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 28
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The permanent quality of the business is reflected in the fact that the organization and service were well maintained while Mr. Johnson, the head, was performing his patriotic duties to the Government during the World war. He went into the service June 15, 1918, and was honor- ably discharged at Camp Dodge, February 6, 1919. He served as a corporal in the 552d Motor Transport Corps, spending eight months at Camp Humphrey, Virginia. Mr. Johnson resides in the Commercial
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Club Building. He has been an active member of that organization several years and is also a member of the Curling Club, Boat Club and Automobile Club of Duluth.
SIMON CLARK is one of Duluth's oldest merchants, with forty years of continuous business to his credit. He has long been prominent as an official in the State and National Association of Grocers and is manager and president of the Duluth Marine Supply Company, one of the prin- cipal concerns supplying groceries and meats to lake transportation. This company succeeded the first ship chandlery business established at Duluth. The company was incorporated in 1908 with Mr. Clark as presi- dent and G. A. Tomlinson as secretary and treasurer. On account of his expert knowledge Mr. Tomlinson was called away by the Government during the war and was sent to France to afford the benefit of his experience to the Quartermaster's Department.
Simon Clark was born August 15, 1855, in Scotland, son of Thomas and Jessie (Mackenzie) Clark. His father for many years was in busi- ness at the historic and picturesque Stornway on the Scottish coast. Mr. Clark's mother was a noted Gaelic scholar. A great-grandmother of Mr. Clark attained the great age of a hundred five years and died at Stornway as the result of an injury caused by stepping on an icy sidewalk.
Simon Clark acquired a good high school education at Glasgow and came to Duluth and entered the grocery trade in 1880. From 1900 to 1906 he was state president of the Minnesota Grocers Association. In 1897 was elected vice president of the National Grocers Association at the convention in Dallas, Texas. From January, 1903, to April 1, 1905, he served as surveyor general of logs and lumber for the Fifth District of Minnesota, under appointment by Governor Van Sant.
Mr. Clark is also widely known in fraternal and club life. He is an Odd Fellow, Knight of Pythias, Modern Samaritan, Elk, and in 1894 was elected loyal chief of the Order of Scotch Clans, the highest execu- tive office of the order at New Haven, Connecticut, and was re-elected at Duluth in 1895. He is also a member of the Royal League and the Commercial Club. October 18, 1880, Mr. Clark married Miss Maggie McGhie, of Lockerbie, Dumfrieshire, Scotland. Ten children were born to their marriage.
C. W. CARHART went into the undertaking business at an early period in his career, and for a number of years past has been actively identi- fied with the wholesale casket business at Duluth as general manager of the Duluth Burial Case Company.
He was born at Mechanicsville, New York, November 2, 1868, son of J. W. and Theresa (Mumford) Carhart. His parents were natives of New York state, and his father gave his active career to the practice of medicine. For many years he lived at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but died at Austin, Texas.
C. W. Carhart, fifth in a family of eight children, attended the public schools of New York, and at the age of fifteen became clerk in a dry goods store. Later he entered the undertaking business at Oshkosh, was embalmer for the firm of Spikes & McDonald, and after ten years engaged in the undertaking business for himself. For twelve years he was a traveling salesman for the Northern Casket Company, and in 1912 moved to Duluth and became general manager of the wholesale casket firm of the Duluth Burial Case Company. He has given all his energies to building this enterprise from a small jobbing concern until
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Martin rubella
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it is one of the leading manufacturing and wholesale organizations of the kind in the northwest. The business was almost exclusively jobbing, handling the goods of other manufacturers until two years ago, but now the company manufactures practically all the supplies it sells. The business territory now covers the states of Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Mr. Carhart is a member of Lakeside Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, is a Republican in politics, a member of the Episcopal Church and is active in the Duluth Commercial Club. He married Maude McDonald of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and they have two children, William and Janet.
CAPTAIN MARTIN TREWHELLA. A resident of St. Louis County more than twenty-three years, and closely identified with ore development on the Ranges, Captain Martin Trewhella has the distinction of having mined and produced the first iron ore on properties owned and operated by and for the great machinery manufacturing corporation known as the Inter- national Harvester Company. This was done in the Agnew Mine, still a property of the International Company, and of which Captain Tre- whella is superintendent.
