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THE ASSOCIATED INVESTMENT COMPANY, incorporated in September, 1913, comprises a number of Cleveland business
men united for honest service in the real estate field and development of the city. The success of the company
has been noteworthy, both in the performance of the ordinary and the extraordinary things in real estate. The company
has handled an immense volume of business involving the ordinary real estate transactions and dealing in mortgages
and loans, has also carried out some extensive development and building work, and also owns Cleveland real estate
valued at between one and two millions of dollars. The capitalization of the cornpany was increased to $1,500,000
in July, 1919. The organizer of the company was George R. McKay, its president and general manager, and other officers
are: Thomas Ferry, chairman of the board of directors; Russell K. Pelton, vice president; C. J. Houle, vice president;
Charles A. Heil, treasurer; and M. C. Teasdale, secretary. The company is a complete organization, and carries
on its work through four distinct departments, income and investment properties, allotments, brokerage and financial
division.
Shortly after his return from abroad as a member of the American Expeditionary Forces, C. J. Houle joined the Associated
Investment Company as one of its executive officers. Mr. Houle was born in Cleveland, July 22, 1887, son of John
and Rosa (Hemmerling) Houle. His mother was born on Frankfort Street, at the Public Square, in Cleveland. His father
was a native of Niagara, Canada, came to Cleveland about 1868, and during the rest of his life engaged in the cooperage
business. He had learned the trade in youth, and for many years he was a cooperage manufacturer, most of the time
making barrels for the Standard Oil Company. He retired from his business about two years before his death, which
occurred in April, 1920. He was very earnest, capable, and much admired for his integrity and efficiency, and aside
from business his time was devoted to his home and family. He was an ardent democrat, but never a seeker of public
office. His family consisted of two daughters and three sons.
C. J. Houle, youngest of the family, was educated in the Outhwaite Grammar Schpol and the Central High School at
Cleveland. Before graduating from high school he went to work, and also took a course in the Spencerian Business
College. His career began as office boy for the National Malleable Castings Company at Cleveland, a business corporation
with which he remained for thirteen years. During nine years of that time he was in the accounting department and
four years in the sales and collection department.
Mr. Houle resigned to go into service as a World war soldier, enlisting in December, 1917, with Battery D, Sixty-fourth
Artillery, at New Orleans. He was transferred to the Ordnance Department at Augusta, Georgia, in May, 1918, and
put in charge of 250 men. He left Newport News July 31, 1918, for France. He landed at Brest twelve days later,
and his duties were chiefly those involved in convoying ordnance equipment from the Standard Gauge Railroad to
the various divisions in the front lines. It was a service exposed to enemy fire, and though for three months he
was in the heavy fighting in the Argonne he never received a scratch or a wound nor had a day of sickness in all
the nineteen months he was in the army. After the armistice he was transferred to Leman's headquarters of the Eighty-third
Division and put in charge of equipping the boys with ordnance to return home. He left Brest in April, 1919, on
the battleship South Carolina, landing at Newport News, and received his honorable discharge in May, 1919.
Following the war Mr. Houle for a brief time was a salesman selling Heights property with the H. A. Stahl Company,
dealers in residence and commercial properties. In June, 1919, he resigned to join the Associated Investment Company,
with offices in the Guardian Building. Mr. Houle is a Mason, a member of the Real Estate Board, the Gyro Club,
the Acacia Country Club, and the Woodland Avenue Presbyterian Church.
From:
A History of Cuyahoga County
and the City of Cleveland
By: William R. Coates
Publishers:
The American Historical Society
Chicago and New York, 1924
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