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 III > Part 13
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Mr. Fugere was born at New Brunswick, Canada, October 26, 1868. His father and grandfather were natives of eastern Canada, his grand- father born in Nova Scotia of direct French ancestry. Boni Fugere, father of the Chisholm business man, was born in New Brunswick and is still living in that Province at the age of ninety-two. During his active life he followed the trade of ship carpenter. He married Louise La Blanc, and in their large family of thirteen children Henry was the fifth.
Henry Fugere spent his life on a farm in eastern Canada until he was nineteen, and had such advantages as were supplied by the common schools. On leaving home he went to Ottawa, and the following six months worked in the lumber woods about two hundred miles from that city. Coming then to the United States, he began an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade at Saginaw, Michigan, remained there two years, then for a season or two was a ship's wheelman on the Great Lakes, and lived a year at Alpena, Michigan, employed as a carpenter during the summer and in the lumber camps in winter. Mr. Fugere came to Duluth in 1892. After eighteen months of work as a carpenter in the city he lived for two years at Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and in 1897 came to the Ranges, living for a year and employed as a carpenter at Hibbing, and then going to Eveleth, where he was associated with Al Bergeron in the building and contracting business. Mr. Fugere moved to Chisholm in 1901, and with that town as his headquarters has been engaged in an extensive business as a carpenter and contractor ever since. He was also conducting a lum- ber yard, which was destroyed by the conflagration that practically wiped out the town in 1908. He was one of the leading volunteer firemen in that holocaust. In fact Mr. Fugere has borne a large share of public responsibilities at Chisholm ever since coming here. When he arrived on
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the scene Chisholm consisted of three shacks, and he has literally and figuratively been one of the constructive men in the community ever since. He took out his first naturalization papers in 1892, and has been a full- fledged American citizen since 1902. He is a Republican, has served as a justice of the peace, as a member of the School Board, and in 1914 was elected president of the village of Chisholm.
In 1904 he married Miss Annie Moran. Their eight children are named Evelyn, Boni, Joy, Cecile, Isabel, Marie, Louis and Dorine.
GEORGE HUBERT ALEXANDER from the time he left high school has been identified with the lumber industry, at first at Duluth but for a . number of years at Hibbing, where he organized and is president of the Mesaba Lumber and Supply Company.
Mr. Alexander was born at Oconto, Wisconsin, February 20, 1888, a son of William H. and Catharine (Good) Alexander. His parents lived for many years at Oconto, where his father was engaged in lumbering, but since 1891 they have made their home at Duluth.
George Hubert Alexander was three years old when he became a resi- ident of Duluth, and acquired a grammar and high school education in that city, graduating from high school with the class of 1907. Soon afterward he was on duty as a timekeeper and scaler for the lumber firm of Swallow & Hopkins at Winton, Minnesota. Later he was with the Radford & Unight Lumber Company of Duluth, and in 1911 came to Hibbing as an employe of the Hibbing Lumber Company. He remained with that concern until 1916, when he engaged his own capital and ability and the capital of his associates in the organization of the Mesaba Lumber Company and has given that business a substantial place among the com- mercial institutions of Hibbing.
Mr. Alexander has shown a public spirited attitude toward everything affecting the growth and prosperity of his community. He is a director of the Commercial Club, a member of the Kiwanis Club, is a Republican, belongs to the Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. January 22, 1913, he married Miss Josephine E. Achterkirch, of Faribault, Minnesota. Their two children are William Andrew and Elizabeth Ann.
BARNEY J. MEDALIE. Financial independence combined with public esteem are worth great effort to right-minded men wherever they may be found. To attain these America has offered opportunity, and sons of other lands who have come to this country and accepted responsibilities together with privileges are numbered with every community's best citi- zens. Minnesota has attracted virile men from many countries of the earth, and among those from far off Russia attention may be called to Barney J. Medalie, who is a solid business man and highly respected citi- zen of the prosperous village of Buhl.
The story of Barney J. Medalie is exceedingly interesting, illustrating as it does the determination and resourcefulness of his character and the stable elements whereby he has successfully built up a large business and secured the confidence and respect of all with whom he has been associ- ated. He was born September 14, 1881, in Lithuania, a Baltic province, the second of a family of six children born to Jacob and Bertha (Gluck- man) Medalie. Both parents were born in Russia and were of Jewish extraction. His mother survives but his father has passed away. The latter was a highly educated man, a teacher by profession.