He was born in a great mining district, Cornwall, England, on June 14, 1861, and is the only survivor of the two children of Martin and Maria (Pope) Trewhella. He completed a high school education in his native country, and for several years lived with an uncle who was superintend- ent of tin mines in Cornwall, and had incidental employment in these mines, this constituting his first practical mining experience. In 1878, at the age of seventeen, Martin Trewhella left England, crossed the Atlantic, and for a time was employed in the coal mines of Pennsyl- vania. For about twenty months he held the position of fire boss. Early in 1881 he went to Ishpeming, Marquette County, Michigan, and there began iron ore mining, serving a part of the time as mine boss. While living there he made a trip to Montana, and spent two and a half years in that state in charge of sinking a shaft for a copper mine. He then returned to Ishpeming, and in 1897 came to the Mesaba Range of northern Minnesota. His first work here was as mining captain of the Auburn Mines at Virginia for the Minnesota Iron Company. A year later he was made superintendent of the Stevenson Mine at Hibbing for the Corrigan-Mckinney Company, and in May, 1902, was employed by the Deering Harvester Company of Chicago to open the Agnew Mine. The Deering Harvester Company is one of the large and originally inde- pendent units .now comprised in the International Harvester Company. For eighteen years Captain Trewhella has been in charge of the Agnew Mine for the Deering and the International Companies.
He is one of the widely known citizens of the Meseba District, and is a stalwart American citizen, having taken out his naturalization papers as soon as he reached the United States and completed his citizenship at Ishpeming. He is a member of the Episcopal Church, a Republican and is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. March 22, 1887, Captain Trewhella married Eliza Andrews.
M. I. STEWART, president and active head of the Stewart-Taylor Company, has for several years directed the destinies of a business and industry that under successive names and changes is one of the oldest commercial printing houses in the northwest, and one that has been kept equal to the demands of commerce and art as represented in the printing trades from time to time.
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The business was first established about 1887 by Mr. J. L. Thwing, but it was nearly twenty years later before Mr. Stewart acquired an interest in the business. Mr. Stewart was born at Lynchburg, Ohio, November 27, 1877, and came to northern Minnesota when a boy. He acquired a public school education and graduated from high school in Duluth in 1896. During 1896-97 he attended the University of Min- nesota and from 1897 was a student at the University of Nebraska until graduating in 1902. While in university he took up newspaper work and was employed by the State Journal Company .of Lincoln. In 1902 he bought a half interest in the Faribault Journal in Minnesota, but sold out the following year and returned to Duluth and became con- nected with the newly organized City National Bank, serving the best interests of that institution for over two years.
On December 1, 1905, Mr. Stewart bought a half interest in the printing establishment of J. L. Thwing, thus bringing into existence the firm title of Thwing-Stewart Company. It has been conducted as a high class commercial printing establishment, handling all classes of general printing. During the past fifteen years great advances have been recorded and many improvements and changes in the business. When Mr. Stewart entered the firm in 1905 the plant was at 26-28-30 West. First street. The following year more space had to be secured for the growing busi- ness and the location was changed to 116 West First street. Two years later another move was necessitated by business demands, and this time the company made its last move to date, to 310-312 West Second street. In 1909 the business was incorporated with J. L. Thwing as presi- dent and Mr. Stewart as secretary and treasurer. In 1912 Mr. Thwing sold his entire interest to Mr. Stewart. A year later Charles W. Oppel entered the organization, and a few months later the name was changed to the M. I. Stewart Company. About the same time Alonzo W. Taylor, who had been connected with the City National Bank of Duluth for eight years, joined the company and assumed the office of treasurer. On the retirement of Mr. Thwing Mr. Stewart succeeded him as presi- dent, while Mr. Oppel has been secretary and vice president several years. Since January 1, 1920, the name of the company has been the Stewart-Taylor Company.
On November 21, 1907, Mr. Stewart married Elfrida G. Schlick, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. A. T. Schlick, of Duluth. They have one son, M. I. Stewart, Jr. Mr. Stewart is a member of the Commercial Club, Rotary Club and Boat Club.
