Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 142

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 142

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Mr. Calderwood passed his boyhood in Wisconsin and Iowa. When he was seven years old he earned his first wages herding cows, and at fourteen was able to support himself. At sixteen he entered the Wesleyan Methodist school at Wasioja, Dodge county, Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1886. After teaching school three years in Dakota he came to Min- neapolis December 21, 1889, and in 1890 became an instructor in a commercial college in this city. Soon afterward he was appointed assistant secretary of the Northwestern Life Asso- ciation, now the Northwestern National Life company of Min- neapolis, his position carrying with it the responsibility of managing the agency department of the association, and being retained by him until 1898.

Even before he left school Mr. Calderwood became an active worker for the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of in- toxicating liquors, and in 1888 he served as chairman of the Non-partisan Prohibition League in the judicial district in which he lived in North Dakota and he had an active part in the campaign which made that state dry. In 1893 he was made secretary of the Hennepin County Prohibition commit- tee, a position lie filled with great acceptability until 1896, when he was elected assistant secretary of the State Prohi- bition committee. Two years later he was elected executive secretary of this committee and conducted its political cam- paigns. He continued to serve it as such until 1908, since when he has been its chairman.

In his political activity Mr. Calderwood originated the "legislative plan" of his party, which greatly increased its vote in the state. Its first triumph was the election of three mem- bers of the legislature and the sheriff of Kandiyohi county, all of whom were its candidates. He was himself one of its nominees for the legislature in 1904, 1906 and 1908. The votes for prohibition in his district, the Thirty-ninth, num-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

bered 108 in 1902. They increased to over 1,100 in 1904 and to 2,500 in 1906, when a change of fifty-four votes in the district would have elected him, while in 1908 he lacked but 130 of election. In 1912 he was the Prohibition candidate for Congressman at large, and received more than 25,000 votes. In 1914 he was nominated as his party's candidate for governor of the state.

Although Mr. Calderwood has not yet been successful at the elections as a candidate for office he has exercised a strong influence on legislation. As chairman of the Prohibition party he had a bill introduced in the legislature in 1907 to provide for non-partisan election for county officials. This became a law in 1913. He also prepared bills which were enacted into law to penalize the white slave traffic. In addi- tion, the bill for the abatement of nuisances, making the owner of the property in which they are conducted responsible for such use of it, was prepared by him and has since been enacted into law.

In 1904 Mr. Calderwood was elected secretary of the Pro- hibition National committee, and since then he has done a great deal of campaign work for that organization in connec- tion with its chairman, Virgil G. Henshaw, who, for three years was an effectve organizer in Minnesota. He is still a member of the Prohibition National Executive Committee, is chairman of the National Congressional committee and has been a delegate to the national conventions of his party regu- larly for the last twenty years. He is a genial and companion- able gentleman of broad intelligence and great public spirit, and is widely popular as a public speaker and writer on pro- posed reforms at present receiving extensive attention, includ- ing prohibition, the public ownership of utilities, the referen- dum, equal suffrage, and similar living issues. He is a regular attendant of the First Methodist Episcopal church in Minne- apolis and is one of its officials. In 1892 he was married to Miss Alice M. Cox, a daughter of Rev. Charles Cox, a minister of the Wesleyan Methodist church. Like her husband, she is deeply interested in all work for the advancement of the peo- ple and shares his labor in connection with several phases of this beneficent activity.

JOHN CROSBY.

John Crosby, secretary, treaurer and general counsel of the Washburn-Crosby company, the most extensive flour milling institution in the world, has been a resident of Minneapolis for thirty-eight years. He was born in Hampden, Maine, August 23, 1867, and came to Minneapolis with his parents in 1876. He was graduated from a Minneapolis high school in 1884, and the same year entered Phillips Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, where he passed two years. In 1886 he was matriculated in Yale University, and from that institution he was graduated in the class of 1890.

