Raymond Johnson Chapman
(1891-1920) >> The last major league baseball player to be killed as a result of a play on the field, Indians shortstop Chapman died when hit on the temple by a Yankee pitch. The devastated Tribe dedicated the rest of their season to Chapman, and the team beat the Brooklyn Dodgers for Cleveland’s first World Series victory.
Dr. George Coates Ashmun
(1841-1929) >> Ashmun served as a personal bodyguard to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. After receiving his medical degree, he served as a surgeon in the Spanish-American War and a surgeon/teacher in World War I. A Case professor and expert in matters of hygiene and sanitation, Ashmun is credited with abolishing the Cleveland practice of keeping hogs in residential yards.
Garrett A. Morgan Sr.
(1877-1963) >> An influential member of the black community, Morgan was a businessman and inventor. He developed the first three-colored traffic light, as well as the gas mask eventually used by American soldiers in World War I. He also founded the Cleveland Call newspaper, which became the Call & Post.
(1923-1991) >> As a young girl, Pressman appeared in the original “Little Rascals” short films. Under the stage name Mildred Jackson, she also acted in films such as “Moby Dick” with John Barrymore, “The Virginian” with Gary Cooper, and the first talkie, “The Jazz Singer” with Al Jolson.
Dr. Harvey W. Cushing
(1869-1939) >> America’s first neurosurgeon, Cushing developed methods that revolutionized medical practice. Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Neurology visits the Yale professor and Pulitzer winner’s grave every year to take its staff photo.
Gertrude Anna Harrison
(1871-1938) >> The first woman to play at The Country Club, Harrison also golfed Cleveland’s first course, a three-hole course built with her husband behind their home. A golf instructor, she invented a device that returned golf balls after practicing driving.
Dr. James Henry Salisbury
(1823-1905) >> A noted microbiologist and physician, Salisbury specialized in diseases previously thought to be fatal. He pioneered the study of germs in relation to diseases, and eventually investigated the link between food and health. He championed the eponymous Salisbury steak as a curative dietary dish.
Adella Prentiss Hughes
(1869-1950) >> An 1890 Vassar graduate, Hughes was a concert pianist who helped found the Cleveland Music School Settlement and the Musical Arts Association. A lifelong philanthropist and impresario, Hughes founded The Cleveland Orchestra in 1918. She was the orchestra’s first manager.
Alexander Winton
(1860-1932) 8 Originally a bicycle manufacturer, Winton pioneered Cleveland’s automobile industry. In 1897, he drove one of his vehicles to New York in less than 10 days, proving the reliability of the new vehicles. The sale of one of his cars in 1898 was the first commercial sale of an American-made standard- model gasoline automobile.
