Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 57

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 57

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238

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

For a decade Mr. Cooley has been state engineer and Secre- tary of the Minnesota state highway commission; thus mak- ing him the largest factor in the development of "good roads" in Minnesota for which lie, for years, has been known as a most indefatigable promoter. With the rapid increase in the use of the automobile his years of advocacy of good roads began to bear fruit, and at the same time problems of road- making and maintenance multiplied. His associations with the fellowship of engineers through road associations brought him recognition as one of the most practical authorities on highway construction. For some years the planning of a great state system of trunk and lateral highways has largely engaged his attention, his suggestions being recognized in recent legislation.

He has long been intimately connected with affairs of city, county and state, taking a deep interest in civic life, and when elected alderman from the Eighth ward in 1884 he stood for betterments and advancing idea's that have since become gen- erally adopted. He pointed out the need for establishing a system of underground conduits for the wires of the tele- graph, telephone and electric service companies, originated the plan and secured the passage of the ordinance. He was one of the promoters of the patrol limits system, recognized as an advanced method in restricting the liquor traffic. He worked steadily for measures which meant better streets and desirable solutions of engineering problems.

Mr. Cooley in 1898 was elected county surveyor and under his administration the office acquired a well-arranged system of records, indeed the only records of importance dating from that time. He was re-elected in 1900, 1902 and 1904. When he became state highway engineer.

Mr. Cooley was married in 1872 to a daughter of the late R. E. Grimshaw, and they have six children. He is a member of the Masonic order and also of various civic, commercial and professional organizations.

FRANK R. CHASE.

Mr. Chase was born at Concord, Essex county, Vermont, about 1868. He resided eight or ten years in Lowell, Massa- chusetts, attending school and employed as a salesman of dry goods. In 1882 he moved to Georgetown, Colorado, whither he was sent as agent of the Boston & Colorado Smelting company. He remained in the employ of this com- pany as assayer and purchasing agent seven years, then, in 1889, came to Minneapolis with the Western Guarantee Loan company. He attended to the renting of its building and looked after its property generally. The company failed and the building in which its offices were located passed into the hands of Thomas Lowry, but Mr. Chase continued to handle it as agent, as he had done from the time it was opened for business in 1890.

In August, 1904, the Metropolitan Life Insurance company bought this building, but there was no change then, and has since been none in the agency. Mr. Chase has been very successful in his work of supervision over this building, but his energies have by no means been confined to the duties involved in that work. He has been in the insurance and loan business since 1893 on his own account, and has been successful in that too. He is head of the firm of Chase & Schaufield, operating in these lines, and also agent of the Metropolitan Life Insurance company in its Minneapolis real

estate transactions. He is one of the directors of the Metro- politan Bank and the Minneapolis Savings and Loan Asso- ciation, both of which are tenants of the building of which he is custodian.

In religious faith Mr. Chase is a Universalist, holding his membership in the Church of the Redeemer of that sect, of which he had been treasurer since the death of the late William Butters. He was married in Massachusetts in 1886 to Miss Laura B. Clough. They have three children, Marjorie, who is a graduate of the State University, and Stillman and Frank R., Jr., who are students in the high school. Mr. Chase belongs to the Commercial and Minneapolis clubs, but he is not a devotee of club life, has no sporting tendencies, has never been active in politics as a partisan, and pays but little attention to any of the fraternal orders. His business and the ordinary duties of good citizenship absorb his time and attention to the exclusion of almost everything else.

HUGH GALBRAITH HARRISON.

Many men of unusual ability, large caliber, great force of character and far-reaching sweep of vision have written their names in bold and enduring phrase in the chronicles of Min- neapolis, short as its history is, and have left lasting monu- ments of their unusual capacity and great usefulness to the community. Among the number none is entitled to higher regard, closer study or more admiring remembrance than the late Hugh Galbraith Harrison, for many years one of the lead- ing lumbermen and afterward, until his death, one of the most prominent and influential bankers of the municipality, which he found a straggling hamlet when he came to it an aspiring young man of thirty-seven, and a mighty mart of industry and commerce when he left it on August 12, 1891, in obedience to nature's last call, on the verge of the limit of human life as suggested by the psalmist.

