Minneapolis City (part 57 of 80)

Politically Mr, Langdon was a Republican all his life after the birth of the party of that name, and was prominent in its coimcils locally and nationally. In 1872 he was elected to the state senate, and his services in that body were so satisfactory that he was successively re-elected, serving continuously until 1878, In 1880 he was again elected to the senate and served until 1885, He was also the choice of his party for the same honor in 1888, but owing to the Farmers' Alliance landslide of that year he was beaten at the election by his Democratit: opponent. That he was very strong in his party was shown by the fact that he never had an opponent for any nomination that he received, always being the unanimous choice of the nominating convention, and always without solicitation on his part.

He was many times a delegate to the state conventions of his party and was also one of Minnesota's representatives in three of its national conventions - the one that met in Cincinnati in 1876; the one that met in Chicago in 1884, and the one that met in the same city in 1888, It should be stated that he was a member of the state senate at the extra session called by Governor Pillsbury to act upon the adjustment of the state railroad bonds and remove the stain of repudiation from the fair name of the state. During the session he was an earnest advocate of the remedial legislation proposed and a vigorous supporter of every effort made for the settlement of the A-exatious problems involved in the case.

The pleasing subject of this brief review was a man of large frame and robust physique, and possessed a personality that was both impressive and magnetic. He was also a genial man and had a mitural faculty of making friends of all who came in contact with him. He was a remarkably benevolent and kind-hearted man, too, rich in his bounty to public charities and generous always to the needy, but always in the most unobstrusive and unostentatious way. His sterling qualities of head and heart greatly endeared him to men in all walks of life, and his death, which occurred on July 24, 1895, in Minneapolis, was mourned by a host of sincere and devoted friends such as few men leave behind them when they die or ever have during life. His memory is enshrined in the hearts of the people among whom he so long lived and labored. It is also embalmed in the name of two towns, Langdon, North Dakota, and Langdon, Minnesota, both of which were given this name in honor of him and because of his services in bringing them into being.

Mr. Langdon was married in 1859 to Miss Sarah Smith, a daughter of Dr. Horatio A. Smith, of New Haven, Vermont. The Langdons took up their residence in Minneapolis in 1866, came to Mendota in 1863 and resided in Gen. Sibley's old home from 1863 to 1866, and here the head of the household passed the remainder of his days. In religious faith he was an Episcopalian, and at the time of his death was a vestryman of St. Mark's church, as he had been for many years before. His offspring number three, all of whom are married and reside in Minneapolis. They are: Cavour S. Langdon, Mrs. H. C. Truesdale and Mrs. W. F. Brooks. All of them stand high in public esteem and in their daily lives exemplify the sterling virtues of their parents and the lessonsgiven them by precept and example at the family hearthstone.

Wallace Campbell

Was born at Waverly, Tioga Count}-, New York, September 8, 1863, and is the son of S. C. and Mary A. (Farwell) Campbell, both natives of New York. The father was for many years a successful dry goods merchant, late in life joining the son in Minneapolis, where he became Vice President of the People's Bank. Both parents died in this city.

Wallace graduated from Hamilton College at Clinton, New York, in the Classical course, with the class of 1883. While a student he became a member of the Chi-Psi Greek Letter fraternity, with which he has continued to be affiliated for thirty-six years.

In 1885 he graduated in law from Columbia Law School. During 1883-4 he taught Latin, Rhetoric and Elocution in Brooklyn Polytechnic. In 1885 he came to Minneapolis for six years, being associated with H. 0. Stryker in a very satisfactory law practice. He then entered the financial field as Vice President of Hill Sons & Company Bank and continued as active manager for seven years. In 1898 he bought the controlling interest in the Peoples Bank, becoming President.

In 1907 this was .-^old iind became the nucleus of the Scandinavian-American National Bank. Mr. Campbell retiring from active hanking. While banking occupied his attention largely during that sixteen years, he was identified prominently with other diversified interests. For some years he was Vice President of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company, was also Vice President of the New England Furniture & Carpet Company. He also acquired the land grant of 9,000 acres in the Red River Valley of the Great Northern Railway, which he disposed of to actual settlers. He is the owner and President of the Hudson Sanatorium Company at Hudson. Wisconsin, which occupies one of the natural beauty spots of the St. Croix Valley. He ia owner, also, and President of the Widmann Hotel Company at Mitchell, South Dakota, and is President of the Almary Oil Company at Tulsa. Oklahoma, one of the fine properties in that wonderful oil tenitory. He holds membership in the Minneapolis club, the Athletic club, the Auto and the Miltona clubs, the latter composed of congenial spirits whose enjoyment is in hunting and fishing.

In 1886 he married Minnie V. Adams of Chicago, a niece of C. H. McCormick, the renowned manufacturer. They have two daughters, Mary and Ruth. They live at the Hotel Plaza. Ever an ardent Republican, during the Harrison and Morton campaign of 1888 Mr. Campbell attained quite a reputation as a political worker and speaker, stumping the state for the party. Richly endowed with a pleasing personality, enhanced by the culture that comes from university life, and the personal contact with the world through important business relations, few men in Minnesota possess a wider or more loyal circle of friends.

George H. Christian

Although a Southerner by birth, and partly educated in the South, George H. Christian has lived in the North from the time when he was eleven years of age, and in Minneapolis for a continuous period of forty-five years. He is therefore in full sympathy with the ideas and aspirations of this section, and has shown his warm and helpful interest in it by his large contributions to its industrial and commercial development. No part of its business life, and no phase of its economic progress, during his residence among its people, is unknown to him, and there is Scarcely any in which he has not taken part to its great advantage, even though his own manufacturing and mercantile activities have been confined to but a few lines of production and distribution.

Mr. Christian was born near Wetumpka, Alabama, on January 14, 1839, and remained in the South until 1850, when he moved with his parents to Walworth county, Wisconsin, where they settled on a farm. Before leaving his Southern home, however. Mr. Christian began his academic education in a private school at Wilmington, North Carolina. He had but limited opportunities for further study in a scholastic way, for soon after his arrival in the North he went to Albany, New York, and entered the store of an uncle there. His next step in business training was as a clerk in the office of the Continental Insurance company in New York city, and his experience in both places was of great advantage to him in giving him knowledge of himself and of others, and also in affording him practical acquaintance with business.

But he was far above being for any great length of time a worker for other men, and in a few years after having been a clerk for a flour, grain and commission merchant in Chicago, he with great foresight and discriminating intelligence saw the possibilities at the head of navigation on the Mississippi and divined the great future of the region around it, especially in the production of cereals and their conversion into manufactured products of various kinds for consumption and still further manufacture, and in 186T Mr. Christian became a resident of Minneapolis as a flour buyer. Soon afterward he became associated with Governor Washburn in the milling business, introducing French and German processes- for milling Hour, which practically revolutionized the business in this section. In 1869 he organized and became the head of the firm of Christian, Tomlinson & Co., merchant millers, which was changed the next year to that of George H. Christian & Co., and continued as such until 1875.

At that time he was still a young man and the milling business was particularly profitable because of the introduction of a new process of milling wheat. He had, however, formed the singular determination not to acquire riches, believing happiness could easier be found by one neither rich nor poor, and although his profit on flour per barrel was twenty times what is now considered satisfactory, he sold out his interest in the business to his brothers without exacting any premium. He remained out of active management of any business for twenty years, when a certain large milling concern became financially embarrassed through divided management. He was asked to take over the business, which he did, and at the end of four years he was enabled to hand it back to the companjf with its financial strength restored and its affairs in a prosperous state.

Subsequently he became the President of the Hardwood Manufacturing Company, a position he has ever since filled. By his energy and business capacity lie built this company and its trade up to large proportions, making it one of the leading industrial and mercantile institutions in the city, and giving it a name and Standing in the business world of the highest rank and a commanding influence in business affairs in the locality in which it operates so extensively.

But it was not to be expected that a man of Mr. Christian's activity of mind and business resources could be confined, or would confine himself, to one line of endeavor. He is vice president of the Minneapolis Paper company and connected with other industries and business undertakings of various kinds and cumulative value to the community around him, which he had helped so materially to build up, develop and improve.

George H. Christian is the son of John and Susan (Weeks) Christian, the former a native of County Wicklow, Ireland, and the latter of Wilmington, North Carolina. The father was born in 1807, and was a son of David Christian, of the same nativity as himself, who came to the United States in 1806 and located in Albany, New York, where he died after having been for many years engaged in mercantile life. His family consisted of six sons and three daughters. His son John, father of George H., died in Minneapolis in 1881. He and his wife were members of St. Mark's church.

Mr. Christian of this sketch was married on April 2.3, 1867, in Minneapolis, to Miss Leonora Hall, a native of Wisconsin. They have one child living, their son, George C. The parents are Episcopalians in religious connection and members of St. Mark's church. The father belongs to the Minneapolis and Commercial clubs. He and his wife, who still abides with him, have long been among the most esteemed residents of their home city, and recognized as among its most potent factors for good to the community, morally, intellectually, socially and materially.

