USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > The biographical dictionary and portrait gallery of representative men of Chicago, Minnesota cities and the World's Columbian exposition : with illustrations on steel. V. 2 > Part 50
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Mr. Kelley is vice-president and a director of the Union National Bank of Minneapolis, of
which Mr. S. E. Neiler, whose portrait appears elsewhere in this volume, is president. Mr. Kel- ley is also a director in the Minneapolis Trust Company, and in the Minnesota Title Insurance and Trust Company, both of which are local en- terprises, and are ranked among the strongest financial institutions of Minnesota.
In political sentiment Mr. Kelley is a Repub- lican, but he has never aspired to any public office, merely discharging at the polls his duty as a citizen.
On the 9th of December, 1871, at Putney, Ver- mont, Mr. Kelley married Miss Lucy E. Baker, daughter of Mr. Haines E. Baker, whom Mr. Kelley succeeded in business. To them has been born one child, a daughter, now nine years of age. Mrs. Kelley and her husband are communicants of Plymouth Congregational Church of Minne- apolis, and to this and to every worthy charitable and benevolent object they give freely of both their time and means.
HON. WILLIAM LEE. ST. PAUL, MINN.
TN the busy marts of commerce, as a govern- ment appointee discharging the high duties of an important trust, as the chief executive of a live and progressive city, and in the broad field of human endeavor, William Lee has ever been a recognized power. With strong convictions and an intense nature, yet no bigotry, he has spoken out in many ways for what he believed to be right, and his voice has been heard and heeded.
Not claiming to be better or greater than others, he has proved his right to be called a leader. Hc has ever tried to make his party and his politics but means through which he might work for the general good of his fellows.
He was born in the village of Milford, Hunter- don county, New Jersey, April 14, 1822. His father was Reuben Lee, and his mother was Clar- issa Wetherell before her marriage. As a boy, his tastes and habits were such a boy with good parents and no cares most naturally falls into. He was given an academic education, and, after graduation, selected the mercantile business for
an occupation, a choice which was doubtless in- fluenced by his having two older brothers engaged in that line. In 1842 he accepted a position with a retail dry-goods firm at Easton, Pennsylvania, and changed to a similar situation in a wholesale house in the same line a year later. This change took him to New York city, where, doubtless, his progress in the affairs of the world began. He advanced rapidly during his two years' train- ing in New York, and in 1847, a better position having been offered him by the wholesale silk house of Messrs. Caleb Cope & Company, of Phil- adelphia, he removed to the Quaker City. For two years more he applied himself, with great energy, to the details of his chosen pursuit, and then, in 1849, he removed to Easton, Pennsyl- vania, the scene of his first endeavors, and opencd a retail dry-goods store on his own account. Hc began in a manner commensurate with his means, and brought to his business the fruits of his care- ful training, and for ten years conducted a suc- cessful trade.
The great northwest then began to attract the
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attention of the young man of the east, and be- lieving in its great future, in 1859 Mr. Lee sold out his business and went to St. Paul, Minnesota, and started a wholesale and retail dry-goods house. In 1865 he changed his business to wholesaling exclusively ; in 1884, after devoting a quarter of a century to the exacting duties of a trying busi- ness, he retired, as he supposed to private life, having earned a good name and an ample com- petence. In 1871 he was elected mayor of St. Paul, and was re-elected in 1872. After the ex- piration of his second term as mayor, he again at- tempted to retire from active life. He had been in harness at all times when his party needed his aid. For seven years he discharged the difficult duties of chairman of the Democratic State Cen- tral Committee, and it is a matter of note that he did more in those years to keep the Demo- cratic ranks together and in working order, and to establish in the doubtful and maturing minds of the citizens of the state the correct principles of that great party, than any other man in the north- west. This being true, it is not surprising that he should find it difficult to keep out of work or hide himself from the eyes of his political friends. In 1887, after President Cleveland had gracefully permitted the Republican postmaster to hold his office for a full term, Mr. Lee was the almost unanimous choice of the people of St. Paul for that office, and he was accordingly appointed such by the president. He was an efficient officer for the government, and an obliging servant of the public, and was retained in the office under Presi- dent Harrison's administration.
