Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men Part 18

On coming to Cleveland Mr. Brayton united with the First Presbyterian church, and has continued his connection with that denomination in the various societies in the city until the present time, and has been a worthy and consistent member.

The first impression a stranger receives of H. F. Brayton is, that he is a high toned gentleman, and every subsequent interview is certain to confirm it. He is a man of strict business habits, and expects his dues, and yet his large benevolence and goodness of heart not only prevents the slightest approach to meanness, but often causes him to suffer wrong rather than be thought to be doing wrong himself. Were it otherwise, he would have been one of the richest men in Cleveland to-day, for he posseses both the ability and energy.

O. A. Childs.

Among our most energetic firms is that of O. A. Childs & Co., manufacturers and wholesale dealers in boots and shoes, Water street. It was commenced by Messrs. Seymour & Crowell near twenty years since. It became Crowell & Childs in 1856, and so continued until 1864, when, by the death of Mr.

Crowell, it became O. A. Childs & Co. The business of this firm has steadily increased from the first and their yearly sales now amount to about $700,000.

In 1857, they commenced manufacturing a portion of their own goods, and since 1860 have manufactured all their leading lines, i.e., those they depend upon for service. Their trade extends through Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, a large amount being annually transacted in the Lake Superior region.

Although born in Ma.s.sachusetts, Mr. Childs has lived in this city from boyhood and may with propriety be called a Clevelander. He is still a young and active merchant and one who has made himself a thorough, competent business man in all its details, from the cellar to the counting room. This, with unlimited energy, has brought him success.

James McDermott.

Among the mercantile interests, having their headquarters at Cleveland, which during a comparatively few years have grown into prominent sources of wealth and are yearly expanding in value and adding to the material prosperity of the city, the Building Stone and Grindstone interest is worthy of especial mention. Only a very few years since this trade was in its infancy, and as late as 1863 had not come to be recognized as worthy of special efforts for its development. That it then became so is in great measure owing to the sagacity and enterprise of the firm of James McDermott & Co.

James McDermott was born in the village of Whitby, county of Ontario, Canada West, on the 19th of September, 1836. His father, who is still living, is by birth an Irishman and a native of the city of Dublin. His mother, who is also living, was born in the county of Ontario, Canada West. The father of Mr. McDermott is a man of considerable culture, and in all the relations of life has been distinguished for great energy and the strictest probity. His mother is no less distinguished for her uprightness and her clear perception of moral duty, and especially for the energy and determination of her character.

James McDermott is the oldest of a family of eleven children, and as not unfrequently happens to an oldest son, where the parents are in moderate circ.u.mstances, James found himself at an early period of his life clothed with important duties connected with the care of the family. When in his twelfth year the family moved from the village of Whitby to a farm in the same towns.h.i.+p, and here came a change in the relations of the young lad, in the new duties he was required to a.s.sume, which laid the foundation of those correct business habits which have given him his present honorable position in the business community. His father occupied the post of United States Consul and Harbor Master (the latter embracing all the functions of a Collectors.h.i.+p) at the port of Whitby, together with several local offices which required his whole attention on every day of the week except Sunday. During the week, therefore, much of the business connected with the working and care of the farm was devolved upon James. The farm, being a new one, required to be cleared, and in this labor the young lad did his full share, manifesting always the most indefatigable industry. The family remained on the farm some seven or eight years, during which time James became an adept in all kinds of farm work.

Young McDermott's opportunities for obtaining an education, at best limited, were still further restricted by his farm life, and during the years thus spent his progress in mental attainments was very moderate, embracing only what he could gather during a few weeks of winter from a country school in the elementary branches.

A change at last came when the family quit the farm and removed to Whitby, in the year 1856. James was now twenty years of age, and being thrown into intimate contact with a larger number of his fellow men than ever before, the ambitions and impulses of his young manhood were more keenly stirred.

He entered the office of his father, who still occupied the position of Harbor Master, and, though entirely ignorant of the duties, he quickly acquired a knowledge of the entire business and fulfilled all its requirements with entire satisfaction. He here realized, however, more fully, his defective education, which he determined to improve with the least possible delay. Only a few months were spent in his new position when he decided to set out in the world to seek his own fortune.

Accordingly on the 10th of June, 1856, having packed all his personal property in a diminutive trunk, he bade adieu to his old home. Two days after his departure from home young McDermott arrived in Cleveland and went thence to Berea, where, as the sequel shows, was to be the scene of his future enterprise. He had acquired some knowledge of carpenter work, and so obtained a situation on the Methodist Episcopal church, then in course of erection. Here he worked until harvest time, when he went into the harvest field, working for one dollar per day. He worked through harvest and upon its conclusion took the first step in fulfillment of his design to improve his education, and entered school at Baldwin University.

