Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 77

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 77

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At this time William F. Fruen was made secretary of the new company and his father, William H. Fruen, retired.

When the Glenwood-Inglewood company was incorporated, seven delivery teams were sufficient to mect its require- ments. It is now obliged to use thirty-three, and delivers about 3,000,000 gallons annually, employing regularly more than seventy persons. The capital stock of the company in · 1904 was $50,000. In 1910 this was increased to $250,000, and, in 1912 the large store and office building which the company now owns at 911 and 913 Hennepin avenue, was erected. W. F. Fruen was made president of the company in 1904 and is also president of the Fruen Cereal company of Minneapolis.

Mr. Fruen is an active member of Calvary Methodist Episco- pal church and has been superintendent of Sunday school for fifteen years. He also belongs to the Royal Arcanum, the Auto, Rotary, and Athletic clubs, the Young Men's Christian Association and the Philharmonic and Fine Arts societies, and takes an active and serviceable interest in each. On May 20, 1896, he was married to Miss Jessie Confer. She died in 1904, leaving three children, Kenneth L., Helen M. and John Donald, all of whom are still members of the parental family circle.

REYNALDO J. FITZGERALD, M. D.

Dr. Reynaldo J. Fitzgerald was born in Chinindagua, Nicar- agua, Central America, September 15, 1853. At that time his father C. C. Fitzgerald, was an American consul in Nicaragua, and was also engaged in civil and mining engineering and mine development work for American capitalists. The consul was a native of Oswego county, New York, and a graduate of Union College. He spent twenty-two years in Central and South America, giving some years, after his service as a diplomatist in Nicaragua, to gold mine development in Vene- zuela. Finally he returned to the United States, continuing as an engineer in New York, and becoming extensively interested in mining in Arizona and New Mexico.

His son, R. J. Fitzgerald, was sent to the father's native State as soon as he was old enough to go to school. He attended Seabury Military Institute in Saybrooke, Connecticut, and Claverack Military Institute, in New York. Then he became a student in Albany Medical College, a department of Union College. He was graduated in 1882 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine and came to Minneapolis the same year. Here he decided to enter upon the practice of his profession, emphasizing surgery. He became especially associated with certain manufacturing interests as surgeon, and soon built up an extensive practice. What was more important, he became an exceptionally popular man in the life of the community.

Dr. Fitzgerald was possessed in no small degree of a military

spirit, and soon after coming to Minneapolis joined the Minne- sota National Guard. In 1884 lie was made surgeon of the First Regiment, and so continued until the time of his death. It was in his capacity as regimental surgeon that, at the time of the wreck of the excursion steamer and barges on Lake Pepin in 1888 he repaired with his company of the National Guard to render assistance. His services on that occasion indelibly endeared him to many persons with whom lic came in contact.

When, in 1898, the First Regiment Minnesota National Guard, became the Thirteenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and was ordered to Manila, Dr. Fitzgerald went as its surgeon. In time he was made division surgeon of the Eighth Army Corps, with the rank of major. In this position Major Fitzgerald made many friends among the regular army officers, who tried to prevail upon him to remain in the service after the departure of his regiment. But he chose to return to Minneapolis with the Thirteenth Minnesota, and after the reorganization of the Minnesota National Guard he resumed his old position as surgeon of the First Regiment, a position which he continued to hold until his death. Dr. Fitzgerald had contracted malaria while in Manila, and death was the result.

Dr. Fitzgerald was an active member of the Sons of the Revolution, his great-grandfather having been a Revolutionary soldier, and as his grandfather fought in the War of 1812, the military line of the family may be said to have been carried down to the present generation. Dr. Fitzgerald was a member of the Masonic order and of the Knights of Pythias. He was also a member of Gethsemane Episcopal church. His widow, whose maiden name was Eleanor Bradley, survives him.

SIMON PETER SNYDER.

Becoming a resident of Minneapolis in 1855, or rather of St. Anthony, as the part of the city on the East side of the river was then called, a young man of twenty-nine, and at once taking hold of the interests of the new community whose growing fame had won him to its midst, Simon P. Snyder became a leading factor in the growth, development and improvement of the metropolis of Minnesota very early in its history and his own. It was young blood, enterprising, energetic, full of life, resourceful, self-reliant and daring that the Northwest needed, and in becoming a part of its force for advancement he not only entered his own proper field, but gave it a potency and directing hand full of benefit for its residents and highly appreciated by them. In his "Personal Recollections of Minnesota" Colonel Stevens says: "Probably to Messrs. Snyder & MacFarland are the citizens of Minne- apolis more indebted than to any others for the rapid progress made in the early industries on the west side of the falls."

