Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 86

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 86

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Mrs. Hale, his widow, who was well known to the present generation of Minneapolitans, ably seconded her husband in all his educational and philanthropic work, and after his death kept up the support and aid he had planned for Carleton College and his similar benefactions. She was the last survi- vor of the noble body of excellent women who, nearly fifty years ago, formed the organization known as the "Women's Christian Association," the first benevolent society of the kind Minneapolis ever had; and to the end of her life her deepest interest centered in the helpful work this organization and the societies that grew out of it were doing. The Pills- bury Home, was benefited by her personal care and devotion to its welfare, and it can be truthfully said that no move- ment for the betterment of the city of her home in moral,

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

intellectual or religions life was ever without her active and effective aid while she lived.

The life of this noble woman was one of adventure as well as of humanitarian endeavors. As a young girl she crossed the Alleghanies with her father on a visit to Ohio, at time a journey of great magnitude and daring. She also traveled on the New York Central Railroad, one of the first built in the United States, from Albany, to Schenectady, New York, from there to Buffalo on the Erie Canal in the early days of that great internal highway, and from Buffalo to and over Lake Superior on the first steamboat that ever traversed the waters of that mighty inland sea.

When Mrs. Hale was sixty years old she visited Persia, where one of her daughters was a missionary, and in order to get at first hand information for the use of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society, in which she was an ardent worker. On this trip to Asia she also visited Constantinople, Atliens, and many other highly interesting historical places. Only a few weeks prior to her death, when she was past ninety, she asked that a map of Turkey and Albania be spread out before her in order that she might follow with her own eyes the progress of the armics in the late Balkan war.

Mr. and Mrs. Hale were the parents of four daughters. Ellen, who is now the wife of E. A. Harmon, resides in Min- neapolis. Mary, who devoted her life to the care of her mother, is still living in the fine home of the family on Clifton Place. Catherine married Dr. Joseph P. Cochran and went with him as the wife of a medical missionary to Uiuma, Persia, where she died in 1895, after an absence of seventeen years from her native land, and where her husband died in 1906.

ELLSWORTH C. WARNER.

Beginning the battle of life for himself in the highly hon- orable and useful but humble capacity of a country school teacher, and now at the head of a gigantic industry and con- nected with financial institutions of great magnitude, Ells- worth C. Warner, president of the Midland Linseed Products Company, forcibly illustrates, in his strikingly successful business career, the possibilities of industrial and commercial enterprise, and what can be accomplished by capacity, self- reliance, perseverance and pluck in this land of boundless wealth and opportunity.

Mr. Warner was born at Garden City, Minnesota, in 1864. His father, Amos Warner, who is still living and is over ninety years old, is a native of the state of New York, and the mother, whose maiden name was Aurelia Dilley, was born in what was then the far western state of Ohio. The father was, in his days of activity, a school teacher, druggist and energetic farmer. He came to Minnesota in 1851, a pioneer in this state, and took up his residence at Garden City, where he still has his home. He has served as town treasurer, and is widely known and highly respected by the people of his home town and county. The mother is now seventy-nine years of age and one of the revered matrons of her long abiding place, Garden City.

Their son, Ellsworth C., was educated in the schools of his native place, passing through the common schools and after- ward attending the high school there. He began life for him- self teaching a country school in the winter months and work- ing at various' occupations in the summer. In 1855 he was appointed register of grain receipts, and was one of the first

men in the state of Minnesota to fill that position. He was attentive to his duties and careful and intelligent in the per- formance of them, winning general commendation from all classes of persons who had dealings with him.

But there was that within Mr. Warner which called aloud for expression in a larger field of action, and could find it only in a business of his own, which he could expand and develop to its largest possibilities. In 1887 he resigned the position of State register of grain receipts, at $125.00, to accept a posi- tion at the bottom with the Mankato Linseed Oil Company, at $50.00 per month with promise of more as soon as he made good. Two years later Mr. Warner purchased a linseed oil inill at La Crosse, Wisconsin, which he sold to the National Linseed Oil Company about 1890. He was then employed by this company as the manager of its mills at La Crosse, Wis- consin, Dubuque, Iowa, and St. Paul, Minnesota, and received a very large salary for his services. He remained with the company until it was absorbed by the American Linseed Oil Company in 1897.