Colonel Frank T. Corriston

Although now known and listed professionally as an attorney at law, Colonel Frank T. Corrison has served the community well in an important olficial capacity, the State as an officer of the National Guard, and the country as a soldier and officer in the Spanish-American war.

Colonel Corriston was born in St. Peter, Minnesota, February 10, 1868. He removed to Minneapolis in 1883. Later he learned shorthand. Began the study of law in the office of Wilson & Lawrence, and was admitted to the bar March 14, 1889. From 1893 to 1896 Colonel Corriston was a partner of .James W. Lawrence and Hiram C. Truesdale under the firm name of Lawrence, Truesdale & Corriston, the firm being dissolved when Mr. Truesdale was appointed Chief Justice of Arizona. In January, 1897 Judge David F. Simpson appointed Mr. Corriston official court stenographer of the Hennepin County District Court, a position he held until January 7, 1907, except for eighteen months' sei-vice in the Philippines.

Colonel Corriston served in the First Regiment, Minnesota ' National Guard, from April 14, 1889, to October 23, 1913, completing almost twentj'-five years of active connection with that organization, vacating his position of Lieutenant Colonel to accept an appointment as Colonel on the Governor's Staff.

As a captain in the Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteers he went to Manila, arriving there July 31, 1898. Participated in the capture of the city of Manila on August 13. 1898, being in command and acting as Major of the Minneapolis battalion of the Thirteenth Regiment. Remained in the Philippines until the regiment returned September 7, 1899. He was mustered out of the federal service October 3, 1899. Resumed his connection with the Minnesota National Guard, in which he was soon elected Lieutenant Colonel. Was largely instrumental in securing the new National Guard Armory, and was a member of the Armory Board for a number of years.

During his service in the Philippines he was detailed for seven months as Judge of the Provost Court of Manila. He preferred the charge and was a witness in the trial of the first j)erson convicted under American authority in the Philippines.

Mayor James C. Haynes appointed him chief of police of Minneapolis January 7, 1907, and when the Mayor was re-ele'cted the chief was reappointed, his term expiring the first of January, 1911, when he declined reappointment.

When he assumed charge of the police department the force numbered 262 members, and the appropriation was $283,000. When he retired, after four years' service, there were 337 members, and the appropriation was $398,000. The number of arrests in the first year was 8,842, and in the last 11,430. During his term the expense of maintaining the department never exceeded the appropriations. During the four years he was chief of police the appropriations aggregated $1,310,460, and the credit balance at the close of his term was $38.54.

He introduced the use of automobiles in the department; started the TraflSe Squad to regulate street travel at congested points; was the author of the present traffic ordinance; inaugurated a new street signal service, and installed the autopatrol and motorcycle service; established the auto-ambulance and police surgeon department, and created the new Sixth Precinct station at Lake street and Minnehaha Avenue; the Bertillon method of identification was systematized and enlarged, and the finger print identification installed; salaries of police officers were increased twice during his term of office, and promotions were made on civil service lines before there was any legislation on the Subject.

Colonel Corriston is a Democrat. He was Secretary of the Democratic Congressional Committee in 1892, and in 1900 was the candidate for special judge of the Municipal Court.

Belongs to the Masons, holding membership in Khurum Lodge; is Past High Priest of Ark Chapter, belongs to Minneapolis Mounted Commandery and Zuhrah Temple. He is also a member of the Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Native Sons of Minnesota, Patterson Post No. 11 Army of the Philippines, Cuba and Porto Rico, of which he is the iii-st Past Commander. Also belongs to the Minneapolis Athletic Club and the West Side Commercial Club.

Henry Titus Welles

"The memory of the just is blessed." So it was written by King Solomon in hiv* Proverbs of men in general, and so it was written of the late Henry Titus Welles of Minneapolis especially, in the Minnesota Church Record, when he departed this life on March 4, 1898, in the seventy-seventh year of his age and after a residence of forty-five years in Minneapolis, all of which were crowded with business activity, practical and broad-viewed efforts for the progress and improvement of the community, zealous and effective work for his church and all others, and extensive benevolence in many ways. That the encomium was justly bestowed in his case cannot but be seen from even the brief outline of his life presented in these pages.

Mr. Welles was descended from old New England families of Puritan stock, and was born at Glastonbury, Connecticut, on .^pril 3. 1821. in the house where his father and grandfather were born and died, and where his mother and her mother, his father's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother died. He was a son of Jonathan and Jerusha (Welles) Welles, who were cousins, and were married in Boston on December 10. 1818. Governor Thomas Welles, the progenitor of the American branch of the family, having been proscribed as a recusant in England, his native country, came to America and settled in Connecticut in 1636. He was governor of the colony in 1656 and 1658, and held other important public offices. Henry T. Welles was one of his lineal descendants on both his father's and his mother's side of the house.

.Jonathan Welles, the grandfather of Henry T.. was a graduate of Yale College, and was a tutor in that institution for a number of years after his graduation. He married Catherine Saltonstall, grand-daugliter of Gurdon Saltonstall, governor of Connecticut from 1707 to 1724. dying in office. The family is supposed to be of Norman origin, and has been traced in Normandy back to the latter part of the eighth centtiry, from which time its members held the highest rank, personally and by royal intermarriages. Doubtless some of them were prominent in tlir' train of William the Conqueror, when he invaded Engliuul ill tlic eleventh century and gained dominion over that country at the battle of Hastings.

Henry T. Welles passed his infancy, boyhood and youth on his father's farm and in academic studies until he entered Trinity College (which was formerly known as Washington College) in Hartford, from which he was graduated in 1843.

He then studied law and in 1845 was admitted to practice at the bar of Hartford county. At the age of twenty-nine he was elected as the candidate of the Whig party to represent liis town in the legislature. He accepted but one term in that boily. however, as his active mind was already looking out to projects of moment in a locality far distant from his ancestral home.

In 1853 he brought what family he then had to St. Anthony, as the town at the Falls was then called, and at once engaged in the lumber business, which was the principal, the most attractive and almost the only industry of magnitude in this region at the time. He had liberal capital for the period, and invested a large part of it in operating seven of the eight sets of saws then at St. Anthony, working in association with Franklin Steele, sutler at Fort Snelling, who owned the mill. He encountered many difficulties in his new and hitherto untried line of endeavor, but his native ability, genius for management and adaptability to circumstances made him triumphant over them all, and his venture proved very successful.

Two years later the rapid growth and great promise of the town induced Mr. Welles to invest a considerable sum of money in real estate, whereby he acquired, along with other properties, a share in the claim of which Col. John H. Stevens had entered on the west side of the river, and he moved to that side in 1856. Retaining and improving this property, using it liberally but with care in furthering the advance and extension of the town, Mr. Welles laid through it the foundation of one of the largest fortunes in Minneapolis.

In all his activities Mr. Welles displayed great ability, breadth of view, quickness of perception and ready resourcefulness. The people around him recognized these attributes in him early, and repeatedly selected him to present their interests and claims before the aiithorities at Washington. In the winter of 1854-5, in co-operation with Franklin Steele and Dr. A. E. Ames, he succeeded in having the size of the military reservation reduced and the lands included in it before that time on the west side opened to purchase and settlement.

In the winter of 1856-7 he was again called to Washington, in company with Richard Chute, to aid Delegate Henry M. Rice in procuring the passage of the land grant act of that year, which opened the way to speedy and extensive railroad expansion. On his return home Mr. Welles was tendered a public dinner by the citizens of Minneapolis and St. Anthony in recognition of his services in aiding in the passage of this bill, and in making the two towns centers in the railroad system marked out in it. This compliment, with characteristic modesty, he courteously but firmly declined.

When the city of St. Anthony was incorporated in March, 1855, Mr. Welles was elected its first mayor. The contest was a warm one and his majority over Captain .Tohn Rollins, a very worthy man, according to Mr. Welles, was less than ten votes. About the same time the parish of Holy Trinity I'rotestant Episcopal church was in a measure reorganized and Jlr. Welles was chosen one of its wardens. He was elected to the same office in Geflisemane church when it was organized the following year. His contributions to both churches were liberal and very timely. He saw their needs and anticipated all requests for aid by his own ofi'ers of help for them. In 1.S57 a New England Society was organized and lie consented to l)f one of its vice presidents. At the first Minneapolis town election, held in 1858, this enterprising citizen was called to

Mrs H.T Welles

There was at this time strong competition between the partisans of the upper and the lower towns on the west side of the river. In 1858 a hotel was built on the corner of Washington avenue and Cataract street in the lower town, which it was thought would boost that part of the city and give it the advantage over upper town. But Mr. Welles and Mr. Steele had already, with unusual enterprise, procured the building of the suspeni^ion bridge to Nicollet avenue, where their interests chiefly lay, and they now set apart a fine lot at the corner of KicoUet and Washington avenues for a hotel in their section, and, with a bonus raised by themselves and others, they brought about the erection of the Nicollet House. At its opening in 1858 a banquet and celebration were held, at which Mr. Welles made one of the speeches. With grapliic clearness he sketched the bright prospects and anticipated the magnifitent future of the infant city.

