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 56
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He continued to live in his native land until he was fifteen years old, but then, in 1891, came to the United States to join relatives in this coun- try and make it his future home. He first lived at Tower, Minnesota, where he clerked in a store and went to school. Later he went to Duluth, Minnesota, and opening a store of his own conducted it for three years. In December, 1900, he came to Hibbing, and ever since that date has been connected with its mercantile history. His initial start at Hibbing was a modest one, and his advance was gradual but sure, and with but one or two exceptions he now has the oldest mercantile establishment in the city, and is recognized as thoroughly reliable.
When he was twenty-one years old Mr. Hallock took out his natural- ization papers and since then has endeavored to bear all the responsibilities of American citizenship. In 1913 he brought his parents to the United States, and they reside at Superior, Wisconsin. At present he is serving as a member of the Hibbing Board of Charities.
In 1900 Mr. Hallock was married to Etta Silk, of Duluth, Minnesota, and they have five children, namely, Badonna, Koppel, Lester, Leah Ruth and Sarah Rae. Mr. Hallock is a member of the Odd Fellows. He and his family attend the Jewish congregation. Like so many of his religious faith, he is very charitable and his benefactions are not confined to his contributions to the societies to which he belongs but are bestowed where he thinks they are needed, many of them never being known to the public. During the many years he has lived at Hibbing he has won appreciation for his excellent traits of character, and he and his family are held in high esteem by those who know them.
Fra lo Harris
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R. J. CHRUDEN, who is senior partner in the Northwestern Trunk Company, is in a line of business with which his family name has been associated at Duluth for over thirty years.
His father, Joseph Chruden, came to Duluth in 1888 and engaged in a small way in the trunk business, for three years occupying a store in the old Garrick Theater Building. Subsequently he had two other locations, and for many years carried on a successful business both in the manufac- ture and handling of trunks and similar goods. He finally retired, and he and his wife, Mrs. Anna (Walla) Chruden, are now living at Portland, Oregon. The father was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
R. J. Chruden was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, August 19, 1885, and has lived in Duluth since early childhood. He acquired a common school education, being the second in a family of four children. At the age of fifteen he went to work for his father in the trunk factory and store, and was thus employed until 1910, in the meantime acquiring a thorough knowledge of every phase of the trunk business. Then for a time he left his trade and business to enter the real estate field as an associate of R. D. Montgomery for three years. He then returned to the industry with which he was most familiar, and has since been associated with W. F. Kempinski in the Northwestern Trunk Company. They are manu- facturers of trunks, bags and cases, specializing in sample cases and trunks, and also have ample facilities for all classes of trunk repair work. Their business is at 228 West First street.
Mr. Chruden is independent in politics. He married at Duluth in 1912 Miss Claypool, whose people came from England and were settlers in Duluth during the eighties.
FRED C. HARRIS. Among the men who have become prominently known because of their important connections with the manufacturing interests of Duluth, one whose career has been characterized by typical American enterprise is Fred C. Harris, general superintendent of the Zenith Furnace Company. Connected with this concern since 1904, he has been the main factor in its great growth and development and estab- lished a lasting reputation as a furnace man.
Mr. Harris was born in Essex County, New York, and while living on the home farm acquired a public school education. He was but sixteen years of age when he apprenticed himself to the Crown Point Iron Com- pany, with which concern he rose to a foremanship, and subsequently was similarly employed at Pittsburgh and Cleveland, at the latter point being foreman and assistant superintendent for the American Steel and Wire Company. He was with this concern for eight years, or until 1904, when he began his connection with the company with which he is now identified.
