McDermott. The firm immediately erected works for turning large grindstones for manufactories, and distinguished their first Spring’s business by sending to New York city the first cargo of building stone ever shipped there from Ohio. During this year they furnished the stone for all the trimmings and carved work on the Government buildings at Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion of Canada, and also for a number of buildings in Montreal and other cities and towns of Canada. The year’s business was heavy, and the result was largely due to the energy and enterprise of Mr. McDermott. In the latter part of the year Mr. McDermott took up his residence in Cleveland, where he had purchased a house, and in the spring of 1864 the office of the firm was removed to Cleveland.
The business of the firm was now growing vigorously, the result of the year 1864 being in the highest degree satisfactory, not alone in the pecuniary returns, but in the wider extension of the trade and the introduction of the Ohio stone to markets where it had previously been unknown, and where it has since been in steady and large demand. Near the close of the year the firm of Worthington & McDermott was dissolved, and Mr. McDermott purchased of the Wallaces the old quarry at Berea originally opened by John Baldwin over forty years ago. He took into partnership his brother William and established the firm of J. McDermott & Co. The new firm went actively to work in developing its quarry, mining and manufacturing block and grindstones, and succeeded rapidly in establishing valuable business connections and enlarging the stone trade of this section. Among the first improvements introduced was the building of a railroad track Connecting the quarry with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati track, and other facilities for the expeditions handling and getting out stone were added as promptly as practicable. In the spring of 1865 the firm filled a contract with the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad Company for stone with which to replace the wooden bridges along the line of the road. During the year the firm made extensive progress in developing its quarry, trenching to a greater depth than had yet been reached in any of the quarries, and obtaining a quality of building stone superior to any produced up to this time in Ohio, which very soon became, and is still, in large demand. In the spring of 1866, the firm sold the first five hundred tons of Berea rock block stone that ever went to New York city, and succeeded in so far interesting several of the largest builders of the metropolis in this stone as to induce them to visit the Berea quarries. During the year 1867, the firm sent to New York all the clear rock block stone they could get out, and also filled several large contracts for block stone with the Cleveland and Toledo and Lake Shore Railroad Companies, doing this year a very large business. On the 1st of January, 1867, the firm was increased by taking in another brother, Mr. Michael McDermott, the firm name remaining unchanged.
The house of J. McDermott & Co. occupies at this time a leading position in the stone trade of Ohio, and indeed of the West, not alone in the amount of its annual business, but in credit, character and influence, and in these latter respects it is hardly surpassed by any mercantile house in Northern Ohio. The trade of the house not only extends to nearly every State of the Union and the Dominion of Canada, but the product of its quarries finds a market in Mexico, South America and other parts of the world. During 1867, this house furnished the stone for fourteen blocks and fronts in New York city, and a number of buildings in Boston, New Haven and other cities, and in 1868, the business was largely increased. A single firm of builders in New York city erected during that year fifteen buildings and fronts for which J. McDermott & Co. furnished the stone.
The quarries owned by this firm embrace twenty-five acres of land of which less than an acre has been worked out. In 1867, they turned out 106,200 cubic feet of block stone, 46,000 feet of flagging, 119 car loads of rough block stone, and 1,510 tons of small grindstones. These quarries are valued at $200,000, and the excellent quality of the stone produced is amply attested by the large and increasing demand for it.
The business of the house of J. McDermott & Co. is under the immediate personal supervision of Mr. James McDermott, to whose experience, enterprise and business capacity its marked success is due. Mr. McDermott has taken an active interest in all that relates to the stone business, and also to whatever tends to build up the prosperity of Cleveland. In 1866 and 1867, he visited Washington to procure the modification of the internal tax and import duty on stone, and was successful in his endeavors. He also brought about the organization of the “Association of the Grindstone and Block Stone Manufactures of Northern Ohio,” a work which was not accomplished without much difficulty, in spite of the fact that it was for the mutual benefit of all engaged in the trade. It should be mentioned in this connection that the firm issued a valuable series of tables of weights of grindstones, and rules for computing the same, now in general use by manufacturers, and which was chiefly compiled by Mrs. McDermott. The most recent public work of Mr. McDermott was his active labor in organizing the Cleveland, Wooster and Zanesville Railroad Company, to which he has devoted time, money and labor.
Mr. McDermott is still young, being but thirty-two years old, of fine physical proportions, a robust constitution, and clear, comprehensive mind. His healthfulness, and also his success in business, he attributes in large measure to his habit of strict temperance. In business matters he is prompt, scrupulously conscientious, and holding a verbal engagement to be as binding as the most carefully drawn contract. In private and social circles he is warm-hearted, cheerful, and every way a pleasant companion.
J. A. Redington.
J. A. Redington is son of Captain John Redington, formerly of Saratoga county, New York, who, when nineteen years of age, ran away from his stepfather, who abused him, and volunteered into the Revolutionary army, where he served seven years, and was taken prisoner by the British, and incarcerated in the Sugar House, New York. There the privation that fell to his lot in the great struggle for freedom, nearly killed him. Had Capt. Redington lived till the present time he would have been one hundred and twelve years old. J. A. Redington, the subject of this sketch, was born June 4, 1818, when his father was sixty-one years old, and there were five children born to the old soldier afterwards. At the birth of the last, he was seventy-two years of age.
Ten years of the boyhood of J. A. was spent with an uncle in Vermont, where he received a good common school education. While living at that place his father died, and at the age of sixteen he had a keen realization of the situation. He had nothing, and could not mend matters where he was, so he determined to go home to his mother and see if he could be of service there. After remaining with his mother a year, he engaged with a ship-chandler at Oswego, for twenty-five dollars per year and board. After a few months his employer closed up, leaving him out of employment. About a year from this time, his former employer, who had gone to Cleveland, wrote him that if he would come to Cleveland he would employ him again. He worked his passage on a canal boat from his home to Oswego, where he took passage on board a vessel just leaving for Cleveland.
The late Chester Deming was the gentleman who had engaged his services. He received two hundred dollars the first year, three hundred the second year, and four hundred the third, on which handsome salary, for those times, he concluded to marry.
Mr. Deming closed up his business here in 1841, and Mr. Redington commenced on his own account, dealing in oats, wheat and other grains. This continued about a year when he formed a partnership for the purpose of opening a general furnishing house for vessels. He did a successful business, but as it was only during the summer months, he established a dry goods store in connection with it on the West Side. This enterprise was only partially successful, and so he closed it up, and for several years was employed as clerk on board a steam boat.
In 1856, he, in connection with Mr. Bacon, commenced the shipping and forwarding business, built the vessel E. C. Roberts, which was a profitable investment, and also ran the propeller Manhattan. This partnership was dissolved after two years, Mr. Redington retaining his vessel interests. He is now engaged in mercantile pursuits on the river, dealing principally in pig metal.
By dint of hard work and a determination to succeed in spite of adverse circumstances, and by strict integrity, he has accomplished his purpose and acquired a comfortable competency.
Samuel Sage Coe.
S. S. Coe has been favorably known in the business circles of Cleveland for over thirty years, and, although he has not succeeded in amassing as much wealth as some of his competitors, yet his fortitude has enabled him to glide over reverses easily, and enjoy somewhat of life as it came.
Mr. Coe was born in Oswego, New York, October 6th, 1819. He obtained all the education a widowed mother could give him before he was twelve years of age, when he entered a country store and remained five years. The only recreation he had during that time was a trip to Niagara, on the schooner Saratoga, with Capt. Dolph. Howe, with whom some of our citizens are well acquainted. In 1836, he went to New York and clerked in the hardware store of Wolf, Bishop & Co., and returned to Oswego in June, 1837. Not being able to find employment there, he concluded to try his fortune in the West, and at once took the schooner Charles Crooks, bound for Cleveland. Mr. Coe landed in this city July 19th, 1837, his cash capital being at the time one dollar and twenty-five cents. After a few days a situation was obtained in the office of Ransom, McNair & Co., with a salary of thirty dollars per month, out of which he had to board himself. He remained with this firm until about 1841, when he went into the employ of B. F. Smith & Co., composed of B. F. Smith, now residing at Buffalo, as superintendent of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, and George Woodward, now residing at Milwaukee, with whom he remained until 1845, when he engaged in business for himself, in the firm of Doddridge & Coe, in the forwarding and commission line. In about one year this firm dissolved, and Mr. Coe went into the same business with his brother, Chas. W., under the style of S. S. Coe & Co. This firm was unfortunate, and existed only one year.
In 1848, while doing a small commission business alone, he was offered, and accepted, the agency of the Merchants’ Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, and labored faithfully for them one year, and, at its close, his premiums amounted to less than two hundred dollars. This was the first insurance company with which he was ever connected.
In 1851, Mr. Coe organized and got into operation the Commercial Mutual Insurance Company, of this city, acting as its Secretary for about one year and a half, when he resigned, and went into the insurance agency business, with which he has ever since been identified.
In 1865, Mr. Henry F. Clark desired him to reorganize the Cleveland Insurance Company, the charter of which was granted by the State of Ohio in 1830, and which was successfully managed by his father, Mr. Edmund Clark, until his death. Mr. Coe undertook and completed the task, and operations re-commenced April 1st, of the same year, on a paid up cash capital of one hundred thousand dollars, increased in 1866, to one hundred and fifty thousand; and in 1867, to two hundred thousand dollars, and now increased to its limit, five hundred thousand dollars, making it the largest cash capital company in the State of Ohio, a credit to the city and to the State at large.
Mr. Coe is the right man in the right place, as the successful workings of this company fully demonstrate. He, as secretary, devotes his whole attention to the interest of the company. H. B. Payne is the president, and S. D. McMillan, vice-president.
In looking over a correspondence of about twenty years ago, in search of some data connected with Mr. Coe’s history, we came on the following letters, which will be read with amusement by old Clevelanders, as reminiscences of the ante-railroad period, and for the allusions to public and political events of that day, as well as for the contrast between the irascible tone of one letter, and the cool humor of the other:
Messrs. S. S. Coe & Co., Cleveland, Ohio:
Gentlemen,–No one dislikes, more than we do, to grumble or find fault, but we hate just as bad to have our boats detained beyond a reasonable time, at your place; and when our boats leave here for your place, we look for them back at a certain time; and if they do not get here soon after that time, it disarranges all our calculations and proves a great loss to us. All our boats were detained a week on account of a break in our canal, and then to be detained beyond a reasonable time in port, makes it worse. Mr. Wheeler, at Akron, is the only man on the Ohio canal, that we know of, that has been in the business longer than we have on our canal, and we defy you to find a boatman on our canal or river that will say we ever detained them beyond a reasonable time; and there is no need of it if men do as they would be done by, and the situation our river has been in this geason has been vexatious enough for any one. Time is money, and eight or ten boats being detained a day or two counts up. The J. Larkin left for your place to-day.
Tours truly,
S. Adams & Co.
Cleveland, July 29th, 1848. Messrs. Sam’l Adams & Co., Dresden, O.:
Gentlemen,–Your esteemed favor of the 25th inst. is at hand.
It has been a matter of some considerable interest to us to ascertain, if possible, as to which city takes precedence in age, Zanesville or Cleveland.
