Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 109

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 109

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JAMES E. O'BRIEN.

Lawyer, and influential force in social, civic and business life, James E. O'Brien is justly esteemed a valuable citizen. He was born at Lake City, Minnesota, January 6, 1870, and is the son of Richard and Margaret (McShane) O'Brien, the former a native of St. Lawrence county, New York, and the latter of Ireland. They were married in Wabasha county, where they are still living. The father located on a farm of 1,000 acres near Lake City, in 1864. He began operations with one team and $300, but finally became an extensive land- owner and farmer, still owning about 1,200 acres. For fifteen years he was chairman of the board of town supervisors and has also held other public offices.

James E. O'Brien remained on the farm until the age of twenty. He attended the Lake City high school and was graduated in 1892 from the academic department of the University and from the law department in 1895, and received his degree of A. M. in 1896. He was admitted to the bar upon graduation in 1895, and since then has been continuously en- gaged in the practice. While he is deeply interested in public affairs and the general welfare, he has never sought or de- sired a public office. He has devoted himself entirely to his professional work, taking part in other interests only in ac- cordance with the demands of good citizenship, and with no regard for personal advancement.

Believing firmly in the principles of the Democratic party as embodying the best theories of government, Mr. O'Brien has taken active interest in campaign work, as a member of the executive committee. He belongs to the Minneapolis Ath- letie club and the Civic and Commerce association. He has

made a special study of political economy and social questions, and is a close student of American history and the great prin- ciples underlying the constitution.

Mr. O'Brien was married July 8, 1897, to Miss Agnes Byrnes. She was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, and came to Minneapolis at the age of thirteen, was graduated from the University of Minnesota, class of 1894, later becom- ing a teacher in the city schools. They have two sons, twins, Richard and John. The parents are Catholics in religious faith and members of the Pro-Cathedral congregation.

JAMES ALFRED KELLOGG.

James A. Kellogg, attorney at law, who is held in high estimation as a man and lawyer, also bears distinction as a soldier and one whose ancestors were soldiers.

His grandfather was a soldier under George Washington; and, his son Hiram Tyre Kellogg, father of James A., was a volunteer against England, in 1812. James A. Kellogg, was but a boy of 11 years when the Civil war began, but he was old enough to take extraordinary interest in the great con- flict. The record of his father and grandfather moved him to still deeper interest; and when he had reached his fifteenth year, he enlisted, in February, 1864, in the celebrated Iron Regiment, shouldering his musket with the sturdiest of his comrades, and served in the Army of the Cumberland until Sept. 10, 1865. Mr. Kellogg retains relations to old com- rades as a member of Morgan post, G. A. R., and had recog- nition of his military record by being honored with appoint- ment to the staff of General Russell A. Alger, when he was governor of Michigan, and assembled a staff composed entirely of scarred veterans.

A granite monument on the campus at Hillsdale college erected to the memory of the soldier students who were members of the Alpha Kappa Phi Society. Mr. Kellogg was born in New London, Huron County, Ohio, December 12, 1849. His father was H. T. Kellogg, his mother Emcline (Fiske) Kellogg, the former a native of Sheffield, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, and the latter of Hoc Pen Ridge, Connecticut.

James attended the district schools of Hillsdale, Michigan, continuing through the high school and into Hillsdale college. There he was a classmate of Will Carleton, the poet; and a member of the Alpha Kappa Phi Society. Having finished the course he began to teach, reading law while so employed. He also engaged in farming and teaching near Ottawa, Illi- nois, clinging tenaciously, however, to his purpose of becoming a lawyer. In September, 1872, he was admitted to the bar in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and opened an office at Niles, where his father then lived. Being first appointed circuit court commissioner of Berrien County, he was twice clected, but declined a third nomination. In 1880, and again in 1882, he was prosecuting attorney of Berrien County, and in 1887 he declined the nomination for circuit judge.

In October of that year, he came to Minneapolis and has since been engaged in the practice, holding an enviable posi- tion in the local Bar. He has taken a prominent part in the councils of the Republican party, and is accorded recognition as maintaining high ideals of citizenship, his influence being ever cast for better civic conditions.

