Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 52

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 52

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Mr. Brackett also took a prominent part in bringing about the settlement of the Alaska boundary dispute and he was largely instrumental in retaining for the United States the disputed territory claimed by Canada. He returned to Minne- apolis in 1905, and since then has lived in his home at Orono on Lake Minnetonka, which he purchased many years ago. He belongs to Plymouth Congregational church, and has been one of the trustees of the Lakewood Cemetery association from its organization. In 1858 he was united in marriage with Miss Anna M. Hoit, who died in 1891. Of the ten children born of their union six sons and one daughter are living. Mr. Brackett is now (1914) seventy-eight years old, and, as a prominent citizen of Minneapolis has remarked, "is dear to the hearts of the people for what he has been and for what he is."

WILLIAM JOSEPH BYRNES, M. D.

Eminent in his profession, both as a practitioner and in scholastic attainments connected therewith, Dr. William J. Byrnes is deservedly one of the most prominent and popular men in Minneapolis and one of the most successful and useful in his calling.

Dr. Byrnes was born in Minneapolis, January 3, 1859. He is not only the son of pioneers but himself a product of the pioneer period of the city's history, and his career among its people is on this account all the more gratifying to them. His parents were William and Katharine (Campbell) Byrnes, whose life story is briefly told in another sketch to be found elsewhere in this volume. As is therein stated, they were born and reared in Ireland, came to Minneapolis in 1851, and preempted land which is all now within the city limits. During the Civil war the father served in the Union army as first lieutenant of Company K, Tenth Minnesota, and in 1866 was elected sheriff of Hennepin county. But he died in November, 1867, in the midst of his term as sheriff, his un- timely death being directly due to the ravages made on his health and strength by his hard service in the army.

Dr. William J. Byrnes obtained his academic education in the public schools of Minneapolis and at St. John's College; Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and the college of the same name at Collegeville, Minnesota. He was graduated from the Medical Department of the University of Michigan in 1882, and was at once made assistant house surgeon of the Univer- sity Hospital in Ann Arbor. The next year he returned to Minneapolis and began practicing in partnership with Dr. Edwin Phillips, with whom he was associated in professional work for eleven years.

Within one year after locating in this city he was made demonstrator of anatomy in the Minneapolis College of Physi- cians and Surgeons. In 1886 he became professor of anatomy, in 1895 professor of surgical anatomy and clinics in diseases of women, and in 1900 professor of the principles of surgery in the same institution. In 1885 he visited Europe and studied in some of the leading medical institutions on that continent. He has long been a member of the County and State Medical Societies and of the American Medical Association, serving as president of the Hennepin County Medical Society in 1889. In 1887 and 1888 he was county physician, and from 1890 to 1892 county coroner and city physician of Minneapolis.

The doctor is a Democrat in his political faith and a true and loyal member of his party. He also takes an active part in the fraternal life of his community, is a member of the Order of Elks, and pays tribute to his father's military service in the Civil war by active membership in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. The progress and enduring wel- fare of his city and county and their residents have always been primary objects of importance with him, and he has been zealous, continuous and effective in their promotion and in his support of all worthy undertakings involved therein.

February 4, 1887, Dr. Byrnes married Miss Josephine Arm- strong, of Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have four children, Lyle, William, Martica, and Josephine, all of whom, like their parents, are cordially esteemed wherever they are known.

Dr. Byrnes was called at a very early period in his pro- fessional life to the elevated and elevating work of imparting to others what he had learned and was still learning from the sages and students in his department of science, and he

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

has been very successful and serviceable in this important work.

JOSEPH M. BALTUFF.

Starting in business a few years ago as a builder and contractor on a small scale, Joseph M. Baltuff, by enterprise, fine business capacity, good management and reliance mainly on himself for the accomplishment of results has expanded his operations and won an envied name and reputation.

