Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 33

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 33

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Baldwin was secretary. Among other commissioners . to come later the Symphony Orchestra of Minneapolis. were E. M. Wilson, J. S. Pillsbury, Dorilus Morrison. S. H. Chute, George Brackett, W. W. Eastman, and Judson N. Cross. The commission engaged Professor H. W. S. Cleveland, a landscape architect of long experience, and he laid out the park system which was the nucleus of the present parks and boulevards.

It was the fostering of the park sentiment which made possible the inclusion of Minnehaha Falls, of the Mississippi River banks, and the lakes within the city limits as factors in the park system. Three squares, gifts to the city. formed the beginnings of the system, and shortly after power of condemnation of land had been conferred, Loring Park was

acquired. Upon these as a foundation has been built a series of parks and parkways totaling nearly 4,000 acres in area.

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY IS PERFECTED.

By 1885, also, the city began to aspire to something more than a semi-privately owned library. The Atheneum was serving most purposes, but it was deemed wise to create a Library Board, representative of the people, and to establish a library that would be absolutely free to all. The Atheneum directors joined in this municipal enterprise, and the private and public libraries were consolidated, in effect; the Atheneum, however, maintained its identity while still a component part of the Public Library. Erec- tion of a library building was at once decided upon, and the Library Board, under the Presidency of T. B. Walker, began the work. The Library Building, at Tenth Street and Hennepin Avenue. was completed and occupied in 1889, with Herbert Putnam as Librarian.

MAKES PROGRESS MENTALLY, MORALLY, AND PHYSICALLY.

There are many residents of Minneapolis who refe. almost apologetically to the boom period of the city's history, but it was in that period, nevertheless, that some of the finest advances in culture, refinement, and educational progress were made. It was in 1884 that Dr. Cyrus Northrop, coming from Yale to become President of the University of Minnesota, to succeed Dr. Folwell when that builder chose to step down to less responsible duties in the institution, gave markedly increased impetus to the growth and strength of the University and of the entire educa- tional system of Minnesota. Dr. Folwell had founded the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts and had been interested in the advancement of the Public Library ; Dr. Northrop early became identified with the same institutions and with kindred elements in the city's growth in culture. So he continued until succeeded as president of the University by Dr. George E. Vin- cent, in 1911.

In 1890 the Philharmonics, who later became the Philharmonic Club, was organized and at once be- came the principal single musical organization in Minnesota ; out of this union of musical leaders was

In 1891 Dr. Charles M. Jordan became Superin- tendent of the Public Schools. a post which he was to hold for twenty-three years, in which time he was to be no inconsiderable factor in shaping the cul- tural progress of the people of the city. When he became superintendent the school enrollment of the city was about 21.000. the teaching force numbered 525. and the city schools were housed in forty-seven buildings.

Cultural growth was paralleled by notable church expansion, or by ready meeting of demands upon church people for facilities for religious teaching and services. The principal denominations represented

142

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

in Minneapolis by church organizations became active lems. Speculation ran riot, but out of the fantasy in erecting large, handsome houses of worship. was born the Minneapolis spirit, and that spirit breathed life into enterprises which in any other time would have themselves seemed fantasies. Among the edifices constructed and occupied in the period between 1880 and 1893 were those of the Westminster Presbyterian, the Gethsemane Episcopal, the Central Baptist, the Immanuel Baptist, the Swed- RAILROAD BUILDING GOES ON. ish Mission tabernacle, the First Baptist, the First Unitarian, the First Congregational, the Holy Rosary It was in 1883 when the Northern Pacific Railway was completed to the Pacific Coast, and the golden spike driven to celebrate the opening of a vast terri- tory to which Minneapolis was the gateway. It was about the same time when Minneapolis business men -some of the same who had figured in many another similar operation for the upbuilding of the city- recognized the fact that Minneapolis needed an out- let by rail to the East, independent of Chicago. Of this recognition came the Soo Line, the railroad which connected Minneapolis with the Atlantic seaboard by way of Sault Ste. Marie, and with the Canadian Northwest by way of the Canadian Pacific alliance. Late in the decade of 1880 this new system had been completed. Catholic, the First Presbyterian, the Park Avenue Congregational, the Oliver Presbyterian, the Church of the Redeemer, Universalist, the Andrew Presby- terian, the Wesley Methodist, St. Stephen's Catholic, and the Portland Avenue Church of Christ. The Scandinavian people, also, were especially active in church construction at this time. Early in the '80s the Presbyterian General Assembly was held in Min- neapolis; and in 1891 the national convention of the Young People's Societies of Christian Endeavor was held here. It was in this year that the Young Won- en's Christian Association was formed. In the next year, 1892, the national council of the Congregational Churches met here; in 1895 the general convention of the Episcopal Church.

