Dudley Baldwin

In 1819, Dudley Baldwin came to Cleveland from Ballston, New York, having

as his principal capital a fair common school education. In course of time

be found employment in the mercantile store of Mr. Weddell, and became one

of his trusted clerks, being, after a few years, taken into partnership.

The death of Mr. Weddell in 1847, terminated a connection that had existed

pleasantly for over twenty years.

For the next few years Mr. Baldwin was chiefly engaged in closing up the

affairs of Mr. Weddell, after which he engaged for a time in the

manufacture of agricultural implements, until, from ill heath, he was

compelled to relinquish business and seek restoration of health by travel

and in quiet retirement.

Mr. Baldwin was identified with the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad from

its inception, and during the darkest days of the undertaking he stood

firmly by it, in connection with the other directors, never losing faith

in its ultimate success--a success he has lived to see perfected. He has

also, for a number of years, been a director of the Commercial Bank of

Cleveland.

In religious principles Mr. Baldwin is a Presbyterian, and has long

been connected with the Euclid street Presbyterian Church. He is known

to all his acquaintances as a man of quiet unassuming manners, and of

sterling worth.

Norman C. Baldwin.

Very many of those who settled on the Western Reserve, in the early days

of its history, came from Connecticut, and the fact of so many Connecticut

families being already here induced considerable emigration from that

State long after the first rush was over. Among others of Connecticut

birth who found their way eventually to Cleveland, was Norman C. Baldwin,

born at Litchfield, July 29th, 1802, and spending his early years in the

struggles which so many of the New England families of limited resources

had to pass through in the early portion of the present century.

Whilst yet but a mere child he assisted his father in the work of the

farm, but being left fatherless at the age of eight, he was sent two years

afterwards to work in his cousin's store, where he remained four years. In

his fourteenth year he left Litchfield for New Haven, where he found

employment for a year with a provision packer.

At that time his mother joined the stream of emigration setting towards

the Ohio, and with her came her children. Stopping at Hudson, Summit

county, young Baldwin commenced trading on his own account, and built up

a good business, which he managed alone for eighteen months and then

formed a partnership with two of his brothers, the partnership lasting

eight years. Then the firm was dissolved and Norman C. came to

Cleveland, where he formed a partnership with Noble H. Merwin in the

general produce business.

In 1830, the firm of Giddings, Baldwin & Co., which had succeeded that of

Merwin & Baldwin, contained seven partners, of whom Mr. Baldwin is the

only survivor. The business was mainly forwarding and commission, the

forwarding being mostly by canal. The firm was one of the most important

on the lakes, owning a line of boats, the Troy and Erie, from Portsmouth,

on the Ohio river, to New York In those days the canal lines carried

passengers as well as freight, the boats usually taking about thirty

passengers and one thousand bushels of wheat. For emigrants, of whom many

were pouring into the West, special boats were fitted up with

accommodations, such as they were, for about a hundred and fifty

passengers. In 1836, Mr. Baldwin left the mercantile business altogether,

and thereafter devoted his attention to operations in real estate.

As illustrating the growth of the city and the consequent increasing value

of city property, Mr. Baldwin relates having purchased in 1833 three

parcels of land, neither of which cost over two thousand dollars, which

are now estimated to be worth half a million of dollars each. In 1831, he

was offered, in the course of his operations, a strip of land fronting on

Superior street and running back to the canal, with a comfortable frame

house thereon, for one thousand dollars. The price looked high and Mr.

Baldwin, distrusting his own judgment, consulted 'Squire Cowles, then a

prominent attorney. Mr. Cowles hesitated, thought the investment somewhat

risky, although they might live to see the land worth thirty dollars a

foot front. Heeding his own fears, which were not abated by the doubtful

opinion of his adviser, Mr. Baldwin refused to purchase. That same land is

worth now not merely thirty dollars a foot, but equivalent to three or

four thousand dollars a foot front.

As showing the condition of the roads around Cleveland, and the mode of

traveling in the early days of its history, it is narrated by Mr. Baldwin,

that when living in Hudson he was fond of good horses and kept a team of

which he was proud. The distance between Hudson and Cleveland was but

twenty-four miles, but that distance had never been done in one day by any

team. Mr. Baldwin thought the time had come for performing the feat, and

accordingly set out on the journey. Just at tea time he drew rein in front

of Merwin's tavern, at the corner of Superior street and Vineyard lane,

and shouted to the landlord. The guests had just seated themselves to tea

when Mr. Merwin rushed into the room in a state of great excitement,

exclaiming, "For God's sake, gentlemen, come out and see a team that has

been driven from Hudson to-day!" The guests left the table in a hurry and

rushed to the door, scarcely crediting their own eyes.

Mr. Baldwin was married in 1829, and lost his wife in the Spring of 1867.

Of this marriage there are now six children living and three dead. One

son, Norman A., is engaged in agriculture in the neighborhood of the city.

Leverett Alcott.

Leverett Alcott was born in Walcott, New Haven county, Connecticut, in

1820. From early boyhood his taste was for mercantile pursuits. At the age

of seventeen he obtained a position in an extensive country store at

Bristol Basin, on the Farmington Canal, (now Plainville.) By diligence and

perseverance, he was soon promoted from the duties of errand boy to a

responsible position, and in course of time stood at the head of all the

clerks in the establishment.

For the benefit of neophytes in commercial life, it may not be

uninteresting to state how boys were made merchants in those days, and the

remuneration they received for services. They were not (as is too often

the case at the present time) transformed in a few months from crude green

boys to merchants, but were obliged to learn the business by actual

experience. An arrangement was made in this case for three years, on the

following conditions: fifty dollars for the first year, seventy-five

dollars for the second year, and one hundred dollars for the third and

last year, with board in his employer's family. With this modest salary it

required the utmost care and rigid economy to clothe and keep himself; but

where there's a will there's a way, and the economy thus practiced in

early life was no detriment in laying the foundation for a sound business

career in after life. After having fulfilled his engagement with his

employer, he spent some three years of mercantile life at the South, but

the customs of the country, and the barbarous system of slavery were so

repulsive to his feelings that he abandoned that field for the more

congenial and prospectively profitable activities of the West, and in

December, 1842, landed at Medina, in this State. In the Spring of 1845, a

mercantile copartnership was formed with Mr. Augustus W. North, under the

firm name of North & Alcott. During the subsequent Fall he married Miss

Mary A. Williams, with the view of permanently settling at that place, but

the mercantile prospects, and the growth of the town not appearing

satisfactory to his views, the firm of North & Alcott was dissolved and

the business discontinued, to be reconstructed and opened in a wider field

and on a broader basis. Accordingly, in the Spring of 1849, (just twenty

years ago,) a business arrangement was entered into with his present

partner, Mr. Burrett W. Horton, a former school mate, under the firm name

of Alcott & Horton. The business was to be the retailing of dry goods, and

located at 177 Superior street, in Harrington's Block. The beginning was a

moderate one, with a very limited capital, but what was lacking in capital

was made up in energy, industry and perseverance. At first a retail trade

only was contemplated, which was continued some four years, when the rapid

growth of the city and increase of business induced them to open a

wholesale department in the lofts of their store. Subsequently they closed

their retail business and occupied the whole building for their jobbing

trade; but their apartments were soon found to be too strait for their

rapidly growing trade, and in August, 1855, they removed to the large new

store, No. 141, in Clark's Block.

Mr. Alcott has a knowledge of human nature that imparts a keen perception

of the character and motives of men, and hence, almost instinctively knows

whom to trust. He is also quick in forming his judgment, ready in the

adaptation of means to secure an end, vigorously prosecutes his plans, and

seldom fails of a successful issue.

In a young and vigorous country like the United States, where so many

opportunities are offered to ambition and laudable enterprise, and where

too often, everything else but gold is lost sight of, it is refreshing to

find some among our heaviest merchants, who recognize the fact, that man

"cannot live by bread alone." Mr. Alcott, through all his active life has

found time to attend to his religious duties. He has been for a long time

connected with the Second Presbyterian Church, and for many years one of

its elders. He was formerly President of the Young Men's Christian

Association; actively engaged in missionary Sunday School work in the

city--taking a lively interest in all Christian labor; a ready and willing

giver toward public improvements, and all benevolent enterprises.

Richard Winslow.

On the evening of Sunday, August 9th, 1857, died, at nearly the ripe age

of eighty-eight, Richard Winslow, the father of the Winslow family that

have filled so important a place in the commercial and shipping history of

Cleveland.

Mr. Winslow was born in Falmouth, Maine, September 6th, 1769, being

descended in a direct line from Knelm Winslow, brother of Governor Edward

Winslow, who played so important a part in the early history of Plymouth

colony. In 1812, Mr. Winslow removed to North Carolina, where he lived

for fourteen years, at Ocracoke, becoming largely interested in commerce,

both internal and marine. Soon after his removal to that State, he

married Miss Mary Nash Grandy, of Camden, N. C., who became the mother of

eleven children, of whom but four, N. C., H. J., R. K., and Edward, are now

alive. Mrs. Winslow died October, 1858, having survived her husband a

little over one year.

