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 26
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HARRY H. LEMONT has been a resident of Duluth since 1887, com- ing here with Matthew Bland Harrison, the most prominent real estate operator that Duluth has ever had, and remaining with the firm until about a year after the untimely death of Mr. Harrison at the Spalding Hotel on Leap Year Day, February 29, 1892. Mr. Lemont was at his bedside and was holding his hand when he died. Since then in addi- tion to his brokerage business Mr. Lemont has been court reporter and has acted as court commissioner in numerous important foreign cases where testimony was taken in Duluth, notably the McIntyre "Flour Mills Syndicate" and the Commodore Mills divorce cases. He was assistant secretary of the Board of Public Works, private secretary to - -Mayor Haven and has attended three sessions of the Minnesota Legis-
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lature, acting as secretary of the Senate Judiciary Committee and special clerk of the Senate. In war times he was elected secretary of the Fed- eral Exemption Board, in charge of the offices in the Government build- ing, where all exemptions claimed from the draft were finally passed upon, and has been at different times in the offices of the county treas- urer and auditor. Mr. Lemont is a consistent Republican and has always taken a warm interest in politics, being actively engaged in many cam- paigns where he had the reputation of a very successful "Gum shoe" campaigner. He was also private secretary to Hon. Charles A. Towne at one time. As he was familiarly called, "Our Charley" was running against Hon. Page Morris for Congress, Mr. Towne being on the Free Silver ticket. Some prominent Democrats approached Mr. Towne, ask- ing him why he had Harry Lemont as his secretary when he (Lemont) was a rank Republican. Mr. Towne told them that his secretary was an expert stenographer, had a splendid education and suited him to a "T," and then paid Mr. Lemont the unique compliment "but, above all things, gentlemen, HE NEVER LEAKS," whereupon the delegation dis- persed.
Mr. Lemont, or "Colonel," as he is generally called, received a gram- mar, high school and university education, and before coming to Duluth, had experience in the east in newspaper work and railroading. He was connected with the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Rail- way in Texas, and when that road was merged with the Southern Pacific System he was private secretary to the general passenger agent and then to the general manager of the road. Failing health and malaria necessitated his return to the north and he came to Minnesota. Mr. Le- mont was born September 10, 1863, and has had a wide and versatile experience.
JOHN PETERSON, who has lived in Duluth and St. Louis County for nearly thirty years, has a career interesting as much for experience as for achievement. He was a homesteader in one of the rural dis- tricts of St. Louis County, and until quite recently had his home out in the country on a farm. He is a man of large business interests, and is particularly well known in insurance circles, his business head- quarters being on the eighth floor of the Alworth Building in Duluth.
Mr. Peterson was born in Norway September 9, 1866. He practi- cally grew up at a cabinet maker's bench, and a trade and a common school education equipped him for the battles of life. Before coming to America he was a ship carpenter and sailed on salt water for four years, from 1882 to 1886. In the spring of 1888 he came to the United States alone, and his first location was in Kansas City, Kansas, where he was employed at the carpenter's trade for two years. Going thence to Fos- ter, Monroe County, Iowa, he worked in coal mines for a year. It was about the first of June, 1891, that Mr. Peterson arrived at Duluth, and his home and interests have been centered at that city ever since. Up to 1894 he worked as a carpenter on various jobs, and for the next five years, until 1899, was employed as a motorman by the Duluth Street Railway Company. He then resumed work at his old trade in helping construct Elevator E extension, Peavey Elevator, Cutler and Gilbert Dock, Northern Pacific Freight House on Fifth avenue, fol- lowing which for three years he was with the White Line Transporta- tion Company. Mr. Peterson in 1902 filed on his homestead in the town of Cotton. He proved his title to his claim in 1909 and made his home there until 1917. Some of his experiences while there reflect in an interesting way the progress of modern improvement in St. Louis
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County. His homestead was in section 7, township 54, range 15. In 1902, when he and his family went out to occupy this claim. it was a matter of ten hours' travel to cover a distance of fourteen miles to the nearest railroad station on account of swamps, creeks, rivers and other natural hindrances that had to be overcome. In 1903 it was pos- sible for the first time in winter to get through with a horse to the railroad station. Since then roads have been built so that that entire rural community can be reached readily by automobile. Mr. Peterson helped give St. Louis County some of its good modern roads, serving two and a half years as superintendent of road work for the county.
