out of the altered condition of the money market. The story of the seemingly hopeless, but finally successful, struggle that followed is told in another part of this work. At length, in 1857, after five or six years of persevering efforts, and most perplexing difficulties, the road was opened through to Youngstown; substantial machine shops were built at Cleveland, station houses erected along the route, and the coal and iron of the Mahoning Valley were made accessible by a quick and easy route.
In October, 1863, the road was leased for ninety-nine years to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, which had already laid a broad gauge upon the track, That company now controls the main line to Youngstown, with the several branches to Hubbard and the coal mines. The narrow gauge is kept up for the use of the Mahoning trains, freight and passenger, while the broad gauge is used by the Atlantic and Great Western through trains. The track has been extended to the shore of the old river bed, an extensive wharfage established, and large facilities obtained for connecting the traffic of the road with the lake commerce.
The Cleveland and Toledo Railroad Company was formed by the consolidation of two rival and nearly parallel lines. One of the companies thus united, was incorporated as the Junction Railroad Company, and the other by the name of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Company. The former was incorporated by an act of the legislature of Ohio, passed on the second day of March, 1846; and the latter, by an act of the seventh of March, 1850. The Junction Railroad Company, by its original charter and two amendments, in 1861, was authorized to construct a railroad from the city of Cleveland to the west line of the State by such route as the directors might determine, with power to construct branches to any points within the counties through which the main line might pass. The charter of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Company, authorized the construction of a railroad from Toledo, by the way of Norwalk, in the county of Huron, to a connection with the Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati Railroad, at some point in the counties of Huron or Lorain. The authorized capital stock of the Junction Company was three millions, and that of the other company, two millions of dollars.
The consolidation was effected, and the new company organized on the first of September, A. D. 1853, under the specific provisions of the twelfth section of the amendment to the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad charter, passed on the first of March, 1850. Under its charter, the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad Company constructed a road from the east bank of the Maumee river, opposite the city of Toledo, to Grafton, where it connects with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad, twenty-five miles south-west from the city of Cleveland, being a distance of eighty-seven and one-half miles, all of which was finished and put into operation in January, 1853. This became known as the Southern Division of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad.
The Northern Division, or Junction Railroad, was originally intended to run from Cleveland, west side, via Berea and Sandusky, westward to a point on the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad some twenty miles west of Toledo, and crossing the track of the Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland Railroad at a point about eight miles east of the same city. The road was opened between Cleveland and Sandusky and operations commenced upon it in the Fall of 1858, immediately after the consolidation. The original project of a separate line to the west was carried out by the consolidated corporation so far as to construct the road to its intersection with the old Toledo, Norwalk and Cleveland track, from which point both lines approached Toledo over the same right of way. This line was operated over its whole length until the 31st day of December, 1858, on which day the use for regular business of that portion lying west of Sandusky was discontinued, and all the through travel and traffic turned upon the Southern Division. On the 30th of July, 1856, a contract was entered into with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company by which the Cleveland and Toledo Company acquired the right to use the track of the first named company from Grafton to Cleveland, for the Southern Division trains, and from Berea to Cleveland for the Northern Division, and thence forward all trains were run into, and departed from, the Union Depot in Cleveland–a change which soon resulted in the practical abandonment, for the time, of that portion of the Northern Division lying between Berea and Cleveland on the west side of Cuyahoga river. This arrangement, together with the completion, in 1855, of a bridge over the Maumee river at Toledo, enabled the company to receive and discharge its passengers in union depots at each end of its line. During the years 1865 and 1866, about eight miles of new road were constructed between Elyria on the Northern Division, and Oberlin on the Southern Division, for the purpose of allowing all trains to leave and come upon the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Road at Berea, thirteen miles, instead of Grafton, twenty-five miles from Cleveland. This new piece of road was opened for business on the 10th of September, 1866, and the road between Oberlin and Grafton immediately abandoned, The construction of a bridge near the mouth of the Cuyahoga river at Cleveland, brought the Northern Division line between Cleveland and Berea once more into use, and over it the freight trains of the line are now run. In 1869, the company was made part of the Consolidated line between Buffalo and Chicago.
The Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, by its lease of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, has become an important part of the Cleveland railroad System. The company was organized in 1851, as the Franklin and Warren Railroad Company, to build a road from Franklin Mills (now Kent) in Portage County, to Warren, in Trumbull county, with power to extend to a point in the eastern line of the State, northeast of Warren and southwesterly to Dayton, Ohio. In July, 1853, operations were actively commenced along the whole line, but were soon seriously retarded by financial embarrassments. In 1854, the Franklin and Warren Railroad Company, under authority of an Act of the General Assembly of 1853, changed its name to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company. Two years before, a project had been started to extend the broad gauge of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad through Ohio, northeastern Pennsylvania and southwestern New York, to connect with the New York and Erie Railroad. This route would run through Meadville, Pennsylvania, Warren, Kent, Akron and Galion to Dayton, Ohio. In 1858, the Meadville Railroad Company changed their name to the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad Company of Pennsylvania. In 1859, a company was organized in the State of New York, under the name of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad in New York, and purchased in 1860 of the New York and Erie Railroad Company thirty eight miles of their road, from Salamanca to near Ashville. These thirty eight miles with eleven miles of new line, make up the entire length of line of this road in the State of New York. Each of the above companies made contracts for the building of their respective roads.
In the Fall of 1858, negotiations were commenced in London with James McHenry, for the means to carry on the work. T. W. Kennard, a civil engineer, came over as the attorney of Mr. McHenry, and engineer in chief of the whole work. In 1862, the road was opened from Corry to Meadville, Pennsylvania. In 1863, it was extended to Warren, and in the next year to Ravenna and Akron–202 miles from Salamanca.
In October, 1863, the three companies above named, leased for ninety-nine years, the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, extending from Cleveland southerly to Youngstown, Ohio, sixty-seven miles. This road has a narrow gauge track crossing the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad at Leavittsburgh, Ohio, fifty miles south of Cleveland. The Atlantic and Great Western Company laid a rail on either side of the narrow track, thus carrying the broad gauge into Cleveland, and a broad gauge train from the city of New York entered Cleveland on the evening of November 3rd, 1863. Subsequently the several companies forming the Atlantic and Great Western line were consolidated into one line, and this again was, in 1869, consolidated with the Erie Railway.
Besides opening a new and important thoroughfare to the East, this line has opened up to Cleveland the resources of north-western Pennsylvania, and in the oil product has added an immense and highly profitable trade to the business of the city.
Several lines have been built, connecting with and adding business to the railroads leading to Cleveland, but of these it is not the province of this work to speak. A large number of new railroads have been from time to time projected in various directions. Some of these “paper railroads” have intrinsic merit, and these, or lines aiming at the same objects, will eventually be built.
[Illustration: Yours truly, Jacob Perkins]
Jacob Perkins.
Jacob Perkins was born at Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, September 1st, 1822, being next to the youngest of the children of Gen. Simon Perkins, one of the earliest and most prominent, business men of norther Ohio, a land agent of large business, and the owner of extensive tracts of land. In his early years Jacob Perkins developed a strong inclination for study, acquiring knowledge with unusual facility, and gratifying his intense passion for reading useful works by every means within his power.
He commenced fitting himself for college at the Burton Academy, then under the direction of Mr. H. L. Hitchcock, now president of Western Reserve College, and completed his preparation at Middletown, Connecticut, in the school of Isaac Webb. He entered Yale College in 1837.
While in college he was distinguished for the elegance of his style and the wide range of his literary acquirements. He delivered the philosophic oration at his junior exhibition, and was chosen second editor of “Yale Literary Magazine,” a position in which he took great interest, and filled to the satisfaction and pride of his class. His college course was, however, interrupted by a long and severe illness before the close of his junior year, which compelled him to leave his studies and (to his permanent regret) prevented him from graduating with his own class. He returned the following year and was graduated with the class of 1842.
He entered his father’s office at Warren, and was occupied with its business until, upon the death of his father, some two years afterwards, he became one of his executors.
During his residence at Warren he appeared occasionally before home audiences as a public speaker, and always with great acceptance.
In politics, he early adopted strong anti-slavery principles, then not the popular doctrine, and they were always freely and openly advocated. Of an address delivered in 1848, which was published and attracted very considerable local attention, the editor of the Chronicle remarked, “We have listened to the best orators of the land, from the Connecticut to the Mississippi, and can truly say, by none have we been so thoroughly delighted in every particular as by this effort of our distinguished townsman.” The oration discussed the true theory of human rights and the legitimate powers of human government–and the following extract gives the spirit of his political principles on the subject of slavery:
The object of law is not to make rights, but to define and maintain them; man possesses them before the existence of law, the same as he does afterwards. No matter what government may extend its control over him; no matter how miserable or how sinful the mother in whose arms his eyes opened to the day; no matter in what hovel his infancy is nursed; no matter what complexion–an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him, this may decide the privileges which he is able to assert, but can not affect the existence of his rights. His self-mastery is the gift of his creator, and oppression, only, can take it away.
Without solicitation he was nominated and elected a member of the Convention that framed the present Constitution of Ohio. His associates from the district were Judges Peter Hitchcock and R. P. Ranney, and although “he was the youngest member but one of the Convention–and in the minority, his influence and position were excelled by few.”
He was one of the Senatorial Presidential Electors for Ohio on the Fremont ticket in 1856.
In the intellectual progress of the young about him, and the building up of schools and colleges, he took especial interest. He first suggested and urged upon President Pierce to adopt the conditions of the present “Permanent Fund of Western Reserve College,” rather than to solicit unconditional contributions, which experience had proved were so easily absorbed by present necessities, and left the future as poor as the past. In connection with his brothers, he made the first subscription to that fund. The embarrassment arising from his railroad enterprise prevented him from increasing that contribution. The wisdom of his suggestions was subsequently shown, when, during the rupture and consequent embarrassment under which the college labored, the income of this fund had a very important, if not vital share in saving it from abandonment, and afterwards proved the nucleus of its present endowment.
He was always efficient in favoring improvements. He was associated with Hon. F. Kinsman and his brother in founding the beautiful Woodland Cemetery at Warren. The land was purchased and the ground laid out by them, and then transferred to the present corporation.
Soon after his return from the Constitutional Convention, he became interested in the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad. He was most influential in obtaining the charter and organizing the company, of which he was elected president, and became the principal, almost sole financial manager.
Owing to prior and conflicting railroad interests, little aid could be obtained for his project in either of the terminal cities, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, and the work was commenced in 1853 with a comparatively small stock subscription. A tightening money market prevented any considerable increase of the stock list, or a favorable disposition of the bonds of the road, and the financial crisis a few years afterwards so reduced the value of the securities of this, as of all unfinished railroads, as practically to shut them out of the market. In this emergency the alternative presented itself to Mr. Perkins and his resident directors, either to abandon the enterprise and bankrupt the company, with the entire loss of the amount expended, or to push it forward to completion by the pledge, and at the risk of their private fortunes, credit, and reputations.
In this, the darkest day of the enterprise, Mr. Perkins manifested his confidence in its ultimate success, and his generous willingness to meet fully his share of the hazard to be incurred, by proposing to them, jointly with him, to assume that risk; and agreeing that in case of disaster, he would himself pay the first $100,000 of loss, and thereafter share it equally with them.