In 1830, he decided to leave North Carolina and try his fortune in the

West. A preliminary tour of observation brought him to Cleveland, then

lively with business, and more lively still with expectancy of business to

come from the completion of the canal, then in partial operation. Like

many who preceded, and more who followed him, Mr. Winslow was struck with

the natural advantages of Cleveland and concluded to try his fortunes

here. The site of what is now known as the "Winslow warehouse," on the

river, was owned by C. M. Giddings and Captain Belden, and a building was

then in course of erection on it. Mr. Winslow purchased the property. He

had strong faith in the growth of the city, but others did not have it to

the same extent, and he was strongly urged not to attempt business so far

down the river, where it was impossible that trade would ever reach him.

Immediately on concluding his purchase, he went to the eastern cities,

where he purchased a large stock of teas and groceries, which he sent with

his son, N. C., to Cleveland in the Fall. The stock arrived in December and

was at once opened on Superior street, opposite Union lane. In the

following May, Mr. Winslow followed with his family, purchased a lot on

the south-east corner of the Public Square, and contracted with Levi

Johnson for the erection of the house that was occupied by the Winslow

family until the death of Mr. Winslow.

Unlike most of the early settlers in Cleveland, Mr. Winslow came with

capital to invest at once in business, and by prudent management and far

seeing enterprise that capital rapidly increased. He soon became agent for

a line of vessels between Buffalo and Cleveland, and also of a line of

canal boats. The first step toward his own shipping interests here, which

subsequently assumed such proportions, was commenced by building the brig

North Carolina. A few years later he was interested in building the

steamer Bunker Hill, of 456 tons, which at that time was considered a very

large size. To these were added, by himself and his sons, so many other

lake craft that the family ranked among the foremost, if not the very

foremost ship-owners on the chain of lakes, their sail vessels, propellers

and steam-tugs being found everywhere on the western lake waters.

In 1854, Mr. Winslow retired from business, leaving his interest to be

carried on by his sons, who inherited their father's business qualities.

In his retirement, as in his active business life, he enjoyed the

friendship of a very large social circle, to whom his frank, generous

manners, warm attachments, and spotless honor commended him. He was a

favorable specimen of the old school gentleman, warm and impulsive in his

nature, quick to conceive and prompt to act, cordial in his greeting,

strong in his attachments, and courteous to all.

His death was accelerated by an accident which seriously injured a leg he

had badly injured several years before. To the last he preserved his

faculties and his cheerfulness, and but for the injuries he had received

would probably have lived for many years longer.

He was no politician, never sought office, but at the same time took a

keen interest in public affairs, and did not neglect his duties or

privileges as a citizen.

The three brothers in active conduct of the large marine interests known

as the Winslows', are distributed as follows: N. C. at Buffalo, H. J. at

New York, and R. K. at Cleveland, all of whom have been eminently

successful.

Richard Hilliard.

Amongst Cleveland's earliest merchants who have already passed away, none

deserve more honorable mention than Richard Hilliard. Like nearly all our

men of mark, in early life he was obliged to sail against wind and tide.

He was born at Chatham, New York, July 3, 1797. His father, David

Hilliard, died when Richard was 14 years of age, he being at the time

serving an apprenticeship with a hatter named Dore, at Albany. He was a

lad of superior organization, and so, although obedient and obliging, had

an extreme distaste for drudgery. A son of Mr. Dore one day threw down a

pair of boots, saying, "Clean those boots Dick," when the lad concluded he

would not do it, and at once prepared to leave for parts unknown. None of

his friends knew of his whereabouts for several months, but at length

learned he was at Skaneateles, with an older brother. Here he remained

until he was about 18 years of age, being employed at clerking and school

teaching, and ever mindful of his widowed mother and fatherless sisters.

From Skaneateles he removed to Black Rock and engaged himself as clerk to

Mr. John Daly, a general merchant at that place. The young man soon gained

the confidence of his employer and was admitted as a partner without

capital. After a year or two, the firm moved to Cleveland, as a place of

greater promise for trade. This occurred in 1824. They at once commenced

business in the same line here on the site of the present Atwater Block,

in a frame building of two compartments, one of which was used for dry

goods, and the other for groceries. Mr. Daly was not an active partner in

the business here, having given the entire management to Mr. Hilliard.

In 1827, Mr. Hilliard purchased Mr. Daly's entire interest, and continued

alone for several years, till at length the demands of trade making it

desirable to have a resident partner in New York to make purchases, he

associated with himself Mr. William Hays, of that city. This partnership

existed till the close of Mr. Hilliard's life.

As soon as business prospects warranted the investment, Mr. Hilliard

secured a lot on Water street, and erected the block now occupied by

Raymond & Lowe, and on taking possession of the new place of business,

commenced the wholesale branch, and continued the same until 1856, when,

being on his way home from New York, he took a severe cold, which was soon

followed by congestion, and after one week's illness, died, deeply

regretted by all who knew him.

He was a man of great business ability, and of strict integrity. He was

not always appreciated, because his accurate foresight led him to advocate

projects which the public generally were not ready to adopt. He labored

most indefatigably for the construction of our Water Works, because he saw

what the future wants of the city would be. The scheme was strongly

opposed by many on account of the debt it would involve. But it was

finally accomplished, and we are more indebted to Richard Hilliard for its

achievement than to any other man.

Shortly after coming to Cleveland he became engaged to Miss Mary Merwin,

daughter of Noble H. Merwin, who died before the marriage. He then brought

his sister Sarah A. (now Mrs. O. Cutter) to live with him. In about a year

from this time he was married to Miss Catharine Hays, of New York, who

died about four years before Mr. Hilliard, leaving seven children.

S. H. Sheldon.

The lumber trade has grown to be a very important branch of the commerce

of Cleveland, and some of its best and most enterprising citizens have

been, or are now, engaged in it. Among these the name of Mr. Sheldon holds

honorable prominence as one of the earliest in the trade, and who has

always held place among the foremost engaged in it.

Mr. Sheldon's birth place was in Clinton, Oneida county, N. Y., where he

was born August 12th, 1813. His early days were not passed among thornless

roses. His father, a hard working farmer, died when the future lumber

merchant was but eight years old. Young Sheldon remained on the homestead

until he was sixteen years old, working hard, as did the others of the

fatherless family, and snatching such crumbs of knowledge as could be

obtained in the winter days, when time could be spared for schooling. On

nearly reaching his sixteenth year, he went to Troy, N. Y., where he was

received as an apprentice to the drug business, and served seven years in

that capacity. As soon as his term of apprenticeship expired he set his

face westward in search of fortune, as so many hundreds had done before

him, and hundreds of thousands have done since.

In the year 1835, he reached Cleveland and at once started in trade as a

druggist on Detroit Street, then in Ohio City, but now the West Side of

Cleveland. At that time the West, generally, was enjoying seeming

prosperity; everything was inflated and everyone was growing rich, on

paper. Ohio City was then the city of the future, and fortune smiled on

all its residents, and particularly on those who held real estate within

its borders.

Four years later the commercial earthquake came and toppled over the whole

fabric of trade and commerce in the West, reducing it to ruins. The entire

West was devastated, and Ohio City received a blow from which, as a

separate municipality, it never recovered. Among the others who suffered

greatly by the disaster was Mr. Sheldon.

In 1842, he sold out his drug business, and went into the employ of

another firm as an accountant, continuing in that position about two

years. From this he went into business on his own account once more, this

time dealing in groceries and provisions, which he continued to trade in

until 1846, when he was attracted to the lumber trade, which he entered,

in partnership with S. H. Fox. Four years later he disposed of his

interest in the firm, and operated in lumber on his own account, not

keeping a yard, but buying and selling by the cargo. In 1852, the firm of

Sheldon & French was formed, a lumber yard opened, and the firm continued

until the failure of the health of Mr. C. French. For a year after this

event Mr. Sheldon carried on his business alone, and then took into

partnership his son, Edward P. Sheldon, the firm becoming Sheldon & Son.

In April, 1869, the firm of Sheldon & Son merged into that of S. H.

Sheldon & Co., being comprised of S. H. Sheldon & Son, and Sears &

Holland, of East Saginaw, Mich.

The lumber trade of the city has been, generally, one of steady growth,

and Mr. Sheldon's share in it has been of that character. It developed

gradually, as the city grew in size and importance, and as the demand from

the interior increased with the growth of towns and villages on the lines

of canal and railroads. The beginning was small, and the earlier years of

its progress full of difficulties, but in the end the trade reached large

and lucrative proportions. Its highest point of prosperity was during the

war, when the establishment of permanent camps through the State created a

sudden and extensive demand for lumber, to build the numerous camp

buildings. At that time the only perplexity of the lumber dealer was to

find a supply sufficient for the demands pressing in from all quarters,

for certain qualities.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, S. H. Sheldon]

From lumber to ship building is an easy transition, and Mr. Sheldon, five

or six years since, became interested in lake craft, and added a fine

three masted schooner to the lake marine. With the growth of manufactures

in the city, he became interested in that direction also, connecting

himself with the Etna Iron and Nail Works enterprise. He also took a deep

interest in the formation of the People's Gas Company, for the supply of

the West Side with gas, being one of the original supporters of the

organization, and at present one of its directors.

