Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 106

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 106

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During the seven years of financial depression from 1873 to 1880 when many good men were forced into bankruptcy, Mr. Herrick never for one moment lost faith in the city of his adoption and during these years did much to stimulate the growth of the city by the erection of business blocks. On Christmas day, 1884, the Academy of Music was partially destroyed by fire. Upon the site was erected in the following year under Mr. Herrick's personal supervision the splendid fireproof office building known as Temple Court, one of the very first of its kind in the city. Mr. Herrick was one of the first subscribers to the stock of the Soo Railway, recognizing the great benefit its completion would bring to Minneapolis; and during the period of its construction was one of its directors and for a time president of an auxiliary railway of that system.

Mr. Herrick's love of nature and keen appreciation of human nature made him an intelligent and ardent traveler which pleasure he gratified liberally throughout his life. In politics Mr. Herrick was always a republican, though not a partisan, always desiring to see the best men in office. He never aspired to official position but was idealistic in his idcas of the simple duties of citizenship. In religion he was liberal minded and though expected by his relatives to become a Congregational minister, he found a more congenial and satisfactory home in the Universalist faith. Since 1869 he and his family have been identified with the Church of the Redeemer in Minneapolis, in the west transept of which he placed a beautiful memorial window in memory of the three members of his family, his wife, youngest son, and his daugh- ter who died respectively in 1880, 1881, and 1882.

On July 29, 1861, Mr. Herrick married Miss Juliet C. Durand at Westfield, N. Y., and their early married life was spent in Ohio. Three children were born to them: Dora G., in Ohio, in 1862; Roy Durand, in Minneapolis, in 1869; and Edwin Lowry in Minneapolis, in 1875. Mrs. Herrick was graduated at Wadawannuc Institute, Stonnington, Conn., in 1860. She possessed a brilliant literary mind, was practical in deed, and in thought was progressive in advance of her times. Her mental strength was too great for her frail physique and while at Jacksonville, Fla., in 1880, in search of better health, passed suddenly away. Mr. Herrick remained a widower until his death in 1911 when he succumbed sud- denly on May 2d to pneumonia, contracted, it is believed, in the northern passes of the mountains on his way home from California where he had, as usual, spent the winter.

In reviewing the character and career of Edwin W. Herrick we note particularly his just and active mind, his cordial sim-

plicity of manner, and his unswerving loyalty to any cause he might espouse, especially to the welfare of the city of his adoption where he lived the greater part of his life and in whose future he had such sublime faith.

FREDERICK D. NOERENBERG.

Frederick D. Noerenberg, president of the Minneapolis Brew- ing Company, is a son of Carl and Wilhelmina Noerenberg, and was born in Bietzicker Provinz Poomern, Prussia, in 1845. The family came to America in 1860 and located in St. Paul, where Mr. Noerenberg earned his living by working on farms and as a day laborer. Later he was employed in Stahlman's Brewery. From 1870 to 1875 Mr. Noerenberg kept a hotel in St. Paul. In 1875 the family made their home in Minneapolis, and Mr. Noerenberg engaged in the brewing business under name of Zahler & Noerenberg until 1891, when several breweries consolidated and formed the Minneapolis Brewing Company. Mr. Noerenberg was elected vice president of this company at the time of organization and later became president.

In 1878 Mr .. Noerenberg married Miss Johanna Sprung- mann, of Minneapolis.

Mr. Noerenberg is a lover of nature and has made his home at Crystal Bay, Lake Minnetonka, where he spends most of his time.

FRANK H. NUTTER.

