Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 84

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 84

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JAMES EDWARD GAGE.

Dealing in grain and managing grain elevators on a large scale was the steady and continuous business of the late James E. Gage, from the time he began business until death. January 28, 1908.

Mr. Gage was born in Waterloo, New York, April 7, 1849, being the son .of John and Eleanor (Probasco) Gage, who came to Minnesota about 1857 and located on a farm in Wabasha county, between Beaver and Minneiska, where they

passed the remainder of their lives. The father was a railroad contractor, as well as farmer, and built several miles of the Milwaukee Railroad between Winona and King's Cooley and the narrow gauge road to Zumbrota. He took an active interest in public affairs, holding several local offices and was for some time representative in the state legislaturc.

James E. Gage was educated in the country and at the high school in Winona. He served as bookkeeper for his father while the latter was a railroad contractor and then became connected with the grain trade in the employ of others at Kellogg, ncar his home. After some experience he was taken into the firm of Barnes & Tenny, owners of the Northern Pacific Elevator company, and remained a member of the firm until its failure in 1895.

He was superintendent for this company, with his office at Fargo for some years, removing to Minneapolis in 1891. He had then been a member of the Chamber of Commerce here for a time, becoming familiar with all details of the grain trade and acquiring close acquaintance with other leading dealers. When the Northern Pacific Elevator company went into liquidation in 1895, he, in association with A. C. An- drews, organized the Andrews & Gage company, which is still in operation under the name of the Andrews Grain company.

This company leased and operated the line of elevators belonging to the old Northern Pacific Elevator company in the Red River valley and carried on a flourishing grain busi- ness. Mr. Gage was related to this company to the end of life, and was wholly absorbed in its management.

He was a member of the Commercial and Minneapolis clubs, in which he felt deep interest, realizing that they were strong agencies for good. He was of domestic tastes and warmly attached to his home, only occasionally finding relief from business in fishing and other outdoor sports. He was ever an carnest advocate of good government and the advance -. ment of the community. But he was no politician or active partisan and was never an aspirant for a public office of any kind.

Mr. Gage married at Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, Jan. 1, 1872, Miss Rhoba Elizabeth Collier, who was born in Illinois, and as a child brought to Wabasha county, Minnesota. She is the mother of three children. John Charles is in the grain trade with the Consolidated and International Elevator com- pany, of Winnipeg. Gertrude married George Caplin, of Minneapolis, and died soon afterward. Joseph Probasco is a grain man and a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mrs. Gage was the first guest to choose apartments in the Leamington hotel, where she has since maintained her home.

M. J. SCANLON.

Mr. Scanlon was born on August 24th, 1861, near Lyndon, Wisconsin, and is a son of M. J. and Mary E. (McDonnell) Scanlon. He obtained his education in the district schools and at the high school at Mauston, a neighboring town, from which he was graduated in 1879. For several years he taught school during the winter months and worked in the summer months, as a means of preparing himself for higher and broader usefulness.

In 1881 he entered the Law Department of the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, with a view to making the legal profession his work for life. But he soon found that his bent

MASeaulon

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

was in another direction, and with characteristic readiness of decision, he abandoned the study of law before being admitted to the bar. In the autumn of 1884 he went to Omaha, Ne- braska, and while there he decided to take a course of special training in a business college. This course was completed in the spring of 1885 and he immediately entered the employ of the K. S. Newcomb Lumber Company, one of the subsidiary corporations of the then great lumber firm of S. K. Martin Lumber Company, as bookkeeper.

Mr. Scanlon remained with this company four years, rising by rapid promotion until he was given charge of the pur- chases and sales of the company, which brought him in close touch with the leading lumber manufacturing concerns of the North and South.

On March 1, 1889, he resigned his position with the New- comb Lumber Company to become secretary of the C. H. Ruddock Lumber Company of Minneapolis, who were then manufacturing lumber on a large scale in the Northwest. In the fall of 1890, this company decided to close up its Minne- apolis business and purchased a large tract of cypress timber lands in the vicinity of New Orleans. The Ruddock Cypress Company was organized and Mr. Scanlon was made secretary of the company, with headquarters at New Orleans, in charge of sales and credits. The climate of Louisiana did not agree with his wife's health, so he disposed of his interest in the Ruddock Cypress Company and returned to Minneapolis in - March, 1892.

