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 unobtrusively 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 municipal 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.