Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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The four or five small iron manufactories in and about Cleveland in 1837,
have grown to fourteen rolling mills, having two hundred puddling furnaces
and a daily capacity of four hundred tons of finished iron, not including
the nails spikes, nuts, bolts, horseshoes, &c. Several of these mills own
their own blast furnaces, and nearly all have coal mines of their own.
There are also five stove foundries; one malleable iron works; one axe and
tool company; half a dozen boiler plate and sheet iron works of large
capacity; nearly as many factories of steam engines of all descriptions,
and other machinery; three foundries for making car wheels and castings
for buildings; one large manufactory of cross cut, circular and other
saws, and several saw and file works of smaller dimensions.

Although the operations of domestic iron works were seriously affected by
the large increase of importations from Europe, the following amount of
iron was produced from the mills of Cleveland in 1868:

Pig Iron 11,037 Tons.
Rail Road Iron 22,344 "
Merchant Iron 11,396 "
Boiler, Tank and Sheet Iron 2,676 "
Forgings 4,125 "
Nuts, Washers, Rests, Nails and Spikes 5,607 "
Machinery Castings 18,250 "
Wire 865 "

Making a total of 76,300 tons. To produce this it is estimated that
225,000 tons of coal and coke were consumed. The stove foundries produced
nearly 35,000 stoves, with the attendant hardware and stove furniture;
requiring nearly 10,000 tons of metal, and 4,000 tons of coal and coke,
and giving employment to about five hundred persons.

The planing mills and wooden ware manufactures give direct employment to
six hundred and fifty persons, and the year's business exceeded a
million dollars.

The growth and magnitude of the petroleum business of Cleveland can be
seen by the reports of receipts and shipments during the past four years:

Date. Crude Received Refined Forwarded
1865 220,000 bbls. 145,000 bbls.
1866 613,247 " 402,430 "
1867 693,100 " 496,600 "
1868 956,479 " 776,356 "

Between three and four millions of dollars of capital are invested in this
business in Cleveland, and the annual product will not fall short of ten
or twelve millions of dollars. The rapid increase of the business created
an urgent demand for barrels. The receipts of staves in 1868, mainly to
supply this demand, were nearly three times in excess of the previous
year. Some 3,000 tons of hoop iron were required for barrels.

It is impossible to give, in the absence of any recent exact census, full
and correct statistics of the number and classification of the
manufactories of Cleveland, the capital invested, and the value of the
product. It has, however, been estimated from the best data that could be
procured, that the grand total value of all the manufactories of the city
in 1868, was not less than sixty millions of dollars, and it is daily
increasing.

William B. Castle.

William B. Castle was born in Essex, Crittenden county, Vermont, November
30, 1814. Immediately on the conclusion of the war, his father removed to
Toronto, where he had been engaged, as an architect, to superintend the
construction of the first Parliament buildings there. In 1827, he removed
with his family to Cleveland, William B. Castle being then thirteen years
old. His father had taken a farm about thirteen miles from the city, and
there the lad spent most of his time until 1832, when, in company with his
father and Mr. Charles M. Giddings, he established the first lumber-yard
in Cleveland. The business was carried on for a couple of years, when Mr.
Castle, Sen., died, and the son removed to Canada, engaging in
merchandizing and in manufacturing lumber for the yard in Cleveland. In
1839, he abandoned the Canada branch of the business, and in the following
year the partnership with Mr. Giddings was dissolved.

A new partnership was formed with a brother-in-law, under the name of
Castle & Field, for carrying on the hardware, in connection with jewelry
and watch making, business, on the west side of the river, then known as
Ohio City. In 1843, he left the business and entered the Cuyahoga Steam
Furnace Company, with which he has ever since been connected. So
thoroughly identified has Mr. Castle been with the history of that
establishment during the past quarter of a century, that this is a fitting
place for a brief sketch of the nature and history of the pioneer iron
company of Cleveland.

