OHIO STATEWIDE FILES OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List Issue 343 *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest Volume 00 : Issue 343 Today's Topics: #1 Bios: Hamilton co. (Fries, Fritz, [christina m hursh To: OH-FOOTSTEPS-L@rootsweb.com Message-ID: <20001115.172301.-288623.3.frog158@juno.com> Subject: Bios: Hamilton co. (Fries, Fritz, Lee, Smith, Stephenson, Wiltsee, Caldwell) Content-Type: text/plain MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by clmboh1-smtp2.columbus.rr.com id SAA24920 Gustave R. Fries Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; published in 1912 Transcribed by: Michelle Leslie For forty-six years Gustave R. Fries has been a factor in the conduct of the business carried on under the name of Alex. Fries & Brother at Nos. 312-316 East Second street. The product of the factory is flavors and the continuous and substantial growth of the business is an indication of the reliability and progressive methods which have been followed by its founder and its owner. Gustave R. Fries was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1841, a son of Professor Morris Fries, who was an instructor of mathematics in the fatherland. In 1855 Gustave Fries, who up to that time had been pursuing his education in his native country, came to the new world and joined his two brothers. Alex. and Charles, who earlier in the year had begun the manufacture of flavors. He became an employe in their small factory, then located on Avery Alley between Mill and Stone streets. This was the first enterprise of this character in Cincinnati. Trade grew steadily with them and in 1863 they secured more commodious quarters by erecting the present brick building into which they removed as soon as it was completed. The two original partners, Alex. and Charles Fries, were both natives of Bavaria, Germany, and were men of extensive education and marked intellectual power. The elder studied chemistry in Paris, France, and later in Madrid, Spain, where he was knighted by the Queen for proficiency in arts and sciences. He came to this city from Spain, as did his brother Charles, who also pursued his education in that country. The present owners of the business are Gustave R. Fries and his nephew, Dr. Alfred Spring, Ph.D. It was in 1863 that the former was admitted to a partnership in the business. About 1858, three years after coming to Cincinnati, he desired to see more of his adopted country and went west, working for several years in the mines at Pike's Peak. He then returned and has since been continuously identified with the manufacture of flavors. The business is a large and growing one and with every phase of it Mr. Fries is familiar, so that he is able to direct the labors of those who serve him. Mr. Fries was married twice. He first wedded Theresa Kuhn, and they had one child, Marie, who is now the wife of Jesse Lowman, formerly city solicitor of Cincinnati. Mrs. Fries passed away in 1882 and he later married Eugenia Sinshaw, of New York city. The three children of this marriages are: Harriet, the wife of Sol Magnus; George, who was graduated from Cornell University in 1909 with the degree of A. B. and is now identified with the house of Alex. Fries & Brother; and Robert, who is a student at Cornell. Gustave Fries is a member of the Masonic fraternity and a worthy exemplar of the craft which is the most ancient and honorable among the fraternal organizations. No regret has ever come to him concerning the fact that when a youth in his teens he severed the connections which bound him to his native land and sought the opportunities of the new world. Republican government, and liberty accorded American citizens and the chances for advancement in business all proved attractive to him and no native son of the United States has been more loyal to the country than Gustave R. Fries. ------- Otto H. Fritz Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; published in 1912 Transcribed by: Michelle Leslie Otto H. Fritz, a prominent and prosperous resident of Cincinnati, is the president of the Fritz Brothers Company, wholesale manufacturers of high grade cigars and buyers and shippers of leaf tobacco. He was born in Germany in 1853 and was still but a child when brought to this country by his parents, his father's demise occurring shortly after his arrival in the United States. The family home was established in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our subject was the second of four sons, the others being Emil, Richard and Theodore. All were natives of the fatherland and came to this country in childhood. Otto H. Fritz attended the schools of Cincinnati in the acquirement of an education and when twenty-one years of age entered business life in association with his three brothers, Richard and Theodore having not yet attained their majority. They had learned the cigar maker's trade in this city and in 1874 began the manufacture of cigars in a small building on Main street near Liberty street. A few years later the growth of the business necessitated larger quarters, which they obtained on Main street between Third and Fourth streets. About twenty years later, in 1895, they removed to their present location at the corner of Race and Canal streets, where the Fritz Brothers Company has since utilized a large factory embracing sixty thousand square feet of floor space. The concern was incorporated in 1904 with a capital stock of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Employment is furnished to about seven hundred people in the Cincinnati factory and a branch factory is also conducted at Tampa, Florida. Only two of the brothers who established the business are now connected therewith, Emil Fritz having passed away in 1900, while Theodore was called to his final rest in 1908. Otto H. Fritz is the president of the company, while his son, Wallace, acts in the