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 16
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Bank of the city. He is financially interested in townsite properties. During the World war he was chairman of the various Liberty Loan committees that in every instance succeeded in raising more funds than the allotment specified. He was also local secretary of the War Activ- ities Fund, an organization that created a fund of $134,380.60. Mr. Red- fern is a charter member and a past worshipful master of Mesaba Lodge No. 255, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, has attained the thirty- second degree of Scottish Rite Masonry, is a member of the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the Algonquin and Kiwanis Clubs. In 1894 he married Miss Lillian J. Seass, of Negaunee, Michigan. Mrs. Redfern is a member of the Episcopal Church.
MANNE HEDIN. While he had a business experience in several dif- ferent lines in his native country of Sweden and also after coming to America, Manne Hedin has been chiefly interested as a painting and decorating contractor and has probably the largest business of its kind at Chisholm and one of the most extensive on the Iron Range.
Mr. Hedin was born at Soderala, Sweden, February 20, 1879. His father was born in 1836 and lived to the age of sixty-six. The mother's maiden name was Maria Katarina Spoere, and she was born in Smo- land, Sweden, in 1836. Of their large family of twelve children Manne is the youngest and six are still living.
Manne Hedin was three years of age when his parents moved to Ostersund, and there he grew to years of maturity. He had a com- mon school education, spent four years in high school and also served a complete apprenticeship with his father, who was a painting con- tractor for the railroad. On leaving home Manne Hedin removed to Gothenburg and was employed in the office and to some extent as a traveling representative for a wholesale paper house. That was his occupation for about six years, and he then continued in the same busi- ness but with another firm at Malmo, Sweden, for about one year.
When Mr. Hedin came to the United States in 1906 his first service was with the Everett Piano Company of Boston. He was one of the experts in the painting and finishing department for the company, and was a workman in their shops for a year and a half. On leaving Bos- ton he came to Duluth and entered the service of his brother, T. H. Hedin, a painting contractor. After four years he left his brother's employ and for the next two years was a hardwood finisher with the firm of Scott & Graff Company.
It was in 1913 that Mr, Heden came to Chisholm, and during the first year was employed with Gust Anderson, a building contractor. He and Karl G. Lambert formed a partnership in general painting and the retail paint business at Second avenue, South. The partnership was dissolved after a year and since then Mr. Hedin has been in business for himself and continued at the location on Second avenue, South, until he moved into his new store on Lake street early in 1920. He has a well equipped store, carrying all the standard wares and goods and maintains an excellent organization for painting and decorating.
Mr. Hedin received his second papers as an American citizen Janu- ary 8, 1915. He is affiliated with Hematite Lodge No. 274, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Lematite Lodge No. 9 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is a member of Chisholm Lodge of the Order of Vasa, the Kiwanis Club, and in religion is a Lutheran. In North Dakota November 25, 1908, he married Maria Desidefia Lund- guist, of Loberod, Sweden, where she was born May 23, 1881. They have one daughter, Dagmar Maria, born February 5, 1910.
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WILLIAM P. MARS by virtue of thirty years residence is one of the older citizens of Duluth. This period has been one of growing business responsibility and with accumulating interests that make him one of the foremost men of affairs in the northern part of the state. As an individual he has worked with organizations and contributed effectively to the splendid position maintained by Duluth as one of the great commercial centers of the north.
Mr. Mars was born in Chicago, Illinois, December 17, 1866, a son of R. W. and Fanny J. (Blenkensop) Mars. His father also became prominently known in Duluth, where he located in 1890. He was a mechanical engineer by profession, also superintendent of the Mari- nette Iron Works at West Duluth, and was later connected with the Marshall Mills Company as a salesman until his death in 1910.
William P. Mars grew up in Chicago, acquired his education in the public schools there, and came to Duluth in 1890. For three years he was cashier for the Marinette Iron Works at West Duluth and then went north on the Range to Virginia City and established the pioneer mining supply and hardware store. He was the active head of this business for five years.
