Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 110

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 110

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436

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Minneapolis, this time as its cashier, and since that time, August 1, 1894, hc has been continuously connected with this bank, and throughout the period has borne a large part of the burden of its management. On January 1, 1895, hc was elected vice president of the bank, and in January, 1904, was elevated to its presidency, a position he has held ever since.

He is also one of the directors of the First National Bank at Cloquet, the First National Bank at Carlton and the First National Bank at Sleepy Eye, all in this state, and is also one of the trustees of the Hennepin County Savings Bank and one of the directors of the Des Chutes Lumber company of Minnesota.

Mr. Prince has also found time to give the benefit of his membership and services to several of the leading social organizations in his community, including the Minneapolis, Commercial, Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, and the Minne- apolis Society of Fine Arts. In the welfare of all these organizations ,and others to which he belongs, he takes an intelligent, practical and helpful interest, seeking always to give the proper trend and impulse to their activities with the view of making them as valuable and enjoyable to their members as possible.

' In the general welfare of his community, and everything that would minister to its progress and improvement. Mr. Prince has always felt a deep and abiding interest; and he has made this feeling manifest in his cordial support of all worthy undertakings designed to promote the advancement of his city and county and the general well-being of their residents. In the use of his influence and material aid in this behalf he has always shown good judgment and broad intelli- gence, and his advice has ever been valued highly and usually followed closely. He was married first in 1883 to Miss Belle Russell of Minneapolis. She died in 1888, and in 1898 he contracted a second marriage which united him with Mrs. Margaret (Macartney) Townshend of Stillwater, Minn., who still abides with him. The residents of Mineapolis of all classes regard him as one of their best business men and most useful and representative citizens.

PAUL F. OCHU.

Paul F. Ochu, cashier of the Market State bank, is a native of Minnesota, born in McCloud county, October 9, 1881. His father, Theophile Ochu, was a native of Quebec, Canada. He married Miss Josephine Conley of Minneapolis and for a number of years served as foreman of the lumber mills in McCloud county, Minnesota. He and his wife now make their home in Minneapolis, residing at 1118 Knox avenue, north. Their sons, John B. Ochu and Paul F. Ochu, have won success and prominence in the city in their chosen vocations, the former as an attorney at law and the latter as cashier of the Market State bank. Paul F. Ochu was reared in McCloud county and later was employed in a bank in Canby, Minnesota. He came to Minneapolis in 1905, and accepted the position of manager of the Savings bank of Minneapolis of which Mr. Adam Hannah is president. Mr. Ochu continued to be associated with the Savings bank for several years and then became interested in the project of establishing another bank- ing institution near the central market, believing that it would prove a most profitable venture. He interested others

in the enterprise and the Market State bank was organized, December 17, 1910, with a capital of $25,000 and Mr. Adam Hannah as president. The bank is located at 2nd avenue north and Seventh street and its record of prosperous growth during the few years of its existence has attested notably to the business judgment of its founders and the efficiency of its management. As cashier, Mr. Ochu has been in charge of all the details of business and his services in this position have been characterized by competency and marked executive ability, qualitics that have won him recognition among the younger members of the financial circles of the city.

ERNEST LUNDEEN.

Ernest Lundeen, attorney-at-law, was born on a home- stead near Beresford, South Dakota, August 4th, 1878, a son of Rev. Charles Henry and Christine C. (Peterson) Lun- deen. He attended common school in the Brooklyn district near Beresford, South Dakota, and at Harcourt, Iowa. Grad- uated from the Dayton, Iowa, High School, in 1895. Gradu- ated from Carleton College in 1901, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

As a student of Carleton College, in 1900, he won the state championship in oratory, and represented Minnesota in the inter-state oratorical contest the same year. While at Carleton College, he played on three State champion foot- ball teams; was Captain of the College Track Team, and Editor of the College paper. He stood valiantly for Minne- sota in a large number of struggles for supremacy in debate, oratory, rifle and general athletic contests. In 1903, he was one of the representatives of the University of Minnesota in debate against the Northwestern University at Chicago, and has been awarded more than forty gold, silver and bronze medals, won in contests. Mr. Lundeen studied law at the University of Minnesota, and was admitted to the bar May 21st, 1906. He was a member of the National Champion Rifle team in 1909, and has long been recognized as one of the country's most skillful athletes.

