USA > Minnesota > Hennepin County > Minneapolis > Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota > Part 141
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In 1879 Mr. Willson bought 130 acres of what is now Edina, then Richfield, a part of which is his present farm. He paid $1,100 for the tract, and its greatly increased value at this time is the result of its advantageous location. When he bought it it was covered with small timber and under- growth, which he had to grub out before he could farm it,
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yet during the first year of his operation he succeeded in getting twenty-five acres under cultivation, although he was living at the time four miles from the farm.
In 1880 he located on his farm and there he has ever since had his home. He has raised large crops of wheat, but during the last twelve years it has been devoted mainly to market gardening. In 1886 he sold ten acres of his purchase at $200 an acre and ten more at $120 an acre; and he has since given cach of his four children enough to engage in gardening. His brother George, who was with the family until he grew to manliood. followed railroading for a time and engaged in furnishing telegraph and telephone poles, rail- road ties, and similar supplies to those who need them under contract.
Mr. Wilson served as a member of the school board until his children left school, and he has also been a member of the village board of Edina and for some years was president of the board. In the fall of 1871 he was married to Miss Ella Atwood, the daughter of Hezekiah and Abbie (Tuttle) At- wood, a pioneer at Minnetonka Mills, coming to Minneapolis in 1850, where he and a Mr. Sears did more business in the middle fifties than was then done in Minneapolis. He died in 1857. She died in 1883 as the wife of John Richardson of Richfield.
Four children were rcared in the Willson household, Fred K., Jennie, Ora Gertrude and George. Jennie died when she was sixteen. Fred K. married Miss Mabel Millam. He and his brother George are associated in the management of the farm and gardening operations, and have a stall in the market in Minneapolis. Ora Gertrude is now the wife of Grant Collier and owns a part of the homestead. All the members of the family are industrious, enterprising and pros- perous. They are all good citizens, and are highly respected as such wherever they are known.
STEPHEN M. YALE.
Among the number of far-seeing men who journeyed to the Northwest from the older civilization of the Atlantic slope, was Stephen M. Yale of Minneapolis, vice president and gen- eral manager of the Curtis-Yale-Howard Company, extensive manufacturers of sash, doors, moldings and kindred commodi- ties. Mr. Yale was born at Guilford, Chenango county, New York, in 1857, and there he grew to manhood and obtained a common school education, at the same time acquiring habits of useful industry on the farm of his father, Uriah Yale, who was also a native of the Empire State. The son had some educational advantages not vouchsafed to all farmers' sous in his native statc. He was a student for several terms at Cook College, Havana. New York, and afterward enlarged his knowledge by teaching five winter terms of school in the country.
In 1881 Mr. Yale came west and took up his residence at Clinton, Iowa, where he accepted employment with Curtis Bros. & Company, manufacturers of sash, doors and moldings. He remained at Clinton for about one year, then went to Wausau, Wisconsin. where Curtis Brothers had just com- pleted a new factory. His residence at Wansau and work for the firm there lasted until 1893, when he was sent to Minneapolis to take charge of the large distributing honse of the firm in this city.
The Curtis-Yale-Howard plant is located at Eighteenth avenue and Fifth street, southeast. The offices have, since 1906, been in the new Security Bank building. The firm has several large distributing houses located in Chicago, Detroit, Sioux City, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It carries on an extensive and profitable business, and enjoys a very large trade in the scope of country lying between the Great Lakes and the Rocky Mountains. The firm is incor- porated, and the officers at this time (1914) are: George M. Curtis, Clinton, Iowa, president; Stephen M. Yale, vice presi- dent and general manager; F. G. Howard, secretary, and G. L. Curtis, treasurer.
Mr. Yale is also vice president of the Curtis & Yale Com- pany at Wausau, Wisconsin. He is an active member of the. Minneapolis Commercial Club and takes a helpful part in public affairs. Nothing of value to its residents is without interest to or neglected by him, and he is always earnest in his support of worthy undertakings. He has never been an active partisan in political affairs, but has always voted inde- pendently and for what he has believed would be best for the whole people in all elections, city, state, and national.
