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 30
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January 25, 1901, he married Paulina Cappellaro, also a native of Italy. Their six children are Josephine, Mary, Julia. Dominic, Bruno and Eva.
PETER E. MEAGHER, president of the Meagher-Mars Company, whole- sale mining, railroad and industrial machinery, has been a factor and instrument in Duluth's commercial life since boyhood, winning by merit the place he now enjoys in local business circles.
He was born at Dublin, Ireland, November 13, 1879, son of Patrick S. and Mary (Connolly) Meagher. When he was two years old, in 1881, he was brought to America by his father, who located at St. Paul and later came to Duluth, where for many years he was associated with the Duluth Shoe Company as its superintendent. He is now living retired in the city.
Peter E. Meagher acquired his education in the Christian Brothers school at Duluth. At the age of thirteen he began earning his own liv- ing, his first regular employment being as messenger for the Board of
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Trade. He went into business for himself in 1904 as labor director for various industrial and mining companies in and tributary to Duluth. He has been in the machinery business since 1907. He made a specialty of mining, railroad and lumber supplies and built some very extensive con- nections in the buying and selling of mining machinery, a trade which now extends all over the United States, Canada and the far east. In 1921 he and others organized the Meagher-Mars Company, with offices in Duluth. They are wholesale dealers in mining, railroad and industrial machinery, and Mr. Meagher is president of the business.
In September, 1904, he married at Duluth Miss Mabel Confer, daugh- ter of Dr. Samuel C. and Mary (Holbrook) Confer. Mrs. Meagher is a native of Minneapolis. They have four children: Morris Edwin, attend- ing St. John's Military Academy; Robert Francis, Mary Louise and Peter E., Jr. Mr. Meagher is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Duluth Boat Club, Commercial Club and the Kitchi Gammi Club.
JOHN M. SHEEHY, agent of the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad at Hibbing, is one of the best known and most universally liked men of St. Louis County. His invariable smile and good humor, his unfail- ing fund of good stories make him a welcome member of any gathering brought together for purposes of good cheer. With these qualities he has others, for he has a firm and keen grasp of business, a deep insight into human nature and is an excellent man of affairs.
Mr. Sheehy was born at Negaunee, Michigan, April 24, 1868, a son of James and Mary (Reardon) Sheehy. James Sheehy was born on a farm in Ireland, and, losing his father when young, he came to the United States. Of a frugal disposition, he saved his money, and realiz- ing the opportunities offered in this country, helped bring his sisters overseas. He was first engaged in railroad construction work in Con- necticut, and while there was married. his wife also being of Irish nativity. In the early '60s he moved to Wisconsin, and a little later went into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and there worked at mining the remainder of his life. He and his family belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.
John M. Sheehy was one in a family of seven children, and was reared at Negaunee. Michigan, where he attended the common and high schools. When about fifteen years of age he was made flagman at a railroad cross- ing in Negaunee, and later on became fireman in a freight office. He also did various kinds of office work and learned to be a telegrapher, and coming to Virginia, Minnesota, worked as an operator and office man from 1895 until 1900. In 1900 he was made station agent at Virginia, and filled that position with capable efficiency until 1903. . In that vear he came to Hibbing, and this has continued to be his place of residence ever since, and his talents have been used in discharging the responsibilities pertaining to the position of agent for the Duluth, Missabe & Northern Railroad.
Mr. Sheehy is vitally interested in all things pertaining to the public weal, but unlike the majority of Irishmen he has had but little to do in a political way beyond exercising the right of suffrage at elections, and generally does so independent of party lines, for he prefers to vote for the man and measures rather than for strictly defined platforms. In his religious faith he is a Roman Catholic. His fraternal affiliations are those he maintains with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In 1898 Mr. Sheehy was united in marriage with Miss Kate McAlpine, of Virginia, Minnesota, and they have had eight children born to them. namely : John, Reardon, James, Ardell, Jeanette, Patrick, Georgianna and
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Albert. The eldest of these, John Sheehy, was a student at the University of Chicago when this country entered the World war, and he entered the Officers' Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, and upon the conclusion of his period of training was given a second lieutenant's commission and assigned to instruct the students at the University of Minnesota. He continued in this work until the signing of the armistice, and received his honorable discharge in February, 1919.
