Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 89

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 89

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"A dinner in celebration of the acquirement of adequate terminals for the Electric Short Line Railway was given by Colonel Erle D. Luce to more than five hundred Minneapolis men and citizens of a dozen towns along the route of the railroad, at the Commercial Club last night. Speakers of the evening praised the men who have fostered the project, and President Fiske of the Civic and Commerce association epitomized the spirit of the occasion when he said: 'As it was said in the old days, "All roads lead to Rome," so may it be said in the future, "All electric lines lead to Min- neapolis." '

"How the road will mean vast wealth to the city in inter- change of freight, increased land values to the eountry, more factories here and more produce there, increased population, and a steady stream of happy, prosperous, money-making and money-spending people in both the eountry and the city was brought out by Douglas A. Fiske. Enthusiasm over the greatness of Minneapolis and the far-sighted pioneer spirit of Colonel Luce and William L. Luce in their cherished plan

of making Minneapolis the heart of a great electric railway system was evident among the guests."

Colonel Luce has not only shown himself to be one of the most ambitious and resourceful of the vital young promoters of his native state but has also attained to marked prominence and popularity as a representative figure in the Minnesota National Guard. In October, 1898, he enlisted as a private in the Fourth Regiment, in which he was promoted corporal of Company C on the 18th of October, 1899. On the 20th of May, 1900, he was promoted sergeant of Company B, First Infantry, and his subsequent rise, through successive elections is here designated by rank and date: Second licutenant, February 12, 1901; captain, April 1, 1901; major, June 10, 1910; and colonel of the First Infantry, July 17, 1911. Enthusiastic in all that he undertakes, Colonel Luce has exerted great influence in advancing the personnel, the equip- ment and the efficiency of his command, as is indicated by the honors and attention bestowed upon the regiment when it appeared on the occasion of the inauguration of President Wilson, in the city of Washington, where it won merited recognition and many plaudits.

In 1912 Colonel Luce effected the erection of the fine Coliseum building in Minneapolis, at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars, as well as the erection of the State Audi- torium, at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. His loyalty to his home city and native state is of the most intense order and has been shown forth in other public-spirited undertakings than those of which mention has been made in this context. He has made judicious investments in real estate, and among these may be mentioned his interests in the following named buildings in Minneapolis: The Phoenix building, Hampshire Arms, Netley Corners, Dunsmore House, Forest Court, and the Fremont and Franklin Avenue apartment buildings.

In politics Colonel Luce aecords allegiance to the Republican party, and he has given effective service as president of the Young Men's Republican Club in his home city, as well as chairman of the Hennepin county Republican committec. He has attained to the thirty-second degree of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry, and in this great fraternal order his ancient-craft affiliation is with Kurim Lodge, No. 112, Free & Accepted Masons. He is president of the Minnesota National Guard Association, is an active and valued member of the Minneapolis Club, and is affiliated with the Phi Delta Phi and Theta Delta Chi college fraternity. The Colonel is still fond of athletie sports and during his student days in the high school and university he gained excellent reputation as a resourceful factor in the contests of the football gridiron.

On the 8th of December, 1904, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Luce to Miss Hazel Brown, daughter of Clarence A. Brown, of Minneapolis, her father being vice president and general manager of the St. Anthony & Dakota Elevator Company. Colonel and Mrs. Luce have a fine little son, William L., who was named in honor of his paternal grand- father.

The family are members of the Trinity Baptist church.

LEWIS O. HICKOK.

For some years a grain dealer in Wisconsin, and now a builder and operator of grain elevators and storage ware- houses. Lewis O. Hickok was born in Augusta, Illinois, in

