Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 62

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 62

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He has built and now owns a large apartment house near his own home; has been active in municipal and civic affairs, participating in politics for others, having himself several times refused candidacy for public office. Mr. Burns is a Republican, although non-partisan in local politics.

In 1869 Mr. Burns married Mary Collins, a native of Ireland, and to them were born two sons and three daughters. Mrs. Burns, who was one of the best known women in the Holy Rosary church, and for some years treasurer of the Aid society of the parish, was born in 1844 and came to Minneapolis in

1866. She died in February, 1913, and was buried in the habit of the Third Order of Dominican Sisters. Their children are Frances, Mrs. P. M. McDonough; Willis, an attorney in Seattle; Ella, private secretary to the president of an insurance company; Anna, a teacher in Minneapolis; and John, super- intendent of an iron mine at Everett, Minnesota.

GEORGE FRANK PIPER.

George Frank Piper was born in Minneapolis on April 11, 1856, and is a son of Jefferson and Mary Davis (McDuffee) Piper, natives of New England, where they were reared, edu- cated and married, and where they lived for a number of years after their marriage. The father's health began to fail and he moved to this state, locating first in Minneapolis and some time afterward changing his residence to a farm near Mankato. In the family residence on the farm, amid rural associations and pursuits, his son George F. grew to the age of seventeen. He began his academic education in the public schools, continued it at one of the state normal schools in this state and completed it at the State University, which he en- tered on his return to Minneapolis in 1873. But he remained at the University only one year, being eager to begin making his own way forward in the world.

Mr. Piper began his business career as a manufacturer of linseed oil, which he has been ever since. For more than ten years he carried on his operations in this business at Mankato, and was very successful in them from the start. The larger opportunity and greater resources for his business in Minne- apolis brought him back to this city in 1894, and here he has passed all his subsequent years, throughout the whole period being prominently connected with the industry in which he started and contributing so largely and effectively to its growth and development that Minneapolis is now the most extensive linseed oil producing point in the United States, and the company which he and his associates control do about one-fifth of the linseed oil business of the country.

But Mr. Piper has not confined his energies to the oil busi- ness. He holds extensive interests in Canada in the elevator and lumber business. The elevator companies in that country in which he is one of a number of men who hold a controlling interest, handle about one-sixth of the grain in the Dominion. In the early development of Canada Mr. Piper and his asso- ciates owned large tracts of land amounting in the aggregate to over three million acres. They were among the first to realize the immense possibilities of the western part of the country, and pioneers in starting the development of those possibilities.

Mr. Piper also has extensive interests in Minneapolis in a business way. He has been for many years a director of the Chamber of Commerce, serving as vice president two years and president one year. He is in addition a director of the Security National Bank and one of the board of governors of the Minneapolis and the Minikahda clubs. His political alle- gianee has always been given with firmness and fidelity to the Republican party; but, while he has at all times been deeply interested in its success and continued supremacy, he has never desired a political office or been willing to accept one, although frequently solicited to do so.

On August 20, 1883, at Mankato, where he was then living. Mr. Piper was married to Miss Grace Brett of that city. They

J. FSiper

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

have four sons. Clarence B., the eldest, is a graduate of the Lawrenceville, New Jersey, school and of Cornell University. He married Miss Isabella Galt and lives in Winnipeg. The second son, Louis H., is also a graduate of the Lawrenceville school. He married Miss Ruth Hamm, of Chicago, and is now connected with the starch factory of Douglas Co. of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Harry C., the third son, is a graduate of Yale University and engaged in business with Piper & Co. in handling commercial paper. George F. Piper, Jr., the youngest son, is at present a student at Yale. All the members of the family are Presbyterians, and those living in Minneapolis belong to Westminster church of that sect.

This is a brief review of a remarkable business career wrought out by a gentleman of very unusual mental endow- ments and business capacity. While it has been of great profit to him, it has also been of great usefulness to the city of his residence and all other localities with which it has connected him. And he has at all times and in all places been zealous in promoting the welfare of others along with his own. This has given him a strong hold on the regard and good will of all who have business or social relations with him or knowl- edge of his broad and helpful manhood.

