Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 68

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 68

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In 1872 our aspiring lumberman formed a partnership with others in the planing mill business, and this led directly to the manufacture of lumber. In 1881 the firm of Nelson, Tenney & Co., consisting of Mr. Nelson and W. M. Tenney, bought a sawmill. Mr. Nelson was now in a position entirely suited to his taste and his abilities. He gave his whole attention to the business of the firm, and as the city and the country around it advanced in development and improve- ment, the firm's trade rapidly expanded, and before the expiration of ten years it became one of the heaviest opera- tors in Minneapolis. Later W. F. Brooks held an interest in the firm for a number of years.

For over forty years Mr. Nelson was engaged directly, and most of the time very extensively, in manufacturing lumber. But his energies in this work were not confined to the com- pany of which he was the head, nor were they wholly absorbed in this line of effort. He acquired interests in many other companies in the trade and affiliated with it, and also took part in additional kinds of manufacturing and in the financial and public affairs of the city and county of his residence, in which he is still deeply and helpfully interested.

He is president of the Leech Lake Lumber Co., the Henne- pin Paper Co., the B. F. Nelson Manufacturing Co., B. F. Nelson & Sons Co., and the Leech Lake Land Co. He is also one of the directors of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis and others in Minnesota. Director Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. In addition he has extensive holdings in mineral lands in Northern Minnesota.

This is a record of long continued, extensive, very exacting and highly successful business operations, but it shows only a part of Mr. Nelson's activity and achievements. He has been as zealous in philanthropic, educational and religious work as he has been in business, and for years took a prom- inent part in public affairs in his home city. He served in the city council from 1879 to 1885, and was made chairman of the ways and means and railroad committees, at which time he made the acquaintance of Mr. J. J. Hill, as he fully believed that Minneapolis, just getting out of her swaddling clothes as a city, could afford to be liberal with railroads and on account of such views was able to assist railroads in getting such rights as was necessary to operate economically and at that time a close friendship was made with Mr. Hill,

B 2. Nelson

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

which has existed to the present time. Mr. Nelson was a member of the first board of park commissioners, rendering wise and appreciated service in laying the foundation of the Minneapolis park system. He was also for many years a member of the old Board of Trade, and its president in 1890 and 1891, and one of the directors and the treasurer of the Business Men's Union in 1890.

From 1884 to 1891 he was a member of the school board. During this period the increase in the school population of the community was phenomenal and the necessity of pro- viding for it taxed the ability of those in charge of them to the utmost. In this pressing time Mr. Nelson's special fitness for the position he held was amply demonstrated, and he won high credit for his resourcefulness, readiness and adaptability to requirements in the discharge of his duties as a member of the board. The experience in educational matters he gained in this position, and his recognized business capacity led to his appointment as a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota in 1905, and is now (1914) President of the board, and since then he has rendered the state service of the highest character and most productive kind in this department of its interests, showing both breadth of view and facility of resources in meeting requirements, and always a kcen insight into the future and wisdom in providing for its needs. For thirty years Mr. Nelson has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Hamline University.

The material interests of the state have also had Mr. Nel- son's intelligent and fruitful attention. He was chosen a member of the board of directors of the State Agricultural Society in 1902, and after several years of valued service on the board, was made its president in 1907 and again in 1908. Mr. Nelson was a member of the board of managers of the State Prison and was its president for several years.

Another line of local enterprise which engaged his attention actively and helpfully was that which is in charge of the Commercial Club. In 1904 he became one of the directors of the club and chairman of its public affairs committee. During the next two years he worked out conspicuous commercial development under the auspices of the club, and wrote his name in large and enduring phrases on the pages of its his- tory. In 1907 he was elected president of the club, and this office he held until 1909. He is also a valued member of the Minnesota State Historical Society, and in the social and fraternal life of the community is connected with the Minne- apolis Club, Commercial Club, Lafayette and Minikahda, Minnesota and Automobile Clubs, and is prominent in the Masonie order, holding the rank of Knight Templar in the York rite and that of a thirty-second degree Mason in the Scottish rite. In this fraternity he is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine.