Frank H. Nutter is a native of New England, having been born at Dover, N. H., April 20, 1853. His father, Abner J. Nutter, was a school teacher. It would be hard to estimate the breadth and scope of the father's influence during the fifty years which he devoted to teaching, for the boys and girls, who came under his care at the time when character was being made and habits were being formed, are now scattered from Maine to California, and have passed on to the second and in many instances to the third generation, the principles and ideals with which he inspired them. Hannah (Roberts) Nut- ter, the wife and mother, was the typical New England woman of the 'cultured type. Both she and the father were particu- larly ambitious for the fullest mental development of their son Frank. The son spent much of his early boyhood in and around Boston. He attended the public schools there and entered the Eliot High Schools. It was after finishing high- school that he formed his first association with the eminent specialists like Joseph H. Curtis and F. L. Lee and began his career as a civil and landscape engineer. He learned all that these men had to teach him and after engaging in his pro- fession for a few years on his own account there in Boston, he came to Minneapolis. This was in 1878. For ten years, from 1880 to 1890, he was in partnership with Frank Plummer and the firm was known as Nutter and Plummer. Since the dissolution of this partnership, Mr. Nutter has been alone as a landscape engineer. For 23 years from 1883 to 1906, Mr. Nutter held the appointment of Park Engineer, under the Board of Park Commissioners. This position he resigned be- cause of the press of private business, and his son Frank Nutter, Jr., was appointed to fill his place. Mr. Nutter's in-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

fluenec is almost as far reaching as his father's although in an entirely different way. He has designed beauty for the in- spiration of humanity in many of the states of the union and also in Canada. Civie work is Mr. Nutter's specialty although he has designed private grounds in as many states as he has parks. Cemeteries are another angle of his work in which he has been particularly successful.

Mr. Nutter is an active republican and devoted to all eivie interests. He is a pioneer member of the Minneapolis Society of Civil Engineers, and one of the prime movers in the State Horticultural Society. He also belongs to most of the prin- cipal elubs of the city, ineluding the Commercial Club. His church affiliations are with the Congregationalists, and he is a member of the Congregational ehureh. His wife was Miss Carrie Alden, before her marriage, which took place in April, 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Nutter have three children, Frank H., Jr., Williard A., and Hannah A.

HON. WILLIS I. NORTON.

Hon. Willis I. Norton, lawyer, son of Austen and Euniee M. Norton, born in Plainwell, Michigan, April 28, 1880, at the age of seven, with his mother, brothers and sister (his father having died when he was four years of age), became a resi- dent of Lyon county, Minnesota, spent his early boyhood days working on the farm, then removed to Marshall, Minne- sota, where he went to graded and high school, working his way, and in June, 1899, graduated from the high school. In September, 1899, he entered the University of Minnesota, eon- tinuing to work his own way. In his junior year at the University he became interested in business and continued in business during the remainder of his University eourse. He is a graduate of the Academie and Law department of the University, elass of 1906.

While in the University, he was a member of the Intra- Sophomore debating team in a sueeessful eontest for a cash prize of $75.00. In his junior year he was a member of the Inter-collegiate debating team of the University, which de- feated the University of Chicago and the University of Michi- gan, in 1902, and won the championship of the Interstate debating league for that year. His sueeess as an orator and debater seeured him membership in the Delta-Sigma-Proe, an honorary forensie society limited in its enrollment to in- terstate debaters and orators selected on demonstrated merit and ability.

Mr. Norton is engaged in the general praetiee of law in asso- eiation with his brother, F. E. Norton. He has taken an active part in publie affairs. In 1912, he was elected by 1,000 majority to the House of Representatives from the Thirty- ninth legislative, or University, distriet, 'comprising the See- ond and Ninth wards, as the nominee of the Republican party, having been selected as such over two competitors at the primary election.

In the legislature of 1913, lie was a member of the eom- mittees on Judiciary, Appropriations, Reapportionment, Tem- peranee, University and University Lands and Public Libra- ries, and rendered conspieuous service in drafting and passing important legislation.

Mr. Norton was married in June, 1903, to Miss Lottie O'Brien, of Amiret, a graduate of the Marshall High School. They have one daughter, Eunice Marie.

LEO MELVILLE CRAFTS, M. D.

Colonial and Revolutionary patriots were the American fore- fathers of Leo Melville Crafts, M. D., his early aneestors in this country being among the founders of Boston, while his parents, Major Amasa and Mary J. (Henry) Crafts, were among the founders and builders of Minneapolis, having come to this locality in 1853. The father, in 1857, built the first briek house ever put up in Minneapolis, which stood on the site of the present Century building at the corner of Fourth street and Marquette avenue.

The aneestors of Major Amasa Crafts on his mother's side were the Stones, who for more than 200 years owned the beautiful estate "Sweet Auburn" on the banks of the Charles river at Boston, which afterward became a part of Mount Auburn cemetery in that eity. A portion of the ancestral home near Boston is still oeeupied by a branch of the family. One of the early members of the Stone family was one of the first graduates of Harvard College, and Mrs. Crafts' male ancestors were East Indian traders at a time when the merchant marine of this country was of great importance.