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

1845, being a son of Nelson Hickok, a native of Vermont. After a number of years engaged in farming in Illinois he removed to River Falls, Wisconsin, where he continued farm- ing until death. Lewis O. Hickok obtained his carly educa- tion at the schools in River Falls, Wisconsin. Directly after leaving school he located 'at Glenmont on Lake St. Croix, Wisconsin, buying and shipping grain. Mr. Hickok went to Augusta, Wisconsin, on the Omaha R. R. in 1873 and built the first grain elevator erected there, also acquiring another elevator and handled practically all the grain shipped from that station. In 1890 he built a line of elevators for the Northwestern Elevator company on the Great Northern Rail- road between Rutland and Ellendale, North Dakota, and between Rutland and Aberdeen. In 1891 he built a similar chain of elevators for the Peavey Elevator company on the Omaha Railroad, and in 1892 he became the traveling agent of the Hubbard & Palmer Elevator company, which operated a chain of elevators through Minnesota, Iowa and the Da- kotas. During the five years of his connection with this com- pany he had 'charge of the building and equipment of a large number of elevators. He then became a regular clevator contractor. He built a large one at Kasota, Minnesota, and a barley cleaning house with a capacity of 250,000 bushels. In 1908 he erected the concrete structure in South East Min- neapolis No. 20 together with a frame warehouse. During the last five years Mr. Hickok has erected a large number of other storage tanks, fire proof warehouses and similar structures.

In 1870, Mr. Hickok was married at River Falls, Wisconsin, to Miss Luella Smith. They have four children, Harvey M. spent two years in the university and then graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has since been associated with his father. Mr. Hiekok belongs to Mounted Commandery No. 23, Knights Templar, and to Zurah Templar, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the New Athletic club.

WILLIAM OTTO HARTIG.

WVm. Otto Hartig was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1870, and is a son of Henry and Marie Hartig, representatives of old families. The father was also an electrical contractor, and with whom the son first became interested in electricity. William attended the local schools and served an apprentice- ship as an electrician, serving in all departments.

At sixteen he came to the United States and soon there- after reached Minneapolis. For a time he was employed at the West Hotel, and subsequently for 14 years was with the firm of Vernon Bell, electrical contractors.

He began his present business in 1900, and which for the first year amounted to $3,500, inereasing so that for 1912 it amounted to $150,000. He did the electrical work in the Leamington Hotel, the Deere-Webber building, the Powers Mercantile company building, the Auditorium of the School of the Blind, the Girls' Dormitory of the School for the Feeble-minded both at Faribault, Carleton College at North- field, Wartburg Seminary at Clinton, lowa. He has also installed the street lighting done by the Publicity Club and by the city. He generally has about 100 employes, the payroll at times, exceeding $1,500 per week.

Mr. Hartig is a Republican, but is not a politician and has

never sought or desired a political office. May 18, 1897, he was united in marriage with Miss Marie Louise Fitzer, a native of Minneapolis. They have two children, Sylvia and Marion.

HARRY S. HELM.

Harry S. Helm, vice president and general manager of the Russell-Miller Milling Company, has lived in Minneapolis for sixteen years. He was born in Byron, Ogle County, Illinois, December 17, 1867, and was reared and educated in that state. In 1888, he entered the employ of the Russell-Miller Milling Company as a bookkeeper in one of its offices in North Dakota. He soon afterward became manager of the mill at his North Dakota location, and in 1902 was promoted to the position of general manager for the company, having come to Minneapolis in its service in 1897.

Mr. Helm's preparation for the battle of life in a schol- astic way was extensive and thorough. He attended the Rockford, Illinois, High School, also the Beloit Academy for a time and finally passed one year in the University of Illinois. He was naturally endowed for a business life, however, and his inclination led him in that direction. The suecess that ha's attended his efforts shows that he has developed and applied his faculties judiciously.

With no desire whatever for public life, Mr. Helm has always taken an active and helpful interest in local public affairs and in the substantial and enduring welfare of his community. The social life of the city has also had his earnest support and he is an active member of the Minne- apolis, Minikahda, and Auto Clubs of Minneapolis, the Lake Pepin Country Club, and the Minneapolis Civic and Com- merce Association. In all of these organizations his member- ship is valued and he is held in high esteem, as he is in business circles in all parts of the city and by the people generally, wherever he is known.

HON. JAMES C. HAYNES.