In 1859, while Mr. Welles was president of the school board, he salaries of the public school teachers were in arrears and all of them resigned. The president of the board, with the aid of others, procured funds to pay the back salaries, and the schools were reopened. This was only one instance of many in which this public-spirited gentleman held the welfare of his city and its residents in his hands and gladly gave up his own substance to promote it. But in such instances he strictly obeyed the injunction of the Scriptures by not letting his left hand know what his right did.

The two towns on the banks of the Mississippi, at its picturesque Falls, were growing apace, and both looking forward with the usual optimism of municipal bantlings to metropolitan magnitude and importance, and each was visibly jealous of the other. A serious effort was made in 1860 to unite them in one city corporation, and Mr. Welles was appointed on a committee to draw up a charter. But the hour for this move was not ripe. Public sentiment was not yet sufficiently advanced in education to look over local pride and littleness, and the effort failed for the time, as neither burg was willing to give up its name or merge its individuality, and the great advantages that would accrue to both by the merger were but slightly considered by the thoughtless multitude. Happily a better state of feeling and broader intelligence have since obtained and brought magnificent results.

Mr. Welles was never an aspirant for public office and declined it whenever it was practicable for him to do so. But in 1863 the Democratic nomination for governor was thrust upon him, and, althougii the election of any candidate of that party was hopeless, he made the race from a sense of duty. Of couree he was defeated, but he reduced tlie majority of his opponent, Governor Stephen A. Miller, to an extent that showed and emphasized his own popularity and influence in the state. He had been a Whig from his youth, but in 1856. when his party lost its identity in the newly-organized Republican party, he became a Democrat because he looked upon the new party as sectional and i evolutionary.

Probably the activity in the busy life here briefly chronicled which contributed in the greatest degree to the prosperity, progress and improvement of Minneapolis was the conception of and co-operation in building the Minneapolis & Duluth and Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroads. In the land grant act the railroad system provided for the Minnesota valley had two terminal lines, one to end at St. Paul and the other at St. Anthony, their divergence being at a point near Shakopee.

The public lands granted for the system were equally applicable to both branches, but the control of the road fell into the hands of the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad company, the controlling owners of which were residents of St. Paul. The line from St. Paul was built and the St. Anthony branch neglected, although lands equitably belonging to it were appropriated for the other.

Mr. Welles deliberately determined that with or without public lands the road should be built. He called on the president of the St. Paul & Sioux City road and was informed by that gentleman that his company had no intention of building the St. Anthony branch and would not do so. Mr. Welles told him that under such circumstances the people of Minneapolis would build the road themselves, and if not allowed a cooperating road would provide a competing one. President Drake received this statement with a derisive smile which showed how futile he regarded the attempt.

But President Drake reckoned without his host. The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad company was organized. Mr. Welles was one of its directors and its first president. The construction of the line was begun and it was soon opened from White Bear lake to St. Anthony, and from Minneapolis to the junction with the St. Paul & Sioux City road. Then crossing that line, it was extended south into Iowa and west into Dakota. In course of time the line to St. Paul from the point of junction was abandoned for through traffic, and the derided St. Anthony branch became the main line of the St. Paul road. The extensions involved in this construction work are now parts of the Minneapolis & St. Louis and the Minneapolis & Duluth Railroads. By the magnificent enterprise which spoke them into being the prestige of Minneapolis waS preserved, and her lumber and milling industries were facilitated ; and instead of sinking to a subordinate position she soon outstripped her rival city in population and business.

At the organization of the park commission Mr. Welles was appointed on the board, but after the act had been submitted to and ratified by the people, and the work of park construction was safely started on its beneficent way, he resigned. He was also for a number of years president of the Northwestern National Bank, and during his tenure of that office guided the institution safely through a great difficulty, and it is now the strongest bank in the Northwest. He resigned the presidency after a service of twelve and a half years, but remained one of the bank's directors until failing health obliged him to give up that position also.

Mr. Welles was married on May 3. 1853, in his native town to Miss Jerushe H. Lord, a native of Tolland county, Connecticut, and daughter of Joseph and Chloe (Moulton) Lord, and six of the children born of the union lived to mafiirity. Henrietta died a maiden lady. Catherine is living with her mother. Harriet became the wife of Dr. A. M. Eastman, and died in middle life. The others are Henry, Caroline and Fiances, the last named still living at home and Henry being the third of the children who attained their majority and the only son of the household in the number. The wife and mother is still living and maintains the old home on Hennepin avenue.

Dana L. Case

E. (Hazlett) Case, who were born and reared in Ohio. The father was for a number of years engaged in the banking business at Wadena, Minnesota. During the Civil war he served in the Union army in an Illinois regiment. He died in California in 1910.

His son, Dana L. Case, was brought to Minnesota by his parents in his childhood, and has been a resident of Minneapolis for twenty years. He obtained his education in the school at Wadena, this state, and began his business career as clerk in a bank at Verndale, Minnesota, with which he was connected during 1888 and 1889. In 1902 he opened a bank at Motley, this state, which was first called the Bank of Motley, and was a private institution, but which lias since become the First National Bank of Motley. He worked in that bank as cashier until 1907, when he came to Minneapolis, seeking better opportunities and larger returns for his energies. But he still retains an interest in the bank at Motley and is its vice president.

On May 1, 1907, when Howard Dykman resigned the cashiership of the East Side Bank, Mr. Case was appointed to succeed him in the position. By his enterprise and business capacity he built the trade of the bank up to a large volume, and he also largely increased its popularity through his own. In 1913 he resigned as cashier to accept a responsible position with the Minneapolis Trust company.

Mr. Case takes a warm interest in the social life of the community and shows it by active and serviceable membership in the Commercial and Interlachen clubs. Fraternally he is connected with the Masonic order, and in this also he is deeply and helpfully interested. The public affairs of Minneapolis claim his attention too. and have the benefit of his aid in the direction of securing good government and promoting desirable improvements of every kind, and also with a view to enlarging the comfort and conveniences of the residents of the city and making it a still more desirable place to live in tlian it is at present. On May 23, 1894, he was united in marriage with Miss Grace Holden, who was born in Connecticut. She also is earnestly interested in the progress and welfare of the city of her home, and warmly seconds all her husband's elTorts to advance it, and does what she can in this behalf on her own account besides. She shares with him the high and general regard and good will the people have for him.

Caleb D. Dorr

If the venerable and highly esteemed patriarch whose life story is briefly told in these paragraphs had no other title to honorable mention in a compendium of history and biography for Minneapolis and Hennepin county, the fact that he was one of this locality's earliest pioneers; that he stood by the cradle of its civilization and assisted its growth into lusty boyhood; that he helped to speak its great activities into being and direct them into fruitful channels for the service of mankind and that he is one of the few remaining links which connect its present high development and advanced progress with its birth as a civic, social and industrial entity, would entitle him to an honorable place among its makers and builders in any narrative of their aspirations and achievements.

over them; his contributions to the growth of all that is now among us and around us, and above all, in his high character and sterling manhood, to make any account of the city and county named incomplete without at least some brief narrative of his useful career among this people, which is all that the space available here will permit, insufficient and unsatisfactory as it must necessarily be.

Mr. Dorr was born at East Great Works, now Bradley, Penobscot county, Maine, on July 9, 1824, and is a son of Charles M. and Ann (Morse) Dorr, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Western Maine. The father was a farmer on a small farm, thrifty and industrious in cultivating his land and managing his affairs, but the circumstances of the family were moderate, and tlie life of its members under the parental rooftree involved little of incident or adventure out of the ordinary experiences of that day and locality. Both parents died in Maine after long lives of useful labor and upright living, and their remains were laid to rest in the soil hallowed by their toil. Three sons and two daughters were born in the household, all of whom are now deceased except Caleb and one of his brothers.

Caleb D. Dorr grew to manhood on his father's farm, and during his boyhood and early youth attended the village school during the winter months. At an early age he began to shift in part for himself by working in the lumber mills in his neighborhood and rafting logs. The work was hard and the life of which it was a part was monotonous and primitive. But even as it was, some account of the great possibilities of the great West enlivened it and filled the adventurous spirits engaged in it with desire to see something of the world outside of it and become a part of larger activities.

In 1847, when Mr. Dorr was about twenty-three years of age, he yielded to this longing and came West. He reached Buffalo by one of the first railroads then available, from Albany, and journeyed from the former city over the Great Lakes to Milwaukee. From there to Galena, Illinois, he traveled overland, and from Galena to St. Paul on the old Argo, a river boat. He was now near his long journey's end, but what was he to find in the region of hope and promise when he reached it? From St. Paul to the Falls of St. Anthony was but a short distance, but was a journey into the wilds.

