Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 85

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 85

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In the public affairs and social and fraternal life of his community Mr. Hoffman takes an earnest interest and an active part. He is a member of the Minneapolis Commercial club and several other business or social organizations. He is also one of the charter members of Ark Lodge No. 176, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and has advanced to the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite branch of the frater- nity. He was for years a director of the old Germania Bank and is now a stockholder in the Metropolitan National Bank. In fact, he is connected in a serviceable way with almost every phase of the multiform life and activity of his home city and manifests great enterprise and breadth of view in helping to promote its welfare and that of its residents in every way available to him.

On March 10, 1876, Mr. Hoffman was united in marriage, in Chicago, with Miss Mary E. Mueller, a native of Germany. They have four sons, Walter F., Arthur C., Ralph M., and Stuart Victor. Walter is an oculist in Seattle, Washington. Arthur C. is one of the members of the C. A. Hoffman com- pany. Ralph M. is a mechanical engineer and associated with a company which manufactures elevators in Vancouver, British Columbia; and Stuart Victor is a student in the West Side High School.

ELBRIDGE CLINTON COOKE.

President of the Minneapolis Trust company, is a native of the state of Illinois, where he was born in 1854, and a son of Joseph Clark and Amy (Wade) Cooke. He began his academie education, like most other American boys, in the public schools, continued it at Norwich Academy in the city of Norwich, Connecticut, and completed it at Yale University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1877. After a due course of preparation in the study of law he was admitted to the bar and began his practice in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1879. He was elected city attorney there in 1881 and held the office until 1883. At the close of his official term he moved to Bismarck in what was then the territory of Dakota but is now the state of North Dakota. He at once founded the Northern Pacific Bank at Mandan in that territory and was chosen its president. He also prac- ticed his profession in the territory until 1886, and made gratifying headway in it.

In October, 1886, Mr. Cooke changed his residence to Minne- apolis, and here he has ever since resided. Prior to coming to this city he formed a partnership with George P. Flannery under the firm name of Flannery & Cooke, which was started in business in 1884. The firm has a high reputation in the profession, stands well with the courts, and its hold on the confidence and regard of the public is strong and well sus- tained. Its practice is general, covering the whole field of legal procedure, and in every branch of its business it has been and continues to be very successful. And its members well deserve their success. They have an extensive and ac- curate knowledge of the law, both as written in the books

and as interpreted by the courts, and are skillful in applying their knowledge and forcible in advocating their views in any case. They are also diligent and zealous in looking after the interests of their clients, leaving no effort untried to win for each in litigation everything he is entitled to.

In addition to his law practice Mr. Cooke has other inter- ests which occupy a part of his attention and are the better for it. He is president of the Minneapolis Trust company, and is also president of the Real Estate Title Insurance com- pany of Minneapolis, treasurer of the North American Tele- graph company, and a director of the First National Bank of Minneapolis. He has long been active in the social life of the city as a member of its Minneapolis, Minikahda and La- fayette clubs, and also belongs to the Yale club of New York city and the Hokamde Gun club. Mr. Cooke was married in Norwich. Connecticut, in 1883, to Miss Isabella Boies Turner.

SAMUEL HASTINGS.

Mr. Hastings is a leading contractor in furnishing cut stone for buildings, employing five or six cutters and ten to twelve workmen in all regularly. He furnished the stone for the Minneapolis club house, the Blake school at Hopkins, and many other important buildings, having all the business in his line that he can attend to because of his reputation as an artist and high class workman and his upright and straightforward business methods. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on October 6, 1871, and in 1883 came with his parents, Thomas and Mary S. Hastings, to Minneapolis.

The father, who died here in 1907, was one of the best known and most highly esteemed Scotchmen in the city. He founded the business now carried on by his son, being an expert in cut stone work, but conducting business as a con- tractor both in Glasgow and here. He gained wide reputation also as an expert curler and an enthusiastic devotee and pro- moter of football, and was instrumental in organizing the Thistle club of curlers, the first in Minnesota, and personally made the curling stones used by it in its games. These were eight in number and cut from a "nigger-head" boulder picked out of the chute when the water power canals were dug. Now all the stones used in the games in this locality are imported from Scotland, and Samuel Hastings is one of the leading importers of them.

