Minneapolis City (part 58 of 80)

Mr. Chute is Vice President of the Northland Pine company and he was the secretary and treasurer of the St. P.aul Boom company which ceased operation in 1914 and is also secretary and treasurer of the Northern Boom company.

Mr. Chute has not been a partisan, but has alwaj-s taken an active interest in efforts toward good local government and municipal improvement. He is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic with Eagle Post Eau Claire. He is a regular attendant of Lowry Hill Congregational church.

November 6, 1867, Mr, Chute was united with Miss Susan R. Nelson, of Georgetown, Massachusetts, Three of five children are living: Arthur L,, is a surgeon in Boston; Robert W,, is teller in the Sccuritj' National Bank; and Rebecca.

Charles Bradley Clark

Closing a life of nearlj' sixty-one years of usefulness and activity, suddenly and in a highly tragic manner, on January 12, 1911, while surrounded by friends and just after performing a duty of general interest, the late Charles Bradley Clark, of Minneapolis, left a record and rounded a career full of 'credit to himself and of suggestiveneSs for others.

Charles Bradley Clark was born on a farm at Pewaukee, Wisconsin, March 26, 1850. He was educated in country schools and at the State Normal School at Whitewater. At sixteen he began to teach, thus ])aying his own way through the Normal School.

In October, 1871, he went to Chicago in search of employment, leaving his valise in the office of a friend while he hunted a job. That same night the memorable great fire of 1871 broke out, and his grip, containing everything he had in the world but the clothes on his back, was burned. Not dismayed, he returned home, and soon afterward went to Milwaukee as clerk in an office, and although the paj' was less than his necessary expenses, he adhered to his position, only quitting to take a better job in a wholesale drug hovise. Confinement undermining his health he became a traveling salesman, and continued in this occupation throughout the remainder of his life. Driving summer and winter he encountered all the hardships of the country commercial traveler, but health was restored and he enjoyed the freedom of the life and the self-reliance and resourcefulness it required.

embraced a better opportunity for hiiiisi'lf with anotlier corporation. He came to Jlinncapolis in the interest of the wholesale grocery establishment of Griggs, Cooper & Company of St. Paul and in the service of this firm made regular trips through North Dakota and Montana, though maintaining his home in Minneapolis. His last employer was the C J. Van Houten Cocoa Comj)anj', for which he traveled seventeen years, making thirty-seven j-ears of service on the road. He was said to be the oldest commercial salesman in length of service in this part of the country. The life was exacting, its duties requiring continued fortitude and endurance, and he was obliged to visit many small towns by team, stage coach, or by any other available means of transportation. He had to face the rage of the elements, ford streams, live in primitive taverns, and put up with all kinds of privation. But he never lost interest in his work or cheerfulness of disposition. Wliatever his hand found to do at any time he did with all his might.

He became connected with the United Commercial Travelers' Association, always taking an earnest and active part in its proceedings. ^ATiile in Xorth Dakota on one of his early trips he took up a homestead at Eldridge, near Jamestown, and also secured a timber claim.

A friend in Washington sent him new varieties of seed for his tenant to test. ,He introduced alfalfa into Xorth Dakota, and he became an enthusiastic advocate of this valuable forage as a staple crop for North Dakota. His articles in the Breeders' Gazette and other publications, setting forth the food and crop value of this product, attracted wide attention to it and aided greatly in extending its use in the Northwest. So deeply did he impress the public mind on the subject that he was often referred to as the "Alfalfa King." He also proved by tests the value of several other forage crops and small fruits to North Dakota.

He was reared a Christian and througliout life was a consistent and sincere exemplar of that worthy character, holding membership for many years in Pilgrim Congregational church of Minneapolis. He joined the "Gideons," the traveling men's Christian organization and distributed Bibles under its auspices all over the Northwest, particularly in Northern Michigan. His evenings were devoted to visiting pastors in the interest of Christian work, and in the service of the Volunteers of America. He was an excellent singer and speaker, and frequently used his talents in these lines in churches and meetings of the Volunteers.

Mr. Clark died in the harness while attending a meeting of the State Horticultural Society held in the Minneapolis courthouse. He made an impassioned speech, seconding the nomination of one of the members for president of the society, dying immediately after resuming his seat.

June 12, 1887, Mr. Clark was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Petter, who was born at Golden Valley, Hennepin County, a daughter of William and Catherine Petter. natives of Germany, who came to Minnesota in 185.3. They lived two years in St. Paul, ten at Golden Valley, and the rest of their lives in Minneapolis. As a child Mrs. Clark gathered hazelnuts over the locality in which she now lives, at 1513 Bryant Avenue North. She and her husband were the parents of two children, who are both still with her. They are Harriet O. Clark, a graduate of the State University and a teacher of German in Sisseton, S. D. High School, and Clarence F. Clark, a clerk in the office of the Washburn-Crosby company.

Victor Cordella

Victor Cordelia, son of the Polish sculptor Marian Cordelia chose another line for his creative ability than that of his father Avhen he became an architect. His mother, Florence Cordelia, was also gifted along artistic lines but it was their ambition that their son should be first of all well educated along academic lines before he took up any work calculated to develop his artistic ability. Victor was born at Krakow, in Austrian Poland on January 1, 1872. He was sent to the graded schools of Austria and received his preparatory education in the High School. After that he entered the Roj'al Art Academy of Krakow. After finishing there he became a student of technology under the direction of Professor Jlichael Kowalozuk at Lemberg.

When he came to America he came first to St. Paul and began his architectual training in the office of Cass Gilbert. This was eighteen years ago. After being associated with Mr. Gilbert for some time he won experience and ripened his art in the offices of a number of other architects among them, W. H. Dennis, W. B. Dunnell and Charles R. Aldrich.

Mr. Cordelia is at present of the architectural firm of Boehme and Cordelia. This association began about ten years ago and has been very successful in building up a good business in the local field. He has a large business acquaintance and is of social and democratic tastes. He was married eleven years ago, September 15, 1902, to Miss Ruth Maser of Canton, Ohio.

Captain John Martin

Among the founders and makers of Minneapolis Captain .John Martin must ever stand in heroic proportions, a type of the men of liis day and locality, an embodiment of all their aspirations, capacities, natural traits and force of character. Yet his origin was humble and his early life uneventful. He sprang from the ranks of the plain and Sturdy people of New England and passed his boyhood and early youth in obscurity and toil. But throughout his life he exemplified everywhere and in every situation the sterling virtues of his class, its resourcefulness in conception and action, its strong self-reliance, and the unyielding fiber of its manhood.

Captain .lohn Martin was born at Peacham, Caledonia county. Vermont, on August 18, 1820. His parents were Eliphalet and Martha (Hoit) or (Hoyt) Martin, descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers of Massachusetts, whose early lives were passed in Woodbury, Connecticut, whence they moved to A'ermont not long after their marriage. They wex-e farmers and well-to-do for their day and locality, and .John was one of eight children. His early life differed little from that of the sons of other New England farmers, who wrung a scanty living from their rugged and not overproductive land. He attend(><l the district school in the winter months and worked on the farm in the summer, performing his tasks faithfully and with all the skill he could command, and true to his duty in every respect.

But he had that witiiin liim that gave him intimations of the great world beyond his limited horizon and filled him with longings to sec it and be a part of it. He felt that he had faculties and capabilities for which he found no scopi? at home, and at the age of nineteen determined to llnd a field for their employment. At that age he accepted a position as fireman on one of the boats I'lving the Connecticut river, tlien the leading avenue or highway of internal commerce in that part of the country, having first bought the rest of his time as a minor of his father.

After five years of good and faithful service on the steamboat on which he began the battle of life for himself, during which he rose to the position of captain, his boat was sold South and he was engaged to go with her. During the next five years he served as captain of the Wayne and the Johnson and navigated the Neuse river in North Carolina, conveying tar. turpentine and resin down to the sea and carrying back cargoes of varied merchandise. His W'ages were small, but he was frugal and saved them. He was also wise and invested his savings in farm lands among his native hills, which he looked upon as his permanent home.

At the end of the period mentioned he returned to Peaeham B.nd was married. Just then California broke the silence of the Far West with the inspiring melody of her golden music, and the captain's love of adventure and laudable ambition for a more rapid advance in his fortunes, led him to leave his young bride and join the hosts of argonauts that was hastening to the newly discovered gold fields. He made the trip by the Isthmus route, and passed a year in the new eldorado, owning and working a placer mine on the American river, cleaning up a goodly sum of the precious metal and then selling his mine and returning to his Vermont home with his accumulations, intending to remain there.

But the place had lost its charms for him. Its rocks and hills no longer held him with their one-time fascination. After his thrilling life of years on the deck and in the mining camp, every hour of which was replete with stir and excitement, existence in the remote and quiet hills of Vermont was intolerable to him, and his restless energy rebelled against it. He endured it with what i)atience he could for two years, then broke away from it in an exploration of what was then to all the Atlantic slope the far away West.

In this excursion from the dullness of his native region he visited Illinois and Iowa, and saw great rafts of logs floating down the Mississippi with the current.

