OLIVER W. LOOMIS When a young man of twenty, Oliver W. Loomis started to work for The National Malleable Castings Company, now known as National Malleable & Steel Castings Company, and his even-paced energy and fidelity to trust have brought him to the vice presidency of this large corporation, which has been one of the chief factors in Cleveland's industrial growth and progress. He was born in Bloomington, Illinois, October 17, 1871, as on of Albert and Anna (Domkee) Loomis, who are now deceased. The father, who was born at Mentor, Ohio, of pioneer parents who came with ox teams to Ohio, pioneered at Pike's Peak, Colorado, later becoming a member of the police force of Bloomington, and subsequently followed the trade of a carpenter. The educational advantages enjoyed by Oliver W. Loomis were afforded by the public school of West Haven, Connecticut. On March 1, 1891, he entered the employ of The National Malleable Castings Company and progressed through the various departments of the Cleveland office until he became the head of the sales department. With this experience he was transferred to Chicago, where he had full charge as manager of their Chicago office and plants. On December 1, 1923, the corporate name was changed to National Malleable & Steel Castings Company, and in 1925 Mr. Loomis was called back to the main office in Cleveland as a vice president and has held this office ever since, rendering to the corporation that service which only the experienced, efficient executive is capable of giving. On June 12, 1900, Mr. Loomis was married in Cleveland - 651 - 652 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS to Miss Daisy E. Brown, who was a daughter of T. Davis Brown, county commissioner for many years. Mrs. Loomis became the mother of a son, Richard A., who was graduated from Yale University in 1924 with the Bachelor of Science degree and is now with the Interlake Iron Company at To-ledo, Ohio. Mrs. Loomis died in December, 1907. Mr. Loomis belongs to the Union League Club of Chicago and to the Pepper Pike, Mayfield, Athletic and Union Clubs of Cleveland and to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. Genial and companionable, he is popular in social circles and in business affairs manifests those qualities which place the individual with the successful few. HENRY W. STECHER As a retail druggist Henry W. Stecher won prominence in mercantile circles of Cleveland but is best known through his financial activities, which have extended over a period of forty-one years, and broad experience in the field of banking well qualifies him for the responsibilities devolving upon him as a vice president of the Cleveland Trust Company. He was born in Huntington, Indiana, July 29, 1856, a son of the Rev. Anton D. and Margaret Stecher. The father was a minister of the gospel and in 1858 was called to Sheboygan, Wisconsin, as pastor of the Lutheran Church. In the Badger state Henry W. Stecher acquired his early education and after his high school studies were completed he matriculated in the University of Michigan, which he attended until 1878, when he was graduated from the department of pharmacy. While in Ann Arbor he was made assistant professor of chemistry and had charge of the laboratory work of the medical and dental students of the State University there. During 1879 he was in Montana, which was then largely undeveloped, as the railroad extended only to Bismarck, North Dakota. From that point he made his way by boat to Miles City, where he opened a drug store for a drug firm of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was in the employ of the house for four years, spending most of the time in their main establishment. Coming to Cleveland in 1882, Mr. Stecher began his independent career as a pharmacist on Pearl street, now West Twenty-fifth street, and continued as sole proprietor of the store until 1892, when his brother, Frederick W., was made - 653 - 654 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS a partner in the business, which grew and prospered. In 1890 the Pearl Street Savings & Loan Company was formed and Henry W. Stecher was a director from the start. Later the name was changed to the Pearl Street Savings & Trust Company, which is now a part of the Cleveland Trust Company. In 1895 Mr. Stecher came into the bank as secretary and treasurer, leaving his brother in charge of the drug store, which the latter managed successfully for several years. Meanwhile Henry W. Stecher continued to advance in financial affairs, at length becoming president of the Pearl Street Savings & Trust Company. When he entered the bank its deposits were about three hundred thousand dollars and under his able administration their assets increased, amounting to more than thirty-six million dollars when the business was merged with that of the Cleve-land Trust Company in October, 1929. Mr. Stecher had retired from the office of president to become chairman of the board and when the merger was made