The first curling games in Minneapolis were played on a lake in Central park in the winter of 1883. In the winter of 1886 the elder Mr. Hastings won first trophy at the ice palace in St. Paul. The game soon aroused active interest through- out the Northwest, and at this time (1914) there are several clubs in all the leading cities. Minneapolis has about 100 players.

Mr. Hastings gave his son Samuel excellent training in his favorite games, and for twenty-five years the latter has been a leading player in all the important events in this part of the world. He has usually acted as captain or "skip" of his team, and has led it to victory in many hotly contested battles, in which it has carned honors of high distinction. Among the trophies which he has helped to win were those captured in Milwaukee. the St. Paul curling prize, the St. Paul Jobbers' prize, the Northwestern, the Duluth Jobbers' and the Caledonia at Winnipeg. the last named being seenred in an international tourney. He has been playing since he

Elling

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

was fourteen years old, and his skill in the game is every- where recognized, no name being more familiar or standing higher in curling circles than his. He is a member of the board of directors of the Minneapolis Curling club, and the "skip" of its team.

Mr. Hastings was for years also a leading member of the Thistle Football club. He is president of the Tenth Ward Commercial club and a member of the St. Anthony Commercial club, the Architectural club, the Builders' Exchange, the Clan Cordon, and numerous other organizations of a social and helpful nature. In November, 1896, he was married to Miss Grace Gardner, a native of Minneapolis. They have had six children, one of whom, Grace M., died in infancy. The five who are living are Thomas Edward, William Samuel, Winfield Francis, Margaret Mary and Harry.

NEWTON F. HAWLEY.

During the last seven years he has been the treasurer and active manager of the Farmers and Mechanics' Savings Bank of Minneapolis, and the institution has made steady and substantial progress under his skillful guiding hand and excellent judgment in the management of its affairs.

Mr. Hawley was born at Springdale, Iowa, on November 28, 1859, and is a son of N. J. and Delia (Canfield) Hawley. He attended the common school and afterward the high school at Tipton, Iowa, and then completed his academic education at Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, from which he was grad- uated with the degree of A. B. in 1879. He received his Master's degree in 1882. After leaving college he studied law, and in 1884 was admitted to practice in Minneapolis. His first association in professional work was with Wm. J. Hahn under the firm name of Hahn & Hawley. A little while afterward Henry C. Belden was taken into the firm and its name became Hahn, Belden & Hawley; and still later Mr. Hahn retired from it and Robert Jamison became a member, whereupon the name was changed to Belden, Hawley & Jamison.

Mr. Hawley continued in the active practice of his pro- fession until January 1, 1906, when he was elected one of the trustees of the Farmers and Mechanics' Savings Bank of Minneapolis, and was chosen secretary and treasurer of the board. This made him the managing officer of the institution, and all its business has been largely under his direction ever since. He has given the affairs of the bank the most careful and judicious attention, managed them with enterprise and good judgment, omitting no effort possible on his part to advance its interests and those of its officials and patrons, and has moved it forward in progress at a steady and well maintained pace. The bank is now everywhere regarded as one of the best, soundest and best managed of its class in the country, and its business has grown to large proportions.

Mr. Hawley has also taken an earnest interest and an active part in public affairs, especially in the domain of good government and public education. For years he has served as one of the trustees of Iowa College, his Alma Mater, and was a member of the Minneapolis board of education from 1899 to 1905. He also served on the charter commission of 1898 and again on that of 1906. In politics he is a Repub- lican in national and state affairs, but in local elections he is entirely independent of partisan considerations, and looks

only to the substantial and enduring welfare of the com- munity in the bestowal of his suffrage.

The study of social and municipal questions has always been one of great interest to Mr. Hawley, and he has given it a great deal of attention. His tendency in this direction has led him to become a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the National Municipal League, and other organizations of similar character formed for the purpose of developing and illuminating the line of thought to which he is devoted. The social life of his community has also had his active and helpful attention for many years through his membership in the Minneapolis, Commercial, Minikahda and Six O'Clock clubs, in whose welfare he takes great interest.

