USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Memorial record of the county of Cuyahoga and city of Cleveland, Ohio, pt 2 > Part 66
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nois when he was sixteen and continued that ocenpation at intervals until he completed his education.
After his graduation he entered the ministry. Previous to this time he had been ordained and had been preaching for two years. ITis first work was as an evangelist in Carroll, Whiteside and Ogle counties, in the State of Illinois. From 1860 until 1865 he filled a pulpit in Wooster, Ohio, and from there he moved to Mount Vernon, where he served as pastor until 1870. From January, 1870, until May of the same year he was at Bedford, Ohio. Then re- ceiving the appointment of corresponding sec- retary of the Ohio Christian Missionary Society he served in this capacity until June 1, 1884, traveling all over the State and at the same time looking after the interests of the Sunday schools. From 1882 to 1884 he acted in the double capacity of corresponding secretary of the General Christian Missionary Convention and corresponding secretary of the Ohio Chris- tian Missionary Society. Dropping the latter in 1884, he continued the former until Novem- ber 1, 1893, its work taking him from Boston to the Pacific and over much of Canada. This position, although one of great responsibility, was filled most efficiently by him and to the en- tire satisfaction of all concerned.
Mr. Moffett was married September 13, 1859, to Miss Lucy A. Green, of Norton, Summit county, Ohio. Their nine children are as fol- lows: Wilbur Garner, born November, 1860, died October, 1888; Mary Adel, wife of Duane II. Tilden, an attorney of Cleveland, the date of her birth being October, 1862; Almon Green, M. D., D. D. S., was born in 1864 and was drowned while bathing at Chautauqua, Angust, 1891; Dr. Charles Campbell, born in March, 1867, is practicing medicine at Avon, Ohio; Robert Stover, born in April, 1869, and died in April, 1875; Lucy Pearl, born in June, 1871, and died in April, 1875, she and Robert S. dying of scarlet fever and being buried in the same grave; Burnett E., born in August, 1873, died in infancy; Nellie C., born in September,
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1876, died in March, 1894; and Roy Ryburn, born in April, 1879. The family are all mem- bers of the Christian Church.
Mrs. Moffett's parents, Rev. A. B. Green and wife, nee Mary Burnett, came to Ohio from New England and were among the early set- tlers of Summit county. Her father was born in 1808 and died in 1886. Iler mother, born in 1811, died in 1869.
Politically, Mr. Moffett is a Republican.
EONARD HOHLFELDER, a boot and shoe merchant of South Brooklyn, Ohio, is one of the enterprising business men of the place.
Mr. Hohlfelder was born in Bavaria, Ger- many, April 17, 1836, son of Frederick and Dora (Wells) Hohlfelder, both natives of Ger- many. The family emigrated to America in 1847 and located near Cleveland, Ohio. There the father purchased a tract of land, and on it was engaged in gardening the rest of his life. Ile died in 1891, aged eighty-four years. The mother passed away when in her seventy- seventh year. They were the parents of seven children, of whom Leonard is the oldest.
Leonard Hohlfelder was in his twelfth year when he came with his parents to Cleveland, and at that early age he started out to do for him- self. Ile was employed to work on a farm in Parma township, this county, and the first year earned only his clothes and board. After this he worked in Brooklyn township and received some wages. When he was sixteen he began to learn the shoemaker's trade in Brooklyn, getting $50 for the first two and a half years' work. Having completed his apprenticeship, he worked a year longer for the same man, Mr. John Lanx. Next he spent six months working as a jour- neyman in New York, but at the end of that time came came back to Brooklyn and again en- tered the employ of Mr. Lanx. Finally he bought ont the business of this man, and has conducted it successfully ever since.
Mr. Hohlfelder was married in 1858 to Miss Lizzie Riese, a native of Germany. They have four children, namely: Anna, wife of Jacob Ewing; Fred and Lettie, twins, the latter being the wife of Charles Johnson; and Lizzie, at home. Mr. Ilohlfelder built his present resi- dence in Brooklyn in 1879, it being erected at a cost of $3,000.
His political views are in harmony with the principles advocated by the Democratic party. For five years he served as Township Treasurer and was a member of the Council of Brooklyn four years. He is a member of the Evangelical Church, and also of Glenn Lodge, I. O. O. F. Mr. Ilohlfelder is a man of excellent business qualifications, and his business career has been one of marked success. His many estimable traits of character have won for him hosts of friends.
