Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 47

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 47

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When this genius of the mill arrived in Minneapolis the railroads extended but a few miles north and west of the city. The supply of grain was limited to local production and the value of the hard wheat of the Northwest for the produc- tion of flour was unknown. That wheat was, in fact, consid- ered the worst in the world for flour. It kept its rich stores of flour quality securely locked from the invasion of all inquirers until its real master spoke the words of command, and then it cheerfully yielded them up for his advantage and the benefit of the world.

Within a few years after the arrival of Mr. Pillshury the railroads were built into the northwestern part of this state and a long way into the Dakotas, and this made additional grain fields of vast extent tributary to the mills of Minne- apolis; and within the same period the self-binder was invented, which cheapened the production of wheat, and many new inventions were also introduced in the mills, all of which added to their capacity in productiveness and heightened the quality of their output. One of these was the middlings puri- fier, a Minneapolis invention, which Mr. Pillsbury at once adopted and which he found very profitahle. Another was the steel roller process of milling, hrought to this country from Europe, and these two innovations alone revolutionized the making of flour in this region.

The hour and the man for the full and rapid development of flour milling in this part of the country had come In 1870 the firm of Charles A. Pillsbury & Company was formed, the men composing it being Mr. Pillsbury, his uncle, the governor, and his father, George A. Pillsbury. They hought the Taylor mill (now the Pillsbury B), with a capacity of 300 harrels a day, and two years later they leased the mill huilt hy L. S. Watson of Leicester, Massachusetts, on the site of the old woolen mill, which had been destroyed hy fire. This mill had a capacity of 250 harrels a day and was modern in all its appointments. In 1874 Governor Pillshury traded other prop- erty for the Anchor mill with a capacity of 250 barrels, and in that year Mr Pillsbury's hrother, Fred C. Pillshury, was admitted to membership in the firm. Still on the lookout for enlargements to its business, in 1877 the company leased the Excelsior mill built hy Hon. Dorillas Morrison, which had a daily capacity of 800 barrels, raising its producing capacity to 1,750 harrels.

But the husiness kept pace with the facilities acquired and soon went heyond them. Greater facilities were provided by the erection of the celebrated Pillshury A mill in 1881. At first this had a daily capacity of 7,000 barrels, but that has since heen doubled and more through the improvement of

machinery, and it is now 12,000 harrels. When it was huilt this mill was the largest in the world and it still is. Prior to the erection of this mill Mr. Pillshury passed five years in Europe, going and coming at intervals His purpose in mak- ing these trips abroad was to study practically and in detail every phase of the production and transportation of wheat, the making and marketing of flour and its hy-products, and everything else connected with his husiness. He hecame widely known in many parts of Europe as the mose extensive manu- facturer of flour in the world, and was greatly admired for the magnitude of his operations, as he always was everywhere for his genial and companionable disposition and charming personality.

Mr. Pillsbury's husiness record was not, however, to be an unhroken success. In 1877 the Anchor mill was destroyed by fire and in 1882 the Empire, Minneapolis, Pillsbury B and Excelsior suffered a similar fate. This hurden of disaster did not daunt him. On the contrary, it stimulated him to greater activity and enterprise. Some of the burnt mills were rebuilt and equipped with the latest machinery. Large ele- vators were also erected, and the husiness was enlarged all along the line

In 1890 the Pillshurys disposed of their holdings to the Pillsbury-Washhurn Flour Mills Company, Limited, but retained a large interest in the new company, although the hulk of the stock was purchased by an English syndicate. The new company also acquired the Palisade and Lincoln mills at the same time, and has ever since operated all its properties with the greatest enterprise and constancy, produc- ing regularly 6,000,000 harrels of flour a year and easily main- taining its place at the head of the industry and in imperial command of the markets of the whole civilized world.