As, which incident is first in date, the cutting of the bridle path from Wheeling to the Muskingum by Old Zane, or the coasting of our lake to the Cuyahoga of the exploring party under Old Stow. Your Mr. Adams, we are quite sure, can give us the much desired information.
We see it stated that our good Democratic candidate for President once resided at or near your beautiful village. You may be familiar with his early history–we wish to know, if such a thing is possible, whether he commenced his political career as a Federalist or a Democrat, and whether he did or did not break his sword at the disgraceful surrender of that old coward Hull; but more than all, as we think it most important of all, is, did he, or did he not, when at the age of nineteen, wear that emblem of Federalism, the black cockade. To this last question we beg you will give us an answer if such a thing be possible.
While troubling you in this manner, for which we beg your kind indulgence, may we also ask you as to the condition, moral and physical of your returned volunteers? Report says they have been badly treated; we are anxious to know as to this, for if so, and commanded by Whig’ officers, we can make political capital out of it against the Whig party; if not, we can make capital against the administration; we do not care which, as our object is to do justice to both parties. Can you tell us which candidate they will support. They are important in numbers, and from their high character, will carry a great, moral force with them; and on this last account we have supposed they would oppose General Taylor, as it has been said he used profane language at the battle of Buena Vista.
We are erecting here a new and beautiful theater, it opens Aug. 21. We hope we may see you here at that time.
Your ob’t serv’ts,
S. S. Coe & Co.
P.S. You are right as to the _unnecessary_ detention at this place of canal boats; it is an evil of great turpitude. _We never do so_. Aside from the great loss to owner, it affects the morals of the crews, and in this we know the oldest forwarder on the canal, Mr. Wheeler, will agree with us.
John Long Severance.
Conspicuous among those former residents of Cleveland who have passed away and left only a pleasant memory behind them, is John Long Severance, who died about ten years ago, mourned by a wide circle of friends, whom his many lovable qualities had brought around him.
Mr. Severance was born in 1822, his father being Dr. Robert Severance, of Shelburne, Massachusetts. His parents dying within a few months of each other, when he was but nine years old, young Severance was adopted by the late Dr. Long, of Cleveland, who gave him every advantage in the way of education that could be procured in the city. A college course was intended but his delicate health forbade this, and in his sixteenth year he was taken into the old Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, and then into the reorganized institution, remaining there twenty years.
His health, never good, broke down entirely under the fatiguing duties of the bank, and he was compelled to resign his connection with that institution and seek a restoration of his wasted vigor by a voyage to Europe. At Southampton, England, he died on the 30th August, 1859, at the age of thirty-seven, surrounded by every attention which kind friends and sympathizing strangers could bestow upon him.
Mr. Severance was a man of many rare and sterling attractions. His social qualities, passion for music, and love for little children, as well as sincere attachment to a large circle of friends, caused general mourning for his death. He was one of the founders of the Second Presbyterian church, and by the members of that body his loss was keenly felt. He had always felt a deep interest in the prosperity of the church, contributing largely through his rare ability as a musician, both in the choir and in the Sunday schools, to the welfare of the congregation, until he was obliged to abandon those services on account of advancing disease. With rare energy and many reasons for desiring to live, he was slow to believe that he must fall in early manhood before the destroyer. And while he was not afraid to die, and expressed a firm confidence in God in whatever event, he felt it to be his duty to struggle for a longer life, and no doubt prolonged his days in this manner. He was consistent, uniform, earnest, stable, both in faith and practice; always punctual in the discharge of his business and Christian duties, his attendance in the church, and his labors in the mission and Sunday schools. His last letter before death, written to an intimate personal and business friend, said: “I feel quite sure the disease is making rapid progress, but this gives me no uneasiness or alarm, nor have I experienced any feeling but that I am hastening home. The prospect would be dark indeed with no hope in Christ, no deep and abiding trust in God’s pardoning love. This trust in him has sustained me through every trial, and this hope in Christ and his all-atoning blood grows brighter every day, taking away the fear of death, and lighting up the pathway through the dark valley, through which so many of my loved ones have already passed.”
[Illustration: D. Sanford]
Daniel Sanford.
The late Daniel Sanford, whose name is held in esteem by old Clevelanders, was born in Milford, Connecticut, in 1803. At a very early age he left his home and went to New York where he learned the trade of a ship joiner, one of his first jobs being upon the cabins of the Fairfield, the first steamer on the East River.
In 1834, he came to Cleveland and worked for some time at his trade as a journeyman ship joiner. In coming time he aspired to build ships on his own account, and for this purpose formed a partnership with Luther Moses. The first work done by the firm was on the steamer New York, and subsequently the steamers Ohio and Saratoga were built by them. In addition to these a very large number of propellers and sailing vessels were built, and canal boats almost without number. The mere list of crafts of one description and another, built by this firm, would take considerable space in our pages.
In 1849, the firm, which had done so much important work in the ship yards, was dissolved and Mr. Sanford changed his business from ship-building to dealing in lumber, which he entered upon on a large scale and continued under the title of D. Sanford, and subsequently Sanford & Son, until his death, which occurred on Sunday morning, September 22, 1864, after an illness of about four weeks, the disease being inflammation of the bowels.
Mr. Sanford came to Cleveland with but five hundred dollars in his pocket, but he worked his way with prudence and economy till he had acquired a handsome property. His business on his death descended to his third son, Nelson Sanford, who has conducted it prudently and with success.
He was earnestly patriotic, and on the outbreak of the war for the Union he took a lively interest in everything pertaining to it. Becoming satisfied that the rebels never intended submission to the lawful authorities until they were flogged into submission, he strongly urged their severe punishment, and contributed liberally to send men into the field.
Mr. Sanford was a strong advocate of the consolidation of Ohio City and Cleveland, and in his position of member of the Ohio City Council aided materially in bringing about the result. He was no politician, but was not one of those who make that fact an excuse for taking no interest in public affairs. He had decided views on public matters, and never avoided his duties as a citizen.
In whatever concerned the welfare of the city he took strong interest, and was one of the first stockholders of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company, as he was also of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad Company.
Every dollar of Mr. Sanford’s money was honestly earned; not a hard, mean, or wrongful action tarnished a single penny passing into his hands. Had he been avaricious he might have died worth half a million dollars, but he was infinitely richer in the blessings of hundreds of poor people who were the secret recipients of his bounty. He had “a hand open as day for melting charity.” Yet in his good deeds he never let his left hand know what his right hand did. His last words on earth were of a character in keeping with his whole life. Calling his youngest son to his bedside he said, “Benjamin, be honest in all your transactions.” On the tomb of David Sanford can with truth be written: “An honest man–the noblest work of God.”
Charles W. Coe.
Charles W. Coe, so long and favorably known in our business circles, was born in Oswego, New York, March 19th, 1822. His grandfather, Col. Eli Parsons, was a soldier in the Revolution, and prominent in the Shay’s Rebellion, in Massachusetts. His father was a physician of much note in Oswego, and died about 1828, leaving two children; Charles, the younger, is the subject of this sketch. Like a great many other physicians, he left a number of old accounts of no value, and not a great deal besides, so that Charles and his brother had to strike out early in life to do something towards getting a living, and hence educational matters did not receive all the desired attention.
Charles came to Cleveland in 1840, and at once engaged as clerk with N. E. Crittenden, jeweler. He remained in that situation about a year, when he returned to Oswego, and after the lapse of two years, came back to Cleveland, and entered into the employ of Pease & Allen, produce and commission merchants, with whom he remained until 1849. At that time, he went into the employ of Mr. Charles Hickox, and continued with him until 1855, when he took an interest with Mr. Hickox in the milling business, already referred to in this work, and in which he still continues.
Mr. Coe has won his present prominent position among the business men of Cleveland by shrewd foresight and close attention to business. He is a hard worker and a keen observer of the fluctuations of business, mingling prudence with enterprise to such a degree that, whilst he has driven a profitable business, it has always been a safe one. He is frank, unselfish, and free hearted. Whilst having had reason to appreciate the value of money, he esteems it not so much on its own account as on account of the domestic comforts and enjoyments its judicious expenditure brings.
S. M. Strong
The drug establishment of Strong & Armstrong stands foremost in that branch of the business of Cleveland and has achieved a wide reputation, having an extensive trade not only through Northern Ohio, but in Indiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, drawing custom away from Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Detroit in territory previously considered naturally tributary to those places.
S. M. Strong, the leading partner of the firm, is a native Buckeye, having been born in Lorain County, Ohio, in 1833. His boyhood was spent in acquiring a good common school education, after obtaining which he became clerk in a drug store at Elyria, entering it at the age of sixteen and remaining about two years when, in 1850, he accompanied his employer, who removed to Cleveland, and remained with him there three years more.
At the end of that time, he entered Gaylord’s drug store, in which he continued about two years, when he turned his attention to pushing a fever and ague remedy which he had been at work on for several years previous. Four years he devoted to this work, finding a partial success, and then he formed a partnership with A. C. Armstrong, of Medina county, for the purpose of building up a wholesale and retailing business. The business of Henderson & Punderson, which was established in 1836, was purchased, and the new firm of Strong & Armstrong opened business in the old place, No. 199 Superior street. At first the business was carried on in a limited way, the total of jobbing and retail sales for the first year amounting to but $75,000. But the partners were young, energetic, and full of hope. They pushed their trade vigorously, attended closely to the details of the business, and mingled enterprise with prudent economy so well that they were soon gratified at finding their business annually growing larger and more profitable. In less than ten years their trade has grown from about $75,000 in a year to over $600,000, and their limited establishment so enlarged as to require the services of twenty-four assistants. The business, though large, has been managed with such care and prudence as to render losses very light and litigation almost wholly unnecessary.
Ship Building
For years Cleveland has been the principal ship building port on the lakes. Of late the ship building interest here has shared the depression felt by it throughout the Union, but it is still an important interest, and before long will probably resume its activity.
The first vessel reported built in the vicinity of Cleveland was the Zephyr, thirty tons burthen, built by Mr. Carter, in 1808, for the trade of the village. The precise spot of her building is not recorded. She was burned at Conjocketa Creek, near Black Rock. The next was the Ohio, of sixty tons, built by Murray and Bixby, in 1810, and launched from the East bank of the river near the spot now occupied by Pettit & Holland’s warehouse. She was sailed by John Austen and afterwards became a gunboat in Perry’s fleet, but took no part in the battle of Lake Erie, being absent on special service.
In 1813, Levi Johnson built the Pilot. The story of her construction and launch has already been told in the sketch of Levi Johnson’s life. In that sketch also will be found the account of most of the early ship building of Cleveland, he being the principal ship builder of the pioneer days.
In 1821, Philo Taylor built the Prudence, which was launched on the river opposite where the New England block now stands.
In 1826, John Blair built the Macedonian, of sixty tons, and in the same year the Lake Serpent, forty tons, was built by Captain Bartiss and sailed by him.
The first steamboat built in Cleveland was the Enterprise, built by Levi Johnson in 1826, but not floated into the lake until the following year.
