Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 61

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 61

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In the course of a few years Mr. Judd joined Mr. Eastman and George A. Brackett in the erection and operation of a woolen mill, of which Mr. Eastman was the originator, as he was of the Cataract flour mill. Mr. Judd was also a pioneer in one of the local industries that has been remarkably suc- cessful and grown to great magnitude. He was one of the incorporators of the first street railway, a horse-car line that traversed half a dozen blocks along Washington Avenue. After some years Mr. Judd sold his interest in both mills and turned his attention to the wholesale lumber trade. He made exten- sive sales of lumber in Kansas and Missouri, but before he could make collections for his sales the grasshoppers devas- tated those States, his debtors became impoverished, and his losses were sufficient to wipe out his fortune.

He was then past middle life, had suffered some loss of health and lowering of vitality and strength, and decided to relinquish the greater part of his activity in business. He was for some years manager of a large wheat farmu near Wali- peton, North Dakota, for a Mr. Adams of Chicago. He passed a great deal of his time thereafter at Lake Minnetonka, where he enjoyed sailboating, fishing and other lake pleasures. He was also an enthusiastic horticulturist, and gave this pleasing pursuit much attention during his years of leisure. He dicd November 25, 1902.

May 13, 1851, Mr. Judd was married at Moriah, in his native county to Miss Mary Almira Bishop who was born in Vermont, February 16, 1830, and died in Minneapolis, July 3, 1911. They became the parents of three children, William Bishop, Ella, and Frank David. William Pishop Judd lives at 3607 Pleasant Avenue, Minneapolis. Mrs. Ella (Judd) Dibble, now deceased, was the widow of the late Russell Dibble (ot the flouring firm of Darrow & Dibble), who died in 1882, at the age of twenty-eight. She had two children. One of these is her daughter Mary, who is the wife of Chapin R. Brackett, the son of George A. Brackett, her grandfather's old partner.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Mrs. Dibble's son, Eugene Russell Dibble, is prominently eon- neeted with the Dibble Grain and Elevator Company, with an office in the Flour Exchange building; he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of several social clubs. Frank David Judd, the third child of William S., died at the age of sixteen years.

Mrs. Mary Almira Judd, the wife of William S. Judd, was a lady of domestic taste and habits; her home was a social eenter and great resort. She was the confidential friend and adviser of almost everybody in her circle of intimates, and was always prompt in helping the needy. She retained her youthful appearance in her old age, and her beauty of dispo- sition and attractiveness of manner grew with her years, making her in advanced life one of the most charming old ladies Minneapolis has ever known.

Her daughter, Mrs. Dibble, was a very energetic and enthu- siastic social worker. She was active in the work of St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the Ladies' Guild, and a number of other helpful and uplifting organizations. During the later years of her mother's life they passed their winters together in Florida. Mrs. Dibble's death occurred October 27, 1913, at the Hampshire Arms.

BARCLAY COOPER.

Mr. Cooper is a native of that rich, old German locality, renowned for the sturdiness and worth of its people and the great value and highly improved condition of its farms, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, which about the time of his birth, 1842, was probably the richest rural county in the United States. His parents, Milton and Zillah (Preston) Cooper, were also natives of Pennsylvania, and came to Minneapolis to live in 1857, arriving in this city on May 11. The father was a contractor and builder, and died here at the age of ninety years and six months.

Barclay Cooper was reared to the age of fifteen in his native county, and began his education in the, district schools there. Hc finished this with a high school course in Minne- apolis, and immediately afterward learned the carpenter trade under the instructions of his father, who was a master of the craft. Soon after the beginning of the Civil war the young man enlisted in the Union army and was assigned to duty in the quartermaster's department, in which he served to the end of the sanguinary contest.

