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 54
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The Hanford Construction Company is a complete organization for the handling and development of real estate, including the building of homes. The company maintains a large and well diversified service, including architects and building facilities, and has all the financial con- nections for developing real estate and handling properties at every stage from the work of construction until the house or other building is turned over with title to owner. The firm designed and built all the McDougall houses in Duluth, including store, bank, hospital and hotel, also the resi-
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dences of W. J. McCabe, W. C. Mitchell, Simon Clark, P. S. Anneke, L. L. Culbertson and J. H. Harper, to mention only a few of the more notable. The company also handled the contract for building of residences long line of Americans, beginning with Rev. Thomas Hanford, who settled for several companies, including the Lakeside Land Company.
Arthur Hanford was born at Duluth July 28, 1884, and was given a good practical education and has been active in business since boyhood. He is a member of the Commercial Club and the Real Estate Exchange, and his diversions are chiefly fishing and gardening. On September 1, 1909, at Duluth, he married Miss Ell Rose Taylor, daughter of Dr. A. C. Taylor. Mrs. Hanford was carefully educated in the schools of Duluth and Simmon's College at Boston, Masaschusetts, graduating in the Domestic Science course with the class of 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Hanford have two children, Ruth, born June 23, 1911, now a pupil in the public schools of Duluth ; and Helen Gertrude, born April 2, 1916.
ANTON GORNIK is one of the most esteemed citizens of Tower. His business is an essential industry in the meaning that phrase had in war times. Success has come to him through many years of unremitting energy and close application to his work.
Mr. Gornik was born in Jugo-Slovakia December 16, 1872, son of John and Annie Gornik, farming people of that section of southeastern Europe. Anton was reared on his father's farm, acquired his education there, and at the age of seventeen came to America, reaching Aetna, Pennsylvania, with perhaps two dollars in his pocket. For a time he was employed in the steel districts around Pittsburgh. A half-brother, John Gornik, preceded him to the Range country of northern Minnesota, where he was employed as a blacksmith with an exploration company. This half-brother sent Anton money to pay his railroad fare, and thus he came to the Range and went to work with an exploration company in and around Virginia at wages of forty dollars a month and board. He also did some mining. Not long afterward a company was organized to sell meat at Soudan and Tower. Mr. Gornik learned the butcher's trade and retail meat business with this organization, and later, taking a partner, he opened a shop of his own at Tower. At that time there was scarcely a beef animal raised in all the country around Tower, and all meat supplies were shipped in. For a number of years past Mr. Gornik has bought this cattle and other stock direct from farmers, and the slaughtering end of the business is now in the hands of his sons. lle keeps a large and high class shop and has been in the retail meat business at Tower since 1903. He has worked steadily every day without a vacation for twenty-two years, and his rugged health is none the worse for that uninterrupted service.
Mr. Gornik married Frances Slabe, also a native of Jugo-Slovakia. Their six living children are Tony, Joe, Annie, Julia, Theresa and Ralph. Mr. Gornik and family are members and staunch supporters of the Catholic Church.
JAMES MOONAN is one of the interesting veteran figures of railroad- ing in northern Minnesota, and for twenty years past has been agent at Ely for the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad Company, and throughout his period of residence has shared in all community undertakings for the advancement and upbuilding of the town and district.
Mr. Moonan was born at Waseca, Minnesota, June 6, 1864, son of Patrick and Mary Ann Moonan. His father was a native of County Cork and his mother of Queens County, Ireland, and both came to the United States when young people. They were married at Delavan, Wis- consin, and soon afterward moved to Waseca, Minnesota, where Patrick
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Moonan homesteaded land at Elysian. He was a pioneer of Minnesota territory. Soon after the beginning of the Civil War he volunteered in a Minnesota regiment, leaving his family on the homestead. While he was away in the army occurred the historic Indian uprising followed by many massacres and a general devastation of frontier communities. An Indian who had received some favor from Patrick Moonan came to warn Mrs. Moonan of the threatened danger, and she was thus able to take her children to a place of safety. After some years on the homestead Patrick Moonan moved to Janesville, Minnesota, where he was in the hotel business four years, and returning to Waseca built and conducted a hotel there. In 1884 he moved to Minneapolis, and the family lived in that city four years, after which he returned to Waseca, where he and his wife spent the rest of their days. He died in 1899, at the age of seventy-eight, and his wife in 1895, aged seventy-two. They had a family of four sons and four daughters, and all the sons are still living and also one daughter. The son John is a former state senator and has long been a prominent figure in Minnesota politics.
