Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 99

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 99

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Henry Webster

395

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

JOHN LOHMAR.

Mr. Lohmar's life began August 6, 1860, in Carver county, Minnesota. His parents were Hubert and Regina (Kirsch) Lohmar, who came to Minnesota in 1854 and located on a claim in that county. The father was a native of Germany, and the mother was a widow with four children when she married him. They were married at Galena, Illinois, and came at once to this state, where they passed the remainder of their days. The father was killed in 1904 by a cyclone which swept his house away. He was then eighty years old and had survived his wife a number of years. Of their four children John is the only one living in Minneapolis.

He remained at home until he reached the age of twenty- one, working on the farm and attending the neighborhood school for a short time during the winter months when he could be spared. At seventeen he pursued a course of special training at the Curtis Business College, and at twenty-one began his business career as a clerk in a country store, in which he worked five years. In 1885 he came to Minneapolis in company with his brother-in-law, William J. Vander Weyer, whose sister Louisa he had married, in 1884, she being at the time a resident of Wright county. Mr. Lohmar had saved the greater part of his earnings; and he and his brother-in-law had together a ready capital amounting to about $2,300.

Together they purchased the stock of dry goods, furnishings, millinery and kindred commodities in the store of B. L. Buck, at 1201 Washington avenue north, the inventory amounting to about $9,000. The expansion of trade continued to be slow for some time after Mr. Lohmar and his partner purchased the store; but its increase was steady and soon became rapid, requiring two rooms in addition to the first used. In 1909 Mr. Lohmar bought his partner's interest and gives his whole time and energy to the management.

Mr. Lohmar and wife are members of St. Joseph's Catholic church. They have nine children living, Helen, Mary, Veronica, Bernard L., Ester, Rudolph, Arthur, Leo and Jerome. Helen is a teacher in the Perham public school, Mary is employed in the store, and Bernard is connected with the North Side State Bank. While Mr. Lohmar has taken no particular part in public affairs and shown no special political activity, he has always been deeply interested in the welfare of the community.

MAX A. LEHMAN.

Max A. Lehman, General Superintendent of the Pillsbury Flour Mills Company, was born at Lubbenau in the province of Brandenburg, July 31, 1876. He is a son of Ferdinand Lehman, who came to Minnesota in 1881, and located on a farm near Wells, Faribault county, but who passed the later years of life as a merchant in Blue Earth City, where he died. Max graduated from the scientific department of the University in the class of 1898. After one year as Principal of the public school in Kent, Minnesota, he became clerk in the Car account- ants office of the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad. When this road was absorbed by the Northern Pacific, he went to the auditing department of the Soo in Minneapolis, and in Sep- tember, 1900, joined the office force of the Pillsbury Milling company, as a clerk in the purchasing department. Here the most responsible duties of this whole branch of service soon devolved on him, his handling of them making him general

purchasing agent in 1908. In 1911 he was made general superintendent of the mills, but still left in charge of the purchasing department. He now has personal supervision and direction of all the details of the enormous business carried on by the company, which employs 1,100 persons and manufac- tures more than 20,000 barrels of flour per day. A narrow man, lacking in executive ability, would probably wear himself out over a multiplicity of details in such a position, while Mr. Lehman, depending upon others for detail, is necessarily employed in the larger supervision. In whatever situation placed, his ability to judge men, coupled with a sincere sympathy and fellow-feeling for the employes, has stood him in good stead, thus obtaining results with due consideration to the employes. The good will of the men under him is more to him than his position, and, knowing his attitude in this respect, they all hold him in high esteem, supporting him with genuine and unstinted loyalty. A strong proof of this was furnished during the great strike in 1903. As far as possible the mills were supplied with workmen from the outside, which were housed and fed in the mills. The hack drivers in sympathy with the strikers refused to bring in the necessary supplies, there thus being danger of a shortage of food for the marooned men. In this critical situation Mr. Lehman himself mounted a hack and led the way through the strikers, who offered him no violence. They realized that he was but endeavoring to do justice to his employers, and the respect of the men was not only maintained but heightened. One mill was started on the first day of the strike, the others being also soon in full activity, although the strike lasted four weeks. Mr. Lehman's experience as purchasing agent for the great milling industry induced Mayor Haynes, in 1912, to select him as a member of a commission consisting of ex- Gov. John Lind and Mr. Horace Hill to select a purchasing agent for the city of Minneapolis. He is a member of the University, Interlachen and Lake Harriet Commercial clubs, Traffic club, and the Theta-Delta-Chi college fraternity.

