Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 105

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190

USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 105

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His life here has been a very busy one, but its activities have been by no means confined to his private enterprises. On the contrary he has been very zealous and serviceable in his attention to public affairs and in efforts to promote the city's welfare by helping to secure for it the best government attainable. He has never been fond of official life and lias never sought public office of any kind. But he consented to serve, under the importunities of his friends without regard to party lines, as a member of the city council, from 1898 to 1902, representing the Third ward, in which he lives, as its alderman. He is also a member of the city board of educa- tion, and in its work he is deeply, intelligently and helpfully interested at all times.

The cause of education has always had Mr. Leighton's cordial support. For years he has been one of the trustees of Windom Institute at Montevideo, Minnesota, an educational institution fostered by the Congregational church denomina- tion of the state, and he occupies the same relation to Carle- ton College at Northfield. Socially he is connected with the North Side Commercial and Athletic clubs. His political faith and allegiance are given to the Republican party in national and state affairs, but in local matters he is not a partisan, but gives all questions a good citizen's consideration, and is im- pelled in reference to them by no other influence. In re- ligious affiliation he is connected with the Pilgrim Congrega- tional church, but he is liberal in his support of other de-

nominations and all agences working for the good of his com- munity.

On May 19, 1875, Mr. Leighton was united in marriage with Miss Sarah L. Heaton, of Machias, a native of same. Seven children have blessed their union and brightened their family fireside, Mabelle E., Addie L., Maude A., Lizzie A., Lewis L., George E. and Sarah L. The attractive and popular home of the family is at 1509 Fremont avenue, north.

S. J. NICHOLSON.

This valued citizen of Minneapolis, who has been a resident of the city and engaged in business here for a 'continuous period of twenty-nine years, is the senior member of the firm of Nicholson Brothers, merchant tailors, with their principal establishment at 709-711 Nicollet avenue. The business in which they are engaged was started by him in 1884, and the partnership between him and his brother, Murdock Nicholson, was formed in 1885. Theirs is one of the leading merchant tailoring establishments in the city, and has had a prosperous career with a growing trade from the start.

S. J. Nicholson was born on Prince Edward Island, Canada, on June 29, 1860, and came to this country in his boyhood. He was educated and learned his trade in Ohio, attending what in his student days was Wooster College, in the city of the same name. He became a resident of Minneapolis in 1884, and has since built a handsome home for his family and himself at 5703 Nicollet avenue, where he owns forty acres of land and gives a great deal of attention to raising choice peonies, asters, daisies, and other flowers, and make a specialty of producing the finest growths of Japanese Iris, all for the market.

Mr. Nicholson's American ancestors came to Prince Edward Island from the Highlands of Scotland, in 1820, and the family is one of the oldest on the Island. As soon as he was able to look the country over and select a place for himself he made Minneapolis his choice, and he has never since found fault with his judgment in this particular. He has fallen in completely with the genius of the locality and has prospered here, having built several residence properties for sale or renting purposes.

Mr. Nicholson has also taken a very cordial and helpful interest in the affairs of his home community in public, fra- ternal and sporting lines, and although quiet and retiring to an almost excessive degree, has established himself firmly in the regard and admiration of the people here as a very commendable and useful citizen. He was one of the pioneers of field sports in this city, having been one of the players in the foot ball game of 1886, the first ever played in Minne- apolis, the foot ball grounds being at the time at Thirteenth street and Nicollet avenue. Fraternally he is a Free Mason of the Royal Arch degree, and holds his membership in the order in Ark Lodge, Minneapolis, to which he has belonged twenty-seven years, and in Royal Arch Chapter.

S. J. Nicholson was married on January 15, 1890, to Miss Antoinette Clarke, a daughter of Hon. Charles H. Clarke, a sketch of whom will be found in this work, and a grand- daughter of Charles Hoag, the gentleman who gave Minne- apolis its beautiful name. She and her husband are active in many organizations for the promotion of the welfare of their community and its residents, she being especially active

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

as a member of the Women's club of the city. They have one child, their son Clarke, now eighteen years old and a student in the high school class of 1914.

