Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 118

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 118

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On August 27, 1873, at a meeting of forty members of the Woman's Christian Association called for consultation, over which Mrs. Johnston presided, and which her mother, Mrs. Ruth H. Stanton, addressed, steps were taken for the selec- tion of a board of managers for the Christian Home of Min- nesota, the board to be composed of twelve ladies. At the election of officers which followed on August 31, Mrs. D. H. Valentine was chosen president of the board, but she declined to serve and Mrs. Johnston was obliged to take her place. She could not do justice to both positions, and feeling specially called to rescue work, she resigned the presidency of the Woman's Christian Association.

The Home was opened October 20, 1873, with two inmates. Soon another applicant for help came from one of the dens of the city, then another and others until the little house was crowded. Aid came in financial contributions from business men and other sources, but still the drains on the treasury were heavy, and by February, 1874, it was empty. Under the advice of William P. Murray, whose wife was a member of the board of managers, an appeal was made to the state legislature, then in session, for aid, the appeal be- ing based on the ground that the institution was statewide in its aims and helps. The pleadings by this band of devoted women brought a state appropriation of $1.500, which, with the sum of nearly $400 made by selling meals at the state fair, lifted the institution temporarily out of its difficulties.

On November 5, 1874, Mrs. Johnston was re-elected presi- dent. In December, at the solicitation of her husband, who saw the disastrous effect of the strain on her health, she tendered her resignation, but the managers opposed her

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

retirement from the office so earnestly that she was induced to remain in it. Another year of increased work and re- sponsibility followed, and as the next annual meeting and election approached, Mrs. Johnston again resigned and made her action imperative. She got no vacation, however, for she was placed at the head of the board of managers, and her work went on.

On July 14, 1877, Mrs. Johnston and Mrs. C. D. Strong were appointed a committee to go out into the state, present the interests of the Home and establish auxiliary societies where they were most desirable. Such societies were estab- lished at Mankato, St. Charles, Farmington, Stillwater, Lake City, Northfield, Hastings, Wabasha, Rochester, Reed's Land- ing, Red Wing and Winona. From this long tour the com- mittee returned with a bill of only $11.75 for traveling ex- penses. Mrs. Johnston was again elected president January 3, 1878, although she protested against the action, and December 5, 1878, she was once more chosen. But she was already engaged in a desperate struggle for life in her last illness, and on January 10, 1879, she died, a martyr to the work of founding and building up the St. Paul Woman's Christian Home. As a mark of respect for her worth her place as president was not filled by election until the next annual meeting in November, 1879. On January 14, that year, at a special meeting of the members of the Home, the following resolutions were adopted, with many expressions and manifestations of grief and heavy personal loss:

"Resolved, That in the death of our beloved president, Mrs. D. S. B. Johnston, the Woman's Christian Home has lost a most zealous and earnest supporter and untiring friend.

"Resolved, That while we recognize the hand of God in removing this valued friend and co-worker from our number we sineerely mourn the loss of her example in the exercise of that loving charity and Christlike forgiveness and for- bearance, which ever emanated from her life, and that it shall be our prayer that her death be sanctified to our good in the exercise of greater zeal and faith and to the eternal good of the inmates of the Home and of that class for whom she so faithfully labored and prayed.

"Resolved, That in her death the poor, the unfortunate and the erring have lost a faithful friend and every good work a warm advocate.

"Resolved, That we extend to the bereaved family our warm- est sympathy in their affliction; that while they mourn the light and joy gone out from their family cirele, they mourn not as those without hope, knowing that their loss is her infinite gain.

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the bereaved family, and that copies be sent also to the city papers for publication.»

RICHARD JUNIUS MENDENHALL.

Surveyor, land agent, banker, horticulturist, florist and pro- moter; zealous in church work and active in efforts to ad- vance the welfare of others, and an exemplar of elevated and useful citizenship, the late Richard J. Mendenhall, who died in Minneapolis October 19, 1906, when he had almost completed his seventy-eighth year, contributed to the growth and improvement of this city in many ways.