He was married in 1879 to Miss Cora Morgan. They have one child, their son, H. C. Yale, who has charge of the Minne- apolis plant of the Curtis-Yale-Howard Company and the management of its operations. The family residence is at. 2702 Portland avenue.
HARRY H. WADSWORTH.
Harry H. Wadsworth, lawyer, was born February 12, 1857, in Farmington, Hartford county, Connecticut, on the same old historic homestead that was the birthplace of his brother and law partner, Frank H. Wadsworth, in a sketch of whom some account of the family history is given. He is a son of Winthrop M. and Lucy (Ward) Wadsworth, and completed his academic education in the public schools of Milwaukee, which he attended from 1874 to 1879. His professional train- ing was secured in the law department of Yale University, from which he was gradnated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1881 and received that of Master of Laws in 1882.
In April, 1883, Mr. Wadsworth located in Minneapolis and immediately began the practice of law. His first case involved riparian rights and affected the water rights and power of the city of Farmington, his old home. Such men as Governor Hubbard and Lewis Stanton, Assistant Attorney General of the United States, were of the opposing counsel, but he was prepared to meet any opponent in this field, how- ever able or eminent. His research covered mimitely every phase of riparian ownership. and. as, recited in the decision of the case rendered by the Supreme Court. filled thirty- four pages of the report. The case at once became a prece- dent and gave Mr. Wadsworth immediately a wide reputation for careful investigation and studions inquiry into conditions. laws and fundamental rights. It fully established the water rights of the city of Farmington, embraced in a system that is still in operation under the direction of Mr. Wadsworth's brother. Adrian R. Wadsworth.
In 1886 an important ease in law was started in Minne- apolis in referenec to the title to Government lots 7 and S. now embraced in Island Park Addition. Mr. Wadsworth was employed to examine the title. and his search for heirs of the
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original owner led him over 25,000 miles of travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Canadian line to the Gulf in this country, and through parts of Ireland and other Euro- pean countries. Sixteen suits were brought against him, and were tried before Judges Shiras and Nelson in the United States district court, all of them finally being dis- missed. His name appears 150 times in the abstract of title.
This property is now worth many millions of dollars. The search for heirs and final straightening out of the title involved great expense and brought Mr. Wadsworth many interesting personal experiences. While in Ireland, during the excitement attendant upon the Phoenix Park murders, he was suspected of being a spy and was closely followed all over the island, his every movement being noted. He secured a one-fifth interest in this property, the greater part of which has since been absorbed in the city park system. The beautiful drive known as Lake of the Isles Boulevard was laid out and constructed largely through his influence and assiduous efforts in behalf of the improvement.
The title to the Elder Stewart property, recently sold, which involved many complications, was also investigated by Mr. Wadsworth as an expert. Here a multiplication of leases overlapping one another made great confusion and intricacy, and demanded the most careful attention. But he straight- ened the whole matter out to the complete satisfaction of every interest. His skill as an expert title examiner is known and commended far and wide in real estate and legal cireles.
Mr. Wadsworth was married in 1908 to Miss Mary L. Wilkinson, of Chelsea, Massachusetts, a daughter of one of the best known families in Chelsea. She was for a number of years an instructor in the Dr. Curry School of Expression, in Boston. They passed the following winter in Italy, visit- ing the art galleries of Florence, Rome and other cities, which Mrs. Wadsworth had already visited. While teaching she had ministers, tragic and comic actors, and other profes- sionals as students of expression, and' they all attest her superior ability as a teacher. She was also connected for a time with Vassar College, installing a school of expression in that institution.
Mr. and Mrs. Wadsworth have no children. He is a mem- ber of Yale Chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta college fra- ternity, which now has about 4,000 members in the United States, and served twice as president of its Nu Duteron Chapter. He has also been twice president of the Minne- sota Union League, which was the strongest political or- ganization in the state, and embraced in its membership the foremost Minnesota politieians and statesmen. It wielded great influence in respect to public affairs in the Northwest and stood high in public esteem as an enterprising and con- servative force for good.