. Mr. Harrison was a scion of old Scotch-Irish ancestry, and in his career he exhibited many of the salient and masterful attributes characteristic of his lineage. He was born at Belle- ville, Illinois, on April 23, 1822, a son of Rev. Thomas H. and Margaret (Galbraith) Harrison, the former a native of Georgia and the latter of North Carolina. The father was a lay preacher in the Methodist Episcopal church and for many years preached twice a week, his voice being literally "one crying in the wilderness" after his removal to Illinois in 1803, when the southern part of the state was an almost unbroken forest. He and his wife were strong in their repugnance to the institution of human slavery, especially the mother, and they left their native section of the country to escape the reproach they suffered for not sharing the views of the people there on this subject.

After their arrival in the distant West, as it was in that day, the father became a pioneer farmer and miller in the new region in which he had located, but continued his pastoral work with fervency and zeal. He farmed only for a number of years, then, in 1826, bought a $300 ox mill, and his enter- prise in this act proved to be a great boon and benefaction to the neighborhood. Meanwhile the family was required to undergo all the privations and hardships and risk all the perils incident to pioneer life. But the parents were made of sterling metal and met their responsibilities and the require- ments of their remote location not only with fortitude but with commendable cheerfulness also.

26 G rassismus

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

The father prospered in his milling operations and estab- lished a reputation for their products that became very exten- sive. In 1831 he installed a steam engine in his mill for motive power which was the first one so used in the state. This enabled him to greatly enlarge his output and get much nearer to supplying the vastly extended demands for his flour. A writer well informed on the subject has recorded that "for many years the product of the Harrison mills at Belleville, Illinois, was the standard of excellence throughout the commercial world. The sales of flour and purchases of wheat ran into millions of dollars. Until the introduction of a new process of milling by which the superior qualities of spring wheat were developed Belleville flour was the best in the country."

When the mill was ready to begin work the two oldest sons of the family quit farming and took charge of the new enter- prise. In 1836 a new and larger mill was built, and this was destroyed by fire, with 5,000 bushels of wheat and 500 barrels of flour, in 1843. As soon as he was sufficiently advanced in physical development for the purpose Hugh G. Harrison began working on his father's farm and assisting his brothers in the mill. He obtained a good education for his time and sur- roundings, however, at a private school in Belleville and McKendree College at Lebanon, Illinois. But he was asso- ciated with his brothers in the milling business at Belleville until 1859, when he and his brothers, Thomas A. and William, moved to Minneapolis, then growing into notice as a milling center of great promise. Each of the brothers built a fine resi- dence for that period, Hugh's being at what is now the inter- section of Nicollet avenue and Eleventh street, which was then far outside of the building section. This became the family home, and it is still standing and still much admired.

For a number of years the brothers made their investments and carried on their business in common. But in the course of time the abundant opportunities of this region, and perhaps some diversity of tastes, led them to separate and pursue different lines of endeavor. They were all original stock- holders in the First National Bank of St. Paul and largely interested in the St. Paul & Sioux City Railroad. In 1862 they built, at the junction of Washington and Nicollet avenues, the stone building which is still standing, and was, at the time of its erection the most massive and imposing structure in the town. It contained a hall which for years furnished the audience room for public meetings and entertainments.

Hugh G. Harrison was one of the directors of the First National Bank of St. Paul and the railroad mentioned above from the beginning of his connection with them. He studied their operations and acquired a familiarity with the banking business especially that was of great service to him and the community in later years. In 1863 he became associated with Joseph Dean in the lumber business under the firm name of J. Dean & Company. During the next fifteen years this com- pany was the leader in the lumber trade of the city. The com- . pany purchased richly timbered lands, bought and rebuilt a large sawmill at the mouth of Bassett's creek and started a number of lumber yards. Subsequently it built the Pacific mill on the river bank just above the suspension bridge, which was for a long time the largest and best equipped saw mill in Minneapolis, if not in the Northwest.

