Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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In May of that year he came to Cleveland and organized the Cleveland
Wooden Ware Manufacturing Company, built a factory on the ground now
occupied by the present firm of Bousfield & Poole, and commenced
manufacturing in the following September. The first operations of the
company were on a small scale, making tubs, pails, washboards, and similar
articles in a limited way, but gradually increasing the business until it
reached what was then considered respectable proportions. In July, 1857,
the company sold out to Greenman & Co., of Massachusetts, and Mr.
Bousfield was retained by the new owners as superintendent of the works,
until January 12, 1859, when the factory was destroyed by fire.

In March of that year, Mr. Bousfield rented a building on the West Side
and commenced manufacturing again on his own account. Five months
afterwards he was burned out. Nothing daunted, he immediately purchased
the ruins of the Greenman & Co. factory, rebuilt it, and in January, 1860,
associated with him Mr. J. B. Hervey, of Cleveland, and in the following
month resumed work.

The new partnership was very successful. The business increased rapidly,
the area of their trade enlarged until it comprised all the principal
cities and towns in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. A
planing mill was added to the factory, and this, too, was highly
profitable. In 1864, the works were greatly enlarged to meet the rapidly
increasing demand for their wares. In 1865, Mr. John Poole, of Harmer,
Ohio, was admitted to the partnership, thus bringing in additional
capital and experience gained in the management of a similar factory at
Harmer. Mr. Poole has devoted himself principally to the financial and
sales departments of the business, and has proved himself a man of more
than ordinary business ability.

Thus far everything had been going on prosperously, but the old enemy,
fire, was as relentless as ever. On the 23d of March, 1866, the whole of
the extensive establishment was reduced to ashes, and the unfortunate
proprietors sorrowfully contemplated the ruins of years of labor and
enterprise, whilst a host of workmen stood still more sorrowfully by, and
saw their daily bread swept from them by the pitiless flames.
Seventy-five thousand dollars of capital were converted into valueless
ashes in a few hours.

The owners of the factory wasted no time in fruitless sorrow. An old
wooden building had partially escaped the flames. This was hastily patched
up, and within thirty days they were making pails and tubs as earnestly as
if they had never known a fire. Mr. Hervey sold out his interest to the
other partners, Messrs. Bousfield & Poole, who went to work with almost
unparalleled enterprise and energy, built one of the largest and most
substantial factories in the country, and entered upon the work of
manufacturing wooden ware upon a larger scale than had ever before been
attempted. The factory has two hundred feet front on Leonard and Voltaire
streets, with a depth of sixty feet, and five stories high; attached to
the main building are the engine and boiler rooms. The cost of the
building was forty-five thousand dollars. The present capacity of the
works is twenty-five hundred pails per day, six hundred tubs, a hundred
and twenty-five churns and other small ware, and a hundred dozen zinc
washboards.

In May, 1867, the firm commenced the erection of a match factory which
was ready for operation in September of that year. A superintendent was
engaged who, unfortunately, was unqualified for his position and did much
harm to the enterprise, but on his removal, Mr. Bousfield took personal
charge of the match factory, and has succeeded in building up an
extensive trade. The daily capacity of the factory is two hundred and
ninety gross, which, if run to the full capacity throughout the year,
would yield to the United States government a revenue of over a hundred
and twenty thousand dollars.

The trade of Messrs. Bousfield & Poole extends from Buffalo through the
principal cities of the central, southern and western States, to New
Orleans on the south, and Salt Lake City on the west, two bills having
been sold to the son-in-law of Brigham Young in that city. A branch
warehouse has been established in Chicago as an entrepot for the supply of
the vast territory of which Chicago is the source of supply.

The manufactory of Messrs. Bousfield & Poole is the largest in the
country, and for the past three years has turned out about fifty per cent.
more work than any other in the United States. It consumes ten millions of
feet of lumber and logs annually, besides other material, and gives
employment to from three hundred to three hundred and fifty persons, men
women and children. Its influence on the population and prosperity of the
city can therefore be judged. The money for the support of these people,
and for the purchase of the materials employed, is almost wholly brought
from abroad, the amount of the wares used in Cleveland being, of course, a
very small fraction of the amount produced and sold. The same is true to a
greater or less extent, of all the manufactories of Cleveland, and serves
to account for the rapid growth of the city in population and wealth
within the few years past, in which Cleveland has entered in good earnest
on its career as a manufacturing centre.

