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 45
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ST. JOSEPH'S CATHOLIC CHURCH OF CHISHOLM. Almost from the opening of the first mines in the Chisholm district Catholic services were held in the most available places of worship. Later Bishop James McGolrick of Duluth appointed Monsignor Joseph F. Buh with a special mission to investigate conditions at Chisholm and report on the advisa- bility of establishing a permanent church or mission. The result of the Monsignor's visit was the erection of the present church building in 1904. The first mass was said Christmas day of that year by Rev. C. V. Gamache of Hibbing. The building committee consisted of Mat Matzelle and M. F. Marion.
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At that time the parish contained between forty and fifty families. In 1905 the church was incorporated, and during the first part of that year it was attended by Rev. M. Sengir of Virginia and later by Rev. M. Bilban and his assistant, Rev. John Tscholl, of Eveleth. Father Tscholl said mass once a month and in January, 1906, was appointed regular pastor and filled that office until March 1, 1911. In the meantime improvements and enlargements were made. The priest's house, a two-story cement structure, was built in 1906 and in 1907 the church was enlarged to its present size.
The pastor of St. Joseph's since September 15, 1911, has been Rev. J. E. Schiffrer and the decade of his administration has been marked by steady growth and improvement. In 1913 additional lots were bought for church property, some special improvements were made to the church edifice in 1916, and in 1918 an addition was made to the priest's house. Plans are now being developed for the establishment of a parochial school. In 1911 the parish had a population of 350 families, while now about 450 families are included in the parish limits. Most of these are of foreign birth and parentage, the Slavs predominating, with important admixtures of French, Irish, Polish, Italians and Germans. Mention has been made of the two prominent members of the building committee, M. F. Marion and Mat Matzelle, and others who deserve especial credit for their efforts and general bestowal of their means upon St. Joseph's are J. J. Hayes, John Kochevar, John Bovetz, while more recently should be mentioned A. J. Sullivan, John Schweiger, Frank Gouze and A. L. Bergeron, and many others have been active in this noble work.
Rev. J. E. Schiffrer, the beloved aad esteemed pastor of St. Joseph's, was born in January, 1884, at Stara Loka, Slovenia, Czecho-Slavia. The oldest of six children, he was early appointed for the priesthood, acquired a common school education at Skofja Loka, attended college at Kranj, Slovenia, and being designated for the American mission, he came to this country in 1902 and pursued the study of philosophy and theology at the St. Paul Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. He was graduated in 1908 and after being ordained was sent for one year to St. Anthony's Church at Ely, Minnesota. He spent three months at Hinckley and then took charge of the church at Scanlon, Carlton and neighboring towns. From August to December, 1909, he was chaplain to the Benedictine Sisters at Duluth. His next appointment was to establish a new parish at Gilbert, and from there on September 15, 1911, he entered upon his duties and congenial relationship with St. Joseph's at Chisholm. He is a popular citizen of Chisholm, and is active in the Kiwanis Club, and is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus at Virginia.
WILLIAM A. MCCURDY. In mining circles throughout Minnesota, Michigan and in other sections the name of William McCurdy is a very familiar one, representing, as it does, thorough knowledge and long and honorable mining engineering experience, as well as good citizenship and high personal character. Mr. MeCurdy came to Virginia, Minnesota, in the spring of 1919, and has continued here as the efficient superintendent of the Virginia Mines of the Oliver Iron Mining Company.
William A. McCurdy was born October 6. 1875, at Marquette. Michigan, and is a son of William and Emma ( Snyder) McCurdy, the former of whom was born in 1848, in Canada, of Highland Scotch ances- try, and the latter in Michigan, of German parentage. Of their seven children five are living, William A. being the eldest of the family. The father of Mr. McCurdy for many years engaged in a building contracting business, especially in the neighborhood of mine properties in Michigan, but now lives retired.