During pioneer days there had been ambitions to make Duluth an iron manufacturing center. In 1872 a blast furnace was built at Rice's Point, the enterprise being fathered by Joshua B. Culver, Luther Mendenhall, James D. Ray, John C. Hunter, W. W. Spalding and George K. Schoen- berger, but impracticability of the enterprise at that period, combined with the panic of 1873, caused the pioneer enterprise to fail. During the boom days of West Duluth Roger S. Munger and associates, most of whom were men interested in the West Duluth Land Company, organized the West Duluth Blast Furnace Company, the plant being designed by the late John Birkenbine, a noted engineer and iron authority of Philadelphia. Minnesota ores then were available, but coke had to be freighted up from Lake Erie ports. One million dollars were put into the enterprise and some pig iron was produced but it was an uphill pull and in 1893, when the big panic smote Duluth industries, the furnace went cold. It remained
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so until the advent in this field of Captain A. B. Wolvin. Captain Wolvin was neither a miner nor a furnace man, but was a vessel man of marked ability, whose active mind had noted that it took only 30 cents a ton to bring coal from Lake Erie ports to Duluth, but that it tooks 80 cents a ton to send Minnesota iron ore from Duluth to Lake Erie. Why not, then, he reasoned, bring the coal to the ore at Duluth? Other favorable conditions were noted, and despite the firmly-rooted belief at Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh that Duluth was a graveyard for ironmaking Captain Wolvin and his associates determined on giving it a trial.
In 1902 the Zenith Furnace Company was incorporated with a capitalization of $1,000,000, which has been increased since to $1,500,000, and the old West Duluth blast furnace was purchased, mod- ernized and blown in some time in 1902. Coke was brought up from the lower lakes with indifferent results, and therefore, in 1904, a coke plant was established at the plant.
On July 1, 1904, Mr. Harris came to this plant in the capacity of foreman, and in October, 1905, was advanced to the superintendency. In the latter capacity one of his first actions was to make slight changes in the dimensions of the furnace, which caused a surprising increase in the daily production of pig iron. In 1906 Mr. Harris was made general sup- erintendent of the plant, and as such has complete control of the operating department. The Zenith Furnace Company maintains what is termed a three-unit plant-wholesale coal trade, production of pig iron and con- servation of by-products. This company has not only proved conclusively that pig iron can be produced profitably at the Head of the Lakes, but that it is being produced more cheaply per ton than by any other furnace in America turning out a similar grade of iron. Not only is the Zenith blast furnace producing about 60 per cent more pig iron, week in and week out, than its rated capacity, but it is making a higher production in tons per day than any furnace of similar capacity in the entire country.
The site of the Zenith Furnace Company covers about eighty acres of land on Saint Louis Bay and is but several blocks from the street car line. The coal dock is 250x211 feet in area, 300 feet having been added in 1916, and has a capacity of 700,000 tons. Three grades of coal are handled and anthracite recently has been added for the commercial trade. The coking coal comes from lower lake ports in large freight boats at a rate of 30 cents a ton. A cargo of 10,000 tons can be unloaded in about fifteen hours, and the unloading and stock-piling rigs are of modern design. Screened coal goes to the trade and the fine stuff to the coke ovens, of which there are sixty-five, fifty old ones with a capacity of five tons each and fifteen new ones of six tons each, the coking plant having an annual capacity of about 150,000 tons. The coking ovens are of the Otto Hoffman type, so built as to form a solid structure, 36x250 feet in area and 40 feet high. The process practically is continuous, a movable ram punching the contents of a retort out onto a loader, after which the seething mass is quenched by a copious drenching of water. The cooled coke then is shot over a screen into cars which will take it to the furnace Coal gas, ammonia and coal tar are by-products.
General Superintendent Harris is a man thoroughly informed in every detail and department of this great business, and has the confidence of his associates and the esteem of his men. He is a Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner and belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and in politics is a Republican. He comes of good old Welsh stock, and his grandfather, Charles Harris, was a pioneer lumberman of Essex County, New York, where the father of Fred C. Harris was a farmer and lumberman and died in 1910. There were six children, and Fred C., the third in order of birth, was born July 22, 1860. He was married in
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1885, in Essex County, New York, to Miss Mary Liberty, and to this union there have been born the following children: Myra, the wife of Joseph Sellwood, Jr. ; Mollie, Allen Scott and George, who reside at home, and one who died in infancy.
JOSEPH A. ROTHMAN. The community of Ely knows Joseph A. Roth- man as a singularly enterprising and energetic business man, and as one who has had a progressive range of experience and business activity since identifying himself with the town in 1905.