With a devotion to the interests entrusted to them, a determination rarely equalled in the history of our railroad enterprises, they unanimously accepted this proposition, and determined to complete the road, at least to a remunerative point in the coal fields of the Mahoning Valley.
The financial storm was so much more severe and longer continued than the wisest had calculated upon, that for years the result was regarded by them and the friends of the enterprise with painful suspense. In the interest of the road Mr. Perkins spent the Spring of 1854 in England, without achieving any important financial results.
At length, in 1856, the road was opened to Youngstown, and its receipts, carefully husbanded, began slowly to lessen the floating debt, by that time grown to frightful proportions, and carried solely by the pledge of the private property and credit of the president and Ohio directors. These directors, consisting of Hon. Frederick Kinsman and Charles Smith, of Warren, Governor David Tod, of Briar Hill, Judge Reuben Hitchcock, of Painesville, and Dudley Baldwin, of Cleveland, by the free use of their widely known and high business credit, without distrust or dissension, sustained the president through that long and severe trial, a trial which can never be realized except by those who shared its burdens. The president and these directors should ever be held in honor by the stockholders of the company, whose investment they saved from utter loss, and by the business men of the entire Mahoning Valley, and not less by the city of Cleveland; for the mining and manufacturing interests developed by their exertions and sacrifices, lie at the very foundation of the present prosperity of both.
Before, however, the road was enabled to free itself from financial embarrassment, so to as commence making a satisfactory return to the stockholders, which Mr. Perkins was exceedingly anxious to see accomplished under his own presidency–his failing health compelled him to leave its active management, and he died before the bright day dawned upon the enterprise.
He said to a friend during his last illness, with characteristic distinctness: “If I die, you may inscribe on my tomb stone, Died of the Mahoning Railroad;” so great had been his devotion to the interests of the road, and so severe the personal exposures which its supervision had required of him, who was characteristically more thoughtful of every interest confided to his care, than of his own health.
He was married October 24th, 1850, to Miss Elizabeth O. Tod, daughter of Dr. J. I. Tod, of Milton, Trumbull county, Ohio, and removed his family to Cleveland in 1856. Of three children, only one, Jacob Bishop, survives him. Mrs. Perkins died of rapid consumption, June 4th, 1857, and his devoted attention at the sick bed of his wife greatly facilitated the development of the same insidious disease, which was gradually to undermine his own naturally vigorous constitution.
The business necessities of his road, embarrassed and pressing as they were, united with his uniform self-forgetfulness, prevented his giving attention to his personal comfort and health, long after his friends saw the shadow of the destroyer falling upon his path. He was finally, in great prostration of health and strength, compelled to leave the active duties of the road and spent the latter part of the Winter of 1857-8 in the Southern States, but returned in the Spring with little or no improvement. He continued to fail; during the Summer and in the Fall of 1858 he again went South in the vain hope of at least physical relief, and died in Havana, Cuba, January 12th, 1859. His remains were embalmed and brought home by his physician who had accompanied him–and were interred at Warren, in Woodland Cemetery, where so many of his family repose around him. A special train from either end of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad brought the board of directors and an unusually large number of business and personal friends to join the long procession which followed “the last of earth” to its resting place.
One of the editorial notices of his death, at the time, very justly remarks of him:
He was a man of mark, and through strength of talent, moral firmness and urbanity of manner, wielded an influence seldom possessed by a man of his years. In addition to his remarkable business capacity, Mr. Perkins was a man of high literary taste, which was constantly improving and enriching his mind. He continued, even amid his pressing-business engagements, his habits of study and general reading. Mr. Perkins belonged to that exceptional class of cases in which great wealth, inherited, does not injure the recipient.
An editorial of a Warren paper, mentioning his death, says:
He was born in this town in 1821, and from his boyhood exhibited a mental capacity and energy which was only the promise of the brilliancy of his manhood. To his exertion, his personal influence and liberal investment of capital the country is indebted for the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad. To his unremitting labor in this enterprise he has sacrificed personal comfort and convenience, and we fear, shortened his days by his labors and exposure in bringing the work to completion. Known widely as Mr. Perkins has been by his active part in public enterprises, his loss will be felt throughout the State, but we who have known him both as boy and man, have a deeper interest in him, and the sympathies of the people of Warren, with his relatives, will have much of the nature of personal grief for one directly connected with them.
Said a classmate in the class meeting of 1862:
Although his name on the catalogue ranks with the class of 1842, his affections were with us, and he always regarded himself of our number. He visited New Haven frequently during the latter part of his life, in connection with a railway enterprise, in which he was interested, and exhibited the same large-heartedness and intellectual superiority which won for him universal respect during his college course.
A gentleman who knew Mr. Perkins intimately, and as a director was associated with him in the construction of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad, and in carrying its debt, wrote of him as follows:
The management and construction of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad by Mr. Perkins, under circumstances the most difficult and trying, were well calculated to test his powers, and, in that work he proved himself possessed of business capacity rarely equalled, sustained by unquestioned integrity, and remarkable energy. These qualifications, united with his large wealth, gave him the requisite influence with business men and capitalists. His devotion to the interests of the road, his abiding confidence in a favorable result, and his clear and just appreciation of its value, and importance to the community, called forth his best efforts, and were essential conditions of success. To him more than to any other individual are the projection, inauguration, and accomplishment of this enterprise attributable. From its earliest projection, he had a most comprehensive and clear view of its importance to the city of Cleveland and the Mahoning Valley, and confidently anticipated for them, in the event of its completion, a rapidity and extent of development and prosperity, which were then regarded as visionary, but which the result has fully demonstrated.
His life was spared to witness only the commencement of this prosperity, nor can it be doubted, that his close application, and unremitting efforts to forward the work shortened his life materially. His deep and absorbing interest in it, prevented the precautionary measures and relaxations, which in all probability would have prolonged his life for years. His associates in the board saw the danger and urged him to earlier and more decided measures for relief. He too was aware of their importance. But the constant demand upon his time and strength, and the continually recurring necessities of the enterprise, which he had so much at heart, were urgent, and so absorbed his thoughts and energies, that he delayed until it was obvious that relaxation could afford merely temporary relief.
In his intercourse with the board, Mr. Perkins was uniformly courteous and gentlemanly, always giving respectful attention to the suggestions of his associates, but ever proving himself thoroughly posted; readily comprehending the most judicious measures, and clearly demonstrating their wisdom. Entire harmony in the action of the directors was the result, and all had the fullest confidence in him. While his business capacity and integrity commanded their highest admiration, his urbanity, kindness and marked social qualities secured their strong personal attachment, and by them his decease was regarded as a severe personal affliction, as well as a great public loss.
Thus is briefly noticed, one who dying comparatively early, had given evidence of great business capacity, as well as the promise of unusual power and popularity with the people of his own State, and nation.
William Case.
A work professing to give sketches, however brief and incomplete, of the representative men of Cleveland, would be manifestly defective did it omit notice of the late William Case, a gentleman of sterling worth and great popularity, who was identified with much of the material progress of the city, who had a host of deeply attached friends while living, and whose memory is cherished with affectionate esteem.
[Illustration: William Case]
William Case was born to prosperity, but this, which to very many has proved the greatest misfortune of their lives, was to him no evil, but, on the contrary, a good, inasmuch as it gave him opportunity for gratifying his liberal tastes, and his desire to advance the general welfare. From his father, Leonard Case, he inherited an extraordinary business capacity, indomitable energy, and strong common sense, with correct habits. To these inherited traits he added an extensive knowledge, acquired both from books and men, and made practical by keen observation, and liberal ideas, which he carried into his business and social affairs. In all relations of life he was ever a gentleman, in the true meaning of the word, courteous to all, the rich and the poor alike, and with an instinctive repugnance to everything mean, oppressive or hypocritical. With regard to himself, he was modest to a fault, shrinking from everything that might by any possibility be construed into ostentation or self-glorification. This tribute the writer of these lines,–who owed him nothing but friendship, and who was in no way a recipient of any favor from him, other than his good will,–is glad of an opportunity to pay, and this testimony to his good qualities, falls short of the facts.
William Case takes his place in this department of our work by virtue of the fact that he was an early friend to the railroad enterprises of Cleveland. He contributed largely to the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, and for four years and a half, until August, 1858, was president of that company. Under his management the railroad prospered and paid large dividends, and when he left that position it was with the regret of all his subordinates, whose esteem had been won by his kindness and courtesy.
But it was not alone as a railroad man that Mr. Case won for himself the title to a place among the leading representative men of the city. He grew up with Cleveland, and was alive to the interests of the growing city. No scheme of real improvement but found a friend in him. He was energetic in forwarding movements for bettering the condition of the streets; he took a leading part in the location and establishment of the Water Works. Anxious to effect an improvement in the business architecture of the city, in which Cleveland was so far behind cities of less pretension, he projected and carried on far towards completion the Case Block, which stands to-day the largest and most noticeable business building in the city, and which contains one of the finest public halls in the West. Mr. Case died before completion of the building, which unforeseen difficulties made of great cost, but his plans so far as known–including some of great generosity, such as the donation of a fine suite of rooms to the Cleveland Library Association–have been faithfully carried out.
In 1846, Mr. Case was elected member of the City Council from the Second Ward, and served in that position four years. In that body he was noted for his advocacy of every measure tending to the improvement of the city, and the development of its industrial and commercial resources.
In the Spring of 1850, he was nominated, on the Whig ticket, for mayor of Cleveland, and was elected by a large majority, against a strong Democratic opponent, his personal popularity being shown by his running ahead of his ticket. His administration was marked with such energy, ability and public spirit, that in the following year–the office then being annually elective–he was re-elected by an increased majority, and ran still further ahead of his ticket.
In 1852, the Whig convention for the Nineteenth Congressional District, which then included Cuyahoga county, assembled at Painesville, under the presidency of Mon. Peter Hitchcock. Mr. Case was there nominated for Congress by acclamation, and the canvass was carried on by the Whigs with great enthusiasm. But the Democracy and the Free Soil party were against him, and under the excitement growing out of anti-slavery agitation, the Free Soil candidate, Hon. Edward Wade, was elected, though closely pressed by Mr. Case. From that time Mr. Case, who was not in any respect a politician, and who had at no time a desire or need for office, took no active part in politics.
Mr. Case did not possess a strong constitution, and early in life his medical attendant reported against his being sent to college, as the application would be too severe a strain on his health. In accordance with the advice then given, he devoted much attention to hunting, fishing, and to horticultural and agricultural pursuits. But these were insufficient to save him, and he died April 19th, 1862, whilst yet in the prime of life, being but forty years old.
Amasa Stone, Jr.
Conspicuous among the railroad managers connected with Cleveland, indeed occupying a prominent position in the list of the railroad magnates of the country, is the name of Amasa Stone, Jr. The high position he has attained, and the wealth he has secured, are the rewards of his own perseverance, industry, and foresight; every dollar he has earned represents a material benefit to the public at large in the increase of manufacturing or traveling facilities.