The life of the late Hon. James C. Haynes, four times mayor of Minneapolis and prominent in the political life of the city for twenty-two years, in its early stages, its course and its achievements presents an epitome of American life in general for most of the men who win distinction and dignity and adorn the manhood of the nation. Mr. Haynes was born in obscurity, cradled and reared amid the inspiring scenes and useful pursuits of rural life, taught from his boyhood the value of productive industry through practical application to daily duties, and furnished the rudiments of his scholastic education at home, never secing the inside of a schoolhouse until after he was eleven years of age. He grew to manliood on his father's farm, extended his education in a public school and completed it at good academies, all the time making a hand on the farm, as the Civil war was in progress and labor was scarce, even in the North, during a part of the formative stage of his development.

Mr. Haynes was born at Van Buren near Baldwinsville, Onondaga county, New York, on September 22, 1848, and was a son of James and Eliza Ann (Clark) Haynes, also

I Colleagues

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

natives of New York state. The father continued farming until after middle life, then sold his farm and moved to Baldwinsville, where he engaged for some years in the hard- ware and lumber trade and operated a canal boatyard on Oneida lake. He died at the age of seventy-two. The mother, who died in 1909, at the age of eighty-seven, was a daughter of Sereno Clark of Oswego county, New York, a man prom- inent in local and state public affairs. He served in the constitutional convention held in Albany in 1846 with Charles O'Connor, Samuel J. Tilden and others who afterward won international renown.

Joseph Haynes, one of the early American ancestors of the late mayor, whose home was at Haverhill, Massachusetts, was an officer in a New Hampshire regiment during the war of the Revolution and active in helping to bring on the struggle for independence. He was a member of the first provincial congress at Ipswich and Salem, Massachusetts, in October, 1774, and aided in framing the resolutions adopted by that body for presentation to the Continental congress, in which the determined spirit of the colonists for liberty was made manifest in every line.

In 1867 Mr. Haynes of this sketch entered the academy at Baldwinsville, New York, and soon afterward he and former Attorney General H. W. Childs of this state were examined together and authorized to teach in the district schools at the same time. During four winters Mr. Haynes taught the district school near his old home at $40 a month and board, and kept up his studies at the academy. At the end of that period he began attendance at the Onondaga Valley academy, afterward pursuing a course of instruction at Cazenovia seminary. He next studied law in Syracuse and Baldwinsville in the offices of good lawyers, and in 1874-5 took a professional course at the Columbia law school in New York city.

Mr. Haynes was admitted to the bar at a general term of the Supreme Court of New York, held in Buffalo in June, 1875. During the next three years he practiced his profession in association with the law firm of Pratt, Brown & Garfield. of Syracuse, and in the fall of 1878 formed a partnership with R. A. Bill, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The next year Mr. Bill moved to North Dakota and Mr. Haynes came to Minneapolis, where he resumed the practice of law, especially the branch relating to business corporations. On September 4th, 1879, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah E. Clark of Skaneateus, New York. Three children were born to them, two of whom are living, Ruth-the wife of L. F. Carpenter and Dean Clark, both reside in Minneapolis. Mr. Haynes also took an active part in business affairs outside of his pro- fession, organizing in the spring of 1883, in company with the late Alfred T. Williams, the American District Telegraph company of Minneapolis, of which he was president as long as he was connected with it. About 1888 the late Thomas Lowry and Clinton Morrison purchased large blocks of stock in the company and continued to be members of its directorate until 1906, when it was absorbed by the American District Telegraph company of Minnesota.

Although always deeply and actively interested in municipal affairs in his home city, Mr. Haynes did not enter politics as a candidate for office until 1890, when he was nominated for alderman by the Democrats of the Second ward. He was elected by a plurality of twenty-three votes, and was the first Democrat elected from that ward, and, with the exception of E. J. Conroy, the only one who ever has been. In 1892, while

still a member of the city council, he was nominated for mayor, but, although he ran about 2,000 votes ahead of his ticket, W. H. Eustis, his Republican opponent, won the election by over 2,000 majority.

