Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Part 10

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, pa.s.sing 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 a.s.sociated.

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 a.s.sociation 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 acc.u.mulating 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 cla.s.s, 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 ca.n.a.l was opened to lock seventeen, near Akron, and the ca.n.a.l 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, a.s.siduity, 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 a.s.sociates, 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 pa.s.sed 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 inst.i.tution 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 inst.i.tutions, 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 a.s.sociated intimately with people of like birth, there was no native American that could surpa.s.s him in love for the Union, and few that exceeded him, in proportion to his means, in contributions to the defence of the Union.

In the language of his favorite Shakespeare, it might be said of him

His life was gentle, and the elements So mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world, _This was a man_!

George Worthington.

Prominent among the business firms of Cleveland, is that of George Worthington & Co., a house which stands in the front rank both on account of the business done, and of its integrity and honorable dealing.

Mr. Worthington, the founder and head of the firm, was born in Cooperstown, N. Y., September 21st, 1813. He received a good common school education, and then entered on a business career by becoming clerk in a hardware store in Utica, in 1830, remaining in that position until 1834, when he came to Cleveland and commenced business as a hardware dealer on his own account. His first store was on the corner of Superior and Union lane, on the site of the clothing store of Isaac A. Isaacs, and the first goods received by him were drawn by oxen owned by a man who did all the carting at that time. Cleveland was then but a small town, and most of the trading was done with the teamsters that came from Wooster and other points south, bringing pork, grain, and other products, and taking back merchandise. Trade was brisk, but cash scarce, nearly all the operations being more in the nature of barter than of purchase and sale.

After remaining three years in his first store, he removed to the corner of Water and Superior streets, on the site of the present National Bank building, and in that location he remained thirty years, during which time he witnessed the growth of Cleveland from a small town to a large and prosperous city.

When he had been established about fifteen years, Mr. Worthington began rapidly to enlarge his business, and he a.s.sociated with him Mr. James Barnett and Mr. Edward Bingham, at present members of the firm. About that time they commenced wholesaling, and gradually built up a business from five thousand dollars the first year, to a million dollars. This, however, involved a vast amount of labor, and an indomitable determination to succeed by driving business. Mr. Worthington, in the absence of railroads or other public conveyance, traveled through the adjacent townships and counties on horseback, introducing his wares, and obtaining orders which would be filled by the carriers' wagons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yours Truly, G. Worthington]

Railroads revolutionized trade and gave an impetus to everything, and establishments that were on a firm footing before were prepared to take advantage of circ.u.mstances. This was the case with Mr. Worthington. His wholesale business has grown enormously, especially since 1860.

About 1862, Mr. Worthington projected the Cleveland Iron and Nail Works, and, in connection with Mr. W. Bingham, matured the plans and got the works into successful operation in about one year from broaching the project, the work turned out being of the best quality. The owners of the works can sell readily all they make, and furnish active and steady employment for about two hundred men.

Mr. Worthington has also been extensively interested in blast furnaces and coal mining, in the vicinity of Cleveland, and has been very successful in them also.

At the present time the Cleveland Iron and Nail Company is erecting the first blast furnace within the city limits, calculated for a capacity of about three hundred tons per week. The firm have also built works on their grounds for the manufacture of gas pipe, which have been in successful operation for about a year, with the exception of a delay caused by a fire. This is an important work in a city so rapidly growing as Cleveland, and will retain many thousand of dollars formerly sent to Philadelphia and other points.

On the pa.s.sage of the National Bank Law, Mr. Worthington and a number of other capitalists of the city, organized the First National Bank of Cleveland, with a capital of four hundred thousand dollars, which has been very successful. Mr. Worthington was elected president on its organization, and still retains the office. He is a director of the Ohio Savings and Loan Bank, of this city. He is also largely interested in the local Insurance interests; vice-president of the Sun, and also interested in the Cleveland and Commercial, and is a director of the Hahnemann Life Insurance Company. He is also president of the Cleveland Iron Mining Company, one of the most successful organizations of the kind in the country.

No one man, probably, has done more towards building up the business portion of the city than has Mr. Worthington. His first building was erected on the corner of Ontario and St. Clair streets, now occupied by H.

Johnson. Since that time he has erected fifty dwelling-houses, and fourteen stores.

In 1840, he was married to Miss Maria C. Blackmar, of Cleveland, by the Rev. Dr. Aiken. Of the marriage six children have been born, two sons and four daughters, all living. The oldest son, Ralph, is now a member of the firm.