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 17
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46
ANTHONY SARTORI. Commercial intercourse between honorable tradesmen and other residents of a community very often results in high mutual appreciation and lasting friendships. This feeling prevails between the good people of Buhl, Minnesota, and their best patronized grocer. Anthony Sartori, who has been in active business here for more than thirteen years.
Anthony Sartori was born October 18. 1886. in the historic old city of Venice, Italy. His parents were Peter and Mary (Slaviero) Sartori, the former of whom was born at Venice in 1848, and the latter also in Italy. in 1852. They were married in 1873, and of their eight children Anthony is the fourth in order of birth. He had school advan- tages in his native city, and as his father was a lumber contractor of some means, he was able to have one year in college. Despite the many advan- tages that Venice offers to her people Anthony Sartori early began to cherish hopes of sometime coming to America, and this quickened his industry from the time he was doing odd jobs of work as a boy until later when he learned the shoemaking trade and thus prepared for a self-supporting life anywhere.
Mr. Sartori was twenty years of age when the opportunity came for him to leave Italy and sail for the United States. On arriving here he immediately went to Hibbing, Minnesota, but shortly afterward accepted work in the Crockstill Mine at Chisholm, where he remained for ten months, then worked for five months in the Leonard Mine and later in the Monroe Mine. In 1908 he came to Buhl and on July 5 of that year embarked in a grocery business in partnership with his brother John and his cousin. Paul Sartori, and the brothers first bought out the cousin's interest and in 1917 Anthony bought out his brother John's interest. Mr. Sartori has built up a fine business here, carries a large stock of standard goods and has the bulk of grocery patronage.
While at Hibbing Mr. Sartori was married on June 15, 1912, to Nicolina Rosati, who was born in Italy and came to the United States in 1905. Mr. and Mrs. Sartori have had four children: Mary, who is seven years old: Guido, who is six; Amalia, who died when aged twenty-seven months ; and Amalia (2) who is aged two months. Mr. Sar- tori and his family belong to the Roman Catholic Church.
On February 20, 1915, Mr. Sartori was naturalized and is an Ameri- can citizen. He has intelligently studied political questions and is well informed concerning the rights, responsibilities and privileges of Amer- ican citizenship, and has become an active member of the Republican party. He has taken much interest in the welfare of Buhl and for three years has served on the Library Board and encourages intellectual effort, being president of the Dante Alighieri Society. He is secretary of the Italian Political Club.
JOHN OLSON, general mining captain of the Oliver Mines of the Chisholm District, is one of the practical miners of St. Louis County, and a man who is held in the highest esteem by all who are associated
1041
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
with him. He was born in Wermland, Sweden, January 27, 1869, a son of Olof and Anna (Olson) Errickson. Olof Errickson was born in Sweden in 1827, and was a farmer by occupation. His wife was also born in Sweden, in 1826, and they became the parents of eleven children, of whom John Olson was the ninth in order of birth.
John Olson acquired in the public schools of his native land a train- ing about equivalent to that of the graded schools of this country, and during the summer months he assisted his father on the farm. When he was fifteen years old he left school and for three years devoted all of his time to farming. When he was eighteen he went to northern Sweden to work in the saw-mills, and in 1892 he emigrated to Canada, where he secured employment on railroad construction and in saw-mills for three years, and in 1895 came to the United States. He was naturalized in 1897, and came to the Range. At first he worked in the Hull Mine at Hibbing, being engaged in sinking the shaft which opened that mine, and then went to another mine owned by the Oliver Mining Company. In 1901 he was promoted by this company to be shift boss at the Rust Mine, and in April of that year was transferred to the Pillsbury Mine. In 1904 Mr. Olson was made day captain at the Clark Mine, and in 1909 was promoted to the position he now holds, having earned it through his dependability and industry.
On May 27, 1897, Mr. Olson was married to Miss Caroline Errick- son at Hibbing. She was born in Sweden, but came to the United States when young. Mr. and Mrs. Olson became the parents of the following children : Elmer J. E., who is attending the University of Minnesota, taking a course in engineering, and during the war he belonged to the Students Army Training Corps; Eveline, who is attending McAllister College at St. Paul, Minnesota ; Everett T., who is attending Chisholm High School; and Norma C., who is the youngest.