After leaving the army Mr. Cooper joined his father and brother in contracting and building, and was associated with them for a number of years. For a long time, however, he has been in business alone, and has been very successful in his work, having been engaged to put up a large number of important business and dwelling houses. Among the struc- tures he has erected in this city are the residences of George McMullen, on Chestnut avenue; Mr. Harmon. on Hennepin avenue; and B. Taylor, at Sixth avenue south and Eighth street; the Metropolitan theater; a large store building on First avenue north; and four store buildings on Second avenue north; the Curtis Court apartment, Tenth and Third avenues south; the large Flat building, Eleventh and Haw- thorne, besides many other houses on Franklin and Irving, residences for W. L. Waldron, John Proctors, W. Pauls and R. M. Chapmans. He owns a lot at the intersection of Third avenue and First street north, 165 by 100 feet in

dimensions and a number of other pareels of valuable city property.

On Sept. 14, 1869, Mr. Cooper was married to Miss Addie Bassett, of Minneapolis, and by this marriage he became the father of two children, his son Edgar B. and his daughter, Mrs. Edna Fortner. Edgar B. Cooper married Miss Cora Joslin, and he also has two children, Priscilla E. and Barclay Edgar. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Commercial club, and he and liis wife belong to the Universalist Church of the Redeemer. Their pleasant home is at No. 1100 Hawthorn avenue.

OLIVER PERRY CARTER.

The mastery of mental power and a strong will over serious bodily ailments, and the almost complete subjection of the physical nature to the higher attributes were forcibly illus- trated in the life of the late Oliver Perry Carter, a former leading grain dealer who died January 28, 1912, at the age of sixty-six. Mr. Carter was a victim of locomotor ataxia, which rendered him unable to walk for several years. Yet he meanwhile devoted great energy and constant attention to the management of large business enterprises and even made two extensive tours in Europe.

Oliver P. Carter was born near Glen's Falls, New York, July 5, 1846, and during childhood was brought to a farm near Delavan, Wisconsin, where he reached the age of seventeen. In 1864 he returned to New York to enlist in obedienee to the last call for volunteers, being discharged with his regi- ment.

On his return he attended Beloit College three years and began his business career in the employ of M. J. Near & Com- pany, Chicago, manufacturers of bags, his attention to busi- ness and the unusual ability displayed soon making him a member of the firm. In 1877, yielding to a long-standing desire, he came to St. Paul to engage in the wholesale trade in vegetable and other seeds. Entering into a partnership with U. S. Hollister and Henry A. Castle and, organizing the firm of Hollister, Carter & Castle, they bought several hundred acres, which was devoted to the growing of seeds. His mar- riage January 23, 1878, united him with Alice Wheeler, daugh- ter of William and Mary B. (Spalding) Wheeler of this city. Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler were natives of New Hampshire, were there married and came to Minneapolis in 1866. Mr. Wheeler had formerly been a manufacturer of lumber in both Wis- consin and Michigan, and had also bought pine lands in this state, but is generally remembered in connection with the grain trade, retiring in 1888.

After Mr. Carter's marriage he joined Mr. Wheeler in the firm of Wheeler & Carter, and when the senior member retired his son, Charles F. Wheeler, took his place.

Mr. Wheeler died December 2, 1897. His widow now resides at Minnetonka, but still owns the old home on Sixth street south. She is active in the Women's club and a charter menu- ber of the Current Literature club.

Mr. Carter was always energetic in business, and was found in his office almost constantly until a short time before his death. He traveled extensively, but ever kept his finger on the business pulse even when farthest from home. He owned a farm and timber lands, but for some years restrieted his operations to his extensive grain trade, including a line of country elevators in Minnesota and North Dakota.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Mr. Carter and wife had two daughters, Mary S., the wife of Doctor G. B. Frankforter, dean of the College of Chemistry of the University of Minnesota, and Alice Ellen, wife of Charles J. O'Connell, interested in iron mines of the Cayuna Range, at Crosby, Minnesota.

C. M. E. CARLSON.

This esteemed citizen who has been a resident for about a quarter of a century has exemplified, in a manner worthy of admiration the strong traits of character, elevated patriotism and cordial interest in the general welfare which are salient features of his countrymen.