capacity of vice president. The Fritz Brothers Company manufactures about ten different brands of cigars, their principal output being the "Marguerite," a ten-cent Havana cigar. They are also packers and shippers of leaf tobacco, owning warehouses at Germantown, Ohio and at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Mr. Fritz has not confined his attention to his manufacturing interests, however. He assisted in the organization of the Atlas National Bank of Cincinnati and served as a director for several years but is not connected with the institution at the present time. He identified with journalistic interests as the secretary and treasurer of the Cincinnati Freie Presse Company, publishers of the daily and weekly Cincinnati Freie Presse, a German newspaper. Mr. Fritz owes his success to his innate resources and principally to his perseverance, excellent business judgement and good management. As a companion and helpmate on the journey of life Otto H. Fritz chose Miss Catharine Otte, a daughter of George F. Otte. Their union was blessed with two children, namely: Wallace, the vice president of the Fritz Brothers Company; and Ella, the wife of Louis Merkle, who is a member of the firm of Merkle Brothers of Cincinnati. Mr. Fritz is a worthy exemplar of the Masonic fraternity. The salient qualities of his life have ever commended him to the confidence, good will and friendship of those with whom he comes in contact and he has always enjoyed the high regard of a host of warm friends. ----- Walter H. Lee Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; published in 1912 Transcribed by: Michelle Leslie Walter H. Lee, partner of the firm of Tietig &Lee, architects, of Cincinnati, was born in this city in 1877. His preliminary education, obtained in the public schools of Cincinnati, was supplemented by courses of study in the Cincinnati Technical School and in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1898. Following the completion of his studies he returned to Cincinnati where he entered the employ of Samuel Hannaford & Sons for a period of five years. In 1903 he joined Mr. Tietig in organizing the present firm, whose offices are now located in the Lyric building. In January, 1904, Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Miss Marie L. Leighton. They now have two children, Margaret and Mary. ------- Nicholas P. Smith Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; published in 1912 Transcribed by: Michelle Leslie Nicholas P. Smith, a real-estate dealer, making a specialty of handling manufacturing and other business property, including the buying, selling and leasing, the construction of factories and the financing of manufacturing enterprises and other business concerns, has his head office at No. 810 Fourth National Bank building. He has been actively engaged in real-estate operations since 1901 and is today the best known and most prominent real-estate man in Cincinnati dealing in power buildings. He is watchful, alert and determined. He seizes an opportunity as it arises and defers no action to a later hour if it can be accomplished at the present moment. He is thoroughly informed concerning the realty market and has so manipulated real-estate deals that all patrons, buyers, sellers, lessees and lessors are always satisfied. Mr. Smith is a native son of Cincinnati, born January 25, 1867. His grandfather, Hugh Smith was a pioneer coal operator of Allegheny, now a part of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. He was also promoter of the now enormous business of towing coal by steam on the Ohio river. His son, Joseph Smith Jr., the father of Nicholas P. Smith was also engaged in the coal business and came to Cincinnati from Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in the late '50s to act as manager for the wholesale coal firm in which his father, Hugh Smith, was largely interested. After establishing the sales office in this city Joseph Smith, Jr., decided to locate permanently and became prominently identified with the wholesale coal business here, conducting it until his retirement in 1870. He continued to make his home in Cincinnati, however, until his death, which occurred in 1902. He had made for himself an honorable name and position in business circles and he left to his family not only a goodly heritage but also an untarnished name and an example well worthy of emulation. The mother of our subject was the oldest child of Nicholas Patterson, who was one of the pioneer manufacturers of Cincinnati. He was the owner of an extensive iron foundry prior to and during the Civil war at California, Ohio, and also conducted simultaneously a factory for the making of tin and japanned goods on a large scale. He lived to the ripe old age of eighty-eight years and died in 1897. Nicholas P. Smith was a pupil in the public school but received much of his education in the old Chickering Institute and in the Hughes high school, from which he was graduated in 1885. He then became connected with the lumber and sawmill industry in Kentucky and for years was auditor for the Kentucky Lumber Company, the Kentucky Union Lumber Company and the Kentucky Union Land Company, these companies being allied organizations. Mr. Smith acted as auditor for all three with headquarters in Lexington and Clay City, Kentucky. He severed his connection therewith, however, to establish his present business in 1901. For several years he conducted a general real-estate business but for the past few years has been making a specialty of power buildings, manufactories and business real-estate. He has also financed various business undertaking, has leased many power buildings and has thus been a promoter of trade interests no only on his own account but also in behalf of others. In 1906 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Miss Nettie Lent Cohan, who