Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 134

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 134

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In 1895 the senior Mr. Somsen married Miss Anna Marsh, who was an esteemed friend of the family in Iowa, his first wife and mother of his sons having passed away some years before. Mr. Somsen was a zealous member of Olivet Presby- terian church, an excellent citizen, and had great faith in the future of the imperial Northwest.

PROFESSOR MARIA L. SANFORD.

Citizens in all parts of Minnesota, and alumni and students of its great University in many parts of the United States and some of other countries, fully realize and cheerfully acknowledge that Professor Maria L. Sanford is "the. best known and best loved woman in Minnesota." For almost thirty years she was a teacher. in the State University, and

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

for more than half a century connected with the teaching faculty of the country, giving to the public in continuous ex- tent and an exalted degree of untiring and unselfish service that few have either the strength or the opportunity to give.

Maria L. Sanford was born in Saybrook, Connecticut, Decen- ber 19, 1836, into a family of three daughters and one son. She attended a country school in her home town until she was eleven, when the family moved to near Meriden, three miles distant from the academy in that city. But during the three terms of her 14th and 15th year she attended the academy, walking the distance to and from the school, and helping her mother with the housework nights and mornings. By heroic determination and self-sacrifice she was able to pursue the three years' course at the New Britain Normal School. She was employed five years as a teacher in her home town and other Connecticut towns. During the next five years she taught in the grade schools of New Haven, where she made a new home for her invalid mother and younger brother, and did all the housework in it.

From the end of that period her record as a teacher covers continuous activity and many fields of labor, including Middle- field, Connecticut; Parkersville, Coatesville, and Swathmore College, Pennsylvania, and the University of Minnesota, while her activity on the platform as a lecturer and in the pulpit as a preacher, has taken her to almost numberless places in many far apart localities. In Coatesville she was superin- tendent of schools and principal of the high school; at Swath- more College she was Professor of History for ten years; and in the University of Minnesota she was Professor of Rhetoric and Public Speaking. Her work here began in 1880 and continued to 1909, when she was retired, on a Carnegie pension.

Miss Sanford has been a great living and inspiring force on the lecture platform, and also a profoundly impressive preacher of the gospel in the Christian pulpit. During the more than twenty-nine years of her connection with the University she averaged at least one lecture a week, in addition to her school work and preaching, and in doing this always, when it was possible, traveled at night so as to be in her classroom on time in the morning. She has also been potential in the work of forest conservation; she started the anti-spitting crusade and the movement for the removal of ladies' hats in public places, and helped to organize the Improvement League in Minneapolis, which has brought about great activity in cleaning streets and alleys, beautifying boulevards, keeping weeds cut on vacant lots, and raising flowers on the grounds of homes. Her interest in elevating work of this character and her great kindness of heart are strikingly shown by one incident in her history. Some years ago she moved into a new neighborhood. There the boys stole her apples, and when she found out who they were she gave them apple trees to plant for themselves, and she also gave roses and other plants to everybody in the neighborhood who was willing to pay a small price for them, and that whole neighborhood now has a fine showing of apple trees and flowers. One resident has declared that "Miss Sanford has donc more for the good of the neighborhood in five years than all the good it received in the preceding twenty-five years put together."

Miss Sanford has always been actively interested in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the Young Women's Christian Association and the work of the Northwestern Hospital, although she has not found it possible to be a regular, active member of any club. With all her interests and duties

away from home, her work at home has never been neglected. From the time when, as a young girl, she made a home for her mother and small brother, she has always had some one or more of her own family with her. She has made a home for orphaned nieces and nephews, and within the last few years has made one for two grand nephews and a grand niece from Syria.

This record of the life of a genuinely heroic woman is necessarily brief and fragmentary, but it is enough to beget and stimulate a more extended inquiry into the years of service it but suggests. Such an inquiry will lead to admiration for the noble womanhood the story embodies, as well as for the immense and long continued usefulness of its subject. It will show that with all the far extended and intense popularity Miss Sanford justly enjoys she is entirely without ostentation in her home, her dress or her manners. The plain living and high thinking of her Puritan ancestors have been nobly exem- plified in her life work, and her practical common sense, delightful humor and rare social charm have redeemed them from ruggedness and given them grace and beauty beyond the power of art to compass or words to fitly and fully express.