Mr. Mendenhall's first American ancestor came to this

country with William Penn. His great-grandson was Richard Mendenhall, an extensive tanner at Jamestown, North Caro- lina, whose wife was Mary Pegg, a member of a Welch family that 'came to America in early Colonial days. They were the parents of Richard Junius Mendenhall. He was born at Jamestown, North Carolina, November 25, 1828. He attended a boarding school at New Garden, and a Friends school at Providence, Rhode Island, passing his vacations in the White Mountains, where he met Cyrus Beede. A warm friendship resulting they later became partners in business in Minneapolis. He taught for a time at West Falmouth, Massachusetts, and there first met the lady who became his wife.

Richard Fox, of Jamaica, Long Island, employed him to go to Ohio to take charge of the books, time records and supplies of a crew of men building a railroad tunnel, and he was later engaged on similar work in North Carolina, in asso- ciation with his brother, Dr. Nereus Mendenhall. His next engagement was with a surveying company in Iowa, carrying the surveyor's chain, but in one month was at the head of the party. In 1856, he came to St. Paul by river and thenee to St. Anthony by stage, his baggage being brought across the river in a wheelbarrow.

Cyrus Beede 'came to Minneapolis a year later, and the firm of Beede & Mendenhall, loans and banking, was then formed. This firm passed the panic of 1857 successfully, preserving its credit without abatement, and continued business on an ex- panding scale. In November, 1862, Mr. Mendenhall became president of the State Bank of Minnesota. This was later merged into the State National Bank of Minneapolis, of which he was also president until 1875. The State Savings Bank of Minneapolis was started in 1866, with him as presi- dent. In 1873, owing to the panie, it was forced to suspend. and was then merged in Mr. Mendenhall's private bank. He assumed all its liabilities and in time paid off nearly all the claims against it. In 1862 he was town treasurer, and he also served as secretary and treasurer of the board of educa- tion for four years, and was trustce of the Minneapolis Female Seminary.

February 11, 1858, he married Miss Abby G. Swift. a daughter of Captain Silas Swift, of West Falmouth, Massa- chusetts, and on his wedding tour visited his old North Carolina home. Mrs. Mendenhall was one of the corps of ladies who collected and distributed clothing and other sup- plies to the victims of the Indian ontbreak. She assisted in fonning an aid society, out of which has grown the Women's Christian Association. The Northwestern Hospital for Women and Children had its origin in the Friends' Meeting of which she was a member, and in 1875, in company with Mrs. T. B. Walker, Mrs. Van Cleve and other ladies. she helped to establish the Bethany Home, of which she was a trustee, guardian and treasurer until her death. She was also for many years clerk of the Friends' Quarterly Meeting and one of its delegates to distriet and national conferences. There were no children, but the home was ever open to all comers, and an abiding place of the kindliest sympathy. The lady of the household was full of cheer and an exemplar of all that was good and beautiful in the social amenities of life. Her death occurred January 9, 1900.

Mr. Mendenhall passed the last twenty years of life at his home at Stevens avenue and Eighteenth street. There he had a block devoted to the cultivation of flowers, and at other places had fifty greenhouses for the same work, rais-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

ing their products for 'commercial purposes and employing regularly thirty to fifty persons. During one severe winter his coal bill was about $8,000. He was the pioneer florist of the Northwest and his sales extended all over this part of the country. One of his greenhouses was given up entirely to palms and another to orchids. Of the latter he had an ex- cellent variety, sparing no expense to make it as complete and choice as possible, even paying as much as $1,000 for a particularly desirable specimen. He continued his extensive operations as a floriculturist until about a year before death, which came on October 19, 1906. Throughout his life he was deeply and practically interested in all advanced ideas, helped to organize and build the Milwaukee and the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroads, contributed to all 'clubs and musical and literary soeieties, and, although he and his wife were Quakers of strong conviction, even the Catholic churches reserved pews for them.

