Perry Lynes Hobbs, Ph.D.
Perry Lynes Hobbs, Ph. D., was a distinguished Cleveland scientist and one of the pioneers of the new profession by with practical application of chemistry to industry and commerce was rendered an indispensable factor in modern life. In this field he ranks as one of the foremost, not only in America, but in the world. He did much to vitalize and raise the standards of the new profession, which has been evolved as a feature of the specialization which has been going on with increasing rapidity in modern economic affairs.
Doctor Hobbs was born on Huntington Street in Cleveland September 10, 1861, a son of Caleb Secum and Ada Antoinette (Lynes) Hobbs. Concerning his father the paternal ancestry a more detailed account is given elsewhere in this publication. Doctor Hobbs was about nine years of age when his father died. On both sides his people came from New England and had immigrated out of England during the seventeenth century. In the maternal line his great-grandfather, David Lynes, was a soldier in the war of the Revolution and afterwards took part in the Anthony Wayne campaign against the Indians through the Northwest in what is now Ohio. In the War of 1812 he served as a sergeant. Doctor Hobbs' maternal grandfather was "Lawyer" Sturges Lynes, who came to Ohio in 1830 and located in that old New England community of Avon in Lorain County. There he became an active leader in the anti-slavery movement. His home was one of the stations of the underground railway, where escaping slaves were harbored and forwarded to liberty and safety across the Canadian line. Sturges Lynes was a civil engineer and surveyed a portion of Michigan and Northern Ohio.
The nurse of Doctor Hobbs was an ex-slave, who subsequently became the wife of Hon. John P. Green. As a child Perry L. Hobbs' health was very delicate and his mother took him on a long tour of the Pacific coast and Pacific waters. They visited Honolulu, and his mother was the first white woman to look into the crater of the volcano Kilanea. They attended the burial service of King Kamehameha, king of the Hawaiian Islands, and also the coronation of the new king.
On their return to Cleveland Perry L. Hobbs printed a little book "No Sect in Heaven" on a small hand printing press. Besides the family associations which were a constant incentive to the development of his talents, he was fortunate in living next door to Colonel Charles Whittlesey, the pioneer Cleveland historian and the first president of the Western Reserve Historical Society. When a high school boy Perry Hobbs had some valuable training in copying the colonel's manuscripts. About the same time he also arranged the stamp and coin collection for the Historical Society.
He enjoyed exceptional educational advantages. After finishing the public schools he entered the Case School of Applied Science on a scholarship, and in 1886 was awarded the Bachelor of Science degree. His summer vacations were spent working for the Star Oil Works of Cleveland. Going abroad, he pursued post-graduate work in the University of Berlin, from which he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1889. While a student of that university he had the good fortune of working in the private laboratory of Prof. A. W. Hofman, one of Germany's greatest chemists. For nine months he had charge of the chemical laboratory in the Berlin Agricultural College. A tribute paid the young student by Professor Hofman contained the following: "Mr. Hobbs possesses the happy gift of conveying information to others, which will greatly assist him in successfully performing the duties of a chemical professorship."
Doctor Hobbs was a pioneer in bacteriology. In 1887, when the study of that subject was then almost unknown in America, he took a course under the famous Doctor Koch. He also studied toxicology and went on many botanical excursions with the professors and assisted them in making microscopical drawings. He had few peers in the skillful handling of the microscope. While in Berlin he was employed to make blood analysis during two murder cases. It is said that he fairly begrudged the hours he slept while abroad since there was so much he desired to learn. During vacations he tramped over Germany, the Black Forest, Switzerland and Northern Italy, and had all the abundant life and opportunity of the German student.
On returning to Cleveland in 1889 Doctor Hobbs took the Chair of Chemistry in the Western Reserve Medical College. That position he filled thirteen years. But his reputation and work were not confined to the college. He became widely known as an expert consulting chemist and he finally resigned from the Medical College to give his entire time to private work as an analytical and consulting chemist and chemical engineer.
Professor Hobbs was among the first chemists in the country to specialize and adapt scientific attainments to the real work of the world. He served Cleveland as gas inspector in 1894, and after 1896 was one of the experts with the Ohio Dairy and Food Commission and represented that commission in the annual congress in St. Louis in 1904. He was frequently employed as a chemical expert by the United States Government.
His private laboratory was one of the most modern and complete in the country. Many industrial organizations sought his advice and service. His knowledge of cement won for him a wide reputation in concrete trade circles as well as among chemists. He inspected the Pacific Portland Cement Company and advised in the operation and processes of the plant. During 1906-08 he superintended the designing, construction, equipment and early operation of the Cowell Portland cement plant in California. He assisted in establishing one of the first sugar beet factories in the United States. He also formed the Cyan Chemical Company, making blueing (sic) and other materials form the waste of the Artificial Gas Company. Prior to his death he had been working on dairy products, making a new kind of culture for butter and cheese and had just established at his laboratory the Dairy Ferments Company. He was also president of the Perfection Cap and Can Company of Cleveland.
As an analytical chemist his advice and counsel were sought particularly in important legal cases. In fact in all kinds of litigation involving chemical questions he was regarded first authority. If there was suspicion that poison had caused a mysterious death; when it was necessary to know just what deleterious substance had been added to otherwise pure food; when proof was needed through the science of real chemists in some insidious criminal case; when big property interests were to be determined through the test tube and microscope, the invariable requirements was "get Perry Hobbs." His testimony was often the deciding factor in such cases. He stood virtually and literally at the head of his profession.
By his pleasant congenial nature Mr. Hobbs won hosts of friends. He was a leader not only in his scientific attainments but in social and fraternal circles. His Masonic affiliations gave him much pleasure. He was especially fond of the Shrine and when Potentate of Al Koran Temple in 1906 he established the children's annual party. He held many positions in this order, and his last service, rendered just one month before his death, was a Prelate at the annual inspection of Holyrood Commandery, rendering his lines with impressive voice and perfect poise as one inspired. He was a member of the University and Masonic Club. He was also active in the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and for a time chairman of its Educational Committee. He was a charter member of the Cleveland Chemical Society, a member of the Civil Engineers' Club of Cleveland, the Ohio State Academy of Science and the American Electro Chemical Society, Society of Chemical Industry of London, Castalia Trout Club and his favorite pastime was fishing. He was a founder and was president of the Anglo-American Student' Club of Berlin in 1886.
His versatile ability and enthusiasm made him a natural civic leader. He was optimistic, a hard worker, and demanded the best of himself and of others, never being satisfied with half way results in his profession or in civic affairs. The outstanding features of his character were optimism, enthusiasm, energy and love of friendship. He loved his friends, books, flowers, music, art and all the true and beautiful things of life. Thus it was a loss not only to the field of science but even more to the civic life and character of Cleveland when he died at the comparatively early age of fifty. His death occurred April 6, 1912, at the home where he had lived over forty years.
On April 6, 1892, just twenty years prior to his death, he married Miss Mary Everett Marshall, daughter of Dr. Isaac Holmes Marshall and Mary E. (Everett) Marshall. Mrs. Hobbs is one of Cleveland's prominent women. She is the mother of three children: Mary Antoinette, Katherine Marshall and Perry Marshall, who has volunteered in the Naval Aviation of the World's War. All were born in the old colonial homestead on Euclid Avenue, making three generations who had lived in that beautiful home.
From Cleveland - Special Limited Edition, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York, 1918 v.1