Mr. Nelson was married in 1869 to Miss Martha Ross, who died in 1874, leaving two sons, William Edwin and Guy H., who are now associated with their father in business. In 1875 he contracted a second marriage which united him with Miss Mary Fredenberg of Northfield, Minnesota. They have one child, their daughter Bessie E.

From the dawn of his manhood Mr. Nelson has given his political allegiance and services to the Democratic party, but he has never sought an office or been chosen to one by a partisan election. Those he has held have been either by non-partisan or conferred upon him by appointment and in recognition of his special fitness for them rather than on account of political services or party considerations. In addi-

tion, he has frequently been urged to become a candidate for high elective offices, but has always steadfastly refused.

How like a thread of gold the splendid record of this excellent business man and superior citizen runs through the history of Minneapolis! and what a credit it is, not only to the community in which he has expended his activities, but to the whole range of American citizenship.

HON. WILLIAM STANLEY DWINNELL.

Tracing his ancestry back in direct lines to early Colonial times in New England, yet himself born, reared and educated in the West, Hon. William S. Dwinnell, state senator from the Fortieth senatorial district, combines in his make-up the resourcefulness of the New Englander and the enterprise, broad vision and hustling progressiveness of the Westener. These characteristics have been made manifest in his business and political career, and have won him the admiration of all classes of the people and the cordial regard of those who know him intimately.

Senator Dwinnell was born at Lodi, Wisconsin, on Christmas day, 1862, and is a son of John Bliss and Maria C. (Stanley) Dwinnell. The progenitors of the American branch of his family came to this country from England and settled at Topsfield, Massachusetts, in 1660. His mother's side of the house includes many distinguished people of Connecticut, in- cluding the first Governor of Connecticut colony, and the Day and Dwight families both of whom have furnished presidents of Yale College.

The senator's father was a merchant in his early man- hood, but later turned his attention to farming, and passed the remaining years of his life in that occupation. The son grew to manhood in his native place and began his academic education in its public schools. Afterward he pursued the undergraduate course in the academic department of the University of Wisconsin, and later entered the law department of that institution, from which he was graduated in 1886. After his graduation he took up the work of preparing opinions of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, for publication, having been appointed to this position by Governor Jeremiah M. Rusk who for many years was his warm friend and adviser.

In 1888 and 1889 Mr. Dwinnell served as district attorney of Jackson county, Wisconsin, and at the close of his term in that office came to Minneapolis, under contract, as attorney for a large building and loan association. There proved to be a radical difference in opinion as to policy between Mr. Dwinnell and his associates, and he resigned from the service of the association and began the practice of law, devoting his efforts in the main to matters affecting corporations.

By the year 1900 he found that close confinement and con- stant business activity were telling on his health, and he then determined to give more attention to outside affairs. He began dealing in real estate in Minneapolis and St. Paul and the Canadian Northwest and soon enlarged his operations to include timber lands in California, Oregon, and British Colum- bia. He organized and became president of the Fraser River Tannery, located in the Fraser river region of British Columbia and an institution of magnitude and great activity. He also beeame treasurer of the Urban Investment company of St. Paul, and interested in a number of other enterprises of import- ance and usefulness to the communities in which they operate.

For years his business engagements have been numerous

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

and exacting, but they have never been allowed to obscure the public welfare in his mind, and he has taken an earnest interest and an active part in public affairs from the dawn of lis manhood. The interest he manifested in the well being of Wisconsin while residing in that state has been duplicated in his fidelity to the substantial good of Minnesota since he began to live here. No line of advancement for the city in which he has his home or the state of which it is the metropolis has been overlooked or neglected by him, and his support of all undertakings to promote it has always been zealous and energetie, but has been guided by intelligence and good judgment.

