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 20
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shovel during construction of a camp ground, and continued that line of service for seven and a half months after the close of the war. On July 1, 1919, he embarked for the United States, reaching New York July 12th, and was mustered out of service July 25th at Camp Grant, Illinois.
On returning to northern Minnesota Mr. Murphy resumed his con- nection with civil life at Hibbing with the firm of Ryan Brothers, selling automobiles and tractors. In 1920 he was nominated for the office of county commissioner of St. Louis County. On December 1, 1920, he entered the transportation business, which is conducted under the name of the Chisholm Transportation Company, with offices in Chisholm.
Mr. Murphy is an independent Democrat in politics. He served as village trustee of Chisholm in 1918. He is affiliated with Chisholm Lodge No. 1334 of the Elks, with Hibbing Council No. 1649, Knights of Colum- bus, Chisholm Council No. 1, Order of Owls, and is a member of Post No. 247 of the American Legion. He and his wife are members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. October 29, 1919, Mr. Murphy married Miss Mary M. Mahon, of New York city.
ALGER R. SYME. It is doubtful if any other profession has con- tributed so many really efficient and competent men to the country as that of the law, and it is certainly true that its members measure up to the very highest standards of Americanism. In every community the attorneys-at-law are always found in the foremost ranks of the men of affairs, and through them and their public-spirited enterprise are improve- ments promulgated and carried out to a successful completion. One of these men who has not only made himself a well-known figure in the public affairs of St. Louis County, but also attained to distinction in his profession, is Alger R. Syme, one of the successful lawyers of Chisholm.
Alger R. Syme was born in Ontario, Canada, October 15, 1888, a son of James H. and Emma E. (Hillier) Syme, and comes of Scotch- English ancestry. James H. Syme was born at Dunville, Canada, June 12, 1859, and became a patternmaker and is still working at his trade, His wife was born July 25, 1865, and is still living. They were married at Windsor, Ontario, Canada, July 21, 1886, and became the parents of four children, of whom Alger R. is the eldest.
The family came to the United States, and Alger R. Syme received a grade-school training and then took the high school course at Buffalo, New York, from which he was graduated in 1908. For the next six months he was in the law office of Charles Newton of that city. In order to earn the money necessary to continue his legal studies Mr. Syme left Buffalo in 1909 and came to Chisholm, Minnesota, and became office clerk for the Oliver Mining Company, and continued as such until in October, 1910, he entered the University of Michigan and took the legal course, and at the same time did some special work in the academic department. He was graduated in 1913, and admitted to the Michigan bar that same year. Returning to Chisholm, he was admitted to the bar of Minnesota in February, 1914. The first few months thereafter he was with the law firm of Woods & Knapp, and then. June 1, 1914. he opened an office of his own. During 1914-1915, 1917-1918, 1918-1919 and 1920-1921 he has been attorney for the Independent School District No. 40, and is the present incumbent. In politics he is an independent Republican. A Mason, he maintains membership in Hematite Lodge No. 274, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Syme also belongs to Chisholm Lodge No. 179, Knights of Pythias; Chisholm Lodge No. 1334, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; the Order of the Eastern Star and the Kiwanis Club. The Methodist Episcopal Church holds his
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membership and his hearty support. During the late war he had charge of the collections for the last Liberty Loan drives and was also chair- man of the committee for civilian relief of the Red Cross, chairman of the local War Savings Committee, a member of the Home Guard, and in every way assisted in the local war activities.
On June 17, 1916, Mr. Syme was married to Miss Helen J. Croman, of Mount Clemens, Michigan, who comes from an old Revolutionary family. She received her grade and high-school education at Mount Clemens, following which she took a two years' course at the Bradley Polytechnic Institute at Peoria, Illinois, from which she received the degree of Bachelor of Literature. In 1914 she was graduated from the University of Michigan with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and subse- quently taught school, being instructor of Latin and German at the Howard City, Michigan, High School. Mrs. Syme is a member of the Iota Chapter of Delta Delta Delta Sorority, and the Eastern Star. Mr. and Mrs. Syme have three children, namely: Alger R., who was born August 2, 1918: James J., who was born May 5, 1920: and Jean Croman, born July 1, 1921. Both Mr. and Mrs. Syme are highly edu- cated and cultured young people, and they have gathered about them a congenial circle of friends with whom they are deservedly popular. They are both much interested in civic matters and zealous in promoting the welfare of their home city.