During the next ten years Mr. Haynes did not seek any political honors, but in 1902 he defeated Julius J. Heinrich for the Democratic nomination for mayor by a small plurality after a very hard fight. At the election which followed he had little difficulty in defeating Fred M. Powers, the Republican candidate, receiving a majority of over 5,900 votes. At the next election he was opposed by David P. Jones, at that time president of the city council, and was defeated by 256 votes. In the fall of 1906 more votes were cast for the office of mayor than at any other time before or since. Mr. Haynes was again the Democratic candidate and Mr. Jones the Repub- lican nominee. The battle was one of the fiercest in the history of the city, but Mr. Haynes was elected by a plurality of 3,565. In 1908 he defeated Charles H. Huhn by the same plurality that Mr. Jones secured four years before. In 1910 the situation was complicated by the first serious entrance of the Socialist party into the contest. Thomas Van Lear was the candidate of that party and former Alderman W. E. Satterlee was the Republican candidate. The three were so close together at the election that it took several days to determine the exact result. In the official count Mr. Haynes had the slight plurality of thirty-four votes over Mr. Satterlee and only a few more than 750 over Mr. Van Lear.

While Mr. Haynes was a member of the city council an unusually large number of important matters came before that body for action. He was firm in his advocacy and support of the interests of the people in connection with every measure, as he always was in his whole career. There was great activity and interest in the proceedings of the city council also during his tenure of the office of mayor. Mr. Haynes kept his ears to the ground and obeyed the voice of public sentiment which he had founded in all his official acts, looking after the welfare of the city and its residents with sleepless vigilance and untiring energy. He vetoed many ordinances passed by the city council regulating matters of public policy, giving excellent reasons for his position in every case, and most of his vetoes were sustained.

Perhaps the greatest contest in which Mr. Haynes engaged while he was mayor was with the Minneapolis Gas Light com- pany. The city council passed an ordinance granting that company an electric franchise for thirty years. Mayor Haynes vetoed this ordinance on the ground that there was no justifi- cation for granting a franchise for so long a period, and con- tended that only frequent renewals, for periods not to exceed ten years, or fifteen at the outside, would compel good service and just and reasonable rates. His veto message hung fire for several weeks, but was finally sustained by the council, its opponents being unable to muster enough votes to override it. His positiveness in standing by his convictions awakened strong criticisms and at times bitter censure, but after time passed even the most violent of his critics acquitted him of obstinacy and all unfairness, and the judgment of the city council, as embodied in resolutions formally passed after his death, was accepted generally as that of the community. It was:

"That the character and the life of the late James C. Haynes were such as to command not respect and confidence only, but admiration and affectionate regard. He combined in an unusual degree lofty ideals and firmness of purpose

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

with a tactful and kindly demeanor. Ile was forceful and resolute, yet free from rancor and from all uncharitableness. Ile performed unpleasant duties unflinchingly, yet with such evident fairness that resentment was disarmed. He was lovable as well as inflexible, a good neighbor, a capable and honest official and a model citizen. The records of this body bear eloquent testimony to his wisdom and his firmness. Unmindful of selfish and unjust criticism, he was singularly responsive to the public will where differences of opinion secmed founded on reason. Mere stubbornness was no part of his nature; his firmness was not pride of opinion, but faith in the right as God gave him to sce the right."

Mr. Haynes died at 8:10 Monday morning, April 15, 1913. For some months he realized and his friends feared that his end was approaching-that the plow was nearing the end of the furrow. But as an evidence of the appreciation in which he was held, close personal associates got together and pro- vided for an effort to prolong his life by a change of air, an extended rest and quiet recreation. They made up a purse of $6,300, the contributors numbering 560. The number pre- sented him with a beautiful bound volume containing their signatures and the following:

To the Honorable James C. Haynes, Mayor of Minneapolis:

We, your friends and fellow eitizens, desire to express to you upon your retirement from the office of our chief executive, our honor and respect for the honesty and fearless fidelity with which you have labored for the best interest of Minneapolis, as her mayor. of longest continuous service; and to add thereto our sincere regard for you as neighbor, friend and citizen.

Yours has been a rich gift, the gift of your best years and greatest powers to the publie service of our city. We honor you for this great sacrifice of private time and opportunity.

We believe that your sacrifice has not been in vain, that you have set a mark in the public service; that henceforth whenever an executive, guided by your example, strives for and attains a high plane of uscfulness it will be sufficient to say in his praise: "He was as good a Mayor as James C. Haynes."