Mr. Stone was born in the town of Charlton, Worcester county, Massachusetts, April 27th, 1818. He is of Puritan stock, the founder of the American branch of the family having-landed at Boston in 1632, from the ship Increase, which brought a colony of Puritans from England. The first settlement of the family was at Waltham. The father of Mr. Stone, also named Amasa, is now alive, hale and hearty, at the age of ninety years.
Young Amasa Stone lived with his parents and worked upon the farm, attending the town district school in its sessions, until he was seventeen years old, when he engaged with an older brother for three years, to learn the trade of a builder. His pay for the first year was to be forty dollars, increasing ten dollars yearly, and to furnish his own clothing. At the end of the second year, thinking he could do better, he purchased the remainder of his time for a nominal sum, and from that time was his own master. In the Winter of 1837-8, he attended the academy of Professer Bailey, in Worcester, Mass., having saved sufficient from his small wages to pay the expenses of a single term.
His first work on his own account was a contract to do the joiner work of a house building by Col. Temple, at Worcester. The work was done, and in part payment he took a note of a manufacturing firm for $130; within a few months the firm failed, the note became worthless, and the first earnings of the young builder were lost. That note Mr. Stone still preserves as a memento.
The following year, at the age of twenty, he joined his two older brothers in a contract for the construction of a church edifice in the town of East Brookfield, Mass. In the succeeding year, 1839, he engaged with his brother-in-law, Mr. William Howe, to act as foreman in the erection of two church edifices and several dwelling-houses in Warren, Mass.
During this time Mr. Howe was engaged in perfecting his invention of what is known as the Howe truss bridge. After securing his patent Mr. Howe contracted to build the superstructure of the bridge across the Connecticut river, at Springfield, for the Western Railroad Company. Mr. Stone engaged with him in this work. During a part of the first year he was employed on the foundations of the structure in the bed of the river. Thereafter until the year 1842, he was employed constantly by Mr. Howe in the erection of railway and other bridges, and railway depot buildings. In the Winter of 1841, his duties were most trying and arduous. About a thousand lineal feet of bridging on the Western Railroad, in the Green Mountains, had to be completed, and Mr. Stone and his men were called upon to carry the work through. In some locations the sun could scarcely be seen, the gorges were so deep and narrow, while during a large portion of the time the thermometer ranged below zero. But the work was successfully completed.
In the year 1842, he formed a copartnership with Mr. A. Boody, and purchased from Mr. Howe his bridge patent for the New England States, including all improvements and renewals. Subsequently an arrangement was concluded with Mr. D. L. Harris, under the name of Boody, Stone & Co., for the purpose of contracting for the construction of railways, railway bridges, and similar work, the mechanical details generally to be under the charge of Mr. Stone. In the year 1845, Mr. Stone was appointed superintendent of the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield Railroad, he, however, still continuing his partnership in the firm of Boody, Stone & Co., and the business of the firm becoming so heavy that within a year from the time of his appointment he resigned his office as superintendent.
Circumstances occurred previous to his appointment that may be worthy of remark. The purchase of the bridge patent, before alluded to, was for the sum of forty thousand dollars, to be paid in annual instalments. A few years after the purchase some defects showed themselves in the bridges that had been erected on this plan, and many prominent engineers had come to the conclusion that it was not superior to, if it equalled, the truss plan of Col. Long, the arch and truss of Burr, or the lattice plan of Ithial Towne, and the firm of Boody, Stone & Co. began to fear that they had made a bad bargain in the purchase of the patent. Mr. Stone, in relating the incident to a friend, said: “I came to the conclusion that something must be done or there must be a failure, and it must not be a failure. The night following was a sleepless one, at least until three o’clock in the morning. I thought, and rolled and tumbled, until time and again I was almost exhausted in my inventive thoughts, and in despair, when at last an idea came to my mind that relieved me. I perfected it in my mind’s eye, and then came to the conclusion that it would not only restore the reputation of the Howe bridge, but would prove to be a better combination of wood and iron for bridges than then existed, and could not and would not in principle be improved upon. Sleep immediately came. I afterwards, with models, proved my conclusions and have not, up to this time, changed them.” It seems that the invention consisted in the introduction of longitudinal keys and clamps in the lower chords, to prevent their elongation, and iron socket bearings instead of wooden for the braces and bolts, to avoid compression and shrinkage of the timber, which was the great defect in the original invention, and the adoption of single instead of double intersection in the arrangement of the braces, the latter being the arrangement in the original invention.
In the autumn of 1846, an incident occurred that may be worthy of notice. On the 14th day of October, when walking in Broadway, New York, Mr. Stone met the president of the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield Railroad, who had in his hand a telegram, stating that the bridge across the Connecticut river at Enfield Falls, one-fourth of a mile long, had been carried away by a hurricane. The president asked the advice of Mr. Stone, who stated that the timber for that structure was furnished by Messrs. Campbell & Moody, of that city, and advised that he order it duplicated at once. The president, a very faithful officer, but disinclined to take responsibilities, asked Mr. Stone to take the responsibility of ordering it. Mr. Stone replied, “Not unless I am president.” The timber was, however, ordered, and at the request of the president, Mr. Stone went immediately with him to Springfield, where a committee of the board was called together, and he was asked to propose terms, and the shortest time upon which his firm would contract to complete the bridge. He stated that his terms would be high, as the season was late and would likely be unfavorable before so heavy a work could be completed, and further suggested that if they chose to appoint him manager of the work, he would accept and do the best he could for them. He was immediately appointed sole manager of the work, and the board placed at his control all the resources of the company. The work was immediately commenced by bringing to the site men and material, and it was completed, and a locomotive and train of cars run across it by Mr. Stone within forty days from the day the order was given for its erection. The structure consisted of seven spans of seventy-seven feet each, with two other spans at each end of about fifty feet each. Mr. Stone has been heard to state that he regarded this as one of the most important events of his life, and that no one was more astonished than himself at the result. He was rewarded by complimentary resolutions, and a check for one thousand dollars by the company.
The following Winter the partnership of Boody, Stone & Co. was dissolved by mutual consent, and the territory that their contract for the bridge patent covered was divided, by Mr. Stone taking the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Mr. Boody the other three States. A new partnership was then formed between Mr. Stone and Mr. Harris, which continued until the year 1849.
From the year 1839 to 1850, the residence of Mr. Stone, most of the time, was in Springfield, Mass., but the numerous contracts in which he was interested called him into ten different States, He served several years as a director in the Agawam Bank, was also a director for several years, and one of the building committee in the Agawam Canal Company, which erected and run a cotton mill of ten thousand spindles, in the town of West Springfield.
In the autumn of 1848, he formed a partnership with Mr. Stillman Witt and Mr. Frederick Harbach, who contracted with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad Company to construct and equip the road from Cleveland to Columbus. This was the largest contract that had, at that time, been entered into, of this character, by any one party or firm in the United States. A large amount of the capital stock was taken in part payment for the work. It was generally regarded as a hazardous adventure, but the work was carried through in accordance with the terms of the contract, and proved to be a profitable investment for its stockholders. In his partnership contract it was stipulated that he was to act as financial agent at the East, to send out the necessary mechanics, and to occasionally visit the work, but was not to change his residence. Events, however, occurred that required his constant presence in Ohio, and in the Spring of 1850, he moved his family to Cleveland, where they have since resided. In the Winter of 1850-1, the road was opened for business through from Cleveland to Columbus, and Mr. Stone was appointed its superintendent.
[Illustration: Respectfully, Amasa Stone, Jr.]
In the Fall of 1850, the firm of Harbach, Stone & Witt contracted with the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company to construct the railroad from Cleveland to the State line of Pennsylvania, and furnish it with cars, and to take in part payment for the work a large amount of the stock and bonds of the Company. Soon after the execution of this contract, Mr. Harbach died suddenly in the city of New York, and the completion of the work devolved on Messrs. Stone and Witt. The completion of the road through to Erie principally devolved upon the Cleveland company, and was attended with many difficulties, as the Legislature of Pennsylvania seemed determined that no road should be built through the State along the shore of Lake Erie, and the general impression was, at that time, that the construction of a road along the shore of the lake was a wild scheme and would prove a failure. It was difficult to get capital subscribed and more difficult to collect instalments. The contractors having confidence in its success, prosecuted the work with vigor up to a period when they found they had expended more than $200,000, while the aggregate amount that the railroad company was able to raise and pay them was less than $100,000. An effort was then made, with success, to engage the services of Mr. Alfred Kelley. His well known character, aided by the reputation of others who were elected directors, and a subscription from the city of Cleveland of $100,000, enabled the company to meet its engagements with the contractors, who carried the work forward to completion, and the road was opened through to Erie in the Winter of 1852, when Mr. Stone was appointed its superintendent. Notwithstanding the great expense that had to be incurred in crossing the deep ravines in the State of Pennsylvania, and the heavy burdens imposed on the company by that State, it has proved to be one of the most successful railroad enterprises in the United States.
In the year 1852, Mr. Stone was elected a director in both Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, and the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Companies, and has held that office in both companies continuously up to the present date. He also continued to hold the office of superintendent of both roads until the year 1854, when he insisted on being relieved in consequence of failing health, caused by the arduous labors which seemed unavoidably to devolve upon him. He was elected president of the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company in the year 1857, which office he has continued to hold for twelve successive years, until 1869.
In 1868, the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad was leased perpetually to the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad Company, at which time he was also elected President of the former company.
In the year 1855, he, with Mr. Witt, contracted to build the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad, and was for many years a director in that company, and for awhile its president.
For several years he held the office of director in the Merchants Bank, of Cleveland. From its first organization until it was closed up, he was director in the Bank of Commerce, of Cleveland, and has been director in the Second National Bank, and the Commercial National Bank, of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Banking Company, from the time of their respective organizations until the present time. He was for some years president of the Toledo Branch of the State Bank, at Toledo. He was elected a director in the Jamestown and Franklin Railroad Company in the year 1863, which office he has held until the present time. In the same year he was elected president of the Mercer Iron and Coal Company and held the office until the close of the year 1868.
Mr. Stone aided in the establishment of several manufactories at this point. During the construction of the railroads from Cleveland, his firm carried on extensive car shops in the city, where cars were constructed, not only for those two roads, but for several others. He gave financial aid and personal influence to the establishment and maintenance of several leading iron manufacturing establishments and machine shops. In the year 1861-2, he erected, in the city of Cleveland, a woolen mill of five sets of machinery, and for several years ran it and turned out more goods annually than any other mill in the state of Ohio. He subsequently sold it to Alton Pope & Sons.
