The WOMEN'S COMMUNITY FOUNDATION (WCF) was founded in Cleveland in 1984 as the Women's Community Fund, to support Cuyahoga County programs that optimize the potential of WOMEN and girls in the Greater Cleveland Community. It was the first local foundation to focus on women, and the WCF's goal is to be a leader in supporting solutions for contemporary women's issues.
The WOMEN'S COUNCIL PEACE PARADE FOR THE PREVENTION OF FUTURE WARS took place on Sunday, 18 May 1924, when 5,000 (sometimes given as 3,600) women marched down Euclid Ave., from E. 24th to E. 3rd St. and Lakeside. The parade, designed to encourage a "will to peace in the world" and "to prevent war . . .
The WOMEN'S FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK of Cleveland was the first savings and loan association in the nation founded and operated by women. The Women's Savings & Loan Co., founded by CLARA E. WESTROPP and LILLIAN M. WESTROPP and a group of business and professional women, opened in Feb. 1922 with $89,000 in capital.
The WOMEN'S LAW FUND, INC., opened in Sept. 1972 in Cleveland as a pilot project of the Ford Foundation and the CLEVELAND FOUNDATION, was the first nonprofit organization in the country to address sex-discrimination cases. The fund does not litigate, but rather funds litigation for select cases. In the first case supported by the Women's Law Fund, LaFleur vs.
The WOMEN'S MEDICAL SOCIETY OF CLEVELAND was founded in 1929 to further the local advancement of WOMEN in MEDICINE. Nineteen women attended the first meeting at the WOMEN'S CITY CLUB.
The WOMEN'S PHILANTHROPIC UNION, established on 27 Sept. 1926, succeeded the WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION (WCTU), NON-PARTISAN, of Cleveland.
The WOMEN'S PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF CLEVELAND, founded on 2 May 1938, was the female counterpart of the Cleveland Photographic Society. It was said to have been founded when several women were refused entrance into a men's photographic society. The organization's first president was Mary Jane (Mrs. Albert) Matheson, and there were 80 members that first year.
The WOMEN'S PROJECT FOUNDATION was established in 1986 in Cleveland to support projects which benefit WOMEN and/or CHILDREN AND YOUTH, in areas such as alcoholism, FAMILY PLANNING, EDUCATION (especially for minorities), filmmaking, and the arts.
The WOMEN'S PROTECTIVE ASSN. (WPA) formally organized on 9 Mar. 1916 "to protect and safeguard girls and women against social and moral dangers, to provide them with legal defense when necessary and to render other possible assistance. . . . ." Late in 1915, BELLE SHERWIN suggested that Mayor NEWTON D.
WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE. Cleveland and northeast Ohio played an important role in the long struggle for women’s rights and the passing of the 19th Amendment.
WOMEN'S WELSH CLUBS OF AMERICA. See WELSH HOME.
WOMENSPACE, founded in 1975, was a nonprofit coalition which addressed "issues affecting women and families." Penny Steenblock, Del Jones, Roberta Steinbacher, and Rev. Joan Campbell created WomenSpace to coordinate and unite area women's groups. The group promoted increased opportunities for women, researched and educated, and acted as a clearinghouse and resource center.
WOOD, "MARGE" MARGUERETTE (3 Oct. 1920-22 April 1998) was a renowned softball pitcher who in 1976 was inducted into the first class of the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame. She was born in Cleveland to Norman Wood, a gardener, and Marie (Kohler) Wood. Wood was an Olmstead Falls High School graduate and pitched from 1936-1951.
WOOD, HARLAND GOFF (2 Sept. 1907-12 Sept. 1991), internationally known scientist and the first director of the Department of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine, CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY (CWRU, 1946-67), proved in 1935 that animals (including humans) and bacteria utilized carbon dioxide.
WOOD, REUBEN (1792-1 Oct. 1864), 16th governor of Ohio (1850-53), was born in Middletown, Vt., son of Nathaniel and Lucretia Wood. He moved to Canada at 15 and studied law, was conscripted into the Royalist Militia during the WAR OF 1812, but fled to the U.S. and served briefly in the U.S. Army.
The WOODLAND AVE. AND WEST SIDE RAILWAY CO. was the first streetcar line to allow passengers to travel between the east and west sides without requiring a transfer. The line, controlled by MARCUS A. HANNA and his sons, was formed in February 1885 with the merger of the Woodland Ave. and West Side street railway companies. The Woodland Ave. St.