This money was presented to Mayor Haynes at his home, 711 East River road, on Christmas day, 1912, and soon after- ward he left for a trip to the South and a sojourn on the Isle of Pines in the West Indies.

Accompanied by his wife, Mr. Haynes passed some weeks on the Isle of Pincs, then went to Nassau on New Providence Island, one of the Bahamas. Early in April, 1913, they re- turned to New York eity, intending to go from there to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for the benefit of the sea air and ocean tonie. But the sufferer felt that his strength was wan- ing, and the tourists hastencd home. They arrived on Sun- day, April 13, and the next day the weary star of the dis- tinguished citizen and publie official was unloosed, atrophy of the muscles being the cause of his death.

Every possible testimonial of public esteem was bestowed upon him after his death, in his home city and many other places. Business was generally suspended in Minneapolis during the funeral services, and the various organizations to which Mr. Haynes had belonged were represented in the pro- cession which attended his remains to their last resting place in Lakewood cemetery, as did the city council in a body after holding a special meeting and passing resolutions proclaim- ing to the world the merits of the man whose death the mem- bers mourned. The body lay in state at the city hall and

thousands passed the bier for a last look at the remains, while the floral tributes werc unusually numerous, rich and appropriate.

Mayor Haynes was aetive in the fraternal and social life of his community. Hc belonged to the Elks' lodge of Minne- apolis; was a thirty-second degree Frecmason and a Noble of the Mystic Shrine in the fraternity; and was also a member of the Royal Arcanum, the Ancient Order of United Work- men and the Knights of Pythias. Formerly he served on the public affairs committee of the Minneapolis Commercial club, of which he was long a member, and he also belonged to the St. Anthony Commercial club. In religious affiliation he was a devout member of All Souls Universalist church, and at- tended its services with continued regularity.

GEORGE G. HYSER.

Though he retired from active business in 1907, George G. Hyser still represents one of the few remaining links between the generation of bonifaces of the early days in Minnesota- that is, its boom times and its fast-building period-and the head of the hostelry of the present day. He has had a part in the building of the Northwest in a sense different from that of most other factors in it, and he has been the friend and companion of many of the foremost men of the North. west.

George G. Hyser was born in Zurich, Switzerland, March 24, 1847. When he was two years old he came to America with his parents. They settled first in Massachusetts, and when George was nine years old he went to work in a cotton mill. He worked in the finishing room, marking goods, etc., until he was nineteen. Then he spent three years as an overseer over eighteen employes, who worked at measuring and tagging for shipment. His wages as overseer were $55 a month; to this he had worked up from the meager wage of a boy marker. In 1869 the family came west. His father took a homestead two miles north of Smith Lake, Wright County, Minnesota. He joined his father and began the labor of farming, but soon found he was not fitted to eutting trees and digging in the ground. A few months later a neighbor built a "shack ealled a hotel," as Mr. Hyser puts it, at Smith Lake, then on the new line of the St. Paul and Pacific rail- road-now the Great Northern. The line into that village was just building. Regular trains were running to Delano from Minneapolis. It was when the construction train reaelred Smith Lake that Mr. Hyser and his mother took charge of the hotel. The next year the railroad was extended to Ben- son, sixty-six miles further west. The railroad company built a hotel there,-the hotel business in small towns was then promoted by the railroads which built into them-and Mrs. Hyser and her son George were asked to take charge of that one. The son accepted, and his mother and his brother Robert soon joined him. They were there a year before regular trains were run into Benson. A year later they moved on westward into Morris, fifty-five miles further on, to run the hotel. Shortly the railroad company built another hotel, this time in Breckenridge, as part of its policy of development of its towns. Mr. Hyser went there and remained ten years. In those days, Mr. Hyser says, it took two days for passenger trains to run from St. Paul to Breckenridge, 214 miles. It was some time before the railroad was extended further, but

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

stages ran between Breckenridge and Winnipeg, and the travel by four-horse stage coach was heavy. Thus it came about that in his hotel Mr. Hyser entertained some of the biggest men in the country. President Hayes and his party took dinner with him; Mark Twain was a guest, and many other men of importance. J. P. Farley became receiver of the road, and operated it until James J. Hill came upon the scene.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 89

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