Mr. Snyder was born in the town of Somerset, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, on April 14, 1826. He was of German ancestry, his grandfather having come to this country from Gerhardstbrum, Germany, and located in Maryland near the close of the eighteenth century. He afterward moved to Somerset county, Pennsylvania, and settled permanently. The grandfather obtained title to one-half of the land on which the town of Somerset was afterward built, and when the time came for the erection of a court house and a public school house in the settlement he gave half the land required

@Simon 9. Inyour

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

for the purpose, including in his donation enough for a Lutheran church, the Lutherans being the sect in which he had been reared and to which he belonged.

Simon P. Snyder is the son of John A. and Elizabeth (Shaffer) Snyder, and was the third of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, whose mother lived to see them all married. Three of the daughters are still living. Simon had such educational opportunities and facilities as were provided by the district schools of his day and locality, but began the battle of life for himself in his early youth. At the age of fourteen he became a clerk in a general store kept by one of his uncles, and in that he served as an employe for three years. At the end of that period he was given full charge of the store and the Berkley flouring mill, which he managed for his uncle successfully and profitably two years. He then bought the store, which he owned and conducted for four years on his own account, greatly enlarging its trade and extending its popularity.

In 1850 Mr. Snyder sold his store and other interests in Pennsylvania and journeyed by team, by way of Wheeling and Columbus, to Springfield, Ohio, where another uncle, John L. Snyder, was living and engaged in general merchan- dising. The young voyager had his heart set on the Farther West, as it was then, and drove on to Peoria, Illinois. When he reached that town he found awaiting him a letter from his Uncle John urging him to return to Springfield and buy the store. The invitation was accepted, Mr. Snyder drove back to Springfield, bought the store and kept it until 1855, when he again sold out and came on to Minneapolis, arriving in May.

Directly after reaching this city the newcomer formed a partnership with W. K. MacFarland for the purpose of lo- cating and dealing in lands. Until the ensuing autumn he had his office with O. Curtis on Main street, St. Anthony, about where the Pillsbury A mill now stands. In September, 1855, the firm built an office on Bridge Square, directly across the street from the Pauly house, where its enterprising members continued their land business and also opened the first banking house. in Minneapolis. Two years later Levi L. Cook joined the firm, which then became Snyder, MacFar- land & Cook.

Prior to this time, however, and soon after his arrival in the city, Mr. Snyder bought eighty acres of land near Nicollet avenue and Tenth street, which he platted as "Snyder's First Addition to Minneapolis." He paid $100 an acre for this land. It is now worth several millions. His interest in the welfare of his new home was manifest from the beginning of his residence here. In 1856, 1857 and 1858 he was treas- urer of the Minnesota Agricultural Society, and during his occupancy of this office the first state fair was held, the ground now covered by the public library building and the First Baptist church being used for the purpose.

Other evidences of the public spirit of this progressive citizen were soon given. In 1862 he established the first auction and storage room in the city and in 1876 built the first warehouse for the storage of overtime railroad freight. During the Indian outbreak in 1862 he and Anson Northrup organized a volunteer company of one hundred and forty men to go to tlie relief of New Ulm and Fort Ridgeley. Mr. Northrup was captain and Mr. Snyder first lieutenant of this company, in which each man furnished his horse and equip- ment. The company proceeded to St. Peter and reported to

General Sibley, the commander-in-chief, who had then about 1,400 armed men at that point.

The company was detained at St. Peter two days and be- came very restless on account of the delay. Captain Northrup and Lieutenant Snyder waited in person on General. Sibley, and asked leave to proceed with their company at once in advance of the general movement. General Sibley said: "] cannot grant you the privilege, but if you wish to go you will have to do so at your own peril." When this was re- ported to the company it decided to proceed at once. The men mounted their horses and made a midnight ride, arriving safely at the fort at sunrise next morning, one day ahead of the main column, bringing the first relief and great joy to the little garrison.