Mr. Carlson was born in Jeareda Soken, Kalmarlan, Sweden, December 25, 1859, and is a son of Carl Johann and Lovisa (Hultgren) Carlson. He was educated in the state schools and for his technical training attended a slojd school, with special attention to drafting and designing, and was subse- quently selected as a teacher in a similar institution at Upsala. At the Copenhagen industrial exposition he was awarded first prize for a sketch and detail description of a buffet, in com- petition with many others. Not satisfied with the prospects at home and having former associates in this country, and hearing so much of the vast wealth of natural resources and opportunity he decided to come where so many of his country- men had become successful and distinguished. 1

In 1888 he reached Minneapolis. Soon after helping to found the Northwestern Mantel company, now the Northwestern Marble and Tile company, and was its manager and secretary until 1908. From the time of his advent he felt a cordial and serviceable interest in public welfare, and has contributed largely to advance its interests.

In 1910 he was chosen county commissioner from the second district, which he now represents, and was elected chairman. He is interested in mining properties in Alaska, and has also other important interests.

Mr. Carlson was married in 1896, to Miss Matilda Peterson, of Otisco, Minnesota. They have four children. He is a member of the Odin club, and of the Evangelical Mission Tabernacle.

LESTER R. BROOKS.

The euthanasia, the easy, painless and peaceful death, least foreseen and soonest over, so much desired by the ancients, was the kind that closed the honorable and useful life and the great and fruitful business record of the late Lester Ranney Brooks of Minneapolis on November 11, 1902, when he was but fifty-five years old, in the prime of his manhood, with all his faculties fully developed and obedient to his will, and when he was also one of the main supports of many worthy undertakings for the advancement of his home city and the enduring welfare of its residents. His final summons came suddenly, without warning or premonition, giving the city he had so long and so wisely served a great shock and enshrouding all its people in deep and oppressive grief and gloom.

Mr. Brooks was a native of Redfield, Oswego county, New York, where his life began on May 19, 1847. He was a son

of Dr. Sheldon and Jeannette (Ranney) Brooks. Because of the uncertain health of the father the family came to Min- nesota in 1856 and from then until his death the doctor was engaged in the grain business at Minneiska. He built a home in the Whitewater Valley and laid out a town which he called Beaver. It still bears that name and has become a flourishing and progressive village. Early in his residence in the state of Minnesota, which the territory became two years after his arrival within its borders as a resident, the doctor attained to prominence in public affairs, and until his death he con- tinued to be a man of strong influence and local power for good. He was a member of the second state legislature, and in order to reach St. Paul for the session made a thirty-hour journey by stage on the frozen surface of the Mississippi river.

Lester R. Brooks was but nine years old when he was brought by his parents to Minnesota, and herc he obtained the greater part of his academic education. Early in life he showed a decided talent for business and an earnest desire to be engaged in it. Accordingly, in 1862, when he was but fif- teen years of age, he became associated with his father and brothers in the grain trade. In 1873 they formed the firm of Brooks Bros., doing business in that line of traffic. The next year Lester moved to Winona, having purchased a large amount of the stock of the Second National Bank and served as its cashier for a number of years, meanwhile retaining his interest in the firm of Brooks Bros. in Minneiska, where he had previously served as agent for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad.

In 1880 he organized and became president of the Winona Milling company, which erected what was then the largest and most important steam flour mill in the Northwest, if not in the United States. It was one of the first to install the roller milling process and probably the first large mill in the coun- try to discard burrstones entirely. The mill began operations with a capacity of 1,000 barrels a day, and during the five years of his presidency of the company this was enlarged to 2,600 barrels. In this mill Mr. Brooks installed the first Edison incandescent light system west of New York city.

In 1885 the state of his health and the growing importance of Minneapolis as a grain market induced Mr. Brooks to move to this city and establish here the headquarters of the Brooks Elevator company, of which he was president and his brothers, Dwight S. and Anson S., were members. This company owned and operated thirty-five elevators in Western Minne- sota and Dakota, and terminal elevator stocks, and also had extensive interests in the lumber trade and in banking. About the year 1908 the company disposed of practically all its holdings in the grain business, the lumber department of its enterprise having been largely extended by the purchase of western timber lands. This change was made at a time when the price of lumber was rapidly going up, and proved very advantageous to the company.