At Yale Mr. Crosby made a highly creditable record. He was always recognized as one of the most evenly balanced minds at the University during his course there, and he secured a number of prizes in warm competition with other students, among them the De Forrest prize. After his graduation from Yale he entered the Harvard Law School, and from that he was graduated in 1893. In the fall of that year he began the practice of his profession in the office of Judge Koon, of Min- neapolis, but afterward formed a partnership with Messrs.

Kingman & Wallace. with whom he was associated in practice until 1910.

Mr. Crosby served in the city council for four years, and during that period he was president of the council. He is a director of the Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank and the Northwestern National Bank. In the will of the late William H. Dunwoody he was selected as one of the executors of that gentleman's estate. But while he was working out his own career in his own way, and making it creditable to himself and the city of his home, Mr. Crosby was destined to be called to duties more directly connected with the interests of others. On the death of C. J. Martin, secretary and treasurer of the Washburn-Crosby company, Mr. Crosby, whose father had been president of the company, was elected secretary, treasurer and general counsel of that great institution, and he has ever since borne that official relation to it.

NEWTON HORACE WINCHELL.

Prof. Newton H. Winchell, the celebrated State Geologist of Minnesota and one of the world's great scientists, died after an operation in the Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis, May 2, 1914. He was in usual good health up to the previous day, but had long been affected with a bladder ailment. Consult- ing a physician on the day mentioned, he was advised to re- pair to a hospital and submit to an operation upon the dis- eased organ. At the same time he was warned that, at his advanced age, the operation would be a serious one. Of re- markable physical and moral courage and great self-poise, he prepared for the ordeal and considered the situation as calmly and deliberately as if he were analyzing a specimen. He knew his deadly danger but faced it with the coolness of a philosopher and the courage of a hero. His loss was deeply and widely mourned, for he had been such a good man, had done so much for civilization and mankind, and yet there was much for him to do, which he would have done had he been spared.

Professor Winchell was born on a farmn in the town of North East, Dutchess County. N. Y., December 17, 1839, and therefore at his death was in his 75th year. In young boy- hood he attended school at Salisbury, Conn., and, as indicat- ing his talent and aptness, it is to be said that when he was but 16 years of age, he was engaged in school teaching. He was a son of Horace and Caroline (McAllister) Winchell, and his was a family of scholars and educators. In 1858 he en- tered the University of Michigan, where his brother, the ac- complished Professor Alexander Winchell, was Professor of Geology. He did not graduate for eight years, or until in 1866, for he put aside his studies from time to time and en- gaged in school work; alternately he taught in Ann Arbor, Flint, Kalamazoo, Port Huron, and other Michigan towns, and for two years was superintendent of the St. Clair public schools. After his graduation he was for two years school superintendent of Adrian. While at college hic was an in- mate of the family of his eminent brother, the Professor of Geology, and their association was of mutual benefit. Both brothers were devoted especially to gcological science.

During 1869-70 Prof. N. H. Winchell assisted his brother, Alexander. in a geological survey of Michigan. In 1872 he visited and examined the copper and silver deposits of New Mexico, and in 1871 assisted Prof. J. S. Newberry, State Geol-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

ogist of Obio, in a survey of the northwestern part of that state. There is not space here to enumerate all of the scien- tific practical works that Newton H. Winchell performed in his lifetime, nor is there room to catalogue the very numerous books and scientific articles he wrote, nor to give a list of the scientific associations and organizations, American and for- eign, of which he was a member. All these matters are well enough known. He was of great service to American science and did much valuable work for mankind.

In 1872 Professor Winchell was chosen Minnesota State Geologist and Professor of Geology in the State University, mainly through the influence of the then President W. W. Folwell. In the meanwhile he was engaged, under the direc- tion of the Board of Regents, in a survey of the geology and natural history of Minnesota, performing tbe double duties of professor and surveyor. The work of survey continued for 28 years or antil the year 1900. In the latter years he did not teach, but, aside from occasional lectures, gave his time to the survey and the curatorship of the University Museum.