When Mr. Dorr arrived at the Falls he found but a single log house and a mess shanty here, but he saw the great possibilities of the locality for carrying on the business to which he had been trained, and he at once laid plans to engage in it. In 1848 the St. Anthony Waterfalls company built a small mill, and he became one of the employes of that company. But he did not linger long in the service of others. Before the end of the year he started an enterprise Ijy organizing the Mississippi, and Rum River Boom company which built the first boom across the Mississippi at head of the Island, bringing the timbers for the purpose from Crow Wing, and putting up the first works of construction of this kind ever erected in this locality. He then engaged in cutting and rafting timber on the Rum and Mississippi rivers, and continued his operations for a period of eight or ten years continuously, and in 1866 he became the active manager of the Boom Company. In this position he served the company faithfully and wisely until 1888, and he is still connected with it officially. He also began the manufacture of lumber in the fifties and continued to be actively occupied in this industry for many years, in company with others, helping

In the meantime a village of great enterprise and promise had grown up at the Falls and been named St. Anthony. In 1855, on April 13, the first city council of this village held its first meeting with Henry T. Welles as mayor and Mr. Dorr as one of the six aldermen. During the rest of his years of activity Mr. Dorr took an active part in the business and civic afi'airs of the community, and rendered it great service in many ways. He was always broad-minded and progressive, and his judgment was largely deferred to by the men who were engaged with him in promoting the advancement of the town whose birth he had witnessed and which he had helped to baptize.

On March 4, 1849, Mr. Dorr was united in marriage with Miss Clestia A. Ricker of Dover, Maine, who died in March, 1909. They had no children. Mrs. Dorr was a zealous and devout member of the Universalist church, to which Mr. Dorr has also belonged for a long time, and in whose welfare he has taken a very cordial and serviceable interest at all times.

Ben.Jamin Seth Bull

Among the early settlers of Minneapolis was Benjamin S. Bull, born October 19, 1832, in Essex County, New York. His ancestors were of English Quaker origin, settling in Vermont. His father, Henry Bull, was a man of moderate means, so the son's education was necessarily confined to the district schools of his neighborhood.

At the age of twelve years it was necessary that Benjamin Bull support himself and as he grew towards manhood he developed such energy and capacity that he was soon operating for himself in various enterprises.

At the age of twenty-one years he married Miss Mary Stickney of his native village and, following the example of others in the neighborhood, journeyed West to Illinois. Before very long, the glowing accounts of Minnesota became alluring and yielding to the pioneer instinct he made the trip with his wife and infant daughter by team, as there were no railroads running to Minneapolis af that time. He arrived at Minneapolis in 1855 and soon identified himself with the active life of the town.

Three years after arriving in Jlinneapolis Mrs. Bull died and two years later Mr. Bull married Miss Beulah Newell, who was also a native of Essex County, New York.

He now entered the grocery business with a store near Bridge Square. The project prospered, business increased rapidly and soon a partnership was formed with Mr. Hugh G. Harrison, a capitalist who had recently arrived in Minneapolis. This partnerehip resulted in the Harrison Block at the corner of Washington and Nicollet avenues, which building was in those days one of the prides of Minneapolis. After several years of success, the company Sold out to Stevens & Morse, Mr. Bull and Mr. Harrison continuing their partnership in the lumber business with sawmills at the Falls of St. Anthony.

About this time there was great excitement over Montana mining and several leading citizens of Minneapolis, Mr. Bull being among them, made a journey of investigation. This trip resulted in a mining partnership being formed with Mr.

Isaac I. Lewis, the enterprise centering in the "Legal Tender" mine of the "Silver Bow" district. This was before the days of the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railroads, and it was necessary to make the trip via the Union Pacific to Salt Lake City, thence north by stage to Montana.

The "Legal Tender" was a mine of remarkably rich ore, but capricious, as is often the case, and finally, the flour milling business at Minneapolis attracting his attention, Mr. Bull disposed of the Montana mine and erected the "Humboldt Mill," the business being conducted under the name of Bull, Newton & Co. The original Humboldt Mill went down in the great mill explosion of 1878 but was immediately replaced by the present structure now operated by the Washburn-Crosby Co. Flour from the Humboldt Mill received gold medal and first prize at the World's Paris Exposition in 1878.

Discontinuing the milling business, Mr. Bull took up what was then known as bonanza farming. His farms were located in various parts of western Minnesota and North Dakota, the principal, however, being the "Hancock Farm," comprising some 14,000 acres in Stevens and Pope counties, Minnesota.

In the year 1869 Messrs. Bull, Gilson and others introduced the first street railway into Minneapolis, the concern being incorporated as the Minneapolis Horse Railway Co. Cars were run on a track laid along Second Street, connecting the Milwaukee and Manitoba depots. The project was a little premature as a street railway and the tracks were used mainly for the purpose of transferring cars between the two systems of roads. Soon Mr. Gilson died and It was decided to abandon tlie enterprise,, thus ending the first street railway of Minneapolis.

Mr. Bull was a quiet man, keeping much with his family and working with unceasing energy and interest on the various business ventures of his life. He was a member of the First Baptist Church when that church occupied a location at the corner of Nicollet Avenue and Third Street.

Benjamin S. Bull died November 31, 1889, and there survives him, his widow, two daughters and a son - Mrs. Louis F. Menage, Mrs. William G. Crocker and Benjamin S. Bull, a sketch of whom is embraced in this book.

Benjamin S. Bull

Mr. Bull has the administration of the advertising department of the Washburn-Crosby Co., and, directing the expenditure of hundreds of thousands of dollars for printing and advertising, he is particularly well known in periodical circles. In this field he has earned a reputation for being a sagacious and discerning judge of publicity.

Born in Minneapolis on. June 21, 1869, Mr. Bull received hig education in the public schools of the city. His first business experience was with his father in the real estate business in 1887 and 1888. From 1S89 to 1895 he was asso'ciated with the First National and other Minneapolis banks.

It was in the latter year that he took employment with the Washburn-Crosby Co. Expending large sums of money for advertising, the company found it necessary to create a department for its systematic and judicious handling, and Mr. Bull was made manager of it. His success in this posision is attested by the fact of his being made one of the eight

Gibson Allan Chaffee

The business career of Gibson A. Chaffee, manager of the Crane Company of Minneapolis since 1899, has been a continuous succession of effort and achievement, of enterprise and progress, from the time when he left school at the age of nineteen years until the present day. His duties and responsibilities have steadily increased in volume and importance as the years have passed, but every step of his advance has been wrought out by himself by faithful performance of the duties he has had in hand, and has been based on substantial and well demonstrated merit.

Mr. Chaffee was born at Hastings, Minnesota, on January 31, 1866. He was educated in the public schools of Mansfield, Ohio, which he attended until 1883. In that year he took a position in the employ of Wilson & Rogers of St. Paul, and during the next fourteen years he was a traveling salesman for that firm, the Rogers-Willis company, the Rogers & Ordway company and the Crane & Ordway company, all St. Paul business houses of high rank, and carrying on extensive operations throughout an extensive territory.

At the end of the period mentioned he became assistant manager for the Crane & Ordway company, a position which he filled with great ability and to the entire satisfaction of the company for four years. In 1899 he was made manager for the Crane company, of Minneapolis, and in this capacity he has served that company ever since. On his own account he has for some years been an extensive breeder of dairy stock on his fine farm at Long Lake, Minnesota. He is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic club, the Rotary club, the Civic and Commerce association and several fraternal orders, and takes an active interest in everything involving the welfare of the people of the Twin Cities, His residence is at 1942 CaiToll avenue, St. Paul.

William Sheldon Judd

In a residence of thirty-seven years in Minneapolis and forty-four in Minnesota, the late William Sheldon Judd, a leading business man, demonstrated the admirable adaptability of American manhood to circumstances and requirements. He was an Eastern man and a mountaineer, but he fitted in with Western surroundings and life on the Slinnesota prairie-s as if they had always been his portion. He passed his boyhood and youth in the hardest kind of farm labor; yet he took hold of industrial pursuits in manufacturing lines with readiness' and easy control.

Mr. Judd was born at Elizabethtown, Essex county. New York, in the Adirondack mountains, March 10, 1823, His father David J\idil, like several generations of his forefathers, lived and died in that region. He owned a rough, stony farm which was hard to work. His son William often said he wore his fingers out picking up stones in his boyhood and early youth, and he also wore out his fondness for farming such soil, if he ever had any. While he was yit a very young man

Mr. Judd engaged in the manufacture of iron as the head of a foundry in which he had scarcely any but French workmen, who called him "Beel," their pronunciation of "Bill." He was successful and in a few years sought larger opportunities and more congenial pursuits.

In 1858 he moved to Faribault, Minnesota, where he engaged in banking in partnership with William Dyke. They loaned money on farms and other security and carried on a general banking business. Prosperity attended them and Mr. Judd was well satisfied with his location and his prospects. But Mrs. Judd had visited Minneapolis, admired the attractions of the then thriving little city and longed to make it her home. In 1865 she induced her husband to move here, and once more they found a new home among strangers.

Mr. Judd formed a partnership with William Eastman, andthey became the managers of the Cataract flour mill, which Mr. Eastman had previously built. This was the first mill from which flour was shipped to the East from St. Anthony Falls. Mr. Judd was well acquainted with many leading families in St. Paul, and they were serviceable in helping to promote his business enterprises. He gave his attention earnestly and studiously to the affairs of the mill, but soon after becoming connected with it he bought the block bounded by Fifth and Sixth Streets and Fifth and Sixth Avenues South, and on it erected a large brick dwelling, which was one of the leading residences in the city at that period. Some years later he bought a home at 639 Eighth Street South, in which both he and his wife died.