The enterprise of ship building pursued a steady course in Cleveland for a number of years, a few vessels being added annually, until about the year 1853, when the business took a sudden start and made rapid progress. For the next few years the ship yards were busy and the ship building interest was one of the most important branches of the business of the city. In 1856, a total of thirty-seven lake crafts, sail and steam, was reported built, having a tonnage of nearly sixteen thousand tons. During the past twenty years, nearly five hundred vessels of all kinds, for lake navigation, have been built in the district of Cuyahoga, and of these all but a small proportion were built in Cleveland. The description of vessels built has greatly altered during that time, the size of the largest class having more than trebled. During the year 1868, there were built in this port four propellers, one steamer and three schooners, with an aggregate of 3,279 tons. This is much less in number and tonnage than in some previous years, but still gives Cleveland the lead in the ship building of the lakes. The absorption of the flats on the lower part of the river for railroad and manufacturing purposes, and for lumber yards, has seriously incommoded the ship building interests by restricting the space available for ship yards.
In the division of the ship building business of the lakes in past years, the construction of large side-wheel steamers was principally carried on at Buffalo, whilst in first class propellers and sailing vessels Cleveland immeasurably distanced all competitors, both in the quantity and quality of the craft turned out. As the demand for side-wheel steamers lessened, the site of their construction was removed from Buffalo to Detroit. Cleveland-built propellers, however, take front rank, and Cleveland-built sail vessels have found their way over every part of the lake chain, sailed down the Atlantic coast from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to South American ports, and crossing the Atlantic, have penetrated nearly every European sea. Everywhere they have done credit to their builders by their speed, sea worthiness, and excellent construction.
Just here it is proper to place, on record the history of an attempt to establish a direct trade with Europe, which gave abundant promise of good results, both to the commercial and ship building interests of the city. It has already been referred to in this work, but it appropriately falls within the scope of this sketch.
In the year 1856, the schooner Dean Richmond, of 379 tons, was built by Quayle & Martin in Cleveland, for C. J. Kershaw, of Chicago. This vessel was loaded with wheat and under the command of Capt. D. C. Pierce, sailed from Chicago to Liverpool. She arrived in good time, having made a quick passage, and astonished the English people by her rig, and from the fact of her having come from the inland lakes of America to Europe. The schooner was sold in Liverpool, and her new owners changed her name to the Belina, and placed her in the trade between Liverpool and Brazil, on which route she made quick and successful trips.
In 1857, the same builders turned out the barque c.J. Kershaw, of 380 tons burthen, having built her for Capt. D. G. Pierce, who was the pioneer captain in the trade. The Kershaw was loaded with staves, cedar posts and black walnut lumber. In the Fall, she started on her return with a load of crockery and iron, but was twice driven back by terrific gales and had to go into dock for repairs. This brought her into St. Lawrence river so late, that she was frozen in the Lachine Canal. Early in 1858, she arrived in Cleveland with her cargo in excellent order and to the perfect satisfaction of the consignees.
About the time that the Kershaw was launched, a small British schooner, the Madeira Pet of 123 tons, came from Liverpool through the rivers and lakes to Chicago, with a cargo of hardware, cutlery, glass, &c., on speculation. The enterprise was not successful, and no more attempts were made to establish a direct trade between Chicago and European ports.
During the Spring and Summer of 1858, several of the leading business men of Cleveland entered with vigor into the trade, and a respectable fleet of vessels was dispatched to European ports. A new barque, the D. C. Pierce, was built for Messrs. Pierce & Barney and sent to Liverpool with a cargo of staves and black walnut lumber. The same parties sent the C. J. Kershaw to London with a similar cargo, and the Chieftain and Black Hawk, with the same kind of freight. Mr. T. P. Handy sent the R. H. Harmon with staves and black walnut lumber to Liverpool, the D. B. Sexton with a similar cargo to London, and the J. F. Warner with a cargo of the same kind to Glasgow. Mr. H. E. Howe sent the new barque H. E. Howe to London with a cargo of staves and lumber. Col. N. M. Standart sent the Correspondent to Liverpool with a load of wheat, and Mr. C. Reis freighted the Harvest to Hamburgh with a cargo of lumber, staves and fancy woods. This made a fleet of ten vessels, owned and freighted by Cleveland merchants, with a total tonnage of about 3,600 tons. Two vessels were sent out from Detroit with similar cargoes, but the enterprise was pre-eminently a Cleveland one.
All of the Cleveland fleet disposed of their cargoes to good advantage. Six of them returned with cargoes of crockery, bar iron, pig iron, and salt. This part of the trip also proved successful. It was the intention of the owners to sell some of the vessels in England, but the shipping interests were so prostrated that it was impossible to dispose of the ships at anything like a fair price. They therefore still remained in the hands of Cleveland owners, but four of them did not return to the Lakes. The D. B. Sexton went up the Mediterranean; the H. E. Howe went on a voyage to South America, the Harvest to the West Indies, and the C. J. Kershaw was employed in the Mediterranean trade. Wherever any of the Cleveland vessels went, they called forth complimentary remarks by their fleetness and steadiness in heavy weather.
In the following year, other vessels were sent out and made successful trips. The remarkable sea-going qualities exhibited by these lake-built crafts, outsailing, as they did, ocean clippers and weathering gales that sent sea-going ships flying helpless before the storm, attracted the attention of Eastern ship-owners, and orders were received for vessels to be built for the Atlantic coasting trade. The outbreak of the war gave a severe check to the direct trade, which passed into the hands of an English firm who still continue to run vessels between Cleveland and Liverpool, and in the depressed condition of the American carrying trade on the ocean there was no longer a demand for new vessels for the coasting trade. With a revival of business in that line, and an enlargement of the canals between Lake Erie and tidewater, so as to allow the passage of larger vessels, there is a probability that a brisk demand for Cleveland vessels for the salt water will yet spring up.
[Illustration: Respectfully, S. W. Johnson]
Seth W. Johnson.
The name of Seth W. Johnson has for more than thirty years been closely and prominently identified with the ship building interests of Cleveland. He saw the business in its infancy, was largely accessory to its growth into the important proportions it at last assumed, and though no longer engaged in the business, his withdrawal from it is so recent that the mention of his name suggests, to those familiar with the affairs of the city for a number of years, the incessant tapping of the shipwrights’ hammers and visions of skeleton ships gradually assuming the form and substance in which they are to carry the commerce of the great West to market.
Mr. Johnson was a native of Middle Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, his mother, who died October 17, 1868, being formerly Miss Mary Whitmore, born at Middletown, Middlesex County, Connecticut, in 1780, and his father, Henry Johnson, born in 1776, and died July 6, 1869. Seth W. Johnson was the second son and third child of a family of nine, all of whom, with both father and mother, were alive on the 16th of October, 1868, the oldest child being then about sixty-one years old, and the youngest over forty.
Young Johnson worked with his father a short time as a farmer, but not feeling in his element in the plow field or in the cow yard, he followed the bent of his mechanical tastes, and engaged himself to work in a ship yard. He commenced work in this line when about fourteen years old, and served out his full apprenticeship of seven years, when he set up in business for himself, taking full charge of the work of finishing ships. This he carried on for three years with considerable success.
But New England, he rightly judged, was too narrow a field for the young man who wished to improve his prospects and with narrow means lay the foundation of a liberal competence. The West offered the most promise, and to the West he accordingly came, taking his kit of tools with him. Landing in Cleveland in the Fall of 1834, he satisfied himself that here was the proper place for the exercise of his knowledge and abilities, and here, accordingly, he prepared to make his home. Before settling down to steady business in Cleveland he made a trip to Perrysburgh, on the Maumee, where he assisted in finishing the Commodore Perry. This work done he returned to Cleveland in the Spring of 1835, and opened his ship yard, at first confining himself to the repair of vessels. But soon he was called on to build as well as repair. The steamboat Constellation was completed by him at Black River, and the steamboat Robert Fulton, built at Cleveland by Griffith, Standart & Co.
In 1844, Mr. Johnson associated with him Mr. E. Tisdale, and the firm of Johnson & Tisdale acquired honorable fame as ship builders along the entire chain of lakes and beyond. The copartnership lasted nineteen years. Before the formation of this partnership, Mr. Tisdale had commenced the building of a railway for docking vessels, and this was the first firm to lift vessels for the purpose of repairing them. With his first work, in 1835, in Cleveland, he commenced the acquisition of vessel property, and steadily pursued the policy of taking this kind of stock, until he became a large ship owner as well as ship builder.
The discovery of the mineral resources of the Lake Superior region attracted a large number of people to that locality, the only feasible means of communication with which was by lake. The Saut rapids prevented the assent of vessels from the lower lakes, and to meet the requirements of the trade that suddenly sprung into existence two vessels were built on Lake Superior, the freights being carried across the portage around the rapids. These vessels being insufficient for the needs, it became a question whether others could not be taken across the portage from below and launched on the waters of the upper lake. Messrs. Johnson & Tisdale thought it could be done, and took the contract for thus transporting the schooner Swallow and steamer Julia Palmer. They were hauled two miles on greased slides or ways and safely launched on the bosom of the “father of lakes.” The undertaking was considered one of great difficulty, if not of absolute impossibility, and its success gave Messrs. Johnson & Tisdale widespread notoriety.
When the first considerable fleet of Lake-built vessels left Cleveland for European ports direct–as already described in this volume–Mr. Johnson took one of his vessels, loaded with staves. She made a successful voyage, remained in Europe two years, engaged in the coasting trade, and then returned. His strange looking craft attracted considerable attention among the skippers of about forty sea-going vessels wind bound at the same time at the Land’s End, and much ridicule was thrown on her odd looks, so unlike the English salt water shipping. But the laugh came in on the other side when her superior sailing qualities enabled her to run so close to the wind as to quickly double the point, make her port, unload and reload, and sail for another voyage before one of the others could beat around the Land’s End and get in. Since that time he has sold two vessels, the Vanguard and Howell Hoppeck, to be placed by other parties in the direct line between Cleveland and Liverpool.
Mr. Johnson has taken considerable interest in matters outside of the ship building business, but which aided in developing the trade and increasing the prosperity of Cleveland. He aided in the formation of some of the railroad enterprises of the city although he has now withdrawn his interests from all but one. He also was interested in the Commercial Insurance Company, but has retired from active business and devotes his whole care to the management of his property, which has been added to by large investments in real estate in various portions of the Southern States.
He was married July 15, 1840, to Miss A. S. Norton of Middle Haddam, Conn., the native place of both, and by the marriage has had three children. The oldest, a daughter, died when seven years old; the two sons are still living, the oldest being engaged in the coffee and tea business in Buffalo, N. Y., with his father; the other at present being in North Carolina engaged in the lumber trade.
With commendable prudence Mr. Johnson has known when to quit active business and enjoy the fruits of his labor while he has a healthy mind and body capable of enjoying it, and which, without accident, he undoubtedly will have for many years to come. Hard work and close attention to business have been the cause of his success, and hence he will be able to appreciate the blessings of an ample competency. In social life Mr. Johnson is looked upon as a man of genial temperament, kindly disposition, and strong social qualities. He is universally respected by all who know him.
Thomas Quayle.
The names of Quayle and Martin are as familiar in the mouths of vessel men on the lakes as household words. The firm attained honorable prominence in the ship building records of Cleveland, and their work is among the best that floats upon the western waters.