Mr. Bousfield was married January 1, 1855, to Miss Sarah Featherstone, of
Kirtland, by whom he has had ten children, six of whom are yet living.
The oldest son, Edward Franklin Bousfield, is engaged with his father in
the factory.

The secret of Mr. Bousfield's successful career can be found in his
indomitable perseverance. He has been wholly burned out three times, and
had, in all, about twenty fires, more or less disastrous, to contend with,
but each time he seemed to have gained new strength and vigor in business
as his works rose phoenix like from the ashes. Coupled with his
perseverance is a remarkable mechanical ingenuity which has served him to
good purpose in the construction and management of his factories. Whilst
in England, he invented a machine for braiding whips that would do the
work of fifteen women working by hand, as was the usual practice.

J. G. Hussey.

Among the elements that have contributed to the prosperity of Cleveland,
copper and oil hold no inconsiderable place. Not only has the cupriferous
wealth of Lake Superior directly enriched many Cleveland citizens who
interested themselves in its production, but it has led to the
establishment of a large and steadily increasing commerce between
Cleveland and Lake Superior. In the other direction, the enterprise of
Clevelanders in the petroleum region of Western Pennsylvania has built up
large fortunes for themselves and has established in Cleveland one of the
most extensive and remunerative of its industries. One of the earliest to
be identified, first with the copper and afterwards with the oil interest,
was J. G. Hussey.

Christopher Hussey, the father of the subject of the present sketch,
emigrated from Baltimore and settled in Cincinnati, in 1804, subsequently
removing to Jefferson county, Ohio, where J. G. Hussey was born in 1819.
Young Hussey received such an education as the facilities of a rural
neighborhood at that early day afforded, and added to his school knowledge
the practical details of business by becoming clerk in a village store.
Here he acquired those correct business habits that stood him in good
service in after life. In 1840, he opened a store on his own account in
Hanover, Ohio, and was very successful. From Hanover he removed to
Pittsburgh, where he operated in provisions until 1845. In that year there
was much excitement over the mineral discoveries on the south shore of
Lake Superior. The Indian titles to the mineral lands on that lake had
been but a short time before completely extinguished, and the surveys of
Dr. Houghton were bringing the cupriferous riches of the region into
notice. Mining permits were issued under the authority of Congress, those
permits giving the applicant a lease for three years, with a conditional
re-issue for three years more. The lessees were to work the mines with due
diligence and skill, and to pay a royalty to the United States of six per
cent, of all the ores raised. Early in the Spring of 1845, Mr. Hussey
formed a company of miners and explorers, with whom he went to Lake
Superior and opened several copper veins, some of which proved highly
productive and are still successfully worked. In some of these he has
retained an interest to the present time.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, J. G. Hussey]

In the Spring of 1847, he became a member of the private banking firm
of Hussey, Hanna & Co., in Pittsburgh, which did a successful business
for several years. At the same time he became interested in a banking
establishment in Milwaukee under the firm name of Marshall, Hussey &
Ilsley. In 1850, he removed to Milwaukee, to attend to the interest of
that firm, but the climate proving injurions to his health, he sold out
and removed to Cleveland, where he took up his residence in 1851. From
that time he became thoroughly identified with the business interests
of the city.

His first act was to establish the Forest City Bank, under the regulations
of the Free Banking Law of Ohio, and during his connection with the
institution it was eminently successful. During the same summer, he built
and put in operation a copper smelting and refining works, under the firm
name of J. G. Hussey & Co., engaging at the same time in the produce
commission business, under the firm name of Hussey & Sinclair, which
afterwards changed to Hussey & McBride. It is a matter of fact, on which
Mr. Hussey justly prides himself, and to which in great measure he
attributes his success, that he confined himself strictly to the
legitimate conduct of his business as a commission dealer, never
speculating in produce when selling it for others.

