Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 126

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 126

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In 1898 he was elected to the Senate from the same district, but as his party was in a minority he could accomplish little in constructive legislation, yet was fully alive in preventing much that was vicious. In 1901 he won the establishment of the Torrens system of Land Title for Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis counties, and this over the opposition of thirty lawyers. The constitutionality of the measure was after- ward savagely attacked, but was sustained by the Supreme Court. He was a member of the committee on legislative ex- penditures, began the fight against the payment of reporters for reporting the proceedings of the legislature for their papers, which ended in a complete victory.

In 1900 he was the Democratic nominee for Congress making the race on a platform of anti-imperialism, and receiving 2,000 more votes in the district than Mr. Bryan. He served in the extra session of 1902, but was defeated for re-elec- tion that year, although reducing the Republican majority by more than 1,800 votes.

Mr. Stockwell is a recognized advocate of the single tax system of taxation, so forcibly elaborated by Henry George. In 1891 he introduced the first constitutional amendment to provide for the referendum, and has ever stood for advanced

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

legislation, including the initiative and recall. He was a delegate from the state at large to the Baltimore conven- tion which nominated Woodrow Wilson, and having even pre- vionsly organized a Wilson movement, he campaigned vigor- ously on the stump as a member of the Democratic county executive committee. He was also a candidate for alderman favoring municipal ownership of the gas plant, but was de- feated at the polls. He is a close student of modern social question's and holds advanced views on all matters relative to educational, moral, economical, social or religious advance- ment.

In October. 1887. Mr. Stockwell was married to Miss Maud Conkey, a daughter of De Witt C. Conkey, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this work. She was born in Mil- waukee and brought as a child to Minneapolis, was a member of the first class graduated from the old Central High School and a teacher in the city until her marriage. For ten years she was president of the Women's Equal Suffrage Associa- tion and is widely known as an ardent supporter of the cause. She is a member of the Women's and Coteric club's. Three daughters were born. Ruth died at the age of nine. Charlotte is a graduate of the University in the class of 1913. Eliza- beth Conkey is a graduate of the high school, attended Gra- ham Taylor's School of Philanthropy in Chicago and is now connected with the probation office of the juvenile court.

DR. JAMES EUGENE MANCHESTER.

Dr. Manchester was born on a farm at East Pitcairn, St. Lawrence county, New York, on August 16, 1855. He died at his home in Minneapolis of Bright's disease on January 24. 1913, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. His parents were Carlos and Lydia (Gleason) Manchester, both school teachers in early life, and later the father taught in the public schools of Steele county, this state. They came to Minnesota in 1862 and took up their residence at Udolpho, Mower county. There the father developed a tract of wild land into a. fine farm, became a man of prominence, held a number of township offices, and died past seventy years of age. The mother's death occurred about a year later on the old farm.

His son, James Eugene Manchester, attended the Winona Normal School and afterward the University of Minnesota, being graduated from the latter in 1884. He was principal of the Blue Earth high school from 1885 to 1890, and super- intendent of the schools at Alexandria from 1890 to 1893. In 1893 and 1894 he pursued a special course of study in mathematics and physics at the University of Michigan.

The five years following his work in the University of Michigan were passed by the doctor and his wife in Europe. On that continent he gave special attention to the study of pure and applied mathematics at Goettingen, Heidelberg, Leipzig and Tuebingen, and received the degree of Doctor of Science. During the same period Mrs. Manchester studied modern languages at the seats of learning named above. On their return to the United States in 1890 the doctor was elected professor of mathematics at Vincennes University, Indiana, and his wife to teach modern languages and liter- ature in the same institution. From the chair of mathematics Dr. Manchester was elevated to the presidency of the Uni-

versity, and in that office he served it with distinction three years.

At the end of that period he became a member of the mathematical faculty in the University of Minnesota. He resigned his professorship in our state institution in 1909, and after that he and his wife taught for three years at Moore, Montana. The doctor was a constant student, always working for higher mental development and greater attain- ments. He was one of the best mathematicians who ever lived in this state, and his superior mathematical ability was recognized all over the United States and in many foreign countries. The Indiana Academy of Science and the American Mathematical Association were proud to have his name cn- rolled among their members, and so much was he in demand among men and women of high attainments in his line that he received a special invitation to attend the International Congress of Mathematical Societies held in Heidelberg, Ger- many but he was unable to do so.