Barney J. Medalie was carefully educated and had private tutors who instructed him in four languages, but by the time he was sixteen years of age circumstances had arisen that changed the family prospects and re-
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sulted in his venturing far from his native province. He sailed to Johan- nesburg, British South Africa, arriving there just at the outbreak of the Boer war. Refugees were flocking to Cape Town, and Mr. Medalie thought it best to accompany them. There he entered a school in order to learn English, his former instruction in languages not including this tongue, and was placed in the third grade, where he applied himself so dili- gently that within three weeks he was promoted to the fifth grade. Feel- ing that he was not making sufficiently rapid headway and with good judgment far beyond his years he secured employment in an English res- taurant as a waiter, where he remained for seven months, then found a position as wine steward in the City Club, in which capacity he served for ten months. In 1902 he became a naturalized English subject, immedi- ately after which he was given a permit to return to Johannesburg. There he remained for two years conducting a candy and drink store, then opened a general store eight miles out of the city. After two years he left his brother, M. A. Medalie, in charge of that store and returned to Lithuania to visit his parents.
It was while he was in his old home that Mr. Medalie received a letter from his Uncle Sapero, who was established in the village of Chisholm, Minnesota, urging him to join him in the United States, and this invita- tion and encouragement led Mr. Medalie to change his earlier plans and come to America. He reached Chisholm, Minnesota, in 1911, and shortly afterward opened a candy store at Gilbert, where the waiting station for the Mesaba electric road now stands, for which road he was made the first agent. He carried on business there for four years, then sold out advantageously and went to the eastern seaboard and remained in Phila- delphia for ten months. In the meanwhile M. A. Medalie had also come to the United States, and he and Mr. Sapero had opened a dry goods store at Buhl, Minnesota, and on returning from Pennsylvania Barney J. Medalie bought his uncle's interest in this business. In February, 1918, the brothers bought a grocery store, then removed their dry goods store to the building adjoining the grocery, made other changes and improve- ments and now have the largest and leading department store at Buhl. They have wide patronage and enjoy the reputation of being thoroughly dependable business men.
On October 3, 1911, Mr. Medalie was married to Sarah Klaff, who was born in Russia, of Jewish parentage. She and Mr. Medalie were attached friends in Russia, and after feeling himself well established in business he sent for her to join him and they married in Delaware. They have two children: Vivian Constance, aged six years ; and Ethel Beatrice, aged four years. Mr. Medalie and his family are of the Orthodox Jewish faith. When he came to the United States he brought a younger brother with him and placed him in school at Buhl, and four years later, when the youth was through high school, sent him to the University of Minnesota, where he was graduated from the dental department and is now in active practice at Buhl. Aside from commendable actions of personal nature, much praise must be accorded Mr. Medalie for many exhibitions of char- ity and benevolence in a general way. During the World war he was indefatigable in his efforts to assist all patriotic movements. In 1916 he became a naturalized American citizen, and in his political attitudes a Dem- ocrat. He belongs to the Hebrew organization of B'nai B'rith. both at Hibbing and Chisholm, and is a member and past commander of lodge No. 232 of the Odd Fellows at Buhl.
DAVID TRISTRAM COLLINS. An important share of the legal business originating at Hibbing has been handled by David Tristram Collins, one of the older members of the local bar and one of the ablest attorneys in St. Louis County.
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Mr. Collins represents an old and prominent American family, tracing his ancestry back to Benjamin Collins, who came from England and estab- lished a home at Salisbury, Massachusetts, about 1660. Benjamin Collins married Martha Eaton. The second generation was represented by John Collins, who married Elizabeth Barnard; the third by Benjamin Collins, who married Mary Jones; the fourth by Tristram Collins, who married Rachel Hunt ; the fifth by Henry Collins, who married Sarah Kelley ; the sixth by Tristram Collins, who married Emilla Severance; the seventh by Josiah Norris Collins, who married Frances Jane Kent; while David Tristram Collins, the Hibbing lawyer, is of the eighth generation. The second Tristram Collins moved west to Wisconsin, was a farmer and car- penter and died at Wautoma in 1889. This family has produced many individuals in successive generations of honest, law-abiding people, loyal Americans, and on the whole each a credit to their community. Some of the more notable members of different generations were Governor John Collins, of Connecticut ; Gilbert Collins, of the Supreme Court of New Jersey ; Loren W. Collins, of the Supreme Bench of Minnesota ; Judge Loren C. Collins, of Chicago, and several who became eminent physicians and surgeons.
