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 19
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The principal at the present time is Mr. A. M. Santee. He was born at Oswego, Kansas, and was the only son of six children. When about ten years of age his parents moved to Princeville, Illinois, where he attended the upper grades and high school. He is a graduate of the Illinois State Normal University, also of the University of Illinois, from which school he received the A. B. and A. M. degrees. For four years he was superintendent of public schools at Ipava, Illinois, and for six years superintendent at Virginia, Illinois. He then re-entered the Uni- versity of Illinois in the graduate school and was elected assistant in the Department of Education. While there he became deeply interested in junior high school work, and out of this interest and his many qualifica- tions followed his employment at Duluth.
The manual training shops are extensive and well equipped courses are offered in wood-working, wood-turning, pattern making, forge foundry, sheet metal, machine wood-working, machine shop, printing, electricity, mechanical drawing and automobile repairing. The Home Training department offers courses in physiology and home nursing, textiles, house- hold management, dressmaking, foods and cookery, household science and millinery.
Pupils from Central High School who elect art, manual training or home training come to this building for their work in these subjects.
Some of the outstanding features of the Junior High School are departmental work, promotion by subjects, division of pupils into classes of about equal ability and opportunity for shop and home training work.
OSCAR B. BJORGE is chief engineer and secretary of the Clyde Iron Works, one of the largest iron working plants in the Duluth district and one of the largest firms in the country manufacturing machinery for lumbering and logging industries.
Mr. Bjorge was born at Underwood, Minnesota, January 5, 1886, a son of H. P. and Janette Bjorge. His parents were both natives of Norway and came to the United States in 1870. For many years they had their home in Ottertail County, Minnesota, but in 1899 removed to Duluth. In Ottertail County H. P. Bjorge was a farmer and merchant at Underwood, but since coming to Duluth has become prominent in state official affairs and has served as a member of the State Board of Grain Appeals at Duluth. He was a member of the Legislature from Ottertail County five terms, from 1885 to 1895.
Oscar B. Bjorge is the fourth in a family of eight children, five of whom are still living. He attended the common schools at Underwood until he was thirteen years of age, and in 1903 graduated from the Duluth High School and then entered the University of Minnesota, where he pursued a technical course and graduated with the Mechanical Engi- neering degree in 1907. On coming out of university he was teacher of mechanical drawing in the Mechanical Arts High School at St. Paul from 1907 to 1909.
Since 1909 Mr. Bjorge has been connected with the Clyde Iron Works of Duluth, and has filled the responsible post of chief engineer since 1912. He became a member of the Board of Directors in July. 1920, and secretary of the company in January, 1921. He is a member of the Engineers' Club, Curling Club, Boat Club, Kitchi Gammi Club, Ridge- view Golf Club, president of the Duluth Rotary Club in 1921-2, a member of Sigma Xi, Honorary Scientific Fraternity, Tau Beti Pi. Honorary Engineering Fraternity and of the American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers. He is also a member of the Commercial Club of Duluth, is
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Adam Schermer
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affiliated with Ionic Lodge No. 186, Accepted Free and Ancient Masons, and is a member of the Unitarian Church and in politics is independent.
Mr. Bjorge was married in January, 1921, to Miss Ann Mary McCar- thy, of Duluth, formerly of Marquette, Michigan.
OLIVER O. ORMOND began his career as a railway telegrapher, was a railroad man when he first came to the Iron Range district, but for fifteen years has been engaged in various grades of responsibility with some of the large iron mining corporations and is now a superintendent of the Hanna Mines at Buhl.
Mr. Ormond was born at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, May 18, 1881. His father, Charles Ormond, was born in South Wales January 19, 1843, and was eighteen years of age when he came to the United States in 1861. The following year he showed his practical patriotism by enlisting in the Union army and fought for the preservation of the Union until the end of the war. After the war he removed to Milwaukee and entered the service of S. S. Merrill as contracting superintendent, and continued with that well-known industrial operator for a number of years. He is now seventy-seven years of age, is still active as a farmer, and is an example of the rugged vitality of his race.
