Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 80

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 80

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proportions, its annual output being now more than 150,000 barrels.

Charles Gluek began the work that has occupied him and engaged all his time and energies to the present day under his father's direction in the brewery. With the thoroughness that he displays in everything he undertakes, he gave him- self at once to a close and exhaustive study of the brewing industry, and continued this until he became completely mas- ter of it in every detail. His studious attention to all its requirements is still kept up, and through this he has been able to introduce many improvements in the management and workings of the brewery, and keep its products abreast of the times in quality, superior excellence and extending popularity.

The business was incorporated as the Gluek Brewing com- pany while Mr. Gluek of this sketch was still a very young man, and he was at once elected vice president of the new company, an official relation to it that he has held ever since, much to the company's advantage and his own in giving him opportunities for varied and extensive usefulness to the community in which he lives and carries on his busi- ness. He manifests a deep interest in the welfare and sub- stantial progress of that community, and his efforts in this behalf are always practical, guided by good judgment and applied with energy. The people of Minneapolis look upon him as one of their best and most progressive and public- spirited citizens.

Mr. Gluek is also vice president of the German-American Bank and the St. Andrews Hospital association of Minne- apolis. He is a leading member of the Chamber of Com- merce and belongs to the Athletic club and several of the other social organizations in the city. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent, Protective Order of Elks, hold- ing his membership in the lodge of the order in his home city. On December 8, 1888, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Thielen, and by this union became the father of three children, Carl G .. Emma C. and Alvin G. Their mother died while they were still young, and the care of rearing them devolved largely on their father. He has been faith- ful to duty in this work. as he is in every relation of life and every public, business and private capacity.

HON. PARIS GIBSON.

Although I visited the Falls of St. Anthony in 1854, I did not establish my residence in Minneapolis until the spring of 1858 when I formed a co-partnership with William W. East- man, a man of high character and one of the ablest business men I have ever met. Soon after I became associated with Mr. Eastman in business, we secured a site for a flour mill from the Minneapolis Mill Company who had just concluded the construction of the west side dam which made connec- tion with the east side dam of the St. Anthony Falls Water Power Company near the centre of the river and about 80 rods above the crest of the falls.

During the year 1858 we secured plans for a merchant flour mill of 300 barrels daily capacity and commenced its con- struction. The following year we completed this mill, nam- ing it The Cataract Flour Mill, and commenced making flour in September. This, the first merchant flour mill built in Minneapolis, marks the beginning of business prosperity in

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

that city following the financial panic of 1857. The building of the Cataract Mill also marks the beginning of wheat rais- ing immediately tributary to Minneapolis.

Immediately following the building of the Cataract Mill, Eastman and Gibson began the manufacture of flour bar- rels, the first ever made in that region, and soon after con- menced the shipment of flour to the Atlantic seaboard. Our transportation line from the mill to our eastern markets was as follows: Teams from Minneapolis to St. Paul; Steam- boats from St. Paul to LaCrosse; Milwaukee Railway, then just completed, from LaCrosse to Milwaukee; Lake boats to Buffalo; thence by railway lines to various markets.

It will interest those who may read this narrative to know that James J. Hill, now the acknowledged chief among railway financiers and builders of the world, then a young man, checked off the flour from teams at the steamboat wharf in St. Paul.

In 1862-3, influenced by the wide-spread boom in wool and woolen goods then prevailing throughout the country, we built the North Star Woolen Mill. After its completion John De- Laittre was admitted to the firm and the mill was employed in the manufacture of miscellaneous woolen goods. Eastman and DeLaittre having sold their interests to Alexander Tyler and myself, the mill was subsequently employed chiefly in the manufacture of fine white blankets, sleeping-car blankets and Indian robes, its fine blankets having attained a nation- wide reputation.

The failure of Gibson and Tyler in 1876, largely the result of the panic of 1873 and the depression in woolens that fol- lowed, ended my career as a manufacturer in Minneapolis.