FRANK J. DEMEL, SR., and his family of able sons and daughters have for a number of years borne a prominent part in the affairs of the vil- lage of Buhl. Mr. Demel himself has been in business in the village, has also participated in public affairs and is now serving as inspector of meters.
He was born in Bohemia July 12, 1861, son of Frank J. and Mary E. ( Keasler) Demel. His father was a weaver by trade. Frank J. Demel, Sr., acquired a common school education in his native land, and in August, 1881, at the age of twenty, accompanied his mother and two. younger brothers to the United States. His mother spent the rest of her days in this country and died in 1914, at the age of seventy-four. The family first lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Frank J. Demel worked in a furniture factory five years, and then took up the trade of barber and was so employed another five years. In 1892 he removed to Chicago and for thirteen consecutive years was a barber in one shop in that city. In 1904 he came to Buhl, not long after the mines were opened in this district, and for the first year conducted a barber shop. He then went to work for the Interstate Iron Company as operator of a "clam shell' which the company was trying out. After a year and a 'half the experiment was abandoned, but Mr. Demel continued in the service of the company as fireman of a boiler for three years. About that time he was elected recorder of the village, and was re-elected and since leaving that office has been meter inspector for the Water and Light Board.
Mr. Demel is a past dictator of Council No. 1071 of the Loyal Order of Moose and has twice been a delegate of the local branch to Moose Heart, Illinois. He is a Democrat in politics and a member of the Catho- lic Church and received complete naturalization as an American citizen in Cook County, Illinois, in 1891.
In August, 1887, Mr. Demel married Miss Katherine Doherty, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and of Irish ancestry. Their children are Mary E., who is the present postmistress of Buhl: Katherine E., wife
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of H. O. White, of Buhl; Frank J., Jr., Mertyle M. and Donald J., twins; Francis, Leslie, Lorren L. and Russell.
Frank J. Demel, Jr., is one of Buhl's popular younger citizens, and a man with an interesting army service record. He was born in Chicago December 23, 1894, attended grade school in that city, and graduated from the high school at Buhl in 1914. For the following two years he conducted the local newspaper at Buhl and then was foreman for con- crete contractors. On April 1, 1918, he enlisted for the aviation service and was sent for training to the Pennsylvania State College. The avia- tion service being overcrowded, by his express choice he was transferred to the engineers, and for three months continued in training, studying electrical engineering. Then for a short time he was in the American University at Washington, District of Columbia, following which he was sent to the Rifle Range at Camp Glenburney, Baltimore, Maryland. In August, 1918, he went overseas, reaching Liverpool and after a week was sent across the channel to Havre, and thence to a quiet sector on the Alsace-Lorraine front. After some further training he was assigned to duty in the Meuse-Argonne, when the American armies were achieving such glorious successes in that sector, and he saw some of the fighting when it was the fiercest. He remained in France and with the Army of Occupation for some months after the armistice, and reached home July 3, 1919. On March 15, 1920, he was elected village recorder, and is still serving in that office at Buhl.
FRANCIS E. HOUSE has been a resident of Duluth over twenty years and is president of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad Company. Under the Federal administration of the railroads he was manager of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad and of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad. Mr. House came to his position as a railroad executive after many years of hard work in subordinate positions, beginning as a civil engineer, and assisting in the construction of some of the pioneer lines of railroad in the west.
He was born November 15, 1855, at Houseville, Lewis County, New York, son of Henry A. and Mary E. (Goff) House. His father, a native of New York state, had a common school education and was a business man of high abilities. For many years he was an active figure in bank- ing and insurance circles. As a Republican he was interested in national and local politics, though he never consented to hold office. He was a member of the Episcopal Church, was a Knight Templar Mason, and at one time was a state officer in the New York Knight Templars.