The doctor's specialty was "Function Theory," and he ac- quired distinction in connection with it. He was so energetic, resourceful and persuasive in his work that he infused new life into institutions of learning with which he was con- nected, and his services to them were highly appreciated. His relations with his associates in the faculties and the students in his classes were always pleasant and helpful to them, and his enthusiasm was so abundant and contagious that others were lighted by its torch and became enthusiastic themselves. He was a good Latin scholar, a master of German, the language in which he wrote his thesis for his degree, a pleas- ing and illuminating speaker, though not an orator, and held a fluent pen, writing many articles for publication on educa- tional subjects. He was also a teacher in Sunday schools for many years, and his purse was as open as the stores of his learning to worthy students in need of assistance. Withal, he was a very modest and retiring man, and never sought public notice, either through political channels or any other. He was a member of the First M. E. Church and an officer of the same at his death.

Walking and fishing were the principal recreations of this great student, and he indulged his taste for them frecly. Fraternal life interested him deeply, and his interest in it found expression through his active membership in the Ma- sonic order, the lodge of which at Austin, where his remains were buried, conducted the funeral services when he was consigned to his long rest after his active and productive life. He was married in Windom township, near Austin, Minnesota, on September 3, 1879, to Miss Margaret Smith, a daughter of the late David L. Smith of that township. No children were born of the union, so Mrs. Manchester was frce to indulge her own passion for teaching and assist her husband in his labors. She taught modern languages and literature at the University of Vincennes and other branches in other schools and made an excellent record in her work. She is active in club life, having been for five years a member of the Ladies' Coterie Literary club and during the year 1913 president of the St. Anthony Falls club.

JAMES EDWARD MOORE, M. D., F. A. C. S.

Professor of surgery and chief of the Department of Surgery in the Medical School of the University of Minnesota, James

٢٠٧

I. E. Manchester.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Edward Moore, M. D., F. A. C. S., is one of the best known surgeons in America, partly from the fact that he was one of the first specialists in surgery west of New York City. His is an established position of distinction and authority, and his skill has won him recognition in the various associa- tions of surgeons.

Dr. Moore traces his ancestry on his father's side to Scot- land, on his mother's to Germany. He was born at Clarks- ville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1852. His father being a Methodist clergyman, the family migrated in accord- ance with the customs of the church. His early education was in the public schools and in the home, till at fifteen he entered Poland Union Seminary in Poland, Ohio, where his scholarship won a recommendation to General Garfield, then in congress, that he be appointed to a cadetship in West Point, which was not done because of objection of his parents. Becoming a teacher he aspired to a further education, and while so engaged began the study of medicine, soon entering the medical department of the University of Michigan, where he continued during the years of 1871 and 1872. He then became a student in Bellevue Hospital Medical college, grad- uating in 1873. He located at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the practice was largely among the laboring classes and others who could not pay their bills. He then took a course at the New York Polyclinic and studied. He then entered practice in Emlenton, Venango County, Pennsylvania, until 1882, when he came to Minneapolis becoming a partner for five years with Dr. A. A. Ames. Attending Dr. Bergmann's Clinics in Berlin and the clinics in the Charing Cross and the Royal Orthopedic Hospitals of London he decided to devote his entire energy to the practice of surgery. In addition to general surgery he has specialized in orthopedic surgery and he is the author of a recognized treatise on that subject. He contributes constantly to the better class of medical publications and during the year 1906 was the editor of the Chapter on Surgical Technique in "American Surgery."

Dr. Moore is a Fellow of the American Surgical Association, the only living American Honorary Fellow of the American Orthopedic Association. He is ex-president of the Western Surgical and Gynecological Association and ex-chairman of the surgical section of the American Medical Association. Later honors which have come to him are Southern Surgeons and Gynecological Association, is one of the founders of the American College of Surgery, and one of its Board of Gov- ernors.