VADER HARMANUS VAN SLYKE.

Vader Harmanus Van Slyke, the president of the Metropoli- tan National Bank, was born in Eureka township, Dakota County, Minnesota, on April 21, 1864, and is a son of Vader G. and Isabella Ann (Clague) Van Slyke, the former a native of Ft. Plane, N. Y., and the latter of the Isle of Man. The son was educated in the public schools at Hastings, Minnesota, and at Carleton College, Northfield. In 1884 he began his banking career in Western Minnesota, where he remained, so occupied, until 1888. From that year until 1896 he handled farm mortgages and life insurance, and from 1896 to May, 1907, he was state manager of Minnesota for the Union Central Life Insurance company of Cincinnati, Ohio, with headquarters in Minneapolis. Since the date last mentioned he has been president of the Metropolitan National Bank, which has pros- pered greatly under his management of its affairs and through his influence.

In politics Mr. Van Slyke is a Republican, but he has never sought or desired a political office. His religious connection is with the Protestant Episcopal Church; fraternally he is a Free Mason of high rank including membership in the Mystic Shrine, and in club association he belongs to the Minikahda Club; the Interlachen Country Club, the Elks Club and the Commercial of Minneapolis. September 7, 1898. Mr. Van Slyke was married at Kimbolton, Ohio, to Miss Ella M. Yoe, who then resided in that city. He manifests his cordial and serviceable interest in the community of his home by zealous activity in behalf of its progress and improvment and the welfare of its residents, and is esteemed as one of its most useful, progressive and representative business men and citizens.

MARCUS MILLER.

Living in retirement at his pleasant home. 1610 Lowry avenue, after a residence of thirty-eight years in Minneapolis, Marcus Miller can look back over his long term of usefulness in this community with satisfaction.

Marcus Miller

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Mr. Miller was born in Schaffhausen Canton, Switzerland, December 14, 1854. In 1868, he came to this country witlı his older brother, Henry, expecting to join him in business in Philadelphia. Later he went to Chicago, and was in that city at the time of the great fire of October, 1871. Soon ' afterward he moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he finished learning his trade as a butcher, which he had begun in Philadelphia.

In 1875, while he was still a little less than twenty-one, Mr. Miller became a resident of Minneapolis, and here lie has ever since had his home. In 1878 his brother Henry followed him to this city and engaged in the meat trade for himself. Marcus worked two years for A. L. Sump, at 117 Washington Avenue North, then at 308 same avenue, started a meat market of his own, which he called the Philadelphia market and which he conducted five or six years, part of the time at a stand directly opposite on the same street, which he bought and took possession of in about 1880.

In 1883 he built the block in which the Minneapolis Packing Company is now located. He started this company and con- ducted all its operations until about 1907, when he retired from all active pursuits, turning the affairs of the Company over to his three sons. While in charge of the business he had branch markets at different places in the city, one on Western avenue, where he owned the property. For fifteen years he slaughtered his own stock in his own slaughter house, located on a five-acre tract of land on which his resi- dence now stands.

During the decade of 1880 he butchered on an average a carload of cattle a week. He supplied meat to hotels and restaurants all along the lines of travel into and through Dakota, making a specialty of railroad and eating-house trade outside of the city. Locally he always had a large retail trade, and this his sons still have; some of the customers of the market having been such for thirty years. The business was started on a small capital and at a time when money Was very scarce. But prudent management carried it safely until it has become one of the leaders in its line in the Northwest.

While Mr. Miller confined himself mainly to the meat business he also gave attention to other lines as opportunities presented themselves. He is a stockholder in the German American Bank of Minneapolis, and he has done a very creditable amount of building to the advantage of the city as well as his own. He has put up apartment houses, separate residences, and store buildings, and has also taken an earnest and practical interest in other lines of improvement. Some twenty years ago, however, his party thrust upon him its nomination for the office of alderman from his ward. At the election he was defeated by eight votes, for which he has ever since been thankful.