Captain Martin's eye at once took in the possibilities of the lumber business in this region, He at once returned to Vermont and sold all his possessions in that state. Then, in 1855, he moved to the village of St. Anthony, in which and Minneapolis, as the town became by its later baptism, he passe<l the remainder of his active and serviceable life, growing in business activity and popular favor with the growth of the community, and contributing in many ways to its advancement and improvement.

As soon as he was established in his new home he entered in full measure into the enthusiasm of the community, and gave every form of its progress the impulse of his hand. On January 2.3, 1855, soon after he located in the village, a banquet was served at the St. Charles hotel to celebrate the completion of the suspension bridge over the Mississippi. The street parade, a part of the celebration, was a mile in length, according to Colonel Stevens, who took part in it, and was led by Dr. J. H. Murphy as marshal and Captain Martin aS standard bearer, so soon and so earnestly did he enter into the spirit of the place. Tlicrc was music and there were cannon in the parade. an<l the lino of march was through the towns on both sides of the river.

towns organized a steamboat company for the navigation of the lower river, and raised a capital stock of $30,000. Captain Martin took great interest in the enterjirise, subscribed to a considerable block of the stock, and later became the captain of the Falls City, one of the company's boats, on which he made trips periodically to the lower Mississippi river points.

But this industry did not occupy him wholly. Soon after his advent in the region he engaged in logging in the pineries, and from then until his death fifty years later he was connected in many ways with the lumber trade. He built and operated sawmills and opened lumber yards, and incorporated his lumber business under the name of the .John Martin Lumber company. He had yards in Minneapolis and St. Paul and a sawmill at Mission creek on the St. Paul & Duluth Railroad, and his tireless energy kept them all busy.

In addition, he took a hand in flour milling, and in a short time became a proprietor of the Northwestern Flour Mills in Minneapolis and later of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling company in the same city. This company, under his management, operated five mills w^ith a daily capacity of 2,500 barrels, and became, next to the Pillsbury-Washburn company, the largest manufacturer of fiour in the world.

He was a director of the First National Bank of Minneapolis from its organization in 1864, and its president from 1894 to his death, and held the same relation to the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad from its completion to its incorporation with the Rock Island system. He contributed liberally of his capital and business sagacity to the success of these institutions, and did the same for the Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie & Atlantic Railroad, of which he was a director and the vice president, as he was of the Minneapolis & Pacific Railway, which opened a new and shorter route to the Atlantic seaboard and made the milling business of his home city independent of hostile railroad combinations.

Captain Martin was one of eight children, five sons and three daughters, born to his parents, all of whom are now deceased. The parents died in Vermont, and the captain passed away in Minneapolis on May 5, 1905. lacking but three months and foiirteen days of being eighty-five years old. He was married in 1849, to Miss .lane B. Oilfilhin. like himself, a native of Peaeham, Vermont, the daughter of Robert and Janet (Bachop) GilfiUan of that city. One child was born of the union, the late Mrs. Jean M. Brown, who died in Minneapolis on .January 23, 1901. The mother's life ended in 1886.

Captain Martin was a member of the First Congregational church for many yeai"s. and also a Freemason from his early manhood. He was liberal in his benefactions to the needy and charitable institutions of all kinds. As a memorial tribute to the worth of his daughter and his strong aflcction for her, he contributed the sum of .$40,000 to the Children's Home Society. In politics he was an unwavering Republican, believing firmly in the principles of his party as the promise and fulfillment of the highest and most enduring good to the country. But he never sought or desired any of the honors or emoluments usually held out as the reward for political service. He rendered the service with loyalty, zeal and efliciency, but it was principle and strong conviction that impelled him, and no personal interest was involved in his work in this particular.

Captain Martin was a Tuan of great forc<' of character, strong mental endowment and the strictest uprightness in all the relations of life. He has passed into the history of his com-

Gilman Connor

One of the men who figured prominently in the founding of Minneapolis' chief industry was the late Oilman Connor, whose trade of millwright was of the greatest importance. He also figures in Minnesota history for another reason - he was one of the founders of the village of Merrimac, which, later renamed, became famous as the home of the "Sage of Nininger" - Ignatius Donnelly, statesman, orator and autlior.

Mr. Connor was born in Farmington, Maine, March 21, 1810, and died in January, 1883. He learned his trade of millwright, and built large mills in Maine and New Hampshire, including a big plant at Berlin Falls, as well as mills in other important places. So that, when he came to St. Anthony in 1857, he came as an expert millwright, well grounded in his trade and a valuable man for the pioneers who were beginning to develop the industry by the Falls. That he was more than an ordinary factor in this development is recalled by the fact that twice he sought to break away from the trade and become a farmer, but circumstances held him to the trade and to St. Anthony. He was regarded as an expert on all milling questions, especially in the problem of calculating the speed of grain elevation.

John DeLaitte once consulted him relative to a troublesome elevator. In a few moments he had reckoned the proper speed, the suggested change producing the desired effect. Mr. DeLaitte insisted on paying him twenty dollars for his 'service. He had a fine mathematical mind, and became one of the active constructors of the waterpower at the falls.

In early life Mr. Connor married Nancy R. Young, of Orono, Maine, and who was born in Sebec. Maine. She came with him to St. Anthony, they then buying the present Connor home on University avenue .southeast, their primary purpose being to have their children near a good school. Mr. Connor had hoped to go to farming, but his wife preferred the advantages . and social intercourse of village life with convenience to the excellent school which was one of the first thoughts of the New Englanders who had founded St. Anthony.

Mr. Connor's earlj' dreams of life in the new West found realization for a time in his participation in the founding of the village of Merrimac, on the Mississippi river below St. Paul. This enterprise was a partnership affair, in which William and John Eastman Avere also interested. Their plans did not bear fruit, for the hard times of 1857 followed by the Civil war produced an insurmountable handicap. The village was revived later, as Nininger, but never amounted to more than a hamlet. Later Mr. Connor took up a homestead in Big Stone County, but St. Anthony still held him, and remained his home. He owned half a block of tlie choicest part of old St. Anthony, and until the railroad passed through the property it was a beautiful place, fronting the University campus.

Only two years aftrt- tlie Connors came to the young city by the Falls, Mrs. Connor died, at the age of forty-six. She left, with her husband, seven daughters and one son. Three of these daughters are now living. Anna M. is the widow of George Smith, and of whom mention is made elsewhere.

Addie is the widow of J. A. Chesley of Anoka. Miss Augusta Connor remained with her father, and still lives in the old home at 1413 University avenue. She was a worker in the W. C. T. U. under the late Frances Willard, devoting fourteen years to organization work in Minnesota. She knew Miss Willard personally and was one of her valued friends and aides. She was also a close friend of INIrs. Hobart of Red Wing, long one of \he leaders of W. C. T. L". work in the Northwest. Miss Connor is recognized as one of the pioneer woman SuflFragists of Minnesota, and the first to start the work in state university. She was educated in the academy at Bethel, Maine, and early engaged in teaching. Besides her activity in the cause of women. Miss Connor has lived a life of devotion to her family, and is known as a womanly woman whose advocacy adds strength to any cause.

Another daughter, Florence, died unmarried, whose circle of friends was an exceptionally notable one. .Still another, Marietta, was in the Hennepin County register qf deeds office for fourteen years. She married E. L. Spencer and died some years ago. Helen Connor married C. C. Cogswell. She became a teacher at St. Louis, Missouri, but passed her closing years in the old home. The eldest daughter married in Maine, and never was a resident of Minneapolis. Charles died when he was about thirty years old, leaving a daughter, Alma, now a teacher in Oakland, Cal.

Thus Oilman Connor gave not only his best years as a factor in the upbuilding of the city's chief industry, but also left a heritage of good throiigh the achievements of his children, all of whom were useful members of society.

Hon. Charles H. Clarke

The late Charles H. Clarke, of Richfield township, was born at Bath, Steuben County, New York, June 19, 1835. being reared principally in the city of Corning, and came to Minneapolis in 1S56 with his parents, Charles and Prudence (Tucker) Clark, who spelled the name without the final "e." The father was born in Bath in 1813, and was there married in his twenty-first year. Prudence Clark was born in Wethersfield, Connecticut, removing to the State of New York while young.

Charles Clark was a carpenter and builder in his native State for fully a quarter of a century before coming West. He continued in the same line of endeavor, enlarging his operations by becoming a contractor of large jobs and under taking the erection of important public and private structures. His first job of consequence in Minnesota was building the first Hennepin County court house, for which the contract price was more than $36,000, and wliich served the county for two generations.

Another early contract was for the erection of a dwelling for the elder Dr. Ames, at the corner of Eighth avenue and Fourth street. This was then one of the most pretentious dwelling houses in the town, and was usually spoken of as a mansion. It is still standing, and, although dwarfed and outclassed by many subseqxient structures, it still shows that it was erected with great care and a view to stateliness, comfort, and completeness.

