Cleveland Past and Present

M >> Maurice Joblin >> Cleveland Past and Present

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In 1833, he had so far succeeded in business as to warrant his tearing
down the old store and building in its stead a store and dwelling
combined. Great was the admiration of the people at this building and it
was considered a just source of pride by the people of Cleveland, for to
the store was an open front, the first seen in the place, and to the
private entrance to the dwelling was attached the first door-bell in
Cleveland. The glass front and the tingling bell were unfailing sources of
attraction until others adopted the novelty and public curiosity became
sated. The building was well known to all who lived in the city previous
to 1865, for it remained until, at that date, it had to give way to the
larger, more elegant, and far more costly structure.

In 1843, Mr. Crittenden purchased the Giddings place, on the north side of
the Public Square, with the stone residence on it, then considered an
elegant mansion. The price paid for the lot, house and furniture was ten
thousand dollars--a high price as rates then were, but marvellously cheap
now. To that house he removed his family from over his store, and lived
there twenty-five years, when it was turned over to business purposes.

About the year 1853, he erected the fine business block on Water street,
now occupied by Stillson, Leek & Doering, at a cost of fifteen thousand
dollars. In 1868, he put up the handsome block on the same street that is
occupied by Childs & Co. The cost of this was not less than forty thousand
dollars, and it is a decided ornament to the street. The purchase of the
land and the erection of those elegant blocks, in addition to the one
occupied by his own business, furnish sufficient evidence of the
prosperity of his jewelry business, the regular stock of which has grown
from an investment of five hundred dollars to one of more than a hundred
and twenty-five thousand dollars.

[Illustration: Yours Truly, N. E. Crittenden]

But it must not be supposed that this prosperity was uninterrupted
throughout Mr. Crittenden's business life. There were dark storms which
threatened disastrous wreck, and nothing but stead-fastness of purpose and
force of character brought him through. In 1836 the financial tornado
swept over the land and stripped nearly every business man bare. When the
storm was at its height Mr. Crittenden found himself with fifty thousand
dollars of New York debts past due, and without the money to pay them.
Collections were cut off, and whilst he was thus unable to raise the means
from his debtors, his creditors were likewise stopped from pouncing upon
him. Other men in like condition were compounding with their creditors,
and thus getting out of their difficulties by partial repudiation. Mr.
Crittenden declined to avail himself of the opportunity, and, in course of
time, his creditors were paid in full, though that result was brought
about by years of toil, of steady, persistent application to business, of
shrewd financiering, and of rigid economy.

In his early days in Cleveland he was chosen one of the village
trustees. In 1828, when he held that office, and Richard Hilliard was
president of the Board of Trustees, the members gathered one afternoon
in an office and voted an appropriation of two hundred dollars to put
the village in proper order. Great was the outcry at this wastefulness,
on the part of some of the tax payers. One of the old citizens, who yet
lives, met Mr. Crittenden and wanted to know what on earth the trustees
could find in the village to spend two hundred dollars about. At a later
date, when Cleveland was a city and Mr. Crittenden a member of the
Council, it was voted to appropriate ten thousand dollars to protect the
lake front from encroachments by the lake. Again was Mr. Crittenden met
and upbraided for his extravagance in municipal affairs, such conduct
tending to bankrupt the city.

It is Mr. Crittenden's pride that he has had no serious litigation, his
care in making contracts having saved him the unpleasant necessity of
resorting to legal means to compel his debtors to fulfil their
obligations. But whilst looking thus sharply after his own interests,
avarice or parsimony has formed no part of his character, and he has been
liberal according to his means.

William A. Otis.

William A. Otis was one of those pioneer business men, who settled in Ohio
during the dark times which followed the war of 1812. He was one of those
to whom we owe much, but of whom the present generation know little; who
without capital or education gave an impetus to the Western settlement, by
integrity, personal energy, economy, and good sense. By force of character
alone, which was their only capital, they wrought such wonders that the
wilderness was literally transposed into fruitful fields.