In January, 1898, Mr. Mars became associated with the Marshall Wells Company as department manager of its railroad and mining machinery department. He soon acquired a financial interest in the business and was elected one of the vice presidents and was identified with that great wholesale hardware concern for twenty-three years. In 1921 Mr. Mars severed his connection with the Marshall Wells Con- pany and became one of the organizers of the Meagher-Mars Company of Duluth. This is an organization making a specialty of the lines with which Mr. Mars had gained such long familiarity during his con- nection with the Marshall Wells Company. They are wholesale dealers in railroad, mining and industrial machinery, and almost from the start have enjoyed exceptional connections with the trade of the great mining districts of the north. Mr. Mars is one of the principal stockholders and is vice president and treasurer of the company.
In April, 1889, he married Miss Leonora J. Prescott, of Marinette, Wisconsin, daughter of Sumner J. and Florence (Bullock) Prescott. Mr. and Mrs. Mars have four children : Robert Sumner ; Florence, wife of Allison Walker: William Phillip and Richard Prescott. Mr. Mars is popular in social affairs at Duluth. is affiliated with all the local branches of Masonry, and is a member of the Northland Country Club, the Commercial Club and the Kitchi Gammi Club.
MIKE SALMINEN. A Hibbing business man who began his career in comparative obscurity and has achieved for himself a dignified suc- cess and a position of high regard in his community. Mike Salminen is owner of the Merchants Warehouse Company of Hibbing, and has been a resident of that village for over twenty years.
He was born in Finland November 26, 1870. He grew up and acquired a common school education in his native country. In 1887. when he was seventeen years of age, he came with his parents, Thomas and Serafina (Holt) Salminen, to the United States. The family located at New York Mills, Minnesota, where Thomas Salminen took out natu- ralization papers and began his career on a homestead. In recent years Thomas Salminen and wife left the old Minnesota farm and removed to Ashburn, Massachusetts, where he died in 1920 and where his widow is still living.
Italiane . marx
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All of their seven children are living today. Mike Salminen came to manhood at New York Mills, had his early business training there, and in 1899 came to Hibbing, when the town was new, and opened a gro- cery and meat market on Pine street. From the beginning he prospered as the result of hard work, honesty and close application. In this busi- ness he was associated with John K. Maki, who has been connected with him for the most part ever since. Under the firm name of Sal- minen & Maki they operated their original establishment on Pine street and later established a branch house known as the Cash Market Com- pany at 709-11 Third avenue. The Pine street store was abandoned and the partners gave their entire attention to the Cash Market Com- pany. In 1915 they retired from the general grocery and meat business. They had in the meantime acquired an interest in the Merchants Ware- house Company, and then bought the interests of the remaining stock- holders and continued this business together until 1920, when Mr. Sal- minen bought out Mr. Maki's interest and is now sole proprietor.
He has other important business connections with Hibbing, being a director of the Security State Bank and a director of the Hibbing State Bank at South Hibbing. Mr. Salminen is an active member and treas- urer of the Finnish Lutheran Church of Hibbing and is a Republican in politics.
In July, 1894, he married Sanni Maki, sister of his former business partner. They have four children, Elma E., Werner L., Eino Rudolf and Irma Lucile. Elma was a teacher in the Hibbing schools for four years and is now the wife of Dr. George Jarvinen. Werner volunteered for service in the World war, joining the fighting forces as a private, but on account of his efficiency in office detail work was transferred and for over a year was employed in one of the big transfer offices in France as bookkeeper and stenographer.
WILLIAM E. BATES, chief engineer of the Chisholm District for the Oliver Iron Mining Company, is a typical representative of the kind of man the big Range corporations demand for their high official posi- tions, and in his work is setting a pace and raising a standard hard to equal and impossible to excel. He was born in Boone County, Illinois, December 10, 1879, and when he was two years old his parents, Ben- jamin A. and Esther (Norris) Bates, moved to Butler County, Iowa, where they lived on a farm until 1896. In that year removal was made to Mason City, Iowa, and there he had better educational opportunities, of which he took advantage and was graduated from the high school course in 1898.
