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 65
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In the year 1884, Mr. Dearing disposed of his stock and dairy interests, and since that time he has not engaged actively in business pursuits. With the rapid and phenomenal growth and pro- gress of St. Paul his real estate became city prop- erty, too valuable for cornfields and pasture ; and the encroachments of population and business enterprises have occasioned the disposal of some valuable lots out of the old farm. On the north- west corner of the estate, on a beautiful and com- manding site, stands the family residence, than which there is not a better appointed or more eomforable home in the city.
In the year 1854, when but twenty-four years old, Mr. Dearing was married to Miss Sophia Moulton, a native of Massachusetts. To them have been born four children; but the only one surviving is now Mrs. Mary A. Schulte, the accomplished wife of William E. Schulte, Esq., of this city.
Although not a member of any religious
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denomination Mr. Dearing is a patron of churches, and well-known as a gentleman of strict morality and rectitude. In politics he has been a Democrat always. Believing in the principles of his party, he has adhered to its fortunes with un- wavering devotion and loyalty. In the secret order of Masonry he has ever been considered not only a worthy member of that ancient and honorable craft, but also one standing high in its councils, and so devoted to his order has he been that he has attained to the thirty-second degree.
Sam Dearing is a well preserved specimen of the American gentleman farmer, not yet sixty years of age. He is a reader, an observer, and has given considerable time to travel. Few Americans know as much by personal journeys and observations of the various portions of their own country as he does. He has made repeated tours through the states on the Atlantic and
Pacific slopes, and but few of the intervening states and territories remain unvisited by him. He has also crossed the Gulf to the Islands .. Mr. Dearing was elected in the fall of 1890 to represent the Sixth ward in the Twenty-seventh Legislature, and proved a valuable member there- of. He took the initiative in the introduction of several reform measures, which resulted by their passage in a reduction of taxes, and incurred thereby the antipathy of the ring element, which succeeded in defeating him at the next election. Mr. Dearing is a man of sterling character and worth, and one whose "word is as good as his bond." He has always identified himself with all the interests of St. Paul; has wielded a silent, potent influence in this busy city for good, and will be referred to in future years and generations as an honorable and exemplary member of society, and one of St. Paul's most progressive citizens.
EDWARD MORRILL JOHNSON,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
M R. JOHNSON was born in Fisherville, Merrimack county, New Hampshire, on the 24th day of November, 1850. His parents brought him to St. Anthony when he was a child four years of age. He has therefore grown to maturity, and received the impressons which have formed his character, within sight of the Falls of St. Anthony. The child and the town have grown up together. The former to a vigorous manhood, a commanding intellect, and an influential position ; and the latter to a position among the great cities of our country. In a com- munity whose eldest born has not yet passed middle life, it is especially gratifying to find among its foremost citizens those who have been reared upon the spot.
The parents of Mr Johnson settled in St. An- thony in the spring of 1854. His father, Luther G. Johnson, is well know to all the pioneers as a manufacturer and merchant. His place of busi- ness was on Main street. He was a member of the firm of Kimball, Johnson & Co., and of L. G. Johnson & Co. The Johnsons were an old New England family of English origin, while the Mor- rills, who were the maternal branch of the family,
were of Welsh decent. Mr. Johnson's grandfa- thers upon both paternal and maternal side occu- pied positions of trust and responsibility in New Hampshire.
The boy was sent to the pioneer school, then occupying a small frame building in St. Anthony, on what is now known as University avenue, between Second and Third avenues southeast. Passing through this he entered the first high school established at the Falls, about 1863. The school year, 1866 and . 1867, was spent at the Pennsylvania Military Academy at Chester. In the fall of the year 1867 the State University was re-opened, and Mr. Johnson continued his academ- ical training there for a peroid of four years, but ceased to attend regularly before any class was graduated. After leaving the University he spent much of his time until 1873 in his father's store obtaining a practical business education. In the fall of 1871 he passed some time in travel in the South. In January, 1873, Mr Johnson went to Europe where he lived nearly three years. Sev- eral months of this time were spent in travel, but most of it was devoted to study at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. During his residence
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in Germany he acquired an accurate knowledge of the German language, and also studied French. At the universities mentioned he attended lectures on international Law by Professor Bluntschli ; on Roman Law by Professors Windschei and Bruns : on Literature by Fischer ; on Modern History and Politics by Professor Treitschki ; on Political Econ- omy by Wagner; on English Law by Gneist ; on German Law by Brunner; on Modert Art by Herbert Grimm, and on Grecian Art by Curtius.