THEODORE F. CURTIS.

Mr. Curtis is the builder and proprietor of the "Leaming- ton" hotel and the "Curtis Court" apartment house, archi- tectural creations constructed according to his own ideas and plans, and at the time of their erection almost unique in this country, their most renowned antecedent having been a structure of the same kind built by him in Los Angeles, California, in 1900. Curtis Court in this city was built in 1905 and the Leamington hotel in 1911. Like all new de- partures in human enterprise, they were at the start objects of considerable skepticism and some ridicule, and like others of real merit, they have shown their value and turned their critics of the past into their warmest commenders of the present.

Mr. Curtis was born in Portland, Maine, on February 7, 1854, the third of the seven children, three sons and four daughters, of Theodore Lincoln and Esther (Moore) Curtis, also natives of Maine. The father was a ship-builder and learned his trade with his father and older brothers. In 1855 he brought his family to St. Anthony with the intention of engaging in manufacturing here. He first built flat-bottomed boats on the west side of the river at the boat landing, about where the Washington avenue bridge now stands. These were large scows, 200 feet long and 30 feet wide. They were loaded with lumber and other merchandise and floated to lower points on the river, forming an important factor in the river transportation of the early period of development in this region.

The elder Mr. Curtis was occupied in this work for a number of years, but he also built houses and other struc- tures, aiding as a sub-contractor in the erection of the first part of the Nicollet hotel. He also built himself a house on Third avenue north at Fourth street, a locality that was then in the woods, and erected numerous other buildings in different parts of the city as it was or was to be, many of which are still standing. In payment for his work on a barn he built

for John Green on the Lake of the Isles he was offered 160 acres of land in that locality. But the land was then of so little value that he refused the offer.

The growth of the city in a few years after his arrival here induced Mr. Curtis, the father, to form a partnership with Mr. Burr, under the firm name of Curtis & Burr, for the manufacture of furniture. Some little time afterward he bought a property on Washington avenue between First and Second avenues south in which he opened a retail fur- niture store, and he had a small mill in connection with this enterprise at which much of the furniture he handled was made. He continued his operations in this business until his death in 1875, passing away in the prime of his life at the age of fifty-seven years.

Mrs. Curtis, the mother of Theodore F., lived until 1893. She and her husband were the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters. Norman Eugene, the first born, now lives in Los Angeles, California. Edward Lincoln died in childhood. Theodore F. was the third in the order of birth and the youngest son. Susan H. is the wife of Winslow Knowles. Frances F. is the wife of Edward F. Maloney, the manager of Curtis Court in this city. Etta is the widow of W. J. Bishop, a Minneapolis real estate man who died in 1908. Emma married Captain William P. Allen, an old asso- ciate of T. B. Walker in surveying work, who afterward joined the Nelson lumber trade at Cloquet. The father was a deacon in the old Baptist church which stood on the site now occupied by the Andrus building. Later he was active and prominent in the Presbyterian church, which long stood where the Ven- dome hotel now flourishes.

Theodore F. Curtis grew from infancy to manhood in Minneapolis and obtained his education in the primary schools and the old Central High School which was conducted on the lot on which the new municipal building has since been erected. Among his early playmates were many boys who have since become prominent men in the business, social and public life of the city.

Mr. Curtis was nineteen when his father died. The estate owned a block of ground on Third avenue north between . Fourth and Fifth streets. The construction of the railroad into this locality made the property undesirable for residences, and Mrs. Curtis, the mother, was offered $10,000 for it. The son advised her to ask $20,000, but she sold it for $18,000. . Within one year afterward it was cut up into small lots and sold for over $100,000. This transaction opened Mr. Curtis' eyes to the future possibilities of the city, and he set to work to learn the real estate business. Under his direction the $18,000 was reinvested, and in the course of a few years it made up the loss sustained in the sale of the old block.