The oldest in a family of four boys, Francis E. House was educated in the common schools, in a preparatory school at Rochester, and studied engineering and chemistry, though he never graduated, at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, New York. Leaving the Institute at the age of twenty-two, his first experience was in assaying and mining engi- neering work in Nevada. His work as a railroad man began in 1880, in which year he was with a surveying party for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, and did engineering work for other lines of railroads until 1883. In that year he became division roadmaster in the track depart- ment of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, in 1887 was promoted to general roadmaster, and in 1890 was made trainmaster on the Kansas City Division.
Mr. House left this western road in 1891 and returned east, on con- struction work with the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and in 1892 was made engineer, maintenance of way, for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad and became chief engineer in 1894. Mr. House was made chief
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engineer of the Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad in 1896, and became gen- eral superintendent in 1897 and general manager in 1901. In the latter year he took up his residence and duties at Duluth as president of the Duluth & Iron Range Railroad Company, and during the Federal regime was Federal manager of that road and also the Duluth, Missabe & North- ern Railroad.
In his quiet and efficient way Mr. House has participated in several community projects at Duluth. For about sixteen years he has been identified with the local Young Men's Christian Association as an official, most of the time as vice president and member of the Board of Directors and has been influential in the various campaigns to raise funds and secur- ing adequate building accommodations. He has been an elder of the Presbyterian Church since about 1900, is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Kitchi Gammi Club, Commercial Club, Northland Country Club and Kitchinadji Club.
Mr. House has an interesting family, all three of his sons having been with the colors during the World war. He married July 30, 1880, Miss Minnie Mecracken, of a Pennsylvania family. Six children were born to their union and the four living are Henry Arthur, Allan Curtis, Francis E., Jr., and Dorothy. Henry Arthur finished his course in min- ing engineering at Columbia University, has had some experience in prac- tical mining and in a small way has been associated with his father in a western ranch. He served as captain of infantry during the World war, was overseas, and has received his honorable discharge. The second son, Allan Curtis, who was on overseas duty as a captain of artillery, is now engaged in commercial business at Cleveland, Ohio. The young- est son, Francis E., Jr., now in the advertising business at Cleveland, was also abroad with the Expeditionary Forces as a first lieutenant in artillery.
WILLIAM G. BROWN has lived on the Iron Ranges of northern Minne- sota for more than thirty-six years, nearly all his life, and his work and experiences have identified him with many of the phases of mining operations in this district. For a number of years he has been in the service of the prominent organization of mine owners, Pickands, Mather & Company of Cleveland, and is now superintendent of the Albany Mine owned by this corporation in the Hibbing District.
Mr. Brown was born at Quinnesec, Michigan, October 1, 1881. His father, John C. Brown, was connected with the Quinnesec Mine on the Menominee Range in Michigan. John C. Brown married Flora St. Marie, of French ancestry, and in 1884 the family removed to Tower on the Vermillion Range in northern Minnesota.
William G. Brown was three years of age when the family came to northern Minnesota, and he grew up in the Soudan community, was edu- cated there, and as a boy began working in the mines. Later, in order to supply the deficiencies of his early education, he attended Highland Park College of Des Moines, Iowa, for one year. After leaving college he returned and became shipping clerk in the Soudan Mine, also worked on the Diamond Drill for a time, and in 1899 transferred to the Mesaba Range, and served as timekeeper of the Genoa Mine at Sparta. In 1901 he became bookkeeper for Pickands, Mather & Company in the Elba Mine near Mckinley. He was soon promoted to chief clerk in the local offices of Pickands, Mather & Company, and in 1903 was transferred with these duties to Hibbing, where he continued as chief clerk until January 1, 1918. Since then Mr. Brown has had the important responsi- bilities of superintendent of the Albany Mine.
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He has always been willing to devote his time and energies to the welfare of his locality. In 1919 he became treasurer of Stuntz township, filling that office two years, and in 1919 was elected supervisor of the town of Stuntz for a term of three years. He is a Republican, a mem- ber of the Engineers' Club of Northern Minnesota, the Kiwanis Club of Hibbing, the Commercial Club, and is affiliated with the Elks and the Knights of Columbus and is a member of the Catholic Church.
April 24, 1905, he married Miss Rosana Viger, of Eveleth, Minne- sota. They have three children: Aileen Orville, Hamilton Paul and Virgil Bernardine.