In all his undertakings Mr. Sheldon has kept steadily in view the

necessity of industry and economy, and it is the practice of these two

mercantile virtues that has brought about his success. One trait of his

business character is peculiar. He has, so far as possible, avoided

recourse to law, holding the doctrine that, in most cases, when a debt

could not be collected without the aid of a lawyer, it was not worth

spending money for. In religious principles Mr. Sheldon is a

Congregationalist, and has been connected for more than thirty years with

the First Congregational Church, and during most of this time has

discharged the duties of deacon, serving the church with fidelity and

acceptance, in this official position. He has been identified with Sabbath

school labors, as teacher and superintendent, and to his zeal and

liberality the Detroit street Mission Sabbathe school largely owes its

prosperity, and its present commodious chapel. In every Christian

enterprise Deacon Sheldon has been among the foremost. No benevolent

cause, whether local or general, has appealed to him in vain for pecuniary

support, or Christian sympathy and countenance.

In 1836, Mr. Sheldon was married to Miss Cordelia H. Buxton, of Cleveland,

a descendent of the English Buxtons, of philanthropic memory. Of the

family of six children, one, the eldest, Henry A. Sheldon, died in 1842.

The only surviving son became a partner with his father in 1866.

Charles Hickox.

Whether the conversion of wheat into flour can more properly be classed

among manufactures or trade and commerce is a question for casuists to

determine. There can be no question, however, that Charles Hickox takes

his place, by right, among the merchants and commercial men of Cleveland,

whether the grinding of wheat be a manufacture or not, for it is not alone

by the milling business that Mr. Hickox has identified himself with the

commerce of the city. He has gone through all the phases of Cleveland

commercial life, having been connected with the produce and commission

trade, owned lake vessels, and otherwise qualified himself for a place

among the merchants and "river men," aside from the business in which he

is widely known--that of an extensive mill owner.

Mr. Hickox came to Cleveland in 1837, from the state of New York, making

his debut in the Forest City in the year of its greatest depression. For

the first two years he engaged as clerk, and served his employers

faithfully. Then, gaining confidence, and seeing an opening he struck out

boldly for himself, setting up, as was usual in those days, in the

commission and produce business. The constantly growing commerce of the

place increased his business and made it lucrative. With far-seeing

enterprise Mr. Hickox pushed his operations so that his trade rapidly

increased and his consignments steadily grew in number and quantity. To

accommodate it he purchased interests in shipping on the lake, and

eventually became a large ship owner.

Seeing his opportunity, Mr. Hickox turned his attention to milling, and

commenced operations at a mill in Akron, which he soon made known to the

commercial world by the excellence and reliability of its brand. To this

was, in time, added the water mill, on the canal, in Cleveland, near the

weigh lock, which he held for five years and then sold. After the sale of

the latter mill, he purchased the Cleveland Steam Mills on Merwin street,

with a capacity of about three hundred and fifty barrels per day, and in

1867, he added the National Steam Mills, with a capacity of from five

hundred to six hundred barrels daily. Whilst a large capital is invested

in these mills, the number of men employed is less than in establishments

where labor saving machinery has not been brought to such a pitch of

perfection. About fifty men are directly employed in the mills, and a

large number additional in the manufacture of barrels and sacks. A very

large proportion of the flour from these mills is sold in sacks, from the

fact that the entire product is sold in the home market, which speaks well

for the estimation in which the brands are held. Mr. Charles W. Coe is in

active partnership with Mr. Hickox, in the milling interests, the firm

name being Coe & Hickox.

Mr. Hickox has taken deep interest in the railroad affairs of the city,

and has been for some time a director of the Cleveland, Columbus &

Cincinnati Railroad Company. He is still as active and energetic as ever,

well preserved in body and mind, and making his positive influence felt in

all departments of business in which he becomes interested. He never tires

of work, and, as he says of himself, he "holds his own well, at

fifty-five."

Alexander Sackettt.

Alexander Sackett, son of Augustus Sackett, of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y.,

was born August 17th, 1814. He received a good mercantile education in New

York City, and came from thence to Cleveland in 1835, and at once engaged

in the wholesale and retail dry goods line, in the old block of Mr.

Weddell, on Superior street. He continued with success in this business

until 1854, when he went into commercial business on the river, and in

which he remained until 1868, when he retired from trade circles to devote

his whole attention to his real estate interests.

Mr. Sackett was married in 1836, to Harriet, daughter of Levi Johnson,

Esq., of this city. They have five children living, and have lost two. The

eldest daughter is the wife of Mr. Virgil T. Taylor, of this city, and the

son is in his father's office.

Mr. Sackett is still hale, and may reasonably expect, without accident, to

long enjoy the fruit of his labor.

George Mygatt.

Mr. Mygatt is a genuine pioneer of the Western Reserve, having come with

his father, Comfort S. Mygatt, at the age of ten years, to the new

settlement at Canfield, Mahoning county, Ohio, in the year 1807. He was

born at Danbury, Ct., on 14th of June, 1797, when that village had not

recovered from its conflagration by the British, during the Revolution.

There were then visible, and for many years during his boyhood, buildings

which were charred by fires kindled by English soldiers.

Mr. Mygatt's father was a merchant and farmer, at Canfield. He was an

active, honest and successful man. The year previous to his emigration,

his daughter, Polly, was married, at Danbury, to the late Elisha

Whittlesey, who removed at once to Canfield, Ohio. Mr. Whittlesey, his

son-in-law, took the contract to clear a piece of ground for Mr. Mygatt,

laboring on the job with his axe and team.

At Danbury, George had as good an opportunity in school as any Connecticut

lad could have, under the age of ten years. At Canfield there was little

opportunity for gaining book knowledge. He was engaged with his father as

clerk and general helper, until he was twenty years old. In 1818, he

became clerk in the Western Reserve Bank, at Warren, and remained in that

position two years, when he engaged in mercantile business in connection

with his father-in-law, Mr. A. Adams. This partnership lasted five years,

after which he carried on the business alone until 1833.

From 1829 to 1833, he was sheriff of Trumbull county, and had the

disagreeable office of executing the murderer, Gardner.

In 1834, Mr. Mygatt became a financier, which may be said to be his

profession. He was then appointed cashier of the Bank of Norwalk, Ohio. In

1836, he was appointed cashier of the Bank of Geauga, at Painesville,

Ohio; and in 1846 he became President of the City Bank of Cleveland,

holding the last named office until 1850. The firm of Mygatt & Brown was

then formed, for private banking, and continued until 1857.

In 1855, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, from

Cuyahoga county, serving two sesssion.

[Illustration: Very Respectfully, George Mygatt]

The Merchants Bank of Cleveland, in 1857, became deeply involved, by the

failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, of Cincinnati. Mr. Mygatt was

appointed cashier at this time, when a memorable panic in finances was

sweeping over the country. The bank sank a large part of its stock, but

maintained its integrity, and continued to redeem its notes.

In 1861, he retired from active business, but, with his long habits of

employment, it soon became irksome to him to be out of work, and in 1865

he became Secretary of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad Company, a

position he still retains, for the sake of being employed.

A large portion of Mr. Mygatt's time and means have always been devoted to

benevolent purposes; Sunday schools, the annual contributions for the

poor, the church, industrial schools, and, in fact, all charitable

movements have found in him a ready response; he will long be remembered

for his work's sake.

As a business man he was characterized by the strictest integrity, always

preserving a quiet, considerate policy, and by incessant industry

accomplished a great deal. For one who has reached the age of seventy-two,

he possesses remarkable vigor, and we should judge, from the position he

occupies, that his mental faculties are little impaired.

Mr. Mygatt was married in March, 1820, to Miss Eliza Freeman, of Warren,

who is still living. Of their six children, four of whom arrived at mature

age, and were married, only Mrs. F. T. Backus now survives.

Martin B. Scott.

Among the names of those who have done business on the river during the

past quarter of a century, that of M. B. Scott, until his retirement a few

years since, held a foremost place. Mr. Scott is a native of New York,

having been born at Deerfield, near Utica, in that State, in March, 1801.

Mr. Scott is of Quaker stock; a lineal descendent in the sixth generation

from the first American Quaker, (Richard Scott, one of the first settlers

of Providence, R. I.,) and in the nineteenth generation from William

Baliol Scott, of Scotts-Hall, Kent, England, in the line of Edward I. His

Quaker ancestors suffered persecution at the hands of the Boston Puritans

in 1658. The daughters of Richard Scott were cast into prison by Endicott,

for avowing their Quaker faith, and his wife Katharine (_né_ Marbury,

youngest sister of the famous Mrs. Anne Hutchinson) was publicly scourged

in Boston by order of court, for visiting and sympathizing with her Quaker

brethren in prison.

One of the maxims of Mr. Scott's life, was to despise no honest

employment, however laborious; if he failed to obtain such business as he

desired, he took the next best opportunity that offered, a principle that

might be profitably practiced by many young men of the present day.