He is often pleased to note the progress in American enterprise, and among other events that has come under his own observation, relates the following: In the year 1839, he commenced his first railroad service upon the foundation of a bridge that was then being erected across the Connecticut river at Springfield, Mass., of 1260 feet in length. It was regarded as a very difficult undertaking, as the bed of the river was composed mostly of quicksand, and a rise of 25-1/2 feet in the river had to be provided for, and floating ice, its full width, fifteen inches in thickness. Maj. George W. Whistler, the first of his profession, was chief engineer of the work, and he had as advisers Maj. McNeal, Capt. Swift, and other eminent engineers. The work was about three years under construction, at a cost of over $131,000, and every effort was made to keep its cost at the lowest possible point, at the same time making certain the stability of the structure. Within nine years from the time of its completion, a similar structure, in every particular, was to be constructed across the same river, at Hartford, twenty-six miles below. Its length varied but a few feet, although it covered more water, and its foundations and other contingencies were quite as difficult and unfavorable. Mr. Stone concluded a contract for its construction for the firm of Stone & Harris, complete, for the sum of $77,000, and to have it ready for the cars in twenty months. The work was executed in accordance with the terms of the contract, and has not only proved as substantial as that at Springfield, but in many particulars, more so. It was the pride of Mr. Stone for many reasons, (among others, that it was stated by many that it could not be done for this sum of money,) to personally superintend this work himself, and to put in practice some of his own inventions, the most important of which was the cutting off the foundation piles with a saw arranged on a scow, propelled by a steam engine, and the sinking of the piers below water by means of screws. The result proved to be satisfactory, and as favorable, in a financial point of view, as he estimated. It will be noticed that the bridge structure, complete, at Hartford, cost $54,000 less than that at Springfield, of like character.
He has been interested in the construction of more than ten miles in length of truss bridging, and in the construction of roofs of large buildings, covering more than fifteen acres of ground, most of which he designed and personally superintended their election. The last extensive structure that he designed, and the election of which he personally superintended, was the Union Passenger Depot, at Cleveland. He was the first person that designed and erected pivot draw-bridges of long spans, which, however, have been much increased in length of span by other parties since. He was also the first to design and erect a dome roof of a span of 150 feet, sufficient to cover three lengths of a locomotive with its tender, and numerous are the improvements he has introduced in the construction of railroad cars and locomotives. The only eight-wheeled dump gravel car in successful use was designed and put in practice by him.
For a number of years Mr. Stone has been trustee of the First Presbyterian Church Society of Cleveland, and still holds that office. He was chairman of the building committee in the election of the new church edifice, and when it was burned down, was again elected chairman of the building committee, and given full charge of the reconstruction of the building.
In 1868, Mr. Stone visited Europe, being compelled to seek relief, for a brief period, from the exhausting cares of his numerous business engagements. He is expected to return in the Fall of this year, ready to again engage in the active prosecution of the important enterprises with which he is connected, and in which he has won such distinction by his sound common sense, sound judgment, unresting energy, and practicable knowledge. In whatever he undertakes there is good reason for believing that the success he has hitherto met will still attend his efforts.
Stillman Witt
Connected indissolubly with the story of the rise and progress of the important railroad interests of Cleveland and northern Ohio, is the name of Stillman Witt. As one of the builders of the pioneer railroad from the city, and of the next in point of time, which has since become one of the foremost lines of the country in importance and profitableness, Mr. Witt deserves honorable record among the men who have contributed most to make Cleveland what it is to-day, a rich, populous, and rapidly growing city.
Stillman Witt is a self-made man, and unlike some of this class, his self-manufacture will stand the test of close criticism. The material has not been spoiled or warped in the process. Those who know him best know that the struggles of his early years have not soured his disposition or hardened his feelings, and that access of fortune has not made him purse-proud. The Stillman Witt of to-day, rich and influential, is the same Stillman Witt who paddled a ferry boat at about forty cents a day, and was happy in his good fortune.
Mr. Witt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, January 4th, 1808. His parentage was humble, and, in consequence, his facilities for obtaining an education very limited. When about thirteen years old, his father moved with his family to Troy, New York, where young Stillman was hired by Richard P. Hart to run a skiff ferry, the wages being ten dollars per month, which the lad thought a sum sufficient to secure his independence. Among the passengers frequently crossing the ferry was Mr. Canvass White, U. S. Engineer, at that time superintending the construction of public works in various parts of the country. Mr. White took a strong fancy to the juvenile ferryman, and was so much impressed by the interest the boy manifested in construction, that he applied to Stillman’s father for permission to take the lad and educate him in his own profession. The permission was granted, and from that day dates the career of the future railroad builder.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, S. Witt]
Young Witt was greatly pleased with his new profession, and devoted himself to it with such zeal and faithfulness that he grew rapidly in the esteem of his patron. When he had sufficiently progressed to be entrusted with works of such importance, he was dispatched in different directions to construct bridges and canals as the agent of Mr. White. In this manner he superintended the construction of the bridge at Cohoes Falls, on the Mohawk river, four miles above Troy, where, in conjunction with Mr. White, he laid out a town which has since grown to a population of thirty thousand. The side cut on the Erie canal, at Port Schuyler, was dug under his management, and the docks there, since covered with factories, were built by him. When these were completed he was dispatched into Pennsylvania, with twenty-four carpenters, all his seniors, to build a State bridge at the mouth of the Juniata, from Duncan Island to Peter’s Mountain. He was then ordered to the work on the Louisville and Portland canal, but before this was completed he was taken sick and remained a prisoner in a sick room at Albany for thirteen months.
With his recovery came a temporary change of occupation. Abandoning for a time his work of bridge building and canal digging, he took charge of the steamboat James Farley, the first lake-canal boat that towed through, without transhipment, to New York. This was followed by his taking charge, for between two and three years, of Dr. Nott’s steamboat Novelty. Next he became manager of the Hudson River Association line of boats, in which capacity he remained during the existence of the association, ten years. The Albany and Boston Railroad having been opened, Mr. Witt was invited to become its manager at Albany, and accepted the trust, remaining in that position seven years and a half.
Now came the most important epoch in Mr. Witt’s life. After a hard struggle the scheme for the construction of a railroad between Cleveland and Columbus assumed definite shape, a company was organized and was prepared to go to work when contractors should be found who would build the road with a little money and a good deal of faith. Mr. Witt’s opportunity had come. At the end of a four days’ toilsome journey from Buffalo in a cab, he reached Cleveland, and satisfactory arrangements were finally entered into. A firm was formed, under the name of Harbach, Stone & Witt, and the work commenced. The story of the building of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad has already been told in another part of this volume; it is a story of hoping almost against hope, of desperate struggles against opposition and indifference, and of final triumph. Mr. Witt’s part in the struggle was an important one, and the solid benefit resulting from the success that crowned the enterprise was well deserved by him.
Before the work of construction was half completed, Mr. Harbach died, and the firm remained Stone & Witt, under which name it has become familiar to all parts of the American railroad world. The road was opened between Cleveland and Columbus in 1851, and the success that speedily followed the opening, demonstrated the wisdom of the projectors of the line, and justified the faith of its contractors. The three years of construction had not terminated before Messrs. Stone & Witt undertook the construction of the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, and in two years this road, now one of the richest and most powerful lines of the country, was completed. This was followed, sometime after, by the building of the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad, which required but one year to construct, although built in the best manner.
With the completion of the Chicago and Milwaukee road Mr. Witt’s active career as a railroad builder ceased. Since that time he has been chiefly employed in the management of his extensive railroad and banking interests, having been at different periods a director in the Michigan Southern; Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati; Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula; Cleveland and Pittsburgh; Chicago and Milwaukee, and Bellefontaine and Indiana railroads, besides being vice-president of two of these roads and president of one of them. His connection with the Bellefontaine and Indiana Railroad is noticeable from the fact that it was by his sagacity and unwearied energy, ably assisted by the late Governor Brough, as general manager, that the company was raised from absolute insolvency to a high rank among dividend paying lines. Mr. Witt had gone into the undertaking with a number of other Clevelanders, had all but lost his entire investment, but had never lost faith in the ultimate success of the line, or flagged for an instant in his efforts to bring about that success. The event proved the justness of his conclusions.
In addition to his railroad engagements, Mr. Witt is president of the Sun Insurance Company, of Cleveland; director of the Second National, and Commercial National Banks, and Cleveland Banking Company; also, of the Bank of Toledo. His interests are not all centered in railroad and banking enterprises, he having investments in the Cleveland Chemical Works, and in several other enterprises that contribute to the prosperity of the city.
Mr. Witt was married in June, 1834, to Miss Eliza A. Douglass, of Albany, but who was a native of Rhode Island. Of the four children who were the fruit of this marriage, but two survive. The elder daughter, Mary, is now the wife of Mr. Dan P. Eells, of Cleveland. The younger, Emma, is the wife of Col. W. H. Harris, of the United States Army, now in command of the arsenal at Indianapolis.
Mr. Witt’s qualifications as a business man are attested by his success, won not by a mere stroke of luck, but by far-seeing sagacity, quick decision, and untiring industry. From first to last he never encountered a failure, not because fortune chanced always to be on his side, but because shrewdness and forethought enabled him to provide against misfortune. As a citizen he has always pursued a liberal and enlightened policy, ever ready to unite in whatever promised to be for the public good. In social life he has a wide circle of attached friends, and not a single enemy. Genial, unselfish, deeply attached to his family, and with a warm side for humanity in general, Mr. Witt has made for himself more friends than perhaps he himself is aware of.
Wealth and position have enabled him to do numerous acts of kindness, and his disposition has prompted him to perform those acts without ostentation and with a gracefulness that gave twofold value to the act.
In religious belief Mr. Witt is a Baptist, having joined with that church organization in Albany, thirty-one years ago. For years he has been a valuable and highly respected member of the First Baptist Church in Cleveland.
James Farmer.
Although James Farmer has been a resident of Cleveland but thirteen years, and cannot, therefore, be ranked among the old settlers of the city, he is looked upon as one of its most respected citizens, whose word is as good as a secured bond, and whose sound judgment and stability of character place him among the most valuable class of business men. But though prudent in business affairs, and of deeply earnest character in all relations of life, Mr. Farmer has not allowed the stern realities of life to obscure the lighter qualities that serve to make life endurable. Always cheerful in manner and genial in disposition, with a quaint appreciation of the humorous side of things, he endeavors to round off the sharp corners of practical life with a pleasant and genial smile. A meditative faculty of mind, untrammeled by the opinions or dicta of others, has led Mr. Farmer into independent paths of thought and action, in all his affairs. Before taking any course, he has thought it out for himself, and decided on his action, in accordance with his conscientious convictions of right, independent of considerations of mere worldly notice.
Mr. Farmer was born near Augusta, Georgia, July 19th, 1802. His early opportunities for acquiring an education were scant, only such knowledge being gained as could be picked up in a common school, where the rudiments of an education only are taught. Until his twenty-first year, his time was chiefly spent on his father’s farm, but on attaining his majority he concluded to strike out a different path for himself, and coming north, he engages in the manufacture of salt, and in the milling business, at Salineville, Ohio. His means were small, but by assiduous attention to business he was moderately successful. Four years later he added a store for general marchandise to his mill and salt works, and thus added to his property.
In the Spring of 1847, Mr. Farmer, imbued with the spirit of progress, and appreciating in advance the benefits to accrue from the proposed Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, entered with spirit into the enterprise, worked hard in procuring subscriptions to the stock, and aided in various ways to its consummation. For several years he held the position of president of the company, and it was through his labors in this channel of commerce, that he became so thoroughly identified with the progress and prosperity of Cleveland.
[Illustration: Very Respectfully, James Farmer]
On the completion of the railroad, Mr. Farmer was among the first to avail himself of the increased facilities for business offered by the road, and embarked in the coal trade, having previously owned coal fields in Salineville. These coal fields were now worked, and the product shipped by railroad to Cleveland and other points.
