidence reposed in him by his associ- ates in commerce.
P. CURRY, auditor of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad Company, is a gentleman of nearly thirty years' ex- perience in railroad business, beginning with a minor clerkship in the auditor's office of the Pittsburg, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company at Steubenville, Ohio, when, in con- trast with the present, railroading was prac- tically in its incipieney. At the expiration of his second year in the office, Mr. Curry dropped railroading to engage in the queen's-ware trade and opened out a business in Steubenville. Three years of merchandising sufficed, for the fascinations of the railroad again impelled him to enter its service. Ile took up the work with his old company under the name of the Pitts- burg, Columbus & St. Louis Railroad, resuming his clerkship in the auditor's office, stationed for a time at Columbus, but later on moved to Pittsburg. He remained in this oflice four years, when he accepted the position of chief clerk in the office of the auditor of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad. In April, 1877, he retired from this position to accept the position of secretary and anditor of the Scioto Valley Railroad at Columbus, Ohio, continuing in that capacity till September, 1882, when he accepted his prosent office, being the first andi- tor of the road.
Mr. Curry was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, May 26, 1845. His first and carly impressions were received in the country, for his father was
a farmer, and he sent his son to the rural school until the age of fourteen, when he placed him in the public schools of Steubenville. At the early age of fifteen Mr. Curry began to contrib- ute to his own support materially by engaging to clerk for a firm of leather dealers at Steuben- ville, Ohio. Some months later he became book-keeper and traveling salesman for a paper- mill, remaining until he entered the service of the Pittsburg, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad as before stated.
James Curry, our subject's father, married Miss Sarah Hartford. Their children were fonr in number, only two of whom are now alive: J. P. and Mrs. J. W. Renner, of Allegheny, Pennsylvania.
February 23, 1880, Mr. Curry married, in Columbus, Ohio, Miss Pugh, a daughter of Judge Pugh, an old and prominent resident of that county. They have two sons only, Renner P. and James P., Jr.
R 11. ST. JOHN .- Among the representa- tive citizens of Cleveland is R. II. St. John, the well-known inventor and vice president of the St. John Typobar Company. Mr. St. John is a native of the Buckeye State, having been born in Cincinnati, in 1832. Ile is of English lineage, his ances- tors having come to America From England about 1700. llis father was Ebenezer St. John, who was born in 1803 and died in 1859. His wife was born in 1805 and died in 1888.
While our subject was a boy his family removed from Cincinnati to Springfield, Ohio, where he received a common-school education and learned the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. Hle followed watchmaking and the jewelry business in Bellefontaine, Ohio, until 1860, in the meantime having invented and placed on the market, in 1855, the first foot lathe for watchmakers, known as St. John's Univer- sal Chuck Lathe, which had quite a sale.
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Upon the breaking out of the Civil war Mr. St. John closed out his business and was appointed by the Governor a member of the County Military Committee, in which capacity he served throughout the war. In 1863, .he was appointed Provost Marshal for the Fourth district of Ohio, a position he held until the close of the war. After the war he engaged in the sewing-machine business, and in 1870 patented the St. John Sewing Machine. Hle organized the St. John Sewing Machine Com- pany, at Springfield, Ohio, and was superin- tendent of that company's works until 1880, when he sold out his interest in the company and removed to Toledo, Ohio. In the latter city he organized the Union Sewing Machine Company, and had charge of the works of the company for five years, when he sold out and removed to Cleveland, and engaged for several years in the sewing-machine business in this city.
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Many years ago Mr. St. John's attention was directed to the necessity and advantages of a type-setting machine, and much of his time after coming to Cleveland was devoted to the origination of such a machine. In 1889 he commenced the construction of a machine on an entirely new principle, making a line of type by cold pressure. In 1890 he patented the machine known as the St. John Typobar, and the same year organized the St. John Typobar Company, of which he is the vice president. The machine has been a success in every partie- ular, and will work a revolution in type-setting by machinery. It is operated somewhat upon the principle of the type-writer, by means of which the characters are produced in lines upon cold metal by compression, which may be used repeatedly without waste of material. By the use of this machine, one operator can within eight hours set from 30,000 to 40,000 ems, or about four times the amount a man can set up in the same length of time, and do it as correctly, if not more so than can the man. The plan of the machine is simple, practical and automatic. It is the first of its kind with which the line of
type may be made by compression. Mr. St. Jolm is a mechanical engineer and a genius, and has given to the world many useful and practi- cal inventions, those in the sewing-machine line having won him recognition all over the the industrial world.