THOMAS J. WALSH was one of the makers of history in the develop- ment of the iron ore district of northern Minnesota. For nearly forty years he has been a prominent citizen and business man of Duluth, and is a man of achievement who began life with little education and in a routine of humble duties.
He was born near Toronto, Canada, October 4, 1867, son of Patrick W. and Ellen ( Fanning) Walsh. His father came from County Tipper- ary, Ireland, and spent nearly his entire life on a farm near Toronto, where he died in 1913. He was a cousin of the late Thomas F. Walsh, one of America's famous and wealthy mine owners. The maternal grandmother of Thomas J. Walsh was born in Ireland and lived to the remarkable age of a hundred and fourteen years, having spent a hundred and eight years in one town in Canada.
Thomas J. Walsh, the only survivor of a family of five children, attended school in Canada to the age of eleven, and in 1880, at the age of thirteen. came to the United States and found his first employment as an engine wiper in the shops of the Lansing & Northern Railroad at Jackson, Michigan. He also packed shingles in a shingle mill, and by the hardest kind of work and by association with men of all classes he developed that ready resourcefulness which has been his chief asset in his mature career. One factor, no doubt, that has contributed to his success has been his strictly temperate habits. For many years he lived in surroundings and among men who regarded drinking and other forms of dissipation as primary social obligations.
Mr. Walsh came to Duluth in 1882, and in June of that year with two companions was sent out by G. C. Stone & Company over an Indian trail to explore the Vermillion Lake country. They reached the present site of Tower five days later, and there did the first development work on iron ore in the state of Minnesota. The site subsequently became famous as the Soudan Mine, the oldest iron property in the state. Mr. Walsh in those early years performed some of the hard physical labor and endured the hardships of prospecting, and rapidly picked up a practical knowledge as a miner. Eventually he used a limited capital of twelve hundred dollars, supplied by himself and one or two asso- ciates, in developing a timber and iron ore property, and later sold out for eight thousand dollars, that being the first of his many business triumphs. Eventually he acquired about seven thousand acres in the Vermillion district under his individual control, and some of his more important connections in recent years have been as president and treas- urer of the North American Iron Mining Company, the Minnesota Steel & Iron Company, the Consolidated Vermillion & Extension Company, vice president of the Great Northern Land Company and treasurer of the Duluth Clay Products Company. One of the iron ore mines which he was instrumental in developing was sold September 25, 1919, for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
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Through all these years Mr. Walsh has been one of the public-spirited citizens of Duluth. During 1892-93 he served as private secretary to the mayor of the city. His greatest enthusiasm, however, has been his work, and while he never had the benefit of a college or technical education, he knows all the fundamentals of economic geology, and has made many investigations of human antiquities of the north, having acquired one of the finest collections in existence of specimens of the stone and copper age and also a large collection of Indian relics.
In 1900, at Tower, Minnesota, Mr. Walsh married Miss Margaret S. Sullivan, daughter of Henry and Lizzie Sullivan, natives of Michigan. Her father was a mining man. Mr. and Mrs. Walsh have three chil- dren : Margaret Ellen, Frances M. and Edna.
FRANK L. JOHNSON. While his business headquarters as a carpenter and building contractor for nearly forty years have been in Duluth, Frank L. Johnson is head of the firm Frank L. Johnson & Son, whose operations have covered a wide field in the northwest, and have involved many large building contracts of all kinds.
Mr. Johnson is a master of building detail and learned his business from the standpoint of a carpenter. He was born in Sweden August 5, 1856, was reared and educated and learned his trade in his native land and was twenty-three years of age when in 1879 he came alone to America. For a time he found employment in St. Paul, also worked for a short time in Denver, Colorado, spent one winter in New Mexico and then after visiting Pueblo, Colorado, returned to St. Paul and in 1881 came to the city of Duluth, then a town of hardly more than two thou- sand inhabitants. He at once threw himself into the building resources of the community, but for eight years continued as a journeyman car- penter. During that time he was employed on the old courthouse build- ing. Probably no other man now living has a better knowledge of building history in Duluth than Mr. Johnson. For twenty-nine years he con- tinued as a carpenter and contractor either for others or independently, and then took in his son and since then the firm has been Frank L. John- son & Son. Their operations have grown and expanded until they cover a large part of the northwestern country and Canada. Some of the lead- ing residences of the Zenith City have been constructed by this firm. Other buildings erected by them are the. Cathedral High School, the Waldorf Flat and Apartment Building, the Cook & Dillman Building between Second and Third avenues on Superior street, to mention only a few of the more notable. They were employed by the Renville Brothers of Canada to handle some extensive Government contracts in the Province of Saskatchewan. They were contractors in the erection of college buildings at Prince Albert, a contract requiring two years to complete.
