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• Gender	Male
  Person ID	I3539	Brainard (Brainerd) / Foster / Fish
  Last Modified	08 Jun 2004 00:00:00
  Father	Harvey John HUMPHREY, b. 7 Jan 1884, ,, Ohio
  Mother	Katheryn FULDAUER
  Family ID	F1441	Group Sheet
  Children	1. Dudley S. HUMPHREY, Jr.
  Family ID	F1437	Group Sheet

• Notes

  BIOGRAPHY: HUMPHREY, DUDLEY SHERMAN, manufacturer, b. E. Townsend, Huron Co., O., May 19, 1852, s. Dudley Sherman and Mabel T. (Fay) Humphrey. Ed. common schools and at Buchtel College, Akron, O. Farmer and manufacturer of lumber and barrels until thirty-eight years old and removed to Cleveland in 1891. Pres. adn dir. The Humphrey Company; pres. and dir. Euclid Beach Park Company. Member Chamber of Commerce; Cleveland Athletic and Automobile clubs, and treasurer The Ohio Good Roads Federation. Mr. Humphrey and his wife came to Cleveland from Wakeman, O., in a wagon. For many years they had been laboring together on a farm and gave it up as an impossible means of family support. Mr. Humphrey had invented a corn popper. He thought that Cleveland merchants and peddlers would readily purchase his corn popper, the feature of which was that by using it corn could be flavored with butter and salt before it was popped. But the Clevelanders smiled when the Wakerman farmer showed them his invention. He went home discouraged. He talked it over with his wife. She assured him that it was a good thing and said if Cleveland men weren't wise enough to see it, they ahd better use the thing themselves in practical demenstration. So when the "Carnival of Venice" opened, the Humphreys were there with the wagon, popper and corn. People bought a bag, soon returned for another. That night husband and wife cleared $8. The next night their profits netted $25. They bought a better-looking wagon, and when the Fourth of July was ended they had realized $125 for their day's work. This was the commencement of the Humphrey prosperity. Things have been coming their way ever since. They began right. They had a system and a policy. Back on the farm at Wakeman, O., Mrs. Humphrey had made some candy that made the neighbors' kids envious of the Humphrey kid. It was white cream taffy, easy made, and it didn't cost much. The Humphreys reconed that taffy might also catch on. Then they added peanuts to their stock, rented shanties at Fairmount and Lake View, out Euclid avenue, and were soon doing a big business. The money fairly rolled in. The profits were enormous. Finally they got a little hole in the wall at the Fulton market in the Public square. Pretty soon they had money enough to have bought the block if they had wanted it. They signed a contract for the selling of their specialties at Euclid Beach Park. Finally they bought out all of the Euclid Beach stock, spent $450,000 in improvements and continued along their old policy of former days. Farmers in Iowa and Nebraska raise the corn and ship it to the Humphreys by the carloads. One Virginia dealer does nothing but buy corn for the firm. In a single season the Humphreys have paid as high as $15,000 for the sugar to put into their taffy. Now the Wakeman farmer and his wife are millionaires. Dudley Sherman, however, today is about the same man as stood at the entrance to Cable Park in the "Carnival of Venice" days. He has no ambitions to become a trust magnate. He doesn't care to corner the popcorn business of the world. Dudley Sherman now is sixty-two years old. He didn't get a chance until he was more than forty. Since then he's worked day and night, and always with the motto: "No Booze, Don't Skin 'Em."