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 2
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MARTIN ROSENDAHL, who has built up one of the largest distributing agencies for motor cars in the northwest, has had a busy career, beginning when a boy, and has had every variation of experience from telegraph messenger boy to promoter of industrial and financial organizations.
Mr. Rosendahl was born at Minneapolis July 18, 1878. His father, Peter Rosendahl, was a native of Norway, came to America in 1860 and first located in Minneapolis but later removed to Stoughton, Wisconsin. He was a cooper by trade, and while working in that vocation he also took a great interest in his friends and fellow countrymen. He eventually led a colony and founded a settlement and through his influence promoted its upbuilding and brought many of his friends and the people of his nationality to that region and gave them wise counsel and advice in establishing homes. His uncle, Ole Rosendahl, was the owner of a noted institution in Minnesota where many people still go to get the benefit of its celebrated mud baths. He is the original discoverer of the mud baths located at Jordan, Minn.
Martin Rosendahl, the youngest of three children, acquired his early education in the schools of Stoughton, Wisconsin, and later attended school at Duluth when his parents moved here. At the age of twelve
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he was working as a messenger boy for the Union Telegraph Company. Subsequently he was a water carrier on the coal docks, later an employe of the Northwestern Fuel Company in charge of their shipping depart- ment, and for several years conducted some profitable cigar stores. He served as deputy internal revenue collector, then for two years operated a cut-rate ticket agency, and from that entered the brokerage business and in that capacity financed one of the largest mining companies in the north. He also became an organizer and stockholder in a large exploration and development company handling oil lands in eastern Kentucky.
Mr. Rosendahl has concentrated most of his energies and enterprise upon the automobile business since 1913. He has developed about thir- teen local agencies in different parts of the country, his chief offices being at 229-231 East Superior street in Duluth, and through the Duluth headquarters and other agencies under his supervision he is one of the distributers in the United States of the Scripps-Booth, Cleveland and Chandler motor cars. Mr. Rosendahl is a member of the United Com- Inercial Travelers, and belongs to the Commercial Club, to the Elks and Good Samaritans. He married at Duluth Miss Myra Grandy, and their two children are Marian and Jane.
NIELS NISSEN is one of the ablest men in the insurance business in the northwest. His experience involves practically every phase of the insurance business, from that of a soliticitor and individual underwriter to the organizer and executive official of corporations performing the service of insurance. -
Mr. Nissen was born August 23, 1876, in the Province of Slesvig. Slesvig was originally a part of Denmark, was taken away by Germany about sixty or seventy years ago, and under the terms of the treaty imposed on Germany by the World war has been returned to Denmark. Mr. Nissen acquired his education in the schools of his native province and in 1896 came to America alone, partly to escape compulsory service with the German military. His first home was at Hartford, Connecticut, where he was employed for a time in making automobile and bicycle tires. He was also in the printing business, and while there found his first opportunities to engage in the insurance business as a solicitor for the Prudential Insurance Company. With this well known corporation he had rapid advancement in proportion to his ability and results obtained. After a year he was promoted to take charge of the Prudential's office at Bristol, Connecticut. He remained there five years and was then offered the opportunity of taking charge of a new Prudential office to be opened at Duluth, as its superintendent. That was in 1908, and in that year Mr. Nissen brought his family to Duluth. After three years as Prudential superintendent at Duluth he resigned to become field manager of the agency force of the Modern Samaritans.
Not long afterward he laid plans for the organization of a casualty company. He personally effected this organization, and in January, 1912, became president of the Duluth Casualty Association, which was incor- porated the 5th of January and licensed January 23, 1912. Since then he has become identified with the management and promotion of other cor- porations performing a general insurance service. Just a few days before the big forest fire in 1918 he was asked to take over the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company on account of the removal of the secretary to another state. He handled the affairs of that company in addition to his responsibilities with the Duluth Casualty Association, and when the business of the company was finally straightened out after the fire he was asked to become the permanent secretary, and that office he still holds.