In 1859, Mr. Hussey became interested in the discoveries of petroleum in
the creeks and valleys of Venango county, Pennsylvania. With his
characteristic energy he went to the scene of the excitement just breaking
out over the discoveries, and becoming satisfied of their importance, he
immediately commenced the work of exploration, in company with others, who
purchased the McElhenny Farm, on which was struck the noted Empire well,
one of the most famous wells on Oil Creek, that by its extraordinary yield
first added to the petroleum excitement, and then broke down the market by
a supply far in excess of the then demand. The tools were no sooner
extracted than the oil rushed up in a torrent, equal to three thousand
barrels daily. The good fortune of the adventurers was disastrous. It was
more than they had bargained for, and was altogether too much of a good
thing. The demand at that time was very limited, the uses to which
petroleum had been applied being few, and science had not yet enabled it
to be converted into the cheap and useful illuminator it has now become.
One day's flow of the Empire would supply all the demands of the United
States for a week. Barrels, too, were scarce, and when those at hand were
filled tanks were hastily improvised, but were speedily overflowed. Pits
were dug and rapidly filled, until at length the well owners, cursed with
too much good luck, were compelled to turn the oil into the river. Then it
rapidly fell in price, owing to the superabundant supply. It fell, in the
autumn of 1861, to ten cents a barrel, and the oil interest was, for the
time, ruined.

At this juncture Mr. Hussey was induced to erect works for refining the
oil and preparing it as an illuminator. The first establishment was a
small one, but as the demand increased and the oil interest revived, the
capacity was increased until it reached its present limit of from three
hundred and fifty to four hundred barrels per day.

When the second oil excitement broke out in 1864, Mr. Hussey was again one
of the leading explorers and adventurers in the oil regions of
Pennsylvania. Successful wells were put down in Oil Creek and on the
Allegheny river, and a large proportion of the product was brought to
Cleveland to be refined. His interest in this department of industry
became so great and important, that after fifteen years of active
connection with the produce and copper smelting business of Cleveland, he
sold out his interest in both the commission house and smelting works and
devoted his entire attention to oil.

Mr. Hussey is a good example of the success attending faithful,
intelligent and conscientious attention to business. A self-made man, he
never lost sight of the fact that the same scrupulous honesty which gave
him success was necessary to retain it. Debt he looked upon as the road to
ruin, and he scrupulously shunned it. He never bought an article for
himself or his family on credit. His business paper was always good and
never was protested. His engagements were ever punctually kept. His two
cardinal principles were "Time is money," and "Honesty is the best
policy," and these rules of action he carefully impressed on the young men
whom he brought up in business life. The value of his teachings and
example is shown in the fact that those brought up under his business care
during the past twenty years have come to hold a place in the front rank
of business men, and have, by their energy and integrity, accumulated
competence, and even affluence.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, A. B. Stone]

A. B. Stone

Andros B. Stone was born in the town of Charlton, Worcester county,
Massachusetts, June 18, 1824. He is the youngest son of Mr. Amasa Stone,
(now a hale, old man, ninety years of age, in possession of all his
faculties,) and brother of A. Stone, Jr., whose biography has been
sketched in an earlier portion of this work. Mr. Stone's boyhood was
spent in the various occupations of country farm life, where he received
in common with other boys the advantages of a public school education. In
his sixteenth year he left home to try the world for himself, and for a
year and a half worked industriously at the carpenter's trade with his
elder brother, to whom he was apprenticed for four years, to receive
thirty-five dollars the first year, forty the second, forty-five the
third, and fifty the fourth. An unconquerable desire for a better
education forced him to leave this occupation for a time, and enter an
academy, the expenses of which he met in part by teaching a public school
in the winter season, and which left him only five dollars with which to
make another start in the world.

