USA > Minnesota > St Louis County > Duluth > Duluth and St. Louis County, Minnesota; their story and people; an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development, Volume II > Part 32
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About the time he obtained his patent on the McGiffert Log Loader the Clyde Iron Works was established as the reorganization of another iron working plant at Duluth. The Clyde Iron Works has long been the most complete iron working plant in the Northwest, and has specialized in the manufacture of logging and other heavy machinery. The Mc- Giffert Log Loader has been manufactured by the Clyde Iron Works from the beginning, as well as other of Mr. McGiffert's patents. In 1902 Mr. McGiffert became superintendent of the logging machinery department, and subsequently became treasurer and secretary and later vice president of the corporation in general charge of the design and construction of all the machinery manufactured in the immense plant at Duluth.
Mr. McGiffert is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the New York Machinery Club, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. belongs to the Duluth Commercial Club. Kitchi Gammi Club, Duluth Boat Club, Northland Country Club. and has allied himself with every progressive civic. business and patriotic organization since he took up his residence at Duluth. Mr. McGiffert has served as a member of the Board of Education and in other capacities.
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In 1896 he married Miss Gertrude Yates Magoun, who was also born in Hudson, New York. Her ancestry involves many prominent names, particularly in the Yates line. Colonel Christopher Yates was an officer in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars. Another member of this family was Joseph Yates, who helped frame the Con- stitution of the United States and later was governor of New York. Mr. and Mrs. McGiffert have five children, Stephen Y., Mary Y., Ger- trude R., Rutherford N. and Andrew C.
E. H. FALGREN has lived in and around Duluth for nearly forty years, has long been a successful business man, and is secretary and assistant treasurer and the chief executive manager of the East End Ice Company.
He was born in Sweden, December 6, 1873, and was eight years of age when he came to America with his parents in 1881. His father, E. A. Falgren, located at Duluth in the spring of 1882, and his chief business through all the succeeding years has been that of gardening. He is now seventy-two years of age, and of his four children, E. H. is the only survivor.
The latter was educated in the public schools of Duluth and at the age of thirteen was clerking in the drapery department of a department store. In 1895 he became associated with the East End Ice Company, which was then owned by Fred Sahlberg, who died in 1904. It was in- corporated in 1905, and there was a reorganization of the company's affairs. Mrs. Sahlberg, wife of Fred Sahlberg, was made president and E. H. Falgren became secretary and assistant treasurer. The company does a large wholesale and retail business direct with consumers in both natural and manufactured ice, and operates a large ice storage and warehouse at Duluth. The city office is at 9 South Fifth avenue, West.
Mr. Falgren is a member of the Commercial and Kiwanis Clubs, is a Republican in politics, and is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees. July 18. 1900. in Duluth, he married Miss Anna S. E. Northstrum. She was also born in Sweden, and her people came to Duluth in 1882, and she acquired her education in the public schools of that city. They have two children. Marion, born September 2, 1901, and Vernon, born November 24. 1904.
EDWIN F. JOHNSON while growing to manhood chose the profession and career of undertaking and embalming and has practiced that vocation continuously since he graduated from university twelve years ago. He is now the head of F. A. Johnson and Son, undertakers and funeral directors at Duluth.
He was born at Evansville, Minnesota, August 4, 1888. His father. F. A. Johnson, was born in Sweden and came to America at the age of nineteen and joined a brother in Minneapolis. This brother had located at Minneapolis some time previously and was engaged in the lumber business there, and F. A. Johnson found employment in the lumber yard for two or three years and then moved to Evansville, Minnesota, where he was engaged in the retail lumber business on his own account until about 1896. His next location was at Elbow Lake. Minnesota, where lie carried on an extensive business as a hardware merchant and lum- berman until 1918. In that year he moved to Duluth and joined his son as the business head of F. A. Johnson and Son, funeral directors.
