OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 87 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 August 18, 2006 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid-Bits - Part 87 by Darlene E. Kelley notes by S. Kelly ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits - Part 87. Clevelands Kindergarden Industries Off to a Good Start The father's of Cleveland's arts, crafts, and trades, whether by design or chance, followed the philosophy of Don Quixote in establishing the city industries. " It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow and not to venture all of his egg's in one basket." The early industries were as varied in character as they were numerous, And in this condition, which prevails today, was to the marked benifit of Cleveland. It proved even more vital to the city's welfare, as the rivalry for place and power between metropolitan centres became more intense. As I have mentioned before the most interesting of the kindergarden industries was that of a water carrier, Benhu Johnson, an ex-soldier with a wooden leg, was the town water purveyor. He pre-dated all other private and municipal water plants. Johnson sold water for laundry purposes exclusively two barrels for twenty five cents. To compliment Johnson's water wagon, the first in Cleveland, Jebez Kelley supplied soft soap at a shilling a gallon. The soap was a by-product of Kelley's candle factory at the end of Superior Lane. The first tanner in Cleveland, whose name, records reveal, was Williamson, did a thriving business for tose days with the trappers. He cured the raw furs of foxes, wolves, bears, and squirrels. he oak-tanned leather and dressed it for the local boot and shoe makers. Much of the leather was heavy, but many Cleveland Cinderella's boots were Williamson tanned. The family home was east of the square, which later become the site of the Williamson building. There were weeks on the Western Reserve when residents went without bread for lack of flour due from the East. the Connecticut Land Company believed firmly in the truth of the saying of English Matthew Henry, " here is bread which strengthens man's heart and is therefore the staff of life." Accordingly, in 1799, they equipped a mill at Newburg Falls, now Broadway and Warner Road, under the direction of Wheeler Williams, whom they endowered with one hundred acres of land. To the Mill at Newburg Falls the settlers brought their grain for grinding and their cunnng for dealing. There was in Cleveland, in the formative days, a hatter named Walworth, who made a broad pioneer hat, the predecessor of the world famed Stetson. On occasion, Walworth indulged in fancy and made tall felt hats for aspirng statesman. Doubtless some of his creations renewed and gave pungency to Lewis Carroll's phrase " As mad as a hatter." Among the ventures of 1801 was a still on the river's edge. The spring water which bubbled on the premises and the grain brought by the farmers were utilized to produce the insignificent volume of two quarts a day. At this rate, we must give the settlers all advantage of doubt and say that the beverage was made for medicinal purposes. Along in 1829 came one of the most fantastic phases of American arts and crafts. The people developed a collective mania which expressed itself in a fad for the production of silk and silk products. The women of Cleveland exhibited at the County Fair, in old Glendale near 105th street, articles in which they featured silk yarn made in the home and spun from silk cocoons grown in Cleveland and vicinity. At this exhibit, James Houghton receeived special recognition for the most lucrative half-acre of mulberry trees. Mary Severance was rewarded with a premium for specimens of silk twist. Mrs. Brainard of Brooklyn deserved special recognition for exhibiting silk in eight tints, colored with domestic vegetable dye. There were doubtless enthusiasts who believed that in the valley of Cuyahoga, old China and its famed silk worms would find a serious rival. But Ohioans found that the silk worm is not industrious in so rigorous a climate. The deservedly famous honeybee proved a lucretive successor to the silk worm. A more sensible development was the four woolen mills which employed eighteen men and were exceedingly busy in the 1840's There was a Bohemian settlement on the west side that formed a nucleus of an extensive blanket industry. It was in this period that te carding of wool, the weaving of cloth, and the making of garments shifted from the back parlor of home to the shop. The ancient relationship of women and textiles was changing. In 1845, Kaufman Koch started a Cleveland tailoring establishment which, by a long line of succession, three quarters of a century later, became the great establishment for the making of men's clothing known as The Joseph and Feiss Company. In 1854, David Black came to Cleveland. He had left farming to establish a notion store and in 1876 founded the Black and Hoffman organization for making of women's clothing. He was succeeded by Herman Black, who introduced the radical idea of producing garments before they were ordered, which had always seemed to the old tailors a daring gamble. The standardization of sizes on the basic theory that nature is a sculptor with but a few models, molding just so many people according to each type and pattern, was thought beind Mr. Black's plans. It had not occurred to the makers of homespuns that production in quanity was possible and people could be made to favor a limited number of styles. Morris Black, one of Cleveland's leading citizens became head of this organization, known as the H. Black company. The Printz-Biederman Company of Cleveland, makers of the " Printzess " garments for women, are credited to have done much to give ready to wear garments the status once the creations of the modiste. This house was founded by Moritz Printz and Joseph Biederman. This company was incorporated under its present name. Originally they made only coats and suits; in later years they produced garments for misses and children. The company was widely known for its method of dealing with employees, now numbering about 1300. The workers had direct voting voice in all matters that affect their welfare. In the youth of the Republic, men and women were more individual in dress tan even today. Benjamin Franklin, all his life, kept to one style of suit, which was made by his good wife. He was received at Versailles and at the Court of St. James in a suit tailored by the loving fingers of his spouse. More people are required to fashion clothing in Cleveland than are needed in any other industry except iron and steel. The census of 1910 disclosed the fact that one girl in every five or six Cleveland lassies entered the sewing trades. The clothing industry, which gained its first vital momentum in the years beginning 1880, is used to illustrate the magic swiftness of Cleveland's commercial expansion, because it is one industry which grew out of the home. Perhaps with a sigh of relief from its mistress, it slipped through the fingers of the housewife. But garment-making, being the mother industry, the most feminine of all occupations never entirely deserted the fireside. Women are not content to fold their hands while they exercise skill in fashioning clothes for the wee ones. Cleveland's contributions to the sewing machine industry are of pertinent interest. In 1870, Thomas White and his sons were experimenting in a small machine shop on Canal Street. About this time, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton made a railroad journey through Ohio ontheir way to Illinois. There being no sleeping accommodations on their particular train, the two pioneer suffragists sat through the night gazing into darkness. Mrs. Stanton had noted the number of homes in which light were shinning. " Can it be," said she to Miss Anthony, " that there is sickness in all these isolated homes?" Miss Anthony determined to know the reason for the burning of the midnight oil. The conductor on the train was well acquainted with the folk along the line of his route. He said, " It is the early fall and the woman are preparing for winter. They have no leisure nor opportunity to sew in the daytime. After the babies are tucked into bed, they start to work patiently stitching every garment by hand." Mis Anthony resolved that information about sewing machines were just as valuable as suffragist propaganda, so she induced manufactures to print hand bills with suffrage publicity on one side and sewing machine advertisements onthe other. With Mrs. Stanton, Miss Anthony induced the fathers of the Western Reserve to part with some of their cash to lessen woman's burden. Thomas White, of Cleveland, was one of the sewing machine makers who heartily approved the missionary work Miss Anthony and Mrs Stanton, the other sewing machine inventors and manufacturers were in the east. White perfected his machine and produced and sold it in the terriory which needed it most Over eight million White sewing machines have helped to bring more leisure to women. And out of the sewing machine business came other industries. The Whites were so successful with the domestic machine that they began building bicycles. Bicycles were the forerunner of the automobile. The White Company evolved the first steam machine, then a gasoline car, and is now world famed for motor trucks. So you see that the hearth side crafts of the Western Reserve trace a continuous relationship to the refinements of today-- from linsey woolsey jackets to limousine motor coats. And Cleveland helped lay the way by their intelligence and ingenuity. Cleveland was ready to graduate. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid Bits continued in part 88.