Oliver O. Ormond is the youngest of six children. He was only two years of age when his mother died. She was also of Welsh birth and ancestry. As a boy he lived in his father's home at Milwaukee, attended the public schools in that city, but since fifteen years of age has been launched on his independent career. He learned telegraphy and worked as a telegraph operator and clerk, at first with the Chicago & Northwest- ern Railway and later with the Great Northern. In the employ of the Great Northern he came to the Range country in 1903, being first assigned to duty at Buhl, then at Chisholm, Sandstone and Swan River. In 1905 he left the service of the Great Northern and became a locomotive fire- man for the Wisconsin Steel Company at Agnew. He was successively promoted to locomotive engineer, night foreman and then day foreman. Since 1912 he has been in the employ of the M. A. Hanna Mining Com- pany, beginning as day walking boss in charge of the Brunt Mine and the Hanna A and B pits. In November, 1918, he was transferred to Buhl as mining captain for the specific purpose of reopening the -Frantz Mine. Soon afterward he was made superintendent of that mine, and is now superintendent also of the Thorne Mine and is opening the Wabigon Mine.
Mr. Ormond served as captain of his district for the promotion of all the Liberty Loan drives during the war. He is a Republican in poli- tics. On January 14, 1911, he married Miss Grace Murray, of Michigan. She is of Scottish ancestry. They have one son, Oliver Preston Ormond.
ADAM N. SCHIRMER by long experience and study has become a master of that difficult branch of mechanical engineering known as plumbing, and has built up a large business as a contractor in plumbing, heating, furnace and ventilating work at Chisholm. Mr. Schirmer has been a resident of Chisholm since 1912, and has been on the Iron Ranges for twelve years.
He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, July 13, 1887, son of Adolph and Elizabeth (Schueler) Schirmer. His father was born at Hanover and his mother at Berlin, Germany, but they were married after they came to this country. Adolph Schirmer for thirty-eight years was an employe of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company in the mechanical department at Cedar Rapids. He died in 1913 and his widow is still living.
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One of four children, Adam N. Schirmer grew up in Cedar Rapids, graduated from the high school with the class of 1904, and almost immediately took up a mechanical trade. His father at that time was the official valve setter for the Rock Island Railway, and the son served his apprenticeship as a machinist under his father. He began at ninety cents a day, later was put in charge of the air-brake department, still later had his quarters at Estherville, Iowa, in the employ of the Rock Island Company, and leaving railroading he went west to Phillip, South Dakota, where he filed on a quarter section of land. He performed all the duties necessary to prove up his claim and lived on it for fourteen months. Part of that time he also worked at his trade at Pierre. Mr. Schirmer came to Hibbing, Minnesota, in 1908, and the following four years was in the service of his cousin, A. C. Schirmer, in the plumb- ing business, and by practical work and study mastered every branch of the business. Then, in 1912, he moved to Chisholm and started in a limited way to build up a contracting business. To his father, who implanted in his mind the principles of industry, honesty and frugality, Mr. Schirmer attributes much of his success. Now his business has assumed large proportions, involving the service of a score of men, and his organization is usually called upon for all the high class work in such public buildings as schools and libraries, besides many contracts for installation of plumbing and heating appliances in stores and private residences.
June 9, 1911, Mr. Schirmer married Miss Olive Bradstreet, of Inde- pendence, Iowa. They have two children, Jack and Faye. Mr. Schirmer is a Lutheran, is an independent voter in politics, and has a number of interesting associations with the people and affairs of northern Minne- sota. He is a member of the Engineers' Club of Northern Minnesota, the Commercial Clubs of Hibbing and Chisholm, the Kiwanis Club of Chis- holm, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and is a past exalted ruler of the Elks Lodge of Chisholm.
GEORGE H. DORMER for a quarter of a century has performed services of increasing responsibility in connection with the Oliver Iron Mining Company, is widely known over the Iron Range district in northern Minnesota, and recently has been transferred to Buhl as superintendent of the local mines of the Oliver Company.
Mr. Dormer was born at Lanark, Ontario, Canada, June 15, 1874, and is of old American and Scotch ancestry. His father, John J. Dormer, was born in New York state, was a moulder and machinist by trade, and for a number of years was an electrical worker in mines. In 1872 John J. Dormer married Margaret Herbert, who was born in Ontario, of Scotch . ancestry.