It is due to the memory of William W. Eastman and it is but justice to myself that I should state that, in building and putting in operation the Cataract Flour Mill and the North Star Woolen Mill, Eastman and Gibson placed founda- tion stones on which rest much of the remarkable industrial development of Minneapolis at this time.

CHARLES DEERE VELIE.

Mr. Velie is a native of Rock Island, Illinois, where he was born on March 20, 1861. He is a son of Stephen Henry and Emma (Deere) Velie, the latter a daughter of John Deere, the founder of the Deere implement business, and the second man to engage in it on a large scale in this country, his works being located at Molinc, Illinois. The father. Stephen H. Velie, was one of the largest stockholders in the firm of John Deere & Company and for many years its secretary and treasurer.

Charles D. Velie was educated at the public schools in Moline, Illinois, and the excellent McMynus academy in Racine, Wisconsin. He also had the advantage of a special course of instruction in mine engineering at Columbia Univers- ity in the city of New York. His first business engagement was with his grandfather's firm, and in 1883 he came to Minneapolis to serve that firm as assistant superintendent of the Deere & Webber company's warehouse in this city. The next year he acted as bill clerk for the company and from 1887 to 1889 as one of its traveling salesmen. In the year last mentioned he took charge of the sales department of the D. M. Seckler Carriage company at Moline, Illinois, in which capacity he served the company well and wisely until

1892. The next year he was elected vice president of the Deere & Webber company in Minneapolis, and this position he has filled acceptably and with great advantage to the company ever since. He is also a director of the John Deere company in his old Illinois home, the city of Moline, and occupies the same relation to the Northwestern National Bank of Minnea- polis, the Velie Carriage and Motor Vehicle company and the John Deere Wagon company.

Mr. Velie understands his line of business thoroughly all the way through, and is devoted to it. All the companies he is connected with are flourishing, have a strong hold on public confidence and regard and have built up large and active operations. He has been of great service to them in helping them to the high position and extensive business they enjoy. But he has not ignored or neglected the civic, educa- tional and social forces of his home community, but has given them valuable aid in many ways and been earnest and helpful in his support of all good agencies for progress and improvement at work in that community.

One of the means of improvement with which he has been most prominently and serviceably connected is the Boy Scout movement. Hennepin Council of Boy Scouts was organized in October, 1910. Mr. Velie was its first treasurer, and has held that office ever since. But in addition to acting as treasurer of this Council he has ben earnestly interested in the move- ment from its inception and has supported it generously. Through his liberality and financial backing Hennepin Couneil has been able to have Ernest Thomas Seton, Chief of the Boy Scouts of America; Lieutenant Robert Baden-Powell, Chief of the Boy Scouts of England; James E. West, Chief Scout Executive of New York city, and other men high up in the movement, visit Minneapolis, thereby giving the local Council a high standard for the guidance and government of its activities and the whole movement in this locality a strong impetus for greater progress.

Mr. Velie's fellow members of the executive committee have been encouraged by his interest in the Scout movement and his enthusiasm for its advancement to continue their efforts for the proper training and ineidental enjoyment of the boys of this city, and to raise the necessary funds to maintain a local Scout office, with a paid executive in charge aside from the regular expenses, a large part of which has been provided for by his generosity. The Scout camp is located on a part of his land on Maxwell's bay, Lake Minnetonka, not far from his summer home, and he has taken great pleasure and gone to considerable expense in making the place an ideal one for a boys' camp. Without Mr. Velie there would be no Boy Scout Movement in Minneapolis. and his name will always be remembered and revered in connection with this greatest of all undertakings for the recreational education and citizenship training of the Boy Scouts of America.

Mr. Velie is an active member of the Minneapolis, Com- mercial and Minikahda clubs, and takes an earnest interest in their welfare and all their activities. He seeks his principal recreations in farming, golfing and horse back riding, to all of which he is ardently devoted. He was married in Minne- apolis on December 12, 1900, to Miss Louisa Koon, a daughter of the late Judge M. B. Koon. They have four children: Charles Koon, aged twelve; Josephine, aged nine; Grace, aged seven, and Kate aged two. The parents are members of the Congregational church and take an active part in all the good work of the branch of it to which they belong. Their comfortable and popular home is at 225 Clifton avenue.

