Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Part 7

In April, 1869, the firm of Sheldon & Son merged into that of S. H.

Sheldon & Co., being comprised of S. H. Sheldon & Son, and Sears & Holland, of East Saginaw, Mich.

The lumber trade of the city has been, generally, one of steady growth, and Mr. Sheldon's share in it has been of that character. It developed gradually, as the city grew in size and importance, and as the demand from the interior increased with the growth of towns and villages on the lines of ca.n.a.l and railroads. The beginning was small, and the earlier years of its progress full of difficulties, but in the end the trade reached large and lucrative proportions. Its highest point of prosperity was during the war, when the establishment of permanent camps through the State created a sudden and extensive demand for lumber, to build the numerous camp buildings. At that time the only perplexity of the lumber dealer was to find a supply sufficient for the demands pressing in from all quarters, for certain qualities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yours Truly, S. H. Sheldon]

From lumber to ship building is an easy transition, and Mr. Sheldon, five or six years since, became interested in lake craft, and added a fine three masted schooner to the lake marine. With the growth of manufactures in the city, he became interested in that direction also, connecting himself with the Etna Iron and Nail Works enterprise. He also took a deep interest in the formation of the People's Gas Company, for the supply of the West Side with gas, being one of the original supporters of the organization, and at present one of its directors.

In all his undertakings Mr. Sheldon has kept steadily in view the necessity of industry and economy, and it is the practice of these two mercantile virtues that has brought about his success. One trait of his business character is peculiar. He has, so far as possible, avoided recourse to law, holding the doctrine that, in most cases, when a debt could not be collected without the aid of a lawyer, it was not worth spending money for. In religious principles Mr. Sheldon is a Congregationalist, and has been connected for more than thirty years with the First Congregational Church, and during most of this time has discharged the duties of deacon, serving the church with fidelity and acceptance, in this official position. He has been identified with Sabbath school labors, as teacher and superintendent, and to his zeal and liberality the Detroit street Mission Sabbathe school largely owes its prosperity, and its present commodious chapel. In every Christian enterprise Deacon Sheldon has been among the foremost. No benevolent cause, whether local or general, has appealed to him in vain for pecuniary support, or Christian sympathy and countenance.

In 1836, Mr. Sheldon was married to Miss Cordelia H. Buxton, of Cleveland, a descendent of the English Buxtons, of philanthropic memory. Of the family of six children, one, the eldest, Henry A. Sheldon, died in 1842.

The only surviving son became a partner with his father in 1866.

Charles Hickox.

Whether the conversion of wheat into flour can more properly be cla.s.sed among manufactures or trade and commerce is a question for casuists to determine. There can be no question, however, that Charles Hickox takes his place, by right, among the merchants and commercial men of Cleveland, whether the grinding of wheat be a manufacture or not, for it is not alone by the milling business that Mr. Hickox has identified himself with the commerce of the city. He has gone through all the phases of Cleveland commercial life, having been connected with the produce and commission trade, owned lake vessels, and otherwise qualified himself for a place among the merchants and "river men," aside from the business in which he is widely known--that of an extensive mill owner.

Mr. Hickox came to Cleveland in 1837, from the state of New York, making his debut in the Forest City in the year of its greatest depression. For the first two years he engaged as clerk, and served his employers faithfully. Then, gaining confidence, and seeing an opening he struck out boldly for himself, setting up, as was usual in those days, in the commission and produce business. The constantly growing commerce of the place increased his business and made it lucrative. With far-seeing enterprise Mr. Hickox pushed his operations so that his trade rapidly increased and his consignments steadily grew in number and quant.i.ty. To accommodate it he purchased interests in shipping on the lake, and eventually became a large ship owner.

Seeing his opportunity, Mr. Hickox turned his attention to milling, and commenced operations at a mill in Akron, which he soon made known to the commercial world by the excellence and reliability of its brand. To this was, in time, added the water mill, on the ca.n.a.l, in Cleveland, near the weigh lock, which he held for five years and then sold. After the sale of the latter mill, he purchased the Cleveland Steam Mills on Merwin street, with a capacity of about three hundred and fifty barrels per day, and in 1867, he added the National Steam Mills, with a capacity of from five hundred to six hundred barrels daily. Whilst a large capital is invested in these mills, the number of men employed is less than in establishments where labor saving machinery has not been brought to such a pitch of perfection. About fifty men are directly employed in the mills, and a large number additional in the manufacture of barrels and sacks. A very large proportion of the flour from these mills is sold in sacks, from the fact that the entire product is sold in the home market, which speaks well for the estimation in which the brands are held. Mr. Charles W. Coe is in active partnership with Mr. Hickox, in the milling interests, the firm name being Coe & Hickox.