The oldest of five children. George H. Dormer was four years of age when his parents moved to Manitoba, and was nine when they estab- lished another home in North Dakota. It was in North Dakota that he spent most of his youth. He graduated from the Pembina High School about 1892, and after acquiring some proficiency in shorthand as the result of attending a business school in Minneapolis went to work for the county attorney of Pembina, North Dakota, and was thus employed in his office about two years. Then came another business course at the Curtis Business College at Minneapolis, and then for about two years he was bookkeeper and later cashier of a bank at Neihart, Montana. He was doing well, had good prospects of advancement, and might probably have ended by becoming a successful banker had not a spell of typhoid fever interrupted his career in the far west. While convalescing he spent about
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a year at home with his parents at Pembina, and on June 1, 1895, took his first position with an iron mine as stenographer and bookkeeper for the Minnesota Iron Company. He has been with some branch of the Oliver Iron Mining Company continuously since that date. In 1905 he was transferred to the Fayal Mine, was made cashier and chief clerk of the Fayal, and in 1906 rose to the responsibilities of mine superintendent. He remained at the Fayal for a dozen years, and in April, 1918, was trans- ferred to Virginia, and in April, 1919, came to Buhl as superintendent of the local mines.
Mr. Dormer was a member of the School Board at Eveleth for twelve or fourteen years, and in different localities has endeavored to perform his duties as a citizen. He is a member of the Engineers Club of North- ern Minnesota, is a Republican, belongs to the Episcopal Church and is affiliated with the Masonic Lodge at Eveleth. In October, 1906, he mar- ried Miss May Frezona, of Eveleth. She is of English ancestry. They have three children : George G., born in 1909; Louise J., born in 1911; and Richard J., born in 1919.
GEORGE N. BUTCHART, M. D. By reason of twenty-five years of resi- dence and earnest and capable work, Doctor Butchart is dean of the medical profession of Hibbing and one of the honored men of his voca- tion in northern Minnesota.
Doctor Butchart was born on a farm in County Gray, Canada, December 23, 1872, son of William and Agnes (Russell) Butchart. His parents were also born in Canada, of Scotch ancestry. In 1876 the family removed to the United States, where William Butchart bought an old plantation in North Carolina. He remained in that section of the south and operated the farm and plantation for ten years. He then returned to Canada, where he and his wife spent their last days.
George N. Butchart was four years of age when taken to North Carolina, and his boyhood was chiefly environed by the scenes and activi- ties of an old southern cotton plantation. Later he lived in western Canada, and in 1891 graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree from Manitoba College. For a time he clerked in a drug store in Manitoba, which was still on the western frontier, also owned a drug business in that province, and during the winter of 1892 entered the Omaha Medical College at Omaha, Nebraska, and completed his course and graduated in 1895.
In July of the same year Doctor Butchart located in Hibbing, Minne- sota, and almost continuously for twenty-five years has given his energies and talents to his profession in that locality. For six years he was first assistant in Rood Hospital. For about eighteen months Doctor Butchart was engaged in medical contract work for a mining corporation in Mich- igan, but then returned to Hibbing. He served as deputy county coroner a number of years, for several years was village health officer, served one year as a member of the Village Council and is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations, votes as a Republican and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church and the Order of Elks.
On May 12, 1895, Doctor Butchart married Miss Minnie Lockhart of Manitoba. They have two children, Dana Lockhart and Gwenith Jean. The son, Dana, graduated from Columbia Military Academy in Tennessee in 1916, and in June, 1920, finished the work of the Junior College of Hibbing, Minnesota. In the meantime he had enlisted for service in the World war, and received his preliminary training in aviation at Toronto,
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Canada, and was granted a second lieutenant's commission in the Canadian Royal Air Service, and was made first lieutenant overseas. He sailed for service abroad on his twentieth birthday, and was honorably discharged after the signing of the armistice.