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Among various business enterprises with which he has been connected while in Duluth one of the most recent was the organization by Mr. Nissen in 1919 of a stock life insurance company known as the Duluth Liability Association. This company was licensed to do business May 11, 1920. He is president and general manager.
Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic Order, the Modern Wood- men of America, Modern Samaritans, Danish Brotherhood and several other fraternities. He belongs to the Lutheran Church, and while voting and otherwise performing his responsibilities as a citizen and member of the Republican party he has never sought public office.
July 15, 1898, at Hartford, Connecticut, he married Miss Hannah Peterson, daughter of Karsten Peterson, who also immigrated from Slesvig. Mrs. Nissen acquired her education in the schools of Hartford, Connecticut, and is very active in church work at Duluth. To their mar- riage have been born seven children, all living, named Lena, Karsten, Niels, Jr., Margaret, Marie, Mae and Robert. The son Karsten was with the colors for two years in the World war, spending one year in France, and for eight months of that time was in military police service at Paris. Mr. Nissen has his business offices in the Alworth Building, and he and his interesting family reside at 2622 West Sixth street.
F. H. SICKELS. The hardware and furniture house of F. H. Sickels is one of the leading business establishments of Proctor, and is the out- growth of a lifetime of endeavor on the part of the proprietor, whose prosperity has been gained through individual effort and the application of sound common sense. F. H. Sickels was born at Waukesha, Wisconsin, February 10, 1861, a son of George E. Sickels, who was born in the state of New York. His mother was a native of Connecticut.
Mr. Sickels became a clerk in a hardware store at Saint Paul, Min- nesota, but about 1912 came to Proctor and bought his present hardware and furniture store, which he has since expanded and has built up a very gratifying trade. He now operates under the name of F. H. Sickels & Company, Mrs. Sickels, being the company. In addition to a full and varied line of hardware and furniture, he carries paints, oils and varnishes, and all of his goods are first-class in every respect.
In November, 1912, Mr. Sickels was married to Grace E. Smith. Having been so fully occupied with his- business affairs, he has had no time to enter public life, but he has always taken an intelligent interest in civic matters, and can be depended upon to give an earnest support to all measures which he deems will be for the good of the majority. In all of his ventures he has displayed a natural business ability which has done much to place him where he is today. Until he entered the hardware field he was not satisfied with his experiments in business, but in it found what he felt was his life work, and his subsequent success proves that this was a fortunate move. Both he and Mrs. Sickels are popular with their social acquaintances, and their pleasant home is often the scene of delightful gatherings.
THOMAS E. MILLER. Practically all the changes, developments and events worth recording have occurred at Ely since Thomas E. Miller identified himself with the pioneer community thirty odd years ago. Throughout that period he has been consistently engaged in the mer- cantile business, and is the active head of the Miller Store Company, one of the oldest business establishments under one management in the Range country.
Mr. Miller was born at Toronto, Canada, January 14, 1865, son of William and Christina (Robertson) Miller. His parents were good
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Scotch Presbyterian people, and after their marriage in Scotland emi- grated to Canada, where they lived out their lives, dying at the respective ages of seventy-four and sixty-nine. William Miller was an industrious shoemaker by trade. He had a family of six sons and three daughters. Three of them came to the United States, Robert S. and Thomas E., both of Ely, and one daughter, Agnes, wife of Julius Goedge, now of San Francisco.
Robert S. Miller was the third merchant to start a store in the town of Ely. Thomas E. Miller acquired his early education at Goderich, Canada, and continued in school until sixteen, when he began learning the grocery business in the same town. For a time he was at Hayward, Wisconsin, and on November 1, 1888, joined his brother Robert at Ely, and since then has been continuously associated with the enterprise estab- lished by his brother. For many years this was a general merchandise emporium.
The firm built up and retained a large trade, but sustained heavy losses in the fire of 1913. They immediately reorganized, and their suc- cess has been growing by rapid strides ever since. Since 1918 the busi- ness has been one of exclusive trade in groceries.