James Moonan grew up in Waseca County and finished his education in the Waseca High School. After school he started to learn telegraphy with the Northwestern Railroad, but the superintendent advised him to go into another branch of the service. For two years he was in the operating or train service and for three years was in the general offices of the company. At St. Paul he became identified with the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad, and earned a steady promotion in responsibilities and salary until he was made agent for the company at St. Paul.
It was in 1901 that Mr. Moonan accepted his present responsibilities as agent for the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad at Ely. His public spirited interest in the community has been continuous with his residence and railroad duties at Ely. For four years Mr. Moonan was president of the Ely Burntside Lake Outing Company, an organization that maintains an ideal equipment, cottages and other facilities for tourists on Burntside Lake. He is also first vice president of the Ely Commercial Club, a body that has been the means of accomplishing a great deal of good in the improvement of Ely and the Ely district.
While his brother, Senator John Moonan, is a Democrat in politics, Mr. Moonan has steadily maintained his affiliations with the Republican party. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. In 1896 he married Miss Hattie A. Felt, of Minneapolis, who died in 1911. Mr. Moonan's three sons are Willard J., now connected with the Proctor & Gamble Soap Company of Cincinnati; George D., a machinist in the railroad shops at Ely ; and Lawrence G., a high school student. The son Willard is an ex-service man, enlisting in April, 1917, at the beginning of the war with Germany. He was trained at Camp Cody and went overseas to France with the 125th Field Artillery. He received his honorable dis- charge in February, 1919.
FRANK S. DANE, superintendent of the Biwabik Mine, owned by the Tod-Stambaugh Corporation, has been connected with this property since 1893, first as a steam shovel engineer, from which position he has been promoted through others of trust and responsibility to his present one, and all through his own merits. He is one of the most efficient men of his calling, and understands every detail of his work.
The birth of Frank S. Dane took place at Lewiston, Wisconsin, July 14, 1862, and he is a son of Francis and Sarah (Terwiliger) Dane, the former of whom was born in New York state and the latter in Canada. They both died in 1895, he when seventy-four years old and she when sixty-eight years old. By calling Francis Dane was a farmer, and he
Dans
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came to Wisconsin in 1858 and continued to make that state his home the remainder of his life. He and his wife had three sons and four daughters in their family. A brother of Frank S. Dane, William Dane, lives at Kinney on the Mesaba Range.
Frank S. Dane received his educational training in the country schools, and when he reached his majority left the homestead and went to Belle Plains, Iowa, and worked with a railroad grading outfit as foreman. Later he became foreman on the grading work of the Milwaukee Northern Railroad at Ontataga, Michigan, leaving there for Chicago, Illinois. There he was with Langdon & Company and helped to build a double track railroad from Chicago, Illinois, to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. From that line of work Mr. Dane branched out and for some years was occupied, very successfully, in doing steam-shovel work, continuing it until he came to Biwabik. His arrival occurred soon after the opening of the Biwabik Mine by the Biwabik Ore Company. The equipment was designed to operate a mine of this character and was hauled overland from Mesaba. Having spent so many years at this mine Mr. Dane's interest is naturally centered in it and its successful operation.