CHARLES YOUNG.
Mr. Young was the first carpenter in St. Anthony, and came to this region in 1852, a young man of thirty-three. from St. Martin, near Montreal, Canada, where he was born on November 6, 1819. The remainder of his days were passed in this city, where he died on December 1, 1883. He was of French Huguenot aneestry, and had the usual experiences of boys of his circumstances while growing to manhood and
receiving his common school education. He was married at the age of twenty-seven in Montreal to Miss Margaret Gibeau, who accompanied him to Minneapolis, or St. Anthony, as it was when he came thither, and she abode with him to the end of his earthly pilgrimage always doing her full part to aid in advancing his welfare and the success of his undertakings, and survived him seventeen years, passing away at the age of eighty-two on Christmas day, 1900.
For some years after his arrival in this locality Mr. Young worked at his trade as an independent contractor. He built his own house at the corner of First avenue and Fourth street north, the dwelling of Elder Stewart, one block dis- tant, the home of Father Wolford on another corner not far away, and others in that neighborhood. He continued contracting and building until his death, but in his later years a great deal of his work was done for other con- tractors, and J. K. Sidle, whose leading carpenter and main reliance he was for a long time.
In his political relations Mr. Young was always a Demo- crat, and he supported his party energetically at all times, bearing a heavy hand in some of its most intense battles with its opponents during his life. He and his wife were zealous members of the Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception, joining it when the congregation was organized and continuing their membership in it as long as they lived. This was the first church on the West Side, and stood at the corner of Third avenue and Third street north.
Mr. and Mrs. Young had two children, their daughter's Clara and Amelia. Clara married Charles L. Larpenteur of St. Paul, a relative of the venerable pioneer, A. L. Larpen- teur, who is still living in that city at a very advanced age. Mrs. Clara Larpenteur died in 1910, having survived her husband about ten years. They had nine children, one of whom is Rev. Roscoe F. Larpenteur. pastor of Holy Rosary Catholic church. The second daughter, Amelia Young, be- came the wife of Gustav J. Pauly, late secretary of the Hennepin Savings and Loan Association, one of the best known and most useful citizens Minneapolis has ever had.
GUSTAV J. PAULY.
Gustav J. Pauly worked out for himself a career that was singularly exemplary and praiseworthy, and won him strong commendation as boy and man. His parents, John and Anna Pauly, both of whom have been dead for a number of years, were among the first settlers of Minnesota, and on their arrival in the territory located at Shakopee, where Gustav was born on February 15, 1855. The family moved to Minneapolis in 1862, and here for many years the father was engaged in the cooper business in partnership with An- drew Bumb.
Gustav attended a public school and learned the cooper trade and business under the instruction of his father. From his boyhood his interest in the uplift work of the Immac- ulate Conception Catholic church was very ardent, and he took an active part in it under the first pastor of the parish, Rev. Father McGolrick. now Bishop of Duluth. He was the tenor singer of the choir. a zealous member of the Young Crusaders' Total Abstinence Society and cornetist in that Society's famous brass band, continuing his activity in these
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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA
lines until 1886, when he was united in marriage with Miss Amelia M. Young, organist in the same choir.
During the next two years Mr. Pauly was a hardware merchant in Bishop Ireland's colony at DeGraff, Minnesota. In 1889 he returned to Minneapolis and entered the real estate, 'savings and loan business, in which, by industry, square dealing and an agreeable personality he achieved a large measure of success. His most prominent traits were elear-headedness, patience and never failing good humor under the most trying circumstances. His work was con- structive and helpful to others, and firmly based on his belief and practice in the theory that the best way to help a man is to show him how to help himself. He gave the best years of his life to building up the Hennepin Savings and Loan Association, of which he was one of the founders and the secretary and a director from its start until his death. He found his greatest pride and satisfaction in telling of the sure and safe growth of this institution in the confi- dence of the eommunity.
