Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 79

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 79

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After the close of the Civil war the colonel engaged in business in Ohio for four years, during the last one serving also as a professor in Kenyon College at Gambier in that state. In 1869 he was elected president of the University of Minnesota, and he held that position with renowned credit to himself and great benefit to the institution until 1884, a continuous period of fifteen years. At the end of that period he resigned the presidency in order to gratify his strong desire for classroom work, and took the chair of political science in the University, which he continued to occupy until 1907, when he severed his connection with the institution for the purpose of engaging more extensively in literary work.

Dr. Folwell's ability and high character received early and continuous recognition in this state in the most extensive and creditable way. In 1876 he was Centennial Commissioner for the state. From 1882 to 1892 he was president of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts. For eighteen years from 1889 he was a member of the city park board, and from 1894 to 1901 its president. He was also chairman of the State Board of Correction and Charities from 1895 to 1901, and president of the Minneapolis Improvement League from 1902 to 1905. In 1892 he was acting president of the American Economic Association. In 1883 he passed his examinations and was admitted to the Hennepin county bar. On March 14, 1863, he was married in Buffalo, New York, to Miss Sarah Hubbard Heywood.

Valuable as his services have been in other lines of endeavor, Dr. Folwell is best known and most highly esteemed for what he did to establish the University of Minnesota and promote its growth. The University was most fortunate in securing such a man for the period of its organization. At the time of his election to the presidency the American university as it is today was unknown. He looked into the future and determined to make the Minnesota institution a

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

university in faet, and planned to make it also a part of a system of general publie instruction for the state. Born and reared on a farm; a graduate of a good college; with his education supplemented by study and travel abroad and his professorships at Hobart and Kenyon; with four years' service in the Civil war-with the benefit of all these broadening influences, he came to Minnesota at the age of thirty-six, young enough to be full of energy and initiative, and not old enough to have lost any youthful enthusiasms or sympathies. He put all his resources into his work here, and he started the University on a broad and firm foundation on which it has grown to its present magnitude, power and usefulness, an inevitable result of the wisdom of his plan.

FRED BEAL SNYDER.

Fred Beal Snyder, prominent member of the Minneapolis bar and well known citizen of the state, is a native of this city, born February 21, 1859. His father, Simon P. Snyder, was a native of Pennsylvania and traced his ancestry to the old Dutch family of Schneiders who figured in the colonial his- tory of that commonwealth. His mother was of Scotch lineage, a descendant of the houses of Ramsey and Stephen- son. Simon P. Snyder came to Minneapolis in 1855, and lived for a time in the first house erected in the village, known as the Colonel Stevens house, which was built in 1849 on the present site of the Union station. The birth of Fred Beal Snyder, the second son of the family, occurred in this historic edifice. He received his early education in the village schools and after completing his course of study there, entered the University of Minnesota, where his career was marked by the success and ability which have attended all his activities. In recognition of his attainments in scholarship he was elected to the honorary society of Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a member of the Chi Psi fraternity. After graduating from the University in 1881 he secured a position in a book store, receiving for his services a weekly compensation of $4.00. At this time he began to prepare himself for the legal profes- sion, finding time from his duties as a clerk to study law in the office of Lochren, McNair & Gilfillan. He later continued his studies with the firm of Koon, Merrill & Keith and was admitted to the bar in 1882. His first practice was in partner- ship with Judge Jamison, a connection which was maintained from 1882 to 1889. His legal career has been characterized by a steady and substantial growth, and his standing at the bar for integrity and truth is unsurpassed. He has been identified as attorney with many of the important cases of the state, winning particular distinction in that of the State vs. Pillsbury in which he overturned a provision of the city charter relating to special assessments for local improve- ments and in his defense of the Torrens Land Law, of which he was the author, in the suit of the State vs. Westfall. Mr. Snyder has rendered conspicuous service to his fellow citizens in many positions of public trust and honor where his influence and energies were persistently devoted to the best interests of the public. He was elected alderman in 1892 and for four years was president of the city council. By virtue of this office he assumed leadership in the con- . troversy between the city and the Minneapolis Gas & Light company and it is to his untiring effort at this time that the public owe the reduction in the rate of gas rent and