Mr. Snyder lived in Minneapolis continuously for fifty- eight years. He was vigorous, active and in good health until a few months before his death, which occurred Aug. 19, 1913. On August 21, 1856, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Ramsey, who was born in Springfield, Ohio, on February 21, 1832, a daughter of Alexander and Jane (Stephenson) Ram- sey. Her grandfather came from Ireland and was well edu- cated, being a good Latin scholar and well versed in other liberal branches of learning. Her mother was a Kentuckian and a cousin of George Stephenson, the inventor of the steam engine. Mr. and Mrs. Snyder's first home in Minneapolis was in the first frame house built on the west side of the river by Colonel Stevens. This house was where the Union station now stands, but has been placed in Minnehaha Park within recent years. Frank C. and Fred B. Snyder, the first two of the three children of the household, were born in this house. The third child, Mary C. Snyder, was born in a cottage on the hill; now a part of Bridge Square. The present Snyder residence is at 410 Tenth street south, where the family has resided since 1876.

In their long record of service to the community these two venerable persons have been high examples of noble manhood and womanhood, and have devoted ability, culture and good citizenship to the public weal and to high ideals of domestic life.

WALTER V. FIFIELD.

On July 25. 1911, after a residence of twenty-one years in the city, Walter V. Fifield, a prominent lawyer and one of the founders of the Attorneys National Clearing House and publisher's of the Clearing House Quarterly, died, thus end- ing a life of usefulness extending over fifty-five years. He was born in Dubuque, Iowa, February 25, 1856, a scion of old New England stock that "built a church on every hillside and a school house in every valley."

He obtained an academic education at Grinnell College, then studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Geneva, Nebraska. In 1890, he moved to Minneapolis, and in asso- ciation with his brother, James C. Fifield, and Henry J. Fletcher, organized the law firm of Fifield, Fletcher & Fifield, with offices in the Minneapolis Bank building,' later in the Lumber Exchange and finally in the Andrus building. His preference was commercial law, and he was one of the first members of the Commercial Law League of America.

In September, 1894, in association with his brother James he founded the Attorneys National Clearing House, and in

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

January, 1895, published the first number of the Clearing House Quarterly. This magazine is devoted to the interests of lawyers, credit men and bankers; and has become an important influence in business life. In its pages, Mr. Fifield found expression for his stimulating views on topics con- nected with commercial, civic, social and legal questions, his contributions being a strong factor in winning for it an enviable and widespread reputation.

For some years a zealous member of the Fifth Avenue Congregational church and afterward of the Lowry Hill congregation, Mr. Fifield labored with diligence and effective- ness, helping liberally to build a church edifice and to main- tain all benevolences and to promote the general welfare of the community. His was a strong personality, quick, posi- tive, full of feeling, alive with keen business faculties and endowed with large executive ability. He was ever true to his friends, responsive to appeals from old associates and sedulous in doing good to otliers. By his old companions he was most deeply missed and mourned, and all who knew him lamented his carly demise.

Mr. Fifield was married in August, 1879, at Geneva, Ne- braska, to Miss Annie M. Richardson, of Chicago. She died September 23, 1908, leaving three children: Gertrude, wife of B. A. Fulmer, Albert W. and Walter W. On November 19, 1910, the father contracted a second marriage with Miss Elizabeth Wainman, daughter of the late C. P. Wainman, who still survives.

DR. DON F. FITZGERALD.

Dr. Don F. Fitzgerald, who is also a resident of Minne- apolis, was born in Nicaragua, Nov. 27, 1867. During the ten years before he entered his fifteenth year, he at- tended school in New Orleans, and then went to the Albany Military Academy, Albany, New York. He also attended and finished at a preparatory school in Brooklyn, and later, in 1885, joined his brother in Minneapolis. He worked for a time for the Minneapolis Hardware Company, and then entered the employ of the Nicollet National Bank. After a time, too, he began to read medicine in the office of his brother, Dr. R. J. Fitzgerald. He had joined the First Regiment, Minnesota National Guard, and upon its conversion to the Thirteenth Minnesota, in 1898, he passed from private to Lieutenant of Company B. He served with this rank in the Philippines, and had several important details on special service. At one time he was quartermaster of the Regiment at the convalescent hospital in Manila. He went into the field with his company when the insurrection broke out, and remained in this service until the regiment was ordered home, after having taken part in twenty-one engagements.