Returning to Minneapolis about Christmas, 1875, he entered the law office of Shaw & Levi, studying and doing clerical work the greater part of a year, after which he entered the Law School of the Iowa State University at Iowa City, from which institution he graduated with the law class of 1877. Soon afterwards he opened a law office in Minneapolis in partnership with Mr. E. C. Chatfield. This partnership being dissolved, he continued . the practice alone for the next six years. January, 1, 1882, Mr. Claude B. Leonard united in partnership with Mr. Johnson. The partnership thus formed still continues, though Mr. Alex. McCune has recently been added to the firm. Mr. Johnson's legal practice has been more that of counsel than advocate. He has been almost constantly connected with corpora- tions, both municipal and financial, and to the laws governing and effecting such bodies, and to the law of real property, he has especially directed his attention.
Mr. Johnson professional life has beeen largely connected with official trusts, and in this his skill has admirably supplemented the integrity which he brought to these positions. His connection with the Board of Education as its clerk and attorney for ten years led to an intimate acquaintance with the many intricate but important questions in- volved in the administration of that branch of the city government. His connection as attorney with the largest saving bank in the city, a relationship which began in 1883, and still continues, gave the occasion for, and the ability necessary to, a careful investigation of titles and a thorough knowledge of investments. As a member of the City Council he gave to the duties of alderman the same careful consideration and legal scrutity that he accorded his other affairs. He was elected to this body in 1883 from the populous and wealthy Second Ward, in which he had grown
from boyhood, and represented it continuously until his resignation in 1890. During that period he was for two years president of the Council and served upon its most important committees. His professional opinions and advice were as much re- lied upon by his colleagues as were those of the official attorney. Indeed, it is not too much to say that during this important period in the his- tory of the city's growth; the views of Mr. John- son were controlling in the city government.
The valuable concession secured from the Street Railway Company in giving transfers, so that a continuous trip can be made from one extremity of the system to its opposite for a single fare, was secured by his firmness and tact. So, too, the replacement of the narrow suspension bridge, by the board and solid steel arch bridge was due to his efforts.
As a member of the standing committee on public grounds and buildings of the City Council, he become ex-officio a member of the Board of Park Commissioners, and gave intelligent and interested attention to the important work of that depart- ment.
One of the most valuable acts of the city's legis- lation passed in recent years, the Permanent Im- provement Revolving Fund, originated with Mr. Johnson, and was passed by means of his untiring labors. By the operation of this act the city was enabled to beautify and improve its streets, and yet allow the burden upon the property owners to be divided into five equal annual portions. Since its adoption here the same principle has been in- corporated in the laws of some of our surrounding states-the result of its successful operation here, and an especially gratifying compliment to Mr. Johnson.
The Public Library is probably the most valu- able fruit of his public labors. If he did not originate the idea, he at least was chiefly instru- mental in giving it organic life. He drew the act establishing the library, and made the intricate arrangement under which the Athenæum was incorporated with the library, and its large and growing trust fund was preserved for the per- petual increase of the books of the library. Hav- ing secured the passage of the library act, he was named as one of the directors of the Library Board and was one of the most efficient of the board in planning the building, in carefully watching
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over the work of its construction, and in launching the library on its prosperous and beneficient career.
A kindred institution, the Society of Fine Arts, has also shared in his enthusiastic labor, he being not only an active member, but also one of the directors.