Dr. Moore's political principles are republican, and although he has sought no office is much interested in civic affairs being generous with his time when it is of public service. He is a member of a number of medical clubs as well as of the New Athletic, Minneapolis, Lafayette and Minikahda clubs. His church relationship is as a member of the Church of the Redeemer. In 1874 Dr. Moore married Miss Bessie Applegate who died in 1881. In 1884 he married Miss Clara E. Collins who died a year later leaving him an infant daughter who is now Mrs. Bessie. Moore Forssell. The present Mrs. Moore was Miss Louie C. Irving, who became his wife in 1887.

FRANK JAY MEYST.

When Frank Jay Meyst was born, January 23, 1858, his parents, Peter and Nellie (Faber) Meyst, lived in Amsterdam,

Holland. When he was eight years old he came with them to America, and with five other families in their party they bought a section of land in Silver Creek, Wright County, Minnesota, and set to work to wrest their fortunes from the soil. This meant hard work for every member of the family; and school attendance was only in the intervals so that in his first twelve years, Frank had only parts of two years of schooling. In 1870 he became a printer's devil in the office of the St. Cloud Times where he spent eighteen months, then, going to St. Paul, he entered the employ of one of the faculty of that greatest university, the newspaper business. This was Harlan P. Hall, then director of the St. Paul Newspaper Union, publishers of ready-printed portions of country news- papers. Thus began twenty years' association with Mr. Hall, whose name is inseparably linked with the fortunes of the publishing business in Minnesota. For some years Mr. Meyst continued with Mr. Hall while the latter was at the head of the Daily Globe, holding some of the most responsible desk positions on the paper, which was for many years the prin- cipal organ of the Democratic party in Minnesota. This as- sociation of the two men was practically continuous with the exception of intervals in which Mr. Meyst made excursions into country journalism, founding the Brainerd Dispatch and the Osakis Observer, thus adding to the variety of experience in the publishing business. When Mr. Hall sold the Globe to Lewis Baker in 1885, Mr. Meyst joined him as secretary in the establishment of the Mutual Benefit Publishers' Association, an organization which made ready printed sheets for news- papers. Two years later the business was sold to the A. N. Kellogg Newspaper Company. Mr. Meyst eventually becom- ing resident manager. He so continued until the company was merged with other interests into the Western Newspaper Union, of which he was also chosen resident manager. Through- out his association with the publishing business, Mr. Meyst has been one of the leading spirits in organizations of pub- lishers and employes. For many years he has been a member of the executive board of the Minnesota Editorial Association, enjoying, with such associates as David Ramaley, H. P. Hall, C. C. Whitney, Frank MacDonald, the Days, Easton, Master- man, Leicht, the Eastmans, Huntington, Pease, and others, a remarkable acquaintance among newspaper men, and so among all the public men in the Northwest. Mr. Meyst is prominent a's a 32 degree Mason, as a Knight Templar and Shriner, in Masonry, and is an active member of the New Athletic Club, and other civic and business organizations. May 26, 1881, Mr. Meyst married Lena Furch of Minneapolis. They have three daughters, Lillian D., May E., and Bessie L., and one son, Frank J. Meyst, Jr.

Mrs. Meyst died October 10, 1913. She was highly educated and was active in literary and social clubs, her own home being a social center. Ever considerate for others, her friends extending all over the northwest have expressed warmest sympathy and acknowledgement of her endearing character.

WILLIAM K. MORISON.

Lack of space confines the story of Mr. Morison's eventful life to a mere outline. He was born at Belfast, Waldo County, Maine, March 6, 1885, the son of A. J. and Christiana (Phil- brook) Morison. The father was a hardware merchant, in Belfast and after his death the business was continued in the

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

family, being conducted by William and his older brother for a time and afterward by himself alone until he came to Minneapolis.

In 1875 Mr. Morison went to sea as a common sailor, making his first voyage from Maine to New Orleans. From the latter port he sailed with a cargo of cotton to Reval, Russia, on the Gulf of Finland. The ship in which he sailed was on the Atlantic 93 days and was given up as lost; a year and a half later it was lost, with all on board, in an East Indian typhoon.

For a few years after his perilous experiences at sea Mr. Morison worked for his older brother, in the old hardware store, at Belfast and finally in 1882 lie became its sole owner. He induced a number of country stores to put in small stocks of hardware in addition to their other goods, and to buy their supplies of him, and the result was an immediate and considerable expansion of his trade, and his became the leading store in Belfast.