While a citizen of Bellefontaine, Mr. St. John served as Coroner of the county, and was reeog- nized as one of the deservedly honored citizens of the community. He is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows' fraternity, being a member of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. In politics he is a. staunch Republican. Mr. St. John was married in 1852, to Miss Rebecca Poland, and to their nnion four children have been born, two of whom are living. The children are as follows: Charles P'., of Chicago; Ida, the wife of E. A. Shafer, of Cleveland; Sallie S. and Edmund, the two latter deceased.
Mr. and Mrs. St. John and family are mem- bers of the Presbyterian Church.
P ETER LIGHTHALL, assistant general yardmaster of the Lake Shore & Michi- gan Southern Railroad Company, was born in Eureka, New York, January 1,
1846. llis father was Peter Lighthall, born in Schenectady, New York, in 1813. He followed the business of contracting and was for a time a hotel keeper, dying in Utica, New York, in 1861. His wife was Mary Warren, a daughter of James Warren, of Rochester. She died in 1865, at forty-two years of age. Eleven chil- dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Lighthall, five of whom are still living: John and William, in Utica and Syracuse respectively ; Ilattie; Jo- sephine, widow of II. P. Bennett, of Green Isle; and Peter.
At eleven years of age our subject left school and began work in a grocery in Utica, remaining till 1861, when he volunteered his services to the United States, enlisting in the Forty third New York Zouaves, and went to Clifton Park, Staten Island, thence to Annapolis, Maryland.
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The Zouaves participated in Burnside's expedi- tion to Hatteras inlet; returned to Annapolis by way of Hampton Roads, Virginia, and were in eamp but a brief period at the Maryland navy yard, when they were ordered to Washing- ton, District of Columbia; and in three weeks were disbanded because of mutiny among the officers. Mr. Lighthall entered the service again in 1862, enlisting at Utiea in the One Hundred and Seventeenth New York Volun- teers. Went to Washington, District of Col- umbia, via Rome, New York; ordered to Tarrytown, where he did picket duty along the Harper's Ferry turnpike, three months; crossed the Potomae river and remained till spring, when ordered to Norfolk, Suffolk and over into the fight at Black river. Returned to Norfolk and took transports for Hilton Head, South Carolina; disembarked and went to Folly island, and remained till the following spring, doing duty in siege of Charleston. Assisted in the capture of Morris, Block Seabrook and Kiowa island and Fort Wagner and John's island, South Carolina, and left for Bermuda Hundred, Virginia. On May 21, at Drury's Bluff, first attack on Petersburg. Went up the Peninsula and North Anna river and back to the engagements at White House Landing, Cold Harbor and back to Petersburg for a three months' siege. Deep Bottom and Chapin's Farm came next, followed by the Darbytown Road fight, October 27, 1864. Went with General Butler to Fort Fisher, but returned in two days to Chapin's Farm, and a week later went back under General Terry, and on Jan- uary 10 attacked the fortification, and on the 15th captured the fort; marched then to Smith- field, North Carolina, Fort Anderson, Sugar Loaf Mountain works and Wilmington. Two weeks later went to Coxbridge, crossing the Nense river; met General Sherman's army and engaged Johnston at Bentonville; heard of Lee's surrender there, and followed Johnston to Raleigh, there getting news of the President's assassination. In two weeks was mustered out of service; marched to City Point, Virginia,
took boat for Albany, New York, and train home, and was mustered out of service at Syracuse, June 23, 1865.
On taking up civil pursuits Mr. Lighthall engaged in the New York Central freight house at Utica, as tallyman, and remained till 1867, when he went on the road as brakeman between Syracuse and Albany, and in time was pro- moted to conductor. In 1871 he joined the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad Company as brakeman, but remained only six months, coming then to the Lake Shore & Michi- gan Southern, in same capacity, and was given a run on the Toledo division. In eighteen months he came into the Cleveland yard and broke two days, when he was given a pony. In 1880 he was made assistant yardmaster at Col- linwood, and two years later was transferred to Cleveland as assistant day man. He was pro- moted to night yardmaster in 1883, and to day man in 1888, and in 1891 was made assistant general yardmaster.
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