Part 12 (1/2)
Mr. Morgan was born in New London, Connecticut, in 1807. His early years were spent at home and in attending school, where a good common education was gained. In his fifteenth year he was taken from school and placed in a store, where he acquired those business habits which have made him a successful and wealthy merchant. At the age of twenty-one, he set up in business for himself, at Middlefield, Ma.s.sachusetts, carrying on a store, and at the same time engaging in the manufacture of woolen goods. In this store he continued twelve years, doing the whole time a thriving and profitable business.
In 1841, he bade adieu to Ma.s.sachusetts and came west to Ohio, taking up his future home in Cleveland. He plunged into business immediately on arriving, opening a store on the north side of Superior street, in the place now occupied by the store of Mould & Numsen. In 1857, he saw what he believed to be a more eligible site for business in the corner of Superior and Seneca streets, and to that point he removed in 1858. At the same time the firm of Morgan & Root was formed by admitting to partners.h.i.+p Mr.
R. R. Root. To the retail dry goods business was now added a wholesale department, as also a millinery department, and subsequently a grocery.
The business was vigorously pushed and every department grew with remarkable rapidity, until store after store was added to the establishment. The ”corner store” became known far and wide, and a very large country trade was built up in the jobbing department. During the last three years of the war, the business of the firm reached an amount greater than had ever been antic.i.p.ated by its members, and the old quarters, capable no longer of extension, became too strait for the expanding operations. A number of lots on the east side of Bank street, between the Herald building and Frankfort street, being purchased by Morgan & Root, were speedily disenc.u.mbered of the drinking saloons and petty shops that covered them, and on their site soon arose one of the finest business blocks in the city, estimated to cost sixty thousand dollars in addition to the cost of the land. When the block was finished the wholesale department of the business was removed to the new building, leaving the retail department to be carried on in the old store. In February, 1869, the retail business was sold out to new parties, and thereafter the firm of Morgan & Root confined itself exclusively to the wholesale trade.
That Mr. Morgan is one of the best business men of the city is proved by the fact that he has failed in no one of his undertakings; not that he has always sailed on a smooth current of success, but that when difficulties arose his indomitable perseverance enabled him to overcome them. He engaged in no enterprise without its having been based on good evidence and sound judgment; he never wavered in his adherence to it, nor slackened for a moment his endeavors to prove his faith sound; nor has he once been disappointed as to the result. Few men have shown a like perseverance. His habits of keen investigation and strict attention to his affairs, enabled him to do a very safe, though a very enterprising business, and consequently he had little occasion for professional acquaintance with lawyers.
In addition to his mercantile business, Mr. Morgan has interested himself in insurance matters, being president of the State Fire Insurance Company, of Cleveland, which position he has held since the organization of the company in 1863. Under his presidency the company has done a safe and successful business, and has extended its operations so that it has offices in Connecticut and other parts of New England. He is also connected with the banking affairs of the city. In the earlier years of his business in Cleveland, he became interested in the construction of the ca.n.a.l around the rapids of Saut St. Marie, and during the progress of the work had a store open at the Saut.
In 1864, he built his residence on Euclid street, near the corner of Huntington street, where he has resided since that time. Though sixty-two years of age, he is still as active and vigorous as ever, and bids fair to long be an active member, in fact as well as in t.i.tle, of the firm of Morgan & Root.
In religious principles Mr. Morgan is a Presbyterian. For a long time he was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church, but of late has been connected with the Euclid street Presbyterian Church.
In 1832, he was married to Miss Laura Nash, of Middleford, Ma.s.s., by whom he has had seven children, all but one of whom still live. The oldest son, William Morgan, now thirty-one years old, is engaged in the manufacture and sale of lubricating oils. The second son, Edmund N. Morgan, is an a.s.sistant in his father's store. A daughter, Helen, is the wife of Mr.
J. B. Merriam, of Cleveland.
Robert Hanna.
The commercial interests of Cleveland and of the Lake Superior mineral region have for many years been intimately connected, several of the now prominent citizens of Cleveland having been attracted to Lake Superior by the reports of its mineral riches at the time those riches were first made generally known, and Cleveland being found a convenient base of supplies for the mining enterprises on the sh.o.r.es of the ”father of lakes.”
One of the earliest to take an interest in this trade was Robert Hanna.
Whilst living in Columbiana county, Ohio, where he had been brought up, he was attracted by the representations of the mineral riches of the far off northern lakes, and in 1845 he started off to see for himself what was truth in these reports, and what exaggeration. Traveling and exploration in the wilds of the Lake Superior country were very difficult in that day, and those who were anxious to make a fortune out of the bowels of the earth had to rough it, pretty much as the seekers of gold have to now in the tangled wilderness to the west of Lake Superior. Mr. Hanna spent four months in careful exploration, and at length becoming satisfied that there was something in the rumors of mineral riches, obtained from the department, in whose charge the territory then was, a permit to locate three square miles of copper lands. This being accomplished, he returned to set about the organization of a company to work the prospective mines.
Whilst at Marquette, on his return from exploring the copper region, Mr.