These things have been indicated to show what nature and training have done in the way of physical and mental en- dowment and development, rather his career as lawyer and legislator is our chief concern. He was elected by large majorities from the Forty-second district to the House of Representatives in 1910, and again in 1912. He has always been found on the side of the people and in accord with progressive theories of political thought. He is a Republi- can, and has shown great loyalty to the people regardless of political considerations.

He is the author of the law, which in the session of 1911 increased the value of human life, when lost in the indus- tries, from $5,000 to $7,500: also of the law which pro- vided a purchasing department for Minneapolis; he is au- thor of a law permitting a municipally owned electric light plant.

In the session of 1912, he made a strong fight for two amendments to the United States constitution, the National Income Tax and the Direct Election of Senators by the people. Both of these bills passed. In the same session he was author of a recall bill which passed the House of Represen- tatives by a 93 to 3 vote. This bill failed in the Senate by only six votes.

Anes Sundeen

437

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

In the session of 1913, among other important work done, he was author of the law for State Insurance at cost on Public Buildings, which saved at onee to the State a third of a million dollars. After three hard-fought defeats, he finally secured the passage, in 1913, without a single dis- senting vote, of the Presidential Primary Law, Minnesota being one of the first States in the Union to take sueh stand as to the choice of President, thereby eliminating boss rule in National Conventions. He was also chairman of the Soldiers' Home Committee during this session. His efforts also amended the Workmens' Compensation Aet, securing for injured employees $200 (during the first ninety days), for medieal and surgical attendance, hospital elarges, medicine, nurses, crutehes and artificial limbs. For these and other important serviees, he received indorsement and approval from the State Progressive League and the Minnesota State Federation of Labor. He is in close touch with his party as far as it is in line with progressive ideas, and was elected without opposition, alternate delegate from Hennepin county to the National Republiean convention at Chicago, in 1912.

Mr. Lundeen still maintains his eonneetion with Univer- sity and College associations as a member of the Athenian, Shakopean, and Delta Sigma Rho fraternities. He served several years with the military as first lieutenant of Com- pany F, Minnesota National Guard. He enlisted and served as a volunteer during the Spanish-American war. In fra- ternal eircles he belongs to the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and the Spanish-American War Veterans. He is a genuinely progressive, upright and far-seeing eitizen and has consistently supported Progressive and Labor Legis- lation. He is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic Club and the Civie and Commerce Association.

AMASA C. PAUL.

Amasa C. Paul, senior member of the firm of Paul & Paul, who are specialists in the practice of the law governing patents and trademarks, has been a resident of Minneapolis for thirty years; and, is actively identified with many of the activities that make for general betterment.

He was born at Wakefield, Carroll County, New Hampshire, Sept. 12, 1857. After preparation in the lower schools, he passed two years in Dartmouth College, and then became a teaeher in the Franklin publie school in Washington, D. C., continuing for four years till January, 1881.

Meantime he had taken a course in the Law Department of the National University at Washington, being admitted to the Bar, upon graduation in 1880. Two years later he took a post-graduate eourse in Columbian University, receiving his degree.

January 1, 1881, he was appointed assistant examiner in the United States patent office, where he aequired sueh famil- iarity with patent law as to eause his subsequent devotion to that special line of practice.

Choosing Minneapolis,.he became a resident in 1884, entering upon a practice that has constantly broadened and extended, and now reaches into all of the states of the northwest.

He is the author of a legal treatise on the law of trade- marks which has had a wide eirculation and which is eon- sidered a standard work on the subject. A second edition is now in preparation.

Mr. Paul was married on May 11, 1881, to Miss Ella M. Williams, of Washington, D. C. Mrs. Paul died Dec. 18, 1908. She Was a member, with her husband, of Plymouth Congrega- tional Chureh.