M. J. HARNEY has been a resident of Duluth for four decades, spent most of his boyhood in this city, and as a sheet metal worker and busi- ness man has firmly established himself in business affairs and among the substantial citizens.
Mr. Harney was born in Ireland May 17, 1872. He was eight years of age when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Harney, left Ireland and came to the United States and to Duluth. John Harney lived at Duluth, worked many years as a laborer, and died in 1912, the father of seven children.
Next to the youngest of these children M. J. Harney, who attended public and parochial schools of Duluth, at the age of sixteen entered upon his apprenticeship to learn the trade of metal worker. After learning the trade he was employed as a journeyman for six years, and then engaged in business for himself at 18 East 'Superior. His plant is now at 121 West First street, where he has a highly prosperous busi- ness, employing a number of workers and handling contracts for sheet
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metal work and roofing, furnace installation, and all kindred work included in those lines.
Mr. Harney is a Catholic, member of the Knights of Columbus and votes independently. He married Miss Ella Smith. They are the parents of five children, three sons and two daughters.
GEORGE J. O'HAIRE. Among the representative business men of St. Louis County the name of George J. O'Haire, of Duluth, should be mentioned here. He has devoted himself very largely to the automo- bile business, having carried on his business with that discretion, fore- sight and energy which have found their natural sequel in definite success. Having always been a hard worker, a good manager and a man of conservative habits, it is no wonder that he has won the posi- tion he today enjoys in the business world.
George J. O'Haire, president of the Service Motor Company, Duluth, was born in Springfield, Walworth County, Wisconsin, February 10, 1877, and is the eldest of the four children who blessed the union of Patrick and Mary (Brady) O'Haire, of Corliss, Wisconsin. Patrick O'Haire, who was born and reared in Ireland, came to the United States in 1865, and immediately engaged in railroad construction work, building railroads through the states of Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. He is still living at Corliss, Wisconsin, at the age of seventy-six years. George J. O'Haire received his educational training in the public schools of Corliss and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and then took a commercial course at the E. L. Casterton Business College at Racine, Wisconsin. At the age of thirteen years he earned his first money as a clerk in a grocery store, where he remained for seven years. In the spring of 1898, at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, he enlisted in Company F, First Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, under the command of Captain William Mitchell Lewis, remaining with that regiment during the period of his service. From Racine the regiment went to Jackson- ville, Florida, where they trained under General Fitz-Hugh Lee, com- manding the Seventh Army Corps, and remained there until they were discharged from the service in December, 1898.
After leaving the army Mr. O'Haire returned home and entered the employ of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company, for whom he worked for two years. He then became the owner of a barber shop, which he operated for seventeen years. At the end of that time he became a retail salesman for the Ford Motor Company, remaining in this employ for fifteen months, and then, upon the discontinuance of retail sales by the Ford Motor Company, he came to Duluth to enter the wholesale field for that company. He became interested in the agency that was open in this city at that time through the changing of the plans of the Ford people and, associating himself with P. K. Priest, they opened an agency under the title of the Service Motor Company, with headquarters at 122-124 East Superior street, and they are still doing business at that location. This company has enjoyed a remarkable prosperity and growth as the result of persistent energy and close appli- cation, as it evidenced by the fact that in three years the business grew from a volume of $25,000 a year to $500,000, with every assurance of a still further constant increase. The organization today necessitates a force of thirty people, including the office help, and the sales of this company are without a doubt the equal of any individual retail auto- mobile' concern at the Head of the Lakes. This splendid condition reflects great credit on the business ability and high standing of the gentlemen who have directed its career.
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On October 20, 1902, Mr. O'Haire was married to Jennie A. Smith, at Corliss, Wisconsin. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. James Smith, who came from Vermont to that state and located on a farm. To this union has come a son, Harry J., born on June 3, 1905, who is now in attendance at the Brothers School at the Cathedral.
