Richard T. Lyon.
The first secretary of the Cleveland Board of Trade, and its president for the year 1869, Richard T. Lyon, is probably the oldest established merchant now doing business on the river. He arrived here in 1823, when there were but a few hundred people in the village, and for some time resided with his father-in-law, Noble H. Merwin, on the lot now occupied by Bishop's Block, about where M. Heisel's confectionary store now stands. In 1838, he entered as clerk in the forwarding house of Griffith, Standart & Co., at the foot of Superior street, continuing in that position until the Spring of 1841, when he formed a partnership with I. L. Hewitt, and carried on a forwarding and commission business on River street, under the firm name of Hewitt & Lyon. The partnership continued until 1847, when Mr. Hewitt retired, and Mr. Lyon continued the business in his own name at 67 Merwin street, where he has remained until the present time. In the Spring of 1868, his son, R. S. Lyon, was taken into partnership, the firm name being changed to R. T. Lyon & Son. For a number of years Mr. Lyon has been the largest dealer of salt in the city, having had the agency of the salt works in western New York.
Mr. Lyon has held, from his first entry into commercial life to the present time, the esteem and confidence of the business men of Cleveland, and that confidence has been shown by the fact, that for many years he was the treasurer of the Board of Trade, having been elected to that position on the organisation of the Board; was subsequently made vice-president, and in the Spring of 1869, was elected president. This compliment was well merited, for he is now one of the very few remaining members of the Board who took part in its organization, and has never flagged in his interest in its affairs.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, H. M. Chapin]
H. M. Chapin.
In the commercial, political, patriotic, and literary history of Cleveland for the past fifteen or twenty years, the name of H. M. Chapin will always have honorable prominence. In all these departments his persistent energy and unshaken faith, even in the darkest hours, have been potent for good.
Mr. Chapin was born in Walpole, N. H., July 29th, 1823, and received a good common school education. When fifteen years old, he removed to Boston, and entered a dry goods importing house, in which he remained nearly ten years. In the Spring of 1848, he left Boston for Cleveland, where he became a partner in the wholesale grocery warehouse of Charles Bradburn & Co., with whom he remained four years. In 1852, he commenced business as a provision dealer and packer of pork and beef. For a time it was up-hill work, but his native perseverance overcame all difficulties, and in the season of 1862-3, his business had grown to seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. From that time there was a steady decline in the amount of packing done in Cleveland, the supply of cattle and hogs decreasing until but a very small quantity, in proportion to the facilities for packing, could be depended on. The slaughter-houses of Chicago arrested the great stream of live stock, and what escaped them went forward to the Atlantic cities for immediate consumption. In the Winter of 1867-8, Mr. Chapin, therefore, resolved to remove his packing business to Chicago, and commenced operations there with gratifying success. He intended abandoning Cleveland altogether as a packing point, but, contrary to his expectations, he has been able to resume the business here to a moderate extent. From 1862 to 1867, he carried on, in connection with the packing business, a very extensive coopering establishment, employing about fifty men, besides a large amount of machinery. Over a hundred and twenty-five men were at the same time employed in slaughtering and packing.
In addition to his ordinary business, and partly in connection with it, Mr. Chapin turned his attention to the question of insurance. It was a favorite maxim with him that the West was able to do its own insurance, and with this idea ever present, he was favorable to the establishment of home insurance companies. Of the Sun Fire Insurance Company, of Cleveland, he was for some years the vice-president, and labored earnestly for its success. Being a thorough believer in the principles of Homoeopathy, as well as an enthusiast on the subject of western insurance, he was a willing co-worker with a number of prominent citizens engaged in the organization of the Hahnemann Life Insurance Company, of Cleveland. The novel character of this company--it being the first of the kind in the United States--is sufficient warrant for a brief statement of its history. It was established in 1865, and numbered among its stockholders such leading business men and substantial capitalists as Wm. A. Otis, George Worthington, William Bingham, Stillman Witt, Selah Chamberlain, Dudley Baldwin, D. P. Eells, M. G. Younglove, and the Hon. B. F. Wade. The leading feature was the offer to insure those whose medical belief and practice were exclusively Homoeopathic, at lower rates than those subjecting themselves to Allopathic treatment. The theory on which this offer is based is, that all the evidence goes to show a lower rate of mortality under Homoeopathic than under Allopathic treatment. The Honorable William Baines, Insurance Commissioner of New York, in speaking of this company in his report, says: "The Hahnemann Life Insurance Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, is the first western company admitted into this State. It starts with a paid up capital of $200,000, one-half of which is deposited with the State Treasurer of Ohio, for the protection of policy holders. The company is organized on a basis of strength and capital, even larger than that required of New York corporations; it reduces the rate of premium to Homoeopathic members."
Of this company Mr. Chapin was made president, and in the management of this, as in everything which he undertakes, he infused a large amount of his energy, and made the company a complete success. During the present year his almost undivided attention has been given to the company's affairs, with marked effect on its rapidly increasing business.
In 1865, Mr. Chapin was elected Mayor of the city of Cleveland. The honor was not only unsought, but he was in entire ignorance of the whole affair until after his election. His name had not been mentioned in connection with that or any other office when he left the city on a business trip that kept him absent for several days. In the meantime the nominating convention of the Union Republican party was held, and there was some difficulty as to a choice between the persons named for the nomination as Mayor. In casting around for a way out of the difficulty, the name of Mr. Chapin was mentioned and instantly met with favor. He was nominated, elected by a strong majority, and the first intimation he received of the movement was reading the election returns in the Cleveland Herald, on his homeward journey.