In 1898 the Midland Linseed Oil Company was organized with Mr. Warner as president; E. C. Bisbee, vice president ; W. C. Stone, secretary and treasurer, and these gentlemen and the late W. D. Douglas, directors. Mr. Douglas was one of the gentlemen whose heroic death in the great disaster of the Titanic thrilled the world.

The capacity of the Midland Linseed Oil Company in 1899 was 400,000 bushels of seed a year. At the present time (1914) it is 6,000,000 bushels per annum, more than one-fifth of all the linseed made and consumed in the United States. It is one of the colossal institutions in American industrial activity, its products being shipped to all parts of the world. It is one of the most successful institutions ever established in our city. Its plants are located in Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and are considered the most modern in the world. Its success is largely due to its active officers, E. C. Warner and E. C. Bisbee. Its present officers are E. C. Warner, presi- dent; E. C. Bisbee, vice president; G. F. Piper, treasurer; A. L. Bisbee, secretary; A. F. Berglund, assistant secretary and treasurer.

In 1894 Mr. Warner bought the McGill-Price Printing Company in St. Paul and associated with him C. H. McGill and Eli Warner of that city in the lithographing, book-bind- ing and printing business. The company is now the McGill- Warner Company-E. C. Warner, president; E. S. Warner, sec- retary and treasurer; C. H. McGill, vice president, and is well known all over the Northwest and in other parts of the country. It is still located in St. Paul, and is, perhaps, the largest and most successful institution of its kind in the United States.

The fiscal institutions of his home city have enlisted Mr. Warner's interest and had the benefit of his clear head and strong hand for a number of years, and other industries be- sides that of making linseed oil have felt the impulse of his quickening intelligence and enterprise. He is one of the di- rectors of the Security National Bank and a stockholder in the First National, the Northwestern National and the Swed- ish American National banks of Minneapolis. He is also sec- retary and treasurer of the American Timber and Holding Company; president of the Western Finance Company, and a director and member of the exccutive committee of the Union Investment Company, and also a director of the Northwestern Fire & Marine Insurance Company. In the management of all of these institutions he takes an active part and gives the details of their business his attention. These institutions

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

are all located and carry on their operations in this country. Mr. Warner has also extensive interests in the Dominion of Canada, and they, too, receive his careful personal attention. He is president of the Atlas Elevator Company; treasurer of the Canadian Elevator Company; director of the Empire Ele- vator Company, and of the Thunder Bay Elevator Company, all in the Dominion of Canada.

Large and exacting as are. his business engagements and interests, Mr. Warner has found time to mingle freely and serviceably in the social life of his community as a member of several of its leading clubs, as well as in the general social activities of the people around him. He belongs to the Minne- apolis Club; honorary member of the University Club; the Minikahda Club, of which he is president; and the Interlachen, Lafayette and Automobile Clubs. He seeks recreation and finds relief from the burdens and cares of business in the game of golf, of which he is a great devotee.

On January 15, 1890, Mr. Warner was united in marriage with Miss Nellie F. Bisbee, of Madelia, Minnesota. They have four sons: Ellsworth B., who is twenty-two years of age; Maurice A., who is twenty; Harold A., who is seventeen, and Wendall E., who is twelve. They are all living at home with their parents and aid in making up one of the most interesting and agreeable family circles in the city. The fam- ily residence is at 3030 West Calhoun boulevard, and it is a center of social culture and stimulus and refined and gracious hospitality. All the members of the household are regarded as representative of what is best in the citizenship of Minne- apolis, and are esteemed in accordance with this estimate.

GEORGE HUHN.