Edwin F. Johnson was eight years of age when the family removed to Elbow Lake, and he acquired most of his public school education there. including the high school course. For two years he attended Minnesota College in Minneapolis and took the embalmers' course at University
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of Minnesota in 1908. As a licensed embalmer he was employed by several undertakers in Duluth and elsewhere for several years, and for five years was traveling salesman for the firm of Janney, Semple, Hill & Company of Minneapolis. Then, on May 1, 1918, associated with his father, he established the present business of F. A. Johnson and Son. For the first two years the firm was located at 319 East Superior street, and having outgrown the quarters there moved to a specially equipped funeral home at 514 East Third street. The firm maintains its own funeral equipment, and Mr. Edwin F. Johnson gives his personal super- vision to all cases. The firm has a splendid location convenient to trans- portation, and its business and service are highly appreciated.
OTTO J. WENDLANDT. Of Duluth's industry represented in the print- ing and typographical trade one of the leading establishments is the Wendlandt Printing & Binding Company, comprising a complete estab- lishment at 114-116 West First street for doing all classes of printing, binding and the manufacture of stationery supplies. The president and manager and practically the founder of the business is Otto J. Wend- landt. Other officials of the concern are Louis G. Wendlandt, secre- tary, and William H. Wendlandt, treasurer.
Otto J. Wendlandt was born at Bloomer, Wisconsin, April 3, 1877. His father, John M. Wendlandt, was a native of Germany and came to America in 1866. For a number of years he followed his trade and business as a brewer at Bloomer, Wisconsin, but in 1891 removed to West Superior, where he continued business as a general merchant until his death in 1899. Of his eleven children seven are still living, Otto J. being the second in age.
Otto J. Wendlandt was educated in the public schools of Bloomer, and first went to work for R. C. Mast, a bookbinder of Superior. He learned and followed that trade at Superior, and in June, 1902, came to Duluth and set up a modest shop of his own in the basement of the Providence Building. From bookbinding he gradually expanded his business, organizing the Wendlandt Printing & Binding Company and increasing the facilities until it is now one of the chief organizations of its kind in Northern Minnesota. From time to time Mr. Wendlandt has also given his enterprise to other business affairs and is vice president of the Cuyuna-Duluth and the Cuyuna Mille Lacs Mines at Ironton, Minnesota.
He is affiliated with the Elks, Good Samaritans, Sons of Hermann and Order of Moose, is a member of the Commercial and Lions Clubs and in politics is independent. June 13, 1900, at Superior, Wisconsin, Mr. Wendlandt married Miss Christina Yeska, whose people also came from Germany. They first settled at Milwaukee and afterward moved to Long Prairie in Minnesota, where Mrs. Wendlandt finished her educa- tion. Mr. and Mrs. Wendlandt have five children : Pearl, born in 1902; Vernon, born in 1904; George, born in 1907; Violet, born in 1910; and Marion, born in 1913.
GEORGE N. HOLLAND came to Duluth nearly forty years ago. It would not be possible in a brief article to indicate or suggest the wide range of his enterprises, his experiences and his close associations with the fundamental industries and resources of this northern country.
He was born at Saginaw, Michigan, October 8, 1860, and as a youth he grew up familiar with many phases of the great lumber industry, in which his father was vigorously engaged. Mr. Holland came to Duluth in 1882 and was employed as a lumber and timber estimator, and for
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grond Holland
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several years syndicates worked at the task of selecting Government lands. In 1884 he entered the lumber and timber business for himself. His work in prospecting and developing timber tracts brought him naturally a knowledge of the mineral resources of the various iron ranges. He did much exploration work on both the Mesaba and Vermillion ranges, and in 1892, in connection with W. G. LaRue and H. Jarchow, found what is now the Waucouta, Hanna and Brunt mines. These properties they promptly lost in the panic of 1893. Subsequently he dis- covered the Holland Mine near Biwabik, and this property was later operated by Swallow & Hopkins, Mr. Holland retaining an interest.
As long ago as 1886 Mr. Holland bought from the C. N. Nelson Lumber Company for W. R. Burt of Saginaw a tract of land on the Mesaba that later was found to contain the Burt Mine and six or seven others now fully explored, though not opened, since they are under a blanket lease to the United States Steel Corporation. Mr. Holland has expressed his relations to the lumber and mining industries in the fol- lowing way: "When I want to have some fun I explore for iron, and when it is necessary to make money I buy timber." His timber dealings are now exclusively confined to the southern territory.