Mr. Olson belongs to Hematite Lodge No. 274, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. He is an Independent Republican in his political faith. The Methodist Episcopal Church has in him an active member and generous contributor. During the late war Mr. Olson was a zealous worker in the sale of Liberty Bonds, and did all in his power to aid the administration in carrying out its policies. He is a sound, reliable and hard-working man, who never shirks a responsibility or seeks to avoid a duty.
JOHN P. JOHNSON came to Duluth fifty years ago, when only a small village clustered about "the Head of the Lakes." Subsequent years have brought him a constantly enlarging scope of service, and that service has justly gained him the respect and esteem of all classes of citizens in St. Louis County.
Mr. Johnson was born at Franklin, Connecticut, February 13, 1851. His Johnson ancestors came from England to America during Colonial times. His grandfather, Oliver Johnson, was a Connecticut farmer. His own parents were Oliver L. and Martha (Mumford) Johnson. His father was born at Franklin, Connecticut, in 1823, and died in 1874. He was a prominent railroad man, for many years was purchasing agent for the New York & New Haven Railroad and a short time before he was retired was connected with the New Haven & Hartford Railroad. He was twice married, and was the father of thirteen children, ten of whom are still living. He was a Republican in politics, one time a member of the Connecticut Legislature, and a member of the Congre- gational Church.
John P. Johnson completed the course in an academy of his native
,
1042
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
town in 1869, and a few months later, in 1870, arrived at Duluth, destined to be his permanent home and the scene of his mature career. The first season he was in the employ of the Lake Superior & Missis- sippi Railroad Company, the first railroad entering Duluth. He then found employment as bookkeeper with a fellow townsman from Con- necticut, E. L. Smith, and from 1878 to 1880 succeeded Mr. Smith in the management of this local meat business. Mr. Johnson first came into prominence in local affairs when he was elected in 1880 as treasurer of St. Louis County. He was chosen as a Republican, and kept in office by repeated elections until 1890. On retiring from office he engaged in the insurance business and acquired a large following in that line. In 1900 he was elected clerk of the District Court of the Eleventh District, and is now finishing his twentieth consecutive year in the duties of that office. At different times he has also served as city alderman, and has had some business interests aside from those already mentioned.
Mr. Johnson is one of the oldest and most prominent Masons in Duluth and for twenty-five years has been treasurer of four Masonic bodies represented in the city. He is affiliated with Palestine Lodge No. 79, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Keystone Chapter No. 20, Royal Arch Masons, Duluth Commandery No. 18, Knights Templar, Duluth Council No. 6, Royal and Select Masons; is a member of the Scottish Rite bodies and also of the honorary thirty-third degree and the Temple of the Mystic Shrine and the Eastern Star. He is affiliated also with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Duluth Commercial Club, and was a charter member of the first Congregational Church organized in Duluth, and has been instrumental in promoting the inter- ests of his church and the building of several houses of worship in the city.
In 1874 Mr. Johnson married Miss Catherine C. Smith. They have two children: Earl E. and Robert E.
FRED H. LOUNSBERRY is founder and sole owner of F. H. Louns- berry & Company, one of the largest printing industries of St. Louis County. The company has not only a plant with every equipment for general printing and publishing, but also for other printing processes and manufacture practically all the type used in the business.
Mr. Lounsberry was born at Minneapolis and is a son of Col. C. A. Lounsberry, a veteran editor and newspaper man still living, at the age of seventy-eight. Colonel Lounsberry was founder of the Duluth Daily News, now merged in the News-Tribune. Fred H. Lounsberry was fourth in a family of five children. He has lived in Duluth since 1887, and for a time was employed by his father on the Duluth Journal and later with the Duluth Herald, being connected with its job printing department. from 1888 to 1892. In 1898 he became one of the founders of the printing firm of Peachey & Lounsberry, which has since been succeeded by F. H. Lounsberry & Company, of which he is sole owner. Mr. Lounsberry is married, and his family consists of his wife and two daughters. He is a Scottish Rite and Knight Templar Mason and a member of the First Presbyterian Church at Duluth.