When, in the spring of 1861, the Civil War broke out, be was attending the Michigan University. Upon the first call for troops he, with other students, promptly volunteered in the First Michigan Volunteers. He was booked for a lieuten- ant's commission and served as drillmaster for his company, but before bis regiment could be mustered in he was stricken by a severe and almost fatal attack of typhoid fever which prostrated him for some weeks and left him unfit for military service.

Dr. Wm. W. Folwell, so long and so efficiently the Presi- dent of the Minnesota University, and who has done the state such eminent service in other capacities, was an intimate and appreciative friend of Prof. Winchell. In the University pub- lication called the Alumni Weekly of May 11, 1914 (Vol. 13, No. 32), appears an article in appreciation of the dead scien- tist. From this article have been taken the following extracts:

In 1872 from the candidates for the new Professorsbip of Geology Professor Newton H. Winchell was easily selected. He had been graduated from the University of Michigan, where his distinguished brotber, then one of the leading geol- ogists of the country, was professor. He had been a principal of several schools and had three years' experience as assistant on the geologieal surveys of Michigan and Ohio. A few years of labor fully justified the recommendations of friends and the judgment of the regents. At the close of that year, 1872, Professor Winchell presented a preliminary report on the rock formations of Minnesota, based on a reeonnoissanee made in the summer months. It was of immediate value in stopping waste of money in boring down into the subcarboniferous in Minnesota for coal.

Twenty-tbree annual reports and six or seven bulletins on special problems followed. For seven years Professor Winch- ell carried all or nearly all the teaching in the department of geology and mineralogy. By that time there was a good deal of clamor for immediate economic results from the survey, in response to which the regents relieved bim of all instruction to devote bis whole time and strength to the survey. * * * Had he remained an active member of the Faculty, and gone in and out among us, it would not be necessary now to remind the Faculty and the wbole University that the man whose body we laid to rest this week has given the University wider repute than all of us put together. His final report on the geology of Minnesota in six noble quartos is on the shelves of all the great libraries of the world. One whose attain-

ments entitle his opinion to credence has said of this work: "No State publication of like nature surpasses in scientific importance tbis survey of Mr. Wincbell, and it could be said none equals it."

The studies and observations made on glacial geology wbile on the surveys of Michigan and Ohio, seem to have fitted him in an eminent degree for to handle the geology of Minnesota, whose area had been so largely subjected to glacial action. He tlius became an acknowledged authority on that branch of the science. * * *

Our Professor Winchell early made our local falls the sub- ject of an interesting and fruitful study. From careful measurements and location of fixed points within bistorical knowledge he estimated the time required for their recession from the river junction at Fort Snelling, not at fifty or a hundred thousand years, but only eight thousand. This solu- tion fixed the approximate close of the ice-age in Minnesota, and served as a base for extended comparisons.

Of Professor Winchell's work in substantially discovering and making known the vast iron deposits in northeastern Minnesota, Dr. Folwell writes:

The most interesting by far of all the geological problems of Minnesota was that presented by the iron ore deposits in the "Triangle" north of Lake Superior. It used to be said that the survey was tardy in extending its work over tbat area. Whoever will turn to the Annual Report of the Survey for 1878 will find, on page 22, mention of a belt of iron ore, known as the Mesabi Range, extending for many miles. Chem- ical analyses of the ore are there given, sbowing tbem to be of high metallic content, and excelling in the qualities needed for making steel. This was six years before any ore was shipped out of either range. It was not the business of the survey to locate particular mines for the benefit of great cor- porations. Nor was tbat necessary, for they had their own experts on the ground. But the survey had given notice to all and was on record. What wealtb might the State have preserved for ber schools and university had that notice been beeded! In a later year an exbaustive examination of the iron ranges was made, and the results published in Bulletin No. 6, of 430 pages. * * *

Indicative of his originality and independence was his device of an entire new nomenclature for the rock formations of Minnesota. It may be said that he was known among American geologists for original views, and very vigorous defense of them.