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Taking advantage of the excellent educational opportunities afforded him at Houghton, Michigan, William A. McCurdy pursued his studies there until he was graduated from the high school in 1895, when he entered the Michigan College of Mines, from which noted technical school he was graduated in 1898. Following this he engaged with the Tamarack Osceola Manufacturing Company, in the interest of which he went to Dollar Bay, Michigan, charged with the responsibility of installing the electrolytic copper assay laboratory, a task that consumed about one year. When it was satisfactorily completed Mr. McCurdy made a business trip to British Columbia, his object being to investigate gold prospects, and while there he conducted a small assay office. He then returned to the Tamarack Osceola people, going into their designing department to assist in designing some new types of furnace.
By this time Mr. McCurdy had made some reputation as a mining engineer, and his services as such were engaged by the Massachusetts Consolidated Mining Company at the Mars Mine, where he remained about a year, a few months of the time assaying at the mill. From there he went to Duluth and entered the mechanical engineering department of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, and in 1903 was transferred to Ely, Saint Louis County, Minnesota, as chief mining engineer of the Ely district mines for the above company. He remained at Ely until 1910, when the company sent him to superintend their mining properties at Soudan, but a year later was transferred back to Ely and made superintendent of the Vermillion Range Mines of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, from which position, in line of promotion, he came in May, 1919, to Virginia.
Mr. McCurdy was married July 22, 1914, to Miss Ada Patterson, who was born at Duluth, of an old American family, and they have one child, Gordon William, born August 25, 1915.
Mr. McCurdy's political attitude is that of an independent Republican. Like many other business men in his profession, he has found a perma- nent place of residence not always desirable or even possible, but during a comparatively lengthy period he was settled at Ely, and while there took so active an interest in the town's welfare as to become recognized as a foremost citizen. He served two terms as alderman and was a member of the School Board for five years, during three years being president of the board. As might be expected, the various urgent calls to patriotic endeavor during the World war found him ready to respond, and in addition to actively furthering every public movement of a patriotic nature he served in the Home Guards, first as lieutenant and later as captain of Company D, 8th Battalion. Mr. McCurdy is a member of Ely Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of which he was master in 1918, has received the thirty-second degree, and belongs to the Mystic Shrine at Duluth. He is a member of several scientific bodies and belongs to the Engineers' Club of Northern Minnesota.
JAMES P. MCDONALD. Either as an expert working for others, in part- nership or individually James P. McDonald has been one of the men of prominence in the great lumber industries centered at the head of the lakes at Duluth for upwards of thirty years. His associations and activi- ties make him easily one of the most conspicuous figures in the lumber industry of the northwest.
Mr. McDonald was born on a farm in the township of Osprey. McIntyre, county of Grey, province of Ontario, Canada, April 3, 1868. His parents were of Scotch ancestry and both of them died in Canada. His father was a building contractor, and after retiring from that business devoted his later years to agriculture and stock. There were nine children
Monard
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in the family, seven of whom are still living, James P. being the fourth in age.
James P. McDonald was well educated, and manifested some unusual intellectual qualifications while a schoolboy in Canada. When he gradu- ated from the public schools he passed a written examination held under the direction of the Dominion Government and obtained the highest per- centage of any student in the Dominion at that time. From the public schools he entered the Collingwood Collegiate Institute, and after finishing his education found his first employment as cashier in a mercantile con- cern. During the season of 1888 he was purser on the steamer Imperial.
Since then for a period of over thirty years his one work and interest has been the lumber business. He was assistant to the manager in a plant manufacturing lumber, and made use of every opportunity to learn the business in every phase and detail from the stump to the market. The firm with which he served this practical apprenticeship was at French River, Ontario. During the second year he took an examination under the Dominion Government as to his qualifications as a scaler of logs on Crown land timber, and after the examination received a life certificate for scaling Crown land timber.