Mr. Pauly's life closed on December 15, 1911, when he was fifty-five years and eight months old. His widow and six children are living. The children are Francis, Eugene, George, Gustav, Florence and Margaret. Francis and Florence have musical talent of a very superior order which they have cultivated by careful training in Europe. They were home and at the bedside of their father when he died. Florence has since returned to Europe and is now pianist in the Lon- don Conservatory of Music. She has performed in public in the English metropolis before highly cultivated and critical audiences, and has won the warmest praise from eminent musician's and composers.
Francis Pauly is a member of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra company, in which he is first violinist. He was trained in Berlin under the instruction of Hugo Kaun, the great Berlin composer. Eugene Pauly is connected with the draft department of the Northwestern National Bank. Mrs. Pauly, the mother of these children, is a member of the Min- nesota Territorial Society. She was an early arrival in this city and has vivid recollections of the pioneer days. She well remembers the incidents of the Indian uprising in 1862 and the terror of the people in consequence of it. Her father, Charles Young, was a member of Captain Fisk's expe- dition against the savages at the time.
FRED. D. YOUNG.
"'Tis ever wrong to say a good man dies." And yet the bonds of nature are so strong and fond they can never be broken without deep grief and gloom and lasting pain. When Fred. D. Young, one of the leading business men of Minneapolis, departed this life on December 5, 1911, the community in which his activity had been most conspicu- ously displayed and his high character, fine business capacity and upright, honorable and stimulating eitizenship had been most serviceable, felt throughout its extent that a vital force had gone from it which it could never wholly replace. The grief and gloom over the sad event was heightened and intensified by the fact that Mr. Young was but forty-nine years old when his summons came, and the work for which he had special qualifications seemed but half done. The influence of his life, however, is still potential in the city
of his former home, and his memory is cherished there with lasting regard. He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him. And so it can be truthfully said that he has not died.
Fred. D. Young was born in Freeport, Illinois, on October 12, 1862, the son of Lafayette and Martha (Dean) Young, natives and long residents of the state of New York, their home in early life being at Utica in that state. The father was a railroad engineer, and ran the first engine that made the trip from Chicago to Freeport over the Northwestern road. He died when his son Fred was but twelve years old, and the care of the latter and his younger brother Burton was left to the mother. She performed her duty to her sons faithfully, and they showed their appreciation of her fidelity' by their unalloyed devotion to her while they all continued to live.
After having completed the course of study prescribed in the Freeport High School, Mr. Young began his business career in the store of Mr. Walton, the oldest merchant in that city, with whom he remained until he was nineteen. Then, in 1881, he came to Minneapolis well trained for business and eager to have an establishment of his own which he could build up and expand according to his ambi- tious desires. He came to this city to investigate the oppor- tunities available here, and finding them very promising, ac- cepted a position as a salesman in the Siegelbaum store.
He did not retain the position long, however, as he soon found the better opening he was looking for, and at once' took advantage of it. He became associated in business with R. S. Goodfellow & Company, and found his situation and surrounding's so congenial that he continued his association with that firm for a continuous period of eighteen years. At the end of that period he felt impelled to embark in busi- ness wholly on his own account, and started the Fred. D. Young company, locating his business in the Syndicate block and handling ladies' furs, coats and suits. Some time after- ward Miss Elizabeth Quinlan became his partner in the enterprise, and the style of the firm was changed to the Young-Quinlan company. About one years before the death of Mr. Young Miss Quinlan purchased the business, and she is still conducting it.
Mr. Young died a bachelor. His brother Burton was asso- ciated with him in business until his death, which occurred six years prior to that of Fred., although Burton was seven years younger than his brother. Their mother came to Minne- apolis with Burton after Fred. embarked in business, and after the arrival of the latter here he built a handsome home for his mother at 2316 Colfax avenne, and there the three, the mother and her two sons, lived together. The mother died in May, 1903. She was a charter member of the first Christian Scientist church, joining the sect in its infancy, and working to advance its interests ardently and effectively as long as she was able. She was especially energetic in its behalf during her residence in Freeport, and to the end of her life retained her membership, with that of her son Burton, in the mother church of the creed.