Mr. Brooks also founded the Brooks-Griffith company, which, with various changes in name, is still one of the lead- ing grain companies in Minneapolis. In addition he was presi- dent of the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber company, president of the Scanlon-Gipson and the Brooks-Robertson Lumber com- panies. In the management of all these industrial institutions he took an active interest, and to their expansion and suc- cessful operation he gave the full force of his highly stimulat- ing enterprise and business capacity. His record as a busi- ness man is written in large and enduring phrase in the indus- durial and commercial chronicles of this city and the monu-

LA Brooks

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

ments which proclaim his greatness as a manufacturer, mer- chant, banker and promoter are the mighty enterprises he helped to found and build up to almost colossal magnitude and almost world-wide usefulness.

Soon after his location in Minneapolis he became a member of the Chamber of Commerce and immediately prominent in the management of its affairs. He served on many important committees and in 1897 was elected president. His work in this position, which he filled for two years, was universally recognized as most efficient, conscientious and productive. He saw that the organization was greatly in need of more com- modious quarters and forcibly advocated the erection of a new building. When his views prevailed he was made chair- man of the building committee, a position of weighty respon- sibility, the duties of which, however, he performed in a man- ner wholly satisfactory to the members of the Chamber. He ' also gave to the grain trade of the city the Chamber of Com- merce Clearings association, the need of which he was the first to see and which he organized and, as its first president, started on its helpful career, directing its activities into proper channels, awakening and concentrating all its powers, and making it meet all the requirements for which it was created and kept in operation.

The banking business enlisted the interest, gratified the taste and extensively engaged the energies of Mr. Brooks from an early period in his business career. For many years prior to his death he was a director of the Northwestern National Bank and the Minnesota Loan and Trust company of this city and the Second National Bank of Winona. He was also a prominent member of the St. Paul Lumber Exchange, and be- longed to other business organizations which have had an important bearing on the progress and improvement of the city and the expansion of its industrial, commercial and mercantile greatness. In its social life he took an active part as a mem- ber of the Minneapolis, Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, in the last named being a member of the board of governors and the chairman of the building committee, and in all a potential force for progress in every way.

While never desirous of holding political office, Mr. Brooks was an ardent supporter of the principles and theories of gov- ernment of the Republican party. Fraternally he was a Frec- mason of high degree, being a Knight Templar and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He was liberal in his contributions to all religious and charitable organizations, and to all other agencies working for the uplifting of the people in his com- munity without reference to their creeds or articles of faith, and with full tolerance toward them.

Mr. Brooks always took an earnest, practical and helpful interest in outdoor life, and clean and healthful manly sports, and gave them strong advocacy in speech and substantial encouragement and aid in a material way. He was an enthu- siastic yachtsman and served for years as commodore of the Minnetonka Yacht club. His yacht, the Pinafore, won the championship of her class on Lake Minnetonka and also the inter-lake pennant on White Bear lake. For many years he maintained a summer home on the upper end of Big Island in the former lake, his winters being passed in the South or in travel.

Mr. Brooks was married in April, 1873, to Miss Josephine Bullene, a native of Wisconsin, and a resident of Minnesota, at the time of the marriage. They had one child, their son, Philip Ranney Brooks, who is still living and has his home in Minneapolis. Mr. Brooks, as has been stated, died suddenly,

without warning or premonition, on November 11, 1902, his demise occurring in his apartments in the West hotel. Rev. L. H. Hallock, pastor of the Plymouth Congregational church, conducted the funeral services, and in the course of his address paid the highest tribute to the genuine worth, strict integrity, elevated manhood and useful citizenship of the deceased. He said in part: "The greatest of mysteries has transpired before our eyes, and we can only stand in awe and sorrow, saying with our late lamented President Mckinley, 'It is God's way, His will be done.' Mr. Brooks respected genuineness and sin- cerity. He abhorred meanness and paltry show. The world is better for his having lived in it and poorer because of his having gone out of it."