In 1830, Mr. Charles Hoyt projected the works which were erected and put
in operation under the firm name of Hoyt, Railey & Co. In 1834, the firm
was changed to an incorporated company under the name of the Cuyahoga
Steam Furnace Company, with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, of
which three-fourths were paid in. The principal stockholders at the time
of the incorporation were Josiah Barber, Richard Lord, John W. Allen, and
Charles Hoyt. The managing officer was Charles Hoyt. Soon after the
incorporation the works were burned to the ground, but the company were
energetic, and soon a substantial brick structure, two hundred and
thirty-five feet front, with a wing of ninety feet deep, was erected on
the site of the destroyed building. The pig metal for the use of the works
was obtained at the company's blast furnace at Dover, twelve miles west,
and was considered equal in quality to the best Scotch pig. In 1840, Mr.
Hoyt was succeeded in the management by D. Cushing, who had been secretary
of the company. In 1843, Mr. Cushing gave place to Elisha T. Sterling, who
remained the head of the concern until his untimely death, in 1859.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, W. B. Castle]

From the advent of Mr. Sterling and the consequent re-organization of the
staff of officers of the works, dates the connection of Mr. Castle with
the establishment. Mr. Castle took the position of secretary, and held
that post until the death of Mr. Sterling, when he was appointed to fill
the position of manager. At the time when the sole charge of the works
devolved upon him the company was in a deplorable financial condition. The
prospect was sufficient to daunt a less resolute and hopeful spirit, but
Mr. Castle at once set about the Herculean task of bringing the concern
through its difficulties and establishing it on a firm financial basis.
The struggle was long continued, and more than once the advance gained
seemed suddenly to be again lost, but eventually it was pulled through
without having compromised a single debt, and without having but a single
case of litigation under his management. This case was not properly
chargable to the administration of the works, as it arose from the
supplying of a defective beam strap, which, there being then no forges in
Cleveland, had been ordered from Pittsburgh. This unusual exemption from
litigation was, doubtless, owing to the invariable rule adopted by Mr.
Castle, to reduce all contracts to careful writing and to live strictly up
to the letter as well as spirit of the contract.

The heavy work of the establishment in its early years was the supplying
of most of the mills in Ohio and the new States of the West with mill
gearing, and the manufacture of agricultural implements. In 1840, was
commenced the manufacture of stationary and land steam engines. In 1843,
the manufacture of marine engines was commenced by building the engine for
the first propeller on Lake Erie, the "Emigrant." About the same time work
was commenced on engines for the large side-wheel steamers, the largest of
their day being fitted out with machinery from these works. Among the
steamers thus equipped, and which were in their successive days the
wonders of the lakes, was the Europe, Saratoga, Hendrick Hudson, Pacific,
Avon, and Ohio. Among the propellers receiving their engines from the
Cuyahoga Works were the Winslow, Idaho, Dean Richmond, Ironsides, S. D.
Caldwell, Meteor, and a very large number of others, besides a great many
first-class steam tugs plying on Detroit river.

In 1853, the introduction of the manufacture of locomotives added a new
feature to the manufacturing industry of Cleveland. The Cleveland,
Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad was supplied from these works, and
locomotives were also made for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh, Lake Shore,
Cleveland and Toledo, and Bellefontaine and Indianapolis Railroads,
besides several other railroads in the west. In 1857, this branch of the
business was sold out to the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad
Company, who now use the locomotive works for the manufacture and repair
of their own engines.

In addition to the marine engines, for which the establishment has become
famous, the company have lately entered upon the manufacture of first
class engines and blowing machines for blast furnaces. These have been
supplied to the furnaces in the Mahoning Valley and Wisconsin, and to
furnaces elsewhere, even supplying Pittsburgh, the home of the iron
manufacture. A very large engine has been constructed for the Atlantic
Docks, in Brooklyn, New York. Rolling mill engines and machinery have been
made for mills at Alliance, in the Tuscarawas Valley, at Harmony, Indiana,
and at Escanaba, in the Lake Superior iron district. Various engines have
been supplied to the Newburgh works, including the blowing engines and
hydraulic cranes for the Bessemer steel works, among the most perfect of
their kind in America. Railway tools manufactured by the company's works
have been ordered from so far east as New Jersey.