Mr. Baltuff was born at Charles City, Iowa, June 19, 1876, and in October, 1886, eame to Minneapolis with his parents, Valentine and Mary Elizabeth (McCall) Baltuff, the former a native of the city of New York and the latter also born and reared in the East. The father was a printer and newspaper publisher, and during his residence in Charles City, Iowa, was editor and publisher of the Floyd County Advocate. In Min- neapolis he conducted a job printing offiee in association with his son, Harry A. Baltuff, as the Reporter Printing company. He was so connected until his death, but during the last five or six years lived mainly in retirement. He died August 29, 1913, aged seventy-nine years. He was a Freemason in fraternal relations and a Republican in politics, and to the last kept up his interest in public affairs.

Mrs. Baltuff is still living, devoted to her home and family. She and her husband were the parents of seven children, six of whom are living, five in Minneapolis. Joseph M., the youngest, has been a resident of this city twenty-seven years. He obtained a high school and business college education. He was connected with the grain trade until 1903, when he founded his present business. This is building houses for others, for which he is paid in monthly installments, about equal in amount to what a fair rental for the properties would be. He puts up about forty such houses a year, and has erected some 250 of them in all. They are moderate- priced homes, modern in style and equipment, and built for persons of limited means, but in good locations.

Mr. Baltuff does his own contracting, and also builds for others on contract. He operates in both Minneapolis and St. Paul on the same plan. He is a member of the New Athletic elub and the Real Estate board, and in fraternal re- lations is connected with the Royal Arcanum. He finds recreation in fishing and travel, and has visited nearly all parts of the United States and some of their insular posses- sions, including the Hawaiian Islands, especially the city of Honolulu.

January 4, 1899, he was united in marriage with Miss Eleanor M. Brown, of Minneapolis, a daughter of George H. Brown, a retired builder. They have one child, Margaret M., a student at Stanley Hall. The family residence is at 3233 Harriet avenue, and Mr. Baltuff has his office in the Security Bank building.

JAMES P. BROWN.

Reared on a farm and himself a farmer almost to the close of life, even though engaged a great deal of his time in other pursuits, having turned his attention to banking and making as great a success in that. The late James P. Brown. who

died in Pasadena, California, September 2, 1905, was an impressive illustration of the versatility of alert and capable American manhood. But a few days past sixty-eight years of age, he had been a resident of Minneapolis twenty-two years, although portions of each for a long period were passed in North Dakota, and the last four years were almost wholly in California.

Mr. Brown was born in Putnam, a suburb of Zanesville, Ohio, September 18, 1837, and was a son of Dr. James Cyril and Ann (Day) Brown, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of Massachusetts. When the son was ten years old the family moved to La Salle, Illinois, where the father practiced his profession until death. A man of prominence and influence in La Salle, he was regarded as a worthy and ereditable citizen.

At the age of seventeen James P. Brown entered the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad, a few years later becoming its station agent at La Salle and so continued to serve the road for seventeen years, when he engaged in banking there, buying an interest in an old established bank. In 1881, he went to North Dakota and in 1886 opened a bank at Hope and which is still doing business, being conducted by his son, James D. Brown. Mr. Brown subsequently started others at different nearby towns, continuing to direct their affairs until health failed, when he turned the management over to his son.

He became a resident of Minneapolis in 1883, but retained interests in North Dakota until death, there passing a con- siderable portion of time. He owned and operated a large farm near Hope and became an extensive dealer in North Dakota lands. He ever took an active part in public affairs, being always interested in behalf of friends, but not caring personally for political prominence or public office. He was a loyal Republican in political faith.

Mr. Brown was regarded as a prudent adviser and was esteemed for his enterprise, progressiveness and public spirit. He supported with ardor and intelligence all undertakings involving the advancement of the community, with a constant desire to promote the general welfare. He took a warm and helpful interest in young men, not merely in giving themu advice, but in assisting them financially when found worthy. In religious affiliation he was a Congregationalist.

November 2, 1863, Mr. Brown was married in La Salle, Illinois, to Miss Charlotte A. McVean, a daughter of Duncan and Elizabeth MeVean. Her father was born in the Highlands and came to America when ten years old. His wife was a native of Vermont, although they were married in Montreal. They became residents of Minneapolis about 1870, the father keeping a store on Third street for some twenty years. One of their daughters is living in La Salle, Illinois, where they both died. Another is also a resident of Illinois, and another of North Dakota. Mrs. Brown is the only member of the family now living in Minneapolis, exeept hier son, James Dunean Brown, of 1811 Emerson avenue, and who maintains his interest in and supervision over the five banks with which he is connected in North Dakota.