Mr. Sheehy has been accorded the place in his community to which his talents entitle him and his personality, general ability and working knowl- edge of human nature are recognized as valuable assets to his locality. In his position as agent he is called upon to handle some difficult prob- lems, and he is able to do so with tact and ability, saving his road much trouble because of this effectiveness.
RANGE MOTOR SERVICE COMPANY. All of the elements regarded as essential to a successful and going commercial concern are present as characteristics of the Range Motor Service Company at Hibbing. The business was established six years ago, is a corporation dealing in auto- mobiles, accessories and doing a general repair service, and the men who established and first officered it are still actively identified as officials with its management. This alone speaks highly of the character of the firm, as well as the fact that its annual business aggregates more than two hundred thousand dollars in volume.
The company was organized May 18, 1914, with an authorized capital of $50,000. The organizers and the first officers are the same group .that are now responsibly connected with the company, and are : S. R. Kirby, president ; J. A. Redfern, vice president ; L. O. Kirby, treasurer, and H. A. Mann, secretary and manager.
Mr. Henry A. Mann, the secretary and manager, had demonstrated the qualities of an exceptional automobile salesman before he came into the present organization. He was born at Royalton, Minnesota, March 12, 1889, son of Theron W. and May (Davison) Mann. His father, now deceased, was a railroad worker. All three children are still living, and when Henry A. was twelve months old his parents moved to Sauk Center, Minnesota, and four years later to Little Falls. Henry A. Mann attended his first schools at Little Falls. At the age of sixteen he went to the metropolitan city of Minneapolis, was employed as a clerk for three and a half years, and then seeking a change from commercial life went out to Montana and took up a homestead. After nine months he saw fit to give up his claim and return to Minneapolis. He then had his first trial as an automobile salesman, and quickly demonstrated the ability to do a successful business in this line. In fact, he established a record by selling seven Mitchell cars in one month. After that he trav- eled through the east selling air compressors and for a few months helped operate his father's farm near Sauk Center and also conducted a music business founded by his father in Sauk Center. Having acquitted himself of the duties devolving upon him as a result of his father's death, he came to Hibbing in 1914, and about two months later became associated with the men above named and helped organize the Range Motor Service Company, and has been its secretary and manager ever since.
Mr. Mann is affiliated with the Episcopal Church, is a member of Mesaba Lodge No. 255, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite at Hibbing, Kiwanis Club, Commercial Club, Algonquin Club and Curling Club. June 18, 1915, he married Miss Elizabeth Griesel, of Winona, Minnesota. They have one daughter, Marjorie Elizabeth.
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JOHN G. PASTERNACKI is one of the principal stockholders of the C. & P. Drug Company, which conducts six well equipped retail drug establishments in this section of Minnesota, and he has personal charge of the store in the city of Virginia, where he has a standing as one of the progressive business men and loyal and public-spirited citizens of the community.
Mr. Pasternacki was born at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on the 15th of June, 1883, and is a son of Frank and Eva (Kubsiack) Pasternacki, both natives of German Poland. Frank Pasternacki was born in the city of Posen, where he was reared and educated, and he was a youth when in the '50s he immigrated to the United States. He had learned in his native land the trade of harnessmaker, and to this he was giving his attention in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, at the inception of the Civil war. He promptly gave evidence of his fervent loyalty to the land of his adop- tion by tendering his services in defense of the Union. He enlisted as a private in an Ohio regiment of volunteer infantry, and with this command served during virtually the entire period of the war, in which he took part in many engagements and lived up to the full tension of the great conflict. He was several times wounded, but not seriously, and he made a record as a gallant soldier of the Union. After the war he finally established his residence at Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and there he was long established in the general merchandise business as a leading merchant and honored and influential citizen. He served as a member of the City Council and was otherwise prominent in community affairs. He was a Republican in politics, was affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic and was a zealous communicant of the Catholic Church, as is also his widow, who still resides at Stevens Point, where his death occurred in 1902. They became the parents of four sons and four daughters. One of the sons, Frank, Jr., lost his life while serving as a soldier in the Spanish-American war. Another son, Dr. Leon P., a dentist, was a first lieutenant in the United States Army during the nation's participation in the World war. He became mayor of Stevens Point when only twenty-seven years of age, and at the same time was a member of the Republican State Central Com- mittee of Wisconsin. Mary, one of the four daughters, is the wife of A. S. Nalborski, and four of their sons were in the nation's service in the World war.