Notwithstanding his enormous husiness and its multitu- dinous exactions, Mr. Pillshury took an active part in many other industrial, commercial and financial enterprises and also in public affairs. He was one of the most energetic and resourceful promoters of the city's advancement and improve- ment this community has ever had, and while he was averse to public life, and declined numerous offers of political prefer- ment, he was always a zealous and practical factor in the efforts made to secure good government for his city and state. The only political office he held while living in Minneapolis was that of state senator, to which he was first elected in the fall of 1876, and which he continued to fill with great credit to himself and acceptahility to the people for a period of ten years.

When the Pillshury interests in the mills were sold to the Pillsbury-Washhurn company Mr. Pillshury's connection with them did not cease. He was kept at the head of the husiness hy the new company at a very large salary, and directed its course successfully. By his advice the company secured a controlling interest in the whole of the water power at St. Anthony's Falls. And a few years later, again on his recom- mendation, the company constructed an auxiliary dam a short distance below the Falls by which an increase of 10,000 horse power was added to its resources.

This was the last great work of construction done under Mr. Pillshury's direction. The plow, which had held its course so steadily and so long, was nearing the end of its fur- row. Mr. Pillsbury died at his home in Minneapolis on Sep- temher 17, 1899. During the thirty years of his active life in Minenapolis he was probably the most popular businesss man in the city. He was always, until his end approached, in excel-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

lent health, and at all times in good spirits, genial, sunny, easily accessible and generous almost to a fault. His public- spirit was a stimulus and an inspiration; his patriotism, loeally and generally, was genuine, practical and intense; his publie benefactions were bountiful, and his private benevo- lences were almost innumerable, but they are, for the most part, unrecorded. He was liberal to all worthy agencies at work for the good of his community and to those in need of help from an inborn sense of generosity, and never, in the slightest degrec for ostentation, ambition or personal aggran- dizement in any way.

Mr. Pillsbury mingled freely in the social life of the com- munity as a member of several elubs and other local organiza- tions. He was very prominent in the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce and its president from 1882 to 1894. On Septem- ber 12, 1866, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary A. Stinson, a daughter of Captain Charles Stinson, one of the prominent and most highly esteemed citizens of Goffstown, New Hampshire. Their two sons, Charles S. and John S., the only living children of the household, have assumed many of the business relations held by their father and are exemplify- ing in connection with them the sterling manhood and great business capacity for which he was renowned. Their mother died on September 26, 1902. The members of the family have all attended Plymouth Congregational church, and the sons have built, as a memorial to their parents, Pillsbury House in South Minneapolis, where the settlement work of this church is carried on. In reference to such a man as the sub- ject of this brief review the voice of eulogy is hushed. His great works speak for themselves, and any attempt to portray him in terms of adulation would be an effort to gild refined gold or paint the lily, and this, in his case would be entirely out of place.

WILLIAM HOWARD BOVEY.

William Howard Bovey, director and general superintendent of the Washburn Crosby Milling company and eminent citizen, is a native of Minneapolis, born February 25, 1871, the son of Charles A. and Hannah Caroline (Brooks) Bovey. Charles A. Bovey was born at Bath, Maine, May 27, 1822. In 1869, after spending some years in St. Johns, New Brunswick, he removed to Minneapolis, where he became a prominent lumber man and leading citizen. He was an active member of the lumber firm, Bovey De Laittre Lumber Co., formerly Eastman Bovey & Company, until his death, November 2, 1911. His son, W. H. Bovey attended the city schools and completed his high school course in 1889. He then entered the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was grad- uated in 1894. Although equipped with the thorough technical training which years of conscientious study had given him, he returned to Minneapolis and sought a position as an inex- perienced workman in the mills of the Washburn Crosby company, determined that he would master every phase and mechanical detail of the flour manufacture through practical experience. His skill and ability were speedily recognized by a series of rapid promotions and at the end of five years, he was entrusted with the general superintendency of the mills. In this capacity, he holds one of the most responsible positions of the flour industry in the world, with nine hundred men under his direct supervision. The great efficiency he has