Fred. D. Young was a faithful follower of his mother in his interest in the welfare of young men and boys. She long manifested her deep and abiding interest in this class of humanity in practical work for it, and he appeared to have inherited or imbibed the spirit from her. He took a very active part in promoting the Young Men's Christian Association and kindred organizations, and also in the fra-
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ternal and social life of the community through his ardent and helpful membership in the Masonic order (thirty-second degree), and in the Order of Elks and the Commercial, Minne- apolis, Lafayette and other clubs. His brother Burton was also a thirty-second degree Freemason, and a member of several 'clubs.
By his enterprise, capacity and excellent judgment Mr. Young built his business up to large proportions, and con- ducted it with great energy and success until he realized that his health was failing, when he disposed of it. But he did not yield to physical ailments without an arduous struggle to overcome them. He visited Europe twice for the benefit of his health, and while on that continent indulged freely in the bathis at Carlsbad and other curative treat- ment. He also visited the Isthmus of Panama for the same reason. But his efforts were all in vain. His vital forces were on the wane, and he was able to find nothing that would arrest their flight.
At his death the whole city mourned. Funeral services were conducted at his former home, and the beautiful burial ritual of the Masonic fraternity was impressively rendered at the Masonic Temple over his remains. They were taken to Freeport, Illinois, and there becomingly interred amid the scenes of his childhood and youth. Mrs. A. D. Palmer, an aunt of the brothers passed a great deal of her time with them after the death of their mother. As a tribute to the noble womanhood of that mother, and a sign of his devo- tion to her, Mr. Young endowed a room in the Eitel Hospital. Her friends were his friends, and were remembered by him in his will.
The estate left by Mr. Young at his death exceeded $100,000 in value. In disposing of it he made a bequest to his mother's old church, remembered each of the employes in his household, and the devoted friends of his mother, his brother and himself. He had hosts of admiring friends but few intimates, but to the few his life was an open book without a blot or stain on any of its pages. He was a true man in every sense of the word, and was esteemed in his life and revered after his death as such. Minneapolis has had no better, brighter or more manly citizen, and none who enjoyed a larger measure of public respect, admiration and regard.
ALFRED FISKE PILLSBURY.
Alfred Fiske Pillsbury is a native of Minneapolis, where his life began on October 20, 1869, and where he has passed the whole of it to the present time, closely connected with the business and social life of the community and exemplifying in his daily walk all the best attributes of elevated American citizenship. He is a son of John Sargent and Mahala (Fiske) Pillsbury, and obtained his academic and professional training in the schools of this city and the State Universty. After passing through the Minneapolis grade and high schools he attended the University, and from the law department of that institution he was graduated in 1894.
Mr. Pillsbury's subsequent life has not been devoted en- tirely to his profession, however. Industrial and financial in- terests have laid him under tribute to their needs, and he has responded with ability and energy of a high order. He is secretary and treasurer of the Pillsbury Flour Mills company,
president of the Minneapolis Mill company and of the St. Anthony Falls Water Power company, a director of the First National Bank and the Minneapolis Trust company and a trustee of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank.
Although Mr. Pillsbury's father, the late Governor Pills- bury, was one of the most eminent and useful public men of this state, the son has not taken an active part in public affairs as an official. He is a Republican in politics, but only as a citizen, and not at all as an office seeker. He is a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Lafayette and other clubs, and his religious affiliation is with the Universalists, he being a regular attendant of the Church of the Redeemer of that de- nomination. He was married in Boston on May 15, 1899, to Miss Eleanor L. Field, of Boston, Massachusetts. They have no children.
WILLIS GREENLEAF CALDERWOOD.
Willis Greenleaf Calderwood is a product of obscurity and toil, and has raised himself by his own ability, force of char- acter, persistent industry and superior business capacity to the position of public prominence and personal regard which he now holds in this state. He was born at Fox Lake, Wiscon- sin, July 25, 1866, the son of Rev. John and Emily B. (Green- leaf) Calderwood. The father was a Wesleyan Methodist clergyman and a Scotchman by birth. The mother was descended from one of the earliest Puritan families of New England.
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