In the Spring of 1856, he removed to Cleveland, abandoning the mercantile business after devoting to it thirty-two years of his life, and having been completely successful. His coal fields still continue to furnish supplies to the coal market of Cleveland.
So far as human power can be said to control human affairs, Mr. Farmer has been wholly the architect of his own fortunes. The prosperity that has attended his efforts has been due to the close attention given his legitimate business, his strictness in making and keeping contracts, his prudent economy, and his nice sense of commercial honor and general honesty. What man can do to make honest success, he has endeavored to do, and Providence has smiled upon his efforts.
Mr Farmer is still a hale appearing gentleman, though sixty-seven years old, retaining most of his mental vigor, and much of his physical stamina, and will, we trust, be permitted to remain among us for years to come, that he may enjoy the fruits of his labor, and have the satisfaction felt by those only who minister to the necessities of others.
In 1834, Mr. Farmer was married to Miss Meribah Butler, of Columbiana county, Ohio, by whom he has had seven children, of whom five still live–one son and four daughters. The son, Mr. E. J. Farmer, has been for some years engaged in the banking business in Cleveland.
The father of Mr. James Farmer joined the Society of Friends, and was an honored member of that society. His family were all brought up in the same faith, and Mr. James Farmer has maintained his connection with the society, by the members of which he is held in high respect and esteem.
George B. Ely.
George B. Ely is a native of Jefferson county, New York, a county which has contributed many good citizens to the population of Cleveland. He was born in the town of Adams, June 23d, 1817, received a good academical education, and when seventeen left the academy to become clerk with Judge Foster, under whose auspices he came to Cleveland. After serving with Judge Foster one year in Cleveland, he accepted the position of book-keeper in the forwarding house of Pease & Allen, on the river, remaining in this position until 1843. At that date he removed to Milan, Erie county, then at the head of slackwater navigation on the Huron river. Here he engaged in trading in wheat, and in the general forwarding business, and also became interested in lake shipping, doing business under the firm name of Wilber & Ely.
In 1851, the railroad between Columbus and Cleveland was completed, and the course of trade was almost entirely diverted from its old channels. The business of Milan fell away rapidly, and the forwarding trade at that point was completely at an end, Mr. Ely closed up his connection with the place in the Spring of 1852, and removed to Cleveland, where he had engaged a warehouse with the intention of continuing in the forwarding business, but was induced to take the secretaryship of the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, many of his old business and personal friends having become interested in that undertaking and desiring the benefit of his business tact and experience. About a year after his accession to the company, the offices of secretary and treasurer were combined, and Mr. Ely assumed charge of the joint offices. Three years later he was elected a director of the company and has continued in that position to the present time. At various times he has been chosen vice-president of the company. In 1868, he was elected president of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad Company, retaining that position until the consolidation of the company with the Cleveland and Erie Railroad Company, and the formation of the Lake Shore Railroad Company. Mr. Ely is now the oldest officer in point of service in the Consolidated company, and is about the oldest employee. During all his long service he has been an indefatigable worker, having the interests of the line always at heart, and his arduous and faithful services have contributed their full share to the prosperity of the company.
[Illustration: Yours Respectfully, Geo. B. Ely]
Whilst always watchful for the interests of the road with which he was connected, Mr. Ely found time to engage in other enterprises tending to advance the material interests of the city. In connection with Messrs. R. H. Harman, A. M. Harman, and L. M. Coe, he projected and built the Cleveland City Forge and put it into successful operation in the year 1864. This forge has now four large hammers at work, and preparations are making for two others, and it gives employment to about eighty skilled workmen. He was one of the projectors of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, of Cleveland, an organization having five thousand acres of coal lands in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and now that the Jamestown and Franklin Railroad is completed, the prospects of ample returns for the outlay are good. Sixty tons of good coal are daily delivered in Cleveland, whilst the best markets of the product are found in Erie, Buffalo, and the Pennsylvania oil regions. Of this company Mr. Ely is treasurer and one of its directors.
Among his other business connections he was a director in the old Bank of Commerce from its early days until it was reorganized as the Second National Bank, and is still a director under the new organization. He is also a director in the Citizens Savings and Loan Association, and is interested in the Cleveland Banking Company.
Mr. Ely has been the architect of his own fortune, and attributes his success in life to close application to business and a firm determination never to live beyond his income. He is now fifty-two years old, enjoys vigorous health, and has never been seriously sick. From present appearances he has a fair prospect of a long life in which to enjoy the fruits of his labors, and to pass the afternoon and evening of his life amid domestic comforts earned by industry and the esteem of a large circle of friends to whom he has become endeared by his many social qualities and personal virtues.
In 1843, he was married to Miss Gertrude S. Harman, of Brooklyn, Michigan, and formerly of Oswego, New York. They have one son, now twenty-five years old, who has charge of the Cleveland City Forge, and one daughter, Helen, aged seventeen, who is now at school.
Worthy S. Streator.
Dr. Streator, as he is still called, although for many years he has abandoned the active practice of medicine, was born in Madison county, New York, October 16th, 1816. He received an academical education, and at the age of eighteen he entered a medical college, where he remained four years. On completing his medical course he went to Aurora, Portage county, Ohio, where he commenced the practice of his profession, in the year 1839 In Aurora he remained rive years, when he removed to Louisville, Kentucky, spent a year in the medical college there, and returned to Portage county, resuming his practice in Ravenna.
In 1850, Dr. Streator removed from Ravenna to Cleveland, and after remaining two years in the practice of medicine, turned his attention to railroad building. In conjunction with Mr. Henry Doolittle, he undertook the contract for building the Greenville and Medina Railroad, and completed it successfully. In 1853, the same parties contracted for the construction of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway in Ohio, a work of 244 miles. Operations were at once commenced, and were pushed forward with varying success, funds of the company coming in fitfully. In 1860, the same firm took contracts for the construction of the Pennsylvania portion of the line, ninety-one miles, and next for the New York portion. Work on both these contracts was commenced in February, 1860, and the road was completed from Salamanca, in New York, to Corry, in Pennsylvania, sixty-one miles, in the Spring of 1861.
During the prosecution of the work Mr. Doolittle died, and, in 1861, Dr. Streator sold the unfinished contracts to Mr. James McHenry, of London, England, by whom they were completed, Dr. Streator acting as superintendent of construction for about a year after the transfer of contract.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, W. S. Streator]
In 1862, he projected the Oil Creek Railroad, from Corry to Petroleum Center, the heart of the Pennsylvania oil regions, a line thirty-seven miles long. The line was built with extraordinary rapidity, and achieved a success unparalleled in railway history. No sooner had the rails reached a point within striking distance of Oil Creek than its cars were crowded with passengers flocking to the “oildorado,” and for many months, during the height of the oil fever, the excited crowds struggled at the stations for the privilege of a standing place on the car platforms after the seats and aisles were filled. The resources of the road were inadequate to meet the great demand on it for the transportation of passengers and oil, and although Dr. Streator worked energetically to keep pace with the demand upon the road, the development of the oil regions, consequent upon the construction of the line, for some time outstripped him. The profits of the line were enormous in proportion to the outlay, but the amount of wealth it created in the oil regions was still more extraordinary. Dr. Streator managed the road until 1866, when he sold out his interest to Dean Richmond and others interested in the New York Central Railroad. In order to connect the Oil Creek Railroad with the line of its purchasers an extension northward, styled the Cross-Cut Railroad, was built from Corry to Brocton, on the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, a distance of forty-two miles, by Dr. Streator, for the New York Central Railroad Company. This was the last of Dr. Streator’s railroad building undertakings.
Since the close of his railroad business Dr. Streator has organized a company, mainly composed of citizens of Cleveland, for the working of coal lands purchased in La Salle, on the Vermillion river, Illinois. The purchase contains three thousand acres on which is a five and one-half feet splint-vein of coal resembling in general characteristics the Massillon coal of Ohio. Thirteen miles of railroad have been built to connect the mines with the Illinois Central Railroad, and during the year that the road has been opened the average product of the mines has been two hundred and fifty tons per day, with demands for more, that cannot be met owing to a deficiency of rolling stock. By the close of 1869, it is expected the product will reach a thousand tons daily. Another railroad is to be built to connect with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
Aside from his interest in this coal company, Dr. Streator has now no active business engagements, and devotes his time to the care of his real estate and a fine stock farm in East Cleveland, containing over three hundred acres, on which he is raising some of the finest stock to be found in the county.
Dr. Streator has had the good sense to retire from the pressing cares of business whilst able to enjoy the fruits of his labors. At fifty-three years old he is healthy and vigorous, and fully able to appreciate the advantages of wealth in procuring social and domestic enjoyments. His residence on Euclid avenue is a model of comfort and elegance, and the surrounding grounds are laid out with artistic taste.
He was married in 1839, to Sarah W. Sterling, of Lyman, N. Y. His only daughter is the wife of E. B. Thomas, Esq., of Cleveland; his oldest son devotes his attention to the care of the stock farm; the other sons are yet at home, being young.
Although Mr. Streator has been regarded, for years, as one of our most active and energetic business men, he has found time to devote to his religious duties. He has for a long time been a useful member of the Disciple Church.
The Coal Interest
By the commencement of the season of 1828, the Ohio canal had been opened from Cleveland to Akron. Henry Newberry, father of Professer Newberry, who among his other possessions on the Western Reserve, owned some valuable coal lands, saw, or fancied he saw, an opening for an important trade in coal, and sent a shipment of a few tons to Cleveland by way of experiment. On its arrival a portion of it was loaded in a wagon and hawked around the city, the attention of leading citizens being called to its excellent quality and its great value as fuel. But the people were deaf to the voice of the charmer. They looked askance at the coal and urged against it all the objections which careful housewives, accustomed to wood fires, even now offer against its use for culinary purposes. It was dirty, nasty, inconvenient to handle, made an offensive smoke, and not a few shook their heads incredulously at the idea of making the “stone” burn at all. Wood was plentiful and cheap, and as long as that was the case they did not see the use of going long distances to procure a doubtful article of fuel, neither as clean, convenient, nor cheap as hickory or maple. By nightfall the wagon had unsuccessfully traversed the streets and found not a single purchaser for its contents. Here and there a citizen had accepted a little as a gift, with a doubtful promise to test its combustible qualities. Eventually, Philo Scovill was persuaded into the purchase of a moderate quantity at two dollars per ton, and promised to put in grates at the Franklin House to properly test its qualities.
That was the beginning of a trade which has since grown to mammoth proportions, and which has become the foundation of the prosperity of Cleveland, for it is to the proximity and practically inexhaustibleness of its coal supply that Cleveland owes its manufacturing character, which is the secret of its rapid development within a few years, its present prosperity, and the assured greatness of its future.
As a domestic fuel coal made slow progress in the city for many years, but other uses were found for it, and the receipts of coal by canal rapidly increased. Steamboats multiplied on the lakes, and these found the coal of Cleveland a valuable fuel. By degrees manufacturing was ventured on, in a small way, and there being no water-power of consequence, recourse was had to steam, which created a moderate demand for coal. For ten years the receipts increased steadily, until in 1838, it reached 2,496 tons. In 1848, it had grown to 66,551 tons, and in 1858–the canal transportation being supplemented by two lines of railroad crossing the coal fields on the way to Cleveland–to 222,267 tons. In 1868, it had swollen to 759,104 tons, and the demand continues to increase in a rate more than proportionate to the enlarged sources of supply and increased facilities for transportation.