displayed in the discharge of the duties of this authorative post has won him the esteem, not only of the employees, but of all with whom he comes in contact. Mr. Bovey also has prominent interests in the lumber business, as president of the Thompson McDonald Lumber company and director of the Bovey Shute Lumber company. He has never sought public honors but his efforts and influence have been given freely to any movement for civic improvement. He has served as chairman of the smoke committee of the Civic and Com- mercial association and has recently been appointed a member of the board of Park Commissioners. With a mind alert to the needs of the day and a keen foresight into the future of Minneapolis, he realizes the city's obligation to its youthful citizens and is carnestly interested in the provision of adequate playground facilities. He was married in 1896 to Miss Florence McKnight Lyman, daughter of Mr. George N. Lyman of Minneapolis. They have two children, William Howard, Jr., and Elizabeth. Mr. Bovey is a member of the Minneapolis, Minikahda, La Fayette and University clubs.

ANSON STRONG BROOKS.

Mr. Brooks is a native of Redfield, Oswego county, New York, where his life began on September 6, 1852. When he was four years old his parents, Sheldon and Jeannette (Ran- ney) Brooks, moved their family to Minnesota and located on a farm in Winona county. Here the son grew to manhood, attending the neighborhood country school and taking part in the work of the farm until he reached the age of sixteen years. In 1868, when he was the age mentioned, he began the struggle of life for himself as a telegraph operator, which he continued to be until 1872.

In 1873 he formed a partnership with his two brothers, under the name of Brooks Bros., to handle grain in the great Northwest. The firm of Brooks Bros. remained in the grain business until 1907, twenty-four years, and when it sold this department of its mercantile enterprise in the year last named it owned thirty-five country grain elevators and exten- sive holdings of other property subsidiary to them and neces- sary for their successful operation.

About two years before giving up the grain business the brothers aided M. J. Scanlon and Henry E. Gipson in organ- izing the Scanlon-Gipson Lumber company. The new field of mercantile endeavor opened such widening views of profitable enterprise to them that they determined to devote themselves wholly to it, and for that reason sold their grain outfit as soon as they could conveniently do so. In the meantime the new company bought the lumber business of H. F. Brown of Minneapolis in order to secure a wholesale yard in the very heart of the lumber operations here in the Northwest. This venture proved very successful, enabling the company to carry on a business aggregating sixty million feet of lumber a year.

In 1898 it built a double band sawmill at Cass Lake, Min- nesota, which was also a great success, turning out forty million feet of lumber annually. Later this mill was destroyed by fire. In 1890 Mr. Scanlon, the head of the company, visited the Pacific slope, and arranged to purchase a large tract of yellow pine in Western Oregon, he and his fellow members of the Scanlon-Gipson company organizing the Brooks-Robertson

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Lumber company for the purpose. The Brooks-Robertson com- pany now owns large amounts of timber in the west.

In 1901 the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber company was organized with a capital of $1,750,000 to engage exclusively in manu- facturing and wholesaling. Almost immediately afterward the company built a very large five band and gang sawmill at Scanlon, Minnesota, which had a daily capacity of 600,000 feet and was probably one of the most extensive and com- pletely equipped sawmills in the world. Mr. Brooks is treasurer of the company and a very influential force in the direction of its affairs. He is also second vice president of the Minnesota & Northern Wisconsin Railway, which was built in 1897 to haul logs to a plant owned by the company at Nickerson, Pine county, this state, and was subsequently extended to perform the same service for the one owned by the company at Scanlon in the adjoining county of Carlton. In addition to hauling logs to these two mills, the road does a large general freight business, although the main purpose of its construction was to serve the needs of the lumber company.

Mr. Brooks is also associated with Mr. Scanlon, a sketch of whom will be found in this volume, in the Brooks-Scanlon company, which owns and operates two modern sawmills at Kentwood, Louisiana, and of which he is secretary, as he is of the Kentwood & Eastern Railway. This line is forty-five miles in length of trackage, and was built to haul logs to the lumber mill at Kentwood. But it, too, is very useful to the territory through which it extends, carrying on a considerable commercial business for the general public there. In addition to his official relations with large lumber institutions already named, Mr. Brooks is president of the Brooks Elevator com- pany, vice president of the Scanlon-Gipson Lumber company, and a leading spirit in the Brooks-Scanlon-O'Brien company, limited, and the Brooks Timber company, as well as one of the directors of the Security National Bank of Minneapolis. In politics he is a Republican, in fraternal affiliation a Free- mason and in social relations a member of the Minneapolis, Lafayette and Automobile clubs of his home city. He is also an ardent and helpful supporter of every judicious under- taking for the welfare and improvement of the community in which he lives.

