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 47
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KENNETH S. CANT was born October 1, 1889, in Duluth, Minnesota. He attended the Duluth grade schools and high school. and the Uni- versities of Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 1912 he graduated from the law department of the University of Minnesota and was engaged with a firm of attorneys in Minneapolis for a short time. During vacations, while attending school and college, he was employed in various capaci- ties on surveying work and finally acquired a good practical knowledge thereof.
In 1913 he was called upon to serve the Canadian Northern Railroad Company in both a legal and engineering capacity, investigating the origin and extent of the great fires in northern Minnesota which in 1910 destroyed the villages of Spooner, Baudette and other places and caused the loss of many lives. He was also employed by the Govern- ment as engineer on the Indian Reservations in Minnesota for about one year. In 1914 he opened an office in Duluth for the purpose of dealing in real estate and has been engaged in this work ever since.
Mr. Cant was president of the Duluth Board of Realtors during the year 1918-1919 and director of the Commercial Club during the years 1919-1920. Besides the above mentioned, he is a member of the Kitchi Gammi Club, Ridgeview Golf Club and Kiwanis Club.
FRANK EDWARD JOHNSON. The skill and experience of a thoroughly competent city engineer are absolutely necessary in every organized com- munity to ensure safe, proper and satisfactory public utilities and certain important building structures, and to these qualities Virginia, Minnesota, is indebted to Frank Edward Johnson, city engineer. for adequate water
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August W. Deck
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and sewer system extension, and for almost her entire area of substantial paving. Mr. Johnson has been interested professionally in this section for twenty years and since 1913 has been city engineer of Virginia.
Frank Edward Johnson was born July 14, 1879, at Ishpeming, Mich- igan. His parents were John and Rosy (Raiskey) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Sweden and the latter in Germany. Their family consisted of one daughter and four sons, Frank Edward being the third born of the latter. John Johnson came to the United States when fif- teen years old, became a citizen, engaged in merchandising during the greater part of his active life and commanded the respect and confidence of all who knew him.
In the grade schools at Ishpeming, Frank Edward Johnson was a studious and saatisfactory student, and while in the high school, from which he was graduated in 1898, was something of a leader in athletics. His first practical knowledge of engineering was secured when he went out during several summers with surveying crews, and after leaving school he went to Champion, Michigan, as assistant to the engineer and chemist at the Champion Mine. By this time his future career had been definitely determined, and he was here tutored in engineering by Professor Richard Ewing, superintendent of schools, and by the mine engineer. proving an apt pupil.
In 1900 Mr. Johnson came to the Mesaba Range as chief engineer for the Republic Iron and Steel Company, with headquarters at the Franklin Mine, and remained with that corporation in the same capacity for four years. He then retired in order to go into business for himself, founding the Virginia Engineering Company, with which he is still identified. This company does the larger part of engineering work, both civil and mechanical, over the entire eastern part of the Range. Ever since coming to Virginia Mr. Johnson has taken care of most of the engineering contracts, working at first by the day. as he could find the time, but in 1913 accepted the appointment of full time city engineer and has continued in office ever since.
Mr. Johnson was married October 19, 1904. to Miss Frances L. Parmelee, and they have four children : Edward Q., born November 20, 1907; Rosemary, born March 27, 1910; Francis P., born March 17, 1912; and Margaret L., born October 8, 1917. Mr. Johnson and his family belong to the Presbyterian Church. In his political views he is a Republican. During the World war he was very active in patriotic work, was a member of the Motor Corps, and had charge of a district for each of the Liberty Loan drives, and since then has been equally patriotic in his attitude toward all public questions. He is widely known professionally and is a member of the Engineers Club of northern Minne- sota. He belongs to Virginia Lodge, F. & A. M., the Commandery at Eveleth and the Shrine at Duluth, and additionally is a member of Virginia Lodge No. 1003, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
AUGUST W. DEETZ. It is a fortimate man who can look back over forty years and see so many evidences of substantial and durable work as can Mr. Deetz, the well-known contractor and manufacturer of roof- ing and sheet metal work in Duluth. Mr. Deetz, who has built up a large industrial organization known as the Deetz Sheet Metal & Roofing Company, performed his first service at Duluth just forty years ago, ten years before coming to the city as a resident. In 1880 he came up from Minneapolis to cover with sheet iron the first elevator built in the bay, that being known as Elevator B. The sheet iron is still on the building and is a frequent reminder to Mr. Deetz of his long association
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with Duluth and is convincing proof of his efficiency as a mechanical worker.