He had no money to pay for tuition, but this he provided for by sweeping the chapel, laboratory and halls of the college, earning sufficient money to meet his other wants, which were of course kept down to a very modest scale (as he boarded himself), by working in the stone quarries and cutting wood for the students. He studied hard and earnestly, and made good progress, finis.h.i.+ng his first term with very satisfactory results.

Among his acquirements during this period was a knowledge of the art of Oriental pearl painting, and during the Fall vacation he turned this accomplishment to advantage by teaching the art in Cleveland, going from house to house for this purpose, and obtaining fifty cents per lesson. In this way he earned sufficient to pay his tuition at the University during the next term, provide himself with necessary books, and furnish his means of living. Having concluded another term at the University, in the Fall of 1857, young McDermott came to Cleveland and took a course of writing lessons at a Commercial College. He attained considerable proficiency in penmans.h.i.+p, and in the winter of 1857-8 taught writing cla.s.ses at Loweville and Youngstown, Mahoning county, and at the Female College at Poland, Ohio, meeting with good success and giving entire satisfaction. In February, 1858, Mr. McDermott got his first introduction to the grindstone business, having received an appointment from a firm at Berea to travel in Canada and solicit orders on commission. He visited Canada and worked hard, often walking twenty miles a day, from station to station, to save time, carrying his satchel on his back, and paying his expenses by teaching the process of pearl painting. The trip was entirely successful, and Mr. McDermott returned to Berea in the Summer with a handsome sum in pocket. Still anxious regarding his education, he again entered Baldwin University, attending through the Fall term. In November of this year he came to Cleveland, pa.s.sed an examination and received a certificate to teach school, and upon this opened a school in Middleburgh towns.h.i.+p, Cuyahoga county, making his evenings available by teaching writing and spelling cla.s.ses. At the conclusion of the first term, in February, 1859, he started upon a second trip to Canada, to solicit orders for stone, this time on his own account. The venture was prosecuted with his usual industry, and was highly successful. He returned to Berea in the Summer considerably better off financially than when he left it, and having, meanwhile, placed a brother and two sisters at school in the University at his own expense, he once again entered upon a course of study. He remained, however, but two months, in consequence of the illness of his father calling him to Whitby to a.s.sume the duties of his father's office.

Here he remained some two months, when his father's recovery enabled him to return to Berea. He commenced a commercial course, but was permitted to pursue it barely a month when he was prostrated by a severe attack of typhoid fever from which he did not recover for nearly four months, his life being several times despaired of. As soon as his health was sufficiently restored, Mr. McDermott again identified himself with the grindstone trade and made two trips to Canada, both very successful, between May and September, 1860, and then finished his commercial course.

On the 19th of September, his twenty-fourth birthday, Mr. McDermott was married at East Townsend, Huron county, Ohio, to Miss Henrietta Scott, who had been a teacher in the Baldwin University, and a lady of superior accomplishments.

In this year he met with the most serious misfortune of his business life.

He s.h.i.+pped a cargo of stone for Canada, and the vessel encountering a storm which disabled her, a large portion of the cargo was thrown overboard. The cargo was insured in the Quaker City Insurance Company of Philadelphia, but before the claim could be adjusted the Company failed, and Mr. McDermott was rendered a considerable sum worse off than nothing.

This misfortune, however, only served to stimulate his energy, and having established a good credit by the prompt.i.tude with which he had always met his business engagements, and at the same time created a high impression of his business qualifications, those with whom he had traded, and in whose debt he had been brought, encouraged him to continue business by allowing him all the time he should require to repair his losses and make himself whole. He soon made another trip to Canada with the most gratifying result, taking orders for upwards of three hundred tons of stone, the returns from which paid off all his indebtedness and left him something more than even with the world.

From January to August, 1862, was spent by Mr. McDermott in Lower Canada, chiefly among the French population, and was one of the most successful periods of his business experience thus far. Returning to Berea, we next find him on his way to Cincinnati as one of a company of "Squirrel Hunters" in response to a well-remembered call of Gov. Tod for a force to resist the threatened invasion of the State by the Confederate forces under Kirby Smith. Arriving at Cincinnati it was found that the patriotic citizens of Ohio had so freely answered the demand upon them that more than enough to protect the State against several times the menacing army were already on the ground, and the Berea company was permitted to return home. The remaining months of the year were pa.s.sed by Mr. McDermott in making preparations and perfecting plans for the ensuing year's business.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yours Respectfully, James McDermott]

On the 30th of January, 1863, Mr. McDermott formed a copartners.h.i.+p with John Worthington, who was engaged in the building stone trade at Brownhelm, Lorain county, Ohio, the firm taking the t.i.tle of Worthington & McDermott. The firm immediately erected works for turning large grindstones for manufactories, and distinguished their first Spring's business by sending to New York city the first cargo of building stone ever s.h.i.+pped there from Ohio. During this year they furnished the stone for all the tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs and carved work on the Government buildings at Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion of Canada, and also for a number of buildings in Montreal and other cities and towns of Canada. The year's business was heavy, and the result was largely due to the energy and enterprise of Mr. McDermott. In the latter part of the year Mr. McDermott took up his residence in Cleveland, where he had purchased a house, and in the spring of 1864 the office of the firm was removed to Cleveland.

