Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 46

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 46

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The public schools of Dewitt, Clinton county, Iowa, afforded to Elmer E. Atkinson his early educational advantages, and as a youth he identified himself with mercantile activities, in connection with which he was eventually employed in leading department stores in the eity of Chicago. In the establishment of the Parisian Suit Company of that city he gained intimate and valuable experience in the special line of enterprise to which he is now giving his attention in an independent way. In 1887 he engaged in the retail dry-goods business at Anthony, Harper county, Kansas, and though he was but twenty years of age at the time of initiating this independent venture he showed his good judgment and excellent ability, with the result that he built up a prosperops trade. At the expiration of two years lie sold the business which he had thus developed and went to the city of Cleveland, Ohio, where he assumed the management of the woman's apparel department of one of the largest mercantile establishments in the Forest City. In this capacity he further fortified himself in detailed knowl- edge and in effective familiarity with general business methods and policies.

In 1897 Mr. Atkinson came to Minneapolis, and later he passed one year in California, but the salubrious climate and many advantages and attractions of the Minnesota metropolis led him to return to this eity, where, through close application and effective policies he has succeeded in building up a most flourishing and substantial business, his operations having given him status as one of the popular and representative merchants of the city. His admirably stocked and appointed store is most eligibly located in the fine modern building at the corner of Seventh street and Nicollet avenue, and the solidity and constant expansion of his business is indicated by the fact that he has a ninety-nine year lease of the property adjoining on Nicollet avenue. This property has a frontage of fifty feet and the entire building will be utilized for the accommodation of the extensive business, the lease having but recently been effected. September, 1909, Mr. Atkinson opened a similar establishment in the city of St. Paul, at the corner of Sixth and Cedar streets. This is known as the Sixth Street Store and is one of the most attractively appointed mercantile places in the capital city, with a trade that fully justifies the wisdom of Mr. Atkinson in thus extending his operations. His two sons, Harold E. and Alfred M., are actively associated with him in his business activities in the Twin Cities and are numbered among the alert and popular young business men of Minnesota.

Mr. Atkinson is emphatically progressive and liberal as a citizen as well as a man of affairs. He became an active member of the Minneapolis Commercial Club and later identi- fied himself zealously with the Civic & Commerce Association of the city, which absorbed the original Commercial Club and which has done much to further the civic and material advance- ment of Minneapolis. Mr. Atkinson was the last to hold the office of chairman of the public-affairs committee of the Commercial Club, and he has since been an influential factor in the benignant activities of the Civic & Commerce Association. Mr. Atkinson has made judicious investments in Minneapolis real estate, and he personally erected the annex building used in connection with his business operations in Minneapolis, this being on the previously mentioned lot adjoining his original store. In 1914 he completed the erection of his fine modern residence at the corner of Lincoln and Logan avenues, and this attractive home, the architectural design and appoint- ments of which largely represent the personal ideas of the

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

owner, commands a fine view of Lake of the Isles. The residence was completed and occupied in the autumn of 1914 and is known for its generous and gracious hospitality, and as a center of representative social activities, as the family has a wide circle of friends in the city of Minneapolis, as well as in St. Paul.

Though never manifesting any desire to enter the arena of practical politics, Mr. Atkinson takes a loyal interest in governmental affairs and in public matters of a local order, his allegiance being given to the Republican party. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he has attained to the thirty- second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite and is also affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. As a golf enthusiast he is identified with the Minikahda Club, and he also holds membership in the Min- neapolis Club, the Lafayette Club and the Minneapolis Auto- mobile Club. Belongs to the Sixth Church of Christ Scientist.