Mr. Deetz was born in Germany April 27, 1858. In 1865, when he was seven years of age, his father, William Deetz, brought his family of five children to America and located in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, where he secured employment in a sash and door factory in the capac- ity of foreman. Later the establishment was enlarged to a general fur- niture factory, and Mr. Deetz continued in the industry until a few years before his death, in 1917.
The oldest in a family of five children, August W. Deetz grew up and attended school in Fond du Lac, and most of his early education was directed by a Lutheran minister. He also attended a night school. He was only fifteen when he started to earn his own living. He was employed as a gardener at wages of two dollars a week. When his employer one day sent him to buy a bundle of lath at a sash and door factory the foreman of the factory offered him a job, and he immedi- ately abandoned gardening and went to work in the factory and stayed there about a year. After that he took up the sheet metal trade, and that has been the one line on which he has concentrated his energies and best efforts ever since. In 1877 Mr. Deetz went to Minneapolis and entered the service of a sheet metal contractor. It was three years later that he was sent up to Duluth, and ten years after that, in 1890, he came to the city again to take charge of the sheet metal work on the Union depot. When the depot was finished he bought a shop of his own and in 1892 established the business which has grown and is now known as the Deetz Sheet Metal & Roofing Company.
His first shop was on Fifth avenue, on the site of the Omaha Depot. During the two years he was there he secured a contract in association with others in Minneapolis for roofing and sheet metal work on the Court House, though he retained his shop in Duluth. His family had moved there from Indianapolis in 1892. From Fifth avenue, West, he moved his shop to First street, between First and Second avenues, West, and about two years later to a new building between Fourth and Fifth avenues, East, and Superior street. About 1909 he erected a factory and shop at 309 East Superior, and since 1917 has been located at 104 Garfield avenue, where he has all the facilities for general roofing and sheet metal work and maintains a large and expert organization, capable of handling such contracts as those for the Wolvin Building, Herald Building, Alworth Building, and others, and he has handled many out of town contracts, including those on the Cathedral and Chapel and Academy at St. Joseph, Minnesota. He has all the modern machinery for handling sheet metal work. His firm did nearly all of the sheet metal work in Cloquet since the fire, and still maintains a branch estab- lishment there.
Mr. Deetz was formerly a republican in matters of politics. He is affiliated with the Elks order. At Minneapolis in 1878 he married Miss Mary M. Lauermann, whose father was Sheriff Lauermann, of Stearns County, and whose people came from Germany. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Deetz three are living, Edward W., born in 1880; Ella, wife of Ed Palmer; and Roy W., born in 1888. Both sons are graduates of the Duluth High School and are now actively associated with their father in business.
GEORGE H. LOHNEIS is a young man whose technical and executive ability has met with consistent recognition, as shown in his incumbency of the office of assistant superintendent for the Republic Iron & Steel
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Company for the Virginia district of the Mesaba Range, his residence and official headquarters being maintained in the thriving little city of Virginia.
George H. Lohneis was born at Sun Prairie, a village near the fair city of Madison, capital of the state of Wisconsin, and the date of his nativity was May 11, 1885. His father, George P. Lohneis, was born in Germany in the year 1856, and was a child at the time of the family immigration to the United States. He was reared and educated in Wis- consin and eventually became a prosperous merchant at Sun Prairie, that state, where he was engaged in the general merchandise business. George H. Lohneis is the eldest of their six children. The mother, whose maiden name was Emma Albrecht, was born at Leeds, Wisconsin, of German ancestry.
The public and parochial schools of his native village afforded to George H. Lohneis his early educational advantages, and there he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1902. For three and one-half years thereafter he was a student in the civil engi- neering department of the great University of Wisconsin at Madison, besides which he there devoted one semester to study in the general engineering department. He became a member of the engineering society at the university and was also active in athletic affairs at the institution.
