Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Part 15

Amos Townsend

Amos Townsend was born near Pittsburgh in 1831, and received a good common English education. At fifteen years old, he left school and entered a store at Pittsburgh, in which he remained three years, and then removed to Mansfield, Ohio, where, young as he was, he set up in business for himself, retailing goods, and remaining a citizen of that town during the greater part of nine years.

During his residence in Mansfield, the Kansas troubles broke out and arrived at such a pitch that a Congressional committee, comprised of Messrs. John Sherman of Ohio, W. A. Howard of Michigan, and W. A. Oliver of Missouri, was appointed to proceed to Kansas and investigate the facts in regard to General Stringfellow's opposition to Governor Reeder's administration. Mr. Sherman procured the appointment of Mr. Townsend as United States Marshal, and he accompanied the commission to the scene of disturbance. He was on a hill near Lawrence when he saw the _pa.s.se comitatus_ of the United States Marshal of the Territory batter down the Free State Hotel, it having been indicted as a nuisance by the Grand Jury.

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Townsend was taken prisoner by General Stringfellow, but on ascertaining his position he was released.

In 1858, he came to Cleveland, having been engaged by Gordon, McMillan & Co. In that establishment, he remained nearly five years, and then became partner in the firm of Edwards, Iddings & Co., which, on the death of Mr.

Iddings, became Edwards, Townsend & Co. The operations of that firm have already been spoken of.

Mr. Townsend has served a full apprenticeship to the business in which he is now engaged, and is familiar with all its details from the cellar to the counting-room. As a skillful financier, he has few superiors, and the large operations of the firm bear evidence to this in the regularity and safety with which they are conducted.

In 1866, the Republicans of the Third Ward chose him as their candidate for member of the City Council, of which he was afterwards chosen president. He not only polled the full vote of the party, but drew a large number of Democratic votes, and was elected by a good majority, although the ward has generally been considered Democratic, and has retained his seat to the present time, his personal popularity among all cla.s.ses, combined with the unexceptionable record he made in the Council, overcoming all opposition. At the organization of the new Council for 1869, he was unanimously re-elected president, a fact as complimentary as it is rare, it being the almost invariable custom for each party to vote for its own candidate, even where the result of the election is a foregone conclusion. He was in the same year suggested as the Republican candidate for Mayor, and would undoubtedly have been chosen to that office had he not considered it incompatible with proper attention to the large and rapidly increasing business of his firm.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Your Friend, D. A. Dangler]

David A. Dangler.

David A. Dangler, like scores of other successful men in Cleveland, is a conqueror of adverse circ.u.mstances. In taking a cursory glance at the early history of representative Clevelanders, noticed in this volume, it will be readily seen that our business firms are largely composed of men who, in early life, were compelled to divide their time between work on the farm and attendance at the district school. Much of the debilitating dissipation common in cities has been escaped by them; and hence, they have both sound minds to project, and vigorous bodies to execute.

Mr. Dangler found it necessary, at the early age of seven years, to do something towards carrying on his father's farm in Stark county, Ohio.

During the Winter months, he had the benefit of a district school until 1838, when, at the age of fourteen, he was employed in a dry goods store at Canton, as boy of all work. Here, he won the confidence of his employers, and by closely saving his limited wages, was able to attend school six months more, which completed his education. With this exception, he continued to serve in the same store until 1845, when, with a very limited capital, the savings from his wages, he commenced on his own account, in the same business.

In 1850, he left the trade in dry goods and took up that in hardware. The late Mr. John Tennis, who was also a Stark county man, and Mr. Dangler, in 1853, formed a partnership for jobbing in this line at Cleveland. The success of the concern was all that reasonable men could expect. Their connection continued until 1867, when it expired by limitation. They were among the first wholesale firms on Water Street, and this enlarged field of commercial operations gave full exercise to the talent and energy of Mr. Dangler. Trade was pushed in all directions, and in a remarkably short time they succeeded in building up a lucrative business.

Success did not make a miser of Mr. Dangler. On the breaking out of the rebellion, he entered with all his native enthusiasm into the home duties of the war. In August, 1862, he took a prominent part in the organization of ward committees for raising recruits and providing for the familles of soldiers. A large part of his time during the war was devoted to this work, and will ever be remembered with grat.i.tude by scores of families for timely a.s.sistance rendered during that trying ordeal. In the Fourth ward, where he lives, there never was a man drafted to fill its quota.