he became vice president of the larger institution and is also a member of its executive committee and of the West Side advisory board. He has long been regarded as a shrewd, farsighted financier of exceptional ability and his opinions carry great weight in banking circles of Cleveland. With local business interests he is associated as a director of the Theurer & Norton Pro-vision Company and a director of the Lake Erie Provision Company. In Rocky River, a suburb of Cleveland, Mr. Stecher was married to Miss Stella Grace Dean, who died in 1894, leaving a son, Henry Dean, who resides in this city. He married and has a daughter, Nancy. For his second wife, Mr. Stecher married Margaret Dixon, to whom he was united in Cleve-land in 1900, and they have two daughters : Helen Louise, now Mrs. P. K. Ranney, of Cleveland, and the mother of a son, Percival K., Jr. ; and Martha D., a graduate of Wellesley College. Mr. Stecher is a Royal Arch Mason, a director of the Castalia Trout Club, and a member of the Athletic, West- THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS - 655 wood and Clifton Clubs. Well preserved in mind and body, he derives pleasure from the efficient performance of his daily tasks and has always been an earnest, conscientious worker. Although seventy-six years of age, he is young in spirit and interests and a life of usefulness and rightly directed endeavor has earned for him the respect, confidence and goodwill of his fellowmen as well as a gratifying measure of success. EVAN HENRY HOPKINS With the work of the Cleveland courts Evan Henry Hopkins has been closely connected for nearly forty years, successfully handling legal interests of importance and also finding time for civic service. He was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, November 4, 1864, a son of David J. and Mary (Jeffreys) Hopkins. Coming to Cleveland in 1874, he attended the public schools of this city and Western Reserve Academy, from which he was graduated in 1885. He next took a clas-sical course in Adelbert College, receiving the Bachelor of Arts degree from that institution in 1889, and then enrolled as a student in the Harvard Law School, which awarded him the degree of LL. B. in 1892. In October, 1891, he was admitted to the Ohio bar and on leaving Harvard began practice in Cleveland as the junior partner of Frank R. Herrick. This association proved mutually agreeable and profitable and was maintained for more than thirty-three years, terminating. with Mr. Herrick's death on December 2, 1926. For nearly a quarter of a century the partners conducted their law business under the name of Herrick & Hopkins, changing the style to Herrick, Hopkins, Stockwell & Benesch in January, 1916, when John N. Stockwell, Jr., and Alfred A. Benesch entered the firm, and this name is still retained, although Mr. Stockwell passed away January 28, 1931. Since the death of Mr. Herrick, Mr. Hopkins has been the head of the firm, which has offices in the Society for Savings building and is accorded a large and desirable clientele. Learned in the broad underlying philosophy of jurisprudence and capable of imparting his knowledge clearly and readily to others, Mr. - 657 - 658 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Hopkins was appointed to a professorship in the Western Reserve Law School in 1892, which position he held until 1910. From 1892 to 1895 he was registrar of the school, of which he was then made dean, so continuing until 1910. Many of the law students of Western Reserve University acknowledge their indebtedness to him as a teacher and adviser. His ability as an attorney and counselor has ripened with the passing years and he has frequently appeared before the higher courts both in the state and the federal judiciary. In Cleveland on December 27, 1892, Mr. Hopkins was married to Miss Frances P. M. Shain, a daughter of William H. and S. Angeline Shain, and four children were born to them. The eldest, Percie Trowbridge Hopkins, received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in 1917, the Mas-ter of Arts degree from Radcliffe College in 1918, and in 1923 Harvard University conferred upon her the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. She is the wife of Morton Turner, pro-fessor of English at the University of Maine, and they have two children, Evan H. and John M. Turner. Frances Shain Hopkins, the second daughter, was awarded the A. B. degree by Smith College in 1919, later completing a course in the architectural department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she received the B. S. degree, and also studied in France. Margaret E. Hopkins was graduated from Smith College in 1922 with the A. B. degree, traveled and studied in Europe fourteen months, and is now secretary to the dean of the School of Pharmacy of Western Reserve University. Helen J. Hopkins, the youngest daughter, was also accorded liberal educational advantages. In 1924 she won the A. B. degree from Smith College