In 1909 the St. Louis County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany was incorporated and organized by Charles P. Craig as president and E. G. Church as secretary. Mr. Peterson has been a director in that company since 1910 and its president since 1916. Since January, 1920, he has devoted most of his time to the business of farmers' insur- ance, with offices in the Alworth Building. The officers of the St. Louis County Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company at the present time are John Peterson, president ; A. M. Olmen, vice president; N. Nissen, secretary ; and Thomas W. Walker, treasurer. More recently the offi- cers, directors and stockholders of this company have organized and incorporated the Farmers' Mutual Live Stock Insurance Company, offi- cered as follows: Charles Borg of Forbes, Minnesota, president ; E. J. Singleton of Woodland, vice president; H. G. Larson of Meadow- lands, secretary ; Colin Thomson of Duluth, treasurer; and John Peterson, general manager. The company commenced business May 28, 1920. It was organized to protect owners against loss by death of horses and cattle. The business is operated on a mutual basis, with very cheap rates and no profit is figured. No such protection had been available prior to the organization of this company, and the com- pany has the honor of having made the first application for a license under the state law passed in 1917 by the State Legislature. At the time of its incorporation the company had a little over fifty-three thousand dollars insured valuation, with $1,061.00 collected premium for one year deposited in trust at the American Exchange Bank. In the very brief time that has elapsed since then a very gratifying increase in business and insured valuation has been made.
Mr. Peterson is a Republican, and while he has never sought public office he has performed his duties as a citizen in such a way as to con- stitute a source of good and influence for betterment. For twelve years he served as chairman of the Town Board of the town of Cotton, was instrumental in organizing School District No. 49 in St. Louis County, and was clerk of this school board for fourteen years until he moved to Duluth to take up his residence in 1914. He also organized a Cotton Farmers Club in 1914. Mr. Peterson has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias since 1891 and is a member of the Lutheran Church.
In July, 1896, he married at Duluth Miss Berntsen, whose father was a cabinet maker in Norway. She came to Duluth in 1892 with her sister. Mr. and Mrs. Peterson have four children: Ralph, Borghild, Fritjof and Eleanor. Borghild died at the age of two years and the other three were all graduated from the common schools at Cotton. Ralph, now twenty-two years of age, is employed as a farmer on the old homestead. Fritjof is employed in the Park department of the Steel Plant, while Eleanor is a student in the Denfield High School.
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CONRAD B. WOLF is a genius and has turned his talents in the direc- tion of floriculture, horticulture and landscape gardening, and in these has been most thorough, theoretically and practically. While others have developed the material resources of Hibbing and its vicinity, his work has been of an educational and beautifying character. He has taken the native flowers and shrubs and by transplanting and grafting them has proven their wonderful possibilities for adornment. In this and many other ways he has proven himself a public benefactor. The rank and file of the people, as well as those of wealth, come to him daily for information, and the hundreds of flower and vegetable gardens which flourish at Hibbing are the result of his instruction and advice. Hib- bing is noted for its liberality in procuring the best of talent for its public service, and the park system, of which Mr. Wolf is superintend- ent, has won approval all over the state, for he is a master in his line. His work is not only a source of satisfaction to his home people, but a matter of wonderment and admiration to the visitors of Hibbing. While the acreage of the park system of the city is not of course as vast as that of larger municipalities, it would be difficult to find anywhere in the country any which is more artistically laid out and more beautifully arranged. Mr. Wolf is a frequent contributor to various magazines conducted in behalf of horticulture, and whatever he writes is accepted by those of his calling and the public as authoritative. Mr. Wolf pos- sesses that innate love for his work that marks the true artist. Without it not man can accomplish the best results no matter how thorough may be his training or how wide his experience.