John G. Pasternacki was afforded the advantages of the public schools of his native city, where he was graduated in the high school as a member of the class of 1903. He then entered the school of pharmacy of the great University of Wisconsin, and in this institution was graduated in 1905, with the degree of Graduate in Pharmacy. Soon afterward he came to St. Louis County, Minnesota, and became manager of a drug store at Eveleth. In 1907 he became a traveling salesman for a leading wholesale drug house in the city of Cincinnati, and he represented this house in northern Minnesota and North and South Dakota until 1908, in which year he became a clerk in the drug store of Hayes & Casey at Chisholm, St. Louis County, Minnesota. In 1910 he formed a partnership with E. I. Casey, one of his former employers, and came to Virginia, where he opened the drug store of which he is now the active manager, the business being incorporated under the title of the C. & P. Drug Company, and involving the conducting of five other retail drug stores, as previously noted in this context.
Mr. Pasternacki is vitally interested in all things pertaining to the welfare and progress of his home city, is a Republican in politics, and both he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church.
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On the 12th of January, 1914, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Pasternacki to Miss Isabel Murphy, daughter of James Murphy, of Virginia, and they have two children-James F. and Eva Ann.
THOMAS C. CONGDON. Hand in hand in public usefulness is the drug- gist associated with the physician, and this mutual dependence is univer- sally acknowledged as a condition of public safety. Healing remedies are older than doctors, and as far back as one may delve in ancient lore he may find mention of medicaments for some of the ills that seem to have always afflicted the human race. At times the discovery of a new drug of surprising properties, cinchona, for example, has wrought wonderful changes and has been a factor in advancing civilization. Out of the hands of ignorant and superstitious persons the lawful administration of drugs has long since passed, and the term druggist or pharmacist now means one who, after a protracted period of study and experiment covering a number of years and various sciences, has passed a thorough and satis- factory examination before a learned and authorized body of his profes- sion. In his hands there is practically placed life and death, for it is his knowledge of drugs and their effects that must guide him in handling the most careful of physician's prescriptions. Thus it is no unimportant position that a druggist holds in a community, and his personal standing is usually of the highest. One of these representative men of St. Louis County is Thomas C. Congdon of Hibbing.
Thomas C. Congdon was born at Watertown, New York, March 12, 1864, a son of Thomas C. and Ellen (Donovan) Congdon, both of whom were natives of Ireland. They were reared and married in their birth- place, but they immigrated to the United States in the early '50s. The family settled in the state of New York, where the father engaged in farming, but about 1869 removal was made to Minnesota, and he made a home in Goodhue County. He is now deceased, but the mother survives and lives at Minneapolis, Minnesota. They were the parents of seven children, of whom Thomas C. was the fourth in order of birth.
The earliest recollections of Thomas C. Congdon center about the farm in Goodhue County, Minnesota, where he spent his youthful days, and at Red Wing. In his early youth he attended the country schools at Red Wing, but when he was only thirteen vears old he entered the employ of the pioneer drug firm of Hawley & Kellogg as a bottle washer. Later on he worked in different departments and attended the schools. For some time he was also employed in different capacities on the Red Wing "Advance," but moved to Minneapolis about 1881, and there he attended school and also worked in the drug business with Crossman & Plummer on what is now Marquette avenue, then known as Bridge Square. It was with this firm that he received the fuller initiation in the drug business, and decided to adopt it as his life work. In order to better equip himself in his chosen occupation he attended for two years the Chicago College of Pharmacy. Returning then to Minnesota, he satisfactorily passed the examination of the Minnesota State Board of Pharmacy, and for the ensuing ten years was at Phillipsburg, Montana, where he owned and published the Phillipsburg "Mail." Going back to Minneapolis, he was employed as a clerk for William Donaldson & Company for about three years, and then, in 1902, came to Hibbing and established his present drug business in the same store he still occupies. At that time there was no sidewalk in front of his place, and Pine street was the main thoroughfare of the village. He has witnessed the changes which have transformed an insignificant village into what is claimed to be the richest small city in the world. Mr. Congdon has taken an intelligent part in effecting these
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changes, and for three years was a member of the Library Board, serving during the period in which the present Library Building was erected. He is a thirty-second degree Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Mason and is a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Commercial and Kiwanis Clubs. The Methodist Episcopal Church has in him a con- scientious member and generous supporter.
