Evening star., 1935-10-21
VANSWER|NGENS
WRITE BOLD SAGA
Tale of Their Climb, Fall
and Rise Again 0ut-
does AIger.

This is the first In series of
four stories about the rise, fall and
rise again of the Van Sperinsen
brothers. and the men Dho helped
them "conre back"
BY CHARLES NORMAN,
NEW YORK, October 81 R.-The
heroes Of Sink or Swim" and DO or
Die" were failures compared with the
Van Sweringen brothers.
The fertile pen of Horatio Alger,
jr., whose stock in trade was a poor
but-honest boy who rose to riches,
would have SHE'D away fromsthe fab
ulous story that tells how the Van
Sweringens came from obscure pow
erty to the throne of a vast railroad
empire saw the empire crumble,
the throne fall i. . and then climbed
back to the purple.
Their story is the story as well of
Americas growing pains, when rail-
roads hurting across the continent
consolidated q sprawling land and
brought the message of the industrial
East to the agricultural West, and the
products Of the farm to the marts Of
commerce.
Perhaps the pioneering blood In the
veins of the Van Sweringens had
something to do with it.
The first Van Sweringens in Amer
lea pushed forward from the thriving
community of New York after the
Revolution, lured by land grants in
West Virginia.
They pushed on, crossing the Ohio
before calling halt and stalking Of
the new. danger infested world about
them.
The Van Sweringens of the twen-
tieth century thrust West and East
with steel-the cleaning steel of
railroad tracks along which monster
engines sang a modern song of en-
pire.
The era that saw the birth Of Oris
Paxton and Mantis James Van Swer-
ingen was propitious for the advent
Of two men who were to evolve an
intricate pattern in their march to
fortune and power.
Three Ingredients.
Two of the ingredients in that
pattern were money and railroad steel.
The third vas less definitive, but i'm
portant-personality.
1t was the Van Sweringen person.
ality that bearded j. P. Morgan in his
yUolI Ctraa+ dav, ard last a fauora hJa
impression On him.
The road taken by the Van Swerin-
gems to the citadels of wealth was
not long, as such roads 80, nor very
bumpy.
o. P. Van Sweringen was born
near Wooster. Ohio. April "a, 1879.
His brother, M. j., was born July 8,
1881. From games together and les
sons together. they struck out on the
road to fame and fortune together.
and the vicissitudes of that fortune
have found them still together
brothers, bachelors and partners.
Half century ago, when the Van
Sweringen boys were going to public
school, money was not thought of in
terms of millions, but in dollars and
cents. Circumstances forced them to
call halt to their schooling at the
end Of their high school years.
Boys Lost Mother.
Their mother died when Oris was
6. Their father, James Tower Van
Sweringen, had been an engineer in
the Pennsylvania oil fields, veteran
of the Civil War.
Ambition to better their lot drove
them to Cleveland. They sold news
papers, got jobs with chemical COM
pany-as ONCE boys-saved their
money. were promoted together to the
rank of clerks. They said little. gain
ing regulations for shyness and Sc
cretiveness which persist to this day.
But at night, after work, they talked
over their prospects. snapped plans
and dreams for the future, examined
possibilities. And one day they made
the first move-and for newcomers to
the world of real estate financing a
bold one.
The brothers were in their 20s.
They noted shrewdly that Cleveland
also was young that it would
grow {. . that it was destined to be an
important center in the Nations COM
merce.
Start With S100.
Outside Of Cleveland there was a
community in the making known as
Shaker Heights. Realtors of the city
SHE'D away from tit was remote, un-
developed; transit facilities we're lack
ing.
The Van Sweringen brothers saw
possibilities. They mustered together
the hundreds of dollars they had
saved, bought an option, sold their
idea and vision to civic leaders. They
made friends-influential men in a
position to help.
boy wonders" is what Cleveland
called them.
The Van Sweringen empire was in
the making.
CTomorrow, the Van Sweringens buy
into railroads.)