Mr. Nicholson is sedulously attentive to his business and omits no effort to expand it and make his work satisfactory to his numerous patrons. The firm employs regularly thirty- five to forty persons, and keeps them all busy. He is a Republican in political faith, but in the last presidential elec- tion, cast his vote for the electors of Woodrow Wilson, his desire for the public welfare then, as always, overbearing all personal or party considerations, however firmly fixed or long adhered to.

GEORGE R. NEWELL.

Among the early arrivals in Minneapolis, although not one of the first, was George R. Newell, now head of the wholesale grocery house of George R. Newell & Company, and he has been one of the most enterprising and successful of the business men in this city. He began his career here as a young man of twenty-one, and in a humble capacity. He has lived among this people nearly half a century.

Mr. Newell was born in Jay, Essex county, New York, on July 31, 1845, and there obtained a limited public school education, his attendance at school being short because he was ambitious and eager to get into business at an early age. He is a son of Hiram and Phebe (Bush) Newell, also New Yorkers by nativity, but able to trace their American ancestry back to early New England Colonial times. The father was a dry goods merchant, and the son was therefore in touch with the mercantile life from the dawn of his in- telligence.

At the age of twelve he left school to become a clerk in a general store, and during the next eight years followed this occupation under various employers and in various lines of trade.

In 1866 he came to Minneapolis, where his first employment was as a clerk in the Nicollet hotel. A short time afterward he accepted a position as clerk in a retail grocery, for his inclination was still strongly in the direction of merchandis- ing, and in 1870, when he was but twenty-five years old, became a member of the firm of Stevens, Morse & Newell, jobbers in groceries, this firm being the beginning of the present extensive wholesale business of which Mr. Newell is the head.

This partnership was dissolved in 1873, and for one year thereafter Mr. Newell continued to do business alone. At. the end of that period he entered into partnership with H. G. Harrison, the firm name being Newell & Harrison, and doing business on a steadily widening basis and in constantly augmenting volume until 1882. In that ycar the personnel and name of the firm again changed and that of George R. Newell & Company was formed. Sometime afterward the business was incorporated with Mr. Newell as president of the company and his son, L. B. Newell, as secretary and treasurer. The company now enjoys a trade surpassed in extent by that of no house in this section of the country, and the business is one of the oldest under one continuous management in the city.

Mr. Newell has always given his business elose and eareful attention, supervising in person all its details and permitting

no department of it to escape his notice. But he has, never- theless, found time to take part in the management of other institutions of magnitude and mningle freely in the fraternal, social and civic life of his community. He is one of the directors of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad and a member of the National Grocers' Association and the Minnesota State Grocers' Association. For many years he has been a' Freemason with strong devotion to the fraternity. He also belongs to the Athletic and Minikahda clubs. In political faith and allegiance he is a Republican, but has never sought or desired a public office.

In 1876, Mr. Newell was married at Wyoming, New York, to Miss Alida Ferris.

EDMUND J. LONGYEAR.

Having been a resident of Minneapolis for twelve years, and of the State of Minnesota for twenty-three, Edmund J. Longyear, head of the E. J. Longyear Company, engaged in the development of mineral lands, has become closely iden- tified with the industrial, commercial, civic, and social activi- ties of this city and state, and enterprising and efficient in helping to promote their welfare.

The company of which Mr. Longyear is the president and controlling spirit was organized by him in 1911 and incor- porated on July 1, of that year; its capital stock was $335,000. It is a close corporation and is engaged in the investigation and development of mineral lands and proper- ties on the Mesabi and Cuyuna Iron Ranges in this State and the mining regions of Wisconsin, Michigan, and many other states, including also the Arizona Copper district, in this country, and the pyrites deposits of Cuba.

Although the Company devotes itself primarily to diamond core drilling on a contract or commission basis, using ma- chinery of its own manufacture for this work, it frequently explores promising mineral lands, on its own account, with a view of lease or purchase. A well equipped geological de- partment cooperates in this branch of the Company's activi- ties and in addition, makes geological examinations and reports on mineral properties in any part of the country.