and also studied and traveled in Europe, and is now registrar of the Graduate School of Applied Social Science of Western Reserve University. Mr. Hopkins and his family reside at 9314 Miles avenue, Cleveland. In religious belief he is a Presbyterian and his political support is given to the republican party. While THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS - 659 never an office seeker, he has conscientiously fulfilled the duties and obligations of citizenship, manifesting his public spirit in many tangible ways. During the World war he was chairman of selective service board, No. 11, exerting every effort to aid the nation in its time of need and performing work of great value in that connection. His activities in behalf of his city have also been beneficially resultant. From 1892 until 1898 he was a member and secretary of the Cleveland Public Library board and in 1900 was appointed a member of the board of park commissioners, serving for one year. HAROLD LESTER MADISON The Cleveland Museum of Natural History has an experienced, capable director in Harold L. Madison, who has a detailed knowledge of museum methods and is also a widely known biologist. He was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, September 23, 1878, a son of George Warren and Fannie Louise (Spink) Madison, and in 1897 was graduated from the East Greenwich Academy of that state. Afterward he attended Brown University, from which he won the Bachelor of Philosophy degree in 1901 and that of Master of Arts the following year. During 1903 and 1904 he was assistant in biology at Brown University, with which he continued as an instructor throughout 1905, and was then made professor of biology in Union University at Jackson, Tennessee, where he spent three years. From 1908 to 1921 he was curator of the Park Museum at Providence, Rhode Island, resigning to be-come curator of education at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in June of the latter year, and thus continued for seven years. From February, 1928, to February, 1931, he was acting director of the museum and then assumed the duties of director, which he performs with marked ability. His qualifications for public service of this character are exceptional and his articles and papers on museum methods have been widely read and quoted. The prestige to which he has attained in his particular field is indicated in the fact that he served four years as secretary and assistant treasurer of the American Association of Museums, and several years he was councilor and editor of "Museum Work." His published works include "Key to Rhode Island Wild Flowers," which - 661 - 662 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS appeared in 1915; "Trees of Ohio," issued in 1922; and "Mound Builders," and "Indian Homes," completed in 1926. Mr. Madison was married August 20, 1905, to Florence A. Ball, of Block Island, Rhode Island, and their children are Mary Frances, Harold Lester, Jr., and Hope Brown. Fra-ternally, Mr. Madison is a Mason and his political allegiance is given to the republican party, while his religious views are in harmony with the doctrines of the Congregational Church. In movements which make for cultural growth and development and which tend to elevate the standards of American citizenship he has ever taken a deep and helpful interest, which prompts his effective work as a member and secretary-treasurer of the Cleveland Conference for Educational Co-operation and as a member of the Adult Educational Association of Cleveland. This interest is also expressed in Boy Scout activities, in service on the advisory board of the Girl Scouts of Cleveland and as a member of the board of directors of the Camp Fire Girls. Mr. Madison is a charter member of the American Society of Mammalologists, a member of the American Ornithologists Union and has been honored with a fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. JOHN HASKELL DEXTER John H. Dexter was born and educated in Cleveland, and after leaving the West high school he obtained employment in the Peoples Bank, with which he continued for twenty years. He started as messenger and gradually progressed through the various departments as he assimilated the details of the work in each, becoming in turn teller, assistant cashier and vice president. In 1905 he joined the executive staff of the Society for Savings, assuming the duties of secretary and treasurer, and in 1921 was called to the presidency. He is a member of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and of the Union, Mayfield and Clifton Clubs. - 663 - THEODORE S. STRONG Although young in years, Theodore S. Strong has won recognition as a forceful, capable executive and is well known in Cleveland as president of Strong., Cobb & Company, manufacturing chemists, heading a business which has been conducted by three generations of the family in succession. He was born in this city February 18, 1891, a son of Edwin Lee