In May, 1870, Mr. Kellogg married Frances Virginia Ball

James & Kellogg.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

at Ottawa, Illinois, who died in 1877. Their only surviving child is Frances Virginia Knox of St. Paul. In 1879 he mar- ried Alice Cooper, of Corunna, Michigan. Their son Alfred C. is of Philadelphia. The present Mrs. Kellogg was Miss Jennie L. Heath of Plattsburg, New York. Their four chil- dren are James A. of Los Angeles, Cal .; Hiram Tyre, Frederick Heath and Samuel Fiske.

JOHN SARGENT PILLSBURY.

Mr. Pillsbury was born in Minneapolis on December 6, 1878, a son of Charles Alfred and Mary Ann (Stinson) Pillsbury, whose life story is recorded on other pages of this volume. He was educated in the schools of Minneapolis, attending first the graded schools and afterward being graduated from the Central High School in 1896. From the high school he went to the University of Minnesota, and from that institu- tion he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1900.

Flour milling was the destined occupation of Mr. Pillsbury at the start of his career, and he began his connection with it by working in subordinate capacities in its several de- partments of employment for six years in order to acquire a complete mastery of the industry. At the end of the period named he passed two years in travel, and a few months after his resumption of work in 1908 he was elected vice president and general sales manager of the Pillsbury Flour Mills company, one of the largest operators in the manufacture of flour in the world, if not, indeed, the most extensive. He is still occupying those positions and giving the affairs of the company his close and careful attention.

But, exacting and numerous as his duties are, his activities have led him also into other business enterprises, his connec- tion with which is very useful and highly valued. He is one of the directors of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis and the Atlantic Elevator company. He is also a trustee of the Pillsbury Settlement Association, one of the richly benevolent insti- tutions of his home city founded by the liberality of his parents. Together the brothers donated to the Association its large, attractive and finely equipped home, Pillsbury House, at 320 Sixteenth avenue south, which they had erected as a memorial to their father and mother. The Pillsbury Settle- inent Association is one of the best uplifting agencies of its kind in this country, and its benefactions have already been extensive and noble, although it has been in operation but a few years in comparison with many others of like character and aims.

Having always a keen and serviceable interest in all the public agencies at work for the good of his state and city, and the improvement and enjoyment of their citizens, Mr. Pillsbury served a number of years, until 1904, in one of the battalions of the Minnesota National Guard, holding the position of adjutant with the rank of first lieutenant. He has also been earnestly and practically interested in social organ- izations, having long been a member of the Minneapolis and University clubs of his home city and the University clubs of New York and Chicago, besides several country clubs in different localities.

The political principles and theories of government pro- claimed by the Republican party have always had Mr. Pills- bury's support since the dawn of his manhood, but he has

never been enamored of public life, and has not at any time in his career sought or desired any of the honors or emolu- ments of official station. Yet he has never neglected or slighted tlie duties of citizenship, whether they have been political in character or lain in other domains of manly endeavor; and in connection with all commendable under- takings for the advancement or betterment of his community his mind has always been active and his hand open with the foremost in helping to promote and wisely direct them.

On December 5, 1911, Mr. Pillsbury was united in marriage with Miss Eleanor J. Lawler, of Minneapolis. They have a very attractive home at No. 2200 Stevens avenue.

JAMES S. O'DONNELL.

Mr. O'Donnell was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, on April 12, 1856, and died at Minneapolis Nov. 16, 1912, he was therefore some five months over fifty-six years old when he died. He obtained a limited common school education in his native place and there learned the carpenter trade. After completing his apprenticeship he left home to seek work at his craft, with his clothes tied up in a handkerchief and his toes out of his boots. He walked eight miles to a point where he found employment, and then devoted three years of hard service to his employer. At the age of twenty-four he came to Minneapolis, arriving early in 1880, and here he passed the remainder of his days.