Not the least of the responsibilities laid upon Mr. Johnson, in behalf of the public interests, has been that of one of the commissioners for building the new court house and city hall. He was appointed upon the board in 1887, and is at the present time its vice-president and chairman of the financial committee. As the position, like most of the others which he has held, is without salary or other pecuniary consideration, the time and labor devoted to the public interests are raised above sordid motives to the level of patriotic service.
Although thus deeply engrossed in law business and public affairs, Mr. Johnson has found time for other matters of private nature and public impor- tance.
He is a director in the Business Men's Union,
and through his efforts have been established two of the prosperous manufacturing enterprises of Minneapolis, the Northwestern Casket Company and the Minneapolis Office and School Furnishing Company in both of which he is a large stock- holder and president of the board of directors of each company.
Mr. Johnson married, in 1880, Miss Effie S. Richards, daughter of Dr. W. O. Richards, of Waterloo, Iowa. Mr. Johnson's home is on Fourth street, at the corner of Tenth avenue southeast, in the same part of the city in which his parents located in 1854. One instance, at least, that a prophet has honor in his own country, and in his own house.
Up to the present time the destinies of Minne- apolis have been shared by men, born and trained without her limits. Soon they must pass into the control of her own sons. The success and useful- ness of this son of a pioneer, trained from child- hood in her own primitive institutions, is a happy earnest for her future, when it shall be altogether in the hands of those to the "manner-born."
EDWARD B. ZIER, M. D.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
A MONG the successful young professional and business men of Minneapolis, Edward B. Zier occupies a prominent place. During the decade in which he has been a citizen of the north- western metropolis, he has achieved a reputation and position in society such as few men are able to obtain in so comparatively short a time.
Dr. Zier was born on the 19th day of May, 1857, in New Albany, Floyd county, Indiana. His father, M. Zier, was an iron manufacturer and steamboat builder at that place for nearly forty years.
He obtained a good high school education, and spent, besides, much time in his father's iron works. He served an apprenticeship as a machinist and mechanical engineer, becom- ing proficient in that calling, but failing to find the occupation congenial turned his eyes to the medical profession. In 1873 he began the study of medicine in the medical department of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, where he
graduated with distinction in 1877. After leaving his alma mater Dr. Zier went abroad, pursuing his medical studies for four years in the largest hospitals of Europe, most of the time in the hos- pitals and clinics of Vienna-the medical center of the world. Here his ability received recogni- tion from some of the ablest of the great medical men in the Austrian capital. In addition to his work in Vienna, Dr. Zier pursued his studies in the hospitals of London and other cities, supple- menting what he had learned in theory with actual practice.
Dr. Zier came to Minneapolis in February, 1881, where he at once engaged in general practice of his profession for the first five years. During the last six or seven years, however, he has devoted himself exclusively to diseases of the throat and and lungs-the first who made a specialty of that branch of medicine in Minneapolis. He has built up a large and lucrative practice, and his achieve- ments, both as a professional and business man,
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are notable. He visits the eastern hospitals yearly, thus keeping in touch with the latest de- velopment and discoveries in the medical world.
On October 24, 1884, Dr. E. B. Zier was mar- ried to Miss Minnie M. Harrison, daughter of the late Hon. T. A. Harrison, the organizer and pres- dent of the Security Bank. They have two chil- dren, a son and a daughter, six and four years old respectively.
In 1888 he began the erection of the large " Zier Row" on the corner of Fourth avenue south and Ninth street. The building was built under his own personal supervision, and the block
is conceded by all competent judges to comprise the finest block of city houses in this country. There are very few eastern houses anywhere equal to or better than the " Zier Row."
The doctor has always been a staunch Repub- lican, and although he has never held a public office, there are few politicians who know what is taking place behind the scenes better than he does. He takes a quiet but active part in polit- ical matters, for which he has both inclination and ability.
He is a member of the Hennepin Avenue M. E. Church.