Deprived of a liberal education, by the pecuniary embarrassments of his

father, who had a large family to support, he left the Utica Academy in

1820, and made an effort to learn a mechanical trade, with only partial

success. He, for a time, alternately taught a country school in winter,

and was engaged for the remainder of the year in internal commerce, as

master of a boat, or as forwarding clerk, in the then prominent houses of

De Graff, Walton & Co., and Cary & Dows, on the Mohawk river and Erie

canal. This early training in the elements of commerce and navigation was

the nucleus of his subsequent pursuits, and the foundation of his

commercial success, although his operations were not on the gigantic scale

of many others, who either amassed great fortunes, or sank into

bankruptcy; he managed his affairs with such prudence, sagacity and

integrity, that he never had occasion to compound with his creditors, or

even ask for an extension.

Mr. Scott was interested in the first line of canal boats that ran through

from Utica to New York. In the outset of Erie canal operations it was

supposed that canal boats could not sail down the Hudson, and the freight

was consequently transhipped at Albany. Experiment proved the fallacy of

this belief, and thenceforward canal boats ran through to New York. A new

line of steam tow-boats on the North river, called the Albany & Canal

Tow-Boat Company, was formed, and Mr. Scott was appointed principal

manager, first at Albany and then at New York.

In 1836, his health failed, owing to his close application to business,

and under medical advice he performed a horseback journey through

Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. On his way westward he stopped

at Cleveland and was favorably impressed with what was then a small but

flourishing town. In 1837, he returned from his western journey and

resumed business, but again his health failed, and he was ordered to

permanently abandon Albany and seek a more favorable climate. Remembering

the advantages of Cleveland both for business and residence, he concluded

to remove to that point.

Here he continued his connection with the forwarding business by opening

an agency for the American Transportation Line of canal boats on the Erie

canal, his office being at the foot of Superior street. In 1841, he

engaged in the purchase and shipment of staves, the markets for which

were Albany and New York. This branch of business he continued for about

five years.

In 1844, he built a steam elevator on River street, near his old stand, it

being the first brick building erected on the river front. With the

completion of this building he turned his attention more particularly to

grain, receiving it by canal from the interior. On the opening of the

Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati railroad, his elevator was easily

connected with that line, and the first load of railroad wheat stored in

Cleveland was received into his elevator.

About the year 1840, Mr. Scott became interested in the lake marine by

the purchase of the brig Amazon, of 220 tons, then considered a craft of

good size. At the time of the purchase, the West was flooded with wild-cat

money, and specie was very scarce. The brig was sold by order of the

Chancellor of Michigan, and specie demanded from the purchaser, a

condition that made buyers shy. In 1842, Mr. Scott purchased the schooner

John Grant, of 100 tons, and in the following three years added to his

little fleet the schooner Panama, of 100 tons, and the brig Isabella, of

over 300 tons, the latter being something highly respectable in the way of

lake shipping.

Prudence, foresight, and careful enterprise made all his ventures

reasonably successful. In 1865, he resolved to quit business and enjoy the

competence he had acquired, first in foreign travel, to free himself more

thoroughly from business cares, and then in lettered ease at home. In

pursuance of this purpose he spent six months in Europe, returning with

recruited energies to the enjoyment of the well stocked library of rare

volumes collected during his years of active business, and largely added

to during his foreign travels.

A few facts in Mr. Scott's life, exhibiting his thorough confidence in the

Government and the cause of the Union, should not be passed over. The

first investment in the original War Loan taken in Cleveland, if not in

Ohio, was made by Mr. Scott, August 12th, 1861. He still retains and

exhibits with justifiable pride, a certificate from the Acting Secretary

of the Treasury, dated August 29th, 1861, stating that five thousand

dollars had been received from him on account of the three years'

treasury notes, and promising that they should be sent him as soon as

prepared. From that time to the present he has invested freely in

Government securities, being fully convinced of their safety.

Since his retirement from business and return from European travel, he has

employed his leisure in literary pursuits, especially in genealogical and

historical studies, and has frequently contributed to the journals of the

day curious and interesting facts relating to the early settlers in New

England, in correction of erroneous beliefs regarding them.

In 1840, Mr. Scott was married to Miss Mary Williamson, by whom he has had

seven children, of whom three still live.

J. P. Robison.

Among the soldiers present at Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne, near

Pittsburgh, was John Decker Robison, an American of Scotch descent, who

also did good service during the Revolutionary war. When the war was over

he married a Hollander living on the North River, and when a young family

grew up about him, moved to western New York, where, building the first

house in Canandaigua, he received a patent of six hundred acres of land and

settled down as a farmer in Vienna, N. Y. One of his family was a boy,

Peter Robison, who stuck to the farm until the ex-Revolutionary soldier

had gone down to the tomb, and until he himself had reached several years

beyond the meridian of life, when he obeyed the general law of American

human nature, and moved toward the setting sun. Years before this step was

taken he had married Miss Hetty H. Havens, of Lyons, N. Y., and raised a

family of children, among them J. P. Robison, the subject of this sketch,

who was born in Ontario county, on the 23rd of January, 1811.

Like his father, young Robison spent the earlier years of his life in

working on the farm, and it was not until his sixteenth year that it was

decided to give him a good education. He was then sent to Niffing's High

School, at Vienna, N. Y., where he attained considerable proficiency in

his studies, including Latin and Mathematics. Having developed a taste for

medical studies he was admitted as a private pupil of Professer Woodward,

of the Vermont College of Medicine, and graduated in November, 1831.

Immediately on the completion of his studies he moved into Ohio and

commenced practice in Bedford, Cuyahoga county, in February, 1832. He soon

succeeded in building up a good practice, and for eleven years continued

in the exercise of his profession.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, J. P. Robison]

Then Dr. Robison concluded to change his business. In company with W. B.

Hillman he engaged in mercantile business at Bedford, opening a store and

at the same time carrying on other descriptions of trade, such as milling,

packing provisions, dealing in land, and other operations such as the

speculative American is always ready to engage in. Among other things he

started a chair factory and a tannery, and his active mind was always

revolving projects for the increase of business, and, of course, of

business profits.

But, whilst his hands were full of all kinds of business enterprises, Dr.

Robison found abundant leisure for a different kind of occupation. He was

an intimate friend and associate of Alexander Campbell, the leader of the

Disciple movement, and organized a congregation of this faith in Bedford,

which he preached to for sixteen years. When he commenced his ministerial

labors in Bedford, (from whom, at no time, did he receive fee or reward,)

his congregation numbered less than a dozen, but when he closed his term

of service as a voluntary minister he left for his successor a

congregation numbering four hundred and forty, showing conclusively that

his ministering had not been in vain. Nor was his zeal for the faith as

understood by the Disciples content with preaching during this long term

of service. His purse was always ready for the calls of the church, and,

in company with Alexander Campbell, he traveled from place to place

throughout a great part of Ohio, addressing the vast concourses called

together by the fame of the Disciple leader, then in the plenitude of his

power and influence as a preacher and teacher. In these gatherings and in

such company Dr. Robison enriched his mind and developed a great talent

for extemporaneous address and discussion. Of a positive nature he brought

strong earnestness and unflagging energy to the work in which he was

engaged, and carried his hearers with him, as he himself was frequently

borne away by the enthusiasm of his subject. The same earnestness and

energy which made him so successful as a preacher served to make him

popular and effective on the political platform, and in the cause of the

soldiers of the Union in recent years. During the war he was active in

procuring volunteers for the Union army, and whenever an effort was made

to aid the cause of the Union Dr. Robison was among the foremost in the

work. In politics Dr. Robison was an old Clay Whig. After the demolition

of that party he voted with the Democrats. In 1861, he was chosen to the

State Senate by the union of the War Democrats and Republicans, receiving

the largest vote for any senator from this county. Since that time he has

voted with the Republican party. His Senatorial career was highly

honorable to himself and of value to his constituents, who found in him a

faithful, active and intelligent representative.

It is as a packer of provisions that Dr. Robison has been for many years

chiefly known. For twenty-five years he had been associated with General

O. M. Oviatt in the packing business at Cleveland, and the brand of the

firm had grown to be recognized everywhere as thoroughly reliable. In

1865, this partnership was dissolved, and Dr. Robison continued the

business at first alone and afterwards in company with Archibald Baxter of

New York. The scarcity of fat cattle in this vicinity compelled him in

1866 to remove his principal packing house to Chicago, where he continues

to operate heavily, the amount paid out for cattle during the last season

being over $300,000. In addition to the Chicago packing he has continued

the work in Cleveland, and also for several years did something in that

line at Lafayette, Indiana. The firm's brand, "The Buckeye", is well known

and highly esteemed both in the United States and England, to which

provisions bearing that mark are largely shipped.

Had Dr. Robison continued his practice as a physician he would undoubtedly

have attained eminence in his profession, a leading physician having

frequently borne testimony to his extraordinary skill in diagnosing

disease, and urged him to devote his entire attention to his profession.

But he preferred curing beef and pork to curing human bodies, and, so far

as financial results are concerned, probably made a wise choice, though

the judgment of human nature and insight into men's motives to which he

attributes his success, would have served him in good stead in either

line. At the age of fifty-eight, Dr. Robison is found in possession of a

handsome competency, although he has all through life dealt with marked

liberality toward all worthy objects of charity and patriotism. He is

still in possession of much of the vigor that has characterized his

business career, and we trust his life of usefulness may yet be long.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, T. P. Handy]

Truman P. Handy.