Conrad B. Wolf was born in Silesia, Germany, now a part of Poland, July 12, 1882. He was reared in his native country, and there his father, August Wolf, lived and died. Conrad B. Wolf secured his pre- liminary educational training in the public schools, and then he became a student in a high school of floriculture. For three years he was an apprentice to a horticulturalist, for in his native land lads were bound to a trade and were taught it thoroughly. After he had learned the fundamentals of horticulture Mr. Wolf worked as a florist, specializing in nursery work, the growing of fruit, deciduous trees and shrubs. Subsequently he studied and specialized in roses, growing them under glass and in the open for the trade. Later he went to Berlin and there specialized in landscape gardening, having during that period access to the imperial gardens. Going from Berlin to Heilbron on the Nekrar River, he was there engaged in specializing in landscape and nursery work. The quality of this work and his success brought him into notice and his services were secured by Eberhart Faber, the great pencil man- ufacturer, for his vast estate at Forchheim, near Murenberg in Bavaria, Germany. Following that Mr. Wolf was called to the colors and served for two years in the army. In November. 1906, he crossed the ocean to the United States to join his brother who had come to this country years before, and for a time worked on his farm in Michigan, and during that time studied the American language. A little later he entered the capitol greenhouse at Lansing, Michigan, and within a year had been made general superintendent of the establishment. so immedi- ate was his genius and experience recognized. Desiring to further per- fect himself in his knowledge of his calling he took special instruction in the Michigan Agricultural College. In the years following Mr. Wolf was connected with several greenhouses as manager, at Deadwood, South Dakota, growing produce for the market. Later he took charge of the greenhouses of W. W. Seekins of Duluth, Minnesota, where he was engaged in raising cut flowers, orchids, palms and various commercial
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plants, and doing an extensive landscape business for prominent citizens. The Oliver Iron Mining Company, hearing of his work, secured his services for their landscape gardening, and it was so beautiful, artistic and far in advance of anything ever conceived in that vicinity that the authorities of Hibbing took immediate steps to induce Mr. Wolf to locate permanently at Hibbing and assume charge of its park system. Satis- factory arrangements were finally made, and since May, 1912, he has been at the head of the park improvements of Hibbing.
Mr. Wolf took out his first papers of naturalization in 1909 and com- pleted his full citizenship papers in 1914. He has never failed to appre- ciate the privileges accorded him in admitting him to citizenship, and has given his adopted country a loyal support. Fraternally he is a thirty- second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Mason, a Mystic Shriner of Aad Temple of Duluth, and he also belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In religious faith he is a Presbyterian.
On November 25, 1909, Mr. Wolf was married to Atta L. Nichols, of Lansing, Michigan, and they have two children: Jessie M. and Max Conrad.
R. R. FORWARD, whose life history is herewith outlined, is a man who has lived to good purposes and achieved a large degree of success, solely by his individual efforts. By a straightforward and commendable course he has made his way to a respected position in the business world of Duluth, winning the hearty admiration of the people of his com- munity and earning a reputation as an enterprising, progressive man of affairs, which the public has not been slow to recognize and appreciate. Those who know him best will readily acquiesce in the statement that he is eminently deserving of the material success which has crowned his efforts and of the high esteem in which he is held.
R. R. Forward was born in Alden, Iowa, on July 13, 1873, son of Joseph S. and Sarah E. Forward. The family moved to Duluth, arriv- ing in that city April 22, 1880. Here the father was engaged first in the blast furnace business at Ricors Point, that being at a period before any iron ore was taken out on the Vermillion or Mesaba Ranges. He after- ward became foreman and then superintendent of the charcoal field, which position he held until 1884, when he built the Sherman Hotel in Duluth. He continued to follow the business of masonry contract- ing here during the remainder of his active business life. He was a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted in young manhood in Com- pany B of the 28th Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He took part in the siege of Vicksburg and many other important battles, serving a full enlistment period of three years and then re-enlisting for the remainder of the war and serving until its close, with a splendid record for faithful and courageous service.
R. R. Forward attended the public schools of Duluth until he was fifteen years of age, when he obtained employment in a hardware store, first as office boy and then as a clerk. He remained with that company six and a half years and then formed a partnership with his cousin, B. A. Martin, in 1896. They purchased a bankrupt stock of hardware, formerly known as the West End Hardware Store, and they successfully conducted that store for a short time and then added a complete stock of furniture. The store business of R. R. Forward & Company was continued until the spring of 1916, when Mr. Forward sold his interest in the business and turned his attention to the handling of real estate, organizing the R. R. Forward Company and establishing an office in the Providence Building. He has handled a large amount of farms
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and cutover lands and city property in and about Duluth, enjoying a large business along this line.
Fraternally Mr. Forward is a member of Palestine Lodge No. 79, Free and Accepted Masons, and has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Duluth. He was one of the one hundred eighty-five men who organized the Duluth Com- mercial Club, and is still an active member of that body. He also holds membership in the Ridgeview Golf Club, Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of the Maccabees.