In the meantime, Mr. Stone's brother, to whom he was apprenticed, had been
employed by Mr. Howe, the patentee of the "Howe Bridge," and to Andros was
assigned the keeping of the time of the workmen, and other similar duties,
instead of the more direct labors of the shop. In the autumn of 1842, Mr.
Howe purchased Mr. Stone's unexpired time from his brother, advanced his
pay, and kept him in the same employment as time-keeper, and adding to
this duty that of making estimates, drawing bridge plans, etc., allowing
him in the winter an opportunity of increasing his finances by teaching
school. Subsequently, Mr. A. Boody and Mr. A. Stone, Jr., purchased the
Howe Patent for building bridges in New England, and A. B. Stone, then
about nineteen years of age, made an engagement with the new firm. At
first he was given the charge of a few men in framing and raising small
bridges, but an opportunity soon occurred which enabled him to exhibit his
capabilities in a most advantageous light. Messrs. Boody and Stone were
constructing a bridge over the rapids of the Connecticut river at Windsor
Locks, about fifteen hundred feet in length, in spans of one hundred and
eighty feet. One day the superintendent, who had the immediate charge of
the work, went to Mr. Stone and complained of being so ill that he was
obliged to go home, and desired him to take temporary charge of the men.
Mr. Stone alleged his unfitness for the duty of taking charge of so many
men at the commencement of so important a work, but as the superintendent
said he could not stay longer, Mr. Stone was compelled to assume the
responsibility, against his wishes.

On examining the condition of the work the cause of the superintendent's
severe illness was made manifest. The lower chords or stringers, of about
two hundred and sixty feet in length, had been packed without being
placed opposite each other, one being placed several feet too far in one
direction, and the other about the same distance in the opposite
direction. Here was a dilemma and a difficulty, and an ability in the
mind of the young mechanic to meet it, so that, in a very short time, the
chords were properly adjusted. He then proceeded with the work, and in
three days had nearly completed the first span, when his brother paid a
visit of inspection to the bridge. Not finding the regular superintendent
in charge, he naturally inquired the cause, and when the circumstances
were explained, examined the work very minutely. Without any comments
upon what had been done, Mr. Stone left the place, leaving his younger
brother in charge, a tacit expression of confidence which was most
gratifying, and gave him a self-confidence he had not previously
possessed. About this time Mr. Stone was advanced to the general
superintendence of construction, which position he retained between two
and three years, when his brother admitted him as his partner in the
construction of the bridges on the Atlantic & St. Lawrence railroad. A
year was successfully spent in the prosecution of this work, when a
partnership was formed with Mr. A. Boody for constructing the bridges on
the Rutland & Burlington railroad in Vermont, which, although accompanied
with grave difficulties, resulted in success.

In 1850, Mr. Stone extended the field of his operations by forming a new
partnership with Mr. Maxwell, and purchasing the Howe Patent for building
bridges in the three northern New England States. For two years this field
was profitably and creditably filled, when, dazzled by the ample resources
of the West, New England was abandoned for Illinois. Here another
partnership was formed, with his brother-in-law, Mr. Boomer, and under the
stimulating effect of an undeveloped country, the new firm of Stone &
Boomer soon took a high and honorable rank throughout the entire Western
States. The total amount of bridging built by this firm from 1852 to 1858
was not less than thirty thousand feet. They constructed the first bridge
across the Mississippi river, the longest span of a wooden truss that had
up to that time ever been built. This was done under the most trying
circumstances, the thermometer at times marking 30 degrees below zero. The
longest draw-bridge of its period was also erected by this firm across the
Illinois river, it having a length of two hundred and ninety-two feet, the
whole structure revolving on its centre, and capable of being opened by
one man in one and one-half minutes. During this time they built the roof
of the Union Passenger House, in Chicago, which was of longer span than
had hitherto been built. The organization for the carrying on of their
work was so complete, that it was a common remark among the engineers of
western railroads, "If we want any bridges put up on short notice, we can
get them of Stone & Boomer; they have them laid up on shelves, ready for
erection!" In connection with their bridge business the firm carried on
the manufacture of railroad cars.

