Post

The answer to this for me is a bookcase (shown in a later skeet in this thread) that belonged to my great great great grandfather, G.E. Herrick (1828-1900)

G.E. (Gamaliel Ephraim) was a leading lawyer and member of society in Cleveland in the late 1800s. He was prominent enough that his obituary appeared in the 1901 Annual Report of the American Bar Association, immediately adjacent to...President William McKinley books.google.com/books?id=k3w...

G.E's father in law was Judge Sherlock J. Andrews, who was the first president of the Cleveland Bar Association, and one of the first presidents of the Cleveland Society for Savings, which is now known as Key Bank.

One of G.E.'s cousins was Myron T. Herrick III, the American ambassador to France who is remembered today for (among other things) having received Charles Lindbergh--and lending him a suit--when he landed in Paris in 1927

(G.E. and Myron were rough contemporaries and lived in CLE at the same time, but they weren't especially close on the consanguinity table, and Myron isn't my ancestor. But my mom's maiden name is Herrick, so my dad and brothers and I were sure to get a photo on the Paris street that bears his name.)

But back to G.E.--he and his family lived on Cleveland's famous "Millionaire's Row" on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, where his neighbors included the likes of Samuel Mather, Marcus Hanna, Charles Brush, and John D. Rockefeller clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/10

The house is long gone, but the Western Reserve Historical Society has a photo from the parlor of the "Herrick Mansion." I wish I knew what some of the things in this photo were, especially the art, and I wonder what happened to them.

The bookcase was not in the mansion, at least as far as we know. It was in his law office. And actually, there were two of them. For 43 of my 44 years they resided in my grandparents' home, on opposite sides of the same wall, one in a bedroom and one in a living room.

I'm actually a little surprised to discover that I don't have any photos of the bookcase in my grandparents' house. That house, by the way, was originally built in 1845--which means it was a contemporary of G.E., though he lived about 20 miles to the west. It was expanded many times over the years.

My grandpa passed away in 2016, a few months before his 90th birthday. My grandma continued to live in the house and passed away in the spring of 2025, a few months before her 99th birthday.

A few months before she died my grandma told me that she wanted me to take one of the bookcases. She thought it should live with a lawyer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was reluctant to take it. I didn't have an obvious spot for it, but mostly I was worried that it would be something I'd feel obligated to keep forever.

But I took it, and now I'm glad I did. It's in our family room, and it's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.