In March, 1906, Mr. Lohneis came to the Mesaba Range as assistant engineer for the Oliver Mining Company at Mountain Iron. In May, 1908, he was transferred to the operating department, as night foreman, and he retained this position until the closing of the mine at the end of the season of that year. He was then transferred to the Mesaba Moun- tain Mine at Virginia. In June, 1909, he went to the Pacific Coast in the capacity of locating engineer for the Oregon Trunk Railroad, and in January of the following year retired from this position and returned to Virginia, Minnesota, where he entered the employ of the Republic Iron & Steel Company for the Virginia district, of which he has been assistant superintendent since March, 1913. He was the first president of the village of Franklin, St. Louis County, a position which he retained two years, and thereafter he served two years as village clerk. He is a member of the village Board of Trustees at the time of this writing, in 1920.
In politics Mr. Lohneis is an independent Republican, and his reli- gious faith is that of the Catholic Church. At Virginia he is affiliated with Virginia Council No. 1640, Knights of Columbus, and Virginia Lodge No. 1003, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. During the nation's participation in the World war he was a member of the Minnesota Motor Corps, and also gave aid in each of the drives in behalf of the local support of the Government loans with the exception of the first Liberty Loan.
At Virginia, on the 12th of January, 1911, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Lohneis to Miss Theresa Murphy, who was born at Iron Mountain, Michigan, of Scotch and Irish lineage. They have no children.
WILLIAM WHITE, who holds the responsible office of superintendent of the great Republic Iron & Steel Company for the Virginia district of the Mesaba Range, is a native of England, where he was born and reared in the celebrated mining district of Cornwall, and where he gained his initial experience in connection with the great industry in which he became a successful executive in the United States. He was born in Cornwall, England, on the 21st of August, 1851, and is a son of William and Hannah White. He received his early education in the
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schools of his native land, and at the age of twenty-one years he sev- ered home ties and came to America. He passed about two years in the Dominion of Canada, and then, in 1874, came to the United States. After passing several months in the City of Detroit, Michigan, he proceeded to the copper-mining district on the Upper Peninsula of that state, where he continued to be employed as a mechanic at the mines until 1879. He then went to Isle Royal, where he remained about a year, during which he was employed as a mechanic and for a time as a workman in Island Mine. He passed the following winter at the Quincy Mine, Houghton, Michigan, and in the spring of the following year returned to Isle Royal. In the fall he found employment at the Silver Island Mine, and here it was that he gained specially valuable experience in connection with technical and practical mining operations. Thereafter he worked at various mines in the upper country, including the Rabbit and Beaver Mines in Canada. In 1890 he came to the Mesaba Range in Minnesota, established his headquarters at Tower, St. Louis County, and engaged in exploring the Sheridan property, a work to which he gave his attention about two years. He then assumed work in the exploring and opening of the Sheridan Mine at Mckinley, and after giving two years of effective service in this connection he became superintendent of the Cincinnati Mine at Biwabik. While at Mckinley he sunk the exploration shaft of the Hercules Mine. Upon leaving the Cincinnati Mine he became mining captain at the Spruce Mine, and later was made superintendent of the Roberts Mine at Mckinley. Within these years Mr. White had done a large amount of exploring along the Range, and had become an authority in his field of service. From the Roberts Mine he went to Buhl to open the Grant Mine. He removed the timber, stripped it and sunk a shaft. With Henry Roberts he took the contract to remove from this mine 53,000 tons of ore. His next service was as superintendent of the Meadow Mine at Aurora, and later he assumed a similar position at the Fowler Mine. In 1905 Mr. White was made superintendent of the Virginia Mines of the Re- public Iron & Steel Company, and in this office he has made an admirable record of service, the while he holds place as one of the representative figures in mining affairs on the great Mesaba Range. He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in politics accords allegiance to the Republican party. Cap- tain White, as he is familiarly known, has a host of friends throughout the Mesaba Range region, is one of its pioneers, and his popularity is not the less by reason of his remaining a bachelor.