On September 5, 1884, Mr. Hawley was married in Minne- apolis to Miss Ellen M. Field. They have two children, their sons Robert and Douglas. Robert is superintendent of the Gas Traction company and Douglas is a student at Cornell University. All the members of the family attend Plymouth Congregational church and take an active part in all its works of benevolence and service to the community, aiding it in all its undertakings, and helping to direct its forces into the best channels for usefulness and the largest benefits.

FRANK HEYWOOD.

Frank Heywood is a member of the Minneapolis board of aldermen, as one of the representatives of the Eighth ward, and is a valued factor in the administration of the municipal government. He is president of the Heywood Manufacturing Company, a substantial concern which controls a large and im- portant business in the manufacturing of envelopes and paper boxes, as well as in the conducting of a well appointed printing establishment, and he is also president of the Rockford Paper Box Board Company, one of the representative industrial corporations in the city of Rockford, Illinois.

Mr. Heywood is a native of New England, that gracious cradle of much of our national history, and is a scion of staunch colonial stock. He was born at Rutland, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 8th day of July, 1857, and is a son of C. R. Heywood and Sarah S. (Brown) Heywood. The father passed the closing years of his life at Rutland, he having devoted the major part of his active career to the lumber business. Frank Heywood gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of his native village and sup- plemented this discipline by a course in the historic Phillips- Andover Academy. In 1882, as a young man of twenty-five years, Mr. Heywood became a resident of Minneapolis, where he engaged in the manufacturing of paper boxes, under the firm name of F. Heywood & Company. He brought to bear his best energies in the development of the new enterprise, and the same gradually and surely expanded in scope and importance, with the result that in 1896 it was found ex- pedient to incorporate the business, under the title of the Heywood Manufacturing Company. This corporation now bases its operations on a capital stock of one hundred thou- sand dollars, and the well equipped plant has been maintained for the past seventeen years at 420 and 428 Third street north, where employment is now given to a corps of three hundred persons, including a large number of skilled artisans. In addition to the departments devoted to the manufacturing

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

of envelopes and paper boxes, the printing department is maintained at a high standard, its operations being in the printing on stock manufactured in the other two departments of the business and general printing. The company controls a substantial and prosperous trade, centering in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but extending also throughout the territory normally tributary to Minneapolis as a distributing point.

Mr. Ileywood, as may be inferred from his preferment as an official of the municipal government, is one of the repre- sentative and honored citizens of the Eighth ward, where his attractive residence is located at 3216 Third avenue southi. Mr. Heywood was one of the most active and valued meill- bers of the West Side Commercial Club and served two years as its president. This position he resigned in 1910, when he became a candidate for alderman from his ward. He has proved a most zealous and progressive worker in the city council, and he served two years as chairman of committee on railroads. On the board of aldermen he is now chairman of the committee on power and crematory. Though he is a staunch Republican in his political allegiance he is broad and liberal in his views and places the good of the city above mere partisan dictates. For the past eight years Mr. Hey- wood has been president of the Rockford Paper Box Board Company, which has built up a large and prosperous business in the manufacturing of paper-box board, wall board and similar products. He has attained to the thirty-second de- gree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry and is also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Royal Arcanum. Mr. Heywood finds his chief recreation through his indulgence in sports, afield and afloat, and is an adept in the arts of hunting and fishing, in the latter of which he has gained many fine trophies through his skill as an angler, though he is willing to wear his piscatorial honors with a modesty that is somewhat anomalous under such conditions.

In the year 1886 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hey- wood to Miss Blanche A. Merrill, of Lansing, this state, and they have two children-Hazel and Ruth. Mr. and Mrs. Hey- wood hold membership in the Fifth Avenue Congregational church and are popular in the social activities of their com- munity. In addition to their attractive residence in the city they maintain a pleasant summer cottage at Lake Minitonka.

WALTER L. BADGER.