the authorship and passage of the ordinance creating and regulating the office of gas inspector. In 1896 he was called upon to represent the university district in the legislature and after serving as a member of the House for two years was elected to the Senate for a term of four years. He de- clined reelection to a sceond term as senator. As a member of the two legislative bodies of the state he displayed his usual administrative ability and capacity for public service and was actively identified with the work of law making, introducing the bill inercasing the annual revenue of the state university, the board of control bill and assumed the fight for the bill for the increase of the gross earning tax from three to four per cent in the Senate. The probation law for juvenile offenders was introduced and passed by him. Mr. Snyder was married, September 23, 1885, to Miss Susan M. Pillsbury, daughter of the late Ex-Governor John S. Pillsbury. Mrs. Snyder died in 1891, leaving one son, John Pillsbury Snyder. Mr. Snyder contracted his second marriage February 18, 1896, with Miss Leonora Dickson of Pittsburg. They have one daughter, Mary-Stuart Snyder. Mr. Snyder is a Republican and holds membership in the principal social clubs of the city. He is a member of the board of regents of the University of Minnesota. He was one of the organizers of Civic & Commerce Association of Minneapolis. He drafted its constitution and was its first secretary. The association has done much to advance the general growth and prosperity of Minneapolis along all lines of commercial and moral progress.

His favorite recreation and pleasure is found in the attrac- tions of out door life and he spends much of his leisure time at his attractive home at Lake Minnetonka. Mr. Snyder attends St. Mark's and has been a member of its Board of Vestry for the past three years.

CHARLES STEVENS FAY.

Although but seven years a resident of Minneapolis the late Charles S. Fay, who died January, 1, 1905, made a deep and lasting impression on business circles by his superior capacity and enterprise as a business man, and upon the community in general by elevated manhood, cordial interest in local affairs, highly useful citizenship and genuine worth in all public and private relations.

Mr. Fay was a native of New England and exhibited in his successful career the salient elements of character which distinguish that section of the country. He was born at Walpole, New Hampshire, July 17, 1849. When he was six years old his parents, Oliver and Deborah (Perkins) Fay, removed to Stoughton, Dane county, Wisconsin. The father was a farmer there some twelve years, when he changed his residence to Osage, Iowa, where both he and his wife passed the remainder of their days.

Charles was educated in the district schools and by instruc- tion at home, ever anticipating an early start in business for himself. At nineteen he joined M. A. Sprague in the management of a retail lumber yard at Osage, four years later starting a yard at Rockford, Iowa, in partnership with a Mr. Emerson. The railroad having just been completed to that town, the business of the firm was active and prosperous. At the end of one year Mr. Fay bought his partner's interest, and continued the ownership until his death. He also owned

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

one at Northwood, Worth county, Iowa, and with his brother, E. P. Fay, acquired and operated one at Osage.

Mr. Fay came to Minneapolis in July, 1898, to secure better educational advantages for his children. Soon after he formed a partnership with W. D. Morrison in the wholesale lumber trade. This partnership lasted several years and did an extensive and profitable business. Late in 1904 Mr. Fay formed a partnership with William Moss, a nephew. An office was selected and furnished, and all the arrangements necessary for starting the business were made, when the premature death of Mr. Fay ended the operations.

After removal to Minneapolis he continued to do the buying for his yards in Iowa, though they were operated by managers and have since passed to other hands. In addition to his lumber business he had interests in banks in Rockford, Mason City and Garner, Iowa. He became the largest stockholder in the Mason City bank, owning a controlling interest. His holdings in the bank at Rockford are still retained by his family.

In political affairs Mr. Fay was an ardent Republican and a worker for the success of his party. During his residence in Iowa he was of prominence and influence in party councils frequently serving as a delegate to conventions. But his activity in politics was all expended in the interest of friends and for the good of his party, never seeking or desiring political honor for himself. He was of religious convictions and while not a member of any religious organization, was a regular attendant of Westminster Presbyterian church. In business matters he was precise, living up to all contracts and engagements to the letter.

