“Baker on the Fifth Ballot?” The Democratic Alternative: 1932 is a fascinating article about Newton D. Bakers prospects to win the 1932 Democratic Party nomination for President. Baker was a strong choice by many and whoever received the nomination had a good chance to win the election that fall vs. Herbert Hoover. Courtesy of the Ohio Historical Society Journal
William A Stinchcomb – “Mr Metropolitan Park”
From the Metroparks website:
“Bill Stinchcomb and the park system are one institution,” a Cleveland newspaper pronounced in 1939. Stinchcomb, a self-taught engineer, was a the founder, father, and only director of the Cleveland Metropolitian Park District until his retirement in 1957. For five decades, he guided its development, watching it mature, fighting for it, giving it intelligent direction.
Six-feet-two, lithe, dark-eyed, occasionally gruff – “almost Lincolnian in simplicity and honesty” was how one writer described him – William Albert Stinchcomb was born June 5, 1878, in a farmhouse on Chestnut Ridge (now near Denison Avenue)- near Lorain Avenue in Cleveland. He attended the Cleveland Public Schools, leaving West High School at age 16 to work for the National Iron & Wire Company. In 1895, he joined the city engineering department as a surveyor and worked his way up to assistant city engineer in charge of bridges, harbors, and docks.
In 1902, Cleveland Mayor Tom L. Johnson named Stinchcomb chief engineer of parks, directing him to popularize and expand them. He laid out football grounds, baseball diamonds, and tennis courts, built bathhouses and neighborhood playgrounds, and completed the mainbuilding of the new Brookside Park Zoo.
Following Johnson’s defeat in 1901, Stinchcomb worked as a landscape architect and engineer until 1912, when he was drafted by the county Democratic Party to run for Cuyahoga County engineer and won. As county engineer, Stinchcomb directed the construction of the Detroit-Superior High-Level bridge, the Brooklyn-Brighton bridge, and other large projects. In 1917, he ran for mayor of Cleveland against Harry L. Davis. Davis’s supporters ridiculed Stinchcomb as the “Great Planner and Builder” and (alluding to his work at the Zoo) “Bunkun Bill, Botch Builder of Bear Bungalows.” Stinchcomb narrowly lost the election and left partisan politics behind.
During his years as county engineer, Stinchcomb did not forget his dream, first enunciated on 1905 in a report to Cleveland City Council, of a metropolitan park system. He helped draft a county park bill and lobby it through the legislature, and served on the first county park board without pay as consulting engineer. When a board was ruled invalid, he lobbied for a new law and volunteered his services as consulting engineer to the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board before being appointed as the first director of the Park District in 1921.
As chief architect of the metropolitan parks, Stinchcomb never lost sight of the big picture, arguing that parks contributed in untold measure to the health and welfare of the comunity and working unceasingly for the district’s expansion. But he cared about the details, too – releasing ring-necked pheasants into Rocky River and Brecksville reservations (1922), directing the planting of wild rice and other foods in an attempt to establish a haven for waterfowl (1928), protesting a road-widening projoct that threatened to destroy a row of ancient maple trees on the edge of Brecksville Reservation (1930). Stinchcomb lost the battle to save the trees but not public respect: “One is glad Stinchcomb protests,” said the Cleveland Press, “and one wishes there were more Stinchcombs.”
Always, Stinchcomb maintained that people weary of a busy and commercial urban life needed a refuge of woodlands, water, hills, grass, and wildlife to provide healthful rest and recreation. “Man is an outdoor animal,” he told a Rocky River garden club in 1930. “We must have these great outdoor rest places close to a great industrial city such as this, and as working days grow shorter we must find healthful ways of filling leisure time.”
In 1905, Stinchcomb was married to Annie M. Long. They lived on Edgewater Drive in Cleveland with their two children. although parks were his life, Stinchcomb had other interests. He sang in the Orpheus Male Choir and served as director and president of the Cleveland Automobile Club and as a trustee of Hiram College.
Ohio’s compulsory retirement law would have forced Stinchcomb out of his job as Park District director in 1949, but the law was specially amended and Stinchcomb was asked to stay on. “I don’t want to step aside and just rust away,” he said.
In February 1957, Stinchcomb suffered a stroke as he left his office in Cleveland’s standard Building. On June 1st, four days shy of his 79th birthday, he ended an unparalleled public-service career of 58 years – “a long time, ” he observed, “of sucking at the trough.” The newspapers were more generous. “Try to name something in which he hasn’t had a hand, “the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote, while the Cleveland News recognized Stinchcomb this way: “His 58 years of public sevice spanned an era when Cleveland grew to greatness, and Stinchcomb’s remarkable skill as a planner, a builder and an engineer contributed magnificently to that growth.”