In tlie fall of 1856 Mr. Clark furnished some rooms in the uncompleted court house and lived in them for a year. His next residence was on a lot which is now occupied by the

Knights of Labor building, opposite the Dr. Ames residence, he having secured the lot as part paj'ment on the Ames house. He lived there until the Knights of Labor took over the property, some ten or twelve years in all. lie and his wife were charter members of the Plymouth Congregational Church, and he built the first church edifice for the congregation at the corner of Nicollet avenue and Fourth street. He continued his membership in that church through life, and was regular in his attendance at its services. He was the first superintendent of its Sunday school, serving in that capacity for a number of years. He was also alderman from his ward for some time. During the last ten years of his life he was partially paralyzed and took no active part in business or public affairs.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark were the parents of three children, Charles H., Joseph H., and Emeline S. .Joseph H. Clarke, during his residence in Minneapolis, previous to 1890, was engaged in the feed business as a member of the firm of Clarke & Linton. Since then his home lias been in Santa Monu'a, California. Emeline S. Clarke was married in 1859 to Jharles M. Cushman, who was engaged in the book trade until his death in 190G.

Charles Clark died in June, 1892, surviving his wife some ten or twelve years. Hon. Charles H. Clarke was associated for some years with his brother-in-law, Charles Cushman, in the book and stationery trade. Later in life he served eight years in the House of Representatives, and was also deputy collector of internal revenue for eighteen years under William Bickel. He became close in friendship and business relations with Colonel W. S. ("Bill") King, who chose him as secretary of the Minneapolis Fair, conducted by him for some years. Previously - first in 1863 and again from 1866 for five years, closing in 1871 - he was Secretary of the State Agricultural Society. He was also a member of the E.xecutive Board of the Society for several terms and superintendent of the State Fair on numerous occasions. He was greatly interested in the Society and served it as Secretary for five years without salary.

He was school officer for many years and ever active in work for the good of the schools. He visited them frequently, often talking to the pupils, and would sometimes teach a class. Every Christmas for years he would Tiave a Christmas tree for them and distribute presents to some sixty boys and girls. His last real activity in life was shown in making an address to one of the schools in the city.

In politics he was a Republican and ever an aggressive partisan. He died November 31, 1885. In 1856 he was united in marriage with Miss Adelaide H. Hoag, the only child of Charles and Ann (Emmons) Hoag, who came to St. Anthony in 1852. Their former home was in Philadelphia, where he was principal of a leading school. The Hoag home was at first on the site of the present Church of the Immaculate Conception in St. Anthony, where he had secured 160 acres by preemption. It was a mansion for that time, an3 its white marble mantels were brought from Philadelphia at great cost and labor. Mr. Hoag became security for large amounts for an old friend, who failed to protect his surety in an emergency, and Mr. Hoag's property was largely swept away. He then secured a fine tract of land bordering on Diamond Lake, five miles south of Bridge Square, and erected a comfortable home overlooking the lakes. In addition to serving as County School Superintendent and in other similar capacities and positions, he devoted himself mainly to his home and planted the fine rows of elms that now adorn the grounds. To induce his daughter to live near him, he deeded to her nearly 100 acres of fine land and here the Clarke children were reared. As stated elsewhere in this history, Mr. Hoag is the man to whom is accorded the distinction of giving Minneapolis its poetical and suggestive name. He lived in the city from 1853 to his death, which occurred Feb. 1, 18S8. His widow died Oct. 8, 1873.

Mrs. Charles Clarke was reared a Quaker, and adhered to the faith of her parents, although she never afliliated with the Society of Friends. She and her husband were the parents of six children who are living. They are Frederick H., a resident of Richfield township; William A., of Idaho; Gertrude, wife of Howard S. Clark, of Minneapolis; Antoinette, wife of Samuel J. Nicholson; Adelaide H., who is living on a part of the old family homestead, and Joseph H., a merchant at Bloomington, and who also resides on the old liomestead.

Frank H. Castner

Frank H. Castner, attorney-at-law, was born in Bureau County, Illinois, June 13, 1862, the son of Stewart M. and Mary (Hildebrandt) Castner. Two brothers and his father were Union soldiers during the Civil w'ar, the father serving on the border in Missouri and the brothers were with Sherman, all remaining in the service to the end of the war. Early in the seventies Fred, the younger of the brothers, located at Waseca, Minnesota, where he resided for a number of years.

Frank H. Castner, his mother dying when he was ten years old, was taken to Iowa City, Iowa, by his brother-inlaw, John T. Marvin, a highly educated man and well known teacher for many years. Mr. Marvin came to Minneapolis in 1879 to become a professor in Minneapolis Academy, now Minnesota College, in which he was one of the principal instructors for two years. He afterward was manager of a mill at Appleton, Minnesota, finally entering the miiiistrv of the Congregational church.

Mr. Castner obtained a common scliool education in Iowa, and came with his brother-in-law fo Jlinneapolis, working in sawmills in the summer and at carpenter work in the fall and spring. During the winter months he attended the Minneapolis Academy, and became a teacher in the St. Croi.x Academy at Afton, where his brother-in-law was principal. He taught two years at Lake .Johanna, just cast of Minneapolis, in Ramsey county. He bought land in Mound View township of Henry Weeber, who still lives thei-e, and engaged in farming on a small Scale, finally selling the land at the establishment of the New Brighton stock yards.

When he quit teaching Mr. Castner resumed work in the sawmills, attending the scientific department of the State University in the winter for two years. Only the main building and the chemical building were then erected at the University; but it was even then a vigorous and influential institution. After working in the mills and at the carpenter trade for eight or nine years he was graduated from the law department of the Universitj' in June, 1893, having covered in less than two years the full three years' course. In the meantime he had passed more than a year in New Mexico working at his trade and in a store earning the money with which to pay his last tuition, and coin]ilet('d the course with a residue of $10 in the bank.

He was admitted to the bar in 1893, and at once began the practice, soon getting business in the line of collections for Edwin Cooley, an old merchant, and whose influence brought him other clients. His first suit was a case for Mr. Cooley, which became locally renowned because of the principle which it established, which was that a prior chattel mortgagee cannot dispose of mortgaged property without accounting in full to a second mortgagee. Judgment was against him in the District Court, but was revereed in the Supreme Court. He has had a fine general practice, and has taken many cases to the Supreme Court, where his contentions have genei-ally been sustained. He was also instrumental in having the case through which the street car company's franchise was limited to 1923, instead of being terminated in 1937, carried to the Supreme Court of the United States, which reversed Judge Loehron's decision in the U. S. Circuit Court.

Mr. Castner became interested in Northeast Minneapolis Several years ago, erecting a number of residences in that section. From 1905 to 1909 he served in the council, and was instrumental in having the old and unattractive Maple Hill cemetery converted into the present Maple Hill park, and "Long John's Pond," an eyesore to the community, made over into .Jackson Square park. He is acknowledged to have been the father of the principle involved in the ordinance' restricting the gas company to a reasonable income on its investment. He always took the position that public service corporations should be subject to public control and limited in their charges to a reasonable return on the physical value of their property used in the public service. The Supreme Court of the United States had held that a railroad was liable for bridges, viaducts or their safety devices where it 'crossed a public highway already traveled. In the celebrated Twentyninth Avenue Northeast case the ground was taken by Mr. Castner that it made no difference which was built first, that the railroad was liable, and the case being carried to the Supreme Court of the United States that principle became established, the Supreme Court of Minnesota being affirmed.

Fraternally, Mr. Castner belongs to the Masonic order, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Foresters, the Woodmen, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In the Order of Odd Fellows he has passed the chairs, has been Grand Master for Minnesota, and is at present the Grand Scribe of the Grand Encampment and representative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge. He is a Jlethodist in religious faith, and a member of the $t. Anthony Commercial club. He was married in April, 1883, to Miss Minnie E. Van Valkenberg, a native of Anoka. They have five children: Melvin L., a contractor and builder; Florence E., the wife of John H. Stater, of Minneapolis; Mary I., a student at the St. Cloud Normal School; Thoron S., in the State University, class of 1914, and Leah, also a St. Cloud Normal School student.

When William W. McNair came to old Saint Anthony in 18.57 to make his home, he found twin villages whose men and women leaders seem almo.^t to have been endowed with the gift of prophesy. It was in the formative period of the city that was to be. and though Nature had furnished the reason for being, it was a time that called for indomitable purpose, that "seeing eye" which must be the attributes of builders for the future. But these were qualities never lacking among the men and women of Saint Anthony and Minneapolis. They were men and women of high intellectual standards; they were pioneers with more than the ordinary pioneer's stamina, for they had come out of the cultured, educated homes of the East not merely to settle but to develop in keeping with its promise the rich and potent West. Among them were Such men as John B. Gilfillan, S. H. Chute, William Lochren, C. H. Pettit, Eugene M. Wilson, the Sidles, the Harrisons, Charles M. Loring, W. D. Washburn, W. W. Eastman, C. E. Vanderburgh, George A. Brackett, W. S. King, and a score or more of others^a company imbued with public spirit and strong purpose characteristic of city-builders which they became.

