Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 136

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 136

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Of this marriage three sons reached maturity: James Harry is a farmer near Stacy, Chisago county; Alvah Milton is assistant professor of Agricultural Engineering in the State Agricultural College. He was educated in a high school and at the University of Minnesota. Coates Preston, who grad- uated from the agricultural school and from the College of Agriculture as Professor of Agronomy, served one year as such in the Illinois College of Agriculture then becoming Assistant Professor of Agronomy in our own Agricultural College, specializing in the line of Plant Breeding, and is at this time (1913) on leave of absence to perform the duties of superintendent of the National Corn Exposition, which is to be held in Dallas, Texas, in February, 1914. In religions faith Mrs. Bull' is a Universalist. She is a member of the Church of the Redeemer, but her zeal for the good of her community is not confined to her own church channels. It embraces the welfare of the whole people and is applied gen- -erally, without regard to sectarian lines or other narrow con- siderations.

THOMAS NEWTON TAYLOR.

Well known and highly esteemed as a grain operator in Minneapolis for a continuous period of twenty years, the late Thomas N. Taylor, whose useful and stimulating life ended October 30, 1910, passed away at the height of his success. He was but fifty-one years old, and according to all indications until a short time before his end came he was destined to many years of still greater productiveness.

Mr. Taylor was a native of Urbana, Champaign county,

Ohio, where his life began on June 19, 1859. He was the son of Robert and Mary (Walker) Taylor. The mother died in North Dakota and father in Minneapolis, they were natives of Philadelphia. He was reared in that county and edu- cated in its district schools and the graded schools of his native city, and after leaving school engaged in teaching in the county for a year. During the last year of his attendance at school and while he was teaching he learned telegraphy, and at the age of twenty came West and located at Grand Forks, North Dakota, where he worked several years as a telegraph operator, and afterward as pay- ing teller in a bank in Devil's Lake and Laramour, N. D.

From Grand Forks, where he was employed by the Great Northern R. R., he went on to a 'claim in Grand Forks county, also drove stage one winter. Mr. Taylor went to Duluth, in about 1886, and at that great terminal point he began his business career as a dealer in grain in association with C. C. Wolcott, by whom he was employed two years. In 1890 he changed his residence to Minneapolis and entered the employ of the George Spencer Grain company. He re- mained with this company only a short time, however, and then became associated with the firm of A. M. Woodward & Company, with which his connection was also short, for he was eager to have a business of his own and making prepara- tions to gratify his desire.

In 1891 Mr. Taylor formed a partnership with W. E. Nicholls, creating the Nicholls & Taylor Grain Company, with which he was associated until death. It was a potential factor in the grain trade and the men at its head were forceful and serviceable in public affairs, although not politicians or be- longing to the office-seeking class.

Mr. Taylor was married on February 1st, 1893, to Miss Louise F. Wall of Minneapolis, a daughter of the late John Wall, who became a resident of this city in the early sixties, coming from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Mr. Wall became prom- inent in business, and for a number of years was a leading business man of the city and died here in 1906. Mr. Taylor and family were members of the Catholic Church and for 20 years a member of the board of appeals of the Chamber of Commerce at the time of his death and charter member of Interlachen club.

Mr. and Mrs. Taylor became the parents of four children, all of whom are living and still have their home with their mother at 3343 Elliott avenue south. They are: Lillian, Thomas, Robert and John. While her husband was living, Mrs. Taylor shared his interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of Minneapolis, and since his death has continued active support of all comendable projects. Like him, she is quiet and undemonstrative in her activity in this behalf, and seeks no credit for work, which is inspired by high sense of duty, but which is not unappreciated, as she is held in high regard for her genuine worth in every way.

CHARLES JOHN TRYON.

Charles John Tryon was born September 8, 1859, in Batavia, New York. His father, A. D. Tryon, was a prosperous book- seller and a druggist; his mother was Amanda H. Tryon.

After attending the public schools of Batavia, he entered Columbian university, Washington, D. C., being graduated from its law course. He came to Minneapolis to practice his profession and for a number of years he was in partner-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

ship with Wilbur F. Booth until the latter became a judge of the District Court. Mr. Tryon enjoys a fine general practice and is recognized as one among the ablest attorneys, taking au active part in politics.