Mr. McDonald came to the United States in November, 1891, in company with his brother Peter Thomas McDonald. He crossed the line at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and immediately became associated as a lumber inspector with the Hall & Munson Lumber Company at Bay Mills, Michigan. He was there a year, and in November, 1892, came to Duluth, even at that time one of the most prominent points in the lumber industry of the northwest. During the winter months of 1892-93 he was employed as a log scaler by the Howe Lumber Company at Tower, one of the larger organizations then in business, and also by Robert Whiteside of Duluth. In the spring of 1893 he became lumber inspector for the Howe Lumber Company at Tower and continued during 1893. In the winter of 1893-94 he scaled state timber as deputy surveyor general, but then returned to the Howe Lumber Company as lumber yard superintendent in the spring of 1894, and filled that position during the summer seasons up to and including 1896. During the winters of 1895-96 and 1896-97 he was engaged as chief deputy surveyor general in the Fifth District of Minne- sota. His next work was with Ogilvie & Turrish of West Superior, Wisconsin, as superintendent. This firm had a large plant for the manu- facture of lumber at West Superior. Mr. McDonald remained with them until he was appointed surveyor general of logs and lumber by Governor Schofield of Wisconsin, an office he filled for a term of two years. One of the largest timber and lumber manufacturing concerns at Duluth, the Minnesota Log & Timber Company, then secured Mr. McDonald's serv- ices as general manager of their operations, and that was his post of duty until the corporation liquidated and wound up its affairs. In 1904 he became associated with another prominent northwestern lumberman. Mr. William O'Brien, who had been president of the Minnesota Log & Timber Company, and continued as general manager of the O'Brien Lumber Manufacturing Plant at Duluth.
In 1909 the firm of Mullery-McDonald Lumber Company was organ- ized with William O'Brien, president ; John C. Mullery, vice president ; V. J. Mullery, treasurer, and Mr. McDonald, secretary and general man- ager. This firm owned extensive tracts of timber land, logged off the land and railed the products to Duluth to be manufactured into lumber at their three sawmills, which they purchased from Hubbard & Vincent, the Red Cliff Lumber Company and the St. Louis Lumber Company. The opera- tions of the firm were conducted on a large scale until 1919. During 1915
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Mr. McDonald was instrumental in having the Mullery-McDonald Lumber Company purchase a controlling interest in a wholesale lumber yard, including a complete planing and shingle plant, at North Tonawanda, New York. He is still vice president and purchasing agent for this com- pany. In the meantime for several years past he has been interested in the white pine timber regions of Idaho and is a stockholder in the Western Land & Timber Company. Mr. McDonald carries on an extensive busi- ness under his own name as a manufacturer and dealer in logs and lumber. He is interested in several ranches in the province of Alberta, Canada, and has always participated in iron mining, having organized the Cuvuna Iron & Land Company in Minnesota. He is one of the officials of this company. Otherwise he is identified as a stockholder or director in sev- eral business organizations in Minnesota, Idaho and Kentucky. In 1920 he organized the McDonald Lumber Company, extensive manufacturers and wholesalers of lumber and timbers and large handlers of piling and other forest products.
Mr. McDonald is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, a member of the Kitchi Gammi Club, the Curling Club and Duluth Boat Club, and is serving a second term as chief of the Clan Stewart, Order of Scottish Clans. He has never held any political office, votes as a Republican, and is a member of the First Presbyterian Church. In March, 1911, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Mr. McDonald married Nellie Martin. She was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin, and her people came originally from Cape Breton. Mrs. McDonald obtained her education in the schools of Wisconsin.
FREDERICK C. WITTE is giving an administration which in the fullest sense has justified his appointment to the office of chief of the police department of the city of Virginia, one of the vital municipalities of the Mesaba Range. He was born at Freeport, Illinois, June 22, 1876, and is a son of Charles and Sophia (Steinke) Witte, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter at Freeport, Illinois. Charles Witte was a young man at the time of his immigration to the United States and was reared and educated in the state of Illinois, where he has long been actively engaged in the work of his trade, that of a brick and stone mason. Of the children all but one are living, and of the number Virginia's chief of police was the third in order of birth.