In 1877 the firm of J. Dean & Company retired from the lumber business, and its members, with other enterprising men, founded the Security National Bank. The new financial

institution was organized on a basis commensurate with the then exacting needs of the community and its impressive promise of fast-coming greatness as an industrial and commer- cial center. The bank began business with a larger capital than any other in the city at the time, and its affairs were placed under the control of men who knew how to manage them to advantage. Mr. Harrison was made vice president, his brother Thomas president, and Mr. Dean cashier. The bank has flourished and grown from the start. Its capital has been enlarged as needs have required until it has been made $1,000,000, and its deposits now far beyond $25,000,000. When Thomas A. Harrison died, on October 27, 1887, Hugh G. was elected president of the bank, and from that time to the end of his life he gave its affairs his most careful and constant personal attention.

Mr. Harrison took a very active and serviceable part in pub- lic affairs, particularly in connection with the intellectual and moral welfare of the community in which he lived. He was a member of the city school board for many years, and it is largely due to his far-sighted and progressive policy that the city now owns so much valuable school property. He was also administrator of the Spencer estate, which became the foundation of the public library, and in 1868 was elected mayor of Minneapolis. In the administration of this office he applied to the business of the city the vigorous and syste- matic methods which he used in his own, and gave the people excellent service, which is still remembered with high approval and cordial admiration and commendation.

Mr. Harrison's business ability and enterprise led him into other lines of trade besides the lumber and banking indus- tries. He founded the wholesale grocery house of B. S. Bull & Company in the seventies, and later that of Newell & Harri- son. He was one of the most liberal subscribers to the Min- neapolis Exposition and its first treasurer and a member of it first board of directors. At the time of his death he was vice president of the Minneapolis trust company, and for many years took a hearty practical interest in Hamline University, to which he gave large sums of money from time to time. His benefactions to churches and benevolent institutions were numerous and large, and his private bounty to needy men of worth must have been considerable, but he never made men- tion of it. He was the first president of the Chamber of Commerce.

It was written of Mr. Harrison, when he died, by one who knew him well, that "he was always foremost in every enter- prise relating to the growth and well being of Minneapolis, and a correct student of political questions, though not a poli- tician. Always a student and an omniverous reader of the best literature, besides being an extensive traveler in this country and abroad, his fund of general information was large and serviceable, his views were comprehensive and his convic- tions were well settled. There was nothing narrow in either his disposition or his attainments. One of the greatest sources of enjoyment to him was good music, and all the refinements of life were parts of his being by nature and culture."

'Mr. Harrison was married twice. His first wife, whose maiden name was Irene A. Robinson, died on August 13, 1876, leaving five sons: Edwin, George, Lewis, Hugh and Perry. All but Hugh are living and engaged in business. The father's second marriage took place on October 25, 1877, and united him with Mrs. Elizabeth (Wood) Hunt, of Allentown, Pennsyl- vania. She and her daughter, Helen Louise, are also living.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

All the members of the family have their homes in Minneap- olis, and all are highly esteemed throughout the city.

In the latter part of July, 1891, Mr. Harrison made a husi- ness trip to the East, and on his return seemed in perfect health. On Monday, August 12, he was at his desk in the bank, but on going home was obliged to go to hed, and on Wednesday night following he died of heart failure, which was the result of a severe cold. The whole city paid tribute to his elevated citizenship, exemplary manhood, great business ability and extensive but unostentations usefulness after his death, and his name is still living fragrantly in the memory of all who knew him, a watchword to the faithful and a fruitful incentive to generous endeavor. "To live in hearts we leave hehind is not to die."

L. A. CONDIT.

Mr. Condit is a native of Adrian, Michigan, where his life hegan on March 17, 1849, his father being Benjamin F. Condit. After due preparation in public and select schools, the latter entered the University of Michigan, and there pursued an academic course of instruction for a time. But his inclination was to commercial pursuits, and he left the University to take a course of special training in the Mayhew Business College, where he was a student under the celebrated Pro- fessor Ira Mayhew, the author of a popular system of hook- keeping and the text hook in which it was taught.