LEIGHTON R. SIMONS. There is not a community in the country which has not its veterans of the great war, young men who, having rendered their country a service inspired by patriotism and the determina- tion to protect it from foreign invasion, are now back home and prepared to give just as efficient aid in conquering the foes to law and order and the proper development of the natural resources as they were when in uniform. These young men are making history, and their impress will be on the generations to come. No man can pass through an experience like theirs without coming back strengthened and broadened, provided, of course, the natural tendencies were good. St. Louis County sent forth the very flower of its young manhood, and fortunately for all concerned only a few of the stars in its service flag turned to gold, the majority of the soldiers having been returned in comparative safety. One of the stalwart young veterans who has an honorable record of overseas service is Leighton R. Simons, one of the rising young attorneys of Buhl.
Leighton R. Simons was born at Carlton, Minnesota, April 8, 1889, a son of Edwin N. Simons, who was born November 24, 1859, at Sterling, Pennsylvania. He came west in 1880, locating at Thomson, Minnesota, at that time a saw mill town located twenty miles southwest of Duluth. There he became engaged as a shingle contractor in the saw mills, and was so occupied for a number of years at Thomson, Cloquet, Carlton and West Duluth. He came to Virginia in 1905, and is now a filer employed at the Virginia and Rainy Lake sawmill. The Simons family is of Irish and German descent. Edwin N. Simons was married to Miss Mary Owens April 15, 1886. She is of Welsh and Dutch parentage, and was born March 31, 1867, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They became the parents of four children, of whom Leighton R. is the second in order of birth.
Leighton R. Simons attended the graded schools of Carlton and Cloquet, Minnesota, and the high schools of Cloquet and Virginia, Minne- sota, being graduated from the one at Virginia in 1906. For the subse- quent year he was employed with his father in the mills, and then entered the University of Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1911 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Returning to Virginia, he spent a year working in the city engineer's department of Virginia, and then entered the law school of the University of Minnesota and was graduated there- from in 1914 and was admitted to the bar of Minnesota that same year. While at college he was interested in athletics, especially basket ball, and he was also active in the literary and debating societies to which he belonged.
Soon after securing his degree Mr. Simons entered the law office of A. E. Templeton of Hibbing, Minnesota, and there spent three months, but in the spring of 1915 came to Buhl and was associated in law practice with A. R. Folsom, leaving him in September, 1915, to open an office of his own. During 1919 he served Buhl as village attorney and was reap- pointed to that office in 1920. He belongs to Chisholm Lodge No. 1334. Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Howard Bennett Post No. 214, American Legion. In politics he is an independent Republican, while in religion he is a protestant.
On June 29, 1918, Mr. Simons was married to Miss Marian Aubrey, of West Allis, Wisconsin, who is a member of an old American family. They have one son, Robert A., who was born March 12, 1920.
C.E. Wickman.
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Mr. Simons enlisted for service during the World war, and was enrolled in the Second Officers Camp at Fort Sheridan. Before he had completed his training, however, his draft number was called, and he was drafted and sent to Fort Winfield Scott, San Francisco, California, Sec- ond Provisional Regiment of Coast Artillery. On March 29, 1918, he was transferred to the Fourth Officers Training Camp, Coast Artillery. Fortress Monroe, Virginia. He was commissioned a second lieutenant of Coast Artillery, and July 18 went overseas as a casual, landing in France. Immediately thereafter he was ordered to Mailly, headquarters of the American Expeditionary Forces, and not long thereafter was sent to southern France to school. Returned to Mailly, he was assigned to the Forty-second Railroad Artillery, which was stationed about twenty-five miles back from the front, and here he remained until the armistice was signed. He was sent home, and arrived in the United States February 22. 1919, and was discharged March 11, following.
E. K. COE, city engineer, has given his professional time and services to Duluth and environs for nearly thirty years. He is one of the promi- nent men in his profession in the northwest, and for nearly two years was an officer on duty with the American Army both in this country and abroad.
Major Coe was born April 20, 1868, at Sterling, Illinois, a son of the late M. L. Coe, who was a native of New York. E. K. Coe is one of five children and received his early education in the public schools of Sterling. He acquired his degree in civil engineering after a course in Cornell College, Iowa. As a young man he was a civil engineer with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway for one year. He came to Duluth in 1891 and was at different times associated with the D. M. & N. Railroad, the D. & I. Railroad and also did engineering work for the city and county govern- ment. He has made surveys and supervised some of the important con- struction undertakings around the Duluth Harbor. Following that he was appointed and served as city engineer two years.