David Tristram Collins was born at Menasha, Wisconsin, January 6, 1879, being one of the five children, all living but one, of Josiah N. and Frances Jane (Kent) Collins. His father was born in New Hampshire and his mother in New York state of English stock. Josiah N. Collins was a chair manufacturer in the great wood working city of Menasha, Wisconsin, subsequently conducted a hotel at Florence, Wisconsin, for two years was in the contracting business at Kaukauna, Wisconsin, and in 1887 moved to Gladstone, Michigan, then a village in the woods of the Northern Peninsula of Michigan, and continued contracting until his death in 1904.
David Tristram Collins spent his early life in the several towns of Wisconsin and Michigan where his father lived, acquired a good educa- tion in public schools, and during summer vacations worked as an office boy for Daniel Willard, then trainmaster and assistant superintendent of the Soo Line Railway. Daniel Willard in subsequent years became one of America's foremost railway executives, and is now president of the Baltimore & Ohio system. Through the influence of Mr. Willard young Collins was led to expend his efforts toward a better education and gradu- ally abandoned his first ambitions for a railroading career. In 1899 he removed to Minneapolis, where he began reading law with the firm of Nye & Deutsch. In 1900 he enrolled in the law school of the University of Minnesota, and continued his studies until admitted to the bar in 1903. While in the University Law School he had some special opportunities for practical training in the law office of Keith, Evans, Thompson & Fair- child at Minneapolis, and after admission to the bar continued with that firm until September, 1904. Mr. Collins then took up the private practice of his profession at East Grank Forks, Minnesota, and remained there five years, four and a half years of that time as city attorney.
In February, 1909, Mr. Collins removed to Hibbing and since the first of March of that year has been busily engaged in an extensive practice. Much of his time has been devoted to his engagements as an attorney for the Oliver Iron Mining Company and other corporations, and he has handled many of the real estate deals whereby the village of Hibbing is being gradually moved to make way for the mining operations under the original village site.
During the World war he served as food administrator for the Hib- bing District and was also one of the Four Minute Men speakers and assistant chief of the American Protective League at Hibbing. Governor
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Burnquist appointed him a member of the Free Legal Aid Board of the Hibbing District. He is a Republican in politics, is a Scottish Rite Mason, a Shriner, was worshipful master in 1920 of Mesaba Lodge No. 255, A. F. and A. M., and is also affiliated with the order of Elks. His church membership is with the Congregational Society.
July 14, 1908, Mr. Collins married Jennie M. Myers, of Virginia, Minnesota. At her death, June 9, 1913, she left one son, named James Norris Collins. On May 4, 1918, Mr. Collins married Hazel A. Rawson, of Portage, Wisconsin.
W. N. HART, president of the Kelley Duluth Company, has had forty- odd years of experience qualifying him for his present responsibilities. His personal experience has taken him through the many details of a manufacturer, office and salesman in some of the large wholesale and retail houses, as a traveling salesman, and for a number of years past in general control of one of the firms that have made the Duluth wholesale and retail district known all over the northwest.
Mr. Hart was born at Green Bay, Wisconsin, December 31, 1862. His father, A. Hart, a native of Connecticut, was a cabinet maker in early life, but on going to Green Bay in the early days before the railroad reached there, turned his attention to the building and operating of sail and steamboats. Youngest of six children, W. N. Hart was educated in the public schools of Green Bay, and up to the time of his father's death, which occurred in 1881, spent his spare time preparing for a position as a lake captain. His father's death changed this, as in order to be with his mother, of whom he was then the sole support, he entered the employ of a hardware firm at Green Bay owned by a Mr. J. J. St. Louis, where he remained for seven years, going from there to the larger concern of W. D. Cooke, who operated both wholesale and retail. Here he represented the firm on the road a larger part of the following nine years.