Mr. Lee has always been a public-spirited citi- zen, and has devoted his time and attention to many of the public improvements which grace the city and state, whose growth and prosperity he has ever watched with great satisfaction. He
has been an active worker in political organiza- tions for thirty years. He has visited all of the noted places in his native country, but has never had the time nor inclination to go abroad.
His religious views are those of his early train- ing, from which he has never changed. He holds a sympathetic connection with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and believes that there is enough of good in that progressive church to accomplish the aims of Christian endeavor.
He is a Democrat of the truest and best type. He believes this country owes more to that great party for its prosperity than to any or all other parties. He believes his party to be the true con- servator of all good government and progressive ideas. He knows its principles, its aims, its high aspirations and sound public doctrines, and from this knowledge he believes his party is right.
On June 16, 1853, he married Miss Kate Wal- lace, of Easton, Pennsylvania, who has been a noble and true wife, and as Mr. Lee himself states, " his guiding star."
In stature, Mr. Lee is about six feet in height, well proportioned and weighs one hundred and ninety pounds. He has a decidedly military bearing, and has a decidedly commanding pres- ence. He would attract attention anywhere for the generous manner in which nature has be- stowed her gifts upon him. His personality is a pleasing justification of his personal appearance, and is of that happy condition which forms the first factor in social success.
He has lived so that he enjoyes the respect of all his neighbors, and the hearty commendation of all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. Of the many noted men whose portraits and his- tories appear in this work, there is not one whose life has afforded the biographer an easier or more pleasant duty.
HUMPHREY BARTON,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
T HE subject of this sketch is a rising lawyer at the St. Paul bar. He is well read, and keeps thoroughly abreast of the decisions of the courts, both state and federal. He is lucid, log- ical, and fluent as a speaker, and he possesses that
mental equipoise that peculiarly fits him for the practice of the law; always preparing his cases with care and managing them with great tact and ingenuity. He is honorable in the highest sense, and has the respect of the courts and his profes-
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sional brethren, and of the community where he resides.
He is a native of the Keystone State, and was born in Fulton county, May 6, 1857, the son of Baltzer E. Barton, a farmer who was prominent in politics, and who held numerous township and county offices, and who was universally re- spected for his general intelligence and upright- ness. Humphrey worked on the farm summers and attended the public schools winters until he was fifteen years of age, when he attended the County Normal School and became a teacher at seventeen. He then taught school winters and obtained money sufficient to enable him to pur- sue his studies at the Normal School, at Indiana, Pennsylvania, where he obtained a good scientific and classical education. He began the study of
the law before leaving school. He then spent two years in the law office of Hon. John Cessna, at Bedford, Pennsylvania, one of the ablest law- yers in that state, and who, at one time, was a member of congress.
Young Barton was admitted to the bar at Bed- ford, Pennsylvania, in February, 1885, and there began to practice law ; but in May of that year he came to St. Paul where he has been in success- ful practice ever since.
Personally Mr. Barton is prepossessing : he is large and well proportioned, with features of a classic mould, suave in his manner and a man of strong friendships and of generous disposition.
He married, in November, 1885, Miss Lillian Rupp, an estimable lady. They have had three children, two of whom are living.
HAZEN JAMES BURTON,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
T HE career of him whose name heads this biographical sketch is a forcible illustra- tion of the truth that success in life is no acci- dent, but awaits upon assiduity, integrity and mental and bodily competency. It proves that if a young man be endowed with firmness of char- acter and forcible will, he can make the best of all circumstances, whether favorable or otherwise, and attain a position of eminence among the representative men of the day.
The father of H. J. Burton was the senior of the same name. He removed from Wilton, New Hampshire, in early life, to Boston, where he was the head of the firm of H. J. Burton & Co. His first American ancestor was Boniface Burton, who came from England and settled in Danvers, Mass., in 1637, and survived the hardships of pioneer life to the age of one hundred and fifteen years. His mother was a member of one of the old and sub- stantial families of Boston, descended from Eben- ezer Smith, who was identified with real-estate in- terests in Haymarket Square.