In February, 1884, he and wife made a trip to old Mexico, and while there visited a mission they had established at Gomez Farias, and which they supported until her death. Hc afterward made a second trip to Mexico and Yucatan in com- pany with his brother, Dr. Nereus Mendenhall, of North Caro- lina, and, while in Merida, Yucatan, they were guests of the American consul. He became interested in old Aztec his- tory in connection with his favorite studies of entomology, horticulture and floriculture. But he was an omniverous reader and had a wonderfully retentive memory. He was a member of the State Horticultural Society and, at one time owned a farm of 4,000 acres near Hector.

Mr. Mendenhall. claimed deseent from Pocahontas, and he had some traits of the Indian character. His feelings toward the red men were eordial and their chiefs held councils in his office. He was also an intense opponent of human slavery, and, at one time bought a slave boy of fourteen from an uncle in North Carolina in order to free him. After the Civil war he brought other negroes north and some of them lived with and worked for him. He was one of the founders of Lakewood cemetery, in which his remains were intered.

Mr. and Mrs. Mendenhall had no children, but they reared Abby Wiggins, a daughter of Mrs. Sarah C. (Swift) Wiggins, a sister of Mrs. Mendenhall, whom they took into their fam- ily when she was eight years old. She is now the wife of George S. Murtfeldt, who was manager of Mr. Mendenhall's greenhouses for many years, but now is in credit department of Donaldson's store. His sister, Miss Mary Murfeldt, of St. Louis, was a celebrated government entomologist and the author of several text books on the subject. She died in February, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Murtfeldt were married in October, 1889, in the Friends' meeting house at Eighth street and Hennepin avenne, according to the rites of the Society of Friends. They have one daughter, Gertrude, a student in the high school.

CLARENCE M. RAWITZER.

Clarence M. Rawitzer is the son of William Rawitzer a Civil War Veteran who won honor and promotion from the ranks in the Forty-First Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers. After the war he engaged in the mercantile business at Omaha. His wife was Sophia Erdman, of Plattville, Wiscon- sin.

Their son, Clarence M., was born in Omaha, Nebraska, November 2, 1868. He was educated in the public schools of Omaha and while he was still young engaged in the tent and awning business. He organized a company in 1886, and operated a factory there for several years and until he decided to come to Minneapolis, in 1897.

The American Tent and Awning Company (then at First avenue, North and Second street), which is one of the pros- perous concerns of the city, at onee engaged his attention and he assumed its active management. Six years later the capacity of the plant had been so thoroughly outgrown that it became necessary to secure the present location at 307, 309 and 311 Washington avenue, where a three-story build- ing, 66 by 70 feet in area, is wholly utilized. The business extends over the West and Northwest and has become one of the largest in the line west of Chicago. The trade has so expanded that a force of traveling salesmen is necessary, so that the American Tent and Awning Company stands in the front rank of Minneapolis business enterprises.

Mr. Rawitzer is of domestic tastes and thoroughly demo- cratic in disposition. He is popular among business associates and is an active member of the Minneapolis Athletic Club. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, a Knight Templar, and an active Shriner. He is also a member of several social clubs, including the Rotary, the Interlachen, the Auto, and the Minneapolis Boat and Athletic. He is also past com- mander of the Minnesota Division of the Son of Veterans of the Civil War.

Mr. Rawitzer married an Omaha girl, Miss Lizzie M. Keeler, and they have one daughter, Genevieve.

ERNEST RUBBERT.

For a man to enter an untried business or craft for which he has had no training and of which he has neither practical nor technical knowledge and yet make a striking success of it is very unusual in human experience. And yet, that is in brief the business record of Ernest Rubbert of Minneapolis, secretary and superintendent of the Flour City Ornamental Iron Company, whose progress has been phenomenal and whose business is now one of the most extensive of its kind in the United States. What this company has achieved and the expansion it has enjoyed is set forth at some length and with details in a sketch of William Burns, its vice-president and sales manager, which will be found elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Rubbert's work in connection with it, besides being an essential element in its suecess and highly 'credit- able to American art and enterprise in general, is particularly creditable to him and worthy of special mention.

Ernest Rubbert was born in Niagara county, New York, on July 17, 1865, and is a son of August and Fridiricka Rubbert, natives of Germany. In 1873 they brought their family to Minnesota and located on a farm in Washington county, where his father died; his mother is still living there. Their son Ernest received a common school education and at the age of twenty, began learning the carpenter trade. In a few years he became a building contractor and carried on a profitable business as such until he came to Minneapolis to become connected with his present business.