Thomas Quayle, the senior member of the firm of Quayle & Martin, was born in the Isle of Man, May 9th, 1811, and came to America in 1827, coming straight to Cleveland, where he has remained ever since. He learned his trade of ship building from Mr. Church, of Huron, Ohio, who enjoyed an excellent reputation in that line. After working as journeyman till 1847, he formed a copartnership with John Codey, and at once started business. This firm lasted about three years, during which time, among other work, they built a vessel named the Caroline, and another, the Shakespeare. When the last named was completed, the California fever had just broken out. Mr. Codey caught the disease, the firm dissolved, and he went off to the land of gold. Mr. Quayle soon after associated himself with Luther Moses, with whom he did business for about two years, during which time they did an almost incredible amount of business, considering the short space of time, having from six to seven vessels on the stocks at once, and turning out two sets a year. One year after Mr. Moses left the firm a copartnership was formed with John Martin.
The new firm at once went into business on a large scale. From the time of their organization to the present, the firm built seventy-two vessels, comprising brigs, schooners, barques, tugs, and propellers. In one year they built thirteen vessels, and eight vessels, complete, in a year has been no unfrequent task successfully performed. Among others, they built the barque W. T. Graves, which carried the largest cargo of any fresh water vessel afloat. The propeller Dean Richmond is another of their build, and is also one of the largest on the lakes; besides these, four first class vessels built for Mr. Frank Perew, deserve mention as giving character to Cleveland ship building. They are named the Mary E. Perew, D. P. Dobbin, Chandler J. Wells, and J. G. Marston. Besides the building of vessels, they have for some years been owners of vessels, and are at present interested in several large craft. The firm of Quayle & Martin recently finished a new tug of their own, the J. H. Martin intended to be used by them in the port of Erie.
[Illustration: Yours Respectfully, Thomas Quayle]
Mr. Quayle was married in 1835, to Eleanor Cannon, of the Isle of Man, by whom he has had eleven children, of whom seven are living. The eldest son, Thomas, is ship builder by trade, and is still connected with the vessel interests, though not building them. W. H. is also of the same trade as his father, and engaged with him, as is also Geo. L. Chas. E. has been a number of years with Alcott & Horton.
Mr. Quayle stands high among the citizens of Cleveland for integrity and sterling character generally. He always fulfills his obligations, whether to employer or employed. He has worked hard with his own hands, and given personal supervision to all his work, believing that the eye of the master and the hand of the workman combined assure good work. He is strict in fulfilling all his contracts, and in this way has acquired a fine reputation and a handsome fortune. But that point has not been reached without a severe and continuous struggle against adverse circumstances, which were overcome only by a determined will and patient labor that conquered all.
Mr. Quayle’s first wife died in September, 1860. He was married again February 8th, 1867, to Miss Mary Proudfoot, of this city.
Elihu M. Peck.
Another of the ship builders who have assisted greatly in building up the commerce and reputation of the port of Cleveland, is Elihu M. Peck. The vessels built by him, or by the firm of Peck & Masters, which existed about nine years, are known over the lakes. A large proportion of the work done, especially in the later years, was in the construction of propellers, of which several of the finest specimens afloat were made in that yard.
Mr. Peck was born in Otsego county, New York, in 1822, and on reaching his sixteenth year, came west and learned the art of ship building in this vicinity. On completing his education in this business, he worked for a time as a journeyman. In 1847, he set up for himself, and his first work was the construction of the schooner Jenny Lind, of 200 tons. When she was finished he ceased building new vessels for some years, and turned his attention exclusively to the repair of old vessels, at which he found abundant occupation. His yard was always busy, for the growing lake marine demanded a large and steadily increasing amount of annual repairs.
In 1855, a partnership was formed with I. U. Masters, and the new firm immediately entered upon the construction of new vessels. The first craft launched from their stocks was the Ocean Wave, the first of a fleet of fifty built by the firm previous to its dissolution and the death of Mr. Masters. They form a fleet of which the builders had good reason to be proud, for a glance at their names will recall the whole history of the lake marine for the past fourteen years. What strides have been made in the improvement of the lake marine is plainly shown by the increase in the tonnage of the vessels built, whilst to those familiar with the lake trade, the names will call up recollections of the crafts that will give a yet better idea of the progress made.
The barque Ocean Wave, the first built by the new firm, was followed by the Julia Dean, of 460 tons. These were followed in rapid succession by the Kenosha, schooner Iowa, 370 tons, barque B. S. Shephard, 500 tons, schooners Ralph Campbell, 240 tons, A. H. Stevens, 240 tons, David Tod, 460 tons, and Ellen Williams, 380 tons; barque De Soto, 570 tons; schooners John S. Newhouse, 370 tons, W. B. Castle, 230 tons, Baltic, 360 tons, Midnight, 370 tons, and J. T. Ayer, 380 tons. At this time they undertook the construction of propellers, and the first two built were at once remarked for their correct proportions, beauty of finish, and strength of hull. They were the Evergreen City, 612 tons, and the Fountain City, 820 tons. The schooner Ellen White, 160 tons, was built, and then the firm resumed work on propellers. The Cornet, 624 tons, and Rocket of the same size, were built and put into the railroad line running from Buffalo westward. These were models of beauty and strength. Next came the schooners Metropolis, 360 tons, Mary B. Hale, 360 tons, and E. M. Peck, 168 tons; barque Colorado, 503 tons; propeller Detroit, 398 tons; barques Unadilla, 567 tons, C. P. Sherman, 568 tons, Sunrise, 598 tons, Golden Fleece, 609 tons, and Northwest, 630 tons; tugs W. B. Castle, 219 tons and I. U. Masters, 203 tons; barque S. V. R. Watson, 678 tons; propeller Toledo, 621 tons; tug Hector, 204 tons; propellers Winslow, 920 tons, Idaho, 920 tons, Atlantic, 660 tons, Meteor, 730 tons, Pewabic, 730 tons, Metamora, 300 tons, and Octavia, 450 tons. This ended the operations of the firm of Peck & Masters, in 1864. The firm was dissolved and Mr. Masters died.
[Illustration: Truly, E. M. Peck]
Mr. Peck now carried on his ship yard alone, and his first work was the filling of a contract to build two steam Revenue cutters for service on the lakes. The John Sherman, of 500 tons, and the A. P. Fessenden, of the same size, were turned out, and no better work could possibly be found. The Government officers promptly accepted the vessels and declared them more than up to the requirements of the contract. They were pronounced models of beauty, strength, and speed.
The cutters were followed by the schooner Oak Leaf, 390 tons; propellers Messenger, 400 tons, and Nebraska, 1,300 tons, the latter, one of the finest steamers put on the lakes; schooner David Stewart, 675 tons; propellers Manistee, 400 tons, and City of Concord, 400 tons. Two other propellers, one of 1,000 tons, and one of about 300 tons, were added in the season of 1869.
It will be seen that nearly all the vessels, whether sail or steam, built by Mr. Peck, were of the first class, being mainly barques and large propellers. They will be recognized by those familiar with lake commerce, as models in size, beauty, and strength, whilst several have made unusually quick trips.
Mr. Peck has enjoyed an unusual measure of success. The work of his hands has prospered, and he has earned his reward, not only in reputation but in substantial prosperity. He has aimed not only to equal the best work done by others, but studied how to improve on his own work. The result has been a constant improvement in the style and quality of his vessels, so that excellent as the last new hull may have been, it was almost sure to be excelled by the next one that left the stocks. And whilst thus giving close attention to the mechanical details of his business, he was skillful in managing the financial part of it so as to secure the rewards honestly won by industry and skill. He always kept his affairs in such order that no serious financial difficulty ever troubled him.
Nor was he an avaricious, though a prudent man. A working man himself, he was in thorough sympathy with his workmen, and in the slack season, instead of discharging his men and thus entailing want upon them, he built vessels on speculation, merely that he might keep the men busy and their families from suffering. Providentially these speculations were always successful, thus illustrating the proverb, that “there is he that scattereth, and yet increaseth.”
Mr. Peck took an active part in the formation of the People’s Gas Light Company, and is now president of that organization. He is also a director of the Savings Loan Association.
John Martin.
John Martin, of the firm of Quayle & Martin, was born in the county of Antrim, Ireland, December 15th, 1824, of poor parents, with whom he came to Canada when but nine years of age. At the age of fourteen he commenced working in a ship yard in Montreal, by turning grindstone. He soon attracted the attention of the proprietor by his using handily the tools of the workmen while they were at dinner, and he was furnished tools and set to work at the trade. He continued in this employ for about two years, and during the time, with a view to fitting himself for the business of life, he attended school in the evenings. He then worked his passage to French Creek, New York, having at the time of leaving only a dollar and a half in money. At French Creek he engaged with G. S. Weeks, one of the best ship builders on the lakes, and remained with him at French Creek two years, when Mr. Weeks moved to Oswego, Mr. Martin accompanying him to that place, and continuing in his employ two years longer. Mr. Martin then went to Detroit, where he worked a year on the steamboat Wisconsin.
In 1843, he came to Cleveland and commenced work for G. W. Jones, on the steamboat Empire. This work finished, he commenced sub-contracting, wrecking, planking, and jobbing generally, until 1846, when he went into the employ of another firm, with whom he worked two years.
At the end of that time his employers were owing him more than they could pay, so, to square the matter, he bought an interest in their business. But this did not mend the matter, as it proved to be an interest in their debts, more than in their business, they being deeply involved. The firm owned the brig Courtland, and one of the members had sailed her for some time at a great loss. Young Martin took his place and proved himself master of the situation, by reducing the liabilities of the firm to about $2,500. That done he sold the vessel, dissolved partnership, and commenced planking and general jobbing again. After a time he built a vessel for Moses & Quayle. He found frequent employment in wrecking jobs, being very successful at such work.
[Illustration: Yours truly, John Martin]
The three years thus occupied gave him a start in life. He cleared off the indebtedness of the old firm and had $3,000 ahead. He then took the contract for building the brig John G. Deshler, for Handy, Warren & Co. This was a very successful contract, and gave Mr. Martin a handsome lift, and enabled him to take an interest with Mr. Quayle, under the firm name of Quayle & Martin, a brief mention of its operations being made in the sketch of Mr. Quayle’s life.
In 1858, Mr. Martin loaded the John G. Deshler and D. C. Pierce with staves and made a successful trip to England, and on the return brought one of the spans for the Victoria bridge at Montreal. In 1859, he took over two more cargoes in the same vessels, selling one in Cork, and the other in Glasgow. Nor was this the only connection of the firm with the direct lake and ocean trade. They have built vessels for Liverpool parties, for ocean service, and also two vessels for New York parties for the same purpose. Six of these vessels have also been sold out of the lake service for ocean navigation, and have been used on the ocean for five or six years with great success. The John G. Deshler, which had been transferred to the ocean, as previously mentioned, was sunk by the rebels at the outbreak of the war, and was a total loss to the firm. The latest work of the firm is a fine vessel for A. Bradley, that will carry a thousand tons of iron ore.
Mr. Martin has proved himself admirably adapted to the line of business it was his fortune to learn, and this, of course, together with close attention to business, furnishes the clue to his success. He is emphatically a self-made man, and can therefore appreciate the handsome competence that has crowned his labors so early in life, he being now but 45 years of age.