The historieal Boston Tea Party started from the house of Col. Thomas Crafts. He presided at the meeting in the State House when the Declaration of Independence was first. read in Boston. He commanded the Regiment to which Paul Revere belonged. He was also in command of the Artillery at the siege of Boston driving the British ships from the harbor. His portrait was hung in the old State House at Boston in 1913, the subject of this sketeh being ehiefly in- strumental in having this done.

Dr. Crafts' father, Major Amasa Crafts, was a major in the Maine militia about the time of the Mexican war. The major's father, Moses Mills Crafts, was a captain in the War of 1812. The major's grandfather, great-grandfather and five other members of the family took part in the battle of Lexington in the Revolutionary war, and the major's great- great-grandfather was a soldier at the siege and eapture of Louisburg, Nova Scotia, in the French and Indian war in 1758. Seven out of nine generations of the family have given inilitary men to the service of their country on this side of the Atlantic. In 1793 Lieut. Moses Crafts settled at Jay Hills, Maine, and the house built by him at that time is still standing and in a good state of preservation.

Major Amasa Crafts engaged in lumbering extensively here for some years after his arrival, but he suffered a heavy loss in 1857 when the spring floods carried thousands of his logs down the river. These logs piled against the piers of the bridge about where Fourteenth avenue south is now and earried the whole structure away only a few minutes after he erossed. The loss he thus suffered and the following panic of 1857 compelled him to sell huis fine old home, which had been the center of social life in the community. But under the persuasion of his wife, whose faith in Minneapolis never wavered, he became possessed of a considerable body of real estate, which he continued to hold, and lived to realize good values from it. One of his traets was a claim near Powder- horn lake, which others have, sinee his time, platted into several additions to the eity.

Earlier in life the major was a member of the firm of Crafts, Perham & Company, woolen merehants in Boston. He advaneed large sums to mills which failed. and their failure crippled him seriously for a time in a finaneial way. About 1868 he began to ship fruit into Minneapolis, handling

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

1,000 to 1,200 barrels of apples a year, which he brought up the river from Missouri, supplying grocers and other dealers as required, thereby becoming the first wholesale fruit dealer in Minneapolis. He also took an active part in local public affairs, there being no civic enterprise in the early history of the city in which he was not prominent. He died in August, 1893, aged eighty-six, and his widow passed away in 1896 at the age of seventy-six.

Leo Melville Crafts was born in Minneapolis in 1863. His education was obtained in the public schools and at the University of Minnesota, from which institution he was graduated in the class of 1886. While attending the Univer- sity he won distinction as a student and public speaker, rep- resenting his class in senior oratorical contest, and, being active and skillful in athletics, carried off several cham- pionships.

Dr. Northrop and others urged him to study for the min- istry, but from boyhood he was ambitious to become a physician, and accordingly he attended Harvard Medical col- lege, from which he was graduated in 1890. During that year and the next he was house physician at the Boston City hospital. Since then he has been active in his profession in Minneapolis, and for a number of years was connected with the Hamline Medical school, at one time being dean of its faculty. He has made a specialty of mental and nervous diseases, in reference to which he is an authority, and is now visiting neurologist on the staff of several of the Minneapolis hospitals.

In addition to his professional activity the doctor has been active in church and Sunday school work, serving from 1893 to 1896 as president of the Minnesota State Sunday School Association. He has been treasurer of the Hennepin County Medical society and chairman of the nerve section of the State Medical society. He is also a member of the American' and Mississippi Valley Medical associations, the American As- sociation of Railroad Surgeons and the Board of Censors of the Soo Railroad Surgical Association. In addition he is consulting neurologist of the Soo Railroad system. In 1911 he was president of the Minnesota Neurological Society and in 1913 a delegate to the International Medical Congress held in London, England. He is, besides, a Fellow of the Massa- chusetts Medical Association and a member of the Harvard Medical College and Boston City Hospital Alumni associa- tions. He has also been a member of the Minnesota National Park and Forestry Association and president of the Native Sons of Minnesota. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, also of Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts.