Politically Mr. O'Haire was formerly a Democrat, but at present he assumes an independent attitude, voting according to the dictates of his own judgment, regardless of party lines. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and he is also a member of the Commercial Club and the Duluth Boat Club. For diversion Mr. O'Haire turns to fishing, of which he is ardently fond, being a lover of outdoor life. He is universally recognized as a splendid citizen, of sturdy integrity, right motives and the advocate of every worthy movement for the advance- ment of the best interests of the community.
WALTER H. BORGEN, county auditor of St. Louis County, is a native son of Duluth, and for a number of years has been well known in busi- ness life and politics.
He was born March 21, 1884, at Duluth, a son of Anton and Olivia (Brenteson) Borgen. Duluth has long known and esteemed the splendid qualities of Anton Borgen. Born in Norway, he came to America in 1871, settling in Minnesota, and has been a resident of Duluth since 1877. For thirty years he was a grocery merchant, and is still living at the age of seventy-one. Respected as a man of good judgment and business ability, he was sent to the Legislature for five terms, serving from 1907 to 1915 on the Republican side of the body. His legislative record shows that he was on the right side at practically every occasion.
Walter H. Borgen is the third in a family of six children, all of whom are still living. He attended the public schools of Duluth, but most of his education has been acquired by practical experience. At the age of fifteen he began learning telegraphy, and for six years was an operator with the Duluth and Northern Railway. Leaving railroading, he took up other lines, and eventually became secretary of the Merritt Brothers organization, and had an active part in their extensive iron ore operations. He was with that well known firm of pioneer Duluthians for eight years.
His first important public service was rendered in 1912 as a member of the Board of Civil Service Commissioners. In 1915 he was appointed chief clerk of the Legislature, and from 1915 to 1919 served as city clerk of Duluth. He was elected to his present office as county auditor in 1918. Mr. Borgen is a Republican, and still has some active business interests. He is a Knight Templar Mason, has filled all the chairs in the Royal Arch Chapter, and is also a member of the Elks and other fraternal orders.
October 16, 1907, he married Miss Grace Bush, of a Kansas family. .Their two daughters are Catherine and Ruth.
CARL A. A. HEED. One of the men who supplied the initiative, the foresight and the genius at the beginning of the Mesaba Transportation Company, one of the Iron Range's leading transportation services, as described elsewhere in this history, was Carl A. A. Heed, now president of the corporation. His career has been one of interesting self achieve- ment and a utilization of opportunity.
Born in Sweden June 25, 1886, a son of Andrew Anderson Heed, who is still living in the old country, he was one of four children and remained in Sweden to the age of eighteen. He had a common school
Carl a. a. Feed
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education. While a boy in Sweden he heard of friends who had come to America and found better advantages for themselves and he deter- mined to follow their example. Though unable to speak a word of the English language on arriving, he made good use of his ability to work, and was first employed as a section hand on the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railroad in Michigan at thirty dollars a month. In 1907 he came to Hibbing, and from 1907 until 1912 was in the service of Mr. A. P. Silliman as assistant drill helper. Later he became associated with C. E. Wickman selling tires and operating an automobile repair and accessory business. It was out of this that the first motor transport service was initiated that became the nucleus of the present great busi- ness of the Mesaba Transportation Company.
Mr. Heed is a thirty-second degree Mason, member of the Mystic Shrine, and of the Order of Elks. In September, 1915, he married Anna Maria Thorsell, of Duluth. They have three children : Elsie, Carroll May and Ardon Thorsell. Mr. Heed is a Republican in politics.
ANDREW G. ANDERSON, who is treasurer of the Mesaba Transportation Company and was one of the three men who started the business, as a history of the company described on other pages, has been identified with the mining region of northern Michigan and Minnesota practically all his mature career, and has gained success from humble beginnings.
He was born in Sweden January 4, 1882. He was two years old when his father, Andrew Anderson, died, and at the age of ten the death of his mother left him an orphan. He grew up in Sweden and after the death of his mother had to earn his own living. He came to the United States at the age of seventeen, and was first employed in the iron mines at Negaunee, Michigan, also was a mine worker at Republic, in the mines at Ishpeming, and in October, 1902, came to the Mesaba Range of northern Minnesota. For seven months he was a contractor taking out ore in the Chisholm Mine, and in 1903 began exploring and drilling for the Carleson Exploration Company. Thus all his early interests for a number of years were identified with the chief industry of the Iron Range country. It was during his work and travels over the Range that he conceived the idea of a motor service for handling passengers between Hibbing and Alice, and in a small way he put this project into execution, his associate being Charles Wember. That in reality was the foundation or cornerstone of the immense transportation business now known as the Mesaba Transportation Company.