For four years succeeding his graduation Mr. Bates worked as a clerk and stenographer, a portion of that time being with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and the remaining period was with a law firm. He then entered the civil engineering department of the State University of Wisconsin at Madison, and was graduated therefrom in 1906, and immediately thereafter came to the Mesaba Range in north- ern Minnesota and became an engineer at the Clark Mine for the Oliver Iron Mining Company. Subsequently he filled different positions, work- ing as engineer at the Hull-Rust Mine, assistant to the chief engineer of the Chisholm District, following which he was for a short time engaged in doing topographical work. Entering the offices of the Oliver Iron Mining Company at Hibbing, he remained there until February, 1909, when he was sent to Mount Iron as assistant to the chief engi- neer, and he was also at Virginia, Minnesota. During all of this period Mr. Bates was acquiring that practical experience through actual oper-
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ation which is so necessary in his profession, and in 1910 his superiors were so convinced of his fitness for this class of work that they made him chief engineer of the Chisholm District, a rather remarkable pro- motion for a young man, but subsequent events proved the wisdom of the selection.
On July 31, 1916, Mr. Bates was united in marriage with Agnes Ruehle, of Stillwater, Minnesota. Mrs. Bates is a member of the Epis- copal Church. Mr. Bates is not only prominent in professional circles, but has attained to distinction along other lines. A stalwart Repub- lican, he was elected on his party ticket in 1914 as a member of the board of Balkan township, and still holds the office, and during all of his membership has served the board as chairman. For the past couple of years he has been president of the Chisholm Chamber of Commerce and has taken an active part in promoting the civic welfare of his com- munity. Well known in Masonry, Mr. Bates was worshipful master of Hematite Lodge No. 274, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and he is a thirty-second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. The Kiwanis Club has in him one of its most influential and forceful members and in it as in all of the other organizations with which he is connected he takes a constructive part.
WILLIAM JOHN RYDER. One of Hibbing's oldest merchants and business men, William John Ryder is also probably the oldest native son of Minnesota found in that community.
He was born at Pine City, Minnesota. December 26, 1867, son of John and Sophia (Schweitzer) Ryder. His mother was a native of Saxony, Germany. John Ryder was a pioneer of Pine City, Minnesota.
One of a family of nine children, William John Ryder had to con- tent himself with limited advantages during his youth. He attended school until he was about twelve or thirteen years of age, his instruction being chiefly confined to the three R's. He learned cabinet making and wood carving at St. Paul, and was employed in that line of business by the Palace Furniture Company in St. Paul from 1886 to 1894. From 1894 to 1900 he was in the furniture business on his own account at St. Paul, and in May of the latter year came to the village of Hibbing, only about seven years after the original townsite had been laid out. Except for a tailoring establishment he opened the first retail store on Third avenue, at the southeast corner of Third and Center streets. In October, 1909, the year of the Chisholm fire, Mr. Ryder moved to his present location, and has continued in business there over ten years.
While never an office seeker, he has accepted a full share of those responsibilities that are a part of good American citizenship. For the past three years he has been a member of the Park Commission and is now chairman of that commission. He was elected president of the Commercial Club in 1917, and has been at the head of this live organiza- tion of local citizens for two years. For three years he was also a member of the Water and Light Commission, retiring as chairman in 1917. Mr. Ryder is a director of the Security State Bank and of the Hibbing State Bank.
On December 26, 1892, he married Miss Josephine Achenbach, of Alma, Wisconsin. They are the parents of four children: Ada, wife of J. E. Capra; Eleanor, Mrs. Valentine Kuechmeister; William John, Jr .; and Mae.
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James & Dacey
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JAMES FRANCIS DACEY was a power in Duluth manufacturing circles for over a quarter of a century. He was founder of one of the city's most considerable industries, the Gogebic Steam Boiler Works. He began to learn the boiler maker's trade just fifty years before his death, and with the skill acquired through a long journeyman's experience he united the executive force that proved him one of the masterful business men of his generation.
He was born at Canandaigua, New York, September 3, 1853, son of Bartholomew and Mary Ann Dacey. Both are now deceased, the mother having survived the father several years. Bartholomew Dacey, who died in 1855, was a contractor and for a number of years was employed in construction work on the Erie Railroad.