In 1880 Mr. Morison was married to Miss Evelyn Pendleton, the daughter of Captain John G. Pendleton, of Searsport, Maine, who came to Minneapolis in 1874, lived here two years, made some investments in the city, and then returned to Maine and his seafaring life. In 1886 Mr. Morison purchased a retail hardware store in Minneapolis under the firm name of W. K. Morison & Company. The store had been the retail department of Janney & Semple and was originally estab- lished by Gov. John S. Pillsbury. He organized the firm of WV. K. Morison & Co. with a capital stock of $100,000, Janney & Semple retaining a one-half interest in the firm, but in 1892 Mr. Morison bought their interest. The hard times of 1893-94 crippled the business to such an extent that Mr. Morison had to start practically anew in 1897, and is now the sole owner of the business. In 1900 he secured the premises he now occupies, but which he will have to vacate January 1, 1915. In this he has what competent judges consider the finest hardware store in the country. It is one of the six largest in the United States. In October, 1905, and again July 2, 1907, fire caused a loss in the aggregate of over $250,000 in his stock, and each did $25,000 to $30,000 worth of damage to the building; yet after each he opened up for business at 8 o'clock the next morning. In 1888 he sold all the hardware used in the Guaranty Loan building, and this sale amounted to more than the whole of his first year's business in Belfast, Maine. Later he sold the hardware for the City Hall and Court House, and made other large sales.

The first Mrs. Morison was a leader in the benevolent and evangelical work of Plymouth Congregational church and a director of its home for children and aged women. She died on June 17, 1907, leaving an adopted daughter, Ruth P. Morison. In July, 1909, Mr. Morison contracted a second marriage. Mr. and 'Mrs. Morison have as members of their household Miss Ruth P. Morison, John S. Pendleton. a grand- son of Captain John G. Pendleton, the first Mrs. Morison's father, and Alton B. Jackson, a nephew of Mrs. Morison, and who is associated with Mr. Morison in business as vice presi- dent of the W. K. Morison & Co.

Mr. Morison is an enthusiastic yachtsman and a skillful sailor. He is a member of the Minnetonka Yacht Club, and has been one of its directors for years. He is fond of shoot- ing and is a member of the Long Meadow Gun Club. He also belongs to the Minneapolis Club, and the Minikahda, Commercial, Lafayette, Auto, and Athletic clubs, the Civic and Commerce Association and the Masonic order, in which

he holds the rank of a Knight Templar. He has gone in for aviation, has made several notable ascensions and undergone some thrilling aerial adventures.

JAMES McMILLAN.

Pioneers who locate in the wilderness of a new country, redeem it from its wild condition and plant and people it with beneficent activity and enduring happiness and pros- perity are always entitled to high regard by those who follow them and have the benefit of their hardihood, enterprise and daring. Pioneers who establish a new industry and open new avenues of trade, giving employment to many workmen and comfort to hundreds of patrons; who thereby expand and magnify the industrial and commercial influence of the com- munity in which they operate and awaken dormant energies among its residents, and who give it a name and standing in lines of traffic and marts of merchandising where it was be- fore unknown, are also deserving of strong commendation and grateful remembrance.

The late James McMillan of Minneapolis was a pioneer of both kinds to some extent, and the cordial esteem in which he was held by all classes of the people of the city in its more youthful days showed that his worth was justly meas- ured by them, and the high place his name still occupies in the memory of Minneapolitans of every rank and condition proves that the estimate of him in his own day and genera- tion was a just one. He died in this city on March 24, 1909, in the fifty-third year of his age, and after a residence here of more than thirty years.

Mr. McMillan was born in the village of Fryeburg, Maine, on October 24, 1856, the son of James Osgood and Caroline (Gibson) McMillan. His ancestors on both sides were prom- inent in the early Colonial history of New England and in our Revolutionary struggles. The mother was a sister of Hon. Paris Gibson, one of the leading business men of Minne- apolis in its early days, later a United States Senator from the State of Montana, and now a prominent merchant in the busy and progressive city of Great Falls in that common- wealth. Mr. McMillan obtained his academic education at an excellent academy in his native town, but left it at an early age because lie was eager to begin his business career and start making his own way in the world.