The opening of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad gave a strong stimulus to the coal trade of northern Ohio, and was one of the most important events in the history of Cleveland. By this time the beds of the valuable Briar Hill, or block coal, were tapped, which has proved the best fuel for manufacturing iron from the raw ore, and has no superior, if it has a rival, in the West. With the discovery of this bed of coal, blast furnaces and rolling mills were established in the Mahoning Valley, and as the uses of the coal became known in Cleveland and in other ports, a large demand, for consumption in the city and exports to other points, sprang up. Over one-half the amount of Ohio coal raised is of the Briar Hill grade, and of the whole amount of Ohio coal raised, about one-half finds its market in Cleveland.
The bituminous coal is of several grades, each suitable for a particular purpose. The most important is the Briar Hill grade, mined in the southern half of Trumbull county and finding its outlet by the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad. This is a good grate coal, but its great use is in the manufacture of iron, and the numerous furnaces of the Mahoning Valley, the iron manufactories of Cleveland, and the demand along the line of the lakes, keep the numerous mines in full operation. The Mineral Ridge grade is a comparatively new quality to Cleveland, and has yet but comparatively few mines. It is used both for domestic and manufacturing purposes. The Massillon grade is brought both by canal and railroad, and is highly esteemed as a grate coal. The rapidly growing demand for grate fuel has given a great stimulus to the mining of this coal within a few years. The Hammondsville and Salineville grades are used chiefly for stoves in domestic use, for steam purposes, and for the manufacture of gas. These grades come to market on the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad. The Blossburgh grade is used almost entirely for blacksmithing.
Besides the Ohio bituminous coals there is a steadily increasing demand for the anthracite and semi-anthracite coals of eastern Pennsylvania, which is brought by lake from Buffalo.
The growth of the coal trade during the past four years can be seen by the following table, showing the receipts from all sources and shipments, chiefly by lake, coastwise and to Canadian ports:
Date. Receipts. Shipments.
1865…….439,483 tons….235,784 tons. 1866…….583,107 ” ….397,840 “
1867…….669,026 ” ….334,027 ” 1868…….759,104 ” ….392,928 “
The amount brought over each route of supply during 1868, is thus shown:
By Lake, Anthracite……………………………….. 13,665 tons. ” Canal, Bituminous……………………………….. 197,475 ” ” Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad…………………. 274,159 ” ” Atlantic and Great Western Railroad
(Cleveland and Mahoning)………………………. 254,000 ” ” Cleveland and Erie Railroad………………………. 17,600 ” ” Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad………… 2,205 ” ———– 759,104 “
This shows an increase of nearly 100,000 tons on the receipts of 1867, notwithstanding a most obstinate and continued strike among the miners, which diminished the receipts by the Atlantic and Great Western, from 20,000 to 30,000 tons. Of the shipments of each during the year, 382,928 tons went by lake, and about 10,000 tons by rail, mostly by Cleveland and Toledo Railroad to Toledo and intermediate points.
William Philpot.
Although never a resident of Cleveland, the enterprise of William Philpot so directly contributed to the prosperity of the city, the labors of his life were so connected with it, and the interests he founded have since become such an integral part of the business of Cleveland, that his memoir appropriately finds a place in this work. It is proper, too, that it should stand foremost in the department relating to the coal trade of the city, for he may justly be considered one of the leading founders of that trade.
William Philpot was born in Shropshire, England. At an early age he removed to Wales and went to work in the mines at three pence per day. Soon after he was able to earn full wages, he became an overseer, and continued in that capacity until he took contracts on his own account. His success was varied, on some he made handsomely, on others he failed. By the year 1835, he accumulated about eight thousand dollars, and concluded to go to the United States as affording greater facilities for small capitalists. He proceeded to Pittsburgh, where he immediately interested himself in the mining of coal. He commenced by leasing from one party a portion of the coal and the right of way on a large tract of coal land, for a term of twenty-one years, and leased coal from others, at a quarter cent per bushel. Of another person he purchased a farm, bearing coal, at seventy-five dollars an acre. In the Summer of 1837, he took into partnership Mr. Snowden, and the firm set to work vigorously, mining coal at Saw Mill Run and shipping on the Ohio river, to which Mr. Philpot had built a railway a mile in length. The two partners were not well matched. Mr. Philpot was full of energy, fertile in resources, and never slackened in his endeavors to push his affairs. No difficulties daunted him; the greater the obstacles the more pleasure he took in surmounting them. He built his railroad tracks where most other men would have shrunk from placing a rail and whilst those who commenced preparations for a mine at the same time with himself were still in the preparatory stages of work, his cars would be rattling down to the river loaded with coal. One great secret of his ability to hasten matters was his influence with the men under him. He was familiar and affable with them, worked energetically among them whenever a sharp effort was needed, and in this way got more work out of the men, without their feeling that they had been imposed upon, than most employers could have done. Mr. Snowden was a man of an entirely different stamp, and it soon became evident that the firm must dissolve. After some negotiations Mr. Philpot disposed of his interests to Messrs. Snowden and Lewis, and in 1838, removed to Paris, Portage county, Ohio, where he had purchased a farm. His family at that time consisted of his wife and two daughters; Mary Ann, now the wife of R. J. Price, Esq., Dorothy, now widow of the late David Morris, Esq. With them also was his father, Samuel Philpot, now dead. Soon after his removal to Portage county he became interested with Mr. Philip Price, in the excavation of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal, and during the progress of the work they purchased land on either side of the canal, including Lock fourteen, where they built a saw and flouring mill, using the canal water as motive power. Towards the latter part of 1839, Mr. Philpot purchased the interest of Mr. Price in the mills and land, and ran the mills successfully, until 1841, when he sold both mills and land to Colonel Elisha Garrett, of Garrettsville. In the Spring of 1841, Mr. Philpot rented his home farm and removed with his family to Middlebury, Summit county, where he had purchased a coal bank, and engaged once more in the coal trade.
The importance of his operations in coal, both to the business of the coal regions and of Cleveland, which formed his principal market, can scarcely be overestimated. Before removing to Springfield he discovered there, in 1840, a valuable coal mine, which he afterwards developed and worked successfully, building a railroad of about three miles from the mines to the canal at Middlebury, whence the coal was shipped to Cleveland. This road he stocked with about forty coal cars, and for several years his mine supplied the principal demand for the Cleveland market. In 1843, he developed and improved the celebrated Chippewa mines, Wayne county, near the village of Clinton, and built a railroad to the Ohio canal. From these mines he supplied the Cleveland market with large quantities of coal until the year 1845, when he sold out half his interests in them to Mr. Lemuel Crawford, and some time afterward he sold one-quarter interest to Mr. David Camp.
His next remove was to Youngstown, where, in 1846, he leased the Manning and Wertz bank, and while sinking for coal, discovered iron ore. He then went to Pittsburgh and endeavored to get up a furnace company, but not being successful, he returned, and associated himself with Jonathan Warner and a few others in organizing the Ohio Iron and Mining Company, now known as the Eagle Furnace Company, Messrs. Philpot and Warner owning two-thirds of the entire stock. Mr. Philpot at that time opened and developed the Wertz and Manning Briar Hill coal mines, the furnace having been built with the purpose of smelting iron ore with raw stone coal, being the second constructed for this purpose in the Mahoning Valley, the first being that of Wilkenson, Wilks & Co., at Lowellville. The experiment was hazardous, and was carried forward under many difficulties, financial and otherwise, but the energy and enterprise of Mr. Philpot triumphed over them all.
Mr. Philpot was a man of rare energy, industry and practical good sense. He was always successful for he seemed to have an intuitive knowledge of what was the right course to take, and when once entered on an enterprise never allowed himself to be defeated or discouraged. His integrity was unquestioned. His word was as good as a bond, and was entirely relied on. He was a kind husband and father, a true friend, and his heart and hand were always open to the poor and distressed, many of whom were not only relieved from their pressing emergencies, but were assisted to start in business or to procure homesteads. Besides his many excellent social qualities and business talents, he was possessed of a most extraordinary memory, and it is related of him by one who knew him intimately, that after hearing a speech or sermon that enlisted his whole attention, he would sometimes rehearse it to others almost verbatim.
Mr. Philpot died in Liberty township, Trumbull county, June 2d, 1851.
In all the great enterprises of his business career, Mr. Philpot was ably supported by his beloved partner in life, who was a woman of more than ordinary ability. She was also most remarkably benevolent, bestowing much care on the sick and indigent in her immediate neighborhood. She survived her husband a number of years, and died at Cleveland, in August, 1865, deeply lamented.
[Illustration: Lemuel Crawford]
Lemuel Crawford.
The subject of this sketch belonged to the business classes, as distinguished from the professional, but which are none the less fruitful in characters of prominence and public interest.
Indeed it has come to pass in later years that what are commonly known as the learned professions, law, medicine and theology, though still high in rank, have lost something of the ruling pre-eminence they occupied in our earlier history. Other departments in the world’s industry have asserted themselves, and railway systems, telegraphs, commerce, journalism, manufactures, banking, and other branches, have come forward and absorbed their fair proportion of the best talent and ambition of the country.
Lemuel Crawford was born in Florida, Schoharie county, New York, December 15, 1805.
Left without means, at the age of fourteen he chose the trade of moulder in the iron or furnace business.
At twenty-one he came to Painesville, Ohio, where he was made foreman of the Geauga Furnace. Here he remained about six years, having especial superintendence of the pattern and moulding department, and filling his position with great skill and credit. At this place, July 29, 1832, he married Louisa Murray, of Willoughby, in the same county, who still survives him, and to whose long and faithful companionship, judgment and energy, in all the vicissitudes of his fortune, he was largely indebted for his success.
In 1833, Mr. Crawford moved with his family to Detroit, whence, after remaining six years, he removed to Presque Isle on Lake Huron, where he was the first to start the wood trade, for fuel for our then rapidly growing steamboat commerce. Here he remained seven years, superintending large bodies of wood cutters and suppliers, the saw mills, now so common in the lumber region, being then unknown.
In 1846, perceiving, with his usual forecast, that coal was likely to supplant wood for the uses of our steam marine, he removed to Cleveland, and at once invested about forty thousand dollars in the Chippewa mines, so called, in the Mahoning Valley, which had been opened a year or two before, and promised, as the event proved, to afford an almost inexhaustible supply of the richest coal. These mines, adding tracts of adjoining coal land to them as occasion demanded, he continued to work with a large annual yield for more then twenty years.
Shortly after commencing with the Chippewa, he was found, in 1848, to be among the pioneers in opening up the beds of Briar Hill coal in the Mahoning Valley, so well known to steamboat men and manufacturers ever since, as being a kind of coal peculiarly fitted for their uses. Here he continued to mine largely at several different localities selected by him with rare judgment. He also opened and carried on mining extensively at other points, such as on the Ohio, below Steubenville, also in Orange county, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere.