Mr. Longyear was born in Grass Lake, Jackson county, Michigan, November 6, 1864. After due preliminary prepara- tion and study in the lower schools, he entered the University of Michigan to pursue a full course in civil engineering, which he intended to make his life work. At the end of his junior year in that institution, however, he found his health giving way, and therefore took employment in the Northern woods, on a railroad survey for the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic line.

Mr. Longyear's cousin, John M. Longyear, of Marquette, Michigan, was engaged in the mining and development of iron lands as an associate of the Pillsburys and Russell M. Bennett, of Minneapolis. Through the influence of his cousin, Mr. Longyear was induced to turn his attention to this new line of endeavor and as a preparation therefor, to take post graduate work in the Michigan College of Mines at Hough- ton. He afterwards received his degree in the first class that graduated from that institution, which was then new and at the beginning of a notable career.

After leaving school he was employed by his cousin and associates and while in their employ he took the first diamond

Ef Longyear,

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

drill into the Mesabi Iron Range. He has made his career eminently successful and highly profitable for himself and largely useful to the localities in which it has been worked out.

For a time he acted as superintendent of other companies in the same line of development, but in 1895 lie began con- tracting in this line for himself, and he continued this work until 1911, when he organized the company of which he has been president from the beginning of its existence. In 1901 he became a resident of Minneapolis, but for six years before that time he lived on the Mesabi Range. Among the regular and continuous employes of the company he now controls are ten mining engineers and geologists, graduates of various well known colleges and mining schools.

In his religious preference, Mr. Longyear is a Baptist, and he holds his membership in Trinity Church, of which he is one of the trustees. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Young Men's Christian Association and be- longs to the Minneapolis Club and the Civic and Commerce Association of the city. His beautiful home is on a farm of ninety-two acres fronting on Smithtown Bay, Lake Minne- tonka. Here he has an orchard of 400 trees producing many kinds of fine fruit. His is one of the attractive residences in a region renowned for numerous elegant and artistic homes.

Mr. Longyear was married at Charlevoix, Michigan, April 16, 1890, to Miss Nevada Patten, of that city. She is now active in the work of her church, in the Woman's Club, the Clio Club, and in other improving organizations in Minne- apolis. They have six children, Clyde S., Robert D., Philip O., Margaret, Richard P., and Edmund J., Jr. The father has long been earnestly interested in the cause of education, and for a number of years has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Pillsbury Academy, at Owatonna, Minnesota. He is, however, deeply and helpfully interested in every undertaking for the improvement of people in general and those of his own community in particular. No public enter- prise of value goes without his active and effective support, and all his efforts in this behalf are governed and guided by intelligence and breadth of view. Minneapolis has no better citizen and none whom its residents more highly or generally esteem than Edmund J. Longyear.

FLOYD MELVIN LARAWAY.

Floyd Melvin Laraway, the only son of Orlo M. Laraway, who is now in charge of the insurance business, built up by his father, was born in Minneapolis on September 5, 1858, on the site of the old Pence Opera House, where his father kept one of the first stores in the city for many years, at the corner of Hennepin avenue and Second street. His life has been passed in this city and his education was obtained in its schools. In 1882, when he was twenty-four years of age, and while his father was postmaster of the city, he was made superintendent of the free mail delivery, and he re- mained in charge of this branch of the local postal service until 1888, serving two years under his father's successor as postmaster, A. T. Ankeny.

After Mr. Laraway left the postal service, he joined his father in the insurance business, and to that he has de- voted himself closely ever since, his connection with it cover- ing a period of twenty-five years. Like his father, he has

been intelligently and serviceably interested in the growth and general welfare of the city, and has been an ardent, practical supporter of every commendable undertaking involving its betterment. He has, however, taken no direct part in political contentions, and has held aloof from participation in public affairs except as a good citizen zealous for the best govern- ment of the city that could be secured. He was married on October 25, 1888, to Miss Elizabeth Sophia Oswald, a daughter of the late John C. Oswald, and also a native of Minneapolis. They have two children, their son, Oswald Melvin and their daughter, Elizabeth. The father is a member of the Minne- apolis Commercial Club, and is devoted to automobiling and pleasures on the lake as his principal recreations.