Thomas E. Miller has been a merchant who has applied himself with few vacations to his business for over thirty years. Notwithstanding, he has found time to work for the general welfare of the community, par- ticularly being interested in the progress of education. For nine years he was on the School Board, and secretary of the board for four years. He has seen the schools of Ely grow from a little one-room schoolhouse to a well organized system requiring a large investment in buildings and . a corps of teachers. Mr. Miller is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a member of the Woodmen and Maccabees, is a Republican, and he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. In 1893 he married Mabel Walker, of Ayr, Canada.
R. D. McKERCHER, the senior partner in the Oldsmobile Sales Com- pany, one of the oldest established automobile firms within Duluth, now in its twenty-second year, has been a resident of the city for a quarter of a century and is a former chief of police.
He was born in Ontario, Canada, March 19, 1874, and after acquiring his education came to the United States at the age of twenty-one. Locat- ing in Duluth, he followed his trade as a blacksmith, which he had learned in Canada. After two years he left his trade and became clerk in the order department of the great wholesale house of Marshall Wells & Com- pany, and was there four years. He left that firm to become clerk in the office of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, later was foreman in the warehouse, and altogether spent eleven years in the service of the railway corporation. He left that to enter upon his public duties as humane agent for the city of Duluth, and after four years was appointed chief of police, and gave an efficient administration of that office until 1916. 'At that date he engaged in the automobile business in association with Mr. Turner, and still later with the Oldsmobile Sales Company. During the past several years his business in sales of cars has increased more than a hundred per cent.
Mr. McKercher has always been prominent in local civic affairs, is a member of the Commercial Club, Duluth Automobile Club, is affiliated with Palestine Lodge No. 79, A. F. and A. M., and is a member of the Elks, Good Samaritans and Scottish Clans. In 1896 he married Miss C. W. McKilligan. They have twin children, Cecil and Ella, born July 5,1900.
P. D Maerchen
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CARL A. KNUTSON. Among the younger generation of Duluth busi- ness men whose names are deserving of special mention for what they stand for in the line of achievement in their chosen vocations is Carl A. Knutson, a well-known realty operator. Mr. Knutson was born at Wells, Minnesota, September 21, 1883, a son of Martin Knutson. His father, a native of Norway, immigrated to the United States in 1880 with his wife and two children and located at Wells, Minnesota, where he engaged in the tailoring business. In 1890 he removed to Duluth, where he con- tinued in the same line of business during the remainder of his active years, and is now living in retirement, being sixty-seven years of age. He has been the father of nine children, Carl A. being the fourth in order of birth,
Carl A. Knutson attended the public schools of Duluth until he reached the age of thirteen years, and at that time commenced herding cattle. In 1901 he entered the realty field with the W. M. Prindle Company in the dual capacity of bookkeeper and cashier. From these positions he was advanced to the management of the rentals department of the business for two years, following which he went to Seattle, Washington, and for two years operated in the realty field there, but in 1915 returned to Duluth and became manager of the Johnson Land Company, owners of a vast amount of property, with which concern he remained five years. From March, 1909, to May, 1911, he was engaged in the building business, and in Duluth built about thirty houses.
Mr. Knutson embarked in business on his own account in 1920, and since that time has maintained offices on the seventh floor of the Palladio Building, where he conducts a general real estate business. His career has been a typical exemplification of ambitious manhood, and he is already accorded a place among the men whose activities are serving to maintain the high standard existing in real estate circles.
Mr. Knutson has numerous important business, civic and social con- nections, and is a Christian Scientist in his religious belief. He was married July 2, 1913, at Seattle, Washington, to Miss Jessie E. Johnson, and to this union there has come one son, James E., born January 14, 1915.
ROBERT WILLIAM ACTON, highway engineer for St. Louis County, is eminently qualified to give expert technical counsel to the county authori- ties in the construction of a good roads system. His long experience in the construction of railroads and other highways is ample proof of his qualifications for his present duties.