December 1, 1879, Mr. Miller was married in Minneapolis to Miss Louisa V. Korn, a daughter of the late Adam Korn, a well known resident of this city, and for many years pro- prietor of the old Crow River hotel, on First Street between First and Second Avenues North. He brought his family to Minneapolis from Buffalo, New York, in 1857, and afterward moved to Rockford, Minnesota, where he was the first post- master. Mrs. Miller is the only daughter of her father's family. When she was 13 they returned to this city, and then the father opened the hotel, which he kept for fifteen years. He died in 1900, at the age of 65.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller have three sons and three daughters

living. Otto G., the oldest son, is at the head of his father's former business house, the Minneapolis Packing Company, and Marcus, Jr., and Walter H. are associated with him. Elizabeth is the wife of J. J. Boyd, who is in the commission business for himself. Louise is the widow of Dr. A. E. Brim- mer, of this city, and Bertha is the wife of Earl Coe, a prom- inent fruit grower at White Salmon, State of Washington. All the members of the family are connected with Fremont Congregational church.

Mr. Miller is a member of the Order of Elks, the Royal Arcanum, the Modern Woodmen and the Royal League. He has been "up to date" in other ways. Raised the fastest ice pacer ever bred in Minneapolis, and was one of the first men in the city to own an automobile. Since coming to the United States he has visited his old home in Switzerland twice; his wife accompanied him on both trips.

GEORGE HENRY TENNANT.

Mr. Tennant was born on July 31, 1845, in County Clare, Ireland, where his forefathers were domesticated for many generations. When he was but one year old he was brought by his parents to this country and found a new home in the state of New York, where he grew to manhood, obtained his education and made himself useful during his boyhood and youth by working on his father's farm and in his father's shingle mill, and doing whatever else presented itself as re- quiring attention and effort.

When he came to Minneapolis in 1866, Mr. Tenant was just about twenty-one. He began working here in an old shingle mill on the Falls, which also had a saw mill in joint opera- tion with it. At the end of the second season passed in this mill he moved to St. Louis and there started a wooden eave spout factory. This he operated two years, then returned to Minneapolis. In this city, on May 15, 1870, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Elizabeth Blakeney, a daughter of Mrs. Jane Blakeney, who is still living and is now eighty- four years of age. She was born and reared in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, and came to Minneapolis to live in 1865. She came with her hsuband, who died of tubercu- losis two years later. After his death she sold the farm at Eden Prairie on which he died, and came to Minneapolis where she reared her family of eight children, the oldest of whom was eighteen when the father died, and was the only one able to render her any assistance in the arduous work of providing for the household.

The three daughters who are still living reside in Minne- apolis: Eliza, who is the wife of A. W. Griswold; Margaret, who married M. A. Cribb, and Sarah Elizabeth, who is Mrs. Tennant. Only two of the sons are living, John S. and William S. Blakeney. Both are residents of Milwaukee. The oldest son died in his boyhood. The mother became connected with the Central Baptist church soon after her arrival in Minneapolis and still belongs to it. She has long been active in all church and church society work. Notwithstanding her advanced age and the struggles and privations through which she has passed slie is well preserved, and throughout the city she is well known and most highly esteemed.

After his return from St. Louis, Mr. Tennant was made foreman of a planing mill at the Falls, and continued to fill that position two or three years. At the end of that time

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

he started a planing mill of his own at the Falls, and after- ward conducted unother in North Minneapolis on the West Side, and still later he operated a third on the East Side near the site now ocenpied by Messrs. Barnard & Cope. Ross Russell, the son of R. P. Russell, was in partnership with him in these enterprises. He suffered heavy losses by fire, but immediately reorganized his business, and prepared to carry it on in greater proportions than before.

Later he followed the lumber mills to Thirteenth and Cen- tral avenues and located on the site of the present Andrew Carlson factory. Mr. Carlson had been one of his employes for some years and he wished to help him to a business of his own because of his fidelity. Another fire swept over the Tennant plant, and Mr. Tennant then sold Mr. Carlson all the machinery in it that had not been badly damaged by the fire, and in this way the present large enterprise of Mr. Carl- son was started.