Hanna fell in with a man who had been exploring the country back of that place, and who brought in a specimen of iron ore which he had come across in his search. The ore was so heavy, and apparently rich in iron, that it was taken to a blacksmith, who, without any preparatory reduction of the ore, forged from it a rude horseshoe. The astonishment of those hitherto unacquainted with the existence of raw iron so nearly pure metal, can be imagined.
But Mr. Hanna's attention, like those of most of the searchers after minerals in that region, was absorbed in copper, and as we have seen, he located his copper tract and returned home to provide means for working it. A company was formed, materials purchased and miners engaged, and the work pressed forward vigorously. The question of forwarding supplies being now an important one, Mr. Hanna removed to Cleveland, that being the most favorable point for the purchase and s.h.i.+pment of the articles needed, and opened a wholesale grocery establishment in 1852, combining with it a forwarding and commission business. At that time the wholesale grocery business was in its infancy, there being but two or three establishments of the kind in Cleveland.
For some time after the establishment of Mr. Hanna in the wholesale grocery business, the carrying trade between Cleveland and Lake Superior was mostly in the hands of the Turner Brothers, whose one steamer, the Northerner, was able to do all the business that offered, both in freight and pa.s.sengers. Mr. Hanna's firm, then composed of himself, his brother, Leonard Hanna, and H. Garretson, under the firm name of Hanna, Garretson & Co., decided on the bold step of competing for the trade by building a steamer of their own. The City of Superior, a screw steamer, was built in Cleveland, under the especial supervision of Dr. Leonard Hanna, and the most scrupulous care was exercised to make her in all respects a model boat for the trade. Great strength of hull and power of machinery were insisted on, in order to withstand the dangers of the formidable coast when the fierce storms of the Fall season rendered navigation hazardous.
Accommodation for pa.s.sengers on the voyage, which took several days for its full extent, had to be provided, and great care was taken in this respect to make the voyage as attractive as possible, attention having been somewhat turned to the Lake Superior country as a Summer resort, where the sultry beats of the ”lower country” could be exchanged for pure air and cooling breezes. When launched, the City of Superior proved a complete success, and her first voyage up was a perfect ovation, a new era having been opened in the history of travel between the upper and middle lakes. But, unhappily, this fine steamer was lost in a storm after a few voyages, although the great strength of her hull kept her intact, though lying across a rock, until she could be completely stripped of her cargo, furniture and machinery.
No time was spent in fruitless lamentations over the destruction of the work of which they were so proud, and about which so many antic.i.p.ations for the future had been indulged in. No sooner had the news been confirmed, than a contract was made for the construction of another steamer, larger and better in all respects than her unfortunate predecessor, and the result was the Northern Light, which proved a great favorite, and is still running. Other steamers were chartered to run in connection with her, and their success caused rival lines to be run, thus building up the Lake Superior trade to dimensions exceeding the most sanguine expectations of the pioneers in it. To this house belongs a very large share of the credit due for bringing such an important proportion of this trade to Cleveland. When Mr. Hanna first endeavored to interest the people of Cleveland in Lake Superior matters, he was frequently met with inquiries as to the whereabouts, not only of the copper region of Lake Superior, but of Lake Superior itself, about which very confused notions existed.
The copper company organized by Mr. Hanna expended over half a million dollars in developing the deposit, and produced several hundred tons of ore, but it was not a financial success, the fine copper not being in paying proportion in the ore. After a few years Mr. Hanna sold out his interest in this company, but has retained interests in other enterprises in that region, some of which have been very remunerative.
By the death of Dr. Leonard Hanna, and the withdrawal of Mr. Garretson, the firm of Hanna, Garretson & Co. became dissolved, and was changed to Robert Hanna & Co., the younger members of the Hanna families taking interest in the firm. Recently Robert Hanna has retired from active partic.i.p.ation in its affairs, having turned his attention in other directions. During the past four years he has been engaged in the oil refining business, having a refinery with a capacity of a hundred and sixty barrels a day, which has proved very successful. He is also president of the Cleveland Malleable Iron Works, the first of the kind in this part of the country, and which at present promises well. The gentlemen a.s.sociated with Mr. Hanna in this enterprise have united with him in the determination to make it a successful enterprise, and have such management for it that it can scarcely fail to meet their expectations.
In 1868, Mr. Hanna projected what resulted in the organization and establishment of the Ohio National Bank, of Cleveland, on January 1st, 1869, with an authorized capital of one million dollars, and with a paid up capital of six hundred thousand dollars. It was organized with more especial reference to the interests of merchants, mechanics and manufacturers, and men representing these respective interests are the princ.i.p.al owners of its stock. The inst.i.tution thus far gives promise of complete success. Mr. Hanna is the president; A. Cobb, vice-president; John McClymonds, cas.h.i.+er.
Still in the prime of life, Mr. Hanna has the satisfaction of knowing that he has been very successful, has built up a large fortune for himself and done a very important work in building up the material interests of the city, both commercial and manufacturing. Although well able to retire from active life, and live in ease at his fine residence on Prospect street, he prefers to do what yet lies in his power to build up the prosperity of Cleveland still higher.