On his return from the Islands, he finished his medical course, graduating from the College of Medicine of the Uni- versity of Minnesota in 1903. He went into practice with his brother, continuing until the latter's death, and has since continued in the same practice. After graduating, he again entered the First Regiment, and succeeded his brother as Surgeon Major of the regiment.

In 1902 he married Isabel Bradley, of Minneapolis, and they have three children. His wife is a prominent member of church clubs and is active also in women's literary clubs, as well as being an accomplished musician. Mrs. Fitzgerald is

also well known for her musical talent, and has long been a member of the Philharmonic Club. The Doctor is a member of the Minneapolis Athletic Club, the Knights of Pythias, as well as of the Sons of the Revolution. He holds membership in the various organizations of his profession. He is an Episcopalian, and a member of Gethsemane Episcopal Church.

J. WALKER GODWIN.

The Penn Mutual Life Insurance company has more money invested in loans on Minneapolis property than any two other companies combined. This fact is due almost wholly to two impelling 'causes. One is that the leading officials of the company have great and abiding faith in the future of this city and the steadfastness of its progress and property values; and the other is that it has here, in the person of J. Walker Godwin, one of its two general agents, a strong persuasive foree and an excellent judgment at work for its interests and the promotion of its business.

Mr. Godwin is a Philadelphia gentleman of the old school, with all the polish and deep-seated courtesy of the best society of the Quaker City and a very large measure of business capacity. He has been one of the Penn Mutual's most successful insurance writers and become thoroughly familiar with all phases of the company's business opera- tions. He also is a great believer in Minneapolis, and has settled down here as a permanent resident. He connects him- self closely in a serviceable way with all the best interests of the city and its residents, is an active member of the Minne- apolis club and takes a very helpful part in the work of St. Mark's Episcopal church. His wife, to whom he has been married since coming to Minneapolis, was formerly Miss Frances Stockton of Jacksonville, Florida.

THOMAS DAGGS SKILES.

Reared and trained in the business tenets, methods and scope of operations current in one of the oldest States on the Atlantic slope, and very successful there in the application of them, the late Thomas Daggs Skiles of Minneapolis showed, after his advent in this part of the country, that he pos- sessed the ready adaptability that made him at home in any business environment and enabled him to meet the require- ments of business operations on any scale of magnitude. The whole atmosphere of the business world here was different from that to which he had been accustomed, and the range of its transactions included features and magnitudes entirely new to him. But he took his place in its most active currents of trade with perfect poise, and at once and completely grasped their full import and made them subservient to his will and his advancement.

Mr. Skiles was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on Decem- ber 5, 1832, the son of Isaac and Harriett (Daggs) Skiles, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Virginia. The father was a merchant, and his son Thomas, after an irregular attendance at the district schools in his neighbor- hood, entered the store as a clerk and salesman at the age of fifteen years. He remained in the store with his father until the death of the latter, and then succeeded him in the owner-

Thomas & Stiles

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

ship and management of the business. The store was the largest and most prominent one in the city of Uniontown, and its business, which had long been very extensive and active, was still further expanded after the son became proprietor of it. He did not, however, devote himself exclusively to its demands. During the Civil war he served in the Pennsylvania Reserves, which were kept in readiness for field service at any time, if that should be required of them.

In October, 1872, Mr. Skiles came to Minneapolis in company with his brother Isaac, who had been a banker in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. They had Duluth in mind as the place of their residence in this state, but in a visit to Minneapolis they were so well pleased with the city and its business prospects that they decided to remain here. Isaac, however, lived a retired life, not engaging in any very active pursuits. He died in this city in 1877, leaving six daughters, three of whom are still residents of Minneapolis. They are Mrs. E. H. Moulton, Mrs. R. H. Newlon and Mrs Franklin Benner, and are all well known and highly esteemed

Thomas D. Skiles bought 110 feet of land on Nicollet ave- nue at the corner of Fifth street and erected on his purchase the building that is still standing on that corner. He bought the lot for $11,000 about 1874, and in 1912 the improved property was sold to Mr. Sears, of Chicago, for $500,000. Mr. Skiles also bought, in 1873, eighty-two feet on Nicollet between Sixth and Seventh streets, and on this lot he had his home until 1883, when he put up on it the Skiles block, which was erected in connection with the Lindlay block. In addition to these purchases Mr. Skiles bought property at the intersec- tion of Washington and Thirteenth avenues south. He died on March 4, 1888, at the corner of Seventh street and Fifth avenue south, where he had lived for several years.