After his second fire, which was not as disastrous to him as the first, Mr. Tennant established the present plant of the Tennant business at 920 Sixth avenue southeast. Circum- stances led him to begin dealing in hardwood products, and his mill was gradually converted into a hardwood floor fac- tory, the first one ever conducted in this city. Mr. Tennant designed new machinery to meet the requirements of the hardwood flooring work, and his business grew rapidly to great magnitude. He began making hardwood flooring about 1900, and on August 3, 1908, he was once more burned out. The buildings were of wood and the insurance rates very high. So he was not carrying much insurance at the time of the fire, and the plant was wholly destroyed, as was also a large amount of stock, one warehouse alone containing $20,000 worth. The fire occurred on the day of a picnic, which he and most of the members of the fire department attended, and but one of his warehouses was saved. The rest of the property was a total ruin.

Mr. Tennant was then past fifty years of age. But with all the energy of his youth he immediately set about rebuild- ing his factory of brick, and in sixty days had it in full operation. He was a staunch Republican in politics, but he never sought prominence politically or an office of any kind. He gave his attention strictly to his business until about six weeks before his death, taking no vacations, but enjoying considerable relaxation at his summer home at Wildhurst, on Lake Minnetonka.

Mr. Tennant was a Baptist in religious faith, and for thirty years served as one of the trustees of Olivet Baptist church, and for many years as its treasurer. Fraternally he was a Freemason of high degree-a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He belonged to old Cataract Lodge in the fraternity and for many years was it's treasurer. The lodge presented him with a handsome testimonial for his fidelity and ability in serving it, and when he died his re- mains were buried with Masonic ceremonies. He was also a charter member and one of the directors of the St. Anthony Commercial club. Through life he was a very benevolent man, and always very modest and reticent about his .contri- butions for the relief of others.

Mr. and Mrs. Tennant were the parents of three children. Their son William, their first born, died at the age of seven- teen. The two daughters are living. Grace M. is the wife of Charles E. Adams, a lawyer in Duluth. Lois A. is the wife of E. McMaster Pennock, vice president and general manager of the G. H. Tennant company, Mr. Tennant's former business,

which he had incorporated before his death. Mrs. Tennant lives with Mr. and Mrs. Pennock at 2206 Doswald avenue, St. Anthony Park.

ROBERT W. TURNBULL.

Robert W. Turnbull was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Eng- land, on the 28th of January, 1834, and his death occurred, with slight premonitory illness, at Bowden, North Carolina, on Sunday morning, March 28, 1909,-two months subse- gnent to his seventy-fifth birthday anniversary. In his na- tive land Mr. Turnbull was reared to the age of fifteen years and he then accompanied his parents on their immi- gration to America, the family home being established in the province of Ontario, Canada, whence, a few years later. hc removed to the state of Michigan. Mr. Turnbull gained his early educational discipline in England and supplemented the same by somewhat irregular attendance in the schools of Canada, though his broad and liberal education was prin- cipally the result of self-application and the experience gained in the course of a long and signally useful career. In Michigan Mr. Turnbull became identified with the lumber industry at the time when in this line that state held pre- cedence over all other sections of the Union. His energy and ability enabled him to make substantial progress toward the goal of definite success and he became one of the representa- tive factors in connection with the great lumbering operations in Michigan, where he operated mills at Muskegon and Big Rapids during the years immediately following the Civil war and when that section of the state was the center of the most extensive lumbering operation's in the United States. During this period he was also an interested principal in the operation of a large mill at Manistee. Mr. Turnbull continued his residence in Michigan until 1882, when he removed with his family to San Jose, California, but in the following year he establshed his permanent residence in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here he became one of the original stockholders and executives of the Itasca Lumber Company, in which he owned one-third of the stock. He disposed of his interest in this company a few years later. and was engaged in the manu- facturing of lumber at Stillwater, the judicial center of Washington county, though still retaining his residence in Minneapolis. The mill at Stillwater was erected in 1885 and he became a factor in the development of a large and pros- perons lumbering business. In 1891 Mr. Turnbull's only son. Albert R., became associated with him in the prosecution of this business, under the firm name of R. W. Turnbull & Son. and in connection with the mill at Stillwater they also operated, for one year, the Plymouth mill, in Minneapolis. The mill and business at Stillwater were sold by the firm in 1904, and Mr. Turnbull, basing his plans upon his broad and intimate experience, decided to continue lumbering in a field where timber resources were of adequate order to justify operations upon an extensive scale. In 1906 he and his son purchased all of the stock of the Rowland Lumber Com- pany, with mills at Bowden, North Carolina, and general offices at Norfolk, Virginia. Of the company Robert W. Turnbull became president, an office of which he continued the incumbent until the close of his life, about three years later. His son became secretary, treasurer and general man- ager of the company, and since the death of the father has