WOODLAND CEMETERY was once the pride of Cleveland's public CEMETERIES. From its start in 1853, Woodland differed from other cemeteries that were functionally laid out. Woodland was fashioned in rural cemetery style by New York landscape gardener Howard Daniels. A fancifully poetic description of an unseen Cleveland by Scottish poet Thos. Campbell inspired the name.
WOODLAND HILLS COMMUNITY (UNION) CHURCH, located at E. 94th and Ramona Blvd., resulted from a 1925 merger of the Woodland Ave. Presbyterian (1872-1925) and Kinsman-Union Congregational churches (1884-1925), one of the first mergers of PRESBYTERIANS and CONGREGATIONALISTS in Cleveland. Woodland Ave.
WOODLAND HILLS PARK. See LUKE EASTER PARK.
WOODMERE, originally part of Orange Twp., incorporated as a village in 1944. It is located in eastern Cuyahoga County just east of the intersection of Chagrin Blvd. and I-271. Occupying less than 1 sq.
WOODRUFF MEMORIAL INSTITUTE (also known as Woodruff Hospital and formerly as Ingleside Hospital), located at 1950 E. 89th St., served as a voluntary short-term psychiatric hospital from 1935-86. In 1959 it was listed as one of the nation's top dozen psychiatric hospitals. Ingleside Hospital was established in a 15-room mansion at 1906 E. 75th St.
WOODRUFF, MABEL ALICE (30 Dec. 1893-30 Aug. 1963) was one of Cleveland's first psychiatric social workers and the founder of Ingleside Hospital.
WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENIMORE (5 March 1840-24 January 1894), author, was born in Claremont, New Hampshire, to Charles Jarvis and Hannah Pomeroy Woolson. The family moved to Cleveland later that year after scarlet fever killed three of her sibling in three weeks. While living in Cleveland, Constance came to know the Lake County region and Tuscarawas Valley, which would later appear in her books.
WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENNIMORE (5 March 1840-24 January 1894) was an American writer who is considered a significant female author who had connections to several of the major writers of the era. Born in Clairemont, New Hampshire, Woolson was the sixth child of Charles Jarvis and Hannah Cooper Pomeroy Woolson, the former of which washer father being a descendant of the famous author James Fenimore Cooper.
The WORK WEAR CORP. was incorporated as the Cleveland Overall Co. by SAMUEL ROSENTHAL in 1915 to manufacture industrial work clothes. In 1919 he bought the Natl. Railway Overall Co., which made bib overalls and other work garments.
The WORKERS GYMNASTIC UNION, known by the initials of its Czech name, Delnicke Telecvicne Jednoty (DTJ), is a Czech gymnastic association formed in Cleveland in 1909 to promote socialism, gymnastics, and to retain Czech heritage among members. The DTJ organized in Prague in 1897. Members of the socialist Ferdinand Lassalle Society dramatic and educational club organized the first American DTJ unit in Cleveland in 1909.
WORKING GIRLS' HOME. See VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA.
The WORKMEN'S CIRCLE, or Arbeiter Ring, is a secular Jewish fraternal organization founded to build a better world, foster cultural Jewishness, and offer friendships. Part of the national Workmen's Circle, started in 1900, the first Cleveland branch (#79) was chartered in 1904 to work for social legislation.
The WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION (WPA) in Cleveland provided needed income for a substantial portion of the city's population as well as improving and developing the area's transportation network, parks, and recreational facilities. The primary purpose of the WPA program, part of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act passed in April 1935, was to give employment to those on relief, the bulk of whom were unskilled.
The WORLD PUBLISHING CO., a major publisher of Bibles, dictionaries, and children's and trade books, was begun in 1902 by Alfred H. Cahen, a Polish immigrant. Practicing his trade as a bookbinder, by 1905 Cahen had opened the Commercial Bookbinding Co. in the CAXTON BLDG., and by 1912 he added a printing plant.
WORLD WAR I. With a population of 560,665 on the eve of World War I, Cleveland stood as the 6th-largest city in the U.S. It thrived economically on the manufacture of iron and steel, paints and varnishes, foundry and machine-shop products, and electrical machinery and supplies. Although recently surpassed by Detroit in automobile production, it still excelled in the making of auto accessories.
WORLD WAR II. When Japan attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 Dec. 1941, the ranking American victim was a native Clevelander, Rear Adm. ISSAC C. KIDD, aboard the Arizona. Before V-J Day, his death would be followed by those of nearly 4,000 more Clevelanders out of a total of 160,000 called to service.