With the publication of the last volume of the Final Report in 1900 Professor Winchell closed his connection with the survey and the University. It is much to be regretted tbat he could not have been retained in service to prosecute a variety of scientific problems, left to other hands. Since then he has been chiefly occupied in studies in Minnesota archeology. A quarto of 761 pages, entitled "Tbe Aborigines of Minnesota," published by the Minnesota Historical Society, forms a fitting companion to those of the Final Report.

Warren Upham, the well known Secretary of the Minne- sota Historical Society, and who has taken very bigh rank as a geologist and bistorian, was another intimate and fond friend of Professor Winchell. In a memorial paper read before the Historical Society at its May meeting, 1914, and before the memorial meeting of the Minnesota Academy of Sciences (of which Winchell was one of the founders), held June 2, fol- lowing, Mr. Upham presented an elaborate sketeb, personal

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

and general, of his former friend and associate. Some of the paragraphs of his article are these:

My association with Professor N. H. Winchell began in June, 1879. Coming from the Geological Survey of New Hampshire, in which I had been for several years an assistant, I was thenceforward one of the assistants of the Minnesota survey six years, until 1885, and again in 1893 and '94. In the meantime and later, while I was an assistant geoolgist of the surveys of the United States and Canada, on the explora- tion, mapping, and publication of the glacial Lake Agassiz, which occupied the basin of the Red River and Lakes Winni- peg and Manitoba, my frequent association with Professor Winchell kept me constantly well acquainted with the progress of his Minnesota work. Sinee the spring of 1906 he had been in the service of the Minnesota Historical Society, having charge of its Department of Archaeology. During all these thirty-five years I had intimately known him, and had increas- ingly revered and loved him.

He was a fellow of the American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science, was also one of the chief founders of the Geological Society of America, in 1889, and its president in 1902. He was a member of national societies of mineral- ogy and geology in France and Belgium, and in the Interna- tional Congress of Geologists he became a member in 1888, and attended its triennial meeting last August in Toronto.

Under appointment by President Cleveland in 1887, Pro- fessor Winchell was a member of the United States Assay Commission. His geological reports received a diploma and medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889, and a medal at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893.

He was the chief founder of the American Geologist, a monthly magazine, which was published in Minneapolis, under his editorship, during eighteen years, 1888-1905. This work, in which he was much assisted by Mrs. Winchell, greatly pro- moted the science of geology.

In one of the bulletins of the Minnesota Geological Survey, entitled "The Iron Ores of Minnesota," Professor Winchell had the aid of his son, Horace Vaughn Winchell; and in a text- book, "Elements of Optical Mineralogy" (502 pages, 1909) he was associated in authorship with his younger son, Professor Alexander Newton Winchell, of the University of Wisconsin. During parts of the later years of the Minnesota survey he was aided by his son-in-law, Dr. Ulysses S. Grant, Professor of Geology in the Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

In 1895-96, Professor and Mrs. N. H. Winchell spent about a year in Paris, France, and again he was there during six months in 1898, his attention being given mainly during each of these long visits abroad to special studies and investigations in petrology.

The work on which he was engaged for the Minnesota His- torieal Society, during his last eight years, based on very extensive collections, by Hon. J. V. Brower, of aboriginal imple- ments from Minnesota and other States west to the Rocky Mountains and south to Kansas, enabled Professor Winchell to take up very fully the questions of man's antiquity and of his relation to the Ice Age. This very interesting line of investigation was the theme of the last paper written by Pro- fessor Winchell, entitled "The Antiquity of Man in America Compared with Europe," which he presented as a lecture before the Iowa Academy of Sciences in Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Fri- day evening, April 24, only a week before he died.

Besides being a skilled geologist, Newton Horace Winchell

was a good citizen, a Christian in faith and practice, beloved by all who knew him.

"Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days! None knew. thee but to love thee, Nor named thee but to praise."

The Winchell Library of Geology in the University was founded by Professor Winchell donating his valuable collee- tion of more than one thousand volumes, covering the world's best writings on the subject.

He became an enthusiastic advocate of the artesian well source of supply for the city's water, knowing that an abun- dant supply of the best water could be thus secured at nominal expense, his conviction in this respect being abundantly veri- fied by subsequent efforts of citizens.