Mr. Paul is identified with various social activities ineluding the New Athletie, Minneapolis, Minikahda and Automobile Clubs. He was formerly aetive in the Commereial Club, of which he was President in 1901 and 1902. He is a life mem- ber of the Minnesota Historical Society and of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, and is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Shriner and an Elk.

ROBERT PRATT.

Mr. Pratt was a resident of Minneapolis for nearly forty- two years, although born and reared in a loeality far distant from this state, and he was therefore thoroughly imbued with the aspirations and tendeneies of this seetion, and one of its most representative citizens. He was born in Rut- land, Vermont, on December 12, 1845, a son of Sidney Wright and Sarah Elizabeth (Harkness) Pratt. The parents were of the industrious, frugal and energetie kind, and their moderate eireumstances in a worldly way compelled them to live as modestly as they eould. Their son, Robert, obtained his early edueation in the distriet sehools of Rut- land, and later took up more advanced studies at Brandon Seminary in the city of the same name in Rutland eounty, the place of his nativity.

About the time when he was nearly ready to leave sehool the Civil war began, and he was fired with patriotie desire to help save the Union from dismemberment. He, therefore, when less than sixteen years of age, enlisted in Company M, Fifth Verinont Infantry, in which he served throughout the war, entering the serviee as a private and being mustered out as a captain, a rank to which he rose by promotion for gallantry and skill in the field, although he was but twenty when he was discharged. He was in the very thick of the eonfliet, serving under Generals Mcclellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade and Sheridan, in the Army of the Potomae, and tak- ing part in all the principal engagements of that great fight- ing foree after the first battle of Bull Run.

Mr. Pratt's military experience was one of hardship and eonstant duty, but it fitted him well for his subsequent strug- gles in business, which were numerous and long continued. He eame to Minneapolis in November, 1866, and, having been reared on a farm and inured to hard work, he aceepted the first employment he could seeure, and in ten years saved enough to start in the lumber business on his own account, although during the period mentioned he was the sole sup- port of an invalid brother. He began working by the day, started his lumber trade in 1876, and in 1878 became also a dealer in eoal and wood. To the last line of merehandising he gave his principal attention after a few years, and adhered to it until his death on August 8, 1908.

He became in time one of the most extensive retail dealers in eoal and wood in Minneapolis and oeeupied a prominent place in the eommereial life of the city. He aequired numerous real estate holdings in different parts of the community, and was one of the organizers and a di- reetor of the German American Bank, and also an active and valued member of the Minneapolis Commereial elub.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Fraternally he was connected with the Grand Army of the Republic, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Order of Elks and the Masonic order.

The welfare and progress of Minneapolis was always an object of great solicitude to him, and he was connected in a - leading and very serviceable way with all the forward move- ments in the community. He was elected a member of the city council from the Third ward in 1884, and served the city well and faithfully for three years. In 1888 he was chosen a member of the school board and remained on it until his death, filling the office of president for a number of years. His services in these two positions were so signal and so highly appreciated that in 1894 he was nominated and elected as the candidate of the Republican party for mayor of the city, and in 1896 he was again nominated and was re-elected by an increased majority, having almost no opposition for the nomination and sweeping everything be- fore him at the election. As mayor he was ex-officio a mem- ber of the park board and the library board, and for six years was a member of the city hall and court house 'com- mission. He was also one of the prime movers in the organization of the Juvenile Protective League and its presi- dent for one term.

On August 30, 1871, Mr. Pratt was united in marriage with Miss Irene Lamoreaux, and by this marriage became the father of six children, Roberta, Helen Clare, Sidney, Robert, Jr., Sara and Thomas. Sidney died in 1898, in the Philippine Islands, where he contracted typhoid fever while serving as a member of the Thirteenth Minnesota Infantry in the Spanish-American war. Mrs. Pratt, the mother of these children, died in the fall of 1903.

SWAN J. PETERSON.

