Benjamin F. Brusstar
Benjamin F. Brusstar, a chemical engineer and a man of wide and varied experience in the metal products lines, is one of the founders of an important new industry at Cleveland, the Cleveland Brass & Copper Mills, Incorporated, of which he is vice president and general manager.
Mr. Brusstar was born at Birdsboro in Berks County, Pennsylvania, July 10, 1868, a son of James Suter and Amanda (Smith) Brusstar. His work in the grammar and high schools was completed by graduation in 1888, and during the next three and a half years he gained a thorough knowledge and experience in practical and commercial chemistry in the laboratories of the E. & G. Brooke Iron Company. Following this he was employed as a chemist a year and a half by the Edgar Thompson Steel Company at Braddock, Pennsylvania, but gave up that position to go to Pittsburgh and learn the brass and copper industry. For four years he was connected with Park Brothers & Company, brass and copper mills. He then took charge of the brass and copper rolling mills of Randolph & Clowes at Waterbury, Connecticut, six years, following with he was general superintendent of a brass and copper mill of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company at New Haven, Connecticut. This position he resigned January 1, 1911, to become general superintendent and manager of the Michigan Copper & Brass Company at Detroit.
It was from Detroit that Mr. Brusstar came to Cleveland to take charge of the technical processes involved in the establishment and operation of the Cleveland Brass & Copper Mills, Incorporated. Though established only in February, 1917, the company already has three buildings in operation, one 230x436 feet in dimensions, a second 74x200 feet, and a third 40x90 feet. This company manufactures brass and copper sheets, rods, and wires. Obviously the business sustains an important relation to the manufacture of war supplies, and many contracts of great value and importance have been placed with the company, which in 1918 necessitated the employment of from six hundred to seven hundred men, which number will be largely augmented later as necessity requires.
Mr. Brusstar is a member of the Union Club, Cleveland Athletic Club, Chamber of Commerce, Automobile Club, is a York and Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. In politics he is identified with the republican party and his church is the Episcopal.
He has a family of interesting attainments. Leon Mark, his oldest son, is a graduate of the University of Michigan and is department foreman of the Cleveland Brass & Copper Mills. James Suter has been a student of electrical engineering at the University of Michigan, but is now a petty officer in the Great Lakes Training School at Chicago. Clara Virginia attends a private school at Monroe, Michigan, and William De Bolia is a student of law in Detroit University.
Mr. Brusstar married at Detroit, Michigan, Mrs. Renee Travers, a native of the state of New York and a descendant of the Chamberlain family of Woburn, Massachusetts, founded by Sir Thomas Chamberlain, who came to America in 1632. Through her paternal grandmother Mrs. Brusstar descends from the Lee family of Virginia. During her residence in Detroit Mrs. Brusstar was an active figure in women's social and philanthropic organizations as well as a member of the Louisa St. Clair Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.
From Cleveland - Special Limited Edition, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York, 1918 v.1