WORTHINGTON, GEORGE (21 Sept. 1813-9 Nov. 1871), founder of Cleveland Iron & Nail Works, Cleveland Iron Mining Co., and GEO. WORTHINGTON CO., was born in Cooperstown, N.Y. to Ralph and Clarissa Clarke Worthington, completed a common-school education, and started his career in 1830 as a hardware store clerk in Utica.
WRIGHT AIRLINES, INC., was established in 1966 by Gerry Weller and Ernie Rolls to provide service between downtown Cleveland and downtown Detroit. Based at BURKE LAKEFRONT AIRPORT, it served the businessmen of both cities and helped alleviate congestion at the two major airports.
WRIGHT, ALONZO G. (30 Apr. 1898-17 Aug. 1976), a black southern migrant who became a millionaire, was born in Fayetteville, Tenn., son of Alonzo and Joyce Kelso Wright. He worked as a shoeshine boy and a messenger and moved to Cleveland in the early 1910s.
WRIGHT, JOHN D. (25 June 1905 - 2 May 1997) was chairman of the board and chief executive officer at TRW, INC. from 1958 until his retirement in 1969. He was born in Pittsburgh to Charles R. and Annie (Williams) Wright. He earned his B.A. from Adelbert College of Western Reserve University in 1927, and a law degree from the Western Reserve University School of Law in 1929.
WRIGHT, WALTER BENJAMIN (1852-1939) advanced from railroad porter to secretary for the industry's top administrators. He was born in Harrisonburg, WV, and moved to Columbus, OH, at 12 years old. Wright started out as a porter on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern RAILROADS and then became porter on the private car of Daniel W. Caldwell, general superintendent of the Panhandle Railroad (1873).
WRMR was a staple of the Cleveland airwaves for more than 40 years under its original call letters of WJW. The station was started in Mansfield, OH, in 1926 by John F. Winer, who placed a "W" before his own initials for the call letters. The station did not come to Cleveland until 13 Nov. 1943, when Wm. M.
WVIZ (Channel 25) was inaugurated on 7 Feb. 1965 to bring noncommercial, educational television to the last major city in the U.S. without it. It materialized through the efforts of a committee of civic and educational leaders appointed by Mayor ANTHONY J.
WWWE originated in Sept. 1923 as WTAM, created by Theodore Willard (see WILLARD STORAGE BATTERY CO.) and S. E. Lawrence. Broadcasting originally at 750 kilocycles and 1,500 watts, WTAM offered a 3-hour schedule of evening programs. Its power was soon increased to 3,500 watts, and the station moved to the Union Trust Bldg.
WYSE ADVERTISING, a Cleveland-based agency, was founded by Marcus (Marc) and Lois Wyse in 1951.
WZAK radio began broadcasting on 26 May 1963 as an ethnic radio station. Founders included Joseph and Elizabeth Bauer, who operated the station, and Xenophon Zapis. It was the first full-time ethnic radio station in Cleveland, and it offered programming in 17 foreign languages, including programs in Hungarian, German (hosted by the Bauers), Greek (hosted by Zapis), Arabic, and Hindi.
The YELLOW CAB CO. became Cleveland's major taxicab service after receiving a monopoly within the city from city council in 1934. A Yellow Cab Co. was organized in Cleveland as early as 1923, operating from E. 49th St. and Superior. It had apparently merged with the Red Top Cab Co. by 1926, altered its name to the Cleveland Yellow Cab Co., and moved into Red Top's former location at 1500-1538 Lakeside Ave.
YESHIVATH ADATH B'NAI ISRAEL (YABI) is an Orthodox Jewish afternoon school for grades K-12. It was established in 1915 because its founders charged that the existing Talmud Torah was not providing a Jewish education to its pupils. Congregation Shomre Shabbos agreed to let the school use its synagogue at E. 37th St. and Woodland as the first school site.
Die YIDDISHE VELT (Jewish World) was Cleveland's principal Yiddish-language newspaper for over 40 years. It had been preceded by the Yiddishe Tegliche Presse (Jewish Daily Press), founded on 1 May 1908 by SAMUEL ROCKER, Adolph Haas, and Jonas Gross. Rocker sold out 2 years later and then brought out the Jewish World in 1911.
The YODER CO. was the largest manufacturer of electric welded tube and pipe mills and roll-forming mills for the agricultural, automotive, petroleum, appliance, electrical, and aerospace industries. Founders Carl M. and Henry Yoder were draftsmen for the Swartwout Mfg. Co. in the early 1900s, when Carl devised a way to mold scrap sheet steel.