August 20, 1875, he married Miss Mattie L. Lyons of Rock- ford, Iowa, whose parents moved to that state from Ohio before the Civil war. Mrs. Fay was zealous in temperance work in Iowa, and in Minneapolis is an ardent church and women's club worker. The family are three daughters, Opal S., a graduate of Central High School, is the wife of Paul R. Trigg, a lumberman at Lewistown, Montana. Adra M., who is a graduate of both Smitlı and Simmons colleges, is an assistant in the Minneapolis public library, and Lucille G. is a student in St. Mary's School at Knoxville, Illinois.

CHRISTIAN FILBERT.

Mr. Filbert was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, Feb- ruary 16, 1841, where he was reared and educated, acquiring a complete speaking and writing knowledge of French, and also some mastery of English. When he was about sixteen, he went to Franee spending ten years in Paris and Lyons, coming from the latter city to this country in 1867.

He became a bookkeeper for three years in Illinois where he was advised by a friend, Thomas Green, to come to Min- neapolis. Mr. Green was a nephew of Hugh and Thomas Harrison, and through his influence those gentlemen gave the newcomer credit for lumber with which to build his grocery store. On what is now Third avenue south there were then but an old shack and Dorilus Morrison's residence, and though the region was sparsely populated, its trade was sufficient to make his business profitable from the start.

He handled dry goods, drugs, hardware, groceries, and almost everything that was called for in an ordinary country store. He remained on that site for thirty-five years, being compelled

to enlarge his store from time to time to provide for the increasing demands. Since his retirement the store is con- tinued by his son, George H. Filbert. When he began the old credit system was in vogue, and he lost considerably by trusting too freely. But he also had agreeable experiences and proofs of the real integrity of men, when some of his debtors paid him in full, years afterward, one even insisting on paying compound interest. Lac Stafford and Clinton Mor- rison were among his first acquaintances and customers, and as they became warm friends continued to deal with him until his retirement.

Mr. Filbert was popular as a merchant and as a man, but steadfastly refused all solicitations to become a candidate for membership in the city council or other official positions. His business was enough to keep him occupied, and he gave that his whole attention. But he never neglected the duties of citizenship, and was and is always warmly and helpfully interested in the progress and development of the city.

September 21, 1867, Mr. Filbert was married in Lyons, France, to Miss Marie C. Gleyre, a niece of the great French idealist painter of Swiss nativity, Charles Gleyre, and who honored the occasion with his presence. His paintings are exhibited in the Louvre, Paris, and in many other leading art galleries. Mr. and Mrs. Filbert are members of the Church of the Redeemer. He was made a Freemason in Minneapolis Lodge No. 19, but his business being so exacting he never became an ardent Lodge worker, although always deeply interested in the fraternity.

The children born and reared in the Filbert household number four daughters and two sons. Matilda is the wife of Carl V. Lachmund, and they are residents of Portland, Oregon. Ida is the wife of Frank G. Jordan, a Minneapolis commission man. Alice L. married W. J. Filbert, who is now controller of the United States Steel Corporation in New York city. He is a grandson of Mr. Filbert's father's youngest brother, who came to the United States many years ago but was lost sight of, and the family connection was learned only through accident. Gertrude is living at home with her parents. George H. is proprietor of his father's old store, and Paul C. is with the Steel Corporation in the plant at Lorain, Ohio. All the children were given high school and other educational® advantages, which all have justified.

GEORGE A. FISHER.

For twenty-eight years continuously George A. Fisher, president of the Fisher Paper Box company, has been engaged in the same business, having therefore abundant opportunity to prove his business capacity.

He is a native of Rutland, Massachusetts, where he was born June 21, 1866. He was there reared, and at seventeen, be- coming a resident of Minneapolis, arriving April 13, 1883. He was employed two years in a hardware store, and was eight years an employe of the Frank Heywood Paper Box Co. In 1893, he founded his present business on a small scale. The output of his factory has increased a thousandfold and is constantly growing.