Following his retirement, the Cleveland News initiated a public subscription to create a permanent tribute to Stinchcomb’s life and work. in November 1958, a monument designed by sculptor William McVey and architect Ernst Payer was unveiled on a hilltop in Rocky River Reservation, overlooking the horseshoe- shaped valley where Stinchcomb had purchased the first parcel of land for the “Emerald Necklace” in 1919. Stinchcomb was too ill to see it. He died at Lutheran Hospital on January 17, 1959. he was 80.
Frances Payne Bolton Biography
from the Western Reserve Historical Society
Frances Payne Bolton’s life was marked not only by her philanthropic contributions, but also by her remarkable career serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for Ohio’s 22nd district. Elected in 1939 to succeed her late husband, Chester C. Bolton, Mrs. Bolton made significant contributions to her country, especially in the areas of foreign affairs and nursing. Mrs. Bolton served as a member of the House until 1968, and she became the first woman in Congress to head an official mission abroad, become a Congressional delegate to the United Nations, and become a ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She also became half of the first mother-son team in Congress.
It is no surprise that Mrs. Bolton would end up representing her country in some way. Although her father was not involved in politics, both of her grandfathers, William Bingham and Henry B. Payne were state legislators, and her maternal grandfather later served as a U.S. senator. She was born on March 29, 1885 to Charles W. Bingham and Mary Perry Payne Bingham in Cleveland, Ohio. While she would not become independently wealthy until some years after her marriage, she grew up on a section of Euclid Avenue referred to as Millionaires’ Row. Although she did not attend college, she received a more than ample education (and later many honorary degrees) through her attendance at Hathaway Brown School in Cleveland, Miss Spence’s School in New York, her travels abroad, and through her family library.
After her marriage to Chester Bolton in 1907, Mrs. Bolton received a large inheritance from her uncle, Oliver Hazard Payne, the treasurer of Standard Oil as well as one of the richest men in the country. The inheritance allowed her to further pursue her interest in nursing. She used this interest and her own influence during World War I to help establish the Army School of Nursing. The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Western Reserve University was also established through her generosity to provide nursing students an education as opposed to on-the-job training. The gift from her uncle also allowed her to establish the Payne Study & Experiment Fund (later called the Payne Fund) in 1927. The Payne Fund distributed money to help fund projects on topics such as juvenile reading and drug trafficking. The Payne Fund also supported psychic research & parapsychology at the Ohio State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Utrecht. Mrs. Bolton also joined forces with her siblings, Elizabeth Blossom and Messrs William and H.P. Bingham in donating $1 million to Yale University as an endowment for a dormitory in their father’s name.
After her terms in Congress, Mrs. Bolton stayed active in politics and humanitarian efforts, serving on the board of governors of the Middle East Institute. Additionally, she served as a trustee for numerous organizations including the National Trust of Historic Preservation, Tuskegee Institute, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. In 1973, the School of Advanced International Studies established a chair in her name for African studies, and in 1976 she received the Human Relations Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Firelands Overview
from the Ohio Historical Society
The Firelands was part of the Western Reserve of Connecticut in the Northwest Territory.
In 1786, Connecticut ceded most of its western lands to the American government, in preparation for the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The state kept its claim to an area of land in the northeastern portion of the Northwest Territory known as the Connecticut Western Reserve. Connecticut chose to sell most of the land in the Western Reserve to finance the state’s educational system. Approximately 500,000 acres were reserved for Connecticut citizens who had suffered property losses during the American Revolution. This portion of the Western Reserve became known as the Firelands or the Sufferers’ Lands. During the Revolution, British troops had burned several Connecticut towns and many of their residents had lost everything they owned. They were able to start over again in the Northwest Territory. A company called the Ohio Corporation distributed the land to eligible applicants. Much of the settlement of the region did not occur until after the War of 1812.
Connecticut Western Reserve Overview
from the Ohio Historical Society
The Connecticut Western Reserve was an area in the Northwest Territory held, sold and distributed by the State of Connecticut in the years after the American Revolution.
Connecticut was one of several states that had land claims in the Ohio Country going back to the colonial period. Connecticut gave up most of its claims to the federal government so that the Northwest Territory could be created. However, it reserved the northeast corner of the territory for itself. This area came to be known as the Connecticut Western Reserve.
The Western Reserve had two parts. The western part of the region was known as the Fire Lands. The state gave plots of land in this area to people who had lost their property in the American Revolution. The Connecticut government sold the eastern portion of the reserve to the Connecticut Land Company in 1795. The $1.2 million earned through the land sale was spent on public education in the state of Connecticut.