Removing to Chicago, he became a traveling salesman for a prominent wholesale hardware house of that city, but in 1897 returned to Green Bay and with a salesman from a Milwaukee jobbing house established a whole- sale jobbing house in that city which later was re-organized as the pres- ent Morley-Murphy Hardware Company.
In 1904 Mr. Hart came to Duluth as the first salesmanager for the Kelley-How-Thomson Company, leaving there in 1909 to take charge of the Kelley Hardware Company, now known as the Kelley Duluth Com- pany.
Mr. Hart is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Commercial Club, the Duluth Boat Club, the Duluth Curling Club and for several years has served as a trustee of the Pilgrim Congregational Church. Mr. Hart is married and has a family of two sons and two daughters.
ROBERT MURRAY. As an organization of capital, equipment and ex- pert personnel, Pickands, Mather & Company, while primarily a Cleveland concern, is a business organization of national reputation and for many years as managers, owners and operators of iron ore properties have been vitally identified with the iron ranges of northern Minnesota and Michi- gan. The general superintendent of the Central District for this com- pany on the Mesaba Range is Robert Murray. Mr. Murray acquired his first acquaintance with the Mesaba Range thirty years ago, and is one of the practical experts on the staff of Pickands, Mather & Company.
He was born in Ontonagon County, Michigan, October 18, 1868. His father. Robert Murray. was born and reared in Scotland, acquired a prac- tical mining experience in his native country, and then came to Canada
N. N. Start
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and was employed in the Bruce Mines near Sault Ste. Marie in the Prov- ince of Ontario. He married there Mary McIntyre, also a native of Scot- land, and on coming to the United States lived in the copper country of Michigan for a time, then on the iron ranges at Negaunee, and worked in the old rolling mill at that place. During the winter of 1874-75 he was in the copper mines on Isle Royal, Michigan, later in Houghton County, Michigan, and became widely known all over the mining districts of that state. He died in 1902 and his wife in 1915.
One of five children, three of whom are still living, Robert Murray, Jr., grew up in various communities where the family residence was main- tained according to the occupations and the interests of his father. He acquired some of his early education at Isle Royal, and graduated from the Lake Linden High School at Lake Linden, Michigan, in 1889. It was in the spring of 1890 that Mr. Murray first came to the Mesaba Range. For a few months he worked on the diamond drill for E. J. Longyear, and then with two other companions crossed the Range from St. Louis River Station on the Duluth & Iron River Railroad to Grand Rapids. Not long afterward he returned to northern Michigan and entered the Michi- gan College of Mines at Houghton. He pursued the regular technical course in that institution, was graduated in 1895, and then took up his professional career as a mining engineer and chemist for the Loretto Iron Company at Loretto, Michigan. Subsequently he was mining engineer for the Menominee Exploration Company at Crystal Falls, Michigan. The Menominee Company was a subsidiary corporation of the Pickands, Mather & Company, and thus for over twenty years Mr. Murray has been identified with that corporation. In December, 1899, the same company sent him to Michipicoten, Canada, as superintendent of exploration and diamond drill work. His services for several years required a wide range of travel and service at various points in the United States and Canada. For a time he was engaged in the exploration of the Dog River mining claims in Canada. During 1902 his official duties brought him to the Mesaba Range and northern Minnesota, and since 1904 his home and headquarters have been at Hibbing. His first duties in this district were as superintendent of the Albany and Utica Mines operated by the Crete Mining Company, another subsidiary of Pickands, Mather & Company. In 1910, when the Scranton Mine was started, general offices were located at the latter plant, and about that time Mr. Murray was appointed general superintendent of the Central District for the company, in active charge of the Scranton Mine.
Mr. Murray is a member of the Lake Superior Institute of Mining Engineers. He is a member of the Algonquin Club of Hibbing, has at- tained the eighteenth degree of Scottish Rite Masonry and is a Republican voter. June 29, 1903, he married Miss Gertrude E. Buttinger, of Esca- naba, Michigan. Their family of seven children are Robert, Helen, Clayton, Katherine, John, Ann and James.