On July 24, 1876, Mr. Brooks was married at McGregor, Iowa, to Miss Georgie L. Andros. They have one child, their son Paul A., who is now extensively associated with his father in business as secretary of the Brooks Elevator com- pany, the Brooks-Scanlon-O'Brien company, limited, the Brooks Timber company and the Powell-River company. He is also treasurer of the DeSchutes Boom company and the Kent- wood & Eastern Railway company. In connection with these various enterprises he displays the same high order of business capacity that distinguishes his father.

DENNIS C. BOW.

Dennis C. Bow was born in Rockford, Illinois, on December 5, 1865, and when he was five years old was taken by his parents to Nora Springs, Iowa, where he remained until he reached the age of seventeen. On January 1, 1883, his parents, Michael and Catherine (Maher) Bow, moved their family to Minneapolis, where the son has ever sinee resided. The parents were born in Ireland and brought to this country by their parents. They were married in Freeport, Illinois, in 1859.

The father was an iron molder, and after his arrival in this city was employed in the old Minneapolis Harvester Works. Before coming here he had served in a similar capacity in the Nora Springs Iron Works, whose operations and products were like those of the Minneapolis establishment. He remained in the employ of the Harvester Works in this city for a num- ber of years until he was disabled for further duty by losing one of his lower limbs in a railroad accident. He died on January 5, 1912, at the age of seventy-nine, his last years being spent at the home of his son Dennis. The mother passed away some twenty years before the father. Both belonged to Holy Rosary Catholic church, and were very faithful and devout in attention to its precepts and their church duties in general.

Dennis C. Bow obtained his academic education in the public schools at Nora Springs, Iowa, and was prepared for business by a course of special training at the Curtis Business College in Minneapolis. Circumstances led him to the occupation of his father and he too became a molder and worked in a foundry for a time. But his inclination was strongly to mercantile life, and he became a clerk in the grocery store of A. D. Libby on Minnehaha avenue, where he worked faith- fully in the interest of his employer eight years. At the end of that period he entered the employ of the Walter A. Wood Harvester company as a bookkeeper, and he continued his connection with the company in that capacity four or five years. The plant employed 800 to 1,200 persons in all, and some years ago was removed to Hazel Park in St. Paul.

After he left the Harvester company Mr. Bow was ap- pointed to a clerkship under City Engineer Cappelan in 1896. He continued to work in the city engineer's office until 1902, when he was elected to the city council as alderman from the Twelfth ward. He has been re-elected twice and is now serving his third term in the council. His first two elections were won by him as a Republican in a Democratic ward. But his last candidacy was non-partisan, and he won easily, as he had never allowed partisan considerations to overbear or sway his sense of duty to the whole people and the best interests of the city, whose welfare he has always striven earnestly to promote.

In Mr. Bow's first term in the council he was chairman of the committee on claims, and in the present council he is chairman of the committee on commerce and markets. He has always been warmly interested in the progress and suc- cess of the Minneapolis market, and to confirm his judgment of its usefulness and value has studied the market systems in Eastern cities. The further he went into the subject the firmer his belief in the city market system as a wise and beneficial institution became. In his second term in the council he was chairman of the committee on roads and bridges, and thereby a member of the city park board ex officio. During that term he was also a member of the com- mittee on health and hospitals, one of the most important in the council.