The oldest banker in Cleveland, and probably the oldest active banker in

the State, is Truman P. Handy, now president of the Merchants National

Bank. He has been identified with the banking business of Cleveland from

his first arrival in the city, thirty-seven years ago, and throughout the

whole time has been a successful financier, managing the institutions

under his charge with unvarying skill and good fortune.

Mr. Handy was born in Paris, Oneida county, New York, January 17th, 1807.

He had the advantage of a good academical education, and made preparation

for entering college, which, however, he did not do, and at the close of

his school term, spent the remaining time, until his eighteenth year,

upon his father's farm, with the exception of two winters in which he

taught school.

On reaching his eighteenth year it was decided that he should enter on a

commercial life, and a year or two were spent in stores in Utica and New

Hartford, N. Y., leaving the latter place in October, 1826, to take a

position in the Bank of Geneva, Ontario county, N. Y., of which the Kev. H.

Dwight was president. With this commenced Mr. Handy's long banking career.

Five years were spent in this bank and then he accepted an invitation to

remove to Buffalo, for the purpose of assisting in the organization of the

Bank of Buffalo, of which he was made teller, and remained one year in

that position. In March, 1832, the young banker married Miss Harriet N.

Hall, of Geneva, and with his bride set out on the wedding tour, which was

also one of business, to Cleveland.

Under other circumstances the journey would scarcely be deemed a pleasant

one. It was in early Spring, and the weather was still inclement. The

roads were bad, and the lumbering stage floundered heavily through mud,

and amid obstructions that made the way one of discomfort, not unmixed

with peril, for six weary days, between Geneva and Cleveland. But in

addition to the fact that it was a bridal tour, the young couple were

cheered by the prospect before them. The charter of the old Commercial

Bank of Lake Erie, established in 1816, and which had gone under, had been

purchased by the Hon. George Bancroft and his family in Massachusetts, and

it was designed to resuscitate it under better auspices. Mr. Handy had

been invited to become the cashier, and in pursuance of his acceptance of

the invitation, was, with his bride, on his way to Cleveland.

The bank was organized on his arrival and commenced business on the lot

now occupied by the Merchants National Bank, at the corner of Superior

and Bank streets, the bank lot running back to the present site of the

Herald building. Leonard Case, the president of the old Bank of Lake

Erie, was president of the resuscitated bank, with T. P. Handy as cashier.

It did a thriving business until 1842, when the term of its charter

expired, and the Legislature refused to renew it, compelling the bank to

go into liquidation. When the great crash of 1837 occurred, the bank had

been compelled to take real estate in settlement of the liabilities of

its involved customers, and thus the corporation became one of the

greatest landholders of the city. Had the property been retained by the

bank owners, it would by this time have been worth to them many millions

of dollars.

The close of the bank and the winding up of its affairs necessitated the

disposal of the real estate for the purpose of dividing the assets among

the stockholders. Messrs. T. P. Handy, H. B. Payne, and Dudley Baldwin were

appointed commissioners to close up the affairs of the bank and discharge

its liabilities. This being done, the remaining cash and real estate were

divided among the stockholders, who appointed Mr. Handy their trustee to

dispose of the property. This was accomplished in 1845, when Mr. Handy

made his final settlement. During the time subsequent to the close of the

bank, he had been carrying on a private banking business under the name of

T. P. Handy & Co.

In the Winter of 1845, the State Legislature passed a law authorizing the

establishment of the State Bank of Ohio, and of independent banks. In

November of that year, Mr. Handy organized the Commercial Branch of the

State Bank of Ohio, with a capital of one hundred and seventy-five

thousand dollars, and took position in it as cashier, the president being

William A. Otis, and the directors, additional to Messrs. Otis and Handy,

being John M. Woolsey, N. C. Winslow, and Jonathan Gillett. Mr. Handy was

the acting manager of the institution, and so successful was his conduct

of its affairs that the stockholders received an average of nearly twenty

per cent. on their investment through nearly the whole time until the

termination of its charter in 1865, a period of twenty years. His policy

was liberal, but with remarkable judgment he avoided hazardous risks, and

whilst the bank always had as much business as it could possibly

accommodate, the tightest times never affected its credit.

Whilst the Commercial Branch Bank was having such uninterrupted success,

the Merchants Branch of the State Bank of Ohio, on the same street, was

experiencing a run of bad fortune. The failure of the Ohio Life and Trust

Company embarrassed it for a time, and other causes conspired with this to

cripple its resources. In 1861, the stockholders invited Mr. Handy to take

charge of its affairs as president, and he accepted the trust. His usual

success followed him to his new position, and the affairs of the bank were

suddenly and permanently improved.

In February, 1865, in common with most of the State banking institutions,

the Merchants Branch Bank stockholders decided to wind up the concern as a

State institution, and avail themselves of the provisions of the National

Banking Act. The Merchants National Bank was organized with an authorized

capital of one million of dollars, of which six hundred thousand dollars

was paid in, Mr. Handy assuming the presidency, and having associated

with him in the management, Messrs. T. M. Kelley, M. Barnett, William

Collins, James F. Clark, Samuel L. Mather, and William Bingham. Under this

management the bank has thus far had an uninterrupted tide of prosperity,

with every prospect of its continuance.

It is not alone as a banker that Mr. Handy has made himself prominent

among the citizens of Cleveland, He has been intimately connected with

other enterprises tending to increase the prosperity of the city, and it

is remarkable that all the undertakings he has been connected with have

proved profitable, to himself to a greater or less extent, as might be

expected, but in a far greater degree to others, the stockholders, for

whose interests he was laboring. Few, if any, men in Cleveland have made

more money for others than has Mr. Handy.

In addition to his banking duties, he filled the position from 1850 to

1860, of treasurer of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati railroad, and

managed its finances with that skill and ability which were peculiarly

needed in the earlier portion of that period, when the road was an

experiment, carried on under the heaviest difficulties. In 1860, he

resigned his position as treasurer, and is now a director in that company.

He has also been interested in other railroads centering in Cleveland.

In 1856, a Cleveland built schooner left the lakes for the ocean, and

crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool, thus commencing the direct trade

between the lakes and European ports. In 1857, another Cleveland built

vessel was sent across, loaded with staves and lumber, and returned with

crockery and iron. The success of these Tentures attracted the attention

of the enterprising business men of the lakes, and in the Spring of 1858,

a fleet of ten vessels left Cleveland, all but one loaded with staves and

lumber, for European ports. Their departure was marked by demonstrations

on the part of the authorities and leading men of business, and with a

fair breeze and good wishes the fleet bore away for salt water. Of the ten

vessels, three were sent by Mr. Handy, the R. H. Harmon, bound for

Liverpool, the D. B. Sexton, for London, and the J. F. Warner, for Glasgow.

All of the vessels made quick and profitable trips, and the trade thus

begun has been carried on with profit to the present time, although at the

breaking out of the war American vessels were compelled to withdraw from

it, leaving the enterprise wholly in the hands of English parties, who

purchased vessels for the trade.

Whilst his vessels were in Europe, Mr. Handy availed himself of the

opportunity to visit Great Britain and the Continent, to attend to his

interests, and at the same time to study some of the institutions of the

old world, especially the financial, religious and educational. In

educational matters he had always taken a deep interest, having watched

with a careful eye the growth of the public schools of Cleveland, and for

some time was associated with Mr. Charles Bradburn in their management, as

members of the Board of Education. And this, which was wholly a labor of

love, with no remuneration but the consciousness of having done some good

by hard work, was the only public office ever held by Mr. Handy, or ever

desired by him. At the same time he was deeply interested in the growth

and management of the Sunday schools of the city, and for many years has

taken a leading part in all movements calculated to extend their field of

usefulness and increase their efficiency. In Great Britain he visited the

Sunday schools and was warmly welcomed by teachers and scholars, who were

greatly interested in his account of the working of Sunday schools here,

whilst the narration of his experiences on that side of the Atlantic

frequently delighted the scholars at home on his return.

Although rapidly approaching the period allotted by the psalmist to man as

his term of life, Mr. Handy is still as full of vigor and business energy

as much younger men, and is as earnest as of old in managing large

financial undertakings, or in teaching his class in Sunday school. His

heart is as young at sixty-two, as at twenty-seven, and the secret of his

continued health and vigor undoubtedly lies in his temperate and upright

life, his kindly disposition, and that simple cheerfulness of spirit that

makes him thoroughly at home in the society of children, who, in their

turn, are thoroughly at home with him. One of the most energetic and

successful of business men, he has never allowed business to so engross

his time and attention as to leave no opportunity for religions or social

duties or enjoyments. In this way he has won the confidence and esteem of

all classes of citizens as a successful financier, a good citizen, a man

of the strictest probity, a warm friend, and a genial acquaintance.

Mr. Handy has but one child living, a daughter, now the wife of Mr. John

S. Newberry, of Detroit. His only other child, a boy, died in infancy.

[Illustration: C. Bradburn]

Charles Bradburn.