Mrs. Brown has two daughters: Charlotte E., the wife of Harold Johnson, of Excelsior, and Elsie B., wife of D). L. Whittle, of Dallas, Texas. with whom the mother spends the winters. Mrs. Brown has a delightful home at 1808 Dupont avenue south. She is fond of colleeting family relics, one that she values highly being a flax spinning wheel which was brought from Scotland by ancestors more than one hundred years ago.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

DR. SAMUEL HEWES CHUTE

With the whole country available to hin for choice of a place of residence and field of operatim, and having seen much of it and had practical experience in several other localities, the late Dr. Samuel H. Clute, as a young man of twenty-seven, with all the aspiations of life strong and energetic within him, selected st. Anthony, now Minneapolis, as his permanent lome, and cast his lot with the then stragelirg" and uncanny but very promising municipal bantam ilich had but recently been spoken into being at one of the most picturesque spots on the banks of the great "Father of Waters." He passed all his subsequent years here and devoted his energies vigorously and wisely to building up the city in its industrial, commercial, educational, social and moral elements of power, until his death Oct. 12, 1913. He had retired from business, resting securely on the universal esteem of the residents of his home city, who admired his elevated manhood, were grateful for his contributions to the progress of the community, and 'cordially revered him as a patriarch among them.

Dr. Chute was born in Columbus, Ohio, on December 6, 1830, the son of Rev. James and Martha Hewes (Clapp) Chute. The father taught a private school in Cincinnati for a number of years, then entered the ministry of the Presby- terian church, and in 1831, when his son, the doctor, was one year old, moved his family to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he died in 1835, two years after the death of the mother. Their death left their orphaned children largely to the care of Richard Chute, their oldest son, then only fifteen years old, but already some three years advanced in his business career.

Samuel H. Chute passed his boyhood and youth in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and there began his academic education, which he completed at Wabash College in Crawfordsville in the same state. In November, 1849, he began the study of medicine under the direction of Doctors C. E. Sturgis and J. H. Thompson of Fort Wayne, soon afterward matriculating at the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in February, 1851, with the degree of M. D. Within one month after his graduation the young doctor became physician to a party of his friends who crossed the plains on horseback to Oregon, consuming seven months in the trip.

On his arrival in Oregon Dr. Chute took up his residence in Portland, where he practiced his profession until the spring bf 1853. He then again mounted his saddle and journeyed to Yreka, California. There he mined for gold for six months, then resumed his profession, and was given charge of the hospital as the only physician in the locality with a diploma. He continued practicing at Yreka four years, and in 1857 returned to the "States" by way of San Francisco, Panama and New York. From his far distant and far different home on the Pacific slope the East had grown in attractiveness for him, and at length he yielded to the longing to be in it again.

But he soon realized that the glamor of the old regions had faded for him, and also that the spirit of daring and adventure was still wide-awake and insistent within him. Accordingly, he determined to make another jaunt into the wilds, and in 1857 came through Lake Pepin, in this state, the ice leaving the lake May 1st and proceeded on up the river to St. Anthony, where he again began the practice of his profession. He came up the river by steamboat from

Prairie du Chien to Lake Pepin, and traveled by carriage from St. Paul to St. Anthony. The little settlement needed him in his professional capacity, and he cheerfully yielded to its requirements in this respect. The first house he lived in was one built by John North in 1849, one of the earliest in the village. The next year he bought this house and the whole block it stood on.

This purchase started the doctor in the real estate business, and soon afterward he joined his brother Richard in it as a member of the original firm of Chute Brothers. When Rich- ard Chute died in 1893 the business was incorporated as the Chute Bros. Company, and of this the doctor was president as long as he continued his activity in business operations. The original firm was agent for the St. Anthony Falls Water company from 1868 to 1880, when the property was sold to James J. Hill of St. Paul and some other persons. Dr. Chute was a director of the Water company before the agency began, and he continued to act as its agent for one year after the sale of the property.