Mr. Otis left his paternal home in Massachusetts, about the year 1818, on
foot, to seek a home in the West. Having reached Johnstown, in the
Allegheny Mountains, he hired for a few months as man of all work, in an
iron establishment, and thence set forward, travelling as before, by way
of Pittsburgh, to the township of Bloomfield, in Trumbull county, Ohio.
His physical constitution was equal to the labors of a new country, which
had nothing to recommend it but a rich soil, and which required above all
things perseverance and hard work. He cleared land, furnished the settlers
with goods, for which they paid in ashes, or wheat, and kept a comfortable
tavern for the accommodation of travelers. The ashes were manufactured by
himself into "black salts" or impure potash, more often styled "Pots,"
which was the only strictly cash article in the country. It was necessary
to haul the casks of potash to the mouth of Beaver river, or to
Pittsburgh, from whence they drifted on flat boats down the Ohio and
Mississippi to New Orleans, and from thence were shipped to New York. Much
of the teaming he did himself.

The "Pots" were exchanged at Pittsburgh for goods, or if shipped furnished
a credit for the purchases, with which his wagon was loaded, on the return
to Bloomfield. Currency did not in those days enter into the course of
trade, because there was barely enough of it in the country to pay taxes.
Mr. Otis was frequently obliged to furnish his customers with cash for
this purpose. When the Erie Canal was finished to Buffalo, the wheat of
the settlers on the Reserve, for the first time, became a cash article.
They had an abundance of grain, which they were glad to dispose of at
twenty-five cents a bushel, payable principally in goods. The canal
furnished a better outlet for potash than the river. Mr. Otis determined
to try a venture in flour at New York, which he considered the first lot
sent there from the Reserve.

There were no flour barrels, and no coopers, at Bloomfield, but a few
miles north towards the lake there was a good custom grist mill. He went
into the woods, cut an oak tree, set his men to saw it into blocks of the
right length, from which the rough staves were split. The wheat which his
customers brought in, was stored at the mill and ground. When the cooper
stuff was seasoned, the barrels were made, rough enough, but strong, and
his stock of flour and potash hauled through the mud thirty-five miles to
the mouth of Ashtabula creek. A schooner was at anchor outside, and as
soon as his venture was on board, he took passage with it to Buffalo, and
by canal to New York. The New York dealers were surprised and gratified,
for they perceived at once the capacity of a new country on the shores of
Lake Erie, of which they had hitherto only known in theory, not in
practical results. In quality the flour was not behind that of the Genesee
country, which seemed a wonder in their eyes. They purchased it readily
and offered every encouragement to the trade and the trader. In process of
time, wool and pork were added to the staples for the New York market. It
was by this course of incessant activity during near twenty years of
country business, coupled with a sure judgment, that Mr. Otis gradually
acquired a moderate money capital. In 1835 or 1836, he came to this city,
with his hard earned experience in traffic, and with more ready cash than
most of our produce dealers then possessed, and entered upon a wider field
of enterprise. He continued to purchase and sell the old class of
articles, pork, flour and potash, to which iron soon became an important
addition. His capital and experience brought him at once into connection
with many public enterprises, which became necessary to an expanding
country, especially such as relate to transportation. One of the earliest
tumpikes in northeastern Ohio was made through Bloomfield, from Warren to
Ashtabula. Steamers made their appearance on Lake Erie, and the Ohio canal
extended navigation into the interior. In all these auxiliaries to trade
in the heavy products of the country, Mr. Otis had a friendly interest,
and when railways began to be discussed he saw their value at once.
Finally, after his usual deliberation, he decided that the manufacture of
iron was a safe and profitable business at Cleveland; he became the
pioneer iron master of the place, with the usual result of his
operations--a large profit on his investment.

This example and success laid the foundation of iron manufactures here.
It required something more than the talents of a shrewd country merchant,
or of a mere money lender, to foresee the coming wants of trade in a
growing State, to invest in its banks, railroads and manufactures, and to
render all these investments profitable. With his increase in wealth there
was in Mr. Otis no increase of display, and no relaxation of the economy
of early life, but an increasing liberality in public charities,
particularly those connected with religion. When compared with the
briskness of modern traffic he was slow and cautious; but having finally
reached a conclusion he never flagged in the pursuit of his plans. He
belonged to a past generation, but to a class of dealers whose judgment
and perseverance built up the business of the country on a sure basis. In
the midst of a speculative community in flush times, he appeared to be
cold, dilatory, and over cautions, but he saw more clearly and further
into the future of a business than younger and more impulsive minds, who
had less experience in its revulsions.