Progress in every line went to make the town a city. Hustle locked arms with refinement, even, and invention joined with art to make life more truly worth living, however it became more complex. Cities everywhere began to enjoy more conveniences. The year 1883 gave to Minneapolis the electric light. The telephone came into more general business use, al- though it was not until nearly or after 1890 that it became a household appurtenance. As early as 1878 the Northwestern. Telephone Company was in the field, and for twenty years it had that field to itself ; then the Tri-State Company, at first known as the Mississippi Valley, became a competitor. Gas as a distributed commodity for light and cooking was available before electricity came, but its use was not general until after 1890.

GAINS 118,000 IN POPULATION FROM 1880 TO 1890.

If it were not for the fact that the decade from 1880 to 1890 was a period of astounding achievement, the manners and customs of the people would be re- garded with mixed emotions. Grandiloquence marked the common speech of the time ; when Minneapolis and its prospects were the themes, grandiloquence was the keynote of endeavor. But out of the exaltation of the time grew the city that had been an overgrown village; out of the mushroom-like creation of boom- times at least one incontrovertible fact stood forth. The population of the city had mounted from 47.000 to 165,000 in ten years. Whatever may have been the transitory character of man-made institutions and boom-made land valuations, the people were here. With every reason in the scheme of things justifying a great city at this manufacturing gateway to the Northwestern empire, the greater portion of. these people must inevitably unite for carrying forward the institutions and the industries. Men talked large. but they likewise did largely. New needs arose, and new solutions were promptly found to meet the prob-

James J. Hill's dream of conquest of other por- tions of the Northwest was taking material shape in his Great Northern Railway, as yet, however, known as the St. Paul, Minneapolis & Manitoba Railway. Passenger and freight terminals adequate to the time were being constructed, giving the city a union pas- senger station which was to serve-or finally fail to serve-for twenty-five years. Manufacturing enter- prises outside of and beyond the flour and lumber industries began to engage the attention of the city- builders. Retail merchants began to realize the op- portunities afforded by the phenomenally rapid increase in population, not only within but without and around the city's borders. And wholesale trade began to attract the attention of a few men of fore- sight, although this branch of merchandising was slower than all others in taking root in Minneapolis ; her rival. St. Paul, maintained for some years the leadership as a jobbing center.

TIIE EXPOSITION IS BUILT.

One of the characteristic manifestations of the Min- neapolis spirit is found in the Minneapolis Exposi- tion, an institution which grew out of rivahy with St. Paul and its acquirement of the State Fair in 1885, and the Midway District annexation, as well as · out of a desire to emulate the example of older cities in the East, where expositions had become a fairly common demonstration of eity advertising.

In 1885-tradition says in Regan's restaurant, a democratic eating house which flourished then-a few men who were most active among the energetic cit- izens broached the idea, and the project culminated in a public mass meeting at which the first few thou- sands of a big public subscription were offered. A building costing $325,000 was the most tangible re- sult, and in this annually for six years a big display of the products of industry, art and enterprise at- tracted thousands. The Exposition was a product of the period ; it has sinee had no counterpart, nor has

ADRUGS.

DENTIST.

RETURN OF NORTHERN PACIFIC SURVEYING PARTY TAKEN ON WASHINGTON AVE. AT 1ST AVE. SOUTH IN 1865

WASHINGTON AVE. LOOKING SOUTH FROM SECOND AVE. SOUTH IN 1857

WILLIAM RAINEY MARSHALL

First surveyor of the town site of St. Anthony; General in the Civil War; Governor of Minnesota, etc. (From painting in 1875.)