By this time he had acquired a knowledge and command of the lumber business that made him feel that he should go into it on his own account. He organized the Scanlon. Gipson & Company. to do a jobbing business, buying stock in Minnesota and Wisconsin and selling it to the trade tributary to Minneapolis. During the autumn of 1894 the forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin were devastated by fire and a great deal of valuable timber was fire killed. In November of that year the firm name was changed to Scanlon-Gipson Lumber Company and the well known firm of Brooks Elevator Com- pany became interested in it. The new company acquired a large tract of partially fire killed timber in the vicinity of Nickerson, Minn. Mills were built immediately which were operated day and night, winter and summer, manufacturing fifty million feet annually for many years. The trade of the company was large from the start and, in order to take care of it, the company bought the lumber business of H. F. Brown of Minneapolis, in the spring of 1896, which gave it a whole- sale yard with splendid shipping facilities, which enabled it to take care of its rush order business promptly. The Minne- apolis yard did a business of sixty million feet annually until 1905, when it was discontinued on account of the company's timber being exhausted and it being impossible to secure logs from other sources to stock the mill.

In 1898 the company found it necessary to build another mill to take care of its constantly increasing business. A large body of timber was purchased in the northern part of the state and a double band mill was erected at Cass Lake. with an annual capacity of forty-five million feet. Within the next few years, the firm became so well and favorably known and its trade so great, that they found it necessary to manufacture more lumber to take care of it. To accom- plish this, the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company was or- ganized in 1901, with a paid up capital of $1,750,000.00. Im- mediately after the formation of the company, it built an immense five band and gang saw mill at Scanlon, Minn., with

a daily capacity of 600,000 feet. This was probably one of the finest and best arranged saw mills in the country. For a number of years it held the world's record for output, being upwards of one hundred million feet annually. In order to insure a supply of logs to the company's mills at Nickerson and Scanlon, the M. & N. W. Railroad Company was or- nized. It built seventy-five miles of standard gauge railroad, on which was laid heavy steel and the equipment was extra heavy, and modern in every respect. While the road was built largely to take care of private business, still it did a large general commercial business. Mr. Scanlon is vice president of the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company and the M. & N. W. Railroad Company and these corporations furnish scope for a considerable part of his time, energy and enterprise

Mr. Scanlon has always been a man of great business am- bition and broad views with reference to his line of trade. His several companies were manufacturing upwards of 250 million feet per year and, with the rapid disappearance of timber in this state, local conditions and requirements be- came too contracted to satisfy his demands, and in 1905 he turned his attention to the great forests of yellow pine timber of the South. Another company, known as the Brooks- Scanlon Company, with a paid up capital of $1,500,000.00, was organized. This company acquired a vast area of virgin long leaf yellow pine timber in Louisiana. It also purchased the mills and timber of another company at Kentwood, La., and immediately built a new double band and gang mill at the same point, which gives the company an output of about 130,000,000 ft. per year. The company's plants are the most modern and complete plants in the South and are a source of considerable pride to the company. In addition to lumber- ing, the company is carrying on turpentine operations on a large scale. The output of the mills and turpentine orchards are sold to the foreign and domestic trade and enjoys a high reputation. The Kentwood & Eastern Railway Company, with its sixty miles of road, and equipment, performs a function for the Brooks- Scanlon Company similar to the M. & N. W. Railroad Company for its allied concerns in the Northwest.

Mr. Scanlon is president of the Bahamas Timber Company, Limited, of Wilson City, Abaco Island, the Bahamas. This company owns vast tracts of very valuable pitch pine timber in the Bahamas. It owns and operates an up-to-date saw mill plant with all modern appliances, at Wilson City, and markets its output through its own distributing yards in Cuba.

He is also vice president of the Brooks-Scanlon-O'Brien Company, Limited, Vancouver, B. C. This company owns a splendid body of timber in Western Canada and is logging and marketing it at the rate of fifty to sixty millions per year.