On the 26th of September, 1888, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Atkinson to Miss Minnie F. Morey, of Clinton, Iowa, and she is the gracious and popular chatelaine of their new and beautiful home. Mr. and Mrs. Atkinson have three children: Harold E., who is associated with his father in business, as previously noted, wedded Miss Margaret Moyer, daughter of Dr. David E. Moyer, who was at that time a resident of Montevideo, Chippewa county, but who is now a resident of Minneapolis, a son was born to H. E. and Mar- garet, January 6th, 1914, named Harold M .; Alfred M. likewise is actively associated with his father's business affairs; and Anita, who completed the work of the junior year at Stanley Hall, a leading educational institution of Minnc- apolis, is now a student the Elizabeth Somers famous finishing school for young women, at Washington, D. C., in which insti- tution she will be graduated as a member of the class of 1915.

CHARLES A. BOVEY.

Of the many men who came from the State of Maine and became large figures in the development of Minneapolis, none stood higher than Charles A. Bovey, now deceased. For more than forty years he was one of the leaders among the busi- ness men of the city. Indeed, Mr. Bovey was a notable cxam- ple of the men from New England who played so large a part in the civic and commercial upbuilding of Minneapolis. With hardly an exception they were men whose interest in the bet- terment of the city loomed as large as did their attention to business affairs. These early residents seem now to have given more freely of their time to the upbuilding of the city than do the young men of succeeding generations. And Charles A. Bovey was pre-eminently of this type.

As Mr. Bovey was a native of Maine, so it seems natural that he should be a lumberman, as were so many of the Maine men who came to Minneapolis. He was born in Bath, Maine, May 27, 1832, of English parents-his father, John Bovey, having come from Devonshire, England, in 1815. The original Bovey homestead in Bath is still standing, as is the school- house where Charles A. Bovey received his common-school edu- cation. It was when Mr. Bovey was still a boy that he entered the business which was to form his life pursuit. He made a trip to New Brunswick, and there entered the employ of a large lumbering and importing concern, which was engaged in

the West Indies trade, as well as in logging and lumber manu- facturing. He continued in this connection for twenty years, or until the late sixties.

In 1869, attracted to the West by alluring descriptive articles in Eastern publications, chiefly those of Charles Carleton Cof- fin, Mr. Bovey came to Minnesota and took up his residence in Minneapolis-then and for twenty years thereafter the lum- ber center of the Northwest. His first business venture in his new home was an important one, in that it gave to the busi- ness circles of the growing city a man of constructive abilities. He formed a partnership with two lumbermen, who stood side by side with him in business importance for many years. They were W. W. Eastman and John De Laittre. The firm name at first was Eastman, Bovey and Company. Later Howard M. De Laittre, cousin of John De Laittre, joined the firm. The firm still exists under its later name of the Bovey-De Laittre Lum- ber Co.

The first business property of the new firm was the old Pioneer sawmill, on the west side of the Falls of St. Anthony- a mill that was famous in the early days of lumbering in Min- neapolis, for it was the nucleus of the great West Side lumber business, which endured in the Falls location until the middle eighties, by which time all the firms in the himber industry abandoned the Falls site and moved up the river to more advantageous places along the east and west banks, where yard as well as railway facilities were better.

The Eastman-Bovey firmn gave up the Pioneer Mill when the water power company took over the leases and went to the East Side, continuing there until fire destroyed the mills in 1887. And on a site at Thirty-ninth Avenue North, the incor- porated company, the Bovey-De Laittre Lumber Co., built the big mills, which for years were strong competitors for the best of the lumber trade.

It is not alone in the commercial history of Minneapolis that Mr. Bovey's name is written large. Hardly had he become a citizen when he entered actively into the political, social and civic life of the city. Perhaps the most interesting story of the institutions of Minneapolis is the history of the Public Library as a development from the old Atheneum. The early years of the library were years of no little stress, and it was to the earnest guidance of the carly directors of the institu- tion that the present library owes its splendid stability. One of these directors for several years was Charles A. Bovey, which illustrates his appreciation of the finer things of life as factors in the city's development. In political affairs, as in civic matters, Mr. Bovey took active interest, although he never sought or filled public office. He was a Republican by affiliation, but reserved the right of personal selection of the best man, regardless of party, when it came to local office.

Mr. Bovey's family have followed in his footsteps in publie activities-his sons taking an active interest in the growth of the city.