In the course of a few years Mr. Judd joined Mr. Eastman and George A. Brackett in the erection and operation of a woolen mill, of which Mr. Eastman was the originator, as he was of the Cataract flour mill. Mr. Judd was also a pioneer in one of the local industries that has been remarkably successful and grown to great magnitude. He was one of the incorporators of the first street railway, a horse-car line that traversed half a dozen blocks along Washington Avenue. After some years Mr. .Judd sold his interest in both mills and turned his attention to the wholesale lumber trade. He made extensive sales of lumber in Ivansas and Missouri, but before he could make collections for his sales the grasshoppers devastated those States, his debtors became impoverished, and his losses were sufficient to wipe out his fortune.

He was then past middle life, had suffered some loss of health and lowering of vitality and strength, and decided to relinquish the greater part of his activity in business. He was for some years manager of a large wheat farm near Wahpeton. North Dakota, for a Mr. Adams of Chicago. He passed a great deal of his time thereafter at Lake Minnetonka, where he enjoyed sailboating, fishing and other lake pleasures. He was also an enthusiastic horticulturist, and gave this pleasing pursuit much attention during his years of leisure. He di< d November 25, 1903.

May 13, 1851, Mr. Judd was married at Moriali. in his native county to Miss Mary Almira Bishop who w;is born in Vermont, February 16, 1830, and died in Minneapolis, July 3, 1911. They became the parents of three children, William Bishop, Ella, and Frank David. William Pishop Judd lives at 3607 Pleasant Avenue, Mimieapolis, Mrs. Ella (Judd) Dibble, now deceased, was the widow of the late Russell Dibble (of the flouring firm of Darrow & Dibble), who died in 1882, at the age of twenty-eight. She had two children. One of these' is her daughter Mary, who is the wife of Chapin R. Brackett,. the son of George A. Brackett, her grandfather's old partner.

Mrs. Dibble's son, Eugene Russell Dibble, is prominently connected with the Dibble Grain and Elevator Company, with an office in the Flour Exchange building; he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of several social clubs. Frank David Judd, the third child of William S., died at the age of sixteen years.

Mrs. Mary Almira Judd, the wife of William S. Judd, was a lady of domestic taste and habits; her home was a social center and great resort. She was the confidential friend and adviser of almost everybody in her circle of intimates, and was always prompt in helping the needy. She retained her youthful appearance in her old age, and her beauty of disposition and attractiveness of manner grew with her years, making her in advanced life one of the most charming old ladies Minneapolis has ever known.

Her daughter, Mrs. Dibble, was a very energetic and enthusiastic social worker. She was active in the work of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the Ladies' Guild, and a number of other helpful and uplifting organizations. During the later years of her mother's life they passed their winters together in Florida. Mrs. Dibble's death occurred October 27. 1913, at the Hampshire Arms.

Barclay Cooper

Mr. Cooper is a native of that rich, old German locality, renowned for the sturdiness and worth of its people and the great value and highly improved condition of its farms, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, which about the time of his birth, 1842, was probably the richest rural county in the United States. His parents, Milton and Zillah (Preston) Cooper, were also natives of Pennsylvania, and came to Minneapolis to live in 1857, arriving in this city on May ll: The fatlier was a contractor and builder, and died here at the age of ninety years and six months.

Barclay Cooper was reared to the age of fifteen in his native county, and began his education in the district schools there. He finished this with a high school course in Minneapolis, and immediately afterward learned the carpenter trade under the instructions of his father, who was a master of the craft. Soon after the beginning of the Civil war the young man enlisted in the L'nion army and was assigned to duty in the quartermaster's department, in which he served to the end of the sanguinary contest.

After leaving the army Mr. Cooper joined his father and brother in contracting and building, and was associated with them for a number of years. For a long time, however, he has been in business alone, and has been very successful in his w'ork, having been engaged to put up a large number of important business and dwelling houses. Among the structures he has erected in this city are the residences of George McMullen, on Chestnut avenue; Mr. Harmon, on Hennepin avenue; and B. Taylor, at Sixth avenue south and Eighth street; the Metropolitan theater; a large store building on First avenue north; and four store buildings on Second avenue north; the Curtis Court apartment. Tenth and Third avenues south; the large Flat building. Eleventh and Hawthorne, besides many other houses on Franklin and irving, residences for W. L. Waldron, John Proctors, W. Pauls and R. M. Chapmans. He owns a lot at the intersection of Third avenue and First street north, 165 by 100 feet in

On Sept. 14, 1869, Mr. Cooper was married to Miss Addie Bassett, of Minneapolis, and by this marriage he became the father of two children, his son Edgar B. and his daughter, Mrs. Edna Fortner. Edgar B. Cooper married Miss Cora Joslin, and he also has two children, Priscilla E. and Barclay Edgar. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Commercial club, and he and his wife belong to the Universalist Church of the Redeemer. Their pleasant home is at No. 1100 Hawthorn avenue.

Oliver Perry Carter

The mastery of mental power and a strong will over serious bodily ailments, and the almost conijilete Subjection of the physical nature to the higher attributes were forcibly illustrated in the life of the late Oliver Perry Carter, a former leading grain dealer who died Januai-y 28, 1912, at the age of sixty-six. Mr. Carter was a victim of locomotor ataxia, which rendered him unable to walk for several years. Yet he meanwhile devoted great energy and constant attention to the management of large business enterprises and even made two extensive tours in Europe.

Oliver P. Carter was born near Glen's Falls, New Y'ork, July 5, 1846, and during childhood was brought to a farm near Delavan, Wisconsin, where he reached the age of seventeen. In 1864 he returned to New York to enlist in obedience to the last call for volunteers, being discharged with his regiment.

On his return he attended Beloit College three years and began his business career in the employ of M. J. Near & Company, Chicago, manufacturers of bags, his attention to business and the unusual ability displayed soon making him a member of the firm. In 1877, yielding to a long-standing desire, he came to St. Paul to engage in the wholesale trade in vegetable and other .seeds. Entering into a partnership with U. S. Hollister and Henry A. Castle and, organizing tlie firm of Hollister, Carter & Castle, they bought several hundred acres, which was devoted to the growing of seeds. His marriage January 23, 1878. united him with Alice Wheeler, daughter of William and Mary B. (Spalding) Wheeler of this city. Mr. and Mrs. AVheeler were natives of New Hampshire, were there married and came to Minneapolis in 1866. Mr. Wheeler had formerly been a manufacturer of lumber in both Wisconsin and Michigan, and had also bought pine lands in thi» state, but is generally remembered in connection with the grain trade, retiring in 1888.

After Mr. Carter's marriage he joined Mr. Wheeler in the firm of Wheeler & Carter, and when the senior member retired his son. Charles F. Wheeler, took his place.

Mr. Wheeler died December 2, 1897. His widow now resides at Minnetonka, but still owns the oM home on Sixth street south. She is active in the Women's club iiml a <-li:irtcr member of the Current Literature club.

Mr. Carter was always energetic in business, and was found in his office almost constantly until a short time before his death. He traveled extensively, but ever kept his finger on the business pulse even when farthest from home. He owned a farm and timber lands, but for some years restricted his operations to his extensive grain trade, including a lineof country elevators in Minnesota and North Dakota.

Mr. Carter and wife had two daughters, Mary S., the wife of Doctor G. B. Frankforter, dean of the College of Chemistry of the University of Minnesota, and Alice Ellen, wife of Charles J. O'Connell, interested in iron mines of the Cayuna Range, at Crosby, Minnesota.

This esteemed citizen who has been a resident for about a quarter of a century has exemplified, in a manner worthy of admiration the strong traits of character, elevated patriotism and cordial interest in the general welfare which are salient features of his countrymen.

Mr. Carlson was born in Jeareda Soken, Kalmarlan, Sweden, December 25, 1859, and is a son of Carl Johann and Lovisa (Hultgren) Carlson. He was educated in the state schools and for his technical training attended a slojd school, with special attention to drafting and designing, and was subsequently selected as a teacher in a similar institution at Upsala. At the Copenhagen industrial exposition he was awarded first prize for a sketch and detail description of a buffet, in competition with many others. Not satisfied with the prospects at home and having former associates in this country, and hearing so much of the vast wealth of natural resources and opportunity he decided to come where so many of his countrymen had become successful and distinguished.

In 1888 he reached Minneapolis. Soon after helping to found the Northwestern Mantel company, now the Northwestern Marble and Tile company, and was its manager and secretary until 1908. From the time of his advent he felt a cordial and serviceable interest in public welfare, and has contributed largely to advance its interests.

In 1910 he was chosen county commissioner from the second district, which he now represents, and was elected chairman. He is interested in mining properties in Alaska, and has also other important interests.

Mr. Carlson was married in 1896, to Miss Matilda Peterson, of Otisco, Minnesota. They have four children. He is a member of the Odin club, and of the Evangelical Mission Tabernacle.