Mr. Congdon was married September 12, 1894, to Miss Jennie D. Leavitt, of Pine Island, Minnesota, and they have had five children, namely : Charles B., Ora Irene, Alice B., Thomas C., Jr. (deceased), and Jennie Marian. Charles B. Congdon is a veteran of the great war, having served in the Marine branch, and spent nearly a year in France doing clerical work in the office of his commanding officer.
RUFUS H. REDMAN for thirty years has been actively associated with the wholesale grocery business in Duluth, and is treasurer of Duluth's premier wholesale grocery house, the Gowan-Lenning-Brown Company.
He was born at Saginaw, Michigan, December 8, 1867, a son of Michael and Jane (Hamilton) Redman. His father was a native of Penn- sylvania, spent his active career as a merchant, and died in 1898. The youngest of the family, Rufus H. Redman finished his education in the high school at Saginaw, and his first work was as a reporter on the Sagi- naw Herald and subsequently on the Saginaw Evening News. While in that work he developed a high degree of skill as a shorthand writer, and when in the spring of 1887 he came to Duluth he was employed for a year as a stenographer by the legal firm of Boggs & McDonald.
Leaving the law office he became a stenographer in the Wells-Stone Mercantile Company, a wholesale and jobbing organization handling both groceries and hardware, one branch of which subsequently became a part of the great Marshall-Wells Company. Mr. Redman remained with this concern for nine years, when the business was sold, and then with other fellow employes he helped establish the Wright-Clarkson Mercantile Company, the chief foundation of the present Gowan-Lenning-Brown Company. The active head of this company was W. S. Brown, who was president of the largest wholesale hardware concern in Iowa, and became president of the Gowan-Lenning-Brown Company upon its organization. On December 31, 1912, the Wright-Clarkson Mercantile Company and the Gowan-Peyton-Congdon Company were consolidated, at which time Mr. Redman was elected treasurer of the Gowan-Lenning-Brown Company, having previously been a stockholder and official of the Wright-Clarkson Mercantile Company. Mr. Redman has been one of the active officials who have enormously increased the business and prestige of the Gowan- Lenning-Brown Company until its business extends over practically all the great northwest country.
Mr. Redman is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, is a Repub- lican and is a member of the K. K. Club, the Northland Country Club and the Commercial Club. On June 21, 1907, he married Miss Florence Metcalf, of St. Paul.
WILLIAM E. FAY, of Tower, is manager of the Vermillion Boat and Outing Company. An organization that took care of 20,000 tourists dur- ing the season of 1920 is obviously one of great importance, and its suc- cessful management reflects additional prosperity over a large region.
This company owns the Hotel Idlewild on the Isle of Pines in Lake Vermillion, located by water about eight miles from Tower. The company owns a large equipment of launches and other boats, have a large hotel. many cottages, and provides a complete organization and equipment to
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insure every reasonable comfort for its guests and provide them with all the opportunities for delightful recreation.
Mr. Fay has been one of the leading citizens of Tower for many years, having been a resident of that section of northern Minnesota since 1891. He was born at Port Huron, Michigan, June 28, 1872, son of William E. and Catherine (Leich) Fay. His mother was born in Scotland and died in 1907, at the age of sixty-four. His father was born in Michigan and is still living at Port Huron, at the age of eighty-three. Most of his active life was spent as a farmer and as a dealer in agricultural implements. He is a Democrat and a member of the Methodist Church.