Mr. Badger is a native of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where his life began on May 27, 1868. His parents, George A. and Harriet E. (Hastings) Badger, were born and reared in Massachusetts and descended from old New England families. The place of their nativity was Amherst in the Bay State, and there the father was educated and prepared for business. After reaching his maturity he engaged in the lumber trade in association with his father, whose name, also, was George. He died in 1902.

His son Walter began his education in the public schools of Oshkosh, Wis., which he attended until 1878, when he came with his parents to Minneapolis. Here he again attended school for three years and then left school to begin his busi- ness carecr. He started as office boy in the real estate business in this city. In 1886 he started a real estate office of his own. Four years later he gave up his individual enter-

prise, although he was succeeding in it, and became a member of the firm of Corser & Company as a special partner. In 1896 he left the firm and again embarked in business for himself. In 1912 he incorporated his firm as the Walter L. Badger Company. Frederick T. Krafft and Edson J. Kellogg, both of whom had long been with him, became members of the firm. The firm ranks as one of the leading firms in their linc, and can always be found on the conservative side of matters. He buys and sells real estate extensively, and is recognized as a man of excellent judgment in the business and an authority on all phases of it. He makes a specialty of the management of large estates and office buildings, and has built up an extensive and very active business in this line as well as in real estate transactions, representing a large body of Eastern clients in property interests here.

Mr. Badger is sometimes called the "Father of Seventh Street," for he undertook the task of making a good retail busi- ness street out of it when it was lined with houses and every- body thought it necessary to be on Nicollet Avenue in order to do any business. He backed up his faith by building business blocks there before tenants were secured, and in many cases gave free rent until firins could get started. It was only a short time after this when retail firms were awake to the future of this street, and today it is in competition with Nicollet Avenue. When Mr. Badger secured the first property there about thirteen years ago, and he paid $225 per foot, today that same property would bring $3,500 per foot, and the future of this street is unlimited.

Throughout his career Mr. Badger has been at all times earnestly and helpfully interested in municipal reform, good government and general public improvements. He is ardent and loyal in his devotion to Minneapolis, and always ready and willing to aid any project that will make it a better and more pleasant place to live, and impelled by this spirit, he takes an active part in everything designed to promote its welfare in any way. In politics his abiding faith and allegiance are given to the policies and candidates of the Republican party, except in local matters when he never hesitates to split his ticket when occasion requires it, but he has never, himself, sought or desired a political office.

His religious connection is with the Plymouth Congrega- tional Church, of which he is a regular attendant, and in whose affairs he takes an active part. Socially he holds membership in the Minneapolis Minikahda and Athletic Clubs, and fraternally he belongs to the Masons.

In October, 1890, Mr. Badger was united in marriage with Miss Anna Dawson, of Keokuk, Iowa, a daughter of James and Rosa (Hammel) Dawson. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Badger, their sons Lester R. and Norman D., the former of whom is living and still abides with his parents.

CHARLES MURGAN HARDENBERGH.

Charles Murgan Hardenbergh, ex-president of the National Milling company and eminent citizen, was a native of New Jersey, born at New Brunswick, January 4, 1833. After completing his collegiate training in Trinity college at New Haven. Conn., he entered a ship chandlery where he perfected himself in the trade of a shipwright. In 1863 he came to Minneapolis and established the Minnesota Iron works and continued to be an important factor in the prominent mann-

Halter & Badger

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

facturing and business interests of the city. He built the Crown Roller mills in 1879, which were operated by Christian Brothers until 1891, when he withdrew from this enterprise and, in company with his son, Mr. George Hardenbergh, or- ganized the National Milling company, of which he was president. Mr. Hardenbergh interested himself in the general welfare and progress of the city, gave valuable service as an alderman and was a member of the chamber of commerce. His political declarations were for the Republican party. He was married in 1893 to Miss Louise Legas of Minneapolis. Mr. Hardenbergh and his wife were members of the Episco- palian church.

T. HOMER GREEN.

The company of which T. Homer Green is the active man- ager was founded by him July 1, 1901, with a capital of $300,000 and with himself as president, Karl De Laittre sec- retary, John De Laittre vice president and Charles A. Green treasurer. The present officers are: Karl De Laittre, presi- dent; T. Homer Green, vice president, and Charles A. Green, secretary and treasurer.