Mr. Acton was born in Minnesota January 27, 1881, son of Nehemiah Judson and Annie Mary (Manners) Acton. His father, a native of the province of New Brunswick, Canada, came to the United States in 1870, when he was fifteen years of age. For eight or nine years he worked in the pineries of Wisconsin. At twenty-four he moved to Dakota County, Minnesota, went to work on a farm, soon afterward married, and he and his bride moved out to the prairies of Swift County, where he took up a homestead. After about ten years in Swift County he moved to Lac Qui Parle County and continued to give his time and efforts largely to agri- culture until his death in 1920. His widow is still living at the age of sixty-three.
Oldest of three children, Robert W. Acton spent his early life on a Minnesota farm, but availed himself of the opportunities of some of the best schools. He was graduated from the high school at Madison, Minne- sota, in 1900, and in the fall of the same year entered the University of Minnesota. While his college work was not continuous, his associations with the university continued until 1904. While there he specialized in
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civil engineering, but also gained much practical experience by an absence of several months at a time in railroad construction work.
In 1904 Mr. Acton joined the Illinois Central Company's engineering department as instrument man in the construction of their lines in the Mississippi Delta in the state of Mississippi. He was with the Illinois Central about nine months and then became resident engineer of railroad construction for the Southern Railway in Mississippi. His service as an engineer in the south was terminated in the late fall of 1906 by reason of his having contracted malaria.
Returning to Minnesota and after regaining his health he entered the employ of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway as engineer on location and construction, and continued that work for the company about five years, until 1911.
Mr. Acton has had some technical and engineering connections with the good roads activities of Minnesota for ten years. From 1911 until January 1, 1917, he was with the State Highway Department as division engineer on the location and construction of highways. At the latter date he took up his present work as engineer of roads for St. Louis County, and as such has his offices in the courthouse in Duluth.
Mr. Acton is a member of the Minnesota Surveyors and Engineers Society, the Duluth Engineers Club, is a member of the Commercial Club, Rotary Club, Duluth Boat Club, Ridgeway Golf Club, Y. M. C. A. and Geneva Lodge No. 196, A. F. and A. M. October 11, 1906, he married Miss Lorena Young, of Columbus, Mississippi.
OSCAR G. LINDBERG has been a resident of Duluth and environs for over a third of a century, and for many years has been active in business affairs at Hibbing, where he is now a member of the real estate and insurance firm of Dyer & Lindberg.
He was born in Sweden July 18, 1875, and was eleven years of age when in 1886 the family came to the United States. The parents were Abraham and Maria Lindberg, who located at Duluth. The father died in 1918 and the mother in 1907. Three of their five children are still living. Oscar G. Lindberg attended school in his native country, also at Duluth, but at the age of fourteen went to work and for five years was in the service of Dr. Charles Slaughter of Duluth. Incidental to his other work he took up the study of medicine in the doctor's office, but abandoned the intention of becoming a physician. For three years he clerked in a drug store, later went on the road as a traveling salesman, and in 1911 came to Hibbing and was president of the wholesale liquor house of the Mesaba Wholesale Liquor Company until the liquor business was abol- ished. For two years he was in the automobile business, but since April, 1918, has given his time to the firm of Dyer & Lindberg. This firm has handled many of the real estate deals at Hibbing, South Hibbing and the farming district of St. Louis County. They sold about four hundred and fifty lots in South Hibbing.
Mr. Lindberg was elected a member of the Village Council in 1917 and served one year. He is a Republican, affiliated with the Improved Order of Red Men and the Elks, is a director of the Commercial Club and attends the Catholic Church. On November 18, 1903, he married Minnie Lana, of Duluth.
JOHN RUNQUIST has been building railroads in the northwestern coun- try for over thirty years. He is one of the principal railroad contractors whose home and headquarters are at Duluth, and altogether he has been a factor in the good citizenship of this community for thirty-three years.