William E. Fay was the fifth in a family of three sons and six daugh- ters. He attended school at Port Huron until he was sixteen, and then sought the vigorous outdoor occupation furnished by the pine woods of northern Michigan. His work took him to Marquette, to Duluth, and in 1891 to Tower. As a boy he took up steam engineering and later com- pleted a course in the International Correspondence School at Scranton in electricity, and has been a proficient member of the electrical trades for many years. He was one of the organizers of the Vermillion Boat and Outing Company, and the summer months find him perhaps the busiest and most responsible man around Vermillion Lake.
Mr. Fay has been an official of the town of Tower since 1900. He is independent in politics. In 1919 he married Miss Mary Murphy, daugh- ter of J. D. Murphy, of Tower.
HARRY S. SHERMAN. The largest single mine in the greatest iron ore district owned and operated by the greatest iron ore mining organization in the world is the Hull-Rust Mine in the Hibbing District. The super- intendent of this mine is Harry S. Sherman, who is likewise superin- tendent of the Kerr and Sweeney Mines, all included in the properties of the Oliver Company. Mr. Sherman is an expert in all the technical details of mine operation, and has been identified with the Minnesota Iron Ranges over fifteen years.
He was born at Crown Point, Essex County, New York, April 1, 1877, son of Z. C. and Elizabeth (Benson) Sherman. All their six chil- dren are still living. Up to the age of about fifteen he lived in his native state, where he attended public school. The family then moved to Chicago, where his father was employed by the Illinois Steel Company. While at Chicago Harry S. Sherman completed his education in Lake Forest University, graduating in 1902. In the meantime during vacations he was employed in the chemical laboratories of the Illinois Steel Com- pany and also in the laboratory of the Minnesota Iron Company at Two Harbors, Minnesota.
Following his college career he spent about a year in the west in the chemical laboratories of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company at Pueblo and for a time was at Anniston, Alabama, with the Southern Car Foundry Company and with the Pennsylvania Malleable Iron Company at Pittsburgh.
On coming to the Range country of northern Minnesota in 1905 Mr. Sherman became chief chemist of the Eveleth District with headquarters at Eveleth, and has been one of the technical men with the Oliver Com- pany ever since. He lived for about ten years at Eveleth, for about a year was superintendent of the Hartley Mine at Chisholm, though he kept his home at Eveleth, then was superintendent of the Genoa and Gilbert Mines at Eveleth, for a short time was superintendent of various mines at Buhl, and in 1918 moved to Hibbing and has since been carrying the responsibilities of superintendent of the Hull-Rust, Kerr and Sweeney Mines.
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Mr. Sherman, while very completely absorbed in his regular work and business, has not neglected the interests of the various communities where he has lived, served as a member of the School Board of Eveleth and at Gilbert for some ten years, and has been associated with various organiza- tions of citizens in these localities. He joined the Masons at Eveleth, has attained the thirty-second degree of Scottish Rite and is a member of the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the Algonquin Club at Hibbing. In 1905 he married Miss Ida Schneider, who was a teacher in the Eveleth schools. They have three children : a daughter, Harriet H., and twin sons, Robert and Richard.
CHARLES FOSTER. If accomplishment stands for success then Charles Foster has achieved that objective point without any manner of doubt. He does not reside in St. Louus County except in an honorary sense, and vet he has made an indelible impression upon its life which will last for generations to come. Few cities of ten times the number of inhabitants of Hibbing can boast of the improvements it possesses. Fortunately the village has been wise in its selection of officials, and not least among them is Charles Foster, general superintendent of the water and light department of Hibbing.
Charles Foster was born near Dwight in Grundy County, Illinois, October 14, 1875, a son of Archibald and Mary (Burns) Foster, and grandson of a Foster who came from Ireland to the United States at an early day. Archibald Foster was a farmer. When the war between the north and the south was declared he was too young to be accepted for military duty according to his parents' ideas, so the venturesome lad ran away from home, enlisted and served for a year in the Union army. He still survives and lives at Burt, Iowa.
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