WILLIAM GUILE NORTHUP.

William Guile Northup was born in Salisbury Center, Herkimer County, New York, July 21, 1851. His father was Daniel A. and his mother Louisa (Guile) Northup. Mr. Northup senior was a merchant, a member of the State Legislature for a number of years and prominent in business and social circles in northern New York. The boy was a baby under two years of age when his mother died and when he was less than sixteen he came to Minneapolis to make his home with his uncle, Rev. James H. Tuttle. The first constructive thing he did when he arrived in Minneapolis was to take a course in business college. Then he went to work for the Minneapolis Tribune. Here he was brought into daily contact with Hugh G. Green, then editor of the paper, and Jacob Stone, who was the business manager. This was a fine association for a boy of his age and did much for his development. When Mr. Green left the paper young Northup went to work for the J. S. Pillsbury hardware company. Again he took a short venture into the newspaper world, working for a time on the old Times which afterward became The Journal. After a few months of newspaper work he resigned to go back to the Pillsbury store to learn the hardware business. He remained in the employ of this company until 1874, when he was engaged by Paris Gibson to take charge of the office of the company, which afterward became the North Star Woolen Mills. It was two years after this that Gibson and Tyler failed in the business and Mr. Northup was placed in charge of the company's affairs by R. B. Langdon, the assignee. Ever since that Mr. North- up's hand has been at the helm to direct the fortunes of what has come to be one of the principal manufacturers of woolen blankets in the United States. The New York City office of the company which Mr. Northup represents is at Twenty-first street and Fifth avenue. The great business which has been built up is illustrative of the value of Minne- apolis as a distributing point for merchandise.

Mr. Northup is a director of the Northwestern National Bank, vice president of the Minneapolis Trust Company, vice president and a trustee of the Farmers and Mechanics' Bank and a director of the North American Telegraph Company. The holding of all the positions of honor and trust are eloquent of the high esteem in which he is held as a business man and as a citizen.

Socially his connections are of the same enviable character. He is a member of the Church of the Redeemer and a member of the Minneapolis, Lafayette and Minnetonka Beach Clubs.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

In 1874 Mr. Northup was married to Lela Tucker, daughter of Henry C. Tucker of Providence, Rhode Island. They have two children, Marjorie and William G., Jr.

WILLIAM S. NOTT.

William S. Nott was born in Dublin, Ireland, on July 9, 1853, the son of Henry and Louisa (Nott) Nott, and in 1858, when he was but five years old, was brought by his parents to the United States. Ile obtained a limited academic educa- tion in the schools of Chicago and entered upon his business career as an employe of E. B. Preston & Company, manu- facturers of belting and rubber goods. He remained with this house and rendered it excellent service until 1879, learning the business and showing unusual aptitude in seeing its pos- sibilities and devising means to develop them in serviceable and profitable ways.

But he was not born to be a workman for others all his life. There was that within him that called him to a master- ship in whatever work he was engaged in, and in the year last mentioned he came to Minneapolis and founded the firm of W. S. Nott & Company, of which he has been the president from the beginning of its history. His energy and capacity in business have called him to leading positions in kindred enterprises, and he is now also president of the Nott Fire Engine company ; vice president of the Minneapolis Threshing Machine company; a director of the Security National Bank of Minneapolis, and connected in a leading way with other industrial and financial institutions of great value to the community in which he lives.

The Nott Fire Engine company was organized in 1900, and has been made one of the most successful and impressive institutions in the Northwest. It manufactures steam fire engines and gasoline pumping engines of high quality and great power and popularity, which are known and commended from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The combined companies do a large and profitable business, and their business is steadily on the increase.

Mrs. Nott was Miss Jessica Cory, a native of Iowa. They have one child. their daughter Charlotte, who is now the wife of Conrad G. Driscoll of St. Paul. The father has mingled freely in the social life of his community as an active member of the Minneapolis and Commercial clubs, and has been a liberal patron of healthful recreation as a devotee of golf, fishing and traveling. He has given in his own case an impressive example of the value of these recreations in relieving busy men from the exacting cares and burdens of a strenuous every-day life of toil and effort.