For a number of years previous to his death Mr. Otis was largely
interested in the banking business of the city. He took a prominent part
in the organization of the State Bank of Ohio, was the originator of the
Society for Savings in Cleveland, and was for thirteen years its
president, and at the time of his death was president of the Commercial
National Bank. He was also connected with the banking firm of Wicks, Otis
& Brownell.

In connection with a notice of the originator of the Savings Bank in
Cleveland it is appropriate to briefly sketch the history of that
organization, which has worked so much good and which ranks to-day among
the most important and most valued institutions in the city. The
suggestion was first made by Mr. Otis in the Winter of 1848-9, and its
organization was advocated on the ground of public benevolence. At the
request of several prominent persons, Mr. S. H. Mather, the present
secretary and treasurer, examined the character and practices of several
eastern institutions of a similar character. A charter was drafted,
principally from those of two well known institutions of the kind then in
operation at Boston and Hartford. In the New England States every city and
many villages and country towns have organizations of this character.

In March, 1849, the Legislature granted corporate powers to W. A. Otis, H.
W. Clark, L. Handerson, J. Lyman, M. L. Hewitt, N. Brainard, Ralph Cowles,
J. H. Gorham, A. Seymour, D. A. Shepard, James Gardner, J. A. Harris, J.
H. Bingham, J. A. Briggs, S. H. Mather, J. A. Foot, and C. J. Woolson, and
their successors, to be appointed by themselves, the corporate powers to
continue thirty years. The corporators appointed John W. Allen president,
S. H. Mather secretary, and J. F. Taintor treasurer, and commenced business
in August, 1849, at the rear of the Merchants Bank, on Bank street. Mr.
Taintor was at the time teller in the Merchants Bank, and it was supposed
that he could attend to all the business of the Savings Society outside of
banking hours. This was soon found to be impracticable, and at the end of
about two years Mr. Taintor withdrew, leaving to Mr. Mather the joint
office of secretary and treasurer.

At the end of three years the deposits were only $100,000. In the latter
part of the year 1856, the society became able to have a better office,
and moved into 118 Bank street, corner of Frankfort, under the Weddell
house. The deposits in 1859, after ten years of business, were only about
$300,000, but the concern had been so closely managed that a surplus was
accumulating from the profits on investments over the six per cent.
interest paid to depositors. From that time the business of the
institution steadily increased until on the 1st day of January, 1869, its
deposits considerably exceeded two and a half millions of dollars, and out
of a large surplus had been built one of the finest and most substantial
buildings in the city, on the north side of the Park. Such have been the
fruits of the suggestion of Mr. Otis; such the success of the organization
in which he took so deep an interest during his life.

On the announcement of the death of Mr. Otis, a meeting of bankers was
immediately called for the purpose of taking some action in testimony of
their respect for the deceased. All the banks were fully represented, as
were the private banking firms. T. M. Kelly, of the Merchants National
Bank, was called to the chair, and J. O. Buell, of the Second National
Bank, appointed secretary. Appropriate remarks were made by the chairman
and others, after which a committee, composed of T. P. Handy, H. B. Payne,
Joseph Perkins, Henry Wick, and E. B. Hale, reported the following
resolutions, testifying to the respect and esteem felt for Mr. Otis as a
man of business, as a good citizen, and as a Christian:

It having pleased God to remove from our midst, on the morning of the
11th inst., Wm. A. Otis, who, for more than 22 years, has been
associated with many of us in the business of banking, and has occupied
a prominent position both in the early organization of the State Bank of
Ohio, and of the Society for Savings of Cleveland, of which latter
Society he was for thirteen years president, and at the time of his
death was the president of the Commercial Bank of this city, and who by
his wise counsels, his high regard for integrity and mercantile honors as
well as by an exemplary Christian life, had secured the esteem and
confidence of his associates and fellow citizens, and who, after a good
old age, has been quietly gathered to his rest, therefore,

_Resolved_, That while we deeply mourn the loss of our departed brother,
we commend his virtues, and especially his high standard of Christian
integrity, for the imitation of the young men of our city as the most
certain means to a successful business life, and a fitting preparation
for its final close.