C APTAIN MARCO B. GARY, one of Cleveland's best known citizens and at- torneys, and Collector of Customs under General Harrison's administration, was born in Genesee, New York. Ilis father was Aaron Gary, who was a soldier in the war with Great Britain in 1812-'14, and his grandfather was Oliver Gary, who served in the Continental army from the beginning to the close of the Revolutionary war.
Captain Gary was educated at the common and academic schools at Albion, Pennsylvania, and in the year 1856 he entered the law office of Judge L. S. Sherman, at Ashtabula, Ohio, as a law student. Ile was admitted to the bar in the fall of 1859, and immediately thereafter opened a law office at Geneva, Ohio. Geneva being an active and growing town, situated near the line between the counties of Lake and Ashtabula, the young lawyer found himself in the enjoyment of a growing and profitable prac- tiee from these two contiguous counties, at the time of the breaking ont of hostilities between the Government and rebel States in the spring
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of 1861. For a number of years prior to that event there existed at Geneva a one-gun artil- lery company, and in the State there were five other similar organizations, mostly located in Cleveland. Our subject was not a member of this organization, but when upon the first call of President Lincoln for troops, in April, 1861, these several companies tendered their services for immediate action, he took the place of a member of the Geneva company, and, closing down his law office, went with the company to Western Virginia, where it had the honor of firing the first artillery shot at the enemy after the fall of Fort Sumter. Returning to Geneva with the company after the close of the first three months' service, onr subject united with the Captain of the above company in the organ- ization and enlistment of a full six-gun battery for a term of three years, and in the month of October, 1861, he returned to the field at Camp Diek Robinson, Kentucky, as senior First Lien- tenant of the battery, and was soon afterward promoted to the Captainey of the battery, and being engrafted into the grand old Army of the Cumberland, went with it, participating in all its campaigns and battles from the Ohio river to the Potomac, including the famous march to the sea, and up the coast to Richmond and Washington, re enlisting his men " for the war" on the way, at the expiration of their three years' term of service. After participating in the grand review at Washington city he re- turned with his company and disbanded at Cleveland. He then returned to his law office at Geneva, for the first time after closing it in the month of April, 1861. In the year 1873 Captain Gary removed to Cleveland, forming a law partnership with George S. Kain, and was afterward associated with Charles D. Everett in the law firm of Gary & Everett, and later with N. A. Gilbert and A. T. Hills, under the firm name of Gary, Gilbert & Hills.
In February, 1889, Captain Gary was ap- pointed by President Harrison Collector of Cus- toms for the District of Cuyahoga, embracing the important lake ports of Cleveland, Ashta-
bula, Fairport, Lorain and Conneant. At the present time (November, 1893) he is still hold- ing this office, after having served over his regular term of four years, with entire satisfac- tion to the Government and the people. But anticipating the termination of his official duties, he has formed n law partnership with O. C. l'inney, and under the firm name of Gary & Pinney has located in the Perry-Payne block and re-entered the general law practice. Up to the time of his appointment as Collector of Customs, Captain Gary had been actively en- gaged in the practice of his profession, and as counsel had participated in some of the most closely contested cases ever tried at the Cleve- land bar, among which was the well remem- bered, famed case of J. R. Timms vs. More- house and others, which was three times tried, the last time ocenpying the jury for a period of forty-two days. In this case he contended snc- cessfully against the famous Irish lawyer, John MeSweany, and Loren Prentiss, in the lower courts, and Judge Raney in the Supreme Court, resulting ir full vindication of his client, Timms, as well as heavy damages against defendant and liberal fees for himself.
lle was also the leading counsel for defend- ants in the quite famons "Breck will case." That he was a hard-working and uncompromis- ing fighter in the interest of his clients every member of the Cleveland bar will readily admit.
C OHN J. STANLEY, superintendent of the Cleveland Electric Railway Company, has grown up with the railroad service of the city of Cleveland. He became connected with it in 1881 on the Broadway & Newburg line as conductor and was promoted not long afterward to the assistant superintendeney of that line, and succeeding to the superintendeney in 1887; in 1890 was made vice president of the same.
Upon the consolidation of the lines forming the Cleveland Electric System, in 1893, Mr. Stanley was elected to the office of general
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superintendent, an honor most worthily be- stowed. lle is a large holder of Cleveland Electric stoek and a member of the board of directors.
Mr. Stanley was born in Cleveland, March 5, 1863. He received a liberal education from the publie schools of Cleveland, leaving them at seventeen years of age to engage in street rail- road work.