Lester R. Brooks

The euthanasia, the easy, painless and peaceful death, least foreseen and soonest over, so much desired by the ancients, was the kind that closed the honorable and useful life and the great and fruitful business record of the late Lester Ranney Brooks of Minneapolis on November 11, 1902, when he was but fifty-five years old, in the prime of his manhood, with all his faculties fully developed and obedient to his will, and when he was also one of the main supports of many worthy undertakings for the advancement of his home city and the enduring welfare of its residents. His final summons came suddenly, without warning or premonition, giving the city he had so long and so wisely served a great shock and enshrouding all its people in deep and oppressive grief and gloom.

of Dr. Sheldon and .Teannette (Ranney) Brooks. Because of the uncertain health of the father the family came to Minnesota in 1856 and from then until his death the doctor was engaged in the grain business at Minneiska. He built a home in the WTiitewater Valley and laid out a town which he called Beaver. It still bears that name and has become a flourishing and progressive village. Early in his residence in the state of Minnesota, which the territory became two years after his arrival within its borders as a resident, the doctor attained to prominence in public affairs, and until his death he continued to be a man of strong influence and local power for good. He was a member of the second state legislature, and in order to reach St. Paul for the session made a thirty-hour journey by stage on the frozen surface of the Mississippi river.

Lester R. Brooks was but nine years old when he was brought by his parents to Minnesota, and here he obtained the greater part of his academic education. Early in life he showed a decided talent for business and an earnest desire to be engaged in it. Accordingly, in 1862, when he was but fifteen years of age, he became associated with his father and brothers in the grain trade. In 1873 they formed the firm of Brooks Bros., doing business in that line of traflSc. The next year Lester moved to Winona, having purchased a large amount of the stock of the Second National Bank and served as its cashier for a number of years, meanwhile retaining his interest in the firm of Brooks Bros, in Minneiska. where he had previously served as agent for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.

In 1880 he organized and became president of the Winona Milling company, which erected what was then the largest and most important steam flour mill in the Northwest, if not in the United States. It was one of the first to install the roller milling process and probably the first large mill in the country to discard burrstones entirely. The mill began operations with a capacity of 1,000 barrels a day, and during the five years of his presidency of the company this was enlarged to 2,600 barrels. In this mill Mr. Brooks installed the first Edison incandescent light system west of New York city.

In 1885 the state of his health and the growing importance of Minneapolis as a grain market induced Mr. Brooks to move to this city and establish here the headquarters of the Brooks Elevator company, of which he was president and his brothers, Dwight S, and Anson S,, were members. This company owned and operated thirty-five elevators in Western Minnesota and Dakota, and terminal elevator stocks, and also had extensive interests in the lumber trade and in banking. About the year 1908 the company disposed of practically all its holdings in the grain business, the lumber department of its enterprise having been largely extended by the purchase of western timber lands. This change was made at a time when the price of lumber was rapidly going up, and proved very advantageous to the company.

Mr. Brooks also founded the Brooks-Griffith company, which, with various changes in name, is still one of the leading grain companies in Minneapolis. In addition he was president of the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber company, president of the Scanlon-Gipson and the Brooks-Robertson Lumber companies. In the management of all these industrial institutions he took an active interest, and to their expansion and successful operation he gave the full force of his highly stimulating enterprise and business capacity. His record as a business man is written in large and enduring phrase in the indusdurial and commercial chronicles of this city and the monut/t /=^, ments which proclaim his greatness as a manufacturer, merchant, banker and promoter are the mighty enterprises he helped to found and build up to almost colossal magnitude and almost world-wide usefulness.

Soon after his location in Minneapolis he became a member of the Chamber of Commerce and immediately prominent in the management of its affairs. He served on many important committees and in 1897 was elected president. His work in this position, which he filled for two years, was universally recognized as most efficient, conscientious and productive. He saw that the organization was greatly in need of more commodious quarters and forcibly advocated the erection of a new building. When his views prevailed he was made chairman of the building committee, a position of weighty responsibility, the duties of which, however, he performed in a manner wholly satisfactory to the members of the Chamber. He also gave to the grain trade of the city the Chamber of Commerce Clearings association, the need of which he was the first to see and which he organized and, as its first president, started on its helpful career, directing its activities into proper channels, awakening and concentrating all its powers, and making it meet all the requirements for whicj; it was created and kept in operation.

The banking business enlisted the interest, gratified the taste and extensively engaged the energies of Mr. Brooks from an early period in his business career. For many years prior to his death he was a director of the Northwestern National Bank and the Minnesota Loan and Trust company of this city and the Second National Bank of Winona. He was also a prominent member of the St. Paul Lumber Exchange, and belonged to other business organizations which have had an important bearing on the progress and improvement of the city and the expansion of its industrial, commercial and mercantile greatness. In its social life he took an active part as a member of the Minneapolis. Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, in the last named being a member of the board of governors and the chairman of the building committee, and in aJJ a potential force for progress in every way.

Wliile never desirous of holding political ofRce, Mr. Brooks was an ardent supporter of the principles and theories of government of the Republican party. Fraternally he was a Freemason of high degree, being a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He was liberal in his contributions to all religious and charitable organizations, and to all other agencies working for the uplifting of the people in his community without reference to their creeds or article^ of faith, and with full tolerance toward them.

Mr. Brooks always took an earnest, practical and helpful interest in outdoor life, and clean and healthful manly sports, and gave them strong advocacy in speech and substantial encouragement and aid in a material way. He was an enthusiastic yachtsman and served for years as commodore of the Minnetonka Yacht club. His yacht, the Pinafore, won the championship of her class on Lake Minnetonka and also the inter-lake pennant on White Bear lake. For many years he maintained a summer home on the upper end of Big Island in the former lake, his winters being passed in the South or in travel.

Mr. Brooks was married in April, 1873, to Miss Josephine Bullene, a native of Wisconsin, and a resident of Minnesota, at the time of the marriage. They had one child, their son, Philip Ranney Brooks, who is still living and has his home in Minneapolis. Mr. Brooks, as has been stated, died suddenly.

without warning or premonition, on November 11, 1902. his demise occurring in his apartments in the West hotel. Rev. L. H. Hallock, pastor of the Plymouth Congregational church, conducted the funeral services, and in the course of his address paid the highest tribute to the genuine worth, strict integrity, elevated manhood and useful citizenship of the deceased. He said in part: "The greatest of mysteries has transpired before our eyes, and we can only stand in awe and sorrow, saying with our late lamented President McKinley, 'It is God's way, His will be done.' Mr. Brooks respected genuineness and sincerity. He abhorred meanness and paltry show. The world is better for his having lived in it and poorer because of his having gone out of it."

All the institutions and organizations with which the deceased was connected adopted resolutions of testimony to the high character, excellent citizenship and vast usefulness he had exhibited, of sympathy with his surviving family and of deep grief over his untimely departure. The Chamber of Commerce Clearings Association placed itself on record in the following language:

"The Association has lost one of its most useful members, an honest and upright man, whose virtues endeared him to' all, and who was always zealous in advancing the interests of the association. He served it as president in 1897 and 1898, and to his wise guidance it owes much of its present prosperity and high standing. During the last two years, as chairman of the building committee for the erection of the new Chamber of Commerce annex, he devoted much of his valuable time to the service of the Chamber, and it was largely through his efforts that the elegant structure is now receiving its artistic finishing touches." His portrait hangs in the directors' room of the Chamber.

The St. Paul Lumber Exchange resolved: "That in the death of L. R. Brooks the State of Minnesota has been deprived of a business man of sterling qualities and of a high, honorable type, whose wise and conservative counsel will be missed and the loss of which will be deplored by all, while his being taken from among us will be deeply mourned."

The directors of the Second National Bank of Winona declared: That they could not too strongly express the institution's high appreciation of the excellent and valued judgment of the deceased, who had been a director of the bank continuously from 1875, and could not tod deeply regret the loss of his future advice.

For the directors of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis E. W. Decker, the cashier at the time, said: "It was with a great deal of regret that we were obliged to give up Mr. Brooks as one of the directors of this bank, and I know that every member of the bcjrd felt the loss very keenly."

The Minnesota Loan and Trust company resolved: "That Jlr. Brooks was a square man. He combined the good judgment, executive ability and strength of a successful business man with a gentleness and courtesy and consideration for others which endeared him most to those who knew hira best."

The American Lumberman, published in Chicago, spoke feelingly of the keenly sensitive integrity of Mr. Brooks as follows: "He could not bear to think of the least reflection being cast upon the financial honor of any concern in which he was interested. He carried this high sense of honor through all his business dealings., and demanded it of his associates and employes."

1860. She died in February, 1913, and was buried in tlie habit of tlie Third Order of Dominican Sisters. Tlieir children are Frances, Mrs. P. M. McDonough; Willis, an attorney in Seattle; Ella, private secretary to the president of an insurance company; Anna, a teacher in Minneapolis; and .John, superintendent of an iron mine at Everett, Minnesota.