He was born in Roxbury, now a part of Boston, July 14, 1847. His early education was received at the Brimmer and Dwight schools, and at the English High school, where he graduated at the age of fifteen. Though the youngest graduate of
a class of seventy, he was first in scholarship, tak- ing the first honors in mathematics and literature, the second in declamation, and receiving the award of the Franklin medal. The principal of the school, Thomas Sherwin, was applied to by the director of the United States Coast Survey to select the best mathematician of the class for appointment in that service, and designated young Burton, but the ap- pointment was declined, his father advising that he enter the wholesale clothing manufacturing busi- ness, in which he had an interest, and obtain a practical business education.
This course was pursued. and he entered the establishment of C. W. Freeland & Co., at a salary for the first year of fifty dollars. The unusual stipulation was made in this engagement that four afternoons in each week. after two o'clock, he should be frec. These, with the evenings of the reserved days, were devoted to attendance on special courses in the Institution of Technology. where the higher mathematics were pursued under Prof. Runkle, and analytical chemistry and min- eralogy under Profs. Storer and Elliott, now presi- dent of Harvard University. At a later period the study of the German and Italian languages was pursued with such proficiency, French being already acquired, that he became interpreter with
Hazenf. Burton
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a party of students traveling on the continent. Meanwhile the work at the store, commencing at the bottom, in the shipping room, involved hard labor, as well as patience, thoroughness and atten- tion to minute details, but giving a practical edu- cation little inferior to that of the schools; after- wards passing through the variety of employment which a large manufacturing house affords. The salary was increased with the usefulness of the young clerk from $50 to $500 the second year, $1,500 the third year, and $2,000 the fourth year. On that year the sales made by father and son exceeded those made by any other two men in the clothing trade in Boston.
In 1867, at the age of twenty years, having saved a considerable portion of his wages, and being desirous of adding to his scholastic attain- ments whatever travel in Europe might afford through observation, young Burton joined a party of young architects in a trip through England, Germany, France and Italy. Four months were consumed in this excursion, during which no op- portunity for study was neglected. The young architects forming the party have since attained eminence, and are among the leaders in their pro- fession in Boston and Philadelphia.
Soon after returning to America a partnership in the clothing business was formed, under the style of Keating, Lane & Co., which continued with good success until the great fire in Boston. A more permanent partnership was formed July 20, 1870, by marriage with Miss Alice Cotton Whitney. Her father, Rev. D. S. Whitney, was a co-laborer in the anti-slavery agitation with Wm. Lloyd Garrison. Her mother was a lineal de- scendant of Rev. John Cotton, the first minister in Boston.
From boyhood Mr. Burton has greatly enjoyed life in the open air, and is no nerveless competitor in athletic sports. As an amateur, he was known on the diamond, having acquired celebrity as the short stop of the Lowell base ball club, of Boston, which for years held the amateur championship of New England, and the silver ball ; whose victories on Boston Common are yet fresh in the memories of thousands who witnessed their contests twenty- five years ago. Hc delights to dispel the weari- ness of business cares by a brisk canter in the saddle. Summer vacations were sometimes spent in pedestrian trips among the White Mountains
and in canoe voyages among the lakes of Maine. To his fondness for outdoor exercise may be attrib- uted his robust health, power of endurance and tenacity of purpose under the severest business trials and the incessant strain of competition.
An experience of some twelve years in Boston business methods was a preparatory school for a broad field of mercantile enterprise in the west, to which he decided to remove. After a careful examination of Denver, Omaha and Kansas City, he decided to locate in Minneapolis, and early in 1880 engaged in an exclusively wholesale clothing business. But the long credits extended to the trade were unfavorable to success, and the end of the first two years brought a balance of loss rather than the hoped-for profit. He then adopted a cash system, and opened a retail department, hav- ing the aid of $25,000 special capital put in by Hon. C. H. Sawyer, Governor of New Hampshire, and H. Sawyer, treasurer of the Plymouth Woolen Mills in Massachusetts.