Strong, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work, and Jessie (Stevens) Strong. The grandfather, Samuel Merwin Strong, was a native of Elyria, Ohio, and in early life came to Cleveland. In 1852 he formed a partnership with a Mr. Armstrong and they took over the interests of Henderson & Punderson, pioneer drug-gists, who had embarked in business in Cleveland in 1833. Their retail drug store at 199 Superior avenue was acquired by the new firm of Strong & Armstrong, who added a wholesale department to the business. Under that form the enterprise was conducted until 1870, when Mr. Armstrong retired, selling his stock to Ahira Cobb, who had become connected with the business in 1868. With his admission to the concern the name was changed from Strong. & Armstrong to Strong & Cobb and later to Strong, Cobb & Company, and in 1875 they started to manufacture a general line of pharmaceutical and medicinal products. The wholesale business was sold in 1918 and the company has since specialized in production work, establishing an enviable reputation as manufacturing chemists. In 1920 they sold their retail store on Superior avenue. One of the old landmarks in the business district, it was conducted successfully along conservative lines as a real drug store, dispensing only drugs and medi- - 665 - 666 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS eines over its counters. In 1908 removal was made to the present location at 206 Central Viaduct. The company leases the entire building, occupying a floor space of one hundred thousand square feet. Theodore S. Strong was graduated from the University School of Cleveland preparatory to enrolling as a student in Cornell University and pursuing a course in mechanical engineering in that institution, which he left in 1913, accepting a position with M. A. Hanna & Company of Cleveland. In 1916 he became connected with Strong, Cobb & Company and a year later enlisted in the United States Army. Commissioned a first lieutenant, he was assigned to the ordnance department and served until the close of the World war. When mustered out he returned to Strong, Cobb & Company, at which time his father and uncle, Samuel E. Strong, and Lester A. Cobb were partners in the business, which was maintained on that basis until the retirement of Edwin Lee Strong in 1927, when, at the death of his brother and Mr. Cobb, it was incorporated, with C. H. Strong as president. A few months later he was succeeded by Theodore S. Strong, who has since occupied the office, wisely guiding the destiny of the corporation and steadfastly adhering to the high standards of service to which this pioneer drug house owes its success and prestige. Year by year the business has grown until the company now employs one hundred and fifty people and its traveling salesmen cover the entire United States. In 1915 was solemnized the marriage of Theodore S. Strong and Ada Wick, of Warren, Ohio, and three children were born to them : Richard Wick, Mary Helen and Theo. For his second wife Mr. Strong chose Kathryn D. Weaning, to whom he was married in Cleveland in 1928, and they have become the parents of a daughter, Jeanne. Mr. Strong belongs to the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and to the Mayfield Country and Hermit Clubs. A young man of pleasing personality, he readily wins friends and in his career has exemplified the fine mental and moral traits of a long line of worthy ancestors. HARRIS CREECH Since 1923 the affairs of the Cleveland Trust Company have been capably administered by Harris Creech, its presi-dent, whose name has figured in local banking circles for nearly forty years in official connections. He was born in this city February 26, 1874, a son of James and Clarabelle (Simmons) Creech, and here acquired a high school education. In 1892, when a young man of eighteen, he obtained a position with the Garfield Savings Bank of Cleveland and his aptitude for financial affairs was apparent from the start. Rapidly advancing in the service of that bank, he acted as assistant secretary and treasurer from 1898 until 1901, when he became secretary and treasurer, and thus continued for nine years. From 1910 until 1916 he was a vice president of the bank and served as its president, until it was merged with The Cleveland Trust Company in 1922. He continued as vice president of The Cleveland Trust Company until the death of its president, Frederick H. Goff in March of 1923, when he was elected to fill that office of the 9th of April. For nine years he has occupied the office, guiding. the destiny of one of the great moneyed institutions of this country and working along lines that have made for the safety of the bank and the funds of its depositors. His name also appears on the directorate of the Sherwin Williams Company, the Ajax Manufacturing Company, and the Wheeling Si Lake Erie Railway Company. In 1903 Mr. Creech was married to Miss Carlotta Pope, of Alleghan, Michigan, and they have a son and a daughter, - 667 - 668 