DANIEL BASSETT,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
T HE rugged agricultural town of Wolfboro, Carroll county, in the eastern part of New Hampshire, is the native place of the Bassett brothers. Their father, Daniel Bassett, senior, was a farmer, attached to the religious sect of Friends, in which simple and strict faith he trained up his family. The family traces its history through Revolutionary and colonial times to the French Huguenots. Daniel Bassett was born in 1819, having three brothers and one sister, all of whom, with their father, at one time or another, became residents of Minneapolis. Here Daniel Bassett, senior, died May 27, 1861.
Daniel Bassett continued to live in New Hamp- shire until 1855, when he removed to this, his future home, where his brother, Joel B., had set- tled four years before.
He had married, while in New Hampshire, Miss Jane Canney, a sister of Joseph H. Canney, whose wife was a sister of Mr. Bassett. Their two chil- dren were born in New Hampshire, but were edu- cated in the schools of Minneapolis. One of them became the wife of Mr. F. B. Hill, and re- moved to Chicago, while the other married Mr. Tyson Mowry, and settled in Texas, but has recently removed to this city.
While he continued to reside in New Hamp- shire, Mr. Bassett remained upon the farm where he was brought up, but engaged in other business of a financial nature. Mr. Bassett, soon after his settlement in Minneapolis, engaged in the lumber
business, in connection with his brother, cutting logs in the pineries of the Rum river and driving them to the falls of St. Anthony. This occupa- tion, however, was soon discontinued. Having accumulated some means before coming here, and having connection with a bank in his native town, he loaned some money and made investments in real estate. He was of a less ardent temper than his brother Joel, and contented himself with a more quiet life. He was prudent and judicious in his operations, and, while industrious and pub- lic spirited, did not aspire to become a leader in enterprise, nor to take the hazards of extensive undertakings. He pursued a calm and method- ical manner of life, enjoying his home, interesting himself in the current affairs of the growing com- munity, co-operating with his neighbors in their labor for the social and moral welfare of the place, but reserving a placidity of spirit and equa- nimity of temper which enabled him to enjoy that " golden mean," so rare in the life of a young and ambitious community.
His prudence and good judgment admirably qualified him for the discharge of public trusts, and he was soon called upon to share in the bur- den of administration. At the first organization of township government, in the spring of 1858, he was elected upon the board of supervisors, with R. P. Russell as chairman, and D. B. Rich- ardson, Edward Murphy and Isaac I. Lewis as colleagues. He was continued in this position at
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the succeeding election and for several years. His name is found in the list of a committee ap- pointed in 1861, to raise funds for the relief of the people of Kansas, who were suffering from the effects of political turmoil and the failure of crops.
In the war of the Rebellion Mr. Bassett was appointed by Gen. W. S. Hancock, purveyor of the Second Army Corps, in which responsible and honorable position he served for three years. During this time the families of the general and his subordinate were intimate, living together much of the time. After his return to Minneap- olis he was appointed postmaster, but did not hold the office long, being unwilling to lend him- self to the turbulent schemes of President Johnson.
Mr. Bassett has always affiliated with the Re- publican party in political principles, and most of the time in political action. He has repeatedly been chosen to represent the city in the state legislature, and in other important trusts. He was a member of the house of representatives of the seventeenth and eighteenth state legisla- tures, where he served on the public land com- mittee, and acquitted himself to the satisfaction of all parties of his constituency. At the organi- zation of the park commission in 1883, he was appointed one of the board of park commission- ers, and continued to hold the position until recently. He served on the finance committee and on the committee on improvements, and was often appointed on special committees to select new sites for park improvements. Mr. Bassett entered into this work, which has done so much to render the city beautiful and salubrious, with much devotion.
For many years Mr. Bassett has been a mem-
ber of the state board of equalization of taxes, a position under executive appointment, where his accurate knowledge and careful scrutiny have been of great service in distributing with fairness the burdens of taxation.
For several years prior to 1880, Mr. Bassett was vice-president of the Merchants' National Bank of Minneapolis. At that time Mr. J. M. Williams, now of the Security Bank, was cashier. The bank held a very creditable position among the banks of the city, and was managed with pru- dence and success until it retired from business in voluntary liquidation. He is at the present time one of the executive committee of the Minneapo- lis Trust Company, where his conservative views and good judgment make him a most important officer.