ARTHUR P. SILLIMAN, who helped survey the original townsite of Hibbing and has been one of the most generous and public spirited citizens of that rich and populous community, has to his credit experi- ences and achievements as a mining engineer and business man that will for all time link his name closely with the history of the Iron Range country of the north.
Paulliman
TILP
1043
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
A native of Minnesota, a product of the best universities and a tech- nical school, Mr. Silliman was well equipped for the arduous responsi- bilities that awaited him in the development of the Iron Ranges. He was born at Minneapolis, March 31, 1868. His ancestry was old Con- necticut Yankee stock. His father, Dwight Silliman, a native of New York, graduated from the New York College of Physicians and Sur- geons and the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia, and was likewise a pioneer of his profession in the northwest. He practiced a few years at Minneapolis and thereafter for over forty years enjoyed the honors and responsibilities of a successful physician at Hudson, Wisconsin. He died in 1919. His wife, Marietta Parks, who died in 1887, was a native of Victor, New York. They are survived by five children.
Arthur P. Silliman graduated from high school at Hudson, Wiscon- sin. Following the regular course, the University of Wisconsin gave him the degree of Bachelor of Letters in 1890, and his technical studies were pursued in the Michigan School of Mines at Houghton.
Returning to Minnesota, Mr. Silliman made his first visit to what is now Hibbing in 1893. The townsite had been laid out by Captain Hibbing the previous year, but the survey was completed by Mr. Silliman. While Mr. Silliman was working with his instruments the only building in the vicinity was a log house which was not included within the lines of the townsite, and he therefore saw the community without a single improvement of development. Practically the entire region was covered with a dense growth of pine trees.
After this work as townsite surveyor Mr. Silliman entered the service of the New York & Mesaba Iron Company, the predecessor of the Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines, in the capacity of engineer. During the panic beginning in the fall of 1893 he and all employes were glad to accept New York Clearing House certificates in lieu of money. Mr. Silliman, in November, 1893, went to Mountain Iron as engineer and chemist for the Lake Superior Consolidated Iron Mines, which in the meantime had passed under the control of the Rockefellers. About this time Mr. Silliman acquired a financial interest in the company, doing this contrary to the advice of his friends. Subsequent events proved the wisdom of his course.
Mr. Silliman was a resident of Mountain Iron until the spring of 1899, and after six months at Iron River, Michigan, returned to Minnesota in the fall of that year in the employ of the Minnesota Iron Company at the Genoa and Elba Mines. He was so occupied until April 1, 1900, when he established an independent office as a mining engineer at Hibbing.
During the past twenty years Mr. Silliman has been identified as a technical expert and adviser with nearly every important mine on the Range. He was one of the original incorporators of the Pearson Mining Company, operating the Pearson Mine at Nashwauk and the Morrow Mine at Eveleth. He was the active director of the A. P. Silliman Exploration Company during its extensive drilling operations carried on from 1906 to 1915.
On December 26, 1901, Mr. Silliman married Miss Emma Arnold, of Mankato, Minnesota, daughter of Adam and Christine (Margraf) Arnold. Adam Arnold was born in Germany and came to the United States about the same time as Carl Schurz. He had become involved in the efforts to establish a republican form of government in Germany, and had to suffer practically exile from his native land. The liberal spirit, the thrift and enterprise which Germany lost in the emigration
Vol. III-8
1044
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
of such citizens were contributed to the American states, and Adam Arnold was one of our most exemplary citizens. Mr. and Mrs. Silliman had five children: Thomas A., Paul D., Frances E., Mary W., and Arthur P., Jr.