During the boom period Mr. Curtis built, at Vine and Fourteenth streets, the first apartment or flat houses in the city. He also built one at Seventh street and Third avenue south. In 1887 he began to build cottages on the installment payment plan, putting up small modern houses in different parts of the city, and extending his operations to the Lake Calhoun district, where he had 180 lots and built cottages on most of them. In the meantime he had passed several winters in Los Angeles and invested money there. He owned an attractive site on which he erected the first apartment house in that city, embodying in the structure the ideas which he has since expressed more elaborately in Curtis Court and the Leamington hotel, these buildings being divided into suites embracing a large parlor or living room, a bath room and a

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

kitchenette, small but provided with every convenience for the purposes for which it is designed.

The Leamington hotel contains 860 rooms and has accomno- dations for 800 to 1,000 persons. It cost $1,500,000, and was built by Mr. Curtis in association with Frank J. Mackey of Chicago, who put up the Mackey-Legg block on Fourth street and Nicollet avenue. Mr. Curtis worked five years in planning the hotel. One of its special attractions is its immense lobby encircled by broad verandas. Similar buildings are being built in all the leading cities, and many architects and builders have inspected it for plans and suggestions, its fame being world-wide. At a recent congress of bishops, composed of men who had visited every important city, emphatic approval of the plan of the Leamington was expressed. It is a hotel where men and women may have moderately priced homes with all conveniences, and the privilege of either home cooking or public dining service. Many families now make this house their regular home, and it is a great resort for traveling men. Mr. Curtis has been urged to build similar structures in Detroit, Pittsburgh, Chieago and many other cities. But he feels that one is enough for him, and he has sold his apartment house in Los Angeles, where he has spent twenty-five winters.

Mr. Curtis was married on August 19, 1885, to Miss Della F. Brown, a daughter of the late James G. Brown, of the firm of Rand & Brown, operators of an immense farm near Grafton, North Dakota. Mr. Brown maintained his residence most of the time in Minneapolis, but passed his winters in California. He died in 1890, and his daughter, Mrs. Curtis, passed away in January, 1911. Mr. Curtis built one of the first houses on Clifton avenue for a family residence. But for twenty-four years he has lived on the west side of Lake Calhoun, although he still owns the Clifton avenue home.

ASA EMERY JOHNSON, M. D.

The life story of this man of many parts, who passed away in Minneapolis on January 27, 1905, after a residence of al- most fifty-two years in this locality, and when he lacked less than two months of being eighty-two years of age, contains so much that is of interest that it will be difficult to tell it all within the limits of space allowable in this work. It is a story of personal privation and personal endurance; of inci- dent and adventure; of effort and achievement; of trial and triumph; of firm faith in the goodness of God and great use- fulness to man; of all, in short, that is admirable and com- mendable in the best American manhood.

Notable among the doctor's services to the city of his long and last residence on earth was the organization of the Minne- sota Academy of Science, an institution now known the world over, which was founded in his office in Minneapolis on March 4, 1873, by a few far-seeing men like himself, whom he had interested in the project, and of which he was the first presi- dent. Of the little band of studious and progressive men who laid the foundation of this Academy, of which the city of its home is justly so proud, Professor N. H. Winehell of the University of Minnesota, at the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the institution on March 4, 1913, gave an in- teresting account of its history.

Dr. Asa E. Johnson wa's horn at Bridgewater, Oneida county, New York, on March 16, 1825, a scion of New England an- eestry. His great-grandfather fought under Washington in

the Revolutionary war, and his grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812. The progenitors of the American branch of the family came to this country from Holland in Colonial times and settled in Connecticut. From that state the doctor's grandfather journeyed on foot to Oneida county, New York, then far into the Western wilderness, and in the new region planted his hearthstone and reared his family. At that hearth- stone the doctor was born and reared to the age of twenty.

At that age he left the home farm on foot as his grand- father had come to it, and himself journeying into the wilder- ness farther West in search of what fortune might have in store for him. He reached the lake shore at Buffalo and from there traveled by boat to Detroit. His path was still straight westward, and there was no way in which he could follow it but on foot. He walked to Ypsilanti, working in the hay fields by the way, and so on to New Buffalo on Lake Michigan. Another steamer carried him across the lake to Chicago, and from there he again walked on, working at haying as he advanced, and so earning a few dollars week by week.