The Cuyahoga Steam Furnace Company have employed at times two hundred and
fifty men, and will probably average one hundred and fifty. Year after
year the company have been compelled to enlarge their facilities, until
now their property occupies the two corners of Detroit and Centre streets,
and one corner of Centre and West River streets. The buildings extend
three hundred and fifty feet on the river, and to a greater length on
Detroit street. The capital employed amounts to about a quarter of a
million dollars. The importance of these works in attracting attention and
capital to Cleveland, in giving employment to the people, and in assisting
to build up the business of the city, can hardly be overestimated. Taking
its nature, extent and history together it may probably be said with
safety that nothing in the city has had a more important influence in
shaping the future of Cleveland and contributing to its present
prosperity, and much of this influence is due to the labor and wisdom of
Mr. Castle. At present the works are organized under the presidency of Mr.
Castle, with Josephus Holloway as superintendant and designing engineer;
S. J. Lewis, secretary; W. W. Castle, book-keeper. From 1843 to 1857, the
superintendent and designing engineer, was Mr. Ethan Rogers, who by his
knowledge and skill added very much to the celebrity of the works.

In 1853, Mr. Castle was elected mayor of Ohio City, and during his term
of office the consolidation of the two cities was effected. To bring
about this desirable end he labored diligently, and was one of the
commissioners for settling the terms of annexation. In 1855, he was
elected mayor of the Consolidated city, and his rule was marked by vigor,
justice, and a strict regard for the rights and interests of the
citizens. For six years subsequent to his mayoralty he held the office of
commissioner of water works.

Mr. Castle was married in December, 1836, to Miss Mary Derby, who died in
Canada in the following year. In 1840, he was married to Miss Mary H.
Newell, of Vermont, by whom he has had one son and three daughters. The
son, W. W. Castle, now twenty-six, is book-keeper of the Cuyahoga Steam
Furnace Company. The oldest daughter is wife of Mr. Robert R. Rhodes, of
Cleveland. The youngest daughters are still at school.

The success of Mr. Castle has been achieved by a persistent struggle
against adverse circumstances and with but little to aid him but a
resolute will and good constitution. At an early age he was left with the
care of his father's family on his hands, and has had to fight, not only
his own battles, but to struggle with the difficulties into which
circumstances had thrown the company with which he became connected. Out
of the struggle he has come with a spotless reputation, the esteem of his
friends and the respect of his fellow-citizens, financial prosperity, and
the blessing of good health and undiminished vigor.

Charles Jarvis Woolson.

On the sixth of August, 1869, the citizens of Cleveland were surprised and
pained at the announcement of the death, on the morning of that day, of
Charles Jarvis Woolson, one of the most active and respected business men
of the city. Few were aware of his illness, and even by those acquainted
with the facts his death, up to within a very short time of the event, was
wholly unexpected.

Mr. Woolson was born in Chester, Vermont, and received careful educational
training, the family being in good circumstances. His father was engaged
in various manufacturing enterprises, including cotton and wool fabrics,
and the making of machine and hand cards. He was one of the very earliest
manufacturers of cooking stoves in the country.

At the age of nineteen, Mr. Woolson went into business on his own account,
choosing the newspaper profession instead of manufactures for his _debut._
His first venture was as editor and publisher of a newspaper in Grafton
county, New Hampshire. Two years later, he sold out and removed to
Virginia, where he assumed charge of the Charlotteville Advocate. But the
political and social atmosphere of the South was uncongenial to one born
and bred in the free air of Vermont. He could neither feel nor affect to
feel anything but abhorrence of the "institution," and so he soon
terminated his connection with the press of Virginia, and returned to the
land of churches, free schools and free speech. In 1830, he married Miss
Pomeroy, of Cooperstown, New York, and removing to Keene, New Hampshire,
engaged in mercantile business; but he who has once dabbled in journalism
imbibes a taste which it is difficult afterwards to eradicate. Mr. Woolson
was not at home in a mercantile store, and before long he purchased the
New England Palladium, a Boston daily newspaper, and conducted it for two
years, when he bade a final adieu to journalism as a profession, disposing
of his property in the Palladium and removing to Claremont, New Hampshire,
where he engaged with his father in the manufacture of stoves. Here he
remained until 1840, when he removed to Cleveland, taking with him the
patterns and materials connected with the stove business, and commenced
on his own account in a small way, his capital having been seriously
crippled by the financial convulsion of 1837.