Mr. Bovey married, in 1856, in Salem, Mass., Miss Hannah Caroline Brooks, a daughter of Luke Brooks, a Boston mer- chant. Mr. and Mrs. Bovey made their home on Harmon Place at Thirteenth Street, then almost in the outskirts of the city -- the house being built in 1870. There are six children. all living: Frank A., associated for some years with his father in the Bovey-De Laittre Company; Charles Cranston and Wil- liam H., associated in the Washburn-Crosby Company; John A., a member of the Bovey-Shute Lumber Co., and two daugh- ters. The family's church affiliation is with Plymouth Con- gregational Church.

ChataSorry

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Mrs. Bovey died in 1906 and Mr. Bovey November 2, 1911- only about a year before the death of his long-time partner, John De Laittre.

ROMAN ALEXANDER.

Roman Alexander, leading Minneapolis manufacturer of bank, office and store fixtures, was born in Krakow Austrian Poland, in 1848, being the son of Joseph Alexander, a grain merchant. With the advantages afforded by an excellent high school Roman learned the trade of cabinet maker.

In 1870 he came to Milwaukee where he again worked at his trade, becoming foreman in the establishment of Conway, Radway & Company. During a vacation he visited Min- neapolis, and in 1881 he made it his residence.

His first employment was with Smith & Parker, now the Smith & Wyman company, for two years, and then started his present enterprise which flourished, it being the pioneer in the exclusive manufacture of fixtures, everything of that kind previously being furnished from Chicago or even farther east.

His reputation is based upon achievement, examples being the interior woodwork of the Unitarian church; the finish of the public library, including the mantels and book cases; the woodwork of the Samuel Gale residence being at the time the most artistic dwelling in the city; that of the S. T. MeKnight residence, and that of the F. B. Semple residence, also the interior of the much admired residence of ex-United States Senator Power of Helena, Montana.

He fashioned and installed the interior woodwork in the Donaldson shoe store, and the Seventh street store of the Glass block, Dayton's and the Minneapolis dry goods stores. He has also installed the fixtures in more than 500 banks between Minneapolis and the Pacific coast. In 1898 he built a large factory, which has recently been enlarged, the plant now employing regularly more than forty workmen.

He served in the council from 1894 to 1898, being the only Republican who was ever elected to the council from the First ward. His services were rendered with the same enterprise, prudence and good judgment as indicated in his private affairs, being of signal benefit to the community.

In 1882, Mr. Alexander was married to Miss Margaret Wernich. They have five children: Arthur, associated with his father as general manager; Helen, Margaret, Wanda, Roman, Jr. Arthur married Pearl Wolsey and has one child, Mercedes. Mr. Alexander's family belong to the Immaculate Conception Catholic church.

WILLIAM CRAWFORD BAILEY.

Mr. Bailey was born at Milford, Penobscot county, Maine, on July 22, 1836, the son of Charles and Mary Jane (Ring) Bailey, both of whom belonged to old New England families residing in that part of the country from early Colonial days. The paternal great-grandfather, Amos Bailey, Jr., was a lieutenant in the Patriot army during the Revolutionary war, and other members of the families on both sides of the house also took part in that momentous struggle for freedom and self-government.

William C. Bailey attended the district school of his native town and at different periods was a student at Hampden Academy and Bucksport Seminary in Maine. When he left school he was employed for a time in the tavern kept by his father, and afterward clerked in the postoffice and worked on a farm. None of these various occupations satisfied his ambition, and he became a school teacher, following that profession until 1864, when he decided to become a logger. From that time until his death he was continuously engaged in the lumber business, the scale of his operations in the industry enlarging as the years passed until they became very extensive.

In 1880 Mr. Bailey came to Minneapolis, and in 1881 began to deal in hardwood lumber. Long before this, however, his business in lumbering prospered and was giving him steady headway in life when the Civil war began. He had very promising interests at stake at the time, but his patriotism overbore his desire for personal gain, and he determined to leave all his prospects and go to the front in defense of the Union. On July 31, 1862, he enlisted in the Federal army at Bangor, Maine, and was at once made second lieutenant of his company. Before his term of service in the army expired he took part in the battles of Antietam, Maryland, Fredericksburg, Virginia, and several other contests of greater or less importance.