When he reached Lisbon, Kendall county, Illinois, he visited an uncle, and being pleased with the region, he rented forty acres of land in that neighborhood and raised a good erop of wheat on it. This he hauled to Chicago, sixty miles distant, with ox teams. He also attended Lisbon Academy for more advanced instruction than he had previously received, and at the completion of his term in that institution returned to New York to take up the study of medicine in the homeopathic branch of the science. He later completed his medical educa- tion at Columbia University, graduating from that college. He began his professional studies under the direction of Dr. Erastus King at Niagara Falls, and afterward attended the University of New York City, from which he was graduated on March 16, 1851, with the degree of M. D.

After his graduation the doctor came West again, stopping at Beloit, Wisconsin, where he had been five years before with his father. Here he was married on his twenty-eighth birth- day to Miss Hannah Russell. Here, also, he was persuaded by Dr. A. E. Ames to come to St. Anthony, which he reached on May 29, 1853. The population of that village was then about 800, and eight physicians attended the ailing. Dr. Johnson, however, soon gained a good general practice, being recognized as particularly capable in the department of surgery. He con- tinued practicing actively for nearly forty years before he retired. At his death, as for many years before, he was the oldest physician in Minneapolis in length of practice. In his earlier activity he served a number of years as county physi- cian of Hennepin county and as a member of the county board of health.

By taste and inclination Dr. Johnson was a naturalist. and he gave a great deal of intelligent attention to natural his- tory. He discovered some rare fossils, a number of which are now in the museum at the Smithsonian Institute at Wash- ington. He dug into the mounds and secured well preserved specimens of their builders. He also made a special study of fungi and catalogued over 800 specimens, many of them never before observed, and his researches extended into several other fields of natural science. While struggling upward from ob- security and a very moderate estate in life financially, he ent eord wood at 25 cents per cord, sheared sheep at 3 cents per head and slept in haystacks; and while attending school he lived in a garret and subsisted almost on bread and water. In his later life he belonged to the Episcopal church.

He wa's married at Beloit, Wiseonsin, on March 16, 1853, to

79 3 by E B Balls Sois New York

asa E. Johnson

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Miss Rosenia Russell, a native of England. She died in August, 1892, leaving one child, their daughter Rosenia Amelia, who is now the wife of Andrew M. Hunter of Minneapolis. Her father passed the last years of his life with his daughter, Mrs. Hunter, surrounded by his books and specimens. He found solace in his pipe and enjoyed the companionship of his old friends and neighbors.

ANDREW M. HUNTER, the son-in-law of Dr. Asa E. John- son, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 29, 1864, and is a son of Samuel and Rosa (Byrnes) Hunter, who came to Minneapolis in 1867. The father was a plumber and was engaged in business thirty-six years in this city. He is still living, and is now eighty-four years old. He represented the Sixth ward of the city in the board of aldermen four years and served six as a member of the park board. When the Civil war began he enlisted in the Union army and re- mained in the service to the close of the memorable conflict. He is now prominent in the Grand Army of the Republic in this part of the country. He also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is one of the oldest members of the order in this locality, having joined it forty-five years ago. He is a Republican in polities and a Presbyterian in church fellowship.

His son, Andrew M. Hunter, is one of the leading real estate dealers in Minneapolis, and has his office in the Phoenix building. He was educated in the public schools of this city, having come here when he was but three years old, and for fifteen years after leaving school was associated with his father in the plumbing industry. His interest in the welfare of his community has always been cordial and practical, and his aid in promoting it has always been zealous, prompt and effective, guided by intelligence and governed by good judg- ment.

In fraternal life Mr. Hunter is a Freemason with member- ship in Hennepin Lodge of the order. He also belongs to Minneapolis Lodge of Elks. In the doings of both these fraternities he takes an earnest interest and an active part. On July 5, 1886, he was united in marriage with Miss Rosenia A. Johnson, the only child of Dr. Asa E. Johnson. Mr. Hunter is a vestryman of Holy Trinity Episcopal church.

RICHARD HENRY CHUTE.

Having been connected with the lumber industry for twenty years in Minneapolis, and for almost a generation previously in other places, Richard H. Chute, has contributed largely and substantially to its development. He is the treasurer and active manager of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom com- pany, which handles the logs on their way to the mills.