With an unbounded faith in the future of Hibbing and surrounding territory, Mr. Silliman has never hesitated to invest in local real estate. From property he personally owned he laid out in 1906 the townsite of Brooklyn, adjoining Hibbing, containing forty acres. The entire area was then covered with timber. This was the first addition, and in 1909 he platted another forty acres, comprising a second addition, and soon afterward both additions were incorporated in the village of Hibbing, and the recent census gave those additions a population of 2,132. In this enterprise Mr. Silliman did not follow the usual methods prevailing in a real estate subdivision. In its native condition the land was partly swamp and partly covered with heavy'timber. The timber was cleared away, the low ground drained, and Mr. Silliman expended a large amount of capital in laying out and constructing permanent streets and installing municipal facilities, including a thoroughly modern water and electric plant. While thus building solidly for the future, he had his .. foresight and investment substantially rewarded. He has been generous of time and means to promote all public improvements. He was a member of the first park board for the village of Hibbing, and assisted in acquiring the ground that now comprises the two beautiful parks. During his residence at Mountain Iron he served five years as a member of the School Board and performed a similar service at Hibbing five years. He has been supervisor of Stuntz township, and is now a member of the County Work Farm Board and the State Land Improve- ment Board. He is a life member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, also the Lake Superior Institute of Mining Engineers, is president of the Northern Minnesota Development Association and president of the St. Louis County Club. During the war he largely neglected his extensive business interests to give his time as chairman of the War Savings Stamps Committee for Hibbing district, and other patriotic causes. Mr. Silliman is independent in politics, is a Scottish" Rite Mason and Mystic Shriner, trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Church, diocese of Duluth, and is senior warden of Christ Episcopal Church of Hibbing.
PETER WALL, who is now living retired at Chisholm, is one of the splendid examples of what the foreign-born American can accomplish when he brings to this country a willingness to work and gives in return for the advantages offered him a loyal and sincere service. Mr. Wall came here a stranger, with but little knowledge of the language, but he has prospered, and at the same time earned the confidence and respect of those with whom he has been associated.
The birth of Peter Wall occurred in Finland, March 30, 1875. He is a son of Gust Wall, also born in Finland, in 1842, who was a miller by trade. The mother of Peter Wall was born in 1840 and was a native of Finland. The parents had eight children, of whom Peter was the fifth in order of birth, and of them four are still living.
When he was fifteen years old Peter Wall began to attend a technical school at night, and during the three years that he studied in this school he learned the trade of a baker, and while he was doing this he was assist- ing his father in his flour-mill. When he was nineteen years old Peter Wall went to work as a baker, and later bought a business of his own and conducted it for five years. In 1902 he became a resident of Chis-
1045
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
holm, Minnesota, and while he was working as a diamond drill helper for the Longyear Drilling Company he conducted a small boarding house he had bought. After eighteen months of this double work he decided to give it up and attend school so as to gain a working knowledge of the American language, and for one winter went to school. Feeling thus better prepared to meet the public, he established himself in a bakery business and conducted it very successfully until he sold it January 1, 1920, disposing of the business and the building in which his shop was located, and which he had erected for that purpose.
During the great war Mr. Wall had charge of the flour distribution among the bakers, restaurants and hotels of Chisholm, and rendered the Government a very efficient service in this capacity. In politics he is an independent Republican. Fraternally he belong to Chisholm Lodge No. 1334, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The Lutheran Church has in him a faithful member.
On March 14, 1897, Mr. Wall was married to Fannie Rauhala, also a native of Finland. They have the following children : Jennie E., Arney P., Sulo G., George A., Helen T. and Frederick T.
C. R. MAGNEY. The mayor and executive head of the municipal gov- ernment of Duluth from 1917 until 1920 was C. R. Magney, who for about ten years preceding his election to this post was a successful young lawyer of the Duluth bar. He resigned as mayor September 15, 1920, and was elected judge of the District Court in November, 1920, for a term of six years.
Mr. Magney was born January 11, 1883, in the town of Trenton, Pierce County, Wisconsin. His father, Rev. Jonas Magney, was a native of Sweden and was brought to America in 1858 by his parents, who located at Center City, Minnesota, on a farm. Jonas Magney prepared himself for the profession of the ministry in the Lutheran Church, and made that his life occupation. He was a church builder, organizer and preacher at many points in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He died in Minnesota in 1910.
C. R. Magney is the eldest in a family of five children, all of whom are still living. He acquired his early education in the public schools of South Stillwater, Minnesota, and took his literary course in Gustavus Adolphus College at St. Peter, where he graduated A. B. in 1903. He followed that by a law course in Harvard University, from which he holds the degree LL. B. granted him in 1908. His work as a lawyer brought him rapid advancement and favorable recognition in Duluth, and on April 3, 1917, two weeks before America entered war with Germany, he was elected to the post of mayor. He gave a vigorous administration of municipal affairs throughout the critical period of the war, and showed every qualification for heading the government of one of the best cities in the northwest.