Mr. O'Donnell soon found work at his trade after coming here, and when about two years had passed he began to take contracts for large jobs. One of the most important of his early contracts was for the erection of the Donaldson Glass Block at the corner of Sixth street and Nicollet avenue. The contract called for the erection of the completed building in 90 days. He put 80 men at work on the structure and turned it over to its owner ready for occupancy in 76 days. This achievement fixed his standing as a builder of capacity and dispatch, while his close personal attention to every detail of ' the work, and his unyielding insistence on absolute compli- ance with the specifications in every particular established him as altogether reliable in all respects.

His later energies were devoted mainly to the construction of attractive and substantial store fronts. He could draw high-grade plans, give architects useful practical suggestions, and perform every part of the work in hand if necessary.

Mr. O'Donnell had limited educational facilities, but he was a great reader of solid literature and possessed a fine analyti- cal mind and a great memory. In the course of his life he acquired a large fund of general information and became well posted on all subjects of current thought and comment. But he had no use for light literature or trivial matters of any kind. His habits were abstemious in full measure. He did not drink, smoke, chew tobacco or indulge in games or the other frequent recreations of men. His genuine manliness showed itself in his great love of children. All of his own offspring died in infancy or childhood, but he took a keen interest in other people's children, and was very genial, chummy and liberal with them, and hosts of them were devoted to him.

On November 16, 1904, Mr. O'Donnell was united in marriage with Miss Catherine McDunn of Barnesville, Minnesota. She took up a homestead in North Dakota and finally proved up

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

on it. Her native place was Hastings in this state, but her parents came here from Pennsylvania. For a number of years she taught school in Omaha and other places, being well educated and of a studious nature. Because of her attain- ments and taste for good literature she was a congenial com- panion for her husband and of considerable assistance to him carrying on his business. Both were devoted to their home, and their domestic life was a very peaceful and happy one.

EZRA C. PRATT.

Ezra Cary Pratt, late president of the Pratt Express Com- pany and pioneer citizen of Minneapolis, was born at Dix- field, Maine, November 7, 1834. His death occurred Novem- ber 7, 1901, at the end of a long and successful career marked by many years of useful citizenship. He was reared in his native State and there learned the trade of ship car- penter, becoming a skilled workman. He was engaged in this occupation at Bath, Maine, until 1855, when he came to St. Anthony Falls. In the following year he established the express business between Minneapolis and St. Paul, which prospered with the rapid development of the Twin Cities as one of their most important enterprises. At first he operated one team, which he drove himself and delivered the products of the Pillsbury mills to the merchants of St. Paul, trading with them for supplies which they received by the river boats and which he sold in turn to dealers in Minneapolis. At the end of thirty years the amount of transportation handled by the company assumed proportions which demanded rail- road shipping facilities. Mr. Pratt then made a switching con- tract with the Great Northern Railroad Company and leased cars which ran between the cities, with offices and distributing depots in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, employing about thirty men. He later leased the cars of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad company. The express company now represents an investment of $100,000 and does an annual business amounting to $112,000. It handles all classes of freight and ships from 1.400 to 1,500 cars each year, the largest percent- age of this line of business in the city.

Mr. Pratt continued to be prominently identified with his company throughout the forty-five years of his career. He was ever interested in matters of public importance and de- voted his efforts and influence to the promotion of civie welfare. He was prominent in the circles of the Masonic order, a member of Cataract Lodge, became a Knight Tem- plar in 1877. and later attained the Thirty-second degree.

He was married in St. Anthony to Miss Mary Eliza Barrows. sister of Fred C. Barrows. He is survived by his wife and four sons, Charles M., Ernest C., Richard H. and George A. The three younger sons have succeeded to their father's in- terest in the Pratt Express Company. Ernest C. Pratt was born in St. Anthony in 1861, and has been associated with the company since 1880, becoming its vice president in 1904. He was married in 1885 to Miss Edith V. Weeks. He is a member of the Masonic order, a Knight Templar and Shriner; is also a member of the St. Anthony Commercial Club. the Boating Club and other prominent social organizations. George Albert Pratt, secretary and treasurer of . the Pratt Express Company, is a native of Minneapolis, born in No- vember, 1875. He received his early education in the city schools and then became a student of engineering in the

University of Minnesota, graduating in 1898 as a mining engineer. In the same year he accepted a position with a mining company in New York City and was sent to Sandia, Peru. Three years later he was engaged in the construction of a smelter for the United States Mining Company in Salt Lake City and then returned to Minneapolis, entering his father's business and since 1902 has given efficient service to its interests as secretary and treasurer. He was mar- ried to Miss Mary G. O'Donnell of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1901.