143

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

there been similar demand for expression of the eity 's spirit. But in its day it served as the stimulus for much of the achievement and effort which finally gave permanence and prominence to the city. Whatever remains of such a need is expressed amply in the State Fair which now has the united support of Minneapolis as well as St. Paul.

ADDITIONS TO AREA LAID OUT AND STRUCTURAL WORK PROGRESSES.

Dreams that were mistaken for visions lured city- builders out into the country about the young city. Additions were platted, sidewalk laid, water-mains extended, ambitious structures planned, and prom- ises made which (though many were broken when the boom collapsed) found realization in more in- stances than the eautious might have admitted pos- sible. And through all the inflation of local values. trade grew, manufactured output inereased. Bv 1885-86 the population was about 75,000, the annual manufactured ontput valued at more than $60,000,000. and the assessed valuation was appraised at $115,- 000,000. And amid the fantasies of the real estate boomers, real institutions and industries were rising. A big steel plant was established ; a huge office struc- ture, the Guaranty Loan Building. was planned and construction begun before the deeade elosed. A Fed- eral Court and postoffice building, the finest then in the Northwest, was erected and oeeupied. And finally, keeping paee with the expansion of the eity, the traetion lines were extended and improved, the end of the decade being marked by a remarkable achieve- ment in street railway construction.

THE OLD MOTOR LINE.

The first half of the ten years after 1880 had seen the construction of a steam traction line into the suburbs and to the watering places of what are row park lakes, as well as to Lake Minnetonka. The rival -- in a sense-of the old horse-ear lines was known as the "Motor" line, its ears being hauled by an enclosed steam engine. Trains were operated, with varying degrees of efficiency. out First Avenue South and Nieollet Avenue to the neighborhood of Lake Street and thence westward to Lake Calhoun and to Lake Minnetonka, as well as eastward to Minnehaha Falls. By 1886 changes in ownership of this line led to its absorption by the Street Railway Company and its abandonment as a suburban line to Minnetonka.

Meanwhile other traction enterprises were pro- jected, culminating in bitter rivalry over franchise rights within the eity. Out of this contest of en- trenched and assaulting promoters eame the harness- ing. locally, of a traction force then new to the world -- electrieitv. The late years of the 1880 decade saw experimenting with eable lines, and expenditure of a great deal of money in trying to improve the means of transportation by improving the motive power.

THE STREET RAILWAY ELECTRIFIES ITS LINES.

Finally the Street Railway Company. combating the propositions of the Anderson & Douglas company

of promoters, made a definite proposal to experiment with, and if suecessful utilize, eleetrieity as motive power for its lines. The Fourth Avenue South line was eleetrified, and the experiment was sueeessful. And thereupon, the Street Railway Company set out to electrify its entire system-to diseard the horse cars and to substitute, on entirely rebuilt trackage, eleetrie ears. It is one of the notable facts in the won- derful history of Minneapolis that this was accom- plished in three years, and carried on by the same men whose foresight had given a traetion system to the eity in times that were marked in history by enormous risk. By 1892 the entire Street Railway System was elec- trified, and in the same period Minneapolis and St. Paul were eonneeted by trolley line. It was a time of remarkable achievement, and its annals bear the names of Colonel William MeCrory, builder of the Motor line: Anderson & Douglas, Thomas Lowry, C. G. Goodrich, and many another exponent of the Minneapolis spirit, but none so eternally written as is the name of "Tom" Lowry.

Here, then, was the repetition of history come into its own as usual. Here was closing a period of boom. of inflation, and vet of successful enterprise. Min- neapolis and St. Anthony had seen such a time. in lesser degree, in their early years: had seen such a time twenty years later, and now history was to re- peat itself. For the period of riding on the high wave was to be succeeded by descent into the trough of a sea of depression. The financial disasters of 1893. into which the whole country plunged, were at hand.

BIG PUBLIC BUILDINGS SPRING UP.

It is possible that the unparalleled advancement made by Minneapolis between 1880 and 1890 may be traeed to the faet that the nation was having its long- est period of prosperity unmarked by finaneial panic or disaster. It was a time of commereial eonseious- ness, whether it be termed a time of eivic awakening or not. All through the years of astounding growth records of community action may be found. One of the flashes of this community spirit was the Villard celebration in 1883, in token of the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway. Another was the Minne- apolis Exposition of 1886 to 1891. Still another was the Harvest Festival of 1891, when the city celebrated the garnering of a mighty crop, the day being sig- nalized by an elaborate parade and by exercises in which that monarch of optimism, Col. "Bill" King, was the conduetor.