Being a devout Presbyterian in religious faith, Mr. Skiles was an active and serviceable attendant of Westminster church of that sect. For many years Rev. Dr. Sample was his pastor, but at the time of his death Rev. Dr. Burrell was in charge of the congregation. Mr. Skiles was also one of the original members of the Minneapolis club and belonged to the Cham- ber of Commerce. He was married in 1869, in Washington, D. C., to Miss Kate Watkins, at the time a resident of that city. She is still living, a lady of superior intellectual attain- ments, fine social culture and pleasing and productive public spirit. She is active in the work of Westminster Presbyterian church and takes a cordial and helpful interest in the welfare of the Minikahda and Lafayette clubs, to both of which she belongs. A great deal of her time is now passed in the state of California, where she has hosts of friends, as she also has in Minneapolis.

Mr. and Mrs. Skiles became the parents of four children. William, their first born, died in 1896, at the age of twenty- five. Helen, who became the wife of Hon. Allen Wright, a judge in McAlester, Oklahoma, died in that city in December, 1912. The other two children, Alvin V. and Thomas D., are in the real estate and insurance business, and have their offices in the Skiles block. 'Their father was a member of the firm of Skiles & Newlon, brokers and railroad ticket agents, whose offices were in the Nicollet House block. They operated extensively and had a very profitable business, and both were men of commanding influence in business circles in the city. Mr. Skiles was also earnestly and actively interested in the development and improvement of the city, and one of the leaders of thought and enterprise in promoting its growth and welfare. He died at the age of fifty-five, while his usefulness

was at its height, and his untimely demise was universally lamented, for he was regarded as one of the most estimable and serviceable citizens Minneapolis had. He was a director of the First National Bank some years and was at the time of his death.

FRANK WILLIAM FORMAN.

Frank W. Forman, for twenty-seven years an active glass manufacturer as president of Forman, Ford & Co., of Minne- apolis, was born in Oneida county, New York, November 21, 1835, and died in this city May 22, 1910. During the first twenty years of manhood he was engaged in general mer- chandising at Leroy, New York, and came to Minneapolis in April, 1883. He had previously visited this city and St. Paul, becoming captivated by the locality and prospects of business advancement. He engaged in real estate opera- tions for a few years, laying out additions to the city, one of which was the Cottage City addition at Lake Calhoun, the thriving future of which he clearly foresaw.

In 1886, he turned his attention to the wholesale glass business as a member of the firm of Forman & Ford. Bird- well & Ford had established the business some six years pre- viously and in 1884, Frank B. Forman, son of Frank Wm., purchased Mr. Birdwell's interest and William E. Steele be- came a partner, the firm becoming the Steele, Forman & Ford. Frank W. was the active manager of the business whose operations were increased to include the manufacture of art and stained glass mirrors and other high-class prod- ucts. The business conducted under the name of Forman, Ford & Company is still one of the leading ones of its line in the country. As president of the company he had added a paint factory to its other departments, erected a new building on Second street south between First and Second avenues, had extended the trade over the whole Northwest, and had made constantly increasing gains in business. Frank W. For- man was an active and controlling force in the business until death. He had also established and was president of the Northern Linseed Oil Company, at Midway. His son Frank died in 1905, and he continued in charge as the head of the company, also becoming interested in a company which erected a large number of buildings in Winnipeg where it made many other improvements. He was always enthusiastic in the growth of Minneapolis, and saw its progress surpass his earlier expectations. His religious connection was with St. Mark's Episcopal church, of which he was a vestryman and warden for a number of years. He was also for some years a trustee of St. Mary's School, at Faribault, being much interested in its work and that of the church. He was widely read, and, althoughi a great lover of home, enjoyed travel with his wife, visiting China and Japan and Europe, inspecting temples, cathedrals, historic buildings and other scenes of interest.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 77

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