During the war Mr. Martin was actively and earnestly on the side of the Government. He was never idle, and always ready to furnish his share, and far more than his share, to the work of suppressing the rebellion. He furnished three substitutes for the army, and was active in promoting volunteering.
Mr. Martin was married to Miss Mary Picket, of Devonshire, England, whose father and grandfather were both Episcopal clergymen. Three children were born of this marriage; a son, who is now book-keeper for the firm, and two daughters.
Mr. Martin has enjoyed the confidence of his neighbors to so high a degree, that he has represented the Ninth Ward in the City Council for six successive years.
The Bench and Bar
The leading points in the history of legal affairs in Cleveland have already been noticed with sufficient fullness in the sketch of the history of Cleveland, especially so far as relates more immediately to the earlier portion of that history. The following biographical sketches give a good general idea of the progress of affairs in relation to the Bench and Bar of the city within the active life of the present generation. It is therefore unnecessary at this place to detail more than a few incidental facts.
The township of Cleveland, of the county of Trumbull, was organized in 1800. The first justice of the Quorum, for the new township, was James Kingsbury, and the first Justice, not of the Quorum, was Amos Spafford. The first constables were Stephen Gilbert and Lorenzo Carter.
In 1810, the county of Cuyahoga was organized and Cleveland made the county seat. The court-house, of logs, was two years afterwards built on the Public Square, as narrated in previuos portions of this work. The county was organized on the 9th May, and on 5th of June a County Court was held with the following officers:
_Presiding Judge_.–Benjamin Ruggles _Associate Judges_.–Nathan Perry, Sen., Augustus Gilbert, Timothy Doan. _Clerk_.–John Walworth.
_Sheriff_.–Smith S. Baldwin.
The first lawyer in Cleveland, under the county organization, arrived here the same year and put out his shingle with the name of “Alfred Kelley” inscribed thereon. Previous to this the law business had all been done by Samuel Huntington, who arrived in 1801. At the time of the organization of the court, the court-house had not been built, and the first session was held in Murray’s store, which had just been built. The first business was the finding of a bill by the grand jury for petit larceny, and several for the offence of selling whisky to Indians, and selling foreign goods without license.
The first execution was that of the Indian Omic, which took place June 24th, 1812, as previously narrated.
In March, 1836, Cleveland was incorporated as a city, and henceforth to the ordinary courts of the county was added a city court for cognizance of offences against the ordinances.
In the year 1848, a Superior Court was organized, with Sherlock J. Andrew as judge, and G. A. Benedict as clerk. This court existed but a short time, when it expired by reason of the adoption of the new constitution of the State, which made no provision for its continuance.
In 1855, Cleveland was selected as the seat of a District and Circuit Court of the United States.
As a matter of curiosity, the following list of Attorneys and Counsellors in Cleveland, in 1837, is taken from McCabe’s Cleveland and Ohio City Directory, those not practising at that time being marked with an asterisk: Joseph Adams, John W. Allen, Sherlock J. Andrews, Oliver P. Baldwin, John Barr, Phillip Battell, George A. Benedict, Henry W. Billings, Elijah Bingham,* Flavius Bingham, Thomas Bolton, James A. Briggs, Varnum J. Card, Leonard Case,* Richard M. Chapman, Alexander L. Collins, James L. Conger, Samuel Cowles,* Henry H. Dodge, John Erwin, Simeon Ford, John A. Foot, James K. Hitchcock, George Hoadly, James M. Hoyt, Seth T. Hurd, Moses Kelley, George T. Kingsley, William B. Lloyd, George W. Lynde, Samuel Mather, Daniel Parish, Henry B. Payne, Francis Randal, Harvey Rice, O. S. St. John, Wyllys Silliman, George W. Stanley, Samuel Starkweather, John M. Sterling,* Charles Stetson, Charles Whittlesey, Frederick Whittlesey,* John W. Willey,* Samuel Williamson, Hiram V. Wilson.
[Illustration: Alfred Kelley]
Alfred Kelley.
Alfred Kelley was born at Middletown, Conn., Nov. 7th, 1789. He was the second son of Daniel and Jemima Kelley. His mother’s maiden name was Stow. She was a sister of Judge Joshua Stow, and also of Judge Silas Stow of Lowville, N. Y. The latter was the father of Judge Horatio Stow, of Buffalo, N. Y., and of Alexander Stow, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, both of whom were men of great talents and distinction. In the winter of 1798, Alfred Kelley removed with his father’s family to Lowville, N. Y. His father was President Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Lewis county, N. Y., was one of the founders of Lowville Academy and President of its Board of Trustees.
Alfred Kelley was educated at Fairfield Academy, N. Y. He read law at Whitesboro, N. Y., three years, in the office of Jonas Platt, a judge of the Supreme Court of that State.
In the Spring of 1810, in company with Joshua Stow, Dr. J. P. Kirtland, and others, he removed to Cleveland,–traveling on horseback. At the November term 1810, on motion of Peter Hitchcock, Alfred Kelley was admitted as an attorney of the Court of Common Pleas for Cuyahoga county. On the same day, being his 21st birth day, he was appointed Public Prosecutor as the successor of Peter Hitchcock, late Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio. Mr. Kelley continued Prosecutor till 1821, when he resigned. In October 1814, he was elected from Cuyahoga county a member of the Ohio House of Representatives, being barely old enough under the Constitution when the Legislature met to take his seat in that body and being the youngest member. Chillicothe was then the temporary State capital.
On the 25th of August, 1817. Alfred Kelley was married to Mary S. Welles, oldest daughter of Major Melancthon Wolsey Welles, of Lowville, N. Y. They had eleven children of whom six are now living.
He continued, with intervals, a member of the Ohio Legislature from Cuyahoga county, from 1814 until 1822, when he was appointed, with others, State Canal Commissioner, by an act of the General Assembly, empowering the Commissioners to make examinations, surveys and estimates, to ascertain the practicability of connecting Lake Erie with the Ohio River, by canal.
The Ohio Canal is a monument to the enterprise, energy, integrity and sagacity of Alfred Kelley. He was acting Commissioner during its construction and the onerous and responsible service was performed with such fidelity and economy that the _actual cost did not exceed the estimate!_ The dimensions of the Ohio Canal were the same as those of the Erie Canal of N. Y., but the number of locks was nearly double. The Erie Canal was 363 miles in length, its total cost was $7,143,789, and cost per mile $19,679. The Ohio Canal is 307 miles in length, its total cost was $4,695,824, and cost per mile $15,300, being less than that of any other canal constructed on this continent. The Ohio Canal was finished about 1830. The labor in the then facilities for conducting important public enterprises was Herculean, but Mr. Kelley’s indomitable will, and iron constitution and physique triumphed over all difficulties. Mr. Kelley neither charged nor received any pay for his first year’s services in superintending the preliminary explorations and surveys for the Ohio Canal. The pay of the Acting Canal Commissioner was $3,00 [sic] per day. When the work was done he resigned as Canal Commissioner, and retired from public service to attend to his private affairs, and recuperate his shattered constitution and health. In the Fall of 1830, he became a resident of Columbus. In October, 1836, he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives from Franklin county, and was re-elected to the same office in the next two Legislatures. He was Chairman of the Ohio Whig State Central Committee in 1840, a year distinguished for a great political revolution and the election of Wm. H. Harrison to the Presidency, and was one of the most active and influential managers of that campaign.
Mr. Kelley was appointed State Fund Commissioner in 1840, a period of great financial embarrassment and distress. In 1841 and ’42, a formidable party arose in the Legislature and in the State, which advocated the non-payment of the maturing interest upon the State debt, and the repudiation of the debt itself. This was a time which indeed tried the souls of men. Mr. Kelley went to New York, and such was the confidence reposed in his integrity and practical ability–notwithstanding the underhanded and atrocious means employed by the repudiators, to defeat his object–that he was enabled to raise in that city (where no one could be found willing to loan money to the sovereign State of Ohio) nearly a quarter of a million of dollars on his own personal security, and thus by his generous efforts, and by his alone, the interest was paid at maturity, and the State of Ohio was saved from repudiation. At the time that Mr. Kelley thus volunteered himself as security for the State, (an act which was done contrary to the advice of his friends,) such was the unenlightened state of public opinion, such the moral obtuseness of some, nay, many men in power, that the chances were a hundred to one that no effective measure would be adopted to save the public credit–none to indemnify him.
In 1844, he was elected to the State Senate from the Franklin district. It was during this term that he originated the bill to organize the State Bank of Ohio, and other banking companies, which by general consent among bankers and financiers, was the best of American banking laws. His banking System was successfully in operation during the whole twenty years of its charter. Many of the most valuable provisions of the present National banking law were taken from Mr. Kelley’s bill to “organize the State Bank of Ohio.” Many of the provisions of this law were original and novel, and evinced deep thought and a profound knowledge of this department of political science. For several years, and during some of the most trying periods in the financial history of Ohio, and of the country, Mr. Kelley was a member of the Board of Control of the State Bank of Ohio; and part of the time was President of the Board. It was also during this Senatorial term that Mr. Kelley originated the present Revenue System of the State. The main principles of this Revenue or Tax law were subsequently incorporated in the new Constitution of Ohio.
While Mr. Kelley was a member of the Legislature few valuable general laws can be found in the Statute books which did not originate with him, and most of the measures requiring laborious investigation and profound thought were entrusted to him. He was the author, in 1818, of the first Legislative bill–either in this country or in Europe–to abolish imprisonment for debt.
It then failed to become a law. In a letter to a friend, dated Jan. 16th, 1819, Mr. Kelley said: “The House has to-day disagreed by a small majority, to my favorite bill to abolish imprisonment for debt. I was not disappointed, although at first, a large majority seemed in favor of it. The time will come when the absurdity as well as inhumanity of adding oppression to misfortune will be acknowledged; and if I should live to see that day I shall exult in the consciousness of having early combatted one of the worst prejudices of the age.” In 1831, the Legislature of New York passed the first law abolishing imprisonment for debt.
At the end of this Senatorial term he was elected President of the Columbus & Xenia Railroad Company, and was actively engaged upon all the duties of that enterprise until it was finished; soon after which he resigned. While this road was in progress, upon the urgent solicitation of the active promoters of the C., C. & C. R. R., Mr. Kelley accepted the Presidency of that Company, and began the work with his usual order and ability.
His zeal and labors upon this enterprise were only surpassed in his work upon the Ohio Canal. He solicited subscriptions to the capital stock; located much of the route; procured rights of way; attended in person to the purchase of materials; the procuring of money, and the details of the construction of the road, and continued the ever working president of the road until he resigned, a short time after its completion. With his own hands he dug the first shovel of earth, and laid the last rail upon this road. It is but just to say, that the citizens of Cleveland and the people of Ohio are more indebted to Alfred Kelley than to any other man for the C., C. & C. R. R. He was still acting president of the C. & X. and the C., C. & C. Companies, when he was chosen, in 1850, president of the C., P. & A., or Lake Shore R. R. Company. He was actively engaged upon this road in the performance of duties similar to those done upon the C., C. & C. road until its completion in 1853, when he resigned. It was while he was president of this road that the famous riots occurred at Erie and Harbor Creek, Pa., in opposition to the construction of the road through Pennsylvania. The success of the company in this formidable contest was largely due to the sagacity, forbearance and indomitable will of Alfred Kelley. When he took charge of these railroads, such enterprises at the West had but little credit at the East. The roads constructed by him have paid regular dividends from the time of their completion. He continued until his death an active director in these companies.