_Resolved_, That we deeply sympathize with the family of our deceased
friend in the loss that both they and we are called to sustain, feeling
assured that after so long a life of Christian fidelity this loss, to
him is an infinite gain.

_Resolved_, That a copy of these resolutions, signed by the Chairman and
Secretary, be furnished the family of the deceased and be duly published
in our city papers.

J. C. Buell, Secretary. T. M. Kelly, Chairman.
Cleveland, May 12, 1868.

E. P. Morgan.

"He who works most achieves most," is a good motto in business, and in
pursuits of all kinds. This has been the principle on which E. P. Morgan
has acted throughout life, and a faithful persistence in carrying it out
has resulted in building up a mammoth business and the consequent
possession of a handsome fortune.

Mr. Morgan was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1807. His early years
were spent at home and in attending school, where a good common education
was gained. In his fifteenth year he was taken from school and placed in a
store, where he acquired those business habits which have made him a
successful and wealthy merchant. At the age of twenty-one, he set up in
business for himself, at Middlefield, Massachusetts, carrying on a store,
and at the same time engaging in the manufacture of woolen goods. In this
store he continued twelve years, doing the whole time a thriving and
profitable business.

In 1841, he bade adieu to Massachusetts and came west to Ohio, taking up
his future home in Cleveland. He plunged into business immediately on
arriving, opening a store on the north side of Superior street, in the
place now occupied by the store of Mould & Numsen. In 1857, he saw what he
believed to be a more eligible site for business in the corner of Superior
and Seneca streets, and to that point he removed in 1858. At the same
time the firm of Morgan & Root was formed by admitting to partnership Mr.
R. R. Root. To the retail dry goods business was now added a wholesale
department, as also a millinery department, and subsequently a grocery.
The business was vigorously pushed and every department grew with
remarkable rapidity, until store after store was added to the
establishment. The "corner store" became known far and wide, and a very
large country trade was built up in the jobbing department. During the
last three years of the war, the business of the firm reached an amount
greater than had ever been anticipated by its members, and the old
quarters, capable no longer of extension, became too strait for the
expanding operations. A number of lots on the east side of Bank street,
between the Herald building and Frankfort street, being purchased by
Morgan & Root, were speedily disencumbered of the drinking saloons and
petty shops that covered them, and on their site soon arose one of the
finest business blocks in the city, estimated to cost sixty thousand
dollars in addition to the cost of the land. When the block was finished
the wholesale department of the business was removed to the new building,
leaving the retail department to be carried on in the old store. In
February, 1869, the retail business was sold out to new parties, and
thereafter the firm of Morgan & Root confined itself exclusively to the
wholesale trade.

That Mr. Morgan is one of the best business men of the city is proved by
the fact that he has failed in no one of his undertakings; not that he
has always sailed on a smooth current of success, but that when
difficulties arose his indomitable perseverance enabled him to overcome
them. He engaged in no enterprise without its having been based on good
evidence and sound judgment; he never wavered in his adherence to it, nor
slackened for a moment his endeavors to prove his faith sound; nor has he
once been disappointed as to the result. Few men have shown a like
perseverance. His habits of keen investigation and strict attention to
his affairs, enabled him to do a very safe, though a very enterprising
business, and consequently he had little occasion for professional
acquaintance with lawyers.

In addition to his mercantile business, Mr. Morgan has interested himself
in insurance matters, being president of the State Fire Insurance Company,
of Cleveland, which position he has held since the organization of the
company in 1863. Under his presidency the company has done a safe and
successful business, and has extended its operations so that it has
offices in Connecticut and other parts of New England. He is also
connected with the banking affairs of the city. In the earlier years of
his business in Cleveland, he became interested in the construction of the
canal around the rapids of Saut St. Marie, and during the progress of the
work had a store open at the Saut.

In 1864, he built his residence on Euclid street, near the corner of
Huntington street, where he has resided since that time. Though sixty-two
years of age, he is still as active and vigorous as ever, and bids fair to
long be an active member, in fact as well as in title, of the firm of
Morgan & Root.