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

FRANCIS A. GROSS.

Francis A. Gross, president of the German American Bank of Minneapolis, is a native of Hennepin county, Minnesota, born in Medina township on October 10, 1870. He is a son of Mathias and Mary (Lenzen) Gross, residents of Minne- apolis, where they located when Francis was about one year old. For some years the father was engaged in the grocery trade in this city, but he is now a real estate dealer of prominence. He was born in Germany and brought to this country when he was but two years old. He grew to man- hood in Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota in 1868. He is now seventy years of age, and nearly three-fifths of his life has been passed in Minnesota, and all but three years of that portion in Minneapolis.

His son Francis obtained his education in the public and parochial schools in Minneapolis, and at St. John's University in Stearns county of this state. As a boy he clerked in his father's grocery, doing good and faithful work there, as he has done in every situation he has ever occupied. At the age of nineteen he entered the employ of the German American Bank as a messenger, and he showed such aptitude for the business that he was soon appointed collection teller. From this position his rise through the offices of paying teller, receiving teller, assistant cashier and cashier to the presi- dency of the bank was rapid, steady and well deserved. He never had to ask for a promotion. The directors of the bank were always ready to advance him to higher and greater responsibilities in their service when they had opportunity, for he was true and faithful in every position, and his useful- ness increased as his duties became more elevated and en- larged.

Mr. Gross has taken great and very helpful interest in public affairs in the city of his home, but not as a political partisan. He has never held a political office and has never desired one. But he has been eager to promote by every means at his command the substantial and enduring welfare of the city and the best interests of all its residents through good local government, general progress and improvement and the aid of every agency at work in the community for its betterment mentally, morally, socially and materially, and he has never withheld his support from any undertaking in which the good of his locality has been involved.

When the North Side Commercial 'club was organized Mr. Gross, who had been one of the most active men in bring- ing it into being, was elected its first president. He has been zealous in his support of it ever since, and has had a strong influence in directing its course and management. He is also active in the Royal Arcanum, and has served as Regent of his organization in the fraternity. In addition he belongs to the Catholic Knights of America and the Benevo- lent Protective Order of Elks, and is president of the Twin City Bankers club. The bank of which he is president has made great progress in its business under his management, and every other institution with which he has been or is con- nected has felt the quickening impulse of his active mind and skillful and ready hand.

On October 9, 1893, Mr. Gross was married to Miss Ida K. Buerfening, a daughter of Captain Martin Buerfening and granddaughter of Frederick Weinard, a pioneer who came to St. Anthony in 1854. Four children have been born of the union. and all of them are living and still members of the parental family circle. They are Roman B., Francis B.,

Marie B. and Carl B. The family has a pleasant and attrac- tive home, which is a popular resort and a center of refined social enjoyment and gracious hospitality.

Mr. Gross has served as a member of the city park board and the city water commission. He has also been a member of the city charter commission. These positions came to him without solicitation on his part, and his appointment to them was based on no political services or considerations of a mer- 'cenary character, but was made solely because of his cap- ability to fill the places ably and serviceably and the certainty that he would perform the duties belonging to them wisely and efficiently. His course in each position fully justified the confidence of the appointing power and fulfilled the expecta- tions of the people in every respect and in full measure.

P. B. GETCHELL.

Among the men engaged in the grain commission business on a large scale and with eminent success, P. B. Getchell of the Getchell and Tanton Company, 907-908 Chamber of Com- merce building, holds high rank as far-seeing operator and judicious manager. He is also of influence in public affairs; and, as alderman from the Tenth ward, is giving excellent service.

Mr. Getchell was born in this city February 14, 1871, and is the son of D. W. and Mary (Lavery) Getchell, the former of Maine and the latter of Ireland, but partially reared in New York. Both came to Minneapolis with their parents, Mrs. Getchell in 1854 and her husband in 1856. P. B's grand- father was a lumberman, also owning lands and operating a flouring mill. He prospered and was making headway toward a comfortable estate, when death stopped his activities when his son D. W. was a lad of about eight or nine years.