On January 26, 1891 Mr. Dane's happy married life was inaugurated when he was united with Fannie M. Utter, a daughter of Smith Utter. Mr. and Mrs. Dane were schoolmates and theirs is a romance begun when both were little more than children. There are three children in their family, namely: Royden S., who is a veteran of the World war, in which he served for eighteen months, of which six months were spent overseas, where he was promoted to sergeant, and was in training at an officers' training camp, preparing for his commission, when the armistice was signed, which prevented his further promotion ; Helen and Marjory, both of whom are at home. Fraternally Mr. Dane belongs to the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Very active in local politics, he was a member of the Township Board for thirteen years, during eight of them being its president, and for four years was on the School Board, of which he was for a time chairman. During the late war he took an active part in war work, assisting in all of the drives and bought bonds and stamps, and contributed to all of the war organi- zations to the full extent of his means. He is a man who has always known what he wanted, and has gone after it in the right way, at the right time and in the right spirit. He may be properly classed as one of the inost representative men of Biwabik, and no matter concerning the city is too small or insignificant for him to give it careful consideration, and if he is convinced that it needs remedying, takes pains to bring it to the attention of his fellow citizens and urge constructive action. His interest is not entirely local, for it includes the Mesaba Range, St. Louis County, the state and country, all of which in his mind are the best in the world.
ELI L. HART has spent practically all his life in the region tributary to Duluth, either in northern Michigan or northern Wisconsin, and for many years has been a successful business man. His chief interest is the Hart Transfer and Storage Company, of which he is president and manager.
Mr. Hart was born in Calumet, Michigan, a son of James and Addia (Bourget) Hart. His father, who died in 1905, first came to Duluth in 1870, but afterward returned to Michigan. In 1881 he engaged in the teaming and contracting business at Duluth, and that business occupied the greater part of his remaining years. He was the father of eleven children, Eli being next to the youngest.
Eli L. Hart was educated in the Duluth public schools and the Duluth Business College, and at the age of twenty became a clerk in the Ameri-
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can Express Office at Duluth. After seven years he was made American Express Company's agent at Ashland, Wisconsin, and performed the duties of that position with fidelity for sixteen years. For seven and a half years he had charge of the American Express Company's office at Evansville and then returned to Duluth to engage in the transfer and storage business, associated with his brother. They organized the Hart Transfer and Storage Company, which is incorporated, with Eli Hart as president and manager. The headquarters of this company are at 17 North Fifth avenue, West. They have all the equipment and personnel for an adequate transfer and storage business, including many automobile trucks, warehouses and other equipment for light and heavy hauling, furniture packing, shipping and storage of furniture and other com- modities. About twenty-five men are in the pay of this organization.
Mr. Hart is a member of the Catholic Church. He married, Septem- ber 1, 1903, Anna Mckinnon. They have one daughter, born April 23, 1906.
JOSEPH PETERSON, a resident around the Head of the Lakes for over twenty years, has always been recognized as a man of great skill and proficiency in the wood working trade and is a member of the well known contracting and building firm of Berglund, Peterson & Person, whose headquarters are at 131 West Second street.
Mr. Peterson was born in Sweden January 4, 1878, and was twenty- one years of age when he came to the United States in 1899. Already perfected as a journeyman carpenter, he was employed in the mines of Iron Mountain, Michigan, for two months, and then located at Duluth, where for a time he was in a cabinet shop, subsequently in a sash and door factory, and spent two years in the West Superior Shipyards. For nine years he was in the cabinet shop of Scott & Graft, for one year was with the well known contracting firm of Anderson & Gaw, and five or six years ago became associated with Mr. Berglund under the firm name of Berglund & Peterson, which by subsequent reorganization became Berglund, Peterson & Person, contractors and builders.
Mr. Peterson is an active member of the Modern Woodmen of America and is a member of the Lutheran Church. In 1898 he married Miss Cora Allerey, a native of Sweden. They have two children, Violet E. and Joseph K. Peterson.
JOHN K. MAKI. A resident of Hibbing since December, 1896, John K. Maki gave nearly a quarter of a century of time, personal enterprise and industry to the commercial life of the village, and is still an influential factor in the community, though nominally retired from commercial affairs.