Mr. Rubbert began studying ornamental iron work practi- cally as an apprentice, his brother-in-law, Eugene Tetzlaff,

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

who married his wife's sister, being president of the company and eager to give the new comer every advantage he could for liis advancement. To state that Mr. Rubbert has been the secretary of the company during the last nine years and the superintendent of its work for nearly the same length of time would give some idea of his importance in connection with it.

It was through his efforts that his company established a night school for the use of its employees. In this school in- struction is given in drawing and mathematics which are very essential in the work of the company. This instruction is of great value to both the employee and the company and a large class is now attending. There are no tuition fees and any employee may attend, but it is especially intended for the instruction of the apprentices.

The company encourages all its employes to offer sugges- tions for the advancement of its interests and the perfection of its work, and has in use a system of profit sharing for its employes which adds substantially to the wages of many of them, some drawing salaries that would be tempting to many professional men. The detail production work of the multi- tudinous designs and articles of manufacture passes directly under Mr. Rubbert's supervision, but he has able assistants in each department.

Mr. Rubbert was married twenty years ago to Miss Augusta Haase, a native of Washington county, Minnesota, and a sister of the wife of his partner, Eugene Tetzlaff. They have three children, Adolf, Myrtle and Clarence. The parents have been careful in rearing their offspring, giving them the best at- tainable practical education and impressing them with the value of warm interest in the welfare of their community and of square dealing in all their transactions.

Mr. Rubbert himself is a very progressive and public- spirited man, and his citizenship is highly valued by the people around him. He is not an active partisan in politieal affairs, although firmly attached to the Democratic party in national elections. In local affairs he considers first and almost solely the welfare of his city and county.

WILLIAM BYRNES. . 1

The late William Byrnes, who died on his farm within what is now the limits of Minneapolis, in 1867, was one of the best educated and most influential residents of St. Anthony and Minneapolis in their early history. He helped to organize the township in which he lived, served it well in several local offices, put the forces in motion for the found- ing of its schools and gave the land on which some were con- ducted, and in many other ways contributed essentially and liberally in time, labor, and material assistance in laying the foundations of its civil institutions and starting it on its career of rapid progress and vast industrial and commercial power. He was well known and highly esteemed by all the residents of the. township in his day, and enjoyed extensive and well deserved popularity throughout the county.

Mr. Byrnes was born in Ireland in 1825 and obtained a very good education in his native land. In his young manhood there he was employed in making government surveys as a civil engineer, and during the progress of this work in the County Kilkenny he became intimately acquainted with Miss Catherine Campbell, who according to a previous mutual

agreement, afterward followed him to America, and became his wife. He came over in 1849 and located at Rome, New York, where he again engaged in eivil engineering. The next year Miss Campbell joined him at Rome and their marriage took place in that town.

While living in the State of New York, by a lucky ehance or in the order of Providence, Mr. Byrnes formed the ac- quaintance of Judge Isaae Atwater, later the renowned Minnesota jurist and brilliant historian of Minneapolis, and by that eminent man was, in 1850, persuaded to transfer his residence from the banks of the Mohawk to those of the Mississippi and become a resident of St. Anthony. For a time after his arrival in this locality he was employed as a log scaler and lumber salesman by Farnham & Lovejoy. In 1851 he pre-empted 160 acres of land on what is now Hum- boldt Avenue and West to Penn Avenue, around the inter- section of Chestnut Street and Sixth Avenue North. He made his home on his claim in a little log shanty, and was always there on Saturday night, although absent most of the time. About 500 Sioux Indians camped in the neigh- boring woods, and on one occasion killed a deer in his cow- pen and gave his wife some of the venison it yielded.