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Florence and James Pope. The residence of the family is at 2572 Stratford road, Cleveland Heights. Mr. Creech gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has membership in the Fairmount Presbyterian Church. Socially he has connection with the Rowfant, Union, Mayfield and Kirtland Clubs. By nature kindly and sympathetic, he is ever ready to aid the needy and was chair-man of the committee that raised one million dollars as a relief loan for the victims of the tornado disaster at Lorain, Ohio, in 1924. He is a trustee of the Cleveland Community Funds and stands high as a citizen and as a financier and business man. EDWIN LEE STRONG Successfully following in the business footsteps of his father, Edwin Lee Strong was long identified with pharmaceutical interests of Cleveland, his native city, as a partner in Strong, Cobb & Company, manufacturing druggists, one of the oldest and largest concerns of the kind in this part of the country. The nucleus of this business was the drug store opened and conducted by the firm of Henderson & Punderson in 1833. Mr. Strong was born April 19, 1861, in the family home, which stood on land near East Twelfth street and Euclid avenue. His father, Samuel Merwin Strong, embarked in the drug business in Cleveland early in 1852 as senior member of the firm of Strong & Armstrong, doing a retail and wholesale business, an association that existed for about eighteen years, at the end of which time the style was changed to Strong & Cobb. Later they began to manufacture a general line of pharmaceutical and medicinal products and until 1918 carried on a retail, wholesale and manufacturing business, continuing in the field of manufacturing exclusively from 1918. Edwin Lee Strong attended the old Brooks School, the forerunner of the present University School of Cleveland, and continued his studies in the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1883, becoming a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity while pursuing his education at Ann Arbor. For the benefit of his health he went to New Mexico, where he spent seven years, living on a cattle ranch. With his return to Cleveland in 1890 he en-tered his father's business and was made a partner in the - 669 - 670 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS firm. In its management he was active for thirty-seven years, instituting well devised plans for the growth of the concern and the expansion of its trade relations. In 1927 he laid aside the responsibilities and cares of business and thereafter lived retired until his death on the 10th of January, 1932, at the age of seventy-one years. His brother, Samuel E. Strong, who had been associated with him in the administration of the affairs of Strong, Cobb & Company for many years, passed away January 5, 1927, and was also a business man of high standing. In 1890 Edwin L. Strong married Miss Jessie Stevens, whose death occurred in 1908. They were the parents of a son and a daughter : Theodore S., whose sketch is published elsewhere in this work; and Mrs. Oliver P. Clay, Jr., who resides at Chagrin Falls. Mr. Strong had the first privately owned automobile in Cleveland, a Locomobile, and was the first president of the Cleveland Automobile Club. He was broad in his views, progressive in his standards and high in his ideals—a man whom to know was to esteem and admire. HORACE BASSETT CORNER Horace B. Corner long occupied a most honored position among Cleveland's financiers as vice president of the Citizens Savings & Trust Company, with which institution he had been continuously identified for a period covering more than four and a half decades when he practically retired in 1916, five years prior to his death. Through the steady progress that results from close application, well directed energy, per-sistency of purpose and the wise utilization of time and opportunity, he reached a position of distinction in financial circles in Cleveland, winning the proud American title of a self-made man. Horace B. Corner was born in McConnelsville, Ohio, June 26, 1846, a son of William M. and Mary Trow (Bassett) Corner. The paternal grandfather, Edwin Corner, was one of Ohio's pioneer settlers, being a member of a party of thirty colonists who came from Macclesfield, England, and located at or near Marietta, Ohio. Subsequently he removed to McConnelsville, where he was engaged in general merchandising and in the banking business and for a time represented his district in the state legislature. His son, William M. Corner, was born in McConnelsville, January 8, 1822, and was a young man of thirty-five years when in 1857 he came to Cleveland, where he was engaged in mercantile pursuits until his retirement. He died February 16, 1900, and a life of great usefulness was thus ended. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Trow Bassett, was a lineal descendant of William Bassett, who landed from the ship Fortune at Plymouth in 1621. She was educated in the Mount Holyoke - 673 - 674 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Female Seminary, having been a pupil of Mary Lyon, one of the famous women educators of the day. She herself gained distinction in connection with educational interests, being for a time principal of the McConnelsville schools, principal of the Worthington Seminary and also of Howard University at Washington, D. C., and for many years she conducted a private school for young women in Cleveland. In McConnelsville she became the wife of William M. Corner and to them were born two sons, Horace Bassett and Charles Otis, both of whom are deceased. At the close of the Civil war Mrs. Corner became deeply interested in the freedmen's educational movement and for a time was engaged in that work in Montgomery, Alabama. She was born in Hawley, Massachusetts, December 18, 1818, and died in Savannah, Georgia, December 10, 1893, having spent the last years of her life in the south. Horace B. Corner came to Cleveland in 1857, at the age of eleven years, and continued his education, begun in the public schools of McConnelsville, in the public, private and commercial schools of this city, his training being received principally under his mother's personal tutelage. He was one of the first newsboys of the city and at different times in his youth he visited his uncle in Massachusetts and learned something of farming. He subsequently took a position as cashier and bookkeeper in a dry goods house in Columbus, Ohio, where he remained for two years. Returning to Cleveland, he entered the office of the Buckeye Insurance Company of this city, with which he was connected for two years, and on the 1st of February, 1869, he became identified with the Citizens Savings & Trust Company. He was first made teller and bookkeeper, being the original incumbent in the former office. Thereafter he became successively secretary and treasurer, director, member of the finance committee and vice president, serving in the last named official capacity from 1903 until his death in 1921. We quote from "A His-tory of Cleveland, Ohio," by Samuel P. Orth, published in THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS - 675 1910 : "For forty consecutive years Mr. Corner has been continuously connected with this bank, which at the outset had not more than fifty customers a day, while at the present time it regularly serves over three thousand daily and is now probably the largest financial institution in the state. In point of service Mr. Corner is the second oldest bank official in the city and no man is more honored and respected in financial and business circles, not only by reason of what he has achieved but also through the honorable, straightforward methods which he has ever followed. He has other interests and has been at times associated with many of the city's financial enterprises." He was on the building committee of the Citizens Savings & Trust Company building, giving his personal attention to that work. He spent the last five years of his life in retirement and had attained the age of seventy-five when called to his final rest December 23, 1921. It was in 1921 that the Citizens Savings & Trust Company merged with the Union Trust Company. On the 26th of November, 1884, in Cleveland, Mr. Corner was united in marriage to Miss Amelia Coolman Ranney, who was born in Warren, Ohio, August 7, 1855, and during her childhood days came to Cleveland with her parents, Henry C. and Helen (Burgess) Ranney. The Corner fam-ily residence at 10510 Park lane was razed in 1922 and on the site was erected the Park Lane Villa, an apartment hotel in which Mrs. Corner has since made her home. She is the mother of two sons, the elder being Kenneth Ranney, who was educated in the public schools and the University School of Cleveland and is now living on an old plantation near Annapolis, Maryland. By his marriage with Eleanor Cushing, he is the father of a daughter, Elizabeth ; his second mar-riage united him with Eleanor Stewart, of Annapolis. Horace Ranney Corner was graduated from the University School of Cleveland and Williams College of Massachusetts. He married Ruth McWilliams, of Cleveland, and is a resident of Hudson, Ohio. 676 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS Mr. Corner gave his political support to the republican party and manifested an active and helpful interest in civic affairs, cooperating in many movements for the general good. A member of the Chamber of Commerce, he endorsed all of its measures for the upbuilding of the city, and he was a member of the Union and the Colonial Clubs, being president of the latter for two years. He found recreation in motoring and travel and made various tours abroad. An earlier biographer wrote : "A cultured mind, combined with strong intellectual powers with which nature endowed him, gave him keen appreciation of the riches of literature." Mrs. Horace B. Corner has long been active in church and