Peter Lavery, the mother's father took up a claim on the East Side, on a part of which the plant of the Minneapolis Sash and Blind company now stands. He died on his farm at the age of eighty-four. D. W. Getchell for many years after age was janitor of the public schools on the East Side. He was also a soldier serving three years in the First Min- nesota Infantry and one year in Hatch's battalion, having enlisted at the age of sixteen. He now is Corporal of Chase Post, Grand Army of the Republic.

He is about seventy years old, and is one of the oldest temperance men in the community, having been a member of the Father Matthew Society in St. Anthony de Padua Catholic church. They had twelve children, eleven of whom reached maturity. Eight are living and five are residents of Min- neapolis.

P. B. Getchell attended the common schools and high school, although at sixteen he became connected with the grain trade as an errand boy; and, from that humble beginning steadily worked himself up, by industry, capacity and strict attention to business. He was in the employ of the Van Dusen-Harrington Company thirteen years, five as inspector and eight as bookkeeper. Subsequently he became manager for Woodend & Company, and later filled the same position in the Spencer-Grain Company.

In 1907, in association with A. G. Tanton and F. C. Lydiard, he formed the Getchell-Tanton Company to conduct a general grain commission business. He is also vice president of the Hoppenrath Cigar Company, which employs thirty-five men at

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

its factory at 208 Twentieth avenue north, and is connected with other institutions of importance in industrial, commereial and mercantile activities among them the North Side Com- mereial elub.

In 1910 Mr. Getchell was elected alderman from the Tenth ward. He is chairman of the committee on sewers and a member of the committees on public lighting, health and hospitals. In the movement to check the violations of law by cafes and rooming houses, and bring about better moral conditions he has been active, his work in this behalf pro- ducing good results. Mr. Getchell is a pronouneed regular Republican. He was married in 1895 to Miss Ida Wolsfield and has three children: Grace Catherine, Virna Agnes and Frank Benjamine. The parents are zealous members of Ascen- sion Catholic church.

DORANCE DORMAN GREER.

The Dorman family in Minneapolis originated with Ezra and Chloe Dorman, who emigrated from near the city of Quebec, Canada, to Galena, Illinois, in 1840; and, in 1854 settled at St. Anthony Falls, where they passed the remainder of their lives. The former was past eighty when he died, and his widow survived him a number of years, being eighty-nine when she passed away, and, at the time probably the oldest member of the old First Universalist church. During her residence in this community she became one of the most widely known women on the East Side. "Mother Dorman" or "Grandma Dorman" was the familiar name by which every- body called her; and, she was regarded as one of the most intelligent and benignant ladies in the city. Her interest in others and her activity in their behalf carried her into the homes and hearts of all the people of the earlier days, and her name is still enshrined in grateful recollection as a synonym for all that is good, generous and helpful in womanhood.

In company with his son Dorlan B., Ezra Dorman built the Dorman block in St. Anthony, in which Dorlan conducted one of the first banks. His death in 1864 was directly traced to an accidental gun shot wound in the right lung, which he received while hunting. His sister Delia married in Canada, becoming the wife of Dr. Rankin, and did not see her parents or the other members of the family for sixteen years. But in 1856 she joined them in St. Anthony and purchased property, which is now the home of Mrs. Josiah Chase.

Another daughter of the family was Dorinda, who married Judge Norton H. Hemiup, a lawyer and the first probate judge of Hennepin county. Dorlan B. Dorman married Anna P. Hemiup, a sister of the judge. She survived until February, 1903, and had two children: Mary, married Allen J. Greer of Lake City, Minnesota, who was one of the state's ablest and most influential educators and lawmakers. For some years he was county superintendent of the public schools in Wabasha county, and later, as a member of the State Normal School Board, was instrumental in securing for the State its present highly creditable system of normal schools. He was an early graduate of the State University and the first alumnus of that institution to become a member of the State Legislature.