In October, 1857, he was again elected to the State Senate from Columbus, being then 64 years of age, and the oldest member of the Legislature. This was his last appearance in public life. During the last year of this service his health was declining. Although so much debilitated that prudence required confinement to his house, if not to his bed, yet such was his fidelity to his trust, that he went daily to the Senate and carried through the Legislature several important measures to ascertain the true condition of the State Treasury, and to secure the public funds from further depredations.
At the end of this term he retired from public life hoping to regain his health; but his constitution was too much broken to admit of re-establishment. He did not appear to be affected with any specific disease, but seemed gradually wasting away from an over-taxed mind and body. His oft quoted maxim was, “It is better to wear out than to rust out.” He was only confined to his room a few days previous to his death, and on Friday, the 2d day of December, 1863, his pure spirit left its earthly tenement so gently that the friends who surrounded him could scarcely determine when it ascended. Mr. Kelley was twenty-four years in the service of the people of Ohio, in the Legislature, and as Canal Commissioner, and Fund Commissioner. His history would be almost a complete financial and political history of Ohio. He gave a greater impulse to the physical development of Ohio, and left upon its statute books higher proofs of wisdom and forecast than any who had preceded him. Indeed, few persons have ever lived who, merely by personal exertions, have left behind them more numerous and lasting monuments of patient and useful labor.
Note.–For much of this sketch we are indebted to an unpublished “Memoir of Alfred Kelley,” by the late Judge Gustavus Swan, of Columbus.
Leonard Case
The late Leonard Case was the second child and oldest son of Magdalene and Mesech Case, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. His mother, who was a native of Winchester, Virginia, was of German extraction, her maiden name being Extene. His father, believed to have been of English ancestry, was born in Sussex county, New Jersey. For nearly forty years Mr. Mesech Case suffered from asthma to the extent of making him a partial invalid, and hence much of the management of his affairs devolved upon his wife, a woman of superior character, educated beyond the average of those days, energetic, having good executive ability, and blessed with robust health. The family cultivated a small farm in Pennsylvania, which yielded but a moderate support, so that when news came of the land of rich promise beyond the mountains, where the soil yielded with an abundance marvellous in the eyes of those who painfully cultivated and carefully gathered in the older States, they collected their implements and stock, packed their household effects, disposed of the farm, and, crossing the mountains, settled down somewhere between the western foot of the Alleghanies and Pittsburgh. This, however, was not the land of promise. The reports they had heard in their Westmoreland home of the soil which produced crops almost without care, and which embarrassed by their abundant yield, came from still farther west, and again the Case household took up the line of march, settling down finally upon a farm of two hundred acres near Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, in the year 1800.
There were then five children in the Case household, Leonard, the oldest son, and the subject of this biographical sketch, being then sixteen years old, having been born in Westmoreland county, Penn., July 20th, 1784. In the invalid condition of his father, and being the oldest son of the family, young Leonard was compelled to take a prominent part in the management of the affairs of the farm. In the Spring succeeding the removal to Trumbull, he started out in search of working oxen needed for the Spring work. The task was a difficult one, and he traveled for some time, becoming much heated with the walk and the anxiety. On his return he had to cross a stream several times whilst he was in this heated condition, the result being the contracting of a severe cold which settled in his limbs and brought on an inflammation that confined him to his bed for months.
It was late in the Fall of 1801, when he recovered sufficiently to arise from his bed. But he arose as a cripple. The injury he had received from his unfortunate journey was permanent, and he was unable for some time after his rising from a sick bed to walk, or even to stand. Thus helpless in body, whilst active in mind, he pondered over his future. As a farmer he was no longer of any use, and unless some other mode of livelihood was adopted he must remain a dependent on his relations. This was galling his independent nature, and he determined to avoid it if possible.
[Illustration: I am Respectfully Leonard Case]
His hands were free if his feet gave promise of but little usefulness. He concluded that the pen would be a fitter implement for his purposes than the plow, and he took measures accordingly. Whilst lying in bed, unable to rise, he had a board fastened before him in such a manner as to serve for a desk. With this contrivance he worked diligently, whilst lying otherwise helpless, to acquire the rudiments of knowledge. He learned to write and cipher with moderate ease and correctness, and when he had matured the contents of an arithmetical text book, which was the property of his mother, he borrowed a few works on the higher branches of mathematics from some surveyors in the neighborhood. From the knowledge in this way acquired, he conceived the desire to be a surveyor and he set to work energetically to perfect himself in that science so far as it could be done by books. He was embarrassed by the want of even the most simple instruments. A semi-circle for measuring angles was made by cutting a groove the required shape on a piece of soft wood, and filling it by melting and running in a pewter spoon, making an arc of metal on which the graduated scale was etched. A pair of dividers was improvised from a piece of hickory, by making the centre thin, bending it over, putting pins at the points, and regulating its spread by twisting a cord.
But more education was needed, and if he expected to pursue the path he had marked out in his mind, he must leave his home and venture out in the world. To do this, money was needed, for to a cripple like him the first struggle in the battle of life would be almost hopeless, if he entered on it totally without resources. As seen, he had already manifested a strong mechanical bent. He was domestic carpenter, making and repairing such articles as were needed in the household. This ability he immediately commenced to turn to account. A rude chair suitable to his needs was mounted on wheels, and in this he was able to reach the edge of the woods surrounding the house, where he cut twigs and made baskets, which were purchased by the neighbors. Other jobs requiring mechanical skill were done by him for the neighborhood, and in this way a small fund was gradually accumulated with which to make his meditated start in life.
In 1806, he was able to set out from home and reach the village of Warren, where he concluded that a better opportunity existed for obtaining work with his pen. He found employment as clerk in the Land Commissioner’s office, where his industry, zeal, and strong desire to improve both his knowledge and opportunities, soon brought him into notice and gained for him many valuable friends. Chief among these was Mr. John D. Edwards, a lawyer, holding the office of recorder of Trumbull county, which then comprised all the Western Reserve. Mr. Edwards proved a fast friend to Mr. Case, and his memory was ever held in respect by the latter. He advised the young clerk to add a knowledge of law to his other acquirements, and furnished him with books with which to prosecute his studies, until he was at length admitted to the bar. In addition, he gave him such writing as fell in his way to be given out, and thus aided in enabling him to support himself.
The war of 1812 found Mr. Case at Warren, having, among his other duties, that of the collection of non-resident taxes on the Western Reserve, for which he had to furnish what was then considered heavy bail. Having to go to Chillicothe to make his settlement, he prepared for the journey by making a careful disposition of all his official matters, so that in case of misfortune to him, there would be no difficulty in settling his affairs, and no loss to his bail. The money belonging to the several townships was parcelled out, enveloped, and marked in readiness to hand over to the several trustees. The parcels were then deposited with his friend, Mr. Edwards, with directions to pay over to the proper parties should he not return in time. The journey was made without mishap, but on his return Mr. Case found that his friend had set out to join the army on the Maumee, and had died suddenly on the way. To the gratification of Mr. Case, however, the money was found where he had left it, untouched.
In 1816, Mr. Case received the appointment of cashier of the Commercial Bank of Lake Erie, just organized in Cleveland. He immediately removed to Cleveland and entered on the discharge of his duties. These did not occupy the whole of his time, so with the avocations of a banker he coupled the practice of law and also the business of land agent. The bank, in common with most of the similar institutions of the time, was compelled to suspend operations, but was revived in after years with Mr. Case as president. Of those who were connected as officers with the original organization, Mr. Case gave the least promise of a long life, but yet he outlived all his colleagues.
With the close of the bank he devoted himself more earnestly to the practice of the law and the prosecution of his business as a land agent. The active practice of the law was abandoned in 1834, but the land agency was continued until a comparatively recent period, when his infirmities, and the care of his own estate, grown into large proportions, rendered it necessary for him to decline all business for others.
Mr. Case had a natural taste for the investigation of land titles and studying the history of the earlier land owners. His business as a land agent gave him scope for the gratification of this taste, and his appointment as agent for the management of the Western Reserve school lands, enabled him still further to prosecute his researches, whilst his strong memory retained the facts acquired until he became complete master of the whole history of the titles derived from the Connecticut Land Company.
From his earliest connection with Cleveland, Mr. Case took a lively interest in the affairs of the village, the improvement of the streets, maintenance and enlargement of the schools, and the extension of religious influences. For all these purposes he contributed liberally, and spent much time and labor. To his thoughtfulness and public spirit are due the commencement of the work of planting shade trees on the streets, which has added so much to the beauty of the city, and has won for it the cognomen of the Forest City. From 1821 to 1825, he was president of the village, and was judicious and energetic in the management of its affairs. On the erection of Cuyahoga county, he was its first auditor. He was subsequently sent to the State Legislature, where he distinguished himself by his persistent labors in behalf of the Ohio canals. He headed the subscription to the stock of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company with the sum of five thousand dollars, and became a director in the Company. His good sense, a judgment that rarely erred, his extensive knowledge of the village and surrounding country, and the cheerful readiness with which he gave counsel, whenever requested in good faith, caused him to be the confidential adviser of the county and municipal officials, after he had ceased to take an active part in public affairs.
One of the rules from which he never deviated, was in no case to contract a debt beyond his ability to pay within two years without depending on a sale of property. In this way he was enabled to accumulate acre after acre in what has since proved to be valuable portions of the city, and thus to acquire a vast estate, which, in his later years, became steadily remunerative.
Mr. Case was a man of uncommon industry, of high integrity, and strong common sense. His manner to strangers, especially when interrupted in business, was brusque, and gave an unfavorable impression to those unacquainted with his real character, which was uniformly cheerful and kind. As a seller of land, he was both just and generous, and from no one ever came the complaint of oppressive or ungenerous treatment. Although not a member of any church organization, he had strong religious tendencies, of a liberal cast.
Mr. Case died December 7th, 1864, leaving one son, Leonard Case, the other son, William, having died a short time earlier.
Reuben Wood.
Honorable Reuben Wood, an early settler of Cleveland, was born in Rutland county, Vermont, in 1792. In early life he worked on a farm in Summer and taught school in Winter. Resolving to achieve more than this, he went to Canada and studied the classics under the tuition of an English clergyman, and while there commenced the study of law with Hon. Barnabas Bidwell. When war was declared in 1812, young Wood, with all other resident Americans were required to leave Canada. He then went to Middletown, Vt., where he completed his legal studies in the office of Gen. Jonas Clark, an eminent lawyer of that place.
In 1818, he married, and emigrated to Cleveland, where he arrived September of that year, a stranger, and without money. He at once entered upon a successful practice, and soon became distinguished as a lawyer and advocate.
In 1825, he was elected a member of the State Senate, and was twice re-elected to the same position.
In 1830, he was elected President Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit.
In 1833, he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the close of his term was re-elected. For the last three years of his second term he was Chief Justice. As a Judge he was noted for sound logic, and the clearness of his decisions.