The late George Huhn, who was one of the veteran druggists of Minneapolis, and for many years one of the most energetic, useful and representative men in the city, was a native of Germany, born at Oggersheim in the Palatinate, on November 22, 1835. He was reared to the age of eighteen in his native city and educated there. At that age, in 1853, he came to this country and took up his residence in Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained two years. From there he migrated to this state and located in St. Paul. The whole of this region was wild and unpeopled at that time, and Mr. Huhn found it agreeable to him, as he was of an adventurous disposition.

His love of incident and adventure led him into the army as a volunteer in 1862, and gave him an opportunity to render the locality excellent service in assisting to quell the Indian uprising of that year. After passing one year and a half as a volunteer he enlisted in the regular army in the capacity of hospital steward with headquarters at Fort Ridgely, where he remained in the service three years. He did not, however, pass the time in idleness or trifling amuse- ments. His leisure was devoted to study and investigation, and by the time he was ready to leave the army he had acquired a fair knowledge of medicine and surgery.

In 1867 he engaged in the drug business in Minneapolis, continuing in this line of mercantile life until 1889. He was generous to the pioneers in this locality from his native land, ministering to their needs as a physician and also as a drug- gist, and they returned his generosity by patronizing him liberally when they had money. He soon built up a large

and active business and became in time one of the most successful and progressive of the early merchants here.

Mr. Huhn also took a very earnest and helpful interest in local public affairs. From 1873 to 1878 he was a member of the school board, and when, near the end of his term, the whole school system was reorganized, he was one of the most active members of the board in the work of putting the improvements into operation. In 1878 he retired from the school board because of his election to the legislature that year. He was re-elected in 1880, and at the close of his term in 1882, was chosen register of deeds for Hennepin county, which office he held until January, 1887.

Among the founders of the German American Bank of Minneapolis Mr. Huhn was one of the most prominent and enterprising. In 1889 he was elected president of this finan- cial institution, and in that capacity he served it greatly to its advantage and his own credit until his death, which occurred on October 30, 1903. He was married in 1863 to Miss Frederica Nerkwitz.

WILLIAM DINSMORE HALE.

For forty-six years continuously a resident of Minneapolis, and during the whole of that long period active in business and public service to the community, William Dinsmore Hale, postmaster of the city at this time (1914) has won the regard of the whole people here by his ability, capacity, fidelity to every duty and genial and obliging disposition in all the relations of life. His residence here has been one of peaceful pursuits, but when armed resistance threatened the dismemberment of the Union he did not hesitate to take up arms in its defense, and he bore himself bravely and creditably through four years and four months of the great and sanguin- ary war, as he has done in this city amid the din and clang of industrial activity.

Mr. Hale is a native of Maine, having been born at Norridge- wock, Somerset county, in that state on August 16, 1836, and a son of Eusebius and Philena (Dinsmore) Hale, also natives of that state. His academic education was obtained at Fox- croft in his native commonwealth and on Long Island, New York. He came to Minnesota in 1856, when he was but twenty years old, and, after traveling through the West extensively, took up his residence at ·Cannon Falls in 1859, and there engaged in farming. His interest in the public affairs of this state was earnest and serviceable from the first, and so engaged public attention that he was elected enrolling clerk of the state senate in the session of 1861.

The Civil war began about the time his teriu of service in the senate expired, and he promptly enlisted in defense of the Union, and was made sergeant of Company E, Third Min- nesota Volunteer Infantry, and later sergeant major of the Regiment. His Regiment served in Kentucky and Tennessee against the renowned Confederate raider, General Forrest, and during this service he was captured, but was soon after- ward paroled and returned to Minnesota, joining General Sib- ley's command in its movements against the Sioux Indians in the summer of 1862 until the outbreak was suppressed.

This did not, however, end his military service. His regi- ment returned to Tennessee, in January, 1863, and partici- pated in campaigns on the Tennessee River against Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Little Rock, Arkansas. In the fall of 1863

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

he was appointed adjutant and later major of the Fourth United States Artillery, and his field of duty was again in Kentucky and Tennessee and afterward once more in Arkansas. After being mustered out of the army in February, 1866, he eultivated a cotton plantation near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, during the remainder of that year.