The change was so successful that the business was incorporated in 1883, with a capital of $50,000. This has been increased to meet the growing de- mands of the business to $75,000, $140,000 and $200,000. With the addition of an extensive fur manufacturing business, the capital was enlarged to $300,000, and at the present time (October, 1892), in addition to the capital, a surplus of $28,- 000 is reported.
In March, 1888, another store was opened in St. Paul. This was deemed necessary, as Minneapolis and St. Paul are virtually one city. The two stores conducted under the same management are essen- tially one. The stock of one is a counterpart of the other, and in all but being ten miles apart are as much the same as though they were conducted under one roof. A private telephone wire con- nects the two houses, and the careful attention of Mr. Burton is bestowed equally upon cach.
The Plymouth Clothing House occupies what is regarded as the most eligible corner in the city of Minneapolis, and is secured on a twenty-years lease. It is the largest general outfitting estab- lishment for men and boys in the Northwest. The business is exclusively for cash and one price to all. No deviation is made to any favored cus- tomer, nor even to the wholesale trade. Every article purchased is always regarded as good for the refundment of the purchase money, on de-
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mand, if returned in good order, within a reason- able time. The Plymouth guarantee is as good as a bank check to their customers, and there is simplicity and self-regulation to the immense bus- iness which supersedes chaffering and places the institution on a par with the most reliable savings banks.
The management of so extensive a business by no means exhausts the enterprise and activity which characterizes Mr. Burton. His business connections reach to the far east, and extend to the newer west. He is special partner in the Bos- ton house of Burton, Mansfield & Pierce, a whole- sale clothing manufacturing concern of which his only brother, George S. Burton, is senior partner, and also one of the leading members of the Bos- ton Merchants' Association. He holds the posi- tion of president of the Mandan Land and Im- provement Company, a syndicate of Boston capi- talists. In 1885 he built at Mandan, Dakota, a roller flouring mill, which has been successfully operated to the present time. Outside of business connections, he is a director of the Minneapolis Industrial Exposition.
Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Burton, of whom three survive: Hazel, Ariel and Ward Colton.
From what has been related of his rural tastes, it is not surprising that he sought for his home a location in the country. It is at Deephaven, an
ample wooded tract, upon the south shore of the picturesque Minnetonka. Here on a swelling knoll, overlooking the placid waters, and near the club house of the Minnetonka Yacht Club, he has erected his homestead, which is called Chimo. The walls are of heavy boulders, fitting it for winter as well as summer residence. The grounds, studded with natural forest trees and embellished with shrubbery and flowers, are park like, remind- ing the traveller of an English estate. Herc, re- mote from the excitement of the mart, amid rare rural surroundings, he may refresh himself with his favorite diversions either on land or water. An enthusiastic yachtsman, ex-commodore of the Minnetonka Yacht Club, he owns and sails the Burgess yacht Volante. In the frequent regattas which are sailed over the Minnetonka waters, his pennant may be seen oftener in the van than the rear, and his promising son, Ward, is no whit behind in successful seamanship.
The present is sometimes called a mercenary age. The keen competitions of business life too often engross the minds of its votaries, and the habit of acquisition extinguishes the relish for using or enjoying the wealth acquired. Happily examples like the one under review, though too infrequent, are not altogether wanting, where the keenness of business pursuit is overbalanced by high literary acquisitions, liberality, rural tastes, and attractive social qualities.
CHARLES L. HAAS,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
C HARLES L. HAAS is pre-eminently a self- made man, who, by enterprise and the exercise of good judgment, has placed himself in the front rank of business men in the northwest. The following extract is from General C. C. Andrews' " History of St. Paul": "One of the most potent factors in the promotion of the commercial prosperity of St. Paul has been its live-stock interest, which has in the past been of inestimable value to the city. and which is con- stantly increasing in extent and importance. A leading representative of this interest, and a type of the enterprising, intelligent and successful business men of the city, is Mr. Charles L. Hlaas,
of the firm of Cunningham and Haas, live-stock commission merchants.