In 1850, Judge Wood was elected by the Democratic party Governor of the State by eleven thousand majority, and was re-elected Governor in 1851, under the new constitution, by a majority of twenty-six thousand.
In 1853, he was appointed, by the Government, Consul to Valparaiso, South America. While there, he, for some months, at the request of the Government, discharged the duties of a Minister Plenipotentiary to Chili.
On his return from Chili, he returned to his farm in Rockport, near Cleveland, where he died, October 2, 1864, generally esteemed, and highly respected by all who knew him.
John W. Willey.
John W. Willey was a native of New Hampshire, being born in 1797. He pursued a regular course of study at Dartmouth College, under the encouragement of the distinguished President Wheelock, after whom he had been named. He studied law in New York.
In 1822, being then twenty-five years of age, he came West and settled in Cleveland. At that time it had but one tavern, no church, no railroads, no canal, an occasional steamboat only, three or four stores and a few hundred inhabitants; such was the then picture of a settlement now approaching to a city of a hundred thousand people. Small as Cleveland then was, professionally, Mr. Willey had been preceded by men of decided ability. Alfred Kelley, Leonard Case, and the late Gov. Wood, had taken possession of the field four, six and twelve years before him, and were men of far more than ordinary ability. Mr. Willey was peculiarly adapted to such circumstances as these. Thoroughly versed in legal principles, of a keen and penetrating mind, a logician by nature, fertile and ready of expedient, with a persuasive eloquence, enlivened with wit and humor, he at once rose to prominence at the bar of Northern Ohio. The Cuyahoga bar was for many years considered the strongest in the State, but amongst all of its talented members, each with his own peculiar forte, for the faculty of close and long-continued reasoning, clearness of statement, nice discrimination, and never ending ingenuity, he had no superior.
In 1827, Mr. Willey was partially withdrawn from practice, by being elected to the Legislature, where he served three years as Representative and three as Senator, until 1832.
He was the first Mayor of Cleveland, being elected in 1836, and re-elected in 1837, by large majorities, and prepared the original laws and ordinances for the government of the city.
He was amongst the earliest projectors, prior to the reverses of 1836 and 1837, of the railroads to Columbus and Cincinnati, and to Pittsburgh.
In 1840, he was appointed to the bench, thus restoring him to those studies and subjects of thought from which years of public and of business life had diverted him. No sooner had he assumed this new position than by common consent it was recognized as the one above all others he was best fitted to adorn. Possessing the power which so few men have, of close, concentrated, continuous thought, he was at the same time prompt in his decisions. His instructions to juries, and his legal judgments, usually pronounced at considerable length, were marked by that precision of statement, clearness of analysis, and felicity of language, which made them seem like the flowing of a silver stream.
Judge Willey, at the time of his death, which occurred in June, 1841, was President Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District. He died deeply regretted by a large circle of professional and other friends, who had become much attached to him for his many virtues, uniform and dignified, yet unostentatious life.
In the Western Law Journal for 1852, we find a judicial anecdote related of Mr. Willey, in illustration of his wit, and immovable self-possession. The writer says: “At his last term in Cleveland we happened in while he was pronouncing sentence upon a number of criminals who had been convicted during the week, of penitentiary offenses. One of them, a stubborn looking fellow, who, to the usual preliminary question of whether he had anything to offer why the sentence of the law should not be pronounced upon him, had replied somewhat truculently, that he had ‘nothing to say,’ but who when the judge was proceeding in a few prefatory remarks to explain to the man how fairly he had been tried, etc., broke in upon the court by exclaiming that ‘he did’nt care if the court had convicted him, he wasn’t guilty _any_ how.’ ‘That will be a consolation to you,’ rejoined the judge, with unusual benignity, and with a voice full of sympathy and compassion, ‘That will be a consolation to you, in the hour of your confinement, for we read in the good Book that it is better to _suffer_ wrong, than _do_ wrong.’ In the irrepressible burst of laughter which followed this unexpected response, all joined except the judge and the culprit.”
[Illustration: Truly Yours, S. Andrews]
Sherlock J. Andrews.
Judge Andrews was born November, 1801, in the quiet New England village of Wallingford, Connecticut. His father was a prominent physician at that place, where he spent a long and useful life in the practice of his profession. He lived to a good old age, a Christian gentleman of the old school.
Although Wallingford is but a short day’s travel from Yale, even under the old System of horse and shay, or horse and saddle, young Andrews was sent out of New England to Union College, at Schenectady, New York, where he graduated about the year 1821.
Soon after this time the elder Silliman was at Wallingford, and being in need of an assistant in Chemistry and a private secretary, he offered the position to Mr. Andrews, which was accepted. It seems to have been mutually a happy relation. In his diary, Prof. Silliman says, “he was a young man of a vigorous and active mind, energetic and quick in his decisions and movements, with a warm heart and a genial temper, of the best moral and social habits, a quiet and skillful penman, an agreeable inmate of my family, in which we made him quite at home. We found we had acquired an interesting and valuable friend as well as a good professional assistant. It is true he had, when he came, no experience in practical Chemistry. He had everything to learn, but learned rapidly, as he had real industry and love of knowledge. Before the end of the first term he proved that we had made a happy choice. He continued about four years serving with ability, and the zeal of an affectionate son, without whom I could scarce have retained my place in the College.” During this experience in the field of sciences, Mr. Andrews had pursued the study of the law at the Law School of New Haven, with the same ardor, and in 1825, removed to Cleveland, and established himself as an attorney.
In 1828, he married Miss Ursula Allen, of Litchfield, Connecticut, daughter of the late John Allen, a member of Congress from that State, who was also the father of Hon. John W. Allen, of this city. The late Samuel Cowles had preceded Mr. Andrews here in the profession and offered him a partnership. Their competitors were the late Governor Wood and Judge John W. Willey, who were partners, and Judge Starkweather, who still survives. Considering the limited business of the place, which scarcely numbered five hundred inhabitants, the profession was evidently overstocked then, as it has been ever since. Briefless lawyers had, however, a wide field to cultivate outside this county, embracing at least all the counties of the Reserve; with horse and saddle-bags, they followed the Court in its travels, judges and attorneys splashing through the mud on terms of democratic equality.
Judge Andrews gave immediate promise of celebrity as an advocate. With a sensitive and nervous temperament, he entered sympathetically into the case of his client, making it his own. He possessed a brilliant readiness of manner, full of skillful thrusts, hits, and witticisms. His correct New England morals were not deteriorated by contact with the more loose codes of a new western town. In his clear and earnest voice there was that magnetic influence, which is necessary to complete the style of any orator, and which is a gift solely of nature. As a technical pleader, though he stood high, there were others upon the circuit equally gifted. But in a cause where his convictions of justice and of legal right were fixed, there was not among his contemporaries, in the courts of this State, an advocate, whose efforts were so nearly irresistible before a jury. He has command of sarcasm and invective, without coarseness. He attacks oppression, meanness and fraud as if they were offences not only against the public, but against himself. He has never strayed from the profession to engage in any speculations or occupations to divert his thoughts from pure law, except for two years from 1840, while he held a seat in Congress. In 1848, the Legislature elected him judge of the Superior Court of Cuyahoga county, a place he continued to hold till the Court was abolished. As a judge he was eminently successful, his decisions having been overruled by higher courts only in a single instance, and that owing to a clerical mistake. In politics he was evidently not at home. After leaving the bench, Judge Andrews returned to the practice, but has been chiefly employed as associate counsel, occasionally addressing juries on important cases.
As an advocate, Judge Andrews, during his whole professional career, has been in the very foremost rank, with a reputation confined neither to county, or even State lines. Distinguished for clear conceptions of legal principles, and their varied relations to practical life, he has also shown rare ability in judging of mixed questions of law and fact. His legal opinions, therefore, have ever been held in the highest esteem.
But as jury lawyer, Judge Andrews has achieved successes so remarkable as to have secured a permanent place in the traditions of the bar, and the history of judicial proceedings in Northern Ohio. The older lawyers have vivid recollections of a multitude of cases when he was in full practice, and in his prime, in which his ready insight into character–his power to sift testimony and bring into clear relief the lines of truth involved in complicated causes–his ability to state the legal principles so that the jury could intelligently apply them to the facts–his humor–his pure wit–his pathos, at times bringing unfeigned tears to the eyes of both judge and jurors–his burning scorn of fraud–and his appeal on behalf of what he believed to be right, so impetuous with enthusiasm, so condensed and incisive in expression, and so felicitous in illustration, as to be well nigh irresistible.
Yet, highly as Judge Andrews has adorned his profession, it is simply justice to say in conclusion, that his unblemished character in every relation has adorned his manhood. He has been far more than a mere lawyer. With a keen relish for historical and philosophical inquiry–a wide acquaintance with literature, and an earnest sympathy with the advanced lines of thought in the present age, his life has also been practically subordinated to the faultless morality of Christianity. A community is truly enriched, when it possesses, and can present to its younger members, such shining instances of success in honorable endeavor, and sterling excellence in character and example.
John W. Allen.
Mr. Allen, though not among the first attorneys who settled in Cleveland, was upon the ground early among the second generation. Samuel Huntington was the first lawyer of the place, becoming a resident here in the year 1801. Alfred Kelley was his successor, commencing his legal career as soon as the county courts were organized in 1810. In 1816, Leonard Case was added to the profession and in 1818 the late Governor Wood and Samuel Cowles, and about 1822, John W. Willey About the year 1826, soon after the construction of the Ohio canal was commenced, a troop of young lawyers took possession of the field, some of whom still survive, Sherlock J. Andrews, Samuel Starkweather and John W. Allen. They were all from Yankee land, in pursuit of fame and fortune. Mr. Allen originated in Litchfield county, Connecticut, a place prolific in prominent characters. His father, John Allen, was a member of Congress from that State.
From 1831 to 1835, inclusive, he was elected annually to be president of the village corporation of Cleveland, and mayor of the city corporation of Cleveland 1841. In 1835-7, Mr. Allen represented the district of which Cuyahoga county was a part, in the Ohio Senate, and in 1836 was elected to the Congress of the United States, commencing with the famous extra session of September, 1837, as an old line Clay Whig, and was re-elected in 1838.
As soon as Cleveland assumed the position of a city in 1836, the subject of railways became one of the prominent public questions. A portion of the citizens were of the opinion that they had yielded enough to the spirit of modern innovation when the Ohio canal was suffered to enter Cleveland. This had banished the Dutch wagons entirely, and railroads might complete our ruin entirely, by banishing canal boats. Mr. Allen, and the new comers generally, took the opposite side. While he was rising to a leading public position he labored zealously in the cause of railways in harmony with his political opponents John W. Willey, Richard Hilliard, James S. Clark and others, most of whom are dead. But for his zeal and perseverence the Cleveland & Columbus Railroad Company would not have been organized probably for years after it was and then it was done almost in spite of many of the large property holders of that day, who looked upon the enterprise as chimerical.
Mr. Allen’s free and generous manner not only rendered him popular among his political friends, but prevented bitterness and personality on the part of his opponents. During those years of prosperity he led a thoroughly active life, not only as an attorney with a large practice, but as an indefatigable public servant. In fact, through life he has given to the public the first and best of his efforts. He never became a finished advocate and speaker, but his enterprise and integrity secured him a large business, most of which was litigated in the counties of the Western Reserve.