That Charles Bradburn is a merchant long and honorably known in the

commercial history of Cleveland, and that he still retains a prominent

place in the business circles which he entered thirty-three years ago, are

undeniable facts. And yet, the great feature of Mr. Bradburn's busy life,

and that of which he is justly most proud, is not his business successes,

but his connection with the public schools of this city. His money, made

by anxious care in his warehouse and among business men, was freely spent

to promote the cause of education, and the labor, solicitude and anxiety

with which he prosecuted his business, great as they necessarily were,

must be counted small compared with his sacrifices of time and labor in

the effort to extend and improve the school system and make the school

houses of the city a source of gratulation and pride to the citizens. But

whilst his hardest labor was in the service of the schools, it was purely

a labor of love, whilst his work on the river was a labor of business, and

therefore he must, in this record of Cleveland's noted men, take rank

among his commercial brethren.

Mr. Bradburn was born at Attleborough, Massachusetts, July 16th, 1808. His

father was a cotton manufacturer when that great industrial interest was

in its infancy. The first manufacture in this country of several articles

of twilled fabrics was in his factory.

At the age of seven years Charles Bradburn had the misfortune to lose his

mother, a lady highly esteemed by all who knew her. This loss was a

serious one, as it left him almost entirely to his own resources. When

sixteen years old he entered the Lowell machine shop as an apprentice, and

after a service of three years, graduated with a diploma from the

Middlesex Mechanics Association. He served as a journeyman for two years,

when, feeling that his education was not adequate to his wants, he left

the mechanic's bench for the student's desk, entering the classical school

of Professor Coffin at Ashfield, in the western part of the same State.

Subsequently he resumed his mechanical labors, which he continued until

1833, part of the time as a journeyman, but during the greater part as a

manufacturer on his own account. At that date he changed his business from

manufacturing to commerce, opening a store in Lowell.

In 1836, he decided to remove to the West, and in that year brought his

family to Cleveland, where he commenced the wholesale and retail grocery

business in the wooden building now standing, adjoining the old City

Buildings, which were not then finished. The next year he rented the two

stores adjoining in the then new City Buildings, of which but a portion

now remains. In 1840, he built the warehouse now standing at the foot of

St. Clair street and moved his business to that place, abandoning the

retail branch. At the same time he established a distillery on what was

then known as "the island," on the west side of the river. In 1854, he

removed to the spacious warehouses, 58 and 60 River street, now occupied

by him and his partners under the same name, "C. Bradburn & Co.," that

graced the walls of the City Buildings in 1836. During his long

commercial life Mr. Bradburn has enjoyed largly theturnpikesnce and esteem

of the commercial community and is now one of the most energetic business

men of the city.

But it is in his devotion to the cause of knowledge and popular education

that Mr. Bradburn appears especially as a representative man. He was one

of the first officers of the Mercantile Library Association, and in its

early history took much interest in its prosperity. His great work,

however, lay in the schools. In a letter to a friend recently written, he,

with characteristic modesty, writes: "After a life almost as long as is

allotted to man, the only thing I find to glory in is having been able to

render some service to the cause of popular education; to be called by so

many of our ablest educators the father of our public schools, was glory

enough, and ample compensation for many years of hard labor and the

expenditure of much money in the cause."

Mr. Bradburn was in 1839 elected to the City Council from the Third ward.

As chairman of the Committee on Fire and Water he reorganized the Fire

Department, which was then in a wretched condition, and, with the

assistance of Mr. J. L. Weatherly, who was made Chief Engineer, and the

aid of new laws, made it one of the most efficient of any at that time

existing in the country. As chairman of the Committee on Streets, at that

time an office of much responsibility and labor, he rendered the city

valuable service.

In 1841, he was elected a member and made chairman of the Board of School

Managers. This body was merged into the Board of Education, and for

several years he filled the office of president. For thirteen consecutive

years he served as member of the Board of School Managers and of the Board

of Education, during much of which time he had almost unaided control of

the educational affairs of the city. Mr. Bradburn succeeded in getting

through the Legislature a bill authorizing the establishment of a High

School, the first institution of the kind, connected with the public

schools, in the State of Ohio. A school of this character was started in

June, 1846, and maintained in spite of fierce opposition. But there was no

building to receive it, and its earlier years were spent in the basement

of a church on Prospect street, the room being fitted up by Mr. Bradburn

and rented by the city for fifty dollars per annum.

Feeling strongly that he could render better service to the cause of

popular education in the City Council than he could in the Board of

Education, in 1853 he resigned his seat in the latter body and was elected

to the City Council. When Ohio City was united with Cleveland, he was

chosen president of the united Councils.

Having, on taking his seat in the Council, been appointed to a position on

the Committee on Schools, his first and continuous efforts were directed

to bringing the Council to provide suitable buildings, not only for the

High School, but for all the schools of the city. In consequence of his

earnest and persistent labors an ordinance was passed authorizing a loan

for school purposes of $30,000. The loan was negotiated at par without

expense to the city. Mr. Bradburn, and the Building Committee, of which he

was chairman, immediately made plans for the Central High School, and the

Mayflower, Eagle and Alabama street Grammar schools, all of which were put

under contract without delay, and finished under their supervision to the

entire satisfaction of the Council and Board of Education. The teachers

of the public schools in gratitude for his services in the cause of

education, induced Mr. Bradburn to sit to Allen Smith, Jr., for his

picture, which was then hung in the hall of the Central High School. At a

subsequent date the High School teachers presented him with a massive

gold-headed cane, engraved with a complimentary inscription, but this

highly prized token was unfortunately lost, together with a number of

other cherished mementoes and all the family pictures, in a fire which

destroyed his residence in February, 1868. In the fire also perished a

valuable library of over four hundred volumes, the result of a lifetime's

collection, and Mr. Bradburn barely escaped with his own life from a third

story window, being badly injured in the descent.

In public matters he has done but little during the past few years,

devoting himself entirely to his business, but he may be seen on all

occasions where the cause of popular education can be benefited by his

presence. In 1848, he was the Whig candidate for Mayor, but, being ill at

the time, gave the canvass no personal attention, and was defeated by a

few votes, the opponents of the High School, of whatever party, voting

against him.

To Mr. Bradburn the credit belongs of procuring, after a hard battle

against parsimony and prejudice, the establishment of the first free High

School in the West.

Samuel Raymond.

Samuel Raymond was born in Bethlem, Connecticut, March 19, 1805. Like most

of the sons of New England, his boyhood was passed in plowing among the

rocks on one of the stony farms of that rocky and hilly State. At the age

of sixteen he commenced teaching the village school, and continued

teaching for six years, a portion of that time being spent in New York

State, in one of the many pretty towns that are scattered along on either

side of the Hudson. Returning to Connecticut at the end of his six years'

trial of teaching, he was employed to keep the books of the old and

wealthy firm of Messrs. A. & C. Day, dry goods commission merchants, at

Hartford. The late Governor Morgan, of New York, was, at the same time, a

salesman in the house.

In 1833, Mr. Raymond married Mary North, daughter of James North, of New

Britain, Conn.

In the Spring of 1835, he determined to try his fortune in the Far West,

away out in Ohio. With Kansas as the present geographical centre of the

Union, it is difficult for us to conceive of the New Englanders' idea of

the West at that time. It was something of an undertaking. It was a

journey of weeks, not a ride of twenty-three hours in a sleeping coach or

palace car. It meant long and tedious days of staging--a monotonous ride

along the Erie canal from Schenectady to some point a little farther west,

and finally, when the lake was not frozen over, the perils of lake

navigation. In 1835, Cleveland, Erie and Sandusky were all struggling for

supremacy. When Mr. Raymond got as far west as Erie, he thought that might

be a good place for him "to drive a stake," but the number of newly made

graves suggested to him, on second thought, the propriety of getting out

of the place as speedily as possible. Cleveland at that time was beginning

to put on city airs--Kellogg's great hotel (the American) was slowly going

up. The only vacant store to be had by Mr. R. was a little wooden building

on the site of the present Rouse block--a location at that time about as

far out of town as it would be safe for a prudent merchant to venture.

Henry W. and Marvin Clark were associated with him in business, under the

firm name of Raymond & Clark.

Mr. Raymond was a merchant of more than ordinary business ability, a man

of scrupulous exactness in his business dealings. His extreme conservatism

in business management carried him safely through every commercial crisis.

Like most business men Mr. Raymond had but little time to devote to

political discussions. He voted the Whig ticket as long as the old Whig

party had an existence. In religions principles he was a Presbyterian, and

united with the First Presbyterian Church in 1840, at that time under the

pastoral charge of Rev. Dr. S. C. Aiken.

In the Winter of 1866, in compliance with his physician's advice, he took

a journey south for the benefit of his health, which had been impaired by

his unremitting devotion to business. In company with a party of friends

from Cincinnati, he and his wife left Louisville for Havana, in January.

On the 2d of February a telegram was received by the remaining members of

his family in Cleveland, informing them that Mr. Raymond was among the

missing on the ill-fated steamer Carter, which was burned when within a

few miles of Vicksburg.