Mr. Stanley is a son of Joseph L. Stanley, deceased, who came from Chester, England, to Cleveland in 1853. Ile engaged in the brick and tile business and afterward was interested in an oil refinery in this city for some years, and disposing of his oil interests he became connected with street railroads. He was elected president of the Broadway & Newburg line and served until his accidental death in 1890 at the age of sixty.
Ile married in England Miss- Bragg, who bore him six children. Those living are, -- John J .; Charles II .; Mrs. John Sweeney, of Detroit; Mrs. Charles J. Seabrook of Cleveland; and Lilly V., single.
Superintendent Stanley married in Cleveland Miss Rose, a daughter of Philetns Franeis, an early settler and a transfer man. Mr. and Mrs. Stanley's children are,-Franeis, Eliza and Rhoda L.
Mr. Stanley is a thirty-second-degree Mason, and was first made a Mason in Cleveland.
E. BEILSTEIN, assistant secretary of the Cleveland Electric Railway Company, and for seven years connected with rail- road business in Cleveland, is a native son of the Forest City, being born here in August, 1867. At fourteen years of age he left school, and his first efforts in a business way were cx- erted in behalf of the East Cleveland Railway, a few years later in the capacity of clerk, but he soon became secretary and treasurer of the road and remained so until the formation of the Cleveland Electric Company, in February, 1893, when he was made assistant secretary.
Mr. Beilstein is a son of a well-known citizen of Cleveland, Adam Beilstein, born in Hessen Darmstadt, Germany. He came to Cleveland in 1849 and established a tailoring business here, conducting it until his retirement from business, and being succeeded by his son, John W. Beilstein.
Adam Beilstein married, in Cleveland, Julia, a daughter of Mr. Rauch, a German farmer and an early settler of this county. L. E. Beil- stein is the youngest of six children, four now living, viz .: Mrs. Eliza -- , Julius, John W. and L. E.
February 4, 1893, Mr. L. E. Beilstein mar- ried Emily R., a daughter of Charles Reeder, a large stone dealer and proprietor of Reeder's stone quarry, who operates the East End Ice Company.
Mr. Beilstein is a gentleman of great energy, and though young in years his experience in railroad matters is extended and rendere him a most capable and valuable man.
R EV. JOHN C. WEIDMANN, Super- intendent of the German Methodist Orphan Asylum at Berea, Ohio, was born in Seussen, kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, March 1, 1834, where the early years of his life were spent. Ile attended the common schools in his native country. At the age of eighteen he emigrated to America and for nearly one year was employed as a carriage trimmer at South Bend, Indiana, afterward following the same oceupation at La Porte, same State, for some three years, and at Greeneastle, also in that State, for some time.
During this period he took up the study of theology, and while residing in Greeneastle was made a local preacher in the Methodist Church, in 1858. In 1860 he entered the Southeastern Indiana Conference, where he remained till 1861, at which time the German Conference of the Methodist Church was organized. Ilis lot fell to the Central German Conference. In
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1860 he was assigned to the charge at Goshen, Indiana, where he labored for two years. From 1862 to 1864 he filled the pulpit of the Meth- odist Church at Kendallville, then that of Madi- son, both in that State, next at Portsmouth, Ohio, three years, and two years at Newport, Kentucky. In 1871 he was chosen Presiding Elder over the North Ohio District, where he served two years. Ile was then stationed at Toledo, Ohio, for three years, then at Evans- ville, Indiana, for three years, then at New Albany, same State, for one year, and at Wheel- ing, West Virginia, for three years. Ile had charge of the Everett Street Church in Cinein- nati, Ohio, from 1883 to 1886, and for the two fol- lowing years of the Race Street Church in the same eity, which is the mother church of Ger- man Methodism in this country.
In 1888 he was appointed superintendent of the German Methodist Orphan Asylum at Berea, Ohio, which position he has since filled accept .. ably to all. The asylum was founded in 1864. At the present time there are nearly 100 chil- dren receiving the benefits of the institution.
The asylum, which is a commodious and handsome structure, built of sandstone, at a cost of nearly $50,000, is beautifully located in a lot of about twenty acres, almost surrounded by fine trees and truly a fit place for such a noble institution. The management may congratulate themselves on having secured an able man to superintend its interests. The institution is supported entirely by the German Methodist Church at large, and children are received from the remote East to the Mississippi river. The donations received for the maintenance of the asylum are all liberal gifts. There is not a dollar of indebtedness on the institution, although there is but a small endowment fund. Up to the present time 354 children have been re- ceived and cared for.