Mr. Hickox has taken deep interest in the railroad affairs of the city, and has been for some time a director of the Cleveland, Columbus & Cincinnati Railroad Company. He is still as active and energetic as ever, well preserved in body and mind, and making his positive influence felt in all departments of business in which he becomes interested. He never tires of work, and, as he says of himself, he "holds his own well, at fifty-five."

Alexander Sackettt.

Alexander Sackett, son of Augustus Sackett, of Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., was born August 17th, 1814. He received a good mercantile education in New York City, and came from thence to Cleveland in 1835, and at once engaged in the wholesale and retail dry goods line, in the old block of Mr.

Weddell, on Superior street. He continued with success in this business until 1854, when he went into commercial business on the river, and in which he remained until 1868, when he retired from trade circles to devote his whole attention to his real estate interests.

Mr. Sackett was married in 1836, to Harriet, daughter of Levi Johnson, Esq., of this city. They have five children living, and have lost two. The eldest daughter is the wife of Mr. Virgil T. Taylor, of this city, and the son is in his father's office.

Mr. Sackett is still hale, and may reasonably expect, without accident, to long enjoy the fruit of his labor.

George Mygatt.

Mr. Mygatt is a genuine pioneer of the Western Reserve, having come with his father, Comfort S. Mygatt, at the age of ten years, to the new settlement at Canfield, Mahoning county, Ohio, in the year 1807. He was born at Danbury, Ct., on 14th of June, 1797, when that village had not recovered from its conflagration by the British, during the Revolution.

There were then visible, and for many years during his boyhood, buildings which were charred by fires kindled by English soldiers.

Mr. Mygatt's father was a merchant and farmer, at Canfield. He was an active, honest and successful man. The year previous to his emigration, his daughter, Polly, was married, at Danbury, to the late Elisha Whittlesey, who removed at once to Canfield, Ohio. Mr. Whittlesey, his son-in-law, took the contract to clear a piece of ground for Mr. Mygatt, laboring on the job with his axe and team.

At Danbury, George had as good an opportunity in school as any Connecticut lad could have, under the age of ten years. At Canfield there was little opportunity for gaining book knowledge. He was engaged with his father as clerk and general helper, until he was twenty years old. In 1818, he became clerk in the Western Reserve Bank, at Warren, and remained in that position two years, when he engaged in mercantile business in connection with his father-in-law, Mr. A. Adams. This partnership lasted five years, after which he carried on the business alone until 1833.

From 1829 to 1833, he was sheriff of Trumbull county, and had the disagreeable office of executing the murderer, Gardner.

In 1834, Mr. Mygatt became a financier, which may be said to be his profession. He was then appointed cashier of the Bank of Norwalk, Ohio. In 1836, he was appointed cashier of the Bank of Geauga, at Painesville, Ohio; and in 1846 he became President of the City Bank of Cleveland, holding the last named office until 1850. The firm of Mygatt & Brown was then formed, for private banking, and continued until 1857.

In 1855, he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, from Cuyahoga county, serving two sesssion.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Very Respectfully, George Mygatt]

The Merchants Bank of Cleveland, in 1857, became deeply involved, by the failure of the Ohio Life and Trust Company, of Cincinnati. Mr. Mygatt was appointed cashier at this time, when a memorable panic in finances was sweeping over the country. The bank sank a large part of its stock, but maintained its integrity, and continued to redeem its notes.

In 1861, he retired from active business, but, with his long habits of employment, it soon became irksome to him to be out of work, and in 1865 he became Secretary of the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad Company, a position he still retains, for the sake of being employed.

A large portion of Mr. Mygatt's time and means have always been devoted to benevolent purposes; Sunday schools, the annual contributions for the poor, the church, industrial schools, and, in fact, all charitable movements have found in him a ready response; he will long be remembered for his work's sake.

As a business man he was characterized by the strictest integrity, always preserving a quiet, considerate policy, and by incessant industry accomplished a great deal. For one who has reached the age of seventy-two, he possesses remarkable vigor, and we should judge, from the position he occupies, that his mental faculties are little impaired.