Tlie story of the growth of an important contracting business in connection witli tlie upbuilding of the Northwest is told in the narration of .John E. Bunis. It is a business which, like many another, had its beginning in the development of tlie lumber and flour mill industry. Mr. Burns is a native of New Brunswick, where he was born June 15, 1841, being one of seventeen children, and was reared in the lumber woods. He continued working in the woods until 1865, when he landed in Minneapolis, which was then rapidly becoming the lumber capital of the west. For five years he followed lumbering, working for Fred Clark and for Washburn, Stickney and Company. During the winters he was head chopper in the woods; and in the spring would drive logs down the river to Minneapolis'. In 1870, Mr. Burns went to work for C. C. Washburn, and it was this association that shaped his future, for it was then that he became interested in canal, tunnel and flour mill construction. He assisted in building the Washburn "A" mill, and worked in it until the mill was blown up in the great mill explosion. At the time of this disaster Mr. Burns stood only a few hundred feet from the mill, and was knocked down but not hurt by the force of the explosion. He was then foreman in charge of cleaning away the debris, as well as of the work of rebuilding.

Mr. Burns' first work on tunnels had been done in 1865, when he helped construct the first tunnel to the "B" mill. And he has worked on almost every big tunnel since, in the river about the mills. At the death of Governor Washburo, Mr. Burns turned his attention to contracting, and put in a tunnel for the J. B. Bassett sawmills, and in partnership with Ami Weeks, he took a contract for constructing the city tunnel the viaduct to the city waterworks at the foot of Sixth avenue south, a distance of five hundred feet. Here he devised water wheel power for pumping and hauling otit the cars of earth. At this time he came into close relation witli William de la Barre, manager of the waterworks, ilr. Buins continued to contract for the city on watermain and sewer work; he also in 1887 built a big tunnel at Galena, 111., for the Great Western railroad. He took contracts for tunnels for Winston Brothers, railroad contractors, in various parts of tlic country; and also built a long tunnel - in 1900 - for the Great Northern railway, from the Missouri river to the Teton river, in Montana. In addition to this contracting. Mr. Burns has also been superintendent on large works of water power and dam construction, a line in which he was engaged because of his recognized ability in handling large forces of workmen.

He has built and now owns a large apartment liouse near his own home; has been active in municipal and civic aiTairs, participating in politics for others, having himself several times refused candidacy for public office. Mr. Bums is a Republican, although non-partisan in local politics.

In 1869 Mr. Burns married Mary Collins, a native of Ireland, and to them were born two sons and three daughters, ilrs. Burns, who was one of the best known women in the Holy Rosary church, and for some years treasurer of the Aid society of the parish, was born in 1844 and came to Minneapolis in

George Fraxk Piper

George Frank Piper was born in Minneapolis on April 11, 1^56, and is a son of Jefferson and Mary Davis (McDuffee) Piper, natives of New England, where they were reared, educated and married, and where they lived for a number of years after their marriage. The father's health began to fail and he moved to this state, locating first in Minneapolis and some time afterward changing his residence to a farm near Mankato. In the family residence on the farm, amid rural associations and pursuits, his son George F. grew to the age of seventeen. He began his academic education in the public schools, continued it at one of the state normal schools in this state and completed it at the State University, which he entered on his return to Minneapolis in 1873. But he remained at the University only one year, being eager to begin making his own way forward in the world.

Mr. Piper began his business career as a manufacturer of linseed oil, which he has been ever since. For more than ten years he carried on his operations in this business at Mankato, and was very successful in them from the start. Tlie larger opportunity and greater resources for his business in Jlinneapolis brought him back to this city in 1894, and here he has passed all his subsequent years, throughout the whole period being prominently connected with the industry in which he started and contributing so largely and effectively to its growth and development that Minneapolis is now the most extensive linseed oil producing point in the United States, and the company which he and his associates control do about one-fifth of the linseed oil business of the country.

But Mr. Piper has not confined his energies to the oil business. He holds extensive interests in Canada in the elevator and lumber business. The elevator companies in that country in which he is one of a number of men who hold a controlling interest, handle about one-sixth of the grain in the Dominion. In the early development of Canada Mr. Piper and his associates owned large tracts of land amounting in the aggregate to over three million acres. They were among the first to realize the immense possibilities of the western part of the country, and pioneers in starting the development of those possibilities.

Mr. Piper also has extensive interests in ilinneapolis in a business way. He has been for many years a director of the Clianiber of Commerce, serving as vice president two years and president one year. He is in addition a director of the Security National Bank and one of the board of governors of the Minneapolis and the Minikahda clubs. His political allegiance has always been given with firmness and fidelity to the Republican party; but, while he has at all times been deeply interested in its success and continued supremacy, he has never desired a political office or been willing to accept one, although frequently solicited to do so.

have four sons. Clarence B., the eldest, is a graduate of the Lawrenceville, New Jersey, school and of Cornell University. He married Miss Isabella Gait and lives in Winnipeg. The second son, Louis H., is also a graduate of the Lawrenceville school. He married Miss Ruth Hamm, of Chicago, and is now connected with the starch factory of Douglas Co. of Cedar Kapids, Iowa. Harry C, the third son, is a graduate of Yale University and engaged in business with Piper & Co. in handling commercial paper. Oeorge F. Piper, Jr., the youngest son, is at present a student at Yale. All the members of the family are Presbyterians, and those living in Minneapolis belong to Westminster church of that sect.

This is a brief review of a remarkable business career wrought out by a gentleman of very unusual mental endowments and business capacity. While it has been of great profit to him, it has also been of great usefulness to the city of his residence and all other localities with which it has connected him. And he has at all times and in all places been zealous in promoting the welfare of others along with his own. This has given him a strong hold on the regard and good will of all who have business or social relations with him or knowledge of his broad and helpful manhood.

Theodore F. Curtis

Mr. Curtis is the builder and proprietor of the ''Leamington" hotel and the "Curtis Court" apartment house, architectural creations constructed according to his own ideas and plans, and at the time of their erection almost unique in tliis country, their most renowned antecedent having been a structure of the same kind built by him in Los Angeles, California, in 1900. Curtis Court in this city was built in 1905 and the Leamington hotel in 1911. Like all new departures in human enterprise, they were at the start objects of considerable skepticism and some ridicule, and like others of real merit, they have shown their value and turned their critics of the past into their warmest commenders of the present.

Mr. Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, on February 7, 1854, the third of the seven children, three sons and four daughters, of Theodore Lincoln and Esther (Moore) Curtis, also natives of Maine. The father was a ship-builder and learned his trade with his father and older brothers. In 1855 he brought his family to St. Anthony with the intention of engaging in manufacturing here. He first built flat-bottomed boats on the west side of the river at the boat landing, about where the Washington avenue bridge now stands. These were largt scows, 200 feet long and 30 feet wide. They were loaded with lumber and other merchandise and floated to lower points on the river, forming an important factor in the river transportation of the early period of development in this region.

The elder Mr. Curtis was occupied in this work for a number of years, but he also built houses and other structures, aiding as a sub-contractor in the erection of the first part of the Nicollet hotel. He also built himself a house on Third avenue north at Fourth street, a locality that was then in the woods, and erected numerous other buildings in different parts of the city as it was or was to be, many of which are still standing. In payment for his work on a barn he built for John Green on the Lake of the Isles he was offered 160 acres of land in that locality. But the land was then of so little value that he refused the offer.

The growth of the city in a few years after his arrival here induced Mr. Curtis, the father, to form a partnership with Mr. Burr, under the firm name of Curtis & Burr, for the manufacture of furniture. Some little time afterward he bought a property on Washington avenue between First and Second avenues south in which he opened a retail furniture store, and he had a small mill in connection with this enterprise at which much of the furniture he handled was made. He continued his operations in this business until his death in 1875, passing away in the prime of his life at the age of fifty-seven years.

Mrs. Curtis, the mother of Theodore F., lived until 1893. She and her husband were the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters. Norman Eugene, the first born, now lives in Los Angeles, California. Edward Lincoln died in childhood. Theodore F. was the third in the order of birth and the youngest son. Susan H. is the wife of Winslow Knowles. Frances F. is the wife of Edward F. Maloney, the manager of Curtis Court in this city. Etta is the widow of W. J. Bishop, a Minneapolis real estate man who died in 1908. Emma married Captain William P. Allen, an old associate of T. B. Walker in surveying work, who afterward joined the Nelson lumber trade at Cloquet. The father was a deacon in the old Baptist church which stood on the site now occupied by the Andrus building. Later he was active and prominent in the Presbyterian church, which long stood where the Vendome hotel now flourishes.

Theodore F. Curtis grew from infancy to manhood in Minneapolis and obtained his education in the primary schools and the old Central High School which was conducted on the lot on which the new municipal building has since been erected. Among his early playmates were many boys who have since become prominent men in the business, social and public life of the city.

Mr. Curtis was nineteen when his father died. The estate owned a block of ground on Third avenue north between Fourth and Fifth streets. The construction of the railroad into this locality made the property undesirable for residences, and Mrs. Curtis, the mother, was offered $10,000 for it. The son advised her to ask $20,000, but she sold it for $18,000. Within one year afterward it was cut up into small lots and sold for over $100,000. This transaction opened Mr. Curtis' eyes to the future possibilities of the city, and he set to work to learn the real estate business. Under his direction the $18,000 was reinvested, and in the course of a few years it made up the loss sustained in the sale of the old block.