" Mr. Haas was born in the State of Pennsyl- vania, December 29, 1849. In 1854, when but five years of age, he was brought to Minnesota, and has since resided in St. Paul. Here he was reared and educated, and here he has grown to manhood and prosperity with the rise and development of the city. He has been con- nected with the live-stock interests of this city from boyhood, or since 1862; and no man is better informed in these interests or more inti- mately acquainted with their history and general character than he. In 1877 he formed his present
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Chas. L. Baas.
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copartnership with Mr. William Cunningham. The first year's business amounted to about fifty thousand dollars, but their operations have steadily increased until they now aggregate from one million five hundred thousand to two million dollars per annum. Aside from his character and standing as a business man, Mr. Haas' connection with the public affairs of the city of St. Paul has been somewhat prominent. In 1885 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for school inspector from the sixth ward. His candidacy was indorsed by the Republicans, and he was elected without opposition for a term of two years. His term of office was extended by the legislature one year, and he was subsequently ap- pointed by Mayor R. A. Smith for another term
of two years. He was an active member of the school board and served on its most important committees as chairman and otherwise.
" In November, 1890, he was elected register of deeds for Ramsey county. He is president of the South St. Paul Belt Railroad Company, and vice- president of the Ramsey County Savings Bank, and a director of the State Bank of St. Paul. He is also a stockholder in the Second National Bank, the St. Paul National Bank, the Germania Bank and in the St. Paul German Fire Insurance Com- pany. He is also a director in and treasurer of St. Michael's Church.
" Mr. Haas married on April 26, 1876, Miss Annie E. Ryan, who was a teacher in the public schools of St. Paul."
WILLIAM C. BREDENHAGEN,
ST. PAUL, MINN.
S OME men are able to win success in the world no matter what difficulties stand in their pathway. Nature has so endowed them that they can adapt themselves to any conditions, and suc- cessfully meet the exigencies of life.
William C. Bredenhagen belongs to this type of men, and does honor to his native country as well as the land of his adoption. He was born near Berlin, Germany, August 24, 1852. Possessing a good classical education, Mr. Bre- denhagen secured a clerical situation in New York city, where he remained one year, and then removed to Minnesota, where he began his career as teacher in the public schools at Young America, in Carver county. The teacher's profes- sion has ever been a stepping stone for ambitious young men, who have been obliged to make their own way in the world, and it so proved for Mr. Bredenhagen ; for, after teaching for four years, he went into the local fire insurance business at Carver, Minnesota. Here he had a field equal to his energy, and so well did he succeed that he was appointed special agent for the northwest, in 1880, for the St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. In this capacity he proved himself one of the most valuable insurance men in the northwest, and became thoroughly familar with all its details. During this time he was twice
elected secretary of the Minnesota and Dakota Fire Underwriters Association, and is now the general manager of the northwestern department of the Milwaukee Mechanics' Insurance Company.
Mr. Bredenhagen has been most phenomenally successful in all his enterprises, varied in extent, and character. He is president and practically owner of the B. T. Tobacco Co., incorporated with a paid-up capital of thirty-five thousand dollars, with nearly twice as much actually in- vested. This company does a large jobbing business in tobacco in the northwestern states. He is president of the Carver Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of agricultural imple- ments at Carver, Minnesota. He is also in- terested in several other enterprises, among them the First National Bank of Billings, Mon- tana, of which he is a director. Mr. Bredenhagen was a candidate for secretary of state on the Democratic ticket in 1888, and made a strong race for the place ; but as the party was hopelessly in the minority his personal popularity could not pull him through. At present holds the position of a park commissioner of the city of St. Paul. Besides being a man of great force of character, superior judgment, and executive ability, Mr. Bredenhagen is a gentleman of refined tastes, extensive culture and splendid address. Hc
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speaks several languages fluently, and has a considerable knowledge of several other lan- guages, both ancient and modern: His travels have doubtless had much to do with his breadth of mind, knowledge and attainments, for he has visited every principal city in the United States, and traveled all over the continent of Europe. He is below medium height, is compact, light com- plectioned, and looks the bright, substantial man
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