Mr. Scanlon recently organized and is president of The Cottonwood Lumber Company, of Vancouver. This company has built a modern plant at DeRoche, which is completed and in operation. It enjoys the distinction of being the only mill on the Pacific Coast that is engaged exclusively in the manufacture of cottonwood himber.

In addition to his interests in operating lumber companies. Mr. Scanlon is heavily interested in and a great believer in standing timber. He is president of the Central Florida Lum- ber Company, which owns 110,000 acres of timber land in Florida; president of the Brooks-Robertson Timber, and Oregon Timber Company, large owners of pine timber in central Oregon; president of the American Timber Holding Company, North American Timber Holding Company. Johnson

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Straits Lumber Company and Brooks Timber Company, all large owners of timber on the Pacific slope. In 1909 he or- ganized and became vice president of the Powell River Paper Company, with a paid up capital of $3,500,000.00. The com- pany purchased timber land on the Pacific Coast and a mag- nificent water power at Powell River, B. C., and immediately began the construction of a newsprint paper mill at Powell River, which was completed and put in operation in May, 1913. This plant is the largest newsprint paper mill in the world. The buildings are of reinforced concrete throughout. the machinery is of the latest design and the best money could buy. In fact, the whole plant is said to be the last word in paper mill construction. This company enjoys the distinction of being the only paper company that owns a perpetual supply of pulp timber for its plants.

Mr. Scanlon, as above statements indicate, is the active head of a combination of lumber, paper and timber interests, whose business ranks with that of the leading firms of the country. He is also a citizen of elevated character, very publie spirited and any undertaking for the improvement or advancement of educational, social or moral interests always received his hearty support. In politics he is a Democrat, in religion a Catholic. Socially he holds memberships in the Minneapolis, Minikahda and Lafayette Clubs. He was mar- ried in Minneapolis on November 26th, 1890, to Mrs. Sarah W. Henkle, formerly Miss Sarah W. Plummer, of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. They have three children, Helen M., Bonnie W. and Robert H.

ORLANDO CROSBY MERRIMAN.

For a continuous period of almost fifty years a resident of Minneapolis, and during all the time carnestly, intelligently and effectively engaged in promoting the welfare and progress of the community, the late Orlando Crosby Merriman was one of the city's best known, most highly esteemed and most serviceable citizens from the time of his arrival here in the spring of 1859 until his death on August 2d, 1906, at the age of seventy-nine years, his birth having occurred on July 27, 1827, at Somerville, St. Lawrence county, New York, where he grew to manhood and began his education.

At the age of eighteen Mr. Merriman entered the Wesleyan Seminary at Gouverneur in his native county, which was one of the best schools of its class in that day. After complet- ing the course of instruction in this seminary he passed four years working at haying, harvesting and other farm labor in the summer and teaching in the winter. When he was twenty-three he began the study of law under the direction of Charles Anthony, a prominent lawyer at Gouverneur, New York, and on April 3, 1854, he was married to Miss Rosannah Herring, and they came at once to Janesville, Wisconsin, where Mr. Merriman formed a partnership for the practice of law with former Lieutenant Governor John E. Holmes, of Jefferson, Wisconsin. He received substantial assistance from John M. Berry, a lawyer at Janesville, later for twenty-three years a justice of the supreme court of Minnesota and for several Mr. Merriman's neighbor in St. Anthony. Besides practicing law at Jefferson, Wisconsin, Mr. Merriman served as postmaster, superintendent of schools and in other public positions there until the spring of 1859, when he moved to

St. Anthony and at once began the practice of his profession in that village.

Mr. Merriman was elected mayor of St. Anthony in April, 1861, just a week before the bombardment of Fort Sumter began. He took a great interest in the sectional conflict of which this was the beginning, and assisted very earnestly in enlisting volunteers for the defense of the Union. In April, 1862, he was re-elected mayor, and in August of that year enlisted as a private in Company B, Sixth Minnesota Volun- teer Infantry, of which he was soon afterward elected cap- tain. Without waiting to be mustered into the service of the United States the regiment hurried to Fort Ridgley to assist in defcating the Sioux Indians, who were on the war path and had beleaguered the fort. The force took part in the battles of Bireh Coulee, Wood Lake and other engage- ments and marches in the various campaigns of 1862, 1863 and 1864.