The Connecticut Land Company sent General Moses Cleaveland to survey the territory and lay out townships. In federal surveys such as the Seven Ranges, townships were 36 square miles. Cleaveland created townships of 25 square miles. One of the earliest towns established in this region was named Cleveland in his honor. Many people moved into the Western Reserve because it was accessible from Lake Erie. In the early years of settlement, many people from New England came to the Western Reserve.
Settlers in the western part of the reserve faced struggles with Native Americans over ownership of the land. The westernmost part of the Fire Lands had been granted to Native Americans as part of the Treaty of Greeneville of 1795. As the population increased, Ohio Indians were forced from the region.
Lorenzo Carter Biography
from the Ohio Historical Society
Lorenzo Carter was the first permanent white settler of Cleveland, Ohio.
Carter was born in 1767 (sometimes reported as 1766) in Rutland, Vermont. In 1797, hoping to lead a more profitable life in the Connecticut Western Reserve, Carter relocated his family, including his wife, Rebecca Fuller, to Cleveland. The Carters arrived in Cleveland on May 2. They were the only white family in Cleveland until April 1800. Several other families settled near Cleveland before this date, but they preferred the higher elevations of land around this community, rather than the swampier terrain of Cleveland.
Carter and his family did succeed on the frontier. They built a sizable log-cabin home, which also served as an inn and, for a time, as a jail. Carter eventually became a sizable landholder in the area, owning several dozen acres of land on both the east and west sides of the Cuyahoga River. Carter built the first log warehouse in Cleveland in 1810, as well as the first ship, the Zephyr, capable of trading sizable amounts of goods on Lake Erie in 1808. The Carters also owned the first frame house in Cleveland, although it burned shortly before completion. Carter also served as a constable and as a major in the Ohio Militia.
Carter died on February 7, 1814
George Voinovich Biography
from the Ohio Historical Society
George Victor Voinovich served as Ohio’s governor from 1991 to 1998.
Voinovich was born on July 15, 1936, in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1958, he graduated from Ohio University with a degree in political science and, in 1961, from The Ohio State University with a law degree. Voinovich then embarked upon a career in public service.
From 1963 to 1967, Voinovich served as one of Ohio’s assistant attorneys general. In 1966, he won election to the Ohio House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party. Voinovich served in the Ohio House from 1967 to 1971, when he became the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, auditor. After six years in this position, Voinovich won election as Ohio’s lieutenant governor. He served in this capacity less than one year (1979), having won election as mayor of Cleveland, Ohio. Voinovich remained as Cleveland’s mayor from 1979 to 1986. As mayor, he helped return Cleveland, which had defaulted on its bills in 1977, to sound financial footing and also helped improve the financial plight of the city’s public schools, which had faced bankruptcy just a few years earlier.
In 1988, Voinovich unsuccessfully ran for the United States Senate against incumbent Howard Metzenbaum. Undaunted by this loss, Voinovich won election to the Ohio governor’s office in 1990. Voinovich’s time in office marked a resurgence of the Republican Party in Ohio. The Republican Party gained firm control over the Ohio legislature, and in 1994, Voinovich received seventy-two percent of the vote in his reelection bid. As governor, Voinovich consistently cut taxes. He also increased state funding for Project Head Start dramatically. In addition to these accomplishments, Voinovich oversaw welfare reform in the state and, by the end of his time in office, the unemployment rate in Ohio was at an all-time low.
In 1998, Voinovich won election to the United States Senate. He easily won reelection in 2004. In the Senate, Voinovich occasionally has drawn the ire of fellow Republicans by crossing party lines and voting his conscience. In 2002, he opposed President George Bush’s tax plan, and in 2005, he objected to John Bolton’s nomination as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. He continues to champion programs like Head Start and had has played a major role in combating racism.
Charles Brush Biography
from the Ohio Historical Society
Charles F. Brush was the inventor of the arc lamp. He attended the University of Michigan and then resided in Cleveland, Ohio. He spent much of his life attempting to understand electricity and how to make it useful to human beings.
In 1879, Brush succeeded in creating the first arc lamp. After some more experimentation and modifications, Brush created a lamp that burned as brightly as four thousand candles. Such a bright light, obviously, could not be used inside of people’s homes. Brush decided to market his invention to cities, so that they could light their streets at night. On April 29, 1879, Brush made a presentation of his invention to Cleveland residents. He had placed twenty arc lamps in the city’s Monumental Park. Not sure of what to expect, people in attendance wore smoked glasses to protect their eyes. After the demonstration, numerous women complained that the lights would make it impossible for them to conceal imperfections on their skin. Cleveland officials, however, were impressed, and soon Cleveland had lights across the city. Cleveland was the first city to have electric street lighting in the United States.