Mr. Weidmann was first married in La Porte, Indiana, to Miss Kate Ribbe, who died in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, in 1886. Five children came to bless this union, of whom William II., the eldest, is a business man of San Francisco, California;
the second, Carl, is employed in the Methodist Book Concern at St. Louis; Otillia is a teacher in the German Orphan Asylum at- Berea; Rose is a student at Baldwin University, and is also a teacher in the kindergarten at the asylum; while Anna, the youngest child, is a student in the Berea high school.
Mr. Weidmann was married to his present wife, Mrs. Julia Blymeier Weber, in 1888. Mrs. Weber was the widow of the late Rev. Philip Weber, the former superintendent of the German Methodist Asylum. After the death of her husband she assumed the duties of super- intendent until her present marriage.
Mr. Weidmann is a man well adapted to the position which he so ably fills. Ile takes a keen interest in edneational matters, and is a member of the Board of Education of Berea, of which body he has been chosen elerk.
C HARLES II. HALL, of Dover township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, was born on the farm on which he now lives, November 4, 1817, and is ranked with the venerable citi- zens of the township.
His father, Barnabas Hall, who was born in Lee, Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1791, came with his father, Moses Hall, to Ashtabula county, Ohio, in 1811, and shortly afterward settled in Dover township, Cuyahoga county. That same year, 1811, he was married in Lee, Massachusetts, to Hannah Phelps, who was born near Hartford, Connectient, about 1792. They continued to reside in Dover township the rest of their lives. He died May 29, 1863; she, September 19, 1873. They had two children: Harriet E. and Charles II. The former, wife of Hiram Burrell, died in Shetfield, Lorain county, Ohio.
As above stated, Mr. Hall was born on the farm on which he now lives, and here his whole life has been spent, his career an active and useful one. Ile was first married, November 30, 1836, in East Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss
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Samantha Ingersoll, who was born there Jan- mary 2, 1815. They had three children who grew up, namely: Chauncey D .; Harriet, wife of George Miner, died in Olmsted township, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, June 17, 1879; and Hannah, wife of Jesse Burrell. Mrs. Samantha Hall departed this lite in Sheffield, Ohio, and some time afterward Mr. Hall married Mrs. Adelia Stone Bradley, widow of Dr. Jason Bradley and daughter of Jonas and Elizabeth (Hatslat) Stone, her birth having occurred in Petersham, Massachusetts, September 29, 1826.
Mr. ITall has filled the offices of Justice of the Peace, Assessor and Township Trustee.
W ILLIAM R. HUNTINGTON, of the Huntington Coal Company of Cleve. land, was born in 1857. Ile is the son of John and Jane (Beck) Huntington, and is one of seven children. The parents were mar- ried in 1852, and the father died in 1893, at the age of sixty years; the mother in 1882, at the age of fifty. They were born in Princeton, England, and came to America in 1853. They were of the Episcopal Church persuasion. The father was for a time in the business of slate and gravel roofing in Cleveland. In the year 1868 he became interested in the oil business as one of the firm of Clark, Payne & Company, now the Standard Oil Company. John Hunt- ington was a man well known in Cleveland. In his early life he had learned navigation, and to this field of business his attention was largely turned. ITe was a large vessel owner and was the originator of what is now the Cleveland Stone Company, a company in which the sub- jeet of this sketch is a shareholder. He was a remarkably successful business man. He was prominent in political circles and was for four- teen years a member of the City Council. Ile was a prominent thirty-two-degree Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Our subject formerly dealt in oil, and in various other business he has from time to time
been interested. After 1878 he was for a time Deputy County Treasurer, and in 1882 he be- came one of the hardware firm of MeIntosh, Huntington & Company, but five years later he gave up active business life on account of fail- ing health. In 1890 he became engaged in the wholesale coal business, and to-day the Hunt- ington Coal Company is one of the largest deal- ers of Cleveland. Mr. Huntington is also in- terested in manufacturing, being identified with the Ludlow Manufacturing Company of this city, and with an incandescent light manufac- turing company of Newark, Ohio.
In politics Mr. Huntington is an active Re- publiean. By Governor Mckinley he was ap- pointed Fish and Game Commissioner for Ohio. Ile is a thirty-second-degree Mason, and in the order of Masonry he has filled all of the chairs. lle belongs to the ancient order of the Mystic Shrine and to other fraternal and benevolent orders.