In June, 1864, he resigned his commission in the army and formed a law partnership with Judge William Lochren, and he also continued to serve a's mayor of St. Anthony the greater part of the time until 1867, when he became treasurer and general manager of the Mississippi and Rum River Boom Company. This position he resigned in 1870 and entered the firm of L. Butler & Company, in which he was associated with Dr. Levi Butler, T. B. Walker and James S. and Leonidas M. Lane. They erected a large and well equipped mill at the cast end of the Water Power company's dam, and produced all kinds of lumber, carrying on an extensive wholesale trade. Later Mr. Merriman was the head of the firm of O. C. Merri- man & Company and a member of the firms of Merriman, Barrows & Company and Merriman & Barrows Brothers, finally withdrawing from the Inmber industry near the close of 1891. A sketeh and portrait of his old partner, Fred H. Barrows, will be found elsewhere in this work.

For a number of years after leaving the lumber companies Mr. Merriman was the cashier and one of the directors of the Commercial Bank. and before this he was a director of the Northwestern National Bank for a dozen years or longer. He was at all times energetic and zealous in the service of the State University, devoting time and labor as well as money to making the great institution a success. In 1864 he was named on a special commission, with Governor John S. Pillsbury and John Nichols, to sell lands and pay the debts of the University. In December, 1867, the commission reported that the debts had been nearly all paid from the sale of less than 12,000 acres of land, a feat of such magni- tude and unexpected promptness of execution that it won the universal approbation of the people of the state. When the commission began its work the University was in a very bad way financially. A large wing, erected in 1856 or 1857, had never been used, and no payments had been made on the bonds issued to build it, or the interest on them, which was at the rate of 12 per cent. The debt had become very large and its liquidation required action by the legislature. To its payment in the manner narrated must be ascribed all the subsequent success of the University.

While Mr. Merriman was not regarded by his friends and acquaintances as a politieian, as he never took part in polit- ical contests and avoided publie office as much as he could, nevertheless. being a man of broad public spirit and decided views on all subjects of public interest, he could not wholly refrain from taking part in political activities. He was a Democrat of the striet Jeffersonian school and his counsel was

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

highly valued by his party associates. They made him their eandidate for state senator and for congressman, but as he lived in a strong Republican district there was no chance of his eleetion, although he did greatly reduce the vote of his opponents. In 1875, after the consolidation of St. Anthony and Minneapolis, he was unanimously elected mayor of the consolidated city. He was also for three terms secretary of the first board of nine regents of the University, a member of the board of directors of the Exposition of 1891, and was chosen a member of the first park commission, but declined to serve on it.

Mr. Merriman was liberal in religious matters. He was a member of the first Universalist society in St. Anthony, and in 1881 helped to found the first Unitarian church society in Minneapolis, being a trustee from the beginning of its his- tory and president of the board for a number of years. He was a regular attendant at its church services, a liberal con- tributor for its welfare, and was highly esteemed by all its members, as he was throughout the city. He was not, how- ever, a sectarian, but broad in his charity, tolerant in his views and sympathetic in his feelings for all sects and all person's, and helpful in his aid of all good agencies working for better conditions.

In fraternal life he was an active and zealous member of Darius Commandery, Knights Templar, and also of the Mili- tary Order of the Loyal Legion. In 1898 he was appointed referee in bankruptcy, which office he held until his death, and was then succeeded in it-by his son, Orlando C., Jr., who held it four years. He lived at the present home of his son Orlando, 927 Seventh street southeast, from 1881 until his death. His widow survived him nearly six years, dying on February 26, 1912. Four of their children are living, Orlando Crosby, Jr., John Herring, Frances Frederika (Mrs. F. G. James, of Virginia) and Harry. The general esteem in which Captain Merriman was held in the community was feelingly expressed in a preamble and set of resolutions unanimously passed by the city council a few days after his death.