Mr. Runquist was born in Sweden in 1862, and was reared and edu- cated in his native country. In 1885 he came alone to America and em-
JOHN RUNQUIST
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ployed his modest capital and experience as a farmer at Hastings, Minne- sota. He left the farm to become a foreman for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad while a branch of that line was being constructed in northern Dakota. He left the Burlington to take a similar post with the Great Northern Railroad, and for three years was a foreman at different points along that system. In 1887 Mr. Runquist came to Duluth, and for the following twelve years was foreman of construction on the Duluth and Iron Range. Since 1898 he has maintained an independent organization for railroad building and contracting, and handled some important contracts at the beginning for the Duluth and Iron Range and later for the Duluth and Mesaba Railway. He has also constructed and improved streets, made sewers, and handled other municipal contracts in the Morgan Park district of Duluth. He built the Duluth and Mesaba street car line, has done much contracting for the Great Northern Rail- way, and a large part of his facilities are now employed in road building in a number of the northern counties of Minnesota.
Mr. Runquist is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, also an Elk and a Republican in politics.
WILLIAM H. DAY. No community can be sounder than the men who control its commercial life, for upon their energy and integrity rests the stability of existing institutions. To.have lived for years in one locality, and during that period conducted a concern with high-minded purpose, supplying the demand, and expanding with the growing needs of the populace, indicates an ability which is deserving of commendation. Wil- liam H. Day, the oldest established merchant now in business at Hibbing, is a man who has every reason to be proud of his long and successful career, and his fellow citizens accord to him a respect his honorable policies have won.
William H. Day was born at Plattsburg, Clinton County, New York, August 8, 1864. His parents, Cyrus and Mary ( Robinson) Day, were farmers, and for generations both families have resided in the United States. Both parents are now deceased, but their influence still lives. in the upright actions of their son. Mr. Day was reared on the home farm in his native county, and as a boy attended the district schools and helped with the work of conducting the homestead. In 1890 he came west, look- ing for broader opportunities, and arriving at Duluth, Minnesota, decided to remain there, and for two years was employed in a furniture factory of that city. In June, 1893, he left Duluth and came to Hibbing, and asso- ciating himself with the mercantile firm of O'Leary & Bowser of New Duluth he established a branch house at Hibbing under the name of O'Leary, Bowser & Day, with quarters on Pine street. While he was not the first merchant in the new village, he was among the first. The store he opened was on the site of the present Merchants & Miners State Bank, at the corner of Pine street and Third avenue. The firm occupied half of the store building owned by James Gandsey, the latter occupying the other half with a stock of groceries. O'Leary, Bowser & Day car- ried a stock of men's furnishings and some dry goods. In 1895 the firm bought the lot at what is now 208 Pine street and erected the present building, which they occupied. In about 1896 O'Leary and Bowser sold their interests to Frank Halvert, and the firm became Day & Halvert, which association was maintained for two or three years, when Mr. Day bought out his partner and has since continued alone, having been at his present location for twenty-five years.
Mr. Day has taken a constructive part in the wonderful development of Hibbing, participating in all of the movements from its birth to the present time. When he came here it was but a little settlement of but a
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civil engineering, but also gained much practical experience by an absence of several months at a time in railroad construction work.
In 1904 Mr. Acton joined the Illinois Central Company's engineering department as instrument man in the construction of their lines in the Mississippi Delta in the state of Mississippi. He was with the Illinois Central about nine months and then became resident engineer of railroad construction for the Southern Railway in Mississippi. His service as an engineer in the south was terminated in the late fall of 1906 by reason of his having contracted malaria.
Returning to Minnesota and after regaining his health he entered the employ of the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway as engineer on location and construction, and continued that work for the company about five years, until 1911.
Mr. Acton has had some technical and engineering connections with the good roads activities of Minnesota for ten years. From 1911 until January 1, 1917, he was with the State Highway Department as division engineer on the location and construction of highways. At the latter date he took up his present work as engineer of roads for St. Louis County, and as such has his offices in the courthouse in Duluth.
Mr. Acton is a member of the Minnesota Surveyors and Engineers Society, the Duluth Engineers Club, is a member of the Commercial Club, Rotary Club, Duluth Boat Club, Ridgeway Golf Club, Y. M. C. A. and Geneva Lodge No. 196, A. F. and A. M. October 11, 1906, he married Miss Lorena Young, of Columbus, Mississippi.
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