Mr. Rothman was born in Chelsea, Wisconsin, October 13, 1884, son of Charles and Josephine Rothman. His parents were born and married in Germany, and soon after their marriage came to the United States, in the seventies. For several years they lived in Pittsburgh and vicinity and then took up a homestead in Taylor County of northern Wisconsin, where Charles Rothman died when about forty-five years of age.
Joseph A. Rothman spent his school and boyhood days in Chelsea. His parents had difficulty in making a living on their homestead, and as soon as he was old enough he started to make his own living and contribute to the support of others. At the age of fourteen he went into the timber, was also employed in lumber mills and mines, and his real education was largely the fruit of the school of experience and hardship.
On coming to Ely in 1905, when he was twenty-one years of age, Mr. Rothman first worked as a railroad switchman, then in the scale office weighing ore, and also in a livery stable. Securing a team and outfit, he did teaming and gradually began selling coal and wood and has since developed a thriving fuel business. He is also manager of the Rothman Oil Company and is local agent for Ford cars and accessories.
Mr. Rothman is assistant chief of the volunteer fire department, and one of Ely's earnest and public spirited citizens. Fraternally he is affil- iated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Mystic Workers and Modern Woodmen. In 1905, the year he came to Ely, he married Clara B. Seese. Their three children are Mildred, Joseph and Wilbur. Mrs. Rothman is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
P. H. MARTIN. By reason of his extensive experience P. H. Martin is one of the recognized authorities in the Duluth commercial district on pine, iron and mineral lands and forest products. Specializing in this work and handling general real estate, he has been in business at Duluth for upwards of thirty years, and continuously since 1894 has occupied one suite of offices in the Manhattan Building.
Mr. Martin was born in Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, April 17, 1864. His father, James Martin, of Scotch-Irish parentage, was born in Ireland and came to America in 1840. In New Hampshire he married Alice Mc- Govern, whose people were natives of Ireland. She was an aunt of Francis E. McGovern, former governor of the state of Wisconsin and attorney of the Shipping Board in Washington. In 1846, when Wiscon- sin was still a territory, the Martin family moved to Sheboygan County, and were identified with the pioneer rural districts and activities of that county. The mother died in Wisconsin, in Fond du Lac County, in 1890. The father left the farm in 1893 and came to Duluth, and died at West Duluth August 19, 1895, aged seventy-eight years. In the family were three sons and six daughters. One of the older sons, David H. Martin, was one of the early diamond drill men in the mining ranges of the north, and operated on the Menominee Range in Michigan and at Ely until 1888, and in 1890 came to the Mesaba Range and died at Duluth October 26, 1892. He became a well known authority on minerals.
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P. H. Martin, who was sixth in his father's family of nine children, was educated in the country schools of Osceola, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, and worked and looked after the home farm more or less con- tinuously until he was about thirty years of age. He also had some mining experience on the Menominee Range, being assistant engineer at Stam- baugh, Michigan, until that mine closed down on account of hard times in 1890. In 1892 he first came to Duluth, and was engaged in mining on the Mesaba Range, employed by Gridley & Hale at Merritt. There he set up one of the first steam boilers on the Range. In October, 1892, on account of the death of his brother, he discontinued this work and returned to Wisconsin. When he came again to Duluth in March, 1893, Mr. Martin brought with him his father and his three sisters. He and two of his sisters, Miss Alice and Miss Bridget Martin, all live together at 5517 West Sixth street at Duluth. The third sister, Mrs. J. L. Keehan, is also living in Duluth.
As noted above, Mr. Martin opened his offices in the Manhattan Build- ing in 1894 and for several years handled real estate, including timber and mineral lands. In 1899 he also engaged in the forest products business, and was one of the first shippers of pulpwood out of this district to Wis- consin. Mr. Martin is in a position to furnish some interesting data con- cerning the forest products of northern Minnesota. In 1899 not more than five hundred cords of pulpwood was sent out of this district. Since then Mr. Martin as an individual has shipped out as high as thirty thou- sand cords a year, and the aggregate shipment of pulpwood to the paper inills in Wisconsin Valley has reached the imposing volume of two hun- dred thousand cords annually. While pulpwood still represents a large part of Mr. Martin's interests in forest products, he has contracted in other lines, especially in railroad ties. He says the first railroad ties he sold at 12 cents apiece were of the same quality as ties that today bring a dollar apiece.