Mr. Maki was born in Finland February 21, 1872, and has achieved success in life after overcoming many early handicaps. His father, John K. Maki, Sr., came to the United States in 1881 for the purpose of establishing a home in a land of better economic opportunities, and was first employed in coal mines in Wyoming. In the meantime his son joined him in Wyoming, and afterward they went to Minnesota, where the father homesteaded a hundred sixty acres in Ottertail County. He converted this into a farm and subsequently bought another forty acres. As soon as father and son had accumulated sufficient capital they sent back to the old country for the wife and mother, whose maiden name was Lydia Ruohonen, and the remaining four children. The mother was born in Finland and her husband, Eric Suttergreen, was born in Sweden. When he went to Finland he changed his name to Maki. The reunited family thereafter lived on the farm in Ottertail County, and
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the parents spent the rest of their days in that community. Three other children were born after the family came to America. John K. Maki, Sr., naturalized as an American citizen and was a staunch factor in the life of his community, serving as township supervisor for about fourteen years.
John K. Maki acquired a limited education in his native country and was about fourteen when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean to join his father. For a time he worked in the Wyoming coal mines and also on the home- stead in Ottertail County. While living in the country community, on March 31, 1894, he married Miss Anna Katharine Hyrkas, a native of Finland, and who came to the United States in 1891. They began house- keeping at West Superior, Wisconsin, and from there in December, 1896, moved to Hibbing, where they have ever since had their home. In the Range country Mr. Maki worked at lumbering, then as an employe of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, was clerk in a grocery store, and subse- quently joined his two brothers-in-law, Oscar Bay and Mike Salminen, in the grocery and meat business. Their first establishment was on Pine street, and later they developed a large market house on Third avenue. Mr. Maki also helped to organize in 1910 the Merchants Warehouse Company. He was interested in the operations of the firm, including a branch feed store, and in 1915 in the organization of the largest retail grocery house in Chisholm, where they also conducted a wholesale depart- ment. At Keewatin they also embarked in the retail grocery business. With these various enterprises Mr. Maki was actively identified until June, 1920, when he retired and now confines his attention to his various private interests. He is erecting a building at the corner of Mckinley and Third avenue.
For two years he served as a member of the Village Council at Hib- bing, is a member of the Commercial Club, a Republican in politics, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and his family are members of the Finnish Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Maki had seven children : John Albert, who died in infancy; Sadie Anna, wife of John Merton Moore, of California; Lydie Effie; Eleanora Frances : Esther Elvera; Arthur Rudolph, who died at three years; and Hugo William.
JACOB B. MESSNER as a result of experience going back into boyhood is an expert in every phase of the provision business, and for several years past has been general manager of the wholesale and retail grocery house of Burrows-Lamson Company of Hibbing.
Mr. Messner was born in Calumet, Michigan, February 2, 1872, son of John and Barbara (Kohler) Messner. His parents were both born in Germany and are now deceased. John Messner came to the United States about 1852, for a time was employed in some of the Michigan miines, and in order to give his children better opportunities educationally and socially moved out to North Dakota and became a farmer. Finally he sold his property there and moved to Hibbing, Minnesota, where he now lives retired, his wife being deceased. Here he became a naturalized American, and has reared his family in full fidelity to American principles and ideals.
Jacob B. Messner acquired his early education in public schools, chiefly at Fargo, North Dakota. After leaving school he learned the meat busi- ness as a technical trade and as a business in every feature and detail, and for a number of years was in the retail meat business at Climax, Minne- sota. About 1906 he came to Hibbing and has lived in that city of the Iron Ranges ever since. At first associated with his brothers, John, Chris- tian and Andrew, under the name Messner Brothers, he engaged in the
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meat and grocery business on Pine street. After the firm was dissolved Mr. Messner became associated with B. J. Burrows, J. R. Bresnahan and J. A. Lamson in establishing the present house of Burrows-Lamson Com- pany, and they probably do the largest business, jobbing and retail, in meats and groceries in Hibbing.
Mr. Messner has always distinguished himself as a public-spirited citizen and active member of his community, served in 1913 on the Village Council and since 1914 has been continuously in the office of super- visor of the town of Stuntz. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, belongs to the Commercial and Kiwanis Clubs, the United Commercial Travelers and the Order of Elks. September 12, 1893, he married Sarah Salverson. Two sons were born to their marriage, William John and Ernest. The son William J. was one of the youths of the Iron Ranges who made the supreme sacrifice of service in the World war. He was chief mechanic in Truck Company B of the Coast Artillery Corps. He was at the front in France, participated in some of the hardest drives after America entered the war, and probably from the effects of being gassed died in France on February 10, 1918.