OLOF LUDWIG BRUCE.

Descended from Scotchmen and Finlanders, Olof Ludwig Bruce is a native of Sweden and a citizen of the United States. He was born in Verinland, Sweden, March 23, 1873, and came to Minneapolis when he was nineteen years old. His father was a tiller of the soil, but was for years "Näm- deman" (a representative of his district in a judicial capacity, as a sort of associate judge). He and his wife were honored and respected in the community in which their family grew up; and the home, although that of people in moderate eir- cumstances, was ideal in its atmosphere of piety and virtue. It was located in the picturesque and beautiful Upper Verm- land, where the elements of natural scenery seem to con- spire to charm the eye. The father, Lars H. Bruce, was a descendant of Finlanders who emigrated to Sweden during the reign of Charles XII. The Scotch blood comes from the mother's side. The mother, Anna Bruce, was the only child of Olof Bruce, a member of a Scotch family, some of whom held seat in the Riksdag for years, and some of whom have held positions of honor and trust in Sweden for a long period of time. These ancestors were owners of the mines and smelters at Langbanshyttan, Vermland.

There were professional warriors and military men in the ancestry on the mother's side. Carl Roos, who was a trained soldier and an officer from Sweden, and a counsin of the grandfather, Olof Bruce, came to America a number of years prior to the Civil war. When the Civil war broke out, Carl Roos, though at that time fifty-nine years of age, be- came filled with patriotism and a desire to render his adopted country his services in the preservation of the Union and in defense of the flag, and enlisted in Company D of the Third Minnesota Regiment at the beginning of the war; and served throughout the war, until close to the end, when he took violently ill from exposure and hardships, when he received his honorable discharge. He kept a very complete and neatly written diary of his experiences from the beginning to the end of the war. This diary is well preserved and in the possession of a son, Carl Roos, still residing on the old homestead at Vasa, Minnesota.

Mr. Bruce began his education in Sweden, completing his public school course at the age of thirteen, and then "read- ing for the ministry" until the customary requirements for a religious education were fulfilled.

About this time, great numbers in Sweden were emigrat- ing to the land of promise in the West; and by the time the father had died, in 1887, the four older children of the family had come to America and won a place for themselves in their new homeland. Five years later the mother brought the five younger children to America to join the other mem- bers of the family in Minneapolis, Olof L. Bruce, who had

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

not given up his ambition to gain a better education, at once entered the Northwestern Collegiate and Business Institute, of which institution he later became a member of the Board of Trustees. He studied there for three years, where- upon he took a full course at the Minneapolis Academy, and graduated there in 1901. At this institution he won several honors, among them a gold medal in oratory and debate. He at once entered the law department of the University of Minnesota. After finishing the regular law course, he took up post graduate work and received a degree of Master of Laws, in 1905. While he was finishing his course at the Uni- versity, he was also acting as general manager of the Minne- apolis Weekly, a religious and political paper of Minneapolis. In 1906 he resigned his position with the paper and began the active practice of law. This practice has been successful to a very gratifying degree. His practice is not confined to Minneapolis alone, but occasionally he is called to other places to try cases. Politically, Mr. Bruce is a Republican, but he supports the right men in preference to party. He gives a due share of his time and thought to political mat- ters, and is strong in his principles and convictions. Civic matters also hold his interest, and he is always ready to assist in whatever may improve conditions in his city. He is a member of the Minneapolis Civic and Commerce Asso- ciation and many other organizations which tend to promote good city government.