On Oct. 16th, 1903, Mr. Lehman and Miss Louise James, the daughter of Ralph James, an old resident were married. She was born in Minneapolis and is a high school graduate. They have two children. They are members of Plymouth Congre- gational church, and Mrs. Lehman belongs to the Sunshine club, in which she is an active and effective worker. Mr. Lehman finds recreation and inspiration in golf, of which is an ardent devotee.

FRANK F. LENHART.

Frank F. Lenhart, prominent manufacturer and proprietor of the Lenhart Wagon company, 2600 University avenue, is one of the pioneer business men of the city, having established the wagon industry in Minneapolis in 1878. He was born near the state line at Fountain City, Wisconsin, nine miles north of Winona, April 1, 1858. At sixteen he went to Winona to learn his trade, serving an apprenticeship of three years, with no monetary return the first year and but little the last two, so that at the end of this time he possessed no cash capital but had a thorough training as a wheelwright. He came to Minneapolis in 1875 and found employment with Driscoll & Forsythe, wagon manufacturers, where in a very few weeks his skill earned him the promotion to the position of foreman over thirty men. But ambitious to become one

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

of the factors in the business life of the growing city and equipped with a good kit of tools and forty dollars, he estab- lished an independent plant in 1878 on Main street near the present site of the Exposition building, with Mr. M. J. Klop, a wheelwright, and Mr. J. Roberts, a blacksmith, as partners, their total eash investment being $150. With this unpreten- tious start in one room and with but one extra workman, they began to secure trade and in a short time were building wagons for many of the leading firms. They constructed the first spring dray and first police wagon in Minneapolis. After two years Mr. Lenhart bought Mr. Klop's interest and the firm continued for nine years as Roberts & Lenhart. Mr. Lenhart has always displayed sound business judgment and also confidence in the ultimate prosperity of his industrial ventures which was evidenced markedly in one of the early years, when a large stock of material, purchased against the advice of his partner, was justified by a remarkable increase in trade. When Mr. Roberts retired, they were employing about twenty workmen and Mr. Lenhart was left sole pro- prietor of a business valued at $16,000, and owner of the buildings occupied on the island. In 1893 the entire plant was destroyed by fire with a complete loss of stock, machinery and buildings. But the following year, Mr. Lenhart estab- lished the Lenhart Wagon company in cooperation with Mr. Woodbury and Mr. Horace Andrews, Mr. Andrews soon retir- ing. The plant was installed at "Little Pittsburg" on Univer- sity avenue, its present site, and was the pioneer business establishment in this vicinity, which could not then even boast of water mains. The new company developed rapidly, soon adding the manufacture of farm wagons and fire trucks. The demand for these lines became so great that they finally absorbed almost the entire output and were sought for by dealers throughout all the adjoining states. In 1907, after thirteen years of partnership, Mr. Lenhart acquired Mr. Wood- bury's interest in the company. He now employs sixty men in operating the plant which covers two and a half aeres, the yards provided with trackage, and equipped with every modern mechanical improvement, and does an annual business of $100,000, the notable outgrowth of a forty dollar capital and years of efficient and capable management. The lumber used by the company is purchased in its native forests and dried and seasoned at the factory, certain woods being secured in Louisiana, while another especially adapted for the manu- facture of spokes comes from Indiana and that for axles from Arkansas. Mr. Lenhart is besides a stockholder in several other manufacturing concerns. As a Democrat in a Republican ward, he takes an enthusiastie interest in public matters. He has been prominently identified with all civie progress and influential in securing various important factories for Min- neapolis. He was married in North Dakota, in 1883, to Miss Johanna Platt. His family have taken an active interest in the business, Alfred, the eldest son, being general manager and a daughter, Helen, the bookkeeper and stenographer. The four younger children, Roy; Lillian; Willard and Frank, are students in the public schools. Mr. Lenhart takes great pleasure in out of door recreation and owns a summer home at Black Lake in the northern woods, where he enjoys his favorite sport with the rod and reel. He is a member of the St. Anthony Commercial club and for thirty-three years has held membership in the I. O. O. F., No. 40, has passed the chairs in the subordinate lodge and the encampment and is now a trustee.