After three or four years he began to cultivate his land and soon had sixty aeres under the plow. When the Civil war was in progress he enlisted in Company K, Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, of which company he was the first lieu- tenant. In 1862 his company formed a part of General Sibley's expedition against the hostile Sioux Indians, and during during its continuance Mr. Byrnes slept in the same tent with George A. Brackett. He participated in the capture of several hundred of the Indians, including the thirty-eight braves who had been particularly infamous during the up- rising and was in command of a company of guards at their execution in Mankato, where they were all hanged on the saine scaffold.

In the spring of 1863 Lieutenant Byrnes was sent to the South with his regiment. The men in his company had en- listed largely through his influenee, nearly all of them being of Trish nativity or ancestry. After much active and gallant service, he was discharged from the army in August, 1865, and returned home in time to take part in the election of county officers for Hennepin County. He was elected sheriff on the "Soldiers' ticket" and took charge of the office in January, 1867, but he did not live to complete his term. His health had been shattered by the hardships of his military service, and in November, 1867, he died at the age of 42, leaving to his widow the eare of seven children, the ellest of whom was a daughter sixteen years.

Mrs. Byrnes assumed her great responsibility with courage and met all its requirements with constaney and fidelity. She retained the farm, kept her children together and edu- cated them in the city schools, increased the value of her property, and added to the expansion and improvement of Minneapolis by laying out on her land Byrnes' Addition, of twenty-three aeres. Her husband had sold twenty acres to the Episcopal Church for a cemetery, but the land was never used for that purpose, and at the time of her death. in 1906. the whole farm was within the city limits. She was a devout and zealous member of the Church of the Immaculate Con- eeption, and was very charitable in her disposition, over thoughtful of the poor and always had some person outside of her family under her special care.

Mr. and Mrs. Byrnes were the parents of seven children.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

six of whom are living. Ellen is now the wife of Bernard Barnard, a clothier in Minneapolis. Anna is the wife of R. L. Whitney, and also a resident of this city. Mary married W. L. McGrath, of St. Paul, and died in 1906 Theresa is Mrs. C. C. Schuyler and lives in Fargo, North Dakota. Wil- liam J. is one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Minne- apolis, a sketch of him appears elsewhere. Huglı is a ranchman in Idaho, and Celia is the wife of A. S. Heffelfinger, of Minneapolis.

Mr. Byrnes was always a zealous promoter of the cause of public education. The first school north of the center of Minneapolis was started on his farm and kept for a number of years in the front room of his house. Children from Crystal Lake, Golden City, and other localities attended it, and from it have developed all the schools in the western part of the city, the Harrison, Sumner, Bryn Mawr, and Lincoln schools all being located in the original district. After the Civil war he donated land for a school in District No. 89. The house in this district was burned down in 1872 and later a new one was built farther back.

J. WARREN ROBERTS.

J. Warren Roberts conducts the business of a funeral director from his choice and well equipped establishment at 913 First avenue south, where he has been engaged in it during the last four years, after having followed it for an equal period at another location in this city, and for nearly thrice that length of time in other states in a distant section of the country.

Mr. Roberts was born in Granville, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1872, and until he was thirty-three years of age lived in New England, or that vicinity. He obtained his academic education in his native state, and there also acquired practi- eal and technical knowledge of his calling, which he followed four years in Norwich, Connecticut, and seven in Burlington, Vermont. He also passed a short time in it in the state of New York. He became a resident of Minneapolis in 1905, armed with embalmers' licenses issued in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and New York, and at once began busi- ness here as a funcral director at 710 Hennepin avenne, where he remained until early in October, 1909.

With the fifteen years of active practical experience which he had enjoyed when he built his new establishment, enriched with attentive study of the requirements of his work. Mr. Roberts constructed, arranged and equipped it with particular regard for completeness in every detail, and made it one of the most comprehensive, satisfactory and up-to-date in the Northwest. The interior is finished in mahogany and adorned in excellent taste for its purposes. There is first a reception room, and this leads into a large parlor that is used for a display room, and can also be converted into a chapel for funeral services when needed for that purpose. At the rear of the parlor Mr. Roberts has his private office and a room for the care of cases brought to the establishment for his attention. In addition there are other large rooms for trimming and upholstering, and also sleeping rooms for the accommodation of assistants, who are in attendance at all hours of the day and night.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 118

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