In 1915 Mr. Martin became associated with A. F. Gross in organizing the Mangan Iron & Steel Company. They have developed two shipping mines at Ironton, Mangan No. 1 and Mangan No. 2. Mr. Martin is vice president and treasurer of this company.
Outside of his extensive business he has found some other diverting and important interests. He is a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters, and for twenty years has been president of the state organiza- tion, which now has a membership of over fifteen thousand. He has also been long identified with the Commercial Club and is a charter member of the West Duluth Commercial Club. In politics he supports the Dem- ocratic party in national affairs and is independent in county and local elections.
DENNIS F. HALEY. Closely associated with the birth and subsequent development of Hibbing, Dennis F. Haley has been and is one of the noted characters of this locality. He is one of those loveable Irishmen who win affection and appreciation wherever found. He grew up clean in mind and body, of a keen discernment and possessed of a fund of wit and humor. He has taken a very important part in the history of Hibbing from its beginnings, both civic and political, for, as is natural in one of Irish extraction, he is a born politician, so that it has been but natural for him to mix in the campaigns. He learned politics in the days when philosophy was diffused from a dry goods box by the old timers as the shavings fell from the sticks whittled by the swift-moving knife. His homely philosophy, keen observation, his invariable good humor will be remembered when the present generation shall have been gathered to their fathers. With it all Dennis F. Haley has lived the
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upright life, unsmirched by wrongdoing, and his life is a credit to the community.
Dennis F. Haley is the oldest living settler of Hibbing. He was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, January 14, 1856. Dennis Haley, his father, was a native of County Cork, Ireland, and came to the United States when he was eight years old, and located at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, about 1846. The family was engaged in farming in the early days, and later helped to build the streets of Milwaukee. Dennis F. Haley is one of nine children, and received but a limited education. When he was thirteen years old he started out for himself as a farm hand. His early years were spent at hard labor, and he had little time or money for pleasure. When he was nineteen years old he went to Oconto, Wisconsin, and worked in the woods and mills of that place, but in 1877 went from there to Quinnesec, the Menominee Iron Range of Michigan, and there helped whip-saw the luni- ber used to build the first house in Quinnesec. For eleven years he was in the employ of George M. Wakefield, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a big real estate operator in the northern country, and as such was very closely associated with much constructive work in pioneer regions. In December, 1892, Mr. Haley came to Hibbing. At that date not a tree had been felled from the present site of the little city. For a few months after his arrival he lived in a camp on the Seller's Mine, and he did the first testing work on this property, having come to the region for this purpose. For a time he was engaged in mine work, and then was put on the police force, and remained on it for twenty months.
The discovery of gold in Alaska attracted him to that far northern country, and he was in its wilds for about three years prospecting for gold, but he then returned to Hibbing in the fall of 1900 and worked for the Consolidated Mining Company, leaving it to go with W. C. Agnew at the Mahoning Mine. For nine years he worked for E. J. Longyear, and then began farming. In 1914 he was appointed street commissioner of Hib- bing, and has continued to hold that office. He is a Democrat, and very active in his party. In religious faith he is a Roman Catholic. In 1888 Mr. Haley was united in marriage with Julia Tobin, of Kaakauna, Wis- consin. They have had four children born to them, namely, David D., Margaret Irene, Mary H. and Howard J., the last named being deceased. Mr. Haley has held a number of local offices, and could have had others had he desired to run for them, for there are few men as universally popular as he. He served in the City Council for a year, and was village treasurer for four years, being the first man to hold that office. Such men as Mr. Haley are rare, and his type is passing. Utterly unpreten- tious, he has done more in his own way for his community than any other man, no matter what his advantages might be, simply because of his earnest, straightforward honesty and carnest sincerity. Men know he is honest and they trust him, and when he says a thing ought to be done there is no question about the matter. He has few enemies, his friends are numbered by legions, and his influence, which is strong and far- reaching, is always exerted in behalf of clean living and decent morality, and naturally is beneficial to the rising generation.