His chief business office and coal depots were at Cleveland, but he had branch establishments at Detroit and Chicago, and at one time was largely interested in vessel property on the Lakes, and although the business of mining and selling coal, mainly for supplying steam craft and for exportation, was his leading pursuit, he was one of the earliest in 1851, to engage in the manufacture of pig iron from our native ores in the Mahoning Valley, having an interest in the second furnace started there, and being the builder of the fourth. From time to time he invested judiciously in real estate.
From all these sources in spite of some business adventures which proved disastrous, through unexpected financial revulsions, or the fault of others, he succeeded in amassing a splendid fortune to be inherited by his family. He was never a speculator, nor a rash operator, but his business views were liberal and comprehensive, and carried out with energy and wisdom. Personally he was a man of fine presence and manners, always pleasant to meet with on the street, cordial and unassuming. He was intensely loyal and liberal throughout the war, and always kind and charitable to the poor. He was not a church member, but was a regular church attendant and a respecter of religions institutions. In his later years he was frequently an invalid, and being in New York in the Fall of 1867, by the advice of physicians, and in company with friends from Cleveland, he sailed for Europe, where, in Paris, during the Exposition, he spent some months, returning with health improved, but which again declined until June 30, 1868, when at the age of sixty-two years, six months and fifteen days, he died at his beautiful home in Cleveland, surrounded by his family and friends, peacefully and calmly, as a good man dies.
We feel that we can not do better than to conclude this brief and imperfect sketch with the notice which appeared in the Cleveland Herald on the evening of the day of his decease. Speaking of the event it says:
We regret to announce the decease of this prominent business man and respected citizen, who died at his residence on Euclid avenue this (Tuesday) morning at about 9 o’clock.
Mr. Crawford had for years been more or less an invalid, but had not been alarmingly ill until last Thursday, when by a sudden and severe attack he was completely prostrated, and recovery became hopeless.
Mr. Crawford had nearly reached the age of sixty-three. A native of New York, beginning life with few, if any, adventitous aids, he had attained to affluence and position by a long and enterprising business career. For the last twenty-four years he has lived in Cleveland. He was among the pioneers in the coal mining business of Northern Ohio, contributing largely ever since by his sagacity and experience, to the development of that important element of commerce and public wealth.
Through all the vicissitudes of a long business life he maintained a character of the most perfect integrity. As a citizen he was liberal and public spirited; as a neighbor and friend he was kind and generous; in his social and domestic relations he was simple and unostentatious, affectionate and beloved. Very many in the various ranks and conditions of life, both here and elsewhere, will mourn his loss, and remember him with sincere respect.
D. P. Rhodes.
The name of D. P. Rhodes is distinguished among those who have contributed to the prosperity of Cleveland by the development of its coal and iron interests. For many years he has labored to build up the coal and iron trade of the city, on which its future mainly depends, and has met with a success which has benefitted the public in a far greater degree than it has enriched himself, although he has had nothing to complain of in that respect.
Mr. Rhodes was born in Sudbury, Rutland county, Vermont. His father dying when the boy was but five years old, he was compelled to work for his own living, riding horse for his neighbors whilst they plowed corn, digging potatoes and picking apples for every tenth bushel, and doing other odd jobs. When he was fifteen years old his mother married again and he lived with his stepfather till twenty-one. His stepfather, being rich, offered him a farm if he would stay with him, but he was bent on seeing the West before accepting the farm, and so set out westward. Whilst in the West he became engaged to be married, and before marriage he visited his home, when his stepfather offered him half his property if he would return there and live. The papers were made out but were not to be executed till he had consulted his affianced. To do this he returned to the West. As he traveled by canal he had abundant time to consider the matter, and the more he thought of it the more he became sick of the idea. Things were too circumscribed down east to suit his taste. He said nothing of the matter to his affianced, but wrote home that he was not coming; and to this day he has never seen occasion to regret his decision, but has been confirmed in its wisdom. To use his own expression: “By Jupiter, I would rather live west, if I did’nt live half as long.”
Mr. Rhodes became early interested in the coal business, his first enterprise being in company with Messrs. Tod and Ford, in 1845, at the old Briar Hill mines, from which they raised and shipped by canal about fifty tons per week. This was considered a good business. In two or three years business increased to a hundred tons daily. In 1846, another mine was opened in Girard. This was followed by the Clover Hill mine in the Tuscarawas Valley, previous to the opening of which the firm was changed by the death of Mr. Ford. The next opened was the Clinton mines in the Tuscarawas Valley. Then a mine in Fairview, Wayne county, which was the last large transaction with Gov. Tod as partner. In about 1855, Tod and Rhodes dissolved partnership, Mr. Rhodes taking Clover Hill, and Gov. Tod all the rest of the interests.
Whilst developing his coal interests, Mr. Rhodes made important discoveries of iron ore, the first being veins of black band ore, very similar to the English and Scotch, though richer. The veins of this ore in Tuscarawas are from five to fifteen feet thick. He also discovered and worked a vein of mountain ore that will also run from five to fifteen feet thick, and is easily mined, one miner being able to mine twenty tons per day after the earth has been removed. Mr. Rhodes spent several months in the ore fields of Scotland and England in 1868, and found the veins there not over two feet in thickness.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, D. P. Rhodes]
In the Tuscarawas Valley property, Mr. Rhodes has found seven veins of coal, five of which are very good, and he has worked the whole of them. There is also as good fire-clay as any yet discovered, the finest grade being pure sandstone, which stands fire as hearthstones in furnaces better than any other. Shell ore, block ore, and limestone also exist in abundance. The iron enterprises in which Mr. Rhodes is interested are the Tuscarawas Iron Company, formed about 1864, of which Mr. Rhodes is president. This company have three or four thousand acres of mineral land in the Tuscarawas Valley, and the works have a capacity of a hundred and fifty tons per week; also the Dover Rolling Mill Company, of which Mr. Baker is president. It makes all sizes of merchant and small T rail iron, having a capacity of about fifteen tons per day.
He is largely interested in a mining company near Massillon, having three engines and three openings there, and can mine a thousand tons of coal per day as soon as the road from Massillon to Clinton is completed. This will be the shortest coal bearing road,–for blast furnace coal–to Cleveland, by fifteen miles, for it connects with the Cleveland, Zanesville and Cincinnati Railroad at Clinton, thence to Cleveland by Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad at Hudson. A company was formed and sunk some eight hundred or nine hundred feet, within three miles of Canal Dover, on the line of this company, and found salt water of the very best quality, the water itself being almost strong enough to preserve meat. There is coal within twenty rods of the wells at ninety cents per ton, whereas in Syracuse and Saginaw they have to use wood, at a cost (at the former place) of seven dollars per cord. Mr. Cass, President of the Fort Wayne Railroad, and J. N. McCullough, of the same and of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad, are heavily interested in the road connections adverted to above.
At Fulton, three miles below Clinton, is another coal company in which Mr. Rhodes is interested. This mine yields about three hundred tons per day, and could double that amount if there were sufficient transportation. There are two engines and two openings at this bank.
Mr. Rhodes is also interested in three mines at Marseilles, Willmington and Braceville, Illinois. He has taken a hearty interest in all improvements, and especially in the matter of railroads. He was interested in building the Northern Division of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad, and was on the executive committee.
D. P. Rhodes and H. S. Stevens built the West Side street railroad, and equipped it. He was also largely interested in building and equipping the Rocky River railroad. He is also interested in the Cleveland and Zanesville railroad project.
Dr. Upson, of Talmadge, and Messrs. Philpot and Camp were in the coal business when Mr. Rhodes commenced, and they have all disappeared. They only then received about one boat load of fifty tons per week by canal, whereas, the firm of Rhodes & Co. now handle from ninety thousand to one hundred thousand tons per year.
Mr. Rhodes has built his docks in this city, two of them are the largest on the line of the river. About seven hundred men are employed on works in which he is heavily interested, but nothing troubles him. He says: “If the men don’t dig the coal or iron, they don’t get paid for it, so I take it easy, and am giving my attention to farming. I have a stock farm of five hundred and forty-four and a half acres at Ravenna that I run myself, and I have another of eighty acres adjacent to the city, rented for gardening, and still another of twenty-six and a half acres, out on the Detroit road where I intend to build me a home to live and die in, if I do not die away from home.” He is now only fifty-three years old, hale and hearty, and seemingly good for another score or two of years.
He has four children, the oldest and youngest being daughters. The oldest is the wife of M. A. Hanna, of the firm of Rhodes & Co. The oldest son, Robert, is a member of the same firm; the other son, James, has just returned from a long visit to the mineral fields of Europe and attending lectures on metallurgy and mining. By his observation and studies he has acquired an extensive knowledge of the old world and the modes of working mines. The youngest daughter, Fanny, is at school at Batavia, New York.
In 1867, Mr. D. P. Rhodes and J. F. Card being tired of the sale department of their coal business, and having immense interest in mines that required close attention, gave up their sale business in Cleveland to Rhodes & Co., a firm consisting of G. H. Warmington, M. A. Hanna, and Robert R. Rhodes, who are receiving and selling both coal and iron, the same as the old firm.
The sales of coal by the firm for the past two years amounted to one hundred thousand tons per year; together with a large trade in pig iron and ore. The Willson Bank and Massillon and also Briar Hill grades of coal are principally handled by this firm, who are also operators largely in the Pennsylvania anthracites.
The ores passing through Cleveland to supply the manufactories of the Mahoning Valley are from Lake Superior and Canada; the Canada ores forming quite an extensive item. The firm keep for sale many varieties of pig iron, the most considerable being that of the Tuscarawas iron, but including also the Lake Superior and Salisbury irons.
The business of the firm averages one million dollars per year, and extends through the entire chain of lakes, having agencies at Chicago and Milwaukee, and also on Lake Superior ports. The Chicago trade is steadily increasing, for which there are two or three good reasons, to wit: The city is growing very rapidly; the Illinois coals are very inferior to those of Ohio, and the local demand for the product of the Illinois coal fields is very large, owing to the scarcity of wood.
David Morris.
The importance of biography as a branch of historical literature is indisputable, and long before reaching this portion of our work the reader must have realized the truth, that in the life of the individual can be seen mirrored not only his individual struggles, “but all mankind’s epitome.” The trouble, trials and labors of the one are but specimens of the struggles of the many who have to fight the battle of life, and who go down to their graves unchronicled. From the story of those whose experience is recorded, may be gleaned lessons of hope under the most discouraging circumstances, of perseverance amid difficulties, and assurances that labor and faith will eventually conquer. These lessons are forcibly taught in the history of the subject of the present sketch.
David Morris was born of respectable parents, in Sirhowy, Monmouth county, on the border of Wales, July 9th, 1819. His opportunities for acquiring an education were limited, but such as they were he made the most of, and obtained sufficient knowledge of the ordinary branches to enable him to successfully carry on business in after life. When about twenty years of age he emigrated to the United States, landing in New York. October 4th, 1839, in company with his mother and the remainder of the children, his father having arrived earlier, for the purpose of seeking a location. The first stop was made in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, thence they removed for a short time to Llewellyn, and afterwards to Primrose, Schuylkill county.