Mr. Holland calls attention to the more or less familiar experiences of owners and operators in the mining ranges when he mentions that Mr. Burt tried hard to dispose of his holdings on the Mesaba for a very nominal sum, and being unable to do so was forced to keep, against his will, a pretty large fortune in iron ore that subsequently for years paid him large royalties. The same has been true of many other large holders of iron in fee. They bought the land for the pine, after the lumber was cut were unable to sell the lands, and others explored and found the mines for them.
Mr. Holland represents some old and substantial American ancestry. His father was born at Belgertown, Massachusetts, moved out to Erie county, New York, and still later to Saginaw, Michigan, where he turned his career from farming to lumbering. He died in 1908, at the age of seventy. The mother of George N. Holland is still living, at the age of eighty-six, at Saginaw. Her father was a physician and her grand- father was Rev. D. D. Nash of Cooperstown, New York, a prominent pioneer minister whose church is still in use and in which every year is held a memorial service in his honor. George N. Holland is the first of four children, two sons and two daughters, all still living. During his boyhood in Saginaw he attended the public schools, graduating from high school, and completed his education with two years in a military academy at Worcester, Massachusetts, and two years at the University of Michigan. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Elks.
PHILLIP SHER. One of the largest wholesale and jobbing concerns handling meat and animal products in the Duluth territory is that of Phillip Sher. An interesting fact in this connection is that Phillip Sher some twenty-five or thirty years ago had to borrow a hundred dollars to open a modest meat market. and his own energies, good judgment and persistence have been the forces behind the growth and progress of his business.
Phillip Sher was born in Russia, July 5, 1858, and came alone to America in 1891. After securing from a friend the modest loan above mentioned he used it to secure equipment and install a modest stock of retail meats in a small room on Superior street, Duluth. He remained in that location three years, and in that time his trade and business had outgrown the room and he then moved to larger quarters
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at 25 East First street. Eventually he built up a large retail business and gradually transformed his enterprise into wholesale and jobbing, and the annual volume of his sales now aggregate half a million dollars. Mr. Sher has long made it a rule and practice to invest his surplus proceeds from business in Duluth real estate, and is the owner of a number of residences and business blocks which constitute a substantial form of real wealth.
He is the father of four sons and two daughters, all living, and the sons are actively associated with him in the wholesale meat and livestock business. Mr. Sher was married in Russia forty-two years ago and after coming to this country and getting established sent for his wife and family, who joined him. Mr. Sher is an Orthodox in religious belief and is a Republican in politics.
J. E. DAVIS, a resident of Duluth for the past fourteen years, has built up and is proprietor of a large and prosperous business known as the West End Scrap Iron and Metal Company, which buys and sells material over a district including most of the Northwestern States and Canada.
Mr. Davis was born in Russia, June 2, 1886, and was twenty years of age when he came to this country in 1906. He had a fair education, and on coming to Duluth found work as a laborer in a scrap iron yard. At the end of a year and a half he had made considerable progress in the acquisition of the American language and customs, and then engaged in business for himself under the name of the West End Scrap Iron and Metal Company. From 1908 to 1918 his associate in this business was W. Ginsberg, and since then he has been the individual proprietor. His first location was at Twenty-first avenue, West, and Michigan street; a year and a half later he removed to 1910-1912 West Michigan street, and the office and yard of the plant have been in that locality ever since. The West End Scrap Iron and Metal Company are wholesale dealers in scrap iron and metal, rags and woolens, second-hand machinery, and 60 per cent of the business is jobbing. The business connections extend over eight or ten states and Canada. Mr. Davis has also been in the hide and fur business in Duluth, and was interested in the Marine Iron & Ship- building Company.
He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Duluth Commercial Club, and Covenant Lodge No. 569, I. O. B. B. His church connec- tions are with Kofereth of Israel Temple of Immanuel. Mr. Davis was married in Duluth in 1914 to Miss Florence Levin.