On August 21, 1873, Mr. Condit entered the fur manufactory of Barnard Bros. & Cope, Minneapolis, as a clerk, and during the next two years he rendered that firm excellent and appreciated service. In 1877 he was appointed to a clerkship in the office of the county auditor of Hennepin county. He was soon advanced to the position of first deputy auditor, and he remained in that position nine years, serving under Auditors C. J. Minor and Hugh R. Scott. In 1887 he was elected county auditor, and this office he filled with great acceptability until 1890.

At the end of his term as county auditor Mr. Condit was chosen secretary and manager of the Moore Carving Machine company, which he served in that capacity until 1898, when he again became deputy county auditor. In 1905 he was also asked to accept the secretaryship of the Municipal Building Commission when a vacancy in that office was created by the death of Charles P. Preston. Mr. Condit accepted the offer and his official relation to the commission continued most pleasantly until the completion and dedication of the new court house and city hall in 1908. His post as secretary was one of great labor and responsibility, demanding detailed records of every transaction connected with the construction of the mammoth huilding, which involved an expenditure of more than three million and a half dollars in an immense multitude of accounts.

When the Municipal Building Commission was discharged Mr. Condit was appointed first assistant city comptroller, receiving his appointment to the place from Dan C. Brown, the present efficient and popular city comptroller. His selec- tion for the place met with universal approval in the community.

In his political faith and allegiance Mr. Condit has always heen an unwavering Republican of the stalwart stripe, hut he has never heen considered a politician. In fraternal life

he is connected with Minneapolis Lodge No. 19, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, and has served as its Worshipful Mas- ter. He is also a member of a Royal Arch Chapter and a Council of Royal and Select Masters in the Masonic frater- nity. His religious affiliation is with the Fifth Avenue Congregational church.

On April 25, 1875, Mr. Condit was united in marriage with Miss Anna L. Pinkham. They have three children: Jessie F., who is the wife of John Baird, of Eugene, Oregon; Edith, who is now Mrs. Charles O. Ellsworth, of Minneapolis, and Irving, who is a physician and surgeon and on the medical staff of the Northern Pacific hospital in Missoula, Montana.

HENRY A. CROW.

Was horn at Upper Sandusky, Ohio, August 16, 1852, the son of George and Clarinda Jane (Ellsworth) Crow, the former an engineer on the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the latter a cousin of the Colonel Ellsworth of the Union army who was killed in Alexandria, Virginia, at the beginning of the Civil war. In 1856 they came from Ohio to St. Anthony, induced to make the change of residence hy members of Anthony Northrop's family; also relatives of Mrs. Crow, who were already here. George Crow secured a farm on Eden Prairie, but in 1856 and 1857 the grasshoppers ate all his crops, and he then moved to Winnehago Prairie, near St. Cloud, where he lived until the outhreak of the Indians just after the Civil war hegan.

At the time of the Indian uprising Mr. Crow enlisted in the Seventh Minnesota Regiment, and all the families on Winnehago Prairie were forced to take refuge in the stockade at St. Cloud, or seek some other place of safety. Mr. Crow's family moved to St. Anthony, and in the winter of 1862 lie went South with his regiment, never seeing his wife and children again. He died at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, Mis- souri, December 14, 1864, after two years of active service against the Confederacy in the South.

His widow survived him twenty years, dying in December, 1884, at the age of fifty-two. By his death she was left with four small children to rear and with very slender means for the duty. The children were: William Alhert, who was a fuel dealer in Minneapolis, and died here in June, 1913, in the sixty-fifth year of his age; Henry A .; Fred, who kept a hotel at Bena, Minnesota, and died July 5, 1910; and Louisa Jane, who is the wife of John H. Hasty and lives in Miles City, Montana.

Henry A. Crow, as a boy, accompanied George Brackett when he was hanling government supplies to Fort Ridgeley, Buford and other places. One of his brothers was a cook at one of the forts they visited. In this experience he saw a great deal of Indian life and suffered a great many hard- ships in storms and from exposure. Early in his youth he was in the employ of Captain Byrnes while the latter was in the war. He worked in the woods in winter and at sawmills in summer, and did cooking, as did also his two hrothers, for lumhering camps, he continuing at this work until 1877.

