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22 HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
success and has had an experience that guides him in his present undertaking.
He was born in Wayne county, Ohio, in 1879, a son of William and Lena
(Schneider) Wehe.
William Wehe was born in central Ohio in 1844, and has always been engaged
in the carriage business, first down in the state and later at Cleveland, where he
is still engaged in this line. His wife was born in Germany but came to the
United States in childhood, locating in Ohio, where they were married. Her
demise occurred in 1906. He served as corporal in the Twenty-third Wisconsin
Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war.
Otto C. Wehe was educated in Wayne county and Cleveland and his first
business experience was obtained with the office of Canfield Oil Company. After
ten years spent with them in the offices and at different refineries throughout the
country, two years being spent at Pittsburg and three years at Boston, he left
the company. So far had he advanced in the confidence of his employers that he
was in charge of the Boston branch when he resigned to form new connections
with the Sterling Oil Works at Marietta, Ohio, remaining with that concern for
two years, when in 1905 he came to Cleveland to incorporate his present company.
The Pioneer Manufacturing Company manufactures specialties in oil and
paint goods, and their business has increased until their territory embraces the
entire country, twenty commercial travelers being required to cover it.
Mr. Wehe belongs to the Sons of Veterans on account of his father's services
during the Civil war. At the time the latter enlisted he was on a farm in Wisconsin
and, fired with patriotism, entered the service and was a brave soldier.
Mr. Wehe is a republican. He is a live, prosperous young business man and his
enterprise shows the gratifying results of his experienced efforts.
HON. STEPHEN BUHRER.
Hon. Stephen Buhrer, deceased, was best known to the citizens of Cleveland
as a prominent leader in democratic circles and as an official whose efforts
in behalf of the city were characterized by far-reaching and beneficial
results. Over the record of his public career there falls no shadow of wrong
or suspicion of evil, and as a councilman and mayor he gave many tangible proofs
of his unfaltering and ever increasing devotion to the public good. He was,
moreover, a self-made man in the highest and best sense of the term, for, denied
the advantages which are usually accorded to the American youth, in the school
of experience he learned life's lessons well and made for himself a substantial
and honorable place in business circles of the city.
Mr. Buhrer was born on the Zoar farm in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, December
25, 1825. As the name indicates, he comes of German ancestry, the
family being founded in America in 1817, when Johann Casper Buhrer, from
the province of Baden, landed at Philadelphia. On the same ship had come
Anna Maria Miller, from Stockach, Germany. They immediately repaired to
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Buhrer had friends, and there were married.
During a period of more than a year in which they remained residents of
Greensburg their eldest child, Catherine, was born. They were led to change
their place of residence from the fact that while crossing the Atlantic Mrs.
Buhrer had become acquainted with and formed a warm friendship for some
ladies who were also of German birth and who became residents of Zoar,
Ohio. Desirous to live near them, Mr. Buhrer and his wife and little daughter
made their way to that locality, taking up their abode on a farm near the town
in what is now one of the richest agricultural sections of the state. At the time
of their arrival the district was largely wild and unimproved, but the industry
and thrift of the German population have transformed it into one of the most
prosperous and fair regions that represent the agricultural life of the state.
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