ROBERT W. HOTCHKISS. Among the alert and enterprising men who have utilized the opportunities offered for business preference at Duluth during recent years and have gained thereby gratifying success is Robert W. Hotchkiss, manager of the Duluth office of the Wells-Dickey Company, handling trusts and estates and doing a general banking busi- ness. Mr. Hotchkiss was born July 14, 1889, at Des Moines, Iowa, and is a son of W. A. Hotchkiss.
WV. A. Hotchkiss was born in Connecticut, whence he went west in young manhood, and in 1902 came to Minnesota and engaged in the mortgage loan business with the Minnesota Title, Insurance and Trust Company. Later he was with the Wells-Dickey Company, and at the present time is identified with the Hennepin Mortgage Company and resides at Orchard Gardens, south of Minneapolis, aged about sixty- three years. The only child of his parents, Robert W. Hotchkiss re- ceived his early education in the public schools of Des Moines and
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Minneapolis, and after his graduation from the Central High School in the latter city entered the University of Minnesota, being a member of the graduating class of 1912, when he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts. At the time of his graduation he entered the Wells-Dickey Company as general office man in the Minneapolis office, and subsequently worked from that office as a salesman on the road. He was thus engaged when his career was temporarily interrupted by the entrance of the United States in the World war. He was commissioned at Fort Snel- ling as a captain of infantry and was stationed for ten months at Camp Dodge, and was then company commander in the 163rd Depot Brigade and later commanding officer of the S. A. T. C. unit at South Dakota State College, Brookings. After twenty-one months of faithful service he received his honorable discharge February 3, 1919, and returned to Minneapolis, and February 24th of the same year came to Duluth to establish a branch office for the Wells-Dickey Company, of which he has since been manager.
This firm was originally established at Jamestown, North Dakota, in 1878, by E. P. Wells, who still remains president of the company. The Jamestown interests were sold to the Minneapolis branch early in the present century and the company is now operating with a paid-in capital of $1,300,000, being engaged in the business of purchasing and selling farm mortgages, farm land bonds, high grade corporation bonds, and are original purchasers of high-grade municipal bonds in the north- western states. This company is also affiliated with the Wells-Dickey Trust Company, with a capital of $500,000 organized under the banking laws of the state of Minnesota to handle trusts and estates and also to conduct a general banking business.
Mr. Hotchkiss is a member of the Commercial Club, Kitchi Gammi Club, Longview Tennis Club, Delta Upsilon fraternity and David Wisted Post of the American Legion. He belongs to no fraternal secret socie- ties. On May 18, 1918, he was united in marriage at Des Moines, Iowa, to Miss Evelyn Dissmore, a daughter of George A. Dissmore of that city. She was educated in the public schools of Des Moines and received a musical education in New York and Chicago. Mrs. Hotchkiss, who is an accomplished pianist and has also done some very highly creditable work in musical composition, takes an intelligent and helpful interest in musical matters at Duluth as a member of the Matinee Musical.
STANLEY ADKINS is one of the prominent educators of the Iron Range country. For the past six years, except while in the army, he was superintendent of the Aurora schools, District No. 13, of St. Louis County.
He was born at Circleville, Pickaway County, Ohio, September 15, 1886, son of B. and Louise ( Fissel) Adkins. the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Pennsylvania. They were married in Ohio and the mother is still living at the age of eighty. The father, who died in October, 1917, at the age of eighty-six, was a surveyor and farmer, and he also studied medicine in the Starling Medical College at Columbus. He never practiced this profession. Stanley is the youngest in a family of nine sons and four daughters, all of whom are living.
His brother DeWitt, just older than he, is also well known in north- ern Minnesota. A graduate of Ohio State University, he came to the Range country in the capacity of an educator, was principal of schools at Ely one year, and then superintendent of schools at Aurora for three years. During his administration the Hearding and Johnson schools were built. He resigned his office to enter the Harvard University Law
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School, and at the end of two years left to join the First Officers Train- ing School at Camp Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis. He was commis- sioned a first lieutenant and later promoted to captain, and was an army instructor until the close of the war. He then returned to Harvard and finished his law course, and returning to Minnesota became a partner in the firm of Washburn, Bailey & Mitchell at Duluth. He practiced law a year, and then was superintendent of schools at Biwabik until he returned to Washburn, Bailey & Mitchell August 1, 1921.