Mr. Bruce is a member of the Tabernacle Church of Min- neapolis. He is a strong member and has served on the Board of Trustees for a number of years. He has served as president of the Young People's Society for years; and also as Superintendent of the Sunday School. He was one of the prime movers in the organization of the Young People's Covenant of the Northwest, and has held office in that organization until other duties made it impossible for him to devote any time thereto. The Scandinavian Union Mission of Minneapolis, of which he is one of the founders, has had him for its president for a number of years.

Mrs. Bruce is the daughter of the Reverend Erik Wallgren, of Chicago. She is a woman of refinement, who previous to her marriage to Mr. Bruce, in 1909, had won a reputation as a pianist of considerable talent.

GEORGE F. ORDE.

One of the founders and vice presidents of the National City Bank of Minneapolis, was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1864. He is the son of Charles Bertram Orde, and lived in Ontario until he had passed his majority a year. He moved to Chicago, in 1886, and entered upon the career which had efficient banking as its aim. and in 1895, he was made cashier of the Northern Trust Company of Chicago.

After ten years in this position Mr. Orde was attracted to Minneapolis and he was made cashier and director of the First National Bank. Five years later, in 1910. he was ad- vanced to vice president of the bank, one of the largest finan- cial institutions in the West, with which he continued until February 1, 1914, when he resigned his position and assisted in the organization of the National City Bank.

Thus, on the face of things, it would appear, from Mr. Orde's steady progress upward, that banking is his whole interest. But the men and women who are foremost in the

civic affairs of Minneapolis know him as one of their most earnest associates. His social tendencies have led him to membership in the Minneapolis club, as well as in the Mini- kahda club. And his love of athletics has taken him to the Lafayette club, and-because he clings to the Canadian love for curling-to the Minneapolis Curling Club. He is an enthusiastic member of golf organizations as well. But above these ranks his activity in such an organization as the Minne- apolis Civic and Commerce Association. Mr. Orde is a director of this association. In the civic work of the association, he finds much to busy him. But his most active part is taken as chairman of the association's committee on streets. On this committee he has gathered equally active associates, and under his leadership the committee has been doing the city a service in efforts toward bettering the physical condition of Minneapolis thoroughfares and bringing them up to a high standard of cleanliness and beauty.

Mr. Orde is a Republican in politics, an Episcopalian by church affiliation. He was married in 1887 to Miss Charlotte J. Carnegie in Peterboro, Ontario, Canada.

FRANK MOODY PRINCE.

Frank M. Prince, president of the First National Bank of this city, is a native of New England. Mr. Prince was born at Amherst, Massachusetts, on July 23, 1854, and is a son of George H. and Sarah E. (Nash) Prince, also New Englanders by nativity. The father was a successful merchant at Am- herst and a man of prominence and influence in the public affairs of his city and state. He was highly respected by all classes of the people there, and so conducted his business, public activities and private life as to deserve the esteem so universally bestowed upon him.

His son Frank grew to the age of twenty in his native city and obtained his education in its public schools, finish- ing with a complete high school course. After leaving school he clerked in a store until he reached the age of twenty, then came to Minnesota to work out a career for himself. He first located in Stillwater, where he was employed for a year in the general store of Prince & French. He then taught school for a short time, after which he secured em- ployment as a general clerk in the First National Bank of Stillwater. This position gave him his first experience in the banking business, which pleased him so well that he de- termined to devote his life to that line of endeavor. He has done this and made an admirable record.

In July, 1878, Mr. Prince came to Minneapolis and accepted a position in the First National Bank as correspondent and teller. He filled this position until November, 1882. when he resigned and returned to Stillwater to take the respon- sible post of cashier in the First National Bank there, in which he had been previously a clerk. The aptitude he had shown in the business. however, his superior capacity in connection with it and his unvarying fidelity to duty were well remembered by the officials of the bank, and they felt confident they were wise in offering him the cashiership.

He gave the Stillwater bank excellent service as its cashier for ten years. then, in 1892, he resigned the office to become the secretary and treasurer of the Minnesota Loan and Trust company of Minneapolis. Two years later he again entered the employ of the First National Bank of

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 109

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