During the boom period Mr. Curtis built, at Vine and Fourteenth streets, the first apartment or flat houses in the city. He also built one at Seventh street and Third avenue south. In 1887 he began to build cottages on the installment payment plan, putting up small modern houses in different parts of the city, and extending his operations to the Lake Calhoun district, where he had 180 lots and built cottages on most of them. In the meantime he had passed several winters in Los Angeles and invested money there. He owned an attractive site on which he erected the first apartment house in that city, embodying in the structure the ideas which he has since expressed more elaborately in Curtis Court and the Leamington hotel, these buildings being divided into suites embracing a large parlor or living room, a bath room and a

The Leamington hotel contains 860 rooms and has accommodations for 800 to 1,000 persons. It cost $1,500,000, and was built by Mr. Curtis in association with Frank J. Mackey of Chicago, who put up the Mackey-Legg block on Fourth street and Nicollet avenue. Mr. Curtis worked five years in planning the hotel. One of its special attractions is its immense lobby - encircled by broad verandas. Similar buildings are being built in all the leading cities, and many architects and builders have inspected it for plans and suggestions, its fame being world-wide. At a recent congress of bishops, composed of men who had visited every important city, emphatic approval of the plan of the Leamington Was expressed. It is a hotel where men and women may have moderately priced homes with all conveniences, and the privilege of either home cooking or public dining service. Many families now make this house their regular home, and it is a great resort for traveling men. Mr. Curtis has been urged to build similar stnictures in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chicago and many other cities. But he feels that one is enough for him, and he has sold his apartment house in Los Angeles, where he has spent twenty-five winters. Mr. Curtis was married on August 19, 1885, to Miss Delia F. Brown, a daughter of the late .James G. Brown, of the firm of Rand & Brown, operators of an immense farm near Grafton, North Dakota. Mr. Brown maintained his residence most of the time in Minneapolis, but passed his winters in California. He died in 1890, and his daughter, Mrs. Curtis, passed away in January, 1911. Mr. Curtis built one of the first houses on Clifton avenue for a family residence. But for twenty-four years he has lived on the west side of Lake Calhoun, although he still owns the Clifton avenue home.

Asa Emery Johnson. M. D.

The life story of this man of many parts, who passed away in Minneapolis on January 27. 1905, after a residence of almost fifty-two years in this locality, and when he lacked less than two months of being eighty-two years of age, contains so much that is of interest that it will be difficult to tell it all within the limits of space allowable in this work. It is a story of personal privation and personal endurance; of incident and adventure; of effort and achievement; of trial and triumph; of firm faith in the goodness of God and great usefulness to man; of all, in short, that is admirable and commendable in the best American manhood.

Notable among the doctor's services to the city of his long and last residence on earth was the organization of the Minnesota Academy of Science, an institution now known the world over, which was founded in his office in Minneapolis on March 4, 1873, by a few far-seeing men like himself, whom he had interested in the project, and of which he was the first president. Of the little band of Studious and progressive men who laid the foundation of this Academy, of which the city of its home is justly So proud, Professor N. H. Winchell of the University of Minnesota, at the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the institution on March 4, 1913, gave an interesting account of its history.

Dr. Asa E. Johnson was born at Bridgewater, Oneida county. New York, on March 16, 1825, a scion of New England ancestry. His great-grandfather fought under Washington in the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812. The progenitors of the American branch of the family came to this country from Holland in Colonial times and settled in Connecticut. From that state the doctor's grandfather journeyed on foot to Oneida county. New York, then far into the Western wilderness, and in the new region planted his hearthstone and reared his family. At that hearthstone the doctor was born and reared to the age of twenty.

At that age he left the home, farm on foot as his grandfather had come to it, and himself journeying into the wilderness farther West in search of what fortune might have in store for him. He reached the lake shore at Buffalo and from there traveled by boat to Detroit. His path was still straight westward, and there was no way in which he could follow it but on foot. He walked to Y'psilanti, working in the hay fields by the way, and so on to New Buffalo on Lake Michigan. Another steamer carried him across the lake to Chicago, and from there he again walked on, working at haying as he , advanced, and so earning a few dollars week by week.

When he reached Lisbon, Kendall county, Illinois, he visited an uncle, and being pleased with the region, he rented forty acres of land in that neighborhood and raised a good crop of wheat on it. This he hauled tb Chicago, sixty miles distant, with ox teams. He also attended Lisbon Academy for more advanced instruction than he had previously received, and at the completion of his term in that institution returned to New York to take up the study of medicine in the homeoi)atHi'c branch of the science. He later completed his medical education at Columbia L^niversity, graduating from that college. He began his professional studies under the direction of Dr. Erastus King at Niagara Falls, and afterward attended the University of New York City, from which he was graduated on March 16, 1851, with the degree of M. D.

After his graduation the doctor came West again, stopping at Beloit, Wisconsin, where he had been five years before with his father. Here he was married on his twenty-eighth birthday to Miss Hannah Russell. Here, also, he was persuaded by Dr. A. E. Ames to come to St. Anthony, which he reached on May 29, 1853. The population of that village was then about 800, and eight physicians attended the ailing. Dr. Johnson, however, soon gained a good general practice, being recognized as particularly capable in the department of surgery. He continued practicing actively for nearly forty years before he retired. At his death, as for many years before, he was the oldest physician in Minneapolis in length of practice. In his earlier activity he served a number of years as county physician of Hennepin county and as a member of the county board of health.

By taste and inclination Dr. Johnson was a naturalist, and he gave a great deal of intelligent attention to natural liistory. He discovered some rare fossils, a number of which are now in the museum at the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. He dug into the mounds and secured well preserved specimens of their builders. He also made a special study of fungi and catalogued over 800 specimens, many of them never before observed, and his researches extended into several other fields of natural Science. While struggling upward from obscurity and a very moderate estate in life financially, he cut cord wood at 25 cents per cord, sheared sheep at 3 cents per head and slept in haystacks; and while attending school he lived in a garret and subsisted almost on bread and water. In his later life he belonged to the Episcopal church.

Miss Rosenia Russell, a native of England. She died in August, 1892, leaving one child, their daughter Rosenia Amelia, who is now the wife of Andrew M. Hunter of Minneapolis. Her father passed the last years of his life with his daughter, Mrs. Hunter, surrounded by his books and specimens. He found solace in his pipe and enjoyed the companionship of his old friends and neighbors.

ANDREW M. HUNTER, the son-in-law of Dr. Asa E. Johnson, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 39, 1864, and is a son of Samuel and Rosa (Byrnes) Hunter, who came to Minneapolis in 1867. The father was a plumber and was engaged in business thirty-six years in this city. He is still living, and is now eighty-four years old. He represented the Sixth ward of the city in the board of aldermen four years and served six as a member of the park board. When the Civil war began he enlisted in the Union army and remained in the service to the close of the memorable conflict. He is now prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic in this part of the country. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is one of the oldest members of the order in this locality, having joined it forty-five years ago. He is a Republican in politics and a Presbyterian in church fellowship.

His son, Andrew M. Hunter, is one of the leading real estate dealers in Minneapolis, and has his oflice in the Phoenix building. He was educated in the public schools of this citj-, having come here when he was but three years old, and for fifteen years, after leaving school was associated with his father in the plumbing industry. His interest in the welfare of his community has always been cordial and practical, and his aid in promoting it has always been zealous, prompt and effective, guided by intelligence and governed by good judgment.

In fraternal life Mr. Hunter is a Freemason with membership in Hennepin Lodge of the order. He also belongs to Minneapolis Lodge of Elks. In the doings of both these fraternities he takes an earnest interest and an active part. On July 5, 1886, he was united in marriage with Miss Rosenia A. Johnson, the only child of Dr. Asa E. .Johnson. Mr. Hunter is a vestryman of Holy Trinity Episcopal church.

Richard Henry Chute

Having been connected with the lumber industry for twenty years in Minneapolis, and for almost a generation previously in other places, Richard H. Chute, has contributed largely and substantially to its development. He is the treasurer and active manager of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom company, which handles the logs on their way to the mills.

Mr. Chute was born at Woburn, Massachusetts, March 14, 1843. His parents were Rev. Ariel P. and Sarah M. W. (Chandler) Chute, the former born at Byfield. Massachusetts, and the latter at New Gloucester, Maine. The father was a widely known Congregational minister throughout New England, and died in Massachusetts in 1887. The paternal grandfather, whose name was Richard, was a manufacturer and died while on a business trip at St. Louis, Missouri.

Richard Henry Chute obtained his education in the public schools. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Thirtyfifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was transferred to the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Veterans, serving to the close

He participated in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He was sent with his command to Kentucky and took part in the siege of Vicksburg, returning to Virginia to be with Grant in campaign in the Wilderness, At North Anna River he was taken prisoner, and for eight and one-half months suffered the horrors of confinement in Libby Prison and at Macon and Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. In 1865 he went to St. Louis, where he was engaged in the lumber trade for seven years, moving to Louisiana. Missouri, where he had charge of a large lumber yard for three yeare. In 1875 he came to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the manufacturing end of the same company, becoming about 1887 the Manager of the mills.

In 1893 he became associated with the Mississippi and Rum River Boom company, and he has since been connected with it in a managerial capacity.