In January, 1867, he was made agent for the Freedmen's Bureau, and in September of the same year came to Min- neapolis where for a short time, he found employment in the office of the Minnesota Central Railway. Before the year was out he became bookkeeper for W. D. Washburn & Company, taking the position in December. His worth and ability were soon recognized by the company and he rose to a high position in its business by successive promotions, becoming agent for the Minneapolis Milling company, then newly incorporated, in 1872, and two years later became one. of Mr. Washburn's partners in the enterprise. In 1879 the management of the company's business was placed in his hands and he conducted it to the great advantage and entire satisfaction of the other members and all who had interests in it.

Mr. Hale has also been eonneeted with other business insti- tutions and has been a valued public official of the Federal government for a number of years. He has been secretary of the Northwestern Consolidated Milling company sinee 1895, and was secretary, treasurer and one of the directors of the Minneapolis & Duluth Railway and a director of the Min- neapolis & St. Louis Railway from 1875 to 1881. He was appointed postmaster of Minneapolis first by President Harri- son and next by President Roosevelt, by whom he was reap- pointed in 1906; and he was again reappointed by President Taft. In this position his management of the work has been energetic and progressive, and he has made it as successful as possible with the crowded space and limited facilities at his disposal. He has been diligent in the use of all the means at his command to make the service as prompt, complete and satisfactory as possible, and has succeeded to a degree beyond that which most men would have reached under the eircumstanees.

Mr. Hale also performed important duties as receiver for the American Savings and Loan association from 1896 to 1901. His father was a Congregational clergyman in New England and New York and a member of the prominent family of the name in that part of the country. He died at Riverhead, Long Island, in 1880. The son was first married at Cannon Falls, Minn., in 1864 to Miss Sarah Baker. She died in 1868, and in 1870 he contracted a second marriage, which united him with Miss Flora A. Hammond of Minneapolis. They have four children living. The parents are well esteemed in all parts of the city of their home. He is up- right and straightforward in all his business transactions, faithful and readily responsive to every eall of duty in his eitizenship, and elevated and commendable in all his daily walk and conversation. The people of Minneapolis regard him. as one of their most useful and representative men, an ornament to their community and a fine type of American manhood in every way.

G. ADOLPH HUBNER.

When G. A. Hubner, one of the leading photographers of the Northwest, took charge of liis beautiful and finely equipped

studio at 1030 Nicollet avenue, after several years of sue- cessful business on his own account at 518 Nicollet avenue, he was as well prepared for the successful prosecution of his art as long, practical experience in it from the ground up eould make a man of natural adaptability to it. For years before that time he had been a close student and an observing practitioner of the craft, in every department of its work, and had been laying the lessons thus learned concerning it faithfully to heart.

Mr. Hubner was born in Burlington, lowa, on July 17, 1873, and began his education in the parochial sehools of that city. He afterward completed the public school course there, but started in the business in which he is now engaged at an early age as errand boy for the leading photographer in that eity, with whom he served an apprenticeship of three years. He then passed one year in a studio in Baltimore, Maryland, and another in Wheeling, West Virginia. From Wheeling he changed to Cleveland, Ohio, where he hield a leading position at good pay for three years.

In the fall of 1895 Mr. Hubner located in Minneapolis, and during the next eleven years was employed in the studio of the man who was at the head of the photographing business in this city. When his employer died in 1906 Mr. Hubner opened a studio of his own at 518 Nicollet avenue. Here he was successful from the start, and his business grew so rapidly that he was soon compelled to move to larger and better quarters. He then took possession of the studio he now conducts, which is up to date in every respect and always prepared to turn out the best work skill in its line can produce, and at rates as reasonable as eireumstances will allow.

EDWIN ROSWELL BARBER.

Edwin Roswell Barber, president of the Barber Milling company, one of the most widely and favorably known merchant milling corporations in the Northwest, is a native of Benson, Rutland county, Vermont, where his life began on November 22, 1852. His parents were the late Daniel R. and Ellen L. (Bottom) Barber, also natives of Vermont and descendants of families domesticated in New England from early colonial times. The father was a merchant in his native town of Benson, and proprietor of the principal store there, when he was only twenty-five years of age. During the next ten years he was so successful in his business that at the end of that period he was able to dispose of it at a good profit, which aided in swelling the comfortable competence he had already accumulated in his merchandising activity.