HERBERT FULLER CHAFFEE.

Among the chief characteristics of elevated American man- hood and sources of pride and glory to the country in which it is produced are the courage and self-reliant spirit which it exhibits in all its activities, and the deference it pays to women in all the relations of life and amid all circumstances, whether the requirements are energy and enterprise, the courtliness and grace of social intercourse, or fortitude in the presence of imminent danger. The late Herbert Fuller Chaf- fee, one of the leading citizens of North Dakota and most extensive farmers and live stoek men in this country, dis- played many of these characteristics in his long and success- ful business eareer, and the last eame out prominently in his tragic and heroic death in the disaster of the unfortunate Steamship Titanic. He might probably have saved his life in that disaster, but he followed sturdily the rule of the country, "women first," and cheerfully accepted his own death in order that he might help to save the lives of others.

Mr. Chaffee was born in Ellsworth, Connectieut, on Novem- ber 20, 1865, a son of Eben Whitney and Amanda (Fuller) Chaffee, who resided at the time on an old farm that had been in the Chaffee family from early Colonial times, the first one hundred acres of it having been granted to one of its Amer- ican progenitors by one of the Georges when he was king of England. The earliest representatives of the family in this country came over in 1635, and their deseendants have dig- nified and adorned almost every worthy walk in life in many sections of the country, as many of them are doing now.

Eben Chaffee, the father of Herbert, and some of his neigh- bors in Connecticut owned large blocks of stoek in the North- crn Paeifie Railroad, and in return for their holdings, when a settlement had to be made, were given extensive tracts of land in what was then the territory of Dakota. Mr. Chaffee was selected by his neighbors to come to the territory and pick out the land for the whole number. He chose about forty-five seetions in what is now Cass county, North Dakota, twenty miles from Fargo. They were alternate sections, and hence covered the larger part of three townships. The next year he brought to the land a car-load of workmen and other help to begin reducing the grant to produetiveness.

In the meantime he formed the Amenia & Sharon Land company, which was named for two townships, one in Con- necticut and the other in New York, where most of the owners of the land lived. The purpose of this company was to improve its land and push forward judiciously the develop- ment of the county. As a result of Mr. Chaffee's first year's efforts he raised and marketed a whole seetion of wheat and erected extensive farm buildings. He continued to come to the territory and extend the improvement and cultivation of the company's land every year, returning to his Eastern home for the winter, until 1886, when he abandoned Connecticut altogether and began a permanent residence in North Dakota.

Mr. Chaffee was president and general manager of the land company, and he gradually bought out the interests of the other stockholders until he became practically the owner of the whole property and business. His son Herbert was associated with him in the enterprise from the time when he was but sixteen years of age, and remained with him until his death. The father started the village of Amenia and built it to a considerable extent. He died there in 1892, leaving the greater part of his immense aereage under culti-

DOhoffe

397

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

vation in one of the largest wheat-growing farms in the United States, the Amenia & Sharon Land Company Farm.

This farm lies in two parts, with the villages of Chaffee and Amenia on it, and is located about eight miles from Castleton. As a means of marketing his crops to the best advantage Mr. Chaffee erected elevators at different towns in the region, in which he was able to store his grain until he was ready to sell it. For years he devoted his energies principally to raising wheat in large quantities. But early in the nineties he began to raise corn also on a large scale. His son Herbert was an industrious student of advanced farming, and he adopted a well thought out scientific system of it for his own use. He and his father operated for a long time with hired help, but in later years they instituted the tenant method, and this is still in vogue on the estate.