In the public schools of his native city Frederick C. Witte continued his studies until he had completed the work of the fifth grade, and his parents then removed to a rural community near Freeport, where he attended a district school until he was fourteen years of age. In the meanwhile he assisted in the work of the farm which his father had pur- chased and also gained considerable knowledge of the mason's trade under the direction of his father. As a youth he was specially fond of hunting and fishing, and his predilections along this line led him to adopt an unusual medium of travel when he set forth for the Mesaba mineral range of Minnesota. In 1897, in company with a chum, Robert Derr, he set forth with team and wagon, in true gypsy style, on the interesting overland trip to the Mesaba Range, and it is needless to say that he enjoyed every moment of the fine out-of-doors journey. Upon arriving at their destination the two men became associated in work at the trades of brick mason and plasterer at Hinckley and Pine City, and this alliance continued about eighteen months. Mr. Witte thereafter devoted about one year to learning the barber's trade at Pine City, and in 1898 found employment at this trade in a shop at Virginia. Here he continued to be thus engaged until 1900, when he went to Spokane, Washington, in which
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city he worked a short time at his trade, as did he later at Wallace, Idaho. He then purchased a restaurant at Gem, Idaho, as well as a barber shop, and he conducted both of these establishments about two years. There- after he visited various cities of the northwest, and he then returned to Minnesota, where from 1904 to 1905 he was employed at his trade in the city of Duluth. During the following period of about eighteen months he . conducted a barber shop of his own at Eveleth, St. Louis County, and he then removed to the new and booming town of Aurora, this county, where he conducted a barber shop from 1907 until 1909, in which latter year he was appointed chief of the police department of the vigorous little city. In January, 1913, he resigned this position to accept that of range chief deputy sheriff, with headquarters at Virginia, and on the 1st of May, 1918, was appointed chief of the Virginia police department, in which office his administration has been marked by discrimination, vigor and progressive policies, with the result that his regime has given unqualified satisfaction. He was chairman of the local Draft Board at the time when the nation called for its young men for service in the World war, and he is a valued and popular member of the executive board of the local organization of the Boy Scouts, as well as that of the Boys' Welfare League. In politics Chief Witte is aligned in the ranks of the Republican party, and he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In this official capacity Chief Witte holds that his duty is not merely to bring offenders to justice but to further policies for the prevention of malefactions, to inculcate high American standards in the youth of the country, and to pro- vide proper channels for the exercise of the exuberant spirits of boys and youth, so that they may be deflected from the courses that lead to disrule and eventual crime. His interest in the youth of his jurisdiction is mani- fested in kindly and effective service and action, and in his private and offi- cial work along this line he has achieved splendid results.
In 1909 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Witte to Miss Ada Jenkins, of Virginia, Minnesota, and she is the popular chatelaine of their pleasant home, which is known for its gracious hospitality. They have no children.
FRANK E. BURRELL is a pioneer Duluth business man, long identified with the sheet metal trades and industry and has handled an important share of the volume of business done in that line in Duluth and vicinity during the past thirty years or more.
He was born in Pennsylvania April 22, 1861. His father, Louis Burrell, a native of the same state, was a shoemaker and tanner, and on leaving Pennsylvania went to Illinois, later followed his trade and busi- ness in Kansas, and finally moved to Arkansas, where he died. Of four children three are living, Frank E. being the second in age.
Frank E. Burrell acquired his early education in the public schools of Pennsylvania and Illinois, and some of his early experiences were on his father's farm. He began learning the sheet metal trade at the age of seventeen in Kansas, and returning to his old Illinois home in Freeport. was a sheet metal worker two years. From there he. came to Duluth, and his first employment in this city was with Alexander Crawford. Later he worked with the H. W. Pearson Company and later with the Hanchett & Shelden Company until 1888, in which year he formed a partnership with K. E. Little under the firm name of Burrell & Little. They were in business together until 1892, following which the firm of Burrell & Harmon continued business for eighteen years, and since then Mr. Burrell has conducted his enterprise alone. He has a well appointed shop, all the facilities for his business, and has developed an expert organization
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capable of handling every contract in its line. He is a member of the Duluth Builders Exchange and belongs to the Christian Science Church.
October 4, 1884, he married Miss Alice Allen of Ohio. They have four children : Allen L., a machinist of Duluth; Vivian, wife of Edward Mapp, a fruit farmer in Florida, and they have one child, Robert ; Zella. a trained and talented instrumental musician ; and Martha, who is the wife of William Mather and has two children, Jean Byrle and Douglas H.
CARL E. BERKMAN is a busy lawyer at Chisholm, has been in practice in Minnesota for ten years, and has earned a large clientage in his chosen vocation.