The business was incorporated in 1900, with a capital stock of $12,000. It now occupies all of a three-story brick build- ing, with 63 feet frontage on First street, is 1621/2 feet deep, containing 34,000 square feet of floor space. Mr. Fisher

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

owns the building and gives personal attention to every detail. He employs some fifty-four persons and manufactures a large variety of paper boxes, nearly all made to order and for local demand. The plant is equipped with the most modern appliances. With no desire for place or offiec he is a careful student of social and economic questions.

In public affairs he takes a helpful interest, being a zealous working member of the Joint Improvement Association of which he served as president two years, and is now chair- man of its municipal market committee. He was a member of the committee which took the initiatory steps toward giving Minneapolis a new city charter, many of his idcas be- ing embodied in the document recently submitted. He is an advanced thinker, and has given the matter of municipal markets thoughtful consideration and investigation, being convinced of the advisability of having such operated by the city.

No matter of public betterment but finds in him a co- worker and sympathetic supporter.

He is Past Noble Grand of North Star Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has been representative to the Grand Lodge. Although not strongly inclined to sports, he occasionally devotes his vacations to fishing trips. In 1896, he was united in marriage with Mis's Anna Litera, of Min- neapolis, a native of Minnesota, of German parentage. They have two children, Alvin M. and George Lee. The former a student in the East High School.

COL. FRANK MELVILLE JOYCE.

Col. Frank Melville Joyce, who died in Minneapolis July 22, 1912, was for eighteen years one of the prominent and success- ful business men and useful citizens of this community, and made a record in all the essentials of elevated manhood and sterling citizenship that is creditable alike to him and the locality in which it was wrought out, and is remembered with such warm and general commendation. He became a resident of the city in 1894, and from then until his death maintained · his home here.

Colonel Joyce was born in Covington, Fountain county, Indiana, March 18, 1862. His father was the eminent Metho- dist Episcopal clergyman, Bishop Isaac W. Joyce, and his mother, before her marriage was Miss Carrie W. Bosserman, of La Porte, Indiana. This was her native state, but she was educated in Baltimore, Maryland. She died at the home of her son Frank in Minneapolis in 1907, after a life of great activity, filled with incident and adventure experienced in many sections of this country and a number of foreign lands widely separated in space and in the manners, customs and languages of their people.

Colonel Joyce, the only child of his parents, passed his early years in his native state. He attended public schools in La- fayette, but completed his preparatory work by a special course of study in Baltimore. In 1877 he entered the institution of learning at Greencastle, Indiana, which was then known as Indiana Asbury University, but is now De Pauw University. He was graduated from the academic department of this uni- versity with the degree of A. B. in 1882, and later the degree of A. M. was conferred on him by it. During his university course he was prominent in all lines of college activity, and one year won a gold medal for proficiency in mathematics. He

was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and for some time after leaving the university published the fraternity magazine and also issucd the fraternity song book, which was used for a number of years.

After his graduation Colonel Joyce located in Cincinnati, where he became teller in the Queen City National Bank. He served in that capacity until 1888, when he was appointed agent of the Provident Life and Trust company. Two years later he began work in Cincinnati for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance company, remaining in the employ of the company in that city until 1894. It was during this period that he received his title by appointment on the official staff of Gov- ernor Mckinley in 1892. A military title and the duties it indicated were not, however, entirely new to him. While at De Pauw he was a cadet major in the military department of the university, and as such organized and trained the famous "Asbury Cadets," a company which won many first prizes in interstate competitive drills.