The business of the firm was now growing vigorously, the result of the year 1864 being in the highest degree satisfactory, not alone in the pecuniary returns, but in the wider extension of the trade and the introduction of the Ohio stone to markets where it had previously been unknown, and where it has since been in steady and large demand. Near the close of the year the firm of Worthington & McDermott was dissolved, and Mr. McDermott purchased of the Wallaces the old quarry at Berea originally opened by John Baldwin over forty years ago. He took into partners.h.i.+p his brother William and established the firm of J. McDermott & Co. The new firm went actively to work in developing its quarry, mining and manufacturing block and grindstones, and succeeded rapidly in establis.h.i.+ng valuable business connections and enlarging the stone trade of this section. Among the first improvements introduced was the building of a railroad track Connecting the quarry with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati track, and other facilities for the expeditions handling and getting out stone were added as promptly as practicable. In the spring of 1865 the firm filled a contract with the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad Company for stone with which to replace the wooden bridges along the line of the road.

During the year the firm made extensive progress in developing its quarry, trenching to a greater depth than had yet been reached in any of the quarries, and obtaining a quality of building stone superior to any produced up to this time in Ohio, which very soon became, and is still, in large demand. In the spring of 1866, the firm sold the first five hundred tons of Berea rock block stone that ever went to New York city, and succeeded in so far interesting several of the largest builders of the metropolis in this stone as to induce them to visit the Berea quarries.

During the year 1867, the firm sent to New York all the clear rock block stone they could get out, and also filled several large contracts for block stone with the Cleveland and Toledo and Lake Sh.o.r.e Railroad Companies, doing this year a very large business. On the 1st of January, 1867, the firm was increased by taking in another brother, Mr. Michael McDermott, the firm name remaining unchanged.

The house of J. McDermott & Co. occupies at this time a leading position in the stone trade of Ohio, and indeed of the West, not alone in the amount of its annual business, but in credit, character and influence, and in these latter respects it is hardly surpa.s.sed by any mercantile house in Northern Ohio. The trade of the house not only extends to nearly every State of the Union and the Dominion of Canada, but the product of its quarries finds a market in Mexico, South America and other parts of the world. During 1867, this house furnished the stone for fourteen blocks and fronts in New York city, and a number of buildings in Boston, New Haven and other cities, and in 1868, the business was largely increased. A single firm of builders in New York city erected during that year fifteen buildings and fronts for which J. McDermott & Co. furnished the stone.

The quarries owned by this firm embrace twenty-five acres of land of which less than an acre has been worked out. In 1867, they turned out 106,200 cubic feet of block stone, 46,000 feet of flagging, 119 car loads of rough block stone, and 1,510 tons of small grindstones. These quarries are valued at $200,000, and the excellent quality of the stone produced is amply attested by the large and increasing demand for it.

The business of the house of J. McDermott & Co. is under the immediate personal supervision of Mr. James McDermott, to whose experience, enterprise and business capacity its marked success is due. Mr. McDermott has taken an active interest in all that relates to the stone business, and also to whatever tends to build up the prosperity of Cleveland. In 1866 and 1867, he visited Was.h.i.+ngton to procure the modification of the internal tax and import duty on stone, and was successful in his endeavors. He also brought about the organization of the "a.s.sociation of the Grindstone and Block Stone Manufactures of Northern Ohio," a work which was not accomplished without much difficulty, in spite of the fact that it was for the mutual benefit of all engaged in the trade. It should be mentioned in this connection that the firm issued a valuable series of tables of weights of grindstones, and rules for computing the same, now in general use by manufacturers, and which was chiefly compiled by Mrs.

McDermott. The most recent public work of Mr. McDermott was his active labor in organizing the Cleveland, Wooster and Zanesville Railroad Company, to which he has devoted time, money and labor.

Mr. McDermott is still young, being but thirty-two years old, of fine physical proportions, a robust const.i.tution, and clear, comprehensive mind. His healthfulness, and also his success in business, he attributes in large measure to his habit of strict temperance. In business matters he is prompt, scrupulously conscientious, and holding a verbal engagement to be as binding as the most carefully drawn contract. In private and social circles he is warm-hearted, cheerful, and every way a pleasant companion.