Mr. Berkman was born April 15, 1885, at St. Peter, Nicollet County, Minnesota. His father, Peter Berkman, was a native of Sweden, grew up on a Swedish farm, and was eighteen years of age when he came to the United States and located at St. Peter, Minnesota. For about a year he worked as a baker, and during the eighties joined in the rush to the Dakotas and took up a homestead. He developed a farm and lived on it a number of years, but is now a banker at Swift, Minnesota. In 1882 Peter Berkman married Christine Larson, a native of Nicollet County, Minnesota. Of their three children, Carl E. is the oldest, and one other, a daughter, is still living.
Carl E. Berkman grew up on his father's homestead in South Dakota, attended the common schools of that state and finished his early education at Brookings, where though he did not graduate he acquired the equiva- lent to a high school training. Mr. Berkman prepared for his profession in Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana, was graduated in 1907 and was admitted to the Indiana bar the same year. Instead of beginning the practice of his profession he accepted an offer to go to Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, and teach mathematics and sciences in a private school.
In 1909 Mr Berkman came to Minnesota, was admitted to the bar of this state and practiced at Badger for five years. During a portion of that time he served as a member of the School Board. Since 1914 he has been a member of the Chisholm bar, and along with a growing private practice has given much of his time to local affairs. He served as city attorney in 1919, has been a member of the Library Board, is a Democrat in politics and is affiliated with Chisholm Lodge No. 1334 of the Order of Elks. He was with the colors during the World war. When the law was passed extending the draft ages in 1918 he waived his exemption rights and was enrolled at Camp Meigs, Washington, in the Quartermaster's Department.
At Alsen, North Dakota. November 16, 1910, Mr. Berkman married Miss Millie, Mikkelson, daughter of Lars Mikkelson. Her father was born on the family estate near Copenhagen, Denmark, and came to this country in 1880. He soon engaged in the grain elevator business at Litchfield, Minnesota, where his daughter Millie was born May 1, 1884. Later he removed to Benson, Minnesota, still later to Stephen in this state, and continued a well known grain man. In 1883 he married Miss Bolette Pearson, of Malmo, Sweden. Mrs. Berkman is the oldest of three children and has one sister living. She attended the grade schools of Stephen, graduated from the Benson High School in 1904, and completed the advanced course of the St. Cloud Normal School in 1907. For one year she was a teacher in the seventh grade at Royalton, Minnesota, and though reelected she resigned in order to file on a quarter section home- stead three miles from Swift, Minnesota. Mrs. Berkman thus showed an unusual degree of courage and enterprise, and remained a resident on the
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homestead the required fourteen months, in the meantime earning her living by teaching three grades in the Swift public schools, walking three miles between her claim and the schoolhouse every day. In order to assist Mr. Berkman in his desire to waive exemption and in order to carry out the Government's injunction that women wherever possible should take men's places and free them for army service, Mrs. Berkman took the examination for postmaster, passed with a high mark, and on October 16, 1919, was inducted into the office of postmaster of Chisholm. She is a member of the Order of Rebekahs at Stephen, Minnesota, and for three years served as president of the Literary Society at Badger. Mr. and Mrs. Berkman are members of the Christian Science faith. They have two children, Paul, born in 1912, and Robert Pearson, born in 1919. -
HIRAM J. EATON, the efficient, enthusiastic and popular official guide of the technical high school at Virginia, was born on a farm seven miles distant from the city of Rochester, Monroe County, New York, May 12, 1840. His experience has been broad and varied, and has touched the pioneer period in the history of both Wisconsin and Minnesota, besides which he was one of the gallant young men who went forth in defense of the Union when the Civil war cast its pall over the national horizon. Herbert A. Eaton, father of him whose name initiates this paragraph, was born in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a representa- tive of a family that was founded in America in the Colonial period of our national history, one of the brothers of his grandfather having been an aide on the staff of Gen. George Washington in the war of the Revolu- tion. Herbert A. Eaton became a successful contractor in the construc- tion of public works, and was a resident of Monroe County, New York, at the time of his death, in 1900, when ninety-two years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Leach, was born at Troy, New York, and she likewise was a representative of an old and honored Colonial family. Of the eleven children the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth.
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