In 1841, he left his parents and went to Middlebury, Summit county, Ohio. He at once commenced digging coal for Mr. Philpot, with whom he had been acquainted in Wales. After a few months he commenced driving team on the railroad, and continued in that capacity for about two years. The zeal and ability shown by the young man attracted the attention of his employer, and proved of signal assistance in pushing forward the work. So marked was the interest exhibited by Mr. Philpot in his assistant, that he favored a closer connection, and in 1843, his daughter, Dorothy Philpot, was married to David Morris. The young wife was a lady of more than ordinary good qualities, and the union proved a source of unfailing happiness, Mrs. Morris being not only an exemplary wife and mother in her home, but by her counsel and assistance materially advancing the business interests of her husband.
In 1847, Mr. Morris, in connection with W. H. Harris, contracted with Lemuel Crawford for mining the Chippewa bank by the ton. After two years, he took the management of the work for Crawford & Price, the latter having purchased an interest. He then went to Girard to work his own mines at that point. The coal being of an excellent quality, and the demand constantly increasing, these mines became a source of great wealth, engrossing large capital, and giving employment to a host of workmen. Instead of the one mine which he found, his original enterprise, his estate now comprises the Mineral Ridge mines, which have been worked about eighteen years, and have yielded about a hundred and fifty tons per day; the Girard mines, worked about the same period, and yielding two hundred tons daily; and mines at Youngstown, which have been worked eight years. The pay roll of these mines now bears about $12,000 per month, and the freight bills on the railroad average $3,000 per week. The coal is mostly brought to Cleveland, whence it is shipped to Chicago, Milwaukee, Hamilton, and Toronto, a large amount going to the latter place.
In 1856, Mr. Morris moved to Cleveland, the amount of business transacted with this city making this step prudent. Here the firm of Crawford, Price & Morris was formed, which subsequently became Price, Crawford & Morris, and finally Morris & Price. On the 15th of February, 1862, he died in the forty-third year of his age.
[Illustration: Truly Yours, David Morris]
Mr. Morris was active, industrious, and unfailing in his watchfulness over the interests in his charge, both when an employee and when an employer. His industry set a good example, which those under him were induced to follow, and in this way labors which would have wearied and discouraged men with a less energetic and industrious manager, were performed with cheerfulness. He was a man of few words but his manner and acts spoke more forcibly than words, and his men learned to obey and respect an employer, who, instead of ordering and lecturing them, quietly showed them how he wished a thing by setting about it with them. He was careful to restrain his passions, and to act from judgment instead of from impulse. In this way he was not only successful in business, and respected by his business associates, but possessed the esteem and confidence of his workmen, who, when he lay in his last illness, gathered anxiously to learn every item of intelligence that could be learned in regard to his condition.
Mr. Morris was simple and unpretending in his habits, and of a religious turn of mind. He felt his obligations to God, and during his later years, especially, was diligent in his attention on Divine worship. In the closing days of his illness, he was constantly engaged in prayer, and departed this life in the assured hope of a peaceful and joyous hereafter.
The disease that carried him off was typhoid fever, with which he was at first seized in Cleveland, where he lay at his residence for some weeks. On his partial recovery he visited Girard, where he suffered a relapse, and after a lingering illness, died at the residence of his parents. He was buried in Youngstown cemetery, the funeral exercises being attended by one of the largest assemblages of friends ever congregated at that place on a similar occasion.
It was feared that with his death the operation of his works would cease and a large number of people be thus thrown out of employment. But a short time before his death he had expressed the desire that the works should be carried on after his departure the same as before it; “because,” said he, “to stop the work would do much harm to others and no good to us.” Mr. Morris appointed his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Morris, and Mr. Robert McLauchlan, executors of his will, and trustees of the estate. Mr. McLauchlan, who had been for a number of years engaged with the firm previous to the death of Mr. Morris, and therefore familiar with all its business detail, had the additional qualification of being an able financier, and possessing a practical knowledge of all branches of the coal interest, and above all, a character for unimpeachable integrity. His administration has been eminently successful.
Mr. Morris left a wife and six children to mourn his loss, the eldest of whom, Mary, is now the widow of the late A. V. Cannon, and the second, William, is a member of the firm of Ward, Morris & Co., coal dealers. The third, John, is engaged at one of the estate mines, at Niles, Ohio, the rest being quite young.
W. I. Price.
W. I. Price was born in Nantiglo, South Wales, May 21st, 1823, and came to the United States with his father when about twelve years of age. His father settled at Paris, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch remained until he grew up to man’s estate, when he removed to Cleveland, and was engaged as book-keeper with Messrs. Camp & Stockly. The confidence of his employers in his business ability and integrity was soon manifested by their sending him to Chicago as their agent in the coal business. His stay in that city was marked by several severe fits of sickness, and he was eventually compelled to leave that post and return to Cleveland.
Soon after his return he became interested with Lemuel Crawford, in the business of mining coal, in the early development of which branch of trade he filled a conspicuous and important part. He often related, after the coal interest had assumed large proportions, the difficulties to be surmounted in introducing coal as an article of fuel, especially on the steamboats. Frequently he has sat up all night watching for the steamers to come in, and then almost gave away coal in order to induce their officers to use it.
The firm of Crawford & Price was formed in 1850. With persistent energy it continued to push its coal business until it assumed considerable proportions, when, in 1856, Mr. David Morris became a partner, and the firm name was changed to Crawford, Price & Co., and again in 1858, to Price, Crawford & Morris. In 1857, the firm of Price, Morris & Co. was established in Chicago, and Mr. Price was, during much of his time, actively engaged in the extensive coal transactions of that firm.
[Illustration: Very Resp. Yours, W. I. Price]
Mr. Price was married to Miss Harriet Murray, who died in 1850, after two years of married life, leaving one child, which only survived her three months. He was married again August 27, 1856, to Miss Caroline Anderson, of Manchester, Vermont, daughter of Rev. James Anderson, of the Congregational church.
Being in ill health at the time of his second marriage, Mr. Price, with his wife, took a trip to Europe, visiting his old home in Wales, and returned with his health so much improved that he was scarcely recognized by his friends.
The year 1857 was a most trying time for business men. Mr. Price’s labors were arduous in the extreme; his energy was unbounded, and the labors he was compelled to perform doubtless so over-taxed his strength that he had not sufficient vitality to recover.
In the Fall of 1858, he had the first serious apprehensions for his health. A bronchial difficulty from which he suffered, was aggravated by traveling and exposure, and in the Spring of 1859, he went to New York for advice. He was told to make another trip to Europe. This advice was followed, but he returned very little benefited. After a few weeks he started with his wife on a tour south, intending to remain there during the Winter. Reaching Charleston, S. C., about the middle of November, he remained but a short time, and then set out for the Sulphur Springs, at Aiken. Here he improved rapidly, but as the cold came on, and the accommodations were poor, it was thought advisable to go further south. At Savannah he remained a short time, and after wandering from point to point, arrived early in February at New Smyrna, where a large company of English hunters made their headquarters. Here they found better food and accommodations. After wandering through the South until about the middle of May, they returned to New York, where they were met by the partner of Mr. Price, Mr. Morris, and Mr. Price’s brother Philip. The latter accompanied them to Manchester, Vermont. The mountain air of that region stopped the cough of the invalid, and from Thursday, May 17th, to Monday 21st, he was able to sit up, and was attending to business with his brother all the morning of the last named day. A friend from Brooklyn called, and with him he conversed for half an hour. On rising to bid him good bye, he was seized with hemorrhage, and asked to be assisted to bed. He never spoke more, and died in fifteen minutes. His remains were brought to Cleveland and interred in Erie street cemetery, but were afterwards removed to Woodland. The last illness of Mr. Price was borne without a murmur.
Mr. Price was modest and retiring in manner, affable in disposition, and benevolent to a fault. He was most beloved where best known. In business circles his integrity was proverbial, and his financial ability everywhere acknowledged. Few men have died so sincerely regretted by those who knew him.
James Anderson Price, the only child of the subject of this sketch, was born April 22d, 1858, and though yet very young, presents in personal appearance and disposition an exact counterpart of his father.
D. W. Cross.
In the Spring of 1855, when the coal trade of Cleveland was, comparatively, in its infancy, and before the Mahoning Railroad was built, the late Oliver H. Perry and David W. Cross set about investigating the coal deposits in the Mahoning Valley, which resulted in their making some leases of coal lands, and in purchasing a coal tract of about one hundred and fifty acres, known then as the old Heaton coal bank, of Mineral Ridge coal. In January, 1856, Perry, Cross & Co. commenced operations in earnest, opened an office and coal yard on Johnson & Tisdale’s dock and mined and brought to Cleveland the first cargo of Mineral Ridge coal. It came by the way of the Pennsylvania and Ohio canal from Niles, Trumbull county, Ohio.
At that time, when a gold dollar was only worth a dollar, the coal was mined at forty cents per ton, the canal freight about one dollar and seventy-five cents per ton, “dead work,” handling, dockage, &c., about seventy-five cents, making the total cost of that coal on the docks in Cleveland ready for delivery, about two dollars and ninety cents per ton.
This mine produced about a hundred tons per day. The company that year also received about eight thousand tons of Briar Hill or “block coal” from Powers’ bank, about two miles below Youngstown. This coal was also brought in by canal boats.
In the year 1859, Hon. Henry B. Payne, who had an interest in the original purchase of coal lands, with a view of establishing his son, Nathan P. Payne, in business, bought the entire interest of Mr. Perry in the concern and the business was continued in the name of D. W. Cross & Co. Mr. N. P. Payne, then an active young man just from his collegiate studies, took charge of the retail trade, and Isaac Newton had charge of the books. In 1860, arrangements were made with the late Lemuel Crawford to run his Chippewa and Briar Hill mines in connection with the Mineral Ridge mines, and it resulted in forming the company known as Crawford, Cross & Co., for one year, at the expiration of which time the firm of Cross, Payne & Co., composed of D. W. Cross, Nathan P. Payne and Isaac Newton, carried on the business. This firm made extensive explorations for coal. They discovered and opened the Summit bank coal mines, near Akron, built a locomotive railroad three miles long to the canal at Middlebury, and to the Cleveland & Zanesville and Atlantic & Great Western railroads; repaired the feeder canal from Middlebury to Akron, built a basin capable of holding eight canal boats, extensive shutes, docks, &c., capable of handling four thousand five hundred tons per day. This coal tract includes between three and four hundred acres. The coal is a superior quality of the Massillon grade, about four and a half feet thick, and for steam, manufacturing and domestic uses is claimed to have no superior. The company employed at this mine from seventy-five to a hundred and fifty men; built extensive shaft works for elevating coal to the surface; erected about forty comfortable tenements for the workmen and miners, and, in short, used all their past experience to make this a model mine. It is the nearest coal bank to Cleveland now open.
They also, in connection with the late W. A. Otis, Charles A. Otis and James Lewis, leased and purchased several hundred acres of coal lands in Brookfield, Trumbull county, Ohio, and opened the extensive works known as the Otis Coal Company’s bank.
A shaft on this tract was sunk to the coal eight by sixteen feet and a hundred and fifty-five feet deep, in sixty-one days by Isaac Halford, superintendent, through solid rock, said to be the quickest work ever known in the valley. This tract produces an excellent quality of the Briar Hill grade of coal; a locomotive railroad connects it with a branch of the Mahoning Railroad, and the works are capable of mining and raising three