When the alarm was given, Mr. Raymond and his wife were asleep. Hastily

dressing themselves and providing themselves with life-preservers, they

jumped through the cabin window, Mr. Raymond having a state-room door

which he had wrenched from its hinges. Mrs. Raymond clung to a floating

bale of hay and was saved after an hour of peril and suffering in the icy

water. Nothing was seen of Mr. Raymond after he floated away from the

wreck, clinging to the door. His death was mourned by a large circle of

friends who appreciated his worth.

By diligence and economy he accumulated a valuable estate, leaving to his

family property valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Richard T. Lyon.

The first secretary of the Cleveland Board of Trade, and its president for

the year 1869, Richard T. Lyon, is probably the oldest established

merchant now doing business on the river. He arrived here in 1823, when

there were but a few hundred people in the village, and for some time

resided with his father-in-law, Noble H. Merwin, on the lot now occupied

by Bishop's Block, about where M. Heisel's confectionary store now stands.

In 1838, he entered as clerk in the forwarding house of Griffith, Standart

& Co., at the foot of Superior street, continuing in that position until

the Spring of 1841, when he formed a partnership with I. L. Hewitt, and

carried on a forwarding and commission business on River street, under the

firm name of Hewitt & Lyon. The partnership continued until 1847, when Mr.

Hewitt retired, and Mr. Lyon continued the business in his own name at 67

Merwin street, where he has remained until the present time. In the Spring

of 1868, his son, R. S. Lyon, was taken into partnership, the firm name

being changed to R. T. Lyon & Son. For a number of years Mr. Lyon has been

the largest dealer of salt in the city, having had the agency of the salt

works in western New York.

Mr. Lyon has held, from his first entry into commercial life to the

present time, the esteem and confidence of the business men of Cleveland,

and that confidence has been shown by the fact, that for many years he was

the treasurer of the Board of Trade, having been elected to that position

on the organisation of the Board; was subsequently made vice-president,

and in the Spring of 1869, was elected president. This compliment was well

merited, for he is now one of the very few remaining members of the Board

who took part in its organization, and has never flagged in his interest

in its affairs.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, H. M. Chapin]

H. M. Chapin.

In the commercial, political, patriotic, and literary history of Cleveland

for the past fifteen or twenty years, the name of H. M. Chapin will always

have honorable prominence. In all these departments his persistent energy

and unshaken faith, even in the darkest hours, have been potent for good.

Mr. Chapin was born in Walpole, N. H., July 29th, 1823, and received a good

common school education. When fifteen years old, he removed to Boston, and

entered a dry goods importing house, in which he remained nearly ten

years. In the Spring of 1848, he left Boston for Cleveland, where he

became a partner in the wholesale grocery warehouse of Charles Bradburn &

Co., with whom he remained four years. In 1852, he commenced business as a

provision dealer and packer of pork and beef. For a time it was up-hill

work, but his native perseverance overcame all difficulties, and in the

season of 1862-3, his business had grown to seven hundred and fifty

thousand dollars. From that time there was a steady decline in the amount

of packing done in Cleveland, the supply of cattle and hogs decreasing

until but a very small quantity, in proportion to the facilities for

packing, could be depended on. The slaughter-houses of Chicago arrested

the great stream of live stock, and what escaped them went forward to the

Atlantic cities for immediate consumption. In the Winter of 1867-8, Mr.

Chapin, therefore, resolved to remove his packing business to Chicago, and

commenced operations there with gratifying success. He intended abandoning

Cleveland altogether as a packing point, but, contrary to his

expectations, he has been able to resume the business here to a moderate

extent. From 1862 to 1867, he carried on, in connection with the packing

business, a very extensive coopering establishment, employing about fifty

men, besides a large amount of machinery. Over a hundred and twenty-five

men were at the same time employed in slaughtering and packing.

In addition to his ordinary business, and partly in connection with it,

Mr. Chapin turned his attention to the question of insurance. It was a

favorite maxim with him that the West was able to do its own insurance,

and with this idea ever present, he was favorable to the establishment of

home insurance companies. Of the Sun Fire Insurance Company, of

Cleveland, he was for some years the vice-president, and labored earnestly

for its success. Being a thorough believer in the principles of

Homoeopathy, as well as an enthusiast on the subject of western insurance,

he was a willing co-worker with a number of prominent citizens engaged in

the organization of the Hahnemann Life Insurance Company, of Cleveland.

The novel character of this company--it being the first of the kind in the

United States--is sufficient warrant for a brief statement of its history.

It was established in 1865, and numbered among its stockholders such

leading business men and substantial capitalists as Wm. A. Otis, George

Worthington, William Bingham, Stillman Witt, Selah Chamberlain, Dudley

Baldwin, D. P. Eells, M. G. Younglove, and the Hon. B. F. Wade. The

leading feature was the offer to insure those whose medical belief and

practice were exclusively Homoeopathic, at lower rates than those

subjecting themselves to Allopathic treatment. The theory on which this

offer is based is, that all the evidence goes to show a lower rate of

mortality under Homoeopathic than under Allopathic treatment. The

Honorable William Baines, Insurance Commissioner of New York, in speaking

of this company in his report, says: "The Hahnemann Life Insurance

Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, is the first western company admitted into

this State. It starts with a paid up capital of $200,000, one-half of

which is deposited with the State Treasurer of Ohio, for the protection of

policy holders. The company is organized on a basis of strength and

capital, even larger than that required of New York corporations; it

reduces the rate of premium to Homoeopathic members."

Of this company Mr. Chapin was made president, and in the management of

this, as in everything which he undertakes, he infused a large amount of

his energy, and made the company a complete success. During the present

year his almost undivided attention has been given to the company's

affairs, with marked effect on its rapidly increasing business.

In 1865, Mr. Chapin was elected Mayor of the city of Cleveland. The honor

was not only unsought, but he was in entire ignorance of the whole affair

until after his election. His name had not been mentioned in connection

with that or any other office when he left the city on a business trip

that kept him absent for several days. In the meantime the nominating

convention of the Union Republican party was held, and there was some

difficulty as to a choice between the persons named for the nomination as

Mayor. In casting around for a way out of the difficulty, the name of Mr.

Chapin was mentioned and instantly met with favor. He was nominated,

elected by a strong majority, and the first intimation he received of the

movement was reading the election returns in the Cleveland Herald, on his

homeward journey.

He accepted the office in the spirit in which it had been conferred upon

him. He understood that the people believed he was disposed and able to

manage the affairs of the city vigorously and honestly, and he was not

disposed to evade the responsibilities of the office. His time was devoted

to the duties of his position, the different departments under his charge

were carefully scrutinized, and whilst his strictness and vigorous

execution of the laws made the offenders complain of his severity, there

was no question raised as to his ability, integrity, or honest zeal for

the city's interest. He discharged the duties of his office with

scrupulous exactness, and he endeavored to make others do the same. During

his administration it was no longer a reproach that the ordinances of the

city stood

"Like the forfeits in a barbers shop,

As much in mock as mark."

At the breaking out of the war, Mr. Chapin took an early and active part

in stirring up the people to defend the Government of the Union. Wherever

his money, influence, or active energy could be made serviceable, there he

was always to be found. Having obtained the appropriation for the

Twenty-Ninth Regiment, he worked diligently in raising, equipping, and

sending it to the field, and spent much of his own time at the front in

various capacities. The ladies who worked diligently for the comfort of

the soldiers and the care of the sick and wounded, through the medium of

the Ladies' Aid Association, found in Mr. Chapin an indefatigable

assistant. He was ever ready with suggestion, active aid, and money,

laboring day and night, either at the front, in the hospitals, or at

home, in behalf of the soldier.

The Cleveland Library Association was another field in which Mr. Chapin's

energy and business tact were manifested. In 1854, he was elected

president of the Association, which had struggled along, a feeble

organization, contending against numerous difficulties. Under his vigorous

management the Association was brought to a higher degree of prosperity

then it had ever witnessed; the income was largely increased, the number

of books increased one-half, and a lively interest excited in the public

mind concerning it. Mr. Chapin retired at the close of his term of office,

and the affairs of the Association gradually lapsed into their former

unsatisfactory condition. In 1858, an attempt was made to save it by

revolutionizing its constitution and management. A new constitution was

adopted, and under it Mr. Chapin was again elected president. The result

was even more marked than in the previous instance. The number of members

was nearly doubled, a load of debt that had accumulated through a number

of years was removed, a large number of books added to the library, and

the reading-room enlarged and improved. Again, after the lapse of ten

years, Mr. Chapin has been called to the presidency of the Association,

under circumstances precisely similar to those under which he had twice

before assumed the duties of the position.

Mr. Chapin was married October 15th, 1849, to Matilda, daughter of John

Fenno, of Boston. Of this marriage have been born six children, the oldest

of whom, a son now nineteen years of age, is in the wholesale grocery of

Edwards, Townsend & Co.; the others are all attending school.

Moses White.

Moses White, now one of the very few remaining early citizens of

Cleveland, was born at Warwick, Hampshire county, Mass., February

25th, 1791. His father's name was Jacob White, a native of Menden,

Mass., who traces back his ancestors as natives of that town, to as

early a date as 1665.

Moses White, the subject of this memoir, being deprived, at a very early

age, of his mother, by death, went to live in Mendon, with his maternal

grandfather, Peter Penninian. Afterwards he went to Boston, where he

learned the merchant tailor business, with one John Willson. From Boston

he went to Providence, R. I., where he remained about two years, and where

he became acquainted with Miss Mary Andrews, whom he afterwards married.