It was by these men that the financial and manufacturing as well as the commercial foundations of the city were laid; and it was by them, too, that beginnings were made in the finer things of life, which are not measured by material standards. It was a community of intelligent progressiveness, and Mr. McNair, coming to the 'city to begin the practice of his profession of the law, speedily demonstrated his right to fellowship by taking his place among its leaders. All were men who comprehended the city's future, and gave of their best selves to realize it. None was more active, none more eager to co-operate, than Mr. McNair - and it was that spirit of cooperation that while it made a city, likewise made men.

William Woodbridge McNair was born in Groveland, Livingstone county. New York, on January 4, 1836. His father, W^illiam W. McNair, was of Scotch-Irish descent; his mother, Sarah Pierrepont, was of that Pierrepont family whose members, counting their descent from the time of William the Conqueror, numbered among themselves a founder of Yale and not a few doers of deeds that stood out in high relief on the tablets of American history. Mr. McNair's youth was passed in the environments of culture and education which marked society in Genesee and Canandaigua. There it was natural that he should develop the taste of a student, the attributes of a leader. It was the "seeing eye" that penetrated the opportunities which the West held, and it was the intellectual tendency that spurred him to take up at the age of 19 years, not in the East but in the West, the Study of law in the office of Judge .J. P. Doolittlc, of Racine, Wisconsin. That was in 1855, and two years later he came to old Saint Anthony - then young Saint Anthony, by the falls - to gain admission to the bar and begin practice.

The bar of the young villages on opposite banks of the Mississippi was even then a body of brilliant men. Indeed, it is doubtful if, in the years that have passed since the founding of the city there have since been so remarkable a body in the bar of the community as in the first fifteen years. In the period preceding 1865 there came to Minneapolis, as contemporaries and colleagues of Mr. McNair, suth men as Cornell, Atwater, Washburn. Stewart, WHson. Vanderburgh, Lochren, and E. S. Jones, and they figured among the foremost factcrs in every movement in the community. Because it was a pioneer community, the contact of its citizens was perhaps more intimate, but regardless of this phase of life it is certain that the mental attainments of the members of the bar shone with a brilliance which must endure in the history of the city and indeed of the state. Among these men none was more prominent than William W. McNair. Perhaps the most notable fact, however, in connection with this body of men is the part they played in the industrial and commercial as well as the civic advancement of the city. They were lawyers, and men of large aflaii-s, and for the most part laid the. foundations for the great business enterprises of today. Their names loom large in milling, iinancial institutions, transportation, and what has since become the wholesale and manufacturing business of the West.

Less than four yeai's after Mr. McNair arrived in St. Anthony, he formed a partnership with the late Eugene M. Wilson, under the firm name of Wilson and McNair, which continued until Mr. Wilson's election to Congress in 1868. Then Mr. McNair and William Lochren became associated, and later J. B. Gillillan joined the firm, which was for many years recognized as the leading law firm of the city. The association continued in force until 1881, when William Lochren was appointed to the district bench. For three years Messrs. McNair and GilfiUan were partners, and then Mr. Gilfillan was elected to Congress and Mr. McNair retired from active practice on account of failing health. His active career in the law was thus marked by a noteworthy attitude. Political considerations entered into his various partnerships, all his partners becoming at one time or another members of the bench or of Congress. Yet Mr. McNair held aloof from public office except as he yielded to the importunings of friends and accepted a place in the public service at home out of a Sense of duty to the community. He was mayor of St. Anthony for the last two years of that village's separate identity, in 1869 to 1872. For fodr years prior to 1863 he was county attorney. In 1868 he was one of the school directors of St. Anthony. Only once, and then reluctantly, he was on a ticket as nominee for higher office than those just named. In 1876 he received the Democratic nomination for Congress, and his hold upon the regard of the community is shown by the fact that, in a Republican electorate, his vote greatly reduced the Republican majority in the district. A large number of friends urged him in 1883 to accept the tender of the Democratic nomination for governor, but he firmly declined.

All these years Mr. McNair was connected with most of the important litigation of the times. In addition he had become interested in some of the successful enterprises of the city. He figured as one of the stockholders in the first street railway company, organized to construct traction lines, especially a line connecting the flour mills with the lower levee. This latter project was abandoned, and onlj' a few of the original incorporators remained in the company. In the establishment of the Minneapolis Gas Light company Mr. McNair was likewise one of the original incorporators. And when the Minneapolis and St. Louis railway company was formed to construct a railroad to connect Minneapolis and the wheatfields of the Northwest with the country to the south, Mr. McNair was one of the original incorporators and directors. He was also heavily interested in railroad contracting and in lumbering. And as he was identified with some of the largest business enterprises, so it was natural that he should be listed among the leading bankers. He was connected with one of the oldest banking institutions in the city, the Security of Minnesota, which had been organized out of the old State Bank of Minnesota in 1868, and his name is on the rolls of directors of the Security National Bank, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the Northwest.

In addition to these interests, Mr. McNair was also one of the men who early appreciated the future of the city in the way of real estate, and became one of the heaviest holders of city properties.

leadership in professional and business life, in a manner typical of earlier times, rather than of the present, so too he waa among the foremost of the citizens in a social way. He was married August 21, 1862, to Miss Louise Wilson, a sister of his law partner at that time, Eugene M. Wilson, and a daughter of Edgar C. Wilson, a prominent resident of Virginia. To the MeNairs two daughters were born, one of whom, Agnes 0., is now the wife of Louis K. Hull, and the other Louise P., now the wife of Fi-ancis M. Henry, a well known, engineer. The home of the McNairs for many years was in a beautiful residence which Mr. McNair built on Linden avenue, facing Hawthorn park, and which was long one of the show places of the city. It was the scene of social affairs, and was one of the chief centers of the brilliant society events of the day.

Mr. McNair died on September 15, 1885. Yet so prominent was he in the public life of the city that his name remains one of the most frequently mentioned in reference to the strength and stability of Minneapolis institutions.

Frank Henry Carleton

There is in Minneapolis a fast narrowing circle of prominent citizens to whom the expression "the good old days" hasa magic significance. Among them is the jurist, journalist, scholar and citizen, Frank Henry Carleton. Mention "the good old days" to any one of this luminous circle and you will call up the time of real friendships, real comradeship, of struggle, and of youthful ambition. This youthful ambition has carried many of these men a long way, but no one of them to the outward observer, has more definitely "arrived" than the young man who 'came west forty years ago to cast his lot with the pioneers.

When Mr. Carleton turned his eyes westward the great city on the Mississippi was a vision which only the most optimistic eyes could behold. He came with the idea of growth and advancement; he stayed to achieve all that his ambition craved, and by doing so helped to build for the betterment of city and state.

Minneapolis has been good to Mr. Carleton. but he has always given as much as he has received, for few j-oung men bring to a new country such abundant equipment for success as did this young man from Newport, N. H.

Perhaps it is not exact justice to give a man credit for his ancestry, but it is interesting to know that Mr. Carleton traces his line back to some of the best blood in England. On his father's side he is descended from Sir Guy Carleton, while from his mother there comes to him the loyal blood of that splendid old Englishman, Joseph French, who as a settler and leading citizen of Salisbury, Mass., was a stanch American a generation before the Revolutionary War.

Mr. Carleton's father, Henry Guy Carleton, was president of a bank in Newport for many years, and for forty years was one of the leading democratic editors of New Hampshire. He was a man of wide acquaintance and influence, a member of the State Legislature and was the personal friend of such men as John P. Hale, Franklin Pierce and William Butterfield. It is easy to see why the son of so able an editor should have felt the lure of ncwspa]ierdora when he came to Minneapolis after graduation at Uartnu)uth College. He prepared for college at Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden,

Just at this period of his career he first showed his literary ability, for he took the fii-st prize for English composition and wrote the class ode in his senior year in college. Like many other of the young men of New England he partly earned his way through college by teaching, and had a varied experience in different parts of the country. This work took him in 1870 into Mississippi during the "reconstruction" and "carpet-bag" days, where he was principal of an academy for white pupils, and where he had great success in his work.

That the fascination of the newspaper held him even from boyhood is shown from the fact that as soon as he graduated from Dartmouth he became city editor of the Manchester (N. H.) Daily Union and continued in that work for some time prior to his coming to Minneapolis. In this first experience he showed the ability which has characterized his literary career throughout, and called from his associates prophecies of achievement which have been abundantly fulfilled.

Mr. C'arleton's first newspaper experience in the west was with George K. Shaw who was then editor of the Minneapolis News. Later he was associated with Mr. Joseph A. Wheelock as city editor of the St. Paul Daily Press, with "Mart" Williams as a colleague, and "Aleck" Johnson of the Pioneer as a rival. This editorial work continued successfully for over a year, during which time he developed remarkably in his knowledge of human nature and in literary taste. The stamp of this newspaper experience has shown in Mr. Carleton's later life for he is noted for the excellence of his literary judgment among his friends. Newspaper men, with whom he has a wide acquaintance, like to consult him on matters pertaining to the early histoiy of Minnesota. The "newspaper instinct" has never deserted him, and when "short of copy" many a newspaper correspondent has made him "give down" data for an interesting "write up." He is as alert today as when he and Frank A. Carle of the Tribune were associated.