In June, 1901, Mr. Tryon entered into an alliance with one of the oklest and most respected families in the city, when Isabel Gale became his wife. She is a daughter of the Inte llarlow Gale, one of the pioneer residents of Minneapolis. They have a most interesting family of seven children. Mr. and Mrs. Tryon attend the Congregational church. Their handsome home on Girard avenue is frequently the scene of social functions. Mr. Tryon is also affiliated with some of the principal clubs of the city.

Harlow Gale was a brother of Samuel C. Gale of whom extended mention is made elsewhere and was associated with him in a real estate office as early as 1860. He was a leading man of the time and at the banquet at the opening of the Nicollet House, May 20, 1858, at which Judge E. B. Ames presided, Mr. Gale was toastmaster. He is best re- membered in having established the first city market at First street and Hennepin in 1876. Mr. Gale was an early County Auditor and was found active in almost every movement for advancement.

CHARLES JEROME TRAXLER.

In his varied and interesting career as a lawyer, editor and author of legal treatises and text books, Charles Jerome Trax- ler has made an enviable reputation for ability, careful re- search, correctness and felicity of expression and exhaustive and accurate knowledge of law and public affairs.

He was born on the homestead near Mount Pleasant, Henry County, Iowa, being the son of John Traxler, a farmer, brick manufacturer, contractor and builder. The son attended the public school, continuing at Howe's Academy, and finished his academie course in Iowa Wesleyan University. He was grad- uated in 1882 from the Iowa State University with the degree of LL. B. Then becoming associated with a prominent law- ver in his native town, he began the practice of law. Later he drifted into newspaper work as an editorial writer, and in the fall of 1883 became city editor of the Daily Tribune-News at Evansville, Indiana, a few months later being advanced to the position of associate editor-in-chief.

In 1885 Mr. Traxler resumed the practice of law in Western Kansas. Minneapolis became his home in 1889; here he has been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession, and, while he has had a wide general practice, he is doubtless best known as a corporation counsel.

In this connection his experience and observation led him to a careful study of the regulation of freight rates. In 1906, he originated a plan for the regulation of such rates, which won approval from Federal authorities, and was admitted as highly meritorious by leading railroad managers. The chief features of this plan which may be here mentioned, are that it left the power of making rates with the railroads, subject to regulation by judicial proceedings in the Federal courts. It placed upon the railroads the burden of proof in most cases of alleged violation and made unnecessary the demand for special tribunals, such as the Federal Commerce Court, which has since been tried and abandoned.

Being a diligent, reflective and progressive student of legal

science, Mr. Traxler has delivered numerous lectures on legal subjects. He has been identified with the University of Min- nesota as a lecturer in the School of Law, and is the author of works on special subjects of the law.

He is a member of the State Board of Law Examiners, to which position he was appointed some years ago by the Supreme Court. He takes a keen and serviceable interest in public affairs. He is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic, the University, and the Six O'Clock Clubs.

He has also taken an earnest interest and an active part in agencies as a member of the leading clubs and civic organi- zations, and belongs to several fraternities, including the Masonic orders, and the Mystic Shrine. His college fraternity is the Delta Tau Delta. In 1886, Mr. Traxler was united in marriage with Miss Mary Comstock, daughter of Colonel Austin W. Comstock, of Mount Pleasant. They have three children, Marian, now Mrs. Spencer S. Bernan, Jr., of Chicago; Hazel, and John Austin.