Mr. Anderson secured his naturalization papers as soon as possible after coming to this country and has given a conscientious performance to the duties and obligations of American citizenship. He is an independ- ent voter in politics. He is a member of the Methodist Church, is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner and a member of the Elks. On February 19, 1916, he married Hilda Johnson.
EDWIN C. EKSTROM, secretary of the Mesaba Transportation Com- pany, has known the life of the Iron Range from many standpoints.
He was born at Ludington, Michigan, March 19, 1889, a son of Alex- ander and Johanna (Johnson) Ekstrom. His parents were natives of Finland, but were married in the United States and in 1900 located at Hibbing, where Alexander Ekstrom died in 1902 and where the mother is still living. Edwin C. Ekstrom acquired his early education at Luding- ton and at Hibbing, and was only thirteen when he became an under- ground worker in the old Hull Mine operated by the Oliver Iron Mining Company. The successive problems of life he has solved as they have
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arisen. After two years in the mine he worked a year in the mine office, later became timekeeper, supply clerk and performed other duties, and in the latter part of 1905 entered the service of A. P. Silliman, one of the notable figures in the Hibbing district, first as engineer helper, then bookkeeper, then in charge of the office. Altogether he was with Mr. Silli- man until early in 1917. For a few months he performed the duties of a public accountant, and on January 1, 1918, became a stockholder and secretary of the Mesaba Transportation Company and has handled most of the business and its technical detail. The history and service of this business are described elsewhere.
Mr. Ekstrom is a member of Christ Memorial Episcopal Church and a vestryman, is a Republican, is a member of the Hibbing Public Library Board, a director of the Commercial Club, and a member of the Kiwanis Club. Fraternally he is a Scottish Rite Mason and Mystic Shriner and also an Elk.
June 14, 1915, he married Miss Ethel Salmonson, of Virginia, Minne- sota. Their two children are Edwin Carl, Jr., and Mary Ann.
MESABA TRANSPORTATION COMPANY. The revolutionary changes in transportation predicted and promised by the advent of the automobile have a striking illustration in the growth and development of the Mesaba Transportation Company, which is strictly a motor vehicle concern, em- ploying motor trucks and using the public highways.
In the latter part of 1914 three men, C. E. Wickman, Andrew G. Anderson and Carl A. A. Heed established a service with a Hupmobile seven-passenger touring car as a bus making regular trips for the accom- modation of passengers between Hibbing (now South Hibbing) and Alice. The car was well patronized, the service proved profitable, and the men in charge foresaw possibilities that as rapidly as possible they utilized. Looking out over the Range country they carefully considered the state of transportation. The Great Northern Railway maintained one passenger train a day from Hibbing to Grand Rapids, but for all practical purposes a number of villages were really isolated communities. In June, 1915, the three partners purchased two White twelve-passenger busses and instituted an important addition to their service, operating one passenger truck to Alice and the other to Nashwauk.
On January 1, 1916, the Mesaba Transportation Company was organ- ized by the three enterprising young business men just mentioned. They incorporated with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. The officers were at the beginning also operating officials, driving the busses, looking after repairs, and handling any and all branches of the business. Since then the enterprise has grown until their time is required for managing and directing the extensive organization. While they use some other cars, their equipment is now almost entirely White trucks. They have twenty-two of these White busses in operation. During the war they instituted a distinct department for the manufacture of car bodies, and they also maintain an extensive repair service. The larger cars have a carrying capacity of eighteen passengers and operate on a regular sched- ule between Hibbing and Grand Rapids. The service now extends to nearly every village and industrial center in the iron range district, and during 1919 it was estimated that the company handled a traffic of seven thousand passengers daily on the average.
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