philan-thropic work and has an extensive circle of warm friends in Cleveland. She has every reason to cherish the memory of her husband, for his upright life commanded the respect of all who knew him and his ability carried him far beyond the ranks of the many to stand among the successful few. THE UNION TRUST COMPANY Cleveland's bank history is somewhat out of the ordinary for physical and geographical reasons. The town was a nat-ural focal point for commerce and industry, located upon the through route between eastern and western points in the United States. To the east along the Atlantic coast lay the great markets of the country, and to the west was the great agricultural country producing great quantities of raw materials—grain and ore. To the south in West Virginia and Pennsylvania were great coal fields. Cleveland with its location on the south shore of Lake Erie was a logical meeting place for coal and iron. Thus raw materials combined with both water and rail transportation created not only unusually rapid growth in Cleveland, but caused an unusually heavy demand for finances upon Cleveland banks. Even as early as 1863, financing demands stimulated by the Civil war brought the first national bank to be organized in Cleveland under the national banking act into existence. Other banks and clerical houses had been operating in Cleveland earlier than this, of course, but the First National Bank is mentioned here, not only because it was the first national bank to be organized in Cleveland, but because later events disclosed the fact that it was the first foundation stone of what was to become Cleveland's largest bank—the Union Trust Company. Cleveland's remarkable growth from a tiny trading post on Lake Erie to one of the largest cities in the country has been a factor in the history of almost every bank in Cleveland, for the reason that constantly larger financing demands - 677 - 678 - THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS were made upon the banks of Cleveland. Often it so happened that financing could be obtained only from larger banks in other cities. To keep this banking business which rightfully belongs to Cleveland, the banks have been forced to join together into single larger companies. During certain months of the year the larger industries of the city and various groups of small and allied industries required comparatively large sums to finance their nationwide operations. At such times they drew as heavily as possible upon the somewhat inadequate credit supply available in the individual banks in Cleveland and for the balance—which was often the larger portion of their financing—they went elsewhere. During this interval large and small industries alike often found credit in Cleveland "tight"—hard to get—because of the immense demand on a comparatively limited supply. At other periods of the year the situation reversed itself, and large sums flooded into Cleveland from the four corners of the world. But—and here is the vital point—in its time of plenty, industry necessarily sent its surplus funds to the points out-side of Cleveland where more elastic banking. facilities en-abled it to borrow in the leaner months. As a result, immense sums floated out of Cleveland to the east and west—immense sums which could more logically have been used to increase the bank of Clevelanders by dis-tribution from Cleveland industries and the pay envelopes of Clevelanders. In short, Cleveland's loss of these huge sums reacted against manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and individu-als alike, and served to check somewhat the prosperity and progress of every Clevelander and the city itself. In other words, because Cleveland's phenomenal indus-trial growth had outdistanced the less dramatic growth of its banking facilities, the pay envelopes of Clevelanders were neither as numerous, nor as bulky as they might have been. THIS CLEVELAND OF OURS - 679 Fortunately for Cleveland, this situation was faced by men of vision keen and broad enough to seek and bring about the only logical solution of the problem. These men saw the possibility of uniting their banks into one large bank—a bank big enough to serve Cleveland as Cleveland deserved to be served—a bank big enough to enable Cleveland's business to obtain in Cleveland credit sufficient to assure the employment of still more Clevelanders in Cleveland factories, to make Cleveland products to be sold by Cleveland men the world over. That was the idea behind the merger of six Cleveland banks in January, 1921, forming The Union Trust Company. The banks which formed The Union Trust Company in 1921 were The Union Commerce, Citizens, First National, First Trust, Broadway and Woodland. The First National was the largest of these with deposits of $72,240,072, while the combined deposits of all six banks was $252,689,659. The comparative size and growth of the banks which went into The Union Trust Company in 1921 are shown in the following table :