On November 24. 1897. Mr. Forward was married to Lucy Clara Neckstroth, and they have become the parents of seven children, namely : Robert R., Jr., who is a student in the University of Ames, Iowa; Joseph Allen, who is a student in Wilbraham Academy, Wilbraham, Massachu- setts: F. Bruce, who is a student in the Central High School. Duluth; John R., Anna Elizabeth, Hubert L. and Lucy June are in the public schools. Although a quiet and unassuming man, with no ambition for public position or leadership, Mr. Forward has contributed much to the material. civic and moral advancement of the community, while his admir- able qualities of head and heart have won for him the esteem and con- fidence of the circles in which he has moved.
ASA DAILEY was born September 18, 1840, at Millrush, Ontario. At the age of thirteen he immigrated with his family to Hudson, Wisconsin. In 1861, at the age of twenty-one, he enlisted in Company A. 30th Wis- consin, with which regiment he served throughout the war. After about four years in the lumber business at Hudson following the war, his doctor advised him to come to Duluth for his health. This was in 1870, before the first railroad reached Duluth and shipments of food products from the Twin Cities and Chicago were handled overland from the terminus at Carlton after the closing of navigation. He was one of those who saw the first train arrive from St. Paul on the old St. Paul & Duluth line, now the Northern Pacific.
After working several years in local sawmills he established a sawmill of his own on Park Point. From this mill he furnished lumber which was used in many of the first structures erected in Duluth, also furnishing the ties used in constructing the first street car line here. This line ran from Eighth avenue, West, to Fourth avenue, East. Later he operated a retail lumber yard on Lake avenue, from which business he was forced to retire on account of ill health. On recovering from this illness in 1893 he accepted a position as deputy auditor of St. Louis County, which posi- tion he filled until the new Court House was completed, at which time he was appointed custodian of the new Memorial Hall. This position gave him an opportunity he had long awaited-an opportunity to devote all of his time and energy to the upbuilding of the G. A. R. and affili- ated organizations in Duluth, guiding and assisting old veterans and their families in many ways.
One of his hobbies has been the collection of war relics, and this col- lection, which is on exhibit at Memorial Hall, is one of the most inter- esting in the country.
His last important work was that of compiling the data and arrang- ing for the casting of a massive memorial bronze tablet which contains the names of over 300 members of Willis A. Gorman Post No. 13. G. A. R., which was mounted in Memorial Hall on May 31, 1920. Mr. Dailey was one of the organizers of this Post and one of its first commanders.
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He is survived by five children : Mrs. A. H. Little and Charles E. Dailey, of Duluth ; Frances P. Dailey, of Nampa, Idaho; Josephene B. Dailey, of Minneapolis; and Roy A. Dailey, of Seattle, Washington:
R. M. RITCHIE is an insurance man of long and varied and success- ful experience, and is secretary and manager of the Insurance Service Agency, Inc., a firm that occupies the entire second floor of the Glencoe Building at Third avenue, West, and First street in Duluth. This firm handles all departments of insurance as underwriters and engineers, cov- ering the fields of fire, liability and bonding, and represents many of the foremost and standard companies, including the Aetna of Hartford, the American Central of St. Louis, the Atlas Assurance of London, the Citizens of St. Louis, the Equitable Fire and Marine of Providence, the Fireman's Fund of California, the German American of New York. Hanover Fire of New York, Hartford Fire of Hartford, National Fire of Hartford, New Hampshire Fire, New York Underwriters. Twin City Fire of Minneapolis. the American Surety Company, Fidelity and Deposit Company and United States Fidelity and Guaranty of Maryland.
Mr. Ritchie was born at Cincinnati, Ohio. His father was the late John Ritchie, a native of New York, who spent his last years in Duluth, and was well known in newspaper circles both here and in other Amer- ican cities. R. M. Ritchie, who was the oldest of four children, was educated in the public schools of Chicago, and as a youth acquired his first experience in the insurance business. He came to Duluth in 1894 and in 1912 was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Insurance Service Agency, of which he is secretary and manager.
CHARLES T. KENNEDY was reared and educated in the cast, but for the greater part of his active career has been in the lumber industry in the middle west and north. He has been a practical operator in all phases of converting timber into merchantable lumber, and is a member of the firm Klement & Kennedy, dealers in lumber, logs and timberland.