WILLARD CARLOS PIKE.

The late Willard C. Pike, who was for years one of the most extensive and widely known building contractors in Min- neapolis, was born at Potton, province of Quebec, Canada, Feb- ruary 15, 1844, and died in this city May 10, 1914. He was a son of John Sheppard and Lorinda (Manuel) Pike, the for- iner a native of Northfield, New Hampshire, and the latter of Vermont. Both families were of long standing and frequent prominence in New England history, and Mr. Pike was proud of their record and his connection with them. His father was a justice of the peace in Canada, and died in that country at a good old age.

When he reached the age of twenty-four Willard C. Pike went to Newton, Massachusetts, to learn the carpenter trade. He was then self-supporting and until the end of his life he always relied wholly on himself for advancement and success in his operations. Before going to his trade he taught school for a few terms, and made a good reputation as a teacher. He worked at his trade some eight years at and near Newton, and in June, 1878, came West, locating at St. Paul. He was disappointed, however, in finding wages no higher than in the East, and soon afterward moved to River Falls, Wisconsin, where he was placed in charge of the work of rebuilding, after a destructive fire, and remained three years.

In March, 1881, Mr. Pike came to Minneapolis and at once became a contractor in building houses. His system was to buy lots, build houses on them and then sell the property. In 1883 he formed a partnership with George Cook, who boarded at the same place that he did, the partnership lasting until his death. The firm became one of the best known con- tracting firms in the city. Its pay roll at times included 400 names, and was never a short one. Mr. Pike had charge of the work, such as St. Mark's Pro-Cathedral, Andrus Building. University Library Building, Central High School, Second Church of Christ, Scientist, and many other public buildings which was mostly local and grew continuously, always increas- ing the number of employes of the firm. He devoted himself wholly to his business, and put all his energy and intelligence into it, never seeking recognition in public life, although he was a firmly loyal Republiean and a valued member of his party. His leisure was employed in reading, but in this he confined himself to the standard authors, Scott being one of

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

his favorites, and gave a great deal of attention to the better class of magazines.

Mr. Pike was married in Minneapolis on June 20, 1899, to Miss Elizabeth Boynton Pushor, a native of Plymouth, Maine. They had no children. Both were active in the Park Avenue Congregational church, in which Mr. Pike was one of the leading members of the board of trustees, although not a com- municant, and active in the work of the Men's club in that church. He was fond of fishing, baseball and other outdoor sports, and a great lover of music. For ten years he lived in the home in which he died, at the corner of Portland avenue and Twenty-fifth street, which is still occupied by his widow. He was one of the most hospitable of men, having no higher social enjoyment than found in having his house filled with friends. His life was a useful one and a genial one in the community. He contributed extensively to the growth and improvement of Minneapolis and was always, during his resi- dence, one of its best and most esteemed citizens.

EDWARD A. PURDY.

This gentleman, who was widely and favorably known in Minneapolis and elsewhere prior to Tuesday, April 21, 1914, rose to special prominence in the observation of the public then, because on that day President Wilson nominated him to the United States Senate for the office of postmaster of Minneapolis. He was confirmed by the Senate a few days later and immediately took charge of the office, and from the manner in which he has conducted his private affairs and made his way forward in the world by his own unaided efforts, it is confidently predicted that he will give the city the best postal service it has ever known, being impelled to do this not by any personal ambition for himself but by his strong and abiding interest in the welfare of the public.

Mr. Purdy was born in Lansing, Iowa, in 1877, and is the youngest postmaster Minneapolis has ever had. His grand- father emigrated from New York westward some eighty years ago, his probable destination being Minnesota. But in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, somebody whispered to him that Min- nesota was a wilderness and Iowa was a desirable locality for residence and business. He was steered to Lansing, in the northeastern part of that state, and there he took up his residence and passed the remainder of his life. During the presidential terms of Pierce and Buchanan he was post- master at Lansing. His son, Edward Purdy, Sr., the father of Edward A., is now living at Waukon in the same county.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 142

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