Mr. Magney is a member of the Trinity Lutheran Church of Duluth. On April 26, 1911, he married Miss Lillian C. Lundgren, whose parents were natives of Sweden. They have one son, John.
SELMER M. JOHNSON, M. D., is a competent and skilled physician and surgeon whose work for nearly ten years has been identified with the Buhl community, where he is a member of the staff of the Shaw Hospital and otherwise actively associated with the senior physician at Buhl, Dr. A. W. Shaw. Dr. Johnson saw service with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and was absent from Buhl with the army nearly a year.
1046
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
He was born at New Richland, Minnesota, October 1, 1884. His father, Carl Johnson, was born in Norway in 1852, and was less than a year old when brought to America. He is, therefore, in all important respects a complete American. He has followed an active career as a merchant. Carl Johnson married in 1877, and his wife was born in Wisconsin in 1860, of Norwegian ancestry, and she died in 1898.
Dr. Johnson was the fourth in a family of twelve children, eight of whom reached mature years. He acquired his early education in the common schools of New Richland, graduated from the high school there in 1904, following which he spent one year in St. Olaf College at North- field, Minnesota, and then began his medical studies in the University of Minnesota. He was in the University Medical School four years, graduating in 1909. The following year he served as an interne in the hospital at Minneapolis, then for a few months engaged in a general practice at Davenport, North Dakota, and later at Menomonie, Wiscon- sin, but in March, 1911, began his long association which has continued practically ten years with Dr. Shaw at Buhl.
In September, 1915, Dr. Johnson married Miss Louise de Haas, who was born in St. Paul of German-Swiss ancestry. The three children of their marriage are Selmer M. and Charles Frederick, twins, born May 21, 1916, and Helen Louise, born April 6, 1920.
It was on June 6, 1918, that Dr. Johnson was enrolled and received his commission as first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps. On August 1, 1918, he was sent for training to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, remained there six weeks, and then went overseas as a casual. On reaching France he was attached to the 103rd Ammunition Train of the 28th Division, and it was with that body of the Expeditionary forces that he saw his real service during the Meuse-Argonne campaign. In April following the signing of the armistice he was transferred to the 539th Engineers, and with that contingent returned to America, reaching our shores June 30. 1919. He received his honorable discharge from service July 15th at Camp Dodge, Iowa, and a day or so later resumed his active association with Dr. Shaw at Buhl.
Dr. Johnson is a member of the St. Louis County and State Medical Societies. the American Medical Association, is an independent in politics and is affiliated with Hematite Lodge No. 274 of the Masonic Order. In 1917, in 1919 and again in 1920 he was elected a member of the Buhl School Board.
EMANUEL A. SWANSTROM, a prominent Duluth real estate man, mem- ber of the firm of Swanstrom Brothers, is a son of the late Emanuel G. Swanstrom, a Duluth pioneer, who for many years was one of the strongest and ablest men in the northern country.
Emanuel G. Swanstrom was born in Sweden and came to America in 1854, and for a year or so was employed in labor in Chisago County and located at Duluth in 1856, when the city was in the first stages of its growth and development. He rose above his early circumstances as a common laborer, and in the early seventies engaged in the grocery busi- ness at Oneota, and for sixteen years served as county commissioner. President Arthur appointed him receiver of the Land Office. He also represented the county in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and had the distinction of introducing many bills in both Houses, and on good authority it is said he never lost a measure he proposed. His associates in the Legislature and in his community recognize his sterling judgment and integrity, and the depth of sincere interest he manifested in everything pertaining to the welfare of northern Minnesota. He bgan
1
ASTOR ' : VIA TILDEN FOUNDY DOV:{
James start
1047
DULUTH AND ST. LOUIS COUNTY
life with little education, developed his own resources, and many promi- nent men took pride in his acquaintance. He was prominent in politics, casting his first vote in 1860 for Abraham Lincoln, and helped support the Republican party in local and state and national affairs. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. Emanuel G. Swanstrom married Jennie L. Abbott, and of their seven children six are still living.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.