Major Coe was the first commissioned officer called from Duluth at the beginning of the World war. As an officer he built Camp Lee in Virginia. In November, 1917, he went overseas to France and there was engineer in charge of the construction of a line of hospitals. In the early fall of 1918 he went to front line duty at the headquarters of the first American Army and had a part in the great battle of the Argonne. After the armistice he received home orders and returned to America early in 1919. Mr. Coe is a member of the Presbyterian Church and is a Repub- lican in politics. In 1891 he married Miss Emma Witmer, of Illinois. They have five children : Douglas W., a lieutenant in the United States Navy ; Mrs. M. C. Merritt ; Edward Harold, late lieutenant of engineers, U. S. R .; Ruth, and Eveleth.
CARL ERICH WICKMAN. 'Appropriately here is given a brief indi- vidual sketch of the vice president and manager and one of the founders and upbuilders of the Mesaba Transportation Company at Hibbing, an organization whose growth and the development of its facilities for an extensive transportation service covering a large part of the Iron Range district are made the subject of a special historical review published elsewhere in this work.
Carl Erich Wickman is still a young man but is well qualified for his important business responsibilities through an experience that has brought him step by step from the ranks of mechanical labor to executive duties of a high order.
Vol. III-9
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Mr. Wickman was born in Sweden, August 7, 1887, where his parents, Carl Victor and Anna (Martis) Wickman, are still living. There his boyhood was spent, with an education in the common schools, and at the age of seventeen he came to the United States. The first year he was in America he was employed in a sawmill in Arizona. With the exception of that first year his American career has been identified with Hibbing. For about six years he worked on a diamond drill under that distinguished Hibbing engineer, A. P. Silliman. Then with a modest capital and a knowledge of mechanics in general he opened a tire repair shop at Hibbing and continued it for about a year, until he sold, and with other associates started the modest service with a single bus from which has developed the extensive facilities of the present Mesaba Transportation Company.
Mr. Wickman married, August 22, 1916, Miss Olga Rodin. Mrs. Wickman is a native of Hibbing. They have one son, Robert. In politics Mr. Wickman is aligned with the Republican party, is a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church, and is a prominent Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite, is a member of the Mystic Shrine, and also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
WILLIAM L. MURPHY, an ex-service man who was with an organiza- tion of engineers in France, has been in the Iron Range district and con- nected with the industrial activities of the Range country for over ten years and is one of the best known citizens of St. Louis county.
He was born at Chippewa Falls in Chippewa county, Wisconsin, July 3, 1889. His father, Angus Murphy, who was born in Canada, October 15, 1848, came to the United States in 1880, and subsequently naturalized as a citizen. His occupation was that of a woodsman, and he was a fore- man for various lumber organizations in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and continued this line of work practically until his death, October 3, 1910. He married Margaret M. Gratten, who was born at Quebec, Canada, June 25, 1863. William L. is the sixth in a family of ten children, seven of whom are still living.
William L. Murphy attended school at Chippewa Falls, where he was born, graduated from high school in 1907, and in the same year arrived at Hibbing, Minnesota. The first work he did here was as machinist's helper on locomotive repairs with the Oliver Iron Mining Company. A year later he entered the service of the prominent contracting firm of Drake & Stratton as shovel fireman, a year later was promoted to crane- man, and remained with Drake & Stratton in that capacity three years and another year as craneman with the Shenango Furnace Company and subsequently two years as steam shovel engineer. In June, 1915, he entered business for himself as a member of the firm of Cawley & Murphy, in the dray and transfer business at Chisholm. The following year they began dealing in fuel and the business steadily prospered until Mr. Mur- phy sold his interest to his partner in 1918 in order that he might go into the army.
His service with the colors began July 8, 1918. He was sent to Camp Dix, New Jersay, attached for training to the One Hundred and Forty-fourth Engineers, and a month later was transferred to the Seventy-second Engineers, Company B, at Camp Humphreys, Virginia. While there he was made duty sergeant and on October 11, 1918, was with a contingent that sailed overseas, reaching Brest the 20th of Octo- ber. For one week they remained at that seaport and were then sent to Angiers, the headquarters of engineers in France. Later Mr. Murphy was sent on detached duty to St. Nazaire and put in charge of a steam
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