ARCHIBALD JAMES MCLENNAN, who came to Duluth twenty years ago in the role of an educator, has given much of his time to the real estate business and particularly the exploration and development of lands on the iron ranges of northern Minnesota.
Mr. McLennan, whose home and offices are in Duluth, was born on a farm in Campbellville, Ontario, Canada, a son of Alexander and Cath- erine (Campbell ) McLennan and is of Scotch ancestry on both sides. He was well educated in Canada, attended grammar and high schools, and
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also a law school and school of business at Toronto. For four years of his early life he followed teaching in Canada, coming to Duluth July 6, 1901, and for two years served as an instructor in the Duluth Business University.
Mr. McLennan in August, 1903, became associated with George H. Crosby in the real estate and insurance business. After two years he began giving most of his time to exploration work on the Mesaba and Cuyuna iron ranges, and during following years many of the leading mines of the Cuyuna Range was explored by him. Mr. McLennan now has a large clientage and business in the real estate and insurance, with offices on the ninth floor of the Alworth Building. He is now president and manager of the Wrenshall Brick Company, manufacturers of wire cut and sand mold brick, yards located at Wrenshall, Minnesota.
September 26, 1906, he married Miss Grace J. McLean, of Duluth. Her father, Charles E. McLean, is a well known Duluth pioneer, having settled here about thirty-five years ago. Three children were born to the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McLennan, and the two now living are Charles Ewart, born December 26, 1909, and William Eldon, born April 23, 1915. Mr. McLennan is a Presbyterian and in politics a Republican.
GEORGE H. LOMMEN, of Biwabik, is a lawyer of broad and practical ability, thorough, determined, alert, versatile and resourceful, and active in his fight against proposed legislation which in his judgment would work hardships for those in moderate circumstances. His ability in the handling of important litigation has recommended him to the people of St. Louis County, and he has the reputation of being one of the shrewdest cross-examiners at the St. Louis bar.
The birth of George H. Lommen occurred at Caledonia, Minnesota, September 14, 1895. His father, J. P. Lommen, is thought to be the first white child born in Minnesota, his birth taking place on the farm of his father, Peter Lommen, near Spring Grove, October 12, 1851. Peter Lommen came to the United States from Norway, settling in Minnesota, and died on his farm near Spring Grove.
J. P. Lommen conducted a department store at Caledonia for thirty- five or forty years, and it was one of the largest of its kind in the state. During more recent years he has curtailed his mercantile ventures and turned his attention to wheat culture, and was especially active in this line during the period of the war in order to meet the demands of his country for that essential foodstuff. He personally supervises the plant- ing and harvest. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Quarve, died in 1902, having borne him seven children, four sons and three daugh- ters. One of the daughters, who is now attending Columbia University, doing post-graduate work, was for eight years superintendent of schools of Houston County, and then for a time was connected as an educator with the Minnesota State University.
George H. Lommen was graduated from the Caledonia High School in 1913, While a close and deep student, he possessed the practical traits necessary for every-day success, and his predilections gradually drew him into the broad and stirring domain of the law. His systematic pro- fessional education commenced before he left high school, and was com- pleted in the St. Paul Law College, from which he was graduated in 1917. Immediately following that event he began the practice of his profession at Biwabik, where he has built up connections which are very valuable. A clear, level-headed man, as well as attorney, Mr. Lommen from the start has been bitterly opposed to the proposed law to tax the tonnage on ore, and has appeared on the floor of the Legislature to fight the passage of the measure. This tax is supposed to be used for building roads in other
ALomme
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parts of the state, away from the Iron Range, and its levy would close many of the small mines and prove of but little benefit to the people on the Range.
Intensely patriotic, during the war Mr. Lommen endeavored to get accepted for some kind of service. After being examined thirteen times he was finally accepted for the Red Cross, but the signing of the armistice ended all his hopes of being sent overseas.
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