When the great improvements were made for the preserva- tion of the Falls of St. Anthony, Dr. Chute, as executive officer of the board of construction. was in charge of the work and J. H. Stevens was the engineer. Dr. Chute con- tinued in this relation to the enterprise and the operations of the improving forces until Colonel Farquhar was sent out by the federal government to superintend the building of the dyke along the river bank and other permanent improve- ments required to save and utilize the full force of the Falls for industrial purposes. At one time the stock of the Water company was all owned by the Chute Brothers.

Dr. Chute was also connected for many years with the Rum River Boom company, first as one of its directors and its vice president, and from 1879 to 1886 as its president. His principal activity was, however, in the real estate busi- ness, and numerous additions to the city have been platted and developed by the company of which he was the head. In this branch of his business the doctor was one of the most astute and far-seeing real estate men in the city. His judgment of the value and possibilities of property was always good, and he at all times knew where to employ his energies in the trade to make them most effective for the city's welfare as well as his own advantage.

During his long residence in the city Dr. Chute held and filled with ability many municipal offices, both elective and appointive. As early as 1858 he was supervisor of the poor, and since then he served several times as a member of the city council. For some years he was city treasurer of St. Anthony, and was then one of the most energetic and judicious among the founders of the public school system. From 1861 to 1864 he was a member of the board of education and during the greater part of the time its president. He was again on the board in 1878, and then the separate educational boards of the east and west divisions of the city were united, as the two cities of St. Anthony and Minneapolis were in 1872; and from March, 1883, to April, 1885, he was a member of the park commission.

On May 5, 1858, Dr. Chute was united in marriage with Miss Helen E. A. Day, who was born on September 15, 1835, at Mount Pleasant in the province of Ontario, Canada, the daughter of Henry Holbrook and Rachel (Dodge) Day. Her parents died when she was four years old, and she was reared by her uncle, George E. H. Day. Her education was obtained in private schools in Painesville, Ohio, and Mil-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

waukee. Wisconsin, and at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. She arrived in St. Anthony in July, 1855, by carriage from St. Paul, having come up the river from Galena, Illinois, by steamboat.

Six children were born of this union, five of whom are living: Mary Jeannette, Agnes, Elizabeth, Louis Prince and Frederick Butterfield. A sketch of the lives of Louis P. and Frederick B. will be found elsewhere in this volume. The first born child of the household, Charlotte Rachel, has been dead .for a number of years. The father was a member of the Presbyterian church and the mother is a Catholie. The lineage of the Chute family is ancient and honorable. On his father's side of the house the doctor could trace it back to Alexander Chute, a resident of Taunton, England, in 1268, whose ancestors were among the followers of William the Conqueror, who subdued England at the battle of Hastings in 1066. On the mother's side the forbears were Revolutionary soldiers and men of prominence in New England in Colonial days (one of them being Captain Roger Clapp, who in 1664 eomiuanded the "Castle," now Fort Independence, in Boston harbor). Dr. Chute lived up to the high examples bequeathed by his forefathers, and gave luster to the family name in the pursuits of peaceful and productive industry, as many of them did where "Red Battle stamped his foot and nations felt the shock."

THOMAS HENRY SHEVLIN.

Until within a period of about thirty or forty years men were accustomed to look for large business enterprise and undertakings of magnitude in this country only in the big eom- mercial centers of the East. But something less than half a century ago men of large mold began to demonstrate that gigantie operations, involving great stretches of territory, mil- lions of money and thousands of workmen, could be carried on with radiant and impressive success in the very wilds of the great Northwest, here in Minnesota and even in the far- away and sparsely peopled states of the Rocky Mountain region.

One of the leaders and most extensive operators in this demonstration was the late Thomas H. Shevlin of Minneapolis, whose untimely death on January 15, 1912, at the age of sixty years and twelve days, cast a gloom over the whole of Minne- sota and inany other sections of the country. For he was well and favorably known from the Atlantie to the Pacific and from Northern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, not only for his eolossal business interests and achievements, but also for his genial and obliging nature, high character and deep and helpful devotion to the welfare of his country.