But Mr. Bow has not allowed himself to get out of business because he has been in office. Soon after his first eleetion to the council he became connected with the advertising depart- ment of the Minneapolis Tribune for a few months, and then was appointed city salesman for the Ziegler Coal company. At the present time (1914) he is city and outside salesman for the Ziegler District Colliery company, the successor of the Ziegler Coal company, with headquarters in the Security Bank Building.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

On January 7, 1891, Mr. Bow was married in Minneapolis to Miss Viola Libby, the daughter of Allen D. Libby, his old employer in the grocery store on Minnehaha avenue. They had three children: William Everett, who is a graduate of St. Thomas College, St. Paul: Denuis JJudson, who died on June 27. 1908, aged fifteen, and Viola May, who is a student at St. Margaret's Academy. Their mother died on November 30, 1906. The father belongs to the Knights of Columbus, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Wood- men. They are all members of the Holy Rosary Church. He is energetie and tireless in all his business and official duties, and when the pressure of these is off he is an enthusiastic devotee of outdoor recreations and sports.

THOMAS BARLOW WALKER.

The great achievements of American manhood in all parts of our country have been the subjects of an oft-told tale, but it is one that never loses its interest. The manner in which many of our leading men in industrial life have raised them- selves to consequenee and affluence and built up gigantie enter- prises for the development of our natural resources, giving employment to hosts of toilers, magnifying our commercial greatness along widely beneficent lines and keeping the wheels of production in motion for the benefit of all the people, con- tains in its exposition elements of interest and inspiration that never grow stale or pall on the taste.

Many of these men have contended with serious opposition and confronted almost insuperable obstacles. But they have been made of the stuff that yields to no pressure of eireum- stanees, and have made, even of their diffienlties, wings and weapons for their advancement. One of the most illustrious examples of this fiber is Thomas Barlow Walker of Minne- apolis, for many years a leading lumber man of the world. The story of his rise from a small beginning, over great and eon- tinued trials and impediments, to the commanding rank he now holds in the industrial and commercial world, is full of encouragement for struggling young men, and shows in a graphie and impressive way the possibilities open to ability and enterprise in this land of almost boundless resources and opportunities.

Mr. Walker was born in Xenia, Green county, Ohio, on Feb- ruary 1, 1840, the son of Platt Bayliss and Anstis (Barlow) Walker. He obtained his early education in the publie schools and through the teachings of his mother. When he was six- teen years of age the family moved to Berea, Cuyahoga county, in his native state, in order that the mother might seeure better educational advantage's for her children. She was a lady of great force of character and breadth of view, and be- longed to a strongly intellectual family, two of her brothers being judges for many years, Thomas Barlow in New York and Moses Barlow in Ohio. Her husband died on his way to California in 1849, leaving her to struggle with adversity and provide for her four children, who were all young.

At Berea Mr. Walker had the advantages of several terms attendance at Baldwin University, but was obliged to devote all his spare time to his first oceupation a's a lumberman in the woods. While working in the woods he studied nights and Sundays, and later, when he became a traveling salesman, he carried his books with him and studied them a's industriously as his work would allow. In this way he became in a measure

self-educated, especially in the higher branches of mathematies and science. His business knowledge was gained by travel and experience, contaet with business meu, studying business methods, solving big problems, aud pushing himself forward in the world generally, in which he employed all his ability, eour- age and self-reliance to advantage and with good judgment.

At the age of nineteen, after various business adventures, always attended with hard work and generally with suecess, he taught a distriet school in a township in the adjoining county. He next beeame a traveling salesman, selling grind- stones, wooden bowls and wagon spokes, and journeying throughout the Middle West to sell his goods. He was so much impressed with the business possibilities of this region that he determined to make his home in it, and in 1862 located in Minneapolis. Soon afterward he joined a surveying party and began work as a United States surveyor.

While this engagement oeeupied him only a part of each year he continued in it a long time, and during the period helped to survey a considerable portion of Northern and Western Minnesota, and divide it into townships and see- tions. His experience in it was of great advantage to himself and the country in a business way. It made him familiar with the white pine regions of the state, and led him to begin pur- chasing tracts of them, in connection with other persons, for the manufacture of lumber, thus ehanging his purpose of de- voting his energies to railroad surveying and construction and making him a lumberman on a very large seale.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 47

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