The son began the erection of mills, stores and other needed structures, not only for their own use but also for the benefit of the section of country in which they carried on their business. Their annual corn crop often covered 6,000 acres, and their wheat crop a great deal more. They also made specialties of seed wheat and corn, which they raised in large quantities to supply a very active and widespread demand in the new country around them and in localities far more remote.

Eben Chaffee, the father, also took an earnest interest in public affairs and was well qualified for service in helping to conduct them. He was a member of the constitutional con- vention, and in that body served on the committee on legis- lation. He had by this time become thoroughly attached to the Dakotas and always stood for the best that was attain- able in constitutional and legislative provisions for their welfare, but after the division of the territory into two parts and their admission into the Union as the states of North and South Dakota, he gave his attention mainly to the affairs and needs of North Dakota.

In 1899 Mr. Chaffee united with Hon. John Miller, the first governor of North Dakota, in organizing the John Miller Grain Commission firm, which had offices in Minneapolis and Duluth. The firm carried on an extensive and profitable business, for it was well and vigorously headed and its operations were conducted with wisdom and excellent judg- ment. The men who composed it knew all about their business and put all their knowledge under requisition in conducting it.

Herbert F. Chaffee owned extensive tracts of laud not included in the property of the Amenia-Sharon Land com- pany's grant, and on all the land he used the tenant system. He made his own plans for the cultivation of the land, and his tenants found them satisfactory and profitable. There are now about ninety-five tenants on the lands, and they have the benefit of an ideal course of instruction in farming es- tablished by him. One is reserved for experimental work, and on this every new development in agriculture is thor- oughly tested. He also built a 600 barrel flour mill at Castle- ton and named the leading brand of its products the "Nodak" Flour. This has an extensive popularity and sale, and has been found equal in quality to any flour on the market.

The father built a church, with parsonage attached, at Amenia, and started it on so good a basis that it has been self-supporting from the beginning of its history. In that village Herbert Chaffee had his home until after the demise of his father. The latter was an excellent citizen and deeply interested in the welfare and advancement of his state, and

the steady improvement of the agricultural operations con- ducted in it. In several visits to Europe and other lands also he studied the methods of farming in its various coun- tries, and adopted for his own use whatever he deemed good in them that he was not already practicing. He had firm faith in the future greatness of North Dakota as an agricul- tural state, and bent his energies to give its farmers the benefit of all he knew or could learn in the business of high grade and advanced farming.

In addition to raising enormous crops of superior grain, Mr. Chaffee, for a number of years prior to his death engaged extensively in feeding sheep for the markets, often having as many as 40,000 head on his farm at one time. He be- lieved strongly in young men, and was always ready to give them opportunities for advancement. Some of his ten- ants renting from him, for sixteen years, and after years of tenancy with him most of them preferred to continue that relation to buying and owning land.

At the time of his death this prominent and most useful man was a trustee of Fargo College. and for many years before that was deeply and helpfully interested in the Young Men's Christian Association and other educational and up- lifting institutions. Every form of good for the people of all classes in his locality enlisted his interest and had his earnest practical support, and his activity and generosity in behalf of each sprang from the dictates of his elevated and pro- gressive manhood, his breadth of view and his great public spirit. But he was unostentatious in his bounty and work in this respect, seeking no commendation for himself, only good for his fellow men.

On Dec. 21, 1887, Mr. Chaffee was married in Iowa to Miss Carrie Toogood of Manchester, Delaware county, in that state. Five of their children are living: Eben Whitney, who is on the farm and assists in managing its operations; Dorothy, who is the wife of P. E. Stroud, manager of the John Miller Commission company; Herbert Lawrence, a mem- ber of the junior class at Oberlin College, Ohio; Florence Adele, and Lester Fuller. The two last named reside with their mother in Minneapolis, where she bought a home in order to secure good educational facilities for her younger children. All the sons are preparing to take part in the management of the farmn, as they desire and intend to keep the estate together in one big business enterprise.