In the year 1855 the father made a prospeeting trip through the Northwest, and selected the new settlement at the Falls of St. Anthony as his future home. The next year he moved his family here. He was first associated in business with Carlos Wilcox, another young man from the Green Mountain State, and together they carried on a real estate business which flourished for a time. But the panic of 1857 paralyzed all business operations and the elder Mr. Barber found himself with his money invested in loans and real estate from which there were no returns immediately or prospectively for an indefinite period. In the meantime, while he was waiting for the springs of enterprise to rise and

EQember

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

flow again, he cultivated tracts of land which he owned near the village of St. Anthony.

At the election of 1861 he was chosen one of the county commissioners, and the same year was appointed assessor, an office which he held in town and city for eleven years. He afterward turned his attention to mercantile pursuits again, first in the grocery and later in the dry goods trade. But his eyes were always open to the main chance around him, and the milling business soon arrested his attention in such a way that he determined to devote his energies to that. In 1871 he bought the Cataract flouring mill, which was the pioneer mill at the Falls. Even for that day he found it antiquated and inefficient. He therefore laid his plans for large operations in his new venture by removing all the old machinery from the mill and introducing all the newest and most approved appliances and methods known to the industry, and then, in association with his son-in-law, J. Welles Gard- ner, he operated the mill to its utmost capacity and on a profitable basis. Mr. Gardner died in 1876, and after that Mr. Barber took his son, Edwin R. Barber, the immediate subject of this brief review, into the business with him. The joint management of the mill by father and son continued until the death of the father on April 17, 1886, at the age of over sixty-nine years. The management was vigorous and progressive. Every effort was made to turn out the best possible product, and great care was exercised in every part of the work from beginning to end. The flour made at the Cataract mill, in consequence of all this studious attention to its manufacture, soon won a high and widespread reputation, and the sale of it was very extensive, not only locally, but in almost all parts of the country.

Edwin R. Barber was but four years old when his parents brought him and his sister Julia, afterward married to J. Welles Gardner, and now the wife of John Bigelow, to this locality. He received his early education in the public schools and later attended the State University, but was not graduated, leaving the institution before completing his course of study. His reminiscences of his boyhood and youth are very interesting in the light of present conditions. He used to shoot partridges where the . West hotel now stands, and remembers well when the site of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad depot was an impassable bog, unsightly to look at and worthless for use.

After leaving the University Mr. Barber attended a business college and had private instructors in modern languages. He also gained practical experience in business in the office of Gardner, Pillsbury & Crocker in what is now Mill D operated by the Washburn-Crosby company, from which he went into the office of Gardner & Barber, his father and his brother-in- law constituting the firm, in the Cataract mill, which he entered in 1871.

From the humble position which he assumed in this mill on May 1, in the year last named, Mr. Barber has risen to the head of the business, having been connected with it in the same establishment continuously for about forty-two years. He is president and treasurer of the company over which he presides, which is known as the Barber Milling company, and was founded in 1859 and incorporated in 1896. In 1876 the name of the firm, which was originally Gardner & Barber, was changed to D. R. Barber & Son, and when the business was incorporated in 1896 it was put under the name by which it is now known all over the Northwest, and far and wide in

other parts of this country, Canada and some lands beyond seas.

In political relations Mr. Barber is a Republican, but he has never been an active partisan, although deeply interested in the welfare of his party at all times. His church affiliation is with the Presbyterian denomination, and the social side of his nature finds scope and enjoyment in his active membership in the Minneapolis, Minikahda, Lafayette and Automobile clubs. He is also a prominent member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, and is warmly interested in other organizations and all worthy agencies at work in the com- munity for the elevation, improvement and enduring welfare of its residents. He has always been a zealous advocate and promoter of public improvements and an earnest supporter of everything that seemed likely to advance the best interests of his city, county and state.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 86

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