The real ambition of his life was to become a lawyer, and he entered the law office of Cushman K. Davis and C. D. O'Brien at St. Paul, and commenced his studies in that direction. After five years of close application to his legal work, during which time he was clerk of the Municipal Court at St. Paul, his health failed and, with his cousin, Charles A. Pillsbury, the flour miller, he took an extended trip to Europe, returning fully recovered. Upon his return from Europe he became the confidential and private secretary to Gov. John S. Pillsbury. In this connection he rendei'ed most valuable services in the preparation of papers and documents relating to the adjustment of the repudiated Minnesota Territorial railroad bonds. Even now he did not give up entirely his newspaper work, for he acted as Minnesota coiTespondent for the New York Times and the Chicago Inter-Ocean for several years.

In 1882 Mr. Carleton formed a law partnership with .Judge Heniy G. Hicks and Capt. Judson N. Cross. Cross, Hicks & Carleton was the firm name until Norton M. Cross, Capt. Cross' son, was taken into the firm. In 1883 Mr. Carleton was made assistant city attorney, and served until 1887. This was a period of importance in the history of the city, as it brought into active operation the new principle of the "patrol limits" in the regulation of the liquor tralfic. Mr. Carleton had charge of all this litigation, succeeded in establishing in all the courts of this state the validity and legality of the "patrol limit" principle. Mr. Carleton's practice and that of his firm has always been one to call out a high order of judgment and ability, and is far reaching and varied. Real estate, probate law, 'corporations and financial adjustments are the branches of the profession wliich brought the firm into the most prominence. Since the death of Capt. Cross and Judge Hicks, Mr. Carleton's partners have been his sons, Henry Guy Carleton and George A. Carleton.

Republicanism and all that it stands for is Mr. Carleton's politics, but he has never taken an active part in party scrambles. Scientific research, reading and literary pureuits have always taken precedent over political studies or aspirations. He has always been a collector of books and has a large private library in his city and country homes. He is now and for many years has been a member of the Library Board of the city of Minneapolis, and is the Chairman of the General Committee of the Library Board.

The name of Frank H. Carleton is prominent in the history of the Park Avenue Congregational Church, of which he is a member, and in which he has always been a deacon or a trustee. He was for many years one of the directors of the Minnesota Home Missionary Society. For many years Mr. Carleton has taken an active part in Masonry. He is a Knight Templar, the 33d degree Scottish Rite Mason, a Shriner, and has been the treasurer of the Minnesota Masonic Home since its incorporation.

Frank Henry Carleton was born in Newport, N. H., October 8, 1849, and Ellen Jones, daughter of the late Judge Edwin S. Jones, and a sister of ex-Mayor David P. Jones, of Minneapolis, became his wife in 1881. They have six children: Edwin Jones, Henry Guy, George Alfred Pillsbury (Charles Pillsbury, who died in infancy), Frank H., Jr., Fred Pillsbury and Margaret S. Carleton.

It is in the cultivation of flowers and in fly fishing that he finds the greatest recreation. His love of nature is back of both of these inclinations. Flowers bring the beauties of nature into his own garden, and angling takes hira into tke picturesque northern fishing ground. At River Falls, Wisconsin, in the beautiful valley of the Kinnickinnic, where trout abound, he has a large farm, where fruits and flowers are cultivated in abundance, and blooded stock is raised. His favorite cattle are Holstein-F'riesians, whi'ch he breeds. He is a member of the Holstein-Friesian Association of America. He is also a breeder of Berkshire swine. He knows a good horse and owns some, but he can't drive.

With the true American blood flowing in his veins, with the best of New England's ideals and traditions as the basis of his character development, and with the hustle and struggle of the then new west to develop that character, Frank Henry Carleton has been an example and an inspiration to hundreds of the younger men of Minneapolis, a generous, whole-souled and loyal citizen and stands today as a living monument of the best that New England and Minnesota can produce.

George Washington Crocker

Sagacity, perseverance and ability, together with the determination to do what was really best, and not just what he wanted to think was best, brought' about the conspicuous success in the life of George Washington Crocker. Left on his own resources in early youth, he forged his way onward and upward. The biography of this Nestor of the millers would be the veritable history of the flour industry in Miny neapolis. He was one of the first men to engage in the milling business here and he passed through all the stages, from practical working miller to proprietor. For nearly fifty years Mr. Crocker was continuously in the milling business in this City, commencing with the first grist mill that ever turned a wheel in the State, and managing the first mill of any kind on the west bank of the river.

Mr. Crocker was born in the State of Maine, in the Town of Hermon, Penobscot County, in 1832. He was the son of Asa and Matilda Crocker. His father kept a small inn on the road to Bangor and had a farm as well. His mother was in poor health, so when the boy was only seven years old he went to live with a neighbor's family. He stayed here for ten years, his mother dying soon after he left home and shortly afterwards he lost his father. He had to work his way, even from his seventh year, and only went to school when there was nothing particular for him to do on the farm. In this way he acquired a fairly good education, for he was ambitious and made every moment of his school time count. When he was but seventeen years old he went out into the world to earn his way by his own exertions, in theory as well as in fact. He went to Providence, Rhode Island, and found employment in the Butler Hospital there. In the summer of 1852, when he was but twenty years of age, he started out with his brother to go to the gold fields of California. The route taken was the only practical one at the time, across the Isthmus of Panama, they crossing the Isthmus on foot. He did some placer mining there with very satisfactory returns and soon went into the mercantile business for himself. This was in Merced, California. He was successful and soon returned to New York, via the Isthmus route, with a comfortable accumulation of money for so young a man. From there he and his brother came directly to Minneapolis in 1855, and it was with the money brought from California that he bought an interest in the City Mill.

This was the old government mill at the west end of the falls which had been built by the garrison at Fort Snelling in 1823 and used for sawing lumber and later for grinding grain. This had fallen into disuse and was in a forlorn and dilapidated condition. Thomas H. Perkins, from western New York, arrived in Minneapolis in 1854 and secured the property and fitted it up as a grist mill. He took in Smith Ferrand, as partner, and soon after Mr. Crocker purchased the hitter's interest. This was the beginning of Mr. Crocker's milling career at St. Anthony Falls. Toll was taken for the service of the mill and everything was arranged on the most primitive plan. When it is said that Mr. Crocker was a practical miller it means that he put on the dusty garments of the trade and did everything that there was to do about the mill. He was not a miller when he went in with Mr. Perkins. But time soon made him so, for he worked to master all that there was to learn. What he did in the early days, with the poor equipment, he did throughout his experience. He worked through all the years, of new methods and improved equipment, to know all the details of everything pertaining to the business, whether mechanical or otherwise. What he did not know about milling, no one knew. In 1865 he sold the City Mill and built a stone mill on the Mill Company Canal with a capacity of 300 barrels a day. In this he was associated with a Mr. Rowlandson. It was known as the "Arctic Mill." Mr. Crocker sold his interest in this in 1870 and bought an interest in the "Minneapolis Mill." This mill was destroyed by fire twice while Mr. Crocker owned it and each time it was rebuilt, its capacity was increased, and its equipment was improved. The flour from this Mill was branded "CROCKER'S BEST" and was known all over the country. It has been on the market continuously ever since. Besides the milling concerns before mentioned Mr. Crocker was identified with many of the big firms of the City, as manager and senior partner; among them being Perkins, Crocker & Tomlinson; Crocker, Tomlinson & Company; Gardner, Pillsbury & Crocker; Pillsbury, Crocker & Fisk; and Crocker, Fisk & Company. In 1893 the "Minneapolis Mill" was leased and finally sold to the Washburn-Crosby Company.

Mr. Crocker was married to Sarah Perkins Moore on Christmas Day in 1862. There were two children born to tliem, William G. and George Albert. The latter died in 1902 and Mrs. Crocker in 1908. William G. Crocker was associated with his father in the milling business and for the past twenty years has been with the Washburn-Crosby Company, now being a director.

George W. Crocker was in every- sense a self-made man. He was always widely respected for his uprightness of purpose, his honesty and reliability. He knew the milling business as one knows his A. B. Cs, and was always a ready and wise counselor to younger men in all lines, but especially in the milling industry.

Elbert L. Carpenter

ilr. Carpenter is a native of Rochelle, Illinois, where he was born on March 6, 1862, and is tlie son of Judson E. and Olivia (Detwiler) Carpenter, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Maryland. The father was a lumberman first in Iowa and later in Minneapolis, where he located in 1904. He now resides in Pasadena, California. Samuel J. Carpenter, the grandfather of Elbert L., was bom and reared in Rhode Island, and for a nuralier of years after reaching man's estate was engaged in farming in that State. Later in life he moved to the state of New York, where he passed the remainder of his days.

Elbert L. Carpenter began his education in the common schools, continued it at the high school in Clinton, Iowa, and completed it at an excellent academy at Lake Forest, Illinois, which bore the same name as the city in which it was located. He began his business career in 'company with his father, who was then president of the Curtis Bros. Lumber company of Clinton, Iowa, which had also extensive holdings in Wisconsin. In 1887 he came to Minneapolis as the manager of the branch house of this company in this city, which was then known as the Adams-Hoar company, later as the Carpenter-Lamb Company, and still later as the Carpenter-Yale company, the name which it Still bears.

