Category: Immigration and Ethnicity

MATOWITZ, GEORGE J. (24 Apr. 1882 - 28 Nov. 1951) was born in Humenné, Slovakia. His father Karl Matowitz was a cabinet maker. Seeking an opportunity for a better life, Karl brought his family to Cleveland in 1892. The family settled on Woodland Ave. George’s education in Cleveland began in the old Brownell School but he was unable to attend for long.

 THE MAYFIELD THEATER, 12300 Mayfield Rd. in LITTLE ITALY, opened in 1923, when Michele Mastandrea, an Italian immigrant, built a two-story brick building with a theater on the first floor and a large apartment on the second.

MCEVOY, DR. ROBERT J. (July 13, 1921 - September 24, 2016), was a well-known pediatrician for 50 years on Cleveland’s West Side, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of malignant disease in children.

MCGARRY, LAWRENCE J. “LARRY” (February 25, 1944-October 2, 2022) was a businessman in the painting industry who was involved in his heritage community. He was born to Michael McGarry and Catherine O’Mara as the eighth of nine children. His father was an immigrant from County Roscommon, Ireland,  who founded the family painting business in 1946.

MEANS, RUSSELL (Nov 10, 1938 - Oct 22, 2012) was an Oglala Sioux activist, writer, and actor, who founded the CLEVELAND AMERICAN INDIAN CENTER and was a central figure in the American Indian Movement.

MILETI, NICK JAMES (19 April 1931-21 August 2024) was an attorney and sports magnate in Cleveland, who founded the CLEVELAND CAVALIERS and built the

MILLER, MILDRED (16 Dec. 1924–29 Nov. 2023) was a prominent mezzo-soprano with New York’s Metropolitan Opera Co.

MLAKAR, FRANK (May 15 1913-1967) a Slovenian-American author, was born in Cleveland, Ohio to SLOVENE parents. His parents had arrived separately to Cleveland in 1907, and married in 1910.

MONITOR CLEVELANDSKI could trace its origins back to Polonia w Ameryce (Poland in America, est. Jan. 1892), Cleveland's first Polish newspaper. Located on E. 65th St., the original weekly was edited by John Malkowski and included among its incorporators such Polish-American businessmen as Stanley Lewandowski, MICHAEL KNIOLA, and Matt Dluzynski.

MONROE, WILLIAM T. (May 18, 1926 - November 23, 2015) practiced law for sixty years, serving as the Law Director for the City of Euclid and donating legal work for 35 years to the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, a Catholic diocesan missionary initiative. 

MONTENEGRINS settled in Cleveland during three periods: the turn of the century (1890-1914), after World War II (1945-1922), and after the dissolution of Socialist Yugoslavia in 1992 (Montenegro became officially independent from the State Union of Serbia-Montenegro in 2006). Most Montenegrin immigrants who arrived in the first wave were uneducated peasants.

MOTIVASIANS FOR CLEVELAND--a social, cultural and networking group--emerged in the early 2000s to try and connect young Asian professionals to one another and to the larger community, with the aim of fostering their success in Northeast Ohio.

MUELLER, WERNER DIEBOLT (17 August 1925 – 10 September 2001) was a lawyer specializing in trusts, an avid outdoorsman, and philanthropist.   Born in Cleveland to Omar Eugene Mueller and Elsa Louise Weideman Mueller, Werner was a descendant of

MULLALLY, EILEEN MURPHY (December 7, 1920 - December 22, 2014) was a nurse and educator before becoming an active civic volunteer. She was the oldest of five children born to William R. and Mary (Kenny) Murphy in St. Louis, MO. Mullally graduated from Trenton College, a high school that later became North Central Missouri College, and attended St. Louis University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. 

MURPHY, BISHOP MICHAEL (July 1, 1915-April 3, 2007) was a Roman Catholic priest who served as a seminary administrator, Auxiliary Bishop of Cleveland, and Bishop of Erie, Pennsylvania. Born in Cleveland, he was the only child of William and Mary Bridget (Patton) Murphy.

MURPHY, SR., MURLAN J. “JERRY” (June 27, 1918  - April 18, 2009) was a philanthropist and businessman who developed Murphy Oil Soap into a national brand, as president of The MURPHY-PHOENIX COMPANY.

NEWBURGH HEIGHTS, organized and incorporated as a village in 1904, is a .5 sq. mi. residential community south of Cleveland between the industrial valley of the CUYAHOGA RIVER and the village of CUYAHOGA HTS.

The NIGHT IN BUDAPEST was a celebration with an ethnic flavor to commemorate the Hungarian Freedom Fighters who defied Russian tanks in their homeland in 1956. The gala event, begun in 1957 by Cleveland council president JACK RUSSELL, focused attention on Hungarian culture and on Hungarian-Americans.

NORTH BROADWAY is a southeast Cleveland neighborhood and Statistical Planning Area (SPA). Previously (and still periodically) referred to as Kinsman, its borders are, roughly, I-77 on the west, Union Ave. on the south, E. 79th St. on the east and an irregular line on the north that runs south of, but parallel to, Kinsman Ave.

The NORTH ITALIAN CLUB is a social and mutual-aid organization on Cleveland's west side, near ST. ROCCO PARISH. For many years, membership was open only to those with a northern Italian background. The club was founded in 1927 as a nonpolitical fraternal and social organization.