Its business has constantly expanded, now operating in Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, and the Dakotas and is recognized as one of the leading wholesale grocery houses in the Northwest.

It occupies 50,000 square feet of floor space and has sixty- five employes, including eighteen traveling salesmen.

T. Homer Green was born at Lynchburg, Ohio, October 27, 1849. When 16 years old, he went to Illinois, in 1867, re- moving to Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he embarked in the whole- sale grocery trade in 1880. Five years later he went to Sioux City, where he carried on an extensive business in the same line, until he came to Minneapolis in 1901.

The active management of this company has devolved largely on him from the beginning, although Mr. De Laittre, president, was energetic and active until elected alderman.

Mr. Green is a member of the Minnesota State Wholesale Grocers' association, of which he was treasurer for ten years; is a member of the Minneapolis Credit Men's association and first president and member of the Board of Directors of the Northwestern Jobbers' Credit bureau.

In 1873, Mr. Green was married to Miss Julia A. Casteen, of Versailles, Illinois. Their son, Charles A. Green, was educated at the Leland Stanford University and is now the secretary and treasurer of the company.

Mr. Green is a Knights Templar, a member of Zurah Temple and is a zealous member of the Civic and Commerce asso- ciation.

ANDREW TOLCOTT HALE.

Mr. Hale was born in Glastonbury, Hartford county, Con- necticut, on July 8, 1820. His father, Benjamin Hale, was a direct descendant of Samuel Hale, a member of the Wethers- field, Connecticut, colony, which was founded in 1636 by Rev. Thomas Hooker. The mother, whose maiden name was Lavenia Tolcott, also belonged to old Connecticut families resident in that state from early Colonial days. The late

Henry Tolcott Welles of Minneapolis, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this work, belonged to the same Tolcott family that she was a member of.

After completing his education as far as his school facilities would permit him to go in it, Andrew T. Hale passed some years in engineering work for the United States government, working under the direction of his uncle, Colonel Andrew Tolcott, who was an army engineer. In this service he helped to survey the routes for the New York Central Railroad, the boundary line between Maine and Canada and the coast at the mouth of the Mississippi river. This employment lasted from 1835 to 1844. The next three years were passed by Mr. Hale in surveying government land in the Lake Superior region, and in the fifties he was engaged in the produce trade in Hartford, Connecticut, and successful in his operations.

On November 24, 1840, Mr. Hale was united in marriage with Miss Irene E. Thayer of Westfield, Massachusetts. She survived him forty-three years and six months, passing away on1 January 1, 1913, in her ninety-first year, while he died in June, 1869, a little less than forty-nine years old. In 1860 he changed his residence to Minneapolis, being persuaded in part to do this by the advice of an old friend, Rev. Dr. Horace Bushnell.

After his arrival in this city he invested heavily in real estate, especially in Davison's Addition to North Minneapolis. Mr. Davison was his brother-in-law, and had been associated with him in the clothing business under the name and style of A. T. Hale & Company. The Center block, which is being demolished at the time of this writing (May, 1914), was built by this firm on what was once a quagmire or "cat-hole" between Hennepin and Nicollet avenues. Messrs. Hale & Company redeemed this quagmire from the waste and con- verted it into a desirable business location, erecting on it buildings that have well served their purpose until now, when the city park board wishes to devote the space to "The Gate- way" it is constructing.

Mr. Hale took an earnest interest and an active part in many lines of usefulness besides his own business. He was a director of one of the Minneapolis banks, and in 1865 was elected a member of the city school board. During his tenure of this office the first high school building was reconstructed and schools were established in the outlying parts of the city. Plymouth Congregational church, of which he was a member, was destroyed by fire in May, 1860, and he was one of the leading instrumentalities in building the new church, which was completed in 1863. In addition, the first formative meet- ings toward the founding and erection of Carleton College at Northfield were held in his parlors, and he served on the first board of trustees of that institution.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 85

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