In 1892, he purchased the interests of Mrs. Hall in the Stephen C. Hall Lumber company, and consolidated them and his own with those of Mr. Thomas H. Shevlin, a sketch of whom will be foimd in this volume, and the Shevlin-Carpentcr company was formed of the consolidation. From this time to the present Mr. Carpenter's interests and activities have been identical with those of the Shevlin-Carpenter company.

Mr. Carpenter is one of the directors of the First National Bank of Minneapolis, of the Minneapolis Trust company and of the Northwestern National Life Insurance company. He has been for years president of the Orchestral Association of

Minneapolis, wliicli was organized in 1903. and wliieli, under the leadership uf Mr. OberhoU'er, lias reached a place in the first rank among Ihe orchestras of the world. It is supported by cordial public commendation and liberal private subscription, and returns in high value full measure of worth, excellence mud leputation all it receives in approval, admiration and material a,ssistance.

On June 4, 1890, Mr. Carpenter was united in marriage with Miss Isabella Welles, the daughter of Kdwin P. Welles, a prominent lumberman of Clinton. Iowa, now deceased. Two sons have been born of the union: Lawrence W., who is now a student at Yale University, and Leonard, who is still at home. The father has long been an interested and valued member of the Minneapolis. Commercial, Jlinikahda, Lafayette and Interlachen clul)s of his home city. In church affiliation he is a Presbyterian, holding his membership in Westminster ehurcli, of which lie is a trustee.

Hox. Johx Bachop Gilitllan

Kminent in his profession and higlily successful in the practice of it; for many years one of the leaders of thought and action in connection with public affairs, local and national, resident in this part of the country; always earnestly interested in the cause of general education, both in the lower walks of the great domain of effort covered by the term to which the common schools are devoted, and the higher avenues of its almost boundless expanse which lead to and from the classic shades of university teaching; and always, in every station and condition, a high-minded, broad-viewed, elevated, progressive and stimulating representative of the best American citizenship. Hon. John B. (iilfillan of Minneapolis has won the universal esteem and regard of the people of the Northwest by the sterling qualities of his genuine manhood and a long succession of valuable public services that would command admiration among any people.

Mr. Gilfillan was born in the town of Barnet, Caledonia county, \'erniont, on February 11, 1835. He is of Scotch ancestry on both sides of his house, the parents of his father, Robert (lilfiUan, having come from the land of Scott and Burns to this country in 1794, and those of his mother, whose maiden name was Janet Bachop, in 1795, the former from Balfron, County Stirling, and the latter from (Jla.sgow, the great industrial center of the country, in the adjoining County of Lanark. They located on farms in the then newly settled county of Caledonia, Vermont, which, as its name indicates, was at first largely occupie<l by Scotchmen.

The rugged life of a New England farm seventy years ago was full of usefulness in its teachings, and the interesting subject of this brief reveiw took full advantage of those it furnished him. He grew to manhood on the farm on which his parents lived, taking part in its labors and acquiring selfreliance, independence and powers of rellection and analysis with his stature and his strength. He attended the district school of the neighborhood during the winter months until he reached the age of twelve, when the family moved to the town of Peacham in the same county. There his educational opportunities were enlarged. Being the youngest child of the household he was allowed the privilege of attending the Caledonia county grammar school, which was located In that town, and made excellent use of his advantage.

So studious and capal^le was he that at the age of seventeen he began teaching school as a means of preparing himself for Dartmoutli College. But he was designed for another course in life. His brother-in-law, Captain John JIartin, had settled at St. Anthony, and in October. 1855, Mr. Gilfillan came here to visit his sister and her family, hoping also to secure a school to add to his accumulations for his college course. But he never went to Dartmouth. He .secured the desired school and taught it wisely and faithfully, but the West loomed upon his fancy with increasing magnetism, and he turned his mind from academic to professional studies, occupying his leisure time in reading law books until tlie end of the school term.

When that came he entered the law office of Xourse & Winthrop and afterward that of Lawrence & Lochren as a clerk and student of law. In 1860 he was admitted to the bar of Hennepin county, and the same year to the supreme court of the state and United States, and at once formed a partnership for the practice of his profession with James R. Lawrence. This partnership lasted until the Civil war took his partner into the military service in defense of the Union, and from that time Mr. Gilfillan practiced alone until 1871, when he became a member of the firm of Lochren & McXair, the name of the firm being changed to Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan, and its new- member changing his residence to west side of the river.

This linn remained unchanged until the elevation of ilr. Lochren to the bench, after which Mr. Gilfillan continued liis association with Mr. McNair until the death of the latter. In the meantime, however, the force of character, persistent industry and fine legal ability of Mr. Gilfillan was suitably recognized by the people, who first elected him city attorney of St. Anthony soon after his admission to the bar and kept him in the office four years. He was then elected county attorney of Hennepin county and filled that office with great acceptability for three terms - from 1863 to 1864. from 1869 to 1871, and from 1873 to 1875.

The practice of the firms with which Mr. Gilfillan was connected was general and very large. They stood high in all branches of the practice, especially the firm of Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan, and in some this firm was at the very head for many years. Its reputation as to the laws governing real estate was pre-eminent. In its probate and equity practice it had some cases so notable that they settled the law in this department, and in each of these the position taken by Mr. Gilfillan was sustained by the courts. The members of the firm were also attorneys, in their partnership capacitv. of the Milwaukee & St. Paul, the Chicago & Omaha, and the Jlinneapolis Eastern Hallways, and as such transacted a vast amount of important and laborious business, the largest part of which was conilucted by Mr. Gilfillan, and with almost invariable success. His practice was frequently interrupted by official and other engagements, but it was his main pursuit and resumed after every interruption as soon as the opportunity came.

Air. GilfiUairs interest in the cause of education led him into intimate connection with and valuable service for the public .schools and the University of Minnesota, this part of his career beginning in 1859. In that year he organized a Mechanics' Institute in St. Anthony for literary culture, and served as one of its officers. About the same time he drafted a bill for the organization of a school board in St. Anthony, under wliich a system of graded schools was established, which was the basis of the present excellent school system of Minneapolis. He was chosen a member of the first school board under the new arrangement, and continued to serve as such for nearly ten years. Tlie \ahiable work he did in this connection resulted in his appointment as one of the regents of the University by Governor Pillsbury in 1880. and in that position he also served eight years.

From the dawn of his manhood Mr. (iilfillan has taken a very earnest interest and an active part in public atlairs. His l)olitical faith and allegiance have always been given to tlie Kepublican party, and during the active years of his life he was influential in its councils. In 1875 he was elected a member of the state senate, and by repeated re-elections his tenure of oflice in that body covered ten years. His services there were so entirely satisfactory to the people that in the fall of 1884 he was elected to the house of representatives of the Forty-ninth congress. At the expiration of his term in that body he passed two years and a half in Europe with his family, visiting almost every part of it and extending his trips to Egypt and the Holy Land. During his sojourn abroad he saw many spectacles of unusual interest. At the Queen's jubilee in 1887 he occupied a seat in Westminster Abbey, and he also witnessed the funeral of the German emperor William I., in Berlin in 1888.

Mr. Gilfillan's career as a member of the state senate was too important in service to the people of all parts of the state, and too impressive in the ability it displayed on his part, to be passed up with the mere mention that he was a member of that body. He employed in the discharge of his duties there the same sterling qualities that had won him his professional success, and it was a forum in which tliey were of especial value. He soon became an influential senator and a leader in shaping policies and masures and in carrying them into effect. In the earlier years of his senatorial service he was chairman of the committee on tax laws and taxes, and be compiled these laws into a code which is even yet the basis of the revenue system of the state. He was from the first a member of the judiciary committee and during the last five years of his tenure its chairman. He was also chairman of the finance committee for a time and at the head of tlie committee on the University and university lands. In the legislation whereby the adjustment of the troubles over the state railroad bonds was brought about he was one of the leading and most influential forces in the senate. In congress he had but little opportunity to display his ability. He was there but one term, and during that the house of representatives was in the control of the Democratic party and there was a Democratic president in the White House. He gave his constituents good service, however, in looking zealously after their local interests, and they appreciated highly his zeal in their behalf.

Mr. Gilfillan was married .lanuary 20. 1870, to Miss Rebecca C. Olephant, who was born near Morgantown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and who died on March 25, 1884. They had five children, four of whom are living, three sons and one daughter. He was again married on June 28, ISO,"!, to Miss Lavinia Cappock, a native of Ohio. Mr. Gilfillan was president of the First National Bank two years and is now (1914) chairman of its board of directors. The Northwest has known no higher type of man than Hon. John B. Gilfillan, and has held none in higher or more general esteem.

Mason H. Crittenden

Mason H. Crittenilen was known to Twin City business circles for more than forty years. He was one of the pioneer manufacturers of the Northwest, having begun the manufacture of composition roofing in St. Paul in 1869. Entering the business world at an early age he followed one line of endeavor from the beginning to the end and always with uniform success. Whatever he undertook he pursued with such energy, persistence and good judgment that, unaided by fortune or friends, through the sheer force of his indomitable will and character, he come to be at the head of a great concern.

