OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: S. J. Kelly Newspaper Articles *********************************************************************** OHGENWEB NOTICE: All distribution rights to this electronic data are reserved by the submitter. Reproduction or re-presentation of copyrighted material will require the permission of the copyright owner. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 13, 1999 *********************************************************************** Historical Collections of Ohio The Kelley Family Collections Newspaper article, Plains Dealer compiled by S.J. Kelley-- 1925 And Then They Went West by Darlene E. Kelley 1998 *********************************************************************** Recently, I received a very pleasent surprise, from Elizabeth (Payne Burton) Corethers, who also had inherited some newspaper articles written by S.J. Kelly. She has given me consent to pass them on to you. She writes: " Recently I was able to go through some bags of papers my father had gotten from his (now deceased) brother. Mixed in with other things were some articles Mr. Kelly had written, specifically , with regards to the Clark family of Cleveland. One of whom, Maurice, was the first partner of John D. Rockefeller. In the late 1930's, I think as the articles are undated. My grandfather. Harry Payne Burton, who was the editor of Cosmopolitan at the time, wanted to get copies of those articles from Mr. Kelly. I don't know if he ever did get all the articles, but have copies of the correspondence between Mr. Kelly and my grandfather; if you are interested." I certainly was interested, so she sent them on to me and I will share them with you--- ********************************************** " When Perry Hobbs Proved his Fistic Prowness," by S.J. Kelly. The Professor Many remember Perry L. Hobbs, genial, gentlemanly, wide-awake professor of chemistry in the Western Reserve Medical College from 1889 until 1902. He was born in Cleveland, Sept. 18,1861, on old Huntington Street, now E.18th. His father was Caleb Secum Hobbs, his mother Ada Antoinette (Lynes) Hobbs. The family was of New England stock and back of that was English ancestry. One ancestor fought in the Revolution, the war of 1812, and followed Mad Anthony Wayne in his campaigns against the Indians in Ohio. Lawyer Sturges Lynes settled in Avon, Lorain County, in 1830 and his home became an underground railway station in the sruggle over slavery. Perry Hobbs's father died when he was nine years old, and Perry, having delicate health, was taken on a long trip on the Pacific. Home again, the boy wrote a little book and printed it with a hand press. About 1880, the Hobbses built a handsome home on Euclid Avenue in our neighborhood, nearly opposite E.67th, No.6508. It was of the last landmarks of the old East Cleveland as I knew it. Perry Hobbs went to public and high school, worked for the Star Oil Co. during vacations and arranged the collection of stamps ad coins for Col Whittlesey in the museum of the Western Reserve Historical Society. He attended Case School and received the degree of bachelor of science. He became a scholar in the University of Berlin and was made a doctor of philosophy in 1889, studied bacteriology and took a course from Dr. Koch. The Old school But it was attending Euclid Avenue Grammer school, near what is now E. 82nd, with a genial, smiling Perry Hobbs that I knew him best. It was to the highest grade of the school that we went, and it was held in the wooden annex back of the main brick building , presided over by Miss Julia Sabin as principal. Big Perry Hobbs , Jim Clark Jr.,Leonard Hillman and John Pickering were my particular friends. They were as large as men and looked like men too. Secretly I cultivated those four for I thought that any one of them cold thrash anyone on earth. Cold spring mornings we sat out in back of the school and ate our lunch. There were generally many slces of bread and jelly, boied eggs, pepper and salt and about three slices of cake apiece. Perry Hobbs carried a folding tin lunch box. I would look those fellows over and wonder which could whip the others. Soon I got something like my wish for one afternoon there was the biggest fight the school ever saw. Perry, Jim Clark and Len Hillman would walk home our pretty teacher, Miss Blanche Huggens, who lived on Madison, now E. 79th. I walked behind. Suddenly over the fence of Jaynes's greenhouse leaped a stocky fellow with a mustache, and he went for Len Hillman. There was a fight in a minute. With socks to the eye and nose, and terrific smashes to the face, they fought over the grass by the walk. They clinched and went down with Hillman on top. Then out the front door of that queer house-like cupaloed office shot Mr. Harris Jaynes with his Mark Twain black curling hair. He hovered over the combatants for a moment, then seized Leonard by his hair and lifted him. The mustached fellow got up and went for Perry Hobbs! The smiling Perry looked astonished, but in a second there was a worse fight than the first. They smashed each other. Down off the curb and into the street they fought. Miss Huggins stood aghast. Half the school was there. The whole neighborhood was excited. Jim Clark danced around telling Perry just where to hit the fellow. Perry could only see out of one eye. Suddenly the terrible fighter left him and started for Jim Clark. As he rushed at Jim swinging right and left, Jim buttoned up his long-tailed coat and started running down the middle of the street. Looking back, he shouted: " If you hit me I'll tell my father!" We all knew what that meant! To be hit by James H. Clark, Sr.? The fellow stopped and started for Perry! Two employees of the greenhouse appeared and took Mr. Jaynes's man in. The fight was over. Jim Clark with Hillman and Perry Hobbs, who showed bad bruises, walked with Miss Huggins to Madison Avenue and bade her goodnight. That was only the beginning in the life of Perry Hobbs. I knew him through many years and often went to see him at his laboratory or at the Western Reserve College. John Pickering the day of the fight? He always scooting over the back school fence, home to Brooker Avenue. ********************************************** Continued in part 2--