Dr. Crafts has written extensively for the magazines of his profession and on Sunday school topics, forestry and state history. He is a member of the Athletic club, and, having been an athlete himself. is keenly interested in legitimate sports, but of late years has enjoyed his vacations next to Nature's heart in the pine woods of Northern Minnesota. In political affiliation he is a Progressive, and is at this time (1914) president of the Progressive club of Hennepin county; and his religious connection is with the First Congregational church. In 1901 he was married to Miss Amelia I. Burgess, a native of Portland, Maine.

THE NORTHLAND PINE COMPANY.

One of the great pine land compauies of the Northwest, localizing its interests in Minneapolis, is the Northland Pine Company, whose activities are extensive in cutting timber, and manufacturing it into lumber. This company was or- ganized in May, 1889, by John B. Kehl, of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, and William Deary, of Duluth, the first idea being to confine its activity to dealing in timber lands. The new company was incorporated in 1904 to engage in the active manufacture of lumber, purchased the old Backus-Brooks mill and later the Carpenter-Lamb mill. It acquired con- siderable stumpage from the Indian Reservation, bought up everything that looked desirable and obtainable and soon had a supply for eight years cutting in sight. The aggregate capacity of the mills was 360.000 feet in ten hours, and covered an area of sixty acres. When operating at full capacity the company employs 750 men, with a payroll of over $45,000 a month. Added to this there were from 500 to 1,000 men employed in logging in the woods in winter, and four traveling men were employed to dispose of the manu- factured product in Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska and North and South Dakota.

Frederick Weyerhauser of St. Paul was the president of the company; R. H. Chute of Minneapolis, vice-president; F. S. Bell of Winona, secretary; R. D. Musser of Little Falls, treasurer, and C. A. Barton of Minneapolis, general manager. The B. B. Fuel Company is a branch and is operated by the same management. This company handles all the fuel turned out by the great mills, and is capitalized at $20,000 and em- ploys about thirty men.

C. A. BARTON.

The managerial head of this great company is C. A. Barton, whose ability has been recognized by a number of big firms. He came to Minneapolis in 1888, and entered the employ of the Minneapolis Furniture Company, later being with the Bradstreet-Thurber Furniture Company until 1893, when he became identified with the lumber business. He was book- keeper for the Nelson-Tenny Company for five years, when he went to the Mississippi River Lumber Company, later in the same capacity. In 1904 at its incorporation, he became the general manager of the Northland Pine Company. He has recently become identified with the Boise Payette Lumber Company of Boise, Idaho, one of the largest concerns recently organized in the Inland Empire. Becoming vice-president and general manager.

Mr. Barton is the owner of the Nashwauk Realty Company, of Itasca County, with John A. Redfern of Hibbing, as partner. He is a director of the Merchants and Manufacturers State Bank of Minneapolis and 1st vice-president of the Northern Pine Manufacturing Association.

Socially, Mr. Barton is democratic and genial and is much devoted to philanthropy and church work. He is a member of the Plymouth Congregational Church and is an Ex-Sunday School Superintendent. He is a director of Drummond Hall. Northeast Minneapolis, and also of the Plymouth Club. He is also a member of a number of other of the principal clubs including the Minneapolis Club, the Civic and Commerce Asso- ciation. He was married in 1892 to Cora E. Riddle, of Dodge

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

County, Minnesota. They have four children, Everett H., Isabel J., Walter A., and Eleanor Rosc.

HENRY OSWALD.

Henry Oswald was born in Oberaclı, Canton-Thergau, Switz- erland, March 17, 1832, and came to the United States in 1854. His brother, John C., had been in Virginia for six years, where Henry joined him soon, coming to a farm near Galesburg, Illinois. In 1857, John C., having come to Minne- apolis, Henry came also, bringing John C.'s family. He worked for Gottfred Scheitlin, a brother-in-law of John C., buying ginseng root which was shipped to China. Then he was in company with John C. in conduct of a store at Twenty- first avenue north and Second street. John C. soon moving to what is now the location of Northrup, King & Co., on Bridge Square, Henry became toll keeper and tender of the Twentieth avenue north toll bridge, a draw bridge which opened for passage of river boats engaged in logging. He held this position during 1859 and 1860, when high water carried out the bridge. Then, in company with Matt Notha- ker, he bought John C. Oswald's general store, continuing its operation until spring of 1872. He then bought a half in- terest in the Crystal flour mills at Camden Place, on Shingle Creek, operating it in partnership with Jacob Bingenheimer. In the fall of 1872 Mr. Bingenheimer died and Mr. Oswald, a year later, buying his partner's interest. Thus continued his business for nearly thirty years until the mill was destroyed by fire in 1890, thus losing about $20.000. The mill was not rebuilt.