D. M. HARTSOUGH.

The subject of this narrative was born in Fayette, Iowa, on October 28, 1856. He is the son of the Rev. E. Hartsough, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church and of German parentage. D. M. Hartsough was educated at the Cornell University, passing through the scientific course with credit, and for twenty years was a minister of the Congregational Church. During his work as a minister he would usually take his vacations on the prairies of the two Dakotas and while on those vacations, observing the privations and hardships of the pioneers in building homes on the prairies with the prim- itive tools then in use for such work, brought to the surface a dormant ability which later predominated over all other ae- complishments he had mastered up to that time, and that was a God-given gift of inventive construction. He readily saw where he could lighten the burdens of that army of pioneers; in constructing a labor saving device that would convert the raw, wild prairie into a civilized state for the reception of seed and the growing of crops, the conversion of a boundless wild prairie country into 'comfortable homes for many mil- lions. The result of his investigation very soon developed into the building of the first farm gas tractor engine that was ever built in the United States and put it in operation, breaking prairie sod in what is now the state of North Dakota. Its operation in breaking prairie sod convinced him that he was on the right track to do more good to humanity than any one man of that day and age.

The next production was what is called the Big Four Gas Tractor which, during the years of 1910 and 1911, was ex- hibited at the world's field trials, Winnipeg, Canada, and took the gold medal from all competitors world wide.

Being a close student of conditions and the advocation of economics to handle conditions, showed him far in advance of all others that when the prairie country of the great North- west was once broken and under cultivation it required a dif- ferent type of machine to intelligently, economieally and sue- cessfully cultivate it, so he designed the Bull Traetor, a ma- chine especially adapted for the economical cultivation of the small farm and the large farm, and the success of the Bull Tractor in the fields today is of such proportion that within the next two or three years its growth will be beyond the

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

comprehension of the ordinary person and the demand for it will reach every civilized agricultural portion of the whole world.

In the beginning of his development of labor saving devices he first had to familiarize himself with a thorough knowledge of the farm and power requirements, a condition necessary in the successful manufacture of a machine to become popular with the farmers who are its only users. To acquire this knowledge he secured large tracts of prairie, plowed and croped large acreages thereby gaining a knowledge of his future work from actual experience, a school that has no peer, and his devices stand out today in the agricultural world with- out 'competition.

Within the past five or six years he had occasion to spend a part of the winter in Texas. Looking condition's over and the primitive methods they had of draining that vast coun- try along the coast, he immediately designed a ditching ma- chine that is in operation in large numbers there now, doing great work in the large drainage ditches necessary to reclaim that country. And in the past two or three years has de- signed a smaller machine to construct lateral ditches, neces- sary in the drainage and reclamation of millions of acres of that fertile country. In fact, every place he goes he finds employment for that active and inventive brain, in construct- ing and producing labor saving devices that have caused mil- lions of the tillers of soil in the whole world to shout his praises. He is energetic and continually at work modernizing farm implements, and in the next few months the agricultural world will be again startled by the result of his gift in the construction of harvesting and threshing machinery.

He formed the acquaintance of a progressive farmer in the state of North Dakota, Mr. P. J. Lyons, when he first de- signed the Big Four. He invited Mr. Lyons to join him in exploiting the proposition resulting in the selling of the Big Four to the Emerson-Brantingham Company nearly two years ago for about two million dollars, which is the best evidence that Mr. Hartsough, although an inventor and genius in his way, is also a good judge of human nature for he selects men to exploit his product who are able to do things, and Mr. Lyons is now exploiting the Bull Tractor, his latest invention, which will eventually make millions for both Mr. Hartsough and himself.

Mr. Hartsough has been a resident of Minneapolis for the past twelve years and is a member of the new Athletic Club. He was married in 1882 to Miss Lucy Beebe, who died in July, 1913. Mr. Hartsough, since that time, has been a resi- dent of the West Hotel in this city. There were two sons born to his family: Waldo, who died at the age of twenty- six, and Ralph B., who possesses much of the inventive genius of his father and is associated with him in his work, and is also a resident of Minneapolis. Mr. Hartsough at present is in the prime of his life in the work he has before him and has more knowledge of his work than is usually found in a man of his profession. He has a sunny nature and is a com- panionable man, both in his home and in his walks of life, and a success both as a minister and inventor, which gives ample evidence of what a man can accomplish by persistency and industry if gifted with the sense of application of his powers.

WILLIAM J. VON der WEYER.