After the war this valiant soldier, when conditions required him to be such, or made it desirable that he should, and highly successful business man when peace held sway, kept alive the memories of the great sectional strife, but without any of its bitterness, by active membership in Chase Post No. 22, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was the commander. He also belonged to the St. Anthony Commercial club during his residence in Minneapolis, and was one of its most active and serviceable members. In politics he was a staunch Republican from the foundation of the party, but he never sought or desired a political office, although he was at times an energetic and effective worker for its success. His relig- ious affiliation was with the Universalists, and he held his membership in All Souls church, Minneapolis, of that seet, but was liberal in his feelings toward and his contributions to all church interests.

Mr. Bailey's business in this city flourished vigorously and grew to large proportions. He was energetic and judicious in the management of it, omitting nothing in its personal super- vision and overlooking nothing opportune or useful in expand- ing its volume and value. But he did not allow it to obscure or abate his interest in the welfare of the community or make º him neglect any of the duties of citizenship. He was at ill times progressive and enterprising in his publie spirit, and not only did valuable things himself but stimulated others to great activity by his influence and the force of his example. No public interest went without his intelligent attention and earnest and fruitful support. And when, on October 23, 1910, he passed over to the activities that know no weariness, he was held in the highest esteem as one of this city's most serviceable and representative men.

On May 28, 1880, Mr. Bailey was united in marriage witlı Miss Phebe L. De Witt, who is still living. She was born in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, and lived there until her marriage. Four children were born of their union: Mary, who is now the wife of L. E. Evans and has her home at Waterloo, Iowa; Catherine, who married with P. D. Carpen- ter and resides in Minneapolis; George C., who manages the

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

business, which is located at Fifteenth and Central avenues northeast, for his mother; and Anna Lucretia, who died on December 31, 1910, at the age of twenty-four years, a few weeks after the death of her father. She was a student at the University of Minnesota at the time of her death. All the members of the family stand well in public estimation in the community, and all deserve the universal regard and good will bestowed upon them.

FRED ELISHA BARNEY.

Fred Elisha Barney, president of the East Side State Bank of Minneapolis, has exhibited in his business career the salient characteristics of the New Englanders in the way of thrift, prudence, good management and other business traits that command success. The founder of the American branch of his father's family, came to the colony of Massachusetts Bay from England in 1634. Fred E. Barney's life began at Swanton, Franklin county, Vermont, on October 10, 1859, and he is a son of Valentine G. and Maria L. (Hadwen) Barney, both natives of Vermont. The father was a dealer in marble in Vermont until the beginning of the Civil war, when he enlisted in defense of the Union, and through efficiency and gallantry in the service during the memorable sectional conflict he rose to the rank of Lieutenant-colonel of the Ninth Vermont Volunteer Infantry. After the close of the war he returned to his former home, where he remained four years, then, in 1869, moved his family to Minneapolis, and from here in 1872 to Charles City, Iowa.

His son Fred accompanied the rest of the family to this city and later to their home in Iowa. He began his education in the public schools of his native town, continued it in those of Minneapolis, and completed it in those of Iowa. From 1878 to 1881 he was employed in an abstract and loan business in Charles City, Iowa, but in the year last mentioned returned to Minneapolis to take a clerkship in the Commercial Bank. Hle remained in the employ of the bank until 1888, and during the last three years of his time with it served as assistant cashier.

In March, 1888, he gave up his position in the bank and went into business for himself, choosing real estate, loans and insurance as his field of operation. He has worked up his business to large proportions and profitable returns, and the capacity he has shown in conducting it has given him a high rank in business circles here and elsewhere. He is a member of Minneapolis Real Estate Board and served as Vice President. He is also a member of National Board. In the insurance department of his enterprise he represents five important con- panies and renders them extensive and excellent service.