Senator Dwinnell has been especially cordial and active in his interest in good government and his efforts to aid in seeuring it. He exerted himself with animation and foree.in behalf of the dircet primary law of 1899, and also in behalf of the anti-trust law enacted the same year. His wisdom and zeal in connection with eivie affairs so impressed the people of his neighborhood that in the fall of 1910 he was elected to the state senate from his district, the Fortieth, and in the three sessions of the legislature which have been held since his election he has fully justified the publie confidence expressed in his election and rendered his district and the whole state good service by the broad view he has taken of publie questions and the enterprise and intelligence with which he has striven to make the legislation of the sessions progressive and ministrant to the welfare of all classes of citizens and all public agencies for good.

Prior to his election to the senate, however, he served the Commercial elub for a number of years as a member of its committee on publie affairs, of which he was vice chairman in 1906. He belongs also to the Minneapolis, Minikalıda, La Fayette and Six O'Clock elnbs, the American and Minnesota State Bar associations, and the American Economie associa- tion. On April 24, 1889, he was married to Miss Virginia Ingman. They have four elrildren, and all the members of the family attend St. Mark's Episcopal church, of which the senator is one of the vestrymen, and in the work of which he is active.

EDWARD WILLIAMS DECKER.

Edward W. Decker, president of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, furnishes in his career a striking illus- tration. He inherited strong and useful traits of character from his ancestors, but he has been strong in himself inde- pendent of those traits, and his environment has had no other effeet on his eourse than to give him the opportunity to show his native powers and make his surroundings subservient to them. His scholastic education never went beyond a high school course, and that has had only a general bearing on his business career. The forees that have made that career possible and wrought it out were of him and within him, and no outside influence is entitled to eredit for them.

Mr. Deeker is a native son of Minnesota, and has never wandered far from his native heath. He was born at Austin, this state, on August 24, 1869, a son of Jacob S. and Mary Ann H. (Smith) Deeker, both of sturdy Holland Duteh ancestry. The progenitors of the American branch of the family came to this country early in its colonial history and located on the Hudson river in New York where the picturesque village of

Esopus now stands. About 1720 the representatives of the house living at that time moved to the New Jersey side of the Delaware, and at Flatbrookville on that historie river Edward W. Decker's parents were born, and there they grew to maturity and were married.

Soon after their marriage they came to Minnesota and took up their residence on a farm near Austin in Mower county. On this farm their son Edward passed his boyhood and youth, attending the district school in the winter and working on the farm in the summer. Later he entered the high school at Austin, from which he was graduated in 1887. Directly after leaving the high school he sought the larger opportunities offered for his talents in Minneapolis, and began his business career as messenger in the Northwestern National Bank of this eity.

He showed such unusual aptitude for the banking business, that he was rapidly promoted to higher positions of trust and responsibility, and on September 13, 1895, was elected assistant eashier of the Metropolitan Bank, and the next year was ehosen its eashier. He was still demonstrating his ability, and on December 8, 1900, was called back to the Northwestern National Bank to serve it as cashier.

While his position after the elrange was in the same class as before, it was nevertheless a promotion, for the Northi- western was a larger institution than the Metropolitan, and its cashiership carried weightier duties and responsibilities than the same position in the latter. On July 1, 1903, he was elected vice president and general manager of the North- western National Bank, one of the most responsible banking positions in the city, and also rendered the bank excellent service as one of its directors.

Besides giving elose and careful attention to his duties in the Northwestern National Bank, as he has always done in every line of endeavor and every business connection, he was prudent in the management of his private affairs, and soon acquired interests in other institutions. On May 10, 1910, he was elected president of the Minnesota Loan and Trust company of Minneapolis, an offshoot of the Northwestern National Bank, and on January 1, 1912, was made president of the bank, a position he has filled with marked ability and general approval ever since.