These, however, were transitory tokens of eommu- nity effort. More tangible evidences of Minneapolis enterprise were the publie undertakings which brought forth the $3,000,000 Court House and City Hall, commenced in 1889 and oeeupied after 1890; the first postoffice and Federal building, eonstrueted be- tween 1882 and 1889; the Public Library Building, oceupied in 1889; the Central High School at Fourth Avenue South and Grant Street, built not long after 1880; the Masonic Temple, erected in 1885-6; the Young Men's Christian Association Building, eom- menced in 1889; the Northwestern Hospital, built in

144

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

1887; the Stevens Avenue Home for Children and Aged Women, built in 1886; the Washburn Memorial Home for Orphans, opened in 1886; St. Mary's Hos. pital, opened in 1886; Maternity Hospital, opened in the same year; and the City Hospital, established in 1888.

In addition to these publie and Semi-publie enter- prises the period was marked by the ereetion of sneh structures as the Guaranty Loan Building, completed in 1890; the New York Life Insurance Company's building, completed the same year; the Lumber Ex- ehange Building, which ante-dated the first two named by a year or two; and the earlier structures of the Chamber of Commerce, erected in 1883; the Syndicate Block and Grand Opera House, erected in 1883; Temple Court, 1886; the West Hotel, in its day the pride of the city and of the West, erected in 1884; the Hennepin Avenne Theater, afterwards known successively as the Harris, the Lyceum, and finally the Lyric, erected in 1887, and opened by Booth and Barrett; the Bijou Opera House, com- pleted in 1887; the Boston Block, the Bank of Com- merce Building, the Minnesota Loan and Trust Com- pany Building, the Kasota Block, and others since become lesser structures by comparison but which were important units in the expansion of Minneapolis in its days of greatest growth.

THE BOOMERS WERE BUILDERS.

Thus it may be seen that the boomers were likewise the builders; that while the city was forging ahead with a population increase of 251 percent in the ten years between 1880 and 1890, and while the most varying elements were represented in the life of the times, nevertheless the sum total of it all was the per- manent advancement of Minneapolis. Here were a people who could be seen founding the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts in 1883-the same people, if we consider them as a whole, who within a few years were to plat additions and sell lots far out from any- thing like a real city. Here were the shoestringers and the borrowers from the future, destined for collapse when the boom burst soon after 1890, figuring solidly in constructive work, turning from real estate boom- ing to city advertisement in such community enter- prise as that which brought, in 1884, the national en- campment of the Grand Army of the Republic, chiefly for the advertising it might give. Here were men ruthlessly, or far-sightedly, building a city, engaged in laying mile after mile of sewers, curb-and-gutter. watermains, and looking to the paving of the business centers. Here were men so earnest in their belief in future, so strong in their sensitiveness to civje duty, that they had by 1887 increased the total park area to 120 acres, with a score of miles of parkways -- and this in a city whose park commission was not created until 1883. These were days of visions, of dreams that were made to come true.

THE CENSUS WAR WITH ST. PAUL.

Illustrative of the varying elements in city build- ing was the census war of 1890 between Minneapolis

and St. Paul. Some of the solidest citizens of Minne- apolis were involved in that conflict; some of the re- sults of their enterprise included invasion and coun- ter-invasion ; and linked with forcible seizure of cen- sns schedules by St. Panl was the expedition of Min- neapolis men which culminated in recovery of the kidnaped enmmerators and stolen schedules after one of their number, he asserted, had been "kicked six- teen feet." It was inevitable that a recount by the Government followed, and the conclusion which the inspector of the census drew was that Minneapolis and St. Paul had cach been the scene of a conspiracy of over-zealous citizens to "pad" the returns. Min- neapolis, it was asserted, had listed 20,000 too many inhabitants, and St. Panl had shown enterprise in proportion to its relative population total. Ont of the warfare sprang up intensity of feeling which en - dured for many years ; which for a decade made united action by the two cities impossible, and which still flares up occasionally, but quite too frequently, in inter-city contention.