Swan J. Peterson, a well known contractor with offices at 300 West Lake street, was born in Sweden, April 18, 1871. In 1886, a lad of fifteen, he came to America and has here built his successful business career, steadily rising through his ability and energy to his present position as a prominent and substantial business man and thorough American citizen. On coming to this country he first located at Dubuque but two years later removed to Minneapolis where he found employment in construction on a railroad section for a few months and then spent the following winter in the wilds of the lumber camps, hauling logs to the river for a Duluth lumber company. In the spring of 1889 he returned to Min- neapolis where he industriously turned his hand to any profit- able employment, working as day laborer on a street railway and driving a team for sewer excavations. In the winter, for several years he continued his employment in the lumber camps. He made a modest entranee in the contraeting busi- ness in 1903. For many years he was associated with Pike & Cook, leading contractors, in some of their most important undertakings. In those early days, Mr. Peterson was alert to every opening that could benefit his business venture and was even first in the field with a competitor who was an alderman for the sale of dirt to the city street commission. His business developed rapidly to its present prosperous busi- ness with contracts for the largest buildings, and requires equipment for handling several big jobs at the same time, employing one hundred men and teams. He also operates a

large force of workmen on railroad and street gradings and engages in the fuel and transfer business. He has erected several buildings, double houses and large tenements which he owns, his real estate interests including a farm and timber land in Pine county. Mr. Peterson is a director of the Min- neapolis State bank and the Bankers Security company and a member of the West Side Commercial club and the Auto club. He is ex-chairman and a member of the board of directors of the Swedish-American club, and a faithful supporter of the Zion Lutheran church, its financial secretary and treasurer. He was married to Miss Anna C. Peterson of Minneapolis, May 20, 1899 and they have one daughter, Ruth.

LEVI E. LEIGHTON.

The business history, the moral records, the religious life. story, and the social chronicles of Minneapolis. whenever written, would be incomplete without some account of the career and services to the community of the late Levi E. Leighton, who died at his home here, 337 East Sixteenth Street, July 24, 1899, after a residence of thirty-six years. in the city and in the 72d year of his age. He had finished his work and retired from business some years before his- death, and was passing his time in looking after the wel- fare of his extensive property when the summons came, but all his preparations had been made and he was ready.

Mr. Leighton was a native of Athens, Somerset County, Maine, where he was born in September, 1828, and where he was reared to manhood and educated. In 1850 he made a long and trying journey to the gold fields of California, enduring all the dangers and hardships of the trip with courage and fortitude. The youthful Jason (he was only 22) was not disappointed. He found the golden fleece he went for. In five years in the modern Eldorado he secured by placer mining a considerable amount of the precious metal, and returned with his treasure to his native State. Soon afterward he was united in marriage with Miss Addie Hutchins, also a native of Maine. who died in Minneapolis some years prior to his death. In the fall of 1863 they came to the Northwest and located in what was then the town of St. Anthony, but a few months later they moved across the river into Minneapolis, and there passed the remainder of their days in successful efforts for their own advancement and the expansion and improvement of the city they had chosen as their home.

It was not long after Mr. Leighton located in Minneapolis before he got into business actively and progressively. For a few years ho carried on an enterprise, wholly his own, in the lumber trade, and early in the decade of 1870, formed a partnership in the same trade with the late Dumnean D. McDonell, the firm name being Leighton & MeDonell. They remained in business together for a number of years, and their industry grew to large proportions and profits. When Mr. Leighton retired from the firm he retired from business altogether, and thereafter occupied himself in looking after his property. -

Among the valuable pieces of real estate owned by him at the time of his death were the Leighton Building, a four- story brick structure erected by him on Third Street, near the corner of Sceond Avenue Sonth, and a double-front store building on Nieollet Island, which is now occupied by Otto

Levi ELeyton

439

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Witte. He owned many other properties and was possessed of considerable wealth. He aided materially in developing new additions to the city and improving old sections, and thus was of great service in promoting its progress and augment- ing its power and influence.