In 1813, being desirons of settling further west, he first went to Utica,

N. Y., and after remaining there a few months, he proceeded, with a horse

and buggy, to Cleveland, where he arrived in October, 1816, the population

of the place then being only about 150.

He established himself here as a merchant tailor, and pursued the business

steadily about twenty years, and with success. He afterwards established a

store at Chillicothe, Ohio, which, not being under his own care, did not

prove successful.

From his arrival in Cleveland, he was forward in all the moral and

religious enterprises of the place, first in union with all the religious

denominations represented, and afterwards he was more particularly

identified with the Baptist Church, in which he has been for nearly forty

years a deacon.

He now enjoys more than usual health and vigor for one of his age, and has

the respect, confidence and esteem of every person who knows him.

His wife having died in 1858, he has since that date made it his home with

his daughter, Mrs. J. P. Bishop, of Cleveland, with whom he now resides.

In many respects Deacon White's history furnishes an example worthy of

imitation. In the times of his boyhood, in New England, when a boy did not

possess the means for establishing himself in business, or of educating

himself for some professional calling, and particularly if he was an

orphan, he was required to learn some trade. In his case, his friends not

only recommended this, but he was desirous himself, of doing it. He

accordingly went from Mendon to Boston, a distance of about forty miles,

where, alone and among strangers, he sought a place where he might serve

as an apprentice. For days he wandered about seeking such an opportunity

and finally fell in with John Willson, the merchant tailor before

mentioned, who received him as an errand boy, and finally as an

apprentice, in which position he continued, passing through all the grades

incident to such employment, till he was twenty-one years of age.

Without father or mother, or friends to look up to for counsel and advice,

he persevered, and preserved his integrity, having the confidence of all

with whom he was associated.

In those early days, nothing was more common than to emigrate to the

West, leaving the principles of New England education, in religion and

morality, behind. Judging from accounts of society in Cleveland in very

early times, such must have been the case of some, at least.

But such was not the case with the youthful Moses White. Though he found

not many congenial spirits in this far-off western region, yet whenever,

in the little village of Cleveland, he heard of a place of prayer, or a

meeting, or association for the promotion of temperance or morality,

thither he bent his footsteps. Now in a ripe and happy old age he enjoys,

not only the retrospect, but also the present--and not only these, but he

is constantly looking for a consummation of perfect happiness, beyond what

either the past has, or the present life can afford.

Finally, so far as accumulating wealth is concerned, he has not been as

fortunate as some, and yet less unfortunate than many others, and now

enjoys a competence abundantly sufficient to provide for all his wants and

to transmit something to his children. Well may worldly ones say, "O that

my last days might be like his!"

David H. Beardsley.

Mr. Beardsley does not claim to be a pioneer, but an early settler of the

second class, having arrived in Cleveland with his family in June, 1826.

Cleveland is supposed to have then had about five hundred people. He was

of Quaker origin, and lived at New Preston, Connecticut, before he removed

to Ohio. He was of course anxious to obtain employment, and being a

beautiful penman, a contract was soon made with the late Judge Willey, who

was the county auditor, to serve as his clerk, at one dollar per day. He

was employed about thirty days in making the county duplicate. The taxable

property of the county at that time amounted to the sum of two hundred and

sixty-eight thousand, seven hundred and seventy-one dollars. When Mr.

Beardsley was deputy auditor, all the public business centered in the old

log court house, on the northwest quarter of the Square.

On the fourth of July, 1827, the Ohio canal was opened to lock seventeen,

near Akron, and the canal commissioners, prominent among whom was his

friend Alfred Kelley, were in need of a scrupulously honest man, and a

good clerk, for the purpose of collecting tolls. They found all the

necessary qualifications of integrity, assiduity, and accuracy in Mr.

Beardsley, who was therefore appointed, the day not having arrived when

qualification for office should be the last of recommendations. The

collectorship may be said to have been Mr. Beardsley's profession. He

spent in the office most of the period of active life, in twenty-three

years, undisturbed by the changes of administration. To our ears this may

sound incredible.

Mr. Beardsley's salary was at first three hundred dollars per annum,

increasing to twelve hundred before the close of his services. He

collected the sum of one million, three hundred and ninety-eight thousand,

six hundred and forty-two dollars and sixty-eight cents. His accounts were

models of nicety as well as accuracy, errors and discrepancies being

equally unknown.

Being a gentleman of simple tastes and habits, with few wants, he has

acquired a comfortable competence, without acquiring a thirst for gold,

and without withholding his substance from charitable and public purposes.

He is highly esteemed by all who know him, for a life-long consistency of

character, and sterling qualities as a man and a friend. The writer

occasionally sees him on our crowded streets, although quite feeble, with

a mind perfectly serene, and well aware that his race is almost run. His

record is worthy of emulation.

Thomas Augustus Walton.

When the genial countenance and kindly voice of T. A. Walton were missed

from the customary gatherings of the river merchants, it was felt that

something had been lost which not even a lucky speculation, or a good run

of trade, could not restore. When the news of his sudden death, whilst on

a foreign tour for the restoration of his health, was received, there was

genuine sorrow among his old business associates, and poignant grief with

many who had learned to look on him not merely as a successful merchant,

but as a man of tender heart and open hand when suffering and distress

appealed to him for sympathy and aid.

Mr. Walton was born in London, and to the last he looked with affection to

the city of his birth. His education was gained at the City of London

School. After leaving school he was brought up to mercantile pursuits, and

in 1830, concluding that there was a better opening in that line in

America, he came to this country, bringing with him a considerable amount

of money. For a few years he remained in New York, loaning his capital,

for which he always found ready customers, but unfortunately they were not

all as ready to pay as to borrow. He lost large sums, and was driven to

the conclusion that for a man of his openness of character and confiding

honesty, New York was an unprofitable location. The representations of a

friend, combined with dissatisfaction with his experience in the

commercial metropolis, determined him to seek his fortune in the West.

Evansburg, Ohio, had been represented to him as a desirable place in which

to live, a thriving business point, and adjacent to good hunting ground.

This combination of attractions determined him, and he set out for

Evansburg with what remained of his capital.

But the attractions of Evansburg soon wearied him. Neither his social,

commercial, nor sportsmanlike hopes were fulfilled by the facts, and Mr.

Walton speedily turned his back on the place of so much promise and so

little realization. Cleveland was the rising place of the West, and to

Cleveland he came, and established himself, as was the custom with new

comers of a commercial turn, in the produce and commission trade.

Following the old maxim, he stuck to his business and his business stuck

to him. The old frame warehouse in front of which he hung out his sign in

1838, was occupied by him for twenty-five years, until January, 1863,

when he retired from active business and was succeeded in the same

building by his nephew, Thomas Walton, who still retains the business and

the old location.

Mr. Walton's nice sense of honor commended him to a large circle of

customers in the interior and in Michigan, whilst nearly all the Canadian

business with Cleveland passed through his hands. His Canadian customers

relied implicitly on his word, and the fact that he always retained his

old friends, and received constant accessions of new, sufficiently proved

that their confidence was not misplaced.

In the Spring of 1863, soon after his retirement from business, he went to

England with the intention of staying a year or two and then returning to

enjoy the remainder of his life in ease in this country. Whilst in

England he paid a visit to some friends in Southampton, and whilst taking

a bath in a movable bathing-house on the beach, probably was seized with

cramp and suffocated by water getting into his lungs. The news of his

death caused a painful shock in business, social, and religious circles,

where he had been so well known and so highly esteemed.

For a long term of years Mr. Walton was the presiding officer of the St.

George's Society of Cleveland, and that benevolent institution owed its

usefulness in great measure to his indefatigable zeal in the cause, and to

his unstinted liberality. To the distressed of any nation he never turned

a deaf ear, but to the needy and suffering of his native country he was

ever liberal, and accompanied his unostentatious charities with kind words

and manifestations of sincere interest that were frequently as beneficial

to the recipient as the money itself. He was also a valued member of the

Masonic Order.

In religious belief he was an Episcopalian, and was long one of the

leading members of Trinity Church. His devotion was unaffectedly sincere,

and though he made no vaunt of his religious principles or hopes, there

could be no question of his deep, earnest convictions. Kind, courteous,

ever thinking of the good of others, and wholly unselfish, Mr. Walton was

a good specimen of the true Christian gentleman.

Although of English birth, and clinging affectionately to all that

reminded him of his native land, he was a thorough supporter of American

institutions, and an admirer of the American character. Deeply and warmly

as he loved the land of his birth, his affection was even stronger for the

land of his adoption, and it was his purpose to have returned from his

visit to his boyhood's home and settle down in peaceful content in the

chosen home of his manhood, until death should lay him in an American

grave. When the war broke out he was an earnest and unshrinking supporter

of the Government, and his means were freely used for its support, and for

the comfort of the soldiers who were fighting its battles. Though alien

born, and associated intimately with people of like birth, there was no

native American that could surpass him in love for the Union, and few that

exceeded him, in proportion to his means, in contributions to the defence

of the Union.