THE GREAT BOOM BURSTS.

The early '90s saw Minneapolis beginning to see there must be reaction from the real estate value inflation-that there must come a time of reckoning. Some of the largest achievements of the time were those of these years, and some of the finest examples of the community spirit were manifested, as for in- stance the bringing of the Republican national con- vention to meet in Minneapolis in 1892-the first departure from long established precedent which called such conventions hitherto only to the largest cities. But now the approach of business depression which was to settle over the whole country was show- ing in the slowing up of investment and the stopping of speculation. And in 1893 the speculative bubble burst-but Minneapolis nobly withstood the explo- sion and the shock.

ENTERPRISE AND ELECTRICITY REPAIRED THE DAMAGES.

One of the noteworthy facts in the history of Min- neapolis is its survival of the business depression of the middle '90s after a period of inflation. There is no greater proof of the solidity and stability of its foundations, than may be found in consideration of some of the largest industries. Contributing to this fact was the eoincidence of changing conditions which marked the later years of the boom development. Electricity was one of these factors; for it was be- tween 1885 and 1895 when factories began to har- ness electricity, and it was during the same years that the development of the telephone and electric light opened new avenues to manufacturers. A po- riod of increased capitalization, a time of mannfac- turing adventure was beginning, and those influences which impelled men to make larger hazards of for- tune moved Minneapolis ahead in the list of cities that were becoming centers of wholesaling and man- facturing. Of course the impetus was felt in flour milling and in lumbering, but more than ever before

145

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

it began to show in other productive industries, some related and others unrelated to what were then the two chief manufacturing institutions.

NEW INDUSTRIES ARE FOUNDED, OLD ONES STRENGTHENED.

And so it came about that some of the largest man. ufacturers of to-day laid their foundations then. Ex- amples may be found in the Minneapolis Steel Ma- chinery Company, the Northwestern Knitting Com- pany, the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Company, the Minneapolis Furniture Company, the Minneapolis Bedding Company, the Andrews Heating Company. the linseed oil works, in which a score of companies are engaged, and various other lines of manufacture. Some of these lines had been represented for many years, but it was during the period mentioned when they began to expand, and it was then, also, that their title to enduring place was tested by the storms of business depression. The same measure may be ap- plied to or found in other lines of business-the retail trade, for example. And in this connection it is in- teresting to enumerate some of the old retail firms which still endure, even though the name of the con- cern may have been changed.

SOME LONG-LIVED AND TRIAL-TESTED BUSINESS FIRMIS.

Most of the large retail stores of today had their origin after 1880. One, however, that of John W. Thomas & Company, traces back to 1867, when G. W. Hale & Company established a store on Washington Avenue South: G. W. and J. M. Hale later were associated, and eventually the firm became Hale, Thomas & Company, then J. W. Thomas & Company. Its history is likewise the history of the progress of retail trade from Washington Avenue to and up Nicollet Avenue. Other big retail firms of the decade of 1880 were Goodfellow & Eastman, now become the Dayton Company; William Donaldson, founder of the present huge department store enterprise; In- gram, Oleson & Company, predecessors of the present Powers Department Store Company; Dale, Barnes, Morse & Company, later Dale, Barnes, Hengerer & Company, predecessors (with Wakefield & Plant and Folds & Griffith), of the present Minneapolis Dry Goods Company; and the New England Furniture & Carpet Company, established in 1885 by the pres- ent head of the company, W. L. Harris.

WHOLESALE TRADE IS OF RECENT DEVELOPMENT.

For the most part, the wholesale trade has devel- oped since the later years of the nineteenth century, for the jobbing houses which were prominent in Min- neapolis prior to 1890 were engaged in handling groceries, drugs, dry goods, and farm implements. Minneapolis in those days stood second to St. Paul as the jobbing headquarters of the Northwest. In 1880 Minneapolis's wholesale trade amounted to about $24,- 000,000. Its growth was steady in the next ten years, the decade of boom development, and by 1890 it had

reached an annual volume of $135,000,000. Its chief factors were the jobbing houses which are today the leaders in the city's jobbing trade-which is reiter- ated proof of the city's fine weathering of the busi- ness depression of 1893 and the five years thereafter.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 33

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