In religions faith Mr. Leighton was a Free Will Baptist and very warmly devoted to the denomination. He became a member of the Minneapolis Free Baptist Church by bap- tism, April 28, 1869, and thereafter until his death was one of the most zealous members of the congregation. He served as its treasurer for a number of years and for a long time as one of its trustees and deacons. So well was le known as a zealous churchman that during many of the later years of his life he was familiarly called "Deacon Leighton," a title with which he seemed well pleased, although he was far too modest to take credit to himself for anything he did. He was particularly active and energetic in connection withi the erection of the new church edifice for the congregation, giving all the work of construction his personal attention and supervision.

Mr. Leighton was quiet and unostentatious in his ways, generous in his disposition and charitable toward all man- kind. He was ever desirous of opportunities to do neighborly acts of kindness, never waiting to be asked, but always ready to offer his aid wherever he knew it to be needed. His second marriage was in Toledo, Ohio, July 17, 1907, and was to Miss Emma Sargent, a native of that city. She and their one child, Martha Lord Leighton, are still living in this city. Mr. Leighton was universally regarded as one of the best representatives of true manhood and elevated American citizenship that Minneapolis ever registered among its resi- dents.

CHARLES STINSON PILLSBURY.

Is a native of the Northwestern metropolis in which he is carrying on his operations. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on December 6, 1878, and is a son of Charles A. and Mary A. (Stinson) Pillsbury, a sketch of whom will be found in this work.

Mr. Pillsbury was well educated in the schools located in his native city. He passed through the 'graded schools and was graduated from the Central High School in 1896. He afterward attended the University of Minnesota, and from that institution he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1900. Immediately after leaving school he began his busi- ness career. It has included the milling and other manufac- turing industries, dealing in land and lumber extensively and banking in connection with one of the leading banks of the community in which he has his home. He is at this time (1914) a stockholder in the Pillsbury Flour Mills company; the Union Elevator company, and one of the director's of the Northwestern Knitting company, the Gull River Lumber company and the Swedish American National Bank.

In political faith and allegiance Mr. Pillsbury is a Repub- lican. He is earnest and loyal in his devotion to his party, but he has never yet sought a political office by election or appointment, or expressed a desire for one. In church affilia- tion he is a Congregationalist, and liberal in his attention to the work and needs of the congregation to which he belongs. The memories and associations of his University life are kept

alive by him by serviceable participation in the activities of the Chi Psi Greek letter fraternity, of which he is still a working member, and his devotion to the social agencies around him finds expression through his active membership in the Minne- apolis, Minikahda, Automobile, Lafayette, Town and Country and Roosevelt clubs of Minneapolis. On December 7, 1901, he was united in marriage with Miss Nellie Pendleton Winston of this city.

EDMOND A. PRENDERGAST.

Was born in St. Paul on October 16th, 1875. He is the son of Patrick and Brigget Prendergast, pioneers of Minne- sota, who settled in St. Paul in 1856.

Edmond A. Prendergast received his early schooling in the Parochial schools of St. Paul and continued it by a six years' course in St. Thomas' College, graduating with the class of 1894. He then spent two years in Montreal in post grad- uate work after which he entered the Law Department of the State University of Minnesota from which he was graduated in 1899.

Since his admission to the bar he has followed the general practice of his profession, and is retained as counsel for some of the larger corporations of the city among which can be mentioned The Northwestern Telephone Exchange and the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company.

In politics Mr. Prendergast supports the principles of the Republican party, but has never been a candidate for public office.

He is a director of the Associated Charities, and is also interested in other charitable enterprises. He also holds mem- bership in the Minneapolis club.

ALVIN HENRY POEHLER.

Having been in touch with mercantile life from his boy- hood, Alvin H. Poehler, now president of the H. Poehler Company, wholesale dealer in grain and seeds, in Minne- apolis, was well prepared for his work when he began his business career. His father, the late Henry Poehler, a sketch of whom is published in this volume, was a merchant for many years, first at Henderson in this state and after-' ward, until his death, in Minneapolis, and the son was asso- ciated with him in his merchandising from an early age. He was taught the rudiments of trade by that esteemed gentleman, who was a thorough master of them, and his own natural aptitude for this line of endeavor enabled him to take in the lessons easily and to his lasting benefit.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 110

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