PETER L. MORTERUD. The senior partner of the Morterud-Koneczny Company, one of the large and prosperous retail stores on West Supe- rior street, began his career with only a common school education and with the incentive supplied by himself in the way of earnestness, ambition and perseverance, and has found his way over obstacles to independent and influential position in his home city.
Mr. Morterud was born in Norway, September 11, 1866. His father, Peter Morterud, brought the family to America in 1873 and for the first two years lived in Dane county, Wisconsin, then two years in Trempealeau county and fifteen years in Jackson county in the same state. He was a blacksmith by trade. On coming to Duluth he located in what is now known as the West End, where he lived retired until his death in 1901. Of his seven children, five are still living.
RB whileside
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Peter L. Morterud, the youngest of the family, had only the advantages of the common schools and as a boy worked on farms at small wages. He also clerked in a general store at Whitehall, Wis- consin. On coming to Duluth he became a clerk for his brother in the clothing business, and for twenty years was actively associated with his brother, eventually acquiring a third interest in the store. In 1908 he organized the present firm of the Morterud-Koneczny Company, which was incorporated the same year. He has given all his time to the management of this enterprise, and does an extensive business as a retail merchant in clothing, shoes and furnishing goods. The store is at 2101-2103 West Superior street and draws a large trade not only from the West End, but from many other sections of Duluth and surrounding territory.
Mr. Morterud is a member of the Norwegian Methodist Church. He has always stood as a stanch advocate of prohibition. May 27, 1891, he married Miss Mary Peterson. They have had four children, Hazel V., Ernest (deceased), Leslie M. and Olive M.
A. A. KERR, represents at Duluth one of the largest firms of food product makers in America, the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company. This has been his line of business for thirty or forty years, and to a large degree he is personally responsible for the great volume of business that flows to his corporation from the Duluth district.
Mr. Kerr was born at Berlin, Wisconsin, August 18, 1860, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Ray) Kerr. His parents were both natives of Scotland. His father came to America in 1854, first located at Milwaukee, where he followed his trade as a carriage trimmer ; from there moved to Berlin, Wisconsin, and during the period of the Civil war lived in Chicago. His next home was at Peoria, Illinois, and he spent his last years at Monmouth in that state. Of his family of nine children A. A. was the third in age.
He acquired his early education in the public schools and at the age of twelve was clerking in a grocery store. After considerable training in merchandising he entered the service of the F. A. Kennedy Biscuit Company as a traveling salesman and continued with that concern until the National Biscuit Company absorbed the Kennedy Company. He eventually was made local manager for that noted concern. In 1906 he joined the Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company as local manager at Duluth, and has been in charge of the local offices and warehouses at 308 West Michigan street since that time. The Loose-Wiles products are now sold and distributed in great quantities all sver Duluth, the Head of the Lakes district and the iron ranges, and the business for this entire district goes through Mr. Kerr's office.
Mr. Kerr became a charter member of the United Commercial Travelers in 1892. Since coming to Duluth he has been generous of his efforts and influence in behalf of good citizenship. He is a member of the Commercial Club, Rotary Club, Curling Club, and a Republican in politics. He married at Washington, lowa, Septem- ber 7. 1892, and has two children, Vivienne and Robert.
ROBERT B. WHITESIDE. Popular reputation accords to Robert B Whiteside of Duluth the title of capitalist. When ne first came to the district of Northern Minnesota his capital aggregated only $3,500. He has in truth been a capitalist in more than one sense. The great resources of his career have been represented not so much by money as by physical power and endurance, judgment, determination, and a
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faculty of fighting to victory without regard to obstacles interposed. His record is that of a highly successful man and his activities have made him widely known not only in the Duluth country but in other states as well.
Mr. Whiteside was born in Ontario, Canada, March 13, 1856. He had a public school education, but his real training came not from books but through experiences that developed every physical and mental faculty in his character, including self-reliance. Only a boy, he worked in the lumber camps of the South Branch of the Muskoka River. His first venture was of itself an illustration of independence and courage. He contracted for the purchase of a tract of stumpage, and personally labored and engineered the campaign for logging the tract. It was his first case of real profits from the products of the iorest.