One of the highest types of the German-American business men which Minneapolis boasts of today is the German born product who has brought his native thrift and his German enterprise and caution to the land of his adoption. Such a man is William J. Von der Weyer. He was born near Coblenz, Rhein province, Germany, November 5, 1858, and came with his parents Henry and Helen Von der Weyer to America in 1864. They came directly to Minnesota, settling on a farm near Buffalo, Wright county. The mother died on the farm and the father now lives retired with his son William J. Henry had seen service in the German army and before he had been in Minnesota a month he was taken to the county seat of Wright county with the idea of getting him into the United States Army, but it was soon found that he was not an American citizen.

William J. was on the farm until he was 16 years of age, when he was sent to Minneapolis to enter the public schools, later supplementing the instruction there by a course in a business college. He clerked for two years, in a grocery store, starting at a salary of ten dollars a month and his board, then later going to twenty-five dollars a month and board. In 1883 young Von der Weyer entered the dry goods store of B. B. Buck, at a salary that began at $30 and mounted to $40, and then $50 a month. With characteristic thrift he set about laying aside the foundation for his own capital and saved his money, until he had about $500. In company with his brother-in-law, John Lohmar, in 1885 he bought out the Buck Dry Goods and Millinery store, the partnership enduring for twenty-four years, or up to 1909. At the start they had between them for investment and working capital the modest sum of $2,300. The business later represented an investment of $25,000. Sales increased steadily-from about $10,000, to from $40,000 to $50,000 per annum. A business requiring one clerk waxed strong until sixteen clerks were necessary. And when failing health moved him in 1909 to sell his interest to his partner, Mr. Von der Weyer had the satisfaction of knowing that his habits and thrift and business judgment had fully justified predictions of his earliest business life.

As his grasp of commercial affairs broadened, Mr. Von der Weyer looked about with an interest in other commercial lines. He became a director in the German American bank, and looked, too, to civic and political matters. In 1898 he was elected to the house of representatives of the legislature, being chosen, though a Democrat, to represent the strong Republican Forty-fourth district. It was the same year that John Lind was chosen governor, and Mr. Von der Weyer was one of a group in the legislature whose counsel was prized by the governor. In the legislature he took a prominent part, and some of the most important legislation of the session either bore his name or were enacted because of his lending them his earnest support. For example, Mr. Von der Weyer introduced the law which requires payment of two per cent interest on deposit balances of state moncy; as up to that time the state had received no interest on such balances. He was one of the foremost advocates of the measure to require the railroads to pay a gross earnings tax of five percent. He served on the committee which authorized the building of the state hospitals for the insane at Hastings and Anoka; on the committee of visitors of the state normal schools, and the schools for the feeble-minded at Faribault, and which recom- mended the appropriations for those institutions. Mr. Von der

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Weyer was defeated for re-election at the next election, as the Forty-fourth distriet went back to its normal Republican complexion:

Mr. Von der Weyer has continued to take a prominent part in public affairs. For instance, he is a member of the executive committee that has most to do with the building of the magnificent new pro-cathedral, the finest church edifice in the West and with the exception only of the St. John's cathedral in New York, the finest in America. In St. Joseph's Catholic church he is one of the most active and prominent laymen.

In 1898 he was married to Miss Gertrude Dietrich, daughter of Peter Dietrich, the well known real estate dealer who, as a young man, came to the United States to escape the rigors of the war. Mr. Dietrich came direct to St. Anthony, becoming one of that sturdy group of early citizens who helped to ground firmly the city which was later to attain leadership in the West. The family consists of two daughters, Eleanor and Lucille.

RUFUS PORTER UPTON.