EDWARD WILLIAM STEVENS, secretary of Duluth Lodge No. 133 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, is one of the city's well known citizens, and for a number of years has been active in business affairs and in public office.
He was born at Duluth December 2, 1888, son of Richard and Emma Stevens. His father came to Minnesota from Nova Scotia, Canada, first locating at Stillwater, and thirty-four years ago moved to Duluth, where he lived until his death in June, 1917. The mother of E. W. Stevens was born in Bristol, England, where she married William Parfitt, and both of them came from England to Duluth thirty-nine years ago. Mr. Parfitt was a stone contractor and builder and died several years after moving to Duluth. In the two families there were nine children, Edward W. being the youngest of his mother's second marriage.
He received his education in the public schools of Duluth, but began earning his own living at the age of fifteen as bell boy at the Commercial Club. He was similarly employed at the Spalding Hotel, and at the same time was diligently supplementing his earlier educational advantages by attending night school. For nine years Mr. Stevens was in the service of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, doing clerical work in the offices of the various departments.
In the meantime he had become interested as a silent partner in the grocery business at Duluth, and seeing that it needed his more active cooperation he resigned from the Oliver Iron Mining Company in 1915 to become an active partner. This line of business not progressing to his satisfaction, in February, 1916, he joined the Duluth Police Department in the Bureau of Identification, and in June, 1918, became pawnshop inspec- tor in the Detective Bureau.
Mr. Stevens for a number of years has been one of the popular mem- bers of the Duluth Lodge of Elks. He filled various chairs in the lodge, and finally it was decided by the officers and members that no better selec- tion could be made for the office of secretary than Mr. Stevens, and he accepted that post in September, 1920. For the past eleven years he has also been a member of Palestine Lodge No. 79, A. F. and A. M., and is a Scottish Rite Mason.
JAMES H. RYAN. It is not a new statement to make, in the words of the great essayist, Macaulay, that "the history of a country is best told in a record of the lives of its people," nevertheless. it is so true that it will
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bear repetition. The history of the state of Minnesota would read very differently to posterity were the records of the achievements of its notable men eliminated, and it is but just that they should be put in enduring type. In the great and representative county of St. Louis there are men of mark who in various avenues of usefulness have won honors and emolu- ments that entitle them to respectful admiration. Among them stands James H. Ryan of Hibbing, a member of the transfer and fuel firm of Ryan Brothers, composed of James H. and Thomas F. Ryan.
James H. Ryan was born at Merrill, Michigan, October 13, 1879, one of the nine children of Thomas B. and Sarah (Haley) Ryan, natives of County Tipperary, Ireland, and Canada, respectively. Thomas B. Ryan was reared in Ireland, and came to the United States when twenty-three years of age, after having spent two years in Canada. He lived in the farming regions of Michigan until within recent years, when he retired from active life.
Growing up in Michigan, James H. Ryan was early taught to make himself useful while he was acquiring an educational training in the com- mon schools. For three years he worked in the woods of Minnesota, and in July, 1898, came to Hibbing, and three years later became a driller for E. J. Longyear, and remained at that work for seven years. In the spring of 1907 he, with his brother Joseph A., established his present transfer business, and in 1913 the brothers branched out and added the handling of fuel to their other occupation, and the firm is now engaged in both lines. Joseph A. Ryan was the first of the Ryan brothers to come to the "Range" country, and he died in the summer of 1918. Another brother, Thomas F. Ryan, is now the junior member of the firm.
James H. Ryan belongs to the Knights of Columbus, the Kiwanis Club, and the Hibbing Park Board, being one of the representative men of Hibbing, and one in whom his fellow citizens place implicit trust.
On September 11, 1912, he was united in marriage with Miss Bessie B. Murphy, and they became the parents of the following children : Francis, Clarence, Russell and Edward. Mr. Ryan is always interested in public matters, and especially those pertaining to the betterment of Hibbing.
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