was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but lived in Florida for many years. His fraternal relations are with the Masons and he is also a member of the Cincinnati Business Men's Club. There has been no esoteric phase in all of his record. He has worked along lines open to investigation, winning success because he has honorably striven for it and gaining his patronage by reason of the fact that he has made his service in the real-estate field of value to his fellow townsmen. ------ James I. Stephenson Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; published in 1912 Transcribed by: Michelle Leslie James I. Stephenson, president of the Cincinnati Iron and Steel Company, whose plant is located at Front street and Freeman avenue, is one of the best known among the younger iron and steel men of the city. He was born at Piqua, Ohio, July 11, 1874, a son of Rev. James Stephenson, for many years a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. The father of our subject was one of the founders of the first Methodist church of Avondale and was its first pastor and also served as pastor at Walnut Hills. He continued laboring in behalf of the cause to which he devoted his best energies until the very close of his life, dropping dead in his pulpit at Springfield, Ohio, in 1897, at the age of sixty-five years. He was a man off fine oratorical powers, of great determination and energy, and one who sincerely believed what he preached, thus carrying conviction to his hearers and influencing many lives for good. James I. Stephenson spent his boyhood days in various towns and cities of Ohio where his father was called to preach. At the age of fourteen, impelled by the restless spirit of youth, he ran away from home and came to Cincinnati and secured employment as office boy under W. B. Shattuc, who was then general passenger agent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, now the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. He continued in the employ of the railway company for about five years and also studied diligently to improve himself for business life. His next employment was with the Carnegie Steel Company's district office in Cincinnati as stenographer. He discharged his duties so acceptably that he was promoted until he became assistant manager of sales for the Cincinnati district. In the fall of 1904 he resigned to become vice president of the Cincinnati Iron and Steel Company, also having charge of its sales department. After the death of E. H. Busch, president of the company in October, 1910, Mr. Stephenson was elected to fill the vacancy, the other officers being: H. C. Busch, vice president; and James A. Sebastiani, secretary and treasurer. The company was organized in November 1900, by E. H. Busch and James A. Sebastiani and others, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. It is now capitalized at three hundred thousand dollars and has become one of the leading organizations of the kind in this part of the country. The house does an extensive iron and steel jobbing business, a large iron and steel brokerage business and is largely engaged in the manufacture of machine tools, employment being furnished to from fifty to sixty men. Mr. Stephenson is also vice president of the Nugget Tool Company of Cincinnati and president of the Cincinnati metal Products Company. In 1899 Mr. Stephenson was married to Miss Artemesia M. Spence, of Knoxville, Tennessee, and they occupy a beautiful home at No 687 South Crescent avenue, Avondale. Enterprising and energetic in business, Mr. Stephenson has gained a reputation as a safe and progressive manager whose future gives promise of many years of increasing responsibility. In every sense of the word a gentleman, he possesses the confidence of his associates and the respect of a constantly widening circle of friends and acquaintances. ------ George A. Wiltsee Cincinnati, The Queen City, Vol. 3; published in 1912 Transcribed by: Michelle Leslie George A. Wiltsee, a well known and successful undertaker of Cincinnati, has been connected with that line of activity since becoming an associate of his father in early manhood. The business has been conducted at its present location for more than a half century. George A. Wiltsee was born in Cincinnati in 1851, his parents being John F. and Susan Emily (Lyon) Wiltsee. The name was originally spelled with one (Wiltse), but John F. Wiltsee and his five brothers added another because people so uniformly mispronounced the name by omitting the final syllable. The maternal great-grandfather of our subject was a pensioner of the Revolution, and the two sons of George A. Wiltsee belong to the Sons of the Revolution. Moses Lyon, the maternal grandfather, was born on Walnut street, below Fourth, in 1798. The history of the Lyon family has been published in New Jersey, from which state the family originally came, being among the earliest Cincinnati pioneers. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Wiltsee of this review was born in New Jersey and came to Cincinnati in 1827 or 1828, making his way over the mountains and down the river. He operated a farm at what was later called Cheviot and subsequently became a teamster, for in those days all freight was transported either by team or by river. John F. Wiltsee, his son, learned the trade of cabinet making, which in those days often included undertaking. He became an employe of Paul Rust, who in 1847 had opened an undertaking establishment at the corner of Longworth and Plum streets. When Mr. Rust passed away Mr. Wiltsee purchased the business from his widow and conducted it successfully until called to his final rest in 1899, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. At that time he had interred twelve thousand people in Spring Grove cemetery. He served as treasurer of the Ohio Mechanics Institute for many years and in 1857 was granted a medal by that organization for his display of burial caskets. He was a Knights Templar Mason and also took an active interest in local politics, serving as a member of the city council in 1866-67. Mr. Wiltsee acted as chairman of the committee that placed the Gamewell system of fire-alarm telegraph in Cincinnati as was likewise chairman of the railroad committee which granted the Ohio & Mississippi R. R. the right of way through Front street to the Pennsylvania depot in 1867. He was first a member of "Brimstone" church, later joined Morris chapel and subsequently became identified with St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church, of which he had been an officer for many years at the time of his death. