James Parmelee (1855-1931) was a

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

financier. In 1886, he co-founded the

National Carbon Company The National Carbon Company was a dominant American manufacturer of batteries and lighting products in the early 20th century. It was the first company to successfully manufacture and distribute sealed dry cell batteries on a large scale. It was fo ...

as part of a group that included Webb C. Hayes, the son of U.S. president

Rutherford B. Hayes Rutherford Birchard Hayes (; October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. Hayes served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861. He was a staunch Abolitionism in the Un ...

. The company figured prominently in the history of the

battery Battery or batterie most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Battery indicator, a device whic ...

. Parmelee was also the fourth president of the Cleveland General Electric Company. He and his wife Alice Maury Parmelee were benefactors of the

Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Episcopal Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral or National Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Wa ...

and

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

in Washington, D.C., as well as Ohio charities. He was one of the founders of a predecessor institution of

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...

. Their Cleveland house, on what was then called Millionaires Row (Euclid Avenue), no longer exists. Their Washington, D.C., home, which they called "the Causeway", was renamed "Tregaron" by a successor owner, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and after some controversy remains fairly intact.

References

American businesspeople 1855 births 1931 deaths Cornell University alumni {{US-business-bio-1850s-stub