Mr. Deeker is also vice president of the Minneapolis Clear- ing House Association, and a director of the Northwestern National Life Insurance company of Minneapolis, and has long been a leading member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commeree, a director of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion and a member of the Twin City Bankers' Club, of which he was president for a time. And is also a director of the Twin City Rapid Transit Co.

For a number of years Mr. Deeker has held valued and serviceable membership in tlre Minneapolis elub, the Com- mereial elub and the Minikahda elub of his home eity, and through them has contributed directly and materially to en- larging and enlivening the social life of his community. He has been warmly and helpfully interested in fraternal activ- ities too as a Freemason of the Thirty-second degree, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and has taken an active part in the doings of the order in all its branches and organizations from the foot of the mystie ladder to the great height to which he has aseended in it.

In these lines of association with his fellow men he has also found pleasure and profit in active membership in the Automobile club of Minneapolis, the Minneapolis Society of

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Fine Arts, the Minnesota Society of New York, the Chicago, Heron Lake Lodge and Six O'Clock clubs, the National Geo- graphical Society and John A. Rawlins Post, Grand Army of the Republic, in the last of which he is on the Citizens Staff. In fact, no phase of usefulness in the life of his home com- munity has been without his active aid and inspiring encour- agement, and in matters of public improvement and general welfare he has always been zealous, energetic and of great service.

On February 24, 1892, Mr. Decker was united in marriage with Miss Susie May Spaulding, a daughter of W. A. Spauld- ing, one of the old settlers of Minneapolis, a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic and distinguished for his military service in the Second Battalion, Light Artillery. Five children have been born of the union, all of whom are living. They are: Edward Spaulding, Margaret, Katharine, Susan and Elizabeth. The parents are Congregationalists and enrolled in the Plymouth Church congregation of that sect.

J. W. DREGER.

John William Dreger is one of the most solid of the citizens of Minneapolis who mark with pride their descent from ancestors of good old German birth. Possessing all this loyalty to family traditions, Mr. Dreger is distinguished by that other characteristic of the Teutonic stock-love of country and interest in the duties of citizenship, and there- fore has been among the foremost residents of the city in seeking realization of high ideals.

Bergholtz, Niagara County, New York, was the birthplace of J. W. Dreger. He was horn March 23, 1846, the son of John W. and Louisa Dreger. His father was a farmer who had come, with the good wife, from Pasewald, near Stettin, Pomerania, Germany, in 1843. It was in a settlement of men and women of his own nationality that the migrating farmer in search of the better things a free country offered made his home.

And it was in the German Lutheran schools which the neighborhood established that the son ohtained the foundation for his education. Until he was fourteen years old young Dreger divided his time between the school and the farm life which was part of the education of all farmers' sons in those earlier days. Then for three years the boy, given the best that the ambitious father could provide for him, and which he himself could gain, had the good fortune to be enrolled as a student in Martin Luther College, in Buffalo, New York. In 1863 young Dreger taught a German school in Walmore, in the county of his birth, and some of his most interesting reminiscences are of his life as a teacher.

From the school Mr. Dreger went into commercial pursuits. His first experience was as a salesman in a retail lumber yard in Buffalo, work to which he turned when the school year ended. And there he continued in the work of a lumber salesman until the late sixties, when, like many another young man in the East, he began to look toward the West. Finally he came to Minnesota and became at once a resident of Minneapolis.

In this city lumber then vied with flour milling as one of the chief industries. And Mr. Dreger's experience in the lumber business in Buffalo stood him in good stead. For two

years, 1868-9, he was a lumber salesman and surveyor in Minneapolis lumber yards.

From 1887 to 1902 Mr. Dreger was a member of the firm of E. Eichhorn and Sons. And he was as one of the sons, for he married a daughter of Mr. Eichhorn on May 4, 1887.

All this time Mr. Dreger was taking part, as a citizen, in the civic and political affairs of the city. He held member- ship in many civic organizations, and he took a deep interest in the cause of good government. In 1900 and 1901 he served as president of the Board of Arbitration and Conciliation and made a fine record.

