Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens — John Shaqi
Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens
History
Cleveland Past and Present: Its Representative Men: Comprising Biographical Sketches of Pioneer Settlers and Prominent Citizens
Cleveland (Ohio) -- Biography; Cleveland (Ohio) -- History
Mr. Hickox came to Cleveland in 1837, from the state of New York, making
his debut in the Forest City in the year of its greatest depression. For
the first two years he engaged as clerk, and served his employers
faithfully. Then, gaining confidence, and seeing an opening he struck out
boldly for himself, setting up, as was usual in those days, in the
commission and produce business. The constantly growing commerce of the
place increased his business and made it lucrative. With far-seeing
enterprise Mr. Hickox pushed his operations so that his trade rapidly
increased and his consignments steadily grew in number and quantity. To
accommodate it he purchased interests in shipping on the lake, and
eventually became a large ship owner.
Seeing his opportunity, Mr. Hickox turned his attention to milling, and
commenced operations at a mill in Akron, which he soon made known to the
commercial world by the excellence and reliability of its brand. To this
was, in time, added the water mill, on the canal, in Cleveland, near the
weigh lock, which he held for five years and then sold. After the sale of
the latter mill, he purchased the Cleveland Steam Mills on Merwin street,
with a capacity of about three hundred and fifty barrels per day, and in
1867, he added the National Steam Mills, with a capacity of from five
hundred to six hundred barrels daily. Whilst a large capital is invested
in these mills, the number of men employed is less than in establishments
where labor saving machinery has not been brought to such a pitch of
perfection. About fifty men are directly employed in the mills, and a
large number additional in the manufacture of barrels and sacks. A very
large proportion of the flour from these mills is sold in sacks, from the
fact that the entire product is sold in the home market, which speaks well
for the estimation in which the brands are held. Mr. Charles W. Coe is in
active partnership with Mr. Hickox, in the milling interests, the firm
name being Coe & Hickox.
Mr. Hickox has taken deep interest in the railroad affairs of the city,
and has been for some time a director of the Cleveland, Columbus &
Cincinnati Railroad Company. He is still as active and energetic as ever,
well preserved in body and mind, and making his positive influence felt in
all departments of business in which he becomes interested. He never tires
of work, and, as he says of himself, he "holds his own well, at
fifty-five."
Alexander Sackettt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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