Mr. Mygatt was married in March, 1820, to Miss Eliza Freeman, of Warren, who is still living. Of their six children, four of whom arrived at mature age, and were married, only Mrs. F. T. Backus now survives.

Martin B. Scott.

Among the names of those who have done business on the river during the past quarter of a century, that of M. B. Scott, until his retirement a few years since, held a foremost place. Mr. Scott is a native of New York, having been born at Deerfield, near Utica, in that State, in March, 1801.

Mr. Scott is of Quaker stock; a lineal descendent in the sixth generation from the first American Quaker, (Richard Scott, one of the first settlers of Providence, R. I.,) and in the nineteenth generation from William Baliol Scott, of Scotts-Hall, Kent, England, in the line of Edward I. His Quaker ancestors suffered persecution at the hands of the Boston Puritans in 1658. The daughters of Richard Scott were cast into prison by Endicott, for avowing their Quaker faith, and his wife Katharine (_ne_ Marbury, youngest sister of the famous Mrs. Anne Hutchinson) was publicly scourged in Boston by order of court, for visiting and sympathizing with her Quaker brethren in prison.

One of the maxims of Mr. Scott's life, was to despise no honest employment, however laborious; if he failed to obtain such business as he desired, he took the next best opportunity that offered, a principle that might be profitably practiced by many young men of the present day.

Deprived of a liberal education, by the pecuniary embarra.s.sments of his father, who had a large family to support, he left the Utica Academy in 1820, and made an effort to learn a mechanical trade, with only partial success. He, for a time, alternately taught a country school in winter, and was engaged for the remainder of the year in internal commerce, as master of a boat, or as forwarding clerk, in the then prominent houses of De Graff, Walton & Co., and Cary & Dows, on the Mohawk river and Erie ca.n.a.l. This early training in the elements of commerce and navigation was the nucleus of his subsequent pursuits, and the foundation of his commercial success, although his operations were not on the gigantic scale of many others, who either ama.s.sed great fortunes, or sank into bankruptcy; he managed his affairs with such prudence, sagacity and integrity, that he never had occasion to compound with his creditors, or even ask for an extension.

Mr. Scott was interested in the first line of ca.n.a.l boats that ran through from Utica to New York. In the outset of Erie ca.n.a.l operations it was supposed that ca.n.a.l boats could not sail down the Hudson, and the freight was consequently transhipped at Albany. Experiment proved the fallacy of this belief, and thenceforward ca.n.a.l boats ran through to New York. A new line of steam tow-boats on the North river, called the Albany & Ca.n.a.l Tow-Boat Company, was formed, and Mr. Scott was appointed princ.i.p.al manager, first at Albany and then at New York.

In 1836, his health failed, owing to his close application to business, and under medical advice he performed a horseback journey through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. On his way westward he stopped at Cleveland and was favorably impressed with what was then a small but flourishing town. In 1837, he returned from his western journey and resumed business, but again his health failed, and he was ordered to permanently abandon Albany and seek a more favorable climate. Remembering the advantages of Cleveland both for business and residence, he concluded to remove to that point.

Here he continued his connection with the forwarding business by opening an agency for the American Transportation Line of ca.n.a.l boats on the Erie ca.n.a.l, his office being at the foot of Superior street. In 1841, he engaged in the purchase and shipment of staves, the markets for which were Albany and New York. This branch of business he continued for about five years.

In 1844, he built a steam elevator on River street, near his old stand, it being the first brick building erected on the river front. With the completion of this building he turned his attention more particularly to grain, receiving it by ca.n.a.l from the interior. On the opening of the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati railroad, his elevator was easily connected with that line, and the first load of railroad wheat stored in Cleveland was received into his elevator.

About the year 1840, Mr. Scott became interested in the lake marine by the purchase of the brig Amazon, of 220 tons, then considered a craft of good size. At the time of the purchase, the West was flooded with wild-cat money, and specie was very scarce. The brig was sold by order of the Chancellor of Michigan, and specie demanded from the purchaser, a condition that made buyers shy. In 1842, Mr. Scott purchased the schooner John Grant, of 100 tons, and in the following three years added to his little fleet the schooner Panama, of 100 tons, and the brig Isabella, of over 300 tons, the latter being something highly respectable in the way of lake shipping.