Brush continued to experiment with electricity for the remainder of his life. He was responsible for numerous discoveries involving electricity’s uses and received several dozen patents for his inventions.
Eliot Ness Biography from the Ohio Historical Society
from the Ohio Historical Society
Eliot Ness was born on April 19, 1903, in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1927 with dual degrees in business and law. He briefly worked for the Retail Credit Company, before returning to the University of Chicago to earn a Masters degree in criminology.
In 1927, Ness accepted a position with the United States Department of the Treasury. Ness was assigned to Chicago, where he was to enforce Prohibition. Ness created an elite team of Treasury officers, nicknamed the Untouchables, to shutdown the alcohol operations of gangster Al Capone. After operating for six months, Ness claimed that he had either seized or shutdown more than one million dollars in breweries. While Ness’s actions complicated Capone’s operations, they did not end his bootlegging activities. Rather, another group of Treasury officers arrested Capone for income tax evasion. Capone was convicted of this crime in 1931.
In 1934, Ness became the chief investigator of the Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of Prohibition for Ohio. The next year, Prohibition ended, causing Ness to seek new employment. This same year, he became the Director of Public Safety for Cleveland, Ohio. Ness took over a police force in Cleveland that was known for its corruption. Under his leadership, the Cleveland Police Department dramatically improved and gained the respect of other departments across the United States. Ness also helped curtail illegal gambling and prostitution in the city, although his department failed to solve several prominent crimes, including finding a serial killer known as the “Cleveland Torso Murderer.”
In 1942, Ness resigned. He worked briefly in Washington, DC, before becoming the chairman of the Diebold Incorporated, a safe manufacturer in Canton, Ohio, in 1944. In 1947, he unsuccessfully ran for the Cleveland mayoral seat. This same year, the Diebold Corporation released Ness from the company. He then took a position with North Ridge Industrial, in Pennsylvania. Ness died from a heart attack on May 16, 1957.
Samuel M. Jones Biography
from the Ohio Historical Society
Samuel M. Jones was born on August 3, 1846, in Wales. His family immigrated to the United States in 1849. Jones’s parents struggled economically. His father found work as a stonemason and as a tenant farmer. Samuel Jones received a minimal education, primarily because his family needed him to work to survive economically. At ten years of age, Jones was employed as a laborer for a local farmer. Jones earned three dollars per month.
Jones found other employment that paid significantly better wages. At the age of fourteen, he accepted a job at a sawmill. He also spent several summers working on steamboats. In 1865, Jones found employment in the oilfields of western Pennsylvania. He gained extensive knowledge of the oil industry and was able to accumulate some modest savings. In 1870, Jones utilized these funds to form his own oil firm.
Jones remained in the oil business in Pennsylvania for the next decade. In 1885, after the death of his wife of ten years, he moved to Lima, Ohio. There, he continued to search for oil and quickly established a profitable well on the outskirts of Lima. At its peak, the well produced six hundred barrels of oil per day. Jones helped establish the Ohio Oil Company, which was eventually purchased by the Standard Oil Company, making Jones a wealthy man.
In 1892, Jones moved to Toledo, Ohio. Here he established the S.M. Jones Company, which manufactured tools for the oil industry. While Jones headed the company, unlike other businessmen of this era, he refused to pay his workers low wages. Jones determined that workers should receive a large enough salary to support their families. He asked his employees to work hard, to be honest, and to follow the golden rule. If the workers did these things, Jones promised his employees fair wages and safe working conditions. Jones became known as Samuel “Golden Rule” Jones because of his regulations.
In 1897, Jones received the Republican Party’s nomination for Toledo’s mayoral office. Workers united behind Jones’s candidacy, and he proclaimed that his “golden rule” philosophy would be the basis of his administration. Jones won the election and proceeded to implement Progressive reforms. During his time in office, Jones worked to improve conditions for the working class people of his community. The mayor opened free kindergartens, built parks, instituted an eight-hour day for city workers, and did much to reform the city government. Jones encouraged voters and politicians to renounce political parties. He believed that non-partisan politics would unite the American people together, rather than divide them as political parties seemed to do.
Jones was not very popular among businessmen and the wealthier members of Toledo society because of his views. Average citizens, however, rallied behind him. The Republican Party refused to nominate Jones for the mayor’s seat in 1899, but Jones still ran. With the support of the working class, Jones easily won reelection in 1899, having attained seventy percent of the vote. Jones died in office on July 12, 1904. His successor, Brand Whitlock, continued Jones’s reform efforts.