In 1864, he was elected a member of the City Council, and in 1865, a member of the House of Representatives for Cuyahoga County, by the Republican party. These public trusts were so well filled that in 1867, he was returned to the Senate, representing the most important commercial district of the State except one, and at all times being watchful and active in the interests of his const.i.tuents. Among the important measures originated by him in the Legislature, are the Metropolitan Police, State Charities, State Gas Inspection, and the Building and Loan a.s.sociation Acts. The last mentioned act has been very extensively taken advantage of among his immediate const.i.tuents. No less than ten societies have been organized in this city, under it, and have already been productive of much good among the laboring cla.s.s, by enabling them to obtain homesteads on easy terms. The capital stock of these societies amounts to over three million dollars, and if the act is as highly appreciated throughout the State as it is here, the benefit accruing therefrom will be almost incalculable, inasmuch as the monthly payments would, in many cases, be squandered; whereas, now, they are not only saved, but secure a share of the profits of the a.s.sociation in proportion to the stock held. The successful working of these inst.i.tutions must be exceedingly gratifying to Mr. Dangler. He is an active, energetic and impulsive member, though not without considerable tact, and generally successful in putting his measures through. As a speaker he is clear-headed, terse and forcible, and on subjects appealing to patriotism, really eloquent.

Mr. Dangler is liberal with his means, with broad plans, not for himself alone, but for the public; indeed, we have few men among us more public spirited than he. To this new element of self-made and successful men, the city owes much of the unparalleled development of the few past years.

Their energy and commercial intelligence have inaugurated a new order of things here, placing Cleveland in the front rank of western cities.

Mr. Dangler has recently formed a new partnership, and is again engaged in the hardware business, having established the new firm of Dangler & Bowman, on Superior Street. He is still young and vigorous, and has it yet in his power to accomplish much.

T. S. Beckwith.

In speaking of the mercantile interests of Cleveland as developed by her prominent operators, it is with pleasure we produce a brief notice of Mr.

T. S. Beckwith, one of our well known and most successful merchants. He was born in Lyme, CT, Jan. 11, 1821. Until he was fourteen, he remained on the farm with his father, at which time he commenced clerking in a store in Brownville, Jefferson Co., N. Y., and remained four years. He then came to Cleveland and at once engaged as a clerk with Alexander Sacket, who was then carrying on business on Superior Street, precisely where Mr. Beckwith's carpet store now stands. After two years with Mr.

Sacket, he went as clerk with P. M. Weddell & Co., in which capacity he served four years, when he was taken into partnership with P. M. Weddell, Dudley Baldwin and W. E. Beckwith, his brother, and in this firm did business in the dry goods line for about four years, when he and his brother, alone, carried on business several years, and finally Mr. Henry Wick became a.s.sociated with them and another store was started. Both stores were continued about four years, when the firm dissolved, and another formed under the name of Beckwith, Sterling & Co., composed of T.

S. Beckwith, F. A. Sterling and G. Clayes. This firm was dissolved after two or three years and the subject of this sketch left the dry goods business and opened the first store for the exclusive sale of carpets in Cleveland. After five or six years, his former partner, F. A. Sterling, again became a.s.sociated with him. The firm of Beckwith & Sterling existed three years when they admitted two young men in their employ, O. Baker and W. R. Havens.

Mr. Beckwith is a thorough business man, quick to form judgment and quick to act upon it. He is among our best financiers, nearly always makes an investment pay. When he was regularly employed as a salesman, he was hard to match, and one great secret of his success as such was his courteous demeanor to all, whether rich or poor, and an industrious effort to please. We recommend those of our young men who desire to succeed in business to study one of the princ.i.p.al keys to T. S. Beckwith's success--a polite attention to all. It will pay.

Mr. Beckwith's business has grown with the city, and the profits with it, and although he has only attained to the meridian of life, and in the full enjoyment of mental and physical energy, he has acquired a handsome competency.

Besides his mercantile interest, Mr. B. has aided in giving to Cleveland the character of a manufacturing city, having invested largely in the white lead factory of this city, which is under the management of Mr. J.

H. Morley, an account of which will be seen in the Manufacturing Department of this work.

Business has not, however, engrossed the whole of Mr. Beckwith's time and talents. He is as thorough a worker in the cause of religion, morality and benevolence as in trade. For a number of years, he has been an active member of the Second Presbyterian church of this city, always taking a lively interest in the Sunday school connected with the church. He was also as indefatigable in the interests of the Bethel Church and Sunday school of this city, and which is now doing a n.o.ble work in the city.

Mr. B. was married in 1849, to Miss Sarah Oliphant of Grandville, Washington Co., N. Y. Two children of this marriage are living and a third dead.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yours Truly, Elias Sims]

Elias Sims.