Mr. Woolson had, in 1845, succeeded in getting his business into a
flourishing condition, when, through the defalcation of a trusted partner,
he was very nearly ruined. But he did not stop his works one day on
account of this disaster. Collecting together his scattered resources, he
set to work all the harder, and as the Fall of the year approached, had
succeeded in accumulating a fine stock of wares for the Fall trade, which
he had stored in a warehouse at the rear of his factory, but which he
neglected to insure. A fire broke out, and the building, with its
contents, was completely destroyed, resolving the valuable stoves into a
heap of old iron. Even this did not stop the works. With his
characteristic energy, Mr. Woolson had the ground cleared and set to work
with redoubled zeal, making new stoves out of the old iron, and succeeded
in doing a tolerable business that winter, in spite of his accumulation of
disasters.

When Mr. Woolson commenced business in Cleveland, it was but a lively
village. His stove foundry, the first of importance in northern Ohio, when
running to its full capacity, employed but ten hands, and its trade was
limited to the immediate vicinity, and a few towns on the canal. But few
of the farmers then used cooking stoves, the fire on the hearth serving
for all purposes of cooking and warming. The works now employ about one
hundred hands when running full, and the customers are found in Chicago,
St. Louis, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa. The firm was changed
several years since to Woolson & Hitchcock, and subsequently to Woolson,
Hitchcock & Carter. Death removed the senior and junior partners of the
firm within a few months of each other.

Mr. Woolson's death was caused by erysipelas, brought on by debility;
after an illness of two weeks the disease yielded to medical treatment,
and he seemed to gain strength rapidly. On Saturday, the 31st of July,
he joined a party of friends and drove in his buggy twenty miles into
the country, believing that the fresh air would invigorate him as it had
done many times before when his health gave way. But the old remedy
failed, and, leaving his horse behind, Mr. Woolson took the cars and
reached home in the evening very much exhausted. After lingering five
days, typhoid symptoms appeared, and at eight o'clock Friday morning he
died, unconscious, and without suffering, after a life of 63 years and
one month.

Mr. Woolson possessed a very genial and sociable disposition, was highly
intelligent and well informed, and in spite of an infirmity of deafness
was a charming companion. His business qualifications are proven by the
success of the establishment he founded, in spite of the succession of
unforeseen and unavoidable disasters with which it had to contend. He was
a man of very domestic habits, and these habits were mellowed and refined
by many family losses that might have crushed one less hopeful, and less
patient and uncomplaining. To his family he was entirely devoted, and all
the affection of a loving household clustered around him with an intensity
that made the blow of his sudden loss one peculiarly hard to be borne.

Mr. Woolson had long been connected with Grace Church (Episcopal), of
which he was senior warden, and very tender domestic ties, sundered by
death some years since, made that church peculiarly dear to him.

William Hart.

William Hart, son of Judah Hart, of English descent, was born in Norwich,
Connecticut, in the year 1811. About the year 1821, Judah Hart removed to
the West with his family, settling in Brownhelm, Lorain county, where he
died two years after, and one year from this time, William changed his
residence to Cleveland. Soon after the arrival of the Harts in Cleveland,
Governor Clinton, of New York, came to Ohio to formally commence the work
of constructing the Ohio Canal, which was begun on the fourth of July,
1825. Governor Clinton landed in Cleveland in June, and one of the
principal incidents of Mr. Hart's recollection of his early days in
Cleveland, was the general turning out of the people to receive and
welcome the father of internal improvements. Cleveland was then but an
insignificant village, a place "six miles from Newburg, where steamboats
stopped to wood and water," but great, and well-founded hopes were
entertained of the benefits to flow from the opening of the canal, and the
people were therefore much elated at the arrival of Governor Clinton, who
was to commence the important work, and whose influence had done so much
to aid the enterprise.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, Wm. Hart]

About this time young Hart went to live with Asabel Abel, to whom he was
apprenticed for the purpose of learning the business of cabinet making.
When the term of his apprenticeship had expired, he set up in business on
his own account, at first opening his modest store and workshop on the
site of the present Birch House, and subsequently, after five or six years
of business, removing his location to the opposite side of the street, on
the spot now occupied by his present warehouse.