James F. Dacey acquired a common school education, never getting beyond the eighth grade. He first started to learn the printer's trade, but finding this uncongenial in 1866, when thirteen years of age, he entered the Brooks Locomotive Works plant at Dunkirk, New York. He worked on the first locomotive built by that giant concern, and thor- oughly learned the boiler maker's trade in that plant. Leaving it in 1872, he went out to Elkhart, Indiana, and for four years was in the shops of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Company. From 1876 to 1888 Mr. Dacey was employed as foreman boiler maker by the Union Pacific Railway Company between Omaha and other western cities on the route. During the twenty years of his employment he had thriftily conserved his means, and in November, 1889, brought his capital to Duluth, then a city of about thirty thousand inhabitants. Here he established the Gogebic Steam Boiler Works, the original plant being 60 by 100 feet. From the first he was insistent upon the quality and thoroughness of all the work produced by this plant. That reputa- tion has consistently adhered to the Gogebic output, and the industry has survived every period of depression in the northwest. The original capacity having been outgrown in 1907, the plant was greatly enlarged and thoroughly equipped with the most up-to-date machinery and every facility called for in a modern manufacturing establishment. It is operated with power generated by the Great Northern Power Company system at St. Louis Falls. It was the first plant in Duluth to obtain current from this public utility.
The Gogebic Steam Boiler Works manufacture boilers for steam heating and hot water, for manufacturing and mining purposes, tanks, smokestacks, sheet iron work and plate work of every description. This product is shipped throughout the northwest, and during the last several years has gone also to eastern and western territory.
The late Mr. Dacey was a pioneer on the Vermilion and Mesaba Iron ranges. He built and placed the first boilers going into service to develop the iron industry. That was long before the advent of rail- ways, and the boilers had to be hauled in sections and set up in the field. Mr. Dacey in 1911 also became interested in and took over the plant formerly known as the Northwestern Steam Boiler and Manu- facturing Company. With that property he organized a new company known as the Duluth Boiler Works. It has enjoyed a steady growth and prosperity, and its products are known from coast to coast. In the midst of the success and responsibilities connected with these two industries Mr. Dacey was called by death March 17, 1916. His life was an inspiring example of complete devotion to business and home interests. He was never in politics as a candidate, though he worked for the success of friends and of the Republican party. His chief diversion was baseball, and he played that game as a youth and to the
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end of his life was regarded as the most ardent fan in Duluth. He was a member of the Sacred Heart Cathedral of the Catholic Church at Duluth.
August 16, 1875, at Elkhart, Indiana, he married Mary Ann Nolan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Nolan. The only surviving child of Mr. and Mrs. Dacey is Francis J. Dacey, who married Mary Gowan.
FRANCIS JAMES DACEY. For a quarter of a century, beginning when he was a youth, Francis James Dacey has recognized one dominant business interest at Duluth, the Gogebic Steam Boiler Works, orig- inally a product of his father's industrial genius, but the modern extension of which, keeping pace with the wonderful growth and development of Duluth, has been largely achieved by Francis J. Dacey.
The latter was born at Laramie City, Wyoming, July 3, 1878, son of James Francis and Mary Ann (Nolan) Dacey. His father spent his early years in Canandaigua, New York, and died March 17, 1916. He was long an honored and influential citizen, business man and manufacturer of St. Louis county.
Francis J. Dacey, oldest of three children and the only one now living, was educated in the parochial and public schools of Duluth and in 1895, at the age of seventeen, entered his father's business, the Gogebic Steam Boiler Works at 409-415 Lake Avenue, South. Be- sides building up this industry he has also been interested in the Duluth Boiler Works since its reorganization in 1911.
Mr. Dacey has been active in local affairs, serving four years as a member of the Civil Service Board, is a Republican, a member of the Commercial Club, Kitchi Gammi Club and Boat Club, and belongs to Sacred Heart Cathedral. April 6, 1909, he married at Duluth Mary Gowan. Her father was the late Andrew Gowan. Mr. and Mrs. Dacey have three children, Mary Elizabeth, Francis Gowan and Henry Gowan Dacey.
ANDREW GOWAN. As a pioneer in northern Minnesota, contributing materially to the growth of several industries, chiefly logging and the wholesale grocery business, and at the time of his death one of the most prominent of Duluth's business men, his many friends and old time business associates will appreciate the appropriateness of a brief record of the career of the late Andrew Gowan.
He was born in New Brunswick April 15, 1851, son of George and Mary Gowan. During his early boyhood his parents moved to Min- nesota and settled in Stillwater. He received a very brief common school education and while very young began working in the lumber camps. In this industry he rose from laborer to executive of one of the largest corporations.