Mr. Shevlin was the son of John and Matilda (Leonard) Shevlin, both of Irish ancestry, and was born in Albany, New York, on January 3, 1852. He obtained only a common school education, for his ambition was to be at work for himself as early as possible. At the age of fifteen he began his active career as an employe of John McGraw & Co., lumber dealers in his native city. With this company he remained ten years and in time was given charge of its lumber interests in Albany and Tonawanda, New York, and Bay City, Michigan. In 1879 he left the employ of this company, and during the next year was at Muskegon, Michigan, working in important capacities for T. W. Harvey, an extensive lumber operator of Chicago.

Mr. Shevlin was now twenty-eight years of age, and filled with aspirations to a loftier business eareer than he had yet begun, although his rise to prominence as a lumberman of great ability and fine business aeumen had been rapid and his rank as one of the most sagacious men in the trade was fixed. He therefore, in 1880, formed a business association with Stephen C. Hall of Muskegon and, in 1882, organized the Stephen C. Hall Lumber company, of which he became treas- urer and general manager. During the first two years of his association with Mr. Hall they were engaged principally in the purchase of logs, timber and timber lands, and incidentally as manufacturers of lumber. After the organization of the company their operatious as manufacturers became more ex- tensive, aud in two years grew to such proportions that they were obliged to organize a branch company in Minneapolis, which they did in 1884, calling it the North Star Lumber company.

In 1886 Mr. Shevlin changed his residence to Minneapolis and assisted in organizing the Hall & Ducey Lumber company, the firm being composed of Mr. Shevlin, P. A. Dueey, S. C. Hall and H. C. Clarke. In 1887, owing to failing health, Mr. Ducey was foreed to retire from aetive business and sold his interests in the company to his partners, and the firm name than be- came Hall & Shevlin Lumber company. Mr. Hall died in 1889, and in 1892 Elbert L. Carpenter, a sketch of whom will be found in this volume, bought interests in the various lum- ber enterprises with which Mr. Shevlin had become connected, and a new company, called the Shevlin-Carpenter company, was formed.

When the Stephen C. Hall Lumber company was formed Mr. Shevlin began to look beyond the timber supply of Michi- gan for resources on which to draw for his later activities. He at once began making investments in the white pine woods of Minnesota, and gave proof of excellent judgment and keen discrimination in this line. His genius for organizing, his accurate measurement of property values. his alertness in seeing and seizing opportunities and his superior judgment of inen and their capacities remained with him through life and made possible the inception and successful operation of the wide and varied activities in which he was engaged and the development of the mighty industry of which he was the directing spirit.

No amount of work and no successful achievement eould satisfy this gentleman of vast business enterprise and mental power. In 1895, in association with J. Neils of Sank Rapids, Minnesota, he organized the J. Neils Lumber company. Its mill at Sauk Rapids then had a capacity of 15.000.000 feet of lumber annually, and in 1900 the company built a band and band re-saw mill at Cass Lake. Minnesota. This has sinee been enlarged by the addition of gang saw, increasing the ontput of the two mills to 50.000,000 feet annually, as they always run at full capacity.

Impressed with the advantage of manufacturing near the stump as well as near the consuming territory, and reaching for greater and grander results, Mr. Shevlin started a new enterprise in 1896. In that year, in company with Frank P. Hixon of La Crosse, Wisconsin, he bought a large amount of timber on the Red Lake Indian reservation, tributary to Clear- water river, and organized the St. Hilaire Lumber company, which built a sawmill with a capacity of 40,000.000 feet a year. One year later the St. Hilaire company bought the sawmill and logs of the Red River Lumber company at Crookston, Minnesota, and all its tributary timber holdings.

J.H. Sheveen

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

The Crookston Lumber company was then formed with Mr. Shevlin as president and an annual productive capacity of 40,- 000,000 feet of lumber.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 52

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