Mr. Whiteside's association with the Duluth country began forty years ago, in 1881. The old logging firm of Hall & Norton secured his services as log and river foreman on the Black River in Wisconsin on January 10, 1882. In later years Mr. Whiteside has made a large part of his fortune through his mining interests. At the beginning, however, he was a practical timber man, and as a timber cruiser he explored many of the ranges without a thought of the treasures underground. Some of his early explorations deserve permanent record in the history of the iron ranges. In 1883 he went on a trip over the Vermillion Range, cruising for timber, taking along five men and building homes and locating homestead claims. He is said to have been the first timber cruiser to examine the localities where are now numerous ore mines. At one time he had sixty timber claims located. His plan was to place homesteaders on these claims, and while he was searching out the most valuable timber tracts there was another historic character, Captain Harvey, who was exploring the same district in search of metals and minerals. Captain Harvey is known in history as the man who made the first discovery of iron ore in the Ely district, having located what was known as the Pioneer Mine. This mine was on land comprised in one of Mr. White- side's timber claim locations.
In early years Mr. Whiteside realized very little from the min- eral resources underlying his properties on the ranges. He owned the superficial rights of the Chandler Mine property, and sold that claim for $2,000, and received only $1.500 for the Sibley Mine. Dur- ing his homesteading explorations Mr. Whiteside and his party walked all the distance of more than a hundred miles from Duluth to what is now Ely, carrying packs on their backs. He enjoyed to the full the rugged experiences of such work, and in endurance and capacity for physical toil he had few equals.
During all these years he was engaged in logging operations. He and his brother John in 1893 were associated with W. C. Winton and S. G. Knox in the organization of the Knox Lumber Company, with headquarters at Winton, Minnesota. Mr. Whiteside was superin- tendent of the logging department of this company until 1898, when he sold out to H. F. David of Duluth. While he owned some of the choicest tracts of stumpage in Northern Minnesota, Mr. Whiteside gradually extended his interests to other timber districts. In 1899 he acquired 13,000 acres of the big timber lands of Calaveras county, California, and he still owns that immense tract. The purchase included the Calaveras Grove and the Tuolumne Grove, containing
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the largest trees in the world. Several trees on that tract contained more than half a million feet of lumber.
A few years ago Mr. Whiteside was credited with operating more drilling outfits for the uncovering of ore deposits in the Lake Supe- rior region than any other individual operator. His prospecting for ore was always part of his individual operations, carried on at his own expense. He owns a quarter interest in the fee of the Zenith Mine and a sixth interest in the fee of the Pioneer Mine, both at Ely, and has been vice president of the Rouchleau-Ray Iron Land Company and president of the Presquele Iron Mining Company.
In recent years his operations have taken still another direction. These have brought him the distinction of being the largest investor and most successful operator from Duluth in oil properties of the Southwest.
Mr. Whiteside, for all his success, remains a man of quiet, demo- cratic tastes, and his pleasures and recreations are largely furnished by his diversity of business affairs. Some years ago he bought Big Island, in Spirit Lake, an enlargement of the St. Louis River, opposite the steel plant, and has improved and made this valuable as a farm as well as a country retreat. He regards all the old-timers of Duluth and the Range country as his friends, and is also well known socially at Duluth. He is a member of the Commercial Club, the Kitchi Gammi Club, the Northland Country Club, a life member of the Duluth Boat Club and the Curling Club. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner. Mr. Whiteside has reared a fine family. He married at Duluth in 1888 Miss Sophia Kimberg. The seven children born to their marriage are James E., Roger V., Robert Walton, Frances Burton, Gordon Douglass, Walker Lee and Marion Calaveras.
A. H. DONALD continuously for nearly thirty years has been in busi- ness at Duluth as a grocery merchant and has one of the oldest establishments in the West End of the city. He has become well and favorably known on account of his public spirit and his generous par- ticipation in every movement undertaken for the benefit and general welfare of the citizens.
Mr. Donald was born in Scotland, November 8, 1858, son of David and Henrietta (Henderson) Donald. In 1872, when he was fourteen years of age, the family came to America and located in Michigan. David Donald was a farmer by occupation and followed that vocation in Michigan for many years, living near the city of Alpena. He died at the age of seventy-nine.
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