Mr. Oswald was a Democrat in his political affiliations. He held public office several times, the first being as alderman of the First ward, about the time St. Anthony and Minne- apolis were united. He was alderman again in 1886, when Camden Place came into Minneapolis, he representing the Tenth ward in the council. It was largely through his in- strumentality that the pumping station and workhouse were erected in that section. In 1890 Mr. Oswald was elected a county commissioner of Hennepin county, a position in which he did excellent service. He was an important factor in the political councils of his party, a frequent delegate to its conventions and in all instances loyal to his friends.

In 1857 Henry Oswald married Theresia Sicber, a native of Heidelberg, Baden, Germany, who had come to Lancaster Co., Penn., in 1849 with her mother, and to Minneapolis in 1856. For some years she was employed in the family of the late R. P. Russell. To them were born three children, Henry A., John W. and Anna Lena, the latter dying in childhood.

Henry Oswald died July 26, 1906 at his home at 1117 North Sixth street.

Henry A. Oswald was born May 14, 1859, when the family was living on the banks of the river and the father was toll bridge tender. He worked for some years in his father's store and in the mill office, acquiring thorough knowledge of the flour milling industry. He attended the high school and a commercial college, was in the county treasurer's office for four years, and in February, 1897. joined the business forces of the Minneapolis Brewing Company, being at first in the collection department, then becoming cashier and afterward assistant treasurer. In 1883 he married Antonie Heinrich, a

sister of Julius Heinrich. They have two sons, Henry W. and John J. Oswald.

Mr. Oswald is favorably known as a careful business man, a social and political worker. He is a well known member of the Elks and is a Republican.

FRANK PERSHING HOPWOOD.

Frank Pershing Hopwood, one of the best known and most successful business men in Minneapolis, was born in Union- town, Pennsylvania, in 1854. He is a son of R. G. Hopwood, for years a prominent lawyer of Uniontown, whose ancestors came to this country from England and settled in Virginia in the seventeenth century. Frank's grandparents moved to Pennsylvania at an early day, being among the first white persons to cross the Alleghany mountains as emigrants from a Southern colony. They settled on a large tract of land, which they received as a government grant, and founded the town of Hopwood, named in their honor and still a flourishing village located a few miles from the city of Uniontown, in Fayette county.

Mr. Hopwood's early education was obtained in the publie schools, but his father was instrumental in founding Madison College before the Civil war, and Frank's older brother at- tended that institution. It was extensively patronized by the sons of Southern planters, which was discontinued during the war and before he had a chance to become one of its students. At the age of fourteen he became a clerk in a general store in Uniontown kept by R. H. Newlon. In accordance with the custom of that period he was obliged to work from 6 o'clock in the morning until 9 at night.

After working for Mr. Newlon for a time Mr. Hopwood se- cured a position in the store of Skiles & Hopwood in the same city. In 1873 the proprietors decided to take a trip through the West, and informed their clerks that the one who showed the best record during their absence would receive a handsome prize. Mr. Hopwood proved to be the fortunate one, and was given a large silver Waltham watch with a silver chain at- tached, which he prized very highly.

On the trip mentioned Mr. Skiles visited Minneapolis, and he was so well pleased with this region that he determined to locate here, which he did in 1875, and the next year Mr. Hopwood joined him in this city. After passing some weeks with Mr. Skiles he entered the employ of G. W. Hale & Com- pany, whose store was at Nicollet avenue and Third street. Two years later he received an offer of $1,000 a year for his services in a dry goods store in Erie, Pennsylvania, and, as the salary seemed large, he decided to accept the offer. In a short time, however, he returned to Minneapolis and re-en- tered the employ of Mr. Hale, with whom he remained until 1881.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 106

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