Mr. Chute was born at Woburn, Massachusetts, March 14, 1843. His parents were Rev. Ariel P. and Sarah M. W. (Chandler) Chute, the former born at Byfield, Massachusetts, and the latter at New Gloucester, Maine. The father was a widely known Congregational minister throughout New Eng- land, and died in Massachusetts in 1887. The paternal grand- father, whose name was Richard, was a manufacturer and died while on a business trip at St. Louis, Missouri.

Richard Henry Chute obtained his education in the publie schools. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Company C, Thirty- fifth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, was transferred to the Fifty-ninth Massachusetts Veterans, serving to the close

of the war. He was given repeated promotions being mustered out as Captain.

He participated in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He was sent with his command to Ken- tucky and took part in the siege of Vicksburg, returning to Virginia to be with Grant in campaign in the Wilderness. At North Anna River he was taken prisoner, and for eight and one-half months suffered the horrors of confinement in Libby Prison and at Macon and Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina. In 1865 he went to St. Louis, where he was engaged in the lumber trade for seven years, moving to Louisiana, Missouri, where he had charge of a large lumber yard for three years. In 1875 he came to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, at the manufacturing end of the same company, becoming about 1887 the Manager of the mills.

In 1893 he became associated with the Mississippi and Rum River Boom company, and he has since been connected with it in a managerial capacity.

Mr. Chute is Vice President of the Northland Pine company and he was the secretary and treasurer of the St. Paul Boom company which ceased operation in 1914 and is also secretary and treasurer of the Northern Boom company.

Mr. Chute has not been a partisan, but has always taken an active interest in efforts toward good local government and municipal improvement. He is connected with the Grand Army of the Republic with Eagle Post Eau Claire. He is a regular attendant of Lowry Hill Congregational church.

November 6, 1867, Mr. Chute was united with Miss Susan R. Nelson, of Georgetown, Massachusetts. Three of five children are living: Arthur L., is a surgeon in Boston; Robert W., is teller in the Security National Bank; and Rebecca.

CHARLES BRADLEY CLARK.

Closing a life of nearly sixty-one years of usefulness and activity, suddenly and in a highly tragic manner, on Janu- ary 12, 1911, while surrounded by friends and just after performing a duty of general interest, the late Charles Bradley Clark, of Minneapolis, left a record and rounded a career full of 'eredit to himself and of suggestiveness for others.

Charles Bradley Clark was born on a farm at Pewaukee, Wisconsin, March 26, 1850. He was educated in country schools and at the State Normal School at Whitewater. At sixteen he began to teach, thus paying his own way through the Normal School.

In October, 1871, he went to Chicago in search of employ- ment, leaving his valise in the office of a friend while he hunted a job. That same night the memorable great fire of 1871 broke out, and his grip, containing everything he had in the world but the clothes on his back, was burned. Not dismayed, he returned home, and soon afterward went to Milwaukee as clerk in an office, and although the pay was less than his necessary expenses, he adhered to his position, only quitting to take a better job in a wholesale drug house. Confinement undermining his health he became a traveling salesman, and continued in this occupation throughout the remainder of his life. Driving summer and winter he encountered all the hardships of the country commercial traveler, but health was restored and he enjoyed the freedom of the life and the self-reliance and resourcefulness it required.

For nine years he worked faithfully for one firm, and then

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

embraced a better opportunity for himself with another cor- poration. He came to Minneapolis in the interest of the wholesale grocery establishment of Griggs, Cooper & Com- pany of St. Paul and in the service of this firm made regular trips through North Dakota and Montana, though maintaining his home in Minneapolis. His last employer was the C. J. Van Houten Cocoa Company, for which he traveled seventeen years, making thirty-seven years of service on the road. He was said to be the oldest commercial salesman in length of service in this part of the country. The life was exact- ing, its duties requiring continued fortitude and endurance, and he was obliged to visit many small towns by team, stage coach, or by any other available means of transportation. He had to face the rage of the elements, ford streams, live in primitive taverns, and put up with all kinds of privation. But he never lost interest in his work or cheerfulness of dis- position. Whatever his hand found to do at any time he did with all his might.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 62

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