Part 14 (1/2)

The oldest bookselling house in Cleveland is that of the Cobbs, now existing under the firm name of Cobb, Andrews & Co. It has grown with the growth of the city, from a small concern where a few books and a limited stock of stationery were kept as adjuncts to a job printing office, to a large establishment doing an extensive business throughout the northern half of Ohio and north-western Pennsylvania, and in parts of Michigan and Indiana, and which has planted in Chicago a branch that has grown to be equal in importance with the parent establishment. Through financial storm and suns.h.i.+ne this house has steadily grown, without a mishap, and now ranks as one of the most important and staunchest business houses in the city.

The head of the firm, Junius Brutus Cobb, was born in 1822, received a good common school education, and was then sent to learn the trade of a cabinet-maker. When his apprentices.h.i.+p expired he worked for a short time as a journeyman, but was dissatisfied with the trade, and for a year or two taught school. In 1842, he decided to try his fortune in the West, and reached Cleveland, where he found employment as clerk in the store of M.

C. Younglove. Mr. Younglove was then doing a job printing business, and kept in addition a stock of books and stationery. Opportunity sometime after offering, two younger brothers of Mr. Cobb followed him, and were employed by Mr. Younglove. In 1848, the three brothers united in the purchase of an interest in the establishment, and the firm of M. C.

Younglove & Co. was formed, the store being located in the American House building. Here the firm remained some years, the book trade steadily increasing, until the old quarters were too strait for its accommodation.

In April 1852, Mr. Younglove parted with his entire interest in the concern to his partners, and the firm name of J. B. Cobb & Co. was adopted. Before this the printing department had been abandoned, and the concern was run as a book and stationery store, with a bindery attached.

The old store being too small, new and more commodious quarters were found further up Superior street on the opposite side, and with the change the business increased with greater rapidity than previously.

In February, 1864, it was decided to open a similar house in Chicago. A store was engaged, and Mr. J. B. Cobb went up to open it, taking with him a relative of the firm who had formerly been their clerk, Mr. Daniel Pritchard. The business of the new establishment instantly became large and remunerative, the jobbing trade commencing auspiciously, and rapidly increasing to extensive dimensions. At the same time the parent house in Cleveland added a wholesale department to its former retail trade, and this grew rapidly, the need of such an establishment being keenly felt by the numerous small stores throughout the country that had hitherto been dependent on Cincinnati or the dealers at the East. The rapid growth of business in the two establishments necessitated a new arrangement of the firm, and Cobb, Pritchard & Co. took charge of the Chicago house, whilst Cobb, Andrews & Co. manage the Cleveland establishment. The latter firm was made by the accession of Mr. Theodore A. Andrews, who had been brought up as a clerk in the house, taking his place as a partner in April, 1865.

Mr. J. B. Cobb took up his residence in Chicago, leaving his brothers, C.

C. and B. J., in Cleveland.

The Cobbs have maintained for themselves a high reputation for honesty, fair dealing, and courtesy in business, and in this way have secured prosperity. The trade that, when they first took it, amounted to about $25,000 a year, had grown, in 1868, to over $200,000. The qualities that gained for the head of the firm so many valuable business friends, was shared in by his brothers, and these again impressed them on the young men brought up under their control. The result is seen in the large number of customers frequenting the store daily, and in the extensive wholesale trade done.

A. G. Colwell.

Mr. Colwell is a native of Madison county, New York, and came to Cleveland in 1852, soon after the opening of the different railroads had given the city an important start in the road to prosperity. Mr. Colwell immediately engaged in the hardware trade, on Ontario street, where he has continued to the present day. As the city grew in size, and its area of commerce extended, the business of Mr. Colwell steadily increased. The retail trade gradually developed into wholesale, and this grew into important proportions, pus.h.i.+ng its ramifications through northern Ohio, Michigan, and north-western Pennsylvania.

Mr. Colwell has attended closely to his business, taking no other interest in public affairs than is the duty of every good citizen. But whilst carefully conducting his business he has found time for the gratification of a cultivated taste in literature, and has taken pleasure in partic.i.p.ating in every movement designed to foster a similar taste in others. In a recent tour in Europe, undertaken for the benefit of his health, he visited the princ.i.p.al points of literary and artistic interest, and brought back with him many rare and curious souvenirs of travel.

William Bingham.

Whilst few men, if there are any, in the city of Cleveland are more highly respected than William Bingham, there are none less desirous of notoriety in any form. To do his duty to himself, his family, and his fellow men, and to do it quietly and un.o.btrusively, is the extent of Mr. Bingham's ambition, so far as can be judged by the whole tenor of his life. Did the matter rest with him, no notice of him would have appeared in this work, but to omit him would be a manifest injustice, and would at the same time render the volume imperfect.

Mr. Bingham is a native of Andover, Connecticut, and on his arrival here from the East, became a clerk in George Worthington's hardware store.

After a few years' service in this capacity, he set up in the same line for himself, and for about a quarter of a century has carried on business with marked success. The operations of the firm of William Bingham & Co., though at first small, have grown to large proportions, and Mr. Bingham has grown rich, not through lucky operations, but by steady, persistent application to business, aided by sound judgment and powerful will. In addition to his hardware business, he is interested with Mr. Worthington in the Iron and Nail works, and has furnace interests in the Mahoning Valley.

In all his dealings, commercial or otherwise, he has been strictly conscientious, and this has secured for him the esteem of all with whom he has come in contact, and the respect and confidence of the general public.

His word is inviolable, and no one has ever uttered a whisper against his unsullied integrity. In all works of genuine charity, his aid is efficaciously, though un.o.btrusively given, whenever required. To the young men in his employ, he is as much a father in his care of their interests and conduct, as he is an employer.

In politics, Mr. Bingham has steadily acted with the Republican party, but he is in no degree a politician. He has been chosen by the people to places of munic.i.p.al trust, but always without any desire on his part, and solely because those selecting him considered his services would be valuable to the city; and whenever selected as a candidate, he has been elected, the opposing party having full confidence in his ability and integrity. In his case, the place invariably sought the man, and not the man the place; and it has always been with great reluctance, and because it seemed the good of the people required it, that he consented to hold public office. It would be better for the people were there more men like William Bingham, and sufficient wisdom among political managers to invoke their services on behalf of the public.

William J. Gordon.

A history of the leading commercial men of Cleveland, with no mention of W. J. Gordon, would be not much unlike the play of Hamlet with the part of the Danish prince omitted. Few men in the city have occupied so prominent a position in its mercantile history as has Mr. Gordon; but, from a natural distaste of public notice of any kind, on the part of Mr. Gordon, we are comparatively without data, and obliged to depend upon what we know of his history in general.