Mr. A. C. Johnson is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, votes as a Republican, and is a member of the Swedish Lutheran Church. Mr. F. L. Johnson has five children : Minnie, A. C., E. H., Ruth and Esther. Both sons were in the World war. A. C., born February 19, 1887, was with Dental Unit No. 2 at Camp Grant. E. H. saw front line duty in France, was twice wounded, and after the war was returned to this country and came out of the service from a hospital in St. Paul.
MATHEW O. HALL. Although financial independence is almost uni- versally desired, there are many young men who seemingly make little effort to secure it when it means protracted industry and considerable self denial. Had Mathew O. Hall, a well known and popular young busi- ness man of Buhl, Minnesota, been one of that type, it is quite probable
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that he would not be, as at present, at the head of a large business enter- prise as proprietor of the Buhl Motor Company.
Mathew O. Hall was born August 30, 1890, at Minneapolis, Minne- sota, the only child of Olaf O. and Hattie (Erickson ) Hall. Olaf O. Hall was born in Norway in 1862 and resided in his native land until twenty- two years ago, when he came to the United States, of which he is now a citizen. In 1888 he was married to Hattie Erickson, who is of Swedish parentage and was born in 1870, at Grandy, Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Hall live at Cambridge, Minnesota, where Mr. Hall is a carpenter and contractor.
Until sixteen years of age Mathew O. Hall attended the public schools at Cambridge, in the meanwhile picking up some trade knowledge in his father's shop, but not enough to qualify as a carpenter. His inclination, however, has always been in the line of mechanics. After working in a hardware store for three years he entered the employ of John Norin, who owned a garage at Cambridge, and during the three years he was with him learned practical details of automobile management and repair. Mr. Hall then acquired an automobile of his own and operated it for hire and at the same time did repair work in a small way for the next two years, putting up with a great deal of personal inconvenience in order to get ahead. He then went to Hibbing and worked for six months as a mechanic in the garage of Christ Osdick, who then sold out to Claud Brackett, and the latter was very glad to have so careful an expert mechanic as Mr. Hall had become to remain with him for the next six months as manager.
In 1915 T. P. Cory, a capitalist, suggested to Mr. Hall that he come to Buhl and open a garage, or, at first, a reliable automobile repair shop, promising financial assistance if it became necessary. For six months Mr. Hall did not feel that he was making much headway, but he perse- vered and began to also handle automobile supplies of standard quality, filled a pressing need in this direction, and at length found himself pros- pering. He now conducts a rapidly increasing business, conducts his garage under the name of the Buhl Motor Company, handles a full line of accessories, and has a first class repair shop. His honest work and general courtesy have brought him patronage and many friends.
Mr. Hall was married December 28, 1918, to Miss Clara Oberg Anderson, who was born at Negaunee, Michigan, and is of Swedish parentage. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have two sons: Harold O., who is six years old; and Stanley M., who is three years old.
In politics Mr. Hall is a Democrat, being somewhat active in village affairs as a good citizen is apt to be, and has served one term as village trustee. He belongs to several fraternal organizations at Buhl, these including the Odd Fellows and the Loyal Order of Moose. With his family he attends the Baptist Church.
WILLIAM E. FAY is a mining engineer with headquarters at Chisholm, but widely known over the Iron Range district of northern Minnesota. Mr. Fay began work that earned him a living when only twelve years of age. He worked, gained an education, perfected himself in two indus- tries, and has never permitted an opportunity to pass for improving his own knowledge and proficiency.
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