Not long after Mr. Allen commenced practice in Ohio he married Miss Ann Maria Perkins of Warren, Trumbull county, an auspicious connection which was soon terminated by her death. His second wife was Miss Harriet Mather, of New London county, Connecticut, who is now living, and was the mother of two sons and two daughters, one son and one daughter now surviving.
[Illustration: J. W. Allen]
The financial storm of 1837-8 did so much damage to Mr. Allen’s fortune, as well as some unsuccessful efforts in the construction of local rail roads ahead of time, that its effects are not yet gone. Being young and energetic, with a large property, with few debts of his own, it would have affected him but little, had he not been too generous towards his friends in the way of endorsements.
In the winter of 1849-50, he was appointed under a resolution of the Legislature the Agent of the State to examine into the claims of the State on the General Government growing out of the grants of land in aid of the canals and which had been twice settled and receipted for in full, which occupied him five years at Washington. In this he was eminently successful and did the State great service, and had the State performed its part of the bargain as well as Mr. Allen did his, the result would have been a rich compensation for his labors. His was the only case of repudiation ever perpetrated by Ohio and he may well charge the State with punic faith toward him.
When the State Bank of Ohio, consisting of branches scattered throughout the State under the general management of a board of control, was authorized by an act of the Legislature about the year 1846, and which was the soundest system ever devised by any State Government, Mr. Allen was one of the five Commissioners charged with the duty of putting the machinery in operation.
Very few of the present generation realize the obligation of this city to him, and his public spirited coadjutors of thirty years since, for the solid prosperity it now enjoys.
Hiram V. Willson.
The first judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, will long be remembered by the bar and public of that District, for the ability, dignity, and purity with which, for over eleven years, he administered justice. When at last he lay down to his final rest, there was no voice raised in censure of any one of his acts, and tributes of heartfelt praise of his life, and sorrow for his loss, were laid on his grave by men of all parties and shades of opinion. As lawyer, judge, citizen, and man, Judge Willson won the respect and confidence of all with whom he was brought into social or official contact.
Hiram V. Willson was born in April, 1808, in Madison county, New York. Graduating at Hamilton College in 1832, he commenced the study of law in the office of the Hon. Jared Willson, of Canandaigua, New York. Subsequently he visited Virginia, read law in the office of Francis S. Key, of Washington, and for a time aided his slender pecuniary means by teaching in a classical school in the Shenandoah Valley. During his early legal studies he laid the foundations of that legal knowledge for which he was afterwards distinguished, and acquired that familiarity with the text-books and reports which made him a safe, prompt, and prudent counsellor. At school, college, and in the Shenandoah Valley, he maintained a close intimacy with the Hon. Henry B. Payne, then a young man of about his own age. In 1833, he removed to Painesville, but soon changed his residence to Cleveland, where he and his intimate friend, H. B. Payne, formed a law partnership.
Long after, when at a banquet tendered by the bar of Cleveland in honor of the organization of the United States Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Judge Willson referred to the auspices under which the young firm commenced business. The following toast had been offered:
The First Judge of the Northern District of Ohio: In the history and eminent success of a twenty years’ practice at the Bar, we have the fullest assurance that whatever industry, talent, and integrity can achieve for the character of this long sought for court, will be accomplished by the gentleman who has been appointed to preside over its deliberations.
In responding to the toast, Judge Willson spoke highly of the character of the profession, and then made a warm appeal to the young lawyers. He said that all there had been young lawyers and knew the struggles and difficulties that hang around the lawyer’s early path, and which cloud to him his future, and nothing is so welcome, so genial to a young lawyer’s heart as to be taken in hand by an older legal brother. He said he could talk with feeling on the subject, for the memory was yet green of the days when two penniless young men came to Ohio to take life’s start, and when as discouragements, and almost despair, seemed to lie in wait for them, there was an older lawyer who held out a friendly hand to aid them, and who bid them take courage and persevere. Who that friend was he signified by offering, with much feeling, a toast to the memory of Judge Willey.
But the young firm did not long need friendly counsel to cheer them in the midst of discouragements. Although they were but young men, and Willey, Congar, and Andrews were eminent lawyers in full practice, they soon took place in the front rank of the profession. Business flowed in upon them, and from 1837 to 1840, the number of suits brought by them in the Court of Common Pleas averaged two hundred and fifty per year; whilst during the same time they appeared for the defence in twice that number of cases annually. Briefs in all those cases were, to a great extent, prepared by Judge Willson. Upon Mr. Payne’s retirement, a partnership was formed with Hon. Edward Wade and Reuben Hitchcock, and after a while the firm was changed to Willson, Wade & Wade. Under these partnerships the extensive business and high reputation of the old firm were preserved and increased.
In 1852, Judge Willson ran for Congress on the Democratic ticket, against William Case on the Whig and Edward Wade on the Free Soil tickets. Mr. Wade was elected, but Judge Willson received a very handsome vote.
In the Winter of 1854, a bill was introduced to divide the State of Ohio, for United States judicial purposes, into two districts. The members of the Cleveland Bar pressed the matter vigorously, and after a sharp struggle in Congress, the bill creating the United States Court for the Northern District of Ohio was passed. During the pendency of the measure, and when the prospects were unfavorable for its passage, Judge Willson was chosen by the Cleveland Bar to proceed to Washington and labor in the interest of the bill. This was done, and the final triumph of the bill was doubtless owing in great measure to his unwearied industry in its behalf. In March, 1855, President Pierce appointed Mr. Willson judge of the District Court just authorized.
The formation of the court and the appointment of Judge Willson as its presiding officer, gave general satisfaction. A banquet was held by the lawyers to celebrate the event, and although Judge Willson was a strong political partizan, the leading lawyers of all parties vied with each other in testifying their entire confidence in the ability and impartiality of the new judge. Nor was their confidence misplaced. In becoming a judge he ceased to be a politician, and no purely political, or personal, motives swayed his decisions. He was admitted by all to have been an upright judge.
The new court found plenty to do. In addition to the ordinary criminal and civil business, the location of the court on the lake border brought to it a large amount of admiralty cases. In such cases, the extensive knowledge and critical acumen of Judge Willson were favorably displayed. Many of his decisions were models of deep research and lucid statement. One of his earliest decisions of this character was in relation to maritime liens. The steamboat America had been abandoned and sunk, and only a part of her tackle and rigging saved. These were attached for debt for materials, and the question arose on the legality of the claim against articles no longer a part of the vessel. Judge Willson held that the maritime lien of men for wages, and material men for supplies, is a proprietary interest in the vessel itself, and can not be diverted by the acts of the owner or by any casualty, until the claim is paid, and that such lien inheres to the ship and all her parts wherever found and whoever may be the owner. In the case of L. Wick _vs._ the schooner Samuel Strong, in 1855, Judge Willson reviewed the history and intent of the common carrier act of Ohio, in an opinion of much interest. A case, not in admiralty, but in the criminal business of the court, gave the judge another opportunity for falling back on his inexhaustible stores of legal and historical knowledge. The question was on the point whether the action of a grand jury was legal in returning a bill of indictment found only by fourteen members, the fifteenth member being absent and taking no part in the proceedings. Judge Willson reviewed the matter at length, citing precedents of the English and American courts for several centuries to show that the action was legal.
A very noticeable case was what is known in the legal history of Cleveland as “The Bridge Case,” in which Charles Avery sued the city of Cleveland, to prevent the construction of a bridge across the Cuyahoga, at the foot of Lighthouse street. The questions arising were: the legislative authority of the city to bridge the river, and whether the bridge would be a nuisance, damaging the complainant’s private property. The decision of Judge Willson, granting a preliminary injunction until further evidence could be taken, was a thorough review of the law relating to water highways and their obstructions. In the opinion on the Parker water-wheel case, he exhibited a clear knowledge of mechanics, and gave an exhaustive exposition of the law of patents. In the case of Hoag _vs_ the propeller Cataract, the law of collision was set forth and numerous precedents cited. In 1860, important decisions were given in respect to the extent of United States jurisdiction on the Western lakes and rivers. It was decided, and the decisions supported by voluminous precedents, that the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction possessed by the District Courts of the United States, on the Western lakes and rivers, under the Constitution and Act of 1789, was independent of the Act of 1845, and unaffected thereby; and also that the District Courts of the United States, having under the Constitution and Acts of Congress, exclusive original cognizance of all civil causes of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, the Courts of Common Law are precluded from proceeding _in rem_ to enforce such maritime claims.
These are but a very few of the many important cases coming before Judge Willson’s court and decided by him in a manner that made his decisions important precedents.
The judicial administration of Judge Willson was noticeable also for its connection with events of national importance. And here it should be again repeated, that in all his conduct on the bench he divested himself of personal or party predilections and prejudices. To him it was of no consequence who were parties to the case, or what the political effect of a decision would be; he inquired only what were the facts in the matter and what the law bearing upon them. The keynote of his character in this respect may be known from an extract taken from his charge to the grand jury in the Winter term of 1856, in which it was expected a case would come before that body of alleged impropriety or crime by a Government officer, growing out of party zeal during a very heated political canvass. The passions of men were intensely excited at the time of the delivery of the charge, and that address had the effect of suddenly cooling down the popular mind, in the city and vicinity at least, and of bringing about a better state of feeling. After referring impressively to the language of the oath taken by the grand jury, to present none through malice, and except none through favouritism, Judge Willson said:
It was but yesterday our ears were deafened by the turmoil and clamour of political strife, shaking the great national fabric to its centre, and threatening the stability of the Government itself. In that fearful conflict for the control of the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Federal Government, all the evil passions of men seem to have been aroused. Vituperation and scandal, malice, hatred and ill-will had blotted out from the land all brotherly love, and swept away those characteristics which should distinguish us as a nation of Christians.
How important, then, it is for us, coming up here to perform the duties incident to the courts, to come with minds free from prejudice, free from passions, and free from the influence of the angry elements around us. To come with a fixed purpose of administering justice with truth, according to the laws of the land. A dangerous political contagion has become rampant in our country, invading the holy sanctuaries of the “Prince of Peace” and polluting the very fountains of Eternal Truth.
God forbid the time may ever come when the temples of justice in our land shall be desecrated by this unhallowed and contaminating influence, or by wanton disregard of the Constitution, or by a perfidious delinquency on the part of the ministers of the law. Here let passion and prejudice find no abiding place. Here let equal and exact justice be meted out to all men–to rich and to the poor–to the high and the low, and above all things, with you, gentlemen, here preserve with scrupulons fidelity the sanctity of your oaths, and discharge your whole duty without fear and without favour. Put justice to the line and truth to the plummet, and act up fully to the obligations of that oath, and you will ever enjoy those rich consolations which always flow from a conscientious discharge of a sworn duty.
To men of your intelligence and probity, these admonitions are, perhaps, unnecessary. Knowing, however, the reluctance and pain with which the misconduct of men in office is inquired into, by those who cherish the same political sentiments, I am confident, gentlemen, that in times like these, you can not exercise too great caution in excluding from your minds all considerations, as to whether the party charged before you is the appointee of this or of that administration, or whether he belongs