In religious principles Mr. Morgan is a Presbyterian. For a long time he
was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, but of late has been
connected with the Euclid street Presbyterian Church.

In 1832, he was married to Miss Laura Nash, of Middleford, Mass., by whom
he has had seven children, all but one of whom still live. The oldest son,
William Morgan, now thirty-one years old, is engaged in the manufacture
and sale of lubricating oils. The second son, Edmund N. Morgan, is an
assistant in his father's store. A daughter, Helen, is the wife of Mr.
J. B. Merriam, of Cleveland.

Robert Hanna.

The commercial interests of Cleveland and of the Lake Superior mineral
region have for many years been intimately connected, several of the now
prominent citizens of Cleveland having been attracted to Lake Superior by
the reports of its mineral riches at the time those riches were first made
generally known, and Cleveland being found a convenient base of supplies
for the mining enterprises on the shores of the "father of lakes."

One of the earliest to take an interest in this trade was Robert Hanna.
Whilst living in Columbiana county, Ohio, where he had been brought up, he
was attracted by the representations of the mineral riches of the far off
northern lakes, and in 1845 he started off to see for himself what was
truth in these reports, and what exaggeration. Traveling and exploration
in the wilds of the Lake Superior country were very difficult in that day,
and those who were anxious to make a fortune out of the bowels of the
earth had to rough it, pretty much as the seekers of gold have to now in
the tangled wilderness to the west of Lake Superior. Mr. Hanna spent four
months in careful exploration, and at length becoming satisfied that there
was something in the rumors of mineral riches, obtained from the
department, in whose charge the territory then was, a permit to locate
three square miles of copper lands. This being accomplished, he returned
to set about the organization of a company to work the prospective mines.

Whilst at Marquette, on his return from exploring the copper region, Mr.
Hanna fell in with a man who had been exploring the country back of that
place, and who brought in a specimen of iron ore which he had come
across in his search. The ore was so heavy, and apparently rich in iron,
that it was taken to a blacksmith, who, without any preparatory
reduction of the ore, forged from it a rude horseshoe. The astonishment
of those hitherto unacquainted with the existence of raw iron so nearly
pure metal, can be imagined.

But Mr. Hanna's attention, like those of most of the searchers after
minerals in that region, was absorbed in copper, and as we have seen, he
located his copper tract and returned home to provide means for working
it. A company was formed, materials purchased and miners engaged, and the
work pressed forward vigorously. The question of forwarding supplies being
now an important one, Mr. Hanna removed to Cleveland, that being the most
favorable point for the purchase and shipment of the articles needed, and
opened a wholesale grocery establishment in 1852, combining with it a
forwarding and commission business. At that time the wholesale grocery
business was in its infancy, there being but two or three establishments
of the kind in Cleveland.

For some time after the establishment of Mr. Hanna in the wholesale
grocery business, the carrying trade between Cleveland and Lake Superior
was mostly in the hands of the Turner Brothers, whose one steamer, the
Northerner, was able to do all the business that offered, both in freight
and passengers. Mr. Hanna's firm, then composed of himself, his brother,
Leonard Hanna, and H. Garretson, under the firm name of Hanna, Garretson &
Co., decided on the bold step of competing for the trade by building a
steamer of their own. The City of Superior, a screw steamer, was built in
Cleveland, under the especial supervision of Dr. Leonard Hanna, and the
most scrupulous care was exercised to make her in all respects a model
boat for the trade. Great strength of hull and power of machinery were
insisted on, in order to withstand the dangers of the formidable coast
when the fierce storms of the Fall season rendered navigation hazardous.
Accommodation for passengers on the voyage, which took several days for
its full extent, had to be provided, and great care was taken in this
respect to make the voyage as attractive as possible, attention having
been somewhat turned to the Lake Superior country as a Summer resort,
where the sultry beats of the "lower country" could be exchanged for pure
air and cooling breezes. When launched, the City of Superior proved a
complete success, and her first voyage up was a perfect ovation, a new era
having been opened in the history of travel between the upper and middle
lakes. But, unhappily, this fine steamer was lost in a storm after a few
voyages, although the great strength of her hull kept her intact, though
lying across a rock, until she could be completely stripped of her cargo,
furniture and machinery.