Mr. Chaffee's life ended tragically when he was but forty- seven years of age and in the prime of his manhood and usefulness. His death was due to one of the great historical catastrophes of the world, and could have been prevented by no precaution on his part, or by any effort of his except an exhibition of selfishness of which he was incapable. The whole state of North Dakota mourns his early death and the manner of it, but rejoices at the same time over the manifestation of elevated manhood he made in it, and the credit thereby brought to the citizenship of the common- wealth. He died as he lived, deeply interested in the welfare of others and eager at all times to promote it by any sacrifice he might be called upon to make.

JOHN T. LUCAS.

Mr. Lucas was born in Maumee, Lucas county, Ohio, some- thing more than seventy years ago. He grew to the age of

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HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

eighteen in his native place and obtained his education in its publie schools. At the age mentioned he made his patriotic devotion to the Union manifest by enlisting in the armies called into action by the Federal government for its defense when armed resistance to the mandates of the people threat- ened its dismemberment. He was enrolled in Battery H, First Ohio Light Artillery, and in 1862 this battery was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. It took part in all the campaigns of that great fighting aggregation from the second battle of Bull Run to the end of the war, and was in the midst of all its heavy fighting from the battle of Fredericksburg until the banner of the Confederacy went down in everlasting defeat at Appomattox.

At Chancellorsville the battery lost four of its six guns, and, although it afterward recovered one of the four, the recovered gun was found to be spiked and temporarily useless. The battery's position at Gettysburg was on Cemetery Hill, where it was advantageonsly located to mow down General Pickett's men in their terribly disastrous but heroic charge. The battery, however, suffered heavily in losses of men, but it recuperated in time to take part in the campaigns of General Grant which brought the war to a elose. Mr. Lueas was with his command through all its terrible experiences, but escaped without a wound or once being taken prisoner, and was one of the few men who enlisted in 1862 that were present when its final discharge from the service came. He was slender in build and not robust, but he came out of the momentous conflict in good health and with increased vigor.

After the war was over he returned to his old Ohio home, but in the autumn of 1865 came to Minneapolis, where his older brother, Charles, was established in business as a pros- perous tinner. He had come to this eity about 1857 or 1858, but had gone back to Ohio. In 1860, however, he returned to Minneapolis, and here he passed part of the remainder of his days. During his first residence in Minneapolis he worked for Edward Nash, but when he came again and to stay, he started a business of his own at First street and First avenue north, continuing in the tinning industry, with which he was familiar. His brother John joined him in the enterprise, work- ing as a salesman in the store, and remained with him four years. Mr. Lucas then spent some time in traveling over the Western States.

It was in the fall of 1870 that Mr. Lucas came back to Minneapolis, and soon afterward his brother sold him his interest in the business and moved to California. Mr. Lncas continued in the tinning business until 1898, being the pro- prietor of his store for twenty-eight years. In 1866 this was on Bridge Square. Later it was moved to the corner of First street and Bridge Square, then the business center of the town. He put up a new house on his old lot at 25 Nicollet avenue, and in this he carried on his business until about 1886. By that time his operations had grown to such large proportions and his stock was so extensive, that he found it necessary to have more commodious quarters for them, and moved to 109 Nicollet avenue. There he remained until 1898, when he retired from business altogether.

Since 1898 he has built the business block he now owns on the site of his old residence. This block fronts 66 feet on Sixth street and contains four store rooms. It is on land that was formerly a part of the old homestead of John Jackins, and in it the business Mr. Lucas once conducted is still in operation by a younger brother. He also still owns his old

property on Nicollet avenue, on the site of which the dry goods store of Fletcher & Loring stood about 1867.

In politieal faith and allegiance Mr. Lueas has been a member of the Republican party from the dawn of his manhood. He is a member of Levi Butler Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and one of the few who still respond to its tattoos, many of its once large membership having forever grounded their arms for earthly contests.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 99

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