Although Mr. Sims has not been strictly a man of commerce among us, his life labor has been one wholly devoted to enterprises that are strictly conducive to that foundation of a commonwealth. Properly placed, he would be with general contractors, but as we have not material sufficient for a department under that head, he must take rank among the men whose trade has been facilitated by his enterprise.

Elias Sims was born at Onondaga, New York, August 4. 1818, and is another striking instance of the value of early dependence on one's own resources. Until he was fifteen years of age, Elias worked on a farm, when he concluded to leave it, and strike out for himself on another line. He worked as a laborer on the New York ca.n.a.l for some time, and being a lad of great force of character with a keen eye to business, he was very soon selected as an overseer. He held this situation for about two years when he became deputy superintendent of the works, being at the time only in his eighteenth year. After considerable experience in this business, he concluded there was an opportunity to make more money by contracting than by working on a salary, and consequently resigned his office and commenced on a work for which he was eminently adapted by nature, and one in which he subsequently became remarkably successful, as, indeed, was his first contract, for it resulted in a profit of several thousand dollars. Men did not become millionaires in such short order then as now, and so much money so easily obtained almost unbalanced the young contractor. It made him less careful in his estimates, and, as may be easily judged, his next job swallowed the whole of his capital, and compelled him to become overseer again.

The next speculation he engaged in was the building of a tug, in connection with two others, and which proved a success. After some time, he obtained a dredging contract at Port Stanley, Canada, and being very successful in this he entered into it as a permanent business, and appeared among the live men of Cleveland in 1856, as a contractor for dredging the "old river bed". From year to year, this contract for dredging at Cleveland has been continued, and in addition to this, he has executed some immense jobs at Grand Haven, Mich., Erie, Pa., and Milwaukee, Wis., in which he has been uniformly successful. He also contracted largely in the construction of the Great Western Rail Road, in Canada, and ca.n.a.l locks in Iowa. He is interested in propellers on the lakes, and has two tugs and three dredges in this harbor.

Mr. Sims may well be styled a pioneer in the system of dredging, by means of which all the lake harbors have been able to receive vessels of double the old tonnage. Although of a quiet, he is not by any means of an indolent temperament, and has exhibited business energy in a way that did not make much noise, but which led to sure results. Mr. Sims was one of the contractors and one of the proprietors of the Rocky River Rail Road and Hotel. He is also interested in the People's Gas Company of the West Side, and we are driven to the conclusion that such a long series of successes in such undertakings cannot be due to accident; there must be for foundation, a clear, calculating mind, and the ability to execute well what is well planned. Projects in which others had failed became profitable under his management. He is still in the vigor of life going on as usual with his contracts.

In 1838, Mr. Sims married Miss Fosburgh, of Onondaga Co., N. Y.; of the marriage three children were born, Mrs. Sloane of Buffalo, Mrs. Evatt of Cleveland, deceased, and Mrs. Wm. Starkweather of Cleveland.

Joseph Perkins.

One of the most noticeable mansions on the north side of Euclid Avenue is the tasteful and substantial stone building a little west of Sterling Avenue, which, from its general style of architecture and its handsome surroundings of lawn and shrubberies, resembles the comfortable country home of a family of wealth and taste in England. This is the residence of Joseph Perkins, and in its neat, home-like beauty, gives at once a good idea of the character of its owner, and a perpetual invitation to repose.

Mr. Perkins was born July 5, 1819, in Warren, Ohio, his father being Simon Perkins of that place. His educational advantages were food, and after leaving school he entered his father's office. Born to comfortable circ.u.mstances he never had occasion to struggle for an existence as have so many of the now wealthy citizens of Cleveland, but, on the other hand, the acquisition of riches without hard labor for it did not, as in so many other cases, prove his ruin, nor did he spend his days in idleness. On his father's death, he was one of his executors and gave his whole attention to the task of closing up the estate. That duty performed, he came to Cleveland and found abundant occupation in managing his own estate and in executing the duties devolving upon him through his appointments to places of trust in banks, railroads, and other organizations. For several years, he was a director of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad Company and took an active part in its affairs. On the death of Governor Tod, he was chosen president of the company, a position he still retains and the duties of which he performs with scrupulous fidelity. He is also president of the Second National Bank. During the building of the Euclid Street Presbyterian Church, he was a member of the building committee, and has taken an active interest in the affairs of that church for many years. He was also a member of the building committee of the Savings Bank Society and of the building committee of the National Bank Building.