For many years Mr. Bassett occupied for a resi- dence a pleasant home on Nicollet street. When the enlarging business of that street encroached upon the seclusion of its homes, he purchased a fine property on the Hennepin boulevard, beyond Twenty-fourth street, where he has lately erected a fine brick mansion.
It has been Mr. Bassett's custom for many years to pass the winter months, with his family, in travel or temporary residence in southern or Pacific coast resorts. His quiet and regular course of life, free from the harassing cares of ac- tive business and the vexations of ambition, has enabled him to preserve good health to a period beyond the allotted life of man. His erect form and elastic step, although bearing a crown whit- ened with the ripeness of age, belong rather to the man of fifty than to one who has passed his seventieth birthday.
LOUIS F. MENAGE,
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.
A MONG those men who, through their inert ability and sound business principles, have overcome all the difficulties that beset a young man upon entering his career, and have earned for themselves a position amongst the most success- ful men of the day, none is more worthy of prom- inent mention than he whose name heads this biography.
Louis Francois Menage was born in Provi- dence, Rhode Island, on August 3, 1850. His parents were John and Mary A. Menage, and his grandfather was Alexis Le Menage, a native of Lucerne, France, whence he emigrated to Amer- ica. His descendants have dropped from the family name the article indicating French ancestry, assimilating the name to the American style.
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The family moved to New Bedford, Massachu- setts, where the years of Louis' boyhood were passed in attendance at school. During his course at the high school there his father died. The business, that of a confectionery, fell to himself and a younger brother, and was carried on for three years, until the state of his health admon- ished him to close it and seek a climate more fav- orable to one affected with symptoms of serious pulmonary trouble. He decided to visit the northwest, and on the 19th of October, 1871, in feeble health, his mother having died of consump- tion and himself suffering with the premonitions of that dreaded malady, he arrived in Minneapo- lis, where he sought rather the benefit of the cli- mate than business or pecuniary success.
For occupation, a part of the first winter he taught a class in shorthand in the commercial college of Carson, Barnard and Barker. The next two winters were spent at the pineries at the log- . ging camp of W. H. Lawrence, on Pokegama Lake, as clerk and time-keeper. The intervening summer he had charge of the wood department of one of the sawmills at the falls.
The salubrious climate of the north, with the active out-door work, checked the alarming symp- toms and infused new vigor into his frame, so that in 1874 he felt himself strong enough to engage in business. In connection with Mr. H. C. Brack- ett he opened a real-estate office, and commenced that career which has been marked with such con- stant and unchecked success. His partner soon retired, and the business was continued by Mr. Menage alone.
A feature of the business was the purchase of outlying tracts of land, platting it into blocks and lots and putting them upon the market. These plats are known as the various Menage additions. His efforts in developing these tracts have added thousands to the population of the city and given employment to hundreds of mechanics, as well as helped the growth of all branches of trade. In connection with one of the additions Mr. Menage was unwittingly involved in one of the largest and most dramatic lawsuits which has ever occu- pied the courts of the northwest. In the spring of 1882 he had purchased eleven hundred and fifty-seven acres of land, lying around Lakes Cal- houn and Harriett, of Mr. Philo Remington, of New York, who had a record title derived from
Colonel W. S. King, the land having been the principal part of the Lyndale farm. These lands he platted and made accessible by intersecting streets and street railway, and put up a large number of very tasteful dwellings. Many were sold, and clusters of settlements began on various tracts. The progress of improvement was sud- denly arrested by the commencment of a suit in equity, in which Colonel King alleged that the deed which he had made to Mr. Remington was in trust. After a long trial, in which the best legal talent of the city and of eastern states were en- gaged, the decision was given in Colonel King's favor, and on review was affirmed by the supreme court. Mr. Menage turned over to Colonel King money, securities and property to the value of nearly two million dollars, without affecting his financial standing or scarcely ruffling his serenity.
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