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Title: |
Hosea Paul Papers |
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Repository: |
Western Reserve Historical Society
Phone: 216-721-5722 http://www.wrhs.org |
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Creator: |
Paul, Hosea |
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Dates: |
1830-1923 |
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Quantity: |
2.11 linear feet (5 containers, 1 oversize volume, and 1 oversize folder) |
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Abstract: |
Hosea Paul, Jr., was a surveyor and Cuyahoga County (Ohio) recorder, 1912-1921, who introduced the use of the Torrens system of land registration and title transfer into Cuyahoga County, as well as an improved indexing system for recording land titles and transactions. A civil and consulting engineer, Paul was auditor of Summit County, Ohio in 1874 and deputy surveyor at Akron and Cleveland. He prepared maps for publication and tax purposes for cities and counties in Ohio, Indiana and elsewhere. Paul resurveyed the Lake Erie & Western Railroad and was chief engineer for the Toledo & Western Railway County in 1891. In Akron, he directed the affairs of the survey firm Paul Brothers (also known as H. Paul & Co.) in 1875-1876, and came to Cleveland in 1878. He was one of seven children of Hosea Paul (1809-1870), long-time surveyor of Summit County, and, in 1875 married Emma Plum. Paul was one of the organizers of the Cleveland Engineering Society in 1880. A protege of mayors Tom L. Johnson and Newton D. Baker, he exemplified the Progressive ideal of bringing professionalism and sound business practices to the operation of government. The collection consists of correspondence; material pertaining to the administration and operation of the county recorder's office; campaign and election material; pocket journals; bank books; diaries (1872-1918), including diaries of Emma Paul (1876-1904); biographical information and resumes; miscellaneous memoranda and account books re: the Toledo & Western Railway; certificates; research notes and histories, addresses, speeches and essays re: Akron and Summit County, the Civil War, the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania, and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; newspaper clippings and printed material re: the Torrens system of land title and registration; survey blueprints and blueprints re: railroad improvements, gradings and slopes; railroad maps and blueprint maps of townships in Ohio and Indiana; Ohio and Indiana railroad profile scale drawings and an analysis of the Akron & Newcastle Railroad; an 1875 atlas of Wabash County, Indiana; newspaper clippings on the benefits of road improvements; and, a scrapbook pertaining to World War I. Included is a run of the periodical, Land Registration, journal of the Torrens Land Title Registration League. |
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Identification: |
MS 3312 |
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Location: |
closed stacks |
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Language: |
The records are in English |
Hosea Paul (1845-1923) was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on January 17, 1845. His parents, Hosea and Ellen Gamble Paul, were early settlers of the region, traveling from Vermont to Ohio in 1834. Hosea, one of the youngest of seven children, followed his father's and older brothers' professional interests in surveying and trained under their tutelage. While Hosea's father and brothers served in the American Civil War, he managed the family's surveying business, completing Summit County maps and surveys. After 1864, Paul participated in relief work for the Army of the Potomac, City Point, Virginia, and from 1865 to 1866, he surveyed Oil Creek and Pithole, Pennsylvania. Returning to Akron in 1866, Paul served for a period of time as City Engineer and County Auditor. During his surveying career, he prepared city maps and atlases, including ones for Wabash County, Indiana, and Cleveland, Ohio. He worked for fifteen years in railroad surveying and construction in Detroit and Toledo and served as assistant engineer for the Cleveland Park System and as Deputy Surveyor for Cuyahoga County. In 1875, Hosea Paul married Emma Plum, whose family members were early settlers in Cuyahoga Falls. Well-read and intelligent, she accompanied her husband on many of his surveying travels in the Midwest. Their only child, Katie Eveline, died of diphtheria at the age of ten. Emma died in 1913 in Cleveland of heart failure. Paul took office in 1913 as Cuyahoga County Recorder, being familiar with land division and transfer laws, and he was easily reelected in 1916. During his tenure as County Recorder, he proposed that the Torrens System, a progressive system of land transfer laws, be adopted by Cuyahoga County. He held his position of County Recorder until his voluntary retirement. During his later years, Paul was elected to the Board of Education in Cleveland and was a founding member of the Cleveland Engineering Society. He was also active in the City Club and the Cleveland Real Estate Board and was a director of the Associate Investment Company and the Summit County Bank. Paul was well-known for his historical addresses and writings regarding the pioneer settlement of the Western Reserve and the history of oil development.
The Hosea Paul Family Papers, 1856-1923 and undated, consist of diaries, personal correspondence and account books, genealogical research material, newspaper clippings, and surveying notes, correspondence, proposals, maps, and blueprints and other professional material collected during Paul's career as a surveyor and Cuyahoga County Recorder.
This is an informative collection of material, concerning not only Paul's surveys in the Akron and Cuyahoga Falls and his work in Cleveland, but also his interests in family genealogy and the history of the areas where he lived and worked. Historians interested in later 19th century surveys for counties and railroads and how surveyors' businesses operated during this time will find the material in this collection useful, especially the expense account books and project proposals. While serving as Cuyahoga County Recorder, Paul became an enthusiastic supporter of the Torrens System of land registration, and this interest is well documented in the manuscript collection. In addition, genealogists of the Paul family and related families might find Paul's own family research notes helpful. Historians of Cuyahoga Falls and Cleveland will also find of interest Paul's collection of writings, speeches, and newspaper clippings about the history of those areas.
None.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 3312 Hosea Paul Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio
Provenance unrecorded.
Processed by Rebecca M. Johnson in 1993.