CHARLES A. HOFFMAN.

Charles A. Hoffman was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on June 6, 1855, the son of Dr. John Frederick and Dorothea (Hassenstein) Hoffman, natives of Saxony, Germany. The father was a physician and surgeon in Pittsburg and Chicago, and died in the latter city of injuries received there during the great fire of 1871. The mother was the daughter of a noble Saxon family of her name and a descendant of the ancient Bohemian kings. Young Hoffman was pursuing his professional studies as an apprentice to the court physician at Coburg-Gotha, in his native land, and there he became acquainted with the mother and their acquaintance ripened into deep and fervent affection. To separate them her friends had him sent to the United States. But the young lady followed him to this country, and they were married in Pittsburg. The mother survived her husband about ten years.

In 1912 Mr. Hoffman visited Europe and called at the ancient castle of his mother's family at Coburg-Gotha, the Frederickschlosse, which is now occupied by the Graefin Has-

sensteins. In the gallery of that castle he saw the portrait of his mother. He also made a visit to the old Bohemian castle of Hassenstein, which was built in 1480, twelve years before Columbus discovered America, but which is still stand- ing and in an excellent state of preservation. Its walls con- tain tablets commemorating visits to the castle by Martin Luther, the father of the Reformation, and Johann von Goethe, the greatest of all German poets. Mr. Hoffman brought away with him photographs of all the interesting features in and about the castle.

The Bohemian name of the family was Lobkowitz, but the branch of it which migrated to Saxony during the Thirty Years' war took its name from the old castle of Hassenstein. This was only about sixty miles distant from the Bohemian castle, but that was a long stretch of country in those days. In looking up the records of the family Mr. Hoffman was pleased to learn that it had given to the world several cele- brated opticians and eye surgeons. One of these was Dr. Frederick Edward Hassenstein, recently deceased, the real inventor of the opthalmoscope, although the invention bears the name of his associate, Dr. Helmholtz. Another was Dr. Walter Hassenstein, medical adviser of the king of Saxony. Their visitor from Minneapolis was received with great kind- ness by the gracious Graefin Hassensteins, and presented by them with the ancient family coat of arms.

Charles A. Hoffman obtained his academic education in the schools available to him, and as a special preparation for the work to which he had resolved to devote himself, he passed two years at Rush Medicar College in Chicago, his intention being to be a physician and surgeon. But his medical studies were broken up by the great fire, and lie turned his attention to another field of endeavor. His short stay at the medical college had directed his attention to the great need of more advanced and scientific production of optical instruments, and the field was fully in line with his inclinations and natural endowments.

In 1881 he came to Minneapolis and founded his present business in the Boston block, beginning it on a small scale. Sometime afterward, to secure more commodious quarters, he moved to the present site of the Leader, and later still to Fourth street south, where he remained eight years .. In 1887 he changed his location to 624 Nicollet avenue, and in 1911 bought the building at 814-816 on the same street in which he now conducts his business, and where he occupies three floors and employs thirty skilled workinen. He also has considerable detail work of his manufacturing done at another shop near his home, and yet finds his facilities heavily taxed to supply the extensive demands of his trade.

Mr. Hoffman is the inventor of the celebrated Tru-fit, in- visible bifocal lense and makes a specialty of manufacturing it. This lense is also manufactured in Indianapolis and San Francisco under royalties. Its inventor has been granted a number of patents on it, as improvements have been made, and it has been kept up to the latest developments in optical seienee by his elose and judicious study of the subject. It is estimated that at least half a million pairs of these lenses are now in use. During his tour of Europe in 1912 Mr. Hoffman organized a company for their manufacture in Germany for the European trade. He is a large importer of the renowned crystal glass made in Jena, Germany, which has been found to be the best in the world for use in lenses, and

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

he also exports in large quantities the finished products of his factories, including a general line of spectacles, optical goods and photographers' supplies. In addition he is largely en- gaged in making up specialties from prescriptions of oculists and opticians all over the Northwest, and from many in other parts of the country.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 84

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