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil war and during that conflict he rented his stable from Jesse R. Grant (father of Ulysses S. Grant), who was then a resident of Covington, Kentucky, and one of his warm personal friends. In 1863 Mr. Wiltsee drew the plans for one hundred days' service in the Civil war, which were to the effect that in the fall of that year the farmers and farmer boys should enlist for one hundred days and relieve the veterans who were doing guard duty in the fortresses and prisons, so they might go to the front to hasten the close of hostilities. This plan was submitted to Jesse R. Grant, who mailed it to his son, the General. The answer from General Grant, stating that he would submit the plan to the war department, was framed and is still in possession of our subject. This item of interest has never been given publicity before but now that both the General and John F. Wiltsee has passed away, it is fitting that the matter should be publicly recorded. George A. Wiltsee likewise has in his possession the original copies of the plans for the one hundred days' service. In the Kirby-Smith raid John F. Wiltsee was colonel of the Second Regiment and acted as commandant of the forces over the river for one day by order of Gen. Lew Wallace, who was away for that time. His wife died in 1906, passing away in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church. Unto them were born four children, as follows: John Albert, deceased, who was engaged in business with his father for many years and who enlisted for one hundred day's service during the Civil war; Thomas, who died in infancy; George A., of this review; and Kate Ada, the deceased wife of Edward Graham of Chicago, Ill. George A. Wiltsee obtained his early education in the public schools and continued his studies in Chickering's Academy. After putting aside his text-books he learned the profession of undertaking under the direction of his father. This was the first firm to introduce the embalming method in Cincinnati more than thirty years ago. Another fact worthy of note is that the Wiltsees have always made their own embalming fluids, keeping thoroughly abreast with the latest improvements in formulas, materials used, etc. Their formaldehyde has always been imported from Germany. The business has been conducted at the present location since 1860 and is now under the capable management of George A. Wiltsee and his son, Percy L. the gentleman whose name introduces this review has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of business and in his dealings is known for prompt and honorable methods, which have won him the deserved and unbounded confidence of his fellowmen. ------- John D. Caldwell Transcribed by: Beth John D. Caldwell born in Zanesville Dec 28 1816, of Scotch Irish family, early Ohio Settlers. Mr. Caldwell went to Kenyon College, remained there for 3 yrs. He came to Cinn. in 1835 and found his first employment as clerk on steamers in the Ohio and Mississippi River trade. Later he became transportation agent for the Little Miami Railroad, one of the first steam roads in the West, and he remained there until called to become General Secretary fo the C.H.&D. Railroad. His first entry into politics was in the campaign of which Gen. Winfield Scott was a candidate for the Presidency. Mr. Caldwell at that time became proprietor of the Atlas and Chronicle newpaper. While managing this he met Murat Halstead and gave him his first newspaper engagement in the city. The paper was later sold to the Cincinnati Gazette of which Mr. Caldwell was editor, along with Judge John C. Wright, for 2 yrs. During this time he (with others) organized the movement to establish the Cincinnati Public Library. Later becoming the clerk of the Cincinnati School board, editor of the Journal of Education and for 2 yrs clerk of the Ohio House of Reps. He married in 18854 Margaret Templeton, daughter of Capt William Templeton. During Civial War times, he was one of the leaders of the Union cause in Cinn. He organized the Home Guards, was chairman of the committee of safety, served on the staff of General Burbank when the latter came to the city to arrange for the defense of the city. Formost in organizing the Sanitary Fair, the Refugee Relief Association and the National Union Association Part of his time was taken up with the Masonic order, which he was devoted. He took the first degrees in Amity Lodge, Zanesville in 1844. In Cinn he became identified with N.C. Harmon Lodge, the Cinn. Council and the Templers, and took the Scottish Rite degree in 1865. In 1852 he was elected Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Ohio unitl 1887. Became recorder of the Grand Commandery and of the Grand Council in the same year and served for over 30 yrs. His final honor in Masonry was of Emeritis Grand Secretary, created for him by the Grand Lodge and Grand Council. An unreported achievement of Mr. Caldwell was that he was Secretery of the Cinn Pioneer Association. John Day Caldwell passed away at his home 422 John St, 4 Apr 1902. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V00 Issue #343 *******************************************