All the institutions and organizations with which the deceased was connected adopted resolutions of testimony to the high character, excellent citizenship and vast usefulness he had exhibited, of. sympathy with his surviving family and of deep grief over his untimely departure. The Chamber of Commerce Clearings Association placed itself on record in the following language:

"The Association has lost one of its most useful members, an honest and upright man, whose virtues endeared him to all, and who was always zealous in advancing the interests of the association. He served it as president in 1897 and 1898, and to his wise guidance it owes much of its present prosperity and high standing. During the last two years, as chairman of the building committee for the erection of the new Chamber of Commerce annex, he devoted much of his valuable time to the service of the Chamber, and it was largely through his efforts that the elegant structure is now receiving its artistic finishing touches." His portrait hangs in the directors' room of the Chamber.

The St. Paul Lumber Exchange resolved: "That in the death of L. R. Brooks the State of Minnesota has been deprived of a business man of sterling qualities and of a high, honorable type, whose wise and conservative counsel will be missed and the loss of which will be deplored by all, while liis being taken from among us will be deeply mourned."

The directors of the Second National Bank of Winona declared: That they could not too strongly express the insti- tution's high appreciation of the excellent and valued judg- ment of the deceased, who had been a director of the bank continuously from 1875, and could not too deeply regret the loss of his future advice.

For the directors of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis E. W. Decker, the cashier at the time, said: "It was with a great deal of regret that we were obliged to give up Mr. Brooks as one of the directors of this bank, and I know that every member of the board felt the loss very keenly."

The Minnesota Loan and Trust company resolved: "That Mr. Brooks was a square man. He combined the good judg- ment, executive ability and strength of a successful business man with a gentleness and courtesy and consideration for others which endeared him most to those who knew him best."

The American Lumberman, published in Chicago, spoke feel- ingly of the keenly sensitive integrity of Mr. Brooks as fol- lows: "He could not bear to think of the least reflection being cast upon the financial honor of any concern in which he was interested. He carried this high sense of honor through all his business dealings, and demanded it of his associates and employes."

His memory is enshrined in the hearts of all the people as

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

a perpetual fragrance. "To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."

JOHN E. BURNS.

The story of the growth of an important contracting busi- ness in connection with the upbuilding of the Northwest is told in the narration of Jolin E. Burns. It is a business which, like many another, had its beginning in the development of the lumber and flour mill industry. Mr. Burns is a native of New Brunswick, where he was born June 15, 1841, being one of seventeen children, and was reared in the lumber woods. He continued working in the woods until 1865, when he landed in Minneapolis, which was then rapidly becoming the lumber capital of the west. For five years he followed lumbering, working for "Fred Clark and for Washburn, Stickney and Company. During the winters he was head chopper in the woods; and in the spring would drive logs down the river to Minneapolis. In 1870, Mr. Burns went to work for C. C. Washburn, and it was this association that shaped his future, for it was then that he became interested in canal, tunnel and flour mill construction. He assisted in building the Wash- burn "A" mill, and worked in it until the mill was blown up in the great mill explosion. At the time of this disaster Mr. Burns stood only a few hundred feet from the mill, and was knocked down but not hurt by the force of the explosion. He was then foreman in charge of cleaning away the debris, as well as of the work of rebuilding.

Mr. Burns' first work on tunnels had been done in 1865, when he helped construct the first tunnel to the "B" mill. And he has worked on almost every big tunnel since, in the river about the mills. At the death of Governor Washburn, Mr. Burns turned his attention to contracting, and put in a tunnel for the J. B. Bassett sawmills, and in partnership with Ami Weeks, he took a contract for constructing the city tunnel under the viaduct to the city waterworks at the foot of Sixth avenue south, a distance of five hundred feet. Here lie devised water wheel power for pumping and hauling out the ears of earth. At this time he came into close relation with William de la Barre, manager of the waterworks. Mr. Burns continued to contract for the city on watermain and sewer work; he also in 1887 built a big tunnel at Galena, Ill., for the Great Western railroad. He took contracts for tunnels for Winston Brothers, railroad contractors, in various parts of the country; and also built a long tunnel-in 1900-for the Great Northern railway, from the Missouri river to the Teton river, in Montana. In addition to this contracting, Mr. Burns has also been superintendent on large works of water power and dam construction, a line in which he was engaged because of his recognized ability in handling large forces of workmen.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 61

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