J. A. Redington.

J. A. Redington is son of Captain John Redington, formerly of Saratoga county, New York, who, when nineteen years of age, ran away from his stepfather, who abused him, and volunteered into the Revolutionary army, where he served seven years, and was taken prisoner by the British, and incarcerated in the Sugar House, New York. There the privation that fell to his lot in the great struggle for freedom, nearly killed him. Had Capt.

Redington lived till the present time he would have been one hundred and twelve years old. J. A. Redington, the subject of this sketch, was born June 4, 1818, when his father was sixty-one years old, and there were five children born to the old soldier afterwards. At the birth of the last, he was seventy-two years of age.

Ten years of the boyhood of J. A. was spent with an uncle in Vermont, where he received a good common school education. While living at that place his father died, and at the age of sixteen he had a keen realization of the situation. He had nothing, and could not mend matters where he was, so he determined to go home to his mother and see if he could be of service there. After remaining with his mother a year, he engaged with a s.h.i.+p-chandler at Oswego, for twenty-five dollars per year and board. After a few months his employer closed up, leaving him out of employment. About a year from this time, his former employer, who had gone to Cleveland, wrote him that if he would come to Cleveland he would employ him again. He worked his pa.s.sage on a ca.n.a.l boat from his home to Oswego, where he took pa.s.sage on board a vessel just leaving for Cleveland.

The late Chester Deming was the gentleman who had engaged his services. He received two hundred dollars the first year, three hundred the second year, and four hundred the third, on which handsome salary, for those times, he concluded to marry.

Mr. Deming closed up his business here in 1841, and Mr. Redington commenced on his own account, dealing in oats, wheat and other grains.

This continued about a year when he formed a partners.h.i.+p for the purpose of opening a general furnis.h.i.+ng house for vessels. He did a successful business, but as it was only during the summer months, he established a dry goods store in connection with it on the West Side. This enterprise was only partially successful, and so he closed it up, and for several years was employed as clerk on board a steam boat.

In 1856, he, in connection with Mr. Bacon, commenced the s.h.i.+pping and forwarding business, built the vessel E. C. Roberts, which was a profitable investment, and also ran the propeller Manhattan. This partners.h.i.+p was dissolved after two years, Mr. Redington retaining his vessel interests. He is now engaged in mercantile pursuits on the river, dealing princ.i.p.ally in pig metal.

By dint of hard work and a determination to succeed in spite of adverse circ.u.mstances, and by strict integrity, he has accomplished his purpose and acquired a comfortable competency.

Samuel Sage Coe.

S. S. Coe has been favorably known in the business circles of Cleveland for over thirty years, and, although he has not succeeded in ama.s.sing as much wealth as some of his compet.i.tors, yet his fort.i.tude has enabled him to glide over reverses easily, and enjoy somewhat of life as it came.

Mr. Coe was born in Oswego, New York, October 6th, 1819. He obtained all the education a widowed mother could give him before he was twelve years of age, when he entered a country store and remained five years. The only recreation he had during that time was a trip to Niagara, on the schooner Saratoga, with Capt. Dolph. Howe, with whom some of our citizens are well acquainted. In 1836, he went to New York and clerked in the hardware store of Wolf, Bishop & Co., and returned to Oswego in June, 1837. Not being able to find employment there, he concluded to try his fortune in the West, and at once took the schooner Charles Crooks, bound for Cleveland.

Mr. Coe landed in this city July 19th, 1837, his cash capital being at the time one dollar and twenty-five cents. After a few days a situation was obtained in the office of Ransom, McNair & Co., with a salary of thirty dollars per month, out of which he had to board himself. He remained with this firm until about 1841, when he went into the employ of B. F. Smith & Co., composed of B. F. Smith, now residing at Buffalo, as superintendent of the Buffalo and Erie Railroad, and George Woodward, now residing at Milwaukee, with whom he remained until 1845, when he engaged in business for himself, in the firm of Doddridge & Coe, in the forwarding and commission line. In about one year this firm dissolved, and Mr. Coe went into the same business with his brother, Chas. W., under the style of S. S.

Coe & Co. This firm was unfortunate, and existed only one year.

In 1848, while doing a small commission business alone, he was offered, and accepted, the agency of the Merchants' Insurance Company, of Milwaukee, and labored faithfully for them one year, and, at its close, his premiums amounted to less than two hundred dollars. This was the first insurance company with which he was ever connected.

In 1851, Mr. Coe organized and got into operation the Commercial Mutual Insurance Company, of this city, acting as its Secretary for about one year and a half, when he resigned, and went into the insurance agency business, with which he has ever since been identified.