In October, 1878, at Stillwater, Mr. Gowan married Miss Mary Bergin, daughter of Matthey Bergin. Soon after his marriage he moved to Cloquet, which was rapidly becoming the center of northern Min- nesota's logging operations. The C. N. Nelson Lumber Company, later a part of the Weyerhaeuser interests, maintained headquarters there. After working in many capacities for the C. N. Nelson Company Mr. Gowan was made general superintendent of the logging operations and a member of the company. Severing his connections with Cloquet interests in 1899 and moving to Duluth, Mr. Gowan started several logging camps of his own and became a potent factor in logging circles at the Head of the Lakes. About the same time he organized the Gowan, Peyton, Tuohy Company, wholesale grocers, later reorganizing it, and
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MAursivan
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was instrumental in making this business one of the largest in the north- west. His death in 1907 closed a long and influential period of years, in which he was president of the Gowan-Peyton-Congdon Company and a director of the American Exchange National Bank of Duluth.
At the time of his death he was a member of the various Duluth clubs, a Knight of Columbus and a Democrat. Early in his career he served as mayor of Cloquet and later was vitally interested in Duluth civic and philanthropic organizations.
In 1904 he suffered the loss of his wife. He was survived by Mary Gowan Dacey, wife of Francis J. Dacey of Duluth; Lillian, wife of John Carver Richards, of Virginia; Henry Patrick, who later as an American soldier was killed in action in France, September 26, 1918; Claudia, of Virginia; Andrew Dennis, of Duluth; and George Joseph, of Minneapolis.
ANDREW J. SULLIVAN. At the time of his death, which occurred July 7, 1920, Andrew J. Sullivan had given more than a third of a century of faithful and competent service to the Oliver Iron Mining Company. By that corporation he was held in high esteem, measured in many promotions and in various tokens of appreciation, and he was one of the best known men in the Iron Ranges of northern Minnesota. Prior to his death for a number of years he had been general superin- · tendent of the Chisholm District in the Oliver Iron Mining Company.
Mr. Sullivan was born at Eagle Harbor, Michigan, April 4, 1866, and death came to him when he was just in the prime of his years and usefulness. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Sullivan, were both born in Ireland, and of their large family of sixteen children he was second in age. Three years after his birth his parents moved to Champion, Michigan, and it was there he acquired his early educa- tion in the common schools. He was only twelve when he became chore boy for his neighbors, helping earn his own living. Not long afterward he was employed at the Champion Mine "picking over" ore. The next stage of employment was at the warehouse assisting the clerk. and still later he was placed in charge of the warehouse. Then followed promotion to the office, where he remained until the closing down of the mine.
It was in 1903 that Mr. Sullivan in the course of his duties with the Oliver Iron Mining Company came to the Mesaba Range as an accountant for the Auburn Mine at Virginia. Next after that he was accountant at the Fayal Mine, later clerk at the Genoa Mine, and in 1908 was made superintendent of the Genoa Mine and subsequently opened the Gilbert Mine, continuing in charge of both properties until 1910. Then followed his appointment and promotion to the post of general superintendent of all the Oliver Mines in the Chisholm District, and he discharged those responsibilities during the last ten years of his life.
August 18, 1897, he married Mary Coyne at Champion. She was born in Pennsylvania, daughter of Patrick and Mary (Charlesworth) Coyne, her father a native of Ireland and her mother of England. When she was nine years of age her parents removed to Republic, Michigan, and later to Champion, in which town she met Mr. Sullivan. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan had five children, named Mary Constance, John Charlesworth, Eugene S., Kathryne E. and Helen Patricia.
The late Mr. Sullivan was characterized by sterling good citizenship and a usefulness that made him widely known outside his home and immediate official duty. For two years he served as supervisor of
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Mesaba Township. For more than ten years he was a member and several times director of the School Board of Genoa and Mckinley, Independent District No. 18, served as a member of the Chisholm Library Board for two years, was a stanch Republican in politics, a member of St. Joseph's Catholic Church and fraternally was affiliated with Duluth Lodge of the Knights of Columbus, with the Knights of the Macabees at Eveleth, with the Elks Lodge at Eveleth, and with the Ancient Order of Hibernians at Ishpeming.
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