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

been president of the corporation, the stock of which is all in the hands of the Turnbull family. Operations are con- tinued upon an extensive scale and have fully justified the confidence and judgment of the veteran lumberman who as- sumed control of the business in company with his son, the latter proving a most able and progressive coadjutor and one well equipped for carrying forward the enterprise since the death of his honored father. The company controls ex- tensive tracts of choice timber land in North Carolina, the supply of timber being sufficient to permit and justify ex- tensive manufacturing operations for many years. The com- pany owns its own railway lines, for the facile handling of logs and products, and also owns at tidewater, two hundred miles distant from the mills, adequate dock facilities, in the city of Norfolk, Virginia, so that it commands the markets of the world in its sale of lumber. The manufacturing plant is one of the largest in the south and the business, as effectively advanced by Albert R. Turnbull, constitutes one of the most important industries of North Carolina.

In the year 1900, Robert W. Turnbull erected at 2730 Park avenue, Minneapolis, one of the many fine residences in that attractive section of the city, and here his widow still maintains her home. The domestic chapter in the life history of Mr. Turnbull was one of ideal order, and his devo- tion to his family and home was of the most insistent and appreciative type, with every relation and association of the most idyllic order. He was reared in the faith of the Eng- lish or Protestant Episcopal church, but in the later years of his life attended services of the Central Baptist church in Minneapolis with utmost regularity, his widow being a devout member of this church. One of the dominating 'char- acteristics of Mr. Turnbull was his abiding interest in struggling young men, and many successful and honored men to-day are ready to do him honor and to accord lasting gratitude for the advice and tangible aid given by him. At the time of his death an appreciative tribute appeared in the Mississippi Valley Lumberman, and the article closed with the following words: "He was a genial, whole-souled gentleman whose loss will be keenly felt, not only by his family but also by a large circle of friends and neighbors.

At Port Huron, Michigan, in the year 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Turnbull to Miss Julia A. Wilson, who was born at Ann Arbor, that state, aud who is a representa- tive of one of the honored pioneer families of Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Turnbull became the parents of four children, all of whom survive the honored father,-Minnie A., Minerva A., Rosa Bell and Albert R. The only son has the general management of the business of the Rowland Lumber Com- pany. in North Carolina, as has already been stated. He wedded Miss Lucy Gale, daughter of A. F. Gale, of Minne- apolis.

MRS. THOMAS B. WALKER.

Mrs. Walker was born in Brunswick, Medina county, Ohio, on September 10, 1841, and is a daughter of Fletcher and Fannie (Granger) Hulet, who were natives of Massachusetts and descended from good old English stock. Her paternal grandfather, John Hulet, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and fought in the battle of Bunker Hill; and his father, also named John Hulet, was a zealous patron of Methodism

and is said to have built the first Methodist Episcopal church edifice erected in Massachusetts.

When Harriet Granger Hulet (now Mrs. Walker) was six years old, her parents moved to Berea, Ohio, in order to secure for their children the educational advantages offered by Bald- win University. There their daughter Harriet grew to woman- hood, remaining in her father's household until her marriage, and cultivating her natural gifts for vocal and instrumental music and her love of languages, through which she became mistress of the Latin, the Greek and the German tongues. She was also a frequent contributor to periodicals, 'and her early ambition was to write a famous book. Her ambition in this direction has never been realized, but her literary tastes and ability have found vital and fruitful expression in lectures and addresses in behalf of her numerous philanthropies. "

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 134

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