Mr. Crittenden was one of those quietly ciiicient men, who by foresight and elaborate preparation for an undertaking set the machinery of business in operation and achieved results as much through his belief and confidence in others as in reliance upon his own ability. He was a careful manager and from the first, his business prospered.

Almost to the very end of his life Mr. Crittenden was a man of robust health and buoyant spirits. Being extremely democratic with his associates he was popular with all classes. With the profits from his enterprises he was generous in the promotion of public interests and the channel of his beneficiences was wide. He was particularly interested in Plymouth Congregational Church, of which he was a member and a constant attendant. He was very liberal in the support of all the work of the church. Carlton College, Northfield, Minnesota, was another institution which received his support and co-operation.

Mason H. Crittenden was born in Washtenaw county, Michigan, on February 15, 1836. His parents were of English decent who settled in New York in the early days and later came to Michigan to live. When he was but twenty-four he was mairied to Sabra A. Murray, also a native of Michigan. She was two years his junior and soon after the marriage they came to Minnesota and settled on a farm near Winona. Nine years later they moved to St. Paul and Mr. Crittenden engaged in the manufacturing business by opening a factory of the construction of composition roofing. This was the first factory of the sort west of Chicago. Soon after this he added to this fine undertaking the manufactory of architectural sheet metal work. This was on the site now occupied by Noyes Bros, and Cutler, of St. Paul. It was not long before he was employing from 25 to 50 men and doing a thriving business. As another angle of the business Mr. Crittenden was also engaged as a contractor and handled some of the largest contracts for the time in the city.

It was after fourteen years as a St. Paul business man that he came to Minneapolis, in 1883. For a number of years previous to this he had had as a partner a Mr. Scribner and the firm was known as Crittenden and Scribner. When he left St. Paul he sold out his business to Mr. Scribner and Mr. Libby and the firm became known as the Scribner-Libby Company. When he first came to Minneapolis he formed the M. H. Crittenden company and engaged in the manufacture of roofing. Later, in 1905 or 1906, the company was incorporated, and was known as the Crittenden Roofing and Manufacturing Company and located at 704-6 5th street south. Here large factories were erected. The business grew so rapidly that it was necessary in 1908 to move to larger quarters. At this time the company moved to a large factory on Tenth Avenue South and 4th street. Two years later the business outgrew this place and a new building was erected at 1121 and 1123 south 7th street at a cost of $15,000. With this new building the company enlarged its scope of endeavor. Xot only sheet metal and composition roofing Wfre manufactured but cornices and fireproof doors and windows. The company patented and manufactured one of the first fireproof windows in the country. The output of the company now grew from $75,000 to $125,000 a year. Mr. Crittenden still continued to be actively engaged in the business of contracting and remained actively as president and at the head of the firm until his death which occurred in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Jan. 6, 1912. For a number of years he had been spending the coldest months of the year either in Southern California or Florida.

Mr. Crittenden may well be called one of Minneapolis' most energetic and representative citizens. His widow survives him and is his successor as president of the Crittenden Roofing and Manufacturing Company. A. M. Crittenden, the only surviving child of the union is the secretary and treasurer of the company. This son was born at Rochester, Minnesota, July 31, 1863. He received a common school education and practically grew up in the company of which hi's father was the dominant spirit. For many years he had complete charge of all the outside construction work. His wife, who was Madge Wright before her marriage, is the daughter of R. R. Wright, lately retired from the O. A. Pray Manufacturing Company. She was born in New York City and was educated in the Minneapolis Academy. They have one daughter, Ruth, who is the wife of Wyckofl' C. Clark of Minneapolis.

Richard Chute

Richard Chute, late distinguished citizen and pioneer of Minneapolis, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, September 23, 1820, the son of James and Martha (Hewes) Chute. James Cliute traces his ancestry back to an old Norman family through one Alexander Chute who lived at Taunton, England, in 1268 and his wife was a descendant of Captain Roger Clapp who in 1664 was commandant of the "Castle" now known as Fol-t Independence in the historic Boston Harbor. Like his hardy Norman forefathers, Richard Chute was notably possessed of those qualities which mark the pioneer and empire builder and his career was characterized by a remarkable executive ability and forceful personality. His father was a teacher and minister and in 1831 located with his family at Ft. Wayne. Indiana, where his death and that of his wife occurred a few years later, leaving Richard, a lad of fifteen. When twelve years of age he had entered the employ of the firm of S. & H. Hanna who were traders with the Indians, dealing in furs, and for a number of years continued to be connected with the fur trade and became prominently associated with the affairs of the middle west territory and its various tribes of Indians. In 1844 he was sent to build a post on the Minnesota river, at Good Roads, a village eight miles above Fort Snelling and at this time he visited St. Anthony Falls, in the history of the development and conservation of which he later played such a prominent part. He was quick to grasp the possibilities of the place and predicted the founding and growth of a city in this location. The following year he returned to Ft. Wayne and became a partner in the firm of Ewing, Chute & company, fur dealers and at a later period engaged in the same industry as a member of the firm of P. Chateau, Jr., & company. During this time he was a witness of many of the historic treaties between the government and the native tribes, at the treaty of Orange City, Iowa, in 1842 with the tribes of Sac and Fox, in 1846 in Washington when the Winnebagoes sold the "neutral ground" of Iowa and in 1851 was present at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota when the Sioux concluded their treaties which opened the lands of Minnesota for settlement. He inaugurated the system of individual ownership with a dissolution of tribal relations among the Indians with the result that the Ottawag and Chippewas of Michigan exchanged tribal lands west of the Mississippi for lands in severalty in Michigan, becoming citizens of that commonwealth. In 1854 he came to St. Anthony Falls and engaged in the real estate business. In partnership with .John S. Prince he purchased an interest in the property which controlled the water power and for the next twenty-five years, during the most active period of his career, his efi'orts were identified with the development of this enterprise which was the nucleus for the growth of a great city. The company was incorporated in 1856 as the St. Anthony Falls Water Power company and Mr. Chute becanie agent and manager, serving in this capacity until 1866 when lie became its president, a position he continued to hold until the property was sold to James .J. Hill and others in 1880. During this time he superintended the building of a dam and the erection of many mills, factories and saw mills. In 1856 $7,600 was raised by the citizens and entrusted to Richard Chute, R. P. Upton and Edward Murphy to be used in clearing the channel to Fort Snelling and the following year witnessed the arrival of fifty-two steam boats at the Falls as the result of the opening of navigation. The partnership between Richard Chute and his brother, Dr. Samuel Chute, which continued until the death of the former, was formed in this same year. In November, 1856, Mr. Chute went to Washington at the request of Mr. Henry M. Rice, the delegate to congress from Minnesota, to give his assistance in the securing of a railroad land grant. With the cooperation of Mr. H. T. Welles a sufficient grant was obtained the last day of the session for the construction of 1,400 miles of railroad in the territory of Minnesota. Mr. Chute was made a charter director in several of the railroad companies and was especially identified with the promotion of the road now known as the Great Northern. At the time that the water power of the city was threatened by the receding of the falls he gave valuable service in securing their preservation. After the expenditure of large sums of money it became necessary to ask the assistance of the government and Mr. Chute was sent to Washington for that purpose. In 1870 after several years of effort he obtained the appropriation and the services of a government engineer and insured the permanent conservation of the great water power. He has left many memorials of his public services to the city, having introduced the system of boulevarding the streets and the plan for numerical streets and residences and also in the 3,000 shade trees which he placed along the thoroughfares of the city in 1858. In 1863 he was appointed by Governor Ramsey special quartermaster of the troops sent to Fort Ripley and later became assistant quartermaster of the state with the rank of lieutenant colonel. From 1SG3 to the close of the war he served as United States provost marshal for Hennepin county. He was made a regent of the state university in 1876 and for several years was treasurer of that institution, resigning in 1882. An oUl line Whig, he was one of twenty men to organize the Republican party in Minneapolis in 1855 at a meeting held in the Methodist church and presided over by Governor William R. Marshall. He was an elder and one of the six original members of the Andrew Presbyterian churcli. Mr. Chute was a man of large mental attainments and unbounded energy and enthusiasm which won him a notable intluence in public affairs where he built for the future and devoted every eflort to the promotion of any project for the welfare and development of the northwest. He possessed a commanding presence and was an attractive and distinguished figure among the men of his time. He was married in 1S50 to Miss May Eliza Young and they had five children, Charles Richard, Minnie Olive, Mary Welcome, William Young and Grace Fairchild. Charles R. Chute was for many years associated with the Chute Brothers Company but since 1894 has resided in New Y'ork city. William Y. Chute was born in Minneapolis September 13, 1863. He attended the state university and later matriculated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is prominently identified with the real estate interests of the city and has served as president of the Minneapolis Real Estate board. He is a member of the Commercial club, the Minneapolis club, and tile Auto club, and has been president of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts. He was married in 1906 to Miss Edith Mary Pickburn of London, England. Three children have been born to this union, Mary Grace, Marchette Gaylord and Beatrice. Mr. Chute is a member of the Christian Science church.