The excellent and broad-minded business man, whose life story is briefly indicated in these paragraphs has also given a due share of his energy and attention to promoting the general welfare of his community by taking part in its governmental affairs and all commendable undertakings for improvement along lines of enduring usefulness, moral, in- tellectual, social, commercial and material. He has been a very progressive citizen, with a mind ever alert and active in behalf of the best interests of his city, county and state, and a hand ever open and skillful in advancing them. No resident of Minneapolis stands in higher personal and general public regard among the people, and none deserves to.

EDWIN WINSLOW HERRICK.

Closely connected with the development of Minneapolis is the name of Edwin Winslow Herrick whose knowledge of men, rare executive abilities and affable social qualities won for him the high respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. Edwin W. Herrick descending from the English family of that name, located originally at Beaumanor Park, Leicester- shire, England, and represented later in Massachusetts and New York state, was born in Sheridan, Chautauqua County, N. Y., on the 13th of June, 1837, the'son of Alfred M. and Caroline Ambler Herrick. He spent his early years with his brother and two sisters on his father's farm near the shore of Lake Erie. His father was a man of great strength of character and prominent in all the progressive movements of his time. After his father's death in 1846 young Herrick, then nine years of age, lived with his grandfather, Hon. David Ambler in Oneida County, N. Y., and later with his uncle, Haven Brigham, his guardian, in his native town. The common schools of the county and two terms at the "Old Academy" at Fredonia comprised all his school education. Realizing that his success in life must depend solely upon his own efforts he, at the age of seventeen, started out to make his own way-and at the same time to avoid being railroaded into the ministry by his family-a calling for which he felt he was not fitted. He turned his hand to anything that offered and, having been taught that whatever was worth doing at all was worth doing well, progressed rapidly, accumulating gradually the wherewithall to go into business for himself. This, put with the inheritance turned over to him by his guardian, permitted him in 1860 to embark in business when he and his older brother, William W., under the firm name of Herrick Brothers, established a wholesale and retail Dry Goods Business in Ashtabula, Ohio. This business progressed steadily during the next eight years during which the Civil war began and ended. His heart was always with the Union and the cause of humanity and though prevented from enlist- ing himself, his means were ever ready to relieve the soldier's widow or orphan.

After the war his spirit of progressiveness and expansion seconded by the hope that a 'change of climate might benefit the health of his wife, whose tendency to bronchial trouble was increasing, induced him to spend the summer of 1867 prospecting throughout the West where new fields and drier atmosphere might offer double inducements for a change of base. He visited many cities before reaching Minneapolis, then a village claiming eight or ten thousand inhabitants, where both the business prospects and resources and the dry, won- derful climate appealed to him as being the ideal place to "drive his stake." He returned to Ohio and by his enthusiasm induced his brother to sell their joint business in Ashtabula and on the first day of June, 1868, the two brothers arrived in Minneapolis. The real estate firm of Herrick Brothers was immediately established and in the early 'seventies engaged in many transactions of magnitude and importance among which was the creation of "Groveland Addition" to Minneapolis comprising nearly one thousand lots now lying in the center of the residence portion of the city. He also became a member of the lumber firm of Joncs, Herrick & Company, and later secured large tracts of timber land in Northern Minnesota which were sold some fifteen years later. Another important purchase was the real estate and building known as "The Academy of Music," then the most important building in

Edwin Wondering

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

the city, situated on the site now occupied by Temple Court. The building was thought to be far in advance of the city's needs and as it contained a spacious auditorium above the second floor, at that time the finest theater in the Northwest, Mr. Herrick was forced to take the management of it and for the next ten years devoted untiring efforts to bring to this far western point the best talent to be had in the dramatic and musical world. His constant aim was to cultivate the public taste for music and the drama by booking only the very best companies. It is needless to say that this was often accomplished in the face of the most discouraging circum- stance's and at personal pecuniary loss. Nevertheless it can be truly said that owing to the untiring efforts and oneness of purpose of Mr. Herrick, Minneapolis saw the dawn of a new era and a higher moral tone in the history of her amuse- ments.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 105

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 1190

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190