On October 26, 1873, Mr. Crow was married to Miss Nellie Callahan, a daughter of John and Eliza (Smith) Callahan, the father a native of Dublin, Ireland, and the mother of the Hudson river region in New York. The father was a sailor and also worked in iron mills as a young man, and experi-

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND IIENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

enced severe hardships in both occupations. Early in the Civil war he enlisted in the Union army in New York, and on his retirement from military service they moved to Minne- apolis, a sister of Mrs. Callahan being already a resident of Hennepin county, and persuading them to come to this locality.

Here they lived neighbors to William Eastman, near where the big mills now stand. Mr. Callahan worked in the North Star Woolen Mills and also pumped water by hand for the roundhouse of the Milwaukee railroad in 1866. The round- house stood at Eighth and Washington avenues south, and from it all the engines on the Minnesota Valley road, about half a dozen in all, were supplied with water through Mr. Callahan's industry. His wife died in 1875 and he returned to Ohio and died at the Soldiers' Home in Dayton, that state, four or five years after the demise of his wife. He was a veteran from continuous service throughout the war.

Henry A. Crow was employed for a time in the grocery store of Charles Lumbeg, and afterward, in company with one of his brothers, opened a similar establishment on the East Side. In 1898 he went to Alaska, remaining three years. Later he made another trip to that country, but his health was broken by his residence there and he secured no satis- factory financial returns from it. During his absence his wife kept a store at Third street and Twentieth avenue south, and after his final return from Alaska he again en- gaged in the grocery and meat trade. In later years his wife became possessed of several apartment houses on Sixth avenue south, from which they now have a liberal income, and in one of which they have their home.

Mr. Crow is an Odd Fellow, holding his membership in Flour City Lodge of the order. He also belongs to the Wood- men and the Royal Neighbors. Mrs. Crow is a member of the Territorial Society, in which she has many old friends, and also belongs to the Degree of Honor. They have had four children. George Henry was born in 1875 and died at the age of twenty-four. Frank Percival was born in 1877 and died at the age of fifteen. Grace E. is the wife of E. E. Smock, who is in the employ of the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad. Florence May is employed in the office of the Cedar Lake Ice company.

JOSEPH CHAPMAN.

Although he has been connected with the banking business in this city, and continuously with the same bank since he was seventeen years of age, Joseph Chapman, one of the best known and most esteemed business men of Minneapolis, and a potential influence in the social life of the community, is also a lawyer by careful study and graduation from the law department of the University of Minnesota. He has never practiced his profession, and really studied law only as a means of service in his other business relations and of broadening mental culture. But that he took the pains to go through a course of professional preparation at the Uni- versity, although at the time busily occupied with other duties, shows his zeal and determination in striving to make the most of his faculties and opportunities, no matter how great the personal sacrifice, effort and inconvenience might be. It also shows that he has the proper view of what a man's education ought to be, especially in this country, where

the conditions of life are constantly changing, a state of affairs that makes it desirable for every man to be pre- pared for whatever may turn up in his course through life.

Mr. Chapman was born in Dubuque, Iowa, on October 17, 1871, and is a son of Joseph and Catherine C. (Cassiday) Chapman, the former a native of Pittsburgh, Pa., and the latter of Baltimore, Md. The father has been for many years connected with the railroad service, and at the time of his son Joseph's birth was division freight agent of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, with headquarters at Dubuque. He was afterward located at Fairport, Ohio, as manager of the terminals of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- road. He died at Painesville, Ohio, August 17, 1912.

Joseph Chapman began his education in the public schools of Dubuque, where the family remained until 1887, when its residence was changed to Minneapolis. As soon as the household was settled in this city he entered the Central high school to complete his preparatory course, and from that school he was graduated the following year. Soon after his graduation he secured a position in the Northwestern National Bank, and he has been connected with that great financial institution ever since.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 57

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