In 1854 Mr. Huntington married Miss Mor- iee, a daughter of J. C. Baldwin, of Houston, Texas, and a granddaughter of the late Judge Horace Foote, of Cleveland.
In a social way Mr. Huntington is promi- nent. Ile is a member of the Ottawa Shooting Club and of the West Huron Sporting Club. Ile is a genial and popular man.
W ASHINGTON II. LAWRENCE, as president of the National Carbon Com- pany, the Sperry Electrie Railway Company, the Brush Electric Company, and its subordinate branches, occupies a prominent position among Cleveland manufacturers. He was born in Olinsted, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, January 17, 1840, and enjoys the advantages of a descent from that New England blood which has carried the fame of American manu- facturers and inventions around the world. Ilis father was Joel B. Lawrence, of Pepperell, Massachusetts, who, with his cousins, Amos and Abbott Lawrence, were descendants of John
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Lawrence, one of the carly settlers of the Massachusetts Bay colony, having landed in 1635 and settling in Wolverton, Massachusetts. All these Lawrenees are descendants of Robert Lawrence, of Lancashire, England, who was knighted by Richard Ist for bravery displayed at. the siege of Aere. Mr. Lawrence's mother was Catherine Huuris, whose parents lived at Little Rest, Dutchess county, New York. Joul B. Lawrence moved to Olmsted, Cuyahoga county, in 1833, and endured all the privations incident to life in the Western Reserve in the first half of the present century. He owned a large tract of land and a flonring mill in Olinsted at the time of his death, which occurred in 1851, his wife dying two years later.
Left an orphan at thirteen years of age, Mr. Lawrence began life as a clerk at Berea, where he continued his studies, which had been begun in the common schools of Olmsted. He at the same time pursued a course of study at Bald- win University, and gained both a college as well as a business education by reserving a por- tion of his time to himself.
When nineteen years of age, the Hon. John Baldwin associated his son Milton with Mr. Lawrence in the management of large milling and real-estate properties in Kansas. Milton Baldwin's death, before the enterprise was fully inaugurated, left the entire burden of the eare of the properties upon Mr. Lawrence's shoulders.
In the latter part of 1859, Mr. Lawrence concluded his connections with Mr. Baldwin, and desiring to be his own master, engaged in business with his brother at Hannibal, Missouri. While so engaged, he was compelled to travel through much of western Missouri and eastern Kansas, and saw much of the border warfare that followed the struggle for Kansas, as well as the early days of the Rebellion, having many narrow escapes himself from the assaults of the guerrilla.
Ile returned to Olmsted late in 1861 to manage the family property there, and in 1864 removed to Cleveland, where he became asso- ciated with Messrs. N. S. C. Perkins and W. A.
Mack in the manufacture of the Domestic Sew- ing Machine. This business proved very suc- cessful, as Mr. Lawrence succeeded in triumph- ing over the sewing machine combination in all their patent litigations, and ultimately sold his interest to his associates.
He had charge of the sales of the Howe Sew- ing Machine Company, his territory including five States, and was at the same time engaged in manufacturing bolts at Elyria, Ohio, in what is now known as the Cleveland Serew & Tap Company. He disposed of all these interests in 1874, and, noticing the great importance of electricity in commercial pursuits, he in 1874 became a large stockholder in the Telegraph Supply Company, and retained his interests through its various changes until it was finally merged into what is now the Brush Electric Company.
It is difficult for people to realize the enormous steps that have been taken sinee the first introduction of electricity in a commercial sense in 1878. Mr. Lawrence was associated with Mr. Charles F. Brush at the inception of the Brush Electric Company, furnishing a large portion of the original investment, and even in the darkest hours remained firm in his convie- tion of the ultimate snceess of their undertaking. The same pluck and energy that had character- ized his early connection during the dark days of the company was continued until the Brush Electric Company had a capital of $3,000,000, and as its general manager Mr. Lawrence had charge of the largest electrical manufacturing establishment in the world.
After twenty years of most exacting business life, Mr. Lawrence in 1882 resolved to take a much needed rest. Severing his connection with the company, and, selling or exchanging the greater part of his interest, he invested largely in real-estate properties in Cleveland and elsewhere, and for several years devoted his leisure to its management. Although possessed of real-estate interests large enough to require all the time of most men, he was still unable to resist the charms of
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