In the Spring of 1858, Mr. Stone gave up his home and business in Chicago
for his present residence in Cleveland and his present business as an iron
manufacturer. After carefully investigating the advantages which Cleveland
afforded for such a purpose, and realizing the present and prospective
demands for an increased development for the manufacture of iron, Mr.
Stone availed himself of the opportunity of identifying his interests with
that of the firm of Chisholm & Jones, who at that time had just put in
operation a small mill in Newburg. Here at once opened a new and
delightful opportunity for Mr. Stone to develope his natural love for the
mechanical arts. To manufacture iron required knowledge--was a science,
and to be master of his business was both his duty and his pride, and
claimed all his unflagging energy, his undaunted courage and
determination. Thus the small mill at Newburg grew from the capacity of
turning out thirty tons of re-rolled rails to its present capacity of
sixty tons, beside the addition of a puddling mill, a merchant bar mill, a
wire rod mill, two blast furnaces, spike, nut and bolt works. In the
meantime the small beginning had grown into such large proportions, and so
many railroad corporations had centered here, that it was thought best to
form the same into a stock company, embracing another rolling mill on the
lake shore, within the city limits. This was done, Mr. Stone filling the
office of President of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company. In 1868, the
Company put into successful operation extensive steel works which they
had been engaged in erecting with great care and expense for nearly two
years. During that time Mr. Stone had made two visits to Europe for more
thorough investigation into the process of making Bessemer steel, and the
success of this undertaking so far has been admitted by all who have
visited the works to be without parallel in the American manufacture of
steel. In addition to this heavy and extended business, Mr. Stone is
president of another rolling mill company in Chicago, in which he is
largely interested, also of a large coal mining company in Indiana, and
vice President of a large iron manufacturing company at Harmony, Indiana,
also president of the American Sheet and Boiler Plate Company.

Mr. Stone is eminently known, and justly so, as a mechanic, and is widely
known as a man who crowns his thoughts with his acts. Still in the prime
of manhood, he stands connected with manufacturing interests, furnishing
employment to thousands of men, all of which has been the outgrowth of
scarcely more than ten years. This eminent success has not been the result
of speculation, or of luck, but the legitimate end of his own hands and
brain. Neither can it be said he has had no reverses. At one time the
failure of railroad companies left him, not only penniless, but fifty
thousand dollars in debt. With an indomitable will he determined to
liquidate that debt, and how well he succeeded need not be told. Mr. Stone
at present stands at the head of iron manufacturing companies, second to
none in the country, possessing almost unlimited credit. This
extraordinary success has by no means affected Mr. Stone's modest nature
for which he is so noted. Gentlemanly and affable in his intercourse with
all ranks and conditions of men, he has won universal respect, and an
enviable position in the business interests of our country.

Mr. Stone was married in 1846 to Miss M. Amelia Boomer, daughter of Rev.
J. B. Boomer, of Worcester, Massachusetts.

[Illustration: Yours truly, Henry Chisholm]

Henry Chisholm

Henry Chisholm is of Scotch origin, having been born in Lochgelly in
Fifeshire, April 27, 1822. There, as in New England, children, if they are
heirs to nothing else, inherit the privilege of some early education. When
he was at the age of ten his father died. At the age of twelve, Henry's
education was finished and he was apprenticed to a carpenter, serving in
an adjoining city five years, at the expiration of which time he went to
Glasgow, as a journeyman. Whilst in Glasgow, he married Miss Jane Allen,
of Dunfermline.

In 1842, he resolved to quit his native land and seek his fortune in the
West. Landing in Montreal, in April, he found employment as a journeyman
carpenter, working at his trade for two years. He then undertook contracts
on his own account, relying wholly on his own resources for their
execution, and all his undertakings proved successful. In 1850, he entered
into partnership with a friend to build the breakwater for the Cleveland
and Pittsburgh Railroad, at Cleveland, the work occupying three years.
This, and other similar contracts, such as building piers and depots at
Cleveland, employed his time and energies until his commencement of the
iron business at Newburg, as one of the firm of Chisholm, Jones & Co. This
company, and its business, have developed into the Cleveland Rolling Mill
Company of Cleveland, with two rail mills, making a hundred tons of rails
and twenty-five tons of merchant iron per day; two blast furnaces, turning
out forty tons of pig iron daily, and a Bessemer steel works,
manufacturing thirty tons of steel per day. Besides these, have been
established the Union Rolling Mills of Chicago, making seventy tons of
rails per day; of this extensive establishment Mr. Chisholm's son,
William, is manager. There are also two blast furnaces and a rolling mill
in Indiana, making forty tons of iron per day. Fifteen hundred acres of
coal land are owned in connection with these works. Of all these
enterprises Mr. Chisholm has been one of the leading managers, and remains
largely interested, his perseverence and energy aiding materially to crown
the undertakings, up to the present time, with the greatest success.