SIMON SAPERO, The community of Chisholm had hardly begun to take form as an adjunct of local mining activities and no village charter had yet been granted when Simon Sapero identified himself with the locality. He is one of Chisholm's oldest citizens, a veteran merchant, and has given the benefit of his wise counsel and leadership in times of pros- perity and in times of stress. He was born in Wekschne, Russia, Septem- ber 10, 1865, and grew up in his native country, acquiring a public school education. By the time he was nineteen he had reached the conclusion that Russia offered him no future. He was looking for a country where worth might achieve equality with his fellowmen, where he could establish a home and rear a family and know that opportunities would not be
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denied them in advance. There was only one logical choice to make and that was immigration to the United States.
For about four years after coming to America he lived in Maryland, and as a peddler acquired a knowledge of the English language and adapted himself to the customs and institutions of the New World. His next home was in Chicago, where for about ten years he employed his energies chiefly in wholesale houses and laid a sound foundation of commercial experience. While there he took out naturalization papers.
Mr. Sapero came to the Iron Range district of northern Minnesota in 1900. His first residence was in Virginia, where he entered the furniture and hardware business. About a month later occurred a conflagration which destroyed the village and his store, stock and other possessions. With that misfortune he did not despair, though it was necessary to begin all over again. Therefore in 1901, the year that saw the official birth of Chisholm, he moved to that town and built the first building on Main street. Just seven years later his business property, valued at over twelve thousand dollars, was again destroyed in the fire that left hardly a trace of Chisholm. But he was one of the first to return and begin the task of rebuilding, and both before and since that fire he has been one of Chisholm's sturdiest and most resourceful citizens and has not only pros- pered as a merchant but has borne his full share of responsibilities in connection with community advancement. Besides his dry goods and general merchandise establishment at Chisholm he has a branch estab- lishment at Thief River Falls and another at Hibbing. Mr. Sapero removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in April, 1921, and resides at Oak Grove Hotel. He is associated with the Northern State Bank in that city, and is now managing the insurance department of this bank, but still retains his interests in St. Louis County, Minnesota.
Mr. Sapero has never sought public office though deeply interested in all matters affecting the local welfare. He was active during the World war in promoting the sale of Liberty Bonds, Red Cross drives and relief work. He was one of the local citizens to start the building of the Jewish Synagogue, and for eight years was president of that organization. Mr. Sapero is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, a member of the Shrine, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is active in the Commercial Club.
In 1888, in Baltimore, Maryland, he married Miss Rosa Rabinowitz. Eight children have been born to their marriage: Moses, Abraham, Mary, Esther, Sol, Molly, Hazel and Harlan. Mary is the wife of J. E. Brill, a well known Minneapolis attorney. The daughter Esther is the wife of Max Wain, of Chisholm. The son Sol was a student in the University of Minnesota during the war and trained with the colors as a member of the Student Army Training Corps.
WILLIAM C. NORTHEY. Among the men who occupy high and promi- nent positions in the Iron Range district in northern Minnesota is William C. Northey, superintendent of the Mahoning Mine of the Mahoning Ore and Steel Company at Hibbing. Mr. Northey has been a practical mining man for many years, grew up in the industry, and has been a resident of northern Minnesota for over twenty years.
He was born at Rockland, Michigan, June 23, 1862, son of William and Isabella (MacKee) Northey, of English and Scotch ancestry. His father was for many years engaged in the mining industry both in the United States and in Canada. In a family of eight children six are still living.
William C. Northey at the age of five years accompanied his parents to Cableton, Quebec, Canada, later to Kingstown, Ontario, where he
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attended his first school, and then to Crown Point, New York, where he lived for twenty years and where he completed his education in the public schools.
At the age of sixteen Mr. Northey went to work in the iron mines of the Crown Point Iron Company and later with the Witherbee-Sherman Company at Mineville, New York, and elsewhere, and during the next fifteen or twenty years gained practically every experience in the equip- ment of a full fledged mining man. He came to the Range country of northern Minnesota in 1898, and was first employed as chief clerk of the Oliver Iron Mining Company at Mountain Iron. A year later as superin- tendent for the American Steel and Wire Company he opened the Soun- try-Alpena Mine at Virginia, but in 1900 was transferred to Hibbing and as superintendent of the same corporation opened the Clark and Chisholm Mines. Following that he temporarily abandoned the mining industry and from 1902 to 1906 was engaged in merchandising at Hibbing. In 1906 he became chief clerk for the Mahoning Ore & Steel Company, and has been steadily in the service of that corporation for fifteen years, and since January 1, 1918, its superintendent at Hibbing.
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