Stanley Adkins is also a graduate of Ohio State University and did post graduate work there and later took advanced courses in Columbia University, New York. He began his career as a teacher in the country districts of Ohio, and was formerly principal of schools at London in that state. Then, coming to Minnesota, he served as principal of the the high school at Ely on the Range for two years, one year as super- intendent at Blue Earth, Minnesota, and then succeeded his brother as superintendent at Aurora. He has done much to improve the schools and stimulate the interest of the patrons in maintaining the school system at the highest state of efficiency. He now has general supervision over the construction of a high school, which is to be equal in equipment and facilities to any high school in the state.
In September, 1917, Mr. Adkins, having secured leave of absence from his duties at Aurora, enlisted as a private, was trained at Camp Dodge, Iowa, served as drill sergeant and mess sergeant and later com- pleted his training in the Third Officers Training School and was com- missioned a lieutenant. He was on duty at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and Camp McArthur, Texas, also at Camp Perry and Camp Sherman, Ohio, until honorably discharged in December, 1918. He has always been interested in athletics, and after being commissioned lieutenant was in- structor of athletics in the army camp. Mr. Adkins resumed his duties as superintendent of schools at Aurora in January, 1919.
B. H. OBER. Improvement and progress may well be said to form the keynotes to the character of B. H. Ober, a well-known business man of Duluth and one of the community's representative citizens, for he has not only been interested in the advancement of his individual affairs, but his influence is felt in the upbuilding of the community which he honors by his citizenship. The prosperity which he enjoys is the result of energy rightly applied and has been won by commendable qualities.
B. H. Ober is a Yankee by nativity, having been born in the State of Maine on the 31st day of March, 1849, the oldest of three children who were born to his parents. The father, William Ober, was for many years a noted sea captain and a man of high character and strong moral fiber. B. H. Ober received his educational training in the common schools and a seminary in his native state. He remained at home until the age of eighteen years, when, following Horace Greeley's advice, he started west. He first located in the City of Chicago, afterward moving to Galva, Illinois, where under the firm name of Butters & Ober he was engaged in the agricultural implement business for a period of about twenty years. In 1887 he went to Kansas, where he spent some years, moving then to Minnesota, where he became connected with C. G. Went- worth & Company. In 1893 he came to Duluth and organized a com- pany under the title of Ober-Cash Company, the company being a close partnership, owned by Mr. Ober and Mr. J. L. Cash, which title was two years later merged into that of the American Heating Company, by which name it is still known. The present officers of this company are : P. J. Ekstrand, president; J. L. Cash, vice president ; and B. H. Ober,
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secretary and treasurer. These gentlemen are heating and ventilating engineers who have as a firm gained a high reputation throughout this community because of the high quality of the work performed by them and the eminently satisfactory manner in which they have completed all their contracts. They have had a large share of the business in their line here and have thus contributed in a very definite way to the progress of the city. In addition to the Duluth business, which is located at No. 228 West Michigan street. they have a branch establishment in Superior, Wisconsin, where also they have been very successful.
Mr. Ober is an earnest supporter of the Republican party. In 1873 he was married to Lucy M. Lowe, whose parents were originally from the State of Kentucky, but became early settlers of Nashville, Illinois. To Mr. and Mrs. Ober have been born seven children, of whom four are now living. Ray E., who is a mining engineer, during the war was a member of the Federal Board and conducted a school in New York City for the disabled soldiers. Nellie M. is the wife of Herbert Blair. Mary L. is librarian for the City National Bank of New York City. Dr. F. L. Ober, a veterinarian, is practicing his profession in Duluth. Mr. Ober has enjoyed a large acquaintance among people. Being pub- lic spirited and identified with the common interests in various capacities and by proving himself competent and trustworthy he has become one of the leading citizens of this community, enjoying to a marked degree the confidence and esteem of all who know him. During the war he was a member of the Federal Board for taking care of the education of disabled soldiers.
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