Soon after he left school he came to Minneapolis, where his uncle, Mr. Gibson, was then operating the North Star Woolen Mills. He accepted a place in the employ of the uncle, and remained with him about five years. He then determined to start a business of his own and founded the firm of James McMillan & Company to deal in hides, furs, wool, pelts and kindred articles of merchandise, and also to operate the Minneapolis Sheepskin Tannery, which at that time liad a very small and rather languishing business.

Mr. McMillan put his heart into his work and applied all his fine business capacity to it. His trade began to make big strides forward within a few years, and soon laid many sections of the country under tribute to its extensive and rapidly growing activities. The firm, which was one of the first in the city in its line. bought goods from all parts of the United States, and in all other regions where they were for sale, and built up the most extensive business of its kind in this part of the world. The sheepskin tannery was en-

Las Mexican

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

larged from time to time, and kept equipped with the latest and best machinery, and finally reached a capacity of 2,500 pelts a day. Every variety of fur which had a commercial value was to be found in the McMillan lofts in the winter season, even the rare sea otter and black fox, sometimes running in value upwards of $1,000 per skin, being num- bered among the treasures stored in them.

Mr. McMillan located his establishment on Bridge Square in 1877, and it was the first of its kind in the Northwest, as has been noted. In 1881 he moved his business to the old 'Harmonia building on First avenue south, and in 1892 built the McMillan block, a large brick structure, substantial in construction, commodious in size and imposing in appear- ance, which is still an ornament to the locality in which it stands and a monument to its builder's enterprise and fore- sight.

Mr. McMillan's first partner in business was Charles 'S. Gibson, who afterward moved to Fort Benton. He was next associated with J. F. Radcliffe, who died in California in April, 1886. His sister, Miss Caroline E. McMillan, was also associated with him in business for about twenty-nine years. He never married, but lived at 1728 Nicollet avenue with his mother and sisters, to whom he was warmly devoted. His religious leaning was to the Universalist sect and he was a regular attendant of the Church of the Redeemer of that denomination. In politics he was not a partisan and never took an active part, but in conviction he was an ardent pro- tectionist and a leading Republican.

Great foresight and breadth of view characterized all Mr. McMillan's business operations, as they did his activity in reference to public improvements and local public affairs. He had extensive real estate interests in various places at the time of his death, some of his investments in this line being considered chimerical by numbers of his friends. Among these were his holdings at International Falls, Minnesota, Chelan Falls, Washington, and Great Falls, Montana. The first is on Rainy river, which forms a part of the international boundary between this country and Canada, the second on the mighty Columbia, and the third on the fierce, reckless and headstrong Missouri. These rivers are all great high- ways of commerce, and Mr. McMillan considered the towns named localities of wonderful promise. Recent developments in each have shown that his judgment was correct and that in it he was far ahead of his time.

HON. SAMUEL A. MARCH.

One of the extensive and progressive farmers of North- western Minnesota, and also a vigorous, resourceful and enter- prising promoter of the general well being and a stimulating force in the progress of Minneapolis, the late Hon. Samuel A. March, who died July 9. 1894, was a useful citizen. respected, and admired for genuine worth and services.

Mr. March was born at Oakfield, Genesee county. New York. September 4, 1840. and came to Minneapolis in 1877. His father died when Samuel was eight years old and the latter passed his boyhood and youth as a clerk in an uncle's store. He was educated at Carey Seminary and Geneseo College, and in young manhood engaged in merchandising at Oakfield in partnership with Geo. C. Church under the firm name of March & Church.

In 1877 he came to Minnesota to invest in farm lands, and William Patrick, a cousin, came with him, P. Frost Spalding, also accompanied him, forming a partnership for the purchase and cultivation of a tract of 8,000 acres in the Red river valley. They converted this large expanse into wheat farms, the tract being still intact, Mr. March keeping the West farm as his portion when the land was divided. The farms lie near Warren, Minnesota, and although maintaining his home in Minneapolis, Mr. March personally had charge of the farming operations, the improvements and everything connected with the business proving profitable and congenial. Mr. Spalding's . son is now living on his father's part of the original tract.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 126

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