In 1894 the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance company assigned Colonel Joyce to duty as its state agent for Minnesota, the ter- ritory included in the agency being this state, the two Dakotas and a part of Wisconsin. He then took up his residence in Minneapolis, and during his life in this city he was active in all matters affecting the interests of the public. He was par- ticularly zealous in connection with the movement for good roads, and made several trips to Washington, D. C., to aid in furthering its advancement. He was president of the Auto- mobile club and a potential factor in the building of its present beautiful club house on the Minnesota river. He was also president of the State Automobile association for a time, and served as secretary and afterward as president of the Apollo club. He was also a member of the Minneapolis and Commer- cial clubs, a Knight of Pythias and a thirty-second degree Freemason. While living in Cincinnati he was Captain of the Light Artillery of that city, serving during the famous court house riots, and for a number of years was president of the Northwestern Beta Theta Pi Alumni Association.

Colonel Joyce was ever greatly interested in the work of the church, and gave liberally toward its support. When it became necessary to purchase a new organ for the Joyce Memorial church he gave one-half of the amount. During the general conference held here in 1912 he served as chairman of the entertainment committee which secured hotel accommoda- tions for over 831 people and each one felt that they had received special attention.

Colonel Joyce was married in 1883 to Miss Jessie Birch, of Bloomington, Illinois, who was his classmate at De Pauw University. It was their custom to attend the reunion of their class at the university every two years. The last one they attended was the thirtieth and took place in 1912, only a short time before his death. His widow and their four chil- dren, Arthur Reamy, Carolyn, Wilbur Birch and Helen, survive him and still have their home in Minneapolis.

EDWARD CHENERY GALE.

A scion of old English families. members of which settled in this country in early Colonial days, and whose representa- tives have dignified and adorned American citizenship since in many places and lines of useful endeavor, Edward C. Gale. one of the successful and prominent lawyers of Minneapolis,

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

has well upheld the manhood and traditions of his ancestors in his own daily life and business career. Richard Gale, the progenitor of the American branch of the family, emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1636 and took up his residence at Watertown in that state. One of his descendants was Samuel C. Gale, who was the father of Edward C., and who became a resident of Minneapolis in 1857. Samuel C. Gale was educated for the bar but early in his manhood turned his attention to the real estate business, and in that and the civic life of this community he has long taken an active and serviceable part.

Edward C. Gale was born in Minneapolis on August 21, 1862. He attended the public schools of this city and was grad- uated from the high school in 1878. He then attended the University of Minnesota for two years. At the end of that period he entered Yale University, from which he was graduated in 1884. After passing a year abroad he studied law in the office of Messrs. Shaw & Cray, Minneapolis, and subsequently received the degree of A. M. from the Law School of Harvard University. He has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession from the time of his admis- sion to the bar, and has reached an honorable position in it and in the regard and confidence of the bench and bar and the citizenship of Minneapolis generally. At the present time (1914) . he is associated in practice with Fred B. Snyder in the law firm of Snyder & Gale, which has high standing and a large business.

Mr. Gale is a director of the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, of which he has been president. He is also treasurer of the Minneapolis Academy of Sciences; a director of the Minneapolis Publie Library Board, a member of the Muni- cipal Art Commission of Minneapolis, President of the Hen- nepin. County Sanitorium Commission, and active in many other movements which make for the better things in life, eivic and general as well as individual. But while his taste is essentially aesthetic and leads to the higher walks in artistic and intellectual development, he by no means neg- lects the plain, practical things of life, but is always attentive to the voice of duty in reference to what is demanded of good citizenship.

On June 28, 1892, Mr. Gale was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Pillsbury, a daughter of former Governor John S. Pillsbury. They have one child living, their son Richard Pillsbury Gale.

CHARLES GLUEK.

Mr. Gluek is a native son and entirely a production of the great Northwest. He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 6, 1860, and obtained his academic education in the public schools of this city. He was also specially prepared for business by a thorough course of instruction in one of the Minneapolis business colleges. He is a son of Gottlieb and Caroline (Foell) Gluek, the former a native of Germany and the latter of the same country. The father came to the United States in 1854, and for a time lived in Philadelphia. From there he came to Minneapolis in 1855, and here he passed the remainder of his life, which ended in this city in 1880. He founded the brewery that bears his name, and which his sons, with all the enterprise, business capacity and pro- gressiveness that he possessed, have developed to such large

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 79

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