In 1852, a fire swept away his entire establishment, destroying
ware-rooms, factory, and all the appurtenances, and throwing out of
employment the twenty hands of which his force of workmen then consisted.
In the succeeding year, he rebuilt the warehouse and factory on a greatly
enlarged scale, and has since still further enlarged and improved the
buildings, until, in size and commodiousness, they are not excelled in
the city. At present, seventy-five hands are employed in the
establishment, aided by the most improved descriptions of labor-saving
machinery adapted to the business, and the annual sales reach nearly two
hundred thousand dollars.

Mr. Hart believed in always putting his shoulder to the wheel, though on
one occasion a too literal adherence to this principle came near costing
him his life. In attempting to give some aid in the factory, he came in
contact with a circular saw, and his right arm was nearly severed from the
shoulder. This was in the year 1850. On his partial recovery, the
citizens, to show their sympathy with him in his misfortune, elected him
City Treasurer, an office then of but little value, requiring only a small
portion of his time and paying him two hundred dollars a year. For
nineteen years he held this office uninterruptedly, being elected by both
parties term after term, and witnessing the growth of the city, under his
financial administration, from an annual revenue of forty-eight thousand
dollars to nearly two millions. The emoluments of the office have risen
from a salary of two hundred dollars to a salary of fifteen hundred
dollars, and a percentage on special taxes collected. During his nineteen
years of service, Mr. Hart has negotiated all the loans, sold the school
bonds, and collected the special taxes, occupying nearly the whole of his
time, and employing the services of a clerk in transacting the business of
his office.

When William Hart became City Treasurer, the credit of the city stood
rather low, city warrants being hawked about at seventy-five cents on the
dollar. This unsatisfactory state of things was put an end to, mainly
through the exertions of the Hon. H. B. Payne, then in the City Council,
who procured the funding of the outstanding debt, and brought the credit
of the city up to the high standard at which it now stands.

When Judah Hart reached Cleveland, the then far West, a part of the family
slept in the Mansion House, occupying the site on which now stands
Cooper's hardware store, but young William and some other members of the
family slept in the covered traveling wagon, under a shed standing on the
site of the present Atwater Block. With the revolution of years the then
poor boy has now become part owner of the splendid block standing where a
part of the Harts slept, homeless wayfarers, forty-five years ago.

In 1834, Mr. Hart was married in Cleveland, to Miss Elizabeth Kirk,
daughter of John Kirk, who had left England about a dozen years
previously. No children were born of this marriage, but the pair have
adopted four, giving them all the advantages and rights of children born
to themselves, and three of these are now married.

Still in vigorous life, Mr. Hart has, to a great extent, retired from
active business, his establishment being carried on mainly by his sons
through adoption or marriage. This partial rest he has earned by a life of
labor and enterprise, in which he has watched narrowly his opportunities,
and availed himself of every chance of improving his facilities for
manufacture, and enlarging his field of business, has faithfully performed
his official duties, and has secured the respect alike of his business
acquaintances, his political constituents, and the public at large.

John Bousfield.

The wooden ware manufacture of Cleveland is an important part of its
industry, the manufacturing establishments being the largest within the
United States and doing a business that covers the entire west. Large as
the industry now is, it is of but very recent growth, and Cleveland is
chiefly indebted for its permanent establishment, in spite of a series of
discouraging disasters, to the enterprise and determination of John
Bousfield.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, John Bousfield]

Mr. Bousfield was born at Stockport, in the county of Cheshire, England,
July 22, 1819. After serving an apprenticeship to the saddle and harness
business for seven years, he engaged in that business on his own
account, adding to it the manufacture of whips. Four years were thus
spent, when he decided on removing to America, leaving his native land
in December, 1843. Having brought two of his workmen with him, he
established himself in the same business in a small way in the city of
New York, but his health failing after a few months, he determined on
leaving for the west, hoping that a change of atmosphere, and possibly
of business, would be of benefit.

His first stay was at Kirtland, Lake county, Ohio, where he purchased a
farm and at the same time carried on the harness business. At this he
continued until about the year 1850, when he purchased a factory and water
power, put in a pail-making machine, and commenced, in a small way, the
manufacture of pails. In 1854, he removed to Fairport, in the same county,
where he purchased a larger building and carried on pail manufacturing
upon a larger scale. In March, 1855, he sold out the establishment, taking
in pay for it a note which he still holds.