Mr. Kennedy, whose operations have made him a familiar figure in lumber circles of the Duluth district, was born at Providence, Rhode Island, June 17, 1872. He was reared and educated in the east and in 1898 came west and located at Medford, Wisconsin. There he entered the lumber business with L. W. Gibson, and the partnership of Gibson & Kennedy was continued until 1900, in which year Mr. Kennedy re- moved to Duluth. In 1906 he established the firm of Klement & Ken- nedy. They have handled some of the most extensive log drives made on the Upper Mississippi River, in a single season transporting as high as three hundred fifty million feet, of logs to the mills.
Mr. Kennedy is active in Masonry, being affiliated with the Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter in Wisconsin, with the Knights Templar Com- mandery and Consistory at Milwaukee, and with Tripoli Temple of the Mystic Shrine in that city. June 18, 1896, in Wisconsin, he married Miss Blanch Gibson, a daughter of Joseph Gibson. They have one son, Joseph, who graduated in 1917. from college, having spent two years also in the University of Minnesota, and during the World war served as a soldier in Camp Pike. Arkansas, and at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
PHILIP F. WESTBROOK, who for a young man has had a remarkably varied experience in different branches of engineering and construction work, is a Duluth bridge contractor and has opened a promising field for himself in that industry and profession.
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Mr. Westbrook, whose offices are in the Torrey Building, was born December 17, 1891, at Dingman's Ferry in Pennsylvania. He was reared and educated in the east and in 1912 located at Munising, Mich- igan. While there he took up the study of forestry and had a good deal of practical experience in the woods and in surveying. To supple- ment his practical experience he also took some technical work in the University of Wisconsin. Returning to Marquette, Michigan, he was employed by G. W. Sherman, contractor, on some important hydro-elec- tric development. Later he was employed as an engineer by the Cleve- land Iron Company of Ishpeming in hydro-electric development on Dead River.
Mr. Westbrook came to Duluth in June, 1919, associated with Arthur Mitchell, and they were engaged in prospecting work until March 1, 1920. Since that date Mr. Westbrook has given his chief time and attention to his business as a bridge contractor. He is a member of Masonic Lodge No. 422 at Munising, Michigan, and in politics is nominally a Republican. though ready to vote outside his party when the qualifica- tions of the candidate are obviously superior.
WILLIAM MURRAY. Of the men whose ability, industry and fore- thought have added to the character, wealth and good government of Eveleth, none are better known than William Murray. He is a skilled mechanic, not only by training and long practice, but by temperament and preference, and for some years has been engaged in the handling of automobiles. Political tendencies and executive ability have added to the possibilities of business compensation and have broadened his efforts into the channels of chief of the volunteer fire department, alderman and vice president of the City Council.
Mr. Murray was born in County Bruce, Province of Ontario. Can- ada, July 12, 1870, a son of Norman and Mary ( MacDonald) .Murray, farming people of Scotch nativity, who both died in Canada. One of ten children, William Murray secured his education in the public schools of his native place and in his fourteenth year began to learn the trade of blacksmith under the old system which involved the mastery of a fairly complete line of mechanics. In the spring of 1887. when sixteen years of age, he went to Saginaw, Michigan, where he found employ- ment at his trade, later went to Sault Ste. Marie, where he spent a winter, and in March, 1891, came to Merritt, Minnesota, where he did black- smith work for the first sawmill at that place, being employed by C. M. Hill, for whom he worked until 1894. At that time, with a partner, he opened a blacksmith shop at Virginia, but in July, 1896. transferred his activities to Eveleth, which has since been his home. At the time of his arrival Eveleth was nothing but a raw, uncouth mining camp, with little to indicate the growth and development that the years were to bring. Mr. Murray, however, believed that this locality would some day be a center of industrial and commercial activity, and his judgment has been vindicated. In the development and progress which have eventuated he has playedl his part, and can be truly numbered among the builders of the city. On coming to this locality he opened a blacksmith shop in the old town, and when the town was moved to the hill he came with it. For some years he continued to devote himself to blacksmithing, but, becoming alive to the trend of the times and public favor. he eventually leased his shop and turned his attention to the automobile industry, in which he has met with marked and well-merited success.
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