De Witt Clinton Conkey

For almost forty years the late De Witt Clinton Conkey was a resident of Minneapolis connected in an important capacity with one of its largest and most active industries. He came to this city in the fall of 1867 and here died March 6, 1907, in his eighty-third year.

He was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, July 10, 1824, and was there reared and educated and there started his business career. He was married in 1857, to Miss Antoinette Kingsley, who was born August 11, 1829, near Plattsburg, on the shore of Lake Champlain. Mrs. Conkey was five years younger than her husband and survived him six years, dying in April, 1913, in her eightyfourth year.

Directly after marriage the young couple set their faces toward the bountiful opportunities of the then almost undeveloped West, and came to Burlington, Racine county, Wisconsin. In that city and Milwaukee they lived during the next sixteen years. Here they were busily employed in useful labor and active in the promotion of every enterprise and agency conducive to the advancement and improvement of the community.

Mr. Conkey entered the employ of the North Star Woolen Mill as a purchaser of wool throughout the Western country. He was later given charge of the sales department, devoting his energies wholly to its requirements. He continued in this relation until he retired because of the growing weight of years.

Dr. Tuttle, were near neighbors on Chicago avenue and became intimate friends, and when he died the last service of love was rendered by this old associate. He was a staunch adherent of the Republican party, being an energetic worker for it, but he never sought or desired a political office. In the later years he leaned strongly to the Democratic party, considering it more friendly than the other to the general interests. Both he and wife were domestic in their tastes and habits, their greatest interest being the welfare of their family. She became a Christian Scientist and late in her life joined the Second church of that denomination.

They were parents of four children. Charles C, was an employe of the Tribune and died in 1878, aged twenty-four, his widow, Mary L. Case, surviving. Maud is the wife of S. A. Stockwell, of. the Penn Mutual Life Insurance company. Mabel is the wife of Eugene H. Day, an account of whom appears elsewhere; and Lucius J., of Seattle, is engaged in railroad construction work in British Columbia.

Frank .J. Venie

President of the Harriet State Bank, though a recent comer to Minneapolis, has already impressed its citizens as one of the live and progressive men, whose enterprise accomplishes results.

Although the newest bank in the city, the Harriet State Bank has started with most satisfa'ctory auspices, its board of directors containing, beSide the president, such well known names as L. L. Vroman, M. F. Strauser, W. J. Smith, J. J. Venie, John Devney, Sr., and George H. Venie. The bank was opened for business in its own building on Saturday, May 16, 1914, with a capital of $25,000 and a surplus of $5,000 and is prepared to extend much needed accommodations to the Lake district. Its officers are F. J. Venie, president ; L. L. Vroman, vice-president; W. F. Strauser, cashier; with W. J. Smith, assistant.

Frank J. Venie is a native of Missouri, his birth occurring at Chillicothe of French parentage, his father being J. J. Venie, who for several years has resided in Minneapolis and who has extensive real estate holdings. The boyhood years of Frank were passed on a farm in Wisconsin, and he was graduated from the high school at Beaver Dam and then took a course in a business college at Milwaukee.

For three years he was in the commission business in Chicago, then becoming deputy register of deeds of Dodge County, Wisconsin, for four years, and was deputy county clerk for two years, when he was elected county surveyor for two years, since when he has been engaged in the banking business. In 1893 he organized the State Bank at Reeseville, Wis., becoming its cashier, though three years later he was made the president, so continuing until June 1, 1913. Realizing the excellent opportunity offered for a first-clasS institution at Lake Harriet, he was not slow to take the necessary .steps to organize the present bank.

Jlr. Venie is classed as a Democrat, and since attaining manhood has taken an active part in all public questions, the advantages for social and general benefits of the various

Charles M. Loring

Pioneer merchant, early Hour miller, public-spirited citizen and energetic promoter of the improvement and beautifying of Minneapolis, Charles M. Loring has shown himself to be one of the most useful and progressive residents of this city, and one of the foremost men in Minnesota in the sweep of hi:; vision and his prompt and effective action in carrying out the wise designs it has revealed to him. Where the foresight of others has been too short his has always reached to the end, and where their energy and courage have failed his have always worked with full power.

Mr. Loring was born in Portland, Maine, on November 13, 1833, and is a son of Captain Horace and Sarah (Wiley) Loring. The father was a sea captain, and took the son, while the latter was still a boy, on several voyages, having destined him to be a sailor also. He was attentive to the work on the ship, and at an early age rose to the position of first mate on one of his father's vessels. But nature had designed him for a different career, and he never found life at sea entirely agreeable to him. In 1856 he determined to build his career on land and came W^est to Chicago. There he engaged in wholesale merchandising in connection with P. B. Hutchinson for a few years.

The climate of Chicago proved unfavorable to the health of Mr. Loring, and he determined to seek one more congenial to his nature. In 1860 he moved to Minneapolis, and a few months after his arrival in this city he associated with Loren Fletcher in general merchandising in the firm of L. Fletcher & Company, now the oldest mercantile firm in Minneapolis. In 1868 he entered the flour milling business in company with W. L. Cahill and Jlr. Fletcher, and by his success in business and his fine business capacity he acquired extensive real estate holdings as the years passed.

Mr. Loring has been connected with other business enterprises in a leading way and has made them successful. Since 1894, when he quit the milling business, he is president of the Morgan Machine company of Rochester, New York,. He was also one of the organizers of the North American Telegraph company and served as its president from 1885 until 1897, when he resigned. He was president of the Minneapolis Board of Trade in 1875, and of the Chamber of Commerce from 1886 to 1890. He served in the city council from 1870 to 1873, and was president of the first improvement association which operated here and promoted the first Flower Show held in Minneapolis. He was a member of the Court House Commission, president of the State Board of Commissioners for securing Minnehaha Park, and president of the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners from its organization in 1883 to the time of his resignation in 1893.

Neither Mr. Loring's fame nor his activity in the mutter of business expansion and public improvements has been confined to Minneapolis, however. For several years he was one of the vice presidents of the National Board of Trade, and has recently been president of the American Park and Outdoor Art Association and the Minnesota State Forestry Association. He is now a life member of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society, the State Historical Society and of the American Civic Association. Besides all this, Mr. Loring was treasurer of Lakewood Cemetery Association and for a long time one of the trustees of the Washburn Memorial Orphan Asylum, a position he resigned in 1905.

It is in his efforts toward the improvement and embellishment of Minneapolis through its park system, however, that Mr. Loring's greatest service to the community has been rendered. His efforts in this behalf began soon after his arrival in the city and have been continued for almost half a century. They are well aprpeciated in Minneapolis, the people having put their seal of approval on them forever by changing the name of what was once Central Park to Loring Park in his honor. His interest in this form of civic welfare has been intense and his work in it has been constant. He has not only made great improvement in the park system of the city, but has molded public sentiment in accordance with his advanced views. On this account he is familiarly called the "Father of the Parks," as his enterprise in connection with them has made them one of the main attractions of Minneapolis.

Mr. Loring has great aptitude for this kind of work. He has a natural taste for it and this has been cultivated by extensive travel, studious observation and intercouse with kindred minds both in many parts of this country, and in foreign lands. His services have been sought in many other cities, too, to which he has been urgently invited for the instruction of the people, and he has delivered many addresses full of information and suggestions designed to educate the people to whom he was talking how to make their cities more beautiful and attractive.

Mr. Loring was first married in early life at Portland, Maine, to Miss Emily Crosman. They had one child, their son, A. C. Loring, who is now a prominent miller in Minneai)olis. Mrs. Loring died in 1894, and a second marriage was contracted in 1896 with Miss Florence Barton, a daughter of A. B. Barton, of this city. In political relations Mr. Loring has always been a Republican, but never other than a liberal partisan, always looking to the good of the public rather than the success of his party. He is a Tiiember of the Minneapolis Athletic club and other organizations of a public and social character, but he finds his chief recreation in studying public grounds and promoting parks and parkways. He has a very pleasant home in this city, but passes his winters in California.

Edgar F. Comstock

Another of the sturdy sons of Maine, who brought honor with him to the West and lived to accumulate not only more honor but also wealth and a name as a statesman, was Edgar F. Comstock. He came to Minneapolis in 1870 while the town site on the river was only a village, and helped to Iniild the great city. He was twenty-five when he arrived here and lived the best years of his life as an active citizen of Minneapolis.

Mr. Comstock was born in Passadumkeag, Maine, March 4, 1S45. Wliili' he was still attending school, there came a call that meant war. He left school to go to the front, enlisting when but seventeen, in Company A. of the First Maine Cavalry in 1861. During liis service he participated in several battles. In 1865 he re-enlisted in the Seventeenth Maine Infantry and served until the close of the war; and all of this before he was of age. These were the honors he brought with liira when he 'came to Minneapolis. While the honors that came later may have brought him more satisfaction, there was probably no other four years of his life which brought him such development and experience that makes for character growth, as those years of war that ripened him from a boy into a man, the years of hardship and struggle which so many boys knew throughout the Civil War,