This gentleman served twelve years as a legislator, four in the House of Representatives and eight in the Senate; and, was not only thoroughly informed on all public questions, but took advanced ground in reference to every matter of legisla-

tion affecting the welfare of the people. He labored un- eeasingly and effectively for the betterment of social, religious and educational conditions in Minnesota, and was a strong force in promoting improvements of every kind. Removing to Monrovia, California, he died in that city in 1905, at the age of fifty-one. His widow and their son, Dorance Dorman Greer, now reside on the Dorman Addition to Minneapolis.

Dorance H. Dorman, the son of Dorlan B., died September 17, 1909. He was connected with many interests in the city, and platted Dorman's Addition, a traet which lies along the Mississippi river north of Lake street, and which his father purchased fifty years ago. He was widely known in fraternal eireles, especially in the Order of Elks, in which he was prominent and was a charter member of Minneapolis Lodge No. 44, B. P. O. E. He served this Lodge for a time as its Exalted Ruler, and was secretary of the committee in charge of the erection of the new Temple, selecting the sité and devoting arduous efforts to secure a new home for the Lodge, which, however, he was not destined to see com- pleted. He died a bachelor.

Dorance Dorman Greer, the son of Allen J. and Mary (Dorman) Greer, was born in Lake City, Minnesota, October 11, 1883. He obtained his academic education in the schools of his native place and was graduated from the law depart- ment of the State University, a member of the class of 1904. For a time he was associated with John S. Crosby in the real estate and insurance business, with offices at the corner of Lake street and Twenty-seventh avenue south. He is now actively interested in the extension, improvement and disposi- tion of the above mentioned Dorman's Addition to Minneapolis. He is a Scottish Rite Freemason with membership in the branch of the order working in Duluth. His wife, whom he married in 1908, was Anne Frances Alexander, of Lake City. They have one child, their son Allen James Greer.

JOHN FINLEY WILCOX.

The phenomenal growth, and sturdy healthy development of the once straggling village on the frontier, which has now become the beautiful City of Minneapolis, makes it one of the most interesting communities in this country.

The present magnitude, its state of physical improvement, its superb park system; at present only in its infancy as regards the future possibilities, arc startling to contemplate and are exemplifications of the progressiveness and enterprise, as well as the appreciation of natural beauty and love of their home city, so characteristic of the American people.

Located upon the magnificent Mississippi River at an advantageous point, nature's tremendous physical forees have been harnessed and controlled, and in a great measure these gifts of nature, reluctant to submit to hand of man, have been directly responsible for the possible gigantic volume, and great number of industrial and business enterprises, many of which have sprung up as if by magic and have become leaders of their kind in the entire world.

Abreast of the business development and the financial solidity of Minneapolis, education and art have progressed hand in hand. The early residents while conseious of the financial and physical development of their eity, were not blind to the responsibility, of the care of Civic virtue, the moral and educational duties entrusted to them; and it is

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with pride and appreciation that the present generation point to the school system of Minneapolis, the University, the various public institutions which are the direct result of that sturdy indomitable spirit, the high ideals, and comprehensive duty and the activity for the future which has characterized so many of the men who were the builders of Minneapolis.

Among the men of Minneapolis who have built up great industries and made them serviceable to the community on a broad scale, few, if any, have been more successful, and none have a more commendable record than John Finley Wilcox who for nearly fifty years has been actively engaged in the manu- facturing business, a potential force in many other agencies, and a strong, loyal, untiring, yet modest worker for the best advancement and improvement of Minneapolis.

In the fifty years of his business activity, he has at all times engaged in some business of magnitude and nothing to which he has given severe attention has failed to respond to his quickening brain and strong, determined hands. The constructive tendency was manifest early in his youth, and throughout his career, his capacity and energy, tempered by kindness and consideration for others, his unselfishness and tenderness in his family, have brought with his success con- gratulations from all and envy from none.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 80

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