Thus it came about that in the spring of 1902, when a sheriff of Hennepin 'county was to be appointed to fill a vacancy caused by a resignation, and when the affairs of the office were in critical condition, the people of Minneapolis who were taking the most interest in the matter of good government selected Mr. Dreger as the man who in their opinion was best fitted, by reason of his integrity and honesty of purpose, to carry on that important office. And so he was appointed on March 10, 1902. So when the election came that fall and people had come to know their trust had been justified, Mr. Dreger was nominated and elected sheriff of the county. He was re-elected in 1904 and again in 1906, and there is little doubt that he might have continued in the oflice had he so desired.

An important change in the conduct of the office was made in 1902 when Mr. Dreger was appointed to the office. The old and iniquitous fee system was aholished and the office was placed firmly on a salary basis. This fixed salary system made many changes necessary under the law, and upon Mr. Dreger fell the duty of making the changes. That he carried them out satisfactorily is shown in his re-election to the office.

It was in 1908 that Mr. Dreger began to long for the more peaceful ways of private life, undisturbed by any of the stren- uous demands of the sheriff's office. And he finally retired from office, against the pleadings of a great number of friends who had come to value highly his services and his unquestioned probity. He resumed his interest in the firm of Eichhorn, and gave over his whole attention to business matters. He found time, shortly, however, to journey to the land of his father's birth in 1908 and again in 1912, and to visit many scenes made familiar to him in fancy hy the tales of his mother and father in his childhood.

Mr. Dreger is a man of essentially sociable tastes. In response to such calls he is a member of a large number of organizations which have varied purposes, along with their social phases. Among these are the Liederkrantz Singing Society, Apollo Club, the Gymnastic Union, the Teutonia Kegel Club, the German Society of Minneapolis and the Ameri- can Branch of St. Paul, the German Home School Society and other similar organizations. In addition, he is a member of the Masonic order.

Mr. Dreger's wife, who was Miss Ottilie J. Eichhorn before her marriage, and who was a devoted helpmate to him in the social and civic life in which he participated and was a member of the German Deutsch, Damen Verein Charitable Society and other charitable associations, died in June, 1905.

Mr. Dregen took a special interest in the criminal work while serving as sheriff of Hennepin county. He was a mem- ber of the National Prison Association during the incumbency of his office six years and was at the head of the State, the Interstate and National Sheriffs' Associations, serving as president in each of the named associations.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Since his retirement from office the ex-sheriff has been honored by the appointment to the place of vice president for the State of Minnesota each year, and is known among the sheriff's in the United States and Canada as the Father of the Association, for it was through his consistent and energetic work that the formerly Interstate Sheriffs' Associa- tion, comprising only twelve of the Northwestern States in the year 1902 took in each state in the Union and the Domin- ion of Canada, and was proclaimed in 1912 as the International Sheriffs' Association. Mr. Dreger attends the conventions regularly each year and enjoys meeting sheriff's, ex-sheriffs and friends.

OLIVER CROMWELL WYMAN.

Oliver C. Wyman, who has been one of the leading business men of Minneapolis during all of the last forty years, was born at Anderson, Indiana, in January, 1837. His parents were Henry and Prudence (Berry) Wyman, the former a native of New York state who located at Anderson when Indiana was but sparsely settled. The mother also belonged to a family of pioneers in that region. She died only a few months after her son Oliver was born.

When the son was but seven years old he was taken by his maternal grandmother to what was then the territory of Iowa. There he was sent to a country school and from that obtained such an education as it could give him. He did not scek advanced scholastic training. for he had the mercantile spirit strong within him at an early age, and manifested an ardent desire to begin a business career. This he was allowed to do at Marion, lowa, where he remained in business until 1874. That year he disposed of his interests there and came to Minneapolis.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 68

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