Rufus Porter Upton, prominent citizen and pioneer of Min- neapolis, of whom further mention will be found in the general history of the early settlement of the city, was born in Dixmont, Maine, December 20, 1820, and died in Minneapolis on Thanksgiving day, 1893. He was educated in Portland, Maine, but spent his long and useful career in the interest and development of the northwest. Throughout the many vicissitudes of the early days he never lost his vision of the future and ultimate development of Minneapolis and in latter years he received ample justification of his faith, never realizing however one of his most cherished projects, the establishment of river transportation which he saw superseded by the railroads. In the directory of 1877, Mr. Upton is designated as the proprietor of spice mills on South Washington street with his residence in Grove Place on Nicollet Island. Beside the enterprises indicated by him in his personal reminiscences, he was also the promoter of a flour- ing mill project at Kingston, Meeker County, near the pres- ent Dassel, where he erected a plant at the cost of $10,000. At this time it was expected that the Northern Pacific rail- road would build through the town but the route was changed, touching a point twenty miles distant and destroying the future of Kingston and its business enterprises. He also acquired some experience as a miner in Nevada in the days when that state was attracting the fortune seekers. Mr. Upton was an influential member and faithful supporter of the First Congregational church. He was married three times and of his first marriage with Miss Gaslin, one daughter survives, Gertrude, widow of M. D. Clapp, who resides at 3111 Newton avenue, Minneapolis. His third union was with Ellen A. Nourse, and their sons are W. A. Upton, in the employ of the Smith Hardware company of Minneapo- lis, and Rev. Rufus P., of the Congregational Church at Freeborn, Minn. In 1870 Mr. Upton was married to Miss Emeline Aleda Harshberger, a teacher in Marietta, Ohio, who now resides in Pasadena, California. They had six children, T. Park, born September, 1871, and a resident of Pasadena, California; Edson K., of Minneapolis; Howard B., born May 3, 1876, ticket agent at the Union station in Minneapolis; Helen Aleda, born September, 1878, the wife of Mr. George

H. Brinkerhoff, living in Spokane, Washington; Albert F., born in August, 1881, and now engaged in the theatrical pro- fession, and Harry C., born in July, 1883, is traveling ear agent for the Great Northern railroad.

Edson K. Upton, the second son, was born in Minneapolis, in October, 1873, and for a number of years has held a responsible position with the North Western Fuel company, one of the largest fuel firms of the city. He was married to Miss Effie M. Miner of Iowa, and they have one son Edson Irving, who is six years of age.

JESSE VAN VALKENBURG.

Jesse Van Valkenburg, a well known member of the Min- neapolis bar, was born at Sharon, New York, on December 31, 1868.

His parents Joseph and Harriet (Seeley) Van Valkenburg were also natives of the Empire state, and farmers by occupa- tion. In 1870 the family emigrated to Minnesota locating at Farmington, and later removed to Canby, Minnesota, where they now reside.

Jesse Van Valkenburg attended the public schools of Farm- ington and completed his scholastic training by a course in the state Normal school at Mankato, graduating with the class of 1887 and he later entered the University of Minnesota from which he was graduated as a classical student with the class of 1894, and graduated from the law school the following year.

Like many of the better class of western boys, he partly paid his way through college by doing newspaper work. He was taken on the staff of the Minneapolis Tribune, while he was yet in college, and continued his reportorial work some time after he had graduated. Soon, however, the call to his profession was so strong that he entered into active practice. His personality is of the sort which wins many warm friends, and during his membership of the Hennepin county bar, he has made a large acquaintance in the city and state and has built up a wide and varied practice. He takes a keen and active interest in good government and civic betterment, although he has never any political aspirations. He is a republican, but is independent when it comes to placing men in city affairs.

Mr. Van Valkenburg was married on January 14, 1903, to Miss Grace Jerrems of St. Paul. They have three children.

PAUL H. KNOLL.

Although a young man yet the interesting subject of this brief review is connected with several industries of importance and extensive operations, and is a forceful factor in the busi- ness life of Minneapolis. He was born in 1880 in Illinois, a son of Rev. Robert H. Knoll, who came from Europe to the United States in 1854 and settled in Illinois, where for many years he continued to follow his sacred calling. The son ob- tained a high school education and soon after his graduation secured employment in the hardware trade, with which he was connected for a number of years.

Mr. Knoll rose rapidly in his employment and in a short time became a credit man for the Simmons Hardware com-

Kwell .

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

pany of St. Louis. In 1907 he came to Minneapolis to repre- sent that company as its credit man in this community. He remained with the company twelve years, and at the end of that period, became associated with the Gas Traction com- pany, and was one of its officials until it was sold to the Emerson-Brantingham company.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 136

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