Upon the organization of the East Side State Bank in 1906, he was elected president of it and still occupies that position in its directorate and continues to direct its affairs with good judgment. He is also secretary of the Merriman-Barrows company, which owns and controls property in the city. But, while giving the bank close and careful attention and doing the same for the Merriman-Barrows company, he pushes his own private business with constant enterprise and energy.

Mr. Barney has always taken an earnest interest and an active part in the general work of improvement in his com- munity. His political faith and allegiance have been given to the Republican party from the dawn of his manhood, and

as a member of it and its candidate he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners of Hennepin county in 1900. He served in the office four years, and during the last two years of his tenure was chairman of the board.

Mr. Barney has also mingled freely and serviceably in the social life of his home city as a member of the Commercial, and Whist clubs. In each of these organizations he has a potent influence for its good, and had been a member of the public affairs committee of the Commercial club, of which he was one of the directors. He also belongs to the St. Anthony club on the East Side, in which he has served as director and member of its public affairs committee. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rites mason and in this connection is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.

On September 17, 1885, Mr. Barney was married at Charles City, Iowa, to Miss Mary Case of that city. They have three children, their son, Hadwen Case Barney, who is associated with his father in business, and their daughters, Elizabeth and Mary.

CHARLES ALFRED PILLSBURY.

World leaders in the various domains of human enterprise are few in number, infrequent in appearance and never the products of accident or extraneous circumstances. The quali- ties which give them their rank are innate and would win distinction in any line of action. But circumstances and the specific features of opportunities sometimes give them their trend and form of expression, because these world leaders, their masters, see what can be made of them and command them to such service as is desired.

The late Charles Alfred Pillsbury of Minneapolis was for many years a world leader in the manufacture of flour, both in quantity and quality, and his record furnishes a striking illustration of the mastery of mind over matter, and the condi- tions and surroundings amid which it is found. The master mind takes it as it appears, and while making the most of what is, uses that to multiply vastly the production of its own kind and expand itself and what springs from it in ever widen- ing extents and varying forms of usefulness for the service and enjoyment of mankind.

Mr. Pillsbury was born on October 3, 1842, in the town of Warner, Merrimack county, New Hampshire, the son of George A. and Margaret S. (Carleton) Pillsbury and a grand- son of Jolin P. and Susan (Wadleigh) Pillsbury, all New Eng- landers and natives of New Hampshire. A sketch of the father will be found in this work, and in it will be seen that the family traces its American ancestors back to William Pillsbury, who came to this country from England in 1640 and settled at Dorchester, in the colony of Massachusetts Bay. He was a gentleman of high standing, and the family coat of arms bore this motto: "Labor Omnia Vincit," a truth that has been demonstrated many times in the subsequent history of the family. The great-grandfather of Charles A. was Micaiah Pillsbury, who located at Sutton, New Hampshire, in 1795.

Charles A. Pillsbury was ihared on a farm, like most other New England boys in the rural districts, and enjoyed about the same advantages of education in early life that others there at that period enjoyed Afterward he pursued a full academic course of instruction at Dartmouth College, from which he was graduated at the age of twenty-one. During his

Charles a. Pillsbury

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

eollege life he partially supported himself hy teaching school at intervals. After obtaining his degree, with all the world to choose a place of residence and hase of operations in, he went first to Montreal, Canada, where he passed six years in various employments.

In 1869 Mr. Pillsbury came to Minneapolis hy invitation of his uncle, the late Governor John S. Pillsbury, to engage in the milling husiness He first purchased an interest in the Minneapolis mill, then owned and operated by J. W. Gardner and G. W. Crocker. The milling industry was at that time in an inchoate stage in Minneapolis, and the mill in which Mr. Pillsbury hegan his great career as a manufacturerer of flour had a capacity of hut 150 harrels a day. Nevertheless, it was the acorn from which the mighty oak of the Pillsbury Flour Mills Company's husiness has grown, and that company now turns out 25,000 barrels of flour every day.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 46

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